by their words and by their works Let us think we hear him say Go and do likewise Did I say God speaketh by St. Paul and by all the Saints There be who will allow Paul holy but not Saint which is as if they should say he were a reasonable creature but not a Man But Saint is a name of danger and hath brought men on their knees to commit Idolatry By this argument the Sun must also lose its name and not be called the Sun because some have worshipped it But it hath been given to wicked men Saint Ignatius and Saint Garnet And I fear it is given at this day to those who are as wicked as they But God forbid that an honest man should lose his name because sometimes it is given to a Knave and because we call him Honest friend who is our deadly enemy What though the Pope have canonized them and wrote them down in red letters in the Kalender That I am sure cannot expunge their names out of the Book of life nor yet unsaint them unless you will say that a Virgin is no more a Virgin if once a strumpet call her so or that Christ was not the Son of the living God because he was called by that name by a Legion of Devils Such Gnats as these do these men strain at who every day before the sun and the people shallow down camels They check at every feather and pull milstones upon their heads They will not call Paul and the Apostles and the blessed Martyrs Saints oh take heed of that but they take that title to themselves and in that name work not wonders but commit those abominations which the blessed Saints of God abhorred They scruple at the name of Saint and triumph in that of a man of Belial They tremble at a shadow which themselves cast and court a monster They startle at a straw and play with a thunderbolt O beloved let not us be afraid of the name Saint not be afraid to give it to others though our Humility will not let us fix it on our selves There were Saints at Corinth and Saints at Philippi and Saints at Colosse and Saints at Ephesus St. Paul calleth them so And shall we be afraid to give him and the rest of the Apostles and the Martyrs of Christ that name Nay rather In the second place let us bless God for his Saints and look upon them and follow them in those wayes which made them Saints though honour and dishonour through fire and water through terrours and affrightments through the valley of death into the land of the living and the paradise of God Let their glory work in us an holy emulation Let us be sorry to see our selves at such a distance let us be angry at our own backwardness let us love that virtue which hath crowned them and let us labour in hope to overtake them and live with them in the same region of happiness Envy is a torment but Emulation filleth us with Hope which is a comforter Indeed when we speak of the glorious Saints of God we need make no mention of Envy we are free enough from that If any man be rich or mighty or honourable or learned we are presently on the rack But if any man be good we are well content he should be so alone Righteousness and Temperance and Martyrdom which are bought at a dear rate and cost us our very life and bloud are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without envy We look back upon those Worthies which were our fore-runners in the way to heaven as upon sad and uncouth spectacles We are ready to fright our selves with the conceit of impossibilities we talk of nothing else The Law we say is impossible and to follow the Saints is impossible And why is it not to reign with them also impossible And all this is for want of that Hope which we are as willing to stifle as the Examples of good men are active to kindle it in our hearts Beloved these great Ensamples are strong arguments against us nec tà m praecipiunt quà m convitium faciunt they do not only call after us but upbraid us if we follow not They have virtue and power in them to raise a hope within us which may stir us up to action and pull our hands out of our bosom Quid deficimus Quid desperamus Quicquid fieri potuit potest Why do we faint or despair Whatsoever hath been done by any Saint of God may be taken up by us and done again The very Heathen maketh it his argument Ignem Mutius exsilium Rutilius Mutius overcame the fire Socrates poison Rutilius banishment Cato death Singula vicerunt jam multi nos vincamus aliquid Many have overcome several evils let us overcome something Is obedience difficult Abraham would have sacrificed his son his only son at the command of God Is Patience a burthen Job blessed God when he lay on the dunghill Is Humility distasteful You may behold the King of Israel in a dance Is Martyrdom terrible We have a cloud of ensamples purpuratas nubes those purple clouds which have watered the field of Christ with showres of bloud that after them there may grow up Martyrs through all generations This power this influence have the Examples of the Saints if we will but receive it that we may grow up thereby Brethren I may boldly speak to you of the blessed Patriarchs Noah Abraham Isaac Jacob David and of the blessed Apostle S. Paul that they are both dead and buried And though we have not their Sepulcres with us yet we have their Inscriptions PERFECT NOAH FAITHFUL ABRAHAM DEVOUT DAVID PAUL THE SERVANT OF JESUS CHRIST Which we should reade and translate into our selves to drive us to Perfection to confirm our Obedience to nourish our Faith and to raise the heat of our Devotion Therefore In the last place let us emulate the best Par est optimum quemque ad imitandum proponere saith the Philosopher It is fit we should propose the best paterns Nay Stultissimum est it is folly not to do so saith the Oratour Elige Catonem saith Seneca Chuse such a man as Cato for thy example Elige Paulum Chuse such a one as S. Paul S. Peter S. Stephen And when any difficulty or tentation assaulteth thee as S. Cyprian would often call for Tertullian's Works DA MAGISTRUM Give me my Master so do thou Da Magistros Give me the examplcs of those glorious Saints of God to settle and compose and establish me in all my wayes A shame it is that after so long a time after so many fair and bright examples after so great a multitude of Professors when all Arts and Sciences are advanced every day Grace and Holiness should suffer a kind of solstice nay go back more then ten degrees That so many Peters and Pauls should pass by us and not so much as their shadow reach us That so many examples of perfection should shine in the
Jew busie at his Sacrifice and it looketh forward to the beauty of holiness and is levelled at the very heart of those errours which led the people from the city of God into the wilderness from that which is truly Good to that which is so but in appearance which did shew well and speak well but such words as were clothed with death First it checketh them in their old course and then sheweth them a more excellent way The Jew as we have told you formerly pleased himself in that piece of service which was most attempered to the Sense and might be passed over and performed with least vexation of the Spirit and labour of the Mind For what an easie matter was it to approch the courts of God to appear before the Altar Psal 118.27 What great trouble was it to bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of it Nay this was their delight this they doted on this they thought none could cry down but a false Prophet Did they not thus speak and murmur within themselves If this be not what is then Religion If to appear in his courts to offer sacrifice be not to serve God how should we bow before him and serve him As many say in their hearts now adayes If to go to Church to be zealous in a faction to cry down Superstition be not true Religion what Religion can there be Who can speak against it but an uncircumcised Philistin or he that hath drunk deep of the cup of the Whore He that preacheth any other Law or any other Gospel let him be Anathema And therefore the Prophet to silence this asketh another question Do you ask If this be not what is true Religion I ask also What doth the Lord require Not this in which you please your selves but something else to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God And this But as it is an Exclusive and shutteth out all other services whatsoever which look not this way or are not conducible to uphold and support and promote it so it doth colour as it were and place a kind of amiableness a philtrum upon that which may invite and win us to embrace it For commonly those duties which require the luctation of the Mind the strivings and victories of the Spirit are more formidable and so more avoided then those which imploy only the outward man the Eye the Tongue the Ear and the Hand Here every man is ready and officious and thrusteth himself into the service every man almost rejoyceth to run his race and there is a kind of emulation and contention who shall be the forwardest But those commands which set us at variance within our selves which busie the Spirit against the Flesh which sound the alarm and call us into the lists to fight the good fight of Faith against our selves against our Imaginations even those which lye unto us and tell us All is well these are that Medusa's head which turneth us into stones And we who were so active and diligent in other duties less necessary when these call upon us to move are lame and impotent we who before had the feet of hinds can move no more then he did who lay so long by the pool-side John 5. The Prophet Elisha biddeth Naaman the leper Go wash in Jordan seven times and thou shalt be clean 2 Kings 5.10 But Naaman was wroth and thought that may be done with the stroke or touch of the Prophets hand Are not Abanah and Pharpar 12. rivers of Damascus saith he better then all the rivers of Israel But the Servants were wiser then the Master and truly told him that what the Prophet enjoyned was no great thing for it was but this Wash and be clean 13. So it was with the Jew and so it is with us That which will cure and heal us we most distast Nauseat ad antidotum qui hiat ad venenum Tertul. Scorp c. v. The stomach turneth at the antidote that is greedy of poyson What bid us be Just and Merciful and Humble Will not Sacrifice suffice Are not our Sabbath-dayes exercise our Psalms and Hymns of force enough to shake the powers of heaven and draw down blessings upon us Why may he not speak the word and heal us Why may he not save us by miracle To be just and honest will shrink the curtains of our tabernacles To be merciful and liberal will empty our chests To be humble will lay us in the dust These are harsh and rugged hard and unpleasing commands beyond our power impossible to be done Nay rather these are the ebullitions and murmurs of the flesh the imaginations of corrupt hearts And therefore the Prophet Micah setteth up his But against them to throw them down and demolish them Quare formidatis compedes sapientiae Why are you afraid of the fetters of Wisdome They are golden fetters and we are never free but when we wear them Why do you startle at God's Law It is a Law that giveth life Why do you murmur and boggle at that which he requireth Behold he requireth nothing but that which is first Possible secondly Easie thirdly Pleasant and full of delight He requireth but to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God And first the Prophet here doth not bid us do any great things He doth not bid us work miracles remove mountains do that which is beyond our strength Do that which you cannot do Do justly for you cannot do so Be merciful for you cannot be so Walk humbly before me though it be impossible you should God never yet spake so by any Prophet This were to make God's commands such as S. Augustine telleth us those of the Manichees were not only nugatoria light and vain De Morib Manich but pugnatoria opposit and destructive to themselves For nothing is more destructive and contrary to a Law then to place it under an impossibility of being kept For the Keeping of a Law is the virtue and force and end of a Law the end for which it is enacted It is true Gal. 3.22 God hath now concluded all under sin And the reason is given For all have sinned Rom. 3.23 But the Apostle there delivereth it as an instance and matter of fact nor as a conclusion drawn out of necessary principles He doth not say All must sin but All have sinned For both the Gentiles might have kept the Law of Nature and were punisht because they did not as it is plain Rom. 1. and the Jews might have kept that Law which was given to them as far as God required it for so we see many of them did and God himself bore witness from heaven and hath registred the names of those in his Book who did walk before him with a perfect heart 2 Chr. 15.17 1 Kings 11.33 34 38. 2 Kings 22.2 as of Asa of David that he kept Gods Laws of Josias that he turned
under the Law alone but also under the Gospel as a motive to turn us from sin and as a motive to strengthen and uphold us in the wayes of righteousness not onely as a restraint from sin but as a preservative of holiness and as a help and furtherance unto us in our progress in the wayes of perfection It may indeed seem a thing most unbefitting a Christian who should be led rather then drawn and not a Christian alone but any moral man Therefore Plato calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an illiberal and base disposition to be banisht the School of Morality And our great Master in Philosophy maketh Punishment one of the three things that belong to slaves as the rod doth saith Solomon to the fools back To be forced into goodness Prov. 26.3 to be frighted into health argueth a disposition which little setteth by health or goodness it self But behold a greater then Plato and Aristotle our best Master the Prince of Peace and Love himself striveth to awake and stir up this kind of fear in us telleth us of hell and everlasting darkness of a flaming fire of weeping and gnashing of teeth presenteth his Father the Father of Mercies with a thunderbolt in his hand Luk. 12.5 with power to kill both body and soul sheweth us our sin in a Deaths head and in the fire of hell as if the way to avoid sin were to fear Death and Hell and if we could once be brought to fear to die we should not die at all Many glorious things are spoken even of this Fear The Philosopher calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bas in Psal 31 Tert. De poenit c. 6. the bridle of our Nature S. Basil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bridle of our lusts Tertullian Instrumentum poenitentiae an instrument to work out Repentance Pachomius placeth it supra decem millia paedagogorum maketh it the best Schoolmaster of ten thousand Hearken to the Trumpet of the Gospel be attentive to the Apostles voice What sound more frequent then that of Terrour able to shake and divide a soul from its sin Had Marcion seen our Saviour with a whip in his hand had he heard him cursing the Fig-tree and by that example punishing our sterility had he weighed the many woes he pronounced against sinners perhaps he would not have fallen into that impious conceit of two Gods For though the dispensation have not the same aspect under the Law as under the Gospel yet God is the same God still as terrible to sinners that will not turn as when he thundered from Mount Sinai 2 Cor. 5.11 And if we will not know and understand these terrours of the Lord if we make not this use of them to drive us unto Christ and to root and build us up in him the Gospel it self will be to us as the Law was to the Jews a killing letter For again as humane laws so Christs precepts have their force and life from reward and punishment And to this end we find not onely scripta supplicia those woes and menaces which are written in the Gospel but God hath imprinted a fear of punishment in the very hearts of men Juvenat â—at Esse aliquos manes subterranea regna That there remain punishments after life for sin was acknowledged by the very Heathen And we may easily be perswaded that had not this natural domestick fear come in between the world had been far more wicked then it is We see many are very inclinable to deny that there is either Heaven or Hell and would believe it because they would have it so many would be Atheists if they could but a secret whisper haunteth and pursueth them This may be so There is an appointed time to die and after that judgement may come There can be no danger in obedience there may be in sin and this though it do not make them good yet restraineth them from being worse Quibus incentivum impunitas timor taedium Freedom from punishment maketh sin pleasant and delightsome and so maketh it more sinful but fear of punishment maketh it irksome bringeth reluctancies and gnawings and rebukes of conscience For without it there could be none at all Till the whip is held up there is honey on the harlots lips and we would tast them often but that they bite like a cockatrice Non timemus peccare timemus ardere It is not sin we so much startle at but hell-fire is too hot for us And therefore S. Peter when he would work repentance and humility in us placeth us under Gods hand 1 Pet. 5. â— Humble your selves under the mighty hand of God which expresseth his Power his commanding attribute His omniscience findeth us out his wisdome accuseth us his justice condemneth us Potentia punit but it is his Hand his Power that punisheth us Take away his Hand and who feareth his Justice or regardeth his Wisdome or tarrieth for the twilight to shun his all-seeing Eye But cùm occidat when we are told that he can kill and destroy us then if ever we return and seek God early Psal 78.34 Again as the Fear of death may be Physick to purge and cleanse our souls from the contagion of sin so it may be an antidote and preservative against it It may raise me when I am fallen and it may supply me with strength that I fall not again It is a hand to lift me up and it is an hand to lead me when I am risen inter vada freta through all the dangers that attend me in my way As it is an introduction to piety so is it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Gregorie Nyssene Tract 1. in Psalm c. 8. a watch and a guard upon me to keep me that no temptation no scandal no stone of offense make me turn back again into my evil wayes For we must not think that when we are turned from our evil wayes we have left Fear behind us No she may go along with us in the wayes of righteousness and whisper us in the ear that God is the Lord most worthy to be feared She is our companion and leaveth us not nor can we shake her off till we are brought to our journeys end Our Love such as it is may well consist with Fear with the Fear of judgement Look upon the blessed Saints David a man after Gods own heart yet he had saith Chrysostome L. 1. De compunct c. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 6.1 Isa 38.14 15. Rom. 14 10. the memory of Gods judgements written in his very heart His thoughts were busied with it his meditations fixt here and it forced from him DOMINE NE IN FVRORE Correct me not O Lord in thy anger nor chastise me in thy wrath Hezekiah one of the best of the Kings of Judah yet walked in the bitterness of his soul did mourn like a dove and chatter like a Crane S. Paul buildeth up a tribunal and calleth
To whatsoever it turneth it self it turneth from that which it first lookt upon and loseth one engagement in another because it cannot fit and apply it self to both How then can one and the same man bestow himself upon Christ and upon the World It is not with the Will and Affections as it is with the Intellectual faculty The Understanding may easily sever one thing from another and understand them both nay it hath power to abstract and separate things really the same and consider them in this difference but it is the property of the Will and Affections in unum ferri se in unitatem colligere to collect and unite and become one with the Object Nor can our Desires be carried to two contrary objects at one and the same time We may apprehend Christ as righteous and holy and the World and the Riches of it as Vanity it self but we cannot at once serve Christ as just and holy and love the World and the vanities thereof Our Saviour telleth us we shall love the one and hate the other lean to the one and despise the other If it be a love to the one it will be at best but a liking of the other if it be a will to the one it will be but a velleity to the other if it be a look on the one it will be but a glance on the other And this Liking this Velleity this glance are no better then Disservice then Hatred and Contempt For these proceed from my Understanding but my Love from my Will which is fixed not where I approve but where I choose It is easie to say and we say it too often for the Divil is ready to suggest it It is true we set our affections upon things below but yet so that we do not omit the duties of Divine worship We are willing to please men but we doubt not but we may please Christ also We are indeed time servers but we are frequent hearers of the Word We pour oyl into our brothers ears but we drop sometimes a peny into the Treasury Thus we please others and we please our selves we betray others and are our own parasites But Christ is ready to seal our lips with an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No man can serve two Masters So that you see what a weak foundation that Hope hath which is thus built up upon a divided Love and Service It is built in the air nay it hath not so sure a basis it is built upon nothing it is raised upon Impossibility Secondly the Servant must have his eye upon his Master and as he seeth him do must do likewise Isai 62.10 Now Christ is called Gods Servant and he broke through Poverty Disgrace and the terrours of Death it self that he might do his Fathers will omitted no tittle or Iota of it But he that would not break a bruised reed shook the cedars of Libanus pronounced as many woes to the Pharisees as they had sins called Herod Fox pluckt off every visour plowed up every conscience and thus shook the powers of Hell Joh. 6.38 and destroyed the Kingdome of Satan for he came not to do his own but his Fathers will Look upon his acts of Mercy even them he did not to please men De Trin. l. 2. Non habent Divina adulationem saith Hilary His Divine works his works of Love and Compassion had nothing of Flattery in them Joh 8 50. He did them not as seeking his own glory For he had a quire of Angels to chant his praise He did them not to flatter men For he needed not that which is ours Psal 24.1 50.12 for the world was his and all that therein is Power cannot flatter and Mercy is so intent on its work that it thinketh of nothing else To work wonders to please men were the greatest wonder of all And thus should we look upon him and teach our brethren as he wrought miracles not for praise which may make us worse not for riches which may make us poorer then we were 2 Cor. 2.10 5.20 but beseech them in Christs stead and in the person of Christ and speak like him in whose mouth there was neither flattery nor gâ—ile speak the truth though it dispease speak the truth though the Heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing speak the truth though for ought we know it may be the last word we speak speak the truth though it nayl us to the cross where we shall most resemble him with this title THE SERVANTS OF CHRIST as his was THE KING OF THE JEWS He that taketh nothing but his name that serveth the world that flattereth when he biddeth him rebuke and pleaseth others when they displease Christ is not his servant but his enemy one of those many Antichrists or if his servant such a servant as Peter was when he denied him as Judas when he betrayed him And he will take it for more disservice to betray him in his members then in his person and is troubled more at the sight of those wounds which were made in his mystical body then he was at those which were made in his flesh He willingly suffered the pains of death that they might not die Isa 53.7 Himself was lead to death as a sheep to the slaughter and opened not his mouth Acts 8.32 Acts 8.3 9.4 but when he saw havock made of his Church he cryed out Saul Saul why persecutest thou me And in this every false Teacher is worse then Peter when he was at the worst every flatterer is worse then Judas every seducer is worse then the Jews when they nayled Christ to the cross For lastly Servus pro nullo est A Servant is nothing is no person in law hath no power of his own Servitus morti aequiparatur say the Civilians A Servant is as a dead man and cannot act nor move of himself but is actuated as it were by the power and command of his Lord and Master and never goeth but when he saith Go never doth but what he biddeth him do and doth not interpret but execute his will Non oportet villicum plus sapere quà m dominum saith Columella It is a most unfit and disadvantageous thing for the Farmer or Husbandman to be wiser then his Lord. For when the Lord commandeth one thing and the Servant thinketh it fitter to do another the crop and harvest will be but thin And it is so in our spiritual Husbandry It savoureth of too much boldness and presumption for the Servant to be wiser then his Master and there will be but small increase when the Master calleth for the whip and the Servant bringeth the merry harp and the lute when he calleth for a talent to reckon but a mite and when he writeth an hundred to take the bill and set down fifty It is the greatest folly in the world to be thus wise when wisdome it self prescribeth when he condemneth the Love of
Sion The Second SERMON MATTH V. 4. Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted THese words of our Saviour present the Christian in sables multo deformatum pulvere with ashes sprinkled on his head his garments rent his heart broken himself a companion a man a friend of sorrow Hi me comites qui tenent Cura miseriae aegritudo lacrymae lamentatio saith he in Plautus But it is the Christian's language We must look to meet with misery and cares and sickness and lamentation We must learn to be poor and we must learn to be miserable Blessedness indeed is a fair inscription but like that upon Semiramis her tomb That he who opened it should find within it great treasurie But when Darius had broken it up he found onely a writing which told him If he had not been a wicked person he would never have broken up a sepulchre to look for treasure So Blessedness here is a fair title but remove it and we find nothing but Mourning within and withall a sharp reproof for him that searcheth the Gospel to find the World or Pleasure there For it was not the errour of the Jew onely to expect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a glorious and great Messias that should fill their treasury with wealth and bring in a new Paradise of pleasures and make an everlasting Jubilee but even the Disciples did for a while dream on the same pillow and in their Master looked for the pomp and glory of the world This was so gross a conceit that it had been less prejudicial to the Jews never to have heard of Christ For the greatest cause why they refused him when he came was because he came in a posture so opposite to their expectation What a Messias with poverty a Christ with contempt a Christ with mourning Ecquis Christus cum sua fabula Farewel Christ with his Legend the Gospel It is most true that the Father telleth us Christi humilitas multos offendit The humility of Christ offendeth many As it hath dashed some on the rocks of Heresie so it hath drowned others in the gulf of Profaneness As it hath driven some to deny his Divinity so it hath moved others to crucifie him again There are many Jews who were never circumcised many who are willing to receive Christ with honour and riches and pleasures but not with disgrace and poverty and affliction Regnare volumus We are willing to reign with Jesus but not to mourn with Jesus Hence I cannot but think that this Sermon of our Saviour's was made to this end to take off all conceit of wealth or pleasure and to dig up by the very roots this gross and dangerous errour In discipulos transfert pleniorem gratiam disciplinae auctioris capacitatem saith Tertullian he filleth his Disciples hearts with more abundant grace that they may be fitted to receive his discipline He that will be a disciple of Christ must be of the same mind with Christ must know what his Kingdom is and that it is not of this world that there is a star fixed even in this cloud of sorrow consolation in mourning yea that this cloud is a star this mourning is blessedness Ill weeds must be destroyed before you can sow good corn Nor is the soul capable of Divine truth and saving knowledge till it be purged and cleansed from the dross of this world till we can raise our Happiness as Christ doth out of mourning and set this Diamond in this clay It is the observation of St. Basil upon Psal 29. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is the method of Scripture every where to place mourning before joy the night before the day Deut. 32.39 Psal 30.5 Percutiam sanabo saith God I will smite and I will make whole Weeping for a night and joy followeth in the morning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First the punishment then the blessing first smiting then healing first mourning then consolation First we mourn as men climbing up the Hill then we sing as at rest on the top of Sion first we set sad tunes in the valley of tears the Church militant then we chant out an Antheme an Hymne of joy in the Church triumphant Our division now is easie We have here 1. an Affirmation Blessed are they that mourn 2. a Confirmation or Reason For they shall be comforted But we must alter a little this method and by degrees reconcile these two so opposite to our sense Blessedness and Mourning And then we shall pass by these lines First we shall shew you What may be here meant by mourning Secondly How useful and behoofful it is for Christians to mourn Which will bring in the last How mourning worketh consolation Of these we shall speak in order I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here is the word And it is not Grief but Mourning which is here commended But because Mourning if it be true supposeth Grief we may well understand both Indeed Grief is inward in the heart and soul but Mourning is written in our face floweth in our tears is visible in our habit and loud in our complaints It is that ceremonious piety which we perform for our friends deceased Interdictum ne capite damnatos lugerent saith Suetonius Tiberius forbad that the kinsmen of those whom he condemned to death should mourn Qui lugent abstinent à conviviis ornamentis alba veste They who mourn abstain from banquets fling off their ornaments and white apparel The common gesture was to sit down Residentur mortui saith Tully We sit down at the tombs of the dead to bewail them By the rivers of Babylon there we sate down yea we wept when we remembred Sion And Ezek. 8.14 Psal 137. Sedebant mulieres plangentes Adonidem There sate women weeping for Tammuz And John 19.25 it is said of the mother of Christ and of his mother's sister 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they did not sit but stand by the cross because though they were full of sorrow yet they might not seem to mourn for him who suffered for treason against Caesar And this I take to be the proper signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the same with praefica a woman hired to weep and lament and howle for the dead But then I suppose this includeth Grief also which hath alwaies been the lot of Christians For if the question be asked Who are those that weep and mourn in the world we must point them out amongst the best The wicked live become old yea Job 21.7 are mighty in power They are merry in hell for they alwaies carry their hell about with them They are condemned already and they leap and dance with the sentence with vengeance hanging over their heads Their houses saith holy Job are safe from fear neither is the rod of God upon them They send forth their little ones like a flock and their children dance They take the timbrel and harp
errour conclude that it was possible for the justest man alive to have been wicked If not why did he strive and labour and offer violence to himself And that it was possible for the wickedest man alive to have been just for Judas not to have betrayed his master Else why do we condemn him of despair and make that his greatest sin Villicus si velit omnia rectè facit saith Columella of Husbandry The farmer if he will may do all things in it as he should And it is true in Divinity Augustine the great Champion for the Grace of God saith Homo potest peccare Contra Faust. Manich. Lib. 22. Deum negare si nolit non facit Any man may sin and deny God but he doth not unless he will And to take the will from that to which it doth incline and draw it to that which God commandeth is that which we call Obedience In the wayes of Goodness God doth help us but not force us he useth all means which he in his eternal wisdom knoweth fittest but doth not by his omnipotent power bind and constrain us He that is necessarily good is not good And it is impossible he should be evil who is fettered in the chains of impossibility of being good In a word God forbiddeth sin but permitteth it commandeth obedience but doth not force it God biddeth us sin no more but he doth not tell us we cannot sin again for this were to take away the first by adding the second For how can these two stand together Sin no more and You cannot sin again God doth what he can and when he doth what he can in this respect he doth not alwaies make us good Say I this of my self or doth not even the Scripture speak as much Doth not God say as much Isa 5.3 4. and he cannot blaspheme himself Judge I pray you between me and my vineyard He maketh the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the men of Judah his and their own Judges What could I have done more to my vineyard that I have not done in it He fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof and planted it with the choicest vine and built a tower in the midst of it he omitted nothing which might make it fruitful Hoc satìs est fecisse Deo And could he have done any more Yes he might he might have made it bring forth good grapes God saith he could not who is Truth it self Nor doth this any whit derogate from his omnipotent Power For even his Power doth seem to bow and act by his Wisdom And he can no more do what his Wisdom hath not set down then he cannot be wise then he cannot be God 3. That will of God's to permit sin and not to intervene with his omnipotency to hinder it doth not contradict that will which we call voluntatem praecepti his will exprest in the Command which he layeth upon his creature but the one supposeth the other For he doth not command us not to sin as he commanded the Paralytick to take up his bed and walk For every law as it supposeth a possibility of being kept so supposeth a possibility of being broken which could not be if God thought fit to make use of his uncontrollable and absolute power Lex justo non est posita If Goodness had been as essential to Man as his Nature and Soul by which he is if God's Omnipotency had interceded and by its irresistable force opposed Sin that it had not entered the world by Adam nor been known to his posterity the Jews had not heard the noise of the trumpet at the promulgation of the Law nor the Disciples the Sermon on the mount under the Gospel there had been no use of the comfortable breath of God's promises nor of the terrible sound of his threatnings For who will make a Law against that which he knoweth will never come to pass Last of all God's Permissive will standeth in no shew of opposition to his Occasioned and Consequent will by which he raineth down vengeance upon the disobedient For we must suppose a power to obey whether natural or as it is given we need not dispute but a power there must be but not such a power which is alwaies and infallibly brought into act We must suppose Sin or Obedience before we can take up the least conceit of any will in God to punish or to reward Omnis poena si justa est peccati poena est saith Augustine All punishment which is just is the punishment of sin And therefore God who biddeth Man sin no more out of his justice willeth his destruction when he sinneth and will not repent Sic totus Deus bonus est dum pro bono omnia est saith the Father Thus God is entirely good whilest all he is whether merciful or severe is for good Minus est tantummodo prodesse quia non aliud quid possit quà m prodesse His reward might lose and not carry with it that infinite value if he could not reach out his hand to punish as well as reward And some distrust it might work in the creature that he could not do one if he could not do both In a word neither is the Conversion nor the Induration of a sinner a work of God's incontrollable power nor of that will by which he made the heaven and the earth and by which he healeth the lame and raiseth the dead For when he speaketh the word the lame shall walk and when the trumpet soundeth the dead shall rise But how oft is his will to save us resisted How oft would I saith Christ and you would not For if it were fulfilled there could be no Hell at all Again the command is his will and what moment is there wherein that is not resisted We are those devils which kindle that fire which he made not for us We are those sons of Anak those giant-like fighters against Heaven which break God's commands with as much ease as Samson did his cords that bound him We are those Leviathans which break those bounds which God hath set us Which we could not do if he were pleased if he could be pleased if his wisdom would permit him to interpose his power to hinder us But it may be said that we lye in sin as this Paralytick did by the pool's side not able to help our selves and therefore have no power to work out our conversion We willingly grant it And therefore we have need of new strength and new power to be given us We deny it not And therefore not onely the power but the very act of our conversion is from God Who ever yet denyed it But then that Man can no more withstand his conversion then this man did his cure or an infant can its birth or the world could its creation or the dead can the resurrection that we are converted whether we will or no is a conclusion which these premisses will not yield This flint
the Truth hath no power at all over us we may look upon our selves as Temples dedicated to the Truth and yet we put it far from us These two evil Spirits then we must cast out before the Spirit of Truth will enter into us I shall now therefore shew the horrour and danger of them both that ye may eject them and so become fit merchants of the Truth I. Praejudicium est quod obstat futuro judicio saith the Civilians Prejudice is that which hindreth and keepeth off any further and future judgment It hath alwaies Pertinacie to accompany it which as a rock beateth back all those batteries which Reason can make The mind is so setled upon one conclusion that it looketh upon all others as false though they be true Dan. 6.8 12. Our own sentence is like the Law of the Medes and Persians unalterable We are resolved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Philosopher speaketh to hold fast our conclusion against all the strength of reason and argument that can be brought to the contrary This is in effect to do what the Spies did who were sent to view the land of Canaan Numb 13.32 to bring up an evil report of the Truth that we dare not venture to buy it this is to condemn the Truth and suffer no advocate to stand up and speak in its defense Nor indeed do we lie and labour so much under the rage of our Affections as under the tyranny of Prejudice For our Affections most commonly are blind and so without prejudice When they carry us along with violence we do not judge but chuse Vnicuique sua cupiditas tempestas est Every mans inordinate desire is not onely a wind to drive him forward but a tempest to wheel and whirl him about from errour to errour till a spirit of giddiness possess him that he cannot discern any thing as it is And as according to the common saying nulla tempestas diu durat no tempest is long but soon breatheth it self out so is it here the cloud of Passion is quickly blown over Gen. 27.41 44 45. Gen. 33.4 and then the eye is clear In his Wrath Esau will kill his brothor Jacob but when time had turned his fury away he became a brother again and ran to meet Jacob and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him and wept Then he would shed his brothers bloud now his own tears David's Lust brought him to a forbidden bed but the voice of a Prophet maketh him wash it with tears Fear made Peter deny and forswear his Master but the crowing of a cock and a look from Christ make him deny his denial and weep bitterly What is done out of Affection we do we know not how we do it and the greatest reason we have many times is because we do it If in passion we pass any judgment it is not long-lived but wasteth and decayeth and dieth with the passion But Prejudice is a rooted and lasting evil an evil we are jealous of because we think it good we build upon it as upon a foundation and he that but breatheth upon it that but looketh towards it appeareth as an enemy that cometh to dig it up Sometimes indeed Prejudice is raised in us by the Affections sometimes the Affections intermingle and interweave themselves with it but commonly the Affections come in the rear of Prejudice and follow as its effects and help to strengthen it We love him that is of our opinion because it is ours and we hate him that contradicteth it Upon the same reason we are afraid of every profer angry at every word that is spoken against it And this gathereth every conventicle mouldeth every sect coineth every heresy This is that Sword which our Saviour speaketh of Matth. 10.34 35 36. that divideth a man from his father and the daughter from her mother and maketh enemies of those who are of a mans own houshold This is that East wind which bringeth in those Locusts that cover the face of the Church Exod. 10 13 15 and make it dark and eat up all those fruits which we should gather Prejudice then doth suppose Judgment Judgment doth in a manner form it otherwise it could not be Prejudice Nor do we understand by Prejudice all judgment made and passed before-hand in the mind For such judgment may be true as well as false Nor would we so free the mind from Prejudice as to leave it unsetled and in doubt determining and concluding nothing For this were to cast out the soul it self by depriving it of Reason and Judgment which is the prime act and proper effect of Reason without which it cannot be an humane Soul We leave the mind free to judge but not so to dote on and deifie its own decree and determination as to fall down and worship it so to favour and fix upon it so to stand to it as to stand strong or rather stubborn against all those reasons that are fit and ready and may be brought to oppose and demolish it Nor do we hear mean those conclusions which are known and assented to as soon as they are tendred and presented to us which with their light overcome us and make us yield at the first sight as That we ought to worship God live honestly injure no man give every one that is his be grateful to our benefactors honour our parents and the like For here Prejudice hath no place In these our first judgment is our last because it must needs be right Once we determine and proceed no further But we understand those deductions and inferences which we make when we apply those known truths to particular practice which peradventure we may do with diligence and with the help and advice of others and yet not so build and establish our conclusions as to make them necessary everlasting and indisputable For a man may dishonour God when he thinketh he worshippeth him one may oppress his neighbour and call it justice be profane yet canonize himself for a Saint conclude one beholding to him whom he injureth be disobedient to his parents and think he honoureth them lift up his heel against his patrone and yet perswade himself that he exactly observeth all the rules of gratitude Here Prejudice may come in and be as a veil before our eyes that we cannot see the Truth which we should buy for our use which must needs withdraw it self when we worship our own imaginations when we conclude and rest upon that judgment as right which we have preconceived when we set up those reasons which peradventure we framed when we consulted with flesh and bloud against all that can be said to the contrary and precondemn all other judgment as false because it steppeth from this and cannot agree with it Suppose the first judgment in these be true yet is it no derogation from the Truth in this kind to be put to the question 2 Cor. 13.5 If we be in
presently be your master These bodies of ours are at the best but Gibeonites And if we come to terms of truce with them it must be but as Joshua did with the Gibeonites that they may be our bond slaves hewers of wood and drawers of water our Almoners to distribute our bounty our servants to bear our burthens to sweat to smart to pine away that the Soul may be in health For what was noted of Caligula is true of our Body It is the worst master and the best servant And as S. Paul at first was the greatest persecutor of the Gospel of Christ yet afterwards proved the greatest propagator and preacher of it so the Body that presseth down the soul may be disciplined and taught to lift it up to carry it along to act with it in the way of righteousness That Body which is a prison may be a theatre for the Mind to shew it self in all its proper operations That Body which is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sepulchre of a dead soul may be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Temple wherein we may offer up sacrifices of a sweet-smelling savour unto the Lord. That Body in which we dishonoured God stood out against him and defied him may bow and fall down before him and glorifie him When the Body is subject to the Soul the Sense obedient to Reason and the Will of man guided by the supreme rule the Will of God not swerving either to the right hand or the left then every string is in its right place then every touch every action is harmonious then there is order which indeed is the glory of the God of Order In the third place as the Body is thus hewed and squared and made up a Temple of God so is it also made fit to be a sacrifice When it is purged and disciplined and subdued then is it best qualified for that lavacrum sanguinis to enter the laver of persecution and to be baptized with its own bloud and being now taken out of the mouth of the roaring Lion by the same power to tread him under foot nec solùm evadere sed devincere and not onely to escape his paws but to overcome him Let us phansie as we please an easie passage to the Tree of life we shall find there is a flaming sword still betwixt us and it Let us study to make our wayes smooth and plain to Happiness yet we are all designati martyres no sooner Christians then culled out and designed to Martyrdom And if there were no other prison yet the world it self is one and we are sometimes brought out to be spit upon sometimes as Samson to make men sport sometimes to be stripped and not pitied sometimes to the block or to the fire sometimes to fight with beasts with men more savage then they Our prison is not so much our custody as our punishment and we are in a manner thrown out of it whilest we are in it and whilest we are in it we suffer For to glorifie God is to speak the truth of him and to speak the truth of him many times costeth us our tongues and our lives John Baptist may speak many things to Herod and Herod may give him the hearing but if to the glory of God he tell Herod that truth which above all it concerneth him to know this at the first shall lose John his liberty and at the last his head Nay our Saviour Jesus Christ to discharge his message faithfully to bear witness to the Truth and glorifie his Father must be content to lay down his life The Truth of God by which he is most glorified like the Tyrant's fiery furnace scorcheth and burneth up those that profess it hominem martyrem excudit forgeth and fashioneth the man into a Martyr He that endureth to the end glorifieth God and is glorified himself Nec aliud est sustinere in finem quà m pati finem To endure to the end is nothing else but to endure the end We all speak it often Glory be to thee O Lord and the calves of our lips are a cheap and easie sacrifice For we speak it in the habitations of peace But should we hear the noise of the whip should Persecution rush in with a sword in her hand Deficient vires nec vox nec verba sequentur our heart would fail us and we should not have a word to speak for the Glory of God Would any take in Truth and Sword and all into his bowels Would we so glorifie God as to lay our Honour and Life in the dust We do not well consider what the Glory of God is and yet it is the language of the whole world and the worst of men speak it as well as the best the Hyeocrite loudest of all You may hear it from the mouth of the bloud-thirstty man and it is more heard then his Murther which maketh the greatest noise in the other world But it is not done in a word or a breath For then God might have a MAGNIFICAT from Hell Even the Devils may cry Jesus thou Son of the living God It is not to enter his house with praise and his courts with thanksgiving No not to comprehend with all Saints what is the length and heighth and depth and breadth of his Greatness to know that it is in breadth immense in height most sublime in length eternal in depth unfoordable No not to suck out ubera beata praeconii as Cassiodore calleth the Psalms those breasts which distill nothing but praise No A MAGNIFICAT an EXSULTATE a Triumph a Jubilee will not reach it Then we truly glorifie God in our body when we do it openly when Persecution rageth when the fire flameth in our face when the Sword is at our very breasts Then to speak his glory when for ought we know it may be the last word we shall speak to profess his name in the midst of a crooked and froward generation to defend his Truth before Tyrants and not be ashamed to be true Prophets amongst a thousand false ones to suffer for his name's sake this is to glorifie him in our body And these three Chastity Temperance Patience present our bodies a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God which is our reasonable service For good reason it is that we should be chaste for he is pure that we should fast and afflict our bodies for it is a lesson which he taught us himself in our flesh that we should offer up our bodies for him whose body was nailed to the cross for us A chaste body a subdued body a body ready to be offered up is his Temple indeed the place where his glory dwelleth And now we pass to a fourth the Glorifying God by those outward Expressions which are commanded by the Spirit but performed by the Body alone glorifying of him by our Voice and Gesture and reverent Deportment by our outward Worship And indeed if the three first were made good we need not be
his gate his tardity and slowness of speech And when he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man collected in himself and much given to meditation they affecting the like deportment fell into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sad kind of melancholy and stupidity These defects many times overtake us because we look upon the person and never consider the Rule How many are Sarahs but to tell a lye Rebekahs but to deceive Davids but to revenge or worse Therefore St. Augustine speaking of the sin of David in the matter of Uriah observeth that many upon the reading of that story did aedificare in ruinam build their fall upon David's fall and framed unto themselves this reason Si David cur non ego If David did thus then why not I And as we erre in taking the Saints vices to be vertues so do we many times grosly mistake those graces which do most commend them Multos saepe fallunt quae similia sunt saith Hilarie Those things which are like one another do oft deceive us Multa quae tarditatis ignaviae sunt gravitati consilio tribuuntur That which was Gravity in the copy is but Sloth and Dulness in the transcript That which was Zele in Phinehas is Madness in another That which would have been Obedience in Abraham would be cruel Murther in any man else That may be Gravity in the Saint which is Stupidity and Senslesness in me Hope when transcribed by imitation may be Presumption Bounty Prodigality Peaceableness want of Courage Devotion Superstition The Orator faith well Multa fiunt eadem sed aliter Many do the same things but not after the same manner A thief fighteth stoutly but we call him not Valiant A bad servant complaineth not under the whip but we commend not his Patience A traiterous Jesuite may smile perhaps at the very ridge of the gallows but we do not call it Martyrdom How soon is the complexion of a good duty changed and altered How fair is it in one and what deformity hath it in another It is gold here and anon it is but a counter at one time sealed with an Expedit approved as very expedient at another checked with a Non licet forbid as altogether unlawful To draw towards a conclusion There are some duties which are local Not the same Ceremonies at Eugubium as at Rome There are duties fitted to the times Not the same Discipline in the Church in the time of peace and in the time of persecution Not the same face of the Church now that was in the Apostles time now were it fit that in all things it should be drawn like to that Lastly there be personal and occasional duties which in some persons and upon some occasions are praise-worthy but in others deserve no other reward but Death The command is Thou shalt not kill Samson killed himself but every man is not a Samson hath not Samson's spirit Phinehas with his spear slayeth the adulterous couple but every man is not a Phinehas nor hath Phinehas's Commission S. Basil's rule is most certain Where we find a contradiction between the Work and the Precept when we read a fact commended which falleth cross with the command we must leave the fact and adhere to the precept David was a good man but no Apology for adultery Solomon a wise man but no pretence for Idolatry S. Peter was a Rock but we may dash upon this Rock and shipwreck and if we follow him in all his wayes we may chance to hear a serious check from Christ himself Get thee behind me Satan Be followers of Elijah but not to consume men with fire Be followers of Peter but not into the High Priest's hall to deny our Master Be followers of S. Paul and of all the blessed Saints of God but with S. Paul's Correction As they were of Christ Christ is the great Exemplar the supreme and infallible Pattern which all are to conform unto a perfect Copy for every one to imitate a principal standard Rule by which all other rules are to be examined and according to which all our lives ought to be squared and sitted Put ye on saith the Apostle Rom. 13.14 the Lord Jesus Christ Which is according to Chrysostom's exposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so to be clothed with him from top to toe that nothing appear in us but that which is of Christ All our affections must be sutable unto his Let the same mind be in you Phil. 2.5 saith S. Paul which was in Christ In all our actions we must tread in his steps I have given you an example saith he that ye should do as I have done unto you Joh. 13.15 In all our sufferings we must take up our cross and follow him Heb. 12.1 2. and as it is we must run with patience the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus Yet we must not here conceive that we are bound to walk in an universal conformity unto Christ in all things For there were many actions of his which as they far exceed our natural abilities so they require not our imitation It is not safe for us to follow him on the Sea lest we sink with Peter nor into the Wilderness to invite the Tempter by a solitary retiredness We are as unable to fast forty dayes and forty nights as we are to feed five thousand men with five loaves and two fishes We cannot command the Winds to be still nor Devils to come out nor drive away Diseases with a word or with a touch In brief we cannot follow Christ in the way of his Miracles They afford us matter of wonder not of imitation Neither secondly must we think to imitate him in his works of Merit Luk. 17.10 Do well we must and suffer ill we may But when we have done all we are still unprofitable servants And though we suffer never so much yet are the sufferings of this present time not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Therefore in the third place Rom. 8.18 we must follow Christ only in the works of his ordinary Obedience And thus he was unto us a living Commentary on his own written Law or rather a living and breathing Law for us to live by He was subject to his Parents obedient to the Magistrate assiduous in his calling painful in preaching frequent in praying zealous of God's glory and ever obedient to his will He was in his life an exact patern of Innocence He went about doing good and there was no guile found in his mouth at his death of Patience When he was reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not in both and in all of Piety and Humility Beloved we may assure ourselves that we do and walk aright when we frame and fashion our lives according to this Rule when we express and represent the life of Christ in our conversation when we so walk even as he walked 1
For the way to Heaven is as near out of Brittany as Jerusalem And here you have a King to lead you and his example to accompany you For the words which I now read do as it were bring him to the Church where he presenteth himself before the Altar layeth down his Crown and Scepter and taketh as it were his Scrip and his Staff and voweth himself a Pilgrime I am a stranger in the earth And now to give you some reason why the holy Ghost maketh choice of a King to teach this lesson First in this he setteth over us the best and wisest Masters because the Scholars and Disciples of Experience Quam usus genuit mater peperit memoria Peripatetici dicunt generari prudentiam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A. Gell. Noct. Att. l. 13. c. 8. James 1.23 24 begot by Use and conversation in the world and brought forth by Memory For those Conclusions which we gain by evidence of Reason may be as sure but not so operative and impressive as those which are drawn out by frequent and sensible Observation Those we behold as we do our face in a glass as S. James speaketh and then go away and forget them And commonly they beget a Knowledge which endeth in it self and so becometh more fatal then Ignorance But those Lessons which Experience bringeth us do leave a mark and impression behind them and even characterize the soul and so fill it that it must vent and evaporate discourse to it self and to others what it hath seen and felt and it floweth naturally and forcibly from the very depth of Apprehension He maketh the fairest and the liveliest shew of a stranger who sheweth him in purple and on the throne He will soonest perswade you that you are mortal who first sheweth you Death in his own face He writeth most effectually who doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dip his pen in his mind and then draw out those conclusions which long and sad experience hath taught him For who fitter to declaim against Riot then he that hath fed with Swine Who can be a better oratour against Intemperance then he that hath found the delusion of Wine and the rage of Drink Who can Disgrace Beauty more then he that hath felt it bite like a Cockatrice When Dives was in hell how ready was he to be a Preacher of righteousness to his brethren Experience doth make men both willing and able instructers And certainly to cast a slur on Vanity to decry the glory of the World to teach the uncertainty of Riches and the folly of Ambition to demonstrate that there is no solid or lasting joy to be founded on any thing under the Moon they are best able who have had experience and are examples of both fortunes who have wallowed in wealth and been mockt by it who have lain in pleasure and been stung who have catcht at any evil that might carry them to that height they aimed at and then been thrown down by the same evil that brought them up who by long experience know what Riches and Pleasures are what wings the one have and what horrour the other leave behind them when they turn their back who having had all their vain wishes made good are brought at last to unwish and execrate them all and forced to make this their last That they had never had what they so much desired Never was the world more severely censured then by those who have made most trial of it No theme more usually handled by all sorts then that of the Contempt of the World nusquam tamen humanum genus tam incredulum tam surdum est and yet who heareth what himself saith or who believeth his own report The greatest part of men that speak against it do it not out of hatred but out of love to the World For who more desirous to pluck the purple robe off from the rich mans back then he that longeth to wear it himself His invisa saeneratio quibus succurrere videtur Columel How greedily do men surfet on that meat which their injustice hath pluckt out of the mouthes of others It is with the World as with Money let out upon use Men hate and revile it yet are willing and use all means to bring it into their hands though upon the hard and so much loathed condition of Interest The Philosophers have largely written of this subject but most of that they wrote they wrote upon conjecture and guess and scarce believed themselves in what they wrote They have written best who have been disciplined by their own folly and have been taught not by the best but yet by the surest Mistress Experience who have been so roughly handled in the waies which they chose and delighted in that at last they were even forced to that proficiency that they did indeed believe themselves Solomon who was a King and wrote a bitter Satyre against the World did first taste the gall of every vanity and then he wrote more fully and more profitably then ever yet any Philosopher did in his cell For having run over the whole work of the creation of the world having watched the course of things and every motion of his own heart having been turned round as it were on the wheel of Vicissitude and Change at last he settleth and resteth upon a Conclusion which was drawn forth out of the full treasury of his Experience First he thought in his heart of what he had seen Eccl. 1.13 14. 2.1 3 15. and then he said in his heart and fixt it up in lasting characters to be read in the world to the end of it That all that was in it was vanity And therefore when a King thus pronounceth of himself that he is but a stranger it must needs carry a far greater weight and argument of truth then if a private unexperienced man had spoken it David had experience of peace and war of riches and poverty of pleasures and woe He had been a private and publick person a Shepherd a painful calling a Souldier a bloudy trade a Courtier an honourable slavery which joyneth together in one the Lord and the Parasite the Gentleman and the Drudge and he was a King a glorious name filled up with fears and cares All these he had passed through and found least rest when he was at the highest less content in the Throne then in the Sheepfolds All this he had observed and laid up in his memory And this his confession is an Epitome and brief of all and in effect he telleth us that whatsoever he had seen in this his passage whatsoever he had enjoyed yet he found nothing so certain as this That he had found nothing certain nothing that he could abide with or would abide with him but was still as a passenger and stranger on the earth Now to give you a second reason why the Spirit of God maketh choice of a King to preach this Lesson As he chuseth the
best and most experienced Masters so doth he condescend and indulge to our infirmity and appointeth the fittest for us and those of whom we will soonest learn Our first question commonly is Who is the Preacher We deliver up our Judgments to our Affections and converse rather with mens fortunes then their persons and make use of no other rule in our censure of what is done or said then the Man himself that did or spake it If Honour or Power or Wealth have made the man great in our eyes then whatsoever he speaketh is an oracle though it be a doctrine of Devils and have the same Father which all other lyes have Truth doth seldome go down with us unless it be presented in the cup in which we love to divine and prophesie Eccl. 9.15 There was a poor wise man found saith Solomon that delivered the city by his wisdome but none remembred or considered this poor wise man For Poverty is a cloud and casteth a darkness over that which is begot of light sullieth every perfection that is in us hideth it from an eye of flesh which cannot see Wisdome and Poverty together in one man whereas Folly it self shall go for Wisdome and carry away that applause which is due to it if it dwell in the heart or issue from the mouth of a purple and gallant fool Vt sumuâ— sic judicamus As we are so we judge and it is not our Reason which concludeth but our Sense and Affection If we love Beauty every painted wanton is as the Queen of Sheba and may ask Solomon a question If Riches Dives with us will be a better Evangelist then S. Luke If our eyes dazle at Majesty Acts 12.21 22 Herodes royal apparel will be a more eloquent oratour then he that speaketh and the people shall give a shout and cry The voice of a God and not of a man Do but ask our selves the question Doth not Affection to the person beget Admiration in you and Admiration commend whatsoever he saith and gild over Errour and Sin it self and make them current Do not your Hopes or Fears or Love make up every opinion in you and build you up in your most unholy faith Is not the Coward or the Dotard or the Worldling in your Creed and Profession Do you not measure out one another as you do a tree by the bulk and trunk and count him best who is most worth Is not this the compass by which you steer Is not this the bond of your peace the cement of all your friendship Doth not this outward respect serene or cloud your countenance and as the wind and the state of things change make you to day the dearest friends and to morrow the deadliest enemies Can you think ill of them you gain by or speak ill of them you fear Can he be evil who is powerful or dare you be more wise then he that hath thirty legions We may say this is a great evil under the sun But it is the property of the blessed Spirit to work good out of evil to teach us to remember what we are by those who so soon make us forget what we are to make use of Riches which we dote on of Power which we tremble at of that Glory which we have in admiration to instruct us to the knowledge of our condition and to put us in mind of our mortality and frailty by Kings whom we count as Gods Behold a King from his throne proclaimeth it to his subjects and all the world That his Power is but as a shadow cast from a mortal his Glory but his garment which he cannot wear long and his Riches but the embroidery which will be as soon worn out And when we have gazed and fallen down and worshipt and are thus lost in our own thoughts if we could take away the film from our eye which the world hath drawn over it and see every thing in its nature and substance as it is we should behold in all these raies of glory and power and wealth nothing but David the stranger So that we see Kings who are our nursing-Fathers are become our School-masters to teach us Psal 49.10 For we see that ignorant and foolish men perish and they dye as fools dye not remembred nor thought on as if nothing fell to the ground but their Folly The begger dyeth Luke 16.22 but what is that to the rich who cannot see him carried by the Angels into Abrahams bosome The righteous also perish and no man layeth it to heart I Isa 57.1 but Kings of the earth fall and cannot fall but with observation they fall as a star are soon mist in their orb and soon forgot But then living Kings make their Throne a Pulpit and preach from thence and publish to the world their own frail and fading condition measure out their life by a span Psal 39.5 12. Psal 85.8 and prophesie the end of it call their life a Pilgrimage and shall we not hearken what the Lord God doth say by such royal Prophets Shall their Power make us beasts of burden to carry it whithersoever their beck shall direct us and shall not their Doctrine and Example perswade us that we are men travelling men hasting to another counâ—ry Behold then here David a Prophet and a King made and set up an ensample to us And if David be a stranger upon the earth we can draw no other conclusion then this Then certainly much more we If David and all his Fathers if pious Kings and bloudy Tyrants if good and bad found no setled estate no abiding place here why should we be so foolish and ignorant as to turmoil or sport and delight our selves under the expectation of it If Kings be pulled down from their thrones and fall to the dust we have reason to cast up our accounts and reckon upon it that we are gliding and passing nay posting and flying as so many shadows and that our removal is at hand 1 Cor. 10.11 For these things happened to them for ensamples and they are written for our admonition They prophesied to us and they spake to us I may say They died to us and to all that shall follow them to the last man that shall stand upon the earth When Adam had lived nine hundred and thirty years Gen. 5.5 he dyed led the way to his posterity not that they should live so long but that they should surely dye every son of his till the second coming of the second and last Adam Abraham was a stranger and Moses a stranger and David a stranger that we might look back upon them and see our condition When Patriarchs and Prophets and Kings preach not onely living but dying not onely dying but dead we shall not onely dye but dye in our sins if we take not out the lesson and learn to speak in their dialact and language ACCOLAE SVMVS ET PEREGRINI We are strangers and pilgrimes on the