exercised therein by all to expresse and make manifest our profession before men Secondly in invocation to God that it would please him to send downe into my heart the messenger of his love the Holy Ghost to assure me by manifest signes and tokens set down in his Word that Christ is formed in my soule that the Lord of life rules in the triangle of my heart that the Sonne of God is conceived in my minde that so beleeving the truth of this dayes commemoration and finding in my heart the operation of this heavenly work I may now as the year begin to spring and grow in all pious and commendable qualities to the praise and glory of God the comfort of others and endlesse salvation of my owne soule Amen THE SUNNE Or A Meditation on the Nativity of Christ THus though ruggedly having finished the outward Court of this beautifull Fabrick I should now begin to garnish the Inner or Middle Temple and therein display the laborious actions of the glorious High Priest But when I considered the curious carvings rare Imbroyderings and rich materialls fit for such a building I stood at a stand not daring further to proceed considering my owne poverty and insufficiencie for the performance thereof especially in the very entrance the splendor of this radiant Sunne did so dazle the eye of my understanding that I was resolved to rest my selfe in the door of this Tabernacle for I doe humbly acknowledge that I am not inriched with the pure gold of divine learning nor the fine silk of sweet eloquence but yet I praise God for it I am indued with some confused notions as unhew'd timber ragged expressions as Badgers skins and rough invention as Camels haire which were of some use in the Tabernacle as well as gold purple silke and fine linnen therefore having laid the foundation of this worke and reared it up to the first story I would not be accounted a foolish builder to leave off in the middle of my worke so though I have not such elegant expressions and learned divisions as the learned yet I will assay to make a course peece of worke thereof And though I have not such Eagles eyes as to behold the Divinity of this glorious Sunne yet being covered with the vaile of humanity my tender weak eyes may looke upon him and see him as on this day to arise in the firmament of his Church as the Sun of righteousnesse with healing under his wings for Salvation sprung from on high this day hath visitedus Now as the Sunne I will here write of him in those usuall names by which the Sun is called which will lively demonstrate the comparative nature of either if my dark expressions do not too much ecclipse their lustre The naturall Sun is called by foure names Sol Apollo Phoebus and Titan. First he is called Sol because he appeares alone All other lights vanish at his presence There is but one Sun in the Firmament so likewise Christ is the only begotten Sonne of God by eternall generation others are the sons of God by adoption He the holy one of God even holinesse it selfe in the abstract others are holy by donation in the concrete He the onely Saviour of mankinde no salvation but by him he the only intercessor and mediator between God and man excluding Saints and Angels He the light that came into the world without whom is darknesse In briefe he is the only King that governs defends protects the Saints the only Priest that offered himselfe a Sacrifice for the redemption of mankinde and the only Prophet that shewes the way of salvation to his chosen so equivalent to Sol. Secondly the naturall Sunne is called Apollo the God of wisdome knowledge and learning He that was famous in his time for Musick Physick Poetry and Divination so in like manner Christ is the eternall wisdome of the Father the fountain of al heavenly knowledge the true Physitian of the soule the good Samaritan that binds up the broken hearted heals the afflicted spirit and mollifies the hard dispositions of mans depraved nature frozen in sinne and wickednesse he that only can make the sad heart rejoyce and make mercy the disconsolate soul whose soule-ravishing parables answers and doctrines were such as never man spake of whose Prophesies and divinations not one jot or tittle shall fall to the ground without their accomplishment so the true Prophet and so divine Apollo Thirdly the naturall Sunne is called Phoebus the spring of light the discoverer of all things and the expeller of darknesse so Christ is the true light which enlightneth every man that commeth into the world of his fulnesse we all receive the light of grace he is the searcher of the heart the tryer of our spirits he knows our thoughts long before nothing is hid from his sight he shewes the vanity of the world the deceitfulnesse of riches the shame of pleasure the folly of sport the danger of greatnesse inconstancy of honour and strickt account to be given for all At his presence all the grosse darknesse of mans ignorance vanishes he is the fountaine of knowledge for all the light that all mankinde ever had have or shall have is but as a spark to this Sun or as a drop to this Ocean so like Phoebus And lastly the Sun is called Titan for his burning heat parching nature and revenging qualities which he takes upon Grasse and graine in the scorching Summer so Christ the Sunne of righteousnesse in the hot Summer of the last judgement when he shall appeare in the clouds with power and great glory shall take vengeance upon his enemies and ease him of his adversaries Then shall he speake unto them in his wrath and vex them in his hot displeasure Then when his wrath shall be kindled and wax hot he shall wound even Kings in the day of his fury with a Scepter of Iron and break them in peeces like a potters vessell Then shall his enemies look upon him whom they have pierced and be confounded with shame and consumed for feare of his heavy displeasure for who is able to abide and stand before that consuming fire so in this respect as I conceive agreeable to Titan. Now having taken a view of this glorious Sun behold him to arise in the rags of our nature out of the cloudy undefiled bed of the blessed Virgin in this briefe story By consent of all writers both Pagan Jewish and Christian Iesus whom we beleeve and confesse to be the true Christ was borne the twenty fifth day of December Anno Mundi 4021 in the end of the forty one yeare of the reigne of the Emperour Octavius Caesar surnamed Augustus which was fifteene yeares before his reigne ended and in the thirty fourth yeare of Herods reigne in Jewry when the three famous Monarchies of the Assyrians Persians and Grecians was past over and ended and the Romans were entred into the fourth which was greater than any of the rest
my teares to wash those thy wounds that bled for my sinnes and in a lively faith to touch the print of thy naâ—les and thrust my finger into the hole of thy side thereby to take reall and corporall possession of thee that I may with Thomas truly call thee My Lord and my God my dread and my love my surety and my ransome my sacrifice and my Priest my Advocate my Iudge my desire and my contentment the life of my hope here and the hope of my life hereafter Before I was thine for thy hands made and fashioned mee but sith thou hast offered thy selfe to be my pledge and thy blood for my ransome thou art truly mine My Lord and my God O let the speare which ran thee thorow fasten my heart to thy crosse let the nailes which printed thy flesh imprint thy love in my soule Let the thornes which pricked thy temples not suffer the teÌ„ples of my head to take any rest in sin let the vineger which was given thee melt my adamantine heart into sorrow let the Spunge which was offered thee on the Crosse wipe out all my debts out of thy fathers tables Let others go on forward if they please I will stay still at thy crosse and take no other lesson For I desire no other Pulpit then that tree no other Preacher then thy crucified body no other text then thy death and passion no other parts then thy wounds no other amplification then thy extension no other notes then thy marks no other points then thy nailes no other booke then thy opened side The first Adam did eat the fruit of the forbidden tree Therefore thou the second Adam hangedst upon a tree By his fall all mankinde was so sorely wounded that the whole head was sicke and the whole heart faint from the crowne of the head to the sole of the foot there was nothing but wounds and bruises and sores full of corruption therefore thy whole head was pained that whole heart wounded from the sole of thy foot which was gored with nailes to the crowne of thy head which was pricked with thornes there was nothing but cuts and stripes and markes and scars and sores and wounds in thy whole body Because our heads plotted and devised wickednesse on thy head was platted a crowne of thornes Because our eyes burned with lust thy eyes were bedewed with teares because wee belched out blasphemies against thy father thy face was spitted upon because our bodies have beene stretched wantonly upon our soft beds thy body was stretched upon the hard crosse O Lord our eares have offended thee by listning to wanton musick prophane speeches and songs therefore thou sufferedst in thine eares by hearing scoffes and blasphemous taunts we have offended in our smell by luxurious perfumes sweet odours therefore thou sufferedst in thy smell by the stench of Golgotha our taste hath offended in gluttony and drunkennesse therefore thou sufferedst in thy taste by gall and vineger because our feet were swift to shed blood thy feet were nailed to the crosse because our hands were defiled thy hands were bathed in blood Because all parts of our bodies offended thou wast punished in all parts In thy temples with thornes on thy cheeks with buffets in thy joynts with straines in thy flesh with stripes Lastly because our hearts most grievously offended in unchaste malicious covetous ambitious thoughts desires and affections and piercing our selves with worldly cares therefore thou wast most grievously pained in thy heart which was run through with a speare If all the sufferings of Martyrs since the world began were put in one skale and thine in the other thy passion would beare them all downe for thou barest the full weight of thy Fathers heaviest hand Never were there sufferings like thy sufferings because never such a sufferer the torments being infinitely improved by the bearer Never sweat like thy sweat because never any had a burthen like thine Never teares like thy teares because shed for them who thirsted for thy blood Never torments like thy torments because never flâ—sh so pure and tender as thy flesh Never horror like thy horror being forsaken of thy father because never love like thy love of him nor sorow like thine because never sense and apprehension like thy sense and apprehension of the infinite displeasure of thy father for the sins of maÌ„kinde O my most bountifull Redeemer who bestowedst largely and wast bestowed liberally for me It concerneth mee to know how much I stood thee in for how should I estimate thy love if I cannot cast the totall of thy debt thou didst discharge for me But no heart can conceive what sorrow thou conceivedst no tongue can expresse what griefe thou didst expresse by thy bloody teares and these thy strong cryes when thou complain'dst that thy soule was heavie unto death and prayedst thy Father if it were possible to let this cup passe from thee I am appaled at thine agony I am astonished at thy feare I am amazed it thy patience I am ravished at thy love My heart riseth my veines swell my blood boyles within me against thy persecutors If it were in my power I would put them all to millions of torments I would inflict a thousand deaths upon Iudas that betrayed thee and Pilate that condemned thee and the envious Scribes and Pharisees that laid snares for thee and the perjured witnesses that gave false evidence against thee and that execrable rout that preferred a murtherer before thee the barbarous souldiers that spit upon thee and buffeted thee and the bloody executioners of the Iewâ—sh malice and Roman cruelty that banged nayled and goared thee But when I dive into thy bloody passion I finde my selfe as deepe in thy blood-shedding as they They were in that but instruments but I by my sins was a principall in the death of thee the Lord of life My sinnes by their tongues and hands did all this villany and outrage upon thee Their nailes and speares pierced but thy flesh but my sinnes pierced thy very soule My sins my sins O Lord by their hands crucified thee wherefore I condemne mine eyes to continuall teares my heart to perpetuall sighes and my thoughts to everlasting pensivenesse What shall I do to wash away the guilt of thy blood which alone can take away the guilt of my sins verily I should be utterly swallowed up in this gulfe but that the price of thy blood hath satisfied as for all other sinnes so for the guilt of spilling it selfe And now my anger and feare and trouble and anguish are all turned into joy and comfort and love and admiration of the infinite wisdome of thy Father in providing such a remedy and his justice in requiring such a satisfaction but most of all for all thine infinite love making so full a payment of the infinite debt of my sins What can I doe what can I suffer enough for thee gracious God to all the rest of thy blessings spirituall
they ever glorifie God by flying about his Throne and crying day and night holy holy holy Lord God of Sabbath yet since his delight is in mercy which is above all his workes they glorifie him most when they reveale his care of us In being his ministers for our preservation from the face of ourenemies Therefore howsoever we are unsure of their substance forme number or influences David hath assured us that they are ministring spirits for our good where he saith God hath given his Angels charge over us to keepe us in all our waies And S. Paul confirmes it in the first to the Hebrewes But how these heavenly souldiers take charge of all Gods chosen in generall and of every Saint in particular I referre them to the learned such as is M. Austins Essay of telar Angels upon this day from whom I borrow what I have here writ and conclude as he desâ—anâ—s saying As God in Seraphin loveth in Cherubin discerneth in Thrones judgeth in dominations sheweth Majesty in Principalities governeth in Powers is omnipotent in vertues doth miracles in Archangels revealeth and in Angels assisteth so let us strive by assisting our brethren and protecting the feeble and indigent to become like Angels Let us by learning divine and high mysteries and revealing them to our brethren for their edification become like Archangels And since Miracles Omnipotence Government Majesty Judgement and discerning are chiefly Gods Let us above all seeke to get ardent love and affection the vertue that shall last remaine and the property of the highest order whence all the rest are inspired that in fiery zeale and love to the glory of God we may not onely burne our selves but both by our writings and discourses and all our actions inflame our brethren and therein being neerest joyned unto God become like the bright fiery Seraphins flaming continually in pure and ardent affection about his Throne and next unto him above all other inferiour orders And so we shall be sure to have all the rest attend upon us But this vertue of love onely the God of love can grant neither can he give it unlesse he give himself for he is love Which we beseech him grant us for the love of him that for love of us gives us all these protections and mercies together with himselfe Amen Trinity Sunday NOw I come to the conclusion of the whol matter for on this day I should shew you a glimps of the Propitiatory or Oracle from whence God hath revealed himselfe in the Trinity of the Persons and unity of Essence The Majesty of God the Father the Wisdome of God the Sonne and the Love of God the Holy Ghost But I am as insufficient for such a work as I am to lade all the water out of the Sea with a spoone for this is the mystery of all mysteries a hidden secret and better apprehended by faith than demonstrated by reason Then why should I strive by base comparisons of one Sunne yet three effects of Light Heat and Motion of one man consisting of a body soule and spirit or of one soule in three principall faculties Understanding Wil and Memory to shew that which is evident by Scripture that there are three Persons in the God head and yet but one Essence That there is an infinite power in the Father an infinite Action in the Holy Ghost and an infinite Subject in the glorious Son and yet all three make but one infinite Being This Tri-unity is so plainely and excellently laid downe in the Athâ—nasian Creed that I shall not need though I could further to dilate Therefore I will conclude all with hearty thankesgiving to this ever blessed and glorious Triunity for all favours from time to time bestowed upon me for temporall blessings as health wealth and liberty for preservation from many eminent dangers that I might have falne into if not defended by his mighty power for spirituall favours of Election Redemption Sanctification and hope of Glory for the inablement of his holy Spirit in mee in the accomplishment of this work and I pray God grant it may be to his glory my soules comfort and good of others Amen O thou glorious Lord God who art the true Primum mobile which movest all things by thy power but art in thy selfe immoveable move my heart towards thee stir up my drowsie soule in good desires touch my lips that my tongue may speak of thy praise direct my hand that I may write to thy Glory make my feet swift to run in the wayes of thy Commandements open my eyes that I may see the wondrous things of thy Law O thou that art the Alpha and Omega let thy praise and glory be still the beginning and end of all my actions And grant that as I doe acknowledge the mystery of the Trinity of three glorious persons so I may ever be willing and ready to worship the Vnity of thy Infinite Essence though Jesus Christ FINIS
dust and ashes dare speak unto him for my sins cry for vengeance and shall I be silent for pardon Gracious God either silence them or heare me If thou wilt not heare the voice of my words heare the voice of my tears if thou wilt not heare them heare the voice of thy sonnes blood which speaketh better things then the blood of Abel I confesse I have sorely displeased thee but it troubleth me that I have so incensed thee I have grieved thy Spirit but it grieveth me that I should be so gracelesse as to grieve that Spirit of grace which sealeth thy chosen to salvation I deserve that thou shouldest even abhorre me for my sinnes but I abhorre my selfe for them in dust and ashes I have offended thee in gluttony but I now fast for it in pride but I humble my selfe in laughter and sports but I weepe for it in sinfull joyes but I mourne for it I have wallowed in filthy pleasures but I wallow for it in dust and ashes I have broken all thy Comman dements but I have broken my heart in true contrition for it Thou didst not break a bruised reed wilt thou grinde to powder a broken heart What profit is in my blood O Lord when I goe downe into the pit Nay what profit is in thy blood O blessed Redeemer if they for whom it was shed goe downe into the pit of destruction shall the dust give thanks unto thee O Lord or the ashes and cinders of hell praise the God of heaven Heare O Lord and have mercy upon me thou that healest those that are broken in heart and givest medicine to cure their sicknesse raise up my prostrate and dejected soule Why diddest thou hunger O Lord but to satisfie for my gluttony why didst thou thirst but to satisfie for my drunkennesse why didst thou weepe but to satisfie for my sinfull joyes why didst thou endure unspeakable torments but to satisfie for my lewd pleasures why didst thou dye an ignominious death but to satisfie for my sinfull life why didst thou shed thy blood but to satisfie for my crimson sins Adam our first parent did eat the forbidden fruit and all our teeth are set on edge but thy fasting forty dayes hath fully satisfied for his eating But I renew my sins daily and thou renewest thy mercies The guilt of my sinne is great but the price of thy blood is greater I have offended an infinite Majestie but satisfaction hath beene made by an infinite Majestie My wickednesse cannot exceed thy goodnesse for my power of sinning is finite but thy faculty of pardoning is infinite Wherefore sith my sinnes be they never so many never so weighty fall within the measure of thy mercy and compasse of thy goodnesse and sith it is all one with thee to give what I ask and to incite me to aske to heale my wounds and to make me feele the smart of them Lord who hast given me the one deny me not the other rebuke the surges of temptations and quiet my soule Thou who in the dayes of thy flesh offeredst up prayers with strong cries here the strong loud cries of a penitent sinner Thou who tookest upon thee our infirmities take pity upon them thou who wert in thine agony stricken with horror and unutterable griefe allay the troubles of my affrighted conscience Thou who fastedst forty dayes accept of my humiliation these forty dayes and grant that my stomack may not onely fast from accustomed meats but all my sences from their usuall delights and most of all my heart from worldly comforts and contentments Let no sight delight me till I see my sins removed like a mist and thy countenance shine upon mee Let no sound or voice delight me till I heare thee by thy Spirit to speake peace to my conscience and say to my soule I am thy salvation Let no pleasant fields and gardens delight me till I have gathered red flowers out of that garden which was watered with thy blood Let no fruit delight me till I have fully tasted of the fruit of the tree of thy crosse Let no meat delight me till with the sowre hearbs of sorrow and anguish of heart for my sin I have eaten the Christian Passeover the flesh of thee that immaculate Lambe slaine from the beginning of the world Heare me blessed Redeemer and as thou wrotest in dust when thou tookest the woman in adultery so I beseech thee write my sins in dust bury them all in the ashes of oblivion So be it Amen SATVRNE OR a Meditation on Goodfriday HAving in the former meditations shewed you an immaculate Lambe and the first fruits of the meritorious blood thereof then how the said Lambe was prepared to be a fitting Sacrifice for the expiation of the sins of the whole world Now I should according to my promise in the entrance of this work show you how this Sacrifice was laid upon the Altar of the Crosse as on this day under the metaphor of the Planet Saturne But herein I perceive my owne inability and presumption that I should dare to adventure upon such holy things in such vile comparisons for the expulsion of Saturne out of his kingdome by his brother Titan and sonne Jupiter is no way equivalent to the malice of the Jewes against our blessed Saviour For Saturne broke covenant with his brother and kept three of his male children alive contrary to the condition which he held his kingdome by And therefore Titan had just cause to make warre against him and recover his inheritance due to the first borne And Jupiter likewise did expell his father out of his kingdome because his father threatned to kill him But Christ had done offence to none he had broken no bonds but rather made up the breach hee was so farre from destroying that he came on purpose to save and redeeme that which was lost And what were the troubles of Saturne King of Creet to the unsupportable sufferings of Christ the King of glory Nay what were all the troubles of all the men that are or ever were in the world to the troubles of our blessed Saviour And where is the patience of Saturne Iob or any other that was in Christ For as the light of the natural Sun is darknesse to the Splendor of the Sunne of Righteousnesse so all the excellency and worth that is in all mankind is not able fully to demonstrate the excellencie that is in Christ yet because Saturne was imprisoned by his Brother and driven out of his Kingdome by his own sonne I did intend to shew how our blessed Saviour as on this day was bound imprisoned by the cruell Jews his brethren according to the flesh of the Virgin Mary and driven out of the Kingdome of this world by those which should as obedient children to the cōmands of God their Father have kept their hands from killing the innocent But being conscious of my owne insufficiency for the performance of such a work it being excellently
thy triumph over them O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory O my soule where is all thy comfort If in this life thou art most miserable If thy life be hid with Christ in God then when Christ which is thy life shall appeare thou shalt also appeare in glory What though I mourne here I shall be comforted what though I fast here I shall be satisfied what though I be disgraced here I shal be glorified What though I am here trampled under feet I shall be there crowned What though my flesh bee eaten with wormes and these wormes turned into dust and that dust blowed by the wind over the face of the earth yet after thou turnest man to destruction Againe thou sayest Come againe yee children of men I know thou my Redeemer livest and shalt stand up at the last day and I shall see thâ—e in my flesh with these eyes and none other Lord establish this beleefe in me beat downe all the forts that naturall reason reareth against it Grant that I may every day more and more feel as the power of thy birth in my regeneration and of thy death in my mortification so also of thy Resurrection in my rising from the death of sinne to the life of grace Lord thou restoredst life to three men to one in his bed to another on the beare a third in the grave They who conceive sinne in their hearts are like him that was dead in his bed they who bring it forth into action are like him that was brought forth dead on the beare but they that continue in sinne and all impurity and putrifie in the custome therof are like him that was foure dayes dead and stanke in the grave such a one or worse am I for I have laine not foure dayes but many years in this loathsome grave and am even devoured of the worme of conscience Yet Lord this day of thy glorious Resurrection say unto mee as thou didst to him Come forth awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead and I will give thee light Make this day of thy Resurrection from the death of nature the day of my rising from the death of sin and corruption first to the life of Grace and after to the life of Glory Amen MERCVRY OR A Meditation on Ascension day ACcording to my proposed method I should in this place shew how the sweet Incense of the blessed Sacrifice Christ Jesus ascended into heaven to bee as the Leviticall Sacrifices were an Oblation of a sweet savour unto the Lord for as God after the universall Deluge smelled a pleasant savour of Rest in the offering of Noah so likewise God the Father after the inundation of sin overflowing the whole world for the space of 4000. years and upwards did smell a sweet savour of Pacification Reconciliation and satisfaction in this last meritorious act of our blessed Saviour which I compare to the flight of winged Mercury who by Poets is fained to descend and ascend to keepe unity and concord between their fained gods being their observant Messenger And Christ the Angell or Messenger of the everlasting Covenant descended from heaven in the day of his Nativity and brought those blessed tidings of Salvation revealed in the Gospell to mankind and as this day ascended into heaven to accomplish the work of mans redemption but this glorious Act of our Saviour is so divinely pathetically and excellently accomplished by Mr. Austin in his divine Meditations that though I like foolish Icarus because as on this day I first drew breath received the common aire doe strive with waxen wings to take an higher flight than my learning is able to performe am so melted with the rayes of the scorching heat of his devotions that I am forced to dash out my dim taper before his bright Sonne and conclude with Master Doctor Featleyes divine Prayer saying Glorious and gracious Redeemer Lord Iesus Christ who huÌ„bledst thy selfe and didst become obedient to death even the death of the Crosse and therefore thy Father highly exalted thee above the Grave in thy Resurrection above the earth in thy Ascension above the heavens in thy session at his right hand and then He gave thee a Name above all names that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow both of things in heaven and in earth and of things under the earth I humbly bow the knees not only of my body but of my heart and soule unto thee I never heare of thee or remember never think or speak of thee but with greatest reverence and love that heart can conceive or tongue expresse I admire the mystery of thy Incarnation I tremble at the horror of thy passion I adore the power of thy Resurrection and triumph in the glory of thy Ascension My God and my Lord make me wholly thine as thou art mine Thy birth was my life thy life my merit thy death my ransome thy Resurrection my delivery out of the prison of death where thy Father laid thee for my debt thy Ascension my assurance and taking possession of an incorruptible and undefiled inheritance reserved in the heavens O Saviour if thou haddest not been borne I never had been born a new if thou hadst not dâ—ed for my sinnes I had dyed in my sins If thou haddest not risen from the dead my soule might have been with thee in Paradise but my body should not have rested in hope neither should I have seene God in my flesh If thou hadst not ascended I might have been freed from hell but I should never have had a place prepared for me in heaven O Lord when thou camest to us on earth Iohn was thy fore-runner but thou wert my fore-runner in thy returne into heaven Iohn prepared the way before thee on Earth but thou preparedst a way before me into heaven That way and those Regions in the aire which Lucifer defiled and cursed by his fall through them from heaven thou hast clensed and blessed by thy marching triumphantly thorow them into heaven O blessed Creator and Repairer of nature in thee not onely all the kindred of the Earth but all creatures under the cope of heaven are blessed and therefore they sigh and groane together with us desiring fervently thy second comming The earth was blessed and sanctified by thy birth and thy treading upon it The water by thy descending into the River Iordan at thy Baptisme and walking on the Seas Now the Aire likewise and fire expected an honour and a blessing from thee and both received it the Aire by thy Ascending thorow it the Fire by sending downe the Holy Ghost in the likenesse of fiery cloven tongues O Lord my Redeemer how excellent is thy Name in all the world Creatures without voice praise thee as the Heavens and Earth without understanding know thee as the Star that lighted the Sages to thee without will obey thee as winds and Seas without â—ares hearken to thee as the Fig-tree which
accomplished at that time when S. Steven suffered martyrdome and Iames the brother of Iohn was beheaded for Christs sake for even then and from thenceforth the Roman Magistrates and Synagogue of the Jewes never stinted from persecuting and putting to death all true Christians That Marke is the second Beast spoken by Ezekiel and the first by S. Iohn that had a face like a Lion is plaine because hee begins his first face or leafe at the voice like a roaring Lion in the wildernesse prepare the way of the Lord c. S. Marke is noted by Dorotheus to be one of the seventy Disciples and was very attentive unto the preaching of S. Peter from whom at the earnest perswasions of many zealous Christians he wrote his Gospell in Greek And S. Peter makes mention of him in the last Chapter of his first Epistle in these words the Church of Babylon elected together with you saluteth you and Marke my sonne and yet this Evangelist is most copious in setting downe particularly how S. Peter thrice denyed his Lord and Master He was the first Bishop of Alexandria and preached the Gospell in all the bordering Regions from Egypt unto Pentapolis and as some affirme in the reigne of Trajan the Emperour others and they more probably in the beginning of the reigne of Nero had a Cable rope tyed about his neck and by that drawne through the streets of Alexandria that his flesh was rent in pieces the stones coloured with his blood and in the end he burned to ashes by those furious Idolaters and was buried at Bucolus a place in the said City For what may be written more concerning Marke I leave to the learned and conclude with the prayer for the day saying Almighty God which haâ—t instructed thy holy Church with the heavenly doctrine of thy Evangelist S. Marke give me grace that I may not be like a little childe carried away with every blast of vain doctrine but be firmely established in the truth of thy Gospell through Jesus Christ my Lord Amen On S. Lukes day THe third fundamentall light that shewed the history of Christ is S. Luke And that he was the third is plaine by the 6 Revel 5. 6. For after the third sealed weeke which was the 43 after the birth of Christ S. Luke the third Beast wrote his Gospell and published it that all men might come and see At which time there fell a great universall famine of corne which Agabus prophesied and foretold should come to passe among the Apostles Disciples and the whole Church In this dearth the bushell of wheat was sold for five accustomed prices and the bushell of barley for three All which was prefigured by him that sate on the black horse with ballances in his hand and the voice that spake in the midst of the foure beasts saying A measure of wheat for a penny and three measures of barley for a penny So that this agrees with S. Luke in three respects First in that he is the third Beast in Ezekiel the second in S. Iohn with a face like a Bull because he beginneth his face or first leafe at Zacharias offering incense as it were a bullock at the Altar Secondly Because he wrote at this time And thirdly because he makes relation of the famine that then hapned 11 Acts 28 29 30. He was a follower of all the Apostles in their Peregrination but especially of S. Paul who makes mention of him in two of his Epistles once to the Col. 4. chap. and 14. verse Luke the beloved Physitian saluteth you and in 2 Tim. 4. 11. only Luke is with me By birth he was of Antioch but by profession a Physitian and he hath left us proofes of his skill in two volumes medicinable for our soules health one of the Gospell which he reporteth to have published according as he records it of them which from the beginning were beholders and ministers of this doctrine so that he searched all from the originall The other of the Acts of the Apostles where he compiled not only the things that he heard with his ears but also the things which he saw with his eyes And of Paul some say that he accustomed to mention the Gospell of S. Luke when he spake as of his owne saying according to my Gospel 2 Tim. 2. 8. And though S. Luke was scholer and dependant of S. Paul yet he alone of all others makes mention of the differences of Paul and Barnabas and in the story of Saint Stephens death after all his narration ended he added a clause which in humane judgement might have beene left out to wit Saul was consâ—nting and culpable of Stephens death whereby wee may perceive most perspicuously that as these Evangelists were plaine sincere and simple and fâ—rre from presuming to devise any thing of themselves so were they religious and had scruple to passe over or leave out any thing of the truth in favour of themselves or any other whatsoever Whether S. Luke dyed a naturall death or a violent I cannot finde only Dorotheus saith hee died at Ephesus and was there buried Therefore I leave the further lustre of him as of the rest of those glorious starres to the curious search of the learned and conclude with the prayer for the day saying Almighty God which calledst Luke the Physitian whose praise is in the Gospell to be a Physitian of the soule it may please thee by the wholesome medicine of his doctrine to heale all the diseases of my soule through thy sonne Jesus Christ my Lord and Saviour Amen On S. John the Evangelist SAint Iohn was the last fundamentall light that shined in the Evangelicall Hemisphere as is manifest by the forecited place of his Revelations For when he set forth his Gospell which was betweene the 50 yeares and 57 after Christs Nativity the pale Horse which by Interpreters signifies heresies among the people bringing therewith the death of the soule and procuring hell and eternall damnation began to arise who spake against the divinity of Christ Wherefore S. Iohn for the suppressing and conviction of the heresies of Cerinthus Nicholaus Ebion Elymas the Sorcerer and other certaine Pharisaicall Hereticks wrote his Gospell which beginneth at the description of Christs divinity But they not forsaking their hereticall opinions God sent his plagues against Judea and other parts of Asia the quarter of the earth where these heresies reigned That S. Iohn is the fourth beast that had a face like an Eagle is likewise evident because he beginneth his first face or lease at the high and divine essence of Christs God-head flying so high in his stile that hee is compared to an Eagle Saint Iohn was the brother of Iames who were both the sonnes of Zebedeus who was a Fisher-man and were called by Christ when they were in the ship with their Father mending their nets At which time as some relate Saint Iohn was but one and twenty years of age This Apostle was so beloved