Tabor did but typically prefigure the glory of his passion so that here not there the standers by and since that the Christian world proclaimed him Mat. 27.54 what before was believed but by few that he was truly the Son of God Men on earth study to blazon their coats with Dogs Hogs Cats and the like and by these means think to traduce their names as famous to posterity though themselves never in their lives did an act worthy of a Dogs-taile whereas our most blessed Lord Christ who acted all things worthy the Son of the most high God and all for the good of mankind had no other coat-armour but the Crosse which his love procured and wrought and hath thereby made him justly to be adored and worshipped as the God of the whole world CHAP. VII Love transformeth the Lover into the thing beloved NOT onely some choice Philosophers but learned Fathers of our Church have deemed and called a friend a second self the half of the soule or the same And among them one saith he that loveth intirely is dead as to his own body and liveth in that body which he loveth for that love carrieth with it if not the whole substance yet the principall vigorous acting faculties of the soule This position in some sense is made good in the divine Lover by that of S. Paul when he saith Your life is hid Col. 3 3â— with Christ in God where love to God hath mortified the Lover as to the body and to the world and makes him live by and in Christ for truly the soule cannot be thought or said to live but where it appears to move or work Hereupon some wittily have pronounced that the beloved is become an homicide and guilty of murder if he return not love for love but robs the Lover of his soul not returning his again to the Lover And some Philosophers have conceived that the soul of a dead friend by a strange transmigration hath been secretly conveighed into the body of a friend living and there kept alive and operating and all this to be effected and brought to passe by the spirituall power of love S. Augustine comes somewhat neer to these conceits when he saith My love is as the weight in a clock or the magnetick virtue in the load-stone for whithersoever I am moved or caried that it is which carieth or moveth me and my soule Every one therefore it strongly behoveth seriously to consider before he setleth upon what he intends to set his love for if on earth he becomes earthly if flesh fleshly if heaven heavenly which agreeth well with those terms given in holy Scriptures to severall kinds of affectionate lovers Our most blessed Saviour prayeth for us that we may be in him and be one with him Joh. 17.21 as Christ is in and with his Father which holy residence and blessed union must be next to Gods goodnesse the work of love S. Paul saith of himself that he is crucified with Christ Gal. 2.20 neverthelesse saith he I live and yet he adds it is not I that live but Christ liveth in me if you ask him how this can be he tells you in the words following the life which I now live I live by faith this is the instrumentall mean if you enquire into the cause of this life it is there mentioned when he saith by the son of God who loved me and gave himself and all his merits and benefits to work for and in me Our carnall and prophane loose lovers usually court their mistresses with these and the like unhallowed speeches You are my life my heart my soul which oft-times is more true then godly Divinely spoke King David O that we would imitate him God is my light and salvation Plato said that a friend is like a good looking-glasse in and by which the other friend may see himself and be seen by others for so it was in Jonathan and David that who saw the one discerned the other Or you shall find two friends united by true love to be like the mother and the child where if the child smile or weep the mother doeth the like and as the Chamelcon appeareth to be of that colour with the thing to which it is joyned so is it with good and true lovers who like Hippocrates twins looked laughed cried each as the other and were of like colour condition and passion each as other so that the union of friends made by sincere love is well compared and presented by inoculating a bud into another stock whereby it is made one with it Now in man there be three unions and each of them caused or bottomed on love the first is that of the soule and body matched together by a naturall love The second is the union of soules whether as among ordinary friends or as among Christs disciples Act. 2.1 who were of one heart and mind endevouring to keep the unity of the spirit as S. Paul speaks in the bond of peace Eph. 4.3 the former of these is wrought by a naturall the other by a spirituall love The third union is that which is betwixt God and mans soule when as S. John saith God is in the righteous 1 Joh. 4.16 and they in him and the efficient cause of this union is Divine love Which union as of all other and above all things in this world it is to be most desired estemed and preserved so is the separation or divorce the most to be feared grieved for and most carefully to be prevented for as by that blessed union we are made partakers of all the best things that earth or heaven can afford so by that separation we not only lose all the blessings by that union acquired but we purchase to our selves all the miscries vexations and torments that hell the Devils and our owne conscience can afflict us with the cutting off a finger from the hand is painfull of the hand from the arm painfull and damagefull and of the head from the body painfull grievous and deadly but the dividing or divorcing the soule of man from God the life of the soule is a pain grief and losse not to be expressed no nor to be imagined fully no not by them that suffer and feel it Of all separations and divorces O my soule be fearfull and carefull to avoid this and O thou the God of my soule be gracious and mercifull unto me that through blindnesse of understanding or hardnesse of heart I never incurre the dreadfull sentence of such a divorce or separation CHAP. VIII Vehement love causeth extasies making the Lover besides or to rob himself of himself LOve saith the Wise man is strong as death and in this comes neer to death Cant. 5.6 in that it makes the Lover oft-times not to see what he fixeth his eye on not to answer what he hears or what he is demanded and indeed oft-times to put him into such trances as that he seems
not in others which pleaseth her not but it must be perfect and totall in all the husbands just and lawfull requirings therefore v. 24. as the Church is subject to Christ so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing 4. It must not be a false eye-pleasing or counterfeit subjection before her husbands face only or in his hearing but as that of Sarah who called him her Lord 1 Pet. 3.6 and that as it is exprest to testifie her sincere and hearty subjection it is said Gen. 18.12 within her self or to her self in her heart she calls him Lord. And all this ought to be as fully performed by every wife as it is clearly exprest by the Apostle for it is not only the Apostle but the Lord that commands this subjection and obedience and therefore not the husband only but the Lord God is disobeyed when the wife submits not in all as required and exprest to her own husband I may I must adde that when S. Paul commands wives to submit to their husbands Eph. 5.22 as to the Lord it implies that by this submission with love fear reverence and obedience she should confide in depend and rely on him and on no other earthly creature before or comparatively to him for he is her head And certainly when all this is required by S. Paul 1 Cor. 7. â—3 â— Pet. 3.1 and by S. Peter of evill and unbeleeving wives much more ought the Christian good wives yeeld to this doctrine and be subject to their husbands and this as in Gods most holy word so in our sacred Leiturgie is required of the wife that as the husband must love comfort and give honour to his wife so she must love honour I and which is no where required of the husband she must serve and obey him And yet lest any husband should force the words too far he must remember that though the wife must be as the vine on the side and not on the top of the house so she must not be set in the Cellar or Cole-hole this is not her seat but on the side of the house And as she was not taken out of the head of man to rule or to be a ruler so she was not made out of the foot to be scorned abased or to be trod upon but out of the side as to be cherished and made much of as being in domesticall affairs in the Kitchen Parlor and bed-chamber coequall as taken out of the side of her husband and set with him on the side of the house S. Paul gives some additionall qualities requisite in a wife Tit. 2. as that she must be chast purely chast the word implies so much and that she must be devout holy and not phantastick or humorous in her habite or dress of attire Beauty in wives oft-times is a great enemy to those two and therefore though beauty be not to be despised or neglected being it is the gift of God so great care is to be had that this beauty prevail not over or against their pure chastity and decently holy attire for beauty oft-times and in too many begetteth pride pride costly dresses costly dresses gadding to be seen not at home to please the husband so much as to be seen abroad and this gadding is oft-times the mother of temptation temptation of being seduced to evill and lust for as many beasts are hunted taken and destroyed for their fair skins so it fareth with women Bathsheba's words to her Salomon are worth the fair womans remembrance and consideration Prov. 31 30. Favour is deceitfull and beauty is vain but the woman that feareth the Lord shall be praised let the fear of the Lord be in her esteem her chief beauty and then the beauty of her body shall not suffer prejudice but be as a gracefull outward ornament according to our proverbiall word gratior est virtus veniens è corpore pulchro more amiable is virtue which proceeds from a fair body and this may serve as a watch and guard over the wives beauty And for her habit and attire 1 Pet. 3.3 S. Peter gives good instructions and saving caveats when he saith Let not her adorning be that outward plaiting the hair and wearing of gold and pulting on costly apparell in which precept the Apostle simply condemnes not the wearing of costly rich apparell or the most comely dressing but the excesse herein which discovers the vanity and disease of a soul distempered with pride profusions superfluity inconstancy the too too much redundant and luxuriant humours to call them no worse which abound in women and the old adage hath a good reason in it ex veste hominem by a mans or womans attire or dressing you may give a great guesse what their soul is I would all great as good women Esther 14.16 would remember the words of Esther Lord thou knowest my necessity that I am to goe so richly attired for I abhor the sign of my high estate wherein I shew my self before the King and that I abhor it as a menstruous rag And if any tell me that such attire and dressings are not in themselves simply evill but things indifferent I must tell them that though the dressing and attire be such yet such attire and dressing mostly proceeds from a mind tainted with pride excesse affectation or desire to satisfie lust and these are not things indifferent but evill and such as the root is such will the fruit be and if the root be only fit for hell fire I know not how such fruit should reach or carry the body up to heaven S. Peter therefore having taxed the excesse in outward apparell he proceeds to teach women wherein their comely dressing should consist 1 Pet. 3. â— 3 4. which saith he should be inward in the adorning the hidden man of the heart for wise Cato hath told us long since that they who spend too much cost or time in adorning the body generally neglect the adorning of the soul the ornaments whereof S. Peter in the same place tells women should be of a meek and quiet spirit and this saith the Apostle is of great price in the sight of God and closely he implies the reason hereof when he addes that this ornament of the soul is not not like the beauty of a flower or a beasts skin which soon fadeth or is destroyed but it is saith he incorruptible it cannot be spoiled or vanish but will remain in esteem and honour with God and man for ever And S. Paul as he gives counsell to women from the same spirit so t is very near unto S. Peter in the expression of it when he saith 1 Tiâ— 2.9 v. 10. women must adorn themselves in modest apparell with shamefastnesse and sobriety not with plaited hair or gold or pearles or costly array but that which becometh women professing godlinesse with good works I must not say that here the Apostle forbids the
incorruptible What is Musick but an harmony or consonancy of various discordant sounds What 's health but a temper or accord of the elements and parts of the body Some write that the stone Tuces if broken though then lesse weighty sinketh but so long as it is one whole and intire then and so long it swimmeth and keeps from sinking under water and the like power hath love and unity in all other bodies Consider and know that if the Almighty Architect of the world had not breathed or infused a spirit of unity into the upper and celestiall parts with the inferiour elementary that these had soon been scorched and indeed consumed by those Again the inferiour parts ever stand in need and crave the help benefit or influence of those above them as the earth of the water the water of the aire the aire of the fire and the fiery element of the Heavens in which if one Sphere should thwart and not gently yeeld to the others influence or motion they as the inferiour world would suddenly perish and be consumed The great Creator of these and all things in and under them Genesis 1.31 gave not the high praise and title of very good unto them untill himself by his most admirable power and goodnesse Gen. 1.31 had united them by love and so made them all one I cannot but acknowledge the saying of that Philosopher to be good and wise who called this kinde of love the Soul of the world For as the soule gives life and motion unto the body so doth love unto all other things and as the soule cherisheth and enlightens the bodie so doth love beautifie and inrich the world In a word there is no creature nor part of the world either great or small but hath if not all yet the greatest part of its perfection subsistence or continuance from this love But besides this kinde of love hitherto spoken of which in unreasonable creatures may more strictly be called inclination there is a love properly so termed which hath its working in the will both of God Angels and men Parmenides though an Heathen could say That love in God preceded the Chaos or the creation of the world as causing and making both Take this love as in man and then hear another Philosopher call it the Pilot a second the Sun a third the guide and director of the will of man and of all his choice actions CHAP. II. What love is and how it is the cause of all passions THings high and immense having some resemblance to infinity hardly come under the limits of a strict definition which hath caused the ancients to set forth love by Emblemes and Hieroglyphicks Yet so that some have in generall described it by negatives as that it is a thing which is I know not what affecteth and worketh I know not in what manner and which hurteth I know not how S. Gregorie calls it the fire in mans heart which according to the working thereof either cherisheth or destroyeth the Tabernacle of its residence and it may well be conceived that when the holy Ghost descended in the figure or shew of fire Act. 2.3 that that fire signified the love and accord to be amongst the holy Apostles being assembled together in one place which is the complement and blessing of all good Assemblies when they are all of one minde and one heart in a godly innocent love The fire which came from Heaven to consume the Sacrifice God commanded ever to be continued Levit. â— 13 that so it might never be extinguished or put out Isaiah saith Isa 31.9 That God hath his fire in Sion and his furnace in Jerusalem each Symbols of Gods love burning in the temple of our souls Now Philosophy teacheth that love is a passion both of complacency and such as fasteneth the thing or person beloved in the heart of the lover and it addeth That this love is the originall cause of all other passions in man according as they please or displease suit with or are contrary to our love and desire For the soule of man hath two great powerfull faculties called by Philosophers the concupiscible and the irascible In that are love hate desire fear joy and sorrow arising from the presence or absence of something or other which is either truly or apparently good And according as the concupiscible part is affected with grief want or losse of that which is desired so more or lesse the irascible part is inflamed or incensed to the prosecution or revenge of the affronts or bereavings of the souls desire S. Basil compared this passion unto the Shepherds dog more valued by him then many of his sheep not for that the dog hath any wooll or gives any milk but because by his watchfulnesse and barking he defendeth the flock from the wolf and so the concupiscible faculty or part of the soule proposeth to it self matter of delight and content and the irascible removeth or converteth the inconveniences and difficulties which crosse or oppugne this desire And these are the two wings wherewith mans soule flyeth in the pursuit of great Acts and without which she appears as a Galley unoared and a bird unwinged each unable to move or help it self A certain Philosopher hath compared the body of a man to a Coach drawn with two horses Conceive them to be love of good and hatred of evill But considering that they are disorderly and oft-times unruly God hath assigned them a discreet guide that is reason to rule and govern them Seneca the Philosopher calleth this the Guardian and S. Augustine termeth it the Author and Mover of all our actions be they good or evill as having tied at its girdle the keyes of all our wills and affections Betwixt love and concupiscence some put this difference 1. That concupiscense aimeth at a supposed good that is absent but love both at the absent and present 2. Concupiscence after the having and enjoying the thing desired as being satisfied groweth cold or ceaseth for the present to desire whereas love by possessing and injoying increaseth and is more ardent towards the thing beloved For the possession or enjoyment of the thing beloved serveth as fuell to continue and increase the flame or fire whereas things desired by a concupiscence being injoyed die and are often resolved into the smoak of disgrace or the ashes of hate CHAP. III. The power and force of Love SOlomon saith Love is strong as death But if we examine the strength of each we shall finde love to be the stronger â—antic â— 6 T is true that all earthly things submit to the power of death the young as the old the King as the Peasant the rich as the poor the wise as the fool Scepters and spades are both alike to death All know this truth would we did but half so well consider and prepare for it And as the jurisdiction of death so is that of love universall None ever escaped the
loved her not because he did not open the secrets of his heart unto her for so she said How canst thou say I love thee when thy heart is not with me and when thou tellest me not where thy great strength lieth When God purposed the destruction of Sodome Gen. 18.17 he saith I know Abraham that he will command his children and his houshold after him to keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgement Here God rests assured in Abraham's love and service to him and what followeth why this that though God intended a secret and sudden burning of Sodome yet he will not do it before he acquaints Abraham therewith and therefore saith Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do We reade the like of God to Moses Exo. 33.9.13 that when God spake face to face with Moses in the Tabernacle that there was a cloudy pillar at the Tabernacle doore so that the people might not see them And at this interview and conference betwixt God and Moses Moses saith unto God If I have found grace in thy sight shew me now thy way The Prophet saith Psa 147.19 20. the Lord shewed his word unto Jacob. And then addeth He hath not dealt so with any Nation but this his beloved And S. Paul saith Col. 1 2◠The mysterie of salvation by Christ Jesus hath been hid from ages and from generations but now is made manifest to his Saints In a word he that loveth me saith Christ John 14 21. shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and 〈…〉 my 〈◊〉 unto him And accordingly he saith unto his Disciples To you as my friends it given to know the mysterie or secrets of the Kingdome of God but unto those that are without all these things are done in parables And why in parables to these that seeing Mark 4◠11. saith Christ they may see and not perceive and hearing they may heare and not understand lest at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven them Whence we may gather and learn that whom God loves to those he reveals his word and will so that they may see and heare and understand it to their conversion and salvation of their souls which none can deny to be an especiall argument of Gods love the fruition whereof the Lord grant unto us in Jesus Christ CHAP. XVI God seemeth to be solitary without man which is an especiall argument of his love to man THe Scriptures tell us of thousands of Angels that attend Christ and in the Gospels we finde them upon all occasions at his birth in his life and at his passion with him how then having such a company of holy Spirits ever with him and at his command can he be said to be alone if without man It is true in respect of the sweet society of Saints and Angels he cannot be truly said to be alone yet in regard that he made man to his own Image and every one loves that which is most like unto himself and that God hath said My delight is to be with the Sons of men in this respect without this his like with whom he is delighted he may well be said to be alone In the parable of the lost sheep Matth. 18.12 it is seen that the shepherd had 99. besides that which was strayed yet he left them all Suppose these to be the Saints and Angels in heaven and all to seek the one that was lost which is man The Prophet saith Psal 33.10 The Lord looked down from Heaven to behold the Sons of men and seeing them captiv'd by the Devill weltring in their filth of sin and therefore lamentably afflicted for them he came down and never rested but underwent all travell hardnesse and death that he might exalt them and bring them where himself was to have his everlasting residence in Heaven God under the Law when he saw his Israel scattered in Egypt he rested not till he brought them together and though in the wildernesse yet there he commanded them to make a Tabernacle and after that a large and glorious Temple that he might be with them and injoy as it were their company there together And Christ God in heaven that he might have the company of man he descended from heaven and as though this were too little to have the more full society of man he took his nature and was made man yea so that as it was spoken of Adam to Eve he was so married to mans nature that he might truly say He is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh More yet see Christ in his agony and torture on the Crosse and wanting the company of his Disciples and men believing in him he cries out My God! my God! Mat. 27.46 why hast thou forsaken me and as soon as the the Thief on the one hand was converted and prayed unto him Lord Luk. 23.43 remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdome he was so pleased with this that he readily granted his petition and told him This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise and so gently departed and took his new convert with him to Heaven And it is the opinion of many ancient and learned Fathers that the Saints and holy men which rose out of their graves at the time of our Saviours resurrection that they likewise as pleasing company ascended with Christ into Heaven there to be with him and as of the Chore to sing continuall Allelujahs of glory Glory to the Lamb that was and is and ever shall be S. Hierome cries out O ungrateful man to thy God who ever thou art considerest thou not the wonderful and unspeakable love of him the Lord of heaven to be thus delighted and to do and to suffer so much for thee and thinkest thou thy self best when thou art in the company of the wicked blasphemers murderers adulterers drunkards and profane persons return rather Shunamite return and run to him who is delighted with thee and is thy Saviour CHAP. XVII Charity is most eminent among all the vertues EVery vertue hath its proper opposites as liberality hath covetousnesse and prodigality to encounter whereas Charity is enemy to and opposeth not two or more but all vices And if any particular sin be more opposite to Charity then other it is the enmity to God And it being so that there is no sin that man committeth but more or lesse is tainted with this enmity hereby Charity is become a generall enemy and opposer of all sin When David had wickedly deflowred the wife of his faithfull Souldier Vriah and basely slaughtered the husband here were sins of murder adultery scandall and all these sins and enmities against his neighbour but as though these were nothing in comparison of that one sin and enmity to God Psa◠51.4 he saith Against thee alone O Lord have I sinned But although against this sin principally Charity opposeth her
in ordinary is the utmost and if saith he by reason of strength they live eighty years yet is their strength labour and sorrow and although King David a man of an excellent constitution lived to seventy years as it is computed by the best yet this saith he is but an hand-breadth or indeed as nothing before thee ô Lord Ps 39.5 for would the God think of the everlasting joyes in heaven of the wicked of their never dying torments in hell they both might say that this hand-breadth of time was as nothing We read of a beast called from the continuance of its life the Ephemeris which though it live according to his appellative name but one day yet it falls presently to provide for sustenance as though it might live years Mans life be it at the largest as in ordinary the term of seventy years yet in respect of eternity or indeed of the frailty and uncertainty of the continuance thereof it is in 〈…〉 often called a day and yet man much like that beast labours builds purchaseth as though he were to live for ever and although he be here but a pilgrim a stranger and travailer to another place yet like an unwise factor he stores up all his goods here whence he is as to morrow to depart and never transports them whither he is to go there to give an account of his employment and to enjoy his well spent travailes for ever and such is the folly and most deplorable vanity of man Which error will appear the greater to him that considers the frailty of mans life in respect of the materials whereof mans body consists 2 Of the artifice and curious workmanship whereby it is wrought 3 How it is subject to the power almost of every thing to be broken and dissolved Now the best and strongest materiall of mans body is earth and as Adam was made out of it so he and mankind is called from the earth Adam and homo man so that man much resembles a swallows nest made of straw and dirt such mans bones and clay such his flesh and how frail and easily broken this or that is may appear when we see a little boy with a slick to pull that down in pieces and less then that every nothing of violence to do as much to the body of man for what of earthly vessells account we more britle then a Venice glass yet this kept up and secured from violence or outward force shall outlast two lives of any man a China dish so preserved shall indure twenty mens lives Whereas such is the materials of mans body that let him diet and behave himself according to Galens best rules let him lye warm and enjoy himself a bed without spending his spirits yet even in this diet and enjoyment without any hurt or violence done unto him he shall consume and molder away unto that whence be was taken Now to the weak brittleness of mans materials if you add the curious nice composition and joyning of his parts you may rather wonder how he should live a moneth then to mervaile that he should die so young the Psalmist to the honour of Gods great power and wisdome acknowledged that man is wonderfully made Ps 139.14 and that so much beyond the art and skill of any the best workman in the world that when any piece pin or wheel in the most exquisite work of man may be renewed if broken repaired if worne and put again in its place if out of frame yet to do the like in mans body exceeds the skill of all the best Physitians that ever were for be the heart be the liver be the brain wounded yea be they but pricked with a needle be they putrefied or be they displaced all the work is spoiled and comes to nothing and mans life is lost But if you consider how the least and weakest externall things have power to destroy this body of man can you say less then that he is a frail and brittle piece I will not complain as some have done yet I may tell you that God by his journyman Nature hath sent all other creatures some way or other armed or strengthened into the world against outward force or hurt and man only is put forth naked weak unfenced so that take him at his best growth strength there is no element nor any little part of any element fire aire water or earth though man be made of these but is able to undo him and take away his life Yea a flie a kernell a haire hath done as much to many and not only the living in a corrupt aire may do the like but the sent of a little subtile infection conveyed by a glove a piece of linnen or the like may do the same thing But if to these we add that which both history and philosophy confirme that a man may de dissolved by extreme joy caused by that which is good and harmeless how then may any man deny this certain and known truth that mans life is a frail thing or rather nothing but frailty And not only thus frail but a thing unstable and mutable daily and hourly running on and making way to its corruption and dissolution Therefore when you see and observe the motion and going down of a watch the running of the water in a stream which returnes not the burning of a candle which wasts in giving light of flowers grasse leaves which in the morning are green and flourishing and ere night are cut down and withered or will you think on and consider what is a vapor a shadow a dream or the dream of a shadow Thus know in seeing thinking and considering these all or any of these that you see think and consider the continuall mutability and change of mans life running and flying to its last end Neither may we wisely wonder or justly complain when we consider this that Abel the youngest of all the world dies first or that in the bils of mortality we finde more children die then old men for God in his wonderfull wisdome and goodnesse hath thus provided and ordered it for man that he may hence learn two lessons that it is no argument of Gods disfavour but an evidence of his love to take us early from the worlds miseries and betimes to estate us in eternall felicity and secondly that man considering what a changâ—â—ble thing his life is he may provide against it all he can or may and the best that he may and can is to thinke on and labour for an exchange of this mutable life for an unchangeable to come And to this end God hath so fixed his greater and lesser lights in heaven that looking on them we may daily and hourly consider that although to us they seem not to move yet they are in continuall motion and tending to their journies end and that it is alike in man And further to these heavenly visible lessons he hath joyned his legible instructions in his holy
foreseeing both the evill that he would fall into and that evill which should fall upon him And to the first evill man from the first was so prone and subject that before he was much more then a day old he fell into it which like an ill weed grew so fast that before the flood in the first generation God saw that the wickedness of man or mankind was great Gen. 6.5 and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evill continually If we consult with King David and Solomon they will speak as much for their times and the like will S. Paul and the other Apostles for the times wherein they lived and as the ends of the world are fallen upon us so have we exceeded all that went before us in eviâ—l And for the evill or misery which man suffers in this life I need say no more then what Job and S. Paul have said before who besides divers others have compared mans life to a warfare or the life of a souldier in which if there be any misery or iniquity to be found in any profession or trade in a small quantity then here it is bound up altogether in an huge volume for all sins in them are so rife and common from the least to the greatest that you may truly speak of it as is said in the Gospel of the unjust Judge Luk. 18. he feared neither God nor man But that I may contract my self and speak to the misery of mans life under the comparison of it to the life of a souldier I must necessarily tell you what the enemies are with which man in this life is to graple The first and chief of these is the Generall the Devil who for his agility is called a spirit for his subtility and stratagems a serpent and an old Dragon for his strength and power to devour a Lion and in his band and under his command are principalities and powers in high places and legions of these without number Mat. 4. and this enemy is of that undaunted spirit that he durst encounter the Son of God as we read in the Gospel and although he were foiled by him yet in revenge and with greater malice he never hath ceased to war against the upright Job the chosen vessell S. Paul Rev. 12.7 against Michael and his Angels yea we find him fighting with the Church and Saints of God Lev. 13.7 and as he scratched buffeted and wounded Job and S. Paul so the Church and the Saints in his encounter he overcame them and yet continually this enemy as S. Peter witnesses 1 Pet. 5.8 walks up and down seeking whom he may devoure The second enemy of man in this life is the Devils Major generall or Marshall of the Field the World 1 Jo. 5.19 which as S. John speaks like the Generall himself is wholly set on to do mischief being the great Malignant and in this company ye shall find Pharaoh who injoyns Israel to continue their task in making brick but takes away their straw like the Roman Conquerors to cense and number the people to fight under their banners and to pay all taxes and customes though both against their wills and such are the slights of these souldiers that as Cain Joab and Judas they will talke of peace speak friendly and kiss whom they mean to devour And in their company they have the whore in the Revelations arayed in purple Rev. 17.4 and gilded with gold having a cup of Gold in her hand full of all abomination and filthiness and with that she allures and deceives her followers although upon her forehead was a name written Mysterie Babylon the great the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth V. 6. and this woman ye shall find drunk with the blood of the Saints and of the Martyrs of Jesus Christ The third enemy of man in this life though not so cruel and bloudy to man as the former yet as dangerous to him as being of his own family and lying in his own bosome and this is his flesh and this enemy is so dangerous to man that when he may flee from the world or resist the Devil as the Apostles counsails against them yet of this fleshly enemy we may speak as of the Sun none can shelter or defend himself from the heate thereof nor fly from it for it is mans self Against this enemy called the thorn in the flesh 2 Cor. 12.7 S. Paul though a chosen vessell strugled fought and prayed yea he prayed thrice that it might depart from him but as to this suit he was not heard and therefore he crys out Rom. 7.24 ô wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin For though I find the spirit willing and resisting yet this flesh I find weak and yeelding in so much as we may here use the words of S. James James 1.14 every man is tempted by his own lust and to his enemies assaults every man noble ignoble rich poor young old more or less is subject according to the heate that is in him For can a man carry fire saith the wise man in his bosome and not burn Amnon had often seen his sister Thamar and was not inflamed but at the last he was tempted and overcome Will you now take the sum of all Then know that this life of man is a Sea of trouble a school of vanity an inticement to fraud a labyrinth of errour a dungeon of darkness a den of theeves a wood of thornes a valley of teares a troubled stream of care and sorrow a tale of lyes and a sweet poyson And he that can delight himself in these may love this life but not else For though man be as a souldier who may not move out of his station untill his Generall God Almighty who placed him here call him and bid him go yet his love and delight should not rest upon the place and imployment but upon him who placed him here to fulfill his commands and to fight for his glory CHAP. XXXII The Honour of this world deserves not mans love VVHen I speak here of worldly honour Prov. 22.1 Eccles 7.1 I understand not a mans good name or his godly just and honest life which the wiseman calls a pretious oyntment to keep mans name sweet and delightfull in life and after death For this is to be desired and preserved by every good and wise man Neither do I understand here such praise and glory which are the attendants and followers of our good and laudable actions But I understand by honour that exaltation or lifting up a man to some more eminent place office or title of dignity above others of his rank for some excellency seen in him above others and this to be given him not as a summary reward of his virtuous actions for the true reward hereof is his blessedness and felicity and is the gift of God but as a
shall deliver me from this body of sin or sin say some in the body About the year 1533 arose in Germany one John Becold better known by the name of John of Leyden a tayler but a pestilent Anabaptist who bewitched the people by bis false visions dreams and prophesies to follow him He taught and caused the Ministers publikely and commonly to preach it that a man is not bound to one wife but that he may have as many as be desired and he swore by the holy Bible that this doctrin was revealed to him from heaven He and his disciples being asked how they could defend so foul and gross a tenet answered 1 That Christians must give up what they loved best which women held to be their bodies 2 That for Christs sake they are to undergoe any infamy 3 That Publicans and harlots shall enter into the kingdome of heaven 4. Which was the opinion and argument of the Câ—pocâ—atian hereticks that as all Christians should be as one spirit so they ought to be as one body each to other And this lying with others besides their wives to colour the sin they called spirituall mariages as though there could be any thing spirituall in this so foul corporall beastliness The ground of these most wicked doctrines in many of these recited hereticks was and is that most wicked tenet now defended by the Antinomians 1 Tim. 1.9 and Adamiticall Ranters so called of our times viz. Be or beleeve in Christ and sin if you can for being and beleeving in Christ justifieth and to or against the Just there is no law I might tell you that such doctrines and such doings cannot be the fruits of faith or justification and therefore they neither rightly beleeving nor being truly justified are condemned by the sentence of Gods word Exo. 20.14 which saith thou shalt not commit adultery and no unclean person shall inherite the Kingdome of heaven Eph. 5.5 But recitare as S. Hierom speaks est consutare to rehearse these damnable doctrines is to condemn them in the judgement of all good Christians I leave them therefore and shall touch upon the duties of man and wife each to other and in this I shall follow the Apostles S. Paul and S. Peters method who both begin with the duties of wives as though these should provoke the husband to his or as though the wife could not so justly expect the husbands duty which is love unless she first performe hers which is subjection And I find the Apostles insisting urging and inculcating this lesson wives obey 1 Cor. 14 34. Eph. 5 24. Col. 3.18 1 Pet. 3.5 wives reverence wives sear wives submit and wives be subject to your husbands Yea it was Gods sentence from the beginning and given to all women even to the greatest and to the best Thy desire shall be subject to thy husband Gen. 3.16 and he shall rule over thee And where God commands there should be no dispute but simple obedience And yet God considering womans backwardness to this duty is content to subject his command to reason and therefore by his Apostle S. Paul he gives one reason for this subjection of the wife when he saith Adam was not deceived but the woman 1 Tim. 2.14 and therefore fit it is she should be subject to the guidance of her head the wiser a second reason may be collected from S. Paul 1 Cor. 11.9 v. 10. that the man was not made for the woman but the woman was made for the man and for this cause the woman ought to be covered which was a sign of subjection A third reason is given by the same Apostle Ephes 5. Ephes 5 21 22. where having given the precept Wives submit your selves to your own husbands as unto the Lord for saith he the husband it the head of the wise even as Christ is the head of the Church S. Paul commands wives not only to submit and be subject but he saith the wise must reverence the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there implyes a reverence proceeding from fear v. 33 yet no servile base fear but a loving or a fear to give him offence because she loves him as she is commanded Tit. 2.4 And this kind of reverence fear or subjection arising from and coupled with the mutuall love of the husband to the wife and the wife to the husband makes it such a subjection as S. Paul speakes of though in another case 2 Cor. 3.17 saith where that the Spirit of the Lord is I say where love in the Lord is there is Liberty And such as Christ speaks when he saith Mat. 11.30 my yoke I may say the wives yoke thus fastned is easie and the burden she beares by such her subjection is light for love makes all easie and light And yet that wives may not grumble or dispute against their subjection as too unjust servile or hard let them know that their subjection to their husbands is but as to the Lord Eph. 5.22 which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to the Lord means not that the wife must be a subject to her husband as to the Lord God but it teacheth that she is to be subject to her husband according to the Lords command Gen. 3.16 or according to and so far as the husband shall command agreeable to and not repugnant to the word and will of the Lord. For if the husband usurpe a power or command contrary to the Lords word Act. 5.29 the wives answer and obedience is that of S. Peter We ought to obey God rather then men And a subjection to the husband if such as God commands or such as is suitable to the will of the Lord should be willingly entertained and imbraced by every good woman who desires to be a wife and yet to make this subjection more readily to be imbraced let the wives know that the words which the Apostles use when they call for this submission or subjection in wives signifies to be under their husbands will and power according to just and comely order and not simply to the husbands unlawfull or unlimited will which orderly subjection of the wife according to order is that Politicall or Oeconomicall disposure by which the wife according to Gods ordinance and appointment is to be inferior or under her husband so that he as the head is to rule and she as the body is to obey her husband And that wives erre not or come not short in the performance of this duty the Apostle hath been very carefull to set down the qualifications and necessary concomitants of this subjection when he bids the woman submit Eph. 5.22 which teacheth her it should be spontaneous and voluntary and not a forced subjection 2. That it must not be a carnall worldly but an holy submission for as to or as in the Lord. 3. It must not be a partiall lame subjection in some things which the wife likes and