THE Truth still gaines by Op­position, it not onely beares up against the violence of Affronts, but comes of with victory and triumph: like your noble mettals, it is fin'd by those flames, which the breath of malice hath rear'd to consume and wast it: what matchlesse Champions in all ages hath even the madnesse of impugners, armed to the patrocinie of the faith, Holy and Cotholike? among others our Apostle is interessed in this sacred quarrell: In this whole Epistle he purposely combats Carpocrates andEpiphan. in Pana [...] lib 2. T [...]m. 2. beates downe in him that prodegie of opinion: Sin we must, and but by doing the will of the divels themselves, we have no other ascent or staire, by which to mount up to glory: In this first Chapter [Page 2] he enters the lists with Ebion, and vindicates bothZanch. in Pro­legom. from his envy and cavill, that CHRIST is from eternity GOD, one with His Father in power and everlastingnesse, there were Meteors too, who made a blaze of piety, but were indeed false fires and soone went out in a stinch: they ware the li­very of CHRIST, but Service or Attendance, they had none for Him: what the Romanes did condemne in Publicola, who prais'd Brutus inPlutarchus in vita Publ. words, but followed Tarquin in deeds, their workes did ever jarre and brawle with what they spake or taught: these our Apostle unmaskes in my Text, prickes the tumour, which swels them, and what ever dresse they put on, displaies them to be a Spurious broode within the pale, but no true Sonnes of GOD or of His Church: were they so, their lookes would not speake smiles, whilst stormes did surge in their breasts, they would steere as they set their compasse, nor would their faces be toward Canaan, and their hearts at Ashdod: what they seeme, they would be, be holy as their heavenly Father is holy, doe the workes of mercy, as He is mercifull, tugg and wrestle for perfection, as He is perfect, walke in light, as He is light, for [...], GOD is Light.

The words are not many, but as Chrysostome that miracle of the Greeke Church spake of theChrysost. ad pop. Antiocb. Hom. 1. like, [...] ▪ they are weighty in substance, though not in bulke, as much sparkeling lustre may be in a small jewell, and in a little globe, we may surveigh a world of countries: the [...] is soone said, that GOD is [Page 3] Light, but the [...] how He is so, to traverse this, will be a taske of more sweate: it must bee mine now, and my way shall be, to shew you what Light is, and withall what GOD is in relation to it: and so at once, how GOD and Light doe agree in the same proprieties: in the handling whereof I shall be animated (I hope) with your most Christian patience and attention.

The first quality in which GOD and Light doe agree, is the imperceptibility of both.1.

The property of Light is such, as hath staggerd strangely and tir'd the Naturalists in the search and definition of it: insomuch that some Philo­sophersCap. 53. sacr. Phi. (saith Vellesius) have thought it the bodi­ly and materiall part of the God-head: GOD doth at once aske of Iob and ston'd him: Where is the Job 38. 19. way where light dwelleth, and as for darknesse where is the place thereof, that thou shouldst take it to the bounds, and that thou shouldst know the paths to the house of it.

GOD is in this respect Light, His Incompre­hensiblenesse is above the pitch of all determinate capacities: What is immense how can the fleete dimensions of the minde containe it? GOD He is so.

First, for time, all successions of Ages are butImmensitas di­vinae magnitu­dinis tuae ista est, ut intelli­gamus te intra omnia sed non inclusum, extra omnia sed non exclusum. Aug. Med cap. 30. an instant to Him, time it selfe but a drop of His Eternity.

Secondly, for place, to Him the vast circum­ference of Heaven and Earth is but a point: He is no where excluded, included no where, every where and yet without expansion.

We may admire and adore this infinitude, our [Page 4] thoughts are of too narrow a size and bore to comprehend it: and indeed GOD is for man to stand amaz'd and wonder at: the clog'd and drossie soule can never sound Him, who is the invisible fountaine of Spirits: nor is it within the reach of Art to define quidditativè what He is: de Deo scire Aquinas p. 1. qu. 1. art. 7. non possumus quidest: what the divine Essence is the full knowledge thereof descends not to any finite apprehension: Let others fathom this bot­tomelesse Abysse, and scorch their wings whilst they venture them about this flame; I shall not de­sire to see what the Cherubims saw not, who co­veredEsa. 6. 11. their faces with their wings, as not able to behold this glory: May I bee shewen the least dawning or glimpse of it, it is as much as I am ca­pable of, more than I can looke on without exta­sie and ravishment.

GOD is Light, but such that non nisi purissimis Soliloq. cap. 34. oculis videri potest, in Aug. wee must have pure eyes, cleare above the Eagles to gaze on this Sun: GOD dwels in Light in the Apostle, but such as1 Tim. 6. 16. no man can approach unto: brightnesse is before my GOD in the Psalmist, bright enough (wouldPsal. 18. 12. I ourface that lustre) to dazle mine eyes, if not blind them: darke waters too, and thicke cloudes of the skie are His pavilion round about Him, ver. 11. darke and thicke enough to keepe of my dimme sight that it pierce not through them: I am doubly tutor'd not to pry too farre into this mistery, both by the gloominesse that is about GOD and the Light that is in Him.

Empedocles did well define GOD, who said, GOD is a Sphere, whose center is every where,Flut. Apoth. [Page 5] and circumference no where: nor blame I Simom▪ des, who askt by King Hieron (as Tullie tells it me)De natura deo­rum liber. 1. what GOD is, if after much pause and travell, he gave his reason non plust and at a bay, with a quan­to diutius considero, tanto mihi res videtur obscarior, the more I sift here, the more I am giddied, 'tis a riddle I cannot unfold, a knot, I am not able to un­tie: no marveile, for Iob peremptorily▪ Touching the Almighty, we cannot finde Him out: pardonJob 27. 23. the Schoolemen their dalliance with words, they bias aright for the maine: three things, they say, are without the verge of a definition: One the Philosophers materia prima the first wombe of all things, this they define not, ob summam informita­tem, Petr. Galat. de arcanis cathol verit. lib. 2. cap 1. for it is informity and rudenesse; the second is sinne, the first spoile of all things, this they de­fine not ob summam deformitatem, for it is mishapen deformitie: the third is GOD, the first well­spring of life in all things; Him they define not, ob summam formositatem, because of that beauty, the least beame of which puts out all inferior and borrowed lights.

Something we may and ought to know of GOD, Heaven and life depend upon it, as death and hell on a muffled ignorance: This is eternall life to know 1 Joh. 4. 13. thee the onely true GOD, and whom thou hast sent JESVS CHRIST: but, O GOD, quis cog­novit te, nisi tu te, as Saint Augustine sweetely: we may reade over all the volumes of thy workes, and turne over every leafe of thy Word, we may search after thee, as with Cressent light, in every angle of Heaven and Earth, after all our queries of thy Majesty, 'tis well if we know this, that Sola [Page 6] trinitas tua, soli tibi integrè nota est. Aug. Soliloq. cap. 31.

Something we learne of GOD in the Schoole of nature; every creature hath a trumpet in his mouth to proclaime Him; In these we see Him, as in a glasse, saith Saint Paul; we reade Him too1 Cor. 13. 12. as in a booke, not a page whereof is unwritten on,Basil. Hom. 11. Hexam. not a line but dictates us a divinity Lecture; wee heare Him as in a harpe, not a string of it can be toucht in so sweete an harmony, without an infi­nite GOD: and saith Saint Athanasius, we viewAthan. Orat. contr. Idola. Him as in a picture: even the beasts in Iob, weare His stampe and image, Aske the beasts and they shall tell thee, that the hand of the LORD hathJob 12. 7. wrought them: Anaxogoras being asked where­fore man was made, made answer to behold the Heavens, and did he, what miracle and power might he behold in them? not a Starre spangles there, but is a Preacher and Herauld to the Majesty of its Maker: When I consider the Heavens (saith David) the workes of thy fingers, the Moone andPsal. 8. 4. Stars, that thou hast ordained, What is man? Hee so speakes of their excellency, as if no streames or rivers of Eloquence could expresse them: pictures, some say are the books of Ideots, which leade the grosse conceit to GOD, not without delight and pleasure; such an image is the world, not an igno­rance so dull, but by the pedagogie of it may be brought to know GOD, so much of him, as to stripRom. 1. 20. even Heathens of excuse.

Something we may know of GOD, from the standing Oracle of His-Word, enough to perfect2 Tim. 3. 16. us to every good worke: this is Iacobs well inOrig: in Mat. contra celsum. Origen, whence all draw the waters of life, not [Page 7] onely Iacob and his Sonnes, the high-built appre­hensions, but also the cattell and sheepe the low­rooft capacities: 'tis a river of cleare waters in Gregory, fluvius est, in quo agnus peditat, & Elephas Greg. Epist. ad Leand. natat, where be shallowes for Lambes, and depths for Elephants: what the large Manuscript of the universe could not, the Tomes of holy writ, have discovered of the Deity: the Co-eternity of the Sonne of GOD with the Father, the procession of the HOLY GHOST from both, the unity of the three in one uncreated Essence, who ever saw through the darke spectacles of nature? all essentiall truths, so farre as salvation is linkt to the knowledge of them, we see clearely by the light of the Scriptures, which (as saith David) are a lightPsal. 119. 105. 1 Pet. 1. 19. to our feet, and a light shining in a darke place,Clem. Alexan. Protr. p. 25. saith Peter: they are [...], candles that never goe out in Clemens now, and [...], an uni­versall light to all anon.

This Light shewes to every man, the [...] of our holy faith, that the misteries of it are divine and true, but fully to no man the [...] the reason or manner, how they be so: I know with Augustine that GOD is unitas divinitatis, personarum plura­litate Meditat. cap. 30. multiplex, that there is a glorious Trinity in Unity, in which the Father is to be adored as be­ing altogether of Himselfe, the Sonne to be glori­fiedHooker lib. 5. Sect. 5. Eccles polit. as that Consubstantiall Word, and the HOLY GHOST ever to be blessed and magnified, as that Coessentiall Spirit eternally proceeding from both: I know not, 'tis a depth I dare not dive it, how there is one Essence of three persons, or threeLumb Sent. 1. d 34. a. 5. persons of one Essence, and yet not one GOD of [Page 8] three persons, or three persons of one GOD; that GOD hath a Sonne equall with Him out of the wombe of everlastingnesse, GOD essentially as He, I believe this: but how He who made the world was borne, how a Sonne and yet one eter­nall with the Father, or not after Him in time, here I say with Ambrose in Lombard, mens deficit, Sentent. lib. 1. d. 9. a. 8. vox silet, non mea tantum, sed & Angelorum: how can I but be dumbe, where the tongues of Angels stutter? how not entranc'd, when the glorious Cherubims clap their wings? for who shall de­clare His generation? that the HOLY GHOSTEsa. 53. 8. is not the Fathers alone, nor the Sonnes alone, but proceeds equally from both, I subscribe here,Sentent. lib 1. dist. 10. a. 1. & d. 12. a. 3. how this Spirit of Truth comes from the Father, and is of one substance with Him, yet may not be said to be borne, nor cal'd the Sonne of GOD, or how the Son of GOD comes from the Father, yet may not be said to proceed, nor be cal'd the HOLY GHOST, Augustine here makes a proud knowledge strike saile to a devout ignorance: di­stinguish betwixt that generation there, and this procession here, nescio, non valeo, non sufficio, IS Aug. in Lumb ubi Supr. know not, J cannot, it is not within the kenn of my skill: And what Vaticans have we read, what Antiquity have we traded with, or had commerce with? what Histories? what fasts have pin'd us, what prayers have we breath'd out, that we should stand and not shake when the grand pillars of the Church shrink, or unlock those misteries the Se­raphins have no key for? canst thouby searching finde out GOD, or know the Almighty untoJob 11. 7. perfection? let it be the pride of others to tread [Page 9] this maze, I shall as soone measure Heaven with my span, or weigh the smoake, or catch the winde in a seive, or shadow the Sun with my palme: as soone I will plow the waters, and sow my hopes there; for as thy judgements, O LORD, so thyPsal. 36. ver. 6. nature is a great depth.

Most men cracke of their knowledge of GOD, and whereas Saint Paul rapt up into Heaven saw things he could not speake, these will speake things they never saw: 'tis indeed the Epidemicall di­sease of the Age, we had rather be Rabbies than Saints, rather eate of the tree of knowledge, than the tree of life; nor care many to loose GOD in the practike exercise of piety, whilest they seeke Him in the speculative niceties of the Schooles: GOD lookes for, I dare say, more conscience than most men have, askes lesse science than most men brag of: knowledge, 'tis true, is the soules eye, the mistresse to guide the life to vertue, a Mer­cury to point the roade to goodnesse: when it doth so, I prize it above Rubies, and say, the mer­chandize of it is better than the merchandize of silver, and the gaine-thereof than fine gold: butProv. 3. 14. that which fires the braine, warmes not the heart, which disjoin'd from grace doth floate in some frothy notions, and seeke the applause onely of a dexterous wit and voluble tongue; who would fraught his ship with such drossie oare, or stay for that gayle, which cannot waft him to Heaven? in that day, when all knowledge shall vanish away,1 Cor. 13. 8. where will be the scribe, where the disputer, where the wise? a dramme of devotion will then out­weigh a pound of discourse, one worke of mercy [Page 10] turne the scale to the whole library of Aristotle: Some talke over the series and descents of all times, as if they had beene made with the first Adam, and with such perfum'd breaths, in such richnesse of language, as if myrh and pearles dropt from their lips, but at that Assize, the laurell and crowne will be charities: Come yee blessed, I was na­ked and yee clothed me, I was hungry and yee fed me, I Mat. 25. 34. was sicke and yee visited me.

What ever tympany of knowledge swels others; grant me, O LORD, to know thee savingly; So inspire us all, as to obey thee in thy Word, not cu­riously prie into thy nature; what ever Art wee would be graduats in, thou stand'st in the fore­front of the Schoole, and bidst us learne thee first, ere we turne over a new leafe? but how learne thee? learne to awe thee for thy power, to trust thee for thy truth, to dread thee for thy justice, to depend on thee for thy providence, love thee for thy mercies, feare thee for thy love, reverence thee for thy goodnesse, and for thy tender com­passions, take the cup of salvation, and sing praise unto thee: we beg not to see thy face, nor view thee as thou art, Moses, that standard of examples could not; thy back-parts are enough, the least twi­light or ray of thee enough to seale up our happi­nes unto us and enhaunce it: thy Name is so appa­reld with Majesty, such mistery is shrin'd in it, that itTertull lib. de Trinit init. pag. 197. is [...] with some, ineffable, [...] with others, indicible, with many [...], ineloquible, [...] with all, obscure and unknowne what it is: what bright­nesse than is in thy selfe, O GOD, what mists too about thee? I say no more, thou art Light, and be­cause [Page 11] so great a Light, not to be seene of any: and thus much of the first propertie, betwixt GOD and Light, the imperceptibility of them both.

The second property betwixt GOD and Light 2. is the delight somenesse and comfort of either.

Light is a most lovely and amiable qualitie, haud scio an rerū coelestium ulla sit excellentior luce, So Sca­liger: Exercit. 71. it beautifies Heaven it selfe, the Sun would be but a blind heape, but for the light of the Sun: GOD from this treasury would enrich the wholeGen. 1. 14. world, and therefore made it the store-house of Light in the Creation: the day, which is the child of Light, Plato will have it so cal'd [...] to long after, let the Preacher interpret the Etymon;Eccles. 11. 7. Light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes [...] Dion. Chrys. Orat. 4. to behold the Sun, the worth of this benefit they can truly prize who live in disconsolate dungeons, fast bound in fetters and irons: what were the world without it? how confus'd? how formelesse? what more comfort in it, than in the grave? what joy can I have, asks blind Tobit, when I sit in dark­nesse and do not see the Light of Heaven.

GOD is in this respect Light, the Light and se­renity of His countenance, is the onely happinesse of man; in His favour is life, Psal. 30. 5. His living kindnesse is better than life, Psal. 63. 3. What is a bundle of Myrrhe betweene the breasts, what aCant. 1. 12, 13. cluster of Cypres in the vineyards of Engedi, such is GOD to atrue Christian heart, His love laid close unto it, and His grace spread abroad there, like aromatike odours in a house, or in the boo­some, with what unimaginable refreshings is it cheer'd? how sweetned with a divine fragrancy? [Page 12] no powders of the Merchant smell so, the world yeelds not a breath, but 'tis stinch unto it, how pleasant soever insent to a carnall sense: these are those perfumes and unguents the Spouse speakes of; because of the savour of thy good ointments, Thy name is an ointment powred out, therefore the Vir­gins Cant. 1. 2. love thee: the Hebrewes observe, that those foure letters which make up the name JEHOVAH, that [...], that mighty Name of GOD, are liter aequiescentes, letters of rest: and this inferenceZanch▪ de natu­ra Dei, lib. 1. cap. 13. Fagius extracts thence, In GOD alone is the rest, repose, tranquillity of all creatures: He is that ha­ven of rest, where till we arrive in our spirits, we are mazd in endlesse wandrings, tortur'd on the racke of selfe vexation, our desires know no shoares or bottome: the glorious Trinity alone, who made it, fils the heart with gladnesse, everyActs 14. 17. roo [...]ond angle of it, leaves not a chinke for di­stractions to creepe in; for how can a sparkle of them fall on that breast, where to quench it is a fountaine of living waters, and fullnesse of joy flowing thence: whilst we are in our corruptible rags of earth, our soule will bee irregular and erratike, like the planets in their Epicicles, there will be windes to raise stormes in it, like Noahs Dove, shee findes not amidst the swelling tides of this world whereon to stay her feete: when dis­mantled of the clogging flesh, she shall be satisfi­ed with the fatnesse of GODS House, and fild with the rivers of His pleasures, when united un­to GOD, who is the Ocean of all true happinesse, it shall lie downe in the lap of eternity, it will than bee pleas'd and quiet, there will be no storme or [Page 13] tempest in it, it will rest in GODS everlasting rest: O GOD what are the heavens without Light, what are our bodies without a soule, what are our soules without thee?

Thou, O GOD, art our rod and staffe of com­fort, the joy and blisse of our soules, how should they long afterthee, and the fruition of that happi­nesse thou hast richly stor'd up for those who seek thee and it: but alasse we seeke thee not, nor care to finde thee, but in our gardens of pleasure, or wardrops of vanity, or ware houses of profit, or ta­bles of surfet, or cellers of drunkennesse, or offices of bribery, or parlours of wantonnesse; I had al­most said, but in the stewes of impurities, the bro­thels of lewdnesse, or Acheldama the field of blood, we are no company for GOD: Some say to the wedge of gold thou art our confidence, and doe base homage to that, which should bee the worst drudge; Some roule on the flouds of plea­sure, nor did Cleopatra vie a more costly health to her Marke Antony, than what they let downe their throats, into the Charibdis and Scylla of ourLaert. de vita Phil lib. 6. life, the belly, as Diogenes stil'd it▪ Some like brutes looke downeward, nor know any other joy, than what is in the shadow and froth of things transito­ry, these are the men of this world, whose portionPsal. 17 14. is in this life onely, O what fooles are wee to cast away our soules upon such gaudes and trifles! to loose an eternall kingdome for toies & vanities, to chaffer Heaven for Earth, as sottish Indians truck away Oare for glasse: heape up all the riches of the world in one pile, till they reach the starres▪ charme up all the delights of the world into one [Page 14] circle, and enjoy them freely; ther's a desire in man which lookes over them as things fleeting and transient, as barke and shell onely, without pith or substance of true solace, such as can neither satiate, or stay.

First, they have nothing solid in them, they areNon sunt soli­dae, non fideles, etiamsi non no­cent, sugiunt. Senec. Epist. 27. ad Lucil. meates of a washy and fluid nature, which or slip through the stomacke without concoction, or if they digest, 'tis into raw and noysome crudities: who carouse deepest of pleasures, shall vomit them up againe, or if they stay, they will be the gall of Aspes within: thoughts that streame toward wealth, cataracks and rivers are but draughts enough for them: quod naturae satis est, homini Seneca Epist. 119. ad Lucii. non est: the grave Moralist speakes it of Alex­ander, who had swallowed up Darius and the Indies, and yet in those floods did thirst, and in that surfet was hungry: the land with her Mineralls of gold, the Sea with her ship-wrackt treasure, na­ture in her rich store-house, had not wherewith to quench the flame of his desire; inventus est qui concupisceret ali quid post omnia, that huge vastnesse of appetite is now found, which craves some­what after all things: I speake this among those, to whom wealth hath flowen in that abundance, as not to satisfie alone, but amaze, who send ships of Tarshish to the West for gold, and sutch spices from the East in the Navy of Hiram: the blessing of Heaven hath showred opulency into your laps, be content and thankefull, else you know whose it is, He that loveth silver, shall not bee satisfied with Eccles. 5. 10. silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase.

Secondly, there is nothing sure in them; you [Page 15] that lade your selves with thicke clay, you that swimme in a sea of voluptuousnesse, let me aske with the Prophet, How long? the bowles, plea­sureHab. 2. 16. quafs in, may please the palat for a round or two, but the lees are at hand, even her best cordialsPlus Aloes, quam mellis habet. Iuven. Satyr. 6. have some tart ingredients in them, and what-ever honey they are in the mouth, they are bitternesse in the belly: Salomon once feasted his eares with mu­sick, and his tast with wine, and his eyes with what­ever they desired; here's all Comedie to the last Sceane, which is shut up with I said of laughter it Eccles. 2. 2. is mad, and of mirth what doth it: the pompe of riches is brickle, like your globes of Christall, the least touch crackes them: the Wise man one while curtailes them onely of Eternity, Riches arePro. 27. 24. not for ever, else-where he shootes home to their fleetingnesse, Wilt thou set thine eyes upon thatPro. 23. 5. which is not? Sure riches make themselves wings, they flie as an Eagle toward Heaven: there is a gadding veine in money, which makes it ever and anon to shift masters, [...] ▪ Pythag. [...]. in Pythagoras, 'tis a trick it hath, now to fawne, and anon to be coy, and who would weary himselfe to hunt the winde?

The Cosmopolite without my envy shall graspe this cloude, nor will I fret at the Epicure & his earthly paradise: Say thou, O LORD, unto my soule, I am thy portion in the land of the li­ving, it is enough to blesse and raise me above those icy hils of joy, whence our earth-wormes,Senec Epist. 119. ad Lucil. Idem de brevit. vitae cap. 16. whilest they climbe them, not slip onely but tum­ble: Absolute content dwels not here below; what we here traffique for, is but Alchymie and [Page 16] dawbing: were we Monarchs of the world, and retinu'd with all the Equipage of greatnesse, all were but bracteata faelicitas, copper leav'd with gold, a bugel at best or glassy carkanet, which if we finger, we breake it: An apple of Sodome, Iosephus de bel­lo Iudaico, lib. 5. cap. 5. which wee may eye not tast, unlesse our bread should be Ashes, for such a touch makes them: A false light, such as betraies our Sea-men to rockes and shelves, and as it leades, shipwracks them: A fresh brooke of water, which may dance and sport a while in her christall channell, but fals into a mare mortuum, a sea of gall and worme­wood: for knowest thou not that it will be bitter­nesse2 Sam. 2. 26. at the latter end: GOD is that Ocean, into which all the rivers of a full delight do run: He the fruit of that Eden, whose alone smell is all plea­sure, whose tast is life: He that Spring and Source of true felicity, which all soules pant after, and of which who drinkes shall never thirst: He that cleare Sun, where all the light of grace and glory is center'd, and which no Eclipse can darken: O give us of the fruits of that Orchard, O leade us to those waters of comfort, O be thou our starre to the Heaven of happinesse: Thou, O LORD, who madst the Light without a Sun, and than madest the Sun to be the chariot of that Light! O bee thou our Sun, that all our Light may bee gathered unto thee, be thy presence our Light, that we may shine like the Sun in beauty; whilst thou art our Light, we can never want beauty, whilst thou art our Sun, we can never want Light: for thou art Light. And thus much of the second property betwixt GOD and Light, the delightsome­nesse [Page 17] and comfort of them both.

The third property in which GOD and Light agree is their unblemisht purity and fairenesse.

Light is a quality most cleare, most pure, most unblemisht, that especially, whose emanation being from a body most simple and free from mixture, the Philosophers entitle celestiall: hence perhaps it is, that [...] affies somewhat with [...], which Macrobius in the first of his Saturnals, taketh for the Sun, the Prince of the Planets of Heaven, the fountaine and alone mine of Light.

GOD is in this respect Light: that perfection of purity which shines in Him, no clouds of error, no mists of impieties can obscure or shadow: a lustre of holinesse shewes it selfe in the glorious Dietie, such whereto the fairest beauty of Angels is a ball of darknesse: So those glorious Hierar­chies themselves in their mutuall cry; Holy, Holy, Esa. 6. 1. Holy, is the LORD of Hoasts: the holinesse of Saints, though a faire body of brightnesse, is but a beame of this, and influenced from it: GOD onely is by nature pure, in the abstract purity, and His is the praise and glory of it in the sweet singer of Israel; Exalt the LORD our GOD, and wor­ship Psal. 99. 9. at His holy hill, for the LORD our GOD is holy: and therefore as He is Light here in my Text, so in Saint Iames He is the Father of Lights, James 1. 17. the rayes of which did He not dispence unto us wee were in darknesse, more palpable than those groping Aegyptians, more hellish than hell it selfe: what ever mid-night is below with man, there is all noone-day with GOD above, what ever dark­nesse is under His feet, there is all brightnesse [Page 18] before His face, and such as dampes all other: it is no Hyperbole in Iob, Behold the Moone and it shi­neth Job. 25. 6. not, yea the Starres are not pure in His sight: there is beauty in the Starres, more in the Sun, from whose Magazen of Light they borrow theirs: O how incomprehensibly glorious is that Light which is in thee O LORD! who couldst create Lights to give such glory to thy work-manship! these even the brute creatures may behold, those not the very Angels.

GOD is Holy, Three in one, all three but one GOD, and all holy in that Antheme of the foure beasts: Holy, Holy, Holy LORD GOD Almigh­ty, Revel. 4. 8. which was, and is, and is to come: whom these beasts embleme, whether the foure Evangelists, as Haymo, Ribera, and others, or foure Angels whoIn Locum. for their more noble emploiments are set [...] in regard of the rest, is a question may giddy, not better me. Saint Augustines glosse hath more of pith and juice in it: Vnum JEHOVAM celebrant, Aug de fide ad Pet cap. 1. repetendo unum & idem (Sanctus) trinum agnoscunt, ter repetendo, quod uni tribuerunt: they acknowledge one GOD, whom they esteeme onely holy, and a Trinity they acknowledge in that blessed Unity of the God-head, whilst they repeate thrice Holy, Holy, Holy: GOD the Father is Holy: with this inscription the Bethshemites could blazon Him: Who is able to stand before this Holy LORD GOD?1 Sam. 6. 20. GOD the Sonne is Holy, Gabriell as both His Priest and Herauld, at once christens Him and proclaimes it; that Holy thing which shall be borne Luke 1. 35. of thee, shall be called the Sonne of GOD: So is the HOLY GHOST, witnesse that royall title in [Page 19] Daniels vision, in which the Ancients interest Him, as by whom is the unction of holinesse the mostDan. 9. 24. Holy: Some things are holy by Creation as An­gels; blesse the LORD yee His holy Angels, that Psal. 103. 20. excell in strength: Some things by communica­tion, as the Elect, who are [...], as Saint1 Cor. 1. 2. Paul phraseth it, called to be Saints: Some things by dedication, as His Temple, O worship the LORD in the beauty of Holinesse: Somethings arePsal. 84. 7. holy for use, as the creatures, Moses branded with uncleannesse some of them, but Adam caus'd it, by his sinne filth was powred on all: CHRIST hath wip't out this legall impurity, and lodg'd un­der one roofe, whole hoofes and cloven: if the Jewes were than a holy people, the Gentiles areDeut. 14. 2. now a holy Nation: it is true of men, beasts, things, all creatures, through the foure corners of the earth, are cleane and holy, and this was taught1 Pet. 2. 9. us by Saint Peters great sheete, let downe by foure corners from Heaven, but made good by CHRIST, who pulling downe that Screene or wall of partition betweene them, hath taught us not to call any thing uncleane which GOD hath cleansed: when Iulian poysoned the wells, the shambles, the fields, with his heathenish lustrati­ons, the Christians (saies my Antiquary) drankeTheod. Hist. Eccles. lib. 3 freely of them, and by vertue of Saint Pauls Quic­quid in macello: [...], nothing uncleane is S. Peters rule, at least with Saint Pauls paraphrase, munda mundis, if my selfe be cleane, I reade this posie on what ever I use, Holy: if otherwise, my cloathes (saith Iob) shall make me filthy.Job 9. 31.

All things are in themselves in some degree [Page 20] Holy, GOD alone is holinesse it selfe: So those Heavenly Musitians chant it: Who shall not feare Revel. 15. 4. thee, O LORD, and glorifie thy Name, for thou onely art Holy: who would not set this Sampler before him, to worke by, who would not write after so faire a coppy? thus to doe we are prest by a Summons from above; be yee Holy, for I am Holy: Levit. 11. 44. I say not, Absoluta aequalitate, but similitudine: GODS perfection is above the Heavens, we can­notJob 11. 7. reach it, imitate it we must, though the best fall short of the patterne, 'tis here as in the starres; those of lesser magnitude have light in them, the greatest shine brighter, yet these are dimme to the Sun: the holinesse of Saints is beneath that of An­gels, the holinesse of Angels not at the same height with that of CHRISTS glorified humanity, and this infinitely below the loftiest pitch of holi­nesse, which is GOD: Strive we must to be holy as GOD is, not that we can equall our example, but to arrive at what perfection we may, and wee are capable of: Strive we doe, some for health, more for riches, and not a few here for gay cloathes: but holinesse, the salve of sinnes, the wealth of Saints, the robe of Angels, who strives for this salve, more soveraigne than all the oint­ments of the Apothecary, this wealth more preti­ous than the rocks of most pure Diamond, this robe more glorious, than all the wardrope of Salo­mon: the Hypocrite much cackles of purity, when all is shell and rottennesse; one who worships GOD in publique, and at home cares not for him, who praies often, and his heart knowes not, whether his lips goe, who will have all good about him, and [Page 21] be himselfe the worst thing he hath: the meere Moralist breakes gloriously, and at his first rise out­shines the morning light, but a storme cloudes him at noone, or like Hezekias Sun, he goes backe ma­nyTheod. Hist. lib. 3. cap. 2, 3. degrees in the dial, or like Iulian, full of hope and piety in his first yeares, a Nero in his end, all massacre and villany; or as the foure Ages in the Poet, the first gold, as the head of that image inHesiod. opera & dies. lib. 1. Daniel, the last, as the feete, clay or worse, [...]: the true Saint, is Antipode and treads crosse to them both, he is for the life, not paint of holi­nesse, nor till the game is his, gives he ore the chase, he mistakes not the goale, nor till he wins it, lags of, with Paul [...], he doth pressePhil. 3. 14. hard towards the marke, and saies, cloath me with righteousnesse, O LORD, I prize it above cloa­things of wrought gold, and those garments that smell of myrrhe and richest powders of the Mer­chant: one mite of grace is worth a talent of bravery, the sackcloth of a Saint more glorious than the purples of a glutton: raiments of needle­worke and pretious imagery are for Kings Palaces on earth, without the white stoles of godlinesse wee shall never looke into those courts, where dwells the King of glory: Blessed are the pure in Math. 5. 8. heart, for they shall see GOD; nor those, who are pure in their owne eyes, who about the froth of their owne braines, dare rent the peace of the Church, and warre for the aerie projections of their giddied heads, as if Heaven and Earth were little enough to be mingled in the quarrell; the holinesse, without which we shall not see GOD, is that of the heart, not the lip; write, O LORD, [Page 22] upon these flintie hearts of ours, holinesse unto thy selfe, give us but a drop from thy Ocean, for thou art all holy, one glimpse from thy Sun, for thou art all Light.

GOD is all beauty, as the Spouse in the Can­ticles,Cant. 1. 16. My beloved, behold thou art faire and pleasant: O how should the love of Him enflame us! how ravish us out of our selves! Amiablenesse is the ob­ject of love, and what things are faire are gratious, and sweetly win our soules to desire them: 'tis beauty in all things doth allure or rather entrance us: whitenesse in the Lillie, red in the Rose, pur­ple in the Violet, the purity of the marble, the sparkling of the pearle, the silver scales of fishes, the matchlesse colour of birds, the congruous sym­metrie of parts in beasts: here we gaze our selves into wonder, and cry out as in a trance, O the wonderfull works of GOD, that such glory should dwell with corruption! O thinke than what coele­stiall excellencies are in those courts above, where is no need of the cleare light of the Moone, or theRevel. 21. 23. bright beames of the Sun, to enlighten them, what inexpressible glory is in GOD Himselfe, whose glory is the Light of those heavenly Tabernacles! if beauty, which, though it be [...] in [...]. Theocritus, yet [...] is his verdict of it, if it bee naturae gaudentis opus, a priviledge of nature, or her wit put into the frontispeece, as Plato; if a dumbe comment or still Rhetorique, that perswades with­out speech, as in Theophrastus, if an acurate Epistle written in the court hand of Heaven, for the praise of the creature as Lucian, if the onely load-stoneDial. Amor. or compasse to attract, and draw love unto it? How [Page 23] should our hearts cleave unto thee O LORD! How our soules be enamourd of thee!

If you will have a perfection drawne out to the life, you have it in Cant. 5. 10. My beloved is white and ruddy, the standard-bearer of ten thousand: nature did never frame such a feature, nor did ever such mixtures kisse in any other cheeke, no art can counterfeit such colours of holinesse, no pensill reach to expresse a contexture of such delicacy; the very report of it wounds to the heart all for­reigne Assemblies, they aske, and with darted bo­somes: O thou fairest among women whether is thy Cant. 5. 17. well-beloved gone, whether is thy well-beloved turn'd aside, that we may seeke Him with thee? Since thy Bride-groome (O thou worthy Spouse of such a Husband) is so divine a frame of beauty, may wee joyne with thee in the quest of Him, a holy fire Cant. 8. 6. burnes in our breast, much water cannot quench it.

We have all of us doted too long on the sur­phuld face of this world, too much priz'd the ar­tificiall complexion'd pleasures of it: nor will we yet know that our structures of Cedar and Vermi­lion, our garments of tissues and embroyderies, our tables of junkets and delicacies, our couches of ease and Ivory, our coffers throng'd with gold, all our pompe here, is but paint and garishnesse, the world it selfe but a decaid peece of deformity: O that Troy should flame for such a wrinkled Hellen, or mans soule for such a gaudy nothing be endan­ger'd to eternall fire! Open thou our eyes, O LORD, that we may see those glorious shinings, which come from thy divine selfe: So beauteous an Aspect will bee Spell enough, to chaine our [Page 24] hearts unto thee: Constantius, when hee came in triumph to Rome, than the myrrour and mistresse of the world, and beheld there, the Rostra, the Capitoll, the Baths, the Amphitheatrum, the Pantheon, the Theator of Pompey, the market­placeAmmianus Marcellinus. lib. 16. of Trajan, and other her workes like Babell, so high, ut eo vix aspicere humanus oculus possit, that the eye of man could scarce climbe up unto them; it did not a little amaze him, that nature should empty all her riches, and even impoverish her selfe on one citie: the Kings of the earth, when they were gathered together to the city of GOD, the mountaine of His holinesse, and joy of the whole earth: they saw it, saith the Psalmist, and so theyPsal. 48. 5. marveiled, they were troubled and hasted away: if earthly objects can so enchant us to feare and wonder, how should heavenly ones enamour us to love and rapture! GOD especially, the least gleame of whose infinite purity, excells as farre all light and holinesse of the creatures, as Light it selfe doth the pitchiest darknesse: for GOD is Light, and in the close of this verse, in Him there is no darknesse at all. And thus much of the third pro­perty twixt GOD and Light, the fairenesse and beauty of both.

Light is an enemy unto darkenesse, at the ap­proach4. of it darknesse flies, they cannot bee wrought to an agreement, they never meete with­out a fight and opposition: to dehort us from the workes of darkenesse, because they are perpetra­ted against the Father of Lights, is the But and White, our Apostle here levels at: your garbe and profession calls you the children of the day, [Page 25] those characters, which are writ on your face, speake you the Sonnes and Daughters of Light; why than are those opera tenebrarum of your re­tinue, why not casheerd? if you are of GODS family, sinne must not be of yours: for sinne is darknesse, GOD is Light:

GOD than is in this respect Light: Sinne hath in it an Aegyptian fogg, GOD hates it, nature was never capable of the like Antipathy: the workes of sinne, are the workes of darknesse, for the parent of them is the Prince of darknesse, whose Ephes. 6. 12. Coloss. 1. 13. 1 Thess. 5. 5. kingdome is a kingdome of darknesse, whose walkes are the walkes of darknesse, and the Actors of them, are the children of darknesse, who sit in darknesse andEsa. 9. 2. in a deadly shade: Now GOD is Light and dark­nesse thwarts with His nature, and therefore be­twixt them there must needs be a warre and fewd more than mortall: we need no Herauld to trum­pet it, 'tis done, Psal. 5. 4. Thou art not a GOD that Psal. 5. 4. hast pleasure in wickednesse, neither shall evill dwell with thee: Who ever dranke of the cup of the LORD, and the cup of divels? Can the Arke and Dagon be hous'd under one roofe, as if an insensible statue were a fit mate for a living GOD? Can the same heart be a Sacrary for the Holy and un-holy ghost? Or will CHRIST have His Chappell where Beliall hath his Synagogue? The purity of GOD and mans sinne are at a more remote distance, nor can they more meete, than paralell lines in the Mathematicks, no more than the two poles may kisse, or a Cammell be streind through the eye of a needle and not split it: 'tis a question without an aenigma, nor need wee an [Page 26] Oedipus to unriddle it; Shall the throne of iniquity Psal. 94. 20. have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischiefe as a law? It never shall, the Sun shall before drop from Heaven and shine to the land of darknesse, that Starre-eyde Canopy ore our heads shall first become dull earth; Heaven and Earth shall be soo­ner mingled as in that first Chaos: the word is spoken, nor is there any witch-craft to conjure it backe: The face of the LORD is against them that Psal. 5. 6. doe evill, to cut off their remembrance from the earth: Cornelius Agrippa hath drawne us a large Catalogue of strange effects in nature, of Antipa­thies and blinde discords betwixt stones, plants, beasts; whose proper and radicall cause being un­knowne,Lib. 1. de occul­ta Philos. cap. 18. the Academiks did ascribe their vertues to Platonike Idaeaes, Avicen to the rule and presi­dency of Angels, Hermes to the influence and aspect of planets; some to the joynt worke and concurrence of all causes: there are betweene GOD and the wicked, rents and wide breaches not to be made up; these He markes out for ven­geance, His Artillery is ever in readinesse, His arrow on the string and at their very boosomes: but why this opposition? What unluckey constel­lations have fore-sign'd them to it? we need not gaze upward, there is an evill starre within them, whose malevolent influence workes all: GOD is pure, pure beyond rocks of Marble, or coasts of Jasper, or the Orient and sparkeling majesty of Pearle, these are all vile, very Spirtles of unclean­nesse, dunghills of filth, vessels brim'd up with iniquity: GOD is all Light, no beauty of Angels, no myrrours of chrystall can match it: these are [Page 27] all darknesse, a very dungeon and loathsome den of evills: Now what communion hath light with 2 Cor 6. 14. darknesse? did this darkenesse ever usurpe the same eye, where that Light dwelt: contraries in their abstract are out of all composition; the lightsome aire may become darke, but make Light darknesse, no Limbick or extract can do it; as health cannot bee sicknesse▪ though an able body may languish into crazinesse: [...] ▪ noArist. lib. 1. Phys. cap. 9. league betwixt things in their owne nature oppo­site, nor doth their combat cease but in the not being of the one: fire and water, truth and false­hood, Light and darknesse, GOD and sinne, can never be made friends, not brought so much as to parlee or enterview: For thou art of purer Hab. 1. 13. eyes, O LORD, than to behold evill, neither canst thou looke on iniquity.

Here is that Pandoraes box, whence all evills doe flie; those arrowes which drinke up the blood, that sword, which eates up the flesh, that pestilence which cleaves to the bones: here is the stocke, on which grow all those miseries, which environ man, his sinnes, which worke him into the frowne of Heaven, the hatred of GOD, thou hatest all workers of iniquity: andPsal. 5. 6. whom▪ He hates, He will bruise them as with a scepter and rod of iron: [...] comes, justissimè Lips. de con­stant. lib. 2. cap. 16. para semper est: if sinne march in the front, pu­nishment will bee in the reare, who foster this in their breasts, Nemesis shakes her rod at their backes: Some or drinke disease to their bodies▪ or feast them into surfets, as the voluptnous; Some muffled in a non-imploiment, and lying [Page 28] still, rot their soules into stinch and noysome­nesse: as the idle; Some like vultures flie ore medowes, and fall on carrions, not touch what is found in others, and light on their sores, as the detractor; some will bee rifling the altar, and as the Eagle snatch a morsell thence though they fire their nests, as the Sacrilegious Avarice enflames some▪ others pleasures engulph, some lust disjoynts, others rancor envenoms, some are madded with rage, others blowne up with pride: the Tragedian as if his boosome had beene di­vinely influenc'd▪ could doome it of the last, and 'tis true, of all—Sequitur ulior a tergo Deus, ven­geanceSenec. Herc. Fur. Act. 5. dogs them at the heeles, GOD holds a a dagger at their hearts, and is ready to sheath it in their bowels: the least graine of evill is enough to poize downe the soule to the lowest hell: I am yet to learne what those veniall sinnes are, which we need not rinse of with our penitentDesen. Concil. Trident. lib. 3. teares in Andradius, nor for them fall downe at the footstoole of mercy, with a Forgive us our trespasses▪ as the Rhemists: Sure I am that Saint Basil once askt in earnest, [...],Ad Rom. cap. 7. v. 8. who dares say of a sinne it is little, when the least is able to plunge him into the bottome­lesse pit▪ Who would judge that leake small, which sinkes the vessell, or that a slight wound, which gives a suddaine i [...] to death? the raine that falls in small drops▪ makes the earth mirie, our drislingst slips, bedash and dirtie the soule, which spots, fire shall wash away, if penitence doe not.

As Saint Paul saies to the Corinths, would [Page 29] GOD yee could suffer me a little: many have sung Panegyricks hence, my tune is to waile out an Epicedium: This Iland of ours may be calledAugust. de Ci­vit. Dei Liber. 8. cap 23. the▪ Image of Heaven, (as Mereurius Trismegistus spake of Aegypt) This City, the Temple of the Iland: What complaints have beene in her streetes? One cries out of hunger, as Esua, ano­ther of treacherous friends with the Psalmist, a third, of that eues-dropping or tame fury, a bad wife, as Iob: One is pain'd in his belly with the Prophet, another in his head, with the Shunamites Sonne, a third in his bowels, with Israel: this manJer. 4. 19. mournes as a Dove, in the courts of his house, thatIsa. 28. 4. chatters as a Swallow on his house top, I will weepe bitterly, a third protests with Isaiah: and wishes a fourth with Ieremy, O that my head were Jer. 9. 1. waters, and my eyes a fountaine of teares! Not a few, put▪ up their moane with the Psalmist, O LORD thou feedest us with the bread of teares, Psal. 80. 5. and givest us teares to drinke in great measure: these have beene your City cries, yet not so loud as the cry of your sinnes, but I spare you here: the daies can tell you, when this populous and (whatCine as apud Plutar. in Pyrrho. the Epirot spake of Rome) this [...], hath beene so shaken into emptinesse, that scarce the gleaning grapes have beene left: O for a friend cals one here to close my eyes at the houre of death! Who shall lay me out for buriall saies another there, or carry my bones to the grave in peace: Now a David throbs out an Elegie, and saies, O my Sonne, my Sonne: anon the Orphan blubbers his cheekes, and sighs with Elisha, O my Father, my Father: Your whole2 King. 2. 20. [Page 30] City than was one Theator and woefull▪ Spectacle of sorrow, and the whole Countrey lookt ama­zedly on, whilst you acted your dying parts▪ GOD hath now drawne His bowe againe, and scattered some of His arrowes here and there as on your skirts, I hope, as Ionathan did direct his three flights to David, to warne you out of hisQuod autem crebriùs bella concutient, quod sterilitas & fames sollicitu­dinem cumulēt, quod saevienti­bus morbis va­letudo frangi­gitur. Cypr [...]d Demetr. tendernesse and love: but if in these Characters yee spell not GODS meaning, let Saint Cyprian reade, and heare how he lessons his Demetrius: Are you shaken with Warres, are you molested with Dearth and Famine, is your health crushed with raging diseases, is mankinde generally tor­mented with Epidemicall maladies? 'tis all for your sinnes, for which we roare like Beares in the Prophet: So Sion, when she sings a sadding ofIsa. 59. 11, 12. her misery, for that her crowne was falne from her head, shee makes this the burden of herLam. 5. 16. song, Woe unto us for wee have sinned: O than as you desire the wellfare of this your Hierusa­lem, let uncleannesse be purged out of her streetes, prophanenesse whipt out of her Temples, may not Drunkennesse reele here, or Sacriledge-rifleChrys. ad pop. Antioch. there: [...], in that hony-mouth'd Fa­ther, and the worst stealth is to rob GOD: both [...]. Hor. lib. 1. Epist. 2. are deeds of the night: Surgunt de nocte latrones, it is by night that theeves spoile and destroy, and they who are drunke are drunke in the night: bee1 Thess. 5. 7. sure, if yee crosse not with GOD, nor fall at odds with Him by your sinnes, He will be your Sun and shield; your shield to safe-guard, yourPsal. 84. 11. Sun to lighten you: Spread, O LORD, the Light of thy grace into our hearts, and blesse [Page 31] us with the Light of thy countenance, direct our steps in thy waies, which are the waies of Light, and so bring us to that Light, which shall not change as the Moone, nor be ecclipst as the Sun; nor set as the Starres▪ even thy glorious selfe, O LORD, for thou art Light. And so much of the fourth property betwixt GOD and Light, as both are enemies to darkenesse and sinne.

The fift property in which GOD and Light 5. agree, is the spreading vertue of both.

Light is a quality diffusive: the Sunne as 'tis a most perfect lampe and spring of Light, so most largely spreades his heate, and lends his operative influence, to quicken and cheere this Sublunary globe of ours: [...] the Sun, Eustathius will have so cal'd [...], from the heate, which is em­bosom'd in that bright and opacous bodie: andPsal. 19. 6. in the Psalmist, nothing is hid from the heate thereof.

GOD is in this respect Light: The day is His, Psal. 74. 16. and the night is His, He made the Light and the Sun: wherefore made Hee it, for the Heavens alone, or the godly alone? Neither, He makesMat. 5. 45. His Sun to rise upon the evill and good: the ri­ches of His goodnesse all things tast of, every creature is enricht from His maintenancy: none ever enterd the porch of life, but enjoyed the Light and heate of the visible Sun; none ever walkt on the pavement of the earth, but was lead by the hand of His invisible goodnesse: the Psal­mist sweetely warbles it: O give thankes unto the Psal. 106. 1. LORD for Hee is good, for His mercy endureth [Page 32] for ever; there is a goodnesse Subjectivò, which is tanquum lux in lucido, this is GODS, but wee see it not, 'tis coverd with a curtaine of sacred secrecy, and dwelle in Light as unaccessable as GOD Himselfe: there is goodnesse in the Ob­ject, which is tanquam lumen in Diaphano, this is GODS and we feele it: 'tis not confin'd to the Orbe of Israel onely, nor coopt up within the pale of Iury, no tenure entayld to the fleshly heires of Abraham: GOD powres out of His treasures upon all, even reprobates have a pension out of His Exchequer: the whole earth is full of the Psal. 119. 64. goodnesse of the LORD: GODS goodnesse alike extends her sphere with His Soveraignty, for as the eyes of all things waite upon Him in the front, soPsal. 145. 15. in the heele of the verse, He filleth all things with plenteousnesse.

There is a goodnesse proper to the Elect, the Apostle stiles it, the riches of His goodnesse, Rom. 2. and elsewhere the riches of His grace, Ephes. 2. this is that blessing which maketh rich, and fills, not our garners with store, but our hearts with gladnesse: GOD at His owne cost maintaines the whole world, and showres downe the happy influ­encesMat. 5. 45. of Heaven upon the unjust mans ground, but there are riches of mercy which He stores up for the faithfull only, nor shall hogs slaver thoseRom. 9. pearles: GOD keepes all Cities, if He doth notPsal. 126. 1. the Watchman wakes in vaine, but He loves Hieru­salem, and the gates of Sion above all the dwel­lings of Iacob; Moab His wash-pot tasts the sweet­nesse of His bounty, and shall Iudah the signet on His finger lack? Ioseph feasts all his Brethren, but [Page 33] Benjamins messe shall five times bee doubled toGen. 43. 34. theirs: Not a Subject in his Dominions but owes much to the goodnesse of his Prince, but they partake of his more royall favours, who waite in his court, and eate at his table: the pottage may be Esaus, the Birth-right is Iacobs, even the wicked have their annuities, but the inheritance is to the righteous: why than will you aske, is the sea of the wicked so calme, of the good so stormy? why are the eyes of these dimme, when the other swell out with fatnesse; hereunto I reply thus.

First, Those who forrage in the wildes of vice, may brave it a while, as the onely favou­rites and darlings of the age, they may swimme in a streame of gold, and tumble in Arabian Spi­ces: David when hee sees this, how they start in­to honour, it sadneth and staggers his encumbred minde, and doth force him to flie to a stop, with a Fret not thy selfe O my soule: all goes well hi­therto,Psal. 37. 7. but thinke these minions of the world, how despaire vultures their hearts, whilst plea­sures merry their fenses, they are in the depth of sorrow, even in their height of delight: what ever masques and triumphs the godlesse state it in; there is a worme gnawes perpetually, what ever harmony or light be without, there is all dis­cord and darkenesse within: the raies of a Sun­shine may guild ore his countenance, rip him up,Tacit. Annal. lib. 6. pag. 185 and as Tacitus speakes of tyrants, there is all gnaw­ings and stripes▪ or if their conscience sleepes, whilst they dance in the circle and round of sinne, how oft in the Meridian of their jollities doe they [Page 34] set in wretchednesse, how soone are their warbe­ling Aires turn'd into the mournings of Dragons: they may frolike it for a Sceane or two, what will the last exit be, what the Catastrophe? their doome is seal'd, no jugling or imposture of flesh and blood can corrupt it: when the wicked spring as grasse, and all the workers of iniquity doePsal. 92. 7. flourish; it is that they shall bee destroyed for ever.

Secondly, The true Saint may be in a low ebb of sorrow, as a tree in winter without branch or leaves, or fire buried under the embers without heate: but againe he is in a flow of comfort, his withered branches spread, his fainting fire is blowne up into a bright flame, and still he jubi­lates unto GOD with, It is good for me that I was Psal. 119. 71. afflicted: there is honey to be suckt out of this thistle, and unction of joy which supples and makes easie this crosse: if GOD diets and phy­sicks his, 'tis for their health: if drosse be in His gold Hee will fine it, if chaffe in His floore Hee will cleanse it: He will launce and tent to the quick a fore festring in the bodie of His Church▪ Our Heavenly Physician, where the grosse hu­mours of evill begin to corrupt in his, Hee will purge them out though with the bitterst pils and potions, and as it is an earnest of His love to us, when our cure is perfected by gentler unguents, so a pawne of His displeasure at our maladie, if he use cauteries and and fearings: the sicknesse of Israel how oft was it healed by these tart in­gredients; affliction wrought their recovery, when neither miracles from Heaven not prodegies on [Page 35] earth could doe it: See the Psalmist, When Hee Psal. 78. 34. slew them then they sought Him and enquired after GOD early: whether wee reflect then on the ungodly or godly man, we may discover without a perspective, GODS goodnesse to both, as well the sonnes of darkenesse as of light; here His speciall goodnesse, which to them makes salves of sores, of the flesh of vjpers soveraigne Methridate; which for them extracts Light out of darknesse, and confects of poysonous ingredients the wholsomst Antidots, as a skilfull Apothecary workes out of hurtfull simples a medicinall com­position; and therefore in all estates, still the Saints carroll it to His praise, quam bonus DEVS Israeli, Sure GOD is good to Israel: there HisPsal. 73. 1. generall goodnesse, whence it is, that they flou­rish as a palme, that they sit under the shade of their owne vines, that their breasts are full of milke, their bones of marrow, their bellies of His hid treasures; that waters of a full cup are wrung out to them, that their waies are pav'd with pleasures, and the paths honey where they set their feet: May thy Sun, O LORD, shine on our Tabernacles here, nor scant us the bles­sings of thy left hand, a portion of them compe­tent for us, or if our Light must be enterchaing'd with darknesse, if our daies, some may be faire, others will be cloudie, so long as we live in this vale of teares, this true Bochim, as the IsraelitesJudg 2. 5. called their mourning place: O yet may the Light of thy grace arise in our soules, and as the Sun dispels the early mists, may it scatter those fogs of sinne and errour, which naturally wee [Page 36] grope in: As that shining Light, which shineth Pro. 4. 18. more and more unto the perfect day, so may this spirituall Light in us spread still, till from the morning dawne it climbe up to its zenith, and bee swallowed of a more glorious Light, the Light of glory, and wee in those Mansions of Light dwell together with thee, who art the true Light, for thou art Light. And thus much of the fift way of agreement betwixt GOD and Light, the diffusive and spreading vertue of them both.

The last property in which GOD and Light 6. agree, is the Omnipresency of either.

Light hath in it a kinde of ubiquity, it fills all places: I except onely that land of darkenesse, where vengeanee boyles in a torrent of fire, but as blacke as hot, where the damned shall meete flame enough to scorch and frie▪ no Light to refresh or solace them: Hell is a fiery dungeon, no seas of waters can quench the least sparke of it, it is a burning Tophet, where fury reakes in a river of brimstone; who shall bee cast into this furnace (Nebuchadnezzars was an Elizium to it) shall see nothing which may allay the rage, or sweeten the tartnesse of their paines, they shall see all things, that can embitter their suf­ferings and make them matchlesse: GOD ap­peared to Moses out of the midst of a bush,Gen. 3. 2. the bush burnt and consumed not: there was a fire without heate: the wicked shall be turned in­toMat. 8. 12. hell, where they shall bee lodg'd in beds of fire, but wrapt up in utter darkenesse too, here is fire without light, here torture and blacknesse [Page 37] kisse in this vale of Hinnon; all other places are cheerd and blest with the presence of the Light: lux simplissima est, & omnia occupat, Light shines every where.

GOD is in this respect Light; Immense is a peculiar Attribute, wherewith He is clothed, Hee comprehends all places, none include Him: wee doe acknowledge Him with Augustine, sine situ S. Aug, Medi­tat▪ Liber 12. ubique praesentem, sine loco ubique totum, sine exten­sione omnia implentem: without site every where present, every where whole without place, and without extension of parts filling all things: all bodies have their proper place, and there we say they are circumscriptively, nor would Aristotle Phys. lib. 2. cap▪ 6. Text 45. exempt the highest Heaven, could wee finde out a bodie or superficies to encircle it: how excellent are the Angels, who behold the face of GOD in glory, how dignified by CHRIST himselfe, who though He tooke not their nature, yet weares their name, the Angell of the Covenant: howMal 3. 1. ever they are limited in their natures, they are of finite vertue, nor is Gabriell than with the Hierar­chyLumb. Sentent lib. 1. dist. 37. a. 13. in Heaven, when he stoopes to the Mother of GOD with an Ave on earth, Haile Mary; these are in their places definitively: it is GODS pre­rogative royall, of which to rifle Him it were a meere treason and robbery to be in all places re­pletively; it weares indeed the image and stampe of Apocrypha, yet search it to the quick and ker­nell, and a mysterious weight is shrind in it, the Spi­rit Wisdome 1. 7. of the LORD filleth the world.

How filleth? vertually alone? as the Sunne though fixt in his owne Orbe, yet enlightens all [Page 38] things with his beames, doth cherish them with his heate, enliven them with his influence? or as a King, who sits on his throne, and stretches out the rod of his power over all his Dominions, rules all the people of his Realmes with the Scepter of his Authority? if we coast here, we devest GOD of His power, and bring Him downe to His crea­tures, nay under them, for the very Aire is every where, nature not being patient of a vacuity; if I digg downe to the center of the earth it is at the point of my spade, if I shoote up as high as Hea­ven, it is at the top of my Arrow: how than fil­leth? what per partes as the Aire, whose parts though Homogeneall, take yet up all places se­verally,Arist. lib. 2. de generat. cap. 3. where no bodily substance is? or as CHRIST (the ubiquitary may storme at this truth, he shall stifle it) is, if we reflect on His Dei­tie, every where, if on His Man-hood, in those courts of blisse above, which shall hold Him, till at the last day Hee shall breake the cloudes, and come with flames of fire to judge all flesh: is GOD so? Can the Heavens or the Heaven of Heavens 1 King 8. containe Him? No, adest ubi (que) & ubique totus est, non per partes usquam est, sed in omnibus omnis est: it is Saint Hilaries descant on that streine of the sweete singer of Israel; Thou art neere O LORD, Psal. 119. 123 and all thy Commandements are true: How than fil­leth? so as that He is mixt with things sublunary? which was the foule Blasphemy of the Manichees,Zanch. de natu­ra Dei lib. 2. cap. 6 qu. 3. or as their substantiall forme makes one compound with them? which was the stale and engine to all heathenish Idolatry, if wee beleeve Averroes aLib. 12. Me­taph. Arist. comment. Patriarke of their owne: No GOD is above all [Page 39] things, saies the Apostle, Rom. 6. and in Isaiahs Isa. 6. 1. vision, He is high and lifted up: and how ever the Poet fills his cheekes with a Iovis omnia plena, or we heare it from a tongue divinely toucht and with a true Cherubim, In Him we live, and moove, and Act. 17. 27. have our being: yet it is so, not that GOD is part of our substance, but Author of it: being the onely source and fountaine of our life, motion, being: the Platonists, who stil'd GOD the soule of the world, did fancy yet and coine a god to themselves, who was supreme to this, and him they bedect and crown'd with this rich Epithite,Zanch. de natu­ra Dei lib. [...]. cap. 2. qu. 2. the parent of the worlds soule, a [...] alwaies existent in himselfe, simple, omnipresent: How is GOD Omnipresent? Soft Critick thou art running on shelves which will shipwrack and split thee: that GOD is every where I beleeve it, and my faith shall Anchor here, how He is so, whatIust in. Histor. lib. 11. Alexander hath a sword to cut a sunder this Gor­dian knot? what Library▪ of the world a key to unlock this mistery? for quomodo ubiquè sit, intel­lectu Sentent. lib. 1. dist. 37 a 6. non capimus, so Lumbard out of the golden­mouth'd Homilist doth schoole us, and bids hush such malapart enquiries as may entitle us to inso­lence, not improove our knowledge.

When we speake of GOD, we are to beleeve an ubiquity, though what this ubiquity is, is a bot­tome, we cannot unravell: Heaven is His throne, Isa. 66. 1. and the earth His footstoole in Isaiah, in Ieremy Hee Jer. 23. 23. fills Heaven and Earth, omnia implet sine inclusione, I am taught by Saint Augustine here, and I amMedit. cap. 29. told by Saint Hilarie there, that a miracle is spher'd in it, Deum ubiquè esse, & nusquam abesse, [Page 40] in omnibus esse, & totum esse; that GOD is pre­sentIn Psal. 138. Exponens illa verba, Mira­bilis facta est scientia tua ex me. every where, and in His whole Essence so: to sift this Sacrament, were to bee quaintly mad, but what puzzles my reason, my faith shall not startle at: I beleeve though I boult my dores, I locke not GOD in, though I close my casements, I shut not GOD out: If I take a fee, to blinde my eyes, He sees it, for He is in my closet, He is my cloister when I make it a stewes, and under a religious coole live as in a brothell-house: when I unhallow it by irreverence, as if I came to a Mart, to bargaine with, not an Oratory to beseech Him, GOD is in His Temple; His residence is especi­ally here, though His presence be every where, indeed tangit omnia, but non aequaliter tangit omnia, Greg. in com­ment. in Ezek. Tom. 2. Hom. 8. GOD fills all places with His presence, His Church with His gratious presence, no place ex­cludes Him, this is sure of Him, it is His High­nesse Court of Requests, where our petitions are best put up, it is that ladder of Iacob, where the Angels ascend with our suites, and descend againe besprinkling us with graces, it is that Navy Roy­all which transports our holy Merchandize to Heaven, it was the cheate, with which Ieroboam guld the Israelites in Iosephus; my good people and friends, you cannot but know that no place isAntiq. lib▪ 8. cap. 3. without GOD, and that no place doth containe GOD; wheresoever we pray He can heare us, wheresoever we worship, He can see us, therefore the Temple is superfluous, a journey needlesse to Hierusalem, GOD is better able to come to you, than you are to goe to Him: GODS Essence, 'tisLumb. Sent. lib. 1 d. 37. a. 14. true, is diffusive through Heaven and Earth, as my [Page 41] soule through every fraction of my body, yet as this hath its chiefe seate in my heart, so the beauty of the LORD is peculiar to His owne house: One thing have J desired of the LORD, and that will I seeke after, that I may dwell in the house Psal. 27. 7. of the LORD all the daies of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD: no place lifts up pure hands, no one darts up faithfull prayers in vaine, for they pierce the cloudes, and enter the eares of GOD, wheresoever they are made, yet His eares are more open to one miserere from the Priests mouth, than the whole service from the peoples, to one Collect of the Church, than whole piles of chamber de­votions; for there His honour dwelleth, that is the place of His rest, and the LORD that made Psal 134. 2. Heaven and Earth, doth blesse out of Sion: I shall therefore be prostrate and uncovered (spight of the sawcinesse of too many) in this place princi­pally, though in no place I can be without my GOD, whom I cannot winde into a Meander, nor entangle in a Labyrinth, nor hide from Him in a thicket, nor loose Him in a cloud: Whither shall I goe from thy Spirit, or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up to Heaven thou art there, if I make my bed in hell thou art there also, if I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the Sea, even there shall thy hand lead me Psal. 139. 7. and thy right hand shall hold me: How than, if GOD be in all things, escapes hee pollution? thinke we on the Aire, how it is in our lightlesse chambers, nor though we draw our curtaines, can we keepe it out of our beds, nor out of our hearts when we breath, which would soone be stifled [Page 42] in us, were it not for the coole fannings of the Aire: we say vulgarly it infects, but those vapours onely doe so, which breath'd from putrid things, are car­ried by the stirring winde and flie about in it: the Aire clarifies of it selfe, and mixeth not with that drosse and fogs, it doth purge out: much lesse can things below mingle themselves with GODS purity, though He be in them, nor His unblemisht Essence be tainted by their touch: the glasse wee know presents deformities, not deform'd it selfe, the Sun we see not being defil'd therewith, darts his beames of light, on carrion and mud; no more can our impurities bespatter GOD, though He be as Essentially in that place where they are don, as we who Act them, for He is not farre [...],Act. 17. 27. from every one of us: may this imprint on our soules, a double instruction.

To meditate thus, where ever we are, GOD is there, in our houses, our beds, our hearts, that ere our sins are quickned to the birth, or our thoughts have given them conception, He hath a RegisterPsal. 139. 16. of them, in whose booke are all our members written, when as yet there are none: how should it be abridle in our jawes, when we rush into sinne, as the horse into battaile, and in paths strewed with pleasures, run like Dromedaries: No man can roofe or vault himselfe from GOD, the Aegyptians Hieroglyphick of Him was an eye, seven eyes He hath in the Prophet, which run to and fro thorough the earth▪ divinely Hesiod, [...] theZach. 4. 10. eye of GOD beholds all things, every worke of our hands, every step of our feete, every word of our lips, every motion of our soules: Thy eyes, O [Page 43] LORD, are upon all the waies of the Sonnes of men: Jer. 32. 19. how then can he be eluded? He that planted the eare, shall not He heare, He that formed the eye shall He not see, shall not he know that teacheth man knowledge? What wee doe in the darkest cels are to GODPsal. 94. 10. as done on the tops of Mountaines; So was Ge­hazies secret bribery, the close plots of Achitophell, Pilats washing himselfe into hypocrisie, the lustfull rape of the Elders, when they tempted that Em­blem of chastity with, the gates of the Orchard are shut and no body sees us:

Tam facile & pronum est superos contemnere testesIuven. Satyr. 13. Si mortalis idemnemo sciat:

We draw a vale of secrecy ore our foule deedes, and say, the cloudes and darkenesse shall be a co­vering for them: but what cloudes of day, what darknesse of night can shadow us from Him, to whom the Light and darknesse are both alike, whom no thicknesse of wals, no closenesse of win­dowes, nor bars of iron can shut out from us: J ad­mire Thales, who askt whether a man dooing ill,Diog. Laert. de vita Philos. lib 1. might be obscur'd from the eye of GOD, he re­plies, ne cogitans quidem, his very thoughts are un­bosom'd before Him: into what ever actions wee embarke our selves, take we with us the advise of that prince and Patriarke of Philosophers, So doeSenec. Epist. 25 ad Lucil. all things as if a Cato, a Scipio, or Laelius did looke on: GOD overveiwes all our enterprises, let us shame to act that before Him, we would blush should be whisperd to men: GOD sees all, when lust is lodg'd in the eyes, when violence doth bruize in the hands, when blasphemy croakes in the tongue, when drunkennesse reeles in the streets: [Page 44] if the treasures of wickednesse be in your houses, if fraud and coozenage in your contracts, if in your shops false ballances and bags full of deceit: think not with those Atheists in the Psalmist, that GOD hideth His face, that He will never see it: wouldPsal. 10. 11. we but consult the sacred raptures of the Sybels, this they give out of Him, [...]: not the dens of the earth, not the holes of the rocks, not the depth of Seas, or bottome of hils, but GOD is there, who is every whit every where,—quocunque vides, quocunque moveris.

Secondly, Is GOD every where, what other witnesse need we of our best Actions? as Socra­tes said of Plato, Plato instar omnium, no croudes or throngs of Auditors to one Plato, no such Record or Chronicle of our good deeds, as GODS in­spection of them: when I fast, though I strive [...], GOD sees me, thoughChrys. in Mat. cap. 6. Hom K. no sowernesse diffigures my looke; when I pray and doe so, [...],Chrys. [...]. GOD heares us, though no thunder or noise be in our tongve: when I do my almes, though I blow no trumpet nor cackle streight, so soone as my egg is laid, yet I have those who see me, [...], not An­gelsHierogl lib. 33. onely, or Archangels, but GOD, the parent of the universe, who being mundi oculus, saith Pie­rius, hath His eyes upon us, where ever we are: And sure not a teare drops from our eyes in peni­tence, but GOD is ready with His bottles to take it up; not a word falls from our lips in praise, but it is Musicke in His eares, not an Almes is scat­tered abroad by our hands, but is a sweet incense [Page 45] in His nostrils▪ the bread you cast upon the waters, is truly trajectitia pecunia, monie, for which you take a bill of exchange from GOD, and it meetes you in a farre countrey; no robbers by land▪ no pyracies of Sea, no unfaithfullnesse of Factors, no violence of tempests, shall take it from you; disper­sit, dedit pauperibus (saith the Psalmist) he hath gi­ven Psal. 112. 9. to the poore, and his righteousnesse remaines for ever: in one day he disperst his riches, and wee see his memory extends to all ages: the Jewes tell us that the Corban which was in the Temple ofEccles. 7. 1. Hierusalem, had this proverbe written about it, the guift given in secret pacifieth wrath; and that chari­ty, which like oyle makes no noyse in falling, doth swimme above when it is fallen; our wealth, which may seeme lost, is indeed put into a Banke, whence we shal have it with interest, that, and Hea­ven to boote; I must speake it here to the glory of GOD, who gives us to give, to the honour of the Gospell, that we preach not Solifidianisme, nor can envie it selfe cavill at what I say: This Citie be­cause of her successive prosperity in Ammianus Marcellinus weares the royall name of Augusta; Shee may as well for her works of Charity, which she may vie with any in the world, and without boast: Shee hath her [...], Hospitals for the poore, whom shee feedes with her morsells, warmes with her fleeces: Shee hath her [...], Schooles of education for friendlesse infants, whose bowels as she doth refresh, so adorne and enrich their mindes; May Shee be ever a City of praise, the Seate of Kings, and Mart of the world: May her Merchants be as Princes, and You the [Page 42] [...] [Page] [Page 40] [...] [Page 41] [...] [Page 42] [...] [Page 43] [...] [Page 44] [...] [Page 45] [...] [Page 46] Worthy Governours of her most famous Nursery,Christ Hospi­tall, founded by King Ed­ward the 6. Yours be the dewes of Heaven, and fatnesse of the earth, and plenty of corne and oyle: Opera chari­tatis, are opera lucis, Let your Light so shine before Mat. 5. 16. men that they may see your good workes: that is, [...]: Yours hath beeneChrysost. in lo­cum. such, GOD, who is Light, give you the Light of Joy in your dwellings, the Light of Peace in your consciences, And in your soules and bodies, when darknesse shall be banisht for ever, the Light of Glory, Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria.