vae Egypto wo and wo upon wo upon Aegypt there was a Goâ—hen a Sanctuary for the children of God in Egypt When there is a vae inhabitantibus a persecution in any place there is a Fuge in aliam leave to fly into another City But in such an extension such an expansion such an exaltation such an inundation of woe as this in our text Vae mundo woe to the world to all the world a tide a flood without any ebbe a Sea without any shoare a darke skie without any Horizon That though I doe withdraw my selfe from the wofull uncertainties and irresolutions and indeterminations of the Court and from the snares and circumventions of the City Though I would devest and shake off the woes and offences of Europe in Afrique or of Asia in America I cannot since wheresoever or howsoever I live these woes and scandals and offences tentations and tribulations will pursue mee who can expresse the wretched condition the miserable station and prostration of man in this world vae mundo Take the word World in as ill a sense as you will as ill as when Christ says I pray not for the world and they are very ill for whom Christ Jesus who prayed for them that crucifyed him would not pray Take the word world in as good a sense as you will as good as when Christ says I give my flesh for the life of the world and they are very good that are elemented made up with his flesh and alimented and nursed with his blood Take it for the Elect take it for the Reprobate the Reprobate and the Elect too are under this vae wo to the world from tentations and tribulations scandals and offences So it is if the world be persons and it is so also if it be times Take the world for the times wee live in now and it is Novissima hora this is the last time and the Apostle hath told us that the last times are the worst Take the world for the Old world Originalis mundus as Saint Peter call's it the Originall world of which this world since the flood is but a copy and God spared not the Old world says that Apostle Take it for an elder world then that the world in Paradise when one Adam the Son of God and one Eve produced by God from him made up the world or take it for an elder world then that the world in heaven when onely the Angels and no other creatures made up the world Take it any of these ways we in this latter world do Noah in the old world did so did Adam in the world in Paradise and so did the Angels in the oldest world of all find these woes from offences and scandals tentations and tribulations So it is in all persons in all men so it is in all times in all ages and so it is in all places too for hee that retires into a Monastery upon pretence of avoiding tentations and offences in this world he brings them thither and hee meets them there Hee sees them intramittendo and extramittendo he is scandalized by others and others are scandalized by him That part of the world that sweats in continuall labour in severall vocations is scandalized with their laziness and their riches to see them anoint themselves with other mens sweat and lard themselves with other mens fat and then these retired and cloistrall men are scandalized with all the world that is out of their walls There is no sort of men more exercised with contentious and scandalous wranglings then they are for first with all eager animosity they prefer their Monasticall life before all other secular callings yea before those Priests whom they call Secular Priests such as have care of souls in particular parishes as though it were a Diminution and an inferiour state to have care of souls and study and labour the salvation of others And then as they undervalue all secular callings Mechaniques and Merchants and Magistrates too in respect of any Regular order as they call them so with the same animosity doe they prefer their own Order before any other Order A Carthusian is but a man of fish for one Element to dwell still in a Pond in his Cell alone but a Jesuit is a usefull ubiquitary and his Scene is the Court as well as the Cloister And howsoever they pretend to bee gone out of the world they are never the farther from the Exchange for all their Cloister they buy and sell and purchase in their Cloister They are never the farther from Westminster in their Cloister they occasion and they maintain suits from their Cloister and there are the Courts of Justice noted to abound most with suits where Monasteries abound most Nay they are never the farther from the field for all their Cloister for they give occasions of armies they raise armies they direct armies they pay armies from their Cloister Men should not retire from the mutuall duties of this world to avoid offences tentations tribulations neither doe they at all avoid them that retire thus upon that pretence Shall we say then as the Disciples said to Christ If the case of the man be so with his wife it is not good to mary If the world be nothing but a bed of Adders a quiver of poysoned arrows from every person every time every place woes by occasion of offences and scandals it had been better God had made no world better that I had never been born into the world better if by any meanes I could get out of the world quickly shall we say so God forbid As long as Iob charged not God foolishly it is said in all this Iob sinned not but when he came to curse his birth and to loath his life then Iob charged God foolishly When one Prophet Eliah comes to proportion God the measure of his corrections Satisest Lord this is enough Thou hast done enough I have suffered enough now take away my life When another Prophet comes to wish his own death in anger and to justify his anger and dispute it out with God himselfe for not proceeding with the Ninivites as he would have had him doe nay for the withering of his gourd that shadowed him in all these they did in all such we doe charge God foolishly And shall we that are but wormes but silke-wormes but glow-wormes at best chide God that hee hath made slow-wormes and other venimous creeping things shall we that are nothing but boxes of poyson in our selves reprove God for making Toads and Spiders in the world shall we that are all discord quarrell the harmony of his Creation or his providence Can an Apothecary make a Soveraign triacle of Vipers and other poysons and cannot God admit offences and scandals into his physick scandals and offences tentations and tribulations are our leaven that ferment us and our lees that preserve us Use them to Gods glory and to thine own establishing and
between God and him he is well-near learned enough There may be enough in remembring our selves but sometimes that 's the hardest of all many times we are farthest off from our selves most forgetfull of our selves It was a narrow enlargement it was an addition that diminish'd the sense when our former Translators added that word themselves All the world shall remember themselves there is no such particularity as themselves in that text But it is onely as our later Translators have left it All the world shall remember and no more Let them remember what they will what they can let them but remember thoroughly and then as it follows there They shall turn unto the Lord and all the kindreds of the Nations shall worship him Therefore David makes that the key into this Psalme Psalmus ad Recordationem A Psalm for Remembrance Being lock'd up in a close prison of multiplied calamities this turns the key this opens the door this restores him to liberty if he can remember Non est sanitas there is no soundnesse no health in my flesh Doest thou wondet at that Remember thy selfe and thou wilt see that thy case is worse then so That there is no rest in thy bones That 's true too But doest thou wonder at that Remember thy self and thou wilt see the cause of all that The Lord is angry with thee Find'st thou that true and wondrest why the Lord should be angry with thee Remember thy self well and thou wilt see it is because of thy sins There is no soundnesse in my flesh because of thine anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sinne So have I let you in into the whole Psalm by this key by awaking your memory that it is a Psalm for Remembrance And that that you are to remember is that all calamities that fall upon you fall not from the malice or power of man but from the anger of God And then that Gods anger fals not upon you from his Hate or his Decree but from your sins There is no soundnesse in my flesh because of thine anger neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sinne Which words we shall first consider as they are our present object as they are historically and literally to be understood of David And secondly in their retrospect as they look back upon the first Adam and so concern Mankind collectively and so you and I and all have our portion in these calamities And thirdly we shall consider them in their prospect in their future relation to the second Adam in Christ Iesus in whom also all mankinde was collected and the calamities of all men had their Ocean and their confluence and the cause of them the anger of God was more declared and the cause of that anger that is sin did more abound for the sins of all the world were his by imputation for this Psalm some of our Expositors take to be a historicall and personall Psalm determin'd in David some a Catholique and universall Psalm extended to the whole condition of man and some a Propheticall and Evangelicall Psalm directed upon Christ. None of them inconveniently for we receive help and health from every one of these acceptations first Adam was the Patient and so his promise the promise that he received of a Messiah is our physick And then David was the Patient and there his Example is our physick And lastly Christ Iesus was the Patient and so his blood is our physick In Adam we shall finde the Scriptum est the medicine is in our books an assurance of a Messiah there is In David we shall find the Probatum est that this medicine wrought upon David and in Christ we finde the deceit it self Thus you may take this physick thus you may apply it to your selves In every acceptation as we consider it in David in our selves in Christ we shall consider first That specification of humane misery and calamity expressed here sicknesse and an universall sicknesse No soundnesse in the flesh And more then that trouble and an universall trouble No peace no rest not in the bones And then in a second branch we shall see that those calamities proceed from the anger of God we cannot discharge them upon Nature or Fortune or Power or Malice of Men or Times They are from the anger of God and they are as the Originall Text hath it à facie irae Dei from the face of the anger of God from that anger of God that hath a face that looks upon something in us and growes not out of a hate in God or decree of God against us And then lastly this that Gods anger lookes upon is sin God is not angry till he see sin nor with me till it come to be my sinne and though Originall sinne be my sinne and sicknesse and death would follow though there were no more but Originall sinne yet God comes not to this Non sanitas Nâ— soundnesse in my flesh nor to this Nâ—n pax No rest in my bones till I have made sinne my sinne by act and habit too by doing it and using to doe it But then though it bee but Peccatum in the singular so the Text hath it One sinne yet for that one beloved sinne especially when that my sinne comes to have a face for so the Originall phrase is in this place too à facie peccati from the face of my sinne when my sin looks bigge and justifies it self then come these calamities No soundnesse in the flesh â—o rest in the bones to their heighth because the anger of God which exals them is in the exaltation There is no soundnesse in my flesh because of thine anger neither any rest in my bones because of my sin All these particulars will best arise to us in our second consideration when wee consider Hamanitatem not Hominem our humane condition as we are all kneaded up in Adam and not this one person David But because we are in the consideration of health and consequently of physick for the true and proper use of physick is to preserve health and but by accident to restore it we embraâ—e that Rule Medioâ—rum theoria experientia est Practise is a Physicians study and he concludes out of events for says he He that professes himself a Physician without experience Chronica de future scribit He undertakes to write a Chronicle of things before they are done which is an irregular and a perverse way Therefore in this spirituall physick of the soul we will deal upon Experience too and see first how this wrought upon this particular person upon David David durst not presume that God could not or would not bee angry Anger is not always a Defect nor an inordinatenesse in man Be angry and sin not anger is not utterly to be rooted out of our ground and cast away but transplanted A Gardiner does wel to grub up thornes in his garden there they would
well to be angry even unto death Ieremy was under this tentation too Ionas was angry because his Prophesie was not performed because God would not second his Prophesie in the destruction of Nineveh Ieremy was angry because his Prophesie was like to be performed he preached heavy Doctrin and therfore his Auditory hated him Woe is me my Mother says he that thou hast born me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth I preach but the messages of God and vae mihi si non wo be unto me if I preach not them I preach but the sense of Gods indignation upon mine own soul in a conscience of mine own sins I impute nothing to another that I confesse not of my selfe I call none of you to confession to me I doe but confesse my self to God and you I rack no mans memory what he did last year last week last night I onely gather into my memory and powr out in the presence of my God and his Church the sinfull history of mine own youth and yet I am a contentious man says Ieremy a worm and a burthen to every tender conscience says he and I strive with the whole earth I am a bitter and satyricall preacher This is that that wearies mee says hee I have neither lent on usury nor men have lent me on usury yet as though I were an oppressing lender or a fraudulent borrower every one of them doth curse me This is a naturall infirmity which the strongest men being but men cannot devest that if their purposes prosper not they are weary of their industry weary of their lifes But this is Summa ingratitude in Deum mâ—lle non esse quà m miserum esse There cannot be a greater unthankfulnesse to God then to desire to be Nothing at all rather then to be that that God would have thee to be To desire to be out of the world rather then to glorifie him by thy patience in it But when this infirmity overtakes Gods children Patiuntur ut homtines sustinent ut Dei amici They are under calamities as they are râ—en but yet they come to recollect themselves and to beat those calamities as the valiant Souldiers as the faithfull servants as the bosome friends of almighty God Si vis discere qualis esse debiâ—s disce post gratiam says the same Father Learn patience not from the stupidity of Philosophers who are but their own statues men of stone without sense without affections and who placed all their glory in a Non facies ut te dicam analum that no pain should make them say they were in pain nor from the perâ—iâ—acy of Heretiques how to bear a calamity who gave their bodies to the fire for the establishing of their Disciples but take out a new lesson in the times of Grace Consider the Apostles there Gaudentes Gloriantes They departed from the Councell rejoycing that they were counted worthy to suffer rebuke for his name It was Ioy and all Ioy says S. Iames It was Glory and all Glory says S. Paul Absit mihi God forbid that I should glory save in the Crosse of our Lord Iesus Christ And if I can glory in that to glory in that is to have a conscience testifying to me that God receives glory by my use of his correction I may come to God reason with God plead with God wrastle with God and be received and sustained by him This was Davids case in our Text therefore he doth not stray into the infirmities of these great and good Men Moses Iob Elias Ieremy and Ionah whose errours it is labour better bestowed carefully to avoid then absolutely to excuse for that cannot be done But David presents onely to God the sense of his corrections and implies in that that since the cure is wrought since Gods purpose which is by corrections to bring a sinner to himself and so to God is effected in him God would now be pleased to remember all his other gracious promises too and to admit such a zealous prayer as as he doth from Esay after Be not angry O Lord above measure that is above the measure of thy promises to repentant souls or the measure of the strength of our bodies Neither remember iniquities for ever But loe wee beseech thee Behold we are thy people To end this first part because the other extends it self in many branches Then when we are come to a sense of Gods purpose by his corrections it is a seasonable time to flie to his mercy and to pray that he would remove them from us and to present our Reasons to spare us for thy corrections have wrought upon us Give us this day our daily bread for thou hast given us stones and scorpions tribulations and afflictions and we have fed upon them found nourishment even in those tribulations and afflictions and said thee grace for them blessed and glorified thy name for those tribulations and afflictions Give us our Cordials now and our Restoratives for thy physick hath evacuated all the peccant humour and all our naturall strength shine out in the light of thy countenance now for this long cold night hath benum'd us since the drâ—sse is now evaporated now withdraw thy fire since thy hand hath anew cast us now imprint in us anew thine Image since we have not disputed against thy corrections all this while O Lord open thou our lips now and accept our remembring of thee that we have not done so Accept our Petition and the Reason of our Petition for thine Arrows stick fast in us and thy hand presseth us sore David in a rectified conscience findes that he may be admitted to present reasons against farther corrections And that this may be received as a reason That Gods Arrows are upon him for this is phrase or a Metaphore in which Gods indignation is often expressed in the Scripture He sent out his Arrows and scattered them sayes David magnifying Gods goodness in his behalf against his enemies And so again God will ordaine his Arrrowes for them that persecute me Complebo sagittas says God I will heap mischiefs upon them and I will spend mine arrows upon them yea Inebriabo sanguine I will make mine Arrows drunk in their bloud It is Idiotismus Spiritus sancti a peculiar character of the holy Ghosts expressing Gods anger in that Metaphore of shooting Arrows In this place some understand by these Arrows foul and infectious diseases in his body derived by his incontinence Others the sting of Conscience and that fearfull choice which the Prophet offered him war famine and pestilence Others his passionate sorrow in the death of Bethsheba's first childe or in the Incest of Amnon upon his sister or in the murder upon Amnon by Absolon or in the death of Absolen by Ioab or in many other occasions of sorrow that surrounded David and his family more perchance then any such family in the
covered himself with a cloud so that prayer could not passe thorough That was the misery of Ierusalem But in the acts and habits of sin we cover our selves with a roof with an arch which nothing can shake nor remove but Thunder and Earthquakes that is the execution of Gods fiercest judgments And whether in that fall of the roof that is in the weight of Gods judgments upon us the stones shall not brain us overwhelm and smother and bury us God only knows How his Thunders and his Earthquakes when we put him to that will work upon us he onely knows whether to our amendment or to our destruction But whil'st we are in the consideration of this arch this roof of separation between God and us by sin there may be use in imparting to you an observation a passage of mine own Lying at Aiâ— at Aquisgrane a well known Town in Germany and fixing there some time for the benefit of those Baths I found my self in a house which was divided into many families indeed so large as it might have been a little Parish or at least a great lim of a great one But it was of no Parish for when I ask'd who lay over my head they told me a family of Anabaptists And who over theirs Another family of Anabaptists and another family of Anabaptists over theirs and the whole house was a nest of these boxes severall artificers all Anabaptists I ask'd in what room they met for the exercise of their Religion I was told they never met for though they were all Anabaptists yet for some collaterall differences they detested one another and though many of them were near in bloud alliance to one another yet the son would excommunicate the father in the room above him and the Nephew the Uncle As S. Iohn is said to have quitted that Bath into which Cerinthus the Heretique came so did I this house I remembred that Hezekiah in his sicknesse turn'd himself in his bed to pray towards that wall that look'd to Ierusalem And that Daniel in Babylon when he pray'd in his chamber opened those windows that look'd towards Ierusalem for in the first dedication of the Temple at Ierusalem there is a promise annext to the prayers made towards the Temple And I began to think how many roofs how many floores of separation were made between God and my prayers in that house And such is this multiplicity of sins which we consider to be got over us as a roof as an arch many arches many roofs for though these habituall sins be so of kin as that they grow from one another and yet for all this kindred excommunicate one another for covetousnesse will not be in the same roome with prodigality yet it is but going up another stair and there 's the tother Anabaptist it is but living a few years and then the prodigall becomes covetous All the way they separate us from God as a roof as an arch then an arch will bear any weight An habituall sin got over our head as an arch will stand under any sicknesse any dishonour any judgement of God and never sink towards any humiliation They are above our heads sicus tectum as a roofe as an arch and they are so toe sicut clamor as a voice ascending not stopping till they come to God O my God I am confounded and ashamed to lift up mine eyes to ther O my God why not thine eyes there is a cloud a clamour in the way for as it follows Our iniquities are encreased over our heads and our trespasse is grown up to the heaven I think to retain a learned man of my counsell and one that is sute to be heard in the Court and when I come to instruct him I finde mine adversaries name in his book before and he is all ready for the other party I think to finde an Advocate in heaven when I will and my sin is in heaven before mee The voice of Abels bloud and so of Cains sin was there The voice of Sodomes transgression was there Bring down that sin again from heaven to earth Bring that voice that cries in heaven to speake to Christ here in his Church upon earth by way of confession bring that clamorous sin to his bloud to be washed in the Sacrament for as long as thy sin cries in heaven thy prayers cannot be heard there Bring thy sinne under Christs feet there when hee walks amongst the Candlesticks in the light and power of his Ordinances in the Church and then thine absolution will be upon thy head in those seals which he hath instituted and ordained there and thy cry will be silenced Till then supergrâ—sse caput thine iniquities will be over thy head as a roof as a cry and in the next place sicut aqua as the overflowing of waters We consider this plurality this multiplicity of habituall sinnes to bee got over our heads as waters especially in this that they have stupefied us and taken from us all sense of reparation of our sinfull condition The Organ that God hath given the naturall man is the eye he sees God in the creature The Organ that God hath given the Christian is the ear he hears God in his Word But when we are under water both senses both Organs are vitiated and depraved if not defeaâ—ed The habituall and manifold sinner sees nothing aright Hee sees a judgement and cals it an accident He hears nothing aright He hears the Ordinance of Preaching for salvation in the next world and he cals it an invention of the State for subjection in this world And as under water every thing seems distorted and crooked to man so does man himself to God who sees not his own Image in that man in that form as he made it When man hath drunk iniquity like water then The flouds of wickadnesse shall make him afraid The water that he hath swum in the sin that he hath delighted in shall appear with horrour unto him As God threatens the pride of Tyrus I shall bring the deep upon thee and great waters shall cover thee That God will execute upon this sinner And then upon every drop of that water upon every affliction every tribulation he shall come to that fearfulnesse Waters flowed over my head then said I I am câ—â— off Either he shall see nothing or see no remedy no deliverance from desperation Keep low these waters as waters signifie sin and God shall keep them low as they signifie punishments And his Dove shall return to the Ark with an Olive leaf to shew thee that the waters are abated he shall give thee a testimony of the return of his love in his Oyle and Wine and Milk and Honey in the temporall abundances of this life And si impleat Hydrias aqua if he doe fill all your vessels with water with water of bitternesse that is fill and exercise all your patience and
scorne an imprisonment a penury and then upon that calamity there is laid the anger and indignation of God and then upon that the weight of mine own sinnes this is too much to settle me it is enough to sinke me it is a burden in which the danger arises from the last addition in that which is last laid on for as the sceptique Philosopher pleases himselfe in that argumentation that either a penny makes a man rich or he can never be rich for says he if he be not rich yet the addition of a penny more would make him rich or if not that penny yet another or another so that at last it is the addition of a penny that makes him rich so without any such fallacious or facetious circumvention in our case it is the last addition that that we look on last that makes our burden insupportable when upon our calamity we see the anger of God piled up and upon that our sin when I come to see my sin in that glasse in that glasse not in a Saviour bleeding for me but in a Judge frowning upon mee when my sins are so far off from me as that they are the last thing that I see for if I would look upon my sins first with a remorsefull a tearfull a repentant eye either I should see no anger no calamity or it would not seem strange to me that God should bee angry nor strange that I should suffer calamities when God is angry Therefore is sin heavy as a burden because it is the last thing that I lay upon my selfe and feel not that till a heavy load of calamity and anger be upon me before But then as when we come to be unloaded of a burden that that was lasâ— laid on is first taken off so when we come by any meanes though by the sense of a calamity or of the anger of God to a sense of our sin before the calamity it selfe be taken off the sin is forgiven When the Prophet found David in this state the first act that the Prophet came to was the Transtulit peccatum God hath taken away thy sinne but the calamity was not yet taken away The child begot in sin shall surely die though the sin be pardoned The fruit of the tree may be preserved and kept after the tree it selfe is cut down and burnt The fruit and off spring of our sin calamity may continue upon us after God hath removed the guiltinesse of the sin from us In the course of civility our parents goe out before us in the course of Mortality our parents die before us In the course of Gods mercy it is so too The sin that begot the calamity is dead and gone the calamity the child and off spring of that sin is alive and powerfull upon us But for the most part as if I would lift an iron chain from the ground if I take but the first linke and draw up that the whole chain follows so if by my repentance I remove the uppermost weight of my load my sin all the rest the declaration of the anger of God and the calamities that I suffer will follow my sin and depart from me But still our first care must be to take off the last weight the last that comes to our sense The sin You have met I am sure in old Apophtbegms an answer of a Philosopher celebrated that being asked what was the heaviest thing in the world answered Senex Tyrannus An old Tyran For a Tyran at first dares not proceed so severely but when he is established and hath continued long he prescribes in his injuries and those injuries become Laws As sin is a Tyran so he is got over our head in Dominie as we shewed you in the supergressaesunt in our former part As he is an old Tyran so he is the heaviest burden that can be imagined An inveterate sin is an inveterate sore we may hold out with it but hardly cure it we may slumber it but hardly kill it Weigh sin in heaven heaven could not beare it in the Angels They fell In the waters The Sea could not beare it in Ionas He was cast in In the earth That could not beare it in Dathan and Abiram They were swallowed And because all the inhabitants of the earth are sin it selfe The earth it selfe shall reel to and fro as a Drunkard and shall be removed like a Cottage and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it and it shall fall and notrise againe There 's the totall the finall fall proper to the wicked they shall fall so shall the godly And fall every day and fall seven times a day but they shall rise againe and stand in judgement The wicked shall not doe so They shall rise rise to judgement and they shall stand stand for judgement stand to receive judgement and then not fall but be cast out out of the presence of God and cast down down into an impossibility of rising for ever for ever for ever There is a lively expressing of this deadly weight this burden in the Prophet Zechary First there was a certaine vessell a measure shewed and the Angel said Hic est oculus This is the sight says our first translation This is the resemblance through all the earth says our second That is to this measure and to that that is figured in it every man must look this every man must take into his consideration what is it In this measure sate a woman whose name was Wickednesse At first this woman this wickednesse sate up in this vessell she had not filled the measure she was not laid securely in it she was not prostrate not groveling but her nobler part her head was yet out of danger she sate up in it But before the Vision departs she is plunged wholly into that measure into darknesse into blindnesse and not for a time for then there was a cover says the text and agreat cover and a great cover of Lead put upon that vessell and so a perpetuall imprisonment no hope to get out and heavy fetters no ease to be had within Hard ground to tread upon and heavy burdens to carry first a cover that is an excuse a great cover that is a defence and a glory at last of Lead all determines in Desperation This is when the multiplicity and indifferencie to lesser sins and the habituall custome of some particular sin meet in the aggravating of the burden for then they are heavyer then the sand of the Sea says the holy Ghost where he expresses the greatest weight by the least thing Nothing lesse then a graine of sand nothing heavyer then the sands of the Sea nothing easier to resist then a first tentation or a single sinne in it selfe nothing heavyer nor harder to devest then sinnes complicated in one another or then an old Tyran and custome in any one sin And therefore it was evermore a familiar phrase with the Prophets when they were
go because none stayes behinde so when the holy Spirit which had made himself as a common soule to their foure soules directed one of them to say any thing all are well understood to have said it And therefore when to that place in Matth. 27. 8. where that Evangelist cites the Prophet Ieremy for words spoken by Zachary many medicines are applyed by the Fathers as That many copies have no name That Ieremy might be binominous and have both names a thing frequent in the Bible That it might be the error of a transcriber That there was extant an Apocryph booke of Ieremy in which these words were and sometimes things of such books were vouched as Iannes and Iambres by Paul St. Augustine insists upon and teaches rather this That it is more wonderfull that all the Prophets spake by one Spirit and so agreed then if any one of them had spoken all those things And therefore he adds Singula sunt omnium omnia sunt singulorum All say what any of them say And in this sense most congruously is that of St. Hierome applyable that the foure Evangelists are Quadriga Divina That as the foure Chariot wheeles though they looke to the foure corners of the world yet they move to one end and one way so the Evangelists have both one scope and one way Yet not so precisely but that they differ in words For as their generall intention common to them all begat that consent so a private reason peculiar to each of them for the writing of their Histories at that time made those diversities which seem to be for Matthew after he had preached to the Jewes and was to be transplanted into another vineyard the Gentiles left them written in their owne tongue for permanency which he had preached transitorily by word Mark when the Gospell fructified in the West and the Church enlarged her self and grew a great body and therefore required more food out of Peters Dictates and by his approbation published his Evangile Not an Epitome of Matthewes as Saint Ierome I know why imagines but a just and intire History of our blessed Saviour And as Matthewes reason was to supply a want in the Eastern Church Markes in the Western so on the other side Lukes was to cut off an excesse and superfluitie for then many had undertaken this Story and dangerously inserted and mingled uncertainties and obnoxious improbabilities and he was more curious and more particular then the rest both because he was more learned and because he was so individuall a companion of the most learned Saint Paul and did so much write Pauls words that Eusebius thereupon mistaketh the words 2 Tim. 2. 1. Christ is raised according to my Gospell to prove that Paul was author of this Gospell attributed to Luke Iohn the Minion of Christ upon earth and survivor of the Apostles whose books rather seem fallen from Heaven and writ with the hand which ingraved the stone Tables then a mans work because the heresies of Ebion and Cerinthus were rooted who upon this true ground then evident aud fresh that Christ had spoke many things which none of the other three Evangelists had Recorded uttered many things as his which he never spoke Iohn I say more diligently then the rest handleth his Divinity and his Sermons things specially brought into question by them So therefore all writ one thing yet all have some things particular And Luke most for he writ last of three and largeliest for himselfe 1 Act. 1. saith I have made the former Treatise of all that Iesus began to doe and teach untill the Day that he was taken up which speech lest the words in the last of Iohn If all were written which Iesus did the world could not contain the Bookes should condemne Ambrose and Chrysostome interpret well out of the words themselves Scripsit de omnibus non omnia He writ of all but not all for it must have the same limitation which Paul giveth his words who saith Acts 20. in one verse I have kept nothing back but have shewed you all the counsell of God and in another I kept back nothing that was profitable It is another peculiar singularity of Lukes that he addresseth his History to one man Theophilus For it is but weakely surmised that he chose that name for all lovers of God because the interpretation of the word suffereth it since he addeth most noble Theophilus But the work doth not the lesse belong to the whole Church for that no more then his Masters Epistles doe though they be directed to particulars It is also a singularitie in him to write upon that reason because divers have written In humane knowledge to abridge or suck and then suppresse other Authors is not ever honest nor profitable We see after that vast enterprise of Iustinian who distilled all the Law into one vessell and made one Booke of 2000. suppressing all the rest Alciate wisheth he had let them alone and thinketh the Doctors of our times would better have drawn usefull things from those volumes then his Trebonian and Dorothee did And Aristotle after by the immense liberality of Alexander he had ingrossed all Authors is said to have defaced all that he might be in stead of all And therefore since they cannot rise against him he imputes to them errours which they held not vouches onely such objections from them as he is able to answer and propounds all good things in his own name which he ought to them But in this History of Lukes it is otherwise He had no authority to suppresse them nor doth he reprehend or calumniate them but writes the truth simply and leaves it to outweare falshood and so it hath Moses rod hath devoured the Conjurers rods and Lukes Story still retains the majestie of the maker and theirs are not Other singularities in Luke of form or matter I omit and end with one like this in our Text. As in the apprehending of our blessed Saviour all the Evangelists record that Peter cut off Malchus eare but onely Luke remembers the healing of it again I think because that act of curing was most present and obvious to his consideration who was a Physician so he was therefore most apt to remember this Prayer of Christ which is the Physick and Balsamum of our Soule and must be applied to us all for we doe all Crucifie him and we know not what we do And therefore Saint Hierome gave a right Character of him in his Epistle to Paulinus Fuit Medicus pariter omnia verba illius Animae languentis sunt Medicinae As he was a Physitian so all his words are Physick for a languishing soule Now let us dispatch the last consideration of the effect of this Prayer Did Christ intend the forgivenesse of the Jewes whose utter ruine God that is himselfe had fore-decreed And which he foresaw and bewaild even then hanging upon the Crosse For those Divines which reverently forbeare to interpret the words
enough of it self but that the Prince of the world the Devill is anima mundi the soul of this lower world he inanimates he actuates he exalts the malignity of the world against us and he is our second enemy It was not the Apple but the Serpent that tempted Eve no doubt had looked upon the fruit before and yet did not long But even this enemy is not so dangerous as he is conceived In the life of St. Basil we have a story that the Devil appeared to a penitent sinner at his praiers and told him If you will let me alone I will let you alone meddle not with me and I will not meddle with you He found that by this good souls prayers to God God had weakned his power not onely upon that man the prayed but upon others too and therefore he was content to come to a cessation of armes with him that he might turn his forces another way Truely he might say to many of us in a worse sense Let me alone and I will let you alone tempt not me I will not tempt you Our idlenes our high diet our wanton discours our exposing our selves to occasion of sin provoke and call in the Devill when he seeks not us The Devill possesses the world and we possesse the Devill But then if the fear of the Lord possesse us our owne Concupiscencies though they be indeed our greatest enemies because the warre that they maintain is a civill warre shall doe us no harm for as the Septuagins in their Translation diminish the power of the Devill in that name â—wordsâ— a disproportioned Creature made up of a Lion and an Ant because as St. Gregory saith upon that place formicis â—eoest volatilibus formica The Devill is a Lion to Ants dasheth whole hills of them with his paw that creep under him but he is but an Ant to birds they prey upon him that flie above him If wee feare the Lord our concupiscencies our carnall affections our selves may prove our best friends because as the fire in the furnace did not burn the men but it burnt off those bands that fettered and manacled them for they were loose and walked in the furnace so our concupiscencies if we resist them shall burn off themselves and file off their own rust and our salvation shall be surer by occasion of temptations We may prevent mortem mortificatione everlasting death by a disciplinary life Mori ne moriamur is his rule too To die to the fires of lust here lest wee die in unquenchable fires hereafter to die daily as S. Paul speaks of himself lest we die at the last day To end this this is the working of the fear of the Lord it devours all other fears God will have no half-affections God will have no partners He that fears God fears nothing else This then is the operation of the feare of the Lord this is his working remaines onely to consider what this feare of the Lord is And beloved in him be not afraid of it for this fear of God is the love of God And howsoever there may be some amongst us whom the heighth of birth or of place or of spirit hath kept from fear They never feared any thing yet I think there is none that never loved any thing Obligations of Matrimony or of friendship or of blood or of alliance or of conversation hath given every one of us no doubt some sense in our selves what it is to love and to enjoy that which we doe love And the fear of God is the love of God The love of the Lord passeth all things saith the Wise man The love what is that to fear It follows The fear of the Lord is the beginning of his love As they that build Arches place centers under the Arch to beare up the work till it bee dried and setled but after all is Arch and there is no more center no more support so to lie at the Lords feet a while delivers us into his arms to accustome our selves to his fear establishes us in his love Be content to stop a little even at the lowest fear the fear of hell When Saul was upon an expedition and did not finde himself well followed he took a yoke of Oxen and hewed them in pieces and proclaimed that whosoever came not to the supply all his Oxen should be so served and upon this says the Text there The fear of the Lord fell upon all the people and they came out as one man three hundred and thirty thousand If Sauls threatning of their worldly goods wrought so let Gods threatning of thy selfe thine inwardest self thy soul with hell make thee to stop even upon thy fear of the Lord the fear of Torment Stop upon the second fear too the fear of privation and losse of the sight of God in heaven That when all wee have disputed with a modest boldnesse and wondred with a holy wonder what kinde of sight of God we shall have in heaven then when thou shouldst come to an end and to an answer of all these doubts in an experimentall triall how he shall be seen seen thus thou shalt see then that thou shalt never see him After thou hast used to hear all thy life blessednesse summed up into that one act We shall see God thou shalt never come nearer to that knowledge thou shalt never see him fear the Lord therefore in this second fear fear of privation And fear him in a third fear the fear of the losse of his grace here in this world though thou have it now S. Chrysostome serves himself and us with an ordinary comparison A Tyler is upon the top of the house but he looks to his footing he is afraid of falling A righteous man is in a high place in Gods favour but hee may lose that place Who is higher then Adam higher then the Angels and whither fell they Make not thou then thy assurance of standing our of their arguments that say it is impossible for the righteous to fall The sins of the righteous are no sins in the sight of God but built thy assurance upon the testimony of a good conscience that thou usest all diligence and holy industry that thou maist continue in Gods favour and fearest to lose it for hee that hath no fear of losing hath no care of keeping Accustome thy self to these fears and these fears will flow into a love As love and jealousie may bee the same thing so the feare and love of God will be all one for jealousie is but a fear of losing Brevissima differentia Testamentorum Timor Amor This distinguishes the two Testaments The Old is a Testament of fear the New of love yet in this they grow all one That we determine the Old Testament in the New and that we prove the New Testament by the Old for but by the Old we should not know that there was to bee a New nor but