in the hearts of the faithfull and consuming all our spirituall sacrifices who this day diddest descend and appeare in the likenesse of fiery tongues be a fire in my heart and tongue that I may be fervent in my meditations and prayers and zealous in the profession and defence of thy truth Inlighten the darknesse of my understanding inflame the coldnesse of my affections purge out the drosse of my corruptions direct me in all affaires of this life assist me in all exercises of devotion strengthen me in all assaults of temptations comfort me in all miseries of affliction seale all the gracious promises of thy Gospell unto me and seale me unto the day of redemption So be it Amen Into my minde descend O Dove gall purge cleane out of me With silver wings raise me above my Saviour Christ to see The STARRY HEAVEN OR a Meditation on All-Saints-day IN the generall survey of this work I compared this latter part to the beauty of Sanctum Sanctoâ—um in Solomons Temple for as King Solomon set the Arke of the covenant in that place which Ark was covered with the propitiatory or Mercy-seat and made two Cherubims in the said roome so I likewise in this work have placed the resemblance of the Arke as on this day the Cherubins on S. Michael the Archangell and the propitiatory on Trinity Sunday But properly this Metaphor belongs to the middle part which treats of the meritorious actions of our blessed Saviour For he and he only is the Holy of Holies and Saints as Stars receive and derive all the light of sanctity that is in them from Christ the Sunne of Righteousnesse Therefore seeing I have raised this worke to this hight I will not fear to show that as Noahs Ark was a manifest symbole of the Church before and since the Law upon the troublesome waters of persecution and affliction so this Ark likewise may be a figure of Christs Church in the haven of prosperity and peace since the Gospell for first as the Law of God was put into the Ark for a memoriall of Gods covenant betweene him and the children of Israel so the Law or Gospell of Christ hath beene preserved in his Church for the confirmation of the faith and direction of the lives of us Christians Secondly as Manna was kept in the Ark for a remembrance of Gods mercy and power in preserving the lives of the Children of Israel forty years in the wildernesse with Angels food so likewise the blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper as chosen Manna hath beene kept in Christs Church for the spirituall livelyhood of the worthy receiver for ever And lastly aâ— Aarons fruitfull rod was kept in the Arke for a testimony of the chosen Priesthood so the fruitfull examples of the Saints lives is annually kept in the Church as on this day which I compare to the starry firmament for as poore way faring men receive a great deale of comfort and direction in the light of the starres in a darke night when the Sunne and Moone are extinct so a poore Christian in the pilgrimage of this world receives a great deale of solace and jâ—y in the consideration of those glorious Saints that have walked in the said steps before him And therefore the Church knowing the power of examples upon mens nature that they are more apt to be led by example then by precept or reason and are more apt to follow a multitude in sinne then the light of any one Saint in vertue hath set this day apart to let us understand that it is better to follow one Noah in the race of righteousnesse then a whole world drowned in sin and wickednesse and that for our soules salvation it is better to be like one just Lot then a City full of wicked Sodomites but it is a very hard matter to walk uprightly in the midst of a crooked generation Now as the number of fixed Starâ—â—s are past all Arithmeticall expression so the totall of all the Saints that are and have beene in the Church of God are without number Yet as Astrologers note a certaine number of Stars for an uncertaine in affirming that there are 1205 in the Northerne Hemisphere the Zodiack and Southerne Constellations besides the Seven Planets so S. Iohn in his Revelations notes a certaine number of Saints for an uncertaine in saying that in every Tribe were sealed 12000 besides the 24 Elders and 4 Beasts which by expositors are the 24 writers of the Old Testament and the foure Evangelists writers of the New But it is not for their number but for their vertues that we commemorate their lives on this day Therefore I will pray to God that it would please him to grant that I may seriously call to minde and wisely consider on this day the sincerity of Abel in my sacrifice of Praise the piety of Enoch in my walking with God the righteousnesse of Noah the faith of Abraham the chastity of Ioseph the meeknesse of Moses the zeale of Phineas the patience of Iob the devotion of David the wisdome of Solomon all the rare graces of Gods Spirit in the holy Patriarchs in the sweet fellowship of the Prophets the constancy and fortitude of the Noble Army of Martyrs and all those imitable vertues in my blessed Saviour that I endeavouring my selfe to walke after their godly example in the Church militant upon earth may after this life ended together with them in the day of the resurrection reigne for ever in the kingdome of heaven which is the Church triumphant Amen The North Hemisphere OR a Meditation on Twelfe-day AS I am enforced to alter the name of the North pole on this day and call it the Easterne Hemisphere because the Magi came from the East and not from the North so I am compelled to write little of this dayes commemoration because it is so excellently performed by M. Austin in his divine Meditations But as in the North Hemisphere there are 21 Constellations and in every one of them a certaine number of Starres in all 332 so for ought I know being it is not set downe in the Gospell there might be 21 Wisemen as well as 3 12 or 14 as some conjecture which came to worship our blessed Saviour by every one of them a certain number of converted Saints brought into the Hemisphere of the Christian Church But because I am ignorant in all these things I conclude with this divine prayer saying Father of light who didst guide the Heathen Sages by a Starre to seek after and finde thy Sonne the true light which enlightneth every man that commeth into the world give me grace to give eare to the more sure word of prophecy in the Scripture till the day dawne and the day starre arise in my heart As thou calledst the Wisemen observers of the starres by a staâ—re the Shepheards lying abroad by an apparition in the fields Zachary the Priest by a vision in the Temple Peter the Fisher by a draught of
of this pleasant Flower and felt the odoriferous savour of this heavenly Plant look on I pray you one slip more sprung from this fragrant Flower which I had almost forgot and that is her religious care and conformity to the Leviticall Law or decent order in the Church of God that then was viz. her circumcising her Son the eighth day her presenting him to the Lord and purifying her selfe as on this day according as God by Moses prescribed For as Christ had no originall sinne so he needed not to be circumcised as shal be shewed on Newyeares day so likewise the Virgin needed not this outward purifying which figured our cleansing from originall sin wherein the child conceived and born polluteth his Mother which was not so in this for both the conception and birth of Christ was supernaturall for she is said to have swadled the Childe beyond the ordinary strength of women who need a Midwife neither was she troubled with the usuall flux of other women in their Puerpery being free from the thing hereby signified viz. a sinfull child therefore the common opinion is that Christ came forth without any paine helpe or pollution the wombe of the Virgin remaining shut even as the Sun-beams pierceth the solid glasse without hurting it for she received no humane seed but was with childe by the Holy Ghost Now why this ceremony of sanctifying was used unto Christ by presenting him in the Temple and making an oblation for him is thus answered by â—unius That Christ was ever holy from eternity as he was God and from the very moment of his conception as he was Man wherefore he was not presented before the Father nor sanctified for himselfe but for us according to the ceremony of the Law Now such things as in the Scriptures are said to be sanctified are either sanctified indeed by Institution or Sacrament Indeed in their Nature or by declaration In Nature when by the grace of God things are made holy which were not so before by declaration when things before holy are manifested to be so Secondly by Institution things are sanctified by vertue of Gods command and promise of blessing as the Sabbath is sanctified Thirdly by Sacrament things are sanctified either absolutely or relatively that is both by signification and by the truth of the thing signified And thus Christ was sanctified though he be the truth of the Sacrament First because being Man he would obey the Law under which he was made Secondly that he might sanctifie the Law in his own Person By Institution he was sanctified for us we receiving the blessing through him as our first borne and Priest abrogating the Leviticall Priesthood And by manifestation he was sanctified when by observing this Law he was declared holy Wherefore this act of the Virgin being voluntary as I have shewed it was to shew her zeale and conformity to the decent orders of the Church of God To this might be added her constant course in keeping the Passeover every year which was a work of great labour travell But now these ceremoniall shadowes at the presence of the most glorious bright Sunne Christ Jesus vanishing away the Christian Church in all ages since hath in place or in stead of the Jewes Purification ordeined and instituted the purification of the heart by a true lively and justifying Faith and the purification of the life by unfeined and hearty repentance in that commendable and decent order of Churching women after their great deliverance from their pain and perill of child-birth enjoyneth them to bring not as then a lambe or two young pigeons but the sum of all Legall sacrifices hearty prayer and thanksgiving which consists not onely in the lippes but in the life and conversation Therefore every religious wise woman will not be so wedded to their own opinion or selfe conceit to think that it is any disparagement to her person be she never so great or a point of Popery to give publick praise to God in his Church but will be willing as Mary here was to conforme themselves to the godly discipline of the publick worship of God in his Church if ability of body hinder not as well as zealous in their own private devotions for they well know that one duty of Piety ought not to justle out another and that it is very requisite that our private and voluntary obsequies should give place to publick solemnities The sacrifice appointed for this solemnity makes this apparant for the Turtle and the Dove are boâ—h mourners or if you will both signifie the divine worship of God yet ought not the one to hinder the harmony of the other for the solitary Turtle and the associable Dove do both together set forth the secret tears and publick meetings of Gods people in divine worship for the Turtle signifies chastity and the Dove simplicity It being observed if the Turtle having once lost his mate he careth not for seeking any other and the simple and chaste conversation of the faithfull is an acceptable sacrifice of righteousnesse unto the Lord. Now they saith Calvin are deceived that think the Law of Purification to be but a politick law for God hereby would set before the Iewes eyes the corruption of their nature and the remedy of divine Grace did not appoint this only for the purifying of the wife as polluted towards her husband but this one law doth abundantly prove originall sin it being hereby intimated that the child commeth into the world so impure as that the very mother is polluted hereby The offering was for the redemption of the first-borne Levit 12. 6. And hereby it appeareth That Joseph and Mary were very poore otherwise they should have offered a lamb Whereas the child was before presented with gold it is not to bee thought that they brought him any great quantity but some little offering more for honour than for enriching It is to be considered wherefore a pair of Turtles or two Pigeons were now offered The Turtle is most in loquacitie among Birds and the Dove in mildnesse And such is Jesus become unto us being most milde And Christ as the Turtle by the voice of his Gospell and the sincere preaching thereof allureth the whole world unto him and filleth the Garden of his Church with his own melodies as it is seene at this day The voice of this Turtle is heard in our Land For the confirmation of the truth of Christs presentation in the Temple Saint Luke reports That after forty dayes from his Birth or two and thirty daies from the Circumcision His Mother brought him thither according to the Law of Moses and withall recounteth two strange things which happened at the same time to wit That two grave and reverend persons Simeon surnamed the Just and Anna the Prophetesse both of singular sanctity amongst the Jewes comming into the Temple at the very same time took notice of him and acknowledged him publikely for the Messias and Saviour of
the world fore-telling also by the spirit of prophesie divers particular things that were to ensue both to Christ and Christians and especially by his Mother the blessed Virgin which things being published at that time and confirmed afterwards by the event doe well declare that this narration of Saint Luke could not be forged as also the number of particular circumstances set downe about the time place and persons most notoriously knowne to all Jerusalem as for Anna shee had lived from her youth untill fourscore years of age in the Temple and thereby was knowne to the most part of Jury And Beda doth from her draw a mystery and makes of Anna a figure of the Church which is by Gods grace in that shee was the daughter of Phanuel which signifies the face of God and of the Tribe of Asser signifying Blessednesse her age being fourscore and foure years and her married estate seven which being applyed unto the dayes of Davids week the age of mans life doth signifie That the doctrine of the twelve Apostles should bee the rule of the Church in all ages for twelve multiplied by seven makes fourscore and foure the age of Anna which signifies Grace And as for Simeon he was the Scholler of the most famous Hillel and condisciple to Jonathan maker of the Chaldee Paraphrase and the Jewes Thalmud confesseth that by the death of these two men especially of Simeon failed the great Synagogue called Sanhedrin which after the captivity of Babylon untill Herods time supplyed in a sort the spirit of prophesie that was expressely in Israel before the said Captivity From both which persons this among other things is observeable that Christ came first unto Simeon which signifies obedience an embleme of the Law who taking hold on Christ desired then to die or depart in peace But when Christ came unto Anna a figure of the Gospell shee confessed unto the Lord and gave thankes seeing the Salvation of the World in Israel and was comforted in Jesus her redeemer and Saviour who desired to live for ever with Grace From all which see the honour that was done to Christ from both sexes Simeon an old man Anna an old widow Zachary a Priest Elizabeth a married woman and Mary a Virgin were all insoired with the spirit of prophesie to give testimony unto Christs Incarnatiâ—n Now I will conclude the Meditation of this day in contemplation of the rare graces of Gods Spirit in this Virgin Flower and pray to God that it would please him to infuse into my soule by the breath of his Spirit the sweet savour thereof that so I expressing by godly imitation the pleasant fruit thereof in my life and conversation may as shee on this day did present the first fruits of her wombe and offered the legall sacrifice that God by Moses prescribed from hence-forth consecrate and present the first fruits of the ensuing pilgrimage I have to run in this miserable world wholly to the glory and praise of God the good of others and salvation of my owne soule And so daily offering the Lambes Patience the Doves Innocence and the Turtles Chastity may grow as a young Plant flourish as a pleasant Flower and in a ripe age be gathered into the Garner of a heavenly habitation All which I pray God grant not for any merits of mine owne for I am in my selfe unworthy of the least graine of saving Grace but for the merits of my All-sufficient Saviour Christ Jesus To whom with the Almighty Father and sanctifying Spirit three Persons and one onely wise God be ascribed all Honour Glory and praise from henceforth and for ever Amen A TREE Or A Meditation on Palme Sunday IN the former Meditation you have viewed a fragrant Flower Now as opposite to that you may be pleased to behold a flourishing Tree upon which the Sunne of Righteousnesse did set And as a Tree I consider it first in its root or station secondly in its fruit or operation First for its root or foundation to know the reasons why this day is called Palme-sunday my small learning cannot fully decide nor determine for the Gospell appointed or set apart for the publique service of God on this day makes no mention of Palme nor any thing that hath Reference thereunto for whereas Palme is a note of Victory and Triumph this dayes Gospell contrary thereto makes a sad relation of our Saviours Death and Passion And the Gospel that seemes more to correspond with the name of this day and as some affirme was usually read in Churches in former times on this day is not unfitly stated upon the first of the foure Sundayes before the day of our Saviours Nativity called Advent Sunday because those Sundayes are appointed for us as preparatories to entertaine the benefits of Christs incarnation into our souls as the Jewes did his corporall presence into Jerusalem with great joy and triumph So the chiefe reason as I conceive why this victorious Palmes Gospell is thus transplanted from this day to Advent Sunday and yet that this day should still retaine the name is as before is specified to be as John Baptist was a fore-runner or harbinger to prepare the way for the comming of the great King Christ Iesus into this Annuall World or thus the root of this dayes denomination springs from these two grounds or causes First because that as this day falls alwayes in the Spring season and Palme as some note is one of the first Trees that buds so men that are rationall Trees in the Spring of their age assoone as they come to knowledge should prepare themselves for the entertainment of Christ into their hearts by striving to grow in piety and spirituall understanding 2. Because as some say Palm delighteth flourisheth most by the rivers side so Christ and all Christians flourish and become most victorious by the troublesome waters of persecution and affliction To prove the veritie hereof All writers almost affirme this same very day Christ went to Jerusalem in that triumphant manner as in the Gospel is related five dayes before his Passion to shew that in suffering he became victorious over sin death and all the Temptation of the Devill and in dying hee overcame death which gave the Church anciently occasion to goe in procession with Palmes in their hands on this day from whence it was called Palme-sunday Thus having briefly demonstrated the radical foundation of this dayes denomination I should now shew you the fructification thereof For though the Palme which grows in our Iland beares no fruit at all but onely a spongie or soft blossome growes upon it thereby as I conceive to shew the vanity of all worldly honour and triumphs of which Palme is an Embleme yet this Annuall Palme as the Date-tree will afford as many fruitfull meditations as there are words in the Gospell as is learnedly accomplished by that pious Gentleman Mr. Austin in his divine Meditations out of whose pleasant Garden I will only gather this sweet
such like should all have been comprehended under that fearfull Chaos and so the Earth as it were opened should have sent forth such sulphur'd smoke furious flames and fearfull thunder as should by their diabolicall doomesday have destroyed and defaced in the twinkling of an eye not only our then living Princes and people but even our insensible Monuments reserved for future ages And so not only we but the memory of us and ours should have beene thus extinguished in an instant O Lord what wonderfull distractions and dismall confusion would have beene then in the Land when they who alone could set order in such a time were all on the sudden swept away when the blame of so horrible a Massacre should have beene laid upon the most zealous professors of the truth when the Popes Buls should have been fixed upon the Gates of our chiefest Cities exposing the lives and estates of all that had not the mark of the Beast in their forehead to spoile ruine and destruction How would Atheists Papists Banckrupts and all kind of male-contents have made havock of all things how would they have triumphed in the downefall and danced in the ashes of the Church and Common-wealth How soone would they have turned this most flourishing Island into a desert Our ancient River the river Thames into the dead Sea our land into Acheldama a field of blood our strongest Towers and most magnificent buildings into a Babel of confusion our chiefe Cities into Golgotha's places of dead mens sculs Cursed bee the wrath of all traiterous Papists for it was fierce and their rage for it was cruell nay monstrous and prodigious to cut off the root and all the branches at one blow to remove and overthrow the foundation of Religion and Policy with one lift to offer up the royall stem and the flower of all the Nobility and Gentry the Lords Spirituall and Temporall the Bishops Earles Barons Judges Knights and Burgesses as a Holocaust or whole burnt offering to the Moloch of Rome O let it not be told in Gath nor published in Askalon lest the Heathen and Infidels abhor the name of our Nation that bred up such Vipers or blaspheme the holy profession of Christians for their sakes Or if the report of such a crying or rather thundring sinne cannot but be heard to the uttermost parts of the Earth let the authors and actors be descried to be no true beleevers but Hereticks and Miscreants no servants of Christ but factors for Antichrist and let the Turks Mores and Indians and all Pagans together with seduced Papists in the world know that thou O Lord whom we worship in spirit and truth didst miraculously detect and graciously prevent this bloody design intrapping the wicked devisers in the work of their own hands and taking the Incendiary in his own traine The waters saw thee O God the waters saw and swelled against the proud Spanish Fleet the winds saw thee O God the windes saw thee and furiously blustered at it and both windes and Seas obeyed thee in dissipating and overwhelming it in the narrow Seas And now the fire and Powder saw thee O God and it flew in the eyes and faces of them that would have put out all the eyes of this Island and defaced the whole beauty of this Kingdome for ever Death received the word and destruction observed Law confusion it selfe kept order in blowing up their estates and carrying up their quarters and fixing them for a terror to all Iesuited traitors over that house and in the very place which they would have with Gunpowder sent up all the principall Members of our body Politique every eye may now see that dreadfull judgement denounced in thy Word fallen upon the eyes that waited for the destruction of our Church and Commonwealth The young Ravens of the valley peck at them and the fowles of heaven have eaten them Thus hast thou hitherto fought for thine anointed and thy dearest Spouse and thou art still the same God with whom there are Issues even out of death it selfe Wherefore we beseech thee set our affiance in Thee and fashion our love more and more unto thee imprint the memory of this wonderfull deliverance in our hearts and the hearts of our seed with the point of a Diamond that the children that are yet unborn may in succeeding ages praise thee for it Give us a sight and sence of our crimson and skarlet sinnes that brought us so nâ—ere even to the brink of so bloody a destruction and utter desolation and open the eyes of the Seens of Israel that they may in this our day looke to those things that belong to our peace and prevent the danger and hinder the growth of that Romish weed which if it be not cut off by the execution of wholesome lawes in that kinde provided in time will overrunne the Garden of thy Spouse and destroy all her pleasant plants and flowers Stir them up seriously to consider that though the match by thy providence be taken out of the hand of the Traitors that the danger is not yet past but that they must follow the traine and search the lowest and darkest corners of the Vault and dig into the Barrels of Powder and finding that it was digged out of the rock and foundation of the Iesuits Trent faith that they ought to bend all their forces and by armes and lawes suppresse it and keepe out the grand enemy of the Truth and our peace that he never get footing in this Kingdome Let no such mysts of faire glosses and pretences be cast before their eyes but that they may cleerly see that the Bishop of Rome is the Engineer of these workes Iesuiticall doctrines and perswasions are the traine disloyall hearts the Vaults seditious councels practises the Powder and idolatrous blinde zeale is the fire that hath heretofore and is alwayes ready to set all Kingdomes and States professing the truth of the Gospell in a combustion Discover O Lord more and more the man of sin and make him seeme as odious to us as he is abominable in thy sight Alter their temper or spew them out of this kingdome who are neither hot nor cold among us O let the joyfull Mattens on our fifth of November and the dolefull even-song on theirs convince all enemies of the truth that thou mightily supportest the frame and fabrick of our Sion but hast pulled downe the floore and wilt in due time the wals of their Babylon So let thine enemies perish O Lord but let them that love thee be as the Bunne that goeth forth in his full strength Amen A description of the Aequator Or A Meditation on the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary AS opposite to the foregoing Rainbow you may behold the Aequinoctiall which I have placed as in the North side of this Court. Now the Reasons why I name this dayes commemoration a description of the Aequator are first because as the Aequator or Aequinoctiall is a line drawne in
and temporâ—ll conferred upon me purchased by thy sufferings ad this one above the rest the special gift of remembrance of these thy sufferings that wheresoever I am whatsoever I doe I may have thy passion in my heart and thy wounds bleeding a fresh in my minde with an infinite hatred of sin that procured them and love of thy goodnesse who enduredst them for me Thy Church since thou leftest her is a widow and I am as one of her dead children not as the Samaritan was hâ—lfe dead but wholly dead in my sins and transgressions Thou Lord art the true Elias who raisedst and doest raise from death this widowes children to life by stretâ—hing thy body over them O my gracious Lord apply thy body stretched this day on the crosse to me Lay thy head to my head thy hands to my hands thy feet to my feet and thy heart to my heart that I may receive warmth from thy blood and ease from thy stripes health from thy wounds and spirit from thy breath and strength from thy grace to stand up from the dead and walke with thee henceforth in newnesse of life So be it Amen IVPITER OR a Meditation on Easter-day WHen I did first compose this Annuall world my thoughts were so presumptuous as to promise to my unlearned selfe a power and faculty to fit every dayes meditation to the resemblance which I first propounded in the entrance into this Tabernacle but as I have come farre short in the precedent expressions so I feare I shall come much more behinde in the subsequent meditations Yet I will adventure to show that the Sacrifice which was offered unto God upon the Altar of the Crosse on Goodfriday for the expiation of the sins of mankinde is truly exhibited to every worthy receiver in the blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist or Lords Supper And therfore the Christian Church in all ages hath piously appointed this yearely feast of Easter to be by every one of her members solemnely observed instead of the Jewes Passeover whereby every beleeving soule may be assured that if he finde the blood of that most immaculate Lambe sprinkled upon the doore post of his heart the destroying Angell shall have no power to enter therein Which assurance that he may obtaine first before hee receive these sacred mysteries he ought to be fitted with the preparing graces of true sorrow and hearty contrition of spirit for sinnes past joyned with penitent resolutions and endeavours to lead a new life in time to come perfect love and charity with all men joyned with longing desires to participate the benefits of Christs passion and humility of spirit joyned with holy revâ—rence and godly devotion Secondly in receiving he ought to be indued with the comprehensive grace of a true lively and justifying faith And last of all he ought to have the reteining graces of hearty praise and thanksgiving for all Gods inestimable benefits especially for the Word and Sacraments joyned with joy and cheerefulnesse in the service of God and constant perseverance in all these heavenly graces to his lives end The man that is thus qualified for the reception of this heavenly repast may with aged Simeon take into his hands his Lord and Saviour yea and see him with the eye of his faith take with a pure hand eat with a clean mouth and keep in a sanctified heart this sacred bread this chosen Manna the word of life and food of Angels for by and with the sacred elements though not in or under them he doth partake of the flesh of God spiritually for his words are spirit and life yea truly in very deed for he is the living bread that came downe from heaven his flesh is meat indeed and his blood is drink indeed As at sumptuous feasts where curious services are we see the proportion and shape of the Deer or Fowle set out in gold and colours on the outside or lid of those baked meats which are truly contained under it and to be eaten so if we may draw a resemblance of so high and divine a mysterie from an earthly and humane repast under the figures of bread and wine as it were the printed lid or cover thou O devout soule feedest on the meat of Angels the dainties of heaven and flesh of thy Saviour who is there described in thy sight and before thee crucified That which is represented in the signe to the eye of the body is presented in the thing signified to the eye of the soule and hand of thy faith what is shadowed in the Sacrament is truly also exhibited by it If thou beleevest that thou eatest thou eatest that thou beleevest Let no hereticall Harpies pluck from thee this heavenly dish or meat as Celaeno did Aeneas's Beware of two sorts of heretiques especially those that seeke to beguile thee in the Sacrament or rather of it viz. The Sacramentaries and Papists the one denying the signe the other the thing signified the one offereth thee a shadow without the body the other the body without the shadow or resemblance and consequently neither of them giveth thee the true Sacrament to whose nature essence both are requisite The Sacramentaries would rob thee of the Iewel the Papists of the Casket Lay thine hands on both hold both fast as thou seest the one so beleeve the verity substance of the other as thou takest the one receive the other as thou handlest the one apprehend the other as thou feedest with thy mouth on the one feed in thy heart on the other And as truly as the one nourisheth thy body to a temporall the other shall preserve thy soule to eternall life For it is the tree of life which growes in the midst of the Paradise of God his Church on earth The way to the mysticall tree in Paradise was guarded by an Angell waving a flaming sword the way to this in like manner is fenced there stands an Angell at the Table Gods minister brandishing the sword of the Spirit and forbidding under paine of death any to eat of this fruit that have their teeth set on edge with the Apples of Sodome and Grapes of Gomorrah Other fruits and meats are prepared for us but we must be prepared for this before we eat it the bread of the earth cannot feed when thou eatest it till it be changed into thy body because thou art more excellent then it but this bread which came downe from heaven is more excellent then thou art and therefore thou must be changed into it before it nourish thee All other meat is received as it is in it selfe and no otherwise but this is divers as it is received other meat affecteth and altereth the taste but here the taste altereth the meat for if it be worthily received it is the body and blood of Christ if unworthily it is but bare bread and wine If it meet with a spirituall taste and appeâ—ite and stomack purged and prepared it proveth the food of life
said unto him follow me Therefore as the fifth Apostle I fix him in this starry firmament He was of Bethsaida the City of Andrew and Peter and was no sooner called himselfe but hee went and found out Nathaneel and said unto him we have found him of whom Moses did write in the Law and the Prophets Iesus the Sonne of Ioseph of Nazareth A rare example of a godly minde that being converted labours to convert others and though he himselfe as some note was unlearned yet doth adventure to draw and allure the learned to the knowledge of Christ for some affirme that Nathaneel was a learned man and also this shewes that by weak meanes God can work great miracles and by the foolishness of preaching work faith in the heart which only saves a soule from eternall damnation After it is related by Iohn that the Greeks that came up to worship at the feast came to Philip and said Sir we would see that Iesus who told Andrew and they two told Iesus for it seems Philip durst not tell him alone lest Christ should aske him some question which he could not well answer as he had tried him before by this question when hee saw a great multitude about 5000 follow him into the wildernesse whence shall we buy bread that these may eat yet not long after he of himselfe shewed his own simplicity and ignorance for Christ having spoken of the knowledge of God the Father he interrupts him and bursts out with this question shew us thy Father and it sufficeth In the sixth of the Acts is related that he was chosen one of the seven Deacons in the eighth of the Acts is shewed how hee preached the word of God wrought wonders and healed divers diseases among the people in Samaria how he baptized Simon Magus and converted the Aethiopian Eunuch And in the 21 of the Acts it is declared that he had foure Daughters Virgins and Prophetesses and that Paul abode in his house at Cesarea Philippi for many dayes and some write that he was crucified at Hieropolis where he and his daughters were honourably buried Thus having described what I finde concerning the first of these Starres I should now shew the lustre of the second the ninth Apostle S. James Alpheus Brother to Simon and Jude and called the brother of the Lord for it was usuall with the Hâ—brewes to call their kinsmen brethren so Lot being the sonne of Haran Abrahams brother was by Abraham called brother Gen. 13. 8. And Iacob being the sonne of Rebecca Labans sister was called brother by Laban Gen. 20. 15. And so this Iames and Joses and Simon and Judas being the Virgin Maries sisters sonne was by the Iewes called Christs brethren in a scornefull manner Mat. 13. 55. And S. Paul in 1 Gal. 6. makes mention of this Apostle saying I saw none of the Apostles save Iames the brother of the Lord. He was by the Apostles chosen to be Bishop of Ierusalem for so saith an ancient Father Peter Iames and Iohn after the assumption of our Saviour though they were preferred by the Lord yet challenged not this prerogative to themselves but appointed Iames the Iust Bishop of Ierusalem He continued in the said See 30 years and wrote the Canonicall Epistle which beares his name And at the last wore the crowne of Martyrdome The story of whose life and death I find exquisiâ—ely written after this manner following Iames the brother of Christ took in hand the governement of the Church after the Apostles termed a just and a righteous man of all men from the time of our Saviour unto us for many other were called Iames besides him but this man was holy from his mothers wombe He dranke neither wine nor strong drink neither ate any creature wherein there was life He was neither shaven neither anointed neither did he use bath unto him alone was it lawfull to enter into the holy places he used no wollen vesture but wore a Sindone and alone frequented hee the Temple so that he was oft-times found prostrate on his knees praying for the sins of the people His knees were after the guise of a Camels knee benumm'd and bereft of the sense of feeling by reason of his continuall kneeling in supplication to God and petition for the people For the excellency of his righteousnesse he was called Iust and Oblias which soundeth by interpretation the bulwark or defence of the people in righteousnesse as prophesies do go of him When divers asked him touching the Heresies among the people which was the gate or doore of Iesu he answered the same to be the Saviour by whose meanes they beleeved Iesus to be the Christ but the foresaid heresies acknowledge neither resurrection nor the coÌ„ming of any Iudge which shall reward to every one according to his works for as many as beleeved they beleeved by meanes of Iames. When many of the Princes were perswaded there arose a tumult of the Iewes Scribes and Pharisees saying It is very dangerous lest the whole people looke after this Iesus as though hee were Christ and being gathered together they said to Iames we pray thee stay this people for they erre in Iesu as though hee were true Christ We pray thee perswade this people which frequent to the feast of the Passeover concerning Iesu for we all obey thee yea we and all the people testifie of thee that thou art just and respectest not the person of any man perswade therefore this multitude that they erre not in Iesu for the whole multitude and wee obey thee stand therefore upon the Pinnacle of the Temple that thou mayest be seene aloft and that thy word my be heard plainly of all the people for because of this Passeover all the Tribes are met together with the Gentiles The foresaid Scribes and Pharisees place Iames upon the Pinacle of the Temple and shouted unto him and said Thou just man at whose commandement we all are here in so much as this people is seduced after Iesus who was crucified declare unto us which is the way or doore of Jesus crucified And hee answered with a loud voice Why aske yee mee of Iesus the Son of Man when as he sitteth at the right hand of the great power in Heaven and shall come in the clouds of the Aire When as hee had perswaded many so that they glorified God at the testimony of Iames and said Hosanna in the highest to the Sonne of David then the Scribes and Pharisees said among themselves wee have done very ill in causing such a testimony of Iesus to be brought forth but let us climbe up and take him to the end the people being stricken with feare may renounce his faith And they shouted again saying O O and the Iust also is seduced and they fulfilled the Scripture which saith in Esay Let us remove the Just for hee is a stumbling block unto us wherefore they shall gnaw the buds of their owne workes They climbed up and threw Iustus
write they and Iames the younger were the sonnes of Mary Cleophas and Alpheus Of the first which is Simon called by Luke Zelotes and by Matthew and Marke Simon the Canaanite Dorotheus maks this short story that he preached Christ throughout Mauritania and Affrick the lesse at length was crucified at Britannia where he was buried but others affirme him to be that Disciple which was called Cleophas and was one of the two that Christ met going to Emaus and according to Dorotheus one of the 70 Disciples who succeeded his brother Iames in the Bishoprick of Ierusalem After he had preached Christ in divers places being 120 yeares of age he was by some Hereticks accused to be lineally descended of the stock of David a Christian unto Atticus the Consull under Trajan the Emperour for which he was cruelly scourged so that his persecutors wondred that a man so old could endure so much torment and at last was crucified And so according to the opinion of some he dyed at Bethania neer Ierusalem and not in this Isle of Britan as others would have it neither as others that say he and his brother Iudas were slaine together by a tumult of people in Suanyr a City of Persidis For Iude whom S. Matthew cals Lebbeus whose surname was Thaddeus and S. Marke termes him only Thaddeus wrote the Epistle which beares his name where he termes himselfe as Luke in his Gospell and Acts of the Apostles doth the Brother of Iames. But whether hee was that Thaddeus which S. Thomas sent to cure King Agbarus I am not able to determine yet it is very likely that it was this Judas For the learned do write that he preached to the Edesseans and throughout Mesopotamia and was slaine at Berytus where in the time of Agbarus King of Edessa he was honourably buried But whether this be true or false I only take it as a historicall description of this starre as I doe of the rest and leave the further search thereof to the learned concluding with the collect for the day saying Almighty God which hast builded thy congregation upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Iesus Christ being the head Corner stone grant me so to be joyned together in unity of Spirit by their doctrine that I may be made a holy temple acceptable unto thee through Jesus Christ our Lord. S. Matthias WHile Christ was in his ministeriall Office Iudas Iscariot Simons sonne seemed to beare the lustre of an Apostolick starre followed Christ was numbred with the twelve and was intrusted with the bag of which he was so good a steward and saving a husband that he was very unwilling that any thing should fall out or passe beside the same for any charitable or pious use as appeares plainly by the text Iohn 12. and so covetous was he of money that he betrayed his Master for thirty pieces of silver And Christ knew what he said when he uttâ—red those words that he had chosen twelve and one was a devill for it is reported of this Iudas that he slew his father maried with his mother and betrayed his Master and in the end hanged himselfe and falling downe his bowels gushed out But he ought to have no place in this Apostolick Zodiake except as an Airy Comet or signe of wonderment and caution to feare us from following his steps Therefore instead of him Matthias one of the 70 Disciples was chosen by lot cast betweene him and Ioseph called Barsabas whose surname was Iustus This Apostle first preached the Gospel in Macedonia then in Aethiopia about the haven called Hyssus and the River Phasis unto barbarous nations and ravenous of flesh He dyed at Sebastopolis where he was also buried neer the Temple of Sol. But others write that he afterwards came into Iudaea where the Iewes stoned him and beheaded him with an axe after the Roman manner Therefore I conclude with the prayer for the day saying Almighty God which in the place of the traitor Iudas didst choose thy faithfull servant Matthias to be of the number of the twelve Apostles grant that thy Church being alway preserved from false Apostles may be ordered and guided by faithfull and true Pastors through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen S. Stephen HAving thus briefly described the lustre of the twelve Apostles and three prime starres annexed unto them I should in the last place shew the lustre of three other famous lights that bare them company And the first is the Protomartyr S. Stephen who was ordeined the first of the seven approved men that were chosen Deacons for they through prayer and imposition of the Apostles hands for the publick administration of the Church affaires were joyned with Stephen and he as the ringleader of all the rest as soone as hee was ordeined as though he was appointed for this purpose was stoned unto death of them that slew the Lord. And for this cause as the first triumphing martyr of Christ according to his name he beareth a Crowne A Crowne of grace full of faith and power and filled with the Holy Ghost A Crowne of Martyrdome and in the midst of a showre of stones grace broke out of his lips in a heavenly prayer for his persecutors Lord lay not this sinne to their charge And a Crowne of glory having in this life time received the first fruits of a glorified body his face did shine as it had beene the face of an Angell and the first fruits of a glorified soule in the vision of the blessed Trinity for he saw the glory of God and Iesus standing at his right hand Wherefore I will pray to God to fill me with the Spirit of grace that I may love mine enemies and pray for them that persecute and despitefully use me after the example of this blessed Martyr that having received a Crown of grace here on earth in this life I may for ever weare a Crowne of glory in the Kingdome of Heaven Amen S. Paul ALthough our Astronomers in their Almanacks note not this Saint in golden or red letters as they doe the former and although our Church hath not expresly observed a festivall day to be kept holy in memory of him yet I hold it not fit that I should exclude him out of this starry heaven for he was as glorious a light as ever shined in the Firmament of the Church and as himselfe confesseth was not inferiour to the chiefe of the Apostles neither hath our Church quite excluded him out of her Liturgie for there is an Epistle and Gospell with a Collect appointed for this day And to shew that he was a chosen vessell a glorious starre he was called to his Apostleship after a wonderfull manner for he was cast downe to the earth and a light shone about him and he heard a voice from Heaven became three dayes blind till Ananias laid his hand upon him He was as himselfe relates of the Tribe of Benjamin and as others report he was borne in a