tith'd nay what is worse let no tithes be paid These worldly ones are properly the sea Esay 57.20 a boiling sea their heart casts forth mire dirt scum Murders thefts c. Mat. 15.19 Oh how it troubles David Psal 73. to see how the fish of this sea rant it these prosper They are not curst that dwell in the sea only the Earth Aire Gen. 3. nor are they sufferers in that great drowning time Gen. 7. these tyrannicall winds and waves make for them I may in a word decide those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. That there be Men-fish Tritons Nereides Syrenes 2. That the earth and sea joy and sorrow good and bad make up one globe Yet 3. that there is more sea than land And 4. that the sea is higher than the dry land If you see 2. Depth for here you see Gods footsteps are not known Psal 77.19 no tract of God his discipline in the Church His faithfull must take notice of sin and of the punishment of sin and fear to sin His Israel must make bricks whilest their Nimrods Pharaohs perpetuate their names in Babels Pyramids St. Iohn himself like an hoary apple having scaped the locust the wind and storm the pluckers hand hung neer an hundred years old on the tree of life yet then unseasonably enough must be coddled in a caldron of oil because Christians derive their pedegree from Christ and Christ his from his spirituall chrism O when thou comst to Heaven thou shalt know how Domitians brazen Sea hurt him not onely prov'd a Bath to renew him then thou shalt clearly see why Adam falls why Cain kills Abel Apryes seremy Esay sawn asunder by Manasses Then thou shalt plainly read what the four Beasts be What and whose that mazing knot of figures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 666. What God and Magog what Harmageddon Be not rash in judging St. Paul made but a glance as it were at that future light but had he not borrowed a thorn from his Saviours Crown much Revelation had made him mad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 t is deep 3. Inconstant wavering ebbs flows now calm now storm so inconsistent the great World So its compendium Iob 14. never continues in one stay for 2 Sam. 14.14 all spill and glide away like water in continuall hast to fall into this Sea No Planet more hastens Westward then this wandring Tabernacle of Dust this sod of earth to its center this rivolet to its Ocean He findes a fall and a spring tide in his veins till as Psal 2.14 he is powred out clearly like water not a jot sticks to the vessell alas What advantage has that water that is exalted above the Heavens but to see his greater ruin from an higher place Thus in this world Psal 107.26 Mounts up to heaven then sodainly drops down to hell the Poet owes perchance to the Prophet Iamjam tacturus c. now all 's serene and wee mistake it for heaven then Wars Famines Plagues in a necessary chain nay the Plague of all plagues civill Wars muddy us and hell seems not more sooty more black more divellish thus in States Now repent then justified then sanctified in a necessary concatenation too then in heaven but that a great billow some sinfull stumble slip fall rebounds us to our earth glues our souls to the pavement then in hell Thus in Church temporall spirituall state in this world is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mutable Yet though 1. Never so variable so long as we six not our Ark any where but on Ararat so long as we sit not down with our Tabernacle till we come to Shiloh so long as with those celestiall bodies we sail on fixed poles only making the great God not this little earth our center we shall be blessed at least in our Haven Our castles on earth may sink in their ruines our castles on the Sea in their seditious waves our castles i th' air in our giddy fancies we have a castle higher than Earth Sea Fancy the Lord is our Castle Psal 31.4 2. Though the Sea in Dogdayes such dayes as these is thicker and darker no wind to hinder the Suns-salting-power yet is it safer swimming in these deeps than in shallows in salt waters than in sweet Nay Israel is safer in the red Sea than on land nor are fishes salt because in the Sea Abraham Lot not tainted in the dead Sea Gods children make all waters sweet So as Elias 2 King 2.20 21. by throwing in salt a salt to which I may truely apply Homers Epither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and which they having within themselves Mark 9.5 faith relish all things be they never so bitter and distastfull to humane sense and also give the right seasoning and Hogoo of Gods palat and mans and hence is that they say there are sweet Fountains in the deepest saltest Seas Nay 3. Though never so raging and boistrous there is no Sea but he that had sounded all of them sayes 1 Cor. 10.13 is navigable nay profitable for Gods Halcyons can breed here Onely as they that travell through those Tides of Sand in the Arabian deserts doe shelter themselves in Arks or Castles on Camels backs make thee an Ark according to Gods command and thou shalt sail in safety in a deluge nay thy child with Moses in the Ark of Gods covenant thou shalt find in safety Oh if like a fly thou cabin thy self in some little crevice of this great ship thou wilt come to the Haven in Peace Be the red Sea nere so cold be the Furnace never so hot both stand up like a wall to Israel Ever since Christ the true Halcyon was born here was peace and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Secondly This Sea is Glassie every fall every knock every clash breaks it Whether it be that microcoâ—me man witnesse those unperceiv'd needles from the Italian bow yet where they are not cunning enough to enter grief envy malice more subtill engines will dash him to pieces or whether those great worlds the world of pleasure the world of profit the world of honour such they are Ice not more slippery Glasse not more brittle 1. Such in respect of their chief matter sand ashes their parts as impossibly coherent into ropes and yeelds the foolish soul a foundation Mat. 7.27 as inconsistent 2. In their effects as dangerous to their intrails So taken inwardly do their hard angles grate and pierce the inward man Here swelling it with pride there inflaming it with those dropsie desires of having and in a word spoiling the bowells of mercy Yet 3. Such in respect of the continuity of their parts so that a heart made up of these worlds is indeed become glassie yeelding to nothing without breaking but the Diamonds points the quicksilver to which I compare the Word and Spirit of God that bores through metalls gold silver c. or stone enters not a worldly heart All the dews of Gods graces spend themselves like
as seek him in the acceptable opportunities and though Rev. 20.11 his throne be a great one to show his power majesty providence yet it is a white one to show his meekness mercy and that this throne is a mercy seat was revealed although but vailed Exod. 25.22 standing upon the arke trampling as it were the law under feet After some silence of his after some tryall of us after much rage of the world and the worlds prince comes Tace obmutesce so that though he lets sorrow flow in full tides ore-night yet it ebbs in the morning However I beleeve he can make iron swim I beleeve it he throw me into the sea with Ionas hee will provide me a fishes belly for my ship or coffin Hee that counts of his body but as of his souls prison may easily rejoice when the Lord shal be pleased to snap this frail glass a pieces to rench open these prison doores and give us footing in a more lasting world That bad spirit Mat. 4.8 was but the goods spirits Ape who also lifts us aloft to see this glassy worlds glory Only the Devill drawes a curtaine before its glassinesse its fadingness But see here as plainly as in Archimedes his spheare of glass how sleepily how dully the earth and its adherents be fixt whilst the heavens and heavenly things are weariless restless in declaring Gods glory see plainly mans life which is like a thread spun from the true distaffe of Gods decrees though with many turnings and windings as the Scripture elsewhere compares it like to a visage in a glass O since this world is so brittle that wee cannot carry it up to heaven it must be crumbled to pieces let us bring downe heaven on earth and take it by force To do this we must not only have our head by faith in Christ in another world but with that great Mathematitian our footing too our conversation To this purpose I hope it may be if I present you with another world though a Microcosm a little one disgus'd now under those blacks and he 1. a sea a man of sorrowes or a sea of troubles 2. Yet glassy a mortall man there 's an end of all perturbations Yet 3. Crystall he was a Christian an immortall man For though 1. like a sea he had his ebbs his flowes yet he had his immensities his depths too Though 2. he was glassy being made up of such a sandy dusty principle yet 3. he was Crystal ennobled with so clear knowledges so perspicuous excellencies Yet for variety sake bee pleased to take with mee another method another way to the same City And 1. the same great God creator and preserver of all things and more especially of man being placed in his throne of power presence essence Let us 2. view this narrow sea this little world brought on the stage in his severall actings Many very eminent men in the Church of God have compared the life of man to a Play So does St. Pauls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 4.9 his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 10.33 seem to allow it and allude to it Expositors find such drames such interlocutors such chores in the Canticles and even in this Apocalyps I am sure here are some in this honourable presence do very well remember the time when he spake his Prologue as all do at their entrance in teares which though not divine yet divining the future brinishness of this troublesome sea His 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but here I must be silent lest I revive that ocean of teares that neer nine yeers since seemed to drown'd his countrey aswell as his family or those last years torrents which heaven and earth seemed to weep to carry on the celebration of his most honourable parents funerals The sun is again entred Cancer and we mourning It is Gods harvest time he hath taken the tithe whether we wil or no. His 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he acted a while under Artists at home which could both give him the sunny side of the garden and with fine reflecting glasses ripen him and we well know that his vast memory sudden apprehension fine expression refined judgment c. must needs place him in the first Classis of Gentlemen But lest our coal or turfe smoake should be thought equally sweet with the cryed up frankincense of other countreys he passes that neck of sea that cuts the head of England from the body of Europe where his tongue so quaintly relishes the honyed language of the French that it makes mee thinke that though our Bees make hony the same way yet theirs have more flowers of Rhetorick His 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may show you his returned state when his naturall Father leaving him he findes quickly a political to adhere to and with that Vestall zeal that resolved constancy that all other tyes nay his houses and lands nay his life must a while stand under sequestration Mercifull heart thy stables and studies thy horses and houses plundered whilest many of thine enemies owe their houses their lives to thee Few Gentlemen in Oxford gave more groats then he shillings and that to his foes sometimes as well as his friends knowing that when their sins were greater Calice would be wonne again It was here that he made choice of his Vertuous and choice Lady where al that censure him say his aim was rather to joyn man and wife than house to house His 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 began at his sad coming hither last year And since his late King dy'd he lived only as headlesse bodies do in some strugles of forma corporeitat is now you plainly see that the King was indeed the breath of his mother or like to that of Psal 131.2 My soul is even as a weaned child Blessed Lord thou hast given me fair and full breasts to live on yet so much wormwood withall makes me nauseat the nibble The Crosse of Christ like the Mathematicians point begins and ends the line of our learning and life It was just two months before that Sabbath on which I hope he began his eternall Sabbath in heaven when after a week spent in continuall prayers and preparation he incorporates himself into the body of Christ in that sacred Ceremony so much slighted of his own institution after the form of the Church of England yea notwithstanding much bodily indisposition in the sacred place Pious soul I fear'd that the cold assembling the clownish behaviour the non-sense devotion used there had quite frighted thee away from thence long since so that as we see in heavy bodies the neerer they approach to their center the more speedily they hast to it so pensive souls the neererthey draw to God the faster they go to God so that though ever before he did converse with the Lord in prayer twice or thrice daily yet now as aiming at the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he has been observed to have trebled that thrice and more nay least
Microcosmography OR SPECVLVM MVNDI BEING A GLASSE FOR WORLDLINGS A SERMON Preached at the funerall of the Right Worshipfull SPENCER LUCY Esq at Charlecote August 11. 1649. By Christopher Massey Master of Arts of Gonv. and Caius Colledge Cambridge LONDON Printed by RICHARD COTES Anno Dom. 1650. To the Right Worshipfull Robert Lucy Esq my most honoured PATRON I Am very sensible of the unfledgednesse of this Lapwing that runnes about so confidently Bee pleased therefore instead of its shell to let it have the shadow of such a wing the glory of such a name as yours is affixt to it but let it goe as a Decoy to bring in souls For truly some have been pleased to esteeme these pieces of Glasse which I broke at your Royall seat Charlcote at an higher rate than to bee onely throwne out to choake Hens or patcht together only to catch Larks But whether it be custome or the importunitie of some that heard it that hath got it from me it wil now undeceive those that heard it not T is a Sea but so calme and cleare that he that can stoope with the Country wench to see his foul face in fair water may find in himselfe both what to wash off and what with Narcissus to fall in Love withall Sir I am weary of catching shadowes and embracing clouds and will now entirely devote my self to prayer for you and your noble familie that that great God whose Throne is indeed a Mercie-seat to all that sincerely addresse themselves to it in the name of the Mediator wil preserve to you your inheritance in Canaan and Heaven and so I humbly subscribe to be ever Your obliged Servant and faithfull Chaplaine Christopher Massey Microcosmography OR SPECVLVMMVNDI Being a Glasse for Wordlings A SERMON preached at the Funerall of the Right Worshipfull SPENCER LUCY Esq REV. 4.6 Before the throne was a sea of Glasse like Crystall IF I did intend to word it only as the use is now a dayes the use and principall even in Doctrines and Uses I might easily stile the seven Bishops and Churches in the three precedent Chapters St Iohns Reformed Churches his Heptarchy his Patriarchy this the rather for though in his two latter Epistles he is an Elder yet in his first a father and lest hee should bee mistaken for a Lay-Elder in this Apocalyps a Divine So like his embleme the soaring Eagle though perhaps not so clearly from ver 7. he not only gazes on the worlds light himselfe but beares his Eaglets on his wings to teach them with undazeled eye to fixe on Alpha and Omega an ever rising never setting sun But now in this fourth Chapter he begins to discover in aenigmaticall Idea's of Gods decrees the future militant Churches mournings to the worlds end Vers 2 3. A throne not empty but the Jasper Sardine Emerald stone the Eternall Trinity on it vers 4. Four and twenty Elders enthron'd i. e. the triumphant Church Jewish Gentile in their lawfull Representative twice twelve Founders Patriarchs Apostles vers 5. God writes contra gentes lightnings thundrings c. black lines vers 6. A sea i. e. the world in which his militant Church is tost that I say not shipwrackt Rejoice yee faithfull for though vers 6. your pressures great yet ver 3. the great God is your judge and your avenger 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you are before his throne I intended no other division for my discourse before this honourable presence but that of soul and body but the Scripture is so brief in this matter speaking but one word or two of the greatest persons Funerall that I am forced to present you with these particulars 1. A show a spectacle the world 2. A Spectator God both their actings under three severall disguises The world 1. A sea tumultuous Yet 2. 't is glasse quickly broken Yet 3. like crystall shining clear But again although 1. Like crystall bright Yet 2. 't is glasse brittle 3. A Sea brinish God as on a throne intimating in respect of himself 1. His judgment 2. Majesty 3. Eternall rest In respect of the world 1. His power 2. Presence 3. Essence See the pretty knack the thing they call the world 'T is 1. a sea Why do we immerse our selves in it Air is mans element 2. Glasse Why build on it Earth is mans pavement 3. Crystall its congealed Atoms yeeld nothing but coldnesses hardnesses Fire love is a Christians element Else See 1. the power of God in judgement to condemne thee Or 2. the Majesty of his presence to shame thee Or 3. the eternall rest and happinesse of his essence to allure thee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They that goe down to the sea in ships Psal 107.23 they behold the great Gods works and wonders we are shipt for an houre and though it be dangerous travelling at sea yet the right spirit of our righteous Saviour with his gentle breathings his effectuall gales will harbour us in quiet for lambs may wade here where elephants drown'd The comfort is ver 1. the doore which the lambs well know is open Sweet Jesu we know no doore but thee How shall mans beetle-cy'd body nay eaglecy'd soule pierce into heaven but through thee Lord open before it be too late for fooles to enter First the world is the sea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Ribera Bullinger Pererius Paraeus here so Scripture the best Expositor Mat. 13.47 Christs Kingdome is like a net cast into the sea where the Ship is the Church the Sea the World the Net the Word the Fishermen Ministers Fish the Men of the world 'T was good fishing when mutus ut piscis was in date our fish will catch the fishermen So the Church of England the Catholicke Churches best Expositor in her forme of Baptisme may so passe the waves of this troublesome world And he that rests not in her judgement sink or swim at his own perill bee it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the world 's a sea and then needs must it bee dangerous where the Prince of the Air throwes downe his blustring stormes those shortned dayes Mat. 24.22 will ere long leave him to his eternall night where sinne in stead of sand to ballast us is quicksands to bury us Honour bubbles Passion froth Company waves crowding on one another Misery the ebbe Successes the tide a stream however Trowts beare up against it against which no striving Our teares as soone as borne prognosticate its brinishnesse Our life being teares for misery at the best for sin 'T is a sea see this 1. in its rage Psalm 93. 98. the flouds have voices and hands so like the wicked world cry down with it and put forth sacrilegious hands to pull in the poore ship the Church or under pretence of having it to the dock pare it and patch it till it have as little of the ancient ship in it as that of the Athenians Christiani tollantur has been the voague of all ages decimentur let them bee
Hony-falls on the Dead Sea as little fruit as notice of them The beams of his Spirit fall as on a Sea of glasse rebounded in his face and like glasse only ductile in the fire the Lord can do no good on this world till he bring it into the fire The water that he manifested his anger in to the old world or the water that he shows his mercy in to the present Baptism or the Baptism of tears no good Nay not culinary ordinary fires he must drop downe the Element or Mat. 24.27 come like lightning so swift so sodain so consuming yet though never so hard it is but bâ—â—tle 'T is a sad truth what many melancholly people have fancyed that we are glasse not that Christian Religion is only a fit of fancy or melancholy O there are such transcendent enjoyings in God such joyings in the exercise of the habits of grace and vertue beyond the dreamed musick of Aristotles eleaven morall Crystall spheares which make the proudest calmest smiles this world affords madnesse but because this great treasure this soul presevre is in gallipots or course green glasses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 4.7 earthen shells Alas that wee so admire the shell that we feed not on the meat Alas that weso gaze on the glasse that we regard not the face that it represents Alas that with the filly Indians we so are taken up with this glasse that the Merchant Rev. 3.18 that sells gold grace has no custome though the price of his gold be only to take it while he offers it and put it to use This Sea is a false glasse like those false glasses that are contrived so as to represent all faces much unlike the naturall Such was that mirrour of Smyrna which show'd such mutability in the face that a fair one might show ugly and an uggly one fair Think now what a poor portion thou leavest thy child though never so fair an estate a cupboard of glasses a shelfe of gallipots All worldly estates and conditions are glassie How glassie that Sea of Rome that once was marble How brittle Jacobs stone though it will prove marble Glassie even the keys of our Church though one should have esteemed them more durable then Iron Glassie our Bishop Seas though pure Venice break ere hold poyson 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oh then let us go down to the Glassemans house as Ier. 18. you shall not only see mans spirit imprisoned in a glasse but sayes St. Paul 1 Cor. 13.12 2 Cor. 3. ult if you will see God in this dark time of our earthly pilgrimage you must see him in a glasse not that you should beleeve the eternall Spirit is imprisoned in a glasse too as some black Artists or rather cheating Hocuspocusses seem to promise you but twice he calls you to see him in a glasse that you might not only as men see him in the creature but as Christian men in the Word as for his creatures the more clear they are the more lively they represent him yet see again the more clear they are the more glassie and brittle they are so that as it is no wonder to see man the nobler piece of Gods creature broken much lesse need we strange to see the noblest of men make such hast to their unripe fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yet stay the world 's not the worse for being so glassie if so slippery so brittle 't will teach us not to stand on it not to rely on it Nor is the little world the worse Oh it will make us very carefull that we do not fall into sin with preparation into the grave unprepared Nay nay ever since I knew Psal 51. that Gods Gospel-Sacrifice was a broken heart I can't think but that we are the better for being so easily broken Rome only can show the man however Tiberius is reported to have put him to death that makes glasse flexile or an heart that is only attrite by the turn of a key contrite Lord give us breaking hearts Which though 1. in their nature they be not feysable with good though 2. in their effects they be dangerous not being well broken Yet 3. by the power of thy Word and Spirit they may become malleable and consequently an acceptable reasonable sacrifice to thee Thirdly this Sea is like Crystall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where if I may beg leave to speak with the Vulgar as the use is with those that interpret Gen. 1.16 and such like places of Scripture I shall not need to quearee after its lapidificall principle but say with Scaliger 't is a white pellucid stone concreted of ice or with the Etymologer t is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 water hardned by extream cold And so here again discovers 1. The worlds and worldings temper cold and congealed by nature and so buryed in earth that heaven can't thaw it Pharaohs temper a crystallized heart The furnace that melts glasse findes this a Salamander Yea 2. Appears white clear and clean you shall see his inside so clear his outside so clean that you will find it a very hard province to write slut in a Pharisees cup very hard by the eye to discern his sowre leaven from the Saints lump but you may easily smell him out for Matth. 23.27 they are but whited Sepulchers And 3. There 's the mischief on 't they are transparent to Gods eyes thence their stincking rottennesse within though they can gull and cheat mans eyes yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are pellucid as clear as Crystall to the all searching eyes of the great God Oh then 1. Do not brag thy Crystall-eyes but Leahs eyes tender still dropping still running with crystall tears Brag not the ranting the crystallized heart no crosse no losse mollifie it no Balm no anointings of Gods Spirit supple it Consider this ye that have forgotten God Psal 50.22 Alas remember God is a Lyon as well as a Lambe lest hee tear you to pieces and all your forces can't deliver you if he can't hew his passage through your mountains with intreating tears he will do it with vinegar Pray that he will change this stone-heart for a flesh-heart Ezek. 36.26 that he would send forth his crystall as the Lxx. read Psal 147.17 like morsels all in pieces 2. Boast not thy clearness of knowledge such a light as Lucians men in the Moon have and a thing they call the Spirit which they ever hold forth as the only Gorgon to stun reason withall Alas how dim sighted how dark in this world we are glad the quickest to use spectacles 1 Cor. 13.12 and then see but riddles too even then when thou com'st face to face thou 'lt hide thine eyes with the highest Seraphims Esa 6.2 and for all that so much talkt of glasse of the creatures or matutine knowledge of Angels thou wilt finde thy selfe unable to fashion Gods depths to comprehend an incomprehensible essence God as in himself though thou dost certainly find inconceivable
happinesse in him as he is towards thee Sprirituall pride is medicorum pudor the spirituall Physicians Gout The Kings Evill none but the King of Heaven can cure it Silly animals what doe they doe but spoil their wings the fly that so giddily flaps the flame or the bird that so securely built her nest in the circle of the Sun But so unsatisfied is the eye with seeing or the ears with hearing whilst all true light all true revelation throwes us downe with Paul Act. 9.4 humbles us blindes us makes us in appearance not seeing a while here that we may see and live for ever Boast not the whitenesse cleernesse lest seeing thou art but crystall thou hast not that white stone Rev. 2.17 Gods mercifull acquittance of thy wofull sin for although thou thinkst thou canst travell towards heaven with all thy earthly bunches as fast as the Indian camels can towards Canaan yet the needles eye requires 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luk. 13.24 wrestle to enter in 't will be worth your best indeavours Though now thou appear to thy self and others as cleer as crystall yet at that clear light of that great fire thou wilt finde many strawes many cobwebs much foulness and plainly read what secretly thou writst with a Lemmon what counterfeitingly thou writst with an Onion These Temples of Egypt will show their Crocodiles Rats Onions at our Saviours second coming more than at his first For 3. They are all crystall most transparent to Gods eyes their-windows are in their tops glasse towards heaven the all-seeing God discovers those leeches envy malice crawling up and down in their glasses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So then we must fall on to the second Generall God the Spectator before whose throne the world acts only you must not conceive him to be an idle careless Spectator You see his Throne placed on these three particulars so much as concernes the Spectacle the world 1. His Power 2. His Presence 3. Essence That is he sits over all the world 1. as an omnipotent Judge 2. as an omniscient King 3. as an omniprovident cause 1. His power hee makes scorpions rabbets frogs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 locusts bees pismires lice devour sinfull nations The Sun that great gyant that had not sin'd swounded at Christs death to see his Creator in that despised humility oh how wil he darken and die at that generall Sizes when he shal see him in that glory of his power David Psal 14.17 for lack a little of the presence and countenance of his gracious comforter feels his bones within him jumble together like arrowes all in a Quiver So Hezekiah Esay 38.13 and that for a little check What think you would these Kings have done if the omnipotent God should have mated them His arm is not shortned it is as able to help in these hopeless days The Gentiles Atlas may faint the Jews Samson may fail but the Christians Iesus the truly victorious Samson will never fail No snipping his golden lockes the beames of his free Spirit What bands will you get to chain him up with that rents rocks aswell as vailes What engine to bore out his eyes flames of fire that dazle the Seraphim aswell as the sun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. His presence all things are naked present to him darknesse as well as light the things that are past and the things that are to come to passe to him they are alike visible Hee needs not others eyes to see withall nor the help of glasses to strengthen his sight withall it may befit Nero to behold his fencers at their exercises through an emerald wearinesse dimnesse like cobwebs will quickly hang in our windowes and darken us but God sees through crystall What shall not he that made the eye see He needs no Iacobs staffe not Galilaeus his telescopium sees all Shall not he that made the care heare he needs no whispering places heares all Shall not he that made mans soul understand needs not discourse knowes all intuitively 'T is true indeed occaecatur at prae amore he sees not sometimes but it is his love that hides us hee seems deafe sometimes but it is prae irâ because he is offended with us he seems ignorant sometimes but it is prae justitiâ because hee knowes not sin how to sin or sinners Go go shade thy Arbour so that the lynx can't dart a beam through its leaves make thy closet so close that the day light can't peep in dig thy vault so under ground that it will damp a flash of lightning yet there where the quickest sight is baffled where the light is bolted out a doores where the lightning stands at a dare even there the all-searching eyes of the Lord are Such just such an arbour had Adam seeking shelter under his fig-leaves Ionas under his gourd Nathaniel under his fig-tree so so close did Saul thinke himselfe under the stuffe Achan his wedge under ground Ionas in the ship so deep was Darius his den in which they buried Daniel Malchiahs dungeon in which Ieremy Iosephs sepulcher in which Iesus or such a vault was in Absolons heart when hee would steal the peoples heart in Sauls religion to spare the rich in Iudas his bag when he would spare for the poore all are crystalline 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. Of his essence giving all things being well being all having support from this throne Independents excluded from this throne The whole creation being linkt to it by a chaine of causes in an harmonious subordination hang on it as in esse so in conservari he concreates and conserves even the souls of the sons of men rules all does all causally cardinally totally What is nature but Gods will What is fate but his word What is that so much adored Fortune but his wheel to wrack us to confesse the mutability of mortal man His wisdome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in this great musick schoole the heavens about him dancing and singing Te Deum the glassy world of men like the harp in his hand where the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the string that gives the highest sound is the quire of blessed spirits inhabitants of heaven the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the string that gives the lowest sound is the earth and its inhabitants where if hee windes some strings higher or slackens others it is surely to make musick to his own glory But what talk I of musick or musick schoole wee are not come to Platoes Creed yet that God is the worlds waggoner his waggon running on the four elements as on four wheels Alas the professors of Christianity are turned infidels O see it is Christs Creed Mat. 4.4 man lives not by bread alone but by his word that sanctifies it Shall Grashoppers live by dew and shall not I by the word of the Lord See it is the Angels Creed Luk. 37. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every word that is every thing is possible with the Lord. Nay see it is the
〈◊〉 devotion should be dryed up or not grow he used to water it with clouds of tears surely of tears from Heaven and now how is it possible for malice not to give way for me to speak what was said of once-wicked St. Augustine A son of so many tears can't perish Yet because our love to man is the Index of our love to God oft oft did he beg of the Lord that he might live to do that good which either he had hitherto omitted or his estate not permitted Weep Charlcote weep you sister towns weep Hampton thy annuall commings in must have gone only to make thy poors goings out and comings in to bless the Lord for him Weepe Highcleere thy barren hill knows what it is to have him to water thee How oft did he send secretly to enquire what poore were at his gates And then how oft send meat and money secretly whereby the hungry soule might be satisfied And now Elias-like he cries take away my'life yet flies the Iezebel that would have taken it because he would not that death should take it till the Lord that gave it was willing to receive it insomuch that when he went to Bath he said plainly he went to Bath to dye so he bathes himself in those minerall waters and dyes So having bathed himselfe in the bloud of Christ he lives and to say all Had not the malignancy of conjunctions above and divisions below had not the goodness of God and the wickedness of man in all this stage been predominant that lending his clock wheels and this weights his dayes had not been so short his houre so soon This is the grassiness this the glassiness of all humane things On this ground it was that Ptolomee raised that glassie tombe to Great Alexander yet me thinks I may complain with St. August Sivitrei essemus c. If we were glass we should not be so easily broken A glass may be kept from breaking some hundreds â—ears but at threescore and ten begins mans fall Alas he has made a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and must dy he has a dying principle within him a spark of naturall heat which being outed we are but ashes Oh when we only dress our selves by our own glass and not by the Gospel Iam. 1.23 25. consider only how green how spacious our Sea is and not how deep how dangerous how shining our Crystall and not how transparent how hard our glass is and not how brittle our Sun knows no Eclipse no set But when in the free Law of Christ we take our dimensions our Sea is Glass our Glass is ashes our Crystall is Ice In earth we are dust in the Water a buble in the Air a vapour in the Fire smoak in the Light a shadow Well since we are no better but a shadow Psal 102.11 Oh then follow you the gre at Sun of Heaven the truth for though all men are said to be lyars yet men of high degree Psal 62.9 are in the Abstract a lye And such a viall of bloud such a weak glass of nature is this which it hath pleased God should at last come thus broken home Most honoured Sir pardon me and give me leave to speak one word to you you succenturiate him I see many mourners followers of this Herse with tears that are not here 1. Poor hungry bowells they are the Lord treasury cast in thither your mites at least your superfluities they are Christian Sacrifices He that slights Bullocks and Rams accepts a peece of bread he that slights rivers of Oil disdains not a cup of cold water 2. Orphans widows those hope to have you a Father to them these an husband they are the test of your Religion Iam. 1. ult despise not the sighings of these poor destitute and helpless that sit alone on the house tops 3. Vertues divine morall all mourners as the times go and beg some countenance from you and from this honorable presence So he that can raise bodies will raise your Estate he that can curse and ravell and crumble an estate will bless will increase yours And then here needs no tears to embalm this Corps no sheet to shrowd him we shall all wind him up in a white clean memory and for his humane frailties let this black coffin and that dark vault lock them up for ever Nay then weep not Charlcote let not Charlcote bee made an Hadadrimmon Weep not his countrey he hath added to it a loyall name Let it bewail her Absalons that dy in Paricide c. when she shall see those tame ridden mules leave them dangling like those harpes Psal 137.2 in the trees it need not lament her innocent dead children But I have been too long I fear conversing in this lower world let us now addresse our selves to the upper Mereifull Lord we now come to dip our buckets in thee the only boundless only bottomless Ocean of Mercy Oh let every one according to the severall measure and capacity of the vessels wee bring draw life grace glory out of thee Though in Adam thou hast made us all mortall yet in Christ through the death of Christ hast revived us and when thou drankest that cup of trembling for us didst swallow down death and all and brokest open the prison gates of the grave so that wee are all prisoners of hope raise us here from sin to grace that thou maist hereafter raise us from the grave to glory that here and ever all glory power majesty may be ascribed to thee the only true God c. FINIS