Application.

This serves to shew that the Saints case is never desperate, God is their Pleader. If the Emperour said to the Marriner, being ready to be shipwracked, Sueton. Thou canst not be drowned, for thou carriest Caesar; then thon canst not be cast, for God will appear at the Bar for thee. What can all the Polititians and Craftmasters of the World do against thee, if the Onely wise God will but lend thee an argument? or probleme for thee? Is there any speaking after God? can any Sophistry prevail, or Paradoxes take place if he come to sift propositions? No, he will strike all mute with one question; there is no answer to his should not? How forcible are right words? Job 6.25. Where is the Wise? where is the Scribe? where is the Disputer? Hee scattereth the devices of the crafty, Job 5.12. The spark of their fire shall not shine. Job 18.15. Clisthenes the Athenian was ba­nished by his own Ostracisin which he devised. Zoroastes the Astrologer was burnt with the sparkes of fire which came from his own counterfeited stars; Coelius Rhod. lib. 25. c. 43. Anton. tom. 1. tit. 2. c. 1. Wicked men perish by their own inventions. How many men lye buried in the ashes of their own mischievous contrivements? God is a sore dis­putant, he doth bring killing arguments. Haman was crafty, but at last he doth hang upon the Gibbet, which he provided for Mordecai; the Babylonians were subtle, but in conclusion, they are torn in pieces with the Lions which they had dieted for Daniel. Did you ever see the ungodly Victors? or Superiors in dispute? No, as Tully said of Coelius, that he had a good right hand, but a bad left hand; so these are dexterous onely in traducing, but sinister in defending what they have ob­jected: One reply drives them out of their art, one question puts them by all intricacies. Though an Accuser be a Challen­ger, Accusator quasi adcausator. Isiod yet this Challenger seldom doth come off with Triumph: No, he is beaten with his own weapons, the charge that he hath given in against another doth recoyl upon himself. For as Cato Major was forty and six times convented, and as of­ten cleared; So the righteous are as often acquitted, as accused.

Ye righteous Saints, though ye be born to the contention of the People, and contradiction of tongues, though ye be taken up in the lips of talkers, Ezech. 36.3. and your names be cast out as evill. Luke 6.22. though the contempt of Families terrifie you. Job 31.34. and ye be a Proverb, and by-word amongst all peo­ple. 2 Kings 19.22. though they shoot out the lip, and shake the head at you. Ps. 22.7. Yea, make a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue. Ps. 57.4. both at their sitting down, and rising up, ye being their musick. Lam. 3.63. ye being set forth as gazing stocks by [Page 11]afflictions, and reproaches. Heb. 10.33. even made a spectacle to the World, Angels, and Men, 1 Cor. 4.7. being accounted a people, which have lost their graces, and lost their wits; yet what matter for all these bitter calumnies, so long as ye have Gods confutation; No, let them detract, denigrate, so long as God doth plead. And as all injured, and infamed Christians may such sweetly at these brests of consolation, so especially they of mine own tribe, and tribulation; how is the Ministery the scoffe, and the Clergy the taunt of the Age? He is a man of no courage, and zeal, (as the times think) which hath not belched with the mouth against us, and left his spittle upon our faces. The Prophet (say they) is a fool, the spirituall man is mad, being fit neither to stand up in the gapps, nor to stand above ground; not to break bread, nor eat bread; not to be eyes to the people, nor to enjoy the eyes in his head; not to hold the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven in his hands, nor to have a key to unlock a dore for himself; not to be a brest to the hungry children, nor to have a brest to nourse up himselfe. No, away with these carnall Teachers which have some art in their brains, but no integrity in their hearts, which can make a noise with their humane learning, but they have not the gift of application, and soul-searching, they can speak nothing to the cōscience; therfore what should we do with such tinckling Cymbals? This Academical pot­tage? Let us Order them out of their livings, drive them by droves out of their Cures, lock up all Pulpit dores against them? let them go graze in the Deserts, or like the City of Nob, wallow in their own goare. But, oh dear Brethren, when we are made the Contempts of the Earth, despised, despipht­ed, and disputed against; when men have abased our gifts, steined our reputation, consulted against our safety, and per­haps conspired against our blood: Yet will this Oratory hold? this Elench take place? may we not wipe off this soil? may we not take out these spots? may not our innocency ap­peare like the morning light? may not our righteousnes shine forth like the noon-tide brightnesse? Yes, Wisdom is justified of her Children, our profession, parts, endowments, and graces may be acknowledged. Therefore let us be quiet under this cla­mour, & not dismaied with this strife of tongues. When Ter­tullus the Orator doth argue & aggravate against us ye a when Jonah the Prophet perhaps doth bring in his Bill, and urge for sentence against us; yet like the Eastern Christians in the midst of their extremitie, Let us fly to the justice of God. Adeamus justi­tiam Dei. And let us not fear to wander when God is our Guide, nor despaire of our case, when God is our Pleader. Niniveh here by Jonah is delivered up to vengeance, Why should such a wicked Ci­ty [Page 12]stand a day longer? But doth God stand silent at the con­demning sentence? No, he doth save herby argument, plead-her out of the flames; he doth not only defend her, but doth shew reason for her preservation, free her by a question, should not?

Secondly, this doth shew that as God doth plead, so wee should plead; for there is nothing more naturall to man than sympathy, nor glorious than protection. Oh happy is he which doth mingle tears with mourners, which doth help to fence off dismal blowes; which dothsearch out the perishing in pri­son, & doth defend them at the Bar; which is the Shield of the distressed, nay, the Oratour of the afflicted. Oh how doth it grieve me, and shame me to see Ruben pleading for the life of Joseph, Jonathan interceding for David; the wise woeman from the wall interposing for the City Abel; Yea, many Hea­thens passionately seeking the preservation of just persons, and that we rather supplant than support, destroy than de­fend, plot than plead? We leave innocent men to their chance, or gaze upon their exigents, or hasten on their sor­rows, rather then lend them a face, or open a mouth for them. That which perisheth, let it perish; So let these perish in their callings, and their liberties lay in chaines, or lay with broken neeks, rather then we will oppose, or interpose, make a motion, or use a mediation, suffer a check, or endure a frown for their redresse; we carry all our members about our selves, we are not incorporated into our brethren; our pitty doth but reach to our own skins, we have not an heart-string stirring to others; In stead of rescuing the afflicted, we are like the Edomites, standing in the crosse-waies to interrupt them; or like Doeg animating them which are enraged already do to mischeif; or like Saul, we consent to the death of Ste­phen. I read of Brennus when he was sacking of Rome, and Sul­pitius pleaded to him the breach of Articles, that he gave him no other comfortable expression but to eat a naked sword, & the standers by were so far from righting the injustice, that they relieved the oppressed only with this dolefull cry of ex­probration, Vae victis: Sa­bellic, lib. 1. Ennead. 4. Wo to the vanquished; And that when Demaratus had lost his Kingdom, sending to Leutalchides for aid, he returned him only this taunting message, VVhat manner of Government dost thou expect after thy Kingdom taken from thee? Qualis prae­fectura, post reg­num amissum? Herodot. lib. 6. Ioseph. Antiq. Jud. lib. 6. And that Mariamne the famous wife of Herod, when she was most unjustly con­demned to death, her own Mother Alexandra afforded her no other compassion, but called her ungracious Strumpet, and was ready to fly in her face, and pluck out her eyes. And these are the comforts that we usually reach forth to the desolate, and disconsolate. Wee are readier to break their heart, than to bind them up, and to make their dewy eyes [Page 13]to gush, rather than to staunch a teare; howsoever we stretch not forth a hand to succour them, or stirre not a tongue to plead for them. Oh how many in the day of adversity are there, that are fitter for an Invective, then an Apology, for in­stigation, and increpation, then for interpellation? What, can they strain their wits, or engage their friends, hazard their estates, venture their credits, or turn pleaders for them? No, like men, they know how to keep themselves out of danger; like wicked men, they have a feat how to plunge them into further perils; they will rather be Opposites than Parties; in stead of holding out a Target, they will thrust with a Speare; in stead of building to Tower, they will dig a Pit for their friend, Job 6.27. in stead of studying out terms for preservation, they lay in wait as they that set snares, Jer. 5.26. Oh where is the just mans Guardian? where is the good Angell which doth attend upon the distressed? No, misery hath no Champion, innocency no Advocate. He that is falling, is like the Lamp despised, in the thought of him that is at ease, Job 12.5. Behold the teares of such as were oppressed, and none comfor­teth them, Eccle. 4.1. When the foot of pride hath trampled with tyrannie the needy turned aside from judgement, and the wine of the condemned drunk in the house of God; Who hath there bin to eye their sorrows, or to plead for their safety? Oh stupid commiseration! oh speechlesse vindicati­on! Is this your zeal of justice to the oppressed? is this to be tutelar Numens to the afflicted? How ill doe such deserve a protecting God? or a justifying Redeemer? Who shall swee­ten your sorrows? or plead for you at Gods Throne? Oh therefore help the arme that hath no strength, declare your selves eyes to the blind, feet to the lame; open your mouths in the case of the dumb, be as those which comfort the mour­ners. God hath taught you this Oratory, enjoyned you by president to take upon you this pleaders office. For when Jonah had impleaded Nineveh, God doth demur upon the point, or bring in his Rejoinder; what Jonah doth say, God doth gain-say; though Jonah hath nothing but destruction in his lips, yet the sound of Gods voyce is nothing but de­liverance; he doth for the preservation of the City perorate and interrogate, Should not?

Thirdly, This serves to shew that just things are not easi­ly submitted to: for is God enforced thus to reason, ar­gue, controvert, and plead, then are we quick of apprehen­sion? prone to yeeld to meet propositions? ready to incline to what is intimated and represented? No, the contrary will ap­peare in two particulars. First, That the distemper of sinne is not easily cured. Secondly, nor the Malady of error reme­died easily.

1. The distemper of sin is not easily cured, men will mul­tiply allegations before they will acknowledg a trespasse, and cavill long before they will be conscious of an irregularity. It is a difficulty to be weaned from the sweet breasts, where sinne hath a long time sucked; or to be divorced from those criminall courses, to which a man hath once espoused his af­fections. Vi [...]ia mores fi­unt. Greg. Vices become usages, a practised sinner is even incor­rigible. How long shall evill thoughts remaine within thee? Jer. 4.14. Wilt thou not be made clean? When shall it once be? Ezek. 13.27. Sampsons strength can scarce break these cords, the Apostles can scarce cast out this Devil, which hath gotten long posses­sion; he will not be gone at Christs command without much renting and tearing. Nero that had given himself to grinding courses, he grew at last so shamelesse in his bribery and extor­tion, that he could not passe an Office, but he must be well payed for it, before the seal was gotten; with impudence he was wont to cry out, Scis quibus mi­hi sit opus Suet. Non hominem, sed amphoram esse. Vopise. Thou knowest what I have need of. Bonosus in his younger dayes, being addicted to intemperance, he grew at last to be so sottish, that he was called not a Man, but a Pitcher. Rhemnius Palaemon, a Grammarian, being touched inwardly with his Grammaticall skill, Secum natas es­se literas, & morituras. Cri­nitus. l. 1. waxed at last so vain glorious, that he thought Letters were born with him, and should die with him Salmoneus being delighted with new inventions in stead of giving over his desperate devi­ces, Erasm. at last he proceeded so far, that he counterfeited thunder to be esteemed a God. Helio gabalus being infinitely given o­ver to excesse, there was no reclaiming him from his prodi­gality; no at last he must have six hundred Ostriches in a Dish, to eat none but the braines of them, his Dining room strewed with Saffron, an Euripus of Wine, his Fish-ponds filled with Rose-water, Lamprid. pure balm burning in his Candle­sticks, and a Dish filled with gold to give away to his Guests. Oh therefore beware how thou dost open thy door to sinne, for thou wilt hardly be rid at last of this guest; if thou beest but a little conversant with it, all the wise men in the Coun­try, all the Counsellors in the Temple, shall scarce be able to speak reason enough to thee to renounce it; once a run­away, and never look on thy Masters face againe; once a Re­negado, and never minde againe thine own Country: they must be pregnant arguments which must confute an habitu­ated sinner. Remember Jonah, how he must be disputed, and argued out of his angry passion; God is enforced not onely to demonstrate, but to interrogate: Should not?

2. The malady of error is not easily remedied, we need much information and confirmation; we must be led along with deductions, disputed into confession, before there will [Page 15]be concession. The Marbles may sooner be graven upon, then mans judgement receive impressions; yea, thou maist sooner draw out Leviathan with a hook, or bind the Uni­corn with a band to plow in the furrow, then captivate the understanding. Reasonable man is very unreasonable, and per­spicatious man very tenacious when he is mounted lofty in opinion; if his brain be but liquored with false conceptions, there is no instilling into him other principles; when he is once sowred with error, there is no seasoning of him with another taste. A pertinacious person is an old holder, Pertin [...]x, quasi valde tenax. Isiod. Hazkanim. though he hold that which he should let slip. The word in the Hebrew for obstinate, doth signifie a man settled, and obsirmed: for indeed these are the men which are deceived, and decoyed with the shew of truth; Specie recti de­cepti: August. Perversâratione persistit, Aq. 2^da q. 115. a. 1. Millies mori­turum quàm [...] de suscepta sen­tentia discessu­rum Sigon l. 2 Reg. Ital. a Phrensie or Delirium may be easilier cured than such delusions: Aquinas saith truly, That man at last doth grow wilfull, and doth persist in his perverse reason. Macarius, Patriarke of Antioch, being turned Monothe­lite, all the Fathers in the 6th generall Councell of Constantinople, could not reclaim him; no, he cryed out, that he had rather dye a thousand deaths, then recede from what he had main­tained; though the black cobwebs fell from the top of the house at the time of his condemnation, yet it wrought no­thing upon him. And Polychronius his schollar was as despe­rate, for when he had written out his faith, Nihilominus in errore suo persti­tit, inquiens, se cum Macario Episcopo. Antio­cheno errare malle, quàmcum aliis recte sen­tire, Id ibid. and said that the Paper of his confession was able to raise the dead, which in his sight being proved to be false, yet the man was so inflexi­ble, that he said he had rather erre with Macarius, then think rightly with others. Cyrola, an Arian Bishop, having corrup­ted a man with fifty Crowns to counterfeit himselfe blind, that he might seem by miracle to work a cure upon him, though he saw by the touch of his hands, that the man which before did see, did indeed become blind, and his eyes (till he confessed the underhand practise) did so ake, Secundum fi­dem, quâ recte in Deum credi­mus, aperiantur oculi tui. Greg. Turon: l. 2. that they were ready to start out of his head; and though he called out often, According to the faith by which we believe rightly in God, let thine eyes be opened; and nothing availed to help, or ease the extremity of paine, yet he remained obsti­nate. The Rugians being addicted to their Idol Suavitovitus, though Otho 2. in some measure converted them to Christi­anity; yet their old Idolatry did so cleave to them, that they could never entertaine a guest, make warre, pray for delive­rance from the pestilence; but they were calling upon their old Deity, and ingeminating Vitei, Vitei. Vitei, vitei in­geminam. Du­tr. l. 1. So then a crippled Drunkard, a withered Harlot, a pilloured Forger, a thrice-branded Theefe, a gray-bearded Usurer, a sunkeyed, writhen-faced Witch, way sooner be converted than an erroneous [Page 16]Schismatick, or Heretick. Beware of this root of bitterness growing, of this Gangrene spreading; there had need be some Earth-quake, or cleaving Rockes in sunder, to make such acknowledge the truth of Christ, which have once with more then Jewish rage crucified his faith. Here are many strange opinions amongst us, men have left the living Spring, and sipped at the broken Cisterns; they have cast away the tryed Gold, and filled their purses with nothing but Alchi­my; they have forsaken the chaste Spouse, and gone to bed with Concubines; they are full of nothing but fictitious Do­ctrines, and commentitious; every Quack salver can here sell his Balsomes, and every Merchant of conceptions hath vent for his sophisticated Wares. These petty Chapmen do swarm up and down in the streets, this Epidemical disease hath dis­persed it selfe farre and nigh in the Nation. According to the number of thy Cities, are the number of thy Gods. Every Corpo­ration hath a new Brotherhood of Believers, every Pulpit new coyn coming hot out of the Mint, every secret meeting a secret rule of faith, and a secret form of worship. Oh what variety of Saviours have we? every man is for his parti­cular Redeemer, his distinct messenger of the Cove­nant. Here is Christ, and there is Christ. Now who shall calm this troubled Sea, raise up these ruines, new-joynt these dis­located bones, reduce these Mutineers? There is nothing but one thing (which I despair ever almost to behold) name­ly a free general Conference to effect this; did not our Savi­our thus confute the Pharisees, the Apostles, the Gentiles the Fathers of the Primitive Church the Marcionites, Manichees, Arians, Macedonians, Nestorians, Eutychians, Monothelites, Pela­gians, and all the dangerous Heresies of their times? Yes, Hu­mour seduced them, and Argument reclaimed them; and this must still be the Engine to batter down Errour; the judgement is not easily satisfied, men must be disputed into the true beliefe. The right faith is not attained unto by a confident opinion, or a bare subscription; no, there must be a Guid to the blind, Rom. 2.28. I wisdome dwell with counsaile, Prov. 8.12. The spirits of Prophets are subject to Prophets: But whilst Prophets live apart, and doe not consort, and conferre with their fellow Prophets, men are likely to have as great a medley of faiths, as they have a multiplicity of fancies. Oh then that people are sick, and yet that they will take no Physick, that they have a broken title, and yet that they will not go to Counsaile; that they wander, and yet they will not aske for the right way: yea, that they ride post in error, and yet that they will not stop, to know whither their Praunser doth lead them; every man cleaving to his admired Teacher, [Page 17]and pleading his private conscience, as if the Divell had not his Chappell, and Chaplains, and some insinuating Beau-Clerk could not bewitch the ear, and set a spell for consci­ence. What is this but to be such a Bedlam in Religion, that he refuseth all binding? or to be such a deep melancholick creature, that he doth feed upon nothing but his own black duskish humour, till at last he is deaf to all parley. Is this the right way to be setled in the truth? No, it is the only way to tread the Maze of delusions, to hold up the worship of Diana with a cry, to lay in the bed of Jezabel without a sus­pition of incontinency, to turn the back upon the Temple of the Lord, Ez'ch. 8.18. to be mad upon Idols, Jer. 50.38. and to say, We will perform our own vows, which we have vowed to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven, and to powre out our drink-offerings to her. Jer. 44. 25. Oh if wee would rightly understand God, we must consult with them which have understanding in the Visions of God, 2 Chron. 26.5. which feed in the strength of the Lord. The Priests lipps preserve knowledge, and they shall ask the Law at his mouth. Thou must be led to God by the ear; the Saints-bell to ring thee into the Temple of glory is the Messengers tongue. Thy confidence doth arise from conference, thy discretion from discourse, thy resolution from reason, thy quieting from questioning. Jonah is peremptory till God doth parley, yea full of discon­tent till God doth dispute; he is rectified by an argument, yea reclaimed by interrogating, Should not?

Fourthly, this doth shew, that if God doth plead against Jonah's errour, that sin should meet with opposition. How ma­ny consume in the flames of their vicious courses, because there are none to pull them out of the fire? Jude ver. 23. How many go on in a wild range to damnation, because there are none to convert a sinner from going astray, James 5.20? Oh if Saul sought for lost Asses, should not we seek for lost Souls? if Nehemiah repaired the broken walls of Jerusalem, should not we re-edifie the downfalls of the Church. Is there no Balm in Gilead? is there no Physitian there? why then are not the hurts of the daughter of my people healed? Yes, we should leap into the water to save men from drowning, and venture a­mongst Swords, and Spears to rescue Captives? If Nathan had not rebuked, David had slept long in a polluted bed; if Hul­dah had not pronounced the threatnings of the Law, Josias had never been so famous for a melting heart; if Saint Peter had not called the Jews murtherers to their faces, they had died under the guilt of the heaviest bloodshed without a peniten­tiall pricking; if Saint Paul had not severely reprehended the Corinthians, they had connived at the incestuous person, and [Page 18]he had never been purged out as leaven, nor had they pur­ged themselves with the sharpe Potion of a godly sorrow; there is nothing more beneficiall to a reckleste sinner, then a Christian reprehension, and opposition. Meritus accusing Elpidophorus the Apostate, Victor. and shewing him the Baptismall Garment, that he had wrapped him in after he had taken him out of the Font, reclaimed him from his backsliding. Gregory of Tours blaming sharply Chilperick for taking part with the Sabellian Heresie, Aimonius, l. 3. c. 41. converted him. Desiderius preach­ing of Charity and justice, before Geysa King of Hungary, made him send for his brother Salomon, Bons [...]n. l. 4. Decad. 2. and with tears to restore the Kingdome to him. Landelius, of a theef, was made a strict and upright liver by Ausber s shewing him his wretched de­meanour. Sbigneus Bishop of Gracovia resolutely reprehending Uladislaus Jagello his King, he did not only make him a pat­tern of reformation, Cromer. lib. 20 but he drew such affection from his royall brest, that he sent him Queen Hed [...]ces marriage-ring for a present. Sin would never flourish with such a green top, if wicked men were but hewen down by the Prophets. Hos­ [...]. 5. there would not be so many undutifull children playing mad pranks, if the earth were but smitten with the rod of Gods mouth, Esay 11.4. If this Lion did but roar, the Beasts of the field would tremble; if the Watchmen of Ephraim were with his God, he would a waken the whole Land to duty. But alas, the Priest hath lost his golden snuffer to clear lights, or his molten Sea to wash sacrifices; he doth put honey into the sacrifice, hee doth save the Soul alive which should dye, Ezech. 13.19. He doth dish out all his cippets according to the palate of the Age, and limb out all his Pictures as they may best please the eyes his Doctrins do limp if the times do halt, as Chsophus the Sycophant of Philip feigned himself lame, because his Master had through a wound a laking legge; he hath smiling trans­sitions, if his Grandees be but blith, as [...]arisophus the Parasite laughed afar off, when he saw Dyonisius merry with his Friends. But is this to divide the word of truth aright, to walk with a streight foot towards the Gospell? to declare the mind of God as of sincerity, and in the sight of God? Is this the way to awaken consciences, and to save souls? No, to cast conscience into a sleep, because the noise of their sinns do not tingle in their ears; and to fetter Soules to Hell, be­cause mens chaines are not shaken about their heels. The best Preacher is the faithfull Reprover, he is the true Pleader. Doth not God so? Yes, Jonas is passionate, but God doth op­pose him; he is eager upon a cruell bent, but God doth incre­pate, and interrogate him, Should not?

Fiftly, this serveth to shew, that sin doth carry a self con­viction [Page 19]with it, for God doth but say, should not, and hath Jo­nah any thing to say against it? No, here is a question out of question, a conviction beyond contradiction. What should I say? wicked things take away all excuse: he that doth ill, can be no Advocate for himselfe, his soyl must stick upon him, for he cannot assoyl himselfe. He that doth plot sinne, doth consult shame to himselfe, he needeth no Jury to passe up­on him but his own confession; nor no Judge to sentence him but his own conscience, he is condemned in himselfe: [...], Mater formidi­nis Chrys. Gra­vamenlae siouis. Cass. Glibanus ar­dens Pierius. Spina infixa Je [...]on. Habemus con­sitentem reum. there is in him the mother of seare, the smart of the wound, the burning furnace, the thorne sticking in the flesh. See we not it in many clear examples? Yes, David when he was charged with his sinne, hath he any thing to excuse himselfe? No, we have the guil­ty man acknowledging the fact. What saith he, but that which would declare himselfe a witless creature? What an­swer doth he return, but that which scandals any wise man? I have sinned, and done very foolishly. When the unworthy guest is reprehended; Friend, how cam'st thou hither, not having on the wedding garment? Doth he not put up the check in silence? yes, there is no Respondent to be heard of, a Nihil dicit is return­ed. He doth speak so little, that he cannot speak; For the man is speechless. Rodolph having fought a battel against his liege Lord Henry 4^th being wounded in his right hand, Haec est manus, quâ Henrico Domino meo fidem firmavi. Granz. lib. 5. Metrop. c. 16. he needed no bo­dy to tell him why he suffered; no, he was privy enough to his own fault, for saith he in anguish of soul, This is the hand (wounded from heaven) with which I sware allegiance to the Emperor Alphonsus, the 2^d of Naples, when Charles the eighth came into Italy to invade his Territories, his Fathers Ghost ap­pearing to him, wishing him to deliver up his Crown for the sin he committed in the way called Glarea; G [...]icciard. l. 1. there was no want of a Monitor to hasten him out of the Country, for his own con­science chased him away for that known sin. When Simon, a young man, had done many execrable things against his owne Country, the Scythopolits entring the Nations, and having in one place slain thirteen thousand, his own inward guilt made him to presage sad things to himselfe; for, said he, Tempus divinae vindictae sce­lerum suorum [...]desse. Joseph. Bell. Judaic. lib. 2. [...].19. This is the time of divine veageance for all my sins. So that every wick­ed man is his own Intelligencer; he doth keep more then Quarter-sessions in his own bosome, without hue and cry, he can sind out the Malefactor, and bring the Prisoner to the Bar. O then that men plead ignorance to their own crimes, or make themselves the greatest strangers to their owne delin­quencies. What, charge them with such errours? No, they bear out all with high looks, and daring defiances. It is pre­sumption, and peril, to name such sinnes in their hearing, howsoever to particularize them out for their personall de­faults. [Page 20]faults. Men will not acknowledg their own debts, nor confesse the false coyn they have minted Master, it is I? What, Judas the Apostle, Judas a Traytor? Christ himselfe shall almost be ac­counted a slanderer to imagine it, or affirm it. Is thy servant a dog, that I should doe such things? no, rather Elisha is a dog, thus to bark against a man of worth. Why weepest thou my Lord? No, thou mightst spare thy censures, and spare thy teares; thou hast mistaken the man, for Hazael doth find no such cruell heart in his bosome. Thy servant went no whither, saith Gehezi, 2 King. 5.25. Gehezi a ranger? a bribe-taker? no, Eli­sha doth wrong his good servant; his spirit brought him false information, when it told him it went with him; he doth stand in his Masters presence like one that never stepped o­ver his threshold, nor never was out of his call; Thy servant went no whither. I have obeyed the voyce of the Lord, saith Saul, If ye will believe his own tale, he was Saul the dutifull, and devout; not Saul the irreligious, and sacrilegious; though the Calves of the Amalekites bleated in his ears, and Agag the Por­tentuous strutted up and down in his Camp, yet he had taken no more then he should take, and killed as much as he should kill; he had been obsequious, and strict, a most precise ser­vant; I have obeyed the voyce of the Lord. Thus men behold their selves with another face, than they can see in the glasse of their own conscience; let their sinnes be never so heinous and prodigious, yet with the Whore in the Proverbs, they wipe their mouthes, and go their way, and say, I have not sin­ned. But oh beloved, why doe ye thus hide your selves from your Gods eyes, and convey out of sight your owne records? hath not every man a genius attending upon him? & doth he not carry about him a Day-book of his constant and conti­nuall practises? Yes, and if he doth not look the better to it, this Genius will be a dis-genius to him, and this Day-book will prove a black-book to him; for how audaciously soe­ver men in the foulest facts justifie their innocency, yet this defence is but for a short time, for ere long with shaking heads, blushing cheeks, and glaring eyes, they shall be en­forced to charge themselves with that, which they now would clear themselves of. Doth not sin carry a conviction with it? Yes, see it in Jonah; God doth but interrogate his con­science, he had enough within him to resolve whether he were not erroneous, and God just: for what other sense can there be given of this solemn question, Should not?

Sixtly, Whereas God doth plead, and Jonah doth submit, for he doth return no answer to Gods interrogatory; it doth teach us further, that if we be penitent, we should be silent; we should not quarrel out our sins, but as before we were [Page 21]brought to conviction, so now we should forbear contestati­on. Apprehension of sin should be fuller of dejection than defence, of remorse than justification; the tye should be so forcible, that it should tye up our tongues, as if we had no­thing to say for it, nothing to say after it. Not he which doth still fight, but he which doth lay downe his weapons doth confesse the victory. Demamah doth come of Damam; Domitus est, he is conquered; and indeed, the silent sinner is the one­ly vanquished man. Simonides was wont to say, that they whose lives were bad, their greatest honour was their silence: Quorum inde­cora esset vita, maximum de­cus esse silenti­um. for as Democritus said, what more unseemly, than that they which knew not what to speak, could not hold their peace? for, canst not deny thy errours, and yet canst not refraine lan­guage? Doth not thy conviction strike thee dumb? Yes, we must pluck down the swallowes nest; for that bird, though it cast down never so much dung, Hirundinem in domo non susci­piendam esse Jeron. l. 2. Cont. Ruffin. Nescit paeniten­tia loqui. Cassi­odor. Mulierem ornat silentium. Adag. yet it is so far from being ashamed of it, that it doth never leave chattering. But God forbid, that the defiling sinner should be so full of noise: no, true repentance doth not know how to speake, or howsoever is sparing of speech. It is an Adage, That silence doth adorne a woman, much more a Convert; for where should there be found more modesty, than in an humble soule; find we it not in scripture? Yes, Ephraim doth strike upon his thigh, ra­ther then to use Oratory to excuse himselfe: Job doth abhor himselfe in dust and ashes, rather than he doth turne Proctor for his sins; Mary Magdalen is full of teares, but not of words; the Publican doth abound in knocks, but not in speeches. And assure your selves, that dumb gestures are fitter for re­pentants, then high phrased bablings, Pharisaicall boastings and stridulencies. Oh then that we cannot make the criminal man to hold his tongue, that we cannot silence the talking sinner; that though his bell be riven, yet his clapper is not taken out; that though the statute of Bankrupt be sued out against him, yet he is walking the streets, and hath some­thing to say for his reputation. Do we not see that open drun­kards, known oppressors, publique quarrellers, mischievous disturbers of Church and State, are rise of their tongues? Oh where shall we finde inarticulate guilt? what crime is there that is not answering, and Rhetorising? yes, full of replica­tion and retortion. But is this to be Jonah? No, they may sin with him, but not submit with him? he is refelled, and he hath instantly done with anger, and argument? as full of words as he was before, yet being pleaded out guilty▪ he doth not whisper after Gods interrogatory, not so much as say, may it be? shall it be? can it be? it must not be; no, he doth end like a man both convinced, and silenced with Gods should not?

Part 2.

Now let us come to the Spring-head: I. Hadst thou? and should not I? Am not I thy match? nay, if thou considerest the matter truly, Am I not thy better? Doe I not excell thee by many degrees? What then, hadst thou liberty, and shall not I have authority? Hadst thou, and should not I? We had the Plea­der before, and now we have the person to be justified. God doth defend his own right, stand for his own prerogative, maintaine himselfe against Jonah, to be above Jonah: for, hadst thou, and should not I? From hence observe, That God is supream. For if man hath a power in any thing, God hath a greater: can man vie titles with God? no, All my bones shall say, who is like to thee? If all Davids bones were Quiristers, they should chaunt out nothing but Gods perfections: Lord, who is like unto thee? And indeed if man can do something, who is the posses­sor of a few Mud-walls, Parchments, and Parkes, Rentalls, and Royalties: then what is God, who is the Possessor of Heaven and Earth? Gen. 24.1. If man, who is but a shining Gloworme below; then what God, who is the Majesty on high? Heb. 1.3. If man, who can be beheld without danger; then what God, who cannot be eyed without expiring? Whom no man hath seen, nor can see, 1 Tim. 1.16. If man who doth car­ry no slames in his skin; then what God, who is a consuming fire? Heb. 12.29. If man who is but a Saint by infusion; then what God, who is the King of Saints? Rev. 15.3. If man, whose knowledge doth reach no further then his own heart; then what God, which can declare unto man what his thought is, Amos 4.13. nay, who is greater then our heart, and knoweth all things? 1 Job. 3.20. If man who cannot make a Gnat, a Spire of Grass, not an Hair white or black; then what God, who is the former of all things? J [...]r. 10.16. If man, who hath much ado to get a little pompe; then what God, with whom is the greatness of excellency? Exod. 15.7. If man who can hardly for a while keep his own spirit within his own body; then what God, who is the Lord of the spirits of all flesh? Numb. 27.6. If man whose power is limited, and whose designs may be fru­strated; then what God, who is so great, that none can stay his hand? Dan. 4.43. If man who is but of yesterday; then what God, who doth inhabit eternity, Isa. 57.15. If man who can­not span the compasse of his own body; then what God, whose right hand spanneth the Heavens? Isa. 43.12. If man, who at most doth but dwell in an Ivory Palace; then what God, who dwelleth between the Cherubims? 2 Sam. 6.2. If man who hath his dayes set, and there is a stint for his great­nesse, [Page 23]then what God, Who liveth for ever, and his Dominion is e­verlasting. Dan. 4.34? If man who cannot make a Pillar to quake, nor melt a flint, then what God, who can make the Mountains to quake, and cause the hills to meli? Nah. 1.13, if man who cannot walk but in a calm, and that upon firm land; then what God, who hath his way in the w irlwind, and his path in the mighty waters? Nah. 1.3. Esai. 43.16. and yet must man be such a man, and God be undeified▪ Shouldst thou have freedom, and God be abridged? Hadst thou? and should not I? What art thou? what is God?

1. What art thou? the crackt sherd of a ruine, the broken bough of a windfall, the splintered plank of a shipwrack; Adams Ulcer, the wrimpled skin, stark hand, blind eye, chap­fallen lip of that old man; the lake-diver, the furnace-brand, Prae omnibus malis homo est pessimum; una­quae (que) bestia ha­bet unum ma­lum, homo om­nia. Chrysost. the brimstone-match of that cursed man. Above all evills Man is the worst; every beast hath one evill, but man all. Whatsoever man was at the first creation, yet he may be carried now to some Stage, as a strange Beast to be shewn as Laerlius saith of Stilpon. As ye cannot find a Fish without skales, so ye cannot find a man without strange Finns. Lacrt. l. 2. c. 12 Aelian var. hist l. 10. pa­norm. l. 1. de re­bus gestis Al­phonsi. Instead of men we are like wild Vultures in the Woods. Arislotle that had searched mans intralls, nay, which by his deep wisdom had dissected him, for who could better have done this, then that rare Anato­mist of Nature? Yet what saith he of man, but that he was the spoil of time, the mockage of fortune, and image of inconstancy. Stob. Ser. 96. Therefore Plotinus was wise, who when Aemilius would have his Picture drawn, denied it him, Erasin. l. 8. apoph. intimating that it was in vain to take the Picture of a wretched creature. Indeed man is so miserable, that Silenus told Midas, that the best thing were, not to be horn at all the next thing was to die soon. Optimum non n [...]sci, pr [...]i­mum cito abole­ri. Comaedia vita nostra, [...]uius ultimus actus in morte. Aen. Syl. lib. 3. com: Alphonsi. Pu­tredo in ortu, bestia in vita, esca vermium in morte. Let man seem to enjoy never so much outward greatnesse, yet mans life is but a Comedy, whose last act is death. Solon, that by the Oracle was prononnced to be the wisest man of his age, said, that man was but rottennesse in birth, a beast in his life, and worms-meat in death. Man art thou not thus? canst thou not apprehend it? wilt thou not believe it? then let me a little further decipher thee, skin thee, and unskin thee. At thy first conception oh that thou couldst see thy self! Thou art but a drop of basenesse, a spermatick stein, thou art gendring many months to get flesh, and skin upon thy bones, thou suckest unclean blood, and dost wsim in a loathsome puddle, thou puttest out thy head like a beetle out of a dunghill, thou art groaned forth with the half-slaughter of thy Mother, thou art plucked out of the womb, and dost lye in the eyes of all like an hideous fright, there is not an hair of thy head, not a tooth in thy mouth, thou lookest like raw flesh, yea, like a [Page 24]prodigious clodder, this is thy entrance; and when thou art rinsed and perfumed, thy navell cut, thy skull seamed; and by the Midwifes art, made fit to receive the Babes kisse, thou dost hang upon the brest, or art fed with spoon-meat, thou art rocked in a Cradle, wrapped in swadling-clothes, watch­ed, and waited upon, carried in the arme, led by the hand, learned to go, taught to speak, before thou canst give one sen­sible expression of a reasonable creature; And afterwards when by much nurture, and education thou hast gotten some rudiments into thee, whereby thou mightst declare thy selfe man, what manner of man dost thou witnesse thy self to be? even at thy ripe age, what are thy gests, and guises, and garbs, and modes: Thou risest in the morning out of thy bed, where thou hast lain so many hours forgotten of thy self, thou clothest thy self like one ashamed to be seen without his Vest, thou callest the water to wash off thy nights filth, thou pick­est thy nasty ears, thou purgest thy fowl nostrils, thou clens­est thy polluted teeth, and by degrees when thou art compt, and terse, spunged, and powdred, every hair set right, and every abiliment put on, what is thy daies work? how dost thou spend pretious time?

If thou beest for profit, thy ranges are known; after thou hast called up thy servants to hunt for gain at home, thou thy self as one in full quest for lucre abroad, art visiting other mens Storehouses, searching their Warehouses, ransacking their Cellers; Thou goest to the Customhouse to try what ex­porting, and importing there hath been, thou repairest to the Exchange to examine what Merchant thou canst meet with, with whom thou maist truck in Minivers, and Tissues, Musks, and Civets, the teeth of Elephants, the bones of Whales, the stones of Bezars, the claws of Crabs, the Oyles of Swallows, the skins of Vipers, yea, be it but in black Coal, black Pitch, white Chalk, or white Sope, rusty Iron, or abominable Mum­my, it will serve the turn; or if thy merchandising fail there, thou turnest thy trading another way, to seek about for a Li­cense, or a Patent, or perhaps to pry out some decayed Heir, or foundred Gallant, that thy Ferret might be sent forth into that borrough, or thy Setting-dog let loose to drive that Co­vey, to hook in some Morgage, or to prey upon some forfeiture; and if all these devices will not take place, then thou stirrest thy leggs to gosuck Venome from a Petty-fogger, or Magick from some Conjurer. And thus doth the drudge of the world spend his day.

If thou beest for bravery, I cannot follow thee by the track, nor find out thy various Motions. The Gallant is counted a wild creature; no wild Colt, wild Ostrich, wild Cat of the [Page 25]Mountain, comparable to him, he is indeed the Baffoon, and Baboon of the times; his mind is wholly set upon cuts and slashes, knots and roses, patchings and pinkings, jag­gings, taggings, borderings, brimmings, half-shirts, half-arms, yawning brests, gaping knees, Arithmeticall middles, Geo­metricall sides, Mathematicall wasts, Musicall heels, and Lo­gicall toes. I wonder he is not for the Indians branded skin, and ringed snowt. His phantastick dotages are so many, that he hath a Free-School, bookish about inventions for him; nay, an Academy of wits, studying deeply to devise fashions ac­cording to his humour: Know ye not the multitude of Stu­dents, Artists, Graduates that are subliming their notions to please this one Light-head? Then hear them by their names, Perfumers, Complexioners, Feather-makers, Stitchers, Snippers, Drawers, yea who not? yet amongst these doth the Nitid Spark spend out this time: this is the Gallants day.

If thou beest for dainties, how art thou then for spread­tables, and plenished Flagons? thou art but a Pantry-worm, and a Pastry-fly. Thou art all for inlandish meat, and out­landish Sawces, thou art the Dapifer to thy Palate, or the Cupbearer to thy Appetite, the creature of the swallow, or the slave of the wesand. The Land hath scars flesh, the seafish, or the Air fowl curious enough for thy licorous throat, by thy good will thou wouldst eat nothing but Kids and Fawns, Carps, and Mullets, Snipes and Quailes; and drink nothing but Frontiniack, white Muskadines, Leathick-wine, and Vine de pary. Thy Olies and Hogoes, Creepers and Peepers, Italian Cippets and French broaths, do shew what a bondman to the paunch thou art; even the Idolatour of the Banquetting-house. Thy belly is thy God. Thus doth the Glutton wast out his Pilgrimage: this is the [...]picures day.

If thou beest for lust, what an Itinerant art thou? canst thou mark thy Foot-prints whither thy leggs, and thy eyes carry thee? thou shouldst be looking upon her that was once the desire of thine eyes, and embracing her that was given into thy bosome, and paying wedlock-rights to her, that was the wife of thy covenant; but thou hast plucked out that eye that thou didst six upon the face of thy first Love, thou hast pulled back the hand which thou didst give in marriage, and cancel­led the bond that thou didst seal with solemnity upon thy Nuptiall day, and thou art no longer for a chast wife, but for strange flesh, even like a fed horse neighing after a new Para­mour: Thou hast forsaken thine own threshold, and art lay­ing wait as thy neighbours dore; thou hast left the bed unde­filed, and art for a Couch of dalliance: thy wives breath is [Page 26]distastfull, her face displeasing, and her company odious, and thou art now for amiable Paragons, for Nymphs of beauty; these are those whom thou didst court, and complement, hunt for, and haunt their society; to which thou dost stretch out thy chaunting toung, and grasping arms; to which thou dost en­gage thy swarty heart, and blacker Soul. When thy wife can scarse have fragments, these shall have banquets; when thy wife can scarce have fair language, these shall have Dorian musick; when thy wife can scarse have seemly rayment, these shall have vails, and rails, cutworks, and networks, blew silk, and Purple, Jaspers, and Saphires; when the wife must drudg at home, these shall dance abroad; when the wife must walk on foot, these shall be coached. The Bride is cast off, and the Bedfellow embraced, the Spouse rejected, and the Curtisan en­tertained. Howsoever the wife is tendered, and respected, die­ted and robed, sure I am, these are fed, and clad, men will run into Debtbooks, lay in Jailes, and oftentimes hang on gib­bets for these. And thus doth the voluptuous man measure out his time, trickle out his hours; this is the Sensuall mans day.

Thus man thou art skinned, and when thou art unskinned, what manner of wight art thou? the prodigie of the world, the horrour of the senses, fit for nothing but to be hurled upon the dunghill of nature, or to be hid in the vault of lothsomnesse; within four daies thou wilt stink above-ground, within four months thou wilt rot under-ground, thy Heirs do challenge thy Coffers, the worms thy Carkasse. VVhose shall all these things be? VVhose shalt thou be? Within a short time there will be as lit­tle seen of thee, as of a Banquet eaten up to the bones, as of a Vessell drawn out to the dregs, as of a Castle rased to the last stone, or a City burnt down to ashes.

Oh man then, thou mist of fancy, thou bubble of pride, why art thou enamoured upon thy self? No, if thou couldst take the right glasse to behold thy physnomy, thou wouldst abhor thine own face. Beware therefore how thou dost set too high a price upon thy self, no, leave thy self magnifying humours, for when thou hast reduced thy self into thy true materialls, either living, or dying, Who art thou?

But thou wilt say, thou art injured in thrights, much is suppressed that might make thee eyed with honour? What is that? that thou art the Image of God, and a partaker of the divine nature. It is true, grace is a lustre, and sanctification, a Splendour; But bring all these perfections together, yet if thou­wert as chast as Joseph, as meek as Moses, as just as Samuel, as righteous as Job, as zealous as Elias, as full of divine raptures, and extasies as Enoch; yet whose are all these qualifications, [Page 27]and endowments? alas they are none of thine, they are not the gifts of nature, but the gifts of the spirit, therefore what hast thou to doe to glory in anothers largesses? thou maist have the comfort in them, but God must have the praise of them. Besides, if thou couldst number thy sinnes with thy services, thy wants with thy gifts, thy errors with thy graces, thou wouldest think thy selfe but a pusill Saint. Jobs clothes did de­file him, and we have silthinesse under all our skirts. If thou shouldest be extream to marke what is done amiss, who is able to stand? One trespass takes away the honour of much obedience; how­soever, multitude of guilts doe obscure the brightest Saint. Therefore seeing thou are peccant under a state of grace, yea considering thy dayly and infinite failings, let not the purest creature face heaven as a worthy; for in respect of thy re­generation, and election, if thou dost lay to heart how much of corrupt nature doth remaine in thee unmortified, and feel the running soare of concupisence breaking out continually with putrified matter, why shouldst thou be arrogant of thy virtues? or make sanctification an ostentation? No, thy blemish is ap­parent, therefore as holy as thou art; yet, Who art thou?

2. What art thou? But what is God? Oh his name is emi­nency, his person perfection. He is Adonai of Eden, as if he were the basis of the whole world. He is Jah, as if he had nothing but Being in him: He is El, as if he had all power in him: He is Shaddai, as if he had all-sufficiency in him. Alas, how can I describe him? or tell the world his ineffable properties? He is so bright, that he is invisible; so past understanding, that he is incomprehensible; so steady, that he is unchangeable; so wise, that he is omniscient; so powerfull, that he is omnipotent; so boundlesse, that he is infinite; so endlesse, that he is eternall. Oh how are mine eyes dazeled in looking upon this Sun? how is my soul in a trance, Quantò diutiuc considero, tanto res obscurior mihi videtur. Cic. de nat. Deorum. Quod ineffabile est, silentio ado­randum esse. Socrat. Eccl. Hist. lib. 6. Nomen non ha­bet. In rebus divinis multum esse caliginis. Nec periculo­siùs alicubi er­ratur, nec labo­ri osiùs quaeri­tur. Aug. l, 3. de Trinit. when it doth fall into these divine rap­tures? Simonides took time to tell Hiero what God was, and no time at last was sufficient to draw from him an answer: for said he, The longer I doe consider upon it, the more obscure it doth seem to me. Euagrius hearing men make long Orations of God, he wished them to forbear, for that which is ineffable is to be a­dored with silence. Attalus the Martyr, being desired to tell what was Gods name, he said he had no name. Cato Uticensis, said well, In divine things there is a great deale of darknesse. A man may erre no where more perilously, nor search for any thing with more dissiculty. God is so great, that he wants a known Cause by which he should be demonstrated, and a Genus by which he should be defined: he is so great, that he hath heaven for his Court, and Angels for his ministring spirits, which is one, and yet three; one in essence, three in existency; in no [Page 28]place, and yet every where, to whom all men are as Grashop­pers, and the vast Ocean as the drop of a Bucket, who can see in the dark, and search hearts; which every year doth sustein whole nature, and every day doth feed a whole world, which doth preserve Saints in Dungeons, & confound Tyrants in their Thrones; which doth shake the Universe with earthquakes, and amaze the stoutest with Thunder; which is tyed to no Law, and yet is pure justice; which hath no hand, & yet can do all things, which can nourish men without bread, and heal men without physick; which can take away the spirits from the living, and raise the dead; which is an universall surveyor, and will be an universal Judge; which can punish with unquenchable fire, and ravish with unspeakable joy, whom Heathens confesse, Christians believe, and Angels adore; whose praises not a Quire of Seraphims can chaunt forth, whose perfections none but a Trinity it selfe can describe. Oh man therefore think upon God, and leave thinking upon thy self; consider his trans­cendencies, and be appalled at thy insufficiencies; thou art but a Minim to the Almighty, but a meer nothing to the All, All-God. Who art thou? What is God?

Howsoever, if thou beest great, God is greater; if liberty doth belong to thee, let it not be denyed God: for, Hadst thou? and Should not I? Yes, God must have a precedency in actings above man.

1. Because he is a free Agent; the Stoicks indeed did tie their Gods to an [...], a fate that over-ruled them; but God is liable to no such destiny, Appetitus rei non habitae. Aq. his will is not as mans, an appe­tite of a thing not had (for he which hath all things, what can he desire more for complacency?) but his will is onely a de­cree, Ordinatio erga rem amatam. Idem. or purpose concerning a thing beloved. He doth will eve­ry thing out of affection, not necessity: He doth love himselfe necessarily, but all other things ultroneously. In all the good things we doe enjoy, we can see nothing but the efflux of fa­vour: God doth not regratiate, because we cannot ingratiate; we should never find God a comfortable Agent, if he were not a free Agent: we doe not engage God to blesse, he is not led a­long by the chain of our deserts; for who hath given unto God first? No, I have loved you freely; there is no promeriting, or promp­ting of kindness: And there is nothing that God doth by con­straint, or violence, but his own pleasure is the attractive of all his workings, for he doth all things according to the counsaile of his will. This is the manner of Gods actings, can man equall him? no, man is carried oftentimes contrary to his own inclination, and doth vary from his inward principles, the imperate act of the will being contrary to the elicit; for how many of mans actions are involuntary? that though the will cannot be com­pelled [Page 29]yet the outward execution is captivated & mancipated. Yea, whereas Man hath many interpositions and oppositions (for what a slave is man to objects, motions, examples, and commands) yet can God be thus intercepted & impeded? no, Job. 23.13. Dan. 4.35. Job 23.13. Isai. 46.10. Psal. 135.6. Rom. 9.19. he is one in mind, and who can turn him? he doth whatsoever he will in the armies of heaven, and the Inhabitants of the earth, and no man can stay him, nor say unto him, what dost thou? What his soul desireth, that doth he. I will doe whatsoever I will. Whatsoever the Lord pleased that did he. Who hath resisted his will? Thus then ye see the difference betwixt God, and man in acting; and if man may lord it, how much more the Lord Paramount? If man which is but an im­plicated and mixt Agent, how much more God, who is an ex­tricated and free Agent? Hadst thou, and should not I?

2. Because he is a wise Agent. Indeed man doth bear a name for a very prudent creature; yea some are so famed up for judg­ment, that they are called Sages; but what are these seeing per­sons to the all-seeing God? no, this shutter of the flesh doth hinder mans light from shining, the form is streightned by the mat­ter; but God being wholly immateriall, a pure spirit, Coarctatur for­ma per materi­am▪ Aq: he can­not but transcend man in wisdome. Man doth know all things externally, for acquisite knowledge is gotten from abroad, and infused knowledge is communicated, but God hath no deri­vative knowledge; to know any thing, Redire in su [...]m essentiam: he doth but reflect up­on his own essence; those Ideas which are conceived to be in God, doe containe all intellectuall species; therefore, Who hath been his Counsailer, or taught him at any time? Mans knowledge doth come with much tediousnesse; for how long is he learn­ing of his lesson? But Gods knowledge is instantaneous; He doth understand all things in one, for the intellect being in act, Omnia intelligit in uno. Terminus dis­cursus▪ Praesene intuitus Dei fertur in omne cognoscibile. there is an end of further inquiry. Gods present intuition is fixed upon every thing that is to be known. Man doth but know things in time, and which do really exist; but God calleth things that are not, as if they were: for whereas his knowledge is measured onely with his eternity, what is there from everlast­ing to everlasting, that is out of the verge of his knowledge? no; entia, things that have any being with all the limits of time, he doth understand by the knowledge of vision; and non entia, which are not, nor ever shall be, Scientia vis [...] ­nis; scie [...]tia simplicis intelli­gentiae. he doth understand by the Mirrour, that is by the knowledge of his own unlimited wis­dome. Man doth understand but few things, for we do boast of wisdome; but how short principled are we? there is an un­known land which we have not yet coasted, Terra incognita. there is a Laby­rinth that we want yet a clew to pass through. If wisdome should unlock her great Library door, we would thinke, that we had many Authors yet to peruse, yea, Decades, and Pan­dects yet to turn over. Knowledge puffeth up, but the Mercu­riall [Page 30]brains would judge that they were but ungifted, inculti & inscii. and sim­ply endowed to what they should be. But what, hath God to learn? No, Heb. 4.12. Joh. 37.17. Vt nihil sit ex­tra. Quamvis infinitorum nul­lus sit numerus, non tamen est incomprehensi­bilis ei, cujus seientiae non est numerus. Aug. l. 12. de Civit Dei. c. 18. all things are naked before his eyes with whom we have to do. He is perfect in knowledge. The adaequation, or extent of his knowledge is such, that nothing can be beyond it. Though there be no number of infinite things, yet this is not incomprehensible to him, whose knowledge hath no number. Man doth things of­tentimes improperly, and with great indiscretion; he knoweth not how to keep his boundaries; he doth either too much, or too little; he is either too early, or too late; too eager, or too slow; whereby he hath more scandall, then honour in his un­dertakings. But is there any such indecency, or incongruity in Gods actings? No, he is neither redundant, nor deficient; look upon all his works, and see how thou maist magnifie the eutaxy concinnity, fitnes & fulnes of them, yea, thou maist cry out in wis­dom hast thou made them al, they are brought forth in number, weight, and measure. Now if blind man doth assume so much to himself, how much more he, who is all Eye? If the half-witted Agent doth stand so much upon his liberty, should not the wise Agent? Hadst thou? and Should not I?

3. Because he is a pure agent. Man indeed is pure, but he is but a half-washed Creature, the Clean water hath not taken out all his steines, nor the spirit of Sanctification all his filth. No, man hath in him perfection of reality, but not of re­gularity; of integrity, but not of integrality; of adunation, but not of adequation; of intension, but not of extension; or as (they commonly call it) of parts, but not of degrees; for though the Land of Promise be won, yet the Canaanite doth dwell in the Land; though grace be infused, yet concupiscence is not expel­led. Now who can look for an absolute pure creature with such a mixture of naturall corruption? Who can bring a clean thing out of filthinesse? No, Man indeed doth many a good acti­on, but the black Aethiopian begetting the child, though it doth live, yet the Parents skin is seen upon it; such a person may be Evangelically accepted, but he might be Legally cursed. For what one absolute thing can the holiest man pride himself in? No, though he be converted yet being partly unregenerate, his very tears do draw a soil from his eyes, and his prayers from his lips, and his duties from his fingers, and his thoughts from his heartstrings; for he cannot weep as he should, nor pray as he ought, nor obey as is required, nor think as is enjoin­ed. Wo to the laudable life, Vae vitae lauda­bili. Aug. if God should be severe: the most fined wheat doth grow with a chaffy husk, the purest Gold hath some base oar mixed with it, the compleatest actions of men have an adhaerency of evill cleaving to them; there is either wanting somthing of mortification, or faith, or zeal, or con­stancy [Page 31]in it; we either mingle some sin with an eminent vertue, or we neglect a greater good for a lesse; or we sever the plea­sure of godlinesse from the trouble, or we do good only for tri­all sake, or are led only by example, or rest upon the outward action, or mind not the object, or do not take opportunity, or are guided meerly by successe, or are too disdeignfull, or too slippery, or too confident. Oh there are a thousand waies, whereby a service may be disparaged, and guilt creep into the most magnified act of reformation, or devotion. In a pure, im­pure Creature, who can look for exact sanctity? No Man; the best man is but a defiled Agent. But is God no more perfect? yes, he is Holy, Holy, Holy, uncreated holinesse, essentiall holi­nesse, holinesse in the abstract, eminently good, only good, the chief good; who hath given all the Laws of holinesse, and doth inspire all the motions of holinesse, and doth water the root, and ripen the fruits of holinesse; who hath given us an holy calling, and holy Priesthood, and holy Sacraments, not onely his holy Angells to direct us, but his holy Son to die for the guilty, and to purge the defiled. Now, can he have any cor­ruption in his actions? No, Are not my waies equall? Ezech. 18, What iniquity have your Fathers found in me? Jer. 2.5. No, I am the Lord your holy one. Es. 43.15. The Lord is holy in all his waies, and just in all his works. So holy that no creature but out of meer compassion, can be looked upon by those pure eyes, the holy Angells do put vails before their faces. The very foundations of the earth would shiver, the fabrick of Heaven would fly into splinters, the Crown of God would fall from his head, and his white Throne crack in pieces, if Gods works had any blame, or blemish in them. Let us look upon them all, and with admi­ration in our hearts, and hymnes in our lips, let us discern no­thing but beauty, brightnesse, purity, and perfection in them. God is not only glorious in Majesty, but glorious in holinesse, Exod. 15.11. his grace equall to his infinitnesse, and his sanctity to his eternity. Man may every day be made a Divell, yea, for his best actions judged to Hell. But shall these seek for a Malig­nant in Heaven? or call God Delinquent? If frail man, who hath in him as much errour as truth, as much disobedience as duty, and as much guilt as grace can have approbation in his actions, shall not Gods works be justified? If man can go for an Agent, who is so steined, shall not God, who is such a pure Agent? Hadst thou, and should not I?

Application.

Quid profuit altu [...] Erexisse caput? Claud. Audux Japeti genus. Horace. 1. This serves first to shew that there is one above man to be thought on. Man I confesse doth look high; but to what end doth he lift up his aspiring head? No, this daring generation must be tamed; for let man be never so great, yet he hath his Superior; let him plead all his rights, yet here is one which [Page 32]doth out-priviledge him; for hadst thou? and should not I? On then that we hear none but mans name, and look no higher then mans face; that we burrough below, and dwell at the sign of the naked man. That man which doth come out of the slime-heap, & is but a potfull of ashes, a bottle of dreggs, a patched garment of old Adams tatters, whose breath is in his nostrills, and his daies but a span long, which doth walk upon the same miery Earth, and refresh his lungs with the same moist air with us; who hath not a mouth wider, nor teeth sharper then our selves; which cannot fast in the day, nor see in the night no more then we; w^ch wil faint as quickly, & weep as soon as we; which hath as much want of rayment and need of Physitians as we; which is soaked with Tempests, and frighted with Thun­der as well as we; which doth feed with us, tire with us, sleep with us, and will ere long be taken off from his leggs, lye up­on a death-couch, be carried out by Bearers, and consume to grave-gelly as well as we, and yet for a few gay clothes, gorge­ous building, large rentalls, masterly looks, and menacing threats, we do yield all the honour, and terrour to man, as if we need not look beyond his shoulders, or the top of his Bever▪ Oh how is the world Potentate-strooke? Grandee-inchanted? we are only waiting at mans heels, listning to the thunderclaps of his lips, fearing his cold irons, and strangling gibbets. But hath not man his equall? Merlto tumet Sabellus. M [...]r­tial. l. 1. Stripis Ar­chillea faslus Virgil. 3. Aen. yes, though man do swell upon the thought of his high deserts (and great is the haugh tinesse of this Achillean race) yet man doth but stand upon the lower ground, he is but an Inferior; for wipe thine eies, chafe thy tem­ples, expostulate with reason, awaken conscience, and see if man be the object to whom all thy regard, and reverence ought to be limited. No, if thou canst lift up thine eyelids, pry into the Heavens, and behold afar off that great Tribunal, where thy last account must passe, thou wilt say thou hast mistaken thy aw, misplaced thy dread. For let there be never such Treme­bundoes below, yet this Earth hath not the face of authority, which thou oughtest to stoop unto; No, there is One higher then the highest. It is a dangerous thing to fall under mans displea­sure, but It is a fearfull thing to fall into the hands of the everli­ving God. What are mans fetters to Gods chaines of darknesse? mans Executioners to infernall Fiends? mans vengeance-cor­ners, to Gods tormenting Tophet? Fear not them then that can kil the body, and cango no further, but fear him that can cast both body and Soul into Hell fire. Let summoning, and sentencing man go, and tremble thou at the judging, and cursing God. Here six thine eye, and fasten in thy conscience the Doomsday-nail. For what is man to God? No, God will not endure Man to be his Compe­titour, or Compeere; he doth plead here a Superiority above man, for hadst thou? and should not I?

But alas what is all this, but losse of breath? but charming in the ears of deaf Adders, dead Pulpit-haunters; we may preach our selves speechlesse, and our Auditors breathlesse, before we shall sermon-up Gods preheminence: Where is that effectuall Teacher, spirit-lipped Lecturer, that hath gotten God the precedency, and preferment above man? And yet is not this generally known? is it not the cry in every Congrega­tion? the reverberation of the very walls of the Sanctuary, the noise in every ear? the principle in every conscience? do not wise men hear it? and fools understand it? do not old men learn it? and children confesse it, as their known lesson? doth not commen reason instruct us, that if God be great, the grea­ter, the greatest he should be made Superiour, Supreme? if man must have his due, must not God have his right? Hadst thou? and should not I? yes, else never think of God, or speak of God, or avouch a God, if man must be the Such, the Non-such. How can we walk with God, if we do not consider his pow­er, or acquaint ourselves with our God, if we be strangers to his perfections? or stir up our selves to take hold of our God, if we have no feeling of his greatnesse? What a Creature is man amongst his fellow-Creatures? For oh that dumb nature doth magnifie God, and that we are silent in his praises, that the Heavens declare the glory of God, and the Firmament sheweth his handy work; that one day telleth another, and one night certifieth another, that there is neither speech nor language where their voice is not heard, that their line is gone forth throughout all the Earth, and their words unto the end of the World; yea, that Tigers and Unicorns, Stones and Rocks, Fields, and Wildernesses, Fire and Hail, Snow and Vapours, Storms and Tempests, Mountains and all Hills, Fruitfull Trees and all Cedars, creeping things, and feathered fowls do in their kind set out God in his excellencies, and yet that the fool hath said in his heart there is no God, and he that is a little wiser than he (even the reasoning Forma­list) hath not God in all his thoughts, that he is not made a Superiour, nor used like a God, for he hath not an eye to look upon him, nor an heart to reach up high enough to him, no he is far above out of his sight. That people in generall do not think of God out of devotion, but conviction, not out of pure honour, but amazing horrour. Oh to such a contemning people, who would ever be a Superiour? to such an undevout people, who would ever be a God? Here is a strange Creed and a worse Catechism. Is not every Temple a scandall, and every Pulpit an infamy to such livers? Deserve they Scrip­turcs, or Sacraments, the knowledge of God, or so much as to bear his name? Take away Gods praises, and what is pro­fession? silence his honour, and what is religion? deprive him [Page 34]of his glory, and what is his Deity? Is not this? to the world his Lordship? and to the Church his God-head? doth he not de­light in it? doth he not demand it? Yes, there is nothing more deare and acceptable to God, then that we should ascribe great­nesse to him Deut. 32.3. speak of the glorious honour of his Ma­iesty, Psal. 145.5. behold his high hand, Isai. 26.9. Offer the sa­crifices of praise, Heb. 13.15. for God doth not dwell so much in consecrated walls, as in consecrated lips. Thou art holy, and dost inhabit the praises of Israel, Psal. 22.3. Oh then that we should ever mention God, if we doe not magnifie him; for who would not fear thee O God, and glorifie thy name? Rev. 13.4. Our brutish rites, our titular, customary acknowledgements, are but leane fare upon his Table; we must prepare a pure diet for the divine palate, for he doth feed upon extasies, and raptures. Oh God, praise waiteth for thee in Sion, and unto thee shall the Vow be performed in Jerusalem Psal. 65.1. The praise of his power, and the Vow of his all-sufficiency. We should leave all the spe­cious things upon earth, and think onely on the glorious God. The earth should seem barren, and God fruitful; the Sea dry, and God moist; the Cedars low, and God high; the Mines poor, and God rich; the Stars dark, and God bright. Or, if nature hath any thing in it singular, God should be more admirable; if the Rose be sweet, God should be more fragrant; if the Nightin­gale doth sing pleasantly; God should seem to be more melodi­ous; if the Lions do roar, God should be more terrible; if the Pearls have lustre, God should have the more splendour; if the air be spacious, God should be infinite; if the marbles be durable God should be everlasting; if the Giants be strong, God should be Omnipotent; if Princes be Majesticall, God should have the true Crown & Scepter. We should take off our sight, and de­light from these things, & our eyestrings, & heartstrings should be only towards our God; if we look upon these, we should gaze upon God; if we be affected with these, we should be ravished with God; we should say, what is a Nectarean draught, a delici­ous banquet, an embroidered garment, an enamelled hanger, a marble statue, a face of beauty, an arm of chivalry, a brain of policy, curious galleries, engraven chimney pieces, stately bel­conies, lofty turrets, furnished wardrobes, burnished dining-chambers, specious Theaters, precious Jaspers, odoriferous perfumes, orient colours? no, we should call these things but the sophistry of judgement, the Magick of the senses, cheats to delude under-wits, trifles to please half-sighted Naturalls: but when we come to look upon him, who is all Magnificence, we should say, What is worth? what is wonder? what is com­pleatnesse? what is eternity? what is incomprehensiblenesse? What is God? What is the admirable Universe to the incom­parable [Page 35]God? Principium Philosophiae est admirari Sum­mum Cicero. lib. 2. Offi [...]. Admiratio est reverentia ex magna imagi­natione erga Maximum. Da­mas. l. 2. c. 15. The beginning of Philosophy is to admire the Ghiefest, and this is not onely the beginning, but the summary of all Divinity. For what is Admiration, but a reverence to­wards that which is principall out of an high imagination? Now who transcends God? then why should he not be most eminent in estimation? We use to affect him most, where we see some choise things; now how is every thing in God match­lesse? Great things indeed are done here, yet not such but we can conceive the utmost extent, both of the Acts and Authors: but great things doth he, and we cannot comprehend him, Job 37.5. we can track out other mens wayes, but his wayes are past finding out, Rom. 11.35. The report of other things is come to our ears, we have discovered them to the full, we desire to heare no more of them: but when shall we have a full relati­on of God? or our ears be filled with his report? are we pri­vy to so much, that we desire no more? No, These are part of his wayes, but what a little portion is there heard of him? Job 26.14. We can sift, and screw out other things, but meet we not here with that which is inscrutable? Canst thou by searching finde out God? canst thou find out the Almighty to his perfection? Job 11.7. yet as supereminent as God is, what peerlesse esteem is there of him? doe we seat him in the first place? do we make him a superiour? no, we professe him, but doe not prize him; we subscribe to him, but doe not ascribe to him; we discourse of him, but doe not deifie him. God hath the least part of the day spent upon him, there is the least speech heard of him, our eyes look seldomest towards heaven, our hearts are least intent upon God. Who would not think, but that we had lost our Bi­bles that our Temples were all razed, that we had denyed our Baptism, forgotten every Article of our Beliefe? neither our wayes, worship, wits, or wills, doe declare a God. In this Ser­mon-age have we learned a God? In this Lecture-solstice, in­stead of the light of a Saviour doth there so much shine amongst us, as the light of a Superiour? Superiours doe carry great authority with them, but what soveraignty hath God? their commands are ruling, but are Gods lawes binding? we live as we list for all this God, and act at pleasure for all this supe­riour; we even mock at this God, and brave upon this Superi­or. Sure I am, his manifest precepts are neglected, & his known lawes violated in despight of his jurisdiction, and maugre his authority; as if he were not able to prescribe or judge. Doe we, or dare we carry our selves thus to other Superiours? doe we set up them with no more honour, or give to them no more obedience? Yes, we yield to this bright Phoebus, Cedamus Phoe­bo, Virgil. 3. Aenead. and scatter our Palace-fumes through every corner of the presence-cham­ber where such a Clarissimo doth sit in his Chayr of state: mark [Page 36]the passages under Dionysius King of Sicily: they hearken, and listen, creep and cringe, flatter and flagge, honour and humour, correspond, and comply; they did lay at his feet, nay lay un­der his feet to satisfie his command; the Spaniel did fawn, the Ape make faces, the Mag-py chatter'd, the Setting-dog quested, the Tumbler rowled, and the Mastiffe did teare to content such a Master. O how obsequious and servile were they to mans injunctions? their knees did bend, their heads were uncove­red, they had Sycophants tongues, and Parasites cheeks, they did shut up their lips, and opened their purses, did bear bur­thens like Asses, and were led up and down with rings in their nostrils like Bears, they did venture their carkasses, and jeo­pard their consciences to such an one, to express duty and de­voyre. But hath God this impery over us? is he such a Superi­our? is his reverence like to this feare? his worship like to this prostration? his obedience like to this obsequiousnesse? no, the great God of heaven hath not so much submission or subjecti­on, as a petty Commander, or an under-Officer. For he doth charge, and enjoyne, send forth his severe Edicts, and fiery lawes, Deut. 33.2. He doth write out commandements with his own finger, and make the visions plain upon Tables, threaten plagues, denounce judgements, even no lesse then the bottom­lesse pit, the close prison, the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, and what doth he get by it? People doe withdraw the shoulder, turn the back, clap with their hands, kick with the heel, behave them selves proudly, make the neckiron, and the browbrass, see no more than if they lived in Egyptian darknesse, heare no more than if they were in a spirit of slum­ber, obey no more than if they were given up to a reprobate sense: Oh heare Gods sad complaints, How long shall I suffer? Mar. 9.19. I have sent my Prophets early, and late, Jer. 7.13. I looked for grapes, but found none, Isai. 5.4. I am broken with your whorish heart, Ezek. 6.9. I am pressed under you as a Cart is pressed with sheaves, Amos 2 13. I am weary with repenting, Jer. 15.6. So long doth God wait and attend, and lo no respect, no an­swering expectation. Such an uncommanding God, and un­prevalent Superiour doe we make of him. Now would not man be thus served, and shall God? No, I beseech you consi­der what the true power of government is, what a dominati­on doth belong to a Superiour: and as thou stoopest to man, submit to God, fear him as if thou sawest him throwing An­gels out of heaven, drowning the old world for disobedience, cleaving the earth to swallow up some, sending down fire from heaven to consume others, smiting some at midnight like the first-born of Egypt, some at the sun-rising, like the Sodomites, some in the midst of their Camps like Achab, some upon the [Page 37]princely Throne like Herod; or feare him, as if thou sawest him driving out the Pegs out of this faire Structure, pulling down the poles of this goodly stage, sapping the Universe, un­dermining the world, nulling the whole Creation, clashing the Heavens, melting the Elements, and turning this whole earth into a Bonfire, rifling the Graves, raising the dead, put­ting on his Judges Robes, stepping into a glorious Tribunal, passing sentence upon the quick and the dead; Can thy heart but thrill, and thy conscience tremble at the thought of such a Superiour? Thou thinkest thou canst lay on heavy strokes, and speak formidably; but stretch out thine arme as farre as thou canst, and roare as loud as thou art able, yet hast thou an arme like God? and canst thou thunder with thy voyce like him? Job 40.9. Thou thinkest thy words shall stand, and whatsoever is decreed, or enjoyned by thee, thou wilt make havock but it shall be executed; but, are thy resolutions as firme, and thy mandates as Magisteriall God's? No, Heaven and Earth shall passe away, rather then one tittle of his word shall fail: thou thinkest, wretched are they that doe not obey thy commands; but cursed are they that doe not confirme all the words of Gods law to doe them, Deut. 27.26. Oh then let man be no longer the God, and God brought under man; but let man be cast out, and God set up; know his power, consider his authority, apply thy selfe to his will, conform thy selfe to his lawes, feare the least guilt before such a confounding Judge. Let man be ne­ver such a man, yet there is a Numen above him. God here doth enter the lists with man, and plead for his superiority, he is the most high, and must be chiefe: For hadst thou, and should not I?

2. This serves to tie up the murmuring tongue; for is God a Superiour, and shall we quarrell with him? will not man be contested with, and shall God? must thou be born with, and shall not God be forborn? Hadst thou, and should not I? yes, [...]. Hamith of Ha­mah. Querela cum impatientia Cassiod. Oblo­cutio indebita contra Deum. Aquin. Justi­tiam ferientis accusare. Greg. Sibilus latentis odii Hugo. Morsus in ma­num medici. Naz. this finding fault with Gods actions, is called an obstrepe­rousnesse against the Almighty: yea, Hamith in the Hebrew, doth signifie a man in a tumult: This sin is styled a grievance with an impatience, and unjust contradicting of God, the accusing of a punishing God, the hissing of a secret hatred, yea the biting of the Physitians hand, as if God could not decree any thing, unlesse he had obtained our vote; or act any thing, unlesse he would give us leave to guide his hand. But woe be to him that saith to his father, Why hast thou begotten me? or to his mother, Why hast thou thus brought me forth? Isa. 45.10. What is this, but to slide from the foundation in a gust? or for the Anchors to come home in a Tempest? How unseemly is it, that we should bring God [Page 38]to the test? summon him into the Court, revise his proceed­ings, or take upon us to ventilate, winnow, skreen every grain that doth drop from his providence? Cannot we be out of a state of welfare, but we must be out of patience? must God doe every thing according to our wilis, or is he unjust? No, He doth not hear us according to our desires, but according to our soules health: Non audit ad voluntatem, sed ad sanitatem. Aug. in Ps. 21 Electos Dei cernimus & pia agere, & cru­delia tolerare. Gr [...]g. Nos te injuste cu [...]paba­mus dum liga­res, dum se [...]a res homines [...]onos. Arnob. in Ps. 50: afflictions may happen, and yet man never a­whit the more miserable; for cannot righteous men suffer, and yet be happy? Yes, we have often seen the elect of God live religiously, and yet indure bitter things. Oh God we did unjustly blame thee? that thou didst bind, and out gracious people. Therefore we should repine no more at Gods changing of our conditions, than at the changing of the weather; nor at some humbling us in our pilgrimage, than at the catching of a fall in our journey; nor at the cutting short of our means, than at the clipping of our over grown locks. God is our Superiour, and we must submit all to his pleasure. But how hard a thing is it for God to keep us quiet? no, we came with a cry into the world, and we are froward Creatures all the dayes of our life: the wisest men have been subject to these distempers, the most vertuous men have been prone to this impatience. This was the sinne of the Israelites: Where­fore hath the Lord smitten us this day before the Philistines? 1 Sam. 4.3, and of Job, Wherefore hast thou brought me out of the womb? Oh that I had perished, and no eye had seen me, Job 10.18. and of David, Why hast thou forgotten me? why go I mourning when the ene­my oppresseth me? Psal. 42.9. And are not we such Male-con­tents and Mutineers? Yes, not an accident can fall out, but we are ready to be disturbed at it; not an action can passe from Gods fingers, but we are forward to question both his wisdome and justice. Neither plenty nor scarcity, peace nor war, rain nor drought, heat nor cold, the freedom of the Or­dinances, nor the restraint of them can please us. But why do we thus lift up our tongues against God? or set our mouthes against heaven? Is not this to dig up the rottent bones of the Israelites? or to stigmatise our selves with their branded sins? Yes. Murmur not as some of them murmured, and were destroyed of the Destroyer, 1 Cor. 10.10. Is it fit for us to snarl against God, and strive with our Maker? no, if the will of an earthly Su­periour must be yeelded to, much more of the heavenly; for hadst thou, and should not I?

Thirdly, this serves to teach us all humility, for if God be a Superiour should not this abase us? can we be haughty, and insolent, when our Better is in our eye? No, he that doth tru­ly believe a God, and acknowledge his Power, and Superio­rity, should be cloathed with humility, and decked inwardly [Page 39]with lowlinesse of mind. Blessed are the poor in spirit, but cursed are the arrogant in spirit. Excelsa patria, humilis via Aug. ad Dios­corum. Nisi quis à seipso deficiat, ad eum qui su­pra se est non appropinquat. Greg. The power of Religion is to cast down high Imaginations, and every thing that exalteth it self. The Coun­try is high, but the way is low. Unlesse a man doth come beneath himself he can never get up to him, who is above him. Learn of me, not to cre­ate a World, not to bring forth things visible and invisible, not to work miracles, not to raise the dead, but to be humble and meek. Oh then that the chain of pride is worn about the neck of Religi­on; that the spirituall person is puffed up with a fleshly mind, Discite à me, non mundum creare, non visi­bilta & invisi­bilia fabricare, non miracula in mundo facere, sed, quoniam hu­milis, & mitis sum. Aug. de verb. Dom. that there is an haughty Gospeller, a proud Professor; that superciliousnesse is under the eyelids of mortification, and most self-estimation where seems most self-deniall; that they which pray most, do rise up from their knees with de­fying brows; and that they which are oftnest at Lectures, do come from the Pulpit exalting their gate, and stret ching out their necks. Christ had need come again to wash feet, and to set a little Child in the midst of us, for Religion hath not her haughty eye pluckt out of her head; no, the pride of Israel doth testifie to her face. But oh beloved, let us abate of this high-mindednesse, if we be weaned from the brest, let us not have too much of the milk of vain glory hang upon our lips. It is enough to make us humble, that we are but Inferiours, for it there not one that hath preheminence over us? Yes, God is our Superiour. How then can we be great in our own eyes, when God doth excell us by many degrees? No, our qualifications are not to be thought of in respect of Gods per­fections; for lay Face to Face, Place to Place, Power to Pow­er, Honour to Honour, Graces to Graces, and what is the Black-more to the Bright God? The Sun-burnt Creature to the glorious Creatour? No, God doth every way out-vy thee, out-weigh thee, out-shine thee; thou maist have some emi­nencies in thee, but God hath greater: for Hadst thou? and should not I?

4. This serves to excite every man to uphold the dignity of his place; we must not be proud, wee must not be pusillani­mous; we must not be of an arrogant, nor an abject spirit; if thou beest great, come not beneath that sublimity which God hath raised thee to; the Moralist will tell thee that that no­ble vertue of magnanimity is for every man to defend his just honours. I find this in Gods Ethicks, He would not abate of his rights; he was a Superiour, and he would not be made a Minor. No, Hadst thou? and should not I? It is a disgrace to re­cede from the interests of our callings, it is ignominy to pejo­rate our degrees. If our names be much set by, we should not do vulgar things to lessen our reputations; if we be more ho­nourable [Page 40]then our brethren, we should prenoble this priori­ty with honourable actions; prepotency should carry with it superlativenesse of worth, glorious Titles should beget He­roicall Brests, Ambros. lest there be Nomen inane, & crimen immane, a vain name, and a main sin. The noble Vine should bring forth the sweetest grapes, Stars of the greater magnitude should give light according to the Orbes in which they shine. As e­very one hath received the gift, so let him administer the same, as good disposers of the manifold graces of God. The young man should not lose the vigour of his sappy years, nor the old man should not lose the reverence of his gray hairs, the Magistrate should not rip the fur out of his cap of Maintenance, nor the Priest should not unhallow the consecration of the Lord up­on his forehead; the Factour should not turn Filcher, nor the Guardian Bloodsucker. It is an heavy thing for the Pilot to run the Ship upon the Rocks, or for the Watchman to betray his Tower, or the City-keies; It is a scandal to this day to the Sons of Eli to have the charge of the sacrifices, and to lurch with the flesh-hook; and to Judas to bear the bag, and to be a thief: And as base is it, for men to pretend for the publique, and to live upon the common purse; or to cry up Gods cause to seaze upon the Church-Patrimony. Oh horri­ble collusion, and execrable perfidiousnesse! Would any honourable minds have in them such ignoble resolutions? or any religious hearts such un-Gospel-like practises: Every just man should act with an analogy to his pretended equity, and every holy man should observe the symmetry of his vowed sanctity. Pliny. l. 28. c. 6. The Pythagoreans would never lay the left thigh over the right. Plut. in A­poph. Cato Major hated that Souldier that would move his hands walking, or his feet sighting. Q. Curtius. Alex­ander would not go to the Olympian games, because there were no Kings Sons there to meet him: all these intimating that no man should do any thing indecent for his places, and Calling. Smaragdus in luce obscu­rus? Adag. Should an Emerald be dark in the clear day? No, if thou hast any worthy parts in thee, thou shouldst make the gemme to be known by the lustre. Non similiter pingis, & fin­gis. Macrob. Saturn. l. 2. c. 2. It was a tart reproof of one to Mallius, who was an excellent painter, and yet had deformed children, that he did not paint, and procreate, in the same manner. So it is fit that the births of our actions should be answerable to the dignity of our callings. What an infamous thing was it for Tiberius, that for two years after he was Emperour he never stirred foot out of Rome, and that afterwards he could not be drawn out of the Iland of Capreae, but there invented his detestable Spintriae Sueton. Frabricks of lust. And for Caligula, that he made but one expedition in all the time of his reign, and that was with a mighty army to come down to [Page 41]the Sea-shore to gather Cockles as the Ʋt spolia O­ceani. spoil of the Ocean, for which hee wrote a triumphant letter to the Senate. Opera magna potius quam ne­cessaria fecit. And for Claudius that he delighted only to make great, but not necessary works; and that he was more famous for restoring the saecular games, than for erecting any stately Monuments; that his chief skill was to kill men by degrees, that they Vt sentirent se mori. might feel their selves to die, Postero die, & in corvivi­um, & in aleae lusum admoveri jussit. and the next day to send for them to come, and feast, and play with him. And for Domitian, who for the vast power, and authority which was put into his hands did nothing memorable, but only studiedan exquisite art Ne musca quidem. of killing of flies, and setting up gol­den Statues to his honour, and inventing, and assuming glo­rious titles to himself, Dominus, & Deus noster sic fieri jubet. as Our Lord God doth command it so to be done. And for Ninyas the Son of Ninus, who shut up himselfe in his Palace, shunning the sight of all men, thinking to have his satiety of unintermitted delights, Per omne vi­tae tempus re­clusus in regia, conspectumque hominum vi­tans, Existima­bat in continuis versari volup­tatibus, vacuum esse curis, sum­mam in princi­pe esse felicita­tem. D [...]od. l. 2. c. 6. and that to be free of all cares was the only felicity which did belong to a Prince; And for Sardanapalus, who ended a famous Empire which had continued 1360 years, who for his immoderate licentiousness was firnamed [...] Athen. l. 12. c. 12. the Absolute Effeaminate; as if he had been evi­ratus, unmanned. And for Alexander, who in his latter end was so highly corrupted, that it was said, Alexandrum ex Imperatore clarissimo Da­rii satrapam factum videri Sabel. l. 5. Enc. 4. Plut. in Cleomene. Of a famous Em­perour, he was become one of the Courtiers of Darius. And for Ptolomeus Philopater, who was wont to go up and down the streets with a Timbrell in his hand, and spending out his daies in pleasure, he left government of all things to his Curtesan Agathoclia, and the bawd Onanthes; And for L. Verus Antonius, who was said to bring from the Parthian Battel, nothing but an army of Libertins, and he himself so sensual, that he delighted only in the presence of one Agrippus, who was called the Apolaustam cognominabant. Voluptuary. And for Commodus, who not one­ly was vested like a woman, and sprinkled his hair with gold-dust, Humanum stercus cibis immisceret, e­osque irrideret, qui eom mixtu­ram abborre­rent. Fulgos. l. 9. c. 1. but put mans ordure into meat, and derided them which would not feed greedily upon it, and brought up jesters naked in Chargers spread over with mustard. And for Leo the tenth, those excessive luxuries, and manifest lusts which were charged upon him, did wonderfully obscure his vertues. And for Julius 3d, who at Port Flumentane, when he was 70. years of age lived in such excesse of lust and riot, that it was said, Fruendo potius, quam regendo Pontificatui totus incumberet. Pan­vinius. that he entred the Popedom rather to enjoy it, then govern it. Now is this to assert the honour of a place? or to dignify that which hath illustrated them? No, this is to vilipe greatnesse, or to embase noblenesse. A true Peere will rather part with his George, then his Vertues, Leonis Pont. 10. animi vir­tutes, cù ni­mia saepe vitae luxuria, tùm objectae libidi­nes obscurabant. Jovius in ejus vita. [Page 42]and pollute the graves of his Ancestors, than stain himselfe with blemishes dishonourable to his family. He whose worth doth carry an adequate commensuration with his calling, is best skilled in Geometry, I might say he hath the best insight into Divinity; for doe not all gracious persons observe this levell? and make greatnesse the square of goodnesse? Yes, when Joseph was left officer in his Masters absence, he would not meddle but with that which was under his disposing; he had the command of all Potiphars goods, but his Mistress he thought was none of those utensils a Steward ought to deale with: therefore when she tempted him to lie with her, he would be her servant, but not her bed-fellow; he would lose his coat, rather than be drawn to a couch of dalliance; he readeth over the Bill of his charge to her, and telleth her, that she is left out of the commodities which he was to lay hand on. Behold my Master knoweth not what he hath in the house with me, but hath committed all that he hath to my hand. There is none greater in his house than I, neither hath he kept any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife. How then shall I commit this great wickednesse, and so sinne against my God? Gen. 39.7, 8, 9. vers. Thus Michaeas when he was sent for to resolve whether Achab should go up to Ramoth Gilead or not, though four hundred Prophets had declared before for the journey, and said, it should be prosperous; and the King himselfe had expressed his high dis-affection against him; for he doth not prophesie good, but evill unto me: and a prepared messenger had used all manner of insinuating terms to put the Court-tone into his mouth; for Behold now the words of the Prophets declare good unto the King with one accord; let thy words therefore be like one of them, and speak thou good. Yet it is neither the Kings displeasure, nor the Mes­sengers flattery, can make him vary, or put a plyable, compliable Tongue into his mouth; no, I am a Pro­phet, and must keep my calling unspotted; therefore whatsoever the Lord saith, that will I speake, 1 King. 22.14. Thus Nehemiah, when he was intreated to a conference by Tobiah, Sanballat, Geshen, the powerfull men of the Country, and a messenger with an open Letter in his hand, had char­ged him with rebellion, telling him that he aspired, and af­fected the Crown: for thou wouldest be King, and accused him for seducing the priesthood, as if he had gotten Mercenary Chaplains to preach up his Title, and given him the lie; for it is not done accord­ing to these words that thou sayest but thou feignest them out of thine owne heart; and as the last designe they had treated with his own party, even corrupted the seeming Saints of the age; yea hired the Prophets to take him off, and terrifie him; for Noa­diah with the rest of the holy league and combination had [Page 43]put him in feare; and Delaiah the son of Mehetabeel, in shew devotion had shut up himselfe in the Temple, and there upon his knees, had sought God, that by revelation he might state the businesse; He, even he disswaded him to leave the wall, and to take Sanctuary; for saith he, Let us come together into the house of God, and shut the doores of the Temple, for they will come to slay thee, yea in the night will they come to kill thee; yet a­gainst all these frights and charmes, Nehemiah doth stand re­solute; yea the propheticall lure cannot take him, for he thinketh that these Altar-wights, and Vision-men, are not too much to be trusted, snares and gins he thought might be laid in the Temple it selfe. Therefore Nehemiah doth keep his ground, and would not be strook blind by the Seers them­selves, nor drawn away from his charge by a revelation-string. It is the wall that I have undertaken the defence of, saith he, and if I depart from it, I betray the cause: if I doe but turn my face, all will desert the businesse; farewell Wall and Ci­ty. Let Noadiah, and Delaiah, if they will shut up themselves, when they ought to be animating the people; or house them­selves, when they ought to be in Armies, or strengthening the hand of them which are ready to fight; but if I depart, I turn Recreant; if I leave the wall, they will say, There doth go the Corner creeper, let us go after him, for he is gone to save one, to preserve his own head: whosoever doth post a­way, I must stay by it, whosoever do secure themselves, seek refuges, speed away as fast as their legs will carry them, yet it shall never be said that Nehemiah was a dastard, a Renegade, Retrogade, heel-changer, back-turner, faulterer, falsifier, fortune-seeker, fugitive. I am Nehemiah, and neither Noadiah, nor Delaiah, shall draw me after them: no, let them have their single trace, their distinct vagary, I am a leading man, no following man; I am a fixed man, no fleeing man. Should such a man as I flee? who is he that being as I am, would go into the Temple to live? I will not go in, Neh. 6.10, 11. Epaminondas be­ing accused, because contrary to the Baeotarchicall Law, he had stayed out above seven moneths in an Expedition, and for this errour, judgement of death was ready to be pronoun­ced against him; Indeed, saith he, my crime is great, that making bold with this short time, I have brought home to your State the conquest of all Lacedemonia, and Messenia. Plut. in praecep. Politicis. The valiant Captaine intimating, that a glorious victory was far to be preferred before time or law. Cato executing the Cal­phurnian Law, that no man should come to offices by bribery, the Candidates were so offended, that they set upon him with violence; and though he were Praetor at that time, yet no man assisted him, but even the Senators deserted him; but [Page 44]afterwards escaping out of their hands, he made such an Ora­tion (being gotten up into the Rostra) that he both calmed and shamed his enemies; then the flattering Senate highly magnified both his wisdome and courage: At ego vos non laudo, qui de­seruistis Praeto­rem in discri­mine, nec ei succurristis. Plut. in Catone Ay, saith he, you praise me, but I doe not praise you, who forsook your Pre­tour in danger, and would not defend him. The prudent man thinking it not fit that he should suffer the dignity of his place to be trampled under foot, and his Pretor-ship contem­ned.

The Aegyptians had a custome, that no man could set up his Image in publique, but by the approbation of the chiefe Priests: when Darius therefore would have his Statue placed at Memphis, nigh to the statue of Sesostris, the High-priest would by no meanes yeeld to it, saying that Darius had not yet attained to the honour of Sesostris his attempts. Se nondum ope­ra Sesostris aequâsse. Diodor l. 1. c. 4. The stout High priest thinking it a disparagement to him, that he should be drawn to an unjust consent by the motion of a Prince, but he thought it requisite to maintaine the credit of his place, to give honour to them which had deserved it. Severus the Em­perour being sick of the Gout, the Souldiers in an heady hu­mour saluted his Son Bassianus (afterwards called Caracalla) Augustus Severus, highly displeased at the passage, cited them all to the Tribunall, and there having humbled them, he told them, Nunctandem in­telligitis, non pedes, sed caput imperare. Fulgos. l. 2. c. 2. At last they might perceive, That not the feet, but the head did raign over them. The couragious old man seeing him­selfe assaulted by his inferiours, princely vindicated the ho­nour of his place, shewing them that a good Governour was not to be cast away for a lame legge; and that it was the brain, and not the feet, which made the Emperour. The Citizens of Argentine (now called Strasbourgh) coming to Henry the 7^th to have their liberties confirmed, they using a tedious Ora­tion, and immoderately extolling the power of their great Lords of the City, E [...]s derisit Imp. nullá responsio­ne dignatus, donec se submit­terent, ac se non Dominos, sed cives Argenti­nenses testaren­tur. Cuspin. the Emperour thinking it unseemly, that they which came to begge for favours, should too much mag­nifie their own greatnesse, told them they should have no­thing from him, till they knew how to speak more submis­sively, and style themselves not Lords, but Citizens. Lewis the 11^th of France, desiring to thrust an Abbot injuriously out of his place, commanding him Cedere to give up his Right, and to yeeld the possession of it to one whom he should nomi­nate; Quadraginta annis vix prio­res duas literas alphabeti perce­pi A. B. (Ab­bae) nec nisi ex­actis alteris quadraginta se­quentes duas, C. D. (Cede) addiscere cogito. Aegidius Cor­rozens de dictis memorab. the Abbot thinking the King to have no absolute po­wer to dispose of Church-rights without some high crime, or the parties voluntary consent, resolutely told him, that he had been forty years learning the two first letters of the Alphaphet, A. B. that is, to know how to be made an Abbot, and he should be forty yeares longer before he should learne [Page 45]the two next letters C. D. by which he meant Cede; that is, that he could not understand how to yield up an Abbotship. When the Athenians sent the Thebans word that they had made an happy peace with Alexander Pheraeus, because hee Promised them by the benefit of this league he would sell them a pound of flesh for an half farthing, the Thebans ta­king this as a mock put upon them, they wished Epaminondas to return them this answer, Nos ad carnes has praehebimus sine precio lign [...]. Plut. in Apo­pheg. that if they had concluded any thing in this peace prejudiciall to the state of Thebes, that they would send their Generall to burn down all their For­rests, and that they would give them wood on freecost to rost their Flesh withall. Pinguis porcus, quam macer hir­cus esse in in [...];lo. Jovius in Elo­giis. When Galeotius Martius Narniensis was to suffer at Venice for religion, a certain vitious liver de­rided him, and called him fat hog, Galcottus thinking it an in­humane thing to reproach a dying man, told him, I had ra­ther be a fat hogge, then a lean goat.

Thus ye see variety of examples, how worthy men have in­sisted upon their own; that the greater they were, the greater care they had to procure reputation to their Stations. But how many of these Worthies are there now to be found? No, like men, that had some Lethargy, Vertigo, or palpitation of the heart, they have forgotten every thing, that should be dear, and pretious to them, and even trembled to be their own propugnatours? Where are their emblasoned armes? where are the crests of their escutcheons? they have forfey­ted their arms, they have steined their blood; every Hind, or Rurall Blebeian would have disdeigned to be so narrow­brested; what regard have they expressed to fame, or family, name or Nation, Church or God? No, they have had vast Estates, and even for the rentall sake they have looked to preserve their skins, and not their credets; their heaps, and not their honours. Oh what a fetter is the golden chain? what an intoxicating bowl is the cup, that doth run over with earthly abundance? their esteem is starved to get the bread of increase, and they have left a lean conscience to make sure the fat portion; let all honour go, when the main dormant of the house doth crack, and the roof of greatnesse doth begin to be untiled; the fane doth turn according as the wind of security doth blow, and the ship doth sail according as the rudder of self preservation doth steer. These are no States­men, Estates-men; not publique spirited men, but purse spirited men. Their great Oracle is the chinking penny, and their bright Numen is the golden-wedge; this is the handi­craft of such Mechanicks, the creeping hole of such earth­worms, the foxburrow of subtle Worldlings, the Stage-play of State-actors; or, if ye will, the politique Mummery. But oh! [Page 46]why do ye thus indignifie dignities? God hath given you the wings of an Eagle, let not the Bat take as lofty a flight; be as great as your Parentage, and Pedigrees, Ties, and Titles, Lands, and Livelyhoods proclaim you to be great; yea, be as great as your great Creatour hath made you to be; let not God have the bringing of you forth, and the Divell the bringing you up; if ye be cut out of the whole piece, let not this broad cloth shrink up; if ye fight for the wall, let not the frokman take the right hand of you in worth; as ye valew your places, illustre them; as ye tender your dig­nities, leave them dignities; lose not an inch of your sta­ture, Simia in purpu­râ. Servilis Ca­pillus in nobili Capite. Zeno do [...]. embezle not your stock, sell not your Birthright; Let there not be an Ape in purple, the servile tuffe upon the No­blemans head, be not poor spirited under rich preheminen­cies. Ye see how all men have stood up in their own right; Oh then that ye should not have hearts great enough to engran­dise your selves according to the eminency of your callings. What is this but pusillanimity of spirit? It is not the gorgeous house, [...] nor splendid array, that make you mighty; it is not the sword, and spear which do declare your prowesse, but he is a man of a generous, couragious spirit, which doth ex­presse himself, as worthy as his abilities and titles do im­power him to be. No man must be Inferiour to himself. God hath given man permission, nay a president to reciprocate with his state. He himself was a Superiour, and he would not be made a Demy. Jonas had done somthing, and God would have right to do more. Hadst thou, and should not I

5. This serves to shew that we ought not to deny that to God, which we do grant to our selves. For Hadst thou? and should not I? Shall not the Judge of all the Earth do right? and shall not the Judge of all the Earth have right? That is a penurious religion, which doth feed it self to the full, and doth turn off God with fragments; here is a sacrifice without smoak. [...] Lucian We which assume glory to our selves, should give glory to God; yea, we which are rigid in our own pro­prieties, Sacra [...] [...] [...]n [...] con­stant▪ [...]. we should be as strict in Gods Prerogatives, for Give [...] God that which is Gods: If thy evidence be any thing worth, or there be any claim to be made by thy Patent, or Charter, P [...]a cele [...] [...] ­venda. August. Our [...]ly things have as great validity in them. Yea, whatsoever ready payment thou dost expect, Gods debts should be as soon discharged, Pious things are the greatest engagements, and should have the first satisfaction. Shouldst thou God it alone, and the true Deity not be permitted to have joint authority with thee? [...] Homer. Yes, [...] God too, and have equall right, and rule with thee. Oh that God hath nothing but a name, a Canticle, a Para­sange, that he is outed of all, but an Appellative. He is the [Page 47]great God, but he hath the least Jurisdiction; thou canst have many things, that thou wilt not suffer God to partici­pate with thee in. Thou maist have thy house, but not God his Temple; thou thy badges of honour, but not God his Sacraments; thou thy rents, but not God his tithes; thou thy Officers, but not God his Ministers: Thy evidence must not be falsified, Gods faith may be corrupted; thy name must not be touched, his Divinity may be blasphemed: a man cannot trespasse against thee, but thou lookest for satis­faction; but a man may sin against God, and he is not bound to right him with repentance: thy customes, usages, laws, and limits must be looked to, but here people are discharged of all ties, free grace doth make them free of all laws, there are pure professours, which say they are beyond duties, be­yond Ordinances: thou must be reverenced, and worshipped, but the more sawcy and rude men are with God, the more fervent and devout they are, not so much as salute him with a prayer at the entrance into his house, nor uncover their heads to him so long as they stand in his prefence, or receive his Laws; not so much as bow at his saving name, or kneel at his blessed Sacrament; thou canst not be made venerable enough, every Mushroom grown up in a night, doth look e­ven to be adored, but all honour to him is wil worship, and all reverence superstition. Oh what an Optimus, Maximus, art thou? what a P [...]ssimus, Minimus is God? thou art a Potentate, he is but an Infimate; thou a Praegrand, but he a Perpufill, a Petite. But what is this, but to seaze upon Gods Crown­land, and to deprive him of his Regalities, and Numinalities? Shall not the generall include particulars? shall not the Landlord have all the rights of the Tenant? Shalt thou which dost sit upon thy wooden chair, and art not as big as an Elephant, which hast upon thy back but a few garments of the D [...]ers puke, and the hairs of thy head not so comely as the alablaster, which canst not make a leaf, nor create a guat, whose feet do daily touch the Earth, and hast none but a company of Flesh-worms creeping about thee as Attendants, vie priviledges with him which doth sit upon a Throne? who is bigger then the whole Creation, whose garments are as wite as swow, the hairs of his head like the pure wooll? which formeth the Mountains, createth the wind, buildeth his stories in the Heavens, and hath thousand, and ten thou­sand Angells ministring unto him? No, God is thy Superi­our, whatsoever is allowed thee must be granted him; For, Hadst thou? and should not I?

Part 3.

Now let us come to the stream which should flow from it, and that is mercy, sparing; Should not I spare? From hence ob­serve, that Gods naturall inclination is to compassion; if he be offended, doth the grievance alwaies stick at his heart? no, He retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mer­cy, Micha. 7.18. Mercy is his pleasure, and his plea; indeed ordinative justice is in God essentially, but punitive justice is in God accidentally, Justitia ordi­nans. Justitia puniens. because it is a strange worke, strange from his sweet nature. At what leisure doth he lift up the Rod? he doth not punish, till there be no remedy, 2 Chron. 36.16. With what a difficulty doth he reject a people? He cast them not from his presence, as yet, 2 King. 13.23. for as Uladislaus King of Hungary did put up so many injuries, Mutum Idolum. Dubrav. l. 32. that he was called the Mute Idol: so God is deafe, and dumb to infinite provocati­ons. Yea, as Pericles, when one had rayled upon him all day, and followed him home at night with clamours, he shewed himselfe not to be discontented at it, but onely said to his servant mildly, Ito, & hunc ci­vem ad domum reducito Plut. in Pericle. Beneficium se putabat accipere augustissimae me­moriae Theo­dosius, cum r [...]garetur ignos­cere. Amb. de obit. Theodos. Go thou, and lead home this Citizen to his owne house; so God doth endure oftentimes our molestations pati­ently by day, and causeth us at night to be lead home quiet­ly. Theodosius counted it for a favour, when any one would intreat him to forgive; and nothing is more acceptable to God, than when any doth sue to him for compassion; He doth wait, that he may have mercy upon him, Isai. 30.18. Instead of bringing in an ext inguisher, he doth light up a Candle, Psal. 18.28. in­stead of searing up the roots, he is as the dew to the roots, Hos. 14.5. his cup is a cup of consolation, Jer. 16.7. his bands are bands of love, Hos. 11.4. mercies are the sounding of his bowels, Isai. 63.15. the shining of his face, Dan. 9.17. he doth take no delight in wounding, but healing, Hos. 14.14. not in recor­ding trespasses, but blotting them out, Nehe. 4.5. If people have any remorsefull preparations in them, the comforter which should relieve their soules is not farre from them, Lam. 1.16. if they can restore their obedience, he will restore comforts to them, Isai. 57.18. if he would be accounted to abound in any thing, it is to be rich in mercy, Eph. 2.4. if he would be honoured in any thing, it is in being magnified in mercy, Gen. 19.19. The Saints, which cannot rely upon him for every thing, yet they can depend upon Him for this; for Why dost thou not pardon my transgression, and take away my iniquity? Job 7.21. Spare thy people, O God, and give not over thy heritage as a reproach, Joel 2.17. Spare me according to thy great mercy, Nehe. 13.22. and I will spare them as a father spareth his own children, Mal. 3.17. [Page 49] A Judge oftentimes cannot forgive, because he is tied to the will of a­nother; Judex veniam peccatis dare non potest, qui [...] voluntati servit alienae. Deus autem potest, quia suae legis est dispensator, & judex. Ter­tul. Deus tam liberaliter om­nem condona vit injuriam, ut jam nec damnet ulci­scendo, nec con­fundat impro­perando. Bern. Quo non alter amabilior. but God can, because he is the dispenser and judge of his own law. God so liberally doth pardon all sinne, that he doth damne none by revenging, nor confound them by hastning their destruction. There­fore let none say, that we have a rigid God: no, the Lord with whom we have to doe is very pittifull, James 5.11. Know ye not his name? it is the father of mercies, 2 Cor. 1.3. Know ye not his Throne? it is the Throne of Grace, Heb. 4.16. If the whole world were destitute of mercy, yet with thee is mercy, Psal. 130 4. Than Augustus, there was none more courteous: So than God, there is none more compassionate. The molten Sea, the Shewbread, the bright Lampes, the sweet Incense, the Smoak of the sacrifices, Moses Chayr, Aarons breast-plate, the preach­ing of the Cross, the keyes of the Kingdome of heaven, doe not all these proclaim mercy? who would ever enter into a sanctuary, heare counsail, search conscience, look up to hea­ven, pray, or sancrifice, name a God, or think of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God? if there were no mercy? Doe not all visions, revelations, cove­nants, promises, messages, mysteries, legall purifications, evangelicall pacifications, confirm this? Yes, mercy is the ayr in which we breathe, the dayly light which doth shine a­bout us, the gracious rain of Gods inheritance, it is the pub­lique spring for all the thirsty, the common Hospitall for all the needy, all the streets of the Church are paved with these stones, yea, the very presence-Chamber is hung with no­thing but this curious Arras: What should become of the children, if there were not these brests of consolation? how should the Bride, the Lambs wife be trimmed, if her Bridegroom should not deck her with these abiliments? how should Eden appeare like the Garden of God, if it were not watered with these Rivers? It is mercy that doth take us out of the wombe, feed us in the dayes of our pilgrimmage, furnish us with a souls stock, close up our eyes in peace, and translate us to a secure resting-place. It is the first Petitioners suit, and the first Believers Article, the contemplation of Enoch, the confidence of Abraham, the Syrophoenicians Phy­sick, Mary Magdalens laver, St Peters teare-stancher, St Pauls scale-dropper, the expedient of the penitent, the extasie of the reconciled, the Saints Hosannah, the Angels Hallelujah. By this Noah swam in the Ark, Moses was taken out of the Bul-rushes, Jonas lived in the belly of the Whale, the three Children walked in the fiery furnance, & Elias was taken up in a fiery Chariot. Ordinances, Oracles, Altars, Pulpits, the gates of the Grave, & the gates of Heaven do all depend upon mer­cy. It is the Load-star of the wandring, the ransome of Cap­tives, [Page 50]the antidote of the tempted, the prophet of the living, and the ghostly father of the dying; there would not be one regenerate Saint upon earth, nor one glorified Saint in hea­ven, were it not for mercy. Therefore Jonas, wouldst thou pluck out mine eye? teare out my bowels? thou art a man, and thou shouldest be mercifull; but I am a God, and should not I be mercifull? Yes, if thou continuest the spighting Pro­phet, I must be the sparing God; Should not I spare? Yes, God will be mercifull, for his own nature, for the nature of mer­cy, and for the nature of men.

1. For his owne nature, and that because first it is most proper to him, for is it not inherent to him? Yes, the mountains shall depart, and the hills shall be removed, but my kindnesse shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed saith the Lord, that hath mercy on thee, Isai. 54.10. Thou O Lord art a God full of compassion, and gracious, long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy, Formaliter de nominans ipsum Aq. Psal. 86.15. Yea, he is usually called in Scripture, Misera­tor, & misericors, The mercifull, and gracious God; Mercy being so in God, that it is constitutive, and formally denominating Him; yea he doth not desire to be known so much by his om­nipotency, majesty, or eternity, as by his mercy: This then as it is most expected from God, so it will be most expressed by God, because it is most proper to him.

2. Secondly, It is most honourable to him; for is God so ex­alted in anything, as in shewing of mercy? no, his works of power are nothing like to his workes of mercy; the par­doning of one sin, and the saving of one soule, is more then the framing of the Universe, Aug. and the creating of Angels; God is to be glorified in mercy, Rom. 15.9. a whole quire of Angels sung an Hymn to the honour of mercy; therefore except a man would leave the Church without a Chauntry, or silence all the praises in heaven, God must have liberty to expresse mercy; for it is to him, the thing most honourable.

3. Thirdly, It is to him the thing most uniting; for what doth draw, and gather the multitudes to God, but mercy? There is mercy with thee, therefore shalt thou be feard, Psal. 130.4. We are astonished at his glory, we dread his power, we flee from his justice, but his mercy doth knit us to him; Who would b [...] afraid of a compassionate God? No, the stretching out of this golden Scepter doth make us approach to him with confidence: Deus est appeti­bilis propter bo­nitatem. Aq. other things might separate us from God, but God is appetible in respect of his goodnesse, and kindness, and favour, and mercy. Therefore that God might call in Believers, and have his Courts througed with professors; he doth exhibit mercy, because he doth find it is the thing most uniting.

2. He is mercifull, for the nature of mercy. For what is mercy? but an efflux of a sweet disposition, Condecentia bo­nitatis. Contri­stants affectus, ablatio mali, debitae poenae re­missio. a sympathizing affecti­on, a remedying vertue, a remitting vertue, a prompt vertue, which doth but expect a call, and it doth present it selfe; for he will be gratious unto thee at the voyce of thy cry, Isai. 30.19. Which doth imbrace, when it might strike; accept, when it might abhor; crown, when it might crucifie, which cannot contemn teares, reject the prostrate, nor give a repulse to the suppli­ant; which is continually lighting up of Candles, that sin­ners might see their errors, and melting of consciences, that converts might be new stamped, & bringing blood out of the wounds of a Redeemer, [...]at not a Captive might be left in prison; it would draw men to be frighted with the pit, to leap out of hell, and to seale heaven. Therefore God doth seem to be ravished with the beauty of this divine grace, and would shew mercy even for the nature of mercy.

3. He is mercifull, for the nature of man. For what is man in himself, but one shut up in Caitiffes hole? yes not only in durance, under lock and key; but ready to perish in the dun­geon, that cannot pay his Goal-fees, much lesse hath money enough to buy his pardon; no, if God would offer him mer­cy, yet he must not condition with him upon the easiest terms, for he hath not an earnest penny to bind the bargain; Breve est, par­vum est, minus est. Chrys. whatsoever he can tender, he is ashamed to have it mention­ed, it is short of the account small in respect of what is de­manded, yea lesse then the lowest proposition which can be made. I am lesse than the least of thy mercies, Gen. 32.10. If less than the least, then how shall he deposite for the greatest? Now how shall this necessitous creature be relieved? The bi­tings of want are sharp and bitter. Gravissimi sunt morsus necessi­tatis. Salust. At this exigent man is not wholly helplesse, though he hath no succour at home, yet he he hath a friend abroad. Here is an object for pitty, a place for divine compassion; he cannot depend upon his owne meanes, yet he hath something to relie on, he shall be re­lieved out of the Exchequer. If he can but cry at the grate, there is a listning eare which doth hearken to him. God doth expect such a suiter, and is ready to satisfie his requests. If he can but apprehend wants, he hath felt his last of them. For wherefore am I rich (saith God) but to supply the indi­gent? Wherefore have I bounty, but to make it a common treasury for the distressed? Shall this man then perish? No, the mercifull God will preserve him. He doth see his mi­series, he doth heare his plaints, it is enough that he doth confesse, that he doth stand in need of God, and doth fly to him for redress, he shal not be left without ayd; yea, there shal be commiseration, because there is extremity; God will be [Page 52]mercifull, because of the nature of man. Thus then ye see how Gods inclination is for mercy, and the reasons for it, how then is Jonah in a distraction? he is too bold to inculcate upon the ruining point, as if he would put indignation into Gods eye, vengeance into his brest, swords, spears, thunderbolts, balls of wildsire into his hand; Can God consent to such a furious Pro­phet? no (saith God) neither mine own nature, nor the na­ture of mercy, nor the nature of man will suffer me to sub­scribe to thee: therefore appease thy rage, give over thy doom­ing humour; howsoever if thou beest inhumane, wouldst raise up a bloody God? If thou beest infl [...]ible, should I be inexora­ble, Should not I spare?

Application.

1. This doth serve to shew that our first interest in God is by an application of mercy: for hath nature with all her en­dowments any claim in this tenure? No, till God hath spared, there is nothing but the sword of justice held to the throat: Our first recovery is by the benefit of a pardon. Ex venia con­valesco. Greg▪ Justification is the foundation-stone of the spirituall building. Can two walk together except they be agreed? Amos 3.3. Can God, and man consort together, except they be reconciled? no, as Bassianus, and Geta so long as they were in contention parted the Palace, Cuspinian. and would not sit at the same Table; and as Agamemnon, and Achilles so long as the difference lasted between them, Sabellicus. l. 3. would not come into one anothers Tents. So an unregenerate state doth beget a perpetuall quarrell betwixt God, and the sinner; what freedom can he expect that is holden with the cords of his iniquity? what pleasant fruit can there be tasted from that Plant, whose root beareth gall, and wormwood? what delight can the Father have to cast his eye upon the brows of the chil­dren of wrath? No, an unpardoned soul is under the Executi­oners power, an unjustified conscience is filled yet with an hel­lish Fiend? Let not a guilty heart boast, nor a man without the wedding garment think to sit down at Gods Feast, as an acceptable guest: Mercy is the first ingratiating act, thou art fit for nothing but to be exposed to vengeance, till God doth spare. Should not I spare?

2. This doth serve to shew the sweetnesse of mercy, it is a spa­ring. Oh that the Cities of refuge are vilified! that Gods mer­cy seat hath lost its honour! Vespasian was wont to drink out of his Grandmothers Tertulla's curious cup at all solemn Feasts, but we have given over upon the most memorable occasions to drink out of the golden bowl of mercy; Sueton. Agesilaus had a Friend [Page 53]which had pleasured him at many exigents; yet this Friend fall­ing sick, and weak, desiring him to stay by him, and assist him, Plut. in Age­sil. he turned him off, and marched away, parting from him with a jeer, saying, How hard a thing is it, both to pitty, and to be wise? So this Heavenly Grace which hath been beneficiall to us upon all occasions, we now can scarce endure the company of it, but we reward it with a scoffe in stead of respect: it may call to us for presence, and observance, but if vanity, or ambition hath an expedition to employ us in, we have more mind of our march, then of Mercy. Oh was ever a Benefactour thus con­temned? Nay, was ever a Preserver thus neglected? doth it not rescue us? doth it not spare us? and was ever indulgence, a pardoning vertue, so ill intreated? so disesteemed? No. When Philip was conquered, and the Grecians upon it expected no­thing but slavery, Titus Flaminius proclaiming life, and liberty, the despairing people were so transported w^th it, that they gave such a shout, that the very birds in the ear fell down dead with the noise. When the Crotoniats were besieged in a Castle, Sabellic. l. 7. c. 1. and they were ready to dye for thirst, Dionysius sending them in wa­ter, and freely pardoning them, they were so overjoyed, Diodoru [...]. l. 14 that they sent him golden Crowns. When Frederick had subdued Millain, and, by the perswasion of Uladislaus, Dubra [...]. l. 12. he had forgiven them an horrid outrage committed against him, they took it so kindly, that besides other rich gifts they honoured him with, they sent him the Candlestick of Salomon. But where are our Songs, and Crowns, and golden Candlesticks as thankfull Me­morialls of Gods mercy? No, we are often spared, but purse up all favours like legacies, which are never thought on, after the money is told out; or wee turn them off like Physitians, which are no longer minded, then the cure is working; if we have saluted freedom, farvvell God, and mercy. Indeed a sparing God ought to be pretious to us, Mercy should be the gaze of our eyes, and the trance of our hearts; for the light of Heaven should not be more pleasing to us, than the light of Gods countenance, not the sparkling Ruby, then Gods white Stone; not the Apple of the Eye, then Gods pittifull eye; not the nources brest, then Gods bosom; not the casting a judge­ment out of Court, than Gods casting sins behind his back; not the pardoning signet, than Gods setting us as a seal upon his heart; nor the forgiving of debts, than the not imputing trespasses; Oh how should we dance about this appeasing Al­tar, bow towards this propitiatory, smell with a fragancy the costly perfumes which come steaming out of this golden Cen­ser? But alas we spunge out the memory of benefits, raze out the characters of preservation, we eye not our rescues after they are reached forth unto us; we look not upon our pardon after it be [Page 54]once granted. Favour hath scarce a Panegyrick, or Mercy an Anniversary; we consider not what it is to be freed, we know not what it is to be spared. To be spared from an Amerci­ament, a Tax, a Sequestration, a Messenger, a troublesome Offi­cer, is very operative upon us; such a thing doth lye near to our hearts, there is cap, & knee, the seet tripudiate, the cheeks look blith, the teeth chatter at such a respect; but to be spared by God there is neither reverence, nor worship, eccho, nor extasie: we desire mercy, but not delight in it; pray for it, but not prize it; weep for it, but live not worthy it. Oh what despisers are we of favours? what a lethargy is there of mercies? how sel­dome do we kisse Gods sparing hand? Is this sense? is this discerning? is this gratitude? is this devotion? Do ye thus re­quite the Lord, oh foolish people? Let me pull the vail from the face of this beautifull Rachel, and shew you what an amiable Creature she is; let me represent Mercy to you, and cause you to look upon her as a Celestiall Deity. I do not say, it is that which gave you the first quickning, inched you in the womb, rocked you in the cradle, set you upon your leggs, gave you feature and stature, rudiments and reason, favour and fame, which bought every cloth to your backs, hath put the keyes of your houses into your hands, furnished your Wardrobes, bur­nished your Dining-chambers, opened your shops, steered home your ships, stored your Warehouses, guided Customers to your thresholds, filled your Coffers whereby ye are able to trade with the greatest; and purchase with the richest; which hath brought you from the single to the second services, from the Stall to the Summer-house, from the coorse dresse to the Livery, and the golden Chain; that hath been your Agent, your Solicitour, your Spoaksman in the City, Friend at Court, your Steward by day, and your Chamberlain by night; but I passe by variety of blessings, though ye cannot say but all these clusters do hang upon Mercies boughs, & all these swelling Ri­vers do flow out of Mercies vast Ocean, there being not a year wherein Mercy doth not bestow amongst you Donatives, nor a day wherein Mercy doth not scatter amongst you her lar­gesses. But I tell you (according to my Text) that Mercy is your refuge, and your Shield, your Castle, and your Sanctuary, your Sentinell, your Champion, your Pleader, and your Pa­tron; it doth keep your feet out of the snare, your necks out of the yoak, your brests from the arrow, your heads from the Pole-axe; it is your ye that watches over you in darknesse, your arm every morning; it doth preserve your bodies from judge­ments upon Earth, and save your Souls from the torments of Hell; when ye are ready to be punished, it doth pardon; when ye are ready to be spoiled, it doth spare. Oh that Mercy is such a bright Star, and yet that we have neither ob­served [Page 55]the Asterism, nor taken the Altitude of it, that we are ready to commit Idolatry to a preserving Man, and yet can­not worship at the footstool of a sparing God! that Heathens have been astonished, Christians have wondred, and Angells admired at the sight of those protections which we have en­joyed, and yet that our rescues are gone out of our eys, and our deliverances out of our lips; that mercy hath no memory; nor preservation any observation; that the pardoning God is not a magnified God; that he hath for all his favours nothing but ingratitudes. Benefits have no Triumphs, Mercy doth not wear her Crown; the impressions of blessings are worn out, the Records of safety are lost; Oh that our praises were answera­ble to our protections! But amongst multitudes, which have been cleansed from the Leprosy, there is but one which doth return to give thanks. Oh beloved have ye tender skins? can your shoulders endure no burthens? do ye love to be kept from the hour of temptation? do ye desire with the woman in the Revelation to have the two wings of an Eagle to fly from dangers? Rev. 12.14. can ye not endure to be chastned with the rod of men, broken with a tempest, to be tossed like a ball in a large Country, to be fanned in the gate of the land, to be set as a mark for the arrow, to have your teeth broken with gra­vell stones, to drink the water of gall, or to eat the bread of Mourners, to be bound in fetters, and holden in the cords of affliction, to have your heads bowed down with sufferings, or afflictions wreathed about your necks? Doth the least distresse drive you into passions, make your hearts melt within you, discruciate you, exanimate you, cause you to tear your own flesh, make a wayling like the Dragons, and to belch out your sorrows with a rage, that doth reach up to Heaven? And is Mercy your Guardian, and the Keeper of your heads to prevent all these miseries, and to secure you from all these hazards, and yet will ye not know her soft hand, and cherish­ing brest, not honour every joint of her preserving arme, and magnifie every feather of her safegarding wings? have ye ho­nours, & Hymns, Charmings, and chauntings and none for Mercy? what not a distich, a semibrief for Mercy? Doth Mercy bless all the Earth, and is all the Earth dumb? doth that spare, and are we speechlesse? Zeal then, where are thy sparks? De­votion where is thy fervent tongue? what is all the worship of the times, if there be no ardency to Mercy? sing no more Psalms, away with all your melodious tones, if Mercy hath no quire, and doth want her sweet singers; that is a strange Chappell, where Mercy hath not her Anthems. Oh therefore look upon Mercy, observe Mercy, know her sweetnesse, con­sider her benignity, apprehend her favours, take notice of her [Page 56]benefits, and as ye love your lives, tender your own blood, let mercy have your life-song: Oh how often hath she been unto you a refuge from the storme, a cover from the face of spoils? How often hath she fenced off dangers, and hid you in the se­cret pavilion? Oh therefore when this glorious Queen doth en­ter your streets, let all the Bells in the steeple, all the Tongues in the Professors heads, ring a peal to the honour of mercy; let there be praises, & parasangs, Elogies and exultations, songs and Selahs, to exalt mercy. Mercy must needs be a singular thing, when God here doth plead so much to be esteemed a sparing God; Should not I spare?

3. This serves to shew that we have our lives upon mercy; for he that doth spare, Nihil admirari. Plut. Tolle miseri­cordiam Aug. Si quoties ho­mines peccent, sua fulmina inittat Jupiter. might judge. If with Pythagoras his Schol­lars, corrupt nature had not taught us to wonder at nothing, doubtlesse our preservations might be astonishments. Take a­way mercy, and what might we be, but the spoils of divine justice? If our punishments were equall to our provocations, what should we be but the miserable of the world? we have nothing but Compassion to be the Citadell of the Nati­on, the Counterscarpe against battering judgements; they are neither our fenced Cities, nor trains of Artillery, our puis­sant Navies, nor redoubted Captains, that are our security; It is the mercy of the Lord, that we are not consumed, Lam. 3.22. We have sins enough amongst us to bring all the plagues of Egypt upon us, to levell our Walls like Jerichoes, to consume us into the cinders of Sodome and Gomorrah; Ah sinfull Nation! ah people laden with iniquity! a seed of evill doers, Isa. 1.4. in all our doings our sins doe appeare, Ezek. 21.24. we have deeply corrupted our selves, as in the dayes of Gibeah, Hos. 9.9. there are our manifold transgressi­ons, and mighty sins, Amos 5.12. If there were an Ezechiel that could consider what the Ancients doe in the dark, nay take notice of the abominations which are committed in the midst of Jerusalem, a man would think that God were forsaking both Sanctuary and City; for, the riot and excesse, pride and insolency, spleen and malice, fraud and falshood, oppression and cruelty, forgery and bribery, perfidiousnesse and perjury, hypocrisie and apostasie, perverting of truth and persecuting of Religion in this Nation, is such, that we seem to be no­thing but a hold of foul spirits, and a cage of unclean birds: oh what dismal vengeance, and brayning judgements do these sins deserve! we might think we heard the noise of a Na­tionall down-fall in these execrable courses, Fragorem pere­untis Antiochiae jam tum in au­ribus ejus cir­cum [...]onuisse▪ Erag. l. 4. c. 7. as Zozimas the Monk of Palestine heard the crack of perishing Antioch a long time before it came; yea, the walls and pillars of the Coun­try might seem to melt before our destruction, as the marble [Page 57]statues of Anthony at Alba did sweat, Plutarch. and could not be wiped dry before his overthrow; yea, at the approach of these rui­ning judgements, the whole Land might seem to be warned with a loud summons, Bonsin. l. 3. de­cad. 7. as at the approach of Attila into the Ro­man Territories, a voyce was heard often in the night, Italy look to thy selfe. What place may seem to be safe amongst us? what priviledge secure? our Castle-gates might seem to unbar, of themselves, our Fortresses to sink, our Temple-doors to shut up, our Ordinances to take shipping to sayl into some forraigne Country. It is true, God doth spare, but he might open his ar­mory, and bring forth his weapons of destruction; yea turne against Jacob with a flaming fire, which might devour round a­bout. Oh therefore let us not pride our selves in our strength, nor glory in our Hoasts, and Heroes, it is Gods mercy which is our tutelar Numen, we are preserved only by the clemency of a sparing God; Should not I spare?

4. This shewes that we are never quite lost; for a judgement may be reversed, the punishing God may become a sparing God. Let Marius if he will, being overcome of Sylla, fly to Praeneste, and deliver up himselfe to Pontius Pelesinus, to be slaine; Livy. [...], but let not us be thus diffident of a sparing God. No, Distrust­fulnesse is a word fitter for the mouth of Dionysius the Tyrant, then for the lips of a Christian: for whatsoever sad presages there may be of ill fate, and continuing misery; yet as Aethra told Theseus, God can turn all things backwards. Deus omnia convertitretror­sum. Eurip. 1. If a blind Rhodi­an, when he had been kept long in a Cave by a Tyrant, and fed like a beast, was so dis-figured, that his friends wished him to make away himself, that he might end his miseries, could repell the motion, and say, That all things were to be hoped for, so long as life doth continue; Eras. l. 8. Apoph. then let not us deny our selves reme­dy in extremity, or lock the door in the midst of dysasters, as if no comfort could enter, for this were to loose the Shute-An­chor. Sacram ancho­ram solvere. Adag. Oh therefore when we want bread, let us knock up our friend at mid night to relieve us; when our chaine is heavy, let us file it off by devotion; when men ride over our heads, let us pray, and hope under the horse-hoofs; for may not God feed us under devouring judgements? Yes, Out of the eater there may come meat. Afflictions have but their stints, the punishing God may be a sparing God: Should not I spare?

5. This serves to exhort us to imitate God; for doth he par­don, and are we implacable? doth he spare, and will we re­venge? Oh that man doth desire a gracious God, and yet that he himselfe is so irefull? that he doth need so much mercy, and yet will shew so little? that there is no repealing of his de­crees, nor reversing of his sentence: that no Wolfe is more unreconcilable, nor no Leopard or Tiger more unappeaseable; [Page 58]that the wildest beast that doth range upon earth, is not more mercilesse than man. Do not all Courts of justice feel this intractablenesse? Do not all Prisons cry out of this inflexi­bleness? Yes, wo be to him that comes under the fury of an en­raged neighbour; there is no peace to be had, unlesse with Nahash they can get the right eyes of their enemies, or with Lewis the proud Earl of Fanders, Amonius de gestis Franc. l. 4. c. 71.72. Bonsin. l. 1. Dec. 1. they can see their Adversa­ries strip themselves, and with bare legs, and bare heads, im­plore favour; or with the Mysians, they have liberty to sa­crifice the bowels of the greater part of their Opposites, as a pleasing oblation. The wisdome which doth descend from above, is easie to be entreated, but the wisdome which doth descend from beneath is hard to be intreated: they must unhouse, unskin, slash till they see the naked entrails, and suck blood till the veynes be dry, before their hearts will relent. Ferdi­nand King of Naples, A puero concep­tum odium ser­vavit usque ad senectutem. Pont. de mag­nanimit. c. 8. Susceptas cum aliquo quacun (que) de causa postea nullo tempore deponebat. Pavi nius. Hic me De us jubmergat, si ullt inimicotunc parsurus sum. Paul. Diac. l. 29. Ret. Rom. Hoc inquit ut ad Idiotamver è dixisti. Apud me vero non mul­tum habet mo­menti; neque magni pendo ex i [...]sdem genitum esse genitalibus. Plut. de piet. erga fratres. Rex praeter dig­nitatem regiam calce repulit, haud esse refe­rens Majesta­tem Regis fae­mineis ulula­tibus polluen­dam. Bonsin. l. 5. c. 2. was so tenacious of his malicious inten­tions, that he kept them from child-hood to old-age. It is observed of Pope Paul the 4th, that those grudges which he once conceived against men, that they never after left festring in his breast. Justinian the 2d. who is usually called Rhinotine­tus, being in a great danger to be cast away in a Tempest, was desired by Myaces, that he would take a vow to pardon his enemies, that the Tempests might cease; but saith he, Let God rather drown me here, then I will spare one enemy. Plutarch being chosen to be Arbitrator between two brethren, the one a common man, and the other a Philosopher, he desired the learned man for the honour of his Philosophy, that he would surcease all spight with his brother, and the rather, because he was inferiour to him in parts, and equall to him in birth; but he answered, This may very well agree with my brother, the Idiot (that is a private man) but it doth carry no weight with me, neither doe I regard at all that we come from the same parentage. Colomannus King of Hungary, intended an ex­pedition against the Russes, Queen Laura prostrate at his feet, desired pardon, and peace; but he most unprincely kicked her away, and said that the Majestie of Princes was not [...] be steyned with womanish howlings. Thus ye have seen the exulcerated spirits of men, and how this Devill of Malice (above all the black infernal spirits) if it once get possession, will not be cast out without much difficulty and danger. An Adu [...]terer, a Drunkard, an Infidell, may sooner be reclaimed, and converted, than a man of an hatefull nature. Such sharp teeth are there in mans mouth, such griping claws there are upon his feet, such a savage heart there is in his bosome. Strike but at this hornets nest, and see what hissing, and sting­ing there will be; stir but this Lion out of his Den, and [Page 59]see what roaring, and tearing there will be: was ever Viper, Dragon, Basilisk more venomous, than a spleenative person? By the old Law the Dam must not be destroyed with the young ones, but malice will ruine both old and young; even seeth a Kid in the Mother's milk, nay, in the Mothers blood; not leave the Parent with a Messuage, nor the Infant with a moyety. Oh that man should have so much rough nature under a smooth skin, and carry so much of the Fiend under a fair complexion; that he should embrace so gently, and gripe so dreadfully; greet so courteously, and grinde so cruelly; tread so softly, and trample so Tyrannically: In a Blacksmiths shop there are nothing but Anviles, and Ham­mers, and Pinsers, and Malls; In a malicious mans house are nothing but Warrants, and Writs, and Attachments, and Ex­ecutions; Vulcan himself was never such a forge-striker, nor Cyclops such an Anvil beater. Thou art afraid of kites for thy pullary, of Wolves for thy sheep, but take heed of this Caniball for thine own flesh; this torrid Zone doth scorch all that come under it, this Hericano doth shake all in pieces that is subject to the blast, or dint of it. Thou hadst better shoot the Gulfe, live under the foot of Mount Aetna, be seated in the Hircanian Forrest, then to live nigh to such a rancorous creature. Cankers do eat thy fruits, but these thy stonewalls; vermine devour thy corn, but these thy coin; swine root up thy grasse, but these thy Inheritance; Mastiffs snatch away thy staffe, but these thy Evidence; wild bulls cast thee into the mire, but these into a Dungeon. Feavers have but their fits, malignant Planets but their Seasons, de­luges but their suddain inundations; but there is neither term, limit, nor period, to an hatefull mans rage, and fury. Absalon that stayed three years in Geshur, Jacob that served Laban twenty years, the infirm man at the Poole of Bethesda, that was sick of his disease eight and thirty years, had a short­er time for their miseries, than they which fall under a spight­full mans displeasure; this Ostrich is not to be tamed, this flint is not to be softned, this ulcus profundum is not to be healed. But oh beloved, why do ye plead the spirit, if ye ex­presse corrupt nature? or believe a God, if ye will not imitate him? How do his mercy, and your malice, his clemency, and your cruelty, agree together? Oh draw your Physnomy from his face; and fetch your affections from his bowells; conform to him, by whom ye would be justified; resemble him, by whom ye would be saved. Be ye mercifull, as your Hea­venly Father is mercifull. Forgive one another, as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you. Maintain Birthringhts, defend just claims, but [Page 60]make not every cavill a solemne quarrell. No, bear with mens infirmities, passe by frailties, cover a multitude of pro­vocations; for if God be so gentle, why should ye be so ex­tream? if he be so yielding, why should ye be so unappeasea­ble? The Ornament of the age is the affectionate person, the Mirrour of the times is the placable, peaceable creature, which doth feel least of the sting of injuries, and doth not suffer an offence to come to her rankling coar; which is sel­dom seen at a Bar, and oftner consulting with a ghostly Father than a Paradoxing Politician. Clear your grounds from noy­some weeds, build with planed Timber, drink no dreggs, eat no Bears flesh, set no snares, dig no pitfalls, paint no Croco­diles upon your doreposts, have no Panthers in your galle­ries, purge out leaven, expell poyson, keep no goaring cat­tell in your pastures, breed no fierce whelps to worry your neighbours. Remember that the wrath of man doth not accomplish the righteousnesse of God, that he that hateth his brother is a Man­slayer; therefore, As much as in you lies have peace with all men, yea, Above all things put on love, which is the best bond of perfection. Consider how your Saviour was like a Sheep upon Earth, which did not open his mouth, and that in Heaven be sitteth like a Lamb in the midst of the Throne; As David did not regard Shi­mei's cursings, so walk you like deaf men, and blind men in the midst of this abusefull, and provoking age. Let Abraham say, Let there be no strife betwixt me, and thee, for we are brethren, and let Saint Paul say, Ye have not hurt me in any thing; feed not upon discontents here, which are to eat Mannah in your Fa­thers Kingdom; let not your instruments here jar, which are elsewhere to stand amongst the harpers harping upon their harps.

Be readier to lend a courtesie, than to repay an injury, and to shed tears than to shed blood; Leave vengeance to God, and for the sake of Christs wounds, feel not too much thine own bruises, or cuts. Prepare for the Sacrament by re­conciling thy self to thy brother, and pave the way to Hea­ven by a charitable demeanour. Forbear desolations, when thou art able to lay wast; and let thy Enemy live, when thou hast his life at thy mercy: for this is not only the signe of a noble nature, but it is to be a partaker of the Divine Nature; for when God can ruin, he doth preserve; when he can ex­tirpate, he doth spare, Should not I Spare?

4. Part.

Now let us come to the Channell, Nineveh that great City, wherein are more, than sixscore thousand Persons, that cannot discerne between their right hand, and their left hand, and also much Cattell.

In which words there are three things considerable.

• 1. The name of a place, Nineveh,
• 2. The nature of the place, that great City,
• 3. The description of it, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons, that connot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much Cattle.

First for the name of a place, Nineveh. What? Nineveh the proud, and prophane, arrogant, and peccant, whose inso­lency, and security was such, that a Prophet was drawn from far to discover their iniquity, and denounce judgments? (For Jonah is sent not only with a message, but a menace, hee must cry against it, because their wickednesse was come up before God. Chap. 1. v. 2. and he must cry confusion to it, and that spee­dy too, for Yet forty daies, and Nineveh shall be overthrown? Ch. 3. v. 4.) No, this is not the Nineveh which God is so tender of, and he doth argue so with Jonah for the preservation of it: no, if Ninveveh had persisted in her impiety, God would have been no Pleader for her, neither would he have made the least motion for her sparing; but it is Nineveh the changed, and renewed; for Nineveh had been wicked, but she had seen her wickednesse, searched it out, and separated her self from it: and here indeed is the incentive of Divine commiserati­on. For so soon as God saw his message entertained, he is no longer an Adversary, but an Advocate; he doth pitey Nine­veh, and would pardon it; he doth speak for it, and doth spare it: Yea, he doth reason with Jonah, why Nineveh having confessed the fact, and put her self upon the mercy of the Court, God should not recall his sentence, and spare the Exe­cution of Judgment. What, saith God, shall I trample upon the prostrate? ruine the humbled? then I shall seem to abhor that, which I do affect, and to punish that which I do take pleasure in; Who will ever blush for sin, if abasement be de­spised? or shed tears, if the weeping transgressour be judged? these then having found out their sin, I can no longer pursue it; they were guilty, they are innocent, they were culpable, they are acceptable; such a seeking people are to be owned, [Page 62]such a submitting people are to be remitted: Nineveh is to me now a fit subject for sparing. Should not I spare Nine­veh?

And that God did not spare Nineveh for the bare Walls, but for the repentance within the walls, is the judgement of the most learned Expositors, Niniveh ad concio [...]em Jonce actâ panitent iâ paenam sibi de­nuntiatam eva­debat Chelm. in Nah. 2. Nineveh expressing repentance at the preaching of Jonah, it did escape the threatned punishment, saith Chelmannus. Deus pecca­toribus paeniten­tibus ignoscit, & paenas com­meritas ab eis avertit. Pis. in Jon. 3. v. 11. Tu homo mortalis, & non tui juris & arbitrii, velles par sum fuisse [...], e [...] cujus um­brâ voluptatem aliquam percepisti; Et ego, qui Deus sum aeternus, & omnium Dominus, non parcerem iis, qui mihi approbantur, & quorum paenitentia est jucundissima? God doth pardon penitent sinners, and doth turn a­way their deserved judgment, saith Piscator. c Thou art but a mor­tall man, and though thou beest not of thine own power and jurisdicti­on; yet thou wouldest have had the Gourd spared, from whose shadow thou receivedst a little delight: and shall I who am the eternall God and Lord of all, not spare them who are approved to me, and whose repentance is to me most accept able? saith Gaulter.

Eos ob paeni­tentiam a morte absolvit. Cor. nel. à lapide, in loc. For their repentance God acquitted them from death, saith Corne­lius à Lapide. De paeni­tentia nihil dicit quod eam jam viderat Jonas. Dedi spirit um paenitentiae, ut omnes salvi fi­erent, Ribera in loc. God doth speake nothing here expresly of their re­pentance, because Jonah had seen it before; but he gave them the spirit of repentance, that all might be saved, saith Ribera. By the judgment of these then, Deus haec corum paeni­tentiae opera pro­bavit, & acceptivit, eisque paenam condon avit simul & culp [...]m, ut videtur. Chrys. in hom. quod nemo laeditur nisi à seipso. Id. l. 1. de orando Deum. Mortem suam lachrymis funerant. Anno de Paen. c. 6. Hoc timore uti­liter concussi Ninivitae ad Jonae praedicationem, plenam terroribus paenttentiam egerant, & misericordiam à Deo impetrarun [...]. Concil. [...]rid. Ses. 14. c. 4. Sic Vega l. 3. de justif. c. 5. & Tho. Aq. s. p. 3. q. 84. Art. 6. ad. 1. & Aug. 1.16. de civit. Dei. c. 3. & Ephrem. Ser. de Jona. and many more, it is apparent; tha though God doth but onely name Nineveh, yet he meant penitent Nineveh; yea, for their change, God doth change: and because they did not spare repentance, he would have them spared for their repentance. Should not I spare Nineveh, that is, Nineveh the repaired and renewed?

This then being the true sense and signification of the word (that I might not seem to digge amongst Rubbish, and put my spade into empty Historical conceptions, as if I would scrape Divinity from the stone, and lime, and morter of Ni­neveh, and not from the manners and graces of the place) penitent Nineveh being here to be understood: from hence I draw this fruitfull observation, That Repentance doth carry with it pacification: Nineveh thus qualified shall be spared; God can no longer be angry, than whilst men stand out a­gainst him; if the flag of defiance be pulled down, God doth instantly listen to an accommodation; for why should they be made to grieve, which do grieve already? where there is [...], an anguish for sin? or why should their heads be bro­ken, [Page 63]which are come to their right wits? Where there is [...], a new brayning, or a transmentation? Taenitentia est recuperatio in­tegritatis. Aq. 3. q. 84. art 6. Repentance is the recovery of integrity. It is true, sins are not sanctified, but the person is fanctified; so soon as his sinnes are renounced, take away the leprosie, and the flesh is sound. Paenitentia omnes defectus ad perfectum. Amb. Repentance doth reduce all defects [...]o perfection: yea it is Meli­oris vitae in­choatio. Lay­man. the beginning of a better life; the liablenesse then unto death is gone, so soon as this vi­tall principle doth enter: how can God exact any thing for sinne, when the penitents will hath destroyed it; Paenitere di­citur, qui nollet fecisse aliquid jam à se fact­um. Navar. Praelud. 10. for to re­pent is to desire, that that which hath been done, had never been done. It is an hard thing for God to sue a cancelled bond, or to re­quire a debt that hath been discharged: Paenitentia pertinet ad ju­stitiam commu­tativam; nam est aequabilitas quedam in com­pensationem. Aq. 3. Sum. q. 85. a 3. all reckonings are cleared, when God by repentance hath received his commutative justice.

I know there are many curious questions about sin, as whe­ther the sin of Adam which effectively vitiated whole nature, be greater than the sin against the Holy Ghost, which objective­ly is not onely against the love, and trueth of God, and that gift, and union by which all graces have their influence, but against the eminent goodnesse of God by which the divine relation is dissolved, and therefore expresly called the sinne unto death: and whether man be obliged to the sinnes of all his fore-fathers, as well as to the sinnes of Adam, because we are baptized into the remission of sinnes, and not sin; and David (though born of lawfull wedlock) saith, I was born in iniquity, and in sins hath my mother conceived me: Or whether a man shall answer onely for Originall sinne, and not for other sinnes, if he doe not imitate them, as Jerome holds; and whe­ther the punishments of sin be sin, because they are not onely effects of divine justice, but a contracted depravation, as af­ter precedent sin there doth come a subsequent corruption, and obduration oftentimes: Whether pardoned sinnes be quite abolished, or whether upon reiterated transgression they doe not return: whether the preterition of good, Delictum est declinare à bo­no, peccatum est facere malum, peccatum est perpetratio ma­li, delictum est desertio boni. Quid enim ali­ud sonat delict­um, nisi dere­lictum Aug. in q. Levit. q. 10 or the per­petration of evill; or if ye will, whether the sinne of omissi­on, or commission, be the greatest; and whether to the for­mall deordination of sinne, there be absolutely required a compleat consent, because he which can resist is not enfor­ced to yield; or a meer nescience, pawsing delight or propa­thy, doe not of it selfe cause sinne: and, to be briefe, whe­ther a man may not sinne in serving God, or sinne in his sleep, or sinne in thinking of his former sinnes, or sin in look­ing upon the sinnes of others: these and many other intrica­cies have been propounded concerning sinne; but re­pentance doth answer all these Problems, and take away all these scruples for repentance is a reparation, a purgation, a [Page 64]remedy, a redintegration: I do not say but the Macula, the spot of sin, may remaine till the day of judgement, there to the greater glory of the Redeemer, to be covered with the righteousnesse of Christ; but the reatus, the guilt is wholly removed, God doth not impute it, nor look upon it as a gree­vance: No, God hath received his ransome, Exod. 30.12. the em­nity is slaine, Ephe. 2.16. there is an healing, Hos. 14.5. as steyned as they were before, they are made as wool, and as white as snow, Isai. 1.18. their blood is washed away, Ezek. 16.9. the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none, and the sins of Judah, but they shall not be found, Jer. 50.20. The peni­tent doth become forthwith a favorite, and is a darling in his Princes eye. Doth the humbled sinner seek for acceptance, Nescit tarda molimina spiri­tus sanctus. Ju­stificatio fit in inftanti. and doth the soul long hang in suspence? is the Petition laid aside? is there no answer to be gotten from Court? Yes, the Holy Ghost knoweth no delayes, justificati­on is in an instant. The sacrifice is no sooner offered, but the attonement is gotten, the keyes of the Kingdome do no soon­er stir, but the gates of Heaven do stand open. Solution I am not well skilled in, (what vertue suffrages have for souls departed); but I am sure Absolution hath a present effect and efficacy. David doth get souls-ease with a breath, I have sinned against the Lord, saith the King, The Lord hath put away thy sin, saith the Prophet, 2 Sam. 12.13. Mary Magdalen doth not de­part out of Christ's presence without her pardon in her hand, no she sought for it by teares: And he said unto her, thy sins are forgiven thee, Luk 7.48. Zacheus is not put to expectation, what the issue of his humble acknowledgement of Christ should be; no he had called him Lord, and he shall present­ly find him a Lord, for This day salvation is come to this house, Luk. 19.9. This Deiopeia can be the Mother of none but a faire Progeny, none but amiable beauties come out of the wombe of repentance. In Goshen is nothing but light, upon mount Garisim are nothing but blessings, out of repentance comes nothing but a state of approbation. I will rather feare that the Rainbow is not an undoubted signe to prevent a de­luge, and the Urim and Thummim not to be a certain Oracle to resolve doubts, then I will suspect repentance to be an in­fallible Charter for spirituall liberties. Oh that thou wert penitent, I would shew thee the Serpents sting falling out of thy sides, the Angell of the bottomlesse pit dropping his keyes out of his hand, the Accuser of the brethren standing speechlesse in Gods Court, this Jordan washing thee cleane, this Bethesda healing thee of thy mortall disease, the Angels of heaven comming forth to salute thee, and rejoyce over thee, and the Father stretching out his hands to imbrace thee, [Page 65]and putting shooes upon thy feet, a ring upon thy finger, and the best robe upon thy back: Whatsoever Penitent doth stand here, I pronounce, that he hath broken the yoak of bondage, he hath leaped out of Hell, and though Pharaoh, and all his Host do pursue after him to catch him, and to new-fetter him, the Devill, and his trained bands of sins do march after him to captivate him, and to bring him back to his old chains; yet he is out of their reach, he hath left all his Ene­mies behind him, and none shall be able to lay hands on him, if he hath but past this red Sea, the Egyptians whom he hath seen to day, he shall see no more hereafter, they all lay pick­ling in that brine, drinking their last in that deep, and que­soming bowl, either swimming dead above water, or lying dead upon the Shore. The penitent, and his sins are parted, as Moses left the Court, when he took upon him to be a deli­verer to Israel, and Zacheus left his Publicans office, when hee intended to devote himself to Christ; he hath given them a discharge, and quite abdicated them, as Ephraim said to his Idols, quid mihi ultra? What have I to do any more with you? Hos. 14.8. Repentance is the Funerall of sin, and the birth-day of grace, a man then shifts himself out of the tatters of naturall corruptions, & doth array himself in the bright vestment of regeneration, as Jehoshuah put off his filthy garments, & put on a change of rayment upon his back, and a glorious Mitre upon his head. He is so transformed, that not onely all the Earth doth look upon him with delight, but the eye of Heaven is taken with him: he need not be troubled with any of his former guilts, nor fear the charge that his sins have preferred against him, for the Enditement is taken out of Court; he dare present himselfe before the Judge, for he is sure to be justified at the Throne of grace. The Penitent man shall be pardoned, Nineveh shall be spared. Repentance is a Vertue; now can there be a Vertue, which should leave a man as a spotted creature in Gods eye? No, they are called Purgatory Vertues, Quaedam sunt virtutes trans­euntium, & in divinam fimili­tu [...]inem ten­dentium, & hae vocantur virtu­tes purgatoriae. Tho. 12 ae. q. 61. art. 5. virtu [...] ex ipsa ratione nonunis impor­tat perfectio­nem potentiae Tho. 12 ae. q. 55. art. 2 Virtus uniuscujusque rei est, quae opus honum reddit. Aristot. 2 Ethic. c. 6. which belong to men in their passage, and frame in them a Divine Similitude; for as naturall vertues perfect the essence, so do these the opera­tions, it being impossible that there should be a Vertue where there is not a regular action, because Vertue doth inherently carry a rectitude with it; so soon then as this vertue is entred, it doth beget a streightnesse in the Soul, and raiseth up in it such a sweet composure, that it may be proportionate for Divine favour. God cannot but approve, that which he did [Page 66]detest; and love that which he did loath; therefore God in­stantly doth close with the Penitent, and doth give him for laying open his plague-sore, the application of a plaister; and for his searching his waies, the razing out of his foot prints, and for his rent heart, a reconciled brest; and for his teares, clean water to purge him; and for lifting a brow to Heaven, the light of his countenance. The Penitent hath no sooner made his addresses, but he hath a gratious reception, for, Let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Esa. 55.9. Return oh back­sliding Israel saith the Lord, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you. Jer. 3.12. I have heard Ephraim lamenting thus, Thou hast corrected me, and I was chastised as an untamed Heifer, convert thou me oh Lord and I shall be converted, for thou art the Lord my God. Surely after that I converted, I repented, and after I was in­structed, I smote upon my thigh. I was ashamed, yea, confounded, be­cause I did bear the reproach of my youth. Is Ephraim my dear Son, or pleasant Child? Yet since I spake unto him, I still remembred him. Therefore my Bowells are troubled for him, I will surely have com­passion upon him, saith the Lord. Jer. 31: 18, 19, 20. Israel doth no sooner take unto him words, but he is answered with a promise of divine favour, I will heal their rebellion, I will love them freely, formine anger is turned away from him, Hos. 14.5. Jonah doth but make his Prayer in the dark Chappell (the bowells of the Whale) and he is cast upon dry land as a par­doned Creature; the Publican doth but go up to Gods house for a little Sinners Ointment, and he doth depart out of the Temple justified. The Penitent doth no sooner move the Court, but his Petition is granted; or bend his knees, but mercy doth come flying from Heaven upon Cherubims wings to him. The matter of repentance is sin, and strange it were that repentance should not be exquisite about her own mat­ter, to heal the Ulcer, that she is intent to cure; yes, Paetentia est de praeteritis peccatis. Sylv. prier. as it is of forepast sins, so that which is forepast, hath by repentance lost the future being; it doth bring it to such an utter waste, that there is the Paenitentia est ad destructi­onem, & re­missionem pec­cat [...] ▪ Navar. destruction of sin, and the remission of sin. I confesse repentance doth not this as a passion, but as a ver­tue, and not as a positive, but a dispositive vertue, and so it doth not only take away the act, but the offence of sin: for by Dolor est dis­plicentia seu [...]e­prohatio fac [...]icum intentione removendi se­quelam ejus s [...], offensam dei, & reatum poene Tho. 3. p. q. 85. art. 1. displicency there is a reprobation of the fact, and by re­motion there is a purging away of the guilt; for as it is con­trary to all sins, so according to the nature of Opposites it doth cause an utter expulsion, and that not only of the pravity, but the noxiousnesse of sin; for repentance work­ing in the vertue of Christs passion there is no sin, which Christ suffered for, but repentance is able to abolish it; yea [Page 67]it doth hall to the Crosse, both the crime, and the criminali­ty of sin, that is the curse. Paenitentia est immutatio Voluntat [...]s Repentance is a motion, for it doth cause an alteration: now mans will is no sooner chan­ged, but Gods will is changed with it; that as man doth cease to transgresse, so God doth cease to be incensed; Offensa directè opponitur gra­tiae, in hoc enim dicitur aliquis offensus, quod repellit eum à gratia sua — gra [...]ia autem gratum reddit. Tho. 3. p. q. 86. art. 8. for as an offence is against Gods grace, so repentance doth restore a man again to that grace, and grace presently doth make man acceptable. For though sins have not in them a connexion as vertues have, for vertues draw a man from a multitude to u­nity, that is, God; but sinnes draw a man from unity to a multitude, namely, his severall delights; Ʋnum pec­catum non di­mittitur sine a­lio; h [...]c enim est contra mi­sericordiam Dei, quae est perfecta. Debi­tum culpae con­tra iatur amici­tiae, & ideò una culpa vel offen­sa non remitti­tur sine altera. Si d [...]pliceret illud peccatum, quia est contra Deum super om­nia delictum (quod requiri­tur ad rationem verae paeniten­tiae) sequere­tur, quod de om­nibus peccatis paeniteret. Tho. 3. p q. 86. art. 3. yet a man repent­ing in particular of some grievous sins which burthen his con­science, and in generall of all sins that he conceiveth he may have committed, this shall procure him a full remission, for one sin is not forgiven without another. So that it doth ap­pear that pardon of sin is an inseparable effect of repentance, for as sin in those that have the use of reason cannot be for­given without repentance, so it cannot but be forgiven by repentance; for repentance hath ever grace annexed to it, and that grace doth confer justification; Was it ever heard that a justified person had yet a new reconciliation to make? No, justification is from one contrary to another, that is, from a state of wrath, to a state of favour: to be accounted inno­cent, and made righteous is the formallising act of repen­tance. What then? shall repentance be a project, which de­pends wholly upon event? or an experiment, whose issue is in the successe? or a lottery, where blanks, or prizes may be drawn? shall a man abhor himself, and not know whether he shall be rejected, or accepted? shall a man turn to the Lord with all his heart, and have no assurance, whether God will shew his face, or turn his back upon him? This were then an anxious vexation, yea, repentance to be repent­ed of; but the imposthume which breaketh out kindly, is past the danger, penitent Nineveh is to be spared. Can God pro­fesse emnity, where men desire to take away the ground of discord? No, Acquaint thy self with God and be at peace. Job. 22.21. Nudus sermo, sed immensita­tem salutis con­tinens, Miser [...]re meî Ch [...]vs. de muliere Cha­nan. Hom. 12. Recurrunt ad Dominum, & Dominus ad eos Bern. de consid. l. 2. c. 1. Can he turn off Suitours? and despise Suppliants? No, to cry Lord have mercy upon me is a naked speech, but it doth contein in it infinite comfort. Can God seek up them by venge­ance, which are already come home to him by repentance? which live not at a distance, but are returned with all their heart? 1 Kings 8.34. No, They have made their recourse to God, and God to them. God cannot disgrace men with their errours, nor put them to the blush, where they are ashamed of their iniqui­ties, Ezech. 43.10. nor march out with his trained bands, where men prepare to meet their God, Amos 4.12. Nor scowre [Page 68]with plagues, where men wash and make cleane, Esa. 1.16. nor smite hippe and thigh, where men knock upon their breasts, Luk. 18.13. For what were this but for God to insult upon the prostrate? and to set his face against them that seek his face? yes, it were to wring the sinne-offering out of the sacrificers hand, and to kill men at the sides of his own altar. God can try no masteries with them that submit, nor lay them gasping for life, which are already halfe dead in spirituall anguish; for then he should lay his axe to the root of the fruitfull tree, and make a waste upon the ground, that brings forth hearbs meet for the dresser; not make men beare their iniquity, but beare their integrity; not onely not be slack to them that hate him, but quick against them that deprecate him. But God doth reciprocate with the penitent, if he doth repent, God doth repent: Conversus est ed puniendum peccatum, & ego convertar ad liberandum e­um. Aug. Ps. 84. Deus nun­quam despicit p [...]nitentiam, si ei sincerè, & simplicìter offe­ratur. Chrys. de reparatione Iapsi. Non sinis infirmos com­putrescere. Qui se medicis dede­rit, seipsum sibi abnegat. Amb. in Ps. 130. Interius. The offender doth turne to punish his sin, and God doth turn to free him. Hard-heartednesse may be fruitlesse, but compunction is never in vaine. God doth never despise re­pentance, if it be offered to him with sincerity, and simplicity. God is a Physitian, and will he slight his Patients? or suffer them to die under his hands? No, how then can he be styled the Hea­ler? therefore he will visit them, administer to them, give them his constant attendance, his examining eye, his gentle hand, a certain cure; for such is the goodnesse of God, that though he doth loath the corruption of the disease, yet he doth take compassion upon the groans of the languishing, Thou O God wilt not suffer impotent and infirme Creatures to rot under thee, as Stratonicus told a Physitian. No, such are come under his hands, and renouncing their selves, they have wholly cast their selves upon his skill and faithfulnesse, therefore he will take strict charge over them. To deny men recovery under the mercy of a gracious God, were worse then for Dionysius to pluck the golden beard from Aesculapius. He doth heal inwardly that which did wound outwardly. The fruit of the griefe is recompenced with remedy. Quando sic pae­nites, ut ama­rum sapiat in anima, quod dulce fuit in vi­ta, bene ingemis­cis erga Deum Amb. Esau may weep his eyes sore, and find no comfort, but the convert doth never shed teares without successe. When thou dost so repent, that that is bitter in thy soul, which was sweet in thy life, thou dost grone happily towards God. God is the Lord of Hosts, and he doth bath a sword in heaven against contemners; yea, wa­ter Nations with blood, where his professed enemies do live; but God cannot fight with sighs and teares, bended knees, wringing hands, and pacifying lips. If the heart of stone be changed into an heart of flesh, there is nothing left for the hammer of judgment to bruise or break; God hath no rod but for the disobedient, nor no blood-axe, but for Malefa­ctors: if repentance hath shaven men, there is no other sharp Razour to come upon the head: God cannot strike where [Page 69]the penitent hath given the first [...]ow at sin, the very stand­ing up in the gaps, doth fence out all judgements; one moist eye will take away all grievances, as Alexander said, That one tear of Olympias would blot out all the accusations of Antipater. Where men deplore sin and implore mercy, where the eyes are rinsed, and the heart cleansed, the sinners stand no lon­ger like culpable persons; no, the fruit of their lips is peace, Isai. 57.19. These have quieted Gods spirit, Zach. 6.8. Shall Si [...]ne­on lye in prison, when Benjamin is come? shall the sinner con­tinue in bondage, when repentance doth appeare? No, though God cannot spare the obstinate and incorrigible, yet can he not spare the prostrate, and the penitent? Yes, Should not I spare Nineveh?

But some will say, how shall we be penitent? If we be Ni­neveh, that is, if we answer their penitentiall works. Which are those? Would ye know them? then search the Records, view the Originall, take out a Transcript, and ye shall finde them thus filled up, or penned down in the Catalogue.

1. Hearing God in his Messengers; for Nineveh is converted by the preaching of Jonas. People usually finde the way out of the world by the light of the ministry, and are listed into Gods Campe, by attending to the beat of this Drum, and re­pairing to Gods Muster: it is teaching which doth give us our first conception in grace, and organise our parts to be sha­ped penitents. Faith commeth by hearing, Rom. 10.17. as if the spirit entred by the eare, or that were the clicket-gate of conversion. Preaching is so effectuall an Ordinance, that it is called The power of God to salvation, Rom. 1.16. and the savour of life unto life, 1 Cor. 2.16. Woe be to him which doth choak this seed, or doth trample under foot this Pearl. Ministers are Gods authorized Messengers, to set before us the way of life, Jer. 21.8. To turn many unto righteousnesse, Dan. 12.3. To seed men in the strength of the Lord, Mich. 5.4. By such as these Lydia's heart was opened, Acts 16.14. The Romans were called to be Saints, Rom. 1.7. The Corinthians were begotten through the Gospell, 1 Cor. 4.15. The Galathians had Christ formed in them, Gal. 4.19. The Ephesians which were farre off, were made neare, Eph. 2.13. And indeed the Church hath not a rarer engine for conversion, then this sacred function. It pleased God by the foo­lishnesse of preaching to save them that believe, 1 Cor 1.21. By this the doore of faith is opened, Acts 14.27. the dispensation of grace is bestowed, Eph. 3.12. the excellency of knowledge is com­municated, Phil. 3.8. the unsearchable riches of Christ are brought home to our doors, Eph. 3.8. Preaching doth level mountains, make crooked things straight, cleave the Rocks, turn deserts into Gardens, quicken the barren wombs, teach five Ci­ties [Page 70]of Egypt to speak the language of Canaan, raise up of stones children to Abraham, open the eyes of the blind, turn men from darknesse to light, and from the power of Sathan unto God, Acts 26.18. make manifest the secrets of mens hearts, and cause them to fall down upon their faces, and worship God, 1 Cor. 14.25. The ministers lips being touched with this heavenly sire, they send forth Verba flam­mantia ad aures audientium pro­cedunt. Greg. Hom. 3. in Ezech. words flaming with zeal into the ears of their Auditors, they do Con­venientes cura­tiones ad hibent. Theod. Dial. 2. apply sit medicines to all diseases Formas inscul­punt. Greg. Nys. de. Paup. Amand. Et be­nig. complecten­dis. they do grave and stampe the first impressions of regeneration upon mens soules, Proscin­dunt spiritualem sulcum, ut cum purgatus ager sit cordis nostri pulchros virtu­tis surculos con­seramus: Olym­piodor. in Ec­clesiast. they do plow up the spirituall surrow, that the field of the heart being purged, it might re­ceive the graffs of virtur; they do chew the food of instruction for the nourishment of the body mysticall, Just. in Cantie. Inter tenebras hujus vitae praesentis student venru­ram lucem nun­ciare. they crow in the midnight of this life, to shew that light is coming. Here is the calling which is Greg. Moral. l. 38. [...].5. Totius mundi cordi­mentum. Jeron. Cont. Lucif. the seasoning of the whole earth; Omnibu [...] mem [...]ris pul­chrior, & Ire­tiosior est. Chromant. in 6. Mat. the eye of the Church more precious then all other members. How have these seeded the world with Believers filled the streets of the new Jerusalem with gor­geous buildings? put bright Gems into the Imperiall Crown of Christ Jesus? St. Peter at one Sermon converted three thou­sand, St. Paul whole Nations. By these the Amasei were brought from their Idolatry, in the raign of Justin. 2. Zo [...]ar. tom. 3. and multitude of Moors living in the desart of Eapra­pit, were converted by Maturianus, Victor, Vand. Persel. lib. 1. How is Bonisacius famous for the conversion of the Germans? Vincentius of the Spaniards? Palladius, and Aydanus, of the Scots? and amongst our selves, Berinus for the conversion of the East Saxons? Bed. l. 3. c. 7. And Jaruma for the conversation of the west Saxons Bed. l. 3. c. 33. O then that thou feest so many pulled out of the pit by the hand of the ministry, and preached home to God by the fervency of Teachers, that the stones of the spirituall building are hewen at the Pulpit, and the Pearl of everlasting life bought at the Temple-Mart, and yet that thou hast no opinion of, nor no reverence to this Calling: that thou canst not smell the persume of the Sanctuary, nor see the brightnesse of these stars in the right hand of God; that thou hast scarce a foot for a Temple, or an eare for a Preacher. But oh beloved, look with an eye of reverence to­wards these consecrated walls, know the worth of this holy ground, account this the place of Gods Throne, the beauty of hol [...]nesse, yea no other then the house of God, and gate of Heaven: As they said of old, Let us go up to the Seer, so let us repaire to the Cryer, let us hang upon the Ministers lips, and suck our fill at these brests; consider the eminency and necessity of this calling, for thou maist starve in thy Tent, if thou dost not step forth to gather this Mannah; thou maist be to seek for repentance, if thou dost not find it under the Or­dinances, Nineveh was converted by the preaching of Jonah.

2. Not to be too curious in our Counsailers, Nineveh doth accept [Page 71]of Jonah for a Prophet, though a Stranger by Nation, and a man opposite in religion. So we should accept of any lawfull Messenger; for strange it is that some have itching ears, no Teacher will please them; they have an heap of Teachers, as if they could find nothing but in the heap, they run from Pulpit to Pulpit to cheapen Doctrines, as Customers go from shop to shop to bartar for Wares. It is naught, it is naught, as if it were worth neither looking on, nor bidding price for. They hunt Counter for Textmen, and like idle schollars they will learn little of the same Masters, they must have variety of Pae­dagogues; I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas. They drink of all waters, and scarce any spring hath liquor good e­nough to relish with them, Projecta vilior algd est Virgil Eclog. 2. no the Crystall stream to di­stempered Palates is baser then dregs, or draffe. The full despise the Hony-comb; and these surfetted hearers, nauseat the most Mellifluous Instructours. Mannah is but light bread, with the Israelites they must have Quailes; how many Ornaments of learning, and Mirrours of judgement are too meanly endowed for some ripe wits? Despectus tibi sum, nec quis sum quaeris A­lexi. Many a rare gifted Divine may say to his Auditor, I am thy contempt, neither dost thou think me worthy thy asking for. The Daughter of Pierias have no greater glory than to despise the Muses, and these no greater pride then to avile the worthy Preachers. Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Can any inspired thing come from such carnall Teachers? alas they may have some learning, but they have no piety; they may have some gifts, but they have not the spirit. And why not? have they not as much sincerity? are they not as often at their knees? do they not seek God? and desire to speak out of the mouth of God, as much as others? oh then that Pharaoh is only for his own Inchanters, and Achas only for his own Court-Prophets! that some men will eat no meat, but that which is dressed by their own Cooks, nor wear a Vest, but that which is made up by their own Stitchers; which will hear none, nor allow of none, but those which agree with them in every Tenet, and do not vary from them in the least principle. The foolish Galathians were for their own false Apostles, and the ripe-witted Corinthians for their artificiall Teachers; the great Council, the Sanhedrim of the Jewes will not accept of a Messiah from the Apostles, no, rather whip them for preaching up such an one to them. The Stoicks and Epicures will receive no counsell from Saint Paul, no, rather stick to their infidelity, then he shall reason them from their Idols. What meaneth this Babler? So many men will not be con­verted, but by whom they affect; nor saved, but by whom they prize, and magnifie; they will die in their sins, if their own Physitians do not cure them; yea, lie in Hell, if their own [Page 72]Key-keepers do not open Heaven-gates unto them; they will shed no tears, if their own weeping Doctours do not melt them out; nor accept of no repentance, if their own mortify­ing Teachers do not stab and pierce their hearts. But, doth it become men to be thus singular, and precise in reformation? must they have it in their own way, and by their own men? No, they should be glad to be led into the right way by any Guide, and to be called home to God by any Crier. A wise Auditor doth hear all willingly, Prudens Audi­tor omnes liben­ter audit, omnia legit, non perso­nam, non scrip­turam, non doctrinam sper­nit, ob omni­bus indifferen­ter quod sibi de­esse videt quae­rit; non quan­tum sciat, sed quantum ignoret, considerat. Hugo de Sanct. Vict. in suo Didascal. he doth peruse all things, he doth de­spise no mans person, writing, or Doctrine, he doth indifferently seeke from all, that which he seeth to be wanting to himself, he doth consider not how much he doth know, but how much he is ignorant of. Oh there­fore renounce this limitation of Doctrine, or particularising of Teachers, be not too strict, who shall rectifie thy consci­ence, nor too curious who shall save thy soul, listen to the motions of repentance from any Interpreters lips. Nineveh is not captious to accept of Jonah for a Prophet.

3. Enduring sharp Doctrine, for Jonah doth not treat gently with Nineveh, but he doth come with thunderclaps of ven­geance, with a mouth full of menaces, Yet forty daies, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. That tender ear which cannot endure threatnings, will hardly hear of reformation; The ear is the raster of the Soul, and this taster must not onely have sweet sawces for the relishing diet; old nailes must be pluck­ed out with violence, even with their heads flying off; old stocks will not be shaken down, they must be hewen down; the sinner never change till the Minister doth change his voice, Gal. 4.20. there must be lowd calling to awaken men out of the spirit of slumber; there must be knocking to purpose to shiver in pieces an heart of adamant; this kind of dead car­kasse, which hath lain so long in the grave, that it beginneth to stink, it will not be raised up without much groning in the spirit. Ezra must sit astonished till the evening sacrifice, Ezra 9.4. before he can amaze the Israelites with their sins; Huldah must read the curses of the Law, before she can make Josiahs heart to melt, Saint Peter must lay blasphemy and blood­shed to the charge of the Jews, Adhibent prodisciplin a mo­lestam severita­tatem Aug. ep. 78. ad Bonif. Ad puguos, & pugnam accingamur, ne quid nobis ereptum cedat in praedam ferarum. Chrys. adv. Jud. orat. 1. Sic mihi con­tingat semper beare amicos terrendo salubriter, non adulando fallaciter. Bern. ad Brun. Colon. Archiep. ep. 9. before they will be pricked at their hearts; Sinners will never be corrected, unlesse Ministers use a troublesom severity for wholsome discipline: We must smite, and sight to deliver preyes out of the wild beasts jans. So let me ever blesse [Page 73]my friends, by terrifying them kindly, rather then by flattering them deceitfully. I know people do delight in mild doctrine, and that the pleasant tabret should be in the Ministers lips, to tell them rather of comforts, then corruptions; of perfections, then defections; of priviledges, then prevarications; No er­rours must be spoken of, but those of their enemies, nor trespasses, but those of the adverse party; where sin might rather be a derision, then a conviction, or a taunt, then a ne­cessary check; they their selves must not be blamed, or sha­med, live they never so impiously, yet they must not be call­ed wretches; or let them behave themselves never so accur­sedly, yet they must not be styled Reprobates; the children of Belial must not be of their linage, the Cockatrice eggs must not be found in their nest, nor the Vipers breed spied out in their hole; they must be of the generation of Abraham, though both their ears, and their hearts be uncircumcised; they must be Sainted though they have nothing of religion, or holinesse, but the lip-stroke. Saul though he knew he had disobedience enough to rend a Kingdom from him; yet he would have Sa­muel to honour him before the people. So these though they be pri­vy to their own execrable courses, yet they would have the Ministers tongue to be the flute of their praises, and every Pulpit to ring of their fame; they cannot endure to be taxed wish guilts, nor terrified with judgements; they would fashion out preaching after their own mould, and dip Doctrines in the pukes of their own Dyfat; the bells must not stir unlesse they will ring their changes, nor bread must not be offered for the sustenance of souls, unlesse it be spread with their owne butter. Ps. 55.21. Prophesy not unto us right things, but preach un­to us smoo [...]h things. Esai 30.10. If a man walk in the Spirit of false­hood, and prophecy of wine, and strong drink, he shall be a Prophet to to this people. Micah 2.11. Jerobeam must have a Sinner for his Chaplain, and a liar for his Court-teacher, or else the man cannot be merry, sor they make the King glad with their wicked­nesse, and the Princes with their lies. Hos. 7.3. So that such kind of Divines are but Proctours for profanenesse, Advocates for impieties; not Ministers, but Ministrels; not Interpreters, but Impostours. If their Masters have a mind to be blith, their Preachers must smile with them; or if their Patrons halt, they must limp with them; such must be the Sophistry of the Pul­pit, the sorcery of the Sanctuary, the Magick of the Ministry; as if such Prophets were read in nothing, but the Common­place book of temporising, or studied in nothing, but the To­picks of conformity. These men may have excellent parts, and endowments, but they are not gifted with reprehension, Homer. to strike, and stab sin at the heart, as Patroclus could put all the [Page 74]armour of Achilles, but his weighty spear with which he was wont to goar men to death was too heavy for him to weild. But when the Parasite is gotten into the Pulpit, and there is nothing, but Courtship in the Preachers lips, when he doth congee to the humours of the age, and make low leggs to the fancies of the times, when there is like People like Priest, what hopes is there of conversion? no, the giving of flattering titles, putting pillows under every armhole, and having mens persons in ad­miration, do but confirm men in their sins, Delectat ea fa­cere in quibus non metuitur Reprehensor. Aug. in Ps. 9. Magis obruere, quàm attollere. Bern. ad Ro­maldum ep. 72. and strengthen the hands of the wicked, Ezech. 13.22. For it doth delight men to do those things, in which no Reprehender is feared. This is the way rather to throw down to destruction, than to lift up to salvation. Wo be to them that go about to tame the Ministry, or to file the Preachers tongue; which would have him only choose his Text out of the Bible, but draw his observations, amplifica­tions, and applications out of the Book of compliance; which will not attend to Amos no longer, than he doth not pro­phesie against Bethel; nor hear John Baptist gladly, than when he doth not glaunce at Herodias; which are ready to cast their riders, if they do put spurs to their sides; which are ready to lift up their heels against them, if they attempt to bridle them; which are apt to smite at a Prophet, if he doth cry out against the Altar, and to shed the blood of Zacharias be­tween the Porch, and the Altar, if he cannot speak low. Oh what sense of sin, or dread of judgement can there be in these mens brests, where flattery doth so inchaunt them? No, like the beasts of Sicily they are ready to rot with too much sweet pasture; or like wasps they are ready to be quesomed with sucking too much honey out of the Gallipot; pleasing Doctrine is the poison of the Temple, and a blandishing Preacher is the Chain of Hell. When frogs croak, the Tem­pest is at hand, when the Messengers of God are the Pandours of licentiousness, Vengeance doth tie at the dore. The gentle wind will never purge the air, nor the dull plowshare prepare the soil; if people would be saved, they must sit out a threatning Sermon, and hear a rebuking Priest with patience, saying with Boniface to Saint Augustine, I receive thy words full of truth with trembling, Suscipio tre­mens verba tua verheribus ple­na. though every sentence doth seem to scourge me. Sub­mit to this, or else no hopes of conversion, for Nineveh turn­ed Penitent, because she could endure a threatning Jonah, Yet forty daies, and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

4. Apprehending danger: for Jonah doth denounce judge­ment, and Nineveh doth effectually lay it to heart. Yet forty daies, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. So the people of Nineveh believed God. Did they believe, and shall we give no credit? when the Heavens write out our judgements in Capitall let­ters, [Page 75]shall not we read our own fatall condition? when the Lord doth roar from on high, Jer. 25.30. shall we be deaf below? when He smites the Earth with the rod of his Mouth, Es. 11.4. shall not we see the whipping-Pillar fet up? when He hews down men by his Prophets, Hos. 6.5. shall we say, only timetous and suspitious fools stand in aw of the Prophets Axe? when he causes a grievous Vision to be declared. Es. 21.2. shall we turn this grievous Vision into a Panick fear? that instead of the stings of dangers, and the frights of miseries, there is nothing but drinking up scorning like water, Job 34.7. making a wide mouth, and drawing out the tongue. Es. 57.4. not saying, these Temple-warnings carry sad presages with them, but away with all these Pulpit-lightenings, the pen of the Scribes is in vain, the Prophet is a fool, the Spirituall man is mad; as if People would drink away the dread of all crime, as Medea told Syrus; Popasti scelus. Victorius lib. 8. var. Iect. c. 4. Me pransum, & unctum neca bunt. Plut. in Ap [...]ph. Aegyptum Does omnes hospitio excipere, & salvare posse. Rhod. lib. 29. c. 21. or would be killed with Gods punishing hand, being gorged with delicacies, and annointed with carnall deligh [...]s, as Chabrias told Iphi­crates; yea, as the Aegyptians in respect of the fertility, and strength of their Country thought it was able to Feast all the Gods, and to keep them safe; so against the predictions of ensuing vengeance for sin, we think our fruitfull, and formidable land is able to sustein us, and secure us to perpetuity. Vain men we dream rather of dignity, then danger; of jollity then judgement; all the threats of the Temple do not make us look pale, all the cries of Jonah do not terrifie us; no, they daunt, but we do not faint; they predict, but we not believe; we are readier to say, the land is not able to bear these mens words. Amos 7.10. then to think of our own burthens; or to lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, Esa. 29.21. than to doubt of any snare comming upon our selves. Ne te credide­ris, q [...]a non facis ista, mo­neri Ovid de T [...]i. l. el. 15. But thou which art opposite to warninge, canst thou say thou wert ever truly admonish­ed? No, Behold ye despisers, and wonder. Is there any thing more ominous then this sat heart? and spirit of slumber? no of all bad things, the evill of an obstinate, and inflexible mind is worst; Malum inflexi­bilis & obsti­natae mentis pessimum. Bern. ep. 125. for then we seek to outface the Prophets, & to put God him­self out of countenance. Therefore when misery is approach­ing, put not the evil day afar off, when vengeance doth knock at the gate, daunce not upon the threshold; when God doth hold up his rod, think not it shall draw no blood. The Lion hath roared, who can but fear? Amos 3.8. If thou hadst the strength of Sampson, do not wrastle with Gods Messengers, if thou hadst the puissance of the Anakims, do not try masteries with the trained bands of the Sanctuary; for the Prophets wait upon Gods person, and God will live, and die with his life-Guard. I will watch over my word, they shall know that there hath been a Prophet amongst them. Away therefore [Page 76]with all your trusty Politicians, and take up these as your confiding men; believe the Prophets, and ye shall prosper, 2 Chron. 20.20. So the men of Nineveh believed God.

5. Not delaying repentance. For Nineveh was a City of three dayes journey, and Jonah had but even as it were entred the City, not gone his full circuit; and what a new face is there to be instantly discerned? Jona's cryes are heard; and the City is converted. So we should not linger too long in repentance, for it is a sad signe, when the child doth stick in the wombe; Esaus untimely teares made him a perpetuall mourner, the foolish Virgings are locked out of the wedding, because they knew not their trimming-season; How long shall evill thoughts remain within you? Jer. 4.14. Wilt thou not be made clean? Hibbekah of Hachab.when shall it once be? Ezek, 13.27. Oh sad complaints! Protraction in Hebrew, doth signifie supplanting; for there is nothing doth more undermine our felicity, then to be too tardy in necessary duties. Hector blamed Rhesus for coming to the siege of Troy, Euripides. at the end of the ten years War; so repen­tance is a scandall, which is expressed with too much prolong­ing; the Pinarii which came late to the feast of Hercules, Plut. in q. Rom. were enjoyned fasting; so they which do neglect opportunity, are left to starve upon their after-services. If God doth call, and men will not make appearance▪ they come at last ra­ther for stripes then embraces. We that will not give God his right without a tediousnesse, are like the Areopagites which bad the Matrone of Smyrna demanding present justice for the death of her Son, Valer M. l. 8. c. 1. to come and require it after an hundred yeares were past. Should we wait upon God, and must he at­tend upon us? the Lord, upon the servant? the Judge upon the Delinquent? Must we be so much entreated to be accep­ted? or so often invited to be made happy? Are we not asha­med to deserre a patient God? do we not tremble to give him so may repulses? How oft would I have gathered thee, and thou wouldest not? If God doth desire affection from us, let us send our hearts to him at the first call; if he will be pleased to enter, Sera satio sem­per mala est Culumella. let us not drive him to too much knocking. Late sowa grain doth seldome thrive. To day if ye will heare my voyce, harden not your hearts. He that giveth thee but a day, will not suffer thee to prepare thine eare to morrow, for then a deafe care, and an hardened heart may meet together. Plurimum mo­menti habet ce­leritas. Plut. in Apoph. In commendable things, Celerity is of the greatest consequence, as Julius Caesar was wont to say. O that thou which must account for time, darest make bold with the next new Moon. Must thou not reckon for every week? Mamentum non [...]eribit de tem­pore. Bein. Yes, not a moment shall perish. Mark then how the sha­dowes do decline upon the Diall; yea consider every drop­ping of the Hour-glass. Let not God stay thy leasure, have not [Page 77]a post dayed repentance. Rise out of bed at the first cocks crowing, put on thy armour, when the Trumpet doth sound away to the March. Must gray hairs teach thee repentance? wilt not leave chanting with the world, till the Daughters of singing be abased? Canst not feel the weight of sin till the Grashopper be a burthen? wilt come so often to Church with an uncircumcised spirit? or leave the Pulpit with a flinty heart? Doth the Preacher but plow upon a Rock, or wash a Morian? Is the Day-star yet to arise, which should give light enough to the world to see thee a penitent? Is the Minister yet to be born, that should preach to thee thy con­version-Sermon? didst never yet hear a solemn warning? wert never present at an affectuall call? Doth the Plowman plow all the day to sow? doth he open and break the clods, and no fruit appear upon the ground? Isai. 28.24. Hath the Minister sweat, and yet dost thou chil inwardly hath he preached himselfe hoarse, and yet hath he not spoken loud enough to thy con­science? Art not confounded at the thought of so much neg­lected doctrine? dost not feare the curse of so much dis­esteemed counsail? hast thou an heart which cannot repent? or wilt thou repent when there is no place left for repentance? Should repentance be the last act of thy life? or should thy first souls-search begin at the last gasp? No, if thou hast heard but one penitentiall cry, thou shouldst look upon thy selfe with terrour, that thou art yet to be humbled or cleansed. Thou art not often called upon to take thy Rents, to lay hold on an inheritance; then why shouldst thou weary so many Pa­stours, kill so many Preachers, to call upon thee to be peni­tent? No, Repentance should be timely, speedy, or else the professor is worse then the Ninevits, for Jonah doth but begin to cry, and Nineveh is converted.

6. Sin hath her stirring motions; for was there onely the sha­king of ears at Jonah's Sermon? No, there was the shaking of limbs; the cry will not suffer them to receive the message up­on their seats, they are driven to stand up to it, for I read of a Rising, ch. 3. v. 6. So repentance should quicken men, and put them upon spirituall addresses. Omnis virtus in actione consistit. Cic. l. 1. Of­ficiorum. Imperfectum & languidum bo­num est. Senec. de vit. beat. c. 22. All virtue doth consist in action. That good which doth go no further then a concepti­on, is imperfect and languishing. They are blamed which do not frame their hearts to turn to the Lord, Hos. 5.4. An heart-touch is not enough, there must be an heart-frame, the judgement must not onely be enlightned, but the affections must be in­clined; that is a fruitlesse Sermon where all ends in motions, and men go not beyond incentives: Gods messages must call us up, and set us to work; for Arise, and be doing, 1 Chron. 22.16. They must put us into the right way, and make us [Page 78]mind our steps, and expatiate in endeavours; We must fol­low on to know the Lord, Hos. 6.3. There are many distances to be gone in Religion, therefore we must stretch out our selves to­wards that which is before, Phil. 3.13. Else Agrippa might have been a Saint, for he had some warnings in him; and Felix might have been a penitent, for he had his tremblings. Oh what shall we say then to them, which perhaps do receive the warning, but all their repentance doth lye in their eares? they attend to the cry, but they do not arise from their seats? Is it enough to see God angry, and not to pacifie his displea­sure? No, this is but to take notice of the sadnesse of the times, or to receive the bruit of impending misery, the main thing is to dispose our selves to prevent a judgement. There­fore as we apprehend the misery, so we must apply the reme­dy, prepare for action, do something to avert the punishment: In Niveneh there was a warning, and a stirring, a crying, and a Rising.

7. Greatnesse is not thought on: for this cry doth not only make the ears of the vulgar to tingle, but the consternation is en­tred into the pallace, he which sat in the Throne, and wore the Robe, is made to forget his Throne, and Robe; he doth not onely move with the rest, but he doth rise with the first, For word came to the King of Niveveh, and he arose from his Throne, and laid aside his Robe. And so the voyce of the Lord should break the Cedars, and make them leap like a calf, yea Lebanon, and Shirion, like the young Unicorne; the mightiest should have their judgement-frayes, and shiver under Gods threatned plagues. Antidotum ad versus Caesarem. Sucton. Feri­unt summos ful­gura montes. Horace. Is there any antidote against Caesar? any pre­servative against divine wrath? No, Gods lightnings strike upon the highest mountaines. What is a Throne to him, that hath built his stories in the Heavens? What is a Robe to him, that is clothed with jealousie as with a garment? Can a golden Scepter fright away a judgement? or all the Jewels of the Crown redeem a man from vengeance? shall the munition of Rocks be a safe defence? Shalt thou reign because thou dwellest in Cedar? No, God takes Kings by the Collar, and hurls them under his feet; he doth smite the great house with breaches, and make the houses of Ivory to perish. That great Pharaoh that asked, Who is the Lord, that I should heare his voyce? shall hear ere long, Who is Pharaoh? that would match his princely lips to the lips of the Almighty? Oh then, that many were not en­closed in their own fat, and infatuated with their Chariots of Glory, as if they should out-runne, and out-ride all miseries; yes they have lost their sight with glaring too much upon their glistering heapes, and their senses by drinking too deep­ly out of the intoxicated Cup of abundance; like Licinius, because they have so much ground, Plut. that a Kite cannot fly over it, they feare no dangers; and like Charles the 8th of [Page 79] France, because they have great Riches to trust to, Tametsi neque manu, neque consilio multum valeret, maxi­mis tamen opu­lenti regni viri­bus innisus, armis atque au­su plurimum confidit. Jovius. lib. 1. Tristor. they di­strust not to be happy against all accidents: these high-to w­ring Eagles which have built a loft, think their nests shall ne­ver be pulled down; these fat Bulls of Basan, which graze in the green pastures, never look that they shall be taken by the hornes, and flayed; these great Leviathans which swim in the vast Ocean of greatnesse, never expect that the harping iron shall be darted into their sides, and that they shall be played withall like a bird, bound for the Maids; that the ba­sket shall be filled with their skins, and the fish-pannier with their heads. The rich mans goods are his strong confidence, Prov. 10.15. They which dwell in the clefts of the Rocks, say, Who shall bring us down? Obad. 3. These never Rise, forsake the Thron, and cast away the Robe. It is an hard thing to see these Chuffes tremble in a Temple, or to let fall an eylid, or to bruise a breast before the most mortifying Preacher. Pashur, that is a Governour, never thinketh that he shall be a slave, and that his name shall be Mager-missabib, Fear round about: the Prince of Tyrus, which was of perfect beauty, and shone upon earth like an anointed Cherub, which sat his seat by the seat of God, which sealed up the summe, walked as in Eden, where every precious stone was his covering, never imagined that he should have been un-Numen'd, be made a man, and not God, and that he should dye the death of them, which are slain in the midst of the sea. There lyeth hid a kind of sorce­ry in the Throne, the Robe is a kind of enchanted vesture; how many might have sit in the heavenly places in Christ Je­sus, were it not for this Throne, and might have been array­ed in the pure and fine linnen, which is the righteousnesse of the Saints, had it not been for this Robe? Do we not see, that an upper seat in the Congregation, a scarlet Coat, a sump­tuous building, a large Rentail, Parks, and Fishponds, Lord­ships, and Royalties, make men contemn all Doctrine, and scorn the most devout Messengers? If Eliah doth reprove such, he is made to fly the Country; if Jeremiah doth deliver his errand freely to such, it is enough to have his prophesie cut in pieces with a pen-knife; if Cyrill meddle with the great Ju­lian, he shall be hewn a sunder in the middle, and his liver ea­ten up by the Heathens; Theodoret. l. 3. c. 6. if Ignatius reprehend Bardas for his vicious life, and tell him judgements hang over his head, he shall be locked up into a Sepulchre for many yeares, after­wards banished, and at last slain. Cuspinian. The high-crested worlding cannot endure a check: the Throne, and the Robe, make men conceive themselves superiour to all reproofs; how do they snuffe and snarle, fume and rage, shew their tusks, and put out their stings, look like Leopards, and sparkle like Basilisks, [Page 80]if they be but rebuked, or threatned? A Jonahs cry against them fills all the Country with tumults; they storm upon their Thrones, and defie in their Robes, yea, vow by the honour of their Thrones, Here rich men in gene­rall are only meant. and Robes, that they will be re­venged; a man had better anger all the Witches, and Conju­rers, provoke all the Centaures, and Minotaures in the world, then to menace this haughty spirited generation. The Devill hath his strongest chains upon rich mens heeles, he is most Prince, where disdeignfull men sit in the Throne, or wear the Robe: He hath thrust fees into these mens hands to oblige them to him, and given them a salary to make them his Stipendaries; he hath an Incorporation of Cosmopolites, an Host of Lucre-worms; oh the golden wedge doth weigh heavily, the fat portion is a sweet morsell, For riches a man will sell his Soul; how few can seperate themselves from this faire Concubine? or stop their ears against this Syrinx? no, where there are painted Portalls, seeled Parlours, Warehouses, Wardrobes, Deeds, deb-books, Gemms, and Jewells it is a difficult thing to unlock a dore to let in regeneration, or to o­pen a casement to look towards Heaven. But oh beloved, why do men thus fetter their affections to greatnesse? or live con­tentedly in this lofty, and well freezed Prison? Have rich men no Souls to save? or will their riches secure them against Divine vengeance? cannot God cast down thy Throne? and tear in pieces thy Robe? smite thee upon the Throne? and strip thee naked for all thy Robe? is a golden nightcap an head piece? and a velvet jacket, a brest plate against his judg­ments? why then doth not greatnesse stoop as well as penury? and listen as well as indigency? yes, the cry from Heaven ought to be as shrill to thee, as to the ears of the most despi­cable. Oh therefore, when God doth denounce plagues, for­get the Throne, and the Robe, trample the world under thy feet, look with an eye of neglect upon all pomp, and splen­dour, and be as active to quiver up Gods arrows, and to sheath up his sword, as he that doth grind at the Mill, or doth crouch for a piece of silver in the streets; this is to imitate Ni­neveh, yea, the greatest in Nineveh, for Word came to the King of Nineveh, and he arose from his Throne, and laid his Robe from him.

8. An humble dresse: for the King of Nineveh doth not only lay off his Robe, but cover himself with sackcloth. Did the King of Nineveh so, and shall not our Penitents be tied to as much humility? will they be Penitents, and not part with a new fashion? or loose a new fangle? doth the King of Nineveh put off the Robe, and do these put it on? doth he cover himselfe with sackcloth, and do these cover themselves with silks, and [Page 81]Sattins, cloth of silver, and gold? what be as sumptuous as Lords? as gorgeous as Princes? and yet is this dread of judg­ments? dismayed repentance? oh feat converts! oh spruse Penitents! They that wear soft rayment are in Kings Courts, Luctuosus habi­tus. Jeron. Vince ves [...]em. Cyp. de habit. Virg. but repentance hath no such glistering Gallants; no this is rather a Correction-house, then a Stage; a Whipping-post then a Wardrobe. Where there is true humiliation for sin, there must be a mournful habit. If thy heart be subdued, Mollia indau­menta animi mollitiem indi­cant Perald. Non monilium, aut vestium quaere ornamenta sed morum Cyp de hab. Virg. Overcome thy gar­ment; otherwise it will be said that thy spirit is not very sad, thy dresse is so trim; or thy conscience is not much mortified, thy back is so gawdy. Loose attires shew a dissolute mind; thou art fitter for a daunce, then dejection; for jovisance, then re­pentance, therefore look not for the adoraments of jewells and vestments, but of manners. What true Penitent was ever too bu­sie with the Mercers shop? or minded too much the Feater­maker, and Perfumer? No, Micah doth appear Stript, and naked, Micah. 1.8. Esay doth go harefoot. Esa. 20.2. the Israe­lites did not put on their ornaments, nor best garments, Exod. 33.4. Powders, Spangles, Cuts, Jags, Frizles, Crispings, Purple, and Crimson, are fitter for Swartrutters and Ruffians, then for true Penitents. There is a strange talking of God, where every member of the body doth speak it self to be Absalon; or a strange chattering of repentance, where from top to toe there is nothing to be seen but the embelished Daughter of He­rodias. I can find such Penitents at the Bacchaanals, Saturnals, and Lupercals; yea, at the Feasts of Lucina, Cybele, and Flora. Is this the School of mortification? no, the stair-case, or tiring-room of vanitie; these are strange kind of pieces, that are in­lay'd with nothing but garishnesse, or checker-worked with pride. Are these splendid Blades, and nitid Sparkes fit to de­fend a Nation? Yes, with their Corslets, but not their con­sciences; their rapiers, but not their repentance; I will as soon look for a protection from Jebusites, and Pherezites (those cur­sed people in the Land of Promise) as from such. They may call themselves Hectors, and Demagorgons, and indeed I think there is some truth in the titles, for they are fitter to fright a Country then to support it. If there were no other provoca­tions in the Land, yet there were fuell enough for consuming judgements, in peoples excessive and unlimited pride. Oh our patched faces are enough to make us Monsters in Gods eyes, our long tails to sweep all blessings out of the Nation, our powdred hair to fetch Gods rasour to shave these be­smeared locks, and if a man should search the Wardrobes, Cabinets, Complexion bottles, a man would wonder that the flying Book of curses had not already lighted upon this exo­tick [Page 82]Iland, or that this Theater of vanities were not burnt down with fire, Tolerabiliora in adulterio crimina sunt; ibi enim pudi­citia, hîc natu­ra adlteratur. Aug. de verbis Dom. and brimstone from Heaven. There are more tolerable things to be found in the Stews, then amongst these Ravish­ers of manners; for there modesty is but corrupted, but here nature. Away therefore with these fine, superfine guises; repentance doth admit of no such garbs. If thou conceivest therefore that God doth threaten the Nation, make thy tiring room to be sensible of it, let Jonahs cry fetch all thy new fashions from thy back; Is this a time to take Vineyards, and Oliveyards, and Figtrees? so, is this a time for tersing, and sprusing, and flaunting? No, this is a time to rend, and not to sew. Eccles. 3.7. God doth call now to baldnesse, and sack­cloth. Es. 22.12. Attire your selves therefore in your judge­ment suits, and cloth your selves in your visitation rags. When Jonah doth preach destruction, the King of Nineveh doth not keep State, no he hath little Imperiall seen about him, he doth lay aside his Rohe, and cover himself with sackcloth.

9. An height of abasement. For the King of Nineveh doth not leave his Throne to take up an inferiour Chair, for this had been but to change seats, but he doth take up his place where a bondman in another case would not have rested himself; He was a King, but he doth couch down with the Caytiffe, for he sate upon ashes.

And to be Penitent I must sprinkle you with these ashes, nay, prepare you a low stool upon these ashes. Job abhorred himself in ashes. Job. 42.6. and Daniel humbled himselfe in ashes. Dan. 9.3. Repentance hath never bowed you low enough, till it hath thrown you upon the ground, and cast you upon the ashes, that ye might think your selves as base as ashes, and that there is no higher price to be set upon you then ashes. Oh what self-contemning expressions do we find in all them, which have turned but an eye to Heaven? Elizabeth the fa­mous wife of the Landgrave of Hesse, after her conversion for­gat all state, and dignity, and fashioned her self after the manner of a poor woman, Ad pauperculae morem se com­ponebat & quo­ties ad licelesi­am Evangelicae praedicationis gratiā accessit, non nisi inter insimas mulie­res considebat. Sabellic. l. 8. c. 5. Veste, voce, ha­bitu, incessu ut minima crat. Jeron. in Epitaph. Paulae. Humi sedebat, & panem suum provolutus in terram gemitu com­edit. Marul. lib. 1. c. 8. and whensoever she went to Church to hear Gods word, she sate amongst the lowest women. Paula the great Ma­tron of Rome, when she went to Bethleem, was so altered, that a man would not have thought her to be the same woman, she was so changed in vesture, voice, habit, and gate, that she seemed to be one of the meanest. Francis the Father of the Minors, because Christ was laid in a cratch, was wont for the most part to sit upon the ground, and grovelong to eat his meat groaning. So repentance hath never wrought her [Page 83]effectuall work upon thee, till it hath pulled the admiring eye out of thy head, and the proud heart out of thy bosome; Ab­negation, or selfe-deniall, is the penitents necessary lesson. Is there any thing more unseemly, then to see a lofty spirited convert? Perit homo a­mando se, hic invenitur ne­gando se Aug. ser. 48. de di­vers. Si intelli­gas quid sit a­lium abnegare lunc percipies, quid sit abnega­re teipsum. Chrys. hom. 50. in Mat. Si ipse esset, pius profecto non esset, Greg in Evang. hom. 32. Qui me desi­derat seipsum despiciat, qui vult facere me­am voluntatem discat negare suam. Pern. serm. de S. An­drea. the crucifyng nailes of repentance will not suffer the flesh to live in magnifying desires of it selfe. Blessed are the poore in spirit. Man doth perish in loving himselfe, he is preserved in denying himselfe. If thou understandest what it is to deny another, thou wilt then apprehend what it is to deny thy selfe. It was an high word of St. Paul, to say, No longer I live, but Christ liveth in me, Gal. 2 20. A man to be quick, and yet expired, to be seen of all, heard of all, saluted by all, and yet no Paul: yet thus it was, Saul was gone, and St Paul doth come in the stead; or not he living, but Christ lived in him; and indeed, if he had still been himselfe, he himselfe had not been godly. If any one will come after me, let him deny himselfe. He must take the great man out of his eye, and streyn the worthy out of all parts of him. If Christ doth leave a man his skin, he doth not leave him his will; for He which desireth Christ must despise himselfe, and he which would do Christ's will, he must renounce his own. And thus ye see, how repentance doth not onely anatomize, but atomize you, naught you, nusquam you, null you. All high conceits, and glorious, vain-glorious, imaginations of your selves are gone. Oh thou penitent, so soon as ever thou deniest thy selfe, thou losest thy self; for what art thou? a Perpusillus, a Nanus, a Nemo, a Demy, a Dwarfe, a very No-body. Thou which wert a bright Candle, art now a snuffe; thou which wert a spread flower, art now a dry leafe; thou which wert a pearl, art now ashes: Oh therefore upon the day of thy repentance, let high birth, high crests, high looks, high titles, all elate, in­flate, lofty, stately, imaginating, engrandising, preheminen­cies, and priviledges be forgotten, and count thy selfe the bran of the boulter, the sweepings of the floor, a scuttle, a spanfull of ashes; sift thy selfe into these ashes, and sit upon ashes, for thou seest how the great King of Nineveh, by this loud-cry of Jonas, doth see that if Gods jugdements should calcine him, and his City, what a Caput mortuum, and terra dam­nata, should be left of them; therefore whatsoever his Throne was before, ye see now his penitentiall stool; He sat upon ashes.

10. A restraint of Delicacies; for here is a Fast proclaimed, and a fast kept. Repentance must not run to the Dresser, or step into the Cook-roome, or sit down in the banquetting-house, revell, and riot, quaffe and carowse, whilst men are preven­ting a shipwrack, quenching a sire, pacifying an incensed God, and averting eminent judgements: no, it is much that [Page 84]a wounded conscience can have an eager appetite, or bended knees, can creep to the Pantry, or watry eyes can look out for Feasts. Spread Tables, variety of Services, Chargers, Fla­gons, eating Lambs out of the Flock, feeding without feare, drinking wine with a song, do not agree with repentance; these things are fitter for Sardanapalus, Heliogabalus, then for the Penitent. Repentance must not hunger after the Crea­ture, whilst she is solliciting the Creatour; nor come to her appetite, whilst her stomach is full of the sense of sin, and di­vine wrath; let her earn her bread, and do her work, before she doth sit down at the Table: She is to stretch out her hands indeed, but not to receive what the Feastmaker shall carve out; she is to open her mouth, but not for dainties; she hath a diet of her own (Humiliation-bread) and let her feed upon that; she hath a Cup of her own (the penance-goblet) and let her drink of that; when she is preserving of life, let her not mind too much nourishing of nature; when she is freeing her selfe from destruction, let her not be too intent upon Belly-chear: Can the Marriner gorge himselfe, when the tempest is comming? or the Souldier eat, when the ene­my doth look him in the face? or the Penitent be at his repast, when vengeance doth blow her trumpet? no, then let men not eat, but abstaine; not feed, but fast. It is a day of attonement, Num. 31.50. therefore it must not be a day of pampering; Mucore suo. Pro corporis castigatione cessatio à cibo. Aug de fide ad Petr. Semper virtuti jejunium cibus fuit. Leo in ser. de Jejun. dec. Mensis. Paenitentia à licitis cautè se restringit. Greg 5. Mo­ral. jejunium humilitatem commendat, Praestat homini seipsum intelli­gere. Aug. ser. de Jejun. re­medium salutis, radix gratiae. Amb. de Elia & Jejunio. Paenitens sine jejunio est sicut miles sine gla­dio. Chrys. in Mat. 6. of afflicting our soules, Levit. 16.29. therefore it must not be of satiating the flesh; of rowling our selves in dust, Micah. 1.10. therefore it must not be of surfeiting our selves with excess. Though at other times mens mouthes may be satisfied with good things, and they may eat of the fat, and drink of the sweet, yet then they must not eat the bread of men, Ezech. 24.17. but like the Cephalus, they must live with their own moisture; there must be for the chastisement of the body, a cessation from food. Alwaies fasting (at such times) was the diet to virtue. Our dayly bread is not to be thought on, when we are begging pardon for our daily trespasses; then repen­tance must refraine from things lawfull. We must shew our selves the servants of God in fasting, 2 Cor. 6. we must sanctifie a meeting, and call a fast, Joel. 2. Davids knees were weak with fasting, Psal. 109.24. The Israelites fasted all day till night, Judg. 20. Ester and her maidens fasted three whole days together, Ester 4. Fasting doth testifie humility, and it is singular to make a man understand himselfe. It is a remedy of health, and a root of grace. A penitent without fasting, is like a Souldier without his sword. Apelles the Aegyptian Monk, was wont to hew his body with fastings, as one doth timber with the axe. Hilarion would feed his body with chaffe, and not with provender, lest the [Page 85]beast should grow too lusty; St. Jerome saith, that Asella used fasting for a recreation; Euphraxia would teach her body to fast extreamly, that she might dream rather of meat, than abomi­nations. How doth it grieve me to think that the Altar of Ari­dalus could not be approached, nor people could not be initia­ted under the Goddesse Isis, without high preparatory fasts, and that we think to get our admission under God with vo­raginous paunches, and soaked gullets, as if we would have God to seal our pardon in the Larder. But we must not have the crums hanging between our teeth, when we are petition­ing for mercy; nor belch in Gods face with our full stomacks, when we are begging for life; no, hollow cheeks, sunk eyes, gnawing bowels, macerated sides, fainting spirits, are better then swoln faces, swallowing throats, reeking stomachs, eyes starting out with fatnesse. Doth Nineveh seek to appease Gods wrath by sitting down by her flesh-pots? eating bread to the full? turning over their bowls? wallowing in her vomit? no, the dread of Gods judgements hath shut up all their Pan­tries, locked up all their Cellers, the whole City doth sit like an Anchorite, there is no pleasant bread to be gotten, nei­ther flesh nor wine come into their mouths; to free them­selves from stripes, they chasten themselves before the Lord; to procure mercy, they proclaim a Fast.

11. The whole strength is put to the worke; for Nineveh doth not act singly, but the generality is called on, King, Nobles, Citizens, and all sorts of men. And indeed where the danger is common, there ought to be an unanimous prevention. A defective as­sistance is next to absolute carelesseness. If the Iron be blunt put more strength to it, that a joynt endeavour may set an edge up­on gracious attempts, we should be knit together as one man, Judg. 20.11. and lift as it were with one shoulder, Zeph. 3.9. Joseph was angry, when one Benjamin was but wanting, so it is a gree­vance in a religious design, when the whole kindred do not meet; a work of importance should have a joynt advance­ment, if they be of the same fee, they should come to do their suit and service with us; where all are interessed, every one should send in their supply. In that renowned meeting at Shiloh, about the accident at Gibeah, All the children of Israel, and all the people came to the house of God and wept, and sat there be­fore the Lord, and fasted, and offered burnt-offerings, and peace-offer­ings unto the Lord, Judg. 20.26. In Esters humiliation, Morde­cai, and all the Jewes in Sushan, and Ester, and all her maids fasted, Ester. 4. In that great pacification enjoyned in the 2. of Joel. The people are summoned, the Congregation called, the Elders gather­ed, and not so much as the Bride, or Bridegroom exempted. The Stone in Scyros if it be cast into a River, being whole it doth flote [Page 86]above water, [...]lin. l. 36. c. 17. but if it be broken it doth sink to the borome; so united devotion is powerfull, but divided ineffectuall; if we would have the Boat goon happily, we must row alike at the Oar. Pariter remum ducere. Ari­stoph. D [...]on. Eleas said of the Lacedemonians, that Target stuck to Target, and Helmet to Helmet, and so indeed we should all serve together in the same virtuous resolution. Philopaemanes was wise, Plut. who built a Temple to Jupiter Plitorius, where all should meet to agree about the same commendable action: and such a Temple (though not to such a God) were fit for us, where all worshippers might congregate together, to promote religious undertakings with an holy combination; that Physick doth work best, where none of the ingredients are wanting, but there is a perfect compound. A sad thing it is, that when some are upon their knees, others should be walk­ing after their pleasures; when some are seeking of God, others should be seeking of their booties; when some are shedding of teares, others should be singing of catches; when some are fasting, others should be juncating: what doe this shew but collaterall winds, one blowing against another? or mu­tinous Souldiers, turning their weapons one upon another? doubtlesse such a land is splay-footed, or such a Church doth look asquint. Therefore let there be an harmony in pious intentions, what one builds, let not another pluck down, what one layes a foundation for, let not another undermine; but where the hazard is publique, let there be a publique uni­on to eschew the perill; here ye see all Nineveh was incorpo­rated into the same reconciling act, all joyning together, King, Nobles, Citizens, and all sorts of persons.

12. A memorable thing done in repentance: for the Ninevites made their Beasts to fast, and wear sackcloth: and shall Nineveh do this, and we do nothing to imitate the president? Profane­nesse can bring forth prodigious things, and shall repentance bring forth no eminent things? we can find Monsters in the one, and shall we not Mirrours in the other? was Phidias known by his image? Archimedes by his engines? Architas Tare [...]tinus by his Cube? Flavius Melphitanus by the Card and Compasse? Plato de repub. Petrus Cieza. l. 2. Rerum Indic. c. 9. and shall repentance be known by nothing that is illustrious? Have seales their stamps, odours their sents, e­lixirs their virtues; and shall there be no print, perfume, o­peration, whereby repentance may be discerned and distin­guished? Shall this new-born have upon the birth-day not be lovely shaped? shall this Diamond at the first cutting have no lustre? shall this mettall when it doth come hot out of the Mint, not be purely refined? do we strive to be ingenious Students, politick Merchants, sagacious Statesmen, redoub­ted Captains, and but vulgar Penitents' Yes, if in other things [Page 87]we are choise, here we should excell; if in other things we are laudable, here we should be incomparable; in this we should be in our prime, shew our selves most elaborate, yea set forth repentance as our Master-piece. Do we not find repentance thus adorned every where in scripture? yes, look upon the repentance at Bochim, Mizpeh, Hadadrimmon, the repentance of David, Job, Mary Magdalen, St Peter, and St Paul, and see how repentance is dignified and illustred; and find we not these marks of honour amongst other religious penitents? Yes, peruse a whole Catalogue of them Godfrey of Bononia, being the first that scaled the walls of Rome, whereupon hap­ned an heavy slaughter, he was so afflicted for it, that he wished he could wash out this guilt of that blood with the blood of Saracens. Godfrey of Loraine, Aemil. l. 5. having burnt a Church at Verdun, he was so troubled for it, that he built another at his proper charges, and would often labour in the Masons work with his own hands. Aurea a Virgin of Paris, Schafna bur­genfis. having re­conciled her selfe to God, she lived afterwards a very severe life, and built her a seat, Marulus. l. 4. c. 11. where she might have fifty Psalms at her right hand, and fifty at her left hand, and fifty at her back to meditate upon. Charles Earl of Valois, having by false accu­sation destroyed Enguerra Marignan, being visited with sick­ness, he did so lament this fact, that he not onely procured his body to be taken down from the Gibbet, and solemnly in­terred, Fulgosus. but he neglected no duty of Religion, no charity to the poor, nor passionate humiliation to expiate this foul crime. Starchatherus, a valiant Champion, having slain virtuous Olo in a bath, such an horrour came upon him, Tantus horror incessit. Iohn. Magn. l. 8. c. 12. that he was ready to drop down dead, and spent out his whole life afterwards in a most anxious manner. Hermannus bishop of Prague being converted, he bewailed that he had spent more time in Prin­ces Courts, than in the Temple, Dubrav. l. 11. and was infinitely grieved that he had been more conniving, then resolute against sinne, vowing for time to come, Vt peccatum, quod loquendo contraxerat, acendo emen­daret Gennad. to be (as he proved) the glass of Penitents. Severus Sulpitius, being deluded by the Pelagians, seeing his errour, he afterwards enjoyned himselfe perpetuall silence, that that sin which he had contracted by speech, he might correct it by holding his peace. Thais of Alexandria, af­ter she had renounced her lustfull life, was ever such a de­jected creature, that she durst never mention the name of God, but onely said, Oh thou which hast made me, Qui plasmasti me, misere meî. Sabel. l. 5. c. 5. have mercy of me. Lewis, Landgrave of H [...]sse, having lost his way in an hun­ting, he was enforced to lye in a Wood-makers house, where the Wood maker, not knowing the Landgrave, expressed most sharp language against him, with which the Landgrave was so [Page 88]strook, In posterum vi­tain suam, & Aulicorum mi­rè emendavit. Cytiac. Span­genberg. in ve­natorio Diabo­lo. that he afterwards most rigidly [reformed his owne life, and the lives of his Courtiers, and died a most exem­plary Prince. Was this the repentance of former ages, and do we only preserve the scabbard, and have no keen blade left in it? were these our Predecessours, and Progenitours as it were, and have we buried all of them, but their names? then pitty it is that we should have any of our Ancestours gold, if we have none of their graces; or that we should possesse their revenews, if wee have embezled their repen­tance; or that we should enjoy their Redeemer, if we have rejected their Reconciliation. What shall a naked, titular, ironicall, histrionicall, Mathematicall repentance content us? what is our Repentance? what memorable thing is there evi­dent in it? oh that we could think on it without a partiall heart, or look on it without an hypocrites eye. Alas, we do but only observe a day of Church-meeting, look upon God with a brow of familiarity, stand up as if we would prescribe laws to Heaven for agreement, wrimple at a Pulpit-launcing, fill our ears with Panegyricks of Jerusalem, or sarcasms' a­gainst Babylon, sing a Penitentiall Psalm, or hear an artifici­all Lecturer. Now, is this Rachel that ye have served so long for? No, the wrong party doth lay by your sides, a very blear-eyed Creature, in the morning you will find it to be Leah. Oh umbrage of humiliation, and walking ghost of repentance! Repentance is a joyning our selves to the Lord in a perpetuall Cove­nant Jer. 50.5. and shall this Covenant be sealed, and signed without binding Articles on our side? It is a returning to our first husband. Hos. 2.7. and dare we return to our former hus­band without a new plighting of that fidelity, which we pro­mised at our first espowsalls? It is a rising from the dead, Ephes. 5.14. & can we come out of our graves without resurrection-cheeks? It is a translating of us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, Col. 1.13. and shall we be carried no further to Heaven, then a throat-puffe, or a lungpipe-pant can blow us? Oh be­ware, these Temple larves, Congregation Mummeries will do us little good. We must be other men, and more ex­pressive men, then ever we were before; we must declare somthing that is signal, yea, set up a Monumental repentance, the Ninivites did so, they made their Beasts to fast, and wear sackcloth.

13. An anguish for sin: for how is Nineveh at her contrition? She is turned a most disconsolate Creature, every street of the City doth proclaim her Mourner, yea, every gesture, and motion doth testifie her sad apprehension of sin; there is no­thing to be seen it, but afflicting buffets, it doth eccho with ejulations, and is drenched, and showred with tears. So a [Page 89]true Penitent should be the troubled Creature of his age, the sight of sin should daunt him, yea, exanimate him; this child­birth must be in sorrow, this ague must be with a shaking sit, this fining with an absolute melting. The Sun should not seem to shine upon the day of thy repentance, no, there must be a clowded sky, a black eclipse, dark mists, tempests, and thun­der to be discerned. He is a strange Penitent, that doth not change countenance, that doth feel no inward gripes, and hath not every heart-string aking. The humbled spirit must be a contrite spirit, Nullus potest no­bam inchoare vitam, nisi eum veteris vitae poe­niteat. Aug. de medic. Poenit, c. 2. poenitentia est poenae tenentia. Nav. Poenitentia est punientia, Sylvest. prier. Erubescentia de peccato. Rich. in 4. dist. 18. q. 4. ad 3. Est vindista quaedam, semper puniens in se, quod dolet com­misisse. Aug. de vera, & falsa poen. c. 8. tom. 4. repentance cannot be without godly sor­row. No man can begin a new life, but he which is afflicted for his life past. Repentance is a torturing with pain, or Repentance is a chasti­sing punishment. There must be a blushing for sin. Yea it is a self-avengement, whereby a man is ever correcting in himself, that which he feeleth with distresse he did commit. Thus then ye see how repentance doth pierce, and pinch, grind the heart, and soak the eyes at the first entrance; Contrition is full of collisions, and convulsions, rough waves, and rushing Surges, sparkling and scaldings, bosom-thrillings, and eye-drippings; A true Penitent is brought to the Aliar, and would even make a sa­crifice of himself, he seemeth to have no more life left in him, but to vent out his own anxiety; there must be the torment of sin in repentance, that which the infernall spirits should do below, a contrite spirit must here perform; the Penitent for a time must feel the Chains of darknesse, the gnawing worm, the fiery lake, the weeping, and gnashing of teeth; if he would not suffer the everlasting curses, he must try what a Tophet he can raise up in his own conscience. Oh my gentle Penitent, I know not how to comfort him; the insensible Sinner doth go for an impenitent, the remorseles for a Reprobate; he that hath not a rent heart, hath a Pharohs heart; they which are not weary and heavy laden, I find no refreshments for them; as Christ came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance, so no more did he ever open his lips to invite them, which are not conscious of their own unrighteousnesse; there are no plaisters but for smarting wounds, nor wine but for the sor­rowfull, nor brests of consolation but for the crying children, nor garment of beauty, but for the spirit of heavinesse; God doth light up his candle to none but those which sit in dark­nesse, nor cast out his Anchor to none but where the Ship doth crack, and is ready to sink; he doth lift up onely the hands which hang down, and strengthen onely the weak knees; he doth hold onely the aking temples, and wipe onely the blub­bered cheeks. They whose hearts are as fat as brawn, and as hard as the nether milstone, which are at ease in Sion, setled upon their lees, frozen in their dregs, whose eyes are blind, [Page 90]their ears uncircumcised, and consciences seared with an hot iron, which cannot answer crimes with cries, nor provocati­ons with vexations, let them perish in their steely, and flinty condition; Let the broken-hearted only be bound up, conso­lations be shed into the brest of them, which recount their sins in bitternesse of soul, let the golden Thau be set only upon the foreheads of the Mourners of Jerusalem; let the distressed Publican only depart out of the Temple justified; let Para­dise be promised only to the penitent theef. Shall the chil­drens bread be cast unto dogs? shall God feed the secure with the dainties of the perplexed? It is an easie matter to rise out of bed, but is it so to rise out of sin? to put on garments, but is it so to put on the Robe of innocency? to get an interest in nature, but is it so to get an interest in Heaven? It is an ea­sie matter to take up a Bible, to walk to Church, to pen down a Sermon, to professe the Gospell, to Saint a fancied cause, but is it an easie matter to repent? No, is it a difficult thing to fight a Battle, and not to obtain this conquest? to run a race, and not to win this prize? to pacifie mans wrath, and not to appease Gods indignation? Yes, oh that thou sawest, how a Sinner must be broken in pieces, before he can procure his reconciliation! doth repentance require no passions? yes, greater then those of Esau for the losse of his birthright, or those of the Egyptians for the slaughter of their firstborn. Oh the sharp-pointed weapon of compunction! oh the grinding milstone of contrition! this red Sea, and Wildernesse must be past before the desired Canaan can be entred; the Penitent must lye (as it were) for a while in Hell, and feel, though not specifically, yet analogically some of the torments of the damned, Initium omnis peccati est super­bia, per quam homo sensui suo inherens à mandatis divi­nis recedit, & ideo [...]portet, quod illud destruit pecca­tum hominem à proprio sensiu discedere faciat. Ille autem qui in suo sensu perse­verat, rigidus & durut voca­tur, unde & frangi dicitur aliquis, quando à suo sensu di­vellitur. Tho. Suppl. q. 1. art. 1. before he can have a sense of inward satisfaction; For the beginning of all sin is pride, whereby a man cleaving to his own senses doth recede from Gods commandements, therefore it is fit that these senses should be punished, yea, that that hardnesse which is contracted by sin should be broken, and shivered; for that contrition might annihilate the sin, it must even almost annihilate the sinner; therfore it is styled a comminution of him; not onely a sensitive passion, but a spirituall contusion; there must not only be attrition with a little diminution, but contrition with an absolute dissipation, for there is divisio ad minima, a division, or demolition to the least sherd, shiver, or dust. For the object of contrition being guilt, and every guilt requiring his proper grief, how eager had that contrition need to be, that is to be exercised about all these sins? all the sorrows of nature are not like to the griefs of a penitent in respect of displicency; but onely in respect of the exteriour anguish; nature may exceed in her griefes, but contrition as it is essen­tially [Page 91]seated in the intellective appetite, cannot be dolor nimi­us, too great a grief. All which serve to shew what a salt, and brackish Sea must flow into a penitent Soul. I read of the Ma­hometans, that they must drink of a bitter water, before they are permitted to go up to the Mountain of Pardons; sure I am my Penitent must drink of his Marah, before the sweet tree can be cast in. Repentance cannot be without remorse, Nineveh is a Mourner.

14. An acknowledgement of sin: for what are these dolorous transitions, but silent publications of sin? yes, Nineveh is at her shrift, and brought to open confession; for in the 3. ch. v. 8. she doth speak out, and is not sparing to lay open her evill waies; What then, can a concealer of sin be a true Penitent? no, He that hideth his sins shall not prosper. Prov. 28.13. It is to shame repentance to have her born dumb, or not to have her tongue-string cut. I will go, and return to my place till they ac­knowledge their sault. Hos. 5.15. God doth live at a distance from the mute Penitent. Cain was a Runagate, Sauls King­dom was rent from him, Judas was cast out as a Son of per­dition, because none of these would confesse sincerely, what they were privy to. Where is thy brother Abel? I cannot tell, saith the first, Gen. 4.9. Wherefore hadst thou not obeyed the voice of the Lord, but hast turned to the prey, and hast done wicked­ly in the sight of the Lord? I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and gone the way which he sent me, saith the second, 1 Sam. 15.19. One of you shall betray me. Master is it I, saith the third. Matt. 26.25. Oh it is a dangerous thing for men to be strangers to their own sins, which they have been most familiar with, that they should neither have an eye to discern them, nor a tongue to discover them. What not reveal that, which thou hast made most publique to Gods eye? but suppresse disobedience, as if the searcher of hearts could not find it out? No, Repentance hath none of these clanculary courses, but it doth bring forth her stolen goods, when the thief is sought after; and open the Castle gates, when God doth come to summon the Rebell, saying, I am the man, these have been my handy-works, thus crieth the Penitent; for where there is remorst, there ought not only to be a reflection, but detection, not only contrition, but confession. For sin is never throughly apprehended, till we have consitentem reum, Accusatio sul. Tolet. 3. l. c. 6. Execrando ma­lum sibi imputat Lumb. l. 4. dist. 15. Vulnera nutrit, qui tegit. Pas­chas. l. 3. Pas­chal. the guilty man acknowledging his errour, yea, till there be an accusation of a mans self. A Penitent by execrating evil he doth impute it to himself. For how doth a man expell sin, but by casting it out at his lips? He doth nourish his wounds, which doth hide them. Yea, this must not be a formall repetition of e rours in the general, but every trespasse which doth come to his knowledge, must be rehearsed upon the [Page 92]tongu's end, mon simplex per deodum historiae se bet esse mani­nistatio; haec e­a m potius esset eccusatio quàm ixcusatio. Tolet 3. c. 8. otherwise confession were rather before God an Accusation, then an Excusation. Oh therefore unravell your lives, sweep the hid corners, rake the cannels, lay open the secrets of your hearts, and lives, disburthen your consciences, let not sin lie rankling within, but let the festered corrupti­on run out at the mouth of the wound, speak out your er­rours, and tell out all your crimes in Gods ears; for thus doth Nineveh, she is at Confession, for she doth mention her evil waies.

15. A reparation for sin, for the Ninivites had offended God ma­ny waies, and now they are bringing in opposite vertues to those irregular provocations; they do return back unto God his own, as well as they can; and clear the arreerages, as well as they are able; if they had sinned in neglecting Prophets, they will now hear Jonah; if they had contemned judgements, they will now believe God; if they had been too much taken with the Throne, they will now sit upon the ash-heap; if flaunting attires had been their transgression, they will now wear sackeloth; if they had trespassed in delicious fare, they wil now fast, and neither eat bread, nor drink water; and look through the whole series of their proceedings, ye shall see nothing but a contradicting of their sins, and oppugning of them with contesting vertues. And thus we ought to learn this permuting art, to change grievances into graces; that what God hath suffered in, we endeavour to make him just satisfaction; Deus non potest recipere dam­num, sed injuri­am. Molin. tr. 2. l. 3. Poster. disp. 715. for though God can have no damage, because the greatest Tyrant cannot take away any thing from God, for who can strike his person? Diminish his essence? deprive him of Power, Majesty, infinitenesse, and Eternity? yet God may be wronged in his Laws, Honour, Service, and so subject to an injury; now this injury must have some retaliation: resti­tution ad pondus, according to adaequation, we cannot make; yet we should come as nigh as we can according to a Geome­tricall proportion, that wherein God hath suffered, there might be in us a Contrapassion, Tho' Aq. 22 [...].61.4. as Aquinas calleth it. Satisfacti­on is a species of justice, and we are very unjust, if we have raised up an enemy, and will let him go without recompen­sation of the wrong. Opera paenalia. I do not tie you to paenall works, as whipcord, cuttings, pilgrimages, and the like, which they call electious actions, for I find not these reckoned amongst either remedies, Opera indebita. or duties; yet I would tie you to works esta­blished, and enjoyned; Opera sancita, & debita. yea, to make God satisfaction as near as you can in specie, in the kind. As if ye have sinned by igno­rance, to search for wisdom as for silver; if by indevotion, to be more frequent in the duties of worship; if by blasphe­my, to tie up your tongues to a greater reverence of Gods [Page 93]name, if by malice, to bear injuries more patiently; and so to stop all the breaches of your guilts with contrary vertues. The Corinthians Revenge is pertinent to this businesse. 2 Cor. 7.11. that what we have offended God in, we revenge upon our selves; thus let God have justice done him, for Nineveh doth make reparation.

16. Devout supplication: for did Nineveh repent only with penitent gestures, and prefer no Petition? Yes, she did cry mightily unto God. And indeed I doubt whether there be any re­pentance, where the Court is not moved to reverse a sentence The Penitent must not only be supple, but a suppliant, not only sollicitous, but a Solicitour. Why should a sinner be look­ed on if he will not speak for himself? or be released, if hee will not mediate for his discharge? In that day a man shall look up to his Maker. Es. 17.7. yea, not only lift up his eyes, but lift up a prayer. 2 Kings 19.4. that is, call passionately, crave importunately, cry mightily; A Penitent should pierce the air with these darts, awaken Angels with this Gunshot, conquer God with this Artillery; by prayer he should endea­vour to make the spear drop out of Gods hand, to pluck down his Standard, to unharnesse the Lord of Hosts, to draw him to a treaty, and to get him sign Articles of peace; Prayer should stay execution, procure a reprieve, and bring down a pardon; when Terrours are comming forth, prayer should stop their march; when God is levelling his arrow, it should make his bow unbend; when he is putting a yoak about the neck of a Nation, it should make it drop asunder: Have not the Saints in all ages thus diverted judgement? Yes, Spare thy people oh God, and give not thy heritage over as a reproach. Joel 2.17. Hide not thine ear at my breathing. Lam. 3.56. We beseech thee, oh Lord, we beseech thee, let us not perish. Jonas 1.14. do not the faithfull relie upon this, as their principall refuge? Yes, Let us go spee­dily to pray before the Lord, and to seek the Lord of Hosts. Zach. 8.21. In trouble they have visited thee, they powred out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them. Es. 26.16. And doth not God ex­pect thus to be courted? Yes, I will for this be enquired of, by the house of Israel. Ezech. 36.37. I sought for a man that should make up the hedge, and stand up in the gap for the Land, that I might not destroy it. Ezech. 22.30. And doth he not promise high suc­cesse to such addresses? Yes, If my people which are called upon by my name shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, I will hear from Heaven, and forgive their sins, and heal their Land. 2 Chron. 7.14. God is pacified, so soon as the Penitent doth petition; the Father attoned, so soon as the child doth cry. Wherefore criest thou unto me? Exod. 14.25. They cryed, and their cry came up to God, Exod. 26.23. He heard my cry. Ps. 40.1. I have looked upon my people because their cry is come up to [Page 94]me, 1 Sam. 9.16. Oh these cryes do mount beyond an Eagles flight, they passe through guards without resistance, open the Gates of heaven without a key, get audience when none else can be admitted, they press into Gods privy Chamber, shake his Throne, and bind his hands; they command above, and raigne in heaven, God doth yield infinitely, if men cry migh­tily. One supplicatory shaft is better than a quiver of Arrows, a single Trooper of devotion, is better then an Army of Giants. How many have filed off the fetters of their sins, escaped out of the Keepers hands, shut up the mouth of hell, and stood spotlesse amongst the pure and bright Angels, by the benefit of prayers? The Cities of refuge, the hornes of the Altar were never so secure as prayer. Moses by lifting up his hands strook down the Amalekites, Hezekiah by crying to Him which dwelt between the Cherubims, fetched an Angell out of hea­ven to destroy an hundred fourscore and five thousand in a night; Asah by but saying, Help O Lord, we rest on thee, and are come out against this multitude, dispersed an Army of ten hun­dred thousand. By prayer, Hannahs barren wombe was made fruitful, David turned Achitophels wisdome into foolishness, the Prophet restored Jeroboams withered hand, Eliah fetched rain from heaven, Elisha raised the dead. By prayer then, what sins may not be pardoned? what judgments may not be remo­ved? Say but Lord have mercy upon me, Dicito miserere mei, & Deus illico aderit. Chrys. de mu­liere Chanan. hom. 12. Pul­santi aperitur, si modo pulsent ostium preces. Cyp. ad Cler. & Pleb. Ep. 8. l. 1. Oratio­nis purae magna est vitrus, & velut [...]ldelis Nuntius pera­git, & pene­trat ubi caro non pervenit. Aug. in Psal. 65. Medici pe­cuniis, Deus so­la oratione pla­catur. Chrys. in 2 Mat. & God wil instantly be present. It is opened to him that knocketh, if onely prayers doe knock at the doore. Great is the force of a pure prayer, and like a faithfull Messen­ger it doth walk, and go whither the flesh cannot come. Physitians are pacified with gifts, but God with prayer alone. Oh how hath prayer calmed the tempests of a troubled mind? yea stilled the noise of the thunders at Gods judgement seat? it is a penitents bal­some, and the best musick in Gods ears; it doth fright Devils, and exhilarate Angels, it doth cancell bonds, cast indite­ments out of the Court, compromise differences, reconcile mortall adversaries, acquit the guilty, justifie sinners, cure phrensies, ease conflicts, put songs into mourners lips, fill the breast of disconsolate soules with extasies, dig Mines, fish for Pearls, fetch pensions out of Gods Exchequer, nay draw the signet off from Gods right hand to seal Church-grants to the faithfull: so soon as this wise woman from the wall doth but speak, the City is spared; so soon as this Aligail doth pre­sent her selfe, the whole family is preserved; so soon as this Ester doth appear, the golden Scepter is stretched out; so soon as this Angell doth come down, the waters are stirred, and there is virtue in the pool of Bethesdah for all diseased and distressed Creatures. Oh that devotion were but articulate, that repentance could but open her lips, and the penitent [Page 95]draw up all his desires into this short Enthymeme: this is the true sweat of our browes, whereby we should earn our bread, the Candle which should never go out in the house of the virtuous woman to enrich her family; yea, the key which doth unlock all the chests in Gods Treasury. It is the setting the face, whereby we might look right upon God; the foot, that should carry us with boldnesse to the Throne of grace, the Altar of incense in Gods Sanctuary; nay the golden Viall in heaven, which doth send up sweet odours into the nostrils of God. Davids sling, Sampsons jawbone, the Lamps in Gideons pitchers, never won such conquests as prayer. It hath been the prop, protection, and promotion of the Saints in all ex­tremities. When nothing could relieve them, prayer hath comforted them; when nothing could assist them, prayer hath supplyed them: Oh what wonders might be told of prayer! the Church hath not had a more happy Agent to work miracles: see a few Monuments and Trophees set up to the honour of prayer. Fulco Earl of Anjou, being much troubled in mind for his grievous sinnes, Admitte Domi­ne miserum Ful­conem, perju­rum & fugiti­vum tuum. Aemil. an. l. 3. flying to the sepul­chre of Christ at Jerusalem, and there using these words, Lord, admit miserable Fulco, a perjured person, and thy fugitive, presently received souls-ease. Charles Martell being prayed for, that a secret sin of his might be forgiven, there was a schedule found upon the Altar, which mentioned both the sin and the pardon. Piamon beholding an Angell writing the names of some professed men, Bergomens. l. 10. and blotting out the names of other; he rehearsing this vision to the persons: they which were guilty fell into such contrition, and prayed so devout­ly with Piamon, that the vision being renewed, he found the Petitioners names recorded amongst the rest. Sabellic. l. 9. c. 5. The three wit­nesses which accused Narcissus Bishop of Jerusalem; the one saying, if I lye, let me perish by fire, the other, if I say not true, let me be consumed with the falling-sicknesse; the third, if I do not deliver true testimony, let me lose mine eyes: the first with a spark of fire, having himselfe and all his family burnt, the second being tormented to death with the falling-sick­nesse, the third was so frighted with these judgements upon his fellowes, that confessing his sin, and bewailing his errour, Euseb. Ecl. Hist. l. 5. c. 8. though he lost both his eyes, yet he departed not out of the world, till by faithfull prayer he obtained pardon.

Theodosius being distressed by Eugenius the Tyrant, Tu omnipotens Deus nosti, quia in nomine Christi filii ultionis justae (ut puto) praelia suscepi; si secus in me vindica. Russin. Eccl. Hist. l. 2. c. 23. and An­bogastes, he had no sooner uttered this prayer; Oh Almighty God, thou knowest that I have undertaken these Wars out of just re­venge in the name of Christ thy Son; if otherwise, he thou avenged upon me; but a wind arose, which drave the enemies darts into their own bosomes. Attila having besieged Orleans, Anianus the Bi­shop [Page 96]of the place, wishing the people to prostrate themselves before God in prayer; after the prayer, he bad them look out if no help were coming, and none appearing, he renued the exercise twice more, and forth with Aetius the General of Valentinian came, Greg. Turo­nens. l. 2. c. 7. and after a great slaughter, put Attila and his whole Army to flight. Rophilus and Mercurialis, by pray­er made a Dragon tame, which before had destroyed man and beast, and tied it, and threw it into a deep pit, from whence it never after returned againe. Marul. l. 2. c. 2. Id. ibid. Signonius. lib. 6. Imp. Occid. Greg. Nyssen in Monod. Radegund the wife of Clotharius, by prayer made the Captives chaines to fall off. Caesarius Bishop of Arles, quenched a great fire at Budeaux by the force of prayer. Gregory Nazinzena, sayling from Alexan­dria to Athens, by powerfull prayer saved a Ship ready to pe­rish in a grievous tempest. Did not the prayers of Monica turn St Augustine from a Manichee to an Orthodox professor? did not the prayers of St Amborse asswage the wrath of Valentini­an II, enraged by the instigations of Justina his Arian Mo­ther? did not the prayers of the Christians in the Army of Aurelius Commodus, fetch rain from heaven in the midst of a sad drought, whereupon it was called the thundring Legion? did not the prayers of Alexander, Bishop of Alexandria, with the rest of his devout Priests, bring such an heavy judgement upon Arius, that when he was in his highest favour at Court, by the procurement of Constantines sister, he but turning aside to a privy, voided out his guts and intralls, and died most miserably? Yes, infinite it were to relate all the memorable effects of Prayer; a Christian is never higher, than when he is creeping upon his knees, nor stronger then when he is stretching out his hands towards heaven, nor more endearing, then when he is exercised in prayer; he will doe more by an ejaculation, then others can do by their spears; and by en­treating the face of God, then others can do by gathering of parties; and by looking upward, then others can do by plot­ting beneath: Oh therefore be familiar with prayer, count it your chiefe antidote, and your principall engine; onely re­member to petition passionately, and to supplicate ardently, for the prayer of the righteous availeth much, if it be fervent, Jam. 5.16. Consider the Ninivites high accent, they did cry migh­tily.

17. Renovation of life: for the Ninivites did not onely see their evill wayes, or (as before) confesse them, but they laid it down for a ground, that they must renounce them; for, Let them turn every one from his evill way. Shall we have repentance without reformation? this were to lay an unhewen stone in the bottom of the building, Si in homine de homine aliquid supererit. Bern. tr. de dilig. Deo. or not to wash the child from the unclean blood, after it is come out of the wombe. What change [Page 97]is there, if in man there doth remain any thing of man? Diaholum cum ipsis choreis a­gentem introdu­cere. Chrys. Adv. Judae. Orat. 1. c. 1. Vertit ad nume­rum virtutum numerum cri­minum. Greg. Hom. 33. in Evang. Agere paenitentiam ni­hil aliud est quàm profiteri, & affirmare se non peccaturum. Lactant. l. 6. c. 13. If men weep and wail, and change not practises, this is to bring in the Devill in his old dance. That is sincere repentance, which doth equall the number of vertues, to the number of sins. To repent, is nothing else but to professe, and affirm, that a man will doe his best to sin no more. Shall we stumble at the old stone? burn our fingers in the for­mer flames? run into the Pest-house where we catched our first Plague-fore? Children would not do thus, beasts will be better warned. It is the reproach of judgement to double er­rours. Men must not steal again, when the branding-iron is newly taken from their hands; nor fall to more forgeries, so soon as they are come down from the Pillory; nor break out into mutinies, when they have been but lately strapadoed: the sorrowes of repentance should restrain all future vitious­nesse. That is an unsteady conversion, which doth wander a­gain in the old by paths; yea a filthy repentance which doth defile it selfe with disclaimed impurites. The Dog may re­turn to his vomit, and the swine to the wallowing in the mire, but the Penitent must not lick up that which he hath disgorged, nor soil his skin in his old puddle; for this were but to hide sin a little out of sight, and not to put away the evill of our workes from before his eyes; to heat our cankred mettall, but not purely to purge away our dross, and our time. It is to sor­row to shame, and not to sorrow to repentance. Any Euripus can have such a present flowing, any Proteus can have such a momentary shape: oh it is an heavy thing, Nil citiùs la­chryma arescit. Adag. Novit vias, qui­bus effugiat En­crates. when nothing doth dry sooner then a teare, and that men do repent, but not to stay with God; that Eucrates doth know his creeping holes by which he may get out againe. It is in vain ever to undertake the work of repentance, if we doe not put away iniquity farre from our Tabernacle, Job 22.23; and throughly amend our wayes, and our doings, Jer. 7.5. We must keep our selves as undefiled, as morall diligence can preserve our purity; we must abstain from all appearance of evill, hate even the garment spotted by the flesh; Puri simus, prout moralis diligentia ser­vet. Toler. Stow. Desti laborare oculis Philo­strat. in Sophi­stis. our familiar sins we should cast off when we begin to repent, as Henry the 5th cast off his old Comrades when he began to raigne; if they present their selves with the greatest amiable­nesse, we should see no beauty in them, as Isaeus, when a rare Paragon was shewn him, and was asked whether she was not faire and fit for his dalliance; he answered, I know not, for I have given over to be guided by my eyes. Isabella of Portugall, Turquet. Suidas. Dominus meus Crucifixus, felle & aceto potatus est, & ego ole­um edam [...] Mu­rul. l. 4. c. 2. after she was converted, affected nothing which might please the senses. Ori­gen so abated the vigour of sensual desires, that he seemed to carry but a withered body about him. Palaemon was wont to tast no­thing that was pleasant, for my crucified Lord drank Gall and Vinegar, and shall I eat oyl? Oh that the Nazarites, Rechabites, [Page 98]and Essences could live with so much contempt towards worldly pleasures, and that we cannot abdicate wonted jo­visances. Is this the dying wound of mortification? is this the sacrificing knife of repentance? What? repent, and keep the Concubine still in thy house, bowse with Boon-fellows, comply with Temporisers, not loose one new fashion, not a­bate one writ? a prodigious, hideous repentance. Thy Co­venant with the Devill remains uncancelled; thy old elves suck thy paps, and what art thou then but still possessed, or haunted? Wilt thou come leprous out of Jordan? No, repen­tance should heal up thy botches, and bring a new skin upon thee, reform thy manners, transform thy affections, make thee Saint all over. Did the Ninivites repent only by sitting upon ash-heaps, wearing of sackcloth, or being pinched in their entralls? were they as enormous, flagitious, detesta­ble, & execrable sinners as ever? No, repentance had eaten out their corruptions, cut out the coare of disobedience, made them sound in their inwards. Nineveh hath washed her face, rinsed her conscience, the filthy Channels are swept, yea, the whole City cleansed; oh with delight and pleasure, may a man look upon such a purified place; it is able to ravish every eye. There were sins, but Repentance hath chased them out of the walls; there were evill waies, but what foot now doth follow the old tracks? No, let them turn every one from his evill way.

18. A reformation of oppression: For the Ninivites thought of the violence of their hands, that whereas Nineveh had been a bloody City, and the whip departed not from it, they now begin to think of the cut veins, and lashed sides, they had caused in the City; how many there were, that were to accuse them for cruelty, and to impeach them of tyranny. And indeed that is a very formall, superficiall repentance, where men are not sensible of their damnifying, injurious, courses; op­pression is of a skarlet hew, yea, it is put amongst the number of crying sins. Shall a man desire God to remove judgements, when he doth remove Land-marks? or to cast away his rod, when he himself doth chastise with Scorpions? or that he might have a tast of free mercy, when he doth eat the fruits of others without mony? shall a man repent with his Bears teeth in his head? or his Lions skin upon his back? No, it is in vain for any man to sigh for compassion, where the sighes of the poor do cry for vengeance. Can a man think to pacifie God, till he hath pacified the world? Doth God look upon Oppressours with a pleasing eye? no, they are Monsters, and Horrours to him; How are they described in Scripture! Oh that they had eyes clear enough to see their own Natures! [Page 99]they are pricking briars, Ezech. 28.24. threshing instruments, Amos 1.3. mighty hunters, Gen. 10.9. Wolves of the evening, Zep. 3.3. which take up all with the Angle and gather all with the drag. Hab. 1.15. which thrust with thigh, and shoulder, Ezech. 34.21. which smite with the fist of wickednesse, Es. 58.4. which swallow people alive as the grave. Pro. 1.12. which groundsell their estates with dama­ges, roof them with detriments, plaister them with the brains of widows, and hang them with the skins of Orphans, Ex rapto vi [...] vunt. Coel. Ro­dig. l. 18. c. 1 Judaea latroni­bus repleta est. Joseph. Antiq l. 17. Praedatum, & expugnatum in nomine Dei tendite. Azaur. 34 Qui hoc potitur, de finibus agri dicit legitimè Plut. in Ly­sandro. which keep a shambles of butchers meat, and have their Cauldrons boyling with the limbs and quarters of poor people chopt in pieces with their cleavers; which like the Cardaces amongst the Persians, live upon Pillage, which fill a Nation full of nothing but thieves, as Josephus said, when the Prison dores were set o­pen to condemned men; which did mind nothing but free booty, and plunder, as if they lived under Mahomets Law, which did determine all rights by power; or as Lysander, they settle all Titles by the sword. Now can the just God en­dure such rapacious, and savage creatures? no, he which is the Pleader for the poor, will not be the Patron of Oppress­ours. Till they have cured their blood-shotten eyes, let them not look up to Heaven for pardon; till they have quit their hands of violence, let them not stretch out their hands for mercy. Hath God given to every man his own Inclosure, to own the Hedge-breaker? or allowed every man the freedom of his own bark, to justifie the Pirate? No, Wo be to him that buildeth a Town with blood, and stablisheth a City by iniquity. Is it not of the Lord of Hosts, that the people shall labour in the Fire, and weary themselves for very vanity? Habbac. 2.12, 13. Hear this, oh yee that swallow up the needy, even to make the poor of the Land to faile, saying, when will the new Mooon be gone, that wee may sell Corn? and the Sabboth, that we may set forth Wheat, making the Epha small, and the Shekell great, and falsifying the Balances of deceit, that we may buy the poor for Silver, and the needy for a pair of Shooes? The Lord hath sworn by the excellency of Ja­cob, surely I will never forget any of these works. Shall not the Land tremble for this, and every one mourn that dwelleth therein. Amos 8.4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Oh therefore thou which hast been a Grinder, and a Griper, whose chief means do consist in spoils, and whose principall gatherings are heaps of extortion; which hast forborn nothing, that policy, fraud, forgery, bribery, could put in practice; with a burthened Conscience feel the weight of thy injuries, as well as of thy impieties; pro­fanenesse should not only sting thee, but oppression: for re­member the Ninivites repent of the violence of their hands, as wel as of their evill waies: Let them turn every one from their evill waies and from the violence of their hands.

Thus then have I shewn you Ninevehs repentance with all the essentiall, and integrant parts of the same; if ye would learn your lesson truly, ye see how many partitions and divi­sions ye must be exact in; if ye would be compleat, ye must resemble this Penitent; if ye would be spared, ye must be such a Niniveh. Should not I spare Nineveh?

Application.

1. This doth shew that mercy is the priviledge of the Penitent, It is Nineveh that is to be spared. Wisdom is too high for a Fool, and pardon for the refractary. What hast thou to do with peace? So, what hast thou to do with Reconciliation? Godlinesse hath the promises. It is Goshen that is free from plagues, Rahabs house hath the red thred hanging out at the window. Are Gods dispensations common? have the wicked any share in Souls­interests? No, Balsamum pu­rissimum vas requirit. Bern. Ser. 54. in Cant▪ Jupiter aqui­lam diligit. Adag. Privile­gium est privata lex. Aecursius. Jus togae ex­teris non datur Plut. Ad ludos Olymbiacos ne­mo accedit, nist qui stripem le­gitimam probet. Rhod. l 29. c. 8. Plut. de impud. verecun­dia. the stranger shall not intermeddle with their joy. The Israelites eat Mannah, Mercy is the Childrens bread. Balsome doth require the purest Vessell. Jupiter doth only love the Eagle. The blind, and the lame have no Temple propriety. Priviledge is a private exemption. The right of the gown was not allowed to For­reigners. None could come to the Olympian games, but they which could prove an unspotted Stock. It would defile Gods favours to make them indiscriminate, and stein mercy to let it be free, and publique. Nicostratus would not give his beautifull Lace­demonian Lady to Archidamus, because he did not derive a Pe­digree from the Race of Hercules, as Plutarch saith. So God will not espowse mercy to every sordid, low-bred Suitour. Oh then that Esau doth come crying for a blessing, that Adoniah would have Abishag, that every vitious liver doth expect mercy. No, God will be jealous for his people. Joel 2.18. He will be as the dew to Israel: Hos. 14.5. He doth bind up the broken-hearted. Es 61.1. Gods Sun may shine upon the just, and unjust, but the Signet upon his right hand is onely for the particular Favou­rites They are the sure mercies of David. Ps. 55.3. Penitents are only the pardoned generation, Nineveh is to be spared. Should not I spare Nineveh?

2. This doth shew that where there is the greatest provo­cation, there may come a pacification; God doth not only spare, but he doth spare Niniveh. Who more execrable, then Nineveh? yet Nineveh now is acceptable. Therefore if ye have been not only the Sons of Adam, but the Sons of Belial. Deut. 13.13. not only guilty of inferiour sins, but done abominable iniquity. Ps. 14.1. not only been tempted to evill, but sold your selves to commit evill. 1 Kings 21.20. not transgressed only [Page 101]occasionally, or by accident, Tu times defice re [...]ubi veritas reficere te pro­mittit? Beth ep. 108. ad Henric. Mutd [...]ch. Non remaneat dubi­tationis nubi­lum, quod obstet lumini veritatis Aug. ep. 3. ad volusian. c. 2. Nulli deest unc­tio, nulli salus. Bern. in F. S. Mattini. Oh paenitentia, quid de te referam? Ligata solvis, clausa reseras, desperata ani­mas. Cyp. de laude Poen. Ex suto aurumfecit. In profundo ma­lignitatis jacuit, & us (que) ad ver­titem virtutis ascendit. Chrys. Hom. 12. de muliere. Chan. Quis in seculo peccavit enor­miks Poulo? quis in religione graviùs Petro? Chrysolog. in ser. Rhegino. l. 2. Ma trul. l. 3. c. 4. but committed e vill with both hands earnestly Micah. 7.3. not onely matched inconsiderate trans­gressors, but overpassed the deeds of the wicked, Jer. 5.28. Yet dost thou fear that he will refuse thee, which hath promised to refresh thee? No, Let not the cloud of distrustfulnesse darken the light of truth, and grace. Thy saviours name is Christ Jesus, to shew that oynt­ment and salvation is wanting to none. Oh Repentance, what shall I say of thee? thou dost loosen the bound things, unlock the shut things, and dost quicken the desperate and decayed things. He hath turned a poor Canaanitish woman from dirt into gold, she lay in the bottom of disobedience, and he hath raised her up to the top of virtue. Who in the world sinned more enormously then Paul? who in the Church more grievously then Peter? yet both these obtained not only (said Chryso­log [...]s) a Ministery, but a Magistery of holinesse. Therefore let us not turn off the most noisom diseases, as desperate cures. Judas by this shewed himself the son of Perdition, (as Chrysost.) because he held his sinne unpardonable, yea it did set the mark, the brand of a cast-away upon Cains forehead, that he cryed out, My sinne is greater then can be forgiven: What trespasse hath not an hope of pardon? What trespasser may not be a bosome darling? as strongly as the De­vill hath kept his Captives in wards, yet the Gates of Brass may be broken in pieces. St Augustine may renounce his Ma­nicheism, Justin Martyr his worshipping of Idols, and St Cy­prian (as some say) his Magick. One bright star may give light to many men stumbling in darknesse. One Boniface may reduce the Hassions from their strange Gods and Goddesses, Bortreia, Berter, Camberth, U [...]rade, to embrace the true Deity; One Vincent may convert 5000 Jewes in Spain, and 8000 Sa­racens in Mauritania. One Dambrowca may change the heart of Mieceslaus, Duke of Polonia, from being a stisfe Infideli, Cromer. l. 2. to be a zealous Christian, and draw him to propagate the faith throughout his whole Territory. Marul. l. 3. c. 4. One Patrick by making a Circle, and opening the earth as farre as the circle went, may convert the Irish. One Poppo a Priest, Crant. l. 3. Metrop. c. 34. by wearing a plate of red hot Iron upon his hand like a glove, may convert a num­ber of Swedes and Danes; yea, what dissolute liver may not be cleansed out of naturall corruptions? Mary, the famous Egyptian Saint, who had spent her younger time in most scan­dalous lusts, may, when she was going up to Jerusalem, at the feast of the exaltation of the Cross, to finger the gaines of a Prostitute, be so renowned, that she lived 45. Fulgos. l. 6. c. 9. yeares as the mirrour of purity. Thais, the infamous strumpet of Alexandria, may be so touched in conscience, that she may bring all the goods which she had gotten by her lewd life, and burn them in the open Market-stead, and afterwards live such an austere [Page 102]life, that when she dyed, a fiery chariot appearing in the air, and Paulus the Monk thinking it had been for his great Ma­ster Anthony, Non Anthonio, sed Thaidi me­retrici. Sabel­lic. l. 5. c. 5. an answer might be given by an Angell, That it was not for Anthony, but Mary, to carry her into heaven. Swayne of Denmark, who had been the bloody Tyrant of his Coun­try, upon slig [...] suspitions, butchering many of his Nobles and subjects, may prove so remorsefull, that he may strip himselfe out of his Royal robes, go barefoot, fall down grove­long in the Church-porch, Saxo Oram. l. 11. bitterly lament his sin, and give away half Stefnick Province to religious uses. Denodate a great Courtier in Persia, who along time had followed all the de­lights of the Court, and conformed himselfe to his Princes pleasure; Articulatim dl­laniatus est. Marul. l. 3. c. 4. Fulgos. l. 6. c. 9 Niceph. l. 18. c. 25 Marul. l. 1. c. 2 afterwards may give over his office, and prove not onely such an eminent Professour, but such a constant Mar­tyr, that he may be torn in pieces joynt by joynt. What should I speak of Mutio, the great Aegyptian Theife, whom Fulgosus doth mention? or of Golinduch, the Persian Witch, whom Ni­cephorus maketh relation of? or of Peter of Constantinople, the covetous Tole gatherer, whom Marulus maketh a large de­scription of? all which were hainously wicked, and yet came to be transcendently gracious. What therefore is uncleanness without her bath? bondage without a door of hope? May not the greatest sinner in the world melt out his guilts at his eyes? and feel the oyl of joy suppling his conscience? Yes, wert thou the flying Dragon of cruelty, the fiend of envy, the Lucifer of pride, a Shimet the Standard-bearer of tumults, a Doeg the Boutefeau of mischief, an Achitophel that hath stir­red every Gimmer of the Oracle, to give pernitious counsail, an Hazael that hath fired Cities, slain Infants, ripped up wo­men big with childe, a Gehezi that hath run after bribes, an Achan that hath stollen the Babylonish Garment, and the gol­den Wedge, a Judas which hast sold thy best Master for a few mercenary pence which art such a transversed creature, that thou hast turned thy tongue in thy mouth, thy eyes in thy head, thy conscience in thy bosome, which hast falsified thy protestation, denyed thy subscription, violated thy Oath, expressed thy self Apostate, and art almost as ill as an Infidel; yet if thou canst but have remorse, and reformation; are Christ's wounds dry, that there is no cleansing-blood left for thee? No, let who will decree justice to thy body, I despaire not of mercy to thy soul, I can pray for thee, and pledge for thee, shew thee a Redeemer, and drop some of his ransome­pieces into thy hand; for hath not repentance her golden Al­tar in heaven? yes, if I could see thee look back upon thy miscarriages, & turn back from thy exorbitancies, eye scarlet sins with scarlet cheeks, and touch the fore-skin of thy pullu­tions [Page 103]with a circumcising knife: if that tongue of thine could speak but ten words of true English, or that heart of thine could feel but five checks of a true Penitent; if thou hadst but Manasses knees, Mary Magdalens eyes, and the Jaylours scruples, I should call thee Convert, and pronounce thee Saint: if I need not feare the reality of thy repentance, I doe not doubt the certainty of thy reception; for see here the Broad­seal hanging up in Gods signet office: Is Saul amongst the Prophets? Is Nineveh amongst the favourites? Yes, she was one spightfull against heaven, and near to divine ven­gance; yet now having turned her contumacy into contrition, she is declared by God to be one, meet to be spared: Should not I spare Nineveh?

3. This doth shew, that pacification is to be resolved on not according to profession, but repentance; for it is not, Should not I spare Jerusalem? but, Should [...] I spare Nineveh? Jo­nah is called from Jerusalem, because he had prophesied there, and Jerusalem remained obstinate; but being sent to Nine­veh, he doth no sooner cry there, but the eare of the penitent Auditour is opened; therefore he doth reject formallizing Jerusalem, and spare heart-strook Nineveh. Humble repen­tance is better then high-gifted profession; and the sincerity of reformation, then the imposture of information. What do Jerusalems Visions and Prophecies, Feasts, Sacrifices, di­stinction of meats, purifyings, do her good? No, one teare of Nineveh doth excell all this rituall piety. Nineveh is pre­ferred before Jerusalem, Nulla res sic ex­terminat bonum, ut simulatio. Chrys in 7. Mat. Levius est apertè pecca­re, quàm fingere sanctitatem. Jeron. l. 60. in Es. Quod pro­prium est Dei sibi assumit. Greg. l. 8. Moral. Quis magis impius, an profitens im­pietatem, an mentiens sancti­tatem▪ Bern. in Apol. ad Guliel. Abba­tem. Histrie pietatis. Budae­us, videtur po­tius ludere quàm sacrificare. Chrys. Orat. 11 Ad. Jud [...]or. because Nineveh had the vital part of Religion, Jerusalem but onely the shadow and figure. What taste then is there in the white of an Egge? What rellish in crude ostentations? no, hypocrisie is the poyson of devotion, or the dead flie in the box of pure oyntment. Nothing doth so expell goodnesse, as dissembling. It is a lighter thing to sin openly, than to feign impiety; for the Hypocrite is such a Mimick, that he would cheat his Maker of his Glory, for that which is pro­per to God, he doth assume to himselfe. St Bernard doth put a question, who is the more wicked man, he which doth professe im­piety, or he that doth belie piety? and he doth determine that the Hypocrite is worse then the Libertine, because the one doth intend no holinesse, and the other doth but seem to intend it, for he hath but the shew of holinesse, and not the power, 2 Tim. 3.5. Now is there any thing worse than a counterfeit? a man of shew? and is it not thus with the Hypocrite? Yes, Heis but the Stageplayer of Religion, He doth seem rather to play, then to sacrifice. He hath Ordinances onely to boast of, or Al­tars onely to make a smoak in the Country. Hypocrisie in the Hebrew, doth lively decipher this, for it doth come of a [Page 104]word that dothsignifie a clowded creature; Keneph of Ka­naph, nebulosus, aut velatus fuit. Nebula à nebu­la. Et inter ne­bulones, hypo­crita est maxi­mè infignis. Bud. Quasi tot sterco­ribus repletum in conspectu aeterni Judicis pectus ejus fae­tet. Greg. l. 8. Moral. In Latin the worst practiser we can imagine is called such a duskish creature, and amongst all the misty creatures the Hypocrite is the most sky-coloured, he is a man in a Cloud. It is true he hath a sweet voice, but if thou couldst sent him, he hath but a stinking breath; if thou dost not think so, God doth believe so, for no dunghill doth smel worse in Gods nostrills, then a Hypocrit's brest. Now shall this ill-savoured person think to fetch over God with profession? no, Gods favours are not so free, that he will accept of a man only because he can buckle, and bu [...]le, frame faces, and make mouthes; hang down an eye-brow, and lift up an hand; chatter and charm; grone, and grovell; wheel, and circle, amaze the age with conflicts, and ravish the World with extasies; speak like an Oracle, and prophesy like a Sybil, which as some say, do love no Church-musick because he himself would be accounted the Organ-pipe of devotion, and doth hate Church-service, because hee would have his Enthusiasticall raptures to go for the pure, and true Letany; he cannot endure Auricular confession, because hee would have all the shrift before him, and his Eldership; hee hath plucked down the Font, that his holy bason might be conse­crated, and hath put down Holy-daies, that there might be no Saints but of his Canonising; yea, many are perswaded the man would have Bishops again, if he might put on their Rochet, and an high Commission Court, if he might sit Chief, and pronounce censures; Sure I am, abominable Tithes, that were once accounted but Statute-right; yet when he comes to be sole Proprietary of them, the taking of them away is cried out against as horrid sacriledge; yea, many things which were scaree held lawfull jure humane, are now made justifiable jure divino; So that any thing shall paffe for currant mony, if it doth bear but his own stamp upon it; and be registred in the Church-book as a child duly initiated, if he hath but the bap­tising of it; so that here is paint enough, but is God to be taken with colours? No, the seeming to be somwhat, the making a fair shew in the Flesh, the having a name to live, the being Jews outward­ly, the drawing near with the mouth, the serving God by the precepts of men are of little officacy, or validity before the incorrupt Judge; he doth respect neither protestation, nor obtestation, nor obsecration, nor illumination, nor jubilation, nor medi­tation, nor maceration; no, if thou couldst (as thou hast high fancies of thy self) match a Monk in mortification, or com­pare with an Anchorite in externall rigours, yet these things would be of little estimation with God Almighty; and the reason is, because thou art but a practitioner, and not a Pra­ctiser [Page 105]a Projectour, and not a Professour in all these things; whatsoever thou dost is rather out of affectation, then affecti­on; contrivement then conscience; to please thy humour, than to please thy God. Thou dost but Court the age, thy principal intention is not to make God Master, and to advance his glory; no, thou hast another Monsieur which thou wait­est upon, thou art a Servant, a Dayman to Mammon, or po­pular applause; therefore take thy wages, where thou hast done thy work, thou hast wrought for the World, and let the world be thy Paymaster. God hath not a purse, but for his own Stipendaries, the Hypocrite getteth not a penny out of his bank; for shall God make satisfaction to anothers Hirelings? no, such men have driven at fame, and laboured for fame, and they are full of fame, and let them sit down quiet with the boons of fame, They have received there reward. All these things they have done that they might be justified before men; and they are justified, and they shall no where else be justifi­ed; the honour of the times is the Hypocrites Heaven, and they have reigned in it, and let them expect no other King­dom. No, they are at their last blessing, here is their Abrahams bosome, their Paradise, their new Jerusalem, their Celestiall joy, and Majesticall glory; they have had the worlds Halle­lujah, and that beautifull vision, and let them end only such glorified Saints; there is neither Robe, nor Crown elsewhere remaining for them. I do not read indeed, that Cain, and Nim­rod, and Pharaoh, and Absolon, and Dalilah, and Jesabel shall have the precedency of the Hypocrites; but I find that those which are of the next blood, but Gosins removed, shall have the first step before them; for Publicans, and Harlots shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven before them. Why so? why otherwise? they failed God in his main expectation, he look­ed for conversion, and they give him inversion; he for refor­mation, and they give him transformation; he for a rent heart, and they give him rent lips; he for a contrite spirit, and they give him contrite spitle; he for turning into another man, and they give him the turning into another mode. Oh thou sagacious Hypocrite, thou which livest by thy brain, and hast nothing but a crafty skull for thy principal endowment, though thou thinkest thou canst befool all thou meetest with, and dementate the whole Earth, yet wilt thou not at last be the meer underwit, and the grand Vappe? For dost thou think thou canst filch from the Law, and lurch from God, and es­cape scot-free? no, Hue and cry will be sent after thee, thou wilt be apprehended, and shalt hold up thy hand for Burg­lary. When the Libertine, and thou, shalt meet together in [Page 106]Gods Court, and both be called forth to tryall (for as great a Judge as thou art upon Earth, shalt thou not stand before that Tribunall)? which of you shall plead least guilty? Thou wilt say, that man did lie in the mire, and thou hast but rinsed thy outside; he doth stink afar off, and thou hast no better smell, then what thou hast borrowed from thy Civet-box, or musk ball, those same Arabick Odours, and exotick un­guents of thine; he never had a Limbeck to distill truth, nor a fining pot to melt a Church into primitive purity he would not leave a warm Couch to wait upon morning-Lectures, nor had the art of brachy-graphy to pen down Sermons, he never had an eye clear enough to spy out Sodom, nor a tongue lowd enough to cry out against Babylon; he never expostulated with God about Zion, nor sent a Breviat of his own devising and inventing into Heaven for God to plead the cause of his Saints; he never melted before a Pulpit, nor came flaming out of a Sanctuary; he never walked like a demure Capuchin in the streets, nor looked like an Heaven-dropped Angell at the Table of the Lord; Nor thou neither hadst, nor didst these things but out of subtlety, and collusion, as thou learnedst them in the School of Ananias, or in the Academy of the Pharises, to abuse the age, to amaze the World, to get Mag­nifiers, to gain Customers, to screw into an Office, or to buy some Church-windfal: therfore if thou wert were sifted, thou wouldst appear, as coorie meal and very bran, as the Liber­tine; for though in these things thou art the better man, yet in other things thou art the worse Christian; for the Liber­tines life being so corrupt, he is a s [...]in to himself; he can have sense of sin, and be ashamed of it; confesse it, feel remorse for it, hate it, and utterly renounce it; but the opinion of thy gifts, and the pride of thy holinesse, will not suffer thee to be thus conscious and conscionable; those eys of thine are blind, that though thou canst spy out all the errours of the Parish, yet thou canst not thine own guilts; those lips of thine are dumb, that though the sinns of the age be thy daily neighing, and braying, yet thou canst not lisp out thine own crimes; those cheek: of thine are impudent, that though thou shamest mul­titudes for trangression, yet thou thy self knowest not how to brush, no not for such sins as all the Land doth ring of, and all Christendom doth defy; when the Libertine is talking of his exorbitances, thou art talking of thy endowments; when the Libertine is summing up his grievances, thou art bring­ing in a Catalogue of thy graces; I thank God I am not as other men, nor as this Publican; When the Libertine doth look like a condemned man, thou lookest like a man, that is rectus in Cu­riâ [Page 107]the bright object of innocency for an admiring eye to gaze upon; when the Libertine doth stand afar off, thou dost perch up to the nearest approachment, when the Liber tine doth hang down his brow, thou hast a forehead as high as Zidkijahs; when the Libertines heart doth shiver, thine is flinty; when the Libertine doth think it a just duty to bring iniquity to remembrance, and to recount his sins in the bitterness of his soul, thou dost esteem it a blemish, and reproach to thy high parts, and rare qualifications to be dejected for any sin; thou dreamest of a state of perfection, and wilt not be brought to the rectifying bent. Mary Magdalen may have her seven Devils cast out of her, but the Pharisee doth keep his old Belzebub in him; he may bestow a feast upon Christ, but he doth get nothing but belly-cheer from him; Christ must starve, if he hath an appetite to repentance; for he is fuller of censure, then souls search, or of questioning his Saviour, than of trying of conscience, or of arraigning the woman, then judging him­self; he can tell all her crimes, but he cannot find one fault in himself; let the woman stand at Christs back, he sitteth look­ing on him in the face; let the woman storm down tears, till she wash Christs feet with head water, y [...] he will not rise from the table to weep with her, or to encrease the bath; no, it were a miracle to see a Pharisee shed teares, or his eyes at high-wa­ter; let the woman wipe her Saviours feet with the hairs of her head, the Pharisees locks are too reverend to be imploy­ed about such a base use; therefore to the woman it may be said, That much is forgiven her, because she loved much: but we read nothing of his love, and so nothing of his forgivenesse. To the woman it may be said, Thy faith hath saved thee, but we read onely of his feast, but not of his faith; of his cates, but not of his comforts: Mary Magdalen may become a new wo­man, but the Pharisee doth remain the old man. So that by all this it doth appear, that if the Libertine be not the better li­ver, yet he is the better Penitent; the Libertine may be re­newed, but it is an hard thing for an hypocrite to be a Con­vert; his eyes are dazeled with the brightnesse of his gifts, his ears charmed with the musick of applause, he droppeth to hell from the precip [...]e of vain-glory, and is cut down as fuell for eternall torment, because (though a withered branch) he doth hang upon the Vine; his cleane out-side will not suffer him to reforme; he is so full of notions, and directions, adages, and admonitions, prayers, and hymns, that he cannot think of repentance; no, let these Libertines repent, it is enough for the Hypocrite to teach repentance; he is quite drunk with his inchanted Cup; the being enamou­red upon his imaginary holinesse, doth damn him, Hell may [Page 108]bring him to some sense of sinne, but upon earth he is stupi­fied, he is past feeling, and hath the heart which cannot repent, Rom. 2.5. The Hypocrite may be a Professor, but he can­not be a Penitent; and if not a Penitent, what will all his Church tinctures do him good? no, Jerusalem had these fukes to Admiration, Prophesies, Ordinances, Altars, Types, what not? yet for want of repentance, she is turned off as a despised creature; the great Prophet of his age is drawn from her, and sent to a place that she disdained in heart should stand up in competition with her in any spirituall pre­rogative, even Nineveh; yet because Jerusalem had profes­sion, but no repentance; and Nineveh had prophanenesse, but repentance; the Libertine shall be preferred before the Hy­pocrite, proud Jerusalem shall be rejected, humbled Nineveh shall be respected; for Jonah had cryed long in Jerusalem without fruit, he doth but begin to cry in Nineveh, and Nine­veh doth begin to answer the cry; here is no sign of humilia­tion, or reformation in Jerusalem, but in Nineveh such peni­tentiall ensignes are discerned, as no Nation ever had the like, leaving off the Throne casting off the Robe, putting on sack­cloth, sitting upon ash heaps, fasting rigorously, crying migh­tily, every one turning from their evill wayes, and from the violence of their hands; therefore when God is silent for mer­cy to Jerusalem, he speaketh out to have Nineveh spared; for should not I spare Nineveh?

4. This doth serve to shame our perversenesse; for doth Nineveh submit, and we oppose Nineveh expresse repentance, and we refractarinesse? What, Nineveh, that was the Mistress of Witchcrafts, which had the broath of abominable things in her Vessels, which was mad upon her Idols, and built Al­tars to shamefull things? and not we which are so farre from Idolatry, that we think we see God with the clearest eye that is in the head of the whole world; which hold our selves the most inspired Nation upon earth, which have amongst us the dispensation of grace, the revelation of the mystery, the light of the knowledg of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ? yet is Nineveh heere fit to be spared, & we to be judged? What, hath the Idolater more propensions to repentance then the Christian? Is not this our scandal? may it not be our horrour? doubtlesse there is an high pervicacy, Depravatio mentis semper est devia à tra­mite veritatis. Amb. in Hex­em. Difficulter coercetur volun­tas malo animo [...]tiata. Greg. and pertinacy in us, or else we might long since have been as reformed as Nineveh; for is it not an easier matter to be converted, where the af­fections onely are distempered, then were the judgement is corrupted? yes, the depravation of the mind is ever wandring from the streight rule of truth. How can a man sail rightly, if his pilot be erroneous? The will is difficultly restrained, if it be [Page 109]viciaeted with a bad judgement; Mentem impli­cant, & ligant conscientiam. Amb. Dolium mellis non tollit amari­tudinem absyn­thii. Eras. A­dag. Caecatis mentibus acti. Sedulius. Ordi­nis ignorantia conturbat nego­tiorum natu­rom. Amb. in 118. Psal. intellectuall aberrations do entangle the mind, and fetter the Conscience. If the Reason be disturbed, how shall the desires be regulated? The bitterness of wormwood wil not be taken away by a double proportion of honey. These are the men which being driven on with blind apprehensions of a misinformed un­derstanding, do rush on desperately to their own confusion. The ignorance of just order doth disturb the nature of all atchievements. But where the principles are rightly grounded, it is an easie matter to incline to practice. What is the reason then that we which are habitually prepared, and want no manner of necessary qualifications, are more defective in duty, than the Infidels, which were deprived of these endowments? that Nineveh doth repent, and not we? how shall we justifie our selves be­fore that blind people? or answer this to that newly enlight­ned people? Alas Nineveh lived in obscurity, or was but dim­sighted, but we have the free use of both our eyes, and yet in seeing we do not see. What, shall that Heathenish glimmering ex­ceed our Evangelicall brightnesse? Turpe est tacert cum Barbaris loquentibus. Isocrat. Shall this new Professour be the better Disciple? and produce better arguments for his conversion, then the old studied Logician? No, it is a disgraceful thing for us to hold our peace (as Philocteta said) when Barbarians speak; that our gospellising duty should not speak in as high an accent, as the Gentiles obedience. Themistocles could not sleep that the Trophies of Miltiades should be greater than his, Plut. in The­mistoc. Rupit Hyarbi­tam Timagenis aemula lingua. Horat. & it burst Hyarbita in pieces, that he should not be as eloquent as Timagenes, so it may take away, if not our rest, yet our repu­tation, if not our life yet our honour, that Pagans should be Superiours to us in works of Piety. Did Aeneas take it in high disdeign, that Turnus should tender more affection to La [...]inia then he? and may not we take it, as our check, and disparagement, that men which are led only by the light of nature (upon the first call of a Prophet) should be more passi­onate Lovers of repentance then we, which are or seem to be the great Beauclarks, and Bible searchers of the Earth? How may it confound us, that they which are lately matriculated into the University do surpasse us, who have been antient Graduates? or that the puny Scholars, which have but new­ly taken forth their lessons, should be better Proficients then we, which seem to be of the high forme? Herodot. l. 3. Was Cambyses asha­med, that the King of Aethiopia should send him a bow that none of his Army could draw? and is it not our shame that the Ninivites here have sent us a bow, that none of us can draw up an arrow to the head in it? What, shall the Pagans, or new Converts be better Archers in matters of Religion, then we? Shall not our Bibles better instruct us for pious be­haviour, then the Books of the Sybils, or the Turkish Alca­ron [Page 110]do others? Then we do seem to take our principles out of Scripture, but our presidents from Infidels examples, yea, the Infidell in reallity is the better Christian; we may be better skilld in the Creed but they are better experienced in the De­calogue; we know God better, but they serve God better; yea Sinners of the Gentiles have more apprehension of sin, more con­viction, and compunction, than we which are Saints by call­ing; their brests are more bruised, their eyes more moistned, their lips more fervent, their consciences more wounded, and awakened then ours; their consternations and conflicts, their terrours and tears, anguishes and agonies, do far exceed ours. To what end then are all our speculations, and criti­cisms, pretious truths, and pretious Titles? No, wee may tremble, that we have one Temple standing, or one star shi­ning in the Firmament of the Church, that we know a Savi­our, or are named a Church; our Oracles and Ordinances, Lectures and Sacraments, Principles and Priviledges, are all a reproach to us; for wee pollute the land upon which we tread, we defile the Gospell which we professe, and stein the very God, which we do seem to worship; we make our Al­tars to weep, our Temples to sob, and our Profession to howl, for wee are but nominall Gospellers, and notionall Prote­stants; our flesh is impure under the laver, we embrace the Devill with the Bible under our arms, we drop to Hell from our Pulpit-sides; we have indeed an eager appetite for souls food, and curious palates to tast of the best, listning ears and voluble tongues, a satiety of teaching and a surset of Gospel-truths, but little humiliation, little mortification; we doe surpasse Mores and Turks in revelations, but those may e­qual and excell us not only in moralities, but in apprehensi­ons of guilt, and purity of life: Oh that we would leave talk­ing so much of our Religion, and ask where is our repen­tance? where is our regeneration I doubt we are such poor Penitents, that we may go to the Paynims brests for grones, and the Heathens eyes for tears, and the Infidells consciences for Reformation. And is not this our dishonour, and scan­dall? yes, it was a sad thing when the Lord sent his people to the Isles of Chi [...]im to learn fidelity, Jer. 2.10. so is it for God to send us to the Ninevites to learn repentance. Oh therefore if there be any sparkes of an holy emulation left glowing in your bosoms, be not worse Penitents then they were; they had shorter time, and lesse means, and shall your superiour advantages leave you in an inferiour condi­tion? Do ye appease God, for they pacified him; be not ye in a state to be punished, for they were in a state to be spared. Should not I spare Nineveh?

5. This doth shew the excellency of repentance, for is not that a rare vertue, that hath brought Nineveh into a condition to be spared? yes, all the pomp of Nineveh, her glorious walls, sumptuous Palaces, rich Merchandise, melodious musick, con­quests abroad, triumphs at home, Street-lustre, Court-splen­dour, fall short of the magnificence of Repentance; Oh the beauty of these ashes, the finenesse of this sackcloth, the nourishment of this fasting, the musick of these cries, when Nineveh is another Nineveh, her habit and heart, countenance and conscience, speech and spirit changed; pride turned into humility, defiance into dejection, security into submission, fu­ry into fear, tyranny into trembling; when the King is chiefe Mourner, and Nobles, Citisens, Beasts, fellow-Mourners with him; the soft Couches left, the spread Tables forsaken, the Shops shut up, the musicall Instruments cased, and nothing but kneeling upon stones, wallowing in the mine, sitting upon dunghills, sighing like distracted men, groning like dy­ing persons, to be seen amongst them; the City is now bright, Nineveh doth now shine. And indeed what more admirable, then to see persons in the penitentiall garb, men frayed with sins, shivering under judgements, their remorselesse hearts smarting, their stupid spirits thrilling, their dumb mouths o­pening, their dry eyes streaming, their deaf ears tingling, their polluted conversations rinsing? crying with Ezrah, We are here before thee in our trespasses; or with Daniel, To us belongeth nothing but shame, and confusion, or with Manasses, my trans­gressions, oh Lord are multiplied, my trespasses are exceeding many, I am not worthy to see the height of the Heavens for the multitude of my unrighteousnesses; when they have nothing to fly to but pray­ers, nor depend upon but mercy, when they count plagues their due doom, and hell their just desert; when they wring their hands, that God might embrace them; and lye at his feet, that vengeance might not trample upon them. Oh joyful day, when a sinner doth begin to suspect, and search himselfe; when his wicked life doth lie like a burthen upon his Soul, and the shame of his sin hath made him an horrour in his own eyes, when he doth call himself culpable, and pronounce him­self wretch; like Pelagia, Pelagus omni­um viti [...]rum. Fulgos. l. 6. c. 9. who would no longer be called Pe­lagia, but Pelagus, or he doth take some revenge upon himself, either like Amus the Aegyptian Monk, who having taken some pleasure in his beauty, would never after see his naked flesh; or like Paulus sirnamed the Simple, Marulus. lib. 4. c. 3. who having offen­ded with his tongue, enjoyned himself three years silence; or like Solomon a King of Hungary, who caused himself to be five times dragged through the open streets in detestation of his sins; or like Martin, Jeranes. who being reprehended for weeping too [Page 112]much, Bern. said, he had need to wash throughly, that he might have a clean face, for Gods pure eyes. These, these are the rare penitentiall spectacles, and representations; for what are capering feet, swelling cheeks, tempests in the brows, lightning in the eyes, thunderclaps in the lips, pikes in the hand, steel-bonnets upon the head, to humble, lowly, self-de­nying courses? no, one souls check doth excell all the jollity upon Herods Birthday, one tear all the pompe at Asuerosh's Feast. A penitent creature is more amiable then Absolon, a mortified person more glorious than the Prince of Tyrus. Oh therefore prize repentance, and never think thy self emi­nent till thy penitentiall day be dawned upon thee; oh hap­py time, when the sense of sin hath shaken thee out of all the glory of the world, thrown thee down like a forlorn Abject, made thee look pale under guilts, dread divine justice, pre­fer a motion for compassion, and weep and wail till thou hast gotten an assurance of a pacified God. Nothing made Nine­veh so blessed as repentance, her Ivory Walls shook, her strong Foundations tottered, her Palace roofes seemed ready to fly into splinters, nothing but plaints and shrikes, tears, and blood, hurling into rubbish, burning unto Cinders was ex­pected, till repentance was visible; and repentance hath no sooner entred the streets, but all the City is joyous, and se­cure, not a stone is to be removed, not a bone to be broken, not an hair of the head to be touched; no, before sin had made it Nineveh to be wasted, but repentance now hath made it Nineveh to be spared; for Should not I spare Ni­neveh?

6. This serves to put us upon triall, whether we that would be the pardoned people are the penitent people; shall all this discourse end in an Expresse, or a Narrative? No, I would willingly not only make a relation, but a collation, not only set forth a representation, but find an equiparation; else I shall but tell a tale of Nineveh, or shew you how repentance was Nineveh's Custos, how that comming in before the forty daies were ex­pired, Nineveh did not expire; how repentance kept every Pillar unshaken, and every limb unshivered; how it held the Crown upon the Kings head, preserved the Nobles in their Courtly Equipage, the Merchants in their Spleadid trassick; how their Palaces and Banquetting-houses, Castles and The­aters, Statues and Sepulchres, Exchequers and Wardrobes, Courts and Arsenalls, Magazines and Records, Fishponds and Gardens, Pearls, and Perfumes, Laws and Lives, were all safe and secure by Repentance; that not so much as a tree was blasted, a spire cast down, an Image defaced, a fly skalt, a worm burnt, a dog brained, or a beast slain throughout the [Page 113]whole City meerly through the benefit of repentance; for the people had repented, and here is their brestplate, shield, and headpiece. Repentance doth prevent detriment, they are not endamag'd in the least, vengeancetook not a shoo-latchet from them; Repentance doth ratifie their liberties, confirm their immunities, renew their Charter; they are still Proprietaries in all their Fees, Lords of all their royalties, their authority and jurisdiction, opulency and affluency, celsitude and sub­limity, power and pomp, principality and preheminence, Procerage and Peerage, Crown and Crown-land doth con­tinue: Oh Repentance how hast thou saved a flourishing Ci­ty! it is thou, that wert the Cure and the covert, the shadow and the shelter, the Buttress and Buckler; Nineveh had fallen, if thou hadst not supported it; and perished, if thou hadst not protected it; b [...] thou didst open Ninevehs ears to listen to a Prophet, that it might not hear the thunders of a confounding God; thou didst lend Nineveh faith, that it might believe God; that trembling at the threatnings, they might not feel. nor see the terrours of a perishing decree executed; thou didst clad them in sackcloth, that they might not be stript of their gorgeous rayment, thou didst sprinkle them with ashes, that the smell of fire might not be felt within their walls; thou didst enjoin them the fast, that ere long thou mightst set them down again at their spread Tables; thou didst make them cry mightily, that no other cries might be heard in the City, but those of devotion; thou didst make them turn from their evill waies, and from the violence of their hands, that their evill waies might not bring all manner of evills upon them, and that the violence of their hands might not expose them to the violence of ruining justice; it is thou that didst teach Nineveh the art, and learn her the secret, and mystery, how to prevent an imminent danger, and to preserve her self at an exigent; that she stood still upon her old basis, when her groundsell was sliding, and cracking in pieces; that her fa­brick remained firm, when the whole structure was dropping down, and not one stone ready to be left upon another: Oh Repentance how may wee honour thy succouring bowells, and kisse thy securing hand! Oh great is thy potency, yea, a kind of omnipotency is bestowed upon thee to rescue people, & Nations from the greatest of hazards; thou keepest Nineveh safe, when after a thousand years triumphant state, she had but forty daies respit either to repent, or to have ut­ter destruction; by thee, for that time she reteined all her pristine greatnesse; for Penitent Nineveh was Nineveh the Glorious. This can I say of Nineveh, but can I expresse the [Page 114]like confidence, or assure the like bliss to you? Oh that I could! I shall make it my Prayer, but I cannot yet bring it into my Creed; I look with doubtfull eyes upon you, and carry a jealous heart towards you; ye stand, but what is your foun­dation? ye may stand by your prudence and policy, your tradings and truces, your armes and artifices, your for­midable numbers and dreadfull Navies, but do ye stand up­on repentance? Here is much profession and formality, hun­ting of Sanctuaries, and presenting your selves at Sacraments, but what repentance? Ye would be Nineveh, but are ye Nine­veh? ye would be prosperous Nineveh, but are ye penitent Ni­neveh? are ye not to seek for repentance in the midst of all pri­viledges and Ordinances, your exquisitie principles, and ac­curate Preachers? If ye would limit your confidence to your conversion, might ye not expect rather co [...]ounding judge­ments, then preserving mercy? Gods correcting hand, than his comforting hand? chaines of vengeance, then bands of love? If ye would come to your triall, doth not the triall of your countenance testifie against you? if ye would stand to your discovery, and to the remembrances that ye have left of your selves: have ye not discovered your transgressions, and made your iniquity be remembred? it is true, ye live in the Lords eye, but ye are sinners before the Lord exceedingly: ye tread upon Gods ground, and walk every day upon his consecrated earth, but ye have polluted the Lords land, ye have turned Bethel into Bethaven, an house of Prayer into a den of Theeves; ye are rather Jezreel then Israel, Sodom than Nineveh. Ye would be reprieved, but where are your qualifi­cations for pardon? ye would be spared, but are ye Nineveh? ye may have Ninevehs wishes, but have ye Ninevehs fruits? ye may match sinnes with Nineveh, but can ye match repentance with Nineveh? [...]grave ne redi­ret seculum Pyr­rhae nova mon­stra questae. Horat. —ipso sceleris molimine Tereus Creditur esse pius. — Ovid 6. Met. Vitrum pro Crystallo. Adage. no, this age of Pyrrba hath nothing but Monsters in it. Tereus as bad as he was, might have been esteemed innocent in re­spect of us; Nineveh, as guilty as it was, might have been a Saint in comparison of us. We have Ninevehs crimes, but not Ninevehs conscience; Ninevehs prevarications, but not Ninevehs humilations; we are but shining-glasse in respect of that bright crystal. Shall we make an experiment of it? then answer to your charge, and see how ye can clear your selves upon triall.

First, Nineveh heard God in his Messenger; But our Messen­gers may cry in the streets, and deliver their errands, and neither their presence, nor prophecies regarded. Alas, we use Ministers as Tapestry hangings, to look upon; or as the sta­tues of old Worthies, to adorn our houses, we love to have such to procure credit to our Country, and to set up the [Page 115]fame of a reformed Church; but we bestow little attendance upon them, or yield little attention to them. One, Octavius, (a Nobleman of Rome) wore a Jewel in his ear, and yet he told Tully, that he could not heare him; it is strange, Cicero in Bru­tor Habes au­res perforatas. said Tully, when thou hast thy ears bored through. So our Audi­tors, though they wear in their ears the Jewel of a Christian calling, yet they cannot hear us, though their eares be bored through with profession. Antimachus read, in his school, his rare Thebais, but all his Disciples forsook him, saving Plato, Plut. in Apoph Plato instar omnium. whereupon he said, that Plato was instead of all: So deliver we never such serious messages, it is onely some choise Plato which will stay out the publication of them. The truth is, many people have little opinion of a Temple, they have un­consecrated the walls, & the Ordinances; every one takes up­on him our calling, so that a true Preacher is not distingui­shed from the Rustick, or Mechanick; men in generall are so perfected, that they need none of our literature, and so re­plete with principles, that they are brimfull of mysteries, every one is a Phoenix, nay our birds can fly with their shels upon their heads, they have tapped so much out of their own Runlets, that they need not broach any thing out of our Vessels; yea, their showers of infusion are so abundant, that they count it a madnesse to go to the Academical spring. Every stripling is a Theologue, and can divine without Au­thors; the well is not so deep, that they need to draw up wa­ters with the ancient bucket, nor the trade so difficult, that they must endure an Apprentiship to learn it; that though I do not see yet, that men can fight without Captains, nor sayl without Pilots, nor know the laws of men without Coun­sailers, yet every man can take up this leading-staffe, and steer this ship, and expound the lawes of God without gloss, or Commentary: there is such a strange revelation, as if they could create a new world out of nothing, or they could find Honey in a dead carkass, or Iron could swim, or Rocks gush with water, or they could blow down walls with Rams hornes, or Balaams Ass could speak again, or a Virgin the se­cond time could bring forth a child, or they had been all touched with fiery tongues from heaven, to speak to the world the wonderfull things of God? all the miracles of for­mer ages must be appropriated to their inspirations; an ab­solut generation, that need none to counsail them, pray for them, teach them, no they are all Preachers: Tythes are un­necessary, Ministers are superfluous; they live, they say, upon the bread of other men, and eat up the far of the Land with their university teeth; other men can do the Church-duty, as well as they, therefore they are Burthens, Pressures, Rob­bers, [Page 116]Theeves; they heare God in their mysticall Meditation­men, not heare God in his Messenger; so that what between the formall, and phanatick Gospeller, the Minister is quite cast out of doors. They will fetch nothing from the Tem­ple, or be relieved by Gods Almoner, howsoever not take their repentance out of a Prophets mouth; whatsoever ne­cessary Agent there is in the Nation, yet Jonah might be spa­red, he might forbear his cryes in our streets.

2. Nineveh was not curious in her Counsailers: a stranger was received there, but here not the home-born can be admitted; for though we know many Messengers, their persons and their parts, their Country and their calling, their Commis­sion and their competencies, their gifts and graces, their la­bors and language, yet they cannot be entertained. A Pro­phet is without honour in his own Country: Native commodities are of no price, Grapes of our own growth taste not well, home­bred Artisants have little employment. Alexander liketh not long the Graecian habit; Tiberius would wear no silks of his own Country; Vitellius would eat no Mullets, but such as were fetched from the Carpathian Sea. So with us, our own Tea­chers are men of no brain, we have scarce a Preacher that can speak sense to this intelligent age; this man is too deep, and that man is too shallow; this mans Arrowes do drop short, and that man doth shoot beyond the mark; this man hath no lungs, and that man is too stridulent. I see many a solid Divine cryed down; such as learned men admire, illite­rate men deride. We are so choise of our Pulpit-men, that I think we would have Samuel raised out of his grave to Pro­phesie to this Nation, or send for some Angel from heaven to be our Pastour: and yet if either of these had continued a­while amongst us, the one might be sent back to his Sepul­chre at Ramath, and the other returned to his upper loft. We are not like to be Converts, for we have none that can teach us the penitentiall art, we cavill at our Prophets, though we know their delegated power, and conspicuous abilities; whereas Nineveh was not so scrupulous about her Messenger, but doth even accept of a stranger.

3. Nineveh doth indure sharp Doctrine: for though Jonah cry­ed, Yet forty dayes and Nineveh shall be overthrown, yet there was no offence taken; but what Prophet without hazard, could deliver such a message in our streets? no, we would be readi­er to brain the Prophet, Innocentissimo viro o [...]ulos esso di jussit, quod ei in illis, que in­justè appetchat, obstitit. Fulgos. l. 9. c. 5. Cromer. l. 4. than to lye at his feet, and to clip out his tongue, than to attend to his cryes, as Beniface the 7th plucked out the eyes of Cardinall John, because he opposed him in his unjust desires; and Boleslaus the second King of Po­lonia killed Stanislaus, Bishop of Cracovia, because he severe­ly [Page 117]reprehended him. Prophets in these dayes must rather put a Flute in their mouthes, then a Trumpet, and come with a Paper filled with nothing but joy, and glee, and blisse, rather then with a scrowl written within and without with nothing but lamentation, mourning, and woe. How grim are our looks up­on an increpating Teacher, how tetricall are we to a challen­ging Messenger? He that doth strike at corruptions; had as good go and smite at the holes of Aspes: he that doth threa­ten Malefactors, had as good go and wrastle with Bears. Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou which killest the Prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee! We must have our praises sung out in the Temple, and have the Pulpit for nothing but Panegy­ricks, to be made the Non-pariles of Religion, and to have all the Encomiasticks that belong to true virtue attributed to us, as the Cities of Achaia sent all the conquering Crowns of Mu­sitians to Nero, as to the Prince of Musitians. We keep so many Preacher, but as so many Limbners, or Heraulds, Sueton. or Confectioners, or Minstrels: If they come to be Proposers and Opposers, Restrainers and Rebukers, to give a sanctuary-gripe, or a Pulpit pinch, to hold a Razour over our heads, or to shake a scourge in our eyes, to style us sinners, or God a Judge, Vae vobis, they are fit for nothing then but Clinks and Gibbets: Jonah may escape well enough in Nineveh, but he would not come off with so much safety here: Oh we would live at case in Sion, and have our taste remaining in us with­out stirring; we had rather be hung up with the silken halter of flattery, then be put in mind of the hangmans Rope; and go to destruction laughing, then be frayed before hand with the noise of ruine. Ye Preachers, (saith the Age) dip your tongues in Oyl, supple your doctrines, apply gentle plaisters, sow pillowes under every arm-hole, cut out complying shreds, or else ye will want the countenance and preferment of the times; beye cautious, or else ye are neither acceptable, nor secure. A resolute Prophet, doth stand upon a precipice, if he doth discharge his conscience, he will not keep his ground. How often hath truth here been jayled? bondage at the heels of him, which here doth denounce vengeance? This Land cannot hear a menacing Messenger, though the streets of Nineveh could heare Jonah threatning, Yet sorty dayes and Nineveh shall be overthrown.

4. Nineveh doth apprehend danger: for Jonah hath no soo­ner pronounced the judgement, but the people of Nineveh believed God: that is, they verily thought, and resolved, that the state of their City was upon the point of destructi­on, at the brink of ruine: But we have no such credulous brests, nor believing hearts. Tell us of dangers? no, we defie [Page 118]such seditious Preachers, such tumultuous Prophets; cala­mity is but your jealousie, danger but your discord, perill but your peevishnesse. We are a righteous people, and not to be punished; we are a formidable people, and not to be fright­ed; they are a scandalous people, which accuse us of sin; they are an audacious people, which terrifie us with judgements; we have graces enough to make all the Devills in Hell recoil, we have prayers enough to petition away all plagues, wee have ships enough to shoot away all enemies from our coasts, Knolls in his Turkish Hist. we have speares enough (as that French King said, who went w^th 200000. souldiers at his heels against the Turk) to uphold the Heavens if they should fall. We are quiet, and secure after the manner of the Sidonians, Judg. 18.7. Our houses are safe from fear. Job 21.9. We are at ease from our youth, Jer. 48.12. We can dwell in Cities without gates, and bars. Jer. 49.31. We stretch our selves upon our Couches. Amos 6.4. Our walls our Targets, our Magazeens, our Capitol, our Castle of Angels, our Martiall blades, whose faces are as Lions, whose feet are as swift as Roes upon the Mountains, our redoubted Captains, which can sleep in their armour, and rise up harnessed at the sound of the alarum, whose musick is the beating of drums, and can sing Ha, Ha, at the blowing of Trumpets; men so resolved to fight, that they do but expect an enemy, and so valiant, that one can chase a thou­sand; which are used to marches, musters, casting up of Banks, rai­sing of Forts, drawing of lines, making of rowling Trenches digging of Mines, battering of Walls, drayning of ditches, drying up Rivers, framing Pall sadoes, Sconses, Redoubts, Counterscarps, tum­bling of Garments in the blood, filling places with dead bodies, fishing, sanning, risting, sacking Towns and Cities, leaving fruitfull places more desolate then the Wildernesse towards Diblath, levelling goodly Structures, as Shalman destroyed Beth-Arbel, yea soaking Lands, and Nations with showres of tempests of blood, all these shal settle the Land in firm peace, look upon the Nation, and see if it be not the quick corner of the Earth for living Souls, the Worlds gendring place, sown with the seed of man, her children like the sand, the offspring of her bowells like the gravell, numbers of people like the Stars of Heaven, or Grashoppers for multitude, Who can count the dust of Jacob? or the fourth part of Israel? Num. 23.16. Yea, a Land of Souldiers, the sighting Country, as if it had been like that in the Poet sown with the teeth of Serpents, or Titan had peo­pled, this Island with his race and progeny. What a Cluster of Chieftains? what millions of Heroes are there here? this whole Land seemeth to be no other then an Artillery-Gar­den, a Trayning-Field, the feeble as David, the strongest as Adino the Eznite, who lift up his spear against 800 men [Page 119]at once, as Eleazar the Son of Dodo the Abohite, who smote the Philistims, till his hand was weary, and clave to his sword; and as Shammah the Son of Agee the Hararite, who stood in a field of lentiles against an Host of Enemies. Now are we not without suspition of danger under such a Banner? Yes, the poyson of all our Enemies cannot envenome us through the vertue of this military Antidote. We fear? No, let the earth fear? Destruction to us? No destruction to all round about us, destruction to them that attempt our downfall, destructi­on to you that preach it.

This is the considence, and self hardinesse of the age; though the scourge passe through, and flow over, yet it shall not come at us. Es. 28.15. though the clouds gather, yet we think of no storm; though the leaks break in, Multo minus praesentes, quam absentes hostes timendi sunt. Marineus. lib. 12. reg Hispan. Eustath. in H [...]ad. 8. Procella ingen­ti rerum suarum semper se vino ingurgitavit. Victor. lib. 8. Var. Lect c 4. Aelian. lib. 12. Var. Hist. yet we dream of no ship­wrack, we fear neither approaching nor apparent dangers, as John of Aragon feared neither absent, nor present enemies. We rush into those courses, that we know judgement do at­tend upon them, as Protesilaus leaped out of the Ship, though he knew, that the Oracle had pronounced, that whosoever came first on shore should be slain. Zenotymus in the greatest tempest of misfortune was drunk; so we are intoxicated a­gainst all dangers; Yea, as the antient Celtae, though they were in an house that was all on a flaming fire, yet they never stirred foot, thinking they should never be crushed, nor burnt; So we stand in aw of no perils, though smoak, and fire predict otherwise. We sleep quietly, expell all dread, our hill is so strong, that we shall never be removed, the munition of Rocks is our defence, none shall pluck us out, our ditch is the Sea, none can swim over to us, all our Ports are locked, none can force an entrance. This day is pleasant, not the face of an Enemy is to be seen, and to morow shall be as this day, and much better. These same dangers are but the melancho­lick apprehensions of Malecontents, or the dreams of lunatick Teachers; we lay our hands upon our Swords, and contemn all these, as panick fears. So that we have not such soft hearts, and tender ears, as Nineveh had; no, our Messengers denounce, and wee give no credit to them; whereas Jonah doth but threaten, and the men of Nineveh believed God.

5. Nineveh doth not delay repentance. For Nineveh was a Ci­ty of three daies journey, and Jonah doth but enter the City, or but get up to Court, and his cries are heard, and the Ci­ty conve [...]ted. But alas how do we weary God with expectati­on? the eye of Heaven aketh to see this Nation humbled. Success rem se relicturum [...]ur non bis de er­dem re delibe­r [...]et. Plu [...]a. ch in Ap [...]h. Augustus Caesar told the people of Rome that he would leave them a Successour, that should not twice deliberate of the same thing, but we are a very deliberating people; too much hastinesse may [Page 120]spoil good intentions, but too much protraction attaineth to nothing. Simulavit se cras obtempera­turum. Quin ad Deum preces faciamus. Sozomen. l. 8. c. 19. Theophilus, Patriark of Alexandria, would have had Nilammon accept of the Ministery, and he feigned that the next morrow he would; when the morrow was come, he deferred him with this pretence, that it was fit first that he should make his prayers to God; and he had so many subter­fuges, that he gave up the Ghost without satisfying the re­quest; so when we are invited to repentance, we make Ni­lammons haste, we are full of our evasions, and die in our pro­crastination: Artaxerxes intending a War against Nectanebis King of Egypt, he appointed Pharnabasus to advance the de­sign, which he promised to do with speed, but spending ma­ny years in preparing, Mirari se quod tam celer in ser­mone sit, & in actione tam tar­dus. Diod. l. 15. Timeham ne me cito exaudires, & sanares à morbo concupis­centiae, quam maleb im ex­pleri, quàm ex­tingui. Aug. l. 8. confes. c. 7. and bringing forth nothing to issue, Iphicrates the Commander of the Mercenaries, told him that he wondred he should be so quick in speech, and so slow in action; so we have nimble tongues, but torpulent endeavours. We may affect repentance, and begge it of God, but yet as St Au­gustine saith against himselfe, we are afraid that God should answer us, we had rather have our Concupiscence fulfilled, then extinguished. Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, but hath not our grievance exceeded that of the Jewes, not onely in heinousnesse, but in tediousnesse? How many plaisters have there been laid upon our sores, and yet the ulcers are as bad as ever? How often hath this Morian been washed, and yet he is never the whiter? If all the Am­phyctions were gathered together in counsail, Amphyctionum consessus. Adag. they could not devise a way for us to embrace their resolves at present. How many Ministers heart-strings have we broken, sending them into their Graves with our impenitency, to afflict their dy­ing spirits? we repent at leisure, whereas Nineveh repented instantly.

6. Nineveh had stirring motions: for Jonah doth deliver his message, and there is honour done to it, reverence expressed to it; the King of Nineveh is not the same man, for as mighty as he was, he seemeth now to have his Lord in chief, a Com­mander greater then himselfe, call upon him; and therefore he doth witness to him submissive offi [...]iousnesse, observance, and veneration; he doth not sit like a King, but like a Minor, one under authority, or an head-servant (at best) amongst the rest of the Attendants, he doth bow before his Master, and forgetting all dignity, and Grandeur, he doth rise up. The King of Nineveh rose up. But Gods messages to us are not thus extimulatory, instigatory, and impulsory, we change neither posture, nor gesture, carriage, nor countenance, we hold up our domination, and keep our seats. The great God cannot make us abate of the Clarissimo, we will lose nothing [Page 121]of the Prince to shew our selves penitent; we hear much, but are moved with nothing: let God declare what he will, we declare no astonishment. The King of Nineveh rose up, but when will we stir? or move an inch from our benches or chayrs, descents, or degrees, leave a scarfe or a scutcheon, a blew Garter or a Coronet, fly out of a Porch or a Belcony, a Shop or a Counting-house, as people terrified with the sense of sin, and danger? no, our proud hearts cannot shrink up, our stiffe limbs cannot arise, repentance or vengeance can scarce make us vail an hat, or leave a chayr empty. The precept of Numa was, Move thy whole body, whilst thou dost adore the Gods; but we have no such laborious concitations, Circumagas te, dum Deos a­dores. Plut. in Numa. Lacrt. l. 6. c. 1. or cir­cumagitations. As Antisthenes said of the Athenians, that they never moved out of their shels, so no more do we out of our wonted garbs. We must keep state in our most religious works, and act the Prince too much even in repentance it selfe. The Prophet doth rebuke, and we keep our stations, the Preacher doth threaten, and we sit; even at the most piercing, launcing, castigatory Sermons, what stirring is there? No, a man would think that our hearts did not change, for neither our faces, nor our feet do change; there may be much advi­sing, but little alteration seen; we retein our old modes, cu­stomes, passages, & places. We sit till misery must cast us down grovelong, or judgement strik us down dead: our humilia­tion hath little perplexity in it, or our repentance reverence. When the Lord denyed to go up with the Israelites, Exod. 33.8. the peo­ple rose up. When sad tidings was brought to Job, he rose up. But no news, nor needs will make us stirre from the cushion no, We sit in the seat of the scornfull, or like Aholah, 3 Job 1.20. Psal. 1.1. Ezech. 23.41. Zach. 5.7. Rev. 18.7. sit upon our costly beds; or like the woman called wickednesse, sit in the midst of the Ephah; or like carelesse Babylon sit as Queen, as if we should never be a widow, nor see any mourning. The powerfullest Sermons can­not make us stand up to them, we take all our warnings sitting. Security is the mother of negligence; and how are we the hea­vy eyed children of this drowzy-headed Mother? Securitas mater negligentiae, Greg. in Pa­storal. for where­as we should rise up to shew that admonition hath prompted us to duty, and that we are fixing our thoughts, straining our wits, and gathering our forces together to promote holy acti­ons; we on the contrary do but onely give the hearing to the message, and never lift up our selves to accomplish or acce­lerate that which is enjoyned; no, [...], animi torpor. Aquin. Jeron. de homi­ne perf. Maxi­me negligentes in rebus maxi­mis. there is in us a torpulency of spirit, we are most negligent in the things most important. We shew neither feare, nor expresse endeavour. The Prophet doth call, and we sit by it, whereas Jonah doth cry, and the King of Nineveh rose up.

7. Nineveh doth not think of greatnesse, for the King of Nine­veh [Page 122]is the first in the action. But alas our great ones are no such good Leaders, they must have the path beaten out for them, before they can set forward; or the whole family is upon em­ployment, before these principall Servants can fall to work. Greatnesse which should be exemplary, thinks it self exempt­ed; they which should appear in the Front, do come up in the Reere. These laden Carts move but slowly, these heavy bu­stards have much adoe to raise their flight, and be upon the wing, Mysorum ulti­mus navigat. Adag. He which hath great adventure to put into his Ship, doth saile last. It is as hard for a Camell to go through the eye of a needle, as for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. The seed doth with a difficulty spring up, where the thorns do grow. Not many mighty, not many noble. It is a rare thing for Obadiah to be one of Gods Nobles, or for Daniel to open a window towards Je­rusalem, for Asah to purge a corrupt State, or for Josias to have a melting heart at Huldahs prophesying. There is the least grace usually, where the hand hath found out much; they which have the fullest Coffers have the emptiest consciences. God doth draw few servants from Mammons thresholds, the rich Merchants which are bartering for so many Jewells, ve­ry seldom purchase the true pearle; he can hardly look up to Heaven which hath his eye upon his shop; nor seek for dura­ble riches, Leones catuli informes nas­cuntur, non mo­ventur nisi bi­mestres, vix in­grediuntur se­mestres. Erasm. Damonum car­cer sit quisque in hoc s [...]culo qui propter di­vitiat & hono­res laborat. Greg. l. 15. Moral. which doth lay up gold as dust. The Lions whelps are a long time before they come to their feet, they do not stir under two months, nor walk under seven. The Devills Prison is filled chiefly with persons of high birth, and high fortunes, he hath in chains honourable slaves, his Captives go in skarlet, wear golden chains about their necks, ride in Coaches, and lie up­on beds of Ivory, therefore Saint Gregory saith, that a Rich mans heart is the Devills Dungeon; Oh the witchcraft of abundance! the Vipers gall that is in a Worldlings inwards? How many would have been humbled to the Earth, but that their gain­full places will not suffer them to come to their knees? how many had been true Penitents, but that ambition will not suffer them to lose any thing of their present degree. These lofty Pines are most barren, wheras Nineveh hath her sweetest fruit upon the highest trees; these are the last at the peniten­tiall service, whereas the King of Nineveh was the first in action.

8. Nineveh had a humble dresse: for the King put off his Robe, and he and the whole City was covered with sackcloth. But alas we are so far from repentance in the heart, that we have not repentance on the back; we are so far from the sackcloth, that we are all for the Robe, and the Miniver gown. If we be Con­verts, we are very spruse ones; if Penitents, we are very gay, [Page 123]and gawdy ones. Oh the monstrous pride, and prodigious bravery of these daies! Pliny doth report, Pliny l. 19. c. 1. Sabel l. 8. c. 7. that the first dying of flax began in Alexandria, Sabellicus writeth, that the Aelians first wrought cloth of gold, and that the Babylonians first in­vented embroyderies. But whosoever were the first Inven­ters of these things, their Inventions have proved so fruitful, that nothing will please us, but costly dies, curious textures, and all the artificiall Draughts of the needle; our Garments so costly, that purple which was wont to be bought at the equall weight of silver, Illud vestimenti genus, & apud reges carissi­mum esset, & magnificum, nam purpura aequi ponderis olim argento redimebatur. Athen▪ l. 12. c. 10 externos habitus edicto proh ibuit. A­ventin. l. 4. Annal. Bojo­rum. Gregoras. l. 2. and very seldom came upon the backs of any, but Princes, is now of little esteem amongst us. Lewis Emperour of Germany by solemn Proclamation forbad all for­reign apparell; but he had been no Emperour for us, for there is nothing will please these times, but that which is out­landish. We are so much addicted (though quite contrary to Scripture, and indeed what is Scripture to the un-Bibling Natural) to strange apparell. Zeph. 1.8. that there is scarce a­ny thing, that is English seen about us; as it was said of the Courtiers of Andronteus the younger, that in respect of their hatefull disguises in apparell, they seemed no longer to be Grecians, but a [...]medly of Latines, Mysians, Triballians, Syrians, and Phaenicians. So we have brought all Nations into the Wardrobe, or to act upon the garment-Stage.

The Kings of Egypt were wont to give unto their Queenes the tribute of the City Antilla to buy them girdles; Diod. Sic. and how much girdles, gorgets, wimples, cawles, crisping-pins, vails, rails, frontlets, bonnets, bracelets, neeklaces, slops, slippers, roundtires, sweetballs, rings, earings, mufflers, glasses, hoods, lawn, musks, civets, rosepowders, gessamy butter, complexi­on waters, do cost in our daies, many a sighing husband doth know by the years account. What adoe is there to spruse up many a woman, either for streets, or Market, Banquets, or Temples? She is not fit to be seen unlesse she doth appear half naked, nor to be marked, unlesse she hath her distinguish­ing pitches upon her, she goeth not abroad till she be feathe­red like a Popin-jay, and doth shine like alablaster; it is an hard thing to draw her out of bed, and an harder thing to draw her from the looking-glasse; it is the great work of the Family to dresse her, much chasing, and fuming there is be­fore she can be throughly tired; her spungings, and perfu­mings, lacings, and lickings, clippings, and strippings, den­tifricings, and dawbings, the setting of every hair methodi­cally, and the placing of every beauty-spot topically, are so tedious, that it is a wonder, that the Mistriss can sit, or the waiting maid stand still all the scenes of this phantastick Go­medy [Page 124]be acted through. O these birds of Paradise are bought at a deererate! the keeping of these Lannerets is very charge­able! The wife oftentimes doth wear more gold upon her back, then the husband hath in his purse; and hath more Jewells about her neck, then the annuall revenue doth a­mount to; and this is the Shee-pride, and doth not the Hee­pride equall it? yes the Man now is become as feminine, as the Woman. Men must have their half shirts, and half­arms, a dozen casements above, and two wide luke-homes below: some walk (as it were) in their Wastcoats, and o­thers (a man would think) in their Petticoats, they must have narrow wasts, and narrow bands, large cuffes upon their wrests, and larger upon their shinbones, their boots must be crimped, and their knees garded; A man would conceive them to be Apes by their coates, Sope-men by their faces, Meal-men by their shoulders, Bears or Dogs by their frizled hair; And this is my trim Man. And oh that I could end here, but pride doth go a larger Circuit, it is travailed amongst the Commons; every Yeoman in this age must be attired like a Gentleman of the first head, every Clark must be as brave as the Justice, every Apprentice match his Master in gallan­try, the waiting Gentlewoman doth vy fashions with her La­dy, and the Kitchin maid doth look like some Squires daugh­ter by her habit; the Handicrafts-men are in their colours, and their wives in rich silks. Oh where will pride end her pilgrimage? And that which is the height of immodesty, and the abominable impudency of pride is this, that these made Beauties in these strange dresses will talk of points of religi­on, as if they had lately dropped out of Heaven, as celestiall spirits; and speak of mortification, as if they had learned re­pentance from some Gabriel, or Michael; none so busie in gi­ving Church-orders, or prescribing rules of reformation; they can lament the wickednesse of the Times, and teach the Nati­on the proper sacrifice that is to be offered to appease an in­censed God. Oh scorn, and mockery of direction, where pride is the prime Counsellour! A pittifull agreement that is wrought by such Peacemakers, a wofull reconciliation that is procured by such Mediatours. These are fitter to curse a Nation, then to be instrumentall for a pacification, and to ir­ritate a patient God, than to asswage an offended God; if Job, Noah, and Daniel can do no good at such a time, were despair of such Interceders; the ruine is apparent, where pride is the refuge; Oh they must not be cuts and jags, laces and em­broyderies, a glistering people that must be mitigaters of wrath at such a season, but they must be rents, rags, slashes, [Page 125]Sithy-coats; and sackcloth people, that must undertake this work. If our Country had never a sin but pride, yet this be­ing so excessive, and execrable as it is, it were enough to shake this Island in pieces with an Earthquake, or to drown it in a deluge of vengeance, to call in God and Magog to pluck off these Antick abiliments, and to flay off those skins which have clad themselves in such exotique disguisements; These may name themselves old fashioned Protestants, but they are but new fashioned Penitents. Oh strange repentance, which will not lose an Ornament, but renew levities, and exceed all ages in indecencies; which admitteth of persons to be proud till they be ridiculous; proud, till they be prodigious. Is this the Ninivites penitentiall apparell? no, we repent in curi­ous dresses, and changeable suits, and the Ninivites in casting away the Robe, and covering themselves with sack­cloth.

9. Nineveh had the heighth of abasement, they sat upon the ash-heap. But we are rather for the Bullion-heap, or the bullet-heap, or the building-heap, than for the ash-heap! We think what Cities, and Castles, what Rents, and Revenews; what Ammunition, and Artillerie we have, rather then we consi­der that our Cities deserve to be sacked, our Castles to be ra­sed, our treasures to be melted out of our hands, our Maga­zines of war to be emptied, and this Nation to be left so un­weaponed, that there should be neither sword, nor spear re­maining to defend the Land; we are enamoured upon our present estate, and have high hopes that all shall be preserved in a prosperous, flourishing condition, rather then that all may be levelled, wasted, consumed, spoiled, and laid in ashes. We cannot lead away our hearts from minding our potency, nor turn away our eyes from gazing upon our greatnesse, nor cast away our penns from writing out large Titles of our might, means, Confederates, Allies, Troops, and trained Bands. We never dissemble more, then when we speak of our weaknes; nor double more, then when we say we are upon the declining point; we wil not come at the ash heap, because we imagine, that all the flames of divine vengeance cannot turn this Nation into a Bonefire, or burn us to nothing, as in a devouring furnace; no, sprinkle these ashes upon Rome, or Constantinople, the Crim Tartar, or the great Mogul; we fear no such ash-heap. Oh these arrogant hearts of ours cannot ap­prehend any thing to be pernicious, and exitiall to us, we are falling, and fainting indeed, when we do not lift up our selves to boast? 1 Chron. 25.19. we are burting beasts, and wil not leave to take unto our selves hornes. Amos 6.13. wee love to exalt our gate. Prov. 17.19. and to stretch out our necks. Esa. 3.16. [Page 126] Pride must compasse us like a Chain. Ps. 73.6. we are Princes in our own opinion, and delight to have the Crown of pride upon our heads. Esa. 28.1. we must be strong as the Oakes. Amos 2.9. and ride in our Chariots of glory. Esa. 22.18. We dread neither our enemies, nor our guilts; for let our sins be never so many (as they are infinite, beyond the cyphring up of the best A­rithmetician) or never so grievous (as they are horrid, roa­ring in Gods ears with a Sodoms cry) yet they must neither daunt, nor enfeeble us, nor pluck down our confident looks, or abase us to the ash-heap; she candle doth yet give a glori­ous light, we are loth to think of the snuft; we have built up our selves to admiration, it is irksome to conceive that God should smite the great house with breaches. No, away with depression, diminution, casting down, or comming low; we would be above, Victor. l. 6. variar Lect. c. 12. and not beneath, the head, and not the tail; with Egnarius we cannot leave shewing our white teeth, though they be ready to drop out of our heads; with that Lydian King, Plut. in Solone. Croesus, we cannot forbear shewing our vast treasures, though Cyrus be coming to singer up all. As Bardus Durus under Basilius Porphyrogenitus said, Calceum cocei­neum fieri non potest ut qui hunc semel in conspectu multi­tudinis induit, facile exual. Cedrenus. that he that had put on the shoo of honour would hardly put it off. So we that have put on greatnesse, will hardly slip off this Pantossle; no, we began with success, and we shal never end with dysaster; all the spight of enemies cannot kindle a flame in the Nation, wee shall never be brought to the ash-heap; we think we have prayed away our sins though we practise them, and though they never went an inch bredth from our hearts, yet we think we have expel­led them with a Lecture-sigh. We make those things Monu­ments of our fame, that will turn to be Memorialls of our in­famy, as the Persians sent home the Parian marble to build a Trophe to the honour of Victory, when Phydias after the Ma­rathonian battel built of it a Statue to Nemesis. Pausanias in All. cis. Thus happen what will, we keep up our spirits, and keep our seats; we sit in our Porches of greatnesse, and upon our benches of Com­mand, rather then sit upon ashes. What is the talk of our age, but of our vigour and valour, our prosperity and prowesse? Pigmalion cannot leave looking upon his own Pictures, nor we upon our own Images; we are a warlike Nation, a lustre at home, a Terrour abroad; the great Britton is as astonish­ing, as the great Briareus; these are the fancies of our excellen­cies; but there is no speech of the serpents nest amongst us, the Cockatrices eggs, the Vine of Sodom, the root of gall, and wormwood, that we are a seed of evill doers, children of Be­lial, a very generation of Vipers, that God is weary with re­penting, and the axeltree of his patience breaking in pieces, that the iniquity of the Amorites is even full; and the rowl, [Page 127]ten Cubits broad and twenty Cubits long, is ready to fly a­broad; no let who will be appalled at the apprehension of Di­vine justice drawing nigh, we do not wag our heads (as the Scripture saith) at the thought of judgement. Yet forty daies, and Nineveh shall be overthrown; yet many an hundred year, and England shall stand. This is our conceit, and this is our confi­dence, therefore we cover not our faces, as if we had seen our last of worldly welfare; we lie not upon the ground, as if our downfall were at hand, we sit not upon ashee, as if we were ready to be consumed to ashes. No, we have little fear of ven­geance, for we are not dejected; we have little repentance, for we are not abased. We walk upon our turrets, and tarasses, when we see the Ninivites lie in the dust; we sit upon our Theaters of pomp, and vainglory, when the Ninivites sit up­on the ashes.

10. Nineveh had a restraint of delicacies, for they neither did eat meat, nor drink water. But we have in stead of such pure fasting, full Platters and full Bowls. Cato said to Julius Caesar, Sueton. that he only came sober to destroy the Common-wealth, but we cannot come sober to preserve the Common-wealth. When the strict Law of C. Fannius concerning the high moderation of nourishment, that was to be observed generally (except it were at the Saturnalls, and Roman Plaies) came to be re­missly kept, it is said, Plerique vino madidi in comi­tium venerunt & ebrii de sa­lute reip. consu­lebant. Macrob. l. 3. Satur. c. 17. that the people came soaked with wine into the Senate-house, and in a drunken humour consulted about the safety of the Common-wealth. So we go about to save Kingdoms, and save souls by riot, and revelling. We cannot shut up our mouths to fence out a judgement, nor lose a meals meat to obtain a blessing; we are tyed by the teeth to hinder us from religious exercises, our tables are our snares to in thrall us to misery. One would think, that man liveth by bread alone, for he is alwaies feeding; and that he were preserved by his liquor, for he is more for his cups, then the cup of consolation; if we would diet our selves, we might be healthfull, and fit for action, but wee are so full fed, that our pursy spirits are adapted for nothing that is sacred; wee are so much for the Manger, and so full of Provender, that we even melt in our grease, when wee should ride post to avert a judge­ment. Oh these slow bellies, Epicures, Sabellic. l. 10. c. 1 [...]. and Gourmandisers are dull Agents in a Churches pacification; Instead of thin bodies mace­rated with fasting, we have bodies gorged like Maximinians, as if a cup full of water might be drawn from our sweaty sides.

The intemperance of the Nation is such, that a man may say of it, as Diogenes did of Maronia, That if a man were blind­fold [Page 128]he might know which way to look to it, Sentiens totam civitatem nihil esse, nisi Guapo­nam. Eras. l. 6. Apoph. Ʋniversa gen [...] Anglica supra catero: mortales conviviorum studiosissima est. Jovius lib. 2. Histor. Gloria­rentur, quod magis cottabis periti essent, quàm quod jacu­larentur. Athen lib. 11. c. 9. Plin. l. 8. c. 51. Macrob. l. 3. Sa [...]. c. 13. Valer. Max. Erasm: in Adag. as to a Cooks shop, for the whole Land doth seem to be nothing else but a Victualling-house: It was truly observed by Jovius, That the English Coun­try above all Nations upon earth, was most addicted to the throat. In­deed, as Athenaeus saith of the Sicilians, Excess is our mastery, and playing of prizes. Sozomene doth report of a Monk in Coelosyria, called Battheus, that he was so sparing of meat, that for want of eating, worms bred out of his gums: And Zenophon rela­teth of Cambyses, that he was so moderate in drinking, that he never drank till thirst compelled him. But we eat so, that we may rather feare wormes breeding in our bowels than in our gums, and we drink so, that not thirst, but a cup-appetite doth provoke us. Servilius Rullus, was the first that brought in a whole boar into a banquet. Q. Hortensius first brought in Peacocks. The Ionians, second services. The Lydians, Carycks, a curious dish, which had all manner of rare confections in it. Whosoever were the inventers of these things, we are the imi­tators; yea, we have out-scienced all the Artists in voluptu­ousnesse, and luxury for Charger-principles. The Nine cites did neither eat nor drink to pacisie Gods wrath; but we wi l hazard our selves upon all the judgements from heaven, ra­ther than we will punish the flesh too much by abstinence, were it to save our heads, or preserve a Kingdom; no, we are old eaters, and old drinkers.

First To examine more strictly our eating. Are not our minds wholly set upon banquets? doe we not with the Israe­lites lust after flesh, and eat oftentimes till the meat doth come out of our Nostrills? Can there be a Nation more guil­ty of fulnesse of bread? can we imagine more riotous eaters of flesh? Turks would make us blush, the blind Infidels shall rise up in condemnation against us; Curistians, and yet men given to the appetite? Protestants, and yet Epicures: we know where these Helluoes dwel, we could call by name these slaves of the palate, which have mind neither of Church nor State, but of their spread Tables and delicious fare, which face all judgements with nourishing their hearts in pleasure, as in a day of slaughter, and will jeopard the losse of privi­ledges, and Ordinances, rather then they will forbear from their belly chear, to eat ashes like bread. It is not their day­ly bread, and food convenient that will satisfie them, but they must have dainty bread, and food sumptuous; they are such insatiable Gourmandisers, as if with Matthew Bishop of Cracovia, they would bury all their treasure in their Guts; or with Hugutio Fagiolanus, Cromer. l. 6. Petrarch. they would not rise from a banquet to save an Estate; or good diet did run more in their minds, than sad accidents to themselves, or their dearest friends; or [Page 129] Galienus having heavy news brought him of his Father Vale­rian in Parthia, he said no more, but, Ecquid ha [...]emus, quòd pran­deamus▪ Trebel Heave we any thing to go to dinner with? God doth not onely put meat into many unclean mouths, and spread a Table for unthankfull guests; but he giveth the freedom of his creatures to them which know not how to use their liberty; which do eat not onely to satisfie nature but to surcharge it. It would astonish a man to see what killing, and flaying, and basting, and larding there is for our curious appetites; If a true accompt could be brought in for one years. [...]able-expences in this Nation, what a large bill of fare would there be? I doubt whether the Spaniards Indies would defray the costs of it. Oh these teeth of ours are very chargeable, these upper and neither milstones of our jawes do grind the Creatures; how sparing and penurious soever we are to the afflicted and distressed (for the Epicure is the worst enemy, or coldest friend to a suffering Church, he cannot spare crums to Christ, nor a few mites to his chain or treasury, his devouring we [...]and costing him so many pounds) yet we are lavish enough in our sustenance, we care not what we sacrifice to our delicious throats; Plut in Lucul­lo. There are a people, which with Lucullus, cannot sup in the Apollo under the price of 50000 Deneirs: or with Michael Angelus, they de­sire to have at their Tables an hill of bread, a chase of beasts, Nicetas. a pond of fishes. Plato said of the Agrigentines, that they did build to day, as if they should live for ever, Aelian. but we feast to day as if we should dye to morrow; for every banquet is so costly, as if men were going into another Country, Orexim convi­vii. Lamprid. and ta­king solemn leave of all their friends. With Heliogahalus, they prepare a whetstone to their appetites, and have such variety of provisions, as if, with the Thessalians, [...]. Athen. l. 10. they wished that their Tables might be wat [...]essull, or Cartloads of entertainments. Eve­ry meeting hath such sumptuousnesse and superfluity in it, as if they had the pillar which Alexander found in the Persian Palace to order banquets by, Columna con­viviorum. Polyen. l. 4. Theopomp. l. Hist. 35. or as if they were of such an in­satiable appetite, that with that Paphlagonian Thyn, no lesse than an hundred Dishes would serve them at a meal, or they had need of some Historian to describe their prodigality; as Lamia had Lynceus Samius, to Register every Dish of that great banquet which she bestowed upon Demetrius Polyorcetes. Plut. in De­met [...]io. There is a people with us so given over to licorousnesse, that it is an hard thing to get a Cook to please them, they had need lay before their Palate dressers, the eleven Books of Timarchidas Rhodius, to teach men how to prepare diet; or to send into Per­sia, to get the old directions how to season a dish that might be called Jupiters brayn; or to go search Egypt, if there can be found an heire of Numatius Plancus, to produce the Re­cords [Page 130]of the interchangeable banquet which past betwixt Mark Anthony, and Cleopatra. The Hoga's, and Olies, and Lum­bards of these times, are not choise enough for them, no, they must have more curious inventions, if their purses would retch to it, their palats are as delicious as ever were those of Nero, Vitellius, Sardanapalus, or the greatest feast­worms that ever were in the world. Oh, to the hungry every bit­ter thing is sweet, but these which are daily surfeited with deli­cacies, nothing almost rellishes well with them, nor hath the licorous gust; it cannot be powdered, and pickled, spiced, sawced, larded, sufficiently for them; What should I say? their Palates are their Altars, their Services are their sacrifi­ces, their Belly is their God, they are the black Idolaters of the smoaky, reeking, steaming Kitchin; not Ninevites I will warrant you, which consume their selves with fasting, but Epicures, which would gnaw as long as their teeth can chew, and would die with meat in their mouthes; And thus much for our eating.

Secondly, To take a more serious review of our drinking: the Ninevites would not drink water, but we will drink; and the Spring, Cum legati A­theniensium laudâssent Phi­lippum prae ni­mio potu, re­spondit Demos­thenes, Habet hane virtutem cum spongia communem. Plut. in De­mosth Aelian. l. 2. Var. Hist. Duas ollas in­star Lovis incli­natus exhausit. Nicet. Conia­tes. lib. 3. Nec temerè un­quam à tricli­nio sobrius ab­seessit, nisi dis­tentus, & ma­didus vino. Sue­ton. Velut car­ceribus emissae belluae. Guag­ninus in de­script. Muscov. c. 1. In biben­do parem non habuit. Ravis. Reliquum est, ut mare ebibat. Athen. l. 8. c. 6. l. Id. l. 10. c. 11. or Conduit shall be none of our Celler; no, we must drink of the sweet, and it is well, if any thing be dulcy, and meracious enough for us; it must not onely take away thirst, but satisfie the taste, not onely refrigerate, but ine­briate. We are compassed about with the Sea, and one would think there were an Ocean within land; we are rid of our ravenous wolves, but when shall we of our riotous wombs; we seem to be steeped in liquors, or to be the Dizzy Hand. We drink, as if like Philip, we were nothing but spunges to draw up meislure, or we had tunnels in our mouthes, as it was said of Dyotimus the Athenian, or with Camatherus Logotheta, We drank like Oxen. It is pitty there are no nets to catch these fishes, nor no harping Irons provided to dart into the bellies of these Whales. Noah planted a Vine, and the world was ne­ver since sober; we are the Grape-suckers of the earth. The More is abstemious, the Spaniard sober; but we, the wit-foun­dred Nation. There are many like Claudius, which seldome go sober over their thresholds, they rise up from their meetings like wilde beasts let loose from their Dens, they triumph with Hera­clides, not to have a Cup-Peer, they would seem (as Theocritus Chius said of Diocles) to drink up the Sea, they have never drunk enough till their Cups fall out of their hands, as it happened to Alexander, when he contended with Proteas who should have the last draught. To be strong to drink wine, is become a kind of Chivalry, men wageing battail at their full bowls, as in a pitched field; they which have drunk down most, are [Page 131]like them that have knocked down most: Fimon gloried over Lacydes, for this, like a very Conqueror, Gloria parta in­gens, occidimus. Eustath. Hiad. X. Vinolento­rum Achilles Guido Bitur. and Licinius as a Ca­pitall Drunkard, would be styled no lesse than Achilles. Thus excesse is excellency, riot reputation: yea, their glory is in their shame. How is our Land by these intemperate creatures made an Hogs-sty? the brimming bowl like Circes Cup, turning men into swine. Yea, how is this glorious Nation made a Bed­lam, or a nest of Furies? for in their distempered humours, what distracted and frantick parts do they act? like the youth of Agrigentum, they cast tables and stools out at the win­dowes; and like Michael Balbus, they are ready to cut off ears and noses, and to slay children in their parents arms; Athen. l. a. c. 1. Cedren. Plut. c. 15. de mulier. virt. as Lucius ser­ved Micca the daughter of Phidelinus. Oh that this mad crew should not be kept close, that those wild beasts should be suf­fered to range the streets; that we have houses of Correction for lazy persons, and no Bride-wells for these spend-thrifts; chaines for Runnagates, and no fetters for these Hectors; that these common Bowsers, and daily Drunkards which make it an art and habit to quaffe and carouse, though in their fuming fits they care not to scandall the innocent, to as­sault the peaceable, to violate the chaste, to reproach Religi­on, to brave upon authority, to revile their parents, to rend the heavens, and damn their own souls, yet if they can shew but a coat of Arms, and call a Squire their Father, no Bench of justice will touch them, as if Drunkennesse were a kind of generous quality, or Progeny were a dispensation to riot. Oh my soul, tremble at the horrour of this heinous and reig­ning sin; for is there any man come nigher to an Atheist, or a Devill, then a customary drunkard? And would to God that this were but onely a masculine sin, but it hath spread it selfe into both sexes; neither the bashfulnesse, nor modesty of wo­men, can restrain them from participating in the guilt: If the breaths of women were tried, Pliny. l. 14. c. 13. as Cato the Censor command­ed they should be in Rome, I doubt the criminall smell would be found to proceed from too many of them. Domitius depri­ved a woman of her dowry, Aetod. because she was proved culpa­ble of this trespasse; and a Matrone was adjudged to be star­ved, because she did but open a box where were the keyes of a Wine-cellar; Fabius Pictor in Annal. and Fatua Fauna was whipped to death with mirtle rods, because she drank wine out of a bottle secretly. Oh if such heavy sentences were pronounced and executed in these dayes, what should become of many women? Lactant. l. 1. c. 22. for is not this a feminine vice? Yes, Martial need not write of his drunken Fescennia, nor Ausonius of his Merce, nor Aelian of his Cleio, for we amongst our selves, may find a multitude of these intemperate sottish women, which will quaffe with the [Page 132]most riotous, and give pledge for pledge, and take off cup for cup. Oh blemish of the Nation! and affrightment to the very heavens!

Well then, in respect of meat and drink (intemperance a­mongst men and women) are we the fasting Nation? no, some superficiall fasts we have had amongst us, but I am jealous whether one, properly kept for sinne: Those were strange kind of fasts, where the next dayes excesse, nay per­haps that nights riot takes away the vertue and honour of a Fast. Oh that we could yet turn to God in Fasting. For for the present there seem to be amongst us, the Gourmandi­sing of Luernius, which continued many months together; or the surfeiting meetings of Ariamnes, Athen. l. 4. c. 13. Philarehus. l. 3. who feasted the whole ye are through, or the superfluities of the Sibarites, whose provisions were so splendid, that they were wont to invite their guests a twelve-month before to prepare an ap­petite; or the Adonalian, Agonalian, Consualian, Carmentalian, Hyacinthian, Athen. l. 12. c. 16. Panionian, Feasts of the Heathens; nay the very Lupercals, Saturnals, Org yes and Bacchanals, rather then any so­lemn fasting: our teeth may tell us, that we are not humbled; our full Platters, and flowing cups, that judgement never entred into our consciences; no, we eat away the feare of plagues, and drink away the dread of an avenging God; when we are nearest to punishment, we are most eager upon rioting, as Nyseus of Syracusa, when he was told, that he had but a few moneths to live, he fell the faster to his Banquets, and his bowles. Oh this Land will perish by a surfeit, or dye of a dropsie; Athen. l. 10. c. 12. there doth seem to be few mortifying Recon­cilers and Peace-makers, where there are so many boon-fel­lowes and Comrades. Oh that we could send the Glutton and Winebibber out of the Nation, then there would be some hopes that we might sacrifice to God a true sinne-offe­ring, but in the meane time all our devotions seem to smell too much of the Larder, and the Cask; we are too lusty and vigorous, too full-fed, and drenched in liquors to re­pent; true repentance must be leane and meager, as if we had eaten away our right to the Creature, and drunk away our life-plea: Thus did the Ninevites repent, they put upon themselves a restraint from all delicacies, nay they halfe killed themselves with a strict forbearance from necessary sus­tenance; they kept a pure fast.

11. The Ninivites put their whole strength to the work: for there were Kings, Nobles, and Citizens which repented. But it is an hard thing for us to be thus unanimous in good things; there may be unus, some particular person that may advance God, [Page 133]and godlinesse, but not unusquisque; every person, we do not join ut unus, as one man, nor ad unum, to a man. Oh that there were the same mind in all to leave the land of curse, Omnibus idem animus, scelerata excedere terrâ Virgil. Aeneid. 3. or the curse of the land; but there is an Isthmus, which doth devide many from the main Continent; yea, we are distant one from another in intentions, and resolutions as far, as the Artick, and Antarctick poles are one from another; our discrepancy, and distermination in good things is such, that it hath parted the community, and separated it into severall members; Congeriem secu­it. sectum (que) in membra rede­git. Bellum sociale. we are diametrically opposite, and like the several factions in Rome at a sociall War. We do all things distributively, and not col­lectively; disparately, and not identifically. How many are there, which act by consent? no, they are so few, that a child may tell them, the glory of Jacob is made thin, Huc caput, at (que) illuc humeri— Wo is me I am as the Summer-gatherings. This way doth the head go, and that way the shoulders. We do not put our full sorce to chafe our temples throughly, we employ not the whole hand to rub our brains to apprehend sin; no, Exprobarunt, qued uno digito caput scalperet. as it was said ominously of Co. Pompeius. so may it be said of us, that we do but scrape our heads with one finger. If Sylla would have the triumphant Chariot of Bocchus, and the golden Image of Jugurtha to stand in the Capitoll, Sabellic. l. 3. c. 6. Marius would have them removed, and beaten in pieces. So we pull down, that which others set up. Alexander said that he, and his Companions might drink, so long as Antipater did watch for the Common-wealth. So the generality we think may be sensuall and secure, impious and impenitent, Bibamus nos, vigilet modo Antipater. Plut. so long as there are some that are considerate, and conscious, strict, and rectified. A small company we think will suffice to do the Church work, a few are enough to prevent judgment, and preserve the Land. If it be our own Babel, which we are to raise, the whole Earth can meet to build it; if they be our own Calves, which we are to worship, the people can be ga­thered from Dan to Beersheba to kneel down to them; the whole flock is upon the wing, when wee fly about our own projects; the whole kennel is raised, when we hunt our own game. There is a conspiracy in evill, but there is no such con­federacy in that which is good; we can assemble, and associ­ate to exalt our own designes, but we cannot pacify God by mutuall covenant, or repent by solemn league; no, here wee are ill-affected, and clear Malignants. There are Epidemicall diseases, and reigning defections, but no such universall perfections; there are Nationall sins, but not Nationall graces; Kingdom skars, but not Kingdom lustres; no, here we are in our severall Classes, and divided into parts, and partitions. There is a tumult in our humiliation, we repent as it were in a distraction. If some have feeling, others have insensibility; [Page 134]if some lie grovelong upon the ground, others stand upon their tiptoes; if some appease, others incense; if some seek to sheath the sword, others draw it further out of the scabberd, and whet the edge of it. Oh when shall we agree indistinctly to procure a generall pardon? or make a Dominion-addresse to Heaven, to be acquitted and accepted? No, we have seve­rall brests, and not the same motions; severall Orbes, and not the same constellations; like Gedeons Fleece, if one side be wet the other is dry; or like Egypt, if there be light in Goshen, there is darknesse over all the Land besides; Rachel is fair, Le­ah is blear eyed, David doth dance before the Ark, Michol doth mock; so some are prostrating their selves to regain fa­vour, others prosecuting their unregenerate desires; some quenching flames, others others blowing up the coales. Oh when shall we be free of the Cannanite, and Pherizzite out of the Land? when of Newters, Libertines, Hypocrites, that the whole nation might accord together in a pacifying service? that there might be an united dejection, that the whole Kingdom might offer (as it were) the same propitiatory sacrifice, that every heart, and spirit might have the same penitentiall im­pressions, and expressions; that we might agree in consci­ence, as we do in Country; and in longings, as we do in lan­guage; and in repentance, as we do in relations; the whole Nation putting all their stocks together to purchase a generall pardon, that God might say, this is the Land of Converts, the Island of Penitents; But alas we repent by peecemeal, man by man, whereas Nineveh repented as one man; King, Nobles, and Citizens.

12. The Ninivites had a memorable thing to testify their repen­tance: for they made their beasts to fast. But we do not characte­rise nor set up any monument to the honour of Repentance; no, we go via tr [...]a, in the beaten road, we sail in the ordinary Current, we sight with the old dudgeon dagger, and build after the old fashion, we have nothing but customary wonts, and common usages; we shut up our shops, throng Congrega­tions, try mens gifts by preaching according to the number of hourglasses, and by the sixteen foot, and an half pole of commensurated devotions, by shrinking up at the stabbes of confoding doctrine, and gathering collections by brachygra­phy; just like the Jews, which humbled themselves by afflicting their souls for a day, or by hanging down their heads like a bulrush; or the Pharisees who repented by disfiguring themselves, and making sowre faces; if these externall garbes, and superficiall formalities will justifie our conversion, we are Penitents, otherwise we are yet to begin our repentance; wee do not exceed, transcend, there is no praestancy, nor praepol­dolency [Page 135]to be discerned; the flood of repentance doth not come in with a springtide, we do not impregnate it with some seed derived from a noble linage. We build no Almshouses, that it might be said these are the Hospitalls of repentance; we redeem no Captives, that it might be said that these are the ransomed Creatures of repentance; we impose no severities upon our selves, that it might be said these are the mortifica­tions of repentance; we hold our selves to no reverentiall stints, that it might be said, these are the consecrated hours of repentance; we vow no eminent fruits, that it might be said, these are the conspicuous graces of repentance; no our repen­tance begins, and ends without any egregious thing in it, to draw the observing eye of the world to look upon us with admiration, or setting the whole earth in a gaze at the be­holding of us. In other things we are singular, but in this ve­ry vulgar. Nero built a Palace, that was called the golden house, which had such a Colossus in it whereupon his own Image stood, and such dining rooms (the roofs of them moving like the celestiall Orbs) and such artificiall clouds, which dropped down ointments, sweet waters, fragrant flowers, & such aquae­ducts, groves, fish ponds, and lakes surrounded with structures, like a little City, that it was the wonder of the world to be­hold it, and he himself so proud of it, that Nero-like, Vt diceret se quasi hominem tandem habita­re expisse. Sueton. Plus. in Deme­trio. Q. Curtius. he brake out into an high ostentation, saying, Now I have a house fit for a man dwell in. Ptolomaeus Philopater framed a ship of that admira­ble length, and bredth, that it held 3000 souldiers, and re­quired 4000 rowers. Alexander kept a nuptiall Feast at the marriage of Statira, the Daughter of Darius, that he had 9000 guests at it, and gave to every one a drinking cup of gold.

And what indeed is there that man doth lay his hand unto, but he doth desire to be seen great in it, that it might be said, This is the Act, and this is the Actour? yes, we excell in many things. But as Alexander the great did many notable things, but he only failed, that he could not dig through Mimantes; so we do many glorious things, but we only are defective, that we cannot dig through repentance: As God said of Hypocrites, Alexandro magn [...] id unum ex animi sen­tentia non con­tigit, quod Mi­mantem sodere non potuit. they come as people use to come, so we repent, as people use to re­pent; there are no adorning stamps, and beautifying prints to be seen upon our repentance. Oh that repentance were our garment, how should it be embroydered; that it were our chimny-piece, how should it be engraven? that it were our Picture, how should it be limned? that it were our palfrey, how should it be trappered? that it were our linnen, how should it be rinsed? that it were our chamber floor, how should it be rubb [...]d? Oh we desire to have every thing else about us choise, neat, and splendid; only our repentance is abject, [Page 136]despicable and sordid; we have a beautiful face, and a black soul; a bright parlour, and a dark conscience; a cleane cup, and a defiled repentance. If repentance be our child, we may blush that it should call us Father; if it be our quintessence, we may be ashamed of our Chymistry; how doth our art most fail us in that which should most honour us, and eternally blesse us? Oh there are many of us professe repentance, and presume of repentance, but how may we be troubled at the calling it forth? tremble at the sight of it? can we own it? wil God accept of it? No, he is as ready to condemn our repen­tance, as our sinne, and to judge us for an hypocriticall con­version, as for an irreligious conversation. For is there any thing conspicuous in repentance? Is it Ninevehs repentance? No, thou hast nothing remarkable in thy repentance, where­as Nineveh had a memorable thing to verisie and magnifie her repentance, she made her beasts to fast, and wear sackcloth.

13. Nineveh had an anguish for sin, the whole City is a mourner. But we are the joyous City, the Tabret and Harp doe not depart from us. ferit aurea si­dera clamor. Virgil. Aeneid 2. Repentance should be a dolefull creature; yea, her sorrowfull accent should pierce the skies. But our Repen­tance doth make no noise in the Church, the shriekes of a Mourner are not yet come into our lips; our hearts seem to have their old fore-skins, for they have not yet smarted un­der the circumcising knise; a great draught seemeth to be a­mongst us, our Land is turned into powder and dust, for the Cloud is not rent under us. The uncleane spirit doth here walk in dry places indeed, the water-courses of repentance are stopped. Oh that we could purisie by water, that Repen­tance had not lost her laver. Ex teneritate affectus. Aquin. 22 a. q. 82. a. 2. Teares come from tendernesse of af­fection, but our hearts are not so soft to melt into sorrow. Here are sinnes enough to bring down a tempest, to make every Trespasser an Heraclitus, and the whole Church a Niobe. Alas, alas, might be the tone of the streets, there might be a National wayling heard from one end of the Land to the other; but where is that key of Eliah, that should unlock these clouds? where is that Moses rod which should fetch water out of these Rocks? we should slere, sweep abundantly, but we doe not so much as lachrymari distill with sorrow: Aquin. Oh compunction, whither art thou fled? oh contrition, where shall we find thee? our ears do not tingle, our eye-lids are not sore, we do not seek after the Lord lamenting. Oh that our hearts were not made gross, that we were not turned into pure Adamant, that we were not Brass and Iron; but there is a sad indicati­on of it, for we do not bow down heavily, the cry of Jerusalem doth not go up, we look upon our guilts without remorse, we feel errours with indolency, our sinnes can strike not tears out [Page 137]of our eyes; we are the sinfull Nineveh, but we are not the weeping Nineveh. With Ulysses, Plut. de tran­quil. animi. Plur. in Cleo­mene. Cardan de subtil. Bod. l. 3. c. 4. Quotidie lachry­mae, quotidie gemitus. Jeron. ad Eustach. Moral. l. 2. c. 7 seron. in epi­taph Paulae. Crantz, de Saxon. l. 7. c. 37. Octo luxit men­sibus. Amb. de obitu Theodos. we can rather weep for a dead Dog, then for those things which doe concern our soules; with Cratosiclea, we disswade men from weeping; with to­maxina, we will rather burst in pieces, then shed a tear; yea, we are so leagued with the Devill, that like the Magitians in Bodine, we cannot weep. Where is there a Jerome, that can say, There are daily tears, and daily groans? Where an Arsenius, which had loose eye-browes, and swoln eyes with weeping? Where is there a Paula, that wept so bitterly, that she had need to be wished to spare her eyes. Where a religious Otho, that was pierced with unspeakable compunction? Where a Theodosius, that lay eight months together in teares? No, our teares are sparing, and soon dryed up. How few can prove themselves Converts by their peni­tent eyes? or can shew their selves bruised under their sinnes by their broken hearts? No, we have many Rivers in this Nation, and yet we are a dry Iland; there are many crying inhabitants, but few weeping penitents; the flame may here rage, for here is no water; the top of Carmel may wither, for the springs are dryed up; we are bruised in the Temple, and yet little moisture is drawn from us; the Minister doth often turn the Cock, but the Pipes are empty, no water doth runne forth; Jonah doth cry frequently, and cry passionately, yet he cannot here raise up the mourner; the Devil hath taken away our terrors, and taken away our teares. Here are few sigh with the breaking of their loynes, that judgements might not break the bones of this Nation: here are few take up a way­ling to prevent a Kingdome from crying it selfe dead; the whole Land may perish for want of mourners, the songs of the Temple may be turned into howlings because there is none to howl for the abominations of the times. Are we Ni­neveh? No, we are a very insensible people, a tearlesse Na­tion.

14. Nineveh doth make an acknowledgment of sinne, for she doth ingeniously confesse her evill wayes. But alas, our lips will not open, repentance amongst us is not yet come to speech; we have Converts and Penitents, but have they a mouth? No, No man saith, What have I done? Jer. 8.6. We ra­ther hide our sinnes, then bring them to light; we love not to show our Rags, to tell our Debts, to lay open our sores; no, we will plead not guilty, and be pressed to death, rather then confesse the Inditement; the streets do roar, the Pulpits ring, Conscience yell, and yet the sinner is dumb, and the Offen­ders tongue cannot stir in his mouth; no, Peaccavi, I have sin­ned, is too big a word to get out of a Trespassers lips. We de­sire powerfull Teaching, quickning Doctrine, warming, hea­ting [Page 138]counsail; but wherefore? onely to kindle against the times, to flame against other mens trespasses, but not to sparkle against our own errours; for all the fervency of the Temple shall not fire upon our consciences, that a man should say, this was my Sermon, God this day found me out, spake to mine ear, arraigned my guilt; no, there is nothing but death, or doomesday, will find a Transgressor a mouth; for here is much searching, but no shrift; much profession, but there is no confession, neither in aure sacerdotis, in the eare of the Priest, nor in aure Dei, in the ear of God: no, our foul stomacks will not disgorge, we will not empty our Privies; Confession we hold a reproaching of our selves, therefore we will not put our selves to infamy, not so much as shame our selves before our God. We have had many judgements, many Lectures, many Fasts, but is the dumb Devill yet cast out of us? no, we can hear of our sinnes, look on them, feel the inward stings of them, but not confesse them; No, though the Israelites confessed their sinnes, Neh. 9.2. and Je­rusalem, Judea, and all the Region round about Jordan con­fessed their sinnes, Mat. 3.6. and the Greeks which dwelt at Ephesus, confessed their sinnes, Acts 19.18. yet with our peo­ple this is no particle of their Religion, they have heavy pres­sures, but no disburthening of conscience; they provoke the eyes of Gods glory, without telling out again these grievan­ces in his ears: It is the nature of a sinner to suppress all, to keep all to himselfe, to be reserved to his God; yea to study a strange art of concealing: Men sinne with a forehead, but repent without a mouth, they cover their transgressions with Adam, and hide their iniquities in their bosomes; they can find out the filth of the whole City, rather then the dung­hills at their own doors, and reckon up all the vices of the age, Ego sum Atila, Rex Hunno­rum, Hagellum Dei, N [...]h. O­laus c. 9. in Atila. G [...]oze de dict. & factis me­morabil. rather than their own personall crimes; for either they defend their courses with impudence; as Atila when he was reprehended for his extream cruelty, he was not ashamed to say, I am Atila, King of the Hunnes, the scourge of God; or they turn them off with derision and jeers, as Raphael Urbinas, when he was faulted for making the Images of St Peter and St Paul too red, he said, he made them so not as mortified men upon earth, but as glorified Saints in heaven; or they maintain them with boasts, as Virgil, when he was justly accused for stealing Verses out of Homer, Macrob. Sa­turn. l. 3. saith he, This is a glorious thing the Thunderbolt from Jupiter, or to wrest the Club of Hercu­les out of his hand; or they excuse them by example, as Ari­stippus being rebuked for living too sumptuously beyond the degree of a Philosopher, Erasm. in A­dag. saith he, This is no fault, for the Gods then would not permit excesse in their feasts. So that [Page 139]men have a subterfuge, or a wily evasion, rather then a true detection or acknowledgement of sin. That whereas the Just man is the first accuser of himself, Theodoret. l. 4. c. 7. such are the last accusers of their selves. I read of Valentinian, which laid open all his wicked life to Saint Ambrose, and said, Bring medicine to the sins of a sick soul; And that many Gentiles, when the Tem­ple of Serapis was overthrown, Plures ad reli­gionem Christi­anam se trans­tulerunt consi­tentes peccata Soc [...]at. l. 5. c. 17 Macrob. l. 2. c. 12. Maximus ejula­tus erupit, omni­bus cumeo la­chrymantibut [...] and the sign of the Crosse was manifestly seen fixed upon the walls, testified their conversi­on by a free confession of their sins; And that Saint Origen be­ing inticed under Decius to sacrifice to Idols, made such a la­mentable confession of his sins, that he drew all the Congre­gation to weep with him. The like might be said of Marcelli­nus, Victorinus, Antidius, Uththazares, Natalius, Eleusius, and ma­ny others. But we cannot get men for all this to bring forth the Prisoners in chains, and accuse them at the Bar; no, they leave this to the last Tribunall, in the mean time their sins stick in their throats, and they are toung tied Penitents; oh monstrous, and hideous silence! I do not wish thee to make the world thy Confessour, except it be in point of injuries; and such Crimes, as require Ecclesiasticall discipline, for what hath thy fellow-sinner to do to exact a privity to thy errours, who will but upbraid thee, and scandall thee? but yet I ex­hort thee, and injoin thee not to neglect this to God, and his Steadsman; for wherefore hath God the absolute, and his Minister the delegate power of Absolution, but for thee to exonerate a burthened soul? But how hardly wilt thou be in­clined to this? thou wilt rather perish in thy sins, then reveal them; and endure the curse of thy evill waies, then tread out thy erroneous foot-prints by confession; we stand all before God as strict walkers, as men that had stirred every foot with a steady gate; sure I am, what wandrings soever we have had, these strayings never come into our lips; and yet the Nini­vites here look over every path, and pace, and are sensible of their excursions, exorbitan [...]ies, irregular motions, deviating treads, and sad aberrations, and present before God how their disordred affections, and refractory desires had led them aside, and caused them to expatiate, and therefore they disco­ver, and confesse their evill waies.

15. Nineveh made some reparation: For he that had seen Nineveh in pomp and pride, crisped and curled, jetting and prauncing, swimming in delights and bathed in pleasures, soaring in ambition, and saginated with excesse, putting the bridle into the mouths of Nations, and making most of the Kingdomes upon Earth to tremble with the shaking of her scepter, and now looking out not like a Commander, but a [Page 140]Caytiffe; not as a ruling City, but as a rufull City; not as a place full of honour, and splendour, but full of squallour, and horrour; not looking upon her self with delight, but dejecti­on; as one that was ashamed of her own face, blushing at Sun­light, as if the streets were fitter for her than her sieled par­lours, and the dunghills than her soft couches, pronouncing her self unmeet, to be seen, or known being fitter to pine a­bove ground, or to rot under ground, then to draw breath a­mongst the living, he would think that Nineveh was about to make a mends for all her excesse; for every strip of this sack­cloth, every handfull of the ash-heap, the bowels griping for food, and the beasts lowing for fodder, do testify Nineveh to be a most satisfying Creature. But how long will it be be­fore ye will be brought to pay Ninevehs mulct? or to make this reparation for sin? It is said, that Another life doth require another diet, Alia vita, alia diaet. Adag. that when our hearts change, every thing about us should have a change. But we repent, and do remain the same persons, and in the same postures, we put our selves to no pain, nor suffer any alterations, either in our backs, or bowels, benches, or beasts. And is not this a strange garbe? what, repentance without reparation? no, sin doth require some satisfaction. I know there is no compensant satisfacti­on, but there is a deprecatory, not of commensuration, but castigation; not satisfaction of condignity, but indignity; not of justice for sin, but of hatred against sin; not placative and expiatory, but cruciative and punitory; not as a cause of re­conciliation, but as a sign of detestation; not as an ablegation of punishment, but as an obligation of a change; not as a clensing from the curse, but as a horrour of the trespasse; not as an instrument of justification, but as an adjunct of mortifi­cation; not to procure innocency, but to declare humility. Prosper saith, Prosper sent. 5 Taterni flagelli disciplina. Aug. l. 22. contra Faust. c. 67. Nec opus est transitoria sa­tisfactione pro iis malis, pro quibuc aeternus ignis est para­tus. Eucher. Hom. 3. ad Monach. it is a a temporall secerity. Saint Augustine saith it is the Discipline of Gods fatherly rod. Eucherius saith truly, that there need no transitory satisfaction for sin, for which Hell sire is pre­pared. And so indeed we do not make it a purgation of sin; but a correption, and correction, a vibration, or ejaculation against sin; and shall we renounce sin without smiting of it at the parting? or giving of it a farwell battering? How can we do this better than by causing pride to have shame, plea­sure to have pain, security to have horror, presumption to have abjection? no, as there is nothing troubles the heart of a haughty man more then to see himself plucked down, and his Enemy reign in his stead; so there is nothing more offen­sive to sin, then to see it self abased, and her clear opposite put into her place: But oh beloved, when will ye fall upon this translocating act? or work of opposition? no, ye re­pent [Page 141]but do not punish sin with that which should most vex her, or trample her down with the foot of her greatest Ad­versary. But how then can ye be Penitents? no, there is no Repentance without an holy revenge; See it in Nineveh, it doth every thing with an infesting of sin, and bringing in that to abandon it, which did carry a clear repugnancy against it, and thus it doth satisfy for the injury of sin, and make a Repa­ration.

16. Nineveh had devout supplication: For, Let them cry mightily unto God. But we look for favours without asking, and for mighty comforts without mighty cries. Wee shake not the tree, that the fruit might fall; we unlock not the treasury, that we might carry home handfulls of bounty. God doth incline to an amiable countenance, but there is none to entreat his face; he doth offer embraces, but there is none to spead out hands to Heaven; he is ready to redresse misery, but there is none to powre out a Complaint; he would preserve many as happy Creatures, but there is none to speak good for the people.

There is an Altar, but the sacrifices do not flame up­on it; there are golden Censers, but the odours do not steam out of them. God doth listen and none cry; he doth sit in his Court of Audience, but none make ad­dresses to him: Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it; but we would have the mouth silled without an opening. Seek un­to the Lord early, and make thy supplication to the Almighty, and he will awaken unto thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousnesse to prosper. Job 8.5, 6. But we would have God to awaken without calling him up, or have the habitation to prosper without building it up with devotion. Amyclae periere silentio Servius. We are like the Amy­clae which perish by silence, or we are a kind of mowls (as Am­mianus Marcellinus called Julianus Capella) because we are deaf and dumb: Deaf to good counsell, and dumb in exerci­ses of devotion. Plutarch doth speak of dry Banquets, Sure I am, Ammian. M. l. 17. Sicca convivia. Plut. We have saplesse devotions. There were that kissed the Calves, but sew that kisse the Son; our lips, and Gods ears are at a great distance. We hunt the wrong quest, for we do not seek things by prayer. Dan. 9.3. Zeal seemeth to be at the last gasp, or giving up the ghost, for there is no breathing out of the cry. Lam. 3.56. Prayer was wont to shake the roofs of Temples, nay to shake the Throne, and God in his Throne, but there are no such gusts now come out of our lips. We rather live by our policies then our petition; by our brains then our tongues. We project, contrive, consult, confede­rate mightily, but we do not cry mightily,: We have an [Page 142]house without noise, a Church without Orisons; we fish for Pearls without this drag, and would break open the Castle without this petard set to the Gate of it; we have much in­digency, but little ardency; much fear, but little fervency; we scarce consider the subject of our requests; our Petition­ers might be taken up for strayes; if we do pray, we are de­viating in our prayers, our supplications pererrate, praying is a kind of dreaming. I sleep, but my heart waketh; but we are oftentimes in a deep sleep, for both tongue and heart do sleep, very drowzy devotions come from us. Hilarion threat­ned his body in prayer, that it might not trouble him with carnall motions; and he threatned the Devill, that he might not assault him with temptations: for when on a time that evill spirit (as he was at prayer) counterfeited the shrieking of Children, the bleating of Calves, the lowing of Oxen, the roaring of Lions, Orare perstitit, donec cessaret tumultus. Jeron. in vita. Hilar. the clashing of armed men, he would not be frighted from his devotions, but went on in his prayer, till the tumult ceased. But we are not so intent, and uncessant in our prayers, the flesh, and the Devill can soon take us off. An­thony told the Jews, that though he had met with many dul and heavy people in the world, Vobis inertiores non comperi. C. Rhod. lect. Antiq. l. 5. c. 10. as the Marcomannians, Quadians, and Sarmatians, yet saith he, Than you, did I never find any more fluggish; so we are more reckless then the most undevour, our prayers do shew what an oscitant and torpulent people we are, for we must carry all at the first charge, or we doe lay down our weapons; we do not rally our forces, and renew the fight. Oh what light skirmishes do we use? how do we retreat upon the first Justs? we do not hold up our hands till they be weary, as Moses did; we do not with wrestlings ob­tain blessings as Jacob did. No, we may be sent away with re­pulse, for we press but faintly, we may be smitten dead with curses, for we avert judgements in a very languishing man­ner. Besides divers times our devotions are but designs, for our own ends, and not for the safety of Nineveh; we would fetch in judgements, rather then prevent them, as the Disci­ples in their requests, would have fire brought down from heaven to consume their enemies. Caligula wished that Rome had but one neck, that he might strike it off at a blow; and the 2d Councill of Rhemes desired that their enemies eyes might be blind, their hands wither, and their members rot; and so many men in their prayers in stead of just Petitions, insert their own distempered passions; but this is rather to execrate, then to pray; yea to curse, then to cry. Yet what strange fire doth there oftentimes burn upon the altar? what unclean beasts are there offered up for sacrifice? what hate­full Bills are there sent up into the Pulpit? Oh the Petitions [Page 143]smell of brimstone, they seem to be brands that come fla­ming out of [...]ophet; yea, rather Bullets, then Bills, or impre­cations then prayers; yet further, prayers too often are im­pertinencies, for whereas we should cry for crying sinnes, we feign sinnes to our selves, and invent criminall things, which God himselfe was never offended with, and about these we exercise our zeal, & not about those sins which Gods law hath prohibited, and our own consciences are convinced of, which are the stains of the Nation, and all Christendom abhor, which are ready to sink States, and subvert Kingdoms: thus with the noise of imaginary sinnes, we still the noise of our pro­per, personall, detestable, and execrable sinnes. The children of Jacob by talking of a wild beast that had devoured Joseph, concealed their own murther; Nero by calling the Christi­ans City-wasters, blanched over his own firing of Rome; Ar­bogastes by telling the people of a strange Messenger, which should bring such sad news to Valentinian the second, that it should make him to lay violent hands upon himself, suppres­sed his own villanous destroying him: so we in our pray­ers, have the art of conveyance to slip-in other mens sinnes ra­ther than our own, or to bewail invented sinnes, rather than apparant sinnes. Can we not dissemble in our Petitions? yes, as well as in our practices; why else doth God complaine of mens howling upon their beds, rather than whining out their own errours? They have not cryed unto me with their hearts, when they howled upon their beds, Hos. 7.14. Their feare towards me is taught by the precepts of men, Isai. 29.13. as if there were ra­ther State-prayers, then Penitents prayers. Ye dissembled in your hearts, when ye sent me unto the Lord, saying, Pray for us unto the Lordour God, Jer. 42.20. The Pharisees made long prayers, but short enough of their own guilts, there was not a word of their own Superstitions, wicked Traditions, devouring wi­dows houses, & teaching children to cheat their own Parents. There is a craft in Prayers, we are the greatest Impostours in our devotions that can be imagined; there is some speech of sinnes in generall, but not of sinnes in speciall, of sinnes that our own fancies have fixed a blemish upon, but not of the deep spotted, the crimson and scarlet sinnes. When shall we lift up pure hands? 2 Tim. 2.8. Lift up our hearts with our hands unto the God in the heavens: Lamen. 3.41. Leave coun­terfeiting, falsifying, and tergiversating in our suits? No; we can powre out our hearts like oyntment, where, when much is run out, a great deal will stick to the sides, but we cannot powre out our hearts like water, Lam. 2.19. that our sins may be drayned forth to the last drop. Oh if this Nation could but speak out, and lament, and deplore the grand and horrid [Page 144]guilts of the times without reservation, or partiality, I would think that God might yet be intreated for the Land, and that our prayers might preserve us; but we are guilefull in that wherein we ought to be most sincere, the hypocrite cannot be cast out of our prayers, our devotions are delusions, we endeavour to fetch over heaven with a circumvention, we cry cunningly, artificially, dis junctively, by parts, by halfes, rather then cry really, accumulatively, mightily. We cannot speak out our proper sins, nor launce the wound to the bot­tom, when we are begging balsome from heaven? Now will God pardon that Malefactor, which will not confesse his own crime? Can this Nation ever be secure, if indevotion or hypocrisie doth conceal one capitall sin? no, so long as Achan layes lurking, the whole Camp may be cursed; so long as She­bah be shut up within the walls, the City is exposed to dan­ger; so long as the Calves bleat in the Host, and Agag walk up and down with his head on his shoulders, the whole King­dom may be rent away. One heinous sin suppressed, may break out with a generall destruction. Oh then that all the sins of the Land without diminution, retrusion, substraction, could be bewailed in our lips with one National yell, this were to cry mightily. But alas, we that neither pray conside­rately, nor ardently, nor charitably, nor pertinently, how do we pray powerfully, or cry mightily? No, we may be Egypt, to cry out of the sense of plagues, but we are not Nineveh, to cry out of the sense of sins: as loud as the noise of devotion seemeth to be in the Land, as if we were the onely Petition­ers upon earth, and the spirit of prayer rested amongst us; yet there being so much collusion in the most sacred exercise, and that which doth most endanger the Nation being least ap­prehended, a child may stretch out his voice with more force then we, here is but a Crickets sound, like muzzled beasts we do but counterfeit a bellow, like dumb men, we do but make a noise, our prayers are smoothered, our devotions throatled, sure I am as highly gifted, and petition arced as we are, we do not pray with Ninevehs lips, we cry softly, and not cry mightily.

17. Nineveh had a renovation of life: for let h [...]m t [...]rn every one from his evill way. But we are a talking people, and not a tur­ning people; if our tongues be a little better then theirs were, our waies are as evill as ever. We repent onely in Adages, or repent onely in Ordinances, we do not repent by ordering our feet, to pace other wayes. Have our Pulpits yet renewed us? or our Fasts cleansed us? No, He that was filthy, is filthy still, not one track altered, not one beaten path forsaken; some a­mazement there may be, but no amendment; some humili­ation, [Page 145]but no reformation. If God should judge us by our feet, we should be found men of an evil tread; if by our waies, he might strike us dead in our wayes: for we have corrupted our wayes, Gen. 6.12. our wayes are perverse, Num. 22.32. desolation and destruction is in our wayes, Isai. 59.7. We walk in the wayes of them that forget God, Job 8.3. Is this to turn? is this to renounce evill wayes? no, we may turne to a Cause, turn into a Temple, turn into a Closet, turn in­to a Councell-chamber, turn to devise new plat-formes, but this is the height of our turning. We look up to heaven with as black brows, and walk in the Church with as crooked feet as before: we would rather teach the world repentance, than practise it, and clense the age, then purge our selves. What Adulterer hath yet unclasped his hands with this Curtesan? what Drunkard hath drawn his lippes from his intemperate cups? What proud person hath yet shifted himselfe from his phantastick gawdies? And if these sinners be not yet unfet­tered, what shall we think of them whom the Devill hath in a stronger chain? if these trespassers be inflexible, what shall we conclude of those whose neck is as iron? what is the state of them which stand in their wayes, and sweat in their waies, and ride post in their waies, that an Angell with a naked sword in his hand, can hardly make them give a check with the bridle? Oh if these noon-day sinners be so unreformed, then if we should search the blind corners, pry what the An­tients do in the dark, look through the hole of the wall, what strange Chambers of Imagery, and creeping things, and four-footed beasts might there be there discerned? How many black Night-birds would there be there seen pourtrayed up­on the walls? where then are mens feet? do ye see any new wayes trodden? will these turn? do any turn? No, the times may turn, and the face of things may turn, there may be se­verall variations, and changes in humane affairs, but not in humane actings; men are resolved upon their paths, settled upon their motions, constant in their extravagancies, they will not turn from their evil way Who hath believed our report? to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Were ever so many Pul­pits despised? were there ever so many unregenerating Ser­mons? there may be many that watch over soules, but how few that win soules? there may be many Counsailers, but who is a Father? people may be wrought to a faction, and turn from one sect to another; but who turns from his evill way? they may swim into other Seas, but like Porcupines, the change of waters do not make them lose their prickles; they may shift places, but like Serpents, they carry their poyson with them whithersoever they creep; they turn but only to other prin­ciples, [Page 146]but not to other fruits; they turn from opinions, but they turn not from their evill way: They may be stepped in­to more dangerous waies, for they are but turned Prose­lytes, and the Scripture saith, that that is to turn twofold more the children of Hell; but they are not turned to God. Oh this Land doth eccho with Lectures, but who shall teach it Repentance? Faith, and repentance, are the two great Lights of the Church, but both Sun, and Moon are in an Eclipse; our faith is a distraction, and our repentance a conta­gion, and corruption; there is an impure faith, and a filthy repentance. We talk much of the Gospell, and Reformati­on, but when shall we be once Evangelicall? when once the Reformed Church? what, fly from Rome, and go to Sodom? a sad separation; we have left Romes corruptions in doctrin, but do we not keep still her corruption in manners? we are better Believers, but are we better Saints? We are gotten we say out of Egypt, but do we not carry Epypt into Canaan? It is true, we have brought a golden pot of Mannah, an Aarons rod, two Tables written with Gods own finger, an Altar, Urim, and Thummin, and a Mercy-Seat thither, but have we brought purity of life? Is not the Land of promise, a Land of provocation? For all the ground we have left behind us, have we left either in the red Sea, or in the Wildernesse, or upon the Banks of Jordan our evill waies? No, we have polluted the Lords Land. For all the glorious titles we put upon our selves, we are but the Frontispiece? the Sign-post, the Vizard of Reformation, for where are our reformed consciences? our reformed waies? Are these his waies? no, they are Natures waies, the waies of the Nations, the waies of Cain, Corah, Ba­laam, Jeroboam, Ahab. God would be ashamed to walk before you in such waies, or to prescribe unto you such paths. If your eyes be open, what repentance do ye see amongst us, but beating down of Crosses, clashing of Church windows, demolishing a Font, new-placing a Communion-Table, and plucking off that same abominable Rochet? but hath this Reformation clensed away one sin? hath it made us more morall then Turks or more pure then many Paynims, and Infidels? are our evill motions, our evill lusts, and our evill waies gone? Is there not as much pride, and riot, and cove­tousnesse, and slander, and theft, and craft, peevishnesse, and perfidiousnesse, cousenage, and contention, as there is at this day amongst Scythians, and Barbarians? a nimble voyage then that we have made, which are not sailed beyond the Lands end; a long journey that we have travelled, which are not gotten out of our old waies.

The times are bad, who shall better them? Look upon the faces of all your religious men, and single out that praepious person, that ye think is able to convert this Age. What Saint is able to purifie this corrupt Nation? what Prophet to change this sinfull people into Nineveh? no, we may be turn­ed from many things, but not from our evill waies; we are so degenerated, and habituated in vitious courses, that I am affraid, that if Enoch which walked with God were alive a­gain, he should not draw us to walk after him, if Noah the Preacher of righteousnesse were to preach over his old notes, we would mock at him rather then listen to him, not a man more would be saved then was, but we would leave him to ship himself, and his family only in the Ark, if Elias were to prophesy to this Age, he himself might be carried up in a fie­ry Chariot, but leave Ahab, and Ahaz ab to plagues and vengeance; If Christ Jesus were once more to take flesh upon him, he might sooner be led again to the Crosse, then crucify our unmortified lives. Oh what balm is there in Gilead for this wound? what Jordan to clense this leprosy? the most per­verse Jews, and the most obstinate Scribes, and pharises were never hardlier to be converted, then we. Oh how doth this Figtree cumber the ground? if nothing but bearing of fruit will save it, it is in g [...]eat hazard to be cut down. God is ready to shoot, and fight, and to bring up his front, and main bat­tel against us; but where is reformation to latch arrows, break in pieces Spears, to meet the Vancurriours in their march, and to carry an army of Judgements out of the Nation? No, there may be threshing Mountains, beating hills as chaffe, shatte­ring gates of brasse, cutting asunder bars of iron, giving peo­ple up as dust to the sword, and driven stubble to the bow, turning Cities into an heap, and Eden into a Wildernesse, sweeping away the valiant men, and causing the carkasses of the dead to fall as the dung, throwing do [...] golden Candle­sticks, and bringing a famine of the word upon a Nation, that hath been full fed with the Ordinances, for there is no Refor­mation to rescue a perishing Country, or to preserve a falling Church. Polydamus himself though a Champion stepping into this sinking Cave, thinking to upold it with his shoulders, Latebram de­mentis fati sepulchrum hae­buit. Val. Max. l. 9. c. 12. shall find that to be his Sepulchre which he supposed should have been his shelter. Go ye now to my place which is in Shiloh & see what I did to it, for the wickedness of them that dwelt therin. So if we would consult with the rotten bones, and bare scalps of judged sinners, they would return the same answer, Qualem exitum eg [...]habui tu habebis. Phi­lostra [...]s. that the head of Orpheus did to Cyrus when he consulted with it, what should be his last fate, What end I had, the same thou shalt have: For as the one had his head strook off by the Thracian [Page 148]Maenades, so had the other by Thomiris. We that do renew the sins of other men, do but hasten on our own judgements. It is strange that the Hyppodamus can cure it self by letting blood in the thigh, the Swallow by eating chelidony, and the Hart draw out darts by grazing upon dyctamnum, and that we cannot have the wit, or grace, to cure our maladies by repen­tance. What can we expect from obstinacy in sin but inevi­table ruine? sin at last will wrap us in her fatall Robe, as Al­cibiades having dreamt that he should dye covered with his harlots garment, Justin. l. 9. Critius Tisimenus, and Bagoas, slew her in his lap, and destroyed him, leaving him nothing but her amo­rous vest to hide his nakednesse. What can we presage from execrable courses, but a desperate and? if sin be our harbour, judgement will be our pursuer, [...]. as Pompey when he came to the Castle called Evill Government, he concluded of nothing, but future destruction to himself. What monstrous sins have we amongst us to foretell prodigious punishments? Our Bi­bles have brought nothing but a Scripture-language into our mouth, and our Pulpits have taught us nothing but a Sanctu­ary phrase; as for our lives we are more wild, than when we were barbarous, and more irreligious, than when we had no Ordinances. Is not this Land full of Hacksters, Witches, Ma­gitians, Ruffians, Cheaters, Forgers, Pilferers, the Cutpurse-hall of the Earth, and the Stews of the whole world, as if all Miscreants were met here as at a generall Rendevouz? search but our Jailes, look but upon our gibbets, and we may see what pure Creatures we are. If evill waies will make an evill people, then how is this Kingdom the Broad way, the high rode to destruction? Amongst the mildest, and most morall people, what digressions, and excursions are there? there is a bad way in the Shop, a worse in the Tribunall, and worst of all in the Pulpit [...] in the first there is little, but fraud and deceit; in the second little, but corruption and bribery; in the third little, but schism, heresy, and flattery. And when shal we see Merchant, Judge, or Priest declining, or turning from his evill waies? No, inveterate sinners, are rarely true Peni­tents. These are our usages, and we will cleave to them; these are our waies, and we will walk in them. Aesculapius cannot cure this diseased Country, Hercules cannot clear this Augean stable. To the shame of our Church, to the scandal of the Gos­pell, to the braving upon Heaven with Sodoms faces, and to the bringing in of a Destroying Angell to lay the whole Nati­on wast, we persist in our courses. And how then are we Ni­neveh? no, we reform not, our feet have their former moti­ons, there was never more wicked paths in the land, then are [Page 149]now visible. Did Nineveh thus? no, Let us turn every one from his evill way.

18. Nineveh was touched with oppression; for it is not barely said; Let every one turn from his evill way, but likewise, from the vio­lence of his hands. But when shall we make this addition to our sins, or look upon oppression as a principall sin? No, Whore­dom, Drunkenness, Blasphemy, Hatred, are sins of an evill name, but Oppression goes for an argument of wit, and sets forth a person onely as a man of the better brain. How shall the Merchant live without his Shop-arts? or the great man in the Country Lord it, without crushing of Tenants? or the Judge go to his grave as a well fleshed fatling, without feed­ing liberally upon his by-Incomes? For this end the Merchants is for his scant measure, wicked ballances and bad of deceit­full weights; the Country Lord is for the rough justle, thrusting with thigh and shoulder, and the Rulers love to say with shame, Bring ye. The Ninevites hands do ake with their violence, but when shall this violence smart upon our fingers ends? Oh it were a comfortable age, if there were none to smite with the fist of wickednesse. What sweet tongues soever we have with Jacob, yet our hands are the hands of Esau. God may say to us as he did to Cain, I will re­quire thy Brothers blood at thy hand, Gen. 4.11. If God should demand (according to his Law) hand for hand, Exod. 21.24. What a dismembred Nation would there be? the hand of the avenger, Numb. 35.25. would be ready to pursue too many. Mens hands are at work, and it is an hard thing to deliver one out of the hands of him that is too strong for him, Deut. 25.11. We should lift up our hands as the incense, and stretch out our hands to the needy, and joyn the right hands of fellow­ship; but we kiss our hands, and clap with our hands, and strike with our hands; our hands should be full of nothing but devotion, almesdeeds, and pledges of charity, and they are full of nothing but mischiefs, shrewd turnes, and batter­ings of violence. Woe be to him that comes within the reach of these hands, and feel the weight of these hands. Most men like Saul, stand with a Spear in the hand, or with the Israe­lites, they are ready to cast stones with their hands. Whether they will wash them yea or no I know not, sure I am, their hands are defiled with blood; whether they will cut them off yea or no, I cannot resolve you, certain I am, they do offend them; there are the hands of cruell Lords Isai. 19.4. hands that ought to be fled from, 1 Sam. 27.1. We may fear the hands of many, as much as the clawes of Vultures. Oh Land of boysterous hands! Oh Nation of brutish violence! These beasts of Ephesus will not be unskinned, these fat Bulls of Bashan will never have [Page 150]their horns sawn off. May not God say still, Oh ye destroyers of my heritage? Jer. 50.11. Are not the birds of prey swifter than the Eagles of heaven amongst us? Lam. 3.19? Here is much pro­jecting for meanes, every one lyeth in wait for bloud, and hunteth his neighbour with a net, Mich. 7.3. It is much that many peo­ple can take their nights rests, for they sleep upon the cloaths laid to pledge, Amos 2.8. It is much they can dwell in their houses, for the stones were hewn out of the wrong quarrey, they build their Houses by unrighteousnesse, and their Chambers by wrong, Jer. 22.13. They have wedged up vast Estates, but how were these heaps gathered? Are not the treasures of iniquity in the hou­ses of the wicked? Micah. 6.20. Oh that these men can walk the streets, the cryes of the oppressed are so shrill against them; that they can eat their meat, when they find such strange flesh in the Cauldron; that they can desire to be ad­mitted to their estates, when they know by what an Ahabs evidence they hold the Vineyard; that they can make their Wills, when they feel, at their last death-prongs, that they are but to give away ill-gotten goods for Legacies! They are dangerous neighbours to live by, for the wicked doth devour the man more righteous than himselfe, Hab. 1.13. They are uncom­fortable Fathers, for the Lion doth teare in pieces for his whelps, Nahum. 2.12. Go tell Herod the Fox, Luk. 11.32. Ye may tell him well enough, for Herod will continue a Fox, and leave his Cubs behind him. Mahomet the Great, coming into a great field, Dracula. where he saw variety of tortures, that a Vay [...]od had to put his subjects to death by, was astonished at it; and how may it amaze us to see the many engines that the Oppressor hath to torment the innocent, tenter-hooks, harping irons, grinding-milstones, whipping-posts, Gibbets. For all the noise of our Sermon-bells, and the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven preached amongst us, here is nothing but shaving, and fleecing, pinching and biting, catching and crushing, supplanting and circumventing, consuming & confounding, decocting and despoyling, slaying and flaying, prosecuting and persecuting, mingling and powdering, glozing and var­nishing, sophisticating and adulterating, lengthning out of suits, and spining out of quarrells, siding and shouldering, trampling and shivering, dreadfull decrees in the Court of Conscience, and horrid Orders divers times in the best Court of Judicature, as if oppression were a science, and tyranny a trade. Oh where shall the wronged seek for reliefe? where shal the innocent find a bar of justice? It would perplex a man to think how many writs are filed, how many records are en­tred, how many Bills are preferred, how many judgements and executions are passed, how many Regiments there are of [Page 151]Serjeants and Bailiffs, how many Brigads of Atturneys and Counsailers in this one little Kingdom. If violence were not predominant, what need there be called in so many necessa­ry Agents to restrain it? if the house were not ruinous, what need there so many Master-Workmen be employed to re­pair it? These are fangs enough of oppression; but come forth, and I will shew thee more abominations. How many are there that seek places to suck the veins of the people? how many buy Offices to shark upon the Common-wealth? how many turn Informers, Promoters, Waiters, Searchers, not to discover, but to distill, not to punish, but to prey up­on errours. Oh, if I should lead you into the Forrest it selfe, where all the wild beasts and ravenous Serpents do range, ye would think that this were the Land of Tigers and Dra­gons. And for all this, yet are we the just Nation? no, a Land of cruelty and oppression. Men covet fields, and take them by violence, Micah. 2.2. Violence is in their Palaces, Amos 3.10. The earth is filled with violence, Gen. 6.11. As if with Epitadeus, we had taken away Lycurgus-law for Field-right, Legem agrari­am sustulit, ut citra delectum possessiones quae­rerent praeva [...]e [...] ­tes. Plut. in Agide Nunc mutuo, nune d [...] ­no, nune minis omnia ervium bona in suum fi [...]cum congre­gavit Johan. Magnus. l 7. and propriety of lot, that without distinction the more mighty might have the more mighty possessions; or with Visvur King of the Cothes, we should get all mens Estates into our Coffers, either by sleight or force. What restraints can there be to some mens violence? No, Ty­ranny doth leap over every fence, as it is said of Cleopatra, that wheresoever the hope of money did proffer it selfe, she spared neither temple nor sepulchre, nor sanctuary. Thus we see how injustice doth fiske the Nation, and when shall we feel our rough palms? or be sensible of the violence of our hands? The sto­mach of this Nation is surfeited with oppression, Pecanta rum ubicun (que) spes [...]ffaig [...]r [...]t, nequ [...] Temp um, ne (que) sepulch [...]um neque Asylum ullum violare dubitavit. Jo­seph. l. 15. c. 4. and when shall we perceive it to take a vomit? Do ye hope for the ge­nerality ever to see true dealing Merchants, righteous Land­lords, faithfull Pleaders, and just judges? Will tearing Of­ficers leave off, of their own accord, to be rapacious? or cor­rupt Courts reform themselves without the physick of re­gulation? Will men give over to live by their wits, to make the best of their places, and to advance themselves by any manner of artifices? Men have their Bibles continually in their hands, but is it credible that according to Scripture, men will restore that which they have gotten by robbery and violence? Levit. 6.4. Is there a Zacheus to be expected? or instead of restitution, will they but forbear from further wrongs? or in­stead of satisfaction, will they not renew and increase more damages? I am afraid that instead of emptying their houses of preys, and clensing their Estates from injustice, and cast­ing back their ill-gotten goods over their neighbours thres­holds, they will finger more, snatch at the rest, make a per­fect [Page 152]rifle of the remainder. Oh this Land hath been so addict­ed to extortion, and cruelty, that I doubt whether there be Repentance enough left in it, to make it a just Nation. Our men will as soon lose their inventions, as their injuries; their skins, as their brutishnesse; their brains, as their bruisings; their hands, as the violence of their hands. Our streets will scarce ever be free from the sighs of the oppressed, the curses of the tortured, the cries of Orphanes, and tears of widows; oh fierce, furious, rigorous, barbarous, harsh, hardhearted, truculent, and tyrannicall Nation! we repent, and yet our hands are never the gentler, nor the juster, whereas Nineveh re­pented, and made oppression a penitentiall branch, for shee turned from the violence of her hands: Let them turn every one from their evill waies, and from the violence of their hands.

Thus have I at last presented to you at large the repen­tance of Nineveh, oh, that face could answer face in water! Are ye Nineveh? The message is sent to you, what en tertain­ment hath it? Jonah doth cry, but in what ears? do ye yet feel dangers, that ye might yet believe God? do Gods judgments heave you, that ye may arise from your Thrones? ye have afflicted your bodies often, but did ye ever keep a Ninevehs fast? ye have perhaps stripped your selves a little, but have ye had Ninevehs sackcloth upon your backs? ye have humbled your selves ye think, but did ye ever sit upon Ninevehs ash­heap? ye have been somthing active in the work, but did ye e­ver put to Ninevehs whole strength? ye have had some mention of repentance, but is it to be seen (as it was with Nineveh) in some memorable thing? ye have mourned, but have ye shed Ninevehs tears? ye have had some acknowledgment of sin, but did ye ever come to Ninevehs confession? ye have expressed some reparation, but did ye ever make Ninevehs satisfaction? ye have been soliciting in Heaven, but did ye ever awaken God with Ninevehs mighty cry? ye have been reforming a great while, but have ye had yet Ninevehs clensing of consci­ence from particular and personall sins, that every one might turn from his own evill way? ye have made an heavy spoil upon stonework, and a miserable flashing of senselesse gar­ments, and a pittifull slaughter of naked forms, but is the Dragons head yet broken? is Belzebub yet cast out? have your reforming weapons cut the throat of Oppression? are ye quit of the Violence of your hands? answer positively, and pun­ctually, if not to the letter, yet to the substance of your pro­totype, or else your repentance will end in a fiction, ye shall seem but to dally with Sanctuaries, to trifle with sermons, and [Page 153]make conscience but a meer Sexton to unlock the great dores, to sweep the Church, to ring the bels, and open the Pews that a company of Formalists might take their Seats. Here is a Gospellising people indeed, but where are the peni­tent people? I do not say where is the glorious City? but where is Nineveh? may not our eyes ake, and our hearts al­most despair, before we shall see the sick Patient take this bit­ter potion to recover? we will learn a thousand things, be­fore we will take out the lesson of repentance, where are these disciples? our sins are become so intimate with us, that there is now no shaking hands with them, or turning our backs upon them; we have taken deep draughts of warning, but we are sick of the dropsy, the more we drink, Quantumvis fe­bricitantes bibe­runt, semper ta­men fitiunt. Chrys. in 12. Mat. hom. 38. Impietas adeò coarctat, ut vix respirare finant Folengius. in Ps. 109. es sub­sinire. Plautus. Comas circum­tondere-Lucian. Scelus in furo­rem vertitur. Lact, Justin. Patr. de ligne vitae. Peccata quam­vis magna & horrenda, cum in consuetudinem venerint, aut parva aut nulla creduntur. Aug. in Enchi [...]. c. 82. Qui in malae conjuetuden is carcere inclusi sunt, à semetip­sis e [...]ire non possunt. Jeron. the more our thirst doth encrease. We have had some motions, and in­clinations to good things, but our sensuall hearts would not suffer them to go beyond the perculsions of Felix, or the pro­pensions of Agrippa. Impiety doth so strengthen, and girt us, that it will scarce suffer us to take breath. It is an hard thing for us to clense truly, we do but a little dawb our lips, or wash the outside of the platter. Shall we ever be perfectly shaven? no, I doubt we will but round our locks. We are so far from reformation, that after a few checkings, chillings, gnashings, gnawings, we return with the greater eagernesse to our sins, Sin turneth into fury. We have been so used to provocations, that we are even become contemners, the sense of disobedience seemeth to be taken from us, For, sins, though many, and monstrous, yet when they are come into Custom, they seem either small, or none. We are so immured, that there is little Jail delivery to be expect­ed, for, they are locked up in the prison of Custom, they cannot passe out of the nether gar e, that is, they cannot get out from themselves. Here is much buckling in prayer, staring in reading, tramp­ling upon pavements, drinking up whole flagons of Pulpit­liquor, schisming for the truth, consecrating parties for the godly, and well affected people; yet all our lip-reverence, eye-search, feet-lackying, ear-bibbing, factioning for better principles, and hallowing for select brotherhoods, they scarce bring forth a conspicuous Penitent. Some men are all for Ordi­nances, and some men are above Ordinances; some men speak too much & some men will scarce speak at all; some men wil bow to the earth, and some men will not stir their caps; some men think they are as evill as the Devil, and some men as pure as Jesus Christ; some men wil go wel suited, and some men wil go starknaked; some men will have no Minister but the Artifi­cer, and some men no Magistrate but the Messias; yet amongst all these where are the Ninevites? such as truly bleed under [Page 154]sin? and renouncing worldly pomp, upon the ash-heap de­sire forgivenesse? such as make a reformation of their wicked lives? and a restitution of their ill-gotten goods? Jonah doth more good in the streets of Nineveh with a daies journey, and a few cries, then is done amongst us in the space of many years, by the most fervent counsell, or most zealous exhor­tation. One Jonah doth convert Nineveh, but many Prophets have not been enough for us. If there were an Interpreter one of a thousand, yet if he spake alone, should he speak effectually? Alcinoi inensa. Adag. no, Theseus himself cannot do our work by himself; the Table of Alcinous would not suffice our appetites; Hercules must go beyond the number of his twelve labours if he came to undertake this attempt, and at last cast away his Club, as if here were no good to be done, not by Hercules him­self. One mouth we see is enough to chew meat for the whole body, and one Steward to provide for the whole Family, and one Surgeon to heal many wounds, but one Preacher were not enough to renew this Nation. We are for variety of Teachers, we cannot ride without our Leer-horses carried by our sides in State; nor marry without Polygamy, nor hear with­out a cluster of Teachers. We angle in all Rivers to get fish, and shake all trees that the desired apple might fall. And when we have had our multiplicity of Souls Guides, how far do they lead us? to information, but not to reformation; to reasoning, but not to repentance; we suck at many brests, and yet are starvlings; we hear many Clocks strike, and yet we do not believe that the hour is yet come, that we should fall to our work. What should I say? All the Watchmen upon the walls cannot give us warning, all the Shepheards of the Country cannot find this lost sheep, all the clouds of Heaven gathered together cannot water our dry consciences, all the hammers of the Temple striking in their order, cannot break our stony hearts, the whole Colledge of Physitians cannot cure us, Myriads of Preachers that have been in this Nation have not yet been able to convert us. We come away dry from the purest springs, and poor from the richest Mines, and unrege­nerate from the most soulsaving ghostly Fathers. If the pre­sence of one Messenger contemned, will make men one day know, and feel that there hath been a Prophet amongst them, then what a judgement doth this Nation lye under for the vili­fying, and nullifying of so many Seraphicall Sermons. The zeal of many Teachers, and Gods patience for many years do leave us in impenitency, whereas whole Nineveh doth turn Penitent by one Jonah, and the cries of one daies journey. Behold ye Despisers, and wonder. We can protest, and professe, [Page 155]blow Trumpets and whiten walls, varnish Religion and transfigure godlinesse, but we cannot repent; no, we need no repentance (say many); we are beyond repentance, say o­thers, let Nineveh repent. But oh beloved, let us be more se­rious with our soules, and reall with our God; at last can the times justifie us, or the partiality of our friends save us? no, repentance is our triall, and God is our judge; we are a wick­ed generation, and an ill-affected people till we turn; do ye call home your ears therefore from the false Prophets lips, and take your hearts out of the Inchanters hands, which tell you ye are a pure people, and the godly of the earth; oh thou­sands may perish by such Pulpits; there is not a stronger chain of hell, then the tongue of an insinuating and infatua­ting Teacher, which for morsells of bread, and handfuls of barley, will transgress; let us account him the true Preacher, which will purifie our inwards, yea the right Jonah which wil preach us into Nineveh. We know our sins, let us have Nine­vehs heart-stroaks; our sins do pursue us, let us have Nine­vehs protection and preservation; let us not pretend Religi­on except we repent, let us not repent except we be Nineveh. Oh let not our eyes be open, and our hearts asleep, our ears listening, and our consciences deaf, our tongues pure, and our conversations defiled. If God doth threaten, do ye believ God; if he doth move from his Throne, doe ye arise from your Thrones; if he doth put on justice like a Cloak, doe ye cast away your Robes; if he be ready to rend your Garments from your backs, do ye put on sackcloth; if he he blowing up his coals, and about to burne against Jacob, doe ye sit in the ash-heap; if he be calling in variety of judgements to plague, do ye call in King, Nobles, and Citizens, to pacifie; if he be resolving upon dismall things, do ye do memorable things; if he doth frown, do ye weep; if he be setting your sinnes in order before you, do ye confesse them; if he be righ­ting himself for injuries, do ye make reparation; if he be upon the point to confound mightily, do ye cry mightily; if his feet be turning into the visiting ways, do ye turn every one from his evil wayes; if his hand be laying hold on judg­ment, do ye purge your selves from the violence of your hands. Let us leave nothing in despair, that we may not de­spair, but after Ninevehs repentance, we may have Ninevehs faith, saying, Who can tell, if God will turn, and repent, and turn a­way from his fierce wrath that we perish not? Chap. 3. v. 9. So long as we are impenitent, all our Statesmen and Estatesmen, Challengers and Champions, Guards and Gunrooms, Trea­ties and Truces, Treasures and Triumphs, cannot secure us, but so soon as Repentance doth come, our feares do vanish, [Page 156]our hopes do revive, our confidence doth wax strong, and our safety is infallible; Oh therefore that our sins, and our miseries may not meet together; let us try how we can break our hearts, and break up the fallow ground, and break off our sinnes by righteousnesse; that God may not search Je­rusalem with lights, let us search our selves; consider what hath been done in the quaffing-room, the bed of dalliance, the Banquetting-house, the Councell-Chamber, the Trea­sury, the Tribunall, the Parlour, and the Pulpit: let us ran­sack all back-rooms, search all blind corners, and leave not a sinne undiscovered, which conscience may ake under, and repentance can mortifie. Oh for all the cryes of your sinnes, and the cryes of the Temples, the stings of guilt, and gripes of conscience, the scandall of your enemies, and the scourge of heaven, for the pattern at Bochim, the precedent at Miz­peh, the example of Nineveh, to save the land, and save your soules, Repent. Oh Repentance, thou which begannest at the first fall, which didst save eight persons at the flood, a little family at the destruction of Sodom, a great Nation at the slaughter in Egypt: which wert commanded by Moses, in­joyned by the Prophets, which wert the first cry of John Bap­tist in the wildernesse, Mat. 3.2. the first voyce that the Word himself uttered at the unsealing of his commission, Mark. 1.14. which the Apostles did proclaim, and the whole Chri­stian Church doth prescribe, which art able to transnature and translate people, to purifie them in life, to pacifie them in death & to justifie them at the Throne; which canst unlock the gates of heaven, put the triumphant palm into the hand, and set the Crown of immortal glory upon the head; oh be thou visible in this Nation, & till thou canst make us the new Jerusalem, make us Nineveh. Oh beloved, listen to repentance, begin the work, make it compleat, think it a necessary thing to repent, think it not an easie thing to repent, make a strict inquisition, and have an heart-aking discussion; fall upon your knees, hold up your hands, let not your conversion be too high-browed, nor your repentance too blunt-edged; blush and bleed, sigh and sob, wring and wayl, scrape the walls infected with the leprosie, hate the garment spotted by the flesh, Mortifie your members which are upon earth, abstain from all appearance of evill, live as if ye conversed with Angels, and did but tread below to clense your selves before ye put on the white Robe. Oh come out of the fi­nig-pot without any dross, come out of the Bath without a steyn; as your crimes have been exorbitant, so let your re­pentance be exemplary. So me-think I see judgement draw­ning back, the destroying Angell called off, the arrows taken off from the string, the viall of wrath set by; for if thou dost [Page 157]well, shalt thou not be accepted? So long as ye are peccant, can God pardon sinne? so soon as ye are penitent, can God pu­nish repentance? No, I see Gods compassionate eye looking upon this renewed face, fire from heaven falling upon this acceptable sacrifice; tears shall quench all indignation, re­pentance prevent all judgements, and reformation be the Rahabs thred hung out at the window to keep the house in safety; if ye be humbled, God will be pacified; if ye be Nine­veh, ye shall be spared: Should not I spare Nineveh?

Now let us come from the name of the place, Nineveh, to the nature of the place, That great City; and to the description of it, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons, that cannot discern between their right hand, and their left hand, and also much cattel.

That ye may not forget that which I delivered unto you in the beginning, I will for the present joyn both these parts together, and shew you (as I did at first) that God in these words doth produce reasons, why he should spare Nineveh, and that because it was no Family, or Village, or Burrough, but a City; and no obscure vulgar City, whose streets were short, lanes streight, buildings low, or compass narrow, but a vast, large, great City; yea, match all the Cities upon earth, yet, as the Poet said, Let Rome be to me instead of all; Sit mea Roma mihi —. so Nineveh had the precedency, and preheminency, it was the most ce­lebrated and magnified City, That great City. But will some say, We shall know a City by the City-rarities, are there any things to be found in it? Yes, Wherein. Wherin? Ah but when? Is there not some precedent age to be looked back unto, to set out the glory of this City? Indeed we have been Trojans is little comfort or honour; no, Fuimus Troes▪ fore-past happinesse is rather anguish then solace, misery then honour; what therefore, hath not this City been flourishing, but is now decayed and desolate? no, it is in the standing beauty, it is for the present magnificent, for there are. Are? what are there? gorgeous structures, rich merchandises, but scarce inhabitants to dwel, or trade in it? no, there are Persons. Persons? but in what numbers? if a man take the sum of them, is there any large tale to be brought in? Yes, Sixscore thousand. Ay but perhaps the reckoning is too great, or but nigh to the number; no, there may be a surplusage added, for there are more then six­score thousand. But are not these intelligent persons, and so they could foresee the danger, and little pitty can belong to them, because they perish wilfully? no, they cannot discern, not onely the policies and City arts, but not obvious and fa­miliar things, they cannot discern between their right hand, and their left hand. Well, is all now spoken? no, there is a further [Page 158]aggravating reason, for And also. What is this enlargement about? it is about poor dumb beasts, there are persons that cannot, and there are cattel that cannot discern; Well, there were sixscore thousand persons, but is there any such store of cattel to move pitty? yes, multitudes of persons, and multitudes of beasts, much people, and much Cattel. Now Jo­nah (saith God in effect) doth not every word here plead for a sparing? yes, it would grieve one to see an house set on fire, or an hamlet laid levell, how much more a City? and if a Ci­ty of mean quality, how much more a great City? and if any great City, how much more that which is the most famed Ci­ty in the world? which is superiour to all in glory? That great City? And if a City that hath but a little in it, how much that which hath some things of price in it? for wherein; and if a City that was once happy, but is now become unfortu­nate; how much more a City in her visible splendor? Where­in are; And if a City wherein are only Ware-houses, and Ban­quetting-houses, Marble-pillars, goodly Theaters, lofty Cita­dels; how much more that City, wherein there are persons And if a City wherein there are persons in thin ranks; how much more such a City, that hath such a company of persons in it, that they are able to plant a little Country? even sixscore thou­sand; And if a City that is but voyced up to be so great for ostentation sake, how much more that City that hath such multitudes in it, that if there were strict inquiry made, the former number will not suffice, but the Bill must be enlarged? for there are sixscore thousand persons, and more. Oh Jonah, whose heart would it not appall and terrifie, to see that great City, and that vast company perish at one stroke? yes, and if this be consider'd, that many of them are not come to years of un­derstanding, they know neither sinne nor judgement, provo­cation, nor reconciliation, the benefit of life, nor the miseries of death, for they are blamelesse, harmlesse, heartlesse, artless Infants, which know not their own names, which cannot dis­cern between their right hand, and their left hand. Besides if the ruine of reasonable persons do not move compassion, should not the rage against bruit beasts, the one cannot discern, and the other cannot discern; the offering of Infants would be grievous, and so the sacrificing of so much cattel in the de­struction of the City; the shrieking of Infants would be dread­ful, and so the bleatings, brayings, neighings, bellowings, roar­ings of so many bruits. Oh thou hast an heart of flint, if these things do not melt it; thou art no man, and worse then a beast, if the destruction of so many Infants, and so much Cat­tel, do not make thee relent. Howsoever if thou hast no sense, nor apprehension of these dolefull, dismall accidents, yet the [Page 159]great numbers both of Infants and Cattel, do incline me ab­solutely to spare: Should not I spare Nineveh that great City, wherein are more then sixscore thousand persons that cannot discerne between their right hand, and their left hand, and also much Cat­tel?

As I have for a while joyned both these parts together, so now I must sever them, and begin first with the nature of the place, That great City. Wherein there are three things considerable

• the subject, City.
• the attribute, Great.
• the eminency, That.

That great City.

First, For the subject, City. From hence observe, That a Ci­ty in it selfe, is an attractive of pitty. He which doth preserve a particular man, or a particular family, Bonum vult cen­nibus, sed non idem bonum. Aquin. will he readily destroy a City? No, Gods greatest providence is seen in the greatest things, He willeth good to all, but not to all the same good. Where there is the chiefest perfection, there God is chiefest in con­servation. What more beautiful then a City? no, Mountains, Rivers, and Cities, are esteemed the great wonders of the world. There is a great weight in the name of a City. Est grande m [...] ­mentum in no­mine urbis. Ta­cit. l. 1. Om­nes homines fe­runtur ad civi­tatem, quodam impetu naturae. Cicer. 1. Offic. All men are carried to a City (as to a place of the greatest honour) by a certain in­stinct of nature. Solomon doth compare the strength of affection to a strong City, Prov. 18.19. And Esay saith, that there are houses of joy in the joyous City, Isai. 32.13. Yea, God doth animate Jere­my to deliver his message with confidence, for he had made him like a fenced City, Jer. 1.18. as if he could single out no better thing upon earth to shew the power of his providence, or to put courage into his Prophet. What offerings were there appointed to be at the building of a City? Ezech. 48. and what solemnities were there used with Cymbals, Psalteries, and Harps, at the dedication of a wall of a City? Nehe. 12.27. A City then must needs be a thing of principall esteem; yea, Civitas vocatur quaedam perfecta congregatio Uar sil. Patav. c. 4. de defensore pa­cis. Nihil est principi illi De­qui omnem hunc mundum regit, quod quidem in terris fiat accep­tius, quam con­cilia, coeisu (que) hominum jure socioti, quae ci­vitates appellan­tur, Cicero de somnio Scipion. [...] Marsilius could say, that a City is a kind of perfect Congregation, and association. Tully, by the light of nature speaketh expresly, That to that great prince, God, which doth govern the whole world, there is nothing more acceptable upon earth, then councils and companies law­fully met together, which are called Cities: God himselfe, as he would not be without a Law, an Ark, a Tabernacle, so he would not be without a City, which is called the City of God; yea, how deare a City is to God, may appear by the name of it in Hebrew, which doth come from a word that signifieth to stir up, as if God by the name of a City, were stirred up to provide for it: indeed he keepeth the City, and his eyes are towards the City, and it is graven upon the palms of his hands, as if a City were precious in his account; he will spare many things, but [Page 160]especially a City, Should not I spare Nineveh a City? There are many things in a City which may take Gods eye, and en­deer it to him.

First, it is a goodly resting-place. Men had at first but mean sleeping-rooms, D [...]mus antra fuerunt. their Houses were but hollow Caves, or Dennes. But now God hath allowed them nearer structures, where they may house themselves: and will God be ready to un­lodge men from those Bedchambers, where he hath suffered them so sweetly to take their rest, and repose?

Secondly, Cities are places of meeting; for what is a City, but a Community? there people cluster together, for the seed of a City is as the gravell. Clvitas Com­munitas. Esa. 48.19. it doth multiply Merchants like the stars of Heaven, Nahum. 3.16. therefore He, who is Bonum commune, the Common good, will he be hasty in destroying Gene­ralities?

Thirdly, they are places of Order; for a City hath Go­vernment, and Authority in it, Non maenia sed leges civitatem servant. they are not walls, but Lawes which keep Cities. Now God which is the Judge of the whole Earth, will he destroy those places which excell in Govern­ment, and Magistracy, the very image of his supream Regi­ment?

Fourthly, Cities are places of Arts and Sciences: for in the Country there are none but Heardsmen, and Tilthmen to be found; but in the City is the Cunning Artificer, a man, which doth find out intricacies, out of whose brain do come all the rare inventions upon earth; now the Only wise God will he deface those places, where so much pregnancy; and acrimony of with doth abound?

Fifthly, Cities are conspicuous: for a City set upon an hill can­not be hid, let them seated where men please, they are the places of the greatest dignity; Now God himself who is clothed with glory, and Majesty, will He ruine those places, which do shine and carry in them the most radiant beams of his own excellency? will he throw down those piles, and Spires of worldly magnificence? wound the face of beauty? strike out the right eye out of the head of the whole world? No, for these reasons God will spare Cities. It is true, There is no evill in the City, but the Lord hath done it, but that evill doth not come in haste, but with much protraction, and delay to a City, the City usually feeleth of it in the last place; God doth land his judgements upon the Shores side, and doth make them take a long march through the Country, before they do pitch down their Tents, dig Trenches, lay streight sieges, and set up scaling ladders against the City. Indeed if a City doth live out of fear, live in pleasure, and dwell carelessly, if the [Page 161]Harp, the Viole, the Tabret, the Pipe, the wine, be in their Feasts, if they deride, and defy judgements, then God may fray the City in the midst of her jovisance, case up her musi­call instruments, bring in the voider to her sumptuous Ban­quets, turn this dancing City into a sorrowfull Lady, yea, make this melodious City a Ramah, wherein there shall be no­thing but mourning, and weeping, and great lamentation; instead of the mirth, and the jollity of the City, the cry of the City shall go up to Heaven. 1 Sam. 5.12. For if a City wax proud, and in­solent, daring, and braving, it shall know, that they are nei­ther gates, nor bars, walls, Towers, impregnable Castles, mil­lions of armed men that shall secure her, Gods confounding judgements shall pull down the most potent, and haughty City. A City of perversenesse, Ezech. 9.9. shall be a City of perplexity. Then the City shall be smitten, Ezech. 33.24. laid desolate, Es. 27.10. made a Den of Dragons. Jer. 10.22. a defen­ced City shall be made an heap, Es. 25.2. It shall be said, This is the City, which shall be visited, Jer. 6.6. As ambitious, arrogant, aspiring, powerfull, puissant, and pompous as she was, yet she shall be abased, and laid low. Es. 26, 5. Yea, God will set his face against the City for evill, and not for good. Jer. 21.10. But if there be any goodnesse in the City, It shall be called a City sought, and not forgotten. Es. 62.12. Yea, they of the City shall flourish like the grosse of the Earth. Psal. 72.16. there shall be the possession of the City. Ezech. 48.20. the City through prosperity shall be spread abroad. Es. 57.8. Glorious things shall be spoken of the Ci­ty. Ps. 87.3. Yea, they shall say, We have a strong City, salvation shall God appoint for walls, and bulwarks, Es. 26.1. The Ene­my shall not come into the City, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it. 2 Kings 19.32. So that ye see that if a City will honour God, God will favour that; yea, his affection shall be more passionate to it, because it is such a glorious Habitacle; Nineveh shall bee the rather spared, because a City. Should not I spare Nineveh, A City.

Application.

1. This sheweth, that God is the Cities Friend, yea, the Ci­ty hath not such a Patron as this Preserver of men. Except the Lord doth keep the City, the Watchman waketh but in vain. Ps. 127. 1. Trust not in your Marshalls, or Magistrates, these are but your Dii medioxumi, your middle Gods; ye have a more Tute­lar Numen, the Lord God Almighty to rely upon; what need the [Page 162]City fear any enemy if God be their Friend? no, though Friend­ship amongst men diverse times be very dangerous, that men care not how they sell their Friends like commodities they have no use of; or make spoyles of them, as spend thrifts do of their fairest estates, like Philip, who because Aratus gave him faithfull counsell, which Philip did not approve, he gave him a secret poyson that should consume him by degrees: which when Aratus perceived, hee cryed out to his dear Friend Cephalus; O Cephale, haec sunt praemia re­giae amicitieae. Eras. l. 6. A­poph. [...] Si Parmenio ftruxit insidias, cui fidendum? si non struxit, quid agendum? Plut. in Apoph Oh Cephalus, these are the rewards of a Kingly friendship; yea, perfidiousnesse of Friends diverse times is such, that it is a snare to be familiar, as Antipater said of Alex­ander, when he had taken away Parmenio his old trusty Coun­seller and Commander, upon suspition of Treason, If Parme­nio hath wrought Treason, whom shall we trust? if he hath not wrought it, who can be safe? But God hath no such deceit in his Friendship; but he declareth himself as the best of Friends. For as Dionysius the elder, seeing the faithfull love that was be­tween Damon and Pythias, desired to be taken into their fellowship, so an happy thing it were to be entred into such a league, Rogo ut me quoque in ve­stram amicitiam recipiatis. Eras. l. 5. Apoph. Assiduo vindex assiduus esto. Alex. ab Alex. l. 6. c. 10. Neminem pullâ veste indutum esse. Plut. in Pericle. Ciceren is At­ticus. as there is betwixt God, and a City. As by the lex Elia every rich man was to be an Advocate for the poor, To the diligent be thou a diligent Defender. So God is the Ci­ties constant Pleader, and Patron; as it was the dying com­fort of Pericles, that no man wore a sad attire, so long as he gover­ned, So the City is no Mourner, so long as it is under Gods pro­tection. God will give his own weapons to a City to fight with, as Hercules gave his Bow and arrows to Philoctetes, his dear friend; as Titus Pomponius Atticus, did so affect Cicero, that he was called the Atticus of Cicero; So God doth desire to limit his Titles to this Friend, and to be named no other then Hers, even the City God; the very editions of his deep wis­dom are dedicated to the City; as Cicero for the entirenesse that was betwixt him, Rex stultum fa­cinus, civium incusavit, dicens se non tanti fa­cere ventis tempestatibus (que) aedificia exposi­ta, ut ob id veteris amici domum diruere vellet. Panor­mit. de gestis. Alphonsi. Dum hostem quaeritis, ami­cum mihi addu­citis. Bruson, l. 1. c. 3. and Lucullus styled one of the best books, which he ever wrote, Lucullus. God will suffer nothing of his Friends to be touched, as Alphonsus would not the house of Nicolaus Buzutus to be medled with, in the uproar at Naples; he is ready to free her when she is brought to him, as an enemy, as when Antonies souldiers brought to him Brutus under the name of Lucullus, he set him at liberty, saying, Oh my souldiers, what have ye done? ye have brought me hither a Friend instead of an enemy, Nay, as the love betwixt Theseus, and Pi­rithous is reported to be such, that they went down to Hell together; so God will go through all extremities with his Ci­ty. It is no easie matter to perswade a City out of Gods fa­vour; no, he will rather shew her the accusations, that are [Page 163]brought against her to testifie the confidence of his love, then make her away upon suggestions, and informations; as Alex­ander for a great cold which he had gotten by washing in the River Gydnus (which brought him to the point of death) drank of a potion that his Physitian Philip had provided for him, and in the mean time shewed him a letter, which his Adversaries had wrote against him, accusing him, that he had been corrupted by Darius to poison his Master. It must be an high thing that can dis-unite God, and his City; God will search strictly, before he will separate. He doth so love a Ci­ty, that he would not ruine Sodom, till he had examined it; ten righteous persons in it might have at last preserved it; it burnt to Cinders for want of Saints, and not for want of a compassionate God. He doth so love a City, that he doth give Laws for the safety of it, it must be created, and patlied with before it be assaulted, for Wo be to him that doth make a breach, or shake a stone in the wall, or shed a drop of blood, or rifle the innocent Tradesman, till conditions of peace be offered, for When thou comest night to a City to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it. Deut. 20.10. So that if Cities be at truce with God Almighty, and have not made him through restlesse grievances their professed and provoked Adversary, they may trade freely, rest quietly, fear no molestation, u [...]l­ther at the Custom-house, nor Council-Chamber; there shall be old men, and old women in the streets, and every man walk with his staffe in his hand for very age, the streets of the City shall be full of boyes and girls playing in it. Zach. 8.4, 5. they may sing alowd upon their beds. Psal. 149.5. sorrow, and sighing shall flee away. Esai. 35.10. God will lead them out of dores in the day time, and put them to bed at night; he will keep their City-keyes, and set Guards over them. Oh therefore serve God, and your Master will take you into his protection, hee will not only give you a Charter, but be the City-Standard-bearer, and Champion. Whosoever will not spare, he will spare, yea, even because it is a City. Should not I spare Nineveh, a City?

2. This shews that a City in it selfe is a place of honour; for do men cast contempt upon that which God himselfe doth magnifie? will God spare Nineveh, because a City, and shall not a City for this be thought worthy of an excellency? yes, Civitatem prin­cipalissimum esse corum, quae hu­mana ratione constitui possunt. Aquin. lib. 1. Pol. c. 1. or else we correct Gods Herauldy, and strive who shall be the best Judges about Titles of honour; let no man therefore deprive a City of her Cap of Maintenance, or abase the fur­red Gown; For a City is the most principall thing, of all things which can be constituted by mans reason, as Aquinas saith. Shall the foam never be wiped from the lips of contemners concern­ing [Page 164]a City? yes, it is the part of an ignoble spirit, to vilifie that which God, and nature have dignified, if a man would commend a place, it is enough to say, It is a City. Let men les­sen the reputation of it what they can, yet a City must needs be a place of honour; first in respect of the laudable con­versation. Behold what commerce doth it instils a kind of generosity by mutuall negotiation, Aspice quid fa­ciant commer­cia.Juven. Prima sit in vo­bis morum tu tela. Ovid. de med. fac. Est & in in essu pars non temnenda decoris. ld. l. 3. art. where is an interchange not onely of goods, but manners. Behaviour is one of Mens principal Orna­ments; yea the very gate and gesture, carry a kind of grace in them; and where shall ye see these with greater lustre, than in the Citizen, who is a man generally composed of a lauda­ble deportment: Rudenesse may be earthed into the Hind, but the breath of a Citizens lips is courtesie, the stretch of his hands respect; yea he seemeth to be nothing but the mould not good manners; sure I am, seemly carriage hath borrowed two of her best titles from the City, namely Civi­lity, Urbanity.

Secondly, a City is a place of honour; because there men wind up a clew of meanes in a more noble way than other men; for whereas these men (for the most part) have no great patrimonies left them, nor fields to till, nor Pastures to feed; yet by a meer ingenious and artificiall way, they raise vast Estates. Diodorus Siculus saith, that they are called Mer­chants from Mercury, Deus facundiae. Caesar. Com­ment. Hermes Gracè, quòd sermo vel [...]nterpretatio (qua utique ad s [...]rmonen perti­net) Herme nia dicitur. Vnde & mercibus prae­est, quiae inter vendentes & e­mentes sermo fit medius. Calep. in voce, Mercu­rius. that great Godo wit, that though he be the inventer of all Arts (as some hold) yet the Merchant hath the honour to have his name engraven into him; and therefore it was as Caesar thinketh, that he saw so many Ima­ges of Merchants built to Mercury, as if he were their particu­lar Deity. Calepine expresly saith, That he is called Hermes, because he is set over Merchandize, and that that calling doth require communication and conference. Yea, as Hermes Fris­megistus borrowed his name from him in Greek, so doth the Merchant in Latine. A lofty derivation, and yet the learned Ancients thought they must go so high to find out the Origi­nall of Merchants. I do not onely find that in latter times, Laurence Medici Duke of Florence, and Rodolph King of Bohe­mia, the Son of the great Albertus, that Pertinax the Empe­rour, as Petrus Gregorius reporteth, and Psammeticus King of E­gypt, as Diodorus affirmeth, were Merchants; and if we can find crowned Merchants, then Merchants must be thought to get their meanes in a splendid way, for Princes would never spot their Courts, and soyl their Robes in medling with a sordid calling. In generall ye see, that this person doth not hew, and plaister, and delve, and drive for his living, but by the near art of contracts, and the curious science of com­merce, as it were by wit and pregnancy, he doth advance [Page 165]both his name and family. Merchant, and Citizen, therefore, lift up thy face as a person of honour.

Thirdly, a City is a place of honour, Vicissitudinari [...] commercio. Co­lumel. because there is a dai­ly Mart, where by exportation and importation, she doth supply other Countries, and store her selfe with all manner of necessaries; for a Citizen doth not content himselfe with what he doth find within his own walls, but like a laborious Bee, he doth fly to all the quarters of the world, to gather ho­ny for his own Hive: He hath a magnetick vertue in him, to draw commodities to him from the farthest Zone; Impiger extre­mos currit mer­cator ad Indos. Horat. yea he will search all the Store-houses of Egypt, the Ware-houses of Persia, the perfuming-shops of Arabia, and Treasuries of the Indies, to be replenished with all the rarities which the earth doth afford; the Citizen is the great Cosmographer, he is most skilfull in the terrestriall Globe, Mercatura est magna & copi­osa multa undi­que adportans. Cic. l. 1. Offic. ignotis repetens compendia ter­ris. Tibul. l. 1. Mercibus hic Italis mutat sub sole recenti. Ru­gosam piper, & pallentis grana cumini. Quae nobis & nostrae reip. su­persua sunt ex­portant, & ali­unde quae nobis necessaria sunt quaeve apud nos non inveniun­tur important. Petrus Gre­gori is de rep. l. 4. c. 7. Commercia sunt juris Gentium. L. ex ho [...] jure justit. & jur. P. dict. capit. qualitas. Mer­catores, negotia­tores institores, propolas, nemo negare potest. Plut. 2. de Rep. & Calli­stratus. l. 2. de nundinis. If ye would see the Map of the world, go to a Citizens shop, for Merchandise is vast, and copious, it bringeth home things from all places, yea from unknown Lands, it filleth the Land with all Na­ture's wares and wonders. By exchange it doth lend, and bor­row, and so by permuting for Native commodities, it gain­eth the varieties of all Countries, for the nature of Merchan­dise, is to carry out superfluous things, and to bring in necessary things. Therefore to pull down the Merchant, and the Citizen, it were to turn the whole Kingdom into a plow-share, or a Gra­siers hide, or a Weavers shittle; we must eat nothing but our own fatlings, drink nothing but our own Cider, wear no­thing but our own wooll, Physick our selves with our own druggs, mint out of our own Mines; yea, it were to unrigge a great part of our own shipping, to embarque our own Nati­on, to build Blockhouses against our selves, and to bar up our Havens; we can walk then no further than the Sea-shore, or to the Lands end, and there upon our own cliffes bid a­diew to all our neighbour-Nations, and proclaime our selves strangers to all the world; it were to put an end to the difference between free-trade, and Companies trade, and to unty one of the strongest twists that ever was in the world, namely that of humane and Nationall society, for Merchandise is by the Law of Nations, as the Civilians hold. Did I say by the Law of Nations? I might say by the Law of God. For wherefore doth the Scripture say, That God hath made a path in the Sea, and that men may go downe to the Sea in ships, and do their businesse in great wate [...]s, and that the wise woman is like a Merchans ship, that bringeth her food from afar, and that the Kingdome of heaven is like unto a Merchant man seeking goodly Pearls: If Merchandise by Gods Law were not justifiable, and honourable? yes, this calling is requisite, and exquisite; [Page 166]it is the Nations Head-servant, High-steward, sent out to all the earth, as to a generall Market, and fairstead, to buy her provisions, and things of the highest price to furnish her, and adorn her. And what she meeteth withal for her use, she trans­mitteth home, nay brings in her own hand to her dear City, that the City might be a Spring within her selfe, and a Con­duit to the whole Country; Merchant and Citizen, therefore, still stand thy ground with reputation, for thou maist be look­ed upon as a person of same.

Fourthly, a City is a place of honour, because multitudes live there with an unanimous expression; yea many hun­dred thousands linked like persons of one Tabernacle; yea many a family not so combined as a City, therefore it is called a Society or a Corporation.

A City is a communion of men alike in desires. Communio quae­dam funilium. Aristot. l. 3. Polit. c. 1. Vinculo quodam societatis in u­num coeunt. Cog­nationem quan­dam natura con­stitutit. I. loren­tinus. l. 3. co. l. 45. sect. fin. leg. Aquil. P. Civitas quasi civium unitas. Petrus Gie­gor. l. 1. c. 3. d. 1. Citizens are knit toge­ther in a certain bond of society in one; Nature there hath constituted a kind of kindred, that they should act and agree together like men of the same linage and consanguinity. Therefore a City doth signi­fie no more, nor lesse, than the unity of Citizens. And indeed if it want unity, it is but a tumult, a wrestling-place, a pitch­ed field, and not a City; the Towers are then undermining, and the walls shaking and falling. For, If a City be divided, how shall it stand? a miserable thing it is, when their tongues are divi­ded, and there is strise in the City, Psal. 55.9. Scornfull men (that is turbulent and sactious men) bring a City into a snare, Prov. 29.8. These are some of the breaches of the city of David, Isai. 22.9. Breaches indeed, that will bring the whole building into ru­ine, for the City is then becoming a City of destruction, Isai 19.18. Yea, like a Potters vessel that shall be broken in pieces, and can­not be made whole again. Jer. 19.11. Epidetus said well, That discord is the wit-foundring of a City, Nun neque e­brius sobrium cocere potest, ne­que sobrius abebrio persuade­ri. In enchir. just like a quarrel be­tween sober and drunken men. Athenaeus out of Aristotle, tel­leth a sad story of one Telegoras, who being a man of great fame, and so dearly beloved of the people, that if they could not get a just price for their commodities, they were wont to say, Athen. l. 8. They would go, and freely give them away to Telegoras, which they often did: a company of rich Citizens which did equall him in estate, but not in worth, spightfully envied this reputation of his amongst the people, and fell into such heart-grudges, that upon a time, a great fish being to be sold, and no man coming up to the price of it, it was carried away to Telegoras, which the wealthy maligning Citizens, seeing, they were so enraged at it, that they raised up the City into an uproar, violently assaulted his house, and person, and most inhumanely deflowred his Daughters, whereupon there grew afterwards such a deadly fewd betwixt the two discon­tented [Page 167]parties, that it could not be quieted, till Ligdamis the Ring-leader of the dissention, made pure slaves of them all, and insulted over them like a true Tyrant; and this was the fare of the Naxian Citizens. Diodor l. 15. Diodorus doth make a sadder re­lation concerning the Citizens of Argos, who falling into mutuall diffentions and distractions about superiority, there was such a wofull face of misery and desolation seen in the City, that no man lived in safety, for many were tortur­ed to death, and others cut their own throats, that they might not be tortured; yea, certaine Orators arising, stirred up the people so against the rich men, that no man of wealth was se­cure, thirty of them were questioned, and tortured, and slaughtered at once, and after that two thousand and two hundred. And afterwards the Orators themselves being a­shamed of their bloody practices, that they had been instru­ments, and instigators in such diresull passages, out of a kind of remorse, giving over their wonted pleading, and refusing to accuse any more, the rage fell upon them, and they were murthered, and perished with the rest; the effects of this dis­sention were so horrid, that by way of detestation, it was af­terwards called the Scythalism. The Palentocia (that is, Plut. in quest. Graecis. the bringing in of Usury again) what combustions did it raise a­mongst the Megarensians? The Citizens of Constantinople falling into contention in the seventh year of Justinian, Euagrius. l. 4. c. 13. Niceph. l. 17.10. their popular pledge to raise parties; what troubles did there break forth? Citizens were banished, Houses burnt, the Temple of Sancta Sophia defaced, and the uproare did not cease till three thousand were slain; Plut. Joh. Mag. l. 21. Hist. when Carthage was divided into the factions of Hanno, and Haniball, how, soon did it come to be an enslaved City? Did not contention quite over­throw the Teutonick Order, which for so many yeares had been famous? Did not the seditious carriages of John, Shime­on, and Eleazar, destroy Jerusalem faster then the sword of Vespasian, or Titus? yes, discords of Citizens have ever been ominous, and divers times fatal. The happinesse of a City then is, when the waters of Shiloah runne softly, when Citizens delight themselves in an abundance of peace, when there are no alterati­ons in their meetings, nor litigations in their counsails; but they are built like a City at unity in it selfe, Psal. 122.3. Oh this unity doth carry in it an universality of felicity, it is the basis and battle ax to a City; it feareth no gusts, when it doth stand upon this sure pinning; nor enemy abroad, when there is no enemy within: Oh it is a rare thing to see a due crasis in the humours of the City, and to hear all the strings of that great instrument in tune, that the spleen doth not swell to put the whole body out of course, or the Salamander doth not ap­peare [Page 168]pear to foretell a storm comming; that the Vessell be not crack'd, that should hold the water of the City-preservation, nor a moat gotten into the eye of it to trouble the sight in the foreseeing of dangers; that the City be not splay-footed, or goggle-eyed, but both the feet, and the eyes move the same way; that they allagree together like Workmen to raise the same Fabrick; or there is no more difference of sounds, then if they were singing a diapason, where but one voice as it were amongst all is to be heard; oh where there is unity there needeth no barricadoing, Sic mihi state Lacedaemonii, & muro cincti sumus. Philo­strat. in Sophi­stis. Alev. ab Alex. l. 4. c. 8. nor rampering, for unity is a wall of brasse to a City, as Isaeus said, then the City seemeth to be e­spowsed, and men live together in as much kindnesse as if like man and wife, they were coupled together with a Con­jugall knot. Alexander ab Alexandro doth report that in A­thens there was a Magistrate of peace appointed that should compell all factions to an agreement, Diodorus. l. 3. c. 3. and indeed there is no­thing more expedient then this Officer of concord. Diodorus saith, that the Troglodites though they were throwing of stones, and shooting one at another, yet if a Woman did but appear they were presently appeased, so all contentions should cease in a City so soon as this beautifull Lady of Unity doth shew her amiable face. Scipio Asricanus desired to know of Tyresius, why Numantia had gotten so many Victories o­ver Rome, and yet at last was conquered; who answered, that Concord had gotten the Victories, Concordia victoriam, dis­condia exitium praebuit. Bruson. l. 2. c. 4. and Discord brought the ruine. So indeed, to cement and secure a City, there is nothing bet­ter, then Concord; True Citisens they have their City in high veneration, and though there be many thousands of them, yet they all bow to the honour of the City, as to a common Parent; for he is an unnaturall child, that can tread upon the feet of his own Mother, or gripe her hand, or break her head; a seditious person which hath nothing but quick­silver in his brain, and Aquafortis on his toung, reasoning, and arguing quite contrary to the grounds of City-safety, he seemeth not to be a Citisen, or one of those lovely children which her eye doth look upon with pleasure; but an Her­maphrodite, which she hath brought forth to her griefe, all rightbred Citisens looking to the glory and wellfare of the City with a kind of sacred reverence; therefore seeing such infinitenumbers can live together in such admired unity, all conspiring to vote up the Cities Weal, and dignity, a Citisen (if right) is a Worthy, and may be looked upon as a person of Renown.

Fiftly, a City is a place of honour, because of buildings; House and riches are given of the Lord. Prov. 19.14. and where [Page 169]doth the Lord shew his rare Architecture but in a City? There are the glorious structures, and Piles of wonder; Habitations built with hewen stone. Esay 9.10. goodly houses. Deut. 8.12. wide houses, large chambers, carved windows, rooms seeled with Ce­dar, and painted with vermilion. Jer. 22.14. yea, there (if any where) are the ivory Palaces. Psalm. 45.8, regali splendida luxu. Virg. 7. Aenead. Haud timeam magni dixisse palatia caelil Ovid. 1. Met. and costly stones seen, from the Foundation to the Coping 1 Kings 7.9. and pavements laid with white and black, red and blew, Marble. Ester 1.6. The beauty of a City is usually in the buildings, where there are Princely Edisices. Yea, a kind of Heavenly Palaces; the Porches, the Dores, the Skreens, the Pillars, the walls, the windows, the stair-cases, the chym­ny-pieces, the Dining-chambers, the Bed chambers, the Galleries, the Turrets, the Lanthorns are all glistering and resplendent, such clusters of houses as if they were a For­rest, such variety of Buildings, as if a man came into a City to see all the prime, and curious spectacles of a Nation; indeed Art can present the eye with no more pleasing object, then the sight of a City. Princes thought they could never set out their royalty better then in building of Cities, as Ashur in building this Nineveh. Gen. 10.11. Nebuchadnezzar in build­ing of Babylon. Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for the house of the Kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honour of my Majesty? Dan. 4.30. Cyrus in building of his Cyropolis, Alexander in building his Alexandria, Inveni Iateriti­am, reliqui mar­moream. Sue­ton. Ad aedificandum furore quodam rapiebatur. Ni­cet. Nomen meum his monumentis inscribam. Plet. in Pericle. Naturam vires suas in unam urbem essudisse. Platina. Trajan in building of his Nicopolis upon the Banks of Ister after he had conquered the Mysians, and Dacians; and Augustus in turning Rome from a City of brick to a City of Marble, as if these Princes with Isaaclus. Angelus were enflamed to leave these buildings be­hind them as reliques of their fame, or they desired with Pericels to engrave a never-dying honour in these Monuments, declare the excellency of Cities. Sure I am, they are so spe­cious, that they have dazled the eyes of the greatest. Con­stantius the Emperour, when he came to Rome, and saw the transcendent glory of it, he cried out that Nature had emptica out all her sorces upon that one City. Tamerlaine when he came to Constantinople, and observed exactly the walls, the gates, the streets, the bathes, the gardens, the houses of State, the Ca­stles, the Obelisks, the Theaters, the Temples, and especially that of Sancta Sephia, Knowls in his Turkesh History he was so wrapt with the sight of these things, that he professed it never grieved him to have come from the furthest part of the East, were it but to save that fa­mous City from ashes, Bafazet before his comming, having besieged it. A Citizen then being so gloriously seated, where he hath daily so many stately Mansions, and Palaces within [Page 170]the Circuit of his walls, how can he but be a person of re­pute?

Sixtly, a City is a place of honour, because there areli­berties. Wherefore doth the Apostle say, that ye are Citisens with the Saints. Ephes. 2.19. but that he would intimate that Citisens had great immunities? It was enough for Saint Paul to say, he was a Romane, Acts 22.25. as if having the rights of a Romane Citisen, he ought not to be handled like a com­mon man; the Centurion doth confesse that with a great sum he obtained that freedom. Acts 22.28. Municipal priviledges were ever very high, for they do not come of Maenia (as some would have it) the walls, as if they had liberty to live within the walls, Isti Perigrini certè transitu contenti esse de­bent. P. Greg. l. 4. c. 4. Claudius. C. prohibuit, pere­grinae conditio­nis homines gentilia nomina assumere Roma­norum. Alex. ab Alex. l. 4. c. 10. Lex ve­tat peregrinum ne in murum af scendat. Cic. l. 2. de Orat. Hoto­man. de verbis juris. Plut. de Stoicorum pug­nis. Alexander ab Alexandro. l. 4. c. 10. but of Munia grants, or honorary concessions. Peregri­ni, the strangers couldlay no claim to them; no, such were to be contented only w^th a passage through the City. Claudius Caesar would not suffer them to use the names of Citizens: Lully saith, they could not go up the City walls. Hotoman saith, that they were not received into protection, nor had the rights of mariage, or making their Wils, that true Citisens had. Plutarch saith, that Antipater durst not call Zeno, and Cleanthes Citi­sens of Athens, though they lived at Athens; No, though they had continued a long time in a City, yet still they were pere­grini, quasi extra patriam, Strangers because they were out of their Country; and Boerius saith, that in France they are styled Albini, quasi Alibi nati, allines, as if they were born elswhere. A­lexander ab Alexandro doth report that the Thebanes, Lacede­monians, and Athenians did not admit any to the freedom of a Citisen, unlesse they could derive an antient linage from the stock of some Citisen; Suidas saith, that there was an Office called [...], which had power to exterminate all For­reigners from the participation of those rights, & to cast them out of the City. Sure I am that the lex Paphia in Rome was so strict, Affirmans se passurum facili­ùs allquid fisco detrahi, quàm civitatis Roma­nae honorem vulgari. Sucton and severe against the reception of persons unto the Titles of Citisens, that Augustus Caesar, when his Daughter Livia was a Petitioner for a Tributary Frenchman to be made free, he out of respect to the Law, would only exempt him from taxes, but not make him a Citisen, saying, that he had rather his Exchequer should suffer, then the dignity of the Citybe eclipsed. This Freeman then, that sees others, onely walk upon the stones of the streets, or gaze upon the magni­ficent shews, or salute acquaintance, or sleep in an hired lodg­ing, or pay penniworths for the costly Wares which the City doth afford but cannot lay claim to the least immunity, when the Citisen himselfe doth rise up every morning with multi­plicity of rights, and hath priviledges meeting him in every [Page 171]corner; and hath the City-liberties in all places attending upon him, how can he but be eyed as one conspicuous? yes, he is the eminent Citizen, even for his enfranchisement.

Seventhly, A City is a place of honour, because there are degrees of honour, the Livery, the golden Chain, the Bench. St Paul, that said he was a Citizen of no mean City, Act. 21.29. doth infer, that that City had high offices, and places of au­thority in it, for no mean City doth declare no mean Govern­ment and jurisdiction to belong to the City; there were those that served the City, Ezech. 48.18. as if the City commanded like a Master. How was Jerusalem once great amongst the Nations, and Princess amongst the Provinces? Lamen. 1.1. Heph­zibah, and Beulah, how did they shine in principality and prae­fectures? It is said, That they shall be as a crown of Glory in the hand of the Lord, yea as a royal Diadem, Isai. 62.3. And wherefore? but that the Citizens there shall have a kind of Majestick power; not onely goods, but government; not on­ly meanes, but magistracy; not onely degrees of Estate, but degrees of honour: Citizens are ever upon the rising hand, and coming to places of preferment; elsewhere men may get ample fortunes, and raise great Families; but here is orna­ment and regiment, dignity and domination, promotion and presidency, the City Vest, and the City Sword to be expect­ed. Alexander ab Alexandrio saith that the City of Sparta had two Tribes for men to rise to honour by, Alex. ab Alex. lib. 1. c. 17. which were called Aegida, and Pitana; the Athenians had three tribes, which were called Godeontae, Ergadae, and Hoplitae, as Plutarch saith; Plut. in So­lone. Alex. ab Alex. l. 5. c. 18. Blondes l. 3. Romae trium­phantis. The City of Megara had sive tribes, which were called Heraci, Piraci, Megarenses, Traspodicei, Cynosurei; and as Blondus rela­teth, the Romans had five and thirty tribes. And is there any City that have not their severall Orders, states, and degrees, whereby men are going up by steps to the top of preferment? Yes, a Citizen is a graduall creature, that is ever footing it through all the motions of advancement and dignity. In Rome (except it were by origination, or cooptation) they first began at Manumission, when the Master laying his hand upon the head of his servant, and delivering him up to the Pretor, he was registred for a freeman; asterwards he was called ad pileum to the cap, which was a token of his liberty; then he was called to the white Garment, the gold Ring, and a new name; and then he was called ad togam, tunicam, to the gown, & coat under it; then to the curule Chair, then to jus imaginis, to have power to make Images and so having passed through severall effices of Aediles, Quaestours, Pre ors, and Tribunes; at last they became to be Senators and Consuls: And is it not thus in every City? yes, from Freemen, Liverymen, Common­councilled [Page 172]at last they come to mount up to higher de­grees of command; and in fine to be chiefe Magistrates. Now a Citizen that thus from creeping out of the nest, doth after fly to the tops of Mountains, and after that doth take an Ea­gles flight, is he not to be highly esteemed? yes, this going from garment to garment, from office to office, from title to title, till at last he doth become a Cities-Maximus, doth shew a Citizen to be an illustrious person.

Eighthly, A City is a place of honour in respect of large pay­ments, Tribute to whom tribute, and custome to whom custome, Rom. 13.7. Now in defraying tributes and customes, who doth ex­ceed the Citizen? We find that Solomon, which exceeded all the Kings of the earth in riches, had much of his Royall re­venue from the Merchants; and the traffique of the spice Merchants, 1 King. 10.15. The adversaries of the Jews wrote to Artax­erxes, that he should hinder the building of Jerusalem, because the City would pay no toll, tribute, and custome, Ezrah. 4.12. They speak not of the Country, but their chiefe spight is against the City, as if the toll tribute and custome did come from the City principally; and Artaxerxes seduced by that informa­tion, returned a quick answer, by all meanes to obstruct that design; Give ye now commandment (saith he) to cause these men to cease, and that this City be not builded, for why should damage grow to the hurt of the King? v. 22. as if his chiefe damage he thought would grow, and accrew, by the City substracting her wonted payments. Vectigalia quae­cunque quaelibet civitates sibi ac suis curiis—fir­ma atque perpe­tua manere pra­cipimus, ut in l. Vectigal. 10. Aelian. l. 8. Var. Hist. Instituit vecti­gal braccario­rum, linteonum, citrariorum, 1. pellionum plaustrariorum, argentariorum, aurificum, & ali arum artium. Alex. ab Alex. l. 4 c. 10. Et Herodian. l. 3. Zenoph. de rep. Laced. In all great impositions laid upon the peo­ple, the Citizens are chiefly called forth ad census to taxes. Ho­nortus and Arcadius, as if they knew where their Crown stock lay, they wrote only unto Cities, to see that there should be no diminution of the accustomed payments. Aelian saith, That Demetrius Polycrates, got a thousand two hundred talents from Cities. Severus Alexander, who was one of the best Emperors, drew his vast sums with which he built his baths, and left such an incredible treasure to his Children, from Handicraft­men which lived in Cities. Zenophon doth report, That if the Lacedemonians went to war, the Cities chiefly maintained the Souldiers. In the great Wars that Augustus the Emperour had before the Empire was settled, all Nations being almost beg­gered through the charge of three and twenty Armies, that he was enforced at one time (as Dion saith) to maintaine in the field; when he was at his last cast, and knew not where to get money, it was the City of Rome, which by giving him the five and twentieth part of their Estates, and setting a great Tax upon the sides of every City-house, Dion. in Au­gusto. and by large volun­tary Contributions, supplyed all his wants; so that whatso­ever the extremity be, the City still must bring the remedy: [Page 173]it is the Purse-bearer of the Nation, or the trusty surety to en­gage for all exigents. If this Cloud doth not drop, a grievous drought may afflict the Country; if these Milch-kine do not give down their milk, there may be nothing to seeth for the hungry family; if this Physitian doth not administer, the sick patient may give up the ghost; the City is the Domini­nical Letter, by which we reckon how the year will go about, or the golden number by which we must cast up the accounts for all accidents: Alas, the Citizen, and the Merchant, doth get more (if he hath free trade) in a short time by traffique and commerce, than the Country-man doth in an age by tillage, and the profit of his ground; here are the vast gaines, and here must be the grand and vast disbursments; the greatest Princes upon earth are enforced to fly to the banks of their Cities, as their last refuge; whensoever trea­sure doth fail, they must go dig in these God-mines. A City was wont to be called the Kings-Chamber, for the safety of his person, and it may be called the Kings Coffer, to fill his empty hand with ready coyn in specie; whatsoever be de­manded, here is the Cashiere, or Paymaster: Oh then, shall a Citizen be reckoned amongst the Sporades, which are Stars so obscure, that their asterisms cannot be taken; no, let him go for one of the Stars of the greatest magnitude in a Nation. Even for payments sake, the Citizen ought not to be looked on, or spoken of, but as a person of honour. All that hath been said then being duly considered, let no man lift up the Robe of a Citizen with disdain, nor belch out contempt and ignominy in the face of a Citizen; no the churle is base, the Epicure is base, the Oppressor is base, the Boaster is base, the Sycophant is base, but the Citizen is honourable; there were Citizens before there were Heraulds, Heaven it selfe is com­pared to a City, or the City of the new Jerusalem; yea, there needeth no more to set out the honor of a City, then that God would spare Nineveh, because a City: Should not I spare Nine­veh, a City?

3. This shews, That as a City is chiefe, so it should be chiefe in commendable demeanour. A City should be a place of example, the great Idea, from which all round about it should be effigi­ated, the Prototype, by which all adjacent places should be stamped; for that being principall, why should it not forma­lize all those members that depend upon it for actuating? When thou art the head, why dost thou beneath thy selfe to be the feet? Caput cum sis, cur pes existas. Naz. Doth not a Cities vertue diffuse vertue? yes, when it was askt why Peloponesus was so good, it was presently answered, that Aegina (the head-City) nourished up none but good chil­dren. Aegina bonos filios nutrit. Erasm. When Syracusa (the prime City of Sicily, came to resort to Plato, which instructed Dionysius, there followed such [Page 174]throngs out of the Country, Tyrannidis se­dem pulvis oc­cuparet. Plut. de dignos. adu­lator. Swabo. l. 11. that the dust of their feet filled the Kings Court. When Echatane in Media, came to addict it selfe to worthy things, it presently instructed Armenia, and at last it came to be the Persian School: for from that place they lear­ned their archery, the worshipping of their Gods, their grave attires, their doing honour to Princes, and the adorning of them with the Tiara, and Cydaris, Royall Ornaments. When the lex Fannia, Vt universa Ita­lia, & non sola urhs, lege sump­tuaria teneretur. Macrob. l. 3. Saturn. c. 17. a law to restrain excess in diet, came by the Consuls to be constituted in Rome, presently the lex Didia, and Licinia, other lawes of the same nature came to be enjoyned in the Country; that all Italy, as well as the City, might conforme to this law of Moderation. See how much good one City-example will do for vertue; and may not one City-ex­ample do as much evill for vice? Yes, the City doth sell her examples, as well as her commodities, and her sinnes as well as her wares; yea, the quick trade doth runne in Crimes, she doth send down these by whole-sale into the Country; this plague in the City doth infect the whole Nation, a whole Land may curse a City for bad presidents. If the City be full of perversnesse, Ezech. 9.9. the disobedience will spread to all parts; If the City be bloody, Nahum. 3.1. it is enough to sell Chopping knives to their Customers elsewhere. What pure worship will be left in the Land, if according to the number of the Cities, be the number of the Gods? Jer. 11.13. If the chiefe Cities of the ten tribes set up the golden Calves, the whole Region will seem to be nothing but a bleating Crib to the honour of those new Deities, people far and nigh will swear by the sinne of Samaria, and will say, thy God oh Dan liveth, Erasm. in A­dag. Cael. Rhodigin. Pol. Virgil. l. 3. c. 6. de inv. rerum. Sabellic. l. 3. and the manner of Beershebah liveth, Amos 8.14. The lust of Corinth made all Greece a Brothel-house, the intem­perance of Plintine turned all Egypt into a Tippling-booth. St [...]o [...] first finding out fine silk, it hath corrupted all Nations with garish attires. Guarde, Jesdi, and Hispaa, the chiefe Cities of the Arsacidans, being accustomed to lye with their sisters, and mothers, it taught all Parthia incest. A City of Phoenicia having stolen Io the daughter of Inacus from the Graecians, Herod. l. 1. it soon set the Cretians on work to steal Europa from the Phoeni­cians, and the Grecians to steal Medea from Colchis, and Troy to steal Helena from Menelaus the Prince of Lacedemenia. So that ye see that a Cities bad example is like a Gangrene, it will not rest where it first began, but convey a contagion to all the members, and at last to the vitall parts.

Thus much in generall, for your selves in particular, as God hath made you a City, so do ye principle out goodnesse to the Land: for a shame it were for the sowrest fruit to grow [Page 175]upon the top-branch, or the worst Schollars to be in the up­per form. Shall ye be taught duty from abroad? or learn con­science of the Country? shall the man in russet direct thee in thy furrs? the leathern girdle instruct the gold Chain? Shall there be more noble motions, and pious resolutions in the rurall Swain, then the Citisen? Shalt thou mind nothing but the vent of thy ware? and the fale of thy merchandise? yes, thou hast another trade to look after; A Citisen should shew to his Customers the best Patterns of holy life, and open the packs of religious presidents; A City should be the Burse, and Magazine of vertuous demeanours; or else it wil be said, that the Citizen doth study nothing but himselfe, and that his Counting-house is his conscience, and his penny his God. Oh therefore God hath given you honour, maintain your ho­nour, let the great wheel of vertue stir here, and the morning star of grace shine here. Let not the mirery waies be cleaner then your paved streets, and the thatched shuds be nearer built then your tiled houses. Let not the Country man, when he commeth amongst you be lothed with the smell of your intemperance, or recoyl at the sight of your fraud, or blush at your neutralizing, or be ready to deride your pride, or to hisse at your malice, or to freeze with your indevotion, or to drop down dead with seeing the blood of oppression sprink­led upon the stones of your streets; but prepare choise sights for the Country mans eye, that he may go home, and say, I have seen the Phoenix of religion, the Paradise of Piety, the Temple of the Holy Ghost, the Suburbs of Heaven; I have learned grace out of every Citizens mouth, and bought bar­gains of sanctity at every shop, enough to stock my self, and supply all my neighbours. Thus shall ye shew your selves to be a flourishing City, when ye are as full of Professours, as Traders? and of Saints, as Merchants; when ye have trafficked for godlinesse at every Port, and fetched home the true Pearl further then the Indies: Well remember, that To whom much is given, of them much will be required. Ye should have a priority of duty, because ye have a priority of dignity. A City should serve God before others, because God would spare a City before others. Should not I spare Nineveh, a City?

4. This sheweth, that if God would spare a City because a City, that the City should spare it self; not suffer her immuni­ties to be infringed, when she can preserve them, nor her rights to be injured, when she can vindicate them. What were this, but for a Citizen to dig down the walls of his own City? or to unbody his own Incorporation? It was a famous saying, 2 Sam. 10.12. Be of good courage, let us play the men for our people, and for the Cities of our Gods. Doubtlesse every one ought to [Page 170]expresse much fidelitity, and prowesse for these Cities, or else he doth conspire against his own Society, and the open ene­my is not worse then such a secret Traitor. Sceva would not deliver up Epidamnum to the enemy, Plut. though he had received 220 darts in his shield, and lost one of his eyes, but held it out till Caesar came in to his rescue. Livius. The Citizens of Saguntum burnt themselves rather then they would submit to Hanibal. The Citizens of Bizantium held out a siege of two years against Severus, Herodian. and when their weapons were spent, they threw their imagery, and brasen statues at the faces of their enemies. The Citizens of Numantia held out a siege of forteen years against Scipio; Florus. and after that, they gathered all their goods, mony, and armour, and laying them all upon an heap, they fired them and their selves, that they might leave nothing to the Con­querour but the name of Numantia. Bonfin. The women of Aquilegia made bowstrings of their hair, that their souldiers might shoot against their enemies. Vincent. The women of the Vindelici for want of military preparation, threw their own children instead of darts against their besiegers, rather then they would yield to Drusus the Father of Germanicus. Such resolute spirits have men expressed in former ages in defence of their Cities, and they which were wanting in relieving, or assisting them, how are they branded with infamy? It is Pompeyes shame to this day that he would not come in to the relief of his faithfull City Laurea, but suffered it to be taken, and burnt though he were so nigh, that he might have warmed his hands with the heat of the devouring flames. The timerousnesse of those perfidious souldiers, who seeing a great army of the Turks besieging them at Alba Graeca (as Bonfinius calleth it) capitulated with their enemies, to deliver it up, was so hate­full to Paulus Knisius (Kinisius he calleth him) that taking them alive, he caused them to be roasted, and by degrees to eat one another. Cities then are vigorously and valiantly to be defended; yea, if many men have fought so stoutly for the walls of the Cities, how ought others to strive as ear­nestly for the freedom of their Cities? Ignominy to them that do desert them, or basely betray them. Rights, Liberties, and honours go at a low rate amongst such heartlesse and faith­lesse Factours. Citizens should spare them, for God hath set them a Copy. Should not I spare Nineveh, a City.

5. This reproveth them, which in stead of sparing, take delight in nothing more then demolishing of Cities. It was a searching que­stion, which the wise woman from the wall put to Joab con­cerning Abel, Why seekest thou to destroy a City, a Mother in Israel, 2 Sam. 20.19. It was a blemishing objection that Hezekiah propounded to Rabshakeh, that like a man of a brutish spirit, [Page 177]he held himself appointed, to lay waste senced Cities into rui­nous heaps. Furius Camillus, doth hear ill to this day, Sabell. l. 9, Aenead. 3. Bern. Saccus. lib. 8. Hist. Ti­cinens. Nich. Olaus in Atila. Guliel. Para­dinus de statat Burg. c. 8. that he destroyed the famous City Veii, because it was so pleasantly seated, that men were ready to leave Rome it selfe to go live at Veij; and so doth Antonius (Vespasians Generall) who going into the Baths of Cremona, and finding them cold, said he would soon have them hotter, for he presently set the City on fire, and consumed it; and so doth Atila, who ruined Tongres, and in it an hundred Churches; and so doth Frederick (sirnamed Aenobarbe) who for an abuse offered to his Empress Beatrice, caused the City of Millaine to be razed, Diod. S. l. 14. and the plat­form of the City (at that time) to be plowed up; and so doth Himilco, for destroying Messana in Sicily, and leaving them nei­ther wall, tile, stick, nor stone; Strobo. l. 13. and so doth Craesus for laying waste Sidena, and cursing any man that should re­edifie it; and so doth Alexander, for laying in the dust the two famous Cities of the east, Cyropolis, and Persepolis; Q. Curtius. and so doth P. Aemilius, for levelling to the ground 70 Cities in Aepiras. Oh what thunder-claps do there come out of many mens mouths to shake down such glorious Ornaments? what Furnaces do there burn in many mens breasts to consume such ensigns of Art, and Architecture? Can they not walk freely in the world, unlesse they stamp down Cities under their feet? Can they not see the way to their ambitious designes, but by the light of flaming Castles, Temples, Palaces, and Houses of state? Did Vulcan beget them? were they born under mount Aetna? do they desire to shine in the world like blazing Comets? or to scorch all before them, like brands taken out of the infer­nall Pit? why else are the scattered stones of a City such a pleasing spectacle to them? or the ashes of a City such a glo­rious triumph? How justly might they crouch for a peece of silver, which care not in an humour to melt away the ri­ches of so many ages? how ill do they deserve an house to hide their heads in, which care not in a fury to expose so ma­ny Citizens to the bleak air? Well, if such there have been in the yeares of old Pagans and Infidels, which have been thus barbarous; yet let every Christian heart tremble to work such desolations; for these things are like the Destroyer, not like the Creator. Let us spare Cities therefore, for God doth spare them, even because they are Cities: Should not I spare Nineveh, a City?

6. This further doth shew, That a City is at the height of impi­ety, when the time of her fate and fall be come. Such people wil­fully destroy the City, for God would spare it, even for that it is a City. Would God spare? Then, have not these rejected all warnings, which have brought their selves into a conditi­on [Page 178]on not to be spared? yes, God is highly incensed, if he doth let loose those judgements which he hath restrained, and doth open those flood-gates which for a time he did scluse­up. If God hath made thee a vessel of honour, how hast thou trespas­sed, Fecit te vas in honorem, cur te in contumeliam facere prae­sumpsisti. Bern. de 7. grad. Con­fes. An seme [...]est pa­nam commer­uisse parum? Ovio l. 2. de Tr [...]st. confiderans hu­jus miseri mise­rabilem con­ditionem, mise­reor quidem, sed vereor ne frustra. Bern. p. 70. which hast turned thy selse into a vessel of wrath? We are a ve­ry urging people, if we have lost the benefit of a sparing God? Seemeth it a small thing unto you to deserve punishment? No, we have done evill to purpose, if vengeance doth lye at the door. I pitty this state of wretchednesse (saith Bern.) but God know­eth whether I shall prevent it. Doth judgment threaten this Nation? oh then, that I could shake men into an apprehensi­o [...] of their manifest and monstrous guilts? there are deep spots if this Nitre must be used, there are high affronts when God must dash mens contempts upon their haughty faces. Do ye dread any charging plagues? then why do ye not find out your challenging sinnes? Do your ears glow, and do ye suspect no bad news? do ye seem to see nothing but rods, and rasours, and yoaks, and fetters; and yet are ye so blind that ye cannot see your violating of Gods laws? Must God lock up your doors before ye will consider what bad Tenants ye have been? must He pluck away all your Wares, before ye will consider the sinnes of your trading? must he spew you out of the City, before ye will take notice what a sur­feit ye are upon his stomack? doth every Mechanick talk of the danger of the times, and yet can neither Citizen nor Se­nator cry out of those execrable things, which are ready to make the City an execration? have ye lost your cares, your eyes, your tongues, your wits, your consciences? do ye praunce in the City, when ye are ready to stamp upon the stones of your streets? do ye dance upon your thresholds, when ye are ready to stagger with amazement? do ye walk with stretched out necks, when your necks are ready to stoop down with the weight of judgements? do ye add thirst to your drunkennesse, when the cup of astonishment is ready to be put-to your lips? do ye scorn the menaces of scripture, when all the curses which are written in this book, and those which are not written, are ready to fly in your faces? do ye abuse Sermons, when your Pulpits shake before their drop­ping? do ye lye in the lap of Dalilah, till the Philistins come and bind you? do ye eat, and drink, marry, and give in marri­age, till the floud break in and sweep you all away? Can ye never hear your errours, but in generall shrieks? nor see your provocations, but when vengeance doth open your eyes? Ye have often said, that this City must suffer, and that the end of all will be dismall; do ye say it, and not fear it? or fear it, and not flee from it? Oh that thou hadst known in this thy day, those [Page 179]things which belong to thy peace! that thou hadst but as much prevention as thou hadst judgement, or as much conscience as thou hast a presaging spirit, that thou wert but as true a Saint as thou wouldst seem to be a Prophet! but ye can on­ly foresee, and foretell, but remedy nothing. If we may live but a short time merrily, we care not if the rest of our dayes be spent in misery, as that desperate person, who be­ing told he should not live seven moneths, said, Sex menses sa­tis sunt vitae, septimum Orco relin quo Victor Varia [...]ct 1. 11. Osotius. [...] rerum [...] nuel [...]. Six moneths are enough for my life, the seventh let death take. We cannot for­sake those courses by which we are certain to perish, no more then Garzias Sousa at the siege of Aden, could be perswaded by Albuquerke to come down from a Tower where, by arrows and stones, he was sure to be either shot to death, or to have his brains dashed out. How many perills do we see, that we put to the venture, whether we shall escape them, or be en­snared with them? we dread vengeance with impenitency, and reflect upon ruine with stony hearts; we feel malignant humours rising without taking a purge, and fear sinking at Sea without pumping out the water. We are rather Inquisi­tors of dangers, then Interpretors of them; we are the fear­fullest people in the world, and yet the recklessest. Our own predictions, or convictions, will not make us look inward. If we suffer, we cannot cry out of Gods justice, but of our own insensibility and obstinacy. If our house be left desolate to us, we are justly guilty of the dilapidation of it. We bury our selves in our own ruines, and lye down in our own confusion. In the midst of the most grievous terrours, there is no crying out of the heynousnesse of sinne. Oh secure Laish! oh Jerusalem frozen in her dregs! The very putting of the sickle into the corn, do not make us see how we are grown ripe for judge­ment, the noise of thunder cannot awaken us out of our deep sleep. If brimstone be cast upon our habitation, we think fire shall never be put to it; if the Lord set his face against the City, we out-face all hazards. It was miserable to the Ger­mans to fear an enemy in the Country, Bonsin. l. 8. Decad 2. and yet to give their selves to banquetting, till Cadan the Tartarian Prince came up­on them and slew them. It was fatall to the Marriners of Po­lychostus, to quake at the thought of Antigenus, and yet to be drunk, and fast asleep, when he set upon their Navy, Polyaen. l. 4. and destroyed it. So as ominons it is for us to be appalled at Gods judgements, and yet to quaffe and snort them away, as if the angry and arming God would never strike. He is the patient God, but if we challenge him into the field, he will shew him­selfe to be the Lord of Hosts. He is a sparing God, but if we out-sin his mercy, he will declare himself to be the judging God. Our reformation might bind his hands, but our re­morselessnesse, [Page 180]and contumacy will urge him to lay on confounding stroakes. For why should hee spare us, when wee wil not spare our selves? if threatnings can­not humble the Sinner, God hath judgments enough to break his heart. Oh therefore deal truly, do ye fear the state of the City? then know that the City hath highly pro­voked the eyes of Gods glory, that it must be punished; con­sider that there are briars, and thorns in it, that God doth come to hew in the City; and that strange Creatures have been in the nest, that God doth step forth to break Cockatri­ces eggs; and that the Pot is full of filth, that it must be set upon the coals, and God must take out the scum of it. Oh then that the City could search her walls, and see what De­linquents do lodge in it, yea, go from house to house and find out all the suspected, dangerous persons, which haunt this Corporation to work the utter ruine of it, that consci­ence would bring to open view more Malefactours, then all the privy searches, or lowd cries of the Temple have yet dis­coverd. It is high time to settle upon the work; for if the City be in any hazard, there are grievous sins in it that do jeopard the welfare, and safety of it; God is irritated beyond mea­sure, when he is driven to visit, and doth spy in it transgressi­ons wonderfull, when he is ready to inflict plagues that are wonderfull. Shalt thou reign because thou art closed in Cedar? shalt thou be secure, because thou art closed about with so many propugnacles? no, God may judge this City, and judge it, because it is a City? and what an urging people then are ye, which have turned favour into fury? would God willing­ly be severe? no, vengeance doth never approach till impie­ty is at the height, till Job, Noah, and Daniel can save but their own souls, and not the places where they dwell, and for which they sacrifice their averting, and reconciling prayers: Oh think how often ye have smitten at Gods face, and wounded his honour, when he is enforced to strike, and such Petitioners cannot bind his hand. Oh ye are Sinners before the Lord exeeedingly, when ye have transnatured God, changed him from a gracious to an avenging God, for ye see he doth take no delight in wastes, and desolations; No, this is contrary to his inclination, and propension, his tender mercy, and in­generate, indeified compassion, for if your sins did not turn away his pittifull eye, harden his soft bowels, and make him weary with repenting; he would spare the City, and that because it is a City, Should not I spare Nineveh, a City.

Great.

Now let us come to the attribute, Great. From hence ob­serve, serve, that Greatnesse in it self is pretious in Gods account. How can the great God but affect that which is great? Yes as immen­sity is one of his properties, so greatnesse hath a bright reflex in it. Magnitude doth carry a commensuration with it, and ex­cellency doth arise out of magnitude, for where a thing is at­tained to this extensive proportion, Differentia inter facere & effice­re. there is in it a visible dist­inction from other things; because it is not in the doing, but it is done, and so hath efficacy, and eminency in it. The Hebrew words which are put for Great, [...]. do significantly expresse this, for the one doth come of a root that doth declare, that the thing hath encreased, or magnified it self; and the other of a root which doth intimate that the thing is copious, or it hath multiplyed it self; so that to be great is no more then a thing grown up, or come to a kind of fulnesse, and graceful­nesse. I do not say, it hath no further to go, but it is gone to a fair distance, or waxen so wel in the parts, that it is fit to be admired; for how hath the ey a kind of marvelling enter into it at the beholding of that which is great? what should I say? if a thing be good, it cannot be to great; no, the more great, the more perfect. Ab Epirotis Pyrrhus Aquila nominabatur. per vos, inquit Aquila sum. Quid ni enim sim vestris ar­mis velut alis evectus? Plut. in Pye [...]ho. Phocion Chre­stus appellatur. Alex. ab. Alex. l. 2. c. 11. Graecorum ulti­mus appellatur quia Oraecia jam effaeta nul­lum se dignum virum ab illo protulerit. Plut. in Philop. Augustus di­ctus est ab auctu Cuspinian. Mans wit can ascribe nothing more to her Worthies, who she is enamoured upon, than to proclaim them Great, For to what end else were all those equiva­lent Titles devised? Pyrrhus after the defeat given to Pentau­chus the Captain of Demetrius, was called the Eagle. Phocion for his rare parts called, the Excellent; Philopaemenes called, the Last of the Grecians, because there never came any after him (Greece being past childbirth) which did match him. Octavi­anus Caesar after the Battle at Actium, and the Conquest of E­gypt, and the Empire setled in peace was named Augustus, as if he were encreased to the height. All these Titles were given to these severall persons, that like deserving men they might be esteemed Great. Yea, the name Great conferred upon some in expresse termes, as upon Valerius, Fabius, Pompey, Alexander, Gonsalve, Leo; yea, this is the highest title of honour, that can be attributed to the most flourishing Princes upon the face of the earth, as to be styled the Great Mogul, the Great Cham, the Great Turk. To be Great then, is of high esteem with men, and is it not as highly prised by God Almighty? yes, what thing is there of valew with him but to set out the excellency of it, he doth record it to be great, the great lights, the great depths, the great Sea, the great Mountains, the great Rivers, the great Behemoth, the [Page 182]great Leviathan, the great Wildernesse, are so called. Yea, things which in a more sacred way do relate to him are thus dignifi­ed, as the great Nation. Gen. 12.2. the great Altar. 2 Kings 16.15. the great Temple. 2 Chron. 12.9. nay, not so much but the Church hath this glorious character set upon it, what the world might look upon her with reverence, and wonder, for it is called a great house. 2. Tim. 2.20. and a great City. Rev. 11.8. Et non decernis, Taure, quid esse velis. Mar l. 2.2. Epig.—vixit inaequalis. Ho­rat l. 2. Sat. 7 —Nil fuit un­quam, Sic im­par sibi. Id. l. 1. sat. 3. Thus ye see how God doth love greatnesse in other things, and why not in Cities? yes, or else as it was said of [...], that he was so mutable, that he knew not what he would have, nor what he would be, and of Prisous; that he lived un­equally to himself; and of Tigellius Sardus, that for his fickle expressions, he was like a person unlike to himself: so a man might suspect God had various affections in him, that what he doth resent in one thing he hath a regret against it in ano­ther: but there is no such inconstancy in the immutable God; therefore as he doth exalt other things by their greatnesse, so he doth set out the honour of Cities by being great; or descri­bing them to be great. Ashur built Reshen, the same is a great City. Gen. 10.12. Gibeon was a great City, as one of the royall Ci­ties, greater then Ah. Jos. 10.2. Sidon the great. Jos. 11.8. He­math the great. Amos 6.2. the Canaanites had great Cities, and walled up to Heaven. Deut. 1.28. Yea, great and goodly Cities. Deut. 6.10. How is Gebers Sons portion magnified for this? To him pertained the region of Argob, which is in Basham with threescore great Cities, which had walls and brasen bars. 1 Kings 4.13. Yea, how is Babylon because it was a great City mentio­ned with all the emphaticall appellations that can be imagi­ned? It is called the Virgin Daughter. Esa. 47.1. the Golden Cup. Jer. 51.7. the glory of Kingdoms, and the beauty of the Chal­dees excellency. Esa. 13.19. No marvail therefore, if God doth so plead for the preservation of Nineveh, for it was no vulgar inferiour City, but a City, and a great City. Should not I spare Ni­neveh, a great City? Yes, the greatnesse of it was a great induce­ment God to restrain the imminent danger of it; for first, it had been a long in comming to that height; Elephantis par­tus. Annosa quercus. Mar­mor durabile, diuturnitate temporis du­rescit. greatnesse is not sud­dainly attained unto, no, there is a long time for the producti­on of it. Men rise by degrees, and so do all other things. An Elephants birth (as some say) is two years in the bringing forth, an Oak is an hundred years in the ground, the durable Marble lyeth many hundred years in the bowels of the earth before it is hardened. Tantae melis erat.— Could Nineveh then on an instant lift up her head with glory? no, of so great difficulty was it for her to be seen in her bignesse, and beauty. How then doth it grieve God to lay wast such a City, which had such a tract of time to be compleatly built? Hee would spare Nineveh [Page 183]the Great, because by so many pawses, and interstitiums it came to be Great. Secondly, because of their long standing, for it had continued in that flourishing condition for above a thousand years; old evidences, old Monuments, old gold, old Proverbs, old Families, and pedigrees are dear to us, how much more the great City, which was the old City, shall be pretious in Gods eye? He that would not have us to remove the antient bounds, will not be very ready himself to deface that which is antient. Age is a Grown of glory; and diuturnity in any thing is thus diademed; Omnia momentae antiquitatis servande sunt, Val. Max. l. 3. the hoary hairs of a long con­tinuance upon the head of any thing, as well, as any man, are venerable. Allethe moments of Antiquity, are to be observed. Theophilus caused one to be beat en with clubs, because he over­shadowed an old house with new buildings, and so the ho­nour of antient things is strictly to be preserved. Art not thou of old O Lord our God, our holy, one? Hab. 1.12. Yes, and as he is of old himself, so be doth affect any thing that is old. Nineveh then that was not only the City of Conquests, but the City of continuance, not the City of Authority, but the City of Ages, which could plead prescription of time, and out date the longest-lived City then in the world, which might be a grandame to all the younger daughters; for when they were sparse conceived in the womb, or drawn from the womb by the Midwife, or were out of their swadling cloths, which had not a stone laid, or a gate built, then she stood upon her feet, traced the earth with terrour, was full of Towers, and Palaces, sate in a Throne, had her Imperiall Robe upon her back, Provinces, and Kingdoms doing obeysance to her; Oh is it not pitty, that such an old, gray headed City should pe­rish? yes, a man would not make a spoyle of old Altars, old Liberties, old Statues, old Customes, old Records, old Sepul­chres, how much lesse should the great God make a devasta­tion of such an old City. No, he would spare it because it was great in dominion, and great in diuturnity, of a large extent, and long standing; I might likewise shew you that God would spare this great City for the great misery that should happen upon the fall of such a great City; for what a lowd shriek must there be heard from the lips of so many perishing souls? and likewise for the great repentance that had been expressed in such a vast City; for what a Sea of tears had there dropped from the eyes of such numerous Penitents? But I have shewn you the speciousnesse, and spatiousnesse of the City, and this was enough to prompt God to spare it, even be cause it was Great, Should not I spare Nineveh, the great City?

Application.

1. This serves to shew, that God is no enemy to greatnesse; I ac­cuse not riches, Divitias non accuso, sed illum, qui male utitur. Chrys. Hom. de divite, & paup. usus ho­rum bonus, [...]a­busio mala. Bern. de consid. ad Eugen., l. 2. c. 6. but him who uses them ill. The use is good, the abuse is only evil. Is prosperity an execration? or greatnesse a curse? no I find it styled the Lords dowry, Gen. 30, 20. and Gods candle, Job 29.3. and Gods cup, Psal. 23.5. and Gods crown, Prov. 14.24. Greatnesse is oftentimes the pledge of Gods goodnesse, yea the seal of his favour; so far from being a smile from Mam­mons brow, that it is the shining of Gods face, Numb. 6.25. so far from being the amiable complexion, that the Devil should lend us, that it is the beauty of the Lord our God upon us, Psal. 90.17. We seem to live upon Gods bread, for God which fed me all my life long, Gen. 48, 15. and to dwell in his Tenements, for He made them houses, Exod. 1.21. and to mount the hill of preferment upon the back of his saddle horse, for I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, Esa. 58.14. and to king it amongst our brethren by his inauguration; for He set them amongst the Princes, and made them inherit the Throne of glory, 1 Sam. 2.8. The various flowers that spring from prosperi­ty, are they not styled Gods garden, Ezech. 28.13. The diversi­ty of comforts, and benefits which we enjoy in this world, are they not sanctifications as it were of the divine providence? blessings of the heavens above, blessings of the deep beneath, blessings of the breast, and the womb: Gen. 49.25. I know there is a Mam­mon of unrighteousnesse, but that is, when it is in the hand of an evill Possessor. Talibus bonis non fiunt homi­nes boni. Aug. ad Ripar. & Paulinam ep. 45. Quae hic honorant, ibi o­nerant. Id. ad Maximum ep. 203. I know our riches may eat our flesh like fire, but that is, when usurpation or injustice hath turned these into sire-brands. It is true, by such goods, men are not made good; and the honours of this life may be the burthens of the next life, but that is when unregenerate men are entitled to them; sinne doth damn every thing to us, grace doth make every thing a bles­sing; make good thy tenure therefore, and fear not thy free­hold; a Saint may enjoy a great Mansion, a great Castle, a great City. Terrenae civita­tis temporalis gloria non de­struit caelestia bona sed astruit. Bern. in ser. ad mil. Temp. c. 3. Temporall glory doth not destroy eternall felicity. Con­version is a just Owner, Repentance hath the lawfull demise of all copious Revenue. Be penitent therefore, and be po­tent; be a Ninevite, and fear not thy great City, forget not thy sackeloth, and in time convenient I forbid thee not scar­let; lye upon thy ash-heap, and lye afterwards upon thy bed of down; neglect not fasting, and taste of delicacies; enjoyn penance to thy beasts, and ride upon thy Palfrey; cry migh­tily, and sing joyfully; turn from thy evill wayes, and walk (if thou wilt) in a paved Court; forbear the violence of thy [Page 185]hands, and let thy hands (if thou canst) be filled with abun­dance; be but rich in God, and let there be no end of thy ri­ches; seek the Pearl, and wear Jewels. For are piety, and prosperity, religion and revenue, grace and greatnesse, op­posites? Is wealth a larges: onely for sinners? must every Professor be a Beggar, and live in an Almes-house? Hath the Devill the whole world in fee-farme? doth he grant Leases of all the possessions upon earth? must all rich men needs be damned? this were to justifie Julians rage, who took away all the goods from the Christians, telling them that their Savi­our commanded them to be poor. We must be content under our poverty, if God send it, not make hast to be rich, or make riches our principall lively-hood, but otherwise we may en­joy riches as well as others. Jacob was vertuous, and yet he had his two bands, Gen. 32.10. Boaz was pious, and yet a mighty man of wealth, Ruth. 2.1. Job righteous, and yet the great man of the East, Job 4.1. Jehosaphat religious, and yet he had riches, and honour in abundance, 2 Chron. 17.5. It is a dis­temper to make a Saint an Hermite; or a Fryer, Mendicant; as if whosoever hath sufficiency, Hoc attendite, ne passim divites reprehendatis. Aug. in Ps. 5. Injustae dicuntur divitiae, non quia aurum & argentum in­justum fit, sed quia injustum est eas putare di­vitias, quae ava­ritiae non aufe­runt egestatem. Amb. in Psal. 118. Nec divi­ti obsunt opes, si ijs bene utatur. Jer. ad Salv. Sufficientiam vitae non inde­center, quisquis eam vult. Aug. ad Probam. ep. 121. Ne puten­mala, dantur & bonis; ne pu­tentur magna, & summe bona, dantur & ma­lis. Aug. ad Bonifac. ep. 70. this man must have no ful­nesse; or whosoever be mighty, he must not be great. But oh be carefull in this, that ye do not generally reprehend rich men. Riches are not unjust, but it is unjust to think those riches, which do not take away covetousnesse. Riches do not hurt the wealthy man, if he use them well. Sufficiency of estate, whosoever doth desire, he doth lawfully de­sire it. Riches that they might not be thought evill, they are given to the good; that they might not be thought the chiefe good, they are gi­ven to the evill. So then, a righteous man may challenge his earthly possessions, as well as the greatest worldling; yea, it were no solaecism to say, That the Saint is the true Land-hol­der upon earth. The wicked have riches by permission, but the godly by commission, the one by possession, the other by promise; for is not Gods covenant past, and his patent sealed to the righteous? Yes, there God commanded the blessing, Levit. 25.21. there shall be showres of blessing, Ezech. 34.26. and blessings powred out in such an abundant measure, that there shall be no room to receive them, Mar. 3.10. Saint then, rise as fast as thou canst, so long as fraud doth not promote thee; let thy house be stately, and thy chambers large, so long as thou dost not build thy house by unrighteousnesse, and thy chambers by wrong, Jer. 22.13. Serve God, and thrive under so good a Master, let not thy obedience runne at low water, and then let thy prosperity rise as the flood. God will not be offended at thy greatnesse, for he doth plead for greatnesse: Should not I spare Nineveh, a great City?

2. This doth shew, that there will ever be degrees of states [Page 186]and conditions; Zoar was but a little City, Bethlehem was the least amongst the thousands of Judah, and yet Nineveh here is a great City. Oh then that some people would weigh men in the ballance without allowance of their graines, or prepare the same last for every foot without granting a larger size; which justle with their Neighbours if they seem to out-top them, and count them Giants, Monsters of mankind, if they have a larger proportion then themselves; Why shouldst thou be my superiour? why should not I be as great as thou? This is with Tarquinius the proud, to lop off the heads of the pop­pies in the Garden, till all be brought to the same height; or to serve men, as that inhuman Hoast Procrustes served his guests, who laid them all in one bed, and they which were too long for the bed he cut them shorter, and they which were too short for it, he stretched them out to belonger. But is there an equality in other things, that people would expect a pari­ty amongst men? Are all stars of the same brightnesse? all Pearls of the same lustre? all Mines of the same richnesse? all Fowls of the same swiftnesse? all Beasts of the same bignesse? all Trees of the same fruitfulnesse? No, Nature hath her dif­ferences, and why not the like amongst men? Yes, before ye can reduce men to an evennesse, and an identical greatnesse, ye must first bring them all to the same height, complexion, strength, Hecale pauper­rima fuit, & de eâ dixit Plaut tus in [...]istellaira St quidem eris, ut [...]olo, nun [...]uam Hecase fies. humour, wit, and trade; Indeed I know, Nature cannot endure to be under, or if people could live as some of their familiars do desire, get promotions by wishes, there would not be a Hecale, that is, a poor person in the world. But this cannot be, for there will be diversity of men, if there were but two twins living alone upon earth; howsoever as the world is now peopled, Tu in legione, ego in culina. Nec toga, nes focus est, nec tritus cimice lectus. Martial. lib. 11. Epig. Si hunc sustule­ris, universum interit. Chrys. in Ps. 148. it is but a stage of severall Actors: the Adage saith well, Thou a Commander in an Army, another a drudge in the Kitchin; there is one richly clad, and hath his warm fires to beak himselfe at, and soft lodging every night, and another to whom their is neither coat, nor hearth, nor well drest bed. Human society cannot subsist without a superiority, take away a Chiefe, and the whole world will go to ruine. Were all the parts in Nebuchadnezzars Image alike? The body is not one member, but many; if the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? if the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? 1 Cor. 12. Therefore the Scripture speaketh of Princes of the Assembly, Numb. 16.2. Ancients of the people, Isai. 3.14. Such as are set over the Congregation, Numb. 27.16. Heads of the house of Jacob. Mic. 3.9. Dignities, 2 Pet. 2.10. Principalities and Powers, Tit. 3.1. Shields of the earth, Psal. 47.9. Foundations of the earth, Psal. 82.5. Mountaines of Israel, Ezeck. 36, 1. Men higher then Agag, Num. 24.7. Which have the key, Isai. 22.22. Bear the sword, Rom. 13.4. Hold the Scepter, Amos 1.5. And ex­cellent [Page 187]Majesty is added to them, Dan. 4.36. Therefore content thy selfe with thine own state and condition, every one doth not carry a Governour about him, nor doth he find a Ruler in his Scabbard, nor puffe out himselfe a Magistrate by stout language: He is not skinned Prince, nor doth bring a Scepter out of his Cradle, much less can Crown himself with the prin­ciple of equality; what Myriads of Dynasts, and Despots▪ and Imperiall Creatures would there be, if the Doctrine of parity were pure Revelation? But in all Ages there have been, and to the last age there will be Orders and Degrees; yea to the world end we shall see the ignoble and the noble, the impo­tent and the potent, the needy and the full, the subject and the soveraign, the small City and the great City. Should not I spare Nineveh, a great City?

3. This doth exhort every one to be sensible of his greatnesse; for oh that God hath made thee great, and that he hearth no­thing of his own bounty! that he hath raised thee, and yet thou art silent under such a liberall Benefactor! that thou art great onely in thy ostentation, or haughtinesse, but not in thy thankfulnesse! where is thy praise for such preferment? thy sacrifice for such greatnesse? No, the Ox knoweth his owner, and the Ass his masters Grib, but God doth raise up servants, which know not their own Master, or hath maintained Pensioners, that understand not the royall hand of their own gracious Prince. Antoninus Caracalla, doth vex Cilo, Vexavit Cilo­nem, qui eum educaverat. Dion. Nescire se utrum in numero ho­minum, an De­orum poneret. Plut. in Ly­curgo. who had brought him up. So we grieve our Fost r-father. Lycurgus that was so good, that Apollo knew not whether he should put him into the number of men, or Gods; and which had given such sin­gular laws to his Lacedemonians, and done so many good of­fices for them, yet his last reward was to have stones cast at him, and after one of his eyes struck out, to be banished the Country. So we recompence God rather with injuries and indignities for his favours, than with any commemoration of his mercies. Bless the Lord O my soul, saith David, and forget not all his benefits, Psal. 103.2. A high duty, and very few there are amongst us that are officious in it; we receive many bles­sings out of his hands, but he doth receive very few blessings out of our lips, instead of not forgetting all his benefits, there is scarce one that doth stand upon record, or is engraven into our thankful souls; no, we are so far from singing a Benedict­us, that the blessing is no sooner handed, but we are ready to sing a Valedictus. How us this Land embroydered with mer­cies? Blessings are the chekerwork of heaven, but are there any carved pillars amongst us where these favours are cut out, and graphically pourtrayed? God many Temples in [Page 188]this Nation, but few of them are consecrated; Te Deum is not sung in them; God doth not seem to inhabit the praises of Israel. We leave God so soon as our turns are served, as Diomedes left Callirhoe, so soon as shee had saved him from the fury of her father Lycas, Sabel. l.c. 7.2. who was wont to sacrifice all his strange guests upon the Altar of Mars. Pro gratiarum actione nihil a­liud scripsit Caesari, quam Mihi nihil. Macrob. Sa­turn. l. 2. c. 4. Augustus paid all the debts of a decayed Senator unasked, but he returned him no other thanks, but this unthankful rescript, To me nothing; so let God disburse never so much to us, or for us; yet we suppress all his bounty, we cast up all the sums in naked empty Ciphers, To us nothing. But oh beloved, doth man for favours meet with no better requitall? Yes, the Abideni having their City taken by slaves, they upon a certain time being drunk, a woman leap­ing over the wall, and acquainting them with the accident; to the honour of the woman, they set up an Image with her picture in it, because by her meanes they recovered their Ci­ty again. Athen. l. 13. c. 11. Pyrrhias redeeming an old man out of the hands of Pirates, and he telling him where he might find a great deale of gold covered over with pitch, he getting the treasure, and growing infinitely rich upon it, offered a Bullock to testifie his thankfulnesse, Nemo bene me­rito bovem im­molavit praeter Pyrrhiam. Plut in quaest. Grae­canicis. Diodor. Sic l. 20. for the old mans kindnesse, insomuch that it went for a Proverb, That no man was more thankfull then Pyrrhias. Demetrius Polyorcetes, freeing the Sicyonians from the yoke of Prolemy; they took it so thankfully, that they called their chief City after his name, Demetrias; and kept an annuall feast as long as the City stood to commemorate such a deliverance. These and thousand the like examples, might be produced to declare how apprehensive people are of mens favours, but where is there the like gratitude expressed to­wards God? Let him pleasure us in never so many things, yet he doth get neither pillar nor bullock, nor any thing called after his name: as noble hearts as we seem to have to others, we are base towards our God; we think it inhumanity to forget courtesies, but here we forget blessings; man can heare of his Civilities, but not God of his respects. Here all obligations and engagements dye with the participation of the favours, as if we had neither sight, speech nor affection; so that we are strict Courtiers, but very formall Christians? we are mens very humble ser­vants, and thrice bounden, but we are Gods very insolent ser­vants, and scarce one twisted; oh what are the ties, and bands of blessings? We do not render again according to the benefits done unto us. 2 Chron. 32.25. Ingratitude is branded upon our brows, brests, eyes, ears, lips, and lives: where is there pro­motion, and devotion, favour, and zeal met together? No, oh ye great men, ye are the great dis-esteemers, and dispara­gers [Page 189]of mercies, a non-magnifying, and unglorifying genera­tion. Ye cannot see favours at Noontide, nor speak of mer­cies, when every corner of your houses is a Pulpit, where ye have domesticall Chaplains to preach out unto you Gods blessings. Why are ye thus blind, and deaf? would ye weep for the want of blessings? and do they congeal you with their warmth? is it your high ambition to be great, and doth great­nesse dwarf you by raising you many Cubits above your bre­thren [...] constrain not Heaven to defy you, as if ye were de­testations; Force not God to cry out, Hear oh Heavens, and hearken oh Earth, as if ye were Monsters. Set your eyes there­fore (if it be possible) right in your heads, and seek up mer­cies; turn the keyes in those rusty lips of yours, that that bed-rid duty of thankfulnesse may walk sorth, and sing hymnes to the honour of blessings; if ye be great, know who hath given you these dimensions; if ye be great, be not too great for your Maker; Cogit [...] quo cultu transieris Hi­striam, & qui­bus nunc utaris vestibus E [...]asm. in vitâ Chrys. as Chryso [...]lom said to Gaynas the Arian Captain, Bethink thy self in what poor attire thou diost once posse through Histria, and how richly thou art now apparelled; So consider ye the simple weed perhaps, that was once upon your backs, and how God hath given you change of apparell. Had ye al­waies such shops, such Counting-houses; such wardrobes, such cupbords of plate, such chains, such jewels, such habi­tations, such honours? have ye forgotten your beginnings? can ye not tell how many pieces ye were worth when ye were first sworn Freemen? or ye sealed the first leaf to have a stand­place for trading? oh swollen cheeks, staring eyes, infatuated brains, look backward, search out your selves to the first year, and quarter, nay, the first change of the Moon, when your prosperity crept out of the nest, and first cast the shell from her spoonfeathered head; and set down every penny that ye have received out of Gods privy purle; remember how ma­ny thousand pounds ye are indebted to Gods blessing. Ye are ignorant men to imagine that the Original of your welfare be­gan at your selves, yea arrogant, and Mad men to think that your own prudence, or diligence hath advanced you. Ire­turned, and saw under the Sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battell to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of un­derstanding. Eccles. 9.11. are ye high? ye are lifted up; are ye great? ye are made great. Consider therefore what a small stock ye had once to begin with, and how God hath convey­ed unto you hidden Treasure, what Minums ye were once in the world, and what Grandees ye are now become; and let every man of you, like a person rapt and transported with a traunce, and exstasy, that ye are made Heavens Favourites, [Page 190]say with David, Who am Ioh Lord God? and what is my house, that thou hast brought me hitherto? 2 Sam. 7.18. Oh if ye will not confesse the kindnesse of your Creditour, he may well call back what he hath lent you; if ye will not acknowledge what webs ye have spun out of his providence, he may justly reco­cover his Weoll, and his Flax; Let them be fired out of their e­states, or shipwracked in their means, or turn Bankrupt in trading, who so long as they abound know not the benefit of fulnesse, or so long as they are advanced see not who hath advanced them. Oh therefore if your mouths be satisfied with good things, know who it is that hath given you such a taste of bounty, if ye have treasures by the heap, consider who it is that hath filled your coffers; if ye be great, blesse the Au­thor of your greatnesse. When ye eat in plenty, and are satisfied, praise the name of the Lord your God, which hath done wonderfully with you. Joel 2.28. say with David, All that we enjoy commeth of thine hand, and all is thine own. 1 Chron. 29.16. I know it is an hard thing to fetch praise out of preferment, or gratitude out of greatnesse, to get a rich man to speak, or a great man to magnify; but know your duty, lay to heart the office of prosperity, and see Gods Image stamped upon your coin, and him written Founder upon the groundsells, pillars, tarasses, roofs, and lanthorns of your houses; oh therefore perfume an estate with devotion, make Gods providence the crest of your escutcheon. If ye flourish upon earth, look up to hea­ven; if your boughs be laden with fruit, let God taste the first ripe apples of the tree; if ye be rich, celebrate divine favour; if ye be mighty, remember your best Friend; if ye be great, be not unthankfull; why should Gods eye be fixed upon thee? why should his rain fall upon thy ground? why shouldst thou see the Rivers, and floods, and brooks of honey, and butter? why should he take thee by the hand? why should he lift up thy head? is there no reason for thy weal? then there is all the reason for thy zeal. They have poverty, thou hast prosperity; they are empty, thou dost abound; they have a narrow border, thy border is enlarged; they have ex­tremity, thou hast excellency; they have hardship, thou hast honour; they have neither means, nor meat, thy portion is lat, and thy meat plenteous; they are fallen into decay, thy encrease doth rise like the spring: oh then that thi [...] distinct state should not beget in thee distinct devotion; the sight of their pressures might extract from thee praises; thou dost deserve to be pinched with their wants, and clothed with their rags, if thy aboundance do not make thee sacrifice a whole burnt offering to the honour of thy promoting God; then as thou wouldst be preserved, blesse him that hath blessed thee, for greatnesse [Page 191]is not only a testimony of devine bounty, but an argument, and inducement for devine commiseration; if thou beest gra­tious, and gratefull, God will look upon thee the rather, be­cause thou art great, hee spared Nineveh because it was a great City. Should not I spare Nineveh, a great City?

Fourthly, this serves to shew what great endeavour there ought to be used in preserving this great City. Is such a great City easily spared? no, though God doth tender it, because it is a great City, yet he doth look that the Citisens fervour should be answerable to his pitty. Oh therefore have ye Gods eye in your head? or Gods heart in your bosome? do ye look upon it with a perplexed eye, or glow towards it with enflamed zeal? is your vigilancy quick-eyed? your dread dis­maying? your solicitousnesse anxious, your dejection abased? your contrition grinding? your mediation vehement? your reformation twise-rigorous? oh there must be strong Physick taken to recover such a Patient, potent Friends employed to get such a condemned Creature reprived. It is no ordinary humiliation, that will prevent the judgement against such a place; no, there had need be a wailing like the Dragons, and a howling like the Ostriches. Micah. 1.8. Yea, as at the reversing of the bloody decree, there had need be a great fasting, and mourning, weeping, and wayling, and many lying in sackcloth and ashes. Ester 4.3. the people had need lift up their voices, and weep till they have no more power to weep. 1 Sam. 30.4. Yea, the Priests, the Ministers of the Lord had need weep between the Porch and the Altar, saying, Spare thy people oh God. Joel 2.17. Yea, with Hezekiah they had need to rend their clothes, to go up into the house of the Lord, to send Eliakim which was over the houshold, and Shebnah the Scribe, and the Elders of the Priests covered with sackcloth to Esay the Prophet, to spread the Letters before the Lord, and to pray earnestly to him that dwels between the Cherubims, to turn back such a Senacherib. Yea, with Moses they had need to break in pieces the Tables of the Law, to tear asunder all their Bibles, as if they were unworthy of the knowledge of God, and to burn the golden Calf in the fire, and grind it to powder, and strew it upon the water, to abolish all the memorialls of those things which have been occasionall to the sins of the times, to stand in the gate of the Camp, and do execution upon the particular Offenders, to go up unto God with a trembling heart, as not knowing whether the place and people be not past reconciliation, Peradventure I shall make an attonement for your sin, and plainly to confesse the fact, and acknowledge the guilt, to lay open all the heinous, and hideous abominati­ons of the times, which are known, and visible, Oh this people [Page 192]have sinned a great sinne in making them Gods of gold; yea, to importune God to be appeased, & rather then we should not come away with the pardon in our hand, to offer to be slain at Gods feet to save so many lives; to be sacrificed our selves, to redeem such a goodly place from an exigent; yea to have our names and persons razed out of the land of the living, rather than the name of Israel should be expunged; Yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin; if not, blot me I pray thee out of the Book which thou hast written. Thus we had need to be all vigour and vehemency, dejection and devotion, sollicitousnesse and sorrow, conflict and conversion, satisfaction and sacrifice, pro­stration and propitiation, reconciliation and reformati­on, soul and solemnity in so importunate a work. Oh it is a great City, and how many sinnes are there to be expiated? Oh it is a great City, and what a great trespasse-offering must there be made for it? oh it is a great City, and what great Penitents must there be to preserve it? Set the whole City before your eyes, and see how ye had need to set your whole strength to it to anticipate, Qui timidè ro­gàt, docet nega re. Seneca. In disputationi­bus adeo vehe­mens erat, ut ex illius oculis ar­dentes scintillae egredi videren­tur. Laert. l. 2. Coma horrore arrigebatur, o­culique animi quoddam tripu­dium circa dog­mata occupati testabantur. Eu­napius de vitâ sophistarum. Tympanizo sed Ajacis scuto. Cael. R. l. 10. c. 11. Sudores manabant, & venae frontis contumescebant. Jovius in Elo­giis. Tu percute, ego caput prae­bebo; neque fu­stem tam durum invenies quo me à tuis disputati­onibus abigas. Aelian. lib. 10. Variar. Hist. Sparta, inquit, ex uno non pen­det. Plut. in Apoph. or to repell vengeance lifting up her hand to strike. Either plead earnestly, or the case is lost; either administer the best Physick, or the party doth die. He which doth pray but faintly, doth teach God to deny: He that do h mediate remisly, doth but prepare God to reject. O when I read of the earnestnesse that many men have had in other attempts, and see how languishing, we are in matters of grea­ter conseqence, how do I think that people have least care of their soules, or zeal to the Church. Menedemus Eretriensis was such an earnest Disputant, that burning sparkles seemed to come out of his eyes. Chrysanthius was another man than himselfe, when he came to determine deep points of Philo­sophy, for his hair stood right up, and his eyes seemed to dance. Scopelianus acted the Souldier so well, that he seemed to have Ajax his Helmet upon the stage. Andreas Maro Brixi­anus, made verses, till his brows sweatt, and the veynes of his forehead did swell. Diogenes was so desirous of learning, that when Antisthenes reprehended him, he would not give back, when he beat him, he would not depart; Thou shalt never find a club hard enough to drive me away from thy dispu­tarions. Callicratidas was so desirous of victory for his Coun­try-men, that when the South-sayer told him, that the Spar­tanes should have the conquest, but he must dye in the battell for it; Let me dye, saith he, so long as my Country may be happy: Spar­ta doth not depend upon the life of one man. When Rome was punished with a great dearth of corne, Pompey having search­ed the Granaries of Sicily, and other places for supply, and gotten together a great quantity of provision, he was so ar­dent [Page 193]to succour the famishing City, that a great tempest a­rising, and he being disswaded not to put to Sea at that time, Na [...]gare neces­se est, vivere r [...]n est. Plut. in Apoptheg. he leaped into the Ship, and caused the Anchors to be drawn up, saying, It is necessary to sail, but not to live. Antonius Abraeus, at the siege of the Moluccae, being Admirall of the Navy, and shot through both his cheeks with a Bullet, Alphonsus Albu­querque sent another to be his substitute; no, saith he, I will endure no substitute, N [...]n seginùs, quàm si nu [...] um accepi [...]t vulnus mur [...]re suo per­fanctu [...] est. Osor. l. 7. re­rum Eman. for I can give counsail with my wounds dropping, and out of earnest longing to see the worke per­fected; he lifted up himselfe, and managed every thing so stoutly, as if he had received no wound at all. A S [...]ythia [...], to harden his body, went naked in a Snow, the King of the Country asked him if he did not freez, he bad the King see whether his forehead did freez; no, saith the King; then, Qu [...]medo frigus non tolerem, cum nihil sim aliud praeter fr [...]n [...]em? Aelian. l. 7. Var. Histor. Sueton. de Nerone. Plut. Orat. 2. de fortuna A­lexandri. how can I freez, saith the other, when I am all forehead? Nero, to get the honour of a rare singer, often purged, and vomited, took much oyl, and wore a plate of lead upon his brest. Apelles to get the fame of a rare Painter, drew the picture of Alexan­der so exactly, that the people said that Alexander which Philip begat, was Alexander the Great; [...]at the Alexander which A­pelles had limmed, was Alexander the greater. Hadingus, a King of the Danes, that he might excell in the Magicall art, he compacted with Othinus the worst of spirits, and drank of sweet potions to iufuse vigour into him for horrid attempts, and suffered himselfe by Aragnoptus and Haflius, Deductus est ab illis ad loca in­ferna, in quibus plurima arcana mortalibus in­cognita contem­platus est. Joh. Magnus l. 2. to be car­ried down to hell it selfe, that he might learn there secrets unknown to any mortall men. Thus have I given you vari­ety of examples, to shew you how industrious men have been to attaine to their desired aimes and ends in seve­rall kinds, and all these have I produced, to shame us in our religious designes, the Oratour, Philosopher, Actor, Souldi­er, Musician, Painter, and Magician, do out-vy us in dili­gence and earnestnesse: oh that spirituall things were pro­secuted with the like heat, that naturall, morall, or damned things are. The children of this world are wiser than the children of light. Wiser? nay activer. Oh that the great City had but as much service and sedulity bestowed upon it as a great pro­ject, or a great fancy; we have brains, and armes enough for other things, but here we have neither pregnancy nor prowesse; we think to save a great City without laying both shoulders to her support, or calling forth the two Master­workmen, Body and Soul, to do their utmost for her preser­vation; the great City hath not so much regard shewn her, as a great beast, or a great Faulcon, or a great Picture; oh how tender we are of these? how negligent we are of this? God may take pitty of the City, but we expresse little com­miseration [Page 194]to it; he may plead for it, but we do not intercede for it; he may say, Should not Ispare? but we do not say, Oh that it might be spared; we would preserve it onely by looking on it, or talking of it, or putting up a formall mo­tion for it; we do not fast as if we deserved not to eat bread till the City were in safety; nor weep, as if we had not teares enough in our eyes to lament the afflicted state of the City; nor pray, as if we would not rise up from our knees, till we had procured peace for it in heaven; or reform, as if we would not leave a guilt behind to curse the City: no we walk the City, and discern no breaches in it; we gaze upon the City, and behold not the sides of it cracking, we are blind in seeing her sinnes, and stupid in fearing her judgments; as if we cared not to have this pile of wonder pulled down, and this bright Diamond to be shivered in pieces; all Nations admire it, and we only slight it, or neglect it: This City doth wall in recklesse Inhabitants, feed unthankfull guests, and hold out her brests to unnaturall children, which are neither aff [...]ctionate to her welfare, nor compassionate over her ruine, Yet forty dayes and Nineveh shall be destroyed, let it be destroyed; for we do not keep it from sinking or burning: If there were such a Jonah here, there would not be such Ninevites. What do we at the cry? how are we frighted at the threatning? It is a great City, but what great insensibility, indolency, and indevotion is there in it? When I read how the Heathens pa­cified their offended Deities, the Athenians digging up the bodies of the dead, as if their precedent sinnes had defiled De­los, and carrying them to Rhenta with this prohibition, that no man afterwards should either be born, Sabel. l. 6. Antid. 3. or dye in Rhenia, for the sake of those cursed bodies that were there laid; Zerxes throwing his princely vessell, and a golden goblet, and a Per­sian sword into the Sea, because he had whipt the Hellespont. The Romans burning their Armour, Herod. l. 7. Alex. l. 3 c. 22. Eurip. in Iphig. Jeron. l. 13. com in Esay c. 46. Polydor l. 5. c. 8. de invent. Jovius l. 34. Histor. Chariots, and Ships, as if they had put to much confidence in their own strength. Aga­memnon offering his owne Daughter Iphigenia to Calchas the Priest, to be made an obation for all Greece at dulis. Belus sa­crificing his own children. Heliopolis sacrificing three of the purest men they could find in the City to appease Ju [...]o. The­mistitan sacrificing every year twenty thousand Infants and children, that the incensed Gods might be reconciled to the City. I say, when I read this rifling graves, burning of goods, and butchering of living souls amongst the Heathens, how am I astonished to see with what cheap sacrifices we would procure an atonement: in stead of digging up dead bodies, we will not dig up our dead sins; in stead of burning our goods, [Page 195]we will not incinerate our pleasures, in stead of offering up blood we will not offer up tears. Oh superficiall pacification; Is this enough to mitigate an avenging God? Is this enough to unsnare, to extricate a great City? surely ye never saw the City, or took the length of it, or measured the compasse and circumference of it, that are so scant and narrow in your de­votions. Is this City so stiffe, that it cannot bow? is it so plea­sant, that it cannot cry? is it seated in such a dry soyl, that there is no water in it? Oh sit upon Ninevehs ash heap, ma­cerate your selves with Ninevehs fast, drench your streets with the water of Ninevehs Conduit, or else this great City which hath been your great Triumph, may be your great Terrour; ye may enquire for a gate to sigh at, and find none, or seek for a pillar to shed teares at it, and not any be left standing; what tongue can expresse, or heart conceive, the great misery up­on the downfall of so great a City? Art thou better then popu­lous No? Nah. 3.8. Art thou better then the great Nobility? and the great Church? These are fallen before thee, and thou maist fall after them; where then is the City Scout? the City Re­membrancer? the City Sollicitor? Oh the City doth look pale, fetch blood into her cheeks by your pitty; the City doth shake, prop her up with your Petitions: the City is sick unto death, cure her with your conversion. I do not wish you to fight and kill, I am no warlike man, neither have I any Martiall tongue in my head, but I wish you to plead, and pray, bring forth your right Artillery, make use of your pro­per weapons; the stout hands I call for, are supplicating hands; the bright harness I require, is the compleat armour of Righ­teousnesse. It is no field Ammunition which I press for, but Temple Ammuntion; no Camp Ordinance, but Closet Or­dinance; Oh that the Penitent were discharging with his eys, and the Supplicant shooting with his lips; that we had some hearts edged with repentance, and some tongues sharp point­ed with Devotions; the Souldiers that I desire are Interces­sors, and the Captains that I long for, are Advocates; and would to God I could gather these Companies together, sum­mon in all the Trayned-Bands, see ye all stand in battel-ar­ray; that the ranks of Converts would discharge, and say to God Almighty, Oh wash away our blood, and rinse us not in vengeance, for it is a great City; cause not thy anger to fall upon us, for if thou beest offended, multitudes must feel thy displeasure, it is a great City; break us not with thy tempest, for if this storm doth dash us, many must be soaked in ruine, It is a great City: sift not the house, for vast heaps must be rid­led. It is a great City: put not the Cup of astonishment to our mouthes, for numbers are to be drunk with this fatall bowl. [Page 196] it is a great City; cry not an utter destruction, for this line of confusion must stretch far. It is a great City; smite not the great house with breaches, and the little house with clefts, for a cluster of goodly Eabricks must then be battered, and shattered, it is a great City. Oh what great affection, great pit­ty, great care, great zeal ought we to use for this great City? we had need to bring forth our strongest shore to underset this building, and lay down our whole estate to redeem this Jew­ell. Citisens then, where are your City-bosoms, your City-bowels, your City-grones, and your City-cries? Oh the great pride, riot, lust, oppression, malice, perfidiousnesse, apo­stacy, heresy, and blasphemy of this City, doth require a Ca­tholicon, a composition of all penitentiall ingredients to purge out the severall noxious humours out of this diseased body. Great sins, and great judgements do necessitate a great Repentance. Broken hearts, where shall I feel you? trickling eyes, where shall I see you? penitent Petitioners, where shal I hear you? Are ye at ease in Sion, when the gates of Sion are ready to lament? are ye with Sampson asleep in Dalilahs lap, when the Philistims are upon you? No, sigh in the Temple, that ye do not sob in the streets; grone in your closset, that ye do not roar in the fields; wash the City in tears, that it be not washed in blood; oh let there be some zeal to free you from flames, some repentance to prevent ruine. Prepare to meet thy God oh Israel. Gather your selves together, yea, gather your selves, oh Nation not desired, Before the decree come forth, before the day passe as the chaffe, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you. Remember that it is a great City, and that there is a great danger; therefore expresse a great humiliation. If ye have any remnants of grace, any reverence to Gods Laws; any sense of sin, or dread of a confounding God, consider, and correct; try and clense; weep, and reform. God would have pitty, if ye would but soften the bowels of his compassion, hee would spare, if ye would but prepare for mercy; but ye must be fer­vent Petitioners, for it is a great blessing ye expect, ye must be serious, and solemn Converts, for it is a great City, that you wish to be spared. Should not I spare Nineveh, a great City?

That.

Now let us come to the eminency. That, that great City. That, that is that Paragon, and Gemme of Cities, This is that disciple, so this is that great City; Joh. 21.20. For name all the Cities, that ever were [Page 197]in the world yet was there ever any that was greater than Ni­neveh? No, former times had not the like, nor later times the equall. Former times had not Thebes in Egypt, that opened an hundred gates. Corinth, that with her strong Castle built upon the Acro-Corinth, was called one of the fetters of Greece, Telesine which contained in it once 16000 Families. Carthage w^ch was 21 miles in compasse. Babylon, which amazed Alexander to see her stately walls, her pensil gardens, which seemed to hang in the Air, her artificiall groves, where treesgrow without any earth seen about them, her lofty Castle and miraculous kind of bridge built over the Euphrates. Rome which built so loftily, that Augustus Caesar was enforced to make a Law, that no man should build above seventy foot high: which was so large, that it contained in it seven hills, 37. gates, and 400000 men under the Cense, and so full of rare spectacles that it was ac­counted an earthly blisse to see Romam in store, Archbishop Abbot. Dr. Heylin. Mr. Purch [...]s. Mr. Hackluit. Sr. Ed. Sands Mr. Lithgoe. Thevet. an old history of the West In­dian Conquest by Ferdinando Cortez, and Pizzarro: Rome in her flowre. Yet none of these Cities in their greatest lustre were a­ble to stand in competition with Nineveh. The Cities of for­mer ages could not, and the Cities of these present times can­not. I confesse, I read of many excellent Cities in these daies. Odia in Siam is said to have above 40000 Families. Calecut in Malavar, doth stretch out three full miles in length by the Seashore. Mandao is so large in compasse, and so full of all manner of provisions, that it held out a siege by the space of twelve years, against all the forces of Miramudus, the great Mogul. Cambaia is reported to have in it 800000 persons. Nan­quin hath in it, besides large numbers of people, ten thousand ships, which are able with the Marriners that are to go in them, to make a goodly City. Quinzay honoured (as it is re­ported) with 12000 bridges, and a lake in the midst of the City of 30 miles compasse, with two Islands, wherein are gor­geous houses, & magnificent Palaces. Grand Carre built where Memphis once stood, or nigh to it, which hath in it, as some Historiographers write 18000 streets, insomuch that Sel mus the great Conquerour was three daies in passing them [...]hrow; and such numbers of people that they count it nothing in a great plague every seventh year, if they lose but 300000 in the year. Hispua, now called Casbin, which the proud Persi­sians do call Half the world, and say, that the compasse of it can­not be rid about on horseback under lesse time, then a whole day. Musco that wooden City, which hath in it sixteen Churches, and the Princes Palace with seventeen Turrets, and three great Bulwarks, and 25000 Souldiers for a constant guard. Cambalu (the seat of the Crim Tartar, who is called the shadow of spirits) which is said to be 28 miles in compasse, and hath in it a mighty confluence of merchants, insomuch [Page 198]that there are said to be 10000 Carts to have come former­ly every year laden with silks from China, and besides other Inhabitants it is reported to have 50000 Astrologers in it. Vi­enna famous for beautifull Temples, stately Monasteries, and a magnificent Palace for their Emperours, but it hath in it no great quantity of ground, nor multitude of Inhabitants, but as the Court doth replenish it. Paris, which is said to be ten miles in compasse, and hath in it lofty, and curious buildings, and 600000 Citisens, besides Souldiers and Schollars; of which last there are a multitude, by reason of their 55 Col-Colledges. Sevill, which is said to be six miles in compasse, and hath many excellent buildings, Churches, Monasteries, Prince­ly houses, and a goodly bridge over the River Baetis, and in­differently well peopled. Constantinople, where the spread Ea­gle was first plumed, and flew out of her nest into the Impe­riall Armes, and that not onely here began to look towards the East and West, but chiefly because when Constantine had re­solved to build a glorious City, and had laid the foundations of it in Asia (some say, in three severall places) the Eagles would not suffer the Workmen to go forward, but took up their tools in their bills and claws, and carried them to Byzan­tium, where this glorious City was built; glorious it was once, and somthing now sightly, be it but for the Mosques, State­houses, Almes-houses, and the Seraglio. Tlascalan, which is a goodly City in Guastacan, of large extent, and so shining afar off, that Ferdinando Cortez thought at the first fight of it, that it had been built all of pure silver. Mexico, which is in Tre­mistatan, six miles at least in compasse, and had in it about 70000 Families, and a goodly lake joyning to it, whereupon there were wont to be 40000 Canaoes fishing, and all the banks of the Lake spread round about with fair Towns, Cusco, which hath in it one of the goodliest Market-places in the world, and highly decked with rich, and sumptuous build­ings, for every Courtier was commanded there to build a Palace, and the whole City seemed to be nothing, but a large Chest heaped up with silver, and gold. Imperiall, a City in Chile, which was able once to set out 300000 Souldiers against their Enemies; El Dorado, the greatest City of America, some say of the world, full of Gold in Coin, golden Plate, and Ar­mour, a City so big, that Deigo Ordas was a day and a half tra­velling before he came to the Kings Palace. Yet none of these Cities in their greatest glory, were able to equall beams of Majesty with Nineveh; no, I have gone a large pere­grination to visit all the chief Cities in the world, but when I would shew to you the nest of the Phoenix, I must carry you back to Assyria, and wish you to turn your eyes upon Nineveh. [Page 199]Whatsoever it is, it was the Prince of Cities, That great City. Great for the Founders, Jeron. in Loc. Hebr. H [...]go de S. Victore. Pezel. in Mel­lif. Histor. Arius Monta­nus. Gra [...]ay. Hervin. for Ashur departing from Nimrod for his great cruelties, came hither, and laid the foundations of this City, which not only the scripture doth witnesse, Gen. 10. but it is confirmed by the testimonies of many learned men. And Belus his Son added somthing to the glory of it, for he af­ter he had subdued so many Countries, that his subjects made him a God, and offered the flesh of their Captives to him for a sacrifice, out of great depredations hee bestowed much cost upon the City. But it never came to perfection, till the time of Ninus, who reigning 52 years, Sabell l. 1. Aeneid. 1. and being a Prince of invin­cible courage, and happy successe, joyning with Ariaeus he vanquished Pharnus the King of the Medes, and crucified him, and some say he killed Zoroastes (though Volateran say, he dy­ed with the flashes of lightning) howsoever certain it is, hee won his Country of Bactria, as he did Armenia, Arabia, and Lybia, and grew to be such a mighty Prince, that the Calde­ans called him Hercules, and the Assyrians Jupiter; now this Ninus comming home full of prey to this Nineveh, after hee had built three Temples in gratitude for his victories, one to Belus his Father, another to Juno his Mother, and the third to Rhea his grandmother, to the perpetuall eternising of his name, he bestowed all the rest of his vast treasure upon this City, Euseb in Chron. Coactis undi­que viribus, & his quae ad tan­tum opus specta­rent, urbem c [...]ndidit. Diodor Sic. Euseb. in Chron B [...]d. in Gen [...] q 6 [...] Aug. de civi tate Dei. l. 16. cap. 3. Paterau [...]n op­pidalum, caput Imperii statait. Strabo. l. 6. Ab Ashur initia ejus civitatis caepisse, quam postea Ninus ampliorem, & augustio rem fe­cit. Pezel. in Mellif Histor. de Chald. pers. Graec. Monarch. us (que) ad Romanos Na­va habitavit. Jonah 3.3. which was to be called after his own name Nineveh, of Ninus, though some call it Ninoe, and Eusebius Nisibis; and the better to beautify the City, he caused all his principall Artificers and the flowre of his Nobility, to come and build here, so that it became at last the splendour of Assyria, and the Wonder of the whole world. It is true, many learned writers do hold Ashur, and Ninus to be the same person, yet by the judgement of very choise Authors, the contrary is maintained, Strabo saith, that Ninus raised up his Fathers little town to be the head of an Empire. Pezelius out of very good Antiquities doth affirm, that it may be safely held that Ashur gave but the beginning to the City, and that Ninus set it up in perfect beauty. Yea, it was That great Conquerour, that made it That great City; And that it was such a City, I shall make evident, not only from forced deri­vations, by which some Criticks would assert the excellency of the City, as Nin veh of Nave, Fair, or of Nava, full of habita­tions, or from glorious titles, as

1. That it was called Megalopolis, The great City, or Rahab­both, The peopled City: but I make it evident from that cleare testimony of Scripture, that it was called a Great and excel­lent City, or an exceeding great City, that is, a matchlesse City. In the Original, it is a City to God, or a City for God, as if it were fit­ter for God, than man to dwell in it; the first-born, the first-fruits [Page 200]were Gods, and why not the first City? it is called a City for God, Arias Mont. as if it were of an heavenly kind of magnitude, as Cedars are called the trees of God, for their procerity and loftinesse; the lofty Cedar, and this lofty City.

Secondly, It is that great City. From the duration of it? What City upon earth had such an uninterrupted felicity a [...] Nineveh? No, Athens, Thebes, Constantinople, and Rome it selfe, though they shone brightly for a time, yet they had their City-eclipses, strange variations and changes, by direptions and rapines, yea sad alterations both of Governours and Go­vernment. But this City had no such hurles and state-Heri­canoes; but it continued in a quiet, peaceable, and flourish­ing condition, some say for 1500 years, others for 1400, and all agree for above a thousand; a City that had never feaver, nor convulsion, epilepsy, nor palsie, in such a long decourse of Ages, how must it needs wax, and thrive to the heighth of greatnesse?

Thirdly, It was that great City, for the vast wealth that was found in it, for Belesus joyning with Arbaces, (some call him Arbactus, Some call him Belochus. and Arbastus) being present at the taking and bur­ning of the City, begging of Arbaces after the sacking and ri­fling of the City, to have barely the ashes of the City to be bestowed upon him, which at the first was freely granted him, he found such infinite store of gold and silver in the ashes, that it raised him to an incredible estate, there being an hundred millions of Talents in gold, and a thousand mil­lions of Talents in silver, found melted in the Palace of Sar­danapalus, besides the heaps of such coyn that was gathered up in the severall corners of the City. Well then, for that great Treasure, let it be that great City.

Fourthly, That great City, for the great emulation that was born against it; for was not the eminency of Nineveh accom­panied with much envy? Yes, there were many that did ma­ligne the honour and greatnesse of it, and amongst the rest, Semiramis. This Semiramis, from being a base child, as some report; from being an exposed child, as most averre; by the mercy of shepheards was taken up, and fostered till she came to ripe years, when appearing to be one of peerlesse beauty, she was presented to the Viceroy of Syria, who being rapt at the sight of her, received her very joyfully, and thankfully, and within a short time he married her to his eldest Son Me­non. The Viceroy being summoned to wait upon N nus in an expedition, He, and Menon, and Semiramis, went along toge­ther (according to the Eastern custome) into the Warres, where Ninus casting his eye upon this Semiramis, he thought her too rich a Jewel for a subject to wear, and took her home [Page 201]to his Cabinet, yea forced her, and wrested her from Menon, (for which he strangled himselfe) and made her his prince­ly Bride and bed-fellow, being enamoured upon her more then he was upon all the other rare beauties which attended on him, or were his amorous eye-marks, or his lustful Baths. Semiramis seeing her perfect conquest, that she had the Vi­tor himselfe in fetters, made use of her opportunity and authority; she secretly therefore envying the glory of Nine­veh, and ambitious in her selfe to raise up a Pile of her own, that should out-beam Nineveh; she begged this boon of Ni­nus, that she might have liberty to build a City her selfe, her Prince being wholly at her devoyre, and not able to deny her any thing, he granted her suit, Some say Nim­rod began the building of Babylon, that Semiramis en­larged it, and Nebuchadnez­zar perfected it. Others do say, That Se­miramis was the principall person to ad­vance the glo­ry of Babylon, and brought it in her dayes near to per­fection; for Berosus l. 4. doth write, that Nimrod built only the Tower, & not the City, nec designatam ur­bem fundavit; And he affirm­eth (if any credit may be given to him) that Nebuchad­nezzar built onely a new City joyning to the old, and as Scaliger notes upon the fragments of Berosus, saith that there he built his state­ly Pensile Gardens to satisfie the de­sire of his wife Nitocris. and furnished her with trea­sure to build where she would, and what she would, she in­stantly fixeth upon Babylon, and bestowed so much cost in building, that she thought to make it the mirrour of Archi­tecture, and the Nymph of Cities. Indeed the walles she made so admirable, that they were esteemed as one of the wonders of the world; in the rest of the buildings, her pride and am­bition had radiant reflexes; But because the saw that she had a restraint in her boundlesse desires, so long as Ninus lived; therefore she presented a second Petition, and that was, that he would give her leave to step out of the Bed-chamber into the Throne, and to raign as absolute Prince for some short time: some say, it was but for one day, others for two, others for five; Ninus infatuated with passionate affection, subscri­bed that Petition too; oh fatall thing for a Prince, for to de­liver the Scepter out of his hand, or to give away his Crown for an hour! for Semiramis in this stint of Government, be­fore the last minute of her command was expired, got her Husband to be made away, and murthered; Oh prodigious new Prince! what mischiefe may be done in the space of a few punctilioes? Well, Semiramis being footloose, wading through her Husbands blood to the bank of Principality; she dedicated all the treasures he had left her, to the shrine of Ba­bylon; Babylon is decked and adorned with all the Jewels of the Crown, which she could spare. But because vast expen­ces will drayn even Princes Coffers; for where the Vessell is alwayes running, at last it will be drawn out to the dregs, therefore Semiramis finding a decay of riches, she goeth forth to dig in the Gold-mines abroad. She mustereth up an Army, and marcheth forth with such a Besome of Souldiers, that she was able to sweep all the earth as she went, in that expedition she conquered the Aethiopians, and returning back with fame and spoil from that place, she invaded the Sagdi­ans, Hir [...]nians, Parthenians, Arachosians, Araspians, Parmise­dans, [Page 202]Chorismans, Semiramidis exercitus habuit contra Indos pe­ditum, ut Ctesias tradit, ter decies centena millia, equitum millia quingenta, Cur­rus ad millia centum erant to­tidem numero homines super camelos cum gladiis cubito­rum quatuor. Naves divisae ad duo millia, quas cameli defere­bant. Diod. Sicul. l. 2. c. 5. Sabellicus lib. 5. c. 5. Poliaen. l. 8. Suidas with some alterati­on doth thus relate it, [...]. Dahans, Sacans, Arians, Avilans, Susitans, Branchidans, & being victorious in all these places, she brought home the wealth of all these Countries, as a present to Baby­lon, but when Babylon had singred up all the largesses of her Royall bounty, she doth carry her Purse againe abroad to be filled: Her next trace was to India, and thither she carried such a dreadfull Army, that not Tamerlain, Cingis, Pompey the great, Augustus the mighty, the great Cham, the great Turk, the Mogul, the Emperour of China, Metuzama, Atabaliba, no not Ze­rah the Aethiopian, or Zerxes himselfe (or any that I could read of) ever appeared in the field with such pompe and power; for she had in her Camp three millions of footmen, five hundred thousand horsemen, an hundred thousand Cha­riots, as many Camels, whereupon men rode with swords of four cubits long, and as many Camels and Horses to beare burthens, and to go upon errands, and as many Elephants, which some say were natural, others artificial, and two thou­sand ships carried upon Camels backs, to convey her Souldi­ers over Rivers; other say their number was ten thousand. With this puissant and formidable Army, she passed over the River Ganges, and entred into the Dominions of Staurobates, King of India, most valiantly encountred, defeated him, and harrassed all his Country. Some indeed do say, that Stauro­bates did meet her upon the banks of Ganges, and there drow­ned most part of her Army, and slew her, so that she was ne­ver after seen; but this is but a confident and groundlesse as­sertion, and cryed down by the unanimous consent of the most authentique writers, who avouch that she entred India, dispersed, if not killed Staurobates, and returned victorious; the place of her death was not at Ganges, but at Bactria, where she being warned by an evident token, that she had received at the Oracle of Jupitor Haman, that the time of her death drew nigh; she called all her Captains and Commanders about her, causing them to swear allegiance to her Son, and so re­signing up the Empire to him; She did not vanish out of their sight as Diodorus Siculus saith, but fairly in the presence of them gave up the Ghost, and that may appeare by the Tomb which she left behind her, Semiramis As­syriorum Regi­na, cum mortem instare oraculo cognovisses, filio omnibus prae­fectis parere ju­sis, repentè dispa­ruit. Diod. Sic. l. 2. c. 5. Ni vir malus, & auro insatiabilis esses, loculos mortuo­um non moveres. Plut. in. [...]oph. and the Epitaph that she her selfe caused to be engraven upon it, which was, Here lyeth Semira­mis the Great, whosoever will open this Tomb he shall find treasure e­nough, which Darius (some say Cyrus) attempting, he found nothing but a Paper with these words in it, If thou wert not an evill man, and insatiable of gold, thou wouldest not have disturbed the sepulchres of the dead. Semiramis is now laid in her Tomb, but so long as she sat in her Throne, she raigned for Babylon, and fought for Babylon, Babylon had her eye, and her tongue, her [Page 203]head, heart and hand; and though Babylon were once an undu­tifull handmaid to her: for in her absence she rebelled a­gainst Her, the news of which being brought to Semiramis as she was combing her hair, she took it so offensively, that she vowed never to dresse her head, till she had reduced her to obedience, which she really performed, for half dressed as she was, she marched away, and laid such a strict siege to the Ci­ty, that in time she brought down her haughty spirit, and made her upon her knees to beg pardon. When she had throughly humbled her, and severely chastised her, setting up her Picture in a Pillar of brasse with her hair dishevelled in memory of that rebellion, she renewed her affeection to her, and made her once more the Minion of her favour, dropping down bounty to her, as if she would gild her with honour. Though Baby­lon did excell Nineveh in the strength of the walle, and in the bridge over Euphrates which was 5 furlongs long, and in two Palaces, the one at the West end of the City being [...]0 furlongs in compasse; and another at the East end 30 furlongs in compasse, and in an Obelisk, or spire, which was an 150 foot high, and 24 foot thick; yet it was not half peopled so much as Nineveh, because as Q. Curtius saith, that but 90 furlongs of it were built, the rest of the ground being a lotted to Vineyards, and tilth, to maintain them in a streight siege. Nulla urbs tanto ambitu, tantave moenium magnificentia constructa est. Ʋrbem condidit non aequâ laterum di­mensione, nam duae muri partes longiores fuerant reliquis. Horum latus quodque longitudine stadiorum cen­tum, quinquaginta, breviorum verè stadiorum nonaginta. Qua muri dimensione ambitus stadia complectitur 480. Diod. Sicul. Ninos, quae & Nineveh est, imperat Cordiais, Mydonibibus, Arabus, Syris multis intra, & trans, Euphratem. Stratus. l. 6. But when she had expressed towards her all the mu­nificence, and magnificence, which could be devised, shee could never dresse up this younger sister to be trimmed like sent Nineveh; no, she had priority of her in beauty, and in ex­cellency; for Nineveh had fifteen hundred Turrets in it, and Babylon had but seven hundred; Nineveh was 480 furlongs in compasse; Babylon not above 380. Nineveh was in breadth 190 furlongs, Babylon not above an 100. Nineveh was a City of three daies journey, Babylon (so far as we can read) not a daies. Besides the largenesse of the streets, and the beauty, and numerosity of buildings in Babylon were nothing comparable to those in Nineveh; so that though Babylon was fair, yet not able to match faces with Nineveh; no, Babylon was a great Ci­ty, but Nineveh was That great City.

Fiftly, That great City: For the great testimony, that it hath from the most approved Authors. Diodorus Siculus doth say, that No City was built with so great compasse of ground, or magnifi­cence of walls; Strabo doth say, it was a mighty City, and ruled far and nigh, namely, over the Gordians, Mygdonians, Arabians, Syri­ans, and over many Countries within Euphrates, and beyond Eu­phrates. Carolus Stephanus doth say, that it was so extended in scituation, that under three daies, a man could not have the full sight of it through Streets, and Lanes, and that it was the most peopled place in the world, and the most delightful place to behold, through many cu­rious Artifices, and rare Monuments, which the Citisens, and Assyri­an [Page 204]Princes, had set up to their honour, and except the River Tigris (for nigh to that it was built, and not to Euphrates, as some hold) should injure it by some inundation (as it did by casting down a great part of the wall in the reign of Sardanapalus) it were in it selfe inexpugnable, and impregnable. Arbaces found this to his cost, for he was enforced to besiege it three years, and he had ne­ver taken it, Haec totius terrae imperium, olim magna pompa, maximisque viribus nulli postea regioni aequandum te­nuit. Ar. Mont. Scimus illam non modo simi­lem fuisse mag­nis urbibus, quales hodiè multae in Euro­pa sunt, sed supe­raste omnia, quae­cunque praecipu­um nomen obtineret. Calvin in 4. Jonae. Cui par magni­tudine neque fuisset antea, neque esset futa­ra. Ribera in 3. Jonae. but for the rising of the River. Arias Montanus saith, that the height of the walls was an hundred foot in height, and the breadth of them so large, that three Carts could go abreast up­on them, the Towers were a 1500, and two hundred foot high; and that it was such a stately City that it commanded the Empire of the Earth, to which none was yet equall either for Pomp, or Force. Calvin saith, It was not like to our Cities in Europe, but it did exceed them all, which of them soever have had the greatest fame, and renown; So that now ye see what is spoken here by the Spirit of God concerning Nineveh, is no hyperbole, as when we say that a thing is whiter then snow, sweeter then holly, clearer then the Noon-day; No, man may have his nimieties of expressi­on, his diffluences, redundances, superjections, and transili­ences of speech, but the Scripture doth not blandish, over-phrase, extra-fame any thing; truth it self cannot falsify, Nine­veh here hath from God but her just commendation; for it was singular, and supreme, a great City, and That great City. Should not I spare Nineveh, that great City?

From hence observe, that Eminency hath an eminent respect with God Almighty, he is loth to pluck down that City, which he hath suffered to rise up to the heighth of greatnesse. Jerusa­lem was become a prime City, the joy of the whole Earth, the per­fection of beauty, & how doth our Saviour weep, when he look­eth upon Jerusalem? weep? why weep? what, is he offended at such a delectable object? do the Towers, or the Bulwarks, the Fort of Sion, or the Temple grieve his eyes? no, he doth weep, because he was to shed the first tears, but Jerusalem ere long was to weep her self blind, to weep her self dead; it was an antient City, and she was now crumbling away to her first dust, it was a great City, and she was now demolishing to her first stone yea, Not one stone shall be left upon another; the very thought of her misery makes our Saviour cry out, Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou hast killed the Prophets, and stoned them which were sent unto thee; that blood wil fetch out all the blood in thy veines, those stones will dash out thine own brains; thou wouldst not be gathered, therefore thou shalt be scattered; thou wouldst not come under my wings, therefore thou shalt fall under other Nation's claws; thou hadst an house, but thy house shall be left desolate unto thee: Thus ye see that though Jeru­salem had been the Cutthroat, and Executioner of his Pro­phets, [Page 205]yet becaushe she had been a place of eminency, it cannot but grieve him to see how shee hath brought this blood of Martyrdome upon her self, to gush to death with the blood of revenge, and how her stones of persecution will be the stone­heap that will crush the head of a whole City with direfull curses; Christ cannot think of this accident without grones, nor look upon this sad fate without tears. Ephraim had been another famous City? & how is God pained to the heart to be­hold Ephraim in danger? When Ephraim spake, there was trem­bling, sure I am, when God doth speak against Ephraim, there is trembling. Ephraim is joined to Idols, let her alone; alone? how long? see how soon God doth renew his presence, and pitty to Ephraim. Thou hast gone, saith God, to the Assyrian, and sent to King Jareb, and these could not heal thee; But what shall Ephraim be without remedy? these cannot heal thee, shall none heal thee? yes, alas sick Ephraim! if thou wilt, thou shalt not yet fester to death in these wounds, I (saith God) offer to be thy Physitian. Oh Ephraim what shall I do unto thee? Hos. 6.4. He will teach Ephraim his own, shame him in his exorbitances, represent to him, what a mixed piece, and a clammy patch he is become, a meer Time-server, and Newter, Ephraim is mixed amongst the people, a cake not turned. Hos 7.8. yea, he will call him simple to his face, Ephraim is a silly Dove without heart. v. 11, yea, and he will plead kindnesse to him, ask Ephraim, if this be the fruit of his affection, instruction, protection? Oh Ephraim did I never do thee any courtesies? was I never use­full, and beneficiall to thee? yes, I taught Ephraim to go, ta­king him by the armes, I drew him with the cords of a man, with the hands of love, and I was as one that took off the yoak from his jaws, and laid meat unto him. Hos. 11.3.4. Thus God will hint defection, accuse of folly, and intimate favour, he will counsell, and chide, admonish, and rebuke, rather than he will re­pell, and reject; he will never leave, till Ephraim leave old strayings, and come to new tracks, till Ephra­im shall say, What have I to do any more with Idols? I have heard, and observed him, I am like a green firr tree, from me is thy fruit found. Hos. 14.8. yea, when God is constrained to be rough against Ephraim, how is it as if a Father should dishinherit, or tear out the bowells of his own heir? Is Ephraim my dear Son? is he my pleasant child? since I spake against him, I earnestly remem­bred him still, therefore my bowels are troubled for him. Jer. 31.20. With such a heavinesse (if ever) God doth deliver up Ephraim to judg­ment, shake down his walls, bring the yoak of captivity into his streets. Oh Ephraim, how shall we part? how shall I sepa­rate my heart from thee? thou hast done much unto me, yet Oh Ephraim what shall I do unto thee? There is a saying in the [Page 206]sixth of Micah. 9. That the Lords voyce cryeth unto the City. What City? What cry? A City saith God, that I have fetched the stones of it out of a far Country; for, I have brought you (saith God) out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of ser­vants; yea, I appointed Master-workmen to go along with the materialls, and advance the buidling, I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, v. 4. and I yet further preserved the quar­ry-pieces, whereof the City should be framed, by might and miracle, that they might not be seased upon, scattered, and dashed in pieces by the way; for Oh my people remember, what Ba­lack the sonne of Moab consulted, and what Baalam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal. Thus farre I have gone for this City, nay I never left it till in despight of all op­position, and maugre all practisings against it, I raised it up to be the glory, and astonishment, the Mirrour, and Terrour of all Nations, that it might be called the auspitious City, the City of vigilancy, and vowes, of prospection, and provision, that ye may know the righteousnesse of the Lord. This is the City, now what is the cry? to call in Invaders to assault it? or Con­querors to fetter it? No, to call up a prudent person, to ac­knowledge the founder. The man of wisdome shall see his name. But what such need of this cry? or this man? What? great need, for the City is ready to be carried to the Correction-house, to be led to the whipping-pillar, for there is a rod prepared, and the hand lifted up to strike; danger indeed, what shall procure the deliverance? is there any meanes left to keep the City from the lash? Yes? saith God, if the City hath but a good ear, she need not fear her back; she shall not suffer, if she can but hearken, or feel the Rod, if she can but listen to the Rod, therefore hear the Rod, and who hath appointed it. Thus ye see how the City is tutored, that it might not be tortured; and admonished, that it might not be abolished; and directed, that it might not (as they call it) be Discipli­ned. What endeavour is there to propulse judgement? to a­vert vengeance? to save the City from the Rod? not the Lords yerk first scourgeth the City, but the Lords voyce cry­eth unto the City. If it be an eminent City, there shall an emi­nent Cry be made unto it. Corazin and Bethsaidah were great Cities, for great things were done in them; great things have their large commensurations, they will raise up Cities to be quan­titative, according to the proportion of their favours, the moyety and degree of their excellencies have an accrument; spirituall Prerogatives mount Cities higher then the spires of their buildings; and the highest verticals of their ingeni­ous and prosperous negotiations. Now then Chorazin, and Bethsaida, great things are done in you; ye are great, but doe ye [Page 207]continue great? are there great things done by you? doe ye not lessen your greatnesse? minorate your extensions? dimi­nish your expansions? Yes, (saith God) it doth grieve me to see how great things are deampled and dismagned a­mongst you. But is there not a great reckoning to be made for the neglect of these great things? yes, remember if ye be not great Proficients, ye will be great Sufferers. I would not have you be so, why will ye be so? what, Corazin and Beth­saida, Grandees in gifts, and Perpusilloes in fruits? this is to turn white into black, light into darknesse, augmentation in­to diminution, great into little. Away ye lean-sides, and take heed ye Skeletons; if this be your temper, your distemper, your exsiccating, and your exsuccating yourselves, your grow­ing backward, or growing downward, I fright you ye thin­skins, ye little-doers, I denounce a wo against you, Wo be to thee Chorazin, woe be to thee Bethsaida. Wo? is this the Dialect of ap­pretiating? is it the accent of your God, which doth respect e­minency? yes, God is respective, though he be minatory; for he is minatory, and yet monitory; he doth but denounce the woe, but not execute it; threaten it, but not inflict it: I hear the crying of a woe, but not the flying of it; Christ doth a­waken, but not afflict; terrifie, but not confound: let Chora­zin and Bethsaida but yet do their great things, & the great cur­ses are gone; if they be as good, if they be but better then Tyre and Sidon, they shall enjoy still these great things: I tell them what they should have done, and are Chorazin and Bethsaida undone; if these things be yet done? no, fruitfulnesse ma­keth the head of the Axe to fly off, if they can but repent in the sackeloth and ashes of Tyre and Sidon, Chorazin and Beth­saida need not fear this woe to strip them, or burn them. Rom. 11. That great graffe that was put into the Olive-tree, is it rea­dily torn out again? no, the Olive-tree, though bad enough a great while, was not presently destroyed, no more shall the graffe if it hath any sap in it. It is not said, be faint-hearted, and despaire; but be not high-minded, and feare. It is not said, Lop off this graffe, but, boast not thy selfe against the branches: Do not say that the branches were broken off, that I might be graffed in; but being graffed in, see that thou dost fructifie more then those withered branches. Then whatsoever sentence was upon the dry, dead Olive-tree, yet this is none of thy doom, if it be not thy guilt; I have graffed thee in, and I would bark and stock thee in: consider, I do but handle the graffe, I do not hew it; fear not their excision, if thou dost not feel their barrennesse; for, Behold the severity of God towards them which fell, but towards thee goodnesse, if thou dost continue in thy goodnesse, Rom. 11.22. See what great advising there is, to keep a great graffe [Page 208]safe. Ephesus had a great golden Candlestick, and is it quickly re­moved? no, I have something against thee, but it is, that I might have nothing against thee. Thou art fallen from thy first love, canst not fall to thy first love? renew thy affections, and suspect no afflictions Repent, and do thy first works, and thy first privi­ledges are as sure as ever. So that God doth but shake the Candlestick to settle it; Gods hand trembles, when he should remove a golden Candlestick, let it have at last but bright, and pure light in it, and God will as soon remove out of his Throne, as remove a golden Candlestick. So then, there is an eminency of tuition attending upon every thing that hath in it eminency. Vnus univer­sans. Justin. Mart. qui est unum omnia, non servet unum quod habet plu­rima? Sine quantitate magnum. Aug. de Trin. l. 1. c. 1 Aliquid rece­dens. Clem. Alex. Strom. l. 2. Omnia eadem virtute, quâ condidit, mode­ratur. Lact. Firm. Divin. Instit. l. 1. c. 3. He which is that one chiefe good, that hath in him all particular good; yea, which is that one thing, which hath in him all things; will he not universe every particular of his owne kind? or preserve that one thing, which ha [...]h in it the most things? he which is great without quantity, will he not support those things which are risen up to the greatnesse of quantity? He which cannot be conceived so exactly, but there is something in him surpassing mans understanding; who is so absolute, that he is incomprehensible; will he not retaine those things in their due honour, which do surpasse, and have a recedency from other things of the same nature? He which doth order all things by the same power with which he did create them; when he hath created a thing great, will he not uphold it in that great­nesse? yes, with him is the greatnesse of excellency, Exod. 15.7. Therefore he will have the greatest esteeme of those things, which have in them the greatest excellency. He is the most high God, Gen. 14.10. to shew that the most high things shall have from him the most high respect. Can a Maid forget her ornament, or a Bride her attire? Knolls in the Turkish Hi­story. Jer. 2.32. Can a Maker forget then his orna­ment? or a Bridegroom forget his marrying vest? Muleasses at the taking of the Castle of Tunes, grieved to see the rude Souldi­ers trample under foot the rich colours, and costly perfumes: So it doth grieve God to see any one undervalue that which is choise, therefore he will not underprize it himselfe. Thou wilt not willingly break a rich Glass, throw away a Pearl, rend a Robe, God then will not readily destroy that which is precious. No, if a thing be worthy, it is fit for Gods eye; if it be great, Periturum se potius, quàm perditurum. Suet. it is fit for his preservation. As it was said of Ti­tus that noble Emperour, That he had rather perish himselfe, then destroy. So God will as soon part with his essence, as his com­passion. He will bear long, before he will deface, and have his long sufferance, tryed to the height, before he will make a wast of eminency. There is not that great Ruler, or that great Nation, or that great Church, or that great Saint, but [Page 209]he doth tender to the height, before he doth stretch out his punishing hand. See how he doth here plead and expostulate with Jonah about Nineveh, he would spare it, because it was eminent, it was that great City: Should not I spare Nineveh, that great City.

1. Now God will spare Nineveh that great City; first, to teach the world, that things of eminency are to be prized, The A­postle doth command us to approve of things which are excellent, Phil. 1.10. For we have strange eyes in our heads which can­not see beams in those things, which excell all other as farre as light doth excel darknesse, Eccles. 2.13. Whatsoever things are amabilia, lovely, if there be any vertue, any praise, thinke of these things, Phil. 4.8. They are bad Merchants in our calling, which know not the worth of those things which cannot be valued with gold, that the Topaz of Ethiopia is not to be com­pared unto them, that there shall be no mention made of Co­rall in respect of them. Wherefore do ye kick against my sacrifice? 1 Sam. 2.29. So wherefore doe ye lift up your heels against that which is eminent? shall not that be valued, which is in­valuable? then ye are not to be valued. It was ill to despise Mannah, so is it to dis-esteeme that which is of high esteeme. We should have nothing but peerlessenesse in our thoughts, and eminency in our eyes. Lum'n aeterni­tatis in simo mortalitatis. Aug. de cate­chis. rudibus. For this is to have the light of eter­nity in the slime of mortality. The very Aegyptians cryed out Abrech before Joseph. The Queen of the South came to heare the wisdom of Solomon, Herod desired to see Christ. Whereso­ever there is worth, there ought to be an high regard; what­soever hath excellency in it, it ought to be looked upon with an eye of reverence: Telemachus having viewed Menelaus state­ly House, with all the Gold, Ivory, princely Couches in it, did he give it a Title beneath it selfe? no, Jovis aula. Homer. no, he said It was fit to be Jupiters Court.

Nicostratus beholding a rare picture which Zeuxis had made, stood sixing his eyes so long upon it, that one asked him, why he would stand gazing so long upon a dead picture? saith he, Aelian. Lux aeterna e­rat in templo Jovis Hammo­nis. Plut. de defect. Orac. Thou wouldst do so, if thou hadst mine eyes. Cleombrotus could not admire enough the everlasting light that was in the Temple of Jupiter Hammon, which ever burnt, and shoon most bright­ly, and yet every year spent lesse oyl. Agesilaus seeing Epami­nondas (though an enemy) marching out against him in brave order, he cryed out, Oh magnificent man! Oh hominem magnificum! Plut. in Ages. Mahomet the Great said, he held himselfe the greatest Captain in the world, except Matthias: Matthias was eminent even in Mahomets esteem. The house of Nestor at Pylen, was admired, Cuspinian. even in the dayes of Pausanias. Incisia was much honoured, Pausan in Mes­sen. because of Ele­phants bones which were found in the earth, to testifie that [Page 210] Hannibal passed through that Town, Jovius l. 27. Hist. A. Gell. Attic. Noct. l. 25. c. 20. Aug. Confes. l 4. c. 11. when he came from the Alpes. The Salaminians were wont to shew a Cave, where Eu­ripides wrote his Tragedies. St Ambrose out of reverence to his high sanctity was so respected, that his very enemies would not hurt him. Epiphanius Bishop of Ticinum, when Theodoricus took the City, was so regarded by the barbarous Souldiers, (though of a contrary judgement) that they used him with all civility, Evod. in ejus. vita. whilst they stayed with him, and wept at their de­parture from him. Porphyrius, though a deadly opposite to St Origen, yet he was wont to call him the most learned man, and the Prince of Philosophers. Platin. Libanius was an Heathen, and S. Chry­sostome a Christian, yet being demanded, whom he would have to succeed him in his Rhetorick-Lecture, Id. when he was dead, he said, Chrysostome. What should I speak of more? Alex­ander himselfe reverenced Jaddas. Theodosius kissed the dead eye of Paphnutius. The majesty of the face of Marius, so daun­ted the Souldier that should have taken away his life, that he said, I cannot kill Marius. The Turks so honoured the memory of Scanderbeg, that they digged up his bones at Lyssa, and wore them like Jewels in their Turbants. Shame then to them, which abase that which is precious, and can honour nothing but that which is contemptible. Do ye know the cast of your own eyes? or are ye acquainted with the sparklings of your own hearts? then to what things doe your eyes glaunce, and your hearts glow? are not the rarities of nature, and the spe­cious things of this world, more endeared unto you, then the most excellent graces? and made more eminent then the en­dowments of the spirit? Oh eminent Spectators, and Judges! what is this but to unconsecrate piety? to underprize precious­nesse? to prophane the gold of the Sanctuary? with Michol, to mock at a spiritual trance? nay with Saladin, to defile with dung the very sepulchre of our Saviour? All singular things then ought to have a singular account, God here hath exem­plified it; he would spare Nineveh, because it was eminent, That great City.

Secondly, God would spare Nineveh; That great City, to shew that his mercy is not to be limited. Jonas would have it destroyed above all places, because it was that great City, full of sinne, full of provocation. But God would have it spared above all pla­ces, because it was that great City, full of danger, and had most need of mercy. Is thine eye evil, because mine is good? Man is a ve­ry precipitate censurer; woe be to the world, if man be the Protonotary in Gods Court, to have the chiefe hand in his Records, and Decrees. If he had power to bring Gods mercy under his restraint, and to bind Gods orders in his narrow lists, we should have strange determinations. We doome up­on [Page 211]earth, and damn to hell many persons, as if they had sin­ned beyond favour, and were too great to be pardoned. Mary Magdalen should have been a weeping Lady till death, if she had wept till Simon had stanched her teares. Not a Publican, or Harlot (though never so penient) should have raigned a­bove, if the Scribes & Pharisees had had the keys of the king­dom of heaven, and had had the office to put on Crowns. Man is a rigid and severe sentencer. God keep thy estate from his justice, thy life from his verdict, and thy soul from his charity. Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth? This peo­ple which know not the law are cursed. Who is this David? who is this son of Ishai? there be many men now adayes, that run away from their Master. There are men so liberal of their judgements, that we may say to them, as Diogenes said to one in the like kind, Quàm nuper de coelo venisti? Laert. l. 6. How long is it since thou camest out of heaven? They are settling of o­ther mens future estates, when they had more need to be or­dering their present callings; or howsoever, not to pronounce beyond their Trades, as Ptolomy rebuked a smith, who would needs be spending his opinion upon Musick, Dost not consider, Eras. l. 6: Apoph. (saith he) How thou speakest beyond thy Hammer? Where these men have liberty, many a wicked man shall be justified, and many a righteous man shall be condemned, as Megabysus magnified the coorse Pictures of Apelles, but by no meanes he would give in his approbation to those which were drawne by true art. Aelian. l. 2. Var. Hist. That attempt which hath gotten the successe by basenesse, shall be more cryed up, then that which hath been advanced by noblenesse, as the people admired the Pyramide, Eras. in Sim. that Rhodope the Harlot built more then all those which the brave Kings of Aegypt erected. But doth God sayl according to mans Load-star? or march according to his beating the Drum? Is the circumference of divine favour measured according to the stretching of these compasses? Do those cheyms go according as these Clocks doe strike? Is Gods ballance guided by these weights below? or do his Orbs turn about according to the motion of the worlds Primum mobile? Shall every one be a sinner, that man doth call Malignant? or every one a Saint, whom he doth put into his Calender? No, I would be loath to have my conscience brought up as a pu­pill in this University, or my soul to clear her innocency be­fore this Tribunall. Man hath a cursing humour, and is apt to reprobate too much; we should have wretches by scores, nay sons of perdition by myriads, if man had the Book of life in his keeping. But Gods mercy doth exceed mans seve­rity, he hath a Spring-tide (that by some secret influences) doth rise higher in the Channell, then the ordinary course of this brackish Ocean would make it to flow. The woman [Page 212]taken in Adultery shall be acquitted, though those brayners with stones, taken out of Moses Law, would have had her knocked down, not considering how nigh their own skulls were to pelting. That modest Petitioner that durst not come too near, nor speak too loud, which had rather lift up his eyes, then lift up his tongue, and carry it with knocking up­on his brest, then knocking out selfe-fancies, which hath no­thing in his lips but an arraignment, or a Petition of grace, God be mercifull to me a sinner, shall depart away justified, sooner than he which justified himselfe, and quavered upon his per­sonall innocency, I thank God I am not as other men are, and had no other style for the disconsolate Petitioner, than that snar­ling scorn, This Publican. God hath compassion, where man hath no bowels; and pitty, where man hath nothing but re­proach. Two Brabant horsemen came over to help Edward the second against the Scots, but hearing nothing but scandals uttered against Robert Bruce (whom they knew to be a prince of admired worth) though the cry of the Souldiery was wholly in the defamation of Robert, Hector Po­eth. l. 14. yet they openly prayed for his happy successe, and deserted our Army. Amanus Aurelianensis, going to his Bishoprick, desired Agrippinus the Governour of the City, that the Prison doors might be set open, to honour his entrance with the release of condemned men; he denyed it, and said, They were all Villains and Monsters, and should suffer the paines of death: oh no, saith Amanus, there may be some men amongst them, as just as our selves, therefore I pray you release them, lest God doth declare their innocen­cy; the Governour still denyed it, till a stone fell miracu­lously from heaven, and so bruised him, that he was glad to free them, Bonsin. l. 4. Dec. 1. whom he would gladly have executed.

The Magistrates of Thebes whould have condemned Epami­nondas, because he went and sought against the Arcadians, and Messenians, though they had given him commission, onely be­cause he would not return back at their command, to give answer to a frivolous accusation, but the Citizens seeing him come home with Honour, and Conquest, and knowing the integrity and innocency of their famous Captaine, Probus in E­paminonda. in de­spight of the peevish Magistrates, got him to be discharged. So God doth assoyle where man doth accuse, and justifie where man hath nothing but hard censure both in his lips and heart. Gods rule, and mans square do differ; He will not have mercies confined according to mans limitations. God, and Jonah, are here in a contest, the two Bars vary; Nineveh must perish at the one, because it is That great City: Nineveh is spared at the other, because it is That great City.

Thirdly, God would spare Nineveh, That great City, because he desire [...]h to be honoured in a great Preservation, Gillas habuit praecordia libe­ralitatis, & be­nignum finum. that he might be said to have in him (as it was said of Gilias of Agrigentum) the heartstrings of liberality, and the bosome of benignity; God would be abundant in goodnesse. Exod. 34.6. and save by a great delive­rance. Gen. 45.7. not spare a particular eminent person, or a distinct eminent family, but That great City, that upon all the glory there might be a defence. Es. 4.5. this is the triumph of di­vine favour, or the Trophe which he doth aime at, to be pight up to the honour of his Commiseration; then is God conspi­cuous like himself, when great Countries, great Nations, great Churches participate of his mercy; that it might be said, here God hath been Ensigne-bearer, here is his great Banner flou­rishing, and his very Buckler hung up. The whole Camp of Israel defended by God, raising up one David to kil the great Golias; whole Christianity preterved by God's setting out one Constantine to vanquish Maxentius, and [...]icinius; this maketh eminently for his name, and fame, to be ecchoed forth. Alexander ab Alex. l. 1. c. 11. Pro­lomeus thought he had never expressed bounty, till he might be sirnamed Euergetes, The Beneficent person, and so God think­eth he is never compassionate enough, till he might have the generall cry, that he is, That sparing God. Cyrus would give such large Patents, that he might be seen to make Cities happy: Beatas civita­tes efficere. Pon­tanus de Prin­cipe. So God would so enlarge his Charter, that the place which he doth intend favour to, might be discerned to be eminently blessed; that he might be honoured with an eminency, he will spare with an eminency, not a City, or a great City, but That great City. Should not I spare Nineveh, that great City?

Application.

1. This doth serve first to shew the happinesse of this place, for are ye only a City? no, a City with an eminency, the greatest of the Land, the greatest of many; what are Amster­dam, Hamborough, Quinborough, Dantsick, nay, the royall Cities of many Countries, Stockholm, Copinhagen, Vienna, Sevill, Rome it self to you? this City was once called Augusta, the large City, Ʋrbinum, quia urbes binas in se continebat. doubtlesse much more may it now, when it hath enlarged the Circuit. As Urbin was so called, because it contained two Ci­ties in one, so many Cities do seem to be included within your walls. It is such a City, that it is fit only to be shewn upon Holy­daies, as Charles the Archduke said of Florence; your beauty is now such, that as Aristobulus said of the Persian Susa, ye may be called, the Lily. Diodorus saith of Triocala a City in Sicily, [...]. that it was so named, because it had it it three fair things, Fountains, Vineyards, and an unaccessible Rock upon which [Page 214]it was built; but Triocala will not fit you, but ye had need to be called Polycala, for the many fair things that are here visi­ble; This City for Courts of justice doth seem to be a grand Tribunall, for provisions for the poor a wide Hospitall, for warlike preparations an admired Arsenall, for multiplicity of trading a stored Warehouse, for Beautifull buildings, a gor­geous Palace, for the means of salvation, the Temple of the Earth. It is not a City only spoken of in our own Country, but a renowned City. Ezech. 26 17. a fat heyfer. Jer. 50.11. yea, a kind of Princesse amongst the Nations. Oh that ye had rinsed eys to look upon the City, or thankfull hearts to acknowledge Gods goodnesse to the City, that men could behold what a Stage of wonders is here daily before them, and reckon up the severall Jewells, which are looked up in this Cabinet. But I doubt ye darken your own splendor, or diminish your own portion, ye see not the Sun which doth shine amongst you, ye mark not the rich Commodities which are landed at your own stathes, ye cannot tell the price of your City-sword, nor know not the worth of your Cap of Maintenance; it is too likely, that ye leave all to the City Remembrancer, insomuch that one at the Lands end is as well acquainted here, as ye are, with your own City. I am afraid ye have given over perambulation to know the bounds of your City, or that ye maintain a City-scowt onely to discover things a­broad, but have not a City-Accountant to bring you in a full sum of your yearly blessings Here ye are setled, but ye deserve not to be thus housed; here ye are mured in, but your walls are too good for you; God might give away this City to new dwellers, that would say, their lot is fallen unto them in a fair ground, or create new members of this Incorporation that would sing an hymne to him for such variety of blessings. Alasse ye possesse much, but ye prize but little; ye are. more successefull, then sensible; ye cannot measure your own height, or observe the Zenith, where the Sun doth shine with perpendicular beams. But oh let no man tell you the name of your own City, or take for you the altitude of your own greatnesse; do not travell into the Country to ask what hap­ness is here apparent; nor sail abroad to enquire what ye do enjoy at home. Ye are blind indeed, when ye must be led in your own streeets, and ye have lost your memories to pur­pose, when ye cannot tell every night, what ye have seen in such a place every day. On therefore consider into what an Eden the Lord hath put you, and praise him in the highest for such a blessed Paradise; your felicity doth transcend, God hath raised you to a kind of height of eminency, for ye are not only a City, but above many Cities in the world, ye may be called [Page 215] That great City. Should not I spare Nineveh, That great City?

Secondly, this sheweth, that the City is eminent with God, if ye do not withdraw his affection from it; he doth prize the City, because it is That great City; the City cannot be too great for God, if it be not too great for your selves; he is satisfied with your large Circuit, if ye do not cast your selves out of your own walls, or make him drive you beyond the Line. Make him but Lord in chief over the City, and hold in fee un­der him as long as ye will; do but your true homage to him, & he will deliver back again unto you your sword, and Mase, and keys to keep for many Ages; If ever ye perish, your blood be upon your own heads. Thy destruction is of thy self, oh Israel. Misery will never come from Gods justice, but from your own wickednesse; his Rod will never be felt, till the scorner doth call for stripes. Ye see that he doth love your pavements, if ye do not break them up; and doth take delight in your build­ings, if ye do not pollute them; and rejoyce in your treasures, if ye do not make a forfeiture of them. Ye are blessed then, why are ye sick of your own felicity? ye dwell safely, why are ye offended at your own peace? Do ye wish the welfare of the City, or desire to continue in this eminency? No, me­think I see you bringing pick-axes to dig down your owne walls, and springing mines to blow up your own houses, and kindling sparks that will set all in a flame from one end of the City to the other. Hath God built this City for his owne service and worship? no, it seemeth to be some Bear-garden, or Grate to put Lions in, or a nest of Cockatrices. Oh the hideous noyses that are heard within these walls! the filthy smells that are in this City! the Dung heaps that lye in the open streets, the execrable sins and trespasses that are here committed; this City seemeth to be nothing but a fence-wall for miscreants, or a lodge for Anakims to shelter themselves in; I will deal modestly, I shall forbear to shew you the fa­ces of the Monsters, or to hold up the Gorgons head in your sight; but thus much I will say in generall, that Gods name is much dis-honoured, his truth corrupted, his Deity blas­phemed, his Lawes violated, his Messengers despised; pray­ers are but customary gales, praises but ditties of humours, Sermons but notional speculations, Sacraments but badges of an affected community; the Saints weep, the poor cry, and the oppressed roar; Grace is turned into a vizard, and Reli­gion into refined policy, and if I should reckon up all, a man would think here were sinnes enough amongst us, to bury the ancientest family in oblivion, to shake the greatest City in the world into scattered stones, nay, to cast Adam out of Pa­radise [Page 216]again, if he were in his greatest Dominion, and to throw down the Angels out of heaven again, if they were in their greatest brightnesse: Oh then that ye are the Contri­vers of the fall of so great a City! Is it nothing unto you to be held Conspirators against the safety of a City? yes, Cili­con that deluded the City of Miletum, Suidas, with continually saying All things are well, till he had delivered it up in the hands of the Priennenses: Pausan. in Achaic. Strabo. l. 12. Zenias that carryed all faire to the City of Elis, till he had brought it under the subjection of the Lace de­monians: Dorylaus Tacticus, which betrayed Eupator in his head City: Baditzes, that when the Saracens had a long time be­sieged Amorium, and were ready to depart from it, sent a se­cret Letter to them, Cedren. that if they would but renew the assault, they might easily enter at such a place as he named to them, which they did, and the City was put to slaughter: all these are branded with infamy, for seeking the destruction of their own Cities; how much more then you, which by your pro­digious sinnes are plotting greater treachery against your Ci­ty, then these, or the most perfidious persons that ever lod­ged within a City walls? for these brought but armed men into a City, but your sinnes are ready to bring hosts from hea­ven, yea to fetch down the Angels from above, to be reven­ged of you for all the execrable impieties which have been committed in this City; Take away therefore the heynous­nesse of your sinnes, as ye would have the eminency of the City to be preserved. The City may stand long, if ye do not weaken the foundation of it. If the City doth fall, we know what hands to charge for pulling it down; they are not the hands of justice, but the hand of transgression that are guil­ty of this fact; they are your provocations and abominati­ons, that neither profession can shame, nor Pulpits restraine, that are making their combinations to work the ruine of the City. Neither Catiline, nor Marius, nor Dositheus, nor Lasthe­nes, nor all the treacherous freinds, are like unto your prodi­torious sinnes; no, these call in Gods judgements, open the City-gates to them, put arms into their hands, to slaughter on the right hand, and on the left; yea so enrage them, that they will not leave wasting, till they have laid the City levell with the ground. The City hath been great, is great, and may con­tinue great, if ye your selves do not conspire against the great­nesse of it. God ye see is no enemy to the City, nor doth he en­vy the greatnesse of it; no, an eminent City doth carry an eminent respect with Him; make him not an enemy then, and he will not shake one stone of your greatnesse, but adde more stones to build up your greatnesse; ye see his high in­clination to the preservation of eminency, he would not de­stroy [Page 217] Nineveh, because it was That great City; but he would spare Nineveh, because it was That great City. Should not I spare Nineveh, that great City?

Thirdly, This doth shew the horror of this Cities desolation, if ever it doth happen to perish, for it is That great City, and it will be that great casualty. Oh the dream be to our enemies, and the interpretation to them that hate us. Let the woman called Wickednesse, which doth sit in the midst of the Ephah of cur­ses, rather fly into the Land of Shinar, then take her flight to this City, and here rest as upon her Base. For if this City come to be visited, there are not tongues enough in the whole City to reckon up all the miseries that such a judgement will bring along with it. Our cheeks may look pale, our eyes drop, and our hearts tremble at the apprehension of such a fatall day; ruit alto à cul­mine Troja. Ilium ingens. sure I am, Troy then shall fall from her very Culmen; it is Ili­um the Great, and great will be the infelicity of such a curse. It was Troy-novant, it is Troy le-grand, and it will be Troy l'ex­tinct. Do Cities fall with a small crush? no, let me carry you to the broken walls, and lead you through the ruins of other Cities. Heliopolis, that was once a City beautiful in buildings, and had a famous Temple in it, now so razed, that there is not a foot-step to be seen either of City or Temple. Neque urbis, ne­que Templi ul­lum restat vesti­gium. Jeron. in Dan. c. 11. Thebae, ad u­nam portam re­dactae, vix votus nomen servant. Paus. in Arch. Execrutus est, quicunque eum locum instaura­ret. Strabo. l. 13. Paus. in Phoacis. fun­damenta adhuc monstrantur. Strabo. l. 10. Thebes destroyed all but one Port, so that it doth not seem to keep the old name. Sidena ut­terly ruined, and a curse laid upon all men by Craesus, which should go about to rebuild it. All the Cities in Phocis, in the holy War (as they called it) wasted by the Amphyctions, that it seemed a large Country, without a City, as Pausanias. Eretria in Eubaea so de­molished, that there is nothing but the foundations of it, like the dry bones of a consumed Carkasse, to be shewn. I might shew you the like of Troy, Carthage, Cyropolis, Myrenae, Alba, Aqui­leia, Cremona, Masilia, and many other glorious Cities, which are so desolated, that it would be an hard thing to find but a stone of the old foundation. And well it were that the rage had but extended to bare walls; but the City, and the Citi­zens, often perished together; the walls of stone, and the walls of flesh, had the like battery; the pick-axe and hammer brought forth for the one, Persae instar sa­genae incolas in­cludentes, tanta Barbarorum multitudo mure sese circumfu­derat Herodot & the sword and pole-axe brought forth for the other: oh what murthers & massacers, have there happened at the destruction of many Cities. The Citizens of Eretria being inclosed as it were in a net, were all put to the sword. The Citizens of Scotussa (in Thessaly) being called forth into the Market-stead, to hear the lawes of conquest, which they were to observe; the elder men were made away by Bowmen and Dartmen, Pausan. which lay in secret to murther them; their young men in a more barbarous way, hewn in pieces, and the women and children sold for slaves under [Page 218]the Crown, as they called it; the City of Sybaris in Greece, which had once five and twenty Cities under the jurisdicti­on of it, and did lead out against the Crotoniates above an hundred thousand men, being at last taken by these Adversa­ries; they were for the most part drowned by the River, which they let into the City, and those which escaped that death, perished by the sword of the Souldiers. Yea, it is well that they suffered but a common death, for in many places they were put to death with torture and extremity. M. Fulvius by the counsail of Pollia, did not onely kill the Tusculanes, but first whipped them most grievously, Val. Max. l. 9. cap. 10. Aelian, l. 9. de. Var. Hist. and then strook off their heads with an Axe. The Locrenses first defiled the bodies of their Captives with lust, then they thrust sharp needles into their fingers ends, holding them a long time in paine, then they beat them to death in a Morter, and cast them into the Sea. Lucius Catilin, was wont to destroy his enemies, first by breaking their armes and thighes, then by cutting off their eares, Ludov-Vives. in. 3. lib. Aug. de civitate Dei. c. 2. then by plucking out their tongues, paring off their no­ses, and tearing out their eyes, and at last by beheading them, Henry the sixt, conquering the Sicilians, he did seeth some to death in hot Caldrons, others he fryed to death at a fire, o­thers he sowed up in a sack, and threw them into the Sea, o­thers he put brazen Crowns upon their heads, stuck full of sharp nayls, and some he set upon a brazen chayr made red hot, that they might waste to death by pieces. Yea, should I relate all, Crantz. l 7. Metop. c. 17. I could shew you how some have been so savage to their enemies, that they have sown them up into the bo­dies of new slayn beasts, and there suffered them to remaine till they rotted alive, that at last they might be devoured of such beasts as live by feeding upon dead Carkasses; and that others have tyed hungry Vulturs to the heels of their Cap­tives, which might eat out their bowels by pieces; and that they have sprinkled the faces of their Hospitall Gods, with the blood of their slaughtered enemies, as if they had done a most pious work, and they were but offering a most pleasing sacrifice; and that they have consecrated their instruments of cruelty, by which they have executed their bloody de­signes, calling them holy Swords, and sacred Speares. Yea, and to turn over unto you one leafe more of this black book, they which will not spare your walls, and bodies, will they your goods? no, these were the foment of the War, or the leading staffe of the march; they hold up their Speares for prey, and sight for booty. Ye have then traded all this while, but to lay up a bank for the Emperour, and to sweat out your strength, cripple your leggs, and craze your brains to treasure up heaps for the Souldiers to dip their fingers in; [Page 219]ye are the Rent-gatherers, they are the Receives; ye are the the Drudges, they the Heyres. Are not these common acci­dents upon sacking and risting of Cities? When Ticinum was taken by Odoacer, what benefit was it to be rich? no, Ʋt quisque di­vitiis excelle re existimabatur, sic ad praedam maxime requisi­tus. Sigon. l. 14 Imp. Occid. Omnibus vete­ribus ornamen­tis, & pristints opibus amissis. Pausan. in Arcad. Signa admira­tione quaeque digna Romam missa, caetera Attili Auxilio­rum duci Philo­pameni duci do­nata, & hac aip­sa atate pud Perga menos inter Corin­thiorum spolia visuntur. Pau­san. in Achaic. Q. Curtius. as every one did abound more in wealth, so he was the more subject to prey. When Megalopolis was conquered by Cleomenes, what relique was there left of their precedent greatnesse? No, all their anci­ent Ornaments, and former riches were quite lost. When Corinth was taken, by Mummius, the City was stripped of every thing that was glorious, and the tokens, prints, or impresses of honour worthy of admiration, were sent away to Rome, the rest of the goods were given to Philopaemenes the Captain of the Auxiliaries of At­talus, and a great part of the spoil was a long time to be seen at Per­gamus. What miserable wasts strippings, extirpations, era­dications of all state and greatnesse, were there made at the sackings of Cremona, by Antonius? at Aquileia by Attila? at Scotussa by Alexander Pheraeus? yea, as when Beasts are killed, men hang up their skins in pomp, and triumph, so the Phili­stims hang up Sauls armour in the Temple of Astaroth, Mena­laus Euphrorbus shield in the Temple of Juno, and the English, the French guilt spurs in the Temple of Gurtrois; and all the wealth, and booty that is gotten by such Conquests, as plate, pearl, purple, ointments, spices, and the like are sent home, as presents for Friends, as it fared after the Battell of Grani­cus. Cyrus at the first Battle which he had in Asia, from the ge­nerall Conquest of the Country, and the preys which he had gotten in severall Cities, Pliny. l. 33 c. 3. carried home besides infinite store of apparell, and rich furniture, a vine, and plane-tree all of bea­ten gold, the rich gobblet of Semiramis, and fifty thousand Ta­lents in Coin. The Graecians by the victory which was gotten at Plataeae over the Persians, got such an infinite deal of trea­sure, golden bracelets, chains, cauldrons of silver and gold, that gold and silver was but as brasse unto them, Herod. l. 9. the Aeginets barely by buying the Plunder, raised themselves from a con­temptible to be a very potent people. Ptolomaeus Euergetes in the battels which he had with Seleucus, carried away from the se­verall Cities which he had spoiled fifty thousand Talents of silver, Hieron. in Esai. 11. and two thousand five hundred golden Vessells of their Gods. It is incredible to relate what wealth Alexander the great got from the particular Cities of Damascus, Pusargad, Babylon, Persepolis, Ecbatana, and other Cities, besides that treasure which he kept for the maintenance of his own Army, he employed ten thousand Mules, and five thousand Camels to carry home to Greece the infinite Talents of silver, Plut. in Alex. Q. Curr. Diod. Sic. Strab. and gold which he found in the Cities. When Mahomet the great did win Constantinople, he was astonished at the abun­dance [Page 218] [...] [Page 219] [...] [Page 220]of wealth w^h he met withall, Knowls in his Turkish history. and to this day it is a pro­verb amongst the Turks, that if any one doth prove rich, He hath been at the siege of Constantinople. These are the ruines of estates, which happen upon the losse of Cities; in a moment their keys are wrested out of their hands, their heaps scattered, and they which were rich Owners must then wan­der abroad for relief, and be glad to beg gratuities, or to kisse the feet of the Adversary for an alms out of his own fulnesse. And happy were ye if I could here make an end, and the last Post were arrived, which could bring evill tidings of the mi­series upon taking of Cities; but I must bring in Jobs fourth Messenger of sad news, for after all other extremities, consci­ence at last comes to her punishment, this also must be made a Captive, and wear the slaves-chain; the walls are not only broken, but the Altars digged down; men are not only locked out of their houses, but their Temples; their goods are not only forced from them, but they are deprived of the Pearl; their liberties are not only lost, but their freedome of the Ordi­nances; pure doctrine, and worship, and faith are in bondage, and the soul is enthralled. Cincta obsidient civitas, & suc­ [...]ensa, cum om­ni [...]opu [...], con­flagravit. Ens. l. 8. c. 11. A whole City in Phrygia because it would not yield to Dioclesians decree to change religion, was compassed about with armed men, and the City, withall the Citisens in it, burnt to ashes.

In the City of Alexandria, Julian comming to take possessi­on of it, because the Christians would not turn Heathens, but shewed up and down, the skulls of them which they found were remaining of such as had been sacrificed in the worship of Mythra, Amicus amicum frater fratrem, parentes libe­ros percutiunt, & in mutuam caedem corruunt. Socrat. l. 3. c. 2 Victor. de per­sec. Vandal. the enraged Heathens wounded most, stoned some, strangled others, some were slain with a sword, and others were crucifyed, friend spared not friend, nor brother his brother, nor Parents their own Children. Hunerick was no sooner Conque­rour, but in all the Cities which he had subdued, he com­manded alteration of religion, and not being obeyed in it, he instantly killed, or banished five thousand of Bishops, Priests, and men of all orders. Yea, it were infinite to relate the several cruelties, and tortures, that Cities have undergone in point of conscience, when they have been enforced to come under the yoak of the Conquerour. But this is a thing so evident, that there need no OEdipus to expound the riddle, nor Antiquity searched into to find out the Annals of fore­past miseries; Conscience hath been an old slave upon such accidents, men that will not permute a God, and suffer their faith to be new-stamped, must either run, or dye for it. Oh then if ever your sins bring in Gods Judgements into your City, marching rank and file, see the variety of sorrows ye [Page 221]must weep under; as happily as ye now seem to live, ye must have another face of wretchednesse amongst you; whatsoe­ver present comforts ye now enjoy, yet then nothing but exi­gents, and dysasters; your looking-glasse will be snatcht a­way, your Mirrour cracked, your bright Diamond shive­red in pieces, this goodly City of yours all in sherds; ye may seek for a threshold of your antient dwellings, for a Pillar of your pleasant habitations, and not find them; all your speci­ous Mansions, and sumptuous Monuments are then gone; not a Porch, Pavement, Seeling, Tarrasse, Staircase, Gallery, Turret, Lanthorn, Balcony, Bench, piece of a Skreen, pane of a win­dow, post, nail, stone, or dust of your former houses to be seen. No, with wringing hands ye may ask, Where are those sweet places, where we traded, feasted slept? where we li­ved like Masters, and shone like Morning-stars? no, the hou­ses are fallen, and the Housholders dropt with them; we have nothing but the naked streets, or naked fields for shelters; not so much as a Chamber where to lodge a Friend, or to couch down our Children, or repose our own members when we are spent with weariness, or afflicted with sicknesse; Wo unto us, our sins have pulled down our houses, shaken down our City, we are the most harbourlesse, seatlesse, peo­ple in the world; we live rather like Forraigners, than Na­tives, yea, rather like beasts, then men. Foxes have holes, and the fowls of the air have nests, but we have neither holes nor nests: our sins have deprived us both of couch and covert; we would be glad if any Hospitall or Spittle would receive us; Dens, and Caves, the bleak Air, or cold ground are now left unto us as our only Shades, and Refuges. But this is but the misery of stonework, of Arches, Dormans, Roofs; but what will ye say when it doth come to skin work, arms, necks, and bowels? may not your dear persons come to be joined in the hazard? and your tender persons touched? yes, ye which have walked the streets in state, may then run the streets in distraction; ye which have searched out others with severity, may then be plucked out of corners by others with rigour; ye which have been bowed unto with reverence, may t [...]en bend your knees for mercy; with one leg, or half an arm, ye may beg the preservation of the rest of your members; what inventions shall ye then be put to, to secure your selves? yea, perhaps what would ye not give to save your lives? and your tears it may be will not rescue you, nor your gold redeem you; but your veynes must weep as well as your eyes, and your sides be watered as well as your cheeks; when your sinns shall shut up all the Conduits of the City, and suffer [Page 222]only the Liver Conduit to run; when they allow you no showres of rain, but showres of blood to wash your streets; when ye shall see no men of your Incorporation, but the mangld Citisen, nor hear no noise in your streets, but the crys, the shrieks, the yells, and pants of gasping, dying men; when amongst the throngs of Associates, and Confederates, not a man will own you, or come near you; when your Customers will slip from you, your Friends hide head, and your servants flee out of your fight; when ye shall see your kindred slain in one place, your wives in another, your children in a third, and your selves at last, it may be, cut in two, to encrease the number of dead Carkasses: When, as populous as yeare, ye shall be but numbred to the sword; as puissant as ye are, the valiant shall be swept away; as sine fed as ye are, ye shall be fed with your own flesh, and made drunk with your own blood; when your trespasses have been so outragious, that vengeance doth deny you a being, that ye are thought fit for nothing but to be killed in the place, where ye have committed the crimes; and to suffer the pains of death within those walls which you have cursed with your Sodoms faces, and Aegyptian hard heartednesse; when your Politicians can no longer help you, but must have their subtle brains dashed in pieces with yours, nor your Lecturers can no longer save you, but ye must meet together at the Congregation near the Shambles; when this great City shall be but a great Chopping-board to quar­ter out the limbs of sinners, or the great Altar wherein a whole City is to be sacrificed: Oh dolefull day of new-paint­ing your walls, new-paving your streets, new-summoning of a Commonhall; when all are called forth to nothing but the derision of Adversaries, the insulting of Enemies, to have your brests to try the points of spears, your sides the keen­nesse of swords, your heads the weight of pole axes, your bo­dies to be made foot-stools, and your dead carkasses stoppings for truculent Foes to tread and trample upon; when there will be no pitty upon the aged; nor compassion upon the young, but heaps, upon heaps, tumbling of garments in blood, and swords made fat with slaughter: Oh see what a crimson City crimson sins will then make. Or if ye do escape the dint of the sword, and your lives be given you for a prey, shall not your goods be a prey? yes, some may be reserved out of the greatest massacre; when men are weary with killing, a retreat may be sounded, and men called off from the slaugh­ter, yet can ye then challenge your old houses? or bring your keyes to your old Chests? No, your titles are gone, your inte­rests lost; ye have traded your selves out of your estates, or sinned your selves off your proprieties; The enemy is now [Page 223]House-keeper, Land-holder, ye have forfeited all to the sword; farewell Inheritances, Purchases, Leases, Wares, Wardrobes, Furniture, Jewels; as ye have gotten perhaps these goods un­justly, so they shall be taken away unjustly; as ye have fetched them in with violence, so they shall be forced back with vi­olence; vengeance from heaven will have satisfaction of you for all your fraudulent bargaines, cruell pawns, extorting Morgages, bloodding of widows, skinning of Orphanes; or, as ye have used your goods for pride and bravery, so ye shall see all your gallantry plucked from you, and your new fa­shions wrong from you: ye shall behold others flaunt in your attires, or spruse up themselves with your curious Dresses; ye your selves may be glad of the worst sithy Garment ye left behind you; yea perhaps of a cast Gar­ment from your Adversaries backs; or as ye kept all your estates to your selves, that though God took you out of the mire, yet having wiped off your own durt, ye never pluck out others which stick in the same extremities; which have forgotten your own beginnings, and being now mounted to sublimity, are good for nothing but to ride the trappered Horse, or weare Furres; and a great company of these uncompassionate creatures this City hath, that the indigent poor, and the suffering Gospel, can thank them for little suc­cour, and sympathy; that when themselves fare deliciously every day, Lazarus cannot get fragments from them; and when perhaps they have Obadiahs estate, they have not had Obadiahs heart, but get meanes greedily, and keep it penuri­ously. Now these self-thrifts, how shall divine justice judge them for this parsimony? they which would grasp all, shall lose all, their close hutches shall be locked up from him, who hath a new key to open them, their cankered gold shall eat them out of their vast abundance; they shall be driven to live upon alms, and to go along with the tattered crew (which they contemned) to begge for support and sustenance; they shall wish, that they had but one spare bagge, which all the cryes of the distressed could not make them to open; or that they had but a few of those mites, which all the teares of ne­cessity could not make them to scatter abroad; no, they would trust nothing into Gods hand, and God shall shut up all hands and hearts against them; they had no commisera­tion, and no eye shall pitty them. If they be not slayn in the heap, yet they do but live to see their own misery; their sins have made them Bankrupts, they are undone, ruined. And oh that the losse of money were the greatest mischiefe, but there is a treasure of greater value in danger, Conscience is ready to be rifled; there is not an absolute conquest made, [Page 224]till the inward man be in fetters, thou must be a slave in prin­ciples; oh it is an hard thing at that time to be a Jew inward­ly, to keep the girdle of truth about thy loyns; thou must then bear the fruit of the degenerate plant, or strange vine, powre out the Drink-offerings of other sacrificers, follow the sor­cery of the Mistresse of Witch-crafts, or learn Magick with them that are brought up in the doctrine of Devils; thou must limp with the halting age, fit thy mouth to answer the generall showt, That great is Diana of the Ephesians; thou must taunt thine own Father, spit in the face of thine own Mother, and hiss away all thy true brethren; thou must be divorced from thy old faith, though never so chaste, and deny Sarah to be thy wise, though thy espousals with her were never so solemn: the Jewes had but lived a while under the Babyloni­an, and they soon learned to speak in the language of Canaan, and the language of Ashdod; the Samaritanes had continued a very short space under the Assyrian, and they soon worship­ped the true God, and the gods of the Nations; so that cor­ruption in Doctrine quickly doth follow outward subjection, if the City doth come under another Lord, the Citizen is commonly a double slave both in soul and body. That though perhaps many men care not what become of conscience, that if they could keep their walls, skins, and purses, they would pawn their soules to any Broker, they have a Religion sitted for any ages and accidents. Yet they to whom profes­sion is dearer then the right eye, and the purity of the Gos­spell then the life-blood; is not this an heavy punishment? Yes? if the soul be the darling, and there be no more dange­rous chase, then the hunting of soules (and what shall a man give in exchange of his soul?) then it is a mortall wound to have the soul stabbed; Oh miserable age, if this hour of temptation should come upon you, that men should be led away with the error of the wicked, and fall from their own stedfastnesse; yea for outward respects, make shipwrack of faith and a good conscience; yet thus it will be then, there will be no safety for incontaminate faith, thou wilt either be a Nicodenus to come to Christ by night, or if with Daniel, thou dost open thy windows publiquely towards Jerusalem, thou wilt be cast in­to the Den of Lions; Ecelolius will then turn Renegade, and Marcelline will hazard to cast in his grains of incense to Idols, Demas will forsake all for this present world, S Peter himself will scarce be a Saint in the Judgement-hall, but for fear of a Damosell forswear Christ. Thou wilt then be a complicated and compleat slave, a slave in thy house, a slave in thy per­son, a slave in thy estate, and a slave in thy conscience. Oh therefore if it be possible, shut the City gates before judge­ment [Page 225]doth enter, or meet the enemy afar off, before he draw nigh to the City; for if teares, and prayers, and reformation, do not stop his passage, here will be variety of miseries ye see, at his sudduing the City; there must be an eminency of repentance, or else there will be an eminency of wrath; it will be That great Visitation, for it is That great City. Should not I spare Nineveh, that great City?

4. This serves to shew, that as eminency is dear unto God, so it ought to be unto us: Oh that God would spare a City that is emi­nent, and that we will spare nothing that is eminent; that e­minency begets in us the greater envy, and eminency is to us a kind of execration; that we take a delight in abasing, and defacing that which is eminent; that Temples, Sacraments, the verdict of Antiquity, and the primitive Presidents have been contemned by us; yea, as Job, though there was not the like unto him upon earth, had his three Philosophicall friends arguing him into an Hypocrite: many Saints that have ex­celled upon earth, and which no doubt have been put into Gods book of remembrance, and shall be made up amongst his Jewels, how have they here been underprized by our Lapidaries, and cast by like stones of no lustre? if we should turn up the Grave-stones, or knock at the Tombs of the de­ceased, how many precious creatures may we find there buri­ed with rage, whom the earth looked upon with reverence, and the Angels with pleasure? were not these things the pra­ctises of former ages? Yes, Cain, where is thy brother Abel? Doeg, where is Abimelech, and the Priests of Nob? Ahab, where is Naboth the Jezraelite? Judas, where is thy Master? Achan, where is the Babylonish Garment, and the golden wedge? Baltasar, where are the vessels of the Sanctuary? Antochus, where is the Altar of the Lord, which thou didst prophane & defile? oh sad Quaeries! Have not Heathens detested the abu­sing or contemning of that waich is eminent? yes, it was a scandall to Phayllus, to take away the Jewell of Minerva, Parchen. de Amat. 25. and to give it to the wife of Ariston: And to the Senate of Rome, that by open decree they burned the Books of Numa concer­ning the pontisiciall right, and the discipline of wisdome, which were found by accident in the field of L. Petilius; Precium libro­rum Domino Olvendum sta­tait; id s [...]riba non accepit. Liv. Dec. 4. l. 10. for though the price of the Books was appointed to be given to the Lord of the Fee, yet the Scribe would not receive it. And so was it to Appius Claudius, for casting the south-saying Chickens into the Sea, which did not tripudiate, pick up their crums with a rebound: for for his jeer that he made in hurling the Chickens into the water, namely, that seeing they could not eat, he bad them go drink enough; it is reported that he lost that great Battel which he fought with Adberbal [Page 226]the Carthiginian, in which so many were slayn and taken, Sabellic. l. 9. Aenead. 4. that there were but thirty remaining to flee with him out of the field, to make his escape: Pheron the King of Egpyt, doth hear ill amongst the Heathen, for casting but a Speare into Nilus, Herod. l. 2. when it rose eighteen foot high, for it is said, He was presently strook blind. And so doth Cambyses, for striking at Apts with his sword, Fulgos. l. 1. c. 2. for mounting his horse, it is said with the same weapon he wounded his thigh, of which he [...]yed; and so doth Zerxes, Nerodot. l. 6. for whipping Neptune, and threathing to eclipse the Sun, for for this very thing, their Histories relate he lost his great Army of ten hundred thousand persons. And so doth Heligoabalus, for forcing a Vestall Virgin to marry him, and for fetching the Palladium, Fulgos. l 1. c. 2 (which was a thing so sacred, that it was never seen but once, namely when a sire happen­ed upon the Temple of Peace) home to her, and for endea­vouring to put out the Vestal sires; for for this (say they) his Souldiers after rose against him, killed him in a privy, drag­ged his body up and down the streets, to brothel houses, and at last cast it into Tiber. Cicer. Philip. 13. How infamous amongst them are C. Plancus, for defacing the Senate-house? Manlius, for ra­zing the Statues, Plut. in Man lio. Valer. Max. Theaters, and Monuments of Rome? Erostra­tus, for burning the Temple of Diana, to get himselfe a name by it? The very Heathen, abhorred those persons which in­jured or dishonoured that which was precious; for they ex­pressed a kind of sacred reverence towards any thing was e­minent. Vnus sabricius, is est qui diffici­liùs à sua vir­tute dimoveatur, quàm sol à con­sucto suo cursu. Suidas. Fabricius so honoured Phyrrhus his enemy, that one of his Souldiers stealing by night into the Camp of Fabricius, and offering to poyson his own Master, the noble Generall so ha­ted the motion, that he sent him again to Pyrrbus bound, to receive condigne punishment. Demetrius could not be drawn to break in pieces that famous Picture of Protogenes, called Ja­sylus which was 7 years in the drawing, Plut. saying, That he came to sight with Rhodians, and not with Pictures: Vispasian, though Josephus had done his Army all the mischiefe that he could at Jotapata, yet when the Town was taken, he caused him to be diligently sought out, and being brought to his presence, he expressed to him the highest honour, Jos. l. de vita ejus ad sinem. and at last set up his sta­tue in the Library. Doriaeus Rhodius, a famous Sea Captaine, being taken in a Sea-sight by the Athenians, Pausan. l. 6. for the very glory of his name was set at liberty without ransome. Alexander blu­shed, beholding a Persian weep, to see the rich Table of Dari­us made the foot stool to Alexanders Throne, and with a kind of modesty removed the Table, Q. Curt. out of honour to the use that it had formerly been employed in. Titus, though an Heathen, yet highly esteemed the Temple of Jerusalem, Josephus. and was be­yond measure grieved, that the obstinacy of the Jewes with­in [Page 227]in forced it to be destroyed,; yea he wept bitterly, when he saw the Sanctum Sanctorum fired, accounting it the most glori­ous sight which ever his eyes beheld, So that amongst Pay­nims we may see the due regard, that hath been testified by men of worth to magnificent things, or illustrious persons, and yet that nothing amongst us is eminent, or venerable; that we take pleasure in tearing down top branches, tumbling down Spires, cropping the fairest flowers of the Garden, spil­ling Quintessences, and trampling upon Gems & Jewels, that neither ornaments, nor monuments, pillarsnor palaces, Tombs nor Temples, Priestsnor Saints, the most ennobled things, or endowed persons, can escape our disdaine or rage; that our glory is in shame, even in contemning that which all ages have honoured, and our fore-fathers (the most wise and vir­tuous amongst them) valued and celebrated; If this be worth, what is pride? If this be reverence, what is arrogancy? nei­ther nature, nor grace, would teach us thus to mock at our Progenitors, and to call all generations past blind, or mad: was there never a judicious Protestant before us? or shall wisdome take her first breath, or last gaspe with us? was ne­ver grace before in the Church? did the spirit, begin to blow, and flame, and anoint onely in these dayes? if there were any good thing, or good man conveyed unto us from former times, why have they been so dis-esteemed? How are the Churches abiliments gone, even to her swadling-clouts? How are the Martyrs legacies swallowed up, even to the la­ver they gave to new-born Infants? Our Saviour (the Jewes said) had a Devill, and what Saint hath not seemed to be possessed? How many Stars, though never so bright, shine in their proper Orbs? how many Angels, though never so cele­stial, watch over their true Churches? What are Gifts, Graces, Mortification, Devotion, Evangelicall Doctine, or Angeli­call extasies, dayes dedicated to piety, and persons conse­crated to contemplation with some people? How are the migh­ty overthrown, and the weapons of war destroyed? oh tell it not in Gath, nor publish it not in the streets of Askelon, lest the Daugh­t rs of the uncircumcised triumph, lest Rome should say, that her Inquisition, or Stakes, could not have made a quicker dis­patch of eminent Protestants, than our differences and pas­sions: Oh let us be so far reconciled, that God, the spirit, re­pentance, innocency, zeal, supernatural affections, and fruits, all pious things, and heavenly persons may have just esteem; let men have worth in their cyes, and preciousnesse in their hearts, to tender and honour every thing that is prime, and hath a preheminence sealed upon it. God, ye see, would here [Page 228]spare Ninev h, because it had eminency in it, it was That great City. Should not I spare Nineveh, that great City?

Fifthly, This doth shew, That we all ought to aim at eminency, that seeing (That great City) was so acceptable to God, we should look to be of the new Corporation, to have the best Burgesship, to be Citizens with the Saints, and of the houshould of God. That it may be said, these are the men of an excellent spirit, Prov. 17.27. A Kingdom of Priests, Exod. 19.6. which walke worthy of the Lord, Col. 1.10. of whom this world is not worthy, Heb. Laus, & vita omni commen­datione superior Monod. Greg. Naz. in vit. Basil. Ejus virtutem pro lege fere omnes habue­runt. Id. ibid. Totius patriae decus. Amb. in Orat. sun. de ob. Satyri. Nunc in Pauli chorum perve­nerunt ante Co­ronas suas. Chrysostom. Adv. Jud. O­rat. [...].1.1. Solvamus bono principi stepen­darias lachry­mas. Amb. de obit. Valent. Orat. fun. t. 3. 11.38. and which are counted worthy to obtaine that world, Luk. 20.35. Oh rare Worthies! when praise and life is above commendation! yea when men come to such an exactnesse of conversation, that their virtue is to the world as a Lan lyea, their graces are so resplendent, that they brighten the place where they dwell, and are as it were the Ornaments of the whole Coun­try! Yea, they seem to be in heaven, before their translation, and to be in the Quire of Paul, before they receive their Crowns; they have the affectionate votes of the people whilst they live, and their stipendary [...]ears when they dye! Oh what Magnifico like to such a Professor? What Citizen like to such a Saint? What are all these glorious structures, to the lively stones of God's buil­ding? what are your artificial Ornaments to spiritual endow­ments? what is the magnificence of a City, to the prerogative of adoption? no, the robe of Righteousness doth excel all your Mercers wares, one ingot of grace is to be preferred before all the wealth of your City. Oh therfore a less number of Traders, and a greater of Gospellers; fewer Citizens, and more Saints. For what conspicuousnesse like to that of Religion? what eminency like to that of Regeneration? no, if ye want your Christian interest, ye have onely parchment priviledges, your happinesse doth not go beyond your City-walls. The savour of lise unto life, is not to be bought amongst all your Per­fumers, the true Pearl is not to be purchased from all your Jewellers: Oh therefore that I could cause you to take the true City oath, and make you true freemen in heaven, other­wise your best tenure is in a painted Portall, and your heaven is in an Exchange; ye are never enfranchised, till ye have the liberties of redemption; nor right Traders, till ye are ma­king bargaines at the free mart of the spirit; nor wealthy Citizens, till ye have the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Oh then that ye would remove your Traffique, have your [...], your City commerce, or conversation in heaven; that ye would seek for durable riches, bagges that do not wax old, a stock of graces, these are greater riches then the treasures of Egypt; that ye would think your se­curity [Page 229]to consist not in Bulwarks, Stantious maent­nibus, menti­bus, morthus. [...]ug. de civita­te. Dei lab. 1. c. 33. Non Imperato­rem, sed salu­i m er [...]plampu­tabant. [...]g. in in orat sun. de obit. Valent. but in the Towers of your religious constancy, that ye might say, our walls, spirits, consciences, and conversations are remaining firm; that your demonstrations might be so celestiall, as peo­ple might be drawn to blesse you whilst ye are living, and to bewail you when ye are dead, that they might think that not only your persons, but salvation almost were taken from them at your departure, as Saint Ambrose said of Valentinian. Think not of your City that had a first Builder, but think of the City which hath foundations; whose builder and maker is God; think not upon your City-seal, but the seal of the li­ving God. Oh remember that this City hath keyes too, for without shall be dogs; therefore be so qualified, that ye may enter in through the gates into the City: Oh happy thou that dost go in this City-Livery, that art a prime Citisen in this Corporati­on, for then thou art risen to the heighth, thy soul is blessed; God will spare That great Saint for his eminency, when for eminency he doth spare That great City. Should not I spare Nine­veh, that great City?

Sixthly, this sheweth that Repentance doth present to Gods ey every thing in us that might draw compassion, as Niceveh here being penitent, God hath before him all the motives, which might incline him to spare it, it was a City, a great City, and that great City; that as the women from the wall had variety of ar­guments why Abel should be spared, and the woman of Tekoah why Absalon should be called from banishment, and Bathsheba why Solomon should be designed to the Throne, so repentance doth exhibit to God all the instances, impulsions, instigations, extimulations, that should make God propense to favour; As it is the nature of a Rhetorician to speak not onely [...]acundè elegantly, but aecundè fluently, Pectus refertum habuit Plato. Victor. var. Lect. l. 9. c. 5. In instruendo dislipatus esset. Cicero in Bru­to Sttabo. l. 13. and compleatly to a businesse, it being said of Plato, that he had a stored brest, and of Curio, that he was ample in giving informa [...]io [...]; and of [...]yctamus the Schollar of Aristotle (who was afterwards called Theophra­stus, he Divine speaker) that with all manner of suavity he could speak fully to the subjects which he did handle; So repen­tance is copious in setting out a Penitent with all his adjuncts, and appurtenances, inferences, and references to make him acceptable. Polycrates when he presented the mother of a Souldier which dyed in the Wars to a rich Citisen of Samos, [...]. Eras. in Adg. he delivered her with these termes, I give this Mother to thee to maintain, and all the good services of the Souldier were re­hearsed. Plato undertaking to bring AEschynes into favour, who had been a long time neglected in the Court of Dionysius, he used all his Rhetorick to ingratiate him, telling the Prince that he was a man of profound judgement, Plut. de dis­c [...]n adult. one of strict life, and that he had travelled a great way to wait upon him, yea, [Page 230]nothing was omitted to endeere him Fabius Maximus, that he might be set out with his due honour, being brought into the City by the greatest Concourse of Senatours and people, he was desired to make a stand in the open Marketstead; where, by the invention of Aretius, there was a stately Monument set up for the people to gaze upon, and every thing related that was praise worthy in him, as that he had been Aedile, Censor, Valer. Maxim. Tribune of the Souldiers, Pontifex, Augur, five times Consul, and twise Diclatour; and that in his time he had ta­ken Tarentum, subdued the Ligurians; so restored the battail, when Minucius was flying, that he was called the Father of the Army; so vanquished Hannibal, that he might be styled the Deliverer of the Roman Empire. Pompey at his triumph (which was the greatest that ever I read) had every thing brought in that might expresse the glory of it, there was represented to the people his Victories over Pontus, Armenia, Cappadocia, Pa­phlagonia, Media, D [...] universo or­bis unbitu tri­umphasse visas est, quod memi­ni profe [...]o pi­sum est usquam. Plut. in Pom­peio. Plut. in Anto­nio. Cholers, Iberia, Albania, Syria, Cilicia, Mesopo­tamia, Phoenicia, Palestina, Arabia; and that he had conquered a 1000 Castles, 900 Cities, 800 Piratical ships, & that in Africk, Asia, and Europe, he had done such wonders, that he seemed to tri­umph over all the World. Cleopatra when she prepared her self to go meet Mark Authony, that the Majesty of such a glorious ap­pearance might be fully known, there is described every thing that might witnesse her Princely Pomp, namely, that she sailed down the River Cydnus in a bark overlaid with gold, the Oares being of pure silver, the Cables of silk, the sailes of purple, the odours so costly, that they perfumed the banks sides with sweet smells, her maids of honour attired all like Nymphs, and her self sitting under a Tent of gold, did seem to be the very De [...]ty of beauty; But never any Narration, Triumph, or Spectacle did ever so decipher, and delineate a thing, as Repentance doth all thy motions, affections, prepara­rations, passages, and perfections. God hath an observing eye over a Penitent, and doth exarate, and can enumerate all his manifestations; he hath bottles for thy tears, files for thy Pe­titions, witnesses for thy vows, baggs for thine almes, and books for thy actions. He that made the ear, doth he not hear? Doth he not see my waies, and count all my steps? are not these things written in thy book? doth he not search the heart, and reines? Scientia relati­vè dicitur ad scibile. Tho. Aq. p. 1. q. 14. art. 15. Alternante conceptu. Aug. de Trim. l. 15. c. 14. Can there any thing be concealed from him? flee his notice? or be undiscernable to his all seeing eye? No, Know­ledge is relative to that which is sci [...]ile, a thing is no sooner percep­tible, but God doth apply his understanding to it, not by a variable conception, but by present insight; he which doth know infinite things, must needs know in thee such things as have both initiation, & termination. Oh penitent then see how God [Page 231]doth look upon thee, look thee through, search thee, and mark thee, that every thing thou dost, doth come to his no­tice, and is under his eye. If thou wouldst be seen with com­fort, and seen compleatly, turn Penitent; for repentance is an object, that is never out of Gods clear, distinct, and district view; here Gods eye is piercing, and fixed. Josiah doth no sooner humble himself, but every melting in his brest, and slash in his garments is considered; the Publican doth no sooner approach to God, but his distance, his dejection, his blushing, his knocking, and his humble tone is taken notice of. Hezekiah doth no sooner apprehend judgement, but his turning his face to the wall, his pious gales, and calling upon God for an approbatory remembrance are called to mind; Mary Magdalen doth no sooner seek reconciliation, but her modest gesture, her torrent of tears, her head-spun napkin, and her passionate kisses are spoken of; yea, Ahab is but an Actour upon this Stage, and his personating of repentance is called upon to be discerned, for, Seest thou not how Ahab is humbled? Oh then that thou couldst repent, that thou dist re­pent, shouldst thou not be apprehended? yes, though before thou wert never looked upon, or seen with delight; yet then thou shouldst have Gods eye of grace, & his eye of inspection, his bright and his broad eye fastned upon thee. Return, return, oh ye Shulamite, return, return; that we may look upon thee. Cant. 6.13. the returning Shulamite is a creature sit for the heavenly gaze, God will look upon her, and not passe the least thing, that is remarkable in her; six his eyes, and feed his eies upon her, consider her beauty, and admire her new-acquired greatness, speak like one affected, and ravished with her. Who is she, that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the Moon, clear as the Su [...], ter­rible as an army with banners Cant. 6.10. Oh then so soon as thou hast but cast thy self at Gods feet, God doth stoop down to take thee up; so soon as thy sacrifice is laid upon the coals of the Altar, the smoak of it doth ascend to Heaven; so soon as thou dost but lay hold on thy Saviour, be it but upon the hem of his Garment, yet he is sensible of thy first feeling of him, though with some remotenesse. Who is this that hath touched me? for vertue is gone out of me. God is privy to the least addresse, and the smallest expression that ever thou didst make, when thou didst desire an union with him. He know­eth the first turning up the flag, when thou didst break up thy fallow ground; and the first gash that was made, when the circumcising knife did cut off thy uncircumcised fore­skin; he can tell thee thy conception, thy quickning, thy birth, the first drawing at the brest, lying in the Cradle stand­ing upon thy feet, growing up to ripe years, and performing [Page 232]the manlike acts of a Penitent. He can repeat to thee thy checks, thy conflicts, thy groans, thy protestations, thy sup­plications, thy fruitfulnesse, thy fervency, thy watchfulnesse. Oh then if God hath all things under his eye, how can re­pentance be rejected, or despised? no, depend upon thy re­pentance, trust, and rest upon it, jeopard a soul, and venture heaven upon it, think thy state is secure, thy bliss infallible, for God will examine thy repentance to find out all the as­surances for thy justification, as in his plea for Nineveh, he doth urge all the arguments and ratifications for the sparing of it, as that it was a City, a great City, and That great City. Should not I spare Nineveh, that great City?

Seventhly, This doth shew, That no earthly eminency is certaine, for God once spared Nineveh, that great City, but now that great City is wasted: Nineveh nunc tota est vastata. Hayt. de Tar­taris. l. 12. Funditùs periit. Pappus in 3. Jon. Centum an­nis ad concio­nem Jonae actâ paenitentiâ pae­nam sibi denun­tiatam evade­bat. Verum cùm felici rerumsuc­cessu elata ad vomitum redi­ret, excusso ti­more Dei, Do­minum tandem usciscentem ex­perta est. Pap­pus. in a Na­hum. Carthw. Hist. some say that Mosul is built out of the ruines of it, as Tunis is said to be built out of the ru­ines of Carthage: howsoever the old Nineveh is demolished. Haiton saith, it is wholly decayed, Pappus saith it is utterly pe­rished; for he saith, Repentance at the preaching of Jonah, saved it for an hundred years, but afterwards being puffed up with happy successe, it felt an avenging God. Carthwright which lately travelled into those parts, saith, That he saw but some pieces, and broken walls remaining of it, and that Almutsal, or (as we call it) Mosul, was built upon the same place where it once stood. The most judicious Writers hold, that after Arbaces had taken it from Sardanapalus, it did con­tinue under the Medes in some flourishing condition, till the time of Cyaxares, the son of Phraartes, who began to destroy it, and Astyages his son levelled it with the ground. O then what stability is there in any earthly greatnesse? That great City hath had both her Obit and her Funerall, yea, there is scarce an urne remaining where we may find her ashes, [...]. or a Tomb-stone upon which we might write her Epitaph. What pleasure then in smelling of these Nosegayes, or looking with delight upon the brightnesse of these falling stars? Why dost put water into a riven vessel? That nothing was seen scarce remaining of it. Cyril. Alex. in Nahum. M. Gregory in his description of the Assyrian Monarchy, saith, That if Ninus which built Nineveh were now a­live, he should find the City to be so fallen into mine, that he would not know it to be Nineveh. Cur perforato aquam dolio ingeris? Chrys. Hom. 77. in Matth. Alba ligustra cadunt. Virg. Ecce mundus, qui diligitur, sugit. Greg. this world is crackt, and split, and can hold nothing in it long, the whitest stowers welk and drop. It is much we can enter into league, or vow familiarity to such a mutable friend. Behold the world which is loved, doth flee away. We do but warme our selves at a blaze, borrow our light from a melting Candle, travail with a fugitive guides these Musks will lose their sent, this juicy meat will turn into dung, this keeper of our treasure will prove a Thiefe; our best build­ings here stand upon a weak pinning, our richest Garments [Page 233]are stitched up with a rotten thred, our strongest-ships are subject to Leakes; how soon will these mists be exhaled, these bright days be obscured with dark night, these pleasant Co­medies be acted out? Oh that our hearts could trample upon this earth, as well as our feet do; that our consciences could renounce the world, as well as our profession doth, that we could wear St Pauls Crucifix about our necks, I am crucified to the world, and the world to me! How many great families have we seen decay? how many great Cities have we found laid in the dust? Baldnesse is come upon Gazah, Jer. 47.5. How is Sheshach taken, the praise of the whole earth? Jer. 51.41. What City like to Tyrus? yet she destroyed in the midst of the flood, Ezech 28.8. Ba­bylon the glory of Kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees excellency, yet she that cryed a Lady sure for ever, is now but a poor Madam; The hammer of the whole earth is cut asunder and broken, Ier. 50.23. Yea, Nineveh that was the Crown Imperiall of the whole world, hath now lost her Diadem, That great City, hath not one of her thousand five hundred Towers, or one of her splendid Pala­ces to be seen: Oh then why are ye enamoured upon your beautifull Empress? do ye dwell here in the inchanted City? are ye out of the dint of vengeance? do ye feare no judge­ments? what should make you so confident? Nineveh's cir­cuit was more large, her walls more strong, her streets more populous, her treasures more abundant, and her dominion more ample then yours; then may not ye drop, as well as Ni­neveh is fallen? Are your sinnes lesse? No, ye have four sinnes within your walls, (and yet I will except fraud, pride, par­tiality, and bribery) that shall justifie Neneveh from being the more guilty sinner. Four sinnes? What are they? I know ye are good at asking of questions, and apter to sciscitate, than to eliminate; therfore becaus I have often heard you told of these things, and yet I could never see you blush at these things, but rather rage; not softned with ministeriall zeal, but ra­ther hardened, therefore I shall not speak where the Lord hath commanded to keep silence, Amos 5.13. nor throw a­broad his Pearls, but where he hath directed me to cast them, nor impart his holy things, but where he hath enjoyned me to give them, Mat. 7.6. If ye command the Prophets, saying, pro­phesie not, Amos 2.12. and the times be come about that no man must strive, nor reprove another, for the people are as they which strive with their Priest, Hos. 4.4. Then why should we reiterate that which we have had preached upon the house-top? and made plain upon Tables? for fear therefore I should be charged to bring in railing accusation; I shall-say onely as Michael did, when he contended with the Devill about the body of Mo­ses, The Lord rebuke thee. But these sins are such, that if ye had [Page 234]walls of brass, and guards of Anakims; they will make eve­ry beam of your-houses, and every stone in your buildings, cry out confusion to you. Ye have nothing but conversion to preserve you, and I doubt whether ever I shall see Ninevehs repentance amongst you. Oh that the Jonah were born, that could cry effectually in your streets! oh that the Auditors were yet so prepared, that they could listen to a message from heaven with Ninevehs ears! oh be ye smitten grove-long to the earth, wallow your selves in the ash heap, weep till a, teare more cannot melt out of your eyes, reform, till there be not one sinne left for conscience to turn new spy unto, and so may repentance be your preservative, a kind of Guardian Angell to the City, with Nineveh ye may yet be spared. But if ye be spared, I wish ye not to be secure; for if your repen­tance should intermit or abate in the vigour, if ye should fast and fall to your old riot, or put on sackcloth and change this sackcloth into new fashions, or cry mightily unto God and cry but till the judgement be removed, or turn from your evill wayes, and wax as exorbitant as ye were before, and for­bear from the violence that is in your hands, and then be­come as club-fisted as ever; the renewing of your former sinnes, will but renew your former dangers; therefore your repentance must not onely be fervent, but firm; not onely unfeigned, but unchangeable; for remember Loths wife, remem­ber Nineveh, she humbled her self, and was pardoned; she re­pented, and was spared; but she repented but for a time, and was spared but for a time; she turned again to be Nineveh the wicked, and she happened to be Nineveh the miserable; a tem­porary repentance, procured for her but a temporary safety. God aid not cry the second time, nor send a new Jonah to her, but he sent a curse instead of a cry, and desolation in­stead of a Prophet; she is now ruined into That great heap, that was spared, because she was That great City. Should not I spare Nineveh, that great City?

3^d General part. Wherein are more then sixscore thousand persons, which cannot discern betwixt their right hand, and their left hand, and also much cattel.

Now let us come to the description: Wherein are more, &c. In which observe these two particulars.

First, The principall commodities. Wherein are more then sixscore thousand persons, which cannot discerne between their right hand, and their left hand.

Secondly, The lesse principal commodities: And also much cattel.

First for the principall commodities: in which these parts are conside­rable.

• 1. The receptacle, Wherein.
• 2. The season, Are.
• 3. The treasures, Persons.
• 4. The quantity, Sixscore thousand.
• 5. The surplus, More.
• 6. The qualifications, Which cannot discern betwixt their right hand, and their left hand.

Wherein.

First, for the Receptacle, Wherein. Elsewhere had been no cre­dit to Nineveh, but that Nineveh was the place, in which such choise things are to be found, this is honour, Wherein. From hence observe, that Happinesse must carry with it an Appropriati­on; the Appropriation is the approbation of it, yea, the appre­hension, and (as I may call it) the appurtenancy of it; that is the most beneficiall Jewell, which is worn about our own neck, and the comfortable light, Intus ca [...]are. Tullius. which doth shine in our own Horison! That is the best musick, when men do sing within; he is a pittifull mason which doth build for others, and hath not an house to hide his head in, and a lamentable tilth-man, which doth plow, and sow for others, and hath not at the latter end of the year any crop of his own to reap: what mat­ter though thousands be recorded for fortunate persons, if thy name be not put into the Catalogue? Nos es in illo albo. Plinius. Mihi ipsi bal­neam ministra­bo. Aristoph. A te tua cura & consideratio inchoet, ne fru­stra extendaris in alios, te neg­lecto. Bern. de Consid. ad Eugen. Quid nobis cum alieno? Greg. Naz. or that never such great multitudes are in the bath, if thou dost not step in with them? A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth. Prov. 15.23. when a mans own mouth can speak satisfactorily, and feeling­ly for that which should truly blesse. Let thy care, and considera­tion begin at thy self, lest in vain thou beest busie about others, thy self being neglected. Let us know amongst our selves what is good, as Elihu saith. Job 34.4. Particular experience is beyond generall re­lation. Why shouldst thou destroy thy self? Eccles. 7.16. He doth destroy himself, which doth not principally make sure, that which is proper for his own preservation. VVhat have we to do with that, which is forraign? He that heareth of much, and acqui­reth nothing, is like the fool, which foldeth his hands together, and eateth his own flesh. Eccles. 4.5. for should he onely see o­ther men put meat into their mouths, and not feed himselfe; yes, his mouth craveth it of him. Prov. 16.26. That which a man doth possesse is his proper advantage, for neither wel­fare nor honour, law nor gospell, peace of conscience, nor the joyes of Heaven are usefull to us, if we have not a proper [Page 236]title to them. Therefore let not the blessing be mistaken, but let it be individually our own, as ye see it was Ninevehs hap­piness to have this felicity with a restriction, or in the proper ubi, VVherein.

Application.

First this doth reprove them, which know blessings onely by hearsay; there are places that have them, but do they cen­ter at home? can they say of their own station, Wherein? No, they have a rumour of much by report, but have nothing in their own enjoyment? and is not this a wandering kind of comfort? Domestica mala graviora sunt, quàm ut lachry­mas recipiant. Herod. l. 3. Se suos discipu­los docere de­cem minis; ve­rùm qui ipsum docerent citra timidit atem lo­qui, se ei datu­rum centum minas. E [...]asm. Plut. in Apoph. to see fulnesse abroad, and want at home? yes, do­mesticall miseries are greater, then can be expressed by tears; as, Psammenitus told Cambyses. Oh that we should live by the gazel or satisfie our selves by an extraneous welfare! What is this but like Isocrates, which taught all his schollers resolution in pleading, for ten pounds, but he would give him an hundred pounds (out of a sense of his own timidity) which could teach him the like courage; if we be satisfied with the endea­vours of others to attain to great things, and have not the like affections to make our selves happy, we are but like the fishes, gladioli, as Themistocles said of Eretrienses, which carry a sword upon their backs, but have no heart within. Oh therefore let us not be given too much to visit the state of others; but let our eyes be in our heads to observe our own condition, whe­ther the right blessing be in the right place. Let every man prove his own work, that he may have rejoycing in himself alone, and not in another. Gal. 6.4. Oh let us not talk of dainties, and tast no delicacies our selves; or speak of banks, and have no trea­sures in our own possession; or tell tales of Heaven, and have no heavenly interest, and evidences; for this were but to be imaginarily happy, or implicitely blessed. Therefore let us plead out our own entail to felicity, and bring it home to the proper place, as Nineveh here had it rightly seared; for, Wherein.

Secondly, this doth shew that some do enjoy distinct fe­licity; for though this were no where else to be seen, yet in Nineveh it was to be found, Wherein. The Lord doth rain upon one City, Hac te mensâ oivitas hono­rat. Plut. in Lycurgo. Suidas. Sabel. l. 5. c. 3. and not upon another! The wind bloweth where it listeth. God doth distribute to every one, as he pleaseth. Amongst the Spartanes, they were persons highly favoured, which got the publique Banquet, to whom it was said, The City doth honour thee with this Feast. They were men specially respected by the Atheni­ans, which were graced so far as to have entertainment in the [Page 237] Prytaneum. It was L. Minutius onely, that got the golden bul­lock; Cromer. l. 5. and Zelislaus that had by Bodislaus the 3^d, the golden hand given him for his valour. What should I speak of more? Particular preheminences happen, as God doth command the blessing. Levit. 25.21. oh then, be ye privy to your own privi­ledges, Ʋti datis, tanquam inna­tis. Bern. use not things conferred, as if they were inbred. For do ye hold all things in Frank-almoigne, and yet will yet not know your own Benefaciour? are blessings Donatives, and yet will ye not acknowledge your distinguishing God? yes, such things as cannot be espied elsewhere, are seen in you; as those things, which other places were destitute of, were enjoyed in Nine­veh; for Wherein.

Thirdly, this doth shew, that greatnesse doth not consist in bare title, but in effectuall demonstration, for Nineveh is not only That great City, but that great Receptacle, Wherein. To have a name to live, and to be dead, is to be but a great stinking Carrion. If a man thinketh himself to be somthing, and is nothing, he deceiveth himself. Gal. 6.3. that is, he is but the great Cheat of himself; for, for all his great thoughts, he is but the great Some­thing-Nothing. They are not leaves, but fruits, which justify the figtree, Matt. 21.19. they are not fancies, but fruition, which reallize comfort. There are a generation of men, which are pure in their own eyes, but if their purity do reach no further then their own fight, they are the botches of the World; their own eyes see that in them, which is not elsewhere visible; they are Saints of their own glimmering, their purity doth not reach beyond their own eylids. The young man, that cri­eth out Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternall life, must not think to carry eternall life with a grand question; no, this is but like a young mans vapour, or a busy headed Critick; eternall life doth require more then scepticall Divinity; hee must be as great in acting, as he was in scrupling, or else that will happen to him which did happen to the young Questio­ner, to go away sorrowfull. It is not enough to say with Laodicea, I am rich, and encreased with goods, and stand in need of nothing, but we must be as rich in conscience, as we are in confidence, or else Laodicea's doom will light upon us, to be wretched, misera­ble, Grande Apol­lini [...] t [...]mplum natat, & quo­cunqu [...] vento pellicur. Pomn. Mela. l. 10. in descript Aegypti. Plut. in vita Phocionis. M [...]tus probas honesta, suàm s [...]queris. Sene­ca. ep. 21. poor, blind, and naked; if Laodicea hath no other goods but those which are locked up in her own protestations, and asse­verations, she is but rich only in tongue; such great concei­ted Creatures are but like the great Temple of Apollo in the Island Chemnis, which wanting a foundation is puffed up and down, with every gust of wind; or there is nothing left in them (as Antipater said of Demades the Oratour) but just as there was in the sacrifices of the Heathen, besides the belly and the tongue; they only approve of good things, but do not pursue [Page 232]them. Oh, wo to them then which are onely voiced up to be great; but setting aside their own tumour, and the peoples rumour there is no greatnesse to be seen in them. Shall these go for great Professours? no, great Impostours. Great ex­pressions must justify great titles, as Nineveh was called That great City, and hath great things to be manifested in it, it was a singular Receptacle, VVherein.

Are.

2. Now let us come to the Season, Are. Wherein are. Not there were, but there are. From hence observe, that present blisse is the honoured blisse. There is no remembrance of former things. Eccles. 1.11. no, former things are decayed, and so their glo­ry is vanished with them; what operation in spent druggs? what tast in dead wine? a sithy garment is fit to be left off, a withered beauty is not looked upon with an eye of pleasure. Vortuna peracta Jam su [...]. Vir­gil. Cyathus exicca­tus: Diphil. pereundi mille figurae. Ovid. Who can call him Owner that hath wasted his estate? or Con­querour, that hath lost the Field? no, that which is wanting can­not be numbred. Eccles. 1.15. Felicity is then extinct, the full bowl of welfare is drunk out to the last drop, there is nothing left but a thousand perishing figures to be seen. What beauty is in a consumed thing? No, desolate Babylon is like the ray­ment of them which are slain, thrust through with a sword. Es. 14.19. Broken Moab is like a vessell wherein there is no pleasure. Jer. 48.38. That is the true happinesse therefore, which is come to no diminution, or abatement, where the spring doth not fail, but the waters are sure. Esa. 33.16. where the clusters are not lessened, but the presses are full, and the fats over­flow. Joel. 3.13. where the might, and magnificence, ho­nour, and splendour of a people is as apparent as ever; when not former, but present times do shine with bright feli­city. Wherein are.

Application.

1. This doth shew in the first place the stablenesse of Gods providence, it is as easie for him to continue, as to convey a blessing. Nineveh had been happy, and Nineveh still is happy, Wherein are. Would we not fly from God, he would never be weary of spreading his wings over us, would we not cast off his protection, we might continually take Sanctuary in him. The eternal would be our refuge, and we should be safe under his ever­lasting armes. Deu. 33.27. he would settle blessings upon us by a cove­nant [Page 239]of salt, Num. 18.19. As we have raigned in many pri­viledges, so he would build up our Throne to all generations, Deus cum tem­poribus, & re­bus non conci­det, alius ex a­lio factus; sed invertibilis in vertibilibus est. Naz. in Orat. de s [...]ipto. Quie­quid capit, non des [...]it, quin per­fecisset. Semper stare, & nunquam ceci­disse, divinum est & mirabi­le. Chrysost. Hom. 77. in Matth. Psal. 89.4. Yea, he would set our Tabernacle in the Sun. For God doth not alter with times, and chances, being made another than he was, but he doth remain unchangeable in the most changeable conditions. As it is said of Portius Latro, that what he undertook he never gave it over, till he had perfected it; so Gods providence is as consummative, as operative: he would not onely be the God of comforts, but the God of constancy; not the God of Aydes, but the God of Ages,. I am that I am, immutable, in­variable. And is this nothing to have interminable felicity? Yes, Ever to stand, and never to fall, is a divine and miraculous thing. Yet this might be our fixed state, if we would per­petuate our obedience; we might weave out our web to the last thred, write Decades of felicity. God would never disturb or interrupt our happinesse, if our sinnes did not molest or disquiet him. Oh what a diuturnity and indesinency of bliss might there be, even from generation to generation. See it in Nineveh, it had been happy, it is happy, Wherein are.

Secondly, This exhorts us to preserve our felicity, we are not yet deprived of blessings: no, Wherein are. What? are, and are not? are we weary of welfare? do we begin to loath Man­nah? have we dwelt so long in Canaan, that we know not the worth of a Land of promise? Yes, we are even satiated with comforts, and nauseate our present state; we do what we can to grieve providence, and to exasperats a blessing-God, to make gaps in our own hedge, and to pluck down the sticks of our own nest, to drive away Angels from watching over us, and to force God which hath thus long dwelt among us to turn his back upon us, and to leave our coasts with distaste and displeasure. Oh the horrid sinnes which are committed amongst us, as if we would invite in Devils, and make this Land a Cage of unclean spirits! we are sick of our happinesse, and doubtlesse do desire a change. It is said of Alexius Com­nenus, that when upon the day of his inauguration, he sub­scribed the Creed in a slow trembling manner, it was an omi­nous sign to all, what a wicked man he would prove, Nicer. l. [...]. and how nigh the ruine of the Empire was at hand; so we which have thus violated the faith, and are come to such a sloathfulnesse and lukewarmnesse in Religion, it doth presage that our ve­ry inwards are corrupted, and the foundations of our wel­fare shaking. When Philip the last King of Macedonia, Plut. in Flu­minio. a little be­fore the great battel which he faught with Flaminius, stepped up upon the top of a sepulchre, to make an Oration to his Souldiers, it foretold a sad event of the issue of the fight; so we which have trod upon so many dead heads of famous Mar­tyrs, [Page 240]which at first conveyed unto us our faith and worship; it is a kind of prediction, that this at last will be fatall to our Church. Is this the way to preserve blessings? no, it is the high way to blast every thing which hath been flourishing amongst us. Are we not happy? and may we not still be hap­py? then why will we compell happinesse to swim over Sea, and to carry so many blessings along with it, as we would be glad again with wringing hands to recall them, and regain them: oh I speak to you in a timely hour, your sinnes I hope have not yet made God to abhor the excellency of Ja­cob, nor left you naked before the Lord; no, ye have yet much in your keeping, preserve that which is in your posses­sion; all is not gone, no, your blessings are in your eyes, ye may yet feel them (if ye be not insensible) with every joynt of your singers, Wherein are.

Thirdly, This doth serve to teach us constancy, for is providence constant, and not obedience? is God unchange­able in mercies, and not we in sincerity is God no back-sli­der, and shall we be Apostates? no, if he doth retain his vi­gilancy, let us retain our integrity; if his heart be firm, let not us forsake our first love. Oh that we were as indecline­able, as he is immutable! He doth not vary, but are not we sickle? doth Judah yet rule with God, and is faithfull with the Saints? Hos. 11.12. No, if ever we were good, Religion must now passe upon a Postdate; if there were some eminent things in us, yet can we say, there are: Oh that unclean shew-bread did not stand upon the Table of the Lord, that the pure met­tall were not taken out of the golden Candlestick, that we had not made breach of wedlock, and sued out a Bill of di­voroe. What pillar of the house hath not been shivered▪ what foundation hath not been shaken? Now is there any thing more injurious to God, or scandalous to profession, then inconstancy? who put these new hearts into our bo­somes? who taught our tongues these strange soloecisms? Those things deserve disgrace, Vituperationem generant, quae in mediis cona­tibus aegra dese­runtur. Cassiod lib. 4. ep. 21. fides vera non est si non sit per­petua. Amb. in 2. Cor. c. 6. which wax saint in the midst of their endeavours. That is no true saith, which is not perpetuall. My soul doth tremble at that speech of St Augustine, They which fall, and perish, were never in the number of the predestinate. The firm Christian is the memorable Christian: oh therefore preserve your Religion as ye would your Fathers inheritance, nay as ye would the first eyes with which ye saw; why should ye not be as firm in faith, as God is in providence? he doth give blessings, and doth continue them. Nineveh is as rich in them as ever, Wherein are.

Persons.

3. Now let us come to the Treasures, Persons. From hence observe, That these Persons are the worlds perfections. God the For­mer of all things, and the inimitable, and incommunicable Creator, (who by a finger of Omnipotency, out of a rude Chaos, nay, an unshapen un-ented Nothing hath set up and set forth this specious and spacious Universe) after the had made his coorse peeces, brought forth at last Man, as his Master­piece, the beam and beauty of the Creation, which had not onely the excellencies of all creatures in him, but a superiour excellency above all Creatures, insomuch that he that had seen man, had seen not onely all the rest; but he that had seen him, had seen that which elsewhere no eye could behold; no Pearl nor Star like unto him; for indeed he was the precious Pearl, and the bright Star of the whole Creation, taken out of the Chaos, but with a particle in him derived from the shining heap; the rare extract, or Elixir of all created things, yea the twist of things visible and invisible, a natural Phoe­nix, a supernatural Seraphim closed up in one skin. God made him the Apex of all other Creatures, and made him to cul­minate with the sublime spirits, that though his altitude was not equall, yet he came but a few cubits beneath them a little lower then the Angels, Psal. 8.5. A little lower; for if they were intellectuall, he was wise; if they were indeficient, he was immortall; if they were shining, he was bright; Crowned with glory and honour; if they had heaven, he had paradise; if they reverlations, he mysteries; if they joyes, he ravish­ments; the Angels daily visit man, as a Partner, camp about him, as a darling, rejoyce over him as a Mirror, and convey his soul at last to their own Chantrey, to sing a part in their celestiall quire. But take man according to his proper Na­ture, and he is a rare creature, he was made last, and so as a quintessence extracted out of the virtue of the whole Crea­tion, yea the limit and lustre of Gods creating power; he was made by consultation, the rest of the Creatures God made by his authority; there was but a Fiat, let it be made, and every thing received a being: but man was made by de­liberation, Faciamus hominem, Let us make man, as if there were so many secrets, and things of weight and consequence, to be considered in man, Amb. l. 6. Hexem. c. 7. Rupert. l. 2 de Trin. Cuspini­an. that the wisdom of the whole Deity was summoned to conclude upon them, as St Ambrose and Rupert hold: He was made a Lord: the son of Macrinus is said to be born with a Crown on his head; sure I am, man at first [Page 242]was constituted Prince. Scanderbeg (its said) came out of his Mothers womb with the shape of a sword in his hand; Pontan. l. 2. belli Neapolit. but man it was that carried the commanding sword, for all Crea­tures were made subject to him, in so much, that Hugo doth bring in the whole Creation, Vide oh homo, dicit mundus, quomods ama­vit t [...], quia prop­ter te fecit me servire tibi, quia propter te factus sum, ut servias illi, qui fecit & me, & te; me propter te, te propter se Hugo in Didasc. l. 1. Ʋt eadem spe­ctaret, unde illi origo est. Lact. de Opisic. Dei. l. 2. c. 8. crying out to man, See O man how the Lord loved the, he made me to serve thee, that thou mightest serve him, me for thee, and thee for himself; he was made a ra­tionall Creature, other Creatures had their properties, but none such a perfection; no, he it was that was to order all things by discretion and judgement; yea, to stand upon earth, and to pry into the heavens, that he might look up to those things from whence his first beginning came, for man was made to contem­plate upon the Creator; he was made to be the draught of Gods own face, for after God had finished the rest of the Creation, he set up man as his Picture, or the Creature wherein the Creator might seem (if it were possible) to be effigiated, or represented. Let us make man according to our image and simili­tude: that man should be a kind of terrestriall Deity, or earth­ly Numen amongst the Creatures. Augustus Caesar seemed to carry spots like Stars upon his brest. Sueton. Lacrtius. Py [...]hagoras had a thigh like gold, and was every where so beautifull, that his schol­lars thought him to be Apollo. Magnes of Smyrna, was so come­ly, that he was carried up and down from City to City to be seen, Suidns. and the Magnesians were so taken with him, that the very sight of him bereft them of their judgment. Antinous a Bithi [...]tan, was so admired by Adrian the Emperour for his rare feature, Volater. l. 23. Anthropolog. Porma vero, & fuici venustate adeo [...]ira & ell [...]nti, ut pl [...]stes, v [...]l pi­clor, illius ima­ginem nullus potuit expr [...]me­re. Plut. in Demetrio. that the Emperour at his death built a Temple for him at Mantinea, a City in Egypt, and stamped his Image upon his coyn. Demetrius Poliercetes, was so surpassingly fair, that his physnomy could not be taken by any Painter. But if all the pure complexions that ever were upon earth could be presented, what were they to my matchlesse Paragon? to ami­able Adam? No, God himselfe was so rapt with him, that he seemed to be the pleasure of the heavenly eye, for when God had viewed every thing he had made, he onely said, It was good; but so soon as Man was created, it is said, God saw every thing that he had made, and behold it was very good, Gen. 1.31. as if the making of Man had added an Ornament to the whole Creation; and indeed it was so, for God doth take this Crea­ture as the principall Impress both of his power and honour, Man is the glory of God, 1 Cor 11.7. What should I speak more of this peerlesse Creature? he is so excellent, that he is Gods intimate favorite, God doth weare his Crown, sit in his Throne, spread out his wings, stretch forth his right hand, open his brest, listen with his ear, search with his eye, give Lawes, Covenants, Promises, Visions, Inspirations, infusions, [Page 243]Mysteries, Sacraments, meerly for mans benefit; yea, he doth send down his Angels, his Spirit, his Son, keep a Book of Re­membrance, and a Book of Life for his sake; he doth en­lighten him when he is blind, guid him when he is wander­ing, redeem him when he is lost, and will raise him when he is dead, he never doth leave him, till he hath justified him at his Throne, and glorified him in his Kingdom: God made the world for Man, and he hath dressed up his own Court for Man, that he might see his face, enter into his joy, live in his sight, and reign in his presence: seeing then man is thus dear unto God, how are men blessings wheresoever they breath or tread? yes the earth is beautified in having such Creatures, and Nineveh happy in enjoying such persons. Wherein are per­sons.

Application.

1. This serves first to exhort man to know his exccellency; Man, if thou dost oppose God, and despise thy Superiour, I know not how to make thee meane enough; but if thou dost sub­mit to God, and honour thy superiour, I know not how to make thee great enough: It doth delight me to see a bright creature come out of the slime heap, and to see these slime­heaps such actuated Models, that they should have the whole world wait upon them, and heaven gaze upon them, that the Creation should bow before them, and the Creator himselfe how down to them; that Sons of Adam should be such a glo­rious progeny; yea, that dust and ashes should excell the Sun in brightnesse that so many secrets should be in these narrow closures, and such rare endowments in these little boxes, that it is a mystery even to search man, that his birth is so strange, for I am fearfull, and wonderfully made, and his gests so singular, for he is girded with power, and hath as it were the strength of an Ʋnicorne; that man is a kind of marvellous and mighty spi­rit in the world: that it is man that finds out all the rare in­ventions, studies out hidden causes, the Day book of present Accidents, the library of Antiquities, eminent in disquisiti­ons, famous in experiments, sounding the depth of the Seas, taking the heighth of the Stars, not an Herb but he doth know the virtue of it, not a Gem but he doth understand the va­lue of it, skilled in the variations of nature, vicissitudes of e­vents, changes of States, in Mineralls, and Meteors, Thun­ders, and Comets, Influences and Constellations, as if he had a Chamber in the bowels of the earth, a Closet under the hol­low of the Moon, or a Study in the eighth sphear, which hath the lips of knowledge, and the minde that hath understanding, [Page 244]which hath Orpheu's harp in his mouth, and can draw Congre­gations, and Kingdoms after him with his tongue, which is the curious Observer, and the eloquent Oratour; which hath wrought all the strange feats, setled all the Ordinate rules, atchieved all the Conquests, and reered up all the Monu­ments which are upon earth. Oh Man, what weight, and wonder do there lie couched in thee? Lord what is man that thou shouldst be so mindfull of him? and the son of man, that thou shouldst so regard him? But Lord, what is man that he should be so unmindfull of himself? and the Son of man, that hee should so little regard himself? Oh Man, how hast thou wretched thy self? God made thee a Lampe, and thy light is extinguished; he did set thee upon thy feet, and thou hast brought thy self to thy knees; thou shouldst be the splendour of the whole world, and thou hast made thy self a scandall, a blemish, a curse to thine own being; where are thy primitive engravings? where are thy Creation prints? Oh Lucifer how art thou fallen from Heaven thou Son of the Morning? Bern. Lucifer is be­come Noctifer, instead of a Moning-star, a Night-Orbe, a Star fit only to shine in Hades, the Region of darknesse; So oh Man, how hast thou eclipsed thy brightnesse? where is thy wonted fulgour? where are thy morning beams? no, thou art now instead of a wonder, an astonishment, and fright; for he is a rare man which doth live according to his endowments, and act according to his priviledges; instead of those Orna­ments, that were wont to be seen in man, there are now so many torments of Soul; Tot animael tor­menta Jeron. Tota sua visce­ra serpens con­cutit, & im­primendae ma­litiae pestem vo­mit. Greg. Ego adolescen­tule, non ob patrias, sed pro­prias cujusque viri virtutes, mercedem, & munera dare seoco. Plat. in Reg. & Im­per. Apoph. yea, Man is so envenomed, as if the serpent had stirred all his poysoned entrayles to infect him. Whatsoever our Forefathers deserved for vertue, and piety; yet can wee challenge their honours? no, we are degenerated, and so have forfeited all their rights, as Amigonus the second, when a debauched Souldier came to ask his Fathers Salary, said to him, no, I pay stipends to Souldiers, not for their Father's, but their own vertues. Oh man, how shall I deplore thy disfiguration, and deformation? thou knowest not thy self to be Man, thou hast scarse any part of a Man about thee; setting aside thy visage what affections, or actions hast thou to declare thy selfe to be Man? thou hast beauty in thee to be the Lure of thy Iusts, strength to be the Club of thy passions, wisdom to be the Craftmaster of thy damned policies, dominion to be the Rentgatherer of thy covetousnesse, and the Wardrobe-keeper of thy pride; what man-like thing is there discernable in thee? no, thou hast perverted every excellent thing in thee to the satisfying of thine own vitious, and pernicions desires, and designs. Man being in honour may be compared unto the beasts that perish. It is worse to be compared to a beast, then to be born a beast; for [Page 245]a man naturally to want reason is tolerable; Pejus est compa­rari, quàm nasci; naturali­ter non habere rationem, tole­rabile est; homi­nem verò ratio­ne decoratum esse, & irratio­nali creaturae comparari, vo­luntatis crimen est Aug. Homil. Heu tristis, & lacrhymosa mu­tatio ! Bern. s. 35. in Cant. but to be endowed with reason, and to be compared to the unreasonable Creature, this is the crime of the will. Oh sad, and lamentable change! that Man which was the Inhabitant of Paradise, the Lord of the Earth, the Citisen of Heaven, the domesticall servant of the Lord of Sabboths, the bro­ther of blessed spirits, and Coheyre of the Heavenly Powers, should now by a suddain change be turned out of himself, and become a beast! as if for the generality here were nothing, but Dens for savage Creatures, Cribs for bruits, and Stalls for beasts; that it was not so dreadfull for Loths wife to be changed into a Pillar of salt, Miriam into a Leper, Saul into a Phrentick, as for Man to be changed into a Beast. A beast indeed, who must not onely be rid with a bridle, or pricked with a goad, but he doth wallow in the mire, and doth he down in dung, which hath mind of nothing but inhumane, barbarous, obscene, filthy, beastly, and brutish things. And would to God that this were his last, and worst change; but I doubt there is another Me­tamorphosis to be found of him, that he is changed into a Fiend, and a Devill; for the Devill is his Companion, and Coun­sellor, his Leader, and Lawmaker; no Conjurer more conver­sant with his black Daemon, nor Witch with her familiar spirit. Insomuch that it may be said to too many, that the God of this World hath blinded their minds, that the Prince of the air doth work in the children of disobedience, that a lying spirit is in their mouths, that the Angell of the bottomlesse pit hath locked them up in close prison, that they are of their Father the Devill, that the Devill is entred into their hearts, yea, that Sathan hath filled their hearts to lye to the Holy Ghost. Oh Men, then where is your Manhood? what Monsters, and Prodigies are ye become, that ye should be turned into Beasts, and Devills? Is this according to the honour of your nature? the perfection of your endowments? Oh look with shame, and horrour upon this wofull evirating, or dis [...] humaning your selves; and reassume your first dignity, live answerably to your qualifications, be Men; and assure your selves, if ye glorifie God as he hath enabled you, that ye are the Beauties in your severall Stations; yea, that the Earth hath no greater Ornaments, then Men; ye may see it here in Nineveh, which had not more rich and pretious things to be found in it, then these Persons. Wherein are Persons.

Secondly, this doth serve to present to the City her treasures, these living souls are your lasting Excellencies; As Cornelia be­ing the Mother of the Gracchi, she brought forth her two sons, Haec sunt orna­menta mea. Plut. and said to the Romane Ladies, which delighted in other things, These are my Ornaments, so when ye have viewed all the [Page 246]principall things within your walls, Sicut pascua sine armentis non sunt specio­s [...], sic nec ci­vitales sine In­ [...]olis. Epictetus yet these are your true Glo­ries. As pastures are not gracefull without Heards, so no more are Cities without Inhabitants. As Lycurgus called men, the walls of Cities, so are they the Decorements of Cities; If your walls were made of Alablaster, your streets paved with silver, your houses built of gold, your posts and standards studded with Pearls, and ye had stars for lamp-light to bring you to bed, yet these same skinned gemms, and quick-breathed Jewels which hang about the neck of your City, do far excell the lustre of all other things which your City doth enjoy. Oh why then do ye strip your walls of their best hangings? tram­ple upon your treasures? abase your City-stock? vilify Men? It grieveth me to see with what wonder ye do look upon o­ther things, with what contempt upon your Citisens; with what care ye do preserve other things, with what disdeign ye do overlook these in their extremities; with what wari­nesse ye do eschew injury to those things, which do tend to your magnificence, with what viosence ye do push at these with thigh, and shoulder, and beat them to pieces. Is there a more dying grone amongst you than for the neglect of these living souls? is there a shriller yell amongst you than the passionate cry of the oppressed? But let there be lesse pride, and cruelty amongst you, and more charity and equity; for these are your City treasures, and are most to be valued; the blessings of a City are the Persons of a City. Where in are persons.

Thirdly, this doth serve to exhort these Persons, that seeing they are treasures, they do not diminish their own worth. Oh that ye should live to the honour of the City, and that ye live to the ignominy of it; that the mire in the streets is not worse, then the filth of your behaviours, that the great blomishes within the walls are the skars of your conversations; that your lusts, and riots, pride, and profanenesse do more shame the City, then all the sinks, and dunghills in it; do ye look to preserve the City? Fovea peccato­rum. Greg. Dum ante ocu­los hominum sine confusione reatus aperitur. Isiod de sum. bono. Suo sibi cont­placere delicto. Jeron. in 1. Amos. Melius est luto pollui, quàm peccatis. Chrys. in 12. Heb. no, ye go about to drown it, for there is a ditch of sins. Oh it is a dangerous thing to a City, when sin doth walk up and down the streets with a Sodoms face, guilt appearing in o­p [...] sight with an impu en brow; when men take a felicity in sinning, and have pleasure in unrighteousnesse. To walk up and down the City with mery faces, were not so ill, as to look out with sin­full countenances, for It is better to be defiled with dirt, then sins. Oh then why do ye go scattering abroad your horrid crimes? and fill every corner with your abominations? Are ye the credit of the Corporation? no, when the City doth present you, it doth but shew her own infamy, and disgrace; your vitious behaviours are worse than if there were brea­ches in the walls of the City, her buildings half-levelled, and [Page 247]all the Monuments defaced; if ye were vertuous, the innocency of your lives would more adorn the City, than the beautifying the gates; for the City doth shine onely in the presence of Saints. Oh therefore leave no stinches behind you, but perfume every place where ye doe set your feet: blur not the Picture which ye would have looked upon with delight, but draw it out with orient colours; your mortifi­ed demeanours, and gracious fruits, do procure the great fame and renown to the City; what is your City-sword, Seal, Hall, Bench no, these are but dumb and dead ensigns, the honour of a City is in the Citizens, the Persons. Wherein are persons.

Fourthly, This doth serve to fright men from blood-shed, for the sacking of a City is nothing like to the slaughtering of the Persons. If men be of such value, then they should not be hewn down like beambles, nor butchered like Oxen. Parcissima sit sanguinis effusio. Hippoc. Ah nimium fa­ciles, qui tristia Crimina caedis. Fluminea tolli posse putatis a­qua. Ovid. Fast. l. 2. Let the shedding of blood be in the most sparing manner. Oh these Cains, and Doegs, and Alimeleches, and Hazaels, and Herods, how de­testable are they both to God and man? They are so partiall in their own crimes, that they think the guilt blood-shed can be washed away with a little River water, which do suppose that the steyn of blood-shed is gone so soon as they have sheathed their swords; and the noise of murther is stilled so soon as they have strook downe their enemies speech­lesse. No, The blood of Abell doth cry. God will make an inquisition for blood; and a strict inquisition there will be. That God which doth require blood at the hand of every beast, Gen. 9.5. doubtlesse he will not spare man for it. He that saith, Thou shalt not kill, Exod. 20.13. And telleth thee that his image is in every living person, Gen. 9.6. will teach thee what it is to kill men in a fury, and to deface his Images, as if thou wert but battering down painted Pictures. Just Warres are lawfull, but barbarous executions are brutish and Diabolicall: In the heat of battel, men should kill with a de­sire to preserve life. It is one of the aenigmaes of profession so to constitute a War, that there be no culpable scruple in the close. Sure I am, that as there are required for it a law­full authority, a just cause, and a right intention, P. Nav. l. 2. c. 3. n. 268. so it must not be ex odio, out of hatred. And how is that but out of ha­tred, if a man should shed one drop of blood more then that which is necessary, out of insolency and blood-thirstinesse? The lives of the vanquished are not wholly at the mercy of the Conqueror, he had need distinguish well between a Con­queror and a Cut-throat: For as vindicative Warre is the lawfullest, so that be moderated, that a man be not a too severe righter of his own injuries; no, he ought to be satisfi­ed [Page 248]with the victory; Clarus. l. 5. Sent. Sect. Practic. Cri­minal. q. 60. n. 30. Molina Tract. 3. de just. disput. 34. Abbas. in. cap. Latores. n. 3. de Cleric exc [...]m. ad stabiliendam securitatem con­tra vald [...] perti­naces & despe­ratos hostes. Becan. c. 25. q. 10. Victor. de jure belli. n. 48. Amb. ep. 28. ad Theod. Imp. Quatenus fieri potest cum minimo damne hostium & in­colarum, Vict­or de [...] jure bell. n. 55. Molina disp. 102. Sect. in hoc secundo. Molina disp. 117, Concl. 4. & as much as much as may be to leave revenge un­to God. The Authors and principall executors in an injury, ought to be slain, and not the generality which are drawn in to be parties. Yea, killing is allowed but onely against ob­stinate, and desperate adversaries. For the community cannot be touched without the hazard of many innocents, as St Ambrose saith: Conquest then must end with the least damage, both of the Enemies and Inhabitants. If it should be true, that a Christi­an taking a Christian captive, cannot sell him to make him a bond slave, as Molina holdeth: Then, if liberty be so much tendered, how much more life? Oh there is not a more crim­son sinne, then when blood toucheth blood, Hos. 4.2. That is, That there is no end in blood-shed: when blood is powred out as dust, and flesh as dung, Zeph. 2.17. When widows are increased like the sands of the Sea, Jer. 15.8. When a Land is soaked with blood, Isai. 34.7. Oh that men to men should be such Tigers and Furies! as if it were a mirth to open the Conduits of life to gush forth till the last drop, and to water fields with tem­pests of blood. What dreadfull examples of cruelty do we meet withall in ages? Pericles (as Plut. reporteth) extermi­nating the Calcidenses, and Estienses. The French, after the de­feat at Thermopylae (as Pausanias saith) destroying the Callien­ses to a man, plucking the Children from their Mothers brests, and killing them, tearing in pieces the marriagable vir­gins, so that happy were they which could get a French­mans sword to dye upon without further torture. Totila (as Gregorius Turon. reporteth) flaying quick Herculanus the Bi­shop of Perusium, and cutting off the heads of all the Citizens. Sylla, slaying twelve thousand in one City of Preneste. Attila 30000 at the sacking of Rome. Abderamen an hundred thou­sand at one battell in Gallicia. Marius so busie in killing his Country-men, that he wished himselfe the onely Roman to be left alone: Hanibal so eager in destroying Flaminius, and his Souldiers, that he felt not an earth quake which happen­ed in the time of the battel: Don Pedro the cruell, making Spain in his time a Charnel house, full of nothing but dead mens bones. Mahomet the great causing the streets and Tem­ples of Constantinople to swim with blood. Selim the Turk kil­ling the Persians so with without mercy, that he built a Tower barely of their dead heads. Oh these men, if it were in their power, how would they exanimate nature? dispeople the earth, and leave the world a wildernesse? Wounds are their feats of activity, blood their cordiall, crying groans their musick, gastly faces their looking-glasses, shivered bones the reliques of their puissance, and dead carkasses the emblems of their glorious triumphs. But wo and alass to such harsh [Page 249]Encomiasticks. I which never slew man, nor have yet seen a man slain, do account such praises, which have blood for the ground of the ditty, but sad honours. These things may be famous amongst Pagans, but they are but dolefull accidents amongst Christians; For we which are commanded so keepe the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, and to be courteous and ten­der-hearted one towards another, and to love one another with a pure heart fervently, are so unsainted, that if we speak with the tongue of men and Angels, and have not charity, we are but as the sounding brass, and the tinkling Cymballs: doubtlesse the thought of these things should make us oftentimes either to sheath up the sword in affection, or to go to War in tears. Whence come Wars? whence come contentions? are they not from hence, even from the lusts that are in your members? And are lusts justifiable plea­ders at Gods Throne? Is there a judge? is the reckoning ha­stening on? will blood be one of the most criminall guilts at that Tribunal? then how ought we to skreen and riddle our soules concerning the steyn of blood-shed? He which hath slayn his brother, how shall he shew his face before that Father? he which hath a bloody hand, how shall he lift it up with innocency at the white Throne? How will the lives of men go at an high rate at that day, when here God doth prize the chiefe Treasures of a City to be these Persons? Where­in are Persons. Should not I spare Nineveh, that great City, wherein are Persons?

Sixscore thousand

4. Now let us come to the quantity of the Treasures, Six­score thousand. So many there were in the minority of yeares; how many then were there of riper age? From hence ob­serve, That a great blessing to a Citty, is, to abound in people, Numerosa mul­titudo, isocrates. Civitas est soci­etas ex multis viciniis con­stans. Pet. Greg. Stante Coronâ. Ovid. [...]. E [...]rip. in Phrixo. for a true City is a numerous multitude; yea, an happy City is a so­ciety consisting of many neighbourhoods. When a Crown of living souls seemeth to stand together, and a whole Country is met in a Ring; for, Cities are a confluence of men, and not desolate wilder­nesses. That, as it is said, Who can tell the dust of Jacob? and the num­ber of the fourth part of Israel? Num. 23.10. So who can tell the multitudes of a populous City? Oh it is a glorious thing when a City doth passe Arithmetick, when the totall sum can scarce be cyphered up. Who can tell? Who can number? when such a loud peal is rung within the walls, that a City is full of noise, Isai. 22.2. when there is such a crowd for room, that the place is too narrow for men to dwell in, Isai. 49.19. when new han­gings must be bought for such a large family, or new Bed­steads, [Page 250]set up for the plenty of guests, that come to lodge there, that a City doth spread out the Curtains of her habitations, and in­crease on the right hand, and on the left. Es. 54.2, 3. When such a flood of Inhabitants doth seem to stream in the streets, that the Citizens are like many waters. Rev. 17.1. when such swarms of living souls do skip up and down in the streets, that they are as the grashoppers for multitude. Judg. 6.5. When the sand­heaps do scarce exceed the number of their lovely issues, the fruitfull Mothers seeming to have gotten shoals and shores of progenies into their wombs, the ofspring of their bowels being as the gravell. Esai 48.19. Is not this glory? is not this ho­nour? yes, this is to be a City with an excellency, as Ni­nevehs fame and felicity is here described to be great, that she can reckon by her many thousands, even sixscore thou­sand.

Application.

1. This doth serve first to present to you your Life-Blessing, are ye not peopled? Ʋnd undique circum Fundi­mur Virg. 3. Aeneid. Quôque capit latis immensum moenibus orbem. Ovid. 2. de Ponto. — turba vias impleverat ag­mine denso. Lucan. ad Cal. Pl. Veteri exhausta habitatore H. Boeth. Pudendus ex er­citus ex man­eipiis. Plut. yes, the City of Numbers; every street, and lane stored with dwellers, yea, a City so plenished with Inha­bitants, that it doth seem to contain a world within her walls; the waies seem to be too streight for frequency of pass­engers. If it should be said to you, as it is Num. 1.40. Take the sum of the people, or, give in the full tale. 1 Sam. 18.27. what troops might here march forth? what armies might be drawn out? Armorica (Bretaigne) in France, was so thinned of men after the wars of Maximian, that it was afraid, that the Coun­try should be drained of the old Inhabitant; after the battle of Cannae, Rome was so desolate, that it was enforced to raise up a shamefull Army of slaves; but these fears are not yet come up­on you, for the Lord your God hath blessed you, and ye are, as the stars of Heaven for multitude. Deut. 1.10. yea, we might almost say to you, that ye are a great people, which cannot be numbred, or counted. 1 Kings 3.8. ye know the bounds of your City, but which of you all do know the vastnesse of your Inhabitants? oh your Vine doth hang full of clusters, your ricks stand thick with corn, ye have a rich Banquet served up with variety of services, your quarry is large, your book in solio hath so ma­ny pages in it, that there want figures to number them; how much liquor is there in this spacious Winepresse? how many sockets with bright lights shining in them are there in this mighty Branch? Oh ye are a great City, and a great People. If blossoming, and budding, and filling a place with fruit be a blessing, how high ought the tone of your Magnificat to be? [Page 251]the sound of your hymn ought to be little inferiour to the noise of the Hallelujah in Heaven. It is a blessing when God doth fill the face of the world with Cities. Esay 14.21. but it is a greater blessing when God doth fill the face of a City with the amiablenesse of Inhabitants; and is not this your happi­nesse? yes, oh that ye could see it, that ye could sing to the honour of it, that ye had learned some speciall Antheme, or some Psalme of degrees for it; that ye would make it not your boast, but your exultation; not your pride, but your praise; not your glory, but your glorifying. Sure I am, few Cities upon earth have a greater incentive of celebrating; for as Cyprus was called Macaria the Happy Island for fruitfulnesse of ground, so may ye the Happy City for fruitfulnesse of people; Knowls in his Turkish Hist. Your sons grow up as the young Plants, and your daughters as the po­lished corners of the Sanctuary; hither the Tribes go up, even the Tribes in their Order, ye are sown with the seed of man, yea, your seed is as the dust of the Earth; ye have enough to answer all Nations in traffick, ye have enough to answer your enemies in the gates; ye have planted whole Countries beyond the Seas, and ye have a Noursery yet left to make wast plains, and wild wil­dernesses, Orch-yards, and Gardens. Ye have the double blessing amongst you, the blessing of the backet, and store. Deut. 28.5. and the blessing of the breast and womb. Gen. 49.25. What a large Ordinary is this City? how many Tables are there, here every day spread to satisfie hunger? what a spacious Bedehamber is this City? how many Couches are there eve­ry night here prepared to refresh weary souls? What a spring of people is there here? the breath of life never stirred quick­er in such a quantity of ground. Nature here doth shew her organizing art; this is one of her gendring Receptacles. The Myrmidons were so many, that they were said to be begotten of Pismires; and this City doth so abow [...]d with people, that it may be called one of the Ant-heaps of the earth; the Curetes are reported to be begotten by a stroke upon a Mountain, and living persons do here so abound, that they seem rather to be strook out, then brought forth; their encrease is so plenti­full, and speedy, that a man would think that they came up like spring-flowers to garnish the City, or that they were rai­ned down from Heaven by the vertue of the sweet Influen­ces of the Pleiades. Oh look about, and see that if these Per­sons be your treasures, how fast your mint do go, and what in­credible heaps ye have in banks; ye are the skinned, and fleshed City, the true Corporation indeed, for here are e­now to make up not only a body Politique, but a Republique of bodies; if all your bodies should appear at once, ye would scarse have streetroom enough for them, they would adorn [Page 252]your City more, than your hangings of Arras at the most publique shew; Every place is so thronged with them, that people can scarceget passage, every dwelling so stored, that there is scarce an empty house to be found; your births do so exceed, that ye can scarce build fast enough to house them; the branches have almost as much timber, as the stock of the tree, the land without the inclosure is almost as fruitfull as the ground within the hedge; your Suburbs do almost vye multitudes with the City. These slifts, which have been ta­ken from you, are grown up to a wonderfull height. The daughters which have come out of your womb do equall the Mother in pedigree, and progeny; But are the people trea­sures? are ye affected with these treasures? have ye done ho­nour to the Lord of the Mine, that your City is sprinkled, scattered, heaped, and wedged with these treasure? that yee are filled with these pretious and pleasant riches (as Solomon saith) that these glistering pieces are in every corner, that your wealth cannot be told, that there is no end of your riches? did ye ever open your Coffers? look upon your riches? blesse your selves, and blesse your God in this abundance? oh if a multitude in the Hebrew doth come of a verb that signifies to make a noise, Strepuit [...] ab [...] arena. [...]. Eurip. in He­cuba. Populus civita­tis robur. Dio­nys. Halic. l. 3. and to congregate in Greek doth intimate as much as the sand, if a multitude be a weighty thing, and the people be the vigour, and strength of the City, if there be no greater happinesse than to see a people led like a flock: Psalm. 77.20. and to have the noise of a multitude in the mountains, as of a great people. Esa. 13.4. and to have people to flow to the moun­tain of the Lord. Micah. 4.1. and to have them encrease, as they have increased, and to be sown amongst the people. Zach. 10.8, 9. yea, if the glory of a City be to be full of people. Lam. 1.1. and the honour of a King be in the multitude of his people. Prov. 14.28. then how are ye bound to magnifie God for this lowd sound in the City, for the quick sand which run up and down by heaps in the City, for the City weight, and the City strength (the huge bone, and the backbone as it were of the City) to see people flock, and flow, increase, and fill, and grow up to the number of multitudes? Did ye ever look up­on the goodly house that God hath given you, and see how richly he hath furnished it for you? Did ye ever mark your golden Cup, and consider how God hath fillled it brim full with people? people shining amongst you like the Sun beams, or lying as thick as the dew upon the grasse. Did all the bells in the City ever ring, the trumpets blow, and the wind-instru­ments play, I mean your thankfull lips make melody to the Lord for the People? No, I doubt ye have forgotten your peo­ple, that though they daily face you, and their clappers strike in your ears; yet that ye are both blind, and dumb in extol­ling [Page 253]God for this high speeched favour. What Hecatomb have ye ever offered for this numerous blessing? Have ye ever sung Ho­sannah in the highest for this high mercy? I question whether ye have an Altar in the City for this service, or whether the smoak of the sacrifice hath bin seen ascending. Have ye told over your people in heaven? and sent up a bill to God Almighty of your multitudes, and wrot in the bottom, Sit nomen Domint benedid­um, Let the name of he Lord be praised for this populous City? No, I am afraid ye have too much silence, closing up your lips, and too much ingratitude sticking upon your heart strings, that God hath not heard from you a great while concerning the state, welfare, prosperity, innumerability of the City; that ye have not sent him word how the people do, how this Ci­ty is stocked with people, and what quantity of these trea­sures there are. Would ye have a City with bare walls? or these gorgeous buildings stand without Inhabitants? ye de­serve it, if God hath given you houses, and housholders, and hath breathed the breath of life into every living person a­mongst you, and ye will not so much as give him thanks for this quickning mercy. Therefore as ye cannot shew to the world a greater Ornament of your City, then your people, so present this people to God as your City-Benediction; let it be the cry of your streets, and the charme of your Pulpits, an ex­tasie for the people! a Rhapsody for the multitudes! Oh for this keep your solemn triumphs, and hang up your banners for Tokens. Study the flesh-song, the womb-streynes, as ye have the peo­ple-blessing, so learn the People-ditty; let young Men and May­dens, old men and Babes, Bride grooms and Brides, Masters and Servants, Liverymen and Senators, Princes and Judges, Closets and Galleries, Chambers and Chappels, Towers and Temples, City and Suburbs, Heaven and earth, eccho and rebound with varied notes, of a Canticle upon the Persons. For that Persons in great multitudes, are a great blessing, ye may see it here by Nineveh, who hath it mentioned as her high felicity, to reckon Persons by thousands. Wherein are sixscore thou­sand persons.

Secondly, This serves to eye your present blessing, that ye are yet preserved in your thousands. Ye are yet a populous City, and the Lord God (if it be his blessed will) make you a thousand times so many more as ye are, Deut. 1.11. But if the Arrow that flyeth at noon day, Psal, 91.5. should glide amongst you, how many wounded brests would there be? If God should send the Pe­stilence amongst you after the manner of Egypt, Amos 4.10. with as consident a foot as ye now walk, yet then with the Magiti­ans of Egypt, ye would not be able to stand because of the boyles, Exod. 9.11. If Hippocrates were then amongst you with his [Page 254]precious odours, and sweet oyntments to persume places; If Miadererus were shooting of Guns in every corner of your streets, Quercit in Diet Polyhist Sect. 2. c. 8. Avicen. l. 1. Fen. 3. Doct. 2. c. 7. Gal. l. 1 de d [...]sser Feb. c. 4. Paulus Aegin. de re medica. l. 1. c. 32. because the forceable noyse dissipates the ayr, and sul­phur, and salt-peter, with strong sinells purge it. If Querci­tanus, and Avicen, were preseribing the strictest rules of dy­et; if Galen, and Paulus Aegineta, were giving cautions against Plethorick bodies: If Aetius, Aretaeus, Rasis, Rondeletius, Albu­casis, Azaramias, Baria, Papillia, Chelmetius, Fernelius, Fallopius, Georgius Pistorius, Georgius Cusnerus, Guido de Canliato, Gulielmus de Saliceto, with the most expert Physitians that ever lived, were then teaching you the art how to make Confections, Electuaries, Pilles, Pomanders, Cordials, Epithymes, Fron­tals, Funtanels, and to make new sires, and fumigations of Storax, Calamint, Labdanum, Ireos, Nemphar, Dragagant, Withy-cole, and a thousand other materials for pure smoaks to expell ill sents; yet they might be all ineffectuall to prevent that irresistible stroak. For I am not yet resolved with some Astrologers, that if Saturn and Mars be in dominion under Aries Sagittarius and Capricorn, and in opposition to Jupiter, that the plague doth infallibly follow; nor that it doth arise alwaies from hot and moist ayr, Hippoer. l. 2. Epidem. Ga­len. l. 1. de Temp. c. 4. Avenzoar. l. 3. Tract. 3. c. 1. as Hippocrates and Galen do hold: nor from hot and dry air, as Avenzoar con­ceiveth; nor that kindred do take the infection sooner one from another than strangers, because of the assimilation of blood, as Vido Vidio affirmeth; and that Virgins are more sub­ject to it than married women, because the spirits are fluid, and reteyned, and so apt to putrisie, as Mindererus holdeth; Cels. l. 8. de re Med. c. 27. neither do I think that wine is an Antidote against all poy­sons; nor that if a man be well dyeted, he may escape any infection, Lacrt. l. 2. because Socrates (if it be true) lived in Athens in many plagues, and yet was never touched with it, being a man of high temperance: But I hold that a Pestilence is the Hand of God, as David calleth it, 2 Sam. 24.14. and the sword of the Lord, as it is styled, 1 Chron. 21.12. So that when God will strike, or where, or by what means, is uncertain; onely this is certain, that whensoever God doth lift up his hand he will strike home: Is there a more terrible and dismall blow, then that of the Pestilence? No, it is the noysome pestilence, Psa. 91.3. and if this stinche come up into your nostrils ye are gone, God will make you then smite with the hand, stamp with the foot, and cry alas, Ezech. 6.21. Yea, it is a weapon so sharp, that it is able to leave a Nation without an heir; for I will smite them with the Pestilence, and disinherit them, Num. 14.12. There is nothing but a burying-place to be seen, where a Pestilence doth cleave to a place, Deut. 28.21. Behold a pale horse, and he that sat upon it was death, Rev. 6.8. If this pale [Page 255]horse come to neigh in your streets, and death be the Rider, such an Horse, and such a Rider, are able to dash asunder, and to dash into the grave many thousands. I read of fourteen thousand seven hundred, that dyed in one plague, Num. 16.49. of twenty four thousand which dyed in another plague, Num. 25.9. of seventy thousand in a third plague, 2 Sam. 24.15. Paus. in Baeoti­cis. C. Rhod. ant. lect. l. 8. c. 12. Dion. & Zi­philinus. liabell. l. 9. Aencad. 1. Ensebius lib. 7. c. 21. The Ectenae, a people of Baeotia, with their first King Ogyges, were wholly destroyed with the plague, so that the Hyantes and Aeones, came in their stead to people the Land. A golden Coffer in the Temple of Apollo at Babylon, being opened, it infected the whole Country with the Pestilence, and spread it into Parthia. At Rome, in the Raign of Commodus, there dy­ed for a great while two thousand men a day. In Africk, there dyed in one plague, an eleven hundred thousand. Under the Raign of Gallus, there dyed so many in the East, West, and South, that many Countries seemed to be even left destitute of Inhabitants, and remained for a long time uninhabited, which gave occasion to St Cyprian, to write his Books de mor­talitate. In this City, how often have there dyed ten thousand, and twenty thousand in one plague; and in the Raign of Ed­ward the third, the Pestilence was so hot, that there were bu­ried within the space of a year in one Church (how many then were there buryed elsewhere) commonly called the Cistertians, Speech Chroni­cle. p. 694. above fifty thousand persons. And may not the like happen again? Yes, Gods hand is not shortned. There are now amongst you more people, and more sinnes. A Pesti­lence is the sickle of the Grave, and the wormes-Caterer, the first-born of death. It is that which makes the great fall in the forrest of man-kin, the Hericanoe upon this troublesome Sea, the Master-gunner in this bloody battel; if the Pesti­lence doth once discharge, how many are slayn at one shot? there is a deadly destruction throughout all the City, 1 Sam. 5.11. It will chase men out of their dwellings, as if there were some fierce enemy pursuing them, and shut up Shop doors, as if execution after judgement were served upon the Merchants, there will then be no other musick to be heard, but dolefull knells, nor no other wares to be born up and down, but dead Corpses; it will change Mansion-houses into Pest-houses, and gather Congregations rather into Church-yards, then Chur­ches; the busiest Servants will be keepers, and the most active Officers searchers; the Markets will be so empty that scarce necessaries will be brought in, a new kind of Brewers will set up, even Apothecaries to prepare Diet-drinks; peo­ple then are afraid to eat, lest their meat should come out of infected shambles, or to wear rayment, lest it should be stitch­ed [Page 256]up with the plague; they shall lye down at night without the lest spot seen upon them, and rise up in the morning with Gods tokens seen upon them, Carbunculus, carbone. yea with a Carbuncle scalding in the flesh, like a fiery coal; they shall walk out from their houses without the least disaylment or distemper, and drop down dead before they can get home againe to their owne thresholds. Pestis tempore suge cito, procul, tarde revertaris. Filinue in Epidemiarum anti­doto. c. 1. Om­nis infirmitas in pesti­lentiam facile transire protest. Id. ibid. c. 4. Peste laboran­tem opus est sin­gulis sex horis ex pannis om­nibus mutare, alioqui inficium tur. Id. ibid. c. 10. Sis sem­per a socir re­motus in aere aperto ad minus per spatium bi cubiti, & ab infecto per sex cubitos, & cave ne ventus ab co in te spiret, & inter te & ip sum sint sol, ig nes & odores. Id. ib. c. 25. In the time of a stilence fly quikcly, far, return Pestilence fly quickly, far, return slowly, every disease about thee doth turn into the plague; every sixth hour thou must have new clothes, lest the former be insected; come not nigh thy soundest friend within the distance of two cubits, not nigh an in­fected person within the space of six cubits; thou must beware lest the wind blow upon thee from him, and lest there be any sun, fires, or odou betwixt him and thee If thou beest hayle, thou hadst need to es­chew thy dearest acquaintance; if thou beest sick, thy vow­ed familiars will flee from thee; the Lord shall scarce have a Page to attend upon him, nor the Lady a trusty Chamber­maid to wait upon her; the brother will then scarce look up­on his sister, the husband upon the wife, or the tender Mo­ther upon her darling-Infant; not a Begger will weare the marriage-suit, if thou wouldest bestow it upon him, nor a Porter be hired to go on thy errand, though thou wouldest give him a lease for life for his journey; thy friends can hear nothing from thee, nor thou any thing from thy friends; thy gold is left to the justice of a serving-man, and thy breath is left to the mercy of a Nurse; thou art dead whilst thou art unburied, and thou art buried without any but Bearers to go along with thy Herse. Of all miseries, the Pestilence is the fray, of all dreadfull things which can happen upon earth, this is the horror. Oh how much then are ye bounden to God, that ye have not felt for many years the stripes of this sharp Rod, or that ye have not drunk out of the Viall of Gods wrath this water of gall. Oh that ye would clense your streets with repentance, that this infection might not breed out of your sinnes, that ye would purge the ayr with obedience, that your purity might preserve you from this conta­gion; above all, that ye would every one of you feel the plague in your own hearts, that ye might not feel this plague in your sides. A Pestilence would scatter you, thinne you, and carry you by heaps under ground, whereas yet every House-keeper hath a family about him, and this City hath her streets swarming with Inhabitants. Oh know it to be a blessing, to be able to number by your thousands, as it was to Nineveh here, Wherein are sixscore thousand.

Thirdly, this doth shew, that numbers should be a motive to compassion; for unkind is he that would grieve the Gene­rality [Page 257]cruell is he that would destroy a multitude, Cujus iter c [...]sis angustans cor­porum acervis. Catullus. Sueron. Bonsin. l. 5.0.1 which can wade through heaps of slain bodies. It was the voice of a Monster to wish, that all Rome had but one neck, that he might strike it off at a blow. When Genovepha saw C [...]ilperick about to put a great company of guilty men to death, she desired him to take pit­ty upon them for their number, and never gave over, till she had obtained their pardon. Iosephus having won the City of Sephor, the Galilean Souldiers would have had him to put all the Citisens to the sword, but he abhorred it, and inven­ted a means to save them, Josephus in vitâ sua. because so many should have perished in that bloody act. Onademus of Chios having suppressed his enemies, his Friends wished him to expell every one of the faction which was opposite to him out of the City: No, saith he, they are too many to be so harshly used, Erasm. l. 6. Apoph. and I am asraid, saith be, that if I should thus be rid of all mine enemies, my Friends would sall out amongst themselves. When Lucullus took A­masia, a famous City nigh to Pontus, he lamented that his soul­diers had sired the City, but he preserved all the Citisens, Plut in Lu­cullo. be­cause he saw so many should be exposed to the fury of the souldier, and he said, he desired every way to have been ho­noured as much for saying Amasia, as Sylla was for saving of Athens.

Thus ye see how a generall misery hath drawn commise­ration from all generous spirits, and indeed there is no great­er act of noblenesse, then to detest to be Author of a publique calamity. Oh that the insinuation of one Jonah should be more powerfull to incite to mischief, then the exigents of sixscore thousand should be to incline to pitty. It was the solemn Petiti­on of Moses unto God, that he would not kil al the people as one man. Numb. 14.15. Mercilesse then are their eyes, and savage are their bowells, which can ruine multitudes. It was forbidden by the Law to destroy the whole Nest. Deut. 22.6. A few eares might be plucked by the high way side, but the sickle must not be put into the standing Corn. Deut. 23.25. Wasts, and spoiles are sad spectacles, and weeping triumphs. Oh therefore let the face of a generality aw you, be amated at horrid at­tempts wherein multitudes are concerned, tremble at Massa­cres. Let the sixscore thousand be ever dear in your eyes, for God ye see doth look upon Nineveh with pitty, even for their Numbers. Should not I spare Nineveh, that great City, wherein are sixscore thousand.

More.

5. Now let us come to the Surplus, More; More then sixscore thousand. From hence observe, that God is exact in accompting. He calleth all the stars by their names, and as Job saith, he can reckon up all the springs of the Sea. Job 38.16. the hairs of our head are numbred by him, yea, what is there that he is ignorant of? Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand? or mete­ed out the Heavens with a span? or comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure? or weighed the Mountains in scales? or the hills in a balame? Esai. 40.12. Cannot he tell every drop of water, as well as hold the Rivers, and Seas in his fist? Cannot hee name the extent of the Heavens, as well as mete out the Heavens with a spanne? cannot hee reckon up all the sands in the world, as well as hee hath told them out all dust by dust? cannot he expresse the true poise of hills, and mountains to a dram, and scruple, as well as he hath weighed them in scales, and ballances? Yes, though we read of Joseph that He gathered Corn in abundance, and left off numbring, because it could not be numbred. Gen. 41.49. and that there were sacrifices, that could not be told, or numbred for multitude. 1 Kings 8.5. and of times, which do contain days without number, Jer. 2.32. yet are not all these things perspicuously discerned by God Almighty? yes, what object is there, which can be hidden from his all seeing eye? what can surpasse the compre­hension of him who is infinite? Touching the Almighty we cannot sind him out. Job. 37 23. He is styled the God of Knowledge. 1 Sam. 2.3. Though we cannot sind out Him, he can find out us, & all things about us, [...] Totus oculus.Aug. Cognoscit res in causis, in seipsis, in seipso. Aquin. Aug. l. 83. q. q. q. [...]6. Res sunt in no­bis consusè, in Deo distinctè Vasquez. Deus intelli­gendo essentiam Suî, intelligit omnes perfecti­ons & quid­ditates creabi­les. Capreol. in 1. Sent. distinct. 30. a. 1. or concerning us; though we be a people of ignorance, yet he is a God of knowledge; yea, Oh the depth of the wisdom, and knowledge of God. Rom. 11.33. Is there such light to be found in the Sun it self? no, His eyes are ten thousand times brighter than the Sun. He is all Eye, that is, he is perfest in know­ledge. Job 37.16. He doth know things in their causes in them­selves, in himself. For all things are in God objectively. He beholdeth nothing out of himself Things are in us confusedly, but in him distinctly; yea, in us terminatively, but in him diffu­sively, and without limitation, as Navarret. God understanding his own essence, with understand all the perjections, and quiddities of the Creature. Yea, Gods being bath in it all the other manners of being, eminently. There is in God not only apprehendens habitudo, an apprehending hal nude, but plenitudo in simta, qua omnia continet. an insinite plenitude, by which he doth containe all things, as Navar­ret. [Page 259]Originally all things are in the divine essence, formally in Gods practical knowledge, as the same writer saith. Esse divinum sinnes essendi modos enimenter praehabet. Aqui. Navarret. de Id [...]is. Ad cognoscendas creaturas non habet Deus ali­quod movens objectum praeter divinam essenti­am. Nav. de Idaeis. God doth not need any intellectuall habits, or species to represent things to him, for his understanding is so compleat, that it is perfect­ed without faculties, or exhibiting shadows or patterns. Navar­ret saith, That it is an unquestionable ground in Divinity, that for God to understand the Creatures, he doth need no other mo­ving object but the divine essence. Things may be sometimes in us potentially, in him alwaies actually; in us fallibly, in him infallibly. Howsoever we do know things by a successive, and not by an instantaneous, or simultaneous action; yet he doth know all things at all times, without all meanes, and without all measure. He knew all the righteous persons that were fit to enter into the Ark, he knew all them which did not bow their knees to Baal, he knew all the thousands, and the surplus of them which were in Nineveh, that there were sixscore thousand, and more. Should not I spare Nineveh, that great City, wherein are more then sixscore thousand?

Application.

First, This serves to exhort you to a confident dependance upon God in all extremities. For, he which did know every particu­lar creature in so great a City; Ne gutta pluvi­ae ècilo cadat, nisi Dei nutu. Valvin. in 2. Joel. doth he not know every parti­cular accident w^ch doth happen unto us? Yes, not a drop of rain can sall from heaven upon our heads, but by his appointment, and with his privity. We are in the bosom of God, we are in the eye of God, he hath a Prospective-glasse, by which he doth looke from Heaven to Earth, he doth open a as Cement through which he doth see all the agitations that are in the world; he needeth no Intelligencer, for he is Inspector himselfe; He, as upon the top of the hill, beholdeth all things which are done in the valley; he hath Candle light continually in his house, and therefore nothing can be acted in darknesse before him; he walketh in the midst of the seven golden Candlesticks, ther­fore he knoweth the state of every particular Church. Illad quod in tempore novum, non esse novum apud cum, qui condidit, tem­pora. Aug ep. 5. ad Marcel. l 2. That which seemeth new in time, is not new with him, which created all times. Oh then that I hear a sheep bleating, as if there were no shep­herd to look after it, or look upon it! that I heare a childe crying, as if it had lost a Father, or his fatherly providence and preservation. Can God prepare a Table in the wilderaisse? I am weary of my life, what good shall my life do me? who shall raise up Jacob, for he is small? thy breach is great like the Sea, who can heale [Page 260]thee? all joy is darkened, the mirth of the Land is gone. Wo is me now, for the Lord hath added grief to my sorrow; I fainted in my sigh­ings, and have no rest. When I cry and showt, he shutteth out my prayer. The anger of the Lord hath divided them, he will no more regard them. Is this the City that men call the perfection of beauty? the joy of the whole earth? The Lord hath cast off his Altar, abhorred his Sanctu­ary. Our bones are dryed, our hopes are lost, we are cut off. These are the sad groans of an asslicted family, the broken speeches of perplexed Sion: we are chastised, and the rod will never be hung up; we are brought to a mourning condition, and we must moisten our graves with our dying teares; we are the footstool of the earth, and all the Angels of heaven cannot remove this trampling foot; our collar is loosened, and we shall never be girded again with strength; we are carried away to Babylon, and we shall never see Sion again; they which have dominon over our bodies, rule over us with rigour, and God hath forgotten us; the earth is a Correction-house, and hea­ven is no Sanctuary for us; Barth. Bonon. in ejus vita. yea, as Antonius Ʋrceus Codrus for a little Chamber which he had burnt down, went against the perswasion of all his friends, and lived in the Woods, and after that returning, he lay the first night upon a Dung­hill; and when he entred into the City, he could not be drawne to live in his owne house, or in any other house of quality, but lived six moneths in a mean mans house, as if all were lost, and he were never able to rise againe. So if a few sparkes be fallen upon our estates, or we but fired out of a little meanes, we think we are never able to repair these losses: no, we are punished, and we shall perish. Porus, King of India, Justin. lib. 12. when he was vanquished by Alexander, he took it so heavily, that though he had his life given him, yet he would not for a great space eat any meat, suffer his wounds to be dressed, or be perswaded to live. So if we be but cros­ed in any of our designs, and cannot enjoy that liberty and fulnesse which formerly we had, or carry any cuts about us, we would even starve upon accidents, or suffer our wounds to rankle; we are unwilling to live, or despaire ever again to live happily. But oh sigh gently, speak softly, chide not with providence, roare not under casualties, fret not your selves into your graves, for are ye the men that maintain a Creed? and stand up to the Creed? what one true article of faith have ye? howsoever do ye believe a God? what thus to loosen all the joynts of a Christian dependance? to distrust a God? oh remember, that ye have suffered nothing but what the wise­dome of God held convenient, and the providence of God is able to restore double for it. Moses fled for his life, and kept sheep, and afterwards became a mighty Ruler. Ye have heard [Page 261]of the patience of Job, and have seen th [...] end which the Lord wrought, Jam. 5.11. Howsoever, do ye suffer any thing out of Gods sight? no, his eye is upon all your trialls, all your miseries are scored up in heaven, he doth keepe a Catalogue of all your sufferings: oh therefore take courage, lift up your hands which hang down, strengthen your feeble knees, witnesse patience, expresse confidence; for why should ye be a fainting people under a knowing God? no, when ye are ready to com­plain, and murmur, and vex, restrain these distempered pas­sions, by calling to mind that ye have a seeing, and a search­ing God, that hath taken notice of all your sorrows; he can tell you all your losses, reckon up all your injuries and indig­nities, repeat to you all your extremities and exigences; ye know not better how many eyes ye have in your heads, nor how many fingers ye have upon your hands, then he can bring in the full tale of all your distresses. That he is such an observing and intelligent God, ye may see herein Nineveh, he can number out to her all her thousands, and the surplus. Wherein are more then sixscore thousand persons.

Secondly, This doth serve to represse sin: for oh that thou darest trespasse before such a knowing God; canst thou doe any thing in such a close reserved manner, that he shall not have cognizance of it? I know there are a company of men, which are all upon the point of secrecy, and laying snares pri­vily, saying, Who shall see them? Psal. 64.5. Yea, a generation of men that have set their mouthes against heaven, which say, How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most high, Psal. 73.11. But these men shall hear God ere long answer them in thunder, and tell them, I know your manisold transgres­sions, and your mighty sins, Amos 5.12. Yea, these things hast thou done, and I kept silence, then thou thoughtest wickedly, that I was such an one as thy selfe, but I will reprove thee, and set them in order be­fore thine eyes, Psal. 50.21. Oh Lord thou hast searched me, and known me, thou knowest my down-sitting and mine uprising, thou un­derstandest my thought asar off. Thou compassest my path, and my [...]ed, and art acquainted with all my wayes. There is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O Lord thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me, Psal. 139.1.2, 3, 4, 5. God could tell Adam of his eating the forbidden fruit, Cain of murthering his Brother Abel, Saul of sparing Agag, and taking a part of the prey, David of slipping in to his neighbours Bed, and covering the fowlnesse of that guilt with the skin of a dead Husband, Asah of trusting in his Physitians, Hezekiah of shewing his treasures to Merodach Baladan, the Scribes and Pharisees of their secret lusts, which deserved stoning, A [...]a­nias and Saphira, of their keeping back part of the price; what [Page 262]then unto God, can be undiscovered? no, he hath not only a multitude of about spies thee, but he himself is the constant visiter of all thy actions; Mercury feared not Gallus, not Vulcan, nor all the Gods so much for the discovering his close passa­ges with Venus, Natales Comes. l. 2. Myth. c. 6. as the Sun; so this Sun is shining into all cor­ners to reveal the most hidden passages; yea, God will beat the woods to make the birds fly out of their secret nests, and smoak the dens and burroughs, to make the beasts which are earth'd under ground to appear; thine own dogs shall bark in thine ears, thine own corrupt humours break out in thy skin, thine own secret privies stink in thy nostrills; On then that many men think to draw a curtain before Heaven, and to steal lewd attempts, and to cast a mist before the eyes of the all see­ing God, as if men were safe, and secure in some clandestine practises; no, these Cheats thou maist put upon men, thou maist daily decoy, and delude thy brethren, thou maist be such a riddle, that all the earth cannot enterpret thee, but there is no such sin-sophistry to be used with God Almighty. As he doth know his own decrees, his own honour, his own laws, the leaps of thy invention, the whirls of thy affections, and the pitchings, and intrenchings of thy resolutions, so he doth know all thy trespasses. Herodot. l. 3. As Phydaena found out the coun­terfeit Smerdes by his cropt ears, and Augustus Caesar the Pseudo-Alexander which pretended himself to be the Son of Herod by his rough hand, Joseph Antiq. l. 17. c. 14. Polyaen. l. 6. P. Jovius. and Sisyphus the thief, Au [...]ylochus who stole his cattle by the privy brand which he had set upon his beasts feet. So God hath his fecret marks, and tokens whereby hee doth know all thy sinns. Muleasses hiding himself, was found out by the smell of his odours, so God will follow thee, and find thee by the sent of thy sinnes Oh then do God know, and dost thou offend? do he see, and dost thou transgresse? Will he sorce the Queen before me? So, will wee violate Laws in the Lawmakers presence? what, despise Gods sight? con­temn his very eyes Oh consider this, ye that forget God, which in­vent, and attempt horrid, and prodigious things, as if ye carried every thing in secret, and had shut God out of the room, and conveyed your selves into such lurking-holes, that God heard not a word of your counsells, nor had not the least hint of your designes; Oh yes, he is in the midst of all your plots, and the great Note taker of all your passages. Oh then are all your studies, and stretches, stirrings and steps in Gods eye? doth he keep records, and hath he volumnes of all your disordered proceedings then if the discovery of one sin doth so trouble you in this world how will the bringing to light such execrable and infinit sins, confound you? If the man which hid himself in a Cave that Hercules might not see him, Erasm. in adag. [Page 263]seeing him one day passe by the Gaves mouth, at the sight of him fell down dead; then ye which tremble now so much (as so ye must do, if ye be not Atheists) at the thought of a discern­ing God, then when ye shall look upon him with your guilty eyes, and he look upon you, with eies like a flame of fire, how shall ye see him with amazement? ye that now dread not Gods eye, shall then call to the Rocks to cover you, and the hills to fall upon you, and hide you. Oh then that I could in­still a sense of Gods presence into you, and make you feel him in your brests, brains, eyes, lips, pinching hands, and crosse­pacing feet, that I could shew you the Angells writing out your inditements against Doomsday, or get you to turn over the leaves of those Books which will be opened against you at that great reckoning. Is God ignorant of any of your crimes? no, he can reckon up errours, and additions; for ye see hee doth here number out to Nineveh her thousands, and the Sur­plus, Wherin are more than sixscore thousand persons.

Thirdly, this doth shew, Sabellic. l. 51. that if God be skilfull in the number of a City, he is as skilfull in the number of his elect. If the Aegypti­ans carried the scheme of Antiquity in their brains, and yet at that time had no library in their Country; if Anthony the famous Aegyptian could say all the Bible by heart, Aug. Prolog. l. 1. de doctr. Christ. and yet ne­ver learned letters; if Cyrus said, it was a shame for a Generall not to be able to repeat the names of all his Commanders, as well as a Surgeon could the names of all Instruments, and therefore there was not an Officer under him, but he under­stood who he was; Zenoph. l. 5. Exped. if Portius Latro could utter every thing which he had conceived, or came ever into his sight as well as if it had been written before him, Senec. l. 1. De [...]lam. if Franciscus Cardulus Nar­niensis could rehearse two whole pages backward and for­ward, after once reading to him, Alb. in desc. Ʋmbriae. Cicero. then doubtlesse the Omni­scient God is not unacquainted with them which are most dear to him, his Elect. No man doth forget (though never so old) where he hath laid his gold; much lesse God, where hee hath laid this rich treasure. The foundation of the Lord remaineth sure, the Lord knoweth who are his. 2 Tim. 2.19. these Hidden ones. Psal. 83.3. cannot be razed out of his remembrance; these sealed servants, Rev. 7.3. cannot be expunge▪ out of the roll. There are a people written in the earth. Jer. 17, 13. and their me­mory may be compared to ashes. Job. 13.12. but there are a peo­ple which are graven upon the Palms of Gods hands. Es. 49.16. to whom God hath given an earnest. 2 Cor. 1.22. which are sealed with the holy spirit of promise. Ephes. 1.13. and written a­mongst the living. Es. 4.3, that God can as soon reverse his de­cree, and change his own essence, as forget these. All the mi­series upon earth, all the Devills in Hell cannot wrest one of [Page 264]these out of the hands of God. Praescientia est unam quam­que rem, ante­quam eveniat videre, & id quod futurum est, pruisquam prasens sit, prae­vider [...] Greg. lib. 1. Dialog. Datur certus numerus electo­rum, qui nec augeri nec mi­nui potest. A­quin. Praescience is to see every thing be­fore it come to passe; and to foresee every which is to come, before it is present; So that the faithfull are all penned down, and regi­stred. There is a certain number of the Elect, so that it cannot be in­creas'd, or diminishd. Try out therfore thy predestination-prints, yea, give all diligence to make thy vocation, and election sure, and thou canst not lose thy priviledge, nor thy Crown. The num­ber of the elect is known; for God could reckon up the thou­sands in Nineveh, and the Surplus. Wherein are more then sixscore thousand persons.

Which cannot discern between the right hand, and the left hand.

6. Now let us come to the qualifications, which cannot discern between the right hand, and the left hand.

In which words there are three things considerable.

• A defect, which cannot
• The determination, discern
• The degree, between the right hand, and the left hand.

First for the defect, Which cannot. From hence observe, That some things carry an impotency in them. Nothing can work beyond the Sphere of the activity. The creature is finite, and so limited in power; David would not exercise himself in things too high for him, as if somthing were beyond his reach, or rule, the Apostle would not stretch himself beyond his line, for this had been to outmeasure himself, and to make Saint Paul greater then hee was, either by gifts, or calling. Man is such a creature, that he can but act pro virth, according to his power. [...]uc [...]ser is quite flagged by endeavouring to ascend higher, then an Angeli­call wing could carry him; Adam brake his neck up­on the banks of Paradise by attempting to attain to that wis­dom, which was inhibited to his nature. It is true, for those things, which are within mans capacity, Nil mortalibus arduum est. Horat. Non opis est nostrae. Virg. Quid membra immania pro­sunt? Ovid. Terra volat. Suidas. Bos, porrecto ultra Taygetum capite, bibitex Eurota. Plu­tarch. and compasse, No­thing his hard to mortall men; but as they are mortall men, so they are circumscribed, and consined in their abilities, and o­perations; there are some things, which transcend our might, of which we may say, these things are out of our verge, what do these man-like members of ours avail us? Would a man teach nature Paradoxes? or force nature to incongruities? no, these are but the solaecisms of attempts, and the Monsters of designes, The earth may as soon fly, and a Bullock stretch his neck beyond Taygetus to drink out of Eurota. Mans might and mind cannot effect every thing; no, Oh thou valiantest of Heroes, here [Page 265]thou laboust in vain! The eye of man can see but to the just distance, and so impossibility doth fly the sight. Heroum quon­dam fortissime frufira. Ovid. Impossibilitas [...]dr [...]m, fugit as­pectum rei. A­rist. 7. Metap. c. 29. Doth not the whole cry of scripture witnesse an impotency in many things? Yes, Can a Rush grow without mire? Can a Blackmore change his skin? shall horses run upon the Rock? If thou hast run with the footmen, and they have wearied thee, then how canst thou contend with the horsemen? A wounded spirit who can bear? Who can bring a clean thing out of filthinesse? who amongst us can dwell with the everlasting burnings? who shall declare his generation? will ye plead with me? shall a man make Gods unto himselfe, and they are no Gods? when he taketh a prey, who shall make him to restore it? shall any teach God knowledge, that judgeth the highest things? These are a part of his wayes, but who can understand his power? canst thou resrain the influences of the Pleia­des? or loosen the bands of Orion? canst thou bring forth Mazzo­roth in their time? canst thou bring forth Arcturus with his Sons? No, there are many things which are beyond mans list and boundary; in other things he may be compleat, but in these things defective; yea, there are times and stints, which doe deprive all men of a very aptitude, or faculty, to do things at such a season; then they are disabled, they cannot. Which cannot.

Application.

First, This doth shew, That Man is a wanting Creature, he doth drop out of his Mothers womb like a lump of indigen­cies: yea, he is carried up and down a great while like an emp­ty vessel. How ill doth this body agree with us? there is a kind of imbred debility in us all: our first saluting the world, is to declare our selves meer weaklings. Quàm malè no bis hoe corpus conveniat▪ Se­neca. Heu in­tuta manens un­dique debilitas. And. Alciat. Emb. 169. Editus in lu­cem jacuit sine viribus infans. Ovid. Non me­minisse imagi­nes. Corn. Gallus. Negatiò causae. positio contrarii. Tho. Aqu. 22 ae q. 75. art. 1. c. Our riches is onely in a skin, or our strength in a cry, or our life in breathing. We understand not who touch us, we know not that we are li­ving, we cannot so much as remember the images of those things which are presented to us; we are not only destitute of many things, but they are denyed to us; for as Privation is the want of that which ought to be in us, so Negation is the want of that which ought not to be in us, not to be in us at such a time; and so there is in us the subtraction of the cause, which doth produce and cause the position of a contrary disposi [...]i­on; our power then is impotency, and our Can, Cannot: Oh man make not too much of thy selfe, speak not too haughti­ly, look not scornfully, let thy first light, nakednesse, cradle, humble thee, thou wert a green, faint, weak sprig, and spire, thou wert at, I can not. Which cannot.

Secondly, This doth shew, that Negatives for a time do de­prive us of all power. How canst thou expect that upon [Page 266]earth, which is denyed thee in heaven? no, we may wish for it, but we cannot; we consult to no purpose, we labour in vain, we lose our sweat till the constellation be over, till the time of the Negation be out. Can we do any thing invitû Mi­nervâ, against the everlasting wisdome? against Gods de­cree? no, it is a fruitlesse thing to contest with the heavenly pleasure, to act against Gods prohibition, to wrastle with his Negative providence. Behold his soul which is lifted up, is not upright in him, Heb. 2.4. which is lifted up, before the vision lift it up; no, we may seek help, and be helplesse; we may strive, but we cannot. Oh then remaine quiet under accidents and lift not up thine arm till God put strength into it: what should an Infant do turning Champion? The Israelites may send up a cry to heaven for their hard bondage, but they must not move a foot out of Egypt, till Moses be sent for a Leader; the diseased man may lye at the pool of Bethesdah, but it is in vain to step in, till the Angell do stir the waters. Launch not out with thy Ship too soon, Naviga secun­dùm fluvium. Eurip. in An­vigone. Petrarch de ex­pectatione meli­orum temporum. Dial. Ʋbicunque fu­erit providentia frustratur uni­versa contraria. Aug. l. de sin. gul. Cler. but sayl according to the tide. I expect bet­ter times, saith one in Petrarch: Expect (saith he) first a better decree. Make better men, and the times will be better, otherwise I am afraid, the times will not be better but worse: howsoever things are not ruled by mens expectations, but by Gods determination. Wheresoever Gods providence doth govern, it doth frustrate all con­trary things. We would be speaking comfortably to the Church, but let us lament the Churches miseries, and our own sins, till the heavens open our lips; we must not desire to be at our affirmation, so long as Gods Negative doth bind us to silence. There is a time when we may look for peace, and no quiet, when we may set forth our selves for Agents? but we may bring forth the wind, spend our strength in vain; when we would, but we cannot. Which cannot.

3. This serves to shew the strength of a Saints confidence; our arm is weak, happy are they then that lean on the arm of the Lord: though an Horse be a vain thing for battel, yet he that ri­deth upon the heavens, as an horse may trample down all be­fore him; though our sword may lay on feeble stroaks, yet the sword of his excellencies may strike home, and strike down; though we have impotency, yet he hath Omnipotency: though we cannot, yet he can: though our ability cannot re­lieve us, Illo dante habe­tur, illo adju vante completur Aug. de sancta. Virg. Ʋbi defi cit hu­manum auxili­um incipit divi­num, Ferus. yet may we not be supplyed out of his power? Yes, He giving, it is had; he helping, it is compleated. For, Is there any thing impossible to him? No the finger of God can do more, then Briareus with his hundred hands. Where mans help doth fail, Gods help doth begin. God doth visit his Church, when the whole earth doth seem to neglect her, and doth shoot out his arrow of deliverance when her quiver is empty; he doth make his [Page 267]people go upright, when they are bowed down so low, that that they have no hopes of rising again; and he doth heal them, when all the money is spent upon Physitians, and the disease doth continue; when no shoulder is thrusting for their de­defence, then they dwell between his shoulders; when all their Towers of defence are battered down, then he is a wall of fire round about them; how glorious is God in extremi­ties? how wonderfull in exigents? When Senacherib had ri­fled Jerusalem, even taken away all the treasures of the Kings house, and the treasures of the Lords house, even to the golden Plates of the Temple, and not so contented, he sent up taunting Rabshakeh to threaten the Jews, that if they would not yield, he would make them eat their own dung, and drink their own water, and Hezekiah was so frigh­ted, that he clad himselfe, and his Nobles in sackeloth, and cryed out, This is a day of trouble, rebuke, and blasphemy; How did God in one night, free the City of all dread, and lead back this insulting Army with an hook in their Nostrils. When Asah was brought so low, that he had nothing but the heavenly aid to depend upon, for he said, Help us, O Lord our God, for we rest on thee. How did God disperse an Army of ten hundred thou­sand? When Jehosaphat feared, and even fainted, for he said, Oh Lord our God, wilt thou not judge them? for we have no might a­gainst this great company which is come out against us, neither know we what to do, but our eyes are upon thee How did God tell them that he would cleare the coasts of that formidable Army, without giving a stroak, for ye shall not need to fight at all, go down onely to see the slayn, and take the prey; for God had raised up such a division amongst the Moabites, Ammo­nites, and Edomites, that they drew upon themselves, and (as the Scripture saith) helped to destroy one another, insomuch that Jehosaphat came but forth to see their slaughtered bodies, and to take their rich spoyl, and was three dayes in gathering it, and could not carry it all away, 2 Chron, 20.25. When the Barba­rians brake in with such power against Theodosius, Sozomen. l. 7. c. 43. that he had nothing but prayers left for his chiefe strength, how did God on the suddain strike dead Ruges their Captain miraculously from heaven, and consumed the rest of the Army with Pe­stilence, and with fire, and lightning from heaven? When the Soldan of Egypt came with such forces into Jury, that the Christians were as astonished persons; how did God put such courage into them, Aemil l. 4. that the next day the very faces of the Christians amazed the Infidels, and they slew an hundred thousand in the field, and got such infinite prey, that there was never the like seen in the holy Wars. When the Iathua­nians, and the Jaziges, (then Heathens) brake into Polonia with such fury, that they had wasted a great part of the Country, Cromer. l. 10. [Page 268]and taken a multitude of Captives, insomuch that L [...]scus Ni­ger even despaired to oppose them; how did God by an ap­parition of Michael the Arch-angell, so animate him and his Souldiers, that a very small Army feared not to encounter them, and fought against them puissantly, and successfully, yea he stirred up the Captives to break off their Chayns, and fight magnanimously, and the women which they had taken prisoners, frighted them with showts, and their own Doggs which they had brought with them, welcomed the Polonians into the field, and flew upon their Masters, and by multitudes worried them in pieces: oh then when our hearts tremble under miseries, and our eyes are dimmed with continuall weeping, and our joynts loosened with fraying terrors; what an excellent thing is it to wrap up our selves in Gods provi­dence? and to hide our selves under the shadow of his pro­tection? for how can the hand of the Almighty draw us out of the bottom of despairing distresses? yes, he is powerfull, when we are impotent, he can, when we cannot. Which cannot.

Discerne.

2. Now let us come to the determination, to what subject this defect is limited, and that is to a matter of knowledge, they did not know, Which cannot discern. From hence observe, That God doth not discern, where man doth not discern; that is, God will not inflict judgement, where men want judgement; he counts it no reason to judge them, which are destitute of rea­son; where there is an imbecillity in the intellect, God is so far from punishing such, that he is pleading for them: so that a state of ignorance is a kind of state of innocency, inscius, and innocuus, the not knowing, and the not guilty, do usually go together, for knowledge is the ground of guilt, therefore where there is carentia scientiae, a want of judgement, there is al­most, carentia reatûs, Melior est side­lis ignorantia, quàm temeraria scientia. Aug. Tol [...]rabilius est Deo quenptiam cum ignorantia in humilitate jacere, quàm cum clatione al­ta sapere. Greg. l. 17. Moral. Non tibi depu­tabitur ad cul­pam, quod in vitus ignoras. Aug. a want of guilt. Better is a pure ignorance, then a rash knowledge. It is a more tolerable thing with God, that one lye in an humble ignorance, then soar aloft in an elate wisdome. That shall not be imputed to thee for sin, which against by will thou art ignorant of: for first, there may be a naturall incapacity, and then the dulnesse of the understanding is a blunting of sharp reason. That ig­norant man may be excused from punishment, which doth not find that which should instruct him. Or secondly, There may be an ig­norance, per difficultatem materiae, By the difficulty of the matter, when objectum [...] radians non percipitur, A dazling object cannot be discerned by a weak eye: Now there is a great indulgence for such an ignorance; for, explicit faith is for an explicit [Page 269]judgement, H [...]b [...]tudo m [...]n­tis est acutae rationis obtusio. Hugo. Ille ignor ins pot [...]st excusari à pot [...]a, qui quod dis [...]ret, non inv [...]nit. Aug. otherwise unlearned men might be cut down by Cartloads as fuell for Hell, for want of the sap of knowledge: an entire and distinct knowledge belongs to all instructed, but not in an intire manner, all by the necessity of the precept (it they be of ripe years, and have evident manifestation) are bound to know those things which are revealed in Scrip­ture to be true, but by the necessity of the means they are chiefly bound to know but such things as principally, and essentially belong to the Redeemer, and Redemption, Justi­fication, Sanctification, and such as are the necessary, constitu­tive, parts of salvation; the Catholick faith they must not be ig­norant of, but the Scholastical, problematical, polemical faith, they are not absolutely enjoynd to; for if a man should oblige illiterate & undisciplin'd men to the mysteries of the Trini­ty, the secrets of the Hypostaticall union, the Modali­ties of the Mediatour ship, the speculations of Christs passion, the intricacies, and scruples of the resurrection with varieties of notions in this kind, this obligation would be sued against so many Nonsolvents, that not onely a Captas might be served upon the third part of the Laity, but a great company of the Clergy might be carried to Prison with them. All the diffi­culty I know doth lie in this, to know what an entire faith is; Duraud 3. d. 25. q. 1. Occham. Di­al. p. 1. l. 3 c. 1. Bannes 22. p. 349. Altisiod. Sum. l. 3. tr. 3. c. 1. q. 5. Grass decis. aur. l. 2. c. 8. n. 16. now though I do not hold with some, that it is onely an as­sent of the mind to some generall, and universall thing, wher­in diverse particulars are contained, with a will not to be­lieve any thing that is opoposite to these, and to submit to the Church for the distinct understanding of the particulars, for this were to make an entire faith, a confused, and aenigma­ticall faith, the very Chaos not more dark: and I wonder that they which hold, that they which erre in one point are Here­ticks in all the rest, can put such a stupid, stark-blind faith in­to particular mens brests; which I find is an opinion so full of dangerous and destructive blindnesse, that the most learned of that side, though they have not quite disclaimed the point controverted, yet they have rejected the rigour of it; Eymeri­cus holding, Eymetic. p. 1.4.7. n. 8 Vasa 2 disp. 121. Pezant. 22. q. 2. art. 8. disp. 1. that all the Articles of faith are explicitely to be belived, and Vasquez. saith, that by distinct faith the redemp­tion of Christ, the mystery of the Incarnation, all the principal articles in the Creed, and all points needfull for the ordering of life, and working aright are to be believed by an unfolded faith, and Pezantius is so large, that he saith the Articles touch­ing the unity, essence, and Trinity of the persons, Creation, Remission, eternall life, the Nativity, Passion, Resurrection, and second comming of Christ, Baptism, the Lords Supper, Confession, the ten Commandements, the prayers in the Cate­chism are clearly, and necessarily to be believed. So that an entire faith is not an implicated thing, restrained to one [Page 270]thing, out the generall is made very distributive, and diffu­sive in many singular, and particular things; yet this entireness of faith do I hold but only in things necessary, not accessary to salvation, I mean for the evidence of faith; for faith being of things not seen, and faith and knowledge being two distinct habits, a man may believe many things that he doth not know, as the Scripture saith expressely for the joyes of Heaven, 1 Cor. 2.9. knowledge is inseperable from faith in things re­vealed, as they are revealed either in themselves, or to us; but not so in Ecclesiastical propositions, and tendries, except they be (due diligence being used) very perspicuously manifest­ed, and it is an hard thing for the best Church to have a full spirituall anointing, to prophecy upon matters of faith like the Holy Ghost, and to write out her decrees with the Sun­beam. For seeing the whole Catholick Church cannot make one new Article of faith, I believe she is limited in know­ledge: and as the Angels have not perfect knowledge, but ac­cording to their state; so the Church hath not absolute, and compleat understanding. Therefore if an humble Beleever in these things should have obscurity and darknesse, not to bring in a positive affirmation, I believe it is no very damna­ble ignorance; for he doth not understand, and he Cannot dis­cern. So that ye see both a naturall incapacity, and the difficul­ty of the matter may excuse from sin, and in the third place, the strength of temptation, onely that subtill wits may in­duce to evill things, with such a speciousnesse of good, that the most vertuous man may oftentimes be led away; if there­fore there be a pure ignorance both of the law and the fact, and the seduced person doth not suspect any thing of evill in the attempt, Non suspicatur de malitia acti­onis. Advertit ratio­nem justi. (as the Casuists say) but doth aim in his attentions at that which is just, hee being perswaded by others, that that is the Law, which is not the Law, and that that is an ho­nourable action, which is most dishonourable; he having nei­ther perversenesse, nor contumacy in his brest, this errour is almost not a curse; for both forgetfulnesse, and inadvertency, if they be true, Circumctantiae valde immutan­tes naturam actionts. and reall, are high circumstances to change the nature of the action; the guilt therefore doth not sticke upon these misled people, but upon them, which sin out of malicious wickednesse; these may sin materially, but not formally; they may do evill, but think no evill, purpose no evill; they may be drawn to put an hand to a wicked cause, but they are they w^ch sin with both hands earnestly, that are the true culpable Actours; as in the matter of Abs alon, the Devill in the businesse was A­chi ophel, which was the Oracle of the cause, and not those which went in simplicity of heart, and knew nothing. 2 Sam. 15.11. So that ye see in many respects, that though ignorance be an ig­nominy, [Page 271]yet it is not absolute impiety. Do not the Scripture give in abundant testimony to confirm this? yes, if the whole Congre­gation sin through ignorance, and the thing be hid from the eyes of the Assembly, Levit. 4.13. there is a sacrifice of attonement per­mitted. God appointed Cities of refuge for sins of ignorance, e­ven for them, which shed blood unawares, and unwittingly. Jos. 20.2, 3. If intention do specify actions, then where there is no insight into a thing, there can be no intention, and for want of an evill intention, there is no evill man; the predominant thing in irregularity is the will, therefore he which is invo­luntary is well nigh inculpable. In the 45. Ezech. 20. God was pleased to appoint a means of reconciliation, for the house of the simple. What a fervent Petition did Habbacuck put up for these kind of trespasses? A prayer of Habbacuck the Pro­phet, for the ignorances of the people. Hab. 3.1. In this case our Saviour was pleased to pray for his very murtherers, Father forgive them, they know not what they do. Luke 23.34. The A­postle doth assure much comfort both to the Jews and Gen­tiles upon this ground, to the Jews, I wot that through ignorance ye did it. Acts 3.17. to the Gentiles, the times of this ignorance God winked at. Acts 17.10 he confesseth, that he himself was admitted Saint upon this point of indulgence. I obtained mer­cy, because I did it ignorantly through unbelief. 1 Tim. 1.13. Shall Mephibosheth be adjudged unfaithfull to David, that he went not along with him to aid him in the generall defection, when he was lame of both his feet, and his servant had conveyed away his Asse? so, shall any be punished by God Almighty, which are disabled to understand, and satisfie the command? No, that God that would not have a stumbling block put before the blind. Levit. 19.14. will not himself break the bones of the blind, if he doth stumble through infirmity. If a man hath his neighbours goods commited to him, if he ought not to answer for them, if they were taken out of his house without his knowledge, then doubtlesse a man ought not to be responsible for that which he cannot any way prevent. Who can expect a deafe man to hear? a Bed-rid man to walk? the dry Pools to flow with water? the flinty rocks to be fruitfull fields? or the ig­norant to be obedient? No, Justice hath no place, where man hath no power, unlesse by his own default he hath lost it. How do God plead here for an ignorant people? God cannot but spare where men cannot discern. Should not I spare Nineveh that great City, wherein are more then sixscore thousand persons, which cannot discern?