The Happiness of the Church

Obiectiuely.

Jesus Christ is the same in his word; and that

• Yesterday in Preordination.
• To day in Incarnation.
• For ever in Application.

The right hand

Is upon good reason preferred; both for it own worth whereby it excelles, and for the worth of the treasure which it contains. It hath ever had the dignity as the dexterity.

Length of days

Is the treasure it holds. This cannot be properly understood of this mortal life: though the sense may also stand good with such an interpretation. For by me, saith Wisdom, thy days shall be 〈◊◊〉 : and the years of thy life shall be increased. Wisdom is the mother of abstinence, and abstinence the Nurse of health. Whereas voluptuousness and Intemperance, (as th •… French Proverb hath it) Digges the own g •… e with the teeth.

But all a man's Wisdom cannot keep him still alive. The wise man dieth, as the fool, saith Solomon. And the Father of Solomon excludes it from having power to keep a man. That he should live still for e •… r, and not see •… rruption. Me •… ushalem lived nine hundred sixty and nine years; yet he was the Son of E •… ch, who was the son of •… ared, who was the son of 〈◊〉 , who was the son of Cainan, who was the son of 〈◊〉 , who was the son of Seth, who was the son of A •… , who was the son of dust. The best constitutions, that communicate in the sanguine of the Rose, and Snow of the Lily, have this parentage; they are the sons and daughters of dust.

This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i •… not 〈◊〉 to the Poles, nor are these days measured by the Sun in his Zodiac: all is pitched above the Wheel of changeable mortality. It is Eternity that fills the Right hand of Wisdom.

Length of days.

• Days for the Claritie.
• Length for the Eternity.

In her Left hand, riches and honor.

The gift of the right hand is large and eternal, of the left▪ short and 〈◊〉 . Yet you see, I am short in the long part, give me leave to be long in the short part. Herein we have many things considerable.

• 1. That Riches and H •… r are God •… gifts.
• 2. That all are not so, but some: and therefore it is necessary for us to learn, whether God gave unto us that riches and honor which we have.
• 3. That albeit they are his gifts, yet but the gifts of his left hand.
• 4 That wealth and worship are for the most part companions; for both those gif •… lie in one and the same hand.

1. Riches and honor are God •… gifts, therefore i •… themselves not evil. Sunt Dei 〈◊〉 , •… rgo i •… se bona. Saith Augustine▪ Ne p •… tentur •… a, 〈◊〉 & 〈◊◊◊◊〉 b •… na, 〈◊〉 & •… lis. That they may not be thought evil, they are given to good men: that they may not be thought the best good, they are given also to evil men. A rich man may be a good man, and a poor man may be wicked. Christ sanctified 〈◊〉 as well as 〈◊〉 ; and that in

his

• 〈◊〉
• Life
• Death.

1. In his Birth: he sanctified Pouerti •… , when hi •… chamber of presence was a Stable, his cr •… dle a manger, his royal robes course rags. He sanctified Ric •… , when he rec •… ed of the wise men preciou •… 〈◊〉 G •… ld, Frankincense, and Myrth, Que 〈◊〉 ipsissi •… •… la, dedignatus ess •… t. Which if they had been simply evil, he would not have accepted.

2. In hi •… Life: he sanctified 〈◊〉 when he was maintained 〈◊〉 , having no garment to put on; and the good women kept him by their contributions. He was glad to borrow an Ass colt, when he was to ride: and to angle for mon •… y in the sea, when he paid tribute. And ( 〈◊〉 if he wanted a bed) to complain; Th •… Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests: but the Son of 〈◊〉 hath not wh •… re to rest his head. He sanctified Riches, when he called Zacchaeus a wealthy usurer, and raised Lazarus a wealthy citizen, had his S •… d which gave alms to the distressed, and bo •… his p •… se. And like a Prince, feasted thousands at one banket.

3. In his Death. He sanctified P •… ertie, when he had not a Grave of his own, but was buried in another man's Sepulcher: nay, not a sheet to wrap him in, but was beholding to another for his linen. And even dying converted a poor malefactor on the Cross by him. He sanctified Riches, when he accepted the kindness of Joseph, (whom Matthew calls a rich man, Mark an honorable) for his sepulture: and Nicodemus his costly unction, even an hundredth pound weight, mixed with myrrh, and aloes.

Though riches be to some pernicious; a fuming wine which turns their brains: yet to others they are a vessel, wherein they may with more speed sails to heaven: though no compass, star, or cause, to bring them thither. Others are called by David, •… iri diuitiarum, Men of riches: because they possess not their riches, but their riches have subiugated them. We have a kind of presage, though we conceive it not, in saying of such a one; He is a man of wealth. The speech signifies him a slave to his riches: the wealth is not the man's, but the man the wealths.

But otherwise a rich man may be a good man: for wickedness is not bound to wealthinesse, as heat is to fire: and arrogancy or lewdness may be incident to poverty and baseness. Pauper superbus: a poor man proud, was one of Cyprians twelve abuses. A rotten log will yield as much saw-dust, as a piece of good timber: & a peasant ill nurtured, is also ill natured. A great gentleman will show more humble courtesy, then a thrashing hind, or a toiling ploughmā. Hagar was but a Gipsee, a bondwoman yet was her excellent mistress Sara despised in her eyes. As Ier •… m reproved the Monks. Quid facit sub t •… ica p •… nitentis regimus animus? So not seldom a •… sset coat shrowds as high a heart, as a silken garment. You shall have a pal •… rie cottage send up more black smoke, then a goodly manner. It is not wealth therefore, but vice that excludes men out of heaven.

The Friars and Jesuits have very strongly & strangely backbited Riches: but all their railing on it is but behind the back: secretly and in their hearts they love it. When they are out of the reach of eyes, then Gold is their Sun by day, and silver their Moon by night. Some of them for enforced want, like the fox dispraise the grapes they cannot reach. Or as Eusebius notes of Licinius the Emperor; that he used to rail at learning, & to say, nothing worse became a prince, because himself was illiterate. So they commend nothing more then Pouerty, because they are, & must be poor, against their wills.

Others of them find fault with Riches, whereof they have great store; but would that none should covet it beside themselves. So the cosening Epicure made all his fellow guests believe, that the banket was poisoned; that all they refusing, he might glut himself alone. These often cheat themselves, and work their own bane: whiles they so beat off others from the world, and wrap themselves up in it to their confusion. The fox in the fable, with diverse other beasts, found a rich bootie of costly robes and jewels. He persuades the Lyon that he needs not trouble himself with them, because he is king, and may command all at his pleasure. He tells the Stag, that if he should put them on, they would so molest him that he could not escape the huntsmen. For the Boar, he says they would evil favoredly become him: and the wolf he shuffles off with the false news of a fold of Lambes hard by, which would do him more good. So all gone he begins to put on the robes himself, and to rejoice in his lucky fraud. But instantly came the owners, and surprised him: who had so pus •… led himself in these habiliments, that he could not by flight escape: so they took him, and hanged him up.

The subtle foxes, Jesuits and Friars dissuade kings from coveting wealth, because of their power to command all: and Great men, because it will make them envied and hunted after for their trappings. Country men it will not become they say: and all the rest, that it will hinder their journey to heaven. So in conclusion they drive all away, and get the whole world for their master Pope, and themselves. But at last these foxes are caught in their own noose: for the devil finds them so wrapped & hampered in these ornaments, and their hearts so besotted on money and riches, that he carries them with as much ease to hell, as the chariot drew Pharaoh into the red sea.

For us beloved, we teach you not to cast away the bag, but covetousness. Non facultatem, sed cupiditatem reprehendimus. We bid you use the world, but enjoy the Lord. And if you have wealth make you friends with your riches: that they (so made friends by your charity) may receive (and make way for) you into everlasting habitations. It is not your Riches of this world, but your riches of grace, that shall do your souls good. Not my wealth, nor my blood, but my Christianity makes me noble: quoth that noble Martyr Romanus. And though the Philosopher merrily, when he was asked whether were better, wisdom or Riches, answered, Riches: for I have often̄, said he seen poor wise men at rich fools doors; but never rich fools at poor wise men's doors. Yet wealth may be joined with wisdom, goodness with greatness. Mary and Martha may be sisters: righteousness and riches may dwell together.

Chrysostom on that aphorism of Christ, Ye cannot serve God and Mammon observes: that he doth not say, Ye cannot have God and Mammon; but ye cannot serve God and Mammon: for he that is the servant of God, must be the master of his wealth. The Lord Jesus is able to sanctify and save the rich man's soul as well as the poor's: and to send poor Lazarus into the bosom of rich Abraham. Where consider not only Qui sublatus, but Quo sublatus. Poor, but good Lazarus, is carried into Rich, but good Abraham's bosom: to signify that neither Poverty deserves heaven, nor Riches hell. Diuitiae non iniquae, sed iniquis. Riches are not unrighteous, but to the unrighteous. Nec culpabile est habere ista; sed harere istis. It is not a sin to have them, but to trust them.

As much might be said for Honor. It is the Lord that advanceth. Those that honor me, I will honor saith God. It is God, saith Job, that putteth on the kings girdle that fasteneth his honor about him. Promotion cometh neither from the East, nor from the West: nor from North, nor South: but only from the Lord. Hence it follows that Great men may be good men: yea hence it should follow, that great men ought to be good men.

They may be good. Christ had his faithful followers even in Caesars family. Bernard indeed complained, that the Court is wont to receive good men, but to make them bad men. Bonos facilius recipere, quam facere: and Plures illic defecisse bonos, quam profecisse malos. The Court doth sooner take good men, then make good men. There moe good are perverted to evil, them evil converted to good. Yet in the Court of Pharaoh was a good Joseph: in the Court of Darius a good Daniel in the Court of Ahasuerus a good Mordecai. Neither is it ever true that, Quo quis corruptior moribus, & corrumpentior muneribus; the more a man is corrupt with vices, and corrupting with bribes, so much the more set by. The Pharisees objection is sometimes false. Have any of the Rulers believed on him? They may be good; yea

They must be good. For they are vnprinted Statutes whereout every man reads his duty. They are Legis factores, & therefore should not be Legis fractores. Aristotle calls them Loquentes Leges; speaking Laws. In feriours often set their eyes, to supply the place of their ears; and rather look to see their duetyes, then to hear it. All should live by Precept, but most will live by Precedent. A Superior therefore should teach men, to take the measure of his greatness, by his goodness. These two should be of an even length, of an equal pace. If honor out-runs honesty, it will hardly be overtaken. Let such a one appear to the people as he would have them be: and be himself such a one as he appears. A great Person is like a great hill; which gives a fair prospect, but is subject to the lightning and thunder of censures.

2, But it may here be objected, that if Riches and Honor be GOD'S gifts, then is he the giver of Judas his wealth, and Haman's honor. Perhaps you would here learn, whether your riches and honors come from God or no: your demand is requisite, and I will strive to give you satisfaction.

First for Riches.

If they come from God, they are

• Honestly gotten.
• Justly disposed.
• Patiently lost.

1. They are well gotten: for God is not the Patron of unjust gains. He can bless a man well enough without the help of the Devil. There are many that will have wealth though they go a fishing for it, either with Habakkuks net, or Ophni's book. They do not only trouble the waters for it, but they bloody the waters; fetch it out of the bowels and life-blood of the poor. This is not from God, nor will he bless it. But as it was gathered of the hire of a harlot, so it shall return to the hire of a harlot.

It is easy for that man to be rich, that will make his conscience poor. He that will defraud, forswear, bribe, oppress, serve the time, use, abuse all men, all things, swallow any wickedness; cannot escape riches. Whereas he, whose conscience will not admit of advancing or advantaging himself by indirect means, sits down with contented Poverty. But Bonus non cito e •… sit diues: a good man seldom becomes rich on the sudden. Wealth comes not easily, not quickly to the honest door. Neither let us envy the gravel, that sticks in the throat of injustice. For he that will swallow the bait, which hangs on the Line of another man's estate, shall be choked with it. Of riches let us never desire more, then an honest man may well bear away. Mallem me miserum sanctum quàm prosperum peccatorem. I had rather be a miserable Saint, then a prosperous sinner. When the raising of thy roof, is the rasing of another's foundation. The stones shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber shall answer it. Thus •… on accipimus data, sed arripimus prohibita: we take not things with a beggars hand, but with a Tyrants: they are not God's gifts, but our felonies.

For this cause Riches are called Bona fortunae; the goods of fortune: not that they come by chance, but that it is a chance if ever they be good. Vaeac cumulanti non sua. And Woe to him that coveteth an evil covetousness to his house. We think the oppressors avarice evil only to the houses of the oppressed: but God saith, it is most evil to his own. Whether fraud or force bring in unjust gain, it is as a coal of fire put in the thatch of his house.

And to show that God is not the giver of this, he pours a curse upon it; that often they who thus desire most wealth shall not have it: the world being to them like a froward woman, the more wooed, the further off. Woe to thee that spoilest, and wast not spoiled: when thou shalt cease to spoil, thou shalt be spoiled. And Habac. 2. 8. Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the 〈◊〉 of the people shall spoil thee and thou shalt be for booties unto them. Many a great fish in the sea of this world, devours another: and instantly comes a greater, and devours him. As that Emperor suffered his Officers to be like sponges, sucking up the goods of the comminaltie: and being once full, he squeezed them into his own coffers. Pharaohs lean kine, that devoured the fat, were yet themselves never the fatter.

Philip was wont to say, that an asse laden with Gold, would enter the gates of any city: but the golden lode of bribes and extortions shall bar a man out of the City of God. All that is so gotten, is like quick silver; it will be running. If the Father leave all to his son, yet the son will leave nothing for his son, perhaps nothing for himself: never resting till.

Until he hath thrown abroad all with a forke, which his father got together with a rake The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and filled his holes with prey, and his denns with rauine. But I will be against thee, saith the Lord: and the sword shall devour thy young Lions. The father plays the Lyon for his whelps, oppresseth and consumeth the poor: but his young Lions, which he so provides for, shall be destroyed.

We have seen huge hills of wealth, like mountains of ice, thus suddenly thawed as wax, with the heat of Luxury. But Parum iusto, a little that the righteous man hath, is better then the riches of many wicked. For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: the strength of their state shall be confounded. Their wealth is not God's, therefore he takes no charge of it. But the Riches of the good, is the riches of God, and he will prosper it.

2. These riches are well disposed or used. Piety not lust, rules them. He whom God's blessings hath made rich, gives God his part, man his part, and keeps the thirds to himself. He returns part.

1. To God: it is reason that he who gives all should have part of all. And because thou shouldest not grudge it, he challengeth but a little part, but the tenth part, wretched men, that will not give him one, that gave them ten. As Pilate's wife sent her husband word; Have thou nothing to do with that just man: meddle not with God's portion; lest a voice come to thee, as to Abimelech, Thou art but a dead man. This was good Jacob's resolution; of all that thou shalt give me, I will sure: lie give the tenth unto thee. Go too now ye that say, the Gospel hath no law for Tythes; and that they were merely ceremonial. Jacob paid them under nature: they are therefore unnatural men that deny them. You can find no law commanding your payment, but you shall find a law condemning your non payment.

What can then be pleated for our accursed Impropriations? Did the heavenly Wisdom ever give you those riches? Shew us your Patent, and we will believe you. If ever God did convey his own portion to you show us his hand and seal for it. Where did ever Jesus pass away his royal prerogative, or acknowledge any fine before a Judge; that you say, Haec nostra sunt; these are ours? What money did, you ever pay him for them? where is your acquittance? Shew your discharge. O but you plead prescription! If you were not past shame, you would never dare to prescribe against the eternal God. Nullum tempus occurrit Regi: the king of heaven had these from the beginning, and will you now plead prescription? You may thus undo the poor Minister in these terrene Courts, but your plea shall be damned in the Courts of God. We can produce his act and deed, whereby he separated Tenths to himself: have you nothing to show, and will you take away his inheritance? Go to, you have a Law, and by your own law this proceeding is intolerable. You say, you hold them by your law, by your law you shall be condemned.

Perhaps you think to make amends for all, for you will increase the stipend of the vicar. When the Father hath gotten thousands by the sacrilegious Impro priation, the Son perhaps may give him a Cowes grass, or a matter of forty shillings per annum. Or bestow a little whiting on the Church, & a wainscot seat for his own worship. Yea more; he may chance to found a little Almshouse, and give twelve pence a piece a week to six poor people. O this oppressor must needs go to heaven, what shall hinder him? But it will be, as the by-word is, in a Wheelebarow: the fiends, and not the Angels will take hold on him.

For is it not a great piece of charity, to get five hundred pound a year from God and to bestow twenty marks a year on the poor? When David providing for the Temples building, saw how bountifully the Princes and people offered; he gives solemn thanks to God, acknowledging that they had all received this first from him. ^f For all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee. The original is, of thine hand. What here the left hand of God gave to them, their right hand returns to God. They did not as our Churchsackers and ransackers do; rob God with the right hand, and give him a little back with the left: take from him a pound, and restore him a penny. Well you would know whether God hath given you your wealth; and he says, whatsoever you have gotten by Tenths was none of his giving: and, besides everlasting malediction, it shall make your posterity beggars.

2. The second rule of using our riches well, is (when God hath his own, in the next place) tribuere cuique suum: to render every man his due. If they be God's gifts, they must be disposed with justice. This is double; Commutatiue, & distributive Justice. The one Arithmetical, the other Geometrical. Arithmetical is to give everyone alike: Geometrical is to give everyone according to his deserts. 1, Cùm res adaequaturrei. 2. Cùm res adaequatur personae. There are two rules for him that would be just: a negative, and an affirmative rule. 1. The negative. Do that to no man which thou wouldest not have done to thyself. Quod tibi non vis, alterine facias. 2. The affirmative. Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. Not what every man out of his disordered passions would have another do to him: but what in his composed and deliberate judgment he approves done to himself, let him do that to others. Wouldst thou be relieved? Relieue. Wouldest thou borrow? lend.

If I should follow this point of just distribution, as a mark to discern of your riches whether they are God's goods or not; how distasting would my speech be! How few of your houses are filled with those treasures only, which the heavenly wisdom here disperseth! How little of them is found to come in God's name! It may be some of your wealth was given you of God; but your evil usage alters the nature of it; and it can no more properly be ascribed to him. It is hard to draw this circumstance into a square: it is so confused in your actions, that I cannot tell how to find a method for it in my discourse. You may make your riches none of God's blessings, by using them ill in respect of others, especially three ways.

Or

• Detinendo debita, by detaining things due to others
• Extrudendo vilia, by putting forth base things for good.
• Corrūpendo vtilia, by corrupting with good things others.

1. By detaining those things that are due to others: &

these are either

• Debts
• Promises.

1. Debts. Rom. 13. Owe no man anything, but to love one another. Indeed there must be some owing, as there must be some lending: without this mutual commerce we are worse then Savages. But we must pay again. The wicked borroweth, and payeth not again. Debt is not deadly sin when a man hath no means, but when he hath no meaning to pay. There must be votall restitution, if there cannot be actual. Restore Quoad affectum. thought you cannot Quoad effectum. For if their be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, & not according to that he hath not. God reckons that as done which a man vere voluit, tamet si non valuit adimplere; faithfully would, though not fully could accomplish.

There are that will restore some, but not all: to this they have Posse, but no velle: let the creditors be content with one of four. But this little detinie is great iniquity. For a mite is debt, as well as a million. Tam, though not Tantum: so good a debt, though not so great a debt. And he that is faithful in a little, shall be made ruler over much.

What shall we then say of their goods, that break, and defraud others? Come they from God's hand, or from the devils? Surely Satan's right hand gave them, not God's Left. Haec mea sunt, saith the Devil: meae diuitie, mei diuites. These are mind, my riches, and my rich men. O that men would see this damnable sin! me thinks their terrified consciences should fear, that the bread they eat should choke them; for it is stolen; and stolen bread fills the belly of gravel. They should fear the drink they swallow should poison them; being the very blood of good householders, mixed with the tears of widows and orphans. The poor creditor is often undone, and glad of bread and water: whiles they like hogs lurking in their styes, fat and lard their ribs with the fruit of others labors. They rob the husband of his inheritance, the wife of her dowry, the children of their portions: the curse of whole families is against them.

And if this sin lie upon a great man's foul, he shall find it the heavier, to sink him lower into perdition. They are the Lord's of great lands, yet live upon other men's moneys: they must riot and revel, let the poor commoners pay for it. They have their Protections: their bodies shall not be molested, and their Lands are exempted: what then, shall they escape? no, their souls shall pay for it. When the poor creditor comes to demand his own, they rail at him, they send him loden away, but with ill words, not good money. In the Country they set laborers on work, but they give them no hire. Tut they are Tenants, vassals: must they therefore have no pay? Yet those very Land-lords will bate them nothing of their rents. But the riches so had, are not of God's giving, but of the Devils lending; and he will make them repay it a thousand fold in hell.

2. Promises are due debts, and must not be detained. If the good man promise, though to his own hurt, he changeth not. Indeed now Promissis diues quilibet esse potest: men are rich in promises, but they are poor in performance. More respect is had to commodity, then to honesty. Men have their evasions to disannul their promises: either they aequiuocate, or reserve; or being urged plead for getfullnesse. But the truth is, they have sufficient memory, but not sufficient honesty. It is said that a good name is the best riches; Qua semet amissa, postea nullus eris. But what care they for a name, so long as they save their money? Quid enim saluis infamia nummis?

A Pilate could say, Quod scripsi, scripsi; What I have written, I have written: and shall not a Christian say, Quod dixifaciam, what I have promised, I will perform? Hence it comes that there is so little faith in the world: that scriueners have so much work, that the proverb runs in everybody's mouth; Fast bind, fast find: that there is no hope of good deeds, but Sealed and delivered: that there is more trust to men's seals, then to their souls. For the Law of God holds us not so fast, as the laws of men. There is more awe of judgment in the common Pleas, then of a sentence of condemnation in the Court of heaven. The Sheriff is altogether feared, not God: their is no dread of any Execution but his. Is the wealth thus detained, in your own consciences, God's blessing? deceive not your own souls. God requires us to be just in all our words, as righteous in all our ways. A Christians word should be as currant as his coin. Thus you see this first circumstance of Injustice taxed. Therefore Withhold not good from them to whom it is due; when it is in the power of thy hand to do it.

2. By putting forth base things for good. The Prophet Amos speaks of some, that sell the refuse of their wheat the basest wares: neither do they sell them for base, but for good. If half a score lies, backed with as many oaths, will put off their vile commodities, they shall not lie upon their hands. Not upon their hands, I say; though upon their consciences.

Their rule for themselves is Vincat vtilitas; for others Caveat emptor. Either they will show you one thing, & sell you another: and this cozenage hath longer arms then all other tricks, and over reaches them. Or they will conceal the insufficiency of the wares; and for this cause they darken their shops, lest the light should reveal their works of darkness. They love darkness more then light: let them take heed, least it be unto them according to their desires: least as they have brought hell into their shops, so their shops send them into hell.

Or if the commodity be discerned bad, you must have that or none. If your necessity forceth you to buy, it shall force you to buy such base stuff. This is a grievous sin in all professions, especially amongst Apothecaries: because with their injustice may be also mixed a spice of murder. But you will say, we compel none to buy our commodities: we but show them, and make the price. But it is craft tendere plagas, etsi agitaturus non sis: to lay snares, though you drive not men into them. Or be it what it will, yet rather then refuse your money, they will protest to give you the buying. Yea rather then fail, they will sell it you cheaper, then before they swore it cost them.

Quis metus aut pudor est properantis auari? What, sell cheaper then they buy? How should they then live? The answer is easy, they live by their lying.

Now doth this wealth come on God's name? is this the blessing of Heaven? Which of your consciences dare think so? Saint Augustine speaks of a certain Iester, that undertook to tell the people what they all did most desire. Multitudes came to hear this: to whose expectation he thus answered. 〈◊〉 vultis emere, & chare vendere: You would buy cheap, and sell dear. And this is every man's desire, that desires to be rich, more then to be just.

3. By making others bad with his goods: and here we may fitly proceed to the condemnation of Bribery. A gift blindeth the eyes of the wise. They that see furthest into the Law, and most clearly discern the causes of justice, if they suffer the dusts of bribes to be thrown into their sight, their eyes will water and twinkle, and fall at last to blind connivence. It is a wretched thing, when Justice is made a Hackney, that may be backed for money, and put on with golden spurs, even to the desired journeys end of injury and iniquity.

If the party be innocent, let his cause be sentenced for his innocencies sake: if guilty, let not gold buy out his punishment. If the cause be doubtful, the Judge shall see it worse, when he hath blinded his eyes with Bribes. But the will of the giver doth transfer right of the gift to the receiver. No, for it is not a voluntary will. But as a man is willing to give his purse to the thief, rather then venture his life or limb: so the poor man gives his Bribes, rather then hazard his cause. Thou sayest, the thief hath no right to the purse so given: God saith, nor thou to the Bribe.

And this is sinful in a Justicer, though he pass true Judgment on the cause: but much more accursed, when for this he will condemn the cause he should allow, or allow the cause he should condemn. To justify the wicked, and condemn the innocent, is alike abomination to the Lord. Far be from our souls this wickedness; that the ear which should be open to complaints, is thus stopped up with the ear-wax of partiality. Alas poor truth, that she must now be put to the charges of a golden ear-pick, or sh •… cannot be heard.

But to show that these riches are not of God's giving, his anger is ho •… e against them. Fire shall consume the Tabernacles of Bribery. The houses or tabernacles, the •… hambers, hals, offices, studies, Benches; a Fire shall consume them. They may stand for a while, but the indignation of the Lord is kindled; and if it once begin to burn, all the waters in the South are not able to quench it. These Riches then come not of God's blessing: but I pray that God's blessing may be yours, though you want those Riches. Time, that severe moderator, chargeth me silence: and I rather choose abruptly to break off my discourse, then immodestly to abuse your tried patience. The Lord send us the gifts of his Left hand at his own good pleasure, but never deny us the blessings of his Right, for Jesus Christ his sake.

Our selves.

The third act of disposing our Riches well, when God hath his portion, and Man his portion; is to take the thirds to our selves. It is God's will that with the wealth he hath given thee, thou shouldest refresh and consolate thyself. Thou preparest a table before me, thou annointest my head with oil, my cup runneth over. Wherefore hath God spread a table before thee, but that thou shouldest eat? Wherefore given thee a cup running over, but that thou shouldest drink? If thou have wine, make thy heart glad: if oil, let thy face shine: if bread, strengthen thy spirits. Weare thy own wool, and drink the milk of thy own flocks. It is a blessing which the Lord gives to those that fear him; Thou shalt eat the labor of thine own hands: happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. But a curse to the wicked; that they shall plant vineyards, and not taste the fruit thereof. The riches that God truly gives, man truly enjoys. Every man to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor: this is the gift of God. Now a man may take from himself this comfort in abusing his wealth; and this many ways? especially four:

to

• Superstition,
• Malice,
• Ryot,
• Miserie.

1. By spending them upon works of Superstition, to the dishonor of God. And this is a high degree of ingratitude; When God hath given them a sword to defend themselves, and they turn the point of it upon his own breast. So God gave Israel sheep and oxen, and they offer them up to Baal. Many in England are beholding to God for great revenues, lands, and Lordships; and they therewith maintain Jesuits and Seminaries, his professed enemies. These use their riches as the Israelites did their ear-rings and jewels: God gave them for their own ornament, and they turn them to an Idol.

2. By malice, in abusing them to unnecessary quarrels & contentions of Law; to the hindrance of God's peace and their neighbors welfare. When men will put out one of their own eyes, to put out both their neighbors: Nay both their own, for one of his. Thus what they get by the happiness of foreign peace, they spend in civil wars. How unnatural is it for one hand thus to beat and wound another! Either of them gets a shell: You know who goes away with the meat.

3. By riot. Quicquid dant, dant vel veneri vel ventri. They spend more upon the Tavern, then upon the Tabernacle: at the house of plays, then at the house of praise: more upon their own hounds, then upon God's poor children. Julius Caesar seeing women carry little Dogs under their arms, asked if they had no children. God asketh you, that give your bread to dogs, if he hath no children for your charity. But they answer all, as the wicked in the 12. Psalm. Our tongues are our own. They stop the mouth of all exhortation to frugal courses, with It is my own: a man may spend his own as he list: I wast none of your goods: and what hath friend in private, or preacher in public to do with it? But they shall find one day, that they were but Stewards, that these Riches were but entrusted to them, and they shall give a strict account. Nothing is properly a man's own, but Peccata sua, his sins. Thy sins are thine own, thy riches God's.

4. By miserable niggardice, in forbearing to take his own portion; and so becometh his own consumption. No marvel if such a miser starve others, when he famisheth himself. Such a one is the worst vermin the land bears: another vermin seeks but to feed it self; but he hoarding up his grain feeds many thousands of them. Let him beware, least they also at last devour himself. As that Germane Bishop, that having great store of corn in a grievous famine, refused to sell it to the poor, and suffered the Rattes to eat it. But by the •… ust judgment of God, the Mise and Rats which he fed with his grain, did also feed upon him; albeit he built a Tower in the midst of the river Rheine to avoid them; which the Germans call still Rattes Tower. How shall they which slander heaven with pretended dearths, be admitted as friends to that place which they have belied!

You see how these riches must be gotten, how disposed; honestly gotten, justly dispensed; now it follows also in the next place, that they must be

3. Patiently lost: When God gives riches to the good, he gives them also a heart to trust in himself: in himself I say, not in them. Trust not in uncertain Riches, but in the living God; who giveth us abundantly all things to enjoy. He gives abundantly, but he forbiddeth trust in that abundance. He commends riches to us, as a great man doth a servant to his friend; work him, but trust him not: put labor to him, not confidence in him. Wealth may do us good service; but if it get the mastery of our trust, it will turn tyrant, Termagant; we condemn our selves to our own gallies.

To the godly riches are never so dear, but they can be content to forgo them. They receive them at God's hands with much thankfulness, and they loose them with much patience. When God takes ought from us, he does us no wrong. Retrahit sua, non abstrahit nostra: he doth but take back his own, not take away ours. So Job. The Lord hath given, and the Lord hath taken away. The Lord giveth, therefore he may take away. Yea faith says; Lord, take all, so thou give me thyself. We have left all, and followed thee; saith Peter. Nos sequamur Christum, caetera sequentur nos. Let us follow Christ, other things shall follow us. But if they do not, it is gain enough to have Christ. He is too covetous whom the Lord Jesus cannot satisfy. We may loose diuitias Dei, but never Deum diuitiarum. We may be forsaken of these riches of God, but never of the God of riches. Amittamus omnia, dum habeamus habentem omnia. Let us loose all, so we have him that hath all.

That was never perfectly good, that might be lost. Of this nature are riches: they have made many prouder, none better. As never man was better, so never wise man thought himself better for them. That wise Prophet would never have prayed against riches, if their want had been the want of blessedness. The Devil indeed says, All those will I give thee: but the two dearest Aposties say, Silver and gold have I none. Who would not rather be in the state of those Saints, then of that Devil? Riches are such things, as those that have them not, want them not: those that have them, want them: they are lost in a night, and a man is never the worse for loosing them. How many Kings (not fewer then nine in our Island) that have begun their glory in a Throne, have ended it in a cell: changing their command of a Scepter, for the contemplation of a Book! Alas silly things, that they should dare ask one dram of our confidence. Non tanta in multis foelicitas, quanta in paucis securitas. There is not so much happiness in the highest estate, as there is content and peace in the lowest. Only then God be our trust, whose mercy we can no more loose, then himself can loose his mercy.

Thus you see this second general point amplified: if Riches be God's good blessings, (not only in themselves, so they are always good, but to us) then they are gotten honestly, disposed justly, lost patiently. As much happily might be said for Honor; wherein I will briefly consider, how and when it is of God.

God indeed gives Honor and Riches; but not all Honor; as you heard before not all Riches. There are four things in an honored person. First his Person, wherein he pertakes of the common condition of Mankind; lives and dies a man. Even the sons of Princes have their breath in their nosthrilles. Secondly his Honor and dignity; this simply considered is of God, whosoever he be that hath it, a Joseph or a Haman. Thirdly, the manner of coming to his Honor: and this is no longer of God, then the means are good. If it be God's honor, God must give it, not man usurp it. Fourthly the menaging of this Honor; and this is also of the Lord, if it be right and religious. It happeneth often that Potens, the great man is not of God. They have set up Kings, but not by me: they have made Princes, and I knew it not. The manner of getting dignity is not always of God. Richard 3. came to the Crown of England by blood and murder. Alexander 6. obtained the Popedom, by giving himself to the Devil: Yet the dignity is of God. By me Kings reign: by me Princes and Nobles.

It is a hard question, wherein Honor consists. It is in blood, descending from the veins of noble ancestors? Not so, except nature could produce to Noble parents noble children. It was a monstrous tale that Nicippus his Ewe should yeane a Lyon. Though it be true among irrational creatures, that they ever bring forth their like; Eagles hatch Eagles; and Doves Doves: yet in man's progeny there is often found not so like a proportion, as unlike a disposition. The earthy part only follows the seed, not that whose form and attending qualities are from above. Honor must therefore as well plead a Charter of successive virtue, as of continued scutchions, or it cannot consist in blood. The best things can never be traduced in propagation: thou mayest leave thy son heir to thy lands in thy will, to thy Honor in his blood; thou canst never bequeath 〈1 page duplicate〉 〈1 page duplicate〉 him thy virtues. The best qualities do so cleave to their subjects, that they disdain communication to others.

That is then only true Honor, where dignity and desert, blood and virtue meet together: the greatness whereof is from blood, the goodness from virtue. Among Fools dignity is enough without desert: among wise men desert without dignity. If they must be separated, desert is infinitely better. Greatness without virtue laudatur ore alieno, damnatur conscientia sua; is commended by others tongues, condemned in the own heart. Virtue though without promotion, is more comforted in the own content, then dishartned by others contempt. It is a happy composition when they are united: think it your honor ye great men, that you are ennobled with virtues: not that you have, but that you deserve Honor. Let this that hath been spoken teach us some lessons concerning Honor.

1. Take it when God sends it, but be not ambitious of it. Indigni est arripere, non accipere honorem. It is an argument of unworthiness to snatch it denied, not to accept it offered. God resisteth the proud; opposeth himself in a professed war against him; as if he held a sword against his breast, when he would rise up in glory, to n •… le him fast down to the earth. But he giveth grace to the humble: like a great & good Prince he gives those servants grace and honor, whom he perceives least ambitious of it. Such men seek not for honor, as for a Jewel they would fain find, but only stumble at it, as Saul sought but his Fathers Asses, when he lighted on a Kingdom. Pride like smoke will surge upward, though it vanish into air: massy virtue like gold keeps below, & is more preciously respected.

He that would mount, cares not what attendance he dances at all hours, upon whose stairs he sits waiting, what enormities he soothes, what deformities he imitates, what base offices he does prostrate himself to, so he may rise. His carriage is alienum a se, quite another thing from himself: he doth glew it on indecently, that he may skrew himself into favor. This man never understood the charge that goes with honor; Which the most wise disposition of God hath coupled together. Charge without some honor would overlay a man. If a man could have honor without some trouble, it would so transport him, that he were continually in danger of running mad. The poor man envies the great for his honor: the great perhaps envies the poor more for his peace: for as he lives obscurely, so securely. He that rightly knows the many public, and more secret vexatitions incident to Honor, would not (as that King said of his Crown) stoop to take it up, though it lay at his feet before him.

2. Live worthy of that Honor thou hast. Greatness not gooded with grace is like a Beacon upon a high hill: Qui conspiciunt, despiciunt: they that behold it, hate it, though perhaps they dare not censure it. The knee may be forced to reverence, but but the mind cannot but abhor so unworthy a Statue. In his pride he stomachs the covered head, or the stiff knee of a good Mordecai, fretting that other men do not think him so good as he thinks himself. But indeed he doth not think himself more honorable then others think bim base. All the poor honor that he hath, is only kept above ground with his body; both corrupt, fall, and rotte together: and if it be coniurd up at the funeral, to present it self, yet it fails not to go back with the Heralds.

3. Forget not your original, ye whose brows the wreathes of honor have (above hopes) engirt. If the Lord hath raised you out of the dust: and lifted you up out of the dunghill: and set you among the Princes of the people; yet forget not your Fathers house, nor the place of your beginning. Miseranda obliuio originis non meminisse. He never truly understands what he is, that forgets what he hath been. Solomon's observation is often true; Folly is set in great dignity: Albeit this be not the right Vbi; Folly in excellency. Now these excellent fools soon forget, de quo surrectio detur; From howe low estate they are risen. They consider not how glad their Carkases would once have been of a warm covering; that are now richer then Lilies, more gorgeous then May: scarce Solomon in all his glory was arrayed like one of these. They consider not, that need once made them trudge through the Mire, even many tedious journeys; that climb by unjust Riches to that dignity, as in their Caroches to be whirled through the popular streets.

It was Jacob's humble acknowledgement of God's mercy to him. With my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands. If blind Ingratitude would suffer many proud eyes to see it, howe justly might diverse say: With my staff came I hither walking, and now I ride in triumph with attendants. To these let me apply the words of the Prophet: Look unto, the Rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged. Remember your poor beginning, that you may bless God for your advancing. Say not only in general, Quis homo! What is man that thou O Lord art so mindful of him? But Quis ego? What am I, and what is my Fathers house, that GOD should thus raise me up!

4. If thou have Honor, keep it, but trust it not. Nothing is more inconstant; for it depends upon inconstancy it self, the vulgar breath. Which is Bellua multorum capitum, a Beast of many heads, and as many tongues, which never keep long in one tune As they never agree one with another, so seldom do they agree long with themselves. Paul and Barnabas come to Lystra, and raise an impotent Creeple: Hereat the amazed people would needs make them God's, and draw Bulls and garlands to the Altars for sacrifice to them. Not long after they draw Paul out of the City, and stone him. They suddenly turn him from a God to a malefactor; and are ready to kill him instead of killing sacrifice to him. O the fickleness of that thing, which is committed to the keeping of vulgar hands. Trust not then popularitie with thy Honor, so it is mutable: but trust virtue with it, so it is durable. Nothing can make sure a good memory, but a good life. It is a foolish dream, to hope for immortality and a long-lasting name, by a monument of brass or stone. It is not dead stones, but living men, that can redeem thy good remembrance from oblivion. A Sumptuous Tomb covers thy putrefied Carkase; and be thy life never so lewd, a commending Epitaph shadows all: but the passenger that knew thee, tells his friends; that these out-sides are hypocritical, for thy life was as rotten as is thy corpse: and so is occasioned by thy presumed glory, to lay open thy deserved infamy. Neither can the common people preserve thy honor whiles thou livest, nor can these dull and senseless Monuments keep it when thou art dead. Only thy noble and Christian life makes every man's heart thy Tomb, and turns every tongue into a pen, to write thy deathless Epitaph.

5. Lastly, if God gives to some men Honor, it is then manifest that God allows difference of persons. He ordains some to rule and others to obey: some masters, others servants; he setteth some up on high, and placeth others in a low degree. To repine at others greatness and our own meanness, is to cavil with God; as if he wanted wisdom and equity in disposing these inferior conditions. It is a savage and popular humor, to malign and inveigh against men in eminent places. That rhyme, When Adam delued, and Eve span, Who was then a Gentleman? seems to be made among Jack Strawes followers, and to savor of Rebellious discontent. God allows no man to villify, where he hath honored: no scurrilous Libelles disgracing those that live, yea disparaging the very dead; shall pass the Court of God's Justice uncensured. Where the Lord confers and confirms Honor, woe to the tongue that shall traduce it. This second point hath held us long, the brevity of the rest shall ease it.

3. Observe that Solomon in the donation of the left hand, couples together Riches and Honor: as if these two were for the most part inseparable companions. Eccle. 6. God gives to a man Riches and Honor. First Riches, and then Honor: for it is lightly found, so much Riches, so much Honor; and reputation is measured by the Acre. I have wealth enough, saith the worldling. Luke 12. I will turn Gentleman, take my ease, eat, drink, and be merry. Riches are the stairs whereby men climb up into the height of dignity; the fortification that defends it: the food it lives upon: the oil that keeps the lamp of Honor from going out. Honor is a bare robe, if Riches do not lace and flourish it: and Riches a dull Lump, till Honor give a Soul to quicken it. Fifthly then Honor and Riches, Wealth and Worship do bear one another company.

4. Lastly observe, that though riches and honor be God's gifts, yet they are but the gifts of his left hand: therefore it necessarily follows, that every wise man will first seek the blessings of the Right. First seek the kingdom of God, and his righteousness: and these things shall be added to you. Godliness is the best Riches, Riches the worst: let us strive for the former without condition: for the other if they fall in our way, let us stoop to take them up: if not, let us never covet them. It is no Wisdom to refuse God's kindness, that offers wealth: nor piety to scratch for it when God withholds it. When the Lord hath set thee up as high as Haman in the Court of Ahasuerus, or promoted thee to ride with Joseph in the second Chariot of Egypt: were thy stock of Cattle exceeding Job's; seven thousand sheep, three thousand Camels, five hundred yoke of Oxen: did thy Wardrobe put down Solomon's, and thy cup-bord of plate Belshazzar's, when the vessels of God's temple were the ornature. Yet all these are but the gifts of Wisedomes left hand; and the possessors may be under the malediction of God and go down to damnation. If it were true, that sanctior qui ditior, that goods could make a man good, I would not blame men's kissing the left hand, and sucking out Riches and Honor. But alas what antidote against the terror of conscience can be chimed from gold? What charm is there in brave apparel to keep off the rigor of Satan? Quod tibi praestat opes, non tibi praestat opem. That which makes thee wealthy, cannot make thee happy.

Jonah had a Gourd that was to him an Arbour: he sat under it secure: but suddenly there was a worm that bitte it, and it died. Compare (secretly in your hearts) your riches to that Gourd: your pleasure to the greenesse of it: your pomp, attendance vanities to the leaves of it: your sudden increase of wealth, to the growing and shooting up of it. But withal forget not the Worm and the Wind; the Worm that shall kill your root is Death, and the Wind that shall blow upon you is calamity. There is a greater defect in this wealth and worship then their uncertainty. Non m •… do fallacia quia dubia verùm insidiosa quia dulcia. They are not only deceitful through their ticklenesse, but dangerous through their lusho •… snesse. Men are apt to surfeit on this luxurient abundance: it is a ba •… e to security, a baud to wantonness.

Here is the main difference between the gifts of God's right hand and of his left. He gives real blessings with the left, but he doth not settle them upon us: he promiseth 〈◊〉 perpetuity; but with the graces of his right he gives assurance of everlastingness. Christ calls Riches the riches of deceitfulness: but grace the better part that shall never be taken away. David compares the wealthy to a flourishing tree that is soon withered: but Faith stablisheth a man like Mount Zion, never to be removed. He that thinks he sits surest in his seat of Riches, let him take heed least he fall. When a great man boasted of his abundance, (saith Paulus Emilius) one of his friends told him, that the anger of God could not long forbear so great prosperity. How many rich Merchants have suddenly lost all! How many Noblemen sold all! How many wealthy heirs spent all! Few Sundays pass over our heads without Collections for Ship-wracks, fires, and other casualties; Demonstratiue proofs that prosperity is inconstant, riches casual. And for honor, we read that Bel •… sarius an honorable Peer of the Empire, was forced in his old age to beg from door to door, obulum date Bel sario. Frederick a great Emperor was so low brought, that he s •… ed to be made but the Sexton of a Church.

O then let us not adhere to these left hand blessings, but first seek length of days, eternal joys never to be lost. A man may enjoy the other without fault: the sin consisteth praeferendo vel conferendo; either in preferring Riches, or in comparing them with faith and a good conscience. Vtere caducis, fruere aeternis, Thou must necessarily use these transient things, only enjoy and rest upon the everlasting comforts of Jesus Christ. When God hath assured to a Christian spirit the inheritance of Heaven, he joyfully pilgrims it through this world: if wealth and worship salute him by the way, he refuseth not their company; but they shall not stray him out of his path, nor transport his affections: for his heart is where his hope is, his love is where his Lord is; even with Jesus his Redeemer at the right hand of God. Now this man's very Riches are blessed to him; for as from the hand of God he hath them, so from the hand of God he hath to enjoy good in them. Whereas to some (saith Solomon) I have seen Riches kept for the own •… s thereof to their hurt: to this man they shall work to the best; blessing his condition in this life, and enlarging his dition in heaven; as the wise man sweetly. The blessing of the Lord it maketh rich: and he addeth no sorrow with it.

Thus in particular: if we confer the right hand with the left, we shall generally learn

1. That both God's hands are giving: it is enough if man give with one hand; but the Lord sets both his hands a doling his Alms of mercy. Nemo tuarum vnam vincet vtraque manu. No man can do so much with both hands, as GOD with one hand, with one finger. He hath Manum plenam, extensam, expansam; hand full, not empty: so full that it can never be emptied with giving. Innumerable are the drops in the sea yet if one be taken out, it hath (though insensibly) so much the less: but God's goodness can suffer no diminution, for it is infinite. Men are sparing in their bounty, because the more they give, the less they have: but God's hand is ever full, though it ever disperse: and the filling of many cisterns is no abatement to his ever running fountain. Our prayers 〈1 page duplicate〉 〈1 page duplicate〉 therefore are well directed thither for blessings; whence though we receive never so much, we leave no less behind. Let this master of Requests in heaven have all our suites: we are sure either to receive what we ask, or what we should ask.

It is extensa, a hand put forth, and stretched out. Stretched out, not to receive, but to give. The Prophet speaks of Rulers that stretch out their hands for bribes and cry Give ye: but the Lord's hand is put forth to offer good things. All day long have I stretched forth my hands to a disobedient people. Indeed God hath a hand; and woe to the man against whom it is stretched. Homer saith that all the God's could not ward a blow of Jupiter's hand. His hands are not only 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , hands that cannot be sufficiently preised: but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , hands that cannot be resisted. It is a heavy hand when it lights upon men in anger. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. When revolting Israel fell to serve Baal and Ashtaroth Whethersoeuer they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for evil. When the men of Ashdod were smitten with Emerods, it is said the hand of the Lord was heavy upon them. So David in his grievous misery, Thine arrows stick fast in me, & thy hand presseth mesore. It is not this hand that God here stretcheth out. Bernard saith, God hath two hands; Fortitudo and Latitudo. A hand of strength, Qua defendit potenter: wherewith he protects his friends, and confounds his enemies. A hand of Bounty, Qua tribuit affluenter, whereby he disperseth and disposeth the larges of his gifts. This is the hand here put forth, manus regalis, and gives munus regale; a royal hand, full of real mercies; let us humbly kiss it.

It is expansa, not a shut hand, but open, Thou openest thy hand, and fillest all things living with plenteousness. God gives richly, saith Paul. Man is poor, because he is a creature: the very nam •… of creature infers poverty: it implies a receiving of all. Quid habes quod non accepisti? The Creator hath the possession of all, and the disposition of all, at his own pleasure. Every good gift, and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of Lights. Bread in the Lord's prayer is called Ours; Give us this day our daily bread: but ne putetur a nobis, dicimus da nobis: lest we should imagine it our own from our selves, we are taught daily to beg it of our father in heaven, whose it is. It is the Lord's hand that barreth the gates of our cities, that filleth our garners with plenty, that sets peace about our walls, and prosperity in our palaces; that blesseth our goings out, and comings in; even all the works of our hands.

But what speak I of temporal things the gifts of his lest hand, in comparison of length of days, everlasting joys, the treasures of his right? Repentance, humility, charity, and the Lady of all graces Faith come from his hand, and are the fair gifts of God. Ipsum velle credore Deus operatur in homine. The first will to believe is wrought in man by God. If any ask, Cur, illi ita suadeatur, vt persuadeatur; illi autem non ita? Why doth this man believe, & another remain in infidelity? Hic digitus Dei: the hand of God hath been here, working faith in the soul of him that believeth. All comes from this hand of mercy. Quisquis tibi enumerat merita sua, quid tibi enumerat nisi muneratua? He that reckons to God his merits; what doth he reckon, but God's mercies? Quae bo na mea, dona tua: those that are my goods, as God's gifts.

2. Though hands be here attributed to God, yet it is but by way of metaphor; not literally and in a true propriety of speech. To conceive GOD to be as man, with human dimensions, was the heresy of the Anthro pomorphites: and he that thus grossly thinks of God, saith Jerome makes an Idol of God in his heart. But herein God stoops to the quality of our understandings ascribing to himself anger and displeasure, as it were passions to the impassible: whereas Nec Deus affectu capitur, nec tangitur ir •… : they are not passions, but perfections. God hath a mouth, by which he teacheth man wisdom: he hath feet, by which he walketh on the earth his footstool: he hath hands, by which he giveth food to all flesh: he hath none of these organically, as men have; but in the variety of effects which he produceth. So Bernard; Per effectum haec habet, non per naturam.

3. Observe that in the left hand there is a double benefit, Riches and Honor: in the right but a single one; Length of days: yet this one far transcends both the other. For if we should restrain it to this world: long life is a great blessing; and more valuable then wealth and worship. But taking it as it is meant, for eternity. (For this life is but a span long; a span then; now scarce the length of a finger) as Psal. 23. I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever: originally to length of days; but fitly translated For ever: the left hand is as far exceeded by the right, as short mortality is by euerlastingnesse. Aged Israel to his grand-children, Ephraim & Manasseh two sons of Joseph, when the father had placed the first borne Manasseh to his right hand, and Ephraim the younger to his left: he crossing his hands, laid the right upon Ephraim, and the left upon Manasseh. When Joseph would have removed his hands, he refused: I know it my son, I know it. Manasseh also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater then he. The Lord doth bless many Manasseh's with his left hand in riches and honors: but blessed be that Ephraim to whom his right hand is commended. Lord, let others enjoy the treasures of thy left hand, but lay thy right upon our souls.

4. I conclude. Since the Lord out of both his hands pours and showers upon us these mercies, what should we do but be thankful? Shall we receive benefits by heaps; and is the incense of our gratitude of so thin a smoke? Et capitur minimo thuris honor Deus? All these blessings seem to say to man; Take, and take heed: Accipe, red, cave: Receive, return, beware. Take warmth from me saith apparel, heat from me f •… yth fire, strength from me saith bread. Restore thankfulness to the Giver. Or else beware lest the fire burn thee, water drown thee, air choke thee: lest all give destruction, that should give comfort. Receive in the name of God, Return in the Praise of God, or Beware in the fear of God. To whom for the blessings of both his hands, be glory ascribed from all lips and hearts, forever and ever.

The Son of Man.

Christ is called a Son in three respects. 1. In regard of his Deity, the Son of God, begotten of him from all eternity, coequal and coessential to him. 2. In respect of his flesh, the Son of Mary, naturally borne of her. 3. He calls himself the Son of Man, in regard that he took on him man's nature, and undertook the performance of man's redemption. Man like us in all things, sin only excepted. So that in this circumstance two things are considerable in Christ; the one necessarily involved in the other:

His

• Humanity.
• Humility.

Is come.

We understand the person, let us come to his Comming. And herein, Ecce veritatem; behold his Truth. Did God promise a Son of a virgin; Immanuel, a Savior? He is as good as his word; Venit, he is come. Did the sacrificed blood of so many Bulls, Goats, and Lambes, prefigure the expiatory blood of the Lamb of God to be shed? Ecce agnus Dei; Behold that Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. Is the Seed of the woman promised to break the head of the serpent? Behold he breaks the heavens, and comes down to do it. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the Devil. Did God engage his word for a Redeemer to purge our sins? Call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins.

Against unbelieving Atheists, and mis-believing Jews, here is sufficient conviction. But I speak to Christians, that believe he is come. Hac fide credit venturum esse, qua creditis venisse. Believe that he will come again, with the same faith wherewith you believe he is come already. Do not curtall God's word, believing only so much as you list. Faith is holy and catholic: if you distrust part of God's word, you prepare infidelity to the whole. Did God promise Christ, and in the fullness of time to send him? Then since he hath again promised him, and appointed a day wherein he will judge the world by that man, he shall come. As certainly as he came to suffer for the world, so certainly shall he come to judge the world. Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. He that kept his promise when he came to die for us, followed by some few poor Apostles, will not break it when he shall come in glory with thousands of Angels.

Neither did God only promise that Christ should come, but that all believers should be saved by him. As many as received him, to them gave he power to be the sons of God, even to them that believe on his Name. Misit filium, promisit in filio vitam. He sent his Son to us, and salvation with him. Wretched and desperate men that distrust this mercy! Whosoever believes, and is baptized, shall be saved. Whosoever; Qui se ipsum excipit, seipsum decipit. Did not God spare to send his promised son out of his bosom to death, and will he to those that believe on him deny life? No; all his promises are Yea and Amen in Christ: may these also be Yea and Amen in our believing hearts. A yielding Devil could say, Jesus I knew: yet some men are like that tempting devil. Math. 4. Si filiu: Dei sis; If thou be the son of God. Si if; as if they doubted, whether he could or would save them.

Is come.

There is a threefold Comming of Christ: according to the threefold difference of Time, Past, Present, Future. As Bernard.

Venit

• Ad homines
• In homines
• Contra homines.

1. First for the time past, he came among men. John. 1.

1. The word was made flesh, and dwelt among us. 2. For the present, he comes into men; by his Spirit and grace. Reu. 3. I stand at the door and knock, if any open unto me, I will come into him. 3. For the time to come, he shall come against men. Rom. 2. At the day when God shall judge the secrets of all hearts by Jesus Christ. Or as it is wittily observed; the Sun of righteousness appeareth in three signs: Leo, Virgo, Libra. 1. In the Law like a Lyon, roaring out terrible things with a voice not indurable. And they said to Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, least we die. 2. In the Gospel he appeared in Virgo, an Infant borne of a virgin. Math. 1. 25. 3. At his last Audit he shall appear in Libra, weighing all our thoughts, words, and works in a balance. Behold I come quickly & my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

Is come.

He was not fetched, not forced, sponte venit; of his own accord he is come. No man taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of myself. Ambrose on these words of Christ; Are ye come out against a thief, with swords and staves to take me? Stultum est cum gladijs eum quarere, qui vltro se off •… rt. It was superfluous folly to apprehend him with weapons, that willingly offered himself: to seek him in the night by treason, as if he shunned the light, who was every day teaching publicly in the Temple. Sed factum congruit tempori & personis: quia cùm essent tenebrae, in tenebroso tempore tenebrosum opus excercebant. The fact agrees to the time and Persons: they were darkness, therefore they do the work of darkness in a time of darkness. Indeed he prays; Father, save m •… e from this hour: but withal he corrects himself; Therefore came I to this hour.

But he is said to fear d •… th. Hebr. 5. What is it to us Quod timuit, that he feared: nostrum est quod sustinuit, that he suffered. Christ's nature must needs abhor destructive things: but his Rationall overcame his Natural will. He feared death. Ex affectu sensualitatis, not Ex affectu rationis. He eschewed it secundum se, but did under go it propter aliud. Ex impetu naturae he declined it; but ex imperio rationis; considering that either he must come and die on earth, or we all must go and die in hell; and that the heads temporal death might procure the bodies eternal life; behold the Son of man is come. Neither was it necessary for him to love his pain, though he so loved vsto suffer this pain. No man properly loves the rod that beats him, though he loves for his souls good to be beaten. As Augustine said of crosses; Tollerare iubemur non amare. Nemo quod tollerat amat, etsi tollerare amat. We are commanded to bear them, not to love them. No man that even loves to suffer, loves that he suffers.

Voluntarily he yields himself; saluting Judas by the name of Friend: Amice •… r venis? He suffered not his followers to offend his enemies, nor commands the Angels to defend himself. O blind Jews; was it impossible for him, de paruo slipite ligni descendere, qui descendit a coelorum altitudine? to come down from a piece of wood, that came down from heavē? Nunquid tua vincula illū possunt te •… ere, quem c •… li non possunt capere? Shall your bonds hold him, when the heavens could not contain him? He came not to deliver himself, that was in freedom: but to deliver us, that were in bondage.

Is come.

Is Christ come to us, and shall not we come to him? Doth the Son of God come to the Sons of men, and do the Sons of men scorn to come to the Son of God? Proud dust, wilt thou not meet thy maker? If any ask; Whether is thy beloved gone? that we may seek him with thee. The Church answers; My beloved is gone down into his garden, to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather Lilies. You shall have him in his Garden, the Congregation of the faithful. Wheresoever a number is gathered together in his Name. Behold, Venit ad limina virtus, Manna lies at your thresholds; will you not go forth and gather it? The Bridegroom is come, will you not make merry with him? The nice piece of dust; like Idolatrous Jeroboam, cries, the Church is too far off, the journey too long to Christ. He came all that long way from heaven to earth for us, and is a mile too tedious to go to him? Go too, seed, ede, perde; sit still, eat thy meat, and destroy thyself: who shall blame the justice of thy condemnation.

But for us, let us leave our pleasures, and go to our Savior. Non sedeas sed cas, ni pereas per cas. Come a little way to him, that came so far to thee. Philip tells Nathanael, we have found the Messias: Nathanael objects, Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Come and see, saith Philip. And straitwayes Jesus saw Nathanael coming. Christ hath sent many Preachers to invite us to salvation: We ask, Vbi, where: they say, Come and see: but we will not come; Christ cannot see us coming. Mundus, cura, caro; three mischievous hindrers, we come not. Christ himself calls; yet You will not come unto me; that you might have life. He comes amongst us, Christians; ad suos: He came to his own •… , and his own received him not. We say of such things as are unlike; they come not near one another: many clothes lie on a heap together, yet because of their different colors, we say they come not near one to another. But of things that are alike, we say they come nigh one another. Our coming near to Christ is not in place, but in grace. Not in place; for so the wicked is near to God. Whether shall I fly from thy presence? But in grace and quality; being holy as he is holy. Indeed he must first draw us before we can come. Draw me: we will run after thee. He first draws us by grace, then we run after him by repentance.

To seek.

He is come: to what purpose? Ecce compassionem; to seek. All the days of his flesh upon earth he went about seeking souls. He went to Samaria to seek the woman, to Bethany to seek Mary, to Capernaum to seek the Centurion, to Jericho to seek Zacchaeus. O what is a man, and the Son of man, that the Son of God should thus hunt after him! We sought not him. The wicked through the pride of his countenance will not seek after God. Behold, he seeks us. We would not call upon him, he sends Ambassadors to beseech us. We pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconcised to God. Indeed we cannot seek him, till he first find us. Oportuit viam inuenire errantes, errantes enim nequeunt inuenire viam. If the Way had not found us, we should never have found the Way. I oe his mercy: Non solum redeuntem suscipit, sed perditum quarit. How joyful will he be to find us, that is thus careful to seek us!

Let this teach us, not to hide our selves from him. Wretched men, guilty of their own eternal loss, that will not be found of Christ when he seeks them. How shall they at the last day stand with confidence before him, that at this day run from him? If we will not be found to be sanctified, we cannot be found to be glorified. Paul desires to be found in Christ: in Christ found, for without Christ ever lost Those that thou gavest me, I have kept; and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition. Woe to that man, when Christ shall return with a Non inuentus. What can the shepherd do but seek? nolunt inueniri; they will not be found. What the charmer but charm? Nolunt incantari, they will not be charmed. What the Sutour but woo? nolunt desponsari, they will not be espoused to Christ. What the Ambassador but beseech? Nolunt exorari they will not be entreated. What then remains? He that will be unjust, let him be unjust still: and he that will be filthy, let him be filthy still. If we will not be found of him when he seeks us, he will not be found of us when we seek him. They shall seek me early, but they shall not find me. Quaesitus contemnet, qui quarens contemnitur. He was despised when he sought, and will despise when he is sought to.

Three vicious sorts of men are here culpable. 1. Some sculke when Christ seeks. If there be any bush in Paradise. Adam will thrust his head into it. If there be any hole of pretence, Saul will there borough his rebellion. If Gehe •… i can shadow his bribery with a lie, Elisha shall not find him. When the Sun shines, every bird comes forth, only the owl will not be found. These birds of darkness cannot abide the light. because their deeds are evil. Thus they play at All hid with God: but how foolishly! Like that beast that having thrust his head in a bush, and seeing nobody, thinks nobody sees him. But they shall find at last, that not holes of Mountains, nor caves of rocks, can conceal them.

2. Others play at fast and loose with God: as a man behind a tree, one while seen, another while hid. In the day of prosperity they are hidden; only in affliction they come out of their holes. As some beasts are driven out of their boroughes by pouring in scalding water: or as Absalom fetched Joab, by setting on fire his Barley fields. These are found on the Sunday, but lost all the week. Like the Devil, they stand among the Sons of God yet devour the servants of God. As Saul at one time prophesied with the Prophets, and at another time massacred them. Christ calls them to a banket of prosperity, they cry Hîc sumus, We are here: but if Satan (in their opiniō) offer them better cheare; Tibi sumus, We are for thee.

3. Others being lost, and hearing the seekers voice, go further from him. These are Wolves, not sheep. The sheep hears his voice, and comes: the Wolf hears it, and flies. The nearer salvation comes to them, the further they run from it. Because England tenders them the Gospel, they will run as far as Rome for damnation.

Christ came to seek the lost sheep; Luk. 15. he found it, he laid it on his shoulders, and he rejoiced. In his life he seeks the sinner till he find him. In his death he lays him on his shoulders, bearing his sins in his body on the Cross. In his resurrection he rejoiced for him. In his ascension he opens the doors of heaven, & brings him home. Venit & invenit: he comes to seek, and he seeks to save; which is the next point,

To save.

Ecce Pietatem, Behold his goodness. Herod sought Christ ad interitum, to kill him: Christ seeks us ad salutem, to save us. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation: that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. Yield to be found, if thou wilt yield to be saved. There is nothing but good meant thee in this seeking. Vidimus & testamur, &c. We have seen, and do testify, that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. The Fishermens riddle was, Those we could not find we kept, those we found we lost. But Christ's course is otherwise: Whom he finds he saves; whom he finds not are lost forever. It was a Poetical speech; Amare & sapere vix conceditur dijs. To love and to be wise seldom meet. They are met in Christ: he did love us, suscepit naturam he became man: he was wise, occîdit peccatum, he killed sin. In love he seeks us, in wisdom he saves us: here was Amare & sapere. This sweet and comfortable note I must leave to your meditations: my speech must end his saving, though of his salvation there be no end. Paruum est seruare bonos: it is a small thing to save those that are in no danger of spilling; therefore lastly look to the Object;

The lost.

There Ecce Potestatem, behold his power. He is that strongest man, that vnbound us from the fetters of sin and Satan. Fortissimus; for caetera excellit, caetera expellit: he excels the rest, he expels the rest. He had need be powerful, that redeems so weak man from the hands of so strong enemies. Magnus venit medicus, quia magnus iacebat aegrotus. The whole world was sick: there had need be a great Physician, for there was a great Patient. Loe where wretchedness lies at the foot of Goodness; ecce miserum ante misericordem. What but infinite Miserie should be the fit object of infinite Mercy!

Here was then the purpose of Christ's coming; to seek the lost, to recall wanderers, to heal the sick, to cleanse the Leprous, to revive the dead, to save sinners. He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He leaves the nintie nine in the Wilderness, to seek the lost sheep. Whether it be meant of the just Angels in Heaven; as Ambrose, Chrysostom, Hilary, Euthymius think. Or those that thought thenselves just, as Bucer and Ludolphus; the Scribes and Pharisees, that presumed they needed no repentance. He embraceth Publicans and sinners, that confess themselves sick, and lacking a Physician; sinful wretches, and needing a Savior.

Those worldlings in the Gospel have better cheare at home; what care they for Christ's supper? It is the dry ground that thinks well of rain, the hungry soul that is glad of sustenance. The mercy of God falls most welcome on the broken spirit. They that feel themselves miserable, and that they stand in need of every drop of his saving blood, to those it runs fresh and sweet. They that feel themselves lost, are found. They are least of all lost, that think themselves most lost: they are nearest to their health, that are most sensible of their sickness. These he seeks, these he saves: to these Nascens se dedit in socium, con •… escens in cibum, moriens in pretium, regnans in premium. In his birth he became their companion, in his life their food, in his death their redemption, in his glory their Salvation.

Lost; but where was man lost? There are diverse loosing places.

1. A garden of delights: and there the first man lost himself, and all us: in a Garden therefore our Savior found us again. We were Lost in a garden of rest, we are found in a garden of trouble. The serpent could never take the hare, (he was too light footed for him) till he found him sleeping in a garden of sweet flowers, under which the serpent lay hidden. Whilst man not only surfeits on pleasures, but sleeps in them, Satan that old serpent wounds him to death.

2. A wilderness is a place able to loose us: and that's this world, a wide and wild forest; many lost in it. We read of a rich man, Luk. 12. that lost himself in one corner of this wilderness, his very barns: strange, to be lost in a barn. And yet how many loose themselves in a less room, their Counting house! The usurer hath there lost his soul, and no man can find it. It is so long wrapped up among his bonds, till Satan take the forfeit. The depopulator takes a larger field to loose his soul in; and to make sure work, that grace may never find it, he hedges and ditches it in.

3. Another loosing place is a Labyrinth or Maze. In the Orchard of this world the God of it hath made a Labyrinth; which S ^t . John describes. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. The entrance hereinto is easy; as you have seen in that Emblem of Suretyship, the Horne: a man goes gently in at the Butte end, but comes hardly out at the Buckall: the coming forth is difficult. It is so full of crooked meanders, windings, and turnings, out of one sin into another; from consent to delight, from delight to custom, from custom to impenitence: that in this Labyrinth men soon grow to a maze, and know not how to be extricated. Labyrinthus, quasi labor intus: the wicked weary themselves in the ways of destruction.

Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life. Haec tr •… a pro trino Numine mundus habet. This is the trinity the world worships.

Lust of the flesh. The adulterer looseth himself in the forbidden bed. Inter mammillas perditur: he is lost between the breasts of a Harlot. He that seeks for him, must (as the Pursuivant for the Seminary) not forbear the Mistresses bed to find him.

Lust of the eyes. Ahab casts a covetous eye at Naboth's vineyard. David a lustful eye at Bathsheba. The eye is the pulse of the soul: as Physicians judge of the heart by the pulse, so we by the eye. A rolling eye, a roving heart. The good eye keeps minute-time, and strikes when i •… should: the lustful crotchet-time, and so puts all out of tune.

Pride hath lost as many, as any her fellow Devils. They say, she was borne in heaven, and being cast down wandered upon earth, where a woman took her in; and there she hath dwelt ever since. Indeed Isaiah 3. the shop of pride is the woman's wardrobe: in this wardrobe many souls both of women and men too are lost. The common study is new fashions; but it is an ill fashion thus to loose the soul.

If we would get out of this maze, we must (as God warned the Wisemen) depart another way. Out of lust we must wind forth by Chastity, out of covetousness by Charity, out of Pride by Humility. Penitence is the clew to guide us forth: howsoever we came in, we must go out by Repentance.

4. A fourth loosing place is the multitude of new and strange ways: wherein men wander, as Saul after his Asses, and are lost. There is a way to Rome, a way to Amsterdam: a way to the silliness of ignorance, a way to the fullennesse of arrogancy. None of all these is the way to Zion. In the multitude of ways multitude of souls loose themselves.

5. Lastly some are lost in the dark vault of ignorance; applauding themselves in their blindness, and like Bats refusing the Sun-shine. They have an Altar, but it is Ignoto Deo, to an unknown God. Like the Hoast of the King of Syria, they are blind, and lost betwixt Dothan and Samaria. They may grope (as the Sodomites) for the door of heaven: but let not the Pope make them believe, that they can find it blind-fold. Ignorance is not God's Star-chamber of light; but the Devils vault of darkness. By that doctrine Antichrist fills hell, and his own coffers. The light that must bring us out, is Jesus Christ: Which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. And his Word is a la •… pe unto our feet, and a light unto our paths.

Thus you see, there are many places to be lost in; but one way to be found; and that is this; The Son of man is come to seek and to save that was lost. O Jesus turn our wandering steps into the narrow way of righteousness. Come to us that we may be sought, seek us that we may be found, find us that we may be saved, save us that we may be blessed; and bless thy name forever.

Poison.

There is such a thing as Poison; but where to be found; Vbi cum{que} fuerit, in homine quis quareret? Wheresoever it is, in Man who would look for it? GOD made man's body of the dust; he mingled no Poison with it. He inspireth his soul from heaven, he breaths no Poison with it. He feeds him with bread, he convayes no poison with it. Vnde venenum? Whence is this Poison? Didst not thou O Lord, sow good seed in thy field? Vnde Zizaniae? From whence then hath it tares? Whence? Hoc fecit inimicus; the Enemy hath done this. We may perceive the Devil in it. That great Serpent, the red Dragon, hath poured into wicked hearts this Poison.

His own Poison? Malitiam wickedness, Cùm infundit peccatum, infundit venenum. When he pours in Sin, he pours in poison. Sin is Poison. Original pravitie is called Corruption; actual, Poison. The violence and virulence of this venomous quality comes not at first. Nemo fit repent pessimus. No man becomes worst at first dash. We are borne corrupt, we have made our selves Poysonus. There be three degrees, as it were so many ages in sin. 1. Secret sin: an ulcer lying in the bones, but skin'd over with hypocrisy. 2. Open sin, bursting forth into manifest villainy. The former is corruption, the second eruption. 3. Frequented and confirmed sin, and that is rank poison, enveneming soul and body.

When it is impostumated to this ripeness and rankenesse, it impudently justifies wickedness for goodness; venenum pro nutrimento; poison for nutriment. It feeds on, swallows, digests sin, as if it were nourishment. As Hemlocke is good meat for Goats, and Spiders for Monkeys. It despiseth all reproof, sitting in the scorners chair: Which for the poison is called by divines, Sedes Pestilentiae; the Seat of Pestilence. Peccator cùm in profundum venerit, contemnet. When a wicked man comes to the depth and worst of sin, •… he despiseth. Then the Hebrew will despise Moses: Who made thee a Prince, and a Judge over us? Then Ahab will quarrel with Micheah, because he doth not Prophecy good unto him. Every child in Bethel will mock Elisha, and be bold to call him Bald pate. Here is an original drop of veneme swollen to a main Ocean of Poison. As one drop of some Serpents poison lighting on the hand, gets into the veins; and so spreads it self over all the body, till it hath stiffled the vital spirits.

In this Poison there is a double pestilent effect Inficit, Interficit. It is to themselves death, to others a contagious sickness.

To themselves

It is an epidemical corruption, dispersing the venom over all parts of body and soul. It poisons the heart with falsehood, the head with lightness, the eyes with adultery, the tongue with blasphemy, the hands with oppression, the whole body with intemperance. It Poysons beauty with wantonness, strength with violence, wit with willfulness, learning with dissension, devotion with superstition, religion with treason. If they be greater gifts, it poisons them with pride; putting Cantharides into the oil-pot. If meaner, it poisons them with hypocrisy, putting Colocinthis into the porredge-pot. And where the Cantharides of Pride, or Coloquintida of hypocrisy are, there is venenum & exitium; Poison and death. This poison, faster then a Gangrene, runs from joint to joint; as an enemy takes Fort after Fort, till he hath won the whole Country.

1. It is in the Thought: the imaginations are full of poison. Every evil thought is not thus poisonous. There is malum innatum, and inseminatum, saith Bernard. An evil bred in us, and an evil sown in us. Sins, like Weeds, will grow fast enough without sowing: but Qui 〈◊〉 , he that sows to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption: he that shall sow this venomous seed, poisons his soul. Clense thy heart from iniquity, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee? Lodge: he doth not speak of transient; but permanent sins. Such as meditate mischief; study to be naught. Whose imaginations suck poison out of every Object, yea though it be good: as the Spider sucks poison from the sweetest flower.

Vanishing thoughts, that pass through a good man without approbation, not without suppression, are properly Nec mors nec morbus animae, sed deformitas; neither the disease nor death of the soul, but the deformity. They are im •… issae; Satan's darts shot through us: in cord, non de cord: in the heart, not of the heart. Which the godly Sentiunt, non consentiunt; feel, but give no liking to. They are our Crosses, not our sins. Such a thought is but morbus mentis, the disease of the mind; the other morsus serpentis; the wound or poison of the Serpent. The allowed filthy cogitation is the poison. Thus are the thoughts poisoned.

2. From thence it runs to the Senses, and sets open those windows to let in the poisonous air of wickedness. The five Senses are the Cinque Ports, where all the great traffic of the Devil is taken in. They are the Pores, whereby Satan conveys in the stinking breath of temptation.

The ear is set wide open to receive in the poison of scurrilous songs, obscene •… ests, seditious libels. It is not only an Atheman ear, nouitatis auida, greedy of news: but a Cretian ear, prauitatis auida, greedy of evil. It listens to hear of civil wars, uncivil treasons: it would fain have heard the great thunderclappe, which the Gun-powder should have made at the blowing up of the Parliament house. Here is an ear for the Devil. Such ears have the Jesuits: they would fain hear of the ruin of kingdoms. What would make others ears tingle, makes their ears tickle. Aures illae in se sentiant, quod audire de alij •… cupiunt. Let such ears feel that woe themselves, which they desire so earnestly to hear of others.

The Eye- lid is set open with the gagges of Lust and Envy. A libidinous eye draws in much poison. There be eyes full of adultery, saith the Apostle. They fetch in seeds of poison from the Theater, yea (I tremble to speak it) from the Church of GOD. It beholds beauty, (God's rare workemanshippe on a piece of clay) not to bless the Creator, but to draw a curse on the creature. Like a melancholy distracted man, that drowns himself in a clear Crystal river. O such chaste Beauty is like the Bellows; though it own breath be cold, it makes them burn.

There is another kind of Eye; that derives poison to the heart; the envious eye, that is vexed at the richer furniture, fatter estate, or higher honor of another: thinking his own not good, because his neighbor hath better. Any man's advancement is so capital an offense to his malice, that he could shoot out his own eyes, so they might be balls of Wild-fire to consume him. But his malice sucks up the greatest part of his own venom; and therewith poisons himself, rather then others. A man that sees him, would say, He is poisoned: for his blood looks of a yellowish color, like those that are bitten with Vipers. His gall flows as thick in him, as if he had a poisoned stomach. If he had, as Seneca wished to the Envious, eyes in every place; his vncontainable poison would soon burst him. As he is, he would be another's enemy, but is his own mischief

3. From the Senses it runs to the Tongue; and sets it a swelling, a swearing, that it infects the air, and poisons the very Walls of the house. The excrements of the Jews spet upon the face of our Savior, were not so feculent. Their blasphemies strive to blast, not only the plants of the earth, but even the planets of Heaven; the Sun and Stars: and if it were possible, they would make new wounds in the side of Jesus Christ. If any swearer think, I do his tongue wrong; let him read. Rom. 3. The poison of Asps is under their lips. If you would know what that pestilent poison is, the next verse expounds it. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. They carry worse poison in •… re, in their mouth; then any serpent in caud •… , in his tail. Their tongue is full of deadly poison. 1. They have poison. 2. not dead, but deadly; mortal poison. 3. not a little, but saturitie of it; full of deadly poison.

Poison hath thus got from their silent thoughts, to their moving senses; and from thence to their, loud and lewd talking tongues. And this bewrays their venom, as the Serpents Hissing betrays his malice. The heart of fools is in their mouth, but the mouth of the wise is in their heart. Caesar said, he feared not Anthony, whose heart was in his tongue; but Cassius, whose tongue was in his heart. A wicked man's tongue discovers him. A bell may have a crack, though invisible: take the clapper and strike, and you shall soon perceive it. The ungodly may conceal his wickedness by silence: but if the clapper strikes, if his tongue walks, you shall quickly perceive, he is cracked. A poisoned tongue cannot forbear to sputter abroad his venom.

4. From the Tongue this poison runs to the Hands. Anaxagoras thought Man the wisest of all creatures, because he hath hands: he might have thought him the wickedest of all creatures, because he hath hands. No creature doth so much hurt with his teeth or talons, as the wicked man with his poisoned hands. A man doth greatly express himself by his hands. Paul by beckoning his hand, procured silence. Much is done Maiestate manus, as the Poet; by Majesty of the hand. The wit seems to manifest it self in the hands: as the Italians say of the Duchmen, that their wit dwells in their fingers end. The power in the hands. An nescis longas Regibus esse manus? Yield the hand a principal instrument; yet corruptio optimi pessima. The evil hand doth not so much manifest man's wittiness, as his wickedness, They devise iniquity, and practice it, because it is in the power of the Hand. The poison that was conceived in their thoughts, dilates it self into their hands: cogitant, agitant.

God reproves the Jews, that they had Manus sanguinum, bloody hands. And the same Prophet seems to liken it to a venomous infection: your hands are defiled with blood. And if the tongue can be possibly brought, to smother the in cherished poison, yet manus manifestabit, the hand will discover it. ver. 6. The act of violence is in their hands. The Israelites soon suspected, what a king Rehoboam would be when he threatened Grauitatem manus, to make his hand heavy; yea his finger heavier then his fathers Loynes. Ahab quite disgraced himself for being thought religious, when he laid a violent hand on Naboth's vineyard. Jeroboam makes it plain, that he bore no love to God's Prophets, cùm extendit manum; when he put forth his hand to strike one. Many Landlords seem Christians, but they have Rehoboams hand, a heavy hand on their Tenants, many userers come to Church, but they have Ahab's hand, to take the forfeit of the poor debtors heritage. Many parishioners seem to love their Prophets, but they have Jereboam's hand, a hand that strikes them, if not in person, yet in estate; undoing them and their families. This is venenata manus, a poisoned Hand.

5. Lastly this poison having got possession of the thoughts, words, works; it must needs follow that it hath taken the Heart. Cor dolet, the whole heart is sick. These corrupted simptomes prove that the heart is rotten The very meat in their bowels is turned to the gall of Asps. They suck the poison of Asps. If you ask why they feel it not; Paul says; Their sense is lost: They are past feeling. Their whole self is changed into a disease. Their body is no longer Corpus, but Morbus. As Lucan. Totum est pro vulnere corpus. Their whole body is as one wound or sickness. Neither can we say so properly of them, that they are sick, as that they are dead. Nonaegroti, sed defuncti: not diseased, but deceased.

And in all this observe the effect of this Poison in themselves. For it doth not only annoy others, but mostly destroy themselves. And herein their poison is not only Tale and Tantum, such and so much as that of Serpents: but Plus & Perniciosius, more, and more dangerous. Seneca says, Venenum quod serpentes in alienam perniciem proferunt, sine sua continent. The poison which serpents cast out to the domage of others, they retain without their own periudice. But the poison of the wicked, dum alios inficit, seipsos interficit; Whilest it infects others, kills themselves. His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself. Their own wickedness, like poison, hath in themselves these three direful effects.

It makes them

• Swell.
• Swill.
• Burst.

1. It makes them swell with pride, and blows up the heart, as a bladder with a quill. Quis est David? Who is David? and who is the Son of Jesse? Yea Quis est Dominus? Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? Thus the Spider, a poisonous vermin, Climes up to the roof of the kings palace. If he be in prosperity nothing can hold him to a man. Be he but a Thistle, he sends to the king of Lebanon, for his daughter to be his Sons wife. Though he be but a dwarf in comparison, he would swell to a son of Anak. Sin hath puffed him up, & he forgets his maker. The Lord hath fed him to the full, & he rebels against him. We have then good cause to pray with our Church; In the time of our wealth, good Lord deliver us.

2. It makes them swill: the poison of sin is such a burning heat within them, that they must still be drinking. And the devil, their Physician, holds them to a diet-drink: they shall not have the water of the Sanctuary, that would cool them: but the harsh, harish, & ill-brewd drink of damnation. They shall taste nothing but sin; more poison still. Which is so far from quenching their thirst, that it enflames it.

So a man puts out the Lamp by pouring in more oil and extinguisheth the fire by laying on fuel. This may for a small time allay the heat, as cold drink to a burning fever. So Ahab's, fervor was a little delayed, with a draught of wine out of Naboth's vineyard. But Satan holds his guests to one kind of lycour, and that's rank poison; the mud of sin and wickedness. He allows them no other watering place, but this Puddle-wharfe.

3. It makes them burst, here be the three sore effects of sin in the soul, as of poison in the body. Frst it makes a man swell, then it makes him drink, lastly it it bursts him. Judas is houen with covetousness, he drinks the money of treason, and then he bursts. Rumpuntur viscera Iudae. he burst out. This is the catastrophe of a wicked life. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth forth death.

To others.

You see how fatal the poison of the wicked is to themselves. It doth not only rumperese, but corrumpere alios: burst themselves, but corrupt others. It deprives their own good, it depraues others good. The hurt is doth to others, consists.

in

• Correptione,
• Corruptione.

Outwardly

Their Poison breaks forth in the injuries of all about them. They spare neither foreigner nor neighbor. There be little snakes in Babylon, that bite only foreigners, and not inhabitants. Pliny writes of Scorpions in the hill Caria, that when they sting, only wound the natural borne people of the Country; but extraneos leuiter mordere, but bite strangers gently, or not at all. These, like fools, not only strike them that are nearest, but between their poison in ruinam omnium, to the overthrow of all. Such a one cannot sleep except he have done mischief: nay he dies, if others do not die by him. Et si non aliqua nocu •… sset, mortuus esset. A man's Land cannot scape the poison of the depopulator: nor his estate the poison of the usurer; nor his children the ravisher: nor his peace the contender: nor his name the slanderer. If their poison cannot prevail ad interitum hominis, they will spend it ad interitum nominis. If they cannot murder, they will murmur. They are the Devils bandogs; as one calls Parsons the Popes Cerb •… rus. If they cannot come to bite, they will bark. If their sting cannot reach, their mouth shall sputter out their venom.

Yea some of them do not only this mischief whiles they live, but etiam mortui, even dead. As Herod, that caused the noble Sons of the Jews to be slain post mortem suam, after his death. They write of some serpents, that their poison can do no hurt except it be shot from the live bodies of them: but these leave behind them a still evil-working poison. As we say of a charitable man, that he doth good after he is dead; his alms maintain many poor souls on earth, when his soul is in heaven: Et quamvis ipse sepultus, alit. So these wicked sin perpetually even dead. The incloser of commons sinneth after he is dead: even so long as the poor are deprived of that benefit. He that hath robbed the Church of a tenth, & so leaves it to his heir, sins after he is dead: even so long as God is made to loose his right. Moriente serpent moritur venenum: but here moriente homine viuit peccatum. As one said of a Lawyer that resolving not to be forgotten, he made his will so full of intricate quirkes; that his executors (if for nothing else; yet) for very vexation of law might have cause to remember him. Jereboam's sin of Idolatry out lived him. The unjust decrees of a partial Judge may out live him: even so long as the adjudged inheritance remains with the wrongful possessor. The decrees of diverse Popes; as in curtalling the Sacrament, forbidding marriage, &c. are their still living sins though themselves be dead and rotten.

Inwardly.

Their poison doth most hurt by Infection: their company is as dangerous as the plague: a man cannot come near them, but he shall be contaminated. Like the weed called Gosses, they make the ground barren wheresoever they grow. Their Poison is got

Per

• Contactum
• Contractum
• Compactum
• Conspectum

1. By touching: he that toucheth pitch, shall be defiled. It is dangerous to sport and dally with them: dum ludunt, laedunt. He casteth firebrands, and arrows, and death; and saith, Am I not in sport. As Solomon saith, Their very mercies are cruel: so their very jest is killing earnest.

2. By companying with them: they hurt by sporting, but worse by sorting. Cast in thy lot among us, let us all have one purse. They that will quarter themselves with the wicked, must drink of their poison. If you ask, how happes it that their infection is not sm •… lt: Bernard answers; Vbi omnes s •… rdent, vnius minime sentitur: one is not smelt, where all stink.

3. By Confederacie; which is yet a higher degree of receiving their poison. The first was alight dallying with their humors, the next a society with them in some drunken riots and disorders: but this third is a conspiracy with them in their pernicious and deadly plots. Thus a Seminary comes from Rome, and whistles together a number of traitors: he brought poison with him in a Bulls horn, and they all must drink it. As they report, that once one scabbed sheep from Spain rotted all the sheep of England.

In this manner is the poison of adultery spread from a Harlot. In selling her flesh she sets pretium peccati, and takes premium peccati: either pretium pacti, or premium facti: she hath her price, and gives her male his reward. This is a damnable combination: he that goeth after her, poisons himself per compactum; he bargains for his own destruction.

4. By Sight; as they that look on ill affected eyes attract some of the anguish by a kind of reflection. So the very beholding of their wicked example, derives corruption to the heart by resultance. Many sins had been unknown, if they had not been learned by precedent. Great men graceless are the devils special factors: they have their new tricks of vanity to teach others. And they often broach these new fashions of damnation, not so much out of affection to the thing it self, as to be talked of. As Alcibiades cut off his dogs tail, that all the people might talk of his curtall. O the unspeakable deal of poison that is thus conveyed into men's hearts: and the innumerable souls, that go to hell by pattern. Thus they hurt others.

But I have been too copious in discovery of their poison: I should come to their Deafnes; but I am loath to speak of deafness till the end of the Sermon. Their poison being thus compared with the poison of Serpents, let us now compare

Their Persons.

They are here said to be Sicut Serpentes; Like Serpents. But Matthew 23. CHRIST calls the Pharisees very Serpents. And John Baptist a generation of Vipers. And GOD tells Ezekiel, that he did dwell among Scorpions. In these places the Sicut is left out, and the wicked are called very Serpents. Not that the frame and form of their bodily constitution was Serpentine.

It was a foolish opinion among the Heathen, that there were Ophiogenes, or Anguigenae. They write of Ophion, the companion of Cadmus, and builder of Thebes, that he was made by Pallas, of a Dragons tooth. So Ephesus was once called Colubraxia: and the people thereof Ophiussa.

I have read of one Exagon, an Ambassador to Rome, being at the Consuls command cast into a Tunne of snakes; that they licked him with their tongues, and did him no harm. But to conclude hereon that these were of Serpents brood; we might as well say, Daniel was borne of Lions, because they did not hurt him.

They are mystical Serpents, I mean. And if wicked men think scorn to be called Serpents, let them abhor the qualities of Serpents. Sin is of that power, that it can work metamorphoses, and transform men into beasts and serpents. Let us now see what Serpents we have among us.

1. We have the