A MEDITATION OF MAGNANIMITY under Crosses.

THere is no man but as he is mortal, and by sin subjected to sorrow; so ought he to prepare for, and sub­mit to those Tryals, Servitutis no­men culpa me­ruit, non Natu­ra. S. Aug. de Civ. Dei l. 19. cap. 15. which not Nature but Transgression hath brought upon him. God created us for his own service, and it had been our per­fection to continue what he made us: While Nature knew no Master but him, it needed no help, nor feared it any hinderance in doing what was required of it. But when Curiosity deluded by the varnish of the Serpents suggestion, had perswaded man to usurp upon God, in exceed­ing the bounds of his Makers appointment, then rushed in those rebel Passions, and troublous Diseases, as Gods avengers of that insolence which had Pride and presumption for its Author and Encouragement.

Our Nature curbed by nothing but necessity, and bound to the peace by the power of divine Soveraignty, began to sink under the sense of that Might it had provoked, and that Mercy it had abused: God the protoplast, and grand ex­emplar of pity, considering whereof we are made, by that promise (that he would not strive with man alwayes, Gen. 6.3.seeing he was but dust,) securing us a­gainst utter ruine, calls our wandring mindes to contemplate, and hearts to bemoan that folly, which at once lost us Innocence and Impassibi­litie.

Now we are left to Passions, which switch and spur us without mercy, and like all comers, knock at our gates for entrance: Love, Joy, An­ger, Fear, &c. act like tumultuous waves, their several parts in our mindes and lives; yea, tis of the Lords mercy, that the Jewel of Eternity is not lost in this crowd, and the vessel in which our durable Treasure is, proves not prize to those Pirats that surround her, and is not naufragated in those seas that rise high, Unum habuit filium sine pec­cato, nullum si­ne flagello. Zech. 13.7. and call to heaven for vengeance. In all the catalogue of Man­kind, there was but one who prescribed against sin, and that was the Man Gods Fellow; but not one who could bring a writ of priviledg from sorrow: for Christ, though the Son of Love, was designed by God the Father to be the Captain of our salvation perfect through sufferings; Heb. 2.10. not as he deserved them, [...] Pet. 2.22. for there was no sin in him, nor guile found in his mouth: but as he observed the method of God, who by his death and passion called immortality to light. Here is the great Trophie of a combating Christian, that no try­all [Page 3]can harmfully vanquish him, who is one with that Victor, who hath triumphed over all world­ly evils, leading captivity captive, and condem­ning death in his body on the tree.

But since the Man is elder then the Christian, Ezek. 16.6. (God finds us in our blood, before he refines us by effectual vocation) and Arguments from Nature seem more congruous to lead the Van of this dis­course, then those which being more precious and perswasive are as the reserve, for the dead lift, to speed home execution, I shall by Gods leave, and by his assistance, assigne some arguments to for­tifie us against the utmost disappointments our course of life can meet, and be made seemingly unhappy by.

And truly (me thinks) I hear my heart a suter to my pen in the words of Li­vius Drusus, Si quid in te artis est, ita compon [...] domum meam. ut quicquid agam ab omnibus perspici possit: Velleius Paterculus l. 2. p. 28. to the Architect that was to build his house, O Friend, if thou hast any art, so dispose mine house, [...] X [...]nopn. Memorab. 4.that mine a­ctions therein done may be visible to every eye. So would I frame and model my Discourse, Satius est moribus Antiquorum prudentium vivere, quam corum tan­tum linguâ & arte loqui. Auson. lib. 2. cap. 33. as one who desires to practise what he prescribes; preferring actions above words and endeavouring rather to follow the Vertues of Wise men, then to speak their Language.

And here, as the Poet of old, Inopem me copia fecit, There is so great a harvest of Arguments, that it seems more then an Herculean labour to answer the importunities of them, and becomes a strait to me to chuse which of them shall be [Page 4]Master of the feast, and Prince de l'Amour: for what is there in Nature which contributes not to mans incommodation? from what quarter of this Globe are not wafted to him engines of mischief? in what state, climate, age, is he not infested with somewhat, [...]. which makes him cry out with him in Stobaeus, O that I were one day free from trouble. And therefore, since every thing more or lesse serves to this drudgery, I will omit curiosity of order, and produce them in that Method my Genius presents them to me.

And the first Argument to allay impatience, Argum. 1 and perswade to courage under them, is that of the Preacher, The thing that hath been is that which shall be, Eccles. 1.9and that which is done, is that which shall be done: That nothing is new under the Sun: That Provi­dence calculates every thing for the Meridi­an of its great designe: That not a sparrow falls to the ground, nor an hair from the head, without the permission of God. The noble Homer tels us this,

He it is that so appoints the gests in the whole latitude of this vital progress, that there is no turning out of the high road of Mankind, Mi­sery; nor no coming to the Upshot, Glory, but by these Cross-wayes: at which in the processi­ons of life, there are more Epistles of Com­plaint, then Gospels of Joy rehearsed. God, who is Lord of all, condemns us his vassals to pay tribute de alto & de basso, as our Predeces­sors [Page 5]have, whose Vices we continue, though their Vertues be eraced. And if they who with great devotion and gallantry lived to God and their Ages as eminent Tapers, and Magnalian Heroes, had Crosses like snuffs to allay their brightness, and encumber their Comforts; We who out­weigh them not in worth, must not out-passe them in serenity: nor ought we to expect our harbours free from Pirates, when others have been infested, who had no less prize to provoke, but more care to prevent Assailants then have we. He who in greatest brightness falls from that Heaven of lustre in which not long ago he glittred to beholders amazement; He that dies in strength, beauty, fame, fortune, with friends bewailing; Poets acclamating, and what not, which adds to the tumour and congeries of an earthly ag­grandization, hath companions more then ma­ny in this Tragedie. He that by his ingenious avarice accumulated Art, and made it his Mono­polie, engrossing it in his brains, and thence re­tailing it to men of less note, who deserved not the Epitaph of Anaxagoras, ‘ [...], &c.— Laertius in vi­ta ejus, p. 98.’

Even he must resign to Mortality, and give quar­to inevitable and unequall Vicissitudes. [...]. Mare. Antoniu. lib. 2. Changes are the worlds degrees of ascent, by which it comes to perfection, and thence returns back to dissolu­tion. Darkness and light, heat and cold have their times, and by their seasons of hight & decay make [Page 6]way for each other; Lux quotidie interfecta re­splendet, et tene­brae pari vice decedendo suc­cedunt, sidera defuncta rovt­vescunt, Tom­pora ubi siniun­tur, incipiunt; fructus consu­muntur et rede­unt. Tertul. in apol. c. 48 the generation of one thing is the corruption of another. every thing in nature is finite, and to hasten the period, there must be variation of [...]orms and shuffling of tem­pers. The worlds lubricity bids every one ex­pect what any one hath undergone: when the sap falls, leaves decay, and the tree is dismantled of its viridity, there seems to be a temporary recesse of Nature, out of her Belcony into her Parlour: When the windes grow clamorous, and storms belch out their Menaces, the King-fisher departs, and leaves the rougher Choristers to their winter notes. Every thing hath its season, and what hath been shall be, til the periodick Non ultra be declared, and our writ of Ease sued out by the dissolution of all; To which the whole Creation tendeth, Rom. 8.22. and for which groaneth, but til which must labour with those troublous guests, excesses. And since change betides every ele­mentary compound, why should not we men the rather provide against it? [...]. Demetrius a­pud Stobaeum, Ser. 254. p. 840 for that we see it at greater distance, and ought with lesse dread then other creatures, whose direction is from instincts lesse rational, and not more certain. The very Heathen tell us, It is folly in grain, not to bear what we cannot avoid, because necessary.

It was a brave resolution of Anaxagoras, who told, [...], &c. Plurarc. lib. de Tranquil, animi that his son was dead, replyed, I knew him to be mortal when I begot him. And it doth no lesse become a man to consolidate himself against the inconstancies of the world, from the assurance of heaven, then it doth the hireling to confront the dolour of his pains; with the com­fort of his pay: for even in the best of this [Page 7]world goods, felicity, there is not onely care to get and keep it; but a discord amongst the lear­nedst, in the termination and consistence of it. Crates placed it in a prosperous Navigation, Stilpo in amplitude of power; Symonides in the good wil of ones Country-men; Archyta in vi­ctory over Enemies; Gorgias in pleasant Sto­ries; Chrysippus in goodly Buildings; Antisthe­nes in Fame after death; Eurypides in a beaute­ous Wife; Sophocles in Children; Palaemon in Eloquence; Themistocles in Nobility; Eccles. 2.11 Aristi­des and Heraclitus in Wealth; and Solomon, wi­ser then them all, concludes all things vanity; Prov. 15.15. professing the continual feast, and unceasing Ju­bilee to be only in a good conscience and a con­tented mind, which is ever merry, 1 Tim. 6.6 because never disappointed; for it resignes to God.

Me thinks now, I hear one of the old Philo­sophers upbraiding the vanity of relying on things mundane, after this sort: Whither, O man, tendest thou? what is thine industry bribed by? where thy treasure deposited? [...]. Philiscus ad Ciceronem a­pud Dionem. lib. 38. p. 73. why seekest thou life in death, stability in decay, glory in con­tempt, ease in disorder? Own thy self to be more then this Universe; and see thou beest the same thou seemest, which this is not. Credit no sug­gestions which lure thee from thy self: to keep watch and ward at home, is to be safe. Thy fortune is imbarqued in thy Minde, as that is, such is thy bliss: Without thee there is little but chaffings, and puffs of boasting Nothings. The Favour of Caesar, Pompey, Alexander; the Wealth of Craesus; the Eloquence of Tully and Demosthenes; the Art of Aristotle and Archime­des, [Page 8]the strength of Hercules serves not against Crosses and disharmonies: or if it doth bear off those baffles, yet not Death, which rides first or last in triumph over all worldly greatness, and confines every thing which pretends exemption from other Conquests. Why then pitchest thou (O man) upon these groundless bottoms, which waft away, and with winged haste speed their flight thorow all seasons and climats; yea change their Masters upon every pet or occasional disqui­et? Look to times diary; see if that beesom hath not swept away Men, Things, Places, Governments upon the account only of a concluded revolution: And when thou hast perpended that fatal systole, and sadly numbred out the measures of Mutation which have fallen to the share of the most serious Men and usefull Things, then conclude, Vanity is impressed upon all, and that which hath been shall be, till Time cease, and the hour-glass of Nature be exarenate. Then, then only may room be made for better hopes, when Nature is refined, and that disforrested, which so harbours our Ver­tues in its Coverts, that it degenerates for want of chase and exercise, into that over-grown Mon­ster, Ambition: For nothing but Vice makes Change a burden to us; since Vertue loves those Tryals that polish it. Thus He.

And not amiss: For the mischief of provoca­tions upon Disappointments, ariseth from the combustible matter in us. If we were good, we would thank God for trying us; since to try, where temptation gains no conquest, is to crown, or at least to prepare for it; So true is that of [...]. Apud Stob. ser. 254. p. 84 [...] Democritus, Magnanimity appears in nothing [Page 9]more then in meek demeanour amidst merciless de­ceivings and unexpected failings.

And well need we this Preparation: Fowle Natures, like ill-humoured bodies, call for Pur­ges. Those that will live healthily, desire as well the evacuation of peccant, as augmentation of good humours; and therefore have not less gratulated those Crosses and unfortunate frowns with which the Court Armours of their Vertues have been charged, [...]. Laertius in vi­ta ejus. Stob. ser. 248 then their Birth or Marriage dayes. I read of Zeno, losing all in a wrack at sea, yet giving thanks that he had his garments left, and that necessity brought him to profess Philosophie; accounting loss of all nothing, so long as Vertue, his mental Jewel, kept head above water, and survived.

Not that the Ancients did set light by these defeats, out of a stupid nescience, or bruitish ig­norance, like those Indians who value glass above gold, because they know no better; but meerly from a through experience of the danger that came from those favourable gusts of Fortune, which oftner cause shipwrack then security, like vehement winds, driving Vertue on the Rocks of Ambition and Luxury: which occasioned that prudent admonition, [...], Plutarch. In prosperity to re­member storms, and prepare for them. And if at any time they have coveted prosperity and affluence, it hath been for this cause chiefly, that they might evade such ignomi­ny as Envie casts on Pilots that are on ground. [...]. Theol. apud Stob. for. 248. And as those Mariners that put to sea in cal­mest weather, carry Tackling against a Storm; so have they in their day provided against that [Page 10]night, which turns edg upon the noblest metal; yea makes it strike sail to that which before it bare aloft from, [...], Theologi Stob. Serm. 248. as too much beneath the flounce of its project: which Romulus no­ted well, when he told his friend, Harms are mens Tutors; many men are taught that by their dis­appointments, which their obtainings could never teach them. Hence came it to pass, that they stormed not like men cholerikly phrenzie; much less did they opprobriously blaspheme the gods as the authors of their miseries,

or justifie their deserts of better things; nor in felonious outrage did they rid themselves of life; but submitting with all mild­nesse and gratefull moderation, [...], Isocrates. Talis est Sapientis anim [...], qualis Mundi status supra lunam, semper illic serenum est. Senec. Ep. 59. Platonica familiâ nihil novimus nisi festum, & laetum, & solenne, et superum, & coeleste. Apuleius in apolog. receive them as a common for­tune, which devolved contempt upon no man, but had an happy issue betrothed to it, their Minds being like those things above the Moon, in a continuall serenity; Wisdome keeping a perpetuall Sabbath in divine appointments. Hence the Moralist characters the Wise man, least thinking of good fortune, Sapientis est semper de fortuna cogitare, et sibi nihil de side ejus promittere. Sen. benef. l. 4. c. 34. not boldly con­cluding [Page 11]it his, but considering defeats, which like April showrs, often mar the present Sun-shine, though they produce the May-flowers of after­content; resolving to be what he may, if not what he would: By which artifice he deceives many, Tu illum putas premi malis, u­titur. who deem him lost in the wood of worldly mis­chiefs; whenas indeed he is never more blessed, then when, with Proteus, hee is fain to change shapes, to avoid surprises; being with Phidias, Non ex Ebore tantum Phidias sciebat facere simulachrum, &c. Sen. Ep. 85 Quamounque fortunam acci­perit, aliquid ex illa memorabile efficiet. Ibid. a­ble to frame a Mercury out of any material which wil endure the tool, and express his vertue in any condition: In riches, in povertie, abroad, at home, as a Commander, as a private Souldier, in health, in Sickness: In every action and station some­what hee'l do worthy.

Do we not read the bravest of Earths gallants of both sexes, militating with crosses, and extract­ing comforts from them? yea glorying in them as their probatories and marks of Chivalry, which they reported as testimonials of their emeritings? Is there any one but hath met with these Adders, which nibble at the heel; or any order, age, acti­on of man but procreates this Satyr? One findes a cross in his Nativity, and cryes out of his uufortu­nate birth and unnatural parents, who begat him to sorrow, and bring him up in sloth: One is a plague to the Family, nay the Nation he lives in; another fires the world by dissention, and makes all men crouch to the cross of his erection: One findes his cross in his deformitie, another in his beauty; one in his povertie, another in his wealth; one in his youth, another in his age; one in his body, another in his minde; one in his wife, ano­ther in her husband; one in his bed, another [Page 12]in his Garden; one cries out of Science that he cannot gain, another of Conscience that he can­not still: yea there is a Cross (past Lord have mercy upon us) in the next world, which too few think upon and pepare for, Hell.

Some finde their vexations (like Moths) rise out of themselues, and cry out in the Fathers words, O flumen moris humani! S. Au­gust. in confes. O cursed Corruption, how long wilt thou staine the purity of my best actions! O deceitfull heart, why consentest thou to felf-ruine? &c. O­thers complaine of Satan that tempts them; whenas, indeed, they run into that evil they ought to pray against, Mali malorum Damonum & fictores, et sa­aerdotes, 'et cul­tores, Orat. 38. and avoid. Evill men (saith Nazianzene) are the Makers and Wor­shippers of evill Divels. Some cry out, that their Company infects and ingages them; and yet they will not out of Sodom, but if they be by mercie dragged (as it were) to Zoar, they look back with appetition and desire, having that in their mouths, which the young man had, when told that vice would bring him to blindness; Vale amicum Lumon. Farewel (quoth he) dear sight. So they return like the dog to his vomit, & the sow to her wallowing in the mire. Others decry the Age as bad, and exemplary to evil; when alas, they promote the plague by their putid breath & blou­dy hands, with which untainted they ought to cool the flame, and prevent the ryot. Some cry out of Heresie and Schisme as the grief of their souls, and that which makes them go mourn­ning all the day long; whenas themselves have some leaven as sowre as Julian, or John of Ley­den had. Others have no cross more grievous to them, then to see Order and Learning (the beauty of God in the face of this Commonwealth, [Page 13]the World) like the goodly Whale, sporting up­on the surface of the waters, and not yet mor­tally struck with the Harping irons of mens dis­pleasures.

Some cry out against Riches, because they have them not; others against Poverty, because they fear it. Some would have Power out of o­thers hands, that they (as they pretend) may be secure: others fear security in change, and wish rather to die nobly, then live doubtfully. Some hold it a punishment to be commanded; others hold it no lesse not to be so, because they finde that by sorrow the heart is made better, and by service more humble and tractable. In fine, the faces of men differ not more then their desires and fancies; Every one thinks that an evil which he endures, and wishes the worse evill, to be rid of the rod by which he is corrected, Ad hoc corrigit Dcus, ut emen­det, ad hoc e­mendat, ut glo­rifices. but not amended; Amendment is the end of Gods pu­nishment on his people. To this end (saith Saint Cyprian) doth God correct, that hee might amend; to this end doth hee amend, that hee may glo­rifie.

I know there are some men beneficiall to all they come neer, or tamper with; whom For­tune favors to a miracle: over whose ways, works, families all felicities constellate, and in whom con­center; Vix ullius gou­tis, aetatis, ordi­nis, hominem in­veneris, cujus foelicitatem for­tunae Metelli compares. l. 1. p. 18 as if all sheafs were made to do homage to theirs, and no cross line permitted by Heaven to be drawn upon them and theirs. Such an one was the famous Roman Metellus, whom Pater­culus sets forth not to be matched for his felicity in any Age, Order, or Nation (almost) of men: in whose Familie, at least twelve in [Page 14]twelve years were either Censors, or Consuls, or Triumph'd; Plut. l. 2. p. 29 who lived in troublesome times un­touch'd, saw his four sons grown up, left them behind him in great honours, all of them having been either Censors or Consuls, or not long after so. lib. 1. p. 18 But this one swallow makes no summer; this Phoenix, the sole wonder of an age, opposeth not the consent of experience, That Crosses attend the best and most of sublunary accommodations. The Poet tels us, ‘Irus & est subito qui modo Craesus erat.’

Since then nothing of this nature is new, pre­pare thou, O man, for any cross that may, and fume not at any that doth come upon thee: If the piety of thy Calling as a Christian, perswade thee not (which God forbid) let the examples of civilized heathens shame thee to a patient & ge­nerous submission. He is a man of soft metall, who upon a small scratch, calls for the Chirurgian, Cum Fortuna nimis contumaciter agit, qui accepto vulnere statim mi­scr esse dissimilat, Sym. l. 1. and gives over the Enemy: and he a too modest Lover, who interprets himself denyed, [...]. Demetrius Phaler. because courtli­ly delayed. It is a concluded rule, He who cannot bear ill, is not worthy to be bless'd with good Fortune. Wel fare him in Stobaeus, who inge­nuously confesseth his demeanour amidst ill acci­dents: [Page 15]

For Crosses are Natures burthens, and those must rest on some shoulders: Every Citizen of the world must pay scot and lot in common with his neighbours, and bear proportion of the toil and turmoile it affords. Remember, the pa­tience of man works to praise and pity; and his passion to contempt and obduration: For who can do less then de­spise and parvipend him, [...] Clem. Alexandrin. Strom. lib. 2. Bonus, etiamsi serviat, liber est; malus, etiamsi regnet, servus est tot dominorum quam vitiorum, Prosp. sent. 52 who knows not himself above the command of his Valet. He is a slave with a vengeance, whose Lawes are dictated by Lusts and Passions: and the Marches to which to go, and beyond which not to go, are bounded by these irrationall Tyrants.

'Twas a noble and right Princely Modera­tion of Charles the Fifth, who having presented to him by the Citizens of Antwerp, a rare piece of Hangings, in which was represented the Bat­tell of Pavia, with the names of Francis King of France, and all the Noblemen and men of Bloud taken and slain there, refused to accept it, lest he should seem to upbraid to others their ca­lamities and miseries: For fit was he to rule [Page 16]Countries and men, who had perfected that Con­quest over passions, which few of the greatest Hectors ever attained to. That brave King of Hungarie, Matthias, who was one of the most victorious men in the field that Christendome had; yet died of anger upon a slight occasion: Many Ambassadors were with him, and he called for figs; answer was made, they were all eaten; his rage was so great, that he fell into an Apo­plexie, and so died. A fig for that courage which rages against reason; I will never admire him whom Pompey's spirit brings to Pompey's end.

This for the first Argument.

The next is like unto it, Argum. 2 Reason has borne downe these fits of the Mother which swell to disturb us, and why should those of old attaine to that, which we more advantaged and bet­ter enabled then they, reach not to? alas we are on the backs of those gyants, plowing with their heifers, and might make more dispatch and better work then they (who were faine to grap­ple with almost insuperable arduities, to hew stones, as it were without tooles, and to blow up the little spark of art, buried in the ashes of oblivion, and abstruseness, into any flames of moderate observableness) did we not wrap our talents in Napkins, and mispend them on lusts; which fight against the soul, making them as the Mountaines of Gilboa, upon which neither dew nor raine of heavenly virtue, falls. There is no­thing more stimulative to a generous nature, then to follow, if not outgoe those whose vir­tues in their respective ages have made them most conspicuous and estimable. He spake like a [Page 17]man, who said, The praises of Myltiades a­wakened him: And no less he, whose Attempts took fire from the Train of Alexander's Con­quests. Who can read the story of Bias (who both overcame and relieved the Mantineans, and by them had Memorials of Brasse erected to him) losing unfortunately in the City of Pri­ene his Wife, Goods, and Children, who were taken captive, yet uttering no speeches worse then these: If any one seeing mee deprived of my Countrey, Wife, Si quis quòd patriâ caream, [...]òd conjuge, domo, liberis, bonísque omnibus orbatua sim, aliquid mcorum me perdidisse, ideo (que) me contristari opportere dicunt, ii neque fortuna quid sit sciunt, neque rectè de Philose­phia sentiunt. Patientiam me­cum & Philosophiam fero, & alieno exoneratus, nullius jam praeterquam mei solius curam gero. Guev. l. 1. c. 21 Children, Fortune, conceive me sor­rowfull; or lesse contented in mind then when I enjoyed them all to ut­most improvement, let them know, they neither skill what Fortune is, nor how great the force of Philoso­phy is in a vertuous mind. In this I am happy, my left riches is Learning and Patience: I have care of nothing but my self, how to keep within the boundary of Rea­son. Who (I say) reading this, can ghess a ver­tuous mind less then happy, even in a condition as low as envie and misfortune can sink it?

The soul of man is of a divine and immaterial substance, and delights in those things which are of analogous off-spring with it self. Major sum, et ad mojora genitus, quàm ut manci­pium sim carnis meae. [...], &c. Laert. in vita ejus, p. 389 Tel Philoso­phers and men of gallant emulations, of great Pre­sents, and grand Fortunes to be accumulated from this or that inglorious action, they'l reply with him in Seneca, It becomes not our free minds to be vas­sals to foul passions & lewd designs. When Alexander asks the Cynick what he shall give him, his request is only that the King would stand out of the Sun, and [Page 18]not hinder its accesse to him: valuing the light and comfort of those heavenly beams, above the Behemoth of the Conquerors greatness and boun­tie.

Wise men have not ever been acclamators of externall pomp; but rather of internall purities, and unseen perfections. Cippus the Noble Ro­man returning from the Conquest of his Enemies, being told by the Oracle, that if he entred the gates of Rome, he should be King of it, sent in­to the City for the Senate and People to come out to him, and without the City gave them an account of his proceedings: And contenting himself with one acre of land on which to live, willingly banished himself to a Countrey solitude.

He in Stobaeus cryes out,

So Theognis,

For however Caius boast that he is a god, hath accompanyed with the Moon, and com­manded his Image to be worshipped: yet the merry Shoo-maker, [...]. Dion. l. 59. p. 661 in spight of all his costly at­tire and pompous folly, censures him but a great Nothing; since no man is great if wicked, and over-mastered by vice. [...]. Plutarch. Orat. 2. de Fortit. & Vir­tute Alex. magni. For­tunateness separated from Ver­tue, is but a vanity, and will appear in gaining good will, to be illiberal; in enduring la­bour, effeminate: 'twill be su­perstition to God, cause the envie of good men, and break out into all exorbitancies.

Therefore Socrates defined those happy onely who were rich in their Intel­lects, [...]. [...], Laertius in vita Diogenis lib. 6. pag. 378. and practised those Vir­tues they understood. This made Antisthenes prefer the company of the Cinique (whom for his worth he was resolved to follow) beyond fear of the smartest cudgel the Cinick had to fright him with. Some there are that have thought Art and Learning worthy their enquiry, and have bought it at loss of sleep, society, and almost of food; ac­counting all time lost thats stollen from its pur­suit; being exstimulated with the memory of this, That Knowledg is an ample Theatre and reward to it self; that the mind therewith inriched is not in danger of the rape of theeves, nor corruption [Page 20]of Moths, no nor the fret of Time, which the best of worldly things are subjected to, and by which come not only not to be; but while they are, to be as if they were not: Of which that of the E­pigrammatist is true;

That which only makes Change strange to us, [...] Plu [...]a [...]ch lib. de animi tran­quil. pag. 474. Edit. Paris. is because we expect it not; for Wisdom directs to look upon this world as a River which carries to and fro things in a hurry, and leaves little but sor­row to those that most confide in, and most re­signe themselves to it.

The consideration of this made way for the re­ception of that Stoical Maxime, Viro sapienti omnem suam fe­licitatem intra se esse repositam. That a wise mans Treasure was magazined in his minde, and not in any thing out of his power either to keep or get: which Socrates explicated in his Question to Nicias the Athenians Groom, whom (leading the admired Horse) he asked, What money that Horse had: The Groom wondred at the Question, and re­plyed, As much as any horse hath, that's just none. O (quoth Socrates) If an Horse may be an ex­cellent and lovely Horse, and admired in every eye, that hath neither Money nor Goods, but the brave [Page 21]qualities of a generous Horse, Why may not a Man, having eminent vertues, be a brave and gallant Man, though hee have not the Wealth of Craesus, or an Indian abundance; nay, though he want necessaries, and is fain to earn, before he hath them? Which Phocion also assented to, when he refused the great Present of Gold sent him by Alexander, after his conquest in Persia; asking of his servants, why the Conqueror singled him out as the object of his bounty; Answer was made. Because hee thinks thee most noble of all the Greeks. O replyed Phocion, Quoniam te omnium Grace­rum optimum arbitratur Sinite igitur me esse. inquit: hocion, quem ille autumnat, &c. Mag­nus quidem Alexander, sed Phe­cion major: qui cum peuper es­set, tantum munus cum muneris autore contempserit. Sabellicus l. 2 Exemp. p. 24, 25.Suffer me then to be what he opineth me to be: which I shal not, if being born free, I make wealth the boundary of my care. A­lexander is great, but Phocion is grea­ter; who though poor, hath a spirit be­yond either Alexander or his gifts. Va­lerius Publicola, Indubitato ar­gumento, Rei­publ. domi foris­que continenter & sanctè ad­ministrata. that brave Roman (who thrice triumphed, and yet never before he deserved it) dyed so poor, that he was fain to be buryed at the publick charge. An undoubted signe of a noble mind, and of an unabused trust.

I know there are some that depreciate this Po­sition, and are apt to undervalue whatever is not laden with thick clay, and hath not the equipage of worldly triumph attending it: They judge Self-denyall and Patience too much asnery for a brave spirit to be captived by; and they are all upon the raunt, chusing with that Heroick Queene, rather to have her Childrens heads chopped off, then their amorous locks pol­led. To bear the grudgings of Fortune, and pal­sies of Time, they impute to pusilanimity, not [Page 22]considering that we men are God and Nature's Galleries, in which they hang forth their choi­cest pieces of Art, exposing them to view, that their Master skill may be more notorious, and their Empire appear more absolute, while their commands are answered with obedience, not dispute.

The Heathen man tels us, [...], &c. Marc. An­tonin. l. 5. c. 27. [...], Iamblichus de virture, ad Sopatrum. Malae secundaeque res, opes, non ingenium mihi mutabunt. Salust. Orat. [...]. S. Chrysostomus. [...], Plut. in Dem. that to live to the Gods is commenda­ble, and that every good man aims to be like God to the utmost of his capacity, and that no man co­pies better then he, whose minde equally poysed, welcomes whate­ver is his lot, and acquiesces in that portion, which is therefore best because his, and directed to him from a wise and mercifull Be­ing: considering that every thing is ordered by a gracious hand, which so connects things each to other, that they all in the end work forth Is­sues of good and gain to them that are pious and patient: and therefore the holy Apostle gives us the summ of Christianity and sound ex­ternal bliss in this, Phil. 4.11 I have learned in what estate soever I am, therewith to be content.

For alas, whatever this ignis fatuus the World, payes, as its largess for our toil and vexation, is but tainted with sin, and dishonoured by incon­stancy. Mark Anthony banishes Nonnus a Ro­mon Senator, meerly to have the precious Opalus worth 300000 Crowns, which Nonnus wore in a Ring: but he was deceived; for Nonnus, though [Page 23]he left much wealth behind him, carryed that Jewel with him. Riches have wings, and fly away, Prov. 23.5 maugre the birdlime of Care, with which wee catch them, and whereby we hope to keep them. Pro. 31.30. Beauty is vain, favour is deceitful, and friends glide away as the brook; Honours (like the palefac'd Sun) fore-run foul weather, and portend a storm as infallibly as fire doth promise heat, or air moy­sture. There is nothing so perpetuated by Art, or dulcified by opinion, but hath its allay entailed to it. Kings have somewhat in Crowns and Robes of State, which makes them uneasie; and the Souldier comes hardly by what he hath, which Sosiphanes mentions bewailingly,

For (poor souls) one day lost, reduceth them to complaints of ill Fortune; perhaps puts Belisari­us and Hannibal out of condition ever to put to Field again. [...]. Yea Learning (after which the Scho­lar thirsts more then parched ground doth after showrs, preferring a dram of Wisdom before an ocean of Wealth) often proves an Arab to lifes comfort: And the very Eliabs and goodliest sta­tured sublunary things have for the most part written on them, as had Ezekiels Roul, Ezek. 2. last. Lamen­tation, and mourning, and woe.

Good God! how many hocus pocus tricks, how [Page 24]many mazes and turnings see we in this Olleo of Elements, the world? What a forge of Disguizes and Mint of follies is this Idol we adore; this Ta­bernacle we so eagerly covet, though we see it ever versatile? how unnaturally doth it bring up to ru­ine its off-spring, occasioning as many different wayes of distaste, as there are graines of sand in the Seas boundary, or drops of water in her store­house? How are the worthiest of her Procre­ates shrivelled up to nothing, by with-drawings of Support, Avaritiae po­tentiorum sub­jectiubique in­feriores sunt, quo quisque in­firmior, co prae­dae patet; minor apud illos esca majoris est. Beat. Ambros. Hexam. 5. and uneven distillations of influence! Too much of favor, makes some proud; too little, others despond: Too great wealth, some op­press; too little, others beg and want: too much power tempts some to Tyranny; too little makes others submit against their wills, and meditate re­venge against their natures.

Who would be a slave to such a regardless Mi­stris, that turnes love the deaf ear, and charges folly on the Marble for relenting in sympathy with the Skyes, who by showry tears express their charity to indigent and importunate pa­stures? that kils the fatted calf for a scornful Prodi­gal, and minds not him that best deservs. Noble Ʋ ­lysses in his return to his Country, has misfortune like Hailshot; is wracked on the Ciconian shore, thence losed, has the same misfortune in Affrica, after is fain to encounter a Cyclops in Sicily, thence is forced by cross winds into Aetolia, and last of all, Alber. cogna­tus in Com. in l. 1. Tom 2. Lu­ciani. is cast upon Sylla and Carybdis. Au­gustus Caesar, for all his Greatness, cannot sleep, and when his noble Livia asked the reason; he replies, Who (Dear heart) is a moment free from cares, who hath so many enemies, not more [Page 25]vigilant to ruine me, then one another? Yea, [...]. Dion. l. [...]5. p. 557. [...]. Plu­tarch. lib. animi tranq. p 475. Marcus Antoninus, the mirror of men and Emperours, hath upon him the black cloud of an unchaste Wife, and a deboist Sonne; and Socrates, whom the Oracle declared wisest of men then living, yet had the peoples envy; and two villanous foes Melitus and Anytus, who may kill, but not harme him: Ill Fortune (quoth he) may bring sickness on me, and take away mine estate; but to make him evil, fearful, dejected, base and envious, who is good, constant, mag­nanimous, liberal, that it cannot do: These and many others have been unfortunate; whenas the Varlet Cleander (a Slave bought in the Market and carried to Rome to be a drudge) had Rome at his pleasure, gets the favor of Commodus, gives Ci­vil and Senatorian honor at pleasure, sels Gover­ments, both Military and Civil, as and to whom he pleased, [...] Di­on. l. 72. p. 823 makes the Magistracy of Rome a refuge for fortuneless persons; yea, so chopped and chan­ged Government, that he made twenty five Con­suls in one year, which the Historian notes, was never done either before or after.

Why, Amor forma rationis oblivio est, & insania proximus. S. Hyeron. l. 1. Adv. Jovinian. O why should the reason of man suffer eclipse so far, as to give way to chuse a curtezan for her fair looks, while vertue in a less venust person is refused? Or how shall men be de­fended from censure of madness, who are en­amoured of that Butchery, in which Crea­tures of greatest procerity are put to slaughter, Cuncta mortalium incerta, quantoque plu [...] (ipse Imperator) adoptus foret, tunto se magis in Lubrico esse. Ti­berius apud. Tacit. l. 1. and things of raskal and macilent a­spect, are fully provided for?

O mutable world, O mercless Fortune, how many hast thou flattered into ruine, and left there unpitied! How few hast thou befriended with a peaceful old age, whose youth thou hast allured and trifled out in perishing vanities, to whom thou hast promised a perennity of Glo­ry, Solet fatigari fortuna, solet postea quam ni­mium indulsit, in fine deficere. Quintil. Declam. 271. and yet sent them packing with Pompey in a Fly-boat! They that trust thee, are sure to be ruined, and they that mistrust thee, to be secure; Cavete vobis principes, as well befits thine as Loyola's Motto; for thou art what ever Divine Justice permits, and Satanick malice can invent and send abroad mischievous.

Let us read and consult the upshots of Great­ness, and there will be little cause for any passi­on but that of Tears, when we see the sons of Honour pass through the fire to this Molech; and those Phaetons who managed the raines of Power, hurled from their Chariot-box, into the abyss of servility and want; yea, often with Actaeon, torne in pieces by their own Brood. Julius Caesar was once so great in the world, V [...]rquiuon im­meritō cx ma­xima parte Deo fimilis est puta­tus; &c. Eutro. l. 7. p. 576. [...]. Dion. l. 44. p. 235. that the Roman Senate erected Temples to him, and decreed him the Title of Caesar; nay, they so flattered him, that they allowed his sons and Nephewes (of which he had none) to be called Caesars: yet at last he was murthered in the Senate by the Senators. Pompey on a time was so victorious, that men called him Agamemnon; yet when Casar prevailed, hee was forced to fly Rome, and by a treacherous Surprise comes to his end, the same day of the year that he had triumphed upon after his Conquest of Mithridates and the Pyrats; [Page 27]that (saith Dion) his end might not be as his entrance was, fortunate; [...], &c. Dion. l. 42. p. 188. but allayed with somewhat which might declare him miserable. Vitellius made Emperor by the Souldiers, be­came at last so odious to them, that they ap­prehended him, bound him hand and foot, [...], Dion. l. 66. p. 743. [...], &c. Di­on. l. 58. p. 628. and dragged him into the Market place, where they smote him with their fists, tore off his beard, and shamefully reproached him. Seja­nus, whom in the morning all the people looked upon as a rising Star and Peerless Personage, whom nothing was too worthy for; at night was guarded like a Villain, and hated as a Traytor.

Was not Cato Major as wise and worthy a person in the Romans opinion, as any of his age, Nemo in ea civitate majoribus est odiis exercitus, quadragies sexies re­us causam dixit, estque semper abso­lutus, &c. Sabellicus Exemplor. T. 4. l. 1. p. 19. Edit. Basileae. yet none more tortured by envy then he, for­ty six times was he accused, and absolved, his Eloquence and in­nocence ever bearing down his opposites malice.

Manlius, who kept the Roman Capitol, Servavit Capi­tolium M. Man­lius saepius in a­cie stetit pro pa­triā strenueque démicavit, &c. Sabellicus l. 4. c. 3. Tom. 4. Edit. Basileae. valiant­ly defended his Country, received many wounds, and preserved many worthy Citizens by his own hazzard, yet at last by vote of the people was publikely condemned; and all (forsooth) upon a brute that he aspired to somewhat above a private Citizen: by which action of theirs it appeared that the Romans were impatient to have any one so great or so innocent, which the Law would justi­fie against their levity, and changeable petulancy.

Yea, of later times, are there not equal in­stances of the worlds inconstancy? What think we of Paulo Vitelli, the great Florentine [Page 28]General put to death by them, after all his fa­mous Services, only upon suspicion? Of Hugo­line Girardescus, a noble Citizen of Pisa, chief of the Faction of the Guelphes; who being in Su­preme Command in Pisa, Luca, and their Ter­ritories, was surprised by the Gibelines, a contra­ry Faction, and with his two sons and three Ne­phewes, shut up alive in the Castle, the keyes of which were thrown into the River Arno, so they starved to death. Filesacus Sele­ctor. l. 2. c. 9. There are thousands of other instances produceable, but confessions need no proof; no man will deny this, that dares ju­stifie himself to be a man; who may seal to this from his own observation: so true is that of Me­trodorus,Mortale est omnium mortalium bonum, de his loquitur bonis, ad quae concurritur; nam illud verum bonum non moritur, certum est, sem­piternumque, sapientiact virtus hoc u [...]um con­tingit immortale mortalibus. Senec. Ep. 98Every worldly good is perishable; true good is durable and eter­nal; Wisdome and Vertue abide immortal, and fade not for wind or weather, but retain that grain colour, which defies the tartest tryal, and most defacing fally: [...]. Psal. 112.6. Prov. 10.7. And therefore 'twas good counsel that Antisthenes gave, Those (saith he) that would immortalize their names, must live to the precise rule of Piety and Justice. To which Scripture suffragats, The Righteous shall be had in everlasting remem­brance, when the name of the wicked shall rot.

Let men dote on what they please, Content shall be my Darling; Ex mediocrita­te fortuna pau­ciora esse peri­cula. Tacit. Annal. 14. a modest mind satiated with what God assignes me, shall be my Prayer to obtain, and praise of God, received; other things are but termers, and pass away, leaving no print of their once abode with us: where is the Art of Hypocrates, who saved others, but [Page 29]could not preserve his owne life? What are become of those Viragoes, who chased Nations into their Nets, and came into Continents with fire and Sword, writing Lawes in bloud and wounds; these Nephewes of Nimrod, where are they? Where are Heraclitus, Democri­tus, Aristotle, Plato? Are wormes awed from their ashes? and is Putrefaction barred seisure on them? Are not those honoured names of Camillus, Caeso, Volefius, Scipio, Ca­to, Trajan, Antonine, become Vassals to every Varlets tongue? Are they not reproached by every Mimick, and hardly credited to have been the distinctions of persons famous in their ages? Surely, it is clearer then the light, that time hath gullopp'd down mens merits, and caused an high silence on them, so that they live only in the tender Monument of Virgin paper, and at the Devotion of those that stain them to make them legible to after ages; the counsel then of Mar­cus Antoninus is good, [...]. l. 4. c. 33. There is one peice of Pru­dence (quoth he) worthy practice, to have a just mind, a sociable life, a true speech, a heart conten­ted with whatsoever falls out, as best for its good. These are things most worthy endeavor after, and most beneficial when enjoyed.

Therefore mistake not (O man) the mark thou oughtest to level at, the Goal thou shouldst make to; thy figure tends to heaven, thence thy proportion is appointed, thy bulk requires but little pabulary supply; if thy mind be not bot­tomless, thy necessities will easily be answered: If thine eye be not curious, thy stomack wil not be squeamish; what ever is mans meat, will downe, [Page 30]and what will exclude cold, Sabellicus Tom. 4. l. 2. c. 8. p. 37. Edit. Basiliae. and comfort nature, sit upon thy back with honour and decency e­nough. Be thy Diet as rude, and Vests as rough as were those of elder times, whose materials were from the Beast and Field unplain'd, and in their Native colours and hue, thou art not the first, nor shalt be the last that must sit down in sorrow: If comfort be in company, thou hast enough to make up a sad consort with thee.

So Merops comforts her self.

Thus much for the second Argument.

The third Argument is, Argum. 3 from consideration, that to contest with, and conquer disapoint­ments, by patient abiding them, is a great step to Glory, and an uncontroled instance of self­mastery: Stormes shew Pilots, and Combats [Page 31]assert Valor; yea, there is nothing gives a more substantial taste of worth, then these opportunities to display it in. [...]. Marc. Anton. l. 4. Were not Aristides and The­mistocles renowned by their ba­nishments? Who had heard of Hercules, [...]. Philis­cus ad Circeronem. Dion. l. 38. p. 76. had not his combats with the Claeonaean Lion, and the Hydra, the Stag, the Wild Boar, and many Gigantine and fierce men, whom heworsted, [...], &c. Epictetus l. 2. c. 6. de provid. and from whom he received many virrulent and threatning Char­ges, argued his valor? What made Socrates greatly opiniona­ted, Cicuta Socratem magnum fecis, Ca­toni gladium assertorem Libertatis extorque magnam partem detraxeris gloriae: Sonec. Ep. 13. but the poison that he drank with as cheery a heart, as wine? And what greater dishonor can be done to Cato, then to suppress the mention of those hazzards he despised, to as­sert Publike Liberty?

Tully brings in Popilius as a most generous and well pois'd Roman: Fortis & corstans in optima ratione civis P. Popilius somper suit, tamen ejus in omni vita, nihil est ad laudem allustri­us quam calamitas ipsa. Cicero pro Dom. [...]ua. Et paulopost, M [...]telli clarum im­perium in re militari fuit, Egregia censu­ra, omnis vita plena gravitatis tamou hu­jus viri laudom, ad sompiternam memori­amacmpor is calamit as propagavit. yet in nothing more laudably notorious, then in his un­deserved, yet well borne calamities. And Metellus as reaping praise and same from those tumultuous times, and that prudent demeanor of his amidst them.

Yea, had not Livius Drusus been basely mur­thered by the people, he might (for ought I know) have missed that honourable mention [Page 32]which he hath from Pa­terculus, Vir nobilissimus, eloquentissimus, sanctis­simus, meliore in omnia, ingenio animo­que quam fortunâ usus; hic tamen à civibus cultro caesus est. Paterculus lib. 2. p. 28 Edit. Antwerp. to be most No­ble, most Eloquent, most Pious, more worthful both in body and mind, then fortunate.

I am not of their minds, who so far indulge E­picurean ease, that they think that life uncom­fortable, which is clogged with any adversity, or cross gust of touchy displeasure; Virtue hath a Come to me, which strongly attracts, and with undenyable Courtship, [...]. Arist, Ethic. l. 3. c. 7. obliges good minds to entertain her. Good men do suffer for goodness sake, what to carnal minds and worldly ends, seems folly and loss; not because they are not tempted to comply with a la modes; and to cry the popular language of Great is Diana; but for that they know it is their duty to be what they ought, and to submit to God for the event; which, what ever it is, they welcome, as what is best, and most conducing to their ultimate fe­licity. And therefore in the greatest storm and saddest night, wherein neither Moon nor Star of comfort appears, they cry out with him in Seneca, Ep. 101.

For courage carryes men to view victory afar off, and to believe what they love, gainable; yea, it often sollicites to muster against effemi­nacy [Page 33]and impatience, and on that score whets endeavours to so keen an edge, that shall by the truth of its mettal, rescind all disaminations, though twined together more cunningly, then was the Gordian knot; yea, it shall (by a kind of confident augury) pre-occupate Victory, and make what we honestly desire ours, before it a­ctually be so. For as in Pictures the draught is well nigh dispatched, where the ground lines are well ordered, and the proportion regularly de­signed and expressed, so in all actions of the mind, there is fair progress made, when resolution is taken, not excluding reasons consult; and when what wee ought, and how to do what we ought, precedes in our Designe, what we do.

I know there are no actions of men, but come under the tortures of censure, and must pass, the ordeal of detraction, and commonly, as raskal Cattle come not to the Shambles, Non min [...] p [...] riculum ex magna famā quam ex mala. Tacit. annal. 3 but goodly and fat, so not the basest men and actions, but the best and bravest hear worst, and are most broken and dismembred on the wheel of prejudice. 'Twas a brave speech of the Emperor Manuel, Quid virtute dignum unquam re­tribuit calumniosa interpretati [...] malignorum? Nihil tam Sanctum quod non audeat tentare calumnia. Nicet. Tom. 1. What (saith he) of true and Noble tendency, hath not by ill will been misnamed? Nothing so sa­cred but calumny profanes and deturpates; And the rise hereof is envy, and that from those who neither can. Improbi vel ta­citis justorum moribus argu­untur. In Psal. 118. nor will imitate or excel that vertue they condemne; they know, in S. Ambrose his words, there is no greater a blemish to their impure lives, then the holy conversation [Page 34]of a Man, that is exact with God, and walks by the rule. Some have the hap to be applauded, for what deserves censure and dis­favour, Praelatio alterius sine alterius con­tumeliá non potest procedere, quia necelectio fine reprobatione. Ter­cul. Apolog. 12. as was that ignorant Scholer of Hyppomachus the Mu­sician, who kept neither touch nor time, yet was cryed up for a rare Artist; Maximum erroris Argumentum quod ab ignara turba laudaretur. but his Masterpro­tested, that the praiseful clamors of the ignorant multitude, pal­pably blemished him: for Vertue is seldom the darling of popularities, nor Art the favourite of Crowds. Some men are fortunate all their lives; but envy to be revenged on them, gnawes on their bones, and disquiets their ashes; the fa­mous Duke of Bedford, Regent of France, un­der King Henry the VI. was envied his Tomb by certain French Monsieurs, who requested Lewis the XI to deface it; saying, It was a reproach to their Nation to have such an enemy so honou­rably Entom'b. Holinshed. p. 612. But the wise and brave King re­plyed, What Honour shall it be to us, or to you, to break this Monument, and to pul out of the ground the dead bones of him, whom in his life, neither my Father nor your Progenitors, with all their Power, Puissance and Friends, were once able to make flee one foot backward; but by his Strength, Wit, and Policy, kept them all out of the principal Dominions of the Realm of France? Wherefore, I say, God have his soul, and let his body now lye in rest, which when he was alive, would have disquieted the prou­dest of us all. A noble speech, and an eternal honour to the mouth that spake it: Lilia mixta rosis. Some men are traduced when they are [Page 35]past answer, Semper quidem vertutes sequi­tur invidia, fe­riuntque sum­mos fulgura montes. S. Hie­ron. Ep. 27. ad Eustochium. and are indited of Crimes in this lower bench, when they are acquitted in the High Court of Heaven, from which there is no appeal, and to reverse which, no Writ of Error lyes: but most see themselves miserable by the malice and inconstancy of those they have never enraged, but rather deserved of.

Gabinius the famous Roman General, prayes to be discharged his Office not for fear of the stab or poison of a discontented and irreligious Monk, (which befel King John of England, and King Henry the IV. of France; a cursed engine of Dispatch, which God hath appointed Hell to re­venge;) nor yet fearing the Votes of the Senate to exoffice him, (he was a brave man, and they could not find a meeter person for that charge;) but meerly blaming the peoples inconstancyes: [...], &c. Dion l. 36. p. 12. [...]. Dion. l. 75. p. 863. [...]. Dion l. 75. p. 863. An major in co fuit doctrina à diis daiae co­pia, an malitiae quâ perseque­bantur illum ae­mulicrudclitac. Tusc. l. 5. For who (saith he) of sound mind will wish a life of Envy, or desire Power, where Events, which no mortal eye can fore-see, or hand prevent, are the pledges of his fame or infamy; where good fortune causeth envy, and ill censure. Severus put two brave Commanders (Crispus and Laetus) to death, upon no other cause but Envy, because they had better skill in Conduct then himself. Quintillus Plautianus, a chief and aged Roman Senator, who lived peaceably and retired from Rome to avoid suspicion, & medled with nothing; a man of great years and veneration, yet was put to death by Severus, meerly out of fear, because he was an exemplary man. Anacharsis the brave Scythian, of whom Tully sayes, That he knew not whether the Gods gave him the greater mea­sure of Learning, or his enemies of malice, came [Page 36]to his end, by the prosecution of envy. Fa­mous Narses, General to the Emperour Justine, a victorious Conqueror over all his Masters foes, and a dread to the world, had many domestick e­nemies that detracted from him, and so highly accused him, though without all colour of de­serving such misusage, that he left his Charge, the Court, yea, and his Master too, and in re­venge brought the Lombards into Italy, who wa­sted it. Cardinal Pool, after all his Legations in the Councel of Trent, his observances of the Pope and Cardinal Fernese; yea, notwithstanding his noble nature, Genteel demeanor, cordial adhe­sion to the Court of Rome when the Pope died and there was a choice to be made, was not chosen Pope, for suspicion of Lutheranism (as was preten­ded) but rather for that they envied that one of so winning a nature should have the Chair. Hist. Councel Trent. p. 298. Great Athanasius the hammer of Primitive Heresie, whom the Arians, Sozom. l. 4. c. 9. Theod. l. 1. c. 30 when they could not silence by Argument, sought to ruine by defamation; of him they invented that he was a Magician, that he consulted with the Divel, that he gulled the world with a Sanctimonious outside while his heart and life was wicked, leacherous and what not which was odious; whereas indeed he was a a man of men, and God cleared up his fame to the brightness of noon day. Browns Addi­tion to the An­nals p. 326. The great Favorite of Queen Elizabeths time, the Earl of Essex, had these shaking and burning fits of envy and glory, a long time upon him, he was in his Mistris favor as was never any, of her Privy Councel before 23 years of age, Knight of the Gartar, Earl Marshal of England, General of her Forces by Sea and [Page 37]Land, fortunate in the love of them; yet had he Envyers who so ill construed and misrepresented his actions, that thereby he came to the block, and drew many to death with him. Famous Sir Francis Walsingham, Secretary to the Queen, Knight of the Gartar, and Chancellor of the Dutchy, was a man of great wisdom and industry to promote his Mistris and the Nations Service, yet was he so nib­bled at by those Momusses his enemies whom he detected; and by others, whose parts he obscured and therefore incurred their revenge and disaffe­ction, that having spent his estate, contracted ma­ny debts for service of the Publike, lost his credit by non-payment of them, and resting wholly un­recompensed (at least to the proportion of his de­sert and labour) his heart broke, his enemies had their desire, glorying in the obscurity of his Fu­nerals, which were at S. Pauls Church in the night time, without any Funeral Solemnity or magnifi­cent proceeding. There are multitudes of instances of this nature, as numerous almost as the fishes were in the Disciples net, enough to overcharge this paper, as they did that net; but I pass them by, concluding this with the dying lamentation of famous Queen Elizabeth, who finding her selfe when she grew old and sickly, slighted by her Courtiers as unfit for Goverment and applicati­ons covertly made to the rising Sun, Browns Ann. Q. Eliz. p. 382 complain­ed of her inconstant Favorites and false Cour­tiers, in these words, They have yoaken my neck, Sapienti maju [...] periculum ab invidia, quam navigarti à tempestate, vel pralianti ab ho­stibus.I have none now to trust, mine Estate is turned topside turvey. So true is that of Apollonius Tyanaeus, Greater danger betides a wiseman from envy, then a Sea man from a Tempest, or a Souldier from his enraged foe.

Sometimes self-love made the Thessalian wo­men murder Lais the beautiful Mistris of their youthful men, that so they might be less despi­sed; sometime the tickle of po­pular giddiness, Ad reprehendenda alia dicta & facta ardet omnibus animus. Salian. de Ord. Religios. eggs on to cen­sure, and pursues desperately, what it hates, but understands not: things by ill will, are ever represented worse then they are, and so as may give some lovely blush to envyes meager defor­mity. Secta Stoicorum licet apud impe­ritos male audiret, tanquam nimis dura, nullam benigniorem, leniorem­que esse, nullum amantiorem homi­num. Senec. Clem. l. 2. c. 5. Seneca tells us, that the Stoicks, who were ill thought on by the ignorant, as too rigid, were the most gentle and loving Sect of men.

Good Lord, that Satan should have such pow­er in our passions, as to make our eyes evil on good men and graceful actions! yea, so far to degenerate, as to cross as much as in us lyes, what God has crowned, and will support to full growth? Who would think that Fulvius the Roman should coin a scoff for every action of Antoninus, and charge on him neglect of the Senatorian gravity, in going amongst the Cap­tives, the day dedicated to Janus, and let­ting them touch his garment, whereby they were enfranchised, and that he walked without his traine and Equipage of State? Or that Cardinal Langi should acknowledge the Re­formation of the Mass honest, the liberty of meats convenient, and the demand just, to be disburthened of so many commandments of men, History Counsel Trent. p. 55. and yet cry out against Luther as a poor Monk, and a not to be indured instrument in [Page 39]such a cause; or that Saint Jerom should be forced to complaine, that his detracting enemies were such, Scribere disposui si vitam tamen dominus dederit, & si vituperato­res mei saltem fugientem me, & in­clusum persequi desierint. In vita Malchi. Monachi. that they carped at his words, and followed him with reproa­ches, even when he both shun­ned all provocation of them, and was a Recluse: But that is true of Xenophon and Velleius, [...]. Xenophon. Paedag. Nunquam Eminentia invi­diâ carent, Vellcius lib 2. Great parts occasion great envies; this Envy is the Gallowes that Ha­mons have for Mordecaies: in this day of mourning, the worlds Esaus plot revenge on Jacobs. For as Caesar said (in his Oration against Ario­vistus) Every thing that transcends the Vulgar, [...], &c. Dion. l. 38. p. 84. is subject to dislike and emulation, which breaks out into an array of Subjects against Governors, and arives at the ruine of both.

Nor must it be strange to us, thus to suffer for well doing, since that good actions and brave men have been mistaken and misused, a­riseth from the good pleasure of God, who by this, designes their clarification, and cals to wise men to look about them, while these evils of Sa­tans malice, and mans envy surround them: [...] Epictetus. the Divel is no Loyterer, he is ever in his walk: the perpetual motion to mischief is his, and he trains up his Instruments to assiduity, and rui­ning vigilancy; in every Garden-plot of Vertue he brings up weeds; over every clear Heaven in the soul, he casts some dismal and unbeauteous cloud; his ill will to man, is in combate with the best actions, though he fights against small and [Page 40]great vertues in us; yet his main designe is to surprize mans King, the Heart; and if he miss that, he fumes and projects revenge, with great accurateness; and when hee sees the Michael of Mercy, with his Angellick Forces, come to the rescue of man, by him assaulted, then hee retreats to his small games, and turnes Ad­der, hissing out his poison upon all occasi­ons: He hath not only Vinegar and Gall to imbitter the sufferings of good men, but the poyson of Asps to blemish their best a­ctions and most spotless intents. Read we not in holy Writ of the Devotion of Hannah, (begging a man child of God, and that not for Politick, but Pious ends, that she might con­secrate him to God) censured Drunkenness, and that by a good man through, 1 Sam. 1.14.17.28. his mistake? And of Davids brethren miscalling his com­ing to the Army to be pride of heart; when as, indeed, God led him thither, the better to bring his pleasure about in the surprise of Goliah by his courage? Is not Jobs Sancti­ty asserted Craft, Job 1.9, 10, 11 and his Godlinesse Gaine, by Satan, who avers his love to God mer­cenary, and his Zeal coolable, upon with­drawing of Blessings on him and his? Was not our Lord Jesus traduced for a Wine bi­bler,Matth. 1.19.12.24.a friend of Publicans and sinners, a de­ceiver, Luke 11.15. one that cast out Divels by Beelzebub? when as he in Superlative love and stupen­dious Charity, came from the Region of Glory, and out of the bosome of his Fa­ther to accomplish the Work of our Re­demption, and to endow us with his Grace [Page 41]and Glory, who were, and without him ever had been strangers to both; and after he was ascended, and left his Apostles to semi­nate the Gospel, and to impregnate the be­lieving world, were they not accounted the very dregs of mankind, Bablers, Seducers, enemies to Government, when indeed, they were to serve, not rule; to obey, not resist; and had no other project but to accomplish the glorious work of the Ministry, conversi­on of soul [...], to which they were consecrated? And in after times have not the Zeals, Sufferings, and Labours of his Servants been nicknamed, and reproached as simplicity, Singularity, Pertinacy, Ambition, Pride, and what not? yea, have not Arts and Forces been mustered out to suppress and discourage; and often to destroy them? Was not Julian against root and branch of Christianity? Did he not lay load on the Chri­stians backs, under pretence that they would re­bel, whereas they knew nothing more execrable, Christianus si nullius criminis no men est, inep­tum est; si nomi­nis solius crimen est. Tertul. A­polog. c. 2. Abolendo ru­mori intentu [...] falsos testes subornavit, qui id factian à Christianis cau­sarentur, &c. Tacitus. Platina. Pag. 9. and by Religion disallowed, then to rise against Authority? Were not Christians afore, then, and since, faine to beg favour for the very name of Christianity? Was not Nero a wretched man, who notwithstanding his ingenious breeding, and calm documents from his Master Seneca, sets fire on Rome, and ruined the houses and fortunes of many of the noble Senators; and to color his villany, suborned Witnesses, who accused the Christians as Authours of the conflagration, which caused such a Massacre of them, that for divers nights together the City was as light as day by the fires of their dispatch? And when softer [Page 42]methods to ill designes have been in fashion, have not men piously addicted, been disheartned by counsels and intimations, that had both Ju­das his kiss and treachery in them? If Caelestine, as a holy man, coming to the Popedome by an unusual providence, think to reform things amiss and grosly scandalous to the Church, Caelestine, Caelestine, ce­de negotium supra vires. he has a whisper, Caelestine, Caelestine, desist, the work is too great for thy weakness to effect: and if the good man turnes away from this by-path, and keeps on in the track of his resolves, then there is a second whisper in plain language, Caelestine, ce­de, si salvus esse cupis. Wolph. in Memor. ad Annum. 1294. Cent. 13. Sub nomine a­terni spiritua­lis (que) Evangelii, verum Christi Evangelium ob­literare & an­tiquare. Idem. eodem loco. Platina in vita Alex. Psal. 119. Caelestine, give over, if thou wilt be safe. Nay, hath not the truth of God been censured for Error and Here­sie by Conclaves and Councels, when figments under the name of the Spiritual and holy Gospel, asserting not the Law of God, but the Spirit in man to be the touch of mans interest in God, have been published, on purpose (saith Wolphius) to suppress and abolish the Gospel of Christ, which rests on Scripture for its Authority, and gives to Christians all solid comfort, according to the testimony of King David, Had not thy word been my delight, I had perished in mine affli­ction?

Yea, has not the Divel heretofore appeared, pretending Moses his meekness and familiarity with God: and seduced many Christians to dam­nable Heresies and impure practices, as that Im­postor did by personating Moses, Platina in Cae­lestin. 1. p. 63. delude the Jewes in Valentinians time? And was not the Emperour Julian (an Apostate not only from Christ, but from his Order, for some think him a Priest or Clergy man) more vexatious to the [Page 43]Christians by his moderate car­riage at first, Julianus clericus secundam quos­dam, calidior caeteris persecutor, non vi neque tormentis primo; sed praemiis, honoribus, blanditiis, per­suasionibus, majorem fere populi partem quam si atrocior fuisset, e­licuit. Plat. in vita Damasi 1 p. 54. and his winning on the world thorow those his adu­latorious and self denying crafts, then all the persecuting Empe­rors besides? 'tis too too true, that the Wolves heart in the Lambs skin did irreparable hurt.

Christ had Judas in his Family, and the Church hath unnatural children in her bowels; such as with Pilate wash their hands, but give sentence with the out-cryes against her; Snakes in bo­somes, who like treacherous confessors, learn secrets, not to conceal, but reveal them; not to pity, but to propalate mens follies. Delilahs, that by the Chimistry of look and lap, evirtuate Sampsons love and strength, and return affection (which when not answered, is treacherous to it selfe) the Granado and concave dispatch of falsehood.

How ought men to summon their wits to a­void these snares, which have fire in their Fox­tails? of what consequence it is to live lives harm­less and open, when there are such arts of blemish and defeat acted! He is wise that follows Epi­phanius, of whom Saint Jerome writes, That his life was so holy and blameless, that even Hereticks, Tantae venerationis fuit, ut reg­nantes Haeretici, ignominiam suam putarent, si talem virum perseque­rentur. Epist. 61. ad Pamma­chium. who hated him for his Doctrine, were a­shamed to appear against him, and shunned the scandal of per­secuting him. This will make us live peaceably, and not groan under, nor [Page 44]grieve at the censures and un­kindnesses of the world to us; Ut quid enim de alterius hominis [...] de m [...] ipsius judicio solicitus sum, cujus nec vituperio reprob [...], nec laude probatus inveniar. S. Bernardus de tripl. gloria. but teach us to take revenge on them, by pardon of, and prayer for them; and in Gods time, their loves and admiration will be the returns of our prayers, the rewards of our patience, and the crown of our constancy. He has not learned the lesson of heathens, that cannot bear evil words and evil wil from evil men.

For Marcus Antoninus, when he made his Defence against the malicious Charge of envious Fulvius, concluded, All that hee had learn­ed from the wisest men in the Uni­versities of Rhodes, Hoc tantum fine hominibus colen­da esse studia, ut norint quo pa­cto inter maliciosos & inutiles e­luctari debeant: non enim alius est Doctrinae fructus, nifi ut vitam quis si [...]eram & linguam occlu­sam habeat. Gnev. l. 1. c. 39.Naples, Capua, Tarentum, amounted to this only, to be able to keep innocency, to de­serve no blemish, but to bear it when it comes, with a mind unmoved, and to live so as to shame it, and those that first endeavoured to bring it on him.

Nay, what's more, he is not arrived to that which is the Jewel of this world, the true use of reason (mans impropriation as it were;) no creature here below, besides him, having it:) For that he can revenge wrongs, is somewhat he has in common with beasts; but that he forgives them, is from a principle of grandeur and princely boun­ty, [Page 45]from Reason canonized and heightned by the influences of divine communication. When I hear men bravely accomplish'd, repine that they cannot quit scores with their injurious foes, I think of that reply of S. Anthony, w^ch S. Jerom mentions he gave to blind Didimus, who complained he wanted eys: I wonder, quoth he, that a prudent man should grieve for the loss of that, Miror prudentem virum ejus rei dolere damno, qua [...] formi­ca, muscae, & culices, habent; et non latari illius possessione, quam soli Sancti, & Apostol [...] meruerunt. In vita Anthonii, & apud Nicephor. l. 9. c. 17. Acts 20.35.which flies, fleas and ants have; and not rejoice in that treasure in his possession, which holy men and Apostles, yea Worthies on­ly deserve and have: It being a far more blessed thing to give pardon, then receive provocation.

I know this is not onely a paradox to men of high mettle, who admire punctilioes of Honour, and had rather die, then not dispute a tittle, or word misplaced; but even to all who find it hard to suppresse these Jebusites, the inhabitants of our internal Canaan, whoso long as we live, Josh. 15.62. will be in us. Passions of all sorts are clamorous, and wil have audience; and if they come with Petitions, and make moderate requests, 'tis fit they should be heard. God hath placed them in us as the An­gels that ascend and descend the ladder of our lives, and while they are modest and bounded, they serve God, and beautifie man: Love and Joy makes me sociable; Fear and Anger makes me wary; Sorrow prompts me to poysiness and solidity. Love makes me admire God in his Na­ture, Works and administrations. Joy calls me to a testimony of my gratitude for Mercie's favours, not onely to necessity, but plenty. Fear aws me from abuse of what enjoying I am happy, and [Page 46]wanting I may be miserable. Anger evidenceth my dislike of that which is evil, and Sorrow my loss of what is good; or at least apprehended so to be.

Passions in the Minde are like members in the body, good or evill in their use: The hand act­ing Murther, the eye darting lust, the mouth speaking blasphemy, the foot nimble to doe mischief, is as far from the designe of God in creating them, as the passions concupiscible and irascible are, when they are most exorbitant, and presse hardest on man to tempt God, and dis­honour himself.

Passions (the elements of excellent Graces) have been vessels of honour in Gods Family: Moses his Zeal, and Phinehas his Justice, Davids Tendernesse, Jeremies Tears, and Peters Peniten­cy, are things offered to God with acceptance. Our blessed Saviour (who knew no sin, nor had sinful passion, yet) was holily and harmlesly pas­sionate at Lazarus his decease; he groaned, he wept, John 11. (Lazarus our friend sleepeth:) Death was but a sleep to him whom Christs tears bemoaned, and his power resolved to awaken again to a worldly life: Vers. 11. yea, not only Saints and Martyrs, but also Heathen men, whose chief riches were in this, Conquests of Nature and inordinate ap­petite, have been notable for this. Love is an open-handed passion, and cannot deny to the party it loves, Tama tranquil­litatis fuit, ut vultū nunquam mutaverit moe­rere vel gaudio. the key to the cabinet of life: Se­crates his Aspasia, Aristotle's Hermia, Plato's Ar­chenassa, brought great infamies on those mirrors of Science: Marcus Aurelius, whom Capitolinus reports to be of such a composed nature, that he [Page 47]never changed countenance either for joy or grief, yet when his beloved Faustina died, [...]. wept bitterly, and more then some thought was de­cent: but his Friend Pius corrected the censo­rious unnaturalnesse of those Bachilour standers by, with this, Permit him to be a man; neither Power nor Learning ought to cashier affection. Permitte ill [...] ut homo sit; no­que enim vel Philosophia vel imperium tollis affect [...]s. He deserves to be eternally in the horn-book, and never to come to the primer of Esteem, who can­not water his plants, and his couch too, when he bids adieu to such a Companion, as with the fa­mous Dutchess of Suffolk, will go a pilgrimage with her Mr. Berty, Anno 1558. Holingsh. p. 1143. 1144. and not think either her ho­nour debased, or her life imbittered by such a wander, with her Love, and for her Religion. Nay, I will be no bail for his true answer of the Acton of Ingratitude brought against him, who hath now, heretofore had, or hereafter may have a Wife like that of Dionysius of Syracuse, who takes him for better, for worse, An elegisti [...] secundarum fortunarum so­ciam, non ad­versarum? and would be the companion of his Banishments, as she had been of his Greatness; and yet can bid her farewell with dry eyes, or an unbroken heart. Solomon, for all his Wisdom, and Caesar in spight of his manliest stomack, here bites the lip, and comes to this bar of tears, cry­ing Guilty.

I have read of some that have dyed for Joy and Grief, for Love and Hatred; yea, so active are the Passions in us, that it is not only hard, but almost impossible to give man a better de­finition then Passion. Not Passions then (sim­ply,) but the exorbitancies of them are to be decryed, and suppressed.

I like not the frigidity of those whose resolves [Page 48]are so far North, that the warmest love which Vertue presents them, hardly kindles, at most doth not inflame them, to pay their sacred debts in kind. Nor do I approve of that impure madness and Amazon ardor which the young Dutchess of Meron expressed to Bruchgrave of Norem­berg, Nisi prohibe­rent quatuor o­culi. [...] Van. Manden. disc. Moral. 7. in 6. Preceptum p. 838. [...]. Cicer. ad Philiscum. Dion. l. 38. p. 71, Maximum sa­pientia & indi­cium, & offici­um, ut ipse ubi­que parsit, idem que sit. Seneca. son to Count Frederick Zollern; who hear­ing that he had said, that he could love, and would marry the Dutchess, if four eyes did not hinder (which she interpreted to be her two chil­dren) with her owne hands murthered them, to make way for his enjoyment. Passion, as it is vi­tiated and deflected from its right use, as fire out of the chimney, and water out of the channel, puts all into confusion and misrule; this to pre­vent is the part and prime quality of a wise man; and though it be easier to say then to do it; yet ought it to be the endeavor of every sober mind, to attain this Mastery, without which, man is ne­ver more in danger, then from these enemies of his owne house; for then do we provoke God to de­prive us of good, and send evil things upon us, when we are imtemperately acted by them to use them forbiddenly; and when we glorifie not God, but engage our selves to admire and prize them beyond that bound which God hath set us, and that value he hath put on them. Lots wise may love Sodom as a pleasant and useful place, but when once God discovers the sin of it, so earnest a plea for Judgment, as that Hell out of Heaven is plague little enough for the matchless pollution of it; then it is not safe to look back wishfully; God can distinguish an eye of desire from that of pity; and he punisheth according to the ten­dency [Page 49]of the aim; he must needs give righte­ous judgment, who weighs in the ballance, touch­es by the Standard, and measures by the line of Justice, every thought, word and work: ther­fore ought man to be exact and wary, that there be not in his soul any guest without the wedding garment, any desire or fear which is not qua­lified and brought into subjection: For as tem­poral Thrones are never secure while any emu­lous Competitors continue in power, unsubjected to the one, that pleads he has the right, or that resolves he wil have it; so in mans Mind there is no serenity while Passions importunity be subje­cted to Reason's Empire, and the will of man strikes sail to the pleasure of God: Which is the next Argument to be urged.

Hitherto I have borrowed Ear-rings (as it were) from Egyptians, drawn water out of the wels of humane Learning, and produced Instances out of Moralists; now I will be bold with the fruit of Paradise; such Arguments as being drawn from Gods purpose and his Saints sufferings, ought to be very perswasive to us.

The first whereof is the Will of God, Argum. 1 that his in this world should not have a serenato, but be chastened, 1 Cor. 11.32.that they might not be condemned with the world. God suffers his to be often stung by the Taratantula of this World, that they may cry out for the musick of his Mercy for cure. Alas (O holy soul) this world is thy Pathmos, tis thine E­gypt, wherein thou hast load of labours laid on thee by thy merciless Task-masters; tis thy non­age, and thy Gardians in it are such as sell thee to what Vice, and what Mischiefe bidds [Page 50]most: 'tis the Den into which Gods Daniels are shut, that they may by faith conquer difficulties, and civilize Lions; Heaven that remains, is thy Rest, thy livery and seisin, thine emancipation. God commands his to wait for that blessed re­version, to pray that it may come, and till it comes to submit, to feed on short commons. O these children of the Kingdom have often bread of sorrow, and water of affliction given them; yea, so great exigents are they driven to, that sometimes they deceive the dogs, in licking up the crums that fall from mens tables, whose por­tion is in this world,Psal. 17.14.and whose bellies God fils with his hid treasures. And fit it is, they that would succeed to Christs purchase, Heaven, should clear the encumbrances, and carry the crosses of this world exsultingly; not with repinings, not crying out mournfully, Euseb. l. 4. but resolutely, as Poly­curpus did, Malus miles est qui Imperato­rem gemens se­quitur. whom his persecutors burned, No matter (quoth he) what becomes of my body, so my soul get to heaven. He is an ill souldier that fol­lows his Commander weeping: and as bad a Chri­stian that comes to the stake lamenting, resolving to keep his place in Paris, Foelix vita & beatitatis plena, semper ac verè vitalis & in numinis comi­tatu, perpetuo boni participes. Sabellicus Ex­emplo. l. 1. c. 6 Tom. 4. Jude ver. 14 Memento Phi­lippe, te esse mortalem. though he lose a Mansi­on in Paradise.

I read of the Saints of God glorious by suf­ferings, but never glorious without them. Indeed Enoch (who lived heaven upon earth) is said to be translated without any mention of sorrows (though I beleeve he had them from the wicked world, of whom he prophesied:) But besides him do I finde none but had these mementoe's of mortality, and fescues to fear. Abraham the friend of God, was he not in a strait, when Grace [Page 51]and Nature, like two violent torrents, met in him? or like notable Advocates tempted him by turns, to gratifie requests antipodick each to other? God commands him as it were, to imbark his son, Gen. 22.2. and hoist sail to the port he appoints, Moriah; Faith bids him get ready, the wind was fair, the fraught beneficiall, the return safe; no miscar­rying, if wee keep Gods way on Gods errand. Wel, when Abraham comes whither he is bound, what must he do? He must unlade and ease the vessels of her burthen, Isaac must be sacrificed: Faith calls to him to run, not halt; to obey, not dispute, and that because the supream Pow­er willed it, which was able to raise children to him out of stones, and to remand life into its forsaken cell, Isaac's body. But Nature much amused, boggled somewhat at the action; and Abraham (me thinks) thus reasoneth; What, O Lord, my Son? What, mine onely Son? the Son of the Promise, and of mine old Age? What, Isaac? What? is effusion of innocent bloud, a childs by his Father, unlawful? And shall I be president to this cruelty? Shall I, who am no­ted for sanctity, teach others upon occasion of passion and displeasure to be Assassines of their Issue? That be far from thee, the Judg of all the world to command from me the Father of the faithfull, and of Isaac, to doe. O the good mans agony! Did he not (think ye) repent he was a Father, who was commanded to unchilde his child, and destroy the temple of his sons body, which not long before he was instrumentall to build, by Gods blessing on his generative ener­gie? In this difficulty, what course steers hee? [Page 52] Abrahams Isaac, and Abrahams God must not be Competitors; the Father of the faithful is faithfull to his Father, God, who commands and resolves Isaac for a Sacrifice. Gen. 22.13. But see the grace in the reward, Abraham above Nature pre­pares his son for God; and God beyond nature provides a Lamb, hung by the horns for reprieve: Abrahams Faith was not more mirculous, then Gods Mercy in accepting so poor an exchange for so rich a captive. How ready is God to accept our wils for deeds! God looks at the willing minde, and rewards Abrahams faith with Isa­acks freedome. Thus God tried Abraham; and were not his sorrows like those of a woman in travel, fit only for his faith, the windes suta­ble to the sail that this vessel of glory navigated by to Eternity?

Next was Moses the servant of God, who spake with God as never meer man did, Exod. 33.11.face to face 40 dayes together in the Mount, ver. 28. and was kept without food all that Lent, the power of God for that time heaventizing his body, and giving it priviledg from natural indigencies, and satis­fying it without their ordinary supplyes; yet was this man not without troubles and cross gales; One while his Wife with a feminine clamour, and in a motherly rage cries out to him, Exod. 4.25. Thou art a bloudy Husband; words like the messenger of death, portentous and ghastly; words that (de­served) which by no worthy husband ever can) are potent enough to make a man turn Runagado, and exulate himself never to see Christian or man more. Had Moses his demeanor been uncomely, he little deserved his Wife, though a Zipporah; [Page 53]but since it was wise and husbandly, he lesse de­served the taunt, especially since he was as beau­tious a man in his married relation, as a childe in his Ark of reeds; and yet then Pharaohs Daugh­ter was in love with him; when as now Zipporah an Aethiopian (for marrying of whom Aaron and Miriam were offended with him) turns upon him in a pettish reproach, Numb. 12.1. Thou art a bloudy Hus­band. This was evill enough for a good man to live under, and too much for a good woman to traduce her husband by: but Moses replies not: He was wise to leave the issue to God and her. Twas more fit he should prepare for the peo­ples roughnesse, then reproach his own choice.

In Numb. 11.12. the people. (Rebels as he calls them) murmur against him; not as he was Moses, but as he was their Magistrate; that makes the contumacy against God, whose de­legates Magistrates are. Well, what would the people have? If they intreat Moses to pray for them, or to instruct them in their duty to God, and one to another; hee's ready to do by them, as they desire: but the people like hel and the grave, cry Give, give: (infiniteness only can satisfie the cra­vings of multitudes.) What then is it they would have? Food: Alas poor souls, they are pardo­nable that are tempted to impatience by hunger, and nakednesse. Can a Magistrate condemn ne­cessitous importunities? Or think he does his duty, if he provide not supply for his people? Moses was mindful of Israel, but Moses was but a man, Is­rael must come to their Prince with reverence, and to their Priest with duty, especialy when they want: [Page 54]what they have not, bread and water; and are in a wildernesse, where barren soil yeelds no corn, nor hard rocks water. Lord, what a pass was Moses brought to, when the people, whom hee (as Gods Captain Lieutenant) had led out of Egypt from hard Masters and a harsh Prince, should now in the wilderness tempt God, and reproach him, by expressing desires of returning to Egypt! yet so it was. Moses heard all this, and much more: yea, to compleat his sorrows, might not enter the Land of Canaan, which was the reward of his long March in the wildernesse, but must up to the Mount, and die a remote and unknown death, without any ones knowledg of of the place of his burial, or any pompous Ce­remony: a sad exit to Israels glorious General. But Moses was content to be punished for his distrust at Meribah: Sin at the waters of strife, is punished by death on Abarim, Numb. 27.12, 14 the Mount of Passage.

A Patriarch, a General full of sorrows, match­ed by a King full of sorrows: and let no man wonder; Crows often build in Steeples; and Polecats infest Dove-coats. David the King, the man after Gods own heart, had a bedroule of sor­rows, as long as his life: His brethren hate him, Saul disgusts and pursues him, so that he cryes out, I shall one day fall by the hand of Saul; his Wife Michol scoffs at him, the Amalekites sur­prize his Wives, 1 Sam. 30. and the people of Ziklag mur­mure against him. O Lord, what a pack of troubles was he in, who had Shimei's Curse, Ab­solom's Treason, and Amnon's lust to labour with, and the discontent of them to overcome? [Page 55]Is it not a sad story that he tels, of his going mourning all the day long, of his being chased as a Partridg in the wildernesse, of the sorrows of his heart, the slippings of his feet, his fainting fits for love of God, and fear of his departing from him, when trouble is neer, and there is none to help? Can we consider the bloud that he shed, the sins (that blasphemed God, and imbased his Honour) even those against Ʋrijah, and not conclude, they brought sorrows of heart upon him? 'Tis too palpable that hee was loaden with troubles, who had such innate corruptions to contest with, such unnaturall obstructions to remove.

I shall not mention Joseph's, Job's, Noah's, Daniel's, Jeremie's, Jonah's, with the other ser­vants of God famous for afflictions on them; but cast anchor in the sufferings of the blessed Virgin, our blessed Lord, and his blessed Apo­stles and Saints; these mentioned, will dulcifie afflictions to us. The married Virgin Mother of Christ, a miracle in her station; a Mother, yet a Virgin, and miraculous in her Production, God, Man born of her, and born to us, CHRIST JESUS; yet is there mention of a Sword that shall pierce to the heart of this holy Saint, Luke 2. Like Mother like Son for suffering; not in the quantity, but the truth: Saint Mary suffered (according to her proportion) sorrows, as did Christ: but hers were drops to the Ocean of his. And the Apostles and holy men of after­times have been afflicted and tormented, Heb. 11.38. though of them the world was unworthy. If wee peruse the Gospels and Martyrologies, wee shall finde [Page 56] Peter tempted by presumption to follow Christ, and by fear betrayed to deny him in the High Priests Hall: Thomas his incredulity, that reduced faith to sense: and all the Apostles pusillanimity, who fly from their Master, and dare not own him when apprehended. Do we not think that Pauls thorn in the flesh, did macerate him? and twitch the Herod in him, (when in the royall apparel, and on the throne of Self-admiration) with a Mement [...], that if Grace be not sufficient, Nature will be too strong to be kept under? Was it not (think we) a bitter pill of after pennance, to the Disciples, that they cryed not One and all? and went not with their Lord to Golgo­tha, as readily as to the miraculous Meal, where five loaves and a few fishes fed five thousand with advantage: Or to the Marriage at Cana, where he turned water into wine; Or to the Mount, where hee transfigured himself before them, and they saw (to their infinite ravishment and delight) a model of heaven, and of his divine clarification there?

Yea, Are not the sufferings of the Saints in all ages left on record as a basis for our Faith, and a target for our security, that we may not de­spond, or be like them who have lost Mast, Sails, Rudder, yea and Compasse in the storm of this world; but take heart, and quit our selves like men, though we have sorrows on e­very side, and adversaries as the Church bad, the chief, who prosper; for the Lord hath affli­cted her? Lament. 1. ver. 5. Since those that be­long to God, finde, 'Tis good for them that they are afflicted; and know, that in very faithful­ness [Page 57]hee afflicts them; yea, that there is fruit­fulnesse in this land of affliction, as Joseph said, Gen. 41. vers. 52. For as once Vibius Crispus, a Companion of that Glutton Vitellius, who killed all his Friends that kept company with him, said, Had I not been sick, [...], Dion lib. 65. p. 734.that kept mee from the Court, I had died of surfets for company with the rest: So may many of Gods precious ones say, I had been lost eternally, had not God brought mee in by crosses and troubles, and made me loath the World, which hath in every angle of it shelves of danger, and rocks of ship­wrack. 'Tis wel noted by S. Jerome, Josiah the holiest King of Juda was slain by the sword of the Egyptians; Quid inter reges Jofiâ sanctius? Ae­gyptio mucrone interfectus est. Quid Petro, quid Paulo sublimius? Nero­nionum gladium eruentarunt. Et ut de hominibus taceam, Dei Filius susti­nuit ignominiam cruck. Et tu put [...] beatos qui falicitate istius seculi & di­liciis fruuntur? Magna ira est quand [...] peccantibus non irascitur Deus. Ep. 33. ad Ca­strutium. Pe­ter and Paul the great Apostles, were put to death by wicked Ne­ro; yea, the Son of God suffered by the Jewes; and (Castrutius) dost thou think the prosperity of this world a portion for Gods beloved ones? God is never less in love with men, then when they go unpunished, and have the world at will. God then doth afflict his, and his hear his voice, when he calls to them to afflict themselves: not like creatures of envie, who when they want other objects to torment, rend & perplex themselves by vain and impertinent angariations. God loves not the sacrifices of fools, nor the devoti­on of mad men: He delights in the reasonable services we offer. Religion is no heathenish digla­diation, but an holy imitation of Christ, and a willing resignation to the rule of his word: It com­mands man to chasten Nature; not by destroy­ing it, as that Philosopher did his bags, which he [Page 58]threw away into the sea, Perdam te, ne perdas me. Aurum de­ponere incipientium est, non perfectorum: fecit hoc Crates, Thebanus, fecit An­tistenes. Scipsum offerre Deo proprie Christianorum est, & Apostolerum. S. Hyeron. Ep. 28. ad Lucinium. that they might not throw him away. No man hath a­ny warrant for self-abuse: We are not nostri, sed alieni juris; and God will see we shall not destroy his work besides his will. We are to afflict our selves; but not as Macarius, Asisias, Lewis the first of France, Lithophorus the Monk, Paconius, Caecilia, Radi­gundus, Sarrae, and others, of which Sabellicus makes mention, Exemplor. pag. 42. Nor as the Popish Pennances; who with the servants of Ba­al, whip and dilaniate themselves; nor in that mistaken sense of Origen, who made himself an Eunuch for the Kingdom of God: no, nor in that Hypocritick way which the Prophet con­demns, Isa. 58.5 Hanging down the head like a bulrush: or fasting and praying to smite with the fist of wicked­nesse: These are as smoak in Gods eyes, and have no better entertainment from him, then Who re­quired these things at your hands? Isa. 1.12. The self-con­troll that hee accepts and rewards, is that of Job, Job 42.6.I abhor my self, and repent in dust and ashes; that of Mary, weeping at Christs feet; the de­vout Publicans prostration to beg pardon; the humble confession in Jacobs words, and with Jacobs heart, Gen. 32.10. I am not worthy of the truth and faithfulnesse that thou hast shewed to thy servant. In fine, to do and suffer the will of God; and when thou hast done all, to think thy self an unprofitable servant.

This duty God enjoyned the Jews of old, Levit, [...]. 16.29. There is a statute for self-affli­ction: The LXX read it by, Yee shall humble [Page 59]your souls; Afflictions on good men work hu­miliation: The pride of man sullies Gods beau­ty in the soul, and the nipping frosts of affliction revive and refresh it: [...] The Hebrew word ren­dred Humble, signifies to answer and to testifie, and to attol the voice either in expression of joy or sorrow: A Metaphor possibly taken from Musicians, who sing in parts, one side of the Quire answers the other. God expects there should be an Antiphona betwixt his Judgments and our souls: We should answer his castigati­ons with emendations. True Humiliation is not onely the grace of a corner and closet; but it (when God calls) is on the house top, accusing it self, and admiring God in publick, that o­thers may see, and blesse God on its behalf.

Nor was this onely enjoyned the Jews, as the law of their bondage, from which Christi­ans are manumitted; but continues still in force to the end of the world: Sin and sorrow came into, and go out of the world together; one grave (the Dissolution of all) lodgeth them both: till then, there is no parting those whom God hath chained together: Sin is sorrows merit, and sorrow is sins malady; and we must be con­tented with these Sergeants to serve Execution on us at the suit of our Maker. Sorrow is the Jordan that all Naamans must wash in: [...]. S. Basilius. It be­comes Misery to be humble; Our Lord Jesus commands us to be such, not onely towards God, whom wee provoke all the day long; but also to one another, as was Christ, who though Lord of all, washed his Disciples feet, and fed them by miracle, yea paid their ransome in great cha­rity, [Page 60]that by these actions of condescention, and yet Grandeur, he might lesson them their duties and his divinity. 'Tis a great degree of Christi­an perfection to follow Christ in the regenerati­on; and to be what Saint Paul sayes he was, all things to all men for Christ and the Gospels sake: He that considers Christs exaltation throughly, must take the rise of it from the center and bot­tome of it, his humiliation; God forbid, saith the Doctor of us Gentiles, Gal. 6.14. that I should glory in any thing save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby the world is crucified to me, and I unto the world. It seems, crosses to Gods are great in­dications of divine love, not only for that God especially errands them to his; that his saints and servants in all times have born them; but al­so because Gods promise of comfort is to the affli­cted. 2 Sam. 22.28. The afflicted people thou wilt save; He heareth the cry of the afflicted, Job 34.28. In all their afflictions, he was afflicted, Isa. 63.9. If afflictions were not useful, God would not send them to his; if they were not expressionsof love, he would never support his under them by his pro­mises, he would not be a strong fortress and refuge, Jer. 16.19. not a deliverer out of affliction, Ps. 18 27.

Methinks I hear the holy soul breaking forth into this Ejaculation. Welcome crosses sanctified by Christ to his, welcome sorrows sweetned by him who bore our sorrows, that ours might be less grie­vous to us; welcome stake the ladder of eternity, which Martyrs kissed, and Virgins who were not defiled, wedded: welcome prison, banishment, and loss of all for my Saviours sake, who after all the sorrows of a troublous life is ascended up to take [Page 61]possession of glory, and to draw me into fellow­ship with him; O my God, give me grace to wel­come the crosses I have, or further may have, as my Saviour did his revilings, not reviling againe; not returning, but remitting injuries: Rejoyce, O holy soul, in those Monitors which rouse thee from thy sinfull slumber: Remem­ber the Co [...]k crew, and minded Peter of a glo­rious Master denyed, by a presumptuous ser­vant: And fear not but thy frailty may have an aspect of mercy as had his; the more thou art at loss, the greater ought thy care be to seek God with more ardency, and serve him with less indevotion: Trust not too much in any arm of flesh which sayes, life and lustre is in mee, Falix necessitas quae in meliora compellit, S. Aug. ep. 45. all things here passe and repasse by uneven vicis­situdes, and leave their confidents in trouble and complaints. In the Lord Jehovah put thy confidence; He only is the same yesterday, to day, and for ever. O holy soul, thy time here is but short, thy task great, thine opposites many; be diligent, improve opportunities wa­rily, practise that sacred chimistry; which from fetid simples, outward crosses, extracts the pre­cious Elixar of divine cordials: Be not weary of wel doing, study rather how to quit sin, then wave the cross; there is no lesson it learns, but is savory; and thou art not to refuse the point of Doctrine, it commends to thy medita­tion: Think upon good things had as trials how thou wouldest use them; and lost, how thou canst beare them; bemoane not so much what thou ho­pest for, but hast not, as what thou hast and usest not aright: perhaps God hurls thy pride from the [Page 62]pinnacle whence it took rise: Great thoughts are often confronted by him, who will have no Dagon of folly cheek by joll with his Ark of Ver­tue. O consider, hadst thou not Babels in thy brains? wast thou not of their minde, who thought of nothing but sitting at the right and left hand of glory? If so, art thou not befriend­ed, that payest fine and ransome for thy Rebel­lion in the stubble and straw of an external Con­tent? Is God contented with a turtle Dove? and art thou discontented because hee hath that which thou sayst was the Lamb that rested in thy bosome? Is any thing too good for God? too great for him who is thine all? O holy soul, study thy self better: God hath been mer­cifull to thee, thou art a gainer by every losse, which if it had not betided thee, had endangered heaven. Lift up thine eyes, the Canaan Mercy promiseth thee, is in view; that is thy Country, that thine Inheritance, that the Haven to which thou art bound, and in which onely thou shalt be safe. Chear up (O holy soul) thy drooping spirits; Remember thy treasure is in heaven; there ought also thy heart to be: Call upon thy Saviour in glory, and ask in his way, that thou mayest receive for his sake. Is any thing too hard for God? Do not all things serve Provi­dence, and laquey to Power? Why doth thy Faith misdoubt accesse to God, and success in those things thou with Conscience and Wisdome managests. The holy confidence of a Beleever scales Heaven, and by an humble pertness obtains it: so great a prize is worth waiting for, though it be attended with Serpents of craft, and Dra­gons [Page 63]of felness. He that said, Though thou slay me, Job 13.15.yet will I trust in thee, counsels thee to venture all thy welfare upon mercy: There is no fear of miscarriage where good things in a good manner are prayed for and pursued after: Then onely we miss our wages, when we work amiss; Then our Prayers are returned without answer, when we turn our Prayers into Subsidies to lusts; when we pray for accommodations to our vices, and forget that of our Saviour, Matth. 16.26. What will it profit a man to gain the whole world, and to lose his soul?

Much then hath been written of the benefit of Afflictions: But the great Argument, which puts all Question of the advantage of them out of question, is behind; that is, the Sufferings of Christ; potent enough to force, a thaw on Mar­bles, and to liquifie Adamants.

He it was that went before his Apostles and Mar­tyrs, in treading the Wine-press of wrath: Like that Commander.

God appointed the Man of his right hand, his [Page 64]fellow: (Alas, we cannot drink of the cup of wrath, nor be baptised with that baptism he was baptised with;) for our sakes to be our forerunner in sorrowes; Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world; declared a man of sor­rows and acquainted with grief. Isa. 53.

A man of sorrows: tis an Hebraism denoting fulness of sorrows, a sea of sorrowes in Christs soul; Tristis corde propter multitu­dinem afflicti­onum suarum. Rab. David in lib. Radicum. [...] sin imputed, and mercy inherent, were at a holy contest (as it were) for Mastery, and the pangs of such twins must needs be grievous. The word (sorrowes) comes from a root which sig­nifies, to be weakned, and denotes a sorrow in­ternal, even to expiration; and the learned di­stinguish it from those words which they express outward sorrowes by: Verus bo [...]o ve­re doluit. Gloss. Lyrae. Christs sorrowes were such as brought grief upon him, even to the decision of the silver thred of his life.

Yet further, he is said to be acquainted with grief; the word rendred acquainted, comes from a root that signifies to apprehend: [...] And the Learned say, Verbum mentis et intellectus. Pagn. in verbo. tis a word of the Mind and Under­standing, importing that Christ was so qualified, and obfirmated, that no sorrowes (with reve­rence be it written) could come amiss to him; he had a sinless Manhood to undergoe, and a divine power to overcome sorrowes. God had made him the Churches rock, against which, the waves of sorrow could not prevaile. He must himself have armour of proofe, upon which, no humane Machination can hurtfully prevaile, who is the captaine of a Christians salvation; and who has gloriously triumphed over all the enemies of it.

Acquainted with grief: I cannot but renew the thoughts of these Sorrows of my Saviour, O beatum mortem, unde vita nostra nata est! O falicem stultitiam, quae nostram p [...]perit sapientiam. because his sor­rows are my rejoycings; not as they were exprobratory from the Jews, but as they are expia­tory for me. There was not onely dolour, but externall disdain, as the Jews managed the death of Christ, they crucified him, and that between two theeves. [...], from a word neere of kin to [...], prophanari, or violari. John 19.34. Might not this dishonour of Christ be reasonably thought a prophanation of, and violence done to his Excellency? He who was consecrated in the womb, had sorrows in his soul, before on the cross wounds from spears in his side, that he might appear to be A man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief, whose soul had the propassion, before his body the Pas­sion.

Yet further, verse 10. It pleased the Lord to bruise him, he hath put him to grief: What means this? is there any degree of misery beyond that of a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief? Is not every twitch of anguish an Orator to God and mans pity? What can be a depressi­on more irrecoverable, then to be condemned to the Cross? for the Son of God to bear the sins of men? yet this puts a further emphasis on Christs Suffering, God permitted him to be bruised in the mortar of mens malice, that the fragran­cy of his charity may affect his, and make them admire him for this savour of his oyntment. Cant. 1.3.

And 'tis well coupled (To bruise him, with It pleased the Lord:) God commended his love to man by giving his San to die; an act of pure choice, [Page 66]and perfect charity. [...] Simul affectum & acceptatio­nem includit, Pagn. in verbo Nothing could have moved Christ to come from heaven, to suffer on earth, but free and unmerited benignity: Christ had a body given him to be broken for us, that our Ransome might be effected, by his lifes dissolu­tion, our debts solution. Thus it pleased the Lord; what to doe? To bruise him, not to humble him, as a Virgin robbed of her Orna­ment; (that could not be, Christ is what hee was, and ever will be, a Lamb without blemish; this Hellen of heaven hath no mole or black spot on the face of his glory.) though Hee was ap­prehended by Club-men, yet was Hee Lord of Millions of Angels. The humiliation of Christ consisted in this, that Hee should lie in the dust as man, Home rarus, home singularis, home ex­tra omnium hominum numcrum, & solus talis in hoc mundo. Corn. Mussus in concione de Pass. hab [...]u Romae in Palatio. who could not see corruption in the grave, because God: that he must die an unusuall way, who was an unusuall Sacrifice. He must be bruised: Our Lord Jesus, not like Jonah for disobedience, but like him in the tumultuous sea of sorrow, had a grave prepared to lodg him in, till his time of detension was over, and that of Ascensi­on was come; then hee opened Deaths prison doors, and took a speedy cours [...]o heaven, where he is now sitting at the right hand of God the Father.

O Lord, how great sorrows pressed upon Christ! What unparallell'd grief had he, who was the Son of God, and could not sin; the Son of God, and deserved not to suffer! ('tis we (O Lord) that provoked thee, what did that Lamb do? Nay rather, (Lord) what did hee not do, [Page 67]that deserves our admiration and eternal grati­tude?) yet behold his sorrowes.

Sorrow, that's an unworthy singular of detra­ction; such a prelation of passion, calls for a plu­rality of expressive Gratitude. Come then (O holy soul) to this sacred Audit, and behold sor­rowes numberless; Love without merit; O opus absqu [...] exemplo, O gra­tia sine merito, O amor sine mensura! Cor­nel. Mussus E­pis. Bitont. in Ser. de Passione Luke 2. Charity beyond Measure: Had he not sorrow, who was the Son of God, yet became the son of Man; and that of no King, no Grandee, but the reputed son of a Carpenter, born in an Inn, in the Stable of that Inn; laid in the Manger of that Stable? Had he not sorrow, who wanted a hole to hide his head in, bread to feed upon (unless by Mi­racle) whose Followers were poor, whose Tri­bute was paid by a fish, and Triumph solemniz'd by an Ass Colt, and by boughs and garments spread in the way? Had he not sorrow, who spake and did as never man (his enemies be­ing Judges) yet was traduced, envied, follow­ed with Reproach, betrayed by his own ser­vant and put to death by his Country men, after a shameful manner, and by a lingring and protracted Engine of dispatch, the Cross, on which he was exposed to shame, naked, unpitied, reviled; given Vinegar and Gall to; yea, as it were forsaken of God? What call yee this, if not for­rowes? Was, is, shall be any sorrowes like these sorrows of Christ? When his soul was made an offering for sin, his body subjected to, violence; yea, body and soul for a time parted, to joyn God and man together, whom sin had severed, & whom only his death could reconcile? Mat 2.7.45. Wel might the Sun refuse to give light to such a deed of darkness [Page 66] [...] [Page 67] [...] [Page 68]as was the Jews cruelty, in crying to death their King, John 19.15 which the wisdom of Pilate hinted to them by way of Reproach, in these words, Shall I crucifie your King? Well might the vail of the Temple be rent, when the Temple of his body, more glorious then Solomons Temple, not made with hands, as was that, but compaginated by the miraculous art of Omnipotency, was torn apieces by cruelty. Matth. 27.51, 52, 53. Well might the graves o­pen, and the dead yeeld themselves no longer prisoners, when Jesus (Lord of the grave) was on his march to the grave. Well might the dead appear to many in the holy City, since the City appeared but a grave of dead men who knew not what they did, nor whom they acted cruelty upon. O holy soul, since it is thine ambition to have Christ thy reward, resolve to follow him, bearing his reproach: Fear not the inful­tings of men, nor the oppositions of flesh and bloud. If to accompany Christ to Golgotha be to be vile, be yet more vile. The Cross of Christ hath treasure under it; [...]. Marcus An­ton. ad Silenum. much glory results from contempts for his sake. There is no­thing so becoming thy holy Pro­session as to imitate Christ. [...]. Greg. Nissen. de relig. Christian. Profes. Chri­stianity is nothing else but to live holily and die patiently, as did Christ; and so much neerer him shall we be in glory, as we are here like him in our Conver­sation. Christ made it his meat and drink to do his Fathers will. Thou (O holy Soul) must not think his good pleasure thy pennance; his pro­vidence thy disappointment; his service thy sla­very: [Page 69]He uttered no discontent, thou must not rave and rage: He suffered contradiction of sin­ners, thou must not expect approbation from them: Hee forgave his Enemies, thou must not remember injuries to re­venge them: Percussorem Episcopum ille con­demnat, qui dorsum suum posuis ad flagella, & maledicius non remale­dicit. S. Hieron. Epist. 83. ad O­ceanum. Hee came unto his own, and they received him not; thou must not wonder if thou suffer from those whom thou hast obliged: He wanted a hole to put his head in, use thy plenty well, that thy Lord may say to thee, Well done, good and faith­ful servant, and continue thee ruler in thine own house, which many thy betters are not; who yet are not greater sinners then thou, though greater sufferers. His usages, varyed from Ho­sannahs to Crucifige's, bids thee not marvel. If the same breath blows hot and cold, or that Favour hath a dark and bright side to thee. He died (lastly) a shameful death; do not thou defeat a noble death by a shameless life.

Thou (O holy Soul) hast met with disappoint­ments here; Who hath not? Let thy comfort be, that thou art (or oughtest to be) above all this world can afford: Perhaps thy crosses have been in those things thou most admiredst; Thou art well served, who lovest any thing passionate­ly but God, whom thou shouldst love with all thy heart, with all thy minde, and with all thy might: thy defeats are in the [...] of thy ho­ped for fruition. God sees thou art too indul­gent to flesh, and he loves to abase confidence in it. What to others proves Gold, to thee be­comes drosse; Comfort thy self, thy best advan­tage [Page 70]is to come; Heaven makes amends for all; those manageries thou thinkst wise and wary, suc­ceed not, when & as thou wouldst: wait upon God, there is more in the lot cast into the lap then thou art aware of; honest indeavors in the end have sure pay; Patence though late, profligates difficulty, and disarms petulant resolution: Mercy often forms noble Mercuries of rude logs, and the greatest de­signs of beauty from the dull lowrings of mortal opposition. That which is sowen in weaknesse, shall in Gods time rise in power, and bear down all that stand against it. Thou lastly, art out of love with thy self; because thou canst not have thy will of this world; study to prepare for that better before thou desire a cal from this; death is a terror to those who have not part in the first Resurre­ction.

And if (O holy soul) thou findest thy comforts come in, and thy God gives thee access to him with boldness, then despise whatever would part thee and thy joyes; chear up thy selfe with this, that Christ is thine, in his life thy pattern; in his Spirit thy Comforter, in his Word thy Rule, in his death thine Attonement, and in his glorious Session in Heaven thy Triumph; that he is thy Sun, by whose influence thou shalt be drawn up after him, that he is thy sheild to defend thee from evil, that he will give thee grace to glorifie him in a holy life be­fore men, and grace thee with glory before his Pather and his holy Angels.

But (O holy soul) all is not Gold that glisters, all sufferings are not sanctified to sufferers, because Pride and Folly has Martyrs which Christ crowns not, Christs slock hear his voice, and not a stran­gers; [Page 71]keep in the fold, not wander into by-wayes; Let it be thy care to suffer not as a busie body, not as an enemy to Government, and a subver­ter of Order and civil Peace; Non erga qui propter iniquitatem, et propter Christianae unitatis impi­am divisionem; sed qui propter ju­stitiam persecutionem patiuntur, [...]bi Martyres veri suns. S. Aug. Ep. 50. ad Bonifac. Countem. (in these mistakes sober and pru­dent Christians ought not to be involved; nor can any from just grounds of Magistratick seve­rity against offenders, take com­fort in sufferings) but as a Chri­stian Martyr: not with clamour, but meekness; Ann. 33. Q. E­liz. Acts 7. last. not reviling Powers, as did Hacket, but praying for persecuters, as did Stephen, Lord lay not this sin (my suffering) to their charge. See (O holy soul) thou cleanse the inside of the cup, and keep thy heart upright and trim; Christ cares not for Pharisaicall outsides and ceremonious pomps: he delights in the inner man, in those addresses that are made to him from a pure heart and faith unfained: to evidence which to men (who judg by outward appearance) the bodies concurrence in all devout and lowly demeanour, is requisite.

And since thou knowest him a Spirit, fear nothing more then a spiritlesse offering, and be­leeve nothing less acceptable to him, then to be denyed the Male of thy Flock, thy best and ripest parts. Take heed thou mistake not Leah for Rachel, and chuse the blear-ey'd world, be­fore Christ the Word, that from the beginning to this moment speaks life and love to thee; And who (in all holy reverence be it written) drank the health of Eternity to thee in his own bloud, Matth. 26.58. and invites thee to pledg him in that Eu­charistick Nectar, which our holy Mother the [Page 72]Church fils out to all worthy Communicants, and in which, 1 Cor. 11.25. by command of him, they celebrate the memoriall of his Passion. And if (O holy Soul) the sorrows of thy life are too pressing for thee to prevail against, Call thy Saviour to thy rescue; He is a ready help in trouble; He is a door of hope in the valley of Achor: Hos. 2.15. Achor vallis turbationis. Gloss. He that was thine Antisignanus in sorrow, expects thou shoul­dest follow his Colours. There is no fear of suffering and dying with this Phocion of Eternity, who for his Martyrs hath Comforrs in, Nolitimere mo­ri cum Phocione. and Crowns after torments. This, this held up Pri­mitive Saints, even to generous contempt of Death. Saint Jerome reports, that Hylarion be­ing to die, with eyes fixed on heaven, thus spake, My soul, go forth of thy prison the body; Egredere, quid times? egredere a­nima mea, quid dubitas? Septua­ginta prepe aunis servisti Christo, et mortem times? In vita Hylar.what fearest thou? where­in doubtest thou? Thou hast served Christ almost 70 years, and dost thou now fear to dis?

I know it is a great work to obtain this Con­quest, Turkish Hist. p. 220. to bring a Bajazet of mortal pride in­to the Cage of Self-denyall: yet the Scholar of Christ must be this Tamberlaint, and con this Part exactly. Plus debet Christi Discipulus praestare quam mundi Philosophus. S. Hieron. E­pist. 26. ad Pammachum. Christians, who excell Philosophers in their Wages, must also go beyond them in their Work. And if (O holy Soul) thou retreatest, and darest not enter the lists, 'tis a sign thou art unsatisfi­ed of thy duty, and settest light by thy birth­right, Heb. 11.8 which is no better evidenced to thee, then by Afflictions, the badg of Legitimation. Con­sider therefore that whatever trouble befalls thee, [Page 73]is to file off thy pollution, to give thy Vertue a transparency, and to make thee more like him who is far above the Powers and Principalities of this vain World, and its dulling and dangerous [...]nvie. Bid therefore defiance to all that would either court or compell thee to resigne Faith, Hope, Charity, Patience, Perseverance, or any other piece of thy holy Armour, to diffidence, and impsous despair. Consider, every thing in this world shall have end; and then (if not be­fore) thy frailties and thine enemies injuries shall determine; and till then, Breve putabe malum quod fi­nis melior sub­sequetar. S. Hi­eron. ep. 25. ad Blesillam. bear them man­fully: For though sorrow be in the night of this life, yet in the Morning of Eternity joy shall be to those sons of the morning, on whom Christ the Sun of Righteousnesse ariseth, for whom he is a Ransome, and to whom he will be a glo­rious Benefactor. The consideration hereof makes a good mans Departure hence more com­fortable, then can be the puissantst Nimrod's: For though Saladine the great Conqueror of Asia, Es Saladinus Asia Dominator ex tante Regno tantisque opibus nibil aliud secum fert. Wolph. in Me­mor. ad ann. 1192. carries no­thing with him to his grave, of all his Power and Wealth, but his winding sheet; yet doth a holy soul expire, with assurance that he hath a building of God, not made with hands, but eternall in the heavens.

Indeed, corporal death, as an avoydance of e­vils, and a safe port to a tempe­stuous life, [...], Suidas in yerbo. is accounted a great accommodation to man, and ma­ny have wished for it, that they might unbend the bow of Na­ture, [Page 74]which by long girting growes feeble; but these little dream'd of that judgement succeeding it, which all men must expect, and which will make the greatest Foelix tremble: From the dread of that the holy soul is freed; his Advocate is his Judg; the Accuser of impenitents (Christs precious blood,) is his Evidence for Mercy. He that hath the blood of this Lamb of God for his Laver, cannot but be clean; for it purgeth from all sin: And he that by faith overcometh the world, ought not to fear the fear of men, but to stay himself in ex­pectation of that Livery of Lustre, which Christ hath promised to those whose names are in the Book of Life, Rev. 3.5. and whom he will publikely avow his, before the Father and the holy Angels. To these death is sweet: Why sweet? it is their rest from labors, it is their incoate Jubilee, it is their pass by the first guard which obstructs their access to Christ, whom to love is their grace, and with whom to live their glory; it is their Remove from a Valley of Tears to a Mount of Triumph; from a tedious Service into an absolute Freedom, from Sorrowes, to Joyes; from wants, to Plenty; from Pains to Pleasures; from Decay to Confistence. This is the portion of Gods children; this is the Canaan for Israelites; this the Kingdom prepared; this, the Top and Top-Gallant of a Christians Faith and Hope; on this his eye of Faith is fixed; with this his hand of Love is joyned; and after this his foot of Perseverance speeds, refusing all discou­ragements with that confidence, Heaven makes a­mends for all.

This I am sure, transcends the utmost bounds of Mortal largess, the greatest Mirror of man­hood, [Page 75]the likest unlimited Presidents of Sove­raignety, can but give Rewards and Honours impermanent as themselves are; these sons of Change cannot draw what lot they please, and entail the Crowne of Glory on whom they most favour. The greatest indulgence Legal Right and general Obedience expresseth to Temporal Monarchs, is but that they declare the Heir to their petty Dominions. Internal Ver­tues are not ex traduce, nor are External Advan­tages ever entailed to our imperfect Bequests, God onely can speak that Peace which is melo­dy to a holy ear: He can call the soul that is ready to sink, as he did Peter on the water, Matth. 14.29. Come to me; and it is a happy ear that heares his voice and followes it. There is no cause of fear when Obedience answers Divine. Com­mands. God never suffers them to lose their la­bour, who duly seek what their soul lacketh, and whom their soul delighteth in, Himselfe; nor, is any mans Exit so conspicuous and noble as his whose death hath hope, and whose renewed life is Glory and Eternity; for though all rest from their Labours when their bodies are inhu­mated, Rev. 14.13. yet are not all blessed, because works of Comfort follow only those who dye recti in cu­ria Coelesti, in amity with the Churches Prince, and the Believers Pilot Christ Jesus. Luk. 1.23, 31. I will ne­ver envy the Prodigal's one fatted Calf, when I may have all my Faith dare beg, and my Father will give; since my Saviour assures me, it is but ask and have, I will ask, but not, I trust, amiss. For Wisdom, to know how to live exactly in [Page 76]doubtfull times: Patience, whereby to under­go mischievous provocations: Grace, to man­age what I have aright, and acceptance of what I doe, while I strive to do what I can, and am humbled that I can be no more serviceable to him, who deserves far above whatever creatures can think or doe.

DIVINE MEDITATIONS ON ACQUAINTANCE WITH GOD, From those words in JOB, 22 Job 21.Acquaint now thy self with GOD, and be at peace, so shall no evill come unto thee.

TWas a competent and congruous Definition of Man which the Philo­sopher gave, when he called him a sociable Creature, the nature of man being more receptive and sparsive of good then any Creature, which hath not reason to distinguish, and entertain what it knows to be usefull and conducing to content; for though all creatures have the imperfect and first lines of so­ciation effigiated on them, and in some degree or [Page 2]other affect their own species, or other creatures which either suite or serve to their ends; yet is no desire so wisely impetuous as that which origina­ted from reason, is seconded by the assurance of unquestionable Experience; nor do we sober­ly believe any thing so undoubtedly, which hath not the probate of a cleer evidence, to the advan­tage of which the life of man (pleasured by no­thing more then generous and pious society) is a clear and noble instance. That therefore Man, the Epitome of this Microcosm, and the little Lord (next under his MAKER) of this glo­rious Pile of Divine Architecture, might not mistake his match, and while he ought to seek a Kingdom, find asses; or by vain delusions, and pretended nothings miss the Mark of Eternity, and the Pawn of an unerring Conduct to that Canaan; This Scripture, like a goodly Glasse rightly modelled, and truly hung to a Christi­ans view, shews him the most reall and incompa­rable object of the Soul, illustrated from the Di­vinity of its nature, pure, unmixt, neither capa­ble to be tempted or to tempt; unlesse it be to a holy Love and happy Acquaintance, which ends not worse, but better then it began, in tempo­rall Peace, and in eternall blesse, abandoning evill either of sin or sufferings; all which are com­prized in these Words, Acquaint, &c.

Me thinks my Meditations fix on a double sort of subjects in this Scripture: Self, GOD, Peace, Evill; in their natures different, for what lesse harmonius then corruption and incorrupti­on, then good and evill, then the best we wish and the worst we fear? yet both accorded and [Page 3]united in the Term, Acquaint. Man who ought to be linked to God by the bond of Love, as well as subjected to him by the Law of obedience (as he hath no adversary to fear, so no good to de­sire beyond that Monarch GOD: who is all to the soul by way of completion, and to the out­ward man by way of munition) by this means, may obtain felicity in Acquainting himself with GOD, &c.

There is so much Treasure in this Scripture, that the rich Spoils of it are beyond the capacity of men to conceive, or Angels to language; I shall confine my thoughts to these ensuing Heads, as the Tracts by which to come to the Mansion of holy Comfort residing in it.

OF the First (Acquaintance with GOD:) I shall say in the Psalmists Phrase, Psalm 87.3. Glorious things are spoken of thee, O thou light sprung from on high, thou ray of eternity, to which all mortall contents and Mundane confedracies are but as atoms, yea non-entities. Acquaintance with God is somwhat stupendious, and requires a touch from the Altar to decypher it; 'tis a beam of glory darting on the face of a Child of glory; [Page 4]a Love-token erranded to signifie the good will of him that dwels in the Bush, to his that are a­mong the pots, slurred amongst the brambles, scratched; in the fire and in the water, abused de­based, but not forsaken; but this is rather an ef­fect of it then a Description of it, that which forms it is the being, and that which expatiates it is the wel-being of it: For the more this grace (for lesse it is not) is meditated upon, the grea­ter are the touches of sweetnesse in the Souls vi­sage, from this lovely Pensill of the most lovely Artist. GOD: And therefore I shall conceive it to ascend its Zenith by these Gradations.

1. Step. 1 The lowest and inchoate step to this Mount is the Ʋnderstanding, that must know him the chief good, or else it will never desire him; mans in­tellect is the Bucket by which he drawes, and the Ladder at which he climbs to will and wed; the object he knowes good, without this 'tis as im­possible to love and obey, as without eyes to judge of colours, or without taste to discriminate Li­quor and Meats, God hath given the priority to this faculty as that which must season to, and pre­pare appositely for the rest. And truly, this is of the foundation and reall nature of the rationall soul; for from this are we determined to be wor­thy (as to other creatures) of that Supremacy and jurisdiction God hath given us over them; for did not our Understandings direct us to a car­riage proportionate to the natures of Creatures, and things, we should soon discover our follies to be too brutish either to be admired or followed, and the Creation would soon renite obedience to so senslesse Governours. But blessed be God, [Page 5]he hath not left us without a witnesse of his libe­rality. He hath informed our specious bodies with perfect souls, and made a noble Lodging of State for himself, that high room, and top battle­ment, our Understanding; which though too vast to be filled with the little puncto's and contemp­tible grains of worldly nothings, yet receives completion from God, and those apprehensions of him which he (in much condescension to us) is pleased to vouchsafe us, not to make us proud of our fatnesse, but provident to improve fulnesse to gratitude, and to serve him more compleatly; who does good and is good, and from whom goodnesse effluxeth to all creatures: for of his fulnesse they receive fulnesse.

That this Understanding is the Key of Discovery, and Acquaintance, needs no second to confirm it; for even nature tels us by the Rule, that there is no desire of what we know not, Ignoti nulla cupido. and Scripture directs to this as the path to all gracious Intercourse with God; in one passage of holy Writ I hear this asserted, Psal. 9.10. They that know thy Name, will put their trust in thee; in another, He that cometh to GOD, must believe that he is. Heb. 11.6. Now effects imply causes, as Cisterns do Springs, and Rivers Seas: If God be to be believed on, he must be conceived of, and understood by those that thus believe him; for as articulation is con­sequent to generation, so is adhaesion to assent, and assent to intellect:

The necessity of intellect to head the will and affections, which in a sort compleat acqaintance, is evincible from many things: from the order of God in Creation & Nature, which makes this as the [Page 6]womb, at which port every thing which tends in its progresse to action, enters. The light natural, typicall of this internall Luminary, was the first Creature; as that which God erected to give light to his Library, the World, which God com­piled of nothing, by a power eternal, complete, and indeterminable; and the first tryall hee put man upon, was to touch his Intellect, and to try the magnetisme of that faculty, which could draw all things to it, and incorporate it self with every thing: And if when there was no distortion, if be­fore the mis-rule which sin and Satan brought in­to the Understanding; this was the tendency of that Faculty; It must still remain what it was, as to the Nature and sacred Design of God, though vayled and denegrated by accessions of sin, and contractions of punishments, which by understan­ding any thing but God, and in order to God, is just up on it.

The faculty then is the same in its nature, in its imployment; onely the Rose hath prickles, the Swan deformed legs: Death is in the pot, if God doth not heal the waters, and turn our Understan­dings to that right object, Himself; whom to know is life eternal, And whom to glorifie as God, our most excellent and onely good, is the sole end of our creation.

Nor is the order of God in Creation, the only Instance of this precedence of the Intellect; but experience attests this in the whole latitude of In­stances, the Heavens; by that instinct they have, as it were, and after their kind, do their duty to earth, Man, nay their Maker; by a duct (which to them is in stead of Intellect) do they serve times and [Page 7]seasons; do they remit, and extend influence, ac­cording to the law of their first Cause; and the Birds and Beasts, by their sensual Energy (analo­gous in some sort to Intelect in man) direct their course, and run their race; not attempting to love or flye that which is not Good or Evil in their eye, and pleasing or displeasing to their Na­tures. Now if that rule of the Schools be true, which neither is yet, nor ever will be contradicted, That the work of Nature is the work of the God of Nature; Opus Natura est opus Authe ris. then what is the concurrent practice of Universal Nature, according to its specifick be­ing, must be Positive and Absolute, and so from him who is the Beginning and End of all things, and therefore most true. And so I have mounted the first Step, the Ʋnderstanding. Acquaintance imports Understanding; for how shall Desire be heightned, but from Knowledge; and Knowledg be gained, but by that Faculty, which is admis­sive and receptive of it? Rom 10.14. How can they (saith S. Paul) believe on him of whom they have not heard? and how can they hear without a Preacher?

Nor is this Step consummative to our Acquain­tance, if here we stay, pitching this as the Non ultra, beyond which we will not go: for God hath placed his Seat on High, and the Rounds of the Ladder which reacheth him are many; he will have us engaged in much colluctation, many brea­things and pantings, before we come up to the Mount of Mercy, where Peace is, and Evil is not; and therefore he cryes out to man, Step 2 in the second place, for his Heart, his Will, which is the Jewel in this Cabinet of Glory: This, this to the Intellect, is as the Sailes to the Ship; takes the Winds gales, [Page 8]and carrys it to the Port of Loss or Gain: this, this is the Womb in which are the Issues of life and death: this, this is the Paradise, which we ought to guard with the Flaming Sword of an uninter­rupted and earnest Zeal; for as the Sailes move the Ship, by reason of the wind which acts upon them, and so is causal of their swelling, as they of the Ships motion; and according to the quantity of the wind, so ordinarily is the way of the Ship: so doth this act upon the Intellects premises, ad­mitting whatever hath the Watch-word from that Centinel. I say not, that the Will alwayes followes the rectified Understanding: but this I say, No man wills what is evil under the notion of evil, Bonum & velle convertuntur. for the Wil and Good are convertible; and many great­est evils have some good in conjunction with them, for which they are admitted, though as to the predominant parts of them, they deservedly be termed and judged Evil; for whatever erreth from the perfect Rule of Gods Law, and defa­ceth the Image of God in the soul, hath not the allowance of Heaven to make it currant.

Now this Will of man is highly concerned to the completion of reasonable Actions, it being the vehiculum which carries the Intellect to its Object, and thereto unites it: the Understanding ap­proves the Match, but the Will tyes the knot and adunates; as I must know before I can will, so must I will before I can be acquainted with that I will; which is the reason why between things a­verse there is no acquaintance properly so called, but rather an Antithesis and Retrogade Motion; Contraryes meet not, nor cohabit they in intense degrees, in the same Subject at one and the same [Page 9]time, because they are inconsistent, and are made what they are by the non-being of each other: Fire is no fire, if water prevail against it, for it is suppressed and led captive by the Victor; and so water ceaseth its moysture and liquidity, if the heat of the fire accede it to Mastery; whereas other things that are not at this variance, meet like Mercy and Peace, and kiss each other: Active heat, and Passive moisture, make way for Genera­tion; Steel and the Load-Stone are in amity, and do with eagerness approach each other; so is it in Love, by the will disposed of to any object. There is no Soveraign more absolute, as to things subje­cted to his will, then the will of man; for it wheels about the totum mobile in him. This mo­ved Samson to love Dalilah, Archimedes to dye with his Art; Judas to betray his Master, Julian to Apostatize; and by Gods severity, this seals, as the meritorius Cause, the wicked under unbelief, that they may be damned who have pleasure in un­righteousness: for this once perverted and engaged, 2 Thess. 2.12. the whole man is circumferred and hurled after the genius of its project: by this are the affections alarm'd and keened to good or evil; and without this Velliety is nothing feasible, without the pow­er of God come to aid; yea, and that too deales mildly, by a sweet compulsion and insuperable per­swasion, transforming the soul from what it is, and as corrupted, would; into what it is not, but ought to be: submissive to, sequacious of, and volun­tarily captived by God.

Now all the quarters of the inner man are beat up, and Proclamation is made in the name of the great King of Heaven: now the word is, I am not [Page 10]what I was, Isai. 26.13. Other Lords have had dominion over me, but the desire of my soul is to thee, and to the remem­brance of thy Name: ver. 8. now there is this only outcry, None but Christ, none but Christ.

That is the second Step, and the Advance is great. Acquaintauc is in a good progress, when we understand the worth, and will that worth to be acquainted with. But there is more Marches to be made to this Conquest; Step 3 therefore the 3^d. Step is Discovery of this Desire to that Object we love; and this, though in regard of Gods Omniscience needs not, Psai. 132.2. For he knows our thoughts afar off; yet in order to our Obedience, and his declared Will, ought to be done by us again and again; the Ca­non is, Matth. 7.7. Ask, and ye shall have; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened. 'Tis a minute trifling boon that is not worth asking; God hath entailed Bliss to our Prayers and tears, not as the price, but the way to them: as he hides not himself from his people that pray; so doth he not own them that look big with the Pharisee, and have too stiff knees to bend before him. Hab. 2.4. He knowes the heart is not upright, when it is unhumble, and condemns. it as a false Character of a good heart not to ask Dost thou (O man) conceive God the best Good, and thy self miserable without him, and wilt thou not seek by Prayers and tears to gain freedom? Dost thou think he will ever be waiting to be graci­ous, who ought to be waited upon because he is, and will be still so, unless thou provoke him to turn his back, and not his face? Thou art blind, and wilt thou not ask Eye-salve? Rev. 3.18. Naked, and art thou too sturdy to beseech Christ to cast his Gar­ment of Salvation upon thee? If thou canst [Page 11]not confess thy sins, 1 John 1.2, 9. he declares not himself a For­giver of sins; for his fidelity is engaged only to Penitents. Will any man thats worthy, put his friendship upon an unwilling party, or motion a­mity but upon the request of him, whom thereby he shall oblige? It becomes those that will have part of anothers propriety, either to beg or pur­chase it: all the Coyn in thy purse, and the pride in thy heart, will not capacitate thee to gain God for thy friend upon any termes, but repent and be­lieve: These are the wedding Garments which bring thee into the Feast of fat things with appro­bation; and if thy holy Motions be as eager as they ought, and as thy acquaintance with God deserves, then thou wilt not find a repulse; for thy God is ready to meet those with open armes, who offer their service to him upon bended knee, and with abashed faces.

Step 4. to Acquaintance with God is his Word, Step 4 Psal. 77.13. John 5.39. Psal. 25.14. his Servants, his ways. God is known by his out goings in his Sanctuary; the Scriptures testifie of him; his secrets are with them that fear him. If any man be a seeker of God, him he hears. But above all, be sure of the favour of the Well Beloved; he that comes from his hand, is carryed into the Bed-cham­ber, and refreshed with the good things of his right hand. Christs bloud crosseth the Roll of Indictments, and dischargeth the guilt: If thy soul be dipped in that bloud, it will hold colour against all waters, against all assayes to interpose; perhaps Satan puts in his plea, and informes, thou art his; What though? a stronger then he hath taken possession. Suppose thy sins rest upon thee as upon Mary Magdalen; yet if thou lovest [Page 12]much, why shouldst not thou hope to be forgiven, as was shee? There is no sin in Mortal man can out­poise the mercy in an immortal God; nor the merit of a spotless Saviour, whose blood in value out-prizes them as far as the noblest Gemme doth the most vulgar pibble. To this bounteous Ema­nuel (who when he was Rich became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich; who when he was in the bosom of his Father, came to converse with men, that he might elevate men to communion with God in Grace, and compartying with him in glory) do thou (O holy soul) conjoyn thy self by a Covenant never to be broken. He, he it is that soders God and man, that gives thee access with boldness to the Throne of Grace, that moves thee to good, confirms thee in it, rewards thee for it, by the Holy Ghost, which the Father sends in his name. Is thy Peace begun and per­fected, thy Comfort continued and encreased? in the assurance of this, thou wilt live a life of good example to men, Phil. 3.14. Psal. 149.9. and of glory to God, and after all, reach the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. For this honour have all his Saints.

And the better to keep thee in this, less and lower to that better good, it becomes thee, O man, to attend on the revealed Will of God, that bears witness to the Truth, Mercy, Justice, Pati­ence, and other Holy Attributes of the Divine Nature; it records also what thy duty (O man) is, Eccles. 12.24. Psal. 7.11. namely, To fear God and keep his Commandments, not only because he is angry with the wicked eve­ry day, but because he by his love constraines thee, and expects no returnes from thee but thy self: [Page 13]Own him in all his holy Counsels, Precepts, Threats, Ordinances, Servants, and love whate­ver bears his Image and Superscription: Follow Peter in his tears and Faith, not in his frailty and abnegation; thy Saviour is thy Lord, and thou oughtest to own him for such, as well on the Cross, as on the right hand of Glory; and his se­vants ought to be as dear to thee, when they are tormented, persecuted, afflicted (provided they be stedfast, and such as suffer for well doing, on whom the Spirit of Glory rests) as when applau­ded, preferred, and crowned; for this, if thou doest, enterance will be made thee into Ac­quaintance with thy God, whom to know, is to be wise; and whom to live with, is to be happy.

Step 5. to Acquaintance with God, Step 5 is identity of mind: therefore the Apostles says, Phil. 2.5. Let the same mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus: not the same es­sentially, but the same dispositively; the same ef­fectively; wish (in a holy ardency and warranta­ble impatience) that you could oblige God as much by service, as he doth you by Creation, Preserva­tion, and the good things of Glory, which he promiseth; yea, rather wish to be like him in Grace and Holiness, then in Greatness and Pu­issance: There is nothing works Acquaintance so kindly and reasonably, as congruity; the Proverb is, Birds of a feather will flye together: there is natu­ly a kind of Magick in assimulation; we love Cli­mates and Cloathes, Books and Meats, Faces and Fashions, proportionable to our Geniusses most; and the exterior sense is much at the Devotion of the interior idea, and the fanciful Formatory: [Page 14]Did you ever see contrarys agree while so? and not rather their friendliness bubble up from their uni­on, as one prevayling, forced the other into com­plyance? Or can it be imagined that God and man should agree, while the one is too great to have equal, the other not humble enough to own a Su­perior? In wordly conversation there is nothing more distasted, and declines Acquaintance, then contrariety of Principle; yea it often invites to hatred and hostile procedures, even where natu­rally there is antithesis to contrariety, and alto­gether an ignorance of any demerit in the object, saving this nude inconformity.

All Compounds are made of Simples that serve in their conjunction to the proposed end; and though numerically they differ, yet in coa­gulo they conspire to serve one univocal Designe. In building, crooked, straight, long, short, little, great, sappy, hearty Timbers conforme to the model of the Edifice, and the Surveyers Art. In medicines, simples laxative, retentive, hot, cold, by a kindly, and even cooperation, recover health, and honour the Physician; which other­wise would discredit the one, and endanger the o­ther: the like effect hath compleasans in friend­ship, which is a marriage, not of Sexes, but minds; not to purposes of Generation but Conversation. And therefore those mistake the Mark much, who think to reduce God to their bounds, his holy na­ture to their impure practices, and will be acquain­ted with him, not upon his own, but their own termes. If they may have a Dalilah in their lap, if they may keep their right eye and right hand, if when they go into the house of Rimmon they may [Page 15]be pardoned, well and good: they are contented to enter amity with God. But if he commands to cut off the right hand, and pluck out the right eye: Matth. 5.29. Gen. 12.1. Rev. 18.4. if he call to them to leave their Country, to come out of Babylon, to forsake father and mother; then with the rich man in the Gospel, they go away heavy, crying out with him, Matth. 19.22. Non tanti emam poeni­tentiam: to these, Gadarens Swine are beyond Christ, glass before pearles, and this little world in view, more precious then that better in pro­mise.

Well, but Acquaintance with God is never the worse because these covet it not but upon cheap and dishonourable termes, which wil not be yeilded unto. Those that know what it is to have the eyes of their Understanding opened, to converse with God, not remotely (but as mortal Nature by Divine indulgence) may with open face, 2 Cor. 3.18.think all things loss and dung in comparison of it; accounting themselves never estranged from the true end of their being, but when they are without the Vail, when the lines of their inheritance are not cast out to them in this lot of love, when they wander in the Wilderness of the wolrd, and commune not with that God, whose comforts are above the world, who is whatever earth and heaven can yeild admired: for he is all in both, and nothing in either is delectable, but what he is; nor are we ever tru­ly our selves, but when we are like him, in that partaking of his Divine Nature, which our being is capable of, and his blessed purpose hath design­ed us to.

Last Step to Acquaintance with God, Last Step. is assiduous attendance on him: fits and gird, now and then vi­sits [Page 16]seldom amount to intimate friendship, those inter­vals and faint treatments, like cold and indige­sted Meteors hang hovering, but never condense, and body into any solidity, like dainty meats which rather puff up then feed; or like gay clothes, which adorn more then comfort Nature: The greatest ingredient to many mens friendship, is a Cap, or a Congee, Your humble Servant, and Passionately yours, which wise persons eye as the purliew in which the Rascal Deer mostly, the No­bler rarely; and therefore use those Modes rather in Symphony with the plurality, then out of allow­ance and choice. Many in the matters of God, and in Duties of Religion (whereby we should ac­quaint our selves with him) are as fetchant and wavering, as these in less consequentials are: they wait not at the posts of Wisdoms door; they come not early, they go not to bed late; they eat not the bread of sorrow, that they might purchase this one thing necessary: Earnest they are not, nor do they by a holy impetuosity and violence seise on Heaven, not wrastle with God, not let him go til he bless them with his Acquaintance; yet do they expect to partake of God as fully, as Zachary and Elizabeth, who wait upon him daily, and walk in his Commandments without reproof; but how vain­ly these expect grapes from thornes, and figs from thistles, the Consequence shewes; God keeps them at distance, he feeds them with the husks; he loves those that fear him, not formidine poenae, sed vir­tutis amore; and he values those highest who are most importunate, undismissable, whom not a non decet will discourage from begging crumbs; Mat. 15.26, 27. whom no Moment, no company will dishearten [Page 17]from resolving with Job, Though th [...]u killest me,Job 13.15.yet will I trust in thee. These are the Merchants our Lord speaks of, who sell all to purchase the Jewel of Divine Intercourse; these are they that cry out for the light of Gods countenance, Psalm 4. and care not what they suffer so they have it. To these humble pro­strates are the Doles of Heaven dealt out, on these that cry out, as Rachel did to Jacob, Give me Grace, or else I dye, doth God give the bles­sing of Acquaintance, and for these and these on­ly hath he a Reserve, a Mansion in his Kingdom, Jerusalem above, which is the vision of Peace; and in the fruition of which, by holy Acquaintance with God as the way and means, we shall obtain adunition to God, as the end and fruition of Peace in that felicity, for so saith the next words, Acquaint now thy selfe with God, and be at peace.

But stay man a while, There is somewhat inter­current 'twixt Acquaintance and Peace, there are bars and bounds to keep the Stage free from pester. God hath appointed Means and Degrees, by which to come at length to this Culmen, this top of the Mount on which shall be our Transfigurati­on: Christ Moses and Elias are to be met with when we can say our Christian Alphabet roundly, when we can say, not only as Saint Paul, Phil. 3 12. Rev. 5.9, 10.Non­dum attigimetam, but sing that Epinichyon, Thou art worthy, O Lord, for thou hast redeemed us from sin, sorrow, the world, and made us Kings and Priests to thee. Till then, there is aliquid agendum; if ever thou wilt come to the end of thy race, it must be by the Means ordained to that end, which is the se­cond Scruple to be explicated. Scruple 2 2 What are the [Page 18]Meanes of obtaining this Acquaintance? The Solution of this is partly done in the foregoing Consideration, and therefore will require the less answer here; the prescribed Steps of assent are al­so many several Paces towards it; what is necessa­ry to be added by way of Illustration, is only this; God requires of every Acquaintance, 1. Reconci­liation to Christ: 2. Resignation to his holy Spirit: 3. Adoration of his Ordinances: 4. Admira­tion of his Works. 5. Renovation of life.

1 Reconciliation to Christ: 1 All sin is Hostility a­gainst him; 'tis Rebellion against the Prince of Peace, and folly against him the Wisdom of the Fa­ther: He came to unite God and thee, and thou (O man) labourest the Defeat of his advent; the end of his descent from Heaven to earth, was to draw men after him; thou in stead of coming to him that thou mayest have life, John 5.40. runnest away from him: in stead of casting down thy self at his feet and craving his pardon, thou holdest up Weapons of unrighteousness against him: Is this thy kind­ness to thy friend? Is this thy Loyalty to thy Prince? Is this the Badge of Acquaintance and friendly intimacy? Dost thou crown Christ with thorns, and expect he should kiss thee with the kis­ses of his lips? Dost thou deliver him to the Corss, and lookest from him for a place in Paradise? Do these rough hands of Esau, deserve from Isaak any Blessing? O man mistaken, erring thorow the Delusion of thy Prospect, and the Temptation incumbent on thy heart! Return, and seek to him by tears, whom thou hast provoked by Treachery, crave his blood, thine Attonement, which thou hast shed in triumph to thy Lusts; thou hast made [Page 19]him thine Adversary by sin, humbly prostrate thy self as his Purchase and Penitent: Let him see thy tears trickle down thy tender cheek, from a pensive heart, and a gracious eye, that now lookest upon thy self with greater scorn, then ever sinfully thou didst upon him, when wickedly thou saidst, I will not have this man raign over me; and let no hour, day, moment pass without some earnest Petition for Reconciliation, That he would cease to be what thou hast deserved; thine Upbraider, Ac­cuser, severe Judge: and be what he hath promi­sed to all that turn to him with all their hearts, an Advocate, a Load-stone, the Way, the Truth, and the Life: An Advocate, to plead thy Cause; a Load-stone, to touch thy heart; the Way in which, and Truth by which thou shouldest walk; and the Life to crown thee after thy work done.

But perhaps thou concludest thy self at too great a loss to recover, too far out of favour to be re­ingratiated? Why so? If where sin abounds, Rom. 5.2 [...]Grace superabounds, there is hope for thee: Bespeak not (O man) thy denyal, do not stay thy career towards heaven, because thou fearest the door of Grace is shut. Such Conclusions may hinder thy endeavour, they cannot add to thy comfort; therefore covet in the second place, 2 the Holy Spi­rit to thy comfort; entertain him kindly, grieve him not by reiterated sins; quench him not by a­verse obstinacy, An nescis (anima) te verecundum habere sponsum? This holy Dove sent from the Deity, brings the Olive Branch with him; the Peace is bought by Christ, but the Spirit seals and applies the Purchase; the Salve is rare, but works not kindly, except that hand layes on the Plaister: [Page 20]therefore resign thou thy self to the Spirit of God, let him rule in thee, and by his Steerage be thou acted; follow this Star, it ever leads to Christ; hearken to his voice, it is vox dilecti, its a clam, sweet, lovely, lightsome voice; be ravished with this Musick, which with Hyper-Syrene notes, charms most wisely; give up thy self, soul and body to this Besieger, that summons thee to deliver up the strong Holds of Sin and Satan to Christ the King of Saints, and the Saviour of his Body the Church. Make no terms with him, the Holy Ghost will not be tyed to Articles: He is free to intercede, and thou must be free to render: as he will have good quarter, so gives he sure comfort. The soul that receives him, is Scot-free from Terror and Fear of Divine displeasure, for this Guest secures his Quarters; yea, the power of the Almighty over­shadoweth those with Grace, whose hearts are prepared to cry, Veni Spiritus Sancte. And till (O man) this be thy temper, thou art as unfit for Acquaintance with God as for Heaven; of which it is a real Type, and to which it is the Bap­tist: for as into Heaven flesh and blood, quà such, cannot enter; so into familiarity with God can none be admitted who have not the Test of this Comforter, who never beares witnesse that they are the sons of God, who rest unreconciled to Christ, unresigned to him.

But how may these Graces appear in me, may the soul say? God, Christ, and the Holy Ghost have their Court in Heaven, I am in the Valley of Bochim, in the frigid Zone of earthly vanities, where dust and ashes, wormes, and no men, live, [Page 21]and acclamate the Diana of Pomp and splendid nothing; my bucket is not deep enough, my stature not high enough to reach Heaven; my bulk will not bear those breadthy Sails which that Glory fils. What shal I do? How may I contract acquaintance with God by union with Christ, and rendition to his Spirit? To these the third Step is answer, 3 A­dore his Ordinances: Those are his Leidgers which here he leaves to negotiate about affaires of Hea­ven; these are the Chariots in which Eli­ahs are whirled thither; these bring forth, and there is none barren amongst them; the good will of him that was in the bush are upon these, Deut. 33.16. which Atheism and Irreligion would separate and unbro­ther, as rejectitious and illegitimate. God hath appointed his Word for our Rule, his Ministers for our Guide, his Sacraments for our Comfort, his Day for our Rest and Refection, his Church for our Pillar and Ground of Truth; and those who adore not these are not like to be Gods Ac­quaintance; Soveraignty will have no limits pre­scribed by Subjects. Heaven knowes no Method but that of its own dictation: Those that will be beggars, must not be chusers: Interest with God is worth gaining by cap in hand, and upon bend­ed knee; and they deserve not to be heard in their request, who request any thing contra formam Sta­tuti inde editi; the Declarative Law is, Search the Scriptures, John 5.3, 9. Luke 16.29.for they do testifie (saith Christ) of me. And in another place: If they will not bear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be perswa­ded if one rise from the dead.

Wander not then (O soul) after wild phansies and blazing figments, exposed to view, and set on [Page 22]broach of purpose to deceive and mislead ignorant and inquisitive worldlings, who set the Crown on Coridons, and believe Christ the Saviour of the world, rather from his riding on an Ass-Colt, and obscure parentage, then from his glorious atte­station from Heaven, or his convincing conver­sation here on earth; and judg nothing Sacred, but what is indeed common and unclean: But (O soul) keep thou close to the Ordinances of Christ, which his servants have received from him by the unque­stionable tradition of the Church, to the Truth of which the lives and deaths of holy Martyrs, and glorious Confessors, have in all ages born witness; and do not believe that any thing is so lovely and truly advantageous to thy peace, and orderly con­duct, as to serve thy God in that manner which he hath appointed: and adore thou these holy my­steries, Psal. 46.4. by which waters the City of God in thy soul, ought only to be made glad.

5 And though thus to do be to do more then many now will, yet is it not the totum postulatum of thee: God (O man) requires of thee some tribute of praise; the quit-rent of Gratitude. The Psal­mist tells us in the person of God, Psal. 50.23. Whoso offereth me praise, honoureth me: and to give God the glo­ry of his Munificence, is but to offer him of his own; it is but to pay him our Fine in his owne Coyn; 1 Cor. 4.7. for what have we that we do not receive? And in no kind is this sense of our obligation to God better resented by him, then by Admiration of his Works, 4 which is the fourth Requiry of God to­wards the perfection of our Acquaintance with him, Admiration of his Works. And here me thinks I am enforced to exclamate with the holy Pophet, [Page 23] Lord, what is Man? What his Being, Capacity, Dignity, that thou shouldest honour him with Contemplation of thee, and of those Works which set thee out in thy back parts, though not to the ineffability of thine Essence? Who, O, who wishes not his tongue were untied, and tip­ped with Eloquence, excelling mortal Emulation, Psalm 150.2. that he might give to God the glory due to his name, and praise him according to his excellent greatness; not only for that he is high, not for that he is, and there is none besides him; but for that he vouch­safeth to look down upon us here below, and calls us to contemplate his good Will, as well as matchless Power in the Formation of things, and the order­ly production of them! Here is Matter to amuse the Secretary of Nature, and to puzzle the great­est Oedipus; here is a full point to Plato's Eloquence, and Plotinus his Profundity. Who can search the Center of that Idea which was in God, when he made the Sun, Moon, and Stars, appointing them their seasons, influences, order, and sweetly tu­ning them each to other? Who knowes the Na­ture of Creatures animate and inanimate, vegetive and sensitive; and can say of their Natures, as God doth of the Seas proud Waves, Hitherto and no further; this you can, and this you cannot do? Where is he that sees the abyss of Providence, and penetrates into that privy Chamber of Divinity, which is for Gods eye only? daring to affirme what shall and shall not be; and the consequences of things natural and contingent? Sure, no mor­tal man, undementated, dare so confide in Art, and dote so fondly on his vain shadow, as to boast of this, which is Gods incommunicable Jewel, and [Page 24]the Prerogative of his Crown. Our portion (Oman) is to wait Gods discovery; Secret things belong to God, Deut. 29.29. Exod. 24.2.but things revealed to us; and God forbid we should come neerer the Mount then is indulged us, or endeavour after Wisdom beyond Sobriety; Our duty is to acquaint our selves with God, not by knowing him as he is, for thats impossible; but by knowing him as he manifests himself in works of Power, Providence, Mercy; and in the improve­ment of what light we borrow from this Lamp, we may see enough to make us in love with him, who made all things as, and what they are, and to what they shall be: In him the Rich and the poor, the wise and the simple, the Brute and the Rational, the Worm and the Angel, the Flye and the Eagle, the Ant and the Elephant, the Mouse and the Li­on, the Eele and the Whale meet; God is the Maker of them all, and the same power went to the production of the least as greatest; from him come winds and seasons, and without him nothing is that is, nor shall be that he wills not: this is the sum of what we can reach to in the folio of Con­templation and practice; for whatever helps Art & Nature give us, come far shorter of the utmost ex­tent of Gods Works, than the shortest ladder is short of the Heaven we see, or the impurest soul of that better Heaven we hope for: The best Meditati­on we can make, is that of the Father, Si tale Artifi­cium, qualis Artifex? si tale est quod fecit, qualis est quifecit? If the courage of the Lion, strength of the Elephant, capacity of the Whale, prudence of the Ant, continence of the Dove, If the world be so variously fitted with necessaries, for delight, support, and exercise of man, and his Nature [Page 25]so adapted to search into, and blessed to find out and improve the secrets, and several qualities of things, creatures, and continents, in some pro­portion sutable to his being, and Gods design­ment; hath he not great cause to cry out with that Kingly Prophet, Psal. 139.14.19.1. O how fearfully and how won­derfully am I made! for who can confess less then this, The Heavens declare the glory of God, and the Firmament shewes his handy work?

But (O man) wander not too wildly in this wilderness, wherein are beasts of Prey, un­couth paths, dismal upshots; thine errand and end is to admire the works of God; that thou maist do, it is thy duty, and Gods exact of thee so to do, and thou thy selfe art a fair Text to such pious Meditations; God created thee some­thing of nothing, a Man, not a Toad, a Christi­an, not a Heathen, of clear intellect not bru­tish, of right shape not deformed; and consi­der, this calls for Gratitude. God hath beau­tified thee with a bright Sun, refreshed thee by a sweet gale of wind in thy sayls, thou art at the wished Port, supported by a mira­culous hand of Providence, he hath discove­red to thee thy dangers, conducted thee in thy way, ministred to thy wants, when others not less his, nor less themselves then thou, go mour­ning all the day long, are on their duty, John 5.4. wai­ting (with the Cripple) when the good An­gel will come to their comfort, but all in vain: No Butter sticks on their bread, their cake is dough, as the Proverb is; All is fruitless; Remem­ber the more thou receivest, the more thou must re­turn: Cui plus datur, ab illo plus exigitur; in fine, ra­ther [Page 26]labour to improve wel that thou hast, then to covet more to misuse it, and abuse thy soul; for God expects from all men, as he sowes, so to reap; and thou art an Unthrift on his Bounty, if thou returnest him not obedience and love, who hath crowned thee with Honour and Plenty above thy fellowes.

But (O man) above all things, Deut. 32.15. be not like Jesu­run; spurn not with the heel; when thou art fat, forget not the hand that feeds thee, and the paps of Providence that suckle thee; nor let thine hornes be exalted to worry and plague thy fellow servants of a lower Form then thou art: This is not to be like God, good, gentle, and nigh unto all those that call upon him; but liker the servant in the Gospel, Matth. 32.32. who took his fellow servant by the throat, when he himself was forgiven by his Lord the grea­ter Debt; yea, this is not to admire God, but to reproach him, as misgiving Power and Greatness, and trusting it in the hands of those, who by it prey upon, not protect the Sheep: This is not to admire the Works of God, but to admire thy self, and to sacrifice to thine own Ambition and inordinacy, and so to dishonour God who com­mands, Phil. 4.5. Our Moderation should be known to all men; yea, this is to be unworthy of Acquaintance with God, who is Shepherd of his Sheep, and de­lights in Lillyes, things harmless and benigne; and those that are not such, shall do well to con­sider that of the Prophet, Jer. 30.16. I will spoil the Spoiler; and steer another course for the future, even to e­mendation of life; which brings up the rear of what God requires from those that wil be acquain­ted with him, and calls for my next Meditation.

[Page 27]5. Lastly, 5 Renovation of Life is a chief adjunct to Acquaintance with God: Light and darkness, Christ and Belial, Dagon and the Ark do not agree; new cloth and old garments sute not, nor will gene­rous Wine endure crazy bottles; nor a Kingly mind brook the thatched cottage: There is nothing more averse to the pure Nature of God, then the im­pure life of a sinner; his eye loathes, his hand corrects, his heart relucts, his Word reproves, his Spirit labours against it; he cannot but call with a loud voice, Jer. 44.4. Rom. 1.18. O do not that abominable thing which I hate; and correct, by revealing his wrath from Heaven against the ungodliness of men: Till thou (O man) return to him by Repentance, there is no peace with God to be hoped for, no a­mity to be attained. The means to gain God, is to own thy self, and to return to thy fathers love, Luke 15.18. to weep over thy wandrings, and to drown thy sins in penitent tears, as did Mary Magdalen and Peter. Then, then only are we worthy to be friends of God, when we are not profane as Esau, but ho­ly as Abraham; not rude as Nimrod, but meek as Moses; not rebellious as Absolom, but devout as David; not treacherous as Judas, but penitent as Peter; not vexatious as Saul, but couragious as Paul; not embracing the world as did Demas, but contemning it and our selves, as ought the Disciple of Christ, who must deny himselfe, and take up the Cross. This, this is to be born again, Mark 8.34. John 3.3. Ephes. 4.23. Isai. 1.16. Rom. 13.14, Ephes, 5.11.Nichodemus his lesson; this is to be renewed, in the spirit of our minds; this is to cease to do evil, and learn to do well; this is to put on the Lord Jesus, and to take no thought for the flesh; this is to have no fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness, but rather to reprove [Page 28]them; this is to put off the old man, and to put on the new man, Ephes. 4.22, 24which after God is created in Righ­teousnesse and true Holinesse; this is to lay the bur­then of our sins upon Christ, and to take the beauty of Holiness from him: this is to gain heavens amnesty, to remove our sins far from us, as the East is from the West, and to cause them to come no more in remembrance before God; yea, this is to be throughly acquainted with God, and to have him the souls Sun and Shield, who will give Grace and Glory, Psal. 34.11.and withhold no good thing from it.

These are the bona notabilia, which God keeps as the reward of Piety; as his secrets, so his comforts are with those that fear him. Clusters of Canaan, grow not upon Crabstocks of Sodom: Divine familiarity is not with mortal foe­dity: They which will have God their Lord, must have his Rule for their Guide. Penitence must supply the want of Innocence, or else God will deny acceptance: It is not for me to say, I will return after, and be received first. God will have his Doles of Mercy distributed to Pennancers; and the Oyle of Gladness re­turned to those faces whose heads were cove­red with ashes: A weeping eye is no small Favourite with a merciful God, who not only greets with an Euge, Luke 15, 7. returning sins, but com­mands an Exultate, in Heaven amongst the An­gels for it; and those that sow their wild oats in tears, shall reap their wages in due time; namely, Mercy and Joy, in, Come ye Blessed of my Father, receive the Mansion prepared for you, by Acquaintance with God; namely, Peace, which [Page 29]is the third hinge of my Meditation, and followes in the Scripture, Acquaint now thy self with God, and be at peace.

The third Quere is, Quest. 3 What Peace it is those have who are acquainted with God? And here silet lingua, stispet animus, deficit oratio. Peace which passeth Understanding (such the Peace of God is) may well exceed utterance. The tongue is the hearts Bell-man, and the cry is acording to the concep­tion. As what food nourisheth not, will not tran­side into the members aggrandization; so what the thought springs not, will never swell into words; Peace then, of this peace of God, it is somewhat ineffabile, past finding out, it is hid in the hollow of his hand, under his pavillion, from the strife of tongues, which in treating of its peace, would break the peace of Truth. But (O my soul) is this the forbidded tree? maist not thou taste and not dye? Hath God cabinetted up this Jewel, and must not man see it and live? Is this the one thing necessary; yet prohibited? Doth God require that of me which is impossible to me? And are my comforts surrounded with a flaming Sword, inaccessible? Nothing less? The well is deep (O my soul) but thy backet is sutable; the Pearle is dear, but thy price in hand will reach it; thy peace is precious, and it is deposited with him, who hath broke down the wall of Separation; Ephes. 2.14. there is a new and living way to this Holy of Holies, not by blood of Bulls and Goats; but by the blood of Christs Cross, the Christians glory, and Signature of his Peace.

But is this peace a complete Armature and Pa­noply? Doth it fit every part? Is it proof in [Page 30]every joint; is there no soft place in it, through which the poison of Satans power or policy will pierce? Is it a sweet Nightingale in the brest, as well as a Head-piece and Guard to the outward man? Yes sure, the peace spoken of in this Scrip­ture is every way lovely, like Jonathan, lovely in life, and lovely in death; a great source of Joy to thee, while thou art on thy way, and a glo­rious Epitaph on thy Monument, when thou hast done thy work, and run out thine Hour­glass.

• This Peace is Tripartite Pax Temporis. Or External Of vision to the Eye.
• This Peace is Tripartite Pax Pectoris. Or Internal Of Contemplation to the Mind.
• This Peace is Tripartite Pax Numinis. Or Eternal Of Fruition both to Soul & Sense.

1 Peace outward, that is a fruit of Acquain­tance with God: for thus he giveth his Beloved rest: that the Creatures are under thineawe, that the Elements are thy Pavillion, the Clouds thy Cisterns, the Sun, Moon and Stars thy Tapers, the earth thy Granary, the Cattle thy Food and Rayment, is from God who is good, and doth good. I do not say, that Peace is always the Badg of Grace, or that it ever, in regard of Externi­ties, fares well with those who are good. I know the contrary, and so did David to his trouble long ago; and Job chap. 12.6. complainins that the Tabernacles of Robbers prosper, and they that provoke God are secure; yea and Jeremy reasons with God concerning his Judgments, Why do the wicked prosper [Page 31]and those that hate God are exalted? Jer. 12.1. While holy men are clad in sack-cloth, and covered with ashes, go mourning all the day long, have not (with their Saviour) a hole to hide their heads in, nor a crumb to feed their bellies, or a rag to cover their nakedness. Luke 16.19. Dan. 5.23. Do I not read of Dives faring deli­ciously, of Nebuchadnezzar quaffing in the holy vessels? yet the one wanting nothing but room to lay his wealth in, and the other priding in the Babel that he had built for the glory of his Majesty? And doth not the same ear let in the Narrative of Elijahs poverty, fed by a Raven; 1 King. 17. Act. 20.34. and of Pauls ne­cessities, supplyed by the labour of his hands? Are not wicked mens Oxen strong to labour? and see we not their persons and fortunes free from captivity and restraint? when men more holy then they, having no oxen to labour for them, are fain them­selves to labour like oxen to tread out their sup­port, and to pay from the sweat of their brows, a tribute to their Tyrannous Masters; who with more then Egyptian severity, lay load of brick, and withdraw the allowance and furtherances thereto? If it be so, how is acquaintance with God a way to outward peace?

I answer, Yes: it is the way to outward peace truly so called, that is, to sanctified outward peace, which is peace in a proper and savoury sense: Meer serenity of state, is as far from blessing, as ease is from health; which seldom is propagated by it, but often impeached and deflowred. When peace and prosperity is bestowed upon bad men, 'tis to reward some good thing in them: some service they have done God; God leaves not those un­rewarded, whom his own bounty, not their propensions [Page 32]hath made serviceable to him; or at least to leave them without excuse, that they may be silent when they are judged. Isa. 45.1. & 4. This is the portion that Hagars chil­dren have; this is the husk that Gods prodigals feed upon; this is the mark they level at; like Hel and the Grave, they cry Give, Give. And what do they gape after? 'Tis auri sacra fames, Alexan­ders Conquests, Craesus his Wealth, Tully his Ora­tory, Metellus his prosperity: these take up their prospectives, bound their aims, swell their plumes: This fatted calf have these for their entertainment; Ʋltra neque spes, neque timor; they consider not the sowr sawce that follows this Passover. On the contrary, When Affliction befalls the Godly, it is to ventilate, to winnow their chaffe from them, to correct them for frailtie, and to chase them out of their covert, in which they delighted themselves as on beds of Ivory, and in wayes of Roses: Sup­purated sores must have Corrosives: 'Tis too much cruelty to powr in Oyl, where there is need of mundifying: Afflictions and external quassations are like thunder, purgations to the air: The Soul is never better then when out of the Sun-shine: Then it gathers up its garments, and crowds close to God: Hos. 5.15. In their afflictions they will seek me early.

Nor have the wicked prosperity and peace in peace; Aliquando sub hilari vultu tristis animus. Solomon tels us, Pro. 14.13. Dan. 5.5 In the midst of laughter, the heart is sorrowfull; sometimes there is an hand on the wall, a red Crosse of Gods displeasure on the fronts of our peace; There is peace, peace, and no peace; Midas his misery, Erysickthons thirst, a coveting eye and a nauseating stomack, a grand estate and a penurious soul: Eccles. 6.2. here is the evil under the Sun Solomon speaks of.

Sometimes prosperity and peace, as Riches is given to the hurt of the Owners; Eccles. 5.3. sometimes there is denyed somewhat with it, for which it is appetible, as Heires, Health, Friends; Gen. 15.2. Prov. 10.22. and ever there is denyed to wicked men, Gods blessing on it, which brings no sorrow with, nor after it: the absence of which, causeth the dregs in the bottom of all worldly peace to worldly minds, for it makes them cry out of Prosperity, as captived Craesus did of Solon; O Solon, Solon, had I hearkned to thy pre­monitions, I had never been so unprovided for bonds and captivity. Of these then, that which the A­postle saves of the Unchaste widdow, is most true, they are dead when they live. 1 Tim. 5.6. But to the Godly it is far otherwise their peace outward is ever san­ctified, not as to the present use of it (for they may faint in the Sunshine, they may be lifted up through abundance of Revelation) but as to the Sacred end, and ultimate result of it: God shall turn this by the Sacred Chymistry of Omnipoten­cy, into Good: Rom. 8.28. This is within the pale of All things work together for good to them that love God.

Away then, thou Accuser of the Brethren, avoid thou Tempter to Evil, and thou Mortar Piece of Divine Fury, Satan. Away yee chil­dren of Darkness, who hate those of Light, because your deeds are evil; forbear your taun­tings of those whom the Lord hath smitten; justifie not those whose Iniquitous Ballances have made themselves onely weighty, and all others too light: the Standard of Justice is coming round; Dan. 5.25. your doom is Mene tekel Ʋ ­phursin; the glory of your forged Sanctimony [Page 34]is defaced; God will humble the pride of men, and polish his rusted Saints, by the arising beams of the Sun of Righteousness: The Churches Soveraigne is at hand; and though his first coming was in humilitie, his next will be in glorie, to ride in triumph over all feigned Piety, and to set these Goats of Lust and Rage on his left hand; Lift up (O holy ones) your heads, Your Redemption draws nigh: Hee that dy­ed for you, will owne you, and expects you should owne him, in preserving his seamlesse coat from rents, and in keeping unity of Spirit, though there be difference of Language. Peace be (O holy souls) to you, the peace of this world, not by its gifts, but by Donation of him, who hath subject­ed all things; prepare your selves by holy love to deal out your Riches to those that want; freely ye receive, freely give: O far be it from you to give vinegar and gall to your brethren, since your Father in Heaven gives you the generous liquor of Love, and bids you do as you would be done by. Take your fils of the waters of outward plen­ty; Marah is cured, the bitterness of death is past, Christ hath by his Cross so crucified the world to you, that it is now become your Vassal, not your Lord: remember there is the portion of Peace annexed to Acquaintance with God, So do, and so have.

But is this all? are the grains of allowance only in Externals? Is my Carcass more worthy then my Soul? What shall be done to that animula blandula, 2 Pet. 1.4. which is after a sort Partaker of the DIVINE Nature? is there no accrewment to [Page 35]that? Doth God take care of Sparrowes, and of the haires of our heads; and is there no provi­sion made for that which is the Nightingale of E­ternity? Surely yes, two for one; the double portion for this first-born: One portion respects its conjunction here with the body; and the other its separation from, and glorification with the body in Heaven; the first in Grace, the second in Glory; the first in via, the Comfort and Peace of a good Conscience; and the latter and better, in Patria, of a good God, in a glorious Kingdom, Heaven.

2 Peace Internal; not Physical, 2 sans Palpitati­on of the Heart; sans exclamation of the Passions, or their crowing shrils in the brain: but peace Metaphysical; the peace of God in the brest of man; God as it were incarnate, sitting on the Tribunal of a Mortal Judicatory. Now the winter is past, the stormes are over, the singing of birds is come, the voice of the Turtle, of the Primum Mo­bile, is heard; O Extatick Elamire! O Seraphick Ela! O Note stept aside from the Quire of Angels, to entice our Admirations! Doth God dwell with man? can these houses of clay contain him that is whatever is Infinite and Incomprehen­sible, which he is? Be thou, O Lord, with my pen, and let it be thine Instrument to decipher this, which is so rare, which is whatever Nature can a­spire to value.

Peace of Conscience, a Jewel which abates not price; a child of light admired in all Ages. Per­sons, Countries sought after when not had, che­rished where possessed, deplored when lost; whom Patriarks, Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, Con­fessors, [Page 36]Christians valued, and to which they peered nothing.

Peace of conscience, the Salt that seasons Mirth, sweetens Sorrow, and the Plummet that sounds the bottom of every coast, and discovers Shipwrack and safety.

Peace of Conscience, the Touchstone of our in­nocency, the probate of our Zeal, the Furnace of our Charity; for then only can we love God and our Neighbor when his love is shed abroad in our hearts, by his holy Spirit, who works this peace in us.

Peace of Conscience, that Phenix nest made up of the Persumes of Graces, out of which expiring, rises peace of Eternitie.

Peace of Conscience, heaven on earth, glory in weakness, light in obscuritie, Abrahams bosom in Lazarus sores.

Peace of Conscience; Goshen in Egypt, Gods Segullah to the Alchimy of the worlds Admirables; the fat kine of holy serenity, that by a miraculous transposition swallow up all the lean kine of world­ly cares, and confounds the wisdom of secular inte­rests.

Peace of Conscience, the Lily of the vallies in which Christ nestles; the Rose of Sharon, on which the Sun of Righteousness smiles; to which Solomons bravery is but Beggery, and Herods oratory but babling.

Peace of Conscience, compared with which, Balm of Gilead is but like the trifling Compound of a Quack Salve; and the Gold of Ophir but as dross and dung.

Peace of Conscience, to which Power and Policy, [Page 37]Arts and Armies, Councels and Senates are but as Molehils to Mountains, Ants to Men, Atomes to the body of this earth, and the dwindling light of the candle, to the center of light enveloped in the Sun.

Peace, of Conscience, the Musick, to which Orpheus, his Harp, and Arions Pipe, helped on with Syrens voice, are but so many straines of perfect discord and displeasing Har­mony.

Peace of Conscience, the best companion of life, the sweetest Confessor at death, the noblest Me­morial after death; nay, the souls prodomus (next under Christ) to Heaven, for thither it ran on Cornelius his errand, to display his Almes; and thither it must go, to the credit and comfort of all that have it, For there is none of this peace to the wicked, saith my God.

Here, O profane worldlings, here, O wretched Politico's, yee are outstripped; pleasures, pro­fits, honors, have no suffrage in this confisto­ry, they cannot make their Masters partakers of this delight, to which all others are but sha­dowes, as far beneath them as drops to the Ocean. Neither Alexanders Power, nor Solomons Wisdom, nor Mithridates his Wealth, nor Justinians Learn­ing, nor Galens Receipts, nor Archimedes his Ex­periments can procure this; 'tis a gift from above, descending from the Father of Lights, Jam. 1.17. and referring the soul to him as the Author and Finisher of its Felicity.

Here is somewhat stupendious; but this, how far soever transcending the utmost outward advantage, is but porch and prologue to those [Page 38] Magnalia Dei, those Arcana Patriae, which nei­ther eye hath seen, nor ear have heard, nor entred in­to the heart of man to think of; namely, the good things God hath laid up in heaven for those that fear him, not to be attained or enjoyed here (a­las, our Vessels are too narrow to receive that Ocean where there is incapability of reception, there is no probability of retention:) if we cannot be in possession while in the flesh, let us covet to depose this garment of incapability, and thirst af­ter that glory which Heaven exalts us to; specifi­ed to us in that Jewel, Peace Eternal.

Acquaint now thy self with God and be at Peace; that is, be every way blest; within, in a serenity of mind; without, in a fortunate condition, ex­empt from evils, or sanctified to thee in spight of evils; Prov. 17.7. for when a mans wayes please the Lord, he will make his enemies be at peace with him; or with­out fail, above, in the beatitude of thy soul to all eternity.

This is the rest that remains to the people of God; Heb. 4.9. John 14.3. this is the Mansion prepared by Christ, of which he took possession by his Ascension, and in which he now is in Session at the right hand of God. This is that Jerusalem above, Gal. 4.26.which is free, the mother of us all, where Hallelujahs are Musick, Angels Cho­risters, the Divine Nature prospect, Saints Com­panions, and the Lamb Light in the midst thereof.

This is Heaven, not in Enthusiastick rapsodies, not in fanatick Novelties, not in raving Blasphe­mies, but in deed and truth.

This is Heaven, not that of pleasure in Amnons Lust, in Achans Wedg, in Solomons Wisdom, in Methuselahs long life, in Achitophels Craft, or in [Page 39] Judas his gain by Treachery; but Heaven in the bosom of Christ, who is Exalted above Principali­ties and Powers.

This is heaven, not in Types and Figures, not in dark and remote viewes, not in variating forms, and unfixed Stations, but in real consistence, and unalterable duration.

This is Heaven, not blemished by sin, not te­dious through sorrow, not ruled by sinful will, not vanquished by lawless power, not tainted by profaneness, not deserted by time, not impairable in value and real worth, but ever what can be wish­ed for, and never less then it at any time was or is.

Lastly, This is Heaven, not infected with pride, not dejected with poverty, not shrivelled with age, not scorched with heat, not determining with time.

Heaven, a Kingdom for its glory and capacity, purchased by the price of blood, and the pre-ap­pointment of Mercy; for not all, but for many, yet those a little flock, those who are acquainted with God in grace, and by him rewarded with this Peace.

Now I am in Meditation at the Ladders top; but have we spoke well of this Canaan? Is not this Peace of eternity the least of our treatment, though in it Christ be, Micah. 5.2. as was Bethlehem Ephrata little amongst the Tribes of Judah, out of which Christ came? Is not Isaak mistaken, and sent a­way with a smal pittance, in stead of the son of Hagar? What means my line upon line on other Subjects less worthy, and my brevity on this head that exceedeth them all.

Truly more Devotion then words, more Ad­mitation then Oratory befits this Subject; Schola­stick Dispute, and eloquent Panegyricks are the Fucusses that adorn this Elementary world, and please its Aery Inhabitants; these are the Diana's of vain men, and those Treasures which they pride in, and relye on, as inexhaustible; and with these they delude souls, and dishonour him who beau­tified us with that bravery, that we might honour him as our Creator, follow him as our Pattern, yea fall down before him as our Judge. When I am in Meditation of Heaven, I rather pray for a warm heart, and keen affections; for abilities to believe in, and adhere to God, then for curious Specula­tions and pathetick words; and therefore since faith must supply what sense cannot attain to, and those things that are secret and ineffable, are rather to be adored, then searched into, or written upon; I can here conclude this part of my Meditation in the Wisemans words, The knowledg of this is too wonderful for me, it is high, I cannot attain un­to it.

And declining further thought of this Peace which here I cannot understand; enquire into the e­vil we are assured to escape both here and hereafter, which is the fourth Enquiry, How this Peace may be said to repel evil from us? in that clause, So shall no evil come unto thee.

Peace and Evil are here opposed, not more in the words then sense. Evil like the Canker eats out either our Peace, or at least eclipseth the comfort of it; evil of sin deserves no peace; evil of pu­nishment believes and finds no peace; to the one peace is not, to the other it seems not to be, and so [Page 41]is not at all as to the present discovery: That there­fore the Holy Ghost might set every Trophie up­on its proper basis, I conceive him, using this or­der in this Scripture, to teach us, that as Acquain­tance with God is the way to peace, so is the peace of God crowned with exemption from evil; and that none can expect to have Gods custo­dye; but those which are in League and A­mity with him; Bee at Peace, so shall no evil come unto thee.

No Evil, Not Satan, the Tempter to it, and the Traducer for it; Christs Prayer is our Antimure, Deliver us from evil; that is, from that evil one. From his Power, 1 Pet. 5.8. Ephes 6.11. as the Lion that goes about seeking whom he may devour: From his Policy, for we know his Methods, his pious Fraudes, his Scriptum ests, his Lamblike, Angellick manifesta­tions, 2 Cor. 11.14. Matth. 24.24. his transformations into shews of Light and external sanctity, and all to deceive, if possible, the very Elect.

From his Agents, who Ape-like act his part to much perfection ( [...] and [...]) make Merchandise of Faith and a good Conscience, care not what they do to make Proselytes and per­vert souls. This crafty Policrates, Satan, 2 Pet. 2.3. moves every stone to his advantage, and hath flags of all colours to hang out for our surprize; he hath In­struments that with the Zeal of old Arsenius seem to forsake their Countries and Fortunes to devote themselves to God; his Luciferi [...]ns, that come in the vests of innocency, Matth. 7.15. but inwardly are ravening wolves, having the poison of Asps under their tongues, and the rancour of Divels in their hearts; whom Christ commands us to beware of, Mat. 10.17. He [Page 42]hath his Artemona's, that have such convict­ing deportments that they lead men which way they lift, by their suaviloquius charmes, and compleasant influences; his Pharisees, that swallow downe Widowes houses in the hol­low of long Prayers; that are all to all men, that they might reduce all men to be nothing to a­ny but themselves; his Saduces that deny Resur­rection, Angels, Spirit, but what is theirs, those they cry up as Ocular, execrating all that are not of their party, and cry not Grace, Grace to this Apollyon of their designing. Lord, what a Galla­maufry of Frauds hath this great Engineere on foot? How is he furnished to deceive, who hath not only the tongues and pens of many men Learned, but lying Wonders and miraculous Ar­tifices at his service? But we know his methods, and may see this Apicius gaping to devour all; contented with nothing but ruine and disorder, though he cry out with Jehu, Behold my Zeal.

And it were well if men would try the spirits that now are abroad, for Satan is often a Lying spirit in the mouth of Prophets, and a Prophecy­ing spirit in the mouth of Lyers: and if he durst mingle himself with the Sons of God when they came before him of old, may he not now be well mistrusted: Job 1.6. though he quote Scripture with the zeal of a Seraphim, and in the meetings of Chri­stians pray and speak with notable evidence; he who durst appear before Christ with Scripture a­bused to his own purpose, Matth. 4.6. dare do the like to Chri­stians, whose weakness is more opportune to his Conquest. He is that Evil one, who in his [Page 43]whites is a Divel of Deceit, in his blacks a Divel of Malice, in his Crimsons a Divel of blood; a Divel in all shapes, actions, senses, and happy is it for us that we know his Methods. And Agents; not men of triffling talents, who need vulgar helps to make them eminent; but men of great parts, noble wits, yea often noted lives; speaking to wonder, writing to amazement, living to envy and example; the Leaders of Israel sometimes caused them to err; Isai. 9.16. The Priests divined a false­hood; the Divel of Sauls heart (in Samuel; flesh as it were) is potent enough to misguide milli­ons. O Lord what a Progress hath the mystery of iniquity made, when the Serpent stings the Dove to death; Religion becomes politized. What an Egypt will Gunaan be, when Mannah is exchanged for Garlick and Onions, when the Screech Owl extrudes the Turtle; and that be upon us which the Jewes feared, John 11.48. The Romane come and take away our Religion, and (I pray God) not our place and Nation.

Is not this evil of the Divels designing? Is not the hand of hells Joab, Satan in it, but the sword of the Lord and of his Gideon Christ Jesus shall prevent this, though none stand in the gap; no Moses intercedes, no Phineas executes Judg­ment; yet this Plague shall cease; God for his own namesake will turn those Locusts (the Jesu­its) back to their quarters; and make their De­sign as a red sea to bury themselves in. The Thumbs of these Adonibezeks shall be cut off, the Pride and Policy of these Absoloms become their ruines, So let all thine enemies perish, O Lord.

Well, we have a sight of Satan in his power, and agents; now see him in his Policy and end, which is to cut off Samsons locks; to destroy the Males of Israel; to ruine all the Smithes and Forges by which our Spiritual weapons should be edged to oppose him, and defend our selves a­gainst his assaults; thus did the Philistims of old to Israel, 1 Sam. 13.9. But I hope God will turne this Wisdom into Folly, and this. Babel: of Hope into a Babel of Defeat; yea, I will bespeak these Gates of Hell to give way to the Rock of A­ges, and to Christ the Corner stone, who is with his Church to the end of the world; and I will pray that the iniquity of their hearts may be for­given them, who hate the Church of England without a cause, and endeavour to subvert the Religion of it against Scripture that asserts it.

And now is not custody from this evil an un­speakable Blessing? Is it not as rain to the parch­ed grass, and ought we not to receive this Mercy with the joy of Harvest? Is it not a serious collect which deprecates Satans success; while he with Herod acts a Tragedy on Innocents; and labours to steal away the Babe Christ out of his mothers lap the Church; his mother the Church; not to rob the blessed Virgin of her Crown (All Gene­rations call her Blessed, because she bare his body in her womb) but to right the Church against her Rival, the Synagogue of Satan, which disowns her, and seeks Christ out of her, who spiritually is only formed in her, from which evil, and the infatuation of it, good Lord deliver us.

This is the first Evil (Satan) from which the Peace of God shields us, the next is from Sin; like [Page 54]father, like child; a chip of the old block, a branch of that Lye which was from the beginning.

From sin, the evil of inquination, that which de­files the man, defaces Gods image, passes an eternal exile twixt the soul and him, for he hath no fellow­ship with unfruitful works of Darkness; His eye is on them that are upright,Prov. 2. ult.but he cutteth off the wicked from the earth, and rooteth out the Transgressors.

From sin, the Evil of Angels, for because of fol­ly beheld in them, they were cast from Heaven; 1 Pet. 2.4. Isai 30.33. the evil of Kings and great men, for whom Tophet is prepared of old; Sin, the evil of men of low de­gree; sin, the evil of all; 1 John 5.19. for the whole world groaneth under it, and lies in it.

From sin, the eyes grief, Gen. 3.6.66. because by that it prevailed against Eve, by that against the sons of God of the old world: Sin, the hearts ake; thus in Saint Paul crying out, Rom 7.24. Psal. 39. [...]. O wret­ched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death! Sin, the feets snare, against which David cautions, I said I wil take heed to my ways; Sin, the tongues temptation to speak unadvisedly; Sin, the Catholick Cross to all that are crucified with Christ, and mystical members of him; Sin, the breach of Gods Law, the grief of his Spirit, the price of his Son, the torment of his Comba­tant, and the triumph of his Crowned ones; Sin, the Monster of Paradise, for there it was plot­ted; the first born of life, for therein it is act­ed; the plague of this world, on whose Stage it is attyred, and thence maturated. Sin, some­thing of nothing, a tumourous bubble of pestilent pride, scorching Lust, and empty va­nity, evaporating in nothing but the Lust [Page 46]of the flesh, Lust of the eye, and the Pride of life.

Sin an evil inward in the thought, outward in the act, upward against God whom it contemnes, and downward against earth whom it burthens, and all to gratifie him who is Prince of the Air, and rules in the hearts of the Children of disobedience. Sin against the Creation, whom it disorders; a­gainst Redemption, which it frustrates; against Sanctification, which it defies; against Preserva­tion, which it contradicts; against Salvation, which it abjures. Sin, against which, as the great­est evil, God protests; to prevent which Angels watch; to recal from which the Spirit sollicites; to direct how to avoid which, the word is positive; against which to practise, the holy men of all ages are presidents; yea, to expiate which the blood of Christ the Lamb of God was shed, and his soul for it made an Offering.

What shall I say more against this which is so dishonourable to God, and ought to be execra­ble to his people? but in the words of Moses, Cur­sed be he that continues not in all the words of the Law to do them; that is, who desires not to give sin the foil, by a contrary and constant course of virtue, according to the will of God in his Word, and the assistance he hath from God in this Race to complete this resolution; for without that we can do nothing.

Wel then, to be helped from this evil, is a mercy, a consequent of Gods peace with the soul; that is clear from the Prophet, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace (or neerer the Original, in peace, peace) whose heart is stayed on thee, because hee trusteth in [Page 47]thee. He, O holy soul, that keepeth thee never slumbereth, his eye is on thy feet, to keep them; He keepeth the feet of his Saints, saith Hannah: On thine eye, to hinder thy lust; on thy hand, to prevent thy cruelty; on thy tongue, to suspend thine obscenity; on thy whole man, to keep thee from sin, that it raign not in this mortal body of thine. He was with Noah in the Ark, to keep him from de­spair of out-living the Floud, which drowned the world; with Moses in the wilderness, to preserve him from disbanding his rude multitude, whom God designed for Canaan, and inclining him to bear the petulancies of popularities; rather then chuse the contents of a private retirement: He was with David in his flights from Saul, and fights with Philistims: And kept him from desponding, upon assurance of a Kingdom for his reward: He was with Jeremy in the Dungeon, and with Jonah in the Whales belly; to sweeten straights to his, and to make them more pure in their enlargements. He was with Peters tongue, converting thousands at a Sermon, and making his pride do pennance where it offended, yea, weep out its own retra­ction. He was with Paul by grace sufficient for him, when he saw the messenger of Satan tempted him by abundant revelations to be lifted up above measure. In the fire he is with his, and in the wa­ter he is with his: yea with you, O holy souls, he is alwayes, to the end of the world. With you (O holy souls) to keep you in all your wayes, to secure you in all your dangers, to resolve you in all your doubts, to support you under all your suf­ferings, and with you to deliver you out of them: With you as a Sun to enlighten, as a sheild to [Page 48]defend, as an Anchor to rest on, as a Pilot to guide you, and as a Champion to overcome your feares. With you, to keep you in your Race, that you faint not; and with you, to reward you with fulness of joy in his presence. This is second to the former priviledge, the peace of God keeps from Evil. 1. Satan: 2. Sin.

The third Viol is not yet past, 3 but behind, that is, Sorrow and Sufferings: those it also preserves against, not that they dash not on us, but that they overwhelm us not; not that they come not nigh, but that they come not over us to overcome us: Christ in the Ship priviledgeth not from tos­sing, but drowning. I will not fear the ranting Seas, if my rebuking Saviour (whose voice those waves and winds obey) be embarqued with me. Mistake not (O holy soules) your Lesson; it is the voice of your Beloved that sayes, In the world yee shall have Tribulation: Job 16. last. the Cross is your Saviours Sheep-mark, and those that are of his flock, brook his Eare mark; their ear must not re­fuse the Tryal Christs side had; if that was pier­ced, they must expect like measure; and those that will not follow him in the Regeneration, have lit­tle cause to conclude him theirs in his Kingdome. What (O man) wilt thou with thy Saviour wear the Crown of Glory, and refuse that other of Thornes with him? Wilt thou be acclamated for a Co-heir, a King, and Priest with Christ, and not be spit upon and derided with him here? Wilt thou drink the new wine with him in his Kingdom, and decline the Vinegar and Gall here given him? Dost thou hope to be drawn up after him, and [Page 49]not resolve here to tread the Wine-press of wrath, to endure the contradiction of sinners with him? If this thou lookest for, thou art on thy wander, far from thy Mark; thou art of the rich young mans pack, who would keep Christ and his Wealth too, or no Christ; Cresianus es, non Christianus; there is one thing necessary which thou needest, Deny thy self, take up the Cross, and follow Christ, to Mount Calvary, before thou come to Mount Zion.

And O that this Meditation were but canon with many such Zelots as Julian was, who grasp Power and worldly greatness with as eager tal­lons as Lions and Panthers do Lambs and Infants, and think they never have enough, till they have too much Mammon for Christ to cohabit with. These are they that are Saints, as Peter was a Pe­nitent, after many denyals and perjuries; not Saints because penitent as was he, whom a Cock wakened; when these stop their eares against good counsel, and harden their hearts a­gainst reproof; yea, hate him that repro­veth in the Gate. These are they who love Christ when he is with those in Prin­ces Courts, cloathed in soft Rayment, sat in Royal Apparel on the Throne, when the people cry him up; but when he is tra­duced, when in the High Priests Hall, when trampled upon, then they are gone like Summer birds in Winter; they are all for a Pompous Reign on earth, before that more glorious Reign in Heaven; and therefore they will secure them­selves by might and main against all danger and di­minution here. Do these consider Christ had ne­ver [Page 50]been glorious, but by sufferings, nor the Church been victorious but by the red Cross? How much of holy Writ do these men make A­pocryphal, while they entail external prosperity to Saintship, and think none worthy to live, but those who look upon the Cross as a curse, servile supplicium? What think they of those words of the Lord Jesus, In the world yee (Who? my holy Apostles, as pure Saints as any such, none excepted; nay, to whom compared, those are but as Jewish Sepulchers) shall have affliction; not be afflicted, but have affliction, in the Abstract; there shall be a kind of connaturality betwixt you and affliction. What judge they of Saint Pauls peremptory position, All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shal suffex persecution? What of Saint Peters prediction of fiery Tryals, and Encouragements to prepare for them? Nay, what of our Saviours Benediction on those that suffer for Righteousness sake? Are these Tales and Figments? Are these Legends and Foysts? Are these Lillies of his field, not to be compared to the Solomons of their fancy in all his Royalty? I trow there is no man so fond, but sees self more set up then Christ in this Pageant, for take away suffe­rings, and where is Faith? where Charity? where Martyrdome? nay, where is, or to what purpose that animative reference of the Holy Ghost dis­playing Christ, glorious in witnessing a good con­fession before Pontius Pilate his Judg, who could wash his hand, and protest Christs innocency, and yet durst not deliver him from the rage of the multitude No wonder they cry down Scripture, and Fathers, and Church Stories, who cry up such [Page 51]wild, excentrick, worldly subtilties for Religion, and own Christ with their mouthes, as the Jewes did him on the Cross, only the more to reproach him.

Well, let these stray from the fold as wildly as they will, it is thy part (O holy soul) to keep close to thy colours, Voti tunc Chri­stianis erat pro Christi nomine gladio percuti. S. Hie­ron. in vita Pauli Eremitae de Temp. De­cii. Christ looketh thou shouldst not only he ready to own, but of need be, to dye for him; thou must expect sorrows, perhaps not such as with Spira will make thee despair, turn thy back on Gon, as Ephraim did in the day of Battel; but such as may exercise thy Grace, correct thine out­goings, mind thee of thine end, admonish thee of thy duty, rouze thee to get thine Evidence ready, to make thy Calling and Election sure, and by a holy end prepare thee for a blessed Exchange.

The Promise is to be secure, not exempt; not that yee shall not to be assaulted, but not be o­vercome; not that ye shall not be chastned, but that ye shall not be condemned; not that evils shall not come neer you, but that they shall not domineer over you; not that ye shall not be buf­fetted by Satan, but that Divine Grace shal be suf­ficient for you.

The Peace of God gained by Acquaintance with him, is no plea of prescription against trouble and evil; but this it doth, it modifies evil, so that it comes not noxiously neer a godly man, as it is evil, so its kept at distance, as it is a Mark of Divine love, as it is a voice to reclaim, as it is commanded to be Gods Mo­nitor to us, so we must welcome it as did David, It is good for me that I was afflicted; and pray for it as preventive Physick, that keeps us from Pletho­rick [Page 52]Distempers. Many men may thank God for their crosses, without which they had never come to Heaven: there is a most notable Story in the Legend, of a blind woman, who besought Saint Bridget to give her sight; the Saint (so called) at her intreaty, Quo presentor sum mundo, eo absentior sum Christo. did; and when she had seen four dages, she desired Saint Bridget, that she would take away her sight again, adding this for reason, The more I see of the world, the less am I conversant with Christ.

4. Lastly, The peace in Acquaintance with God, will keep thee from thr Evil of Evils, Death eternal. God suffers not his to fall into that pit, out of which there is no redemption; His, as they have no part in the sin of the Damned, so shall they not partake in the torment of the Damned: 'Tis not, Go ye Blessed, but Go ye Cursed into ever­lasting sire, prepared for the Divel and his Angels. And indeed, this is the Mercy of Mercies; this is one part of the Recompence of Vertue and Godly life, that it shall not only have comfort in seeing God gloriously waving the Banner of love over it, but becoming its Guard to Heaven, and nulli­fying Satans attempts on it; this is, that in which the mercy of God shines as at noon tide, and com­fortably exalts its self above Justice, as that which crowns God, and renders him Beloved and admi­red of all that know him.

But perhaps (O man) thou art curious to know what this Death Eternal is? This is a vanity, and if thou beware not, may be the vexation of thy spirit, but if thou wouldest ken the scantling of it, our blessed Lord hath defined it to be utter dark­ness, [...]. 8.12.where is weeping and watling, and gnashing of [Page] [Page 53]teeth; it is exile from God, and judgment to the society of damned spirits, for ever.

Death Eternal, what is it not that is absolute tri­sticity? it is a living death, and a dying life; it is the wages of sin, the sentence of Justice, the utmost period of Plagues; a most exquisite misery, a most Merciless Torment, an Eternal Passion! Eternal Death; it is misery to the eye, for it shall not see God; it is a worm gnawing on the heart, for it shall consider the evil it hath done, for which is inflicted that evil it suffereth; it is a vexation to the senses, which to augment the tortures of their condition shal be renewed and made more sensible; it is an excess which shall never have end, but be e­ternally what it is, and impossible to be what it is not.

Death Eternal; it is the region of Blasphemy, the Caldron of Nimrods, Nero's Judasses, those chambers of ruine into which they descend, who desert God by sin, and are deserted by God in just Judgment. Death Eternal; it is a gulfe without bottom; a doom beyond ransome; a fire that burnes, and is never extinguished; and a restless craver, never satisfied.

What shall I say other then that of the Psalmist, Remember this yee that frrget God, Psal. 50.22.lest he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver.

These are the Evils from which peace in Acquaintance with God priviledgeth the soul.

But how (cries the holy soul) cometh this to be my priviledge? How, O soul? Surely not by thy merit, but 1. By the Mercy of God; which hath bestowed that good, as an Enticement to be his; God in­vites [Page 54]sinners to his Mercy. Isai. 30.18. He waites to be gracious, he would have them come to the waters of Life and drink freely; Matth. 11.28. he calls to you to come, Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden; he re­wards them when they come, Those that come unto me, I will in no sort cast away; he complains of them when they do not come, John 5.40. They will not come unto me that they might have life. God in good­ness begins with man, and gives him co-operating Grace; and it is his own obduration that makes Mercy retreat; while we are willing he assists us, but when we draw back, he will have no pleasure in us. Mercy makes the Marriage betwixt God and the Soul, and Peace is the Dowry that God gives his Beloved; those that are one with him by Grace cannot be sever'd from him and themselvs through Evil. Here is the best Exchange for profit, here is the Indiaes of holy Riches, here is Canaan flow­ing with Milk and Honey, here is the light which admits no darkness, and the day that never sees night. here is the Price and the Pearle, the work, and the wages: God to whom by faith we must run, and Mercy, which by faith from him we may receive; here is the door by which we must enter into the joy of our Master; and here is the Master, who will not shut the door against us, be­cause we come not before bid, nor can we stay there longer then welcome. By thee, O Sun of the Mor­ning, and first born of Heaven (for thou wast in the beginning) is our Acquaintance wrought with God, and our evil from sin prevented.

2. This comes to be the holy souls priviledg, from the Purchase of Christ; P [...]t. 1.21. He, he redeemed us, not only from our vain conversation, but from the [Page 55] wrath to come; from the bondage of sin and Satan, into the glorious liberty of the sons of God: Gal. 3.13. Rom. 8.21. Ephes 2.14. 'Tis he that is our Peace, and 'tis he that keeps us from that Evil one. The Redemption wrought by him on the Cross, was not only from wrath, but to himself: He hath redeemed us to himself out of every Nati­on, &c. Rev. 5.9, 10. Not only to free us from the rage of sin and Satan, but to make us Kings and Prists, to preserve us to his Heavenly Kingdome; and herein he is a Saviour to the utmost; to the utmost of men: Hebr. 7.25. he is the Saviour of his whole body, Jewes, Gen­tiles, far, neer, bond, free, rich, poor, high, low, his Providence is over his whole family; his rain rains upon bad as well as good. To the ut­most of things, all co-operate hy his interposition and ordination, to the good of his; the Graces of Godly men make them admire him; the sins of others to watch over themselves more; nay, their own failings carry them to God by Petition for pardon and grace sufficient for them; the crosses they carry have Christ in them, the reproaches they suffer have Christ with them, the glory they aim at, Christ will bring them to; Life, which to many is a pleasure, Christ imbitters, and yet rescues them from any provocation to impatience: they use it as the time wherein to work, but they desire to be dissolved in Christs time, For to be with him is best of all. To the uttermost of time: his merit is a light unextinguishable, was, is, and ever shall be: the Patriarks before, the Prophets in, the ho­ly men after the Law got to Heaven upon this wing, in this Chariot were they thither transpor­ted, in the garment of this elder brother were they wrapped, for that only is the Wedding garment; [Page 56]This is the one and only way; narrow, not open to all, but to those that believe; but yet a sure way, bounded by the sure mercies of David; and herein he is a Saviour be­yond all, a Superlative Redeemer, for he is eter­nal, whereas others are but Temporary; he is complete, whereas others are but partial. Where are Moses and Joshuah, David and Jeptha, who saved the Jewes? Where Caesar, Scipio, Metellus the Deliverers of the Romanes? Where Codrus, Themistocles, Photion, by whom the Greeks were delivered? These are dead, and their Territories by others possessed; nay, their ashes are become the prey of Tyrants, who glut themselves with re­venges on their relicts: but Christ is the Saviour of his body, the Church; for ever he is, and ever will be the light in the midst of it, and a wall of fire round about it; For Christ hath purchased its peace, and paid (with reverence be it conceived) for that interest in God, which will keep off evil from coming to his.

3. This priviledg from evil is the natural child of Acquaintance with God; God never gives him­self, without all that is his; and if all, then his peace, then his protection from evil; the Prophet tels us of Gods speaking peace to his people; Psal. 85.8. Isai. 26.20.41.14. Psal. 145.20 of his counsels to them to enter into rest till the indignati­on be over; of his cordial, Fear not thou worm Ja­cob, I will be with thee: of his corrasive to wicked men whom he will destroy. And whence (O holy soul) comes all this, but from that proximity twixt God and the soul? This is the pay of our patience, the result of our fidelity to God; he that followes the Lamb, Rev. 2.17. shal not miss his white stone and new name. [Page] [Page 57]God never difmisses his without a blessing, like that from the womb of the Morning; he gives them peace to poyse them here amidst their many storms in this life, and he keeps evil far from them; yea, that which is the greatest evil, after their deaths, eternal evil.

And now me thinks I am of S. Peters mind on the Mount, It is good to be here: here are three words in this Scripture, like the three Tabernacles in that: Acquaintance with God, Peace and Protection from evil; and these are (as Christs face was transsigured) in a sort seraphickly expressed, and proposed after a celestial method; here is Acquaintance; usually res doloris, a vanity of vanity, in the multitude of which there is sorrow and distraction, strangely meliorated by its adjunct, highly imbeautied by its entail to God, of a Ceremony and a necessity made a virtue; Ac­quaint thy self with God. Next, here is the Lady Peace, not like that of the world, with Rachel mourning, with Thamar thrust out of doors after it hath served a turn; but like the Queens daugh­ter, glorious within, as beloved of God, and beaute­ous without, as decked with the Needle work of ex­ternal accommodations: Lastly, here is evil pro­fligated and dismantled of its force; the Lion ex­ungued, and the sting taken out of the Serpents tail, as an effect of divine bounty, and this by the Chi­mistry of God, who is able to bring good from evil.

What then remains to this Meditation, but to summon the last Quere to give in its verdict? And that is the season when this Acquaintance w^th God is to be had, and these consequences obtained, in the Particle now, Acquaint [now] thy sef with God, &c.

Now: Season seasons every thing; the Wise man said it, Prov. 25.12. A word in season is like apples if Gold in Pi­ctures of Silver; a fair shew, but Mettal upon Me­tal makes no Heraldry, but in a Picture 'twill pass, and so will time pass, of which this now is a part, and the best part because present; Acquaint now: Now; when? in life, in the day of time, in the season of Mercy, in Youth, before time be not, thou go down into the grave, and be seen no more, yea, before thou be gathered to dust, and worms feed upon thy flesh.

Now; not anon: Now, lest sickness, age, death prevent anon, and thou have no time to groan for Peace, or cry for Mercy; our pardon is e­ver in danger, where our repentance is in debate.

Now: this is to be wise for thy self (O soul) for it only is in thy possession, what a day wil bring forth thou knowest not, therefore hearken to Wisdoms voice, While it is called to day; delayes ought to be as past time, out of thy power, since to work out now thy salvation with fear and trembling is thy prudence.

Time hath no longer a race than a Creature hath, it is alwayes on a swift Ebb, ere long it will be low water, and then where the tree falls, it must lye: and since time and tide stay for no man, O my soul, do thou watch them, and take time to do thy task; eternity gives good wages. Remember who said, 2 Tim. 4.7. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith, from henceforth is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness.

Now: not at the sixth or last hour of the day, for it is not certain whether thou shalt live upon this hazard to receive the penny of Eternity, which [Page 59]followes the orderly expence of time; but now, this instant, moment set to thy Tackling; the storm is great and thy vessel queasie, and therefore put in to the next Habour: What thou dost, do quick­ly, Eccles. 9. [...]. For there is neither wisdom nor strength in the grave whither thou goest, nor ever will be in thy power to untie thy chain of torments, or regain a lost happiness.

Therefore (O my soul) receive thou this counsel with joy, and perfect it by holy industry, while thou hast time, talents, and what may further help thee in this blessed Husbandry and Sacred Thrift. Look not upon the Lions in the way, the narrow pas­sage to life eternal, the obloquies of men who will judge thee mopish because thou labourest for that Jewel that thou hast lost, and wouldst find a­gain. These discouragements may work on lazy and thriftless souls, who starve when there is bread enough in their fathers house: follow thou the Saints of all ages, who by Faith and Patience inherit the Promises; and by their holy example be thou stimulated to take the Cross for thy Title to the Crown of Life; yea, contest thou for their Crown, not to rob them, but to right thy self, who art born to equal hopes with them: and comfort thy self in that promise of the holy Apostle (who is now at peace with God, and is taken from the e­vil of this world unto the glory above) In due time ye shall reap if you faint not. Gal. 6.9.