THE KINGS TOWRE, And TRIVMPHANT ARCH OF LONDON.
A Sermon preached at PAVLS Crosse, August. 5. 1622.
By SAMVEL PVRCHAS, Bacheler of Diuinitie, and Parson of Saint Martins Ludgate, in London.
LONDON Printed by W. STANSBY, and are to be sold by Henrie Fetherstone. 1623.
THE KINGS TOWRE, AND Triumphant Arch of LONDON.
Turris salutum Regis sui.
He is the Towre of saluation for his King.
THis day Luc. 4.21 (said our Sauiour of another prophesie) is this Scripture fulfilled in your eares. 2. Reg. 7.9. This day is a day of good tydings, and we hold our peace (said the Lepers.) Not so you, who, being silent, speake; [Page 4] and your Liueries seeme to proclayme some great deliuerance. Luc. 19.9. Saluation seemes this day come to your house: nay, the House and Towre of saluation came this day to the King, then in the House of Traitors: and we are here assembled in his house, to praise him, who was not onely a Towre of saluation to his King, but of confusion to his enemies. Vers. 27. b. c. With the pure, thou wilt shew thy selfe pure, & cum peruerso peruerteris, vers. 27. As the Towre of Siloam Luc. 13.4. vpon those eighteene Inhabitants of Hierusalem, or the Wall of Aphek 1. Reg. 20.30. on the Aramites: so did this Tower fall on the Traitors, & Salust. Cat. incendium ruinâ extinxit, and buried them, and their fire, fetcht from Hell, in the ruines.
The many profits of festiuall institutions and solemnities.This day is the two-and-twentieth Anniuersarie of that deliuerance from Gowries conspiracie. Whereof we obserue the festiuall-solemnitie, that the time it selfe may be a Text, to quicken our Memorie; Memorie may awaken Consideration; Consideration may excite Admiration; Admiration might [Page 5] incite Thankfulnesse; Thankfulnesse may swell into extaticall Iubilees of joyes Deut. 16.11, 14. Neh. 8.9., Te Deum's, Hallelujah's, in the best habit of our Bodies and Soules, to bee a glimpse and taste of Heauen it selfe. This is the true nature of a feast, to be a representatiue Heauen: as Saint Bernard; Nihil ita propriè in terris repraesentat coelestis habitationis statum, sicut alacritas laudantium Deum. A feast is the lay-mans Historie, the Witnesse of Times, Light of Truth, Life of Memorie, Mistresse of Life: whereby our Fides hath a kinde of vides, our hopes haue cheerfull tastes of happinesse, and (like Dauid) from the passed,1. Sam. 17.37. argues to future Deliuerances. Loue, thus feasted, feasts againe; entertayning GOD, with praises; his King, with more obseruance and alleageance; fellow-subjects, with mutuall duties; and the needie, with charitable beneficence;Esth. 5.22. which was alwayes wont to bee an invited Guest at feasts, and principall ingredient of thankfulnesse.
Such feasts, GOD and good Gouernours [Page 6] appointed in the Law; as those of Moses declare, with the addition of Temporarie, in 2. Sam. 6.19. Dauids fetching home the Arke, Salomons 1. Reg. 8.65. consecrating the Temple: or Anniuersarie, as Esth. 9.17. Mordecai's lots, and Maccabees 1. Macc. 4.56. dedication. Ioy made Dauid 2 Sam. 6.14. not goe, but dance before the Arke: and his tongue here speaks not Sentences, but tuneth Songs, Vers. 1. b. c. verba carminis hujus. Wherein, if ioyfull thankfulnesse hath made vs to lift vp our simpler, to a more festiuall, and oratorian, style, let no 2. Sam. 6.21. Michol scoffe. (It is before the Lord, therefore will I play before the Lord) nor impute it to selfe-conceited arrogance, or King-pleasing flatterie; that, Fellonie; this, Treason; both, in this place, also Sacrilege. It Exod. 3.5. is holy ground, where we must put off such shooes.
Herod. l. 1.If the sonne of Croesus, a Heathen, being dumbe, spake, to obtayne the deliuerie of a King; shall not dumbe Zacharie Luc. 1.68. open his mouth, with a Benedictus, for deliuerie obtayned? Ordinarie words for ordinarie things, actions [Page 7] and times: the highest are due for the highest, and for him that is Eccles. 5.8. higher then the highest, euen ordinance (if we had it) to resound the Tower of saluations for his KING. Open Psal. 51.15. thou my lips, O Lord, and my mouth shall shew and sing thy praise. And while Psal. 45.1. I speake of the things, which I haue made touching the King, let my tongue be the pen of a readie Writer.
These words are the close, and passionate Epiphonema of this [...], or triumphant song of Dauid, in this place, and againe, in the eighteenth Psalme, repeated, to shew the necessitie of his thankfulnesse for full deliuerance from Saul Vers. 1. b. c. and all his enemies: wherein he hath strayned his inuention to so high a note, that the bests Poets (my best Reason, being Iudge) come not neere his descriptions of Perils, of Majestie, of magnificent deliuerie, victorie, triumph: but in a small plot, what needes a long suruey? At once he speaketh al in this clause, HE IS A TOWRE OF SALVATION FOR HIS KING; a [Page 8] Thesis applyed to the Hypothesis, Dauid and his seede for euer, in the words following.
The words of our Text are, in the originall, [...] three; in the English, six; Towre of saluation for his King; which yeeld so many steps (like those 1. Reg. 10.19. of Salomons throne) to our consideration. For [HE IS] in the beginning is not expressed, and yet is the expressure of the Text; is invisible, and withall the life and soule of the whole. Once; [HE IS] is set vpon the Throne, and dwells in light 1. Tim. 6.16. inaccessible, as the Lord on the top Gen. 28.13. of Iacobs ladder: it is enough for Angels, and Men, Ministers, and Hearers, to ascend and descend the six steps; 1 which are, first, Deliuerance, Omnimodam salutem, (Trem.) or magnificans, 2 in the vulgar: secondly, not salutem, but salutes; magnificans salutes: good Diuinitie, whatsoeuer be the Grammarnicetie. Hee is magnificent in his deliueries, multiplieth saluations, and maketh them as many, as great. The word must exceede rule, (Pluralia rarò Pubes [Page 9] at (que) salus) if it expresse his superexceeding saluations, which doth not deliuer alone, but exalt; as a King, which to his pardon addeth new Charters of Honours, Lands, Offices. Or else, against such an Enemie, such a World, such a Hell of Enemies, little and few deliuerances were not deliuerance: it requires magnificans salutes, magnificent, munificent saluations, as our vulgar English readeth, Great prosperitie giueth he, not great deliuerance alone. Thirdly, this also is not enough, hee 3 giues not, He is the saluation, in his superessentiall essence (or saluations in the pluralitie of persons, as 2. Sam. 7.23. Dij iuerunt ad redimendum; a mysterie of the Trinitie saluation in the abstract. But (fourthly) because our eyes 4 cannot looke on such supersubsisting perfection immediately, therefore (as he,Herodot. which got a Kingdome by seeing the Sunne first, looked not to the East, but to a high tower in the West, which his rising beames first saluted: so) for the heauenly Kingdome, is this abstract [Page 10] made concrete to vs, in the metaphore 4 of a Towre, Turris salutum: in this resemblance may wee see the saluation of God (qui scrutatur majestatem, opprimetur à gloria) which otherwise would dazzle and blinde our prying, staring eyes.
And though GOD be a Towre to all, 5 yet (fiftly) most of all, to the Flowre of 6 all, To his, his peculiar. And, lastly, that the King may bee a Treasurie and Towre of saluation to others, He, who is good to all, is a Towre of saluation to the Towre of all his, the King. Turris salutum Regis sui, Hee is a Towre of saluation for his King. Aboue this Towre is onely the crosse, immensitie, and eternitie: Super Imperatorem non est nisi Deus, qui fecit Imperatorem. Quantus Deus, qui deos facit?
Thus for the ascent of our Text. The latitude of it (latum mandatum tuum nimis, Psal. 119.96. saith the Psalmist) is from Hierusalem to London, from Dauid, to all Kings, yea, from Zion to the worlds end; First and literally to Dauid and his [Page 11] seede: the whole historie of Dauid, in the two books of Samuel, and the first of Chronicles, this Psalme, twice repeated, with others, are Commentaries of the Text, for his person: as the rest of the Bible-historie, for his feede. Wee should powre water into the Sea, and abuse your patience, to expatiate at large in this sense. Secondly, this is true in mysticall Dauid, our King, that is, Christ, and his seede, all Christians; who, together with him, are not the seedes, Gal. 3.16 10.15.1. Ep. 2.15.21 1. Cor. 12.12. as many, but the seede, as one; one Vine, one Temple, one new Man, one Christ. And in this sense wee will first handle it ascending-wise, and after that, come to a third application, descending this Scala coeli, to Kings, the Dauids of their Countries, especially Christian Kings, the Heads of the Tribes of Israel, His Kings, ouer His People, most especially This King ouer This People, whom the GOD of Iacob long preserue, The defender of the Faith. This indeed is most proper to the day: and therefore in the other sense (fertile [Page 12] enough for many Sermons) we will be more sparing, then otherwise wee would; in the little Map of this Text, beholding our Catholike Commons, and Christian Immunities, the rather to incite vs to obserue the Royall Prerogatiue in the last place, for which the Text was chosen, Verbum dici, in die suo.
First, Hee is a towre of saluation, that is, giueth great deliterance to vs all, as to his Kings. IESVS giueth Ieshugnoth, that is, is named Sauiour, Mat. 1.21 because hee saueth his people (his Kings) from their sinnes. For God is the entitie and immensitie of Goodnesse, Greatnesse, Blessednesse: which in fellowship with him, we enioy; Ps. 36.9. In thy light, shall wee see light; Ps. 16.11. in thy presence is fulnesse of ioy, &c. Isa. 59.2. But your inquities (saith Isayah) haue separated betweene you and your God, and your sinnes haue hid his face from you. Neither can any separate our sinnes (these Separaters of vs from God;) euery Creature owing all it is, hath, can, to the Creatour, Ro. 11.36. Reu. 4.11. in whom, [Page 13] by whom, and for whom, it is, and was created: And therefore hee which had made man Gen. 1.27 after Gods Image, made himselfe after mans Image, to free vs from that Image of the Eph. 4.22. old man, and Reu. 12.9 old Serpent, which sinne had portrayed in our soules and body throughout. 2. Cor. 5.21. He was made sinne for vs, that we might bee made the righteousnesse of God in him.
In sinne are foure things; the fault, 1. Ioh. 3.4 [...], 1. Cor. 15.59. The strength of sinne is the Law, thereby broken, and taking hold of the forfeiture; Secondly, Reatus, the guilt, which is a Latitat, Out-lawrie, Witte of Rebellion, an Arrest out of all Courts, which our owne consciences will and shal execute. The third is macula, whereby the Sinner, as a selfe-prisoner vnder the arrest of Conscience, is cast in Irons, and further polluted and intangled in the cords and corruption of his owne sinne, the old remayning and new Actions and Indictments, as new sores breaking out, are entred against [Page 14] him euery day: The fourth is Poena, the finall punishment and curse, Mat. 25.41. Ite maledicti. O the miseries of that Sinner, easelesse, endlesse, remedilesse, where he shall euer be dying, and his death neuer be dead. How sweet were saluation to such an apprehension? and how sweete is he, that preuents the apprehension with deliuerance? Blessed Ps. 32.1, 2 is the man, whose wickednesse (culpa) is forgiuen, and whose sinne (reatus) is couered; which hath a Supersedeas from Suite, from Arrests, a Protection. Yea, blessed is the man, to whom the Lord doth not impute iniquitie (giues a pardon, quoad poenam) and in whose spirit there is no guile; the macula is emaculata, and hee is now in another predicament; Ps. 119.1. Beati immaculati in via.
The deliuerance from sinne deliuereth from Hell, Death, the Deuill, and all Actions and Suits betwixt God and the Soule; deliuereth Col. 1.13. from the power of darknesse, and translateth into the Kingdome of his deare Sonne, the Sauiour Mat. 1.21 of his people from their sinnes: who [Page 15] now, remoto prohibente, doth secondly, exaltare, addes new Priuiledges, and becomes a second Adam, the Authour, by Regeneration, of a new life to vs, not onely giuing great deliuerance to his King, Reu. 1.5. washing vs in his bloud from our sinnes, and by his death, crucifying this death in vs, that sinne may neither be imputed to vs, nor reigne in vs, but adding great prosperitie, by his Spirit and the vertue of his Resurrection animating, actuating, and formalizing vs into one Mysticall Bodie with himselfe, renewing vs into a new Creature, and transforming vs, by his Word and Spirit, into the image and likenesse of himselfe: that as by carnall generation,2. Co. 3. vlt. wee haue receiued humane nature and corruption, which is the putting on of the old man, from the first Adam: Rom. 5. vlt. so by spirituall Regeneration, from the second, wee may put on the new man, and be made (as Peter 2. Pet. 1.4. calleth it) partakers of the Diuine Nature; that we may not liue (saith Gal. 2.20. Saint Paul) but hee may liue in vs; whereby wee are Eph. 5.30 flesh of [Page 16] his flesh, and bone of his bone; and because he liues, wee shall liue also, a life begun in grace, and growing into endlesse glory; when our vile bodies shall be made like the Firmament,Dan. 12. Ph. 3. vlt. shine as the Starres, like the Sun in his brightnesse, yea, like the Son of Righteousnes himselfe, shalbe made like his owne glorious bodie, and with their revnited spirits, in eternall societie of Saints and Angels, shall enioy Ps. 16.11. fulnesse of ioy at his right hand, and pleasures for euermore.
And will he neglect, in a miserable Wardship, his Sonnes and Heires No; 1. Tim. 4.8 Godlinesse hath the promises of this life, and that which is to come. Our Text saith, magnificans salutes, hee giueth great deliuerance and great prosperitie both; great prosperitie, in bodie and soule both; and both in this life, and that which is to come both. And Rom. 8.32 He that hath giuen vs his owne Sonne, how shall hee, but with him (the Heire of all things) giue vs all things? all which wee can see, or heare, or conceiue, nay more then all these 1. Cor. 2.9. hath God prepared [Page 17] for them, that loue him. He is DEVS ad salutes (saith Dauid) which he expoundeth by Ps. 68.18. leading captiuitie captiue, receiuing gifts for men, and loading vs with benefits, euen to a Selah, a note aboue Ela, the highest tune of our Song, of our conceit. So (Ion. 2.9.) Ieshugnathah, saluations of the Lord, which the Grammarians obserue, cum duobus signis foemininis, Tau & He, ad augendum sensum, salus & salus. Euen as they note also on the word, Ashre (blessed) that it is both abstract and plurall, to shew the perfection of beatitudes, which God giueth, which is, secretis malis omnibus cumulata bonorum complectio: such is Ieshugnoth heere, a deliuerance from all euils, and secondly, an exaltation to all good. He is Magnificans salutes; his name, in both, is wonderful; wonderful great, wonderfull many are his saluations. Wee Eph. 2.19. were strangers and forreiners; hee hath made vs by his saluations, free of the heauenly Hierusalem, Citizens with the Saints, yea, and of the houshold of GOD; his Domesticks and Seruants in ordinarie; which the Queene of Sheba [Page 18] applauded in Salomon's seruants, 1. Re. 10.8 Blessed are thy men, that stand in thy presence, and heare thy wisdome. Mat. 12.42 But a greater, then Salomon, is heere; and heere, in his presence are you assembled, to heare his wisedome to saluation. But of seruants, some are Slaues, and Tenants in villainage: he hath exalted vs aboue the name of seruants; Job. 15.15 henceforth (saith hee) I will call you friends. Friends in Alliance and Consanguinitie, are more then friends: but, saith he, of such, Mat 12.49 Loe heere my Brother, my Sister, my Mother: loe heere, euen they, which heare his word and doe it. Yea, but Amor descendit: true; in vs, it is weake in the ascending and collaterall lines: but heere is also a descent; Heb. 2.13 Loe heere am I, and the children, which thou hast giuen me. Children! sweet pledges; other selues! but yet one is the Heire, and Gauell-kind-tenure weakeneth the greatest Inheritance. Not so heere, all the Heires, all haue all, and are haeredes ex asse: the Inheritance is a transcendent beyond [Page 19] the Predicaments of substance & quantitie too, and therefore indiuisible, Col. 1.12. the Inheritance of the Saints in light, which, as the light is communicable, without diminution, as well to millions of millions, as to two or three beholders. Son and Rom. 1.17 heire of God, coheire with Christ! is there a sweeter name? yea, the loue of women is prouerbiall; the Wife in the bosome sometimes gets a Monopoly, and this interceding Moone ecclipseth the Sun's light to his dearest Progenie: Be it so, yet this also is ours; he Hos. 2.19 hath espoused vs to him for euer. How doth hee himselfe sing his Amoretti, if not Epithalamion, his loues, in that Song of Songs? how did hee put on our nature, in his Incarnation, to woo vs? and put it off (as it were) in his Passion, to winne vs? Yea, the Deuill's Iob. 2.4. skin for skin, and Wife for life, lyeth not heere; hee hath made vs of r his flesh and bone, and one with himselfe, in mysticall vnitie; and, in more then miraculous charitie, hath not cut off the member for the head, but hath [Page 20] permitted, committed, the head to die for the members: Rom. 4.25 hee died for our sinnes, he rose againe for our iustification: he Psal. 68.18. ascended to giue gifts vnto vs; and Heb 1.3. is set downe at the right hand of GOD, to make intercession for vs sinners, to take possession, for vs mortals, Ioh. 14.2. in his fathers house, where are many mansions, that Ioh. 17.24. whereas he is, we may be also.
The third obseruation is, that he is not onely a Sauiour in deliuerance, and prosperitie, but Salus, saluation. Of the Iudges it is said, Neh. 9.27. Dedisti eis saluatores. Obadiah saith of Ministers, by whom yee beleeue, Obad. verse. 21. 1. Cor. 3.5. Ascendent saluatores: and they were men of Belial, which denyed this to the King, 1. Sam. 10.27. How shall this man saue vs? and wee are bidde Act. 2.40. saue our selues, Act. 2. These saue as Instruments, but originally Psal 3.9. Saluation is the Lords, as essentially as Deitie, Isa. 43.11 I, euen I, am the LORD, and beside mee there is no Sauiour. He is Salutare, Psal. 95.1 Inbilemus Deo salutari nostro, the sunne of saluation; yea, in another extent, he is salus, Psal. 27.1 Hee is my light, and my saluation. [Page 21] Psal. 35.3 Say vnto my soule, I am thy saluation. He is (as Tremellius readeth it) omnimoda salus; Alijs, dimensa; huic, immensa salus; Others saue imperfectly, as This saluation, sauiour, pleaseth to impart; sometimes, and some persons, in some measure, in some manner, and soone are at some end of their sauing: yea, the King heere needeth a Towre of saluation for himselfe. But He is Saluation it selfe, infinitly perfect, perfectly infinite, totus, tota salus, the Alpha & Omega, spring and sea, center and circumference of saluation. Col. 1.19. In him it pleased the Father, that all fulnesse should dwell, euen Col. 2.9. the fulnesse of the Godhead bodily: Act. 4.12 Neither is there saluation in any other. The Virgin, whom some salute Saluatrix, beginneth her Magnificat, with GOD, my sauiour: hee is magnificans salutes, he is magnifica salus. Factus Psal. 118.14, 21. est mihi in salutem, saith Dauid twice in the 118. Psalme; most properly, for Iob. 1.14 Verbum caro factum est, The Word, which is supersubsisting saluation, was made flesh, did assume into [Page 22] personall subsistence the humane nature, and, factus est in salutem, is become saluation, by comming in the flesh. And thus this inaccessible abstract is made a sensible concrete, a treasurie of saluation, his manhood being the cisterne, into which the waters Isa. 12.3. of saluation euer flow, and ouerflow from the immense fountaine of the Deitie, and by the Word and Spirit, are, as by the conduits, from that cisterne, conueyed to our Faith▪ and wee out Iob. 1.16. of his fulnesse receiue grace for grace who is salus and salus, saluation and saluation, Psal. 84.11. grace and glorie. IESVS is this Ieshugnoth, Physician and Physike too, our Redeemer and Sauiour; yea, our saluation and redemption, the price which was payed for vs; Isa. 53.5. in his stripes wee are healed, there is liberatio; and Phil. 1.21 to me to liue is Christ: Gal. 2.20. I liue not, but he liueth in mee; There is grace, the first part of exaltation: And Reu. 21.22. the Lambe is the Temple, Sunne, and light of that Citie: and all the sealed and saued, innumerable numbers, crie Reu. 7.10 Saluation [Page 23] to our God, which sitteth vpon the throne, and vnto the Lambe; this is the second part of exaltation, our superexaltation [...]: Dedit se in meritum, dahit se in proemium;Bern. Hee gaue himselfe to buy vs, hee will giue himselfe to crowne vs. Nothing else could saue from infinite euill of sinne, and therefore 2. Cor. 5.21. he was made sinne for vs, to saue his people from their sinnes; was betrayed to his enemies, to deliuer vs from ours, & Phil. 2.7. exinaniuit se (or as Tertullian readeth it, exhausit, as Beza, ex Omni, seipsum ad nihil redegit) to exalt vs: and is therefore exalted, that hee may be 1. Cor. 1. made vnto vs wisedome, righteousnesse, iustification, redemption: Once; hee is Col. 3. all in all; which Saint Paul makes the state of saluation, That God shall bee All in All. O Ephes. 3.18. the height, 1. Cor. 15. the bredth, the depth, the length, O the loue, the saluation of Christ, that passeth knowledge! but, oh the height, the bredth, the depth, the length, the sinne of man, that passeth knowledge! some so careles, as to neglect it, as the carnall [Page 24] worldling; and some so wilfully wicked, that they reiect it, as the obdurate sinner; and some so giuen to Numeration, Addition, Multiplication, and Diuision, of and among Sauiours, and Sauiouresses, that this saluation is not an abstract, but a distract; they make a subtraction and fraction (almost, a cipher) of it. And Plaut & Ter. Adelph ipsa si cubiat Salus seruare prorsus non potest hanc familiam, may be said of them, Ion. 2.8. which obserue lying vanities, and forsake their owne mercy. For Ion. 2.9. Saluation is the Lords, and saluation it selfe, Mat. 23.37. O Hierusalem, Hierusalem, how oft would I, and yee would not? no more, then a Towre of saluation saueth straglers.
The fourth obseruation, Turris salutum. Prou. 9.1 Wisedome hath built her house, and hewen her seuen Pillars. Nay, wisedome was built a house, and in the incarnation assumed humanitie, the Temple of Deitie, so called Iob. 2.21. by himselfe. Towre and Temple, both Metaphors designing him, that is both strong, and holy; the seuen Pillars are Reu. 5.6. septem lumina, [Page 25] septem cornua, seuen spirits, Iob. 3.34. the spirit not by measure.
Man is a sensitiue creature,The manifold vse of Scripture metaphors. and hath nothing in intellectu, quod non prius in sensu: and therefore GOD (as the Parent, that lispeth to teach the Infant) stoopeth to our infirmities, as in the Sacraments, (which are visible words) so in the figures and mysticall allegories of the Law, Gal. 4.24. [...]; 1. Cor. 10.11. [...]: and in the parables, and metaphors of the Gospell, spirituall things are put in sensible habites, that wee may see (at least) Exod. 33.23. his hinder parts, and may Psal. 34.8. tast, how sweet the Lord is, that Gal. 3.1. Christ may bee euidently set forth, and (as it were) among vs crucified, and we may at once 1. Ioh. 1.1 both heare, and see, and handle the Word of life. To sensuall Man, nothing more sensible and palyne, nothing more piercing and powerfull, nothing more pleasing and insinuating, nothing more setling and memorable, nothing more accommodate to common vse, then heauenly things in borrowed liueries [Page 26] of metaphoricall speech, whereby wee may finde monitors and instructers in and from all our affaires; and not at Church alone but in our houses; yea, our houses and Churches themselues may preach edification, as that word, as this text are witnesses. For our houses are (say some) our Castles; I am sure, Castles and Towres are houses, spacious and specious houses Dan. 4.30 for the honour of the King, and for the house of the Kingdome. This migdol is Psal. 18.50. magdil, magnificans, a magnificent house, such hee hath built the World, a publike 1 house, and common hall to all mankind naturally; where heauen is the roofe; the various clouds, Seneca de luxu Rom. versatilia laquearia; the Sunne, the day light; the Moone and Starres, night-lamps; the seuerall regions, seuerall roomes; Psalm. 104.3. the beames of his chambers are laid in the waters; the earth, the floore; the sea, a mote; the surface of the earth, an embroydered carpet; the fruits, prouision; riuers, woods, sands, desarts, and other partition of Countries, [Page 27] partition-walls; winds, raynes, meteors, wild-beasts, and creatures, are game for bodie and mind; the tamer beasts, fishes, fowles, naturall slaues, and houshold-seruants; the worlds riches are lauta supellex, our houshold furniture. He hath made Thee also an house, a magnificent house, and Iob. 4.1 [...]. wee dwell in houses of clay, but materiam superauit opus. This bodie is a naturall 2 See of this the authors Pilgrim, c. 5, 6, 7. house to the soule: the armes, and legs, as out houses; the bellie, breast, and head, as three courts of this goodly Palace; the bellie or lower court, as offices; the breast, as the hall, great-chamber, presence, chappell, where the heart receiues and performes her seruices; the head or third court is a naturall Towre of this Palace, mounted on a Mount, another Citie in this Citie of Man, a Capitoll at least, a Senate-house, or Councell-chamber, a Microcosme, of the Microcosme, a Heauen to this litle Earth, and abridgement both of the greater and lesse Worlds. This house is Luc. 139.14. fearfully and [Page 28] wonderfully made, where euery Roome is animated, liuing, moouing, and both roome to receiue, and officer to act and performe all things; seeth those that come to see it; heareth the hearers, and speaketh to the speakers.
But as the Fox deales with the Badger, defiling his new-built house, and making him to forsake it: so hath the Deuill breathed his venom, and left his filthy, Foxie, Harpie-excrements in vs, that now it is become Luc. 11.21. the Palace of 3 the strong man armed: but a stronger then he, hath come, and become a Towre 4 of saluation, and, by taking the infirmities, repayred the ruines and breaches of this house, caused by the fall, and rebuilt 5 it on himselfe for the habitation of God by the Spirit. Eph. 2. vlt. Hee made himselfe a Towre, to make vs a Temple, and 1. Pet. 2.5. spirituall house of liuing stones, to offer sacrifices to God, acceptable by Iesus Christ: and hee made himselfe a Temple, to make vs Towres, Matt. 16.18. against which the gates of a contrarie Towre (the force and Forts) of Hell should not preuaile. [Page 29] And though some part of this Towre must haue a fall, yet is it for an euerlasting reparation, and 2. Cor. 5.1. wee know (saith Saint Paul) that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle bee dissolued, wee haue a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternall in the Heauens. A house now, nay, not a house of precious Matter, but of Earth; nor that as God made it, but as we haue marr'd it,Martial. Ours (sed male dum recitas, incipit esse tuus) no, not worthy the name of a house, but a Tabernacle, and that (not which may, but) which must be dissolued, is alway in dissolution: Wee haue a building of 6 God a house, not made with hands, eternall in the Heauens: for a Tabernacle, a building; for ours, a building of God; for earthly, Heauenly; for this in dissolution, an eternall house: and this is the supernaturall house of glorie. Of this naturall house in the creation (to omit that common Hall of the world) of the diabolicall, in the fall, spirituall in grace, supernaturall in glorie, and of that diuine house, or Towre of saluation, which [Page 30] Christ made, and was made, for vs, 7 that symbolical house of Salomons Temple, and Moses Tabernacle did giue instructions, 8 as also of that supercelestiall house, Hebr. 9.24. into which, that is, into the true heauens Christ, our high Priest, is entred through the veile of his flesh, to appeare in the presence of God for vs, and to be an 9 euerlasting House and Temple, a super-supercelestiall house to vs. These three Courts of the Tabernacle represented,The curtaines of the Tabernacle drawne, and her mysteries vnveiled. the first, Nature, which must be mortified and cleansed, as the Lauer, and Altar signified; the second Court, the new man, or state of grace; in that, was, in this is the golden Lampe of Faith, the shew-bread-table of charitie; and the golden Altar of perfume before the veile, the hope of the Saints, now sauing and entring into that, Hebr. 6.19, 20. which is within the veile, whither the fore-runner is for vs entred, euen Iesus, not into the Holies made with hands, the figures of the true, but into heauen it selfe: where Num. 17.8. Aarons rod, blossoming from a drie sticke, sheweth the Ezech. 37.10. resurrection of these [Page 31] drie bones; Hebr. 9.4, 5. the pot of lasting Manna, foode of eternitie; the Cherubim, angelicall societie; the Exod. 32.16. Tables, written by Gods finger, perfect sanctitie; the Oracle, fulnesse of illumination. None, but Priests, might enter the former; none, but the high Priest, this, to shew, that none but Reu. 1.6. Kings and Priests to God are in actuall state of grace; none, but Christ, is ordinarily yet admitted to fulnesse Reu. 6.10. of glorie. This naturall house is magnificent; yea, when it is diabolicall, it is called a Palace; when spirituall, a Temple for God; when celestiall, a building of God. Of God was that symbolicall; with God is the supercelestiall; and that diuine, in the Incarnation, and now super-supercelestiall in Glorification, is with God, and is God. All magnificent houses! When God himselfe is the house and building, it must needes bee beyond all names of magnificence: and so wee haue it here, He is the Towre of saluation.
Hearken you that loue buildings; here is a house readie-built, to bee sold, [Page 32] to be giuen: Pro. 17.16. Wherefore is there a price in the hand of the foole, to buy wisdome, and he hath no heart, to buy, to build, to edifie himselfe? How many build themselues out of doores? and how many are spued out of their owne houses, queasie with want of fire, as the Maister is with store of smoke? How many are racked and rent, with racked rents? How many fashion mongers are afraid for the fashion, or are grieued to see their houses cut in fashion, when themselues could not? But this house is of best fashion, easiest price, hath all commodities of a house; yea, exceedes a House, it is a Towre; exceeds a Towre, it is a Towre of saluation; exceedes saluation, it is of saluations, of royall saluations. A Towre is a House of Houses: (Pauperum tabernas, Horace. said the Poet, Regum (que) turres:) it is not onely a house for habitation, but royall for the King, and therefore is, or ought to be, spacious for circuit, specious for beautie, stately for situation, strong with fortification, rich with prouision, armed [Page 33] with munition, guarded with souldiers, mounted with bulwarks, towred with turrets, battailed for out-looking artillerie, enclosed with ditches, pleasant with walkes and gardens, terrible with vaults and prisons, commodious with mints and worke houses. Once, Nature and Art in Towres conspire to procreate those double Twinnes, Offence and defence, pleasure and profit, riches and strength, or (as the Text, magnificans salutes) magnificence and safetie. The Towre of this Citie is famous in most of these, but could not be a Towre of safetie to the King, when Wat Tiler, with a rabblement of Raskalls, imposed what they list;Tho. Walsing. hist. Angl. Ric. 2. and from the King. and his Towre, fetcht the Archbishop (then Chancellour) euen from the Altar, and the Treasurer, with others, and cut off their heads. So it may bee with this Towre, but not so with the Towre of his King: Hee is a Towre of saluations for his King, mounted on a Hil Exod. 19.13. Heb. 12.20., (no beast may come neere) whose Matter is immateriall Simplicitie, [Page 34] whose Space is Immensitie, whose Ditch is Immutabilitie, whose Wall is Omnipotence, whose Situation is Eternitie, whose Architecture is Wisedome, whose Warders are Selfe-sufficience, whose Munition is Perfection, whose Prouision is Prouidence, whose Beautie is Glorie; Ordnance, his Word; Battlements, Omniscience, Turrets, Blessednesse; Bulwarkes, Iustice; Mints, Mercie; Windowes, Light of his Countenance; Gates, Grace; Walks, Loue; Garden, Ioy; and is not without his Isa. 30.33. Tophet, his Prison-vault; But what should I say more▪ hee is more then can be told by telling, or described by description: his all is I. [...].M, and euery of these,Exod. 3.14. are all of these. What will he not giue to that man, to that King, to whom he giues himselfe, to bee [...] of saluation for his King?
And thus are we come to the fift step [for his.] for there are [...], Eph. 2.12 without Christ, without hope, without God, in the World: they are his, but hee is not theirs, their God, their Saluation, their [Page 35] Towre; but Heb. 12.29. a consuming fire, and they Isa. 47.14 as stubble. All things are his; First, his creatures; Reu. 4.11 for his wils sake they are and were created: Secondly, His, by conseruation, preserued by his goodnesse; Act. 17.28 In him, we liue, moue, and haue our being. Thirdly, his, by disposition; Mat. 20.15. may he not doe with his owne, what hee will: the sudden Iob 34.38.35. lightnings say to him, Loe, wee are heere. Fourthly, his, in finall reference, Ro. 11.36. all things are of him, and for him. Fiftly, Christ hath other tenures, and kinds of right; as first, of Gift; Secondly, of Purchase; Thirdly, of Descent; all are borne in his Mannour. Fourthly, of Conquest; hee hath triumphed ouer 2. Cor. 4.4 the God of the World. Fiftly, of Subiection, in Christians, which professe his Name in the Word and [...]acraments, are his in externall proferson, are his Proper, his Seruants, Free-men, Friends, Kindred, Children, Heires, Spouse, Members. All things are his in all they haue; but (saith Saint Gregorie) Ipse, Greg. in Ez. b. 8. sibi semper similis, dissimiliter tangit dissimilia. The [Page 36] Elements are his, in their imperfect existence; torpid things, in being; vegetables, in growing; sensitiues, in sense; Man, in reason, was his, till he did insanire cum ratione, and became, by sin, the Deuil's slaue; not onely dust now, but, by a fire from Hell, consumed into the ashes of himselfe.Eph. 1. But ex massa corrupta, hee hath elected some to bee his, his peculiar, his Saints, his Kings, elected, predestinated, adopted, called, iustified, sanctified in his Sonne, who is naturally and eternally his, and we, in, by, and for him: and none, but the Spouse, may sing, Cant. 6.3. I am my Welbeloued's, and my welbeloued is mine, nor Reu. 4.11. the new Song, Apoc. 4. nor Reu. 7.10. the Song of saluation, Apoc. 7. but they, that are sealed, and haue 2. Tim. 2.9. thi [...] Seale, The Lord knoweth who are his: which is all one with this, A Towre of saluation to his.
Sixtly, His what? his King: so before; so our Text. Rom. 9.6, 7. They are not all Israel, which are of Israel, nor all the seed of Abraham, children. 2. Tim. 2.20. In a great house, are vessels of honour and dishonour. [Page 37] Our Grandees haue their Yeomanrie and Gentrie to serue them, both free: our Ancestors, also Villaines, as other Slaues. But this King is Reu. 19.16 a King of Kings, all his Subiects are Kings, yea, and Priests too, in spirituall sense. Joh. 8.35. The seruant abideth not in the house alwayes, but Free men, and Kings doe: howsoeuer, euen there 1. Cor. 15.41. one starre differeth from another in glorie. His seruice is perfect freedome, and Christian Loyaltie is perfect Royaltie. Mal. 1.14 I am a great KING saith the Lord of Hosts: and no maruell; for the least of his faithfull seruants are Kings of no lesse, then three whole Worlds. Three whole Worlds are the right and Royaltie of euery right and Loyal Christian, who (which the Pope doth proudly) may challenge a Triple (inuisible) Crowne. Listen, poore Artificers, to this Gospell, to these good tidings, heare, beleeue, obey, the Gospel, and liue, yea, and reigne; enioy a threefold Kingdom, all beyond names of time, and one also beyond all space of place. Awaken, you rich men, [Page 38] which listen after great purchases; which make others poore; yea, which make your selues poore, to make your selues rich, which liue poore, to die rich, and buy some patch of the World,Nihil auaro Se vilius. with making your selues patches, and the vilest things, that you, and the World haue. Be no Pedlers, be Royall Merchants; three Kingdomes, three Worlds! giue mee a Chapman. And lest out of your owne vse and guiltinesse yee suspect me of fraude, see the proofe and goodnes of them. The first of these is this Vniuerse; a large Kingdome, to which Great Alexander's would haue beene but a petie-petie principalitie, not enough for a Peere of this Kingdome.
Off with thy Harpies-hands and fancie-frenzies, Anabaptist, wee remooue not the Land ma [...]es, nor confound Proprieties. Downe with thy Magnifico-mouse-births,Ennius. sententious Mountebanke, wordie Paradoxicall Stoicke, Simia quam similis, turpissima bestia nobis? Quid dignum tanto feret hic promissor hiatu? He, and he onely, is rich, [Page 39] free, wise, a King: where's his euidence? hee hath dreamed of that, which is indeed the Inheritance of grace, not nature, and therefore ours, because Christ. Heb. 1.2. the heire of all things, is ours: and therefore not ours in subuerting Proprietie, because Mat. 5.17 Christ came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it: and where were, Thou shalt not steale, if all had proprietie in all?
All things are yours (saith S. Paul) and you, Christs, and Christ, GOD'S: Inuert the Order, and see your Pedigree and right; All things are GOD'S:1. Cor. 3.22.23. and Ioh. 3.35. The Father hath loued the Sonne, and giuen him all things. Ioh. 3.16 God so loued the World, that he gaue his Sonne, and Rom. 8.32 with him, all things, as appurtenances to the free-hold. Isai. 9.6. To vs a Sonne is giuen, and Ioh. 1.12. to as many, as receiue him, he giueth power to be the Sonnes of GOD (and therefore heires, coheires) euen, as many as beleeue in his Name.
The Christian hath the Vniuerse, but in an Vniuersall tenure:Seneca de Benef. l. 7. c. 4. which hee enioyeth thus; his minde by contemplation; [Page 40] his conscience, in libertie; his bodie, in lawfull vse of what God sends, q sanctified by the Word and Prayer; his heart, with contentednesse, supplying all defects, and fixing it selfe on God, which is ours, whatsoeuer else be wanting, by whose onely will and prouidence, other things are wanting, and which giues himselfe, before hee take away any thing, and takes away other things, that he might make vs capeable of himselfe. This is Manna of all tasts, we need not Exo. 36.3 the flesh-pots of Egypt: this is generous Wine, what care I, if I haue no troubled Ale? this is delightsome light, which hauing viewed I cannot, I care not much for baser Obiects. Christian libertie frees not from duties, to doe what we list, but giues a lust to do our duties, and like the Sunne, shines through Aire and Water, without corrupting them, and, as the soule, fils the bodily members, not consuming, but consummating, and perfecting them: it addeth Sanctitie, dissolueth not Proprietie. Once, God is the Towre of his [Page 41] King, and the World is the Towre-hill, Psal. 16.5. & 119.57. Court, or Liberties: and if hee bee our portion, needs must it: whereas the vngodly, because he hath not God, hath a Humane and Ciuill, not a Spirituall, right, and his conscience is polluted in the vse of that, which hee calleth his owne: like Cain, Gen. 4.12. a Vagabond in his owne ground. Tit. 1.15. To the impure all things are impure.
The second World, whereof this Towre of saluation makes thee King, is thy selfe, lesse in quantitie, then the former, but greater in value: for that was made with his Word, Ps. 33.9. Dixit, & facta sunt omnia, but The Word himselfe was made a man for man, & dixit multa, & gessit mira (saith Saint Bernard) & pertulit dura, Bern. de. dil. Deo. that hee might re-giue vs our selues. And if a man be not sui compos, what can the World benefit him? any otherwise, then the great Inheritance of a Foole, Mad-man, or Infant? which, being sui impotes, are, with all that they haue, at other's disposition: or what right hath he, more then a slaue, whose [Page 42] all is his Lords? Others are Infants, Fooles, Madde, and Slaues to the Deuil, the World, the Flesh; the true Christian is Lord of himselfe, though hee be a Slaue, and is both King, and Kingdome too in this Microcosme. The Regions & Climates of this World, are his bodily members; the Subiects, euery particle of bodie, and facultie of minde, euery action, and passion; the Freedome is the wil freed; the Law is Gods Word; Reason is the Court; Conscience, Iudge; the Affections, Sheriffe and Iusticers, to put in execution; the externall Senses, Officers; Common-sence, Clerke; Phantasie, Cryer; Memorie, Register; the Court continuall in selfe-sessions. And were it not for this selfe-authoritie, whereby a man commandeth himselfe, and doth good or bad willingly, there were neither Vertue nor Vice: in which respect, the Slaue, being 1. Co. 7.22 the Lords Freeman, willingly, and for conscience, is subiect to doe and suffer his Superiours wil, Eph. 6.7. as seruing the Lord, and not man. And hee, that is thus King of himselfe, is Lord [Page 43] of Fortune, (Cic. Parad suis ea cui (que) fingitur moribus;) of Death, (it is but like 1. Sam. 17.51. Goliahs Sword, his owne Executioner, and killeth the remainder of death in vs:) of the Deuill, Heb. 2.14 who hath the power of death; of the World, whereof hee is God, that his Concubine; and of our Lusts, the Bawdes: the Traytors beeing exiled and executed, the Deuill and the World haue no power. Thus that Noble Armie of Martyrs did what they might, and when, by Gods countermand, they might not doe, they suffered; and by willing suffering, tormented their Tormenters, and conquered their Conquerours. O Noble Armie of Martyrs! their names written in a second red, shining brighter euery day: the other in the dust, that I descend no lower. In all these things, the Philosophers talke, walke, stalke it, like a King in a Play, but were [...], as they called Act. 17.18 Saint Paul, and mocked at the Mysteries of this State, which they knew not.
And how then could they know that [Page 44] third Kingdome and World, meerely supernaturall, and supermundane? it is not for Athenian Owles, but Heauenly Eagles to face that Sunne, and flye in such light. The Reuersion is heere made sure by Faith, and Christ, leauing his pledge with vs, his Spirit, is gone thither with our pledge, and in our nature hath taken possession. Of which, hauing said somewhat before, heere we cannot say much: saue onely, that it is beyond what wee can say or thinke, a World of Worlds; in substance, not subiect to alteration, corruption, passion, motion; in quantitie, Iob. 14.2. many dwelling places, Re. 21.16.the walles twelue thousand furlongs; in qualitie, a Paradise, faire, shining, delightsome; the Ibid. v. 18. streets of pure Gold, shining like vnto cleere Glasse; a meere transcendent, where all are Kings of all these three Worlds; and the King of Kings shall dwell with them, and bee all in all vnto them.
Thus you see a three-fold Kingdome of a three-fold World, in a threefold [Page 45] tenure, beyond all, which Littleton conceiued: a cosmopoliticall, of the vniuerse, a microcosmicall, of thy selfe; a heauēly, of the world to come; al hauing this right, He is the Towre of saluation to his King. And now are we come to the sixt step of the Throne, but may not sit downe: Salomon is comming, and we must descend, to make way for him: lest if we stay any longer in this height, with Peter, in the transfiguration, Luc. 9.33 wee say, we know not what. Let vs consider our mortalitie, and Gods prouidence, in setting a politicall King ouer vs, that we may learne this dutie, lest wee lose that dignitie. A good Seruant will proue a good Master, and a good Subiect is thereby the more capable of that three-fold World and Kingdome.
AS wee ascended therefore before, we will now descend, that our method may teach subiection: euen of Christ himselfe it is said, Luc. 2.51 Descendit cum eis, & erat subditus.) Descent is the humble mother of Obedience, as [Page 46] contrariwise, Rebellion is called Insurrection. Heere then we first are at that, which is first and supreme, King: The second steppe in our descent is that, which in Kings themselues ascends, and is first, His: the third is that which in buildings is supreme, a Towre: the fourth is that which in his is supreme, Saluation: the fift is the profound Vault or Towre vnder ground, which vndermineth all vnderminers, and vaultworkers, a great Towre of great deliuerance: the sixt, a supreme Turrer of altitude and exaltation, great prosperitie. All supreme, and pleading for the Kings supremacy; supreme office; a King: supreme Kingdome, to be his, his subiect, and his King ouer his people: supreme saluation, and supreme Towre, supreme profunditie, and supreme altitude for his King. If the Pope could out of these three words gather as much for his supremacy, he had a fairer colour for his triple Crowne: but that is from the triple-headed Cerberus, and the triple gates of Hell, the Deuill, World, Flesh, [Page 47] against which this Towre of saluation is erected for his King.
The King is first in euery diuision, and heere in ours. HE IS, appertayneth to the King of Kings: 1. Sam. hee is the Crowne; the head that weareth it, is the head of the Tribes, the King. 1. Cor. 12.26. If one member be honoured (if the head be crowned) let all the members reioyce with it, that this Psalm, 133.2. precious oyntment of saluation vpon the Head, may runne down to the beard (the Court and Citie) yea, the skirts of his clothing (his remotest subiects:) Exceeding glad shall wee be of his saluation.
A King is a sacred name, not to be 1 taken in vayne (intrate, Heracl. nam hic Dij sunt; Psal. 82.6 Ego dixi, Dij estis) it requireth ample both obseruance and obseruation. First, our Text sayth, King, not Kings, [...], it is spoken not of Kings, as many, but of the King, as one: not now in the former Catholike sense to be considered, nor to be construed to a later Cacolike, where the Pope is concurring with Kings, and, [Page 48] at least, in spiritualibus (the least part of his care) supreme ouer Kings. Thus to assume, is to presume, and GOD, the Towre of saluation for his King, will be a Towre of desolation for Anti-kings, not his, but the Deuils, who is Iob 41.34 Rex filiorum superbiae. It is contrarie to the definition of a King; Potestas Regia (sayth Zeno) quae nulli obnoxia;Zen. ap. D. Laert. to the nature of a head (as he is called, vers. 44.) A bodie with diuers heads is a Monster: an Amphisboena is a Serpent, a monstrous Serpent; Gerion, a monstrous Giant; Cerberus, a Hell-dogge. The seed of the Serpent, hellishly, giantly, serpently monstrous, is a many-headed bodie. A King is the Sunne in his Sphere, Sol, quia solus: Two Suns are prodigious and portentuous: one is but a meteor, and soone disparent. Our Henry the second, who would see his sonne crowned in his life; Edward and Richard the second, which must see their seconds first, (secundi illi, parum secundi;) can testifie this. But our King is singular; singular indeed, one, [Page 49] and one alone, which alone post orbem conditum hath enioyed all this triple Kingdome and present Soueraigntie, in naturall and quiet possession. One God, one truth, one King in one Kingdome.
Secondly, a King is masculine, which the Grammarians call the more worthie gender. It was a miracle of Diuine prouidence, that we can attribute so much to a Womans memorie: Shee was singular, and her mind masculine, Ruth 3.11. Mulier virtutis, & Prou. 31.10. Fortis, as Prou. 31. It would disgrace her, to say, shee was a fourth Grace, (Horat. Choros ducit Venus) or a tenth Muse, for Arts: Shee was Israels Iud. 4.4. Deborah, for the spirit of counsell, and Ib. v. 21. Iael, for the spirit of fortitude, fastning to the ground the head of Sisera, grounding and confounding all temporall Enemies and Rebels: yea, as more then Iael, like another Hercules, she preuailed against the thee-crowned Cerberus, and was Iud. 9.53 the woman, who slue Abimelech, who will needs be Father and King too (as the name importeth) [Page 50] Prince and Pastor of Pastors, and Princes; Iud. 9.15. that bramble, which before deuoured the Cedars of Lebanon, and with his bellowing Bulls affrighted all Christian Kings and Emperours: Many Psal. 22.12. bulls haue compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan haue beset me round. Pius the fift, and Gregorie the thirteenth sent their bulls, fire-breathing indeed (as it is in the Fable of Hercules) but this is not a Fable, that the Bulls and Brambles preuailed not with all their fire against this Towre. God was Turris salutum Reginae suae: and when Iud. 9.53. Abimelech would haue fired the Towre, Glorious Elizabeth was the Woman, which threw a piece of a mil-stone on his head, (of that milstone, Reu. 18.21.) and brake his skull, and euer since, we see him fallen, strugling, and setting his Armour-bearers a-work, in purpose of reuenge, in euent, frustrate: and who knoweth how soone? (whether, euen now?) other of the Reu. 17.12. ten hornes which had giuen their Kingdomes to the Beast, and became her Armour-bearers, shall hate the Whore, and [Page 51] dispatch Abimelech, which neuer before had receiued so orderly, so glorious, and irrecouerable a wound, as this, by a Woman? Our eyes saw her, in crosses and conquests, another Dauid; in peace, and building the Temple, Salomon; in prouident Iustice, Iehoshaphat; in Reformation, Hezechiah; in restoring the Law, hidden in a strange Tongue, and lost in the Temple, (in the Schooles, and Scholies) Iosias; and when 1. Macc. 1.56. Antiochus had burnt the Law (Antichrist, the translated Scriptures) shee was a Iudas Macchabaeus, to restore it, and dedicate the Temple: in all these, all of them; in length of a glorious Reigne, more then any of them; in Sea-exploits, O quam te memorem Virgo? shee tamed the inuincible Armada in eightie eight; Dux foemina facti; not shee, but 1. Cor. 15.10. the grace of GOD: Tibi militat aether. God was then a Towre of saluation indeed (against those Sea-Towres,Claudian. and Castles) for his Queene; Psal. 18.14. Hee shot his Ordnance, and disappointed and dispatched them. Shee was the [Page 52] Queene 1. Reg. 101. of the South, which visited heauenly Salomon, learned his Truth, offered her Gold, and rarities to the Temples seruice, and reformation of the Church. Her Drake, first of any Generall, encompassed the Globe; and her Cauendish was the last, that happily performed it. Her dayes (said Astronomers) yeelded a new Starre,Camden. Elizab. which beganne in Nouember, exceeded Iupiter, and at last ascendendo disparere coepit; the Embleme of her selfe, her exceeding glorious Reigne, which beganne in Nouember, and about the same time of the yeere, with the other, also ascended to a higher Kingdome. If that be [...], this is a miracle; a Virgin, a Mother, a Virgin-mother shee was, of a numerous Issue of innumerable Subiects, so esteeming, so esteemed; of her needy neighbours; of her Countries peace, Religion, Arts, Armes, Plantations, Commerce; a Mother of a Man, not a Man-child, but a Man in ripest maturitie, whom her heart conceiued (but concealed, till [Page 53] due time of birth) her iust Heire, that neither shee nor wee, might bee distracted with conceit of a rising Sunne: nay Shee, our Sunne, set, and wee were not at a set, had no night, no euening, and, which is more, no morning, but a Psal. 19.5 Sunne that had reioyced, as a Giant to runne his course, first appeared vnto vs in our Zenith, and beganne to shine in midday-brightnesse. His Maiestie succeeded to all, which in her was hereditarie, and (lest you should thinke I haue exceeded in a digression) in other things many exceeded. Her memorie is crowned with those funerall Cypresses, which how did his presence turne into festiuall Laurels? So we thought then, when our hearts, eyes, eares, tongues, stroue to exceed each other in expectations, acclamations, extasies, Psal. 12.6.1. Wee were as they that dreame. Yea (as the Disciples, Luc. 24.41. which beleeued not for ioy) wee were so rapt with this sudden resurrection, as it were, of our happinesse, which we so much, so long feared; would die with her, and be buried [Page 54] in her Graue, that (like the Woman in the Gospell) Ioh. 16.21. Wee remembred no more the anguish, for ioy, that a Man was borne into the World: and lest we should bee ouer-ioyed (like those Disciples, which Luc. 24.41. beleeued not for ioy) God seasoned it with his Rod, and exacted teares to attend her Funerall. And let vs take heed, that a worse pestilence, the spirit of ingratitude, haue not possessed some, which at first liked their Manna, but since (I know not how) it hath growne Exod. 16.20. full of wormes, with the keeping, or rather they are full of wormes, with the continuance of their Manna to them, (which still is the same) and Num. 11.5. long for Leekes and Onions: as Ioh. 3.20 they, that euill doe, are wearie of the Sunne, and say, when will it be night? Once, thou hast still thy peace, and therfore canst not hold thy peace, murmurer; thou hast still thy Religion, but art irreligious; hast still thy plentie, and surfettest of fulnesse; hast still thy Learning, and Act. 26.24 Learning makes thee madde; hast still thine Armes, [Page 55] if thou hast such lust to vse them, God grant the Stage bee neuer neerer. Canst thou tell what thou wouldest haue, thou diseased male-contented mind? the want of sicknesse is a wanton sicknesse. Those things, which God gaue by Queene ELIZABETH, hee hath confirmed, and made more mature, setled, masculine, by King IAMES: and if the epidemicall diseases of the times, or if thine owne sinnes make some alteration,S. T. M. hist. Ric. 3. bee not thou effeminate and querulous: and, for mee, let Shaw's reward befall mee, if I speake it with Shaw's minde, and let this place bee witnesse. And yet is Gen. 9.22 Cham worse then he, which scoffeth at his Fathers nakednesse; and hee worse then Cham, that being drunke himselfe, laugheth at his Father.
If wee ascend from Grammar to Logick, a King is (thirdly) a name of relation: Rex sine regno, vacua qui regnat in aula, is but a name, and fuit, is mortuus est; imo habui, the beggers theame. So [Page 56] Agag is called,1. Sam. 15.32. when hee had lost his Kingdome, and called for by the name of King, euen, when he was to lose himselfe. Our King was a King, before ours; and of that Kingdom, whose nearnesse caused the worst remotenesse. This back-doore in the North is closed, and that Temple of Ianus, so long open, is now shut faster, then euer; those bordering Harpies (monstrum, Virgil. horrendum, informe) and their nests, and ayries of spoile, are gone; which but bordered on the confines of Humanitie, and in humane shape, were rauenous beasts, to whom Theft and Murther were vertues. He gaue, when he tooke, a Kingdome, the Schoole of his youth in royall Arts,Virgil. and now, Tros, Tyrius (que) illi nullo discrimine aguntur.
Fourthly, a King is a name of differing qualitie, and quantitie; and sometimes Rex is a diminutiue in both: Rex sine regione, as the American Caciques and Weroances, the Reguli vaguli, nuduli of the Sauages: and little better were the ancient Brittaines, when Caesar reckoned [Page 57] foure, in a piece of Kent. Euen in a Bee-hiue, there is a King ouer those Cerea regna. But now the Hebrides, Orchades, and other dispersed Ilands, the Scots, the Picts, the Welch Triarchie, the Saxon and English Heptarchie, all these, before esteemed another World, are now one Kingdome, vnder one King. And Ireland, where sometime Treason had her Throne, with whom to rebell, was but to enter into action;Moresine hist. of Irel. where Warres had made a Wildernesse, and wilder Nature, Boggs and Marishes (how often drunke with the best English bloud?) now submitteth to the same Scepter in peace, and committeth her selfe to our Language, Discipline, Customes, Habitation. Yea, and how great a part of wide and wilde America, is now-new-encompassed with this, with His Crowne?
And as in extension, so in intension, in the fift place, Rex, a King, is a quale quantum, and in longitude reacheth to all parts (An nescis longas Regibus esse manus?) in latitude, to all causes; in [Page 58] altitude, to all persons; in profunditie, to all soliditie, excluding euery vnnaturall vacuum of priuileges, and prauileges, which may any way exempt the members from the head. One said, he was Rex Regum, Maximilian. and meant of such as would doe what they list; subiects so punctuall, and lineall, that they leaue the King but superficiall. Herein also we haue a reall, a royall King, whose power attingit à fine vs (que) ad finem fortiter, Sap. 2. & disponit omnia suauiter; whose prerogatiue may not be exposed (it is a sacred mysterie) to euery 1. Sam. 6.19. Beth-shemit's eye, nor toucht with 2. Sam. 6.7. Vzzahs too too officious hand.
Sixtly, a King is genus generalissimum, in proper and full sense, it is like the Oile, wherewith they are anointed, which is alway vppermost, knoweth none vndership, but to God, and abhorreth Secular, or Pontificall Superiour; not as Herod, and others, who were Reges, sub Rege. Thus then the subiect agreeth in highest straine, with his Majestie a King, singular, masculine, [Page 59] reall, regall, absolute ouer his owne, and independent of any ouer him. But all this may a Heathen King bee, and yet not be His, excluded this Towre of saluation for his King; not so much aduanced as to be as one of his people. To be his, and his King, is a double prerogatiue: such was Dauid, such is Ours: though (I confesse) that hee, which is not his in eternall election, may be His King.
HIS, first, institutione potestatis, as we say and pray, Thine is the Kingdome, and power, and glorie: The powers, that be, Rom. 13.1. are ordayned of God; not, as some blaspheme, a King is but a creature of mans creation. Yea, Gods power,Reinolds. as it shineth in all powers, so, most of all, Monarchie is the most vine and expresse Image of the Diuine.
Secondly, His King, he is, Constitutione personae. Wee haue before freed our selues from electiue, conditionall, or whatsoeuer is not absolute, in the just Quantum, and highest key of King: and haue confined our selues to men of [Page 60] Dauids ranke, neither the Peoples King, nor the Peeres King, nor the Priests King, nor his owne King, as Absalom; but His, Gods King, holding of him potestatem juris, & jus potestatis. Pro. 8.16. Per me Reges regnant (saith Wisedome) and Dan. 4.32 the most High (saith Daniel to and of Nebuchadnezzar, though a Heathen) ruleth in the Kingdome of men, and giueth it, to whomsoeuer he will. This Christus Dominus doth giue to these Christi Domini their power; whether by humane election, or lot, or extraordinarie vocation, or that which can be ascribed to none else, Naturall descent. Where any enter by the window, and not by the lawfull Ioh. 10.9. doore, and haue eaten Gen. 3.6. the forbidden fruit, by the Serpents suggestion, for a Psa. 82.6. Dij estis, without an Ego dixi, making themselues deuils, to make themselues gods; the Potestas is Gods, though the Potens & modus adipiscendi, are of 2. Cor. 4.4 the God of this world: hee is his (Gods) King, according to his will, manifested, not in Scripture, but in euent, Qui efficit voluntatem [Page 61] suam, vti (que) bonam, Aug. Enchirid. per malorum hominum voluntatem malam: which can punish a King and People for sinne, by a worse sinner, Isa. 10.5. the rod of his wrath, which, after hee hath beaten his children, hee can cast into the fire. Here then, we haue, if any Nation, his King, whose challenge is from God, Act. 17.24, 25. the Lord and Giuer of life, Sceptra per innumeros missa tuetur auos: the seede of Dauid, of innumerable Kings; who, where others were hastie for him, had the patience to stay himselfe, and to suspend jus, till justa, his iust birthright, till anothers iust death-rites.
His King, Thirdly, singulari curâ, as the most speciall part of his goods; his peculiar Treasure, Ier. 22.24 his signet on his right hand; they Zach. 2.8. that touch this Iewell, touch the Apple of his Eye, whereof hee hath principall care aboue others, for others, against others, as, this day, appeared, The Towre of saluation for his King,
His, fourthly, dispositione, not onely disposing him to, but in the place: when [Page 62] he would exalt Saul to be King, 1. Sa. 10.9 hee gaue him another heart; and when hee would deiect him, 1. Sam. 16 14. an euill spirit from the Lord, troubled him. Pro. 21.1. As the Riuers of water, so the Kings heart is in the hand of the Lord, he turneth it whither-soeuer he will; by immission of good thoughts; by iust permission of euill; as in Ahab, by 1. Reg. 22.22. the lying spirits in his prophets, which yet chose to beleeue, before Michajah. He sendeth a King Acts 13.22. after his owne heart (as Dauid) when the people are after his heart: but if the people 1. Sam. 8.7 will not haue God to be their King, euen by their King he can punish them, as in Saul; or suffer them to bring mischiefe vpon themselues, punishing sinne with sinne, as in 1. Reg 12.30. Ieroboam; or denying a King altogether: Anarchie is the worst Tyrannie; Iud. 17.6. & 18.1. There was no King in Israel, is the preface of some miserable storie, and sometime the end too, 19.1.25.21.25. as the Alpha and Omega of Mischiefe. A head-lesse bodie is heed-lesse, senselesse, life-lesse: propter peccata terrae, the King is oft changed.Pro. 28.2. Let them, that [Page 63] will haue their King better, first amend themselues, and pray for the King: Haec sunt militiae nostrae, for he is His. And for our King, as he disposed him to vs, and vs to him, with such mutuall content: so hee hath filled his heart with 1 Re. 3.9 wisedome and vnderstanding to iudge his people; for who else were able to iudge this thy so great people, (saith Salomon;) which in our King, in the height of reason, appeared this day; when his Reasons wrought so powerfully on Gowry, that in the Act of Disloyaltie, and the bloudiest part of Treason, he had Act. 26.28 almost perswaded him to become a Christian, a Subiect: and beyond all reason, and humane capacitie, aboue, yea, against Arte, to construe those words in the Letter, to bring to light the abstrusest worke of Darknesse, the Master-piece of Treason, and Monster-prize of Sathanicall Stratagems, Reu. 9.11. King Abaddons Towre of Desolation: but he was a Towre of saluation for his King, to reueale Mysteries, by which, to grinde the Powlder-plot to poulder, and to [Page 64] blow it vp with a Terrile blow. A King, his King, 1. Sam. 10 11. among the Prophets; Ps. 18.23. This was the Lords doing, and was maruellous in our eyes.
Fiftly, his King, subordinatione, his Lieutenant, his Steward: the people are his, Exod. 19.5 his peculiar aboue all people, though all the Earth be his: he is their King, and hath set him ouer his kingdome to rule it. To him he is accountable, of whom he receiueth; vnder whom, hee executeth power: that also limited by his Law, either in Commission, to command for God, as he is Custos vtriusque Tabulae, or in permission of things, naturally indifferent, to be disposed by his wisdome, for the common good, and to lose their indifferencie in vse, vpon his command, or prohibition. 2. Cor. 10.8 His power is to edification, not to destruction, nor ought he to countermand the Law of his King, any more, then his Deputie, may his; a Petie-constable, the expresse command of the Lord Maior; or he, of the King: or the foot, or hand, the order of the head. Yet euen in such [Page 65] cases, we are not to Rom. 13.2. resist the power, but must suffer, where wee cannot doe, the will of the King: and with Act. 26.25 words, and behauiour of truth, and sobernesse, Act. 5.29. obey GOD, rather then man.
This for instruction, as for the vse of it, Blessed bee God, that in the present state, wee know nothing imposed vpon the libertie of conscience, howsoeuer nicetie proues scrupulous, or wantonnes wilfull.
Lastly, his King he is, retributione, who is the Reu. 19.16 King of Kings: Rom, 14.4 he standeth, or falleth to his owne Master: who, if he be Lu. 19.17 faithfull in a little, and temporall Kingdome, can make him Ruler in a greater, and eternall. Otherwise, without thy doing wrong, He shal suffer right: Eccles 5.8 Hee that is higher, then the Highest, regardeth: Isa. 30.33. Tophet is prepared of old, it is prepared for the King: Wisd. 6.6. Potentes potenter tormenta patientur. The head is not to be iudged by the hands, much lesse, punished, or cut off; a thing vnnaturall, furious, monstrous; the offended people to dispose, or depose the [Page 66] King, is to make him subiect to innumerable Kings, to make all Kings, and thererefore none; a thing vnreasonable, and implying contradiction: the Supreme Iudge to be obnoxious to inferiour Tribunals, were contrarie to order; not Legall, not Regall, not Regular. To forget that we are his Subiects, if he haue forgotten to be his, Gods, King, is contrarie to all Religion, in the Law and Gospell. In the Law, Eph. 6.2. Honour thy Father, is the first Commandement, with promise, first of the second Table, and the claspe of both: nor may Cain's or Cham's Posteritie reiect it, because they were bad. Ezech. 18.2. The Fathers sowre Grapes must not thus edge the children's teeth. Nero, a tyrannicall Father, and Pilate, a popular pleaser, in the Gospell, are obeyed, and commanded to bee obeyed, by Christ himselfe, and his Apostles, to extremitie of sufferings. Rom. 13.1 The powers were of God, and from aboue, when the vessels, which contayned them, could not contayne themselues, Iam. 3.15 were earthly sensuall, deuillish, in their vniust profits, [Page 67] filthy pleasures, bloudie persecutions. Eccles. 10.20. Curse not the King, no not in thy thought, though thou seemest to see a Eccles. 10.16. vae regno, cuius Rex est puer; except, with 1. Reg. 2.9.46. Shimei, thou wilt haue thy curses written with thine owne bloud. Iob 13.7. Nunquid Deus indiget mendacio vestro, vt pro illo loquamini dolos? saith Iob; Needs God thy false Treason, to giue right reason to the World? is this faith, to be perfidious, to make haste, and to see thy selfe righted? Is this hope, not to expect with patience? is this Charitie, 1. Cor. 13.7 to beleeue nothing? to hope nothing? to endure nothing? is this humilitie, to Isa 14.14 make thy selfe equall to the highest? Correcter, Directer, and in place of God himselfe, to the King? Euen a busie Malapert Tongue is a strife, a string Psal 11.2. & 57.4. shooteth Arrowes, and lifteth vp a Sword against the King, to assault him in his Towre of saluation, which Ps. 31 20. will keepe him safe from the strife of Tongues. But to write and preach, is to plant Ordnance against this Towre, and, with Giants, to fight against God, The [Page 68] Towre of saluation for his King.
When Hist. Ed. 2. T. de la More. Adam of Hereford preached at Oxford, and tooke his Text 2. Reg. 4.19. Caput meum doleo, that the members might depose their Head, Edward the Second;T. Walsing. and when the Necromanticall Head spake at Oxford, in the dayes of Richard the Second; Pedes eleuabuntur super caput, as it soone after fell out; the Doctrine was one and the same, 1. Tim. 4.1 a Doctrine of Deuils, as well in the Pulpit, and mouth of a Bishop, as in the Deuill's own Necromanticall Head and Dialect. And if any since, in that fertile field of the Lord, hath sowen any such infoelix lolium, Mat. 13.28. it is the Enemies doing: for the Master had there sowen, (and made it a Seminarie of) good seed.
And that Traitours are the Deuills Disciples, the vsuall appellation of Scripture maketh plaine, calling them 1. Sam. 10 27. 2. Sam. 20.1 2. Chron. 13.1. the sonnes of Belial: and so accordingly Gowry, the Arch-traitour, was a sonne of Belial, a Consulter with Necromancers, and daily wearer of Magicall Characters; his Oracle deceiuing [Page 69] him with losse of life, beeing wounded to the heart, without losse of bloud, till those Characters were taken away Iudg. 5.31 So let thine Enemies perish [...], O God, and bee thou still a Towre for thy King.
But this is yet the last Lesson, and highest forme in the Schoole of the Deuill, to make Treason, Religion; Religion, sure not à religando, of fastening, but of religendo, of chusing againe and againe King and Religion too; à refigendo, of loosing the strongest bonds, the Oath of God; the Deuils Religion, which vnder pretence of Vniustice, whispered Rebellion to our Gen. 3.5. Parents in Paradise. And a marke of Antichrist it remayneth, 2. Thes. 2.4. To oppose and exalt himselfe, aboue all, that is called GOD, or [...], that is, Kings and Emperours: of which, from Thomas Becket (sainted for this Quarrell) vnto the Poulder-plot, wee haue Examples more then enow; though our Neighbour-Countries bleed more fresh, because He hath beene the Towre of saluation for his Queene, and is for his King. I maruell [Page 70] not at Rome, a Citie founded in bloud, hater of the name, expeller of the power of Kings, hatcher of so many King-hating Locusts, and lastly, of Iesuites, who haue found distinctions (Reu. 2.24. the deepnesse of Satan) to make it tolerable, nay lawfull, nay commendable, nay meritorious of Heauen, to kill the Kings of the Earth. But is there any of ours, 1. Ioh. 2.19. that haue gone out from vs, and are not of vs, whose intemperate zeale hath eaten Gods House, and distempered to giddinesse, and wheeled round from one extremitie to another? I know not how, extremes haue contrary affects, and yet often, like effects: like Iud. 15.4. Samsons Foxes, they looke opposite, but haue a stinking fiery coniunction: such (if there bee such) are these, which bow the crooked sticke right, with another extreme of crookednesse (as Plato told Diogenes, Alio fastu) whose Wild-fire burneth in Water,Laert. whose Hell-fire burneth and yet is darknesse, such is the Treason of Religion, and Religion of Treason.
[Page 71]I am wearie of this subiect, this hell-bred Gen. 3.15 seede of the Serpent: I will flee 3 from them to a Towre of refuge; and, loe, here in my Text, A Towre of saluation. Saluation is invisible, and therefore hath made it selfe sensible in this Towre-resemblance. A Towre is most conspicuous; but hauing beene before so long a Surveior, wee must not now dwell on this Towre. Two things it importeth; the weaknesse of the strongest of men, and Gods readie presence, and sauing defence. For the first, His King is a man: homo sum, Terent. humani à me nihil alienum, is true of Kings: Hee needeth a house: the injurious elements would not know him from another man; a royall House, that hee bee not imprisoned at home: a strong House, a Castle, to defend him from enemies: a Towre, a magnificent House, for architecture, artifice, prospect, site, strength, capacitie, prouision, munition, and the rest. Yet what are all these against the invisible Enemies, against which his Towre must bee a holy House, and Temple? [Page 72] Neither is there found among men scarse a house strong enough against men, euen where Nature and Art haue conspired: (what Castle so impregnable, but Iron or Gold hath taken?) but against Deuills, and deuillish men, God alone can be (such is mans frailtie) a Towre of saluation; and he alone will bee (such is Gods goodnesse) nay, Reu. 1.8. Is, Was, and is to Come (no Verb is expressed, that all this may bee expressed, Exod. 3.14. I AM is his Name) the Towre of saluation, the House, Palace, Castle, Towre, Temple, all in all for his King. This day, these six and fiftie yeeres, are witnesses. This Towre is with him, in him, ouer him, about him, wheresouer He eateth, sleepeth, rideth, consulteth, in all things is immutably moouing with him and for him.
4 Saluation is a sweet Name, and this, the sweetest Saluation, euen in the abstract: yea, superintellectuall saluation, not a qualitie, but supersubstantiall, GOD himselfe; which being beyond speech, we will not lose our selues, and [Page 73] your patience, to speake of. Onely this, in the application; Psal. 124 1. If the Lord himselfe had not beene a Towre of saluation to his King, when the Gowries, and their complices, this day, rose vp against him, how was his escape possible? where honest Simplicitie was closed in the trap of guile, where Nakednesse was assaulted with armed violence, where one alone had so many doores made fast vpon him, so many roomes betwixt him, and possibilitie of helpe, so many Traitors against one Innocent, that is, so many incarnate Deuills against one Man. 2. Chr. 20.12. I know not what to doe (said King Iehoshaphat) but our eyes are toward thee: and Dauid here, 1. Sam. 22 5, 6, 7. When the flouds of Belial made me afraid, the cords of Hell compassed me; In my distresse, I called vpon the Lord, hee bowed the Heauens, and came downe (yea, the heart of one, set to kill him, to be his helpe) and bowed the necks of his enemies vnder him. And, Psal. 73.25, 26. Whom haue I in Heauen, but thee? and there is none on earth, that I desire beside thee. My flesh and my heart [Page 74] fayleth, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion for euer. Mat. 3.9. He raysed of stones children to Abraham, and said vnto him, Gen. 15.1 Feare not, Abram, I am thy shield, and thine exceeding great reward. His shield then, which he vpon his knees there acknowledged, and euery Tuesday since, reviueth it in his weekly deuotions; his reward since, on an other Tuesday-intended treacherie, the super superlatiue of treasons, when King and Kingdome had the necke on the blocke (Pro. 16.10. Diuinatio in labijs Regis) God gaue his King, not onely a diuine spirit, with Daniel, Dan. 5.14, 17. to reade the mysticall writing, but to reuerse it; to reuerse it? yea, to inuert it vpon themselues, to recouer vs, before we were sicke, and to burie them in their owne vault. Turris salutum, hee is a Towre of saluations, magnificans salutes, which wee before obserued out of a two-fold translation, to bee both priuation and habit. Great deliuerance, and great prosperitie giueth he to his King.
5 And first, for Deliuerance; Ps. 22.10. I was [Page 75] cast vpon thee from the wombe, thou art my God from my mothers belly, saith Dauid. Euen before his deliuerance thence, a Towre of deliuerance was he to his King, stronger then the royall Palace, where the Queene at supper was assaulted, sclopeto in pectus intentato, Camden. hist. E.K. her Secretarie taken from her presence, and in the next roome slaine, crying, Iustitia, justitia; her Majestie made meanewhile a prisoner. Had not this Towre protected, how could that tendernesse haue escaped abortion? and our hopes had beene dead before they were born. Following broiles, in his minoritie, murthered his Father, imprisoned, deposed, chased away his Mother, exposed her friends to spoile, and in a little space consumed two Regents or Protectors of his nearest bloud, his Vncle, and Grand-father: and when all these Strong sunke vnder that waight, how could Weaknesse and Infancie escape, had not Hee giuen great deliuerance? As himselfe, in the wombe, escaped, who is our Head, so his Kingdom, then [Page 76] in the wombe to him, and not come to the birth, hardly escaped abortion, Anno 1588. A great and diuine deliuerance (if euer any) when such a Fleet of so long and ample preparations, that it was surnamed Inuincible, with such purposed Land-forces from the neighbour-Belgian shoare, amiddest such opportunities, as the League abroad, and our wants almost of Aire and Water, and, till the enemie supplied, of fire, when those vasa iniquitatis bellantia were freighted with instruments of crueltie,Gen. 49.5. and manned with a people, whose Progenitours had giuen experience of vnmanning, and almost vnpeopling a World: where our goods, liberties, consciences, liues, all were in danger: then did Ps. 68.1. God arise, and his enemies were scattered. This Armada venit, vidit, Fugit: Isa. 37.29 He put a hooke in the nose, and a bridle in the lips of the Land-Armie, and made Iud. 5.20. the Starres in their courses fight against Sisera; the brute Elements, against that brutum fulmen of Rome, and designes of his adherents. [Page 77] They neither Esa. 37.33, 34. came into any Citie of this Kingdom, to shoot an Arrow, nor came before it with Shield, nor cast a banke against it: by the way that he came, nay, by way-lesse wayes, did the Enemie returne; nay, how few returned, to tell their owne miseries? Ibid. v 22 The Virgin, the daughter of Zion laughed, and in this place, in the greatest congregation, honoured the Towre of our saluation. I cannot forget the memorable Apophthegme of his Maiestie; then sensible of that deliuerance, that had the Enemie preuayled hee could looke for none other benefit from him, then what Polyphemus promised Vlysses, Camd. scilicet, vt caeteris deuoratis, postremus deglutirerur. Was not his Maiestie deliuered in all the manifold deliuerances of Queene ELIZABETH, from bloudy conspiracies? which, taking effect, could not but bring all things in those times, into combustion, and miserable confusion, and must haue wounded him through her side. For what fidelitie could be expected from Traitors? or [Page 78] right from them, whom Religion had made contrarie to right, to Religion? The Italian and Spanish invasions of Ireland, the insurrections and costly rebellions of the Irish then, did in their euent, as by the present calmes, and quiet possession appeareth, proclaime great deliuerance for his King. And is not be a Towre of saluation for his King, if wee compare him with States and Fates abroad? The Turkish Moone twise eclipsed in a short space, and once put out in obscure darknesse. Moscouia it selfe made a Moone, in manifold chances and changes. Poland in invading, invaded: Sweden, and Denmarke in the North, and since, Italie and France in the South; Germanie and Bohemia in the East, filled with warres, tumours and rumours of warres, whiles wee Psal. 32.7. are compassed with Songs of deliuerance. Step but ouer the Threshold, and see two great Henries bleeding vnder the hands of base butchers, where were many helpers against one traitor; in the middest of his campe, one; in the [Page 79] middest of his best Citie, the other; both in the middest of their strength: and compare it with two Gowries, men of honourable birth and place (that I mention no other aide) hauing the King alone in their owne house; secluded from all seeming possible helpe, and Deut. 32.31. let his enemies be Iudges, whether GOD himselfe gaue not great deliuerance to his King.
O August, blessed bee thou among moneths; famous for the flight, and fight with the Elements, of the Armada, Anno 1588.Gowries conspir. Anno 1600 famous for this our secular Iubilee, let thy fift day bee the quintessence of dayes; let it be written in Gold, that had neere beene written in Bloud, as the Ladie of dayes: and let this holy Act bee acted in this holy Theatre, many-many anniuersaries. And thou Princesse of the weeke, Tuesday, (as Ignatius calleth the Lords-day, Queene of dayes, and the birth-day of the World) be thou happie for temporall deliuerances, and not the day of Mars, or Mors any longer. Psal. 1 [...]8.24. This is [Page 80] the day which the Lord hath made, let vs reioyce, and be glad in it. And thou, Nouember, bee Queene of moneths, and King too: still sing the memorie of thy Queene; still ring the presence of thy King: let thy fift be the fift of fifts, and beyond Elixirs and quintessences, the first of all firsts, Quantum inter stellas argentea luna minores) yea, as the Sunne, aboue both Moone and Starres; which was designed to the reuolution of that horrid Chaos, when our Sunne, Moone, and Morning-starre; King, Queene, and Prince, our whole Firmament and Parliament of Starres, 2. Sam. 21.17. the light of Israel, and all our Israels lights had with a Hellish dampe, a terrible lightning and thunder from the bellie of Hell, beene at once extinct, had not that terrible blow made it not terrible by the Spirit of vnderstanding in our King. It was not his naturall Genius, nor ingenious Arte, (how great soeuer;) it was the Towre of saluation, that had 1. Sam. 17.37. deliuered him from the Lion and the Beare, and would now deliuer from [Page 81] this Giant of treasons; that Dan. 2.28 reuealeth deepe and secret things, and honoured the King, with great deliuerance. Hee was a Towre of saluation for his King, and made him a Towre of saluation for his; that now God hath made vs his, by that Diuine instinct and reuelation, aboue, against Reason, and Arte (as himselfe confessed;) not his inheritance alone, but as the Gen. 47.23. Egyptians were Pharao's new purchase, so God in another kinde, hath made vs obliged for Life, Libertie, Religion, All, vnto the King. For had not that Giantly progenie of the Earth, the sonnes of Reu. 17.6 the Whore, drunken with bloud of Saints, (Contemtrix Superum, saeuae (que) auidissima caedis which now in printed Bookes denie any Papist to haue had a hand in it,In libr. impress. Louanij, 1621. the very forehead of impudence) blowne vp all, had not our Phoebus, with rayes, more then humane, dispersed the mists of that Python, and opened Sphinx, that Monsters Ridle, penetrated the Labyrinthian Cauernes of that Minotaure, cut that Gordian-knot, [Page 82] which Art could not vnloose, and so blew vp the terrible blowe, and Blowers, and ground the Powder-plot to powder?
To This, which no age, no deliuerance (meerely temporall) can parallel, I might adde (to vsher it) those of Watson and Cobham, and the rest; and (to follow it) his deliuerances from his late sicknesse; from water, the ninth of Ianuary last; and other perils: wherein I might vse the words of the Prophet, Isa. 43.1. Haec dicit Dominus, creans te, IAACOB, Meus es tu; when thou passest through the waters, I will bee with thee, neither shall the flame kindle vpon thee. Great deliuerances giueth he to his King euery day: for what extraordinarie guard, circumspection, feare, force, retirednesse, iealousies, executions? what within? without him? euen in this last and worst age? when Treason hath filled Presse and Pulpit, and rewards attend those, which not onely neglect, contemne, resist, but murther Kings? a Theame, fit for the Popes Holinesse to [Page 83] make a Panegyrike vpon, which Xistus Quintus did for the Friar that murthered the French King, with as good deuotion, as their solemne Procession was made for the French bloudie Massacre! Foelix scelus virtus vocatur.
But our GOD hath giuen, hath magnified 6 salutes; hath giuen not stupendious deliueries alone, but Iubilees of prosperitie. Great prosperitie giueth he to his King, in those deliueries; in deliuering him from his Enemies; in deliuering his Enemies to him; Psal. 7.15 Inciderunt in foueam, quam fecerunt. The Gowries, this day, preuayled not, fayled of, and died in their cursed attempt; and so of the rest. Escape, with victorie and triumph too, is great prosperitie. And great prosperitie hath he giuen him in his owne Royall person, in his Issue, in his Kingdomes. His personall prosperities, as I know not best (being 1. Sam. 23.23. the least of the thousands of Iuda) yet wee all know so much, as I had rather praise God for them, who hath giuen such prosperities to his King, then displease [Page 84] men; some thinking I say too little; others back-biting, that I flatter. Once, Royall Ancestrie, almost innumerable; a Reigne, almost as long as his life; (how seldome equalled, since Brittaine had a King? which, O thou, his saluation, long and long continue [...]) his first being immediat Heire and Possessor of this present Monarchie; his more Subiects; more Alliance and Confederates, more Reuenues, more complete Power, his Fame, further extended then any of his Predecessors, are a trueth; but those externall (called bona fortunae by the Philosopher) vix ea nostra voco. His bodily prosperities, in masculine Sexe, in a strong constitution, a constant health, dum vires, anni (que) sinebant, and that without Aesculapius his helpe; his abilities for exercises, disports, discourse, studies; promising (if our sinnes preuent not) the hopes of many yeeres; these also are great prosperities, yet bodily. But the minde of a man is the man; and herein great (and almost more then great) prosperities [Page 85] giueth he to his King: liberall in the liberall Arts; (but these are rudimenta, non opera) beyond Plato's King, not a Philosopher alone, but a Diuine; in both these then exercising a Kingdome, when, like Apollo in the middest of the Muses, the Schooles of both Vniuersities; yea, the Vniuersities of both Kingdomes saw him present and President: whom the lawyers haue seen a King on the Tribunall in science and conscience of the law; the Star-chamber admiring the shining of a present Sun. For the Councell-table, I am not worthie to gather the crummes: and the Groomes will driue mee from Parliament Sessions; I leaue them to higher conceits. Yea, but hee hath fraylties too, may some say: I answere, it is frailty, to make such obiection: for these 2 Cor. 4.7. treasures are in an earthen Vessell, such as must returne (Serus ô redeas) to earth againe: Soles occidere & redire possunt, This Sunne must goe downe, these Gods Psal. 82.7. must die like men! I answere, herein this Sol is not solus: wee [Page 86] see, and ioy to see the Issue of his bodie, and his Issues Issue in both Sexes, hopefull and glorious; in which respect, we say, and pray without a figure, Dan. 6.21 O King, liue for euer, and reigne for euer. Psal. 128.3. Let his Table bee compassed with these Oliue-branches, and their heads be crowned with Laurell.
And now are wee come to the great prosperities of his Realmes: in which behold, first, that Trinitie of England, Scotland, Ireland, made an Vnitie; Fecit eas in gentem vnam ▪ No forren Enemie creeping in at the Irish window as before, or Irish Traytor starting into a Scottish couert; no borderer at the threshold, nor other leaping out of the Northerne back-side for France. Wee need no wall (as of old) against the Picts: the Ocean it selfe is our wall round about to guard vs; stretcheth out his louely armes and creekes, to enrich vs; insinuateth his Sinus, bayes, bosomes, and harbours, to embrace vs; melteth himselfe in liquid loues, & mustereth waues, sands, [Page 87] tides, all his forces, as becommeth the great Ditch of this Towre of saluation, for his King, and his Kingdomes.
Scotland, Hist. H. 7. L.S. Alb. according to Henry the Seuenth's Prophesie, is now come into England, and nearer the Sunne, hath thawed those frozen, inueterate, hereritarie quarrels; cannot find Frontiers, or Marches; hath lost the Barbarisme of Borderisme; hath washed her face from ciuill vnciuill bloud and filth; hath extinguished naturall vnnaturall feuds; hath reformed her vnformed Rites; hath ordered her Clergie in Orders; hath allayed Laicke Distempers; hath Doctorall Seats, Episcopall Sees, Graue Councellours, Gallant Courtiers; and hath gone ouer to Ireland, to plant there Ciuilitie: Whence all this? our Text answereth, Great prosperitie giueth hee to his King, and hee, to that Kingdome.
Ireland hath beene an Ire-land, a Fire-land, whose Wild-fire burned in their Bogges: in the Mists and Fogges of Idle-busie Spirits, wilde vntamed [Page 88] Inhabitants, who had gotten the Monopoly of Venome from all other Irish Creatures. But now she groweth euery day English, and that Ire-land of Ireland, those Northerne Hiberna, the Boyling-pot of the North (Omne malum ab Aquilone) hath boyled out her Kerne froath, with Oneale and Tyrone morsels, & ecte noua rerum facies, there, there may London be seene, Derrie and Colrane, like Gen. 29.16. Rahell and Leah, London's Two Daughters; with twelue Townes, the issue of the twelue Companies, like Gen. 30.3, 9. Bilhah, and Zilpah, to do them seruice, and bring forth loyall Posteritie to Iacob. Where shee could spare no venome from her men; where the Earth it selfe grew queasie with crude humours, and the water sanke into Boggie swounds, and trembling-quagmires, as amazed at the sauage feritie of the Inhabitants, the Whirle-pooles, and Quick-sands of our brauest bloud, the curse of our gentlest Mothers; Psal. 107.36. There maketh hee the hungry (the needier English) to dwell, and prepare [Page 89] Townes and Cities for Habitations,
Hence now, as Constantine, first Christian Emperour, from Northerne Brittaine, and as now our Constantine from the North of Brittaine, so let hence, from the North of Ireland, flow Ciuilitie and Religion, to that whole Iland. Let the Sunne, as in the longest Summer dayes, rise out of the North, and our Northerne London bee a happie Mother of Language, Artes, Subiection, that the Irish Harpe may forget Romish, and be tuned English, and Ps. 96.1. sing a new Song to God, who hath beene a Towre of saluation to his King, and made him the Towre of these great hopes, and happinesse to that Kingdome: and blesse, O Lord, hereto his Maiesties present Designes with great prosperitie.
And if wee ship our selues from Ireland for England, and touch at Wales by the way, how doth it now after so [Page 90] long a time glory in the title of our glorious hope, a gracious Prince? how hath it enlarged her bowels of loue and seruice, and sympathised with His Candid Minde, in siluer Mines, the second of Metals correspondent to our second light and now first breaking forth to looke vpon the first of our hopes, our Happie Prince? For England, We least can see things neerest, & wood for trees cannot by some be discerned. It is spacious, and wide, I will apply me to my present Auditorie: I haue the Map, the Centre, the Heart, at least the beauteous Face of England before mee. That which the Face is to the Bodie; the Eye, to the Face, the Sight, to the Eye, that is London to England; and as the Spirits to the Eye, so should this holy place be to London.
HAile, London, aue, [...], salue, Ps. 122.7. Peace be within thy walls, & prosperitie within thy Palaces; O nimiùm foelix, bona si tua noris. Great prosperitie giueth he to his King, and where should he bestow it; but in the Repositorium and [Page 91] Chamber of his Kingdome? Ps. 122.5. There hath he set the Thrones for Iudgement, the Thrones of the house of Dauid. The Towre of thy King is in the East for thy safetie; the Bowre, and Palace of thy King is in the West, for light and Maiestie: in the middest is thy Guild-hall, for Iustice: besides thee, is Westminster-hall, that bringeth the whole Kingdome to thee, and maketh thy Termes and Vacations, as another Thames, ebbing and flowing, (Reu. 17.1.15. Many people are compared to many waters.) How many Gentlemen, and Noblemen walke with thee into the S. Martines Lane and all the Suburbes. fields? How many Lawyers sit on thy Skirts and Suburbs? How many Countreymen, and men of many Countries, in thy Shops, and Markets, Keyes, and Custome-house? How many Companies combined into one companie, and now heere one Congregation? How many Store-houses of Prouision? How many Ware-houses of Wealth? How many Hospitals for Poore? How many Hals for Rich? How many Temples [Page 92] for Deuotion? to omit thy Gresham-colledge within thee, and that Chelsey-colledge in thy Borders, a Towre of Sion intended against the Towre of Babylon (and the Quarrie of these our building stones, the very Place to our Arguments and these Meditations.) How hath London inlarged it selfe beyond the walls, the butts and bounds of Art? Beyond the Thames, the bounds of Nature? Beyond her selfe, as it were, sowing Londons in the Fields and Villages, beautified by her retrying Palaces? Pars minima est ipsa puella sui. Thy Bridge is a multitude of Towres, whose Ambition seemeth to scorne so base a Foundation, as Earth, and with a Miracle of Arte (like the Babylonian Pensile Gardens) not onely ioyneth Citie and Borough, but is another Citie of Borough betwixt both; aspireth into the Aire, domineereth ouer the water, and with a multitude of captiued subiect fires taketh reuenge on that fire, which sometimes destroyed her Forrest, that is, turned her Timber into [Page 93] Stone: which marrieth with a happie coniunction two Shires, and is the Semicircled Marriage-ring, with twentie Semicircled Arches embossed, and with so many Piles, as Iewels, adorned. How hath the Water conspired with Arte and Mans helpe, to make a new iourney to London, and with a new Riuer sweetned and cleansed thy Streets and Houses?Midletons Riuer. How are thy Moore-fields, nor Moore, nor Fields any more, but pleasant Walkes, and, in comparison of the former, a pettie Paradise? Thy Smith-field, hath washed her sootie, muckie, filthy face, and is made louely. Thine Exchange also hath multiplyed. What shall I say? Inopem te, at least,Brittaines Bursse. inopem me copia fecit. When wert thou so long together, deliuered from the deuouring Pestilence? Hast thou not so many Liueries, as the Liuerie of thy Freedome? So many Scarlets, as Banners and Ensignes of thy Power? The Diligence of Officers, Prudence of Counsellours, Grauitie of Aldermen, Hospitalitie of Magistrates, Magnificence [Page 94] of Pompes, Sanctitie of Courts, to adorn thee? I could adde thy varieties of Materials and Fashions of Attyre, if thou didst not here by mis-fashion and deforme thee: thy Buildings also now becomming (Towres indeed:) And, si Magister artis, ingeni (que) largitor, Venter, I could number the numberlesse deaths whence thou liuest, and (which herein is lawfull) empanell a Iewrie, not of Butchers but of Shambles, enough to astonish the whole Westerne World! thy Flesh-markets there (besides thy flesh in Markets, and other scattered places, not so conspicuous, with Fowles, Fish, Fruits, and other belly Prouision) out-vying any Citie, yea, many whole Kingdomes of the World. And if I would present a sensuall stranger with a sensible raritie of London, not elsewhere to be paralleld, no not to be elsewhere credited, I would here begin. But here, Rom. 14.17. it is time hereof to make an end. The Kingdom of God is not meat & drink. 1.Cor. 6.13 Meates are for the Belly, and the Belly for Meates, but God shall destroy both it [Page 95] and them: though this require thankfull acknowledgement to haue thy fed beasts, except wee be fed beasts. Milke and Honey, Oyle, and Wine, are not the best gifts, not giuen alway to the best. How many Men-shambles, Hell-shambles hath the Deuill made, Yea, made the Belly a God, by Flesh-shambles and full feeding?Ph. 3. Wee will take Sanctuarie in thy Churches? O thy Pulpits, O their Diuinitie! herein I am at amaze: both Vniuersities, Court, and Country, all come to This place to pay their holy Tribute: and yet, hadst thou none but thine owne store, since the Apostles dayes, thou art incomparable, a very None-such. I will not frowne, I may not weepe, and shew my selfe humane in thy Diuines plaints and complaints: it is a Festiuall, and wee must reioyce. And, oh, that thy Paul might put on Festiuall Apparell, and reioyce too! his Brother Peter, in the West, may be more Royall, as Princeps Apostolorum, and chiefe of the twelue, and hath met with an Honourable Lord [Page 96] keeper, who hath sealed him a renewed Charter, and made him first (as first called) to beginne the health of reparation. But Paul is 1. Tim. 2.7 Doctor Gentium, and, I am sure, hath 1. Cor. 15.10. laboured more abundantly then they all. O Pauls, what shall I say for thee? Of thee, I may say, as Phranza, Georg. Phranza Chron. l. 3. c. 17. of Saint Sophie, S. Sophies Church in Constantinople. a terrestriall Heauen, a Cherubicall Chariot, another Firmament, beyond all names of Elegance (Manasses Constant. Manasses ap. Pontan. addeth) Which I thinke the very Seraphim doe admire with veneration; thy spirituall part still, thy Diuinitie Lectures, thy Crosse Sermons, (the Oyle scarce sufficeth for thine Euening-Lampes, These also much improued now by the present Deane & C [...]ons, often labours th [...]rein.) but now, alas, thy stones! But I forget my selfe, it is a Festiuall; bee of good cheere, thou hast a King, which hath visited and pittied thy ruines, and is still loath to see thee in the dust: thou hast a Prelate, the Successor (post tot secula) of thy Founder, who grieueth to see Pauls Faith not to produce Works, and OVR FATHERS conscience, behind the inscience of PATER NOSTER. Behold, [Page 97] now the stones themselues speake, and are at hand to promise thy Reparations at hand: and I hope, Mat. 3 9. God is raising children to Abraham of these stones, who will thrust the stone out of their hearts, and bestow it on These walles.
O London, which art rich at home, and needest none other World, then Brittaine, how hast thou extended thy Trade into all parts of Europe?
Coeli & soli bonis omnibus donata, thou hast twice, with thy long Armes, embraced the whole Globe; art made delicate with Russian Furres; fed, when need is, with Corne from Danske, and Poland; whom the Germanes present with rare Artifices; Italians, with Silks, Stuffes, Veluets; the French and Spaniard, with Wines and Oyle; the Belgians, with Wares for thy Peace, and Warres for thy superfluous bloud; the Mountaynes of Norway, descend that thy houses may ascend; Narue and the Easterlings are thy Calkers and Riggers for thy Ships; Iseland, New-foundland, and the North-seas furnish thee [Page 93] with Fish; Turkie, with Carpets; Barbarie and the Negroes, with Gold, and Creatures for thy pleasure: the Northwest hath opened her various passages to thee, and if Nature denyed not, would giue the thorow-fare: Greenland melteth her huge Whale-monsters, to doe thee seruice: the Ilands, which Nature had almost lost in the Ocean, are found out by thy Mariners: the Red Sea hath been awed, and the Turks afraid, lest thou shouldst stop vp that mouth of Mahomet: the Mogoll's, Persian's, Moscouite's, large Dominions are thy thorow-fare, thy Staples: Thou hast strewed thy Factories alongst the East euen to Iapan, and sowen and reaped Wealth and Honour in the Ocean. How doe the most remote parts send in their Commodities both for thy profit and pleasure? while, by the way, Saldania, Saint Augustines, Saint Helena, and other places yeeld refreshing to thy Merchants and Mariners; Siam, sendeth the Lignum Aloes, Beniamin, rich Stones; Socodanna, Diamonds; [Page 99] China, Raw Silke, Porcellane, Taffata, Veluets, Damaske, Muske, Sewing-gold, Embroydered Hangings; Macassar, and Patania, Bezars; Baly, Slaues for thy Merchants Indian vses; Timore, White-sanders and Waxe, Banda, Nutmegs and Oyle; the Molucca's, Cloues; Iapan, Dyes, Salt-peeter, Siluer; Guinnee, dying-wood, Oyster-trees, Guinny-pepper; Zocotora, Ciuet-cats, and Aloes; Arabian Red-Sea-Moha, Indian and Arabian Commodities; Cambaya, Cloth, Carpets, Quilts, Spikenard, Turbith, Cinnamon; Surat, Indicoe's Callicoes, Pintadoe's, Chadois, Shashes, Girdles, Cannakens, Treckanees, Senabafs, Aleias, Patolla's, Sellas, Greene-ginger, Lignum Aloes, Suckets, Opium, Sal-armoniacke, and abundance of Drugges; Balsora, Pearles; Zeilon, Cinnamon; Iambe, great grain'd Pepper; as Priaman, Passaman, best Pepper, and Gold; the East of Africa, Gold and Amber-greese. These, with many more, conspire to make thee Great. Thou hast not, as of old, visited [Page 100] the New-world, but hast made (not Ireland alone, but) Bermuda's frequent and populous; Virginia, to multiply in Townes and Hundreths; besides, New-England, New-found-land, and other thy Plantations; O magnae spes altera Brittaniae. Virginia! I will repeat of thee, which I said before of thy Royall Godmother, which named thee Virginia, O quam te memorem virgo? thy louely cheekes, alas, lately blushed with Virginian-English bloud: but how soone? and thy blush being turned to indignation, thou shalt wash, hast washed thy feet in the bloud of those natiue vnnaturall Traytors, and now becommest a pure English Virgin; a new other Brittaine, in that new other World: and let all English say and pray, GOD BLESSE VIRGINIA.
But whence this London-greatnesse? Great prosperities giueth he to his King, and his Cares, his Opportunities, his Charters, Commissions, Confederacies; his Peace, which he hath receiued from his Predecessor, and educated to [Page 101] maturitie; his artes of ruling, his ruling of our Arts, whereby the Bees worke luckily and Waspes and Drones are expelled; his Faith, whereof he is Defender, and which (as a Shield) hath defended him; his Prosperitie, which GOD, magnificans salutes, hath giuen him, and he, to London, is the meane of all thy meanes: O Melibaee, Deus nobis haec otia fecit; his GOD, the Towre of his King, hath enclosed thee in the Towre-liberties. Psal. 48.12. Goe about London, and tell her Towres, how many and great prosperities?) marke well her Bulwarks, and consider her Palaces.
If any yet complayne, are they not worse then those Murmurers who can finde no fault with Num. 11.5.6. Manna, but because they haue it, or good, in Num. 11.5.6. Leekes or Cucumers, so admirable, but because they haue a minde to quarrell? Want of sicknesse, (I said before) is a wanton sicknesse, and fulnesse breedeth surfet: else would not the delicate Papist complaine of persecution, if hee did but thinke what 2. Reg. 9.22. his mother Iezabel doeth, [Page 102] where shee may haue 1. Reg. 21.8. Ahabs Ring. Nor would we long for Warre, if wee could but present to our imagination the miserie of Warre; a very Hell vpon Earth, and compendium of all mischiefs. Thinke what it is to see thy House fired; thy Goods seized; thy Seruants fled, Mater [...] nus, hist. Belg. thy Wise rauished before thy face, and then hung vp by the heele (modestie forbids the rest) thy Daughter crying to thee for helpe in one corner, while thy little Sonne is tost on anothers Pike, and the Sword at thine owne throat, and that the least of thy sorrowes. Dulce bellum inexpertis, were then too late a lesson, and the name of Peace would then be sweetest Musicke.
Sinne is the worst Treason against the State, 1. Reg. 18.18. the troubler of Israel, and this none of the least of sinnes, to bee censorious of those whom God hath called Gods: especially now, where is so much cause of thankfulnesse, where, by our King, as Gods immediate instrument, wee enioy whatsoeuer might [Page 103] haue beene blowne vp, or shaken and lost by the Gun-powder Treason; which againe I remember, as more then answere to all obiections, though Hell haue neuer enough. For vs,Prou. 30. Tertul. rather let vs pray for the KING, Vitans prolixam, Imperium securum, Domum tutam, Exercitus fortes, Senatum fidelem, (I may adde) Subditos gratos, non querulos, morigeros, non morosos: and that GOD will still and still bee a Towre of saluation for his KING: and praise ye him for his saluation, for this saluation to his King, this Gowry-deliuerance to his Anoynted. Such mercies continue He to this our Dauid, and to his Seed for euermore. Amen and Amen.
READER. I subscribe to my Sermon▪ It was loath to preface to anothers Booke: for such is this, of my old friend Master A. C. with whom I would no new strife, about that which before was publike to another kind. His Loue-spectacles made his eyes (admit [...]ed to my notes) to ouersee, his hands to copie it and to procure others hands to present it to th [...]e: an honour I neuer deigned to any Sermon of mine, how onerous soeuer to the Press [...] otherwise. Who now also am in trauell these twentie moneths of that which twentie yeeres since and more, was conceiued. The Parent dyi [...]g, in stead of a Iuno Lucina, The Poets faine Baccus a Traueller ouer the World, borne of Iupiters thigh, &c. I haue played the Iupiter; and because my brayne could not breed a Minerua, I haue found in my heart, and hands, and euery where, entertaynment for the forming, growing, ripening of this Bouncing Bacchus (a [...]r [...]u [...]ller indeed with an Armie of Trauellers) which my trauell with Tr [...]uels and Trauellers I mention to obtayne thy helpe especially the midwifery of thy p [...]ayers▪ for the perfecting of so stupend [...]ous a bir [...]h (still sticking, and like to endure many moneth pressure in the passage) which then perh [...]ps to such as will giue him education, may in recompense gaue a world of the Worlds rarities.