COMFORT TO THE AFFLICTED. DELIVERED IN A SERMON preached at PAVLS-Crosse the xxi. day of May, M.DC.XXVI. Being the last Sunday in Easter Term. By ANTONY FAWKENER, Mast. of Arts, of jesus College in OXFORD.  
LONDON, Printed for ROBERT MILBOURNE. 1626.   printer's device of Robert Milbourne, framed device of an open book surrounded by beams of light; below the initials of Peter Short, whose device this previously was (McKerrow 278) 
ET VSQUE AD NUBES VERITAS TVA  
P. S.   

To the right Worshipful, Master EVERARD FAWKENER, my beneficent good Uncle; Grace, mercy and peace in Christ JESUS.  
SIR,  
IT is the providence of Nature, to necessitate a retribution of her gifts unto herself. Her matter she lends, never fails her; it may indeed be in some sort corrupted, but no way annihilated. Though man be corrupted, nature looseth no substance; but what was lately hers in a humane body, will still be hers though but in dust and ashes. If nature can be so frugal to save her own, 'tis pity that piety should be a loser. The rivers restore unto the Ocean what they have received from her, themselves: And by an imitating gratitude, we are bound to devote ourselves to the sources of our fortunes. As of the passed, you are (next God) the patron of my succeeding happiness: Wherefore in stead of myself, I am bold to present unto you this offspring, and indeed (in respect of so general an audience) my first borne: which according to the Law, I have already dedicated unto the Lord. A work of purpose proportioned to the hearers benefit, not a Critics censure. So plain, that the simple may understand; and yet (I hope) not altogether so unpolished, that the friendly and judiciously curious may scorn it. Briefly, what I have consecrated to God, I may boldly present to man. Therefore in confidence of your imitation of him in accepting a good will, I rest  
Your Nephew, in all Christian duty to be commanded, ANTONY FAWKENER.   

A SERMON PREACHED AT Pauls-Crosse.  JOB 19.21. 
Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, (O ye my friends) for the hand of God hath touched me.  
AS the great Universe, so the small World, Man is composed of, and divided into two parts; Spirit and Body. The soul expresseth creatures immaterial; Angels: The body is the character of things material and corporal. The world was pure till man fell: the sin of the little world cursed the great one. No sooner was Adam found guilty, but the earth was cursed, and that received punishment before the delinquent: yet not for its own, but his sake. Man sinned, not the earth; the earth was cursed, not for its own, but man's punishment: The ground must be cursed ere man can be punished: the earth must be barren, ere Adam can sweat. As of sin, so is man the chief subject of calamity; each creature else for his sake, he for his own. Their punishment is not theirs, but his; and their unhappiness only in order to his misery. The earth indeed was cursed, man more; barrenness seized on it, death on him.  
Rarò antecedentem scelestum  
Deseruit pede poena claude.  
Punishment is light-footed, and will as soon revenge God, as man can injure him. Transgression is sometimes punished with the object it desires. Adam indeed by eating the forbidden fruit, knew good and evil; but 'twas a lamentable knowledge. He knew evil, but first in himself: the first science he had, was of his own infirmity; for, He saw that he was naked. Gen. 3.7. Sometimes 'tis punished by the contrary: Adam would no sooner have been as God, but he was as man; ambitious to be equal with the Almighty, he became inferior to himself. By his own power he would have lived for ever, and therefore died presently; for, By sin death entered into the world. Lo then! he was no sooner sinful, than miserable; no sooner the subject of transgression, than of affliction. As than we derive sin from our parents, so it's punishment, and misery is as much ex traduce as guilt. What man then life's and ofttimes sins not? what man ofttimes sins, and is not sometimes scourged? As than our affliction may be common, so our compunction should be mutual. Our brother is corrected to day, to morrow may be our course: job was afflicted in this Chapter, he knew his friends might be ere long (as indeed they were in the last Chapter, where he was fain to sacrifice for them:) and therefore exhorts them to bestow that upon him in his calamity, which they would be glad to beg of him in theirs; at least, that weak mercy of commiseration, and that small solace, Pity.  Have pity upon me, have pity upon me etc. 
Man and wife are one by a matrimonial union; Body and Soul make one by a natural constitution. Each man hath in himself a state Economical; Eve was married to Adam, the Body to the Soul. Adam then is both Adam and Eve, Soul and Body. The Serpent first beguiled Eve, than she Adam: Vanity first cheats sense, than she deceives the soul. As both have sinned, so both are punished in the same order: First Eve was chidden, than Adam. First the body is punished in this world, than the soul in the life to come. The whole world of man transgressed in its parts; Adam and Eve, who were it: and, by a law of parity, each of them is punished in their parts; soul and body, which make up them. The whole man than is afflicted in his parts: look but upon this verse, and behold this afflicted man. My Text is the Emblem of a wretched wight, where by a method synthetical, the sacred limmer proceeds from the parts to the whole. First, there are two petitions correspondent to two parts: Have pity upon me: and again, Have pity upon me. Pity my body, pity my soul: Both grounded upon four implicit reasons; two taken à Posse; for you may do it, because 'tis Easy and Lawful: and two à Debito; for you most do it, because 'tis commanded by Nature and by God. Secondly, the parties petitioned, O ye my friends. Thirdly, the reasons expressed on the petitioners part, moving and persuading to the grant of his request; which in general are three: 1. taken from the causes of his affliction, which here are two; Instrumental, s. The hand: prime Efficient, s. Of God. 2. taken from the action concrete, with its manner, s. Hath touched. 3. from the patiented; the whole man, and but a frail man, s. Me.  
First then of the double petition: Have pity upon me, have pity upon me. Such was the love of God to us, that he would not make us according to any image, but his own: he would have had us no sooner men than sons; and the Creator vouchsafed to be the prototype of his creature. Yet the madness of our ambition fluttered to soar above the wisdom of his mercy: Coelum ipsum petimus stultitiâ. To be dust and ashes, was as much as by our own nature we could be; yet to be but a little inferior to God, was to be less than we would be. How fain we would have been as God himself! and nothing could satisfy the stupid pride of our finite nature, save to be absolutely equal with an infinite essence. So foolish was our first rebellion, that nothing could be the object of its aim, save the vanity of a contradiction. Thus in defacing his image, we uncreated his work, and by the defect of a new creation, made ourselves what he made us not. Now, if he that is not with him, be against him; he that is not like him, is so dislike him, that he is contrary. As than we walked stubbornly against him, so hath he walked stubbornly against us, revenging our dislike of his likeness, and by his justice punishing the contempt of his mercy. So that now our misery is squared to our happiness, and our sense as naturally admits the object that it hates, as that it likes. The eye can as easily see a ghastly pale, as a pleasing white; our flesh may be as soon scorched with heat, as recreated by a refreshing luke-warmth. The ear can as properly hear the Toad as the Nighingale, and all our senses receive as naturally their punishments as their blessings. Nor is the soul exempted from this affliction, but must have as great a share with the body in misery as it had in sin; which though it have not sense, it may have a compassion and a fellow-feeling by the virtue of its union. It wills the welfare of its nearest neighbour, the body; which being tortured its desire is crossed, and the contradiction of the will is the tartest punishment of the soul. 
Aquin. de anima. q. vlt.  My Text is compassed with the complaint of this double affliction, as the man of the Text (job) is with the misery itself; He cries out in the 20. verse, My bone cleaveth to my skin, and I have escaped with the skin of my teeth. Lo the distress of his body. Again he expostulates in the 22. verse, Why do you persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh? Lo here the anguish of his soul. This double affliction then may well require a twofold petition for a twofold commiseration; Have pity upon me, have etc. Thus fare the petition hath respected the twofold subject of calamity. Now, because that request is never peremptory, which intercedes by the mediation of reason, 'tis best we should awhile have respect unto the four implicit reasons; two taken à Posse, for 'tis easy and lawful; and two á Debito, for 'tis commanded by Nature and God. And first of the first, 
Easie.  'tis easy. To be bad when there is a possibility for us to be good, argues a neglect; to be bad when it is easy to be good, infers a voluntary rebellion. It would be an unnatural contumacy to struggle against an offered virtue, and a studied sin to be vicious with difficulty. Tears are as easy as affection, and compassion as common as love. If our friend be well, we must needs joy, and if he be ill, by the same necessity we must weep: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 
Xenoph: hist. graec. lib. 7.  If we can joy, we can grieve; tears are common to both, and each of them equally challenge a compassion. As easily as we can embrace, we can pity; and be with as little difficulty compassionate, as passionate. It is a trouble to be hard hearted, and it was more pain for joseph to refrain himself than to weep, Gen. 45.1. 'Tis no labour to be pitiful; for they that are weakest, are mostinclined to it; Women. Pharaoh, that could ride in a Chariot, was hard hearted; but his daughter, a Virgin, not capable of labour, had compassion upon Moses. 
Exod: 2.6.  The men were dogged that could strive against commiseration, and those children of Israel which wept at Christ's death, 
S. Luk. 23.28.  were the Daughters of jerusalem. So easy it is for that sex to pity, 
Athanas. q. act Antioch. 88  which by its nature is not of force to rebel against its nature. Pity then is our own, for it is ingraffed; 'tis harder to be stony than relenting, and a prodigy to be cruel, none to be merciful. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Athanasius tells us that signs and miracles are the only effects of God's power, but love and compassion are the natural fruits of man's will. So that we need not take pains to entertain lenity, sith 'tis in our own power to be merciful. Thus condolencie is so properly, so genuinely ours, that we can hardly be unmerciful; and therefore in the fable of Lycaon, the Poet judiciously makes it the miraculous work of a strange metamorphosis, for a man to become a Wolf. We are so ourselves when we are compassionate, that when we are unmerciful we are not ourselves. 
Athanas. ad Antioe. q. 118.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Hardness of heart is not the work of the creation, but of the Devil; and cruelty always follows either a base or a domineering distemperature. 
Aqui. 22ae. q. 30. Art. 2.  The proud cannot brook pity, supposing all, save themselves (who are worst) worthy of punishment. He that is injured is an enemy to it, for he imagines revenge; and he that is injurious, for he is only intent on malice. Briefly, it is a stranger to the fearless, desperate and the cowardly fearful: the one is so careless of himself, that he forgets to pity another; the other is so careful of himself, that he hath no leisure to pity another. Lo here the quintaine, the troop of the Devil; Pride, Revenge, Malice, Despair, and Fear; the lame and crooked nurses of unmercifulness. The defects of nature are the sources of cruelty, and the distemperatures of the soul, the sole enemies of compassion. Yet (good God) how well we could be aught but what we are! we could perform any thing save our task, and be easily compassionate if it were not easy. Thus do we war against piety; choosing rather to be vicious with difficulty, than virtuous with ease. Rather than we will be good, we will sweat to be bad; and by a misguided election, rather seek a Viper which we know will sting us, than receive any refection which we know will nourish us. Thus when God offers us bread, we choose a stone; he gives us a fish, and we ask a serpent. But stay: our nature is so bad, that it will be good, though but by its own justification. Rather than our judgements shall fail, our inventions shall prevadicate. Malignant minds must be constant, though against reason; and will strive to prove that bad, which they cannot endure should be styled good. 'tis no argument (they'll say) to prove compassion good, because 'tis easy; for so most sins should be justified. The answer to which, draws us to the consideration of the second reason; for 'tis not barely easy, but withal justifiable: 'tis Lawful.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 
Lawful. Zenoph. memor. lib. 4.  'tis Xenophons' judgement: what is just, is lawful; and what is reasonable, is just. Virtue is measured by reason, and hath principally its nature from election. Reason is a divine gift, though it be natural, and can aswell make a virtue, as sense a vice. The flesh is weak; I but the spirit is willing: an intemperate body may desire badly: but a well guided soul makes the action virtuous. Mercy, 
Aqui. 22ae. q. 30. Art 3.  as a sensitive passion, may be mere trivial and idle: Mercy, as a motion of the mind, guided by reason, is a beautiful virtue. Now because virtue hath its extremes, and the Devil can turn himself from black to white; from the extreme to appear the mean; from the Prince of darkness to se●me an Angel of light: we must seek how to find the mean, and refuse the extremes; to entertain the Angel, and cast out the Devil. To the performance of which, we must first define Pity, showing what it is; then, manifest the persons whom it respects. But before we proceed to define, let Logic moderate us; for because of the ambiguous term Misericordia, Mercy, 'tis best to divide. 'tis taken then two ways, as only intimating commiseration, or withal implying succour. 
In 4. Psalm. penitent.  S. Gregory makes the division, and proportions fit terms to the dividing members. Per misericordiam miserentis affectum intelligimus, per miserationem verò misericordiae exhibitionem signamus. The word is either taken for a naked pity, only commiserating misfortunes, without giving relief: or for a compassion attended with a beneficence, which implies an actual exhibition of succour. The first is most properly meant in my Text, the second is a natural consequent: both may be handled; but to avoid confusion and tediousness, the first only in the doctrine.  
Pity then is defined to be Alienae miseriae in cord nostro compassio, 
S. Aug. de ciu. dei, lib. 9 cap. 5.  a deep and hearty fellow-feeling of another's misery. From which observe these four Canons. First, there must be a feeling or sorrow. Thus in the extremity of commiseration the Prophet cryeth, My bowels shall sound like an Harp for Moab, & mine inward parts for Kirharesh; Isay. 16.11. Secondly, there must be a fellow-feeling; compassion as well as passion: for we must slere cum flentibus; weep with those that weep, Rom. 12.15. Thirdly, we must have a respect to Misery; Misericordiae propriasedes miseria est, saith S. Bernard: 
De convers. ad Cler. ser. cap. 10.  Felicity requires no pity, but misery is the only seat of mercy. Lastly, it must be Alienae miscria, of another's unhappiness. Our pity hath respect to others, not ourselves; and if we are sad for our own misery, 'tis Dolour, not Compassio; Anguish, not Pity. Sothen, if we have not feeling, we are not passionate; if we have not fellow-feeling, we are 〈◊〉 compassionate. The definition than includes a re●●on, & that respect brings us to the persons. The consideration of whom sways the balance, and makes our pity either frivolous or discreet. Now the persons to be itied, are to be considered in respect of their conjunction to the parties pitying: The conjunction may be threefold, 1. Natural, as of a Kinsman to a Kinsman; 
Aqui. 22.ae. q. 31. Art. 4.  Civil, as of a Countryman to a Countryman; 3. Spiritual, as of a Christian to a Christian. We ought indeed to pity all, but these per prius. Charity gins at home: we own it to each man, but first to the nearest. Virtue and Grace ('tis Aquin as his simile) imitate Nature; the fire first warms what is like it, and next it. The air can sooner participate of the fires heat, than the water; and the flame soon heats that which naturally is most propense and inclining to warmth. So though our Compassion extends to all, it first respects the nearest. Religion and policy prescribe an order to our love, and naturally our affection is as near as nature. 
In Cant. Tom. 3.  Puto quidem esse vim charitatis unam, multas tamen habere causas & multos ordines diligendi, saith S. Origen. We may love, and consequently pity, all; yet some first and most, and one commiseration may have diverse degrees. The beautiful and deformed may be both beloved, yet the fairest best: I may commiserate a friends case, yea and an enemies too, yet my friends first. joseph fed all Egypt, but he placed his father and his brethren in the best of the land, Gen. 47.11. He sold food to the Egyptians, verse 14. but he nourished them; vers. 12. S. Paul suffered persecution for the Gentiles, but he could wish himself separated from Christ for his brethren his kinsmen according to the flesh, Rom. 9.3. Israel was commanded to entertain strangers gently, Levit. 19.33. but they wept bittery for the destruction of their countrymen the Beniamites; 
2. Sam. 21.3.  judg. 21.2. David indeed pitied and revenged the sojourning jebusites: But jeremy compiled a whole book of Lamentations for his native City jerusalem. 
Gen. 19.4.6.  Briefly, Abraham may be kind to Hagar, but he must love Sarah. It was grievous in his sight to part with Ishmael, yet he must not be heir with his son Isaac: 
Gen. 21.10.11.  For we must do good to all men, but specially to those that are of the household of faith, Gal. 6.10. These three things then, Religion, Kindred, and Country, claim the first title in our affection, and consequently in our compassion; and that commiseration which orderly respects them, is natural, lawful, and sanctified. These indeed infer a priority in mercy, but insinuate not so clearly the legitimacy of Pity itself. Now this lawfulness we may collect from the motives to commiseration, and the causes of affliction. The motives are of two sorts, 1. A part miserentis, 2. à parte eius cuius miseremur: the one is grounded in the party pitying, the other proceeds from the person pitied. The causes of compassion, in respect of the person pitying, are three: 1. Dilectio. 2. Coniunctio. 3. Assimilatio: Love, Kindred and equality, or likeness. The first is Love: There is a body as well by love as by nature; the difference is, that two natural bodies make but one by friendship. As one natural body hath only its own sense, so two bodies, made one by friendship, hath but one feeling. So that pity is as natural as sense, and compassion as proper to friends as passion to men. All things are common amongst friends; then so is misery: for affliction is as selfe-communicative as happiness. My friend is as mine own soul, Deut. 13.6. Thus if I love my friend, I am but penè alter, scarce another; so that I account his pain my grief, and what he undergoes properly, I must suffer, at least by reputation. The second motive is Conjunction and nearness; which we have before touched. The third is Assimilation or likeness. If the wind can scatter dust, then à simili, why cannot the breath of God's nostrils scatter us which are but dust? If one man be in misery, we are men too, & but men, and may be just so afflicted. Aetes' parentum peior avis— we are all no better than our brethren; not so good as our fathers. If they be punished, so may we; if bade be scourged, why should worse look for happiness? If job be punished, why may not his friends be tormented? Saul persecutes David; and what Supersedeas hath he, but that for all that the Philistims may scorn him? jacob was as wise, as aged, and pitied the Shechemites his neighbours, knowing that the rest of his neighbours might ere long have had cause to pity him: If the inhabitants of the land should have gathered themselves together against him being few in number, and so he and his house should have been destroyed, Gen. 34.30. If then we pity others, we put our compassion to use; we lend our mercy to our own profit, and only store it to receive it at need. Thus our mercy reflects upon us, and our compassion to others includes as much respect to ourselves as them. Now if we should only pity them for our own sakes, it would be Philautie, not Charity; a selfe-affection, not a brotherly compassion. There must be then causa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; The object must impel to, as much as we in ourselves can be moved to grant. So that we must weigh the motives, aswell in respect of the party pitied, as the party pitying. Now that motive is only one, Misery; which in respect of the person, its subject, is twofold. Involuntary; which befalls us against our will: and voluntary, which in some manner takes ground from our own consent. involuntary unhappiness is of two sorts; Either Natural, when any defect is in and by Nature: as blindness, lameness, and such like imperfections unavoidable: Or casual, as when from any thing we expect good, 
job 1. 2. Sam. 4.4.  and it happens evil. So jobs children met to be familiar and merry together, and the house fell upon them. So Mephibosheth in haste to be saved, was lamed. These two sorts of unhappiness, may justly challenge pity. Wherefore Christ had compassion upon the blind man, john 9.6. and David upon lame Mephibosheth, 2. Sam. 9.10. Now our calamity may be termed voluntary two ways; Ratione non evitationis, 
Aqui. 22ae. q. 30. Art. 1.  & ratione electionis in causâ. Either in not avoiding it when we may; as when either by contempt or neglect we run headlong into any imminent danger: Or in willing unhappiness in its cause; which is, when we will the cause of misery; for so consequently we will misery itself. He that eats known poison, doth in some manner desire sickness. He that wills the transgression of the law, wills consequently the punishment. He that must needs sin, must needs die; and he that wills the one, desires the other. Israel will die if they will sin: wherefore God (as it were wondering at their unnatural desire) asks them not why they will sinne, but why they will die, Ezskiel 33.11. So these two sorts are so fare from moving to pity, that they excite to punishment. So then, all poor are not alike to be pitied. Cain was a wanderer, so was jacob: but Cain a Vagabond, jacob a Pilgrim; the one to be punished, the other to be relieved. He that will not avoid an apparent affliction, is worthy to receive it. 
1. King. 2.37.46.  And if Shimei will not keep his bounds, but rashly go over the river Kidron, good reason he should be smitten that he die. Bona est misericordia, 
S. Aug. sup-Exod. lib. 2.  sed non debet esse contra iudicium, saith S. Augustine. Mercy is good, but then inordinate, when against justice. We know by the immutable decree of God, that blood is to be shed for blood: If then the murderer will needs be glutted with blood, let him buy it with the payment of his own; and receive what consequently he wills, the punishment. 
Deut. 19.21.  His blood shall be upon him, and our eye must not pity him. Notwithstanding, voluntary affliction doth not always exclude commiseration, but only, or at least chief when it is offensive to justice. Misereremei, non quia dignus, sed quia inops & pauper sum ego. justitia meritum quaerit, misericordia miseriam intuetur. Ver a misericordia non iudicat, sed afficit. Thus S. Bernard teacheth how to ask mercy by his own petition. Have compassion (saith he) upon me, not because I deserve it, but because I want it. justice's looks for merit; Mercy takes notice of misery; and true commiseration argues not by reason, but affects with passion. Samuel mourned for disobedient Saul, respecting his distress not his sin. And David sorrowed for that traitorous parricide, Absalon: his tears indeed were in vain, yet they were pious because pitiful. We may bestow pity upon an offendor that is dying; not to save him, but to comfort him: we may pity an offendor that is living, 
Aqui 22.ae q. 31. Art. 2.  Ad sustentationem naturae, non ad fomentum culpae. We may have compassion upon his nature in which he is like us, and not cherish his vice, in which we should be dislike him. From these it is evident, how far compassion is lawful, and how inordinate. But because the word Lawful may only insinuate a tolerancie (for things indifferent, and not in themselves absolutely good, may be permitted, and according to that acceptation lawful) the next reason challenges place; which is grounded upon command: and first of Nature.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Nature. Arban. q. 118.  saith Athanasius. God hath so guided Nature, that she makes her best works, as like as she can to God. Man was created according to his own image, and is naturally in nothing more like him than in mercy. In each creature there is vestigium creatoris, the foot-steppe of the creator; in man his image. The most savage cruelty hath its limits: Bears agree amongst themselves; and the Cannibals that devour their enemies, nourish their neighbours. As bodies are naturally contiguous, so are our affections: We are as near by love as they by touch. A man had as good be a stock, as a man without a neighbour. We are better than beasts only in discourse; so that our perfection depends upon a fellow. The cause why this fellowship is so necessary, is the necessity of a mutual relief; which is as well afforded by compassion, as in a gift. My mind may be as liberal as my hand; and if poverty curb my bounty, yet maugre misfortune I can bestow the natural benevolence of pity: Which is to be accepted, sith it was the commendations of Agesilaus, that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. 
Xenoph orat. de Agesilao.  He respected those friends that would do him a courtesy, more than those that could do it; preferring the benevolence of mind, to the possible beneficence of fortune. If I cannot grieve, yet I can love; if by misfortune I cannot secure, yet by nature I can pity. By commiseration though I cannot free my friend, yet I can ease him, Nor is it my sorrow that so helps him, 
Aqui. 12ae. q. 8. Art. 2.3.  but its cause, Affection: for it adds joy to the afflicted, that he is beloved even to compassion. As we are men, we must be sociable; if we be sociable, when occasion serves we must pity. That love is counterfeit which cannot grieve, & society is nothing worth without symphathie. So rarely inbred is this passion, that there is scarce any thing attained so easily, 
Epist. 7●.  and good so naturally. Misericordia pias mentes ad compassionem dolentium necessario cogit affectu, saith S. Bernard. Mercy is so natural to good minds, that it doth not persuade to compassion, but compel. So that though they would not pity, yet they must; it being to them so natural that it is unavoidable. Now as nature rules the creatures, so the Creator rules nature; so that her prescript is but subordinate to his law, and she only proclaims what God first decrees. Thus we may infer that it is God's commandment, because hers; but by reason that we may see the Almighty's will in the bright mirror the Scripture clearer than in that dim one of Nature, 'tis safest to have recourse to it, where we shall find that also: It is commanded by God.  
Estote misericordes, sicut & pater vester est misericors, saith Christ, S. Luk. 6.36. Be ye merciful as your Father is merciful. Actum est. A further proof might savour of incredulity. Lo here the command both of God and Nature; 'tis the Decree of jesus Christ, God and Man. In which is a precept and an exhortation. He command's by his power, Be ye merciful; and persuades by an example; Sicut pater etc. As your Father is merciful. That statute must needs be good, which God enacts, and that action must needs therefore be just, of which he is the example. Our first parents desired to be as God, and their ambition was rebellion. Yet lo we must labour to be as God, and our desire shall be religion. To aspire to be equal with God, is treason against his Majesty: to endeavour to be like him, is obedience to his precept. The pride of their ambition attempted an equality; but the love of our obedience aims at a likeness. His mercy is above all his works, wherefore if you will be most like him, Estote misericordes; Be you merciful; so you shall be as near him by assimilation, as your first parents were distant by their ambition. Their vainly intended equality was punished with judgement, and your likeness in mercy shall be rewarded with mercy. 
Aqui. 22ae. q. 30. Art. 2. ad 1.  Deus non miseretur nisi propter amorem in quantum nos amat ut aliquid sui, saith Aquinas. God therefore pities us, because he love's us, and only love's us because we are like him. He will pity the merciful, because he love's them, and he will love them because they are so like him. Wherefore he will be merciful unto the merciful; and therefore Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy, S. Mat. 5.7. Hark beloved; Blessed are the merciful, not barely happy; honoured with riches of god, not with the slender opulency of fortune. Are there any then amongst you (my brethren) which have clothed Christ when he was naked, fed him when he was hungry, and given him drink when he was thirsty? if there be any, Come ye blessed of the Lord, 
S. Math. 25.24.25.26.  and inherit the kingdom, prepared for you from the foundations of the world. Inherit that in this world by the stable possession of a certain hope, which you shall inherit in the life to come, in the fullness of joy for evermore. Be not slow to pity, for it is easy; be not doubtfully curious to receive it, for it is lawful: Refuse it not stubbornly, sith 'tis natural; at least condemn it not rebelliously: for 'tis the command of God. Pity thy kinsmen with joseph, for they are thy flesh. Have compassion upon thy countrymen with jeremy, for they are thy brethren: Be merciful to those of thy religion, for ye are one in Christ jesus; ye are of one household of faith. Pity thy brother for his own sake; for so thou mayest comfort him: have compassion upon him for thine own sake; for so thou mayest expect a retribution in thy misery. Give unto the poor, & so lend unto the Lord, and he will pay thee: or give unto the poor, & so pay unto the Lord what he hath lent thee. Quid habes quod non accepisti? What hast thou, which thou hast not received? & what canst thou bestow, but what thou hast borrowed? If thou givest to the poor, thou givest to Christ; if thou givest to Christ, thou givest to God: Nor is it so much a gift as a debt; 
S. Aug: in. Psal. 147.  Deillius das qui iubet ut des. May not God do what he will with his own? If his eye be good, let not yours be therefore evil. For what you bestow is none of yours, but his only that commands you to give it. If then God forgive thee thy debt, take not thy brother by the throat for his. Doth the poor own thee any thing? remit it: for in having more than is necessary for thee, thou owest as much to him. If thou hast more than thou needest, thou hast more than thine own. Superflua divitum necessaria sunt pauperum. 
Idem. ibid.  The overplus of the rich are the necessaries of the poor. A niggardly hand may oppress as much as a violent. 
Idem. ibid.  Res alienae possidentur, cum superflua possidentur. When you whoord up that which you do not want, you spoil the poor of that which they want. Anobis extrahitur crudeliter quod consumitur inaniter. That is cruelly extorted from the needy, which is lavishly spent upon thy lust. Sith than God hath given to thee, imitate him in being bountiful to thy brother. Let God's alms be thy alms, and what his mercy hath bestowed upon thee, let thy pity divide unto thy neighbour. Briefly, though the Shabeans rob job, yet let Eliphaz pity him: though the Lord by affliction try him yet let Bildad and Zophar have compassion upon him; and though he be persecuted by Satan his enemy, yet at least, Have pity upon him (O ye his friends). Friends! yea, but very small ones; In my Text they are put in a parenthesis, and are no nearer than almost quite out. Prosperity may have choice of acquaintance; but only misery is the touchstone of a friend. 'Tis true indeed, the Man of the East had diverse friends, but now they abhor, and are turned against the poor man, job, job. 19.19. So fickle is the amity of parasitical friends, that the inconstancy of time and fortune can stern its Nature. Now if we will love constantly, we must love well; and if we will love well, we must love virtuously. So that our friendship must principally respect goodness, both in ourselves and friends. He that cannot affect himself, cannot affect another; and he that love's iniquity, cannot love himself: For he hates his own soul, Psalm. 11.15. Cum ergo edissem animam meam, 
S. Aug. ad Mart epist. 155. de verâ amicitiâ.  verum amicum quomodò habere poteram, ea mihi optantem in quibus ipse meipsum patiebar inimicum? saith S. Augustin. If in loving sin I hate my soul, how can my vicious friend be my true friend, which only can wish that content unto me, the desire of which makes me an enemy to myself? If then ourselves be bad, we cannot love our friends well: & again, if our friends be bad they cannot love us well. The wicked is always conscious of his own unfaithfulness, and jealous of his fellow's constancy by his guiltiness of his own inconstancy; he love's without trust, as if he would one day hate, and his friendship is always startled with suspicion. The vicious then cannot love, for they dare not trust; though they be confederate and joined by company, they are divided in heart: so that religion only and goodness can unite the souls. A virtuous friendship corrects Nature, and what she hath divided in bodies, it makes one in affection. Wherefore the Poet lively insinuates the nearness of friends by dividing their soul: as though there were not two souls, 
Hor. Od. lib. 1. Od. 3.  but one parted; so that himself had but — Animae dimidium— half a soul; his friend had the other part, 
Confess. cap. 6.  and they two had but one life. S. Augustine commends this most significant and expressive description of true friendship by sharing of spirits, and the Scripture properly exemplifies in two religious friends; for the soul of jonathan was knit with the soul of David, 1. Sam. 18.1. So almost were they one, that they could not be absolutely two; and the only difference between them was, that each might be but half the other. This amity is as constant as near, and cannot be dissolved, unless the friend should be unjointed from himself. If jobs friends had been such, his petition would have been granted before framed; and as soon as he had felt affliction, he might have demanded pity by the title of a Symphathie. But they are not so affectionate as to condole, nor so near as to have a fellow-feeling. Wherefore if he will require compassion, he must plead for it; which he doth in the next place, by showing the causes of his affliction. and first the instrumental: For the hand of God hath touched me. 
The hand. De serm. Dom. in mont. lib. 1.   
Quemadmodum in oculo contemplatio, sic in manu actio intelligitur, saith S. Augustine. The eye and the hand are the principal instruments of sense. The one of seeing, the nobler sense of discipline: The other of feeling, the most necessary to the simple being. So that as we understand contemplation by the Eye, 
In lib. Reg. cap. 1. Hom. 2.  so we intimate power and action by the hand. Per manus intelliguntur opera, saith S. Origen. The hand is the most operative instrument of the will; and what we do by it commonly, we express by it. So that nature hath established it a custom: and in most commonwealths at any public election, 
Hist. lib. 4.  the motion of the hand declares the assent of the will. Vultu manuque assentiebantur, saith Tacitus. 
Isidorus lib. 1.  In the Roman Senate they manifested feasted their consent by holding up their hands; and in their Armies too, to avoid the confusion of vocal suffrages, it was a military custom to signify their minds by their hands: withal intimating by that instrument of vigour and force, not only their approbation, but also their constancy and readiness to the maintaining their resolution so expressed. The Scriptures are as copious of testimonies, as their authors of customs. We will urge a few. First, God himself in a solemn Protestation is said to lift up his Hand, Num. 14.30. insinuating the maintenance of his decree by his power. The light of his countenance can bless his people; but when he miraculously delivers them and plagues his enemies, 'tis with a mighty Hand. Psal. 136.12. The sign of strength is in a stretched out arm; and if Israel will conquer Amaleck, Aaron and Hur must stay up Moses Hands, Exod. 17 12. Alas weak job! If the Hand of God be his power, and that wholly upon thee, thy friends had need pity thee. The hand that can span the Heavens, must needs squieze a worm. The Finger of God was enough to plague a whole great nation, Egypt, Exod. 8.19. Was it then possible that one miserable man should sustain the weight of his whole hand? Qui dat pati dat posse pati. He that sends affliction will send patience. God is merciful as well as just, and it was the Hand of God.  
Yet that might be a question, 
God.  if it were not an axiom, and be disputed as but probable, if the Holy Ghost did not warrant the necessity: God approved of job, whom the Devil slandered: Satan smote him with boiles, job. 2.7. Then, was that the Hand of God? Malignus spiritus malâ voluntate nocere appetit; tamen nocendi potestatem non accipit, 
Ad Simpl. l. 2. q. 1.  nisi ab illo sub quo sunt omnia certis & iustis meritorum gradibus ordinata. Thus S. Augustine answers; The Devil would hurt, but he wants the power: God must give him leave, else he cannot execute his will. Satan hath the will in himself, but he cannot perform it, unless God lend him power. The cause is Gods, and Satan cannot persecute till he will prosecute. God of himself is just, and Satan malicious; & unless God will execute his justice, Satan cannot actuate his malice. So that God's permission is his action and the power that he lends, is styled his Hand. God is judge, Satan the executioner; 'tis the Devil's will, but God's power. Now the Lamb is merciful, but the Dragon is cruel; and though Satan's malice would crush us, yet the hand of God will but Touch us.  
Hath touched. 
Touched.  And 'tis enough; for at the touch of the Lord, the mountain's smoke: and are the wicked any thing save an heap of transgression? is the world of man ought else save a mountain of sin? We are nothing save a lump of disorder, a Babel of contumacy, built so high that our rebellion may reach to God's cares, and need not with the blood of Abel, cry, but whisper for a vengeance: a frail mass of confusion, on which if he doth but blow, he puffs us into a nothing; and if he will but touch this Babylon, our smoke must ascend for evermore. Yet is he not more justice than mercy, & can express himself to be both at once. So that the Scripture attributes to him a threefold touch, s. Tactum iusticiae, tactum misericordiae, & tactum medium, or tentationis. He confounds by the touch of justice, when he will revenge; So the Lord of hosts shall touch the land, and it shall melt away, Amos. 9.5. He comforteth by the touch of his mercy, when he will forgive; for so jesus touched the Leper, and he was healed, S. Math. 8.3. He toucheth by the touch of his mercy and justice together, when he will try; and so the hand of God hath touched job. In whose trial, respect the affliction, and view God's justice; look upon the end, and behold his mercy. He was sinful, therefore might lawfully be punished, yet God afflicts him more to prove him, than to punish him. The Lord will rebuke him, yet not in his anger; he will chastise him, but not in his wrath. Because he hath sinned he may, I and shall be afflicted, and yet by that scourge not so much punished as proved. Thus all things prove to the good of the elect. If they sinne, they shall be punished; yet their punishment shall be the witness of their trial, and that he pathway to their glory. God will not cocker his children, but correct them; and strike hardest where he love's most. The man after his own heart shall roar for pain: and just job complains, The hand of God hath touched Me.  
Vox clamantis in deserto; 
Me.  The voice of one crying in the Wilderness: That was S. john Baptist: Here is another vox clamantis, the voice of a crier; 'tis in the wilderness too. His soul was desolate, and affected uncouth places as much as David, who was like a Pelican of the wilderness, and like an Owl of the Deserts. He was the Baptist too, 
Psal. 102.6.  but merely passive, Baptismosanguinis; he was baptised with the baptism of affliction: and that he is a Crier as well as S. john, is intimated by his name; job, which signifies a fearful howling. We know the story of him, and the scope of it. s. the manifestation of God's trial of man's patience in misery. Each one knows the afflictions of the man of the East, job: but who takes notice of the woman of the North, our Metropolis? Here is a third vox clamantis, the voice of one crying, I and in the Desert. For lo Satan the Dragon hath persecuted her as the woman in the wilderness. Nay her whole self not long agone was but a wilderness, if you will take a Desert for a place desolate. 
Rev. 12.14.  S. Gregory's complaint was renewed, and the ruins by him deplored truly patterned in that example. Habitatores non exparte subtrahuntur, sed pariter corruunt. Domus vacuae relinquuntur. Filiorum funera parentes aspiciunt, et sui eos adinteritum haeredes praecedunt. The stately towers of Zion were become the habitation of Satyrs, her people not by degrees plucked up, but mowed down together in full swaths. Lo, a lamentable spectacle! The Grandsire, by a preposterous privilege of surviving, heir to his intestate Nephew. You might have beheld youth the first borne of death, and the grey hairs descending latest to the grave. The great Temple of jerusalem, that living house of God, the company of Christians was so unjoyted, that there was scarce a stone left upon a stone; a man to converse in safety with his neighbour. A pestilent disease disordered nature. The grave snatched what nature denied, the strongest. Net hoc parentes heu sibi superstites effugerit spectaculum. Parents were mourners for their children, and closed those eyes which should have wept at their funerals. The graves were as full of carcases as the houses of inhabitants; and the poor remnant that were left and reserved from this fatal captivity, were not so much the parts as the ruins of a City. Troynovant was indeed new Troy, the wretched daughter of an unhappy mother. Beth-rapha was turned into Bochim; The house of health, not to an edifice but a bare place of weeping. You should not have miscalled a matron Naomie, but called her Mara; not a beautiful spouse but a distressed widow. Lo, gasping Rachel would have the name; for in those fearful plagues the father's son of his right hand, his darling babe was but Ben-oni, the son of sorrow. God Almighty had withdrawn the light of his countenance from us; The Ark of our salvation was well-near taken, and the lamenting mothers, bowing themselves for travel, have brought forth their firstborn abortives; an untimely fruit of a name, distractedly inquisitive, Ichabod; where is the glory? Quam penè furnaeregna Proserpinae, & indicantem vidimus Aeacum! one foot was in the grave, and (O Lord) how almost did our souls go down into the pit? There was no Isaiah to save the living from death; no Elias to raise the dead to life. The wise perished as the foolish, the Priests as the peasants, both promiscuously interred together; so that each sepulchre was a charnel-house, each grave a Golgotha. Belshazzar trembled for a light threat: The hand of God appeared to us, not writing on a wall, but a whole Kingdom, graving the name of desolation in the black characters of the pestilence, and each doors fatal & common motto, Lord have mercy upon us. Graves were scarcer than houses, and the earth more straightened to receive the dead, than the habitations the living. So that necessity made one pit a common sepulchre, and the whole City Ezekiels' field. Yet lo, 
Mal. 3.8, 9, 10, 11, 12.  those afflictions which should have corrected, have hardened us. Will a man spoil his gods? saith the Lord: yet ye have spoilt me: but ye say, Wherein have we spoilt thee? In tithes and offerings. The Priesthood is become a derision, the Ministry a contempt, and the Church rob by contentious flocks and sacrilegious Patrons. Wherefore ye are cursed with a curse; for ye have spoiled me (saith the Lord) even this whole nation. But bring ye all the tithes into the store-house, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith (saith the Lord) If I will not open the windows of heaven unto you, and pour you out a blessing without measure. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes—. And all nations shall call you blessed; for ye shall be a pleasant land, saith the Lord of hosts. Pride, fullness of bread and deceit in the city; Oppression and barbarous malice in the country: these are the weapons which we have whetted against our own souls, and the broken reeds that pierced the hands of those that leaned on them. How many towns may we see turned into open fields, religion decayed with nature, the Church with the parishioners; landlords metamorphosed to wolves, servants into dogs. villages into sheep-coates, and families into shepherd's Curs! Because the blessing of God was troublesome, and the multitude of men seemed a burden unto us, lo, the just Lord hath eased us in his indignation, and in a moment sweptaway (by war and pestilence) above an hundred thousand. He hath recompensed our ingratitude with vengeance, and which of us all have not lost a kinsman? O then, Have pity upon us, have pity upon us, (O ye our friends) for the hand of God hath touched us. Yet the Lord is merciful and gracious, and in the midst of judgement hath remembered mercy. Our great City Nineveh, and her King hath repent in sackcloth and ashes, sorrow and humility: and behold the Lord hath been more merciful than man. Though jonah hath prophesied judgements, he hath turned them into consolations. Behold, Zion is again inhabited, and who can number her towers? The voice of gladness is heard in her Palaces, and songs of thanksgiving in stead of the mourning of Hadad-rimmon: Moses is heard, and the request of pious governors now fully granted. The Lord is returned unto the many thousands of Israel. Rejoice therefore O my soul, again I say rejoice. O let us remove the Leprosy of sin from our souls, as God hath removed the black spots of the Pestilence from our bodies. O be joyful in the Lord all ye lands, all sorts, all persons, young men and maidens, old men and children, praise ye the Lord. So shall God render unto job seven fold; the wombs of our young women shall be fruitful, and your children shall play by thousands in the streets; the strength of our young men shall break a bow of steel, and the grey hairs of our ancients shall descend with joy & reverence into the grave. O then beloved quickly, to day if you will hear, cast off the menstruous  of Hypocrisy and wickedness, and present your souls, your naked souls as a sacrifice without blemish unto the God of your salvation. Come taste and see how good and gracious the Lord is. Take the Cup of salvation, and sing with Angels and Archangels, Glory to God on high, in earth peace, and good will towards men. We praise thee, we bless thee, we glorify thee, etc.  
FINIS.