vndertaken a great taske to teach men how to bee happy in this life J haue vndertaken and performed it wherein J haue followed Seneca and gone beyond him followed him as a Philosopher gone beyond him as a Christian as a Diuine Finding it a true censure of the best Moralists that they were like to goodly Ships graced with great titles the Sauegard the Triumph the Good-speed and such like when yet they haue beene both extremely Sea-beaten and at last wracked The volume is little perhaps the vse more J haue euer thought according to the Greeke Prouerbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What it is euen iustice challengeth it to him to whom the Author hath deuoted himselfe The children of the bondman are the goods of the parents Master J humbly betake it to your Honours protection and your Honour to the protection of the Highest Your Honours most humbly deuoted in all dutie and seruice IOS HALL The Analysis or Resolution of this Treatise concerning TRANQVILLITIE Our Treatise concerning Tranquillitie is partly Refutatorie where the precepts of the Heathen are Recited Reiected for Enumeration Insufficient Qualitie of remedies too weake Positiue which teacheth What it is and wherein it consists How to be attained Enemies of peace subdued whether those On the left hand Of sinnes done Whose trouble is In their guiltines consid How turbulent they are till the conscience be pacified How remedied Peace is through reconciliation Reconciliation through Remission Remission by Satisfaction Satisfaction Not by vs. By infinite merits of Where are considered The person and merits of Christ by whom peace is offered The receiuing of our offered peace by faith In their sollicitation Remedied by resolute resistance Where is the subduing and moderation of our Affections Of paine suffered Crosses Imaginarie How redressed True How preuented and prepared against by Expectation Exercise How to be born Contentedly in respect of their cause Thankefully in respect of their good effect Ioyfully in respect of their issue Death consid How fearefull Which way sweetned On the right Ouer-ioying Ouer-desiring Of Riches Honour Pleasure How to be esteemed As Not good in themselues Exposing vs to euill Rules and grounds of Peace set downe Maine or principall A continuall fruition of the presence of God to be renewed to vs by all holy exercises Subordinate In respect of our actions A resolution To refraine from all occasions of the displeasure of God To performe all required duties To doe nothing doubtingly In respect of our estate To depend wholly on the prouidence of God To account our owne estate best HEAVEN VPON EARTH OR Of true Peace of Minde SECT I. WHEN I had studiously read ouer the morall writings of some wise Heathen especially those of the Stoicall profession Censure of Philosophers I must confesse I found a little enuie and pitie striuing together within me I enuied nature in them to see her so witty in deuising such plausible refuges for doubting and troubled minds I pittied them to see that their carefull disquisition of true rest led them in the end but to meere vnquietnesse Wherein me thought they were as Hounds swift of foot but not exquisite in sent which in an hasty pursuit take a wrong way spending their mouthes and courses in vaine Their praise of ghessing wiâ—tily they shall not leese their hopes both they lost and whosoeuer followes them If Seneca could haue had grace to his wit what wonders would he haue done in this kinde what Diuine might not haue yeelded him the chaire for precepts of Tranquillity without any disparagement As he was this he hath gained Neuer any Heathen wrote more diuinely neuer any Philosopher more probably Neither would I euer desire better Master if to this purpose I needed no other mistris than Nature But this in truth is a taske which Nature hath neuer without presumption vndertaken and neuer performed without much imperfection Like to those vaine and wandring Empirickes which in Tables and pictures make great ostentation of Cures neuer approuing their skill to their credulous Patients And if she could haue truly effected it alone I know not what employment in this life she should haue left for grace to busie her selfe about nor what priuilege it should haue beene heere below to be a Christian since this that we seeke is the noblest worke of the soule and in which alone consists the only heauen of this world this is the summe of all humane desires which when we haue attained then onely we begin to liue and are sure we cannot thence-forth liue miserably No maruell then if all the Heathen haue diligently sought after it many wrote of it none attained it Not Athens must teach this lesson but Ierusalem SECT II. YEt something Grace scorneth not to learne of Nature What Tranquillity is and wherein it consists as Moses may take good counsell of a Midianite Nature hath euer had more skill in the end than in the way to it and whether shee haue discoursed of the good estate of the minde which wee call TRANQVILLITIE or the best which is happinesse hath more happily ghessed at the generall definition of them than of the meanes to compasse them Shee teacheth vs therefore without controlement that the Tranquillity of the minde is as of the Sea and weather when no wind stirreth when the waues doe not tumultuously rise and fall vpon each other but when the face both of the Heauen and waters is still faire and equable That it is such an euen disposition of the heart wherein the scoales of the minde neither rise vp towards the beame through their owne lightnesse or the ouerweening opinion of prosperity nor are too much depressed with any loade of sorrow but hanging equall and vnmoued betwixt both giue a man liberty in all occurrences to enioy himselfe Not that the most temperate minde can be so the master of his passions as not sometimes to ouer-ioy his griefe or ouer-grieue his ioy according to the contrary occasions of both for not the euenest weights but at their first putting into the ballance somewhat sway both parts thereof not without some shew of inequality which yet after some little motion settle themselues in a meet poyse It is enough that after some sudden agitation it can returne to it selfe and rest it selfe at last in a resolued peace And this due composednesse of minde we require vnto our Tranquillitie not for some short fits of good mood which soone after end in discontentment but with the condition of perpetuity For there is no heart makes so rough weather as not sometimes to admit of a calme and whether for that he knoweth no present cause of his trouble or for that he knoweth that cause of trouble is counteruailed with as great an occasion of priuate ioy or for that the multitude of euills hath bred carelesnesse the man that is most disordred findes some respits of quietnesse The balances that are most ill matched in their vnsteddy motions come to an equality
sinnes is a thorne and nayle and speare to him while thou powrest downe thy drunken carowses thou giuest thy Sauiour a potion of gall while thou despisest his poore seruants thou spettest on his face while thou puttest on thy proud dresses and liftest vp thy vaine heart with high conceits thou settest a Crowne of thornes on his head while thou wringest and oppressest his poore children thou whippest him and drawest bloud of his hands and feet Thou hypocrite how darest thou offer to receiue the Sacrament of God with that hand which is thus imbrued with the bloud of him whom thou receiuest In euery Ordinary thy prophane tongue walkes in the disgrace of the religious and conscionable Thou makest no scruple of thine owne sinnes and scornest those that doe Not to be wicked is crime enough Heare him that saith Saul Saul Why persecutest thou me Saul strikes at Damascus Christ suffers in Heauen Thou strikest Christ Iesus smarteth and will reuenge These are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 afterings of Christs sufferings In himselfe it is finished in his members it is not till the world bee finished Wee must toile and groane and bleed that we may raigne if he had not done so It had not beene finished This is our warfare this is the region of our sorrow death Now are wee set vpon the sandy pauement of our Theatre and are marched with all sorts of euils euill men euill spirits euill accidents and which is worst our owne euill hearts temptations crosses persecutions sicknesses wants infamies death all these must in our courses bee encountred by the Law of our profession What should we doe but striue and suffer as our Generall hath done that we may raigne as he doth and once triumph in our Consummatum est God and his Angels sit vpon the scaffolds of heauen and behold vs our Crowne is ready our day of deliuerance shall come yea our redemption is neere when all teares shall be wip't from our eyes and we that haue sowne in teares shall reape in ioy In the meane time let vs possesse our soules not in patience only but in comfort let vs adore and magnifie our Sauiour in his sufferings and imitate him in our owne our sorrowes shall haue an end our ioyes shall not our paines shall soone be finished our glory shall be finished but neuer ended Thus his sufferings are finished now together with them mans saluation Who knowes not that man had made himselfe a deepe debter a bankrupt an outlaw to God Our sinnes are our debts and by sinnes death Now in this word and act our sinnes are discharged death endured and therefore we cleared the debt is paid the score is crossed the Creditor satisfied the debters acquitted and since there was no other quarrell saued we are all sicke and that mortally sinne is the disease of the soule Quot vitia tot febres saith Chrysostome so many sinnes so many feuers and those pestilent What wonder is it that we haue so much plague while wee haue so much sinne Our Sauiour is the Physician The whole need not the Physician but the sicke wherein He healeth all our infirmities hee healeth them after a miraculous manner not by giuing vs receits but by taking our receits for vs. A wonderfull Physician a wonderfull course of cure One while he would cure vs by abstinence our superfluitie by his fortie dayes emptinesse according to that old rule Hunger cures the diseases of gluttony Another while by exercise He went vp and downe from Citie to Citie and in the day was preaching in the Temple in the night praying in the mount Then by diet Take eat this is my body and Let this cup passe After that yet by sweat such a sweat as neuer was a bloudy one yet more by incision they pierced his hands feet side and yet againe by potion a bitter potion of vineger and gall And lastly which is both the strangest and strongest receit of all by dying Which died for vs that whether we wake or sleepe 1 Thâ—ff 5.10 we should liue together with him We need no more we can goe no further there can be no more physicke of this kinde there are cordials after these of his Resurrection and Ascension no more penall receits By this bloud wee haue redemption Ephes 1.7 Iustification Rom. 3.24 Reconciliation Colos 1.20 Sanctification 1 Pet. 1.2 Entrance into glory Heb. 10.19 Is it not now finished Woe were vs if he had left but one mite of satisfaction vpon our score to be discharged by our soules and woe be to them that derogate from Christ that they may charge themselues that botch vp these all-sufficiently meritorious sufferings of Christ as imperfect with the superfluities of flesh and bloud Maledictus homo qui spem ponit in homine We may not with patience see Christ wrong'd by his false friends As that heroicall Luther said in the like Maledictum silentium quod hic conninet Cursed be that silence that here forbeareth To be short here be two iniuries intolerable both giue Christ the lie vpon his Crosse It is finished No somewhat remaines the fault is discharged not the punishment Of punishments the eternall is quit not the temporall It is finished by Christ No there wants yet much the satisfaction of Saints applied by this Vicar adde mens sufferings vnto Christs then the treasure is full till then It is not finished Two qualities striue for the first place in these two opinions impiety and absurdity I know not whether to preferre For impiety here is God taxed of iniustice vnmercifulnesse insufficiency falshood Of iniustice that he forgiues a sinne and yet punishes for that which he hath forgiuen vnmercifulnesse that he forgiues not while he forgiues but doth it by halues insufficiency that his ransome must be supplied by men falshood in that hee saith It is finished when it is not For absurdity how grosse and monstrous are these positions that at once the same sinne should be remitted and retained that there should bee a punishment where there is no fault that what could strike off our eternall punishment did not wipe off the temporall that hee which paid our pounds stickes at our farthings that God will retaine what man may discharge that it is and it is not finished If there be any opinions whose mention confutes them these are they None can be more vaine none had more need of solidity for this prop beares vp alone the weight of all those millions of indulgences which Rom. creates and sels to the world That Strumpet would well-neere go naked if this were not These spirituall Treasures fetcht in the Temporall which yet our reuerend and learned Fulke iustly cals a most blasphemous and beggerly principle It brings in whole chests yea mines of gold like the Popes Indies and hath not so much as a ragge of proofe to couer it whether of Antiquitie of Reason of Scripture Not of Antiquity for these Iubily proclamations beganne but
the Owner of all things ELY and his Sonnes IF the conueyance of grace were naturall holy Parents would not bee so ill suted with children What good man would not rather wish his loyns dry then fruitfull of wickednesse Now we can neither traduce goodnesse nor choose but traduce sinne If vertue were as well intailed vpon vs as sinne one might serue to checke the other in our children but now since grace is deriued from heauen on whomsoeuer it pleases the Giuer and that euill which ours receiue hereditarily from vs is multiplied by their own corruption it can be no wonder that good men haue ill children it is rather a wonder that any children are not euill The sons of Ely are as lewd as himselfe was holy If the goodnes of examples precepts education profession could haue been preseruatiues from extremitie of sin these sonnes of an holy Father had not been wicked now neither parentage nor breeding nor Priesthood can keepe the sonnes of Ely from the sons of Belial If our children bee good let vs thanke God for it this was more then we could giue them if euill they may thanke vs and themselues vs for their birth-sinne themselues for the improuement of it to that height of wickednes If they had not been sonnes of Ely yet being Priests of God who would not haue hoped their very calling should haue infused some holinesse into them But now euen their white Ephod couers foule sinnes yea rather if they which serue at the Altar degenerate their wickednesse is so much more aboue others as their place is holier A wicked Priest is the worst creature vpon earth Who are Deuils but they which were once Angels of light Who can stumble at the sinnes of the Euangelicall Leuites that sees such impurity euen before the Arke of God That God which promised to bee the Leuites portion had set forth the portion of his Ministers hee will feast them at his owne Altar The brest the right shoulder of the peace-offring was their morsell these bold and couetous Priests will rather haue the flesh-hooke their rabiter then God whatsoeuer those three teeth fasten vpon shall bee for their tooth they were weary of one ioynt and now their delicacie affects variety God is not worthy to carue for these men but their owne hands And this they doe not receiue but take and take violently vnseasonably It had been fit God should be first serued their presumption will not stay his leisure ere the fat bee burned ere the flesh bee boyled they snatch more then their share from the Altar as if the God of heauen should wait on their palate as if the Israelites had come thither to sacrifice to their bellies and as commonly a wanton tooth is the harbinger to luxurious wantonnesse they are no sooner fed then they neigh after the Dames of Israel Holy women assemble to the doore of the Tabernacle these varlets tempt them to lust that came thither for deuotion they had wiues of their owne yet their vnbridled desires roue after strangers and feare not to pollute euen that holy place with abominable filthinesse O sinnes too shamefull for men much more for the spirituall guides of Israel He that makes himselfe a seruant to his tooth shall easily become a slaue to all inordinate affections That Altar which expeiated other mens sinnes added to the sinnes of the sacrificers Doubtlesse many a soule was the cleaner for the bloud of the sacrifices which they shed whiles their own were more impure And as the Altar cannot sanctifie the priest so the vncleannesse of the Minister cannot pollute the offering because the vertue thereof is not in the agent but in the institution in the representation his sinne is his owne the comfort of the Sacrament is from God Our Clergy is no charter for heauen Euen those whose trade is deuotion may at once shew the way to heauen by their tongue and by their foot lead the way to hell It is neither a coule nor an Ephod that can priuiledge the soule The sinne of these men was worthy of contempt yea perhaps their persons but for the people therefore to abhorre the offerings of the Lord was to adde their euill vnto the Priests and to offend God because he was offended There can no offence be iustly taken euen at men much lesse at God for the sake of men No mans sinnes should bring the seruice of God into dislike this is to make holy things guilty of our profanenesse It is dangerous ignorance not to distinguish betwixt the worke and the instrument whereupon it oft comes to passe that we fall out with God because we finde cause of offence from men and giue God iust cause to abhorre vs because we abhorre his seruice vniustly Although it be true of great men especially that they are the last that know the euils of their owne house yet either it could not be when all Israel rung of the lewdnesse of Elies sonnes that he onely should not know it or if he knew it not his ignorance cannnot be excused for a seasonable restraint might haue preuented this extremity of debauchednesse Complaints are long muttered of the great ere they dare breake forth to open contestation publike accusations of authority argues intolerable extremities of euill nothing but age can plead for Ely that he was not the first accuser of his sons now when their enormities came to be the voice of the multitude he must heare it perforce and doubtlesse he heard it with griefe enough but not with anger enough he that was the Iudge of Israel should haue vnpartially iudged his owne flesh and bloud neuer could he haue offered a more pleasing sacrifice then the depraued bloud of so wicked sons In vaine doe we rebuke those sinnes abroad which we tolerate at home That man makes himselfe but ridiculous that leauing his owne house on fire runs to quench his neighbours I heard Ely sharpe enough to Anna vpon but a suspition of sinne and now how milde I finde him to the notorious crimes of his owne Why doe you so my sonnes It is no good report my sonnes doe no more so The case is altered with the persons If nature may be allowed to speake in iudgement and to make difference not of sinnes but offenders the sentence must needs sauour of partialitie Had these men but some little slackned their duty or heedlesly omitted some rite of the sacrifice this censure had not been vnfit but to punish the thefts rapines sacriledges adulteries incests of his sonnes why Why doe yee so was no other then to shaue that head which had deserued cutting off As it is with ill humours that a weake dose doth but stirre and anger them not purge them out so it fareth with sinnes An easie reproofe doth but incourage wickednesse and makes it thinke it selfe so slight as that censure importeth A vehement rebuke to a capitall euill is but like a strong showre to a ripe field which layes that
as to giue vs all lookes for a returne of some offering from vs If we present him with nothing but our sins how can wee looke to bee accepted The sacrifices vnder the Gospell are spirituall with these must we come into the presence of God if we desire to carie away remission and fauour The Philistims knew well that it were bootlesse for them to offer what they listed their next suit is to be directed in the matter of their oblation Pagans can teach vs how vnsafe it is to walke in the wayes of Religion without a guide yet here their best teachers can but guesse at their duty and must deuise for the people that which the people durst not impose vpon themselues The golden Emerods and Mise were but coniecturall prescripts With what security may we consult with them which haue their directions from the mouth and hand of the Almighty God strucke the Philistims at once in their god in their bodies it their land In their god by his ruine and dismembering In their bodies by the Emerods In their land by the Mise That base vermine did God send among them on purpose to shame their Dagon and them that they might see how vnable their god was which they thought the Victor of the Arke to subdue the least Mouse which the true God did create and command to plague them This plague vpon the fields beganne together with that vpon their bodies it was mentioned not complained of till they think of dismissing the Arke Greater crosses doe commonly swallow vp the lesse At least lesser euils are either silent or vnheard while the eare is filled with the clamor of the greater Their very Princes were punished with the Mise as well as with the Emerods God knowes no persons in the execution of iudgements the least and meanest of all Gods creatures is sufficient to be the reuenger of his Creator GOD sent them Mise and Emerods of flesh and blood they returne him both these of gold to imply both that these iudgements came out from God and that they did gladly giue him the glory of that whereof hee gaue them paine and sorrow and that they would willingly buy off their paine with the best of their substance The proportion betwixt the complaint and satisfaction is more precious to him then the Metall There was a publike confession in this resemblance which is so pleasing vnto God that he rewards it euen in wicked men with a relaxation of outward punishment The number was no lesse significant then the forme Fiue golden Emerods and Mise for the fiue Princes and diuisions of Philistims As GOD made no difference in punishing so they make none in their oblation The people are comprised in them in whom they are vnited their seuerall Princes They were one with their Prince their Offering is one with his as they were Ring-leaders in the sinne so they must be in the satisfaction In a multitude it is euer seene as in a beast that the body followes the head Of all others great men had need to looke to their wayes it is in them as in figures one stands for a thousand One Offering serues not all there must bee fiue according to the fiue heads of the offence Generalities will not content God euery man must make his seuerall peace if not in himselfe yet in his head Nature taught them a shadow of that the substance and perfection whereof is taught vs by the grace of the Gospell euery soule must satisfie God if not in it selfe yet in him in whom we are both one and absolute we are the body whereof Christ is the head our sinne is in our selues our satisfaction must be in him Samuel himselfe could not haue spoken more diuinely then these Priests of Dagon they doe not onely talke of giuing glory to the God of Israel but fall into an holy and graue expostulation wherefore then should ye harden your hearts as the Aegyptians and Pharaoh hardned their hearts when hee wrought wonderfully amongst them c. They confesse a supereminent and reuenging hand of God ouer their gods they parallell their plagues with the Aegyptian they make vse of Pharaohs sin and iudgement What could be better said All Religions haue afforded them that could speake well These good words left them still both Philistims and superstitious How should men be hypocrites if they had not good tongues yet as wickednesse can hardly hide it selfe these holy speeches are not without a tincture of that Idolatry wherewith the heart was infected For they professe care not onely of the persons and lands of the Philistims but of their gods that hee may take his hand from you and from your gods Who would thinke that wisedome and folly could lodge so neere together that the same men should haue care both of the glory of the true God and preseruation of the false That they should bee so vaine as to take thought for those gods which they granted to be obnoxious vnto an higher Deitie Oft times euen one word bewrayeth a whole packe of falshood and though Superstition be a cleanly counterfeit yet some one slip of the tongue discouers it as we say of deuils which though they put on faire formes yet are they knowne by their clouen feet What other warrant these superstitious Priests had for the maine substance of their aduice I know not sure I am the probability of the euent was faire that two Kine neuer vsed to any yoake should runne from their Calues which were newly 〈◊〉 vp from them to draw the Arke home into a contrary way must needs argue an hand aboue Nature What else should ouer-rule bruite creatures to preferre a forced cariage vnto a naturall burden What should cary them from their owne home towards the home of the Arke What else should guide an vntamed and vntaught Teame in as right a path toward Israel as their Teachers could haue gone What else could make very beasts more wise then their Masters There is a speciall prouidence of God in the very motions of bruit creatures Neither Philistims nor Israelites saw ought that droue them yet they saw them so runne as those that were led by a Diuine Conduct The reasonlesse creatures also doe the will of their Maker euery act that is done either be them or to them makes vp the decree of the Almighty and if in extraordinary actions and euents his hand is more visible yet it is no lesse certainly present in the common Little did the Israelites of Bethshemesh looke for such a fight whiles they were reaping their Wheat in the Valley as to see the Arke of God come running to them without a Conuoy neither can it be said whether they were more affected with ioy or with astonishment with ioy at the presence of the Arke with astonishment at the Miracle of the transportation Downe went their Sickles and now euery man runs to reap the comfort of this better haruest to meet that Bread of Angels to
our pride and false confidence in earthly things then with a fleshly criâ—â— though hainously seconded It was an hard and wofull choise of three yeares famine added to three fore-past or of three moneths flight from the sword of an enemie or three dayes pestilence The Almighty that had fore-determined his iudgement referres it to Dauids will as fully as if it were vtterly vndetermined God hath resolued yet Dauid may choose That infinite wisdome hath foreseene the very will of his creature which whiles it freely inclines it selfe to what it had rather vnwittingly wils that which was fore appointed in heauen We doe well beleeue thee O Dauid that thou wert in a wonderfull strait this very liberty is no other then fetters Thou needst not haue famine thou needst not haue the sword thou needst not haue pestilence one of them thou must haue There is misery in all there is misery in any thou and thy people can die but once and once they must dye either by famine warre or pestilence Oh God how vainely doe we hope to passe ouer our sinnes with impunitie when all the fauour that Dauid and Israel can receiue is to choose their bane Yet behold neither sinnes nor threats nor feares can bereaue a true penitent of his faith Let vs fall now into the hands of the Lord for his mercies are great There can bee no euill of punishment wherein God haue not an hand there could be no famine no sword without him but some euils are more immediate from a diuine stroke such was that plague into which Dauid is vnwillingly willing to fall He had his choyce of dayes moneths yeares in the same number and though the shortnesse of time prefixed to the threatned pestilence might seeme to offer some aduantage for the leading of his election yet God meant and Dauid knew it herein to proportion the difference of time to the violence of the plague neither should any fewer perish by so few dayes pestilence then by so many yeares famine The wealthiest might auoid the dearth the swiftest might runne away from the sword no man could promise himselfe safety from that pestilence In likelihood Gods Angell would rather strike the most guilty Howeuer therefore Dauid might well looke to be inwrapped in the common destruction yet he rather chooseth to fall into that mercy which hee had abused and to suffer from that iustice which he had prouoked Let vs now fall into the hands of the Lord. Humble confessions and deuout penance cannot alwayes auert temporall iudgements Gods Angell is abroad and within that short compasse of time sweepes away seuenty thousand Israelites Dauid was proud of the number of his subiects now they are abated that he may see cause of humiliation in the matter of his glory In what we haue offended we commonly smart These thousands of Israel were not so innocent that they should onely perish for Dauids sinne Their sinnes were the motiues both of this sinne and punishment besides the respect of Dauids offence they die for themselues It was no ordinarie pestilence that was thus suddenly and vniuersally mortall Common eyes saw the botch and the markes saw not the Angell Dauids clearer sight hath espyed him after that killing peragration through the Tribes of Israel shaking his sword ouer Ierusalem and houering ouer Mount Sion and now hee who doubtlesse had spent those three dismall dayes in the saddest contrition humbly casts himselfe downe at the feet of the auenger and layes himselfe ready for the fatall stroke of iustice It was more terrour that God intended in the visible shape of his Angell and deepeâ— humiliation and what he meant he wrought Neuer soule could be more deiected more anguished with the sense of a iudgement in the bitternesse whereof hee cryes out Behold I haue sinned yea I haue done wickedly But these Sheepe what haue they done Let thine hand I pray thee be against me and against my fathers house The better any man is the more sensible he is of his owne wretchednesse Many of those Sheepe were Wolues to Dauid What had they done They had done that which was the occasion of Dauids sinne and the cause of their owne punishment But that gracious penitent knew his owne sinne he knew not theirs and therefore can say I haue sinned What haue they done It is safe accusing where wee may be boldest and are best acquainted our selues Oh the admirable charitie of Dauid that would haue ingrossed the plague to himselfe and his house from the rest of Israel and sues to interpose himselfe betwixt his people and the vengeance He that had put himselfe vpon the pawes of the Beare and Lyon for the rescue of his Sheepe will now cast himselfe vpon the sword of the Angell for the preseruation of Israel There was hope in those conflicts in this yeeldance there could be nothing but death Thus didst thou O sonne of Dauid the true and great Shepheard of thy Church offer thy selfe to death for them who had their hands in thy blood who both procured thy death and deserued their owne Here he offered himselfe that had sinned for those whom he professed to haue not done euill thou that didst no sinne vouchsauest to offer thy selfe for vs that were all sinne Hee offered and escaped thou offeredst and diedst and by thy death we liue and are freed from euerlasting destruction But O Father of all mercies how little pleasure doest thou take in the blood of sinners it was thine owne pitie that inhibited the Destroyer Ere Dauid could see the Angell thou hadst restrained him It is sufficient hold now thy hand If thy compassion did not both with-hold and abridge thy iudgements what place were there for vs out of hell How easie and iust had it beene for God to haue made the shutting vp of that third euening red with blood his goodnes repents of the slaughter and cals for that Sacrifice wherewith he will be appeased An Altar must be built in the threshing floore of Araunah the Iebusite Lo in that very Hill where the Angell held the sword of Abraham from killing his Sonne doth God now hold the Sword of the Angel from killing his people Vpon this very ground shall the Temple after stand heere shall be the holy Altar which shall send vp the acceptable oblations of Gods people in succeeding generations O God what was the threshing-floore of a Iebusite to thee aboue all other soyles What vertue what merit was in this earth As in places so in persons it is not to bee heeded what they are but what thou wilt That is worthiest which thou pleasest to accept Rich and bountifull Araunah is ready to meet Dauid in so holy a motion and munificently offers his Sion for the place his Oxen for the Sacrifice his Carts Ploughs and other Vtensils of his Husbandry for the wood Two franke hearts are well met Dauid would buy Araunah would giue The Iebusite would not sell Dauid will not take Since it was for
be yours Vouchsafe therefore to take part with your worthy Husband of these my simple Meditations And if your long and gracious experience haue written you a larger volume of wholesome lawes and better informed you by precepts fetcht from your owne feeling than J can hope for by my bare speculation yet where these my not vnlikely rules shall accord with yours let your redoubled assent allow them and they confirme it J made them not for the eie but for the heart neither doe J commend them to your reading but your practice wherein also it shall not be enough that you are a meere and ordinary agent but that you be a patterne propounded vnto others imitation So shall your vertuous and holy progresse besides your owne peace and happpinesse be my Crowne and reioycing in the Day of our common appearance Halsted Decemb. 4. Your L. humbly deuoted IOS HALL MEDITATIONS AND VOWES 1 A Man vnder Gods affliction is like a bird in a net the more he striueth the more he is intangled Gods Decree cannot be eluded with impatience What I cannot auoid I will learne to beare 2 I finde that all worldly things require a long time in getting and affoord a short pleasure in enioying them I will not care much for what I haue nothing for what I haue not 3 I see naturall bodies forsake their owne place and condition for the preseruation of the whole but of all other creatures Man and of all other Men Christians haue the least interest in themselues I will liue as giuen to others lent only to my selfe 4 That which is said of the Elephant that being guiltie of his deformitie hee cannot abide to looke on his owne face in the water but seekes for troubled and muddie channels we see well moralized in men of euill conscience who know their soules are so filthie that they dare not so much as view them but shift off all checks of their former iniquitie with vaine excuses of good-fellowship Whence it is that euery small reprehension so galls them because it calls the eye of the soule home to it selfe and makes them see a glimpse of what they would not So haue I seene a foolish and timorous Patient which knowing his wound very deepe would not endure the Chirurgion to search it whereon what can ensue but a festering of the part and a danger of the whole body So I haue seene many prodigall wasters run so farre in bookes that they cannot abide to heare of reckoning It hath beene an old and true Prouerbe Oft and euen reckonings make long friends I will oft summe my estate with God that I may know what I haue to expect and answer for Neither shall my score run on so long with God that I shall not know my debts or feare an Audit or despaire of pardon 5 I account this body nothing but a close prison to my soule and the earth a larger prison to my body I may not breake prison till I be loosed by death but I will leaue it not vnwillingly when I am loosed 6 The common feares of the World are causelesse and ill placed No man feares to doe ill euery man to suffer ill wherein if we consider it well we shall finde that we feare our best friends For my part I haue learned more of God and of my selfe in one weekes extremitie than all my whole lifes prosperitie had taught me afore And in reason and common experience prosperitie vsually makes vs forget our death aduersitie on the other side makes vs neglect our life Now if we measure both of these by their effects forgetfulnesse of death makes vs secure neglect of this life makes vs carefull of a better So much therefore as neglect of life is better than forgetfulnesse of death and watchfulnesse better than securitie so much more beneficiall will I esteeme aduersitie than prosperitie 7 Euen griefe it selfe is pleasant to the remembrance when it is once past as ioy is whiles it is present I will not therefore in my conceit make any so great difference betwixt ioy and griefe sith griefe past is ioyfull and long expectation of ioy is grieuous 8 Euery sicknesse is a little death I will be content to die oft that I may die once well 9 Oft times those things which haue beene sweet in opinion haue proued bitter in experience I will therefore euer suspend my resolute iudgement vntill the triall and euent in the meane while I will feare the worst and hope the best 10 In all diuine and morall good things I would faine keepe that I haue and get that I want I doe not more loath all other couetousnesse than I affect this In all these things alone I professe neuer to haue enough If I may increase them therefore either by labouring or begging or vsurie I shall leaue no meanes vnattempted 11 Some children are of that nature that they are neuer well but while the rod is ouer them such am I to God Let him beat me so he amend me let him take all away from me so he giue me himselfe 12 There must not be one vniforme proceeding with all men in reprehension but that must varie according to the disposition of the reproued I haue seene some men as thornes which easily touched hurt not but if hard and vnwarily fetch bloud of the hand others as nettles which if they be nicely handled sting and pricke but if hard and roughly pressed are pulled vp without harme Before I take any man in hand I will know whether he be a thorne or a nettle 13 I will account no sinne little since there is not the least but workes out the death of the soule It is all one whether I be drowned in the ebber shore or in the midst of the deepe Sea 14 It is a base thing to get goods to keepe them I see that God which only is infinitely rich holdeth nothing in his owne hands but giues all to his creatures But if we will needs lay vp where should wee rather repose it than in Christs treasurie The poore mans hand is the treasury of Christ All my superfluity shall be there hoorded vp where I know it shall be safely kept and surely returned me 15 The Schoole of God and Nature require two contrary manners of proceeding In the Schoole of Nature we must conceiue and then beleeue in the Schoole of God wee must first beleeue and then we shall conceiue He that beleeues no more than hee conceiues can neuer be a Christian nor he a Philosopher that assents without reason In Natures Schoole we are taught to bolt out the truth by Logicall discourse God cannot endure a Logician In his Schoole he is the best Scholler that reasons least and assents most In diuine things what I may I wil conceiue the rest I will beleeue and admire Not a curious head but a credulous and plaine heart is accepted with God 16 No worldly pleasure hath any absolute delight in it but as a Bee
a perpetuall make-bate betwixt God and man betwixt a man and himselfe And this enmitie though it doe not continually shew it selfe as the mortallest enemies are not alwaies in pitched fields one against the other for that the conscience is not euer clamorous but some while is silent other-whiles with still murmurings bewraies his mislâ—kes The torment of an euill conscience yet doth euermore worke secret vnquietnesse to the heart The guilty man may haue a seeming truce a true peace he cannot haue Looke vpon the face of the guilty heart and thou shalt see it pale and ghastly the smiles and laughters faint and heartlesse the speeches doubtfull and full of abrupt stops and vnseasonable turnings the purposes and motions vnsteddy and sauouring of much distraction arguing plainly that sinne is not so smooth at her first motions as turbulent afterwards hence are those vaine wearyings of places and companies together with our selues that the galled soule doth after the wont of sicke Patients seeke refreshing in variety and after many tossed and turned sides complaines of remedilesse and vnabated torment Nero after so much innocent bloud may change his bed-chamber but his Fiends euer attend him euer are within him and are as parts of himselfe Alas what auailes it to seeke outward releefes when thou hast thine executioner within thee If thou couldest shift from thy selfe thou mightest haue some hope of ease now thou shalt neuer want furies so long as thou hast thy selfe Yea what if thou wouldest runne from thy selfe Thy soule may flie from thy bodie thy conscience will not flie from thy soule nor thy sinne from thy conscience Some men indeed in the bitternesse of these pangs of sinne like vnto those fondly impatient fishes that leape out of the panne into the flame haue leapt out of this priuate hell that is in themselues into the common pit choosing to aduenture vpon the future paines that they haue feared rather than to endure the present horrors they haue felt wherein what haue they gained but to that hell which was within them a second hell without The conscience leaues not where the Fiends begin but both ioyne together in torture But there are some firme and obdurate fore-heads whose resolution can laugh their sinnes out of countenance There are so large and able gorges as that they can swallow and digest bloudy murders without complaint who with the same hands which they haue since their last meale embrued in bloud can freely carue to themselues large morsels at the next sitting The ioy and peace of the guilty but dissembled Beleeuest thou that such a mans heart laughs with his face will not he dare to bee an Hypocrite that durst bee a villaine These glow-wormes when a night of sorrow compasses them make a lightsome and fiery shew of ioy when if thou presse them thou findest nothing but a cold and crude moisture Knowest thou not that there are those which count it no shame to sinne yet count it a shame to be checked with remorse especially so as others eies may descrie to whom repentance seemes base-mindednesse vnworthy of him that professes wisdome and valout Such a man can grieue when none sees it but himselfe can laugh when others see it himselfe feeles not Assure thy selfe that mans heart bleedeth when his face counterfeits a smile he weares out many waking houres when thou thinkest he resteth yea as his thoughts afford him not sleepe so his very sleepe affords him not rest but while his senses are tyed vp his sinne is loose representing it selfe to him in the vgliest shape and frighting him with horrible and hellish dreames And if perhaps custome hath bred a carelesnesse in him as wee see that vsuall whipping makes the childe not care for the rod yet an vnwonted extremity of the blow shall fetch bloud of the soule and make the backe that is most hardened sensible of smart and the further the blow is fetcht through intermission of remorse the harder it must needs alight Therefore I may confidently tell the carelesse sinner as that bold Tragedian said to his great Pompey The time shall come wherein thou shalt fetch deepe sighes and therefore shalt sorrow desperately because thou sorrowedst not sooner The fire of the conscience may lie for a time smothered with a pyle of greene wood that it cannot bee discerned whose moisture when once it hath mastered it sends vp so much greater flame by how much it had greater resistance Hope not then to stop the mouth of thy conscience from exclaiming whiles thy sinne continues that endeuour is both vaine and hurtfull So I haue seene them that haue stopt the nosthrill for bleeding in hope to stay the issue when the bloud hindered in his former course hath broken out of the mouth or found way downe into the stomacke The conscience is not pacificable while sinne is within to vex it no more than angry swelling can cease throbbing and aching whiles the thorne or the corrupted matter lies rotting vnderneath Time that remedies all other euills of the minde increaseth this which like to bodily diseases proues worse with continuance and growes vpon vs with our age SECT V. THere can be therefore no peace without reconciliation The remedy of an vnquiet Conscience thou canst not be friends with thy selfe till with God for thy conscience which is thy best friend while thou sinnest not like an honest seruant takes his Masters part against thee when thou hast sinned and will not looke straight vpon thee till thou vpon God not daring to be so kinde to thee as to be vnfaithfull to his Maker There can be no reconciliation without remission God can neither forget the iniury of sin nor dissemble hatred It is for men and those of hollow hearts to make pretences contrary to their affections soothings and smiles and imbracements where we meane not loue are from weaknesse Either for that we feare our insufficiency of present reuenge or hope for a fitter opportunitie afterwards or for that we desire to make our further aduantage of him to whom we meane euill These courses are not incident into an Almighty power who hauing the command of all vengeance can smite were he lift without all doubtings or delaies There can be no remission without satisfaction neither dealeth God with vs as we men with some desperate debters whom after long dilations of payments and many daies broken we altogether let goe for disabilitie or at least dismisse them vpon an easie composition All sinnes are debts all Gods debts must be discharged It is a bold word but a true God should not be iust if any of his debts should passe vnsatisfied The conceit of the profane vulgar makes him a God of all mercies and thereupon hopes for pardon without paiment Fond and ignorant presumption to disioyne mercy and iustice in him to whom they are both essentiall to make mercy exceede iustice in him in whom both are infinite Darest thou hope God can be so
top-saile another to the maine a third to the plummet a fourth to the anchor as hee sees the need of their course and weather requires and doth no lesse by his tongue than all the Marriners with their hands On the Bench he is another from himselfe at home now all priuate respects of bloud alliance amity are forgotten and if his owne Sonne come vnder tryall hee knowes him not Pity which in all others is wont to be the best praise of humanity and the fruit of Christian loue is by him throwne ouer the barre for corruption as for Fauour the false Aduocate of the gracious he allowes him not to appeare in the Court there only causes are heard speake not persons Eloquence is then only not discouraged when she serues for a Client of truth meere narrations are allowed in this Oratory not Proems not excursions not Glosses Truth must strip her selfe and come in naked to his barre without false bodies or colors without disguises A bride in his Closet or a letter on the Bench or the whispering and winks of a great neighbour are answered with an angry and couragious repulse Displeasure Reuenge Recompence stand on both sides the Bench but he scornes to turne his eye towards them looking onely right forward at Equity which stands full before him His sentence is euer deliberate and guided with ripe wisdome yet his hand is slower than his tongue but when he is vrged by occasion either to doome or execution he shewes how much he hateth mercifull iniustice neither can his resolution or act be reuersed with partiall importunitie His forehead is rugged and seuere able to discountenance villany yet his words are more awfull than his brow and his hand than his words I know not whether he be more feared or loued both affections are so sweetly contempered in all hearts The good feare him louingly the middle sort loue him fearefully and only the wicked man feares him slauishly without loue He hates to pay priuate wrongs with the aduantage of his Office and if euer he be partiall it is to his enemy He is not more sage in his gowne than valorous in armes and increaseth in the rigour of discipline as the times in danger His sword hath neither rusted for want of vse nor surfetteth of bloud but after many threats is vnsheathed as the dreadfull instrument of diuine reuenge He is the Guard of good lawes the Refuge of innocency the Comet of the guilty the Pay-master of good deserts the Champion of iustice the Patron of peace the Tutor of the Church the Father of his Countrey and as it were another God vpon earth Of the Penitent HE hath a wounded heart and a sad face yet not so much for feare as for vnkindnesse The wrong of his sinne troubles him more than the danger None but he is the better for his sorrow neither is any passion more hurtfull to others than this is gainfull to him The more he seekes to hide his griefe the lesse it will bee hid Euery man may reade it not onely in his eyes but in his bones Whiles hee is in charity with all others he is so falne out with himselfe that none but God can reconcile him He hath sued himselfe in all Courts accuseth arraigneth sentenceth punisheth himselfe vnpartially and sooner may finde mercy at any hand than at his owne He onely hath pulled off the faire vizor of sinne so as that appeares not but masked vnto others is seene of him barefac'd and bewraies that fearefull vglinesse which none can conceiue but he that hath viewed it Hee hath lookt into the depth of the bottomlesse pit and hath seene his owne offence tormented in others and the same brands shaken at him He hath seene the change of faces in that euill one as a tempter as a tormenter and hath heard the noise of a conscience and is so frighted with all these that he can neuer haue rest till he haue runne out of himselfe to God in whose face at first hee findes rigour but afterwards sweetnesse in his bosome He bleeds first from the hand that heales him The Law of God hath made worke for mercy which he hath no sooner apprehended than he forgets his wounds and looks carelesly vpon all these terrors of guiltinesse When he casts his eye backe vpon himselfe he wonders where he was and how he came there and grants that if there were not some witchcraft in sinne he could not haue beene so sottishly gracelesse And now in the issue Satan findes not without indignation and repentance that hee hath done him a good turne in tempting him For he had neuer beene so good if he had not sinned he had neuer fought with such courage if he had not seene his bloud and beene ashamed of his foile Now hee is seene and felt in the front of the spirituall battell and can teach others how to fight and incourage them in fighting His heart was neuer more taken vp with the pleasure of sinne than now with care of auoiding it The very sight of that cup wherein such a fulsome potion was brought him turnes his stomacke the first offers of sinne make him tremble more now than he did before at the iudgements of his sinne neither dares he so much as looke towards Sodom All the powers and craft of hell cannot fetch him in for a customer to euill his infirmity may yeeld once his resolution neuer There is none of his senses or parts which hee hath not within couenants for their good behauiour which they cannot euer breake with impunity The wrongs of his sinne he repaies to men with recompence as hating it should be said he owes any thing to his offence to God what in him lies with sighs teares vowes and endeuours of amendment No heart is more waxen to the impressions of forgiuenesse neither are his hands more open to receiue than to giue pardon All the iniuries which are offered to him are swallowed vp in his wrongs to his Maker and Redeemer neither can hee call for the arrerages of his farthings when he lookes vpon the millions forgiuen him he feeles not what he suffers from men when he thinks of what hee hath done and should haue suffered He is a thankfull Herauld of the mercies of his God which if all the world heare not from his mouth it is no fault of his Neither did hee so burne with the euill fires of concupiscence as now with the holy flames of zeale to that glory which hee hath blemished and his eies are full of moisture as his heart of heat The gates of heauen are not so knockt at by any suter whether for frequence or importunitie You shall finde his cheekes furrowed his knees hard his lips sealed vp saue when he must accuse himselfe or glorifie God his eies humbly deiected and sometimes you shall take him breaking off a sigh in the midst as one that would steale an humiliation vnknowne and would be offended with any part that should not
What do you vnder these colours if you regard the fauour of that whose amitie is enmitie with God What care you for the censure of him whom you should both scorne and vanquish Did euer wise Christians did euer your Master allow either this manhood or this feare Was there euer any thing more strictly more fearfully forbidden of him then reuenge in the challenge then in the answer paiment of euill and murder in both It is pitie that euer the water of Baptisme was spilt vpon his face that cares more to discontent the world then to wrong God He saith Vengeance is mine and you steale it from him in a glorious theft hazarding your soule more then your body You are weary of your selfe while you thrust one part vpon the sword of an enemie the other on Gods Yet perhaps I haue yeelded too much Let goe Christians The wiser world of men and who else are worth respect will not passe this odious verdict vpon your refusall valiant men haue reiected challenges with their honours vntainted Augustus when he receiued a defiance and braue appointment of combat from Antonie could answer him That if Antonie were weary of liuing there vvere vvayese now besides to death And that Scythian King returned no other reply to Iohn the Emperor of Constantinople And Metellus challenged by Sertorius durst answer scornefully vvith his pen not vvith his sword That it vvas not for a Captaine to dye a souldiers death Was it not dishonorable for these wise and noble Heathens to turne off these desperate offers What law hath made it so with vs Shall I seriously tell you Nothing but the meere opinion of some humorous Gallants that haue more heart then braine confirmed by a more idle custome Worthly grounds whereon to spend both life and soule vvhereon to neglect God himselfe posteritie Goe now and take vp that sword of vvhose sharpnesse you haue boasted and hasten to the field vvhether you die or kill you haue murdered If you suruiue you are haunted vvith the conscience of blood if you die with the torments and if neither of these yet it is murder that you vvould haue killed See whether the fame of a braue fight can yeeld you a counteruailable redresse of these mischiefes how much more happily valiant had it been to master your selfe to feare sinne more then shame to contemne the world to pardon a wrong to preferre true Christianitie before idle manhood to liue and doe vvell To Mr MAT. MILWARD EP. III. A discourse of the pleasure of study and contemplation with the varieties of schollar-like imployments not without incitation of others thereunto and a censure of their neglect I Can wonder at nothing more then how a man can be idle but of all other a Scholar in so many improuements of reason in such sweetnesse of knowledge in such variety of studies in such importunity of thoughts Other Artizans do but practise we still learne others runne still in the same gyre to vvearinesse to satietie our choice is infinite other labours require recreations our very labour recreates our sports wee can neuer want either somewhat to doe or somewhat that we would do How numberlesse are those volumes vvhich men haue vvritten of Arts of Tongues How endlesse is that volume which God hath written of the vvorld wherein euery creature is a Letter euery day a new Page vvho can be weary of either of these To finde wit in Poetry in Philosophy profoundnesse in Mathematicks acutenesse in History wonder of euents in Oratory sweet eloquence in Diuinity supernaturall light and holy deuotion as so many rich metals in their proper mynes whom would it not rauish with delight After all these let vs but open our eyes we cannot looke beside a lesson in this vniuersall Booke of our Maker worth our study worth â—aking out What creature hath not his miracle vvhat euent doth not challenge his obseruation And if vveary of foraine imployment we list to looke home into our selues there wee finde a more priuate world of thoughts which set vs on vvorke anew more busily not lesse profitably now our silence is vocall our solitarinesse popular and we are shut vp to doe good vnto many And if once we be cloyed with our owne company the doore of conference is open here interchange of discourse besides pleasure benefits vs and he is a weake companion from whom we returne not wiser I could enuy if I could beleeue that Anachoret vvho secluded from the vvorld and pent vp in his voluntary prison-wals denied that hee thought the day long vvhiles yet hee vvanted learning to vary his thoughts Not to be cloyed with the same conceit is difficult aboue humane strength but to a man so furnished vvith all sorts of knowledge that according to his dispositions he can change his studies I should wonder that euer the Sunne should seeme to pase slowly How many busie tongues chase away good houres in pleasant chat and complaine of the haste of night What ingenuous minde can be sooner weary of talking vvith learned Authors the most harmelesse and sweetest of companions What an heauen liues a Scholar in that at once in one close roome can dayly conuerse vvith all the glorious Martyrs and Fathers that can single out at pleasure either sententious Tertullian or graue Cyprian or resolute Hierome or flowing Chrysostome or diuine Ambrose or deuout Bernard or vvho alone is all these heauenly Augustine and talke vvith them and heare their wise and holy counsels verdicts resolutions yea to rise higher with courtly Esay with learned Paul with all their fellow-Prophets Apostles yet more like another Moses with God himselfe in them both Let the vvorld contemne vs while we haue these delights we cannot enuy them wee cannot wish our selues other then wee are Besides the way to all other contentments is troublesome the onely recompence is in the end To delue in the mynes to scorch in the fire for the getting for the fining of gold is a slauish toyle the comfort is in the wedge to the owner not the labourers where our very search of knowledge is delightsome Study it selfe is our life from which vve would not be barred for a world How much sweeter then is the fruit of study the conscience of knowledge In comparison whereof the soule that hath once tasted it easily contemnes all humane comforts Goe now yee worldlings and insult ouer our palenesse our needinesse our neglect Ye could not bee so iocund if you vvere not ignorant if you did not vvant knowledge you could not ouer-looke him that hath it For me I am so farre from emulating you that I professe I had as leiue be a brute beast as an ignorant rich man How is it then that those Gallants vvhich haue priuiledge of blood and birth and better education do so scornfully turne off these most manly reasonable noble exercises of scholarship An hawke becomes their fist better then a booke No dogge but is a better companion Any thing or
nothing rather then what we ought O minds brutishly sensuall Doe they thinke that God made them for disport who euen in his Paradise would not allow pleasure without vvorke And if for businesse either of body or minde Those of the body are commonly seruile like it selfe The minde therefore the mind onely that honorable and diuine part is fittest to be imployed of those vvhich vvould reach to the highest perfection of men and vvould be more then the most And what vvorke is there of the minde but the trade of a scholar study Let me therefore fasten this probleme on our Schoole-gates and challenge all commers in the defence of it that No Scholar cannot be truely noble And if I make it not good let me neuer be admitted further then to the subiect of our question Thus we do vvell to congratulate to our selues our own happinesse if others will come to vs it shall be our comfort but more theirs if not it is enough that we can ioy in our selues and in him in whom we are that we are To Mr J. P. EP. IV. A discourse of the increase of Popery of the Oath of Allegeance and the iust sufferings of those which haue refused it YOu say your religion dayly winneth Bragge not of your gaine you neither need nor can if you consider how it gets and whom How but by cunning sleights false suggestions impudent vntruths Who cannot thus preuaile against a quiet and innocent aduersarie Whom but silly women or men notoriously debauched A spoyle fit for such a conquest for such Victors We are the fewer not the worse if all our licentious hypocrites vvere yours wee should not complaine and you might be the prouder not the better Glory you in this triumph free from our enuy who know we haue lost none but by whom you saue nothing either loose or simple It were pity that you should not forgoe some in a better exchange The sea neuer incroacheth vpon our shore but it loseth else-where some we haue happily fetcht into the fold of our Church out of your wasts some others though few and scarce a number vvee haue sent into their heauen Among these your late second Garnet liu'd to proclaime himselfe a Martyr and by dying perswaded Poore man how happy were he if he might be his owne Iudge That which gaue him confidence vvould giue him glory you beleeue and wel-nere adore him That fatall cord of his was too little for reliques though diuided into Mathematicke quantities Whither cannot conceit lead vs vvhether for his resolution or your credulitie His death vvas fearlesse I commend his stomack not his minde How many malefactors haue wee knowne that haue laughed vpon their executioner and iested away their last vvinde You might know It is not long since our Norfolke Arrian leapt at his stake How oft haue you learned in martyrdome to regard not the death but the cause Else there should be no difference in guilt and innocence error and truth What then Died hee for Religion This had bin but your owne measure we endured your flames which these gibbets could not acquit But dare impudency it selfe affirme it Not for meere shame against the euidence of so many tongues eares records Your prosperitie your numbers argue enough that a man may be a Papist in Britaine and liue If treason be your religion vvho will vvonder that it is capitall Defie that Deuill vvhich hath mockt you with this madde opinion that treacherie is holinesse deuotion crueltie and disobedience I foresee your euasion Alas it is easie for a spightfull construction to fetch religion within this compasse and to say the swelling of the Foxes forehead is a horne Nay then let vs fetch some honest Heathen to be Iudge betwixt vs Meere nature in him shall speake vnpartially of both To hold and perswade that a Christian King may yea must at the Popes will be dethroaned and murdered is it the voice of treason or religion And if traiterous vvhether flatly or by mis-inferring Besides his practices for this he died witnesse your own Catholikes O God if this be religion what can be villany Who euer dyed a Malefactor if this be martyrdom If this position be meritorious of heauen hell is feared in vaine O holy Scillae Marij Catilines Cades Lopezes Gowries Vawxes and who euer haue conspired against lawfull Maiestie all Martyrs of Rome all Saints of Beckets heauen How vvell do those palmes of celestiall triumph become hands red with the sacred blood of Gods anointed I am ashamed to thinke that humanitie should nourish such monsters whether of men or opinions But you defie this sauage factiousnesse this deuotion of deuils and honestly vvish both God and Caesar his owne I praise your moderation but if you be true let me yet search you Can a man be a perfect Papist vvithout this opinion against it If he may then your Garnet and Drurie died not for religion if he may not then Poperie is treason Chuse now vvhether you will leaue your Martyrs or your Religion What you hold of merit free-wil transubstantiation inuocation of Saints false adoration supremacy of Rome no man presses no man inquires your present inquisition your former examples would teach vs mercy will not let vs learne The only question is Whether our King may liue and rule whether you may refraine from his blood and not sinne Would you haue a man denie this and not die Would you haue a man thus dying honored Dare you approue that religion which defends the fact canonizes the person I heare your answer from that your great Champion which not many dayes since with one blow hath driuen out three not slight vvedges That not Ciuill obedience is stood vpon The iudgement of a Catholike English-man banished c. concerning the Apology of the Oath of Allegeance intituled Triplici nâ—do c. but Positiue doctrine That you are readie to sweare for the Kings safetie not against the Popes authoritie King IAMES must liue and raigne but Paulus Quintus must rule and be obeyed and better were it for you to die then your sworne allegeance should preiudice the Sea Apostolike An elusion fit for children What is to dally if not this As if he said The King shall liue vnlesse the Pope will not That hee shall not be discrowned deposed massacred by your hands vnlesse your holy Father should command But I aske as vvho should not What if he do command What if your Paulus Quintus should breathe out like his predecessors not threatnings but strong bellowings of Excommunications of deposition of Gods anointed What if hee shall command after that French fashion the throats of all Heretikes to bleed in a night Pardon you in this Now it is growne a point of doctrinall Diuinitie to determine how farre the power of Peters successor may extend You may neither sweare nor say your hands shall not bee steep't in the blood of your true Soueraigne and to die rather then sweare it is martyrdome But
too many neglect publike peace first in prayers that we may preuaile then in teares that we preuaile not Thus haue I beene bold to chat with you of our greatest and common cares Your old loue and late hospitall entertainment in that your Iland called for this remembrance the rather to keepe your English tongue in breath vvhich was wont not to be the least of your desires Would God you could make vs happie with newes not of truce but sincere amitie and vnion not of Prouinces but spirits The God of spirits effect it both here and there to the glory of his Name and Church To W. J. condemned for murder EP. VIII Effectually preparing him and vnder his name whatsoeuer Malefactor for his death IT is a bad cause that robbeth vs of all the comfort of friends yea that turnes their remembrance into sorrow None can do so but those that proceed from our selues for outward euils vvhich come from the infliction of others make vs cleaue faster to our helpers and cause vs to seeke and find ease in the very commiseration of those that loue vs whereas those griefes which arise from the iust displeasure of conscience will not abide so much as the memorie of others affection or if it doe makes it so much the greater corrasiue as our case is more vncapable of their comfort Such is yours You haue made the mention of our names tedious to your selfe and yours to vs. This is the beginning of your paine that you had friends If you may now smart soundly from vs for your good it must be the only ioy you must expect and the finall dutie we owe to you It is both vaine and comfortlesse to heare what might haue beene neither would I send you backe to what is past but purposely to increase your sorrow vvho haue caused all our comfort to stand in your teares If therefore our former counsels had preuailed neither had your hands shed innocent blood nor iustice yours Now to your great sinne you haue done the one and the other must bee done to your paine and we your well-willers with sorrow and shame liue to be witnesses of both Your sinne is gone before the reuenge of iustice will follow seeing you are guilty let God be iust Other sinnes speake this cryeth and will neuer be silent till it be answered with it selfe For your life the case is hopelesse feede not your selfe with vaine presumptions but settle your selfe to expiate anothers blood with your own Would God your desert had been such that we might with any comfort haue desired you might liue But now alas your fact is so hainous that your life can neither bee craued without iniustice nor be protracted without inward torment And if our priuate affection should make vs deafe to the shouts of blood and partialitie should teach vs to forget all care of publique right yet resolue there is no place for hope Since then you could not liue guiltlesse there remaines nothing but that you labour to die penitent and since your bodie cannot bee saued aliue to endeuour that your soule may bee saued in death Wherein how happie shall it be for you if you shall yet giue care to my last aduice too late indeed for your recompence to the world not too late for your selfe You haue deserued death and expect it Take heed lest you so fasten your eyes vpon the first death of the bodie that you should not looke beyond it to the second which alone is vvorthy of trembling vvorthy of teares For this though terrible to Nature yet is common to vs with you You must die what doe we else And what differs our end from yours but in haste and violence And vvho knowes vvhether in that It may be a sicknesse as sharpe as sudden shal fetch vs hence it may be the same death or a vvorse for a better cause Or if not so there is much more misery in lingring Hee dies easily that dies soone but the other is the vtmost vengeance that God hath reserued for his enemies This is a matter of long feare and short paine A few pangs lets the soule out of prison but the torment of that other is euerlasting after ten thousand yeares scorching in that flame the paine is neuer the neerer to his ending No time giues it hope of abating yea time hath nothing to doe vvith this eternitie You that shall feele the paine of one minutes dying thinke what paine it is to be dying for euer and euer This although it be attended with a sharpe paine yet is such as some strong spirits haue endured without shew of yeeldance I haue heard of an Irish Traitor that when he lay pining vpon the vvheele with his bones broke asked his friend if he changed his countenance at all caring lesse for the paine then the shew of feare Few men haue died of greater paines then others haue sustained and liue But that other ouerwhelmes both bodie and soule and leaues no roome for any comfort in the possibilitie of mitigation Here men are executioners or diseases there fiends Those Deuils that were ready to tempt the gracelesse vnto sinne are as ready to follow the damned vvith tortures Whatsoeuer become of your carkase saue your soule from the flames and so manage this short time you haue to liue that you may die but once This is not your first sinne yea God hath now punished your former sinnes vvith this a fearfull punishment in it selfe if it deserued no more your conscience which now begins to tell truth cannot but assure you that there is no sinne more worthy of hell then murder yea more proper to it Turne ouer those holy leaues which you haue too much neglected and now smart for neglecting you shall finde murderers among those that are shut out from the presence of God you shall find the Prince of that darknesse in the highest stile of his mischiefe termed a man-slayer Alas how fearfull a case is this that you haue herein resembled him for vvhom Topheth was prepared of old and imitating him in his action haue endangered your selfe to partake of his torment Oh that you could but see what you haue done what you haue deserued that your heart could bleed enough within you for the blood your hands haue shed That as you haue followed Satan our common enemy in sinning so you could defie him in repenting That your teares could disappoint his hopes of your damnation What a happie vnhappinesse shall this be to your sad friends that your better part yet liueth That from an ignominious place your soule is receiued to glory Nothing can effect this but your repentance and that can doe it Feare not to looke into that horror which should attend your sinne and bee now as seuere to your selfe as you haue been cruell to another Thinke not to extenuate your offence vvith the vaine titles of manhood vvhat praise is this that you vvere a valiant murderer Strike your owne brest as Moses
complaine could neuer haue beene sustained by men What shall we then thinke if hee were affrighted with terrors perplexed with sorrowes and distracted with both these And lo he was all these for first here was an amazed feare for millions of men to despaire was not so much as for him to feare and yet it was no slight feare he began 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be astonished with terror Which in the dayes of his flesh offered vp prayers and supplications with strong cries and teares to him that was able to helpe him and was heard in that hee feared Neuer was man so afraid of the torments of Hell as Christ standing in our roome of his Fathers wrath Feare is still sutable to apprehension Neuer man could so perfectly apprehend this cause of feare he felt the chastisements of our peace yea the curse of our sins and therefore might well say with DAVID I suffer thy terrors with a troubled minde yea with IOB The arrowes of God are in mee and the terrors of God fight against me With feare there was a dejecting sorrow 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 My soule is on all sides heauy to the death his strong cryes his many teares 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are witnesses of this Passion hee had formerly shed teares of pittie and teares of loue but now of anguish hee had before sent forth cries of mercie neuer of complaint till now when the Sonne of God weepes and cries what shall wee say or thinke yet further betwixt both these and his loue what a conflict was there It is not amisse distinguished that he was alwayes in Agone but now in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a struggling passion of mixed griefe Behold this field was not without sweat and bloud yea a sweat of bloud Oh what Man or Angell can conceiue the taking of that heart that without all outward violence meerely out of the extremitie of his owne Passion bled through the flesh and skin not some faint deaw but solid drops of blood No thornes no nailes fetcht blood from him with so much paine as his owne thoughts hee saw the fierce wrath of his Father and therefore feared hee saw the heauie burden of our sinnes to be vndertaken and thereupon besides feare iustly grieued hee saw the necessitie of our eternall damnation if he suffered not if hee did suffer of our redemption and therefore his loue incountred both griefe and feare In it selfe hee would not drinke of that cup. In respect of our good and his decree he would and did and while hee thus striueth hee sweats and bleeds There was neuer such a combat neuer such a bloodshed and yet it is not finished I dare not say with some Schoolemen that the sorrow of his Passion was not so great as the sorrow of his compassion yet that was surely exceeding great To see the vngratious carelesnesse of mankinde the slender fruit of his sufferings the sorrowes of his Mother Disciples friends to fore-see from the watch tower of his Crosse the future temptations of his children desolations of his Church all these must needes strike deepe into a tender heart These hee still sees and pitties but without passion then hee suffered in seeing them Can we yet say any more Lo all these sufferings are aggrauated by his fulnesse of knowledge and want of comfort for he did not shut his eyes as one saith when hee drunke this cup he saw how dreggish and knew how bitter it was Sudden euils afflict if not lesse shorter He fore-saw and fore-said euerie particular he should suffer so long as he fore-saw he suffered the expectation of euill is not lesse then the sense to looke long for good is a punishment but for euill is a torment No passion workes vpon an vnknowne obiect as no loue so no feare is of what we know not Hence men feare not Hell because they fore-see it not if wee could see that pit open before wee come at it it would make vs tremble at our sins and our knees to knocke together as Baltazars and perhaps without faith to runne madde at the horror of iudgement He saw the burden of all particular sinnes to be laid vpon him euery dramme of his Fathers wrath was measured out to him ere he toucht this potion this cup was full and hee knew that it must be wring'd not a drop left it must be finished Oh yet if as he foresaw all his sorrowes so he could haue seene some mixture of refreshing But I found none to comfort me no none to pittie me And yet it is a poore comfort that arises from pittie Euen so O Lord thou treadest this wine-presse alone none to accompanie none to assist thee I remember Ruffinus in his Ecclesiasticall storie reports that one Theodorus a Martyr told him that when he was hanging ten houres vpon the rack for religion vnder Iulians persecution his ioynts distended and distorted his body exquisitely tortured with change of Executioners Vt nulla vnquā aetas sunilem meminerit so as neuer age saith he could remember the like he felt no paine at all but continued indeed all the while in the sight of all men singing smiling for there stood a comely young man by him on his Iibbet an Angell rather in forme of a man which with a cleane towell still wip't off his sweat and powred coole water vpon his racked limbs wherewith he was so refreshed that it grieued him to bee let downe Euen the greatest torments are easie when they haue answerable comforts but a wounded and comfortlesse spirit who can beare If yet but the same messenger of God might haue attended his Crosse that appeared in his agony and might haue giuen ease to their Lord as he did to his seruant And yet what can the Angels helpe where God will smite Against the violence of men against the furie of Satan they haue preuailed in the cause of God for men they dare not they cannot comfort where God will afflict When our Sauiour had beene wrestling with Satan in the end of his Lent then they appeared to him and serued but now while about the same time he is wrestling with the wrath of his Father for vs not an Angell dare be seene to looke out of the windowes of heauen to releeue him For men much lesse could they if they would but what did they Miserable comforters are ye all the Souldiers they stript him scorned him with his purple crowne reed spat on him smote him the passengers they reuiled him and insulting vagging their heads and hands at him Hey thou that destoyest the Temple come downe c. The Elders and Scribes alas they haue bought his bloud suborned witnesses incensed Pilot preferred Barrabbas vndertooke the guilt of his death cried out Crucifia Crucifie He thou that sauedst others His Disciples alas they forsooke him one of them forsweares him another runnes away naked rather then he will stay and confesse him His mother and other friends they looke
about three hundred yeeres agoe Not of Reason Negotiatores teâ—ae sunt ipsi Sacerdotes qui vendunt orationes missas prodenarijs facientes domum orationis Apotâ—ecam negotiationis In Reue. l. 10. p. 5. how should one meere man pay for another dispense with another to another by another Not of Scripture which hath flatly said The bloud of Iesus Christ his Sonne purgeth vs from all sinne and yet I remember that acute Sadeel hath taught me that this practise is according to Scripture what Scripture Hee cast the money-changers out of the Temple and said Yee haue made my house a denne of theeues Which also Ioachim their propheticall Abbot well applies to this purpose Some modest Doctors of Lonan would faine haue minced this Antichristian blasphemy who began to teach that the passions of the Saints are not so by Indulgences applied that they become true satisfactions but that they only serue to moue God by the sight of them to apply vnto vs Christs satisfaction But these meale-mouth'd Diuines were soone charm'd Bellar. lib. 1. de Indulgent foure seuerall Popes as their Cardinall confesseth fell vpon the necke of them their opinion Leo the tenth Pius the fift Gregory the thirteenth and Clemens the sixt and with their furious Buls bellow out threats against them and tosse them in the aire for Heretickes and teach them vpon paine of a curse to speake home with Bellarmine Passionibus sanctorum expiari delicta and straight Applicari nobis sanctorum passiones ad redimend as poenas quas propeccatis Deo debemus That by the sufferings of Saints our sinnes are expiated and that by them applied wee are redeemed from those punishments which we yet owe to God Blasphemy worthy the tearing of garments How is it finished by Christ if men must supply Oh blessed Sauiour was euery drop of thy bloud enough to redeeme a world and doe we yet need the helpe of men How art thou a perfect Sauiour if our brethren also must be our Redeemers Oh yee blessed Saints how would you abhorre this sacrilegious glorie and with those holy Apostles yea that glorious Angell say Vide ne feceris and with those wise Virgins Lest there will not bee enough for vs and you goe to them that sell and buy for your selues For vs we enuie not their multitude let them haue as many Sauiours as Saints and as many Saints as men wee know with Ambrose Christi passio adiutore non eguit Christs passion needs no helper and therefore with that worthy Martyr dare say None but Christ none but Christ Let our soules die if he cannot saue them let them not feare their death or torment if he haue finished Heare this thou languishing and afflicted soule There is not one of thy sins but it is paid for not one of thy debts in the scroll of God but it is crossed not one farthing of all thine infinite ransome is vnpaid Alas thy sinnes thou sayest are euer before thee and Gods indignation goes still ouer thee and thou goest mourning all the day long and with that patterne of distresse criest out in the bitternes of thy soule I haue sinned what shall I doe to thee O thou preseruer of men What shouldst thou doe Turne and beleeue Now thou art stung in thy conscience with this fiery Serpent looke vp with the eyes of faith to this brazen Serpent Christ Iesus and be healed Behold his head is humbly bowed down in a gracious respect to thee his arms are stretched out louingly to embrace thee yea his precious side is open to receiue thee and his tongue interprets all these to thee for thine endlesse comfort It is finished There is no more accusation iudgment death hel for thee all these are no more to thee than if they were not Who shall condemne It is Christ which is dead I know how ready euery man is to reach forth his hand to this dole of grace and how angry to be beaten from this dore of mercy We are all easily perswaded to hope well because wee loue our selues well Which of all vs in this great congregation takes exceptions to himselfe and thinkes I know there is no want in my Sauiour there is want in me He hath finished but I beleeue not I repent not Euery presumptuous and hard heart so catches at Christ as if he had finisht for all as if he had broken downe the gates of hell and loosed the bands of death and had made forgiuenes as common as life Prosperitas stultorum perdit eos saith wise Salomon Ease slaieth the foolish and the prosperitie of fooles destroyeth them yea the confidence of prosperity Thou saiest God is mercifull thy Sauiour bounteous his passion absolute all these and yet thou maiest be condemned Mercifull not vniust bountifull not lauish absolutely sufficient for all not effectuall to all Whatsoeuer God is what art thou Here is the doubt Thou saiest well Christ is the good Shepheard Wherein He giues his life but for whom for his sheepe What is this to thee While thou art secure prophane impenitent thou art a Wolfe or a Goat My sheepe heare my voyce what is his voice but his precepts Where is thine obedience to his commandements If thou wilt not heare his Law neuer harken to his Gospell Here is no more mercy for thee than if there were no Sauiour He hath finished for those in whom he hath begunne if thou haue no beginnings of grace as yet hope not for euer finishing of saluation Come to me all ye that are heauy laden saith Christ thou shalt get nothing if thou come when he calls thee not Thou art not called and canst not be refreshed vnlesse thou be laden not with sinne this alone keepes thee away from God but with conscience of sinne A broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Is thy heart wounded with thy sinne doth griefe and hatred striue within thee whether shall be more Are the desires of thy soule with God Doest thou long for holinesse complaine of thy imperfections struggle against thy corruptions Thou art the man feare not It is finished That Law which thou wouldest haue kept and couldest not thy Sauiour could and did keepe for thee that saluation which thou couldest neuer worke-out alone alas poore impotent creatures what can we doe towards heauen without him which cannot moue on earth but in him hee alone for thee hath finished Looke vp therefore boldly to the throne of God and vpon the truth of thy repentance and faith know that there is no quarrell against thee in heauen nothing but peace and ioy All is finished He would be spitted on that he might wash thee he would be couered with scornefull robes that thy sinnes might be couered he would bee whipped that thy soule might not be scourged eternally he would thirst that thy soule might be satisfied he would beare all his Fathers wrath that thou mightest beare none he would yeeld to death that
Priesthood of the new Law is Leui refined Mal. 3.3 Et purgabit filios Leui which Hierome not vnlikely interprets of the Ministerie of the Gospell They are the sonnes of Leui which signifies Copulation quia homines cum Deo copulant but of Leui purged and purged as gold As much difference betweene them as betwixt gold in the Ore and in the wedge Hence is double honour challenged to the Euangelicall Ministerie yea and giuen Yee receiued me saith S. Paul as an Angell of God yea as Christ Iesus Gal. 4.14 Hence the Angell of himselfe to IOHN I am thy fellow-seruant Woe bee to them therefore which spet in the faces of those whom God hath honoured It is Gods second charge this of his Prophets His first is Touch not mine Anointed his second Hurt not my Prophets And if one disgracefull word spoken but by rude children to a Prophet of the old Testament cost so many throats God be mercifull to those dangerous and deadly affronts that haue beene and are daily offered to the Prophets of the new What can wee say but with the women of Tekoah Serua-ô-rex Wee blesse God that wee may bemoane our selues to the tender and indulgent eares of a gracious Soueraigne sensible of these spirituall wrongs who yet we know may well answer vs with Iacobs question An loco Dei ego sum It grieues mee to thinke and say of our selues that for a great part of this Perditio tua ex te Woe to those corrupted sonnes of Heli which through their insufficiencie and vnconscionablenesse haue powred contempt on their owne faces That proud fugitiue Campian could say Ministris illorum nihil vilius c. As falsly as spightfully Let heauen and earth witnesse whether any Nation in the world can afford so learned so glorious a Clergie But yet among so many pots of the Temple it is no maruell if some bee drie for want of liquor others rustie for want of vse others full of liquor without meat others so full of meat that they want liquor Let the Lords anointed whose example and incouragements haue raised euen this diuine learning to this excellent perfection by his gracious countenance dispell contempt from the professours of it and by his effectuall endeuours remoue the causes of this contempt But as euerie Christian vnder the Gospell is a Priest and Prophet let the people bee these pots or the offerings of the people That shall bee in respect of the frequence or fragrance according to the double acception of that particle of comparison Camisrachim as the bowles for number or qualitie For the frequence A few seething pots serued the sacrifice but bowles they vsed many what for the vse of the Altar of incense what for the receiuing of the bloud of the sacrifice Salomon made too of gold Now then saith God in the dayes of the Gospell there shall be such store of oblations to God that the number of the pots shall equalize the number of the bowles of the Altar not vnlike because of the following words Euerie pot in Ierusalem shall be faine to be imployed to the sacrifices This frequence then is either of the officers or offerings persons or acts For the persons they were few in comparison vnder the Law All Palestine which comprehends all their officers except some few Proselytes was but as Ierome which was a Lieger there reckons it an 160. miles long from Dan to Beersheba and 46. miles broad from Ioppa to Bethleem Now the partition wall is broken downe all Nations vnder heauen yeeld franke offerers to the Altar of God There was no offering then but at Ierusalem now Ierusalem is euerie where So much therefore as the world is wider than Iudea so much as Christendome is larger than the walls of the Temple so many more officers hath the Gospell than the Law And it were well if there were as many as they seeme If but as many as all the world ouer offer their presence to Gods seruice on Gods day leaue those that spend it in the stewâ—â—s and Tauernes to him whom they serue were true offerers how rich would the Altar be and the Temple how glorious But alas if God will be serued with mouthes full of oathes curses bitternesse with heads full of wine with eyes full of lust with hands full of bloud with backs full of pride with panches full of gluttonie with soules and liues full of horrible sinnes he may haue offerers as many as men else as Esay relicta est in vrbe solituda a few pots will hold our sacrifices and what is this but through our wilfull disobedience to crosse him which hath said that in this day the pots of the Temple shall be as the bowles of the Altar The act or commoditie is offerings whether outward or inward The outward fulfilled in those large endowments of the Church by our deuout and bountifull predecessors What liberall reuenues rich maintenances were then put into mort-maine the dead hand of the Church Lawes were faine to restraine the bountie of those contributions the grounds whereof I examine not in stead of MOSES his proclamation Nequis facito deinceps opus ad oblationem Sanctuarij satis enim est adeoque superest Exod. 26.6 Then mons Domini mons pinguis but now the Church may crie with the Prophet My leannesse my leannesse For shame why should sacrilege croud in with religion why should our better knowledge finde vs lesse conscionable O iniurious zeale of those men which thinke the Church cannot bee holy enough vnlesse shee begge It hath beene said of old That Religion bred wealth and the daughter eat vp the mother I know not if the daughter deuoured the mother I am sure these men would deuoure both daughter and mother Men of vast gorâ—es and insatiable Our Sauiour cried out against the Scribes and Pharisies yet the deuoured but widowes houses poore low cottages but these gulfes of men whole Churches and yet the sepulchers of their throats are open for more I can tell them of a mouth that is wider than theirs and that is the Prophets Os inferni Therefore Hell hath inlarged it selfe and hath opened his mouth without measure and their glorie and their pompe and he that reioyceth in it shall descend into it Esa 5.14 In the meane time Oh that our SAMSON would pull this honie of the Church out of the iawes of these Lions or if the cunning conueyances of sacrilege haue made that impossible since it lies not now intire in the combes but is let downe and digested by these raueners let him whose glorie it is not to be Pater patriae onely but Pater Ecclesiae prouide that those few pots we haue may still seethe and that if nothing will be added nothing can be recouered yet nothing may be purloyned from the Altars of God But these outward offerings were but the types of the inward what cares God for the bloud or flesh of bullocks rams goats Non delectaris sacrificio vt
enmitie But there are some enmities more secret and which doe not outwardly bewray themselues but behold heere is publique resistance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not subiect But perhaps it will once yeeld of it selfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It cannot Xiphil Epist Dionis sayth the Spirit of God See in how rebellious an estate we are to God What pronenesse is heere to will good what abilitie to performe it Let the Papists if they will sacrifice to themselues as Seianus had wont of old or to their nets as the Prophet speaketh As for vs come what can come vpon our opposition wee neither can nor dare arrogate vnto our selues those things which by an holy reseruation incommunicablenesse are proper onely vnto the Highest It is safe indeed for the Papists when they will to come vp to vs but we cannot goe downe to them without a fearefull precipitation of our soules Consult Cass cit Bonauent in haec verba hoc piaruÌ„ mentium est vt nil sibi tribuunt c. Let Cassander witnesse this for vs Let Bonauenture himselfe witnes it for him This is the propertie of holy minds to attribute nothing to themselues but all to the grace of God So that how much soeuer a man ascribe to the grace of God hee swarueth not from true pietie though by giuing much to grace hee withdraw something from the power of nature or Free-will but when any thing is withdrawne from the grace of God and ought attributed to nature which is due to grace there may bee great danger to the soule Thus farre those two ingenuous Papists But to inferre wee giue all to grace the Papists something to nature and what they giue to nature we giue to God Therefore we doe and say that which is fit for holy minds they if Bonauenture may be witnesse that which swerues from piety and is ioyned with much danger of their soule SECTION IX Concerning Merits THe foundation of Popish Iustification is the freedome of our will and vpon the walls of Iustification is merit raised wee will haue no quarrell about the word Bucer cit à Cass Cypr. l. 3. ep 20. Prâ—â— Iud. The holy Fathers of old as wee all grant tooke the word in a good sense which the later Diuines haue miserably corrupted About the thing it selfe wee must striue eternally we promise a reward to good workes yea an euerlasting one It is a true word of the Iewes He that labours in the Euen shall eat on the Sabbath Qui laborauit in vespera comedet in Sabbatho Conc. Trident. Orthod expl l. 6. Caiet in Galat. for God hath promised it and will performe who yet crowneth vs in mercy and compassion as the Psalmist speaks not as the Papists in the rigour of iustice not as Andradius according to the due desert of our worke By the free gift of God and not our merits as Caietan wisely and worthily Or if any man like that word better God doth it in Iustice but in respect of his owne promise not the very dignity of our workes That a iust mans worke in the truth of the thing it selfe is of a value worthy of the reward of heauen which industrious and learned Morton cites out of the English Professor of Dowâ—y and hath a meet proportion both of equality and dignity Weston de Tripl hom off l. 2. Vid. protest Appeal lib. 2. c. 11. Tom. 1. in Th. 3. d. 11. to the recompence of eternall life as Pererius and that in it selfe without any respect of the merits and death of Christ which Suarez and Bajus shamed not to write seemes iustly to vs little lesse than blasphemie But say our moderate Papists CHRIST hath merited this merit of ours neither can any other workes challenge this to themselues but those which are done in GOD as Andradius speaks but those which are dipped and dyed in the bloud of CHRIST as our later Papists elegantly and emphatically speake But what is this but to coozen the world and to cast a mist before the eyes of the vnskilfull Our sinnes are dyed in the bloud of CHRIST not our merits Or if they also Hath CHRIST then deserued that our workes should bee perfect How comes it about that the workes of the best men are so lame and defectiue Hath he deserued that though they bee imperfect yet they might merit What iniurie is this to God what contradiction of termes Behold now so many Sauiours as good men what I doe is mine what I merit is mine whosoeuer giues me either to do or to merit Whosoeuer rides on a lame horse cannot but moue vn-euenly vneasily vncertainly what insolent ouer-weeners of their owne workes are these Papists which proclaime the actions which proceed from themselues worthy of no lesse than heauen To whom wee may iustly say as Constantine said to Acesius the Novatian Set vp ladders O yee Papists and clime vp to heauen alone Socr. l. 1. c. 7. Erigâ—â— vobis scalus c. Homo iustus 〈◊〉 c. Who can abide that noted speech of Bellarmine A iust man hath by a double title right to the same glory one by the merits of CHRIST imparted to him by grace another by his owne merits contrary to that of the Spirit of God The wages of sinne is death but The gift of God is eternall life vpon which words another Cardinall Caietan speakes in a holier fashion thus He doth not say that the wages of our righteousnesse is eternall life but The gift of God is eternall life that wee may vnderstand and learne that we attaine eternall life not by our owne merits but by the free gift of God for which cause also he addes By Iesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6. fin Behold the merit behold the righteousnesse whose wages is eternall life but to vs in respect of IESVS CHRIST it is a free gift Thus Caietan Caiet Câ—â— in Rom. 6. What could either Luther or Caluin or any Protestant say more plainly How imperfect doth the Scripture euery where proclaime both Gods graces in vs and our workes to him and though the graces of God were absolutely perfect yet they are not ours if our workes were so yet they are formerly due And if they be due to God what recompence of transcendent glory is due to vs Behold wee are both seruants and vnprofitable Not worthy saith God worthy and more say the Papists Ephess 2. By grace yee are saued through faith and that not of your selues saith God By grace indeed but yet of our selues say the Papists What insolencie is this Let our Monkes now goe and professe wilfull pouertie whiles Ezekiah did neuer so boast of his heaps of treasure as these of their spirituall wealth Hier. Epitaph Fabiolae Hierome said truely It is more hard to bee stripped of our pride than of our Gold and Iewels for euen when those outward ornaments are gone many times these inward rags swell vp the soule
altogether of humane constitution must like to remedies in diseases be attempered to the present estate of matters and times Those things which were once religiously instituted afterwards according to occasion and the changed quality of manners and times may be with more Religion and Piety abrogated which yet is not to bee done by the temerity of the people but by the authority of Gouernors that tumult may be auoyded and that the publicke custome may be so altred that concord may not be broken the very same is perhaps to be thought concerning the Mariage of Priests of old as there was great paucity of Priests so great Pietie also They that they might more freely attend those holy Seruices made themselues chaste of their owne accord And so much were those Ancients affected to Chastitie that they would hardly permit Mariage vnto that Christian whom his Baptisme found single but a second Mariage yet more hardly And now that which seemed plausible in Bishops and Priests was translated to Deacons and at last to sub-Deacons which voluntarily receiued custome was confirmed by the authority of Popes In the meane time the member of Priests increased and their Pietie decreased Inter hos quanta raritas eorum qui castè viuunt How many swarmes of Priests are maintained in Monasteries and Colledges and amongst them how few are there that liue chastly I speake of them which doe publikely keepe Concubines in their houses in stead of their Wiues Nec enim attingo nunc secretiorum libidinum mystâ—ria c. I doe not now meddle with the mysteries of their more secret lusts I onely speake of those things which are most notoriously knowne to the World And yet when we know these things how easie are we to admit men into holy Orders and how difficult in releasing this constitution of single life when as contrarily S. Paul teaches that hands must not be rashly laid vpon any and more then once hath prescribed what manner of men Priests and Deacons ought to be but of their single life neither Christ nor his Apostles hath euer giuen any Law in the holy Scriptures Long since hath the Church abrogated the nightly Vigils at the Tombes of Martyrs which yet had been receiued by the publike custome of Christians and that for diuers Ages Those Fasts which were wont to continue till the euening it hath transferred to noon and many other things hath it changed according to the occasions arising Cur hic humanaÌ„ constitutionem vrgemus tam obstinatè praesertim cùm tot causa suadeant mutationem Primùm enim magna pars Sacerdotum viuit cum malâ famâ parumque requieta conscientia tractat illa sacrosancta mysteria c. And why then doe we so obstinately vrge this humane constitution especially when so many causes perswade vs to an alteration For first a great part of our Priests liues with an ill name and with an vnquiet conscience handleth those holy Mysteries And then the fruit of their labours for the most part is vtterly lost because their doctrine is contemned of their people by reason of their shamefull life Whereas if Mariage might be yeelded to those which doe not containe both they would liue more quietly and should preach Gods Word to the people with authority and might honestly bring vp their children neither should the one of them bee a mutuall shame to other c. FINIS A BRIEFE SVMME OF THE Principles of Religion fit to be knowne of such as would addresse themselues to Gods TABLE Q HOw many things are required of a Christian A. Two Knowledge and Practice Q What are we bound to know A. God and our selues Q. What must we know of God A. What one he is and what he hath done Q. What is God A. He is one Almightie and infinite Spirit Father Sonne and Holy Ghost Q. What hath he done A. He hath made all things he gouerneth and preserueth all things and hath eternally decreed how all things shall bee done and hath reuealed his will to vs in his Word Q. What more must we know concerning God and his actions A. That God the Son Christ Iesus tooke our nature vpon him dyed for our redemption rose again and now liueth gloriously in Heauen making intercession for vs. Q. Thus much concerning God What must we know of our selues A. What we were what we are and what we shall be Q. What were we A. We were made at first perfect and happy according to Gods Image in knowledge in holinesse in righteousnesse Q. What are we now A. Euer since the fall of our first Parents we are all naturally the sonnes of wrath subiect to misery and death But those whom God chooseth out to himselfe are in part renewed through grace and haue the Image of God in part repaired in them Q. What shall we be A. At the general resurrection of all flesh those which were in part renewed here shall be fully perfited and glorified in body and soule those which haue liued and dyed in their sinnes shall be iudged to perpetuall torments Q. Thus much for our knowledge Now for our practice what is required of vs A. Due obedience and seruice to God both in our ordinary course of life and also in the speciall exercises of his worship Q. What is that obedience which is required of vs in the ordinary course of our life A. It is partly prescribed vs by the Law and partly by the Gospell Q. What doth the Law require A. The Law contained in Ten Commandements enioyneth vs all piety to God and all iustice and charity to our neighbour Q. What doth the Gospell require A. Faith in Lord Iesus with the fruit of it Repentance as our onely remedie for the breach of the Law Q. What is faith A. The affiance of the soule vpon Christ Iesus depending vpon him alone for forgiuenesse and saluation Q What is Repentance A. An effectuall breaking off our old sinnes with sorrow and detestation and an earnest purpose and endeuour of contrary obedience Q. Thus much of our obedience in the whole course of life What are the seruices required more specially in the immediate exercises of Gods worship A. They are chiefly three first Due hearing and reading the Word secondly Receiuing the Sacraments thirdly Prayer Q. Which call you the Word of God A. The holy Scriptures contained in the Old and New Testament Q. How many Sacraments are there A. Two Baptisme and the Lords Supper Q. What is the vse of Baptisme A. By water washing the body to assure vs that the blood of Christ applied to the soule of euery beleeuer clenseth him from his sinnes Q. What is the vse of the Lords Supper A. To be a signe a seale a pledge vnto vs of Christ Iesus giuen for vs giuen to vs. Q. What signifies the Bread and wine A. The body and blood of Christ broken and powred out for our redemption Q. What is required of euery Receiuer A. Vpon paine
loue to Sechem sinister respects draw more to the profession of Religion then conscience if it were not for the loaues and fishes the traine of Christ would bee lesse But the Sacraments of God mis-receiued neuer prosper in the end These men are content to smart so they may gaine And now that euery man lyes sore of his owne wound Simeon and Leui rush in armed and wound all the males to death Cursed be their wrath for it was fierce and their rage for it was cruell Indeed filthinesse should not haue beene wrought by Israel yet murder should not haue beene wrought by Israel if they had beene fit Iudges which were but bloody executioners how far doth the punishment exceed the fault To punish aboue the offence is no lesse iniustice then to offend one offendeth and all feele the reuenge yea all though innocent suffer that reuenge which he that offended deserued not Sechem sinneth but Dinah tempted him She that was so light as to wander abroad alone only to gaze I feare was not ouer-difficult to yeeld And if hauing wrought her shame he had driuen her home with disgrace to her Fathers tent such tyrannous lust had iustly called for blood but now hee craues and offers and would pay deare for but leaue to giue satisfaction To execute rigour vpon a submisse offender is more mercilesse than iust Or if the punishment had bin both iust and proportionable from another yet from them which had vowed peace and affinitie it was shamefully vniust To disappoint the trust of another and to neglect our owne promise and fidelity for priuate purposes adds faithlesnesse vnto our cruelty That they were impotent it was through their circumcision what impiety was this in stead of honouring an holy signe to take an aduantage by it What shrieking was there now in the streets of the City of the Hiuites And how did the beguiled Sichemits when they saw the swords of the two brethren die cursing that Sacrament in their hearts which had betrayed them Euen their curses were the sins of Simeon and Leui whose fact though it were abhorred by their Father yet it was seconded by their brethren Their spoile makes good the others slaughter Who would haue looked to haue found this out-rage in the family of Iacob How did that good Patriarke when he saw Dinah come home blubbered and wringing her hands Simeon and Leui sprinkled with blood wish that Leah had beene barren as long as Rachel Good Parents haue griefe enough though they sustaine no blame for their childrens sins What great euills arise from small beginnings The idle curiosity of Dinah hath bred all this mischiefe Rauishment followes vpon her wandring vpon her rauishment murder vpon the murder spoyle It is holy and safe to bee iealous of the first occasions of euill either done or suffered Of IVDAH and THAMAR I Find not many of Iacobs sonnes more faultie then Iudah who yet is singled out from all the rest to be the royall Progenitor of Christ and to be honoured with the dignity of the birth-right that Gods election might not bee of merit but of grace Else howsoeuer he might haue sped alone Thamar had neuer beene ioyned with him in this line Euen Iudah marries a Canaanite it is no maruell though his Seed prosper not And yet that good children may not be too much discouraged with their vnlawfull propagation the Fathers of the promised Seed are raised from an incestuous bed Iudah was very yong scarce frō vnder the rod of his Father yet he takes no other counsell for his mariage but from his own eyes which were like his sister Dinahs rouing and wanton what better issue could be expected from such beginnings Those proud Iewes that glory so much of their Pedigree and Name from this Patriarke may now choose whether they will haue their mother a Canaanite or an Harlot Euen in these things oft-times the birth followes the belly His eldest sonne Er is too wicked to liue God strikes him dead ere he can leaue any issue not abiding any siens to grow out of so bad a stocke Notorious sinners God reserues to his owne vengeance He doth not inflict sensible iudgements vpon all his enemies lest the wicked should thinke there were no punishment abiding for them else-where Hee doth inflict such iudgements vpon some lest he should seeme carelesse of euill It were as easie for him to strike all dead as one but hee had rather all should be warned by one and would haue his enemies find him mercifull as his children iust His brother Onan sees the iudgment and yet followes his sins Euery little thing discourages vs from good Nothing can alter the heart that is set vpon euill Er was not worthy of any loue but though he were a miscreant yet he was a brother Seed should haue been raised to him Onan iustly leeses his life with his Seed which he would rather spill then lend to a wicked brother Some duties we owe to humanity more to neerenesse of blood Ill deseruings of others can be no excuse for our iniustice for our vncharitablenesse That which Thamar required Moses afterward as from God commanded the succession of brothers into the barren bed Some lawes God spake to his Church long ere he wrote them while the author is certainly knowne the voyce and the finger of God are worthy of equall respect Iudah hath lost two sonnes and now doth but promise the third whom he sinnes in not giuing It is the weaknesse of nature rather to hazard a sin then a danger and to neglect our owne duty for wrongfull suspition of others though he had lost his son in giuing him yet he should haue giuen him A faithful mans promise is his debt which no feare of damage can dispense with But whereupon was this slacknesse Iudah feared that some vnhappinesse in the bed of Thamar was the cause of his sonnes miscariage whereas it was their fault that Thamar vvas both a widow and childlesse Those that are but the patients of euill are many times burdened with suspitions and therefore are ill thought of because they fare ill Afflictions would not bee so heauy if they did not lay vs open vnto vncharitable conceits What difference God puts betwixt sinnes of wilfulnesse and infirmitie The pollution is punished with present death the fathers incest is pardoned and in a sort prospereth Now Thamar seekes by subtlety that which she could not haue by award of iustice the neglect of due retributions driues men to indirect courses neither know I whether they sin more in righting themselues wrongfully or the other in not righting them She therefore takes vpon her the habit of an harlot that she might performe the act If she had not wished to seeme an Whore she had not worn that attire nor chosen that place Immodesty of outward fashion or gesture bewraies euill desires the heart that meanes well will neuer wish to seeme ill for commonly we affect to shew better then we are
Many harlots will put on the semblances of chastity of modesty neuer the contrary It is no trusting those which doe not wish to appeare good Iudah esteemes her by her habit and now the sight of an harlot hath stird vp in him a thought of lust Satan finds well that a fit obiect is halfe a victory Who would not bee ashamed to see a sonne of Iacob thus transported with filthy affections At the first fight he is inflamed neither yet did he see the face of her whom he lusted after it was enough motiue to him that she was a woman neither could the presence of his neighbor the Adullamite compose those wicked thoughts or hinder his vnchast acts That sinne must needs be impudent which can abide a witnesse yea so hath his lust besotted him that he cannot discerne the voice of Thamar that he cannot foresee the danger of his shame in parting with such pledges There is no passion which doth not for the time bereaue a man of himselfe Thamar had learned not to trust him without a pawne He had promised his sonne to her as a daughter and failed now he promised a Kid to her as an Harlot and performeth it Whether his pledge constrained him or the power of his word I enquire not Many are faithfull in all things saue those which are the greatest and dearest If his credit had beene as much indangered in the former promise he had kept it now hath Thamar requited him She expected long the enioying of his promised son and he performed not but here he performes the promise of the Kid and shee stayes not to expect it Iudah is sorry that he cannot pay the hire of his lust and now feareth lest he shall be beaten with his owne staffe lest his signet shall be vsed to confirme and seale his reproach resoluing not to know them and wishing they were vnknown of others Shame is the easiest wages of sin and the surest which euer begins first in our selues Nature is not more forward to commit sinne then willing to hide it I heare as yet of no remorse in Iudah but feare of shame Three moneths hath his sinne slept and now when he is securest it awakes and baites him Newes is brought him that Thamar begins to swell with her conception and now he swels with rage and cals her forth to the flame like a rigorous Iudge without so much as staying for the time of her deliuerance that his cruelty in this iustice should be no lesse ill then the vniustice of occasioning it If Iudah had not forgotten his sinne his pittie had beene more then his hatred to this of his daughters How easie is it to detest those sinnes in others which we flatter in our selues Thamar doth not denie the sinne nor refuse punishment but calls for that partner in her punishment which was her partner in the sinne the staffe the signet the handkerchiefe accuse and conuince Iudah and now he blushes at his owne sentence much more at his act and cries out She is more righteous then I. God will finde a time to bring his children vpon their knees and to wring from them penitent confessions And rather then he will not haue them soundly ashamed he will make them the trumpets of their owne reproach Yet doth he not offer himselfe to the flame with her but rather excuses her by himselfe This relenting in his owne case shamed his former zeale Euen in the best men nature is partiall to it selfe It is good so to sentence others frailties that yet we remember our owne whether those that haue beene or may be with what shame yea with what horror must Iudah needs looke vpon the great belly of Thamar and on her two sonnes the monuments of his filthinesse How must it needes wound his soule to heare them call him both Father and Grandfather to call her mother and sister If this had not cost him many a sigh he had no more escaped his Fathers curse then Reuben did I see the difference not of sinnes but of men Remission goes not by the measure of the sinne but the quality of the sinner yea rather the mercy of the Forgiuer Blessed is the man not that sinnes not but to whom the Lord imputes not his sinne Of IOSEPH I Maruell not that Ioseph had the double portion of Iacobs land who had more then two parts of his sorrowes None of his sonnes did so truely inherit his afflictions none of them was either so miserable or so great suffering is the way to glory I see in him not a cleerer type of Christ then of euery Christian Because we are deare to our Father and complaine of sinnes therefore are we hated of our carnall brethren If Ioseph had not medled with his brothers faults yet he had beene enuied for his Fathers affection but now malice is met with enuy There is nothing more thanklesse or dangerous then to stand in the way of a resolute sinner That which doth correct and obliege the penitent makes the wilfull mind furious and reuengefull All the spight of his brethren cannot make Ioseph cast off the liuery of his Fathers loue what need we care for the censures of men if our hearts can tell vs that we are in fauour with God But what meant young Ioseph to adde vnto his own enuy by reporting his dreames The concealement of our hopes or abilities hath not more modesty then safety He that was enuied for his dearnesse and hated for his intelligence was both enuied hated for his dreames Surely God meant to make the relation of these dreames a means to affect that which these dreames imported We men worke by likely meanes God by contraries The maine quarrell was Behold this dreamer commeth Had it not been for his dreames he had not bin sold if he had not bin sold he had not bin exalted So Iosephs state had not deserued enuy if his dreams had not caused him to be enuied Full little did Ioseph thinke when he went to seeke his brethren that this was the last time he should see his fathers house Full little did his brethren thinke when they sold him naked to the Ismaelites to haue once seene him in the Throne of Aegypt Gods decree runnes on and while we either thinke not of it or oppose it is performed In an honest and obedient simplicity Ioseph comes to enquire of his brethrens health and now may not returne to carry newes of his owne misery whiles he thinkes of their welfare they are plotting his destruction Come let vs slay him Who would haue expected this cruelty in them which should be the Fathers of Gods Church It was thought a fauour that Reubens entreaty obtained for him that he might be cast into the pit aliue to dye there He lookt for brethren and behold murtherers Euery mans tongue euery mans fist was bent against him Each one striues who shall lay the first hand vpon that changeable cote which was dyed with their Fathers
aduantage Fauours had bin more binding then cruelties yet the foolish Aegyptian had rather haue impotent seruants then able friends For their welfare alone Pharaoh owes Israel a mischiefe and how wil he pay it Come let vs worke wisely Lewd men call wicked policies wisdome and their successe happinesse Herein Satan is wiser then they who both layes the plot and makes them such fooles as to mistake villany and madnesse for the best vertue Iniustice is vpheld by violence whereas iust gouernments are maintained by loue Taske-masters must be set ouer Israel they should not be the true Seed of Israel if they were not still set to wrestle with God in afflictions Heauy burdens must bee laid vpon them Israel is neuer but loaded the destiny of one of Iacobs sonnes is common to all To lye downe betwixt their burdens If they had seemed to breathe them in Goshen sometimes yet euen there it was no small miserie to be forainers and to liue among Idolaters but now the name of a slaue is added to the name of a stranger Israel had gathered some rust in idolatrous Aegypt and now he must be scowred they had borne the burden of Gods anger if they had not borne the burdens of the Aegyptians As God afflicted them with another minde then the Aegyptians God to exercise them the Aegyptians to suppresse them so causes he the euent to differ Who would not haue thought with these Aegyptians that so extreme misery should not haue made the Israelites vnfit both for generation and resistance Moderate exercise strengthens extreame destroyes nature That God which many times workes by contrary means caused them to grow with depression with persecution to multiply How can Gods Church but fare well since the very malice of their enemies benefits them Oh the Soueraigne goodnes of our God that turnes all our poisons into cordials Gods Vine beares the better with bleeding And now the Aegyptians could be angry with their owne maliciousnesse that this was the occasion of multiplying them whom they hated and feared to see that this seruice gained more to the workmen then to their Masters The stronger therefore the Israelites grew the more impotent grew the malice of their persecutors And since their owne labour strengthens them now tyrannie will try what can be done by the violence of others since the present strength cannot bee subdued the hopes of succession must be preuented women must be suborned to bee murderers and those whose office is to helpe the birth must destroy it There was lesse suspition of crueltie in that sexe and more opportunitie of doing mischiefe The male children must be borne and die at once what can be more innocent then the childe that hath not liued so much as to cry or to see light It is fault enough to be the sonne of an Israelite the daughters may liue for bondage for lust a condition so much at the least worse then death as their sex was weaker O maruellous cruelty that a man should kill a man for his sexes sake Whosoeuer hath loosed the reynes vnto cruelty is easily caried into incredible extremities From burdens they proceed to bondage and from bondage to blood from an vniust vexation of their body to an inhumane destruction of the fruit of their body As the sinnes of the concupiscible part from slight motions grow on to foule executions so doe those of the irascible there is no sinne whose harbour is more vnsafe then of that of malice But oft-times the power of tyrants answers not their will euill commanders cannot alwayes meet with equally mischieuous agents The feare of God teaches the Midwiues to disobey an vniust command they well knew how no excuse it is for euill I was bidden God said to their hearts Thou shalt not kill This voice was lowder then Pharaohs I commend their obedience in disobeying I dare not commend their excuse there was as much weaknesse in their answer as strength in their practice as they feared God in not killing so they feared Pharaoh in dessembling oft-times those that make conscience of greater sinnes are ouertaken with lesse It is well and rare if we can come forth of a dangerous action without any foyle and if we haue escaped the storme that some after-drops wet vs not Who would not haue expected that the Midwiues should be murdered for not murthering Pharaoh could not be so simple to thinke these women a rusty yet his indignation had no power to reach to their punishment God prospered the Mid-wiues who can harme them Euen the not doing of euill is rewarded with good And why did they prosper Because they feared God Not for their dissimulation but their piety So did God regard their mercy that he regarded not their infirmity How fondly doe men lay the thanke vpon the sinne which is due to the vertue true wisedome teaches to distinguish Gods actions and to ascribe them to the right causes Pardon belongs to the lye of the Mid-wiues and remuneration to their goodnesse prosperity to their feare of God But that which the Mid-wiues will not the multitudes shall doe It were strange if wicked Rulers should not find some or other instruments of violence all the people must drowne whom the women saued Cruelty hath but smoked before now it â—ames vp secret practising hath made it shamelesse that now it dare proclaime tyranny It is a miserable state where euery man is made an executioner there can be no greater argument of an ill cause then a bloody persecution whereas Truth vpholds her selfe by mildnesse and is promoted by patience This is their act what was their issue The people must drowne their males themselues are drowned they died by the same meanes by which they caused the poore Israelitish infants to dye that law of retaliation which God will not allow to vs because we are fellow-creatures he iustly pactiseth in vs. God would haue vs reade our sinnes in our iudgements that we might both repent of our sins and giue glory to his iustice Pharaoh raged before much more now that he receiued a message of dismission the monitions of God make ill men worse the waues doe not beat nor roare any where so much as at the banke which restraines them Corruption when it is checked growes mad with rage as the vapour in a cloud would not make that fearfull report if it met not with opposition A good heart yeelds at the stillest voice of God but the most gracious motions of God harden the wicked Many would not be so desperately setled in their sinnes if the world had not controuled them How mild a message was this to Pharaoh and yet how galling We pray thee let vs goe God commands him that which he feared He tooke pleasure in the present seruitude of Israel God cals for a release If the sute had been for mitigation of labour for preseruation of their children it might haue caried some hope and haue found some fauour but now God requires that
beene as good husbands of their cattell as they were of their dough they might haue had enough to eate without need of murmuring for if their back-burden of dough lasted for a moneth their heards might haue serued them many yeares All grudging is odious but most when our hands are full To whine in the midst of abundance is a shamefull vnthankfulnesse When a man would haue looked that the anger of God should haue appeared in fire now behold his glory appeares in a Cloud Oh the exceeding long-suffering of God that heares their murmurings and as if he had beene bound to content them in stead of punishing pleases them as a kinde mother would deale with a crabid child who rather stils him with the brest then cals for the rod. One would haue thought that the fight of the cloud of God should haue dispel'd the cloud of their distrust and this glory of God should haue made them asham'd of themselues and afraid of him Yet I doe not heare them once say What a mighty and gracious God haue we distrusted Nothing will content an impotent minde but fruition When an heart is hardned with any passion it will endure much ere it will yeeld to relent Their eyes saw the cloud their eares heard the promise the performance is speedie and answerable Needs must they be conuinced when they saw God as glorious in his worke as in his presence when they saw his word iustified by his act God tels them afore-hand what hee will doe that their expectation might stay their hearts He doth that which he fore-told that they might learne to trust him ere he performe They desired meat and receiue Quailes they desired bread and haue Manna If they had had of the coursest flesh and of the basest Pulse hunger would haue made it dainty But now God will pamper their famine and giues them meat of Kings and Bread of Angels What a world of Quailes were but sufficient to serue six hundred thousand persons They were all strong all hungry neither could they bee satisfied with single Fowles What a Table hath God prepared in the Desart for abundance for delicacie Neuer Prince was so serued in his greatest pompe as these rebellious Israelites in the Wildernesse God loues to ouer-deserue of men and to exceed not onely their sinnes but their very desires in mercy How good shall wee finde him to those that please him since he is so gracious to offenders If the most gracelesse Israelites be fed with Quailes and Manna Oh what goodnesse is that hee hath laid vp for them that loue him As on the contrary If the Righteous scarce be saued where will the Sinners appeare Oh God thou canst thou wilt make this difference Howsoeuer with vs men the most crabbed and stubborne oftentimes fare the best the Righteous Iudge of the world frames his remuneration as he finds vs And if his mercy sometimes prouoke the worst to repentance by his temporall fauours yet he euer reserues so much greater reward for the Righteous as eternitie is beyond time and heauen aboue earth It was not of any naturall instinct but from the ouer-ruling power of their Creator that these Quailes came to the Desart Needs must they come whom GOD brings His hand is in all the motions of his meanest Creatures Not onely wee but they mooue in him As not many Quailes so not one Sparrow falls without him How much more are the actions of his best creature Man directed by his prouidence How ashamed might these Israelites haue been to see these creatures so obedient to their Creator as to come and offer themselues to their slaughter whiles they went so repiningly to his seruice and their owne preferment Who can distrust the prouision of the great House keeper of the world when hee sees how hee can furnish his tables at pleasure Is he growne now carelesse or we faith lesse rather Why doe wee not repose vpon his mercy Rather then we shall want when we trust him he will fetch Quailes from all the coasts of heauen to our boord Oh Lord thy hand is not shortned to giue let not ours bee shortned or shuâ—â— receiuing Eliahs seruitors the Rauens brought him his full seruice of bread and flesh at once each morning and euening But these Israelites haue their flesh at euen and their bread in the morning Good reason there should be a difference Eliahs table was vpon Gods direct appointment the Israelites vpon their mutiny Although God will relieue them with prouision yet he will punish their impatience with delay so shall they know themselues his people that they shall finde they were murmurers Not onely in the matter but in the order God answers their grudging First they complaine of the want of flesh-pots then of bread In the first place therefore they haue flesh bread after When they haue flesh yet they must stay a time ere they can haue a full meale vnlesse they would eate their meat breadlesse and their bread dry God will be waited on and will giue the consummation of his blessings at this leasure In the euening of our life we haue the first pledges of his fauour but in the morning of our resurrection must we looke for our perfect sacietie of the true Manna the bread of life Now the Israelites sped well with their Quailes they did eate and digest and prosper not long after they haue Quailes with a vengeance the meat was pleasant but the sauce was fearfull They let downe the Quailes at their mouth but they came out at their nostrils How much better had it been to haue died of hunger through the chastisement of God then of the plague of God with the flesh betwixt their teeth Behold they perish of the same disease then whereof they now recouer The same sinne repeated is death whose first act found remission Relapses are desperate where the sicknesse it selfe is not With vs men once goes away with a warning the second act is but whipping the third is death It is a mortall thing to abuse the lenity of God we should be presumptuously mad to hope that God will stand vs for a sinning-stock to prouoke him how we will It is more mercy then he owes vs if he forbeare vs once it is his iustice to plague vs the second time We may thanke our selues if we will not be warned Their meat was strange but nothing so much as their bread To finde Quailes in a Wildernesse was vnusuall but for bread to come downe from Heauen was yet more They had seene Quailes before though not in such number Manna was neuer seene till now From this day till their setling in Canaan God wrought a perpetuall miracle in this food A miracle in the place other bread rises vp from below this fell down from aboue neither did it euer raine bread till now Yet so did this heauenly showre fall that it is confined to the campe of Israel A miracle in the quantitie That euery morning
should fall enough to fill so many hundred thousand mouthes and mawes A miracle in the composition That it is sweet like hony-cakes round like Corianders transparent as dew A miracle in the qualitie That it melted by one heat by another hardened A miracle in the difference of the fall That as if it knew times and would reach them as well as feed them it fell double in the euen of the Sabbath and on the Sabbath fell not A miracle in the putrefaction and preseruation That it was full of wormes when it was kept beyond the due houre for distrust full of sweetnesse when it was kept a day longer for religion Yea many Ages in the Arke for a monument of the power and mercy of the Giuer A miracle in the continuance and ceasing That this showre of bread followed their Campe in all their remoueals till they came to taste of the bread of Canaan and then withdrew it selfe as if it should haue said Ye need no miracles now ye haue meanes They had the Types we haue the substance In this wildernesse of the World the true Manna is rained vpon the tents of our hearts Hee that sent the Manna was the Manna which he sent He hath said I am the Manna that came downe from heauen Behold their whole meales were sacramentall Euery morsell they did eate was spirituall We eate still of their Manna still he comes downe from heauen Hee hath substance enough for worlds of soules yet onely is to be found in the lists of the true Church He hath more sweetnesse then the hony and the hony-combe Happy are we if we can find him so sweet as he is The same hand that rained Manna vpon their tents could haue rained it into their mouths or laps God loues we should take paines for our spirituall food Little would it haue auailed them that the Manna lay about their tents if they had not gone forth and gathered it beaten it bak't it Let saluation be neuer so plentifull if wee bring it not home and make it ours by faith we are no whit the better If the worke done and meanes vsed had beene enough to giue life no Israelite had dyed Their bellies were full of that bread whereof one crumme giues life yet they dyed many of them in displeasure As in naturall so in spirituall things wee may not trust to meanes The carcasse of the Sacrament cannot giue life but the soule of it which is the thing represented I see each man gather and take his iust measure out of the common heape We must be industrious and helpefull each to other but when we haue done Christ is not partiall If our sanctification differ yet our iustification is equall in all He that gaue a Gomer to each could haue giuen an Ephah As easily could hee haue rained downe enough for a moneth or a yeare at once as for a day God delights to haue vs liue in a continual dependance vpon his prouidence and each day renue the acts of our faith and thankfullnesse But what a couetous Israelite was that which in a foolish distrust would be sparing the charges of God and reseruing that for morning which he should haue spent vpon his supper He shall know that euen the bread that came downe from heauen can corrupt The Manna was from aboue the wormes and stinke from his diffidence Nothing is so soueraigne which being peruerted may not annoy instead of benefiting vs. Yet I see some difference betweene the true typicall Manna God neuer meant that the shadow and the body should agree in all things The outward Manna reserued was poison the spirituall Manna is to vs as it was to the Arke not good vnlesse it be kept perpetually If we keepe it it shall keepe vs from putrefaction The outward Manna fell not at all on the Sabbath The spirituall Manna tho it ballâ—â—s no day yet it fals double on Gods day and if we gather it not then we famish In that true Sabbath of our glorious rest we shall for euer feed of that Manna which we haue gathered in this euen of our life Of the Rocke of Rephidim BEfore Israel thirsted and was satisfied after that they hungred and were filled now they thirst againe They haue bread and meat but want drink It is a maruell if God doe not euermore hold vs short of something because he would keepe vs still in exercise Wee should forget at whose cost we liue if we wanted nothing Still God obserues a vicissitude of euill and good and the same euils that we haue passed returne vpon vs in their courses Crosses are not of the nature of those diseases which they say a man can haue but once Their first seisure doth but make way for their re-entry None but our last enemie comes once for all and I know not if that for euen in liuing we dye daily So must we take our leaues of all afflictions that we reserue a lodging for them and expect their returne All Israel murmured when they wanted bread meat water and yet all Israel departed from the wildernesse of Sin to Rephidim at Gods command The very worst men will obey God in something none but the good in all Hee is rarely desperate that makes an vniuersall opposition to God It is an vnsound praise that is giuen a man for one good action It may bee safely said of the very Deuils themselues that they doe something well They know and beleeue and tremble If we follow God and murmur it is all one as if we had stayd behind Those distrust his prouidence in their necessity that are ready to follow his guidance in their welfare It is an harder matter to endure an extreame want then to obey an hard commandement Sufferings are greater tryals then actions How many haue we seene ieopard their liues with cheerfull resolution which cannot endure in cold blood to lose a limbe with patience But God will haue his throughly tryed he puts them to both and if we cannot endure both to follow him from Sin and to thirst in Rephidim we are not found Israelites God led them on purpose to this drie Rephidim He could as well haue conducted them to another Elim to conuenient waterings Or hee that giues the waters of all their channels could as well haue deriued them to meet Israel But God doth purposely cary them to thirst Is it not for necessity that we fare ill but out of choyce It were all one with God to giue vs health as sicknesse abundance as pouerty The treasurie of his riches hath more store then his creature can be capable of we should not complaine if it were not good for vs to want This should haue beene a contentment able to quench any thirst God hath led vs hither If Moses out of ignorance had misguided vs or we chanceably falne vpon these dry desarts though this were no remedy of our griefe yet it might be some ground of our complaint But now the
touched of the purest Israelite Here the hem of his garment is touched by the woman that had the flux of blood yea his very face was touched with the lips of Iudas There the very earth vvas prohibited them on which he descended Here his very body and blood is profered to our touch and taste Oh the maruellous kindnesse of our God! How vnthankfull are we if we doe not acknowledge this mercy aboue his ancient people They were his owne yet strangers in comparison of our libertie It is our shame and sinne if in these meanes of intirenesse we be no better acquainted with God then they which in their greatest familiaritie vvere commanded aloofe God was euer wonderfull in his workes and fearfull in his iudgements but hee was neuer so terrible in the execution of his will as now in the promulgation of it Here was nothing but a maiesticall terrour in the eyes in the eares of the Israelites as if God meant to shew them by this how fearfull he could be Here was the lightning darted in their eyes the thunders roaring in their eares the Trumpet of God drowning the thunder claps the voice of God out-speaking the Trumpet of the Angell The Cloud enwrapping the smoake ascending the fire flaming the Mount trembling Moses climbing and quaking palenesse and death in the face of Israel vprore in the elements and all the glory of heauen turned into terrour In the destruction of the first World there were clouds without fire In the destruction of Sodom there was fire raining without clouds but here was fire smoake clouds thunder earthquakes and whatsoeuer might worke more astonishment then euer was in any vengeance inflicted And if the Law vvere thus giuen how shall it be required If such were the Proclamation of Gods Statutes what shall the Sessions bee I see and tremble at the resemblance The Trumpet of the Angell called vnto the one The voice of an Archangell the Trumpet of God shall summon vs to the other To the one Moses that climbed vp that Hill and alone saw it sayes God came with ten thousands of his Saints In the other thousand thousands shall minister to him and ten thousand thousands shal stand before him In the one Mount Sinai onely was on a flame all the World shall be so in the other In the one there was fire smoake thunder and lightning In the other a fiery streame shall issue from him wherewith the heauens shall be dissolued and the Elements shall melt away vvith a noise Oh God how powerfull art thou to inflict vengeance vpon sinners who didst thus forbid sinne and if thou vvert so terrible a Law-giuer vvhat a Iudge shalt thou appeare What shall become of the breakers of so fierie a Law Oh vvhere shall those appeare that are guilty of the transgressing that law vvhose very deliuery vvas little lesse then death If our God should exact his Law but in the same rigour wherein he gaue it sinne could not quite the cost But now the fire vvherein it was deliuered was but terrifying the fire wherein it shall bee required is consuming Happy are those that are from vnder the terrours of that Law which was giuen in fire and in fire shall be required God would haue Israel see that they had not to do with some impotent Commander that is faine to publish his Lawes without noyse in dead paper which can more easily enioyne then punish or descry then execute and therefore before hee giues them a Law he shewes them that he can command Heauen Earth Fire Ayre in reuenge of the breach of the Law That they could not but thinke it deadly to displease such a Law-giuer or violate such dreadfull statutes that they might see all the Elements examples of that obedience which they should yeeld vnto their Maker This fire wherein the Law was giuen is still in it and will neuer out Hence are those terrours which it flashes in euery conscience that hath felt remorse of sinne Euery mans heart is a Sinai and resembles to him both heauen and hell The sting of death is sinne and the strength of sinne is the Law That they might see he could finde out their closest sinnes hee deliuers his Law in the light of fire from out of the smoake That they might see what is due to their sinnes they see fire aboue to represent the fire that should be below them That they might know he could waken their securitie the Thunder and louder voice of GOD speakes to their hearts That they might see what their hearts should doe the Earth quakes vnder them That they might see they could not shift their appearance the Angels call them together Oh royall Law and mighty Law-giuer How could they think of hauing any other God that had such proofes of this How could they think of making any resemblance of him whom they saw could not be seene and whom they saw in not being seene infinite How could they thinke of daring to profane his Name vvhom they heard to name himselfe with that voice Iehoua How could they thinke of standing vvith him for a day whom they saw to command that heauen vvhich makes and measures day How could they thinke of disobeying his Deputies whom they saw so able to reuenge How could they thinke of killing when they were halfe dead with the feare of him that could kill both body and soule How could they think of the flames of lust that saw such fires of vengeance How could they thinke of stealing from others that saw whose the heauen and the earth was to dispose of at his pleasure How could they thinke of speaking falsely that heard God speake in so fearfull a tone How could they thinke of coueting others goods that saw how vveake and vncertaine right they had to their owne Yea to vs vvas this Law so deliuered to vs in them neither had there beene such state in the promulgation of it if God had not intended it for Eternity We men that so feare the breach of humane Lawes for some small mulcts of forfeiture how should vvee feare thee O Lord that canst cast body and soule into hell Of the Golden Calfe IT was not much aboue a moneth since Israel made their couenant with God since they trembled to heare him say Thou shalt haue no other Gods but me since they saw Moses part from them and climbe vp the Hill to God and now they say Make vs Gods we know not what is become of this Moses Oh ye mad Israelites haue ye so soon forgotten that fire and thunder which you heard and saw Is that smoake vanished out of your minde as soone as out of your sight Could your hearts cease to tremble with the earth Can yee in the very sight of Sinai call for other Gods And for Moses was it not for your sakes that he thrust himselfe into the midst of that smoake and fire which ye feared to see afar off Was he not now gone after so many sudden
had set vp an Altar to the Calfe must serue at the Altar of God He that had melted and carued out the Calfe for a god must sacrifice Calues and Rams and Bullocks vnto the True God He that consecrated a day to the Idol is himselfe consecrated to him which was dishonored by the Idol The grosest of all sinnes cannot prejudice the calling of God Yea as the light is best seene in darknesse the mercy of God is most magnified in our vnworthinesse What a difference God puts betweene persons and sinnes While so many thousand Israelites were slaine and that had stomackfully desired the Idol Aaron that in weaknesse condescended is both pardoned the fact and afterwards laden with honour from God Let no man take heart to sinne from mercy He that can purpose to sinne vpon the knowledge of Gods mercy in the remission of infirmities presumes and makes himselfe a wilfull offender It is no comfort to the wilfull that there is remission to the weake and penitent The earings are pluckt off Aegyptian iewels are fit for an idolatrous vse This very gold was contagious It had been better the Israelites had neuer borrowed these ornaments then that they should pay them back to the Idolatry of their first owners What cost the superstitious Israelites are content to beat for this lewd deuotion The riches and pride of their outward habite are they willing to part with to their molten god as glad to haue their eares bare that they might fill their eyes No gold is too deare for their Idol each man is content to spoyle their wiues and children of that whereof they spoyled the Aegyptians Where are those worldlings that cannot abide to be at any cost for their Religion which could be content to doe God chargelesse seruice These very Israelites that were ready to giue Gold not out of their purses but from their very eares to mis-deuotion shall once condemne them O Sacriledge succeeding to Superstition Of old they were ready to giue gold to the false seruice of God we to take away gold from the true How doe we see men prodigall to their lusts and ambitions and we hate not to be niggards to God! This gold is now growne to a Calfe Let no man thinke that forme came forth casually out of the melted earings This shape was intended by the Israelites and perfected by Aaron they brought this god in their hearts with them out of Aegypt and now they set it vp in their eyes Still doth Aegypt hurt them Seruitude was the least euill that Israel receiues from Aegypt for that sent them still to the True God but this Idolatrous example led them to a false The very sight of euill is dangerous and it is hard for the heart not to runne into those sinnes to which the eye and care is inured Not out of loue but custome we fall into some offences The Israelites wrought so long in the furnaces of the Aegyptian bricke that they haue brought forth a molten Calfe The blacke Calfe with the white spots which they saw worshipped in Aegypt hath stolne their hearts And they which before would haue beene at the Aegyptian flesh-pots would now be at their deuotions How many haue falne into a fashion of swearing scoffing drinking out of the vsuall practice of others as those that liue in an ill ayre are infected with diseases A man may passe thorow Aethiopia vnchanged but he cannot dwell there and not be discoloured Their sin was bad enough let not our vncharitablenesse make it worse No man may thinke they haue so put off humanity and sense with their Religion as to thinke that Calfe a god or that this Idoll which they saw yesterday made did bring them out of Aegypt three moneths agoe This were to make them more beasts then that Calfe which this Image represented Or if they should haue been so insensate can we thinke that Aaron could be thus desperately mad The Image and the Holy-day were both to one Deity To morrow is the Holyday of the Lord your God It was the true God they meant to worship in the Calfe and yet at best this Idolatry is shamefull It is no maruell if this foule sinne seeke pretences yet no excuse can hide the shame of such a face Gods iealousie is not stirred onely by the riuality of a false God but of a false worship nothing is more dangerous then to mint Gods seruices in our owne braine God sends downe Moses to remedy this sinne He could as easily haue preuented as redressed it He knew ere Moses came vp what Israel would doe ere he came downe like as he knew the two Tables would be broken ere he gaue them God most wisely permits and ordaines sinne to his owne ends without our excuse And though he could easily by his owne hands remedy euils yet he will doe it by meanes both ordinary and subordinate It is not for vs to looke for an immediate redresse from God when we haue a Moses by whom it may bee wrought Since God himselfe expects this from man why should man expect it from God Now might Moses haue found a time to haue beene euen with Israel for all their vnthankfulnesse and mutinous insurrections Let mee alone I will consume them and make thee a mighty Nation Moses should not neede to sollicite God for reuenge God sollicits him in a sort for leaue to reuenge Who would look for such a word from God to Man Let me alone As yet Moses had said nothing Before hee opens his mouth God preuents his importunitie as fore-seeing that holy violence which the requests of Moses would offer to him Moses stood trembling before the Maiestie of his Maker and yet heares him say Let me alone The mercy of our God hath as it were obliged his power to the faith of men The feruent prayers of the faithfull hold the hands of the Almighty As I finde it said afterwards of Christ That hee could doe no miracles there because of their vnbeliefe So now I heare God as if he could not do execution vpon Israel because of Moses's faith say Let me alone that I may consume them We all naturally affect propriety and like our owne so much better as it is freer from partners Euery one would be glad to say with that proud one I am and there is none beside me so much the more sweetly would this message haue sounded to nature I will consume them and make of thee a mighty Nation How many indeuour that not without danger of curses and vprore which was voluntarily tendred vnto Moses Whence are our depopulations and inclosures but for that men cannot abide either fellowes or neighbours But how graciously doth Moses striue with God against his owne preferment If God had threatned I will consume thee and make of them a mighty Nation I doubt whether he could haue beene more moued The more a man can leaue himselfe behind him and aspire to a care of communitie the more spirituall he
neither must dye nor be quenched God as he is himselfe eternall so he loues permanency and constancie of grace in vs If wee be but a flash and away God regards vs not all promises are to perseuerance Sure it is but an elementary fire that goes out that which is celestiall continues it was but some presumptuous heat in vs that decayes vpon euery occasion But he that miraculously sent downe this fire at first will not renew the miracle euery day by a like supply it began immediately from God it must bee nourished by meanes Fuell must maintaine that fire which came from Heauen God wil not work miracles euery day if he haue kindled his Spirit in vs we may not expect he shall euery day begin againe wee haue the fuell of the Word and Sacraments Prayers and Meditations which must keepe it in for euer It is from God that these helps can nourish his graces in vs like as euery flame of our materiall fire hath a concourse of prouidence but we may not expect new infusions rather know that God expects of vs an improuement of those habituall graces we haue receiued Whiles the people with feare and ioy see God lighting his owne fire fire from heauen the two sonnes of Aaron in a carelesse presumption will be seruing him with a common flame As if he might not haue leaue to choose the formes of his owne worship If this had beene done some ages after when the memory of the originall of this heauenly fire had beene worne out it might haue beene excused with ignorance but now when God had newly sent his fire from aboue newly commanded the continuance of it either to let it goe out or whiles it still flamed to fetch prophane coales to Gods Altar could sauour of no lesse then presumption and Sacriledge when we bring zeale without knowledge misconceits of faith carnall affections the deuices of our Wil-worship Superstitious Deuotions into Gods Seruice we bring common fire to his Altar these flames were neuer of his kindling Hee hates both Altar Fire Priest and Sacrifice And now behold the same fire which consumed the Sacrifice before consumes the Sacrificers It was the signe of his acceptation in consuming the beast but whiles it destroyed men the fearfull signe of his displeasure By the same meanes can God bewray both loue and hatred Wee would haue pleaded for Nadab and Abihu They are but yong-men the sonnes of Aaron not yet warme in their Function let both age and blood and inexperience excuse them as yet No pretences no priuiledges can beare off a sinne with God Men thinke either to patronize or mitigate euils by their fained reasons That no man may hope the plea either of birth or of youth or of the first commission of euill may challenge pardon I see heere yong men sonnes of the Ruler of Israel for the first offence strooke dead Yea this made God the more to stomack and the rather to reuenge this impiety because the Sonnes of Aaron did it God had both pardoned and graced their Father he had honoured them of the thousands of Israel culling them out for his Altar and now as their Father set vp a false god so they bring false fire vnto the True God If the sonnes of Infidels liue godlessely they doe their kinde their punishment shall be though iust yet lesse but if the children of religious Parents after all Christian nurture shall shame their Education God takes it more hainously and reuenges is more sharply The more bonds of duty the more plagues of neglect If from the Agents wee looke to the act it selfe set aside the originall descent and what difference was there betwixt these fires Both lookt alike heated alike ascended alike consumed alike both were fed with the same materiall wood both vanished into smoke There was no difference but the Commandement of God If God had inioyned ordinarie fire they had sinned to looke for celestiall now he commanded onely the fire which he sent they sinned in sending vp Incense in that fire which he commanded not It is a dangerous thing in the seruice of God to decline from his owne institutions we haue to doe with a power which is wise to prescribe his owne worship iust to require what he hath prescribed powerful to reuenge that which he hath not required If God had strooke them with some Leprosie in their forehead as he did their Aunt Miriam soon after or with some palsie or lingering consumption the punishment had beene grieuous but he whose iudgements are euer iust sometimes secret saw fire the fittest reuenge for a sinne of fire his owne fire fittest to punish strange fire A sudden iudgement fit for a present and exemplarie sinne He saw that if he had winkt at this his seruice had been exposed to prophanation It is wisedome in gouernours to take sinne at the first bound and so to reuenge it that their punishments may bee preuentions Speed of death is not alwayes a iudgement suddennesse as it is euer iustly suspicable so then certainly argues anger when it finds vs in an act of sinne Leasure of repentance is an argument of fauour vvhen God giues a man Law it implyes that he would not haue iudgement surprize him Doubtlesse Aaron lookt somewhat heauily on this sad spectacle It could not but appall him to see his two sonnes dead before him dead in displeasure dead suddenly dead by the immediate hand of God And now hee could repent him of his new honour to see it succeed so ill with the sonnes of his loynes neither could hee chuse but see himselfe stricken in them But his Brother Moses that had learned not to know either Nephewes or Brother when they stood in his way to God wisely turned his eyes from the dead carkasses of his Sonnes to his respect of the liuing God My Brother this euent is fearfull but iust These were thy sonnes but they sinned it was not for God it is not for thee to looke so much who they were as what they did It was their honour and thine that they were chosen to minister before the Lord Hee that called them iustly required their Sanctification obedience If they haue prophaned God and themselues can thy naturall affection so miscary thee that thou couldest wish their impunity with the blemish of thy Maker Our sonnes are not ours if they disobey our Father to pitie their misery is to partake of their sinnes If thou grudge at their iudgement take heed lest the same fire of God come forth vpon this strange fire of nature Shew now whether thou more louest God or thy sonnes Shew whether thou be a better Father or a Sonne Aaron weighing these things holds his peace not out of an amazement or sullennesse but out of patient and humble submission and seeing Gods pleasure and their desert is content to forget that hee had sonnes He might haue had a silent tongue and a clamorous heart There is no voice louder in
the eares of God then a speechlesse repining of the soule Heat is more intended with keeping in but Aarons silence was no lesse inward He knew how little he should get by brawling with God If he breathed our discontentment he saw God could speake fire to him againe And therefore he quietly submits to the will of God and held his peace because the Lord had done it There is no greater proofe of grace then to smart patiently and humbly and contentedly to rest the heart in the iustice and wisedome of Gods proceeding and to bee so farre from chiding that we dispute not Nature is froward and though shee well knowes we meddle not with our match when we striue with our Maker yet she pricks vs forward to this idle quarrell and bids vs with Iobs wife Curse and dye If God either chide or smite as seruants are charged to their Masters wee may not answer againe when Gods hand is on our backe our hand must be our mouth else as mothers doe their children God shall whip vs so much the more for crying It is hard for a stander by in this case to distinguish betwixt hard-heartednesse and piety There Aaron sees his sonnes lye he may neither put his hand to them to bury them nor shead a teare for their death Neuer parent can haue iuster cause of mourning then to see his sonnes dead in their sinne if prepared and penitent yet who can but sorrow for their end but to part with children to the danger of a second death is worthy of more then teares Yet Aaron must learne so farre to deny nature that he must more magnifie the iustice of God then lament the iudgement Those whom God hath called to his immediate seruice must know that hee will not allow them the common passions and cares of others Nothing is more naturall then sorrow for the death of our owne if euer griefe be seasonable it becomes a funerall And if Nadab and Abihu had dyed in their beds this fauour had been allowed them the sorrow of their Father and Brethren for when God forbids solemne mourning to his Priests ouer the dead hee excepts the cases of this neernesse of blood Now all Israel may mourne for these two only the Father and Brethren may not God is iealous lest their sorrow should seeme to countenance the sinne which he had punished euen the fearfullest acts of God must be applauded by the heauiest hearts of the faithfull That which the Father and Brother may not doe the Cousins are commanded dead carkasses are not for the presence of God His iustice was shewne sufficiently in killing them They are now fit for the graue not the Sanctuary Neither are they caried out naked but in their coats It was an vnusuall sight for Israel to see a linnen Ephod vpon the Beere The iudgement was so much more remarkable because they had the badge of their calling vpon their backs Nothing is either more pleasing vnto God or more commodious to men then that when he hath executed iudgement it should bee seene and wondred at for therefore he strikes some that he may warne all Of AARON and MIRIAM THe Israelites are stayed seuen dayes in the station of Hazzeroth for the punishment of Miriam The sinnes of the gouernors are a iust stop to the people all of them smart in one all must stay the leasure of Miriams recouerie Whosoeuer seekes the Land of Promise shall finde many lets Amalek Og Schon and the Kings of Canaan meet with Israel these resisted but hindred not their passage their sinnes onely stay them from remouing Afflictions are not crosses to vs in the way to heauen in comparison to our sinnes What is this I see Is not this Aaron that was brother in nature and by office ioynt Commissioner with Moses Is not this Aaron that made his Brother an Intercessor for him to God in the case of his Idolatry Is not this Aaron that climbed vp the Hill of Sinai with Moses Is not this Aaron whom the mouth and hand of Moses consecrated an high Priest vnto God Is not this Miriam the elder Sister of Moses Is not this Miriam that led the Triumph of the Women and sung gloriously to the Lord It not this Miriam which layd her Brother Moses in the Reeds and fetcht her Mother to be his Nurse Both Prophets of God both the flesh and blood of Moses And doth this Aaron repine at the honor of him which gaue himselfe that honour and saued his life Doth this Miriam repine at the prosperity of him whose life she saued Who would not haue thought this should haue beene their glory to haue seene the glory of their owne Brother What could haue beene a greater comfort to Miriam then to thinke How happily doth he now sit at the Sterne of Israel whom I saued from perishing in a Boat of Bul-rushes It is to mee that Israel owes this Commander But now enuy hath so blinded their eyes that they can neither see this priuiledge of nature nor the honour of Gods choyce Miriam and Aaron are in mutiny against Moses Who is so holy that sinnes not What sinne is so vnnaturall that the best can auoyde without God But what weaknesse soeuer may plead for Miriam who can but grieue to see Aaron at the end of so many sinnes Of late I saw him caruing the molten Image and consecrating an Altar to a false god now I see him seconding an vnkind mutiny against his Brother Both sinnes find him accessary neither principall It was not in the power of the legall Priesthood to performe or promise innocency to her Ministers It was necessary wee should haue another high Priest which could not bee tainted That King of righteousnesse was of another order He being without sinne hath fully satisfied for the sinnes of men Whom can it now offend to see the blemishes of the Euangelicall Priesthood when Gods first high Priest is thus miscaried Who can looke for loue and prosperity at once when holy and meeke Moses finds enmity in his owne flesh and blood Rather then we shall want A mans enemies shall be those of his owne house Authority cannot fayle of opposition if it be neuer so mildly swayed that common make-bate will rather raise it out of our owne bosome To doe well and heare ill is Princely The Midianitish wife of Moses cost him deare Before she hazarded his life now the fauour of his people Vnequall matches are seldome prosperous Although now this scandall was onely taken Enuy was not wise enough to choose a ground of the quarrell Whether some secret and emulatory brawles passed between Zipporah and Miriam as many times these sparkes of priuate brawles grow into a perillous and common flame or whether now that Iethro and his family was ioyned with Israel there were surmises of transporting the Gouernment to strangers or whether this vnfit choice of Moses is now raised vp to disparage Gods gifts in him Euen in fight the exceptions were
leaues to the sword of humane authority that hee might winne awe to his owne ordinances As the sinnes of great men are exemplary so are their punishments Nothing procures so much credit to gouernment as strict and impartiall executions of great and noble offenders Those whom their sinnes haue embased deserue no fauour in the punishment As God knowes no honour no royalty in matter of sinne no more may his Deputies Contrarily conniuence at the outrages of the mighty cuts the sinewes of any State neither doth any thing make good lawes more contemptible then the making difference of offenders that small sacriledges should bee punished when great ones ride in triumph If good ordinations turne once to Spiders webs which are broken thorow by the bigger Flyes no hand will feare to sweepe them downe God was angry Moses and all good Israelites grieued the heads hanged vp the people plagued yet behold one of the Princes of Israel feares not to braue God and his Ministers in that sinne which he sees so grieuously reuenged in others I can neuer wonder enough at the impudence of this Israelite Here is fornication an odious crime and that of an Israelite whose name challenges holinesse yea of a Prince of Israel whose practice is a rule to inferiours and that with a woman of Midian with whom euen a chaste contract had beene vnlawfull and that with contempt of all gouernment and that in the face of Moses and all Israel and that in a time of mourning and iudgement for that same offence Those that haue once passed the bounds of modesty soone grow shamelesse in their sinnes Whiles sinne hides it selfe in corners there is yet hope for where there is shame there is a possibility of grace but when once it dare looke vpon the Sunne and sends challenges to authority the case is desperate and ripe for iudgement This great Simeonite thought he might sinne by priuiledge He goes as if he said Who dares controll me His nobility hath raised him aboue the reach of correction Commonly the sinnes of the mighty are not without presumption and therefore their vengeance is no lesse then their security and their punishment is so much greater as their conceit of impunity is greater All Israel saw this bold lewdnesse of Zimri but their hearts and eyes were so full of griefe that they had not roome enough for indignation Phineas lookt on with the rest but with other affections When he saw this defiance bidden to God and this insultation vpon the sorrow of his people that whiles they were wringing their hands a proud miscreant durst out-face their humiliation with his wicked dalliance his hart boiles with a desire of an holy reuenge and now that hand which was vsed to a Censer and sacrificing knife takes vp his Iauelin and with one stroke ioynes these two bodies in their death which were ioyned in their sin and in the very flagrance of their lust makes a new way for their soules to their owne place O noble and heroicall courage of Phineas which as it was rewarded of God so is worthy to be admired of men He doth not stand casting of scruple Who am I to doe this The son of the high Priest My place is all for peace and mercy It is for mee to sacrifice and pray for the sinne of the people not to sacrifice any of the people for their sinne My duty cals me to appease the anger of God what I may not to reuenge the sins of men to pray for their conuersion not to worke the confusion of any sinner and who are these Is not the one a great Prince in Israel the other a Princesse of Midian Can the death of two so famous persons go vnreuenged Or if it be safe and fit why doth my vncle Moses rather shead his owne teares then their blood I will mourne with the rest let them reuenge whom it concerneth But the zeale of God hath barred out all weake deliberations and he holds it now both his duty and his glory to be an executioner of so shamelesse a paire of offenders God loues this heat of zeale in all the cariages of his seruants And if it transport vs too far hee pardoneth the errors of our feruency rather then the indifferences of lukewarmnesse As these two were more beasts then any that euer he sacrificed so the shedding of their blood was the acceptablest sacrifice that euer hee offered vnto God for both all Israel is freed from the plague and all his posteritie haue the Priesthood entayled to them so long as the Iewes were a people Next to our prayes there is no better sacrifice then the blood of malefactors not as it is theirs but as it is shed by authority Gouernors are faulty of those sinns they punish not There can be no better sighâ— in any State then to see a malefactor at the Gallowes It is not enough for vs to stand gazing vpon the wickednesse of the times yea although with teares vnlesse we endeuor to redresse it especially publike persons cary not their Iauelin in their hand for nought Euery one is ready to aske Phineas for his commission and those that are willing to salue vp the act plead extraordinary instinct from God who no doubt would not haue accepted that which himselfe wrought not But what need I run so far for this warrant when I heare God say to Moses Hang vp all the heads of Israel and Moses say to the Vnder-Rulers Euery one slay his men that are ioyned to Baal-Peor Euery Israelite is now made a Magistrate for this execution and why not Phineas amongst the rest Doth his Priesthood exempt him from the blood of sinners How then doth Samuel hew Agag in pieces Euen those may make a carkasse which may not touch it And if Leui got the Priesthood by shedding the blood of Idolaters why may it not stand with that Priesthood to spill the blood of a fornicator and Idolater Ordinary iustice will beare out Phineas in this act It is not for euery man to challenge this office this which double proclamation allowed to Phineas All that priuate persons can doe is either to lift vp their hands to heauen for redresse of sinne or to lift vp their hands against the sinne not against the person Who made thee a Iudge is a lawfull question if iâ—â—eer with a person vnwarranted Now the sinne is punished the plague ceaseth The reuenge of God sets out euer after the sinne but if the reuenge of men which commonly comes later can ouertake it God giues ouer the chase How oft hath the infliction of a lesse punishment auoided a greater There are none so good friends to the State as couragious and impartiall ministers of iustice These are the reconcilers of God and the people more then the prayers of them that fit still and doe nothing Of the death of MOSES AFter many painfull and perillous enterprises now is Moses drawing to his rest He hath brought his Israelites froÌ„
Ioshua that succeeded Moses no lesse in the care of Gods glory then in his gouernment is much deiected with this euent Hee rends his clothes fals on his face casts dust vpon his head and as if he had learned of his Master how to expostulate with God sayes What wilt thou doe to thy mighty Name That Ioshua might see God tooke no pleasure to let the Israelites lye dead vpon the earth before their enemies himselfe is taxed for but lying all day vpon his face before the Arke All his expostulations are answered in one word Get thee vp Israel hath sinned I do not heare God say Lye still and mourne for the sin of Israel It is to no purpose to pray against punishment while the sinne continues And though God loues to be sued to yet he holds our requests vnseasonable till there bee care had of satisfaction When we haue risen and redressed sin then may we fall downe for pardon Victory is in the free hand of God to dispose where hee will and no man can maruell that the dice of Warre run euer with hazard on both sides so as God needed not to haue giuen any other reason of this discomfiture of Israel but his owne pleasure yet Ioshua must now know that Israel which before preuailed for their faith is beaten for their sin When we are crossed in iust and holy quarrels we may well thinke there is some secret euill vnrepented of which God would punish in vs which though we see not yet he so hates that he will rather bee wanting to his owne cause then not reuenge it When we goe about any enterprise of God it is good to see that our hearts be cleere from any pollution of sin and when wee are thwarted in our hopes it is our best course to ransack our selues and to search for some sin hid from vs in our bosome but open to the view of God The Oracle of God which told him a great offence was committed yet reueales not the person It had been as easie for him to haue named the man as the crime Neither doth Ioshua request it but refers that discouery to such a meanes as whereby the offender finding himselfe singled out by the lot might bee most conuinced Achan thought he might haue lyen as close in all that throng of Israel as the wedge of Gold lay in his Tent. The same hope of secresie which moued him to sinne moued him to confidence in his sinne but now when hee saw the lot fall vpon his Tribe hee began to start a little when vpon his family he began to change countenance when vpon his houshold to tremble and feare when vpon his person to be vtterly confounded in himselfe Foolish men thinke to runne away with their priuie sinnes and say Tush no eye shall see me but when they thinke themselues safest God puls them out with shame The man that hath escaped iustice and now is lying downe in death would thinke My shame shall neuer be disclosed but before Men and Angels shall he be brought on the scaffold and find confusion as sure as late What needed any other euidence when God had accused Achan Yet Ioshua will haue the sinne out of his mouth in whose heart it was hatched My sonne I beseech thee giue glory to God Whom God had conuinced as a malefactor Ioshua beseeches as a son Some hot spirit would haue said Thou wretched traitor how hast thou pilfred from thy God and shed the blood of so many Israelites and caused the Host of Israel to shew their backes with dishonour to the Heathen now shall we fetch this sin out of thee with tortures and plague thee with a condigne death But like the Disciple of him whose seruant he was he meekely intreats that which he might haue extorted by violence My son I beseech thee Sweetnesse of compellation is a great helpe towards the good entertainment of an admonition roughnesse and rigor many times hardens those hearts which meekenesse would haue melted to repentance whether we sue or conuince or reproue little good is gotten by bitternesse Detestation of the sin may well stand with fauour to the person and these two not distinguished cause great wrong either in our charity or iustice for either we vncharitably hate the creature of God or vniustly affect the euill of men Subiects are as they are called sonnes to the Magistrate All Israel was not onely of the family but as of the loynes of Ioshua such must be the corrections such the prouisions of Gouernorus as for their children as againe the obedience and loue of subiects must be filiall God had glorified himselfe sufficiently in finding out the wickednesse of Achan neither need he honour from men much lesse from sinners They can dishonour him by their iniquities but what recompence can they giue him for their wrongs yet Ioshua sayes My sonne giue glory to God Israel should now see that the tongue of Achan did iustifie God in his lot The confession of our sins doth no lesse honour God then his glory is blemished by their commission Who would not be glad to redeeme the honour of his Redemer with his owne shame The lot of God and the mild words of Ioshua wonne Achan to accuse himselfe ingenuously impartially a storme perhaps would not haue done that which a Sun-shine had done If Achan had come in vncalled and before any question made out of an honest remorse had brought in this sacrilegious booty and cast himselfe and it at the foot of Ioshua doubtlesse Israel had prospered and his sinne had caried away pardon now he hath gotten thus much thanke that he is not a desperate sinner God will once wring from the conscience of wicked men their owne inditements They haue not more carefully hid their sinne then they shall one day freely proclaime their owne shame Achans confession though it were late yet was it free and full For he doth not onely acknowledge the act but the ground of his sinne I saw and coueted and tooke The eye betrayed the heart and that the hand and now all conspire in the offence If wee list not to flatter our selues this hath beene the order of our crimes Euill is vniforme and beginning at the senses takes the inmost fort of the soule and then armes our own outward forces against vs This shall once be the lasciuious mans song I saw and coueted and tooke This the theeues this the Idolaters this the gluttons drunkards All these receiue their death by the eye But oh foolish Achan with what eyes didst thou looke vpon that spoile which thy fellowes saw and contemned Why couldest thou not before as well as now see shame hid vnder that gay Babylonish garment and an heape of stones couered with those shekels of siluer The ouer-prizing and ouer-desiring of these earthly things caries vs into all mischiefe and hides from vs the sight of Gods iudgements whosoeuer desires the glory of metals or of gay clothes or
brethren Craftily yet and vnder pretence of a false title had they acknowledged the victory of Gideon with what forehead could they haue denied him bread Now I know not whether their faithlesnesse or enuy lie in their way Are the hands of Zeba and Zalmunna in thy hands There were none of these Princes of Succoth and Penuel but thought themselues better men then Gideon That he therefore alone should doe that which all the Princes of Israel durst not attempt they hated and scorned to heare It is neuer safe to measure euents by the power of the instrument nor in the causes of God whose calling makes the difference to measure others by our selues There is nothing more dangerous then in holy businesses to stand vpon comparisons and our owne reputation sith it is reason God should both chuse and blesse where he lists To haue questioned so sudden a victory had been pardonable but to deny it scornfully was vnworthy of Israelites Carnall men thinke that impossible to others which themselues cannot doe From hence are their censures hence their exclamations Gideon hath vowed a fearefull reuenge and now performes it the taunts of his brethren may not stay him from the pursuit of the Midianites Common enmities must first be opposed domesticall at more leysure The Princes of Succoth feared the tyranny of the Midianitish Kings but they more feared Gideons victory What a condition hath their enuy drawne them into that they are sorry to see Gods enemies captiue that Israels freedome must be their death that the Midianites and they must tremble at one and the same Reuenger To see themselues prisoners to Zeba and Zalmunna had not been so fearefull as to see Zeba and Zalmunna prisoners to Gideon Nothing is more terrible to euill mindes then to reade their owne condemnation in the happy successe of others hell it selfe would want one piece of his torment if the wicked did not know those whom they contemned glorious I know not whether more to commend Gideons wisedome and moderation in the proceedings then his resolution and iustice in the execution of this businesse I doe not see him run furiously into the City and kill the next His sword had not been so drunken with bloud that it should know no difference But he writes down the names of the Princes and singles them forth for reuenge When the Leaders of God come to a Iericho or Ai their slaughter was vnpartiall not a woman or child might liue to tell newes but now that Gideon comes to a Succoth a City of Israelites the rulers are called forth to death the people are frighted with the example not hurt with the iudgement To enwrappe the innocent in any vengeance is a murderous iniustice Indeed where all ioyne in the sin all are worthy to meet in the punishment It is like the Citizens of Succoth could haue been glad to succour Gideon if their rulers had not forbidden they must therefore escape whiles their Princes perish I cannot thinke of Gideons reuenge without horror That the Rulers of Succoth should haue their flesh torne from their backs with thornes and briers that they should bee at once beaten and scratcht to death What a spectacle it was to see their bare bones looking some-where thorow the bloudy ragges of their flesh and skinne and euery stroke worse then the last death multiplied by torment Iustice is sometimes so seuere that a tender beholder can scarce discerne it from cruelty I see the Midianites fare lesse ill the edge of the sword makes a speedy and easie passage for their liues whiles these rebellious Israelites dye lingringly vnder thornes and bryers enuying those in their death whom their life abhorred Howsoeuer men liue or dye without the pale of the Church a wicked Israelite shall be sure of plagues How many shall vnwish themselues Christians when Gods reuenges haue found them out The place where Iacob wrestled with God and preuailed now hath wrestled against God and takes a fall they see God auenging which would not beleeue him deliuering It was now time for Zeba and Zalmunna to follow those their troops to the graue whom they had led in the field Those which the day before were attended with an hundred thirty fiue thousand followers haue not so much as a Page now left to weep for their death and haue liued onely to see all their friends and some enemies dye for their sakes Who can regard earthly greatnesse that sees one night change two of the greatest Kings of the World into captiues It had been both pitty and sinne that the Heads of that Midianitish tyranny into which they had drawn so many thousands should haue escaped that death And yet if priuate reuenge had not made Gideon iust I doubt whether they had died The bloud of his brothers cals for theirs and awakes his sword to their execution He both knew and complained of the Midianitish oppression vnder which Israel groned yet the cruelty offered to all the thousands of his Fathers sonnes had not drawne the bloud of Zeba and Zalmunna if his owne mothers sonnes had not bled by their hands He that slew the Rulers of Succoth and Penuel spared the people now hath slain the people of Midian and would haue spared their Rulers but that God which will finde occasions to winde wicked men into iudgement will haue them slaine in a priuate quarrel which had more deserued it for the publike If we may not rather say that Gideon reuenged these as a Magistrate not as a brother For Gouernours to respect their owne ends in publike actions and to weare the sword of iustice in their owne sheath it is a wrongfull abuse of authority The slaughter of Gideons brethren was not the greatest sinne of the Midianitish Kings this alone shall kill them when the rest expected an vniust remission How many lewd men hath God payd with some one sinne for all the rest Some that haue gone away with vnnuturally filthinesse and capitall thefts haue clipped off their owne dayes with their coyne Others whose bloudy murders haue been punished in a mutinous word Others whose suspected felony hath payd the price of their vnknowne rape O God thy iudgements are iust euen when mens are vniust Gideons young soone is bidden to reuenge the death of his Vncles His sword had not yet learned the way to bloud especially of Kings though in yrons Deadly executions require strength both of heart and face How are those aged in euill that can draw their swords vpon the lawfuly Anointed of God These Tyrants plead not now for coutinuance of life but for the haste of their death Fall thou vpon vs. Death is euer accompanied with paine which it is no maruell if we wish short We doe not more affect protraction of an easefull life then speed in our dissolution for here euery pang that tends toward death renewes it To lye an houre vnder death is tedious but to be dying a whole day we thinke aboue the
strength of humane patience Oh what shall we then conceiue of that death which knowes no end As this life is no lesse fraile then the dody which it animates so that death is no lesse eternall then the soule which must endure it For vs to be dying so long as wee now haue leaue to liue is intollerable and yet one onely minute of that other tormenting death is worse then an age of this Oh the desperate infidelity of carlesse men that shrinke at the thought of a momentarry death and feare not eternall This is but a killing of the body that is a destruction of body and soule Who is so worthy to weare Crowne of Israel as hee that wonne the Crowne from Midian Their vsurpers were gone now they are headlesse It is a doubt whether they were better to haue had no Kings or Tyrants They sue to Gideon to accept of the Kingdome and are repulsed There is no greater ensample of modesty then Gideon When the Angell spake to him he abased himselfe below all Israel when the Ephraimites contended with him he prefers their gleanings to his vintage and casts his honour at their feete and now when Israel proffers him that Kingdome which he had merited he refuses it Hee that in ouercomming would allow them to cry The sword of the Lord and of Gideon in gouerning will haue none but The sword of the Lord. That which others plot and sue and sweare and bribe for Dignity and superiority he seriously reiects whether it were for that he knew God had not yet called them to a Monarchy or rather for that he saw the crowne among thornes What doe we ambitiously affect the commahd of these mole-hils of earth when wise men haue refused the proffers of kingdomes Why doe we not rather labour for that Kingdome which is free from all cares from all vncertainty Yet he that refuses their Crowne cals for their earings although not to enrich himselfe but religion So long had God been a stranger to Israel that now superstion goes currant for deuout worship It were pitty that good intentions should make any man wicked here they did so Neuer man meant beter then Gideon in his rich Ephod yet this very act set all Israel on whoring God had chosen a place and a seruice of his own When the wit of man will be ouer-pleasing God with better deuices then his own it turnes to madnesse and ends in mischiefe ABIMELECHS vsurpation GIdeon refused the Kingdome of Israel when it was offered his seuenty sons offered not to obtain that Scepter which their fathers victory had deserued to make hereditary onely Abimelec the concubines sonne sues and ambitiously plots for it What could Abimelec see in himselfe that hee should ouer-looke all his brethren If he lookt to his father they were his equals if to his mother they were his betters Those that are most vnworthy of honour are hottest in the chase of it whiles the conscience of better deserts bids men sit still and stay to bee either importuned or neglected There can bee no greater signe of vnfitnesse then vehement sute It is hard to say whether there bee more pride or ignorance in Ambition I haue noted this difference betwixt spirituall and earthly honour and the Clients of both wee cannot be worthy of the one without earnest prosecution nor with earnest prosecution worthy of the other The violent abtaine heauen onely the meeke are worthy to inherit the earth That which an aspiring heart hath proiected it will find both argument and meanes to effect If either bribes or fauour will carry it the proud man will not sit out The Shechemites are fit brokers for Abimelec That City which once betrayed it selfe to vtter depopulation in yeelding to the sute of Hamor now betraies it selfe and al Israel in yeelding to the request of Abimelec By them hath this Vsurper made himselfe a fair way to the Throne It was an easie question Whether wil ye admit of the sons of Gideon for your Rulers or of strangers If of the sons of Gideon whether of all or one If of one whether of your owne flesh and bloud or of others vnknowne To cast off the sonnes Gideon for strangers were vnthankfull To admit of seuenty Kings in one small Country were vnreasonable To admit of any other rather then their own kinsman were vnnaturall Gideons sonnes therefore must rule amongst all Israel One of his sonnes amongst those seuenty and who should be that one but Abimelec Naturall respects are the most dangerous corrupters of all elections What hope can there be of worthy Superiors in any free people where neerenesse of bloud carries it from fitnesse of disposition Whiles they say Hee is our brother they are enemies to themselues and Israel Faire words haue won his brethren they the Shechemites the Shechemites furnish him with money mony with men His men begin with murder and now Abimelec raignes alone Flattery bribes and bloud are the vsuall staires of the Ambitious The money of Baal is a fit hier for murderers that which Idolatry hath gathered is fitly spent vpon Treason One diuell is ready to helpe another in mischiefe seldome euer is ill gotten riches better imployed It is no wonder if he that hath Baal his Idol now make an Idoll of Honour There was neuer any man that worshipped but one Idol Woe be to them that lie in the way of the Aspiring Though they be brothers they shall bleed yea the neerer they are the more sure is their ruine Who would not now thinke that Abimelec should finde an hell in his breast after so barbarous and vnnaturall a massacre and yet behold he is a senslesse as the stone vpon which the bloud of his seuerity brethren was spilt Where Ambition hath possest it selfe throughly of the soule it turnes the heart into steele and makes it vncapeable of a conscience All sinnes will easily downe with the man that is resolued to rise Onely Iotham fell not at that fatall stone with his brethren It is an hard battell where none escapes He escapes not to raigne not to reuenge but to be a Prophet and a witnesse of the vengeance of God vpon the vsurper vpon the Abettors He liues to tel Abimelec that he was but a bramble a weed rather then a tree A right bramble indeed that grew but out of the base hedge-row of a Concubin that could not lift vp his head from the earth vnlesse he were supported by some bush or pale of Shechem that had laid hold of the fleece of Israel and had drawne bloud of all his brethren and lastly that had no substance in him but the sap vaine-glory and the pricks of cruelty It was better then a Kingdome to him out of his obscure Beere to see the fire out of his bramble to consume those tres The view of Gods reuenge is so much more pleasing to a good heart then his owne glory by how much it is more iust and full There was neuer
but lust most of all Neuer man that had drunke flagons of wine had lesse reason then this Nazarite Many a one loses his life but this casts it away not in hatred of himselfe but in loue to a strumpet Wee wonder that a man could possibly be so sottish and yet wee our selues by tentation become no lesse insensate Sinfull pleasures like a common Dalilah lodge in our bosomes we know they aime at nothing but the death of our soule wee will yeeld to them and die Euery willing sinner is a Samson let vs not inueigh against his senslesnesse but our own Nothing is so grosse and vnreasonable to a well-disposed minde which tentation will not represent fit and plausible No soule can out of his owne strength secure himselfe from that sinne which he most detesteth As an hood-winkt man sees some little glimmering of light but not enough to guide him so did Samson who had reason enough left him to make triall of Dalilah by a crafty mis-information but not enough vpon that triall to distrust and hate her he had not wit enough to deceiue her thrice not enough to keepe himselfe from being deceiued by her It is not so great wisedome to proue them whom we distrust as it is folly to trust them whom we haue found trecherous Thrice had he seen the Philistims in her chamber ready to surprize him vpon her bonds and yet will needs be a slaue to his Traytor Warning not taken is a certaine presage of destruction and if once neglected it receiue pardon yet thrice is desperate What man would euer play thus with his owne ruine His harlot bindes him and calls in her executioners to cut his throat he rises to saue his own life and suffers them to carry away theirs in peace Where is the courage of Samson Where his zeale He that killed the Philistims for their clothes He that slew a thousand of them in the field at once in this quarrel now suffers them in his chamber vnreuenged Whence is this His hands were strong but his heart was effeminate his harlot had diuerted his affection Whosoeuer slackens the reines to his sensuall appetite shall soone grow vnfit for the calling of God Samson hath broke the green withies the new ropes the woofe of his haire and yet still suffers himselfe fettered with those inuisible bonds of an harlots loue and can indure her to say How canst thou say I loue thee when thy heart is not with me thou hast mocked me these three times Whereas he should rather haue said to her How canst thou challenge any loue from me that hast thus thice sought my life O canst thou thinke my mockes a sufficient reuenge of this trechery But contraily he melts at this fire and by her importunate insinuations is wrought against himselfe Wearinesse of sollicitation hath won some to those actions which at the first motion they despised like as we see some suters are dispatcht not for the equity of the cause but the trouble of the prosecution because it is more easie to yeeld not more reasonable It is more safe to keepe our selues out of the noyâ—e of suggestions then to stand vpon our power of deniall Who can pitty the losse of that strength which was so abused who can pitty him the losse of his locks which after so many warnings can sleepe in the lappe of Dalilah It is but iust that he should rise vp from thence shauen and feeble not a Nazarite scarce a man If his strength had lyen in his haire it had been out of himselfe it was not therefore in his locks it was in his consecration whereof that haire was a signe If the razor had come sooner vpon his head he had ceased to be a Nazarite and the gift of God had at once ceased with the calling of God not for the want of that excretioÌ„ but for the want of obedience If God withdraw his graces when he is too much prouoked who can complain of his mercy He that sleeps in sinne must looke to wake in losse and weaknesse Could Samson thinke Though I tell her my strength lies in my haire yet she will not cut it or though she doe cut my haire yet shall I not lose my strength that now he rises and shakes himselfe in hope of his former vigor Custome of successe makes men confident in their sinnes and causes them to mistake an arbitrary tenure for a perpetuity His eyes were the first offenders which betrayed him to lust and now they are first pulled out and he is ledde a blinde captiue to Azzah where he was first captiued to his lust The Azzahites which lately saw him not without terror running lightly away with their gates at midnight see him now in his own perpetuall night strugling with his chaines and that he may not want paine together with his bondage he must grind in his prison As he passed the street euery boy among the Philistims could not throw stons at him euery woman could laugh and shout at him and what one Philistim doth not say whiles he lashes him vnto bloud There is for my brothers or my kinsman whom thou slewest Who can looke to run away with a sin when Samson a Nazarite is thus plagued This great heart could not but haue broken with indignation if it had not pacified it selfe with the conscience of the iust desert of all this vengeance It is better for Samson to be blinde in prison then to abuse his eyes in Soreâ— yea I may safely say he was more blind when he saw licentiously then now that he sees not He was a greater slaue when he serued his affections then now in grinding for the Philistims The losse of his eyes shewes him his sinne neither could he see how ill he had done till he saw not Euen yet still the God of mercy lookt vpon the blindnesse of Samson and in these fetters enlargeth his heart from the worse prison of his sinne his haire grew together with his repentance and his strength with his haire Gods mercifull humiliations of his owne are sometimes so seuere that they seeme to differ little from desertions yet at the worst hee loues vs bleeding and when we haue smarted enough we shall feele it What thankfull Idolaters were these Philistims They could not but know that their bribes and their Delilah had deliuered Samson to them and yet they sacrifice to their Dagon and as those that would be liberall in casting fauours vpon a senselesse Idoll of whom they could receiue none they cry out Our god hath deliuered our enemie into our hands Where was their Dagon when a thousand of his clyents were slain with an Asses iaw There was more strength in that bone then in all the makers of this god and yet these vaine Pagans say Our god It is the quality of superstition to misinterpret all euents and so feede it selfe with the conceit of those fauours which are so farre from being done that their authors neuer
incouraged it insults and tyrannizes It was more iust that Israel should rise against Beniamin then that Beniamin should rise for Gibeah by how much it is better to punish offenders then to shelter the offenders from punishing And yet the wickednesse of Beniamin sped better for the time then the honesty of Israel Twise was the better part foyled by the lesse and worse The good cause was sent backe with shame the euill returned with victory and triumph O God! their hand was for thee in the fight thy hand was with them in their fall They had not fought for thee but by thee neither could they haue miscarried in the fight if thou hadst not fought against them Thou art iust and holy in both The cause was thine the sinne in managing of it was their owne They fought in an holy quarrell but with confidence in themselues for as presuming of victory they aske of God not what should be their successe but who should be their Captaine Number and innocence made them too secure I was iust therefore with God to let them feele that euen good zeale cannot beare out presumption and that victorie lies not in the cause but in the God that ownes it Who cannot imagine how much the Beniaminites insulted in their double field and day And now beganne to thinke God was on their side Those swords which had been taught the way into forty thousand bodies of their brethren cannot feare a new encounter Wicked men cannot see their prosperity a piece of their curse neither can examine their actions but the euents Soone after thy shall finde what it was to adde bloud vnto filthinesse and that the victorie of an euill cause is the way to ruine and confusion I should haue feared lest this double discomfiture should haue made Israel either distrustfull or weary of a good cause but still I finde them no lesse couragious with more humility Now they fast and weepe and sacrifice These weapons had beene victorious in their first assault Beniamin had neuer been in danger of pride for ouercomming if this humiliation of Israel had preuented the fight It is seldome seene but that which we doe with feare prospereth whereas confidence in vndertaking layes euen good endeuours in the dust Wickednesse could neuer bragge of any long prosperity nor complaine of the lacke of paiment Still God is euen with it at the last Now he payes the Beniaminites both that death which they had lent to the Israelites and that wherein they stood indebted to their brotherhood of Gibeah And now that both are met in death there is as much difference betwixt those Israelites and these Beniaminites as betwixt Martyrs and Malefactors To die in a sinne is a fearefull reuenge of giuing patronage to sinne The sword consumes their bodies another fire their Cities whatsoeuer became of their soules Now might Rachel haue iustly wept for her children because they were not for behold the men women and children of her wicked Tribe are cut off only some few scattered remainders ran away from this vengeance and lurked in caues and rockes both for feare and shame There was no difference but life betwixt their brethren and them the earth couered them both yet vnto them doth the reuenge of Israel stretch it selfe and vowes to destroy if not their persons yet their succession as holding them vnworthy to receiue any comfort by that sex to which they had been so cruell both in act and maintenance If the Israelites had not held marriage and issue a very great blessing they had not thus reuenged themselues of Beniamin now they accounted the with-holding of their wiues a punishment second to death The hope of life in our posterity is the next contentment to an enioying of life in our selues They haue sworne and now vpon cold bloud repent them If the oath were not iust why would they take it and if it were iust why did they recant it If the act were iustifiable what needed these teares Euen a iust oath may be rashly taken not only iniustice but temerite of swearing ends in lamentation In our very ciuill actions it is a weakenesse to doe that which we would after reuerse but in our affaires with God to checke our selues too late and to steepe our oathes in teares is a dangerous folly Hee doth not command vs to take voluntary oathes he commands vs to keepe them If we binde our selues to inconuenience we may iustly complaine of our owne setters Oathes doe not onely require iustice but iudgement wise deliberation no lesse then equity Not conscience of their fact but commiseration of their brethren led them to this publike repentance O God why is this come to passe that this day one Tribe of Israel shall want Euen the iustest reuenge of men is capable of pitty Insultation in the rigour of Iustice argues cruelty Charitable mindes are grieued to see that done which they would not wish vndone the smart of the offender doth not please them which yet are throughly displeased with the sinne and haue giuen their hands to punish it God himselfe takes no pleasure in the death of a sinner yet loues the punishment of sinne As a god parent whips his childe yet weepes himselfe There is a measure in victory and reuenge if neuer so iust which to exceed leeses mercy in the suit of Iustice If there were no fault in their seuerity it needed no excuse and if there were a fault it will admit of no excuse yet as if they meant to shift off the sin they expostulate with God O Lord God of Israel why is this come to passe this day God gaue them no command of this rigour yea he twice crost them in the execution and now in that which they intreated of God with teares they challenge him It is a dangerous iniustice to lay the burden of our sins vpon him which tempteth no man nor can bee tempted with euill whiles we would so remoue our sinne we double it A man that knew not the power of an oath would wonder at this contrarietie in the affections of Israel They are sorry for the slaughter of Beniamin and yet they slay those that did not helpe them in the slaughter Their oath cals them to more bloud The excesse of their reuenge vpon Beniamin may not excuse the men of Gillead If euer oath might looke for a dispensation this might plead it Now they dare not but kill the men of Iabesh Gilead lest they should haue left vpon themselues a greater sin of sparing then punishing Iabesh Gilead came not vp to aid Israel therefore all the inhabitants must die To exempt our selues whether out of singularity or stubbornnesse from the common actions of the Church when we are lawfully called to them is an offence worthy of iudgement In the maine quarrels of the Church neutrals are punished This execution shall make amends for the former of the spoile of Iabesh Gilead shall the Beniaminites be stored with wiues that no
Philistims may be against him The purpose of any fauour is more then the value of it Euen the greatest honours may be giuen with an intent of destruction Many a man is raised vp for a fall So forward is Saul in the match that hee sends spokes men to sollicit Dauid vnto that honour which he hopes will proue the high-way to death The dowry is set An hundred fore-skins of the Philistims not their heads but their fore-skins that this victory might bee more ignominious still thinking why may not one Dauid miscary as well as an hundred Philistims And what doth Sauls enuy all this while but enhance Dauids zeale and valour and glorie That good Captaine little imagining that himselfe was the Philistim whom Saul maligned supererogates of his Master and brings two hundred for one and returnes home safe and renowned neither can Saul now fly for shame There is no remedy but Dauid must be a sonne where he was a riuall and Saul must feed vpon his owne heart since he cannot see Dauids Gods blessing graces equally together with mans malice neither can they deuise which way to make vs more happy then by wishing vs euill MICHALS wyle THis aduantage can Saul yet make of Dauids promotion that as his Aduersarie is raised higher so hee is drawne nearer to the opportunity of death Now hath his enuy cast off all shame and since those craftie plots succeed not hee directly subornes Murtherers of his riuall There is none in all the Court that is not set on to bee an Executioner Ionathan himselfe is sollicited to imbrue his hand in the blood of his friend of his Brother Saul could not but see Ionathans cloathes on Dauids backe he could not but know the league of their loue yet because he knew withall how much the prosperitie of Dauid would preiudice Ionathan he hoped to haue found him his sonne in malice Those that haue the Iaundis see all things yellow those which are ouergrowne with malicious passions thinke all men like themselues I doe not heare of any reply that Ionathan made to his father when he gaue him that bloody charge but he waits for a fit time to disswade him from so cruell an iniustice Wisdome had taught him to giue way to rage and in so hard an aduenture to craue aide of opportunitie If we be not carefull to obserue good moodes when wee deale with the passionate we may exasperate in stead of reforming Thus did Ionathan who knowing how much better it is to be a good friend then an ill sonne had not onely disclosed that ill counsell but when be found his father in the fields in a calmes temper laboured to diuert it And so farre doth the seasonable and pithy Oratory of Ionathan preuaile that Saul is conuinced of his wrong and sweares As God liues Dauid shall not die Indeed how could it be otherwise vpon the plea of Dauids innocence and well-deseruings How could Saul say he should dye whom hee could accuse of nothing but faithfulnesse Why should he designe him to death which had giuen life to all Israel Oft-times wicked mens iudgements are forced to yeeld vnto that truth against which their affections maintaine a rebellion Euen the foulest hearts doe sometimes entertaine good motions like as on the contrary the holiest soules giue way sometimes to the suggestions of euill The flashes of lightning may be discerned in the darkest Prisons But if good thoughts looke into a wicked heart they stay not there as those that like not their lodging they are soone gone Hardly any thing distinguishes betwixt good and euill but continuance The light that shines into an holy heart is constant like that of the Sunne which keepes due times and varies not his course for any of these sublunary occasions The Philistim Warres renue Dauids victories and Dauids victory renues Sauls enuy and Sauls enuy renues the plots of Dauids death Vowes and Oaths are forgotten That euill spirit which vexes Saul hath found so much fauour with him as to winne him to these bloody machinations against an innocent His owne hands shall first bee imployed in this execution The speare which hath twice before threatned death to Dauid shall now once againe goe vpon that message Wise Dauid that knew the danger of an hollow friend and reconciled enemy and that found more cause to mind Sauls earnest then his owne play giues way by his nimblenesse to that deadly weapon and resigning that stroke vnto the wall flies for his life No man knowes how to be sure of an vnconscionable man If either goodnesse or merit or affinitie or reasons or oaths could secure a man Dauid had been safe now if his heeles doe not more befriend him then all these hee is a dead man No sooner is hee gone then messengers are sped after him It hath been seldome seene that wickednesse wanted Executioners Dauids house is beset with Murderers which watch at all his doores for the opportunitie of blood Who can but wonder to see how God hath fetch from the loines of Saul a remedy for the malice of Sauls heart His owne children are the onely meanes to crosse him in the sinne and to preserue his guiltlesse Aduersarie Michal hath more then notice of the plot and with her subtill with countermines her father for the rescue of an Husband Shee taking the benefit of the night lets Dauid downe through a window Hee is gone and disappoints the ambushes of Saul The messengers begin to be impatient of this delay and now thinke it time to inquire after their Prisoner She whiles them off with the excuse of Dauids sicknes so as now her Husband had good leisure for his escape and layes a Statue in his bed Saul likes the newes of any euill befalne to Dauid but fearing he is not sicke enough sends to aide his disease The messengers returne and rushing into the house with their Swords drawne after some harsh words to their imagined charge surprize a sicke Statue lying with a Pillow vnder his head and now blush to see they haue spent all their threats vpon a senselesse stocke and made themselues ridiculous whiles they would be seruiceable But how shall Michal answer this mockage vnto her furious father Hitherto shot hath done like Dauid wife now she begins to be Sauls Daughter He said to me Let me goe or else I will kill thee Shee whose wit had deliuered her Husband from the Sword of her Father now turnes the edge of her Fathers wrath from her selfe to her Husband His absence made her presume of his safety If Michal had not bin of Sauls plot he had neuer expostulated with her in those termes Why hast thou let mine enemy escapeâ— neither had she framed that answer He said Let me goe I doe not find any great store of religion in Michal for both she had an Image in the house afterward mocked Dauid for his deuotion yet Nature hath taught her to prefer an Husband to a Father to chide a
should dwell in those brests which are consecrated vnto God The Arke and the Tabernacle were then separated The Arke was at Kiriathiealim the Tabernacle at Nob God was present with both Whither should Dauid flye for succour but to the House of that God which had anointed him Ahimelech was wont to see Dauid attended with the troupes of Israel or with the Gallants of the Court it seemes strange therefore to him to see so great a Peere and Champion of Israel come alone These are the alterations to which earthly Greatnesse is subiect Not many dayes are past since no man was honoured at Court but Ionathan and Dauid now they are both for the time in disgrace Now dare not the Kings Sonne in law Brother to the Prince both in Loue and Mariage shew his head at the Court nor any of those that bowed to him dare stirre a foot with him Princes are as the Sunne and great Subiects are like to Dials if the Sun shine not on the Diall no man will looke at it Euen hee that ouercame the Beare the Lyon the Gyant is ouercome with feare He that had cut off two hundred fore-skins of the Philistims had not circumcised his owne heart of the weake passions that follow Distrust Now that hee is hard driuen he practises to helpe himselfe with an vnwarrantable shift Who can looke to passe this Pilgrimage without infirmities when Dauid dissembleth to Ahimelech A weake mans rules may be better then the best mans actions God lets vs see some blemishes in his holiest Seruants that wee may neither bee too highly conceited of flesh and blood nor too much deiected when wee haue beene miscaried into sinne Hitherto hath Dauid gone vpright now hee begins to halt with the Priest of God and vnder pretence of Sauls imployment drawes that fauour from Ahimelech which shall afterwards cost him his head What could Ahimelech haue thought too deare for Gods Anointed for Gods Champion It is not like but that if Dauid had sincerely opened himselfe to the Priest as hee hath done to the Prophet Ahimelech would haue seconded Samuel in some secret and safe succour of so vniust a distresse whereas he is now by a false color led to that kindnesse which shall be preiudiciall to his life Extremities of euill are commonly inconsiderate either for that wee haue not leisure to our thoughts or perhaps so as we may be perplexed not thoughts to our leisure What would Dauid haue giuen afterwards to haue redeemed this ouer fight Vnder this pretence he craues a double fauour of Ahimelech The one of bread for his sustenance the other of a Sword for his defence There was no bread vnder the hands of the Priest but that which was consecrated to God and whereof none might taste but the deuoted Seruants of the Altar Euen that which was with solemne dedication set vpon the holy Table before the face of God a Sacramentall Bread presented to God with Incense figuring that true Bread that came downe from Heauen Yet euen this Bread might in case of necessitie become common and be giuen by Ahimelech and receiued by Dauid and his followers Our Sauiour himselfe iustifies the act of both Ceremonies must giue place to substance God will haue Mercy and not Sacrifice Charitie is the summe and the end of the Law That must be aymed at in all our actions wherein it may fall out that the way to keepe the Law may bee to breake it the intention may be kept and the Letter violated and it may bee a dangerous transgression of the Law to obserue the words and neglect the scope of God That which would haue dispensed with Dauid for the substance of the act would haue much more dispensed with him for the circumstance The touch of their lawfull Wiues had contracted a legall impurity not a morall That could haue beene no sufficient reason why in an vrgent necessitie they might not haue partaked of the holy Bread Ahimelech was no perfect Casuist these men might not famish if they were ceremonially impure But this question bewrayed the care of Ahimelech in distributing the holy Bread There might be in these men a double incapacity the one as they were Seculars the other as vncleane he saw the one must be he feared lest the other should be as one that wished as little indisposition as possibly might bee in those which should be fed from Gods Table It is strange that Dauid should come to the Priest of God for a Sword Who in all Israel was so vnlikely to furnish him with weapons as a man of Peace whose armour was onely spirituall Doubtlesse Dauid knew well where Goliahs Sword lay as the noble relique of Gods victorious deliuerance dedicated to the same God which won it at this did that suit ayme None could be so fit for Dauid none could be so fit for it as Dauid Who could haue so much right to that Sword as he against whom it was drawne and by whom it was taken There was more in that Sword then Mettall and forme Dauid could neuer cast his eye vpon it but hee saw an vndoubted monument of the mercifull protection of the Almighty there was therefore more strength in that Sword then sharpenesse neither was Dauids arme so much strengthened by it as his faith nothing can ouercome him whiles he caries with him that assured signe of victorie It is good to take all occasions of renuing the remembrance of Gods mercies to vs and our obligations to him Doeg the Master of Sauls Herdmen for he that went to seeke his Fathers Asses before he was King hath herdes and droues now that he is a King was now in the Court of the Tabernacle vpon some occasion of deuotion Though an Israelite in profession he was an Edomite no lesse in heart then in blood yet hee hath some vow vpon him and not onely comes vp to Gods House but abides before the Lord Hypocrites haue equall accesse to the publike places and meanes of Gods Seruice Euen hee that knowes the heart yet shuts his doores vpon none how much lesse should wee dare to exclude any which can onely iudge of the heart by the face Doeg may set his foot as far within the Tabernacle as Dauid hee sees the passages betwixt him and Ahimelech and layes them vp for an aduantage Whiles he should haue edified himselfe by those holy seruices he carpes at the Priest of God and after a lewd mis-interpretation of his actions of an attendant proues an accuser To incurre fauour with an vniust Master he informes against innocent Ahimelech and makes that his act which was drawne from him by a cunning circumuention When we see our Auditors before vs little doe we know with what hearts they are there nor what vse they will make of their pretended deuotion If many come in simplicity of heart to serue their God some others may perhaps come to obserue their Teachers and to picke quarrels where none are Onely God and the
that his head was long before anointed and had heard Saul himselfe confidently auouching his Succession yet he will not stirre from the heapes of Ziklag till he haue consulted with the Lord It did not content him that he had Gods warrant for the Kingdome but he must haue his instructions for the taking possession of it How safe and happy is the man that is resolued to do nothing without God Neither will generalities of direction be sufficient euen particular circumstances must looke for a word still is God a Pillar of fire and cloude to the eye of euery Israelite neither may there be any motion or stay but from him That action cannot but succeed which proceeds vpon so sure a warrant God sends him to Hebron a City of Iudah Neither will Dauid goe vp thither alone but he takes with him all his men with their whole housholds they shall take such part as himselfe As they had shared with him in his misery so they shall now in his prosperity Neither doth he take aduantage of their late mutinie which was yet fresh and greene to cashire those vnthankfull and vngracious followers but pardoning their secret rebellions he makes them partakers of his good successe Thus doth our heauenly Leader whom Dauid prefigured take vs to reigne with him who hath suffered with him passing by our manifold infirmities as if they had not beene he remoueth vs from the Land of our banishment and the ashes of our forlorne Ziklag to the Hebron of our Peace and glory The expectation of this day must as it did with Dauids Souldiers digest all our sorrowes Neuer any calling of God was so conspicuous as not to finde some Opposites What Israelite did not know Dauid appointed by God to the succession of the Kingdome Euen the Amalekite could carry the Crowne to him as the true Owner yet there want not an Abner to resist him and the Title of an Ishbosheth to colour his resistance If any of Sauls house could haue made challenge to the Crowne it should haue beene Mephibosheth the sonne of Ionathan Who it seemes had too much of his Fathers bloud to be a Competitor with Dauid the question is not who may claime the most right but who may best serue the faction Neither was Ishbosheth any other than Abners Stale Saul could not haue a fitter Courtier whether in the imitation of his Masters enuy or the ambition of ruling vnder a borrowed name he strongly opposed Dauid there are those who striue against their owne hearts to make a side with whom conscience is oppressed by affection An ill quarrell once vndertaken shall be maintained although with bloud Now not so much the bloud of Saul as the ingagement of Abner makes the Warre The sonnes of Zerniah stand fast to Dauid It is much how a man placeth his first interest If Abner had beene in Ioabs roome when Sauls displeasure droue Dauid from the Court or Ioab in Abners these actions these euents had beene changed with the persons It was the only happinesse of Ioab that he fell on the better side Both the Commanders vnder Dauid and Ishbosheth were equally cruell both are so iniured to bloud that they make but a sport of killing Custome makes sinne so â—â—miliar that the horror of it is to some turned into pleasure Come let the young mâ—n play before vs. ABNER is the Challenger and speeds thereafter for though in the matches of Duell both sides miscarryed yet in the following conflict Abner and his men are beaten By the successe of those single Combates no man knowes the better of the cause Both sides perish to shew how little God liked either the offer or the acceptation of such a tryall but when both did their best God punisheth the wrong part with discomfiture Oh the misery of ciuill dissention Israel and Iudah were brethren Our carried the name of the Father the other of the Sonne Iudah was but a branch of Israel Israel was the roote of Iudah yet Iudah and Israel must fight and kill each other onely vpon the quarrell of an ill Leaders ambition The speed of Asahel was not greater than his courage It was a mind fit for one of Dauids Worthies to strike at the head to match himselfe with the best He was both swift and strong but the race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong If hee had gon neuer so slowly he might haue ouer-taken death now hee runnes to fetch it So little lust had Abner to shed the bloud of a sonne of Zerniah that hee twice aduises him to retreate from pursuing his owne perill Asahels cause was so much better as Abners successe Many a one miscarries in the rash prosecution of a good quarrell when the Abettors of the worst part goe away with victory Heate of zeale sometimes in the vndiscreet pursuit of a iust Aduersary prooues mortall to the agent preiudiciall to the seruice ABNER whiles hee kils yet hee flyes and runnes away from his owne death whiles he inflicts it vpon another Dauids followers had the better of the field and day The Sunne as vnwilling to see any more Israelitish bloud shed by brethren hath withdrawne himselfe and now both parts hauing got the auantage of an hill vnder them haue safe conuenience of parley Abner beginnes and perswades Ioab to surcease the fight Shall the sword deuoure for euer Knowest thou not that it will bee bitternesse in the end How long shall it bee ere thou bid the people returne from following their Brethren It was his fault that the sword deuoured at all and why was not the beginning of a ciuill Warre bitternesse Why did hee call forth the people to skirmish and inuite them to death Had Abner beene on the winning hand this motion had beene thanke-worthy It is a noble disposition in a Victor to call for a cessation of Armes whereas necessitie wrings this suite from the ouer-mastered There cannot be a greater prayse to a valiant and wise Commander than a propension to all iust termes of peace For warre as it is sometimes necessary so it is alwayes euill and if fighting haue any other end proposed besides peace it proues murder Abner shall finde himselfe no lesse ouercome by Ioab in clemencie than power Hee sayes not I will not so easily leaue the aduantage of my victory since the Dice of warre runne on my side I will follow the chace of my good successe Thou shouldest haue considered of this before thy prouocation It is now too late to moue vnto forbearance But as a man that meant to approue himselfe equally free from cowardise in the beginning of the conflict and from crueltie in the end hee professeth his forwardnesse to entertaine any pretence of sheathing vp the swords of Israel and sweares to Abner that if it had not beene for his proud irritation the people had in the morning before ceased from that bloudy pursuit of their brethren As it becomes publike persons to bee louers of peace
so they must shew it vpon all good occasions letting passe no opportunitie of making spare of bloud Ishbosheth was it seemes a man of no great spirits for being no lesse than fortie yeares old when his father went into his last field against the Philistims hee was content to stay at home Abner hath put ambition into him and hath easily raised him to the head of a faction against the annoynted Prince of Gods people If this vsurped Crowne of Sauls Sonne had any worth or glory in it hee cannot but acknowledge to owe it all vnto Abner yet how forward is vnthankfull Ishbosheth to receiue a false suggestion against his chiefe Abettor Wherefore hast thou gone in to my fathers Concubine Hee that made no conscience of an vniust claime to the Crowne and a maintenance of it with bloud yet seemes scrupulous of a lesse sinne that carried in it the colour of a disgrace The touch of her who had beene honoured by his fathers bed seemed an intolerable presumption and such as could not bee seuered from his owne dishonour Selfe-loue sometimes borrowes the face of honest zeale Those who out of true grounds dislike sinnes doe hate them all indifferently according to their hainousnesse Hypocrites are partiall in their detestation bewraying euer most bitternesse against those offences which may most preiudice their persons and reputations It is as dangerous as vniust for Princes to giue both their eares and their heart to mis-grounded rumors of their innocent followers This wrong hath stript Ishbosheth of the Kingdome Abner in the meane time cannot be excused from a treacherous inconstancy If Sauls sonne had no true Title to the Crowne why did hee maintaine it If hee had why did he forsake the cause and person Had Abner out of remorse for furthering a false claime taken off his hand I know not wherein he could be blamed except for not doing it sooner But now to withdraw his professed allegeance vpon a priuate reuenge was to take a lewd leaue of an ill action If Ishbosheth were his lawfull Prince no iniury could warrant a reuolt Euen betwixt priuate persons a returne of wrongs is both vncharitable and vniust how euer this goe currant for the common iustice of the World how much more should we learne from a supreme hand to take hard measures with thankes It had beene Abners duty to haue giuen his King a peaceable and humble satisfaction and not to flie out in a snuffe If the spirit of the Ruler rise vp against thee leaue not thy place for yeelding pacifieth great offences now his impatient falling although to the right side makes him no better than traiterously honest So soone as Abner hath entertained a resolution of his rebellion hee perswades the Elders of Israel to accompany him in the change and whence doth he fetch his maine motiue but from the Oracle of God The Lord hath spoken of Dauid saying By the hand of my seruant Dauid will I saue my people Israel out of the hand of the Philistims and out of the hand of all their enemies Abner knew this ful well before yet then was well content to smother a knowne truth for his owne turne and now the publication of it may serue for his aduantage hee wins the heart of Israel by shewing Gods Charter for him whom he had so long opposed Hypocrites make vse of God for their owne purposes and care onely to make diuine authority a colour for their owne designes No man euer heard Abner godly till now neither had he beene so at this time if he had not intended a reuengefull departure from Ishbosheth Nothing is more odious than to make Religion a stalking horse to Policy WHO can but glorifie God in his iustice when he sees the bitter end of this treacherous dissimulation Dauid may vpon considerations of State entertaine his new Guest with a Feast and well might hee seeme to deserue a welcome that vndertakes to bring all Israel to the league and homage of Dauid but God neuer meant to vse so vnworthy meanes for so good a worke Ioab returnes from pursuing a troupe and finding Abner dismissed in peace and expectation of a beneficiall returne followes him and whether out of enuy at a new riuall of honour or out of the reuenge of Asahel hee repaies him both dissimulation and death God doth most iustly by Ioab that which Ioab did for himselfe most vniustly I know not setting the quarrell aside whether wee can worthily blame Abner for the death of Asahel who would needs after faire warnings runne himselfe vpon Abners Speare yet this fact shall procure his paiment for worse Now is Ishbosheths wrong reuenged by an enemy wee may not alwayes measure the Iustice of Gods proceedings by present occasions Hee needs not make vs acquainted or aske vs leaue when hee will call for the arrerages of forgotten sinnes Contemplations THE FIFTEENTH BOOKE Contayning VzZAH and the Arke DAVID with MEPHIBOSHETH and ZIBA HANVN and DAVIDS Ambassadors DAVID with BATHSHEBA and VRIAH NATHAN and DAVID AMON and THAMAR ABSALOMS returne and conspiracie TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE MY VERY GOOD LORD William LORD BVRLEIGH ALL GRACE AND Happinesse RIGHT HONOVRABLE THere are but two Bookes wherin we can reade God The one is his Word his Workes the other This is the bigger Volume that the more exquisite The Characters of this are more large but dim of that smaller but clearer Philosophers haue turned ouer this and erred That Diuines and studious Christians not without full and certaine information Jn the Workes of God we see the shadow or footsteps of the Creator in his Word we see the face of God in a glasse Happinesse consists in the Vision of that infinite Maiesty and if wee be perfectly happy aboue in seeing him face to face our happinesse is well forward below in seeing the liuely representation of his face in the glasse of Scriptures Wee cannot spend our eyes too much vpon this Obiect For mee the more J see the more J am amazed the more I am rauished with this glorious beautie With the honest Lepers I cannot bee content to enioy this happy sight alone there is but one way to euery mans Felicity May it please your Lordship to take part with many your Peeres in these my weak but not vnprofitable Contemplations which shall hold themselues not a little graced with your Honourable Name Whereto together with your right Noble and most Worthy Lady I haue gladly deuoted my selfe to bee Your Lordships in all dutifull obseruance IOS HALL Contemplations VzZAH AND THE ARKE REMOVED THe house of Saul is quiet the Philistims beaten victory cannot end better than in deuotion Dauid is no sooner settled in his house at Ierusalem than he fetcheth God to bee his guest there the thousands of Israel goe now in an holy march to bring vp the Arke of God to the place of his rest The tumults of Warre affoorded no opportunity of this seruice onely peace is a friend to Religion neither
no leisure to sinne The idle hath neither leisure nor power to auoide sinne Exercise is not more wholsome for the bodie than for the Soule the remission whereof breeds matter of disease in bothe The water that hath beene heated soonest freezeth the most actilie spirit soonest tyreth with slackning The Earth stande still and is all dregges the Heauens euer moue and are pure We haue no reason to complaine of the assiduitie of worke the toyle of action is answered by the benefit If wee did lesse we should suffer more Satan like an idle companion if hee finde vs busie flyes backe and sees it no time to entertayne vaine purposes with vs We cannot please him better than by casting away our worke to hold that with him wee cannot yeeld so farre and be guiltlesse Euen Dauids eyes haue no sooner the sleepe rubbed â—ut of them than they roue to wanton prospects Hee walkes vpon his roofe and sees Bathsheba washing her selfe inquires after her sends for her sollicits her to vncleanenesse The same spirit that shut vp his eyes in on vnseasonable sleepe opens them vpon an intising obiect whiles sinne hath such a Solliciter it cannot want either meanes or opportunitie I cannot thinke Bathsheba could bee so immodest as to wash her selfe openly especially from her naturall vncleannesse Lust is quick-sighted Dauid hath espied her where shee could espye no beholder His eyes recoyle vpon his heart and haue smitten him with sinfull desire There can be no safetie to that Soule where the senses are let loose Hee can neuer keepe his couenant with God that makes not a couenant with his eyes It is an idle presumption to thinke the outward man may bee free whiles the inward is safe He is more than a man whose heart is not led by his eyes hee is no regenerate man whose eyes are not restrained by his heart Oh Bathsheba how wert thou washed from thine vncleannesse when thou yeeldedst to goe into an adulterous bed neuer wert thou so foule as now when thou wert new washed The worst of Nature is cleanlinesse to the best of sinne thou hadst beene cleane if thou hadst not washed yet for thee I know how to plead infirmitie of sexe and the importunitie of a King But what shall I say for thee O thou royall Prophet and Propheticall King of Israel where shall I finde ought to extenuate that crime for which God himselfe hath noted thee Did not thine holy Profession teach thee to abhorre such a sinne more than death Was not thy Iustice woont to punish this sinne with no lesse than death Did not thy very calling call thee to a protection and preseruation of Iustice of Chastitie in thy subiects Didst thou want store of Wiues of thine owne wert thou restrayned from taking more Was there no beautie in Israel but in a Subiects Marriage-bed Wert thou ouercome by the vehement sollicitations of an Adulteresse Wert thou not the Tempter the Prosecutor of this vncleanenesse I should accuse thee deeply if thou hadst not accused thy selfe Nothing wanted to greaten thy sinne or our wonder and feare O God whither doe wee goe if thou stay vs not Who euer amongst the millions of thy Seruants could finde himselfe furnished with stronger preseruatiues against sinne Against whom could such a sinne finde lesse pretence of preuayling Oh keepe thou vs that presumptuous sinnes preuayle not ouer vs So only shall wee bee free from great offences The Suites of Kings are Imperatiue Ambition did now proue a Bawd to Lust Bathsheba yeeldeth to offend God to dishonour her Husband to clog and wound her owne Soule to abuse her bodie Dishonestie growes bold when it is countenanced with greatnesse Eminent persons had need be carefull of their demaunds they sinne by authoritie that are solicited by the mightie Had Bathsheba beene mindfull of her Matrimoniall fidelitie perhaps Dauid had beene soone checked in his inordinate desire her facilitie furthers the sinne The first motioner of euill is most faultie but as in quarrels so in offences the second blow which is the consent makes the fray Good Ioseph was moued to folly by his great and beautifull Mistris this fire fell vpon wet Tinder and therefore soone went out Sinne is not acted alone if but one partie be wise both escape It is no excuse to say I was tempted though by the great though by the holy and learned Almost all sinners are misse-led by that transformed Angell of light The action is that wee must regard not the person Let the mouer bee neuer so glorious if he stirre vs to euill he must be entertained with defiance The God that knowes how to rayse good out of euill blesses an adulterous copulation with that increase which he denyes to the chast imbracements of honest Wedlocke Bathsheba hath conceiued by Dauid and now at once conceiues a sorrow and care how to smother the shame of her Conception He that did the fact must hide it Oh Dauid where is thy Repentance Where is thy tendernesse and compunction of heart Where are those holy Meditations which had woont to take vp thy Soule Alas in steed of clearing thy sinne thou labourest to cloke it and spendest those thoughts in the concealing of thy wickednesse which thou shouldest rather haue bestowed in preuenting it The best of Gods Children may not onely bee drenched in the waues of sinne but lye in them for the time and perhaps sinke twice to the bottome what Hypocrite could haue done worse than studie how to couer the face of his sinne from the eyes of men whiles hee regarded not the sting of sinne in his Soule As there are some Acts wherein the Hypocrite is a Saint so there are some wherein the greatest Saint vpon Earth may bee an Hypocrite Saul did thus goe about to colour his sinne and is cursed The Vessels of Mercie and Wrath are not euer distinguishable by their actions Hee makes the difference that will haue mercie on whom he will and whom he will he hardeneth It is rare and hard to commit a single sinne Dauid hath abused the Wife of Vriah now hee would abuse his person in causing him to father a false seede That worthy Hittite is sent for from the Wars and now after some cunning and farre fetcht Questions is dismissed to his house not without a present of fauour Dauid could not but imagine that the beautie of his Bathsheba must needs bee attractiue enough to an Husband whom long absence in Warres had with-held all that while from so pleasing a Bed neyther could hee thinke that since that face and those brests had power to allure himselfe to an vnlawfull lust it could be possible that Vriah should not bee inuited by them to an allowed and warrantable fruition That Dauids heart might now the rather strike him in comparing the chaste resolutions of his Seruant with his owne light incontinence good Vriah sleepes at the doore of the Kings Palace making choice of a stonie Pillow vnder the Canopie of Heauen rather
than the delicate Bed of her whom he thought as honest as he knew faire The Arke saith hee and Israel and Iudah dwell in Tents and my Lord Ioab and the Seruants of my Lord abide in the open Fields shall I then goe into my house to eat and drinke and lye with my Wife by thy life and by the life of thy soule I will not doe this thing Who can but bee astonished at this change to see a Souldier austere and a Prophet wanton And how doth that Souldiers austeritie shame the Prophets wantonnesse Oh zealous and mortified Soule worthy of a more faithfull Wife of a more iust Master how didst thou ouer-looke all base sensuality and hatedst to bee happy alone Warre and Lust had wont to bee reputed friends thy brest is not more full of courage than chastity and is so farre from wandring after forbidden pleasures that it refuseth lawfull There is a time to laugh and a time to mourne a time to embrace and a time to bee farre from embracing euen the best actions are not alwayes seasonable much lesse the indifferent Hee that euer takes libertie to doe what hee may shall offend no lesse than hee that sometimes takes libertie to doe what hee may not If any thing the Arke of GOD is fittest to leade our times according as that is eyther distressed or prospereth should wee frame our mirth or mourning To dwell in seeled Houses whiles the Temple lyes waste is the ground of Gods iust quarrell How shall wee sing a Song of the Lord in a strange Land If I forget thee O Ierusalem let my right hand forget her cunning If I doe not remember thee let my tongue cleaue to the roofe of my mouth yea if I preferre not Hierusalem to my chiefe ioy As euery man is a limme of the Communitie so must hee bee affected with the estate of the vniuersall bodie whether healthfull or languishing It did not more aggrauate Dauids sinne that whiles the Arke and Israel was in hazard and distresse hee could finde time to loose the reines to wanton desires and actions than it magnifies the religious zeale of Vriah that hee abandons comfort till he see the Arke and Israel victorious Common dangers or calamities must like the rapt motion carrie our hearts contrarie to the wayes of our priuate occasions He that cannot bee moued with words shall bee tried with Wine Vriah had equally protested against feasting at home and societie with his wife To the one the authoritie of a King forceth him abroad in hope that the excesse thereof shall force him to the other It is like that holy Captaine intended onely to yeeld so much obedience as might consist with his course of austeritie But Wine is a mocker when it goes plausibly in no man can imagine how it will rage and tyrannize hee that receiues that Traytour within his gates shall too late complaine of surprizall Like vnto that ill spirit it insinuates sweetly but in the end it bytes like a Serpent and hurts like a Cockatrice Euen good Vriah is made drunke the holiest soule may be ouer-taken It is hard gaine-saying where a King beginnes an health to a subiect Where oh where will this wickednesse end Dauid will now procure the sinne of another to hide his owne Vriahs drunkennesse is more Dauids offence than his It is weakly yeelded to of the one which was wilfully intended of the other The one was as the Sinner the other as the Tempter Had not Dauid knowne that Wine was an inducement to Lust hee had spared those superfluous Cups Experience had taught him that the eye debauched with Wine will looke vpon strange women The Drunkard may bee any thing saue good Yet in this the ayme failed Grace is stronger than Wine Whiles that with-holdes in vaine shall the fury of the Grape attempt to carry Vriah to his owne Bed Sober Dauid is now worse than drunken Vriah Had not the King of Israel beene more intoxicate with sinne than Vriah with drinke hee had not in a sober intemperance climbed vp into that Bed which the drunken temperance of Vriah refused If Dauid had bin but himselfe how had he loued how had he honoured this honest and religious zeale in his so faithfull Seruant whom now he cruelly seekes to reward with death That fact which Wine cannot hide the Sword shall Vriah shall beare his owne Mittimus vnto Ioab Put yee Vriah in the fore-front of the strength of the Battle and recule backe frō him that he may be smitten and dye What is becomne of thee O thou good spirit that hadst woont to guide thy chosen Seruant in his former wayes Is not this the man whom we lately saw so heart smitten for but cutting off the lap of the Garment of a Wicked Master that is now thus lauish of the bloud of a gracious and well-deseruing Seruant Could it be likely that so worthy a Captaine could fall alone Could Dauid haue expiated this sinne with his owne bloud it had beene but well spent but to couer his sinne with the innocent bloud of others was a crime aboue astonishment Oh the deepe deceitfulnesse of sinne If the Deuill should haue comne to Dauid in the most louely forme of Bathsheba her selfe and at the first should haue directly and in termes solicited him to murder his best Seruant I doubt not but hee would haue spat scorne in that face on which hee should otherwise haue doted now by many cunning windings Satan rises vp to that tentation and preuailes that shall bee done for a colour of guiltinesse whereof the foule would haue hated to bee immediately guiltie Euen those that finde a iust horror in leaping downe from some high Tower yet may bee perswaded to descend by stayres to the bottome Hee knowes not where he shall stay that hath willingly flipt into a knowne wickednesse How many doth an eminent offender draw with him into euill It could not bee but that diuers of the Attendants both of Dauid and Bathsheba must bee conscious to that adulterie Great mens sinnes are seldome secret And now Ioab must be fetcht in as accessary to the murder How must this example needs harden Ioab against the conscience of Abners bloud Whiles he cannot but thinke Dauid cannot auenge that in mee which he acteth himselfe Honour is pretended to poore Vriah death is meant This man was one of the Worthies of Dauid their courage sought glorie in the difficultest exploits That reputation had neuer beene purchased without attempts of equall danger Had not the Leader and Followers of Vriah beene more treacherours than his Enimies were strong hee had come off with Victory Now hee was not the first or last that perished by his friends Dauid hath forgotten that himselfe was in like sort betrayed in his Masters intention vpon the dowrie of the Philistims-fore-skinnes I feare to aske Who euer noted so foule a plot in Dauids reiected Predecessour Vriah must be the Messenger of his owne death Ioab must be
a Traytor to his friend the host of God must shamefully turne their backes vpon the Ammonites all that Israelitish bloud must bee shed that murder must be seconded with dissimulation and all this to hide one adultery O God thou hadst neuer suffered so deare a Fauourite of thine to fall so fearefully if thou hadst not meant to make him an vniuersall example to Mankind of not presuming of not despairing How can wee presume of not sinning or despayre for sinning when wee finde so great a Saint thus fallen thus risen NATHAN and DAVID YEt Bathsheba mourned for the death of that Husband whom she had beene drawne to dishonour How could shee bestow teares enow vpon that Funerall whereof her sinne was the cause If shee had but a suspicion of the plot of his death the Fountaines of her eyes could not yeeld water enough to wash off her Husbands bloud Her sin was more worthy of sorrow than her losse If this griefe had beene right placed the hope of hiding her shame and the ambition to bee a Queene had not so soone mittigated it neyther had shee vpon any termes beene drawne into the Bed of her husbands murtherer Euery gleame of earthly comfort can dry vp the teares of worldly sorrow Bathsheba hath soone lost her griefe at the Court The remembrance of an Husband is buried in the ioyliltie and state of a Princesse Dauid securely enioyes his ill-purchased loue and is content to exchange the conscience of his sinne for the sense of his pleasure But the iust and holy God will not put it vp so hee that hates sinne so much the more as the offender is more deare to him will let Dauid feele the bruise of his fall If Gods best Children haue beene sometimes suffered to sleepe in a sinne at last he hath awakened them in a fright Dauid was a Prophet of God yet hee hath not only stept into these foule sinnes but soiournes with them If any profession or state of life could haue priuiledged from sinne the Angels had not sinned in Heauen nor man in Paradise Nathan the Prophet is sent to the Prophet Dauid for reproofe for conuiction Had it beene any other mans case none could haue beene more quick sighted than the Princely Prophet in his owne hee is so blinde that God is faine to lend him others eyes Euen the Phisician himself when hee is sick sends for the counsell of those whom his health did mutually aid with aduice Let no man thinke himselfe too good to learne Teachers themselues may bee taught that in their owne particular which in a generalitie they haue often taught others It is not only ignorance that is to be remoued but mis-affection Who can prescribe a iust period to the best mans repentance About tenne moneths are passed since Dauids sinne in all which time I finde no newes of any serious compunction It could not bee but some glances of remorse must needs haue passed thorough his Soule long ere this but a due and solemne contrition was not heard of till Nathans message and perhaps had beene further adiourned if that Monitor had beene longer deferred Alas what long and dead sleepes may the holyest Soule take in fearefull sinnes Were it not for thy mercie O God the best of vs should end our spirituall Lethargie in sleepe of death It might haue pleased God as easily to haue sent Nathan to checke Dauid in his first purpose of sinning So had his eyes beene restrayned Bathsheba honest Vriah aliue with honour now the wisdome of the Almightie knew how to winne more glorie by the permission of so foule an euill than by the preuention yea he knew how by the permission of one sinne to preuent millions how many thousand had sinned in a vaine presumption on their owne strength if Dauid had not thus offended how many thousand had despiared in the conscience of their owne weaknesses if these horrible sinnes had not receiued forgiuenesse It is happy for all times that we haue so holy a Sinner so sinfull a penitent It matters not how bitter the Pill is but how well wrapped so cunningly hath Nathan conueyed this dose that it begins to worke ere it be tasted there is no one thing wherein is more vse of wisdome than the due contriuing of a reprehension which in a discreet deliuerie helps the disâ—â—se in an vnwise destroyes Nature Had not Nathan beene vsed to the possession of Dauids care this complaint had beene suspected It well beseemes a King to take information by a Prophet Whiles wise Nathan was querulously discoursing of the cruell rich man that had forceably taken away the only Lambe of his poore Neighbour how willingly doth Dauid listen to the Storie and how sharply euen aboue Law doth he censure the fact As the Lord liueth the man that hath done this thing shall surely dye Full little did he thinke that he had pronounced sentence against himselfe It had not beene so heauie if he had not knowne on whom it should haue light Wee haue open eares and quick tongues to the vices of others How seuere Iusticers wee can bee to our very owne crimes in others persons How flattering Parasites to anothers crime in our selues The life of doctrine is in application Nathan might haue bin long enough in his narration in his inuectiue ere Dauid would haue bin touched with his owne guiltinesse but now that the Prophet brings the Word home to his bosome hee cannot but be affected Wee may take pleasure to heare men speake in the Cloudes we neuer take profit till wee finde a proprietie in the exhortation or reproofe There was not more cunning in the Parable than courage in the application Thou art the man If Dauid be a King he may not looke not to heare of his faults Gods messages may be no other than vnpartiall It is a trecherous flattery in diuine errands to regard greatnesse If Prophets must bee mannerly in the forme yet in the matter of reproofe resolute The words are not their owne They are but the Heralds of the King of Heauen Thus saith the Lord God of Israel How thunder-stricken doe we thinke Dauid did now stand How did the change of his colour bewray the confusion in his Soule whiles his conscience said the same within which the Prophet sounded in his eare And now least ought should be wanting to his humiliation all Gods former fauours shall be laid before his eyes by way of exprobration He is worthy to be vpbrayded with mercies that hath abused mercies vnto wantonnesse whiles we doe well God giues and sayes nothing when we doe ill hee layes his benefits in our dish and casts them in our teeth that our shame may be so much the more by how much our obligations haue bin greater The blessings of God in our vnworthy carriage proue but the aggrauations of sinne and additions to iudgement I see all Gods Children falling into sinne some of them lying in sinne none of them maintayning their sinne Dauid
she had prepared to her sicke Brother her selfe is made a prey to his outragious Lust The modest Virgine intreates and perswades in vaine shee layes before him the sinne the shame the danger of the fact and since none of these can preuaile faine would winne time by the suggesting of vnpossible hopes Nothing but violence can stay a resolued sinner What hee cannot by intreaty hee will haue by force If the Deuill were not more strong in men than nature they would neuer seeke pleasure in violence Amnon hath no sooner fulfilled his beastly desires than he hates Tamar more than he loued her Inordinate lust neuer ends but in discontentment Losse of spirits and remorse of soule make the remembrance of that Act tedious whose expectation promised delight If we could see the backe of sinfull pleasures ere we behold their face our hearts could not but be fore-stalled with a iust detestation Brutish Amnon it was thy selfe whom thou shouldst haue hated for this villany not thine innocent sister Both of you lay together onely one committed incest What was she but a patient in that impotent fury of lust How vniustly doe carnall men mis-place their affections No man can say whether that loue or this hatred were more vnreasonable Fraud drew Tamar into the house of Amnon force intertained her within and droue her out Faine would she haue hid her shame where it was wrought and may not bee allowed it That roofe vnder which she came with honour and in obedience and loue may not be lent her for the time as a shelter of her ignominie Neuer any sauage could be more barbarous Shechem had rauished Dinah his offence did not make her odious his affection so continued that he is willing rather to draw bloud of himselfe and his people than forgoe her whom hee had abused Amnon in one houre is in the excesse of loue and hate and is sicke of her for whom he was ficke She that lately kept the keyes of his heart is now lockt out of his doores Vnruly passions runne euer into extremities and are then best apaied when they are furthest off from reason and moderation What could Amnon thinke would be the euent of so soule a fact which as hee had not the grace to preuent so hee hath not the care to conceale If hee lookt not so high as Heauen what could he imagine would follow hereupon but the displeasure of a Father the danger of Law the indignation of a Brother the shame and out-cryes of the World All which he might haue hoped to auoid by secresie and plausible courses of satisfaction It is the iust iudgement of God vpon presumptuous offenders that they lose their wit together with their honesty and are either so blinded that they cannot fore-see the issue of their actions or so besotted that they doe not regard it Poore Tamar can but bewaile that which she could not keepe her Virginity not lost but torne from her by a cruell violence She rends her Princely Robe and kâ—ies ashes on her head and laments the shame of anothers sinne and liues more desolate than a widdow in the house of her brother Absalom In the meane time what a corosiue must this newes needs be to the heart of good Dauid whose fatherly command had out of loue cast his Daughter into the iawes of this Lion What an insolent affront must he needs construe this to bee offred by a Sonne to a Father that the Father should bee made the Pandar of his owne Daughter to his Sonne Hee that lay vpon the ground weeping for but the sicknesse of an Infant How vexed doe we thinke hee was with the villanie of his Heire with the rauishment of his Daughter both of them worse than many deaths What reuenge can he thinke of for so haynous a crime lesse than death and what lesse than death is it to him to thinke of a reuenge Rape was by the Law of God capitall how much more when it is seconded with Incest Anger was not punishment enough for so high an offence Yet this is all that I heare of from so indulgent a Father sauing that he makes vp the rest with sorrow punishing his Sonnes out-rage in himselfe The better-natur'd and more gracious a man is the more subiect he is to the danger of an ouer-remissenesse and the excesse of fauour and mercie The milde iniustice is no lesse perillous to the Common-wealth than the cruell If Dauid perhaps out of the conscience of his owne late offence will not punish this fact his sonne Absalom shall not out of any care of Iustice but in a desire of reuenge Two whole yeares hath this slye Courtier smothered his indignation and fayned kindnesse else his inuitation of Amnon in speciall had beene suspected Euen gallant Absalom was a great Sheep-master The brauery and magnificence of a Courtier must bee built vpon the grounds of frugalitie Dauid himselfe is bidden to this bloudie Sheep-shearing It was no otherwise meant but that the Fathers eyes should be the witnesses of the Tragicall execution of one Sonne by another Onely Dauids loue kept him from that horrible spectacle Hee is carefull not to be chargeable to that Sonne who cares not to ouer charge his Fathers stomacke with a Feast of Bloud AMNON hath so quite forgot his sinne that he dares goe to feast in that House where Tamar was mourning and suspects not the kindnesse of him whom he had deserued of a Brother to make an enemy Nothing is more vnsafe to be trusted than the faire lookes of a festred heart Where true Charitie or iust satisfaction haue not wrought a sound reconciliation malice doth but lurke for the opportunitie of an aduantage It was not for nothing that Absalom deferred his reuenge which is now so much the more exquisite as it is longer protracted What could bee more fearefull than when Amnons heart was merrie with Wine to be suddenly stricken with death As if this execution had beene no lesse intended to the Soule than to the bodie How wickedly soeuer this was done by Absalom yet how iust was it with God that he who in two yeares impunity would finde no leisure of repentance should now receiue a punishment without possibilitie of Repentance O God thou art righteous to reckon for those sinnes which humane partialitie or negligence hath omitted and whiles thou punishest sinne with sinne to punish sinne with death If either Dauid had called Amnon to account for this villanie or Amnon had called himselfe the reuenge had not beene so desperate Happie is the man that by an vnfayned Repentance acquits his soule from his knowne euills and improues the dayes of his peace to the preuention of future vengeance which if it bee not done the hand of God shall as surely ouertake vs in iudgement as the hand of Satan hath ouertaken vs in miscarriage vnto sinne ABSALOMS Returne and Conspiracie ONE Act of iniustice drawes on another The iniustice of Dauid in not punishing the rape of
the rest had ingaged it selfe in Shebaes sedition yet how â—ealously doth Ioab remoue from himselfe the suspition of an intended vastation How fearfull shall their answer be who vpon the quarrell of their owne ambition haue not spared to waste whole Tribes of the Israel of God It was not the fashion of Dauids Captaines to assault any City ere they summond it here they did There bee some things that in the very â—act carie their owne conuiction So did Abel in the entertaining and abetting a knowne conspirator Ioab challenges them for the offence and requires no other satisfaction then the head of Sheba This Matron had not deserued the name of Wise and faithfull in Israel if she had not both apprehended the iustice of the condition and commended it to her Citizens whom she hath easily perswaded to spare their owne heads in not sparing a Traitors It had been pitie those wals should haue stood if they had beene to hye to throw a Traitors head ouer Spiritually the case is ours Euery mans brest is as a City inclosed Euery sinne is a Traitor that lurkes within those wals God cals to vs for Shebaes head neither hath he any quarrell to our person but for our sinne If wee loue the head of our Traitor aboue the life of our soule wee shall iustly perish in the vengeance we cannot be more willing to part with our sinne then our mercifull God is to withdraw his iudgements Now is Ioab returned with successe and hopes by Shebaes head to pay the price of Amasaes blood Dauid hates the murder entertaines the man defers the reuenge Ioab had made himselfe so great so necessary that Dauid may neither misse nor punish him Policy led the King to conniue at that which his heart abhorred I dare not commend that wisedome which holds the hands of Princes from doing iustice Great men haue euer held it a point of worldly state not alwayes to pay vvhere they haue been conscious to a debt of either fauour or punishment but to make Time their seruant for both Salomon shall once defray the arerages of his father In the meane time Ioab commands and prospers and Dauid is faine to smile on that face whereon he hath in his secret destination written the characters of Death The Gibeonites reuenged THE raigne of Dauid was most troublesome towards the shutting vp wherein both warre and famine conspire to afflict him Almost forty yeares had he sate in the throne of Israel with competency if not abundance of all things now at last are his people visited with a long death we are not at first sensible of common euils Three yeares drought and scarcitie are gone ouer ere Dauid consults with God concerning the occasion of the iudgement now he found it high time to seeke the face of the Lord The continuance of an affliction sends vs to God and cals vpon vs to aske for a reckoning Whereas like men strucken in their sleepe a sudden blow cannot make vs to finde our selues but rather astonisheth then teacheth vs. Dauid was himselfe a Prophet of God yet had not the Lord all this while acquainted him with the grounds of his proceedings against Israel this secret was hid from him till hee consulted with the Vrim Ordinarie meanes shall reueale that to him which no vision had descryed And if God will haue Prophets to haue recourse vnto the Priests for the notice of his will how much more must the people Euen those that are the inwardest with God must haue vse of the Ephod Iustly is it presupposed by Dauid that there was neuer iudgement from God where hath not been a prouocation from men therefore when he sees the plague he inquires for the sinne Neuer man smarted causelessely from the hand of diuine iustice Oh that when we suffer we could aske what wee haue done and could guide our repentance to the root of our euils That God whose counsels are secret euen where his actions are open will not bee close to his Prophet to his Priest without inquirie we shall know nothing vpon inquirie nothing shall be concealed from vs that is fit for vs to know Who can choose but wonder at once both at Dauids slacknesse in consulting with God and Gods speed in answering so slow a demand He that so well knew the way to Gods Oracle suffers Israel to be three yeares pinched with famine ere hee askes why they suffer Euen the best hearts may be ouertaken with dulnesse in holy dâ—ties But oh the maruellous mercy of God that takes not the aduantage of our weaknesses Dauids question is not more slow then his answer is speedy It is for Saul and for his bloody house because he slew the Gibeonites Israel was full of sinnes besides those of Sauls house Sauls house was full of sinnes besides those of blood Much blood was shed by them besides that of the Gibeonites yet the iustice of God singles out this one sinne of violence offered to the Gibeonites contrary to the league made by Ioshua some foure hundred yeares before for the occasion of this late vengeance Where the causes of offence are infinite it is iust with God to pitch vpon some it is mercifull not to punish for all Welneer forty yeares are past betwixt the commission of the sinne and the reckoning for it It is a vaine hope that is raised from the delay of iudgement No time can be any preiudice to the ancient of dayes When wee haue forgotten our sins when the world hath forgotten vs he sues vs afresh for our arerages The slaughter of the Gibeonites was the sinne not of the present but rather the former generation and now posteritie payes for their forefathers Euen we men hold it not vniust to sue the heires and executors of our debters Eternall paiments God vses onely to require of the person temporarie oft-times of succession As Saul was higher by the head and shoulders then the rest of Israel both in stature and dignitie so were his sinnes more conspicuous then those of the vulgar The eminence of the person makes the offence more remarkable to the eyes both of God and men Neither Saul nor Israel were faultlesse in other kinds yet God fixes the eye of his reuenge vpon the massacre of the Gibeonites Euery sinne hath a tongue but that of blood ouer-cryes and drownes the rest Hee who is mercy it selfe abhorres crueltie in his creature aboue all other inordinatenesse That holy soule which was heauy pressed with the weight of an hainous adulterie yet cryes out Deliuer me from blood O God the God of my saluation and my tongue shall sing ioyfully of thy righteousnesse If God would take account of blood hee might haue entred the action vpon the blood of Vriah spilt by Dauid or if hee would rather insist in Sauls house vpon the blood of Abimelech the Priest and fourescore and fiue persons that did weare a linnen Ephod but it pleased the wisdome and iustice of the Almighty rather to
call for the blood of the Gibeonites though drudges of Israel and a remnant of Amorites Why this There was a periury attending vpon this slaughter It was an ancient Oath wherein the Princes of the congregation had bound themselues vpon Ioshua's league to the Gibeonites that they would suffer them to liue an oath extorted by fraud but solemne by no lesse â—â—me then the Lord God of Israel Saul will now thus late either not acknowledge it or not keepe it out of his zeale therefore to the children of Israel and Iudah he roots â—ut some of the Gibeonites whether in a zeale of reuenge of their first imposture or in a zeale of inlarging the possessions of Israel or in a zeale of executing Gods charge vpon the brood of Canaanites he that spared Agag whom he should haue smitten smites the Gibeonites whom he should haue spared Zeale and good intention is no excuse much lesse a warrant for euill God holds it an high indignitie that his name should be sworne by and violated Length of time cannot dispense with our oathes with our vowes The vowes and oathes of others may binde vs how much more our owne There was a famine in Israel a naturall man would haue ascribed it vnto the drought and that drought perhaps to some constellations Dauid knowes to looke higher and sees a diuine hand scourging Israel for some great offence and ouer-ruling those second causes to his most iust executions Euen the most quick-sighted worldling is pore-blind to 〈◊〉 all obiects and the weakest eyes of the regenerate pierce the heauens and espy God in all earthly occurrences So well was Dauid acquainted with Gods proceedings that he knew the remouall of the iudgement must begin at the satisfaction of the wronged At once therefore doth he pray vnto God and treat with the Gibeonites What shall I doe for you and wherewith shall I make the atonement that I may blesse the inheritance of the Lord In vaine should Dauid though a Prophet blesse Israel at the Gibeonites did not 〈…〉 lesse them Iniuries done vs on earth giue vs power in heauen The oppressor is in no mans mercy but his whom he hath trampled vpon Little did the Gibeonites thinke that God had so taken to heart their wrongs that for their sakes all Israel should suffer Euen when we thinke not of it is the righteous Iudge auenging our vnrighteous vexations Our hard measures cannot bee hid from him his returnes are hid from vs It is sufficient for vs that God can bee no more neglectiue then ignorant of our sufferings It is now in the power of these despised Hiuites to make their owne termes with Israel Neither Siluer nor Gold will sauour with them towards their satisfaction Nothing can expiate the blood of their fathers but the blood of seuen sonnes of their deceased persecutor Here was no other then a iust retaliation Saul had punished in them the offence of their predecessors they will now reuenge Sauls sinne in his children The measure we mete vnto others is with much equity re-measured vnto our selues Euery death would not content them of Sauls sonnes but a cursed and ignominious hanging on the Tree Neither would that death content them vnlesse their owne hands might bee the executioners Neither would any place serue for the execution but Gibeah the Court of Saul neither would they doe any of this for the wreaking of their own fury but for the appeasing of Gods wrath We will hang them vp vnto the Lord in Gibeah of Saul Dauid might not refuse the condition Hee must deliuer they must execute Hee chooses out seuen of the sonnes and grand-children of Saul That house had raised long an vniust persecution against Dauid now God payes it vpon anothers score Dauids loue and oath to Ionathan preserues lame Mephibosheth How much more shall the Father of all mercies doe good vnto the children of the faithfull for the couenant made with their Parents The fiue sonnes of Adriel the Meholathite Dauids ancient riuall in his first loue which were borne to him by Merab Sauls Daughter and brought vp by her barren sister Michol the wife of Dauid are yeelded vp to death Merab was after a promise of mariage to Dauid vniustly giuen away by Saul to Adriel Michol seemes to abet the match in breeding the children now in one act nor of Dauids seeking the wrong is thus late auenged vpon Saul Adriel Merab Michol the children It is a dangerous matter to offer iniury to any of Gods faithfull ones If their meeknesse haue easily remitted it their God will not passe it ouer without a seuere retribution These fiue together with two sonnes of Rizpah Sauls Concubine are hanged vp at once before the Lord yea and before the eyes of the World No place but an Hill wil serue for this execution The acts of iustice as they are intended for example so they should be done in that eminent fashion that may make them both most instructiue and most terrifying Vnwarrantable courses of priuate reuenge seeke to hide their heads in secresie The beautifull face of iustice both affects the light and becomes it It was the generall charge of Gods Law that no corps should remaine all night vpon the gibbet The Almighty hath power to dispense with his owne command so doubtlesse he did in this extraordinary case these carkasses did not defile but expiate Sorrowfull Rizpah spreads her a Tent of Sackcloth vpon the Rocke for a sad attendance vpon those sonnes of her wombe Death might bereaue her of them not them of her loue This spectacle was not more grieuous to her then pleasing to God and happy to Israel Now the clouds drop â—â—messe and the earth runs forth into plenty The Gibeonites are satisfied God reconciled Israel relieued How blessed a thing it is for any Nation that iustice is vnpartially executed euen vpon the mighty A few drops of blood haue procured large showres from Heauen A few carkasses are a rich compost to the earth The drought and dearth remoue away with the breath of those pledges of the offender Iudgements cannot tyrannize where iustice raignes as contrarily there can be no peace where blood cryes vnheard vnregarded The numbring of the people ISrael was growne wanton and mutinous God puls them downe first by the sword then by famine now by pestilence Oh the wondrous yet iust wayes of the Almightie Because Israel hath sinned therefore Dauid shall sinne that Israel may be punished Because God is angry with Israel therefore Dauid shall anger him more and strike himselfe in Israel and Israel through himselfe The spirit of God elsewhere ascribes this motion to Satan which here it attributes to God Both had their hand in the worke God by permission Satan by suggestion God as a Iudge Satan as an enemy God as in a iust punishment for sinne Satan as in an act of sinne God in a wise ordination of it to good Satan in a malicious intent of confusion Thus at once
It was fourescore yeeres agoe since the sentence of iudgement was denounced against the house of Eli now doth it come to execution This iust quarrell against Abiathar the last of that line shall make good the threatned iudgement The wickednesse of Elies house was neither purged by sacrifice nor obliterated by time If God pay slowly yet he payes sure Delay of most certaine punishment is neither any hindrance to his iustice nor any comfort to our miseries The Execution of IOAB and SHIMEI ABiathar shall liue though he serue not It is in the power of Princes to remit at least those punishments which attend the breach of humane Lawes good reason they should haue power to dispence with the wrongs done to their owne persons The newes of Adonijahs death and Abiathars remouall cannot but affright Ioab who now runnes to Gibeon and takes sanctuary in the Tabernacle of God all his hope of defence is in the hornes of the Altar Fond Ioab hadst thou formerly sought for counsell from the Tabernacle thou hadst not now needed to seeke to it for refuge if thy deuotions had not beene wanting to that Altar thou hadst not needed it for a shelter It is the fashion of our foolish presumption to looke for protection where wee haue not cared to yeeld obedience Euen a Ioab clings fast to Gods Altar in his extremity which in his ruffe and welfare he regarded not The worst men would be glad to make vse of Gods ordinances for their aduantage Necessity will driue the most profane and lawlesse man to God But what doe these bloody hands touching the holy Altar of God Miserable Ioab what helpe canst thou expect from that sacred pile Those hornes that were besprinkled with the blood of beasts abhorre to be touched by the blood of men that Altar was for the expiation of sin by blood not for the protection of the sin of blood If Adonijah fled thither and escaped it is murder that pursues thee more then conspiracie God hath no sanctuary for a wilfull Homicide Yet such respect doth Benaiah giue to that holy place that his sword is vnwilling to touch him that touches the Altar Those hornes shall put off death for the time and giue protraction of the execution though not preseruation of life How sweet is life euen to those who haue been prodigall of the blood of others that Ioab shifts thus to hold it but some few houres Benaiah returnes with Ioabs answer in stead of his head Nay but I will dy here as not daring to vnsheath his sword against a man sheltered in Gods tabernacle without a new commission Yong Salomon is so wel acquainted with the Law of God in such a case that he sticks not at the sentence he knew that God had enacted If a man come presumptuously vpon his neighbour to slay him with guile thou shalt take him from mine Altar that he may die He knew Ioabs murders had not been more presumptuous then guilefull and therefore he sends Benaiah to take away the offender both from God and men from the Altar and the world No subiect had merited more then Ioab When proclamation was made in Israel that who euer should smite the Iebusites first he should be the Chiefe and Captaine Ioab was the man When Dauid built some part of Ierusalem Ioab built the rest so as Ierusalem owes it selfe to Ioab both for recouery and reparation No man held so close to Dauid no man was more intent to the weale of Israel none so successefull in victories yet now is he cald to reckon for his old sinnes and must repay blood to Amasa and Abner It is not in the power of all our deserts to buy off one sinne either with God or man where life is so deeply forfaited it admits of no redemption The honest simplicity of those times knew not of any infamy in the execution of iustice Benaiah who was the great Marshall vnder Salomon thinkes not his fingers defiled with that fatall stroke It is a foolish nicenesse to put more shame in the doing of iustice then in the violating of it In one act Salomon hath approued himselfe both a good Magistrate and a good sonne fulfilling at once the will of a father and the charge of God concluding vpon this iust execution that vpon Dauid and vpon his seed and vpon his house and vpon his Throne there shall bee peace for euer from the Lord and inferring that without this there could haue beene no peace Blood is a restlesse suitor and will not leaue clamoring for iudgement till the mouth bee stopped with reuenge In this case fauour to the offender is cruelty to the fauourer Now hath Ioab paid all his arerages by the sword of Benaiah there is no suit against his corps that hath the honor of a buriall fit for a Peere of Israel for the neere cozen to the King Death puts an end to all quarrells Salomon strikes off the skore when God is satisfied The reuenge that suruiues death and will not be shut vp in the Coffin is barbarous and vnbeseeming true Israelites Onely Shimei remaines vpon the file his course is next yet so as that it shall be in his owne liberty to hasten his end Vpon Dauids remission Shimei dwels securely in Bahurim a town of the Tribe of Beniamin Doubtlesse when he saw so round iustice done vpon Adonijah and Ioab his guilty heart could not think Salomons message portended ought but his execution and now he cannot but be well pleased with so easie conditions of dwelling at Ierusalem and not passing ouer the brooke Kidron What more delightful place could he choose to liue in thē that city which was the glory of the whole earth What more pleasing bounds could he wish then the sweet bankes of Kidron Ierusalem could be no prison to him whiles it was a Paradise to his betters and if he had a desire to take fresh aire hee had the space of sixe furlongs to walke from the city to the brooke Hee could not complaine to bee so delectably confined And besides thrice euery yeere he might be sure to see all his friends without stirring his foot Wise Salomon whiles hee cared to seeme not too seuere an exactor of that which his father had remitted prudently laies insensible twigs for so foule an offender Besides the old grudge no doubt Salomon saw cause to suspect the fidelity of Shimei as a man who was euer knowne to be hollow to the house of Dauid The obscurity of a Country life would easily afford him more safe opportunities of secret mischiefe Many eies shall watch him in the citie he cannot looke out vnseene hee cannot whisper vnheard Vpon no other termes shall hee inioy his life which the least straying shall forfait Shimei feeles no paine in this restraint How many Nobles of Israel doe that for pleasure which he doth vpon command Three yeers hath he liued within compasse limited both by Salomons charge and his owne oath It was still in
Surely Israel came with a purpose to cauill Ieroboam had secretly troubled these waters that he might fish more gainfully One male-content is enough to embroile a whole Kingdome How harshly must it needs sound in the eares of Rehoboam that the first word hee heares from his people is a querulous challenge of his fathers gouernment Thy father made our yoke grienous For ought I see the suggestion was not more spightfull then vniust where was the weight of this yoke the toyle of these seruices Here were none of the turmoyles of warre no trainings marchings encampings entrenchings watchings minings sieges fortifications none of that tedious world of worke that attends hostility Salomon had not his name for nought All was calme during that long reigne And if they had payed deare for their peace they had no cause to complaine of an hard march The warlike times of Saul and Dauid had exhausted their blood together with their substance what ingratitude was this to cry out of ease Yea but that peace brought forth costly and laborious buildings Gods house and the Kings the walls of Ierusalem Hazar Megiddo and Gezer the Cities of store the cities of defence could not rise without many a shoulder True but not of any Israelites The remainders of Amorites Hittites Penzzites Hiuites and Iebusites were put to all the drudgery of these great works the taskes of Israel were easie and ingenuous free from seruility free from painfulnesse But the charge was theirs whose-soeuer was the labour The diet of so endlesse a retinue the attendance of his Seraglio the purueyance for his forty thousand stables the cost of his sacrifices must needs weigh heauy Certainly if it had layne on none but his owne But wherfore went Salomons Nauy euery three yeeres to Ophira to what vse serued the six hundred threescore and six Talents of Gold that came in one yeare to his Exchequer wherefore serued the large tributes of forraine nations How did he make siluer to be in Ierusalem as stones if the exactions were so pressiâ—e The multitude is euer prone to picke quarrels with their Gouernors and whom they feared aliue to censure dead The benefits of so quiet and happy a reigne are past ouer in silence the grieuances are recounted with clamor Who can hope that merit or greatnesse can shield him from obloquie when Salomon is traduced to his owne loynes The proposition of Israel puts Rehoboam to a deliberation Depart yee for three daies then come againe to me I heare no other word of his that argued wisdome Not to giue sudden resolutions in cases of importance was a point that might well befeeme the son of Salomon I wonder that he who had so much wit as to call for leisure in his answer should shew so little wit in the improuing of that leisure in the returne of that answer Who cannot but hope well to see the grey heads of Salomons secret Counsell called to Rehoboams Cabinet As Counsellors as ancient as Salomons they cannot choose but see the best the safest course for their new Soueraigne They had learned of their old master that a soft anger appeaseth wrath wisely therefore doe they aduise him If thou wilt be aseruant to this people this day and speak good words to them they will be thy seruants for euer It was an easie condition with one mouthfull of breath to purchase an euerlasting homage with one gentle motion of his tongue to binde all peoples hearts to his allegeance for euer Yet as if the motion had been vnfit a new Counsell Table is called well might this people say What will not Rehoboam grudge vs if he thinke much to giue good words for a Kingdome There is not more wisdome in taking varietie of aduice where the matter is doubtfull then folly when it is plaine The yong heads are consulted This very change argues weakenesse Some reason might bee pleaded for passing from the yonger Counsell to the aged none for the contrary Age brings experience and it is a shame if with the ancient bee not wisdome Youth is commonly rash heady insolent vngouerned wedded to will led by humour a rebell to reason a subiect to passion fitter to execute then to aduise Greene wood is euer shrinking and warping whereas the well-seasoned holds a constant firmenesse Many a life many a soule many a florishing state hath beene ruined by vndisciplined Monitors Such were these of Rehoboam whose great stomach tells them that this conditionating of subiects was no other then an affront to their new master and suggests to them how vnfit it is for Maiestie to brooke so saucy a treaty how requisite and Princely to crush this presumption in the egge As scorning therefore to bee braued by the base Vulgar they put words of greatnesse and terror into their new Prince My little finger shall bee thicker then thy fathers loynes My father made your yoake heauy I will adde to your yoake My father hath chastised you with whips I will chastise you with Scorpions The very words haue stings Now must Israel needes thinke How cruell will this mans hands bee when hee thus drawes blood with his tongue Men are not wont to speake out their worst who can endure the hopes of him that promiseth tyranny There can be no good vse of an indefinite profession of rigor and seuerity Feare is an vnsafe guardian of any state much lesse of an vnsetled Which was yet worse not the sins of Israel were threatned nor their purses but their persons neither had they desired a remission of iustice but of exactions and now they hear of nothing but burdens and scourges and Scorpions Here was a Prince and people well met I doe not find them sensible of ought saue their owne profit They doe not say Religion was corrupted in the shutting vp of thy fathers daies Idolatry found the free fauour of Priests and Temples and Sacrifices Begin thy reigne with God purge the Church demolish those piles of abomination abandon those Idol-mongers restore deuotion to her purity They are all for their penny for their ease Hee on the other side is all for his will for an imperious Soueraignty without any regard either of their reformation or satisfaction They were worthy of load that cared for nothing but their backs and he worthy of such subiects who professed to affect their misery and torment Who would not but haue looked any whither for the cause of this euill rather then to heauen yet the holy God challenges it to himselfe The cause was from the Lord that he might performe his saying by Abijah the Shilonite to Ieroboam As sinne is a punishment of sinne it is a part of iustice The holy One of Israel doth not abhorre to vse euen the grossest sinnes to his owne iust purposes whiles our wils are free to our owne choice his decrees are as necessary as iust Israel had forsaken the Lord and worshipped Ashtaroth the goddesse of the Zidonians and Chemosh and Milchom God
to send me a gracious release of that strict charge Why should I thinke that Gods reuelations are not as free to others as to me and if this Prophet haue receiued a countermand from an Angell of God how shall I not disobey God if I doe not follow him Vpon this ground he returnes with this deceitfull host when the meat was now in his mouth receiues the true message of death from the same lips that brought him the false message of his inuitation Thus saith the Lord for as much as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of the Lord hast not kept the commandement of the Lord thy God but camest back and hast eaten bread and drunke water in the place forbidden thee thy carkasse shal not come to the Sepulcher of thy fathers Oh wofull Prophet when hee lookes on his host he sees his executioner whiles he is feeding of his body he heares of his carkasse at the table he heares of his denied Sepulcher and all this for eating and drinking where he was forbidden by God though bidden as from God The violation of the least charge of a God is mortall No pretences can warrant the transgression of a diuine command A word from God is pleaded on both sides The one was receiued immediately from God the other related mediately by man One the Prophet was sure of the other was questionable A sure word of God may not bee left for an vncertaine An expresse charge of the Almighty admitteth not of any checke His will is but one as himselfe is and therefore it is out of the danger of contradiction Me thinks I see the man of God change countenance at this sharpe sauce of his pleasing morsels his face before-hand is died with the palenesse of death me thinkes I heare him vrging many vnkind expostulations with his iniurious host who yet dismisses him better prouided for the ease of his iourny then he found him Perhaps this officiousnesse was our of desire to make some amends for his late seducement It is a poore recompence when he hath betrayed his life and wronged the soule to cast some courtesies vpon the body This old Bethelite that had taken paines to come and fetch the man of God into sin will not now goe backe with him to accompany his departure Doubtlesse hee was afraid to be in wrapped in the iudgement which hee saw hanged ouer that obnoxious head Thus the mischieuous guides of wickednesse leaue a man when they haue led him to his bane as familiar Deuils forsake their Witches when they haue brought them once into fetters The man of God returnes alone carefull no doubt and pensiue for his offence when a Lion out of the wood meets him assaults him kils him Oh the iust and seuere iudgements of the Almighty who hath brought this fierce beast out of his wild ranges into the high way to be the executioner of his offending seruant Doubtlesse this Prophet was a man of great holinesse of singular fidelity else he durst not haue been Gods Herald to carie a message of defiance to Ieroboam King of Israel in the midst of all his royall magnificence yet now for varying from but a circumstance of Gods command though vpon the suggestion of a diuine warrant is giuen for a prey to the Lion Our interest in God is so farre from excusing our sinne that it aggrauates it Of all others the sinne of a Prophet shall not passe vnreuenged The very wilde beasts are led by a prouidence Their wise and powerfull Creator knowes how to serue himselfe of them The Lions guard one Prophet kill another according to the commission receiued from their Maker What sinner can hope to escape vnpunished when euery creature of God is ready to be an auenger of euill The beasts of the field were made to serue vs we to serue our Creator When we forsake our homage to bim that made vs it is no maruell if the beasts forget their duty to vs and deale with vs not as Masters but as rebels When an holy man abuyes so dearely such a sleight frailty of a credulous mistaking what shall become of our hainous and presumptuous sinnes I cannot thinke but this Prophet died in the fauour of God though by the teeth of the Lion His life was forfeited for example his foule was safe Yea his very carkasse was left though torne yet faire after those deadly graspes as if God had said I will onely take thy breath from thee as the penalty of thy disobedience a Lion shall doe that which an apoplexie or feuer might doe I owe thee no further reuenge then may be satisfied with thy blood Violent euents doe not alwaies argue the anger of God Euen death it selfe is to his seruants a fatherly castigation But oh the vnsearchable wayes of the Almighty The man of God sinnes and dies speedily the lying Prophet that seduced him suruiues Yea wicked Ieroboam enioyes his Idolatry and treads vpon the graue of his reprouer There is neither fauour in the delay of stripes nor displeasure in the haste Rather whom God loues he chastises as sharply so speedily whiles the rest prosper to condemnation Euen the rod of a louing father may draw blood How much happier is it for vs that wee die now to liue for euer then that we liue a while to die euer Had this Lion set vpon the Prophet for hunger why did hee not deuoure as well as kill him Why did he not rather kill the beast then the man since we know the nature of the Lion such that he is not wont to assaile man saue in the extreme want of other prey Certainly the same power that imployed those fangs restrained them that the world might see it was not appetite that prouoked the beast to this violence but the ouer-ruling command of God Euen so O Lord thy powerfull hand is ouer that roaring Lion that goes about continually seeking whom hee may deuoure thine hand with-holds him that though he may shed the blood of thine elect yet he cannot hurt their soules and whiles he doth those things which thou permittest and orderest to thy iust ends yet he cannot doe lesser things which he desireth and thou permittest not The fierce beast stands by the carkasse as to auow his owne act and to tell who sent him so to preserue that body which he hath slaine Oh wonderfull worke of God the Executioner is turned Guardian and as the Officer of the highest commands all other creatures to stand aloofe from his chaâ—ge and commands the fearfull Asse that brought this burthen thither not to stirre thence but stand ready prest to recarie it to the Sepulcher and now when he hath sufficiently witnessed to all passengers that this act was not done vpon his own hunger but vpon the quarrell of his Maker he deliuers vp his charge to that old Prophet who was no lesse guilty of this blood then himselfe This old Seducer hath so much truth as both to giue a
Fruitlesse is the wonder that endeth not in faith No light is sufficient where the eyes are held through vnbeliefe or preiudice The Doctors were not more amazed to heare so profound a childhood than the parents of Christ were to see him among the Doctors the ioy of finding him did striue with the astonishment of finding him thus And now not Ioseph he knew how little right he had to that diuine Sonne but Mary breakes forth into a louing expostulation Sonne why hast thou dealt so with vs that she might not seeme to take vpon her as an imperious Mother it is like she reserued this question till she had him alone wherein she meant rather to expresse griefe than correption Onely herein the blessed Virgin offended that her inconsideration did not suppose as it was that some higher respects than could be due to flesh and bloud called away the Sonne of God from her that was the daughter of man She that was but else mother of humanity should not haue thought that the businesse of God must for her sake be neglected We are all partiall to our selues naturally and prone to the regard of our owne rights questionlesse this gracious Saint would not for all the world haue willingly preferd her owne attendance to that of her God through heedlesnesses she doth so her sonne and Sauiour is her monitor out of his diuine loue reforming her naturall How is it that yee sought mee Knew yee not that I must goe about my Fathers businesse Immediately before the blessed Virgin had said Thy father and I sought thee with heauy hearts Wherein both according to the supposition of the world she called Ioseph the Father of Christ and according to the fashion of a dutifull wife she names her Ioseph before her selfe She well knew that Ioseph had nothing but a name in this businesse she knew how God had dignified her beyond him yet she sayes Thy father and I sought thee The Sonne of God stands not vpon contradiction to his mother but leading her thoughts from his supposed father to his true from earth to heauen he answers Knew yee not that I must goe about my Fathers businesses It was honor enough to her that he had vouchsafed to take flesh of her It was his eternall honour that hee was God of God the euerlasting Sonne of the heauenly Father good reason therefore was it that the respects to flesh should giue place to the God of Spirits How well contented was holy Mary with so iust an answer how doth she now againe in her heart renew her answer to the Angels Behold the seruant of the Lord be it according to thy word Wee are all the Sonnes of God in another kinde Nature and the world thinkes wee should attend them we are not worthy to say we haue a Father in heauen if we cannot steale away from these earthly distractions and imploy our-selues in the seruices of our God Christs Baptisme IOhn did euery way forenâ—e Christ not so much in the time of his Birth as in his office neither was there more vnlikenesse in their disposition and carriage that similitude in their function both did preach and baptize only Iohn baptized by himself our Sauiour by his Disciples our Sauiour wrought miracles by himselfe by his Disciples Iohn wrought none by either Wherein Christ meant to shew himselfe a Lord and Iohn a seruant and Iohn meant to approue himself a true seruant to him whose harbinger he was hee that leapt in the wombe of his mother when his Sauiour then newly conceiued came in presence bestird himselfe when he was brought forth into the light of the Church to the honor and seruice of his Sauiour hee did the same before Christ which Christ charged his Disciples to doe after him Preach and Baptize The Gospell ran alwayes in one tenor and was neuer but like it selfe So it became the Word of him in whom there is no shadow by turning and whose Word it is I am Iehoua I change not It was fit that he which had the Prophets the starre the Angels to foretell his comming into the world should haue his Vsher to goe before him when he would notifie himselfe to the world Iohn was the Voyce of a Cryer Christ was the Word of his Father it was fit this Voyce should make a noyse to the world ere the Word of the Father should speake to it Iohns note was still Repentance The Axe to the root the Fan to the floore the Chaffe to the fire as his raiment was rough so was his tongue and if his foode were wilde Hony his speech was stinging Locusts Thus must the way be made for Christ in euery heart Plausibility is no fit preface to regeneration if the heart of man had continued vpright God might haue beene intertained without contradiction but now violence must be offered to our corruption ere we can haue roome for grace if the great Way-maker doe not cast downe hills and raise vp valleys in the bosomes of men there is no passage for Christ neuer will Christ come into that soule where the Herald of repentance hath not beene before him That Sauiour of ouâ—s who from eternity lay hid in the Counsaile of God who in the fulnes of time so came that hee lay hid in the wombe of his mother for the space of forty weekes after he was come thought fit to lye hid in Nazareth for the space of thirty yeeres now at last begins to shew himselfe to the world and comes from Galile to Iordan He that was God alwayes and mought haue bin perfect man in an instant would by degrees rise to the perfection both of his Manhood and execution of his mediator-ship to teach vs the necessity of leasure in spirituall proceedings that many Suns and successions of seasons and meanes must be stayed for ere we can attaine our maturity and that when we are ripe for the imployments of God we should no lesse willingly leaue our obscurity than we took the benefit of it for our preparation He that was formerly circumcised would now bee baptized what is Baptisme but an Euangelicall circumcision What was circumcision but a legall baptisme One both supplyed and succeeded the other yet the Author of both will vndergoe both He would be circumcised to sanctifie his Church that was and baptized to sanctifie his Church that should be that so in both Testaments he might open a way into heauen There was in him neither filthinesse nor foreskin of corruption that should need either knife or water He came not to be a Sauiour for himselfe but for vs we are all vncleannesse and vncircumcision he would therefore haue that done to his most pure body which should be of force to cleare our impure soules thus making himselfe sinne for vs that we might be made the righteousnes of God in him His baptisme giues vertue to ours His last action or rather passion was his baptizing with bloud his first was his baptization with water
both of them wash the world from their sins Yea this latter did not only wash the soules of men but washeth that very water by which we are washed from hence is that made both cleane and holy and can both cleanse and hallow vs And if the very handkerchiefe which touched his Apostles had power of cure how much more that Water which the sacred body of Christ touched Christ comes farre to seeke his baptisme to teach vs for whose sake hee was baptized to wait vpon the ordinances of God and to sue for the fauour of spirituall blessings They are worthlesse commodities that are not worth seeking for it is rarely seene that God is found of any man vnsought for that desire which onely makes vs capable of good things cannot stand with neglect Iohn durst not baptize vnbidden his Master sent him to doe this seruice and behold the Master comes to his seruant to call for the participation of that priuiledge which he himselfe had instituted and enioyned how willingly should wee come to our spirituall Superiours for our part in those mysteries which God hath left in their keeping yea how gladly should we come to that Christ who giues vs these blessings who is giuen to vs in them This seemed too great an honor for the modesty of Iohn to receiue If his mother could say when her blessed cousin the Virgin Mary came to visit her Whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me how much more might he say so when the diuine Sonne of that mother came to call for a fauour from him I haue need to be baptized of thee and commest thou to me O holy Baptist if there were not a greater borne of women than thou yet thou couldest not bee borne of a woman and not need to be baptized of thy Sauiour Hee baptized with fire thou with water Little would thy water haue auailed thee without his fire If he had not baptized thee how wert thou sanctified from the wombe There can be no flesh without filthinesse neither thy supernaturall conception nor thy austere life could exempt thee from the need of baptisme Euen those that haue not liued to sinne after the similitude of Adam yet are they so tainted with Adam that vnlesse the second Adam clense them by his baptisme they are hopelesse There is no lesse vse of baptisme vnto all than there holy a man is the more sensible hee is of his vnholinesse No carnall man could haue said I haue neede to be baptized of thee neither can he finde what hee is the better for a little Font-water The sence of our wretchednesse and the valuation of our spirituall helps is the best tryall of our regeneration Our Sauiour doth not deny that either Iohn hath need to be baptized of him or that it is strange that he should come to be baptized of Iohn but he will needs thus farre both honor Iohn and disparage himselfe to be baptized of his Messenger hee that would take flesh of the Virgin cducation from his Parents sustenance from his creatures will take baptisme from Iohn It is the prayse of his mercy that he will stoope so low as to bee beholden to his creatures which from him receiue their being and power both to take and giue Yet not so much respect to Iohn as obedience to his Father drew him to this point of humiliation Thus it behoues vs to fulfill all righteousnes The Counsels Appointments of God are righteousnesse it selfe There needs no other motiue either to the seruant or the Son than the knowledge of those righteous purposes This was enough to leade a faithful man thorow all difficulties and inconueniences neither will it admit of any reply or any demurre Iohn yeeldeth to this honor which his Sauiour puts vpon him in giuing baptisme to the Author of it Hee baptized others to the remission of their sinnes now hee baptizes him by whom they are remitted both to the Baptizer and to others No sooner is Christ baptized than hee comes forth of the water The element is of force but during the vse It turnes common when that is past neither is the water sooner powred on his head than the Heauens are opened and the Holy Ghost descendeth vpon that Head which was baptized The Heauens are neuer shut whiles either of the Sacraments is duly administred and receiued neither doe the Heauens euer thus open without the descent of the Holy Ghost But now that the God of Heauen is baptized they open vnto him which are opened to all the faithfull by him and that Holy Ghost which proceeded from him together with the Father ioynes with the Father in a sensible testimony of him that now the world might see what interest he had in the Heauens in the Father in the holy Spirit and might expect nothing but diuine from the entrance of such a Mediator Christ tempted NO sooner is Christ comne out of the water of Baptisme than he enters into the fire of tentation No sooner is the holy Spirit descended vpon his head in the forme of a Doue than he is led by the Spirit to be tempted No sooner doth God say This is my Sonne than Satan sayes If thou be the Some of GOd It is not in the power either of the gift or seales of Grace to deliuer vs from the assaults of Satan they may haue the force to repell euill suggestions they haue none to preuent them yea the more we are ingaged vnto God by our publike vowes and his pledges of fauour so much more busie and violent is the rage of that euill one to encounter vs We are no sooner stept forth into the field of God than he labours to wrest our weapons out of our hands or to turne them against vs. The voyce from Heauen acknowledged Christ to be the Sonne of God this diuine Testimony did not allay the malice of Satan but exasperate it Now that venomous Serpent swels with inward poison and hastes to assaile him whom God hath hounoured from Heauen O God how should I looke to escape the suggestions of that wicked one when the Sonne of thy loue cannot be free when euen grace it selfe drawes on enmity That enemy that spared not to strike at the Head will he forbeare the weakest and remotest limme Arme thou me therefore with an expectation of that euill I cannot auoid Make thou me as strong as he is malicious Say to my soule also Thou art my Sonne and let Satan doe his worst All the time of our Sauiours obscurity I doe not finde him set vpon Now that he lookes forth to the publike execution of his diuine Office Satan bends his forces against him Our priuacy perhaps may sit downe in peace but neuer man did endeuour a common good without opposition It is a signe that both the worke is holy and the Agent faithfull when we meet with strong affronts We haue reason to be comforted with nothing so much as with