Selected quad for the lemma: water_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
water_n	earth_n	sea_n	see_v	4,259	5	3.9841	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80530	Experience, historie, and divinitie Divided into five books. Written by Richard Carpenter, vicar of Poling, a small and obscure village by the sea-side, neere to Arundel in Sussex. Who being, first a scholar of Eaton Colledge, and afterwards, a student in Cambridge, forsooke the Vniversity, and immediatly travelled, in his raw, green, and ignorant yeares, beyond the seas; ... and is now at last, by the speciall favour of God, reconciled to the faire Church of Christ in England? Printed by order from the House of Commons.	Carpenter, Richard, d. 1670?	1641 (1641)	Wing C620B; ESTC R229510	263,238	607

life still running upon the wheel which I dare not wilfully breake Nor yet are all creatures made for the necessary maintenance of life For although the foure Elements are requisite to the due continuance of it yet man may subsist and stay in being man without many creatures in them which God hath provided not to comply with necessity but to conforme with delight if embraced in a fit measure and if we deale in them as Bees traffick in honey diligently observing that our wings be not entangled and catched therewith our wings of prayer and contemplation by which we rise from earth to heaven from the creatures with a great flight to the Creatour And God made many things otherwise then we use them Gold and Jewels were hid in the earth from mans sight as if God had beene unwilling they should be found And therefore Boetius Boet. Metr S. lib. 2. complaines Heu primus quis fuit ille Auri qui pondera tecti Gemmasque latere volentes Pretiosa pericula fodit Alasse what unhappy man was that who first digged up covered Gold and shamefast Jewels that desired to lie hid being pretious dangers And all the shining colours of cloth that so mock our eyes from what a white simplicity are they fallen For to argue with Saint Cyprian Neque enim Deus coccinas aut purpureas oves fecit God made not Sheep S. Cypr. l. de disciplina habituvirginum from which we take our Wooll of a Purple or Scarlet colovr but plaine innocent white And almost all the bravery that wee see in the world was brought by idle Art into fashion But to returne from whence I set forth All things were made for us and our end and we may see though they goe severall wayes how justly they meete all in their end Wee are the onely visible creatures that swarve from the maine end which is God Consid 7 And all things as flames of fire point alwayes upwards and like heavenly signes besides the knowledge of themselves reade us lessons of Gods power And although God became a Creatour to divulge his power and that glory might bee given to him yet God is not proud For therefore we are proud because we exalt our selves above our selves and snatch that glory to us which is due to God and pertaining to him by way of royalty But God cannot lift himselfe above himselfe Nor take from any that is above him because he has the first place And in good sooth this Book of creatures if it may have a name may be entitled a large description of the Divine power Bring me to a Man or a Spirit under God that can create a bramble a small haire of a mans head or an ignorant worme Besides these creatures of God are so strange and admirable in themselves and such plaine emblems of Gods wisedome that although we who are bred up by little and little to them and see them first when we have not the exercise of reason to judge of them are by daily use and the ignorance of our child-hood brought up to a custome of not considering them and their Author as wee ought yet if God should create a man in the ripenesse of perfect age when reason hath gained the Scepter as he did Adam doubtlesse he would be transported with admiration of every thing hee saw so excellent and so perfect is every thing in its kinde He would first admire this light the first faire creature and the first thing that would come in his eyes Thence he would looke up to the Sunne Then quickly spread his dazling eyes upon the heavens and cry O wonderfull Thence fall againe to earth where hee would be exceedingly taken with the strange sight of Trees Birds Beasts Fishes to which a leafe feather haire scale is not wanting of fire and of its active flames which wonderfully beget one another of aire that we take into our bodies and yet see not of water that comes in drops and runs away in flouds of all things of every thing And most of all himselfe would wonder at himselfe His tongue would alwayes be striking the same stroke and he would still be saying Who made these things Where is he that made them I would faine speake with him and behold how excellent he is in his being being so excellent in his wisedome He would marvell how a plant or flower should grow and yet not be seene to grow but to have growne a beast goe pulling up and letting downe his legges in a strange order a bird move and make circles in the aire without falling a fish swim over-head in the water without being strangled how a man should speake and by a little noise from his mouth exactly know the minde of his companion And all things which we doe not admire because we have seene them being children before we could aske what God was this new-created man would not passelightly over as Alexanders foot-man over the sands without leaving the print of his foot-step but would constantly fix and dwell upon and would never stirre from them except in a journey to the Creatour and backe againe For infallibly in their degrees they are all perfect and good all worthy of admiration and had God beene ignorant and not knowne them before he made them he also had admired them but he admireth not himselfe because nothing is strange to him And moreover God made all creatures to demonstrate his perfection all the perfections that are distributed amongst creatures being united in God as the beames of the Sunne though spread upon all the world through Sea and Land yet meet all in the Sunne and never was a beame of the Sunne divided from the Sunne or held from returning to goe on its journey with the Sun And therefore as we for the weaknesse of our eyes can better take a sight of the Suns fairenesse and perfection by looking upon it at second hand on the earth and perceiving the comfortable effects it worketh both in aire water and Earth so likewise for the debility of our understanding wee can better study Divinity in the great volume of creatures then in God himselfe and in his owne originall brightnesse with which our understanding may not consort as it is For in himselfe hee is best knowne to us by not being able to be knowne of us of whom we can scarce say any thing but by way of negation as denying those imperfections to be in him which we finde in creatures at least in an imperfect manner and as they are in them O our Father which art in Heaven I have found thee even in the creatures here on earth Consideration 8. THe Prophet David beginneth one of his Psalmes it is the first stroke in the Musick The Heavens declare the glory of Ps 19. 1. God and the Firmament sheweth his handy worke And by this he declares unto us the Divine doctrine these noble creatures give us both of the Glory and Power of God

me thinkes I smell it Nay then she did not stand now doubtlesse she came upon her knees to wipe his feete with the haires of her head And kissed his feete O the sinner hath not as yet forgot to kisse and rather then she will not be kissing shee will kisse the very feete of him she loves And anointed them with the ointment Shee did not annoint them with ointment to make her kissing sweet or him sweeter for that she thought he could not be but to expresse her sweete love Here head and haires and eyes and lips and hands and heart and all were at worke And was not this a sweet shower were not the teares sweeter then the oyntment though the oyntment was passing sweete Now my head and eyes and lips and hands and heart and all can yee be lookers on and not actors and imitators of what yee see I am not worthy to take in or give out the sweete aire of Heaven What said I Was it Heaven I spoke of I am not worthy to name Heaven And yet still I name it as if I did belong to it No no not worthy to be the meanest of Gods creatures a Worme A Worme is a pretty thing of a little thing Not worthy to be a Toad O poore naked miserable what shall I call thee And yet still I live and looke upwards O perfect bounty with all her dimensions length breath and depth I am very heartily sorry that I am no more sorry I would I were as heartily sorrowfull for all my sinnes and for every one in particular as God can make a sinner O my heart be of good comfort be hearty the desire of sorrow is a kinde of sorrow I doe hate and even loath all my most execrable abominations O that I could revoke the filthinesse of my life But foole I wish to do more then a Power which can doe all that can bee done And that is factum infectum facere to make what hath beene done not to have beene done O then that no such filthinesse had ever beene acted by me If I were now againe to make my first entrance upon the yeares of Reason and Discretion I would in the word of a Christian aided by Christ I would stand alwayes like a Watch-man over my selfe I would bee ever awake I would suspect all occurrences that could in reason be suspected and have an eye upon every darke place and upon every corner where a Devill can hide himselfe or his black head O my Saviour crucified for me as truely as if there had not beene another sinner besides my selfe I doe kisse with reverence the wounds of thy feete hands heart And now all my offences as well inwardly as outwardly contracted shall be washed away Hide me O hide me But where shalt thou hide me not in Heaven for that is too cleane a place for me as I am I shall pollute it Nor upon Earth for there thy Fathers anger will will finde me in the places wherein I committed my sinnes which may give him faire occasions to remember my sinnes and to destroy me Nor in the Sea for all the water of the great Ocean cannot make me white But betwixt Heaven Earth and Sea in the clifts of the Rock and especially in the large wound of thy brest that I may lie close to thy heart and sometimes in thy heart as in a retiring chamber and sing aloud that the Angels of heaven may heare me and sing their parts with me in the song Blessed bee Jesus Christ the Saviour S. Bern. Serm. 3. in Cant. of the world for ever and ever and for feare that ever should ever end for evermore All this I begge lying most humbly at thy feet ubi sancta peccatrix peccata deposuit induit sanctitatem where the holy sinner Magdalene laid downe her sinnes and put on sanctity What now is to be done I will hereafter be another kinde of Creature a Creature of another world indeed I will But I am too quick With the powerfull and active helpe of the divine Grace I will Create Ps 51. 10. in me a cleane heart O God O pure God O God the Creatour It is thou I call upon Observe my prayer Create in me a clean heart Create it make it of nothing as thou didst the world For now I am nothing but a nothing of uncleannesse And it is a cleane heart I would have for then I shall be cleane all over and cleane in every part And I know it must be a cleane heart if it be newly created by thee For nothing ever that came immediately from thee was sent hither uncleane by thee And although the soule comes hither uncleane it comes not uncleane as comming immediately from thee and as thy Creature but as created in a body and as part of a man which comes from Adam that having been made cleane by thee became uncleane by his own folly both in himselfe and in all his posterity CHAP. XV. IT is not amisse here to take the soveraign counsell of Saint Cyprian to Donat delivered S. Cyprian ep 2. l. 2. ad Donatum in these words Paulisper te crede subduci in ardui montis verticem celsiorem caet Let every one imagine himselfe lifted to the the top of a high mountaine upon which he may take a full view of all the world Here he may see whole Cities suddenly consum'd and emptied by the Plague a disease which having arrested for example one of us and given him two or three tokens of death will scarce allow him time to looke up to Heaven and say Lord bee mercifull unto me a sinner There whole Countries miserably wasted and unpeopled by Famine while men doe walke from place to place like pale Ghosts or living Anatomies and feede heartily upon their owne flesh paying the debt due to the stomach out of their armes and while the hungry mother is enforced as in the siege of Jerusalem to returne her dearest child by pieces into the place from which nature gave it entire Yonder a great part of the world most cruelly devoured by the sword where bloud lies spilt sometimes in greater abundance then water and where is no respect had to feeble old age to weake women or to innocent children but all lie mangled in a heape as if no such thing had beene ever heard of there as mercie Sinne is the wicked actor of all this Here he may behold Fire turning the labours of an hundred yeeres in one small houre into unprofitable ashes and perhaps many a gallant man and woman burnt brought almost to a handfull There Water breaking out by maine strength from the Sea and spreading it self over Towns Countries to the destruction of every living thing but such as God made to thrive in the water while the lost carcasses of poore Christians are carried in a great number from shore to shore from Country to Countrey all swell'd and torne till they are washt

to the Church or to their places in the Church they point to such a Grave and say There lyes a drunkard hee is sober enough now but much against his will And thus his memory is as loathsome to all good people and those who passe by his Grave to their devotions as his rottennesse These representations winned me to think that the Practitioners in this Art of Beastilinesse could not be of any Religion because S. James bindeth Religion downe to practice Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is Iam. 1. 27. this To visit the fatherlesse and widowes in their affliction and to keepe himselfe unspotted from the world But although I had learned in some sort to compound I had not yet learned to distinguish CHAP. 8. MY second Reason of joyning hands with the Church of Rome was because I framed to my selfe the imagination of an excellent Sanctity and a spotlesse Recollection of life in their Orders of Religion And my thoughts fed upon this and the like matter The last end of man and his Creation is Blessednesse being the vision or fruition of God which is an eternall Sabbath or an everlasting day of rest in him And therefore the soule of man which bendeth towards this end chiefly desireth rest For God would not I had almost said could not create man for an end and not imprint in him a strong desire of it Heavey things belonging to earth will not of themselves move towards Heaven nor yet stay loytering betwixt Heaven and Earth unlesse arrested and held by force but haste to the center of the world the earth their true place of being in which and in which onely they take their naturall rest And the nigher they come to the center their soft bed of rest if we may beleeve Philosophy the more hast they make The gentle Dove before the tumult of waters began to settle could finde no place to settle in no sure no solid rest for her foot and the silly thing had not learn'd to swim This tumult of waters in the world will never end till the world ends And therefore O that I had wings like a Dove for then would Psal 55. 6. I flie away and be at rest Not feet like a Dove but wings I have gone enough I have been treading and picking upon dunghills a long while And now I would faine be flying And not hanging upon the wing and hovering over dunghills but flying away And not flying away I know not whither but to the knowne place of rest For then would I flie away and be at rest And not wings like a Hawk or Eagle to help and assist me in the destruction of others but wings like a Dove by which I may secure to my selfe the continuance of a quiet and innocent life I would looke upon the earth as God does from above I would raise my thoughts above the colde and dampish earth and fly with the white and harmlesse Dove when the fury of the waters began to be asswaged to the top of a high mountaine the mountaine of contemplation standing above the reach of the swelling waves above the stroke of thunder and where little or no winde stirreth That as our dearly-beloved Master Christ Jesus prayed upon a mountain that is sent up his flaming heart to Heaven from a mountaine yet farther was transfigured upon a mountaine that is brought downe a glimpse of the glory of Heaven to the top of a mountaine and beyond either of these ascended himselfe to Heaven from a mountaine So I dwelling upon the mountaines of Spices as it is in the Canticles may enjoy a Cant. 8. 4. sweet Heaven upon Earth and sweeten the ayre in every step for the direction of others who shall follow drawne by the sweet savour of my example And standing over the world betwixt Heaven and earth I may draw out my life in the serious contemplation of both singing with Hezechiah I will mourne as a Dove Here will Is 38. 14. I rest my weary feet and wings and my body being at rest I wil set my soul a work I will mourne as a Dove my thoughts having put themselves out of all other service and now onely waiting upon my heavenly Mate and uttering themselves not in articulate and plaine speech but in grones And at last set all on fire from Heaven I may die the death of the Phoenix in the bright flames of love towards God and man and in the sweet and delicious odours of a good life Come my beloved let us goe forth Cant. 7. 11. into the field let us lodge in the Villages Sayes the Spouse to the Bridegroome Come then my beloved O come away let us goe forth there is no safe staying here we must goe forth And pry thee sweet whither into the field you and I alone The field where is not the least murmure of noise Or if any but onely a pleasant one such musick as Nature makes caused by the singing of Birds and the bleating of Lambs that talk much in their language and are alwayes doing and yet sinne not Or if we must of urgent necessity converse with sinners if the Sun will away and black Night must come if sleepe will presse upon us and we must retire to a lodging-place heare mee and by our sweet loves deny mee not let us lodge in the villages out of the sight and hearing of learned dissimulation and false bravery where sin is not so ripe as to be impudent and where plaine-fac'd simplicity knowes not what deceit signifies In the field we shall enjoy the full and open light of the Sun and securely communicate all our secrets of love And when the Body calls to bed and sayes hee hath serv'd the soule enough for one time we may withdraw to yonder Village and there we shall embrace and cling together quietly there wee shall rest arme in arme without disturbance And do'st thou heare when we wake wee will tell our dreames how we dreamt of Heaven and how you and I met there and how much you made of me and then up and to the field againe O did men and women know what an unspeakable sweetnesse arises from our intimacie and familiarity with God and from our daily conversation with Christ What inwardly passes betwixt God and a good soul and how lovingly they talk one to another and how they sometimes as it were whisper sometimes speak aloud sometimes deliver themselves merrily sometimes in a mournfull tone and how prettily the soul will complaine and cry to him and relate her griefes over and over and how orderly Christ keepes his times of going and comming againe and what messenger● passe betwixt them in his absence and afterwards what a merry day it is whe● they meet and what heavenly matte● Christ preaches to the soule and how afte● the Sermon the soule condemnes the world and abominates all the vanities of it an● would faine be running out of it if it

coul● tell which way and not run from Chris● all the sweetnesse of this world would be gall and extreame bitternesse to them they would relish nothing but Christ they would scarce endure to heare any man speak that did not speak of Christ his very name would give a sweet taste in their mouthes they would seeke him and they would be sick till they found him And having found him they would let goe all and hold him fast And then the remembrance of their labour in seeking him would be sweetnes it self to them Our Saviour before his passion ascended according to his custome to the mount of Olives and there drew himself even from his own Disciples For as St. Luke describeth it He was withdrawn frō them about a stones cast and kneeled downe and prayed About a stones cast for Luk. 22 41 the peace and privacie of his owne Recollection And but a stones cast for the safety and security of his Disciples And cursed be the Traytour that brought a vile rabble of seditious persons upon him to breake his mysticall sleepe and to cut the fine thred of his calme and quiet devotions Thus did my thoughts spread themselves imagining this could not any where be found but in a Monastery My last reason was because being carried away with a great streame the desire of knowledge it being the Philosophers Principle in the first grounds of his Metaphysicks Omnis homo naturâ scire desiderat Every man by nature Arist 1. Met cap. 1. desireth to know I plunged my selfe into the depth of profound Authors Bellarmine and others and was lost in the bottome And hurried with these motives I left with a free minde Kings Colledge and the University of Cambridge upon Christimasse Eeve that I might avoid the receiving of the Sacrament the next day for which I was in particular warned to prepare my selfe But the divine Providence went with mee and plainly shewed mee by my owne eyes and by my eares and by other knowing powers perfected with knowledge in some measure with which God hath endued me that my reasons were as weak as I was young CHAP. 9. I Shall now and I cannot help it lay open and uncover the faults of others But who am I that I should doe this Have I not great faults of my owne O I have Lord have have mercy upon me a miserable sinner and upon them and upon all the world I am one of those to whom God gave a faire preheminence over all other earthly creatures I was shaped by him in my mothers wombe and tooke up by him when I fell from her I was guided through all dangers by him in my weake infancie and ignorant childhood I was reserved by him for the law of grace and the faith of Christ I am furnished by him with all kindes of necessaries for the fit maintenance of life and have beene delivered by him from a thousand thousand mischiefes bending the bow both at soule and body I had lost my life the other day and beene carried hence with all my sinnes upon my back had not he stept in to help me I have beene moved every day to goodnesse by his holy calls and inspirations He puts bread and meat into my mouth every day having strangely brought it from many places by many wayes through many hands to me Hee covers my nakednesse every day He hath preserved and restored me from sicknesse and disposeth all my affaires with all gentlenesse And yet I have play'd as foule with him as any man Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in sinne did Psal 51. 5. my mother conceive mee I am thronged with unruly passions madd if let loose to wickednesse I goe and grow crookedly and stoope very low under a mighty burthen of sinne and am prone to all mischief and of my selfe ready for all attempts and wicked enterprises against God For if God should withdraw his preventing Grace I should quickly be guilty of any sinne that ever any man or woman committed It is granted that I am the void and empty Cave of ignorance the muddy fountaine of evill concupiscence dark in my understanding weake in my will and very forgetfull of good things and that left to my selfe I am not my selfe but a devill in my shape All this is true And yet I have beene the Captaine of an Army against him by whom only I can be set at liberty and freed from all these evills God is so perfectly knowing so compleatly wise that no sinne though lying hid in the dark thoughts and quiet privacie of the heart though covered with the mists of the morning or the darknesse of the night can escape his knowledge so throughly good that no sinne can please him so wonderfully powerfull that no sinner can flie from him though hee should have wings to help his feet He is the endlesse boundlesse bottomlesse heape of all perfections He is infinitely stored with all kindes of perfect worth and beauty and therefore most worthy of all true love and honour And this All of perfections is my all in all He is one and a great one that I make very angry with me every day and yet striking hee shakes his head pulls back his hand and is very loth to strike Hee would but will not Hee beares with mee from day to day and hopes well of mee breaths upon me blowes upon me with his holy spirit waters mee with his heavenly grace and benediction diggs about mee with lessons and instructions of all sorts and with good examples on every side expecting good fruit from mee And this good great God have I struck with many faults CHAP. 10. VErily I have deserved that because I have defiled all the Elements with my sins as I goe the earth at every step should sink under mee that it should open and swallow me with a wide throat into hell That water when I first come where it is should leape into my face and stifle mee that when I open my mouth to receive the sweet benefit of ayre nothing but mists and foggs and the plague should enter that fire should not onely cease and denie to warme me but also flie upon mee hang about me and burne me to ashes that heat and cold should meet together in the clouds and without much threatning break out upon me as having bin neither hot nor cold strike me dead with a clap of thunder that because all my zeal was but a flash a flash of lightning should burne mee to a coale and leave mee standing without life a blasted man all black and dried to scare others from sinne That because I playd the Beast in erring against the rules of reason beasts and unreasonable creatures of all kindes should lie every where in wait to destroy me that the Birds of the Aire should break into my House catch the bread out of my hand before it comes to my mouth and carrie away the very meat from my Table because they

is drawne strait to the bone through all his body His eyes fix constantly upon one thing as if there hee saw the dreadfull sentence of his eternity Two black circles lay seige to his eyes on every side and it seemeth that for feare they are sunke inwards as if they would turn presently and looke upon the deformity of the soule Hearke with what a lamentable accent he grones I remember I have heard some that soon after came to this point sing and laugh heartily Poore man how little all his pleasures have profited him Such a rich purchase the favour of such a noble man such and such a merry meeting what doe they help in this agonie his freinds are present yet of themselves they are miserable comforters they may looke sorrowfully speake mornefully cast themselves upon their knees and pray for him but they cannot doe the deed they cannot helpe him humane power stands amaz'd and can do nothing You do you heare what thinke you now of going abroad and being merry your old companions are at the doore Looke to your goods and your selves your house is on fire not a word And the little life which as yet keeps weak possession is so dull'd and over clouded with the pangs of Death that hee cannot raise from the fog of his body one clean thought towards God or Heaven Hee is ready now to leave every thing but his sinnes lands house friends gay clothes the gold in the box and jewels in the Cabinet and all See see he is going hee stands upon the threshold Death lurkes in yonder corner and aimes at the heart and though it move so fast Death will not misse his marke Hee has beene an Archer ever since the world began There flew the arrow Here is a change indeed His Soul is gon but it would not be seene Not only because it could not but also because it was so black Now dismisse the Physitian and pray him to goe and invent a preservative against the poyson of Death Close up the dead mans eyes hee will see no more Shut his mouth hee has left gaping for aire all is past hee will never give an other crosse word Now cast the beggerly wretch an old sheete and throw him out to the wormes or after three days hee will poyson us and then we shall bee like him It is a true speech of saint Hierom with which hee puts the latter stamp upon the soft heart of Paulinus to whom hee writes Facile contemnit omnia qui se semper cogitat esse moriturum Hee doth easily contemne Hier. ep ad Paul and with a violent hand throw under him all things who thinkes he stands alwayes with one foote in his grave O my soule heare me let me talke to thee in a familiar way The corporall eye this eye of man seeth nothing but figure or fashion and colour no man ever saw a man onely the figure or fashion and colour of a man and these are outward and superficiall things which onely flatter the eye And S. Paul saith worthily The fashion of this World passeth away The man dyeth the lid is 1 Cor. 7. 31 drawn over the eye the fashion or figure disappeareth is not seene The Hous-keeper hath changed his lodging the windows are shut Call him at the doores of his eares tell him that his wife and children are in danger of their lives and that they call to him for help the windows remain shut stil Here is the mind which hath wisdom There is nothing in this great World for a mortall man to love or settle upon Hee that will Reve. 7. 9 love ought to love wisely he that will love wisely ought to love good Good is not good if it be not permanent this World passeth away Nihil tam utile est quod in trāsitu prosit saith Seneca nothing is so compleately Sen. ●p 2. profitable as to profit when it only passeth And verily this world hath bin alwayes a Passenger for it hath passed from age to age through so many hundred generations by them and from them to us Adam liv'd a while to eat an Apple and to teach his posterity to sinne and to dye and the world passed by him Caine liv'd a while to kill his honest brother Abel and to bury him in the sands as if God could not have found him or the winde have discovered what was done and afterwards to be haunted with frightfull apparitions and to be the first vagabond and the world passed by him Noah liv'd a while to see a great floud and the whole world sinke under water to see the weary birds drop amongst the waves and men stifled on the tops of Trees and Mountaines and the world passed by him David liv'd a while to be caught with a vaine representation and to commit adultery to command murther and afterwards to lament and call himselfe sinner and when he had done so the world shuff'd him off and passed by him Salomon liv'd a while to sit like a man upon his royall throne as it were guarded with Lyons and to love counterfeit pictures in the faces of strange women and while he was looking Babies in their eyes the world stole away and passed by King Salomon and all his glory Iudas liv'd awhile to handle a purse and as an old Author writes to kill his Father to marry his Mother to betray his Master and to hang himselfe and the world turn'd round as wel as he and passed by the Traytor The Jews liv'd a-while to crucifie him who had chosen them for his onely people out of all the world and quickly after the world weary of them passed by them and their Common-wealth The old Romanes liv'd awhile to worship wood and stones to talk a little of Iupiter Apollo Venus Mercury and to gaze upon a great statue of Hercules and cry hee was a mighty man and while they stood gazing and looking another way the world passed by them and their great Empire The Papists live awhile to keepe time with dropping Beads or rather to lose it to cloath images and keepe them warme and to tell most wonderfull stories of Miracles which God never thought of but as he fore-saw and found them in their fancies and in the midst of a story before it is made a compleat lye the world passes by them and turnes them into a story The Jesuits live a-while to be call'd Religious men and holy Fathers to frame a face to be very good and godly in the out-side to vex and disquiet Princes to slander all those whom they cannot or gaine or recover to their faction and the world at length finding them to be dissemblers dissembles with them also and looking friendly upon them passes by them The painted wall tumbles and then Woe to you Hypocrites Wee live a-while a little little while to put our cloathes on and off to shew our selves abroad to be hurried up and downe in Coaches and to be

that talkes thus Another dwelling upon earth hath his dealing in Heaven amongst the Stars and teacheth for a truth that if we are born under such or such a constellation such and such strange things will certainely befall us we shall die suddenly by fire or by water or by a fall of a house or from a house or be the prey of a Lion And this profound man is certaine that if a Starre should loose hold and tumble downeward it would more then cover all the world and then sayes he where should we be And the plaine meaning people are amazed when they heare him say that the Sunne runnes some hundreds of miles in an houre But this heavenly man standeth above himselfe and above the sight of the creatures at hand which first offer themselves to his thoughts and knowes not what is here below Others cast themselves beneath themselves and their soules and are wondrously taken up in the curious inquisition of inferiour matters The wise Physitian is able to reveale the great mysteries of nature and the naturall uses of almost all naturall things but urge him upon a tryall and he cannot prescribe Physicke to his owne sick conscience Where is a Tradesman that doth not understand the secrets of his own Trade far better then the secret state of his own soule These wretched people have tooke a fall and are under themselves they faile in the first ground and foundation of all true learning A man may wisely aske the question Why in the blinde ages before Christ the Devill speaking from the mouths of Images gave to men many good and solid documents The maine hinge upon which the question turneth is The Devill not onely doth evill but also doth altogether intend evill what then hath hee to doe with good I will take the true answer The Devill well knew that the world was even then abundantly stored with grave and wise people who were also morally vertuous and that if he did not answer in some sort to their pious and reasonable expectation he would soone lose the reputation of a God And therefore amongst divers other sound instructions delivered by the Devill in oracles this also was given 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 know thy selfe In which the Devill more willingly dispensed with a shew of sanctity as knowing that his admonition would in the end prove uneffectuall because no man can truely know himselfe without the present assistance of Grace of which the poore Heathenish people were altogether destitute Our blessed Lord whose end was to dissolve the machinations of the Devill doth as strangely as excellently exhort us to the deepe and powerfull knowledge of our selves not in word but in worke in the working of a miracle It is written that he restored a man to sight blinde from his birth How did he restore him by his will onely No● by his word onely nor so The manner of the cure is uncovered in these words He spat on the ground and made clay of the John 9. 6. spittle and he annointed the eyes of the blinde man with the clay But let me see is it clay touch not my eyes with clay it will rather put them out then cure them Now I understand it our omnipotent Lord here worketh by contraries that it may bee knowne not the thing applyed but the power of him that applyed it wrought the cure while he clearely teacheth us that the knowledge of our selves and of our meane foundation being as Job speaketh earthly with a requisite application to our selves is the onely instrument which openeth the eyes of a man blinde from his birth as we all are And why doth our good Saviour so pressingly stirre and invite us to the knowledge of our selves It is but one step to the reason Knowledge puffeth up saith S. 1 Cor. 8. 1. Paul All knowledge puffeth us up and swelleth us with pride but the knowledge of our selves When we spread our feathers of pride and ostentation if we but glaunce upon the knowledge of our selves our plumes fall and we begin to be humble Meditation 2. MAn considered in his body is a refined peece of dirt A strong one no. For make his image of stone or wood or almost of any vile thing and it will bee more strong more durable then he I will set aside holy Scripture and prove my selfe to have beene made of earth beyond all contradiction Every corruptible thing and I may go to a dead mans grave and finde that I am a corruptible thing when it naturally perisheth turneth into that of which it was made I perishing after a naturall manner turne into earth the conclusion will follow I cannot hold it therfore I was made of earth If I consider man in his birth and life it is the great blessing of God to his great praise be it spoken that he is not ante damnatus quam natus condemn'd before he is borne He is borne with the great paine of his poore mother that beares him and he cannot bee made more naked more poore then he was when he was borne If a man should looke upon him here and know nothing hee would little thinke that the little thing could ever be the wilde Author of so many foule stirres and tumults in the world A child being born is cast out a poore naked thing Plin. in prooem ad l. 7. natali die as Plinie sayes on his birth-day Hee makes his birth-day a day of mourning Procellas mundi quas ingeditur saith Saint Cyprian statim suo ploratu gemitu rudis anima testatur The new-borne S. Cypr. de patientia childe presently gives testimony to the storms of this world by his teares The Emperours children of Constantinople though borne in a chamber called the Purple because on every side adorned with purple through received from the mother so quickly into purple that they seemed to be born in little robes of purple and therefore stiled Porphyrozenites to hide the nakednesse and take away the scandall of nature yet notwithstanding all this shuffling and ruffling of purple they came into the world as other children all naked and with little teares in their eyes to shew they were then upon travelling from their maker Man that is borne of a woman saith Job is of few dayes and full of trouble Every man was borne of a woman but Adam and it was not Gods highest will that he should have been either of few dayes or full of trouble It is a great while before we can goe before we can speake before we can make it plaine that we differ in the maine point from beasts and are reasonable creatures before wee know any thing And then endeavouring to know we learn evill easily good with great paine And in our first lesson which the world giveth us we learne to sinne What is that to breake the Divine Law and forefeit our soules to eternall damnation And yet as it is in Job Man drinketh iniquity like water the

reason why they danced to a golden Calfe in the Wildernesse was because they had formerly seene the like sport and practise in Egypt when they were busie as it is recorded of them in raising an Egyptian Pyramis Yet God did often draw here a line and there a figure of this great mystery in the old Testament that it might not seeme to be new doctrine when it should afterwards be delivered with the sound of a Trumpet in the new Testament And questionlesse we shall know in Heaven and behold in every degree and latitude of the beatificall vision many great secrets and priviledged mysteries though not in so high a kinde which God is not pleased ever to reveale out of himself to the world in consideration of humane weaknesse and distraction This thrice high mystery of the blessed Trinity is onely fit nourishment for an understanding thrice purified thrice enlightned that is by the light of Nature the light of the Law and the light of the Gospel And onely we by the onely helpe of Grace can throughly digest it It is our Faith onely which can say with a good courage to these humane sciences that vaunt so much of their clearenesse as the Spouse in the Canticles to the daughters of Jerusalem I am blacke but 1. Cant. 5. comely O yee daughters of Jerusalem I am blacke seeme blacke I le tell you why because the most noble part of my Verities stand over humane capacity the distance in part causing the errour And likewise they seeme not faire not because they are foule but because they are vail'd and discover not their choyce beauty to the dull uncapable and weake eye of reason Yet I am beautifull because the ground of my beaty is good and can never decay and because I and my beauty stand upon a firme Basis and fixe upon the sound and solid verity or veracity of God who can neither deceive others in respect of his infinite truth nor be deceived in himselfe in regard of the infinite light of his understanding from whom I descend by Revelation The Kings daughter is all glorious within Ps 45. 13. sayes the Kingly Prophet She is but glorious within and yet shee is all gloririous And the glory of the Kings daughter of Faith is from within from the Truth of God upon which it secretly anchors Let Moses speake And the Lord Exod. 13. 21. went before them before the children of Israel in their journey towards Canaan by day in a pillar of a cloud to lead them the way and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light Some fit this Text to the comforts and crosses of this life God appearing a cloud in our earthly comforts and light in our crosses and in both a pillar And some to Faith For God was both blacke and comely as our Faith by which we are led towards Canaan is both darke and cleere We may best learne of our Masters and teach our Schollers with Aquinas that whereas there are two chiefe faculties of the Soule the Understanding and Will and with the Understanding we know with the Will we love it is a greater height of perfection to know the things which are under us then to love them but for the things which are above us it is more perfect satisfaction to love them then to know and understand them CHAP. X. BUt here we must encounter a difficulty It is the quaint observation of Saint Bernard that Caine was Fideicida antequam S. Bernar. Serm. 24. in Cant. Fratricida that he killed Faith before hee murthered his Brother As likewise the great Doctor of our Westerne Church Saint Austin saith of Judas that hee first betraied Faith and then his Master For an evill Faith is commonly the lewd and common mother of evill workes And alasse Caine had many children like him in this foule act of killing Faith For till God was pleased after the death of his Sonne to spread himselfe with an equall streame upon Jew and Gentile we read but of one people and some odde persons in the number of whom were holy Job and his friends that were his Why now was not God all things to all men The answer is not farre off He was and gave meate to every sicke and diseased person agreeable with the qualities and disposition of his stomacke supposing his disease I will make it as cleere as the light Saint John speaking of Christ the true light saith That was the true light which enlightneth every man Io. 1. 9. that commeth into the world Every man not every man that is enlightned but every man that commeth into the world Before the comming of Christ God enlightned the Gentiles by many fit helps and competent directions As the three Kings and people of the East by the doctrine and Prophesies of some beleeving Gentiles The Egyptians by an old Record shewing that when a Virgin should bring forth a childe their Idols should fall before him like Dagon before the Arke of God in memory of which they set up in one of their great Temples a faire Image of a Virgin with a childe in her armes The people of Alexandria in Egypt by the Hieroglyphicke of a Crosse mentioned by Ruffinus the interpretation of which Ruffin Eccles Hist l. 2. c. 29. was vita ventura life to come with a Propheticall sequell annexed to the interpretation that their emblems and obscurities sh●●ld continue till by the Crosse life should come to the world The great and learned Travellers into Egypt by certaine holy markes of life and doctrine left there as it were imprinted by the Jewes And the whole world by Jewes dispersed here there which gathered many to God and to Jerusalem And there were dwelling saith Saint Luke at Jerusalem Jewes devout Act. 2. 5. men out of every Nation under Heaven As likewise now a great Schoole of holy Fathers teacheth they are all scattered and dispersed that they may daily shew to Infidels the old Prophesies and predictions of what wee preach And also the whole world by the Sibyls who dwelling in Caves under ground were thought to bee filled with a Spirit rising like a dampe from the fruitfull entrals of the earth but were indeed inspired from Heaven and filled like Conduit-pipes with sweete water of which themselves did not partake as not understanding the drift of their owne words And againe all the world by the books of Plató and other divine Philosophers by the strange agreement of the seventy Elders in the interpretation of the old Testament called into Egypt by one of the Ptolomies and by the cleare and clearely Propheticall writings of the Jewish Rabbines For whatsoever is well said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. Just Apolog 1. saith Saint Justin belongeth to Christ and to us Christians The holy Ghost being the holy cause of all caused truth And certainely their eyes used to darknesse would hardly beare more then the small glimmerings of light And