Commentary on the Epistles and Revelation of John

Ambition.

P Leasure, profit, preferment (called here the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life) are the worldlings Trinity, to the which he performeth inward and outward worship. According to the three things which the woman by false suggestion saw in the tree for meat, for the eyes, and for prudence. And according to our Savior's three-fold temptation, Mat. 4. the last whereof by the vain pomp and glory of the world, he could least of all endure, and therefore bids the Tempter Avaunt. Our Apostle, ver. 13. of this Chapter tells us, That a man may be very mortified, even a Father, and yet very subject to dote on the world: which may be fitly likened to the serpent Seytnle, whereof it is reported, that when she cannot overtake the flying passengers, she doth with her beautiful colors so astonish and amaze them, that they have no power to pass away till she have stung them. Balaam could not but go after the wages of wickedness, the preferment that was proffered him. Nay Barue (a far better man) is seeking great things for himself, Hezekiah showing his treasury, Jonas over-tender of his reputation, Nicodemus for the same cause, coming haltingly to Christ, as a night-bird; and the Apostles strangely transported with an idle conceit of an earthly Kingdom, wherein they dreamed there should be (as once in David's and Solomon's days) a distribution of honors and officers. Hence so many frivolous and fruitless questions and requests: as that of the mother of Zebedees children, put on by her ambitious sons, who were ashamed to make the motion. Yea many times most unseasonably and unsavourily, when Christ had been fore-warning them of his ignominious death, and fore arming them against the scandal of the cross, they fell into those absurd disputes, who should be the greatest amongst them, and have the highest place of preferment, as Mar. 9 31, 32, 33, 34. And whereas our Savior dissuaded them this folly, and set a child in the midst of them to learn them lower thoughts, S. John soon sated with such sad discourse, interrupts his master: and laying hold on something he had said, v. 37. tells a story of another business, v. 38. Yea, so soured were they and swoln with this Pharisaical haven, that they were at it again the third time, Luk. 22.24. And that, 1. After that our Savior had fore-told them that his death should fall out within three days. 2. When they had newly received the Lord's-Supper, that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as a Father calls it. 3. After that Christ had washed their feet to teach them a lesson of humility and heavenly mindedness. So ambitious are the best by nature, so licorice after earthly honors.

[Reas.] And that because they are so near us, and so natural to us, they dazzle our weak eyes: and, as a sawcer held close to the eyes causeth that we cannot see a mountain that is before: so these poor things over-prized, makes us sand-blind, and such as cannot see far off, those crowns, scepters, kingdoms, glories, beauties, braveries above, that should draw up our affections. Mother earth (since we lost para life) gets our hearts. Cardinal Burhon will not lose his part in Paris, for his part in Paradise. Cardinal Wolsey tode thorough London with twenty great mules for his sumpter-horses; caused his Cardinals hat (when it was first sent him) to be set upon a Cup-board at Westminster, and tapers round about it: so that the greatest Duke in the land must make courtesy thereunto, and to his empty seat, he being away. He had as much yearly revenue as all the Bishops and Deans of this Kingdom put together had. And for his household attendance, he had one Earl, nine Barons, a great sort of Knights and Esquires, and of others of inferior rank, four hundred at least. Well therefore might Bayfield the Martyr conclude of him, My Lord Cardinal is no good man; for Christ never taught him to follow riches and promotions, to wear shoes of silver and gilt, set with pearls and precious stones: Nor Christ had never two crosses of silver, two axes, nor pillars of silver and gilt, &c. Erasmus tells of a Preacher at Rome, that delivered himself thus before the Pope and his Cardinals, Matto san Peirro, san Paulo mat: that is, S. Peter was a fool, S. Paul also a fool. And being convented for this Dectrine, he thus explained himself, Either they were fools that lived so poorly, or you (their successors) are too blame, that live so pompously. Others make mention of a certain painter, who being blamed by a Cardinal for colouring the visages of Peter and Poul too red, tartly replied, That he painted them so, as blushing at the ambition of their successors. it is thought of Cardinal Pool, that toward his later end, a little before his coming from Rome to England, he began somewhat to savor the doctrine of Luther, and was no less suspected at Rome, and therefore put by the Popedom. Not withstanding the pomp and glory of the world afterward carried him a way to play the Papist, as it did Demas: of whom there are that write, that after he forsook S. Paul, he became a Priest in an Idol-Temple. The Author to the Hebrews reckons and ranks the tempting and alluring promises of preferment among the bloody deeds of the Heathen persecutors, They were sawn asunder, they were tempted, Heb. 11.37. but no way prevailed against: As neither was that heroical Luther. Vergerius treating with him from the Pope, put him in mind of Aeneas Sylvius, who following his own opinions with much slavery and labor, could get no further preferment then to be Canon of Trent; But being changed to the better, became Bishop, Cardinal, and sinally Pope Pius the second. He called to his memory Bessarion of Nice, who of a poor Caloier of Trapezond became a great renowned Cardinal, and wanted not much of being Pope. This had been semewhat to a man, Cui embitionis salsugo bibnlam animam possederet. But this Crmisix of mortification cried cut with S. Paul, I am crucified to the world, and the world to me, Contemptus est a me Romarus & favor & furor, I care neither for the fawns nor frowns of Rome. Of the same mould and metal was D. I atsour, Martyr, whom to reduce, they premised him not only his parden, but great promotion, and a Bishopric: Sed surdo fabulam; they could not persuade him, for he looked for a better resurrection. So did William Hunter, another zeal us Martyr, with whom, after his condemnation, Bishop Bonner persuaded, saying: If thou wilt recant, I will make thee a free-man in the City, and give thee 40 ^lb in good money to set up thine occupation withal; or I will make thee steward of mine house, and set thee in office, &c. But a good heart will rather lie in the dust then rise by wickedness: and sooner part with all, then with the peace of a good conscience. Thus Hooper desired rather to be discharged of his Bishopric then yield to certain Ceremonies: Latimer at the coming in of the six Articles in King henry the 8. time resigned up his office, and remained a great space unbishopped. Hermannus Archbishop of Colen reformed his Church from certain Papistical superstitions, using therein the aid and advice of Martin Bucer. Wherefore he was deposed by the Emperor, which he patiently suffered. Bishop Ridley, when Q Mary was proclaimed, speedily repairing to Fremingham to salute her, had such cold welcome there, that being despoiled of all his dignities he was sent back on a same halting horse to the Tower. But God no doubt recompensed these men's losses as that King of Poland did his noble servant Zelislaus: having lost his hand in his wars, he sent him a golden hand for it. Valentinian tribune to Julian the Apostate, was by him discarded and banished for striking a Sextan, who had sprinkled him with Heathenish holy-water, as he went before the Emperor into a certain I doltemple. But within less then two years after, Valentinian was called home and created Emperor. And that I may use the words of Orosius, He that for Christ's names sake had lost a Tribuneship, within a while after succeeded his persecutor in the Empire itself. Christ is a liberal paimaster: and all his retributions are more then bountiful.

The Pope his pretended Vicar is not so. He promiseth our English sugitives indeed, as large as the devil did, All these things will I give thee, &c. But when that all comes to all, Sanders is starved; Stapleton made Professor of a petty University, scarce so good as one of our free-schools: William Reynolds is nominated to a small Vicarage under value. On Harding his Holiness bestowed a Prebend of Gaunt, or to speak more properly, a Gaunt Prebend: Roffensis had a Cardinals hat sent him, but his head was cut off before it came. Allin had a Cardinals hat, but with so thin lining (means to support his state) that he was commonly called, The starveling Cardinal. When he createth Cardinals, his words are, Be ye brethren to us, and Princes of the world. And indeed some of them have Princes revenues, as the Cardinal of Toledo, Ments, Collen, &c. and Princes spirits, as Cardinal Columnus, who when the Pope threatened to take away his Cardinals hat, He presently replied, That then he would put on an helmet to pull him out of his throne. Erasmus writes, that he knew some, who when they were like to die would give great sums of money for a Cardinals hat, that they might be so styled upon their tombs and monuments. and so ambitious were the Romans of the Consulship, that when Maximus died in the last day of his office, Caninius petitioned Caesar for that part of the day that remained: whence that so memorated jest of Tully, O vigilant Consul, who never saw sleep all the time of his office! Pitty it were but that these men should have had what they so greatly desired, so dearly purchased, They have their reward, saith our Savior, of such. A poor reward, a little breath of popular applause, such as is not able to blow one cold blast upon ungodly great ones, then when they shall be hurried from their stately Palaces, and hurled into the burning lake: there to cry, Nos insensati, We fools, should have been as ambitious of heavens honors with Moses, Heb 11. of getting an office in God's house with David, of keeping a good conscience with Paul, of being quiet, and meddling with our business, as he wills his Thessalonians. This if joannes Funccius the Chronologer, and Justus Jonas the Lawyer (two learned Dutch-men) had done, they had never died (as they did) by the hands of the hang-man. But this is often seen to be the end of the ambitious, as of Absalom, Haman, Pharaoh Ophra (Jer. 44.30) whom Herodotus calleth Apryes, and telleth us, that he usually boasted that he cared not for any either God or man that should seek to take away his Kingdom. But at length he was taken in battle by Amasis one of his own officers, and strangled by the Aeyptians, his own people. Hamio was hanged at Carthage for his ambition. Roger Mortimer here at Tiburn in Edward the seconds time, and a hundred more, whom I might easily mention. What got most of the Caesar's by their over-hasty preferment, Nisi ut citiùs interficerentur, a one saith, but to be slain the sooner, Caesar Borgia Duke of Valence, emulating Julius Caesar, used this saying of his, Aut Caesar, aut nullus. Not long after, he was slain in the Kingdom of Navarre. Jehoahaz son of josiah (Jeremiah seems to call him Shallum ) though younger then his brother Jehoiakim, ambitioufly steps into the throne after his fathers death: And before he was well warm in it, he had great thoughts, and would not take it as his father did. He would build a stately Palace, much enlarge himself, and (as it seemeth by one affix in the Text, Jer. 22.24. saith a learned Divine) he would take in a piece of God's house too. But within a while after he was carried captive to Egypt for his a ambition, and died there ingloriously. So did Alexander the great in the midst of his victories. He required of the Jews that their dates should be taken from his reign, and all the Priests sons born that year should be called Alexanders. Into Grecia he sent to be holden a god by them. Apelles pictured him with a thunderbolt. Lysippus with this posy, Jupiter, asserui terram mihi, tu assere coelum; O Jupiter take thou heaven: for the earth I challenge to myself. With which pictures Alexander was so delighted, that he proelaimed none should take his picture, but Lysippus and Apelles. As for Calisthenes the Philosopher that dissuaded him from these vanities, he was carried about in a cage, in a most approbrious manner. That made him to be cut off quickly, and his family to be rooted out, as the Angel fore-telleth, Dan. 11.4 And as he might have been fore-warned by the example of Ahasuerus, that is, Xerxes, the son of a former Darius (not the same, that he over-threw) who though he were the King of 127 Provinces ( Esth. 1.2.) yet was ready to fight for more. He had newly subdued Egypt, and soon after was addressing himself for the conquest of Greece: But failed of his design, and was glad to escape for his life in a small boat, being shortly after slain in his palace by Artabanus one of his own officers. Then he, that could not hope ever to see all the land that he possessed, and yet could not be quiet whilst he heard of more, was forced to take up with his length in a place of burial. Great Pompey had not so much, and William the Conquerors corps lay unburied three days: his interment being hindered by one that claimed the ground to be his.

O therefore that our aspiring Ambitionists would but measure themselves by their own moddle, take the length of their own bodies, as he did once in the dust where he lay last: consider what poor things they are, as they proceed from the slime of their parents: How helpless in their birth, how uncertain of their life, how little a thing will clothe them and feed them, how little a thing will make an end of them. A little viper, a little spider, a little needle at their hearts will kill them: then, a little sheet will wind them, a little grave hold them, a little worm eat out their hearts. And should such think great things of themselves, or seek great things for themselves? And yet every mothers child of us are too much the true sons of our great grand-mother Eve, and would be more then we are. This Nation (saith one concerning the wild Irish) as also all other barbarous Nations, though they know not what honor is, yet they affect above measure to be honored. Three of their Kings being derided for their rude habits and fashions rebelled in Henry the seconds days. Man bears nothing so impatiently as contempt, desires nothing so much as respect with others. I have sinned (said Saul) yet honor me be fore the people. Jehu must be seen, or all's lost. I fear lest the fugitives will mock me, said Zedekiah. This day you shall see me return from Court either high-Priest or an exile, said Caesar to his mother. Let him kill me, so he may be Emperor, said she of her son Nero. Ambition rides without reins, as Tullia did over the dead body of her father, to be made a Queen: And where it hath possessed itself thoroughly of the soul, it turns the heart into steel, and makes it uncapable of a conscience, as we see in Abimelech, Haman, Athaliah, &c. All sins will easily down with the man that is resolved to rise. In the year of Christ 467. Timothy Herulus, when he could not other wise get a Bishopric, went, by night, all about the Monks cels in Alexandria, and, calling them each by his name, told them, that he was an Angel sent from God to require them to cast out Proterius their Bishop, and to choose in his place Timothy Herulus. And having hereby gained them to his side, and gotten a great sort of the rude rabble by gifts and fair promises to adhere to him, he invaded the Bishopric of Alexandria by force, slew the good Bishop, and six others with him on an Easter -day, at the foot of the font, whither he had fled for shelter, cast out his dead body, drew it all about, and afterwards burnt it. So powerfully did the mystery of iniquity work even in those better times. Zene the Emperor laid a paper on the altar, that God might write therein the name of him who should be Bishop of Constantinople. But Flavitias, corrupting the Sextan of the Church, caused him to write in his name, and so was made Bishop. When none other would lift. Hildebrand up into Peters Chair, he gat up himself: for who could better judge of him then himself? Harden thy fore-head (saith Calvus to Vatinius) and say boldly, that thou deservest the Praetorship better then Cato. ambition, I confess, is not ordinarily so broad spoken, but goes difguised, under a veil of modesty; necessity, religion, &c. as in those that disparage themselves, that they may draw in others to commend them: as in Richard the third, who pleaded the necessiry of the State for his abhorred usurpation: And as to S lym • the Turk, and Hismael the Persian, who did, under the color and zeal of their religion, both pretend just causes of war; although their evil dissembled ambitions desires plainly declared unto the world, that they both shot at one and the same mark, the extending the bounds of their great Empires. There were many pretences given out for the civil war betwixt Pompey and Caesar (saith the Historian) but if you will have the truth of it, the very cause was the desire of preeminence and fole-government. The one could not bear a superior, nor the other an equal, The same was the ground of all the quarrel of old, between the Bishops of Const intinople and Rome: as, of later time, between Francis King of France, and Charles the fist Emperor of Germany. And is still between the Kings of Spain, and other Monarchs of Christendom, whilst they labor so earnestly the setting up of their Catholic Monarchy. When Captain Drake took S ^t Domingo in America, 1585. in the Town-hall were be seen the King of Spain's arms; and under them a globe of the world, out of which arose a horse with his fore-feet cast forth with this inscription, NON SVFFICIT ORBIS, The world is not enough for me to conquer. This was laughed at, as an argument of the Spaniards avarice and ambition, which indeed is unsatisfiable. One womb could hold Romulus and Remus, not one Kingdom. Athens could not contain two Alcibiades, nor Sparta two Lysandens. Alexander would not divide the Persian Empire with Darius. Our Henry the second crowned his eldest son Henry, whiles he was yet alive, and that set him a seeking his fathers death. He also had made his second son John, Harl of Cornwall, Dorset, Sommerset. Nottingham, Darby and Lancaster. Which mighty estate was not a means to satisfy but increase his desires, and make him more dangerous at home. Ambition like the Crocodile, groweth while it liveth: or like the Ivy which rising at the foot, will over-peer the highest wall. Base it is and slavish; it will fall down to rise, crouch and creep to mount. Sixtus Quintus, saith one, was the most crouching humble Cardinal that ever was lodged in an oven, and the most proud, ambitious Pope that ever ware crown, And Paul the third (saith Thuanus ) covered his deep ambition for a long time with as deep dissimulation of sobriety, gravity, sanctimony and bodily infirmity, whereof when he had once got that dignity, he made a full discovery. Bishop Bonner at first seemed to be a good man, a favourer of Luther's doctrines, and advanced he was only by the Lord Cromwell, for whom nevertheless (after his execution) Bonner had not a good word, but the lewdest, vilest, and bitterest he could speak; calling him the rankest heretic that ever lived, and that it had been good he had been dispatched long ago. Aeneas Sylvius defended this truth, That the Council was above the Pope, and commended the Germans for opposing the Pope. But when he saw that this was not the way to preferment, he turned tippet, taught the contrary Doctrine, and became Pope. In the inthronization of the Pope; before he is set in his Chair, and puts on his Triple crown, a piece of tow or wad of straw is set on fire before him, and one appointed to say, Sic transit gloria mundi, The glory of this world is but a blaze. This, if it were well considered by those ambitious Bishops, they would not buy repentance at so dear a rate. S. Luke calls all Agrippa's pomp a phantafie: S. Matthew all the worlds glory an opinion: S. Paul a mathematical figure, that is something in the mind, nothing out of it. surely in a vain show walketh every man, saith David, surely he disquiets himself in vain, heaping up riches, and by riches honors, according to that of Laban's sons, murmuring against Jacob, Gen. 31.1, Of that which was our fathers hath he made all this glory, that is, all this wealth, as the Chaldee expoundeth it: for riches make glory, get respect, Thus shall ye say to him that liveth, saith David of rich Nabal: for poor men are looked upon as dead men out of mind. Hence Tully judgeth the Jews religion to be naught, because they were so oft overcome and impoverished: but the religion of Rome to be right, because the Romans prospered and became Lord's of the world. Hence Aigoland King of Aragon, coming to the Court of Charles the great, and promising to be baptized, when he saw many poor people expecting alms from the Emperors table, and asking what they were? was answered, That they were the servants of God, he speedily returned and desperately protested, That he would not serve that God, which could no better prefer and provide for his servants. But Christ's Kingdom is not of this world, I know thy poverty, saith he to one of those seven Churches, but thou art rich, rich in faith, in good works, &c. And thou art honorable, For since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved thee. Virtue is a thousand Escucheons. And nothing so ennobles as grace, and being within the Covenant, I have blessed Ishmael: twelve Princes shall he beget: but my Covenant will I establish with Isaac. The Nobles of Isael made their staves (the ensigns haply of their honor) instruments of the common good, Numb. 21.18 And, Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your servant, Mat. 20.26. Those Nobles of Tekoah are much blamed and blemished. for that they put not their necks to the Lord's yoke, Nehem. 3.1. But Theodosius shall ever be renowned, That held it a greater honor to be a member of the Church, then Head of the Empire. The righteous shall be bad in everlasting remembrance, but the name of the wicked shall rot; as Beckets now doth, who was so solemnly Sainted by the Pope. And yet 48. years after, saith the French History, it was disputed among the Doctors of Paris, whether he were damned or saved? And one Roger a Norman maintained, That this Saint had justly deserved death, and suffered not as a Martyr but malefactor. This was to call a spade a spade: according to that of the Prophet, fore-telling that in the kingdom of Christ, The vile person should no more be called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful. Honor est in honorante. Now in a godly man's eyes a vile person (though never so great) is contemned, but he honoreth them that fear the Lord, Psal. 15.4. And I had much rather (saith a worthy Divine) Have the just commendation of one godly wise man, then the foolish admiration of a whole multitude. To be praised of a praiselesse person is no praise: therefore the Lord Christ suffered not the devil to confess him, or tell who he was. But happy is he, that in all things serving Christ, is acceptable to God, and approved of men, Rom. 14.18, This is a Jew inwardly, his praise is not of men, but of God, who bath promised to honor them that honor him; and taketh order that they that do worthily in Ephratu, shall be famous in Bethlehem. Honor is often promised as a reward of religion; and was so performed to David, when whatsoever he did, pleased the people: To Solomon; for besides wealth and wisdom, God gave him honor. It is God that fashioneth men's opinions: therefore Paul prays that his service might be accepted of the Saints; yet was it the bringing of alms, and such usually are welcome. It is God also that gives preferment. Promotion comes neither from East nor West, no nor yet from the South (where the warm Sun-shine is) but from the Lord. And 75.6. yet how many go daily from his blessing into the warm Sun (as we say) nay fetch an errand to hell, as some of the Popes did, for honors and high places. No sooner can they hear flattering promises of preferment, as it were the melody of Nebuchadnezzar's instruments, but they presently fall down and worship the Babylonish idol. How much better those three children? And before them, Joseph, who would not yield to his wanton mistress, though he might have been preferred for it? Moses who refused to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter, and heir of two Kingdoms (as some say) Origen who was content rather to continue a poor Catechist at Alexandria in daily fear of death, then to be ruffling at Court with Plotinus his fellow-pupil, who refused to be a Christian? Some Heathens have rejected honors that have been offered them, for the very cumber and danger that attend them. High seats are never but uneasy, and crowns themselves oft stuffed with thorns. Therefore Frederike sir-named the Wise, Electour of Saxony, when the Empire of Germany was offered unto him, scriously refused it. Scriously, I say, and not for fashion only, as the Canonists command Bishops to do, when the question is asked, Visne episcopare? Whereunto the Bishop of Meltins craftily answered, Nolens volo, & volens nolo: But did men know the weight of that charge ( Onus ipsis etiam angelis tremendum, saith Chrysostom ) they would neither be so hasty to get it, nor so loath to forgo it. Father Latimer being to resign up his Bishopric, when he first put oft his rochet in his chamber among his friends, suddenly gave a skip in the floor for joy, feeling his shoulders so light, and being discharged, as he said, of such an heavy burden. Fructus honos oneris, fructus honoris, onus. The Hebrew word for Honor signifieth weight or pressure. In allusion whereunto S. Paul calls the glory of heaven, a weight of glory. But from aspiring to that heavenly glory, earthly greatness is oft times no small impediment. The Bustard or Ostrich can hardly get upon his wings, whereas the Lark mounts with ease. Nay, as those that walk on the top of pinnacles are in danger of a precipice, so are great men of greatest ruin. Even height itself makes men's brains to swim: and he pourtia ed the ambitious man rightly, that pictured him snatching at a Crown, and falling with this Motto, Sic mea fata sequor. The poisonful Aconite, so much desired of the Panther, is purposely hung up by the hunters in vessels above their reach: whereof they are so greedy, that they never leave leaping and straining thereat, till they burst and kill themselves, and so are taken: So do men that aim at honor too high for their reach, and too great for their merit: their heads are lifted up, but it is as Pharaohs Bakers was: And it befalls unto them, as to that Duke of Moscoviah, whom when the Tartarian had taken in battle, he made a cup of his skull with this inscription, All covet all lose. Let not therefore the bramble be King: let not earthly things bear rule in thine affections. Fire will rise out of them that will consume the Cedars. Exorientur sedexurentur, as Jobs flower, Jonas gourd, David's bay-tree, or Xerxes his Steersman, whom he crowned in the morning, and beheaded in the evening of the same day. The like befell Haman, Sejanus, and many others. Severus the Emperor finding the emptiness and insufficiency of honors and earthly happiness (sweeter far in the ambition then fruition) cries out at last, Omnia fui, & nihil expedit, I have tried all things, and find no solid content in anything. That was Solomon's verdict of them long before: And those in the Parable, Mat. 20.13. when the end of the day came, when they were to go into another world, they saw that which before they would not believe, that preferment, riches, credit, were but a penny, were but empty things, such as wherewith they were in no wise content. In the very pursuit of them is much anguish, many grievances, fears, jealousies, disgraces, interruptions, &c. Say a man obtain them, they neither make him better in prosperity, but the worse (as Caligula, then whom there never was a better servant, nor a worse Lord. Vespasian is said to be the only man that ever became better by being made Emperor. Pius Quintus acknowledged that he was far the worse man after he came to be Pope) Nor can they bear up the heart in the day of adversity. How crest-fallen was the King of Sodom when overcome by the four Kings? How basely behaves he himself before Abraham a stranger, an exile that was before so haughty and refractory! So Manasseh, that faced the heavens in his prosperity, in trouble basely hides his head among the bushes, and is therehence drawn, bound and carried captive, 2 Cbron. 33.12. But after the unsanctified enjoyment of them follows the sting of conscience, that will inexpressibly vex and torment the soul throughout all eternity. For if one drop of an evil, unquiet conscience, will extremely dissweeten a full cup of outward comforts in this life present, as it will, and make a man weary of the world, as Abitophel, Judas, &c. What shall we think of hell, where the worm bred in the froth of these worldly lusts dies not, where the fire of God's wrath goes not out? If the wrath of a King be as the roaring of a Lion, and if honors darlings cannot bear their Princes frowns, but die by them, as it befell Cornelius Gallus under Augustus, and S ^t Christopher Hatton, Lord Chancellor under Queen Elizabeth (The Queen having once cast him down with a word, could not raise him up again, though she visited and comforted him, but that he died of a slux of his urine, and grief of mind.) How will they bear the wrath of God, when David (with whom God was, but in jest, as it were) though mounted on his mountain could not bear his discountenance, Thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled?

Angels.

C Hrist, the Angel of the Covenant is here preferred before all created Angels, and worthily, as Lord and heir of all: Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God: Angels and Authorities, and Powers being made subject unto him, saith saith S. Peter. The Papists (not out of Peter, but out of one Dionysius ) discourse largely of the heavenly Hierarchy, and tell us of nine ranks and subordinations of Angels. But the author is suspected, and the Scripture herein is silent. Now where the Scripture hath no tongue, we need not have ears, but must content ourselves with a learned ignorance, lest we fall into the sin of those Angel-worshippers, Col. 2.18. intruding into those those things which they had not seen, vainly puffed up by their fleshly minds. The Friars so puffed up have names given them by their Governors each according to his merits: and as they increase in their pretended holiness, so they proceed in their aery titles, from Padre benedicto to Padre Angelo, then Archangelo, Cherubino, and lastly, Cerephino, which is the top of perfection. The Seraphims (those flames of fire) whom the Papists place in the highest order, as nearest to God, and set them as rulers over the inferior Angels, they also are called here God's Ministers, yea they are his messengers too (whatever the Papists say to the contrary) Isa. 6.6. sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation, Heb. 1.14. And were not therefore created (as some have affirmed) many ages before his visible world: for then there had been a beginning before that In the beginning, Gen. 1.1. Besides, if the Angels be messengers and ministering spirits, what use was there of them, before there were some to whom they might be sent, and for whom they should minister? But, say they, If Angels were not created til the world was, why doth not Moses mention their creation?

Some answer thus: lest, if mention should have been made of Angels in the beginning, God might have been thought to have used their help in the Creation. Others say, Lest the Jews, so addicted to Idolatry, should (as some did) fall into the sin of Angel-worship. Chrysostom's reason is not to be rejected, That Moses his purpose was only to set forth a description of the sensible and visible works of God, applying himself to the rudeness of that people: and therefore omitting the doctrine of heavenly spirits, as far above their understanding, and less belonging to them, or us. For if the Theology for Angels were written, we should need another Bible: the creation and government of Angels containing as great variety of matter, as doth the religion of mankind. Howbeit it is probable they were created the first day, Gen. 2.1. with, and in the highest heavens (as Christ's soul was created with, and in his body in the Virgins womb, the self-same moment) and are therefore called Angels of heaven. Besides, those morning stars and sons of God are said to sing and shout when God laid and fastened the foundation of the earth, Job 38.4.6, 7. Morning-stars they were all then, and Angels of light, sons also of God, as made in his image, and resembling him as his children, both in their substance, which is incorporeal, and in their excellent properties, which are life and immortality, blessedness and glory.

But now, How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer son of the morning? The devil and his Angels kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, Jude • . For their sin; some say, it was pride in affecting Divinity: Some say it was envy stirred by the decree of exalting man's nature above Angles, in and by Christ: Some say a transgression of some commandments in particular, not expressed, as Adams was. Whether in Paradise or heaven there are that dispute, I have nothing to say; neither yet for the time when they fell; some think it was the second day, because it is not added, That God saw what he had done that day to be good. Sure it is, That his Angels he charged with folly. Neither were they (as the Spaniards say of the Portugals) Pocos y locos few and foolish: for there was a Legion of them in one man, which is six hundred at the least. There are that understand of them those ninety and nine sheep in the Parable, to that one of lost mankind. The Schoolmen would gather out of 2 Kin. 6.16. that as many Angels fell as stood, but the Scripture defineth nothing of that. It is probable that one fell first, and the rest followed after, which are therefore called his Angels, Job. 8 44. evil Angels, such as the Saints shall judge, 1 Cor. 6.3. Reprobate, apostate Angels, in opposition to those holy and elect, Mat. 25.31. 1 Tim. 5.21. who stand and continue holy, not by means of Christ's mediation, but God's eternal election, and his preventing them with actual grace, which made them effect and execute at the first, what ever thing it was wherewith it pleased God to prove their obedience. Christ, I know well, is called the Head of Angels, but this is in another manner of sense then he is head of the Church, which is united and subjected unto him in a more near and communicative way, as his members, without the which he holds not himself complete, Ephes. 1.22, 23. Head of Angels Christ is, first as God; for the giveth them all they have, both essence and continuance. 2. As Mediator, he useth their service for the guarding and gilding of his Church and chosen. Not that Christ needs their assistance, as Princes need the counsel and aid of their subjects, whom therefore they associate. The holy Angels receive more from Christ, then they perform or bring to him. But he maketh use of their service, 1. To seal up his love unto us by employing such noble creatures about us. 2. To make and maintain love between us and Angels, till we come to walk arm in arm with Angels: For, I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by, saith Christ to Jehoshuah the high-Priest; that is, among the Angels: who are elsewhere said to stand always looking on the face of God, to receive commandments, for the accomplishment of all designs for our good. And this they do willingly, speedily, constantly, zealously, reverently, with an awful respect to the divine majesty, before whom they cover both their feet (as conscious of a comparative imperfection) and their faces with their wings, as a man claps his hands on his eyes at some extraordinary resplendent brightness suddenly shining upon him. As with two of their wings they fly, yea weary themselves, as it were, with eager flight to do us any good office, as Gabriel did to the Prophet Daniel, with the message of the Messiah: Theodoret elegantly sets forth their employment about God and his people in two words, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 1 They sing praise to God, Job. 38.7. Isa. 6 3. Heb. 1.6. whom they perfectly know and love, and therefore perfectly adore and honor. 2. I hey minister (whole myriads of them) both to him and us, Dan. 7.10. and do his will for our good, Psal. 103.20. rejoicing more in their names of office then of honor, of employment then preferment, to be called Angels (that is, messengers ) then Principalities, Thrones, Dominations, Ephes. 1.20. Accounting it better prodesse quàm praeesse, to do good, then to be great, to dispense God's benefits to the Saints then to enjoy them themselves. Hence they are with and about the Saints as their companions, guides, protectours, monitours, and rulers of their actions. As they rejoice at their conversion (because the room of the apostate Angels, whereby their society was much maimed, is supplied by the elect) so when they are converted, they bear them in their arms (as the servants of the house delight to do their young master) and are at all times at their right hands (to set forth their dexterity and readiness to help them) in holy duties especially. Satan stood at Iehoshuah's right hand, as he was sacrificing, to resist him, Zech. 3.2. So did Gabriel at Zacharias' right-hand, as he was offering incense, to enform and comfort him, Luk. 1.11. This they do still, though invisibly and infensibly (that God might draw up our hearts heaven ward, and teach us to have our conversation above, though our commoration be here beneath.) Devils are not so ready to tempt and devour us, as the Angels are, to help and deliver us: as evil angels suggest temptations, so do good Angels holy motions. And as our good endeavors are oft hindered by Satan, so are our evil by the Angels: else, were not our protection equal to our danger, and we could neither stand nor rife. The devil moved Balaam to go (God bad him go if he thought good, as Solomon bids the young man, Follow the ways of his own heart) a good Angel resifts him, and speaks in the mouth of his asse to convince him, If an heavenly spirit (saith one) stand in the way of a sorcerers sins, how much more ready are all those spiritual powers to stop the miscarriage of God's dearest children? How oft had we fallen yet more, had not these guardians upheld us, whether by removing occasions, or casting in good instincts? Michael opposed Satan about the body of Moses: so do the Angels still about the bodies and souls of the Saints, while they are alive. As when they are dead, they presently convey their souls into Abraham's bosom thorough the devils territories, and in despite of him, for he is the Prince of the air. And for their bodies, they shall gather them together at the last day from the uttermost part of the earth, to the uttermost part of heaven, Mark 13.27.

Quest. But how shall they know the righteous from the wicked?

Answ. Very easily. For, 1. They have ministered unto them, and been conversant about them. And if a servant know his masters corn from another man's, and the tares from the wheat, why should not the Angels as easily know the Lord's crop?

2. The elect are marked from the rest, Ezek 9. and shall soon be discerned, if by nothing else, yet by the lightsomeness of their looks, and lifting up of their heads, for their redemption draws nigh. Whereas the wicked shall look gastly and rufully, the devil claiming his own, and these men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming upon them, Luk. 21.16. Then shall they be everlastingly shamed, Dan. 12.2. and sentenced, Mat. 25.41. Neither helps it, that they are a multitude: for Christ comes with thousands of his Angels, to do execution, to bundle up the tares, and cast them into the furnace. Now if Ezekiel, Daniel, John, &c. (men that had good causes and consciences) did so tremble before one Angel, coming with good tidings in a lesser manifestation of Christ's glory; what then shall these do, when Christ cometh to judgment, and when he visiteth what will they answer? &c.

Anger.

C Oncessit quod naturae est, negavit quod culpae, saith Ambrose upon these words, and after him Cassiodore. It is not evil (saith one) to marry, but good to be wary: So neither is it a sin to be angry, but hard not to sin, when we are angry. Anger is a tender virtue: and such as by reason of our unskilfulness may be easily corrupted and made dangerous. He that in his anger would not sin, must not be angry at anything, but sin. Our Savior was angry with Peter, and angry with the Pharisees for the hardness of their hearts. Moses was even blown up with holy anger at the people, for the golden Calf: and God's blessing on every good heart, that, in such a case, hath a stomach for God. Meekness, surely, here would be no better then mopishnesse, and not so good as madness, Do not I hate them that hate thee? I hate them with a perfect hatred, saith David, I count them mine enemies. This is the anger of zeal, found in Phineas, Elias, Elisha, our Savior: and should have been found in Adam toward his wife, in Eli toward his sons, in Lot toward his servants, &c. It must have a good rise, and a good-end, saith Bucer: else it becomes a mortal, not a venial sin, as the Papists fonely conclude from Mat. 5.22. Whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause, &c. There is a just cause then of anger: sin, as an offense to God (here Nebuchadnezzar was out, Dan. 3.19.) And there must be a just measure observed, that our anger for sin render us not unfit either to pity the sinner (as our Savior in his anger did the obstinate Pharisees) or to pray for him (as Moses for those idolaters, he was so enraged at, Exod. 32.31, 32.) Anger that is not thus bounded is but a momentary madness, saith the Heathen, it restreth in the bosom of fools, saith Solomon, whether it be Bilis, iracundia, aut infensio (for into those three degrees Damascene distinguisheth it) A • ger, Wrath, and Hatred, The one (saith he) hath beginning and motion, but presently ceaseth: the other taketh deep hold in the memory: the third desisteth not without revenge. Clichtoveus compareth the first to fire in stubble: the second to fire in iron: the third to fire that is hid, and never bewrayeth itself, but with the ruin of the matter wherein it hath caught. Some are sharp, some are bitter, a third kind are implacable, saith Aristotle. The first are the best, that as children are soon angry, and as soon pleased again. Be ye children in malice, 1 Cor. 14.20. Ursinus was of somewhat a hasty nature: So also was Calvin, Ut fit in ejusmodi ingeniis, saith he that writes their lives. For as any man is more industrious and ingenious, so he teacheth more teachily and painfully. Yet had they so learned to moderate their anger, as not to utter a word, in their passion, unbeseeming a Christian. But of Zeza, his Colleagues would often say, That like the Dove he was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , without a gall. And it should seem so by that which he writes of himself in a certain Epistle to M ^r Calvin: The Jesuit (saith he) disputing about the Eucharist, called us, Vulpes & serpentes & simias, foxes, serpents, apes, &c. My answer was this, Nos non magis credere, quàm Transubstantiationem, That we believed all that, as much as we did Transubstantiation. So Giles of Brussels Martyr, when the Friers (sent to reduce him) did any time miscall him, he ever held his peace; insomuch that those blasphemers would say abroad, that he had a dumb devil in him. Cassianus reports, that when a certain Christian was held captive of infidels, tormented with divers pains and ignominious taunts, being demanded by way of scorn and reproach, Tell us what miracle thy Christ hath done? He answered, He hath done what you see, that I am not moved at all the cruelties and contumelies you cast upon me. This was indeed to walk as Christ walked, who did not strive, nor cry, nor did any man hear his voice in the streets, who when he was reviled, reviled not again, when he suffered, he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. So did Moses, when murmured against by Aaron and Miriam. He was meek and complained not: therefore without any delation of his, the Lord struck in for him. The less any man strives for himself, the more is God his Champion. But the wrath of man as it worketh not the righteousness of God, so it prevents his justice: Wherefore be slow to wrath, saith S. James, as God is; not fretfull and froward as the devil is, Anger is a short devil, saith Chrysostom, the fury of the unclean spirit, Qui suis follibus & flatibus intendit, who enflames the heart, sets the tongue on fire from hell, makes it hotter then Nebuchadnezzar's oven, so that he cares not what he speaks, as Jonas; what he does, as Saul: who falling into a rage, the devil possessed him, and kindled such a fire, as could not be quenched, till he fell into the unquenchable lake. So true is that of Eliphaz, Wrath killeth the follish man, delivers him up to the destroier, if it rest in his bosom especially, and lodge a night with him, which is the second degree above mentioned.

Let not therefore the Sun go down upon your wrath: for that is all one as to give place to the devil, who hereby entereth the heart, and takes possession. Many there are that suffer the Sun not only to go down upon their anger, but to run his whole race, yea many races, ere they can be reconciled: whereby their anger becomes inveterate, and turns into malice: for anger and malice differ but in age. Now cursed be this anger for it is fierce, and this wrath for it is cruel, Gen. 49 7. it is the murder of the heart, Mat. 5.21, &c. the fountain of the murder both of the tongue and hand. Hence it is said, He that hateth his brother is a man-slaier. He is so in desire, he would be so indeed, if he durst, Were there a sword in my hand, I would surely slay thee. There is a passion of hatred (saith one) and there is the habit of it. The former is a kind of averseness and rising of the heart against a man, when one sees him, so that he cannot away with him, nor speak to, nor look courteously or peaceably upon him; but ones countenance falls when he sees him, and he even turns away, and, by his good-will, would have nothing to do with him: This is the passion of hatred. The habit of it is, when the heart is so settled in this alienation and estrangement, that it grows to wish and desire, and seek his hurt, yea to rejoice and glory when it can effect it: as Josephs brethren, who sat down to eat and drink, when they had cast him into, the pit: as Lamech, who boasted of his man-hood this way (dog-hood rather, for revenge is no better) as Alexander Phereus, who consecrated the J • velin, wherewith he slew Polyphron.

This is that third and worst sort of anger, which, being smothered, will languish: but let out, will flame into further mischief, as we see in Esau, who vowed his brothers death, and Cain who wrought it. But that I believe and know (said Frier Brusierd in a conference with Bilney) that God and all his Saints will take revengement everlasting on thee, I would surely with these nails of mine be thy death. We read also of a like saying of another Frier Augustine of Antwerp, testified by Erasmus in his Epistles: who openly in the Pulpit at Antwerp, preaching to the people, wished that Luther were there, that he might bite out his throat with his teeth. So doing he would nothing doubt to resort to the altar with the same bloody teeth, and receive the body of Christ. D ^r Story (that bloody persecutor of the Saints in Queen Mary's days) when Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown, could not forbear to curse her daily in his grace at board, and was worthily hanged for his treason, anno 1571. Being herein like the foolish Be, who loseth her life to get revenge. Valerius Maximus could not tell, whether Sylla or his anger were first extinguished. William the Conqueror to be revenged on the King of France (who being young and lusty jeasted at his great belly, whereof he said he lay in at Roven ) entered France in the chiefest time of their fruits, making spoil of all in his way, till he came even to Paris (where the King of France then was) to show him of his up sitting. And from thence he marches to the City of Mants, which he utterly fackt, and in the destruction thereof gat his own by the strain of his horse among the breaches, so ending his wars, and his life together. His successor Edward the first did not so: For going against Bruce King of Scots, he adjured his son and Nobles, that if he died in his journey they should carry his corps with them about Scotland, and not suffer it to be interred, till they had vanquished the usurper, and absolutely subdued the Country. A desire more martial then Christian, showing a mind so bent to the world, that he would not make an end, when he had done with it: and so set upon revenge, that he designs it beyond his life. Sedira mortalium debet esse mortalis, saith Lactantius. Are we mortal, and shall our anger be immortal? the rude rage of the rebels in Kets conspiracy was such, that some, being disabled almost to hold up their we • pons, would strive what they could to strike their enemies. Others being thrust thorough the body with a spear, would run themselves further, to reach those that wounded them deadly. So sweet is revenge to corrupt nature: Tamar will defile herself with incest, to be even with her father in saw Judah: Absalom will run any hazard to have his penny-worths on Amnon: David desperately swore the death of Nabal, and his household by such an hour. To be revenged is more honorable then to be reconciled, saith Aristotle. This is the voice of nature, and thus the spirit that is in us lusteth to envy: but the Scripture giveth more grace, teacheth better things, speaketh to us, as Abigail did to David, when he was marching furiously, Then shall it be no grief unto thee, nor offense of mind to have bridled thy passions, and to have held thy hand from blood. Nay, it shall be a singular comfort to have conquered thy passions ( For the meek shall increase their joy in the Lord ) and a sweet seal of our spiritual sonship, that we are the children of our heavenly Father, yea that we are perfect as he is perfect, and can do that which a natural man cannot, as Saul acknowledgeth. Elisha feasteth his enemies, and is freed of them; the bands of Syria come no more into the bounds of I • ael. Absalom invites Ammon, and Alexander Philotas to a feast, to kill them thereat. But Isaac expostulates the wrong with Abimelech and his company, forgives them, fcasts them, and hath them his friends forever. This was a noble revenge, and fit for Christian imitation. Joshua marcheth all day, and fights all night for the Gibeonites, that had so deceived him. Cranmer's gentleness in pardoning wrongs was such, that it grew to a Proverb, Do my Lord of Canterbury ashrewd turn, and then you shall be sure to have him your friend, whiles he liveth. He never raged so far with any of his household servants, as once to call the meanest of them varlet or kuave in anger, much less to reprove a stranger with any reproachful word. Here was a perfect man, as S. James defines him that can rule his tongue, in his passions especially, which once affote are very violent, and (like heavy bodiesdown steep hills) once in motion move themselves, and know no ground but the bottom.

[ 1] First, Cease therefore from anger, and refrain strife, free not thyself in any wise to do evil, Psal. 37.8. Thou dost evil in fretting, thou shalt do worse in venting, and suffering the fire to break out as David did, Psal. 39. When therefore thou findest thyself incensed and chafing ripe, presently lay a necessity of silence upon thyself, till thou be able to speak quietly and composedly, till the heat be somewhat over: As Ahasuerus walked a while in his garden, ere he would pass sentence upon Haman. Another repeated the Greek Alphabet, ere he would say or do anything in his anger. He doth better that repeateth some grave sentences of Scripture, such as is this, Be angry: but sin not: Be slow to wrath: Avenge not yourselves, but give place to wrath: Submit to God: resist the devil and he will sly from you. This devil of anger, if thus resisted by Scripture, will surely sly, he cannot bide by it, Mat. 4. Especially, if we set ourselves to pray it down, as David did, Ps, 39. When Job brake out and was waspish, Surely, said Eliphaz, thou restrainest prayer, else it would never be thus with thee.

Secondly, Get thy heart purified by faith. For faith makes patience. When the Disciples heard that they must forgive till seventy times seven times in a day, Lord, say they, increase our faith, The wisdom from above is first pure, and then peaceable, Jam. 3. 17. But, from whence are wars and contentions amongst you? (as it is in the next verse) Are they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? These make you unquiet and out of order within: and hence it is that you are so froward and discontented with others. The wicked are as the raging sea, troublesome and tumultuous; the covetous person troubleth his whole house, Nabal was such a son of Belial, so fierce and furious that there was no speaking to him: Yea, David when he had defiled his conscience, and not yet repented of his adultery and murder, how rigid was he, or rather cruel in his handling of the Ammonites, in recking his teen upon them for the misusage of his Ambassadors? He put them under saws and harrows of iron, he made them pass thorough the brick-kilne, &c. The devils are most impure and therefore most malicious: Christ on the other side, most pure, and therefore most gentle. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, saith Isaiah: teaching us, that the more Christ's government increaseth in the soul, the more peace and peaceableness. But perverseness argues a breach in the spirit, Prov. 15.4.

[ 3] Thirdly, Study to be quiet, and do your own business. Meddle not with the strife that belongs not to you, lost you take a dog by the ears, Prov. 26.17. Shun contentious company, Prov. 22.34. for, like mad dogs, they bite and make others as made as themselves. Drink not, game not, lest thou meet with contentions, Prov. 23.29, 30. Listen not to the tale-bearer, for he separates even very friends. Enquire not into other folks faults. Seldom is a patient man inquisitive, or an inquisitive man patient. Solomon would not have one lay his ear as an evesdropper, to every word is spoken, lest he hear his servant cursing him, Eccles. 7.21. and so he should fall to hate him, and vex himself to no purpose. Presume in thy mind, that many things are to be suffered, while we are here: which whoso cannot frame to do, its but time for him to make up his pack, and be gone out of the world; for here's no being for him. Many things also are to be dissembled and winked at, as the lion takes no notice of the barking of curs, as Physicians pass by the petulancies of their patients. Pils must be swallowed down whole, not chewed: so injuries. Thus, by the meekness of wisdom, prevent occasions of anger: it doth require much study to live quietly.

[ 4] Fourthly, Consider, 1. The deformity of anger. 2. The disgrace. And 3. The danger of it. First, What an ugly thing is anger, dispossessing a man of his soul (which is possessed by patience) and dis-figuring his body with fierinesse of the eyes, furiousness of the looks, distortion of the face, inflammation of the nostrils. The Hebrews call anger Aph, because therein the nose riseth, the color changeth, the tongue stammereth, the teeth gnash, the hands clap (as Balak's, Numb. 24.10.) the feet stamp, the pulse beats, the heart pants, the whole man swells like a toad glows like a devil, tormenting himself before his time. Whence many Heathens have advised the angry man to look his face in a glass, and so grow ashamed of his distemper. Next, for the disgrace: The holy Ghost hath stigmatized the angry person for a fool in grain, such an one as exalts folly, sets it up on high to be seen of all, and proclaims himself a Fool; yea the worst of fools; for, Proud, haughty, scorner is his name that dealeth in proud wrath, That's his title. Thus God loads such a man with disgrace. And whereas he thinks by his big looks and high terms to carry it among men (as Lamech did) when he hath gotten revenge especially. The Apostles purposely disgraceth revenge of injury by a word that signifies disgrace, loss of victory, or impotency of mind. And indeed it is unmanlinesse of spirit, and little wit in the head, that causeth a great deal of passion in the heart, as we see in infants and sick people. Thunder, hail, tempest, neither trouble nor hurt celestial bodies: no more doth anger great minds. The tops of some mountains are said to be so high above the middle region of the air, that not so much as the dust upon them is moved out of the place from years end to years end: So is it here. Great spirits, and men of understanding are like the upper region, in a perpetual serenity: or at least, like the highest planets, that of all the rest, are thought to be slowest in course: or like a diamond that is neither bruised nor cut. And lastly, for the danger of anger, it consumes the body, it confounds the soul. Fevers, colicks, palsies, plurisies, apoplexies, inflammations, consumptions are caused by it, whiles it dries up the radical moisture (that balsome of the body) boils the heart into brine, and viper like, makes an end of the owner: who as he lived undesired, so he dies unlamented, as Nerva, Valentinian, and other cholerike Kings and persons of great note, who hereby have wrought their own ruth and ruin. And for the poor soul, it is indisposed, by unadvised anger, for prayer or any other duty to God or man. He is laid open, as an unwalled City, to many sins, mischiefs and miseries ( Jam. 3.16. Prov. 3.32. and 7.13. and 29.22. Psalm 37.8.) temporal, spiritual and eternal, Prov. 17.10. Mat. 5.21. He that lives and dies in this fury, becomes a prey to the furies of hell.

[ 5] Fifthly, Consider wisely of God's providence, presence, patience.

First, That those that wrong us (how malicious or mischievous soever) are the instruments of his good providence, for our greatest good; Why then should we be angry at them? Is not this to be angry at God? Now if he could say, No wise man will be angry with the people of Rome, because of their power, how much greater folly is it to rage at God? If he be angry with us, there is hope of mercy, but if we be angry with him, what help is there, let his Wrath be kindled never so little? This rained in Job from letting sly at the Chaldeans that robbed him, and David at Shimei that reviled him. And had he as well seen God in Nabal, as he did in Shimei, he had never been so outrageous. Reverence therefore God's providence, and be still, Psal. 39.10. None could have power against thee, except it were given them from above, Job. 19.11. Next, Consider God's presence, and be careful. Set God before thy passions, and they will be soon husht; as unruly fellows that are quarrelling, when once an officer comes in amongst them. When thy heart boils with wrath and desire of revenge; say as those Disciples, Luk. 9.54. Wilt thou that we call for fire from heaven? Ask leave of God, ere you dare to do anything that way, and presume not to be thine own carver. We use to say, If the Magistrate be not present, we may offend another to defend ourselves: But if the Magistrate be present, there is no excuse. behold the Judge stands before the door (saith S. James ) grudge not therefore, groan not, grunt not one against another: You cannot show the least token of impatiency, but he is an eye-witness of it; Now will ye not tremble at my presence, saith the Lord? Job, though patient at first, yet when once wet to the skin, falls a roaring and raving, and there was no hoe with him: Till at length God steps forth, as it were from behind the hangings, over-hearing him, and takes him up roundly, Chap. 38.2 Who is this, says he, that talks thus? how now? After which, Job laid his hand upon his mouth, and we hear no more of him. Consider, lastly, God's infinite patience and long-sufferance in bearing men's manners, as he did theirs in the wilderness. How slow is he to anger, and plenteous in mercy! He will not always chide, though always provoked: neither will he keep his anger forever. God judgeth the righteous (but very gently, and in the midst of judgment he remembereth mercy ) God also is angry with the Wicked (or angered by them) every day. But what will he do in his anger? If he turn not, he will whet his sword (before it devours flesh. He first takes hold on judgment, before his judgment takes hold on men:) He hath bent his bow and made it ready, &c. Psal. 7.12.13. We read of God's bow, saith Ambrose, set in the cloud, but nothing of his arrow. The how cannot hurt us, but the bow fore-warns us of the arrow; and the string of the bow is to us-Ward, to show how unwilling God is to punish even the wicked. He must first turn the bow, and then he bends his bow, and then his arrow is unprepared too, verse. 14. So unready and unwilling is he to afflict, to grieve the children of men. He calls it his work, his strange Work; he goes not about it, till there be no remedy, 2 Chron. 36.16. When God came to punish Adam, he came slowly, and in the cool of the day. He ran not upon him, as David did upon Goliath, and cut off his head, but with a softly pace and still voice, and not till the evening. And then convents him, before sentence (which he would not do for the devil) and promiseth him a Savior from the deadly sting of that old serpent. Oh look upon this pattern of patience, as they did once upon the brazen serpent, and it will cure our hearts when stung with impatiency. Adam was the master-piece of God's handy-work, in whom he rested and rejoiced: adorned him with his own image, advanced him to dominion over all other sublunary creatures, honored him with the possession of Paradise, and possibility of heaven, held himself so far honored by him, as that he is not called Lord God, till man was created. But men being in honor, continued not one night (as it is thought) but became like the beasts that perish; nay worse, like the devils, with whom he should have perished, had he not dealt with a sin-pardoning God, none ever like him, Mic. 7.18. He still multiplies pardons, as we multiply provocations, and stretcheth out his hand all the day long to a rebellious people, Isa. 65.2. his grace even kneels to them, beseeching them to be reconciled, and bearing with such abominable practices, in the mean while, as the meekest Moses that ever breathed would never bear with, if in his room, but even for an hour. If we consider especially how infinitely great he is and mighty, armed with power at his will. For the Lord your God is God of God's, and Lord of Lord's, a great God, a mighty and a terrible, Deut. 10. 17. Now the higher any person is, the less patient of wrongs, How rigidly dealt David with the Ammonites, for the abuse done to his Ambassadors? And when the people stoned Adoram, that was over the tribute, Rehoboam gathered all Judah and Benjamin to fight with them. If God should be as short spirited, what would soon become of all? Let a man but put up an injury once or twice from another, and he hath himself highly in admiration, and in his own conceit deserves to be chronicled, nay canonized for a Saint, as our Henry the sixth had like to have been for this very virtue. One of his successors (King Henry the seventh) labored it, saith the Historian, and had obtained to have done it, had not the charges thereof, that so far exceeded mediocrity, caused him to leave it undone. Of this King it is reported, That in both estates he so demeaned himself, that he modestly carried the one, and moderately under-went the other: Passion at no time drowning his judgment, nor will at any time domineering over his reason: yea such was his deportment, that the inconstancy of his estate could not alter the constancy of his mind. He was never heard to swear oath (which David did in his heat, I Sam. 25.22.) his greatest asseveration being for most part, Forsooth, forsooth, or verily, verily. His patience was such, that to one that struck him, when he was taken prisoner, he only said, Forsooth you do Wrong yourself more then me, to strike the Lord's anointed. Another that had drawn blood of him, when he was in prison, he freely pardoned (when restored) saying, Alas poor soul, he struck me more to win favor with others, then of any ill will he bare me. Of that happy memory, that he never forgot anything but injuries. This was a fair president, and hardly matched again in a man of his place, and living in those dark times of gross Popery, For the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty, saith the Psalmist. But what is all this to God's infinite patience in suffering wrong and long too? not from the vessels of wrath only. Rom. 9.22. but his own elect, who should be better, spa • ing them as a man spares his son that serves him, forgiving them seventy times seven times in a day, passing by without grievance, a world of infirmities, yea taking advantage of their backs •• dings to show them the more mercy, as Hos. 2.13. The deep and due consideration of this patience in God, will greatly patient our spirits, and transform us into the same image, as it did that Ethiopian Eunuch, Act. 8.32. and that Earl called Elzearus, of whom it is storied, that being much given to immoderate anger, the means he used to cure this disordered affection, was by studying of Christ, and of his patience. This meditation he never suffered to pass from him, before he found his heart transformed and conformed to the heavenly pattern.

Lastly, If to these means and meditations you add a constant endeavor to become low in your own eyes, keeping the strict watch of the Lord over your heart, taking yourself in the manner, when impatience begins to boil in you: and if you heartily pray down your passions, arraigning and condemning them in God's presence, and desiring him to do execution, you shall soon see that this your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

Apostasy.

I T is well observed concerning those two destructions of the world, that as the first was by water for the heat of their lust, so the second shall be by fire, for the coldness of their love. The deluge of iniquity shall quench the love of many. But he that endureth, &c. It is but a He in the singular number that holds out to the end. The most are of them that draw back to perdition, and not of them that believe to the saving of the soul, Heb. 1.39. The opposition there imports that incredulity is the root of apostasy; that (I mean) whereby a man departs from the living God. It was laid to Luther's charge, that he was an apostate. He confesseth that he was an apostate, but a blessed and holy one: such as had not kept promise with the devil, but fallen off from him, and his Church malignant. The like imputation the Papists laid upon those famous Italian converts, Zanchius, Peter Martyr, Paulus Vergerius the Popes Nuncio, who began to write a book, Adversus Apostatas Germaniae (that was the title) against the Lutheran apostates: but by searching into their tenets, with purpose to confute them, was converted by them, and leaving his Bishopric, and that whole Synagogue of Satan, lived and died a painful and powerful Preacher of God's truth in Germany. Galeacius Caracciolus also, an Italian Marquess, and nephew to Pope Paul the fifth, hearing Peter Martyr read upon the 1 epist. to the Corinthians, was converted by him, and leaving all went to Geneva. Where when he was afterwards tempted by a Jesuit to revolt for money: he cried out, Let their money perish with them, who esteem all the gold in the world worth one days society with Jesus Christ and his holy Spirit. And cursed be that Religion forever, that seeks by money to corrupt men's minds from the simplicity of Christ. The Papists do at this day propose rewards to such as shall relinquish the Protestant religion, and turn to theirs: as in Ausborough, where they say there is a known price for it of ten florens a year: in France, where the Clergy have made contributions for the maintenance of runagate Ministers: such as were Bolsecus (whom the Papists afterwards hired to write Calvin's life, where so many lines, so many lies) Baldwin that notable turn-coat, that changed his religion three or four times at least for advantage, and died at last of envy, that another was preferred before him, as Chaplain to Henry the third of France, when he went to take possession of the Kingdom of Polonia: Petrus Carolus, that odious apostate, and troubler of the true Church: Staphylus, Speiserus, Brissonettus, and others long agone: As of late, Bertius, Tilenus, Spalatensis, and many other renegadoes, re-entered by the unclean spirit, who made their last state worse then the first, as the Jailor lays load of iron on him that had escaped, Luk. 11.26. These, as they sin not common sins; so, for most part (as it is said of Korah, and his company) they die not common deaths: they seldom escape the visible vengeance of God whom they have forsaken: witness Arius, Julian, Valerian, Spira, Spalatensis, Judge Hales, Guarlacus, Bomelius, Latomus Lovaniensis, who to his end had nothing else in his mouth, but that he was damned, and rejected of God, and that there was no hope of salvation for him, because that wittingly against his conscience, he withstood the manifest truth of his Word. Yea, those that never went so far as to persecute the truth, but denied or dissembled it only, have fearfully perished. In the story of Philbert Hamlin Martyr, a certain Priest, his host whom he had instructed in the truth, revolted. To whom he prophesied, That nevertheless he should die before him. He had no sooner spoke the word, but the Priest going out of the prison from Hamlin, was slain by two Gentlemen, who had a quarrel to him. Where of when Hamlin heard, he affirmed, He knew of no such thing, but only spake as God guided his tongue. Likewise we read of William Wolsey Martyr, that when he went to execution, he left six shillings eight pence to be delivered to one Richard Denton a Smith, dwelling at Welle in Cambridgeshire, with this commendation, That he marvelled that he tarried so long behind him, seeing he was the man that first delivered him the book of the Scripture into his hand, and told him that is was the truth, desiring him to make haste after as fast as he could, Denton at the receipt of it, answered, I confess it is true; but alas I cannot burn. But he that could not burn in the cause of Christ, was after wards burned against his will, when Christ had given peace to his Church. For anno 1564. on Tuesday, April 14. his house was set on fire: And whilst he went in to save his goods, he lost his life, with two other in the same house. Among the Angrognians and their neighbors in France, it is certainly known, that those that yielded to the adversaries were more cruelly handled then the others that continued constant to the death. See how God hateth apostates. When Caracciolus Marquess of Vicum, resolved to leave all, and go to Geneva, he opened his mind to some of his most familiar friends, and wrought upon them so far, as they promised and vowed to accompany him, &c. But divers of them, who for a time seemed to beled with a most earnest zeal of God's glory in this action, when they came to the borders of Italy, and considered what they forsook, first began to look back, afterwards went back again indeed. Where purposing to serve God in their pleasures, and in the midst of Popery, they were, after, taken by the Spanish Inquisition. &c. Others have fallen under a worse torment, the terror of their own consciences, wh • ch they were not able to stand before: As I might instance not only in Bilney, who, after he had borne his fagot, was so terrified, that his friends were afraid to let him be alone: If they brought him comfortable places of Scripture, it was as though a man should run him thorough the heart with a sword, as Latimer testifieth. In Bainham who could not rest till he had publicly recanted his recantation, praying everybody rather to die then to do as he had done: for he would not feel such a hell again as he did feel for all the worlds good; In James Abbes, who having yielded to the Bi • hop of Norwich his persuasions, and received a piece of money from him was pitiously vexed, till he went again to the Bishop, and there threw him his money, and said, Is repented him that he ever consented to their Wicked persuasions: In Thomas Whittle Martyr, who could never be quiet till he had gone to the Bishops Office, and torn the bill of his recantation, for the which Bonner first buffeted him soundly, and then burnt him: In Thomas Benbridge, who feeling the intolerable heat of the fire, cried out, I recant, and subscribed to certain Popish Articles at the stake upon a man's back, and so was led back to prison. But soon after, he retracted what he had subscribed, and the same-day-seven night he was burnt indeed, or rather broiled by the vile tormentors. The like befell Richard Sharp a Weaver of Bristow, who likewise suffered for that truth, which he had recanted, saying, I am sorry that ever I denied my Lord God, &c. But besides all these that recovered of their relapses: What shall we think of Pendleton, who resolved that as he came not frying into the world, so he would not go out frying? but roared upon his death-bed, and full fore repented (if it were not too late) that ever he had yielded to Papistry, and been so sparing of his fat and flesh, whereof he had vowed to Saunders he would see the uttermost drop molten, and gobbet consumed to ashes, before he would forsake God and his truth. What shall we think of Steven Gardner, who cried ou • upon his death bed, That he had denied his Master with Peter, but never repented with Peter, and so, both stinkingly and unrepentantly died? Of Mt West Chaplain to Bishop Ridley, who refusing to die in Christ's cause with his Master, said Mass against his conscience, and was so vexed by his conscience, that soon after he pined a way with sorrow? What shift Shaxton and Harding made to die I know not. A couple of apostates I know they were, and fair warning they had; but that God had given them up to the efficacy of error to believe a lie, because they would not receive he love of the truth, whereof they could not but be convinced. Harding (a little before King Edward died ) was heard openly in his Sermons in London, to exhort the people with great vehemency, That if troubles came, they should never shrink from the true doctrine of the Gospel, that they had received: which yet he himself soon after did. The Lady Jane (whiles she was prisoner, wrote an excellent letter to him, wishing him to remember the horrible History of Julian of old, and the lamentable case of Spira of late. Return to Christ (saith she) who now stretcheth out his arms to receive you, ready to fall upon your neck and kiss you, and cast off all to feast you with the dainties and delicates of his own precious blood: which undoubtedly, if it might stand with his determinate purpose, he would not let to shed again, rather then you should be lost. Thus sought that sweet Lady to charm and reclaim this adder; but he turned the deaf ear to her, and died an obstinate Papist, a Prebend of Gaunt. Shaxton was somewhat more toughly handled, but with no better success: for evil men and seducers wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. This Shaxton in King Henry the eights days, being Bishop of Salisbury, at the coming in of the six Articles resigned up his Bishopric, together with Latimer, rather then to forgo the peace of their consciences, and so remained a great space unbishoped, till King Edwards time, who restored them. But when Queen Mary came in, and changed religion, Latimer suffered, but Shaxton turned not only a Papist, but a persecutor and persuader to Popery. When William Wolsey Martyr, and some others were brought before him, Good brethren (said he) remember yourselves, and become new men. For I myself was in this fond opinion that your are now in: but I am now become a new man, Ah, said Wolsey, are you become a new man? Woe be to thee thou wicked new man, for God shall justly judge thee. And so he did I doubt not: it being his usual course to hang up such notorious apostates in gibbets, as it were, for example to others He that betrayed the Rhodes was well served. For his promised wife and portion were presented: But the Turk told him, that he would not have a Christian to be his son-in-law, but he must be a Musulman, that is, a believing Turk both within and without: And therefore he caused his baptized skin (as he called it) to be taken off, and him to be cast in a bed strawed with salt, that he might get a new skin, and so he should be his son in-law. But the wicked wretch ended his life with shame and sorrow. Theoderick an Arian King, did exceedingly affect a certain Deacon, although an orthodox. This Deacon thinking to ingratiate and get preferment, became an Arian, which when the King understood, he changed his love into hatred, and caused the head to be struck from him, affirming, That if he kept not his faith to God, what duty could one expect from such a person? King John of England, being overlaid in his Barons wars, sent Ambassadors to the Monarch of Morocco for aid, offering to hold his Kingdom of him, and to receive the law of Mahomet. The Moor marvelously offended with this offer, grew into such dislike of our King, that ever after he abhorred the mention of him. Suleiman the great Turk, seeing a company of many thousand Christians fall down before him, and hold up the sore-finger (as their manner of conversion to Turkism is) he asked them, What moved them to turn? They replied, It was to be eased of their heavy taxations. He disdaining that baseness, rejected their conversion, and doubled their taxations. The form they use when they turn Turks is this: I confess that there is but one God only, and Mahomet his servant. I confess also that I am come from the false to the true religion, and I utterly renounce my former faith, together with all the adherent Articles. After this, they are circumcised, and do put on a new turbant, as a badge of a Musulman or right believer. We read of two Dutch-men (the one a Divine, the other a Baker) that became Mohammedans not many years since, upon what discontent, or other motive, I know not. The Ministers name was Adam Neusserus, once a Pastor of Heidelburg, who fell off first to Arianism, and then to Tureisme. He died miserably at Constantinople, Octob. 12. Anno 1576 (much in the same manner, as Arminius did at Leyden, who was grievously tormented with a cough, gout, ague, and incessant pain in his belly, with a great binding and stopping under the heart, which caused much difficulty of breathing. He slept also very unquietly, and could not digest his meat, &c. ) But to return from whence I am digressed; This Neusser when he came to die, was thus comforted by the Baker above-said, and other his friends, Be of good cheer, brother, we shall meet again in Paradise, where we will drink with you, and take large carouses. As for the Dutch Baker that turned Turk, his name was John Ferber once of Backnang in the Duchy of W • rtemberg: and when the Emperor of Germany his Ambassadors came to Constantinople with presents of Sultan Selymus, as they entered the Turks palace, amidst many thousand Turks, one of the multitude cried out in the Dutch tongue, Of what religion are you? Which is the first question in the Dutch Catechism. The Ambassadors wondered at the words, and found out afterwards who it was: and that by those words he j • ared and derided the Christian religion. So did not the King of Morocco above-mentioned: for talking with King Johns Ambassadors he told them, that he had lately read Paul's epistles, which he liked so well, That were he now to choose his religion, he would, before another, embrace Christianity. But everyone, saith he, ought to die in his own religion: and the leaving of the faith, wherein he was borne, was the only thing that he disliked in that Apostle. This was his Heathenish conceit of that elect vessel, who himself counted it a singular mercy, and worthy of all thanks, that he had grace to change his religion, I was a blasphemer, saith he, a persecutor and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly: for else it had been the unpardonable sin, as Ferbers sin might well be. Bishop Latimer in a Sermon afore King Edward, tells of one who fell away from the known truth, and after fell to mocking and scorning it: yet in the end he was touched in conscience for it. Beware of this sin, saith he, for I have known no more but this that repented. What evil soever we do, we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth, saith S. Paul for himself, and all true Christians. But apostates become altogether filthy, Psal. 53.3. None being worse then those that have been good, and are naught: and might be good, and yet will be naught. In their filthiness is lewdness, their scum boils into them: It is with them, as in that case, Levite. 13.18, 19, 20. If a man had a bile healed, and after brake out, it proved the plague of leprosy, he was utterly to be excluded. These judge themselves unworthy eternal life, unfit for God's Kingdom, Luke 9.63. they cast themselves into hell-mouth, Heb. 10.39. where they are like to have the greater measure of torment, by how much they are fallen from greater hopes and likelihoods of heaven: as Adam, the more holiness and happiness he had, the greater was his sin and misery upon his fall.

But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak, saith the Author to the Hebrews, after he had both bidden them beware of Apostasy, and chidden them for their non-proficiency, and to awaken them out of their lethargy, had set before them the cursed condition of such as commit the unpardonable sin, which begins in apostasy, goes on in persecution, and ends in blasphemy. But this spot is not the spot of God's children, as Moses hath it. Fall they may fearfully, but not finally, they cannot possibly fall so low, but God's holy hand is still lower under them, to raise them up again. None can take them out of the Fathers hand: the Son loseth none of those that were given him by the Father, but the son of perdition, who was never of his body, though he seemed to be, by reason of his office: And the holy Ghost the Comforter abides with his forever. He is called an earnest, not a pawn. A pawn is to be returned again, but an earnest is part and pledge of the whole bargain. The Papists teach a total and final falling from grace. The Lutherans are forced to grant a total (though they deny a final) lest they should be brought utterly to abjure that error that they hold in common with the Papists concerning the efficaciousnesse of the Sacraments. Bertius▪ the Arminian sets forth a book with this horrid title, De Apostasia Sanctorum, and was therefore called by King James, bloody Bertius. They deny that the truly regenerate are certainly of the number of God's elect, since there is not (say they) so vast a gulf betwixt the regenerate and reprobate, but that they may pass over the one to the other, so that reprobates may become regenerate, and believers unbelievers; for a time at least. An uncouth and uncomfortable doctrine. Bellarmine saith, That which is true grace, veritate essentiae only, may be lost, not that grace which is true, veritate firmae soliditatis. If by the former he understand common grace, by the later, special grace, we are of the same judgment.

1. Common grace may come to nothing, whether it be such as fits a man for some particular calling only, as in Saul, 1 Sam. 16.14. And those idle shepherds who lost their gifts, Zech. 11.17. Or such as fits him for a common profession of religion only; A form of knowledge, Rom. 2.20. and a form of godliness 2 Tim. 3.5. wherein a man may go far, doubtless, as Judas, Demas; do much for God, as the stony ground; suffer much, and not shrink in the wetting, as the thorny ground; have a counterfeit of all saving graces, as the sorcerers of Egypt had of Moses his miracles; be a ring-leader of all good exercises, as Joash was the first that complained of the negligence of his best Officers, in not repairing the Temple, &c. and yet be nothing in truth, and come to nothing at length, Heb. 6.6, 7. 2 Pet. 2.20.

2. Special saving graces proper to the elect: and these are either radical, original, fundamental, serving to the being of a Christian, as faith, hope, charity; or secondary, flowing from these, and serving to his well-being only, as joy of faith, confidence of hope, zeal and fervor of love. These are, as it were, the luster, shine and radiancy of the radical; the beams of the Sun, as those the body of the Sun; the leaves of the tree, as those the sap and substance; the back of steel that may be put on or taken off the bow, &c. The later we may lose, and perhaps irrecoverably, Psal. 51.12. Not so the former: for like the fire of the Sanctuary, and the good house-wifes candle, it never goes out. But though the reins be consumed, yet the root of the matter remains in God's people, Job 19.27, 28. A partial decay there may be even in fundamental graces, and that both inward (in the judgment, as the Galatians, and affections, as the Ephesians, Revel. 2.4.) and also outward, the acts of grace may be remitted, the exercise abated, as an angry man for the time exerciseth not reason, nor a sleeping man motion. Yea it is a disputable question (saith one) whether any Christian (except he die soon after his conversion) do go steadfastly on from strength to strength, without some sensible decay of the inward power of the graces wherewith he is endued. Some good souls have so far declined, as Solomon, Samson, Asa, others, that it might be said of them, as Jacob said of Joseph, He is dead, some evil beast hath devoured him. David fell from the upper loft as Eutychus, and brake his bones. Jonas ran as far from God, as he could by land, and then took sea, &c. After this, he fell to justify his former frowardness, and yet no cast-a-way. Solomon was prodigal of his spiritual portion, and spent well nigh all: He eat up the zeal of God's house, that had once eaten him up: And he that had built a Temple to the living God for himself and Israel in Zion, built a Temple to Chemosh, in the mount of scandal, for his mistresses of Moab, in the very face of God's house: For this, Bellarmine ranks and reckons him among reprobates, but very uncharitably. For, what if the water ebb, the babe not spring in the womb, the Sun be eclipsed, the tree withered in winter? What if Israel fly once or twice before the enemy? Shall they never return, recover, prevail, conquer? Is there not life in the root, A blessing in the branches, Isa. 65.8? Is not Uzzah a King still, though a leper? And may not Nebuchadnezzar return to his Kingdom? If once we be a royal generation, our leprosies may deform us, not dethrone us. Still we shall have the right, and, at length, the possession of that glorious Kingdom, wherein we were invested from eternity. Sampson fell so far, and (twenty years after he loved the Philistim -woman, Judges 15.20. when certainly he had repented of that sin) he returned to Gaza, and went in to a harlot, that we should hardly take him for a godly man, did we not find his name in the list of those Worthies, Heb. 11. But, like a tame Hawk, though he flew f • r • e, yet he came to hand again. So will all that belong to God: recover they shall of their relapses, though with difficulty, yet sometimes with advantage: As a bone well knit, after breaking, as a passenger makes more haste after wandering. They may be as dear to Christ afterwards as ever. Go tell my Disciples and Peter: He must know with the first, that his Lord was risen, notwithstanding his shameful denial of him. Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah, &c. saith Christ to his Spouse, after she had backslidden and recovered: as amiable she was in his eyes in every point, as she had been before her fall: her hair, teeth, • emples, as fair and well featured as ever. He hates put • ing away, having married his Hephtsibah to him in faithfulness. He sends for us by his Spirit in our out-straies, and looks us up again, as is sweetly set forth in the Parable of the lost groat, the lost sheep, the lost son. He knows that at our worst we are not forsakers of the Covenant, Dan. 11.30. Wicked doers, verse 32. Withdrawers to destruction, Heb. 10. ult. They sleep but their heart waketh that belong to God, they slumber with the wise Virgins, but yet their lamps are burning: The spiritual life run • s to the heart, and leaves the outward man destitute; yet, as there are some pulses that discover life in the sickest: so is it here. These two never fail on God's part, his love which is unchangeable, and his grace a fruit of his love. And two on our part, the impression of that love, and the gracious work of the new creature. Christ never dies in his people, no more then he doth, or can do at the right hand of his Father. He hath both prayed and procured that our faith fail not. Impostours shall deceive, if it were possible, the very elect. Possible it is respectu rei, non respectu Dei. Grace in itself is losable, but we are kept by the 〈◊〉 of God through faith unto salvation, saith Saint Peter out of his own experience. And his counsel afterwards is very good. Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye, being also led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness: But grow in grave, &c.

[ 1] First, Hearken not to Impostours and seducers, they wax worse and worse (and make others to do so too) deceiving and being deceived. By their pithanology and pretended humility, Colos. 2 • .18. these locusts, with their women's faces, insinuate and deceive the hearts of the simple. Thus. Jacobus Sadoletus (a man of strict life and excellent learning) wrote most eloquent and persuasive letters, Desideratissimis suis (as he calleth them) To his most affectionately desired friends, the Senators and Commoners of Geneva: wherein he left nothing unsaid, whereby he might allure them to return again into the bosom of that Whore of Rome. The like art was used, whiles there was any hope, to the late famous Queen Elizabeth. Placilla the Empresse, when Theodosius senior desired to confer with Eunonius, dissuaded her husband very earnestly: lest being perverted by his speeches, he might fall into heresy.

[ 2] Secondly, He that will hold out to the end, must lay a good foundation of humiliation, dig deep enough at first, and cast up all the loose earth, that his house may stand. His repentance must be sincere, universal, constant, such as whereby the heart may be renewed: for the old heart will not hold out the hardship of holiness; when it comes to suffering especially, but will leap out of the sire, as a Chesnut that hath not been crack at the top: And as the stony ground, the seed straightway started up, and as soon withered, because not well rooted. The good ground is noted to bring forth fruit with patience, or tarriance for the fit season. Leap-Christians are not much to be liked, that all on the sudden, of notorious profane become extremely precise and scrupulous. Violent motions are not permanent. Aguish fits breed slushings: blazing comets soonest fall, hasty curs bite least, heady horses quickly tire, Hot at hand seldom holds out. That trumpets sound in the mount was louder and louder; the wind (whereto true grace is compared, Joh. 3.) riseth higher and higher: The path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Not like Joshua's 〈◊〉 • t stood still, or Heaekiahs Sun that went backward, but David's Sun that rejoiceth as a Giant to run his race, and turneth not again till he hath finished it. The Galatians did run well but were interrupted: The Ephesians lest their first love: The Philippians decaid in their good will to S. Paul, though afterwards their care of him flourished again, Phil. 4.10. The Corinthians mingled themselves again with fornicators, after they had been washed from their filthiness. M ^r Bartlet Green Martyr, was converted by Peter Martyrs Lectures in Oxford. Afterwards, being sent to the Inns of Court, through the continual accompanying of such worldly young Gentlemen, he became by little and little a compartner of their fond follies and youthful vanities, as well in his apparel, as also in banqueting and other superfluous excesses: which he afterwards, being again called by God's merciful correction, did sore lament and bewail; and being founded on a rock, as he had at first received Christ Jesus the Lord, so he walked in him, and suffered for him.

[ 3] Thirdly, Before you begin, sit down and cast what it will cost, to build the tower of godliness: consider what necessity there is to encounter and conquer so many corruptions, crosses and incombrances in the way to heaven. Put yourselves oft to those questions of abnegation, and say, Can I deny myself in my worldly wisdom, natural wit, carnal friends, old companions, pleasures, profits, preferments, ease, excellency of learning, in mine estate, liberty, life and all? Can I take up my cross and follow Christ thorough thick and thin, thorough fire and water, thorough good report and evil report, resolving (with William Flower Martyr) That the heavens shall as soon fall, as I will for sake my profession, or budge in the least degree? And can I say as that other Martyr John Ardely did to Bonner, If every hair of my head were a man, I would suffer death in the opinion and faith that I am now in? Many will profess to do much for Christ, but nothing it is that they will suffer for him: they come forth as those soldiers with lights and torches to seek him, yea with bills and staves, as if they would fight for him. But when he saith, as to them, Here I am, Take up my cross and follow me, they stumble at the cross, and fall backwards. The King of Navarre told Beza, He would launch no further into the sea, then he might be sure to return safe to the haven: Though he shown some countenance to religion, yet he would be sure to save himself. Again, Many in their low estate could pray, profess, read, &c. who in prosperity resemble the Moon, which never suffers eclipse, but at her full, and that by earths interposition. Jonathan followed the chase, and Samson his parents, till they met with honey. A dog follows his master, till he comes by carrion. So many a Demas, Judas, Diotrephes, follows Christ close till taken off by the world; the love whereof eats out the heart of grace, as adventitious heat consumes the natural; as Pharaohs lean kine devoured the fatter. Deny therefore all ungodliness and worldly lusts, thou that desirest to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present world.

[ 4] Fourthly, Standest thou by faith? And wouldest thou stand? Be not high-minded, but fear. Pride goes before a fall, as it did in the apostate Angels, in that Man of sin, and in those Illuminati, a pestilent sect in Aragon; who affecting in themselves and their followers a certain angelical purity, fell suddenly to the very counterpoint of justifying bestiality. Apostasy takes root most an end in spiritual pride; which, like a drone in the hive, or moth in fine cloth, is a great waster. All graces tend to humbling, and humility is conservatrix virtutum, saith Bernard, that which keeps all the graces together: It is also both a grace, and a vessel to receive more grace, For God gives grace to the humble. Be ye therefore clothed with humility, saith Saint Peter, 1 Pet. 5.5. The word there used comes of a primitive that signifies a Knot, because humility ties the knot of the chain of graces, that none of them be lost; as pearls or beads are easily lost, where the bracelet is broken. God's gifts in a proud heart (which makes men secure, uncharitable, idle) sigh under our abuse, and God hearing them groan, gives them the wings of an eagle.

[ 5] Fifthly, Propound to yourselves the best patterns, and the highest pitch of perfection: not resting in any measure of grace acquired; so as to say as those in Zacharias, Blessed be God, for I am rich, but advance forward toward the high price, as Paul did, Phil. 3. And Nil actum credens dum quid superesset agendum, as Caesar, who thought there was nothing yet done, till all was done. Beginnings are not sought for of Christians, saith S. Jerome, but ends of things: And it is a rule in the civil Law, Nothing seems to be done, if there yet remain ought to be done. For that which is but almost done, is not done at all, saith Basil. And not to go forward, is to go backward, saith Bernard. It had been good for Judas never to have been an Apostle, and for Julian never to have been a Christian; because to begin well, and not to hold on, is but to clime up higher, that he may fall the farther. Let our ladder therefore reach to heaven, as Jacob's did: let our garments reach down to our feet, as Joseph's did: let us offer a whole burnt-offering with the very tail also, Exod. 29.22. Let the fire from heaven never go out upon the hearth of our hearts, as that fire of the Sanctuary, Levite. 6 12. Let us not look back with Lots wife, nor turn again when we go forward, as those living creatures did not, Ezek 1.12. but as the Philistines kine that drew the Ark in a new Cart (though milch kine, and had calves at home, yet) they held on their way, lowing till they came to Bethshemesh: so let us amidst so many avocations and discouragements hold on our way to heaven, going and weeping with our faces thither-ward. The dog to his vomit, and the sow to her mire, are Canonical Proverbs, such as should make a Christian spew to think on them. God will spew out all that do not so, as he did the Laodiceans, who said they were rich and wanted nothing. They had false weights of their own, and therefore were grievously cheated with light gold. Whereas S. Paul, who was a fair deal better then the best of them, was still striving and straining after more, and is therefore called by S. Chrysostom, Insatiabilis Dei cultor, a greedy insatiable worshipper of God. Forgetting what is behind, saith he, and reaching forth (as runners do) unto those things that are before, I press toward the mark, I pursue or persecute it (the word signifies) with eagerness of affection: I follow it as one that will not leave, till I have that which I follow; but if I fall, I will up again and to it, and not give over: no more then when I was a persecutor I did, till I had him, whom I persecuted. Thus S. Paul; and he subjoineth, Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded. As who should say, Seem we to ourselves or others never so perfect, or be we never so perfect in comparison of others, yet let us be thus minded, to strive to further perfection. And a little after, Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an example. For our conversation is in heaven &c. Ever after he had been caught up thither, and heard things unspeakable, he became unsatisfiable, till he gat thither again. So was Moses after he had been in the Mount, and received the Law. He no sooner was come down thence, but he was at it, Exod. 33.13. Shew me thy way that • I may know thee. God grants him that request: Is he satisfied? No: he must have more yet. God must go along with the people. Well, I will do this thing also that thou hast spoken, saith God, verse. 16, 17. Is he content? No: for he said, verse. 17. I beseech thee show me thy glory. God shows it him: Is he well yet? No: God must pardon the sin of his people too, and take them and him for his inheritance, Chap. 34.9. Add this fruit of his favor to the rest, and then Moses hath done, for present at least. The covetous is not so greedy of gain, as the godly of grace. He always cries, Give, give, and never hath enough. If once thou sayest, It is enough, thou art undone, if thou cease to go forward, thou beginnest to go backward, &c.

Arrogancy.

H Ic plura absurda quàm verba. Here are not so many words as absurdities, as one well observed of Peters speech to our Savior in the transfiguration, Master, It is good for us to be here: Let us build, &c. Luk. 9.33. So here. The King spake and said: He for whom God had done so much, giving him so large an Empire, and adding to him the Kingdom of Egypt, as his pay for his pains at Tyre. He, who in the year of his triumph had this vision of his downfall, and had heard from heaven, Hew down the tree, yet leave the stump. He had left the poor captive Jews a stump, a kingly seed; and hath therefore a stump left him, and is reserved for a kingly state again. He that had heard, that he should shortly be bound with a band of iron and brass, as a mad man, and turned a grazing among beasts for seven years together, till he should know that the heavens do rule, and not (as the Poet hath it) Ludit in humanis divina potentia rebus. He that had such sweet and savoury counsel given him by Daniel, (who was a fair deal worse troubled for him then He was for himself, verse. 19.) Break off thy sins by righteousness. &c. Be as abrupt in thy repentance as thou hast been corrupt in thy courses, If it may be a lengthening of thy tranquility. That [If] imports not so much a doubt as a difficulty, in regard of the greatness of his sin. Notwithstanding which, God, of his goodness, gave him time to repent. Now that He (a full twelve month after all this) should walk in his palace, and thus talk to himself, who can but wonder? Is not this great Babylon that I have built? A great City it was indeed, and built four square (as Herodotus describeth it) but Nimrod and Ninus built it: Nebuchadnezzar only enlarged it, and built the palace entirely. Yet such is this man's arrogancy, he knows no other founder. Wherein he first robs God: for it is he that builds the house, and without whom they labor in vain that build it, Psal. 127.1. Next he wrongs his Ancestors the first founders. Thirdly, he considers not, how he had wasted and wearied the bodies and goods of his poor subjects: This made the people in Rehoboams time cry to him, Allevajugum, Allevajugum, Ease thou the yoke put upon us, by thy father Solomon, when he built his own house, and the house of God. Fourthly, he proclaims his pride in opposing his City to God's city, and making it his heaven, as it were: saying in effect, what God can cast me out of it? Whereas that City was afterwards taken by Cyrus, Alexander, and others. As likewise Rome (that mystical Babylon ) which, since it became the nest of Antichrist, was never besieged by any but it was surprised; yet, saith she in her heart, I sit a Queen, and shall see no sorrow, Revel. 18.7. Lastly, As he arrogates to himself the kingdom (till he had licked of the whip, and learned better language, verse. 37.) so now, the power and the glory too, by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty. God is not in all his thoughts. He sacrificeth to himself, as Sejanus did; and ( Polyphemus -like) sets up himself for the sole doer. Whereas God, as he is the first author and owner of all; so, to him, as to the utmost end of all, they ought all to return, Quasi circulo quodam confecto, and as the rivers do to the sea whence they had their beginning, See Rom. 11.36. Since of him, and through him, and to him are all things, to him alone be glory forever. His glory he will not give to any other, Isa. 42.8. what ever he part with, none shall share with him in that. It is his jewel, his darling, his own eye, his wife (with reverence to his Majesty be it spoken) And as Abner might not see David's face unless he brought him his wife Michal, so neither may any stand before God, that bereave him of his glory. He comes down from heaven (as it were) and fights hand to hand with a proud person in single combat, the whole world beholding. Surely God resisteth the proud, saith Peter. He sets himself in battle-array against them (as the original hath it) as he did against Pharaoh, Herod, and this Nebuchadnezzar, whose mind was hardened in pride (that hate of heaven, and gate to hell) as the Prophet tells his son, Dan. 5.20. therefore, besides the brutish change of his mind; his body was much changed in seeding and living among wild beasts: It was not only a frenzy (as Ericus King of Sweden, being expeld his Kingdom, for grief, fell mad: or as Bajazet taken by Tamberlane, and Boniface the 8 ^th by Charles of Bourbon, bit and tare themselves for grief and vexation) but he was banished from the society of men, by the just judgment of God. And so lying in the wet and cold among beasts, his garments rotted, his hair grew hard, his nails long, &c. his man's shape remaining, his human soul was changed to be brutish: his body also mis-shapen and deformed, not transformed, as D ^r Willet hath it in his Hexapha upon Daniel, where you may read of divers like examples. Surely the Lord of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth, Isa. 23.8. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be everyone that is proud and lofty, and upon everyone that is lifted up, and he shall be brought low. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. So saith Isaiah: nay, so saith Esop; who being asked, what God did in heaven? He pulleth down the proud, said he, and lifteth up the lowly: this is his work and business. He bears an aking tooth, a special spleen (as I may say so) to this sin of Arrogancy. His heart hates it, Prov. 6.16, 17. His mouth curseth it, Psal. 119.21. and his hand plagueth it, as he did Herod among others. The people had fly-blown him with their flatteries. This swells him; and, for his pride, God turns those worms upon him to devour him: as he did the lice, upon that proud King of Spain, that set forth the invincible Armado (as they vainly called it) against England. The Spaniards are generally noted for an insolent people; and their ambition hath been, to settle their Catholic Monarchy over all Christendom; but God hath hitherto crossed it, and, we trust, will do. Their language they call Romance (as if it were pure latin ) and themselves the right Hidalgoes, as if they were the only Gentlemen. So the Turks will needs be thought the only Musulmans or true believers, as Papists the only Catholics (the Donatists affected the same title) Gnostics the only knowing men, Anabaptists the only spiritual persons, Jesuits the only scholars, Politicians and Orators of the world. They vaunt that the Church, is the soul of the world, the Clergy of the Church and they of the Clergy: that a Jesuit cannot possibly be an heretic; but that as the devil set up Luther (that Arch-heretic ) so God sent forth them to oppose him. The Chinese would persuade us, That they only see with two eyes, & all other Nations but with one. These proud Jesuits would have us believe the like of them. And as it is reported of the great Cham of Tartary, that he reputes himself the Monarch of the whole world, and that therefore every day, as soon as he hath dined, he causeth his trumpets to be sounded, by that sign giving leave to other Princes of the earth to go to dinner: So would these Jesuits be held the only Worthies, their main endeavor being to subject all to the Pope, and the Pope to themselves. Their faction (saith one) is a most agile sharp sword, whose blade is sheathed at pleasure, in the bowels of every Commonwealth, but the handle reacheth to Rome and Spain. So that the very life, death and fortunes of all Kings and Common-wealths hang upon the horoscopes of the Jesuits pleasure. If the Jesuits be as lucky stars in the ascendent and culminant, they may live, continue and flourish: if malevolent, they perish, but that Deus dominabitur astris. Now may it not well be said to these croaking frogs and encroaching locusts of Rome, Ye take too much upon you, ye sons of Levi? They teach, That the state ecclesiastical is so far more excellent then the civil, as the Sun then the Moon, even in temporal pomp and power: and that therefore the chief of their Clergy is as far above the mightiest Emperor, as the Sun above the Moon. And as the Sun borrows her light of the Moon, so doth the Emperor, his State and power from the Pope. Is not this that Man of sin, that exalts himself above all that is called Augustus, or above all Kings and Emperors? trampling upon their necks, forcing them to hold his stirrup, to dance attendance at his gate, &c. kicking off their crowns, and crowning them again with his feet, as Pandulphus the Popes Legat did King John of England? As for King Henry the second of this land, he was forced by the Pope to kneel and pray to Beckets shrine, whom he had disgraced in his person, and having had him above his will (saith the Chronicler) whiles he lived, hath him now over his faith, being dead. Going to Canterbury to visit the sepulcher of his own Martyr, he went three miles on his bare feet, which with hard stones were forced to yield bloody tokens of his devotion on the way. And which was most shameful of all, though he protested to the very last, That he neither commanded nor willed, nor by any sleight sought the death of Becket, yet by the Legat he was compelled to undergo the discipline of rods upon his bare flesh, and to receive of every Priest there present (and there were not a few) three or four lashes upon the bare: one of the Ambassadors saying the while, Domine noli minari. Sir, you may spare your threats, for we fear them not; as being of such a Court, as is wont to bear rule over Kings and Emperors. In like sort the Pope, within the memory of many yet alive, lashed Henry the fourth of France (in the person of his Ambassador at Rome ) after the singing of every verse of Miserere the 51. Psalm, until the whole Psalm was sung out. Clemens the fifth would not absolve the Venetians of their Excommunication, till Francis Dandalus their Ambassador had lain, like a dog at his feet under his table, with a chain of iron about his neck. Neither would Pope Martin the fourth absolve the Sicilians, till they came & prostrated themselves before him, with these words of the Litany, O lamb of God that takest away the sins of the world, Grant us thy peace. The Pope answereth, My peace I give you, my peace I leave unto you. Prodigious blasphemy! Sed exorto Evangelij jubare, sagaciores (ut spero) principes, ad nutum vestri Orbilij non solvent subligacula, saith a reverend Divine of our Church. They tell us, That not their Popes only, but their whole Clergy is a state so distinct and absolute, as not any way subject to the temporal Magistrate, though their crimes be never so many or monstrous. These be the Locusts that have no King, Prov. 30.27. they will have none, but that Angel of the bottomless pit, Abaddon the Pope, who stiles himself A servant of servants, yet stamps on his coin, That Nation and country that will not serve thee shall be rooted out. The Lateran Council blasphemously ascribed that to the Pope, All power is given to thee both in heaven and in earth: thou art all, and over all. And now was the Pope in the heighth of his pride, and ruff of his jollity, when suddenly (the same or the next year after) God, who resisteth the proud, raised up Luther to cut his comb, and to call him Antichrist. Ever since which, there hath been a sensible decay of the Papacy throughout the Christian world, as Bellarmine with grief acknowledgeth. It was but time God should take him down, that exalted himself not only above Angels, whom (saith John the 23. in extravag. ) he hath power to excommunicate, but also above all that is called God. Our Lord God the Pope, saith one of his Parasites. Tu merito in terris diceris esse Deus, saith another. Nicolas the first said, That he was not to be called to an account by any one, because Constantine had called the Pope by the name of God. For the which gross fiction, the very Gloss there derideth him. And who can hold laughing at that ridiculous gloss of a Popish Postiller upon that text, Exod. 30.31? Where, because it is said of the holy oil, Upon man's flesh it shall not be poured, Thou shalt anoint Aaron and his sons, &c. therehence He infers in an hyperbolical sense, That Priests are Angels, not having human flesh. It is not for nothing (I trow) that they send, for the most part, all their Clergy immediately to heaven without let. Whereas all the temporalty (except Martyrs) must pass by purgatory. These they look aloof on; as the proud Pharisee did on the Publican, as Caiaphas did on the Council, Ye know nothing at all, saith he, Joh. 11.49. Ye are all but babies to me, &c. or as those Bragadochio's in Isaiah looked on their betters, with Stand by thyself, for I am holier then thou. Odi fastum illius ecclesiae, I hate the pride of that Church of Rome (saith Basil ) that Western brow (as he was wont to call it, and) whereof he maketh great complain to his friend Evagrius. The other four Patriaches (and with them the whole Eastern Church) separated themselves from the Bishop of Rome for his intolerable insolency: and, at their parting, used these or the like words, Thy haughtiness we know, thy covetousness we cannot satisfy, thy encroaching we can no longer abide, live to thyself, &c. This proud Bishop had stretched himself beyond his line, prized himself above the market, set up his counter for a thousand pound; affecting not a primacy only, as successor to Peter, but a supremacy, as Vicar to Christ: indeed an Antichrist or counter-Christ, pretending to be instead of Christ, but fighting against Christ, denying and opposing him in all his offices. Pope Leo the first blasphemously boasted (and Nicolas the third feared not to affirm the same: That Peter was taken into fellowship with the blessed Trinity, therefore Peters successor must be Universal Bishop. This the Patriarch of Constantinople stomacked, and could as little bear a superior, as the Pope an equal: And therefore the former strives to bring all the East under him, the later, East and West too. His claw-back Canonists tell him (and he believes it) that he is King of Kings, and Lord of Lord's: that he hath the power of both swords throughout the whole world, and rule over all reasonable creatures: that he can do whatsoever Christ can do, &c. Now, as every little wind raiseth a bubble, so doth the Pope value himself so much the more, as he sees himself higher in the rate of others opinions. Philip the Fair (King of France ) dealt plainly with him (which few others durst do) Anno 1294. For, when Pope Boniface wrote thus to him, in an imperious manner, We would have thee to know, that thou art subject to us in temporals and spirituals, &c. He stoutly denied it, beginning his letter, with, Sciat tua maxima Fatuitas. Be it known to your Foolishness (instead of Holiness) and appealed to the See Apostolic, then (as he said) vacant, and to the future Council. Self-love makes men unreasonable, and teacheth them to turn the glass to see themselves bigger, others lesser then they are. I am, and there is none besides me, saith Nineveh. I will ascend into heaven, and set my nest above the stars, saith Babylon.

Attilas King of Huns, arrogantly vaunted, That the stars fell before him, the earth trembled at his presence, &c. Who hath not heard of the swelling titles of the great Cham, of the great Turk, of divers Roman Emperors? As Diocletian who first commanded divine honors to be done unto him, and held forth his feet to be kissed: Caligula, who by certain Engines thundered and lightened, as another Jupiter, casting up stones for thunder-bolts, and repeating that hemistich in Homer— 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Commodus would needs have the twelve months of the year called or counted by his twelve names or titles; Amazonius, Invictus, Felix, Pius, &c. And the time of his reign to be held the golden age, and so styled in all dates and writings. And Alphonso the Wise (the fool rather) King of Spain blasphemously said, That if he had been of the council at the Creation, he could have made and ordered something better then they were. I will ascend above the heighth of the clouds, and will be like the most high, saith the King of Babel, Isa. 14.14. It may seem strange that such proud thoughts should enter into any man's heart. But by nature three's never a better of us. As in water face answers to face, so doth the heart of a man to a man. The natural heart is nothing else but a lump of proud flesh. That old leaven of corruption hath soured and swelled the whole lump, 1 Cor. 5.7. The Greek word for pride signifies swelth. For pride is like a great swelling in the body, which unfits it for any good service, and is apt to putrefy, break and run, with loathsome and foul matter: So doth pride disable the soul from doing duty, and at last breaks into odious words and deeds, abominable to God and men. Now if this be not thy case, bless God for his restraining and sanctifying spirit; lift up many an humble, joyful and thankful heart to him who made thee to differ. Say not as that arrogant Arminian did in answer to the Apostles question, Who made thee to differ? Ego meipsum discerno, I myself have made the difference. Or as that proud heretic said to God, Non habeo Domine quodignoscas, I have done nothing wherefore to crave pardon. If we had no more sins to answer for, then this one of pride, we could not escape the damnation of hell. S ^t Paul adviseth young Students in Divinity, not to be high-minded, lest they fall into the condemnation of the devil. It was pride that turned him out of heaven. Pride (saith Hugo ) was born in heaven: but forgetting by what way she fell thence, she could never find her way thither again. Only ever since, it looks and aims at the highest. The first man would know as God; the Babel -builders would dwell as God. And as our first parents in the beginning did learn that proud lesson of the devil, Ye shall be as gods, so we, being in their loins when they sinned (saith a reverend Divine) and descending from them by ordinary generation, do, together with our nature, receive that corruption from them, whereby we think thus proudly of ourselves, that we far excel others, and are as little gods on earth, in respect of others. Mans heart is a palace of satanical pride. It is like unto that table of Adonibezek, at which he sat in a chair of State, and made others, even Kings, to eat meat like dogs under his feet with their thumbs cut off. Loe such an one is every man by nature: He lifteth up himself, saying, I am the man, and treadeth his brother underfoot, as nobody to him. The Emperor Commodus would needs be styled 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or the Surpasser, as if there were None such. The Emperor Adrian oppressed some and slew others that excelled in any art or faculty; that he might be held the only skillful. Aristotle is said to have burnt and abolished the books of many ancient Philosophers whom he excerped, that he might be the more admired. The worlds eternity, and some other paradoxes he taught, as rather affecting singularity (saith one) then for any soundness of the matter, or strength of argument. Such an itch there is in man's corrupt nature after the applause and admiration of others. This is that Demosthenes, was a sweet hearing. Themistocles listened to nothing so willingly as to his own commendation. If others will not commend a man, he will commend himself. Hoc ego primus vidi, saith Zabarell, I was the first that found out this truth. Patres sic judicant, ego vero sic, saith another Singularitan. This is the Fathers opinion of this point, but I am of another judgment. Laurentius Valla contemned and carped at Tully, Aristotle, Virgil, and most of the best Authors, except Quintilian only. And whereas he had found out some things in Logic, more then the masters of those times, he said openly, Nullam esse logicam praeter Laurentinam, That his was the only Logic. Yea he doubted not to affirm, That he found some flaws in the fundamental points of our faith. It will easily be judged, that this man wanted neighbors. And so, before him, did those proud boasters, Palaemon, who gave out, That learning was born with him, and would die with him: Epicurus, who would needs seem first to have found out the truth: whereas in many points he was more blind then a beetle, Aratus and Eudoxus the Astrologers, who boast that they had descried and described the whole number of the stars: Archimedes the Mathematician, who bragged, that he could number the sand in all the world, habitable and inhabitable: and that if he had but a place to stand in, off the earth, he could remove the whole body of the earth. Richardus de Sancto Victore (a Monk of Paris ) preferred himself for skill in divinity, above the Prophets and Apostles. This he had learned of his lord Lucifer, who teacheth his scholars, that which they call depths in divinity, indeed depths of Satan, whereof to be ignorant is no small commendation, Revel. 2.24. The Gnostics, great students in these depths of the devil, counted and called themselves, The only knowing men. The Manich •• s besotted with an opinion of themselves, derived their name of Manna; because they held, That whatsoever they tanght was to be received as food from heaven. Novatus called himself Moses, and a brother that he had, Aaron. Montanus said he was the Comforter, and his Pepuza and Tymium (two pelting Parishes in Phrygia ) he called Jerusalem, as if they had been the only Churches in the world. Elymas the sorcerer had called himself Bariesus, as if he had been near of kin to Christ, Act. 13.6. And John O-Neal, father to the Earl of Tyrone, inscribed himself in all places, I great John O-Neal, Cousin to Christ, friend to the Queen of England, and foe to all the world. But though we had known Christ after the flesh (saith Paul ) yet hence forth know we him no more. Yea, though we had touched him in blood, and been flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone, yet without faith, all that were nothing. It was an honor to Mark, that he was Barnabas his sisters son: But it is a blemish to Christ's brethren, that neither did they believe in him, Joh. 7.5. Indeed how could they, when they sought their own praise only, according to that, How can ye believe in me, when ye receive honor one of another? Go up, say they to him, into Judea, that thy disciples also may see thy works that thou doest. For there is no man, &c. Joh. 7 3 4. Thus they insulted over him, or sought at least to get credit by him. But he would not gratify them so far. For he might well have said to them, as once Eliab did ill to his brother David, I know your pride, and the naughtiness of your hearts, but it shall not be so. As for the best of his kindred, He preferred Peter, that lively spark, and James and John, those sons of thunder, before his own brother James, and before Judas, Simon, and others of them that were his near kinsmen. For who is my mother? and who are my brethren, &c? Surely, he that doth the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother. Christ calls his Church his sister, his spouse, Cant. 5.2. The nearest affinity is Spouse, and the nearest consanguinity, Sister. And no less good terms he gives her also after her fall, when once truly humbled, he cass her his Love, his Dove, his undefiled one, Chap 5.9 For to him will I speak (with special intimations of my love) even to him that is poor in spirit, and contrite in heart, and trembleth at my word, Isa. 66.2. Though the Lord be high, yet he respecteth the lowly: but the proud he knoweth afar off: their breath is offensive to his sharp sent, they may not come near him. Whereupon excellently S ^t Austin, Videt • magnum miraculum, saith he. See here a great wonder. God is on high: thou liftest up thyself, and he fleeth from thee: thou humblest thyself, and he descendeth to thee. Low things he looks close upon, that he may exalt them: proud things he knows afar off, that he may depress them. The proud Pharisee pressed as near God as he could: the poor Publican, not daring to do so, stood aloof off. Yet was God far from the Pharisee, near to the Publican. Hugo de Sancto Victore, brings in God and the devil thus debating it. Jussit Dominus funiculos afferri in partitionem, &c. God commanded the lines to be brought, and division to be made. The fat and sweet of the earth he found in the low valleys, these he bade be set on the one side. The deserts and dry places he found upon steep rocks and high mountains, larger in compass less in worth. These he made be set on the other side: and calling for the devil, bad him take his choice. The devil, who looks aloft, and cares not for low things, chose the later, and bragged he had got the better. But what said God? Thou art beneath, and therefore lookest only after high things: I am above, and see from thence the sweetness of low things. The violet is the lowest, but sweetest of flowers, so is humility of graces. A broken heart that lies low, and hears all that God saith, Oh it is a sacrifice that God is much delighted in! For it sends for God (as