defiances It is presumption and peril to name such sinnes in their hearing howsoever to particularize them out for their personall defaults faults Men will not acknowledg their own debts nor confesse the false coyn they have minted Master it is I What Judas the Apostle Judas a Traytor Christ himselfe shall almost be accounted a slanderer to imagine it or affirm it Is thy servant a dog that I should doe such things no rather Elisha is a dog thus to bark against a man of worth Why weepest thou my Lord No thou mightst spare thy censures and spare thy teares thou hast mistaken the man for Hazael doth find no such cruell heart in his bosome Thy servant went no whither saith Gehezi 2 King 5.25 Gehezi a ranger a bribe-taker no Elisha doth wrong his good servant his spirit brought him false information when it told him it went with him he doth stand in his Masters presence like one that never stepped over his threshold nor never was out of his call Thy servant went no whither I have obeyed the voyce of the Lord saith Saul If ye will believe his own tale he was Saul the dutifull and devout not Saul the irreligious and sacrilegious though the Calves of the Amalekites bleated in his ears and Agag the Portentuous strutted up and down in his Camp yet he had taken no more then he should take and killed as much as he should kill he had been obsequious and strict a most precise servant I have obeyed the voyce of the Lord. Thus men behold their selves with another face than they can see in the glasse of their own conscience let their sinnes be never so heinous and prodigious yet with the Whore in the Proverbs they wipe their mouthes and go their way and say I have not sinned But oh beloved why doe ye thus hide your selves from your Gods eyes and convey out of sight your owne records hath not every man a genius attending upon him doth he not carry about him a Day-book of his constant and continuall practises Yes and if he doth not look the better to it this Genius will be a dis-genius to him and this Day-book will prove a black-book to him for how audaciously soever men in the foulest facts justifie their innocency yet this defence is but for a short time for ere long with shaking heads blushing cheeks and glaring eyes they shall be enforced to charge themselves with that which they now would clear themselves of Doth not sin carry a conviction with it Yes see it in Jonah God doth but interrogate his conscience he had enough within him to resolve whether he were not erroneous and God just for what other sense can there be given of this solemn question Should not Sixtly Whereas God doth plead and Jonah doth submit for he doth return no answer to Gods interrogatory it doth teach us further that if we be penitent we should be silent we should not quarrel out our sins but as before we were brought to conviction so now we should forbear contestation Apprehension of sin should be fuller of dejection than defence of remorse than justification the tye should be so forcible that it should tye up our tongues as if we had nothing to say for it nothing to say after it Not he which doth still fight but he which doth lay downe his weapons doth confesse the victory Demamah doth come of Damam Domitus est he is conquered and indeed the silent sinner is the onely vanquished man Simonides was wont to say that they whose lives were bad their greatest honour was their silence Quorum indecora esset vita maximum decus esse silentium for as Democritus said what more unseemly than that they which knew not what to speak could not hold their peace for canst not deny thy errours and yet canst not refraine language Doth not thy conviction strike thee dumb Yes we must pluck down the swallowes nest for that bird though it cast down never so much dung Hirundinem in domo non suscipiendam esse Jeron l. 2. Cont. Ruffin Nescit paenitentia loqui Cassiodor Mulierem ornat silentium Adag yet it is so far from being ashamed of it that it doth never leave chattering But God forbid that the defiling sinner should be so full of noise no true repentance doth not know how to speake or howsoever is sparing of speech It is an Adage That silence doth adorne a woman much more a Convert for where should there be found more modesty than in an humble soule find we it not in scripture Yes Ephraim doth strike upon his thigh rather then to use Oratory to excuse himselfe Job doth abhor himselfe in dust and ashes rather than he doth turne Proctor for his sins Mary Magdalen is full of teares but not of words the Publican doth abound in knocks but not in speeches And assure your selves that dumb gestures are fitter for repentants then high phrased bablings Pharisaicall boastings and stridulencies Oh then that we cannot make the criminal man to hold his tongue that we cannot silence the talking sinner that though his bell be riven yet his clapper is not taken out that though the statute of Bankrupt be sued out against him yet he is walking the streets and hath something to say for his reputation Do we not see that open drunkards known oppressors publique quarrellers mischievous disturbers of Church and State are rise of their tongues Oh where shall we finde inarticulate guilt what crime is there that is not answering and Rhetorising yes full of replication and retortion But is this to be Jonah No they may sin with him but not submit with him he is refelled and he hath instantly done with anger and argument as full of words as he was before yet being pleaded out guilty he doth not whisper after Gods interrogatory not so much as say may it be shall it be can it be it must not be no he doth end like a man both convinced and silenced with Gods should not Part 2. Now let us come to the Spring-head I. Hadst thou and should not I Am not I thy match nay if thou considerest the matter truly Am I not thy better Doe I not excell thee by many degrees What then hadst thou liberty and shall not I have authority Hadst thou and should not I We had the Pleader before and now we have the person to be justified God doth defend his own right stand for his own prerogative maintaine himselfe against Jonah to be above Jonah for hadst thou and should not I From hence observe That God is supream For if man hath a power in any thing God hath a greater can man vie titles with God no All my bones shall say who is like to thee If all Davids bones were Quiristers they should chaunt out nothing but Gods perfections Lord who is like unto thee And indeed if man can do something who is the possessor of a few Mud-walls Parchments and Parkes
Rentalls and Royalties then what is God who is the Possessor of Heaven and Earth Gen. 24.1 If man who is but a shining Gloworme below then what God who is the Majesty on high Heb. 1.3 If man who can be beheld without danger then what God who cannot be eyed without expiring Whom no man hath seen nor can see 1 Tim. 1.16 If man who doth carry no slames in his skin then what God who is a consuming fire Heb. 12.29 If man who is but a Saint by infusion then what God who is the King of Saints Rev. 15.3 If man whose knowledge doth reach no further then his own heart then what God which can declare unto man what his thought is Amos 4.13 nay who is greater then our heart and knoweth all things 1 Job 3.20 If man who cannot make a Gnat a Spire of Grass not an Hair white or black then what God who is the former of all things Jâ—r 10.16 If man who hath much ado to get a little pompe then what God with whom is the greatness of excellency Exod. 15.7 If man who can hardly for a while keep his own spirit within his own body then what God who is the Lord of the spirits of all flesh Numb 27.6 If man whose power is limited and whose designs may be frustrated then what God who is so great that none can stay his hand Dan. 4.43 If man who is but of yesterday then what God who doth inhabit eternity Isa 57.15 If man who cannot span the compasse of his own body then what God whose right hand spanneth the Heavens Isa 43.12 If man who at most doth but dwell in an Ivory Palace then what God who dwelleth between the Cherubims 2 Sam. 6.2 If man who hath his dayes set and there is a stint for his greatnesse then what God Who liveth for ever and his Dominion is everlasting Dan. 4.34 If man who cannot make a Pillar to quake nor melt a flint then what God who can make the Mountains to quake and cause the hills to meli Nah. 1.13 if man who cannot walk but in a calm and that upon firm land then what God who hath his way in the w irlwind and his path in the mighty waters Nah. 1.3 Esai 43.16 and yet must man be such a man and God be undeified Shouldst thou have freedom and God be abridged Hadst thou and should not I What art thou what is God 1. What art thou the crackt sherd of a ruine the broken bough of a windfall the splintered plank of a shipwrack Adams Ulcer the wrimpled skin stark hand blind eye chap-fallen lip of that old man the lake-diver the furnace-brand Prae omnibus malis homo est pessimum unaquaeque bestia habet unum malum homo omnia Chrysost the brimstone-match of that cursed man Above all evills Man is the worst every beast hath one evill but man all Whatsoever man was at the first creation yet he may be carried now to some Stage as a strange Beast to be shewn as Laerlius saith of Stilpon As ye cannot find a Fish without skales so ye cannot find a man without strange Finns Lacrt. l. 2. c. 12 Aelian var. hist l. 10. panorm l. 1. de rebus gestis Alphonsi Instead of men we are like wild Vultures in the Woods Arislotle that had searched mans intralls nay which by his deep wisdom had dissected him for who could better have done this then that rare Anatomist of Nature Yet what saith he of man but that he was the spoil of time the mockage of fortune and image of inconstancy Stob. Ser. 96. Therefore Plotinus was wise who when Aemilius would have his Picture drawn denied it him Erasin l. 8. apoph intimating that it was in vain to take the Picture of a wretched creature Indeed man is so miserable that Silenus told Midas that the best thing were not to be horn at all the next thing was to die soon Optimum non nâ—sci prâ—â—imum cito aboleri Comaedia vita nostra â—uius ultimus actus in morte Aen. Syl. lib. 3. com Alphonsi Putredo in ortu bestia in vita esca vermium in morte Let man seem to enjoy never so much outward greatnesse yet mans life is but a Comedy whose last act is death Solon that by the Oracle was prononnced to be the wisest man of his age said that man was but rottennesse in birth a beast in his life and worms-meat in death Man art thou not thus canst thou not apprehend it wilt thou not believe it then let me a little further decipher thee skin thee and unskin thee At thy first conception oh that thou couldst see thy self Thou art but a drop of basenesse a spermatick stein thou art gendring many months to get flesh and skin upon thy bones thou suckest unclean blood and dost wsim in a loathsome puddle thou puttest out thy head like a beetle out of a dunghill thou art groaned forth with the half-slaughter of thy Mother thou art plucked out of the womb and dost lye in the eyes of all like an hideous fright there is not an hair of thy head not a tooth in thy mouth thou lookest like raw flesh yea like a prodigious clodder this is thy entrance and when thou art rinsed and perfumed thy navell cut thy skull seamed and by the Midwifes art made fit to receive the Babes kisse thou dost hang upon the brest or art fed with spoon-meat thou art rocked in a Cradle wrapped in swadling-clothes watched and waited upon carried in the arme led by the hand learned to go taught to speak before thou canst give one sensible expression of a reasonable creature And afterwards when by much nurture and education thou hast gotten some rudiments into thee whereby thou mightst declare thy selfe man what manner of man dost thou witnesse thy self to be even at thy ripe age what are thy gests and guises and garbs and modes Thou risest in the morning out of thy bed where thou hast lain so many hours forgotten of thy self thou clothest thy self like one ashamed to be seen without his Vest thou callest the water to wash off thy nights filth thou pickest thy nasty ears thou purgest thy fowl nostrils thou clensest thy polluted teeth and by degrees when thou art compt and terse spunged and powdred every hair set right and every abiliment put on what is thy daies work how dost thou spend pretious time If thou beest for profit thy ranges are known after thou hast called up thy servants to hunt for gain at home thou thy self as one in full quest for lucre abroad art visiting other mens Storehouses searching their Warehouses ransacking their Cellers Thou goest to the Customhouse to try what exporting and importing there hath been thou repairest to the Exchange to examine what Merchant thou canst meet with with whom thou maist truck in Minivers and Tissues Musks and Civets the teeth of Elephants the bones of Whales the stones of
shut up the musicall Instruments cased and nothing but kneeling upon stones wallowing in the mine sitting upon dunghills sighing like distracted men groning like dying persons to be seen amongst them the City is now bright Nineveh doth now shine And indeed what more admirable then to see persons in the penitentiall garb men frayed with sins shivering under judgements their remorselesse hearts smarting their stupid spirits thrilling their dumb mouths opening their dry eyes streaming their deaf ears tingling their polluted conversations rinsing crying with Ezrah We are here before thee in our trespasses or with Daniel To us belongeth nothing but shame and confusion or with Manasses my transgressions oh Lord are multiplied my trespasses are exceeding many I am not worthy to see the height of the Heavens for the multitude of my unrighteousnesses when they have nothing to fly to but prayers nor depend upon but mercy when they count plagues their due doom and hell their just desert when they wring their hands that God might embrace them and lye at his feet that vengeance might not trample upon them Oh joyful day when a sinner doth begin to suspect and search himselfe when his wicked life doth lie like a burthen upon his Soul and the shame of his sin hath made him an horrour in his own eyes when he doth call himself culpable and pronounce himself wretch like Pelagia Pelagus omnium vitiâ—rum Fulgos l. 6. c. 9. who would no longer be called Pelagia but Pelagus or he doth take some revenge upon himself either like Amus the Aegyptian Monk who having taken some pleasure in his beauty would never after see his naked flesh or like Paulus sirnamed the Simple Marulus lib. 4. c. 3. who having offended with his tongue enjoyned himself three years silence or like Solomon a King of Hungary who caused himself to be five times dragged through the open streets in detestation of his sins or like Martin Jeranes who being reprehended for weeping too much Bern. said he had need to wash throughly that he might have a clean face for Gods pure eyes These these are the rare penitentiall spectacles and representations for what are capering feet swelling cheeks tempests in the brows lightning in the eyes thunderclaps in the lips pikes in the hand steel-bonnets upon the head to humble lowly self-denying courses no one souls check doth excell all the jollity upon Herods Birthday one tear all the pompe at Asuerosh's Feast A penitent creature is more amiable then Absolon a mortified person more glorious than the Prince of Tyrus Oh therefore prize repentance and never think thy self eminent till thy penitentiall day be dawned upon thee oh happy time when the sense of sin hath shaken thee out of all the glory of the world thrown thee down like a forlorn Abject made thee look pale under guilts dread divine justice prefer a motion for compassion and weep and wail till thou hast gotten an assurance of a pacified God Nothing made Nineveh so blessed as repentance her Ivory Walls shook her strong Foundations tottered her Palace roofes seemed ready to fly into splinters nothing but plaints and shrikes tears and blood hurling into rubbish burning unto Cinders was expected till repentance was visible and repentance hath no sooner entred the streets but all the City is joyous and secure not a stone is to be removed not a bone to be broken not an hair of the head to be touched no before sin had made it Nineveh to be wasted but repentance now hath made it Nineveh to be spared for Should not I spare Nineveh 6. This serves to put us upon triall whether we that would be the pardoned people are the penitent people shall all this discourse end in an Expresse or a Narrative No I would willingly not only make a relation but a collation not only set forth a representation but find an equiparation else I shall but tell a tale of Nineveh or shew you how repentance was Nineveh's Custos how that comming in before the forty daies were expired Nineveh did not expire how repentance kept every Pillar unshaken and every limb unshivered how it held the Crown upon the Kings head preserved the Nobles in their Courtly Equipage the Merchants in their Spleadid trassick how their Palaces and Banquetting-houses Castles and Theaters Statues and Sepulchres Exchequers and Wardrobes Courts and Arsenalls Magazines and Records Fishponds and Gardens Pearls and Perfumes Laws and Lives were all safe and secure by Repentance that not so much as a tree was blasted a spire cast down an Image defaced a fly skalt a worm burnt a dog brained or a beast slain throughout the whole City meerly through the benefit of repentance for the people had repented and here is their brestplate shield and headpiece Repentance doth prevent detriment they are not endamag'd in the least vengeancetook not a shoo-latchet from them Repentance doth ratifie their liberties confirm their immunities renew their Charter they are still Proprietaries in all their Fees Lords of all their royalties their authority and jurisdiction opulency and affluency celsitude and sublimity power and pomp principality and preheminence Procerage and Peerage Crown and Crown-land doth continue Oh Repentance how hast thou saved a flourishing City it is thou that wert the Cure and the covert the shadow and the shelter the Buttress and Buckler Nineveh had fallen if thou hadst not supported it and perished if thou hadst not protected it bâ—â— thou didst open Ninevehs ears to listen to a Prophet that it might not hear the thunders of a confounding God thou didst lend Nineveh faith that it might believe God that trembling at the threatnings they might not feel nor see the terrours of a perishing decree executed thou didst clad them in sackcloth that they might not be stript of their gorgeous rayment thou didst sprinkle them with ashes that the smell of fire might not be felt within their walls thou didst enjoin them the fast that ere long thou mightst set them down again at their spread Tables thou didst make them cry mightily that no other cries might be heard in the City but those of devotion thou didst make them turn from their evill waies and from the violence of their hands that their evill waies might not bring all manner of evills upon them and that the violence of their hands might not expose them to the violence of ruining justice it is thou that didst teach Nineveh the art and learn her the secret and mystery how to prevent an imminent danger and to preserve her self at an exigent that she stood still upon her old basis when her groundsell was sliding and cracking in pieces that her fabrick remained firm when the whole structure was dropping down and not one stone ready to be left upon another Oh Repentance how may wee honour thy succouring bowells and kisse thy securing hand Oh great is thy potency yea a kind of omnipotency is bestowed upon thee to rescue people Nations
never a judicious Protestant before us or shall wisdome take her first breath or last gaspe with us was never grace before in the Church did the spirit begin to blow and flame and anoint onely in these dayes if there were any good thing or good man conveyed unto us from former times why have they been so dis-esteemed How are the Churches abiliments gone even to her swadling-clouts How are the Martyrs legacies swallowed up even to the laver they gave to new-born Infants Our Saviour the Jewes said had a Devill and what Saint hath not seemed to be possessed How many Stars though never so bright shine in their proper Orbs how many Angels though never so celestial watch over their true Churches What are Gifts Graces Mortification Devotion Evangelicall Doctine or Angelicall extasies dayes dedicated to piety and persons consecrated to contemplation with some people How are the mighty overthrown and the weapons of war destroyed oh tell it not in Gath nor publish it not in the streets of Askelon lest the Daught rs of the uncircumcised triumph lest Rome should say that her Inquisition or Stakes could not have made a quicker dispatch of eminent Protestants than our differences and passions Oh let us be so far reconciled that God the spirit repentance innocency zeal supernatural affections and fruits all pious things and heavenly persons may have just esteem let men have worth in their cyes and preciousnesse in their hearts to tender and honour every thing that is prime and hath a preheminence sealed upon it God ye see would here spare Ninev h because it had eminency in it it was That great City Should not I spare Nineveh that great City Fifthly This doth shew That we all ought to aim at eminency that seeing That great City was so acceptable to God we should look to be of the new Corporation to have the best Burgesship to be Citizens with the Saints and of the houshould of God That it may be said these are the men of an excellent spirit Prov. 17.27 A Kingdom of Priests Exod. 19.6 which walke worthy of the Lord Col. 1.10 of whom this world is not worthy Heb. Laus vita omni commendatione superior Monod Greg. Naz. in vit Basil Ejus virtutem pro lege fere omnes habuerunt Id. ibid. Totius patriae decus Amb. in Orat. sun de ob Satyri Nunc in Pauli chorum pervenerunt ante Coronas suas Chrysostom Adv. Jud. Orat â— 1.1 Solvamus bono principi stependarias lachrymas Amb. de obit Valent. Orat. fun t. 3. 11.38 and which are counted worthy to obtaine that world Luk. 20.35 Oh rare Worthies when praise and life is above commendation yea when men come to such an exactnesse of conversation that their virtue is to the world as a Lan lyea their graces are so resplendent that they brighten the place where they dwell and are as it were the Ornaments of the whole Country Yea they seem to be in heaven before their translation and to be in the Quire of Paul before they receive their Crowns they have the affectionate votes of the people whilst they live and their stipendary â—ears when they dye Oh what Magnifico like to such a Professor What Citizen like to such a Saint What are all these glorious structures to the lively stones of God's building what are your artificial Ornaments to spiritual endowments what is the magnificence of a City to the prerogative of adoption no the robe of Righteousness doth excel all your Mercers wares one ingot of grace is to be preferred before all the wealth of your City Oh therfore a less number of Traders and a greater of Gospellers fewer Citizens and more Saints For what conspicuousnesse like to that of Religion what eminency like to that of Regeneration no if ye want your Christian interest ye have onely parchment priviledges your happinesse doth not go beyond your City-walls The savour of lise unto life is not to be bought amongst all your Perfumers the true Pearl is not to be purchased from all your Jewellers Oh therefore that I could cause you to take the true City oath and make you true freemen in heaven otherwise your best tenure is in a painted Portall and your heaven is in an Exchange ye are never enfranchised till ye have the liberties of redemption nor right Traders till ye are making bargaines at the free mart of the spirit nor wealthy Citizens till ye have the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus Oh then that ye would remove your Traffique have your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your City commerce or conversation in heaven that ye would seek for durable riches bagges that do not wax old a stock of graces these are greater riches then the treasures of Egypt that ye would think your security to consist not in Bulwarks Stantious maentnibus mentibus morthus â—ug de civitate Dei lab 1. c. 33. Non Imperatorem sed salui m erâ—plamputabant â—g in in orat sun de obit Valent. but in the Towers of your religious constancy that ye might say our walls spirits consciences and conversations are remaining firm that your demonstrations might be so celestiall as people might be drawn to blesse you whilst ye are living and to bewail you when ye are dead that they might think that not only your persons but salvation almost were taken from them at your departure as Saint Ambrose said of Valentinian Think not of your City that had a first Builder but think of the City which hath foundations whose builder and maker is God think not upon your City-seal but the seal of the living God Oh remember that this City hath keyes too for without shall be dogs therefore be so qualified that ye may enter in through the gates into the City Oh happy thou that dost go in this City-Livery that art a prime Citisen in this Corporation for then thou art risen to the heighth thy soul is blessed God will spare That great Saint for his eminency when for eminency he doth spare That great City Should not I spare Nineveh that great City Sixthly this sheweth that Repentance doth present to Gods ey every thing in us that might draw compassion as Niceveh here being penitent God hath before him all the motives which might incline him to spare it it was a City a great City and that great City that as the women from the wall had variety of arguments why Abel should be spared and the woman of Tekoah why Absalon should be called from banishment and Bathsheba why Solomon should be designed to the Throne so repentance doth exhibit to God all the instances impulsions instigations extimulations that should make God propense to favour As it is the nature of a Rhetorician to speak not onely â—acundè elegantly but aecundè fluently Pectus refertum habuit Plato Victor var. Lect. l. 9. c. 5. In instruendo dislipatus esset Cicero in Bruto Sttabo l. 13. and
vicissitudes of events changes of States in Mineralls and Meteors Thunders and Comets Influences and Constellations as if he had a Chamber in the bowels of the earth a Closet under the hollow of the Moon or a Study in the eighth sphear which hath the lips of knowledge and the minde that hath understanding which hath Orpheu's harp in his mouth and can draw Congregations and Kingdoms after him with his tongue which is the curious Observer and the eloquent Oratour which hath wrought all the strange feats setled all the Ordinate rules atchieved all the Conquests and reered up all the Monuments which are upon earth Oh Man what weight and wonder do there lie couched in thee Lord what is man that thou shouldst be so mindfull of him and the son of man that thou shouldst so regard him But Lord what is man that he should be so unmindfull of himself and the Son of man that hee should so little regard himself Oh Man how hast thou wretched thy self God made thee a Lampe and thy light is extinguished he did set thee upon thy feet and thou hast brought thy self to thy knees thou shouldst be the splendour of the whole world and thou hast made thy self a scandall a blemish a curse to thine own being where are thy primitive engravings where are thy Creation prints Oh Lucifer how art thou fallen from Heaven thou Son of the Morning Bern. Lucifer is become Noctifer instead of a Moning-star a Night-Orbe a Star fit only to shine in Hades the Region of darknesse So oh Man how hast thou eclipsed thy brightnesse where is thy wonted fulgour where are thy morning beams no thou art now instead of a wonder an astonishment and fright for he is a rare man which doth live according to his endowments and act according to his priviledges instead of those Ornaments that were wont to be seen in man there are now so many torments of Soul Tot animael tormenta Jeron Tota sua viscera serpens concutit imprimendae malitiae pestem vomit Greg. Ego adolescentule non ob patrias sed proprias cujusque viri virtutes mercedem munera dare seoco Plat. in Reg. Imper Apoph yea Man is so envenomed as if the serpent had stirred all his poysoned entrayles to infect him Whatsoever our Forefathers deserved for vertue and piety yet can wee challenge their honours no we are degenerated and so have forfeited all their rights as Amigonus the second when a debauched Souldier came to ask his Fathers Salary said to him no I pay stipends to Souldiers not for their Father's but their own vertues Oh man how shall I deplore thy disfiguration and deformation thou knowest not thy self to be Man thou hast scarse any part of a Man about thee setting aside thy visage what affections or actions hast thou to declare thy selfe to be Man thou hast beauty in thee to be the Lure of thy Iusts strength to be the Club of thy passions wisdom to be the Craftmaster of thy damned policies dominion to be the Rentgatherer of thy covetousnesse and the Wardrobe-keeper of thy pride what man-like thing is there discernable in thee no thou hast perverted every excellent thing in thee to the satisfying of thine own vitious and pernicions desires and designs Man being in honour may be compared unto the beasts that perish It is worse to be compared to a beast then to be born a beast for a man naturally to want reason is tolerable Pejus est comparari quà m nasci naturaliter non habere rationem tolerabile est hominem verò ratione decoratum esse irrationali creaturae comparari voluntatis crimen est Aug. Homil. Heu tristis lacrhymosa mutatio Bern. s 35. in Cant. but to be endowed with reason and to be compared to the unreasonable Creature this is the crime of the will Oh sad and lamentable change that Man which was the Inhabitant of Paradise the Lord of the Earth the Citisen of Heaven the domesticall servant of the Lord of Sabboths the brother of blessed spirits and Coheyre of the Heavenly Powers should now by a suddain change be turned out of himself and become a beast as if for the generality here were nothing but Dens for savage Creatures Cribs for bruits and Stalls for beasts that it was not so dreadfull for Loths wife to be changed into a Pillar of salt Miriam into a Leper Saul into a Phrentick as for Man to be changed into a Beast A beast indeed who must not onely be rid with a bridle or pricked with a goad but he doth wallow in the mire and doth he down in dung which hath mind of nothing but inhumane barbarous obscene filthy beastly and brutish things And would to God that this were his last and worst change but I doubt there is another Metamorphosis to be found of him that he is changed into a Fiend and a Devill for the Devill is his Companion and Counsellor his Leader and Lawmaker no Conjurer more conversant with his black Daemon nor Witch with her familiar spirit Insomuch that it may be said to too many that the God of this World hath blinded their minds that the Prince of the air doth work in the children of disobedience that a lying spirit is in their mouths that the Angell of the bottomlesse pit hath locked them up in close prison that they are of their Father the Devill that the Devill is entred into their hearts yea that Sathan hath filled their hearts to lye to the Holy Ghost Oh Men then where is your Manhood what Monsters and Prodigies are ye become that ye should be turned into Beasts and Devills Is this according to the honour of your nature the perfection of your endowments Oh look with shame and horrour upon this wofull evirating or disâ— humaning your selves and reassume your first dignity live answerably to your qualifications be Men and assure your selves if ye glorifie God as he hath enabled you that ye are the Beauties in your severall Stations yea that the Earth hath no greater Ornaments then Men ye may see it here in Nineveh which had not more rich and pretious things to be found in it then these Persons Wherein are Persons Secondly this doth serve to present to the City her treasures these living souls are your lasting Excellencies As Cornelia being the Mother of the Gracchi she brought forth her two sons Haec sunt ornamenta mea Plut. and said to the Romane Ladies which delighted in other things These are my Ornaments so when ye have viewed all the principall things within your walls Sicut pascua sine armentis non sunt speciosâ— sic nec civitales sine Inâ—olis Epictetus yet these are your true Glories As pastures are not gracefull without Heards so no more are Cities without Inhabitants As Lycurgus called men the walls of Cities so are they the Decorements of Cities If your walls were made of Alablaster your streets paved