MOngst all the Vo­lumes of the booke of God there is none repleate with mat­ter of more admira­tion, exhortation, imitation of won­ders, [Page 2] precepts, vertues, then the Pen­tateuch, or, 5. bookes of Moses. AsPsal. Dauid, my song shall be of mercy, and iudgement: heere mercy and iudgement are met together, truth and righteousnesse haue kissed each other. Iudgement, Adam sinnes, A­dam sweates: Eue sins, Eue smarts: Serpent sinnes, Serpent creepes: Cain sins, Cain runnes: Noah sinnes, Noah shames: the world sinnes, the world swimmes: Sodom sinnes, So­dom burnes: Pharaoh sinnes, Phara­oh drownes: Chorah sinnes, Chorah sinkes: Semper certa venit vindi­cta, si sint dilecta nostra delicta. Mer­cy: The great Monarch of this great All, daigning to become all in all: a Taylour to Adam, a Saylour to Noah: a Pilot to Heber, a Car [...]uan to Abraham, a co [...]uoy to Isacke, a ladder to Iacob, a chariot to Io­seph, a mid-wife [...]o Moses, a leaderPsal. to Israel: (oh thou that leadest Is­rael as a sheepe) she was the sheepe, hee the sheepheard that Israel mightPsal. sing with the singer of Israel.

Led them from Canaan where bread was wanting: Fed them in Egypt where food was abounding [...] bred them in Goshen to numbers ex­ceeding: till another King arose that knew nor Ioseph: that knew not the indulgence they had by Ioseph, but knew to increase the afflictions of Io­seph: it is rare to finde posterity heire of his fathers charity. Dolor & vo­luptas Seneca. inuicem cedunt; br [...]u [...]or volup­tas: their Halcyon dayes are now at an end: mirth had presented the for­mer Scene, now sorrow [...] in to act her part. Iealous was Pharaoh ofExod. 1. 10 their multiplying powers, therefore makes policy his pyouer to vnder­mine their strength. Come let vs worke wisely; as if Machia [...]lismeExod. [...]. 11. should be christened by the name of wisedome. Taske-masters are ap­pointed [Page 4] ouer Israel.

They should not bee Israel in this their perigration, did they not wre­stle with God in many an affli­ction. Pharaoh supposed, that con­tinuall working would coole their desire, and power of begetting; as if, Sine Cerere, & Baccho frigat ve­nus: Dum mo­ritur viuit. Naz' liga­bantur inclu debantur ce­debantur torqueban­tur & mul­tiplicantur. Aug. de ciu. dei. l. 22. Exod. 1. 15. but Gods vine is euer more fruitfull with bleeding palme, and Cammomill more fertile with trea­ding. Then Shiprah, and Puah must be bloody Lucinas, to mur­ther their males as soone as they are borne: but though Misraim be flesht in Cain-like cruelty, their feminine hearts are suppled with mercy.

Now the people must drowne whom the midwiues had spared,Exod. 1. 22. like bloody executors of their ma­sters will; while the streames of Ni­lus are the infants Sepulchers. Nilus was made white with bodies, bare bodyes of Innocents drowned: Ni­lus was made to swell with teares, salt teares of mothers that mour­ned: Nilus was filled full of cryes [Page 5] of Fathers that lamented: Fathers, mothers, brothers, kinsfolks, sor­rowing for their babes, and would not be comforted, and would not be comforted because they were not. In this persecution Moses was born;Exod 2. 2. the mother reioyces when a man­child is borne, but quickly this ioy was Eclipsed with mone: hee can­not abide in Egypt with safety, nor reside in Iochebeds arms with secu­rity, but must bee exposed to Nep­tunes mercy: where euery gust is like to ouerwhelme him, and euery bil­low like to swallow him. A cradle of bulrushes is the babi [...]boat, a bark ofExod. 2. 3. reedes the little ones ship, but God was the Pilot, Christ the mast, faith the anchor, loue the sayles, hope the tackling, confidence the decke, ther­fore hee could not but arriue at a happy port. Pharaohs daughter cameExod 2. 5. [...]. foorth to wash her in the coole streames of Nilus to bath her, heard a cry, saw no creature, at last she be­held the precious casket, where beauty pleaded, and begd reliefe, [Page 6] whilst his mourneful Oratory pierc't her heart. Her heart was struck with gentle compassion, yet her toung could say t'is an Hebrews child: yet this Hebrewes childe must bee her sonne: he the sonne, shee the mo­ther: onely there wanted a milkie nurse, and who so fit a nurse to suc­kle him, as she that felt such throwes to beare him? (when we doe seeme most deiected, the prouidence of God is most declared.) No doubt, but oft the Lady did visite him, as much reioycing when shee beheld him, nor Orphan-like did shee nou­rish him, but what court, or schoole could put into him, was duely ad­ministred. But who can wash the Ethiops skin? or who can hide the Leopards spots? or make him for­get hee was an Hebrew? though nurture often alienate nature, as Ly­curgus intimates in his Lacedemoni­an whelpes, here partus sequitur ventrem, insomuch as all the ho­nours in Egypt could not weane Moses from calling his nurse mo­ther: [Page 7] or winne him from willingly suffering with Israel. A good soule cannot but grieue with others, and haue a feeling Sympathie with its fellow members. He walkes forth and beholds their miseries, and as he well can; reuenges their iniuries. An Hebrew, and a Gypsye are at contention, hee rescues the Hebrew,Exod. 2. 12, 13. slayes the Egyptian. An Hebrew, and an Hebrew striue together, (do­mesticall broyles are fullest of dan­gers:) his courteous Rhetoricke can nothing win, behold an Egyptian in an Hebrewes skinne: a full vessell must needs vent, a great heart must needs speake, a turbulent stomacke cannot stay: wilt thou kill me as thou didst the Egyptian the other day? oh with what impatient passion14. doth a galled heart receiue admoni­tion? Then did Moses flye into Mi­dian: 15: Caelum mutat, non mutat ani­mum, change of soyle doth not change the soule, but a man that is good, in euery place will bee doing good: Quis enim celauerit ignem? If [Page 8] he cannot yet free the Israelites from Pharaoh, he will ayde the wrongedExod. 2. 17. daughters of Iethro: they attend their sheepe and come to water them, the ruder shepheards keepe the water from them: a currish mind and chur­lish disposition, hath no respect of sex or condition. Moses perceiues them the weaker vessells, therefore thrusts himselfe betwixt them and dangers, and by his vndaunted va­lour, and magnanimity, assures, and secures them from the Shepheards inhumanity. Their olde Father is quickly told it, and with hospitall welcome entertaines him for it: and being a great and wealthy peere ad­mitsExod. 2. 21. him his seruant, adopts, makes him his sonne in law, and sends him abroad to follow his sheepe. Now he that in Egypt followed his book, in Midian betakes himselfe to his hooke. Moses his hooke, as Peters net, Pauls tent, and Iosephs rule may minister to vs this short instru­ction, that neither greatnesse norNote. goodnesse neede to bee ashamed of [Page 9] an honest vocation. Forty yeares in Egypt a Courtier, and forty yeares in Midian a Shepheard; a solitary life, yet he likes it, a melancholy cal­ling, yet he continues it. He was not ignorant of Court-cares, that A [...]lae culmen sublime lubricum, hee that climbes the highest, falles the soonest, therefore a priuate, and retyred life in a higher degree doth more contentNote. him. Hee that hath true worth in himselfe, and outward, or inward fa­miliarity with God, findes more pleasure in a Midian wildernes, then others delight in Princely Pallaces.

While innocent Moses followes, and tends his innocent lambs, God doth graciously appeare to him visi­bly; idle persons are not graced with visions: Idlenesse is a cushionNote. whereon Satan sits, where hee ap­peares, or rather suggests manifolde temptations. God had beene euer present with Moses, yet he had neuer seene him till now. When Adam Gen 3. 8. did ill, hee would haue hid him in a Bush: when Moses did well, God [Page 10] is seene in a Bush. A great wonder, in a small matter: that a tender bush should burne with fire, was nothing marueilous, but that the fire should not burne the bush, was truely mi­raculous.

A true Embleme of the true Church, and of euery true member of the Church.

• 1 Tis like a Bush.
• 2 A burning bush.
• 3 Yet it is no combustible bush.

The Church of God is resembled to a Bush.

• 1. In stature. quantity.
• 2. In nature. quality.

The Bush is low: the Church is so

• in others eyes.
  1 Stature In other eyes.
• in it owne eyes.

The worldling brandes it with markes of basenesse: the Papist scornes it because of the smallnesse. In the worldlings eye, the Church is a bush: the bush is low; low, andWo [...]dling. contemptible: the Church is base, [Page 11] base and despicable. Tune credis Christo? credis crucifixo? Was the common quaere in Augustines time. What tu? Mecaenas atanis edite re­gibus? Thou hast beene of great re­port? thou who hast borne a goodly port? wilt thou be stigmarized with the name of Christ? the shame of [...] vita [...]. [...]. Christ? a new and wicked supersti­tion. A Carpenters sonne, a carpen­ter himselfe, and ver dolorum, a man of sorrowes; that had not so much as a house to be borne in, but bor­rowed a stable: not a bed to be layd in but borrowed a manger: nor a pot to drink in, but borrowed a pitcher: nor an horse to ride on, but borrowed an Asse: nor a roome to eate in, but borrowed a parlour: nor a graue to be buryed in, but borrowed a Sepul­cher: thy Gods debasement, will be thy disparagement: being an offence to the Iewes, madnesse to the Grae­cians, dotage vnto worldlings: a se­ditiousSerres pag. 652. Aug. Cos. lib. 11. vermine (saide the Duke of Guise) but (seditious Duke) good words we pray: Al [...]ud est ridere▪ a­liud [Page 12] est videre, the naturall man sees not the things of God, and no mar­uell, for he sees naturally when the things of God must bee discerned spiritually. Therefore with Hilary Hil▪ de T [...]n. 5. we may say with hilaritie: Oh stul­ta mundi sapientia, Christi opprobri­um, non sentiens esse Dei virtutem, & mundi stultitiam, non intelligens esse d [...]i sapientiam: oh vnwise wisedome of the worldly wise, not vnderstan­ding the opprobrie of the son to be the glory of the Father: nor that which is esteemd folly with men to be the inuincible prudence of God. Then let rides be changed to vides, then let vides be chang'd to fides, and faith will refell this preiudicate opi­nion, faith will repell this supercili­ous traduction, for faith will tell though Foras nigra, yet intus formo­sa: though foule without, yet faire within, a faire soule, though a foule skinne: the Kings daughter is allPsal. 45. glorious within, behold thou art faire my loue, behold thou art faire, For­mosi pecoris custos, formosior ipse. Cant. [...]. 1.

In the Papists eies, the sound Church [...] Papi [...]. is a bush, the bush is smal, and of no repute: our Church is vile, and of no esteeme. Theirs is a Ceder, ours a shrub▪ theirs a vine, and a pi [...]e, ours doth pine, and they repine. They haue antiquity, pleade visibilitie, v­niuersalitie: wee are a company of few, obscure, contemptible people, lurking from time to time in shades and corners, knowne to few or none. Theirs hath had, and yet hath a fa [...]eFarther p [...]rs. 2. par [...] of 3. [...] ­uey. Dr. Hill. [...] [...]as. [...]. B [...]wood inq [...]i [...]y, cap. 14. greater sway in the world then any other euer had, or hath, how truely spoken let Brerewood iudge: the Christian part of the world (all pro­fessions and sects of that name put together) is as fiue: the M [...]ume­tanes as sixe: the Idolaters as nine­teene, beside that Heathenish tract of Terra incognita, so farre is that from [Page 14] truth which this our Islands naturall sonne, bragd in behalfe of his Ro­mish spirituall mother.

But let them bragge: we know who bragges of the greatest num­ber: Antichrist. I confesse indeedeR [...]u. 19. the number of [...]he faithfull, is lesse far then the number of the faithlesse: there is more chaffe th [...]n corne in the Lords barne: more [...]ares then wheat in the Lords field: for one No [...]h and his family (beeing but eight) the whole world drownd for their wic­kednesse: for one Lot and his hou­shold being but foure, all the cities of the plaine burnd for their vngod­linesse: for one thankefull Samari­tan, nine vngratefull leapers: for oneIer. 3. 14. Reu. 3. 4. Elias 450. Pseudoprophets: but one of a city, and two of a [...]ribe: a few names in Sardis. Christs sheepe are not many (Pauci, pauperes, pusilli,) for quanti [...]y; but more then all the rest for quality: hee esteemes more one of his mysticall members, then all the worlds vnhallowed mem­bers: yet is it not Gods family so [Page 15] small as to be measured by humane Geography: for it is no [...] tyed to the seed [...] of Iacob, as the Iewes would haue it, no [...] to the s [...]yle of Aff [...] as the Donatists would haue it, nor to the Sea of Rome, as Popelings would haue it: but God hath cho­sen for the children of Abraham all that haue the faith of Abraham, and for the tribes of Iacob all that wor­shipIoh. 4. 23▪ the God of Iacob in spirit and truth. Then doe not preoccupate the Lords seat, take not vpon thee to iudg thy brethren, neither doe thou despaire of thy selfe, but leaue iudgement to God, and looke for mercy of the Lord: his foundation is sure, and hath this seale, Dominus 2 T [...] ▪ [...]. 1 [...] nouit qui sunt sui, the Lord knoweth who are his: and we know that we are his, our Church is his. Though they boast of their numbers, des [...]i­sing our handfulls: saying, all the world is theirs, scarce any corner ours, and who can choose but suspectD▪ [...] a few? we dare, and can share equal­ly with them, with our reformed [Page 16] Churches opposed to them, and if we could not, this rule of theirs will but teach vs to aduance Turcisme a­boue Christianity, and Paganisme a­boue Mahumetry, the Word aboue the Church, and Hell aboue Heauen: if any proofe can be drawne from al­titude, you know all, the Ceder is vn­fruitfullest: if any proofe can bee drawne from multitude, hee that knowes all sayes, the best are fewest. Thus our Church is a bush, low in2 in it own eyes. others eyes, so is it a bush, low in it owne eyes.

I am dust and ashes; I am a worme and no man: vermis sum, non v [...]r, I am of no estimation, reputation: I am a man of polluted lips: I am not wor­thie of the least of thy mercies; I am not worthy vnder whose roofe thou shouldst enter; I am not worthy to vnty the latchet of his shooe; I am not worthy to be called thy sonne; I am not worthy the name of an A­postle: humble, lowly, bushy-confes­sions, sifting themselues to a course braine, farre from that humerous, tu­merous, [Page 17] Thrasonicall, Pharisaicall, Pyrgopolynice [...]icall Braggadochio.Aug. hmo. 30 de verb. dom secun. Luk. that shows not vulnera, but munera, not his wounds, but his worth; not his misery, but his brauery. I thanke God, I am not like other men, whileLuk. 18. 11 the silly bush, the poore Publican stands a farre off, as not daring to ap­proach the Mount of Gods glory, casts downe his eyes, as acknowled­ging himselfe guilty, knocks vpon his brest, the closet of his impiety, and with a looke deiected, soule perplex­ed, voyce submitted, cryes out Do­mine miserere mei, Lord be mercifull to me, to me, I say not thy sonne, I13 haue so offended thee; to me, I say not thy seruant, I haue so displeased thee; to me, I say not thy friend, I haue so abused thee; to me, I say not thy creature, I haue so rebelled a­gainst thee, but Domine miserere mei peccat [...]ris! Oh Lord be mercifull to me a sinner: so good a follower of the Son of God, is the child of God:Ma [...]. 11. Aug. de te. Learne of me to be meeke▪ & humble, Cum humilitatis doctor [...] non [...]r [...]t su­perbia [Page 18] tua: Pride and peace cannot dwell together, but learne of me to be meeke and humble, and you shallMat. 11. 2 [...] finde rest to your Soules. Humility is the mother of tranquility: & quan­to quis humilior, ta [...]to Christo simili­or: The more humble thou art, the more like [...]hy Maister thou art: but Pride like Colloquintida will imbi [...] ­ter a whole pot-full of pottage.

Though beauty, wealth, and wis­dome, all thou hast,

Pride will them all demollish quite at last.

Oh be not ignorant of what thou art, Dumus, Rubus, a Bush, a Shrub, nequam, nequicquam, nought, nor ought: Thy Body is [...], as much to say, as [...], thy Soules Sepulcher. Thy Soule is anima, as much to say as [...], a winde that passeth speedi­ly, and that passeth the winde in [Page 19] vanity: Thou wast Corpus, a Body, but Cor is gone, thy heart lost, onelyPsal. pus remaines putrifaction, so vaine a thing is man: Then esto quodes, bee what thou art: Thou art low, bee lowly: As holinesse, so lowlinesse be­comes the Saints.

Thus for stature, now for nature:2. Nature. Our Church is a Bush. Naturally and for the most part to a Bush be­longs these parts, R [...]di [...], Ramus. Cor­tex, folia, fructus. A Bush hath natu­rally a Roote: secondly a Body: thirdly Barke: fourthly Branches: fiftly Leaues: sixtly and fruit, so hathScaliger de Subtil. ex [...]. [...] 40. P. 2. the Church, onely heer's the diffe­rence, they haue their branches vp­wards, wee our branches (legges and armes) downwards: wee inclo­sed in a skinne, they in a barke; they haue their mouth in the earth, wee ours towards Heauen, &c. Christ is the Root, the Root of Iesse, the RootRoote, Rom. 15. 12. Esa. 11. 1. Reu. 5. 5. Esa. 53. 2. Esa. 11. 10. of Dauid, called a Root in his Con­ception: a Root in his Passion: a Root in his Ascention: a Root in the generall Iudgments discussion. Now [Page 20] is the Axe layd to the roote of theMat. 7. tree: thou bear'st not the root but the roote thee: As the roote is to the Bush, so is Christ to the Church.

• 1. Fundamentum. Being a prop & stay to vphold it.
• 2. Alimentum. Bringing of sap & iuyee to nourish it.
  1 Founda.

No other foundation can any man lay than Iesus Christ, which is alrea­dy layd: angular stone, immoueable rock, elect, & precious: There is none other named in heauen or earth, by whom to bee saued: though some think that Philosophers may be saued without him. But other rootes hathRome. Rome; thus they say: thus they pray, Papa Domine mei miserere; O Lord Pope in thee is my hope, haue mercy vpon mee: and qui tollis peccata mun­di miserere nostri; as the Sicilians to Pope Martin the 4: thou that takestSerres In­uentory. away the sins of the world haue mer­cy vpon vs. To the Virgin:

Further:Guili. Nen­brigens. [...] l. 2. cap. 16

The Guilt of sin put from thee: & infinite other: Rotren rootes, Egyp­tian [Page 22] reedes, waterlesse welles: of noe life, force, strength. Sunt infirma quaedam refugia, ad quae cum quis fu­gerit Aug. in Ps. 45. magis infirmatur, quam confir­matur: they that trust to them are not onely deceaud in them, but weak­ned by them. But Christ is the roote of our saluation.

Other Rootes hath the CarnallCarnal. men, & women; taking, making; staues, and staies; broken staues, rot­ten stayes: meere Quagmires to themselues. As the Courtier that builds his houses on the fauour of1. Courtier Princes, whose breath is, (and shalbe shortly) in their nosthrils: Trust them not, non est Salus in e [...]s; their is no health in them, no help in them: the Salue of their tongue like the Sa­liua [Page 23] thereof hath some venome in it.Psa. 146. Psa. 82. 6 Dixi Dii, I haue sayd you are Gods; but you shall all die, & die like men: for what are they, but as thou thy thy selfe? [...] soule and soyle, the one nothing but a puffe of wind; the other nothing but a pile of dust:Greg. Naz. Esa. 2. 22▪ Gen. 2. 7. both shall passe away, euen as the wind scatters the dust. And who would trust dust? it wil slip out of thy hand and deceaue thee; & more than so flie in thine eies and blind thee: vi­ri magni sunt montes naufragosi, quo Nauem quisque cum impulerit solui­tur: Aug. in Io­han. Tract. mightie men are mightie rocks, thy ship splits if thou launch towards them. The Lawyer: the root of whose tree is a mercenary Fee. Woe bee2 Lawyer. vnto you Scribes and Lawyers Te­nures, Offices, Sutes, and Pleaes, Wars & Iarres; procure your ease: and how could you feed so fat without them? But, Nouerint vniuersi per presentes: bee it known vnto all men by these presents, that such siluer-Causidicists money-Spermologists, shall once plead hard at the barr of Gods iudg­ment, [Page 24] & shall not be hard: their Case shall bee ill like a Chancery-bill, pit­tifully complaining, not mercy ob­tayning, whilst Bribery is raigning.

The Vsurer: who growes on a3 Vsurer. Ba [...]ke; his mind is on his Mine, thats his Roote, & there hee rootes. But [...] * loue of money. 1. Tim. 6. 10 [...]: Philargury is the roote of villany: Couetuousnes, fo [...]ntaine of wicked­nes. He sels the ayre, takes mony for time, contracts with Satan, giues his soul for surety, when hee puts out his mony, puts his hand to the bill, when he receaues the vse. But the Conditi­on of this Obligacion is such, that ifLuk. 19. 8. hee doe not Zacchize (restore) pre­sently (and heele bee hangd first) he, & his heires shal bee quite extinct.

The Minister: whose Roote is in [Page 25] the Chancel not the Church: Tythes and glebes, commendams and qua­lifications; are that h [...]e growes vpon: Hara domestica, his owne Stie; not Arae Dominica, Gods house: not caring to, 1 Feed 2 feed 3 feed; either by his 1 teaching, 2 liuing, 3 relei­uing: but Carking wholly to feed himselfe, shall I say wjth Ezechiell with a Barley-loafe? noe, with the Panada of finest Manchet, while the Temple of god remaines vnbuilt. O Prophet couet not profit; tis time, if euer, now to awake least like Ionas his Gourde, thy meanes slake, andIonah 4. 7. thy Superintendency another take.

Epicure, de grege porcus. That is a4 Epicure. louer of pleasure more than of God therefore pleasure, not god is his root, [...] he grows in the Celler vnder the tap, or else in some corner in a wantons lap: either carousing the three Outs; 1 wit out of the pate, 2 drinke out of the pot, 3 coyne out of the purse: or hazarding all at the three Innes, 1 ci­uilitie in Bedlam, chastitie in a Baw­dy-house, [Page 26] 3 reuenues in the compter. Are not most of our Despots turnd Tospots? musicke for the eare: beautie for the eie: Pomanders for the nose: Banquets for the tooth: healths for the throte: (noe health for the body) Hell for the Soul. But

As Christ is the fundament; so he2 Nourish­ment. giues aliment, iuyce, and nutriment, moysture and nourishment to the Bush, his Church. Radix est os [...]t stomachus arboris; the roote is the mouth and stomacke of the tree: mouth to feed it, stomach to nourish it: giues sustentation, which breedes vegetation, and fructification; nor would it haue verdure, or greenish [Page 27] tincture, without this sappie moyst­ure; but would bee leaueles, liueles, & fruitles. Euen so Christus est os et stomachus fidelis; Christ is the mouth and stomach of his Church; mouth for instruction, stomach for refection: manna of the soul to feed mans soul: bread of life to breed mans life, sowen in heauen; reapt in earth; in'd by Mary; thresht by the Pharisies; ground on the crosse, betweene two stones, beetweene two theeues; ba­ked in the Sepulcher; distributed, in the Sacrament, where god doth im­part to euery faithful branch its part: Sumit vnus sumunt mille, quantum is­ti tantum ille: whoeuer feedes on this refection, eates and drinkes his owne1 Cor. 11. saluation▪ my flesh is meat, my blood is drink; flesh and blood, meate and drink; meate indeed, drinke indeed:Psa. therefore as the Hart thirsteth for the riuers of water; so doth my hart thirst for this heauenly moysture.

The Bush hath a bole, trunke, or2 Bodie. Rom. 12. Eph. 4. 4. body; so hath the Church: we are many members, yet but one body glued, and serued, and cemented to­gether; with the morter of Vnitie plaster of Amitie, asphaltum of Vna­nimitie; where the King is the head, Councell the eies, Iudges the eares, Lawes the teeth▪ Pastours the toung▪ good Houskeepers the stomache, Husbandmen the feet, Souldiors the hands; the Pope was the haire, the haire of the head aboue the crowne; till Harry the eight did shaue him downe. God grant his trentals still to bee excrements.

We are all baptized into one body.1 Cor. 12. Why doth then the Guelph & Gib­belin, why doth the red and whitros [...] faction, or Papist, Hugonet, or Preci­sian, harrow and til the soyl of dissen­tion? Vnum corpus, vnus a [...]mus; one Bole, one Soul: but of this succinct­ly,1 Cor. 10 [...] 3 Barke. cause by others sufficiently.

The Bush hath a Barke, so the [Page 29] Church.

The Bark to the Bush is a beauty or ornament: 2 a couer or tegument: A good conuersation is such to the christian: this doth Corpus tegere, Cor protegere; deck the soul, pro­tect the body & moues god to respect both. A fa [...]re Rinde argues a good mind; good Conuersation a signe of sanctification; as virtuous manners are precious treasures, commodious to vs and also to others, to vs ad iusti­ficandum though not effectiuely: so we are iustified by Christ, not appre­hensiuely, so wee are iustified by faith yet declaratiuely by iust and holy virtuous workes. So our Sauiour of himselfe, the workes that I haue d [...] beare witnesse what I am: to others ad aedificandum that others seeing our workes on earth, may glorifie our fa­ther which is in heuen. V [...]tur exem­plis, man is led by practice, more than instruction, like pliable wax for anyS [...]neca E­pist. lib. 1 Epist. 1. impression. But if you bee either ma­le agentes doing wickedly, or nihil a­gentes lying idly, or aliud agentes vn­beseemingly, [Page 30] your Couer is gone, your honour's none, you are barkles Bushes, naked Forresters. Moreo­uer the Bush hath not onely a barke without, but also a little Filme with­in: so haue god [...] Darlings, as faire outward parts, so good inward hearts, corporall vrbanity, and cordiall sinceritie, as knowing that, Sermo interpres cordis apud v [...]rum, cor interpres sermonis apud Deum; men iudge of our harts byPhilo-Iud. the outward countenance, but god of our works by the inward conscience: therefore as they hang out a bush, so they haue also Wine, lodginge for Christ as well as a signe.

As pargetted walles, so garnished chambers, & furnished closets, swept & washt, rubd and pared from dust, cobwebs, filth and rubbish; ab offen­sis le [...]ioribus smaler offences, and sua­uioribus sweeter concupiscences, & grau [...]oribus grosser vices: know you not that you are temples of the Holy Ghost? but the holy-ghost will not dwell in those temples, where En [...]y [Page 31] stands at the doore, Wrath leanes in the porch, drunkennes lyes on the [...]ore, Gluttony sits at the table, Le­chery keepes the bed, & Pride lookes out at the window.

Let vs now with Zacche get vp to4 Branches. the branches, that we may eie & espie our beloued Iesus. The bush hath a­boundance of twigges, redundance of sprigges, sprouts, & shuts, boughes, and armes: so hath our slender tender Church: whereof some are tempo­rall, some spirituall: the issue of the wombe, the issue of the word: nor without the former can wee haue the later: for no filij soeculi, no filij coeli, no generation, no regeneration: barren­nesse was a curse among the Iewes, wee thinke it a crosse among vs Gen­tiles. Children are the first, the best blessing. Thus could▪ Iuno preach to Ae [...]lus.

And thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the Lord. His wife shal­bee like a fruitfull vine by the house sides: his children like Oliue branches round about his table: vt Angeli in circuitu throni dei, like a garland of angels round about gods throne: vt stellae in circuitu Poli Arctici, as a gar­land of stars round about the North-Pole. Alcibiades asked Socrates how hee could indure the chiding of his wife; Socrates ask'd Alcibiades how hee could indure the cackling of his hens, sayes the one pariunt pul­los my hens hatch me chickens; but the other parit filios, my wife bearesPsal. [Page 33] me children. Happy he that hath hisPsal. quiuer full of them, he shall not be a­shamed to speake with his enemie in the gate: they preserue our Species, and after a sort make vs immortall, by deriuing life from the roote to the branches, from the Father to the Son, from the Sonne to the sonnes sonne in longinquum, as Dauid speakes for many generations. But because ma­ny of these are not milde but wild, not fertile but stertile, not streight, but crooked branches, some like Cain butchering their brothers, some like Nero, murthering their mothers, some like Ammon defiling their si­sters, and others like Ham, reuiling their Fathers, let vs cast our eyes a ventre ad verbum, from the issue of the wombe to the issue of the word. As many as are begotten by the word of God, are branches of the bush, members of the Church of God. God husbandeth, the Sacrament wa­tereth, the Spirit refresheth, repen­tance moysteneth, the minister plan­teth, the word seedeth, and feedeth, [Page 34] and breedeth, then the Branch sprin­geth.Ioh. 15 35.

O powerful Sperm able to make Foe­lix quake, the iaylor shake, of stony harts to rayse vp children to Abrahā, & metamorphize the most obdurate: Lyons into lambs, beares into kids, the couetous, as mercifull as Iob, and liberall as Zache: the timerous, as bold as Laurence, and couragious as the Martyrs: the luxurious, as chast as Ioseph, and continent as Iudeth, the blood-thirsty as tender-hearted as Zippora, and detesting blood as Iacob: finally, the vicious as penitent as Peter, and louing Christ as Mary: modo pateant aures, & sitiant sapien­tiam pectus: These are the branches of the true vine, (Ioh. 15.) King A­bibeiba Lanct. lib. 3. inst. 26. Pet Mart. Dec. lib. 3. had his pallace in a tree: I am sure Iehoua dwells in these Branches: for though the world be his consisto­ry, and the Scripture his dying room, yet is euer the soule of the righteousHeb. 3. 6. Psal. 132. his Bedde-chamber. Wee are his house.

But why doe I throstle so long in these branches? I must leaue themLeaues. and come to the leaues. The Bush hath them, the Church doth not want them. The leaues are part of that blessing which God doth im­part, to such as are best, to such as are blest: He shall bee like a Iuniper, a Bush, a Palme, a Date, a tree, Date­tree,Psal. 1. Palm-tree, planted by the wa­ter side: (his regeneration) which shall bring forth fruite in due season (his sanctification) whose leaues shall not fall (his continuation) he beginsTrem. in Psal. 1. well, goes on well, ends well, so all is well, Quid per folium nisi fidem & amorem? What other are these, not falling leaues, not falsing leaues, not fayling leaues, not fainting leaues, but faith and loue? Faith and loue are the louely leaues of this liuely [Page 36] Bush. Faith in the great little Dio­cesseFayth. of the soule (though loue be the Chancelour, memory the Register, conscience the Paritour, prayse the Choristour) is the Arch-bishop, Me­tropolitan, superintendent of all other graces. Fides est prima quae subiugat animam deo. Faith is that which (be­ingAug. animam deo. Faith is that which (be­ing first, or best) tyes the soule first, and fast, to the first, and last, Alpha, and Omega, the Vne and Trine, Trine and Vne blessed God. Loue is the kernell in the Nut, the pearle in the Oyster, Dyamond in the ring, luster of the Sunne, chast Diana among her maydes: humility is her hand­mayde, charity her kitchin-mayde, chastity her chamber-mayde, and gracious sobrietie a mayd of honour. Oh you vestall nymphes; let not hau­tinesse wooe you, nor couetousnesse winne you, nor concupiscence wed you, nor surfetting beuomit you: Be wise virgins that your lampe may be loue, and oyle faith. If you haue faith, you cannot want loue, for one of these leaues buds from the other, [Page 37] loue from faith, righteousnesse from holinesse. Faith is fire; fire is opera­tiue: where there is fire, there will be heat, the greater fire, the greater heat, the lesser fire, the lesser heat: no fire, no heat, no heat, no fire: Fides Luther. Gal 5. 6. debet pinguescere operibus: Our fayth must worke by loue: if wee haue no loue, our fire is extinct, our candleIentile [...] out. Let it neuer bee sayd of vs (as one sometime of the Monkes of his time that their fasts were fat, and ptayers leane) our faith hot, our loue cold. Oh shame that the child of hea­uen should resemble hell: Hell hath fire, (Qui non credent, sentient) but that fire hath no light.

I doubt wee haue too many such fire-brands of hell, that haue a fla­shing fire of faith in their toung, but the fire of their faith, makes not their loue boyle, their light doth not shine out before men, leauelesse trees, emp­ty clouds, waterlesse wells (like theMat. 5. 16. sumptuous Sumpter-mules of that vaine-glorious Cardinall) seeming without wondrous rich, but nothing [Page 38] within saue old shooes and bootes, stones and rubbish. Gods child is Gods Priest, therefore must beare on his breast not onely Vrim (Science) but Thummim too (conscience), cur­sed be those that like Adonibezecke want these thumbs: and in his skirts, not onely Bells (a sounding professi­on) but Pomegranates too (a sound deuotion) faith must haue a nature, as well as a name, otherwise it is fides nuda, fides nulla, a bare faith, a no faith, and wants leaues to couer it na­kednesse. Once more! these leaues are physicall of condition: greene of complexion.

Phisical leaues: the leaues shal be forPhysicall. Ezech. 47. 12, 13. Reu. 2. 22. medcine: the leaues shall bee for the healing of nations: Faith, and loue the leaues of our Bush, heale, and helpe, cure, and recouer the Vertigo of drun­kennesse, hecticke of lasciuiousnes, lethergie of idlenesse, wolfe of vsury, consumption of enuy, quotidian of blasphemie, with other the like spiri­tuall diseases. Doe but plucke these leaues with the hand of deuotion, [Page 39] mixe them with the Syrrup of discre­tion, bruise them in the morter of a good conscience, and boyle them on the fire of true repentance, apply them to thy soule both ful and fasting, mor­ning, noone, and euening, and thou shalt see a miracle; a dead man resto­red to life. Greene leaues: her leauesGreene. le [...]. 17. 8. Psal. 1. 5. shall be green both summer and win­ter (i. e.) in the tempe of prosperitie, and tempest of aduersitie: alwayes greene, the leaues shall not wither, the frost shall not nip them, nor the ayre blast them, nor the wind scatter them: Faith and loue on the altar ofIoh. 5. 24. the heart, are like fire on the altar, not to goe out, or depart like the stone in Plinie, which being once made not, could neuer be cold.

I confesse indeed, they may some­time bee seene in the Orient in their full heat, & feruor, somtime in the oc­cident in the declining of their luster, but men, Angels, diuells, can neuer extinguish them: for hee that belee­ueth is passed already from death to life: and he that loueth, neuer faileth,1. Cor. 13. 8. [Page 40] or falleth from God, but is so hotte, much water cannot quench it, Nec immergent nubes, neither can theCant. 8. 7. cloudes drowne it. The Cardinall o­therwise: that a man may make ship­wrackeBel. de iust. lib. 3. 14. both of faith and loue, but I haue neither faith to beleeue him, nor loue to like him, nor enuy him his red hat with this label, this bable: for whom God loueth, hee e­uer loueth; neither can any one snatch them out of the hand of Christ.

He that is elect, and whose faith worketh by loue, eyther neuer fal­leth,Aug. de Cor & Gra. c. 8. or if he fall, is raysed and reui­ued before this life be ended.

If your leaues be true, they can neuer wither, if wither away, they were neuer true: then let your faith, and loue haue a continuall spring, that you may bud now, and flourish al­wayes: bee not Gods prentises a while, and the diuels iourney-men after, God will scorne the blew bot­tome, if Satan sup the creame. For­get not Ephesus, remember you for­sake [Page 41] not your first faith, first loue: hold on, hold out, Vsque ad extremum vi­tae terminum, to the December of your dayes, till your spirits ascend to heauen, to him that gaue them, your bodies descend to the earth whereof he made them, your carkasses tran­scend on foure mens shoulders to Golgotha the place of dead-mens skulls.

Thus, and this for the Root, Body,Fruites. Barke, Branch, and leaues: while I shake the fruites, prepare the basket of attention to gather them: the mouth of meditation to chew them: and the stomacke of obedience to di­gest them. The myrtle is a little bush,In Elide▪ but it hath many berries: Pausanius makes it an Embleme of one of the graces. The Church is this myrtle, fruitfull, and fertile, and like Theo­phrastus his tree, euery child of God is fructiferous: he is that true tree ofReu. 22. 2. life which bare twelue manner of fruits, and yeelds her fruite euery moneth: These twelue fruites are twelue good workes, sixe for the bo­dy, [Page 42] and sixe for the soule: you may wedde them together in that old [...] distich.

To visite the sicke, is a wholesome1. Visito. fruite, Religio munda non mundi: it is pure religion and vndefiled to visiteIam. 1. vlt. the fatherlesse and widdowes in their affliction. Bee not slow to visite theEccl. 7. 35. sicke, for this shall make thee belo­ued. Christ takes this office as done to himselfe, When I was sicke, and in Mat. 25. prison ye visited me: therefore let eue­ry one visit: The King his Subiects, the realme is sicke, almost sicke to death: from the shoulders to the sole, many infirmities.

1. The shoulders (the Nobles) in many places are sicke of phlegmons, and tumours: either attending in Court (but what sayes the Prouerbe? Exeat Aula qui vult esse pius) or ruf­fling in citty, while their Emissaries (Bayliues) are rifling the Countrey: [Page 43] visiting not the whole, the sicke, but the sicke the whole to make them sicke.

There was once but one racke, and that in the Towre for Traytors, cir­cumcelions, and malefactors: now wee haue in euery hamlet too many for honest Tenants, husbandmen, and farmers: enhaunsing their fines finem facere, to vndoe them, improouing their rents, to rent their estates, and impouerish them, or inclosing their Commons, that their Oues & Bo­ues, & caetera peccora campi, cannot peepe out of doores for feare of a trespasse, so hedging God out, and fencing the diuell in (here a bush, and there a thiefe) that God might iustly send some hunting Nimrod to tram­ple downe their quicksets. The feet (the Commonaltie) are sore pained with botches, and vlcers, as Infor­mers that eate vp Gods people, as if they were bread: Forestallers, that scarce suffer Gods people to haue a­ny bread, vnlesse they will buy it at their price, or can doe as the diuell [Page 44] counceld Christ, turne stones into bread: Scriueners that hale men to the Counter with parchment halters: Brokers that deale with old garments as the most with voyd offices. Who will giue most? without a pawne, a man shall sooner borrow their con­science, then their money: Breakers that gallop they care not in whose debt, then play at most in hiddles till they trot out on the backe of a prote­ction, or skip vp into the saddle of a reference: while the poore of the land are bridled, and sadled, and rid­den, and spurred, expecting the su­preame power to visit them.

The Iudge his Circuit: Iustice (like2 that traueller twixt Iericho and Ie­rusalem) is falne amongst theeues. Couetousnesse that old theefe hath put out her eyes, mercenary Law­yers haue deflowred her, Bribery hath cut out her tong, countenance in Court hath deaft her, Partialitie hath robd her of her sword, willfull conniuence hath broken her ballance, and a swarme of perfidious bayliues [Page 45] are ready to cut her throat: helpe sage Senators, and visit this desolate widow, doe right, be expedite whilePsal. 82. 3. you haue light: be not Iudices, qua­si ius dicentes, nor legis-latores quasi legis latrones, but doers, rather then speakers, treaders, rather then plea­ders of the law.

Why should great theeues hang vp little ones? or Saul spare Agag for pretexts? or Vlisses swarue from Telemachus in the furrow? take heed, perhaps some seuere Cambyses shall make cushions of your skinnes for your successors: Let not poore sup­plyants both pay, and pray, and stay, and in the end goe empty away. E­uery vniust Demurr anagramati­zed is murder.

The Bp. his Diocesse: the plague3 of Egypt is lightamongst vs; and ma­ny, too many are sicke of the scab. Re­ligion though not deceased is sore di­seased, while truth keepes her cham­ber with a scratched face.

Atheists would stifle her: while walking Nebuchadnezzar-like vpon [Page 46] the turrets of nature, and battlements of reason, they breath forth blasphe­mie against God, and infamy against man: is not this great Babel, which I haue built? Is not that which weeD [...]n. 4. 27. doe, done by natures power? haue not we wit? haue not we will? haue not wee reason? haue not we skill? thinking to be good, when indeede they are ill: disarming themselues while they make flesh their arme, re­iecting, neglecting the power of God: but when his name is mentio­ned Adder-like, they clap one eare to the ground, while with their tayle they stop the other: wolfe-like they barke against the resplendent moone: Owle-like they fly the light at noon: Asse-like they bray against the thun­der, and Viper-like gnaw out the bo­wels of their mother, saying with thePsal. 14. 1. foole there is no God: yet science in the most, conscience in the rest, notions in the soule, motions of the heauens, ptoclaime to his face that his toung is a lyer.

Papists would smoother her: loa­ding [Page 47] the Church with such a multi­tude of traditions, that groaning vn­der the burthen, shee is fal [...]e into sweat.

Pope Zachary excommunicated one Virgill a Bishop for confessing the Antipodes: and Popery would exterminate our Virgin truth for sup­pressing their ceremonies (the want whereof is the best company: cere­monia a carēdo) O Lord send this curst cow but short hornes, else truth had need to looke to her essence, for shee will bee in danger to loose her exi­stence. If Father Sweet be her Phy­sitian, he will teach her speake Spa­nish, while the purchase of Christ shall bee fed with a halfe Sacrament, a wafer-cake, and now and then, a draught of the whores holy-water­bottle: Transubstantiation of the bread, iustification by workes, in­uocation of Saints, adoration of Ima­ges, peregrinations to Loretto, Tri­dentall decrees, Remish glosses, Ro­mish asses, knauish Seminaries, and a myriad of other their Babylonish [Page 48] opinions.

Seperatists would strangle her, whilst with the sheeres of shamelesse dissention, they so cut and diuide the coat of Christ Iesus, that Gath and Askalon may iustly laugh at vs; wan­dring as much on the right hand, as Antichrists disciples on the left: for whereas they would ouerpresse vs with too many, these will not admit vs any ceremonies, but like the naked Adamites would haue a bare Church without the apparrell of all order.

Alphonsus the tenth of Spayne, sayd blasphemously, Si in principio mundi ipse deo adfuisset, multa melius, ordinatiusque condenda fuisse, that ifLipsig. God in the beginning had chosen him for a Councellour, many things should haue been ordered better, and with lesse confusion; and if these men had as much power in their hands, as slander in their tongues, and faction in their breasts, many things in our Church gouernment should bee o­therwise then they are, for▪ Quod vo­lumus sanctum est, is as truely con­ceited [Page 49] by them, as it was by the Do­natists: Bishops? Downe with them, down with them euen to the ground, best let euery priuate minister bee a superintendent: the surplice as the whores smocke torne in pieces: the ring put in the beares s [...]out: and for the cap, what should they doe with any, but a cap of maintenance: stin­ted prayers (saith one of them) are stinking prayers: and God (saith an other) is like a man that loues pot­tagePow. Brow. well, but as man may bee glut­ted with one broath often vsed, so will God with one prayer often said: yet these are the men, that make the silly Plebeians beleeue they know more (like Marcian and Montanus) then euer Christ or his Apostles; when like the Lesbian Masons, they rather frame the square of the Scrip­tures to their braine-sicke positions, then bow their positions to the not­erring Scriptures. Therefore it is no wonder, if in stead of the trees daun­cing, the dogges fall a barking, while such vnskilfull Neanth [...], handle Or­pheus [Page 50] his harpe. Helpe soueraigne iudge. Bp. visite these distressed, oppressed may dens, charity, iustice, truth, else God will visite for these things. But who am I that Phormi [...]-like I should presume to read any le­ctures of Chiualry to Hannibal.

Let each man visit his neighbour, brother, sister, friend, enimy, in sick­nes, and in prison, in distresse and mi­sery: The day-starre from on high hath visited vs, and wee must visite one another: not as Henry the fifth did his father to snatch away his crowne, nor as many amongst vs to catch at the sicke mans crownes (pre­ferring one Testament of a rich man, before both the Testaments of God) but as the virgin (blessed for euer) did visit hercozen Elizabeth, she car­ryed Christ in her wombe, wee must carry Christ, as in our hearts, so in our tongues to minister (as what worldly thing soeuer is wanting) so some words of comfort to diseased Patients, that their hearts like Iohn Baptist may leape and spring within [Page 51] them.

To quench the thirsty is a moystPoto. 2. Psal. fruite: the thirsty ground cries for water, the thirsty stomacke cals for moysture: God giues the one, giueRom. 12. 2▪ we the other. Tis the Apostles man­dat, if thy enemy thirst giue him drinke (how much more thy friend?) he that requires it will one day re­quite it: thus sayth the Lord, he that giues not a gallon, but a cruse, not a pottle, but a pot, not a but, but a cup, but a sup, not of Nectar, but of water, be it cold water, to a Prophet in the name of a Prophet, Non perdet mercedem, shall not loose his reward. But least I loose my selfe in this but­tery, or teach you to wring at a wrong spigget, learn in briefe whose thirst to quench. Who is drier then the drunkard? Tis the [...]ap-house catch; Drinke will make a man drunke, and drunke will make a man dry: Quo plus sunt pot [...], plus sitiuntur aquae, the more drinke they haue, the more drinke they craue: though with [Page 52] Maximine they drinke an Amphora a day (almost sixe gallons) yet by noIul. capit. Herod. meanes they will leaue their reckning pot, but euer they cry one tooth is dry. Shall we quench this thirst? No, vnlesse we will quench it in them, as the Indians did in the Spaniards: they with boyling gold (eate gold Chri­stian)Oliu. de Noort. Benz. lib. 1. cap. 23. Luk. 16. 25. scalding broth were too coole for these hot throats.

Be as inexorable to them, as A­braham was to Diues, and wet not1. the tippe of thy finger to coole their2. tong, much lesse to augment or pro­uoke3. their thirst, least of all to make thy selfe merry. Woe vnto him that giues his neighbour drinke, that puts his bottle vnto him, and makes him drunk, he may drinke too, but shame­fullAbbacu. 2. 15, 16. spewing shall bee on his glory: But broach thy beere to such as in­digence inforceth to aske. Dapotum ouibus, water these sheepe, bee it atGen. 29 7. the well-head, and at the bleating of such cattle let the rock of your heart gush out streames of pitty.

To feede the hungry is a full fruit,3. Cib [...]. and full of this fruit must bee eueryRom. 12. 20 Deut 11. 17 Luk. 19. 8. Ioh. 12. 3. 1. Sam 25. 18. Eccl. 11. 1. branch. If thy enemy hunger, feede him: shut not thy hand from thy poore brother: but make a diuident of thy goods with Zache, an vnguent of thy oyle with Mary, a banquet of thy bread with Abiga [...]l. Cast thy bread on the face of the waters, to those whose face is wet with teares, moyst with waters. The Hebrew is Lachem, which is all sort of fruite as well as bread: were it bread alone, then bread is Panis and P [...]nis is P [...]n, and Pan is all, meat, and drinke, and welcome withall, else it is as good not to giue at all. The Scripture dothWay. giue certaine cautions to direct our giuing. Est modus in dando, quid our, Quid. cui, quomod [...], quando. What must we giue? that which is ours; honour thePro. 3 9. Lord with thy owne substance, and feede not the poore at anothers dore? for why shouldest thou be free on an others trencher. The diuell would [Page 54] giue all the world to our Sauior, (a li­berall almes but out of Gods Exche­quour) and Alexander the sixt Ame­rica [...]n. domin. 1493. to Spaine, (a bountious Larges, but of the Indians freehold) and ma­ny a gentleman keepes a good house, when worse then a Iew hee crucifies his tenants: for feeding at his wicket some poore that hunger, other poore are inforced to furnish his dresser: say (gentle prouerbe) whether this bee not to rob Peter to pay Paul.

Why must wee giue? good rea­son: for as 1. God commands it, loueCur. the stranger: the poore are strangers,Leu. 19. 34. vsed strangely, but then beloued, when releeued: and 2. Christ de­mands it, Date Eleemosynam: he thatL [...]k. 11. 41. giues you all requires your Almes: and 3. the spirit commends it: thePhil. 4. 17. poore to be fed, relieued, and eased, is an holy sacrifice wherewith God is pleased: so 4. this the means to make you rich, the RR. say, tith and be rich, God sayth, giue, and be rich; a speci­all argument, for shew mee that man that would not be rich, Et eris mihi [Page 55] magnus Apollo, hath not the noyse of earthly profit drowned the voyce of the heauently Prophet? each man almost imitates Ahab, lyes on his1 Kin. 21. 4. bed, turnes away his head, and will eate no bread.

Yee Vineyard-mongers, come, and behold the ladder, Iacobs ladder, heauenly stayres, stayres to heauen, charity! now in time, get vp and climbe if you would bee wealthy: for he that giues to the poore, shall neuer be poore, hee that giues to the poore shall haue greater store, like that cruse of Oyle shall be more and more. Date & dabitur, & caput coro­nabitur, giue a crosse, get a crowne,Pro. 19. 17. a purse here, a kingdome after, Qui miseretur, proximo foe [...]eratur domino: if you pitty the indigent, you lend to the omnipotent, and he becomes, as the poores surety, so your paymaster: Non ad triplas, imo adcētuplas vsures.

To whom must wee giue? feedeCui. not the Spaniel, I meane the fawning Sycophant, that (as one told QueeneS. W. R. Eliz.) will neuer cease begging, while any continues giuing: nor the grayhound, the ryotous Prodigall, who will be so much the duller, by how much the fuller: nor the mai­stiue, the gullet-theefe, who at the end of the tearm will be ready to re­catechise thy purse for an other boo­ty: nor the Curr [...], the bawling slan­derer, the hooke for him is the fit­est morsell: nor any other of the Di­uells whelps, that are sick of that Ca­nina appetentia, the greedy worme, Epicure, gluttons, belly-gods, whose onely study is to reade Apicius his le­ctures of the art of Munchery: no, no, giue not the childrens bread to these dogges: but when thou makest a feast, let the poore be thy guest: yet not Popish pouerty that is willfullLuk. 14. 13. iniquity: nor diuelish pouerty grow­ing from the diuells bones, & books, dice, and cards, wine, and women, and such like husbandry: but inuite [Page 57] to thy table such as are Gods poore, whom the hand of the Lord hath brought to necessity, onely must these bee the obiect of our almes, while godly discretion is steward of our kitchin. Tribue illis diuitias tuas non qui phasidem auem, sed siliginis panem comedunt, qui famem expellant non qui luxuriam augeant,

How must we giue? let the A­postle4. Quomo­do. 2. Cor. 9. 7. direct. The Lord loueth a cheer­full giuer, (viz,) a giuer with a cheer­full eye, no supercilious lowerer: 2. a cheerefull tongue, no sesquipedali­ous brawler: 3. a cheerefull hand, no obnoxious retarder: to this end the oyle of our charity must bee com­pounded rightly. Shall I play the Druggist? God commanded Moses to put into the holy oyle cer­taine spices: our almes must admit ofExod. 30. 23, 24. the like mixture. Myrrhe, a preci­ous liquor, that distills from the tree without cutting or incision: so must charity from vs without constraint or compulsion. Gods Almoner must not bee drawne like a Bare to the [Page 58] stake, a free-will offering, (be it but of some offall) is very pleasing. 2. Ci­namon: which is hot in the mouth and stomacke too, so must we ney­ther be stone-cold with Na [...]al, nor luke-warme with Laodicea, but boi­ling hotte with Iohn Baptist of Con­stantinople, whose dayly practise was to feede, and releeue the poore him­selfe. 3. Cassia, as sweete as the o­ther, but a low shrub: the true Em­bleme of humility: giue therefore, but not vaine-gloriously. Let not one hand know what the other handMat. 6. 3. doth doe: and giue not to men, to be seene of men, to be praysed of men, for why shouldest thou trumpet out thine owne fame: if thou loue osten­tation, God will vse detestation, and thy soule finde desolation. 4. Cal­lamus: an odoriferous powder, but of a fragill reede: weake man, silly man, sinfull man, no way meritorious. Then giue vpon earth, but think not thereby to purchase heauen, for when you haue giuen, when you haue done all that you haue, all that you can, [Page 59] you cannot but confesse you are vn­profitable seruants. Therefore Saint Bernard, Periculosa domus eorum qui Ber. in Psal. qui habitat Se [...]. 1. meritis suis sperant: dangerous is their house that thinke to merit saluation by keeping of house, dangerous be­cause ruinous. But least I seeme tedi­ous, let vs consider the time.

When must we giue? To day if you will heare his voyce, harden not your Quando. 5. Psal. hearts, haue not hard hearts, be not hard-hearted. While you are aliue, see you relieue and looke that you giue while you liue, while wee haue time let vs doe good vnto all. OurGal. 6. Sauiours action, must be our imitati­on, I must worke the workes of him that sent me while it is called to day,Ioh. 9. 4. for the night commeth (death com­meth) when no man can worke. The posthume-workes of many (making legacies of their wealth when they cannot keep it, and feeding the poore with a mould-meat at their doore) though it may profit the liuing, yet cannot helpe the dead; then benefiteEccl. 14. 13 thy friend before thine end, and carry [Page 60] not the candle, behind thy backe.

To harbour the stranger, is a Lot-like-fruite:4. Re [...]olligo. two, or three Angels may beare him witnesse. All Sodome be­side could not shew such an Apple, no not before it was watred with brimstone, much lesse since beeing mare amarum & mare mortuum, aIoseph. deb. Iud. l. 5. c. 5. Corn. [...]aci­ [...]us, hist. li. 5. S [...]rab. li. 16. Plin. l. 5. c. 16. Iob 31. 32. bitter sea, a dead sea, neyther giuing harbour to a bird, nor house-roome to a fish, nor welcome to any thing else that hath life: inhospitable churle, no such churle Iob; the stranger did not lodge in the streetes, but I opened my doore to the traueller: an open heart hath an open doore, and an o­pen mouth too, to language foorth a courteous inuitation, as come in thou blessed of the Lord, why standest thou without. The fruite of thisGen. 24. 33 fruit is sweet, and odoriferous, for hereby as 1. man is eased: what bet­ter ease to a deuious traueller, then a [Page 61] bountious host, or a knight hospita­lar? Thus was the Thisbite, eased by2 Kin. 4▪ 10 the Shunamite; so God, 2. is plea­sed: he that sheets a bed for the mem­bers, layes a pillow for the head, and he that lodgeth a Christian, entertai­neth Christ: thus Christ. He that re­ceiueth you (so pleasing is hospitali­ty that) he receiueth an Angell? yeaHeb. 13. 2. Aug. contra 5. hereses. me. Discite Christiani, non indiscrete exhibere hospitia, ne forte cui domum clauseritis, ips [...] sit Christus: open the doore oh man with discretion, least thou exclude Christ, while thou ex­cludest a Christian. 3. Wealth increa­sed.Pro. 11. 24. [...] Kin. 17. 14 There is that scattereth, and more increaseth: see the Sareptans barrell, the more is taken out, the more is put in. Poore Baucis inricht for har­bouring Iupiter: Delos made firme land for entertaining Lato [...]a: and O­bed▪ 2 Sam. 6. 11 Edome blessed for his guest the arke: Societ [...]te hospitis benefit hospiti, Gen. 39. 3. as Iosephs presence prospered P [...]ti­phars substance: and hee that recei­u [...]th a Prophet in the name of a Pro­phet, shall be rewarded with profit: [Page 62] 4. Heauen possessed: when I was a stranger, you receiued mee: what followes? therefore come you bles­sedMat. 25. of my Father, inherite the king­dome prepared for you. Saint Au­gustine saith as much of Lot, Tempo­rale Cont. 5. h [...]r [...]uasit incend [...]um, aeternum conse­quutus est praemium: the Angels were welcome to his house, therefore (be­side temporall fauour) was hee wel­come to Gods house. But how are our Hospitalar knights chased from Rhodes? exil [...]d their aboades by that Ottoman horse? The diuell that great Turke hath so lockt vp the gates of gracious Hospitality, that Mahome­tan-like wee preferre dogges beforeM [...]nster. [...]os▪ lib. 4. Pinner. re. camb. men: and Cambaian-like haue hos­pitalls for hawkes, when the feete of Christ must lodge in a barne, per­haps not so warme: if our face be to­ward Ierusalem, wee may trauell through Samaria, and no man inuite vs, nor shall we drinke at Iacobs well, vnlesse some woman, some wea­ker vessell of the poorer ranke, (for they that worst may must carry the [Page 63] candle, and they that haue most, will giue least) doe happe to giue it vs: though Peter bids vs bee harberous1 Pet. 4. 8. one to another without grudging.

To cloath the naked, is a warme5. V [...]stio. fruite. Begin at the beginning; itGen. 3. 21. grew in Paradise: in the third of Gen. God had his wardrope, whence A­dam and Eue bare Adam and Eue, had all their accoutrement, skinnes of beasts, (for their figge-leaues were not worth a figge) to couer their na­kednesse.

And as he our Progenitors, so we our naked neighbours. Tis the pre­cept of Christ, he that hath two coats, let him giue vnto him that hath none, giue him one. The Communion of Saints, fruit of our faith, part of our Creede. The practise of Iob, if I haueIob 31. 19, 20. 22. seene any perish for want of clothing, or any poore without couering, if his loynes haue not blessed me, and if he were not warnd with the fleece of my sheepe, then let mine arme fall from [Page 64] my shoulder-blade. Sic vos non vobis vellera fertis oues, Iob's sheepe▪ cloathed him, and he cloathed Gods sheepe.

But now are our Cloathiers like our inclosers all for themselues, al­wayes contending who shall bee fi­nest, I say not in a woollen liuery (vn­lesse some Iason array them in a gol­den fleece) but in the Argonaut­stuffe of D'dutramer brauery. I haue read of a Rabbin that aduiseth hus­bands to cloath themselues beneath their ability, their children according to their ability, and their wiues aboue their ability: this last is good Do­ctrine much in request (for some­where the wiues backe pincheth the husbands belly) but we take not his counsell in that which is first, in that which is best for euery mushroome (that is ingendered ex putredine, and crept but the last day out of the dunghill) will imitate Cal [...]gula in his change of suites, neuer wearing one twice.

A new fashioned blocke, a Virgi­nian [Page 65] locke, an Indian eare, a SpanishLoue-lock taught the V [...]rg [...]nians by the Di­uell. Ear hangd full of pearles. b [...]ard [...], a short wast (that no body now is a right Gallant) ruffe vpon ruffe, set vpon set, lace vpon lace, till the apparrell it selfe be also appar­reld: Poccadillio's little sinnes are layd aside, and every man almost turned Ruffin (specially if M^r•s. Yel­low be an hyred Laundresse) while Dauids messengers, and our Savi­ours members, haue not a jag, haue not a rag, nor an Harrington in a bagge to hide their posteriors. Ta­bitha Cumi, oh for some Dorcas to condemne these Ammons, and with the contrary vertue to shame these shauers.

To bury the dead is a liuing fruit,6 Condo. a fruite which the liuing must giue to the dead: when I am dead bury1 Kin. 13. 31 me. If Bull's flesh lye aboue groundLemnius. and putrifie, it will ingender Bees, if Horsflesh, Hornets, if Mansflesh, Serpents: if so, necessity bids bury it, least S [...]rpents sting vs, and wee [Page 66] haue no Brazen Serpent to cure vs, if no, yet piety bids bury it, know you not that your bodies are mem­bers of Christ? 'Twas piety in Io­seph to bury the head, no lesse in vs to interre the members: Custome bids bury it. Though the old Grae­ciansHerod. l. 3. porchacci funer. Anli. Elian. var. [...]ist. Solinus. burned their dead corps (as the Romans had their vrne for their dust adust) some Scythians hanged them vpon Trees: The Berb [...]ccae in tombed them in their bellies: the Bactrians cast them to their dogges: Alexan­der the sixt baked his Cardinalls: Di­ogenes Serres. wished to bee devoured of Fishes: and dissolute Mec [...]nas cared for no Funerall, carelessely singing, Non tumulum curo.

Yet haue the Hebrews vsed to put earth in earth, that Cumulus ci­neris might bee tumul [...]s corporis, aGen. 25. 9 Ios. 24. 30. heape of mould, a heape of mould, As Abraham in Machpelah, Iosuah [Page 67] in Tem [...]athsera, skuls in Golgotha, Mat. 27. 33 Mat. 27. 7 and strangers in Ace [...]dama: sayth Iehu of Iesabel, a wicked King of a Queene more wicked, visite yonder2 Kin. 9. 34 cursed woman and bury her▪ cursed, yet buried. And what is the practise of the God-spels professors, our stately Sepulchers with mournefull Elegies may bee vocall Expositors: Spice to imbalme it, sheete to en­wrap it, Beere to support it, porters to beare it, mourners to condole it, Bels to bewaile it, tombe to ingraue it, till the second appearing of Christ shall reuiue it. Therefore Saint Paul cals the place of buriall S [...]minatio in an assured hope of the resuscitation: [...] A sleeping place. The Greekes Caemeterion, in a pre­suasiue confidence of a ioyfull resur­rection, & the Germans Gods-akre, as if it were hallowed for Gods habitation: though Iulian scoffe it as a campe of cottages. Indeede I confesse that pompous exequies pro­fit but little deceased Carkasses, Nec Sen▪ ep. 92▪ magis ad defunctum pertinent homi­nem, quam secundae ad editum infan­tem. [Page 68] They see not our teares, heare not our cries, take no notice of our colours, whether they be blacke as inM. Sandys. Europe, or white as in Asia, neither do our Bells skarre away the worms: Tamen inuenta est sepultura vt visu Sen. de re­med. fort. corpora, & odore faeda amouerentur: Yet is the graue that which doth saue, not them from putrifaction, but vs from infection: So, it profits the living, hurts not the dead, therefore by the living must be giving to the dead. Nor haue we any that oppose this order but (that wandring Planet that will keepe no order, and there­fore deserues to be deprived of his orders) that curious, furious, injuri­ous innovatorer, that being sicke of Stoicisme will not shed a teare, sicke of Schisme wil not read a prayer, nor meete the Corpes, nor bring it into the Church, nor say ought at the Graue, but like a Dogge or an Asse tumble the defunct into a squalled Ditch, as if it were Decorum to bury the dead Sepultura asinorum, or as the Nabathaeans did their Kings in [Page 69] a Dunghill: Martin dye, and I will be thy Poet:A [...]. Marc.

The buriall of (Iehoiakim) an Asse.

Thus for the body, shall we feedeIere. 22. 19 the soule? our Bush is not barren of Spirituall fruite: Cadit asina et est qui subleuet; perit anima▪ non est qui reco­gitet: If a Beast but fall, we striue to [Page 70] helpe it, when the soule is hungry, who would not feede it?

To instruct the ignorant is a witty [...] Instrue. Fruite, the taste of which Fruit must sharpen our wit, else our best plea will be ignoramus: Alexanders im­age will not shine bright, vnlesse Phyd [...]as oyle it, nor the soule (Gods image) vnderstand aright except some spiritual paedagogue instruct it. Can the knife cut without the whet­stone? The great M [...]gor tooke 30.Relat. reg. mogor. Ioh. or. children, kept them secretly, guar­ded them closely, nursed them si­lently, intending to serue what god they would serue: but neither couldAuth. grat. exem. they euer speake any word, neither would he euer serue any god.Mich. Dray Bar▪ war. cant. 4.

Surely nature is an Owle, & were her nest at Athens, had need of spe­ctacles. We cannot come to Christ if the Father drawe vs not, nor do [Page 71] any thing of our selues, if Christ helpe vs not: Faemina monetam non moneta faeminam, the woman foundSolinus. the silver, not the siluer the woman: But as the Beare's Whelpe, is fashi­oned by licking: So is our soule new formed by schooling. Therefore a Word of the Maister, Scholler, School, Lesson: 1. Let the M^r. be judicious, and able to teach:

Si Sacerdos est sciat legem Domini, si Hier. super Agg. cap. 2. ignoret legem D [...]mini ipse se arguit non esse Sacerdotem Domini: Art thou a Teacher in Israel, and know­est not these things? He that would haue a Teacher to bee a Knower, would not haue a Tutor to bee anIohn 3. 10. Vnvnderstander, least the Blind, lea­ding the Blind both be ditch'd▪ Preg­nities precedit lactationem▪ the mo­ther must conceiue before she suckle, and they that will teach must bee, Doctorum Discipuli, before they be [Page 72] Imperitorum Magistri, for how should he teach the Accidens, thatHier. ad Demetri. hath not learned the A B C? 2. In­dustrious, and willing to practise, asGreg. in Eze. hom. 1 lampas a Torch to lighten others: so carbo also a Coale to burne to himselfe, least while the lippes relate knowledge, the hands bewray igno­rance, no doubt but action is a fee­ling instruction.

For this cause would Augustus haue the Senators Children present in Court.

Therefore thou that teachest o­thers see thou teach thy selfe, and cast not this item away, least after all thy teaching thy selfe be a Cast-away: why shouldst thou bee like a Bell summoning others to the service of God, and doing thy selfe no scruice [Page 73] to God? or like that Bestia Pharma­copolae that Iulian twitted Austin with; a Beast pretended of great ver­tue ouer night, that ere morning was come, had devoured herselfe: great bruite, small fruite. But Christ taught as much by worke, as by word: and example speakes after the Sermon is ended, euen after the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ. Let the Scholler be first, credulous to beleeu:Scholler. selfe-conceite may as well play the Tr [...]want as go to Schoole, hee that distrusts the Doctrine, shall want grace to proceede Doctor. Israell beleeued the Lord, and Moses: and Exod. 14. the Disciples heard, and beleeued the Messias: All thy hearing will do thee no good without beleeuing: a man may heare, and read, yet be a non proficient with-out a [...]reed, for can any one profit by that hee will not credit? Therefore let both people, and puple leaue vs, if they will not beleeue vs: for why should our Ora­tory aggravate their misery in that day when the word which they haue [Page 74] heard (but not beleeued) shall iudge them? Yet we are no Rabbins, theySal. Iarch. in Deut. c. 17. 0. 12. are peremptory, and thinke to be be­leeued though they say (as one sayd) that the right hand is the left; or do as Hillel did, that one day taught hisSalm. [...]rac. de Sab. Ignat. Lyolae epist. de obe­dient. ad Frat. in Lusitan. scholler, Aleph, Beth, Gimel, and the next day▪ Gimel, Beth, Aleph: nor are we Iesuites to binde our audience to a blind obedience: me thinkes, this implicite faith, is explicite folly, one­ly we say with Saint Bernard. Proposi­torum mandata non esse a subditis iudi­canda, vbi nihil iubere deprehendun­tur Bern. Ep 7. diuinis contrarium institutes, &c. beleeue vs, onely so farre as Scrip­ture doth second vs, no further.

Ingenious to conceiue, Quid absur­dius 2. quā surdo canere? 'tis labor in vain to school the deafe, & as vain labor to teach the dolt. A foolelike Nabal, hath a heart like Nabal, a head like Nabal, a heart like a stone, a head like a stone: the stone is not sensible, nor he intel­ligible.Suidas [...] Like the foole Amphistides that knew not whether his father or mother brought him forth: or thatPerera. [Page 75] simple Turke that could say no more for his Religion then this, Mahomet was a Moore, my Father was a Moore, and I am a Moore: so that we may say of him (as Aristippus of one like him) when he comes vnto vs, or sits before vs, [...], one stone sits vpon another.apud Laer. l [...]b. 2.

Therfore pray vnto him who must bore thine eare, that hee will also bore thine heart, be an Augustine in this, Da mihi domine [...]d quod iubes, tun [...] iube Domine quicquid voles. Lord make mee conceiue what thouA [...]g. Sol. 1. Lord make mee conceiue what thou commandest, then Lord command me to doe what thou pleasest. Studi­ous to thriue: Non progred [...]ens, re­grediens: hee goes backward, that3. goes not forward. The Souldier in the campe must not alwayes rest, there is a time when he must be tray­ned: Isa [...]c must not alwayes hang on the breast: there is a time when hee must be weaned. So the child of God (be hee but a petty) must striue to thriue, that he may take out. It was Peters iniunction, (and if hee be Pe­ter, [Page 76] build vpon this) as new borne babes desire the sincere milke of the1 Pet. 2. 2. word that you may grow thereby.Ber▪ de con­fid. lib. 2. If thou want growth, thou hast no truth: for quomodo profic [...]s, si tib [...]am sufficis? he hath nothing learnd, that thinks him so learnd, he hath nothingPli [...]. nat. hist. l. 8. c. 25 to learne. The Crocodile is growing as long as breathing, bee thou lear­ning as long as liuing.

So Bookish was Socrates, that the Ecue of his death he would be taught musicke, because as hee loued lear­ning, and therefore liued learning, so he would dye learning: vita schola. Schoole. This life is a Seminary, this world a phrontistery, vniuerse an vniuersitie: into which we are admitted (being in the womb matriculated) like Gym­nosophists naked: naked as of out­ward habiliments, (and so worse then a beast, not hauing so much as sitis, & fames, & fr [...]gora poscunt) of so in­ward ornaments herein as [...]ad as a beast, our sole eye, the eye of our soule being put out by ignorance, a worse disease then poxe or pesti­lence. [Page 77] But saith Dauid, Come hither, Psal▪ and I will teach thee the feare of the Lord: This world is a field whereon we must now, if euer, sow: this lifeMat. 13. a schoole wherein wee must now, if euer, know; [...]u [...]c erudi [...]io▪ postha [...] re­petitio, therefore let vs conne our booke here, for statutum est, I assure you wee must repeate our weekes­worke hereafter.

But we must goe and come fromLesson. the schoole to the lesson. Lesse then one we cannot haue, and we need no more, if we learne this one †: Christ­crosse, God be my speed, and well we shall speed if scripture be lecture. Consil [...]orum guber [...]aculum lex diuina: Cyprian. holy writ, must be the Adelantado of holy Church.

Else the Armado of all our Coūsels▪ is likely to haue a feelie hauen, Silla's hauē: you erre saith Christ, not know­ing the Scripture: ignorance of Scrip­ture is the mother of error: but ver­bum Dominicum mare p [...]cificum hea­uenly Sayes are placable seas: oh Lord be my Pilot, and I feare no wracke: Dei doctrina v [...]i medicina▪ the spee­chesCrys in ep. ad Col. c. 3. v. 16. of God are the lessons of men, anim [...] pharmaca, the medicines of men: then speake Lord, for thy ser­uant heareth, thy scholler learneth.Aug de bap cont. Dona. l. 6. c. 1. Secular learning may bee an after­noones lesson, in arundine sterili sole [...] ▪ vua pendere. A grape may hang on a fruitlesse tw [...]gge, and truth (in truth) is truth in Menander, as well as in Paul: But first of all, (saith the Son of God) seeke the kingdome of God: the kingdome of God is the word of God▪ a sauing lesson, a Lesson which will make vs wise to saluation. Fa­thers, Philosophers, Poets, Orators, may like the Al [...]ptae amend our com­plexions; but mors in olla, mors in olla, death in the pot, death in the pot, if [Page 79] Ezechiels salt doe not season their broth, or Moses his wood relish the marah of gentle learning. Hierome by an Angell was buffe [...]ed sore, for stu­dying too much in heathen lore: but Ioh [...] by an Angell was forced to eate the book which he brought him to be his meat.

To correct the delinquent is a [...],Castig [...] ▪ 8. a bitter-sweet: [...]. Bitter in eating, for molestus est medicus fure [...]t [...] phre­netico, Aug. ad Bo­nif. de cor­rect. Do [...]at. pater & molestus indisciplin [...]to filio, ille ligando, iste caedendo: the Chi­rurgion bindes, and the patient is tea­sty, the father corrects, and the son is angry: and who but selfe-flashing Papists (that thinke the blood of calfes equiualent to the blood of Christ) is in loue with lashing? Ve­rily natures constitution cannot away with correction: are wee not all a­verse to reproofe? it is a choak-peare, Monitores acerbi, they that tell vs of our faults are bitter to vs, Monitori­bus I [...]v [...]nal. asperi, we that are faulty are no better to them, Gradere, fuge in ter­ram Amos [...]. 1 [...] Iudae, and open no more thy [Page 80] mouth in Bethel. Bethel must onely eate placentia, Bethel must onely bee fed with pleasings: but placentia fal­lentia, pleasings are leasings, as pla­centiae are cakes, and cakes [...], such spiced meate is nought for the soules stomacke. They that in a cup of gold drinke the poyson of flattery, shall quaffe the gall of bitternesse in the Celler of misery. But albeit reproofe be bitter in tasting, wee haue learned by proofe, 'tis sweete in digesting. And Dulcia non meruit qui non gusta­vit amara.

Patient! a while be patient, and in fine, thou shalt finde it is the finest Physicke. David (sicke of sinne) was content to take it, willing to tast it, could well digest it: let the Righ­teous (sayth▪ he) reprooue me, not the Balmes of Gilead, much lesse the Balmes of the wicked are halfe so precious. Therefore let euery one haue his Dosis, a word, or a blow, or a word, and a blow. If wording will [Page 81] serue, let not sinners want it, thus the Lord, thou shalt in any wise re­buke thy neighbour. Tis as great an offence not to reprooue thy brotherLeu. 19. 18. when he falls into a trespasse, as it is (saith Rabanus) not to pardon him,Rab. in Mat. 18. [...] when he askes forgiuenesse.

But to sacrifice with hony in stead of salt, and to sooth, and smooth when thou shouldest bite and smite, is offer­re coccum sed non bis tinctum, non du­plicatum, to offer red, but not scarlet,Orig. in Exod. [...] the Die of thy words goes not deepe ynough, and if men dye for want of words, thine shall bee smart ynough. Cry, cry aloud, cry aloud and spare, lift vp thy words like a trumpet, &c. But if words will not do, adde blows thereto. Grauissimus nodus in ligno, Esa. 58. non potest expelli nisi grauissimo oppres­sorio. An hatd knot, requires an hard knocke, a desperate sore, a desperateAmbr. cure: Phineas his zeale, must vse Phineas speare, when sinne is shame­lesse and cannot blush. But Fides sua­denda Ber. in can. serm. 66. non imponenda, and saith ano­ther, impetranda, non imperanda: faith [Page 82] must be wrought rather by persuasiō then by coaction. True! therefore we pronounce, peace, before wee de­nounce warre: Tamberlanes banners, white before red: many beeing like that Indian Lama, a sheepish beast, that will doe more by intreaty, thenHuld. Sch. midel. c. 44. by stripes twenty: therefore first in­treate; if that will not serue, thou mayest profitably beate. Speake to the eare, if the eare be deafe, speake to the purse, if that auaile not, speake to the body, that the eare may say, I am instructed, purse may say, I am impouerished, body may say, I am a [...]flicted, that eare, and purse, and bo­dy may say I am compeld, that the will of the Lord may be fulfilled, that the house of the Lord may bee also filled. These tart corrections did a­mend, and reformd the Circumceli­ans,Aug. ad Vincent. which when they did suffer, they began to consider, whether they were scourged for matters of pietie, or ra­ther corrected for tenents of obsti­nacie.

The bridle (saith Salomon) be­longs [Page 83] to the horse, a whip to the asse,Pro. 26. 3. and a rod for the foole. Correct a wise man with a nod, a foole with a rod,Pro. 17. 10. yea with a club. If nodding will not serue nor breaking serue, it must bee a club, a hatchet, or a halter. Binde him fast that hath a phrensie, pricke him vp that hath a lethargie, least our Salt—Peter—Rebells, keepe gunpow­der Reuels.

Suspende verbera, produce vbera: Solare. 9. hang vp your rods, hang out your dugges. To comfort the sorrowfull, is a pleasant fruite. The forbidden fruit was a fruit most pleasant, though ignorance forbids me to de­scry, or describe it. The Cabalists thinke this fruit was grapes, so Ricci­us Ric [...]: de Talm. do [...]t. Ara caeli. l [...]. 5. c. 4. tells vs. Moses Barcepha, not grapes, but wheat, so Boskier informs vs.

But Drusius is confident, it was a figge; take his word for a payment: [Page 84] Sane ficum fuisse illam arb [...]rem, cuius fructu illis vesci non licebat, non malum Drus. de Te­trag. cap. 4. Gen. 3. vt vulgus opinatur pia credidit anti­quitas. Whatsoeuer it was Eue e­steemed it pleasant to the eye, but this as more Cordiall, is pleasant to the heart. The spirit of God is cal­led a Comforter, [...] quasi [...], moouing in all, going through all,Ioh. 14. 26. therefore he is spirituall that mini­sters comfort, and somewhat a kinne to the Holy Ghost.

Si paupertas angit, Si luctus maesti­ficat, si dolor cordis inquietat, si vlla calamitas conturbat nos, assint bon [...] a­mici, Aug. in Iob. qui non solum gaudere cum gau­dentibus, sed etiam flere cum flentibus didicerunt: tunc aspera leniuntur, ad­ [...]ersa superantur, & grauia releuan­tur, &c. When pouerty pincheth me, or sorrow deiecteth me, or hearts­griefe [Page 85] afflicteth me, or ought thats ill troubleth me: oh for some friende, that singing when I am merry, and mourning when I am forrie, knowes how to bring sweetely my pangs to an end. Giue wine to the sorrowfull, comfort to the mournefull. Comfort my people: comfort Ierusalem: Comfort one another. He that is in misery hath neede of an Electuary:Pro. 13. 1. Esa. 40. 2. 1. Thes. 4. 18 Iob. 6. 14 he that is afflicted, should be pitied: whosoeuer he be that is in the pit of oppression, let him drinke with thee of the cup of consolation. Sorrow is dry, and wants a comfortable health.Ier. 16. 7. 2. Cor. 1. 3, 4 Hath not the Lord comforted vs, that we might be able to comfort o­thers, with the same comfort where­with we are comforted our selues?

Now comfort is duple, as the ob­iect is double. Vnus duo, one man is two, body and soule: there is com­fort outward, and comfort inward. For that which is outward turne the leafe, and looke backward: we haue toucht it before, onely a word more. The imbroydred Lazar comes to [Page 86] thy gate, craues thereat not all but some, a pittance or crum, the froth or scum: giue him comfort.

See thy selfe in him, and Christ in thy selfe. Behold I stand at the dore & knocke, Oh send not away thy Christ with a mocke: do thou behold him, and hold it not from him.

Christus petit (magna penuria) Christus non accipit (magna iniustitia) Aug. vt habeas vnde luxurietur filius, cha­ritate careas vnde egeat Deus. Christ in the poore man asketh it of thee (great indigence) the poore man for Christs sake gets it not from thee (great negligence) that thou by thy wealth should make thy son a wan­ton; while Gods Sonne in his mem­bers is suffered to want it. But spirit­uall2. comfort is the speciall comfort: let not the soule want this Antidote, a quo recessit anima plangis corpus, cur Aug. non & animam a qua recessit [...] Deus? thou mourn'st for the body when the soule is banished, why not rather for the soule whence God is departed? Haeccine viscera compassionis? are these [Page 87] the bowells of Christian compassion? for the passion of Christ, quench not the smoaking flaxe, breake not the bruised reede, but binde vp the bro­ken heart, preach the Gospell to the poore, that the children that sit in darkenesse may receiue light. LetEsa. 9. 2. this, or the like be thy Dialect. Poore soule! though thy sinnes bee many, and therefore thy sorrowes mighty, yet feare not the Lords fury, despaire not of Gods mercy. Iudas his des­peration was worse then his treason. Thou canst not commit more then God can remit: his mercy transcends his workes, therefore thy works. His promise is indefinite to all. Come vn­to me All, Whoores, Theeues, Mur­derers,Mat. 11. Vsurers, Purse-cutters, Perse­cutors, Sodomites, Gomorrhaeans, Idolotars.

Christ in his life raysed three to life: the Rulers daughter, the Wid­dowesLuk. 8. 55. 7. 11. Ioh. 11. 44. sonne, and stinking Lazarus: one dead an houre, the second a day, the third foure: resembling three sorts of sinners, (all sorts of sinners:) [Page 88] 1: in intention. 2. action. 3. dilecta­tion.Aug. de ver dom. ser. 44. Therefore thy sinnes are not so deadly, but Christ can restore thee. At what time (what time soe­uer) a sinner (what sinner soeuer) re­penteth of his wickednes (what wic­kednesse soeuer) the Lord will for­getGlos. in Ioel. 2. any more to remember it, (be­ing gracious, and mercifull, Benig­nus affectu, misericors effectu) but willEsa. 40. 1. remember for euer to forget it: and comfort ye, comfort ye: Oh how beautifull are the feete of those that bring these glad tydings.

To pardon the offender, is a mel­low fruit, and falls from the tree without plucking. Happy are they that eate it: happier they that beare it. Our blessed Bush is ful of it: S [...]iunt perfecti viri in [...]uriam diss [...]mulare quā ­doque obliuis [...]i penitus & donare, et si Remitte 10. Sen. in Pro. necesse sit in patientia supportare.

A righteous man can dissemble an iniury: sometimes forgiue, and forget it wholly: and if need be, in­dure it patiently.

There be many stalkes on which this fruit growes.

• 1. Gods precept.
• 2. Christs practise.
• 3. Want of merit.
• 4. Assurance of profit.

Must, for the King: the King of heauen tells vs we must, if euer flou­rish in anno gloriae beare this fruit in anno gratiae: thou shalt not reuenge thy selfe on the children of thy peo­ple, (my people) for vengeance isLeu. 19. 18. Rom. 12. 19 mine, and I will repay it (who dare preoccupate Gods prerogatiue?) ItExo. 21. 24. was once saide an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth: but Was is past, andMat, 5. 35. the Canon is inuerted: a cheeke for a cheeke, a cloake for a stroake, a suite of apparrell for a sute or a quarrell, a44 kisse for a stabbe, a chalize for a chal­lenge. Loue your enemies, we loue not aright if we pardon not iniuries: forgiue one another. The mandate ofCol. 3. 13. the Almighty implies necessity. The sonnes of Rechab would drinke noIer. 35. 6. wine, because their father forbad it; nor we wrath, because our heauenly [Page 90] Father hath interdicted vs.

The example of Christ inuites vs2 to it. Si sequi nequis pr [...]cipientem, se­quere tamen antecedentem: if thou canst not follow him that commands, follow him that obeyes: he was de­spised, reiected, wounded, bruised, oppressed, afflicted: They spit vpon him, that restored the blinde by hisEsa. 53. 3. 5. 7. spittle.

Strip him, whip him, All haile him▪ Psal. 69. 22 Mat. 27▪ 48. Pseud. Sib. nayle him. This gall was his meate, his drinke was vineger.

For all this hee opened not his mouth, I meane against them, but he opened it for them. Father forgiue them, they wot not what is done by them. All his reuenge was a prayer [Page 91] against vengeance, writing in grasse, what others in brasse: wrongs. Are you wronged? Let not that minde be in you which is in Lions and L [...]o­pards: but let the same mind bee in you which was in Christ Iesus, who being reuiled, did not reuile, being smitten, did not resmite, &c. Non qui Phil. 2. 5. percutit, sed qui reper [...]ut it bellum fa­cit. Not he that sends, but hee that accepts the challenge, makes the Duell.

Gods child is sensible of his own3. blemishes. There is that in me which was not in Christ Iesus. Sinn. I am conscious of mine owne infirmities, deformities, I haue wrongd God, I haue wrongd my neighbour. My watch hath not beene well kept, for I haue mispent my talent of time: my chimney hath not beene well swept, for the pot of my charity hath sel­dome boylde: my linnen hath not beene well washt, for I haue not a­rayed the naked mendicant: my soule hath not beene well scowrd, for I haue hated my brother in my heart: [Page 92] my hands haue not beene well pur­ged, for I haue iniured others: and it is lex talionis, if others doe so by me, Shall I seeke reuenge if God punish me? no▪ my wrongs to him haue deserued it. Shall I bee witnesse, Iudge, and hangman in mine owne cause, if another vexe me? No, hee is but Gods hammer, why should I be like a dogge to bite at the stone, and not looke to the thrower? my wrongs to God ot him, to God and him doe merit it.Grego. mor. 30.

Is patienter tollerat iniuriam, & eru­bescit peccatis non parcere, qui apud Deum & proximum multa quibus pa­ti necesse est se recol [...]t comminisse: he cannot choose but take patiently, and forgiue freely (he must needes blush that doth contrary) such offences as are offered him: that doth consider how he hath offended his God aboue him, and his neighbours with him.

Our sinnes deserue a mittimus, 4 paines without end, are our sinnes stipend, it is Gods mercy that wee were not in the goale long since: but [Page 93] if we will grant a Demittimus, and pardon others, God will pronounce a Remittimus and forgiue vs. Demit­tite, & Demittemin [...], it is his owne language; forgiue, and you shall beeLuk 6. 36. forgiuen. If you will forgiue men their trespasses, your heauenly fatherMat 6. 14. will forgiue you. Here is gaine, and great gaine indeed: Quare quis non fratri demittat parum, vt dignetur & Aug. de re­ [...]i [...]d. Cath. conuersat. dominus demittere totum? who would not forgiue a penny to be forgiuen a pound? thy brothers sinne to thee is as a penny, thy sinne to God as a pound; his feathers, thy lead, but this milne to smelt it.

These with others are the stalkes of this fruit: let them make thee, and me forbearing long suffering. Be not Aristotles Disciple to thinke it mag­nanimity to retaliat an iniury. Let not Scylla's Epitaph be ingrauen on thy graue.

Be not like that wild Irish, who would not haue the right arme of his child put in the font, least being re­generatedM. Speede. by water, hee should not be able to execute his rancour: a true kerne, a true Carib: rather imitate that gentle Caesar, that said to Metel­lus, Nunquam efficies vt iram Caesa­ris merearis, thou shalt neuer cause Caesar to bee angry with thee: rather imitate Marcus Cato, who sayd to one that wrongd him, and cryed peccaus, non memini me percus­sum, I doe not remember that I was smitten: rather imitate blessed Da­uid, who concerning Shimes that re­uild him, said let him alone, the Lord had bidden him.

In the games of Olympus hee wan the prize that gaue the most blowes to his aduersary: but in the lists of Christ Iesus hee gets the prayse that puts vp most wrongs by an enemy. for God is his Agonotheta who will reward his iniury.

(i. e) Supportare onerosum, to assistOffer. the helplesse, haplesse, and hopelesse, burdned, ouerburdned, with griefe and care cumbred, is a feeling fruit: feele the pulse of a Christian, his veines, are not vaine, but beare with compassion. Compassio, a compatior, therefore alter alterius onera portare, beare you the burdens one of ano­ther:Gal 6. and if an other greeue, diuidatur [...]qualitèr, say halfe mine.

Altera prostratum corpus in ponte ita collocat vt altera insistere prostrato Plinius. corpori, & transire per illam possit.

Here you heare of a Goate cou­chant: Moses tells you of an Asse couchant, Isachar couching between two burthens, not onely vndergoing his owne patiently, but bearing the burden of others feelingly. Good reason. Wee are members one of a­nother, and must therefore yeeld sub­uention one to another.

Thou standest in as much need of2 him, as he of thee, and if so, 'tis but one good turne for another.

But if thou hast both eyes,3 and feete, profit, and comfort now, thou knowst not what weather 'twill be to morrow.

Tu quo que fac timeas, & quae tibi. Ouid de pont. laeta videntar dum loqueris fieri tristi­tia posse putes.

Therefore, feare while thou spea­kest, least thy sweet to sowre be tur­ned.

Saint Paul doth counsell it, con­sider thy selfe (saith hee) least thou also be tempted. Saint Bernard doth affirme it, speaking of a brother that fell vnder the burden of some vice. Ille bodiè, & ego cras: he to day, andBer. de re­sur. dom. Ser. 2. I not vnlikely to fall to morrow.

Faithfull Orison is a fruit most so­ueraigne,Oratio. 12. Orapronobis, sayes the daughter: Oraprovobis, sayes the mother: Daughter the soule, mother the Church, mother-Church, Quae si nil habeat dare, vult taemen or are, who should she be poore, and had nothing to giue vs, yet is she too pure to cease praying for vs: absit a me hoc pecca­tam, 1. Sam. 12. Iam. 5. 16. let this sinne (saith Samuel) be farre from me: hence the Apostle, pray one for another. When our blessed Sauiour had made his will, and bequeathed his mother to Iohn, his kingdome to a theefe, his coat to a souldiour, his body to the crosse, his soule to hell for the redemption [Page 99] of mankinde, he prayed Pater ignos­ce, forgiue them father: Frater dig­nosce, learne this brother: Tu non fra­ter si non orator, Thou art no brother, If thou pray not for another: for al­beit faith saith, not Our Father, but my Father, as Thomas my God, and my Lord, since another mans faith cannot bee the Vicar of my consci­ence: yet prayer saith not onely, my Father, but our Father (euery man for himselfe, and God for vs all de­serues to be cursed and anathemati­zed of all) when you pray, thus say,Mat. 6. Paeter noster.

When Dauid played, the Diuell1. Samuell. would not dance, belike he liked not his musicke: Saul was well rid of him, better was his roome then his company: when Moses prayd, Israel conquered the Amalakites, as Gede­ons Iudges. broken pitchers (broken hearts) and sounding Trumpets (ecchoingCh [...]s. in Heb. hom. 27. 1 Samu [...]ll. lippes) chased away, and ouercame the Midianites. Certèmagna sunt ar­ma oratio, ipsa bella [...]. D [...]uout prayers, are strong speares. Hereby [Page 100] the Patriarke preuayled with Ieho­uah. Gen. 12. 4.

Obiect. But perhaps you aske what others they are that must be prayed for?

Sol. I answer negatiuely: droppe not a bead, let no prayer bee sayde for such as are dead: they may be in thy Creed (for thou mayest hope well, that they are well) but take heede they come not into thy Pater noster.

Dirges, Masses, Tretalls, Requi­ems, are to begge a pardon when the theefe is hanged, and after the faire, to vnpacke our ware. Medicus post­quam Chrys. in Mat. Hom. 75. aegrotus obijt nequicquam pro­desse potest, in vaine is the potion af­ter dissolution. If they be in heauen, they need not to vs: if in hell, there is [...], a great gulph twixt vs, and them, our prayer cannot goe o­uer for want of a bridge: Tertium penitus ignoramus, imo nec esse in scrip­turis Aug. cont. pelag. Hyp. lib. 5. sanctis inueniemus. There is no meane betweene these extreames: Purgatory is but imaginary: a Poe­ticall Chimaera: a paper prison, like the other Limbos, whereof Virgil (I [Page 101] thinke) the heathen was one of the first builders: but Lord remember me now thou art in thy kingdome, and say to my Soule, it shall bee with thee in Paradise.

Doe not supplicate, for any Apo­state:2 There is a sinne vnto death (to1 Ioh. 5. 16. pray for it is as to pray for the dead) I doe not say you shall pray for it: the Prophet saith, You shall not prayI [...]. 7. 16. for it, to attempt it, is to tempt God: therefore Iudas gai [...] faire by his pension, when he lost the benefite of each good mans petition: bad husban­dry, for halfe a crowne to exchange a crowne, for thirty pence of siluer, many talents of golden treasure: hee may well hang whom no man speaks for, no man prayes for.

But (now affirmatiuely) except2 before excepted, we are commanded1 Tim. 2. 1 1 Tim. [...]2 2 all to pray for all. Magistrates: blesse,1 (blessed God) our gracious King1 Iames by thy grace, &c. that as hee doth raigne by thee, so he may raigne for thee, that hee may raigne, and remaine perpetually with thee: Our [Page 102] hopefull Prince Charles, that no Hit­tite 2 or Amorite may sleepe in his bo­some, but a true Israelite, that he may bee greater then great Charlemaigne on earth, and reside, and abide aboue Charles-waine in heauen: The Count of Reyne his spouse and progenie, that3 againe they may raigne of account in Germany. And our Albion-Se­nators,4 oh let them bee neither trans-nor Cis-Alpine-pensioners: & sic de caeteris.

Ministers: we pray for you, pray2 you for vs: Paul doth bid it: prayEphe. 6. 19 Act. 12. 5. for me: the Church did it, for shee prayed for Peter.

But how is the world become a glutton? instead of praying for vs, prcying on vs? of 9284 English Pa­rishes,Ca [...]b. [...]rit. edit. vlt. 3845 are become impropria­tions. But quorsum [...]c? our Belly­god-patrons-latrons haue no eares for vs, nor prayers for vs.

Wee must all finally pray for all generally, for Iewes and Pagans, Turkes, and Papists, though some Lincolne-shiere ministers say such a [Page 103] petition implies a contradiction to particular election, that it would please thee to haue mercy vpon all men: yet in this also we beseech thee to heare vs good Lord.

Indeede such charity is not to bee found in Popery: for when one Tur­ner a Martyr did at the stake desireAct & Men the peoples prayers, Browne a Papist (oh pittifull Papist) sayd hee would pray no more for him, then he would for a dogge. They haue Bell, Booke and Candle for vs, we a Communi­on Collect for them, that hauing but one shepheard, wee might all be col­lected into one fold: The Syrophe­nician prayed for her daughter pos­sessed with a diuell, and wee for our brother be he neuer so euill.

But how can any pray for others, that seldome or neuer pray for them­selues.

Quoth that sea-faring passenger, when the storme beate with anger, or how for others, and themselues, that are full of vice, and fraught with sinnes? If I regard wickednesse inPsal. 66. 18 my heart, the Lord will not heare me, Silete ne vos hac illi nauigare sentiant.

Then purge thy heart that God may heare thee, and pray for thy selfe, that others may be prayd for by thee.

But happily it will be sayd, I haue often prayd, yet finde no ayde: I and my brother periclitamur, are still in danger. Foolish man, though thou be Popilius, God is not Antiochus: Popilius to Antiochus being sent on a message, drew a circle about his seat, adiuring him, ere he stird to answer his Embassage: but faith tarryes the Lords leasure, and though the Lord tarry, it waytes his pleasure. Is qui [Page 105] credit non prefestinabit, he that belee­ueth maketh not hast, when as he that beleeueth not maketh hast, and hee that maketh hast, maketh wast: hast, and wast, are mother, and daughter, too hastfull, and wastfull, was Chone Hammigal, a Iewish Rabbi, who when the weather was droughty, put himselfe in a Pye made fit for his bo­dy, saying, Lord of the world, thy childrens eyes are fixt on me, as one whom they thinke familiar with thee, I sweare by thy name I will not out my Pie till thou grant them raine, here was flesh in a Pie, but no salt, no wit.

I am peruenimus vsque ad vmbeli­cas. Martiall. Let vs gather the fragments, the banquet is ended, and a rare one it [Page 106] were, were it well disht: howeuer by such as it is, you plainly see our Bush is abounding with excellent fruite. Goe thou and doe likewise: Bring foorth (saith the Baptist) not flowers or flourishes, blossomes or semblan­ces, buds or appearances, but fruits: not the fruite of the world, that's fol­ly, nor the fruite of the flesh, that is frailty, nor the fruit of the eyes, that is fancy, but meete fruites, meete for contrition of heart, reformation of life, sanctification of Soule.

Euen such as are vicious, are very fructiferous, producing, and bearing, as greene fruits of imperfectnesse: so red fruits of blood-thirstines, yellow fruit of gall and bitternesse, flame­collourd fruit of drunkennesse, earth­colourd fruit of couetousnes, pale-co­lord fruit of lasciuiousnes: whose root is concupiscence, Bole consent, bran­ches, bad desires, buds, lewd words, flowers, vile actions, fruits, naughty customes; which the diuell doth plant, suggestion doth water, conti­nuance increase, necessity ripen, iudg­ment [Page 107] gather, and hell burne. Oh let not the children of this world, the brats of night, be wiser and fruitful­ler then the children of light. Let eue­ry one labour to bee like our Bush, whose fruit is good, good and much.

Be not an Oliue bush (when the goates doe licke it fruitfulnesse, doth leaue it) when others prayse thee, let them not pride thee: bee not a vine bush, (the more boughes, the fewer grapes) but if thou receiue more bles­sings from God, looke thou returne more fruit to God. Be not a Cloue­bush, (so hot by nature, and greedy of water, that it robbes it neighbours plants of moysture) if thou hast much be thankfull for it, if little, be content with it, and see thou doe not coue [...] an other mans profit. Why shouldest thou be like that Greene-land fowle (called an Allen) that (being of grea­ter power) beats the lesser birds till they vomit vp their prey for him to deuoure, then dismissing them with few feathers on their backes) lesse meate in their bellies. I feare we haue [Page 108] in England too much of this fo [...], but be not thou so foule.

In a word: if euer thy branches begin to wither, vse Aristotles re­ceipt to make them prosper: (viz.) Cut the roote, put a stone in the cut, that the pure ayre may goe in, and grosse humour flow out. Cutte the root, namely thy heart by repen­tance, and true compunction: put in a stone, the remembrance of thy graue-stone, death, and dissolution: that the grosse humour, thy sinnes by confession may leaue thee, and the ayre of Gods Spirit, by deuotion fulfill thee, thus shall much and good fruit grow on thee: which gracious blessing that it may happen vn­to thee, I powre foorth my prayers continually to the Almighty. To whom be prayer now, and prayse for euer.