The Devils Banket Described - Four Sermons

Ad vel in Lectorem.

R Eligious Reader, (for I think, few of the profane rabble read any Sermons ) let me entreat thee for this, that (cum lectoris nomen feras, ne lictoris officium geras) thou wouldst accept it, not except against it; and being but a Reader, not usurp the office of a Censurer. The main intents of all Preachers, and the contents of all Sermons, aim to beat down sin, and to convert sinners. Which the most absolute and vn- • rring Scriptures have shadowed under diverse metaphores; comparing them to beasts, to blots, to sicknesses, to sterrillities, to pollutions, to leauenings, to whoredoms, to Devils In all which (and many other such figurative speeches) I thin • e it lawful, nay necessary for us, God's Ministers, to explain the Metaphor; and (still within bounds of the simillitude) to show the fit accordance and respondency of the thing meant, to the thing mentioned. Indeed, to stretch the Text against the own will • , is to martir it: and to make every metaphor run upon four fe • t, is often violabile sacris. B • t so long as we keep the Analogy of faith, and the sen • e of the present Theame, it is a fault, to find fault with us. Indeed Rhe • oricall flourishes without solid matter, is like an Egyptian bondwoman in a Queens robes; or the Courtiers Chamber, which is often a rotten room, curiously hanged. God's word is full of dark speec • es, dark not in themselves, but to our thick-sighted understandings: therefore his propositions, require expositions. Not that we should turn plain Morals into Allegories, but Allegories into plain Morals. The former was Origen's fault, of whom it is said, (I speak not to uncover that Fathers nakedness; but to show that all men may err, and therefore truth of love must not prejudice love of truth) that wherein he should not allegorize, he did; and wherein he should have allegorized, to his woe, he did not. I have presumed, not without warrant of the best Expositors, to manifest the manifold temptations of Satan, under the Harlots inveigling her Customers. 1. As Wisdom ver. 3. sends forth her Maydens, her Ministers, to invite guests to her Feast of Grace. So Vice sends forth her temptations; nay, she sits at the door her self, ver. 14. and courts the passengers. 2. If Wisdom call the Ignorant. ver. 4. Who so is simple, let him turn in hither, as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith, &c. Vice, which is the true Folly, is her Zani, and takes the words out of her mouth. ver. 16. Who so is simple, let him turn in hither, and as for, &c. 3. If Wisdom promiseth Bread and Wine, ver. 5. Come eat of my bread, and drink of the wine, which I have mingled. Sin will promise no less to her guests. ver. 17. Stollen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. Here is then a plain opposition of Grace and Sin, Wisdom and Folly, Chastity and uncleanness, Christ and the Devil. He is mistaken then, that shall judge me mistaken in this Allegory. I stand not so much on the sound, as the sense; not so much on the literal, as spiritual meaning. In the former I have instanced, insisted on the latter. It should be tedious, to give account for every circumstance. The learned and good man will judge faucurably. To the rest. Si quid tu recti • s istis Pro • ir us imperti, si non, his vtere mecum. I pass by • he triutall objections against Sermons in print: as the deadness of the letter, the multitude of Books p • essing to the P • esse, &c. As if the eye could give no help to the soul: as if the queasy stomach could not forbear surfeiting: as if some men's sullenness, and crying push at Sermons, should be prejudicial to ot • ers benefit: as if the Prophets had not added line to line, as well as precept upon precept. I hear of some • dle Drones, humming out their dry derisions, that we will be men in print, slighting the matter for the Authors sake. But because their invectives are as impotent, as themselves are impudent, I will answer no further, then haec culpas, sed tu non meliora facis. Or to borrow the words of the Epigrammatist.

One caveat, good Reader, and then God speed thee. Let me intr •• t • ee, not to give my Book the chopping censure. A word old enough, yet would have a Comment. Do not open it at a ventures, & by reading the broken pieces of two or three lines, judge it. But read it through, and then I beg no pardon, if thou • islikest it. Farewell.

THE DIVELS BANKET. The first Sermon.

I Have here chosen two Texts in one, intending to Preach of a couple of Preachers ; one by usurpation ▪ the other by assignation ; the Worlds Chaplen, and the Lord's Prophet. Where conceive, 1. the Preachers: 2. their Texts: 3. their Sermons: 4. their Pulpits: 5. their Commissions.

1. The Preachers are two, the first hath a double name: Literally, here, the Harlot: Metaphorically, Sin ; the mind's Harlot; for between them is all spiritual adultery committed: Some understand it more Sinecdochically, the Temptation to sin; but (omne mauis includit minus) their interpretation is like that short bed, you cannot lay this Harlot at her full length in it. Others conceive an Antithesis here, and by conferring the 4. verse with the 16. collect an opposition of two sorts of Preachers; the sincere Prophets of Wisdom, and the corrupted Teachers of Traditions, errors, leasings. I cannot subscribe to this sense, as full enough: let it go for a branch, call it not the body of the Tree. This first Preacher then▪ is the delightfulnesse, or if you will, the dec • itf • lnesse of sin. The second is Solomon ; not erring, adulterating, idolatrising Solomon: but converted, confirmed Solomon ▪ A King and a Preacher.

2. Their Texts : 1. Sins Text is from Hels Scriptum est : taken out of the Devils Spell ; either Lucian his old Testament, or Machiavelli his new: laws made in the court of damnation, enacted in the vault of darkness; like those under the Parliament-house; Gunpowder-laws, fit for the Justices of Hell. 2. Solomon's Text is the Word of eternal Truth: with a Scriptum est, caelitus inspiratum ; given from Heaven: this is Desuper, the other Desubter ; this is all, Scripture is given by inspiratio • from God, profitable, &c. the former is the Delusion of th • Devil; that lying spirit in the mouth of Ahab's proph •• s, the divinity of Hell.

3. The Sermons differs as well as the Texts. 1. The Harlots dixit, verse 16. is thus amplified: Stollen waters are sweet, and the bread of Secrecies is pleasant. Tullius, nor Tertullus, nor Hermes, the speaker in the Parliament of the Heathen gods, never moved so eloquent a tongue: she preaches (according to the palate of her audience) Placentia ; nay, it is Placenta, a sweet Cake; whose flour is Sugar, and the humor that tempers it, Honey, sweet, pleasant. She cannot want auditors for such a Sermon: for as it is in Fairs, the Pedler, and the Ballat-monger have more throng, then the rich Merchant: Vanity hath as many customers as she can turn to, when Veritie hath but a cold market. 2. Solomon's Sermon is opposed to it with a But: But he knoweth not that the dead are there, and that her gh • sts are in the depth of Hell. A cross blow, that disarmes the Devils Fencer: a flat conviction or Non-plus, given to the arguments of sin: a little Colliquintida, put into the swe • t-pot: that, as I have observed in some beguiling Pictures; look on it one way, and it presents to you a beautiful D • mosell: go on the adverse side, and behold, it is a Devil, or some misshapen Stigmaticke. Sin shows you a fair Picture: Stollen waters are sweet, &c. Suaue & delicio sum; Pleasure and delight. Solomon takes you on the other side, and shows you the ugly visages of Death and Hell, the dead are there, &c. If Sin open her Shop of delicacies, Solomon shows the Trap-door and the Vault: if she boast her Olives, he points to the Prickles: if she discovers the green and gay flowers of delice, he cries to the Ingredients, Latet anguis in herba, the Serpent lurks there: Illa mouet, iste monet ; she charms, and he breaks her spells: as curious and proud as her House is, Solomon is bold to write, Lord have mercy on us, on the doors, and to tell us, the plague is there; Stollen waters are sweet, &c. But the dead are there, &c.

4 Their Pulpits have local and ceremonial difference. 1. The Harlot's is described verse 14. She sits at the door of her house, on a seat, in the high places of the City. 1. Sedet; she sits: she is got into that enchanted Chair, Psal. 1. 2. at her house: she need not stray far for customers: in se turba ruunt luxuriosa, proci: they come in troupes to her: 3. at her door: she presents her self to the common eye, and would be notable, though not able to answer the show: 4. on a Seat: nouit suum locum: Vice knows her Seat; the Devil is not without his Randeuous: what say you to a Tavern, a Play-house, a Feast, a May-game? that I say not, an Ordinary: 5. in the City. Whoredom, scorns to live obscurely in the Suburbs: She hath friends to admit her within the walls. 6. Nay, in the high places of the City: in the largest streets, populous and popular houses; in excelsis vrbis: one of the most curious and • ta • ely edifices of the City.

Thus Sin reads not a high-way lecture only, as among Thieves; nor a Chamber-lecture only, as among Courtezans; nor a Mass-lecture only, as among Jesus • tes, nor a Vault-lecture only, as among Traitours; nor a Table-lecture only, as among Humorists; nor a Tap-house-Lecture o •• lie, as among Drunkards; that fetch authority from the pot, like Augustus Caesar, to tax all the world: but a City-lecture, such a one as Jezebel read to Iezreell: a public Preaching, her Pulpit being excelsa ciuitatis, top-gallant; filling eminent places, with emanant poisons. 2. Solomon's Pulpit is yet transcendent and above it; for it is a • hrone; a Throne of Iuorie, ouerlaid with gold: such a Throne, as no Kingdom could follow it. The Preacher is a King, the Pulpit a Throne; nay, an Oracle: de Solio rex oracula fundit. For God gave him wisdom, yea, such a wisdom, that no man but his Antitype, God and man, did ever excel him.

5 Their Commissions. 1. The Devil gave Sin her • rrand ; guilded her tongue, and po • soned her heart: put a cup of damnation into her hand, and the Sugar of Temptation to sweeten it; allowed her for his City-Recorder, or his Town- • la • ke; and sealed her a commission from Hel • ; as Saul had from the High Priest ▪ to bind with snares (Filios T • rrae) the Sons of Men. 2. But God gave Solomon a celestial roll to eat, as to Ez • kiel ; and touched his lips with a co • le from his own Altar, as to Isaiah, putting into his mouth (documenta vitae) the ordinances of eternal life.

God hath set this day before you two diverse Pulpits, adverse Preachers, dissonant Texts ; declares, who speaks by his warrant, who besides it, against it. Behold, as Moses said, I have set life and death before you, take your choice.

The Dialogue of both the verses present us with a Banket: ( conuiuium, or conuitium rather) a Feast, but a Fast were better: a Banket worse then Job's children's ; or the Dagonals, of the Philistines ; (like the Bacchanals of the Moenades ) when for the shutting up of their stomachs, the house fell down, and broke their necks. You have offered to your considerations, verse 17. (supplying but the immediately precedent word, Dixit ) 1. The Inviter: 2. the Cheare. Solomon comes after, (as with Salt and Vinegar) and tells you 3. the Guests: 4. and the Banketting-house, verse 18. But the dead are there, &c.

The Inviter: It is a woman, She saith to him : but that name is too good; for she hath recovered her credit: a woman, as she brought woe to man, so she brought forth a weal for ma • : causa d • licti, solatium relicti: an instrumental cause of transgression, and no less of Salvation. If you say, she brought forth Sin without man, so she brought forth a Savior without man: as the Devil tempted her to the one, so the Holy Ghost overshadowed her to the other. This not a woman then, but a Harlot, meretricia mulier: a degenerate woman, vnwomaned ( • t pudore & pudicitia) of both, modesty and chastity.

The feast is like to be good when an Harlot is the Hostice. And sure the Scriptures found some special parietie, if not ident • tie between these two: not making their names convertible, which had been much; but expressing by one word both of them, which is more; as if it concluded their professions and conditions, names and natures all one, which is most of all. Impleta in nostris haec est Scriptura diebus. Experience hath justified this circumstance. A Harlot then, bids, and feasts, and kills: what other success can be looked for? If Delilah invite Sampson, wa • e his locks; she will spoil the Nazarite of his hairs: there are many Delilah's in these days.

I have read of many Inviters in the holy Writ: some good, many indifferent, most evil, this worst of all. 1. Good, Matth. 22. you have the King of Heaven a Feast-maker: Cant. 5. you have the Kings son a Feast-maker: Jesus Christ bids, Eate oh friends, drink abundantly, oh beloved, Revel. 22. you have the Spirit of glory a Feast-maker, and an Inviter too: The Spirit and the Bride say, Come. To this Feast few come, but those that do come, are welcome: well come in regard of themselves, for there is the best cheare: Blessed are they that are called to the Marriage-Supper of the Lamb: welcome, in respect of God, who doth not grudge his mercies. 2. Many indifferent, and inclining to good. Abraham's feast at Isaac's weaning: Samson's at his marriage. The Wedding-feast in Cana, where the King of glory was a Ghest; and honored it with a Miracle, with the first Miracle, that ever he wrought. 3. Evil; Nabal's feast at his Sheep-shearing; a drunken feast: Belshazzar's feast to a thousand of his Lord's, surfeiting with full carouses from the sacred Boles; a sacrilegious Feast. The Philistines feast to the honor of Dagon ; an Idolatrous feast. Herod's birthday-feast, when John Baptists head was the last course of the service; a bloody feast. The rich Churls, a quotidian feast, a voluptuous surfeit, all bad. 4. This yet worst of all, the Harlots feast, where (the Ghests at once, comedunt, & comeduntur: ) their souls feast on evils, and are a feast to Devils: for whiles men devour sins, sins devour them, as Actaeon was eaten up of his own dogs. This is a bloody Banket, where no ghost escapes without a wound, if with life: for if Sin keep the Reuels, Lusts are the Iunkets, Ebriety drinks the Wine, Blasphemy says the Grace, and Blood is the conclusion.

But allegorically Sin is here shadowed by the Harlot; Voluptuousn • sse, (meretricum meretrix) the Harlot of Harlots; whose Baud is Be • lsebub, and whose Bridewell is broad Hell. Wickedness (foeminei generis dicitur) is compared to a Woman: and hath all her senses: Lust is her eye to see: Bribery her hands to feel: Sensuality her palate to taste: Malice her ear to hear: Petulancy her nose to smell: and (because she is of the foeminine sex, we will allow her the sixtsense) tittle-tattle is h • r tongue to talk. This is the common Hostice of the world; Satan's house-keeper, whose doors are never shut: noc • es atque dies patet, &c. There is no man in the world keeps such hospitality, for he searcheth the air, earth, sea, nay, the Kitchen of Hell, to fit every palate. Vitellius searched far and wide for the rarities of nature; Birds, Beasts, Fishes of inestimable price; which yet brought in, the bodies are scorned, and only the eye of this Bird, the tongue of that Fish is taken: that the spoils of many might be sacrifices to one supper. The Emperor of (the low Countries) Hell, hath delicates of stranger varitie, curiosity. Doth Judas stomach stand to treason? there it is; he may feed liberally on that dish. Doth Nero thirst for homicides? the Devil drinks to him in • oles of blood: is Jeroboam hungry of Idolatry? behold a couple of Calves are set before him: hath Absalom the Court-appetite, Ambition? loe, a whole Kingdom is presented him for a mess, a shrewd bait: Machiau • ls position, faith-breach for Kingdoms is no sin. The Devil thought this Dish would please CHRIST himself, and therefore offered him many kingdoms for a morsel; reserving this to the last, as the strongest argument of his Sophistry. Doth Herod affect Envy? behold, a Banket • f Reuenge, furnished with the murdered corps of thousands, Infants. Doth the ravening mawe of the Pope ( Ahab -like) forbear meat, because he cannot get the Vineyard of a Kingdom? or hath he bound himself with the spells of devilish con • estations (like those in Ac • es ) not to eat or drink till he hath killed Paul? behold, here is wine set before him in a golden cup, ( Wine of Abomination ) wherewith whole nations reel: Locusts and Vipers, pestilent and serpentine poisons, whereof the world laughing dies. Is any Courtier p • oud? here are piles of Silks: Is any Of • icer troub • ed with the itch in his hands? here is vnguentum aureum to cure it; a mess of bribes. Hath any Gentleman the hunger-worm of Covetousness? here is cheare for his diet: Vsuri • s, oppressions, exactions, enclosings, rackings, rakings, pleasing gobbets of avarice. Is any Trades-man light-fingered, and lighter-conscienced? here is whole feast of Frauds, a table furnished with Trickes, conveyances, glossings, perjuries, cheatings. Hath any Papist a superstitious Appetite? he is set down in the chair of Ignorance, and to him are served in by Sorbonists, Jesuits, S • minaries, Loyolists ; a large and lavish feast of Crucifixes, vnctions, scrapings, traditions, Re • iques, &c. And as Cheese to digest all the rest, yet it self never digested, Treason. For your route of Epicures, Ruffians, Roarers, Drunkards, Boone-companions, you may know the place easily where these Kas • rils light, even at the carcass-feast. Sin hath invited them, and they scorn to be scornful; hither they come, and every man hath a dish by himself, eat whiles he blow again; except their appetites agree in the choice. You hear the Inviter.

Let it not pass us without observation, Satan is not without his Factors abroad: he hath spirits enough of his own, my name is Legion, Mark 5. but he is not content, except he suborn man against man, till ( homo be homini daemon ) man a Judas to his friend, woman an Eve to her husband. I confess, he hath many Setters of this literal name and disposition; Harlots, scattring his Stews (like the lice of Egypt ) over all the world: but I will not restrain his Kingdom to these narrow limits only, which is not bounded but with the Earth: he that compasseth it, and hath such dealings in all Kingdoms, is not without his plotters, and Intelligencers in every corner.

He hath superstitious Seminaries in the Country, me • cenary periurers in the Hall, a long Lane for Brokers and Usurers in the City, and sometimes a dangerous brood of Jesuits in foreign Courts, croaking like Frogs, even in their Phara • hs Chambers: whilst himself roaues on the Sea of this World, like a Pirate, Cardinals and Jesuits are his Mariners, and the Pope sits at the Sterne: Antichrist is his Steward, (strange, he who calls himself Christ's Vicar should be the Devils Steward) and hath ever been faithful to his Kingdom. Many souls have they successively sent to people his low world, whiles their own went also for company. The wickedness of some Popes have been monstrous, and almost forbidding all the O • ficers of Satan to match them. That if a score of the most prodigious reprobates should be mustered out of Hell, it is likely enough, that nineteen of them would be Popes; and perhaps to make up the twentieth, there would be some strife between a Jesuit and a Cardinal.

Rome, is this Harlots local seat, her house, styled by the Scripture, the Whore of Babylon ; her Doctrine is here expressed: Stollen waters are sweet, and the bread of Secrecies is pleasant. Waters of Heresy, stolen from the Cisterns of Superstition. The bread of Deceipt, molded by Error, and baked in the Oven of Tradition. We have three commune Enemies; as we are Men, the Devil; as Christi • ns, the Turk; as professors of the Gospel, the Pope: the first hath the two last for h • s Factours: of whom, we pray▪ aut conuertantur, ne pereant: au • confundantur, ne noceant : either for their conversion, to save themselves; or for their confusion, not to hurt us. Amongst us, the Pope doth most present mischief: Peter told CHRIST, Behold, here are two Swords ; CHRIST told Peter, Behold, here are the Keys: Peter • ayes by his Swords, and takes the Keys: the Pope now lays by his Keys and falls to his Sword: Oh quantum hic Petrus ab illo? What difference betwixt the true Peter, and his false Successor? yet, as if he were Heau • ns Porter, men flock to him: whom let me appose with that of the Poet:

He hath infinite petrie stales, to tempt men to sin, whom he hath officed for Bidders to this Feast. Will you take a short muster of some of his Inviters, organa iniquitatis, enginers, bidders to this Banket of vanity: they have all their several stands.

1. In the Court, he hath set Ambition, to watch for base minds, that would stoop to any secure villainy for preferment; and to bring them to this Feast This attempt can tempt none but the base, the Noble spirit cannot be so wrought upon: this is a principal Bidder.

2. In Foro, at the Hall gates, he sets Inviters, that beckon contention to them, and fill the world with broils. I mean neither the reverend Judges, nor the worthy Counselors, nor the good Attorneys; but the Labels of the Law: Solliciters indeed, for they are a solicitation to our peace: Petty-foggers, Satan's fire-brands, and mortal things; which he casteth abroad, to make himself sport: but they do more hurt amongst the Barley, the Commons of this Land, then Samson's Foxes with the fire at their tails: Oh, that they were shipped out for Virginia ; or (if they would trouble so good a Soil) into some desert, where they might set Beasts together by the ears, for they cannot live without making broils.

3. Pride is another Bidder, and she keeps a shop in the City: You shall find a description of her Shop, and take an Inventory of her Wares, from the Prophet, Esa. 3. The tinkling ornaments, the Cawles, and the Moonetires, &c. She sits upon the Stall, and courts the Passengers with a What lack ye? Nay, besides her Person, she hangs out her Picture ; a picture unlike her self, though she not unlike her picture; all paint. Infinite traffic to her, but with the same luck and success, that the visitant beasts came to the sick Lion: Vestigia nulla retrorsum: or at best, as the runners to Rome, that return with shame and beggary.

4. Ingrossing is another Inviter ; and hath a large walk: sometimes he watcheth the landing of a Ship: sometimes he turns whole loads of Corn besides the market. This Bidder prevails with many a Citizen, Gentleman, Farmer, and brings in infinite guests: the Devil gives him a letter of Mart for his Pyracie.

5. Bribery is an officious fellow, and a special bidder to this Feast. He invites both forward and froward: the forward and yielding, by promises of good cheare: secunda dies ; that they shall have a fair • day of it: the backward honest man, by terrors and menaces, that his cause shall else go West-ward: (indeed it goes to Westminster. ) Yea, with pretence of Commiseration and Pity; as if the conscience of their right did animate them to their cause: thus with a show of Sanctimoni • , they get a Saints money: but indeed (argentum foecundum, argumentum facund • m) there is no persuasion more pathetical, then the purses. Bribery stands at the stair-foot in the robes of an Officer, and helps up Injury to the place of Audience: thus Judas his Bag is drawn with two strings, made of Silke and Silver, Favor and Reward.

All Officers belong not to one Court: their conditions alter with their places: there are some, that seem so good, that they lament the vices, whereupon they yet inflict but pecuniary punishments. Some of them are like the Israelites, with a Sword in one hand, and a Trowell in the other, with the motto of that old Emblem, In vtrumque paratus: as the one hand dawbes up Justice, so the other cuts breaches of division. They mourn for Truth and Equity, as the sons of Jacob for Joseph, when themselves sold it: they exclaim against penal transgressions. So Gaius Gracchus defends the Treasury from others violence, whiles himself robbed it: so the Pindar chafes and swears to see Beasts in the Corn, yet will pull up a stake, or cut a Teather, to find supply for his pinfold: so Charles the fifth was sory for the Popes durance, and gave orders of public prayers for his release, yet held him in his own hands prisoner.

6. Faction keeps the Church ; and invites some vain glorious Priests to this Feast: Schism and Separation, like a couple of thorns, prick the Churches side, wound our Mother, till her heart bleeds: All Seminaries of Sedition are Satan's special 〈◊〉 .

7. Riot is his Inviter in a Tavern▪ he sits like a young Gallant at the upper end of the Table; and drinks so many and so deep healths to the absent, that the present have no health left them. This is a frequented Inviting place, that I say not, the Feast it self. Coue • ousnesse often is the Host, Ebriety drinks the liquor, Swearing keeps th • reckoning, Lust holds the door, and Beggary pays the shot.

8. Oppression hath a large circuit, and is a general Bidder to this banket. This Factour hath abundance of the Devils work in hand: he vntiles the houses of the poor, that whiles the storms of Usury beat them out, he may have peaceable entrance: he joins house to house, as if he was straitened of room; tell him from me, there is room enough for him in hell.

There are infinite swarms of Inviters besides, which run like vagabonds on the Devils errand, with Salutem's in their mouths; as Judas to Jesus, all hail ; but it proved a rattling salutation, for Deaths storm followed it: all these declare to us the banquets praeparation. Infinite among ourselves; Rome offers us more help: but we answer them, (as Octauian did of the Crowe: (Satis istarum a • ium habemus domi.) We have enough of these brides at home: they are all Messengers of our wrack, Porkposes, premonishing a tempest; Usurers, Brokers, Vagrants, Ruffians, Blasphemers, Tiplers, Churls, Wantons, Pedlers of pernicious wares; Seminaries, Incendiaries, Apostates, Humorists, seditious troublers of our peace: you may perceive that our Winter's busy, by the flying abroad of these wild-geese. All are Bidders.

These Instruments of Tentation cannot hurt us, except we be enemies to our selves. They do their worst: Vertit{que} in meliora deus: God turns all to our best. Like wandering Planets, they are carried with a double motion, (Suo & primo mobili:) with their own, and a superior mover. By their own, which though (non sine error, tamen sine terrore) wandering, and stalking with big looks, yet are not so feared as they expect. 2. By the First and Great Mouers, which over-rules them with a violent hand. Perhaps they exercise us with tentat • ons, as Ashur did Israel ; but the work done, the rod is thrown into the fire: they are but • ubbish to scour the vessels of God's house ; Apothecaries to minister us bitter drugs, not able to put in one dram more then God our Physician prescribes; Shepherds dogs with their teeth beaten short, to hunt us to the sheepfolds of peace. In all their works, the villainy is their own, the virtue God's: (as in Christ's betraying, Opus dei redemptio, opus Iudae proditio. ) If we think, they flourish too long, let us satisfy our selves, with Job and David ; that (Subito ad Inferos) They go suddenly down into the pit. So the Poet propped up his tottering • aesitations, with this conclusion.

In the end, God clears his Justice from any imputation, by turning the workers of wickedness into hell.

[ 2] Do not think, because I have held you long with the Bidders, that I mean to forestall you of the Banket: behold, I have brought you now to the Feast, such as it is: Stollen waters are sweet, and th • bread of secrecies is pleasant. Thus it is in gross; to cut it up, and serve it in, in several dishes; you have. 1. A prescription. 2. A description. 3. An ascription. 1. A prescripon of their essences. 2. A description of their natures: 3. An ascription of their qualities. Quae, quanta, qualia. 1. The Iunkets are prescribed, quae sint, of what kind they are: Waters, Bread. 2. They are described quanta sint, of what property, virtue, nature; Stollen, Secret. 3. They are ascribed to, qualia sint, of what operation, relish, or quality; Sweet, Pleasant. Stollen waters, &c. Thus have you their quidditie, their quantity, their quality. This is the Banket (la •• um, l • tum) dainty and cherishing: ch • ape, for it is stolen; delightful, for it is sweet. We will ascend to view this Feast (not to feed on it) by the stairs and degrees of my Text. You have. 1. waters. 2. stolen. 3. sweet. So you have. 1. Bread. 2. eaten in secret. 3. pleasant. Of them all first literally and morally, then doctrinally.

Waters : Not the waters that the spirit moved on at the creation, the • irst waters ; nor the waters of Regeneration ▪ moved by the same spirit, sanctifying waters: nor the waters of Bethesda, stirred by an Angel, salutare and medicinal waters: nor the waters issuing from under the threshold of the Sanctuary; preservative waters. But the bitter waters of Marah, without the sweet wood of Grace to season them. Waters of Trouble, from which David prays for delivery. Tumultuous waters: Waters that turn into blood: bloody waters. Waters of Tribulation, to them that digest it; though waters of Titillation, to them that taste it: much like our hot waters in these days; strange chimicall extractions, quintessences of distilled natures: Viscera, ne dicam, mysteria Terrae: The bowels, nay the mysteries of Earth, good and happy in their opportune and moderate use; but wretched in our misapplied lusts; to turn the blood into fire, and to fill the bones with luxury; not to make nature swim in a river of delights, but even to drown it.

Waters ; neither Succourie nor Endiue, &c. no refrigerating waters, to cool the Souls heat, but waters of inflamation: Spain's Rosasolis, water of Inquisition: Tyrones Vsquebah, water of Rebellion: Turkey's Aqua fortis, a violent and bloody water: Rome's aqua inferna, a superstitious water ; stilled out of Sulphur and Brimstone, through the Lymbeck of Heresy. Oh! you wrong it: it is aquavitae, and aqua coelestis. Let the operation testify it: it is aqua fortis, aqua mortis. Vinum Barathri: the wine of hell: no poisons are so baneful: It tastes like honey; but if Jonathan touch it, he will endanger his life by it. These are wretched waters, worse then the moorish and Fennie rivers, which (the Poets fain) run with a dull and lazy course: tranquilla alta: streams, still at the top, but boiling like a Cauldron of moulten Lead at the bottom: Phlegeton, & Pyriphlegeton (ignitae et ••• mminiae vnde) were mere fables and toys to these waters: they are truculent, virulent, obnoxious waters, derived by some filthy guttures from the mare mortuum of Iniquity.

The Pope hath waters, not much unlike these of the Devils Banket. Holy-waters ; holy indeed, for they are con • ured with a holy exorcism, saith their Massebooke. Of wonderfu • l effects; either sprinkled outwardly, they refresh the receiver, as if his head was wrapped with a wet clowt in a cold morning; or drunk down, they are powerful to cleanse the heart, and scour out the Devil. Oh, you wrong Rome's holy water, to think it the Devils drink; when the proverb says, the Devil loves no holy water: yes, he will run from it, as a mendicant Friar from an alms! To speak duly of it; it is a special river of hell, and drowns more, then ever did the red Sea, when it swallowed an whole Army of the Egyptians. Why, but holy-water is a special ransom to free souls out of Purgatory ; and digged out of the fountain of Scripture. Asperges me, Domine, Hysopo: Thou shalt sprinkle me, oh Lord, with Hyssop: (for so their translation hath it:) the sense of which place, is, saith the Romist ; that the Priest must dash the grave with a holy-water-sprinkle: for you must suppose, that David was dead and buried when he spake these words, and his soul in Purgatory. It is added that Dives desired in hell, a drop of water to cool his tongue: Oh then, how cooling and comfortable are the sprinklings of these waters on the graves of the dead. But if they can speak no bett • r for them, they will prove some of these waters, here served in at Sins banket: for if Antichrist can make a man drunk with his holy-water, he will swallow all the rest of his morsels with the less difficulty.

These then are the waters ; not the water of Regeneration, wherein our Fathers and we have been baptized: nor the waters of Consolation, which make glad the City of God: nor the waters of Sanctification, wherein Christ once, the Spirit of Christ, still, washeth (the feet) the affections of the Saints. Not the Hyblaean Nectar of heaven, whereof, he that drinks, shall never thirst again: nor the waters of that pure River of life, clear as Crystal, proceeding out of the Throne of God. But the lutulent, spumy, maculatorie waters of Sin ; either squeezed from the spungie clouds of our corrupt natures, or surging from the contagious (veins of hell) springs of Temptation.

I might here blab to you the Devils secrets, and tell you his riddles, his tricks, his policies; in that he calls Sins, Waters, and would make his guests believe, that they wondersully refresh; but I reserve it to a fitter place: the Sweetness shall carry that note from the waters, I will contract all to these four observations; as the Sum of that I would write of the waters, not on the waters; I have better hope of your memories. 1. The preferment of waters at Satan's Banket. 2. The Devils policy in calling Sins by the name of waters. 3. The similitude of Sins to Waters. 4. The plurality and abundance of these waters.

Water is here prefer • to Bread ; for lightly Sins guests are better drinkers then eaters; they eat by the • omer, and drink by the Epha: Indeed; a full belly is not of such dexte • itie for the Devils employment, as a full brain. Gluttony would go sleep, and so do neither good nor harm: Ebriety hath some villainy in hand, and is then fitted with valor, the drunkard is an Hercules furens: he will kill and slay: how many do that in a Tavern, which they repent at a Tiburne? you will say, it is not wi • h drinking water: yes, the Harlots waters, (such as is served in at the Devils Banket ;) mixed with rage and madness. Water is an Element, whence humiditie is derived: the sap in the Vine, the juice in the Grape, the liquiditie in the Ale or Beer, is water: Indeed sometimes Neptune dwells too far off from Bacchus door; and the water is mastered with additions: yet it may (alienate the property) not annihilate the nature and essence of water: water it is still, though compounded water: compounded in our drinks, but in wines, derived, (à primis naturae per media) not extinguished in the being, not brought to a nullity of waters. Drink then, bibendum aliquid, though the Harlot gives it a modest and cool name, waters, is the first dish of the Devils Banket. The first entertainment into this Appij forum, is with the three Taverns ; not so much a drunkenness to the brain, as to the conscience. There is a Drunkenness, not with wine: there is a staggering not with strong drink. The Devil begins his Feast with a health, as Belshazzar, whatsoever the up-shot be. He propounds the water, and he propines it; he will not give them worse then he takes himself. As Jupiter is said, to have at his Court-gate two great Tunnes ; whereof they that enter must first drink; and himself begins to them.

Intemperance is the first dish to be tasted of: it is (if not principalis, yet, si ita dicam, principialis) if not the prime dish, yet the first dish: Satan must first intoxicate the brains, and extinguish the eye of reason; as the Thief that would rob the house, first puts out the Candle. Understanding is first drowned in these waters: Riot iustles, and the Wit is turned besides the Saddle. The Sons of the Earth would not so dote on the Whore of Babylon, if the wine of her Fornication had not made them drunk: the ghes • s here rise early to the wine: it is the first service; and are indeed (as the Apostles were slandered) nine-of-clock Drunkards: The day would be without his su • ficient sorrow, active and passive mischiefs, if the morning wine should not enflame them. They that are daily guests at the Devils table, know the fashions of his Court; they must be drunk at the entrance. It is one of his laws, and a Physic-bill of hell, that they must not wash, till they have drunk. These Waters are to be applied inwardly first, and once taken down, they are fitted to swallow any morsel of damnation that shall afterwards be presented them.

Water was the first drink in the world, and Water must be the first drink at the Devils Banket. There is more in it yet: The Devil shows a trick of his wit in this title. Water is a good creature, and many celestial things are shadowed by it. 1. It is the element, wherein we were baptized. 2. And dignified to figure the grace of the holy Spirit. Yet this very • ame, must be given to Sin. Indeed I know, the same things are often accepted in diverse senses, by the lang •• ge of Heaven. Leaven is est-soones taken for hypocri • ie, as in the Pharisees: for Athei • me, as in the S • dduces: for Prof • nenesse, as in the H • rodians. And generally for Sin, by Paul, 1 Cor. 5. Y • t by Christ, for grace. Luke. 13. God is compared to a Lyon: Amos. 3. And Christ is called the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah. Apocal. 5. And the Devil is called a Lyon. A roaring Lyon, &c. 1. Pet. 5. Christ was figured by a Serpent. John. 3. And to a Serpent is Satan compared. 2 Cor. 11. Stones are taken in the worst sense, Matth. 3. God is able of these stones to raise, &c. Stones in the best sense: 1. Pet. 2. Living stones: and Christ himself, the headstone of the corner. Psal. 118. Be like children, saith Paul ; and not like children: be children in simplicity, not in knowle • ge. Graces are called Waters ; so here vices; but the attribute makes the difference: Those are living Waters, these are the Waters of death. The Devil in this plays the Machiavelli ; but I spare to follow this circumstance here, because I shall meet it again, in the next branch; Bread of secrecies.

Sins may in some sense be likened to waters ; yea, even to waters in the Cup, for to waters in the Sea, they are most like; The one drowns not more bodies, then the other souls. They know the danger of the Sea, that pro • ecute their business in great waters: they might know the hazards of Si • ne, that sails in the Devils Barge of luxury: I may say of them both with the Poet.

They are within four or seven Inches of death: how many souls are thus shipwrecked? how many weep out a De profundis, that would not sing the songs of Zion, in the Land of the living! they forgot Jerusalem in their mirth, and therefore sit down and howl by the waters of 〈◊〉 : but these, here, are Festival, not Marinall wate • s.

1. Water is an enemy to digestion; so is Sin, clogging the memory (the souls stomach) with such crudit • es of vice, that no sober instructions can be digested in it: especially Waters hurt digestion in these cold Countries, naturally cold, in regard of the Climate, but spiritually more cold in devotion, Frosen up in the dregs of Iniquity. Surely many of our Auditors drink too deep of these Waters, before they come to Jacob's Well: our Waters of heavenly doctrine will not down with them. The Waters of sin so put your mouths out of taste, that you cannot relish the Waters of Life: they are Marah to your palates. It seems, you have been at the Devils Banket, and therefore thirst not after righteousness. The Cup of the old Temptation hath filled you: you scorn the Cup of the New Testament. If you had not drunk too hard of these Waters, you would ask Christ for his living Water: but Achan hath drunk cursed Gold, when he should come before Io • uah: Geh •• i hath drunk Bribes, when he should come to Elisha. No marvel if you suck no Juice from the Waters of God, when you are so full and drunken with the Waters of Satan.

2. Water duls the brain, and renders the spirits obtuse and heavy: It is an enemy to literature, saith Horace merrily:

We have no skill in the himnes of the spirit, no alacrity to praise God, no wisdom to pray to him: why? we have drunk of these stolen waters. The chilling and killing cold of our Indeuotion, the morose and raw humors of our uncharitableness▪ the foggy, dull, stupid heaviness of our invincible ignorance, show that we have been too busy with these Waters, nothing will pass with us, but rare and novel matters, (Ieiunus raro stomachus vulgaria temnit) and in these, we study to admire the garb, not to admit the profit.

3. We find Grace compared to Fire, and gracelessness to water : the Spirit came down on the Apostles in the likeness of fiery tongues, at the day of Pentecost: and John the Baptist testifies of CHRIST, that he should Baptise with the Holy Ghost, and with Fire. The spirit of sin falls on the heart like a cold dew. It is implied, Revel. 3.15. that zeal is hot, wickedness cold, neutrallitie luke-warm. Fire is hot (and dry) Water is cold (and moist) praedominantly, and in regard of their habitual qualities: so zeal; is 1. hot ; no incendiary, no praeter-natural, but a supernatural heat; equally mixed with Love and Anger: such was Elias zeal for the Lord of Hosts ; he could not be cold in this life, that went up in Fire to Heaven. 2. Drie: not like Ephraim, a Cake baked on the one side, but crude and raw on the other: no, the heat of zeal hath dried up the moisture of profaneness. But wickedness is 1. cold, a gelid nature, a numbness in the Conscience: that, (as when the Air is hotest, the Springs are coldest, so) when the Sun of Grace warms the whole Church, is yet shaking of an Ague; nay, and will not creep (like Simon Peter ) to the fire. 2. Moist, not (succus & sanguinis plenum) full of juice and sap; but sin runs like a cold rheum over the Conscience. This metaphor follows Saint Paul, Quench not the Spirit: wherein he fully justifies this circumstance, forbidding the water, of impiety, to quench the fire of Grace.

Here then see the impossibility of uniting the two contrary natures in one conscience, as of reconciling Fire and Water into the same place, time, and subject. If sin keep court in the Conscience, and sit in the Throne of the Heart, Grace dares not peep in at the gates; or if it doth, with cold entertainment. I have heard report of a generation of men, that carry Fire in the one hand, and Water in the other: whose conversation mingles (Humentia siccis) Wet and Drie together, like the Syriphian Frogs in Pliny, whose challenge was, mihi terra lacus{que}, I have Land and Sea for my walk: but alas, if the water be true water of sin, believe it, the Fire is but a false fire, the blaze of hypocrisy: but the Hermit turned his guest out of doors for this trick, that he could warm his cold hands with the same breath wherewith he cooled his hot pottage.

4. Water is a baser Element, and I may say, more elementary, more mixed, and as it were Sophisticate with transfusion: Fire is in the highest Region, the purest Element, and next to Heaven: this is the seat of grace, (non inferiora secuta) scorning the lower things. Sin is (like water ) of a ponderous, crass, gross, stinking, and sinking nature. They that have drunk the Cup of slumber, had need to be bidden Awake, and stand up, for they are sluggish and laid: Grace (though in the Orbe of Sin, yet) hath her conversation in Heaven, and (cor repositum, vbi proemium depositum) her heart laid up, where her love and treasure is: her motto is, non est mortal quod opto. She hath a holy aspiration, and seeketh to be as near to God as the clog of fles • will let her. Sin is like water, though raging with the surges and swellings, and only bounded in with God's non vltra, here I will stay thy proud waves, yet deorsum ruit: whiles these waters swim in the heart, the heart sinks down like a stone, as Nabal's.

5 Physicians say, that water is a binder: you may apply it, that men in these days are terrible water-drinkers: for the times are very restrictiue: you may as well wring Hercules Club out of his fist, as a penny from avarices Purse. Men's hearts are costiue, to part with anything in pios vsus: their hands clutchit, doors shut, purses not open: nay, the most laxatiue prodigals, that are lavish and letting-fly to their lusts, are yet heart-bound to the poor. It is a general disease procured be these waters, to be troubled with the griping at the heart. Such were the Kine of Bashan, soluble to their own lusts, bring, let us drink: bound up, and strait-laced to the poor: not refreshing, but oppressing, not helping but cr • shing the needy: they grieve not for Joseph ; nay, they grieve Joseph. These Kine are dead, but their Calves are in England, abundantly multiplied. These are not the days of peace, that turn Swordes into Sickles ; but the days of pride, wherein the Iron is knocked off from the plough, and by a new kind of Alchemistry converted into plate. The Farmers painfulness runs into the Mercers Shop, and the toiling Ox is a sacrifice and prey to the cunning Fox, all the racked rents in the Country will not discharge the Books in the City.

Great men are unmerciful to their Tenants, that they may be over-merciful to their Tendents; that stretch them as fast as they retch the others. The sweat of the laborers brows is made an ointment to supple the joints of Pride. Thus two malignant Planets reign at once, and in one heart, costiue covetousness, and loose lauishnesse: like the Serpent Amphisboena, with a head at each end of the body, who, whiles they strive which should be the Master-head, afflict the whole carcass: whiles Covetise and Pride wrestle, the Estate catcheth the fall. They eat Men alive in the Country, and are themselves eaten alive in the City: what they get in the Hundreth, they loose in the Sheere: Sic proedae patet esca sui: they make themselves plumpe for the prey; • or there are that play th • rob-thief with them: Vnius compendium, alterius dispendium: if there be a winner, there must be a looser: Serpens Serpentem deuorando fit Draco: Many Landlords are Serpents to devour the poor, but what are they that devour those Serpents? Dragons. You see what monsters then, usurious Citizens are. Thus whiles the Gentleman and the Citizen shuffle the Cardes together, they deal the poor Commons but a very ill game. These are the similitudes. I could also fit you with some discrepancies.

1. Waters mundifie and cleanse, these soil • nd infect: the Conscience grows more speckled by them, till men become not only spotted, but spots, as Lucan said of the wounded body, totum est pro vulnere corp •• , the whole body was as one wound.

2. Add, that waters quench the thirst, and cool the heat of the body, but these waters rather fire the heart, and inflame the affections; puff the Splene, which swollen, all the other parts pine and languish into a Consumption: the heart is so blown with lusts that all the graces of the soul dwindle like blasted Impes: these are (aquae soporiferae) waters of slumber, that cast the soul into a dead sleep, whiles the Devil cauterizeth and seares up the Conscience.

3. We say of water, it is a good Servant, though an ill Master: but we cannot apply it to Sin ; it is not good at all: indeed less ill, when it serves, then when it reigns: if this false Gibeonite will needs dwell with thee, set him to the basest Offices. So Israel kept in some Canaanites, lest the wild Beasts should come in upon them: our infirmities and mastered sins have their use thus, to humble us with the sense of our weakness, lest the furious beasts of pride and security, break into our freeholds. But sin of it self is good neither Egg nor Bird, neither in Root nor Branch, neither Hot nor Cold, neither in the Fountain nor in the Vessel.

The plurality of these waters prolongs and determines my speech: their nature is not more pernicious then their number numerous: indesinita locutio, infinita turba: an vndefined word, an vnconfined number. If there were but one cup alone, it would cloy, and satiate, and procure loathing, (as even Manna did to Israel ) therefore Satan doth diuersifie his drinks, to keep the wicked man's appetite fresh and sharp. If he be weary of one sin, behold, another stands at his elbow: hath Dives din'd? he may walk up to his study, and tell his Money, his Bags, his Idols: or call for the Key of his Wardrobe, to feed his proud eye with his Silks: for (Diuitiae & deliciae) Riches and Pleasures serve one another's turn. If Nabal be weary of counting his Flocks, or laying up their Fleeces, he may go and make himself drunk with his sheep-shearers. Hence it is that (ex malis moribus oriuntur plurim leges) to meet with the multiplicity of sins there is required a multitude of laws; as when Physicians grow rich, it is an evident sign of an infected Common-wealth. Sin stood not single in God's view, when he threatens so fearful a punishment, as the whole Book (again) cannot match it. Therefore the Land shall mourn, and everyone that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the Field, with the Fowls of Heaven; yea, the Fishes of the Sea also shall be taken away: an universal vastation: but as 1. privately, there was no Truth, yet if there had been Mercy: nay, no Mercy: somewhat yet, if Knowledge had stood constant: no Knowledge in the Land. So 2. positively, there was Swearing: can swearing be without lying? no, lying too: is the tongue alone set on fire at the Devils Forge? no, the hand is also a firebrand of Hell; Killing, Stealing, Adultery join their forces: and to give testimony against their singularity, Blood toucheth blood. How should reprobates else fill up the measure of their sins? Thus when the ungodly have eat and drunk, they may rise up to play.

Will you descend to personal instances? loe, Judas is new come from this Banket ; give him a vomit, and what lies on his stomach? strange waters, and abundance of them: behold, the Spanish waters of Pride, the Romish waters of Treason, the Italian waters of Murder, the Jewish of Hypocrisy, the Turkish of Thievery, the Grecian of all Villanie: ask Mary Magdalene what variety was at this Banket, she will tell you of seven Viols, seven Devils; you may hear another tell his name, Legion. Bid Absalom give you a Tavern-bill, or short Inuentorie, of these waters, and he will read you▪ In primis the swelling waters of Pride. Item, the surfeiting waters of Luxury. Item, the scalding waters of Adultery. Item, the red waters of Bloodiness. Item, the black waters of Treason ; and for the shot, ask him the total sum of the Bill, and he will tell you Damnation. If sins be thus familiarly linked in one man, how do they tune in a Consort? how agree they in Company? nothing better; not a Broker and a Pawn, not a dear year and a Cormorant. Hence Christ calls the way to perdition, the broad way. You cannot stir a foot in the great Road to the City of Hell, Pluto's Court, but you meet sins in throngs; vanity is the largest and most beaten thorough-fare of the world. Some double in their companies, some treble, some troupe, none go single. vae soli: if one sin were alone, it would be easily vanquished. The Devil knows that (vis vnita fortior) collected strengths are unconquerable: and therefore drives his waters so, that (vndae super advenit vnda) one wave seconds the former. 1. Sometimes they go like Beasts, by couples, Rom. 13. Ryot and Drunkenness, Chambring and Wantonness, Strife and Envy. Ierem. 23. Adultery and O • thes: and Ierem. 2. My people have committed two evils, &c. 2. Sometimes they dance in Triades, by threes, Phil. 3, Gluttonny, Pride, Covetousness, Gallat. 5. Vaineglory, Prouocation, Malice, Amos 1. For three transgressions and for four, &c. If there be not rather a great number meant: Saint John abridgeth all the vanity of the world into a triplicitie: All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lus • of the eyes, the pride of life. This is the Trinity the world doth worship: Haec trià pro trino Numine mundus habet. 3. Sometimes they come by whole herds and droues, like the Host of the Aramites. Galat. 5. you may read them mustered up: Adultery, &c.

Thus I have shown you the multiplicity of these waters: what remains, but that th • s • me fire of God's Altar, that hath enlightened your vnd ••• tandings, do a little also warm your conscience • ▪ should prevent the method of my Te •• , • f I s • oul • yet show you the direful, dismal operation of these waters: yet somewhat I must say to make you loath them. As Captains provoke their Soldiers, Per verbum vocale, per semivocale, per mutum: By vocal speeches, semi-vocal Drums and Trumpets, mute Ensigns: so God dissuades you from these waters. 1. By his word; Viua et viuifica voice ; A living and enliuing word: either in the Thunders of Sinai, or Songs of Zion, which the Word incarnate hath spoken. 2. Or by his semi-vocal writings: for at the beginning God talked with man by himself; but after, finding him estranged from his Creator, he sent him his mind in writing: And this he makes sounding by his Ministers. 3. Or by his dumb Ensigns, wonders, terrors, Judgments upon the lovers of these waters.

Trust not too much to these waters: they are not so virtual, as the described Inviters, the Devils Prophets tell you. Satan had long since his Water-Prophets: such were the Oracles Colophonium and Bronchidicum: wherein one by drinking of waters, the other by receiving the fume of waters, fore-told future things. Porphyry observes that antiquity, called them 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Madness ; but the error and impudence of succeeding ages 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Diuinations. These were the Priests of Bacchus, welcome to the world, as those would have been to Israel, that Prophecy of wine and strong drink. Men hear of strange fountains (famoused for wondrous cures) and run strait thither. The Devil is a Iuggler, and would make men believe, that if they drink at his fountain of Idolatry, they shall have good luck after it: (he blushed not to lay this battery of Temptation to the Son of God. ) As good luck as Sampson had, when he drunk out of the Asses tooth, and presently after lost his eyes: or rather, as he that to find his Horse, must, by the Mass-Priests direction, drink at Saint Bri • gets Well, accordingly found his Horse, and riding home • hereon, broke his neck. Yield it a Fable; the Moral shall yield us this: that we trust nothing, which hath not God's word for warrant. Charmes, Spels, Coniurations, are all vanities, lying vanities: he tha • trusts thereto, forsakes his own mercy.

Fear • these waters, for they are dangerous: sin is not more cool • n the t • st, then it is fiery in the operation. Afflic • ion is hot to the relish, (you cannot drink of my Cup) but cool, easeful, peaceful in the digestion: but these waters are (mel in ore, fell in cord) sweet in the palate, bitter in the stomach. The Oracle gave it: Ninum prius capi non posse, quam fluuius ei fiat hostis: Nineveh should not be taken, before the waters became her enemy: she feared no invndation, the Sea was too remote: yet in the third year of her Seige, the waters of the Clouds broke loose, and with abundant rain overwhelmed the walls; (Muros deiecit ad stadia viginti) to twenty furlongs. We live secure, and devour these waters of iniquity, as Fishes the water of the Sea; but when God shall make our sins compass us at the heels, and raise up these floods against us, we shall cry, as the drowning world, woe unto us, the waters are become our enemies: the floods of our own sins overwhelm us: so the Drunkard drinks a river into his belly, that drowns his vital spirits with a Dropsy.

Let us pump out these waters of Sin, which we have devoured: It is the only course we have left, to keep our Ship from sinking: Euomite, quos bibistis, fluuios. Cast them out by repentance: this is a saving vomit; or else God will give you a vomit of Sulphur, and shameful spewing shall be for your glory: We have all drunk liberally of these waters ; too prodigally at Sins fountain, Quando voluimus, et quantum valuimus ; when we would, as much as we were able; not only to drunkenness, but even to surfeit and madness: if we keep them in our stomachs, they will poison us: Oh, fetch them up again with buckets of sighs, and pump them out in rivers of tears, for your sins. Make your heads waters, and your eyes fountains : weep your consciences empty and dry again of these waters: Repentance only can lade them out. They, that have dry eyes, have waterish hearts: and the Proverb is too true for many; No man comes to heaven wi • h dry eyes: let your eyes gush out tears; not only in compassion for others, but in passion for yourselves, tha • have not kept God's Law. Weep out your sullen waters of discontent at God's doings, your garish waters of pride, freezing obduracie, burning malice, foggy intemperanc • , base covetise. Oh think, think, how you have despised the waters of life, turned Jesus Christ out of your Inn, into a beastly Stable; whiles Pride sits uppermost at your Tables, Malice usurps the best Chamber in your minds, Lust possesseth your eyes, Oaths employ your tongues, Ebriety bespeak your tastes, Theft and injury inthrone themselves in your hands, Mammon obsesseth your affections: Sick, sick, all over: you may cry with the Shunamites Son, Caput dolet: my head, my head: and with Jerusalem, my bowels, my bowels. Oh let faith and repentance make way, that the blood of our Savior may heal you.

We are not only guilty of aversion from God, but of adversion against God; Oh where is our reversion to God? the waters of lusts are ( aquae 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ) the waters of folly and madness; but our tears are ( aquae 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ) the waters of change of mind and repentance. Poenitentia est quasi poenae tenentia: Repentance is a taking punishment of our selves: oh take this holy punishment on your soul • s: Weep, weep, weep for your vanities. Achan cannot drink up his execrable gold, nor Gehazi devour his bribes, nor Ahab make but a draught of a vineyard, mingled with blood, nor Judas swallow down his cozenage and treason, without being called to a reckoning. Nos quare non credimus, quod omnes astabimus ante tribunal? Why account we not of our future standing before a Judgment Scate? Omnium aures pulso. All we, whom these walls compass, have been drunken with these waters: some, that hate Swearing, with dissembling: some, that abhor Idolatry, with profaneness: some, that avoid notoriousness, with hypocrisy: many, that pretend ill-will to all the rest, with those (Lares et Lemures) household-God's, or rather household-Goblins and Devils, which almost no house is free from, Fraud and Covetousness. We know, or at least should know, our own diseases, and the special dish whereon we have surfeited; oh, why break we not forth into ululations, mournings, and loud mournings for our sins? cease not till you have pumped out the sins of your souls at your eyes, and emptied your consciences of these waters.

And then, behold other, behold better, behold blessed waters: you taste of them in this life, and they fill your bones with Marrow, and your hearts with joy ; they alone satisfy your thirst : without which, though you could with Xerxes Army, drink whole Rivers dry, your burning heat could not be quenched. Here drink, Bibite et inebriamini, Drink, and be drunken in this Wine-cellar : only, having drunk hearty draughts of these waters of life, ret • ine them constantly: be not queasy-stomached, Demas -like, to cast them up again; the token of a cold stomach, not yet heated by the spirit: for as the loathing of repast is a token that Nature draws toward her end; so when these holy waters prove fastidious, it is an argument of a soul near her death. Take then and dige •• this water. Recipitur aure, retinetur cord, perficitur op • re. The ear receives, the heart retains, the life digests it: but alas, we retain these waters no longer then the finger of the Holy Ghost keeps them in us; like the • arden-pot, that holds water but whiles the thumb is upon it.

Leave then, Beloved, the Devils Wine-Celler, as Venerable Bede calls it, Vbi nos dulcedo delectationis invitauit ad bibendum, Where the sweet waters of delight tempt us to drink. But David, though he longed for it, would not drink the water of the Well of Bethlehem, which his three Worthies fetched, because it was the water of blood, brought with the danger of life: and shall we drink the waters o • the Devils Banket, (the venture of blood) with the hazard of our dearest souls? No, come we to this aqua Coelestis, be we poor or rich, have we money or none, all that come, are welcome. And know, that having drunk liberally at the fountain of grace, you shall have yet a larger and pleasanter draught at the fountain of glory: that river of life, clear as Crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God, and of the Lamb: to which the Spirit and the Bride (are Inviters and) say, come. It is a delightful banket we enjoy here; The Kingdom of heaven is right • ousnesse, and peace, and joy in the holy Ghost: None know the sweetness of these joys, but they that feel them: but the Supper of joy, the Banket of glory, the Waters of blessedness are such as no • ye hath seen, &c. Illic beata vita in fonte. There is the Spring-head of happiness: they cannot want water, that dwell by the Fountain.

That which is derived to us in Pipes is pleasant, oh what is the delight at the Well-head? The Devil, like an ordinary Host, sets forth his best wine first, and when the guests have well drunk, worse: but thou oh Lord, hast kept the best wine t • ll the last. They are sweet we taste here, but medio de sonte leporum surgit amari aliquid, There are some persecutions, crosses to embitter them, the sweet meat of the Passover is not eaten without sour herbs: but in thy presence, oh Lord, i • the fullness os joy, at thy right hand, there are pleasures for evermore. There is no bitterness in those waters: they are the same, that God himself and his holy Angels drink of; so that as for Christ his sake, we have drunk the bitter Cup of persecution, so we shall receive at Christ his hands, the Cup of salvation, and shall bless the name of the Lord. To whom, three persons, one only true and eternal God, be all praise, glory and obedience, now and forever. Amen.

THE Second Service of the Devils Banket. The second Sermon.

W EE have already served in the first course at the Devils Banket ; and feasted your ears with those Waters, from which God keep your souls fasting. Some things are proposed to our practice, some things are exposed to our contempt and dislike. The more accurately the Scriptures describe sins, the more absolutely they forbid them: where wickedness is the subject, all speech is declamation. As no spectator at those horrid Tragedies, where Oedipus is beheld the Incestuous Husband of his own Mother, or Thyestes, drunk with the blood of his own Children, or at any of the bleeding Bankets of the Medea's, can receive those horrors a • the Windows of his senses, without terror to his bowels, and trembling to his bones: so when you hear the relation of the Devils cheare, all the flattering, petulant, insidious, nature-tickling dishes of delight: the rarities of Impiety, the surfeits of the World, Horse-leaches to the blood, Witches to the affections, Devils to the Consciences of men; think that they are related, that they may be rejected: to bestow upon the Devils Cates his own names: the glory of Pride, the satiety of Epicureanism, the gallantnesse of Ebriety, the credit of Murder, the greatness of Scorn, the gracefulnesse of Swearing, the bravery of (the stigmatic) Fashion, the security of Usury, the singularity of Opinion, the content of Superstition; nunciantur, vt renuncientur: think not, they are prescribed for you, when they are described to you. Monstrantur vt monstra: they are set forth as monsters, that they might be loathed: they are advanced as Traitors heads, in terrorem futuri proditoris, to the terror of him that should be tempted to future Treason.

God's intent in declaring this Banket of Sin, is to make you loathe it; and that which is written, is for our instruction, to de • err, not to commend, as some of the Heathen had a custom in their solemn Feasts, to make a bondslave drunk, and then set him forth as a rediculou • object to their children. This Banket then, per • ibetur vna & prohibetur ; is at once declared and declaimed, spoken of and forbidden: lest through ignorance you should like and eat it, you are more fully made acquainted with the vileness of it. Hence our royal Preacher draws the Curtain of the World, and shows you all the delicates of her Table; not to whet your appetites to feed on them, but to cool your courage, dishearten your opinions, alienate your affections; giving you a true censure of their worthiness; all is vanity, and vexation of soul. They are detected, that • hey might be detested. Therefore if any of Gracchus brood, shall like a Catilmary disposition the better, because Tully hath indicted, interdicted, condemned it: if any son of Belial, shall more affectedly devour some morsel of damnation at this Feast, because the Preacher hath execrated it; and derive at once notice and encouragement from our terrifying censures: testimonium sibi ferat condemnationis: let him bear in himself the evidence of his own condemnation. They are wretched men, (qui minime declinant, quod boni maxim declamant) that most impetuously pursue, what all good men dissuade: running with Ahimaaz the more eagerly, because their friend Joab forbids them. So blasphemously spake the sacrilegious spoilers of Proserpines Temple in Locris, whose ring-leader was Dionisius: Videtis ne amici, quàm bona nauigatio ab ipsis Dijs sacrilegis tribuatur? sailing home, and now arriving at the Haven safe; see you not my friends, saith Dionisius, how fair and fortunate a Nauigation, the God's vouchsafe to Sacrilege? as if they therefore robbed the CHVRC • , because they were by the Oracle expressly inhibited: so (gens humana ruit in vetitum nefas) man's nature praecipitates it self into forbidden wickedness. This is an horrid sin; peccatum primae impressionis, & sine nomine adaequato: a wickedness of that nature, that there is no name significant enough to express it.

The manners of the Heathen might justify, and exemplarily make good that verse:

But such a report among Christians is so strange, that (fictum, non factum esse videatur) it would seem rather a fable then a fact, a tale then a deed. Publish it • ot in Gath, nor tell it in the streets of Askelon, that any Israelite should the more desperately cleave to Baal, because Elias hath cursed it. There are none such; neither is there Rain in the Clouds: Indeed Charity would not believe it: for it is even the order of Nature, that (tarda sole • magnis rebus adesse fides) slow faith is given to great reports: but alas, we are forced to see, (what we would not believe) such refractary Recusants to all Christianity, l • uing and speaking, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , according to their own lusts, that would not be so ill, if they had not been taught to be better: quibus res diuinae lusus sunt, ijs & voluptas pro vita, & libido pro ration est. They that play with Divinity, and make Rel • gion a mock, giude their Life by Pleasure, and their Reason by Lust. Time was, the Kingdom of Heaven suffered violence, and men took it by strong hand, now it offers violence, and men by strong hand repel it: before it was so precious, that every man preassed (and crowded) into it, now it press • th upon us, and we are glad to be rid of it, (as Covetousness of poverty at his door.) And as the fountains would not be so cold, if the Sun had not heated the air, and forced the contrary quality into such abstruse corners; many would have been less outrageous in their filthiness, is the Gospel of Grace, had not so universally spread his beams: Their whole life is a continual prevarication; and it is the cordial Physic to fat their spleenes, that they can be cross to God.

But, lex in sermon tenenda ; I speak to Christians, of whom we cannot but hope better things: if there be any here that hath sold his faith for his pleasure, as Adam did his life for an Apple, or Esau his birth-right for a mess of Pottage, and will venture himself a guest at the Devils Bank • t, maugre all devitation; let him stay and hear the Reckoning, for there is a Shot to be paid, which cannot be avoided: as Circe's Cup turns men into beasts, so it brings them to a beastly end, it fats them against the slaughter-day of Judgment. We leave then the prescription of the waters, and come to the description of their natures: Stollen. It is a word of Theft ; and implies, besides the action of Stealth, some persons active and passive in this business; some that do wrong and steal, some that suffer wrong, and are robbed. Robberi • is a sin, literally forbidden only in one Commandment, but by inference, in all: What sin is committed, and some person is not robbed? Doth not Id • latrie rob God of his worship? Blasphemy of his honor? Saboth-impiety of his reserved time? Doth not Irr • ueren • e rob our betters? Murder rob man of his life? Theft of his goods? False t • stimonie of his good name or right? Doth not the Harlot here, knit the eight precept to the seventh, and call (adulterium, furtum?) The pleasures of a forbidden bed, Stollen waters? Let us solace our selves with loves▪ for the good man is not at home, &c.

Since then, all sins are waters of stealth, it is an inevitable consequent, that every sin robs some: let us examine, whom. The parties robbed are. 1. God. 2. Man. 3. Our selves: and there be diverse sins rob either of these. Of every circumstance a little, according to the common liking; for some had rather h are many points, then learn one: they would have every word a sentence, and every sentence a Sermon; as he that wrote • the Pater-noster in the compass of a Penie. Only I entreat you to observe; that this is a thievish Banket, where is nothing but stolen waters: all the Cates be robberies: the guests cannot drink a drop, but there is injury done. Accordingly, I will jointly proceed. 1. To describe the Waters of Sin at this Feast. 2. And withal, to prove them stolen waters, such as rob either our God, our Brethren, or our selves. I need not clear the Feast from an opinion of coursenesse, because the prime Service goes under the name of waters: this alone doth enforce the delicacy: Neither is all water, for the Bread of Secrecie is one half of the Banket. Let us not be too nice in the letter and shadow: the substance is; The Devil invites and tempteth men to feed on vanity, to feast on Sins: those sins I have labored to display, so far as the Metaphor would give me leave: only, let your affections follow me: that as I fear not to make the Iniquities hateful to your understandings, so I may hope, they will be loathed of your hearts, eschewed of your lives: in confidence whereof I proceed. The first course of these wae • rs, are such sins, as more immediately rob God: And here, as it is fit, Atheism leads in the rest: a principal Vial of these stolen waters.

1. Atheism is the highest Theft against God; because it would steal from him not (sua, • ed se,) his goods, but himself: proceeding further (then, Deus haec non curat, to, Deu • non est.) Then to say, God will not regard it ; but, there is no God to regard it. These offer not only a wicked hand to their own conscience, to scrape out the (deep-engraven and) indelible characters of the Divinity there; but a sacrilegious hand to heaven, as if they would empty it of a Deity, and pull Jehovah out of his Throne, and make him a nonens. All, with them, is begun and done, either by the necessitiy of Fate, or contingency of Fortune. Te facim •• Fortuna Deem. If any strange vice be committed, the Planets shall be charged with it. Mercury told the lie, Mars did the murder, Venus committed the whoredom. Thus by looking to the inferior causes, (producing necessary effects) they rob God, who is (prima causa creans causas) the causing cause, and the original mover of all things. These are worse then the Devil: for, if at first he doubts and tempts Christ, yet seeing, feeling his power and miracles, he confesseth: only impudent Caiaphas, saw and knew, yet tempts, Thus often, the Instrument excels the Agent; and there be Machiauels, Politicians, Atheists, have tricks beyond the Devil. The Devil believes and trembles, these have neither faith nor fear. The Devil quakes at the day of Judgment torment us not before the time, these deride it: Where is the promise of his coming? Strange! even the Father of Sins comes short of his Children; and that there should be Atheists on Earth, when there is none in Hell.

These Monsters are in the Wilderness! No, they borough in Zion: if seldom such, as say, there is no God, yet frequent, that call Religion a fable; or at least, testify no less of it in their lives: for, Quorum est commune Symbolum, facillimus est transitus: How many make that their Gospel, which they can spell into their purses; and embrace no other Creed, then their Lord and Masters humor? that turn articles of piety to particles of Pollicie: and sophisticate old singleness into new singularity? If a Seminaries argument, shall be more gold-weighty then the best Sermon of ours, they are for Rome the next tide: any Religion, that can enrich their Coffers, shall have their applauses: What differ these from Atheists? or that Pope, who hearing Cardinal Bembus speak of the Gospel, burst forth into this blasphemy: Quantum nob • s ac nostro coetui profuerit ea de Christo fabula, • atis est omnibus seculis notae. How gainful the fiction or tale of Christ hath been to us, and our Crew, the whole World may know and witness. All Religion is with them a Fable, or at best, fallible. They would fit Religion to their own humors, as Procustes dealt with his Ghests: for all that came he had but one bed: if they were shorter then his bed, • ee racked them out, to make them long enough: if longer, he would cut them shorter, till they were fit. These are cruel thieves, that would rob God of himself.

2 The second Vial is Heresy: a dangerous water, because it soon tickles the brain, and makes the mind drunk. This Sin robs God of his Truth: There are many of these Thieves, though contrary among themselves; whose opinions are as cross one to another, as Samson's Foxes, but their tails meet, to scatter the Fire of dissention in the Church: no Lawyers wrangle more in public; nor more lovingly feast one another in private, with the gains of their dissimulation: How bitterly the Brownists on the right hand, the Papists on the left, rail at each other; how friendly agree they, like Herod and Pilate, to afflict Christ? how in effect do they sing both in one tune, to build up D •• otion with Ignorance, to wrangle with the Prince for his Supremacy?

In elder times, you had Cerinthus and Arius robbing Christ of his Divinity: Moniche and Marcion of his Humanity ; the Nestorians, of the Unity of both natures in one Person. They are dead: oh, bury them, bury them: let their Heresies rot. Alas, how are the spirits of them all, by a kind of transanimation, come into the Romists? Christ is, there, robbed of his Truth of his garments, of his peace, of his life, as well as at Jerusalem ; and that without show of being his enemies; Spoliastis amici, You are my friends, yet rob me. Bones rob Christ of his adoration: stones of his Prayers: the Pope of his power. Remission of sins, validity of merits, ease of pains, the Pope must give; who would give the world, that he had them for himself. Too much shall be given to the name of Jesus, more then he would have; that a wicked man shall by it cast out Devils: to whom if the Devils reply not, as they did once to the audacious Sons of Sceua; Jesus we know, and Paul we know, but who are ye? yet God answers them, Qui • haec &c. Who hath required this at your hands? Too little to the nature of Jesus: Mans merits shall share with him in justification: Penance in satisfaction : Angels and Saints in Intercession. These are subtle Thieves, that have their bodies for a Communion, their consciences for a Mass, their voices for the Prince, their hearts for the Pope, their souls for the Devil.

3. The third Vial of this Course is Sacrilege: a water, like some winding Meander, that runs through our corn fields, and washeth away the Tenth, God's part. This Sin robs God of his goods: Will a man rob God? yet ye have robbed me: but ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? in Tithes and offerings. Oh! that none among us durst drink of these Stollen waters! but, alas, what law can be given to rob Altars? If Blindasinus be a man of gifts, so justified by the sensible Presenter, what should cross his admission? Is not a Quare impedit, his special friend? yes; and yet not more, then a Prohibition is often a good Ministers foe. Hence now there is little difference betwixt serving at the Altar, and steruing at the Altar. Ministers have (multos laudatores, paucos datores,) Many praisers, few raisers; many benedictors, few benefactors.

Plead not, that they are not stolen, because conveyed by the Ministers consent; for the right is originally in God. Spoliastis me: You have robbed me: me, saith the Lord. The Incumbent consenting is not robbed, God is. They zealously require a learned Ministry, when themselves imbezzell the rewards of learning: they complain of an ignorant, not of a beggarly Clergy. They are content, we should stand in the Pulpit, so long as they may sit in a Tith-shock; and seem wonderfully affected with the oraculous voice of their Minister, but the creaking noise of a Tith-Cart into their own Barn is better Music. Oh, the fearful cry of this Sin in the ears of God against this Land! he hath sprinkled some drops of his angry Vial for it: Droughts, blastings, witherings, are but his Distringis: he destroys all, because we will not pay some: Si domino decimam non dederis, ad decimam reuerteris: He doth justly take away the nine, when we deny him the Tenth: Indeed I confess, that many an Eliashib compacts with Tobiah, to steal holy things: a Cnosticke Patron, a Paphian Priest: so the one have ease, let the other take benefit. Tobiah must have the Tith-corn, the glebe land, and perhaps the very house for a Dairy, and his Cosen Eli • sh • b shall have the tithe Geese, and the Egges at Easter. Shall not the Lord visit for such wi • kednesse as this? shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation?

Whiles the rewards of knowledge are diverted to profane uses, God and his heaven is robbed of thousand thousand souls: Oh, pray we, (quid enim nisi vota supersunt?) Pray we, with that most reverend Bishop, That God would rather convert; if not, confound those that rob him of his goods, the Church of her right, the people of understanding. But if no contestation of God, nor protestation of men, can stint their swallowing these stolen waters, let some good Nehemiah be revived, to re-enforce from their felonious hands, that holy Rent, which God hath from every Tenant of his reserved: let the zeal of some Phinehas turn away God's wrath from our Israel. Decimate, quibus debetis, et diuites fietis: Pay your tithes, to whom you should pay them, and you shall be enriched. Bring ye all your Tithes into the Store-house, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now here-with, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of Heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. Read and ponder Heliodorus deed and doom, and quake at it. You cannot steal waters from the living God, but they will poison you.

4. The fourth Vial is Faction, a Water of Trouble to the drinker: this robs God of his order and peace: the Waters of Schism are stolen waters: yet such as many a Separatist loves to drink of: they think not that they rob God, whiles they steal peace from the Church. Christi tunica must be vnica: Christ's Coat was without seam, his truth must be without Rent: we must be all at one, least at all none. Let us not plead so hard for parity in the Church, till we bring Anarchy into the Common-wealth: let our dispositions be like Abraham's: I pray thee, let there be no strife between me and thee, for we are Brethren. Let not God's eutaxie, Order, by our frivolous scruples be brought to ataxie, Confusion. Let Calum's rule over-rule our turbulent and refractary spirits: Omnia indifferentia in Ecclesiae libertate posita sunt. All indifferent things are put to the disposition and ordering of the Church. Oh you, whom Christ hath made Fishers of souls, fish no longer in troubled waters: Let us not wrangle anymore about colors, as the Constantinopolitans did once in the days of Justinian, about blew and green; till they were all neither blew nor green, but red; the streets swimming in blood, and the Emperor himself endangered. So the Factions of the B • anchi and Neri, about the two colors of black and white, cost the Dukedom of Florence deer, even the beauty and peace of the Country. What, have we all been deceived? hath God been a stranger to us all this while? Ha • e I been so long time with you, and have you not known me, saith Christ to Philip? hath the Truth been hid in corners; that we must grope for it in a Sectaries budget? or are not such men rather, sick of Donatism? that every Novelist with a whirlegig in his brain, must broach new opinions, and those made Canons, nay Sanctions ; as sure as if a general Council had confirmed them. Wretched men, that shake off the true comely habit of Religion, to bespeak them a new-fashioned suite of profession at an Humourists Shop. Oh that their sore eyes could, before they left us, have seen what sacrilegious breaches they have made into God's free-hold; robbing his Church of her peace, and waking the Spouse of Christ with their turbulent noises. Factions are stolen waters.

5. The last vial of this first Course is Profaneness: a compounded Water, whereout no sin is excluded: there was no poison the Devil could think on left out, when he tempered this water. It robs God of his glory. We are borne to honor God: it is his due; and that he will have, either ( ate, or dete ) by thee, or upon thee: Irreligion robs him of this honor: Solummodo hoc • habet, &c. only he hath this to help himself, that he can make it shine in thy • ust confusion. So Menahem destroyed Tipsah, because they would not open unto him: but these will open to Christ knocking, if he will be content:

If CHRIST will dwell with Bel • all, and share part of the Conscience with wickedness, let him come, and welcome: but he scorns to be an Inmate, and let Satan be Lord of the house: he that ac • epted a stable for his presence-chamber in his humility, doth justly disdain such abode now in his glory: though the walls be but Clay, if the furniture be good, Humility and Repentance ; and the cheer answerable, Faith and Charity, he will enter in and Feast. But as his Wombe was, wherein borne; and his Tomb, wherein buried; so must his Temple be now glorified. He was conceived in a womb, where none else was conceived; received into a Tomb where none else was interred: so he will temple himself in a heart, where no affected sin shall be his equal. The profane among the Heathen were thrust from their sacrificiall solemnities. But now, our profane save that labor; they thrust from themselves all pious rites: they sing not with the Church, a Tenebo te Domine, I will hold thee fast, oh Lord; but with Simeon, a Nunc dimittis, though with another spirit: they are glad to be gone. CHRIST is as welcome to them as C • sars Taxers to the Jews, or the Beadle to the Brothel-house: so the Gergesites tell him to his face: Sir, to be plain with you, you are no guest for us: our secure lives, and your severe Laws will never cotten.

Men live without considering themselves: vnde, vbi, quomodo, quo. Whence they are: where they are: how they do: whither they go: that all these mathematical lines have Earth for their Center. Whence are we? from Earth. Where are we? on Earth. How live we? unworthy of Earth, or any blessing upon it. Wither go we? to Earth. Terram terra tegat: Earth to Earth. We are composed of four Elements, and they strive in us for Masterie; but the lowest gets the better▪ and there is no rest till Earth have the predominance. These men live, as if there was neither Earth to devour their bodies, nor gulf lower then Earth to swallow their souls.

This is profaneness : The world is rank & manured with sin: Atheism grows up as a Tree, Error and Ignorance are the Leaues, Profaneness and Rebellion the Fruit, and the end is the Axe and the Fire. Their best is verbal Devotion, actual Abomination. Diu • dunt opera a fide, & vtrum{que} perimitur. They separate works from faith: they divide the child and kill it. Works are dead without Faith: and Faith is not alive without Works. They take away that visible distinction betwixt Christians and Infidels, whiles they live not as honest men. Oh, that I could cut this point short, and yet keep my discourse but somewhat even with the subject: but the world drinks too greedily of these profane waters, which rob God of his glory. Most men are no longer Tenants to the Devil, and retailours of his Wares, but proprietaries; (perverted and perverse persons) they strive to be as deep sharers as himself. Machiavelli will no longer work Journey-work with the Devil, he will now cut out the garment of damnation himself. The Vices of these men are so monstrous, that they no less benumb in all good men the tenderness of affection, then in themselves the sense of all humanity. Vox faucibus haeret. It is a shame to utter, an amazement to hear, yet they blush not to commit such execrable impieties. Impudence is only in fashion, and there is no forehead held so graceful, as that the Prophet calls graceless, an Harlots forehead, that cannot blush. Swearing swaggers out admonition: drunkenness drinks down sorrow and penitence: Usury floutes at Hell.

It was Epitaph'd on Pope Alexanders Tomb, Iacet hîc & scelus & vitium. Here lies wickedness it self: it could not be so buried up. He was vile enough. Thais Alexandri filia, sponsa, nurus. Lucrece was his Daughter, his Whore, his Sons Wife: Horrid! that Viper went not to Hell issue-less. What is this but Infidelity and Atheism, though not in Antecedent, yet in Consequente: if not verbal, yet real: under the form of Godliness, an implicit renegation of the power? Multi adorant Crucem exterius, qui crucem spiritualem per contemptam conculcant. Many superstitiously adore the Crucifix, that are enemies to the Cross of Christ, and tread his holy Blood under their scornful feet: Nay, they are not wanting that brag with Pherecides, that they have as much prosperity, though they never sacrifice, as they that offer whole Hecatombes. They will be wicked, if it be for nothing else, to scape the rod of affliction. They make sport with the Book of GOD, as Daphias with the Delphicke Oracle; who inquired of it, whither he should find the Horse he had lost, when indeed he had none: the Oracle answered, inuenturum quidem, sed vt eo turbatus periret ; that he should find a horse, but his death withal. Home he is coming, joyful that he had deluded the Oracle; but by the way he fell into the hands of the wronged King Attalus, and was by his command thrown headlong from a Rock, called the Horse, and so perished: as fabulous as you may think i • , the Moral of it will fall heavy on the deriders of God.

These are the sins, that immediately rob God, fitly called by our whorish Sorceresse, Stollen waters ; which shall never be carried away without account. The second sort of Stollen waters are those sins, which mediately rob God, immediately our Brethren; depriving them of some comfort or right, which the inviolable Law of God, hath interrested them to: for what the Law of God, of Nature, of Nations, hath made ours, cannot be extorted from us, without Stealth ; and may be (even in most strict terms) called Stollen waters.

1. Here (fitly) Irreuerence is served in first: a water of Stealth, that robs man of that right of honor, wherewith God hath invested him. Even Abimelech, a King, a Gentle King, reverenced Abraham: even stately Herod poor John the Baptist. Yes, let reverence be given to Superioritie, if it be built on the bases of worthiness, and to Age, if it be found in the ways of righteousness: Indeed, it should be so, that Seniores annis, should be Saniores animis, and praefectus perfectus ; that eminency of place and of virtue should concur, that Greatness and Goodness should dwell together: but the conscience of reverence is fetch • from God's precept, not man's dignity; and therefore the omission is a robbery: the neglect of honor to whom it belongs, is a Stollen water. The eye that mocketh at his Father, and despiseth to obey his Mother, (doth he think them worthy, or not) the Ravens of the Valley shall pick it out, and the young Eagles eat it. But, alas, these are those irreverent days, where (infoelix lolium, & steriles dominantur avenge) • nuectiues, railings, calumnies, libels, grow up among sober and wholesome admonitions: the same ground produceth both Hearbes and Weedes, and so nourisheth both Sheep and Serpents.

The Nettle grows up with the Rose, and the Lamb must graze in the Wolves company. These are like furious Beasts, that ranging for their pray, and being hampered in the snares, when they cannot break loose to forage, they lie down and roar.

From this foul nest have fluttered abroad all those clamorous Bills, slanderous Libels, malicious Inuectiues, seditious Pamphlets; whence not only good names have been traduced, but good things abused. Self-conceit blows them up with ventosity; and if others think not as well of them, as they of themselves, strait like Porcupines, they shoot their quils, or like Cuttels vomit out Inke to trouble the waters. That impudent and insolent claim is made ordinary in these days: With our tongue we will prevail ; for our lips are our own. When the Eagle in the Air, Panther in the Desert, Dragon in the deep, Leviathan in the Ocean, are tamed; yet the Tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. It is fired, and with no weaker Fire then Hels. Their hearts are Ouens, heated with malice, and their tongues burning peeles; they are never drawn, but there is a batch for the Devil. These are not only the Geese in the Capitall, to gaggle at Statesmen in the Common-wealth; but Foxes also about the Temple, that, if they be seen stealing the Grapes, fall a biting their descryers by the shinnes. Because the Church hath not heretofore given some the Keys of her Treasure, nor called for them when Bishoprics and promotions were a dealing, they will indite her of incontinency with Rome, (miserable sons, to slander their Mother with adultery.) What they would and cannot do themselves, they blame in others, with Corah, Ye take too much upon, ye sons of Levi. Libels are stolen waters.

2. Murder usurps the second room; a red Water, that robs man of his life: whither they be Popish commissions to cut throats, for the Whore of Babylon can drink nothing but blood; or the monstrous illuminations of the Anabaptists, deriving revelation from the spirit of horrid murder; that the brother should cut off the brothers head, by a command from Heaven, the Father & Mother standing by: Luther calls this a gross Devil: or the sudden quarrels of our age, where evidences of pusillanimitie▪ or (at best) inconsiderate fury, are produced as arguments of Valour: A cross word is ground enough for a challenge: and what issue hath streamed from these Duells, who can think and not quake? The Land is defiled with blood ; not shed by an alien hand, God hath been content, (talem nobis averter pestem) to free us from that plague: but civil, uncivil broils. We fall out for feathers; some lie dead in the Chanell, whiles they stood too much for the wall: others sacrifice their hearts blood for the love of an Harlot: Not to pledge a health, is cause enough to loose health and life too. Oh, who shall wash our Land from these aspersions of blood? Murder is but Mans-slaughter, and Mans-slaughter no more then dog-slaughter. Parce ciuium sanguini, should be our condition of life, as it is a sanction of nature, (to spare the blood of Citizens, connatural, collateral, connationall with our selves:) but now it is not spared (sanguini vel ciuium vel sanctorum) to spill the blood of either Citizens or Saints: yet precious in the sight of the Lord is the blood of his Saints, when the blood of his enemies shall not be impunely shed.

There is not a drop of blood thus spilled upon the earth, but swells like an Ocean; and nothing can dry it up, till it be revenged. The most excellent of God's creatures on earth, the beauty, the extract, the abstract, or abridgement of the world, the glory of the workman, the confluence of all honor that mortality can afford, and (what is above all the rest) the Image of the almighty God, with pain borne, with expense nurtured, must fall in a moment: and by whom? one son of Adam by another: the proverb is exiled, homo homini Deus, man is a God to man: nay, it is rare, saith the Philosopher, to find a man to man: for want of using reason how many are beasts; and for not using it well, how many Devils? Hear the Law, ye lawless brood of Cain, that slay a man in your anger: Blood for blood. You think to scape with a Pardon, but there is no pardon of Earth can ease the bleeding conscience. Let none kill Cain, that so every day kills himself. As in that great plague on Egypt, all the waters in their Rivers, Streames, Ponds, Pooles, Vessels were changed into blood, so shall it be in the conscience of the Murderer: his eyes shall behold no other color but red, as if the air were of a sanguine die: his visions in the night shall be all blood; his dreams sprinkling blood on his face; all his thoughts shall flow with blood: If any David scapes the wounds of man's sword to his body, or God's to his soul, let him thank the blood of the crucified JESUS, whose wounds must intercede for his, and procure a pardon. This is that Blood, which doth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , speak better things, and stint the ceaselesse cry of the blood of Abel: but all this to none, but those that bleed in soul for those sins.

Purge the Land of this blood, ye Magistrates: For the Land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of them that shed it.

Purge it then, lest God in revenge make his arrows dr • nke with blood. Fear not to find them, ye Jurors, lest whiles you sau • a Murderer, you expose, object, hazard your own throats to his Sword. Hear this also, ye Physicians, think it is the life of Man is questioned: the Epigram comes here to my mind:

Sell not insufficient drugs; nor pitch so high a price on your Ignorance. Let it not be true of you, that pessimus morbus est Medicus, the worst disease is the Pysician. That Emperor found it true, by a mortal experience, that Turba medicorum interfecit Regem ; Physicians killed him. Blood is precious, let it be preserved.

3. Adultery knows her place: a filthy water, yet in special account at this Feast. It may well be called a stolen water ; for it robs man of that comfort which the sacred hand of heaven hath knit to him; vnrauels the bottom of that joy which God hath wound up for him; subornes a spurious seed to inherit his Lands; damps his livelihood, sets paleness on his cheek, and impastures grief in his heart. It is that special instance of wickedness, whereby Solomon here expresseth all the rest. The whorish woman calls the pleasures of a forbidden bed, stolen waters. Woe is to him, that is robbed, I mean, the bitter woe of a temporal discontent; which is an inseparable consequent of Christian affection wronged: but more woe to the Robber; who, besides the corporal strokes of Heavens angry hand in this life, shall feel the fearful addition of an eternal woe in hell. Whore-mongers and adulterers God will judge. If a present punishment be suspended, the future shall never be dispended with. Our firmament hangs too full of these falling Stars ; corrupt Meteors, wandering Planets, that only glimmer in the night, when the Sun of vigilancy is set. This cursed weed begins to grow almost as rank in England, as in Italy: only no Authority gives toleration to it: they are here, Aquae surreptitiae, waters of stealth ; but there, Inuitant adaperta viros male limina spurcos. The open doors invite their entrance, whiles the law doth not only wink but warrant. There is no hope to keep out Venus, when Drunkenness her Gentleman-Usher, and Dice her old company-keeper are let in. Many Nightingales have sung sad lamentations, woe and ruin against these rapes and whoredoms; but the unclean Sparrowes, cherping the voice of Lust on the house-tops, are suffered to have nests in the roof, when the good Nightingale is driven to the Woods.

There are not wanting, by report, (and those no beggars) that justify this, and clear it from sin by arguments: strong wits, and those sublimed: the wittier, the wickeder. I will give them a double answer, which no distinction shall evade. God hath charged, Thou shalt not commit Adultery: Hazard thyself to dispute against and enervate God's Prohibition, and try, if the second confute thee not; the black poison of thy own conscience; which is set on fire by Lust here, and though it have the fire of Hell added to it shall never be wasted. The Devil was modest when he came to Eve, with, praecepitne Deus, &c, Hath God charged you not to eat, &c? now bluntly, Non praecepit Deus: God hath not concluded Adultery a sin. Inaudita oracula fundit. Impudence in the highest degree, to give God the lie; and except against the absoluteness of his precept.

I intended brevity in the broaching these stolen waters ; the matter forceth me to prolixity against my will. Lust hath many friends in these days; many Promoters, whereby she insinuates her self to the world. Among all, those in print do most mischief. Libri Sybaritici, as the same sin-guilty Martial calls them; Books of Epicureanism and Sensuality. Ouids amatories have bright and trite covers, when the book of God lies in a dustie corner. The Devil plays with us, as Hippomenes with Atalanta, seeing us earnest in our race to Heaven, throws us here and there a golden Ball, an idle Pamphlet. If Cleanthes open his Shop, he shall have Customers: Many a Traveler there sets down his staff; though he pulls off his eyes with Ouids dole: Cur aliquid vidi, cur n • xia lumina feci? Why have I so couetously beheld these vanities? Paucis de Philosophià gust • ndum, was the old charge: let few drink at the fountain of Philosophy: but we are drunk with that, all Philosophy condemned. The Stationer dares hardly venture such cost on a good Sermon, as for an Idle Play: it will not sell so well: wicked days the whiles. Oh that they were all condemned to an Ephesian fire; that we might say, as Alcibiades of that Athenian heap of burning scrowles, Nunquam vidi ignem clariorem: We never saw a clearer fire.

4. Thievery needs no more then the name, to prove it a Water of Stealth: This robs man of his goods; those temporal things, whereof God hath made him a proprietarie: A sin which Usurers and Money-mongers do bitterly rail at: They that are of no religion, yet plead religion hard against Thieves: They can lay the law to them, that have no conscience themselves▪ They rob a Country, yet think themselves honest men; and would hang a poor petty robber for forty pence. Let him answer them in the Satire.

As no theft can scape condemnation, so yet di • ferent degrees shall be punished with di • ferent torments. Extortion, usury, fraud, injustice, are not less thefts, because less manifest. Antiochus could make a black horse which he had stolen, seem white, and a white black; so these Thieves have tricks to make evil good, and good evil: especially tacente lege, so long as the law holds her peace. But as the other escape not the Gallows, so one day, Dabit Deus his qu • {que} funem ; God will give these also condign punishment. They say, that the dung of the Black-bird falling on the Oak, turns into slime; of that slime is made Birdlime; of that Birdlime is the Birde her-self snared. So these grand Thieves twine a cord of three strings, Injury, Usury, Fraud; Covetousness twists them into a rope, the Devil makes the noose, a • d of this cord they are strangled: A threefold Cable is not easily broken. Whiles they steal from others the interest, they rob themselves of the principal, their souls. They please the world with their baits, ready money, but there is a hook under the bait.

I have read of an Athenian, such another Fisher; that he had in an apparition a net given him, to catch whole Cities in; but for all that, he died a beggar: These Thieves have such nets to catch whole Towns, Commons, Churches, Steeples and all, but in the end the net breaks, and the Fisher topples into the deep, whence he never comes out again: for these Swine so root into the earth, till they eat themselves into hell.

I do not spare with connivance the Junior Thieves, because I bring their Fathers to the bar first. He that shall with a violent or subtle hand, Lyon -like or Fox -like, take away that, which God hath made mine; endangers at once his body to the worlds, his soul to heavens sword of Justice: and shall pass from a temporal Barre, to the Tribunal Judgment of Christ. Let not misconstruction hear me: there are more of these, die honest men, then of Vsu • ers: for one Usurers repentance, I will produce you ten executed Thieves. Only here it is, the great The • ues agree one with another; Claw me, and I will claw thee: Winke at mine, and I will not see thy faults: They tune like Bells, and want but hanging. For these Thieves, I might indeed be silent and spare my breath, to the conversion of more hopeful sinners: but we must free our consciences from the guiltiness of not reproving; least they curse us on their Death-beds, as that Usurer made his will; wherein he bequeathed his soul to the Devil for extorting, his Wife for inducing, his Deacon for enduring, or not reproving. Though every Usurer makes account to walk to hell, (yet since both hell and heaven be equally set to his choice, why should he choose the worst way?) let not his Minister, for silence, bear him company.

Well; the Thief knows his doom, a double banishment, out of the Territories of earth, out of the confines of heaven: therefore let him that hath stolen steal no more? Repentance shall be sure of mercy. And let not the great Thief think to scape; as he is a Gallimaufrey of all sins, so he shall have a Rendeuous of all punishments. His house is the Devils Tavern ; the guests have sweet wine, but a sharp reckoning. The Devils Fence-school, as the stabbings, woundings, hackings, rackings which torture the Common-wealth, are there experimentally taught. The Devils Brothel-house, where the Usurer is the Baud, and his money's the Harlots: (only they differ from Harlots in their pregnancie and teeming, for they lay like Pigeons every month:) marry because the Devil is Land-lord, his rent eats out all their gains.

5. Slaunder is a water in great request: every guest of the Devil is continually sipping of this Vial. It robs man of his good name, which is above all riches ▪ There be some think to scape this censure: though they speak evils of others, yet true evils: but Cham is cursed for declaring his Fathers nakedness, though true. These are like vultures, ad male olentia feruntur ; They pass over M •• dowes and flowers to fall upon carions: like Flies, they leap over all a man's good parts and virtues, to light upon his sores. If Noah had not been once drunk, Cham had lost his sport. There are many of these Ziphims, that to currie favor with Saul, betray David: but in my opinion, Doeg's truth was worse then Rahab's lie. A man's good name is deer. Pleri{que} famam, qui non conscientiam verentur. Manie stand upon their credit, that neglect their conscience. Vilium est hominum alios viles facere, et qui suo merito placere non possunt, placere velle aliorum comparatione. It is the part of vile men to villify others, and to climb up to immerited praise, by the stairs of another's disgrace. This is no new dish at some Nouelists table; to make a man's discredit, as sauce to their meat: they will toss you the maligned's reputation, with the rackets of reproach from one to another, and never bandie it away, till they have supped. If they want matter, Jealousy is fuel enough: it is crime enough for a Formalist, (so they term him) that he is but suspected guilty. But the Matrone of the Cloister would never have sought the Nun in the Vault, if she had not been there her self. It was Publius Claudius his best policy, least Cicero should accuse him justly of Sacrilege, to step in first and tell the Senate, that Tully profaned all religion in his house Thus he that hath most corrupt lungs, soonest complains of the unsavory breath of others.

The Calumniatour is a wretched Thief, and robs man of the best thing he hath: if it be a true Maxim, that the efficacy of the Agent is in the apt disposition of the Patient; whiles thou depriuest man of his credit, thou takest from him all power to do good. The slanderer wounds three at one blow; Vno ictu, vno nictu. 1. The receiver, in poisoning his heart with an uncharitable conceit. 2. The reputation of the slandered: for a man's name is like a glass, if it be once cracked, it is soon broken: every Brier is ready to snatch at the torn garment. 3. The worst blow lights on his own soul: for the Arrow will rebound: Maledixit sibi. The slandered scapes best: For God shall bring forth his righteousness as the light, &c.

These are those Hogs in a Garden, which root up the flowers of a man's good parts. But if there were no receiver, there would be no Thief: men would not so burden themselves with the coals of contumely, if they had nowhere to vnloade them. It were well for Mephibosheth, that Ziba dwelt a good way from Court. If Saul were deaf, or Doeg dumb; no matter which: for these are two Whelps of that Littour, that must go to hell: one hath the Devil in his ears, the other in his tongue. It is a good general rule of Saint Bernard to govern our tongues by. Sint verba tua rara, vera, ponderosa: rara, contra multiloquium; vera, contra falsiloquium; ponderosa, contra vaniloquium. Let thy words be few, true, substantial: many words, false words, vain words, become not a Christians lips. Inuectiues against other men are ever evil, but then worse, when they be false▪ a man may sin, even in speaking the truth, when just circumstances forbid it; but he cannot but sin in lying; and there is no circumstance can clear him. Cor linguae foederat naturae sanctio, veluti in quodam certo connubio: ergo cum dissonent cor et locutio, sermo concipitur in adulterio. Nature hath knit the heart and the tongue together in the bands of marriage; that which the tongue brings forth, without (or contrary to) the heart, is the birth of adultery. Speak then the truth from thy heart, but wrong not thy brother with a needless truth. Thus Calumnies are stolen waters! Beware then you Diaboli, accusers of your Brethren, Dogs with arrows in your thighs, that are troubled with sore mouths, and Cankers in your teeth, you drink stolen waters, and minister them to others also; both Physician & Patient shall die for it.

6. The last Vial of this Course is Flattery, a water taken out of Narcissus Well; whereof, when great men drink plent • fully, they grow mad in their own admiration: and when Self-love hath once befooled the brains, the Devil himself would not wish the train of consequent sins longer. This is a terrible enchantment, that robs men with delight: that counts simplicity a silly thing, and will swear to a falsehood to please a Felix. This man out-runs the Devil: he is the Father of lies, yet we never read, that he swore to a lie: for he that swears, acknowledgeth the Being that he swears by, greater then himself; which the Devil scorns to do. The Flatterer in avouching a lie, and swearing to it, hath a trick beyond the Devil. The superlative titles of these men, cause others to over-value themselves. Pride derives her encouragement from the Flatterers artificial commendations. Thou art far in debt, and fearest arrests; he that should come and tell thee, thou art rich, able to purchase, swimmest in a full and flowing stream, thou givest no credit to him, though he would give too much credit to thee. Thy souls state is more beggarly, broken, bankerout of grace, and run in arrearages with God, yet the Flatterer praiseth the riches of thy virtues, and thou believest him. It is a fearful and fanatical blindness for a man to carry his eyes in a box, like Plutarches lamiae, and only look into himself by the eyes of his Parasites: as if he desired to read the Catalogue of his own good parts, through the spectacles of Flattery ; which makes the least letter of a great show, and sometimes a Cipher to be mistaken for a figure. The Sycophants language is a false glass, and represents thy conscience white, when thou mayst change beauty with the Moore ; and loose not by the bargain. Let Herod be as hollow as a kexe, and as light as Air, yet weighed in his Parasites balance, he shall poise with solid Virtue, nay, with God himself.

Oh, for some golden Statute against these Aristophanes Fawners, and Herodian Picke-thanks, that cry, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and Vox Dei, like the Churchwardens Bills, Omnia been, everything is as it should be, when all the foundations of the earth are out of course. These Italianate Apes, and French Parrats, that can spin themselves silken suits (ex assentando) on the voluble wheels of their pleasing tongues. Oh that we could think, when these beasts play and skippe above their wont, that there is some tempest a coming. The Flatterer is a delightful Coosenage, smooth perjury, rumors friend, Consciences adversary, Honesties murderer. He allures to Vice vnken'd; colors Vice perpetrated: the horriblest sin is but an error in his verdict. He can Bless and Curse with one mouth; Laugh and Cry with one look; Kiss and Betray with one sign. Bion compares him to a Beast: Plato to a Witch ; all to a Thief ; some to a Devil. Plus nocet lingua adulatoris, quàm manus persecutorie. There is no Foe to the Flatterer. The Gramarians fitly: Mobile cum fixo: like the Adjective, he varies case and gender with his Substantiue. A Cameleon! tet • git quoscun{que} colores, to all colors; except Red and White, saith Pliny: Red signifying Modestie, White Innocence.

If thou sayest, it is hot, he wipes his forehead: if cold, he quakes of an Ague. As in the Delphicke Oracle, Pythias did never prophecy, but when she was set on a Treuit, and the wind blew intelligence into her: so this Devils prophet is dumb, till you set him on the Tripode of Ease, Credit, Gaine, and stroke him on the head like a Spaniell, and then he will lick your hand, and fill your ears with the Oracles of Hell. He is sibi natus, multis notus, omnibus nocuus: Mundi nothus, Inferni nixus. He is borne to himself, known to many, hurtful to all: the worlds Bastard, Hels true-borne Child. Patitur dum potitur. He suffers much, that he may put up somewhat, when he speaks of the absent, he knows no case but the accusative: loves none (from his Patron ) but the dative. Hi • laudes numerat, dum ill laudes munerat. He will multiply thy praises, if thou wilt divide to him thy goods. There is a monstrous fable in the Alcoran, that the Earth is placed upon the sharp end of an Oxes horn; the weakness whereof is the cause of Earthquakes: but he that fixeth his estate on • Flatterers sharp tongue, will put an Earthquake into it, and soon run to ruin. Our Chronicles report of Canutus, that when his Flatterers styled him Ruler of Sea and Land, he commanded his chair of Estate to be brought to the Sea-side: and when the waves beat on him, he cried, I command you to return: the sturde waters, (scornful of such a control, as the Devils were of the sons of Sceua, Jesus we know, but who are ye? God we know, calming floods, quieting the winds, but who art thou?) beat on him more furiously: then, loe saith Canutus, what a goodly God I am; and behold my command▪ convincing his flatterers. Oh that some strong West-wind would rid our Land of these Locusts.

The last sort of Vials served in at this Course, are Stollen waters, which immediately rob our selves. The Devil finds us cheare at our own cost, and with cates stolen from our own possessions, he makes us a bounteous feast. Truth is, every Cup of sin we drink of, is a water, that (at least indirectly) robs our selves: neither can we feed on Atheism, Heresy, Sacrilege, Murder, Adultery; but we rifle our souls of grace, our Consciences of peace: for the Devils Banket never makes a man the fatter for his feeding: the guests, the more they eat, the more lean and meager they look: their strength goes away with their repast, as if they fed on nothing but Sauce; and all their sweet delicates in taste were but fretting in digestion; (like Vinegar, Olives, or Pulse) neither doth batten & cheerish, because it wants a blessing unto it. Only it gets them a stomach: the more heartily they feed on sin, the greater appetite they have to it. Though custom of sin hath brought them past feeling, and they have long since made a deed of gift of themselves into the hands of licentiousness, yet behold in them still an eager prosecution of sin, even with greediness. Though mischief was the last thing they did when they went to bed; nay the only action of their bed, yet they rise early, so soon as the morning is light to practice it. They may be sick of sins incurable surfeit, yet feel themselves hungry still; that the Cup of their wickedness may be filled to the brim; and so receive a portion and proportion of torment accordingly. Thus as the gyrouagi equi, molam trahentes, multùm ambulant, parùm promouent ; the Mil-turning-horse, conjured into his Circle, moves much, but removes little: or as the Poet of Ixion. Voluitur Ixion, qui se sequitur{que} fugit{que}: So, the more these guests eat, the more unsatisfied they rise up: Ye shall eat, and not be satisfied: ye shall drink, & not be • illed ; as he, that dreameth of good cheare, but awakes with an hungry soul. All the delights of sin put not the least drop of good blood into the veins, nor bless the heart with the smallest addition of content. They browse like Beasts on these sweet boughs, but they look thin after it, as if they had devoured their own bowels.

1. The first Vial of this nature is Pride: a stolen water indeed, but derived from thine own Fountain. It may strike God, offend thy Brother, but it doth immediately rob thyself. The decoration of the body is the deuoration of the substance: the back wears the silver, that would do better in the Purse. Armenta vertuntur in ornamenta: the grounds are unstocked, to make the back glister. Adam and Eve had Coates of Beasts skins ; but now many beasts, flesh, skins and all, will scarce furnish a prodigal younger son of Adam with a suit. And, as many sell their tame beasts in the Country, to enrich their wild beasts in the City; so you have others, that to revel at a Christmas, will rauell out their Patrimonies. Pride and good husbandry are neither Kith nor Kin: but Iaball and Iuball are brethren: Iaball, that dwelt in Tents, and tended the Heards, had Iuball to his brother, who was the father of Music: to show, that Iaball and Iuball, frugality and Music, good Husbandry and Content are brothers, and dwell together. But Pride and Opulencie may kiss in the Morning, as a married couple; but will be divorced before Sun-set. They whose Fathers could sit and tell their Michael-mass-hundreds, have brought December on their estates, by wearing May on their backs all the year.

This is the plague and clog of the Fashion, that it is never vnhamperd of Debets. Pride begins with Habeo, ends with Debeo ; and sometimes makes good every syllable gradatim. Debeo, I owe more then I am worth. Beo, I bless my creditors; or rather, bless myself from my Creditors. Eo, I betake me to my heels. Thus England was honored with them whiles they were Gallants, Germany or Rome must take them, and keep them being beggars. Oh that men would break their fasts with frugality, that they might never sup with want. What folly is it to begin with Plaudite, Who doth not mark my bravery? and end with Plangite, Good Passenger a Penny. Oh that they could from the high promontorie of their rich estates foresee how near Pride and Riot dwell to the Spittle-house! not that but God alloweth both garments for necessity, and ornaments for comliness, according to thy degree: but such must not wear Silks, that are not able to buy Cloath. Many women are ( propter venus • atem inuenustae, saith Chrysostom, ) so fine, that they are the worse again. Fashions far fetched, and deer bought, fill the eye with content, but empty the purse. Christ's reproof to the Jews may fitly be turned on us: Why do ye kill the Prophets, and build up their Tombes? Why do ye kill your souls with sins, and garnish your bodies with braveries? the Maid is finer then the Mistress, which Saint Jerome saith, would make a man laugh, a Christian weep to see. Hagar is tricked up, and Sara put into rags: the soul goes every day in her worky-day clothes, vnhighted with graces, whiles the body keeps perpetual holy day in gainesse. The house of Saul is set up, the Flesh is graced: the house of David is persecuted and kept down, the Spirit is neglected.

I know, that Pride is never without her own pain, though she will not feel it: be her garments what they will, yet she will never be too hot, nor too cold. There is no time to pray, read, hear, meditate; all goes away in trimming. There is so much rigging about the Ship, that as Ovid wittily, pars minima est ipsa puella sui: A woman for the most part is the least part of her self. Faemina culta nimis, faemina casta minus: too gawdie bravery, argues too slender chastity. The garment of salvation is slighted: and the long white robe of glory scorned: the Lord Jesus Christ, a garment not the worse, but the better for wearing, is thrown by; and the ridiculous chain of Pride, is put on: but ornamentum est, quod ornat; ornat, quod honestiorem facit: That alone doth beautify, which doth beatify, or make the soul happy: no ornament doth so grace us, as that we are gracious. Thus the substance is emptied for a show; and many rob themselves of all they have, to put a good suite on their backs.

2. The next Cup of these stolen waters is Epicureanism: a water, which whiles we sup of, we suck our selves. A sin, that whiles men commit it, it commits them, either to the high-way or the Hedges: and from thence either by a Writ, or a Warrant, an Arrest, or a Mittimus, to the prison. Solomon saith, He shall not be rich. The Gut is a Gulf, that will easily swallow all his comings in. Meat should be (as wise Agur prayed) food convenient for thee, or as the Hebrew phrase is, the food of thy allowance. This dish, is to feed on all dishes, that may pleas • the appetite, or rather may delight surfeit; for appetite dares not lodge in an Epicures house. This Sin is instar omnium ; like the Feast it self: save, that the Glutton feeds on God's good • reatures corporally; but on Satan's mystical board is set nothing but what is originally evil, and absolutely baneful. So that here, Gluttony that feeds on all Dishes, is but a private Dish it self; and though perhaps for the extent and largeness it takes up the greater room, yet for the number it is but one.

It is most rank Idolatry, says Paul ; and so near to Atheism, with a no-God: that it makes a carnal God. In mea pa • ria Deus venter: as profound, and profane, as the Babylonians sacrifice: they to their Bell, these to their Belly. Perhaps, you will say, they are more kind to themselves: not a whit; for they wrap up death in their full morsels, and swallow it as Pilles in the Pappe of delicatie. They overthrow nature, with that should preserve it, as the Earth, that is too rank, mars the Corn. They make short work with their estates, and not long with their lives; as if they knew that if they lived long, they must be beggars: therefore at once they make haste to spend their livings, and ende their lives. Full Suppers, midde-night Reuels, Morning Iunkets, give them no time to blow, but add new to their indigested surfeits. They are the Devils crammed Fowls, like Aesop's Hen, too fat to lay; to produce the fruits of any goodness. They do not (dispensare, but dissipare bona Domini) wisely dispence, but blindly scatter the gifts of GOD. They pray not so much for daily Bread, as for dainty Bread; and think God wrongs them, if they may not ( Dives -like) fare diliciously every day. Sense is their Purueyour; Appetite their Steward: They place Paradise in their throats, and Heaven in their guts. Mean time, the state wastes, the soul pines, and though the flesh be puffed and blown up, the spirits languish; they love not to live in a Fenne, but to have a Fenne in them.

It is not plague enough that GOD withal sends leanness into their souls, but their estates sink, their lives fall away: they spin a web out of their own bowels: worse then the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Men-eaters, they are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , self-eaters, they put a Pleurisy into their bloods, a Tabe and Consumption into their states, an Apoplexy into their souls, the meat that perisheth not, is fastidious to their palates; that they may feed on that, which feeds on them; and so at once devour and be devoured; drink of a cup that drinks up them.

3. The third Vial is Idleness ; a filching water to: for it steals away our means both to get goods, and to be good: It is a rust to the Conscience, a thief to the estate. The Idle man is the Deu • ls Cushion, whereupon he sits, and takes his ease. He refuseth all works, as either thankelesse or dangerous. Thus charactered: he had rather freeze then fetch wood; he had rather steal then work, and yet rather beg then take pains to steal; and yet in many things rather want then beg. Ignaui sunt fures, saith Melancthon: Sluggards are thieves: they rob insensibly the Common-wealth, most sensibly themselves: Poverty comes on him as an armed man. The Idlesbie is poverties prisoner: if he live without a calling, poverty hath a calling to arrest him. When the Cistern of his patrimony is emptied, and seems to invite his labor to replenish it; he flatters himself with enough still, and looks for supply without pains. Necessity must drive him to any work, and what he cannot (auferre, he will differ) avoid, he will delay.

Every get-nothing is a thief, and laziness is a stolen water: if the Devil can win thee, to plye hard this liquor, he knows it will whet thy stomach to any vice. Faction, Thievery, Lust, Drunkenness, blood, with many Birds of this black wing, offer themselves to the Idle mind, and strive to prefer their service. Would you know, says the Poet, how Aegistus became an adulterer? In promptu causa est: desidiosus erat : the cause is easy, the answer ready: he was Idle. He that might make his estate good by labor, by Idleness robs it. This is a dangerous water, and full of vile effects: for when the lazy have robbed themselves, they fall aboard and rob others. This is the Idle-man's best end, that as he is a Thief, and lives a beast, so to die a beggar.

4. The fourth Cup is Envy: Water of a strange and uncouth taste. There is no pleasure in being drunk with this stolen water: for it frets and gnaws both in palates and entralls. There is no good relish with it, either in taste or digestion. Only it is like that Acidula aqua, that Pliny speaks of, which makes a man drunk sooner then wine. Envy keeps a Register of Injuries; and graves that in Marble which Charity writes in the dust, Wrong. It cannot endure that any should be conferred with it, preferred to it.

Caesar can brook no Greater; Pompey no riuall. John the Baptist was of another spirit: when he heard that the people had left him to follow Christ, he spake with the voice of content, My joy is fulfilled. He must increase, and I must decrease. Inuidus non est idoneus auditor. The envious man is an incompetent hearer: his ears are not fit to his head. If he hears good of another, he frets that it is good: if ill, he is discontent that he may not judge him for it. If wronged, he cannot stay God's leisure to quit him: he is straight, either a Saul or an Esau ; by secret ambushes, or by open hostillitie, he must carue himself a satisfaction. No plaster will heal his pricked finger, but his heart-blood that did it: if he might serve himself, he would take unreasonable penny-worthes. S. Augustine would cool his heat. Vis vindicari Christiane? Wilt thou be revenged of thine adversary oh Christian? tarry a while: Nondum vindicatus est Christus: Thy Lord and Savior is not yet avenged of his enemies.

Malice is so mad, that it will not spare friend, to wreak vengeance on foes. So Garnet told the Powder-traitors; that some innocent migh • be destroyed with many nocent, if the public good could not otherwise be perfected. His instance was, that in a Town besieged, though some friends were there; yet no wrong nor offense, at advantage to cut all their throats. Hence, if there had been Papists in the Parliament-house, yet rather then loose so holy a massacre, they must have flown up with others. Call you these Saints? Tantaene animis coelestibus irae? It was God's reservation in the old Testament, for accursed Sodom, Si decem iusti, if ten righteous persons be found there, &c. It was Christ's suspension in the new, Let the tares alone till Harvest, least the Wheat be plucked up withal, Theodosius was taxed, that in sontes vnà cum sontibus trucidasset, that he had slain the good with the guilty; and might not be suffered to enter into the Temple. In the Primitive Church the Bishops staid process against the Priscillian Her • tikes, ne catholici cum illis perirent, least some good Christians should perish with them. Jehu intending due destruction to the worshippers of Baal, made a special search, that none of the Lord's servants were amongst them. But malice is ever blind, to see what sequel attends her courses. The Envious man is content to loose one eye of his own, so he may put out both his neighbors: nay, which is worse, he will loose both his own to put out one of his. The least trespass shall not pass without suite. The Devil can send him on a very slight errand to Westminster-hall. Be the case never so broken, if the Lawyers wit can stitch it together, that it may hold to a nisi prius, it is enough. I may (with a little inversion) read his destiny from the Poet.

Let him not fear Domestical poison, nor foreign sword, nor a stitch in's sides, nor a Cough in's lungs, nor the Gowte in's joints: Hunc proprius liuor cons • m • t. He will fret himself to dust. His Praecordia are steeped in Vinegar. A sound heart is the life of the flesh: but Envy is the rottenness of the bones. The Drunkard rots his flesh, the malicious his bones: He burns up his blood in the furnace of hatred.

Envy is thrown like a ball of Wild-fire at another's Barn; rebounds and fires thine own. The Swallow having crossed some Lands and Seas, returns next Summer to her old Chimney: the Arrow of malice shot far off, turns upon his heart, that set it flying. Bless yourselves; you know not whither you will be carried, if once you be horsed on the back of the Envious man. Forebear then this water, as thou lovest thy health, blood, life and peace.

5. The fifth Cup is Drunkenness ; a Vial of the waters of Stealth: a liquid food literally taken. For that, which Ebriety sins withal, is wine and strong drink. (Vae fortibus ad potandum. Woe to them that are mighty to devour Drink ; and strong to carry it away; for their habillitie encourageth their more frequent sins.) But Drunkenness, as it is a Cup of this service, is a special water of it self, at the Devils Banket. This sin is an horrible self-theft: God hath past his word against him. The Drunkard and the Glutton shall come unto poverty, and Drowsinesse shall clothe a man with rags. He that drinks more in a day, then he can earn in a week, what will his gettings come to at the years end? There is no remedy, he must shake hands with beggary, and welcome it into his company. How many (in the compass of our knowledge) have thus robbed themselves; and been worse enemies to their own estates, then the most mischievous Thieves! Thieves cannot steal Land, unless they be Westminster-hall Thieves, crafty contenders, that eat out a true title with a false evidence: but the Drunkard robs himself of his Lands: Now he dissolves an Acre, and then an Acre into the Pot; till he hath ground all his ground at the Malt-querne; and run all his Patrimony through his throat. Thus he makes himself the living tomb, of his forefathers, of his posterity: he needs not trouble his sick mind with a Will, nor distrust the fidelity of Executours; he drowns all his substance at the Ale-fat; and though he devours much, is the leaner every way. Drunkenness is regius morbus, a costly sin. It is like Gun-powder, many a man is blown up by it. He throws his house so long out at windows, t • ll at last his house throws him out at doors. This is the Tiplers progress: from luxury to beggary; from beggary to theeuerie: from the Tavern to Tyburne, from the Alehouse to the Gallows.

6. The last Vial of these self- stolen waters, is Covetousness: a dish of drink at the Devils Banket, which more come for, then for all the rest. The covetous is a cruel Thief to himself, worse then the Devil: for the Devil would give much for a soul; how much would he give for himself? The Covetous man loves money better then his own soul? This mercenary Soldier is fit for any office in the Devils Campe. There is no sin so ugly, so hideous, but sent to the Covetous man's door in a golden visor, it shall have entertainment. This Sin is like a great Beast, which violently breaking upon God's free-hold, makes a gap wide enough for the whole Heard to follow. Fruitur mundo, vtitur Deo. The Covetous possesseth the world, and makes use of God: but if a man cannot serve God and Mammon, he can much less serve Mammon and God: God scorns to be set after the world. He heavens himself on earth, & for a little pelf cousous himself of bliss. He steals quiet from his own bones, peace from his conscience, grace from his soul! Is not this a Thief?

How much of fame, liberty, peace, conscience is laid out to purchase gold? some for love of it would pluck down Heaven, and empty it of a Deity: others to overtake it, run quick to Hell. And they, that seek it, find it: for if a man will sell Heaven for pelf, he shall not fail of his purchase. Hence Mammon is the God of no beggars; but Merchants and Gentles, and Cormorants, and Usurers, and Chuffes. The Idols of the Heathen were silver and gold: It is but inverting the sentence. Their Idols are silver and gold, and silver and gold are our Idols.

Many a wretched Father plays the Thief with himself, and starves his own carcass, to leave wealth to his Babe. He lives on roots, that his prodigal Heir may feed on Pheasants: he keeps the Chimney corner, that his Heir may frequent Ordinaries: he drinks water, that his Heir may drink wine, and that to drunkenness. Though he be richer then Dives, he lives like an Alchemist. Miserable Fathers make wretched Sons: none often have more undone them, then they that have done most for them. They make heritages, but God makes Heirs: the children of such Churls seldom roast what their Fathers took in hunting. Now what Thief can more spoil another, then such a man doth himself? he cannot find in his heart, to put a good morsel into his belly. He dares not eat an Egg, least he should loose a Chicken. A poor Beggar is in better estate then a rich Miser: he wants many things; but this wants all things. Corpus extenuat, vt lucr • m extendat: He wrinkles and contracts his body, that he may enlarge and replenish his purse: he pincheth his carcass, to stuff his Capcase. No marvel, if that he hear not the moans of the poor, when he is deaf to the complaints of his own belly. Whereas, he that laboreth, laboreth for himself, for his mouth craveth it of him. It is the voice not only of God's spirit, that so it should be, nor of reason only, that so it must be, but even of nature, that so it is; unless in such unreasonable beasts as the Covetous ; or rather (worse then beasts, for they serve the necessity of nature) unnatural wretches: Dressing, like Cooks, much good meat, and not vouchsafing to lick their own fingers. There is an evil, saith Solomon, under the Sun ; and such an evil, that the Sun can scarce see a worse: A man, to whom God hath given riches, and that so abundantly, that he wanteth nothing of all that his soul can desire, yet God giveth him not the power to eat thereof, but a stranger eateth it. Thi • is vanity and an evil disease. A Disease it is, and fitly called the Dropsy.

Thus the Covetous man pines in plenty, like Tantalus, up to the chin in water, yet thirsty. He that hath no power to take part of God's blessings, which he keepeth, plays the Thief finely, and robs himself. His extortion hath erst stolen from others; and now he plays rob-thief, and steals from himself. They say, the rule of charity should be fetched from home. He that is miserable to himself, will never be liberal to others; he that pines himself, God bless me from begging at his door. It is miserable living at this man's finding: for like a Chemist, he turns everything into silver, what he should wear, and what he should eat; and so robs both back and belly of warmth, of sustenance. All, to conjure a little money into the circle of his Purse; which he will do, though he fetch Spels from the Devil to do it: yet keeps it only to look on, not to use. Nemini bonus, sibi pessimus. As he is good to none, so (let it be his plague) he is worst to himself. He is ever in debt to his belly: the purest metal is for his Coffer; the coarsest meat is good enough for his stomach. He doth so cross the vanity of Pride, which esteemeth the dearest things the best; that he thinks nothing sweet, but what is cheap. If ever he satisfy his complaing stomach with a good morsel, it shall be from his neighbors Trencher.

He hath not so much idle time, as to sleep; but either he dreameth of his gold, or riseth to see if the doors be fast. So Claudian (amongst others) describes the Covetous dream. Et vigil elapsas quaerit auarus opes. He seeks that in his sleep, which he could not find waking. The Covetous give better ear to the Priests of Ianus, then to the Apostles of Jesus: Quaerenda pecunia primùm est: First se • ke money, hath thrust out (Querite primùm regnum Dei) First seek the Kingdom of God. They will hear us willingly, if our Text be Commodity, and our Sermon Policy. A Bill, that contains the sale of a Lordship, or the news of a Morgage, or the offer of good security for ten in the hundred, is more heeded, then a book on the Stationers shop, with the way to heaven, for the Title. Neither let us (as is said) judge him only to drink of this water, that extorts from others; but even him that pincheth himself. So S. August. Non solùm auaru • est qui rapit alienae, sed qui cupide seruat suae. He is not only covetous, that raketh from others, but he also that taketh from himself. The niggards looks to his entering guests, is like Diana's Image in Chios, which frowned with a lowering countenance on all that came into the Temple, but looked blithe, and smiled on them that departed. This is he that thinks there are no such Angels as his golden ones; no such Paradise as in his Counting-house. He cares not to run quick to the Devil of an errand, so gain sends him, & pays him for his pains. He hath a short conscience, and a large damnation. He is a special guest at the Devils board; and never misseth his Ordinary, which he affects the more, because he pays nothing.

The more he devours, the hungrier he is: a full supper of profit, gives him the more eager appetite to his morrows breakfast. All he eats, is like Physic to him; he looks thinner after it. He takes great pains to go to hell: whither since he will go, he might do it with more ease. He hath no heaven, neither present nor future; and having sold bliss for riches, as Aesop's Dog did the flesh for the shadow, behold, he looseth both. Other sinners for their damnation, have somewhat, which they call delightful: the Covetous man buys hell with hell; eternal, with present anguish. Thus he robs himself of all content; and when all is done, he's a man undone, and pierced through with many sorrows.

We have now ended the service of the waters ; with the 1. Praescription of their Beings, Waters: and 2. The description of their natures▪ stolen. The Vices, which under this smooth name the Devil tempts his guests to surfeit on, are to your hearing odious: I will step no further to fetch in application, then from the word, Stollen.

All stolen things are accountable for; the law of all Nations hath provided, that (cui{que} suum) every man may enjoy his own. God is a just Judge, a retributor of every man his own. No thief can scape 1. The apprehension of his Pursuiuant • . 2. The apparance to his Sessions. 3. The penalty of his sentence. He hath appointed a general Assizes, a day, wherein he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man, whom he hath ordained, &c. To which there is a necessity of appearance. For we must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body, &c. At which time (an account is not avoidable) God shall bring every work into Judgment, with every secret thing, whither it be good or evil. What then will be the success of these stolen waters? We carry out our robberies now without question; we invade our brethren, we evade the Law: But behold, at Euening-tide trouble, & before the Morning he is not. This is the portion of them that spoil us, and the lot of them that rob us.

Felony is the Inditement, a rebellion against our Sovereigns Crown and Dignity. Ambitious thief’s in the Court, Simoniacal thieves in the Church, hollow-hearted thieves in the City, oppressing and men-eating thieves in the Country: all must be summoned, their debts summed, their doom sentenced. The impartial conscience from the book of their lives, shall give in clear evidence. There is no retaining of Counsel: no bribing for a partial censure: no trick of demure: no putting off and suspending the sentence: no euading the doom. The cursed generation of thefts are now easily borne, and borne out. Subtlety can give them the help of a conveyance, and money purchase a connivance. But then alas! what shall become of them, and of many souls for them? what shall become all the Traitours, gory Murderers, impudent Atheists, secret Church-robbers, speckled Adulterers, rusty Sluggards, nasty drunkards, and all the defiled wretches that have sucked damnation from the breasts of black Iniquity. An impenetrable Judge, an impleadable Inditement, an intolerable anguish shall ceaze upon them. Mountains of Sand were lighter, and millions of years shorter then their torments.

Oh think, think of this, ye Sons of rapine, that with greediness devour these stolen waters. You cannot rob God of his glory, man of his comforts, yourselves of your happiness, but God, Man, your own Souls shall cry against you. What thunder can now beat into you a fear of that, which then no power shall ease you of? why strive we not, Nineveh -like, to make the message of our overthrow, the overthrow of the message? and so work, that according to Samson's Riddle, the Destroyer may save us? Wherefore are we warned, but that we might be armed? and made acquainted with Hell in the speculation, but that we may prevent the horror of it in passion? Let me tell you, ye thieves, that sit at Satan's board; there is a thief shall steal on you, steal all from you, The day of the Lord will come as a Thief in the Night, in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, &c. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a Thief, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to take away privily, or by stealth: or, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , of hiding or covering. Fur a furuo, quia in obscuro venit. A thief as well for stealing on us, as for stealing from us. He comes in the dark, when nobody sees, treads on wool, that nobody hears, watcheth an hour that nobody knows.

This Thief shall steal on you, perhaps Banketting at this Feast of Vanity: as the Flood came on the old World, whiles they ate and drank, and were merry. Watch therefore, for you know not what hour your Lord doth come. So Chrysostom on that place, from our Saviors comparison of the good man of the house: non laederetur ill furto, si sciret venturum: vos scitis, paratiores esse debetis. The thief should not hurt him, if he knew of his coming: you know he will come, prepare for his welcome. We are all householders; our bodies are our houses; our souls our goods; our senses are the Doors and Windows, the Lockes are Faith and Prayer. The day of our doom will come as a thief; let our Repentance watch, let it never sleep, lest we perish. Si praescirent homines, quando morituri sint, deligentiam super cam rem ostenderent. If men foreknew the time of their death▪ they would show carefulness in their preparation; how much more being ignorant? But alas! Ignorance covenants with death: and security puts far away the evil day, and causeth the seat of violence to come near. When the Prophets of our Israel threaten Judgments, you flatter yourselves with the remoteness. The vision that he seeth, is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times that are far off. As if it concerned you not what ruin laid waste the Land, so peace might be in your days. (But there is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. ) our Rose-buds are not withered, our dances are not done: sleep Conscience, lie still Repentance. Thus with the sentence of death instant, and in a prison of bondage to Satan present, saith S. Augustine, Maximo gaudio debacchamur: we are drunken, we are frantic with pleasures. There may be other, there can be no greater madness.

Loe, the success of these stolen waters. You hear their nature: time hath prevented their sweetness. God of his mercy, that hath given us his Word to inform our Judgment, vouchsafe by his Spirit to reform our consciences, that we may conform our lives to his holy precepts. For this let us pray. &c.

THE Breaking up of the Devils Banket. The third Sermon.

T HE custom of sin hath so benumbed the sense of it; and the delighted affections brought the conscience so fast a sleep in it; that he troubles Israel, who would waken Israel: and his speech is harsh Barbarism, that speaks against the Devils Diana ; the Idol of Vice, which many worship. Our understandings think well of Heaven, but our affections think better of Earth. Alexander after his great Conquests, wrote to the Graecian Senate, Vt se deum facerent, that they would accept him into the number of their God's. With a resolute consent, they denied it. At last a (right) Politician stood up, and told them, that (videndum est, ne dum coelum nimis custod • rent, terram amitterent) they should look well to it; least whiles they were so religious for heaven, they lost their part of earth. Hence they made (though but a perfunctory and fashionable) decree. Quoniam Alexander Deus esse vult, Deus esto. Since Alexander will be a God, let him be one. God commends to us his • eauenly graces ; Satan his lying vanities. Our Judgments must needs give assent to God. But because his precepts go against the grain of our affections; and the Deu • ll tells us, that curiosity for the uncertain joy • of heaven, will lose us the certain pleasures of earth: we settle upon the Graecian resolution, (though more seriously:) not to be so troubled for our souls, as to lose a moment of our carnal delights. This i • the D ••• ls a • sertion, in calling stolen waters Sweet ▪ t •• truth whereof I am • old (though a little I disquiet y • u • lu ••• ) to examine. You have heard the prescription, Waters: the description, Stollen.

The Ascription of the quality (in itself • ) or effect (to others) of these • aters, if we may believe • Temptation, is Sweet. Stollen waters are Sweet. It is the speech of the Father of • ies, and therefore to carry little credit with us. Sweet? to none but those that are Lust-sick; like them • hat are troubled with the green-sickness; that think Chalke, and Salt, and Rubbish, savory. It is a strangely-affected soul, that can find Sweetness in sin. Sin is the depravation of goodness: the same that rottenness in the Apple, sourness in the Wine, putrefaction in the flesh, is sin in the conscience. Can that be sweet which is the depraving and depriving of all sweetness? Let any subtlety of the Devil declare this riddle. The prae-existent privations were deformity, confusion, darkness. The position of their opposite perfections, was the expulsion of those foul contraries. Sin comes like bleak and squalid Winter, and drives out these fair beauties: turns the Sun-shine to blackness; calmness to tempests; ripeness to corruption; health to sickness; sweetness to bitterness.

They desperately thrust themselves on the pikes of that threatened woe: Esa. 5. that dare say of bitter, it is sweet ; and consent to the Devil in the pleasantness of his cheare; when the impartial conscience knows it is Gall and Wormwood. Yet such is the strong Inchantment, whereby Satan hath wrought on their affections, that bloodiness, lust, perjury, oppression, malice, pride, carry with these Guests an opinion of sweetness. If froathie and reeling Drunkenness, lean and raking Covetousness, meager and blood-wasted Envy, keen and rankling Slander, nasty and ill-shapen Idleness, smooth and fair-spoken Flattery, be comely? what is deformed; If these be sweet, there is no bitterness. But though the Devil be not an Angel of light, yet he would be like one. Though he never speaks Truth, yet he would often speak the color of Truth. Therefore let us observe, what fallaces and deceitful arguments he can produce, to make good this attribute; and put the probability of sweetness into his stolen waters. For the Devil would not be thought a Dunce ; too weak to hold a Position, though it be never so absurd. Stollen waters, Iniquities are sweet to the wicked in three respects. 1. Because they are stolen. 2. Because they are cheap. 3. Because they give delight, and persuaded content to the flesh.

1. Stollen or foubidden. Even in this consists the approbation of their sweetness, that they come by stealth, and are compassed by dangerous & forbidden pains. Furta placent, etiam quod furta. Theft delights, even in that it is theft. The fruits of a wicked man's own Orchard, are not so pleasant-tasted as his neighbors: neither do they reserve their due sweetness, if they be freely granted. But as the Proverb hath it: Dulcia sunt poma, cùm abest custos. Apples are sweet, when they are plucked in the Gardiners absence. Eve liked no Apple in the Garden so well as the forbidden. Antiochus scorns Venison as base meat, if it be not lurched. It is an humor as genunie to our affections, as moisture is inseparable to our bloods, that, nitimur in vetitum semper ; We run mad after restrained Obiects. We tread those flowers under our disdainful feet, which mured from us, we would break through stone-walls to gather. The liberty of things brings them into contempt: neglect and Dust-heaps lie on the accessible stairs. Difficultie is a spurr to contention, and there is nothing so base, as that which is easy and cheap. Sol spectatorem, nisi cum desicit, non habet: nemo obseruat Lunam▪ nisi laborantem. The two great lights of heaven, that rule in their courses the day and night, are beholding to no eyes, for beholding them, but when they are eclipsed. We admire things less wonderful, because more rare. If the Sun should rise but once in our age, we would turn Persians, and worship it.

Wines would be less set by, if our own lands were full of Vineyards: Those things that Nature hath hedged from us, we long and languish for; when Manna it self, because it lies at our doors, is loathed. Virtutem praesentem fere in nostris odimus; Sublatam ex oculis procul quaerimus inuidi. The more spreading good things are, the more thought vile: and (though against that old and true rule) the community shall detract from the commodity. It is the perverseness of our natures, till sanctification hath put a new nature into us, that God's yoke is too heavy for our shoulders: we cannot draw in the geeres of obedience. We can travel a whole day after our dogs; but if authority should charge us to measure so many miles, how often would we complain of weariness? The Bird can sit out the day-measuring Sun, see his rise and fall without irksomnesse, whiles she is hatching her Egges; if her nest were a Cage, with what impatience would she lament so long a bondage! So the Usurer, though he began his first bag with the first hour, and pulls not off his hands or his eyes, till the eye of Heaven is ashamed of it, and denies further light, he is not weary: let him sit at Church two hours, the seat is uneasy, his bones ache, either a Cushion to fall a sleep with, or he will be gone. That Christ may justly and fitly continue that his reproof upon such: Can ye not watch with me one hour?

Thus the Commaund makes things burdensome, and Prohibition desirable. The wicked would not so eagerly catch at vanities, if God had not said, nolit • tangere, touch them not. Rapine, Lust, Ebriety, Sacrilege would sit idle for want of customers, if God's interdiction had not set a ne ingrediaris, on their doors. Enter not. Rome, (I know not how truly) brags, (and let her boast her sin) that she hath the fewer Adulterers, because she sets up the Stews. It is reported, that Italy did never more abound with Students, then when Julian had shut up the School-doors, and turned Learning into exile. He had fellows in that Empire of so contrary dispositions; that some restrained all things, some forbad nothing; and so made their times either tyrannous or licentious: insomuch that it was a busy question in those times; whether of those Emperors were worse; one, that would let every man do as he list; and the other, that would suffer no man to do as he would. It is observed of the Jews, that whiles the Oracles of heaven were open, and Religion leaned on the shoulders of peace, they fell frequently to Idolatry: but with the Babylonian bridle in their mouths, they eagerly pursue it: their persecution for it, increased their prosecution of it. So the blood of Martyrs seeds the Church ; as if from their dead ashes sprung ( Phoenix -like) many professors.

If trodden Virtue grow so fast, like Camomile? how then doth restrained Vice thrive? sure this Hydra rather multiplies his heads, by the blows of reproof. Sure it is, that ex malis moribus oriuntur plurimae leges. If men were not prone to infinite sins, a more sparing number of laws would serve our turns. And the more dangerous the law hath made the passage of Injustice, the more frequently, fervently they love to sails after it. What they quake to suffer, they tickle to do; as if their Itch could not be cured till the Law scratch them: so perverse is their disposition, that only coaction must force them to good, only correction bind them from evil. Now, as it is shame, that necessity should draw us to that, whereunto our own good should lead us: so it is past shame to war for that, which God hath charged us to ware of. Malum est agere quod prohibetur, sed agere quià prohibetur, p • ssimum. He that doth that which is forbidden, is evil, he that doth it because it is forbidden, Devil. But as the honest man, that hath somewhat to take to, is in most care to come out of debt; so he that hath neither honesty nor lands, takes care only to come into debt, and to be trusted.

Thus we all long for restrained things, and dote on difficulties; but look with an overly scorn; and winking neglect on granted faculties. Pharaoh is sick of God's plague: the peaceable dismission of Israel will cure him: he sees his medicine: no, he will be sicker yet; Israel shall not go. Oh, that these, who wrestle with God; would think that the more fiercely and firily they assault him, they are sure of the sorer fall. The harder the earthen vessel rusheth upon the Brasen the more it is shiuered in pieces. But nothing doth give the ungodly such content, as that they dangerously pull out of the jaws of difficulty. No Flowers have so good a smell as the Stollen: no repast so savory as the cates of Theft.

Facilitie and liberty only takes off the edge of Lust ; and what God doth restrain, man will not refrain. The Adulterer cares not for the chaste society of a fair and loving wife; but the lusts of uncleanness, which he steals with hazard, from another's bed, are sweet in his opinion. Ahab's whole kingdom is despised in his thoughts, whiles • e is sick of Nabaoths Vineyard. Hear Esau, What is my Birth-right to me, when I cannot taste of those red pottage? Oh the crossness of our refractary dispositions, that are therefore the more earnestly set upon the pro, because God hath more clearly charged them with the contra : as if our natural course was Crab-like to go backward; and our delight was to be a second cross to CHRIST, whereby though we cannot crucify his Flesh, yet we oppose and oppugn his Spirit: as if Cynically we affected snarling, or like the Giants, would try our strengths with God.

Thus we have examined the Devils reason, and find the natures of the wicked actually disputing for the truth of his assertion; and so, interdicta placent, the waters of sin seem sweet, and are more greedily swallowed, because they are stolen. The Prince of the air so rules in the hearts of the children of disobedience, that their appetites only covet prohibited meats; and their affections languish after discharged obiectes. But your turning of things up-side down, shall be esteemed as the Potters clay. And, those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me. GOD hath a hook for Sennacherib, a curb for Saul, a bridle for these Horses and Mules: the highest mover ouerrules the swift motion of these inferior Sphaeres, that they cannot fire the world: but as they delight to make other men's possessions theirs by stealth; so they shall one day be glad, if they could put off, that is theirs upon other men; and shift away the torments that shall forever stick on their flesh and spirits.

2 The second argument of their sweetness, is their cheapness. The sins of stealth please the wicked, because they are cheap: what a man gets by robbery, comes without cost. The ungodly would spare their purse, though they lay out of their conscience. Parcatur sumptui. Favor their temporal estates, though their eternal pay for it. Judas had rather lose his soul, then his purse: and for thirty siluerlings, he sels his Master to the Pharisees, himself to the Devil. Yet when all is done, he might put his gains in his eye. It is but their conceit of the cheapness; they pay dear for it in the upshot. The Devil is no such frank Chapman to sell his Wares for nothing. He would not proffer Christ the kingdoms without a price, he must be worshipped for them. The guests carry not a draught from his table, but they must make courtesy to him for it. His worship must be thanked at least: nay, thanks will not serve, affected, obayed, honored. He is proud still, and stands upon it, beyond measure, to be worshipped. He will part with an ounce of vanity, for a dram of worship: but the worshipper had better part with a talent of gold.

The Devil indeed keeps open house; noctes at{que} dies, &c. He makes the world believe that he sels Robin-Hoods penny worths; that he hath manum expansam, a prodigal hand, and gives all gratis: but vijs & modis, he is paid for it; and such a price, that the whole world comes short of the value. Only he is content to give day, and to forbear till death: but then he claps up his debtors into everlasting prisonment, and lays an heavy execution on them; that eve • the Spanish Inquisition comes short of it. Thus as the King of Sodom said to Abraham, Da mihi animas, Give me the souls, take the rest to thyself. The Prince of darkness is content, that thou shouldest have riches and pleasures cheap enough; only give him thy soul, and he is satisfied. The Devil would have changed his Arithmetic with Job, and rather have given addition of wealth, then subtraction, if he could have so wrought him to blaspheme God.

Satan seems marvelous frank and kind at first: Munera magna quidem praebet, sed praebet in hamo. They are beneficia viscata, ensnaring mercies. As the Tree is the Birds refuge when she flies from the snare; and loe, there she finds Bird-lime, that tears off her flesh and feathers. Conuiuia, quae putes, insidiae sunt. They are baits, which thou takest for banquets. The poor man is going to prison for a small debt: the Usurer lends him money, and rescues him: two or thee winters after, his fit comes again, and by how much an Usurer is sharper then a mere Creditor, he is shaken with the worse Ague: that kindness plungeth him into a deeper bondage: the first was but a thredden snare, which he might break, but this is an infrangible chain of iron. Men are in want, and necessity is (durum telum) a heavy burden: the Devil promiseth supply. Behold, the drunkard shall have Wine, the thief opportunity; the malious revenge; if they be hungry, he hath a Banket ready: but, as I have seen Emperickes give sudden ease to a desperate & inveterate grief, yet either with danger of life, or more violent revocation of the sickness; so their misery ere long is doubled: and that which was but a stitch in the side, is now a shrewd pain in the heart. The Stag and the Horse (saith the Fiction ) were at variance: the Horse, being too weak desires Man to help him: Man gets on the Horses back, and chaseth the Stag, Vs{que} ad fugam, us{que} ad mortem, to flight, to death. Thus the Horse gets the victory; but is at once victor & victus, Captain and captive: for after that he could never free his mouth from the bit, his back from the Saddle. Non equitem dorso, non fraenum depulit ore. Man is beset with exigence: he wails his weakness: the Devil steps in with promises of succor. Judas is made rich, Gehesi gets change of suites: Nero is crowned Emperor, but withal he gets possession of their affections, whence all the power of man cannot vntenant him. Thus the last slavery is worse then the first, and the cheare is not so cheap at sitting down, as it is dear at rising up.

This is the Devils cheapness: no, every good and perfect gift is from above. The Devil gives nothing, but God gives to all, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , richly, or abundantly, so that when he gives, he takes nothing back: for the gifts of the spirit are 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , without repentance. Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters of life, and he that hath no money, &c. God hath waters, no stolen water, but waters of freedom; and other blessings (if ye love liquid things) o • an answerable nature, greater virtue; and those, whereof he is a true proprietarie. Wine and Milk: Milk to nourish, Wine to cherish the heart of man: buy them without money, let not your poverty keep you back: here is cheapness, if you have a saving desire: come freely and take your fills: The Gospel is preached to the poor. Think not to buy the graces of God with money : lest you and your money perish. Only take your time, and come whiles God is a giving: for there is a time when the door of bounty is shut. Though he stretch forth his hand of mercy all the day ; yet the night comes when he draws it back again. They that answer him, proffering grace, as Daniel to Belshazzar, Keep thy rewards to thyself, and give thy gifts to another ; may knock at his gates, and be turned away empty. Now, spare to speak, and spare to speed. Then, though you cry unto me, I will not hear: To day, then, harden not your hearts. Pray unto him, and he will give good things to them that ask him. He doth not sell, but give; not the shadows, but the substances of goodness. The conclusion then is clear, blessings and graces are truly cheap, And no good thing will God withhold from them that walk uprightly: All things shall work to their good, that are good. The Devil gives nothing, but sels all for price; neither are they good things he selleth; but figuras boni, the mere forms & counterfeits of goodness.

But if the cheapness of sin so affect men, what mean they to run to Rome for it? where I do not say only, that sin and damnation hath a shrewd price set upon them, but even bliss and comfort: and no Pilgrim can get the least salve-plaster to heal his wounded Conscience, but at an vnreasonnable reckoning. But soft! it is objected, that Rome is still baited in our Sermons; and when we seek up and down for matter, as Saul for his Asses, we light upon the Pope still. I answer, that I can often pass by his door and not call in: but if he meets me full in the face, and affronts me, (for good manners sake) non praetereo insalutatum, I must change a word with him.

The Pope is a great Seller of these Stollen waters : (yet his Chapmen think them cheap.) He thrusts his Spear into the Mountains, and sluceth out whole floods: as it is fabled of Aeolus. He usurps that of God, that he can span the waters in his fist: that he hath all the graces of God in his own power; and no water can pass besides his Mill: as if he could call for the waters of the Sea, and pour them out upon the face of the Earth: or as Job speaketh of Behemoth: Behold, he drinketh up a River and hasteth not: and trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth. As if all the graces of God were packed up in a bundle, or shut into a box, and the Pope only was put in trust to keep the Key; and had authority to give and deny them. So Aeolus the God of Winds (saith the Poet ) gave Vlisses a Maile, wherein all the Winds were bound and wrapped up together; except the Western wind, which he must needs occupy to carry himself home. The Pope brags, that all waters are banked up into his fountain, and none can drink but by his leave; except the Supremacy & perfect Sanctitie: which is the Wind and the Water, he must use himself, thereby to sails to Heaven: (a Haven that few Popes arrive at:) but otherwise there is no grace to be had, but from the mother- Church of Rome, whose vncontrollable head is the Pope. A miserable Engrosser, that would shut up all goodness into his own Ware-house. Yet when he lists, he will undertake to pour floods on the solid ground ; and make Rivers run in dry places.

He hath a huge Pond of Purgatory, whereout whole millions drink, and are pleased. But as Darius pursued, drunk puddle-water, and said, it was the best drink that ever he tasted. So it is the menaced terror, and the false alarms, that the Jesuits ring in Ignorances ear, that makes men drink so greedily at the Popes Puddle-wharfe. He is a great Land-lord of these stolen waters. He sits upon many waters. Some he steals from the Jews, some from the Turks, some from the Pagans, much from Idolatry, all from Heresy. That (as John de Rupe scissa in a popular Sermon) if every Bird should fetch her own feathers, you should have a naked Pope. Let every River challenge her own waters, you will have a dry Rome: But now

his waters spread over the face of the Earth: neither are they cheap, believe but a Bird of their own Cage.

But is the Shop never opened, but to the mart of so good Commodities? yes, if their Penance -Parlour wa • opened, you might find a rate for Stollen waters: Pardon for offenses committed: nay, Indulgences for future sins, which but for an impregnable toleration might not be done. And let the traffiquers speak from their own feeling how cheap they are. They have a pecuniary patronage, and are warranted from the Popes Exchequer, rather then his Chancery. Even that corrupt Justice gives such sins no connivance, but when the dusts of bribery have shut his eyelids. It is their carefulness, Quod huiusmodi dispensationes non concedantur pauperibus. That such dispensations be not granted to the poor.

If this doctrine were true, it was time to raze Christ's speech out of the Scriptures: It is hard for a rich man to enter into Heaven: for it is easy for the rich, that can open the gate with a golden Key, and the poor are only in danger of exclusion. And, that which would be most strange, Hell should be peopled with none but Beggars: Not an Usurer, not an Epicure, not a Cormorant, not a vicious Potentate should grace the Court of Satan. For the Pope will for Money seal them a Passport for Heaven. Nay, how doth this disgrace Purgatory! when none but beggarly wretches shall be in danger of drowning in that whirlpool. Whence all their friends (being equally poor) have not money enough for their redemption. These are the rotten post • whereon the Fabric of Rome stands. Think not their sto • len waters cheap. Your purses must pay for them. Yet happy were you, if no higher price was set on them. All is not discharged with your ready m • ny; there is another reckoning: your souls mus • pay for the • . The Devil tyes his Customers in the bond of Debets; and woe to them, that are too far in his books: for if Christ cancel not his hand-writing against them, he will sue them to an eternal Outlawrie; and make them pay their souls, for that they boasted they had so good cheap.

3. The third argument of these waters sweetness, is derived from our corrupt affections. Sin pleaseth the Flesh? Omne simile nutrit simile. Corruption inherent is nourished by the accession of corrupt actions. Judas Covetousness is sweetened with unjust gain. Joab is heartened, and hardened with blood. Theft is fitted to, and fatted in the thievish heart with obvious booties. Pri • e is fed with the officious complements of observant Groomes. Extortion battens in the Usurers affections by the trolling in of his monies. Sacrilege thrives in the Church-robber, by the pleasing distinctions of those Sycophant-Priests ; and helped with their ( • ot laborious) profit. Nature is led, is fed with Sense. And when the Citadel of the heart is once won, the Turret of the understanding will not long hold out. As the suffumigations of the oppressed stomach, surge up and cause the headache: or as the thick spumy mists, which vapor up from the danke and foggy earth, do often suffocate the brighter air, and to us (more then eclipse) the Sun. The black and corrupt affections, which ascend out of the nether part of the soul, do no less darken and choke the understanding. Neither can the fire of grace be kept alive at God's Altar, (man's heart,) when the clouds of Lust shall rain down such showers of Impiety on it. Perit omne Iudicium, cùm res transit ad affectum. Farewell the perspecuity of Judgment, when the matter is put to the partiality of affection.

Let then the taste be Judge at this Feast, and not the stomach, Lust and not Conscience ; and the Cates have unquestionable sweetness. He is easily credited, that speaks what we would have him. Go up to Ramoth Gilead and prosper, was pleasing Music in Ahab's ear. Ye shall not die, though you eat, delighted Eve. The Sirens Song is more esteemed, then the Oracle of Pallas ; because it is sung to lustful, not wise Auditors. The strange distinctions, which they give in these days, that (claw the Devil) flatter an Usurer for gain, are believed, before the Sermons, of the Sons of the Prophets, of the Son of God. Let a factious Novelist maintain the justness of Impropriations at the Church-wrongers Table for a meal; his talk is held arguments, when the Scripture-arguments are held but talk. As Micah speaks of the Prophets, that would preach for Drunkenness. So these sell their conscience for countenance; and feed men's humors, whiles they have an humor to feed them. Quod nimis miseri volunt, hoc facile credunt. Though they be Prophets for profits, yet they are readily believed. So easily the brain drinks the poison, which the affection ministers. It is not then strange, if these Cates be sweet, when concupiscence tastes them. Pascitur libido conuiuijs, nutritur delicijs, vino accenditur, ebrietate slammatur. Lust is fed with Bankets, nourished with delights, kindled with Wine, set on fire and flame with Drunkenness.

What could make the Religion of Rome so sweet and welcome to many, but the congruence and pleasingnesse to their nature? Whiles Nature finds ascribed to her self freedom of will, validity of merits, the Latitude of an ignorant and cursorie faith, she runs mad of conceit. That Indulgences for all sins may be derived from that open Exchequer; that if a man wants not money, he needs not loose heaven; that the bare Act of the Sacrament confers grace without faith; and the mere transient sign of the Cross, whoever makes it, can keep off the Devil. Oh Religion sweet to Nature. Nay (to speak nearer to our district instance.) Lust not only affectual, but actual, is dispensed with. Priests are licensed their Concubines, though inhibited Wives. Adultery is reckoned among their petty sins. I have read it quoted out of Pope Innocentius the third, of their Priests. Mane filium virginis offerunt in choro: Nocte filium veneris agitant in thoro. The Priests do not engross all the Market of venerie to themselves, (yet they do prettily well, for their allowance. One Benefice with one Wife is unlawful, but two Benefices and three Whores are tolerable. ) But the Stews, like the common Bath, is afforded to the Laity; and if their States will maintain it, a private supply besides. Vrbs est iam tota Lupanar. The whole City is become a mere Stews. As the Prophet Isaiah said once of Jerusalem ; so we may say of Rome: The holy City is become an Harlot. Full of Harlots they will not stick to yield, and so full of Adulterers. Nay, the City it self is an Harlot, and hath left her first love. She committes Idolatry, (which is the vilest Adultery) with Stockes and Stones.

Thus Nature drinks pleasant waters, but they are stolen. Lust encroacheth upon the Law: and Concupiscencies gain is God's loss. Some of them, saith Bishop Jewel, have written in defense of filthiness. What black Vice shall want some Patronage? But causa patrocinio non bona, peior erit. Powerful arguments, no doubt: yet powerful enough to overcome the yielding spirit. Strong affection gives credit to weak reasons. A small temptation serves to his perversion, that tempts himself; and would be glad of a cloak to hide his leprosy, though he steal it. How can it then be denied, that sins are sweet, whiles Lust doth take, taste, censure them?

The Devils Banket is not yet done; there is more cheare a coming. The Water -service is ended: now begin Cates of another nature; or, if you will, of another form, but the nature is all one. Norma et forma manet. The same Method of Service, the same manner of Iunkets. It may be distinguished (as the former.)

• Into a prescription, de quo. Bread,
• Into a description, de quanto. Bread of Secrecies.
• Into an ascription. de quali. Bread of ple • sure.

Bread hath a large extent in the Scriptures. Vult sufficientiam vitae et praesentis et futurae. Under it, is contained a sufficiency of food and nourishment. 1. For the body. 2. For the soul. Therefore some would derive the Latin word, Panem, from the Greek word, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and so make it a general and comprehensiue word; to signify, omne quod nobis necessarium ▪ all things needful, whither to corporal or animal sustenance.

1. Corporal: the fourth petition in that absolute Prayer, lessoned to us by our Master, implies so much: Give us this day our daily Bread. Where saith S. Augustine: Omnem necessariam corporis exhibitionem petimus: We beg all necessary sustentation to our temporal life. So, in sudore vultus vesceris pane tuo: All thy repast shall be derived from thy travel. Set Bread before them, saith Elisha to the King of Israel: And he made great provision for them. Job's kindred did eat Bread, that is, feasted with him? He that ate of my Bread ▪ saith David, or did feed on the delicacies of my Palace.

2. For the soul. I am the living Bread, that came down from heaven: if any man eat of this Bread, he shall live forever. It is not straitened of this sense. Matth. 15. It is not meet to take the children's Bread, and to throw it to dogs. Christ and all his benefits are shadowed forth by Bread. The loss of the Word, is called by the Prophet, a Famine, or loss of Bread.

Bread then implies multitudinem salutum, magnitudinem solaminum, plenitudinem omnium bonorum: Much health, great comforts, fullness of all requisite good things. And what? Will Satan brag that he can give all these? and that his Bread, intensiue, is so virtual in it own nature: and extensiue, that it shall afford so much strength of comfort, validity of nutriment; and never fail the collation of health to his guests? This is in him an hyperbolical, and almost an hyperdiabolicall impudence; to make the bread of sin, equal with the Bread of life: and to ascribe unto it potentiam virtutis, and virtutem dulcedinis ; that it is Bread, and sweet bread, nourishing and well-tasted. As Ceres must be taken and worshipped for the Goddess of Corn, and Bacchus for the God of Wine; when they were (at the utmost) but the first Inuenters of grinding the one, and pressing the other: for God is the God of both fields and Vineyards. So the Devil would seem owner of Bread and Water, when God only is Lord of Sea and Land; that made and blesseth the Corn and the Rivers. His Power containeth all, and his Providence continueth all that is good unto us.

Observe, how the Devil is God's Ape, and strives to match and parallel him, both in his words and wonders. He follows him, but (not passibus aequis ) with unequal steps. If Christ have his waters of life at the Lambes wedding Feast; the Devil will have his waters too at Lusts Banket. If the highest give his thunder, hailstones, and coals of sire, (as to Elias sacrifice:) the red Dragon doth the like: He maketh fire to come down from heaven, in the sight of men. If Moses turn his rod to a Serpent, the Sorcerers do the like: but yet they fall short, for Moses rod devoured all theirs. Must Abraham sacrifice his Son to the God of Heaven? Agamemnon must sacrifice his daughter to the Prince of Darkness. A Ram redeeemes Ishaac, a Hind Iphigenia. For Jehovah's Temple at Jerusalem, there is great Diana's at Ephesus. It is said of the Son of God, that he shall give sight to the blind ; and heal the sicknesses of the people; The Son of Jupiter, Aesculapius shall have the like report. Ovid and Hesiod have their Chaos, in imitation of sacred Moses: Noah's deluge shall be quitted with Deucalions. For our Noah, they have a Ianus ; for our Sampson, a Hercules ; for our Babel -builders, they that lay Pelion upon Ossa, Giants. If Lots Wife be turned to a Pillar; loe, Niohe is metamorphosed to a stone. Let God historifie his Jonah, Herodotus will say more of Arion. Of which S. Augustine well: We may suspect, the Greek tale of the one, means the Hebrew truth of the other. Thus, if Christ at his Table offer to his Saints, his own body for bread, blood for wine, in a mystical sort: The Devil will proffer some such thing to his guests, Bread and Waters; Waters of Stealth, Bread of Secrecie. He is loath to give God the better: he would not do it in heaven, and therefore turned out: and do you think, he will yet yield it? no, in spite of God's water of Crystal, peace and glory ; he will have his waters of Acheron, guilt and vanity. But by Satan's leave, there is a Bread, that nourisheth not. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not Bread? and your labor for that, which satisfieth not? It (seems but) is not bread: and (if it be, yet) it satisfies not. Say it could, yet man lives not by bread only; but by the word and blessing of God. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , all the delicates, that Sin can afford us, are but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the bane of the soul. Pabula peccati, pocula lethi. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 properly signifies ( 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 :) All meat prepared with fire. There is no cheare at this Banket dressed without fire; either present of Lust, or future of torment.

Now since the Devil will put the form of Bread upon his tempting wickedness; let us examine what kind of bread it is.

1. The seed is corruption; an unclean seed. No other then the tares, which the Enemy sew: God sew good Corn, but whence are the tares? The seed whereof this bread is made, is not Wheat or good Corn; but Cockle, Darnell, Tares; Dissention, Rebellion, Lies, Vanities. The Devil is herein a Seedes-man, but he sows corrupt seed; that infects and poisons the heart, which receives it.

2. The heat of the Sun, influence of the Air, sap and moisture of the Ground, that ripens this seed, are Temptations: The seed once sown in the apt ground of our carnal affections, is by the heat of Satan's motion soon wrought to ripeness. So that it is matured suggerendo, imprimendo, tentando: suggestion, impression, temptation hasten the seed (to grass, to a blade, to spindling, to a perfect ear:) to growth in the heart: and all suddenly, for an ill weed grows apace. Rather then it shall dwindle and be stunted, he will crush the clouds of hell, and rain the showers of his malediction upon it. Before he sows, here he waters.

3. The seed thus ripend is soon cut down, by the Sickle of his subtlety; whose policy to preserve his state Florentine, is beyond Machiauels. His speed is no less; else he could not so soon put a Girdle about the loins of the earth. But what policy can there be in shortening the growth of sin? this trick rather enervates his power, weakens his Kingdom. The Devil doth not ever practice this cunning; but then alone, when he is put to his shifts. For, some are so vile, that the Devil himself, would scarce wish them worse. Such are Atheists, Rob-altars, Usurers, Traitors, &c. But some living in the circun ference of the Gospel, are by man's awe and law restrained from professed abominations! what would you have him now do? Sure Satan is full of the Politics. Daemonas grammatici dictos volunt, quasi 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , id est, peritos ac rerum scios. He is a Devil for his craft. I call therefore the reaping, his Subtlety: for he might seem therein to dissolve his Kingdom, and spoil the height of sin, by cutting it down. But the sequel and success proves, he doth it rather to corroborate the power thereof, by making it fitter for application. Thus he transforms himself to an Angel of light ; and is content to top the proud risings of palpable and outward Impieties, that he may more strongly possess the soul by hypocrisy. Thus there may be an expulsion of Satan from the house of the heart, quoad veter • m eruptionem, when his repossession is made stronger, quoad nouam corruptionem. Common grace throws him out, but he finds the house empty, swept, and garnished, that is, trimmed by hypocrisy, and therefore enters and fortifies with seven other spirits more wicked then the first. What he cannot do by notorious rebellion, he • erformes by dissimulation. So that as Sorcerers and Witches converse with evil spirits in plausible and familiar forms, which in ugly shapes they would abhor. So many would not endure him, vt rude cacodaemon, as a rough and gross Devil, in manifest outrageous enormities; who yet as a smooth, sleeke, fine, and transformed Devil, give him entertainment. This then is his Harvest.

4. Being thus reaped and house'd, he soon thresheth it out, with the Flaile of his strength. He is called the strong man ; where he takes possession, he pleads prescription; he will not out. His power in the captived conscience scorns limitation: He is not content to have the seed lie idle in the heart, he must thresh it out, cause thee to produce some cursed effects. He doth not (to speak for your capacity in the Country) hoard up his Graine; but with all his might, and the help of all his infernal flailes, he thresheth it out, and makes it ready for the Market. If any Cain, or Judas be so hasty, that he will not stay till it be made Bread, tarry for temptation, but tempt himself; the Devil is glad that they save him a labor: howsoever, he will have his Graine ready; his suggestion shall not be to seek when he should use it. He would be loath that the lustful eye should want a Harlot, the corrupt Officer a bribe, the Papist an Image, the Usurer a Morgage, the thief a bootie. He knows not what guests will come, he will thrash it ready.

5. Being thrashed out, it must (you know) be ground. Satan hath a Water -mill of his own: though founded on mare mortuum, a dead Sea, (for all sins are dead works ) yet the current and stream that drives it, runs with swifter violence, then the straits of Giberaltare. The flood of concupiscence drives it. The Mill consists of two stones, Deliciae & diuitiae : Pleasure and Profit. There is no seed of sin, which these two cannot grind to powder, and make fit for Bread, when Concupiscence turns the Mill. Rapine, Sacrilege, Murder, Treason, have been prepared to a wicked man's use, by these Instruments. Quid non mortaliae pectora cogunt? Covetousness and carnal delight bid any sin welcome. Only pleasure is the nether stone; Idleness would lie still, but Covetousness is content to trudge about, and glad when any sacks come to the Mill. These two grind all the Devils grist, and supply him with temptations for all the World. All the ugly births of sins, that have ever shown their monstrous and stigmatic forms to the light, have been derived from these Parents; Carnal pleasure and Covetousness. You see how the Devil grinds.

6. It is ground, you hear: It wants leauening. The Leaven is the colorable and fallacious arguments, that persuade the sweetness of this Bread. This is, 1. either the Leaven of the Pharisees. 2. Or, the leaven of the Sadducees. 3. Or, the Leaven of the Herodians. The Leaven Pharisaical, is described by CHRIST himself to be Hypocrisy: a tradition to make clean the outside of the Cup, but no devotion to keep the inside pure, from extortion and excess. The Leaven of the Sadducees is the doctrine of the Sadducees: as the mistaken Apostles (about Bread ) corrected their own errors. This Doctrine was a denial of Resurrection, of Angel, of Spirit. The Herodian Leaven, was dissolute profaneness; derived from the observation of Fox -like Herod. These pleadings for Sin, by the Devils mercenary Advocates, put (like Leaven ) a better taste into his Bread. Thus it is leavened.

7. It lacks now nothing but baking. Sure, the Oven, that bakes this corrupt Bread, is our own evil affections; which the Devil heats by his temptations; and with supply of Fewell, to their humors. Thus by sin he makes way for sin, and prepares one iniquity out of another. He strikes fire at the covetous heart of Judas, and so bakes both Treason and Murder. He hath made Absalom's affections so hot by Ambition, that Incest and Parricide is easily baked in them. The Prophet Hosea speaks the sins of Israel in this Allegory, They are all Adulterers, as an Oven heated by the Baker: who ceaseth from raising, after he hath kneaded the Dough, until it be leavened. They have made ready their heart, like an Oven, whiles they lie in wait: their Baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire. They are all hot as an Oven, &c. Yea, Ephraim it self is a Cake half baked. Thus, when our affections are made a fiery Oven, through the greediness of sin, there is soon drawn out a batch of wickedness.

Thus the Devil runs through many occupations, before his Bread be baked, his Banket prepared for his guests. He is a Seedesman, a Waterer, a Reaper, a Thrasher, a Miller, a Moulder, a Baker. A Baker here for his Bread, as before a Brewer for his Waters. And to conclude, an Host, that makes the wake, invites the guests, and Bankets them with their own damnation.

You have heard how this Service may be called Bread ; and therein the subtlety of the Devils prescription. Let us as justly poise his description in the balance, and see how it holds weight. Secret bread, or, the bread of secrecy ; nay, of Secrecies: for sin is not like the Rail, that sits alone; but like the Partridges, which fly by Coueys. Secret. This will be found a fraudulent dimension: for there is nothing so secret, that shall not be made manifest. The speeches of whispering, the acts of the Closet shall not scape publishing. The Allegory of Adultery is prosecuted. Forbidden lusts, stolen by snatches, and enjoyed in secret, are sweet and pleasant. It is instanced in this particular, what hath a general extent to all the paralells; every sister of that cursed stock. I will hold with it thus far; that sin loves secrecy ; and I will testify against it a degree further, that no sin is so secret, as the Tempter here affirms it; or the committers imagine it. And from these two roots, I will produce you a double fruit of Instruction.

1. Vniust things love priuacie: the Adulterer saith Job, loves the dark. Thais draws Paphnutius into the secret, and more removed chambers. The two wicked Elders thus tempt that Emblem of chastity; Ostia pomerij clausa sunt: the gates of the Orchard are shut ; and nobody sees us. Hence the generation of sins are called the works of darkness. And reformation of life is compared to our decent walking in the day. Though the light of grace shines, saith the Sun of brightness, yet men love darkness better, because their deeds are evil. Ignorance and the Night have a fit similitude.

1. Both seasons are still and hushit: no noise to waken the Sybarites ; unless the Cockes, the Ministers: Nuncij Dei et diei: and their noise is not held worth the hearing. Few will believe Christ's Cock, though he crows to them that the day is broken.

2. Both seasons procure stumbling. The ways of our pilgrimage is not so even but that we need both light to show the rubs, and eyes to disce • ne them. The Gospel is the day, Christ is the light, Faith is the eye that apprehends it. Light without eyes, eyes without light, are defective to our good. If either be wanting, the stumbling feet endanger the body. In the spiritual privation of either Gospel or Faith, the affections are not able to keep upright the Conscience.

3. Both are uncomfortable seasons. Nox & erroris & terroris plenissima. The night is full of wondering, of wandering. Imagine the Egyptians case in that gross and palpable darkness: the longest natural night, that the Book of God specifies. A silent, solitary, melancholy, inextricable season. In which, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; no murmur disquiets the Air; no man hears his name; no Birds sing; except the Owl and the Night-rauen, which croake only dismal things.

4. Both are fit seasons for fowl spirits to range in. It hath been fabled of night-walking sprights. Let it be false, yet this is true: the Devil is the Prince of darkness ; his kingdom is a kingdom of darkness ; and his walks are the walks of d • rkenesse. In the calignious night of Superstition and Ignorance, he plays Rex, and captiuates many a soul to his obedience. His children (as it is fit) have the same disposition with their father. They are Tenebrio's, and love nocturnos conuentus, meetings in the dark: as the • owder-Tra • tours met in the Vault. But the eyes of Jehovah see not only things • one in the tops of the Mountains, but could sp • e the Trea • on of the Vaul • .

2. And this is the consequent I • struction, which I would the Devils blinded guests should know! God sees. There is nothing secret to his eye. 1. He sees our sins in the Book of eternity, before our own hearts conceived them. 2. He sees them in our hearts, when our inventions have given them form, and our intentions birth. 3. He sees their action on the Theater of this Earth, quite through the scene of our lives. 4. He sees them, when his wrathful eye takes notice of them, and his hand is lift up to punish them. There is nothing so secret, and abstracted from the senses of men; Vt creatoris aut lateat cogitationem, aut effugiat potestatem ; that it may either lurk from the eye, or escape from the hand of God. No Master of a family is so well acquainted with every corner of his house; or can so readily fetch any Casket or Box he pleaseth: as the Master of the whole family in Heaven and Earth, knows all the Angles and Vaults of the World.

The villan • es of the Cloistures were not unseen to his revenging eye. Perhaps they took a recluse life, that they might practice experimental wickedness, without suspicion: pro •• sing to the world contemplation, premising their own thoughts to contamination. They thought themselves secure, shadowed from the eye of notice, and fenced from the hand of Justice. So they were in doctrine, out of the world; but in proof the world was in them: they were not more (politi) strict in profession, then (polluti) loose in conversation. But as dark as their Vaults were, the all-seeing GOD descried their whoredoms, and destroyed their habitations; or at least emptied them of so filthy Tenants. The obscurity of their Cels and Dorters, thickenesse of Walls, closenesse of Windows, with the cloak of a strict profession thrown over all the rest, could not make their sins dark to the eye of Heaven.

Our impieties are not without witness. To videt Angelus malus, videt te bonus, videt et bonis et malis major Angels Deus. The good Angel, and the bad, and he that is better then the Angels, far above all principalities and powers, sees thee. The just man sets forth his actions to be justified. Lucem & aethera petit, & teste so • e viuit: He loves the light, and walks with the witness of the Sun. It is recorded of Jacob, He was a plain man, dwe • ling in Tents. Nathaniel (by the testimony of the best witness) was an Israelite indeed, in whom was no guile. It was the Rabbins council to his Scholar: Remember, there is 1. a seeing Eye: 2. a hearing Eare. 3. a Book written. Sic viue cum hominibus, quasi Deus videat: sic loqu • re Deo, quas • homines a • diant. So converse with men, as if GOD saw thee: so speak to God, as if men heard thee. For, non discessit Deus: quando recessit. God is not absent, though thou dost not feel him present. Corporeall substances are in one place locally and circumscriptively: incorporeal created substances, neither locally nor circumscriptively, but definitively. GOD the creating substance is every whit in every place: not circumscriptively as bodies; nor definitively as Angels; but repletiuely, (Io • is omnia plena) filling every place by his essence. He is hypostatically in CHRIST: graciously in his Saints: gloriously in Heaven: powerfully in Hell. You see then the falsehood of the Devils assertion: Sins would be secret, but they are not.

The Bread of secrecy being described, I should come in the third and last place, to the Ascription: It is pleasant. But because the former adjunct of sweetness, doth but little diuersifie from this of Pleasure ; and I shall have just occasion to convince the Devils feigned delicacy, from Solomon's proved misery: I will therefore silence it. And for conclusive application, give me the leave of your patience, to examine the truth of the (former) secrecy.

It is the Devils policy, though he cannot blind his eyes that made the light in Heaven, and the sight in man; yet he would darken our sins with the veil of secrecies from the view of the world. And are they so? no, (the suffering eye sees them, and can point them out, nay) sensible demonstration speaks them to the ea • es, and objects them to the sight of man. The iniquities of these days are not ashamed to show their faces; but walk the streets without fear of a Ser • eant. The sins of the City are as pert and apert as the sons of the City. I would Iniquity was not bolder then Honesty; or that Innocence might speed no worse then Nocence. Absit vt sic, sed vtinam vt vel sic, saith Saint Augustine, in the like case: God forbid it should be so bad; yet I would it were no worse. For the times are so wheeled about to their old bias, that vix licet esse bonum, it is scarce safe to be an honest man. Suspition makes the good evil, and flattery makes the evil good, the first in the opinion of others; the last in the opinion of themselves. Our faith is small, and led •• th reason; our life evil, and led without reason. Corruptio morum to • lit scientiam ethicam. Our evil manners shut up Philosophy and Divinity too into the cave of Ignorance.

This Forest of Man and Beast, the world, grows from evil to worse; like Nabuch • dnezzars dreamed Image, whose Head was Golden, Silver arms, Brasen thighs, but his feet were of Iron and Clay. What Ovid did but Poet • ze, experience doth moralize, our manners actually perform. This last is (as it must be) the worst. Our Covetise saith, It is terrae aetas, an Earthen Age. Our Oppression, ferrea aetas, an Iron Age. Our Impudence, ah • nea aetas ▪ a Brasen Age. Neither aurea, nor argentea, saith Necessity. For the poor may say as the Priest, Silver and Gold have I none. Let me say; our sins have made it worthy to be called, inferna aetas, a hellish Age.

Sin is called by Paul, The old man ; but he is stronger now▪ then he was in his I • fancy; diebus Adam • , in the days of Adam. Most men's repentance is in the knee or tongue, but their wickedness in the heart and hand. Money mars all: for this, and the pleasures this may procure, Esau sels his Birth-right, Judas sels his Master, Ahab sels himself to work wickedness. Sin was wont to love priuacie, as if she walked in fear. The Tippler kept his private Ale-bench, not the Market place: the Adulterer his Chamber, not (with Absalom ) the house-top: the Thief was for the night or sequestrate ways: the corrupt Lawyer took bribes in his Study, not in the open Hall; but now (peccata nullas petitura te •• bras) our sins scorn the dark. Men are so far from being ashamed of their fruitless lives, that mala comittunt, commissa iactant, iactata defendunt: they commit evil, • oast that they committed, and defend that they boasted. Pride is worn as a chain, and cruelty as a garment; conspectu omnium, as proud of the fashion. They talk of a Conscience, that seeks covers, like Adams Fig leaves: but these glory in their shame; whose end is damnation, saith Saint Paul. The very Harlot comes short of them: she wipes her lips, and saith, she h • th not sinned. B • tter fare those, that yet would be accounted honest.

We may justly parallel these times and our complaints to the Prophet Isaiah's, The show of their countenance doth witness against them: they declare their sin at Sodom, they hide it not: But woe be to their souls, for they have rewarded evil to themselves. So the Jews answered GOD, pleading hard to them, There is no hope: no, for I have loved strangers, and after them I will go. Nay, resolutely they discharged GOD of further pains: We are Lord's, we will no more come unto thee. Therefore Ezekiel denounceth their destruction: For this cause ye shall be taken with the hand of Judgment, because your sins are discovered: and in all your doings your transgressions do appear. So the same people to the Son, as they had erst to the Servants: We will not come unto thee. How often would I have gathered you, but you would not? Ye will not come at me, that you might have life. 1. The way is easy. 2. You shall have life for coming: it is worth your labor. 3. You can have it nowhere else; then Come to me. No, you will not come at me: as Daniel answered Bels • azzar, Keep thy rewards to thyself, and give thy gifts to another.

These are sins with lifting up the hand and he • le against God: the hand in opposition, the heel in contempt. There are two Ladders, whereby men climb into HEAVEN; the godly by their Prayers, the wicked by their sins. By this latter Ladder did Sodom and Nineveh climb. GOD grant our sins be not such climbers; that press into the presence Chamber of HEAVEN, and will be acquainted with GOD, though to our confusion. Are our wickednesses done in this R ••• on and Sphaere of sin, the Earth; and must they come to Heaven first? Must the news be at the Court, of what is done in the Co • ntrie, before the Country it self know of it? Our consciences take no notice of our own iniquities; but they complain in the audience-Court of HEAVEN, and few out an Outlawry against us. So impudent and vn-blushing is our wickedness, that with the Prophet we may complain: Were they ashamed, when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ash • med, neither could they blush. Our sins keep not low water, the tide of them is ever swelling: they are objects to the general eye; and proud that they may be observed. And let me tell you; many of the sins I have taxed, as secret and silent as you take them and as hoarcely as they are pleaded to speak; are no less then Thunder to Heaven, and Lightning to men. They do votally and vocally ascend, that would actually, if they could.

The laborers hire cries in the gripulous Landlords hand. The furrows of the Incloser cry, complain, nay, weep against him: for so is the Hebrew word. The vain-glorious builder hath the stone crying out of the Wall against him, and the beam out of the Timber answering it. The Blasphemers tumult cries, and is come up into the ears of God. The Oppressors rage and violence reacheth up to Heaven, and is continually before me, saith the Lord. These are crying sins, and have shrill voices in Heaven, neither are they submiss and whispering on the Earth.

To be short; most men are either Publican's or Pharisees: either they will do no good, or loose that they do by ostentation. Many act the part of a religious man, and play Devotion on the worlds Theater, that are nothing beside the Stage; all for sight. Angels in the Highway, Devils in the by-way: so monstrous out of the CHURCH, that they shame Religion. It was proverbed on Nero, It must needs be good that Nero persecutes: their wicked lives give occasion to the world, to invert it on them. It must needs be evil, that such wretches profess. Others are like Publican's: Only they were Christened when they were Babes, and could not help it; but as angry at that indignity, they oppose Christ all their lives.

Take heed, Beloved ; Hell was not made for nothing. The Devil scorns to have his Court empty • : you will not bend, you shall break: you will not serve God, God will serve himself of you. Put not these vices from you, by your impudent cloakings! How many sta • d here guilty of some of thes • sins? How many may say with Aeneas, Et quorum pars magna sui, whereof I have a great share. Many cry out, the days are evil, whiles they help to make them worse. All censure, none amend. If everyone would pluck a brand from this fire, the flame would go out of it self. But whiles we cast in our iniquities as Fewell, and blow it with the Bellows of disobedience; we make it strong enough to consume us; yea, and all we have. For God will not spare ever; he is just, and must strike.

Shall we loosen our hands to impiety, and tie God from vengeance? I have often read and seen that Mercy and 〈◊〉 meet together ; that Righteousness and Peace kiss one • nother. But Mercy and sinfulness keep not the sa • e ho • s • , Peace and wickedness are mere stra •• ers. To reconcile these, is harder then to make the W • lfe and L • mbe live together in quiet. Think not that God cannot strike. Mars vl • or galeam quo{que} perdidit, & res non potuit seruare suas. The H •• then God's could not avenge their own quarrels: But our God ca • punish a thousand ways: Fire, Plague, War, Famine, &c. Milla nocendi arts. Our sins may thrive a while, and batten, beca • se they live in a friendl • Air, and apt Soil; but in the end they will overthrow both themselves and us.

A Cities overthrow is sooner wrought by lewd lives, then weak walls. Were the walls of our Cities as strong-Turreted and inexpugnable, as the wall that Phocas built about his Palace; yet it may be really performed on them, as the voice in the night told him: Did they reach the Clouds, they may be scaled: the sin within will mar all. Gra • iores sunt mimici mores praui, quàm hosts infesti. Our worst enemies are our own sins. And though • these punishments fall not suddenly, yet certainly, if repentance step not between. Adam did not die presently on his sin; yet God's Word was true upon him: for he became instantly mortal, sure to die, and fell (as it were) into a Consumption, that never left him, till it brought him to the grave. GOD hath leaden Feet, but Iron hands; take heed ye feasting Robbers: when God struck that secret thief Judas, he struck home: he took away the world from him, or rather him from the world, and sent him to his own place. Feast, Reuell, Ryot, Couet, Ingrosse, Extort, Hoord, whiles you will; Earth is not your House, but your Bridge: you must pass over it, either to Canaan or Egypt, Heaven or Hell ; every man to his own place.

Grant, oh dear Father, that we may so run our short Pilgrimage on Earth, that our dwell • ing-place may be with thy Majesty in Heaven, through the merits and mercies of our Savior Jesus Christ. AMEN.

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THE SHOT, OR The woeful price which the wicked pay for the Feast of Vanity. The fourth Sermon.

S Atans guests are unhappily come from the end of a Feast, to the beginning of a fray. As the Sodomites eat and drunk, till the fire was about their ears: so these are iouiall, and sing care away ; but it seems by the sequel, that the Devil will not be pleased with a Song; as the Host in the Fable, with the singing guest. He cries out, as the Usurer at his spawning hour, Give me my money: Arguments are held complements; persuasions, entreaties, promises of speedy satisfaction will do no good on him that hath no good in him: he is like the Cuckoe, always in one tune, Give me my money. The Debtor may entreat, this Creditor will not retreat; he will to war, (you know the Usurers war) except he may have his money. So the great Usurer, the Devil, (I hope Usurers do not scorn the comparison) when the Feast is done, looks for a reckoning. The Usurer, perhaps, will take security; so will the Devil: Security and deadness of heart, will a great while please him. But when Dives hath dined, the Devil takes away: Death is his knife, and Hell his voyder. He takes away one Dish more then he set down; instead of the reversion, the Feasters themselves, nay the Feast-maker too: for Dives is the founder, and Satan is the confounder: the one provides meat for the belly, the other, by God's sufferance, destroys them both. Satan according to the tricks of some shifting Hosts, bids many friends to a Feast, and then beats them with the Spit. Dainty cheer, but a saucy reckoning. The Feast is vanity, the Shot vexation. Thus they that worship their belly as God, temple themselves in Hell: and as their end is damnation, so their damnation is without end. Therefore shall they go captive with the first, that go captive: and the banket of them that stretched themselves shall be removed.

I would willingly lead you through some Suburbs, before I bring you to the main City of Desolation ; and show you the wretched conclusion of this Banket, and confusion of these Guests. All which arise from the conterminate situation, or (if I may so speak) from the respondent opposition of these two Sermons, Wisedomes and Follies, that is, God's and Satan's. For this sad sequel is (if not a relative, yet) a redditiue demonstration of their misery; for after the infection of sin, follows the infliction of punishment. The turrets I would lead you by, are built, and consist of Farewels and Welcomes; of some things deposed, and some things imposed; positive and privative circumstances; valedictions and maledictions: they take their leaves of temporal and affected joys, and turn upon eternal and cursed sorrows. I will limit these general observations into four.

All sinful joys are dammed (if not damned) up with a But. They are troubled with a But -plague; like a Be with a sting in the tail. They have a worm that crops them, nay gnaws asunder their very root; though they shoot up more hastily, and spread more spatiously then Jonah gourd. There is great preparation of this Banket, properation to it, participation of it; all is carried with joy and Iouisance: there is a corrective But, a veruntamen, spoils all in the up-shot. A little Colliquintida, that embitters the Broath. A perilous, a pernicious, rock, that splits the Ship in the Haven. When all the prophecies of ill success have been held as Cassandra's riddles; when all the contrary winds of afflictions, all the threatened storms of God's wrath, could not dishearten the Sinners voyage to these Netherlands; here is a But that shipwrackes all: the very mouth of a bottomless pit, not shallower then Hell it self.

It is observable that Solomon's proverbial says, are so many select Aphorisms; containing, for the most part, a pair of cross and thwart sentences; handled rather by collation then relation; whose conjunction is disiunctiue. The Proverbs are not joined with an Et, but an At: with a But, rather then with an And. Stollen waters are sweet, &c. But he knoweth not, &c. It stands in the midst, like a Rudder or Oare, to turn the Boat another way. Rejoice oh young man, &c. But know that for all these things, God will bring thee to Judgment, &c. All runs smooth, and inclines to the byace of our own affections, till it lights upon this rub. The Babel of Iniquity is built up apace, till confusion steps in with a But. It is like the sudden clap of a Serieant on a Gallants shoulder. He is following his lusts, full sent and full cry; the arrest strikes him with a But, and all's at a loss.

As in a fair Summers morning, when the Lark hath called up the Sun, and the S •• ne the Husbandman: when the earth had opened her Shop of perfumes, and a pleasant wind fannes coolenesse through the heated air: when every creature is rejoiced at the heart. On a sudden the furious winds burst from their prisons, the thunder rends the clouds, and makes way for the lightning, and the spowtes of heaven stream down showers; a hideous tempest sooner damps all the former delight, then a man's tongue can well express it. With no less content do these guests of sin pass their life, they eat to eat, and drink to drink, often to sleep, always to surfeit: they caroll, dance, spend their present joys, and promise themselves infallible supply. On a sudden, this But comes like an unlooked for storm, and turns all into mourning; and such mourning (as Rahell had for her Children ) that will not be comforted, because their joys are not.

A wicked man runs headlong in the night of his unwaked security, after his wonted sports; and because he keeps his old path, which never interrupted him with any obstacle, he nothing doubts, but to speed as he had wont: but his enemy hath digged a pit in his way, and in he topples, even to the depth of Hell. Thus wicked joys have wretched sorrows: and as man hath his Sic, so God hath his Sed. If we will have our will in sin, it is fit, he should have his will in punishing. To this sense, Solomon frequently in his Proverbs. They will pursue wickedness, But they shall be plagued. I have forbidden usury, adultery, swearing, malice, as unclean meats; you will feed on them: But you shall be punished. There is a reckoning behind, a But they never shot at: but they shot besides the But, the whiles. God hath prepared them as the miserable marks, that shall receive the arrows of his vengeance, till they are drunk with blood. They shall suffer that in passion, which Job spake in apprehension. The arrows of the Almighty shall be within them, the poison whereof shall drink up their spirits, and the terrors of God shall set themselves in array against them. So Moses sung in the person of God against the wicked. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall eat flesh, &c. They forget, that when God shall rebuke them in his wrath, and chasten them in his hot displeasure, his arrows shall stick fast in them, and his hand shall press them sore. This is their sad Epilogue, or rather the breaking off their Scaene in the midst; The Banket of stolen waters and secret bread is pleasant: But the dead are there, and the guests be in the depth of Hell.

The Devil doth but cozen the wicked with his cates; as before in the promise of Delicacie, so here of perpetuity. He sets the countenance of continuance on them, which indeed are more fallible in their certainty, then flourishable in their bravery. Their banketting-house is very slippery ; and the feast it self, a mere dream. Let the Guest preserve but reason, and he shall easily make the collection: that if for the present,

To the compound of his joys, there go more bitter then sweet simples; what will then the end be? even such a one, as at once ( consumit delicias, consummat miserias ) makes an end of their short pleasures, and begins their lasting pains. This my Text salutes them, as the Mason was wont to salute the Emperor at his Coronation, with a lap-full of stones:

Choose great Emperor, out of this whole heap, what stone thou best likest for thine own Sepulcher. You that crown your days with Rose-buds, and flatter your hearts with a kingdom over pleasures, think of a low grave for your bodies, and a lower room for your souls. It is the subtlety of our common enemy, to conceal this woe from us so long, that we might see it and feel it at once. For if we could but foresee it, we would fear it; if we truly feared it, we would make means not to feel it.

Our most fortified delights are like the child's castle, done down with a fillop: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , nay 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 a shadow, the very dream of a shadow, a rotten post, slightly painted, a paper-tower, which the least puff overturns.

Time whirles about the world, and makes all inferior things to travel and spend themselves together with him. Sinful and earthly delight is well called, amiable, fragile, flebile, a thing soon loved, sooner ended, but long, very long lamented: a rotten nut, fair but hollow. Though Philosophy saith, there is no vacuity in rerum natura, yet Divinity saith, there is nothing but vacuity in naturae rebu • . Nature, as it is not only corrupt of it self, but made more fowl in the evil man's use, hath nothing in it, but vanity : and vanity is nothing: a mere emptiness, a vacuity. Hence, if Aristotle commends the nature of things, the better Philosopher Solomon, discommends the things of nature ; especially in their base and bad usage. Only the Devils Feast-house hath a fair bush at the door, (yet if the wine were good, what needs the Iuie?) and therefore his people turn in thither, and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them. But when they are once in, they find themselves deceived, for the dead are there, &c.

Then put no trust in so weak comforts, that will be unto you, as Egypt to Israel, a Reed; which when you lean upon, it will not only fail you, but the splinters shall run into your hand. You shall be ashamed of your weak confidence. The Burden of the beasts of the South. Into the land of trouble &c. I am no Prognosticator. Yet if Cosmographie affirm that we live in a Southerne Climate, and experience testify that we have many beasts among us; methinks, these words lie as fit for us, as if they were purposely made. How many in our land, by loss of Conscience are become Atheists, and by loss of Reason beasts? who run so fast to this Egyptian feast of wickedness, that he speaks easiest against them that speaks but of a Burden? These having found Satan's temptations true for the daintiness, judging by their own lusts, dare also take his word for the continuance. But if the great Table of this Earth shall be overthrown, what shall become of the dainties that the hand of nature hath set on it? To which purpose saith Jerome. Oh si possemus in talem ascendere speculam, de qua vniuersam terram sub nostris pedibus cerneremus, iam ti • i ostenderem totius orbis ruinas, &c. If it could be granted us to stand on some lofty Pinacle, from which we might behold the whole earth under our feet; how easily persuasion would make these earthly pleasures seem vile in thy opinion? You sa • , your pleasures are, for number manifold, for truth manifest, for dimension great: grant all, though all be false: yet they are for time short, for end sour. Breue est, quod delectat: aeternum, quod cruciat. It is short, that pleaseth them; everlasting, that plagueth them. Pleasure is a channel, and, Death the sea, whereinto it runs. Mellif • uus ingressus, f • llifluus regressus, yield your joys sweet at the Porch, so you grant them bitter at the Posterne. Securus et Securis must meet. Wickedness and wretchedness must be made acquainted. The lewd man's dinner, shall have that rich man's Supper: Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee. The Devil then you see, is a crafty and cheating host, whose performance falls as short of his promise, as time doth of eternity. Let then the Apostles caveat, be the use of this observation. Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things▪ cometh the wrath of God on the children of disobedience.

The punishments of the wick • d are most usually in the like; proper and proportionable to their offenses. 1. Solomon here opposeth the house of mourning to the house of feasting ; as in express terms. Eccle • . 7. for as it is fit in the body, that surfeit should be followed with death: so these that greedily make themselves sick with sin, become justly dead in soul. 2. They have affected the works of hell, therefore it is just that hell should affect them, and that everyone should be granted their • wne place. 3. As they would not know what they did, till they had done it; so they fitly know not the place whither they shall go, till they are in it. Nescit: he knoweth not, &c. 4. For the high places, which their ambition climbed to, Ver. 14. They are cast down, like L • cifer, to the lowest place, the depth of Hell. As Simon Magus would fly with arrogance, so he came dow • e with a vengeance, and broke his neck. See how fitly they are qu • ted. They eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence : now they are scanted of both, except they will eat the bread of gall, and drink their own tears.

Thus Pharaoh drowns the Hebrew males in a River. Exod. 1. therefore is drowned himself with his army in a sea. Exod. 14. He had laid insupportable burdens on Israel ; God returns them with full weight, number, measure. When Israel had cut off the thumbs and great toes of Adoni-bezek, hear the maimed King confess the equity of this Judgment. Threescore and ten Kings, having their thumbs and great toes cut off, gathered their meat under my table: as I have done, so God hath requited me. As proud Baiazeth threatened to serve Tamberlaine, being conquered; to imprison him in a cage of iron, and carry him about the world in triumph: so the Scithian having took that bragging Turk, put him to the punishment which hi • self had lessoned; carrying and carting him through Asia, to be scorned of his own people. Thus Haman is hanged on his own gallows. Perillus tries the trick of his own torment.

The Papists, that would have fired us in a house, were themselves fired out of a house. Gunpowder spoiled some of their eyes, Musket-shot killed others, the Engines of their own conspiracy: and the rest were advanced higher by the head, then the Parliament-house, that would have lifted us higher, of purpose to give us the more mortal • all. God hath • etaliated their works into their own bosoms. They traveled with iniquity, conceived mischief : and loe the birth is their own sorrow. They have digged a pit for us, and that low, unto Hell; and are fallen into it themselves.

The order of Hell proceeds with the same degrees; though it give a greater portion, yet the same proportion of torment. These wretched guests were too busy with the waters of sin; behold now they are in the depth of a pit, where no water is. Dives, that wasted so many Tunnes of Wine, cannot now procure water, not a Pot of water, not a handful of water, not a drop of water, to cool his tongue. Desiderauit guttam, qui non dedit micam. A just recompense. He would not give a crumb; he shall not have a drop. Bread hath no smaller fragment, then a crumb; water no less fraction then a drop. As he denied the least comfort to Lazarus living, so Lazarus shall not bring him the least comfort dead. Thus the pain for sin, answers the pleasure of sin. Where, now, are those delicate moisels, deep carouses, loose laughters, proud po • t, midnight revels, wanton songs? Why begins not his fellow-guest with a new health? or the Music of some ravishing note? or, if all fail, hath his fool-knauish Parasite no obscene jest, that may give him delight? Alas! Hell is too melancholy a place for mirth. All the Music is round-ecchoing groans: all the water is muddy with stench: all the food anguish.

Thus damnable sins shall have semblable punishments: and as Augustine of the tongue, so we may say of any member. Si non reddet Deo faciendo quae debet, redd • t ei patiendo quae debet. If it will not serve God in action, it shall serve him in passion. Where voluntary obedience is denied, involuntarie anguish shall be suffered. Know this thou swearer, that as thy tongue spets abroad the flames of Hell, so the flames of Hell shall be poured on thy tongue. As the Drunkard will not now keep the Cup of satiety from his mouth, so God shall one day hold the Cup of vengeance to it, and he shall drink the dregs thereof. As the Usurers are tormentors to the Common-wealth, on earth, so they shall meet with tormentors in Hell; that shall transcend them both in malice and subtlety: and load them with bonds and executions; and (which is strangely possible) heavier then those, they have so long traded in. The Church-robber, incloser, ingrosser, shall find worse prolling and pilling in Hell, then themselves used on earth; and as they have been the worst Devils to their Countries wealth, so the worst of Devils shall attend them. The unclean adulterer shall have fire added to his fire. And the covetous wretch, that never spake but in the Horse-leaches language, and carried a mouth more yawning, then the graves, is now quitted with his nunquam satis, and finds enough of fire in the depth of Hell.

The Devil hath feasted the wicked, and now the wicked feast the Devil: and that with a very chargeable Banket. For the Devil is a dainty Prince, and more curious in his diet, then Vitellius. He feeds, like the Cannibal, on no flesh, but man's flesh. He loves no Venison but the Hart, no fowl but the Breast, no fish but the Soul. As the ungodly have eaten up God's people as bread ; so themselves shall be eaten as bread: • t is just, that they be devoured by others, that have devoured others. As they have been Lions to crash the bones of the poor; so a Lyon shall crash their bones: they are Satan's Feast, he shall devour them. Thus they that were the guests, are now the Banket: as they have been feasted with evils, so they feast the D • uils.

Make a little room in your he • ts, ye fearless and desperate wretches, for this meditation. Behold, now, as in aspeculatiue glass, the Devils hospitality. Once be wise: believe without trial, without feeling. Yield but to be ashamed of your sins, and then I (can with comfort) ask you, • hat fruit they ever brought you? Let me but appeal from Philip of Macedon, when he is drunk, to Philip of Macedon, when he is sober; from your bewitched lusts, to your waked consciences; and you must needs say, that breuis haec, non vera voluptas. All the works of darkness are unfruitful, except in producing and procuring utter darkness. Sin is the Devils earnest-penny on earth, in Hell he gives the Inheritance. Temptation is his press-money: by rebellion, oppression, usury, blasphemy, the wicked like faithful Soldiers fight his battles: When the field is won, or rather lost (for if he conquers, they are the spoil) in the dep • h of he • l he gives them pay. Who then would march under his colors; who, though he promise Kingdoms, cannot perform a Hog? Alas poor beggar! he hath nothing of his own but sin, and death, and hell, and torment. Nihil ad effectum, ad defectum satis. No posit • ue good, enough privative evil.

Even those, that pass their souls to him by a real Covenant, he cannot enrich: they live and die most penurious beggars, as pernicious villains. And they, upon whom God suffers him to throw the riches of this world (as a s • are over their hearts) which he cannot do, but at second hand; have not enough to keep either their heads from aking, or their consciences from despairing. Thus, though God permit him, • o help the rich man to sill his Barns, the Usurer to swell his Coffers, the Luxurious to poison his blood, the malicious to gnaw his bowels, the s • crilegious to amplify his revenues, the ambitious with credit, yet there • is neither will in God, nor willingness in the Devil, that any of these should be a blessing unto them. All is but borrowed ware, and the Customers shall pay for day: the longer they abuse them, the larger arrearages they must return. Only here, I may say, that bona sunt, quae dona sunt ; they are goods, that are gifts. God gives his graces freely, the Devil his Iunkets falsely: for the guests must pay; and that dearly; when the least Item in the bill, for pains, is beyond the greatest dish of the Feast, for pleasures.

Solomon's Sermon spends it self upon Two Circumstances, the

• Persons.
  • Tempting. Sh •• . • right Harlot: as appears by her
    • Prostitution.
    • Prodition.
    • Perdition.
  • Tempted. The Dead. All death is from sin, whether
    • Corporal.
    • Spiritual.
    • Eternal.
  • Attempted. He knoweth not. Whose ignorance is either
    • Natural.
    • Invincible.
    • Affected.
    • Arrogan • .
• Place. Where their misery is amplified, in part personally, in part locally.
  • Per infirmitatem. By their • eaknes to resist▪ soon in.
  • Per Inf • rnitatem In hell.
  • Per profunditatem. In the depth of Hell.

The person tempting, or the Harlot, is Vice ; ugly and deformed Vice; that with glazed eyes, surph • ld cheeks, pyed garments, and a Sirens tongue, wins easy respect and admiration. When the heat of temptation shall glow upon concupiscence, the heart quickly melts. The wisest Solomon was taken and snared by a woman: which foul adultery bred as foul an issue, or rather progeniem vitiosiorem, a worse, Idolatry. Satan therefore shapes his Temptation in the lineaments of an Harlot: as most fit and powerful, to work upon man's affections. Certain it is, that all delighted vice is a spiritual adultery.

The covetous man couples his heart to his gold. The Gallant is incontinent with his pride. The corrupt Officer fornicates with bribery. The Usurer sets continual kisses on the cheek of his security. The heart is set, where the hate should be. And every such sinner spends his spirits, to breed and see the issue of his desires. Sin, then, is the Devils Harlot, which being tricked up in tempting colors, draws in visitants▪ praemittendo sua • ia, promittendo perpetua, giving the kisses of pleasure, and promising them perpetual. We may observe in this Strumpet.

1. Prostitution. Pro. 7.13. So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him, &c. Shame, now-a-days, begins to grow so stale, that many vices shall vie impudent speeches and gestures with the Harlot. Come, let us take our fill of love: as Putiphars wife to Joseph, without any ambagious or ambiguous circumlocutions or insinuations, come lie with me. Sin never stands to vnty the knot of God's interdiction, but bluntly breaks it; as the Devil at first to the roots of mankind, ye shall not die. The Usurer never looseth so much time, as to satisfy his conscience: it is enough to satisfy his concupiscence. A good Morgage lies sick of a forfeit, and at the Usurers mercy. It is as surely damned, as the Usurer himself will be, when he lies at the mercy of the Devil. These are so far • rom that old Quare of Christians, quid faciemus, what shall we do? That they will not admit the novel question of these toyte-headed times, What shall we think? They will not give the co • science leave, after a tedious and importunate solicitation, to study of the matter. But are more injurious and impenetrable to their own souls, then that unjust Judge to the Widow.

A cheat is offered to a Trades-man, an Inclosure to a Landlord, an under-hand Fee clapt in the left hand of a Magistrate, if they be evil, and corruption hath first Marshalled the way, the field is won. They never treat with sin for truce, or pause on an answer, but presently yield the fort of their conscience. No wonder then, if the Devils Harlot be so bold, when she is so sure of welcome. It is our weakness, that prompts the Devil with encouragement: whom if we did resist, he would desist. Our weak repulses harten and provoke his fiercer assaults. He would not show the Worldling his apparent horns, if he did not presume of his covetous desire to be horsed on the back of Mammon, and hurried to Hell. Hence sin is so bold as to say in the wicked heart, Non est Deus, there is no God: and so peremptorily to conclude to it self, I shall not be moved; for I shall never be in adue • sitie. Hence even their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue forever, &c. This is presumptuous and whorish prostitution, to set out Iniquity bare-faced, without the Maske of pretexts, to hide her ugly visage. An impetuous, an imperious Impudence, that not w • th a feminine rapture▪ but rather with a masculine rape, captives the conscience. You see Follies prostitution.

2. Prodition is the ranckling tooth that follows her ravishing kisses. Judas kissed his Master with the same heart. Iniqu • tie hath an infectious breath, if a fair countenance. All her delights are like fair and sweet flowers, but full of Serpents. The tempted may give a concluding groan,

Thy soft flowers have stung me to death. For indeed it is most true, Nemo ipsum peccatum amat, sed male amando illud quod amat, illaqueatur peccato. No man loves sin for it own sake, but by an irregular and sinister love, to that he doth love, he is snared with sin. The Devil knows, that his Ephesian Harlot, Vice, would want worshippers, if treason and death were written up on the Temple-door: therefore health and content are proclaimed, and as on the Theater pr • scented; but there is Hell under the Stage, there is treason in the vault.

Thus Temptation misleades the Nauigatours with a Pirates light: deceives the living fowls with a dead bird: a Syren, a Judas, a Jebusite, a Jesuit. For were the Jesuit to play the Devil, or the Devil the I • suite on the stage of this world; it would be hard to judge which was the Jesuit, which the Devil; or which played the part most naturally. As Iniqu • ties are Satan's Harlots to corrupt the affections; so Jesuits are his E • gines to pervert the brains: for if the new guest here be heart-sick, so their Pro • elite is brain-sick. Both are made so dissolute, till they become desolate, robbed and destitute of all comfort.

Sin deals with her guests, as that bloody Germane Prince, that having invited many great States to a solemn Feast, flattered and singled them out one by one, and cut off all their heads. As fatal a success attends on the flatteries of sin. Oh then, fuge peccatum exulceratricem hanc: Fly this Harlot, that carries death about her. Go aloof from her door, as they say, the Devil doth by the Cross: but (let that savor of supposition, nay of superstition) do thou in sincere devotion fly from sin, quasi à facie colubri, as from a Serpent. She hath a Sirens voice, a Mermaides face, a Helens beauty to tempt thee: but a Leapers touch, a Serpents sting, a traiterous hand to wound thee. The best way to conquer Sin, is by the Parthian war, to run away. So the Poet.

Tunc peccata fugantur, cum fugiantur. We then put sin to a forced flight, when it puts us to a voluntary flight. That Poetical amoris artifex et medicus, so counsels. Fuge conscia vestriconcubitus, &c. But beyond all exception, the holy Apostle gives the charge, fly Fornication. Shunne the place, suspect the appar • nce of evil. You see her Prodition.

Her perdition follows. She undoes a man; not so much in the estate of his carcass, as of his conscience. The guest is not so much damnified in respect of his goods, as damned in respect of his grace. Every man is not undone, that is beggared: many like Job, Minime pereunt, cum maxim perire videntur, are indeed least undone, when they seem most undone. Nay, some may say with the Philosopher, perieram, nisi peri • ssem, if I had not sustained loss, I had been lost. So David's great trouble made him a good man. Naaman's leprous flesh, brought him a white and clean spirit. But the perdition that vice brings, is not so visible, as it is miserable. The sequel of the Text will amplify this: only now I apply it to the Harlot. The Harlot destroys a man many ways.

1. In his goods. It is a costly sin. Tamar would not yield to Judah without a hire. The hire makes the Whore.

The old Proverb conioynes venery and beggary. The Prodigal returned not from his Harlot without an empty Purse. Sin doth no less undo a man's estate. It is a Purgatory to his Patrimony. It is objected: It rather helps him to riches, and swells his purse. Doth not a bribed hand, asycophant-tongue • e, a covetous and griping palm make men wealthy? Yield wealthy, not rich. He is rich, that possesseth what he got justly, and us • th what he possesseth conscionably, other wealthy, are not unlike either the Capuchines, or the Seculars. Some, like the former, profess beggary, though they possess the Indies: these had rather fill their eye then their belly, and will not break a Sum, though they endanger their healths. The other sort, are like the Seculars, that will fare well, though with a hard farewell. But (as the Harlot, so) often Vice brings a man to a morsel of bread. Prov. 6. Thus Tibi fit damn, vitio lucrosa voluptas: Pleasure is no less, then a loss to thee, then a gain to Sin. It is not amiss, to answer Satan's Inuiters to this Feast, as the vicious Poet his Cockatrice.

It is even one reason, to dissuade us from sin, that it is costly.

2. In his good name. No worldly undoing is like this shipwreck. Goods may be redeemed, but this (semel amissa, postea nullus eris) once utterly lost, thou art nobody. It is hard to recover the Set, when a man is put to the after-game for his credit. Though many a ma • s reputation be but (hypemeni • m • vum) a rotten Egg; whiles he is a great dealer with other men's goods, and of himself no better then a beggar. And though the most famous are but Astmatici, short-breathed men, and their reputation no better then Ephraim's righteousness, but a morning dew: yet actum est de homine, cum actum est de nomine, when a man's good name is done, himself is undone.

A man, indeed, may loose his good name without cause; and be at once accused & abused; when slanders against him are maliciously excepted, & easily accepted. But God shall bring forth his righteousness as the light, and his Judgment as the noon day. Contrarily, another man hides the ulcers of his sore conscience with the plasters of sound repute! But to be puffed up with the wrongful estimation of our selves, by the flattering breath of others blown praises, is a ridiculous pride. Saepe flagellatur in cord proprio, qui laudatur in or • alieno. Many, that are commended in other mouths, are secretly and justly snibbed in their own conscience. Such a one couzens his neighbors, they one another, and all himself. And as originally the deceit came from him, so eventually the shame will end in him. Hence they, whose fames have been carried furthest on the wings of report, have been after (by the manifestation of their hidden wickednesses) more deadened in men's thoughts, then in their own carcass. For the name of the wicked shall rot.

This is the mischief, which sin in general, as whoredom in particular, works to the name; a rotten reputation, an infamous farne, a reproach for a report: that their silent memories are never conjured up from the grave of oblivion, but as the Son of Neba • 's ; for their own disgrace; and for an intimation of terror, to the imitation of their wickedness. It were well for them, if Time, which unnaturally devours his own brood, could as well still their mention, as it hath staid their motion: or that their memorial might not suruiue their funeral. Now, though it be no evident demonstration, yet it is a very ominous and suspicious thing, to have an ill name. The Proverb saith, he is half hanged. A thief before the Judge speeds the worse for his notorious name. Is this all? no; but as he, whose breath is stifled with a cord, is wholly hanged: so he that hath strangled his own reputation, which is the breath of his breath, with a lewd life, is at least half suspended. His Infamy hangs on the Gybbet of popular contempt, till it be recovered. He is half alive, half a corps. It was the plain meaning of the Proverb.

Now, that a bad name is a broad shame, it appears; because no Stews-haunter would be called a Whore-monger. No Papist an Idolater, no Usurer an Usurer. All sinners are ashamed to be accounted, what they have assumed to be. But it is certain that he that is ashamed of his name, his name may be ashamed of him. As thou lovest thy reputation with men, seek the testimony of thine own conscience. It is the best fame, that carries credit with God. Let men say, what they list, Oh Lord thou knowest mine innocence. Yet, because it is hard to do good, unless a man be reputed good, therefore dare not to darken the light of thy name, by the gross clouds of thy Impieties. This is the second destruction that continued Vice brings her Lovers. A wound and dishonor shall he get, and his reproach shall not be wiped away. When he hath done it, he is undone by it. Perdit honorem, perdendo honestatem. The dishonesty in him, shall bring dishonor to him▪ he builds, Haman -like a gallows for his own credit.

3. In his health. The precepts of Wisdom, practiced with obedience, bring health to the flesh, & are life to those that find them. But sin is rottonnesse to the bones. He that committeth fornication, saith Saint Paul, sinneth against his own body. Let it be inevitably true in this sin, it is (at least accidentally) true in all sins. For though God suffers some reprobates to keep s • r • e health and to escape common Plagues : that they have fat eyes and clear lungs: merry hearts, and nimble loins : and can stroke their gray hairs: yet often he either puts them on the rack of some terrible disease, or quite puts out their candle. Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days. All sickness orignally proceeds from sin, all weakness from wickedness. As Mephibosheth caught his lameness by falling from his Nur • e; so all men their diseasednes by falling from their Christ. The evil disposition of the soul, mars the good composition of the body. There is no disaster to the members, but for disorder in the manners. All diseases are God's real sermons from heaven, whereby he accuseth and punisheth man for his sins.

The Harlot is a plague to the flesh: she is worse then a fever; more infectious then the pistilence. Every Nation hath his several disease. Irish the Ague, Spaniards the Pip, Dutch-men the dropsy, French their fatal and merited misery; neither do the English go scot-free. All have their special plagues somewhat proper to themselves, except whoredom and sin communicate them. But the Harlot is an universal plague, whereof no Nation is free. she makes the strong man glad of po •• on, brings health acquainted with the Pysician: and he that stoutly denied the knowledge of his gate, now stands trembling at his study door, with a bare head, a bending knee, and an humble phrase. She is the common sink of all corruptions, both natural and preternaturall, incident to the conscience or corpse: and hath more diseases attending on her then the Hospital.

The Madianit • sh Harlot, Sin, leads in a train of no fewer nor weaker plagues, Consumptions, Feauers, Inflammations, Botches, Emerods, Pestilences, are (peccati qedisehuae) the observant hand-maids of iniquity. As it is, then, wicked to take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an Harlot ; so it is wretched to divorce the affections of the mind from God, and wed them to any impiety. Thus do these pair of Harlots impair the health.

4. They both concur to spoil a man's soul: whiles the Soul of the soul, God's Spirit, (quo agitante calescimus) is by this bereaved us. In him we live, move, and have our being. In illo viuimus: viuimus, per naturam, been viuimus per gratiam. In illo mouemus, vel mouemur potius, ad humana, ad diuina opera suscipienda. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; essentiam habemus, quoad esse, et quoad been esse. In him all live naturally, some graciously. In him we move, or rather are moved, to the performance, all of human works, some of divine. In him we have our being; both that we are at all, and that we are well. This better life is the soul spoiled of, when sin hath taken it captive. The Adulteress will hunt for the precious life. She is ambitious and would usurp God's due and claim the heart, the soul. He that doth love her destroyeth his own soul. Which she loves not for it self, but for the destruction of it: that all the blossoms of grace may dwindle and shrink away, as blooms in a nipping Frost: and all our comforts run from us, as flatterers from a falling Greatness, or as Vermin from an house on fire. Nay, even both thy lives are endangered. The wicked man go •• h after her, as a fool to the correction of the st • ckes; till a 〈◊〉 strike through his liver, as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life. It is as inevitably true of the spiritual Harlots mischief. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them. Save my life and take my goods, saith the prostrate and yielding Traveler to the thief. But there is no mercy with this enemy: the life must pay for it. She is worse then that invincible Navy, that threatened to cut the throats of all (Men, Women, Infants:) but I would to God, she might go hence again without her errand, as they did; and have as little cause to brag of her conquests.

Thus have we described the Temptresse. The Tempted follows, who are here called the Dead. There be three kinds of death, corporal, spiritual, eternal. Corporal, when the body leaves this life. Spiritual, when the soul forsakes, and is forsaken of grace. Eternal, when both shall be thrown into hell. 1. is the separation of the soul from the body. 2. is the separation of body and soul from grace. 3. the separation of them both from everlasting happiness. Man hath two parts, by which he lives; and two places, wherein he might live, if he obayed God: Earth for a time, Heaven forever. This Harlot Sin, deprives either part of man in either place of true life; and subjects him, both to the first and second death. Let us therefore examine in these particulars, first, what this death is, and secondly, how Satan's guests, the wicked, may be said liable thereunto.

1. Corporal death is the departure of the soul from the body, whereby the body is left dead, without action, motion, sense. For the life of the body, is the union of the soul with it. For which essential dependence, the soul is often called and taken for the life. Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my soul for thy sake. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , his soul, meaning as it i • translated, his life. And He that findeth his soul, shall loose it: but he that looseth his soul for my sake, shall find it. Here the Soul is taken for the Life. So that in this death there is the separation of the soul and body, the dissolution of the person, the privation of life, the continuance of death: for there is no possible regress from the privation to the habit, except by the supernatural and miraculous hand of God. This is the first but not the worst death, which sin • procureth. And though the special dea • nesse of the guests here be spiritual: yet this, which we call natural, may be implied, may be applied: for when God threatened death to Adams sin, in illo die m • ri • ris: in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die ; yet Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years after. There was, notwithstanding, no delay, no delusion of God's decree: for in ipso die, in that very day death took hold on him; and so is the Hebrew phrase, dying, thou shalt die ; fall into a languishing, and incurable consumption, that shall never leave thee, till it bring thee to thy grave. So that he instantly died, not by present separation of soul and body, but by mortality, mutabillitie, misery, yea by sorrow and pain, as the instruments and agents of Death. Thus said that Father. After a man beginneth to be in this body, (by reason of his sin) he is even in death.

The wicked then, are not only called Dead, because the conscience is dead; but also in respect of God's decree, whose inviolable substitution of Death to Sin cannot be evaded, avoided. It is the Satute-law decreed in the great Parliament of Heaven. Statutum omnibus se • el mori. It is appointed unto men once to die. T • is is one special kindness that sin doth us; one kiss of her lips. She gives her lovers three mortal kisses. The first kills the conscience: the second the carcass: the third body and soul forever. Death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. So Paul schools his Corinthians. For this cause many are wea • e and sick among you, and many sleep. And conclusiuely, peccati stipendium mors. The wages of sin is Death. This Death is to the wicked, death indeed, even as it is in it own full nature, the curse of God; the suburbs of Hell. Neither is this unjust dealing with God, that man should incur the death of his body, that had rejected the life of his soul. nisi praecessisset in peccato mors animae, numquam corporis mors in supplicio sequer • tur. If sin had not first wounded the body, death could not have killed the soul. Hence saith Augustine. Men shun the death of the flesh rather then the death of the spirit: that is, the punishment, rather then the cause of the punishment,

Indeed Death considered in Christ, and joined with a good life, is to God's elect an advantage : nothing else, but a bridge over this tempestuous sea to Paradise. God's mercy made it so, saith S. Augustine, Not by making death in it self good, but an instrument of good to his. This he demonstrates by an instance. As the Law is not evil, when it increaseth the lust of sinners, s • death is not good, though it augm • nt the glory of su • ferers. The wicked use the law ill, though the law be good. The good die well, though death be evil. Hence saith Solomon. The day of death is better then the day of ones birth. For our death is (not obitus, sed abitus ) not a perishing but a parting. Non amittitur anima, praemittitur tantum. The soul is not lost to the body, but only sent before it to joy. Si duriùs seponitur, meliùs reponitur. If the soul be painfully laid off, it is joyfully laid up. Though every man that hath his Genesis, must have his Exodus ; and they that are borne must die. Yet saith Tertullian of the Saints: Profectio est, quam putas mo • tem. Our dying on earth, is but the taking our journey to Heaven. Simeon departs, and that in peace. In pace, in pacem. Death cannot be eventually hurtful to the good; for it no sooner takes away the temporal life, but Christ gives eternal in the room of it.

Alas! 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : Corpora, cadauera. Our graves shall as surely be Coffins to our bodies, as our bodies have been Coffins to our souls. The mind is but in bondage, whiles the body holds it on earth. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , quasi 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as Plato affirms. Of whom saith an Anthony ; that when he saw one too indulgent to his flesh in high Diet, he asked him; What do you mean to make your prison so strong? Thus, qui gloriatur in viribus corporis, gloriatur in viribus carceris: He that boasteth the strength of his body, doth but brag, how strong the Prison is, wherein he is • ailed.

〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . The body is the disease, the grave, the destiny, the necessity and burden of the soul.

It was a good observation, that fell from that Stoic. Homo calamitatis fabula, infaelicitatis tabula. Man is a Story of woe, and a map of misery. So Mantuan.

It appears then, that Death is, to the good, a procurer of good. Mors intermittit vitam, non eripit. Venit iterum, qui nos in lucem r • ponat dies. Their Death is but like the taking in sunder of a Clock, which is pulled a pieces by the makers hand, that it may be scoured, and repolished, and made go more perfectly. But Death to the wicked is the second step to that infernal Vault, that shall breed either an innovation of their joys, or an addition to their sorrows. Dives for his momentary pleasures, hath insufferable pains. Judas goes from the Gallows to the Pit. Esau from his dissolution in earth, to his desolation in Hell. The dead are there. Though the dead in soul be meant literally, yet it fetcheth in the body also. For as original sin is the original cause of Death, so actual sins hasten it. Men speed out a Commission of Iniquities against their own lives. So the envious man rots his own bones. The Glutton strangles, the Drunkard drowns himself▪ The male-content dries up his blood in fretting. The covetous, whiles he Italionates his conscience, and would Romanize his estate, starves himself in plain English: and would hang himself, when the Market falls, but that he is loath to be at the charges of a Halter. Thus it is a Feast of Death, both for the present sense, and future certainty of it. The dead are there.

2. Spiritual death is called the death of the soul: which consisteth not in the loss of her understanding and will (these she can never loose, no not in Hell) but of the truth and grace of God; wanting both the light of faith to direct her, and the strength of Love to incite her to goodness. For to be carnally minded is death: but to be spiritually minded, is life and peace. The soul is the life of the body, God of the soul. The spirit gone utterly from us, we are dead. And so especially, are the guests of Satan, dead. You hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. And the Widow that liveth in plea • ure, is dead whiles she liveth. This divorcement and separation made betwixt God and the soul by sin, is (mors animae) the death of the soul. But your Iniquities have separated between you and your God. But we live by faith: and that in the Son of God. His spirit quickens us, as the soul doth a lump of flesh, when God infuseth it.

Now because these terms of spiritual death are communicated both to the elect and reprobates, it is not amiss to conceive, that there is a double kind of spiritual death. 1. In regard of the Subject that dieth. 2. In regard of the Object whereunto it dieth. Spiritual death in the faithful is three-fold.

1. They are dead to Sin. How shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? A dead nature cannot work. He that is dead to sin, cannot, as he is dead, sin. We sin indeed, not because we are dead to sin, but because not dead enough. Would to God you were yet more dead, that you might yet more live. This is called Mortification. What are mortified? Lusts. The wicked have mortification too; but it is of grace. Matth. 8. They are both jointly expressed. Let the dead bury the dead. Which Saint A • gustine expounds. Let the spiritually dead, bury those that are corporally dead. The faithful are dead to sin: the faithless are dead in sin. It is true life to be thus dead. Mortificatio concupiscentiae, vi • ificatio animae: so far is the spirit quickened, as the flesh is mortified. So true is this Paradox; that a Christian so far lives, as he is dead: so far • e he is a Conqueror, as he is conquered. Vincendo se, vincitur à se. By overcoming himself, he is overcome of himself. Whiles he over-rules his lusts, his soul rules him. When the outward cold rageth with greatest violence, the inward heat is more and more effectual. When Death hath killed and stilled concupiscence, the heart begins to live. This war makes our peace.

This life and death is wrought in us by Christ: who at one blow slew our sins, and saved our souls. Vna eadem{que} manus vulnus opem{que} tulit. One and the same hand gave the wound and the cure. Vulneratur concupiscentia, sanatur conscientia. The deadly blow to the concupiscence, hath revived the conscience. For Christ takes away as well ( dominandi vim, as damnandi vim ) the dominion of sin, as the damnation of sin. He died, that sin might not reign in our mortal body, he came to destroy, not only the Devil, but the works of the Devil. Hence if you would, with the spectacles of the Scriptures, read your own estates to God, Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. This trial consists not in being free from lusts, but in bridling them: not in scaping temptation, but in vanquishing it. It is enough, that in all these things, we are more then Conquerors, through him that loved us.

2. They are dead to the Law. For I through the Law, am dead to the Law, that I might live unto God. Wherein he opposeth the Law against the Law, the new against the old, the Law of Christ, against that of Moses. This accuseth the accusing, condemneth the condemning Law. The Papists understand this of the ceremonial Law: but Paul plainly expresseth, that the Law moral, which would have been to us a Law mor • all, is put under: we are dead unto it. As Christ at once came over death, and overcame death, et super it, e • superat. So we, in him, are exempted from the condemning power and killing letter of the Law; and by being dead unto it, are alive over it. Indeed the Law still abides: as Christ when he rose from the grave, the grave remained still. Pe • er freed from the Prison, the Palsy from his Bed, the young man from his Coffin, the Prison, Bed, Coffin remain still; the persons are delivered. So the Law abides to mortify our lusts still more and more, but our conscience is freed from the bondage of it. We are dead unto it.

3. They are dead to the world. This Death is double, Active and Passive.

1. Active. The world is dead unto us. The vanity of carnal joys, the variety of vanities, are as bitter to us, as pleasant to the Cosmopolite or worldling. And since we must give our voices either to God or Mammon : when God asketh as Jehu, Who is on my side, who? We stand out for our God. Angustum est stratum pectoris humani, et vtrum{que} operire non potest. Mans heart is too narrow a bed, to lodge both God and the world in at once. Qui vtrum{que} ambit, in vtro{que} deficiet. The Hound that follows two Hares, will catch neither. Nemo potest duobus Dominis, neque dominijs, inseruire. No man can serve two Masters, with true service; especially when they command contrary things. Thus is the world dead to us: For since the world is not so precious as the soul; we leave the world to keep our soul: since both cannot well be affected at once. Therefore we account all things dross and loss for the excellent knowledge of Christ.

2. Passive. We are dead to the world. As we esteem it dross, it esteems us filth. We are made as the filth of the world, and as the off-scouring of all things unto this day. As we, in a holy contempt, tread it under in our works, and villify it in our words, so it looks upon us betwixt scorn and anger, and offers to set his foot on our necks. But vicimus, we have conquered. Whosoever is borne of God, overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Let us rejoice, therefore, in our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to us, and we to the world.

These are good deaths! blessed souls, that are thus dead. Their death is Mortification, and like the Phoenix, they are no sooner dead, but they are new borne. Their old man's Autumn is their new man's Spring-tide. There are none thus dead at this Feast.

The dead, here, have seared consciences, poisoned affections, warped, withered, rott • n souls. Twice dead, faith Saint Jude, and some without hope of growing, plucked up by the roots. Though the Pythegorean error, the transanimation or the departure of the soul from man to man, was brought to the Basilideon heresy: Nay, (which was more gross) though the Poets feigned, that the souls of men departed into beasts. Orpheus into the Swan, Aiax into the Lyon, Agamemnon into the Eagle, Politicians into Bees and Ants, the luxurious into Hogs, tyrants into Wolves: which were positions for Machiavelli, and Articles of Lucians faith. Yet they might rather, (and that more favorably to their own credits, speaking according to men's lives) have affirmed that the spirits of beasts might rather seem to have entered men: if at leas • the beasts do not preserve their nature better then men. They live whiles they live; men are dead even living. Impie viuere est diu mori. A wicked life is a continual death. And we may say of an old wicked man, not that he hath lived, but that he hath been long. Deus vita, à qua qui distinguitur perit. God is the true life, without whom we cannot live.

The heart of a wicked man thus becometh dead. The Devil works by suggesting, man by consenting, God by forsaking. He forsakes thus. 1. By suffering a hard heart to grow harder. 2. By giving success to ill purposes, which he could have disappointed. 3. By not imparting the assistance of his spirit. Thus he leaves them in darkness, that would not choose the light; and finding their hearts vndisposed to believe, delivers them up to Infidelity. His not willing to soften, is enough to harden: his not willing to enlighten, is to darken. Dei claudare est clausis non aperire. God is then said to shut up, when he doth not open to them that are shut up. God is able to soften the hard heart, open the blind eye, pierce the deaf ear: when he doth, it is mercy; when not, it is Justice. Only our falling is from our selves. Oh Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thy help. For God is ever foremost in love, but last in hate. He loved us, before we loved him: but we hate him, before he hates us. Multi ne laberentur detenti, nulli vt laberentur impulsi. God preserves many from falling, but he thrusteth none down. By his strength we stand, by our own weakness we fall.

As in the sickness of the body, so of the soul, there are critical days, secret to our selves, but well known to God; whereby he sees our recovery unlikely, and therefore turns us over to the danger of our sickness. That now too late Jerusalem knows, what was offered her in the day of her visitation. God blinds the soul blinded before by Satan ; and hardens again Pharaohs self-hardened heart: Et quia non faciunt bona quae cognoscunt, non cognoscent mala quae faciunt. Because they would not do the good they knew, they shall do the evil they knew not. Thus is the souls death degreed up. Sin gathers strength by custom, and creeps like some contagious disease in the body from joint to joint; and because not timely spied and medicined, it threatens universal hazard to the whole. It swells like the Sea: Vnda leuis, maiora volumina, sluctus ad coelum. An Egg, a Cockatrice, a Serpent, a fiery flying Serpent. Custom indeed kills the soul. The Curse that the Cretans used against their enemies, was not fire on their houses, nor rottenness on their beasts, nor a sword at their hearts; but that, which would in time treble to them all these mischiefs, that they might be delighted with an evil custom. Temptation assaults the heart: consent wounds it: it lies sick of action: it dies by delight in sin: it is buried by custom. The Bell hath tolled for it, God's word hath mourned: the Church hath prayed for it: but (quid valeant signa precesi • e?) What good can signs & prayers do, when we voluntarily yield our heart to him that violently kills it? Thus God leaves the heart, and Satan ceaseth on it, whose gripes are not gentler then Death.

Thus the habit of sin takes away the sense of sin; and the conscience that was at first raw and bleeding, as newly wounded, is now seared up with an hot iron. The conscience of a wicked man first speaks to him, as Peter t • Christ, Master look to thyself. But he stops her mouth with a violent hand. Yet she would fain speak with him, like the importunate Widow, to do her justice. He cannot well be rid of her, therefore he sets her a day of hearing, and when it is come, faileth her. She cries yet louder for audience; and when all his corrupt and bribed affections cannot charm her silence, he drowns her complaints at a Tavern, or laughs her out of countenance at a Theater. But if the pulse beats not, the body is most dangerously sick, if the conscience prick not, there is a dying soul. It is a lawless School, where there is an awe-less Monitor. The City is easily surprised, where the watch cannot ring the alarms. No marvel, if numbness be in the heart; when there is drunkenness in the conscience.

These are the dead guests. Dead to all goodness. Deafe ears, lame feet, blind eyes, maimed hands, when there is any employment for them in God's service. Eyes full of lust, void of compassion. Ears deaf to the word, open to vanity. Feet, swift to shed blood, slow to the Temple. Hands open to extortion, shut to charity. To all religion the heart is a piece of dead flesh. No love, no fear, no care, no pain can penetrate their senseless and remorseless hearts. I know, that according to the speech of the Philosopher, Nemo fit repent miser: This is no sudden evil: they were borne sick, they have made themselves dead. Custom hath inveterated the ulcer, rankled the conscience, and now sin flowtes the Physicians cure, knowing the soul dead. Through many wounds they come to this death. At first they sin and care not, now they sin and know not: The often taken Potion never works. Even the Physic of reproof turns now to their hardening. Oh that our times were not full of this deadness! How many never take the mask of Religion but to serve their own turns! And when piety becomes their advantage, yet they at once counterfeit and contemn it. If a wished success answer the intention of their minds, and contention of their hands, God is not worthy of the praise; either the • r fortune or their wit hath the glory of the deed, and thanks for it. But if they be crossed, God shall be blasphemed under the name of destiny; and he shall be blamed for their ill, to whom they will not be beholding for their good.

God is not thought of but in extremity, not spoken of but in blasphemy. Oh dead hearts! whose funeral we may lament, whose reviuing we may, almost, not hope. But what? will this deadness never be a little wak • ned? True it is, that God must miraculously raise up the soul thus dead, and put the life of his grace into it, or it is d • sperate. The conscience, I confess, will not ever lie quiet in these dead guests: but as they have iayled up that for a while in the darkness of Security ; so when God looseth it, it will rage as fast against them, and dog them to their graves. For as there is a Heaven on earth, so a Hell on earth. The dead to sin are heaven'd in this world: the dead in sin are hell'd here, by the tormenting anguish of an vnappeaseable conscience. As Bishop Latimer, in a Sermon, told these guests of a Feast in Hell; which will afford them little mirth: where weeping is served in for the first course, gnashing of teeth for the second. So, after their Feast on Earth, which was no better then Numa's, where the Table swomme with delicate dishes, but they were swimming dishes, spectand • non gustandae dapes ; Let them prepare for another Banket, where groans shall be their bread, and tears their drink, sighs and sorrows all their Iunkets; which the Erynnis of conscience, and the Megaera of desperation shall serve in, and no euerlastingnesse of time shall take away.

But these spiritually dead guests do not evermore scape so long: sometimes God gives them in this life a draught of that vial of his wrath which they shall after sup off to the bottom. The wicked man, that had no fear, now shall have too much fear. He that begun with the wanton Comedy of presumption and profaneness, ends with the Tragedie of horror and despair. Before he was so a-sleep, that nothing could waken him: now he is so waking, that nothing can bring him a-sleep. Neither disport abroad, nor quiet at home can possess him: he cannot possess himself. Sin is not so smooth at setting forth, as turbulent at the journeys end. The wicked have their day▪ wherein they run from pleasure to pleasure, as Job's children from banket to banket: their joys have changes of variety, little intermission, no cessation; neither come they faster, then their lusts call for them. So God hath his day: And woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord: to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness and not light. As if a man did flee from a Lyon, and a Bear met him; or went into the house, and leaned his hand on the Wall, and a Serpent bit him. Such is the unrest of a conscience brought to fret for his sins. So August. Fugit ab agro in ciuitatem, à publico ad domum, à domo in cubiculum. He runs from the field into the City, from the City to his house, and in his house to the priuatest Chamber: but he cannot fly his enemy▪ that cannot fly himself.

At first the Devils guest pursues pleasure so eagerly, that he would break down the bars that shut it from him, and quarrel, with venture of his blood, for his delights, nay for the conditions of his own sorrow and damnation. Now pleasure is offered him: no, it will not down. Music stands at his Windore: it makes him as mad with discontent, as it did once with joy. No • est can stir his laughter, no company can waken his unreasonable and unseasonable melancholy. Now he that was madder then N • ro in his delights, fear • compasseth him on every side. He starts at his own shadow, and would change firmness with an Aspen leaf. He thinks, like the Burgundians, every Thistle a Launce, every Tree a man, every man a Devil. They fear, where no fear was, saith the Psalmist. They think, they see, what they do not see. This is the wicked man's alteration: time is, he will not be warned; time comes, he will not be comforted. Then he is satisfied with lusts, that thought satisfaction impossible. Riches weary him now to keep them more then they wearied him once to get them; and that was enough. So I have read the oppressers will. Lego omnia bona mea domino Regi, corpus sepulturae, animam diabolo. I bequeath all my goods to the King, my body to the grave, my soul to the Devil. He that did wrong to all, would now seem to do right to some; in giving his coin to the Prince, whom he had deceived; his soul to the Devil, whom he had se • ued. Wherein, as he had formerly injured man, now he in • ures both God and himself too.

3. I have dwelt the longer on this spiritual deadness, because the guests at this banket have this death in present: the precedent and subsequent are both future; the one naturally incurred by sin, the other justly inflicted for unrepented sin. For all shall die the corporal death, He that feareth an oath, as well as he that sweareth, the • eligious as the profane. But this last, which is Eternal death, shall only cease on them, that have before hand with a spiritual death slain themselves. This therefore is called the second death. Blessed and holy is he, that hath part in the first resurrection, (which is the spiritual life by grace:) On such the second death hath no power. He that is by Christ raised from the first death, shall by Christ also scape the second. But he that is dead spiritually, after he hath died corporally, shall also die eternally. This is that everlasting separation of body and soul from God, and consequently from all comfort. Fear him, saith our Savior, that is able to destroy both body and soul in Hell. And many of them, that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. This is that death, that God delights not in. His goodness hath no pleasure in it, though his justice must inflict it.

Man by sin hath offended God an infinite Majesty, and therefore deserves an infinite misery. Now because he is a nature finite, he cannot suffer a punishment infinite in greatness, simul et semel, together and at once: he must therefore endure it ( successive sine fine ) successively without end. The punishment must be proportioned to the sin; because not in present greatness, therefore in eternal continuance. Christ for his elect suffered in short time sufficient punishment for their sins: for it is all one, for one that is eternal to die, and for one to die eternally. But he for whom Christ suffered not in that short time, must suffer for himself beyond all times, even forever.

This is the last Death : a living death, or a dying life, what shall I term it? If it be life, how doth it kill? If death, how doth it live? There is neither life nor death but hath some good in it. In life there is some ease: in death an end. But in this death neither ease nor end. Prima • ors animam d • lentem pellet de c • rpore: secunda mors animam nolentem tenet in corpore. The first death drives the soul unwillingly from the body; the second death holds the soul unwillingly in the body. In those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall fly from them. Their worm shall not die. Thus saith the Scripture, morientur mortem, they shall die the death. Yet their death hath much too much life in it. For there is a perfection given to the body and soul after this life; as in heaven to the stronger participation of comfort, so in hell to the more sensible receiving of torment. The eye shall see more perspicuously, and the ear hear more quickly, and the sense feel more sharply, though all the objects of these be sorrow and anguish. Vermis conscientiam corrodet, ignis carnem comburet, quia et cord et corpore deliquerunt. The worm shall gnaw the conscience, the fire burn the flesh, because both flee • h and conscience have offended. This is the fearful death, which these guests incur: this is the Sho • at the Devils Banket. God in his Justice suffers him to reward his guests, as he is rewarded himself, and (since they loved his work) to give them the stipend due to his service. These are the tempted guests: dead.

The vlgar Latin translation, I know not upon what ground, hath interpreted here, for mortui, Gigantes: thus: he knoweth not that the Giants are there. Monstrous men, that would dart thunder at God himself; and raise up mountains of impiety against Heaven. As if they were only great men that feasted at Satan's Banket, whose riches were able to minister matter to their pleasures. And surely such are in these days: of whose sins when we have cast an inventory account, we might thus with the Poet sum up themselves.

The Giants, in the Scripture, were men of a huge stature, of a fierce nature. The Poets feigned their Giants to be begotten and bred of the Sun and the Earth, and to offer violence to the God's: some of them having an hundred hands, as Briareiu was called centimanus: meaning, they were of great command; as Helen wrote to Paris of her husband Menelaus. An nescis longas regibus esse manus? This word Giants, if the original did afford it, must be referred, either to the guests; signifiing that monstrous men resorted to the Harlots table, & that it was Gigantoum conviuium, a tyrannous feast: or else (and that rather) to the tormentors; which are laid in ambush, to surprise all the comers in, and carry them as a pray to Hell. But because the best translations give no such word, and it is far fetched, I let it fall, as I took it up.

The third person here inserted, is the Attempted : the new guest whom she strives to bring in to the rest. He is described by his ignorance, Nescit: He knoweth not what company is in the house, that the dead are there. It is the Devils policy, when he would ransack and rob the ho • se of our conscience, like a thief to put out the candle of our knowledge. That we might neither discern his purposes, nor decline his mischeefes. He hath had his instruments in all ages, to darken the light of knowledge. Domitian turns Philosophy into banishment. Julian shuts up the School-doors. The barbarous soldiers under Clement the seventh, burned that excellent Vatican library. Their reasons concurred with Julian's prohibition to the Christians. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : least they kill us with our own weapons. For it is said even of Gentile learning. Hic est Goliae gladius, quo ipse Goliath ingulandus est. Hic Herculis claua, qua rabidi inter Ethnicos canes percutiendi sunt. This is that Goliath's sword, whereby the Philistine himself is wounded. This is that Hercules clubbe, to smite the mad dogs amongst the heathen. Habadallus, Muhammad's scholar, that Syrian Tyrant, forbad all Christian children in his dominions, to go to school; that by ignorance he might draw them to superstition. For 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . To be destitute of learning is to dance in the dark. These were all Satan's instruments; yet they come short of the Pope; whose policy to advance his Hierarchy, is to oppress men's consciences with ignorance: teaching that the fullness of zeal, doth arise from the emptiness of knowledge: even as fast as fire flasheth out of a fish-pond.

There are degrees in sin, so in ignorance. It is a sin to be ignorant of that we should know: but a greater sin to be ignorant of that we have m • anes to know. Ignorance may • e distinguished into five kinds. Human, natural, affected, invincible, proud and puffed up.

1 The first is human. This is not sinful, as in Adam, not to know his nakedness, nor Satan's subtlety. So in the Angels, yea even in the head of Angels Christ himself, as man, not to know the latter day. Proprium est naturae humanae futura ignorare. It is a thing simply proper to the nature of man, to be ignorant of future things. No legal injunction binds us to it: no censure shall pass against us for the want of it. This is called ignorantia iusta, an vnfaulty ignorance.

2 The second is natural : called ignorantia in • irmitatis vel imperitiae: the ignorance of infirmity, incident to man's nature since his fall. For desiring to know more, he knew less. This is the effect of sin, sin in it self, and the ca • se of sin. It was bred by transgression, it doth breed transgression, and is no less then transgression of it own nature: for God's law binds us to the knowledge of his law. The blind swallows many a fly: the ignorant cannot be innocent. This is ignorantia simplex, inuoluntaria, priuatiuae, as the School calls it. A sin which the Papists generally, and I fear, many Protestants particularly, never repent of. David doth. It is this, that makes us aliens from God. Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them, and through the blindness of their heart. Saint Paul calls his ignorance, the cause of his sins. Et nescius seru • s poenas luit, saith Christ: even the ignorant servant shall be beaten with some stripes. Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge. A Prophecy mystically fulfilled in these days, in respect of our spiritual bondage to Satan; The God of this world having blinded the minds of unbelievers. This ignorance cannot excuse, for we are bound to know. The breach of our National statutes cannot go impune by the plea of Ignorance. It may ( a tanto not a toto ) a little quallifie and allay our punishments, not annihilate them. This is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Folly ; and he that drinks of • ollies cup, shall have little cause to lick his lips after it. Nature is a common school-master; and the Gentiles sinning against that monitor, justly perish. For the in •• sible things of God may be understood by the things that are made: so that they are without excuse. Even the errors of the Jews had their sacrifices, and shall not the ignora • ces of the Christians cry God mercy? This ignorance is sinful, yea even in those that cannot have • he means of knowledge.

3. The third is an a • fected ignorance. This is the conedmnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather then light, because • their deeds were evil. These shut their ears when God calleth; and being housed in their secu • itie, will not step to the door, to see if the Sun shines. This ignorance, if I may say so, doth reside rather in their affections then understanding part. They will • ully know not, saith S. Peter. They know, but will not know, and run with broad eyes to destruction. Tell them that Christ is at Jerusalem : no, it is too • arre off. Nay, venit ad limina virtus, the ki • gdome of Heaven is among you : then if they must needs go to Church, they will go hooded. P • eiudice of affections shall muffle the eyes of knowledge. Thus the Devil carries them quietly to Hell; as the Falconer his hooded Hawk, which bare-faced would bait, and be too wild to sit on his • ist. These sometimes have gray hairs, and green affections. Like a man that being borne near a great City, yet never traveled to it: He can direct others the way, he never went. These to avoid that • ault, which the Traveler found in England, horologia non been ordinata, that our clockes were not well kept (he meant, our hours were ill spent) will have no clock at all in their house, to tell them how their time passeth; no informer of their erring ways. And as if a candle would set their house on fire, they live perpetually in the dark. Micah was glad, he had got a Priest; these are glad they are got far from a Priest: and had as liefe go to Hell darkling, as with a torch.

4. There is an Invincible Ignorance ; when God hath naturally darkened the understanding, by a sore punishment of original sin. Idioticum hoc. No art nor eloquence can put knowledge into that heart which nature hath not opened to receive it: as no mind can be opened, which God hath locked up. He keeps the keys: he openeth and no man shutteth, he shutteth and no man openeth. The door of this mind is so fast barred up, that no help of man can open it. Neither can there be, in this, a complaint against God's Justice: since that our first sin hath deserved a greater punishment.

5. The last, is a proud Ignorance ; whereof there is no hope, saith Solomon. The other is invincible, but indeed this more invincible, a fool is sooner taught. So Christ foiled the Pharisees with their own weapons; and proved their weakness by their arguments for their own strength. If you were blind, you should have no sin; but now you say, w • e see; therefore your sin remaineth. The Pharisees, though blind, will be Seers: Nicodemus a Master in Israel, and yet knew nothing of regeneration. Nihil grauius, quam si id, quod ignorat quis, scire se credat. There is nothing more grievous then that a man should be persuaded he knows that soundly whereof he is totally ignorant. Therefore saith Chrysostom. Praestat proba ignoration • detineri, quam falsa opinione mancipari, It is better to be held in with an honest ignorance, then to run out upon a false opinion. It is hard plowing in the ground not stocked: ill writing in a paper full of lines. These fly from instruction as the Tiger from the trumpet. Others are comprehended of the light; these think they comprehend the light, when, as the Apostle saith, they are held of darkness.

Let us now see which of these ignorances is here meant? I answer; exempting the first, Satan's Harlot, Vice hath guests of all these sorts. Many that go after her, as an Ox to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks. Some • unne to the Banket, and know not: some know and run: all are fools, and destitute (if not of natural, yet) of spiritual understanding. To this purpose she apteth her speech here. Who so is simple, let him turn in hither; and as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith, &c. Knowledge is good, yet if disjoined from grace, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , it is nothing. Nihil in esse gratiae, quamuis aliquid in esse naturae. Nothing in grace, though something in nature: knowledge human is a good stirrup to get up by to preferment: Divine a a good gale of wind to wast us to Heaven. But charity is better. Knowledge often bloweth up, but charity buildeth up. Aristotle calls knowledge the Souls eye: but then saith our Savior, if the light be darkness, how great is that darkness ?

True it is, that knowledge without honesty doth more hurt. The Unicorns horn, that in a wise man's hand is helpful, is in the beasts head hurtful. If a man be a beast in his affections, in his manners; the more skillful, the more illfull. Knowledge hath two pillars, Learning and Discreation. The greatest Scholar without his two eyes, of Discreation and Honesty, is like blind Sampson, apt to no good, able to much mischief. Prudence is a virtue of the soul, nay the very • oule of virtue. The Mistress to guide the life in goodness. All moral virtues are beholding to wisdom. She directs Bounty what to give, when to give, where to give. And Fortitude, with whom, for what, and how to sight. Knowledge is excellent, to prevent dangers imminent; and to keep us from the snares of this strange woman. But if the Devil in our days should have no guests, but those that are merely ignorant, his rooms would be more empty then they are; and his Ordinary break forwant of Customers. But now a-days (alas, when was it much better? and yet how can it be much worse?) we know sin, yet affect it, act it. Time was, we were ignorant and blind, now we have eyes and abuse them. Tyre and Sidon burn in Hell, and their smoke ascends for evermore, that had no preaching in their Cities: but our Country is sown with mercies, and our • elues fatted with the doctrine of life, who shall excuse our lame, lean, and ill-favored lives? Let us beware Bethsaida's woe. If the Heathen shall wring their hands for their Ignorance, then many Christians shall rend their harts for their disobedience. He that despised Moses Law, died without mercy, under two or three witnesses. He that despiseth, not he that transgresseth; for so do all. He that rejected and departed from the Law & Church of Israel, died without mercy, eternally, for other transgressors died without mercy temporally. Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy, &c. that treads under his foot, not Moses but Christ; & counts not the blood of Goats, but of God's Son vnhely; and despiteth, which is more then despiseth, the spirit not of fear & bondage, but of grace? All the learning of the Philosophers was without an head, because they were ignorant of God. Seeing, they were blind, speaking, they were dumb; hearing, they were deaf, like the Idol-God's in the Psalm. We want not an head, but an heart: not the sense of knowledge, but the love of obedience; we hear, and see, and say, and know, but do not.

If you know that God's cheare is so infinitely better; why do you enter commons at Satan's Feast? The School calls one kind of knowledge, Scientia contristans, a sorrowful knowledge. Though they intend it in another sense, it may be true in this: for it is a woeful knowledge, when men with open eyes run to Hell. This is Uriah's letter containing his own death. These tell Christ, we knew thee: Christ tells them, I know not you. These times are sick of Adams disease, that had rather eat of the tree of knowledge, then of the tree of life : speculative Christians, not active & obedient Saints. You cannot plead, that you know not the dead are there ; behold, we have told you. Quit yourselves. But many men's Ignorance is disobedience: they will not know that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depth of Hell. Which now presseth upon us to be considered.

Solomon hath described the persons feasting and feasted. The place remains, the depth of Hell. This is the Banketing house. It amplifies the misery of the guests in three circumstances. 1. their weakness, they are soon in, 2. the place, Hell. 3. the vnrecouerablenesse of it. The depth of Hell.

1. Per infirmitatem. In regard of their weakness. No sooner come to the Banket, but presently in the Pit: they are in : they are soon in. They would not resist the temptation, when it was offered: they cannot resist the tribulation, when it is to be suffered: They are in. No wrestling, no contending can keep them from falling in. Into the pit they run against their will, that ran so volently, so violently to the brinks of it. As a man that hath taken his careere, and runs full fling to a place, cannot recoil himself, or recall his strength on the sudden. He might have refused to enter the race, or recollected himself in time, but at the last step he cannot stop, nor reuocare gradum, rescue himself from falling. The guests, that hasten themselves all their life to the feast of vanity, and neither in the first step of their youth, nor in the middle race of their discreetest age, return to God, do at last (without Christ's help) precipitate themselves into the depth of Hell. Think, oh think, ye gr • edie Dogs, that can never fast enough devour your sinful pleasures, if in the pride of your strength, the May of your blood, the marrow and virtue of your life, when you are seconded with the gifts of nature, nay blest with the helps of heaven, you cannot resist the allurements of Satan ; how unable will you be to deal with him, when custom in sin hath weakened your spirits, and God hath withdrawn his erst afforded comforts? They that run so fiercely to the pit, are quickly in the pit. The guests are in the depth of Hell.

2. Per infernitatem. In regard of the place, it is Hell. The Prophet Isaiah thus describes it. Topheth is ordained of old: he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of Brimstone doth kindle it. Topheth was a place which the children of Israel built in the valley of Hinnon, to burn their sons and daughters in the fire to Moloch. Which valley was near to Iebusi, afterwards Jerusalem, as appears Joshua. 18. The Council of Jerusalem, whiles their power lasted, used to punish certain offenders in that valley, being near their City: By this is Hell resembled. And that (in Peter Martyrs opinion) for three reasons. 1. Being a bottom, a low valley, it resembleth Hell, that is believed to be under the earth. 2. By reason of the fire, wherewith the wicked are tormented in Hell, as the children were in that valley burnt with fire. 3. Because the place was unclean and detestable, whither all vile and loathsome things were cast out of the City Jerusalem. So Hell is the place, where defiled and wicked souls are cast, as unworthy of the holy and heavenly City.

This place shall begin to open her cursed jaws, when the Judge of all men and Angels shall have given his last sentence. At that day, when, Quaesitor scelerum veniet, vindex{que} reorum, the searcher of all, and punisher of wicked hearts, shall give his double voice of dread and joy; when having spoken peace to his Saints, he shall thunder out condemnation to the wicked, Go ye into everlasting fire.

And if here on earth, Seiudice, nemo nocens absoluitur, a man's own conscience condemn him for his sins, how much greater shall be the just condemnation of God? Then all murdering Cain's, scoffing Chams, persecuting Saul's, thievish and sacrilegious Achan's, oppressing Ahab's, covetous Nabal's, drunken H • lofernesses, cruel Herod's, blasphemous Rabshakeh's, unjust Pilate's, shall reap the seed in their eternal deaths, which they have sown in their temporal lives. There shall be scorching heat, and freezing cold: Ex vehementissimo calore ad vehementissimum frigus. Without either act of refreshing, or hope of releasing. Every day hath been their Holy-day on earth: every day shall be their workie-day in Hell. The Poets feigned three furies.

Nemo ad id sero venit, vnde nunquam, cum semel venit, poterit reuerti. No man can come too late to those sufferings, from whence, being once come, he can never return.

This is Hell : where darkness shall be their prison, everlastingness their fetters, flames their torments, angry Angels their tormenters. Vbi nec tortores deficiant, nec torti miserimoriantur. Where the scourgers shall never be weary of afflicting, nor the scourged fail their suffering. But there shall be always torments for the body, and a body for torments. Fire shall be the consummation of their plagues, not the consumption of their persons. Vbi per millia millia annorum cruciandi, nec in secula seculorum liberandi. Myriads of years shall not accomplish, nor determine their punishments. It shall be their misery, (Semper velle quod nunquam erit, semper nolle quod nunquam non erit) to have a will never satisfied, a nill never gratified.

3. Per profunditatem. The depth of Hell: The Scripture is frequent to testify Hell a deep place, and beneath us. Capernaum shall be cast down to Hell. Solomon so speaks. The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from Hell beneath. And of this Harlot. Her house is the way to Hell, going down to the chambers of death. Her feet go down to death, her steps take hold on Hell. Down and beneath do witness the depth of Hell. There are three places: Earth, Heaven, Hell. Earth we all enjoy, good and bad, promiscuously. Heaven is prepared for the good; and it is upwards. If ye be risen with Christ, seek the things that are above. Hell is ordained for the wicked; and it is downward; called here, profundum, a depth. To define the local place of Hell, it is too deep for me: I leave it to deeper judgments. I do not give D • monax answer, being asked where Hell was. Expecta simul ac illuc venero, et tibi per literas significabo. Tarry till I come thither, and I will send thee word by letters. No, I only say this. There is one, we are sure of it; let us by a good life be as sure to scape it.

But to confine my speech to the bounds of my Text, I take it, that by Hell & the depth of it here, is meant the deep bondage of the wicked souls; that they are in the depth of the power of Hell. Satan having by sin a full dominion over their consciences. For Hell is often allegorically taken in the Scriptures, So Jonah cries unto God out of the belly of Hell. David sung de profundis: Out of the depth have I cried unto thee oh Lord. So Christ speaks of the unbeliever, that he is already damned. And the reprobate are here affirmed in the depth of Hell. This exposition I esteem more natural to the words. For as the godly have a Heaven, so the wicked a Hell, even upon Earth: though both in a spiritual, not a literal sense. The reprobates Hell on earth is double; or of two sorts.

1. In that the power of Hell rules in his conscience. He walks according to the course of this world, and according to the Prince of the power of the Air, the spirit, that now worketh in the children of disobedience. He is taken and led captive of the Devil • ; as hereafter in the chains of damnation, so here in the bands of dominion: which Solomon calls funes peccatorum : as he hath drawn iniquity with the cords of vanity, so he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.

2. There is a Hell in his conscience. So Saint Augustine; Sunt duo tortores anime, Timor et Dolor. The soul hath two tormentors even in this life, grief for evil felt, fear of evil to be felt. Whereof the Poet.

These are the fearful terrors whereof the guilty heart cannot be quitted, cannot be quieted; though pleasure it self were his phisitian, and the whole world his minstrel. Domino priuante suo gaudio, quid esse potest in gaudium? when God withholds his music and peace, what can make the heart merry? Polidore Virgil thus writes of Richard the third's dream the night before Bosworth -field. That he thought all the Devils in Hell pulled and hailed him in most hideous and ugly shapes. And concludes of it at last. Id credo, non fuit somnium, sed conscientia scelerum. I do not think it was so much his dream, as his wicked conscience that brought those terrors. When this evil spirit comes on a wicked Saul, let him go to his merriest good fellows, beguile at once the time and himself with plays, and sports, feast away his cares at his own table, or bury them together with his wits, at a Tavern: alas these are pitteous shifts, weaker then walls of paper.

Sleep cannot make his conscience sleep: perhaps the very dreams are fearful. It will not leave thee, till it hath shown thee thy Hell, no nor when it hath shown thee it, will it leave thee quiet. The more thou offerest to damme up this current, the more ragingly it swells, and gusheth over the resisting banks. This wounded Conscience runs like the stricken Deare, with the arrow of death in the ribs, from thicket to thicket, from shelter to shelter, but cannot change her pain with her place. The wound rankles in the soul, and the longer it goes on, the worse still it festers. Thus sin that spake thee so fair at her inviting to the Banket, now presents to thy waked soul her true form; and plays the make-bate betwixt God and thee, betwixt thee and thyself. So long as security hath kept thee sleeping in thy delighted impieties, this quarrel is not commenced. The mortallest enemies are not always in pitched fields one against another.

This truce holds some till their death-beds; neither do they ever complain, till their complaints can do them no good. For then at once, the sick carcass, after many tossings and turnings to find the easiest side, moans his unabated anguish: and the sicker conscience, after trial of many shifts, too late feeleth and confesseth her unappeased torment. So Cain, Judas, Nero, in vain seek for foreign helps, when their executioner is within them. The wicked man cannot want furies, so long as he hath himself. Indeed the soul may fly from the body, not sin from the soul. An impatient Judas may leap out of the private hell in himself, into the common pit below; as the boiling fishes out of the Caldron into the flame. But the gain hath been, the addition of a new hell without them, not the loss of the old hell within them. The worm of Conscience doth not then cease her office of gnawing, when the f • ends begin their office of torturing. Both join their forces to make the dissolutely wicked, desolately wretched. If this man be not in the depth of Hell, deeply miserable, there is none.

Loe now the Shot at the Devils Banket. A reckoning must be paid, and this is double. 1. the earnest in this life. 2. the full payment in the life to come. The earnest is, whiles Hell is cast into the wicked: the full satisfaction is, when the wicked shall be cast into Hell. Whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the Lake of fire. I will take leave to amplify both these a little further.

1. The earnest is the horror of an evil conscience; which sparkles with the beginnings of future torments. I know that some feel not this in the pride of their vanities; or at least will not seem to feel it. Some whorish for-heads can out-face their sins, and laugh them out of countenance. Wide gorges, that can swallow perjuries, bloodiness, adulteries, usuries, extortions without trouble. But it may be, the heart doth not laugh with the look. He dares be an hypocrite, that durst be a villain. If he would speak truth of hims • lfe he would testify, that his thoughts will not afford him sleep, nor his sleep afford him rest: but whiles his senses are bound, his sin is loose. No command of reason can quiet the tempest in his heart. No son of Sceua, no help of the world, can cast out this Devil. The blood of the body, often being stopped in the issue at the nostrils, bursts out at the mouth, or finds way into the stomach. The conscience thus wounded, will bleed to death, if the blood of Jesus Christ do not stanch it.

Think of this, ye that forget God, and are only indulgent to yourselves: the time shall come, you shall remember God, neither to your thanks, nor ease; and would forget yourselves. Happy were it for you, if you, having lost your God, could also loose yourselves. But you cannot hide yourselves from yourselves. Conscience will neither be blinded in seeking, nor bribed in speaking. You shall say unto it as that wicked Ahab to Elias, hast thou found me, oh thou mine enemy ? yet alas, all this is but the earnest. A hell, I may call it▪ and a deep hell; and, as I • ay say, a little smoke re • king out of that fiery pit: whereby the af • licted may give a guess at Hell, as Pythagoras guessed at the stature of Hercules by the length of his foot. But else, per nulla figura geh • nnae : nothing can truly resemble Hell.

2. The earnest is infinitely short of the total sum. And his Lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormenters, till he should pay all that was due unto him. The guest must endure a death not dying, live a life not living: no torment ends without the beginning of a worse. The sight afflicted with darkness and ugly Devils: the hearing with shrikes and horrible cries: the smelling with noisome stenches: the taste with ravenous hunger and bitter gall: the feeling with intolerable, yet unquenchable fire. Thousands pointing at, not one among thousands pitying the distressed wre • ch. I know this Earth is a dungeon in regard of Heaven, yet a Heaven in respect of Hell, we have misery enough here: it is mercy to what is there. Think of a gloomy, hideous, and deep Lake, full of pestilent damps and rotten vapors, as thick as clouds of pitch, more palpable then the fogs of Egypt; that the eye of the Sun is too dull to pierce them, and his heat too weak to dissolve them. Add hereunto a fire flashing in the reprobates face; which shall yield no more light then with a glimpse to show him the torments of others, and others the torments of himself; yet withal, of so violent a burning that should it glow on mountains of steel, it would melt them like mountains of Snow.

This is the guests reckoning : a sore, a sour payment, for a short and scarce sweet Banket. All his senses have been pleased, now they are all plagued. Instead of perfumes & fragrant odors, a sulphurous stench shall strike up into his nostrils: Instead of his lascivious Delilah's, that fadomed him in the arms of lust, behold Adders, Toads, Serpents, crawling on his bosom: Instead of the Dorian music charming his ears; Man-drakes and Night-ravens still shriking to them the reuerberating groans of ever and never dying companions, tolling their funeral (not final) knells and yels round about him. Instead of wanton kisses, snakes ever sucking at his breath and galling his flesh with their never blunted stings.

Think of this feast, you riotous feasters in sin. There is a place called Hell, whither after the general and last assizes, the condemned shall be sent, through a black way, (death is but a shadow to it) with many a sigh and sobbe, and groans, to those cursed fiends, that must be their tormentors, as they have been their tempters. Behold now a new feast, a fatal, a final one. To sup in the vault of darkness, with the princes and subjects of horror, at the table of vengeance, in the chair of desperation. Where the difference on earth betwixt Master and Servant, drudge and commander, shall be quite abolished: Except some Atheistical Machiavelli, or traiterous Seminary, or some bloody delegate of the Inquisition, be admitted the upper-end of the table: But otherwise there is no regard of age, beauty, riches, valor, learning, birth. The usurer hath not a cushion more then his broker. There is not the breadth of a bench between Herod and his Parasites. The Pope himself hath no easier a bed, then the poorest Mass-priest. Corinthian Lais speeds no better then her chambermaid. The Cardinal hath not the upper hand of his Pander. There is no priority between the plotter and the intelligencer; between the vestall and the Nun; between the proud Prodigal, and his unconscionable Creditor.

Indeed the greatest sinner shall have the greatest punishment. And he that hath been a principal guest to the Devil on earth; shall (and that on earth were a strange privilege) hold his place in Hell. Reward her, even as she rewarded you: and double unto her double, according to her works: in the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double. How much she hath glorified her self, and lived deliciously, so much torment and sorrow give her. Dives that fed so heartily on this bread of Iniquity, and drunk so deep draughts of the waters of sin, reserves his superiority in torment, that he had in pleasure. Behold, he craves with more floods of scalding tears, then ever Esau shed for the blessing, but one drop of water to cool his tongue, and could not be allowed it. But what if all the rivers in the South, all the waters in the Ocean had been granted him, his tongue would still have withered and smarted with heat, himself still crying in the language of Hell, a non sufficit, It is not enough. Or what if his tongue had been eased, yet his heart, liver, lungs, bowels, arms, legs should still have fried.

Thus he that eat and drank with superfluity, the purest flower of the Wheat, the reddest blood of the Grape; his body kept as well from diseas •• , as soft linen and fine raiment could preserve it: here finds a fearful alteration. From the table of surfeit, to the table of torment, from feeding on Iunkets, to gnaw his own flesh: from bowles of wine to the want of cold water; from the soft folds of fine silks, to the winding lashes of furies: from chains of gold for ornament, to chains of iron for torment: from a bed of down, to a bed of flames: from laughing among his companions, to howling with Devils: from having the poor begging at his gates, to beg himself; and that as that Rich-man, for one drop of water. Who can express the horror and misery of this guest?

Now sorrows meet at the Guests heart, as at a feast; all the furies of hell leap on the Table of his Conscience. Thought calls to Fear, Fear to Horrour, Horrour to Dispaire, Dispaire to Torment, Torment to Extremitie, all to Eternity; Come and help to afflict this wretch. All the parts of his body and soul leave their natural and wonted uses, and spend their times in wretchedness and confusion. He runs through a thousand deaths and cannot die. Heauie irons are locked on him: all his lights and delights are put out at once. He hath no soul capable of comfort. And though his eyes distill like fountains, yet God is now inexorable: His Mittimus is without Bail, and the Prison can never be broken. God will not hear now, that might not he heard before.

That you may conceive things more spiritual and remote, by passions nearer to sense. Suppose that a man being gloriously roabed, deliciously feasted. Prince-like served, attended, honored, and set on the proudest height of pleasure that ever mortality boasted; should in one (unsuspected) moment be tumbled down to a bottom, more full of true miseries, then his promontory was of false delights: and there be ringed about with all the gory Mutherers, black Atheists, sacrilegious Church-robbers, and incestuous Rauishers, that have ever disgorged their poison on earth, to re-assume it in Hell: Nay add further to this supposition, that this depth he is thrown into, was no better then a vast Charnell-house, hung round with lamps burning blew and dim, set in hollow corners; whose glimmering serves to discover the hideous torments: all the ground instead of green rushes, strewed with fun • rall rosemary and dead men's bones: some corpses standing upright in their knotted winding-sheets; others rotted in their Coffins, which yawne wide to vent their stench: there the bare ribs of a Father that begat him, here the hollow skull of a Mother that bare him. How direful and amazing are these things to sense!

Or if Imagination can give being to a more fearful place, that, or rather worse then that is Hell. If a poor man suddenly starting out of a golden slumber, should see his house flaming about him, his loving Wife and loved Infants brea • hing their spirits to heaven through the merciless fire, himself inringed with it, calling for despaired succor; the miserable Churl his next neighbor, not vouchsafing • o answer, when the putting forth of an arm might • aue him: such shall be their miseries in Hell, and nor an Angel nor a Saint shall refresh them with any comfort. These are all but shadows, nay not shadows of the infernal depth here expressed. You hear it; fear it, fly it, scape it. Fear it by Repentance, fly it by your Faith, and you shall scape it by God's mercy.

This is their (Po • na sensus) positive punishmen • ▪ There is also (Poena damni) to be considered, their privative punishment. They have lost a place on earth, whose joy w • s temporal; they have missed a place in Heaven, whose joy is eternal. Now they find that a dinner of green herbs with God's love, is better then a stalled Ox, and his hatred withal. A feast of sallets, or Daniel's pulse, is more cheris • ing with mercy, then Belshazzar's Banket without it. Now they find Solomon • Se • mon true; that though the bread of deceit • e swe • t to a man, yet the time is come; that the mouth is filled with gravel. No, no: • he blessing of God only maketh fat, and he addeth no sorrow unto it. Waters, the wicked desired, and Bread, they lusted after; behold after their secure sleep, and dreamed joys on earth, with what hungry souls do they awake in Hell?

But what are the Bread and the Waters, they might have enjoyed with the Sain • s in Heaven? Such as shall never be dried up. Ie • thy presence is the fullness of joy: and at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. Happy is the undefiled soul, who is innocent from the great offense ; all whose sins are washed as white as Snow, in that blood, which alone is able to purge the conscience from dead works. He that walketh righteously, &c. he shall dwell on high: his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks: Bread shall be given him; his Waters shall be sure. His joys are certain and stable; no alteration, no alternation shall impair them. The wicked for the slight breakfast of this world, loose the Lambs supper of glory. Where these four things concur, that make a perfect feast: Dies lectus, locus electus, coetus been collectus, apparatus non neglectus. A good time, eternity. A good place, Heaven. A good company, the Saints. Good cheer, Glory.

1. God himself is the feast-maker: he is Land-lord of the world, and • illeth every living thing with goodness. The Eagles and Lions seek their meat at God. But though all the sons of Jacob have good cheare from Joseph yet Benjamin's mess exceeds. Esau shall have the prosperity of the earth, but Jacob goes away with the blessing. Ishmael may have outward favors, but the inheritance belongs to Isaac ▪ The King favoreth all his subjects, but they of his Court stand in his presence, & partake of his Princely graces. God's bounty extends to the wicked also, but the Saints shall only sit at his table in Heaven. This is that feaster, qui est super omnia, et sine quo nulla sunt omnia. Of him, and through him, and to him are all things: to whom be glory forever.

2. The cheare is beyond all sense, all science. Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nether have entered into the heart of man, the things God hath prepared for them that love him. The eye sees much, the ear hears more, the heart conceives most, yet all short of apprehension, much more of comprehension of these pleasures. Therefore enter thou into thy Masters joy, for it is too great to enter into thee.

3. The company is excellent: the glorious presence of the blessed Trinity, the Father that made us, the Son that bought us, the Holy Ghost that brought us to this place. The holy and unspotted Angels, that rejoiced at our conversion on earth, much more at our consolation in Heaven. All the Patriarchs, Prophets, Saints; before the Law, in the Law, in the Gospel: the full Communion of Saints. Here, the more the mirrier, yea, and the better cheare to. Oh the sweet melody of Hallelujahs, which so many glorified voices shall sing to God in Heaven, the hoarcenesse of sin, and the harshness of punishment being separated from us with a bill of everlasting divorce.

4. Admirable is the Banketing place; the high Court of Heaven, where our apparel shall be such as beseemeth the attendants on the King of Kings; even the fashion of the glorious body of Christ. The purest things are placed highermost. The earth as grossest is put in the lowest room: the water above the earth: the air above the water: the fire above the air: the spheres of Heaven above any of them: and yet th • place where this feast is kept, is above them all; the Heaven of Heavens. Take here a slight relish of the cheare in God's kingdom, where your welcome shall be answerable to all the rest. Eate oh my friends, and make you merry, oh well-beloved. And then (as those that have tasted some delicate dish, find other plain meats but unpleasant, so) you that have tasted of heavenly things, cannot but contemn the best worldly pleasures. As therefore some dainty guest, knowing there is so pleasant fare to come, let us reserve our appetites for that; and not suffer our selves to be cloyed with the course diet of the world. Thus as we fast on the Eve’s, that we may feast on the Holy-days; let us be sure, that after our abstinence from the surfeits of sin, we shall be everlastingly fed and fatted with the mercies of God. Which resolution the Lord grant us here; which Banket, the Lord give us hereafter. Amen.

THE Sinners Passing-Bell. OR A Complaint from Heaven for Mans Sins. The fifth Sermon.

T His is a world to make Physicians rich; if men loved not their purse, better then their health. For the world waxeth old, and old age is weak and sickly. As when death begins to ceaze upon a man, his brain by little and little groweth out of order; his mind becomes cloudy and troubled with fantasies; the channels of his blood, and the radical moisture (the oil that fe • ds the lamp of his life) begin to dry up: all his limbs loose their former agility. As the lit • le world thus decays in the great, so the great decays in it self: that Nature is fain to lean on the staff of Art, • nd to be held up by man's industry. The signs, which Christ hath given to fore-run the worlds ruin, are called by a Father, aegritudines Mundi: the diseases or sicknesses of the world, as sickness naturally goes before death. Wars dying the earth into a sanguine hew: dead carcases infecting the airs; and the infected airs breathing about plagues and pestilences, and sore contagions. Whereof, saith the same Father, null • magis quam nos testes sumus, quos mundi finis inuenit, none can be more certain witnesses then we upon whom the ends of the world are come. That sometimes the influences of Heaven spoil the fruits of the earth; and the fogs of earth soil the virtues of the Heavenly bodies: that neither Plannets above, nor plants below, yield us expected comforts. So God, for our sins, brings the heaven, the earth, the air, and whatsoever was created for man's use, to be his enemy, and to war against him. And all because, omnia quae ad vsum vitae accipimus, ad vsum vitij conuertimus: we turn all things to vices corruption, which were given for natures protection. Therefore, what we have • iuerted to wickedness, God hath reuerted to our revenge. We are sick of sin, and therefore the world is sick of us.

Our lives shorten, as if the book of our days were by God's knife of Judgment, cut less; and brought from Folio, as in the Patriarchs, before the flood, to Quarto in the Fathers after the flood; nay to Octauo, as with the Prophets of the Law, nay even to Decimosexto, as with us in the days of the Gospel. The Elements are more mixed, drossy, and confused: the airs are infected: neither wants our intemperance to second all the rest. We hasten that we would not have, Death; and run so to riot in the April of our early vanities, that our May shall not scape the fall of our l • afe. Our great Landlord hath let us a fair house, and we suffer it quickly to run to ruin. That whereas the Soul might dwell in the body, as a Palace of delight, she finds it a crazy, sickish, rotten cabinet, in danger, every gust, of dropping down.

How few shalt thou meet, if their tongues would be true to their griefs, without some disturbance or affliction? There lies one groaning of a sick heart; another shakes his aking head: a third roars for the torments of his reins: a fourth for the racking of his gowty joints: a fifth grouels with the Falling-sickness: a last lies half dead of a Palsy. Here is work for the Physicians. They ruffle in the robes of preferment, and ride in the Foot-clothes of reverence. Early and devout suppliants stand at their study doors, quaking, with ready money in their hands, and glad it will be accepted. The body, if it be sick, is content sometimes to buy (vnguentum areum, with vnguentum aureum) leaden trash, with golden cash. But it is sick, and needs Physic; let it have it.

There is another Pysician, that thrives well too, if not best; and that's the Lawyer. For men go not to the Pysician till their bodies be sick; but to the Lawyer when they be well, to make them sick. Thus while • s they fear an Ague, they fall into a Consumption. He that scapes his disease, and falls into the hands of his Pysician; or from his trouble of suites, lights into the fingers of his Lawyer, fulfils the old verse,

Or is in the poor Birds case, that flying in fear from the Cuckooe, lighted into the tallon • of the Hawk. These are a couple of thriving Physicians: Alter tuetur a • gros, alter tuetur agros: One looks to the state of the person; the other of the purse▪ so the old verse testifies. Physic gives wealth, and Law Honor. I speak not against due reward, for just deserts in both these faculties.

These Physicians are both in request: but the third, the Pysician of the soul (of whom, I am now occasioned to show, there is most need) may stand at the door with Homer ; and did he speak with the voice of Angels, not to be admitted. The sick Rich man lies patiently under his Physicians hands; he gives him golden words, real thanks, nay (and often) flattering observance: If the state lie sick of a Consumption; or if some contentious Emperick, by new suits, would lance the impostum'd swellings of it: or if (perhaps) it lie sullen-sick of Naboth's Vineyard: the Lawyer is (perchance) not sent for, but gone to; and his help implo • ed, not without a Royal sacrifice at least. But for the Minister of his Parish, if he may not have his head under his girdle, and his attendance as servile as his Liuerie-groomes; he thinks himself indignified, and rages, like the Pope, that any Priest durst eat of his Peacock. How short doth this Physicians respect fall of both the others! Let him feed his Sheep, if he will, with the Milk of the Word ; his Sheep will not feed him with the Milk of reward. He shall hardly get from his Patron the Milk of the Vicaredge: but if he looks for the fleeces of the Parsonage, he shall have (after the Proverb) Lanam caprinam, Contempt and scorn.

Haman was not more mad for Mordecais Cap, then the great one is, that as much observance ariseth not to him, from the black coat, as from his own blew coat. The Church is beholden to him, that he will turn one of his cast Seruitours, out of his own into her service: out of his Chamber into the Chancel; from the Buttry-hatch to the Pulpit. He that was not worthy enough to wait on his Worship, is good enough for God. Yield this sore almost healed; yet the honor of the Ministry thrives like Trees in Autumn. Even their best estimate is but a shadow, and that a preposterous one: for it goes back faster then the shadow in the Dial of Ahaz. If a Rich man have four Sons, the youngest or contemnedst must be the Priest. Perhaps the Eldest shall be committed to his Lands; for if his Lands should be committed to him, his Father fears, he would carry them all up to London: he dares not venture it, without binding it sure. For which purpose he makes his second Son a Lawyer: a good • ising profession; for a man may by that (which I neither envy nor tax) run up, like Jonah gourd, to preferment: and for wealth, a Clustre of Law is worth a whole Vintage of Gospel. If he study means for his third, loe Physic smells well. That as the other may keep the estate from running, so this the body from ruining. For his youngest Son, he cares not, if he puts him into God's service; and make him capable of the Church-goods, though not pliable to the Churches good. Thus having provided for the estate of his Inheritance, of his Advancement, of his Carkasse, he comes last to think of his Conscience.

I would to God, this were not too frequently the worlds fashion. Whereas heretofore, Primogeniti eo iure Sacerdotes, the first-borne had the right of Priesthood: now the younger Son, if he fit for nothing else, lights upon that privilege. That as a reverend Divine saith. Younger Brothers are made Priests, and Priests are made younger Brothers. Yet, alas; for all diseases Nature provideth, Art prepareth Medicines. He is fed in this Country, whom that refuseth: An estate lost by Shipwracke on Sea, may be recovered by good-speed on Land. And in ill health, for every sore of the body, there is a salve; for every malady, a remedy: but for the Conscience, Nature hath no cure, as Lust no care. Hei mihi, quod nullis anima est medicabilis herbis! There is no herb, to heal the wounds of the soul, though you take the whole world for the Garden. All these professions are necessary; that men's Ignorance might not prejudice them, either in wealth, health, or grace. God hath made men fit with qualities, and famous in their faculties, to preserve all these sound in us. The Lawyer for thy wealth: the Physician for thy health: the Divine for thy soul. Physicians cure the body; Ministers the Conscience.

The Church of Israel is now exceeding sick; and therefore the more dangerously, because she knows it not. No Physic is affected, therefore no health effected. She lies in a Lethargy, and therefore speechless. She is so past sense of her weakness, that God himself is fain to ring her Passing-bell. Aaron's bells cannot ring loud enough to waken her: God toles from Heaven a sad knell of complaint for her.

It is, I • hinke, a custom not unworthy of approbation; when a languishing Christian draws near his end, to tole a heavy Bell for him. Set aside the prejudice of Superstition, and the ridiculous conceits of some old Wives, whose wits are more decrepit then their bodies; and I see not why, reasons may not be given to prove it, though not a necessary, yet an allowed Ceremony.

1. It puts into the sick man a sense of mortality; and though many other objects should do no less; yet this seasonably performs it. If any particular flatterer, or other carnal friends, should use to him the susurration, that Peter did once to Christ; Master, favor thyself: this shall not be unto thee: though sickness lies on your bed, Death shall not enter your Chamber; the evil day is far off ; fear nothing: you shall live many years: or as the Devil to our Grandmother, you shall not die. Or if the May of his years shall persuade himself to the remoteness of his Autumn ; or if the love of earthly pleasure, shall deny him voluntary leisure to think of Death: As Ep • minondas, General of the Thebans, understanding a Captain of his Army to be dead, exceedingly wondered, how in a Campe, any should have so much leisure as to be sick. In a word, whatsoever may flatter him with hope of life; the Bell, like an impartial friend, without either the too broad eyes of pity, or too narrow of partiallitie, sounds in his own ears, his own weakness: and seems to tell him, that in the opinion of the world, he is no man of the world. Thus with a kind of Divinity, it gives him ghostly counsel; to remit the care of his Carkasse, and to admit the cure of his Conscience. It toles all in: it shall tole thee in to thy grave.

2. It excites the hearers to pray for the sick: and when can Prayers be more acceptable, more comfortable? The faithful devotions of so many Christian-neighbors sent up as Incense to Heaven for thee, are very available to pacify an offended Justice. This is S. James his Physic for the sick: nay, this is the Lord's comfort to the sick. The prayer of faith shall save the sick; and the Lord shall raise him up: and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Now (though we be all servants of one family of God, yet) because of particular families on earth; and those so removed, that one member cannot condole another's grief, that it feels not: non dolet cor, quod non nouit. The Bell, like a speedy Messenger, runs from house to house, from ear to ear, on thy souls errand, and begs the assistance of their Prayers. Thy heart is thus incited to pray for thyself, others excited to pray for thee. He is a Pharisee, that desires not the Prayers of the Church: he is a Publican that will not beseech God's mercy for the afflicted. Thy time and turn will come to stand in need of the same succor, if a more sudden blast of Judgment do not blow out thy Candle. Make thy sick Brothers case thine now, that the Congregatio • may make thine theirs hereafter. Be in this exigent even a friend to thine enemy; least thou become like Babel, to be served of others, as thou hast served others ; or at least, at best, in falling Nero's case, that cried, I have neither friend nor enemy.

3. As the Bell hath often rung thee into the Temple on earth, so now it rings thee unto the Church in Heaven: from the militant to the triumphant place: from thy pilgrimage to thy home: from thy peregrination, to the standing Court of God. To omit many other significant helps, enough to justify it a laudable ceremony; it doth, as it were, mourn for thy sins, and hath compassion on thy passion. Though in it self a dumb nature, yet as God hath made it a creature, the Church an instrument, and Art given it a tongue, it speaks to thee to speak to God for thyself; it speaks to others, that they would not be wanting.

Israel is sick; no Bell stirs, no Balm is thought of, no Prophet consulted, not God himself solicited. Hence, behold, a complaint from Heaven, a knell from above the Clouds: for though the words sound through the Prophets lips, who toles like a Passing-Bell, for Israel, yet they come from the mouth of the Lord of Hosts. The Prophet Ezekiel useth like words; and adds with them, the Lord of Hosts saith it. There is no doubt of his spiritual inspiration: all the question is of his personal appropriation. It is certain, that the Prophet Jeremiah speaks here many things in his own person, and some in the person of God. Now by comparing it, with other like speeches in the Prophets, these words sound, as from a merciful and compassionate Maker. Why is not the health of my People recovered? Mei populi, saith God, who indeed might alone speak possessiuely: Mine ; for he had chosen and culled them out of the whole world to be his people. Why are not My people recovered? There is Balm, and there are Physicians, as in Isaiah▪ What could I have done more for my Vineyard?

The words are divided to our hands by the rule of three. A tripartite Metaphor, that willingly spreads it self into an Allegory. 1. God's word is the Balm. 2. The Prophets are the Physicians. 3. The People are the Patients, who are very sick. Balm without a Physician, a Physician without Balm, a Patient without both, is in fausta separatio, an unhappy disjunction. If a man be ill, there is need of Physic; when he hath Physic, he needs a Physician to apply it. So that, here is misery in being sick, mercy in the Physic.

Not to disjoin or disioynt the Prophets order, let us observe, that the words are spoken. 1. In the person of God. 2. In the form of a question. 3. By a conclusive inference. Only two things, I would first generally observe to you, as necessary inductions to the subsequent Doctrines. Both which may naturally be inferred, not tyrannously enforced from the words. That which first objects it self to our consideration, is the Wisdom of God in working on men's affections; which leads us here from natural wants subject to sense, to supernatural, invisible, and more secret defects: from miseries to mysteries. That, as if any man admired Solomon's House, they would be ravished in desire to see God's House ; which transcended the former, so much as the former transcended their expectation. So here, we might be led from man's work to God's work, from things material to things mystical; and by the happiness of cure to our sick bodies, be induced to seek and get recovery of our dying souls. The second is, the fit collation and respondent relation of Divinity and Physic ; the one undertaking to preserve and restore the health of the body, the other performing much more to the soul.

1. God leads us by sensible to the sight of insensible wants; by calamities that vex our living bodies, to perils that endanger our dying Consciences. That we might infer upon his premisses, what would be an eternal loss, by the sight of a temporal cross, that is so hardly brooked. If a famine of bread be so heavy, how unsupportable is the dearth of the Word, saith the Prophet. Man may live without bread, not without the word. If a weary Traveler be so unable to bear a burden on his shoulders, how ponderous is sin in the Conscience? which Zechariah calls a talent of Lead. If blindness be such a misery, what is • gnorance? lf the night be so uncomfortable, what doth the darkness of Superstition afford? If bodily Disease so afflict our sense, how intolerable will a spiritual sickness prove? Thus all earthly and inferior Obiects to a Christian soul, are like Marginall hands, directing his reading to a better and heavenly reference. I intend to urge this point the more, as it is more necessary; both for the profit of it being well observed, and for the general neglect of it; because they are few in these days, that reduce Christianity to Meditation, but fewer that produce Meditation to practice and obedience.

Diseases destined toward Death as their end, that can by Nature, neither be violently endured, nor violently repelled, perplex the flesh with much pain: but if Diseases, which be Deaths capital Surgeons, his preceding Heralds to proclaim his nearness; his Ledgers that usurp his place, till himself comes, be so vexing and full of anguish, what is Death it self, which kills the Diseases, that killed us? For the perfection of sickness is Death. But alas, if the sickness and Death of the body be such, what are Sin (the sickness) and Impenitency (the death) of the soul? What is the dimmed eye to the darkened understanding? the infected members, to the poisoned affections? the torment of the reins, to the stitches, girds, and gripes of an aking Conscienc • ? what is the Childes (caput dolet) my head aches, to Jerusalem's, (cor dolet) my heart aches? The soul to leave the body with her offices of life, is not so grievous, as God's spirit to relinquish the soul with the comforts of grace. In a word, it is far less miserable to give up the ghost, then to give up the holy Ghost. The soul, that enters the body without any (sensible) pleasure, departs not from it without extreme pain. He that is animans animas, the soul of our souls, forsakes not our spirits, but our pain is more, though our sense be less. As in the Wars, the cut of a sword crossing the Fibres, carries more smart with it, though less mortality; then the fatal charge of a Death-thundering Cannon. The soul hath two places, an Inferior which it ruleth, the body; a Superior, wherein it resteth, God! Mans greatest sorrow is, when he dies upwardly, that GOD forsakes his God-forsaking soul. His greatest sense, when he di • s downwards, and sickness disperseth and dispatcheth his vital powers. Let then the inferior suffering waken us, to see the Superior that doth weaken us.

Thus God draws our eyes from one object to another; nay, by one to another; by that which we love on earth, to that which we should love in Heaven: by the providence for our bodies, to the provision for our souls. So our Savior having discoursed of carefulness for terrene wants, draws his speech to the persuasion of celestial benefits: giving the coherence with a But. But first seek ye the Kingdom of God, and his righteousness, and all these inferior things shall be added unto you. Vt ad excellen • iam diuinarum rerum per corporalia homines attollat. That at once he might lesson us to holy duties, and lessen our care for earthly things. Thus, quios homini sublime dedit, cor subli • ius eleuare voluit: He that gave man a countenance lifted high, meant to erect his thoughts to a higher contemplation. For many have such groveling and earth-creeping affections, that if their bodies curuitie was answerable to their souls, incederent quadr • pides, they would become four-footed beasts. It is a course preposterous to God's creation, disproportionable to man's fabric, that he should fixe his eyes, and thoughts, and desires, on the base earth, made for his feet to stand on: and turn his feet against Heaven in contempt, lifting up his heel against God. He, whose ill-balancing Judgment thinks Heaven light, and Earth only weighty and worthy, doth (as it were) walk on his head, with his heels upward. I have heard Travelers speak of monstrous and praeternaturall men, but never any so contranaturall as these.

Christ knew in the days of his flesh, what easy apprehension worldly things would find in us; what hard impression heavenly would find on us: therefore so often, by plain comparisons taught secret Doctrines; by Histories, Mysteries. How, to the life, doth he explain the mercy of God, to the misery of man, in the lost Sheep; in the lost Groat; in the lost Son? How sweetly doth he describe the different hearers of God's Oracles, in the Parable of the Seed ; which (howsoever it seemed a Riddle to the self-blinding Jews, yet) was a familiar demonstration to the believing Saints? So the Prophets found that actual applications pierced more then verbal explications. Nathan by an instance of supposition, wrought David's heart to an humble confession. He drew the Proposition from his own lips, The man that hath done this, is worthy of death ; and then stroke while the iron was hot, by an inferred Conclusion, Thou art the man. The Prophet Ahijah rent the new garment of Jeroboam in twelve pieces, and bad him reserve ten to himself; in sign, That God had rent the Kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and given ten Tribes to him. Isaiah by going naked and bare-foot, as by a visible sign, lessons Eg • pt and Ethiopia, that after this manner they should go captive to Assyria. Jeremiah by wearing bands and yokes, and sending them to the Kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, Sidon, Judah, gives them an actual representation, a visible Sacrament of their Babylonish captivity. Ezekiells pourtraying upon a Tile the City Jerusalem, and the siege against it, is called by God, a sign against them. Agabus took Paul's girdle, and bound his own hands and feet ; a sign, and that from the holy Ghost, that he who ought the girdle, should be so bound at Jerusalem, and delivered into the hands of the Gentiles. God schooled Jonah in the Gourd, by a lively Apothegme, and real subjection to his own eyes, of his unjust impatience against God and Nineveh.

It was God's usual dealing with Israel ; by the afflictions wherewith he grieved them, to put into their minds how they had grieved him by their sins. So Paul, as our Prophet here: For this cause ye are weak, sickely, and many die: drawing them by these sensible cords of their plagues, to the feeling of their sins; which made their souls faint in Grace, sick in Sin, dead in Apostasy. For this cause, &c. This Doctrine affords a double use; particular and general: particular to Ministers; general to all Christians.

1. To the dispensers of God's secrets: It allows them in borrowed forms to express the meditations of their harts. God hath given us this liberty in the performance of our callings, not only nakedly to lay down the truth; but with the helps of Invention, Wit, Art, to remove loathing of his Manna. If we had none to hear us, but Cornelius or Lidia, or such sanctified ears, a mere affirmation, were a sufficient confirmation. But our Auditors are like the Belgic armies, (that consist of French, English, Scotch, German, Spanish, Italian, &c.) so many hearers, so many humors: the same diversity of men and minds. That as guests at a strange dish; every man hath a relish by himself: that all our helps can scarce help one soul to heaven. But of all kinds, there is none that creeps with better insinuation, or leaves behind it a deeper impression in the Conscience, then a fit comparison. This extorted from David, what would hardly have ben granted: that as David slew Goliath with his own sword; so Nathan slew David's sin with his own word. Jotham convinced the Shechemites folly in their approved reign of Abimelech over them, by the tale of the Bramble. Even temporal occasions are often the Mines, to dignity out spiritual instructions. The people flock to Christ for his bread: Christ preacheth to them another bread ; whereof he that eats, shall never die. The Samaritan woman speaks to him of Jacob's Well: he tells her of Jesus Well: whose bottom or foundation was in Heaven; whose mouth and spring downwards to the earth: cross to all earthly fountains: containing waters of life ; to be drawn and carried away in the Buckets of faith. She thought it a new Well; she found it a true Well: whereof drinking, her souls thirst was forever satisfied. The Creeple begs for an Alms, the Apostle hath no money: but answers his small request, with a great bequest, health in the name of Jesus. Nihil additur marsupio, multum saluti. His Purse is nothing the fuller, his body is much the happier. This course, you see, both Christ and his Apostles gave us in practice and precept.

In practice. When the woman blessed the womb that bare Christ, and the paps which gau • him suck: he derive • hence occasion to bless them, which conceive him in their faith, and receive him in their obedience. Blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it. Even as Mary her self was rather blessed, percipiendo fidem, quam concipiendo carnem Christi ; in receiving the faith, then conceauing the flesh of Christ. So the news of his kindred in the flesh standing at the door, taught him to teach, who are his true kindred in the Spirit.

In precept to his Apostles. If they will not receive and believe you, Wipe off the dust of their City, that cleaveth to your feet, against them. If they will not be moved with your words, amaze them with your wonders: Heale the sick, cleanse the leapers, raise the dead, cast out Devils. We cannot now work miracles, yet we can speak of miracles. Even we must also, as obey his Documents, so observe his doings: and follow him in due measure, both in his words & works, though (non passibus aequis) not with equal steps. Our imitation must be with limitation; aptly d • stinguishing, what we must only admire in our minds, what admit in our manners.

2. To all Christians; that we climb up by the stairs of these inferior creatures, to contemplate the glorious power of the Creator. A good Christian, that like the Be, works honey from every flower, suffers no action, demonstration, event, to slip by him without a question. All Obiects to a meditating Solomon, are like wings to rear & mount up his thoughts to Heaven. As the old Rom • nes, when they saw the blew stones, thought of Olympus ; so let every Object, though low in it self, eleuate our minds to Mount Zion. A mean scaffold may serve to raise up a goodly building. Courtiers weather-driven into a poor Cottage, (etiam, in caula, de Aula loquuntur) gather hence opportunity to praise the Court. We may no less (even ex hara, de ara dicendi ansam sumere) from our Tabernacles on earth be induced to praise our standing house in Heaven. So, as the Philosopher aimed at the pitch & stature of Hercules, by viewing the length of the print of his foot: We may by the base and dwarfi • h pleasures on our earth, guess at the high and noble joys in Heaven. How can we cast up our eyes to that they were made to behold, and not suffer our minds to transcend it; passing through the lower Heaven, which God made for Fowls, Vapours, Meteors, to the Firmament wherein he fixed his Stars, and thence meditating of the Empyreall Heaven, which he created for himself, his Angels, his Saints: a place no less glorious above the visible, then the visible is above the earth. Read in every Star, and let the Moon be your Candle to do it, the provident disposition of God, the eternity of your afterlife.

But if earth be at once nearer to your standing and understanding; and like dissembling Lovers, that (to avoid suspicion) divert their eyes from that cheek, whereon they have fixed their hearts; so you loooke one way, and love another; Heaven having your countenance, Earth your confidence: then for Earth; read this instruction in all things, the destruction of all things. For if the ra • ified and azure body of this lower Heaven shall be folded up like a Scrole of Parchment; then much more this drossy, feculent, and sedimentall Earth shall be burnt.

The Heavens shall pass away with a • oyse, and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat, the Earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up. At least quoad • iguram, though not quoad naturam. The form shall be changed, though not the nature abolished. Every creature on earth may teach us the fallibillitie of it. It is an Hieroglyphic of vanity and mutabillitie. There is nothing on it, that is of it, that is not rather vitiall, then vital. In all the corrupted parts of this decrepit and doting world, men's best lesson of morallitie, is a lesson of mortality. As it was once said. Felix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas: so now better; Felix qui poterit rerum cognoscere casus. It is good to know the casual beginnings of things▪ it is better to know their casual ends. It is good to be a natural Philosopher, but better to be a supernatural, a Christian Philosopher. That whiles we intentively observe the creature, we may attentively serve the Creator.

That which is said of pregnant wits, is more true of Christian hearts, that they can make use of anything. As Travelers in foreign Countries, make every slight object a lesson: so let us thrive in grace by every (presented) work of Nature. As the eye must see, and the foot walk, and the hand work, so the heart must consider. What? God's doings: which are marvelous in our (understandings) eyes. God looked upon his own works, saw they were good, and delighted in them: sure it is his pleasure also, that we should look upon them▪ to admire his wisdom, power, providence, mercy, appearing both in their nature and their disposition. The least of God's works is worthy the observation of the greatest Angel. Now what Trewants are we, that having so many Tutours reading to us, learn nothing of them. The Heathen were condemned, for not learning the invisible things of God, from his visible works. For shall we still plod on the great volume of God's works, and never learn to spell one word, of use, of instruction, of comfort to our selves? Can we behold nothing through the Spectacles of contemplation? Or shall we be ever reading the great Book of Nature, and never translate it to the Book of Grace? The Saints did thus. So have I read, that worthy Isaiah sitting among other Divines, and hearing a sweet consort of Music, as if his soul had been borne up to Heaven, took occasion to think and speak thus; What Music may we think there is in Heaven? A friend of mine viewing attentively the great pomp and state of the Court, on a solemn day, spake not without some admiration: What shall we think of the glory in the Court of God? Happy object, and well observed, that betters the soul in grace. But I have been prolixe in this point; let the brevity of the next succor it.

2. Physic and Divinity are Professions of a near affinity: both intending the cure and recovery, one of our bodies, the other and better of our souls. Not that I would have them conjoined in one person: (as one spake merrily of him, that was both a Pysician and a Minister: that whom he took money to kill by his Physic, he had also money again to bury by his Priesthood.) Neither, if God hath poured both these gifts into one man, do I censure their Union, or persuade their separation. Only let the Hound, that runs after two Hares at once, take heed least he catch neither. Ad duo qui tendit, non vnum nec duo prendit. And let him that is called into God's Vineyard, hoc agere, attend on his office. And beware, least to keep his Parish on sound legs, he let them walk with sickly consciences. Whiles Gal •• & Auicen take the wall of Paul & Peter. I do not here tax, but rather praise the works of mercy in those Ministers, that give all possible come • orts to the distressed bodies of their brethren.

Let the professions be heterogen • a, different in their kinds; only respondentia, semblable in their proceedings. The Lord created the Physician, so hath he ordained the Minister. The Lord hath put into him the knowledge of Nature, into this the knowledge of grace. All knowledge is derived from the Fountain of God's wisdom. The Lord hath created Medicines out of the earth. The Lord hath inspired his holy word from heaven. The good Physician acts the part of the Divine. They shall pray unto the Lord, that he would prosper that which they give, for ease & remedy to prolong life. The good Minister, after a sort is a Physician. Only it is enough for the Son of God to give both natural and spiritual Physic. But as Plato spake of Philosophy, that it couets the imitation of God, within the limits of possibillitie and sobriety: so we may say of Physic, it is conterminate to Divinity; so far as a Handmaid may follow her Mistress. The Institutions of both preserve the constitutions of men. The one would prevent the obstructions of our bodies, the other the destructions of our souls. Both purge our feculent corruptions: both would restore us to our primary and original health: though by reason of our impotency and indisposition, neither is able. Both oppose themselves against our death, either our corporal or spiritual perishing.

When the spirit of God moved on the waters, and from that indigested & confused mixture; did by a kind of Alchemical extraction, separation, sublimation, conjunction, put all things into a sweet consort, and harmonious beauty, he did act a Physicians part. God is in many places a Pysician. Exod. 15. I am the Lord that healeth thee. Deut. 32. I kill, I make alive: I wound, and I heal. Ier. 17. Heale me, O Lord, and I shall be healed: save me, and I shall be saved. Sometimes he is as a Surgeon, to bind up the sores of the broken-hearted ; and to stanch the bleeding wounds of the Conscience. Nay, David intreats him to put his bones in course again. So Christ hath sent his Ministers, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , ad coagmentationem, as Beza reads it, to put in joint the luxate members of the Church; that are compacted by joints. And in the period or full stop of time, God will minister to the world the physic of Fire, to purge the sick body of it; as he • once gave it a Potion of Water to cleanse it.

Which Strabus, writing on the worlds destruction by fire, would seem to gather from those two colors in the Rainbow, caeruleo et igno, blew and red. The first cataclysme of water is past, the second deluge of fire is to come. So saith the Apostle. The heavens being on fire shall be dissolved; the Elements shall melt with fervent heat: Nouam qualitatem induent manente substantia: All earthly things shall wax old and die. Mors etiam saxis nominibus{que} venit ; but the substance shall remain. It is but the fashion of this world that passeth away: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , figura, non natura. When all the putrefied f • ces, drossy and combustible matter shall be refined in the fire, all things shall be reduced to a christaline clearness. Thus (though the heathen profanely made the Pysician a God, yet) the Christian may say truly, Our God is become our Pysician. And his Ministers are his deputies under him, bringing in their lips the saving Medicines, that God hath given them.

You see the willing similitude of these professions. Indeed the Pysician cannot so aptly and ably challenge or make bold with the Ministers office, as the Minister may with his. The Clergy-man may minister medicines: the Pysician may not administer the Sacraments. It is true thus far. Every Christian is a Priest, to offer up prayers for himself and the whole Church; although not publicly and ministerially: and none but a Cain will deny himself to be his Brothers keeper. Though exhortation be the Ministers duty, yet exhort one another daily. And if we serve one another in love, we must carry, everyone, a converting Ministry, though God alone have the converting power. Turn one another and live. Now as this converting work, is a convertible work, I mean, reciprocal and mutual from one to another, the Pysician may apportion to himself a great share in it. Who may better speak to the soul, then he that is trusted with the body? or when can the stamp of grace take so easy impression in man's heart, as when the heat of God's affliction hath melted it? What breast is invulnerable to the strokes of death? The miserable carcass hath then or never, a penetrable conscience.

This conscience is so deafed in the days of our jollity, with the loud noise of Music, Oaths, Carowsings, Clamours, Quarrels, Sports, that it cannot hear the Prophets cry, All flesh is grass. When sickness hath thrown him on the bed of anguish, and made his stomach too queasy for quaffes, too fine and dainty for even Iunkets; naked him of his silks, paled his cheeks, sunk his eyes, chilled his blood, and stunted all his vigorous spirits; the Pysician is sent for, and must scarce be let out, when the Minister may not be let in. His presence is too dull, and full of melancholy; no messenger shall come for him, till his coming be too late. How justly then should the Pysician be a Divine, when the Divine may not be a Pysician? How well may he mingle Recip • and Resipisce, penitential exhortations, with his medicinal applications, and praescripts.

Thus, memorable and worthy to be our precedent, was that Italian Physicians course: that when dissol • te Ludouicus lay desolate in his sickness, and desired his help; he answered him in his own tune: If you shall live, you shall live, though no Physic be given you: If you shall die, you shall die; Physic cannot help you. According to the sick man's libertine and heretical opinion concerning Predestination. If I shall be saved, I shall be saved, howsoever I love or live. If I shall be damned, I shall be damned, howsoever I do or die. The Physicians answer gave him demonstrative conviction, taught him the use of means, as well for his souls as bodies health, and so cured recanting Ludouicus of both his diseases at once. A godly practice, worthy our Physicians imitation.

But, with us, Grac • waits at the heels of Nature; and they dive so deep into the secrets of Philosophy, that they never look up to the mysteries of Divinity. As some Mathematicians deal so much in Jacob's Staff, that they forget Jacob's Ladder: so some Physicians (God decrease the number) are so deep Naturalists, that they are very shallow Christians. The best cure depends • pon God's care. It is poor and enervate help, to which God's blessing hath not added strength. If God doth not hear the heavens for virtue, and heaven hear the earth for influence, and earth the Pysician for ingredients, all their receipts are but deceits, and the paper of their Bills will do as much good as the praescripts in it. Simples are but simple things, and all compounds idle, when they want the (best) ingredient of God's blessing. Let Plato then, hold the candle to Moses, and all Physicians drink at the well of the sons of the Prophets. As their purpose aimeth at our healths, so let them entreat God to level their hands: their direction and success stands in the name of the Lord of Hosts.

The form of the words is Interrogatorie. Is there no Balm at Giliad? are there no Physicians there? It is most true: Balm is not scarce, nor are the Physicians few, yet Israel is sick. God doth convince that by a question, which might be without question affirmed, but would not be (without question) granted. The best insinuation or piercing assertion is ex interrogando, by way of question; not only for explication, but for application of truth. God doth as it were appeal to man's conscience; and fetch evidence from the impartial testimony of his heart. That here, what is true in God's reprehension, may appear true in man's apprehension. The first word that ever God spake to man after his fall, was a question. ADAM, vbi es? where art thou ? He continues the same (formam loquendi, normam arguendi) form & method of speech. Who told thee that thou was naked? Hast thou eaten of the Tree, whereof? &c. And to the woman. What is this that thou hast done? Before man fell to sin, God fell not to questioning. All his speeches were to him, either commendatory or commandatory: approbationis non exprobationis verba ; words of approval, not of exception. He createth, ordereth, blesseth man, and all things to him: but when man fell to sliding, God fell to chiding. Because man turned his heart to another object, God turned his voice to another accent.

God's questions are not of the nature of man's, the effects and helps of dubitation: according to the saying 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : Doubting is the Mother of questioning. He that doubteth not, will not ask▪ no; God's demands are not to satisfy himself, but us: Illations upon our actions. That from the proposition of our sins, and the assumption of his questions, we may conclude against our selves; as David, I have sinned. Neither can we give sollution to his interrogatories. Who dares, who can answer God? he is not as a man, saith Job, that I should answer him. The intent is then, to justify himself; to put into our conscience, a sense, a Science of our own iniquities. God so apposed Jonah: Doest thou well to be angry? And again; Doest thou well to be angry for a Gourd? Art thou discontent for so contemptible a thing, a poor vegetative creature; and doest thou grudge my mercy to so many rational creatures, brethren of thine own flesh? God's question was a manifest conviction, as strong as a thousand proofs. Jonah sees his face in this little Spring, as if he had stood by a full River.

Christ, that had the best method of teaching, and could make hearts of flint penetrable, moved his Disciples minds, removed his adversaries doubts, frequently by questions. He starts Peter, that was (numinis Dei, et nominis sui immemor) forgetful of his God, of himself, with a quid, dormis? what, sleepest thou? He rectified the mistaking judgments of his Apostles, that turned his spiritual dehortation from the Pharisees leaven, to the literal sense of forgotten bread ; with a double demand. Obliti ne estis? &c. Do ye not yet understand, nor remember the five loaves of the five thousand? &c. Could so miraculous a Banket, as quickly slip from your minds, as it did from your mouths? So he informed their understandings concerning himself, which so much concerned them to know; Whom do men say that I am? All which impli • d not his own ignorance, but impelled their knowledge. He knew all the former questions so well as the latter; whereof he could no less be ignorant, then of himself. Only he spake in a catechizing form, as the Ministers question succors the Novices initial understanding. His reproofs to his enemies were often clothed in these interrogatorie robes. How say they that Christ is David's Son? When David himself calleth him Lord? confuting that false opinion, that the Jews had of their Messias, whose temporal Monarchy they only gaped for. If he was, only to be the Son of David in the flesh, how doth he call him Lord, and equal him with the Father? A question, that did enforce a conclusion, himself desired, and a confusion of his enemies conceits. The like, ver. 4. He cramped their critical and hypocritical exceptions with a question. The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men? which confuted their arrogance, though they would have salued it with ignorance, ver. 7. We cannot tell. This manner of discussing is not more usual with God, then effectual. It converteth the Elect; it convinceth the Reprobate. Wheresoever it is directed, it pierceth like a goad, & is a sharp stroke to the conscience: and howsoever the smart is neglected, it leaveth a print behind it.

If we take the words spoken in the Person of God, they manifest his complaint against Israel. When God complains, sin is grievous. We never read God breaking forth into this compassionate form of speech, but Iniquity is grown proud of her height. She nestles among the Cedars, and Towers like Babel: when he that can thunder it down with fire, doth (as it were) rain showers of complaint for it. It argues no less goodness in the Father, then wickedness in the Children, when he doth plain, that can plague; and breath out the air of pity, before he send the storm of Judgment. So you may see a long provoked Father, that after many chidings lost to his deaf Son; after some gentle chastisements inflicted, and intended to his calling home; he finds his errors growing wilder, his affections madder, his heart more senseless, his courses more sensual; he stands even deploring his wretchedness, that could not amend his wickedness: and whiles Justice and Mercy strive for the mastery, as loath that his lenity should wrong his Integrity, or yet that he should be as an executioner to him, whom he had begotten to be an executor to himself; he breaks out into complaint. With no less pity, nay, with far greater mercy, doth God proceed to execute his Judgments; unwilling to strike home for his mercy; yet willing not to double his blow (but to lay it on sure at once) for our sins, and his own Justice- Or as some compassionate Judge, that must censure (by the law of his Country) an Heretic, strives first with arguments of reason to convert him, that arguments of iron and steel may not be used against him: and finding his refractary disposition, culpable of his own doom, by willfully not being capable of good counsel, proceeds not without plaints and tears to his sentence: So doth the most just God of Heaven, with the most unjust Sons of men; pleading by reasons of gentle and gracious forbearance, and offering the sweet conditions of happy peace, and (as it were) wailing our refusal, before he shoot his arrows and consume us, or make his sword drunk with our bloods.

God hath Armies of Stars in the sky, Meteors in the air, beasts on the earth, yea of Angels in Heaven; greater Hosts and less: and whither he sends a great Army of his little ones, or a little of his great ones, he can easily and quickly dispatch us: Loe, he stays till he hath spoken with us; and that rather by postulation, then expostulation. He is not contumelious against us, that have been contumacious against him. If his words can work us to his will, he will spare his blows. He hath as little delight in smiting, as we in suffering: nay, he suffers with us, condoling our estate, as if it were (which cannot be) his own. For we have not an high Priest, which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He feels the griefs of his Church: the head ak • s, when the members suffer. Persecutors strike Christ through Christians sides. Saul strikes at Damascus, Christ Jesus suffers in Heaven. Mediately he is smitten, whiles the blows immediately light on us. He could not in the days of his • lesh, forbear bitter tears at Jerusalem's pres • nt sin and future judgment. How grievous is our iniquity, how gracious his longanimity? He that weeps for our aversion passionately, desires our conversion unfeignedly. How pathetically he persuadeth his Churches reformation? Return, return, oh Shulamite, return, return: How lamentingly deplores he Jerusalem's devastation? If thou hadst known, at least in this thy day, the things that belong to thy peace. Let us not think him like either of those Mimicks, the Player, or the Hypocrite, (who truly act the part one of another, but hardly either of an honest man) that can command tears in sport. When Christ laments the state either of our sins or our selves, he shows that one is at the height of rising, the other near casting down. Christ's double sigh over Jerusalem, is (as I may say) fetched and derived from those double woes of her: the immeasurable sin, that killest the Prophets: the unavoidable Judgment, thy house is left unto thee desolate. Ingentia benesicia, ingentia peccata, ingentes poenae. Great benefits abused occasion great sins, and great sins are the fore-runners of great plagues. So that Sin is an ill conjunction copulative, that unites two as contrary natures, as nature it self ever produced, great mercy and great misery. God is pleased in giving the former, but he sighs at the latter. Gaudet in misericordia sua, dolet in miseria nostra. He rejoiceth in his own goodness, he grieveth at our wretchedness.

Horrid and to be trembled at are the sins, that bring heaviness into the Courts of happiness; and send grievance to the very thresholds of joy. That whereas Angels and Cherubims, the celestial Choristers, make music before the Throne of God, for the conversion of one sinner: (of one? what would they do at the effectual success of such a Sermon, as Peter preached.) They do (if I may speak) grieve and mourn at the aversion of our souls, (so hopeful and likely to be brought to Heaven) and at the aspiration of our climbing sins.

But it may be questioned, how God can be said to grieve, to complain, to be sorrowful for us. True it is, that there is no passion in God. He that sits in Heaven, hath all pleasure and content in himself. What is here spoken, is for our sakes spoken. He dwelleth in such brightness of glory, as never mortal foot could approach unto: the sight of his face is to us on earth insufferable: the knowledge of the invisible things in the Deity impossible. Therefore to give some aim and conjecture to us, what he is, he appears (as it were) transfigured into the likeness of our nature, and in our own familiar terms speaketh to our shallow understandings. Hominem alloquens humano more loquitur. As an old man speaking to a Child, frames his voice in a childish phrase. Before a great vessel that is full, can pour liquor from it self into a little empty Pot, that stands under it, it must stoop and decline it self. Thus he descends to our capacities; and that man may know him in some measure, he will be known as man. Sometimes by bodily members, Eyes, Ears, Hands, Feet. Sometimes by spiritual affections, Anger, Sorrow, Jealousy, Repentance. By which he signifies, not what he is indeed, but what is needful for us to know of him. For being well acquainted with the use, office, and effect of these natural things in our selves, we may the better guess at the knowledge of that God, • o whom we hear them ascribed by translation. All which he hath per siguram▪ non naturam. Angers effect in us is revenge. Nothing pleaseth a furious man's nature, but wreaking himself on his prouoker. The passion is Anger, the effect Reuenge. Whiles God gives the second, we ascribe to him the first; and call that in him Wrath, which properly is his striking Justice.

Complaints are the witness of a grieved soul: both are sufferings. God is here said to complain. Why? he is grieved at our sins. Can he be grieved indeed? No nor need he complain, that hath such power to right himself. Yet he is often said to be grieved; Grieue not the Spirit of God, by whom you are sealed up to the day of Redemption: And here to complain. To speak properly, God cannot complain because he cannot be grieved: He cannot be grieved, because he cannot suffer. Every blow of ours, though we were as strong and high as the sons of Anak lights short of him. If some could have reached him, it had gone ill with him long ere this. All is spoken per 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . He is sine ira irascens, sine poenit • ntia poenitens, sine dolore dolens: angry without anger, grieving without sorrow. These passions are ascribed to him, quoad effectum, non quoad affectum: They are perfections in him, what are affections in us. The complaint that once God made against a whole world, as he doth here against Israel, is expressed in more patent and significant terms. It repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. God so complains against man's sin, that he is sory that he made him. This, saith Augustine, non est perturbatio, sed iudicium, quo irrogatur poena: It is no disturbance in God, but only his Judgment, whereby he inflicts punishment. And further; Poenitudo Dei est mutandorum immutabilis ratio: God's repentance is his unchangeable disposition, in things of a changeable condition. It is mutatio rei, non Dei: the change of the thing, not of God. Cum ii quos curat mutantur, mutat ipse res, prout ijs expedit, quos curat: He willeth an expedient alteration of things, according to the alteration of them for whom he provides. So God is said to repent that he made Saul King, or that he threatened evil to Nineveh. In all which he changed (non affectum, sed effectum) the external work, not his internal counsel. For as the School speaks, immutabiliter ignoscit, he unchangeably pardons whom he means to save, though they feel it not till conversion: so immutabiliter non ignoscit, he unchangeably retains their sins in his Judgment-book, which amend not, as Saul ▪

The nature of Repentance is Sorrow: the effect of repentance is the abrogation of something determined, or undoing (if it be possible) of something done. Repentance is not in God, in regard of the original nature of it; he cannot sorrow: but is in respect of the eventual fruit; when he destroys that world of people, he had made. Not that his heart was grieved, but his hands: his justice and power undid it. Aliud est mutare voluntatem, aliud velle mutationem: It is one thing to change the will, another thing to will a change. There may be a change in the matter and substance willed, though not in the will that disposeth it. Our will desires in the Summer a lighter and cooler garment, in Winter a thicker and warmer: yet is not our will changed, whereby we decree in our selves this change according to the season. Thus (Quicquid superi voluere, peractum) Whatsoever God would, that did he in heaven and earth, in the sea and all deep places. God is (immutabilis naturae, voluntatis, consilij.) Unchangeable in his nature, will, and decrees. Only these are, verba nostrae paruitati accommodata, words fitted to our weak capacities.

Well; in the mean time they are grievous sins, that make our gracious God thus seemingly passionate. There is great cause sure, if so patient and forbearing a God, be angry, sorry, penitent, grieved, that he hath made such rebellious creatures. It is long before his wrath be incensed; but if it be thoroughly kindled, all the Rivers in the South are not able to quench it. Daily man sins, and yet God repents not, that he made him. Woe to that man, for whose creation God is sorry. Woe to Jerusalem, when Christ shall so complain against her. Stay the Bells, ye Sons of wickedness, that ring so loud peals of tumultuous blasphemies in the ears of God? Turn again, ye wheeling Planets, that move only as the sphere of this world turns your affections; and despise the directed and direct motion of God's Stars. Recall yourselves, ye lost wretches, and stray not too far from your Fathers house, that your seekers come again with a non est inuentus: least God complains against you, as here against Israel ; or with as passionate a voice, as once against the world; It repents me that I made them.

If we take the words spoken in the person of the Prophet, let us observe, that he is no good Preacher, that complains not in these sinful days. Isaiah had not more cause for Israel, then we for England, to cry, We have labored in vain, and spent our strength for naught. For if we equal Israel in God's blessings, we transcend them in our sins. The blood-red Sea of war and slaughter, wherein other Nations are drowned, as were the Egyptians, is become dry to our feet of peace. The Bread of Heaven, that true Manna, satisfies our hunger, and our thirst is quenched with the waters of life. The better Law of the Gospel is given us; and our saving health is not like a curious piece of Arras folded up, but spread to our believing eyes, without any shadow cast over the beauty of it. We have a better high Priest, to make intercession for us in heaven, for whom he hath once sacrificed and satisfied on earth: (actu semel, virtute semper: with one act, with everlasting virtue.) We want nothing, that heaven can help us to, but that which we voluntarily will want, and without which we had better have wanted all the rest, thankfulness and obedience. We return God not one for a thousand, not a dram of service for so many talents of goodness. We give God the worst of all things, that hath given us the best of all things. We cull out the least sheaf for his Tithe; the sleepiest hour for his prayers: the chippings of our wealth for his poor: a corner of the heart for his Ark, when Dagon sits uppermost in our Temple. He hath bowels of brass and an heart of iron, that cannot mourn at this our requital. We give God measure for measure, but not manner for manner. For his blessings heapen, and shaken, and thrust together, iniquities pressed down and yet running over. Like Hogs we slauer his pearls, turn his graces into wantonness, and turn again to rend in pieces the bringers.

Who versing in his mind this thought, can keep his cheeks dry? Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep night and day, &c. No marvel, if animus meminisse horret. The good soul tremble to think it: especially when all this wickedness ariseth (not from Sodom, and Sidon, and Edom, but (from the midst of) the daughter of Zion. Hinc illae Lachrimae. He that can see this and not sigh, is not a witness, but an agent; and sin hath obstructed his lungs, he cannot sorrow. Forebear then, you captious sons of Belial, to complain against us, for complaining against you. Whiles this Hydra of Iniquity puts forth her still-growing-heads, and the sword of reproof cannot cut them off, what should we do but mourn? Quid enim nisi threna supersunt? Whither can we turn our eyes, but we behold and lament at once; some roving with lewdness, some raving with madness, others reeling with ebriety, and yet others railing with blasphemy. If we be not sad, we must be guilty. Condemne not our passions, but your own rebellions, that excite them. The zeal of our God, whom we serve in our spirits, makes us with Moses to forget our selves. We also are men of like passion with you. It is the common plea of us all: If you ask us, why we show our selves thus weak and naked, we return with Paul: Why do you these things? Our God hath charged us, not to see the funerals of your souls, without sighs and tears. Thus saith the Lord: Smite with thy hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas, for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel: for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.

Shall all complain of lost labors, and we brook the greatest loss with silence? Merchants wail the shipwreck of their goods, and complain of Pirates. Shepherds of their devoured Flocks by savage Wolves. Husbandmen of the tired earth, that quites their hope with weeds. And shall Ministers see and not sorrow the greatest ruin (the loss of the world were less) of men's souls. They that have written, to the life, the downfall of famous Cities, either vastate by the immediate hand of God, as Sodom ; or mediately by man, as Jerusalem: as if they had written with tears instead of Inke, have pathetically lamented the ruins. Aeneas Sylvius reporting the fall of Constantinople, historifies at once her passion, his own compassion for it. The murthering of Children before the Parents faces, the slaughtering of Nobles like beasts, the Priests torn in pieces, the Religious flea'd, the holy Virgins and sober Matrones first ravished and then massacred; and even the Relics of the Soldiers spoil, given to the merciless fire. Oh miseram vrbis faciem! Oh wretched show of a miserable City! Consider Jerusalem, the City of God, the Queen of the Provinces, tell her Turrets, and mark well her Bulwarks, carry in your mind the Idea of her glories: and then, on a sudden, behold her Temple and houses burning, the smoke of the fire wauing in the air, and hiding the light of the Sun, the flames springing up to Heaven, as if they would ascend as high as their sins had erst done; her Old, Young, Matrons, Virgins, Mothers, Infants, Princes, and Priests, Prophets and Nazarites, famished, fettered, scattered, consumed: if ever you read or hear it without commisseration, your hearts are harder then the Romans that destroyed it. The ruin of great things wring out our pity; and it is only a Nero, that can sit and sing whiles Rome burns. But what are a world of Cities, nay the whole world it self burning, as it must one day, to the loss of men's souls, the rarest pieces, of God's fabric on earth? to see them manacled with the chains of Iniquity, and led up and down by the Devil, as Baiazeth by that cruel Scithian, stabbed and massacred, lost and ruined by rebellious obstinacies and impenitencies; bleeding to death like Babel, and will not be cured, till past cure they weep like Rahell, and will not be comforted: to see this and not pity it, is impossible for any but a Faulx, but a Devil.

1. To make some further use hereof to our selves; Let us avoid sin, as much as we may. And, though we cannot stay our selves from going in, let us stay our selves from going on: least our God complain against us. If we make him sorrowful for a time, he can make us sorrowful forever. If we anger him, he can anger all the veins of our hearts. If instead of serving GOD by our obedience, we make him serve with our sins, he will make us serve with his plagues. If we drive God to call a Conuocation of heaven and earth: Hear oh heaven, hearken oh earth: I have nourished children, and they have rebelled against me: If he call on the mountains to hear his controversy, he will make us call on the mountains to help and hide our misery. And they said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, &c. If we put God to his querelam, controversy, and make him a Plaintiff, to enter his suit against us; he will put us to a complaint indeed. Therefore shall the land mourn, and everyone that dwelleth therein, shall languish. He will force us to repent the time and deeds, that ever made him to repent, that he made us. He will strike us with such a blow, that there needeth no doubling of it. He will make an utter end; destruction shall not rise up the second time. As Abishai would have stricken Saul , at once, and I will not smite him the second time.

We cannot so wrong God, that he is deprived of power to right himself. His first complaint is (as I may say) in tears; his second in blood. I have read of Tamberlaine, that the first day of his siege was honored with his white Colours, the second with fatal red, but the third with final black. God is not so quick & speedy in punishment; nor come his judgments with such precipitation. Nineveh after so many forties of years, shall have yet forty days. He that at last came, with his Fan in his hand, and fanned but eight grains of good corn, out of a whole Barn-full of Chaff, a whole world of people; gave them the space of one hundred and twenty years repentance. If Jerusalem will not hear Christ's words, they shall feel his wounds. They that are deaf to his voice, shall not be insensible to his hands. He that may not be heard, will be felt.

2. If God complains against sin, let us not make our selves merry with it. The mad humors, idle speeches, outrageous oaths of drunken Atheists, are but ill mirth for a Christian spirit. Wickedness in others abroad, should not be our Tabret to play upon at home. It is a wretched thing to laugh at that, which feasts Satan with mirth, laughing both at our sins, and at us for our sins. Rather lament. Make little weeping for the dead, for he is at rest: but the life of the fool is worse then death. Weep for that. When Israel now in Moses absence had turned beast, and Calued an Idolatrous Image; Moses did not dance after their Pipe, and laugh at their superstitious merriment with Tabrets and Harps; but mourned to the Lord for them, and pleaded as hard for their sparing, as he would have done for himself; nay more, Spare thy own people, though thou race my name out of the Book of Life. They are only marked for God's, with his own privy Seal, that mourned for the abominations of Israel: and their mournings were earnest, as the waylings of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo.

Where are you, ye Sons of the Highest, ye Magistrates, put in power not only to lament our sins, but to take away the cause of our lamenting; cease to beak yourselves, like Jehoiakim, before the fire of ease and rest: rend your clothes with Josiah, and wrap yourselves in sackcloth, like Nineveh's King, as a corps laid out for burial. Do not, Felix -like, grope for a bribe at criminal offenses: sell not your connivance (and withal your conscience) where you should give your punishment. Let not gold weigh heavier then Naboth's wrongs in the scoles of Justice. Weep ye Ministers, between the Porch and the Altar. Lament your own sins, ye Inhabitants of the world. England, be not behind other Nations in mourning, that art not short of them in offending. Religion is made but Pollicies stirrup, to get up and ride on the back of pleasure. Nimrod and Ahithophel lay their heads and hands together; and whiles the one forrageth the Park of the Church, the other pleads it from his Book, with a Statutum est. The Gibeonites are suffered in our Campe, though we never clap'd them the hand of covenant; and are not set to draw water and choppe wood, do us any service, except to cut our throats. The Receate (I • ad almost said the Deceate) of Custom s • ands open, making the Laws toleration a warrant: that many now sell their Lands, and live on the use of their Monyes? which none would do, if Usury was not an easier, securer and more gainful Trade.

How should this make us mourn like Doves, and groan like Turtles? The wild Swallows, our unbridled Youngsters sing in the warm Chimneyes: the lustful Sparrowes, noctiuagant Adulterers, sit ch • rping about our houses: the filching Iayes, secret thieves, rob our Orchards: the Kite and the Cormorant, devour and hoard our fruits: and shall not among all these, the voice of the Turtle be heard in our Land, mourning for these sinful rapines? Have whoredom and wine so taken away our hearts, and hidden them in a maze of vanities, that repentance cannot find them out? Can these enormities pass without our tears? Good men have not spent all their time at home, in mourning for their own sins; sometimes they have judged it their work to lament, what was others work to do. That Kingly Prophet, that wept so plentifully for his own offenses, had yet floods of tears left, to bewail his people's. Jeremiah did not only weep in secret, for Israel's pride, but wrote a whole Book of Lamentations: and was not less exact in his method of mourning, then others have been in their Songs of joy. It was God's behest to Ezekiel, Sigh thou Son of man with the breaking of thy loins, and with bitterness sigh before their eyes. He mourned not alone at Israel's w • e. She had a solemn Funeral, and every Prophet sighed for her. Look away from me, saith Isaiah; I will weep bitterly, labor not to comfort me; because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people: I am payned at my very heart, saith Jeremiah, because thou hast heard, oh my soul, the sound of the Trumpet, the Alarm of war. Our sins are more, why should our sorrows be less?

Who sees not, and says not, that the days are evil! There is one laying secret Mynes to blow up another, that himself may succeed: there is another buying uncertain hopes with ready money: there is another rising hardly to eminence of place, and menaging it as madly. There goes a fourth poring on the ground, as if he had lost his soul in a Muck-heap, and must scrape for it: yet I think, he would hardly take so much pains for his soul, as he doth for his gold, were it there to be found and saved. He that comes to this Market of Vanity, but as a looker on, cannot lack trouble. Every evil we see, doth either vex us, or infect us. The sight and inevitable society of evils, is not more a pleasure to the Sodomites, then a vexation to the righteous soul of Lot. One breaks jests upon Heaven, and makes himself merry with God. Another knows no more Scripture, then he applies to the Theater; and doth as readily and desperately play with God's word, as with the Poets. You cannot walk the street, but you shall meet with a quarrelling Dog, or a drunken Hog, or a blaspheming Devil. One speaks villainy, another swears it, a third defends it, and all the rest laugh at it. That we may take cresset-light, and search with Jeremiah, the str • etes and broad places of our Country, and not find a man, or at least not a man of truth. Who can say, it can be worse? Cease complaints, and fall to amendment. Ye Deputies of Moses, and Sons of Levi, sharpen both your swords. Consecrate and courage your hands and voices to the vastation of Jericho -walls. Be not unmerciful to your Country, whiles you are over-merciful to offenders. An easy cost repairs the beginning ruins of a house: when it is once dropt down, with danger about our ears, it is hardly reedified. Seasonable castigation may work reasonable reforming. The rents and breaches of our Zion are manifold, and manifest. Repaire them by the word of Mercy, and sword of Justice. If Jerusalem's roof be cast down, as low as her pavement, who shall build her up? It is yet time, (and not more then) enough. If you cannot turn the violent stream of our wickedness, yet swim against it yourselves; and provoke others; by your precepts, by your patterns. The success to God.

3. The all-wise GOD complains. He doth no more, what could he do less? He doth not bitterly inveigh, but passionately mourn for us. He speaks not with gall, but as it were with tears. There is sweet mercy even in his chidings. He teacheth us a happy composure of our reprehensions. We are of too violent a spirit, if at least we know what spirit we are of, when nothing can content us, but fire from Heaven. He that holds the fires of Heaven in his commanding hand, and can pour them in floods on rebellious Sodom, holds back his arm, and doth but gently loosen his voice to his people. I know, there is a time, when the still voice, that came to Elias, or the whisperings of that voice behind, this is the way, walk in it, can do little good: and then God is content we should derive from his Throne, Thundrings and Lightnings, and louder sounds. The Hammer of the Law must eft-soones break the stony heart of rebellion: and often the sweet Balm of the Gospel must supple the broken conscience. Let us not transpose or invert the method and direction of our Office; killing the dying with the killing letter, and preaching Judgment without mercy, least we reap Judgment without mercy to our selves. Some men's harts are like Nettles; if you touch them (but) gently, they will sting: but rough-handling is without prejudice: whiles others are like Briars, that wound the hard grasping-hand of reproof, but yield willingly to them, that softly touch them with exhortation. One must be washed with gentle Bathes, whiles another must have his ulcers cut with Launcers. Only do all, medentis animo, non s • nientis, not with an Oblique and sinister purpose, but with a direct intention to save. An odious, tedious, endless inculcation of things, doth often tire those with whom a soft and short reproof would find good impression. Such, while • they would in intent edify, do in event tedifie. Indeed there is no true zeal, without some spice of anger: only subsit iracundia, non praesit ; give thy anger due place, that it may follow as a servant, not go before as a Master.

It is objected, that the thoughts of God are peace. He that is covered with Thunder, and clothed with Lightning, speaks, and the Earth trembles, toucheth the Mountains, and they smoke for it; sharpens not his tongue like a Rasor, but speaks by mournful complaint. What then mean our Preachers, to lift up their voices as Trumpets, and to speak in the tune of Thunder against us? We cannot wear a garment in the fashion, nor take use for our Money, nor drink with a good fellow , nor strengthen our words with the credit of an Oath; but bitter invectives must be shot, like Porcupines Quils, at these slight scapes. I answer • , God knows when to chide, and when to mourn; when to say, Get thee behind me Satan, as to Peter, and when coolely to tax Jonah, doest thou well to be angry? But he that here mourns for Israel degenerate, doth at another time protest against Israel Apostate; and swears, they shall never enter into his rest. We would fain do so to, I mean, speak nothing but grace and peace to you: but if ever we be Thorns, it is because we live amongst Briars: if we lift up our voices, it is because your hearts are so sleepy, that you would not else hear us.

4. God did thus complain against Israel: where are his complaints, you will say, against us? Sure, our sins are not grown to so proud a height▪ as to threaten Heaven, and provoke GOD to quarrel. Oh ill-grounded flattery of our selves: an imagination that adds to the measure of our sins. Whiles we conceive our wickedness less, even this conceit makes it somewhat more. If we say, that we have no sin, there is no truth in us. Nothing makes our guilt more palpable, then the pleading our selves not culpable. Every drop of this presumptuous Holy-water, sprinkled on us, brings now aspersions of filthiness. It is nothing else, but to wash our spots in mud. Yet speak freely. Doth not God complain? Examine. 1. The words of his mouth. 2. The works of his hand.

1. The voice of his Ministers is his voice. He that heareth you, heareth me. Do not the Jeremiah's of these days mourn like Turtles, as well as sing like Larkes? Do they not mingle with the tunes of Joy, the tones of Sorrow? When did they rejoice ever without trembling? Or lead you so currently to dance in God's Sun-shine, that they forgot to speak of his Thunder? It is good to be merry and wise. What Sermon ever so flattered you with the fair weather of God's mercies, that it told you not with all, when the wind and the Sun meets there would be rain; when God's Sun-like Justice, and our raging and boisterous iniquities shall come in opposition, the storm of Judgment will ensue. Nay, have not your iniquities made the Pulpit (the Gospels mercy-seat) a Tribunal of Judgment?

2. Will not these mournings, menaces, querulations, stir your hearts; because they are derived from GOD, through us (his Organ-pipes) as if they had lost their vigor by the way? Then open your eyes, you that have dea • 'd your ears, and see him actually complaing against us. Observe at least, if not the thunders of his voice, yet the wonders of his hand. I could easily loose myself in this Common-place of Judgments. I will therefore limit my speech to narrow bounds; and only call that to our memories, the print whereof sticks in our sides: God having taught Nature, even by her good to hurt, (as some wash gold to deprave the weight of it) even to drain away our fruits by floods. But alas, we say of these strokes, as the Philosopher in one sense, and Solomon's Drunkard in another, non memini me percussum, we remember not that we were stricken: or as the Prophet, of the Jews. Thou hast smitten them, but they have not grieved: thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction: even whiles their wounds were yet raw, and their ruins not made up. Many are like the Stoics in Equuleo ; though the punishment lie on their flesh, it shall not come near their heart. God would school our heavy-spirited and coldly devoted worldlings, that sacri • ice to their Nets, attribute all their thriving to their own industry: and never enter that thought on the point of their hearts, how they are beholding to God▪ Here, alas, we find, that we are beholding to the Corn and other fruits of the earth, they to the ground, the ground to the influences of Heaven, all to God.

When man hath done all in plowing, tilling, sowing; if either the clouds of Heaven deny their rain, or give too much, how soon is all lost? The Husbandman, that was wont to wait for the early and latter showers, now casts up trembling eyes to the clouds for a ne noceant. For, your Barns full of weeds, rather then grain, testify, that this blow did not only spoil the glory and benefit of your Meadowes, but even by rebound your Corn-fields also. Be not Atheists, look higher then the clouds: It was no less, then the angry hand of God. Thus can God every way punish us. It was for a time the speech of all tongues, amazement of all eyes, wonder of all hearts, to see the showers of wrath so fast pouring on us; as if the course of nature were inverted, our Summer coming out in the robes of Winter. But as a Father writes of such a year: Our devotions begun and ended with the shower.

It rains, and we lament. But the Sun did not sooner break out through the clouds, then we broke out into our former licentiousness. We were humbled, but n • t humble: dressed of God, not cured. Though God with-hold plenty, we with-hold not gluttony. Pride leaves off none of her vanities. Usury bates not a cross of his Interest. The • ioter is still as drunken with Wine, as the earth was with Water. And the Covetous had still rather eat up the poor as bread, then they should eat of his bread: keeping his barns full, though their mawes be empty: as if he would not let the vermin fast, though the poor starve. No marvel, if heaven it self turns into languishment for these impieties.

God hath done, for his part, enough for Israel. He hath stored their Vials with Balm, their Cities wiih Physicians. It was then their own fault, that their health was not recovered. Oh Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thine help. Let even the inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah themselves be vmpires, And what could I have done more to my Vineyard, that I have not done in it? God is not sparing in the commemoration of his mercies to us: as knowing, that of all the faculties of the Soul, the memory first waxeth old; and of all objects of the memory, a benefit is soonest forgotten. We write man's injuries to us in Marble, but God's mercies in dust or waters. We had need of remembrances. God hath done so much for us, that he may say to us, as once to Ephraim. Oh Ephraim, what shall I do (more) unto thee? What could Israel want, which God supplied not? If they want a guide, God goes before them in fire. If they lack Bread, Flesh, or Drink, Mercy and Miracle shall concur to satisfy them. Heaven shall give them Bread, the Wind Quails, the Rock Waters. Doth the Wilderness deny them new clothes? their old shall not wax old on their backs. A Law from heaven shall direct their Consciences; and God's Oracles from between the Cherubims shall resolve their doubts. If they be too weak for their Enimies, Fire from heaven, vapors from the clouds, Frogs and Catterpillers, Sun, Air, Waters, shall take their parts. Nay, God himself shall fight for them. What could God do more for their reserving, for their preserving?

If I should set the mercies of our land to run along with Israel's, we should gain cope of them, and out-run them. And though in God's actual and outward mercies they might outstrip us; yet in his spiritual and saving health they come short of us. They had the shadow, we the substance: they candle-light, we noon-day: they the breakfast of the Law, fit for the morning of the world; we the dinner of the Gospel, fit for the high-noon thereof. They had a glimpse of the Sun, we have him in the full strength: they saw per fe • estram, we sine medio. They had the Paschal-Lamb, to expiate sins ceremonially; we the Lamb of God to satisfy for us really. Not a typical sacrifice for the sins of the Jews only; but an evangelical, taking away the sins of the world. For this is that secret opposition, which that voice of a Cryer intimates. Now what could God do more for us? Israel is stung with fiery Serpents, behold the erection of a (strangely medicinal) Serpent of brass. So, (besides the spiritual application of it) the plague hath stricken us, that have stricken God by our sins; his mercy hath healed us. Rumours of War hath hummed in our ears the murmurs of terror; behold he could not set his bloody foot in our coasts. The rod of Famine hath been shaken over us; we have not smarted with the deadly lashes of it. Even that we have not been thus miserable, God hath done much for us.

Look round about you, and whiles you quake at the plagues so natural to our neighbors, bless your own safety, and our God for it. Behold the Confines of Christendom, Hungary and Bohemia, infested and wasted with the Turks. Italy groaning under the slavery of Antichrist ; which infects the soul, worse then the Turk infests the body. Behold the pride of Sp • ine, curbed with a bloody Inquisition. France, a fair and flourishing Kingdom, made wretched by her Civil uncivil wars. Germany knew not of long time, what Peace meant: neither is their war ended, but suspended. Ireland hath felt the perpetual plague of her Rebellions. And Scotland hath not wanted her fatal disasters. Only England hath line, like Gideon's fleece, dry and secure, when the rain of Judgments have wetted the whole earth. When God hath tossed the Nations, and made them like a wheel, and as the stubble before the wind, only England hath stood like Mount Zion, with vnmoued firmness. Time was, she petitioned to Rome: now she neither fears her Bulls, nor desires her Bulwarks. The destitute Britain's thus mourned to their conquering Romans. Aetio ter Consul • gemitus Britannorum. Repell • nt nos Barbari ad mare: Repellit nos mare ad Barbaros. Hinc oriuntur duo funerum genera; quia aut iugulamur aut submergimur. To the Roman Consul the Britain's send groaning, instead of greeting. The Barbarous drive us upon the Sea. The Sea beats us back upon the Barbarous. Hence we are endangered to a double kind of death: either to be drowned, or to have our throats cut. The Barbarous are now unfeared enemies; and the Sea is rather our Fort, then our Sepulcher. A peaceful Prince leads us, and the Prince of peace leads him. And besides our peace, we are so happy for Balm and Physicians ; that if I should sing of the blessings of God to us, this should still be the burden of my Song: What could the Lord do more for us?

There is B • lme at Gilead, there are Physicians there : Will there be ever so? Is there not a time to loose, as well as to get? Is whiles the S • nctuarie is full of this holy Balm, God's word ▪ if whiles there is plenty of Physicians, and in them plenty of skill, the health of Israel is not restored: how dangerous will her sickness be in the privation of both these restoratives? They that grow not rich in peace, what will they do in war? He that cannot live well in Summer, will hardly scape starving in Winter. Israel, that once had her Cities sown with Prophets, could after say, We see not our signs, there is not one Prophet among us. They that whilome loathed Manna, would have been glad, if after many a weary mile, they could have tasted the crumbs of it. He, whose prodigality scorned the bread in his Fathers house, would afterwards have thought himself refreshed with the husks of Swi • e.

The S • nne doth not ever shine; there is a time of setting. No day of jollity is without his evening of conclusion, if no cloud of disturbance prevent it, with an over-casting. First, God complains, men sing, dance, are Iouiall and neglectful; at last man shall complain, and God shall laugh at their destructions. Why should God be conjure • to receive his Spirit dying, that would not receive God's spirit living? All things are whirled about in their circular courses; and who knows whither the next spoake of their wheel will not be a blank? Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness. If the black stones of our miseries should be counted with the white of our joys, we should find our calamities exceeding in number, as well as they do in nature. Often have we read our Savior weeping, but never laughing. We cannot choose but lament so long as we walk on the banks of Babylon. It is enough to re-assume our Harps, when we come to the high Jerusalem. In Heaven are pure joys, in Hell mere miseries, on Earth both, (though neither so perfect) mixed one with another. We cannot but acknowledge, that we begin and end with sorrow; our first voice being a cry, our last a groan. If any joys step in the midst, they do but present themselves on the Stage, play their parts, and put off their glories. Successiuely they thrust upon us; striving, either who shall come in first, or abide with us longest. If any be more dainty of our acquaintance, it is joy. It is a frequent speech, fuimus Troes, we have been happy: Cum miserum quenquam videris, scias cum esse hommem: cum vero gloriosum, sci • s cum nondum esse Herculem. If thou seest one miserable, that's a man: but if thou seest another glorying, yet that's no God. There is no prescription of perpetuity.

It is enough for the Songs of Heaven, where Saints and Seraphim are the Choristers, to have no burden, as no end belonging to them. Let that be the standing house, where the Princes of GOD shall keep their Court, without grief or treason: our Progress can plead no such privilege. We must glad our selves here with the intermission of woes, or interposition of joys: let that place above challenge and possess that immunity from disturbance, where eternity is the ground of the Music. Here, every day is sure of his night, if not of clouds at noon. Therefore mutet vi • am, qui vult accipere vitam ; let him change his life on earth, that looks for life in heaven.

Take the opportunity, which God's mercy hath offered thee. It is fit that God should have his day, when thine is past. Your salvation is now nearer then you believe it: but if you put away this acceptable time, your damnation is nearer, then you fear it. Mourne now for your sins, whiles your mourning may help you. Tha • , is the Mourners mark, yet the last letter of the Alphabet, for an vltimum vale to sin. Every soul shall mourn, either here with repentance, or hereafter in vengeance. They shall be oppressed with desperation, that have not expressed contrition. Herodotus hath a tale of the Pipe • , that coming to the River side, began to play to the fishes, to see if they would dance: when they were little affected with his music, he took his Net, and throwing it among them, caught some: which were no sooner cast on the dry ground, but they fell a leaping: to whom the Piper merrily replied, that since they had erst scorned his Music, they should now dance without a Pipe. Let it go for a fable. Christ saith to us, as once to the Jews; We have piped unto you, the sweet tunes of the Gospel, but ye would not dance in obedience: time will come, you shall run after us, as the Hind on the barren Mountains: but then you may dance without a Pipe, and leap Leuolto's in Hell, that have daunced the Devils Measures on Earth. This is the time, you shall har • lie lay the spirit of ruin, which your sins have rais • d. This World is a Witch, Sin her circle, Temptation her charm, Satan the spirit conjured up: Who comes not in more plausible forms at his first appa • ance, then shows ugly and terrible, when you would have him depart. Have nothing to do with the Spels of Sin, least you pull in Satan with one hand, whom with both you cannot cast out. The door is now open, Grace k • ockes at thy sleepy Conscience: Time runs by thee as a Lackie, the Agents of Nature prof • er their help. If all these concurrences do no good to purge thy soul, thou wilt at last dwell at the sign of the labor in vain, and at once be washed white with the Moore. For, if any will be unjust, let him be unjust: if he will be filthy, let him be filthy still. If any man will go into captivity, let him go. As he in the Comedy, abeat, pereat, profundat, perdat: let him sink, or swim, or scape as he can. God will renounce, whom he could not reclaim.

Lastly observe: there is Balm and Physicians ; what is the reason, saith God, that my Peoples health is not recovered? or as the Hebrew phrase is, gone up? The like is used in the second of the Chronicles, 24. where the healing of the breaches of Zion is specified. So the work-men wrought, and the work was perfected by them. Hebr. The healing went up upon the work. When a man is sick, he is in our usual phrase said to be cast down: His recovery is the raising him up again. Israel is cast down with a voluntary sickness; God sends her Physicians of his own, and Drugges from the Shop of Heaven; why is she not then revived, and her health gone up? Would you know, why Israel is not recovered by these helps? Run along with me, both with your understandings and self-applications, and I will show you the reasons, why God's Physic works not on her.

1. She knew not her own sickness. We say, the first step to health, is to know that we are sick. The disease being known, it is half cured. This is the difference betwixt a Fever & a Lethargy: the one angers the sense, but doth keep it quick, tender and sensible: the other obstupefies it. The Lethargiz'd is not less sick, because he complai • es not so loud as the Aguish. He is so much the nearer his own end, as he knows not that his disease is begun. Israel was sick and knew it not; or as Christ said of the Pharases, would not know it. There is no surer course for the devil to work his pleasure on men, then to keep them in ignorance. How easily doth that Thief rob and spoil the house of our souls, when he hath first put out the candle of knowledge? That tyrannical Nebuchadnezzar caries many a Zedekiah to his infernal Babel, when he hath put out his eyes. No meruaill, if the Gospel be hid to them that are hid to it: Whose minds the God of this world hath blinded, least the light of the glorious Gospel of God should shine to them. Who wonders, if the blind man cannot see the shining Sun? When Antiochus entered to the spoil of the Sanctuary, the first things he took away, were the golden Altar, and the Candle-stick of light. When the Devil comes to rifle God's spiritual temple, Mans soul, the first boot • e that he lays his sacrilegious hands on, are Sacrifice and Knowledge, the Alter and the Lamp. That subtle Falconer knows, that he could not so quietly carry us on his fist, without baiting and striving against him, if we were not hooded.

Thus wretched is it for a man not to see his wretchedness. Such a one spends his days in a dream; and goes from earth to hell, as Jonah • rom Israel toward Tarshish, fast asleep. This Paul calls the cauterized Conscience ; which when the Devil, an ill Surgeon, would do, he first casts his Patient into a mort • ferous sleep: And that all the noise which God makes, by his Ministers, by his menaces, by his judgments, might not waken him, Satan gives him some Opium, an ounce of Security, able to cast Sampson himself into a slumber: especially, when he may lay his voluptuous head on the lap of Delilah. Israel is, then, sick in sin, and yet thinks her self righteous. Every sin is not this sickness, but only wickedness; an habit and delight • ull custom in it. For as to a healthful man, every ach, or gripe or pang is felt grievous; whiles the sickly entertain them with no great notice, as being daily guests. So the good man finds his repentant heart griped with the least offense, whiles great sins to the wicked are no less portable then familiar. Neither doth their strength in sin grow weaker with their strength in age: but preposterously to nature, the older, the stronger. And as it is storied of Roman Milo, that being accustomed a Boy to bear a Calf, was able himself grown a man, to bear the same, being grown a Bull: So those, that in youth have wonted themselves to the load of less sins, want not increase of strength, according to the increase of their burdens. Every sin then may be a stitch or fit to the godly; but that which is mere sickness, is mere wickedness.

2. As Israel did not judge from the cause to the effects, so nor from the effects to the cause. For though she was now grievously pained and pined with misery, she • orgot to go down by the boughs to the root, and dignity out the ground of her calamity. Ill she was, and that at heart. God's sword from heaven had stroke their very flesh and sinews in several judgments: which came on them by short incursions, before God joined the main battle of his wrath. Israel cries out of her bow • ls, she is payned at the very heart. Her children went with clean teeth, lank cheeks, hollow and sunk eyes: Could she not guess at the cause of this bodily languishment? So Paul schooled his Corinthians: For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. There is no weakness, but originally proceeds from wickedness. As Mephibosh • th caught his l • m • nesse by falling from his Nurse, so everyone taketh his illness by falling from his Christ. Though sickness may be eventually a token of love, yet it is properly and originally a stroke of Justice. For every Disease God inflicts on us, is a Sermon from Heaven; whereby God preacheth to us, the vileness of our sins, and his wrathful displeasure for them. That those, whom God's vocal Sermons cannot move, his actual and real may pierce. Indeed, all things shall work to their good, that are good. And the rough Rocks of afflictions shall bring them (as Jonathan to the Garrison of the Philistines ) by fit stairs to glory. Miseries do often help a man to mercies. So the Leapers incurable Disease brought him to the Pysician of his soul; where he had both cured by one plaster, the saving word of Christ. A weak body is a kind of occasion to a strong faith. It was good for me, saith the Psalmist, that I was in trouble. It was good for Naaman, that he was a Leaper: this brought him to Elisha, and Elisha to GOD. It was good for Paul that he was buffeted by Satan. It is proverbially spoken of a grave Divine, that (as pride makes sores of Salues, so) Faith makes Salues of sores; and like a cunning Apothecary makes a Medicinal composition of some hurtful simples. Of all herbs in the Garden, only Rue is the herb of grace. And in what Garden, the rue of affliction is not, all the flowers of grace will be soon over-run with the weeds of impiety. David was a sinner in prosperity, a Saint in Purgatory. The afflicted soul drives vanity from his door. Prosperity is the Play-house, Adversity the Temple. Rarae fumant foelicibus arae: The healthie and wealthy man brings seldom Sacrifices to God's Altar. Israel's misery had been enough to help her recovery; if she had gathered and understood her vexation to God, by God's visitation on her; and guessed the souls state by the bodies. She did not: therefore her sickness abides. As Christ to the Pharisees: You say, you see: therefore be blind still.

3. As she did neither directly feel it, nor circumstantially collect it, so she never confessed it. Prima pars sanitatis est, velle sanari. The first entrance to our healing, is our own will to be healed. How shall Christ, either search our sins by the Law, or salve them by the Gospel, when we not acknowledge them? Ipse sibi denegat curam, • ui Medico non publicat causam. He hath no care of his own Cure, that will not tell the Pysician his grief. What spiritual Pysician shall recover our persons, when we will not discover our sores? Stultorum incurata pudor malus vlcera celat: Lay the guilt on yourselves, if you ranckle to death. It is heavy in thy friends ears, to hear thy groans, and sighs, and plaints forced by thy sick passion; but then sorrow pierceth deepest into their harts through their eyes, when they see thee grown speechless.

So, there is some hope of the sinner, whiles he can groan for his wickedness, and complain against it, and himself for it: but when his voice is hoar • 'd, I mean, his acknowledgement gone, his case is almost desperate. Confession of sins and sores is a notable help to their Curing. As Pride in all her Wardrobe hath not a better garment then humility (many clad with that was respected in the eyes of God.) So, nor humillity in all her storehouse, hath better food then Confession. Dum agnoscit reus, ignoscit Deus. Whiles the unjust sinner repents and confesseth, the just God relents and forgiveth. The confident Pharisee goes from God's door without an Alms: what need the full be bidden to a Feast? tolle vulnera, tolle opus medici. It is fearful for a man to bind two sins together, when he is not able to bear the load of one. To act wickedness, and then to cloak it, is for a man to wound himself, and then go to the Devil for a plaster. What man doth conceal, God will not cancel. Iniquities strangled in silence, will strangle the soul in heaviness.

There are three degrees of felicity. 1. non of • endere. 2. noscere. 3. agnoscere peccata. The first is, not sin: the second, to know: the third, to acknowledge our offenses. Let us then honor him by Confession, whom we have dishonored by presumption. Though we have failed in the first part of Religion, an upright life, let us not fail in the second, a repentant acknowledgement. Though we cannot show GOD, with the Pharisee, an Inventory of our holy works: Item for praying: Item for fasting: Item for paying Tythes, &c. Yet (as dumb as we are and fearful to speak) we can write (with Zachaay. His name is John.) Grace, grace, and only grace. Meritum meum misericordia tua Domine. My merit, oh Lord, is only thy mercy. Or as another sung well.

Peccatum argumentum soporis, confessio animae suscitatae. Sinfulness is a sleep, Confession a sign that we are waked. Men dream in their sleeps, but tell their dreams waking. In our sleep of security, we lead a dreaming life, full of vile imaginations. But if we confess and speak our sins to God's glory, and our own shame, it is a token that God's spirit hath wakened us. Si non confessus lates, inconfessus damnaberis. The way to hide our iniquities at the last, is to lay them open here. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but he that confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Thi • is true, though to some a Paradox. The way to cover our sins, is to uncover them. Quae aperiuntur in praesenti, operiu • tur in vltimo die. If we now freely lay open our iniquities to our God, he will conceal them at the latter day. Else (cruci • nt plus vulnera cla • sa) Sins that are smothered, will in the end • ester to death. The mouth of Hell is made open to devour us by our sins; when we open our own mouths to confess, we shut that. Israel is not then restored, because her sickness is not declared.

4. The last defect to Israel's Cure, is the want of application. What should a sick man do with Physic, when he lets it fust in a vessel, or spils it on the ground. It is ill for a man to mispose that to loss, which God hath disposed to his good. Beloved? Application is the sweet use to be made of all Sermons. In vain to you are our Ministries of God's mysteries, when you open not the doors of your hearts to let them in. In vain we smite your rocky hearts, when you pour out no floods of tears. In vain we thunder against your sins, covetous oppres • ions of men, treasonable Rebellions against God; when no man says, Master is it I? Quod omnibus dicitur, nemini dicitur? Is that spoken to no man, which is spoken to all men? Whiles Covetousness is taxed, not one of twenty Churls lays his finger on his own sore. Whiles Lust is condemned, what Adulterer feels the pulse of his own conscience? Whiles Malice is inquired of in the Pulpit, there is not a N • b •• ish neighbor in the Church will own it. It is our common armor against the sword of the spirit; It is not to me he s • eakes. For which, God at last gives them an answerable plague: they shall as desperate • lie put from them all the comforts of the Gospel, as they have presumptuously rejected all the precepts of the Law. They that would particularise no admonition to themselves, nor take one grain out of the whole heap of Doctrines for their own use: shall at last with as invincible forwardness, bespeak themselves every curse in the sacred volume.

Thus easy and ordinary is it for men, to be others Physicians, rather then their own: Statesmen in foreign Common-wealths, not looking into their own doors: sometimes putting on Aaron's Robes, and teaching him to teach: and often scalding their lips in their Neighbors Pottage. They can weed other Gardens, whiles their own is over-run with Nettles. Like that too obsequious Roman Soldier, that digged a fountain for Caesar, and perished himself in a voluntary thirst. But Charity begins at home, and he that loves not his own soul, I will hardly trust him with mine. The Usurer blames his Son • es pride, sees not his own extortion. And whiles the hypocrite is helping the dissolute out of the mire, he sticks in deeper himself. The Pharisees are on the Disciples Iacket, for eating with unwashen hands, whiles themselves are not blame-worthy, that eat with unwashen hearts. No marvel, if when we fixe both our eyes on others wants, we lack a third to see our own. If two blind men rush one upon another in the way, either complains of others blindness, neither of his own. Thus, like mannerly guests, when a good morsel is carved to us, we lay it liberally on another's trencher, and fast our selves. How much better were it for us, to feed on our own portion?

Go back, go back, thou foolish sinner: turn in to thine own house, and stray not with Dinah, till thou be ravished. Consider your ways in your hearts. If thou findest not work enough to do at home, in cleansing thy own heart, come forth then and help thy Neighbors. Whosoever you are, sit not like lookers on at God's Mart; but having good wares profferd you, and that so cheap, grace, peace, and remission of sins for nothing, take it, and bless his name that gives it. Receive with no less thankfulness the Physic of admonition, he sends you: apply it carefully: if it do not work on your souls effectually, there is nothing left, that may do you good. The word of God is powerful as his own Majesty: and shall never return back to himself again, without speeding the Commission it went for. Apply it then to your souls in faith and repentance, least God apply it in fear and vengeance. Lord, open our hearts with the key of Grace, that thy holy word may enter in, to reign in us in this world, and to save us in the world to come. Amen.

THE Sinners Passing-Bell. OR Physic from Heaven. The sixth Sermon.

T He Allegory is Tripartite, and propounds to our considerations 1. What is the Balm, 2. Who are the Physicians, 3. Who are the sick. The Balm is the Word The Physicians are the Ministers. The Sick are the Sinners. For the first.

The Balsam -Tree is a little shrub, never growing past the height of two Cubites, and spreading like a Vine. The Tree is of an Ash-color, the boughs small and tender, the leaves are like to Rew.

Isidore thus distinguisheth it. The Tree is called Basamum, the Roote orilo-Balsamum, the Branches Xylo-Balsamum, the Seed carpo-Balsamum, the Juice opo-Bal • amum.

Pliny saith, the Tree is all medicinal: the chief and prime virtue is in the Juice: the second in the Seed: the third in the Rinde: the last and weakest in the Stock. It comforts both by tasting and smelling. It is most commonly distinguished by Physicians into Lignum, Semen, L • quorem, the Wood, the Seed, and the Juice. This is the nature of the Balsamum.

This holy Word is here called Balm : and (si fas sit magnis componere parua) if we may compare heavenly with earthly, spiritual with natural things, they agree in many resemblances. The vn-erring Wisdom of Heaven hath given this comparison. There is no fear to build on God's ground: whiles the Analogy of Faith limits us. It is the Builders first and principal care to choose a sure foundation. The rotten, moorish, quick-sandy grounds, that some have • et their edifices on, have failed their hopes, and destituted their intents. How many worthy wits have spent their times and studies, to daub up the • ilthy walls of Rome with untempered mortar ! How well had they hunted, if they had not mistaken their game! How rich apparel have they woven for a Babylonish Harlot! How well had they sailed, if Rome had not guided their Compass! But every man's work shall be made manifest. For the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. Happy is he, that hath a rock for his ground, that no gusts, storms, winds, waves may over-turn his house. Though other foundation none can lay, then that is laid, which is Jesus Christ ; yet blessed is he, that 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , hath built safely upon this ground.

God hath here laid my ground; I will be hold to build my speech on that, whereon I build my faith. Only sobriety shall be my bounds. We may call God's word, that Balm tree, whereon the fruit of life grows. A tree that heals, a tree that helps. A tree of both medicament, and nutriment. Like the Tree of life, which bears twelve manner of fruits, and yieldeth her fruit every month. Neither is the fruit only nourishing, but even the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the Nations. Now though the Balm here, whereunto the Word is compared, is more generally taken for the juice, now fitted and ready for application; yet without pinching the Metaphor, or restraining the liberty of it, I see not why, it may not so be likened, both for general and particular properties. It is not enough to say this, but to show it. Let me say it now, show it anon. For the Balm, you have the Tree, the Seed, the Iuice. God's Word will (not unfitly) parallel it in resemblances, transcend it in effectual properties.

The Tree it self is the Word. We find the eternal Word so compared. I am the true Vine, and my Father is the Husbandman. He is a Tree, but arbor inuersa: the root of this tree is in Heaven. It was once made • lesh, and dwelt amongst us (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father) full of grace and truth. Now he is in Heaven. Only this Word still speaks unto us by his word: the word incarnate by the word written ; made sounding in the mouth of his Ministers. This word of His, is compared and expressed by many Metaphores: to leaven for seasoning: to honey for sweetening: to the hammer for breaking the stony heart Is not my Word like as a fire, saith the Lord? and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? To a sword, that cuts both ways. The word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper then a two-edged sword, &c. Another sword can but enter the flesh and pierce the bones, or at most divide the soul and the body; but this the soul and the spirit, where no other sword can come, no not the Cherubims sierie sword, that kept the passage of Paradise.

It is here a Tree, a Balm -tree, a saluing, a saving tree. Albumasar saith, that the more medicinal a plant is, the less it nourisheth. But this Tree (reddit aegrotum sanum, sanum vero santorem) makes a sick soul sound, and a whole one sounder. It is not only Physic when men be sick, but meat when they be whole. Triacle to expel, preservatives to prevent poison. It is not only a sword to beat back our common enemy, but a Bulwark to hinder his approach.

It carries a seed with it, Carpo-bal • amum ; an immortal and incorruptible seed, which concurs to the begetting of a new man, the old rotting and dying away: for it hath power of both, to mortif • e and dead the • lesh, to revive and quicken the spirit. That seed, which the sower went out to sow. Happy is the good ground of the heart that receives it. That little Mustard-seed, which spr • ads up into branches, able to give the fowls of heaven harbor. Dis • rim • n hoc inter op • ra Dei et Mundi. This difference is betwixt the works of God and of the World. The works of the world have great and swelling Entrances, but, malo sine clauduntur, they halt in the conclusion. The works of God, from a most slender beginning have a most glorious issue. The word is at first a little seed ; how powerful, how plentiful are the effects? how manifold, how manifest are the operations of it; casting down the highest things, that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God; and captiuating every thought to the obedience of Christ.

The juice is no less powerful to mollify the stony heart, and make it tender and soft, as a heart of flesh. The seed convinceth the understanding: the Juice mollifieth the affections. All is excellent; but still conspicuum minùs, quod maxim est praeclarum, the root that yields this seed, this juice, is the power of God. A tree hath manifest to the eye, leaves, and flowers, and fruits, but the root (most precious) lies hidden. In man the body is seen, not the purer and better part of him, his soul. The Kings daughter, though her clothing be of wrought gold, is most glorious within. In all things we see the accidents, not the form, not the substance. There are but few, that rightly taste the seed, and the juice ; but who hath comprehended the root of this Balm?

The Balsam is a little tree, but it spreads beyond a Vine. The virtue of it, in all respects, is full of dilatation. It spreads 1. largely for shadow. 2. pregnantly for fruit. 3. all this from a small beginning. So that we may say of it, as the Church of her Savior. As the apple tree among the trees of the wood, so is my Beloved among the Sons. I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.

It spreads. No sharp frosts, nor nipping blasts, nor chilling airs, nor drisling sleete, can mar the beauty or enervate the virtue of this spiritual Tree. The more it is stopped, the further it groweth. Many interdictions rung peals of menaces in the Apostles ears, that they should speak no more in the name and word of Christ: they did all rather like Bells toll them into the Church, to preach it more fervently. The Princes of the Nations would have hedged it in with their prohibitions: but the Word of Heaven, and edict of God's spiritual Court of glory, scorned the Prohibitions given by their temporal or temporary Laws. They might easier have hedged in the wind, or pounded the Eagle.

The Jews would have cut down this Tree at the root: the Gentiles would have lopped off the branches. They stroke at Christ, these at his Ministers: both struck short. If they killed the Messenger, they could not reach the message. The blood of the Martyrs, spilled at the root of this tree, did (as it were) make it spread more patently. There never died Preacher for Christ his cause, but almost every ash of his burned flesh, bred a Christian. The old Foxes of Rome, that had caliditatis paululum, calliditatis plurimum, little warmth in their bloods, great subtlety in their pates, studied, plotted, acted, by cares, stratagem • , engines, to give a fatal, final subversion to the Gospel: yet they lived to see it flourish, and because it flourished, died, fretting themselves to dust. So, let thine enemies perish, oh Lord, and burst their malicious bowels, that have evil will at Zion, and despite this Balm.

It grew maugre all the adverse blasts and floods, which the billows of earth, or bellows of Hell could blow or pour out against it. Let them loose a Barabbas from prison, whiles they shut a Barnabas in prison: let them give Demetrius liberty, whiles they shackle Paul ; and at once, burn the professors, and reward the persecutors of the Word: behold (for all this) this Balm flourisheth, and sends forth his saving odors. The Philistines shut up Sampson in the City Gaza: they bar the gates, watch and guard the passages, and are ready to study for the manner of his death. The Jews shut up Christ in the grave, they bar it, they seal it, they guard it; sure enough thinks the Jew, hopes the Devil, to keep him fast. The Gentiles shut the Apostles in prison, chain them, beat them, threat them with worse, that had felt already their bad usage: now they clap their hands at the presumed fall of the Gospel. Behold, Sampson carries away the gates of Gaza; Christ the bands of death; the Word the bars of the prison.

What shall I say? still this Balm flourisheth. Viuit, viget, liber est, supra hominem est. As Joseph (incipit a vinculis ferreis, finite ad torquem aureum) begins at iron, ends at golden chains: so this Balsam, the more it is struck at with the cudgels of reproach and persecution, the faster, the fuller, the further it groweth. It is like the Vine for this virtue; only the Vine (but only) nourisheth: the Balm both nourisheth the good, and expelleth the evil, that is in man. These two are God's trees. When every God, saith the Poet, chose his several tree; Jupiter the long-lived Oak; Neptune the tall Cedar, Apollo the green Laurell, Venus the white Poplar; Pallas (whom the Poets fain, to be borne of Jupiter's brain, and Mythologists interpret Wisdom ) chose the Vine. Our true and only God, that oweth all, hath more especially chosen the Vine and the Balm, one for preservation, the other for restauration of our health. Only the Balm hath both elemental Physic, and alimentall virtue in it.

As it gives boughs spaciously, so fruit pregnantly, plentifully. The graces of God hang upon this tree in clusters. My beloved is unto me as a cluster of Camphire in the Vineyards of Engedi. No hungry soul shall go away from this tree unsatisfied.

It is an effectual word, never failing of intended success. What God's word affirms, his truth performs, whither it be judgment or mercy. Nec verbum ab intention quia veritas, nec factum à verbo quia virtus. His word differs not from his intent, because he is truth: nor his deed from his word, because he is virtue. What he intends he declares, or rather what he declares he intends, he is just: and what he declares and intends, he performs; he is powerful. This is that Delphian sword, that universal instrument, whereby he made, whereby he supports the world. It is not a fruitless and ineffectual word, as man's. Propter nostrum dicere et velle, nihil in re mutatur, saith the Philosopher. Our speaking or willing puts no change into any subject. A man is starved with cold, famished with hunger; we advise him to the fire, to repast: is he ever the fuller or fatter for our word? Not, unless like a Chameleon, he can live by air. But God's word is fruitful, it feeds. Man lives not by bread only, but by God's word. Our word and will is like an Idols power: God's volo is sufficient. Voluntas eius, potestas eius. His will is his power. One fiat of his was able to make that was not, but had else line in everlasting informitie; to constitute nature when it is not, to confirm or change nature when it is. When GOD was in the flesh, and went about doing good, a faithful Centurion, for his servant so desperately sick, desired not the travel of his feet, nor a dram of his Physic, nor so much as the imposition of his hands, but dic verbum tantum: Lord say the word only, and my servant shall be healed. This word is so effectual, that it shall never fail of the purpose it first was sped for. The Sun and Moon shall fail in their motions, day and night in their courses, the earth totter on her props, Nature it self shall apostate to confusion, before God's word fall away vnaccomplished; whither he d • spenseth it to affect man's heart, or disposeth it to effect his will. Of so powerful efficacy is that word, which the world despiseth.

As this Balm spreads patently for shadow, potently for fruit, so all this ar • seth from a little seed. God's smallest springs prove at length main Oceans. His least beginnings grow into great works, great wonders. How stately th • world begins, how lame it is at last? The Tower of Babe • l is begun, as if it scorned Heaven, and scared Earth; how easy a stratagem from God overthrows it, though he never laid finger to it! Nebuchadnezzar begins with, who is God? and anon scarce reserves to himself the visible difference from a beast. Another Nebuchadnezzar exterminates all God's from the earth, that himself might reign (solus Deus in solio, who was rather Daemon in folio) only God: behold a silly woman overthrows him in his great Holophernes. With such proud entrances doth the world begin his Scaenes ; with such ridiculous shame do they lagge off. Our God from small beginnings, raiseth mountains of meruailes to us, of praises to himself. Even Joseph, that is in prison, shall ride in the second Chariot of Egypt. Drowning Moses shall come to countermaund a Monarch. Christ, that was buried in a grave, shall bruise the nations, and break them with a rod of iron. Peter a Fisher shall catch whole Countries. A little Balm heal a world of people.

Well, it spreads; let us get under the shadow of the branches. Happy and cool refreshing shall the soul scorched with sins and sorrows find there. Never was shade more welcome to the sweltred Traveler, then this word is to the afflicted conscience.

It is fructuall: let it be so to us in operation. It gives us the fruits of life, let us return it the fruits of obedience. God's word is significative to all, operative to his.

It is a powerful voice, whither it give life, or kill. Man and Music have (virtutem vocis) the power of voice: God only reserves to himself (vocem virtutis) the voice of power. Loe he doth send out his voice, and that a mighty voice. Ascribe ye strength unto God. I might speak of his thunders in Sinai ; but I turn to the Songs of Zion, the sweet voice of his Gospel, whereof I am an (unworthy) Minister: t •• voice that speaks Christ and his death, Christ and his life, Christ and his salvation. He that was anointed pro consortibus, and pr • consortibus, for his fellows, and above his fellows. Who is the way, the truth, and the life. Via sine deuio, veritas sine nubilo, vita sine termino. The way without error, the truth without darkness, the life without end. Via in exilio, veritas in consilio, vita in praemio. The way in exile, the truth in counsel, the life in reward. Oh whi • her shall we go from thee? Lord, thou hast the words of eternal life. All the word calls us to Christ. Post me, per me, ad me. Aster me, by me, to me. After me, because I am truth: by me, because I am the way: to me, because I am life. Qua vis ire? Ego sum via. Quo vis ire? Ego sum veritas. Vbi vis perman • re? Ego sum vita, How wilt thou go? I am the way. Whither wilt thou go? I am the truth. Where wilt thou abide? I am the life.

Now, there is no action without motion, no motion without will, no will without knowledge, no knowledge without hearing. Ignoti nulla cupido. There is no affection to unknown objects. God must then by this word call us to himself. Let us come when and whiles he calls us; leaving our former evil loves and evil lives: (for mali amor • s make malos mores, saith Saint Augustine. Bad affects produce bad effects.) And let us show the power of this Balm in our confirmed healths. Solummodo been conuersus est, qui been conversatus est: A good conversion is proved by a good conversation. Perhaps these effects in all, may not be alike in quantity, let them be in quallitie. God hath a liberal, not an equal hand: and gives geometrically, by proportion, not arithmetically, to all alike. Only magis & minus non tollit substantiam: the dimensions of greater or less do not annihilate the substance. Our Faith may be precious, nay like precious, though less and weaker. Sanctification admits degrees, Justification no latitude. Luther saith, we are as holy as Mary the Virgin, not in life, which, is active holiness, but in grace of adoption, which is passive holiness. Come we then faithfully to this Balm ; so shall we b • safe under the shadow, and filled with the fruits thereof. Thus in general: let us now search for some more special concurrences of the Simillitude.

1. The leaves of the Balsam are white: the word of God is pure and spotless. Peter saith, there is sincerity in it. Perfection it self was the finger th • t wrote it: neither could the instrumental pens blot it with any corruption: the Spirit of Grace giving inspiration, instruction, limitation: that they might say with Paul, Quod accepi a Domino, tradidi vobis: I received of the Lord, that which I delivered to you ; neither more nor less, but just weight. It is pure as Gold fined in a seven-fold furnace. Every word of God is pure, saith Solomon. There is no breath or steam of sin to infect it. The Sun is darkness to it: the very Angels are short of it. It is white, immaculate, and so vnblemishable, that the very mouth of the Devil could not sully it. Even the known Father of lies thought to disparage the credit of the Scriptures, by taking them into his mouth; he could not do it. They are too unchangeably white, to receive the aspersion of any spot.

2. The Balsam, say the Physicians, is gustu mordax & acr • , sharp and biting in the taste, but wholesome in digestion. The holy word is no otherwise to the v • regenerate palate, but to the sanctified soul it is sweeter then the honey-comb. The Church saith his fruit is sweet unto my taste. It is Folly to the Jews, and a stumbling block to the Gentiles: but to the called both of Jews and Gentiles, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Saluberrimararo • ucundissima: Rellish and goodness are not ever of the same congruence. The Gospel is like leaven, sour to the natural spirit, yet makes him fit for (holy) bread. It is said of the Leaven, to which Christ compares the Word, that • assam acrore grato excitat, it puts into the lump a savory sourness. It is acror, but gratus, sharp, but acceptable. The Word may relish bitter to many, but is wholesome. There cannot be sharper pills given to the Usurer, then to cast up his unjust g • ines. The Potion that must scour the Adulterers reins, makes him very sick. He that will let the proud man's Plurisie blood, must needs prick him. To bridle the voluptuous beast, will make him stamp and fret. All correction to our corruption r • nnes against the grain of our affections. He that would bring Mammon to the bar, and arraign him, shall have Judge, Jury, sitters and standers, a whole Court and Sessions against him. These s • nnes are as hardly parted with of t • e owners, as the Eye, Hand, or Foot, necessary and ill-spared members. Forbid the Courtly Herod of his Herodias: the Noble Naaman of his Rimmon: the gallant Sampson of his Delilah: the City- Dives of his quotidian feast: the Country- Nabal of his churlishness: the rusticall Gergesites of their hoggishnesse: the Popish Laban of his li • tle God's: the Ahabish Landlord of his enclosings: and you give them bitter Almonds, that will not digest with them; like the queasy Mass-Priest, whose God would not stay in his stomach. But let God work the heart with the preparatives of his preventing Grace, and then this Balm will have a sweet and pleasing savor.

There are too many, that will not open their lips to taste of this Balm ; not their ears to hear the Word. But as one mocks the Popish-Priest celebrating the Mass, (who useth one trick amongst other histrionical gestures, of stopping his ears) that he doth it least he should hear the crackling of his Saviors bones.

So these become voluntarily deaf Adders, and will not hear Christ crucified, the preaching of the cross of Christ, as Paul calls it; which is able to kill our sins, and quicken our souls. I have read it reported, that the Adders in the East and those hot Countries, did so subtly evade the Charmers, thus. When she hears the Pipe, she will couch one ear close to the ground, and cover the other with her tail. So do worldlings: they fill one ear with earth, as much cou • tous dirt as they can cram into it: the other ear they close up with their lewd l • sts, as the Adder with her winding tail: that they have none left for their God, for their good. And being thus deaf to holy and heavenly incantations, they are easily by Satan oue • -reached, over-ruled, over-thrown.

So unwieldy is Christ's yoke to the raging Mule: so heavy his burden to the reluctant horse: so hard his Law to the carnal Capernaite: so sour his Balm to the wicked palate. (Though to the godly his yoke is easy, and his burden light.) Woe unto them, for they call sweet sour, God's Balm distasteful; and sour sweet, the worlds Boleno savory. They are not more propitious to vice, then malicious to goodness. For others, they love a Barabbas better then a Barnabas. For themselves, everyone had rather be a Dives, then a Diuus: a rich sinner, then a poor Saint. No marvel, if the blind man cannot judge of colors, nor the deaf distinguish sounds, nor the sick relish meats. God's word is sweet, how ever they judge it: and their hearts are sour, how ever they will not think it. My ways are equal, but your ways are unequal, saith the Lord of hosts.

3. They write of the Balsamum, that the manner of getting out the juice, is by wounding the tree. Sanciata arbor praebet opobalsamum. Provided, that they cut no further then the •• nde: for if the wound extends to the body of the tree, it bleeds to death. I have read no less of Vines, that unjustly pruin'd, they bleed away their lives with their sappes. The issuing Balm is called opobalsamum ; as some from the Greek opo, which signifies a Den; or rather of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Juice. A treble lesson here invites our observation.

1. The Balsam tree weeps out a kind of gum, like tears: the word of God doth compassionately bemoan • our sins. Christ wept not only tears for Jerusalem, but blood for the world. His wounds gush out like fountains, and every drop is blood. Ecce in lachrimis, in sanguine locutus est mundo. His whole life was a continual mourning for our sins. Nunquam ridere dictus, flere saepissime. He may adjure us to repentance and obedience, by more forcible arguments, then ever Dido used to Aeneas: Ego vos per has lachrymas, per hos gemitus, per haec vulnera, per corpus sanguine mersum. I entreat you by tears, by groans, by wounds, by a body (as it were) drowned in it own blood: by all these mercies of Christ, whereby we do not only persuade you of our selves, but God doth beseech you through us. If those tears, sighs, wounds, blood, move not our consciences, we have impenetrable souls. If the heart-blood of Christ cannot make thy heart to relent, and thy feet to tremble, when thy concupiscence sends them on some wicked errand; thy hands, tongue, and all parts and powers of thee to forget their office, when thou wouldst sin obstinately; thou art in a desperate case. These were the tears of this Balm tree. The word doth in many places, as it were, weep for our sins, panting out the grievance of a compassionate God. Why will ye die, oh you house of Israel? What Prophet hath written without sorrow? One of them Threnos suspirat, sighs out a book of Lamentations ; which Greg. Nazianzen saith, (Nunquam à se siccis oculis lectos esse) that he could never read with dry eyes. The other Prophets also, like Quails, curas hominum gesserunt, took on them the burden of many men's sorrows. Cyprian had so compassionate a sympathy of others evil deeds, evil sufferings, that (cum singulis pectus meum copulo, cum plangentibus plango, saith he) I join my breast with others, and challenge a partnership in their griefs. A Minister, saith Chrysostom, debet esse lugens sua et aliena delicta ; should be still lamenting his own sins, and the sins of his people. Monachus est plangentis officium. The office of a Minister, is the office of a Mourner. All these are but as Canes, to derive to our observation the tears of this Balm.

2. The way to get out the juice of Balm from God's word, is by cutting it: skillful division of it, which S. Paul calls 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , rightly dividing the word of truth. It is true that God's word is, panis vitae, the bread of life: but whiles it is in the whole loaf, many cannot help themselves: it is needful for children to have it cut to them in pieces. Though the Spice unbroken be sweet and excellent, yet doth it then treble the savor in delicacy, when it is pounded in a Morter. All the Balm -tree is medicinal, yet the effectual working is better helped, by cutting the stock, by taking out the juice, and by distributing to every man a portion, according to the proportion of his wants. With no less heedfulness must the word be divided; that some may receive it gentle and mollifying, and others as a sharper ingredient. As there is a double composition in men, pride and humillitie: so there must be a double disposition in preaching the word, of meekness, of terror. Aaron's Bells must be wisely rung: sometimes the Trebble of Mercy ; sometimes the Tenour of Judgment ; sometimes the Counter-tenor of Reproose ; and often the Mean of Exhortation. There is no less discretion required to application, then to explication. As Physicians prescribe their Medicines by drammes or ounces, according to the Patients strength or weakness. So Divines must feed some with milk, others with stronger meat. The learned should have deeper points, the simple plainer principles. How easy is it for many a weak stomach to surfeit even on the food of life! (though the fault lies not in any superfluity of the word, but in the deficiency of his understanding.) The absence of sobriety in the speaker is more intolerable then in the hearer. The people must take such meat as their Cooks dress to them. Let none of Eli's Sons slubber up the Lord's Sacrifice or Service. Let not good Balm be mar'd by a fustie vessel. Seasonable discretion must attend upon sound knowledge. Wisdom without Wit is meat without salt: W • t without W • sedome is salt without meat. Some Wells are so deep, that a man can draw no water out of them; these bury their gifts in the grave of sullen silence. Some are shallow pits, that run so long open mouth, till their Springs are quite dry: whiles they w • l be prius Doctors, quam discipuli, Masters that never were Scholars; and leap into Paul's Chair, when they never sat at the feet of Gamaliel. There must be therefore Wisdom both in the Dispensers & hearers of God's mysteries; in the former to distribute, in the other to apportion their due and fit share of this Balm.

3. The Balsam tree being wounded too deep dies: the word of G0D cannot be marred, it may be martyred, and forced to suffer injurious interpretations. The Papists have made, and called, the Scriptures a • ose of wax; and they wring this Nose so hard, that as Solomon says, they force out blood. As Christ once, so his word often is crucified between two Thieves; the Papist on the left hand, the Schismatic on the right. These would ravish the virgin-pureness of the Gospel, and adulterate the beauty of it. They cannot cut, except they cut a pieces; nor distinguish, but they must extinguish. They divide fair, but they leave the Quotient empty. They subdiuide, till they bring all to nothing but fractions, but factions. We may observe, that among these, there are as few vnifici in the Church, as Munisici in the Common-wealth. They are commonly most miserable men of their purses, most prodigal of their opinions. They divide the Word too plentifully to their turbulent Auditors: they divide their goods too sparingly to poor Christians. There are too many of such ill Logicians, that divide all things, define nothing. As a moderne Poet well:

These pierce the Balm too deep; not to strain out Juice, but blood; and, in what they are able, to kill it.

4. When the Balsam is cut, they use to set Vials in the Dennes, to receive the Juice or sap. When the word is divided by preaching, the people should bring Vials with them, to gather this saving Balm. These Vials are our ears, which should couch close to the Pulpit, that this intrinsique Balm may not be spilled besides. How many Sermons are lost, whiles you bring not with you the vessels of attention We cut and divide, and sluice out Rivers of saving health from this Tree, but all runs besides, and so your health is not recovered. You come frequently to the Wells of Life, but you bring no Pitchers with you. You cry on us for store of Preaching, and call us idle Drones, if we go not double journey every Sabaoth, but still you go home with vnfallowed, with unhallowed hearts. Our Gilead affords you Balm enough, yet you have sickly souls. You hear to hear, and to feed either your humors, or your opinions, or your hypocrisies. You shall hear a puffed Ananias cry, Alas, for his non-preaching Minister; if, at least, he forbears his snarling and currish invectives of dumb dog, &c. When, alas, let many Apostles come, with the holy coniuration of Prayer and Preaching, yet they cannot cast out the deaf Devil in many of them. They blame our dumb Dogs, not their own deaf Devils. They would seem to cure us, that are sent to cure them, if at least they would be cured. We would have cured Babel ; nay we would have cured Bethel, but she would not be cured.

It will be said, that most hearers bring with them the Vials of attention: yield it; yet for the most part, they are either without mouths, or without bottoms. Without mouths to let in one drop of this Balm of Grace : or without bottoms, that when we have put it in, and look to see it again in your lives, behold it is run through you, as water through a sieue, and scarce leaves any wet behind it. And (to speak impartially) many of you, that have Vials with bottoms, ears of attention with hearts of retention, and the ground of remembrance, yet they are so narrow at the top, that they are not capable but of drop by drop. Think not yourselves so able to receive at the ear, and conceive at the heart, innumerable things at once. You are not broad glasses, but narrow-necked Vials ; and then best receive this Balm of life, when it is stilled from the Lymbecke of Preaching with a soft fire, and a gentle pouring in. So saith the Prophet, Line must be added to line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little. When a great vessel pours liquor into a strait-mouthed Vial, the source must be small and sparing, fit to the capacity of the receiver: that in time it may be filled. It is often seen, that when this juice comes with too full and frequent a stream, almost all runs besides. I do not speak this (vel prohibendi, vel cohibendi animo) to curb the forwardness of godly Ministers, or persuade the rarity of Sermons. God still of his mercy, multiply laborers into (and labors in) his harvest. But to correct your obstreperous clamours against us: no • to chill the heat of your zealous hearing, but to inkindle the fire of your conscionable obeying. Do not stand so much upon Sacrifice, that you forget Mercy. Be not so angry for want of two or three Sermons in a week, when you will not obey the least Doctrine of one in a month. You bless your Samuel's in the name of the Lord, with protestation of your obedience to the will of the Lord: we reply; what means then the bleating of the Sheep, and the lowing of the Oxen in our ears? the loud noise of your Oaths, Injuries, Oppressions, Frauds, Circumventions? You come with books in your hands, but with no book for God's Spirit to write obedience in. A Bible under the arm, with many, is but like a Rule at ones back, whiles all his actions are out of square. The History of the Bible is carried away easier then the mystery.

Philosophy saith, that there is no vacuit • e: no vessel is empty; if of water, or other such liquid and material substances, yet not of air. So perhaps you bring hither Vials to receive this B • lme of Grace, and carry them away full, but only full of wind, a vast, incircumscrib'd, and swimming knowledge is in some a motion, a notion, a mere implicit and confused tenencie of many things; which lie like Corn, loose on the floor of their brains. How rar • is it to see a Vial carried from the Church full of Balm, a Conscience of Grace ▪ I know there are many names in our Sard • : I speak not to dishearten any, but to encourage all. Only would to God, we would show less, and do more, of goodness. Yet show freely, if you do godly. I reprehend not showing, but not doing. We preach not to your flesh, but to your spirits: neither is this Balm for the ear, but for the soul. Therefore I sum up this observation with a Father. Quantum vas fidei capacis afferimus, tantum gratiae inundantis haurimus: Look, how capacious a vessel of Faith we bring with us to the Temple, so much of this gracious and flowing Balm of life we receive. Consider that this Balm is animae languentis medicina, the Physic for a sick soul. Come to it, like Patients, that desire to be cured. Quidam veniunt vt noua per quirant, & haec curiositas est, quidam vt sciantur, & haec vanitas est: They abuse this word, that search it only for news, and this is curiosity; or to get themselves a name, and this is vanity: or to sell the truth, and this is Simony: or to jest on it, and this is Epicureanism: or to confute it, and this is Atheism.

You do well condemn, first, them that prefer Machiavelli to Moses; Ishmael's scoffs to Jeremiah's tears; Jericho to Jerusalem, the tower of Babel to the gates of Bethel : or secondly, those that put away the Ministry as a superfluous Office; and think they know enough to save themselves.

They will be their own captains and their own soldiers, and without calling the assistance of man or Angel, Prophet or Apostle, they will band • with the Devil and all his army, hand to hand: or thirdly, those that, like the Collier, dance in a circular measure, and hang all their Faith on the hooks of others belief: exercising all their religion by an exorcising Mass: whiles they count the Old and New Testaments books of controversy, and that it is peremptory sacrilege to meddle with the scriptures. You do well to abhor these dotages: but still look, that all be well at home. Love the Word ; and that with an appetite. Beati esurientes: Blessed are they th • t hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. But as you have love to it, so live by it. Non scholae, sed vitae discendum: We learn, not only to know good, but to live well, Audiatis vt sciatis (saith Saint Bernard) sciatis vt aedi • icemini, et hoc integritas est: vt aedisicetis, et hoc Charitas est. Hear to know, know to edify yourselves; this is integrity: to edify others; this is Charity. Bring then to this Balm, vials of sincerity, not of hypocrisy; least God fill them with the vials of his indignation. It is not enough to have ears, but ears to hear. Idle Auditors are like Idol God's, which have members not for use but show: like glass w • ndowes upon stone-walls, to give ornament, not to receive light.

5. The Balsam tree was granted sometimes to one only people, Judea ; as Pliny testifies. It was thence derived to other Nations. Who, that is a Christian, doth not know and confess the appropriation of this spiritual Balm, once to that only Nation? He showeth his word unto Jacob; his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt so with any Nation: and as for his Judgments, they have not known them. Now, as their earthly Balm was by their civil Merchants transported to other Nations: so when this heavenly Balm was given to any Gentile, a Merchant of their own, a Prophet of Israel, carried it. Nineveh could not have it without a Jonah. Nor Babylon without some Daniel's. And though Paul and the Apostles had a Commission from Christ, to preach the Gospel to all Nations, yet observe how they take their leave of the Jews. It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you▪ but seeing you put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, loe, we turn to the Gentiles. Other Lands might brag of their natural and national benefits: only Jury of both the Balms. Non omnis fert omnia tellus. Nihil est ex omni parte beatum.

Hiram had store of Timber, Moab of Sheep, Ophir was famous for gold, Chittim for Iuorie, Basan for Oaks, Lebanon for Cedars; Flascon had the best Wines, Athens the best Honey, Persia the best Oil, Babylon the best Corn, Tyr • the best Purple, Tharsis the best Ships: the West Indies for Gold, the East for Spices: but of all, Jury bore the Palme, for bearing the Balm. Such grace had Israel for the temporal, much more for the spiritual Balm : that all Nations might make low courtesy to her, as the Queen of the Provinces, and be beholding to her, for the crumbs that fell from her Table; as the Syrophaenician desired of Christ. Yet she, that transcended all in her blessings, de • cended lower then all in her disobedience. And as she lift up her head, and gloried in her special privileges; so she might hang down her head for shame at her special wickednesses.

For it is observed, that there are sins adherent to Nations, proper, peculiar, genuine, as their flesh cleaveth to their bones. That as for the climate of Heaven, their bodies differ; so for the custom of their lives, their dispositions vary from others. So that many Countries are more dangerous, either for sins or calamities. For of necessity, they that live among them must either imitate them and do ill, or hate them and suffer ill: since amicitae pares aut quarunt aut faciunt ; cohabitation of place seeks or makes coaptation of manners. S. Paul notes the Cretans for Liars: S. Luke the Athenians for news inquirers and bearers. The Grecians were noted for light: the Parthians for fearful: the Sodomites for Gluttons ; like as England (God save the sample) hath now suppled, lythed, and stretched their throats. If we should gather Sins to their particular Centers, we would appoint Pride to Spain, Lust to France, Poysoning to Italy, Drunkenness to Germany, Epicureanism to England. Now it was Israel's wickedness and wretchedness, that they fell to Idolatry. Not that other Nations were not Idolaters, but Israel's vilest, because they alone were taught the true worship of God.

Josephus holds, that the Jews were the best Soldiers of the world, both for ability of body, and agility of mind, in strength, in stratagem. Divers people are now excellent fighters one special and singular way. The Romans fight well in their Councils, I had almost said Fence-schools: the Italians in their Shops: the Spaniards in their Ships: the French-men in a hold: the Scot with his Launce: the Irish-man on foot, with his Dart. But the Jews were (saith Josephus ) every way expert. Alas; their victory came not from their own strength: the Lord fought for them. So one of them cha • eth ten of his enemies, a hundredth chase a thousand. They had the shield of God's protection, the sword of his spirit, the word of God: defense and offense against their carnal and spiritual enemies: And if ever they received wound to their flesh or spirits, they had here both the sovereign Balms to cure them. But alas! they that were so every-way-blessed, lost all by loosing their Balm, and treading it under feet. For this cause their Balm is given to us: their aversion, their euersion is our conversion. They were God's V • ne, but they lost their sweetness. They were God's Olives, but they lost their fatness. Therefore God took away his Balm.

6. Pliny affirms, that even when the Bal • ame tree grew only in Jury, yet it was not growing commonly in the Land, as other trees either for Timber, Fruit, or Medicine; but only in the Kings Garden. The prepared Juice, or Opobal • amum, was communicated to their wants; but the Trees stood not in a Subjects Orchard. He saith further, that it grew in two Orchyards of the Kings; whereof the greater was of twenty days aring. I force no greater credit to this, then you will willingly give it; (which yet is not improbable) but this I build on, and propound for truth: that this spiritual Balm grows only in the Garden of the King of Heaven. To him that overcometh, will I give to • ate of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God. It grows in the Paradise or heavenly Orchard of God. The root of it is in Heaven: there sits that holy tree, at the right hand of his Father. His fruit, his seed, his Balm he sends down to us, written by his Prophets and Apostles, read and preached by his Ministers.

Mahomet would challenge this Balm to grow in his Garden, and bids us search for it in his Quran. The Apostate Jews affirm it to grow in their Synagogue, and point us to the Talmud. The Russian or Muscouitish turn us over to their Nicol • itan Font ; and bid us dive for it there. The Pope plucks us by the sleeve, (as a Trades-man that would fain take our money) and tells us, that he only hath the Balm, and shows us his Mass -book. If we suspect it there, he warrants the virtue from a general Council. If it doth not yet smell well, he affirms, (not without menacing damnation to our mistrust, that it is even (in scrinio pectoris sui) in the closet of his own breast; who cannot err. Tut, saith he, as it grows in God's Garden simply, it may poison you. As if it were dangerous to be meddled withal, till he had plaid the Apothecary, and adulterated it with his own sophistication. Indeed, he makes it sweet, by his feigning it; and therefore his Shop wants not Customers. But it is deer, when God's is cheap, saith the Prophet. Buy it without money, without price. Wherefore do you spend money? &c.

Well: it can grow in one only Garden, and that is God's. There is but one truth. On • Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, &c. Even they that have held the greatest falsehoods, hold that there is but one truth. Nay, most will confess, that this Balsam tree is only in God's Garden; but they presume to temper the Balm at their own pleasure, and will not minister it to the world, except their own fancy hath compounded it, confounded it, with their impure mixtures. No false Religion, no fundamental Heresy, but give God the appropriation of the Balm ; but they take to themselves the ministration, the adulteration of it. So in effect, they either arrogate the Balm to themselves; or take it out of God's Garden (as it were, whither he will or no) to plant it in their own. So they brag every one of this Balm. But who will not suspect the Wares out of a known Couseners Shop? It is unlawful and wicked, to offer to God's Church, Balsamum v • l alterum, velidem alteratum, either another Balm, or after another fashion, then he appoints.

But as Clusius writes of new Balms, Peruvianum et Balsamum de Tolu, from Peru and Tolu ; so demonstration is made us of new Balms ; some rather Logical, then Theological. Germany knows my meaning. Others produce us Balms of Piety, made up with Pollicie: the coat of Religion put upon the back of State. Where there may be some Balm, but it is so mixed, that it is marred. For to a scruple of that, they put in whole ounces of other ingredients: an ounce of Oleum vulpinu • , Fox-like subtlety, as much oleum viperis, poisonable opinion, and no less oleum tartari, &c. A whole pound of policy, an arm-full of stinking weeds, frivolous and superstitious Relics: all these are put to a poor dram or scruple of Balm. Nay, and all these shall be dashed and slubberd together by a Mass-Priest, an idle and unskillful Apothecary. And when any conscience is known sore, by auricular Confession, it shall have a plaster of this stuff.

Perhaps this is that they call their Holy-oil, which is said to heal the sick body, if it recovers; or at least to cure the soul of her sins; at least, of so many, as may keep a man from Hell, and put him into Purgatory: where he shall have house-room and fire-wood free; till the Pope with soul-Masses and merits can get him a plat of ground in Heaven, to build a house on. How shameful is it to match their oil with God's Balm? to kneel to it as God, to ascribe events to it, which God works, (and to help the glory of it) to call those works miracles; whereas they might find fitter use for it, about their boots. Though it be newly invented, and every day more sophisticate then other, yet they make their Patients believe, that it is ancient, and derived from holy Scriptures: and enter the lists with the Champions of God's truth, to maintain the purity and antiquity of it.

A great while they kept (God's Balm ) the word wholly from the people: now, because the cursings of the people have a little pierced their souls, for ingrossing this Balm, and denying i • to their sores; they have stopped their mouths with the Rhemish Testament. But as they erst did curse them for hoarding God's grain; so now their just anger is as sharp against them, for the musty, mill-dew'd, blasted stuff, they buy of them. Their wickedness is no less now in poisoning them, then it was before in starving them. Before no Balm, now new Balm. Before no plaster to their wounds, now that which makes them ranckle worse. So they have mended the matter, as that Pysician did his Patients health; to whom, because he was urged to minister somewhat, he gave him a potion, that dispatched his disease & life at once. Thus the Popish Balm is, as Renodaeus calls one vulgare Balsamum, exoletum, inodorum, vietum, rancidum: stale, unsavory, rammish, lank, vile.

Such is the sophisticate doctrine of superstitious heretics; speaking for God's precepts, their own prescripts: preaching themselves, and in their own names, for ostentation, like the Scribes : delivering falsehoods, and fathering them on the Lord, He hath said it: abusing men's ears with old wives tales, and old men's dreams, traditions of Elders, constitutions of Popes, precepts of men, unwritten truths, untrue writings, either with-holding the truth in unrighteousness, or se •• ing the word of God for gain, or corrupting it, and dealing with it, as Adulterers do in their filthiness: as these respect not issue, but lust, so the other, not God's glory, but their own wantonness: ministering Medicines, which God never prescribed to them. How can their feet seem beautiful, when like monsters, they have too many toes on them, as the Giants son; or too few, as Adonibezeck and those whom he maimed: offending either in excess or defect? But it is gods fearful protestation in the end of the Book, summing and sealing up all the curses, that went before it. If they add, he that hath power to add plagues with an everlasting concatenation, will multiply their miseries without number or end. If they diminish, he that can abate his blessings so low, that not the least scruple shall remain, will return them their own measure. And for you, my Brethren, hear the Apostle, Let no man beguile you with Philosophy, and vain deceit, or please you with false Balm. You may say of their natural learning, as Albumazer of Boleno, Henbane; whiles it grows, saith he, in Persia, it is venomous; but if transplanted and growing in Jerusalem, it is not only good medicine, but good meat. Well, if it were possible, that an Angel from heaven should preach another Gospel, then that which God hath delivered, and his Apostles preached, anathema sit, let him be accursed: the true Balm comes only from the garden of the King of heaven.

7. They write of the Balsam tree, that though it spread spaciously, as a Vine, yet the boughs bear up themselves: and as you heard before, that they must not be pruined, so now here that they need not be supported. God's word needs no vndersetting. It is firmly rooted in heaven; and all the cold storms of human reluctancy and opposition cannot shake it. Nay, the more it is shaken, the faster it grows. The refractary contentions of worldlings to pluck it down, have added no less strength, then glory to it. Nor can the ministerial office of the dispensers of it, be called an aid or vnderpropping to it. It is not the Balm, but you that stand in need of our function. He that owes it, is powerful enough to protect it. You cannot apply it to yourselves without the Physicians help. If you could, or did not more want us, then that doth, you should see it flourish and spread without us. He that supports all by his mighty word, asks no supporter for it self.

The Church of Rome challengeth more, then the Church of God ; that she bears up the word: and because she assumes to carry the keys, she presumes that the door of Heaven hangs upon her hindges. They say, the Church is a Pilar: we may join issue with them, and yield it, as a reverend Divine said. For a Pillar as it upholds something, so is upholden of something. If then the Church be a Pillar, Christ is the Rock, whereon it stands: now, take away the Rock, down comes the Pillar. The Rock is well enough without the Pillar, not the Pillar without the Rock. Yet how fondly? They that would build all on their Church, yet build their Church on Peter: and not only on Peter, that was weak, but on his feigned Successor, who is weaker. Now this Hei • e built on Peter, and this Church built on this heir, must uphold the word, as they say, Atlas did the world. But, alas, if the word do not bea • e them, they will fall, like water spilled on the ground, not to be saved or gathered up. These are miserable, arrogant, impudent wretches, that think, God's word could not hold up the hands, (like Moses, unless Aaron and Hur h • lped him) if the Pope and his Councils were not: forcing all our • redite to the Gospel for this, because their Church allows it. God's word must then stand or fall at man's approbation or dislike. Oh indignity to the stable ordinance of an eternal Majesty. It is enough for the laws of a temporal Prince, to have some dependence on his Officers promulgation. He that took no man nor Angel to his Council, when he made it, demands the succor of none to preserve it. He is content to propagate the sound thereof through us his Trumpets: if it had never been preached by man, it should not have lost the effect. Heaven and Earth shall sooner run, like scorched skins, to heaps; then any jot, (as small a Character as the Alphabet affords) shall ineffectually perish. If man could deny this Office, God could speak it by Angels, by Thunder, by Lightning, Confusion, Terror; by Frogs, Lyce, Caterpillars, Blasting, Plague, Leprosy, Consumption; as he hath sometimes (holding his peace) preached actually to the World▪ It is his own Balm, and shall spread to his pleasure, and hath no weakness in it, to need man's supportance. Blessed are we under the shadow of the Branches, and wise if we build our salvations on it.

8. Physicians write of Balsamum, that it is paratu facile et optimum, easy and excellent to be prepared. This spiritual Balm is prepared to our hands: it is but the administration that is required of us, and the application of you. Not that we should slubber it over, as the Sons of Eli ; in preaching: nor that you should clap it negligently to yourselves in hearing. A mortal wound is not to beiested withal, though the Pysician hath in his hand, the Balm that can cure it. Your diseases are as different in your consciences, as in your carcasses. Your constitutions of body are not more various, and often variable, then your affections in foul. There must be some wisdom in us, to hit the right box, and to take out that Physic, which God hath made fit for your griefs. We are sure, the shaft that shall kill the Devil in you, is in God's Quiuer; indiscretion may easily mistake it, misapply it. This Balm is ready, soon had, and cheaply: let not this make you disesteem it. Gallant humors vil • pend all things that are cheap. But if in God's Mart, you refuse his Wares, because their price is no greater, you may perhaps one day, when they are gone, curse your withstanding your Markets. And being past obtaining, prize it the higher, because in the days of your sacietie you did under-value it. The guests, in the Gospel, bidden to a Supper gratis, make light of it: when the Feast-maker had protested against them, that they should never taste of his Supper, they doubtless would have been glad, if their money could have purchased it: though it cost one his Farm, and the other his Oxen.

9. Balm is, vtilis ad omnium morborum expugnationem, good against all diseases. The Receipt, that Linus, Hercules his Schoolmaster gave him, when he taught him wrestling, was only a Balm. Darius, saith Renodaeus, so esteemed it, that non modo inter pretiosissimam supellectilem reponeret, sed cunctis opibus praeponeret ; he did not only lay it up amongst his richest treasures, but even prefer it before them all. This spiritual Balm is far more precious in it self, and fructuous to all men; if they apprehend it in knowledge, apply themselves to it in obedience: possessing it in science, in conscience. Philosophers, Poets, Physicians, Historians have reported someone extraordinary thing, exceeding all the rest in their observations. They talk of Cornucopia, that it supplied men with all necessary food. They hammer at the Philosophers stone, which, they affirm, can turn baser metals into gold. Vulcans Armor, saith the Poet, was of proof against all blows. Physicians tell us, that the herb Panaceas is good for all diseases: and the drugge Catholicon instead of all Purges; as both their names would seem to testify. They come all short of this spiritual Balm. It hath in deed and perfection, what they attribute to those in fiction. Panace is an herb, whereof Pliny thus testifieth. Panace, ipso nomine, om • i • m morborum remedia promitt • t. The very name of it, promiseth remedy to all sicknesses. It is but a weed to our Balsam ; which is a tree, a tree of life, a complete Paradise of trees of life, flourishing and bearing every month, the fruit being delectable, the leaves medicinal. It is a true purging virtue, to cleanse us from all corruption of spirit, of flesh. Now are ye clean, through the word, which I have spoken unto you. Catholicon is a drugge, a drudge to it. It purifieth our hearts, from all defilings and obstructions in them. A better Cornucopia, then ever Nature (had she been true to their desires and wants) could have produced: the bread of Heaven, by which a man lives forever. A very supernatural stone, more precious then the Indies, if they were consolidate into one Quarry; that turns all into purer gold, then ever the land of Hau • lab boasted. A • tronger Armor then was V • l •• n's, to shield us from a more strange and savage enemy, then ever Anak begot, the Devil. It is a Panary of wholesome food, against fenowed traditions. A Physicians Shop of Antidotes, against the poisons of heresies, and the plague of iniquities. A pandect of profitable Laws, against rebellious spirits. A treasury of costly jewels, against beggarly rudiments.

The Aromatical tree, hath sometimes good savor in the rind, sometimes in the flower, sometimes in the fruit. So it fareth in the Cinnamon, that is a ri • de; the Mace is th • flower, and the Nutmegge the fruit. According as the dry and earthie part, mingled with the subtle watery matter, hath the Masterie in any part' more or less, that part smelleth best. As in common flowers, which savor in the flower, when from the stalk or root ariseth nothing. Only the Balm smells well in every part. So the word is in every respect the sweet savor of life; though to some, through their own corruption, it becomes the savor of death. We may say of the word, as one of the Lamb ; it is all good: the fleece to clothe, the flesh to eat, the blood for medicine. Thus, All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproo • e, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. His salubriter, et corriguntur pra • a, et nutriuntur par • a, et magna oblectantur ingenia. Evil wits are corrected, simple are enlightened, strong are delighted by the word. And In his quotidie proficerem, si • as solas ab ineunte pueritia, us{que} ad de • repitam s ••• ctutem, maximo oti • , summo studio, meliore ingenio conarer addiscere. In these I should continually profit, if from the first day of my understanding, to the last of my old age, I should be conversant with them.

Other things may have in them (salubritatem quandam) a certain wholesomnesse▪ but from this Balm (sanitas • t ipsavita petitur) health & life it self is derived. Human writings may, like the Aliptae, put blood in our cheeks; but this is the true Phisick to cherish our spark, to maintain our life. Other herbs, & plants, and roots may be toxica, and poison the broath; this is Elisha's salt, that only sweetens it. Lignum crucis, is lignum vitae, like Moses wood, to put a healthful taste into the bitter waters of human knowledge. These are the two Testaments of God (which no man shall interline without certain judgment) like the two pillars of smoke & fire, one dark like the old, the other bright as the new, only able to conduct us from Egypt to Canaan: and to furnish us with all necessaries by the way, if we depend thereon. The two Cherubims, that look directly toward the Mercy-seat, both pointing to Jesus Christ. The Treasure, that hath both old and new in it, sufficiently able to instruct the Scribe to the Kingdom of Heaven. This is that medicamentum medicamentorum, as Petrus Apponensis saith of the Balm, vbi nihil deficit, quod in salutem sufficit, where, there is no want of anything requisite to salvation. Cuius plenitudinem adoro, whose fullness I reverence and admire.

This is that light, which can justly guide our steps: this is that measure of the Sanctuary, that must weigh all things: this is that great Seal, that must warrant all our actions. This gives at one Sermon, Balm sufficient to heal diverse diseases. Peter had Auditors of diverse Nations: Parthians, Medes, Elamites, &c. Jews and Prosel •• es, Cretes and Arabians: and no question but their affections were as naturally, as nationally different: yet were three thousand won at one Sermon. So the Multitude, the Publicans, the Soldiers had all their lessons at one time: so many in number, and such manner of men in nature, had their remedies together, and their several diseases healed, (as it were) with one plaster. The people had a doctrine of charity: the Publicans of equity: the Soldiers of innocence. This was prophesied by Isaiah, fulfilled here, and often in Christ's Kingdom. The Wolf is turned to the Lamb, when the Soldiers are made harmless: the Leopard into a Calf, when the Publicans are made just: the Lyon and Bear into a Cow, when the Multitude is made charitable.

Water searcheth, and wind shaketh, and thunder terrifieth even Lions, but the word only is strong to convert the heart of man. Some indeed, both in sense and censure, judge it weak; but they, alas, shall find it, (if weak to save them, yet) strong to condemn them. If it cannot plant thee, it will supplant thee. This then is that sovereign Balm, medicinal to all maladies. Physicians ascribe many healing virtues to their Balsam: many, and almost what not? This Metaphysical doth more properly challenge that attribution.

1. They say, that Balm taken fasting, Asthmatics valde confert, is very good against short-windedness. Truly, God's word lengthens and strengthens the breath of grace; which otherwise would be short, the conscience (as the lungs) being soon obstructed with iniquities. For goodness soon faints, where the word is not without the Gospel, the health of obedience looseth, and the disease of sin gathers strength.

2. They say, that Balm taken inwardly, dissolves, and breaks the stone in the reins. But Jeremiah, in God's Physic-book, saith, that our Balm is as a Hammer to break the stone in the heart. The stone in the reins is dangerous, in the bladder painful, but none so deadly as the stone in the heart. This Balm supples the stony heart, and turns it into a heart of flesh.

3. They commend their Balm for a special ease to the anger of a venomous biting. But our Balm is more excellent in aculeum Draconis, imo mortis, against the sting of that great red Dragon, nay of Death it self. Oh Death, where is thy sting? Three Serpents give us v • nomous wounds. Sin first stings us, the Devil next, and Death last. This Balm of Christ fetcheth out all their poisons.

4. Others say of this Balm, that it is the best solution to the obstructions of the Liver. I have heard the Liver in the body, compared with zeal in the soul. The Liver (according to Physicians) is the third principal member, wherein rest the animal spirits. In the soul two graces precede Zeal, Faith and Repentance. I say not this in thesi but in hypothesi, not simply, but in respect; and that rather of order, then of time. For a man is begotten of immortal seed, by the Spirit at once. Now as the Liver calefies the stomach, (like fire under the Pot) and thence succors digestion: so doth zeal heat a man's works, with an holy fervor; which are without that, a cold sacrifice to God. A soul without zeal doth as hardly live, as a body without a Liver. Haly calls the Liver the Well of Moisture: we may say of zeal; it is the very Cistern, whence all other graces, as living there do issue forth into our lives. The Liver is called Hepar and Iecur, because it draweth juice to it self, turneth it into blood, & by veins serveth the body, as the water-house doth a City by pipes. Nay, it ministereth a surging heat to the brain, to the eyes, to the wits, saith • Isidore. The Pagan Nigromancers, sacrificed only Liuers on the all • ar of their God Phaebus, before his oraculous answers were given. In the soul other graces, as Faith, Hope, Charity, Repentance, did first rather breed zeal; but zeal being once enkindled doth minister nutrimentall heat to all these; and is indeed the best sacrifice that we can offer to God. Without zeal all are like the oblation of Cain.

Now if any obstructions of sin seem to oppress this Zeal in us, this Balm of God's word is the only sovereign remedy to cleanse it. For the zeal is dangerous, as the Liver, either by too much heat, or too much cold to be distempered. To ouerheate the Liver of zeal many have found the cause of a perilous surfetin the Conscience: whiles like the two Disciples, nothing could content them but fire from heaven against sinners. If ever Bishop was in the time of Popery, away with the office now. If ever Mass was said in Church, pull it down. Though some depopulatours have now done it, in extreme coldness, nay frozen dregs of heart, making them either no Churches, or polluted ones; whiles those which were once Temples for God's shepherds, are now coats for their own. Yet they in immeasurable heat wished, what these with unreasonable cold Liuers affected. Such miserable thieves have crucified the Church, one by a new religion in will, the other by a no religion in deed. They would not only take away the abuse, but the thing it self; not only the Ceremony, but the substance. As the Painter did by the picture of King Henry the eight, whom he had drawn fairly with a Bible in his hand, and set it to open view against Queen Mary's coming in triumph through the City: for which being reproved by a great man, that • awe it, and charged to wipe out the book; he, to make sure work wiped out the Bible and the hand too; and so in mending the fault, he maimed the picture.

This is the effect of praeter-natural heat, to make of a remedy, a disease. Thus whiles they dream, that Babylon stands upon Ceremonies, they offer to race the foundations of Jerusalem it self. Well this Balm of God's word, if their sick souls would apply it, might cool this ungentle heat of their livers. For it serves not only to inkindle heat of z • ale in the over-cold heart, but to refrigerate the preposterous fervor in the fiery-hot. This is the saving Balm, that scoures away the obstructions in the Liver, and prevents the dropsy. For the dropsy is nothing else, saith the Philosopher, but the error of the digesti • e virtue in the hollowness of the Liver. Some have such hollownes in their zeal, whiles they pr • tend holiness of zeal; (as was in the iron horns of that false prophet Zedekiah ) that for want of applying this Balm, they are sick of the dropsy of hypocrisy.

Innumerable are the uses of Balm, if we give credit to Physicians, vel potum, vel inunctum. It strengthens the nerves, it excites and cherisheth the native heat in any part, it succoreth the paraliticke, and delayeth the fury of convulsions, &c. And last of all, is the most soueragine help, either to green wounds, or to inveterate ulcers. These, all these, and more then ever was untruly feigned, or truly performed by the Balsam to the body; is spiritually fulfilled in this happy, heavenly, and true intrinsique Balm, God's word. It heals the sores of the conscience, which either original or actual sin have made in it. It keeps the green wound, (which sorrow for sin cuts in the heart) from ranckling the soul to death. This is that Balsam tree, that hath fructum vberrimum, vsum saluberrimum, plenteous fruit, profitable use: and is, in a word, both a preservative against, and a restorative from all dangers to a believing Christian. It is not only Physic, but health it self; and hath more virtue, saving virtue, validity of saving virtue, then the tongues of men and Angels can ever sufficiently describe.

You have here the similitudes. Hear one or two discrepancies of this natural and supernatural Balms. For as no Metaphor should of necessity run like a Coach on four wheels, when to go, like a man, on two sound legs is sufficient; so eart • lie things compared with heavenly, must look to fall more short, then Linus of Hercules, the shrub of the Cedar, or the lowest Mole-bank of the highest Pyramids.

1. This earthly Balm cannot preserve the body of it self, but by the accession of the spiritual Balm. Even Angels food (so called, not because they made it, but because they ministered it) cannot nourish without God's word of blessing. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. If the mercy of God be not on our sustenance, we may die with meat in our mouths, like the Israelites. If his prouidentiall goodness with-hold the virtue, were our garments as costly as the Ephod of Aaron, there is no benefit in them. When many are sick, they trust to the Physicians, as Asa, or to this Balm, fastening their eyes and hopes on that: whereas Balm, with the destitution of God's blessing, doth as much good, as a branch of herb-John in our Pottage. Nature it self declines her ordinary working, when God's revocation hath chidden it. The word without Balm can cure; not the best Balm without the word.

2. So this natural Balm, when the blessing of the word is even added to it, can (at utmost) but keep the body living, till the life • taper be burnt out: or after death, give a short and insensible preservation to it, in the sarcophagall grave. But this Balm gives life after death; life against death, life without death. To whom shall we go? Lord, thou hast the words of eternal life. The Apostle doth so sound it, the Saints in Heaven have so found it, and we, if we believe it, if we receive it, shall perceive it, to be the word of life. And as Augustine of God, Omne bonum nostrum vel ipse, vel ab ipso: All our good is either God, or from God: so all our ordinary means of good from God is vel verbum, vel de verbo, either the word, or by the word.

The Prophet derives the Balm from the Mount Gilead ; demanding, if Gilead be without Balm. It seems, that Gilead was an aromatical place, and is reckoned by some among the Mountains of spice. It is called in some places of Scripture Galaad ; and by an easy varying of the points in the Hebrew writing, Gilead. This Mountain was at first so called by Jacob, by reason of that solemn Covenant, which he there made with his Father in law, pursuing Laban. Though it be called Mount Gilead, before in the chapter. ver. 21.23.25. He set his face toward Mount Gilead, &c. Yet it is by anticipation; spoken rather as the hill was called when the History was written by Moses, then as it was saluted and ascended by Jacob: who abode in it, till Laban over-took him; where the pacified Father and the departing Son made their Covenant. Laban called it I • gar-Sahadutha: but Jacob called it Galeed. It signifies a heap of witness, a name imposed by occasion of the heap of stones, pitched for the league between them. La • an said, this heap • is a witness between me and thee this day. Therefore was the name of it called Galeed. There was one Gilead, son of Machir, son of Manasseh ; of whom, because it is said, that Machir begat Gilead: and of Gilead •• me the family of th • Gileadites; some ascribe the attribution of this name to Mount Gilead. But this Mount had the name, long before the son of Machir was borne. We read of it, that it was. 1. a great mountain. 2. fruitful. 3. full of Cities. 4. abounding with Spices.

1. It was a great Mountain; the greatest of all beyond Jordan, in length fifty miles. But as it ran along by other Coasts, it received diverse names. From Arnon to the City Cedar, it is called Gilead. From thence to Bozra, it is named Seir ; and after, Hermon: so reaching to Damascus, it is joined to Libanus. So Jerome conceiteth on those words of God unto the Kings house of Judah. Thou art Gilead unto me, and the head of Lebanon: that therefore Lebanon is the beginning of Gilead.

2. Fruitful, abounding with great varieti • of necessary • and delights; yielding both pleasure and profit. This every part and corner thereof afforded, even as far as Mount S • ir, which the Edomites, the generation of Esau, chose for a voluptuous habitation. This the children of Reuben, and the children of Gad, and half the Tribe of Manasseh, when they saw the land of Gilead, that the place was a place for cat • ell, desired of Moses, and of the Princes of the Congregation, that they might possess it: for it is a land for cattle, and thy servants have cattle. The condition, that Moses required, be • ng by them granted, that they should go armed with their brethren, till the expulsion of their enemies had given them a quiet seat in Canaan. Thy seruan • s will do as my Lord commandeth. On • lie our little ones, our wi • es, our flocks, and all our cattle shall be in though Cities of Gilead. The fertillitie of Gilead contented them, though with the separation of Jordan from their brethren. Our Savior describing the beauty of his Spouse Behold, thou art fair, my Love, behold thou art fair (inwardly fair with the gifts of his spirit, and outwardly fair in her comely administration and government:) Thou hast Doves eyes within thy locks, (thy eyes of understanding being full of purity, chastity, simplicity) he adds withal, that her hair (her gracious profession, and appendances of expedient ornaments▪ are as comely to behold) as a Flock of well-fed Goats, grasing and appearing on the fruitful hills of Gilead. Which made them so pregnant, that like a Flock of sheep, everyone brings out Twins, and none is barren among them. The same pra • se is redoubled by Christ, chap. 6. &c.

3. It was full of Cities; a place so fertile, that it was full of Inhabitants. • lair the Gileaedit • , who judged Israel, had thirty sons, that rode on thirty Ass-Colts, and they had thirty Cities, which are called Hau • th- • ai • unto this day, which are in the land of Gilead. It was as populous as fructuous; and at once blessed with pregnancie both of fruits for the people, and of people for the fruits. It was before Israel conqu • red it, in the dominion of the Amorit • s ; and more specially, of Og king of Bashan, that remained of the remnant of the Giants: whose bedstead was a bedstead of iron; nine cubits long, and four cubits broad, after the cubit of a man. It was not only full of strength in it self, but guarded with Cities in the plain. All the Cities of the plain, and all Gilead, and all Bashan, &c. So the Inheritance of Gad is reckoned by Joshua. Their coast was lazer, and all the Cities of Gil • ad. It appears then that Gilead was full of Cities. So blessed, as if the Heavens had made a Covenant of good unto it, as Jacob did erst with Laban upon it. A hill of witness indeed, for it really testified God's mercy to Israel. God calls it his own. Gilead is mine, Manasseh i • mine. The principal or first name of Kingdom, that usurping I •• bosheth was by Abner crowned over, was Gilead. And he made him King over Gilead, and over the Ashurites, &c.

4. It was (lastly) a Mountain of Spices; and many Strangers resorted thither for that Merchandise. Even when the malicious brethren, having thrown innocent Joseph into the pit, sat down (in a secure neglectfulnesse) to eat bread : Behold (surely the Lord sent and directed) a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead, with their Camels, bearing Spicery, and Balm, and Myrrh. By which it appears to be mons aromatum, a hill of Sp • ces. Therefore God here; Is there no Balm at Gilead?

The Jew • s were near • to Gilead ; it was but on the other side of Jordan. The fetching over their Merchandise was no long nor dangerous voyage. Yet was this spiritual Balm nearer to them: it lay like Manna at their doors. Venit ad limina virtus. The Kingdom of Heaven is among you, saith Christ. There needed no great journey for natural Physic, but less for spiritual comfort. Behold, God himself gives his vocal answers between the Cherubims. Yet alas! as it was once justly proverbed on the Monks, and such spiritual, or rather carnal Couents, in that night of Popery: that the nearer they were to the Church, the further from God. So it was even verified of the Jews ; that by how much they were of all next to the Sanctuary, by so much of all remotest from sanctity. And therefore, he that once said, Gilead is mine, and of the Temple in Judah, this is my house, called by my name ; afterward left both the hill of Gilead, and the Mount Zion, and the holy Sanctuary, a pray to the Romans ; who left not a stone upon a stone, to testify th • ruins of it, or for succeeding ages to say, This was the Temple of God. Thus saith the Prophet Hosea: Gilead is a City of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood. Therefore God turned that fruitful Land into barrenness, for the wickedness of them • hat dwelt therein. For not content with the fertillitie of their soil, they manured it with blood, saith the Prophet. Hence no marvel, if it became at last, like the cu • sed Mountains of Gilboah, that drunk the blood of Saul and Jonathan.

You have heard the Balm : the next subject that offers it self to our speech, is the Physicians. Is there no Balm at Gilead? is there no Physicians there? The Prophets are allegorically called Physicians, as the word is Balm. So are the Ministers of the Gospel, in due measure, in their place. To speak properly and fully, Christ is our only Pysician, and we are but his Ministers, bound to apply his saving Physic to the sickly souls of his people. It is he only, that cures the carcass, the conscience.

1. No Pysician can heal the body without him The Woman with the bloody issue was not bettered (by her Physicians, though she had emptied all her substance into their purses) till Christ undertook her cure. The Leper, in the 8. of Matthew, was as hopeless, as haplesse, till he met with this Pysician ; and then the least touch of his • inger healed him. Physicians deal often, not by extracting, but protracting the disease: making rather diseases for their cure, then cures for diseases: prolonging our sicknesses by Art, which Nature, or rather natures defect hath not made so tedious. Therefore as one saith wittily, the best Physic is to take no Physic: or as another boldly; our new Physic is worse then our old sickness. But when our diseases be committed to this heavenly Doctor, and he is pleased to take them in hand, our venture is without all peradventure, we shall be healed. The least touch of his finger, the least breath of his mouth, can cast out the evil in us, that can cast out the devil in us, he can, he will cure us.

2. No Minister, can heal the Conscience, where Christ hath not given a blessing to it. Otherwise he may lament with the Prophet. I have labored in vain, I have spent my strength for naught. Or as the Apostle▪ I have fished all night, and caught nothing: yet at thy command, &c. Who then is Paul? or who is Apollo? but Ministers, by whom • ee believed, • uen as the Lord gave to every man. I have planted, Apollo watered, but GOD gave the increase. If any be blind, He is the Oculist: if any be lame, He sets the Bon • s: if any be wounded, He is the Surgeon: if any be sick, He is the Pysician.

They write of the Indian Physicians, that they cure the wound by sucking the poison. Christ heals after a manner (I know not whither more) loving and strange; by taking the disease upon himself. Who his own sel • e bare our sins in his own body on the tree. He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities▪ and with his stripes we are healed. And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. As the scape-goa • e was said to bear upon him the sins of Israel: so saith the Prophet of his antitype Christ; morbos portauit nostros, he hath borne our griefs: too unsupportable a burden for our shoulders; able to sink us down to hell, as they did Cain and Judas, if they had been imposed. Tulit Jesus. Christ carried our sorrows. Never was such a Pysician, that changed healths with his sick Patient. But H • e was humbled for us. Mans maker is made man, the worlds succourer takes suck, the Bread is hungry, the Fountain thirsty, the Light sleepy, the Way weary, the Truth accused, the Judge condemned. Health it self is become sick, nay dead, for our salvation. For man's sake (such was our weakness) Christ descended, (such was his kindness) took one him to cure us (such was his goodness) and performed it, (such was his greatness.) It was not Abanah nor Pharphar, nor all the rivers of Damascus, not the water of Jordan, though bathing in it 70. times, not Job's • now-water, nor David's water of Isope, not the pool of Bethesda, though stirred with a thousand Angels, that was able to wash us clean. Only fusus sanguis Medici, factum medicamentum phrenetici: the blood of the Physician is spilled, that it may become a medicine of salvation to all believers. This is the Pelican, that preserves her young with her own blood. This is the Goat, that with his warm gore breaks the adamants of our harts. This is that lamb of God, that with his own blood, takes away the sins of the world. When the Oracle had told the king of Athens, that himself must die in the battle, or his whole army perish; Codrus (then King) never stuck at it, but obtruded his own life into the • awes of inevitable death, that he might save his people's. The King of heaven wa • more freely willing to lay down his, for the • edemption of his Saints, when the eternal decree of God had propounded him the choice. Is there no means to recover the sick world, but I must die, that it may live? then take my life, quoth Life it self. Thus pro me doluit, qui non habuit, quod pro se doleret: He was made sick for me, that I might be made sound in him.

This then is our Pysician in whom alone is saving health. As Sybilla sung of him.

He wrought all things with his word, and healed every disease with his power. To Him let us resort, confessing our sores, our sorrows. They that be whole need not a Physician, but they that are sick. Foolish m • n, because of their iniquities, are afflicted: that their soul abhorreth all manner of meat, and th • y draw near to the • ates of death. Yet they cry unto this Pysician, and he delivers them from their d • stress. So he hath promised in the Testament both of his Law, and of his Gospel. Call on me in the day of trouble, and I will deliver thee. Come to me all that are l • den, and I will give you rest. There never went sorrowful Beggar from his door without a • Alms. No marvel, if he be not cured, that is op • nionated of his own health. They say, that the Te • ch is the Pysician of Fishes; and they being hurt come to him for cure. All the Fishes that are caught in the Net of the Gospel come to Christ, who is the King of Physicians, and the Pysician of Kings. Come then to Him, beloved, not as to a Master in name only, as the Lawyer. Matth. 22. but as to a Savior indeed, as the Leaper. Matth. 8. Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. Non ta • quam ad Dominum titularem, sed tanquam ad Dominum tutelarem: as one ellegantly.

Ministers are Physicians under Christ ; sent only with his Physic in their hands, and taught to appl • it to our necessities. Neither the Pysician of the body, nor of the soul can heal, by any virtue inherent in, or derived from themselves. We must take all out of God's warehouse. God hath a double Box of Nature, of Grace: as man hath a double sickness, of • lesh, of spirit.

1. The first box is mentioned. Ecclus. 38. The Lord hath created medicines out of the earth, and he that is wise will not abhor them. God hath not scanted earth of drugs and mineralls, the simples of Physic for such as tread on it. And howsoever our vanity in health transport our thoughts, earth hath no more precious thing in it, then (as sustenance to preserve, so) medicine to restore us. You that have digged into the entralls of the dead earth, and not spared the bowels of the living earth, the poor, for riches: You that have set that at your heart, which was cast down at the Apostles feet, Money; as fit only for sanctified men to tread upon in contempt: You that have neglected heaven, which God hath made your more glorious feeling, and richly stuck it, like a bright Canopy, with burning lights; and doted on your pavement, made only for your feet to tread upon; fixing your eyes and thoughts on that, which God hath indisposed to be your object: for man's countenance is erect, lessoning his soul to a just and holy aspiration: You that have put so fair for the Philosophers stone, that you have endeavored to sublimate it out of poor men's bones, ground to powder by your oppressions: You that have buried your God's, so soon as you had found them out, as Rah • l did Laban's in the Litter, and sit down with rest on them, saying to the Wedge, Thou ar • my con •• dence. When your heads ache, dissolve your gold, and • rinke it; wallow your crazy carcass in your silver; wrap it in perfumes and silks, and try what ease it will a • ford you. Will not a silly and contemptible weed, prepared by a skillful Pysician give you more comfort? Doth not the common air, which you receive in, and breath out again, refresh you better? How eager are our desires of superfluities, how neglectful of necessaries? This box of treasures hath God given us, and endued some with knowledge to minister them; least our ignorance might not rather prejudice, the • succor our healths. No Pysician then cures of himself; no more then the hand feeds the mouth. The meat doth the one, the medicine doth the other; though the Pysician and the hand be unspared instruments to their several purposes. Thus God relieves our health • rom the Box of Nature.

2. The other Box is Grace ; whence the Divine draweth out sundry remedies for our d • seases of soul. This is not so common, as that of Nature. Once one Nation had it of all the world, now all the world rather then that Nation. But it is certain, they have it only, to whom the Gospel is preached. It is indeed denied to none, that do not deny their faith to it. Christ is that Lamb, that takes away 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : the sin of the world. But many want t • e Physicians to teach and apply this. And how shall they preach, except they be sent? Now, where these Physicians are, is the people healed by any virtue de •• ued from them? Is it the Perfumer that gives such sweet odors, or his perfumes? Why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness w • had made this man to walk? Be it known to you all, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth doth this man stand whole before you. Therefore, saith S. Paul, concluding this Doctrine so thoroughly handled, Let no man glory in men, for all things are yours, whither Paul &c. all are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's. It is the tidings we bring, that saves you, not our persons. Moses, that gave the Law, could not frame his own he • t to the obedience of it. It lies not in our power to beget faith in our own souls. The heart of the King is in the hands of God, as are the waters in the South. The souls of all, Prince and people, Prophets and Nazarites, Preachers and hearers, learned and ignorant, are converted by God, by whom they were created. It was the voice even of a Prophet: Turn us, oh Lord, and so shall we be turned.

This consideration may serve to humble our harts, whom God hath trusted with the dispensation of his Oracles. It is a sacrilegious sin, for any spiritual Pysician, to ascribe God's doing to his own saying; and to make H • s glory cleave to earthen fingers. As Menecrates, a natural one, wrote in a certain Epistle to Philip of Macedon. Thou art King of Macedon, I of Physic. It lies in thy power to take health and life from men, in mine to give it. So monstrous was his pride, yet so applauded by the besotted Citizens, that he marched with a train of God's after him. One in the habit of Hercules, another of Mercury, a third in the form of Apollo: whilst himself, like Jupiter, walked with a purple robe, a Crown of gold, and a Scepter; boasting, that by his Art, he could breath life into men. Foolish clay! he could not preserve himself from mouldering to dust. Ostentation in a spiritual Pysician is worse, by how much our profession teacheth us to be more humble. It is a high climbing pride in any Pharisee, and injurious to the Throne of God, to arrogate to himself a converting power. As in the fable, the Flye sitting on the Coach-wheel at the games of Olympus, gave out, that it was she, which made so great a dust. Or as that malcontent in a deep melancholy, who hearing the wi • des blow furiously, thought it was only his breath, which made all that blustering. It is God only, that can turn the heart, and tune the tongue, heal the body, and help the soul. Let the Instruments have just respect, God alone the praise. Honor the Pysician with the honor due unto him: for the Lord hath created him. And count the well-ruling Elders worthy of double honor. But let God be glorified, as the Author of all, above all, for all.

It hath pleased God to call his Ministers by this title, Physicians: many duties hence accrue to our instruction. I cannot, I need not, dwell much on them. For everyone can lesson us, that will not be lessoned by us. Not that we refuse knowledge from any lips; since nothing can be said well, but by God's spirit: who sometimes reproves a Jonah by a Mariner; a Peter by a silly Damsel, a Balaam by an Ass. But because they, whose lips God hath seasoned, sealed to preserve knowledge, are held contemptible; and their feet foul, that bring the fairest message. So the frantic Patient beats the Medicine about his ears that brings it. The Prophets would have cured Jerusalem, behold Jerusalem killet • them. You kill us still; though not in our natural, yet in our civil life, our reputation. We feel not your murtherings, but your murmurings. Ishmael's tongue made him a Persecutor, as well as Esau's hands. Only our God comforts us, as he did Samuel: They have not cast thee away, but they have cast me away, saith the Lord. A word or two therefore concerning their care of your cure.

1. The Pysician must apply himself to the nature of his Patient: so the Minister to the disposition of his hearer: leading the gentle, and drawing the refractary; winning some with love, and pulling others out of the fire, having compassion on some, and saving others with fear. Medicamenti dosis pro coeli et soli natura mutanda. The prescription of the Medicine must be diuersified, according to the nature of the soil and the air. He shall never cure men's consciences, that looks not to their affections; making a difference. Paul testifieth of himself. I became to the Jews as a Jew, &c. to the weak, as weak; that I might save the weak: I am made all things to all men, that by all means I might save some. We must vary our speech to their weak understandings, Judgment to whom judgment, mercy to whom mercy belongs.

And you, Beloved, must also apply yourselves to us; not scorning your own Preacher, and running with itching ears to others; delighting rather in the variety of Teachers, then in the verity of Doctrines. It fares with Ministers as with Fish, none so welcome, as the new come. S • t aside prejudice. The meanest Preacher, whom God hath sent you, can show you that, which if you obediently follow, shall effectually save your soul • s. The word is powerful, what instrument so e • er brings it: and God's strength is made manifest in our wea •• nesse. Hear all, despise none. And as we are bound to • eede that Flo • ke, whereof the holy Ghost hath m • de v • over- • eers: so do you content yourselves with that Pastor, whom God hath se • t to feed you. Factions have thus been •• ndled, (and how hardly are they exti • guished?) whiles one is for Pa • l, another for Apol • os, a third for Ceph • s: or rather (for these preserved one A • alogie of truth in their Doctrine, and only differed in plainness and eloquence of speech) when some are for Cephas, and others for Caiaphas ; some for Apostles, and other for Apostates ; some for sincere Preachers, others for Schismaticall Sectaries. Thus o • serving rather the diversity of Instructours, then the unity of Truth ▪ there arise, in the end, as many minds as men, as many Sects as Cities, as many Gospels as Gossips.

2. The Pysician must not commit his Patients health to the Apothecary. God hath trusted thee with his people's welfare, whom he hath purchased with his own blood ; thou must not be at thy man, and impose all on him. It was the reason, that the Romans Horse was so ill tended, himself so well. Ego curo meipsum, Statius vero equum. I look to myself, but my man looks to my Horse. The like reason, sometimes, makes fat Shepherds, and lean Flocks. God hath placed us, as Mothers to bear children unto him: now as we must not be barren, and bring forth none; so we must not, when we have them, put them forth to nurse. It is not more unkind in a natural, then unnatural in a spiritual M • there. There is a necessary use of the Apothecary, s • of the Reader. He that digges the ground is not to be de • p • sed, though a more exquisite Gardener draws the knot. But it is dangerous to trust all on him, and do God's business by an Attorney. God hath given thee the milk, that thou shouldest feed his Sheep, and not put them over to an hireling: who suffers the Wol • e to enter, and tear the Lambs, never breaking his sleep for the matter. Not but that preaching may yield to a more weighty dispensation. When the vaunts of some heretical Goliath shall draw us forth to encounter him with our Pennes, against whom we cannot draw the sword of our tongues: when the greater business of God's Church shall warrant our non-residence to the inferior: when one is called from being a Mariner, and running about, to the office of a Pilot, to sit still at the helm: then and upon these grounds, we may be tolerated, by another Pysician to serve our Cures; (for so I find our charges, not without allusion to this metaphor, called:) a Pysician, I say, that is a skillful Divine; not an illiterate Apothecary, an insufficient Reader. That mere reading of the Scriptures hath, and may save souls, whoever doubted? But that Preaching with Reading is more effectual, can it be denied? Oh then▪ that any of the Sons of the Prophets, whom God hath blessed with knowledge of his heavenly Physic, should sit down on the chair of security, or shut themselves in the cels of obscurity, or chamber themselves perpetually in a College, or grase on the private commons of one man's benevolence (as Micah had his Levite to himself) whiles their gifts are not communicated to the Church of God.

Every spiritual Pysician must keep his right vbi. It is well observed by Aretius, upon the occasional calling of Peter and Andrew, when they were fishing: that God is wont to bless men especially, when they are busied in their proper element: working, as the Father charged his Son, in his Vineyard. Not in the wilderness of the world, nor in the Labyrinth of Lusts, nor in the field of Covetousness, nor in the house of security, much less in the chamber of Wantonness, or in the Tavern of drunkenness, or theater of lewdness, but in God's Vineyard, their general or particular calling. Our vocations must be kept and followed; not making our selves Magistrates in foreign common-wealths, Bishops in others diocesses, scalding our lips in our neighbors pottage. When those Shepherds heard the first glad tidings of Christ, they were attending their flocks by night in the field. Saul going honestly about his Fathers business, met with a Kingdom. And David was at the folds, when Samuel came with the holy oil. We say

Let none prescribe Phisick, but practitioners in that faculty: none plead at the bar, but Lawyers Let the Shooe-maker look to his boot, the Fisher to his boat, the Scholar to his book. The Husbandman in foro, the Minister in choro, He that would comprehend all things, apprehends nothing. As he that comes to a Corn-heap, the more he opens his hand to take, the less he graspeth, the less he holdeth. Who would in omnibus aliquid, shall in toto nihil scire. When a man couets to be a Doctor in all Arts, he lightly proves a dunce in many. Let the natural Pysician apply his ministering, the spiritual his Ministry. Quid enim in Theatro renunciator turpium, &c. The idle sports of the Theater, the wicked crafts in the Market, the gallant braveries of the Court, must not hinder us, either to say Service in the Temple, or to do service for the Temple. Clericus in opido, piscis in arido, as I have read. Rather, from the words of that Father, if it be God's will that when Christ comes to judgment, inveniat me vel precantem vel praedicantem, he may find me either praying, or preaching his holy word.

Well, we have everyone our own cures; let us attend them. Let us not take and keep livings of an hundred, or two hundred pound a year, and allow a poor Curate (to supply the voluntary negligence of our non-residence ) eight, or (perhaps somewhat bountifully) ten pounds yearly: scarce enough to maintain his body, not a doyt for his study. He spoke sharply, (not untruly) that called this usury, and terrible usury. Others take but ten • in the hundred, these take a hundred for ten. What say you to those, that undertake two, three, or four great Cures, and Physic them all by Attorneys! These Physicians love not their Patients, nor Christ himself; as he taught Peter: which S. Bernard thus comments on. Unless thy conscience bear thee witness, that thou lovest me exceeding much, that is, plus quam tua, plus quàm tuos, plus quàm te, More then thy goods, more then thy friends, more then thyself, thou art not worthy to undertake this Office. God hath made us superintendents of our charges, and bound us, (as Paul adjured Timothy, I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and dead at his appearing) to preach the word, and b • e instant, &c. Many are content with presidence, not with residence. Ac si victuri essent sine cura, cum peruenerint ad curam. As if they had forgotten all care, when they have gotten a cure. This is not (dispensantis, sed dissipantis officium gerer • ) to be a Steward; but a loyterer in God's family. The Pysician sleeps in his Study; the Apothecary for want of judgment takes a wrong Medicine, or no Medicine for the sick. The Pastor is absent, the • ireling (very often) either preacheth idly, or negligently, or not at all. And thus God's people ar • not recovered.

3. Physicians must not deal too much, with that they call blandum medicamentum: which Physicians thus describe. Blandum dicitur, quod mediocritantum quantitate sumptum, all •• um pigre et benign mouendo, pauca deijcit. Spiritual Physicians must beware, how they give these soothing and supple Medicines, which rather confirm the humors, then disperse the tumours, or purge the crudities of sins in their Patients. Robustum corpus, multis obs • ruc • ionibus imp • ditum, blanda imbecilla{que} medicamenta spernatur. A soul settled, like Moab, on the Lees, or frozen in the dregs of inveterate and obstinate sins; is not stirred by fair and flattering Documents. GOD complains in this Chapter against those. They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly; saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace. Such are described, Ezek. 13. They have seduced my people, saying, Peace, and there is no peace: and one built up a wall, and loe, others daubed it with untempered Morter. God gives a terrible and universal threatening. ver. 15.16. I will accomplish my wrath upon the wall, and upon them that have daubed it with untempered Morter: and will say unto you. The wall is no more, neither they that daubed it. He proceeds to command Ezekiel, to prophecy against the women, that prophecy to Israel. Woe to the women, that sow pillows to all arm-holes, &c. This is shameful in a Preacher, to wink at Idolatry in Bethel, because it is the Kings Chapel ; and not to reprove the iniquity of Gilgal, the Country of oppression, because himself feeds at an oppresso • rs Table. Some are so weak, that (as Mulieres, quia molliores, et pueri, quia teneri, et ex longo morbo resurgentes, blandioribus egent medicinis) they cannot digest too strong a potion of reproof. Therefore slecte quod est rigidum, foue quod est frigidum, rege quod est deuium. Bend • he refractary, warm the cold, direct the wandering.

I have read in a Pysician, that among many sophistications of this Balm, sometimes they fain it with water, and then it runs above the water like oil: sometimes with honey, which is thus perceived. If you put a drop thereof into milk, it runneth to curdes! When Ministers shall adulterate God's pure and sacred word, with the honey or oil of their own flatteries, and give it to a sick soul; it is so far from nourishing, as the sincere milk of the Gospel should do; that it curdleth in the stomach, and endangers the conscience worse. It is enough for Physic, if it be wholesome. Not pleasant taste, but secret virtue commends Medicines. The Doctrine, that is sweet to flesh and blood, hath just cause of •• spition. It is (without question) harsh to the appetite of either soul or body, that heals either. Not that we should only blow a Trumpet of War, against opposers; but sometimes, yea often also, pipe Mercy and Gospel to those, that will dance the Measures of obedience. We must preach as well liberty to Captives, as captivity to Libertines: and build an Ark for those that desire salvation, as pour forth a Flood of curses against them that will perish, and open the door to the penitent knockers, as keep the gate with a flaming sword in our mouths against the obstinate. If we harp somewhat more on the sad string of Judgment, know that it is, because your sins are rifer and riper then your obedient works. We must free our souls, that we have not administered soothing Sermons, least at once we flatter and further you in your follies. You are apt enough to derive authority for your sins, from our lives; and make our patterns, patrons of your lewdness. As I wish that our life were not so bad, so withal, that you would not out-go, out-do it, in evil. You go dangerously far, whiles you make our weakness, a warrant to your presumption. But if you fasten so wickedly on our vices, you shall never find countenance from our voices. We condemn our own ills, and you for adventuring your souls to Satan, on so silly advantage. Stand forth, and testify against us: Did we ever spare your usuries, depopulations, malice, frauds, ebriety, pride, swearing, contempt of holy things and duties? Could any Pharisee ever tie our tongues with the strings of Judas purse; and charm our connivance or silence with gifts? Wretched men, if there be any such, guilty of so palpable adulation; qui purpuram, magis quàm deum colunt. Call them your own common slaves, not God's servants; that to gain your least favors, are favorable to your greatest sins; and whilst they win your credits, loose your souls.

We must follow our Master, who gave us a Commission, and gives us direction to perform it. He came, once with pax vobis, peace be unto you: at another time with vae vobis, woe be unto you. We must be like him, (who was that good Samaritan ) putting into your wounds, as well the searching wine of reprehension to eat out the dead flesh, as the oil of consolation, to cheare your spirits. Sometimes with Jeremiah's Hammer, bruising your strength of wickedness; though here with Jeremiah's Balm, binding up your broken hearts.

And for you, my Brethren, know that the things which cure you, do not evermore please you. Love not your palates above your souls. Thou liest sick of a bodily disease, and callest on the Pysician, not for well relished, but healthful Potions: thou receivest them spite of thy abhorring stomach, and being cured, both thankest and rewardest him. Thy soul is sick: God thy b • st Pysician (unsent to) sends thee Physic, perhaps the bitter Pils of affliction, or sharp prescripts of repentance by his word: though • loathest the savor, and wilt rather hazard thy soul, then offend thy flesh; and when thou shouldest thank, grumblest at the Pysician. So far inferior is our love of the soul, to that of our body; that • or the one, we had rather undergo any pains then death; for the other, we rather choose a willful sickness, then a harsh remedy.

Give then your Physician leave to fit and apply his medicines: and do not you teach him to teach you. Leave your old adjuration to your too obsequious Chaplens (if there be any such yet remaining) Loquimini placentia. Prophecy not unto us right things: speak unto us smooth things, prophecy deceits. Get you out of the way, &c. Threaten your Priests no longer with suits and quereles, and expulsions, from their poor Vineyards, which you have erst robbed, because they bring you sour grapes, sharp wine of reproofs. Do not color all your malice against them, with the imputation of ill life to them, when you are, indeed, only fretted with their just reprehension of your impieties. Barre not the freedom of their tongues, by tying them to conditions, this you shall say, and this not say, on pain of my displeasure. (You may preach against sins, but not meddle with the Pope; or you may inveigh against Rome & Idolatry, so you touch not at my Herodias ; or you may tax Lust, so you let me alone for Nabaoths Vineyard.) As if the Gospel might be preached with your limitations: and forsaking the holy Ghost, we must come to fetch direction from your lips. Jonah spared not Great Nineveh, nor the great King of Great Nineveh : why should we spare your sins, that would save your souls! You will love us the better, when you once love yourselves better. If any gain were more valuable, then that of godliness : or any means more available, then spiritual Physic, to your salvations, we would hearken to it and you. He that is wisest, hath taught us it, we are rebels, if we not obey it. Your exulcerated sores cannot be healed with incarnatiue salves.

4. Spiritual Physicians (no less then the Secretaries of Nature ) must have knowledge and Art. Empirics endanger not more bodies, then ideotish Priests souls. He that cannot pour healthful moisture, and juice of life into the gasping spirit; and fill the veins, that affliction hath emptied; deserves not the name of a spiritual Pysician. Arts have their use; and human learning is not to be despised, so long as (like an obedient Hagar ) she serves Sara with necessary help. Only let the Book of God stand highest in our estimation, as it is in God's elevation, and let all the sheaves do homage to it. But Empirics cannot brook Craterus, saith the Proverb: sottish Enthusiastes condemn all learning, all premeditation. This is to tie the holy Ghost to a Pen and Inkhorne, &c. They must run away with their Sermons, as Horses with an empty Cart. But now, he that will fly into God's mysteries with such sick feathers, shall be found to flag low with a broken pineon: or soaring too high, without sober direction, endanger himself. Barbarism is gross in an Orator, Ignorance in a Pysician, Dulness in an Advocate, rudeness in a Minister. Christ chose Fishermen, but made them Fishers of men ; gave them a Calling, and virtues for it. Shall therefore any fantastical spirit think, that Christ's singular action is our general pattern? As if men were, the more faul • ie, the more fit; the more silly, the more sufficient. Christ so furnished • is with knowledge and language, that the people wondered at their wisdom, and knew, or rather acknowledged, that they had been with Jesus.

It is said of Emperickes, that they have but one medicine for all diseases: if that cure not, they know not how to do it: but the Scribe instructed for Heaven, and instructing for Heaven, draws out of his treasure both old and new, which he hath carefully laid up by his former study: high points for forward Scholars, easier • essons for those in a lower form. To children milk ; such things as may nourish, not oppress: aptanon alta: to the profound, as Demosthenes said he desired to speak, non modo scripta, sed etiam sculpta, matters of weight and diligence. The truth is, that we must preach Christ, not our selves: and regard the people's benefit, more then our own credit: being content to loose our selves, to win others to God. And to this purpose is required learning: as a Pysician is not less knowing, because he gives an easy and common receipt to a certain Patient; but rather out of his judgment finds that fittest for him. It is no small learning to illustrate obscurities, to clear the subtleties of the School, to open God's mysteries to simple understandings, to build up the weak, and pull down the confident in their own strengths. This shall discharge a man from the imputation of illiterature, as well as to preach Riddles and Paradoxes, which the people may admire, not admit; and make that frivolous use of all, this was a deep Sermon. Learning is requisite, or thou art but an Empericke. How many Paracelsian Mountebankes have been the worst diseases to the Common-wealth they live in; whiles they purge away the good humors, and leave the bad behind them? Your Popish Teachers were such ill Purgers, drayning out the good blood of Religion from the vaynes of the Lan • , and pouring in feculent corruptions, ridiculous fopperies, Magicall poisons instead thereof: giving a Mass for a Communion, an Image for the Bible, Stage-apishnesse for a sober Sermon: allowing either no Scripture, or new Scripture; so suppressing the words, and stifling the sense, that hiding away the gold, they throw their people the bag.

5. Good Physicians must not aim more at their own wealth, then their Patients health. Indeed the spiritual Labourer is worthy of his hire ; but if he labor for hire only, he may make himself merry with his reward on earth, Heaven hath none for him. That good is well done, that is done of conscience. The Pastor feeds Christ's Sheep for his own gain: the Sheep are fed; Christ gives him no thanks for his labor. Peter made three manner of Fishings: he caught Fish for money, Fish with money, Fish without money. The first was his temporal trade, the second a miraculous and singular action, the last his spiritual function. Some are of all these sorts: the worst now is, to • ish for the twenty pence. Pi • cantur vt adipiscantur, non homines, sed hominum. They labor hard to take, not men, but men's. Peters Successors called ( Simon's Successors not doubted) have so fished this many a hundred year, not with the Draw-net of the Gospel, but with the Purse-net of Avarice. There are too many such S • luer-fishers, that angle only for the tributary Fish: too many of those Physicians, that set up their bills, and offer their service and cure, not where the people are sickest, but where they are most liberal. Some will not practice, except they have three or four Parishes under their Cure at once: these are Physicians, not for Church, but Steeples. Some are wandering Empirics, that when they come to minister, spend all the time in a cracking ostentation of their Cures, or demonstration of their skill in Pictures and Tables, never approving it to their credulous Patients: These are bragging Physicians.

Some minister only opium to their people, and so lull them in their sick security: these are dull Physicians. Some minister Medicines, not to ease their stomachs of the burden of their sins, but to put lightness into their brains, sca • ing Religion out of the wits: these are Schismaticall Physicians. Some minister Antichristian poisons, to breed the plague of Idolatry among the people: these are Seminary Physicians. Others of this Sect, (living from us by a Sea-division, yet) send over venomous prescripts, binding Princes Subjects to Treasons and Homicides: these are devilish Physicians. Some will sell their knowledge for a meals meat: these are Table- Physicians. Some minister in this place, in that place, in every place, in no place: these are vbiquitary Physicians. Some minister nothing, but what they glean from others prescripts, wanting skill to apply it: these are like Physicians, but are none. Some ring the Changes of opinions, and run a serpentine course, abjuring now, what yesterday they embraced and warranted, winding from error to error, as Dolphins in the water; turning like Fanes on the house-top, with every new blast of Doctrine; Reedes shaken with every Gust, (contrary to that testimony of John the Baptist ) these are gadding, madding Physicians. Some will minister nothing, but what comes next into their heads and hands: these are Enthusiasticall Physicians. Some again, I will not say many, practice only for commodity, and to purge others wealth into their own Purses: these are mercenary Physicians.

Avarice, saith a grave Divine, is a sin in any man, Heresy in a Clergy-man. The Papists have an Order, that profess willful poverty: but some of them profess it so long, till they sweep all the riches of the Land into their own Lappes. The Purse is still the White they level at; as I have read them described: the Capuchines shooting from the Purse, the Franciscans aiming wide of it, the Jesuits hitting it patte in the midst. So with long, or (at least) tedious Prayers, as the Pharisees, they pray upon the poor, and devour their houses. Spiritual Physicians should abhor such covetous desires. Sunt qui scire volunt, vt scientiam suam vendant, • t turpis quaestus est. They that get knowledge to sell it, make a wretched gain. Non vitae docent, sed crumenae. Seneca affirms, that the Common-wealth hath no worse men, quam qui Philosophi • m, v • l vt • liquod artificium vaenale, didicerunt. Miserable men, that look to their own good, more then the Churches; serving God in their parts, themselves in their hearts; working, like those builders about the Ark, rather for present gain, then future safety. But as they desire rather nostra quam nos, so they preserve rather sua quàm se: winning, like Demas, the world, and loosing, like Iud • s, their souls. I have read in the Fable, of a Widow, that being thick-sighted, sent to a certain Pysician to cure her: he promiseth it to her, and she to him a sum of money for satisfaction. The Pysician comes, and applies Medicines, which being bound over her eyes, still as he departs, he carries away with him some of her best goods: so continuing her pains and his labor, till he had robbed the house of her best substance. At last he demanded of her, being now cured, his covenanted pay. She looking about her house, and missing her goods, told him that he had not cured her: for whereas be • ore she could see some furniture in her house, now she could perceive none: she was erst thick-sighted, but now poor-blind. You can apply it without help. Well, those spiritual Physicians are only good, that propound to themselves no gain, but to heal the broken, recover the lost, and bring home the wandering Lambs to the Sheep-folds of peace; ieoparding a joint to save a sick conscience; with Moses and Paul, not respecting the loss of themselves, whiles they may replenish the Kingdom of Christ.

These are the Physicians. It remains, that I should show who are the Sick ; for whose cause God hath prepared Balm, and inspired Physicians with skill to minister it. But the time runs away so fast, and you are as hasty to be gone as it; and this subject is fitter for a whole Sermon, then a conclusion: and lastly, I have evermore declined your molestation by prolixity; therefore I reserve it to another opportunity. If you shall judge this that hath been spoken, worthy your meditation, (laying it affectionately to your hearts, and producing it effectually in your lives) that God, who gave me power to begin this work, will also assist me to finish it: without whom, neither my tongue can utter, nor your ear receive any saving benefit of instruction. A word or two, for exhortation, and then I will leave in your bosoms, and yourselves in the bosom of God. First for us, the Physicians, then for you, the Patients, only so far as may concern you in the former point. For us.

1. We must administer the means of your redress, which our God hath taught us: doing it in dilection, in delectation, with love, with alacrity. Though it be true, that the thing which perisheth shall perish, and they which are ordained to perdition, cannot by us be rescued out of the Wolves jaws. Yet spiritual Physicians must not deny their help, lest dum alios perdant, ipsi percant, whiles their silence damnifieth others, it also damneth themselves. When I say unto the wicked, saith the Lord, Thou shalt surely die, and thou givest him not warning to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand. The Physician knows, that if the time of his patients life be now determined by God, no art can preserve his taper from going out: yet because he knows not God's hidden purpose, he with-holds not his endeavor. To censure who shall be saved, who damned, is not ( iudicium luti, sed figuli ) the judgment of the clay, but of the Potter: Who only hath power, of the same lump, to make one vessel to honor, another to dishonor. We know not this, therefore we cease not to beseech your reconciliation. Nay we are Ambassadors for Christ, as though God doth beseech you by us, and we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. Thus having applied our Physic, we leave the success to God, who alone can make his word the savor of death, or of life, preserving or condemning, destructive to your sins or yourselves, as his good pleasure willes it.

2. The Physician that lives among many Patients, if he would have them tenderly and carefully preserve their healths, must himself keep a good die among them. It is a strong argument to persuade the goodness of that he administers. The Clergy man's strict diet of abstinence from enormities, of fasting and prayer against the surfeits of sin, of repentance for er • ours, is a powerful inclination to his people, to do the like. Habet, quantacum{que} granditate dictioni • , may •• pondus vita dicentis. The preaching of life is made more forcible by the good life of the preacher. An evil conversation is an evil engine to overthrow the walls of edification. Citharisante Abbate, tripudi • nt Monachi. When the Abbot gives the music of a good example, the Monks dance after him; as was their proverb: Plene dixit, qui been vixit. He hath spoken fully, that hath lived fairly. There are four sorts of these Physicians.

1. That neither prescribe well to others, nor live well themselves: these are not Physicians indeed, but Italian Quacksaluers, that having drunk poison themselves, minister it to the people; and so destroy the souls, that God hath bought with his blood. Wretched Priests, that are indeed the worst diseases; allowing in precept, and approving in practice the riot of drunkenness, or the heat of lustfulness, or the baseness of covetise, or the frenzy of contention. These, instead of building up Christ's Church, pull it down with both hands: not lux, but tenebrae mundi : not the light, as Ministers should be, but the darkness of the world, as the sons of Belial are. A foolish Shepherd is God's punishment to the flock. Loe, I will raise up a Shepherd, which shall not visit those that be cut off, nor seek the young one, nor heal that which is broken; but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and tear their claws in pieces.

2. That prescribe well in the Pulpit, but live disorderly out of it; so making their patients believe, that there is no necessity of so strict a diet, as they are enjoined; for then sure the Physician himself would keep it: since it cannot be, but he loves his own life, and holds his soul as dear to himself, as ours are to us. Thus like a young scribbler, what he writes fair with his hand, his sleeve comes after, and blots it. This Priest builds up God's Tabernacle with one hand, and pulls it down with the other. Though this Physician can make very good bills, preach good directions, yet (as sick as he is) he takes none of them himself.

3. That prescribes very ill, preacheth seditiously and lewdly, yet lives without any notorious crime, or scandalous imputation. This is an hypocritical trick of heretical Physicians. Beware of falls • Prophets, that comes to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. Thus the Popish Friars, like the false visionists in Zacharias' Prophecy, will will wear a rough garment to deceive withal. Their austerity shall be stricter then John Baptists, but not with intent to bring one soul to Christ. This cautelous demurenesse in them so bewitcheth their Patients, that they receive whatsoever these administer, though it poisons them. Thus covered over with the mantle of sobriety and zeal, as a crafty Apothecary vents his drugs, so they their dregs, without suspicion. To keep the metaphor; as an natural Physician, out of honest policy, covers the bitter pill with gold, or delays the distasteful potion with sugar, which the abhorring stomach would not else take. So this mystical one (for he is a servant to the mystery of iniquity ) so amazeth the people with a fair show of outward sanctimony; that whiles they gaze at his good parts with admiration, they swallow the venom of his doctrine without suspicion.

4. That teacheth well, and liveth well: prescribeth a good diet of obedience, and keeps it when he is well; or a good medicine of repentance, and takes it when he is sick: thus both by preaching and practice recovering the health of Israel. We require in a good garment, that the cloth be good, and the shape fitting. If we preach well, and live ill, our cloth is good, but not our fashion. If we live well and preach ill, our fashion is good, but our cloth is not. If we both preach well, and live well, our garment is good: let every spiritual Physician weave it, and wear it. This for our selves. For you, I will contract all into these three uses; which necessarily arise from the present or precedent consideration.

1. Despise not your Physicians. You forbear indeed, (as the Pagans at first, and the Papists since) to kill, burn, torture us: (whether it be your good will, or the law, you live under, that prevails with you, God knows:) yet you proceed to persecute us with your tongues, as Ishmael smote Isaac ; to martyr us with your scorns in our ciuell life, our good names. In discountenancing our Sermons, discouraging our zeales, discrediting our lives, you raise civil (or rather uncivil) persecutions against us. By these you exercise our papatience, which yet we can bear, whiles the blow given us, by a manifest rebound, doeth not strike our God. But per nostra latera petitur Ecclesia, impetitur Christus: when as through our sides you wound the Church, nay Christ himself, it is stupidity in us to be silent. Christ, when the glory of his Father was interested, and called into question by their calumniations, took on him a just apology. I have not a Devil, but I honor my Father. If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil: but if well, why smitest thou me?

We have comfort enough, that we can suffer this martyrdom for Christ his sake, being blessed by the peace of our times from a worse. The Courtier cares not so much for the estimation of his fellows, so his Prince approves and loves him. Let God be pleased with our innocence, and your base aspersions of scandals against us, shall not much move our minds. The Ministers of God must approve themselves in much patience, in afflictions, &c. Our war is ferendo, non feriendo. The Miter is for Aaron, not the smiter. We must encounter with Beasts in the shape of men, with Wolves in the coats of sheep, with Devils in the habit of Angels, with unreasonable and wicked men: therefore we have need of patience. Indignities, that touch our private persons, may be dissembled, or returned with Isaac's apology of patience, of silence. As Augustine answered Petilian: Possumus esse in his pariter copiosi, nolumus esse pariter vani. You do in event not so much wrong us, as yourselves. You foam out your own shame ; and bewray your wretched, I had almost said reprobate, malice: for such are set down in the seat of the scornful, which the Prophet makes a low step to damnation. God shall laugh you to scorn, for laughing his to scorn: and at last despise you, that have despised him in us. In expuentis recidit faciem, quod in coelum puit. That which a man spittes against heaven, shall fall back on his own face. Your indignities done to your spiritual Physicians, shall not sleep in the dust with your ashes, but stand up against your souls in judgment.

2. If your Physician be worthy blame, yet sport not, with cursed Cham, at your Fathers nakedness. Our life, our life is the derision that sticks in your jaws, till you spit it out against us. I would to God, our lives were no less pure, then are (even these our enemies being Judges) our doctrines. Be it freely acknowledged, that in some it is a fault. Our life should be the Counterpaine of our doctrine. We are Vines, and should, like that in Jotham's Parable, cheare both God and man. The Player, that misacts an inferior and unnoted part, carries it away without censure; but if he shall pla • some Emperor, or part of observation unworthily, the spectators are ready to hiss him off. The Minister represents (you say) no mean person, that might give toleration to his absurdities; but the Prince of heaven; and therefore should be holy, as his heavenly Father is. Be it confessed; and woe is us, we cannot help it. But you should put difference betwixt habitual vices, nourished by custom, prosecuted by violence, and infirm or involuntary offenses.

The truth is also, that you, who will not have ears to hear God's word, will yet have eyes to observe our ways. How many of you have surdas aures, oculos emissitios, Adders ears, but Eagles eyes; together with critical tongues, and hypocritical looks! You should (and will not) know, that our words, not our works bring you to heaven. Examples are good furtherances, but ex praeceptis viuitur ; we must live by precepts. If you have a Christian desire of our reformation, cease your obstreperous clamours, and divulging slanders, the infectious breathings of your corruption and malice; and reprove us with the spirit of meekness, to our foreheads. If we neither clear our selves from imputed guiltiness, nor amend the justly reproved faults, nor kindly embrace your loving admonitions, proceed with your impartial censures. But still know, that we are nothing in our selves; though we be called lux mundi, the light of the world, yet solummodo lex est lux, God's word is the light, that must conduct your believing and obeying souls to the land of Promise. Did we live like Angels, and yet had our lips sealed up from teaching you, you might still remain in your sins. For it is not an ignorant imitation of goodness, but a sound faith in Christ (never destitute of knowledge and obedience) that must save you in the day of the Lord Jesus.

3. Lastly, let this teach you, to get yourselves familiar acquaintance with the Scriptures: that if you be put to it, in the absence of your Pysician, you may yet help yourselves. We store our memories, and (perhaps not trusting them) our Books, with diverse receites for ordinary diseases. Whom almost shall you meet, (whiles you complain of an Ague, of the Tooth-ach, of a Sore) but he will tell you a Salue or a Medicine for it? Alas, are our souls less precious, or their wounds, griefs, sicknesses easilier cured, that we keep the Clossets of our consciences empty of Medicines for them? The Jews were commanded to write the Laws of God on their walls, &c. God writes them on the Christians hearts. So David found it. Thy Law is within my heart. This is true acquaintance with it. It is our Masters charge, if at least we are his servants. Search the Scriptures, for in them is eternal life. We plead, that our faith is our evidence for Heaven: it is a poor evidence, that wants the seal of the Scriptures.

It was the weapon, that the Son of God himself used, to beat back the assaults of the Devil. Many ignorant persons defy the Devil: They will shield themselves from Satan, as well as the best that teach them: the foul • iend shall have no power over them: yet continue an obstinate course of life. As if the Devil were a Babe, to be out-faced with a word of defiance. It is a lamentable way, to brave a Lyon, and yet come within his clutches. He will bear with thy hot words, so he may get thy cold soul. The weapon, that must encounter and conquer him, is the sword of the spirit, the word of God. No hour is free from his temptations, that we had need to lodge with God's Book in our bosoms. 1. Who knows, where he shall receive his next wound, or of what nature the sickness of his soul shall be? 2. The Minister cannot be present with everyone, and at every time. 3. Satan is never idle; it is the trade of his delight to spill souls. Lay all these together, and then (in the fear of God) judge, whither you can be safe, whiles you are ignorant of the Scriptures. This is the Garden of Eden, whence run those four Rivers, of Wisdom to direct us, of oil to soften us, of comforts to refresh us, of promises to confirm us.

As lightly as you regard the word, and as slightly as you learn it, you shall one day find more comfort in it, then in all the world. Lye you on your Death-beds, groan you with the pangs of nature-oppressing Death, or labor you with the throbs of an anguished conscience, when neither natural nor spiritual Pysician stands by you, to give you succor; then, oh then, one dram of your old store, taken from the treasury of the Scriptures, shall be unto you of inestimable comfort. Then well-fare a Medicine at a pinch, a drop of this Balm ready for a sudden wound, which your memory shall reach forth, and your faith apply to your diseased souls, afflicted hearts. Think seriously of this, and recall God's Book from banishment, and the Land of forgetfulness, whither your security hath sent it. Shake off the dust of neglect from the cover, and wear out the leaves with turning: continually imploring the assistance of God's spirit, that you may read with understanding, understand with memory, and remember with comfort: that your Souls Closet may never be vnstored of those heavenly rec • ites, which may ease your griefs, cure your wounds, expel your sicknesses, preserve your healths, and keep you safe to the coming of Jesus Christ. Trust not all on your Ministers, no nor on yourselves, but trust on the mercies of God, and the merits of our blessed Savior. Nothing now remains, but to show you, in what need you stand of this Physic, by reason of your ill he • lths, and the infected air of this world you breath in. Mean time preserve you these instructions, and God preserve you with his mercies. For which let us pray, &c.