begin a worse this Heavenly flame should but kindle that of Hell Thus unconceivably heavy was the revenge but what was the offence We have learned not to think any indignity light that is offered to the Son of God but we know these spiritual affronts are capable of degrees Had these Samaritans reviled Christ and his train had they violently assaulted him had they followed him with stones in their hands and blasphemies in their mouths it had been a just provocation of so horrible a vengeance Now the wrong was onâ—ly negative they received him not And that not out of any particular quarrell or dislike of his Person but of his Nation onely the men had been welcome had not their Country distasted All the charge that I hear our Saviour give to his Disciples in case of their rejection is If they receive you not shake off the dust of your feet Yet this was amongst their own and when they went on that sacred errand of publishing the Gospel of Peace These were strangers from the commonwealth of Israel This measure was not to Preachers but to Travellers only a mere inhospitality to misliked guests Yet no lesse revenge will serve them then fire from Heaven I dare say for you ye holy sons of Zebedee it was not your spleen but your zeal that was guilty of so bloody a suggestion your indignation could not but be stirred to see the great Prophet and Saviour of the world so unkindly repelled yet all this will not excuse you from a rash Cruelty from an inordinate Rage Even the best heart may easily be miscarried with a well-meant Zeal No affection is either more necessary or better accepted Love to any Object cannot be severed from hatred of the contrary whence it is that all creatures which have the concupiscible part have also the irascible adjoined unto it Anger and displeasure is not so much an enemy as a guardian and champion of Love Whoever therefore is rightly affected to his Saviour cannot but finde much regret at his wrongs O gracious and divine Zeal the kindely warmth and vitall temper of Piety whither hast thou withdrawn thy self from the cold hearts of men Or is this according to the just constitution of the old and decrepit age of the world into which we are fallen How many are there that think there is no wisdome but in a dull indifferency and chuse rather to freeze then burn How quick and apprehensive are men in cases of their own indignities how insensible of their Saviour's But there is nothing so ill as the corruption of the best Rectified zeal is not more commendable and usefull then inordinate and misguided is hatefull and dangerous Fire is a necessary and beneficial element but if it be once misplaced and have caught upon the beams of our houses or stacks of our corn nothing can be more direfull Thus sometimes Zeal turns Murder They that kill you shall think they doe God service sometimes Phrensie sometimes rude Indiscretion Wholesome and blessed is that zeal that is well grounded and well governed grounded upon the word of Truth not upon unstable fancies governed by wisdome and charity Wisdome to avoid rashnesse and excesse Charity to avoid just offence No motion can want a pretence Elias did so why not we He was an holy Prophet the occasion the place abludes not much there wrong was offered to a servant here to his Master there to a man here to a God and man If Elias then did it why not we There is nothing more perillous then to draw all the actions of Holy men into examples For as the best men have their weaknesses so they are not priviledged from letting fall unjustifiable actions Besides that they may have had perhaps peculiar warrants signed from Heaven whether by instict or speciall command which we shall expect in vain There must be much caution used in our imitation of the best patterns whether in respect of the persons or things else we shall make our selves Apes and our acts sinfull absurdities It is a rare thing for our Saviour to finde fault with the errous of zeal even where have appeared sensible weaknesses If Moses in a sacred rage and indignation brake the Tables written with Gods own hand I finde him not checked Here our meek Saviour turns back and frowns upon his furious suitors and takes them up roundly Ye know not of what spirit ye are The faults of uncharitablenesse cannot be swallowed up in zeal If there were any colour to hide the blemishes of this misdisposition it should be this crimson die But he that needs not our Lie will let us know he needs not our Injury and hates to have a good cause supported by the violation of our Charity We have no reason to disclaim our Passions Even the Son of God chides sometimes yea where he loves It offends not that our Affections are moved but that they are inordinate It was a sharp word Ye know not of what spirit ye are Another man would not perhaps have felt it a Disciple doth Tender hearts are galled with that which the carnal minde slighteth The spirit of Elias was that which they meant to assume and imitate they shall now know their mark was mistaken How would they have hated to think that any other but God's Spirit had stirred them up to this passionate motion now they shall know it was wrought by that ill spirit whom they professed to hate It is far from the good Spirit of God to stir up any man to private revenge or thirst of blood Not an Eagle but a Dove was the shape wherein he chose to appear Neither wouldst thou O God be in the whirlwinde or in the fire but in the soft voice O Saviour what do we seek for any precedent but thine whose name we challenge Thou camest to thine own thine own received thee not Didst thou call for fire from Heaven upon them didst thou not rather send down water from thy compassionate eyes and weep for them by whom thou must bleed Better had it been for us never to have had any spirit then any but thine We can be no other then wicked if our mercies be cruelty But is it the name of Elias O ye Zelots which ye pretend for a colour of your impotent desire Ye do not consider the difference betwixt his Spirit and yours His was extraordinary and heroical besides the instinct or secret command of God for this act of his far otherwise is it with you who by a carnal distemper are moved to this furious suggestion Those that would imitate Gods Saints in singular actions must see they goe upon the same grounds Without the same Spirit and the same warrant it is either a mockery or a sin to make them our Copies Elias is no fit pattern for Disciples but their Master The Son of Man came not to destroy mens lives but to save them Then are our actions and intentions warrantable and praise-worthy when they accord with
are in the hand of a cunning workman that of the knottiest and crookedst timber can make rafters and seeling for his own house that can square the marble or flint as well as the freest stone Who can now plead the disadvantage of his place when he sees a Publican come to Christ No Calling can prejudice God's gracious election To excell in evil must needs be worse If to be a Publican be ill surely to be an Arch-publican is more What talk we of the chief of Publicans when he that professed himself the chief of Sinners is now among the chief of Saints Who can despair of mercy when he sees one Jericho send both an Harlot and a Publican to Heaven The trade of Zacheus was not a greater rub in his way then his wealth He that sent word to John for great news that the poor receive the Gospel said also How hard is it for a rich man to enter into Heaven This bunch of the Camel keeps him from passing the needles eye although not by any malignity that is in the creature it self Riches are the gift of God but by reason of those three pernicious hang-byes Cares Pleasures Pride which too commonly attend upon Wealth Separate these Riches are a blessing If we can so possess them that they possess not us there can be no danger much benefit in abundance All the good or ill of wealth or poverty is in the minde in the use He that hath a free and lowly heart in riches is poor he that hath a proud heart under rags is rich If the rich man doe good and distribute and the poor man steal the rich hath put off his woe to the poor Zacheus had never been so famous a Convert if he had been poor nor so liberal a Convert if he had not been rich If more difficulty yet more glory was in the conversion of rich Zacheus It is well that wealthy Zacheus was desirous to see Christ Little do too many rich men care to see that sight the face of Caesar in their coin is more pleasing This man leaves his bags to blesse his eyes with this prospect Yet can I not praise him for this too much it was not I fear out of Faith but Curiosity He that had heard great same of the man of his Miracles would gladly see his face Even an Herod longed for this and was never the better Onely this I finde that this Curiosity of the eye through the mercy of God gave occasion to the Belief of the heart He that desires to see Jesus is in the way to enjoy him there is not so much as a remote possibility in the man that cares not to behold him The eye were ill bestowed if it were onely to betray our Souls there are no lesse beneficial glances of it We are not worthy of this usefull casement of the heart if we do not thence send forth beams of holy desires and thereby re-conveigh profitable and saving Objects I cannot marvel if Zacheus were desirous to see Jesus All the world was not worth this sight Old Simeon thought it best to have his eyes closed up with this spectacle as if he held it pity and disparagement to see ought after it The Father of the faithfull rejoiced to see him though at nineteen hundred years distance and the great Doctor of the Gentiles stands upon this as his highest stair Have I not seen the Lord Jesus And yet O Saviour many a one saw thee here that shall never see thy face above yea that shall call to the hills to hide them from thy sight And if we had once known thee according to the flesh henceforth know we thee so no more What an happiness shall it be so to see thee glorious that in seeing thee we shall partake of thy glory Oh blessed vision to which all others are but penal and despicable Let me goe into the mint-house and see heaps of gold I am never the richer let me goe to the picturers I see goodly faces and am never the fairer let me goe to the Court I see state and magnificence and am never the greater but O Saviour I cannot see thee and not be blessed I can see thee here though in a glasse If the eye of my Faith be dim yet it is sure Oh let me be unquiet till I do now see thee through the vaile of Heaven ere I shall see thee as I am seen Fain would Zacheus see Jesus but he could not It were strange if a man should not finde some lett in good desires somewhat will be still in the way betwixt us and Christ Here are two hinderances met the one internal the other external the stature of the man the prease of the multitude the greatness of the prease the smalness of the stature There was great thronging in the streets of Jâ—richo to see Jesus the doors the windows the bulks were all full Here are many beholders few Disciples If gazing if profession were Godliness Christ could not want clients now amongst all these wonderers there is but one Zacheus In vain should we boast of our forwardness to see and hear Christ in our streets if we receive him not into our hearts This croud hides Christ from Zacheus Alas how common a thing it is by the interposition of the throng of the world to be kept from the sight of our Jesus Here a carnal Fashionist sayes Away with this austere scrupulousness let me doe as the most The throng keeps this man from Christ There a superstitious misbeliever sayes What tell you me of an handful of reformed the whole world is ours This man is kept from Christ by the throng The covetous Mammonist sayes Let them that have leasure be devout my imployments are many my affairs great This man cannot see Christ for the throng There is no perfect view of Christ but in an holy secession The Spouse found not her Beloved till she was past the company then she found him whom her Soul loved Whoso never seeks Christ but in the croud shall never finde comfort in finding him The benefit of our publick view must be enjoyed in retiredness If in a prease we see a mans face that is all when we have him alone every limme may be viewed O Saviour I would be loath not to see thee in thine Assemblies but I would be more loath not to see thee in my Closet Yet had Zacheus been but of the common pitch he might perhaps have seen Christs face over his fellows shoulders now his stature adds to the disadvantage his Body did not answer to his Minde his desires were high whiles his body was low The best is however smalness of stature was disadvantageous in a level yet it is not so at height A little man if his eye be clear may look as high though not as farre as the tallest The least Pygmee may from the lowest valley see the Sun or Stars as fully as a Giant upon the highest mountain O Saviour
is sent forth the lesse is reserved but as it is in the Sun which gives us light yet loseth none ever the more the luminosity of it being no whit impaired by that perpetual emission of light-some beams so much more is it in thee the Father of lights Virtue could not goe out of thee without thy knowledge without thy sending Neither was it in a dislike or in a grudging exprobration that thou saidst Virtue is gone out from me Nothing could please thee better then to feel virtue fetch'd out from thee by the Faith of the receiver It is the nature and praise of good to be communicative none of us would be other then liberal of our little if we did not fear it would be lessened by imparting Thou that knowest thy store so infinite that participation doth only glorifie and not diminish it canst not but be more willing to give then we to receive If we take but one drop of water from the Sea or one corn of sand from the shore there is so much though insensibly lesse but were we capable of Worlds of virtue and benediction from that munificent hand our inriching could no whit impoverish thee Thou which wert wont to hold it much better to give then to receive canst not but give gladly Fear not O my Soul to lade plentifully at this Well this Ocean of Mercy which the more thou takest over flows the more But why then O Saviour why didst thou thus inquire thus expostulate Was it for thy own sake that the glory of the Miracle might thus come to light which otherwise had been smothered in silence Was it for Jairus his sake that his depressed heart might be raised to a confidence in thee whose mighty Power he saw proved by this Cure whose Omniscience he saw proved by the knowledge of the Cure Or was it chiefly for the Womans sake for the praise of her Faith for the securing of her Conscience It was within her self that she said If I may but touch none could hear this voice of the heart but he that made it It was within her self that the Cure was wrought none of the beholders knew her complaint much lesse her recovery none noted her touch none knew the occasion of her touch What a pattern of powerfull Faith had we lost if our Saviour had not called this act to triall As her modesty hid her disease so it would have hid her vertue Christ will not suffer this secrecy Oh the marvelous but free dispensation of Christ One while he injoyns a silence to his re-cured Patients and is troubled with their divulgation of his favour another while as here he will not lose the honour of a secret mercy but fetches it out by his Inquisition by his profession Who hath touched me for I perceive virtue is gone out from me As we see in the great work of his Creation he hath placed some Stars in the midst of Heaven where they may be most conspicuous others he hath set in the Southern obscurity obvious to but few eyes in the Earth he hath planted some flowers and trees in the famous gardens of the World others no lesse beautiful in untracked Woods or wild Desarts where they are either not seen or not regarded O God if thou have intended to glorifie thy self by thy Graces in us thou wilt finde means to fetch them forth into the notice of the World otherwise our very privacy shall content us and praise thee Yet even this great Faith wanted not some weaknesse It was a poor conceit in this Woman that she thought she might receive so soveraign a remedy from Christ without his heed without his knowledge Now that she might see she had trusted to a power which was not more bountifull then sensible and whose goodnesse did not exceed his apprehension but one that knew what he parted with and willingly parted with that which he knew beneficial to so faithfull a receiver he can say Some body hath touched me for I perceive virtue is gone out from me As there was an error in her thought so in our Saviours words there was a correction His mercy will not let her run away with that secret offence It is a great favour of God to take us in the manner and to shame our closenesse We scour off the rust from a Weapon that we esteem and prune the Vine we care for O God do thou ever finde me out in my Sin and do not passe over my least infirmities without a feeling controlment Neither doubt I but that herein O Saviour thou didst graciously forecast the securing of the Conscience of this faithfull though over-seen Patient which might well have afterwards raised some just scruples for the filching of a Cure for Unthankfulness to the Author of her Cure the continuance whereof she might have good reason to misdoubt being surreptitiously gotten ingratefully concealed For prevention of all these dangers and the full quieting of her troubled heart how fitly how mercifully didst thou bring forth this close businesse to the light and clear it to the bottome It is thy great mercy to foresee our perils and to remove them ere we can apprehend the fear of them as some skilfull Physician who perceiving a Fever or Phrensy coming which the distempered Patient little misdoubts by seasonable applications anticipates that grievous malady so as the sick man knows his safety ere he can suspect his danger Well might the Woman think He who can thus cure and thus know his cure can as well know my name and descry my person and shame and punish my ingratitude With a pale face therefore and a trembling foot she comes and falls down before him and humbly acknowledges what she had done what she had obtained But the Woman finding she was not hid c. Could she have perceived that she might have slily gone away with the Cure she had not confessed it So had she made God a loser of Glory and her self an unthankfull receiver of so great a Benefit Might we have our own wills we should be injurious both to God and our selves Nature laies such plots as would be sure to befool us and is witty in nothing but deceiving her self The only way to bring us home is to finde we are found and to be convinced of the discovery of all our evasions As some unskilfull Thief that findes the owners eye was upon him in his pilfring laies down his stollen commodity with shame Contrarily when a man is possessed with a conceit of secrecy and cleanly escape he is emboldened in his leudnesse The Adulterer chuses the twilight and saies No eye shall see me and joyes in the sweetnesse of his stoln waters O God in the deepest darknesse in my most inward retirednesse when none sees me when I see not my self yet let me then see thine all-seeing eye upon me and if ever mine eyes shall be shut or held with a prevailing Temptation check me with a speedy reproof that with
Means out of office The Motion of the two fiery Disciples repelled THE time drew on wherein Jesus must be received up He must take death in his way Calvary is in his passage to mount Olivet He must be lift up to the Cross thence to climb into his Heaven Yet this comes not into mention as if all the thought of Death were swallowed up in this Victory over Death Neither O Saviour is it otherwise with us the weak members of thy mystical body We must die we shall be glorified What if Death stand before us we look beyond him at that transcendent Glory How should we be dismai'd with that pain which is attended with a blessed Immortality The strongest receit against Death is the happy estate that follows it next to that is the fore-exspectation of it and resolution against it He stedfastly set his face to goe to Hierusalem Hierusalem the nest of his enemies the Amphitheater of his conflicts the fatall place of his death Well did he know the plots and ambushes that were there laid for him and the bloody issue of those designs yet he will goe and goes resolved for the worst It is a sure and wise way to send our thoughts before us to grapple with those evils which we know must be incountred The enemy is half overcome that is well prepared for The strongest mischief may be outfaced with a seasonable fore-resolution There can be no greater disadvantage then the suddennesse of a surprisal O God what I have not the power to avoid let me have the wisdome to exspect The way from Galilee to Judaea lay through the Region of Samaria if not the City Christ now towards the end of his Preaching could not but be attended with a multitude of followers It was necessary there should be purveyors and harbingers to procure lodgings and provision for so large a troup Some of his own retinue are addressed to this service they seek not for palaces and delicates but for house-room and victuals It was he whose the earth was and the fulnesse thereof whos 's the Heavens are and the mansions therein yet he who could have commanded Angels sues to Samaritanes He that filled and comprehended Heaven sends for shelter in a Samaritane Cottage It was thy choice O Saviour to take upon thee the shape not of a Prince but of a Servant How can we either neglect means or despise homelinesse when thou the God of all the World wouldst stoop to the suit of so poor a provision We know well in what terms the Samaritanes stood with the Jews so much more hostile as they did more symbolize in matter of Religion no Nations were mutually so hatefull to each other A Samaritane's bread was no better then Swines-flesh their very fire and water was not more grudged then infectious The looking towards Jerusalem was here cause enough of repulse No enmity is so desperate as that which arises from matter of Religion Agreement in some points when there are differences in the main doth but advance hatred the more It is not more strange to hear the Son of God sue for a lodging then to hear him repelled Upon so churlish a denial the two angry Disciples return to their Master on a fiery errand Lord wilt thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them as Elias did The Sons of Thunder would be lightning straight their zeal whether as kinsmen or Disciples could not brook so harsh a refusal As they were naturally more hot then their fellows so now they thought their Piety bade them be impatient Yet they dare not but begin with leave Master wilt thou His will must lead theirs their choler cannot drive their wills before his all their motion is from him onely True Disciples are like those artificial engines which goe no otherwise then they are set or like little Children that speak nothing but what they are taught O Saviour if we have wills of our own we are not thine Do thou set me as thou wouldst have me goe do thou teach me what thou wouldst have me say or doe A mannerly preface leads in a faulty suit Master wilt thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them Faulty both in presumption and in desire of private revenge I do not hear them say Master will it please thee who art the sole Lord of the Heavens and the Elements to command fire from Heaven upon these men but Wilt thou that we command As if because they had power given them over diseases and unclean spirits therefore Heaven and earth were in their managing How easily might they be mistaken Their large commission had the just limits Subjects that have munificent grants from their Princes can challenge nothing beyond the words of their Patent And if the fetching down fire from Heaven were lesse then the dispossessing of Devils since the Devil shall inable the Beast to doe thus much yet how possible is it to doe the greater and stick at the lesse where both depend upon a delegated power The Magicians of Egypt could bring forth Frogs and Blood they could not bring Lice ordinary Corruption can doe that which they could not It is the fashion of our bold Nature upon an inch given to challenge an ell and where we finde our selves graced with some abilities to flatter our selves with the faculty of more I grant Faith hath done as great things as ever Presumption undertook but there is great difference in the enterprises of both The one hath a warrant either by instinct or expresse command the other none at all Indeed had these two Disciples either meant or said Master if it be thy pleasure to command us to call down fire from Heaven we know thy word shall enable us to doe what thou requirest if the words be ours the power shall be thine this had been but holy modest faithfull but if they supposed there needed nothing save a leave only and that might they be but let loose they could goe alone they presumed they offended Yet had they thus overshot themselves in some pious and charitable motion the fault had been the lesse now the act had in it both cruelty and private revenge Their zeal was not worthy of more praise then their fury of censure That fire should fall down from Heaven upon men is a fearfull thing to think of and that which hath not been often done It was done in the case of Sodome when those five unclean Cities burned with the unnatural fire of hellish Lust it was done two several times at the suit of Elijah it was done in an height of triall to that great pattern of Patience I finde it no more and tremble at these I finde But besides the dreadfulness of the judgment it self who can but quake at the thought of the suddainnesse of this destruction which sweeps away both Body and Soul in a state of unpreparation of unrepentance so as this fire should but
desire rather to leave their children great then good that are more ambitious to have their sons Lords on earth then Kings in Heaven Yet I commend thee Salome that thy first plot was to have thy sons Disciples of Christ then after to prefer them to the best places of that attendance It is the true method of Divine prudence O God first to make our children happy with the honour of thy service and then to endeavour their meet advancement upon earth The mother is but put upon this suit by her sons their heart was in her lips They were not so mortified by their continual conversation with Christ hearing his Heavenly doctrine seeing his Divine carriage but that their mindes were yet roving after temporal Honours Pride is the inmost coat which we put off last and which we put on first Who can wonder to see some sparks of weak and worldly desires in their holiest teachers when the blessed Apostles were not free from some ambitious thoughts whiles they sate at the feet yea in the bosome of their Saviour The near kindred this woman could challenge of Christ might seem to give her just colour of more familiarity yet now that she comes upon a suit she submits her self to the lowest gesture of suppliants We need not be taught that it is fit for petitioners to the Great to present their humble supplications upon their knees O Saviour if this woman so nearly allied to thee according to the flesh coming but upon a temporal occasion to thee being as then compassed about with humane infirmities adored thee ere she durst sue to thee what reverence is enough for us that come to thee upon spiritual suits sitting now in the height of Heavenly Glory and Majesty Say then thou wife of Zebedee what is it that thou cravest of thine omnipotent kinsman A certain thing Speak out woman what is this certain thing that thou cravest How poor and weak is this supplicatory anticipation to him that knew thy thoughts ere thou utteredst them ere thou entertainedst them We are all in this tune every one would have something such perhaps as we are ashamed to utter The Proud man would have a certain thing Honour in the world the Covetous would have a certain thing too Wealth and abundance the Malicious would have a certain thing Revenge on his enemies the Epicure would have Pleasure and Long life the Barren Children the Wanton Beauty Each one would be humored in his own desire though in variety yea contradiction to other though in opposition not more to God's will then our own good How this suit sticks in her teeth and dare not freely come forth because it is guilty of its own faultinesse What a difference there is betwixt the prayers of Faith and the motions of Self-love and infidelity Those come forth with boldnesse as knowing their own welcome and being well assured both of their warrant and acceptation these stand blushing at the door not daring to appear like to some baffled suit conscious to its own unworthinesse and just repulse Our inordinate desires are worthy of a check when we know that our requests are holy we cannot come with too much confidence to the throne of Grace He that knew all their thoughts afar off yet as if he had been a stranger to their purposes asks What wouldest thou Our infirmities do then best shame us when they are fetcht out of our own mouths Like as our Prayers also serve not to acquaint God with our wants but to make us the more capable of his mercies The suit is drawn from her now she must speak Grant that these my two sons may sit one on thy right hand the other on thy left in thy Kingdome It is hard to say whether out of more pride or ignorance It was as received as erroneous a conceit among the very Disciples of Christ that he should raise up a Temporal Kingdom over the now-tributary and beslaved people of Israel The Romans were now their masters their fancy was that their Messias should shake off this yoke and reduce them to their former Liberty So grounded was this opinion that the two Disciples in their walk to Emmaus could say We trusted it had been he that should have delivered Israel and when after his Resurrection he was walking up mount Olivet towards Heaven his very Apostles could ask him if he would now restore that long-exspected Kingdome How should we mitigate our censures of our Christian brethren if either they mistake or know not some secondary truths of Religion when the domestick Attendants of Christ who heard him every day till the very point of his Ascension misapprehended the chief cause of his coming into the world and the state of his Kingdome If our Charity may not bear with small faults what doe we under his name that conniv'd at greater Truth is as the Sun bright in it self yet there are many close corners into which it never shined O God if thou open our hearts we shall take in those beams till thou doe so teach us to attend patiently for our selves charitably for others These Fishermen had so much Courtship to know that the right hand and the left of any Prince were the chief places of Honour Our Saviour had said that his twelve Followers should sit upon twelve thrones and judge the twelve Tribes of Israel This good woman would have her two sons next to his person the prime Peers of his Kingdome Every one is apt to wish the best to his own Worldly Honour is neither worth our suit nor unworthy our acceptance Yea Salome had thy mind been in Heaven hadst thou intended this desired preeminence of that celestial state of Glory yet I know not how to justifie thine ambition Wouldst thou have thy sons preferred to the Father of the faithfull to the blessed Mother of thy Saviour That very wish were presumptuous For me O God my ambition shall goe so high as to be a Saint in Heaven and to live as holily on earth as the best but for precedency of Heavenly honour I do not I dare not affect it It is enough for me if I may lift up my head amongst the heels of thy Blessed Ones The mother asks the sons have the answer She was but their tongue they shall be her eares God ever imputes the acts to the first mover rather then to the instrument It was a sore check Ye know not what ye ask In our ordinary communication to speak idly is sin but in our suits to Christ to be so inconsiderate as not to understand our own petitions must needs be a foul offence As Faith is the ground of our Prayers so Knowledge is the ground of our Faith If we come with indigested requests we prophane that Name we invoke To convince their unfitness for Glory they are sent to their impotency in Suffering Are ye able to drink of the cup whereof I shall drink and to be baptized with the Baptisme wherewith
of all other this eare of Malchus hath the loudest tongue to blazon the praise of thy Clemency and Goodnesse to thy very enemies Wherefore came that man but in an hostile manner to attach thee Besides his own what favour was he worthy of for his Masters sake And if he had not been more forward then his fellows why had not his skin been as whole as theirs Yet even amidst the throng of thine apprehenders in the heat of their violence in the height of their malice and thine own instant peril of death thou healest that unnecessary eare which had been guilty of hearing Blasphemies against thee and receiving cruell and unjust charges concerning thee O Malchus could thy eare be whole and not thy heart broken and contrite with remorse for rising up against so mercifull and so powerfull an hand Could thou chuse but say O blessed Jesu I see it was thy Providence that preserved my head when my eare was smitten it is thine Almighty Power that hath miraculously restored that eare of mine which I had justly forfeited this head of mine shall never be guilty of plotting any further mischief against thee this eare shall never entertain any more reproaches of thy name this heart of mine shall ever acknowledge and magnifie thy tender mercies thy Divine Omnipotence Could thy fellows see such a demonstration of Power and Goodnesse with unrelenting hearts Unthankfull Malchus and cruell souldiers ye were worse wounded and felt it not God had struck your breasts with a fearfull obduration that ye still persist in your bloody enterprise And they that had laid hold on Jesus led him away c. Christ before Caiaphas THat Traitor whom his own cord made soon after too fast gave this charge concerning Jesus Hold him fast Fear makes his guard cruell they binde his hands and think no twist can be strong enough for this Sampson Fond Jews and Souldiers if his own will had not tied him faster then your cords though those Manicles had been the stiffest cables or the strongest iron they had been but threds of tow What eyes can but run over to see those hands that made Heaven and Earth wrung together and bruised with those mercilesse cords to see him bound who came to restore us to the liberty of the Sons of God to see the Lord of Life contemptuously dragged through the streets first to the house of Annas then from thence to the house of Caiaphas from him to Pilate from Pilate to Herod from Herod back again to Pilate from Pilate to his Calvarie whiles in the mean time the base rabble and scum of the incensed multitude runs after him with shouts and scorns The act of death hath not in it so much misery and horrour as the pomp of death And what needed all this pageant of Cruelty wherefore was this state and lingring of an unjust execution Was it for that their malice held a quick dispatch too much Mercy Was it for that whiles they meant to be bloody they would fain seem just A suddain violence had been palpably murderous now the colour of a legal processe guilds over all their deadly spight and would seem to render them honest and the accused guilty This attachment this convention of the innocent was a true night-work a deed of so much darknesse was not for the light Old Annas and that wicked Bench of gray-headed Scribes and Elders can be content to break their sleep to doe mischief Envie and malice can make noon of midnight It is resolved he shall die and now pretences must be sought that he may be cleanly murdered All evil begins at the Sanctuarie The Priests and Scribes and Elders are the first in this bloody scene they have pai'd for this head and now long to see what they shall have for their thirty silverlings The Bench is set in the Hall of Caiaphas False witnesses are sought for and hired they agree not but shame their suborners Woe is me what safety can there be for Innocence when the evidence is wilfully corrupted What State was ever so pure as not to yield some miscreants that will either sell or lend an oath What a brand hath the wisdome of God set upon falshood even dissonance and distraction whereas Truth ever holds together and jars not whiles it is it self O Saviour what a perfect innocence was in thy Life what an exact purity in thy Doctrine that malice it self cannot so much as devise what to slander It were hard if Hell should not finde some Factors upon earth At last two Witnesses are brought in that have learned to agree with themselves whiles they differed from truth they say the same though false This fellow said I am able to destroy the Temple of God and build it again in three daies Perjured wretches Were these the terms that you heard from that Sacred mouth Said he formally thus as ye have deposed It is true he spake of a Temple of destroying of building of three daies but did he speak of that Temple of his own destroying of a material building in that space He said Destroy ye Ye say I am able to destroy He said this Temple of his body Ye say the Temple of God He said I will make up this Temple of my body in three daies Ye say I am able in three daies to build this material Temple of God The words were his the sentence yours The words were true the evidence false So whiles you report the words and misreport the sense ye swear a true falshood aud are truly forsworn Where the resolutions are fixed any colour will serve Had those words been spoken they contained no crime had he been such as they supposed him a mere man the speech had carried a semblance of ostentation no semblance of Blasphemy yet how vehement is Caiaphas for an answer as if those words had already battered that sacred pile or the protestation of his ability had been the highest treason against the God of the Temple That infinite Wisdome knew well how little satisfaction there could be in answers where the sentence was determined Jesus held his peace Where the asker is unworthy the question captious words bootlesse the best answer is silence Erewhile his just and moderate speech to Annas was returned with a buffet on the cheek now his silence is no lesse displeasing Caiaphas was not more malicious then crafty what was in vain attempted by witnesses shall be drawn out of Christs own mouth what an accusation could not effect an adjuration shall I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ the Son of God Yea this was the way to screw out a killing answer Caiaphas thy mouth was impure but thy charge is dreadfull Now if Jesus hold his peace he is cried down for a prophane disregarder of that awfull Name if he answer he is ensnared an affirmation is death a denial worse then death No Caiaphas thou shalt well know it was not fear
that all this while stopped that Gracious mouth thou speakest to him that cannot fear those faces he hath made he that hath charged us to confesse him cannot but confesse himself Jesus saith unto him Thou hast said There is a time to speak and a time to keep silence He that is the Wisdome of his Father hath here given us a pattern of both We may not so speak as to give advantage to cavils we may not be so silent as to betray the Truth Thou shalt have no more cause proud and insulting Caiaphas to complain of a speechlesse prisoner now thou shalt hear more then thou demandedst Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of Heaven There spake my Saviour the voice of God and not of man Hear now insolent High Priest and be confounded That Son of man whom thou seest is the Son of God whom thou canst not see That Son of man that Son of God that God and man whom thou now seest standing despicably before thy Consistorial seat in a base dejectednesse him shalt thou once with horrour and trembling see majestically sitting on the Throne of Heaven attended with thousand thousands of Angels and coming in the clouds to that dreadfull Judgment wherein thy self amongst other damned malefactors shalt be presented before that glorious tribunal of his and adjudged to thy just torments Goe now wretched Hypocrite and rend thy garments whiles in the mean time thou art worthy to have thy Soul rent from thy body for thy spightfull Blasphemy against the Son of God Onwards thy pretence is fair and such as cannot but receive applause from thy compacted crue What need have we of witnesses behold now ye have heard his Blasphemy What think ye And they answered and said He is guilty of death What heed is to be taken of mens judgment So light are they upon the balance that one dram of prejudice or forestalment turns the scales Who were these but the grave Benchers of Jerusalem the Synod of the choice Rabbies of Israel yet these passe sentence against the Lord of Life sentence of that death of his whereby if ever they shall be redeemed from the murder of their sentence O Saviour this is not the last time wherein thou hast received cruel dooms from them that professe Learning and Holiness What wonder is it if thy weak members suffer that which was indured by so perfect an head What care we to be judged by man's day when thou who art the Righteous Judge of the world wert thus misjudged by men Now is the fury of thy malignant enemies let loose upon thee what measure can be too hard for him that is denounced worthy of death Now those foul mouths defile thy Blessed Face with their impure spittle the venemous froth of their malice now those cruell hands are lifted up to buffet thy Sacred Cheeks now scorn and insultation triumphs over thine humble Patience Prophesie unto us thou Christ who it is that smote thee O dear Jesu what a beginning is here of a Passion There thou standst bound condemned spat upon buffetted derided by malicious sinners Thou art bound who camest to loose the bands of death thou art condemned whose sentence must acquit the world thou art spat upon that art fairer then the sons of men thou art buffeted in whose mouth was no guile thou art derided who art clothed with Glory and Majesty In the mean while how can I enough wonder at thy infinite Mercy who in the midst of all these wofull indignities couldst finde a time to cast thine eyes back upon thy frail and ingratefull Disciple and in whose gracious eare Peter's Cock sounded louder then all these reproaches O Saviour thou who in thine apprehension couldst forget all thy danger to correct and heal his over-lashing now in the heat of thy arraignment and condemnation canst forget thy own misery to reclaim his errour and by that seasonable glance of thine eye to strike his heart with a needfull remorse He that was lately so valiant to fight for thee now the next morning is so cowardly as to deny thee He shrinks at the voice of a Maid who was not daunted with the sight of a Band. O Peter had thy slip been sudden thy fall had been more easie Premonition aggravates thy offence that stone was foreshewed thee whereat thou stumbledst neither did thy warning more adde to thy guilt then thine own fore-resolution How didst thou vow though thou shouldst die with thy Master not to deny him Hadst thou said nothing but answered with a trembling silence thy shame had been the lesse Good purposes when they are not held do so far turn enemies to the entertainer of them as that they help to double both his sin and punishment Yet a single denial had been but easie thine I fear to speak it was lined with swearing and execration Whence then oh whence was this so vehement and peremptory disclamation of so gracious a Master What such danger had attended thy profession of his attendance One of thy fellows was known to the high-priest for a Follower of Jesus yet he not onely came himself into that open Hall in view of the Bench but treated with the Maid that kept the door to let thee in also She knew him what he was and could therefore speak to thee as brought in by his mediation Art not thou also one of this mans Disciples Thou also supposes the first acknowledged such yet what crime what danger was urged upon that noted Disciple What could have been more to thee Was it that thy heart misgave thee thou mightest be called to account for Malchus It was no thank to thee that that eare was healed neither did there want those that would think how near that eare was to the head Doubtlesse that busie fellow himself was not far off and his fellows and kinsmen would have been apt enough to follow thee besides thy Discipleship upon a bloodshed a riot a rescue Thy conscience hath made thee thus unduly timorous and now to be sure to avoid the imputation of that affray thou renouncest all knowledge of him in whose cause thou foughtest Howsoever the sin was hainous I tremble at such a Fall of so great an Apostle It was thou O Peter that buffetedst thy Master more then those Jews it was to thee that he turned the cheek from them as to view him by whom he most smarted he felt thee afar off and answered thee with a look such a look as was able to kill and revive at once Thou hast wounded me maiest thou now say O my Saviour thou hast wounded my heart with one of thine eyes that one Eye of thy Mercy hath wounded my heart with a deep remorse for my grievous sin with an indignation at my unthankfulnesse that one glance of thine hath resolved me into the tears of sorrow and contrition Oh that mine eyes were fountains and my cheeks channels that
drink no more of the fruit of this Vine till I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom Mat. 26. 29. It must needs be an excellent liquor which is used to resemble the joyes of Heaven Yea the Blood of the Son of God that celestial Nectar which tomorrow shall chear our Souls is it otherwise resembled then by the blood of the Grape He is Vitis vera the true Vine this is his juice Alas would God we had not too much cause to complain of the pleasure of this fruit Religion Reason Humanity savour not to the palate of many in comparison of it Wine is a mocker saith Solomon How many thousands doth it daily cheat of their Substance of their Patrimony of their Health of their Wit of their Sense of their Life of their Soul Oh that we had the grace to be sensible of our owne scorn and danger But this is the honour of the fruit and the shame of the man the excesse is not more our Sin then the delicacy is the praise of the Grape For sweetnesse of verdure then all plants will yield to the Vine so tastfull so pleasing so delightfull unto God are the Persons the Graces the Endeavours of his Israel Their Persons are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 12. 1. Their Love is better then wine Cant. 4. 10. Their Alms are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sweet-smelling savour Philip. 4. 18. Their Prayers as evening Incense of a most fragrant composition and for the rest of their words the roof of their mouth is like the best Wine Cant. 7. 9. Acceptation hath wont to be the incouragement of forwardnesse Honourable and beloved how should this hearten us in our holy stations in our conscionable actions Whiles we continue Vines it is not in the power of our imperfections to lose our thanks The delicatest Grape cannot be so relishsome to the palate of man as our poor weak obediences are to the God of Mercies Thou hast ravished my heart my Sister my Spouse thou hast ravished my heart saith Christ of his Church Cant. 4. 9. The Vine is a noble plant but a feeble and tender one Other trees grow up alone out of the strength of their own sap this grovels on the ground and rots if it have not an Elm to prop it like as Man the best creature is in his birth most helplesse and would presently die without outward succours Such is the Israel of God the worthiest piece of Gods Creation yet of it self impotent to good here is no growth no life but from that Divine Hand Without me ye can doe nothing They are no Vines that can stand alone Those proud spirits as they have no need of God so God hath no interest in them His Israel is a Vineyard and the Vine must be propped As a Vineyard so God's Vineyard The Church shall be sure not to be Masterlesse There is much wast ground that hath no owner our Globe can tell us of a great part of the World that hath no name but Incognita not known whether it have any inhabitant but a Vineyard was never without a Possessor till Noah the true Janus planted one there was no news of any Come into some wilde Indian Forest all furnished with goodly Trees you know not whether ever man were there God's hand we are sure hath been there perhaps not mans but if you come into a well-dressed Vineyard where you see the Hillocks equally swelling the Stakes pitcht in a just height and distance and the Vines handsomely pruned now it is easie to say as the Philosopher did when he found Figures Here hath been a man yea a good husband There is an universall Providence of God over the World but there is a special eye and hand of God over his Church In this God challengeth a peculiar interest that is his as we heard worthily this day in a double right of Confederation of Redemption Israel is my Son yea my first-born saith God to Pharaoh Thou hast brought a Vine out of AEgypt thou hast cast out the Heathen and planted it saith the Psalmist 80. 8. Oh the blasphemous diffidence of foolish men Can we dare we impute ill husbandry to the God of Heaven Hath God a Vineyard and shall he not tend it shall he not mightily protect it Goe on ye Foxes ye little Foxes to spoil the tender Grapes goe on ye Boars of the Wood to waste this Vineyard and ye wilde beasts of the field to devour it our sins our sins have given this scope to your violence and our calamity But ye shall once know that this Vineyard hath an Owner even the mighty God of Jacob every cluster that you have spoiled shall be fetcht back again from the bloody Wine-presse of his wrath and in spight of all the gates of Hell this Vine shall flourish Even so return we beseech thee O God of Hosts look down from Heaven and visit this Vine and the Vineyard which thy right hand hath planted and the branch that thou madest strong for thy self Ye have seen Israel a Vineyard and God's Vineyard now cast your eyes upon the favours that God hath done to his Vineyard Israel such as that God appeals to their own hearts for Judges What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done Mark I beseech you He doth not say What could have been done more then hath been done but more that I have not done challenging all the acts done to his Vineyard for his own As the Soil is his so is all the culture He that elsewhere makes himself the Vine and his Father the Husbandman here makes Israel the Vine and himself the Husbandman Nothing is nothing can be done to his Church that passeth not his hands My Father still worketh saith he and I work This work this care knows no end no limits Many a good Husband over-tasks himself and undertakes more then his eye can overlook or his hand sway and therefore is fain to trust to the management of others and it speeds thereafter But the owner of this Vineyard is every where and works whereever he is nothing can passe his eye every thing must passe his hand This is the difference betwixt Solomon's Vineyard and his that is greater then Solomon Solomon lets out his Vineyard to Keepers Cant. 8. 11. Christ keeps his in his own hand He useth indeed the help of men but as Tools rather then as Agents he works by them they cannot work but by him Are any of you Great ones Benefactors to his Church a rare style I confesse in these not dative but ablative times ye are but as the hands of the Sub-almoners of Heaven God gives by you Are any great Potentates of the earth secret or open persecutors of his Church Ashur is the rod of my wrath saith God they are but as God's pruning◠Knives to make his Vine bleed out her superfluous juice God cuts by them He is the Author of both men are the instruments
head-tire of the world Surely as outwardly we see in this Castle of the Body the flag of vanity hang'd out most conspicuously in feathers perukes wires locks frizzles powders and such other trash so the inward disguise of this part is no lesse certain no lesse obvious to wise and holy eyes And what is that but fancies mis-opinions mis-judgment all whether vain thoughts Psal 94. 11. or evil thoughts Esa 59. 7. To this head refer novelties of device Heresies capricious superstitious conceits whereof the instances would have no end And these errors of the Minde are either in false Principles or false Conclusions and both whether in matter of Speculation or Practice It is a world to see what false Maximes the world laies down to it self all which are as so many grounds of disguises of this great and gracelesse head I do not tell you that the fool hath said there is no God or hath pent up that God in the circle of the Heavens or whatever other imagination the very impudence of the world is ashamed to justifie as even in outward Pride there are certain pudenda mysteria which vain Dames use but hide I speak of received and current Axioms which the world takes for granted and fears not to aver such as these We must doe according to custome If it be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an ill weed wel rooted we may not pull it up Wrongs may not be offered they may be returned There can be no better Justice then retaliation The Lye must be answered with a blow the Challenge with a combat Our Honour must be tendred whatever becomes of our Soul Reason must be done in drinking though without reason We may lye for an advantage We may swear upon provocation We may make the best of our own Each man for himself Youth must have a swindge It is good sleeping in a whole skin Religion must be tuned to reasons of State and a thousand of this kind And from these false Premisses are raised pernicious Conclusions of resolution to the Soul What should I speak of profane and wilde thoughts of sensuall and beastly thoughts of cruell and bloody thoughts These are the fashions of the world whereto we may not fashion our selves remembring that of wise Solomon The thoughts of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord Prov. 15. 26. These dresses perhaps seem not uncomely to carnall eyes but God tells us how he likes them they are as naught as old he spits at them in a just detestation and will spit at us for them Say not now therefore Thought is free No it is so farre from that as that it may be unpardonable as Simon Peter intimates to Simon Magus Acts 8. 22. Away then with all the false positions and misconclusions all the fantasticall or wicked thoughts of the world It is filthy let it be filthy still Let not us fashion our Heads like unto the world Now not onely the whole Head in common but every part every power of sense in this Head hath a fashion of its own that we must not follow in the world Look first at the Eyes The Eyes of the world have a four-fold evil cast that we may not imitate the adulterous the covetous the proud the envious The adulterous roves and looks round about the covetous looks downward the proud looks a oft the envious looks asquint The first are eyes full of Adulteries 2 Pet. 2. 14. every glance whereof is an act of beastlinesse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith our Saviour Mat. 5. 28. the very sight is a kind of constupration The same word in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies both the apple of the eye and a virgin I may not now discusse the reason Sure I am many an eye proves a bawd to the Soul and I may safely say Virginity is first lost in the eye The ancient Philosophers before Aristotle that held the Sight to be by sending out of beams imagined the Eye to be of a fiery nature wherein they were the rather confirmed for that they found that if the Eye take a blow fire seems to sparkle out of it But certainly how waterish soever better experience hath found the substance of the Eye it is spiritually fiery fiery both actively and passively Passively so as that it is inflamed by every wanton beame actively so as that it sets the whole heart on fire with the inordinate flames of concupiscence What should a Christian doe with a burning-glasse in his head that unites pernicious beams for the firing of the heart I mean a beastly and fornicating eye Ezec. 6. 9. Out with it if it thus offend thee as thou lookst to escape the fire of hell For this flame like that unnaturall one of Sodome shall burn downward and never leave till it come to the bottome of that infernall Tophet Make covenants with your eyes O ye Christians as Job did and when ye have done hold them close to your covenants once made and if they will needs wilfully break take the forfeit to the utmost How much better were it for a man to be blind then to see his own damnation Thus fashion not your eye to the Uncleannesse of the world The Covetous follows Even this is a lust of the eye too 1 Joh. 2. 16. Libido aeris as Ambrose calls it As the eye in its own nature is covetous in that it is not satisfied with seeing Eccles 1. 8. so the eye of the covetous hath a more particular insatiablenesse Non satiatur oculus divitiis The eye is not satisfied with riches Eccles 4. 8. And yet these riches can goe no further then his eye the owner hath nothing but their sight 5. 11. Hence wise Solomon parallels Hell and destruction with the eye neither are satisfiable Prov. 27. 20. He that is a true glutton of the world may fill his belly his eye never For it is in these desires as in Drunkennesse his drought increaseth with his draughts and the more he hath the lesse he thinks he hath and the more he would have This disease is popular and as the Prophet tells us à minimo ad maximum Jer. 6. 13. The world could not be so wicked if it had not this cast of the eye for this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 love of money is the root of all evil 1 Tim. 6. 10. From hence come Simonies in the Spiritualty Sacriledge in the Laity immoderate fees in Lawyers unreasonable prices in Merchants exactions in Officers oppressions in Landlords incroachments in neighbourhood falshood in servants and lastly cozenages in all sorts But woe to him that increaseth that which is not his and to him that ladeth himself with thick clay saith Abacuc 2. 6. Was there ever a more perfect conviction of a vice This desired metall is not his first and then if it were his it is but densissimum lutum thick clay it may load him it cannot ease him Away therefore with those two greedy daughters of the
give wilful provocations of this publick revenge by gross open intolerable injuries as Hanun did to David such are incroachments upon their neighbour-territories violating the just covenants of league and commerce by main violences if fourthly they refuse to give just satisfaction where they have unjustly provoked as the Benjamites in case of the Sodomitical villany of their Gibeah Where all where any of these are found well may we brand that people with delight in warre And since they will needs delight in warre God shall fit them accordingly With the froward thou shalt shew thy self froward Ps 18. 26. He shall delight in warring against them He shall rouze up himself as a Giant refreshed with new wine Therefore thus saith the Lord of Hoasts the mighty one of Israel Ah I will ease me of my adversaries and revenge me of mine enemies Es 1. 24. These are the Enemies The Defeat follows Rebuke and scatter The two first though bad enough must be rebuked the last must be scattered All Gods enemies may not be to us alike neither aequè nor aqualiter Some are Calves simple though violent some others are Bulls fierce and furious some other Lions from among the reeds ravenous and devouring all these though cruel yet perhaps are not malicious an increpa is enough for them Saul was one of these wild Buls breathing out threatnings against the Church and tossing upon his horn many worthy Christians had it not been pity he had been destroyed in that height of his rage an increpation brought him home God had never such a Champion Now certamen bonum certavi I have fought a good fight saith he justly of himself 2 Tim. 4. 7. This increpa then is Discountenance them dishearten them discomfit them disband them Put them down O Lord and let them know they are but men humble them to the very dust but not to the dust of death to correction as Habacuc speaketh not to a full destruction onely till they humbly bring pieces of silver till they come in with the tributes of peacefull submission of just satisfaction The end of all just was is Peace As we are first bidden to inquire of Abel ere we inferre it offeres ei pacem Deut. 20. 10. so when we hear of Abel we must stint it Warre to the State is Physick to the body This is no other then a civil evacuation whether by potion or phlebotomy What is the end of Physick but health when that is once recovered we have done with the Apothecary He wantons away his life foolishly that when he is well will take Physick to make him sick It is far from us to wish the confusion of the ignorant and seduced enemies of God's Church those that follow Absalom with an upright heart No we pity them we pray for them Oh that they would come in with their pieces of silver and tender their humble obediences to the apparent Truth of God and yield to the laws of both Divine and humane Justice Oh that God would perswade Japâ—â—t to dwell in the tents of Sem Father forgive them for they know not what they doe O thou sword of the Lord how long will it be ere thou be quiet put up thy self into thy scabbard rest and be still Jer. 47. 6. But for those other that delight in war Dissipa Domine Scatter them O Lord. Confusion is but too good for them bring them to worse then nothing The perfection and suddenness of this dissipation is expressed emphatically in the beginning of this Psalm by a double Metaphor as smoak before the wind as wax before the fire so scatter them Of all light bodies nothing is more volatile then smoak of all solid none more flitting then wax As wind is to the smoak and fire to the wax so are the Judgements of God to his enemies the wax melteth the smoak vanisheth before them The conceit is too curious of those that make the Gentiles to be smoak who mount up in the opinion of their wisdome and power the Jews wax dropp'd from the honey-comb of their many Divine priviledges No all are both smoak and wax Even so do thou scatter them O Lord and be not merciful to them that offend on malicious wickedness Two thoughts onely remain now for us The first that it must be God onely who must rebuke and scatter The second that it is our Prayer onely that must obtain from God this rebuke this dissipation Both which when I have touched a little I shall put an end to this exercise of your patient Devotion It is God onely that must doe it for vain is the help of man And how easie is it for the Almighty to still the enemy and avenger They are as a potters vessel to his iron Scepter as the thorns or wax to his fire as chaff or smoak to his wind To our weakness the opposite powers seem strong and unconquerable the Canaanitish was reach up to Heaven and who can stand before the sons of Anak When we see their Bulwarks we would think they roll Pelion upon Ossa with the old Giants when we see their Towers we would think they would scale Heaven with the builders of Babel when we see their Mines we would think they would blow up the earth Let the wind of Gods Power but breath upon them they vanish as smoak let the fire of his wrath but look upon them they melt as wax Tyrannous Aegypt had long made slaves of God's people and now will make slaughter of them following them armed at the heels into the chanel of the Sea Stand still and see the Salvation of the Lord for the Aegyptians which you have seen to day ye shall see no more for ever Exod. 14. 13. The great Hoast of proud Benhadad will carry away all Samaria in their pockets for pin-dust Ere long ye shall see their haughtie King come in haltred and prostrate Vaunting Sennacherib comes crowing over poor Jerusalem and he will lend them two thousand horses if they can set riders on them and scorns their King and defies their God Stay but till morning all his hundred fourscore and five thousand shall be dead corpses Vain fools What is a finite power in the hands of an infinite Where there is an equality of force there may be hard tugging but where brass meets with clay how can that brittle stuff escape unshattered Let this cool your courages and pull down your plumes O ye insolent enemies of God When ye look to your own sword there is no rule with you Mihi perfacile est c. It is easie for me saith Uldes in the story to destroy all the earth that the Sun looks upon but when God takes you to task what toyes what nothings ye are Behold we come against you in the Name of the Lord of Hoasts It is he that shall rebuke and scatter you He will doe it but he will doe it upon our Prayers Not that our poor Petitions can put mercy into God
held on in a Line never interrupted Even in a forlorn and miserable Church there may be a personall succession How little were the Jewes better for this when they had lost the Urim and Thummim sincerity of Doctrine and Manners This stayed with them even whiles they and their Sons crucified Christ What is more ordinary then wicked Sons of holy Parents It is the succession of Truth and Holiness that makes or institutes a Church whatever become of the persons Never times were so barren as not to yeeld some good The greatest dearth affords some few good Eares to the Gleaners Christ would not have come into the world but he would have some faithful to entertain him He that had the disposing of all times and men would cast some holy ones into his own times There had been no equality that all should either over-run or follow him and none attend him Zachary and Elizabeth are just both of Aarons blood and John Baptist of theirs whence should an holy seed spring if not of the Loyns of Levi It is not in the power of Parents to traduce Holinesse to their Children it is the blessing of God that feoffes them in the Vertues of their Parents as they feoffe them in their sinnes There is no certainty but there is likelihood of an holy Generation when the Parents are such Elizabeth was just as well as Zachary that the fore-runner of a Saviour might be holy on both sides If the stock and the griffe be not both good there is much danger of the fruit It is an happy match when the Husband and the Wife are one not onely in themselves but in God not more in flesh then in the spirit Grace makes no difference of sexes rather the weaker carries away the more honour because it hath had lesse helps It is easie to observe that the New Testament affordeth more store of good women then the old Elizabeth led the ring of this mercy whose barrenness ended in a miraculous fruit both of her body and of her time This religious pair made no lesse progress in vertue then in age and yet their vertue could not make their best age fruitfull Elizabeth was barren A just soul and a barren womb may well agree together Amongst the Jews barrenness was not a defect only but a reproach yet while this good woman was fruitful of holy obedience she was barren of children As John which was miraculously conceived by man was a fit fore-runner of him that was conceived by the Holy Ghost so a barren Matron was meet to make way for a Virgin None but a son of Aaron might offer incense to God in the Temple and not every son of Aaron and not any one at all seasons God is a God of order and hates confusion no lesse then irreligion Albeit he hath not so streightned himself under the Gospel as to tie his service to persons or places yet his choice is now no lesse curious because it is more large He allows none but the authorised he authoriseth none but the worthy The incense doth ever smell of the hand that offers it I doubt not but that perfume was sweeter which ascended up from the hand of a just Zacharie The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to God There were courses of ministration in the Legal services God never purposed to burthen any of his creatures with devotion How vain is the ambition of any soul that would load it self with the universal charge of all men How thankless is their labour that do wilfully overspend themselves in their ordinary vocations As Zacharie had a course in Gods house so he carefully observed it the favour of these respites doubled his diligence The more high and sacred our calling is the more dangerous is neglect It is our honour that we may be allowed to wait upon the God of heaven in these immediate services Woe be to us if we flacken those duties wherein God honours us more then we can honour him Many sons of Aaron yea of the same family served at once in the Temple according to the variety of imployments To avoid all difference they agreed by lot to assign themselves to the several offices of each day the lot of this day called Zacharie to offer Incense in the outer Temple I doe not finde any prescription they had from God of this particular manner of designment Matters of good order in holy affairs may be ruled by the wise institution of men according to reason and expediencie It fell out well that Zacharie was chosen by lot to this ministration that Gods immediate hand might be seen in all the passages that concerned his great Prophet that as the person so the occasion might be of Gods own chusing In lots and their seeming casual disposition God can give a reason though we can give none Morning and Evening twice a day their Law called them to offer Incense to God that both parts of the day might be consecrate to the maker of time The outer Temple was the figure of the whole Church upon earth like as the Holy of holiest represented Heaven Nothing can better resemble our faithful prayers then sweet perfume these God looks that we should all his Church over send up unto him Morning and Evening The elevations of our hearts should be perpetual but if twice in the day we do not present God with our solemn invocations we make the Gospel lesse officious then the Law That the resemblance of prayers and incense might be apparent whiles the Priest sends up his incense within the Temple the people must send up their prayers without Their breath and that incense though remote in the first rising met ere they went up to heaven The people might no more goe into the Holy place to offer up the incense of prayers unto God then Zacharie might goe into the Holy of holies Whiles the partition wall stood betwixt Jews and Gentiles there were also partitions betwixt the Jews and themselves Now every man is a Priest unto God every man since the veil was rent prayes within the Temple What are we the better for our greater freedome of accesse to God under the Gospel if we doe not make use of our priviledge Whiles they were praying to God he sees an Angel of GOD as Gideon's Angel went up in the smoak of the sacrifice so did Zacharie's Angel as it were come down in the fragrant smoak of his incense It was ever great news to see an Angel of God but now more because God had long withdrawn from them all the means of his supernaturall revelations As this wicked people were strangers to their God in their conversation so was God grown a stranger to them in his apparitions yet now that the season of the Gospel approached he visited them with his Angels before he visited them by his Son He sends his Angel to men in the form of man before he sends his Son to take humane form The presence of Angels
more inquisitive into the manner and means of this event How shall this be since I know not a man That she should conceive a Son by the knowledge of man after her Marriage consummate could have been no wonder But how then should that Son of hers be the Son of God This demand was higher How her present Virginity should be instantly fruitfull might be well worthy of admiration of inquiry Here was desire of information not doubts of infidelitie yea rather this question argues Faith it takes for granted that which an unbelieving heart would have stuck at She sayes not Who and whence art thou what Kingdome is this where and when shall it be erected but smoothly supposing all those strange things would be done she insists onely on that which did necessarily require a further intimation and doth not distrust but demand Neither doth she say This cannot be nor How can this be but How shall this be So doth the Angel answer as one that knew he needed not to satisfie curiositie but to informe judgement and uphold faith He doth not therefore tell her of the manner but of the Author of this act The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the most High shall over-shadow thee It is enough to know who is the undertaker and what he wil doe O God what doe we seek a clear light where thou wilt have a shadow No Mother knows the manner of her naturall Conception what presumption shall it be for flesh and blood to search how the Son of God took flesh and blood of his Creature It is for none but the Almighty to know those works which he doth immediatly concerning himself those that concern us he hath revealed Secrets to God things revealed to us The answer was not so full but that a thousand difficulties might arise out of the particularities of so strange a message yet after the Angels Solution we hear of no more Objections no more Interrogations The faithfull heart when it once understands the good pleasure of God argues no more but sweetly rests it self in a quiet expectation Behold the Servant of the Lord be it to me according to thy Word There is not a more noble proof of our Faith then to captivate all the powers of our understanding and will to our Creator and without all sciscitations to goe blind-fold whither he will lead us All disputations with God after his will known arise from infidelity Great is the Mysterie of godlinesse and if we will give Nature leave to cavil we cannot be Christians O God thou art faithfull thou art powerfull It is enough that thou hast said it In the humilitie of our obedience we resign our selves over to thee Behold the Servants of the Lord be it unto us according to thy Word How fit was her womb to conceive the flesh of the Son of God by the power of the Spirit of God whose breast had so soon by the power of the same Spirit conceived an assent to the will of God and now of an Hand-maid of God she is advanced to the Mother of God No sooner hath she said be it done then it is done the Holy Ghost over-shadows her and forms her Saviour in her own body This very Angel that talks with the Blessed Virgin could scarce have been able to express the joy of her heart in the sense of this Divine burden Never any mortall creature had so much cause of exultation How could she that was full of God be other then full of joy in that God Grief grows greater by concealing Joy by expression The holy Virgin had understood by the Angel how her Cousin Elizabeth was no lesse of kin to her in condition the fruitfulnesse of whose age did somewhat suit the fruitfulnesse of her Virginitie Happinesse communicated doubles it self Here is no straining of courtesie The blessed Maid whom vigor of age had more fitted for the way hastens her journey into the Hill-country to visit that gracios Matron whom God had made a sign of her miraculous Conception Onely the meeting of Saints in Heaven can parallel the meeting of these two Cousins the two wonders of the World are met under one roof and congratulate their mutual happinesse When we have Christ spiritually conceived in us we cannot be quiet till we have imparted our joy Elizabeth that holy Matron did no sooner welcome her blessed Cousin then her Babe welcomes his Saviour Both in the retired Closets of their Mothers Womb are sensible of each others presence the one by his omniscience the other by instinct He did not more fore-run Christ then over-run Nature How should our hearts leap within us when the Son of God vouchsafes to come into the secret of our Souls not to visit us but to dwell with us to dwell in us The Birth of Christ AS all the actions of men so especially the publick actions of publick men are ordered by God to other ends then their own This Edict went not so much out from Augustus as from the Court of Heaven What did Caesar know Joseph and Mary His charge was universal to a world of subjects through all the Roman Empire God intended this Cension onely for the Blessed Virgin and her Son that Christ might be born where he should Caesar meant to fill his Coffers God meant to fulfil his Prophesies and so to fulfill them that those whom it concerned might not feel the accomplishment If God had directly commanded the Virgin to goe up to Bethleem she had seen the intention and expected the issue but that wise Moderatour of all things that works his will in us loves so to doe it as may be least with our fore-sight and acquaintance and would have us fall under his Decrees unawares that we may so much the more adore the depths of his Providence Every Creature walkes blind-fold onely he that dwels in light sees whither they goe Doubtless blessed Mary meant to have been delivered of her Divine burden at home and little thought of changing the place of Conception for another of her Birth That house was honoured by the Angel yea by the over-shadowing of the Holy Ghost none could equally satisfie her hopes or desires It was fit that he which made choice of the Womb wherein his Son should be conceived should make choice of the place where his Son should be born As the work is all his so will he alone contrive all the circumstances to his own ends Oh the infinite Wisedom of God in casting all his Designs There needs no other proof of Christ then Caesar and Bethleem and of Caesars then Augustus his Government his Edict pleads the truth of the Messias His Government now was the deep peace of all the world under that quiet Scepter which made way for him who was the Prince of Peace If Wars be a sign of the time of his second coming Peace was a signe of his first His Edict now was the Scepter departed from Juda. It was
the time for Shilo to come No power was left in the Jewes but to obey Augustus is the Emperor of the World under him Herod is the King of Judaea Cyrenius is president of Syria Jurie hath nothing of her own For Herod if he were a King yet he was no Jew and if he had been a Jew yet he was no otherwise a King then tributary and titular The Edict came out from Augustus was executed by Cyrenius Herod is no actor in this service Gain and glory are the ends of this taxation each man profest himself a subject and paid for the priviledge of his servitude Now their very heads were not their own but must be payed for to the head of a forrein Seate They which before stood upon the termes of their immunitie stoop at the last The proud suggestions of Judas the Galilean might shed their blood and swell their stomacks but could not ease their yoak neither was it the meaning of God that holinesse if they had been as they pretended should shelter them from subjection A Tribute is imposed upon Gods free people This act of bondage brings them liberty Now when they seemed most neglected of God they are blessed with a Redeemer when they are most pressed with forrein Soveraignty God sends them a King of their own to whom Caesar himself must be a subject The goodnesse of our God picks out the most needfull times of our relief and comfort Our extremities give him the most glory Whither must Joseph and Marie come to be taxed but unto David's Citie The very place proves their descent He that succeeded David in his Throne must succeed him in the place of his Birth So clearly was Bethleem designed to this honour by the Prophets that even the Priests and the Scribes could point Herod unto it and assured him the King of the Jews could be no where else born Bethleem justly the house of bread the bread that came down from Heaven is there given to the world whence should we have the bread of life but from the house of bread O holy David was this the Well of Bethleem whereof thou didst so thirst to drink of old when thou saidst O that one would give me drink of the water of the Well of Bethleem Surely that other water when it was brought thee by thy Worthies thou pouredst it on the ground and wouldst not drink of it This was that living Water for which thy soul longed whereof thou saidst elsewhere As the Hart brayeth after the water-brooks so longeth my soul after thee O God My soul thirsteth for God for the living God It was no lesse then four daies journey from Nazareth to Bethleem How just an excuse might the Blessed Virgin have pleaded for her absence What woman did ever undertake such a journey so near her delivery And doubtlesse Joseph which was now taught of God to love and honour her was loath to draw forth a dear wife in so unwieldy a case into so manifest hazard But the charge was peremptory the obedience exemplary The desire of an inoffensive observance even of Heathenish authority digests all difficulties We may not take easie occasions to withdraw our obedience to supreme commands Yea how didst thou O Saviour by whom Augustus reigned in the Womb of thy Mother yield this homage to Augustus The first lesson that ever thy example taught us was Obedience After many steps are Joseph and Mary come to Bethleem The plight wherein she was would not allow any speed and the forced leisure of the journey causeth disappointment the end was worse then the way there was no rest in the way there was no room in the Inne It could not be but that there were many of the kindred of Joseph and Mary at that time in Bethleem for both there were their Ancestors born if not themselves and thither came up all the Cousins of their blood yet there and then doth the holy Virgin want room to lay either her head or her burthen If the house of David had not lost all mercy and good nature a Daughter of David could not so near the time of her travel have been destitute of lodging in the City of David Little did the Bethleemites think what a guest they refused else they would gladly have opened their doors to him which was able to open the gates of Heaven to them Now their inhospitality is punishment enough to it self They have lost the honour and happinesse of being host to their God Even still O blessed Saviour thou standest at our doors and knockest every motion of thy good Spirit tells us thou art there Now thou comest in thine own name and there thou standest whiles thy head is full of dew and thy locks wet with the drops of the night If we suffer carnal desires and worldly thoughts to take up the lodging of our heart and revel within us whiles thou waitest upon our admission surely our judgement shall be so much the greater by how much better we know whom we have excluded What do we cry shame on the Bethleemites whilest we are wilfully more churlish more unthankfull There is no room in my heart for the wonder at this humility He for whom Heaven is too streight whom the Heaven of heavens cannot contain lies in the streight cabbin of the womb and when he would inlarge himself for the world is not allowed the room of an Inne The many mansions of Heaven were at his disposing the Earth was his and the fulnesse of it yet he suffers himself to be refused of a base cottage and complaineth not What measure should discontent us wretched men when thou O God farest thus from thy creatures How should we learn both to want and abound from thee which abounding with the glory and riches of heaven wouldst want a lodging in thy first welcome to the earth Thou camest to thine own and thy own received thee not How can it trouble us to be rejected of the world which is not ours What wonder is it if thy servants wandred abroad in sheeps skins and goats skins destitute and afflicted when their Lord is denyed harbour How should all the world blush at this indignity of Bethleem He that came to save men is sent for his first lodging to the beasts the stable is become his Inne the cratch his bed O strange cradle of that great King which heaven it self may envy O Saviour thou that wert both the Maker and Owner of Heaven of Earth couldst have made thee a Palace without hands couldst have commanded thee an empty room in those houses which thy creatures had made When thou didst but bid the Angels avoid their first place they fell down from Heaven like lightning and when in thy humbled estate thou didst but say I am he who was able to stand before thee How easie had it been for thee to have made place for thy self in the throngs of the stateliest Courts Why wouldst thou be thus homely but that
A tyrannous guiltinesse never thinks it self safe but ever seeks to assure it self in the excesse of cruelty Doubtlesse he which so privily inquired for Christ did as secretly brew this massacre The mothers were set with their children on their laps feeding them with the breast or talking to them in the familiar language of their love when suddenly the Executioner rushes in and snatches them from their armes and at once pulling forth his Commission and his knife without regard to shrieks or teares murthers the innocent Babe and leaves the passionate mother in a mean between madnesse and death What cursing of Herod what wringing of hands what condoling what exclaiming was now in the streets of Bethleem O bloody Herod that couldst sacrifice so many harmlesse lives to thine ambition What could those Infants have done If it were thy person whereof thou wert afraid what likelihood was it thou couldst live till those sucklings might endanger thee This news might affect thy Successors it could not concern thee if the heat of an impotent and furious envy had not made thee thirsty of blood It is not long that thou shalt enjoy this cruelty After a few hatefull years thy soul shall feel the weight of so many Innocents of so many just curses He for whose sake thou killedst so many shall strike thee with death and then what wouldest thou have given to have been as one of those Infants whom thou murtheredst In the mean time when thine executioners returned and told thee of their unpartial dispatch thou smiledst to think how thou hadst defeated thy rivall and beguiled the Starre and deluded the Prophecies whiles God in Heaven and his Son on earth laugh thee to scorn and make thy rage an occasion of further glory to him whom thou meantest to suppresse He that could take away the lives of other cannot protract his own Herod is now sent home The coast is clear for the return of that holy Family now God calls them from their exile Christ and his Mother had not stayed so long out of the confines of the reputed visible Church but to teach us continuance under the Crosse Sometimes God sees it good for us not to sip of the cup of affliction but to make a diet-drink of it for constant and common use If he allow us no other liquor for many yeares we must take it off chearfully and know that it is but the measure of our betters Joseph and Mary stir not without a command their departure stay removall is ordered by the voice of God If Egypt had been more tedious unto them they durst not move their foot till they were bidden It is good in our own businesse to follow reason or custome but in God's businesse if we have any other guide but himself we presume and cannot expect a blessing O the wonderful dispensation of God in concealing 〈◊〉 himself from men Christ was now some five years old he bears 〈◊〉 as an infant and knowing all things neither takes nor gives notice of ought concerning his removall and disposing but appoints that to be done by his Angel which the Angel could not have done but by him Since he would take our nature he would be a perfect child suppressing the manifestation and exercise of that Godhead whereto that infant-nature was conjoyned Even so O Saviour the humility of thine infancy was answerable to that of thy birth The more thou hidest and abasest thy self for us the more should we magnifie thee the more should we deject our selves for thee Unto thee with the Father and the holy Ghost he all honour and glory now for ever Amen Contemplations THE SECOND BOOK Containing Christ among the Doctors Christ Baptized Christ Tempted Simon Called The Marriage in Cana. The good Centurion To the Honourable General Sir EDWARD CECILL Knight all Honour and Happiness Most Honoured Sir THE store of a good Scribe is according to our Saviour both old new I would if I durst be ambitious of this only honour Having therefore drawn forth those not frivolous thoughts out of the Old Testament I fetch these following from the New God is the same in both as the body differs not with the age of the sute with the change of robes The old and new wine of holy Truth came both out of one vineyard yet here may we safely say to the Word of his Father as was said to the Bridegroom of Cana Thou hast kept the best wine till the last The authority of both is equally sacred the use admits no lesse difference then is betwixt a Saviour fore shadowed and come The intermission of those military imployments which have wone you just honour both in forrain nations and at home is in this onely gainfull that it yields you leisure to these happy thoughts which shall more fully acquaint you with him that is at once the God of Hosts and the Prince of Peace To the furtherance whereof these my poor labours shall doe no thankless offices In lieu of your noble favours to me both at home and where you have merited command nothing can be returned but humble acknowledgments and hearty prayers for the increase of your Honour and all Happiness to your self and your thrice-worthy and vertuous Lady by him that is deeply obliged and truly devoted to you both JOS. HALL Christ among the Doctors EVen the Spring shews us what we may hope for of the tree in Summer In his nonage therefore would our Saviour give us a tast of his future proof lest if his perfection should have shewed it self without warning to the world it should have been entertained with more wonder then belief Now this act of his Childhood shall prepare the faith of men by fore-exspectation Notwithstanding all this early demonstration of his Divine graces the incredulous Jews could afterwards say Whence hath this man his wisdome and great works What would they have said if he had suddenly leapt forth into the clear light of the world The Sun would dazle all eyes if he should break forth at his first rising into his full strength now he hath both the day-star to goe before him and to bid men look for that glorious body and the lively colours of the day to publish his approach the eye is comforted not hurt by his appearance The Parents of Christ went up yearly to Jerusalem at the Feast of the Passeover the Law was only for the males I do not finde the Blessed Virgin bound to this voiage the weaker sex received indulgence from God Yet she knowing the spiritual profit of that journey takes pains voluntarily to measure that long way every year Piety regards not any distinction of sexes or degrees neither yet doth God's acceptation rather doth it please the mercy of the Highest more to reward that service which though he like in all yet out of favour he will not impose upon all It could not be but that she whom the holy Ghost over-shadowed should be zealous of God's
know that hereby thou intendedst to teach thy Parents that thou couldest live without them and that not of any indigency but out of a gracious dispensation thou wouldest ordinarily depend upon their care In the mean time thy Divine wisdome could not but foreknow all these corroding thoughts wherewith the heart of thy dear Mother must needs bleed through this sudden dereliction yet wouldst thou leave her for the time to her sorrow Even so O Saviour thou thoughtest fit to visit her that bore thee with this early affliction Never any loved thee whom thou doest not sometimes exercise with the grief of missing thee that both we may be more careful to hold thee and more joyful in recovering thee Thou hast said and canst not lie I am with you to the end of the world but even whiles thou art really present thou thinkest good to be absent unto our apprehensions Yet if thou leave us thou wilt not forsake us if thou leave us for our humiliation thou wilt not forsake us to our final discomfort Thou mayest for three daies hide thy self but then we shall finde thee in the Temple None ever sought thee with a sincere desire of whom thou wert not found Thou wilt not be either so little absent as not to whet our appetites nor so long as to fainten the heart After three daies we shall finde thee and where should we rather hope to finde thee then in the Temple There is the habitation for the God of Israel there is thy resting place for ever Oh all ye that are grieved with the want of your Saviour see where you must seek him In vain shall ye hope to finde him in the streets in the Taverns in the Theaters seek him in his holy Temple seek him with piety seek him with faith there shall ye meet him there shall ye recover him Whiles children of that age were playing in the streets Christ was found sitting in the Temple not to gaze on the outward glory of that house or on the golden Candlesticks or Tables but to hear and appose the Doctors He who as God gave them all the wisdome they had as the Son of man hearkens to the wisdome he had given them He who sate in their hearts as the Author of all learning and knowledge sits in the midst of their school as an humble Disciple that by learning of them he might teach all the younger sort humility and due attendance upon their Instructors He could at the first have taught the great Rabbins of Israel the deep mysteries of God but because he was not yet called by his Father to the publick function of a Teacher he contents himself to hear with diligence and to ask with modesty and to teach only by insinuation Let those consider this which will needs run as soon as they can go and when they finde ability think they need not stay for a further vocation of God or men Open your eyes ye rathe ripe invaders of God's Chair and see your Saviour in his younger years not sitting in the eminent pulpits of the Doctors but in the lowly floors of the Auditors See him that could have taught the Angels listning in his minority to the voice of men Who can think much to learn of the Ancients when he looks upon the Son of God sitting at the feet of the Doctors of Israel First he hears then he asks How much more doth it concern us to be hearers ere we offer to be teachers of others He gathers that hears he spends that teacheth if we spend before we gather we shall soon prove bankrupts When he hath heard he asks and after that he answers Doubtless those very questions were instructions and meant to teach more then to learn Never had these great Rabbins heard the voice of such a Tutor in whom they might see the wisdome of God so concealing it self that yet it would be known to be there No marvel then if they all wondred at his understanding and answers Their eyes saw nothing but humane weakness their ears heard Divine sublimity of matter betwixt what they saw and what they heard they could not but be distracted with a doubting admiration And why did ye not O ye Jewish teachers remember That to us a Childe is born and unto us a Son is given and the government is upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsellor the mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of peace Why did ye not now bethink your selves what the Star the Sages the Angels the Shepherds Zachary Simeon Anna had premonished you Fruitless is the wonder that endeth not in faith No light is sufficient where the eyes are held through unbelief or prejudice The Doctors were not more amazed to hear so profound a childhood then the Parents of Christ were to see him among the Doctors the joy of finding him did strive with the astonishment of finding him thus And now not Joseph he knew how little right he had to that Divine Son but Mary breaks forth into a loving expostulation Son why hast thou dealt so with us That she might not seem to take upon her as an imperious Mother it is like she reserved this question till she had him alone wherein she meant rather to expresse grief then correption Onely herein the Blessed Virgin offended that her inconsideration did not suppose as it was that some higher respects then could be due to flesh and blood called away the Son of God from her that was the daughter of man She that was but the mother of humanity should not have thought that the business of God must for her sake be neglected We are all partial to our selves naturally and prone to the regard of our own rights Questionlesse this gracious Saint would not for all the world have willingly preferr'd her own attendance to that of her God through heedlesness she doth so her Son and Saviour is her monitor out of his Divine love reforming her natural How is it that ye sought me Know ye not that I must goe about my Fathers businesse Immediately before the Blessed Virgin had said Thy father and I sought thee with heavy hearts Wherein both according to the supposition of the world she called Joseph the Father of Christ and according to the fashion of a dutiful Wife she names her Joseph before her self She well knew that Joseph had nothing but a name in this business she knew how God had dignified her beyond him yet she saies Thy father and I sought thee The Son of God stands not upon contradiction to his Mother but leading her thoughts from his supposed father to his true from earth to Heaven he answers Knew ye not that I must go about my Fathers business It was honour enough to her that he had vouchsafed to take flesh of her it was his eternal honour that he was God of God the everlasting Son of the heavenly Father Good reason therefore was it that the respects to flesh
the need of Baptism John baptized without Christ within The more holy a man is the more sensible he is 〈◊〉 his unholiness No carnal man could have said I have need to be baptized of thee neither can he finde what he is the better for a little Font-water The sense of our wretchedness and the valuation of our spiritual helps is the best tryal of our regeneration Our Saviour doth not deny that either John hath need to be baptized of him or that it is strange that he should come to be baptized of John but he will needs thus far both honour John and disparage himself to be baptized of his Messenger He that would take flesh of the Virgin education from his Parents sustenance from his creatures will take Baptism from John It is the praise of his Mercy that he will stoop so low as to be beholden to his creatures which from him receive their Being and power both to take and give Yet no so much respect to John as obedience to his Father drew him to this point of humiliation Thus it behoves us to fulfill all righteousness The Counsels and Appointments of God are Righteousness it self There needs no other motive either to the servant or the Son then the knowledge of those righteous purposes This was enough to lead a faithful man through all difficulties and inconveniencies neither will it admit of any reply or any demur John yieldeth to this honour which his Saviour puts upon him in giving Baptism to the Authour of it He baptized others to the remission of their sins now he baptizes him by whom they are remitted both to the Baptizer and to others No sooner is Christ baptized then he comes forth of the water The element is of force but during the use it turns common when that is past Neither is the water sooner powâ—ed on his head then the Heavens are opened and the Holy Ghost descendeth upon that head which was baptized The Heavens are never shut whiles either of the Sacraments is duly administred and received neither do the Heavens ever thus open without the descent of the Holy Ghost But now that the God of Heaven is baptized they open unto him which are opened to all the faithful by him and that Holy Ghost which proceeded from him together with the Father joyns with the Father in a sensible testimony of him that now the world might see what interest he had in the Heavens in the Father in the Holy Spirit and might expect nothing but Divine from the entrance of such a Mediatour Christ tempted NO sooner is Christ come out of the water of Baptism then he enters into the fire of Tentation No sooner is the Holy Spirit descended upon his head in the form of a Dove then he is led by the Spirit to be tempted No sooner doth God say This is my Son then Satan saies If thou be the Son of God It is not in the power either of the gift or seals of Grace to deliver us from the assaults of Satan they may have the force to repell evil suggestions they have none to prevent them yea the more we are ingaged unto God by our publick vows and his pledges of favour so much more busie and violent is the rage of that Evil one to encounter us We are no sooner stept forth into the field of God then he labours to wrest our weapons out of our hands or to turn them against us The voice from Heaven acknowledged Christ to be the Son of God This Divine Testimony did not allay the malice of Satan but exasperate it Now that venomous Serpent swels with inward poison and hasts to assail him whom God hath honoured from Heaven O God how should I look to escape the suggestions of that wicked one when the Son of thy love cannot be free when even grace it self draws on enmity That enmity that spared not to strike at the Head will he forbear the weakest and remotest limme Arm thou me therefore with an expectation of that evil I cannot avoid Make thou me as strong as he is malicious Say to my Soul also Thou art my Son and let Satan do his worst All the time of our Saviours obscurity I do not finde him set upon now that he looks forth to the publick execution of his Divine Office Satan bends his forces against him Our privacy perhaps may sit down in peace but never man did endevour a common good without opposition It is a sign that both the work is holy and the Agent faithful when we meet with strong affronts We have reason to be comforted with nothing so much as with resistance If we were not in a way to do good we should finde no rubs Satan hath no cause to molest his own and that whiles they goe about his own service He desires nothing more then to make us smooth paths to sinne but when we would turn our feet to Holinesse he blocks up the way with Tentations Who can wonder enough at the sawcinesse of that bold spirit that dares to set upon the Son of the ever-living God Who can wonder enough at thy meeknesse and patience O Saviour that wouldst be tempted He wanted not Malice and Presumption to assault thee thou wantedst not Humility to endure those assaults I should stand amazed at this voluntary dispensation of thine but that I see the susception of our Humane nature laies thee open to this condition It is necessarily incident to manhood to be liable to Tentations Thou wouldst not have put on flesh if thou hadst meant utterly to put off this consequence of our infirmity If the state of Innocence could have been any defence against evil motions the first Adam had not been tempted much lesse the second It is not the presenting of Tentations that can hurt us but their entertainment Ill counsel is the fault of the Giver not of the Refuser We cannot forbid lewd eyes to look in at our windows we may shut our doors against their entrance It is no lesse our praise to have resisted then Satans blame to suggest evil Yea O blessed Saviour how glorious was it for thee how happy for us that thou wert tempted Had not Satan tempted thee how shouldest thou have overcome Without blows there can be no victory no triumph How had thy power been manifested if no adversary had tried thee The first Adam was tempted and vanquished the second Adam to repay and repair that foile doth vanquish in being tempted Now have we not a Saviour and High Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but such an once as was in all things tempted in like sort yet without sin How boldly therefore may we goe unto the Throne of grace that we may receive mercy and finde grace of help in time of need Yea this Duell was for us Now we see by this conflict of our Almighty Champion what manner of Adversary we have how he fights how he is resisted how overcome
At leastwise he will counterfeit an imitation of the Son of God Neither is it in this alone what one act ever passed the hand of God which Satan did not apishly attempt to second If we follow Christ in the outward action with contrary intentions we follow Satan in following Christ Or perhaps Satan meant to make Christ hereby weary of this weapon As we see fashions when they are taken up of the unworthy are cast off by the Great It was doubtlesse one cause why Christ afterward forbad the Devil even to confesse the Truth because his mouth was a stander But chiefly doth he this for a better colour of his Tentation He gilds over this false metall with Scripture that it may passe current Even now is Satan transformed into an Angel of Light and will seem godly for a mischief If Hypocrites make a fair shew to deceive with a glorious lustre of Holinesse we see whence they borrowed it How many thousand souls are betraied by the abuse of that Word whose use is soveraign and saving No Devil is so dangerous as the religious Devil If good meat turn to the nourishment not of Nature but of the Disease we may not forbear to feed but endeavour to purge the body of those evil humours which cause the stomach to work against it self O God thou that hast given us light give us clear and sound eyes that we may take comfort of that Light thou hast given us Thy Word is holy make our hearts so and then shall they finde that Word not more true then cordial Let not this Divine Table of thine be made a snare to our souls What can be a better act then to speak Scripture It were a wonder if Satan should do a good thing well He cites Scripture then but with mutilation and distortion it comes not out of his mouth but maimed and perverted One piece is left all misapplied Those that wrest or mangle Scripture for their own turn it is easie to see from what School they come Let us take the Word from the Author not from the Usurper David would not doubt to eat that sheep which he pulled out of the mouth of the Bear or Lion He shall give his Angels charge over thee Oh comfortable assurance of our protection God's children never goe unattended Like unto great Princes we walk ever in the midst of our guard though invisible yet true careful powerful What creatures are so glorious as the Angels of Heaven yet their Maker hath set them to serve us Our Adoption makes us at once great and safe We may be contemptible and ignominious in the eyes of the world but the Angels of God observe us the while and scorn not to wait upon us in our homeliest occasions The Sun or the Light may we keep out of our houses the Aire we cannot much lesse these Spirits that are more simple and immaterial No walls no bolts can sever them from our sides they accompany us in dungeons they goe with us into our exile How can we either fear danger or complain of solitarinesse whiles we have so unseparable so glorious Companions Is our Saviour distasted with Scripture because Satan mis-laies it in his dish Doth he not rather snatch this sword out of that impure hand beat Satan with the weapon which he abuseth It is written Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God The Scripture is one as that God whose it is Where it carries an appearance of difficulty or inconvenience it needs no light to clear it but that which it hath in it self All doubts that may arise from it are fully answered by collation It is true that God hath taken this care and given this charge of his own he will have them kept not in their sins they may trust him they may not tempt him he meant to incourage their Faith not their Presumption To cast our selves upon any immediate Providence when means fail not is to disobey in stead of believing God We may challenge God on his Word we may not strain him beyond it we may make account of what he promised we may not subject his Promises to unjust examinations and where no need is make triall of his Power Justice Mercy by devices of our own All the Devils in Hell could not elude the force of this Divine answer and now Satan sees how vainly he tempteth Christ to tempt God Yet again for all this do I see him setting upon the Son of God Satan is not foiled when he is resisted Neither diffidence nor presumption can fasten upon Christ he shall be tried with Honour As some expert Fencer that challenges at all weapons so doth his great Enemy In vain shall we plead our skill in some if we fail in any It must be our wisedome to be prepared for all kinde of assaults as those that hold Towns and Forts do not only defend themselves from incursions but from the Cannon and the Pionier Still doth that subtil Serpent traverse his ground for an advantage The Temple is not high enough for his next Tentation he therefore carries up Christ to the top of an exceeding high Mountain All enemies in pitcht fields strive for the benefit of the Hill or River or Wind or Sun That which his servant Balac did by his instigation himself doth now immediately change places in hope of prevailing If the obscure country will not move us he tries what the Court can do if not our home the Tavern if not the field our closer As no place is left free by his malice so no place must be made prejudicial by our carelesnesse and as we should alwaies watch over our selves so then most when the opportunity carries cause of suspicion Wherefore is Christ carried up so high but for prospect If the Kingdomes of the earth and their glory were only to be presented to his imagination the Valley would have served if to the outward sense no Hill could suffice Circular bodies though small cannot be seen at once This shew was made to both divers Kingdomes lying round about Judea were represented to the eye the glory of them to the imagination Satan meant the eye could tempt the fancy no less then the fancie could tempt the will How many thousand souls have died of the wound of the eye If we do not let in sin at the window of the eye or the door of the eare it cannot enter into our hearts If there be any pomp majestie pleasure bravery in the world where should it be but in the Courts of Princes whom God hath made his Images his Deputies on earth There is soft rayment sumptuous feasts rich jewels honourable attendance glorious triumphs royal state these Satan laies out to the fairest shew But oh the craft of that old Serpent Many a care attends Greatnesse No Crown is without thorns High seats are never but uneasie All those infinite discontentments which are the shadow of earthly Soveraigntie he hides out of the way nothing may
a Woman nor so look upon him as a Son that she should not regard him as a God He was so obedient to her as a Mother that withall she must obey him as her God That part which he took from her shall observe her she must observe that nature which came from above and made her both a Woman and a Mother Matter of miracle concerned the Godhead only Supernatural things were above the sphere of fleshly relation If now the Blessed Virgin will be prescribing either time or form unto Divine acts O woman what have I to doe with thee my hour is not come In all bodily actions his style was O Mother in spirituall and heavenly O Woman Neither is it for us in the holy affairs of God to know any faces yea if we have known Christ heretofore according to the flesh henceforth know we him so no more O Blessed Virgin if in that heavenly glory wherein thou art thou canst take notice of these earthly things with what indignation dost thou look upon the presumptuous superstition of vain men whose suits make thee more then a solicitor of Divine favours Thy Humanity is not lost in thy Motherhood nor in thy Glory The respects of Nature reach not so high as Heaven It is far from thee to abide that honour which is stolne from thy Redeemer There is a Marriage whereto we are invited yea wherein we are already interessed not as the Guests onely but as the Bride in which there shall be no want of the wine of gladnesse It is marvel if in these earthly banquets there be not some lack In thy presence O Saviour there is fulnesse of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore Blessed are they that are called to the marriage-supper of the Lamb. Even in that rough answer doth the Blessed Virgin descry cause of hope If his hour were not yet come it was therefore coming when the exspectation of the guests and the necessity of the occasion had made fit room for the Miracle it shall come forth and challenge their wonder Faithfully therefore and observantly doth she turn her speech from her Son to the Waiters Whatsoever he saith unto you doe it How well doth it beseem the Mother of Christ to agree with his Father in Heaven whose voice from Heaven said This is my well-beloved Son hear him She that said of her self Be it unto me according to thy word saies unto others Whatsoever he saith to you doe it This is the way to have Miracles wrought in us obedience to his Word The power of Christ did not stand upon their officiousnesse he could have wrought wonders in spite of them but their perverse refusall of his commands might have made them uncapable of the favour of a miraculous action He that can when he will convince the obstinate will not grace the disobedient He that could work without us or against us will not work for us but by us This very poor house was furnished with many and large vessels for outward purification as if sin had dwelt upon the skin that superstitious people sought Holiness in frequent washings Even this rinsing fouled them with the uncleannesse of a traditional will-worship It is the Soul which needs scowring and nothing can wash that but the blood which they desperately wished upon themselves and their children for guilt not for expiation Purge thou us O Lord with hyssop and we shall be clean wash us and we shall be whiter then snow The Waiters could not but think strange of so unseasonable a command Fill the water pots It is wine that we want what do we goe to fetch water Doth this Holy man mean thus to quench our Feast and cool our stomacks If there be no remedy we could have sought this supply unbidden Yet so far hath the charge of Christs Mother prevailed that in stead of carrying flagons of wine to the table they goe to fetch pails-full of water from the Cisterns It is no pleading of unlikelihoods against the command of an Almighty power He that could have created wine immediately in those vessels will rather turn water into wine In all the course of his Miracles I do never finde him making ought of nothing all his great works are grounded upon former existences He multiplied the bread he changed the water he restored the withered limmes he raised the dead and still wrought upon that which was and did not make that which was not What doth he in the ordinary way of nature but turn the watery juice that arises up from the root into wine He will only do this now suddenly and at once which he doth usually by sensible degrees It is ever duly observed by the Son of God not to doe more miracle then he needs How liberal are the provisions of Christ If he had turned but one of those vessels it had been a just proof of his power and perhaps that quantity had served the present necessity now he furnisheth them with so much wine as would have served an hundred and fifty guests for an intire Feast Even the measure magnifies at once both his power and mercy The munificent hand of God regards not our need only but our honest affluence It is our sin and our shame if we turn his favour into wantonness There must be first a filling ere there be a drawing out Thus in our vessels the first care must be of our receit the next of our expence God would have us Cisterns not Channels Our Saviour would not be his own taster but he sends the first draught to the Governour of the Feast He knew his own power they did not Neither would he bear witness of himself but fetch it out of others mouths They that knew not the original of that wine yet praised the taste Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine and when men have well drunk then that which is worse but thou hast kept the good wine untill now The same bounty that expressed it self in the quantity of the Wine shews it self no lesse in the excellence Nothing can fall from that Divine hand not exquisite That liberality hated to provide crab-wine for his guests It was fit that the miraculous effects of Christ which came from his immediate hand should be more perfect then the natural O Blessed Saviour how delicate is that new Wine which we shall one day drink with thee in thy Fathers Kingdome Thou shalt turn this water of our earthly affliction into that Wine of gladnesse wherewith our Souls shall be satiate for ever Make haste O my Beloved and be thou like to a Roe or to a young Hart upon the Mountain of Spices The good Centurion Even the bloody trade of War yielded worthy Clients to Christ This Roman Captain had learned to believe in that Jesus whom many Jews despised No Nation no trade can shut out a good heart from God If he were a forreiner for birth yet he was a domestick in
I kept silence my bones consumed For day and night thy hand O Lord was heavy upon me my moisture is turned into the drought of summer O let me confess against my self my wickedness unto thee that thou maist forgive the punishment of my sinne We have a tongue for God when we praise him for our selves when we pray and confess for our brethren when we speak the truth for their information which if we hold back in unrighteousness we yield unto that dumb Devil Where do we not see that accursed spirit He is on the Bench when the mute or partial Judge speaks not for truth and innocence He is in the Pulpit when the Prophets of God smother or halve or adulterate the message of their Master He is at the Barre when irreligious Jurours dare lend an oath to fear to hope to gain He is in the Market when godless chapmen for their peny sell the truth and their soul He is in the common conversation of men when the tongue belies the heart flatters the guilty balketh reproofs even in the foulest crimes O thou who onely art stronger then that strong one cast him out of the hearts and mouths of men It is time for thee Lord to work for they have destroyed thy Law That it might well appear this impediment was not natural so soon as the man is freed from the spirit his tongue is free to his speech The effects of spirits as they are wrought so they cease at once If the Son of God do but remove our spiritual possession we shall presently break forth into the praise of God into the confession of our vileness into the profession of truth But what strange variety do I see in the spectators of his Miracle some wondring others censuring a third sort tempting a fourth applauding There was never man or action but was subject to variety of constructions What man could be so holy as he that was God What act could be more worthy then the dispossessing of an evil spirit Yet this man this act passeth these differences of interpretation What can we doe to undergoe but one opinion If we give almes and fast some will magnifie our charity and devotion others will tax our hypocrisie If we give not some will condemn our hard-heartedness others will allow our care of justice If we preach plainly to some it will favour of a careless slubbering to others oft a mortified sincerity elaborately some will tax our affectation others will applaud our diligence in dressing the delicate viands of God What marvel is it if it be thus with our imperfection when it fared not otherwise with him that was Purity and Righteousness it self The austere forerunner of Christ came neither eating nor drinking they say He hath a Devil The Son of man came eating and drinking they say This man is a glutton a friend of Publicans and sinners and here one of his holy acts carries away at once wonder censure doubt celebration There is no way safe for a man but to square his actions by the right rule of justice of charity and then let the world have leave to spend their glosses at pleasure It was an heroical resolution of the chosen vessel I pass very little to be judged of you or of mans day I marvel not if the people marvelled for here were four wonders in one the blind saw the deaf heard the dumb spake the Demoniack is delivered Wonder was due to so rare and powerful a work and if not this nothing We can cast away admiration upon the poor devices or activities of men how much more upon the extraordinary works of Omnipotency Whoso knows the frame of Heaven and earth shall not much be affected with the imperfect effects of frail Humanity but shall with no less Ravishment of soul acknowledge the miraculous works of the same Almighty hand Neither is the spiritual ejection worthy of any meaner entertainment Rarity and difficulty are wont to cause wonder There are many things which have wonder in their worth and lose it in their frequence there are some which have it in their strangeness and lose it in their facilitie Both meet in this To see men haunted yea possessed with a dumb Devil is so frequent that it is a just wonder to finde a man free but to finde the dumb spirit cast out of a man and to hear him praising God confessing his sins teaching others the sweet experiments of mercy deserves just admiration If the Cynick sought in the market for a man amongst men well may we seek amongst men for a Convert Neither is the difficulty less then the rareness The strong man hath the possession all passages are block'd up all helps barred by the treachery of our nature If any soul be rescued from these spiritual wickednesses it is the praise of him that doth wonders alone But whom do I see wondring The multitude The unlearned beholders follow that act with wonder which the learned Scribes entertain with obloquy God hath revealed those things to babes which he hath hid from the wise and prudent With what scorn did those great Rabbins speak of these sons of the earth This people that knows not the Law is accursed Yet the Mercy of God makes an advantage of their simplicity in that they are therefore less subject to cavillation and incredulitie as contrarily his Justice causes the proud knowledge of others to lie as a block in their way to the ready assent unto the Divine power of the Messias Let the pride of glorious adversaries disdain the povertie of the clients of the Gospel it shall not repent us to go to Heaven with the vulgar whiles their great ones go in state to perdition The multitude wondered Who censured but Scribes great Doctors of the Law of the divinitie of the Jews What Scribes but those of Jerusalem the most eminent Academie of Judaea These were the men who out of their deep reputed judgement cast these foul aspersions upon Christ Great wits ofttimes mislead both the owners and followers How many shall once wish they had been born dullards yea idiots when they shall finde their wit to have barred them out of Heaven Where is the Scribe where is the disputer of this world Hath not God made the wisdome of the world foolishness Say the world what it will a dram of holiness is worth a pound of wit Let others censure with the Scribes let me wonder with the multitude What could malice say worse He casteth out Devils through Beelzebub the Prince of Devils The Jewes well knew that the Gods of the heathen were no other then Devils amongst whom for that the Lord of Flies so called whether for the concourse of flies to the abundance of his sacrifices or for his aid implored against the infestation of those swarms was held the chief therefore they stile him The Prince of Devils There is a subordination of spirits some higher in degree some inferiour to others Our Saviour himself tells
us of the Devil and his Angels Messengers are inferiour to those that send them The seven Devils that entered into the swept and garnished house were worse then the former Neither can Principalities and Powers and Governours and Princes of the darkness of this World design others then several ranks of evil Angels There can be no being without some kind of order there can be no order in parity If we look up into Heaven there is The King of Gods The Lord of Lords higher then the highest If to the earth there are Monarchs Kings Princes Peeres people If we look down to Hell there is the Prince of Devils They labour for Confusion that call for Parity What should the Church doe with such a for me as is not exempliied in Heaven in Earth in Hell One Devil according to their supposition may be used to cast out another How far the command of one spirit over another may extend it is a secret of infernal state too deep for the inquiry of men The thing it self is apparent upon compact and precontracted composition one gives way to other for the common advantage As we see in the Common-wealth of Cheaters and Cut-purses one doth the fact another is feed to bring it out and to procure restitution both are of the trade both conspire to the fraud the actor falls not out with the revealer but divides with him that cunning spoil One malicious miscreant sets the Devil on work to the inflicting of disease or death another upon agreement for a further spiritual gain takes him off There is a Devil in both And if there seem more bodily favour there is no less spiritual danger in the latter In the one Satan wins the agent the suitor in the other It will be no cause of discord in Hell that one Devil gives ease to the body which another tormented that both may triumph in the gain of a Soul Oh God that any creature which bears thine Image should not abhorre to be beholding to the powers of Hell for aid for advice Is is not because there is not a God in Israel that men goe to inquire of the God of Ekron Can men be so sottish to think that the vowed enemie of their Souls can offer them a bait without an hook What evil is there in the City which the Lord hath not done what is there which he cannot as easily redress He wounds he heals again And if he will not It is the Lord let him doe what seems good in his eyes If he do not deliver us he will crown our faithfulness in a patient perseverance The wounds of God are better then the salves of Satan Was it possible that the wit of Envy could devise so high a slander Beelzebub was a God of the heathen therefore herein they accuse him for an Idolater Beelzebub was a Devil to the Jewes therefore they accuse him for a conjurer Beelzebub was the chief of Devils therefore they accuse him for on Arch-exorcist for the worst kinde of Magician Some professors of this black Art though their work be devilish yet they pretend to doe it in the name of Jesus and will presumptuously seem to doe that by command which is secretly transacted by agreement The Scribes accuse Christ of a direct compact with the Devil and suppose both a league and familiarity which by the Law of Moses in the very hand of a Saul was no other then deadly Yea so deep doth this wound reach that our Saviour searching it to the bottome findes no less in it then the sin against the Holy Ghost inferring hereupon that dreadful sentence of the irremissibleness of that sin unto death And if this horrible crimination were cast upon thee O Saviour in whom the Prince of this world found nothing what wonder is it if we thy sinful servants be branded on all sides with evil tongues Yea which is yet more how plain is it that these men forced their tongue to speak this slander against their own heart Else this Blasphemy had been onely against the Son of man not against the Holy Ghost but now that the searcher of hearts findes it to be no less then against the Blessed Spirit of God the spight must needs be obstinate their malice doth wilfully cross their conscience Envie never regards how true but how mischievous So it may gall or kill it cares little whether with truth or falshood For us Blessed are we when men revile us and say all manner of evil of us for the name of Chirst For them What reward shall be given to thee thou false tongue Even sharp arrows with hot burning coales yea those very coales of hell from which thou wert inkindled There was yet a third sort that went a mid-way betwixt wonder and censure These were not so malicious as to impute the miracle to a Satanical operation they confess it good but not enough and therefore urge Christ to a further proof Though thou hast cast out this dumb Devil yet this is no sufficient argument of thy Divine power We have yet seen nothing from thee like those antient Miracles of the times of our fore-fathers Joshuah caused the Sun to stand still Elias brought fire down from heaven Samuel astonish'd the people with thunder and rain in the midst of harvest If thou wouldst command our belief doe somewhat like to these The casting out of a Devil shews thee to have some power over Hell shew us now that thou hast no less power over Heaven There is a kinde of unreasonableness of desire and insatiableness in infidelity it never knows when it hath evidence enough This which the Jews overlooked was a more irrefragable demonstration of Divinity then that which they desired A Devil was more then a Meteor or a parcel of an element to cast out a Devil by command more then to command fire from Heaven Infidelity ever loves to be her own carver No son can be more like a father then these Jews to their progenitours in the desart that there might be no fear of degenerating into good they also of old tempted God in the Wilderness First they are weary of the Egyptian bondage and are ready to fall out with God and Moses for their stay in those fornaces By ten miraculous Plagues they are freed and going out of those confines the Egyptians follow them the Sea is before them now they are more afflicted with their liberty then their servitude The Sea yields way the Egyptians are drowned and now that they are safe on the other shore they tempt the Providence of God for water The Rock yields it them then no less for bread and meat God sends them Manna and Quailes they cry out of the food of Angels Their present enemies in the way are vanquished they whine at the men of measures in the heart of Canaan Nothing from God but Mercy nothing from them but Temptations Their true brood both in nature and in sin had abundant proofs of the
waters and they could not but obey him now he speaks in the same language to the evil Spirit he intreats not he perswades not he commands Command argues Superiority He only is infinitely stronger then the strong one in possession Else where powers are matcht though with some inequality they tugge for the victory and without resistance yield nothing There are no fewer sorts of 〈◊〉 with Satan then with men Some have dealt with him by suit as the old Satanian hereticks and the present Indian Savages sacrificing to him that he hurt not Others by covenant conditioning their service upon his assistance as Witches and Magicians Others by insinuation of implicite compact as Charmers and Figure-casters Others by adjuration as the sons of Scaeva and modern Exorcists unwarrantably charging him by an higher name then their own None ever offered to deal with Satan by a direct and primary command but the God of Spirits The great Archangel when the strife was about the body of Moses commanded not but imprecated rather The Lord rebuke thee Satan It is only the God that made this Spirit an Angel of light that can command him now that he hath made himself the Prince of darkness If any created power dare to usurp a word of command he laughs at their presumption and knows them his vassals whom he dissembles to fear as his Lords It is thou only O Saviour at whose beck those stubborn Principalities of Hell yield and tremble No wicked man can be so much a slave to Satan as Satan is to thee The interposition of thy grace may defeat that dominion of Satan thy rule is absolute and capable of no lett What need we to fear whiles we are under so omnipotent a Commander The waves of the deep rage horribly yet the Lord is stronger then they Let those Principalities and Powers doe their worst Those mighty adversaries are under the command of him who loved us so well as to bleed for us What can we now doubt of His power or his will How can we professe him a God and doubt of his power How can we professe him a Saviour and doubt of his will He both can and will command those Infernal powers We are no lesse safe then they are malicious The Devil saw Jesus by the eyes of the Demoniack for the same saw that spake but it was the ill spirit that said I besecch thee torment me not It was sore against his will that he saw so dreadfull an object The over-ruling power of Christ dragged the soul spirit into his presence Guiltiness would fain keep out of sight The limmes of so wofull an head shall once call on the Hills and Rocks to hide them from the face of the Lamb such Lion-like terrour is in that milde face when it looks upon wickedness Neither shall it be one day the least part of the torment of the damned to see the most lovely spectacle that Heaven can afford He from whom they fled in his offers of Grace shall be so much more terrible as he was and is more gracious I marvel not therefore that the Devil when he saw Jesus cried out I could marvell that he fell down that he worshipped him That which the proud spirit would have had Christ to have done to him in his great Duell the same he now doth unto Christ fearfully servilely forcedly Who shall henceforth brag of the external homage he performs to the Son of God when he sees Satan himself fall down and worship What comfort can there be in that which is common to us with Devils who as they believe and tremble so they tremble and worship The outward bowing is the body of the action the disposition of the Soul is the soul of it therein lies the difference from the counterfeit stoopings of wicked men and spirits The religious heart serves the Lord in fear and rejoices in him with trembling What it doth is in way of service In service to his Lord whose Soveraignty is his comfort and protection in the fear of a son not of a slave in fear tempered with joy in a joy but allayed with trembling whereas the prostration of wicked men and Devils is only an act of form or of force as to their Judge as to their tormentor not as to their Lord in mere servility not in reverence in an uncomfortable dulness without all delight in a perfect horror without capacity of joy These worship without thanks because they fall down without the true affections of worship Whoso marvels to see the Devil upon his knees would much more marvel to hear what came from his mouth Jesu the Son of the most high God A confession which if we should hear without the name of the Author we should ask from what Saint it came Behold the same name given to Christ by the Devil which was formerly given him by the Angel Thou shalt call his name Jesus That awfull name whereat every knee shall bow in Heaven in earth and under the earth is called upon by this prostrate Devil And lest that should not import enough since others have been honoured by this name in Type he addes for full distinction The Son of the most high God The good Syrophenician and blind Bartimaeus could say The Son of David It was well to acknowledge the true descent of his pedigree according to the flesh but this infernall Spirit looks aloft and fetcheth his line out of the highest Heavens The Son of the most high God The famous confession of the prime Apostle which honoured him with a new name to immortality was no other then Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God and what other do I hear from the lips of a fiend None more Divine words could fall from the highest Saint Nothing hinders but that the veriest miscreant on earth yea the foulest Devil in Hell may speak holily It is no passing of judgment upon loose sentences So Peter should have been cast for a Satan in denying forswearing cursing and the Devil should have been set up for a Saint in confessing Jesus the Son of the most high God Fond hypocrite that pleasest thy self in talking well heare this Devil and when thou canst speak better then he look to fare better but in the mean time know that a smooth tongue and a foul heart carries away double judgments Let curious heads dispute whether the Devil knew Christ to be God In this I dare believe himself though in nothing else he knew what he believed what he believed that he confessed Jesus the Son of the most high God To the confusion of those semi-Christians that have either held doubtfully or ignorantly mis-known or blasphemously denied what the very Devils have professed How little can a bare speculation avail us in these cases of Divinity So far this Devil hath attained to no ease no comfort Knowledge alone doth but puffe up it is our love that edifies If there be not a sense of our sure interest in
way of the Sea beyond Jordan Galilee of the Gentiles the people which sate in darknesse saw great light The Sun is not scornfull but looks with the same face upon every plot of earth not onely the stately palaces and pleasant gardens are visited by his beams but mean cottages but neglected boggs and mores God's word is like himself no accepter of persons the wilde Kern the rude Scythian the savage Indian are alike to it The Mercy of God will be sure to finde out those that belong to his Election in the most secret corners of the world like as his Judgments will fetch his enemies from under the hills and rocks The good Shepherd walks the wildernesse to seek one sheep strayed from many If there be but one Syrophoenician soul to be gained to the Church Christ goes to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon to fetch her Why are we weary to doe good when our Saviour underwent this perpetuall toyle in healing bodies and winning Souls There is no life happy but that which is spent in a continuall drudging for edification It is long since we heard of the name or nation of Canaanites All the Country was once so styled that people was now forgotten yet because this woman was of the blood of those Phoenicians which were anciently ejected out of Canaan that title is revived to her God keeps account of pedigrees after our oblivion that he may magnifie his mercies by continuing them to thousands of the generations of the just and by renewing favours upon the unjust No Nation carried such brands and scars of a Curse as Canaan To the shame of those carelesse Jews even a faithfull Canaanite is a suppliant to Christ whiles they neglect so great Salvation She doth not speak but cry Need and desire have raised her voice to an importunate clamour The God of mercy is light of hearing yet he loves a loud and vehement solicitation not to make himself inclinable to graunt but to make us capable to receive blessings They are words and not prayers which fall from carelesse lips If we felt our want or wanted not desire we could speak to God in no tune but cries If we would prevail with God we must wrestle and if we would wrestle happily with God we must wrestle first with our own dulnesse Nothing but cries can pierce Heaven Neither doth her vehemence so much argue her Faith as doth her compellation O Lord thou Son of David What Proselyte what Disciple could have said more O blessed Syrophoenician who taught thee this abstract of Divinity What can we Christians confesse more then the Deity and the Humanity the Messiaship of our glorious Saviour His Deity as Lord his Humanity as a Son his Messiaship as the Son of David Of all the famous progenitors of Christ two are singled out by an eminence David and Abraham a King a Patriarch and though the Patriarch were first in time yet the King is first in place not so much for the dignity of the Person as the excellence of the Promise which as it was both later and fresher in memory so more honourable To Abraham was promised multitude and blessing of seed to Davidâ—â—rpetuity â—â—rpetuity of dominion So as when God promiseth not to destroy his people it is for Abraham's sake when not to extinguish the Kingdome it is for David's sake Had she said The Son of Abraham she had not come home to this acknowledgment Abraham is the Father of the faithfull David of the Kings of Juda and Israel There are many faithfull there is but one King so as in this title she doth proclaim him the perpetual King of his Church the rod or flower which should come from the root of Jesse the true and onely Saviour of the world Whoso would come unto Christ to purpose must come in the right style apprehending a true God a true Man a true God and Man any of these severed from other makes Christ an Idol and our prayers sin Being thus acknowledged what suit is so fit for him as mercy Have mercy on me It was her daughter that was tormented yet she saies Have mercy on me Perhaps her possessed childe was senseless of her misery the parent feels both her sorrow and her own As she was a good woman so a good mother Grace and good nature have taught her to appropriate the afflictions of this divided part of her own flesh It is not in the power of another skin to sever the interest of our own loyns or womb We finde some fouls that burn themselves whiles they endeavour to blow out the fire from their young And even Serpents can receive their brood into their mouth to shield them from danger No creature is so unnatural as the reasonable that hath put off affection On me therefore in mine for my Daughter is grievously vexed with a Devil It was this that sent her to Christ It was this that must incline Christ to her I doubt whether she had inquired after Christ if she had not been vexed with her daughters spirit Our Afflictions are as Benhadad's best counsellors that sent him with a cord about his neck to the mercifull King of Israel These are the files whetstones that set an edge on our Devotions without which they grow dull and ineffectual neither are they stronger motives to our suit then to Christ's mercy We cannot have a better spokes-man unto God then our own misery That alone sues and pleads and importunes for us This which sets off men whose compassion is finite attracts God to us Who can plead discouragements in his accesse to the throne of Grace when our wants are our forcible advocates All our worthiness is in a capable misery All Israel could not example the Faith of this Canaanite yet she was thus tormented in her daughter It is not the truth or strength of our Faith that can secure us from the outward and bodily vexations of Satan against the inward and spiritual that can and will prevail it is no more antidote against the other then against feavers and dropsies How should it whenas it may fall out that these sufferings may be profitable and why should we exspect that the love of our God shall yield to forelay any benefit to the Soul He is an ill patient that cannot distinguish betwixt an affliction and the evil of affliction When the messenger of Satan buffets us it is enough that God hath said My grace is sufficient for thee Millions were in Tyre and Sidon whose persons whose children were untouched with that tormenting hand I hear none but this faithfull Woman say My daughter is grievously vexed of the Devil The worst of bodily afflictions are an insufficient proof of Divine displeasure She that hath most Grace complains of most discomfort Who would now expect any other then a kinde answer to so pious and faithfull a petition And behold he answered her not a word O holy Saviour we have oft found cause to wonder at
imperative ours supplicatory He doth what he will with us we doe by him what he thinks good to impart In this mouth the word cannot be severed from the success Our Saviour's lips are no sooner opened in his Ephphatha then the mouth of the dumb and the ears of the deaf are opened At once behold here celerity and perfection Natural agents work by leasure by degrees nothing is done in an instant by many steps is every thing carried from the entrance to the consummation Omnipotency knows no Rules No imperfect work can proceed from a cause absolutely perfect The man hears now more lightly then if he had never been deaf and speaks more plainly then if he had never been tongue-tyed And can we blame him if he bestowed the handsel of his speech upon the power that restored it if the first improvement of his tongue were the praise of the giver of the maker of it Or can we expect other then that our Saviour should say Thy tongue is free use it to the praise of him that made it so thy ears are open hear him that bids thee proclaim thy cure upon the house-top But now behold contrarily he that opens this mans mouth by his powerfull word by the same word shuts it again charging silence by the same breath wherewith he gave speech Tell no man Those tongues which interceded for his cure are charmed for the concealment of it O Saviour thou knowest the grounds of thine own commands It is not for us to inquire but to obey we may not honour thee with a forbidden celebration Good meanings have oft-times proved injurious Those men whose charity imployed their tongues to speak for the dumb man do now imploy the same tongues to speak of his cure when they should have been dumb This charge they imagine proceeds from an humble modesty in Christ which the respect to his Honour bids them violate I know not how we itch after those forbidden acts which if left to our liberty we willingly neglect This prohibition increaseth the rumor every tongue is busied about this one What can we make of this but a well-meant disobedience O God I should more gladly publish thy Name at thy command I know thou canst not bid me to dishonour thee there is no danger of such an injunction but if thou shouldest bid me to hide the profession of thy Name and wondrous works I should fulfill thy words and not examine thine intentions Thou knowest how to win more honour by our silence then by our promulgation A forbidden good differs little from evil What makes our actions to be sin but thy prohibitions Our judgement avails nothing If thou forbid us that which we think good it becomes as faulty to thee-ward as that which is originally evil Take thou charge of thy Glory give me grace to take charge of thy Precepts ZACHEUS NOW was our Saviour walking towards his Passion his last journey had most wonders Jericho was in his way from Galilec to Jerusalem he balks it not though it were outwardly cursed but as the first Joshua saved a Rahab there so there the second saves a Zacheus that an Harlot this a Publican The traveller was wounded as he was going from Jerusalem to Jericho this man was taken from his Jericho to the true Jerusalem and was healed Not as a passenger did Christ walk this way but as a visitor not to punish but to heal With us the sick man is glad to send far for the Physician here the Physician comes to seek patients and calls at our door for work Had not this good Shepherd left the ninety nine and searched the desart the lost Sheep had never recovered the fold had not his gracious frugality sought the lost Groat it had been swept up with the rushes and thrown out in the dust Still O Saviour dost thou walk through our Jericho what would become of us if thou shouldst stay till we seek thee alone Even when thou hast found us how hardly do we follow thee The work must be all thine we shall not seek thee if thou finde us not we shall not follow thee if thou draw us not Never didst thou O Saviour set one step in vain wheresoever thou art walking there is some Zacheus to be won As in a drought when we see some weighty cloud hovering over us we say there is rain for some grounds wheresoever it falls The Ordinances of God bode good to some Souls and happy are they on whom it lights How justly is Zacheus brought in with a note of wonder It is both great and good news to hear of a Convert To see men perverted from God to the world from truth to heresie from piety to prophaneness is as common as lamentable every night such stars fall but to see a sinner come home to God is both happy and wondrous to men and Angels I cannot blame that Philosopher who undertaking to write of the hidden miracles of Nature spends most of his discourse upon the generation and formation of man Surely we are fearfully and wonderfully made But how much greater is the Miracle of our spiritual regeneration that a son of wrath a childe of Satan should be transformed into the Son and heire of the ever-living God O God thou workest both but in the one our spirit animates us in the other thine own Yet some things which have wonder in them for their worth lose it for their frequence this hath no lesse rarity in it then excellence How many painfull Peters have complained to fish all night and catch nothing Many Professors and few Converts hath been ever the lot of the Gospel God's house as the streets of Jericho may be thronged and yet but one Zacheus As therefore in the Lottery when the great prize comes the trumpet sounds before it so the news of a Convert is proclaimed with Behold Zacheus Any Penitent had been worthy of a shout but this man by an eminence a Publican a chief of the Publicans rich No name under Heaven was so odious as this of a Publican especially to this Nation that stood so high upon their freedome that every impeachment of it seemed no lesse then damnable insomuch as they ask not Is it fit or needfull but Is it lawfull to pay tribute unto Caesar Any office of exaction must needs be hainous to a people so impatient of the yoke And yet not so much the trade as the extortion drew hatred upon this profession out of both they are deeply infamous one while they are matched with Heathens another while with Harlots alwaies with Sinners And behold Zacheus a Publican We are all naturally strangers from God the best is indisposed to Grace yet some there are whose very Calling gives them better advantages But this catchpole-ship of Zacheus carried extortion in the face and in a sort bade defiance to his Conversion yet behold from this Toll-booth is called both Zacheus to be a Disciple and Matthew to be an Apostle We
I have heard the fame of his wonderful works and held it happiness enough for me to have seen his face and doth he take notice of my person of my name Surely the more that Zacheus knew himself the more doth he wonder that Christ should know him It was slander enough for a man to be a friend to a Publican yet Christ gives this friendly compellation to the chief of Publicans and honours him with this argument of a sudden intireness The favour is great but not singular Every elect of God is thus graced The Father knows the childes name as he calls the stars of Heaven by their names so doth he his Saints the stars on earth and it is his own rule to his Israel I have called thee by thy name thou art mine As God's children do not content themselves with a confused knowledge of him but aspire to a particular apprehension and sensible application so doth God again to them it is not enough that he knows them as in the croud wherein we see many persons none distinctly but he takes single and several knowledge of their qualities conditions motions events What care we that our names are obscure or contemned amongst men whiles they are regarded by God that they are raked up in the dust of earth whiles they are recorded in Heaven Had our Saviour said no more but Zacheus come down the poor man would have thought himself taxed for his boldness and curiosity it were better to be unknown then noted for miscarriage But now the next words comfort him For I must this day abide at thine house What a sweet familiarity was here as if Christ had been many years acquainted with Zacheus whom he now first saw Besides our use the Host is invited by the Guest and called to an inexspected entertainment Well did our Saviour hear Zacheus his heart inviting him though his mouth did not Desires are the language of the Soul those are heard by him that is the God of spirits We dare not doe thus to each other save where we have eaten much salt we scarce go where we are invited though the face be friendly and the entertainment great yet the heart may be hollow But here he that saw the heart and foreknew his welcome can boldly say I must this day abide at thine house What a pleasant kinde of entire familiarity there is betwixt Christ and a good heart If any man open I will come in and sup with him It is much for the King of Glory to come into a cottage and sup there yet thus he may doe and take some state upon him in sitting alone No I will so sup with him that he shall sup with me Earthly state consists in strangeness and affects a stern kinde of majesty aloof Betwixt God and us though there be infinite more distance yet there is a gracious affability and familiar intireness of conversation O Saviour what dost thou else every day but invite thy self to us in thy Word in thy Sacraments who are we that we should entertain thee or thou us dwarfs in Grace great in nothing but unworthiness Thy praise is worthy to be so much the more as our worth is less Thou that biddest thy self to us bid us be fit to receive thee and in receiving thee happy How graciously doth Jesus still prevent the Publican as in his sight notice compellâ—tion so in his invitation too That other Publican Levi bad Christ to his house but it was after Christ had bidden him to his Discipleship Christ had never been called to his feast if Levi had not been called into his family He loved us first he must first call us for he calls us out of love As in the general calling of Christianity if he did not say Seek ye my face we could never say Thy face Lord will I seek so in the specialties of our main benefits or imployments Christ must begin to us If we invite our selves to him before he invite himself to us the undertaking is presumptuous the success unhappy If Nathanael when Christ named him and gave him the memorial token of his being under the fig-tree could say Thou art the Son of God how could Zacheus do less in hearing himself upon this wilde fig-tree named by the same lips How must he needs think If he knew not all things he could not know me and if he knew not the hearts of men he could not have known my secret desires to entertain him He is a God that knows me and a merciful God that invites himself to me No marvel therefore if upon this thought Zacheus come down in hast Our Saviour said not Take thy leisure Zacheus but I will abide at thine house to day Neither did Zacheus upon this intimation sit still and say When the prease is over when I have done some errands of my office but he hasts down to receive Jesus The notice of such a guest would have quickned his speed without a command God loves not slack and lazy executions The Angels of God are described with wings and we pray to doe his will with their forwardness Yea even to Judas Christ saith What thou doest doe quickly O Saviour there is no day wherein thou dost not call us by the voice of thy Gospel what do we still lingring in the Sycomore How unkindely must thou needs take the delaies of our Conversion Certainly had Zacheus staid still in the Tree thou hadst balked his house as unworthy of thee What construction canst thou make of our wilful dilations but as a stubborn contempt How canst thou but come to us in vengeance if we come not down to entertain thee in a thankful obedience Yet do I not hear thee say Zacheus cast thy self down for hast this was the counsel of the Tempter to thee but Come down in hast And he did accordingly There must be no more hast then good speed in our performances we may offend as well in our heady acceleration as in our delay Moses ran so fast down the hill that he stumbled spiritually and brake the Tables of God We may so fast follow after Justice that we out-run Charity It is an unsafe obedience that is not discreetly and leisurely speedful The speed of his descent was not more then the alacrity of his entertainment He made hast and came down and received him joyfully The life of hospitality is chearfulness Let our chear be never so great if we do not read our welcome in our friends face as well as in his dishes we take no pleasure in it Can we marvel that Zacheus received Christ joyfully Who would not have been glad to have his house yea himself made happy with such a guest Had we been in the stead of this Publican how would our hearts have leapt within us for joy of such a presence How many thousand miles are measured by some devout Christians onely to see the place where his feet stood How much happier must he needs think
himself that owns the roof that receives him But oh the incomparable happiness then of that man whose heart receives him not for a day not for years of dayes not for millions of years but for eternity This may be our condition if we be not streightned in our own bowels O Saviour do thou welcome thy self to these houses of clay that we may receive a joyful welcome to thee in those everlasting habitations Zacheus was not more glad of Christ then the Jews were discontented Four vices met here at once Envy Scrupulousness Ignorance Pride Their eye was evil because Christ's was good I do not hear any of them invite Christ to his home yet they snarl at the honour of this unworthy Host they thought it too much happiness for a Sinner which themselves willingly neglected to sue for Wretched men they cannot see the Mercy of Christ for being bleared with the happiness of Zacheus yea that very Mercy which they see torments them If that viper be the deadliest which feeds the sweetest how poisonous must this disposition needs be that feeds upon Grace What a contrariety there is betwixt good Angels and evil men The Angels rejoyce at that whereat men pout and stomack men are ready to cry and burst for anger at that which makes musick in Heaven Oh wicked and foolish elder brother that feeds on hunger and his own heart without doors because his younger brother is feasting on the fat calf within Besides Envy they stand scrupulously upon the terms of Traditions These sons of the earth might not be conversed with their threshold was unclean Touch me not for I am holier then thou That he therefore who went for a Prophet should go to the house of a Publican and Sinner must needs be a great eye-sore They that might not go in to a Sinner cared not what sins entred into themselves the true cozens of those Hypocrites who held it a pollution to go into the Judgment-hall no pollution to murder the Lord of life There cannot be a greater argument of a false heart then to stumble at these straws and to leap over the blocks of gross impiety Well did our Saviour know how hainously offensive it would be to turn in to this Publican he knows and regards it not A Soul is to be won what cares he for idle misconstruction Morally good actions must not be suspended upon danger of causeless scandal In things indifferent and arbitrary it is fit to be overruled by fear of offence but if men will stumble in the plain ground of good let them fall without our regard not without their own peril I know not if it were not David's weakness to abstain from good words whiles the wicked were in place Let Justice be done in spite of the world and in spite of Hell Mercy Ignorance was in part guilty of these scruples they thought Christ either too holy to go to a Sinner or in going made unholy Foolish men to whom came he To you righteous Let himself speak I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance Whither should the Physician go but to the sick the who le need him not Love is the best attractive of us and he to whom much is forgiven loves much O Saviour the glittering palaces of proud Justiciaries are not for thee thou lovest the lowly and ragged cottage of a contrite heart Neither could here be any danger of thy pollution Thy Sun could cast his beams upon the impurest dunghil and not be tainted It was free and safe for the Leper and Bloody-fluxed to touch thee thou couldst heal them they could not infect thee Neither is it otherwise in this moral contagion We who are obnoxious to evil may be insensibly defiled thy Purity was enough to remedy that which might marre a world Thou canst help us we cannot hurt thee Oh let thy presence ever bless us and let us ever bless thee for thy presence Pride was an attendant of this Ignorance so did they note Zacheus for a Sinner as if themselves had been none His sins were written in his forehead theirs in their breast The presumption of their secrecy makes them insult upon his notoriousness The smoke of pride flies still upward and in the mounting vanisheth Contrition beats it down and fetcheth tears from the tender eyes There are stage-sins and there are closet-sins These may not upbraid the other they may be more hainous though less manifest It is a dangerous vanity to look outward at other mens sins with scorn when we have more need to cast our eyes inward to see our own with humiliation Thus they stumbled and fell but Zacheus stood All their malicious murmur could not dishearten his Piety and Joy in the entertaining of Christ Before Zacheus lay down as a Sinner now he stands up as a Convert sinning is falling continuance in sin is lying down Repentance is rising and standing up Yet perhaps this standing was not so much the site of his Constancy or of his Conversion as of his Reverence Christ's affability hath not made him unmannerly Zacheus stood And what if the desire of more audibleness raised him to his feet In that smalness of stature it was not fit he should lose ought of his height It was meet so noble a proclamation should want no advantage of hearing Never was our Saviour better welcomed The penitent Publican makes his Will and makes Christ his Supervisor His Will consists of Legacies given of Debts paid gifts to the poor payments to the injuried There is Liberality in the former in the latter Justice in both the proportions are large Half to the poor fourfold to the wronged This hand sowed not sparingly Here must needs be much of his own that was well gotten whether left by patrimony or saved by parsimony or gained by honest improvement For when he had restored fourfold to every one whom he had oppressed yet there remained a whole half for pious uses and this he so distributes that every word commends his bounty I give and what is more free then gist In alms we may neither sell nor return nor cast away We sell if we part with them for importunity for vain-glory for retribution we return them if we give with respect to former offices this is to pay not to bestow we cast away if in our beneficence we neither regard order nor discretion Zacheus did neither cast away nor return nor sell but give I do give not I will The prorogation of good makes it thankless The alms that smell of the hand lose the praise It is twice given that is given quickly Those that deferre their gifts till their death-bed do as good as say Lord I will give thee something when I can keep it no longer Happy is the man that is his own executor I give my goods not anothers It is a thankless vanity to be liberal of another mans purse Whoso gives of that which he hath taken away from the owner doth more
religion tyed to thy foolish and wicked Oath thou onely goest away with this mitigation that thou art a scrupulous Murderer In the mean while if an Herod made such conscience of keeping an unlawful Oath how shall he in the day of judgement condemn those Christians which make no conscience of Oaths lawful just necessary Wo is me one sels an oath for a bribe another lends an oath for favour another casts it away for malice I fear to think it may be a question whether there be more oaths broken or kept O God I marvel not if being implored as a witness as an avenger of falshood thou hold him not guiltless that thus dares take thy Name in vain Next to his Oath is the respect to his Honour His guests heard his deep engagement and now he cannot fall off with reputation It would argue levity and rashness to say and not to doe and what would the world say The misconceits of the points of Honour have cost millions of Souls As many a one doth good onely to be seen of men so many a one doth evil onely to satisfie the humour and opinion of others It is a damnable plausibility so to regard the vain approbation or censure of the beholders as in the mean time to neglect the allowance or judgement of God But how ill guests were these how well worthy of an Herod's table Had they had but common civility finding Herod perplexed they had acquitted him by their disswasions and would have disclaimed the exspectation of so bloody a performance but they rather to gratifie Herodias make way for so slight and easie a condescent Even godly Princes have complained of the iniquity of their heels how much more must they needs be ill attended that give incouragements and examples of leudness Neither was it the least motive that he was loath to displease his Mistress The Damsel had pleased him in her dance he would not discontent her in breaking his word He saw Herodias in Salome the suit he knew was the mothers though in the daughters lips both would be displeased in falling off both would be gratified in yielding Oh vain and wicked Herod He cares not to offend God to offend his Conscience he cares to offend a wanton Mistress This is one means to fill Hell loathness to displease A good heart will rather fall out with all the world then with God then with his Conscience The misgrounded sorrow of worldly hearts doth not withhold them from their intended sins It is enough to vex not enough to restrain them Herod was sorry but he sends the executioner for John's head One act hath made Herod a Tyrant and John a Martyr Herod a Tyrant in that without all legal proceedings without so much as false witnesses he takes off the head of a man of a Propher It was Lust that carried Herod into Murder The proceedings of sin are more hardly avoided then the entrance Whoso gives himself leave to be wicked knows not where he shall stay John a Martyr in dying for bearing witness to the Truth Truth in Life in Judgement in Doctrine It was the holy purpose of God that he which had baptized with water should now be baptized with blood Never did God mean that his best Children should dwell alwayes upon earth should they stay here wherefore hath he provided Glory above Now would God have John delivered from a double prison of his own of Herod's and placed in the glorious liberty of his sons His head shall be taken off that it may be crowned with glory Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints Oh happy birth-day not of Herod but of the Baptist Now doth John enter into his joy and in this name is this day ever celebrated of the Church This blessed Fore-runner of Christ said of himself I must decrease He is decreased indeed and now grown shorter by the head but he is not so much decreased in stature as increased in glory For one minutes pain he is possessed of endless joy and as he came before his Saviour into the world so is he gone before him into Heaven The head is brought in a Charger What a dish was here for a Feast How prodigiously insatiable is the cruelty of a wicked heart O blessed service fit for the table of Heaven It is not for thee O wicked Herod nor for thee malicious and wanton Herodias it is a dish precious and pleasing to the God of Heaven to the blessed Angels who lookt upon that head with more delight in his constant fidelity then the beholders saw it with horror and Herodias with contentment of revenge It is brought to Salome as the reward of her dance she presents it to her Mother as the dainty she had longed for Methinks I see how that chast and holy countenance was tossed by impure and filthy hands that true and faithful tongue those sacred lips those pure eyes those mortified cheeks are now insultingly handled by an incestuous Harlot and made a scorn to the drunken eyes of Herod's guests Oh the wondrous judgements and incomprehensible dispositions of the holy wise Almighty God! He that was sanctified in the womb born and conceived with so much note and miracle what manner of childâ— shall this be lived with so much reverence and observation is now at midnight obscurely murthered in a close prison and his head brought forth to the insultation and irrision of Harlots and Ruffians O God thou knowest what thou hast to doe with thine own Thus thou sufferest thine to be misused and slaughtered here below that thou maist crown them above It should not be thus if thou didst not mean that their glory should be answerable to their depression The five Loaves and two Fishes WHat flocking there was after Christ which way soever he went How did the Kingdome of Heaven suffer an holy violence in these his followers Their importunity drave him from the land to the sea When he was upon the sea of Tiberias they followed him with their eyes and when they saw which way he bent they followed him so fast on foot that they prevented his landing Whether it were that our Saviour stai'd somewhile upon the water as that which yielded him more quietness and freedom of respiration or whether the foot-passage as it oft falls out were the shorter cut by reason of the compasses of the water and the many elbows of the land I enquire not sure I am the wind did not so swiftly drive on the ship as desire and zeal drave on these eager clients Well did Christ see them all the way well did he know their steps and guided them and now he purposely goes to meet them whom he seemed to flee Nothing can please God more then our importunity in seeking him when he withdraws himself it is that he may be more earnestly inquired for Now then he comes to finde them whom he made shew to decline and seeing a great multitude he
so daunt the heart of those which are free from their power what a terror shall it be to live perpetually in the sight yea under the torture of thousands of legions of millions of Devils Oh the madness of wilfull sinners that will needs run themselves headily into so dreadfull a damnation It was high time for our Saviour to speak What with the Tempest what with the Apparition the Disciples were almost lost with fear How seasonable are his gracious redresses Till they were thus affrighted he would not speak when they were thus affrighted he would not hold his peace If his presence were fearfull yet his word was comfortable Be of good chear it is I yea it is his word only which must make his presence both known and comfortable He was present before they mistook him and feared there needs no other erection of their drooping hearts but It is I. It is cordial enough to us in the worst of our afflictions to be assured of Christs presence with us Say but It is I O Saviour and let evils doe their worst thou needest not say any more Thy voice was evidence enough so well were thy Disciples acquainted with the tongue of thee their Master that It is I was as much as an hundred names Thou art the good Shepherd we are not of thy Flock if we know thee not by thy voice from a thousand Even this one is a great word yea an ample style It is I. The same tongue that said to Moses I am hath sent thee saith now to the Disciples It is I I your Lord and Master I the commander of windes and waters I the soveraign Lord of Heaven and earth I the God of Spirits Let Heaven be but as one scroll and let it be written all over with titles they cannot expresse more then It is I. Oh sweet and seasonable word of a gracious Saviour able to calm all tempests able to revive all hearts Say but so to my Soul and in spight of Hell I am safe No sooner hath Jesus said I then Peter answers Master He can instantly name him that did not name himself Every little hint is enough to Faith The Church sees her Beloved as well through the Lattice as through the open Window Which of all the Followers of Christ gave so pregnant testimonies upon all occasions of his Faith of his Love to his Master as Peter The rest were silent whiles he both owned his Master and craved accesse to him in that liquid way Yet what a sensible mixture is here of Faith Distrust It is Faith that said Master it was Distrust as some have construed it that said If it be thou It was Faith that said Bid me come to thee implying that his word could as well enable as command it was Faith that durst step down upon that watery pavement it was Distrust that upon the sight of a mighty winde feared It was Faith that he walked it was Distrust that he sunk it was Faith that said Lord save me Oh the imperfect composition of the best Saint upon earth as far from pure Faith as from mere Infidelity If there be pure earth in the center all upward is mixed with the other elements contrarily pure Grace is above in the glorified Spirits all below is mixed with infirmity with corruption Our best is but as the Aire which never was never can be at once fully enlightned neither is there in the same Region one constant state of light It shall once be noon with us when we shall have nothing but bright beams of Glory now it is but the dawning wherein it is hard to say whether there be more light then darkness We are now fair as the Moon which hath some spots in her greatest beauty we shall be pure as the Sun whose face is all bright and glorious Ever since the time that Adam set his tooth in the Apple till our mouth be full of mould it never was it never can be other with us Far be it from us to settle willingly upon the dregs of our Infidelity far be it from us to be disheartened with the sense of our defects and imperfections We believe Lord help our unbelief Whiles I finde some disputing the lawfulness of Peter's suit others quarrelling his If it be thou let me be taken up with the wonder at the Faith the fervour the Heroical valour of this prime Apostle that durst say Bid me come to thee upon the waters He might have suspected that the Voice of his Master might have been as easily imitated by that imagined Spirit as his Person he might have feared the blustering tempest the threatning billows the yielding nature of that devouring element but as despising all these thoughts of misdoubt such is his desire to be near his Master that he saies Bid me come to thee upon the waters He saies not Come thou to me this had been Christ's act and not his Neither doth he say Let me come to thee this had been his act and not Christ's Neither doth he say Pray that I may come to thee as if this act had been out of the power of either But Bid me come to thee I know thou canst command both the waves and me me to be so light that I shall not bruise the moist surface of the waves the waves to be so solid that they shall not yield to my weight All things obey thee Bid me come to thee upon the waters It was a bold spirit that could wish it more bold that could act it No sooner hath our Saviour said Come then he sets his foot upon the unquiet Sea not fearing either the softness or the roughness of that uncouth passage We are wont to wonder at the courage of that daring man who first committed himself to the Sea in a frail Bark though he had the strength of an oaken planck to secure him how valiant must we needs grant him to be that durst set his foot upon the bare sea and shift his paces Well did Peter know that he who bade him could uphold him and therefore he both sues to be bidden and ventures to be upholden True Faith tasks it self with difficulties neither can be dismaied with the conceits of ordinary impossibilities It is not the scattering of straws or casting of mole-hills whereby the virtue of it is described but removing of mountain Like some courageous Leader it desires the honour of a danger and sues for the first onset whereas the worldly heart freezes in a lazie or cowardly fear and only casts for safety and ease Peter sues Jesus bids Rather will he work Miracles then disappoint the suit of a faithful man How easily might our Saviour have turned over this strange request of his bold Disiple and have said What my Omnipotence can doe is no rule for thy weakness It is no lesse then presumption in a mere man to hope to imitate the miraculous works of God and man Stay thou in the ship and wonder
Disciples stood compassed in that bright Cloud exspecting some miraculous event of so Heavenly a Vision when suddenly they might hear a voice sounding out of that Cloud saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him They need not be told whose that voice was the place the matter evinced it No Angel in Heaven could or durst have said so How gladly doth Peter afterwards recount it For he received from God the Father honour and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory This is my beloved Son c. It was onely the eare that was here taught not the eye As of Horeb so of Sinai so of Tabor might God say Ye saw no shape nor image in that day that the Lord spake unto you He that knows our proneness to idolatry avoids those occasions which we might take to abuse our own fansies Twice hath God spoken these words to his own Son from Heaven once in his Baptisme and now again in his Transfiguration Here not without some oppositive comparison not Moses not Elias but This. Moses and Elias were Servants this a Son Moses and Elias were sons but of grace and choice this is that Son the Son by nature Other sons are beloved as of favour and free election this is The Beloved as in the unitie of his essence Others are so beloved that he is pleased with themselves this so beloved that in and for him he is pleased with mankinde As the relation betwixt the Father and the Son is infinite so is the Love We measure the intention of Love by the extention the love that rests in the person affected alone is but streight true Love descends like Aaron's Ointment from the head to the skirts to children friends allyes O incomprehensible large love of God the Father to the Son that for his sake he is pleased with the World O perfect and happy complacence Out of Christ there is nothing but enmity betwixt God and the Soul in him there can be nothing but peace When the beams are met in one center they do not only heat but burn Our weak love is diffused to many God hath some the world more and therein wives children friends but this infinite love of God hath all the beams of it united in one onely Object the Son of his Love Neither doth he love any thing but in the participation of his Love in the derivation from it O God let me be found in Christ and how canst thou but be pleased with me This one voice proclaimes Christ at once the Son of God the Reconciler of the world the Doctor and Law-giver of his Church As the Son of God he is essentially interessed in his Love as he is the Reconciler of the world in whom God is well pleased he doth most justly challenge our love and adherence as he is the Doctor and Law-giver he doth justly challenge our audience our obedience Even so Lord teach us to hear and obey thee as our Teacher to love thee and believe in thee as our Reconciler and as the eternal Son of thy Father to adore thee The light caused wonder in the Disciples but the voice astonishment They are all falne down upon their faces Who can blame a mortal man to be thus affected with the voice of his Maker Yet this word was but plausible and hortatory O God how shall flesh and blood be other then swallowed up with the horror of thy dreadful sentence of death The Lion shall roar who shall not be afraid How shall those that have slighted the sweet voice of thine invitations call to the rocks to hide them from the terror of thy Judgments The God of mercies pities our infirmities I do not hear our Saviour say Ye lay sleeping one while upon the earth now ye lye astonished Ye could neither wake to see nor stand to hear now lye still and tremble But he graciously touches and comforts them Arise fear not That voice which shall once raise them up out of the earth might well raise them up from it That hand which by the least touch restored sight lims life might well restore the spirits of the dismaied O Saviour let that soveraign hand of thine touch us when we lye in the trances of our griefs in the bed of our securities in the grave of our sins and we shall arise They looking up saw no man save Jesus alone and that doubtless in his wonted form All was now gone Moses Elias the Cloud the Voice the Glory Tabor it self cannot be long blessed with that Divine light and those shining guests Heaven will not allow to earth any long continuance of Glory Only above is constant happiness to be look'd for and injoyed where we shall ever see our Saviour in his unchangeable brightness where the light shall never be either clouded or varied Moses and Elias are gone only Christ is left The glory of the Law and the Prophets was but temporary yea momentany that onely Christ may remain to us intire and conspicuous They came but to give testimony to Christ when that is done they are vanished Neither could these raised Disciples finde any miss of Moses and Elias when they had Christ still with them Had Jesus been gone and left either Moses or Elias or both in the Mount with his Disciples that presence though glorious could not have comforted them Now that they are gone and he is left they cannot be capable of discomfort O Saviour it matters not who is away whiles thou art with us Thou art God all-sufficient what can we want when we want not thee Thy presence shall make Tabor it self an Heaven yea Hell it self cannot make us miserable with the fruition of thee The Woman taken in Adultery WHat a busie life was this of Christs He spent the night in the mount of Olives the day in the Temple whereas the night is for a retired repose the day for company His retiredness was for prayer his companiableness was for preaching All night he watches in the Mount all the morning he preaches in the Temple It was not for pleasure that he was here upon earth his whole time was penal and toilsome How do we resemble him if his life were all pain and labour ours all pastime He found no such fair success the day before The multitude was divided in their opinion of him messengers were sent and suborned to apprehend him yet he returns to the Temple It is for the sluggard or the coward to plead a Lion in the way upon the calling of God we must overlook and contemn all the spight and opposition of men Even after an ill harvest we must sow and after denials we must woe for God This Sun of Righteousness prevents that other and shines early with wholesome doctrines upon the Soules of his hearers The Auditory is both thronged and attentive Yet not all with the same intentions If the people came to learn the Scribes and
Temple were now diverted to the Roman Exchequer There was no necessity that the Roman Lords should be tied to the Jewish reckonings it was free for them to impose what payments they pleased upon a subdued people when great Augustus commanded the world to be taxed this rate was set The mannerly Collectors demand it first of him with whom they might be more bold Doth not your Master pay tribute All Capernaum knew Christ for a great Prophet his Doctrine had ravish'd them his Miracles had astonish'd them yet when it comes to a money-matter his share is as deep as the rest Questions of profit admit no difference Still the Sacred Tribe challengeth reverence who cares how little they receive how much they pay Yet no man knows with what minde this demand was made whether in a churlish grudging at Christ's immunity or in an awful compellation of the servant rather then the Master Peter had it ready what to answer I hear him not require their stay till he should goe in and know his Masters resolution but as one well acquainted with the minde and practice of his Master he answers Yes There was no truer pay-master of the Kings dues then he that was King of Kings Well did Peter know that he did not onely 〈◊〉 but preach tribute When the Herodians laid twigs for him as supposing that so great a Prophet would be all for the liberty and exemption of God's chosen people he choaks them with their own coin and told them the stamp argued the right Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars O Saviour how can thy servants challenge that freedome which thy self had not who that pretends from thee can claim homage from those to whom thou gavest it If thou by whom Kings reign forbarest not to pay tribute to an heathen Prince what power under thee can deny it to those that rule for thee That demand was made without doors No sooner is Peter come in then he is prevented by his Master's question What thinkest thou Simon of whom do the Kings of the earth receive tribute of their own children or of strangers This very interrogation was answer enough to that which Peter meant to move he that could thus know the heart was not in true right liable to humane exactions But O Saviour may I presume to ask what this is to thee Thou hast said My Kingdome is not of this world how doth it concern thee what is done by the Kings of the earth or imposed upon the sons of earthly Kings Thou wouldst be the Son of an humble Virgin and chosest not a Royal state but a servile I dispute not thy natural right to the throne by thy lineal descent from the loyns of Juda and David what should I plead that which thou wavest It is thy Divine Royalty and Sonship which thou here justly urgest the argument is irrefragable and convictive If the Kings of the earth do so priviledge their children that they are free from all tributes and impositions how much more shall the King of Heaven give this immunity to his onely and natural Son so as in true reason I might challenge an exemption for me and my train Thou mightest O Saviour and no less challenge a tribute of all the Kings of the earth to thee by whom all powers are ordained Reason cannot mutter against this claim the creature owes it self and whatsoever it hath to the Maâ—er he owes nothing to it Then are the children free He that hath right to all needs not pay any thing else there should be a subjection in Soveraignty and men should be debters to themselves But this right was thine own peculiar and admits no partners why dost thou speak of children as of more and extending this priviledge to Peter sayest Lest we scandalize them Was it for that thy Disciples being of thy robe might justly seem interessed in the liberties of their Master Surely no otherwise were they children no otherwise free Away with that fanatical conceit which challenges an immunity from secular commands and taxes to a spiritual and adoptative Sonship no earthly Saintship can exempt us from tribute to whom tribute belongeth There is a freedom O Saviour which our Christianity cals us to affect a freedom from the yoke of sin and Satan from the servitude of our corrupt affections we cannot be Sons if we be not thus free O free thou us by thy free Spirit from the miserable bondage of our Nature so shall the children be free but as to these secular duties no man is less free then the children O Saviour thou wert free and wouldst not be so thou wert free by natural right wouldst not be free by voluntary dispensation Lest an offence might be taken Surely had there followed an offence it had been taken onely and not given Woe be to the man by whom the offence cometh It cometh by him that gives it it cometh by him that takes it when it is not given no part of this blame could have cleaved unto thee either way Yet such was thy goodness that thou wouldst not suffer an offence unjustly taken at that which thou mightest justly have denied How jealous should we be even of others perils how careful so to moderate out power in the use of lawful things that our Charity may prevent others scandals to Temit of our own right for anothers safety Oh the deplorable condition of those wilful mâ—â— who care not what blocks they lay in the way to Heaven not forbearing by a known lewdness to draw others into their own damnation To avoid the unjust offence even of very Publicans Jesus will work a Miracle Peter is sent to the sea and that not with a net but with an hook The Disciple was now in his own trade He knew a net might inclose many fishes an hook could take but one with that hook must he goe angle for the tribute-money A fish shall bring him a stater in her mouth and that fish that bites first What an unusual bearer is here what an unlikely element to yield a piece of ready coin Oh that Omnipotent power which could command the fish to be both his Treasurer to keep his Silver and his Purveyour to bring it Now whether O Saviour thou causedst this fish to take up that shekel out of the bottome of the sea or whether by thine Almighty word thou mad'st it in an instant in the mouth of that fish it is neither possible to determine nor necessary to inquire I rather adore thine infinite Knowledge and Power that couldst make use of unlikeliest means that couldst serve thy self of the very fishes of the sea in a business of earthly and civil imployment It was not out of need that thou didst this though I do not finde that thou ever affectedst a full purse What veins of Gold or Mines of Silver did not lye open to thy command But out of a desire to teach Peter that whiles he would be tributary to Caesar the very
be the inculcation of Gods merciful promises of their relief and supportation O God if thou hast said it I dare believe I dare cast my Soul upon the belief of every word of thine Faithfull art thou which hast promised who wilt also doe it In spight of all the unjust discouragements of Nature we must obey Christ's command Whatever Martha suggests they remove the stone and may now see and smell him dead whom they shall soon see revived The sent of the corps is not so unpleasing to them as the perfume of their obedience is sweet to Christ And now when all impediments are removed and all hearts ready for the work our Saviour addresses to the Miracle His eyes begin they are lift up to Heaven It was the malicious mis-suggestion of his enemies that he lookt down to Beelzebub the beholders shall now see whence he exspects and derives his power and shall by him learn whence to exspect and hope for all success The heart and the eye must goe together he that would have ought to doe with God must be sequestred and lifted up from earth His Tongue seconds his Eye Father Nothing more stuck in the stomack of the Jews then that Christ called himself the Son of God this was imputed to him for a Blasphemy worthy of stones How seasonably is this word spoken in the hearing of these Jews in whose sight he will be presently approved so How can ye now O ye cavillers except at that title which ye shall see irrefragably justified Well may he call God Father that can raise the dead out of the grave In vain shall ye snarle at the style when ye are convinced of the effect I hear of no Prayer but a Thanks for hearing Whiles thou saidst nothing O Saviour how doth thy Father hear thee Was it not with thy Father and thee as it was with thee and Moses Thou saidst Let me alone Moses when he spake not Thy will was thy Prayer Words express our hearts to men Thoughts to God Well didst thou know out of the self-fameness of thy will with thy Fathers that if thou didst but think in thine heart that Lazarus should rise he was now raised It was not for thee to pray vocally and audibly lest those captious hearers should say thou didst all by intreaty nothing by power Thy thanks overtake thy desires ours require time and distance our thanks arise from the Echo of our prayers resounding from Heaven to our hearts Thou because thou art at once in earth and Heaven and knowst the grant to be of equal paces with the request most justly thankest in praying Now ye cavilling Jews are thinking straight Is there such distance betwixt the Father and the Son is it so rare a thing for the Son to be heard that he pours out his thanks for it as a blessing unusual Do ye not now see that he who made your heart knows it and anticipates your fond thoughts with the same breath I knew that thou hearest me alwaies but I said this for their sakes that they might believe Merciful Saviour how can we enough admire thy goodness who makest our belief the scope and drift of thy doctrine and actions Alas what wert thou the better if they believed thee sent from God what wert thou the worse if they believed it not Thy perfection and glory stands not upon the slippery terms of our approbation or dislike but is real in thy self and that infinite without possibility of our increase or diminution We we onely are they that have either the gain or loss in thy receit or rejection yet so dost thou affect our belief as if it were more thine advantage then ours O Saviour whiles thou spak'st to thy Father thou liftedst up thine eyes now thou art to speak unto dead Lazarus thou liftedst up thy voice and criedst aloud Lazarus come forth Was it that the strength of the voice might answer to the strength of the affection since we faintly require what we care not to obtain and vehemently utter what we earnestly desire Was it that the greatness of the voice might answer to the greatness of the work Was it that the hearers might be witnesses of what words were used in so miraculous an act no magical incantations but authoritative and Divine commands Was it to signifie that Lazarus his Soule was called from farre the speech must be loud that shall be heard in another world Was it in relation to the estate of the body of Lazarus whom thou hadst reported to sleep since those that are in a deep and dead sleep cannot be awaked without a loud call Or was it in a representation of that loud voice of the last Trumpet which shall sound into all graves and raise all flesh from their dust Even so still Lord when thou wouldst raise a Soul from the death of sin and grave of corruption no easie voice will serve Thy strongest commands thy loudest denunciations of Judgements the shrillest and sweetest promulgations of thy Mercies are but enough How familiar a word is this Lazarus come forth no other then he was wont to use whiles they lived together Neither doth he say Lazarus revive but as if he supposed him already living Lazarus come forth To let them know that those who are dead to us are to and with him alive yea in a more entire and feeling society then whiles they carried their clay about them Why do I fear that separation which shall more unite me to my Saviour Neither was the word more familiar then commanding Lazarus come forth Here is no suit to his Father no adjuration to the deceased but a flat and absolute injunction Come forth O Saviour that is the voice that I shall once hear sounding into the bottome of my grave and raising me up out of my dust that is the voice that shall pierce the rocks and divide the mountains and fetch up the dead out of the lowest deeps Thy word made all thy word shall repair all Hence all ye diffident fears he whom I trust is Omnipotent It was the Jewish fashion to enwrap the corps in linen to tye the hands and feet and to cover the face of the dead The Fall of man besides weakness brought shame upon him ever since even whiles he lives the whole Body is covered but the Face because some sparks of that extinct Majesty remain there is wont to be left open In death all those poor remainders being gone and leaving deformity and gastliness in the room of them the Face is covered also There lies Lazarus bound in double fetters One Almighty word hath loosed both and now he that was bound came forth He whose power could not be hindred by the chains of death cannot be hindred by linen bonds He that gave life gave motion gave direction He that guided the Soul of Lazarus into the body guided the body of Lazarus without his eyes moved the feet without the full liberty of his regular paces no doubt
I see both an Embleme and a Prophesie How didst thou herein mean to teach thy Disciples how much thou hatest an unfruitful profession and what judgements thou meantest to bring upon that barren generation Once before hadst thou compared the Jewish nation to a Fig-tree in the midst of thy vineyard which after three yeares exspectation and culture yielding no fruit was by thee the Owner doomed to a speedy excision now thou actest what thou then saidst No tree abounds more with leaf and shade no Nation abounded more with Ceremonial observations and semblances of Piety Outward profession where there is want of inward truth and real practice doth but help to draw on and aggravate judgment Had this Fig-tree been utterly bear and leafless it had perhaps escaped the Curse Hear this ye vain Hypocrites that care only to shew well never caring for the sincere truth of a Conscionable Obedience your fair outside shall be sure to help you to a Curse That which was the fault of this tree is the punishment of it fruitlesness Let no fruit grow on thee hence forward for ever Had the boughs been appointed to be torn down and the body split in pieces the doom had been more easy and that juicy plant might yet have recovered and have lived to recompence this deficiency now it shall be what it was fruitless Woe be to that Church or Soul that is punished with her own Sin Outward plagues are but favour in comparison of Spiritual judgements That Curse might well have stood with a long continuance the Tree might have lived long though fruitless but no sooner is the word passed then the leaves flagg and turn yellow the branches wrinkle and shrink the bark discolours the root dries the plant withers O God what creature is able to abide the blasting of the breath of thy displeasure Even the most great and glorious Angels of Heaven could not stand one moment before thine anger but perish'd under thy wrath everlastingly How irresistible is thy Power how dreadful are thy Judgements Lord chastise my fruitlesness but punish it not at least punish it but curse it not lest I wither and be consumed Christ betraied SUCH an eye-sore was Christ that raised Lazarus and Lazarus whom Christ raised to the envious Priests Scribes Elders of the Jews that they consult to murder both Whiles either of them lives neither can the glory of that Miracle die nor the shame of the oppugners Those malicious heads are laid together in the Parlour of Caiaphas Happy had it been for them if they had spent but half those thoughts upon their own Salvation which they misimployed upon the destruction of the innocent At last this results that Force is not their way Subtilty and Treachery must doe that which should be vainly attempted by Power Who is so fit to work this feat against Christ as one of his own There can be no Treason where is not some Trust Who so fit among the domesticks as he that bare the bag and over-lov'd that which he bare That heart which hath once enslaved it self to red and white earth made be may any thing Who can trust to the power of good means when Judas who heard Christ daily whom others heard to preach Christ daily who daily saw Christ's Miracles and daily wrought Miracles in Christ's name is at his best a Thief and ere long a Traitor That crafty and malignant spirit which presided in that bloody counsel hath easily found out a fit instrument for this Hellish plot As God knows so Satan guesses who are his and will be sure to make use of his own If Judas were Christ's domestick yet he was Mammon's servant he could not but hate that Master whom he formally professed to serve whiles he really served that master which Christ professed to hate He is but in his trade whiles he is bartering even for his Master What will ye give me and I will deliver him unto you Saidst thou not well O Saviour I have chosen you twelve and one of you is a Devil Thou that knewest to distinguish betwixt men and spirits callest Judas by his right name Loe he is become a tempter to the worst of evils Wretched Judas whether shall I more abhor thy treachery or wonder at thy folly What will they what can they give thee valuable to that head which thou proferest to sale Were they able to pay or thou capable to receive all those precious metalls that are laid up in the secret cabins of the whole earth how were this price equivalent to the worth of him that made them Had they been able to have fetch'd down those rich and glittering spangles of Heaven and to have put them into thy fist what had this been to weigh with a God How basely therefore dost thou speak of chaffering for him whose the world was What will ye give me Alas what were they what had they miserable men to pay for such a purchase The time was when he that set thee on work could say All the kingdomes of the earth and the glory of them are mine and I give them to whom I please all these will I give thee Had he now made that offer to thee in this wofull bargain it might have carried some colour of a temptation and even thus it had been a match ill made But for thee to tender a trade of so invaluable a commodity to these pelting petty chapmen for thirty poor silverlings it was no lesse base then wicked How unequal is this rate Thou that valuedst Mary's ointment which she bestowed upon the feet of Christ at three hundred pieces of silver sellest thy Master on whom that precious odour was spent at thirty Worldly hearts are penny-wise and pound-foolish they know how to set high prizes upon the worthlesse trash of this world but for Heavenly things or the God that owns them these they shamefully undervalue And I will deliver him unto you False and presumptuous Judas it was more then thou couldst doe thy price was not more too low then thy undertaking was too high Had all the powers of Hell combined with thee they could not have delivered thy Master into the hands of men The act was none but his own all that he did all that he suffered was perfectly voluntary Had he pleased to resist how easily had he with one breath blown thee and thy complices down into their Hell It is no thank to thee that he would be delivered O Saviour all our safety all our comfort depends not so much upon thine act as upon thy will in vain should we have hoped for the benefit of a forced redemption The bargain is driven the price pai'd Judas returns and looks no lesse smoothly upon his Master and his fellows then as if he had done no differvice What cares he his heart tells him he is rich though it tell him he is false He was not now first an Hypocrite The Passeover is at hand no man is so busie
corps such as if all the Powers of Darkness shall band against they shall finde themselves confounded In spight of all the gates of Hell that word shall stand Not a bone of him shall be broken Still the infallible Decree of the Almighty leads you on to his own ends through your own waies Ye saw him already dead whom ye came to dispatch those bones therefore shall be whole which ye had had no power to break But yet that no piece either of your cruelty or of Divine prediction may remain unsatisfied he whose bones may not be impaired shall be wounded in his flesh he whose Ghost was yielded up must yield his last blood One of the souldiers with a spear pierced his side and forthwith there came out blood and water Malice is wont to end with life here it overlives it Cruel man what means this so late wound what commission hadst thou for this bloody act Pilate had given leave to break the bones of the living he gave no leave to gore the side of the dead what wicked supererogation is this what a superfluity of maliciousness To what purpose did thy spear pierce so many hearts in that one why wouldst thou kill a dead man Methinks the Blessed Virgin and those other passionate associates of hers and the Disciple whom Jesus loved together with the other of his fellows the friends and followers of Christ and especially he that was so ready to draw his sword upon the troup of his Masters apprehenders should have work enough to contain themselves within the bounds of patience at so savage a stroke their sorrow could not chuse but turn to indignation and their hearts could not but rise as even mine doth now at so impertinent a villany How easily could I rave at that rude hand But O God when I look up to theee and consider how thy holy and wise Providence so overrules the most barbarous actions of men that besides their will they turn beneficial I can at once hate them and bless thee This very wound hath a mouth to speak the Messiahship of my Saviour and the truth of thy Scripture They shall look at him whom they have pierced Behold now the Second Adam sleeping and out of his side formed the Mother of the living the Evangelical Church Behold the Rock which was smitten and the waters of life gushed forth Behold the fountain that is set open to the house of David for sin and for uncleanness a fountain not of water only but of blood too O Saviour by thy water we are washed by thy blood we are redeemed Those two Sacraments which thou didst institute alive flow also from thee dead as the last memorials of thy Love to thy Church the water of Baptisme which is the laver of Regeneration the blood of the new Testament shed for remission of sins and these together with the Spirit that gives life to them both are the three Witnesses on earth whose attestation cannot fail us Oh precious and soveraign wound by which our Souls are healed Into this cleft of the rock let my Dove fly and enter and there safely hide her self from the talons of all the birds of prey It could not be but that the death of Christ contrived and acted at Jerusalem in so solemn a Festival must needs draw a world of beholders The Romans the Centurion and his band were there as actors as supervisors of the Execution Those strangers were no otherwise ingaged then as they that would hold fair correspondence with the Citizens where they were engarisoned their freedome from prejudice rendred them more capable of an ingenuous construction of all events Now when the Centurion and they that were with him that watched Jesus saw the Earthquake and the things that were done they feared greatly and glorified God and said Truely this was the Son God What a marvelous concurrence is here of strong and irrefragable convictions Meekness in suffering Prayer for his murderers a faithful resignation of his Soul into the hands of his Heavenly Father the Sun eclipsed the Heavens darkned the earth trembling the graves open the rocks rent the veile of the Temple torn who could goe less then this Truly this was the Son of God He suffers patiently this is through the power of Grace many good men have done so through his enabling The frame of Nature suffers with him this is proper to the God of Nature the Son of God I wonder not that these men confessed thus I wonder that any Spectator confessed it not these proofs were enough to fetch all the world upon their knees and to have made all mankind a Convert But all hearts are not alike no means can work upon the wilfully-obdured Even after this the Souldier pierced that Blessed side and whiles Pagans relented Jews continued impenitent Yet even of that Nation those beholders whom envie and partiality had not interessed in this slaughter were stricken with just astonishment and smote their breasts and shook their heads and by passionate gesture spake what their tongues durst not How many must there needs be in this universal concourse of them whom he had healed of diseases or freed from Devils or miraculously fed or some way obliged in their persons or friends These as they were deeply affected with the mortal indignities which were offered to their acknowledged Messiah so they could not but be ravished with wonder at those powerful demonstrations of the Deity of him in whom they believed and strangely distracted in their thoughts whiles they compared those Sufferings with that Omnipotence As yet their Faith and Knowledge was but in the bud or in the blade How could they chuse but think Were he not the Son of God how could these things be and if he were the Son of God how could he die His Resurrection his Ascension should soon after perfect their belief but in the mean time their hearts could not but be conflicted with thoughts hard to be reconciled Howsoever they glorifie God and stand amazed at the expectation of the issue But above all other O thou Blessed Virgin the Holy Mother of our Lord how many swords pierced thy Soul whiles standing close by his Cross thou sawest thy dear Son and Saviour thus indignely used thus stripped thus stretched thus nailed thus bleeding thus dying thus pierced How did thy troubled heart now recount what the Angel Gabriel had reported to thee from God in the message of thy blessed Conception of that Son of God How didst thou think of the miraculous formation of that thy Divine burden by the power of the Holy Ghost How didst thou recal those prophecies of Anna and Simeon concerning him and all those supernatural works of his the irrefragable proofs of his Godhead and laying all these together with the miserable infirmities of his Passion how wert thou crucified with him The care that he took for thee in the extremity of his torments could not chuse but melt thy heart into sorrow But
and felicity if his absence could be grievous his return shall be happy and glorious Even so Lord Jesus come quickly In the mean while it is not Heaven that can keep thee from me it is not earth that can keep me from thee Raise thou up my Soul to a life of Faith with thee let me ever injoy thy conversation whiles I exspect thy return A SERMON OF PUBLICK THANKSGIVING For the wonderful Mitigation of the late Mortalitie Preached before His Majestie upon His gracious Command at His Court of Whitehall Jan. 29. 1625. and upon the same Command published by JOS. HALL Dean of Worcester Psal 68. vers 19 20. Blessed be the Lord who loadeth us daily with benefits even the God of our Salvation Selah He that is our God is the God of Salvation and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death YEa blessed be the Lord who hath added this unto the load of his other Mercies to his unworthy servant that the same Tongue which was called not long since to chatter out our Publick Mournings in the Solemn Fast of this place is now imployed in a Song of Praise and the same Hand which was here lifted up for Supplication is now lift up in Thanksgiving Ye that then accompanied me with your tears and sighs accompany me now I beseech you in this happy change of note and time with your joyful Smiles and Acclamations to the GOD that hath wrought it It is not more natural for the Sun when it looks upon a moist and wellfermented earth to cause Vapors to ascend thence then it is for Greatness and Goodness when they both meet together upon an honest heart to draw up holy desires of gratulation The worth of the Agent doth it not alone without a â—it disposition in the Subject Let the Sun cast his strongest beams upon a flint a pumice he fetches out no stream Even so the Greatness and Goodness of the Almighty beating upon a dry and hard heart prevailes nothing Here all three are happily met In God infinite Greatness infinite Goodness such Greatness that he is attended with thousand thousands of Angels a Guard fit for the King of Heaven such Goodness that he receives Gifts even for the rebellious In David a Gracious heart that in a sweet sense of the great Goodness of his God breaths out this Divine Epiphonema Blessed be the Lord who loadeth us daily with benefits even the God of our Salvation c. Wherein methinks the sweet Singer of Israel seems to raise his note to the emulation of the Quire of Heaven in the melody of their Allelujahs yea let me say now that he sings above in that Blessed Consort of glorious Spirits his Ditty cannot be better then this that he sung here upon earth and wherein we are about to bear our parts at this time Prepare I beseech you both your eares for David's Song and your hearts and tongues for your own And first in this Angelical strain your thoughts cannot but observe without me the Descant and the Ground The Descant of Gratulation Blessed be the Lord wherein is both Applause and Excitation an Applause given to God's Goodness and an Excitation of others to give that Applause The Ground is a threefold respect Of what God is in himself God and Lord Of what God is and doth to us which loadeth us daily with benefits Of what he is both in himself and to us The God of our Salvation which last like to some rich Stone is set off with a dark foyl To God the Lord belong the issues from death So in the first for his own sake in the second for our sakes in the third for his own and ours as God as Lord as a Benefactor as a Saviour and Deliverer Blessed be the Lord. It is not hard to observe that David's Allelujahs are more then his Hosannas his thanks more then his suits Oft-times doth he praise God when be begs nothing seldome ever doth he beg that favour for which he doth not raise up his Soul to an anticipation of Thanks neither is this any other then the universal under-song of all his Heavenly Ditties Blessed be the Lord. Praised as our former Translation hath it is too low Honour is more then Praise Blessing is more then Honour Neither is it for nothing that from this word Barac to bless is derived Berec the knee which is bowed in blessing and the cryer before Joseph proclaimed Abrech calling for the honour of the knee from all beholders Gen. 41. 43. Every slight trivial acknowledgement of worth is a Praise Blessing is in a higher strain of gratitude that carries the whole sway of the heart with it in a kinde of Divine rapture Praise is in matter of complement Blessing of Devotion The Apostle's Rule is that the less is blessed of the greater Abraham of the King of Salem The Prophets charge is that the greater should be blessed of the less yea the greatest of the least God of man This agrees well Blessing is an act that will bear reciprocation God blesseth man and man blesseth God God blesseth man imperatively man blesseth God optatively God blesseth man in the acts of Mercy man blesseth God in the notions in the expressions of thanks God blesses man when he makes him good and happy man blesseth God when he confesseth how good how gracious how glorious he is so as the blessing is wholly taken up in agnition in celebration in the one we acknowledge the Bounty of God to us in the other we magnifie him vocally really for that Bounty Oh see then what high account God makes of the affections and actions of his poor silly earth-creeping creatures that he gives us in them power to bless himself and takes it as an honour to be blessed of us David wonders that God should so vouchsafe to bless man how much more must we needs wonder at the mercy of God that will vouchsafe to be blessed by man a worm an atome a nothing Yet both S. James tels us that with the tongue we bless God and the Psalmist calls for it here as a service of dear acceptation Blessed be the Lord. Even we men live not Cameleon-like with the aire of thanks nor feed ere the fatter with praises how much less our Maker O God we know well that whatsoever men or Angels doe or doe not thou canst not but be infinitely Blessed in thy self before ever any creature was thou didst equally injoy thy blessed Self from all Eternity what can this worthless loose filme of flesh either adde to or detract from thine Infiniteness Yet thou that humblest thy self to behold the things that are done in Heaven and earth humblest thy self also to accept the weak breath of our Praises that are sent up to thee from earth to Heaven How should this incourage the vows the endeavours of our hearty thankfulness to see them graciously taken Would men take up with good words with good desires and quit our bonds
for thanks who would be a debter With the God of Mercy this cheap payment is current If he then will honour us so far as to be blessed of us Oh let us honour him so far as to blesse him Quare verbis parcam gratuita sunt Why do we spare thanks that cost us nothing as that wise heathen O give unto the Lord ye mighty give unto the Lord the praises due to his name offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving and still let the foot of our song be Blessed be the Lord. This for the Descant of gratulation the Ground follows His own sake hath reason to be first God will be blessed both as Jah and Adonai the one the style of his Essence the other of his Soveraignty Even the most accursed Deist would confesse that as a pure simple infinite absolute being God is to be blessed for if Being be good and these two be convertible Nature must needs teach him that an absolute and infinite Being must needs be absolutely and infinitely good But what do I blur the Glory of this Day with mention of those Monsters whose Idol is Nature whose Religion is secondary Atheism whose true region is the lowest Hell Those damned Ethnicks cannot will not conceive of God as he is because they impiously sever his Essence from his inward Relations We Christians can never be so heavenly affected to God as we ought till we can rise to this pitch of Piety to blesse God for what he is in himself without the external beneficial relations to the creature Else our respects reflect too much homeward and we do but look through God at our selves Neither is it for us only to blesse him as an absolute God but as a Soveraign Lord too whose Power hath no more limit then his Essence the great Moderator of Heaven and earth giving laws to his creature overruling all things marshalling all events crushing his enemies maintaining his Church adored by Angels trembled at by Devils Behold here a Lord worthy to be blessed We honour as we ought your conspicuous Greatness O ye eminent Potentates of the earth but alas what is this to the great Lord of Heaven when we look up thither we must crave leave to pity the breath of your nostrils the rust of your Coronets the dust of your graves the sting of your felicities and if ye take not good heed the blots of your memories As ye hold all in â—ee from this great Lord so let it be no disparagement to you to doe your lowliest homage to his footstool homage I mean in Action give me the reall benediction I am sure that is the best They blesse God that praise him they blesse him more and praise him best that obey him There are that crouch to you Great ones who yet hate you Oh let us take heed of offering these hollow observances to the searcher of hearts if we love not our own confusion They that proclaimed Christ at Jerusalem had not only Hosanna in their mouths but palms in their hands too so must we have Let me say then If the Hand bless not the Lord the Tongue is an Hypocrite Away with the wast complements of our vain Formalities Let our loud actions drown the language of our words in blessing the name of the Lord. Neither must we bless God as a Soveraign Lord only but which is yet a more feeling relation as a munificent Benefactor Who loadeth us daily with benefits Such is man's self-love that no inward worth can so attract his praises as outward beneficence Whiles thou makest much of thy self every one shall speak well of thee how much more whiles thou makest much of them Here God hath met with us also Not to perplex you with scanning the variety of senses wherewith I have observed this Psalm above all other of David's to abound see here I beseech you a four-fold gradation of Divine Bounty First here are Benefits The word is not expressed in the Original but necessarily implied in the sense for there are but three loads whereof man is capable from God Favours Precepts Punishments the other two are out of the road of Gratulation When we might therefore have exspected Judgments behold hold Benefits And those secondly not sparingly handfulled out to us but dealt to us by the whole load loadeth with benefits Whom thirdly doth he load but us Not worthy and well-deserving subjects but us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rebels And lastly this he doth not at one doal and no more as even churls rare Feasts use to be plentifull but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 successively unweariedly perpetually One favour were too much here are Benefits a sprinkling were too much here is a load once were too oft here is daily largition Cast your eyes therefore a little upon this threefold exaggeration of Beneficence the measure a load of benefits the subject unworthy us the time daily Who daily loadeth us with benefits Where shall we begin to survey this vast load of Mercies Were it no more but that he hath given us a world to live in a life to injoy aire to breath in earth to tread on fire to warm us water to cool and cleanse us cloaths to cover us food to nourish us sleep to refresh us houses to shelter us variety of creatures to serve and delight us here were a just load But now if we yet adde to these civility of breeding dearnesse of friends competency of Estate degrees of Honour honesty or dignity of vocation favour of Princes successe in imployments domestick comforts outward peace good reputation preservation from dangers rescue from evils the load is well mended If yet ye shall come closer and adde due proportion of Body integrity of parts perfection of senses strength of nature mediocrity of health sufficiency of appetite vigour of digestion wholsome temper of seasons freedome from cares this course must needs heighten it yet more If still ye shall adde to these the order and power and exercise of our inward Faculties inriched with Wisdome Art Learning Experience expressed by a not-unhandsome Elocution and shall now lay all these together that concern Estate Body Minde how can the axel-tree of the Soul but crack under the load of these Favours But if from what God hath done for us as men we look to what he hath done for us as Christians that he hath imbraced us with an everlasting Love that he hath molded us anew enlivened us by his Spirit fed us by his Word Sacraments clothed us with his Merits bought us with his Blood becoming vile to make us glorious a Curse to invest us with Blessedness in a word that he hath given himself to us his Son for us Oh the height and depth and breadth of the rich mercies of our God! Oh the boundlesse toplesse bottomlesse load of Divine benefits whose immensity reaches from the center of this earth to the unlimited extent of the very Empyreal Heavens Oh that men would praise the
he that put it into the heart of his Gracious Servant to command a Ninive-like Humiliation What pithie what passionate Prayers were injoined to his disconsolate Church With what holy eagernesse did we devour those Fasts How well were we pleased with the austerity of that pious Penitence What loud cries did beat on all sides at the gates of Heaven and with what inexspectable unconceivable mercy were they answered How suddenly were those many thousands brought down to one poor unity not a number Other evils were wont to come on horseback to goe away on foot this mortality did not post but flie away Methought like unto the great ice it sunk at once Only so many are stricken as may hold us awfull and so few as may leave us thankfull Oh how soon is our Fasting and mourning turned into Laughter and joy How boldly do we now throng into this House of God and fearlesly mix our breaths in a common Devotion This is the Lord 's doing and it is marvailous in our eyes O thou that hearest the prayer to thee shall all flesh come And let all flesh come to thee with the voice of Praise and Thanksgiving It might have been just with thee O God to have swept us away in the common destruction what are we better then our brethren Thou hast let us live that we may praise thee It might have been just with thee to have inlarged the commission of thy killing Angel and to have rooted out this sinfull people from under Heaven But in the midst of judgment thou hast remembred mercy Our sins have not made thee forget to be gracious nor have shut up thy loving kindnesse in displeasure Thou hast wounded us and thou hast healed us again thou hast delivered us and been mercifull to our sins for thy names sake Oh that we could duly praise thy Name in the great Congregation Oh that our tongues our hearts our lives might blesse and glorifie thee that so thou mayest take pleasure to perfect this great work of our full deliverance and to make this Nation a dear example of thy Mercy of Peace Victory Prosperity to all the world In the mean time let us call all our fellow-creatures to help us bear a part in the Praise of our God Let the Heavens the Stars the winds the waters the dews the frosts the nights the dayes let the Earth and Sea the mountains wells trees fishes fouls beasts let men let Saints let Angels blesse the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever Blessed blessed for ever be the Lord who loadeth us daily with benefits even the God of our Salvation to whom belong the issues from death Oh blessed be the Lord God of Israel who only doth wondrous things and blessed be his glorious Name for ever and ever and let all the earth be filled with his glory Amen Amen One of the SERMONS Preached at Westminster on the day of the Publick Fast April 5. 1628. TO The Lords of the High Court of Parliament and by their appointment published by the B. of EXCESTER Esay 5. vers 4 5. What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes brought it forth wilde grapes And now goe to I will tell you what I will doe to my Vineyard I will take away the hedge thereof IT is a piece of a Song for so it is called Vers 1. Alas what should Songs doe to an heavy heart Prov. 25. 20. or Musick in a day of Mourning Howling and lamentation is fitter for this occasion Surely as we do sometimes weep for joy so do we sing also for sorrow Thus also doth the Prophet here If it be a Song it is a Dump Esay's Lacrymae fit for that Sheminith gravis symphonia as Tremelius turns it which some sad Psalms were set unto Both the Ditty and the Tune are dolefull There are in it three passionate strains Favours Wrongs Revenge Blessings Sins Judgements Favours and Blessings from God to Israel Sins which are the highest Wrongs from Israel to God Judgments by way of Revenge from God to Israel And each of those follow upon other God begins with Favours to his people they answer him with their Sins he replies upon them with Judgments and all of these are in their height The Favours of God are such as he asks What could be more The Sins are aggravated by those Favours what worse then wilde Grapes and disappointment And the Judgments must be aggravated to the proportion of their Sins what worse then the Hedge taken away the Wall broken the Vineyard trodden down and eaten up Let us follow the steps of God and his Prophet in all these and when we have passed these in Israel let us seek to them at home What should I need to crave attention the businesse is both Gods and our own God and we begin with Favours Favours not mean and ordinary not expressed in a right-down affirmation but in an expostulatory and self-convincing Question What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done to it Every word is a new obligation That Israel is a Vineyard is no small favour of God that it is God's Vineyard is yet more that it is God's Vineyard so exquisitely cultivated as nothing more could be either added or desired is most of all Israel is no vast Desart no wilde Forest no moorish Fen no barren Heath no thornie Thicket but a Vineyard a Soile of use and fruit Look where you will in God's Book ye shall never finde any lively member of Gods Church compared to any but a fruitfull tree Not to a tall Cypresse the Embleme of unprofitable Honour nor to a smooth Ash the Embleme of unprofitable Prelacie that doth nothing but bear Keyes nor to a double-coloured Poplar the Embleme of Dissimulation nor to a well-shaded Plane that hath nothing but Form nor to a hollow Maple nor to a trembling Aspe nor to a prickly Thorn shortly not to any Plant whatsoever whose fruit is not usefull and beneficial Hear this then ye goodly Cedars strong Elmes fast-growing Willows sappy Sycomores and all the rest of the fruitlesse trees of the earth I mean all fashionable and barren Professors whatsoever ye may shoot up in height ye may spread far shade well shew fair but what are ye good for Ye may be fit for the Forest Ditches Hedg-rows of the world ye are not for the true saving soil of God's Israel that is a Vineyard there is place for none but Vines and true Vines are fruitfull He that abideth in me bringeth forth much fruit saith our Saviour John 15. 5. And of all fruits what is comparable to that of the Vine Let the Vine it self speak in Jonathan's Parable Jud. 9. 13. Should I leave my Wine which cheareth God and man How is this God cheared with Wine It is an high Hyperbole yet seconded by the God of truth I will
desire to save the labour of Transcriptions I found it not unfit the World should see what Preparative was given for so stirring a Potion neither can there be so much need in these languishing times of any discourse as that which serves to quicken our Mortification wherein I so much rejoyce to have so happily met with those Reverend Bishops who led the way and followed me in this Holy Service The God of Heaven make all our endeavours effectuall to the saving of the Souls of his people Amen A SERMON PREACHED To his Majestie on the Sunday before the Fast being March 30. at White-hall In way of preparation for that holy Exercise By the B. of EXCESTER Galat. 2. 20. I am crucified with Christ Neverthelesse I live c. HE that was once tossed in the confluence of two Seas Acts 27. 41. was once no lesse streightned in his resolutions betwixt life and death Phil. 1. 23. Neither doth my Text argue him in any other case here As there he knew not whether he should chuse so here he knew not whether he had I am crucified there he is dead yet I live there he is alive again yet not I there he lives not but Christ in me there he more then lives This holy correction makes my Text full of wonders full of sacred riddles 1. The living God is dead upon the Crosse Christ crucified 2. S. Paul who died by the sword dies on the Cross 3. S. Paul who was not Paul till after Christ's death is yet crucified with Christ 4. S. Paul thus crucified yet lives 5. S. Paul lives not himself whiles he lives 6. Christ who is crucified lives in Paul who was crucified with him See then here both a Lent and an Easter A Lent of Mortification I am crucified with Christ an Easter of Resurrection and life I live yet not I but Christ lives in me The Lent of my Text will be sufficient as proper for this season wherein my speech shall passe through three long stages of discourse Christ crucified S. Paul crucified S. Paul crucified with Christ In all which your Honourable and Christian patience shall as much shorten my way as my care shall shorten the way to your patience Christ's Cross is the first lesson of our infancy worthy to be our last and all The great Doctor of the Gentiles affected not to flie any higher pitch Grande crucis Sacramentum as Ambrose This is the greatest wonder that ever earth or heaven yielded God incarnate was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but God suffering and dying was so much more as Death is more penal then Birth The God-head of man and the blood of God are two such Miracles as the Angels of Heaven can never enough look into never admire enough Ruffin tells us that among the Sacred Characters of the Egyptians the Cross was antiently one which was said to signifie eternal life hence their Learneder sort were converted to and confirmed in the Faith Surely we know that in God's Hieroglyphicks Eternal Life is both represented and exhibited to us by the Crosse That the Crosse of Christ was made of the Tree of Life a slip whereof the Angels gave to Adam's son out of Paradise is but a Jewish Legend Galatine may believe it not we but that it is made the Tree of Life to all believers we are sure This is the only scale of Heaven never man ascended thither but by it By this Christ himself climb'd up to his own glory Dominus regnavit à ligno as Tertullian translates that of the Psalm Father glorifie thy name that is saith he Duc me ad crucem Lift me up to the tree not of my shame but of my triumph Behold we preach Christ crucified saith Saint Paul to the Jews a stumbling-block to the Greeks foolishnesse but to them which are called Christ the power of God and the wisdome of God 1 Cor. 1. 23. Foolish men that stumble at power and deride wisdome Upbraid us now ye fond Jews and Pagans with a Crucified Saviour It is our glory it is our happinesse which ye make our reproach Had not our Saviour died he could have been no Saviour for us had not our Saviour died we could not have lived See now the flag of our dear Redeemer this Cross shining eminently in loco pudoris in our foreheads and if we had any place more high more conspicuous more honourable there we would advance it O blessed Jesu when thou art thus lifted up on thy Cross thou drawest all hearts unto thee there thou leadest captivity captive and givest gifts unto men Ye are deceived O ye blinde Jews and Painims ye are deceived it is not a Gibbet it is a Throne of Honour to which our Saviour is raised a Throne of such Honour as to which Heaven and earth and hell do and must vail The Sun hides his awfull head the earth trembles the rocks rend the graves open and all the frame of Nature doth homage to their Lord in this secret but Divine pomp of Crucifixion And whiles ye think his feet and hands despicably fixed behold he is powerfully trampling upon Hell and Death and setting up trophees of his most glorious Victory and scattering everlasting Crowns and Scepters unto all Believers O Saviour I do rather more adore thee on the Calvary of thy Passion then on the Tabor of thy Transsiguration or the Olivet of thine Ascension and cannot so effectuously blesse thee for Pater clarifica Father glorifie me as for My God my God why hast thou forsaken me sith it is no news for God to be great and glorious but for the Eternal and ever-living God to be abased to be abased unto death to the death of the Cross is that which could not but amaze the Angels and confound Devils and so much more magnifies thine infinite Mercy by how much an infinite person would become more ignominious All Hosannas of men all Allellujahs of Saints and Angels come short of this Majestick humiliation Blessing honour glory and power be unto him that sits upon the throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever Revel 5. 13. And ye Honourable and beloved as ever ye hope to make musick in Heaven learn to tune your harps to the note and ditty of these Heavenly Elders Rejoice in this and rejoice in nothing but this Cross not in your transitory Honours Titles Treasures which will at the last leave you inconsolately sorrowfull but in this Cross of Christ whereby the world is crucified to you and you to the world Oh clip and embrace this pretious Cross with both your arms and say with that blessed Martyr Amor meus crucifixus est My Love is crucified Those that have searched into the monuments of Jerusalem write that our Saviour was crucified with his face to the West which howsoever spightfully meant of the Jews as not allowing him worthy to look on the Holy City and Temple yet was not without a mysterie Oculi ejus super Gentes respiciunt
God of Heaven Now they fill every mouth and beat every eare in a neglected familiarity What should I tell you of the overgrown frequence of Oppressions Extortions Injurious and fraudulent transactions malicious Suits The neighbour walls of this famous adjoyning Palace can too amply witness this truth whose roof if as they say it will admit of no Spiâ—ers I am sure the floor of it yields venome enough to poison a Kingdome What should I tell you of the sensible declination to our onceloathed Superstitions of the common trade of contemptuous disobediences to lawful Authority the scornful undervaluing of Gods Messengers the ordinary neglect of his Sacred Ordinances what speak I of these and thousands more There are Arithmeticians that have taken upon them to count how many corns of sand would make up the bulk of Heaven and earth but no Art can reckon up the multitude of our provoking sins Neither do they more exceed in number then Magnitude Can there be a greater sin then Idolatry Is not this besides all the rest the sin of the present Romish Generation One of their own confesses as he well may that were not the Bread transubstantiate their Idolatry were more gross then the heathenish Lo nothing excuses them but an impossible Figment Know O ye poor ignorant seduced Souls that the Bread can be no more turned into God then God can be turned into Bread into nothing The very Omnipotent Power of God barrs these impious contradictions My heart trembles therefore and bleeds to think of your highest your holiest Devotions Can there be a greater sin then robbing of God This is done by our Sacrilegious Patrons Can there be a greater sin then tearing God out of Heaven with our bloody and blasphemous Oathes then the famishing of Souls by a wilful or lazie silence then rending in pieces the bowels of our dear Mother the Church by our headstrong and frivolous dissentions then furious Murders then affronts of Authority These these are those huge mountains which our Giantlike presumption rolls upon each other to warre against Heaven Neither are the sins of men more great then Audacious yea it is their impudency that makes them hainous bashful offences rise not to extremity of evil The sins of excess as they are opera tenebrarum so they had wont to be night-works They that are drunken are drunk in the night saith the Apostle now they dare with Absolom's beastliness call the Sun to record Saint Bernard tells us of a Daemon meridianus a noon-Devil out of the Vulgar misâ—translation of the 90 Psalme Surely that ill spirit walks about busily and haunts the licentious conversation of inordinate men Unjust Exactions of griping Officers had wont to creep in under the modest cloak of voluntary courtesie or faire considerations of a befriended expedition now they come like Elie's sons Nay but thou shalt give it me now and if not I will take it by force 1 Sam. 2. 16. The legal Thefts of professed Usurers and the crafty compacts of slie Oppressors dare throw down the gantlet to Justice and insolent Disobediences doe so to Authority And when we denounce the fearful Judgments of God against all these abominable wickednesses the obdured sinner dares jeare us in the face and in a worse sense ask the Disciples question Domine quando fient haec Master when shall these things be Yea their self-flattering incredulity dares say to their Soul as Peter did to his Master Favour thy self for these things shall not happen to thee Neither lastly would sin dare to be so impudent if it were not for Impunity it cannot be but cowardly where it sees cause of fear Every hand is not to be laid upon evil If an Errour should arise in the Church it is not for every unlearned Tradesman to cast away his yard-wand and take up his pen. Wherefore serve Universities if every Blew apron may at his pleasure turn Licenciate of Divinity and talk of Theological questions which he understands not as if they were to be measured by the Ell O times Lord whether will this presumption grow Deus omen c. If folly if villany be committed in our Israel it is not for every man to be an Officer Who made thee a Judge was a good question though ill asked But I would to God we had more cause to complain of the presumption of them who meddle with what they should not then the neglect of them who meddle not with what they should Woe is me the flood-gates of evil are as it were lift open and the full stream gusheth upon us Not that I would cast any aspersion upon Sacred Soveraignty No blessed be God for his dear Anointed of whom we may truly and joyfully say that in imitation of him whom he represents he loves Justice and hates Iniquity It is the partiality or flackness of the subordinate inferiour executions that is guilty of this prevalence of sin What can the head doe where the hands are wanting to what use is the water derived from the cistern into the pipes if the cock be not turned What availes it if children are brought to the birth if they want a midwifty to deliver them Can there possibly be better Laws then have in our times been enacted against Drunkenness where or when are they executed Can there be a better Law made for the restraint of too-too common Oathes who urges who payes that just mulct Can there be better Laws against wilful Recusancy against Simony against Sacriledge how are they eluded by fraudulent evasions Against neglect of Divine Service yet how are they slighted Against the lawless wandring of lazie Vagabonds yet how full are our streets how empty our Correction-houses Lastly for it were easie to be endless can there be better Laws then are made for the punishment of Fornications Adulteries and all other fleshly inordinatenesses how doth bribery and corruption smother these offences as if the sins of men served only to inrich covetous Officers Now put all these together the Multitude the Magnitude the Boldness the Impunity of sin and tell me whether all these do not make this of ours generationem pravam a froward generation So as we may too well take up Esay's complaint Ab sinful nation a people laden with iniquity a seed of evil doers children that are corrupters Esa 1. 4. Honorable and beloved how should we be humbled under the hand of our God in the sense of our many great bold and lawless sins What sackcloth what ashes can be enough for us Oh that our faces could be covered with confusion that we could rend our hearts and not our garments Be afflicted and mourn and weep and thus Save your selves from this froward generation And so from St. Peter's Attestation to their wickedness we descend to his Obtestation of their redress Save your selves We must be so much shorter in the remedy as we have been longer in the disease The remedy is but of a short sound but of a long
subduction thus Save thy self from a froward generation The last and utmost of all dangers is Confusion That charge of God by Moses is but just Numb 16. 26. Depart I pray you from the tents of these men and touch nothing of theirs lest ye perish in all their sins Lo the very station the very touch is mortal Indeed what reason is there to hope or to plead for an immunity if we share in the work why should we not take part of the wages The wages of sin is death If the Stork be taken damage faisant with the Cranes she is enwrapped in the same net and cannot complain to be surprized Qui cum lupis est cum lupis ululet as he said He that is with wolves let him howl with wolves If we be fratres in malo brethren in evil we must look to be involved in the same curse Be not deceived Honourable and beloved here is no exemption of Greatness nay contrarily Eminence of place aggravates both the sin and the judgement When Ezra heard that the hand of the Princes and Rulers had been chief in that great offence then he rent his cloaths and tore his hair Ezra 9. 3. Certainly this case is dangerous and fearful wheresoever it lights Hardly are those sins redressed that are taken up by the Great Easily are those sins diffused that are warranted by great Examples The great Lights of Heaven the most conspicuous Planets if they be eclipsed all the Almanacks of all Nations write of it whereas the small Stars of the Galaxy are not heeded All the Country runs to a Beacon on fire no body regards to see a Shrub flaming in a valley Know then that your sins are so much greater as your selves are and all the comfort that I can give you without your true repentance is That mighty men shall be mightily tormented Of all other men therefore be ye most careful to keep your selves untainted with the common sins and to renew your covenant with God No man cares for a spot upon a plain russet riding-suit but we are curious of a rich robe every mote there is an eye-sore Oh be ye careful to preserve your Honour from all the foul blemishes of corruption as those that know Vertue hath a greater share in Nobility then Blood Imitate in this the great frame of the Creation which still the more it is removed from the dregs of this earth the purer it is Oh save ye your selves from this untoward Generation so shall ye help to save your Nation from the imminent Judgements of our just God so shall ye save your Souls in the day of the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost one infinite God be all Honour and Glory ascribed now and for ever Amen THE HYPOCRITE Set forth in A SERMON at the Court February 28. 1629. Being the third Sunday in LENT By Jos. Exon. To my ever most worthily Honour'd Lord the Earl of NORWICH My most Honoured Lord I Might not but tell the world that this Sermon which was mine in the Pulpit is Yours in the Press Your Lordship's will which shall never be other then a command to me fetches it forth into the Light before the fellows Let me be branded with the Title of it if I can think it worthy of the publick view in comparison of many accurate pieces of others which I see content themselves daily to die in the ear Howsoever if it may doe good I shall bless your Lordship for helping to advance my gain Your Noble and sincere true-heartedness to your God your King your Countrey your Friend is so well known that it can be no disparagement to your Lordship to patronize this Hypocrite whose very inscription might cast a blur upon some guilty reputation Goe on still most noble Lord to be a great Example of Vertue and Fidelity to an hollow and untrusty Age. You shall not want either the Acclamations or Prayers of Your Lordships ever devoted in all true Duty and Observance Jos. Exon. THE HYPOCRITE 2 Tim. 3. 5. Having a Form of Godliness but denying the Power thereof IT is an unperfect Clause you see but a perfect Description of an Hypocrite and that an Hypocrite of our own times the last which are so much the worse by how much they partake more of the craft and diseases of age The Prophets were the Seers of the Old Testament the Apostles were the Seers of the New those saw Christ's day and rejoyced these foresaw the reign of Antichrist and complained These very times were as present to S. Paul as to us our Sense doth not see them so clearly as his Revelation I am with you in the Spirit saith he to his absent Colossians rejoycing and beholding your order he doth as good as say to them I am with you in the Spirit lamenting and beholding your misdemeanours By these Divine Opticks he sees our formal Piety real Wickedness both which make up the complete Hypocrisie in my Text Having a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof I doubt not but some will be ready to set this sacred Prognostication to another Meridian And indeed we know a Generation that loves themselves too well much more then Peace and Truth so covetous that they would catch all the world in S. Peter's net proud boasters of their own merits perfections supererogations it would be long though easie to follow all We know where too many Treasons are hatched we know who in the height of minde exalts himself above all that is called God we know where pleasure hath the most delicate and debauch'd Clients we know where Devotion is professedly formal and lives impure and surely were we clearly innocent of these crimes I should be the first that would cast this stone at Rome But now that we share with them in these sins there is no reason we should be sejoyned in the Censure Take it among ye therefore ye Hypocrites of all professions for it is your own Ye have a form of Godliness denying the power thereof What is an Hypocrite but a Player the Zani of Religion as ye heard lately A Player acts that he is not so do ye act good and are wicked Here is a semblance of good a form of Godliness here is a real evil a denial of the power of Godliness There is nothing so good as Godliness yea there is nothing good but it nothing makes Godliness to be good or to be Godliness but the power of it for it is not if it work not and it works not if not powerfully Now the denial of good must needs be evil and so much more evil as the good which is denied is more good and therefore the denial of the power of Godliness must needs be as ill as the form or shew of Godliness would seem good and as the power of Godliness is good This is therefore the perfect Hypocrisie of fashionable Christians they have the form they deny the
but dead in sin Colos 2. 13. yea with Lazarus quatriduani and ill-senting yea if that will adde any thing as St. Jude's trees or as they say of acute Scotus twice dead Would ye arise It is only Godliness that can doe it Ye are risen up through the faith in the operation of God Col. 2. 12. This only can call us out of the grave of our sins Arise thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead and christ shall give thee life Christ is the Author Godliness is the means All ye that hear me this day either ye are alive or would be Life is sweet every one challenges it Do ye live willingly in your sins Let me tell you ye are dead in your sins This life is a death If you wish to live comfortably here and gloriously hereafter it is Godliness that must mortifie this life in sin that must quicken you from this death in sin Flatter your selves how you please ye great Gallants of both Sexes ye think your selves goodly pieces without Godliness ye are the worst kinde of carkasses for as death or not-being is the worst condition that can befall a creature so death in sin is so much the worst kind of death by how much Grace is better then Nature A living Dog or Toad is better then a thus-dead sinner Would ye rise out of this loathsome and woful plight it is Godliness that must breath Grace into your dead lims and that must give you the motions of holy Obedience Is it not a wonder to cast out Devils I tell you the corporal possession of ill spirits is not so rare as the spiritual is rise No natural man is free One hath the spirit of errour 1 Tim. 4. 1. another the spirit of fornications Ose 4. 12. another the spirit of fear 2 Tim. 1. 7. another the spirit of slumber another the spirit of giddiness another the spirit of pride all have spiritum mundi the spirit of the world 1 Cor. 2. 12. Our story in Guliel Neubrigensis tells us of a Countryman of ours one Kettle of Farnham in King Henry the Second's time that had the faculty to see spirits by the same token that he saw the Devils spitting over the Drunkards shoulders into their pots the same faculty is recorded of Antony the Eremite and Sulpitius reports the same of Saint Martin Surely there need none of these eyes to discern every natural mans Soul haunted with these evil Angels Let me assure you all ye that have not yet felt the power of Godliness ye are as truely though spiritually carried by evil spirits into the deeps of your known wickedness as ever the Gadarene hogs were carried by them down the precipice into the Sea Would you be free from this hellish tyranny only the power of Godliness can doe it 2 Tim. 2. 26 27. Is peradventure God will give them repentance that they may recover themselves out of the snares of the Devil and Repentance is you know a main part of Godliness If ever therefore ye be dispossessed of that Evil one it is the power of Godliness that must doe it What speak I of power I had like to have ascribed to it the acts of Omnipotencie And if I had done so it had not been much amiss for what is Godliness but one of those rayes that beams forth from that Almighty Deity what but that same Dextra Excelsi whereby he works mightily upon the Soul Now when I say the man is strong is it any derogation to say his arme is strong Faith and Prayer are no small pieces of Godliness and what is it that God can doe which Prayer and Faith cannot doe Will ye see some instances of the further acts of Godliness Is it not an act of Omnipotence to change Nature Jannes and Jambres the Aegyptian Sorcerers may juggle away the Staffe and bring a Serpent into the room of it none but a Divine power which Moses wrought by could change the Rod into a Serpent or the Serpent into a Rod. Nothing is above Nature but the God of Nature nothing can change Nature but that which is above it for Nature is regular in her proceedings and will not be crost by a finite power since all finite Agents are within her command Is it not a manifest change of the nature of the Wolf to dwell quietly with the Lamb of the Leopard to dwell with the Kid of the Lion to eat straw with the Oxe of the Aspe to play with the child How shall this be It is an idle conceit of the Hebrews that savage beasts shall forgo their hurtful natures under the Messias No but rational beasts shall alter their dispositions The ravenous Oppressor is the Wolf the tyrannical Persecutor is the Leopard the venemous Heretick is the Aspe these shall turn innocent and useful by the power of Godliness for then the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord Esay 11. 6 c. Is it not a manifest change of nature for the Ethiopian to turn white for the Leopard to turn spotless This is done when those doe good which are accustomed to evil Jer. 13. 23. And this Godliness can doe Is it not a manifest change of nature for the Camel to pass through a needles eye this is done when through the power of Godliness ye Great and rich men get to Heaven Lastly it is an easie thing to turn men into beasts a cup too much can doe it but to turn beasts into men men into Saints Devils into Angels it is no less then a work of Omnipotencie And this Godliness can doe But to rise higher then a change Is it not an act of Omnipotencie to create Nature can go on in her track whether of continuing what she actually finds to be or of producing what she finds to be potentially in pre-existing Causes but to make new matter transcends her power This Godliness can doe here is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a new Creature 2 Cor. 5. 17. There is in Nature no predisposition to Grace the man must be no less new then when he was made first of the dust of the earth and that earth of nothing Novus homo Eph. 4. 24. How is this done by Creation and how is he created in righteousness and holiness Holiness to God Righteousness to men both make up Godliness A Regeneration is here a Creation Progenuit is expressed by Creavit Jam. 1. 18. and this by the word of truth Old things are passed saith the Apostle all must be new If we will have ought to doe with God our bodies must be renewed by a glorious Resurrection ere they can enjoy Heaven our Souls must be renewed by Grace ere we can enjoy God on earth Are there any of us pained with our heart of stone We may be well enough the stone of the reines or bladder is a woful pain but the stone of the heart is more deadly He can by this power take it out and give us an
Church then is a Dove Not an envious Partridge not a carelesse Ostridge not a stridulous Jay not a petulant Sparrow not a deluding Lapwing not an unclean-sed Duck not a noisome Crow not an unthankfull Swallow not a death-boding Schrich-owl but an harmlesse Dove that fowl in which alone envy it self can finde nothing to tax Hear this then ye violent spirits that think there can be no Piety that is not cruell the Church is a Dove not a Glead not a Vultur not a Falcon not an Eagle not any bird of prey or rapine Who ever saw the rough foot of the Dove armed with griping talons who ever saw the beak of the Dove bloody who ever saw that innocent bird pluming of her spoil and tiring upon bones Indeed we have seen the Church crimson-suited like her celestial Husband of whom the Prophet Who is this that cometh from Edom with died garments from Bozrah and straight Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel and thy garment like him that treadeth in the wine-press Esay 63. 1 2. but it hath been with her own blood shed by others not with others blood shed by her hand She hath learned to suffer what she hateth to inflict Do ye see any Faction with knives in their hands stained with massacres with firebrands in their hands ready to kindle the unjust stakes yea woods of Martyrdome with pistols and poniards in their hands ambitiously affecting a canonization by the death of God's Anointed with matches in their hands ready to give fire unto that powder which shall blow up King Prince State Church with thunderbolts of censures ready to strike down into Hell whosoever refuses to receive novell opinions into the Articles of Faith If ye finde these dispositions and actions Dove-like applaud them as beseeming the true Spouse of Christ who is ever like her self Columba perfecta yea perfecta columba a true Dove for her quiet Innocence For us let our Dove-ship approve it self in meekness of Suffering not in actions of Cruelty We may we must delight in blood but the blood shed for us not shed by us Thus let us be Columba in foraminibus petrae Cant. 2. 14. a Dove in the clifts of the rock that is in vulneribus Christi as the Glosse in the gashes of him that is the true Rock of the Church This is the way to be innocent to be beautifull a Dove and undefiled The Propriety follows My Dove The Kite or the Crow or the Sparrow and such like are challenged by no owner but the Dove still hath a Master The World runs wilde it is ferae naturae but the Church is Christs domestically intirely his My Dove not the worlds not her own Not the worlds for If ye were of the world saith our Saviour the world would love his own but because ye are not of the world but I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you Joh. 15. 19. Not her own so S. Paul 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. Ye are not your own for ye are bought with a price Justly then may he say My Dove Mine for I made her there is the right of Creation Mine for I made her again there is the right of Regeneration Mine for I bought her there is the right of Redemption Mine for I made her mine there is the right of spiritual and inseparable Union O God be we thine since we are thine we are thine by thy Merit let us be thine in our Affections in our Obedience It is our honour it is our happiness that we may be thine Have thou all thine own What should any piece of us be cast away upon the vain glory and trash of this transitory world Why should the powers of darkness run away with any of our services in the momentany pleasures of sin The great King of Heaven hath cast his love upon us and hath espoused us to himself in truth and righteousness oh then why will we cast roving and lustfull eyes upon adulterous rivals base drudges yea why will we run on madding after ugly Devils How justly shall he loath us if we be thus shamefully prostituted Away then with all our unchast glances of desires all unclean ribaldry of conversation let us say mutually with the blessed Spouse My beloved is mine and I am his Cant. 2. 16. My Dove mine as to love so to defend That inference is natural I am thine save me Interest challenges protection The Hand saies It is my Head therefore I will guard it the Head saies It is my Hand therefore I will devise to arm it to withdraw it from violence The Soul saies It is my Body therefore I will cast to cherish it the Body saies It is my Soul therefore I would not part with it The Husband saies Bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he makes much of her Ephes 5. 29. And as she is desiderium oculorum the delight of his eyes to him Ezec. 24. 16. so is he operimentum oculorum the shelter of her eyes to her Gen. 20. 16. In all cases it is thus So as if God say of the Church Columba mea my Dove she cannot but say of him Adjutor meus my helper Neither can it be otherwise save where is lack either of love or power Here can be no lack of either not of Love he saith Whoso toucheth Israel toucheth the apple of mine eye not of power Our God doth whatsoever he will both in heaven and earth Band you your selves therefore ye bloody Tyrants of the world against the poor despised Church of God threaten to trample it to dust and when you have done to carry away that dust upon the soles of your shoes He that sits in Heaven laughs you to scorn the Lord hath you in derision O Virgin Daughter of Sion they have despised thee O daughter of Jerusalem they have shaken their heads at thee But whom have ye reproched and blasphemed and against whom have ye exalted your voice and lift up your eyes on high Even against the Holy one of Israel who hath said Columba mea my Dove Yea let all the spiritual wickednesses in heavenly places all the legions of Hell troup together they shall as soon be able to pluck God out of his throne of Heaven as to pull one feather from the wing of this Dove This Propriety secures her She is Columba mea my Dove From the Propriety turn your eyes to the best of her Properties Unity Let me leave Arithmeticians disputing whether Unity be a number I am sure it is both the beginning of all numbring numbers and the beginning and end of all numbers numbred All Perfection rises hence and runs hither and every thing the nearer it comes to perfection gathers up it self the more towards Unity as all the virtue of the Loadstone is recollected into one point Jehovah our God is one from him there is but one World one Heaven in that world one Sun
one in the Heart One Baptism so it is one in the Face Where these are truly professed to be though there may be differences of administrations and ceremonies though there may be differences in opinions yet there is Columba una all those are but diversly-coloured feathers of the same Dove What Church therefore hath one Lord Jesus Christ the righteous one Faith in that Lord one Baptism into that Faith it is the One Dove of Christ To speak more short one Faith abridges all But what is that one Faith what but the main fundamental Doctrine of Religion necessary to be known to be believed unto Salvation It is a golden and usefull distinction that we must take with us betwixt Christian Articles and Theological Conclusions Christian Articles are the Principles of Religion necessary to a Believer Theological Conclusions are School-points fit for the discourse of a Divine Those Articles are few and essential these Conclusions are many and unimporting upon necessity to Salvation either way That Church then which holds those Christian Articles both in terms and necessary consequences as every visible Church of Christ doth however it vary in these Theological Conclusions is Columba una Were there not much latitude in this Faith how should we fetch in the antient Jewish Church to the unity of the Christian Theirs and ours is but one Dove though the feathers according to the colour of that fowl be changeable It is a fearfull account then that shall once be given before the dreadfull Tribunal of the Son of God the only Husband of this one Church by those men who not like the children of faithfull Abraham divide the Dove multiplying Articles of Faith according to their own fancies and casting out of the bosome of the Church those Christians that differ from their either false or unnecessary conclusions Thus have our great Lords of the Seven hills dared to doe whose faction hath both devoured their Charity and scorned ours to the great prejudice of the Christian world to the irreparable damage of the glorious Gospel of our Lord Jesus The God of Heaven judge in this great case betwixt them and us us who firmly holding the foundation of Christian Religion in all things according to the antient Catholick Apostolick Faith are rejected censured condemned accursed killed for refusing their gainfull Novelties In the mean time we can but lament their fury no lesse then their errours and send out our hopelesse wishes that the seamlesse coat might be darn'd up by their hands that tore it From them to speak to our selves who have happily reformed those errours of theirs which either their ambition or profit would not suffer them to part with since we are one why are we sundred One saies I am Luther's for Consubstantiation another I am Calvin's for Discipline another I am Arminius's for Predestination another I am Barrow's or Brown's for Separation What frenzy possesses the brains of Christians thus to squander themselves into Factions It is indeed an envious cavil of our common adversaries to make these so many Religions No every branch of different Opinion doth not constitute a several Religion were this true I durst boldly say old Rome had not more Deities then the modern Rome hath Religions These things though they do not vary Religions and Churches yet they trouble the quiet unity of the Church Brethren since our Religion is one why are not our tongues one why do we not bite in our singular conceits and binde our tongues to the common Peace But if from particular visible Churches which perhaps you may construe to be the threescore Queens here spoken of you shall turn your eyes to the true inward universal company of Gods Elect and secret ones there shall you more perfectly finde Columbam unam one Dove for what the other is in profession this is in truth that one Baptism is here the true Laver of Regeneration that one Faith is a saving reposal upon Christ that one Lord is the Saviour of his Body No natural body is more one then this mystical one Head rules it one Spirit animates it one set of joynts moves it one Food nourishes it one Robe covers it So it is one in it self so one with Christ as Christ is one with the Father That they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me John 17. 22. Oh blessed Unity of the Saints of God which none of the makebates of Hell can ever be able to dissolve And now since we are thus and every other way one why are we not united in Love why do we in our ordinary conversation suffer slight weaknesses to set off our Charity Mephibosheth was a cripple yet the perfect love of Jonathan either cures or covers his impotency We can no more want infirmities then not be men we cannot stick at infirmities if we be Christians It is but a poor love that cannot passe over small faults even quotidianae incursionis as that Father speaks It is an injurious niceness to condemn a good Face in each other for a little mole Brethren let us not aggravate but pity each others weaknesses and since we are but one Body let us have but one Heart one Way And if we be the Dove of Christ and his Dove is one oh let us be so one with each other as he is one with us And as the Church and Commonwealth are twins so should this be no lesse one with it self and with her temporal head Divisum est cor eorum Their heart is divided was the judgment upon Israel ose 10. 2. Oh how is every good heart divided in sunder with the grief for the late divisions of our Reuben We do not mourn we bleed inwardly for this distraction But I do willingly smother these thoughts yea my just sorrow choaks them in my bosome that they cannot come forth but in sighs and groans O thou that art the God of peace unite all hearts in Love to each other in loyal Subjection to their Soveraign Head Amen As the Church is one in not being divided so she is but one in not being multiplied Here is unus uni unam as the old word is He the true Husband of the Church who made and gave but one Eve to the first Adam will take but one wife to himself the second Adam There are many particular Churches all these make up but one universal as many distinct lims make up but one intire body many grains one bach many drops and streams one Ocean So many Regions as there are under Heaven that do truly professe the Christian name so many National Churches there are in all those Nations there are many Provincial in all those Provinces many Diocesan in all those Dioceses many Parochial Churches in all those Parishes many Christian Families in all those Families many Christian Souls now all those Souls Families Parishes Dioceses Provinces Nations make up but one Catholick Church of Christ upon earth The God of the
no other no better then beast as if according to that old foolish Heresie God had not made both There are those whose hands are white and clean from bribes from extortion but their feet are yet swift to shed blood upon their own private revenge Let not these men say they are transformed Let the first say their face is changed let the next say their tongue is changed let the other say their breasts or hands are changed but unlesse face and tongue and breast and hand and foot and all be changed the man is not changed God be mercifull to us the world is full of such monsters of Hypocrisie who care onely for an appearing change of some eminent and noted part neglecting the whole as some sorry Tap-house white-limes and glazes the front towards the street and sets out a painted sign when there is nothing in the inward parts but sticks and clay and ruines and cold earthen floors and fluttery This is to no purpose If any piece of us be unchanged we are still our old selves odious to God obnoxious to death But as all motions have their termes what is that into which we must be transformed I see transformations enough every where God knows too many I see zealous Professors transformed to key-cold worldlings reformed Catholicks turn'd to Romish Factionists I see men transformed into women in their effeminate dispositions and demeanours women transform'd to men in their affectation of masculine boldness and fashions I see men and women transform'd into Beasts of all kindes some into drunken Swine others into cruell Tigers others into ranck Goats others into mimick Apes yea I see those beasts transform'd again into Devils in the delight they take in sin in their mischievous tempting of others to sin All these are transformed so as it is from good to ill from bad to worse so transformed that as Cypran said of painted faces it is no marvell if God know them not for they have made themselves quite other from what he made them That whereinto we must be transformed is the image of God 2 Cor. 3. 18. consisting in holinesse and righteousness Ephes 4. 24. That Image we once had and lost and now must recover by our transformation Oh blessed change that of the Sons of men we become the children of the ever-living God of the firebrands of hell such we are naturally we become the heirs of Heaven That as the eternal Son of God having the form of God did yet graciously change this glorious habit for the form of a servant so we that are the sons of men should change the servile form of our wretched nature into the Divine form of the Son of God! This is a change not more happy then needfull It was another change that Job said he would wait for but of this change we must say I will not suffer mine eyes to sleep nor mine eye-lids to slumber untill an happy change have wrought this heart of mine which by Nature is no better then a stie of unclean devils to be an habitation for the God of Jacob. Wo be to the man whose last change overtakes him ere this change be wrought in him There is nothing more wretched then a mere man We may brag what we will how noble a creature man is above all the rest how he is the Lord of the world a world within himself the mirrour of Majesty the visible model of his Maker but let me tell you if we be but men it had been a thousand times better for us to have been the worst of beasts Let it not seem to savour of any Misanthropie to say that as all those things which are perfections in creatures are eminently in God so all the vicious dispositions of the creature are eminently in man in that debauch'd and abused Reason is the quintessence of all Bestialitie What speak I of these silly brutes In this streight triangle of man's Heart there is a full Conclave of Cardinal wickednesses an Incorporation of Cheaters a Goal of Malefactors yea a legion of Devils Seest thou then the most loathsome Toad that crawls upon the earth or the most despised Dog that creeps under thy feet thou shalt once envy their condition if thou be not more then a man Thou seest the worst of them thou canst not conceive the worst of thine own For flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdome of God and fores canes without shall be Dogs Revel 22. 15. When they shall be vanished into their first nothing thou shalt be ever dying in those unquenchable flames which shall torment thee so much the more as thou hadst more Wit and Reason without Grace But oh what a wofull thing it is to consider and how may we bemone our selves to Heaven and earth that yet men will not be transformed All the menaces all the terrors of God cannot move men from what they are but he that is filthy will be filthy still In spight of both Law and Gospel men have obdured their selves against the counsel of God they have an iron neck Esa 48. 4. an uncircumcised care Jer. 6. 10. a brawny heart Mark 3. 5. Say God and man what they will these enchanted creatures will rather be beasts still then return to men If we will not change be sure God will not He hath said it and he will perform it After thine hardness and heart that cannot repent thou treasurest up unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God Rom. 2. 5. Far far be this obstinacy from us Honorable and beloved For God's sake for your Souls sake yield your selves willingly into the hands of God and say Convert me O Lord and I shall be converted As we love our selves and fear hell let us not content our selves with the shape with the faculties of men but let us be transformed and think that we were only made men that we might passe through the estate of humanity to Regeneration This for the Transformation See now that this transformation must be by Renewing The same Spirit that by Solomon said There is nothing new under the Sun saith by S. Paul All things are become new Nothing is so new that it hath not been All things must be so new as they were This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 renovation implies that which once was and therefore was new before That God who is the Antient of daies doth not dislike any thing for mere Age for Time is his and continuance of Time is so much more excellent as it comes nearer to the duration of Eternity Old age is a crown of glory Neither is ought old in relation to God but to us neither is age faulty in respect of Nature but of corruption for as that word of Tertullian is true Primum verum the first is true so may I as truly say Primum bonum the first is good Only now as our Nature stands depraved our Old man is the body of corruptions which
that will be climbing to Heaven by ladders of their own making with Acesius in Jerome what other issue can they exspect from the jealous God but a fearful precipitation Neither doubt I but this is one main ground of the Angels proclamation in the Apocalyps Cecidit cecidit Babylon It is fallen it is fallen Babylon the great City Thus from the Sin which is Pride we descend to the Punishment which is Ruine A mans Pride shall bring him low How can a bladder sink Yet Pride though it be light in respect of the inflation is heavie in respect of the offence The guiltiness is as a milstone to which it is tied that will bear it down to the bottome of the deep As therefore there is a reflex action in the Sin so is there in the Punishment it shall ruine it self No other hands shall need to be used in the Judgement besides her own As the lightning hath ever a spight at the high spires and tall pines striking them down or firing them when the shrubs and cotages stand untouched so hath the God that made it at a self-advanced Greatness whether out of a scorn of rivality or a just punishment of theft for the Proud man both in a cursed emulation makes himself his own Deity and steales glory from God to set out himself For both these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith our Saviour he shall be brought down saith Solomon Down whither to the dust to Hell by others by God himself temporally here eternally hereafter Insomuch as Aesop himself we have it in Stobaeus when he was ask'd what God did answers Excelsa deprimit extollit humilia Besides the odionsness of a proud man amongst men commonly God is even with him here How many have we known that have been fastidious of their Diet which have come to leap at a crust to beg their bread yea to rob the hogs with the Prodigal How many that have been proud of their Beauty have been made ere they died the loathsome spectacles of deformity That of Esay strikes home Because the daughters of Sion are haughty and walk with stretched-out necks and wanton eyes c. Therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughter of Zion Esay 3. 16. How many that from the height of their over-weening have been brought to Benhadad's halter or have been turn'd to graze with Nebuchadnezzar The Lord roots up the house of the proud Prov. 15. 25. But if they escape here as sometimes they do hereafter they shall not For the proud man is an abomination to the Lord Prov. 16. 5. God cannot indure him Ps 101. 5. And what of that Tu perdes superbos Thou shalt destroy the proud Ps 119. 21. The very Heathens devised the proud Giants struck with thunder from Heaven And if God spared not the Angels whom he placed in the highest Heavens but for their pride threw them down headlong to the nethermost hell how much less shall he spare the proud dust and ashes of the sons of men and shall cast them from the height of their earthly altitude to the bottome of that infernall dungeon Humility makes men Angels Pride made Angels Devils as that Father said I may well adde makes Devils of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saies the Heathen Poet Menander Never soul escaped the revenge of Pride never shall escape it So sure as God is just Pride shall not go unpunished I know now we are all ready to call for a Bason with Pilate and to wash our hands from this foul sin Honourable and beloved this Vice is a close one it will cleave fast to you yea so close that ye can hardly discern it from a piece of your selves this is it that aggravates the danger of it For as Aquinas notes well some sins are more dangerous propter vehementiam impugnationis for the fury of their assault as the sin of Anger others for their correspondence to Nature as the sins of Lust others propter latentiam sui for their close sculking in our bosome as this sin of Pride Oh let us look seriously into the corners of our false hearts even with the Lantern of Gods Law and find out this subtile Devil and never give peace to our Souls till we have dispossessed him Down with your proud plumes O ye glorious Peacocks of the World look upon your black legs and your snake-like head be ashamed of your miserable infirmities else God will down with them and your selves in a fearful vengeance There is not the holiest of us but is this way faulty Oh let us be humbled by our Repentance that we may not be brought down to everlasting confusion let us be cast down upon our knees that we may not be cast down upon our faces For God will make good his own word one way A mans pride shall bring him low The sweeter part of this Ditty follows which is of Mercy Mercy which hath two strains also the Grace the Reward The gratious disposition for a Vertue properly it is not is Humility expressed here in the Subject The humble in spirit Not he that is forcibly humbled by others whether God or man so a wicked Ahab may walk softly and droop for the time and be never the better What thank is it if we bow when God sets his foot upon us but he that is voluntarily humble in spirit And yet there are also vicious kinds of this self-humility As first when man having only God supra se and therefore owing religious worship to him alone worships Angels or Saints that are but juxta se It is the charge that S. Paul gives to his Colossians Let no man deceive you in a voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels much less then of stocks and stones These very walls if they had eyes and tongues could testifie full many of these impious and Idolatrous cringes and prostrations So as if wood or stone could be capable of pollution here was enough till this abused frame was happily washed by the clear streams of the Gospel and re-sanctified by the Word and Prayer This is a Superstitious Humility 2. When a man basely subjects himself to serve the humors of the Great by gross supparasitation by either unjust or unfit actions and offices yielding himself a slave to the Times a pander to Vice This is a Servile Humility 3. When a man affects a courteous affability and lowly carriage for ostentation for advantage or when a man buries himself alive in an homely cowle in a pretence of mortification as if he went out of the world when the world is within him To be proud of Humility as a Father said well is worse then to be superciliously and openly proud This is an Hypocritical Humility 4. When out of pusillanimity or inordinateness a man prostitutes himself to those unworthy conditions and actions of sinful pleasure that mis-beseem a man a Christian This is a Brutish Humility All
who is infinitely careful for the good of his Church above all possible reaches of our desires but that we may be raised up to a meet capacity of Mercy God cannot hate his enemies or love his own ever the more upon our intreaties yet he will be sued to for the particular effects of both if ever we look to tast of his Mercy in either If we have not a heart to pray God hath not an hand to help So did God hate Amalek that he commanded it to be rooted out of the earth so did he love Israel as the apple of his eye Yet unless Moses hold up his hand Amalek shall prevail against Israel These are our best our surest weapons even our Prayers and blessed be God that hath put it into the heart of his Anointed to seek his face in these powerful Humiliations We sought him against the Pestilence and prevailed almost miraculously against that destroying Angel why should we not hope to find him against unseasonable Clouds against the opposite powers of flesh and blood Here is your safety here is your assurance of victory O ye great Princes and Potentates of the earth if ye trust to the arm of flesh it will fail you Let your Navies be never so well rigg'd and mann'd let your Forces be never so strong and numberless let them have not onely hands and feet that is horsemen and footmen but a bulk of body too that is full substance of wealthy provision as the word of Flaminius was let your counsel be vigilant your munition ready your troops trained and valiant yet if there be not Devotion enough in our bosome to make God ours in vain shall we hope to stand before our enemies This onely whatsoever the profane heart of Atheous men may imagine this is the great Ordnance which can batter down the wals of our enemies yea the very black gates of Hell it self in comparison whereof all humane powers are but paper-shot Yea this is that Petar which onely can blow open the gates of Heaven and fetch down victory upon our heads and make us another thundring Legion What is it that made us so happily successful in Eighty eight beyond all hope beyond all conceit but the fervency of our humble Devotions That Invincible Navie came on dreadfully floating like a moving wood in the sight of our coast those vast Vessels were as so many lofty Castles raised on those liquid foundations Then straight as if those huge bottoms had been stuft with Tempests there was nothing but thunder and lightning and smoak and all the terrible apparitions of death We what did we we fought upon our knees both Prince and people Straight God fought for us from Heaven Our Prayers were the gale yea the gust that tore those mis-consecrated flags and sails and scattered and drencht those presumptuous piles and sent them into the bottom of the deep to be a Parlour for Whales and Sea-monsters There lay the Pride of Spain the Terrour of England And is the hand of our God shortned Is he other then what he was We may be as we are weakned and effeminated by a long luxurious peace Our God is yesterday and to day and the same for ever If we be not wanting to him in our Prayers he cannot be wanting to our Protection Look up to him O dear Christians that is the God of our Salvation Behold the Lions out of their reeds the Buls out of their forests and these in banded multitudes conspire against us and the mis-led Calves of the people are apt enough to back their attempts Neither is this a fair hostility our enemies are those that hate peace and delight in war offering insolent provocations to our State in dis-inheriting part of the Royal Issue violating their faiths maintaining their unjust affronts ambitiously aspiring to undue Soveraignty What shall we then doe O put not your trust in Princes nor in the sons of men whose breath is in their nostrils O put not your trust ye Princes and Peers in your sword in your bow in your powers and confederacies Trust onely to the great God of hoasts who alone can but blow upon all the proudest preparations of your enemies and scatter them to the lowest Hell Come to him in your humble devotions with an Increpa and Dissipa he shall soon make your enemies to lick the dust But what shall I say Honorable and Beloved we have pray'd and have not been heard and thou O Lord hast not of late gone forth with our hoasts yea thou hast rebuked us in stead of our enemies Alas we can more grieve then wonder at this issue Israel in the hot chace of all their victory is foiled more then once by a Canaanite Whence was this There was a pad in the straw an Achan in the camp Theft and Sacriledge fought against Israel more then the men of Ai the wedge of Gold wounded them more then the enemies steel the Babylonish garment disarmed and stripped them Israel had sinned and must flee Alas my brethren what do we pray for victory over our enemies when our sins which are our deadliest enemies conquer us To what purpose are our Prayers loud when our sins are louder to what purpose are our Bodies this day empty if our Souls be full of wickedness whiles we provoke God to his face with our abominable licentiousness with our fearful profanations with our outragious lives how do we think to glaver with him in our formal Devotions What care he for our smooth tongues when our hearts are filthy what cares he for an elevated eye when our Souls are depressed to vile lusts what cares he for the calves of our lips when the iniquity of our heels compasses us about The very Sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to the Lord his very Prayer is turned into sin even that whereby he hopes to expiate it Oh that my people had hearkned to me and Israel had walked in my waies faith God I should soon have subdued their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves to him but their time should have endured for ever Psal 81. 13 14 15. Oh then cleanse your hands ye sinners and purge your hearts ye double-minded wash your hands in innocence and then compass the Altar of God Then shall the God of our righteousness hear in his holy Heavens and rise up mightily for our defence then shall he be a wall of brass about our Iland then shall he wound the head of our enemies and make the tongues of our dogs red with their bloud then shall he cover our heads in the day of battel and make this Nation of ours victoriously glorious to the ends of the world even to all ages and times then shall he be known to be our God and we shall be known to be his people for ever Which he of his infinite mercy vouchsafe to grant us for the sake of the Son of his Love
place here not Probabilities How powerfully doth he convince the unbelieving Jews of Ephesus and Rome out of Moses and the Prophets Act. 28. 23. This this is the weapon whereby our grand Captain vanquished the great challenger of the bottomless pit Scriptum est All other blades are but Lead to this Steel Councils Fathers Histories are good helps but ad pompam rather then ad pugnam These Scriptures are they whereof S. Augustin justly Hac fundamenta haec firmamenta What do we multiply volumes and endlesly go about the bush That of Tertullian is most certain Aufer ab haereticis quaecunque Ethnici sapiunt ut de Scripturis solis questiones suas sistant stare non poterunt Take from Hereticks what they borrow of Pagans and hold them close to the trial by the Scriptures alone they cannot stand Bring but this fire to the wildest beast his eye will not indure it he must run away from it for these kind of creatures are all as that Father Lucifugae Scripturarum What worlds of volumes had been spared how infinite distractions of weak and wavering souls had been prevented if we had confined our selves to S. Paul's fence Our third rule must be To redouble our strokes uncessantly unweariably not giving breath to the beast not fainting for want of our own S. Paul laid on three months together in the Synagogue of Ephesus two years more in the school of Tyrannus Act. 19. 8 9. and accordingly gives us our charge State ergo Stand close to it Eph. 6. 14. If when we have dealt some few unsuccessful blows we throw up the bucklers or lean upon our pummels we lose our life with the day I could as the case might stand easily be of the minde of that souldier who when he heard Xenophantus by his musick stirring up Alexander to the fight wisht rather to hear a Musician that could take him off but since we have to doe with an enemy which nec victor nec victus novit quiescere as Annibal said of Marcellus there is no way but to fight it out Ye have not yet resisted unto blood faith the Apostle If need be we must do so Serpens sit is ardor arena Dulcia virtuti as he said Oh be constant to your own holy resolutions if ever ye look for an happy victory Well did the dying Prophet chide the King of Israel that he struck but thrice Thou shouldst have smitten often then thou shouldst have smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it 2 Kings 13. 19. Let neither buggs of fear nor suppalpations of favour weaken your hands from laying load upon the beast of Errour Fight zealously fight indefatigably and prevail In the battails of Christ as S. Chrysostome observes the issue is so assured that the crown goes before the victory but when ye once have it hold fast that you have that no man take your crown Revel 3. 11. Our last rule is To know our distance and where we find invincible resistance to come off fairly So did S. Paul in the Theatre of the Ephesian Synagogue when after three months disputation some were hardened and in stead of believing blasphemed the way of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he departed and separated Act. 19. 9. Those beasts we cannot master we must give up If Babylon will not be cur'd she must be left to her self To apply this to the Theatre of the times There is no challenge either more frequent or more heavy then that we have left that Church which they miscal our Mother Had we gone from her that is gone from her self we had but followed her in leaving her had we left her that hath blasphemed her forsaken truth we had but followed S. Paul but now let the world know we have not left her she hath abandon'd us Non fugimus sed fugamur as Casaubon cites from our late Learned Soveraign It is her violence not our choice that hath excluded us Because we could not but leave her errors she hath ejected our persons This schism shall one day before that great Tribunal of Heaven fall heavily upon those perverse spirits that had rather rend the Church then want their will and can be content to sacrifice both Truth and Peace together with millions of Souls to their own ambition Let this suffice for the beasts of Opinion which are Errours Turn your eyes now if you please to S. Paul's fight with the beast of Practice Vices And in the first place see how the Ephesian beasts fought with S. Paul Act. 19. 28 29. Ye find them as so many enraged Bulls scraping the earth with their feet and digging it with their horns snuffing up the aire with their raised nostrils rushing furiously into the Theatre tossing up Gaius and Paul's companions into the aire and with an impetuous violence carrying all before them This hath been ever the manner of wickedness to be headstrong in the pursuit of it's own courses impatient of opposition cruel in revenge of the opposers Doth Eliah cry out against the murders and Idolatries of Ahab the beast hath him in chace for his life and earths him in his cave Doth Michaiah cross the designes of the false Prophets in the expedition of Ramoth the beast with the iron-horns pusheth him in the face and beats him down into the dungeon Doth John Baptist bend his Non licet against Herodias's incest the beast flies in his throat and with one grasp tears his head from his shoulders So it ever was so it ever will be Am I become your enemy because I tell you the truth saith S. Paul Stetisse lego judicandos Apostolos saith Bernard If still therefore heart-burnings and malicious censures attend the faithful delivery of Gods sacred errand the Beast is like it self Sagittant in obscura luna rectos corde as St. Chrysostome reads that in the Psalm In the mean time what doth S. Paul Doth he give in doth he give out No here was still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ephes 6. 20. He traverses his ground indeed for his advantage from Ephesus to Macedonia but still he galls the beast where-ever he is as Idolaters so all sorts of flagitious sinners felt the weight of his hand the dint of his stroke all which wheresoever he finds them he impartially pierces through with the darts of denounced Judgement that is the verbum asperum and sagitta volans in Psal 91. the curse of the Law Gal. 3. 13. See how he wouuds those other beasts of Ephesus No whoremonger nor unclean person nor covetous man which is an Idolater hath any inheritance in the Kingdome of God Ephes 5. 5. and For these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience verse 6. Tribulation and anguish to every soul that doth evil In flaming fire rendring vengeance to those that know not God and obey him not And why do not we in imitation of this noble champion of God strike through the loyns of wickedness whereever we finde it that if
future Errours in blowing up the very grounds of these humane devices The First and main ground of both is the remainders of some temporal punishments to be pay'd after the guilt and eternal punishment remitted the driblets of Venial sins to be reckon'd for when the Mortal are defraied Hear what God saith I even I am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins Loe can the Letter be read that is blotted out Can there be a back-reckoning for that which shall not be remembred I have done away thy transgressions as a Cloud What sins can be lesse then transgressions What can be more clearly dispersed then a Cloud Wash me and I shall be whiter then snow Who can tell where the spot was when the skin is rinsed If we confesse our sins he is faithfull to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousnesse Loe he cleanseth us from the guilt and forgives the punishment What are our sins but debts What is the infliction of punishment but an exaction of payment What is our remission but a striking off that score And when the score is struck off what remains to pay Remitte debita Forgive our debts is our daily Prayer Our Saviour tells the Paralitick Thy sins are forgiven thee in the same words implying the removing of his Disease If the sin be gone the punishment cannot stay behinde We may smart by way of chastisement after the freest remission not by way of revenge for our amendment not for God's satisfaction The Second ground is a middle condition betwixt the state of eternal life and death of no lesse torment for the time then Hell it self whose flames may burn off the rust of our remaining sins the issues wherefrom are in the power of the great Pastor of the Church How did this escape the notice of our Saviour Verily verily I say unto you he that heareth my Word and believeth in him that sent me hath everlasting life and comes not into judgment as the Vulgar it self terms it but is passed from death unto life Behold a present possession and immediate passage no judgement intervening no torment How was this hid from the great Doctor of the Gentiles who putting himself into the common case of the believing Corinthians professes We know that if once our earthly house of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God not made with hands eternall in the Heavens The dissolution of the one is the possession of the other here is no interposition of time of estate The Wise man of old could say The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God and there shall no torment touch them Upon their very going from us they are in peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. John heard from the heavenly voice From their very dying in the Lord is their blessedness Sect. 3. Indulgences against Reason IT is absurd in Reason to think that God should forgive our Talents and arrest us for the odde Farthings Neither is it lesse absurd to think that any living soul can have superfluities of Satisfaction whenas all that man is capable to suffer cannot be sufficient for one and that the least sin of his own the wages whereof is eternall death or that those superfluities of humane satisfaction should piece up the infinite and perfectly-meritorious superabundance of the Son of God or that this supposed treasure of Divine and humane satisfactions should be kept under the key of some one sinfull man or that this one man who cannot deliver his own Soul from Purgatory no not from Hell it self should have power to free what others he pleaseth from those fearfull flames to the full Gaol-delivery of that direfull prison which though his great power can doe yet his no lesse charity will not doth not or that the same Pardon which cannot acquit a man from one hours tooth-ach should be of force to give his Soul ease from the temporary pains of another world Lastly Guilt and Punishment are Relatives and can no more be severed then a perfect forgivenesse and a remaining compensation can stand together This Doctrine therefore of Papal Indulgences as it led the way to the further discovery of the corruptions of the degenerated Church of Rome so it still continues justly branded with Noveltie and Errour and may not be admitted into our belief and we for rejecting it are unjustly refused CHAP. XII The Newness of Divine Service in an unknown tongue THat Prayers and other Divine offices should be done in a known tongue understood of the people is not more available to edification as their Cajetan liberally confesseth then consonant to the practice of all Antiquity insomuch as Lyranus freely In the Primitive Church blessings and all other services were done in the vulgar tongue What need we look back so far when even the Lateran Council which was but in the year 1215. under Innocent the third makes this Decree Quoniam in plerisque Because in many parts within the same City and Diocese people are mixed of divers languages having under one Faith divers Rites and fashions we strictly command that the Bishops of the said Cities or Dioceses provide fit and able men who according to the diversities of their Rites and Languages may celebrate Divine Services and administer the Sacraments of the Church to them instructing them both in word and example Cardinall Bellarmine's evasion is very grosse That in that place Innocentius and the Council speak only of the Greek and Latine tongue For then saith he Constantinople was newly taken by the Romanes by reason whereof there was in Greece a mixture of Greeks and Latines insomuch as they desired that in such places of frequence two Bishops might be allowed for the ordering of those several Nations Whereupon it was concluded that since it were no other then monstrous to appoint two Bishops unto one See it should be the charge of that one Bishop to provide such under him as should administer all holy things to the Grecians in Greek and in Latine to the Latines For who sees not that the Constitution is general Plerisque partibus for very many parts of the Christian world and Populi diversarum linguarum People of sundry languages not as Bellarmine cunningly diversae linguae of a diverse language And if these two only Languages had been meant why had it not been as easie to specifie them as to intimate them by so large a circumlocution The Synod is said to be universal comprehending all the Patriarchs seventy seven Metropolitans and the most eminent Divines of both East and West Churches to the number of at least 2212 persons or as some others 2285. besides the Embassadors of all Christian Princes of several Languages Now shall we think that there were in all their Territories and Jurisdictions no mixtures of inhabitants but only of Grecians and Romans or
into that sacred order that we stick at There we finde that none but Christ can make a Sacrament for none but he who can give Grace can ordain a Signe and Seal of Grace Now it is evident enough that these adscititious Sacraments were never of Christs institution So was not Confirmation as our Alexander of Hales and Holcot so was not Matrimony as Durand so was not Extreme Unction as Hugo Lombard Bonaventure Halensis Altissiodore by the confession of their Suarez These were ancient Rites but they are new Sacraments All of them have their allowed and profitable use in Gods Church though not in so high a nature except that of Extreme Unction which as it is an apish mis-imitation of that extraordinary course which the Apostolick times used in their cures of the sick so it is grosly mis-applied to other purposes then were intended in the first institution Then it was Ungebant sanabant the oyle miraculously conferring bodily recovery but now Non nisi in mortis articulo adhibetur it is not used but upon the very point of death as Cajetan and Cassander confesse and all experience manifests and by Felix the Fourth drawn to a necessity of addresse to eternall life Sect 2. Seven Sacraments beside Scripture NOT to scan particulars which all yield ample exceptions but to wind them all up in one bottome Whosoever shall look into the Scripture shall finde it apparent that as in the time of mans Innocency there were but Two Sacraments the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge so before and under the Law however they had infinite Rites yet in the proper sense they had but Two Sacraments the same in effect with those under the Gospel the one the Sacrament of Initiation which was their Circumcision parallel'd by that Baptisme which succeeded it the other the Sacrament of our holy Confirmation that spirituall meat and drink which was their Paschall Lambe and Manna and water from the rock prefiguring the true Lambe of God and bread of life and blood of our Redemption The great Apostle of the Gentiles that well knew the Analogy hath compared both Moreover brethren I would not have you ignorant how that all our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea and all were baptized in the cloud and in the sea and all did eat the same spirituall meat and all did drink the same spirituall drink for they drank of that spirituall Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ What is this in any just construction but that the same two Sacraments of Baptisme and the Lords Supper which we celebrate under the Gospel were the very same with those which were celebrated by Gods ancient people under the Law they two and no more Hoc facite Doe this is our warrant for the one and Ite baptizate c. Goe teach and Baptize for the other There is deep silence in the rest Sect. 3. Against Reason IN Reason it must be yielded that no man hath power to set to a seal but he whose the writing is Sacraments then being the seals of Gods gracious evidences whereby he hath conveyed to us eternall life can be instituted by no other then the same power that can assure and perform life to his creature In every Sacrament therefore must be a Divine institution and command of an Element that signifies of a Grace that is signified of a word adjoyned to that element of an holy act adjoyned to that word Where these concur not there can be no true Sacrament and they are palpably missing in these five Adjections of the Church of Rome Lastly The Sacraments of the new Law as Saint Austin often flowed out of the side of Christ None flowed thence but the Sacrament of water which is Baptisme and the Sacrament of blood in the Supper whereof the Author saith This cup is the new Testament in my blood which is shed for you The rest never flowing either from the side or from the lips of Christ are as new and mis-named Sacraments justly rejected by us and we thereupon as unjustly censured CHAP. XVI The Newnesse of the Doctrine of Tradition THE chief ground of these and all other Errours in the Church of Rome is the over-valuing of Traditions which the Tridentine Synod professes to receive and reverence with no lesse pious affection then the Books of the Old and New Testament and that not in matter of Rite and History onely but of Faith and Manners also wherein as they are not unwilling to cast a kinde of imputation of imperfection upon the written Word so they make up the defects of it by the supply of unwritten Traditions to which indeed they are more beholden for the warrant of the greater part of their superadded Articles then to the Scriptures of God Both which are Points so dangerously envious as that Antiquity would have abhorred their mention Neither is any thing more common with the holy Fathers of the Church then the magnifying the compleat perfection of Scripture in all things needfull either to be believed or done What can be more full and clear then that of Saint Austine In his quae apertè c. In these things which are openly laid forth in Scripture are found all matters that contain either Faith or Manners Cardinall Bellarmine's elusion is not a little prejudicial to his own Cause He tells us that Saint Austin speaks of those Points which are simply necessary to Salvation for all men all which he acknowledges to be written by the Apostles But besides these there are many other things saith he which we have only by Tradition Will it not therefore hence follow that the common sort of Christians need not look at his Traditions that commonly men may be saved without them that Heaven may be attained though there were no Traditions Who will not now say Let me come to Heaven by Scripture goe you whither you will by Traditions To which adde that agreat yea the greater part if we may believe some of their own of that which they call Religion is grounded upon onely Tradition If then Tradition be onely of such things as are not simply necessary to Salvation then the greater part of their mis-named Religion must needs be yielded for simply unnecessary to all men And if we may be saved without them and be made Citizens of Heaven how much more may we without them be members of the true Church on Earth As for this place S. Augustine's words are full and comprehensive expressing all those things which contain either Faith or Manners whether concerning Governours or people If now they can finde out any thing that belongs not either to belief or action we do willingly give it up to their Traditions but all things which pertain to either of those are openly comprized in Scripture What can be more direct then that of holy Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
in my Fathers Study where of I conceived good use might be made in regard of that spirituall advantage which they promised I obtained of him good leave to send them abroad whereto he professed himself the more easily induced for that his continuall and weighty employments in this large and busie Diocese will not yet afford him leisure to dispatch those his other fixed Meditations on the History of the New Testament In the mean time the expressions of these voluntary and sudden thoughts of his shall testifie how fruitfully he is wont to improve those short ends of time which are stolne from his more important avocations and unlesse my hopes fail me the pattern of them may prove not a little beneficial to others Holy mindes have been ever wont to look through these bodily Objects at spiritual and heavenly So Sulpitius reports of S. Martin that seeing a Sheep newly shorn he could say Loe here is one that hath performed that command in the Gospel having two Coats she hath given away one and seeing an Hogherd freezing in a thin suit of skins Loe said he there is Adam cast out of Paradise and seeing a Medow part rooted up part whole but eaten down and part flourishing he said The first was the state of Fornication the second of Marriage the third of Virginity But what do I seek any other Author then the Lord of Life himself who upon the drawing of water from the Well of Shilo on the day of the great Hosanna took occasion to speak of those Living waters which should flow from every true believer John 7. 38. and upon occasion of a bodily Feast Luke 14. entred into that Divine discourse of God's gracious invitation of us to those spiritual viands of Grace and Glory Thus methinks we should still be climbing up in our thoughts from Earth to Heaven and suffer no Object to crosse us in our way without some spiritual Use and Application Thus it pleased my Reverend Father sometimes to recreate himself whose manner hath been when any of these Meditations have unsought offer'd themselves unto him presently to set them down a course which I wish had been also taken in many more which might no doubt have been very profitable These as they are I send forth under your Honourable Name out of those many Respects which are in an hereditary right due to your Lordship as being apparent Heir to those two singular Patrons of my justly-Reverenced Father the eminent Vertue of which your Noble Parents in a gracious Succession yields to your Lordship an happy Example which to follow is the onely way to true Honour For the daily increase whereof here and the everlasting Crown of it hereafter his Prayers to God shall not be wanting who desires to be accounted Your Lordships devoted in all humble observance RO. HALL Occasionall MEDITATIONS The Proeme I Have heedlesly lost I confesse many good thoughts these few my Paper hath preserved from vanishing the example whereof may perhaps be more usefull then the matter Our active Soul can no more forbear to think then the Eye can chuse but see when it is open Would we but keep our wholesome Notions together mankinde would be too rich To doe well no Object should passe us without use every thing that we see reads us new lectures of Wisdome and Piety It is a shame for a man to be ignorant or Godlesse under so many Tutors For me I would not wish to live longer then I shall be better for my eyes and have thought it thank-worthy thus to teach weak mindes how to improve their thoughts upon all like occasions And if ever these lines shall come to the publick view I desire and charge my Reader whosoever he be to make me and himself so happy as to take out my Lesson and to learn how to read Gods great Book by mine The TABLE of these MEDITATIONS following MED I. Upon the sight of the Heavens moving Pag. 452 MED II. Upon the sight of a Diall ib. MED III. Upon the sight of an Eclipse of the Sun ib. MED IV. Upon the sight of a gliding Star 453 MED V. Upon a fair Prospect ib. MED VI. Upon the frame of a Globe casually broken 454 MED VII Upon a Cloud ib. MED VIII Upon the sight of a Grave digged up ib. MED IX Upon the sight of Gold melted 455 MED X. Upon the sight of a Pitcher carried ib. MED XI Upon the sight of a Tree full blossomed ib. MED XII Upon the report of a man suddenly struck dead in his Sin ib. MED XIII Upon the view of the Heaven and the Earth 456 MED XIV Upon occasion of a Red-breast coming into his Chamber ib. MED XV. Upon occasion of a Spider in his Window ib. MED XVI Upon the sight of a Rain in the Sun-shine 457 MED XVII Upon the length of the way ib. MED XVIII Upon the Rain and Waters ib. MED XIX Upon the same Subject 458 MED XX. Upon occasion of the Lights brought in ib. MED XXI Upon the same occasion 459 MED XXII Upon the blowing of the Fire ib. MED XXIII Upon the barking of a Dog ib. MED XXIV Upon sight of a Cock-fight ib. MED XXV Upon his lying down to rest 460 MED XXVI Upon the kindling of a Charcole fire ib. MED XXVII Upon the sight of an humble and patient Begger 461 MED XXVIII Upon the sight of a Crow pulling off wool from the back of a Sheep ib. MED XXIX Upon the sight of two Snails ib. MED XXX Upon the hearing of the street-Cries in London 462 MED XXXI Upon the Flies gathering to a galled Horse ib. MED XXXII Upon the sight of a dark Lantern ib. MED XXXIII Upon the hearing of a Swallow in the Chimney ib. MED XXXIV Upon the sight of a Flie burning it self in the Candle 463 MED XXXV Upon the sight of a Lark flying up ib. MED XXXVI Upon the singing of the Birds in a Spring morning ib. MED XXXVII Upon a Coal covered with Ashes 464 MED XXXVIII Upon the sight of a Blackmore ib. MED XXXIX Upon the small Stars in the Galaxie or milkie Circle in the Firmament ib. MED XL. Upon the sight of Boyes playing 465 MED XLI Upon the sight of a Spider and her Web. ib. MED XLII Upon the sight of a Naturall ib. MED XLIII Upon the Loadstone and the Jett 466 MED XLIV Upon hearing of Musick by night ibid. MED XLV Upon the fanning of Corn. ib. MED XLVI Upon Herbs dried 467 MED XLVII Upon the quenching of Iron in Water ib. MED XLVIII Upon a fair-coloured Flie. ib. MED XLIX Upon a Glow-worm ib. MED L. Upon the shutting of one eye 468 MED LI. Upon a Spring-water ib. MED LII Upon Gnats in the Sun ib. MED LIII Upon the sight of Grapes ib. MED LIV. Upon a Corn-field over-grown with Weeds 469 MED LV. Upon the sight of Tulips and Marigolds c. in his Garden ib. MED LVI Upon the sound of a crackt Bell. ib. MED LVII Upon the sight
of a Blinde man ib. MED LVIII Upon a Beech-tree full of Nuts 470 MED LIX Upon the sight of a piece of Money under the Water ib. MED LX. Upon the first rumour of the Earthquake at Lime wherein a Wood was swallowed up with the fall of two Hills ib. MED LXI Upon the sight of a Dormouse 471 MED LXII Upon Bees fighting ib. MED LXIII Upon Wasps falling into a Glass ib. MED LXIV Upon a Spring in the wilde Forest 472 MED LXV Upon the sight of an Owle in the twilight ibid. MED LXVI Upon an Arm benummed 473 MED LXVII Upon the Sparks flying upward ib. MED LXVIII Upon the sight of a Raven ib. MED LXIX Upon a Worm 474 MED LXX Upon the putting on of his Cloaths ibid. MED LXXI Upon the sight of a great Library ibid. MED LXXII Upon the red Cross on a Door 475 MED LXXIII Upon the change of Weather ib. MED LXXIV Upon the sight of a Marriage ib. MED LXXV Upon the sight of a Snake 476 MED LXXVI Upon the Ruines of an Abby ib. MED LXXVII Upon the discharging of a Peece 477 MED LXXVIII Upon the tolling of a passing-Bell ib. MED LXXIX Upon a Defamation dispersed 478 MED LXXX Upon a ring of Bells ib. MED LXXXI Upon the sight of a full Table at a Feast ib. MED LXXXII Upon the hearing of a Lute well played on 479 MED LXXXIII Upon the sight and noise of a Peacock ib. MED LXXXIV Upon a penitent Malefactor ibid. MED LXXXV Upon the sight of a Lilly 480 MED LXXXVI Upon the sight of a Coffin stuck with Flowers ib. MED LXXXVII Upon the view of the World ib. MED LXXXVIII Upon the stinging of a Wasp 481 MED LXXXIX Upon the Arraignment of a Felon ib. MED XC Upon the Crowing of a Cock 482 MED XCI Upon the variety of Thoughts ib. MED XCII Upon the sight of an Harlot carted ibid. MED XCIII Upon the smell of a Rose 483 MED XCIV Upon a cancelled Bond. ib. MED XCV Upon the report of a great losse by Sea ib. MED XCVI Upon sight of a bright Skie full of Stars 484 MED XCVII Upon the rumours of Wars ib. MED XCVIII Upon a Childe crying 485 MED XCIX Upon the beginning of a Sicknesse ibid. MED C. Upon the challenge of a Promise 486 MED CI. Upon the sight of Flies ib. MED CII Upon the sight of a fantasticall Zelot ib. MED CIII Upon the sight of a Scavenger working in the Canell 487 MED CIV Upon a pair of Spectacles ib. MED CV Upon Moats in the Sun ib. MED CVI. Upon the sight of a Bladder ib. MED CVII Upon a man Sleeping 488 MED CVIII Upon the sight of a Deaths-head ib. MED CIX Upon the sight of a Left-handed man ib. MED CX Upon the sight of an old unthatched Cottage 489. MED CXI Upon the sight of a fair Pearl ib. MED CXII Upon a Screen ib. MED CXIII Upon a Bur-leaf ib. MED CXIV Upon the Singing of a Bird. ib. MED CXV Upon the sight of a man Yawning 490 MED CXVI Upon the sight of a Tree lopped ib. MED CXVII Upon a Scholar that offered violence to himself ib. MED CXVIII Upon the coming in of the Judge 491 MED CXIX Upon the sight of an Heap of stones ibid. MED CXX Upon sight of a Bat and Owle ib. MED CXXI Upon the sight of a well-fleeced Sheep 492 MED CXXII Upon the hearing of Thunder ib. MED CXXIII Upon the sight of an Hedg-hog ib. MED CXXIV Upon the sight of a Goat 493 MED CXXV Upon the sight of the Blinde and the Lame ib. MED CXXVI Upon the sight of a Map of the World ib. MED CXXVII Upon the sight of Hemlock 494 MED CXXVIII Upon a Flower-de-luce ib. MED CXXIX Upon the sight of two Trees one high the other broad ib. MED CXXX Upon the sight of a Drunken man ibid. MED CXXXI Upon the whetting of a Sithe 495 MED CXXXII Upon the sight of a Looking-glass ibid. MED CXXXIII Upon the shining of a piece of Rotten wood ib. MED CXXXIV Upon an Ivie tree 496 MED CXXXV Upon a Quartan ague ib. MED CXXXVI Upon the sight of a loaded Cart. ibid. MED CXXXVII Upon the sight of a Dwarf 497 MED CXXXVIII Upon an importunate Begger ibid. MED CXXXIX Upon a Medicinal potion ib. MED CXL Upon the sight of a Wheel 498 Occasionall MEDITATIONS I. Upon the sight of the Heavens moving I Can see nothing stand still but the Earth all other things are in motion Even the Water which makes up one Globe with the Earth is ever stirring in ebbes and flowings the Clouds over my head the Heavens above the clouds these as they are most conspicuous so are they the greatest patterns of perpetuall action What should we rather imitate then this glorious frame O God when we pray that thy will may be done in Earth as it is in Heaven though we mean chiefly the Inhabitants of that place yet we do not exclude the very Place of those Blessed inhabitants from being an example of our Obedience The motion of this thy Heaven is perpetuall so let me ever be acting somewhat of thy will the motion of thy Heaven is regular never swerving from the due points so let me ever walk steddily in the wayes of thy will without all diversions or variations from the line of thy Law In the motion of thine Heaven though some Stars have their own peculiar and contrary courses yet all yield themselves to the sway of the main circumvolution of that First mover so though I have a will of mine own yet let me give my self over to be ruled and ordered by thy Spirit in all my waies Man is a little World my Soul is Heaven my Body is Earth if this Earth be dull and fixed yet O God let my Heaven like unto thine move perpetually regularly and in a constant subjection to thine Holy Ghost II. Upon the sight of a Diall IF the Sun did not shine upon this Diall no body would look at it in a cloudy day it stands like an uselesse post unheeded unregarded but when once those beams break forth every passenger runs to it and gazes on it O God whiles thou hidest thy countenance from me methinks all thy Creatures passe by me with a willing neglect indeed what am I without thee And if thou have drawn in me some lines and notes of able endowments yet if I be not actuated by thy Grace all is in respect of use no bettter then nothing But when thou renewest the light of thy loving countenance upon me I finde a sensible and happy change of condition methinks all things look upon me with such chear and observance as if they meant to make good that Word of thine Those that honour me I will honour now every line and figure which it hath pleased thee to work in me serve for usefull and profitable direction O Lord all the glory is thine give thou me light I shall give others information both of us shall give thee praise III.
Upon the sight of an Eclipse of the Sun LIght is an ordinary and familiar Blessing yet so dear to us that one hours interception of it sets all the world in a wonder The two great Luminaries of Heaven as they impart light to us so they withdraw light from each other The Sun darkens the full Moon in casting the shadow of the earth upon her opposed face the new Moon repays this blemish to the Sun in the interposing of her dark body betwixt our eyes and his glorious beams the earth is troubled at both O God if we be so afflicted with the obscuring of some piece of one of thy created lights for an hour or two what a confusion shall it be that thou who art the God of these Lights in comparison of whom they are mere darknesse shalt hide thy face from thy creature for ever O thou that art the Sun of Righteousnesse if every of my sins cloud thy face yet let not my grievous sins eclipse thy light Thou shinest alwayes though I do not see thee but Oh never suffer my sins so to darken thy visage that I cannot see thee IV. Upon the sight of a gliding Star HOw easily is our sight deceived how easily doth our sight deceive us We saw no difference betwixt this Star and the rest the light seemed alike both whiles it stood and whiles it fell now we know it was no other then a base slimy Meteor guilded with the Sun-beams and now our foot can tread upon that which ere while our eye admired Had it been a Star it had still and ever shined now the very fall argues it a false and elementary Apparition Thus our Charity doth and must mis-lead us in our Spirituall judgements If we see men exalted in their Christian Profession fixed in the upper region of the Church shining with appearances of Grace we may not think them other thenâ—stars in this lower firmament but if they fall from their holy station and imbrace the present world whether in Judgement or Practice renouncing the Truth and power of Godliness now we may boldly say they had never any true light in them and were no other then a glittering composition of Pride and Hypocrisie O God if my Charity make me apt to be deceived by others let me be sure not to deceive my self Perhaps some of these apostating Stars have thought themselves true let their mis-carriage make me heedfull let the inward light of thy Grace more convince my truth to my self then my outward Profession can represent me glorious to others V. Upon a fair Prospect WHat a pleasing variety is here of Towns Rivers Hills Dales Woods Medows each of them striving to set forth the other and all of them to delight the eye So as this is no other then a naturall and reall Landscap drawn by that Almighty skilfull hand in this table of the Earth for the pleasure of our view no other creature besides Man is capable to apprehend this Beauty I shall doe wrong to him that brought me hither if I do not feed my eyes and praise my Maker It is the intermixture and change of these Objects that yields this contentment both to the Sense and Minde But there is a sight O my Soul that without all variety offers thee a truer and fuller delight even this Heaven above thee All thy other Prospects end in this This glorious circumference bounds and circles and inlightens all that thine eye can see whether thou look upward or forward or about thee there thine eye alights there let thy thoughts be fixed One inch of this lightsome Firmament hath more Beauty in it then the whole face of the Earth And yet this is but the floor of that goodly fabrick the outward curtain of that glorious Tabernacle Couldst thou but Oh that thou couldst look within that veile how shouldst thou be ravisht with that blissefull sight There in that incomprehensible light thou shouldst see him whom none can see and not be blessed thou shouldst see millions of pure and majesticall Angels of holy and glorified Souls there amongst thy Fathers many mansions thou shouldst take happy notice of thine owne Oh the best of earth now vile and contemptible Come down no more O my Soul after thou hast once pitched upon this Heavenly glory or if this flesh force thy descent be unquiet till thou art let loose to Immortality VI. Upon the frame of a Globe casually broken IT is hard to say whether is the greater Mans Art or Impotence He that cannot make one spire of grasse or corn of sand will yet be framing of Worlds he can imitate all things who can make nothing Here is a great World in a little room by the skill of the workman but in lesse room by mis-accident Had he seen this who upon the view of Plato's Book of Common-wealth eaten with Mice presaged the fatall miscarriage of the publick State he would sure have construed this casualty as ominous Whatever become of the Materiall world whose decay might seem no lesse to stand with Divine Providence then this Microcosme of individuall man sure I am the frame of the Morall world is and must be dis-joynted in the last times Men do and will fall from evil to worse He that hath made all times hath told us that the last shall be perilous Happy is he that can stand upright when the world declines and can endeavour to repair the common ruine with a constancy in goodnesse VII Upon a Cloud WHether it were a naturall Cloud wherewith our ascending Saviour was intercepted from the eyes of his Disciples upon mount Olivet I inquire not this I am sure of that the time now was when a Cloud surpassed the Sun in glory How did the intentive eyes of those ravished beholders envy that happy Meteor and since they could no more see that glorious Body fixed themselves upon that Celestiall Chariot wherewith it was carried up The Angels could tell the gazing Disciples to fetch them off from that astonishing prospect that this Jesus should so come again as they had seen him depart He went up in a Cloud and he shall come again in the clouds of Heaven to his last Judgement O Saviour I cannot look upward but I must see the sensible monuments both of thine Ascension and Return Let no cloud of Worldlinesse or Infidelity hinder me from following thee in thine Ascension or from expecting thee in thy Return VIII Upon the sight of a Grave digged up THE Earth as it is a great devourer so also it is a great preserver too Liquors and Fleshes are therein long kept from putrifying and are rather heightened in their Spirits by being buried in it but above all how safely doth it keep our Bodies for the Resurrection We are here but lay'd up for custody Balmes and Sere-cloths and Leads cannot doe so much as this lap of our common Mother when all these are dissolved into her dust as being unable to keep themselves from
deliver thou my Soul from their crafty ambushes their poison is greater their webs both more strong and more insensibly woven Either teach me to avoid Tentation or make me to break through it by Repentance Oh let me not be a prey to those Fiends that lie in wait for my destruction XVI Upon the sight of a Rain in the Sun-shine SUch is my best condition in this life If the Sun of Gods Countenance shine upon me I may well be content to be wet with some Rain of Affliction How oft have I seen the Heaven overcast with Clouds and Tempest no Sun appearing to comfort me yet even those gloomy and stormy seasons have I rid out patiently only with the help of the common light of the day at last those beams have broken forth happily and cheared my Soul It is well for my ordinary state if through the mists of mine own dulness and Satans Tentations I can descry some glimpse of Heavenly comfort let me never hope while I am in this Veile to see the clear face of that Sun without a showre such Happiness is reserved for above that upper Region of Glory is free from these doubtfull and miserable vicissitudes There O God we shall see as we are seen Light is sown for the Righteous and joy for the upright in heart XVII Upon the Length of the way HOW far off is yonder great mountain My very eye is weary with the foresight of so great a distance yet time and patience shall overcome it this night we shall hope to lodge beyond it Some things are more tedious in their exspectation then in their performance The comfort is that every step I take sets me nearer to my end When I once come there I shall both forget how long it now seems and please my self to look back upon the way that I have measured It is thus in our passage to Heaven My weak nature is ready to faint under the very conceit of the length and difficulty of this Journey my eye doth not more guide then discourage me Many steps of Grace and true Obedience shall bring me insensibly thither Only let me move and hope and God's good leisure shall perfect my Salvation O Lord give me to possesse my Soul with patience and not so much to regard speed as certainty When I come to the top of thine Holy hill all these weary paces and deep sloughs shall either be forgotten or contribute to my Happinesse in their remembrance XVIII Upon the Rain and Waters WHat a sensible interchange there is in Nature betwixt union and division Many Vapours rising from the Sea meet together in one Cloud that cloud falls down divided into several Drops those drops run together and in many rills of water meet in the same Chanels those chanels run into the Brook those brooks into the Rivers those rivers into the Sea one receptacle is for all though a large one and all make back to their first and main originall So it either is or should be with Spiritual Gifts O God thou distillest thy Graces upon us not for our reservation but conveyance those manifold Faculties thou lettest fall upon several men thou wouldst not have drenched up where they light but wouldst have derived through the chanels of their special vocations into the common streams of publick Use for Church or Common-wealth Take back O Lord those few drops thou hast rained upon my Soul and return them into that great Ocean of the Glory of thine own Bounty from whence they had their beginning XIX Upon the same Subject MAny Drops fill the Chanels and many chanels swell up the Brooks and many brooks raise the Rivers over the banks the Brooks are not out till the Chanels be empty the Rivers rise not whiles the small Brooks are full but when the little Rivulets have once voided themselves into the main streams then all is overflown Great matters arise from small beginnings many littles make up a large bulk Yea what is the World but a composition of atomes We have seen it thus in Civil Estates the empairing of the Commons hath oft been the raising of the Great their streams have run low till they have been heightned by the confluence of many private inlets Many a mean chanell hath been emptied to make up their inundation Neither is it otherwise in my whether outward or Spiritual condition O God thou hast multiplied my drops into streams As out of many Minutes thou hast made up my Age so out of many Lessons thou hast made up my competency of Knowledge thou hast drained many beneficient friends to make me competently Rich by many holy motions thou hast wrought me to some measure of Grace Oh teach me wisely and moderately to injoy thy Bounty and to reduce thy streams into thy drops and thy drops into thy clouds humbly and thankfully acknowledging whence and how I have all that I have all that I am XX. Upon occasion of the Lights brought in WHat a change there is in the room since the Light came in yea in our selves All things seem to have a new form a new life yea we are not the same we were How goodly a creature is Light how pleasing how agreeable to the spirits of man No visible thing comes so near to the resembling of the nature of the Soul yea of the God that made it As contrarily what an uncomfortable thing is Darknesse insomuch as we punish the greatest malefactors with obscurity of Dungeons as thinking they could not be miserable enough if they might have the priviledge of beholding the Light Yea Hell it self can be no more horribly described then by outward Darkness What is Darkness but absence of Light The pleasure or the horror of light or darkness is according to the quality and degree of the cause whence it ariseth And if the light of a poor Candle be so comfortable which is nothing but a little inflamed aire gathered about a moistened snuffe what is the light of the glorious Sun the great lamp of Heaven But much more what is the light of that infinitely-resplendent Sun of Righteousnesse who gave that light to the Sun that Sun to the world And if this partial and imperfect Darkness be so dolefull which is the privation of a natural or artificial Light how unconceivable dolorous and miserable shall that be which is caused through the utter absence of the all-glorious God who is the Father of lights O Lord how justly do we pity those wretched Souls that sit in darkness and the shadow of death shut up from the light of the saving knowledge of thee the only true God But how am I swallowed up with horror to think of the fearfull condition of those damned Souls that are for ever shut out from the presence of God and adjudged to exquisite everlasting darkness The Egyptians were weary of themselves in their three daies darkness yet we do not finde any pain that accompanied their continuing night What
For me methinks this Head speaks no other language then this Lose no time thou art dying Doe thy best thou maiest doe good but a while and shalt fare well for ever CIX Upon the sight of a Left-handed man IT is both an old and easie observation that however the Senses are alike strong and active on the right side and on the left yet that the lims on the right side are stronger then those of the left because they are more exercised then the other upon which self-same reason it must follow that a Left-handed man hath more strength in his left Arme then in his right Neither is it otherwise in the Soul our Intellectuall parts grow vigorous with imployment and languish with disuse I have known excellent Preachers and pregnant Disputants that have lost these Faculties with lack of action and others but meanly qualified with Naturall gifts that have attained to a laudable measure of abilities by improvement of their little I had rather lack good Parts then that good Parts should lack me Not to have great Gifts is no fault of mine it is my fault not to use them CX Upon the sight of an old unthatched Cottage THere cannot be a truer Embleme of crazie Old age Moldred and clay Walls a thin uncovered Roof bending Studds dark and broken Windows in short an House ready to fall on the head of the indweller The best Body is but a Cottage if newer and better timbered yet such as Age will equally impair and make thus ragged and ruinous or before that perhaps casualty of Fire or Tempest or violence of an Enemy One of the chief cares of men is to dwell well Some build for themselves fair but not strong others build for Posterity strong but not fair not high but happy is that man that builds for Eternity as strong as fair as high as the glorious contignations of Heaven CXI Upon the sight of a faire Pearl WHat a pure and precious creature is this which yet is taken out of the med of the sea Who can complain of a base Originall when he sees such Excellencies so descended These Shel-fishes that have no Sexes and therefore are made out of corruption what glorious things they yield to adorn and make proud the greatest Princesses Gods great works goe not by likelihoods how easily can he fetch glory out of obscurity who brought all out of nothing CXII Upon a Screen MEthinks this Screen that stands betwixt me the fire is like some good Friend at the Court which keeps from me the heat of the unjust Displeasure of the Great wherewith I might perhaps otherwise be causlesly scorched But how happy am I if the interposition of my Saviour my best Friend in Heaven may screen me from the deserved Wrath of that great God who is a consuming fire CXIII Upon a Burre-leaf NEither the Vine nor the Oak nor the Cedar nor any Tree that I know within our Climate yields so great a leaf as this Weed which yet after all expectation brings forth nothing but a Burre unprofitable troublesome So have I seen none make greater Profession of Religion then an Ignorant man whose indiscreet forwardnesse yields no fruit but a factious disturbance to the Church wherein he lives Too much Shew is not so much better then none at all as an ill Fruit is worse then none at all CXIV Upon the Singing of a Bird. IT is probable that none of those creatures that want Reason delight so much in pleasant Sounds as a Bird whence it is that both it spends so much time in singing and is more apt to imitate those modulations which it hears from men Frequent practice if it be voluntary argues a delight in that which we doe and delight makes us more apt to practise and more capable of perfection in that we practise O God if I take pleasure in thy Law I shall meditate of it with comfort speak of it with boldnesse and practise it with chearfulnesse CXV Upon the sight of a man Yawning IT is a marvellous thing to see the reall effects and strong operation of Consent or Sympathy even where there is no bodily touch so one sad man puts the whole company into dumps so one mans Yawning affects and stretches the jaws of many beholders so the looking upon blear eyes taints the eye with blearenesse From hence it is easie to see the ground of our Saviours expostulation with his persecutor Saul Saul why persecutest thou me The Church is persecuted below he feels it above and complains So much as the person is more apprehensive must he needs be more affected O Saviour thou canst not but be deeply sensible of all our miseries and necessities If we do not feel thy wrongs and the wants of our Brethren we have no part in thee CXVI Upon the sight of a Tree lopped IN the lopping of these Trees Experience and good Husbandry hath taught men to leave one bough still growing in the top the better to draw up the sap from the root The like wisdome is fit to be observed in Censures which are intended altogether for reformation not for destruction So must they be inflicted that the Patient be not utterly discouraged and stript of hope and comfort but that whiles he suffereth he may feel his good tendered and his amendment both aimed at and expected O God if thou shouldest deal with me as I deserve thou shouldest not only shred my boughs but cut down my stock and stock up my root and yet thou dost but prune my superfluous branches and cherishest the rest How unworthy am I of this mercy if whiles thou art thus indulgent unto me I be severe and cruell to others perhaps lesse ill-deserving then my self CXVII Upon a Scholar that offered Violence to himself HAD this man lyen long under some eminent discontentment it had been easie to finde out the motive of his miscarriage Weak Nature is easily over-laid with Impatience it must be only the power of Grace that can grapple with vehement evils and master them But here the world cannot say what could be guilty of occasioning this Violence this mans hand was full his Fame untainted his body no burden his disposition for ought we saw fair his Life guiltlesse yet something did the Tempter finde to aggravate unto his feeble thoughts and to represent worthy of a dispatch What a poor thing is Life whereof so slight occasions can make us weary What impotent wretches are we when we are not sustained One would think this the most impossible of all motions naturally every man loves himself and Life is sweet Death abhorred What is it that Satan can despair to perswade men unto if he can draw them to an unnaturall abandoning of life and pursuit of death Why should I doubt of prevailing with my own heart by the powerfull over-ruling of Gods Spirit to contemn life and to affect death for the sake of my Saviour in exchange of a few miserable moments for eternity
now nothing but a ball of pricks to wound his jaws and goes away crying from so untoothsome a prey He that sent the Sluggard to school to the Pismire sends also in effect the Carelesse and imprudent man to the Hedg-hog whiles he saith If thou be wise thou shalt be wise for thy self The main care of any creature is self-preservation whatsoever doth that best is the wisest These creatures that are all body have well improved the instincts of Nature if they can provide for their bodily safety Man that is a reasonable Soul shall have done nothing if he make not sure work for the better part O God make me Soule-wise I shall never envy their craft that pity my simplicity CXXIV Upon the sight of a Goat THis creature is in an ill name it is not for any good qualities that God hath made choice of the Goat to resemble the wicked and reprobate Soul It is unruly and salacious and noisome I cannot see one of them but I presently recall to my thoughts the wofull condition of those on the left hand whom God hath set aside to so fearfull a Damnation They are here mixed with the Flock their colour differs nothing from the Sheep or if we do discern them by their rougher coat and odious sent we sever our selves from them but the time shall come when he shall sever them from us who hath appointed our innocency to the fold and their harmfulnesse to an everlasting slaughter Onwards if they climbe higher then we and feed upon those craggy clifts which we dare scarce reach to with our eyes their boldnesse is not greater then their danger neither is their ascent more perilous then their ruine deadly CXXV Upon the sight of the Blinde and the Lame HEre is a true naturall commerce of Senses The Blinde man hath Legs the Lame man hath Eyes the Lame man lends his Eyes to the Blinde the Blinde man lends his Legs to the Lame and now both of them move where otherwise both must sit still and perish It is hard to say whether is more beholden to other the one gives Strength the other Direction both of them equally necessary to motion Though it be not in other cases so sensible yet surely this very traffick of Faculties is that whereby we live neither could the world subsist without it one man lends a Brain another an Arme one a Tongue another an Hand He that knows wherefore he made all hath taken order to improve every part to the benefit of the whole What do I wish ought that is not usefull And if there be any thing in me that may serve to the good of others it is not mine but the Churches I cannot live but by others it were injurious if others should not likewise share with me CXXVI Upon the sight of a Map of the World WHat a poor little spot is a Countrey A man may hide with his thumb the great Territories of those that would be accounted Monarchs In vain should the great Cham or the great Mogul or Prester John seek here for his Court it is well if he can finde his Kingdome amongst these parcels And if we take all together these shreds of Islands and these patches of Continent what a mere indivisible point they are in comparison of that vast circle of Heaven wherewith they are incompassed It is not easie for a man to be known to that whole Land wherein he lives but if he could be so famous the next Countrey perhaps never hears of his Name and if he can attain to be talked of there yet the remoter parts cannot take notice that there is such a thing and if they did all speak of nothing else what were he the better Oh the narrow bounds of earthly Glory Oh the vain affectation of humane applause Only that man is happily famous who is known and recorded in Heaven CXXVII Upon the sight of Hemlock THere is no creature of it self evil misapplication may make the best so and there is a good use to be made of the worst This Weed which is too well proved to be poisonous yet to the Goat is medicinall as serving by the coldnesse of it to temper the feverous heat of that beast So we see the Marmoset eating of Spiders both for pleasure and cure Our ignorance may not bring a scandall upon Gods workmanship or if it do his Wisdome knows how to make a good use even of our injury I cannot say but the very venome of the creatures is to excellent purpose how much more their beneficiall qualities If ought hurt us the fault is ours in mistaking the evil for good in the mean time we owe praise to the Maker and to the creature a just and thankfull allowance CXXVIII Upon a Flower-de-luce THis Flower is but unpleasingly fulsome for sent but the root of it is so fragrant that the delicatest Ladies are glad to put it into their sweet bags contrarily the Rose-tree hath a sweet flower but a savourlesse root and the Saffron yields an odoriferous and cordiall spire whiles both the flower and the root are unpleasing It is with Vegetables as with Metalls God never meant to have his best alwayes in view neither meant he to have all eminences concealed He would have us to know him to be both secretly rich and openly bountifull If we do not use every Grace in its own kinde God loses the thanks and we the benefit CXXIX Upon the sight of two Trees one high the other broad THose Trees that shoot up in height are seldome broad as contrarily those Trees that are spreading are seldome tall it were too much ambition in that Plant which would be both wayes eminent Thus it is with men The Covetous man that effects to spread in Wealth seldome cares to aspire unto height of Honour the Proud man whose heart is set upon Preferment regards not in comparison thereof the growth of his Wealth there is a poor shrub in a valley that is neither tall nor broad nor cares to be either which speeds better then they both The tall tree is cut down for Timber the broad tree is lopped for Fire-wood besides that the Tempest hath power on them both whereas the low shrub is neither envied by the winde nor threatned by the axe but fostered rather for that little shelter which it affords the Shepheard If there be glory in Greatnesse Meannesse hath security Let me never envy their diet that had rather be unsafe then inglorious CXXX Upon the sight of a Drunken man REason is an excellent Faculty and indeed that which alone differenceth us from brute creatures without which what is Man but a two-legged Beast And as all precious things are tender and subject to miscarriage so is this above others the want of some little Sleep the violence of a Fever or one Cup too much puts it into utter distemper What can we make of this thing Man I cannot call him He hath Shape so hath a dead
more praise the mercy and wisdome of the giver and exercise the charity and thankfulness of the receiver The essence of our Humanity doth not consist in Stature he that is little of growth is as much man as he that is taller Even so also Spiritually the quantity of Grace doth not make the Christian but the truth of it I shall be glad and ambitious to adde cubits to my height but withall it shall comfort me to know that I cannot be so low of stature as not to reach unto Heaven CXXXVIII Upon an importunate Begger IT was a good rule of him that bade us learn to pray of Beggers with what zeal doth this man sue with what feeling expressions with how forceable importunity When I meant to passe by him with silence yet his clamour draws words from me when I speak to him though with excuses rebukes denials repulses his obsecrations his adjurations draw from me that Alms which I meant not to give How he uncovers his Sores and shews his impotence that my eyes may help his tongue to plead With what oratory doth he force my compâ—ssion so as it is scarce any thank to me that he prevails Why doe I not thus to my God I am sure I want no lesse then the neediest the danger of my want is greater the alms that I crave is better the store and mercy of the Giver infinitely more Why shouldst thou give me O God that which I care not to ask Oh give me a true sense of my wants and then I cannot be cool in asking thou canst not be difficult in condescending CXXXIX Upon a Medicinall potion HOW loathsome a draught is this how offensive both to the eye and to the scent and to the tast yea the very thought of it is a kinde of sickness and when it is once down my very disease is not so painfull for the time as my remedy How doth it turn the stomach and wring the entrails and works a worse distemper then that whereof I formerly complained And yet it must be taken for health neither could it be so wholsome if it were lesse unpleasing neither could it make me whole if it did not first make me sick Such are the chastisements of God and the reproofs of a Friend harsh troublesome grievous but in the end they yield the peaceable fruit of Righteousnesse Why do I turn away my head and make faces and shut mine eyes and stop my nostrils and nauseate and abhor to take this harmlesse potion for Health when we have seen Mountebanks to swallow dismembred toads and drink the poisonous broath after them only for a little ostentation and gain It is only weaknesse and want of resolution that is guilty of this queasinesse Why do not I chearfully take and quaffe up that bitter cup of Affliction which my wife and good God hath mixed for the health of my Soul CXL Upon the sight of a Wheel THE Prophet meant it for no other then a fearfull imprecation against Gods enemies O my God make them like unto a wheel whereby what could he intend to signifie but instability of condition and suddain violence of Judgement Those spoaks of the wheel that are now up are sooner then sight or thought whirled down and are straight raised up again on purpose to be depressed Neither can there be any motion so rapid and swift as the Circular It is a great favour of God that he takes leisure in his affliction so punishing us that we have respites of Repentance There is life and hope in these degrees of suffering but those hurrying and whirling Judgments of God have nothing in them but wrath and confusion O Lord rebuke me not in thine anger I cannot deprecate thy rebuke my sins call for correction but I deprecate thine anger thou rebukest even where thou lovest So rebuke me that whiles I smart with thy Rod I may rejoyce in thy Mercy CERTAIN CATHOLICK PROPOSITIONS Which A Devout Son of the CHURCH Humbly offers to the serious consideration of all ingenuous Christians wheresoever dispersed all the world over To all them who through the whole Israel of God follow Absolom with a simple heart BE not deceived any longer dear Christian Souls be ye free that ye may be safe There is a certain Sacred Tyranny that miserably abuses you and so cunningly beguiles you that you chuse rather to erre and perish God hath given you Reason and above that Faith do not so far wrong your selves as to be made the mere slaves of anothers will and to think it the safest way to be willingly blinde Lay aside for a while all prejudice and superstitious side-taking and consider seriously these few words which my sincere love to your Souls and hearty ambition of your Salvation hath commanded me as before the awfull Tribunall of Almighty God to tender unto you If what I say be not so clear and manifest to every ingenuous judgment that it shall not need to borrow further light from abroad condemn this worthlesse scroll and in your severe doom punish the Author with the losse of an hours labour But if it shall carry sufficient evidence in it self and shall be found so reasonable as that to any free minde it shall not perswade but command assent give way for Gods sake and for your Souls sake to that powerfull Truth of God which breaks forth from Heaven upon you and at last acknowledge besides a world of foul Errours the miserable insolence and cruelty of that once-Famous and renowned Church which to use Gerson's word will needs make Faith of Opinion and too impotently favouring her own passions hath not ceased to persecute with fire and sword the dear and holy servants of God and at last notwithstanding all the vain thunderbolts of a proud and lawlesse fury make much of those your truly-Christian and religious brethren who according to the just liberty of Faithfull men refuse and detest those false and upstart Points of a new-devised Faith But if any of you which God forbid had still rather to be deceived and dote upon his received Errors and as angry Curres are wont shall bark and bay at so clear a light of Truth my Soule shall in silence and sorrow pity that man in vain I wis we have had disputing enough if not too much Away from henceforth with all these Paper-brablings God from Heaven shall stint these strifes Wonder O Catholicks and ye whom it concerns repent Certain Catholick PROPOSITIONS which a devout Son of the Church humbly offers to the serious consideration of all ingenuous Christians wheresoever dispersed all the World over I. EVery true Christian is in that very regard properly capable of Salvation and for matter of Faith goes on in the ready way to Heaven II. Whosoever being duely admitted into the Church of God by lawfull Baptism believeth and maintaineth all the main and essential Points of Christian Faith is for matter of belief a true Christian III. The Summe of the Christian
Faith are those Principles of Christian Religion and Fundamental Grounds and Points of Faith which are undoubtedly contained and laid down in the Canonicall Scriptures whether in expresse termes or by necessary consequence and in the Ancient Creeds universally received and allowed by the whole Church of God IV. There cannot be now-a-dayes any new Rule of Faith V. As there cannot be any new Rule of Faith so there cannot now be any new Faith It is not therefore in the power of any creature under Heaven to make any Point to be of Faith which before was not so or to cause any Point not to be of Faith which formerly was so VI. He cannot be an Heretick who doth not obstinately deny something which is truly a Point of Faith or hold some Point contrary to the foresaid Articles of Christian Faith VII There are and may be many Theologicall Points which are wont to be believed and maintained and so many lawfully be of this or that particular Church or the Doctors thereof or their Followers as godly Doctrines and Probable Truths besides those other Essential and main matters of Faith without any prejudice at all of the common Peace of the Church VIII Howsoever it may be lawfull for Learned men particular Churches to believe and maintain those Probable or as they may think Certain Points of Theologicall Verities yet it is not lawfull for them to impose and obtrude the said Doctrines upon any Church or Person to be believed and held as upon the necessity of Salvation or to anathematize or eject out of the Church any Person or company of men that thinks otherwise IX Notwithstanding any such unjust Anathema denounced against any such Person or Church whosoever holds those Principles and Essential Points of Christian Faith however he be in place far remote from all the Visible Churches of Christ and neither know not or receive not those other Positions of Theological determination is throughly capable in such condition of Christian Communion and if many such be met together under a lawfull Pastor there cannot be denied unto them both the truth and title of a true Visible Church of Christ X. The Church of Rome is onely and at the best a Particular Church XI All Christian Churches are no other then Sisters and Daughters of that great and Universall Mother which furnisheth both Heaven and earth of equall priviledge in respect of God and his Faith save onely that each one is so much more honourable as it is more pure and holy It is not therefore lawfull for any one of them in regard of the businesses of Faith to take upon her self the power and command over any other or to prescribe unto any of them what they must necessarily believe upon pain of damnation XII Those issues of Controversie in regard whereof the Reformed Catholicks are wont to be condemned and anathematized by the Romane Church are far from Principles of Christian Faith neither are any other than their own Theologicall Positions and the institutions and devises of that particular Church XIII The Reformed Catholicks have not offered to bring in any new Opinion or Doctrine into the Church but only labour and endeavour to procure some late superfluous additions to the Faith to be cashiered rejected XIV Vainly therefore and unjustly is it required of them that they should shew the succession of their Religion and Church as raised upon a quite other foundation to be derived from the Apostolick times to the present since all that they professe is a desire to purge the very same Church of God from certain new Errors and Superstitious rites wherewith it is miserably defiled XV. Out of all which Premisses it necessarily followeth that the Romane Church which upon these grounds sticketh not to exclude true Christians differing from them in matter of such Doctrines from the Church of God and eternall Salvation is justly guilty of great insolency and horrible breach both of Charity and Peace and that the Reformed notwithstanding this rash and unjust censure of theirs forasmuch as they do inviolably hold all the Points of the truly ancient and Christian Faith do justly claim unto themselves a most true and perfect interest in the communion of all Christian Churches and eternall Salvation XVI There is no lesse danger in adding to the Articles of Christian Faith then in diminishing them or detracting from them XVII Those Points which the Romane Church is wont to adde and forcibly to put upon all Catholicks as well the Reformed as those whom they term their own are such as are grounded on her own mere authority XVIII The Reformed Catholicks do justly complain and prove that those Points which the Romane Church imposeth and urgeth as the meet additions both of Faith and Divine worship are neither safe nor agreeable to the holy Word of God and plead it to be utterly unjust that those accessory Points of their devising or determining wherein every Church should be left free and at her due liberty should be imperiously thrust upon them notwithstanding their vehement and just resistance XIX It argues a palpable self-love in the Romane Church and must needs at the last draw down a grievous Judgement from God upon her that this Particular Church will needs make her self uncapable of any better condition in that she vainly brags that she cannot erre and fearfully accurseth and sends down to hell all those that profer her the least endeavour of the means of her remedy and redresse XX. Upon all these grounds it is plain that the Reformed Catholicks are in a safe estate and that contrarily the Romane are in a miserable errour and fearfull danger and lastly that it is only through their default that the Church of God is not reduced to an happy Purity and Peace 2 Tim. 2. 7. Consider what I say and the Lord give you understanding in all things AN ANSWER TO POPE URBAN'S INURBANITIE Expressed in a BREEVE sent to LEWIS the French King exasperating him against the Protestants in France Written in Latine by the Right Reverend Father in God JOSEPH Lord Bishop of Excester Translated into English by his Son ROBERT HALL Master of Arts in Excester Colledge in Oxford LONDON Printed by JAMES FLESHER 1661. A BREEVE of Pope Urban the Eighth sent to Lewis the French King upon the taking of ROCHEL OUR most dear Son in Christ we send you greeting and Apostolical Benediction The voice of rejoicing and Salvation is in the tabernacles of the righteous let the wicked see this and fret and let the Synagogue of Satan consume away The most Christian King fighteth for Religion the Lord of hosts fighteth for the King We verily in this Mother-City of the world triumph with holy joy we congratulate this your Majesties Victory the trophees whereof are erected in Heaven the glory whereof the generation that is to come shall never cease to speak of Now at the length this Age hath seen the Tower of ROCHEL no lesse
Religion But alas poor souls we are mistaken all this while it is nothing else but pure Piety forsooth which we ignorantly condemn for Cruelty 't is the zeal of Gods house wherewith Good Prelate thou art so inflamed that thou hast hereupon both wished and importuned the utter extirpation of all those Hereticks stabling in the French Territories O forehead O bowels For us we call God Angels Saints to witness of this foul calumniation I wis those whom thou falsly brandest for Hereticks thou shalt one day hear when the Church shall imbrace them for her children Christ for the spiritual Members of his mystical body For what I beseech you do we hold which the Scriptures Councils Fathers Churches and Christian Professors have not in all Ages taught and published To say the truth All that which we professe your own most approved Authors have still maintained whence then is this quarrell Shall I tell you There are indeed certain new Patches of Opinion which you would needs adde to the ancient Faith these we most justly reject and do still constantly refuse They are humane they are your own briefly they are either doubtfull or impious And must we now be cast out of the bosome of the Church and be presently delivered up to fire and sword Must we for this be thunder-strucken to Hell by your Anathemas there to frie in perpetuall Torments Is it for this that a stall and shambles are thought good enough for such brutish animals Good God! See the justice and charity of these Popelings This is nothing but a mere injury of the Times it was not wont to be Heresie heretofore that is so now-a-daies If it had been our Happinesse to have lived in the Primitive times of the Churches Simplicity before ever that Romish Transcendency Image-worship Transubstantiation Sacrifice of the Masse Purgatory single or half-Communion Nundination of Pardons and the rest of this rabble were known to the Christian world surely Heaven had been as open to us as to other Devout Souls of that purer Age that took their happy flight from hence in the Orthodox Faith of Christ Jesus But now that we are reserved to that dotage of the world wherein a certain new brood of Articles are sprung up it is death to us forsooth and to be expiated by no lesse punishment then the perpetuall torments of Hell-fire Consider this O ye Christians wheresoever dispersed upon the face of the whole earth consider I say how far it is from all Justice and Charity that a new Faith should come dropping forth at mens pleasure which must adjudge Posterity to eternal death for Mis-believers whom the ancient Truth had willingly admitted into Heaven These new Points of a politick Religion are they indeed that have so much disturbed the peace of Christendome these are they that set at variance the mighty Potentates of the earth who otherwise perhaps would sit down in an happy Peace these are they that rend whole Kingdomes distract people dissolve Societies nourish Faction and Sedition lay wast the most flourishing Kingdomes and turn the richest Cities to dust and rubbish But should these things be so Do we think this will one day be allowed for a just warrant of so much war and bloodshed before the Tribunall of that supreme Judge of Heaven and earth Awake therefore now O ye Christian Princes and You especially King Lewis in whose eares these wicked counsels are so spightfully and bloodily whispered rouse up your self and see how cruell Tyranny seeks to impose upon your Majesty in a most mischievous manner under a fair pretence of Piety and Devotion They are your own native Subjects whom these malicious foreigners require to the slaughter yea they are Christs and will you imbrue your hand and sword in the blood of those for whom Christ hath shed his yea who have willingly lavished their own in the behalf of You and your great Father Hear I beseech thee O King who art wont amongst thine own to be instiled Lewis the Just If we did adore any other God any other Christ but thine if we aspired to any other Heaven embraced any other Creed any other Baptisme lastly if we made profession of a new Church built upon other foundations there were some cause indeed why thou shouldest condemn such Hereticks stabling in France to the revenging sury of thy flames If this thy people have wilfully violated any thing established by our common God or lawfully commanded by thee we crave no pardon for them let them smart that have deserved it is but just they should But do not in the mean time fall fiercely upon the fellow-servants of thy God upon thine own best Subjects whose very Religion must make them loyall suffer not those poor wretches to perish for some late upstart superfluous additions of humane invention and mere will-worship who were alwaies most forward to redeem Thine thy Great Fathers Safety and Honour with the continuall hazzard of their owne most precious lives Let them but live then by thy gracious sufferance by whose Valour and Fidelity thou now reignest But suppose they were not yours yet remember that they are Christians a title wherewith your style is wont most to be honored washed in the same Laver of Baptisme bought with the same price renewed by the same Spirit and whatsoever impotent malice bawle to the contrary the beloved Sons of the Celestiall Spouse yea the Brethren of that Spirituall Bride-groom Christ Jesus But they erre you will say from the Faith From what faith I beseech you Not the Christian surely but the Romish What a strange thing is this Christ doth not condemn them the Pope doth If that great Chancellour of Paris were now alive he would freely teach his Sorbon as he once did that it is not in the Popes power that I may use his owne word to hereticate any Proposition Yea but an Oecumenicall Council besides hath done it What Council That of Trent I am deceived if that were hitherto received in the Churches of France or deserved to be so hereafter Consult with your own late Authors of most undoubted credit they will tell you plainly how unjust that Council was yea how no Council at all It was only the Popes act whatsoever was decreed or established by that pack'd Conclave envassalled to the Seven hills Consider lastly I beseech you how the Reformed Christians stand in no other terms to the Papists then the Papists do to the Reformed Heresie is with equall vehemency upbraided on both sides But do we deale thus roughly with the followers of the Roman Religion Did we ever rage against the Popish Faith with fire and sword Was ever the crime of a poor misled conscience capitall to any soul You may finde perhaps but very seldome some audacious Masse-priest some firebrand of Sedition and contemner of our publick Laws to have suffered condign punishment But no Papist I dare boldly say ever suffered losse either of life or lim merely for his Religion
passes from the ship to the shore That which brought him from Heaven to earth brought him also from the sea to land his compassion on their Souls that he might teach them compassion on their Bodies that he might heal and feed them Judaea was not large but populous it could not be but there must be amongst so many men many diseased it is no marvel if the report of so miraculous and universal sanations drew customers They found three advantages of cure above the power and performance of any earthly Physician Certainty Bounty Ease Certainty in that all comers were cured without fail Bounty in that they were cured without charge Ease in that they were cured without pain Farre be it from us O Saviour to think that thy Glory hath abated of thy Mercy still and ever thou art our assured bountiful and perfect Physician who healest all our diseases and takest away all our infirmities Oh that we could have our faithful recourse to thee in all our spiritual maladies it were as impossible we should want help as that thou shouldest want power and mercy That our Saviour might approve himself every way beneficent he that had filled the Souls of his Auditors with spiritual repast will now fill their Bodies with temporal and he that had approved himself the universal Physician of his Church will now be known to be the great housholder of the world by whose liberal provision mankinde is maintained He did not more miraculously heal then he feeds miraculously The Disciples having well noted the diligent and importune attendance of the multitude now towards evening come to their Master in a care of their repast and discharge This is a desart place and the time is now past Send the multitude away that they may goe into the villages and buy themselves victuals How well it becomes even spiritual guides to regard the bodily necessities of God's people This is not directly in our charge neither may we leave our sacred ministration to serve Tables But yet as the bodily father must take care for the Soul of his childe so must the spiritual have respect to the Body This is all that the world commonly looks after measuring their Pastors more by their dishes then by their doctrine or conversation as if they had the charge of their Bellies not of their Souls if they have open Cellars it matters not whether their Mouths be open If they be sociable in their carriage favourable and indulgent to their recreations full in their chear how easily doth the world dispense with either their negligence or enormities As if the Souls of these men lay in their weasand in their gut But surely they have reason to exspect from their Teachers a due proportion of Hospitality An unmeet parsimony is here not more odious then sinful And where ability wants yet care may not be wanting Those Preachers which are so intent upon their spiritual work that in the mean time they over-strain the weaknesses of their people holding them in their Devotions longer then humane frailty will permit forget not themselves more then their pattern and must be sent to school to these compassionate Disciples who when evening was come sue to Christ for the peoples dismission The place was desart the time evening Doubtless our Saviour made choice of both these that there might be both more use and more note of his Miracle Had it been in the morning their stomack had not been up their feeding had been unnecessary Had it been in the Village provision either might have been made or at least would have seemed made by themselves But now that it was both desart and evening there was good ground for the Disciples to move and for Christ to work their sustentation Then onely may we exspect and crave help from God when we finde our need Superfluous aid can neither be heartily desired nor earnestly lookt for nor thankfully received from the hands of mercy Cast thy burden upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee If it be not a burden it is no casting it upon God Hence it is that Divine aid comes ever in the very upshot and exigence of our trials when we have been exercised and almost tired with long hopes yea with despairs of success that it may be both more longed for ere it come and when it comes more welcome Oh the Faith and Zeal of these clients of Christ They not only follow him from the City into the Desart from delicacy to want from frequence to solitude but forget their bodies in pursuit of the food of their Souls Nothing is more hard for an healthful man to forget then his belly within few hours this will be sure to solicit him and will take no denials Yet such sweetness did these hearers finde in the spiritual repast that they thought not on the bodily the Disciples pitied them they had no mercy on themselves By how much more a mans minde is taken up with Heavenly things so much less shall he care for earthly What shall earth be to us when we are all Spirit And in the mean time according to the degrees of our intellectual elevations shall be our neglect of bodily contentments The Disciples think they move well Send them away that they may buy victuals Here was a strong Charity but a weak Faith A strong Charity in that they would have the people relieved a weak Faith in that they supposed they could not otherwise be so well relieved As a man when he sees many wayes lie before him takes that which he thinks both fairest and nearest so doe they this way of relief lay openest to their view and promised most Well might they have thought It is as easie for our Master to feed them as to heal them there is an equal facility in all things to a supernatural power yet they say Send them away In all our projects and suits we are still ready to move for that which is most obvious most likely when sometimes that is less agreeable to the will of God The All-wise and Almighty arbiter of all things hath a thousand secret means to honour himself in his proceedings with us It is not for us to carve boldly for our selves but we must humbly depend on the disposal of his Wisdom and Mercy Our Saviours answer gives a strange check to their motion They need not depart Not need They had no victuals they must have there was none to be had What more need could be He knew the supply which he intended though they knew it not His command was therefore more strange then his assertion Give ye them to eat Nothing gives what it hath not Had they had victuals they had not called for a dismission and not having how should they give It was thy wisdom O Saviour thus to prepare thy Disciples for the intended Miracle Thou wouldst not doe it abruptly without an intimation both of the purpose of it and the necessity And how modestly dost thou
more to the enemy of God of whom we say commonly As proud as the Devil For that once-glorious Angel looking upon his own excellency wherewith he was invested in his creation began to be lift up in himself made himself his own Alpha and Omega acknowledging no essential dependance upon God as his beginning no necessary reference to God as his end and therefore was tumbled down into that bottomless dungeon and reserved in everlasting chains of darkness unto the judgement of the great day This is it which some think Saint Paul alludes to when he charges that a Bishop should not be a novice left he should be puffed up and fall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the condemnation of the Devil 1 Tim. 3. 6. Now there are so many kinds of Pride as there are imaginary causes of self-exaltation and there are so many causes imagined hereof as there are things reputed more precious and excellent in the eyes of the world I might send you to Hugo's Chariot of Pride drawn with four horses that Age knew no more and the four wheels of it if I listed to mount Pride curiously but I will shew you her on foot To speak plainly therefore These five things are wont commonly to be the matter of our Pride Honour Riches Beauty Strength Knowledge Every of them shall have a word Those that are tainted with the first are State-proud Bladders puft up with the wind of Honour Thus Ninive Behold I sit as a Queen I am and there is none else Thus the insolent officer of Sennacherib Who art thou that thou despisest the least of my Masters servants Vicina potentibus superbia as that Father said Pride is an usual neighbour to greatness How hard is it for eminent Persons when they see all heads bare all knees bowed to them not to be raised up in their conceits not to applaud their own glory and to look overly upon the ignoble multitude as those which are Terrae filii mushroms worthy of nothing but contempt Hence it is that proud ones are incompatible with each other Look upon other Vices ye shall see one Drunkard hug another one debauch'd Wanton love another one Swearer one Profane beast delight in another but one Proud man cannot abide another as one twig cannot bear two Red-breasts Both would be best Caesar will not indure an equal nor Pompey a superiour The second are Purse-proud Vermis divitiarum superbia as St. Austin wittily Pride is in the Purse as the worm in the Apple Thus Nabal because he hath money in his bags and stock on his ground sends a scornful message to poor David though a better man then himself Many servants run away from their Masters now adaies How many examples meet us every where of this kind of them which having scrap'd together a little money more then their neighbours look big upon it and scorn the need of the better deserving and bluster like a tempest and think to bear down even good causes before them Secundas fortunas decent superbiae as the Comedian Pride becomes the wealthy Thus Solomon notes in his time that the rich speaks with commands the words weigh according to the Purse The third are the Skin-proud for Beauty goes no deeper such as with Jezebel lick themselves and with Narcissus dote upon their own Faces thinking it a wrong in any that sees them and admires them not spending all their thoughts and their time in fashions and complexion as if their Soul lay in their hide despising the ordinary forms of vulgar persons yea of the most beneficial nature Elatus erat animus tuus propter pulcritudinem Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty saith Ezekiel 28. 17. The fourth are the Sinew-proud which presume upon their own Strength and vigor Elatum cor robore saies the same Ezekiel 28. 5. As Goliah who dares in the confidence of his own arm challenge the whole hoast of God and scorns the dwarfs and shrimps of Israel The fifth is the Skill-proud puffed up with the conceit of Knowledge as Knowledge is indeed of a swelling nature There is much affinity betwixt Knowledge and Pride both came out of one Country for Pride is also natione coelestis as Hierom well and since she cannot climbe up thither again she will be mounting as high as she can towards it Every smatterer thinks all the Circle of Arts confined to the closet of his breast and as Job speaks of his haughty friends that all wisdome lives in him and dyes with him Hence is that curiosity of knowing vain querks of speculation hence singularity of opinion hating to go in the common track hence impatience of contradiction hence contempt of the mediocrity of others Out of this impatience Zidkijah could smite Michaiah on the eare and as buffeting him double say Which way went the Spirit of God from me to thee Out of this contempt the Scribes and Pharisees could say Turba haec this Laity that knows not the Law is accursed But besides these five a man may be proud of any thing yea of nothing yea of worse then nothing Evil. There may be as much Pride in rags as in tissues Diogenes tramples upon Plato's pride but with another pride And we commonly observe that none are so proud as the foulest In what kind soever it be the more a man reflects upon himself by seeking loving admiring the more proud he is the more damnable is his Pride But as in all other cases Pride is odious to God so most of all in point of Religion and in those matters wherein we have to doe with God A proud face or a proud back or a proud arm or a proud purse are hateful things but a proud Religion is so much worse as the subject should be better Let this then be the just 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Test of true or false Religion That which teacheth us to exalt God most and most to depress our selves is the true that which doth most pranck up our selves and detract from God is the false It was the rule of Bonaventure whom the Romanists honour for a Saint Hoc piarum mentium est c. This is the part of pious Souls to ascribe nothing to themselves all to the Grace of God So as how much soever a man attributes to the Grace of God he shall not swerve from Piety in detracting from Nature but if he substract never so little from the Grace of God and give it to Nature he indangers himself and offends In the safety of this proof our Doctrine triumphs over the Romish in all those Points wherein it opposeth ours Ours stands ever on Gods side exalting his free Grace and mere Mercy as the causes of our Salvation theirs dividing this great work betwixt God and themselves Gods Grace and mans Free-will and ascribing that to Merit which we to Mercy Herein Popery is pure Pharisaisme and comes within the verge of Spiritual Pride Solomon's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Insolent men
what a task the Stomack must be put to in the concoction of so many mixtures I am not so austerely scrupulous as to deny the lawfulnesse of these abundant provisions upon just occasions I finde my Saviour himself more then once at a Feast this is recorded as well as his one long Fast Doubtlesse our bountifull God hath given us his creatures not for necessity only but for pleasure but these Exceedings would be both rare and moderate and when they must be require no lesse Patience then Temperance Might I have my option O God give me rather a little with peace and love He whose provision for every day was thirty measures of fine Flower and threescore measures of Meal thirty Oxen an hundred Sheep besides Venison and Fowl yet can pray Give me the Bread of sufficiency Let me have no perpetuall Feast but a good Conscience and from these great preparations for the health both of Soul and Body let me rise rather hungry then surcharged LXXXII Upon the hearing of a Lute well played on THere may be for ought we know infinite inventions of Art the possibility whereof we should hardly ever believe if they were fore-reported to us Had we lived in some rude and remote part of the World and should have been told that it is possible only by an hollow piece of Wood and the guts of Beasts stirred by the fingers of men to make so sweet and melodious a noise we should have thought it utterly incredible yet now that we see and hear it ordinarily done we make it no wonder It is no marvell if we cannot fore-imagine what kinde and means of Harmony God will have used by his Saints and Angels in Heaven when these poor matters seem so strange to our conceits which yet our very Senses are convinced of O God thou knowest infinite wayes to glorifie thy self by thy Creatures which do far transcend our weak and finite capacities Let me wonder at thy Wisdome and Power and be more awfull in my Adorations then curious in my Inquiries LXXXIII Upon the sight and noise of a Peacock I See there are many kinds of Hypocrites of all Birds this makes the fairest shew and the worst noise so as this is an Hypocrite to the Eye There are others as the Black-bird that looks foul and sooty but sings well this is an Hypocrite to the Eare. There are others that please us well both in their shew and voice but are crosse in their carriage and condition as the Popingay whose colours are beautifull and noise delightfull yet is it apt to doe mischief in scratching and biting any hand that comes neare it these are Hypocrites both to the Eye and Eare. Yet there is a degree further beyond the example of all brute Creatures of them whose shew whose words whose actions are fair but their hearts are foul and abominable No outward Beauty can make the Hypocrite other then odious For me let my Profession agree with my words my words with my actions my actions with my heart and let all of them be approved of the God of Truth LXXXIIII Upon a penitent Malefactor I Know not whether I should more admire the Wisdome or the Mercy of God in his proceedings with Men. Had not this man sinned thus notoriously he hâ—d never been thus happy whiles his courses were fair and civil yet he was gracelesse now his miscarriage hath drawn him into a just Affliction his Affliction hath humbled him God hath taken this advantage of his Humiliation for his Conversion Had not one foot slipt into the mouth of Hell he had never been in this forwardnesse to Heaven There is no man so weak or foolish as that he hath not strength or wit enough to sin or to make ill use of his sin It is only the goodness of an infinite God that can make our sin good to us though evil in it self O God it is no thank to our selves or to our sins that we are bettered with evill the Work is thine let thine be the Glory LXXXV Upon the sight of a Lilly THis must needs be a goodly Flower that our Saviour hath singled out to compare with Solomon and that not in his ordinary dresse but in all his Royalty Surely the earth had never so glorious a King as he Nature yielded nothing that might set forth Royall magnificence that he wanted yet he that made both Solomon and this Flower sayes that Solomon in all his Royalty was not clad like it What a poor thing is this earthly Bravery that is so easily overmatched How ill judges are we of outward Beauties that contemn these goodly Plants which their Creator thus magnifies and admire those base Metals which he in comparison hereof contemns If it be their transitorinesse that embaseth them what are we All flesh is Grasse and all the glory of man as the flower of Grasse As we cannot be so brave so we cannot be more permanent O God let it be my ambition to walk with thee hereafter in white Could I put on a robe of Stars here with proud Herod that glittering garment could not keep me from Lice or Worms Might I sit on a Throne of Gold within an house of Ivory I see I should not compare with this Flower I might be as transitory I should not be so beautifull What matters it whether I goe for a Flower or a Weed here whethersoever I must wither Oh thou which art greater then Solomon do thou cloath me with thy perfect Righteousnesse so shall I flourish for ever in the Courts of the House of my God LXXXVI Upon the sight of a Coffin stuck with Flowers TOO fair appearance is never free from just suspicion Whiles here was nothing but mere Wood no Flower was to be seen here now that this Wood is lined with an unsavoury Corps it is adorned with this sweet variety The Firre whereof that Coffin is made yields a naturall redolence alone now that it is stuffed thus noisomely all helps are too little to countervail that sent of corruption Neither is it otherwise in the Living Perpetual use of strong perfumes argues a guiltiness of some unpleasing savour The case is the same Spiritually an over-glorious outside of Profession implies some inward filthinesse that would fain escape notice Our uncomely parts have more comelinesse put on Too much Ornament imports extreme deformity For me let my shew be moderate so shall I neither deceive applause nor merit too deep censure LXXXVII Upon the view of the World IT is a good thing to see this materiall World but it is a better thing to think of the intelligible World This thought is the sight of the Soul whereby it discerneth things like it self Spirituall and Immortall which are so much beyond the worth of these sensible Objects as a Spirit is beyond a Body a pure substance beyond a corruptible an infinite God above a finite Creature O God how great a word is that which the Psalmist sayes of thee that
thou abasest thy self to behold the things both in Heaven and Earth It is our glory to look up even to the meanest piece of Heaven it is an abasement to thine incomprehensible Majesty to look down upon the best of Heaven Oh what a transcendent Glory must that needs be that is abased to behold the things of Heaven What an happinesse shall it be to me that mine eyes shall be exalted to see thee who art humbled to see the place and state of my blessednesse Yea those very Angels that see thy face are so resplendently glorious that we could not overlive the sight of one of their faces who are fain to hide their faces from the sight of thine How many millions attend thy Throne above and thy Footstool below in the ministration to thy Saints It is that thine invisible world the Communion wherewith can make me truely blessed O God if my body have fellowship here amongst Beasts of whose earthly substance it participates let my Soul be united to thee the God of Spirits and be raised up to enjoy the insensible society of thy blessed Angels Acquaint me before-hand with those Citizens and affairs of thine Heaven and make me no stranger to my future Glory LXXXVIII Upon the stinging of a Wasp HOW small things may annoy the greatest Even a Mouse troubles an Elephant a Gnat a Lion a very Flea may disquiet a Giant What weapon can be nearer to nothing then the sting of this Wasp Yet what a painfull wound hath it given me that scarce-visible point how it envenomes and ranckles and swells up the flesh The tenderness of the part addes much to the grief And if I be thus vexed with the touch of an angry File Lord how shall I be able to indure the sting of a tormenting Conscience As that part is both most active and most sensible so that wound which it receives from it self is most intolerably grievous there were more ease in a nest of Hornets then under this one Torture O God howsoever I speed abroad give me Peace at home and whatever my Flesh suffer keep my Soul free Thus pained wherein do I finde ease but in laying honey to the part infected That Medicine only abates the anguish How near hath Nature placed the remedy to the offence Whensoever my Heart is stung with the remorse for sin only thy sweet and precious Merits O blessed Saviour can mitigate and heal the wound they have virtue to cure me give me Grace to apply them that soveraign receipt shall make my pain happy I shall thus applaud my grief It is good for me that I was thus afflicted LXXXIX Upon the Arraignment of a Felon WIth what terrour doth this Malefactor stand at that Bar his Hand trembles whiles it is lift up for his triall his very Lips quake whiles he saith Not guilty his Countenance condemns him before the Judge and his fear is ready to execute him before his Hangman Yet this Judge is but a weak man that must soon after die himself that Sentence of Death which he can pronounce is already passed by Nature upon the most innocent that act of Death which the Law inflicteth by him is but momentany who knows whether himself shall not die more painfully O God with what horror shall the guilty Soul stand before thy dreadfull Tribunall in the day of the great Assizes of the World whiles there is the presence of an Infinite Majesty to daunt him a fierce and clamorous Conscience to give in evidence against him Legions of ugly and terrible Devils waiting to seize upon him a gulf of unquenchable Fire ready to receive him whiles the Glory of the Judge is no lesse confounding then the Cruelty of the Tormenters where the Sentence is unavoidable and the Execution everlasting Why do not these terrors of thee my God make me wise to hold a privy Sessions upon my Soul actions that being acquitted by my own heart I may not be condemned by thee and being judged by my self I may not be condemned with the World XC Upon the Crowing of a Cock. How harshly did this note sound in the eare of Peter yea pierced his very heart Many a time had he heard this Bird and was no whit moved with the noise now there was a Bird in his bosome that crowed lowder then this whose shrill accent conjoined with this astonished the guilty Disciple The wearie Labourer when he is awakened from his sweet sleep by this natural Clock of the Houshold is not so angry at this troublesome Bird nor so vexed at the hearing of that unseasonable sound as Peter was when this Fowl awakened his sleeping Conscience and called him to a timely repentance This Cock did but crow like others neither made or knew any difference of this tone and the rest there was a Divine hand that ordered this Mornings note to be a Summons of Penitence He that fore-told it had fore-appointed it that Bird could not but crow then and all the noise in the High Priests Hall could not keep that sound from Peter's eare But O Saviour couldst thou finde leisure when thou stoodst at the Bar of that unjust and cruell Judgment amidst all that bloody rabble of Enemies in the sense of all their fury and the exspectation of thine own Death to listen unto this Monitor of Peter's Repentance and upon the hearing of it to cast back thine eyes upon thy Denying Cursing Abjuring Disciple O Mercy without measure and beyond all the possibility of our admiration to neglect thy self for a Sinner to attend the Repentance of one when thou wert about to lay down thy life for all O God thou art still equally mercifull Every Elect Soul is no lesse dear unto thee Let the sound of thy faithfull Monitors smite my ears and let the beams of thy mercifull eyes wound my heart so as I may go forth and weep bitterly XCI Upon the variety of Thoughts WHen I bethink my self how Eternity depends upon this moment of life I wonder how I can think of any thing but Heaven but when I see the distractions of my Thoughts and the aberrations of my life I wonder how I can be so bewitched as whiles I believe an Heaven so to forget it All that I can doe is to be angry at mine own vanity My Thoughts would not be so many if they were all right there are ten thousand by-waies for one direct As there is but one Heaven so there is but one way to it that living way wherein I walk by Faith by Obedience All things the more perfect they are the more do they reduce themselves towards that Unity which is the Center of all Perfection O thou who art one and infinite draw in my heart from all these stragling and unprofitable Cogitations and confine it to thine Heaven and to thy self who art the Heaven of that Heaven Let me have no life but in thee no care but to injoy thee no ambition but thy Glory Oh make