THE SACRIFICE OF Thankfulness.  
¶ A Sermon preached at Paul's Cross, the third of December, being the first Aduentuall Sunday, Anno 1615.  
By THO. ADAM'S.  Bern. in Cant. Serm. 35. Gratiarum cessat decursus, ubi recursus non fuerit. 
Whereunto are annexed Five other of his Sermons preached in London, and elsewhere; never before Printed. The Titles whereof follow in the next Page.  
LONDON, Printed by Thomas Purfoot, for Clement Knight, and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Churchyard, at the Sign of the Holy Lamb. 1616.   

❧ The Titles of the Five Sermons.  

1. Christ his Star, or the Wise men's Oblation. Math. 2. verse 11.  
2. Politic Hunting. Genesis 25. verse 27.  
3. Plain-dealing, or a Precedent of Honesty. Genesis 25. verse 27.  
4. The Three Divine Sisters. 1. Cor. 13. verse 13.  
5. The Taming of the Tongue. jam. 3. verse 8.    

❧ To the Right Worshipful, Sir Henry Montague Knight, the King's majesties Sergeant for the Law, and Recorder of the Honourable City of London.  
Worthy Sir;  
WHere there is diversity of helps, leading to one Intention of good, the variety may well be tolerated. Who finds fault with a Garden, for the multitude of flowers? You shall perceive here different kinds; whereof (if some to some seem bitter) there is none unwholesome. It takes fire at the Altar of God, and begins with the Christians Sacrifice: the flame whereof (by the operation of the blessed Spirit) may both enlighten the understanding, and warm the affections of good men: and in others consumingly waste the dross and rust of sin, which must either be purged by the fire of Grace here; or sent to the everlasting fire to be burned. The wisemen's Oblation seconds it: what is formerly commanded in Precept, is here commended in Practice. The Politic Hunters of the world are discovered: and Plain-dealing encouraged. One (almost forgotten virtue) Charity is praised; and a busy vice is taxed. In all is intended Lux Scientiae, Pax Conscientiae; Peccati ruina, aedificatio justitiae.  
Your noble endeavours are observed by all eyes, to be distinguished into this method: from your virtues there is a resultance of shining Light to information, from your Office to reformation of others. Go forward so still, to menage your Place in that honourable City: and let the fire of correction eat out the rust of corruption. You may punish, even whiles you pity. The good Magistrate, like a good Chirurgeon, doth with a shaking hand search ulcers; more earnestly desiring Non invenire quod quaerit, quam invenire quod puniat. The God of mercy and salvation wrap up your soul in the bundle of Life; and (when the Lust of the earth shall to the Dust of the earth) fix you in the blessed Orb of Glory.  
Your Worships in all faithful observance. THO. adam's.   

Ad Lectorem.  
Senec. epist. 59 Cupio, si fieri potest, propitijs auribus quid sentiam, dicere▪ sin minùs, dicam & iratis.   

THE SACRIFICE OF THANKFULNESS,  Psal. 118. 27. God is the Lord, which hath showed us Light: bind the Sacrifice with Cords, even unto the Horns of the Altar. 
THE first and the last words of this Psalm are, O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good: because his mercy endureth for ever.  
Thanksgiving is the prescript, and the postscript. He that is Alpha and Omega; the first and the last, requires that our beginning and ending should be, Praise to the Lord.  
You see the head and the foot: the bulk, body, members are not dissonant. There is scarce any Verse in the Psalm, that is not either an Hosanna, or an Halleluia; a prayer for mercy, or a praise for mercy.  
I have singled out one; let it speak for all the rest. God is the Lord, that hath showed. etc.  
here is somewhat received; somewhat to be returned. God hath blessed us, and we must bless God. His Grace, and our Gratitude, are the two Lines, my Discourse must run upon: They are met in my Text, let them as happily meet in your Hearts; and they shall not leave you, till they bring you to Heaven.  
The sum is, God is to be Praised. The particulars are 

Wherefore, he is to be Praised.  
Wherewith, he is to be Praised.    
Wherefore: God is the Lord, that hath showed us light.  
Wherewith: Bind the Sacrifice with Cords, even unto the Horns of the Altar.  
In the For what we will consider 

the Author.  
his Blessing.    
The Author: God is the Lord.  
His Blessing: That hath showed us Light.  
The Lord, the Light. The Author is called God and Lord: which lead us to look upon his 

Goodness.  
Greatness.    

GOD and Good.  
Lo, I begin with him, that hath no Beginning, but is the Beginning of all other Beeinges, God: And would only tell you (for I must not lose myself in this Mystery) that this God is Good. In himself Goodness; 
Psal. 100 5.  Good to us. Psal. 100 The Lord is Good: his mercy is everlasting. 
In Orat. Dom.  He is True Life, saith August. A Quo aucrt●●, cadere: in Quem converti, resurgere: in Quo manner, vinere est. From Him to turn, is to fall: to Him to return, is to rise: in Him to abide, is to live for ever.  
David in the 59 
Psal. 59 10.  Psalm calls him, his Mercy. Deus meus misericordia mea: my God, my Mercy. Whereupon Augustine sweetly discourses.  
If thou hadst said my Health, 
Aug. in Psa. 58. Si dicas Salus mea, intelligo●quia Deus ●al salutem. etc.  I know what thou hadst meant; because God gives health. If thou hadst said my Refuge▪ I understand, because thou fliest unto him If thou hadst said my strength, I conceive thy meaning; because he gives strength.  
But Misericordiamea; quid est? Totum, quicquid sum, de misericordia tuá est. My Mercy, What is it? I am by thy Mercy, whatsoever I am.  
Bernard would have us speak of God in abstracto; 
Serm. 80. in Cant.  not only to call him Wise, Merciful, good: but Wisdom, Mercy, Goodness; Because the Lord is without accidents at all: For as he is most Great without quantity; 
Arden's.  so he is most Good without quality: Nil habet in se, nisi se, He hath nothing in him, but himself.  
God then being Good; not only formaliter, good in himself: but also effectiuè, good to us; teacheth us to love him. We should love goodness for it own sake: but when it reflects upon us, there is a new invitation of our love.   

The LORD.  
We have heard his Goodness; listen to his Greatness. In this Title we will consider his Majesty, as we did in the other his Mercy.  
Lord implies a great State ● the Title is given to a great man upon earth. But if an earthen Lord be great; Quantus est Dominus, qui Dominos facit? 
Aug.  How great is the Lord which makes Lords? yea, and unmakes them two at his pleasure.  
This is an absolute and independent Lord. 1. Cor. 8. There may be many Gods, and many Lords. But this is Ille Dominus. The Lord, or that Lord; 
1. Cor. 8. 5.  that commands and controls them all. They are Domini titulares; this is Dominus tutelaris. They are in title and name, this in deed and power.  
There are Many, saith St. Paul. Many in Title many in Opinion. Some are Lords and Gods ex authoritate; so are Kings and Magistrates. 
Psal. 82. ●.  God standeth in the congregation of Lords: he is judge among the Gods. Others will so style themselves ex usurpatione; as the Canonists say of their Pope Dominus Deus noster Papa. Our Lord God the Pope. But he is but a Lord and God in a blind and tetrical Opinion.  
The Lord is only Almighty; able to do more by his absolute power, than he will by his actual. Able for potent, not impotent works. He cannot lie, he cannot die. 
Aug. de civit Dei. Lib. 5. Cap. 10.  Diciter omnipotens faciendo quod vult, non patiendo quod non vult. He is called Almighty in doing what he pleaseth not in suffering what he pleaseth not.  
This is his Greatness. As his Mercy directs us to love him, so let his Majesty instruct us to fear him. I will briefly touch both these affections; but Love shall go foremost.   

LOVE.  
Our God is Good, and good to us; let us therefore love him. 1. It is an Affection, that God principally requires. 2. It is a Nature, wherein alone we can answer God.  
For the former, God requires not thy Wisdom to direct him, nor thy Strength to assist him, nor thy Wealth to enrich him, nor thy Dignity to advance him; but only thy love. Love him with all thy heart.  
For the second; Man cannot indeed answer God well in any other thing. When God judgeth us, we must not judge him again: When he reproves us, we must not justify ourselves. If he be angry, we must answer him in patience; if he command, in obedience: But when God loves us, we must answer him in the same nature, though not in the same measure; and love him again. We may not give God word for word: we dare not offer him blow for blow: we can not requite him good turn for good turn: yet we may, can, must give him Love for love. Nam cum amat Deus, 
Bern. Serm. 83. in Cant.  non aliud vult quam amari,  
Now because every man sets his foot upon the freehold of Love, and says, it is mine; let us ask for his Evidence whereby he holds it? We call an Evidence, a Deed; and Deeds are the best demonstration of our right in love. If thou love God for his own sake, show it by thy deeds of Piety: If thou love Man for God's sake, show it by thy deeds of Charity. The root of Love is in the Heart; but it sends forth Veins into the Hands, and gives them an active and nimble dexterity to good Works. 
joh. 14. 15.  If you love me, saith Christ, keep my Commandments. 
1. joh. 3. 17.  If you love man, show your Compassion to him: Obedience to our Creator, Mercy to his Image, testify our Loves. He that wants these Evidences, these Deeds; when that busy Informer the Devil sues him, will be unhappily vanquished.   

FEAR.  
LEt us pàsse from Love to Fear. we must Love our good God: we must Fear our great Lord. It is objected against this passage of union, 
1. joh. 4. 18.  that perfect love casteth out fear. It is answered, that fear brings in perfect love; as the Needle draws in the Thread. And it is not possible, that true Love should be without good Fear; that is, a filial Reverence. For slavish fear, be it as far from your hearts, as it shall be from my discourse.  
Now this Fear is a most due and proper affection: and (I may say) the fittest of all to be towards God. Indeed God requires our Love: but we must think, that then God stoops low, and bows himself down to be loved of us. For there is such an infinite inequality betwixt God and us, that without his sweet dignation, and descending to us, there could be no fitness of this affection. But look we up to that infinite glory of our great Lord: look we down on the vileness of ourselves, sinful dust: and we will say, that by reason of the disproportion between us, nothing is so suitable for our baseness to give so high a God, 
Psal. 34. 11.  as Fear. Therefore, Comeye Children hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the Lord. 
Psal. 31. 23.  Fear the Lord all ye his Servants; as well as Love the Lord all ye his Saints.  
Now this Fear hath as many Challengers as Love had. When this Book is held out, every man's lips are ready to kiss it; and to say and swear, that they fear the lord 
Psal. 2. 11.  Love had the Testimony, charity: and Fear, must have his Service. Psal. 2. Serve the Lord with fear.  
It is man's necessitated condition to be a Servant. Happy they, 
1. joh. 13. 13.  that can truly call Christ Master: Ye call me Lord and Master, and ye say well; for so I am.  
He that serves the Flesh, serves his fellow: And a Beggar mounted on the back of Honour, rides post to the Devil. This is a choleric Master; so fickle, that at every turn, he is ready to turn thee out of doors. We may say of him, as of the Spaniard, He is a bad Servant, but a worse Master.  
He that serves the World, serves his Servant; as if Chams curse was lighted on him, servus servorum; a Drudge to Slaves, a Slave to Drudges.  
He that serves the Devil, serves his Enemy; and this is a miserable service. Sure it was a lamentable preposterous sight, 
Ec●l. 1●. 7.  that Solomon saw. Eccle. 10. I have seen Servants upon Horses, and Princes walking as Servants upon the Earth. And Agur numbers it among those four things, 
Pro●. 30, 22.  whereby the World is disquieted: A Servant when he reigneth, and a Fool when he is filled with Meat: an odious woman, when she is married, and a handmaid that is heir to her Mistress.  
judge then how horrible it is, that men should set (as the Savages of calicut) the Devil, or his two Ingles, the world and the flesh in the Throne; whiles they place God in the footstool. Or that in this Commonwealth of man, Reason which is the Queen, or the Princes the better powers & graces of the Soul, should stoop to so base a Slave, as sensual lust. Delight is not seemly for a fool: 
Pro▪ 19 10.  much less for a Servant to have rule over Princes.  
St. Basil (not without passion) did envy the devils happiness: Who had neither Created us, nor redeemed us, nor preserveth us; but violently Labours our destruction; that yet he should have more servants, than God, that made us, than jesus Christ that with his own precious Blood, and grievous sufferings bought us. 
Psal. 116 16.  Well, he is happy, that can truly say with David; I am thy Servant, O Lord, I am thy Servant, and the Son of thy Handmaid. This Service is true Honour: for so Kings and Princes; yea the blessed Angels of heaven are thy fellows.  
God is Good, that we may love him: the Lord is Great that we may Fear him. We have heard, both severally; let us consider them jointly, and therein the security of our own happiness. It is a blessed confirmation, when both these, the Goodness and the Greatness of GOD meet upon us. His Greatness, that he is able▪ his Goodness, that he is willing to save us. Were he never so Great, if not Good to us, we had little help. Were he never so Good, if not Great, and of ability to succour us, we had less comfort. He would stand us in small stead, if either his Will or his Power was defective; if either he could not, or would not save us.  
His Goodness without his Greatness, might fail us: His Greatness without his Goodness, would terrify us. It is a happy concurrence, 
Psal. 85. 10.  when Mercy and Truth meet together: when Righteousness and Peace kiss each other. 
Psal. 116 5.  So sweetly singes the Psalmist: Gracious is the Lord, and righteous: yea our God is merciful. Whereupon S. Ambros. 
Orat. de ob●●● Theodo●●●.  Bis misericordiam posuit, semel justitiam. He is once said to be Righteous; but twice in one verse, to be Gracious: It is sweet when both are conjoined, as in the first and last verse of this Psalm: O give thaenkes to the Lord, for he is good: for his Mercy endureth for ever. The Lord is Good; though Great, yet also Good: and his Mercy (so well as his justice) endures for ever. Man hath no such assurance of comfort in God, as to meditate, that his great Power, and good Will; his Glory and Grace, his Majesty and Mercy met together.  
These be Gods two Daughters; justice and Mercy: Let us honour them both; but let us kiss and embrace Mercy. But alas, we have dealt unkindly with them both. God hath two Daughters, and we have ravished them.  
There is a Story of a man, that meeting in a Desert with two Virgin-sisters; he did ravish both of them: Afterwards on his apprehension, the former desired, that he might justly die for it. The other did entreat as earnestly, that he might live, and that she might enjoy him for her Husband.  
Man is that ravisher, and those two Virgins are the justice and Mercy of God. Against his justice we have sinned, and provoked his indignation to strike us: yea, even his Mercy we have abused. For her sake we have been spared, and a longer day of repentance given us: yet we have despised the riches of this Mercy; and presuming on Mercy, have dared to multiply our transgressions. justice pleads to God that we should die; urgeth his Law: Who so ever sinneth, shall die: And, Death is the wages of sin. Mercy entreats beseecheth, that we may live; and produceth the Gospel, Who so ever reputes, shall be pardoned: Who so ever believes, shall be saved: And for further assurance, brings forth that blessed Pardon, sealed in the Wounds and Blood of jesus Christ. God hearkens to Mercy for his sons sake: though we have ravished and wronged his Mercy; yet for Mercies sake, we shall be forgiven. But then we must be married to Mercy; married in our Faith, believing on Christ: married in our good life, being merciful unto men.   

The Blessing.  
We see the Author, let us look on his Blessings Light. He hath-s●●wed us Light. We are come into the Light, and therefore have light enough of an ample Discourse. But my purpose is only to show you this Light, (as the word is in my Text) not to dwell on it; though I pray, that all you and myself may for ever dwell in it.   

LIGHT.  
Such as the Giver is, 
1. joh. 1. 5. lamb. 1▪ 17.  such is the Gift. 1. joh. ●. God is Light, and in him is no Darkness at all. And S. james calls him the Father of Light. God is  
So Glorious a Light, that as the Sun dazzleth the eyes too steadfastly fixed on it: so his incomprehensible Majesty confounds all those, that too curiously pry into it.  
So Clear a Light, that he sees into all corners. The eyes of God are in every place, 
P●o. 15. 3.  beholding the evil and the good. He searcheth more narrowly than the beams of the Sun: He sees Bribery in the Office, Adultery in the Closet, Fraud in the Shop, though the Penthouse makes it as dark as a room in Bedlam.  
So Good a Light, that in him is no darkness; not so much as a shadow. There is none in him; there comes none from him. Indeed he made outward Darkness of Hell, the wages of sin: But he never made the inward Darkness of the Soul, which is sin.  
So Constant a Light; that though the Sun be variable in his Course, sometimes shining bright, often Clouded: yet God is without change as the Moon, without Eclipsing as the Sun, without Setting as the Stars.  
So Spreading a Light, that he communicates it to us. This is the true Light, 
joh. 1. 9  which Lighteth every one that cometh into the world. Without whom we should have been wrapped in an eternal miserable Darkness: but that he sent one To give Light to them that sat in Darkness, 
Luk. 7. 79.  and in the shadow of Death, to guide their feet into the way of Peace.  
And this is the Light, which he here showeth us. By the consent of all Expositors in this Psalm is Typed the coming of Christ, and his kingdom of the Gospel. This is manifested by an Exaltation, by an Exultation, by a Petition, by a Benediction.  
The Exaltation. Ver. 22. The stone, which the builders refused, is become the head stone of the Corner. The jews refused this Stone, but God hath Built his Church upon it.  
The Exultation. Ver. 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made: we will rejoice and be glad in it. A more blessed Day, than that Day was, wherein he made man, when he had done making the world, Rejoice we, and be glad in it.  
The Petition. Ver. 25. Save now I beseech thee, O Lord: O Lord, I beseech thee send now prosperity. Thy justice would not suffer thee to save without the Messias: he is come, Save Now, O Lord I beseech thee. Our Saviour is come, let mercy and salvation come along with him.  
The Benediction makes all clear. ver. 25. Blessed be he that cometh in the name of the Lord. For what David here prophesied, 
Math. 21. 9  the people after accomplished. Math. 21. Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord.  
The Corollary or Sum is in my Text. ver. 27. God is the Lord that hath showed us light: bind the Sacrifice with cords to the Horns of the Altar.  
It was truly said, Lex est Lux: the Law is Light. But unable to light us to Heaven; not through it own, but our deficiency. Hereon it did not save, but condemn us. Lex non damnans est ficta et picta Lex: 
Luth in Galate.  That Law that doth not condemn us, is a feigned and painted Law. The Apostle calls it the Ministration of death.  
Let then the less Light give place to the greater. Legalia fuerunt ante passionem Domini vina, 
Aug.  Statim post passionem mortua, hody sepulta: The Legal rites were before the Passion of Christ alive, strait after his Passion dead, now buried. Or as another; The Ceremonies of the Law were in their prime Mortales, in Christ's age Mortuae, in our time Mortiferae. They were at first Dying, in our saviours time Dead, in ours Deadly. The Law was given by Moses, 
Ioh.▪ 1. 17.  but Grace and Truth came by jesus Christ.  
We have now found out the Light, and (blessed be God) above these fifty years we have found it: That if any should say (as Philip to Christ. joh. 14. Lord show us the Father, 
joh. 14. 8.  and it sufficeth us. To whom jesus answers. Have I been so long with you, and yet hast thou not known me? Philip, he that hath seen me, hath seen the Father: So if any should say) Show us the Light, and it sufficeth us. I answer; Hast thou been so long in the Light, and hast thou not known it? Art thou one of that Country that, Appollonius writes of, that can see nothing in the day, but all in the night. Hath the Light made thee blind? If no other, the vicissitude of this Exercise Shows, that the Light is among us.  
I should tristle time to prove by arguments to the care, a thing so visible to the eye: and waste the Light of the day, to demonstrate the evidence of this Light being amongst us. Meditation and Wonder better become this subject, than discourse.  
It is the Blessing of God's Right hand. 
Prou. 3. 16.  Prou. 3. Length of days is in her Right hand; and in her Left hand Riches and Honour; saith Solomon of Wisdom, he meant it of Christ. This Light shall procure to a man blessed eternity. All those blessings of the Left hand, as Riches and Honour, are frail and mortal: Nothing lasts long in this World, except a suit at Law. But this Light, if ourselves fault not, shall outshine for countenance, and outlast for continuance, the Sun in the Firmament. Therefore our Psalmographer. ver. 15. having showed, that The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the Tabernacles of the righteous he adds, The Right hand of the Lord hath done valiantly. yea he doubles and trebles it. 
ver. 16.  The Right hand of the Lord is exalted: the right hand of the Lord hath done valiantly. This is the God of Lights, 
Reue▪ 1. 16.  That had the seven Stars in his Right hand. This Light must enlighten us to some duties.  
1. Rejoice in this Light, ver 24. This is the Light-day that the Lord hath made: let us Rejoice and be glad in it: Not for a spurt, 
jath 13. 20.  as the Stony ground▪ Math. 13. that with joy receives the Sermon; but goes home as stonyhearted, as judas after the Sop. Nor as the jews, to whom john Baptist was a burning and a shining Lamp: 
joh. 5. 35.  and they for a season, rejoiced in his light: But afterwards never rested, till they had eclipsed the Sun on the Cross, and slain his morning-star in the Prison. Nor as Children, that come abroad to play in the Sunshine, and make no more account of it. Nor as a people, that never saw the Sun, step out of their doors to gaze upon it, and then turn their backs on it. But Rejoice with a solid joy, as they whom God hath brought out of darkness, into his marvelous light.  
2. Walk worthy of this Light. This was St. Paul's request to his Ephesians, 
Ephe. 41.  that they would Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith they are called. 
Rome▪ 13. 12.  The Night is past, the Light is come: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armour of Light. Be children of the Light. As the Light shines on thee, let it shine in thee. Thou hast small comfort to be in the Light, unless the Light be in thee. Saith the Prophet to the Church; 
Esa. 60. 1.  Arise, shine: for thy light cometh, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon th●e▪ As God hath showed his Light to you: So let your Light shine before men; 
Math. 5. 16.  that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father, which is in Heaven. There are some that boast their Communion with God: against S:▪ john reason's Anatura Dei. 
1. joh. 1. 5. 6.  God is Light: if we say we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie & do not the truth St. Paul's argument is of the same fashion, what Communion hath Light with darkness? The holy writ calls all sins. Opera tencbrarum, the works of darkness. Because,  
1. They are perpetrated against God, who is the Father of Lights. jam. 1. 17.  
2. They are suggested by the Devil, who is the Prince of darkness Eph. 6. 12.  
3. They are most usually committed in the da●ke Male agens odit Lucem. They that sleep, sleep in the night: and they that be Drunken, be Drunken in the night. 1. Thess 5. 7.  
4. They are the effects of blindness of mind: and Ignorance is a grievous inward Darkness. Their fool should heart was Darkened: and hence issued those deadly sins Rom. 1. 21.  
5. Their reward shall be utter Darkness. Cast that unprofitable servant into utter Darkness. Mat. 25. 30. And Iud.▪ Ver. 13. To them is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever  
If then God hath showed thee Light; show not thou the deeds of Darkness: but walk honestly as in the day Rom. 13. 13.  
3 Take heed of sore eyes. Pleasures, lusts, and vanities, make the eyes sore that are dotingly fastened on them. The Usurer with telling his Gold: the haughty with contemplating his greatness: the Drunkard with looking at the Wine laughing in the Cup: the lustful with Gazing on his Painted damnations; make their eyes so sore, that they cannot look up, and behold this Light.  
4. Take benefit of this Light, whiles it shines. It may be clouded, as it was in the days of Popery. Either this Light may be set to thee, or thou be set to it. That to thee by Removing the Candlestick: thou to that by the hand of Death, which shall send thee to the Land of forgetful Darkness. Our Saviour taught us this (not only in precept, but) in practice. 
I●hn. 9 4.  I must work the work of him that sent me, whiles it is day: for the night cometh wherein no man can work. Let us not do like some Courtiers, that having Light allowed them, Play it out at Cards, and go to Bed darkling.  
5 Lastly, help to maintain this Light, that it go not out. If you would have the Lamps of the Sanctuary shine, power in your Oil. Grudge not a little cost, to keeke this Light clear. The Papists have their Candlemas: they bestow great cost in Lights about a Service of Darkness. Repine not you then at a little Charges, for the everlasting Lamp of the Gospel: Some of you I bear you witness, do not Grudge it. Go on and prosper: and whiles you make the Church happy, make yourselves so.   

Wherewith.  
I must now step from Heaven to Earth: I pass from the For what, to the With what God is to be praised.  
He hath showed you his Light: show him yours. He hath given us an inestimable blessing, what shall we return him? What? Bind the Sacrifice with cords even to the Horns of the Altar.  
This is man's Thankfulness, for God's Bountifulness. We will first cast over the particulars, and then sum them.  

1. Here is Sacrifice to be offered.  
2. This Sacrifice must be bound. Bind the Sacrifice.  
3. This Sacrifice must be bound with cords Bind the Sacrifice with cords.  
4. This Sacrifice must be bound with cords to the Altar. Bind the Sacrifice with cords to the Altar.  
5. This Sacrifice must be. 1. Bound. 2. With cords.  
3. To the Altar. 4. Yea even to the Horns of the Altar, you see the Totum is Thankfulness; and the Bill hath five particulars. 

1. The Sacrifice is Devotion.  
2. Binding the Sacrifice, constant Devotion.  
3. With cords, servant Devotion.  
4. To the Altar, rectified Devotion.  
5. To the Horns of the Altar, confident Devotion. Devotion is the Mother and she hath four Daughters. 

1. Constancy, Bind the Sacrifice.  
2. Fervency. Bind it with cords.  
3. Wisdom. Bind it to the Altar.  
4. Confidence. Even to the Horns of the Altar.        

Sacrifice.  
Is the act of our Devote Thankfulness. I might here (to no great purpose) travel a large field of discourse for Sacrifices. But it were no other, but where the Scripture offereth us the company a Mile, to compel it to go with us twain.  
All Sacrifices are either Expiatory, or gratulatory. Expiatory for the condonation of sins; Gratulatory for the Donation of graces. So in a word, they were either Sin-offerings, or Peace-offrings.  
The Sin-offrings of the jews had two main ends.  
1. To acknowledge Peecat● stipendium mortem; that Death was the wages of sin due to the Sacrificers, laid on the Sacrificed.  
2. Mystically & simbolically to prefigure the kill of the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world. So Calvin. Semperillis ante oculos simbola proponi oportu●t. They had ever need of signs, and types, and figurative demonstrations before their eyes.  
But those Saecrifices are abolished in Christ who offered one Sacrifice for sins for ever; 
H●b▪ 10. 12.  and that such a one, as was a sweet smelling Savour to God. 
Ephe. 5. 2.  It was a pretty observation, that the last Character of the Hebrew Alphabet, was a plain Figure of Christ's Cross; to show that his Sacrifice ended all theirs.  
Ours is the second kind; a gratulatory Sacrifice. Our Prophet here speaking of the days of the Gospel. Then, Bind this Sacrifice with cords, etc. Christ is our Altar, let ourselves be the Sacrifice: the Fire that kindles it, the Love of God; the Smoke that goes up, the consumption of our sins.  
That this Sacrifice may be acceptable, I will show you how it must be done, how it must not be done.  

1. What is to be excluded.  
2. How it ought to be qualified.    

Exclusively.  
IT must be sine Pelle, sine Melle, sine fell, sine Macula.  
1. Sine Pelle, without the Skin of Ostentation; which indeed makes them not Sacrificia, but Sacrilegia, Not Sacrifices, but Sacrileges: They are so Opera muta, Dumb deeds: nay, rather Opera mendacij, Loud lying works; as if they told God a good tale how they loved him, when they meant to deceive him. God will require all untruths between man and man; but fallacies and falsehoods done between the Porch and the Altar, in the shadow of the Church, and under the pretence of his service, he will sorely revenge.  
The casting up of the Eyes, the bowing down of the Knees, the uncovering the Head, moving the Lips, knocking the Breast, sighing and crying, what mean they? are they not symptoms and demonstrative witnesses of an inward compunction? Are they not a protestation, that the Soul is speaking to God? If there be not an honest Heart within, this is but the Skin of a Sacrifice: And they that give God the Skin for the Body, God will give them the Skin for the Body; the shadow of Blessings for the substance.  
It is storied of one that sold his wife Glasses for Pearls: Imposturam faecit, et passus est, He cozened, and was cozened. They that sell the Lord of Heaven (how so ever they may deceive his Spouse, the Church on earth) Glasses for Pearls, Shells for Kernels, Copper for Gold, Bark for Bulk, Show for Substance, Fancy for Conscience; God will be even with them, and give them Stones for Bread, Images of Delight for substantial joys: Imposturam faci●●t ●t patienter, They deceive, and shall be deceived.  
2. Sine Melle: There must be no Honey of selfe-complacencie in this Sacrifice. 
Psal. 51. 17.  Psal. 51. The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit: a broken and contrite Heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. A true Sacrifice consists not only (Faciendo, but Patiendo,) in doing, but in dying, or suffering for Christ.  
In the Law, Beasts appointed for Sacrifice, were first slain, and so offered. In the Gospel, Christians must first mortify their earthly members, and crucify their carnal lusts, and then offer up themselves. As Death takes away the Natural lif●; so Mortification must take away the Sensual life. 
Aug. Serm. 141. de Temp.  Moriatur ergo homo, ne moriatur: Mutetur ne damnetur: Let a man die, that he may not die: let him be changed, that he be not damned. Only the mortified man is the true living Sacrifice. It must not then be Honey to our Palates; but bitter: even so bitter, as Abnegare suos, sua, se: to deny our Friends, to deny our Goods, to deny ourselves, for Christ his cause.  
3. Sine fell: There must be no Amarulentia, no Gall of bitterness in this Sacrifice. Math. 5. If thou bring thy gift to the Altar, 
Math. 5. 23.  and remember'st that thy Brother hath aught against thee; leave there thy gift, and go thy way: first be reconciled to thy Brother, and then offer it. If thy Brother hath aught against thee, God hath more. If thou have somewhat against thy Brother, God hath somewhat against thee. 
Math. 9 13.  Go ye and learn what that meaneth; I will have Mercy, and not Sacrifice.  
Whiles you trip up men's heels with Frauds. lay them along with Suits, tread on them with Oppressions, blow them up with Usuries, Injuries: Your Sacrifice is full of Gall. It was said in wonder; Is Saul among the Prophets? So, what makes a Slanderer, a Defrauder, an Usurer, an Oppressor, at Church? They come not sine fell, without the Gall of Uncharitableness: they shall return sive Melle, without the Honey of God's Mercies. 
Heb. 13. 16.  To do good, and to communicate, forget not, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased: Merciful works are Pro sacrificijs, imo prae sacrificijs: Equal to Sacrifices, above Sacrifices in God's acceptance.  
4. Sine Macula. Leuit. 22. God commands, that his Sacrifice be without Blemish; 
Levit, 22. 20. etc.  nor blind, nor broken, nor maimed, nor infected, etc. Therefore a Lamb without spot was offered for a morning and an evening Sacrifice. And the Lamb of God in an antitypical relation, is truly said, 
1. Pet. 1. 19  Immaculatus, a Lamb without spot, without blemish.  
The Drunkard is without a head, the Swearer hath a Garget in his throat, the Covetous hath a lame hand, he cannot give to the poor: the Epicure hath a gorbelly, the Adulterer is a scabbed Goat, the Worldling wants an eye, the Ruffian an ear, the Coward a heart: these are Mutila Sacrificia, lame, defective, luxate, unperfect Sacrifices.  
The Prophet Esay begins and ends his Prophecy with a denunciation of God's contempt, and refusal of such Oblations; Who will forget those to be the sons of grace, that forget his Sacrifices to be the Sacrifices of a God. 
Esa. 66. 3.  He that sacrificeth a Lamb, is as if he cut off a Dog's neck.   

Comprehensively.  
IT must be Cum Thure, cum Sale, cum Sanguine, cum Integritate.  
1. Cum Thure: The Frankincense is Prayer and Invocation. 
Psal. 141. 2.  Let my Prayer be set forth before thee as Incense: and the lifting up of my hands as the Evening sacrifice.  
These the Prophet calls Vitulos Labiorum, The Cal●●s (not of our Folds, but) of our Lips: Whereof the Lord more esteemeth, then of the Bullock that hath Horn and Hoof.  
This is the special Sacrifice here meant. God expectes it of us: 
De Noah. cap. 22.  Non ut avarus, (as Ambros.) Not as if he were covetous of it; but ex debito. Yet as he must give the Beast to us, 
joel. 2. 14.  before we can give it to him. joel 2. For the Lord must Leave a Blessing behind him; even a Meat Offering, and a Drink Offering for himself: So this spiritual Sacr●fice of Prayers and Praise, must be Datum as well as Mandatum; Conferred, as Required. Tribuat Deus, ut homo retribuat: Let God give it to man, that man may give it to God: He that commands it, must bestow it.  
2. Cum Sale: There must be Salt to season this Sacrifice. Leuit. 
Leuit. 2. 13.  2. With all thine Offerings thou shalt offer Salt.  
Salt hath been usually taken for Discretion. What S. Paul speaks of our Words, should hold also in our deeds. 
Coloss. 4. 6.  Coloss. 4. Powdered with Salt. The Proverb is true; an Ounce of Discretion, is worth a pound of Learning. 
Bern. Serm. 49 in Cant.  Tolle hanc, et virtus vitium erit: Banish this, and you shall run Virtue into Vice, blow Heat into a Flame, turn Conscience into a Fury, and drive Devotion out of her wits: Zeal without this, is like a keen Sword in a mad hand.  
3 Cum Sanguine. Not literially, as in the Sacrifices of the Law. 
Heb 9 22.  Almost all things by the Law are purged with Blood. But spiritually, to make them acceptable, they must be dipped in our, the Blood of jesus Christ.  
Without this they are not holy: as one expounds Sanctum, quasi sanguine consecratum. Here is then the necessity of a true faith, to sprinkle all our Sacrifices with our saviours Blood; No Sacrifice otherwise good. For whatsoever is not of faith, 
Rom. 14. 23.  is sin. Therefore if any man comes to the Church, more for fear of the Law, then love of the Gospel, he offers a thankless Sacrifice.  
4. Cum Integritate. And this in respect 

Sacrificij,  
Sacrificantis.    
1. Of the Sacrifice God reproves the jews, 
Mal. 1. 7. 8.  that they had laid polluted Bread upon his Altar. If ye offer the Blind for Sacrifice, is it not evil? If ye offer the Lame and the sick, is it not evil? The Lord's Sacrifice must be fat and fair; not a lean, scraggling, starved Creature.  
Paul beseecheth his Romans, that they would present themselves a Living (or quick) Sacrifice to God: 
Rom. 12. 1.  When infirmities have Crazed it, and age almost razed it, then to offer it: alas; it is not a living, but a dying; not a quick, but a sick Sacrifice. This must be a whole and holy Oblation.  
2. Of the Sacrificer. The life a●d soul of a Sacrifice, is not the outward action, but the inward affection of the Heart. Mens cuiusque, is est quisque: As the Mind is, so is the Man: as the Man is, so is his Sacrifice. If we bring our Sheep to God's Altar, and them alone; we had as good have left them behind us, as an unprofitable Carriage. 
Mica. 6. 6.  Wherewith shall I come before the Lord? With burnt offerings, and Calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of Rams, or with ten thousand rivers of Oil? Shall I give my first borne for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? No, learn an other Oblation. God hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth he require of thee, but to Do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?  
The Poet could ask the Priest, 
Pers.  In Templo quid facit aurum? He bids them bring Compositum ius, fasque animi, etc. Put these into my hands, et far litabo. Lay upon the Altar of your Heart Faith, Repentance, Obedience, Patience, Humility, Chastity, Charity; Bona pignora mentis, and consecrated these to the Lord.  
When the searcher of the reins shall find a carcase of Religion without a quickening Spirit, he will turn his countenance from it. Beasts died when they were sacrificed: Men cannot live unless they be sacrificed.  
The Oracle answered, to him that demanded what was the best Sacrifice to please God.  
Da medium Lunae, solemn simul, et Canis iram: Give the half Moon, the whole Sun, and the dogs anger: Which three Characters make COR, 
Greg.  the Heart. Deus non habet gratum offerentem propter munera, sed munera propter offerentem: God values not the Offerer by the Gift, but the Gift by the Offerer. Let not then thy Heart be as dead, as the Beast thou immolatest.  
So Peter Martyr expounds Paul's living Sacrifice. 
In Rome, 12.  Those things that can move themselves, are living and quick: they are dead, that cannot stir themselves, but by others violence. Compelled service to God; as to keep his Statutes, for fear of Man's Statutes, is an unsound Oblation, not quick and lively. God loves a cheerful giver, and thankesgiver. Non respicit Deus munera, nisi te talem praestes, qualem te munera promittunt: God regards not thy Gifts, unless thou dost show thyself such a one, as thy Gifts promise thee. Ad te, non munera spectat.  
You see the Sacrifice, Devotion. The Mother hath held us long: we will deal more briefly with her Daughters.   

Constancy.  
THe first borne is Constancy. Bind the Sacrifice. Grace is like a Ring, without end; and the Diamond of this Ring is Constancy. 
Deut. 6. 8.  Deut. 6. T●ou shalt bind my Statutes for a sign upon thy hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. It is the advice of wisdom Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: 
Pro. 3. 3.  Bind them about thy neck, and write them upon the Table of thy heart.  
The Leaf of a Righteous man never fadeth, saith the Psal. If it doth, then Lapsus foliorum, mortificatio arborum, saith the Gloss. The fall of the leaves will be the death of the Tree. It is to small purpose, to steer the vessel safe through the main, and split her within a league of the Haven. To put your hand to the Blow, and thrive well in the best husbandry; and with Demas to look back.  
Vincenti dabitur; and fulfilled Holiness wear●s the Crown. Some have derived Sanctum, 
Ren. 2. & 3.  quasi sancitum; an established Nature. All Virtues run in a race: only one winneth the Garland, the Image of eternity, happy Constancy. Wisdom is a tree of Life to them that lay hold on her: and blessed is he that retains her: 
Pro. 3. 18.  Therefore, Make sure your Election; Fast bind, fast find: Bind the Sacrifice.   

Fervency.  
THe next D●ughter of this righteous generation, is Fervency. Bind the Sacrifice with Cords. Thou canst not make Heaven too suit. Men use to bind the World to them, faster than the Philistines Samson, or the jailor his fugitive Prisoner, with cords, with cords of Iron; that it may not start from them, and run away.  
Riches is known to be wild Bedlam; therefore they will keep it in Bonds. They bind their Lands with Intails, their Goods with Walls, their moneys with Obligations, that on no condition they may give them the slip: But they care not how loose the Conscience be: they that give liberty enough, even to licentiousness.  
But the Sacrifice of Devotion must be bound with Cords: a Cord of love, a Cord of fear, a Cord of faith; and this threefold chord is not easily broken. 
Eccle 4. 12.    

Wisdom.  
A third Daughter, and one of the beautifullest, is Wisdom. Bind the Sacr●fice with Cords to the Altar. Rectified Devotion, is specially acceptable.  
A man may be devout enough: too much, when their zeal is like the horn in the unicorns head: it doth more hurt than good. You would not have wished Baal Priests do more for their Master: lo, the gashes and mouths of their selfe-giuen wounds, speak their forwardness: they wanted a Lamp of direction, to Guide it to God's Altar.  
Aristotl● eells Discretion, 
Eth Lib. 6. Cap. 5.  virtutum normam et form●m: the eye of the soul, the soul of virtue. I would to God, some amongst us had one Dram of this grace, mingled with their whole handfuls of zeal. It would a little cool the preter natural heat of the slng-brand fraternity; as one wittily calleth them.  
Hollerius writes of an Italian, that by often smelling to the herb Basil, had Scorpions bred in his brain. Proud Faction is the weed they so much smell on, and make poesies of, that the serpents bred in their brains, do sting and wound the bosom of the Church. These Bind, and with cords, but not to the Altar, Devotion is not their scope, but distraction. O may the spirit of meekness Bind their Sacrifice to the Altar: direct their zeal with Discretion, to the glory of God. And let us every one say resolutely with Daui●: I will wa●h my hands in innocency, 
Psal. 26. 6.  O Lord; and so will I compass thine Altar. Wisdom is a fair Daughter in this Progeny. Bind the Sacrifice with Cords to the Altar.   

Confidence.  
THe youngest Daughter of this fair Sisterhood, is Faith. Copious matter of Discourse might here be offered me, about the site, matter, fashion, of the Altar; and to what purpose these four Horns of the Altar served: Bind the Sacrifice with cords to the Horns of the Altar.  
Perhaps many precious Mines of mysteries might here be found out, which I dig not for. Among diverse other ends I find, that these Horns of the Altar were for Refuge; & guilty men did fly unto them for fear of the Law. 
1. King. 1. 50.  Adoniah feared because of Solomon, and arose, and went, and caught hold on the Horns of the Altar. So joab in the next Chapter, 
ver. 28.  Fled to the Tabernacle of the Lord, and caught hold on the Horns of the Altar. They fled thither in a hopeful confidence of mercy.  
Christ is our Altar, 
Hebr. 13. 10.  Heb. 13. his Merits the Horns of the Altar. By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of Praise to God continually, 
ver. 15.  that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name. Our Faith must catch hold on these Horns, Christ's merits, that is, our Sacrifice may be acceptable.  
The Law of God shall surprise us, and the Sword of eternal death shall kill us, if we bind not our Sacrifice to the Horns of the Altar: if we rest not upon the all-sufficient Merits of jesus Christ.  
This is the Mother of her, whose Daughter she is. It may be said of these, as the Poet of Ice and Water; the Mother brings forth the Daughter, & the Daughter brings forth the Mother.  
All her Sisters are beholding to her: Never a Damsel of Israel dares enter Ahashuerosh Court, but she; She alone must bring all graces to the Horns of the Altar. O blessed Faith: Many Daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. 
Pro. 31. 29.  Bind then the sacrify with cords, even unto the Horns of the Altar.  
YOu hear the Mother and her Children: These are the Daughters that true Devotion bringeth forth. Compare we our Progeny with these, and we shall find, that we bring forth Daughters of another countenance.  
Distinguish this Land of ours (let the word Divide, be held heresy in manners) into four CC: Court, City, Country, Church.  
The Court may be said to have three Daughters; as Fulco boldly told Richard the first: 
Acts & Monu pag. 252.  which are vicious, & of a wicked disposition. The King answered, He had no Daughters at all. Fulco said, he cherished three in his Court that were no better than Strumpets; and therefore wished him timely to provide them Husbands, or else they would undo him, and his Realm. The angry King would have them named. Fulco told him, they were Pride, Avarice, and Luxury. The blushing, penitent, and discreet Prince confessed, and resolved to bestow them. So he gave Pride to the Templars, Avarice to the Cistercians Monks, & Luxury to the Popish Prelates: the like matches, as fitter than in England could not be found for them.  
The City hath four Daughters too: Fraud, Hypocrisy, Usury, Sensuality. Let me say; the breeding and indulgence to such Daughters, shame you. Shall I tell you how to cast them away upon Husbands? Marry Fraud to the professed Cheaters. Bestow Usury upon the Brokers. Banish Sensuality to the Forest, to see if any Beast will take it up. And for Hypocrisy, wed it to the brainsick Separatist, though you send it to them with a letter of Mart to Amsterdam.  
The Country hath three Daughters; Ignorance, Uncharitableness, and Ill-custome: Ignorance they might bestow on the Papists, they will make much of it. Let them send Uncharitableness to the Savages and Saracens. And Ill-custome to the jews, who will rather keep their Customs, than their Saviour.  
For the Church; we have but two Children, and those none of our own breeding neither; though we are fain to bring them up with patience, Poverty, and Contempt: and take'hem who will, so we were rid of them.  
These are not the Daughters of Devotion, but the wretched brood of our Indevotion.  
There are amongst us, 

1. Some that will not Bind.  
2. Some that will Bind, but not with cords.  
3. Some that will Bind with cords, but not the Sacrifice.  
4. Some that will Bind the Sacrifice with cords, but not to the Altar.  
5. Some that will Bind the Sacrifice with cords to the Altar, but not to the Horns of the Altar.    
1. Some will not Bind; nay they will not be bound. There are so many Religions in the world, that they will be tied to none of them. Such a one is like a loose Tooth in the head, of little use, of much trouble. Their trepidations are more shaking then cold Ague-fi●tes: their staggers worse than a Drunkards.  
A Feather in the Air, a Fane on the House, a Cockboat in the Sea, are less inconstant. The course of a Dolphin in the Water, of a Buzzard in the Air, of a Whore in the City, is more certain. They are full of farraginous and bullimong mixtures: power them forth into liberty, and they run wilder than Quick silver on a table.  
But let a good man be (as john Bap was commended by our Saviour) No Reed shaken with the Wind: Let our Actions have ballast, our Affections balance: be we none of those, that will not Bind.  
2. Some will Bind, but not with cords: they will take on them an outward profession, but not be fervent in it. they will not bind themselves to Devotion, as the Philistines bound Samson, 
jud. 16.  with new Withes, or with new Ropes; but only with a Rush, or a Hair, or a twine Thread of coldness.  
A Sermon or a Mass, is all one to them; they come with equal devotion to either. All the Religion in the World with these Gergesens, is not worth a slitch of Bacon: 
jer. 44. 17.  For handfuls of Barley, and morsels of Bread, you may win them to worship the Queen of Heaven.  
Their lukewarmness is so offensive, that they trouble all stomachs: GOD shall sp●e them out of the Church: the earth shall spew them into the Grave, and the Grave shall spew them into Hell.  
3. Some will Bind, and with cords; but not the Sacrifice. Such are the utterly irreligious, the openly profane. They have their cords to bind; but they will not meddle with the Sacrifice, Devotion. The Prophet Esay gives them a Vae for their labour.  
Woe unto them that draw Iniquity with cords of Vanity; 
Eay. 5. 18.  and sin, as it were with a Cart-rope. But in a just quittance for their strong-haled wickedness, they draw on their own destruction with cords, and damnation, as it were with a Cart-rope. 
Pro. 5. 22.  So those Funcs peccatorum, that Solomon speaks of, shall be rewarded: His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. There is such a concatenation of their wickedness, rioting, swearing, drunkenness, whoredom, that at last the cords end reaches to Hell.  
Their whole life is but like a Firework, that runs along the Rope of wickedness, till at last it goes out in the Grave, and is rekindled in the slaming Pit. They bind sin sure to themselves with cords; and with the same cords the Devil Binds them as fast to him: they shall speed as himself doth, and be at last Bound with the cords, or Chairs of darkness.  
The Magistrate should do well (in mean time) to Bind them with Material cords, of severe punishments. Chain up their feet from Brothell-houses, Manacle their hands from slaughters; give them the cords of Correction, lest at last by a Cord they depart the world.  
The three special Twists of this Cord, are Drunkenness, Whoredom, Cossenage. If you could untwine these three, and separate them; there were some hope of breaking them all. You say, on their deprehention they have sure punishment: be as careful to find them out. But it is reported, you have roused these sins from their old nests, and sent them home to your own houses. Cheating winds into some of your own shops: Adultery creeps into some of your own Chambers. And I know not how, sometimes justices & Magistrates have whipped Drunkenness out of the Alehouse into their own Cellars.  
There is one amongst us that is a terrible Hinder; and that's the usurer. He Binds strangely, strongly, with the cords of obligations. You know he that enters into obligation, is said to come into Bonds; it is all one, into cords. This man's whole life is spent in tying of knots: his profession is Cordage. And for this cause he is beloved of the Cord-makers, for setting them on work; and of no body else.  
This fellow Binds, but he'll near Bind the Sacrifice: his conscience shall be loose enough. I could say much to this Hinder, if there were any hope of him. But I remember a true story, that a friend told me of an Usurer. There was a Godly Preacher in his Parish, that did beat down with all just convictions, and honest reproofs that sin. Many Usurers flocked to his Church, because he was a man of note. Among the rest, this Usurer did bid him often to dinner, and used him very kindly. Not long after this Preacher began to forbear Usury; not in any connivence or partiality; but because he had dealt plentifully with it; and now his Text led him not to it.  
Now begins the Usurer to be heavy, sorrowing and discontent; And turned his former kindness into sullenness. The Preacher must needs observe it, and boldly asked him the reasons of this sudden aversion. The Usurer replied. If you had held on your first Course to inveigh against Usury, I had some hope you would ha●e put all the Usurers down; and so I should have had the better Vent and Custom for my Mony. For my part, say what you will, I never meant to leave it: But I should have been beholding to you, if you could have made me an Usurer alone. You see the hope of an usurers Conversion.  
But I would to God, that every one thus bound with the Cord of his Wickedness, would consider, that so long as a Cord is whole, it is not easily broken: but untwist it, & lay it thread by thread, and you my quickly snap it a sunder. Beloved, first untwine the Cord of your sins by serious consideration, and then you may easily break them off by Repentance.  
4. Some 1. will Bind, 2. with Cords, 3. yea and the Sacrifice, 4. but not to the Altar. There are many of these in our Land: they bind the Sacrifice exceeding fast to Themselves, not to the Altar. All the Altaragia, the dues that belong to them that serve at God's Altar, and which the Laws of God and man Bound to the Altar, they have loosened, and Bound to themselves, and their heirs.  
These Bind the Sacrifice, and with cords; but not to the right place. Nay, I would to God, they would Bind no more; But now the fashion is to hold God to Custom: & if a poor Minister demand those remanents, which are left to the Altar, he is overthrown by Custom. Oh the pity of God, that England-should have any such Custom:  
And for you, that never think yourselves well, but when you have Bound the Sacrifice to yourselves: and imagine that the Milk or Fleece of your Flocks, which God hath tyth'd for himself, is too good for the Minister; and will either acts, or armis, with force of Law, or craft of Cozening, keep it to yourselves; that will plead the rate of a penny in Law, for a pound in conscience: Chop and change your Sheep, to defraud Christ of his Tenth sleece: know that as you Binge the Sacrifice from the Altar, so you shall have no comfort by the Altar, but the justice of God shall Bind you from his mercy. Though you may repent: which if you restore not, is impossible: and your restitution is improbable; yet for the present, the Devil hath Eleven points of the Law against you; that is, Possession.  
5. Lastly, some. 1. Bind. 2. The sacrify. 3. With cords. 4. To the Altar. 5 But not to the Horns of the Altar. These are deficient in a special degree of Devotion, faith. They have many good moral virtues; but they want that, which should make both their virtues and themselves acceptable to God; Faith in his Son jesus Christ. It is a vain Devotion, whence this is excluded: The Law finds no works righteous. But Quod Lex operum min●●do imperat, L●x s●dei credendo impetrate: What the Law of Works commanded with the threatening, the Law of Faith obtains by believing: Affy we then the merits of our blessed Saviour, who is our only Re●u●e; and take fast hold on the Horns of the Altar. Bind the Sacrifice with cords even unto the Horn●● of the Altar   

The Sum.  
TO gather these scattered Branches to their Root; now we have cast over the particulars, let us Sum them. The Sum is our Thankfulness: Bind the Sacrifice with cords, etc.  
Ingratitude hath been ever held a Monster, a preternatural thing: one of those privations and deficiencies which God never made, but the devil thrust in upon the absence of the positive and primitive virtues. Here upon we call an Ingrateful person, an unnatural man.  
No man wonders at Dogs, and Wol●●●, and Foxes; but at satires and Centaurs, and such Monsters in nature, all gaze upon. Ebriety, Adultery, Avarice (though equally heinous) are less odious; because they have Nature and Custom on their sides. But an Unthankful person named, we all detest, as a solecism in sense, a paradox in manners, a prodigy in nature.  
To demonstrate this sin to be so far from humanity, that the very Beasts abhor it. There is a St●ry of a poor man, that went often to a Forest to gather Sticks; where suddenly one day, he heard the voice of a man in distress: making towards it, he found a rich Neighbour fallen into a deep Pit; and together with him an Ape, a Lion, and a Serpent: he made his moan, being endangered both of the Pit, and of the Beasts: Pity and Charity moved the poor man to help the rich, and that seldom moves the rich to help the poor; He lets down the Cord, wherewith he bound his Sticks, and up comes the Ape: Again he puts for the man, and the Lion ascends: A third offer he makes, and the Serpent takes the advantage: last he draweth up the man; who freed by his help from instant death, promised him a bounteous requital, if on the next day he did visit him. The poor man affying his word, came to him accordingly, in a hopeful expectation of reward. But now the rich man would not know him; he hath forgotten that ever he stood in any need of him, and impudently denies him any recompense. The discomforted poor man is fain to travel the Forest again for his Fuel, where the Ape spying him, had ready broken with his teeth and nails, Sticks enough for his burden: there was his utmost Gratitude. Another day coming, the Lion approacheth him, presenting to him divers laden camels; which driving home, and disburdening, he found precious Treasure, that enriched him. A third time upon other occasions traveling the Forest, the Serpen● creeping salutes him with a Precious stone in her mouth, letting it fall at her saviours feet. The intent of the Fable is to demonstrate, that Beasts and Serpents condemn Man of Ingratitude.  
You will say, this is but a fiction: then hear a truth. Esay 1. 
Esay 1. 3.  The Ox knoweth his owner, and the Ass his masters Scrip: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. The very Beast looketh to his masters hand that feeds him.  
This vice is so horrible, that God need not sit to judge it; the Devil himself will condemn it: When he reasoned with God about job, 
job. 1. 10.  he pleads that God had set a Hedge about him, and blessed the work of his hands: And therefore implies, Doth job serve God for nought? If he will be Unthankful to a God so kind, Satan himself will censure him. It must needs be a horrid sin, that the Devil taxeth and abominates. If we be unthankful, we are sure to be condemned: for if God would not condemn it, the Devil will. An Ungrateful man then (in some sort) is worse than the Devil.  
Men and Brethren, let us be Thankful: Let our Meditations travel with Da●id in the 148. 
ver. 1.  Psalm, first up into Heaven. Even the very Heavens and heights praise him. 
Psal. 14●. 2.  And those blessed Angels in his Court sing his Glory. Descend we then by the celestial bodies, and we shall find the Sun, 
ver. 3.  Moon, and all the Stars of light, praising him. Pass we by the Waters, which the Maker's decree hath confined there, 
4.  and we shall hear those Praising him. A little lower, we shall perceive the Meteors, and upper Elements; 
8.  the Fire and hail, Snow and Vapour, magnifying him: even the Wind and Storm, fulfilling his wo●d. Fall we upon the Centre, the very Earth; we shall hear the Beasts and Cattle, Mountains and Hills, fruitful Trees and all Cedars, extolling his Name. The chirping Birds sing sweet Psalms and Carols to their Creator's praise, every Morning when they rise, every Evening ere they go to rest. Not so much as the very Creeping things, saith the Psalmist; the noisome Dragons, and crawling Serpents in the deeps, but they do, in a sort, bless their Maker. Let not then Man, the first fruits of his Creatures, for whose service all the rest were made, be unthankful. If these, much more let all Kings of the earth, 
ver. 11. 12.  and all people: Princes, and all judges of the World: Young men and Maidens, Old men and Children, praise the Name of the Lord.  
There are some, 
job. 31. 27.  that Kiss their own hands, for every good turns that befalls them. God giveth them blessings, and their own wit or strength hath the praise. Other receive them but as due debt, as if God were obliged to them. But alas! What hast thou (O man, that is good) that thou hast not received? Thou hast not a rag to thy back, nor a bit to thy Belly, nor a good hair on thy head, nor a good thought in thy heart, but God giveth it.  
Our evils are properly our own. 
Hug●  Omnia mea mala p●re sunt mala, et mea sunt. Omnia mea bona pure, suut bona et mea no● sunt: All my evils are truly evil and mine own. All my good things are truly good, but none of my own. Now is not the Author of all good, good enough to be remembered? When the Benefits are gotten, must the benefactor be forgotten? And shall Thanks wax old, whiles gifts are new? Boni siquid habeo, a Deo sumpsi, 
Aug.  non a me proesumpsi. Shall we then set the receivers in the place of the Giver, and worship ourselves?  
This is a Sacrilegious theft. The stealing of temporal goods may be requited with restitution: but the purloining of God's glory can never be answered. These are subtle thieves: for though Heaven be sure and secure enough from violent robbers, yet these by a wily insidiation enter into it, and rob God of his Honour. Other thieves steal for necessity; and but from their equals, men. These filch from God his holy right, and that out of a scornful pride.  
It would here be examined, whether England hath any ground in it guilty of this barren Ingratitude? If I should fall to discoursing the favours of GOD, reigned in such plentiful showers upon us; our peace, plenty, tranquillity, and all those gifts of his Left hand; together with that grace of his Right, which blesseth all the rest, and without which they were but a Summer without a Spring; full of heat, but infertile; the Gospel: you would say, Satis haec, we have heard this often enough. Ad nauseam usque: A Sermon of such repetition is but like a suit of the old make. Your curious ears are too fine for such recognitions. You think we never speak of these things, but for want of other matter.  
The wonders, which God wrought in Egypt by Mose●, in Canaan by josuah, were commanded to be proclaimed to all succeeding generations. How many Psalms did this sweet Singer of Israel compose of this subject? How many excellent Sermons did the Prophets preach when they had no other ground or Text, but those principles? 〈◊〉 did the people sling away from before the Pulpits, with; We have heard these things often enough: they are tedious.  
God's mercies to us shall vie weight and number with theirs. We are if not their parallel; yet their second in the favours of Heaven. God hath hedged us in with his providence, and compassed us about with songs of deliverance. We are the Plant of his own hand, & he continually waters us with the saving showers of his Gospel. We need not travel to our neighbour's Cisterns; every man hath his own Well; and such a Well, as yields the Water of life, if we would bring Buckets with us; Ears of attention, and Hearts of retention to draw it out withal. What Nation so far as the World is Christened, hath so many learned Divines? Neither is this Learning like a Coal burning to themselves, but a bright Lamp shining to us: Even those reverend Fathers, that sit at the Stern of the Church, and charge their minds with her greatest troubles, are yet continually preaching to some particular Congregation. It cannot be denied, but the Lord hath showed us Light.  
Now where be the Fruits that he must look for? I dare scarcely enter into this search; as the Elephant refuseth to drink in a clear Water, lest he should see his own deformity. I fear to find the respondency of the deeds of Darkness. I know, God hath his number amongst us; I hope it is not small. God every day increase it, to his glory, and the Church's comfort. Let me have freedom to speak generally.  
Beloved, our lives shame us. If men and Angels should hold their peace, our own open, and manifest iniquities will proclaim us unthankful. Fraud in our houses, Drunkenness in our streets, Oppression in our fields Adultery in corners, Injustice on seats, Impiety in our Temples, Rapine upon our Temples, devastation of our Temples; at least, of the means that God hath given them. These, these are the fruits, too many of us return for God's mercies. Thus, thus do we adorn the Gospel.  
The greatness of God's kindness to us, we strive to match with our unkindness to God. He that in his own person stood for our defence, and bore the heat and burden of the day for us, hath this requital, to have his cause put off to others. We dare not stand for his glory. Could we else brook his holy days profaned, holy name abused, holy Church despised, his ●e●●ants impoverished; if we were as kind to him, as he is to us?  
Whereas every man hath a Charge for God's glory, we put it off from one to another. The poor man to the Rich, and says he should look to these disorders: the Rich man to the Minister: the Minister after a hearty dehortation to the Magistrate. But still wickedness holds up the head, and the heat of rebellion is not qualyfied.  
It is storied of a Certain King, that fight a desperate Battle, for the recovery of his Daughter, injuriously stolen from him; found ill success, and the day utterly against him. Till by the faithful valour of a strange Prince, disguised in the habit of a mean Soldiers, (that pitied his loss, and bore love to his Daughter) he recovered both her, and victory: The Prince interposing himself to hazard of death, & many wounds, for the others redemption. Not long after this Prince received some wrong concerning his Honour, which he deservedly prized: He made his complaint to the King, and besought him to give a just censure of his cause. The forgetful King put him over to a judge. The Prince replies; O King, when thou wast lost, I endangered myself for thy rescue: I did not bid another save thee, but I saved thee myself. Lo, the scars of those wounds I bore, to free thee and thy state from inevitable ruin: And now my suit is before thee, dost thou shuffle me off to, another?  
Such was our case; Satan had stolen our dear daughter, our soul: in vain we laboured a recovery: principalyties and Powers were against us, weakness and wretchedness on our sides. Christ the Sun of God took pity on us: and though he were an eternal Prince of Peace, disguised himself in the habit of a common Soldier; Induens formam servi, putting on him the likeness of a Servant, 
Psal. 2. 7.  undertook this War against our two strong enemies; set himself betwixt us and death, bore those wounds, which should have lighted on us. By no Angel, nor Saint; by no Gold or precious Minerals, did he redeem us; but by his own grievous sufferings. Now his Glory is in question: his Name, his Honour is abused, dear to him as his own Majesty: We stand by, and behold it; he appeals to our censure, remembers us of the Wounds, Passions, Sorrows, he endured for us: We put him off from one to another, and let the cause of him that saved us, fall to a loss. Who shall plead for our Ingratitude? Heaven and earth, Sun and Stars, Orbs and Elements, Angels and Devils will cry shame upon us.  
If we ask now, as the Wicked will at the latter day; Lord, 
Math 25.  When saw we thee hungry, and did not feed thee? When naked, and did not clothe thee? When was thy cause before us, which we defended not? I answer; any day, every day. When we hear Swearers wound and tear his holy Name in pieces: when we see Idolaters give his Honour to Carved or painted Blocks: When Ruffians speak contemptibly of his holy rites; when his Saboths', Sacraments, word, Ministers are vilipended; ourselves standing by with a guilty silence. Oh which of us hath not been Guilty of this Ingratitude?  
It was the exprobration of Athens, that she suffered those men to die in exile, ignominy, oblivion, that with their virtuous endeavours had reared her up on the Pillars of Fame. Miltiades, Aristides, Solon, Photion; Vbi vixerunt, Vbi jacent? Where lived they? where lie they? Their worthy Acts gave glory to that City, and that City covered them with the inglorious dust of obscurity. So the Lord jesus had made us live that were dead, and we do, what we can, to let his lining name die amongst us.  
The Grecians had a Proverb amongst them, against them.  
Pro meritis male tractarunt Agamemnona Gra●i. Agamemnon for the Honour of Greece, had done great service to the conquest and subversion o● Troy. And when he came home, was Slain by his own Wife Clytaemnestra, by the help of Aegistus the adulterer. Christ loved us as his Wife, endowed us with all his own Riches; Conquers Troy for us, subdues all our Enemies and returning home, when he expects to find peace, and kind entertainment in our hearts; we fall to vexing and wounding him; forsaking his love, and cleaving to the world in a Cursed Adultery. So  
Dulcem pro meritis tractamus acerrime Christum., So bitterly do we requite our sweet Saviour, for his mercies.  
Scipio had made Rome Lady of Africa And coming home with Triumph over that and Hannibal, the Senate banished him into a base village. where dying he commanded this sculpture to be engraven on his Tomb. Ingrata Patria, ne ossa quidem mea habes. Unthankful Country, thou hast not so much as my very bones. Many and mighty deliverances hath the Lord given us.  
From furious Amal●kites, that came with a Navy as they bragged, able to fetch away our Land in Turfs.  
From an angry and raging Pestilence that turned the popular Streets of this City into solitude.  
From a Treason wherein men conspired with Devils: for Hell was brought up to their conjurations; and a whole brewing of that salt Sulphur was turned up in Barrels for us to drink.  
Behold, and kiss the feet of his Mercy, we are delivered by jesus Christ from all these miseries and mischiefs. Oh let us not voluntarily call upon ourselves, a worse than all these, our own unthankfulness. Let not Christ say, Ingrate Anglia, ne ossa quidem mea habes: Unthankful England, thou hast not so much as (my bones) the prints, and sensible impressions of these favours in thy memory. Thou hast shut thy Saviour out of thy mind, and buried him in neglectful oblivion. Take heed, least in a just quittance, he exclude thee from his thoughts, and forget to do thee any more good: Lest he take away his Name, his Glory, his Light, his Gospel, from thee; and bestow it on those unchristned borders, where now his great Majesty is not adored.  
How justly might he leave us in our former wretchedness? There is a pretty Fable, the moral of it will profitably fit our present Discourse. A Serpent accidentally enclosed, betwixt two great Stones, that he could no ways extricate himself; made his moan to a man passing by to deliver him. The man with much force removed the Stone, and set him free. The Serpent now, feeling his liberty, thus bespoke his deliverer. I confess, you have done me a kindness in helping me out, being almost famished: But now I am out, my hunger is so violent, that I must needs take the benefit of my fortune, and devour you. The man urged his Ingratitude; but to no purpose, for the Serpent would eat him. Instantly he spied an Ass coming, and desired the Serpent to put it to his judgement. The Serpent was contented, knowing that the Ass durst not but condemn the man for his prey, lest he endangered himself. The case was pleaded on both sides; the Man urging his kindness, the Serpent his hunger: But the Ass gave judgement on the Serpent's side; who is now ready to set on the man.. Hereupon flies by an Eagle, to whom the Man appealed for judgement in this controversy. The Eagle hearing the cause debated, demanded of the Serpent, if he could have freed himself, without the man's aid? The Serpent answered affirmatively, and said, it was only his policy, by this trick to get the Man within his reach. The Eagle desires to see the place: the Man shows it. The Eagle bids the Serpent go into the hole again for more certain demonstration. The Serpent doth so; and the Man removes the other Stone, as it was before, and reincloseth the Serpent. The Eagle now bids the Serpent deliver himself: He replied, he could not. Then (quoth the Eagle) this is my judgement: The next time the Man lets thee forth, do thou take him for thy prey, and eat him.  
It cannot be denied, but we were once surer in Satan's hold, than this Serpent is imagined to be between the Stones. The Man Christ jesus in pity redeemed us, and gave us liberty: We are no sooner out, but we fall to devour him; to make his poor members, his poor Ministers our Prey; to wound his Name with Blasphemies, to steal his Goods with Sacrilege; and to give his Honour either to other Creatures, or to our own Wittes● as if we could have delivered ourselves. Let any be judge but the Ass, our own flesh & blood; and we are sure to be condemned for Ingratitude But if Christ should in his justice, put us again into our former hole; leave us in the power of Satan, Who would not say with the Eagle, The next time he sets us free, let us take him for our booty, and deuo●●e our Redeemer.  
It is recorded of Alexander, an Emperor famoused for his liberality: and of julius Caesar, no less commended for his patience: that the former would never give, nor the other forgive an Ingrateful person. Wretched were we, if the Lord should withhold from us either of these Mercies. If he should shut up the Floodgates of his Bounty, and cease giving: or lock up the treasure-house of his Mercy, and leave forgiving. If he should neither Donare bona sua, nor Condonare mala nostra; woe unto us: We might curse our Births, or rather our Ingratitude.  
We hope still, God will be merciful to us for Christ his sake: So God of us, he hopes we will be obedient to him for Christ his sake. Petimusque, damusque vicissim: As we expect, God should save us for the merits of his Son: So God expectes, we should serve him for the merits of his Son. If the bitter sufferings, and heartblood of jesus, cannot get of us the forbearance of Iniquity; How shall it get for us the forgiveness of Iniquity? As we entreat God, for his Mercy, to be good to us: So God entreats us, for his Mercy, to be good to him; and therein most good to ourselves.  
O let that Goodness, that reconciles us both, prevail with us both. With God, to bless us by his bountifulness: With us, to bless God by our Thankfulness. What should I say? For jesus Christ his sake, let us be Thankful. It is a good thing to give thanks to the Lord, saith our Psalmist. 
Psal. 92. ●.  Good for the virtue of the action: Good for the excellency of the object: Good for the happiness of the retribution.  
For the Action; it is better to Bless, then to curse. Rom. 12. 
Rom. 12. 14.  Bless them that persecute you: Bless, and curse not.  
For the Object; our Praises are sung to a most glorious God: one that is Beauty itself; and only worthy to inhabit the praises of Israel. 
Psal. 27. 4.   
For the Retribution: If we bless God, God will bless us: As one notes, that all David's Psalms, were either Hosanna, 
Guevat.  or Halleluiah; that is, God bless, or God be blessed. Either a Prayer for Mercy, or a Praise for Merci●. Ascendat ●rgo gratia, ut descendat gratia: 
Fem.  For, Gratiarum cessat decursus, ubi recursus non fuerit: Grace will not come down, unless Gratitude go up. All Rivers run back to the Sea, whence they were first derived.  
Let us send up our gifts to God, that he may send down his gifts to us. Let us not Vti datis, tanquam innatis: But remember that we hold all in Capite, and are suitors to the Court of Heaven; worthy to forfeit our estates, if we pay not the quitrent of Thankfulness; acknowledge not Gratitude and Obedience.  
God will not long Catulis indulg●r●. Luporum, pamper the Wolves whelps, as the Proverb: But he will forget them, that forget him. We have a saying from Aristotle. Nec in puerum, nec in senem collocandu● esse beneficium: That our beneficence should not be fixed upon a Child, or an Old man: for the Child before he comes to age, will forget it; and the Old man will die, before he can requite it. Are we all either Children or Old men, that we either not remember, or not return Thankfulness to God for his mercies? 
Psal 148. 12.  Yet saith the Psalmist: Old men, and Children, praise the Name of the Lord.  
With him let us then say; 
Psal. 116. 12.  What shall we render to the Lord, for all his Benefits towards us? David was inward with God; yet he studied what Present he should offer him. He lights upon that, which he was only able to give, and God most willing to receive; Thankfulness. I will take the Cup of Salvation, and bless the Name of the Lord. Pray we then to GOD, to give us Thankfulness, that we may give it him. For of ourselves we have not what to give, unless the Lord give us, wherewith to give.  
Let us Show forth his loving kindness in his Morning, and his faithfulness every Night. 
Psal. 92. 2.  Morning and Evening let us praise him, that hath made the Day for our labour, and the Night for our rest: And that not ex usu, magis quam sensu, but with a hearty humility Give unto the Lord the Glory due to his Name: 
Ps●l. 96. 8.  Bring your Sacrifice, and come into his Courts. Let no opportunity steal by neglected: but Rejoice in the Lord, ye righteous: and give thanks at the remembrance of his Holiness. 
Psal. 97. 12.  No Garment better becomes you; though you have almost put it out of fashion, then to Praise the Lord: For, 
Psal. 33. 1.  Praise is comely for the righteous.  
Thanksgiving is the best Sauce to our Meat; and blesseth all the Dishes on the Table. 
Deut. 8. 10.  When thou hast eaten, and art full, thou shalt bless the Lord thy God. Whether we eat or drink, work or rest, let us set that golden Poesy on all our labours, 
Zach. 4. 7.  which the Angel to Zachay gave of the Headstone: Grace, grace unto it. He spoke pleasant truth, that said: He that riseth from the Table without giving of thanks, goes his way, & owes for his Ordinary. He is unthankful, that is unmindful of a benefit: unthankful that requites it not: unthankful that dissembles it: but most unthankful that denies it. Though we cannot requite God's favour, we will neither forget it, nor dissemble it, nor deny it.  
I have purposely been liberal in this doctrine: neither beg I pardon for prolixity: It was necessary for the Text; no less for our times. God hath showed us his Light, and we bring forth the works of Darkness.  
We say, we all are thankful. Our Words will not pass with God, without our Deeds. Our Words are so fickle and false, that we dare not trust one another without manuscripts: Scriveners must be employed in all our commerce. And shall God take our words, with whom we have broke so often? No beloved, we must set our hands to it: and to speak to our capacity in the City; seal it, and deliver it, as our act and deed: we must work that which is good.  
I appeal from men's Lips, to their Lives: Verba rebus probate, saith Seneca: The form, the life, the Soul of Thankfulness is Obedience. We, like blind Isaac, cannot see your Hearts; but say, Let me feel thee. my son. If your Lives be rugged, like the Hands of Esau, we dare not trust your Voice, for the Voice of jacob. If your deeds be rough, and sensible of rebellion, in vain you tell us, you are Thankful. It is somewhat that you Enter into his Courts, 
Psal. 100 4.  and speak good of his Name: But you must also do good for his Name, and you shall be blessed. I have begun, and will end with a Psalm: O come then, 
Psal. 95 1, 23.  let us sing unto the Lord; let us rejoice to the Rock of our salvation. Let ve come before his presence with Thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise to him, with Psalms. For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all Gods. God is the Lord, that hath showed us Light: bind the Sacrifice with Cords even to the Horns of the Altar.  
FINIS.  
   

POLITIC HUNTING: OR, A Discovery of the cunning Esavites of our times. And, Plain Dealing: or, A precedent of Honesty.  The Text. Genes. 25. 27. Esau was a cunning Hunter, and a man of the field: and jacob was a plain man, dwelling in Tents. 
WHen God hath a long while deferred his actual Blessings to the importunate suppliants, and extended their desires; at last he doubles on them the expected Mercy: So he recompenseth the dilation with the dilatation and enlarging of his favours. Rebecca had been long barren; and now the Lord opens her Womb, and sets her a teeming, she conceives two at once.  
It is observable, that many holy Women, ordained to be the mothers of men specially famous and worthy, were yet long barren. Sara the wife of Abraham, that bore Isaac: Rebeccah the wife of Isaac that bore jacob: Rahel the wife of jacob, that bore joseph: Anna the mother of Samuel, Elizabeth the mother of john the Baptist: Hereof may be given some reasons.  
1. One Chrysost. 
Hom. 49. in Gen.  gives, Vt ex mirabili partu stirilium, praestrueretur fides partui virgins: That by the miraculous childbearing of barren Women, a way might be made to believe the birth of Christ by a Virgin.  
2. To show that Israel was multiplied, not by Natural succession, 
Quest 7 ●. in Gen.  but by Grace. So Theodoret.  
3. To exercise the Faith; Hope, & Patience of such as notwithstanding a Promise, had their issue delayed.  
But now Isaa● prays, God hears, Rebecca conceives: she conceives a double burden; a pair of Sons struggling in her womb. Her body is no less disquieted with this plenty, than her mind was before with the lack of Children. Esau and jacob are borne: brethren they are, not more near in birth, then different in disposition: For Esau was a cunning Hunter, a man of the Field: but jacob was a plain man, dwelling in Tents.  
These two are the Subject of my Discourse: wherein I will regard their Nomina, Omina; Names, and Proceedings. Their Names, Esau and jacob: note their conditions for opposite. The one a cunning Hunter: the other, a Plain man. Of both whom I will be bold to speak literally, and liberally: literally, of their individual persons: liberally, as they, were figures and significations of future things.  
For herein is not only regardable a meers History, but a Mystery also. And as S. Paul applied the true Story of Isaac the son of the free, and Ish●ael the some of the bondwom●●; that by these things was another thing meant Gal. 4. 24. So I may conclude of these two Brothers in the same manner. ver 29. As then, he that was borne after the Flesh, persecuted him that was borne after the Spirit; even so is it now. So it is now, and so it shall be to the end of the world.  

A Discovery of the cunning Esavites of our times.  Genes. 25. 27. Esau was a cunning Hunter, and a man of the field: 
I Must speak first of the first borne Esau. It is probable, he was called Esau in regard of his manner of birth. ver. 25. He that came out first, was red all over like an hairy Garment: and they called his name Esau.  
Some derive it from the Hebrew word, Quasah, which signifieth, To make: and taken passively, it implies a Perfect man. For he came forth red, and hairy: Red, to betoken his bloody disposition: Hairy, to show his savage and wild Nature. Other Children are borne with Hair only on the Head, Eyelids, and Brows: but he was hairy all over; promising extraordinary cruelty.  
He had three names. 1. Esau, because he was complete. 2. Edom, because he was red of complexion; or because he coveted the red Pottage. 
Perer.  3. Seir, that is, Hair.  
You hear his Name, listen to his Nature. God's Spirit gives him this Character: He was a cunning Hunter, etc. A Name doth not constitute a Nature: yet in holy Writ, very often, the Nature did fulfil the Name, and answer it in a future congruence.  
The Character hath two Branches: noting his 

Dition.  
Condition.    
His Condition or Disposition was Hunting: his Dition, Portion, or signory was the Field: he was a Field-man.  
The first mark of his Character is, A cunning Hunter. Wherein we have expressed his 

Power.  
Policy.    
His Strength, & his Sleight: his Brawn, and his Brain. His Might; he was an Hunter. His Wit; he was a Cunning Hunter.  

His Strength: A Hunter.  
Hunting, in itself, is a delight lawful and laudable: and may well be argued for, from the disposition that God hath put into creatures. He hath naturally inclined one kind of Beasts to pursue another, for man's profit and pleasure. He hath given the Dog a secret instinct to follow the Hare, the Hart, the Fox, the Boar: as if he would direct a man by the finger of Nature to exercise those qualities, which his divine Wisdom created in them.  
There is no Creature but may teach a good soul one step toward his Creator. The World is a Glass, wherein we may contemplate the eternal power and majesty of God. For the invisible things of him, from the creation of the World, 
Rom. 1. 20.  are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead. It is that great Book, of so large a Character, that a man may run and read it. Yea, even the simplest man that cannot read, may yet spell out of this Book, that there is a God. Every Shepherd hath this Calendar, every Ploughman this ABC. What that French Poet divinely sung, is thus as sweetly englished, 
The World's a School; where in a gen●rall Story,  
God always reads dumb Lectures of his Glory.   
But to our purpose: This practice of Hunting hath in it. 1. Recreation. 2. Benefit.  
Delight. Though man by his rebellion against his Creator, forfeited the Charter which he had in the Creatures: and hereon Adam's punishment was, that he should work for that Sudore vultus, which erst sprung up naturally beneficis Creatoris: Yet this lapse was recovered in Christ to believers, and a new Patent was sealed them in his Blood; that they may use them not only ad necessitatem vitae, but also in delectationem animi. So God gives man not only Bread and Wine to strengthen his Heart, but even Oil to refresh his Countenance. Let thy Garments be always W●ite, 
Eccle. 9 8.  and let thy Head lack no Ointment. When Solomon had found men pulling on themselves unnecessary vexations in this world, and yet not buying Peace in Heaven with their trouble on Earth; he concludes: Then I commended Mirth, 
Eccle. 8. 15.  because a man hath no better thing under the Sun, then to Eat, and to Drink, and to be Merry: for that shall abide with him of his labour, the day, of his life that God giveth him under the Sun.  
But there is a Liberty, the bounds whereof because men's affections cannot keep, it is better their understandings knew not: For, Melius est nescire centrum, quam non tenere circulum. I may say of too many, as Seneca: Nihilfaelicitati eorum deest, nisi moderatio eius: They have happiness enough, if they could moderate it. Nothing is Magis proprium materiae, (say Philosophers) more proper to matter, then to flow; nisi a forma sistitur, unless the form refrain and stay it. Nothing is more peculiar to Man, then to run out, and to err exorbitantly, if Grace direct not.  
Men deal with Recreation, as some travelers do with another's Grounds: they beg passage through them in Winter, for avoidance of the Miry ways; and so long use it on sufferance, that at last they plead Prescription, and hold it by Custom. God allows Delights to succour our infirmity, and we saucily turn them to habitual Practices. Therefore Solomon condemns it in some, as he commends it in others. Rejoice in thy youth, 
Eccle. 11. 9  and follow thy vanities: but know, that for all this, God will bring thee into judgement. And our Saviour denounceth a Vae ridentibus, for they that will laugh, when they should weep; shall mourn, when they might have rejoiced.  
We often read Christ weeping, never laughing: taking his creatures for sustentation, not for recreation. Indeed he afforded us this benefit; and what we had lost, as it were ex postliminio, recovered to us. But it were strange, that Haeres succedens in defuncti locum, should do more, than the Testator ever did himself, or allowed by his grant: Or that Servants and Sinners should challenge that, which was not permitted to their Master and Saviour. But thus we prevent our liberty, as the pharisees did the Law, in sensum reprobum. These Hunt, but keep not within God's Pale; the circumferent limits, wherein he hath mounded and bounded our liberty.  
Benefit. Recreations have also their profitable use, if rightly undertaken.  
1. The Health is preserved by a moderate Exercise. Sedentariam agentes vitam; They that live a sedentary life, so find it.  
2. The Body is prepared and fitted by these sportive, to more serious labours, when the hand of War shall set them to it.  
3. The Mind, wearied with graver employments, hath thus some cool respiration given it, & sent back to the service of God with a revived alacrity.   

His Policy. A Cunning Hunter.  
But we have hunted too long with Esau's Strength, let us learn his Sleight: A cunning Hunter. Hunting requires tantum artis, quantum martis: Plain Force is not enough, there must be an accession of Fraud. There is that common sense in the Creatures, to avoid their pursuers. Fish's will not be taken with an empty hook: nor Birds with a bare Pipe, though it go sweetly: nor Beasts with Briareus strength only, though he had an hundred hands. here Actus pollentior armis. Fish's must have a Bait, Birds a Net; and he that takes Beasts, must be a cunning Hunter. Can a Bird fall into a Snare upon the earth, 
Amos. 3. 5.  where no Gin is for him? Nay, often both Vises & Devices, Toils and Toyling, Strength and Stratagems, are all too little.   

A cunning Hunter.  
It appears, that Esau's delight was not to surprise tame Beasts, that did him service; but wild: For, against the former, there needed no such cunning. How easily is the Ox brought to the Yoke, the Horse to the Bit, the Lamb to the Slaughter? His intention and contention was against wild and noxious creatures.  
This Observation teacheth us to do no violence to the Beasts, that serve us. Solomon stamps this Mark on the good man's Forehead, that he is merciful to his Beast. And the Law of God commanded, that The mouth of the Ox should not be mussled, that treadeth out the Corne. God opened the mouth of an Ass to reprove the folly of Balaam; who struck her undeservedly for not going forward, when God's Angel stood ad oppositum.  
Those sports are then intolerable, wherein we vex those Creatures, that spend their strengths for our benefits. God therefore often justly suffers them to know their own power, and to revenge themselves on our ingratitude. The Roman Soothsayers divined; that when Bulls, Dogs, and Asses, (Beasts created for use and obedience) grew mad on a sudden, Bellum servile imminebat, it boded some servile War and Insurrection. But we may truly gather, that when God suffers these serviceable and domestical Creatures, to make Mutiny and Rebellion against us; that God is angry with our sins: and that they no otherwise shake off our service, than we have shaken off the service of God. So long as we keep our Covenant with the Lord, he makes a League for us, with the Beasts of the field: but when we fall from our Aleagiance, they fall from theirs; and (without wonder) quit our Rebellion against God, with their Rebellion against us. We see what we get by running from our Master; we lose our Servants.  
But if they that fly from God by Contempt, shall thus speed, What shall become of them that fly upon God by Contumacy? If wicked Nabal could blame the Servants, qui fugiunt Dominos, that run from their Masters; how would he condemn them, qui persequuntur, that run upon them with violence? But if we band ourselves against God, he hath his Hosts to fight against us. Fowls in the air, Fishes in the sea, Beasts on the earth, Stones in the street, will take his part against us. So long doth the Hen clock her Chickens, as she takes them to be hers: but if they fly from the defence of her Wings, she leaves them to the prey of the Kite. So long as we obey GOD, Heaven and Earth shall obey us; and every Creature shall do us service: But if we turn Outlaws to him, we are no longer in the circle of his gracious custody and protection.   

A cunning Hunter.  
AS Cunning as he was to take Beasts, he had little cunning to save himself. How foolish was he, to part with his Birthright for a mess of Lentile Pottage? And since there is a necessary discussion of his Folly, as well as of his Cunning, I will take here just occasion to demonstrate it: and that in five Circumstances.  
1. He had a ravenous and intemperate desire. This appears by three phrases he used. 
ver. 30.  1. Feed me, I pray thee; Satisfy, saturate, satiate me: or, let me swallow at once, as some read it: The words of an appetite insufferable of delay. 2. To show his eagerness, he doubles the word for haste: With that Red, with that Red Pottage. Red was his colour, Red his desire: He coveted Red Pottage, he dwelled in a red soil; called thereon, Idumea: and in the Text, Therefore was his name called Edom. 3. He says, I am faint: and ver. 32. at the point to die, if I have it not: Like some longing souls, that have so weak a hand over their appetites, that they must die, if their humour be not fulfilled. We may here infer two Observations.  
1. That Intemperance is not only a filthy, but a foolish sin. It is impossible, that a ravenous Throat should lie near a sober Brain: There may be in such a man, understanding and reason; but he neither hears that, nor follows this. A City may have good Laws, though none of them be kept. But as in sleepers and madmen, there is Habitus rationis, non usus et actus: Such men have reason, 
Sen. ep. 21. ad Lucil.  but want the active use. Venture praecepta non audit: The belly hath no ears. Though you would write such men's Epitaphs whiles they are living, yet you cannot; 
Id. ep. 60.  for Mortem suam antecesserunt, they have antedated their death, and buried themselves alive: as the French proverb says, They have digged their Grave with their Teeth. The Philosopher passing through Vacia the Epicures grounds, said; Hic suus est Vacia: not here he lives, but here he lies; as it were dead and sepulcherd. The parsimony of ancient times hath been admirable. The Arcadians lived on Acorns: the Argives on Apples: 
Elian 〈◊〉. hist. lib. 3.  the Athenians on Figs: the Tyrinthians on Pears: the Indians on Canes: the Carmanes on Palms: the Sauromatians on Millet: the Persians nasturtio, with Cresses: And jacob here made dainty of Lentils.  
2. That a man may epicurise on course fare: For Lentile Pottage was no extraordinary fine diet. But as a man may be a Crassus in his Purse, yet no Cassius in his Pots: So on the contrary, an other may be (as it is said of job) Poor to a proverb; yet be withal, as voluptuous as Esau. Men have talem dentem, qualem mentem: Such an Appetite as they have Affection. And Esau may be as great a Glutton in his Pottage, as those greedy Dogs. 
Esa. 56. 12.  (Esay 56.) that fill themselves w●th strong Wines: or those fat Bulls (Am 6.) 
Amos. 6. 4.  that eat the Lambs and Calves out of the Stall. Thus the poor may sin as much in their Throat, as the rich: and be Epicures tam Latè, though not tam lautè, in as immoderate, though not so dainty Fare. Indeed Labour in many bodies requires a more plentiful repast, than ease: and the sedentary Gentleman needs not so much Meat, as his drudging Hind: But in both this Rule should be observed; Quantum naturae sufficiat, non quantum gulae placeat; Not what will please the Throat, but what will content Nature: to eat what a man should, not what he would. The Poor man that loves delicate Cheer, shall not be Wealthy: and the Rich man that loves it, shall not be Healthy. As cunning as Esau was, here is one instance of his folly, An intemperate Appetite.  
2. His Folly may be argued, from his base estimation of the Birthright; that he would so lightly part from it, and on so easy conditions, as Pottage. It seems, he did measure it only by the pleasures and commodities of this life, which were afforded him by it. ver. 32. I am ready to die: and what profit shall this Birthright do m●e? Which words import a limitation of it to this present World, as if it could do him no good afterwards. Whereupon the Hebrews gather, that he denied the Resurrection. For this cause the Apostle brands him with the mark of profaneness. 
Heb. 12. 16.  Heb. 12. that he changed a Spiritual Blessing for a Temporal Pleasure.  
And what, O ye Esavites, Worldlings, are momentany Delights compared to Eternal? What is a mess of Gruel, to the Supper of Glory? The Belly is pleased the Soul is lost. Never was any Meat, except the forbidden Fruit, so dearly bought, as this Broth of jacob: A Curse followed both their feedings. There is no Temporal thing without the trouble, though it be far more worthy than the Lentile-Pottage. Hath a man good things, he fears to forego them: and when he must, could either wish they had not been so good, or a longer possession? Hath he evil, they bring grief; and he either wisheth them good, or to be rid of them? So that good things trouble us with fear, evil with sorrow. Those in the future, these in the present. Those, because they shall end: these, because they do not end. Nothing then can make a man truly-happy, but Eternity. Pleasure's may last a while in this world; but they will grow old with us▪ if they do not die before us. And the Staff of Age is no Pole of eternity. He than hath too much of the sensual and Profane blood of Esau in him, that will sell everlasting Birthrights and Comforts, for transient Pleasures.  
3. Another Argument of his folly, was Ingratitude to God; who had in mercy vouchsafed him, (though but by a few minutes) the privilege of Primogeniture: Wherewith Divines hold, that the Priesthood was also conveyed. The Father of the Family exercised it during his life; and after his decease the first borne succeeded in that with the Inheritance. And could Esau be ingrateful to a God so gracious? Or could he possibly have aspired to a higher dignity? Wretched Unthankfulness, how justly art thou branded for a Prodigy in Nature? There are too many, that in a sullen neglect, overlook all God's favours, for the want of one of their Affections long after. Non tam agunt gratias de Tribunatu, quam queruntur, quod non sunt evecti in Consulatum: It is nothing with them to be of the Court, except they be also of the Council.  
4. His Obstinacy taxeth his Folly; that after cold blood, leisure to think of the Treasure he sold, and digestion of his Pottage, he repented not of his Rashness; But ver. 34. He did eat, and drink, and rose up, and went his way: Filled his Belly, rose up to his former Customs, and went his way without a Quid faeci? Therefore it is added, He despised his Birthright. He followed his Pleasures without any interception of Sorrow, or interruption of Conscience. His whole life was a circle of sinful Customs; and not his Birthrights loss can put him out of them. A circular thing implies a perpetuity of motion, according to Mathematicians. It begins from all parts alike, et in seipso definite, ends absolutely in itself, without any point or scope obiectuall to move to. Earth was Esau's home; he looks after no other felicity: therefore goes his way with less thought of an heavenly Birthright, then if he had miss the Dear he hunted. It is wicked to sell Heavenly things at a great rate of Worldly: but it is most wretched to vilipend them.  
5. Lastly, his Perfidious nature appeareth, that though he had made an absolute Conue●ance of his Birthright to jacob, and sealed the Deed with an Oath; yet he seemed to make but aiest of it, and purposed in his heart not to perform it. Therefore chap. 27. 41. 〈◊〉 said in his heart, the days of mourning for my Father are ●t hand, then will I s●ay my br●ther jacob. He tarried but 〈◊〉 the Funeral of his Father, and then resolved to send his Brother after him; as Cain did Abel▪ because he was more accepted. It is hard to judge, whether he was a worse Son or a Brother: He hopes for his Father's death, and purposeth his Brothers; and vows to shed blood in stead of Tears.  
Perhaps from his example, those desperate Wretches of England drew their instuction. They had sold their Birthright, and the Blessing which jesus Christ, like old Isac dying, bequeathed in his Will to all believers, and all the interest in the truth of the Gospel, to the Pope for a few Pottage, red Pottage, died in their own blood for seeking to colour it with the blood of Gods Anointed, and of his Saints. And now in a malicious rancour, seeing the Children of Truth to enjoy as much outward peace, as they were conscious of an inward vexation: they expected but Diem Luctus, the days of Mourning, when God should translate our late Queen of eternally-blessed memory, from a Kingdom on Earth, to a better in Heaven: and then hoped, like Busterds in a Fallow field, to raise up their heavy Fortunes, ●'● turbinis, by a Whirlwind of Commotion. But our Pacator Orbis, (which was the real attribute of Constantine) beguiled their envious Hopes. And as Pat●rculus said of the Roman Empire after Augustus' death, when there was such hope of Enemies, fear of Friends, expectation of trouble in all; Tanta suit unius viri Maiestas, ut nec bonis, neque contra malos opus foret armis: Such was the majesty of one man, that his very presence took away all use of Arms. Our royal jacob precluded all Stratagems, prevented all the Plots of these malicious Esavites, and settled us both in the fruition of the Gospel, and peace with it. But in mean time, God did punish their perfidious machinations; as he will do Perjury and Treason, wheresover he find them. For he will nail upon the Head of the Perjurer, his Oath traitorously broken.  
IN all these circumstances it appeareth, that though Esau was subtle to take Beasts; he had no cunning to hunt out his own Salvation. From all which scattered Stones brought together let me raise this building of Instruction.  
The wisest for the World are most commonly Fools for Celestial blessings. Wicked men can Sentire quae sunt carnis, not, Sapere quae sunt spiritus, Savour things of the Flesh, not of the Sp●rit. The Prophet jeremy compounds both these, and shows, how Wisdom and Folly may concur in one man. jer. 4. 
jer. 4. 22.  They are Wise to do evil: but to do good they have no knowledge. Let them War, they have their Stratagems: Let them plot in Peace, they have their Policies. Hunting, they have Nets: Fowling gins: Fishing Baits: not so much as even in Husbandry, but the professors have their reaches: they know, which way the Market goes, which way it will go. Your Tradesmen have their Mysteries: Mysteries indeed, for the mystery of Iniquity is in them: they have a stock of good Words, to put off a stock of bad Wares: in their particular qualities they are able to school Machivell.  
But draw them from their Centre Earth, and out of their Circumference Worldly policies; and you have not more simple Fools: They have no acquaintance with God's Statutes, and therefore no marvel, if they misjudge Vices for Virtues; as Zebul told Gaal, that he mistook Vmbras montium, pro capitibus hominum. A man may easily run his soul upon the rocks of Rebellion, whiles he neither looks to the Card of Conscience, nor regards the Compass of Faith.   

A man of the Field.  
We have taken the first branch of his Character, the main proportion of his Picture: He was a cunning Hunter. There is another colour added: He was a man of the Field. But because I take it for no other than an explanation of the former attribute, an exposition of the Proposition, saving it hath a little larger extent, I do no more but name it.  
We do not think, because he is called, A man of the Field, that therefore he was a Husbandman: but as the Septuagint call him, A Field-man, in regard that he was continually conversant in the Field: There was his sport, there was his heart. Therefore (ver. 28.) did Isaac love Esau, because he did eat of his Venison: He loved his Venison, not his Conditions. Some would read it thus, Because Venison was in his mouth; and so turns his Hunting into a Metaphor: as if by insinuation he wound himself into the favour of Isaac: But the other reading is better; saving that by the way, we may give a reprehension to such Mouth-hunters.  
If you would know who they are: they are the Flatterers. Of whom we may say, as Huntsmen of their Dogs, They are Well-mouthed; or rather, Ill-mouthd▪ For an ordinary Dogs biting doth not rankle so sore as their licking. Of all Dogs they are best likened to spaniels; but that they have a more venomous tongue: They will fawn, and fleer, and leap up, and kiss their masters hand: but all this while they do but hunt him; and if they can spring him once, you shall hear them quest instantly, and either present them to the Falcon, or worry and pray on them themselves: perhaps not so much for their flesh, as for their Feathers. For they love not Dominos, but Dominorum; not their masters Good, but their masters Goods.  
The golden Ass got into sumptuous trappings, thinks he hath as many Friends, as he hath Beasts coming about him: One commends his snout for sayrer than the Lions; an other his Skin for richer than the Leopards; an other his Foot for swifter than the Hearts; a fourth his Teeth for whiter and more precious than the Elephants; a last, his Breath for sweeter than the Civet-beastes: And it is wonder▪ if some do not make him believe, he hath Horns, and those stronger than Bulls, and more virtuous than the Unicorns. All this while they do but hunt him for his Trappings; uncase him, and you shall have them baffle and kick him. 
Prou. 19 4.  This doth Solomon insinuate, Prou. 19 Riches gather many Friends: But the Poor is separated from his Neighbours. He says not the Rich man, but Riches. It is the Money, not the Man, they hunt.  
The Great-one bristles up himself, and conceits himself higher by the head then all the rest; and is proud of many Friends. Alas, these Dogs d●e but hunt the Bird of Paradise for his Feathers: These Wasps do but hoover about the gallipot, because there is Honey in it. The proud Fly sitting upon the Charriot-wheele, which hurried with violence huffed up the Sand gave out, that it was she, which made all that glorious dust. The Ass carrying the Egyptian Goddess, ●well'd with an opinion that all those crutches, cry, and obeisances, were made to him: But it is the Case, not the Carcase, they gape for. So may the chased Stag boast how many Hounds he hath attending him: They attend indeed, as Ravens a dying Beast: Actaeon found the kind truth of their attendance. They run away as Spiders from a decaying House; or as the Cuckoo, they sing a scurvy note for a month in Summer, and are gone in june or july: sure enough before the Fall. These Hunters are gone; let them go: For they have brought me a little from the strictness and directness of my intended speech. But as a Physician coming to cur●, doth sometimes receive some of his Patient's infection: So I have been led to hunt a little wide, to find out these cunning Hunters.  
Be pleased to observe two general Notes, and then I will come to the Application.  
1. These two Brethren were borne together, were brought up together; yet how great difference was there in their composition of Bodies, in their disposition of Minds, in their events of Life; or as they say, in their Fortunes?  
1. For Bodies: One was rough and Hairy, the other was smooth and Plain. This is seldom seen in Children begot and borne of the same Parents; but seldom or never in two borne at one birth. And we may go so far with the Physiognomer to say, That Complexion (though not guides,) yet inclines the inward Disposition.  
2. For Disposition of Mind; this Text shows a wide and opposite difference: Esau was a cunning Hunter, a man of the Field: But jacob a plain man, dwelling in Tents. And Gregory observes from this example, 
Lib. 5. moral  the remoteness or contrariety of Worldlings & Holy men's delights. Men of the World hunt after the pleasures of the World as Esau: Men of Grace give themselves to the contemplation and study of Virtue, as jacob.  
3. For Events or Success in this World, there was such Distance, as greater could not be imagined: For it is here said, the Elder shall screw the Younger. The privilege of Primogeniture belonged to Esau; yet both that, and the Blessing went to jacob. If among us, the eldest Son sell all his Lands to a younger Brother, many are ready to bless his Stars, and to say, He is borne to better Fortunes. But this Presiedent will besot that speech: divers things are here figured.  
1. Literally here is intended, that the Idumeans, the seed of Es●u, should be subject to the Israelites, the posterity of jacob. So we read 2 Sam 8. that they were subdued to Israel by David. 
2. Sam. 8. 14.  All thoy of Edom became David's servants; and so continued to the reign of jotham. This gave the jews not only a superiority in temporal Dominions, but in spiritual Blessings; the Grace and Mercy of God▪ for they were the visible Church, and Edom was cut off.  
2. Mystically, this signifies the carnal jews subdued to the Christians; though the other were the elder people: 
Aug. de ●x●it. Dei. lib. 16. c. 25.  Therefore it is observable, that in the Genealogy of Christ Math. 1. many of the first borne were left out. 
Luk. 3. 38.  Luke. 3. Seth is put in for the son of Adam▪ yet his eldest son was Cain. So Math. 1. 2. Abraham begat Isaac; yet his eldest son was Ishmael. Isaac begat jacob; yet here his first borne was Esau. jacob begat judah; yet his first borne was Reuben. And David begat Solomon in Mathewes Genealogy, Nathan in Luke's; yet both younger brethren by Bethsheba. 
Exod. 4. 22.  Exod. 4. Israel is called Gods first borne, and his chosen people, his appropreation. Populus judaeus adumbratus fuit in his primogenitis: The jews were figured in these first borne; and we the Gentiles, that were the younger Brothers, have got away the Birthright. Rome 11. They are cast off, we grafted in: so that now the Elder se●●eth the younger.  
Which teacheth us to look well to our Charter in Christ: for it is not enough to be borne of believing Parents, but we must also be believers. job may sacrifice for not expiate his sons sins. It is sinful for men on earth to deprive the first borne: but God may, 
Ge● 48. 14.  and doth it. Gen. 48. Israel stretched out his right hand▪ and laid it upon Ephraim's head, who was the younger: and his left hand on Manass●hs head, guiding his hands wittingly: though M●n●sseh was the first borne. And ver. 18 When joseph said to him, Not so my Father. jacob answered, I know it my Son, I know it. Thus Generation may be cut off, Regeneration never. A man may be lost, though borne in the Faith, unless he be borne again to the Faith. Neither is it enough for Ishmael, to plead himself the Son of Abraham, unless he can also plead himself the Son of God, and an heir of Abraham's faith.  
2. Commend me here to all Genethliackes, casters of Nativities, Star-worshipers, by this token, that they are all Impostors, and here proved Fools. here be Twins conceived together, borne together; yet of as different natures and qualities, as if a vast local distance had sundered their Births; or as if the originary blood of enemies had run in their Veins. It is S. Augustine's Preclusion of all Star-predictions out of this place. 
De cu●it. D●i lib. 4. cap. 5.  And since I am fallen upon these Figure-casters, I will be bold to cast the Destiny of their Profession, and honestly lay open their juggling in six Arguments.  
1. The falsehood of their Ephemerideses. The Prognosticators, as if they were Midwives to the Celestial bodies, plead a deep insight into their secrets: or as if like Physicians they had cast the Urine of the Clouds, and knew, where the fit held them; that it could neither rain nor hail, till some Star had first made them acquainted with it. Demonstration hath proved these so false and ridiculous, that they may rather Commovere nauseam quam bilum, and risum more than both.  
Perhaps when some appoint Rain on such a day, some Frost, others Snow, a fourth Wind, a last calm and fair weather; some of these may hit, some of these must hit: But lightly he that against his knowledge told true to day, lies to morrow: and he that lied yesterday, may happen right next day; as a blind Archer may kill a Crow.  
For this cause (I think) some were called Erring, or wandering Stars: not so much that they were uncertain in their own seats and motions, as because they caused to err their Clients and gaping Inquisitors. And so they are called Erring in the same phrase and sense, 
Pallidamors  as Death is called Pale; not that it is Pale itself, but because it makes those Pale it seasseth on: And Winter dirty, not formaliter, but secundum effectum, because it maketh the Earth dirty. So that rather their own speculations by the Stars, than the Stars, are erring: both Decepto sensu cum judicio, et corruptis organis.  
Therefore some of the subtler, have delivered their opinions in such spurious, enigmatical, dilogicall terms, as the Devil gave his Oracles; that since Heaven will not follow their Instructions, their Constructions shall follow Heaven. And because the Wether hath not fallen out, as they have before told, they will now tell as the weather falls out. So that reading their Books you would think, as the Beggars have their Canting, they had got a new Language out of the Elements, which the poor Earth never did or shall understand: And it is thought, that Canting is the better Language, because it is not so ambitious, as to meddle with the Stars: Whereof the Prognosticators head comes as short, as his tongue doth of the Beggar's eloquence.  
2. The state of Fortune-tellers, and Prophecie-usurpers: which is not only poor and beggarly, as if the envious Earth refused to relieve those, that could fetch their living out of the Stars; but also ridiculous. 
Nil habet infaelix paupertas durius in se,  
quam quòd rìdiculos homines facit.  This is not all; but they are utterly ignorant of their own destinies. Now Quisibi nescius, cui praescius? He that is a Fool for himself, how should he be wise for others? Thracias the South sayer, in the nine years drought of Egypt, came to Busiris the Tyrant; 
Monstratque piari  
Hospitis effuso sanguine posse iovem.  and told him, that jupiters' wrath might be appeased by sacrificing the Blood of a Stranger. The Tyrant asked him, What Countryman he was, of Egypt, or an alien? He told him, a Stranger. 
Illi Busiris; 
Quid. Am. lib. 3. & in Ibin.  fies iovis hostia primus,  
Inquit, et Aegipto tu dabis hospes aquam.  
Thou, quoth the Tyrant, art that lucky guest,  
Whose Blood shall wet our soil, and give us rest.  It is reported that Byron, that French martial, came to an ginger, to know the future success of his Plots; which because he gave disastrous, the angry Duke begun to his mischievous intendments, in the Fate-tellers blood. Can they read other men's Fates in the Stars, and not the●s own? Therefore one wittily wrote on such a Book, after throwing it into the fire:  
Thy Author foretells much: alas! weak friend:  
That he could not prognosticate thy end.  
3. The quick moving of the Celestial bodies, and their remoteness from our eyes: Both our sense is too weak to pierce into those Fires; and those Fires are too quick in motion for our apprehension. Therefore saith S. Aug. Si tam celeriter alter post altaerum nascitur, 
De ciu. D. lib. 5. cap ●.  ut eadem pars Horoscopi manea●, paria cuncta quaero, quae in nullis possu●t geminis inveniri: If one of the Twins be so immediately borne after the other, that the same part of the Horoscope abide, I require likeness and equality in them both; which can in no Twins be found. We see here two Brethren borne together (it is most likely) under the reign of one Planet or Constellation; yet as different in Natures, as the Planets themselves.  
To this they answer, that even this cause, the swift motion of the Planets, wrought this diversity: because they change their Aspects and Coni●ctions every moment. This would one Nigidius demonstrate, who upon a Wheel turning with all possible swiftness, let dropat once two aspersions of Ink, so near together as possibly he could: yet Stanterota, etc. the Wheel standing still, they were found very remote & distant. Whereby he would demonstrate, that in a small course of time, a great part of the celestial Globe may be turned about. But this S. Austin sound returns on them: That if the Planetary courses, and Celestial motions be so swift, it can not be discerned under what Constellation any one is borne. 
Hom. 10. sup. Eu●ng.  And Gregory wittily derides their folly, that if Esau and jacob were not therefore borne under one Constellation, because they came forth one after another. By the same reason, neither can any one be borne under one Constellation, because he is not borne all at once, but one part after another.  
4. Vitabrevis hominum: Man's short and brittle life. If our age were now, as it was with the patriarchs, when the Stag, the Raven, and long-lived Oak, compared with man's life, died very young: They might then observe and understand the motion and revolution of the Stars, and behold their effects: when if any Star had long absented itself from their contemplation, they could stay two or three hundred years to see it again: But now as an English Nightingale sung; 
Who lives to age,  
Fit to be made Methushalem his Page?   
On necessity this ginger must live so long, as to have observed the life of such a man, borne under such a Planet: and after him of another borne in the like manner. Nay, he must overtake the years of Methusoalem in the successive contemplation of such experiments. But this life is not given, therefore not this knowledge.  
5. The infinite number of the Stars take from them all possibility of infallible predictions. They cannot give their general number, and can they give their singular natures? To attempt it, is Imprudentia caecissima; to affirm it, Impudentia effrontissima, blind dotage, shameless impudence.  
6. The various Disposition, Conditions, Natures, and Studies, coaetaneorum, of such as are borne together. So Gregory reasons of these Twins: 
Hom. 10. in evang.  Cum eodem momento matter utrumque fuderit, cur non una utriusque vitae qualitas (vel aequalitas) fuit? When the Mother brought them both forth at one instant, How comes it to pass, that they have not the same quality and equality in their lives? Are not many borne at the same time, and under the same Constellation, Quorum processus et successus various et saepe contrarios videmus: Whose proceedings and events we behold so different?  
If we may give credit, that Romulus and Remus were both borne of a Vestal (defiled by a Soldier) at one birth, both exposed together to a wide Desert, both taken together and nourished of a she-wolf, both building and challenging Rome; yet Romulus slew his brother, and got the Kingdom of that City, and after his own name called it Rome.  
Fraterno primi maduerunt sanguine muri. If Castor, Pollux, and Helena, were got by jupiter, and hatched by Leda out of one Egg, How came they to so various fortunes?  
Cur fratrem Pollux alterna morte redemit? 
Aenead. b.  Cicero mentions it for the Chaldean folly, 
De Dininat. lib. 2.  that they would have Omnes eodem tempore ortos, all that were borne (wheresoever) together, eâdem conditione nasci: to be borne to the same condition.  
But were all the Infants slain at one time by Herod, borne under one Constellation? Or all the old World, drowned in the Deluge, under one Star? Or all Soldiers slain in one field, under the same Sign? The Mathematicians were wont to affirm, that all borne under the Sign Aquarius, 
Greg. Hom 10. in evan.  would be Fishers: But in Getulia there are no Fishers; was never any there borne under the sign Aquarius? The Cretians, (saith Paul) were always Liars: What, were they all borne under Mercury? The Athenians greedy of Novelties: had they all one predominant Star? The Belgics Warriors: Were they therefore all borne under the reign of Mars?  
But I have spent too much breath about this folly of Prognosticators. Of whom it may be said, that not only The Children of this world are wiser in their generation, than the Children of Light: 
Luk. 168.  But they would be wiser ipsa Luce, than the Light itself. They would know more than Saints and Angels, and search out the investigable things of the lord 
Pacuv.  Nam si qui, quae eventura sunt, praeuidea●t, aequiparent iovi: If they could foresee future things, they would brag themselves equal to God: But Secret things belong to GOD, revealed to us. The other is both arrogant in man, and derogant to God. And Greg. says well: If such a Star be a Man's Destiny, then is Man made for the Stars, not the Stars for man.. The Devils know not future events: and will these boast it? Sus mineruam scilicet.  
THey grew up together: and presently, Esau was a cunning Hunter, jacob a plain man. We see that even Youth doth insinuate to an observer, the inclination and future course of a man. The Sprig shooting out of the Tree, bends that way it will ever grow. Teach a Child a Trade in his youth, and when he is old, he will not forget it, saith Solomon. Esau entered quickly into the black way, which leads to the black Gates, that stand ever ready open for black souls. Palet atri ianua Ditis: As if he should want rather time for his sport, than sport for his time, he begins early; at the very threshold of his life, and morning of his years. Nequitiae cursus celerior quam aetatis: His wickedness got the start of his age.  
And did he ever stay his course; that foolish parents should be so indulgent to their children's licentiousness? nay, ready to snibbe and check their forwardness to Heaven with that curb, A young Saint, an old Devil: and, Wild youth is blessed with a stayed Age. But indeed most likely, a young Saint proves an old Angel: and a young Esau, an old Devil.  
And hence follows the ruins of so many great Houses; that the young Master is suffered to live like an Esau, till he hath hunted away his Patrimony; which scarce lasts the Son so many years, as the Father that got it had Letters in his name. But what cares he for the Birthright: when all is gone, he like Esau, can live by the Sword: He will fetch Gold from the Indies, but he will have it. But he might have saved that journey, and kept what he had at home. If the Usurer hath bought it, though for Porridge, he will not part with it again, though they weep Tears. It is better to want superfluous means, then necessary moderation. Inse magnarunt, summisque negatum est, Stare diu: especially when the huge Colossuses have not sound feet. Vast Desires, no less than Buildings, where Foundations are not firm, sink by their own magnitude. And there comes often Fire Ex Rhamno, 
judg. 9 20.  out of the Bramble, that burns up the Men of Shechem, and sets on fire the Eagles nest in the Cedars. 
Psal. 37. 16.  Psal. 37. Parumiusto, A little that a righteous man hath, is better than the riches of many wicked. And a plain jacob will prosper better, than a profane Hunting Esau. Let a man begin then with God. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? 
Psal. 119. 9  by taking heed thereunto according to thy word.  
Thus literally: Let us now come to some moral application to ourselves.  
Hunting is for the most part taken in the holy Scripture in the worst sense. 
Gen. 10. 9  So Gen. 10. Nimrod was a Hunter, even to a Proverb: and that Before the Lord, as without fear of his Majesty Now if it were so hateful to hunt Beasts, what is it to Hunt-men? The wicked oppressors of the world are here Typed and Taxed: who employ both Arm and Brain to Hunt the poor out of their Habitations; and to drink the Blood of the oppressed. Herein observe the 

Persons Hunted.  
Manner of Hunting.  
Hounds.     

The Poor.  
Are their Prev: any man that either their wit or violence can practise on. Not so much Beggars; yet they would be content to Hunt them also out of their Coasts: but those that have somewhat worth their Gaping after; and whose estates may Minister some Gobbets to their Throats. Aquila non Capit muscas: the Eagles hunt no Flies, so long as their be Fowls in the Air. The Commonalty, that by great Labour have gotten a little stay for themselves; these they Hunt, and lay along, and Prey on their prostrate Fortunes.  
If they be tenants, woe is them. Fines, Rents, Carriagas, slaveries shall drink up the Sweat of their Brows. There is law against Coiners; and it is made treason justly to stamp the King's Figure in Metals: But what is metal to a Man, the Image of God? And we have those that coin Money on the poors Sins: Traitors they are to the King of Kings.  
The whole Country shall feel their hunting. They hunt Commons into Severalles; Tilled grounds into Pastures, that the Gleaning is taken from the Poor, which God commanded to be left them; and all succour, except they can graze in the Highways. And to others, to whom their Rage cannot extend, their Craft shall: for they will hoist them in the Subsidies, or overcharge them for the Wars, or vex them with Quarrels in Law, or perhaps their Servants shall in direct terms beat them. Naboth shall hardly keep his Vinyard, if any nook of it disfigures ahab's Lordship: If they can not buy it on their own price, they will to Law for it; wherein they respect no more, then to have a●sam querelae, a colourable occasion of contention: for they will so weary him, that at last he shall be forced to sell it: 
Lib. 4. in ver.  But Tully says of that sale; Ereptio non emptio est: It is an Extorting, not a Purchasing.  
Thus the Poor man, is the Beast they hunt: who must rise early, rest late, eat the Bread of sorrow, sit with many a hungry meal, perhaps his Children crying for Food, whiles all the fruit of his pains is served in to Nimrods' Table. Complain of this whiles you will, yet as the Orator said of Verres: Pecuniosus nescit damnari. Indeed a Monny-man may not be damnified, but he may be damned. For this is a Crying sin, and the wakened ears of the Lord will hear it: neither shall his provoked hands forbear it. Si tacuerint pauperes, loquentur Lapides: If the Poor should hold their peace, the very Stones would speak. The Fines, Rackinge, Enclosures, Oppressions, Vexations, will cry to God for vengeance. 
Hab. 〈◊〉.  The Stone will cry out of the Wall; and the beam out of the Timber shall answer it.  
You see the Beasts they hunt: Not Foxes, not Wolves nor Boars, Bulls, nor Tigers. It is a certain observation; no Beast hunts the own kind to devour it. Now if these should prosecute Wolves, Foxes, etc. they should then hunt their own kind: for they are these themselves; or rather worse than these: because here Homo homini Lupus. But though they are Men they hunt, and by nature of the same kind; they are not so by quality: For they are Lambs they persecute: In them there is Blood, and Flesh, and Fleece, to be had: and therefore on these do they gorge themselves. In them there is weak Armour of defence against their cruelties; therefore over these they may domineer. I will speak it boldly: There is not a mighty Nimrod in this Land, that dares hunt his equal: But over his inferior Lamb he insults, like a young Nero. Let him be graced by High ones, and he must not be saluted under twelve score off. In the Country he proves a Termagant: his very Scowl is a Prodigy, and breeds an Earthquake. He would be a Caesar, and tax all: It is well if he prove not a Cannibal. Only Macro salutes Sejanus so long as he is in Tiberius his favour: Cast him from that Pinnacle, and the Dog is ready to devour him.  
You hear the Object, they hunt; attend the Manner. And this you shall find, as Esau's, to consist in two things: Force, and Fraud. They are not only Hunters, but cunning Hunters.  
1. For their Force, they are Robusti latrones, and have a violent impetuous, imperious Hunting. 
Esay 59 7.  Desolation and destruction are in their Paths. We may say of them, as Tertullian said of the Montanists. Nontam Laborant ut aedificarent sua, quam ut destruerent aliena. They seek not somuch their own increasing as the depopulation of others. Philosophers hold the world to be composed of three concurrent principles, Matter, Form, and Privation: holding the last, to be rather a principle of Transmutation, then of Establishment. Oppressors besides the Matter, which is the Commonwealth; and the Form which is justice; have devised to make necessary also Privation.  
There are sins, which strive only Intra orbem suum urere: 
Sen.  which have no further latitude than the Conscience of the Committer: They are Private and Domestical sins: the sting whereof dies in the proprietary. Such are Prodigality, Envy, Sloth, Pride. Though evil example may do somewhat, they have no further extension. But some are of so wild a nature, that they are Mallets and Swords to the whole Country about them. And these are districtly, the sins of the Hand. So Micah. 2. 
Mic 2. 2.  They covet Fields, and take them by Violence: and Houses, and tàke them away: so they òppresse a man and his house, even a man and his Heritage. Why do they all this, but because Manus potest. ver. 1. It is in the power of their Hand. And they measure their power, saith Seneca, by the Span, 
De Benef. lib. 1.  by the reach of their Hands. Iniurijs vires metuntur. Anaxagoras thought man the wisest of all Creatures, because he hath Hands, whereby he can express all signs. He might have concluded him the Wickedest of all Creatures, quia manuatus, because he hath Hands. For no Tiger or Vulture under Heaven is more hurtful with his Claws and Talents, than Man with his Hands. Achilles' asked Palamedes going to the Trojan Wars, Why he went without a Servant? He showed him his hands, and told him they were Loco servorum, in stead of many servants. Manus organum organorum. Their dexterity and aptness chargeth them with sins, whereof the other parts are no less Guilty.  
For the most part, those Beasts have least immanity that have most strength. Oxen and Horses and Elephants are tame and serviceable, but Bees and Hornets have Stings. So wisely hath the Creator disposed, that there may not be a Conjunction et Potentiae et Malevolentiae: that might and malice may not meet. So they are suffered to have Will to hurt, & not Power; or Power, and not will. The cursed Cow hath short Horns: But these Hunters have got both. The Poet saith: 
That Lions do not pray on yielding things,  
pity's enfeoffed to the blood of Kings.   
Posse et nolle, nobile: That thou mayst harm and wilt not, is laus tua, thy praise: that thou wouldst and canst not, gratia Dei, is God's providence. Haman would hang Mordecai and cannot: he is a villain in Hell for his intent. David, when he had Saul in the Cave, could hurt and would not: he is a Saint in Heaven. Shimei would, but can not kill (though rail on) David: David can, and will not kill Shimei. The hot Disciples would have Fire from Heaven to destroy the Samaritans, and could not: Christ could command it, and would not. How rare is a man of this disposition among us? If advantage hath thrust a Booty into his hands, the Lamb is in the Wolves Cave with more security. Plead what thou wilt, prostrate thy own innocence, aggravate the Oppressor's cruelty: he answers as Esopes' Wolf answered the Lamb; Thy Cause is better than mine, but my Teeth are better than thine; I will eat thee. And this is a shrewd invincible argument, when the cause must be tried out by the Teeth. Pactum non pactum est, 
Plaut.  non pactum pactum est; quicquid illis lubet: Bargain or not bargain; the Law must be on their sides: Nemo potentes tutus potest aggred●: He comes to his cost, 
Sen. in medea.  that comes to complain against them.  
2 For their Fraud; they are Cunniug Hunters. They are Foxes as well as Lions to get their Prey. Nay the Fox-head doth them often more stead, than the lions Skin. Mical. 7. 
Mic. 7. ●.  They hunt with a Net. They have their politic gins to catch them. gaudy Wares and dark Shops, (and would you have them love the light, that live by darkness, as many Shopkeepers) draw and toll Customers in: where the crafty Leeches can soon feel their Pulses: if they must buy, they shall pay for their necessity. And though they plead, We compel none to buy our Wares; Caveat emptor: yet with fine voluble Phrases, damnable Protestations, they will cast a mist of error before an Eye of simple Truth; and with cunning devices hunt them in. So some among us have feathered their nests, not by open violence, but politic circumvention. They have sought the Golden Fleece, not by jasons Merit, but by Medea's Subtlety, by Medea's Sorcery.  
If I should intend to discover these Hunter's Plots, and to deal punctually with them, I should afford you more matter, than you would afford me time. But I limit myself, 
De vit. et morib. Christ  and answer all their Pleas with August. Their tricks may hold in iure fori, but not in jure poli: in the Common-pleas of Earth; not before the King's bench in Heaven.  
Neither do these Cunning Hunter's forage only the Forest of the world. but they have ventured to enter the Pale of the Church, and hunt there. They will go● near to emparke it to themselves, and thrust God out. So many have done in this Land: and though it be danger for the poor Hare to preach to Lions & foxes, I am not afraid to tell them, that they Hunt; where they have nothing to do. Poor Ministers are dear to them; for they are the Dear they Hunt for: How many Parishes in England (all most to the number of half) have they empayled, to themselves, and chased the Lords Dear out? Yea now, if God lay Challenge to his own Ground against their Sacrilegious impropriations, for his own Tithes; they are not ashamed to tell him, They are none of his: and what laws soever he hath made, they will hold them with a Non obstante. They were taken into the Church for Patrons, defenders; and they prove offenders, thieves; for most often Patrocinia, latrocinia.  
You have read how the Badger entertained the hedgehog into his Cabin, as his inward friend: but being wounded with the Prickles of his offensive guest, he mannerly desired him to depart in kindness, as he came. The Hedgehog thus satisfies his just expostulation; that he for his part found himself very well at ease, and they that were not, had reason to seek out another place, that likes them better. So the poor Horse, entreating help of the Man against the Stag; ever after Non equitem dorso, non fraenum depulit ore: They have rid us, and bridled us, and backed us, and spurred us, and got a tyranny over us, whom we took in for our familiar friends and favourites.  
3. Now for their Hounds: beside that they have long Noses themselves, and Hands longer than their Noses, they have Dogs of all sorts.  
Beagles, cunning Intelligencers. Eó laudabilior, quò fraudulentior: The more crafty they are, 
Aug. Confes. lib. 1.  the more commendable.  
Their Setters, prowling Promoters; whereof there may be necessary use, as men may have of Dogs; but not tolerable for their purposes.  
Their spaniels, fawning Sycophants, that lick their masters hands, but are brawling ever at poor strangers,  
Their great Mastiffs; surely and sharking Bailiffs, that can set a Rankling Tooth in the poor Tenants Ribs.  
They have their Bandogs, corrupt Solicitors, Parrat-Lawyers; that are their properties, and mere Trunks, whereby they inform and Plead before justice, against justice. And as the Hounds can sometimes smell out the Game, before their Master; as having a better Nose, than he an Eye: so these are still Picking-holes in poor men's estates, and raking up broken Titles: which if they justly be defended; Actio fit non Lustralis, sed secularis: Whereif (because justice doth sometimes prevail) it go against them; yet Maior est expensarum sumptus, quam sententiae fructus: The cost is more Chargeable than the victory profitable.  
Some of them, whose Pale is the Burse, have their Bloodhounds; 
AElian. lib. 9 Cap. 18.  long-nosd, hooke-handed Brokers, that can draw the sinking estate of poor men, by the blood of necessity. If they spy Pride and Prodigality in the streets, they watch over them as Puttocks over a dying Sheep. For Pascuntur scelere: they are not Doves but Ravens, and therefore sequuntur cadavera, follow Carcases. O that some blessed medicine could rid our Land of these Warts and Scabs; free us from these Curs. The Cunning Hunters could not do so much mischief, without these Lurchers, these insa●iate Hounds.  
Thus I have showed you a Field of Hunters: what should I add, but my Prayers to Heaven, and desires to Forth, that these Hunters may be hunted. The hunting of harmful Beasts is commended; the Wolf, the Boar, the Bear, the Fox, the Tiger, the Otter. But the metaphorical hunting of these is more praise worthy: the Country-wolues, or Cittie-Foxes deserve most to be Hunted. Non est meae Paruitatis, etc. I am to shallow to advise you Demodo: I only wish it might be done: they that have authority to do it, know best the means, I will but discover the Game, and leave it to their Hunting: naming the persons they should Hunt: they know the Hounds where withal.  
1 There is the wild Boar, that breaks over God's mounds and spoils his Vineyard. 
Psal. 80. 13.  Psal. 80. The Boar out of the Wood doth waste it: and the wild Beast of the Field, doth devour it. This is the depopulator, that will forage and lay all waste, if he be not restrained. What; Do you call him a wasting Boar? he rather encloseth all, breaketh up none. Yes, he lays waste to the Commonwealth, though he encloseth to himself. He wasteth Societies, Community, Neighbourhood of people; turns them out of their ancient Doors, sends them to the wide World to beg their Bread. He is a bloody Boar, and hath two damnable Tusks: Money to make him Friends, and to charm connivence: And a wicked Conscience, that cares not to swim to Hell in Blood. The brawny Shield of this Boar, whereby he bears off all blows of Curses, is the security of his own dead Heart: He thinks the Cries and Vlulations of Widows and Orphans, the best Music. When the hand of God strikes him, (as strike him it will, and that fearfully) he even rouseth and rageth on him; and dies like an angry Boar, foaming at mouth, as if he were spitting defiance at Heaven. Let this Beast be Hunted.  
2. There is the Fox, the crafty Cheater, that steals the Grapes. Cant. 2. Take in the Foxes, etc. 
Cant. 2. 15.  It is God's charge to hunt him. He turns Beasts out of their Dens by defile them. He sold his Conscience to the Devil for a stock of villainous Wit. He hath a stinking Breath; 
Plin.  corrupted with Oaths and Lies: and a ravenous Throat to prey upon men's simpleness. If all tricks fail, he will counterfeit himself dead, that so drawing the Fowls to feed upon him, he may feed upon them. The Defrauder puts on a semblance of great smoothness; you would take him for a wonderful honest man: Soft, you are not yet within his clutches; when you are, Lord have mercy on you, for he will have none.  
3. There is the bloody Wolf; the professed cutthroat the Usurer. Hunt him, seize on his Den; it is full of poormen's Goods. What a Golden Law would that be, which were called a Statute of Restitution: Such a one as Nehemiah enacted. Neh. 5. that Lands and Vineyards, 
Nehe. 5. 11.  Houses and Goods, mortgaged into usurers hands, should be restored. When he sealed it with a sacramental Oath, and made them swear consent to it. And he shook his Lap, and said. So God shake out every man from his house, and from his labour, 
ver. 13.  that performeth not this Promise; even thus be he shaken out, and emptied. And all the Congregation said, Amen. But if they will not restore by themselves, they shall by their posterity. For, as Pliny writes of the Wolf, that it brings forth blind Whelps: so the Usurer lightly begets blind Children, that cannot see to keep what their Father left them. But when the Father is gone to Hell for gathering, the Son often follows for scattering. But God is just. A good man leaveth his Inheritance to his Children Children: 
Pro▪ 13. 22.  and the Wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.  
4. There is also the Badger, a Beast of rapine: We have his fellows among us, the Engrossers of Corn, the Raysers of the price, sweeping away whole Markets: We call these Badgers. The Poor that comes with a little Money, cannot speed; but at an unreasonable rate: they engross all. And by their Capacity, or rather rapacity, having so much in their hands, they sell it at the place of their transporting, at their own price.  
5. The Dromedary would also be better hunted: I mean the vagrant Rogues, whose whole life is nothing but an exorbitant course: the main begging, the by's silching and stealing: Only they are not so serviceable as the Dromedary; which is a Beast of quick feet, and strange speed. The reason is given by Aristotle, because the extreme heat of Nature doth waste all the unctuosity and fatness, and thereby gives greater agility. But these Dromedaries are not swift: Let one charitable Constable amongst a hundred light on him, and give him correction, and a Passport to his (falsenamed) place of birth, and he will not travel above a Mile a day. Let them alone, and they will traverse their way●●; 
jer. 2. 23.  which are no ways: for they cannot keep the beaten path: let them be where they will, they are never out of their way. They boast themselves of the brood of Cain● for they are perpetual Runnagats. If the Stocks and Whip-post can not stay their extravagancie, there remains only the Jailhouse.  
6. Let the roaring Bull be hunted; the Bulls of Basan, the Bulls of Rome; sent over by the Pope ad interitum, either of us or themselves: For their end is not implere Ecclesiam, but c●miterium; to fill Churchyards with dead bodies, not the Church with living souls. No Service would be so welcome to them, as the Sicilian Evensong, or the Parisian Matins. But since no drug is currant in their Shops, but Diacatholican, Treason and Ruin; let it be first ministered to themselves to purge their burning Fevers. And since the Pope sends his Bulls into England so thick, bellowing to call his Calves together, and to excite their revolting from their Sovereign; let them speed no otherwise then those Bulls once did, that called in an other Bull, which was Bull the Hangman: to dispatch them all.  
If you be disposed to hunt, hunt these Beasts that havoc the Commonwealth: Let the Lambs alone, they do you much good, no hurt. And to this chase use all your skill: in this work it shall be your commendation to be cunniug Hunters. The Lord shall emparke you within the Pale of his own merciful Providence, and restrain the savage fury of your Enemies. Let those, whom God hath made Masters of this serious game, and given Commission to hunt vicious persons: Let every particular man hunt Vice out of his own heart. If there be any violence to get the Kingdom of Heaven, use it: if any policy to overthrow Satan and his complices, against whom we wrestle, exercise it. This War shall be your Peace. You shall help to purge the Land of noxius Beasts; and cleanse your own hearts from those lusts; which if you hunt not to death, shall hunt you to death; as the moral of Actaeon. And God that gives you this command and courage, shall add for it a merciful recompense; taking you at last from this militant Chase to the Park of his triumphant Rest. Amen.    
FINIS.  
  

CHRIST HIS STAR: OR, The Wisemen's Oblation.  Matth. 2. II. When they were come into the house, they saw the young Child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their Treasures, they presented unto him gifts, Gold, and Frankincense, and Myrrh. 
THE Feast of the epiphany, or manifestation of Christ, as it is this days momorie; so I have purposed this days exercise. As Relatu traditionis instruimur, There were three principal and notable Appearing of Christ on this Day. All which, Eodem die contigisse feruntur, sed aliis at que aliis annis, fell out the same day in divers years, as they write.  
So Maximus Episc. 
* Hom. 1. in Epiph. hody stella Magos duxit ad praesepium hody aquae vertuetur in vinum. hody baptizatus est Christus.  Tribus miraculis ornatum diem sanctum seruamus. etc. we keep this Day Holy and Festival, being honoured with three Wonders. This Day Christ led the Wisemen to himself by a Star. This Day he turned the Waters into Wine at the Marriage. This Day he was Baptized of john in jordan.  
According to these three distinct Manifestations of himself, they have given this Day, three several names.  
1. Epiphania: Because Christ did appear to certain M●gi, by the direction of a Star: and was by their report, made known to the Fox Herod, and his Cubbes, many enemies in jerusalem▪ (ver. 3.) He was troubled, and all jerusalem with him.  
2. Theophania: Because there was a Declaration of the whole Trinity. 
Math. 3. 16.  (Math. 3.) Of God the Father, whose voice was heard from Heaven. Of GOD the Son to be Baptised; of whom was the testimony given, This is my beloved Sons, in whom I am well pleased. Of GOD the holy Ghost, who descending like a Dove, lighted on him.  
3. Bethphania: Because, (joh. 2.) he showed the power of his Deity, at the Wedding, in changing their Water into Wine: So the Text (ver. 11.) This beginning of Miracles did jesus in Can● of Gal●le, and manifested his glory.  
4. Some have added a fourth name from a fourth Wonder, that they say was wrought on this Day: Phagi●phania; Because Christ relieved Famem triduanam, 
Boski●er Ara. Caeli. Con ●.  the three days hunger of five thousand, with five Barley Loaves, and two little Fishes.  
I confess, this History hath many observable points in it. It entreats of Wisemen, of a tyrannical King, of troubled People, and of the King of Kings lying in swaddling clothes. To discourse all these,  
Virtutesque, virosque, et tanti incendia bell●; would exceed the limits of one cold hour. 
AE●ead. 1.  I would therefore confine my short speech, and your attention, to the verse read.  
Wherein me thinks, I find a miraculous Wonder: That extraordinary Men, by an extraordinary Star, should find the King of Heaven in so extraordinary a place. Wisemen seeking a Star, showing a Saviour lying in a Manger: But cernere oculis, docenter oraculis, the eye of Flesh sees somewhat; the eye of Faith shall see more.  
I may distinguish all into a 

Direction.  
Devotion.   The Direction of God, the Devotion of Men. By the Direction, they are brought to the Messias. By their Devotion, they Worship him, and present him Gifts, Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh. For the Direction, we will borrow a little of the Premises; and therein consider 

Gods Leading.  
Their Following.    
God's Leading was by a Star. They that delight to cast Clouds upon the clear Sun, have here mooted many Questions about this Star.  
1. Whether this Star were singular, or an heap of Stars. Our Roman adversaries, to bring wilful trouble on themselves and us, have conjured a fiction from one Albumazar a Heathen; that the Sign in the Zodiac, called the Virgin, is composed of so many Stars, as may aptly portray Virginem gestantem inter brachia filium, a Virgin bearing an Infant in her arms: And some of them have thought that, this Star.  
Let Albumazar be the father of this opinion; and for a little better authority, they have motherd it on a Prophecy of Tiburtine Sibylla when Augustus boasted his superhumane Majesty, Sibylla showed him Virginem in coelo Infanti portam, a Virgin in Heaven bearing a young Child in her arms; with these words: Hic Puer maior te est, ipsum adora, Yonder Infant is greater than thou art, O Cesar, worship him.  
But because the Father of this toy was an Ethnic, and the Mother thought a Sorceress, they have (as somethinke, spite of his teeth) brought in Chrysostome 
Op. imperf. hom. 2. in 2. Math.  for a Godfather to it; or to an opinion, if differing from it, yet also exceeding the truth of this History. Whether of himself, or on their teaching, he says thus. This Star appeared to them descending upon that victoriall Mountain, having in it the form of a little Child; and above him the similitude of a Crosse. But I confess, (and lo the great vaunts of their unity) that many of them are of another mind.  
Howsoever, the Text is plain against it. (ver. 2.) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Vidimus Stellam eius. Aster and astrum differ, as Stella and Sydus. Aster and Stella signify one Star: Astrum and Sydus, a knot of Stars; as any Sign in the Heaven, coacted and compounded of many Stars. The Evangelist here useth the singular and individual word; We have seen his Star, not Stars.  
2. They question, whether this was a new Star, created for the purpose; or one of those co-evall to the World. Chrysostome, Damaseen, Fulgentius, 
Chrys. Hom. 7. in Math. Dam. ●ib. 2. deified. cap. 2. Fulgen. le Epiphan.  with most others, are persuaded it was a new Star. Houdemius an English man so sung of it, 
Nouâ caelum Stellâ depingitur,  
Dum Sol nows in terris oritur.  
'Twas fit a new Star should adorn the Skies, 
Lib. 1. Christiados quatem. 38.   
When a new Sun doth on the Earth arise.   
It is called by Augustine, Magnifica Lingua coeli: The glorious Tongue of Heaven. 
Serm. 3 in loc.  It appears, this was no ordinary Star, ex 

situ,  
Motu,  
Tempore Lucendi.    
1. By the Site: The place of it must be (In aere terrae vicino, non ipsius meditullio) in that part or Region of the Air, 
Thom. part. 3. quaest. 35 art. 7  that was next to the Earth; otherwise it could not so punctually have directed these Wisemen, that traveled by it.  
2. By the Motion. The course of other Stars is circular: this Star went strait forward, as a guide of the way: in the same manner, 
Exod▪ 13. 21.  that the Pillar of Fire went before Israel, when they passed out of Egypt.  
3. By the Time of Shining. Other Stars shine in the night only, this Star gave light in the broad day; as if it were a Star appointed to wait on the Sun. 
Stella Luce vincens Luciferum, 
Houd. ubi supra.   
Magos ducit ad Regem Syderum.   
Of this Star did that conjuror prophecy. 
Numb. 24. 17.  (Num. 24.) There shall come a Star out of jacob, etc. It was a true Star, it was a new Star; created by God in Heaven for this purpose: Not that the birth of Christ depended on this Star, but this Star on his birth. Therefore it is called Christ's Star, (ver. 2.) His Star.  
This Star served 

To them Ad Ducendum.  
To us Ad Docendum.   It led them really, let it also lead us figuratively to Christ: Them Per visum, us Per fidem.  
By the consent of Divines this Star did prefigure the Gospel. And indeed: For what other Light directs us to Christ?  
Not the Star of Nature: Did not every step it taught us to tread, bring us further off? If it heard of him, it sought him, as Laban sought his Idols in the Tents: or as Saul sought his Asses in the Mountains: or as joseph & Mary fought him among their Kinsfolks: Either in the Tents of soft ease and security: or in the Mountains of Worldly dignity: or among the Kindred of the flesh, friends and company.  
Not the Star of the Law: for this told us of a perfect obedience, and of condemnation for disobedience; of God's anger, our danger; of sin and death. This Star would have lighted us to Heaven, if we had no Clouds of Iniquity to darken it to ourselves. And that which S. Paul speaks (Gal. 3.) 
Gal. 3. 24.  The Law was our Schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ; is to be understood of the legal types and Sacrifices. Where, by an Oblation of the blood of Beasts, was prefigured the Blood of that Lamb, which should expiate all our sins.  
The Gospel is this Star; and blessed are they, that follow it: It shall bring them to the Babe jesus. God hath fixed this Star in our Orb: but how few are so wise as these Wisemen, to follow it? That Star was sometimes hidden, this shines perpetually. It is horror and shame to speak it; we no more esteem it, then if we were wear●e of the Sun for continual shining.  
I am loath to part with this Star; but other Observations call me from it. You hear Gods Leading, mark their Following. This is described Ex 

Aduentu,  
eventu.   by their 

Access.  
Success.   Veniunt, Inueniunt: They Come, they Find.  

Their Access.  
Some have thought that these Magis, having so profound skill in Astrology, might by calculation of times, composition of Stars▪ and S●ellations of the Heavens, foreknow the birth of the Mes●ias. But this opinion is utterly condemned by Augustine, 
De civit. Dei. lib. 5.  and all good men. And it shall only help us with this Observation.  
God purposed so plentiful a salvation by Christ that he calls to him at the first those, who were far off. far off indeed; not only in a local, but ceremonial Distance. For place they were so far; as Persia from India: from thence most Writers affirm their coming. For the other respect, he calls those to Christ, who had run furthest from Christ; and given themselves most over to the Devil. Magi●ans, Sorcerers, Coniuri●s confederates with Satan in the most detestable art of Witchcraft. These that had set their faces against heauen' and blasphemed out a renunciation of God and all goodness: even at those Doors doth God's spirit Knock, & sends them by a Star to a Saviour.  
Be our ●innes never so many for number, never so heinous for nature, never so full for measure, yet the mercy of God may give us a Star; that shall bring us, not to the Babe jesus in a Manger, but to be Ch●ist a King in his Throne. Let no penitent Soul despair of mercy.  
Christ manifested himself to two sorts of people in his swathing Clouts; to these Magicians, and to Shepherds: the latter simple and ignorant, 
●erm. 2. De Epiph.  the other learned and wicked. So August▪ In rusticitate Pastorum imperitia proevalet, in Sacrilegijs magorum imp●etas. Yet to both these, one in the day of his nativity the other in this epiphany, did that Saviour, with whom is no respect of of persons manifest his saving mercy. Whether thou be poor for Goods of the world, or Poorer for the Riches of grace, be comforted; thou mayest one day see the salvation of God.  
2. Observe their obedience: they Come instantly on Gods call. They have seen his Star, and they must go to him. They regard not, that Herod was an enemy to the King of Persia their Master; they come to his Court to inquire for Christ. When they are there, let Herod be never so troubled about the name of the true and new-born King of jews; they have the inward direction, the record of an ancient prophecy added by the Priests. ver. 6. from Micah. 5. 2. Thou Bethlem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel. Hereupon they go.  
Obedience, when it hath the warrant, goes upon sound and quick Feet Necfal●a fingit, nec vera metuit impedimenta. No obstacles can stay it, no Errors stray it, nor Terrors fray it: it is not deluded with toys, nor deferred with joys. It ●arries not with the young man in the Gospel, to kiss his Friends; nor with the Old man, to fill his Barns: but Currit per saxa, perignes, through all dangers and difficulties, with a faithful eye bend upon the Callers promises. And this is that other Virtue remarkable in these Wisemen.  
3. faith. They come to the Priests made acquainted with the Oracles of God, to inquire of this King. The Priests resolve the place of his birth from the Prophet: but though told of his Star, they will not stir a foot towards him: Perhaps it might cost them their Honours or lives by the King's displeasure; therefore they will point others, but disappoint their own souls.  
here is a strange inversion, 
Leo serm. 3. in Loc. cap. 3.  Veritas illuminat Magos; Infidelit as obcoecat Magistro●: Truth guides the Magicians, Unbelief blinds the Priests. They that were used to Necromantic Spells and Charms, begin to understand the truth of a Saviour: whiles they that had him in their Books, lost him in their Hearts. Vtuntur paginis, quarum non credunt eloquijs: They turn over the leaves, and believe not their Contents. To what end were all their quotidian Sacrifices? If they were not types and figures of a Mes●ias, what other thing made they their Temples, but a Butcher's shambles?  
Now the Mercy and Grace of our Lord jesus, keep us from this apostate wickedness. Let Truth never speak it of us, that we have the Book of the Lord in our Hands, not the doctrine in our Consciences. That we have God's Seals, yet un-marked Souls. That De virtutibus vacui loquim●●: 
Greg. dial. lib. 3. cap. 37.  We speak of the Graces, we have not.  
It was once spoken of Greece, in regard of the ruins, (●ea of the utter extinction, for Etiam periere ruinae) Gr●ciam in Graecia quaerimus, non invenimus: We seek for Greece in Greece, and can not find it. Let it never be said of us in respect of our recidivall disobedience; Angliam in Anglia quaerimus; et non inventa est: We seek that famous Church of England in England, and find it not. Many love to live within the circumference and reach of the Gospel, because it hath brought Peace, and that Peace Wealth, and that Wealth Promotion: But if this Health or Quiet might be upheld or augmented by that Roman Harlot, they would be ready to cry, Great is Diana of the Ephesians; and Christ might lodge long enough at Bethleem, ere they would go to visit him. Our lives too prodigiously begin to pretend this: But, O faxit Deus, ut nullum sit in omine pondus. And for ourselves, Bel. Let us not like the Priests, direct others to a Saviour, and stay at home ourselves: nor like the Trumpeter, that encourageth others to the Battle against the enemies of God, and our salvation, Nihil ipse nec ausus, nec potuit: ourselves being Cowards, 
AEnead.  and giving never a stroke. It is not enough to tell the people of a Saviour in Bethleem: Opus est etiam praeitione, aut saltem coitione, et pari congressu: We must go before them, or at least go with them.  
For this cause I commend the Faith of these Magis: Seeing the priests doctrine concurs with the Stars dumb direction, though Herod will not leave his Court, nor the Scribes their ease, nor the People their trades; yet these men will go alone to Christ. When thou art to embrace Religion, it is good going in company, if thou canst get them; for the greater blessings ●alles upon a multitude: but resolve to go, though alone: For thou shalt never see the Lord jesus, if thou tarry till all jerusalem go with thee to Bethleem.  
We have heard their Aduent or Access; listen to the Event or Success. They saw the young Child, with Marry his Mother.  
God hath answered the desire of their hearts: they had undertook a long journey, made a diligent inquiry; no doubt their Souls longed with Simeon to see their Saviour. Lo! he that never frustrates the faithful affection, gives abundant satisfaction to their hopes. They saw the young Child with Mary his Mother. Observe 

Whom.  
With whom.  
Where.   they saw him.  
Whom? The young Child▪ Meditate and wonder. The Ancient of days is become a young Child. The Infinitely great is made Little. The sustainer of all things Sucks. Factor terrae, factus interra. Creator coel:, creatussub coelo. 
Aug ser. 27. delemp.  He that made Heaven and Earth, is made under Heaven upon Earth. The Creator of the world is Created in the world, Created Little in the world; they saw the young Child.  
With whom? With Mary his Mother. Marry was his Daughter, is she now become his Mother? Yes; he is made the Child of Mary, 
A●● de Temp. Ser. 〈◊〉.  who is the Father of Mary. Sine quo Pater nunquam fuit, sine quo matter nunquam fuisset. Without whom his Father in Heaven never was; without whom his Mother on Earth had never been.  
Where? It is evident in S. Luke's Gospel, they found him lying in a Cratch. He, who sits on the right hand of the Majesty on high, 
Esa. 40. 12.  was lodged in a stable. He that Measures the Waters in his Fist, and Heaven with a Spawn▪ was now Crowned in a Manger, and swaddled with a few Rags. Here they find neither Guard to defend him, nor tumults of people thronging to see him; neither Crown on his Head, nor Sceptre in his hand; but a young Child in a Cratch: having so little external glory, that they might have saved their pain and seen many in their own Country far beyond him. Our instruction hence is, that.  
God doth often strangely and strongly exercise the Faith of his; that their persuasion may not be guided (Oculis, but Ora●ulis) by their Sight, but his Word. The eye of true Faith is so quick sighted, that it can see through all the Mists and Fogs of difficulties. Hereon these Magis do confidently believe, that this poor Child, lying in so base a manner, is the great King of Heaven and Earth. The faith of man, that is grounded on the promises of God must believe, that in prison there is liberty, in trouble peace, in affliction, comfort, in Death life, in the Cross a Crown, and in a Manger the Lord jesus.  
The use of this teacheth us not to be offended at the baseness of the Gospel; lest we never come to the Honour to see jesus. It was an argument of the devils breaching. 
〈◊〉. 7. ●8.  Have any of the Rulers, or pharisees believed on him? The great, the learned, the wise give him no credence. But this people that knoweth not the Law is Cursed: None but a few o● the rascal company follow him. 〈◊〉 hereof Simeon resolved his mother Mary. 〈…〉 set for the fall, as well as the rising again of many 〈…〉 for a Sign which shall be spoken against. He should 〈…〉 but woe unto them that so esteemed 〈…〉, to work his will by 〈…〉 should apply a medicine contrary to 〈…〉 of the patient, he would have little 〈…〉 the disease. But such is God's miraculous working that he subdues Crowns to a Cross, overcomes 〈…〉 poverty, overthrows the 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉, by 〈◊〉 foolishness of the Spirit and sets knees a 〈…〉 in a Manger.  
YOu see their Access, and the Event or Success; which points determine their Direction: Let us come to their   

Devotion.  
Herein we shall find a triplicity; to follow the method of Augustine's Gloss, 
Serm. 〈◊〉  Adorant corporibus, vencrantur officijs, honorant muneribus: Christ had bestowed on these Magis three sorts of gifts; Goods Corporal, Spiritual, Temporal: And all these in a devout thankfulness they return to Christ.  
In Falling down, they did honour him with the Goods of the body.  
In Worshipping him, with the gifts of the Mind.  
In Presenting to him gifts, Gold, Frankincense, & Myrrh; with the goods of the World.  
The Body and Mind, I will knit together, (They fell down, and worshipped him.) It is fit they should be partners in repentance, that have been confederates in sin. It is questioned, whether in transgressing, the body or the soul be most culpable? I am sure, either is guilty. It is all one: a man that wants Eyes, carries a man that wants Feet: the lame that cannot go, spies a Booty; and tells his blind Porter of it, that cannot see: He that hath Eyes directs the way; he that hath Feet travels to it; but they both consent to steal it. The Body without the Soul wants Eyes: the Soul without the Body wants Feet; but either supplies the other to purloin God's glory: Discuss, whether more, that list; I am certain, both the blind and the lame are guilty. Both have offended, both must in a repentant Oblation be offered to God. Therefore saith Paul, not only Present your Bodies 〈◊〉 Sacrifice; 
Gal●●●. 2.  but also, Be transformed by the renewing of your Minds. Bodily labour profits atle, without the Soul; and it is a proud Soul that hath stiff Knees. These Magis therefore give both; Procidentes ador●uerunt eum.  
here is one thing sticks horribly in the Papists stomachs; and like a Bone in the throat, will neither up nor down with them. They fell down and worshipped him: Not her. This same leaving out of (Her) hath much vexed them. How much would they have given the Evangelist, to put in (Illam.) They saw Him with his Mother: yet they Worshipped Him, not his Mother.  
They have troubled us and themselves with many Arguments, that though this was concealed, it was not omitted. And they are resolved to believe it, though they cannot prove it; and that, though it be not so good, shall be as ready. Howsoever? they will confute the Magis in their practice: for they still Adorare eam, when perhaps they forget eum, and give the Mother more honour than her Maker. It was but mannerly in Bellarmine, to post-scribe two of his Tomes, with Laus Deo, virginique matri Mariae: Praise to the Lord, and his Mother the virgin Mary. Some (setting the Cart before the Horse) have written (Laus beatae virgini, et jesu Christo,) Praise to the virgin Mary, and jesus Christ: And they have enjoined ten Ave-maries, for one Paternoster. It is to be feared at last, they will adore her for their Saviour, as they do for their Mediator, and shut Christ quite out of doors.  
But let me come out of Babel into God's City. They fell down, and worshipped Him. Let our Instruction hence be this.  
God did ever so strangely qualify the baseness of Christ, that though he seemed in men's eyes a contemptible object, 
Esay. 53. 3.  and abject; (Esa. 53.) yet he was beautified with some certain mark of his Divinity; that he might be discerned to be more then man.. here when he had an Oxe-stall for his Cloth of estate, he had a Star from Heaven to shine forth his Glory. Now, when generally in the world there was as much thought of the man in the Moon, as of Christ the Son of Righteousness, behold Magicians come from the East, and prostrate themselves before him.  
The eye of their Flesh, saw his rags of Poverty: the eye of their Faith, saw his robes of Glory. Instead of the cold Stones and Pavement, they saw his sapphires, jaspers', Chrysolites. Instead of his Manger, they saw his Throne. For the Beasts about him, they saw armies of Angels attending him. For his base Stable, they saw Palatium centum sublime columnis; a Palace of many Turrets. They beheld Magnu● in parvo latere; that this little Child was a great King, yea a great GOD, yea a great King above all Gods. Thus, as Thomas in one of his Hymns. 
Quod non capis, quod non vides,  
Animosa firmat fides,  
Praeter rerum ordinem.  
What we neither feel nor see,  
Powerful Faith believes to be.   
When Christ was first revealed to poor Shepherds, he was not without a Qu●re of Angels singing his Glory. 
Luk. 3.  Let him be in the Wilderness among wild Beasts, 
Math. 4.  even those glorious Spirits are his Pensioners, and minister to his wants. 
Math. 11.  He comes hungry to a Figtree, to demonstrate his natural infirmity: but finding no fruit on it, he curseth the Figtree; Never Fruit grow on thee hereafter, to declare his Power. Must he pay tribute? Yet the King's Son should pay none: but he is content to be a Subject; he will pay it: but he bids Peter go to the Sea, 
Math. 17.  and take it out of a Fish's mouth. To show his Humility, he will pay it; but to show his Divinity, he bids the Sea pay it for him. He that undertook the Misery to be whipped; 
Math. 26.  did also to prove his Majesty, whip the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple: 
Mark. 11.  Which was no less than a miraculous Wonder, that a private man should do it without resistance. Yea, when he was dying between two thieves, he so qualifies the baseness of the Cross, that he works in the heart of one, 
Math. 27.  to call him Saviour, and to desire remembrance in his Kingdom. When his Soul was leaving his Body, as a man; even than he rend the vail of the Temple, shook the Earth, tore the Rocks, opened the Graves; to prove that he was God.  
Thus in his greatest humiliation, God never left him without some testimony of his divine power that as beholding him hungry, thirsty, weary, weeping, bleeding, dying; we say, O homo certè sure he was a Man: So, seeing him to calm the Seas, command the Winds, heal the Sick, raise the Dead, cast out Devils, we may say, O Deus certè, sure he was God. Thus these converted Magicians beheld him, Hominem verum, though not hominem merum; a little Child, a great God. To borrow a distich of a divine Poet. 
O strangest eyes, that saw him by this Star,  
Who, when bystanders saw not, saw so far?   
Men are especially taken with three things, Submission, Honour, Gifts. These Wisemen, therefore having Fallen down and worshipped him, do now open their Treasures and present him Gifts; Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrh.  
divers of the Fathers have diversly glossed these Wisemen's Gifts.  
Bern. They did offer Gold, to relieve Mary's necessity; Frankincense, to sweeten the Stable; Myrrh, to comfort the swaddled Babe. Others thus.  
They did offer Gold to Christ, as being a King: Frankincense, as being God: Myrrh, as being Man, to die for the redemption of the World.  
Ambros. 
An●bros. lib. 2. in. Lu●.  Aurum Regi, Thus Deo, Myrrham Defuncto, or Morituro. Gold for a King, Incense for God, Myrrh for a Man, that must die: a special Unguent to reserve the Body from corruption.  
So Basil. 
Basil de homChristi generat.  Vt Regiaurum, ut morituro Myrrham, ut Deo thus obtulerunt.  
The same Hillary: 
H. lar. con. 1. in Matth.  In auro Regem, in thure Deum, in Myrrah hominem confitentur.  
All the Fathers, and other Writers, harp on this string, 
Naz. orat in Christ natiu. Cypr. Ser. de stella et Magis, Aug. serm. de Epip jero. lib. 1. come. in Math. Fulg. ser. unico de Epiph.  and sing the same note. Nazianzen, Cyprian, Augustine, Hierom, Gregory, Fulgentius; that in Gold, they acknowledged him a King; by Incense, God; by Myrrh, a passable and mortal man.. So the Christian Poets have sung.  
Aurea nascenti fuderunt munera Regi:  
Thura dedere Deo: Myrrham tribuere sepulehro.  
So another. 
Sedul lib. 1.  Aurum, Thus, Myrrham, Regique, Deoque, Hominique, Dona ferunt.  
In general learn two profitable Instructions.  
1. They come not to Christ empty-handed. It was God's charge to Israel (Deut. 16.) but we think now, 
Deut. 16. 16.  we are delivered from that Law,) Non apparebis in conspectu meo vacuus: Thou shalt not appear before me empty. You plead, God cares not for our Sheep and Oxen, or the fat of our Rams: for all the World is his. He requires it not for himself, though due to himself. Give it then to his poor Ministers, to his poor members here.  
I know not how happily, I am fallen into that I would never be out of, Charity. Most men nowadays (as it is in the Proverb) are better at the Rake, then at the Pitchfork; readier to pull in, then give out. But if the Lord hath sown plentiful Seed, he expects plentiful Fruits; an answerable measure, heapen, and shaken, and thrust together, and running over. If God hath made the Bushel great, make not you the Peck small. Turn not the bounty of Heaven, to the scarcity of Earth. We love the retentive well, but our expulsive is grown weak. But as God hath made you Diuit●● in arca, so beseech him to make you Divites in conscientia. Accept not only the distributive virtue from Heaven, but affect the communicative virtue on Earth.  
As in a state politic, the lieger Ambassadors that are sent abroad to lie in foreign Kingdoms, secureth our peaceable state at home. So, that we disperse abroad, makes safe the rest at home. The Prayers of the Poor by us relieved, shall prevail with God for Mercy upon us. The happy solace of a well pleased Conscience shall rejoice us: and the never failing Promises of God, shall satisfy us. We hear many Rich men complain of losses, by Sea, by debtor, by unjust Servants: we never heard any man complain of want that came by Charity: No man is the poorer, for that he gives to the Poor: Let him sum up his Books, and he shall find himself the richer. As God therefore hath laid up for you In terra morientium, in this World: so lay up for yourselves Interra viventium, in the World to come. As you are rich in the kings Books, be rich in God's Book. If it were possible, all the World should miscarry, your Treasure in Heaven is in a sure Coffer: no Thief, Rust, Moth, Fire, shall consume that. You shall find God the best Creditor; he will pay great Usury, not ten in a hundred, but a hundred, a thousand for ten.  
2. Their Gifts were not slight and trivial, lean, meager, starvelings; but Opimat, optima; every one the best in their kinds. Gold is the best of Metals, frankincense of aromatical Odours, Myrrh of medicinal Unguents.  
Match these Wisemen, O ye miserable times of ours. Rarò reddentem, rarissimè optima reddentem profertis. You seldom bring forth a man that will give; but almost never, one that will offer the best Gifts. Our lame Son must be God's Clerk, our starved Lamb, our poorest Fleece, our thinnest Sheafe must fall for Gods Tenth. If we give him the Shales, the Husks, the Shards, the Shreds, of our Wealth, we judge him beholding to us.  
God hears the Heavens, and the Heavens hear the Earth, 
Hos. 2.  and the Earth hears the Corn, Wine, Oil, and they hear us. Our valleys stand thick with Corn, our Trees groan with the burden of Fruits, our pastures abound with cattle & we return God either nothing, or the worst we can pick out. Take heed, lest God cursè our Blessings; 
Mal. 2. 2.  and whiles our Barns and Garners be Fat, he withal send leanness into our Souls.  
Never think, ye miserable worldings, without openning your Treasures, and Presenting the Lord with liberal gifts; ever with these Magis to see the face of the Lord jesus. Go home now, and make thyself merry with thy wealth, whiles Christ stands mourning in the streets: applaud thy Wardrobe, whiles he goes Naked: saturate thyself with thy Fat morsels, whiles he begs (unrelieved) for the Crumbs: beak thy Pampered limbs at the Fire, whiles he shakes through Cold: thy miseries is to come; thou shalt not behold thy Saviour in his glory.  
Generally their example hath taught us somewhat; to be Charitable, 
1. Tim. 18.  to be Rich in charity. More specially they shall intruct us to particular Gifts.  
Some have alluded these three, Gold, Myrrh and Frankincense, to the three Theological virtues; Faith, Hope, and Charity. 
Auro virtus perhibetur Amantis:  
In Myrrah bona Spes; Thure beata Fides.  By Incense they understand Faith: because as that is to be offered, so this is, to be reposed in God alone.  
By Myrrh, Hope: that though death lay the body in the Cold earth, and send it to Putrefaction; yet Hope shall (as it were) embalm it with Myrrh, and give it expectance of a better Resurrection.  
By Gold, Love and Charity; the use of it being such, as it can procure them to whom we give it, necessary things to the sustentation of their lives. Et quid non venditur auro?  
Others have resolved it thus.  
Pro Myrrha Lachrymas; Auro cor porrige purum.  
Pro Thure, ex humili pectore fund precet.  
Pure Heart thy Gold, thy Myrrh be Penitence:  
And devout Prayer be thy Frankincense.  
In a word:  
1. Offer up to God thy Frankincense, Supplication and Thanksgiving. 
Psal. 141. 2.  Psal. 141.) Let thy Prayer be set forth before him as Incense, and the lifting up of thy Hands as an Evening Sacrifice. Put this into Christ's Censor, and it will make a sweet smoke in God's Nostrils. 
Psal. 50. 23.  Whoso offereth me Praise, glorifieth me. It shall perfume thy Soul, qualify the stench of thy iniquities, and vindicate thy Heart from the suffocating Plague of sin. Say then, (Psal 54.) I will freely sacrifice unto thee: 
Psal. 54. 6.  I will praise thy Name, O Lord, for it is good. Freely, for this must be Frankincense.  
2. Next, present to him thy Myrrh, a chaste and mortified Li●e. Let thine Eyes, like the 〈◊〉 of the Church (Cant. 5. 5.) drop down sweete-smelling Myrrh: Let them gush forth with penitent Tears, and thy Soul power out floods of sorrow for thy offences We have sinned, we have sinned: O let the Lord behold our Oblation of Myrrh accept our Repentance.  
3. Lastly, thou must give thy Gold also: a pure Heart, tried in the Furnace of Affliction and sublimed from all corruption. And because God only knows the Heart, and the World must judge by thy Fruits; give thy spiritual Gold to Christ, and thy temporal Gold to his poor members. Here take with thee three Cautions.  
1. That all these Gifts be derived from an honest Heart. It is said of these Magis, They opened their treasures, and presented unto him Gifts. Man's Heart is his Treasury: thou must open that, when thou presentest any Gift to the Lord. He that comes with an open Hand, and a shut Heart, shall be answered of God, as Belshazzar was of Daniel; Keep thy Rewards to thyself, and give thy Gifts to another.  
2. That thy Gifts observe the true latitude of Devotion; which endeavours to extend itself to the glory of God, the good of thy Brother, and the salvation of thy own Soul. And to all these three, may these three Gifts of the Wisemen be preferred. The Incense of Prayer, respects God: the Gold of Charity respects our Neighbour: and the Myrrh of Mortification respects ourselves.  
3. That you offer not only one, but all these. It hath been questioned, Whether these Magis did offer Singuli singula, or singuli tria: But the consent of Divines is, that they gave every one all, Semel et fimul. Thy Oblation will not be welcome, if any one of the three be missing; Give then all.  
Some will give Myrrh, but not Frankincense: Some will give Frankincense, but not Myrrh: and some will give Myrrh and Frankincense, but not Gold.  
1. Some will give Myrrh, a strict Moral life, not culpable of any gross eruption, or scandalous impiety: but not Frankincense. Their Prayers are thin sown; therefore their Graces cannot come up thick. Perhaps they feel no want; and than you know, Rarae fumant faliorbus Arae: In their thought, they do not stand in any great need of God: when theydoe, they will offer him some Incense. These live a morally honest life, but are scant of religious Prayers: and so may be said to offer Myrrh without Frankincense.  
2. Some will give Frankincense: Pray frequently, perhaps tediously; but they will give no Myrrh, not mortify or restrain their Concupiscence. The Pharsses had many Prayers; but never the fewer sins. These mock God, when they so often beg of him, that his Will may be done, when they never subdue their affections to it. There are too many such among us, that will often join with the Church in common Devotions, who yet join with the world in common vices. These make great smokes of Frankincense, but let not fall one drop of Myrrh.  
3. Some will give both Myrrh and Frankincense, but by no means their Gold. I will give (saith the Worldling) a Sober life; there's my Myrrh: I will say my Prayers, there's my Frankincense: but do you think I will part with my Gold? This same Gold lies closer in men's Hearts, than it doth in their Purses: You may as well wring Hercules Club out of his Fist, as a Penny from their heaps, to charitable uses.  
You have read (2. Sam. 24. 24.) how Areunah, like a King, gave to the King Oxen for Sacrifice, and the Instruments for Fuel: But David answered, Shall I offer burnt Offerings unto the Lord my God, of that which doth cost me nothing? These men will give God Oblations, and enough; provided they cost them nothing. The Usurer must save his Gold for his idolatrous Eye, the Drunkard for his Host, the Lustful for his Whore, the Proud for his Back, the Epicure for his Belly: Can you hope they will part from their Gold?  Aurum omnes, pulsaiam pietate, colunt, 
O this damned sin of Covetousness; how many it keeps from the Grace of God, and the Gates of Heaven? Men think they can never have Gold enough. They write of the Toad, that she eats of nothing but the Earth; and thereof no more, than she can hold in her foot at once: and the reason they give is, that she fears the Earth would be wasted, and none left. A fit emblem of the Covetous, who fear to take their Portion of the things God hath given them under the Sun, lest they should want: when the unravelling the bottom of their Patrimony, would last to ten frugal Generations.  
How this Sickness grovels a man! how it stoops him into Earth, into Hell! This Disease lies in men's Bones. I have read of a Beggar, that passed by a company of Rich men, and earnestly besought their Alms, complaining that he had a secret Disease lying in his Bones, that he could not earn his living: They in charity gave him somewhat, and let him go. One among the rest following him, would needs know of him, what that secret Disease should be, seeing that outwardly he seemed to ail nothing. Quoth the Beggar, you cannot see it, for it lies in my Bones; and some call it Idleness. You see many a Rich man, whose cup of Wealth runs over: you wonder to see him so miserable, both to himself and others. Why, there is a Disease that lies in his Bones; that keeps him from working the works of Charity, from relieving his distressed Brethren: you may call it Covetousness. They will part with any thing, so they may keep their Gold. But we must give our Gold too, with the rest: If we offer not all, Christ will accept none.  
I will end with a Consolation; for who can shut up this Story with aterrour? The Lord will so graciously provide for his, that in their greatest extremity they shall not be destitute of comfort. Though Mary travel in her Travel; for she was delivered in Bethleem, whither she came to be taxed (Luk. 2.) and (likely) wanted necessary provision for her Infant and herself: behold GOD will relieve their poverty, and send them Gold from the East. As he once in a Dearth, provided for Jacob's Family in Canaan, by a store of Bread in Egypt. Comfort shall come when, and whence we least expect it. Rocks shall yield Water, Ravens shall bring Meat, rather than we shall perish; even our Enemies shall sustain us. I have been young, 
Psal. 37. 25.  and now am old; yet have I not seen the Righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging Bread.  
By whom all things were made, and since have stood:  
By him they all shall work unto our good.  
To whom be praise for ever. Amen.   
FINIS.  
  

PLAIN-DEALING, OR, A Precedent of Honesty.  PSAL. 37. 37. Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of that man is peace. August. in joh. Hom. 2. Simplex eris, site mundo non implicaveris, sed explicaveris. Explicando enim te à mundo, simplex; implicando, duplex eris. 
LONDON, Printed by Thomas Purfoot, for Clement Knight, and are to besold at his shop in Paul's Churchyard, at the Sign of the Holy Lamb. 1616.   

PLAIN-DEALING, OR, A PRECEDENT OF HONESTY.  GEN. 25. 27. jacob was a Plain man, dwelling in tents. 
THE world (I take it in Paul's sense, Rom. 12. 2.) is grown at once deformed and subtle. And, as it is commonly seen, that misshapen trunks are houses of the sharpest wits: as it was said of the Emperor Galba, Ingenium Galbae male habitat; because he had an acute wit, with an uncomely body: nature recompensing her defection one way, with perfection another way. So the world is become ill-favoured, and shrewdpated; as politic in brain, as it is stigmatic in limbs. Honesty, though it be elder than fraud, yet hath lost the privilege in men's estimation: It may keep the priority, the superiority is gone; and it must be fain to serve the younger.  
Plain-dealing was held a good citizen, a good townsman: but Double-dealing, since he came blustering in, hath thrust him sedibus, aedibus; out of house and home; out of repute among men, out of succour of friends; out of Commons, and almost out of Canons; out of his house in the Town, and seat in the Church.  
I will therefore call back antiquity, and present to your eyes the purity of the Primitive times. For I may say with Tertullian; Perfectiora prima: the nearer the springhead, the purer streams. Men, quo minus ab ortu aberant, might more perfectly discern, and more constantly follow the truth. jacob is our exemplar, and pattern of Plain-dealing. He was a plain man, dwelling in tents.  

jacob,  
TAken in the proper sense, signifieth to supplant. Indeed Esau abuseth it, Gen. 27. 36. Is he not rightly named jacob? for he hath supplanted me these two times. He took away my Birthright, and behold, now he hath taken away my Blessing. But jacob did not steal away his birthright; but only took the advantage to buy, what careless Esau was willing to sell. And having the Birthright, the Blessing did justly belong to him: for the birthright and the blessing were not to be separated. But this name was a prediction of that fell out afterwards, for jacob indeed supplanted and overthrew his brother.  
The Character gives him a Plain man, dwelling in tents. This is a manifest description of Jacob's 

Conversation.  
Profession.    
For his Life, he was a Plain-dealing man; simple, and without fraud. Though some autithetically oppose it to Esau's roughness. That Esau was an hairy man, but jacob was Plain & smooth; without any semblance to his brother's ruggedness. We deny not, that jacob was so: that exposition is true, but not enough. It falls short of that praise, which Gods spirit here means him. He was a Plain man; without craft or subtlety.  
For his delight and profession, He dwelled in tents. Which though the Hebrews expound of frequenting the tents of Sem and Heber for knowledge; is indeed only a description of such as live in the fields, and employ themselves about cattle: and this we frequently find to be Jacob's desire and practise. The good Patriarches were plain men: plain in their clothes; no seas crossed for strange stuffs and fashions: plain in their houses, which were mere Tents; not gorgeous parlours without hospitality: plain in their diet, as jacob here, that fed on Lentil-pottage.  
But having thus proposed jacob for a Precedent of Plain-dealing: it is primarily necessary to prove him clearly so. Otherwise the Original being faulty, there can hardly be taken a good copy out of it. There are exceptions made against Jacob's Plainness; and that in regard of his dealing, both with his 

Own brother, Esau.  
Father in law, Laban.    
I will briefly examine either; and how far he may be justified. In regard of Esau, it is objected, that he strove against him 

Before  
At  
After   his birth.   

Before.  
It is said, verse 22 The children struggled together within their mother's womb. Never brothers begun so early a litigation. These two were the Champions of two mighty Nations, successively to be derived from 〈◊〉 ●omes: and they begin this opposition in a duel, or single combat: when the field was their mother's womb: the quarrel, precedency and chiefedome.  
This was not a pleasant and merry contention; as some would read it. 
De civit. D●i lib. 16. cap. 33.  Ambrose, Hierome, Augustine so give it: exultare, gestire, ludere: to leap, skip, or play: but it was an earnest struggling, as we translate it; the word signifying to beat, hurt, or bruise one another.  
It was not a natural strife, or ordinary motion. Aristole affirms, 
De histor. animal, lib. 7. cap. 3  that male twins do strive in the right side upon the 40. day; and females in the left, on the 90. day. But by Aristotle's leave, what woman, except Rebeccah, ever complained of so strange and early a contention! Nature was not here alone, if at lest she was here at all.  
Nor yet was this struggling voluntary and considerate. They did not strive scientia certandi, with a knowledge capable of what they did: or with any skill of wrestling. No, it was extraordinary, moved by a higher cause, not without the presage and signification of a great effect. It portended the future concertation of two great people: neither if it had been pleasant, natural, or usual, would Rebecca have been so strangely affected, or troubled with it; as to cry out Why ●m I thus? or to solicit God by prayer, to kno● what it mea●t.  
And is it any wonder, 
Aug. Ser. de Temp. 78  that jacob and Esau wrestle in their mother's womb; when their seed, especially after a spiritual signification, must for ever wrestle in the world? Shall the womb of the Church on earth be ever free from carnal professors mingled with holy? And is it possible these should live together in perfect peace, that are of so contrary natures? The wolf shall sooner dwell with the lamb, and the leopard play with the untroubled kid, and children sit unstung at the holes of asps The sons of Behel will not 〈◊〉 sons of God live in quiet: that enmity, which was once put between the seed of the Woman, and of the Serpent, will not so easily be reconciled. Indeed the seed of Esau is the greater, but they serve the less. They are more in number, stronger in power; et cannot extend it further than the permitting hand of heaven 〈◊〉 it. And even whiles they do persecute the righteous, Quibus nocere volunt, prosunt plurimum, sibi autem ipsi maxim nocent: they hurt only themselves, and benefit those to whom they intended nothing less. They are our Apothecaries, to minister us bitter pills, but so, that they cannot put in one ingredient more than the Lord allows them.  
Origen draws from this a mystical sense; 
Hom 12. in Genes.  and understands these two combatants to be within us. As if it had presignified what Paul affirmeth, Galat. 5. The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other. Rebecca 
Galat. 5. 17  may well thus figure the state of a regenerate soul; wherein, till this mortal shall put on immortality, and glory swallow up corruption, there must be a perpetual conflict. In men unconverted on earth, in Saints glorified in heaven, there is no such unquietness: the former being without a jacob, the latter without an Esau: these having no flesh. the other nothing but flesh. But in men called and justified by the blood of Christ, yet in a militant estate, there is a necessity of this combat. No strife, no christian. Before sanctification there is all peace in the soul. How should there choose, when there is no enemy to resist? The unregenerate heart ha●h only an Esau in it: what strife can there be without a jacob? Nature can very easily agree with itself. Disturbance is a sign of sanctification: there is no grace, where there is all peace. No sooner is the new man form in us, but suddenly begins this quarrel. The remaining corruption will fight with grace, and too often prevail against it. Indeed it hath lost the dominion, but not the opposition; the sovereignty, not the subtlety: 
Rome 7.  it will dwell, though it cannot reign. Never any Rebecca was so happy, as to conceive none but a jacob: Esau, the flesh will be there also, to give trial and exercise. If grace alone sat in the heart, the hopeless devil would forbear his temptations: he knows, he hath a friend in our house, that will be ready to let him in. So long as there is a judas with Christ, he will not despair of betraying him. It is our corruption he works upon: if it were not for this Esau, he would not proffer assault. We see our combat; let us fight, and conquer. Our flesh is the elder brother; grace is borne after nature: but when this jacob comes, he will get the superiority: the elder shall serve the younger. This strife begins betimes: there is no Israelite, but must be content to commence this war with his being. Regeneration and contention salute us at once: we cannot enter our names into Christ's muster-book, but we must fight. Let the secure worldling live at his cowardly ease, we must look for a skirmish. Herein stands our comfort, 
Rom. 8. 37.  We shall be more than conquerors, through him that loved us.   

At his Birth.  
THe strife is not ended at once; but continues, or rather is renewed at the birth. Afterward came his brother out, and his hand held Esau by the heel: Lest Esau should outrun his brother into the world, jacob catcheth fast hold of his heel. So that though Esau's body have the primogeniture, yet Jacob's Hand was borne before his Heel. Razi hath a conceit, that though Esau was first borne, yet jacob was first conceived: and therefore the Birthright did of right belong unto him. But it is without question, that Esau had the start of nature, though jacob of grace: and therefore jacob holds him by the heel, as if he would stay him from possessing that privilege, which Nature (God afterwards disposing otherwise) bestowed on him.   

After the Birth.  
ANd herein there are two impeachments laid to Ia●cobs plain-dealing. He is accused with fraudulent stratagems concerning the 

Birthright.  
Blessing.     

For the Birthright.  
ESau is by some few minutes the elder; and that was enough to give him just title to the Birthright. That jacob therefore might have the better claim to it, he buys that which he could not win: and by an honest art redeems the losses of nature. But this action smells of cunning, and seems to mar the credit of his Plain-dealing.  
1. jacob is accused for cruel and uncharitable dealing with his brother. Esau comes hungry from the field, he is ready to die for want of sustenance; he sees his brother (in no such exigent) with food in his hand; he breaks forth into an earnest complaint, entreating his commiseration: now, shall a brother deny relief to his brother being ready to die, except upon such intolerable conditions? Sure it could be no less than a hard measure, to take such advantage of a brother's necessity. But it is answered, that there could not be any such necessity of Esau's coveting Jacob's pottage; for there was (if not lentil pottage) store of as good meat in the house; able to have given satisfaction to his hunger, and ready enough at his request, being the elder son. It was not then distressed neediness, but insatiate greediness, that wrought Esau's lust to Jacob's pottage. And it is not unfit, that the luxurious appetite should pay for his folly.  
2. But jacob cannot be excused of covetousness; that would set no lower a price on his pottage, than the Birthright. Which comprehended many privileges; priority, government of the brethren, a double portion to the rest, the Priesthood and right to sacrifice, and (what yet further commended it) a type and figure of everlasting life. And will jacob require such a Birthright, including all these privileges for a mess of pottage? what tyrant could set such an Impost on a merchandise! what citizen such a price on his engrossed commodities? here was an exaction beyond the taxing of Tiberius: an extortion more extreme than an Usurers. We answer, Not as the Hebrews conceit, that jacob afterwards gave a greater sum, and paid this but as an earnest: the Scripture neither expressing directly, nor inferring by consequence any such matter▪ But we say, that jacob, by the instruction of his mother, knew that the Birthright did justly belong to him, by the pre-ordination of God: therefore now wisely taketh this opportunity to r● cover that to himself, whereof his brother was but an usurper: For though Esau could plead the right of Nature, jacob could the right of grace; and he knew this would at last prevail. Neither yet must this particular fact of jacob be drawn into a general imitation. His warrant was a divine revelation; the silence whereof in these days sends us for direction to the written Truth, 
Esay 8. 20  To the Law, to the Testimony: let this resolve and instruct thee.  
3. But this Birthright was a holy thing, and therefore the Apostle calls him a Profane person for selling it: 
Hebr. 12. 16  Now there is no profaneness in selling a thing not sacred. But if sanctified things cannot be sold without sin, can they be bought without sin? Did not jacob offend as much in the one, as Esau in the other? It is well answered, that jacob intelligi potest suam redemisse vexationem: he did but buy his own vexation. He buys not simply a thing, whereunto he had no right; but only taketh this occasion to recover his own: whereof the appointment of God had made him a possible, yea certainly future proprietary. It was never held Simony, for a spiritual man to buy his own peace. Many things are detained from the clergy unjustly, which Gods law hath made sacred and theirs: they may therefore without touch of Simoniacal dealing, redeem their own quietness, and purchase a peaceable possession. I say not, that any man may buy a spiritual endowment before he hath it; but when he hath it in right, he may purchase his own peaceful and quiet enjoying it. All that can be said, is this: Esau preferred his belly before his Birthright: jacob his Birthright before his belly. The one sold spiritual things for temporal, the other with temporal things bought spiritual.  
And who will not part with transient benefits for eternal blessings? If either by suit, or strife, or purchase we can attain Heaven, we are happy. For suit, there is no hour unseasonable, no prayer unwelcome, no importunity troublesome. The unjust judge could give relief to the importunate widow: 
Luke 18. 5.  and shall not our just God give ear and ease to our incessant plaints? Spare to speak, and spare to speed: the timorous requester teacheth the invocated a denial. For strife; we know who taught us, that the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and must be attained by a holy kind of force. jacob must wrestle for the Blessing before he hath it: and so wrestling he shall have it, though he be sent halting to his grave. The Lord knows our strength, yet he loves our violence and importunity: and therefore hath so conditioned the gate of heaven, that without our Striving, we must not look to enter it. For purchase, had a far higher rate been set on the Birthright, jacob would not have grudged to give it. He hath too much of the blood of Esau in him, that will not forego all the world, rather than the Birthright. The wise Merchant, when he knew the field wherein lay that hidden treasure, sold all he had to buy it. He is a besotted Cosmopolite, that refuseth to purchase such spiritual Friends by his riches, as may procure him a place in the celestial habitations. Grudge not him a portion of thy temporal wealth, that is able to minister everlasting comfort to thy conscience. Thou art no loser, if thou mayest exchange earth for heaven.   

For the Blessing.  
WHat hath secure Esau lost, if having sold the Birthright, he may reserve the Blessing? Behold, of this he assureth himself: his Father hath sent him for venison, 
Genes. 27. 4.  that his soul might bless him. To hunting he is gone in haste; meaning to recover that again by his own venison, which he had lost by his brother's pottage. Isaac being now blind in his eyes, but yet blinder in his affections; forgetting what decree and sentence God had formerly passed of his two sons for some temporal regard doth favour Esaeu, and intends to bequeath unto him, that spiritual and happy legacy of the Blessing. God had said, that the elder shall serve the younger; yet forgetful Isaac purposeth to bless his first borne Esau. How easy is it even for a Saint, to be transported with natural affections! he could not but remember, that himself (though the younger) was preferred to his elder brother Ishmael: he knew that Gods command prevailed with his Father Abraham above nature, when he bound him for a sacrifice: he saw Esau lewdly matched with the daughters of Heathens: yet he will now think on nothing, but Esau is my first borne; and if it be possible, he will pour the benediction upon a wrong head.  
But God is often better to us than we would; and with his preventing grace stops the precipitation of erring nature. So sweet is the ordination of the Divine providence, that we shall not do what we would, but what we ought; and by deceiving us, turns our purposed evil into eventuall good. We are made to do that good, which we not intended. God hath ordained the superiority to the younger; he will therefore contrive for him the Blessing. Whatsoever Isaac affected, this God will have effected.  
To bring the Lords will to pass there never wanted means. Sinful man may have his hand in this: the just de●ree of God stands untouched. He determined the death of his Son, without favour to their guilt that murdered him. The affections of Parents are here divided: Isaac loves Esau, and Rebeca jacob: this difference shall make way to the fulfilling of the Promise. Neither parent neglected either son: but Rebeccah remembered the Lords purpose better than Isaac. Neither is it enough what Ambrose hereon saith, 
Lib. 2. de jac. cap. 2  Mater affectum, pater judicium indicat: matter circa minorem tenera pictate propendit, pater circa seniorem naturae honorificentiam servat. The mother shows affection, the father judgement: she tenderly loves the younger, he gives the honour of nature to the elder. Nay rather, the mother shows judgement, and the father affection. For what was jacob to Rebecca more than Esau? or why should she not rather love her first borne? It is God that inclines the mother's love to the younger against nature, because the father affects the elder against the promise. Hereupon she will rather deceive her own husband, than he shall deceive his own chosen son of the decreed blessing. The wife will be subtle, when the husband is partial: her honest fraud shall answer his forgetful indulgence. Isaac would turn Esau into jacob: Rebecca doth turn jacob into Esau.  
The discourse or contemplation of the provident mother, and her happy sons passages in this action, I find set down by so divine and accurate a pen; 
D. Hall Contempt. volum. 1. libr. 3  that despairing of any tolerable imitation, I shall without distaste to the Reader, or imputation to myself, deliver it in his own express words. Rebecca presuming upon the Oracle of God, and her husband's simplicity, dares be Jacob's surety for the danger, his counsellor for the carriage of the business, his cook for the diet; yea dresses both the meat and the man. And now puts dishes into his hand, words into his mouth, the garments on his back, the goats hair upon the open parts of his body, and sends him in thus furnished for the blessing. Standing no doubt at the door, to see how well her lesson was learned, how well her device succeeded. And if old Isaac should by any of his senses have discerned the guile, she had soon stepped in, and undertaken the blame, and urged him with that known will of God, concerning Jacob's dominion, and Esau's servitude; which either age or affection had made him forget And now she wisheth, that she could borrow Esau's tongue as well as his garments, that she might securely deceive all the senses of him, which had suffered himself more dangerously deceived with his affection. But this is passed her remedy: her son must name himself Esau with the voice of jacob.  
We see the proceeding: it is now examinable, whether this doth not somewhat impeach the credit of Jacob's Plain-dealing. There have been undertakers of Jacob's justification, or at least excusation in this fact. Let us hear what they say. 
Hom. 6. in Ezek.  1. Gregory thus excuseth it: that jahob did not steal the Blessing by fraud, but sibi debitam, accepit, took it as a due to himself, in respect that the primogeniture was formerly devolved to him. The truth is, he that ought the Birthright, might justly challenge the Blessing: but this doth not wholly excuse the fact. 
Hom. 53. in Genes.  2. Chrysostome thus mitigates it; that none study nocendi contexit fraudem, he did not deceive, with a mind to hurt; but only in respect of the promise of God. But this is not sufficient; for there was an intention of hurt, both to Isaac in deceiving him, and to Esau, in depriving him of the Blessing. But whatsoever may be pleaded for the defence of Jacob's dissimulation in outward gesture, there is no apology for the words of his tongue. The meaning of the speech is in the speaker; therefore his tongue cannot be guiltless, when it goes against his conscious heart: but the meaning of the gesture, is in the interpreter, who gives it a voluntary construction. Gesture is more easily ruled then speech: and it is hard, if the tongue will not blab what a man is, in spite of his habit. Isaac's eyes might be deceived, they were dim: his hands, by the roughness of the garments: his nostrils by the smell of them: his palate, by the savour of the meat. All these senses yield affiance, what then shall drive Isaac to a suspicion or incredulity? None but this, the ear sticks at the judgement; that says, the voice is the voice of jacob. To help forward this deceit, three lies are tumbled out, one in the neck of another. 1. I am Esau thy first borne. 2. I have done as thou badst me. 3. eat of my venison. To clear him of this sin of lying, hath been more peremptorily undertaken, then sound performed.  
1. Chrysostome, 
Hom. 5. in Genes.  with divers others, think that though he did lie, he did not sin; because he did it by the revelation and counsel of God. So that God willing to have the prediction fulfilled, dispensing and disposing all things, is brought in as the preordainer of Jacob's lie, that I say not the Patron. But not without derogation to his divine justice. For first, it appears not that this was the counsel of God, but only Rebeccaes device, verse 8. Hear my voice my son, in that which I command thee. My voice, not Gods; what I command, not what GOD approves. 2. If jacob had received any oraculous warrant for this project, he would not have had so doubtful an opinion of the success. The matter was foreseen of God; not allowed: for God never inspireth lies. God's wise disposition of this means, affords no warrant of his approbation. He ordereth many things, which he ordained not. The means were so unlawful, that jacob himself doth more distrust their success, then hope for their blessing. He knew that good Isaac being ●o plaine-hearted himself, would severely punish deceit in his son. Men in office truly honest, are the sorest enemies to fraudulent courses in others. He therefore carries his meat in trembling hands; and scarce dares hope, that God will bless such a subtlety with good event. Yet he did; but how! here was prodigal dissembling: a dissembled person, a dissembled name, dissembled venison, dissembling answer; yet behold a true blessing; to the man, not to the means. Thus God may work his own will out of our infirmities; yet without approval of our weakness, or wronging the integrity of his own goodness.  
2. Some have confessed it a lie, but a guiltless he; by reason of a necessity imagined in this exigent; as if GOD could not have wrought Isaac's heart to bless jacob in this short interim, whiles Esau was gone a hunting for venison. Origen says, that Necessity may urge a man to use a lie, as sauce to his meat: Another; as Physicians use Hellebora. But that which is simply evil, can by no apology be made good. Causa patrocinio non bona, peicr erit.  
3. Some take from it all imputation of alley, and directly justify it. Augustine thinks jacob spoke mystically, and that it is to be referred to Jacob's body, not to Jacob's person; to the Christian Church that should take away the Birthright from the elder. But we may better receive, that jacob fell into an infirmity, than the colour of an allegory. Neither doth the success justify the means. As some Philosophers have delivered, that Prosperum, scelus vocatur virtus; lucky wickedness merits the name of goodness. But Jacob's one act of falsehood, shall not disparaged wholly that simplicity the Scripture gives him; He was a plain man. To be unjust condemns a man, not the doing of one singular act unjustly: therefore God casts not off jacob for this one infirmity: but makes use of this infirmity to serve his own purpose. If Esau's and Jacob's works be weighed together in a balance; one would think the more solid virtue to be in Esau's.  
Esau obeyeth his father's will, painfully hunts venison, carefully prepares it: here is nothing but praiseworthy. jacob dissembles, offers kids flesh for venison, counterfeits Esau, beguiles his father: here is all blameworthy. I will not hereon speak as a Poet: 
Committunt eadem diverso crimina fato,  
Ille crucem sceleris pretium tu●it, hic diadem.   
But infer with the Apostle. 
Rom. 9 11  The purpose of God shall remain by election; which standeth not in works, but in grace. Therefore, howsoever jacob got the Blessing against Isaac's will; yet once given, it stood: neither did the father recant this act as an error, but saw in it the mercy of God, that prevented him of an error: so verse 33. I have blessed him, therefore he shall be blessed. When afterwards Esau came in, Isaac trembled: his heart told him, that he should not have intended the Blessing where he did; and that it was due to him, unto whom it was given, not intended. He saw now that he had performed unwilling justice; and executed God's purpose against his own. He rather cries mercy for wrong intending, then thinks of reversing it.  
Yet then may jacob stand for our precedent of Plain-dealing; notwithstanding this particular weakness. Who hath not oftener erred without the loss of his honest reputation? Not that his fact should embolden an imitation: let us not tell Jacob's lie, to get Jacob's blessing. It would be presumption in us, what was in him infirmity: and God that pardoned his weakness, would curse our obstinateness. There is yet one cavil more against Jacob's integrity concerning   

Laban,  
ABout the particoloured sheep; whether it were a fault in jacob, by the device of the peeled and streaked rods to enrich himself. The answer is threefold.  
1. This was by the direction of God, Genesis 31. 11. who being an infinite and illimited Lord, hath an absolute power to transfer the right of things from one to another: as he might justly give the Land of Canaan to the Israelites, from the usurping Canaanites.  
2. jacob apprehends this means to recover his own; due unto him by a double right: first, as the wages of twenty years service, Genesis 31. 7. yet unpaid. Secondly, 
Gen. 31. 15  as the dowry for his wives; whom miserable Laban had thrust upon him without any competent portion. Thirdly, especially Gods warrant concurring; it was lawful for him to recover that by policy, which was detained from him by injury. So did the Israelites borrow of the Egyptians, their best goods, jewels, and ornaments; and bore them away as a just recompense of their long service.  
3. Lastly, he is quitted by that saying, Volenti non fit iniuria. Laban sees that he was well blessed by Jacob's service: the increasing his flocks makes him loath to part. But jacob hath served long enough for a dead pay; somewhat he must have, or be gone. His hard uncle bids him ask a hire: you know Jacob's demand: Laban readily promoves this bargain; which at last made his son in law rich, and himself envious. So saith Caluine, Tractatus est prosuo ingenio; Laban is handled in his kind. He thought by this means, to have multiplied his own flocks: but those few spotted sheep and goats, upon this covenant, as if they had been weary of their old owner, alter their fashion, and run their best young into party-colours; changing at once their colour, and their master. So that this means, which jacob used, was not fraudulent or artificial, but natural; not depending upon man's wit, but God's blessing: who considering his tedious and painful service, pays him good wages out of his uncles folds. For fourteen years the Lord hath for jacob enriched Laban: therefore for these last six he will out of Laban every jacob. And if the uncles flock be the greater, the nephews shall be the better. Most justly then is jacob cleared from injustice; and no aspersion of fraud with Laban can be cast to discredit his Plain-dealing.   

He dwelled in Tents.  
TWo things are observable in the holy Partriarches, and commendable to all that will be heirs with them of eternal life.  
1. Their contempt of the world. They that dwell in Tents, intent not a long dwelling in a place. They are movables, ever ready to be transferred at the occasion and will of the Inhabiter, Hebr. 11. 
Hebr. 11. 9  Abraham dwelled intents with Isaac and jacob, the heirs with him of the same Promise. The reason is added. For he looked for a City which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. These Saints studied not to enlarge their barns, as the rich Cosmopolite, Luke 12. or to sing Requiems to their souls, 
Luke 12  in the hoped perpetuity of earthly habitations. Soul live; thou hast enough laid up for many years: Fool! he had not enough for that night. They had no thought, that their houses should continue for ever, 
Psal. 49. 11  and their dwelling places to all generations; thereupon calling their lands after their own names. God convinceth the foolish security of the jews, to whom he had promised (by the Messias to be purchased) an everlasting royalty in heaven; 
jerem. 35. 7  by the Rechabites; who built no houses, but dwelled in Tents; as if they were strangers, ready on a short warning for removal. The Church esteems Heaven her home, this world but a Tent. A Tent, which we must all leave, build we as high as Babel, as strong as Babylon. When we have fortified, combined, feasted, death comes with a Voider, 
jerem. 22. 15.  and takes away all, Dost thou think to reign securely because thou closest thyself in Cedar? Friends must part, jonas and his gourd, Nabuchadnezzar and his palace, the covetous churl and his barns. Arise, 
Micah 2. 10  and depart, for this is not your rest. Though you depart with grief, from Orchards full of fruits, grounds full stocked, houses dightly furnished, purses richly stuffed; from music, wine, junkets, sports: yet go; you must go, every man to his own home. He that hath seen heaven, with the eye of Fath, through the glass of the Scripture, slips off his coat with joseph, and springs away. They that lived thrice our age, yet dwelled in Tents; as Pilgrims that did not own this world. The shortness and weakness of our days, strengthens our reasons to vilipend it. The world is the field, thy body the Tent, heaven thy freehold. The world is full of troubles; winds of persecutions, storms of menaces, cold of uncharitableness, heat of malice, exhalations of prodigious terrors, will annoy thee. Love it not: 
1. john 2. 15  Who can affect his own vexations? It is thy thoroughfare; God loves thee better, then to let it be thy home. Every misery on earth should turn our loves to heaven. God gives this world bitter teats, that we might not suck too long on it. Satan, as some do with rotten nutmegs, guilds it over, and sends it his friends for a token. But when they put that spice into their broth, it infects their hearts. Set thy affections on heaven, where thou shalt abide for ever. This life is a Tent, 
john 14. 2  that a Mansion. In my Father's house there are many mansions. 
Hebr. 12  This casual, that firm: a kingdom that cannot be shaken. This troublesome, that full of rest. This assuredly short, that eternal. Happy is he that here esteems himself a Pilgrim in a Tent, that he may be hereafter a citizen in a stable kingdom.  
2. Their frugallitie should not pass unregarded. here is no ambition of great buildings; a Tent will serve. How differ our days and hearts from those! The fashion is now, to build great houses to our lands, till we leave no lands to our houses: and the credit of a good house, is made, not to consist in inward hospitality, but in outward walls. These punkish outsides beguile the needy traveler: he thinks, there cannot be so many rooms in a house, and never a one to harbour a poor stranger: or that from such a multitude of chimneys, no meat should be sent to the gates. Such a house is like a painted whore: it hath a fair cheek, but rotten lungs; no breath of charity comes out of it. We say, frustra fit per plura, quod fieri potest per pauciora. What needs a house more rooms, than there is use for? A less house, and more hospitablenesse would do a great deal better. Are not many of these glorious buildings set up in the curse of jericho: the foundation laid in the blood of the eldest, the poor: the walls reared in the blood of the youngest, the ruin of their own posterity? This was one of the travelers observed faults in England; camini mali; that we had ill clocks, and worse chimneys; for they smoked no charity.  
We see the Precedent: the application must teach us to Deal plainly. Here is commended to us Plainness in 

Meaning  
Demeaning.   Which instructs us to a double concord and agreement: In Meaning betwixt the heart and the tongue. In Demeaning betwixt the tongue and the hand.   

In Meaning.  
THere should be a loving and friendly agreement between the heart and the tongue. This is the minds herald, and should only proclaim the senders message. If the tongue be an ill servant to the heart, the heart will be an ill master to the tongue; and Satan to both. There are three kinds of dissimulation held tolerable, if not commendable: and beyond them, no●e without sin.  
1. 
1 1. Sam 21  When a man dissembles to get himself out of danger, without any prejudice to another. So David feigned himself mad, to escape with life. So the good Physician may deceive his patient, by stealing upon him a potion which he abhorreth, intending his recovery.  
2. When dissimulation is directly aimed to the instruction and benefit of another. So joseph caused the money to be put in his brethren's sacks, thereby to work in them a knowledge of themselves. 
Luke 24  So Christ going to Emaus with the two Disciples, made as if he would go further; to try their humanity.  
3. When some common service is thereby performed to the good of the Church. Such are those stratagems and policies of war, that carry in them a direct intention of honesty and justice, though of hostility; as Iosuah's, 
joshua 8  whereby he discomfited the men of Ai.  
Further than these limits no true Israelite, no Plain-dealing man must venture. Plato was of opinion, that it was lawful for Magistrates, 
Lib. 3. de rep.  Hosium vel Civium causa mentiri; to lie, either to deceive an enemy, or save a citizen, I might against Plato set Aristotle; 
Ethic. li. 4 c. 7  who saith expressly, that a lie in itself, is evil and wicked. And another Philosopher was wont to say, 
Pithag. ex Aelian lib. 12  That in two things a man was like unto God; in bestowing benefits, and telling the truth. Nor will we infer with Lyranus, because there is a Title in the Civil Law, De dolo malo, of evil craft, that therefore it is granted, there is a craft not evil. But let us know, to the terror of liars, that the devil is the father of lying; 
john 8. 44  and when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own. And beyond exception, they are the words of everlasting verity; 
1. john 2, 2  No lie is of the truth. Therefore into that heavenly Jerusalem shall enter none, 
Revel. 21. 27  that works abomination, or maketh a lie. A lie must needs be contrary to the rule of grace, for it is contrary to the order of nature: which hath given a man voice and words to express the meaning of the heart. As in setting Instruments, they refer all to one tune: so the heart is the ground, which all our Instruments should go by. If there were no God to search the heart, he was a fool that would not dissemble: since there is, 
job 27. 3  he is a fool that doth. Therefore job excellently, All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils: my lips shall not speak wickedness, nor my tongue utter deceit. 
Psal. 45. 1  The sweetest Psalmist insinuates no less. My heart is inditing a good matter, my tongue is the pen of a ready writer. When the heart is a good Secretary, the tongue is a good pen: but when the heart is a hollow bell, the tongue is a loud and a lewd clapper. 
Revel. 4. 5  Those undefiled Virgins, admitted to follow the Lamb, have this praise. In their mouth was found no guile.   

In Demeaning,  
WHich is the good harmony betwixt the tongue and the hand. The righteous man, to whom God's celestial Tabernacle is promised, speaketh the truth in his heart: 
Psal. 15. 4  and when he hath sworn, though to his own hurt, he changeth not. The paucity of these men makes the Church of God so thin of Saints, and the world so full of Dissemblers. As the tongue must not speak false, so the hand must not do unjustly: injustice is the greatest dissimulation. We live under Libra, justice and Equity: who knows whether the nights or the days pass over his head more happily: we fear not Taurus the Bull, that shoots his horns from Rome: nor Scorpio, that sends his venomous sting from Spain: nor the unchristned Aries of Infidels, profane and professed enemies to engine and batter our walls: if the Sagittarius of heresy do not wound us in the reins: nor the Gemini of double-dealing cirumvent us in our lives. The world is full of tricks: we will not do what we ought, yet defend what we do. How many spend their wits to justify their hands? Through the unlucky and unnatural copulation of fraud and malice, was that monstrous stigmatic equivocation engendered: a damned egg, not covered by any fair bird; but hatched, as Poets feign, of Osprayes, with a thunderclap.  
I will now only seek to win you to Plain-dealing, by the benefits it brings: the success to God.  
1. The principal is to please God; whose displeasure against double dealing, the sad examples of Saul for the Amalekites, of Gehezi for the bribes, of Ananias for the inheritance, testify in their destruction. Whose delight in Plain-dealing himself affirms. Behold an Israelite indeed, 
joh. 1. 17  in whom is no guile.  
2. The credit of a good name, which is a most worthy treasure, is thus preserved. The riches left thee by thy Ancestors may miscarry through others negligence; the name not, save by thy own fault. It is the Plain-dealers reward; his name shall be had in estimation: whereas no faith is given to the dissembler; even speaking truth: every man is more ready to trust the poor Plaine-dealer, than the glittering false-tongued gallant.  
3. It prevents and infatuates all the malicious plots of enemies. God, in regard to thy simplicity, brings to nought all their machinations. Thou, O Lord, hadst respect to my simple pureness. An innocent fool takes fearless steps; and walks as securely, as if it stood girt with a wall of brass.  
4. It preserves thy state from ruin. When by subtlety men think to scrape together much wealth; all is but the Spider's web, artificial and weak. What Plain-dealing gets, sticks by us; and infallibly derives itself to our posterity. 
Psal. 25. 13  Not only this man's own soul shall dwell at ease: but also his seed shall inherit the earth. Wicked men labour with hands and wits, to undermine and undo many poor; and from their demolished heaps to erect themselves a great fortune: but GOD bloweth upon it a Nonplacet: and then, as powder doth small shot, it scatters into the air, not without a great noise; and they are blown up. If thou wouldst be good to thyself and thine, use Plainness.  
5. It shall somewhat keep thee from the troubles and vexations of the world. Others, when their double dealing breaks out, are more troubled themselves, than erst they troubled others: for shame waits at the heels of fraud. 
〈…〉  But blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.  
6. The curses of the poor shall never hurt thee. Though the causeless curse shall never come; yet it is happy for a man so to live, that all may bless him. Now the Plain man shall have this at last. Gallant prodigality, like fire in flax, makes a great blaze, a hot show: but Plain hospitality, like fire in solid wood, holds out to warm the poor: because God blesseth it. So I have seen hote-spurres in the way gallop amain; but the juy-bushes have so stayed them, that the Plain traveler comes first to his journeys end.  
7. It shall be thy best comfort on thy deathbed; Conscientia benè peractae vitae, the conscience of an innocent life. On this staff leans aged Samuel: Whose Ox er Ass have I taken? To whom have I by fraud or force done wrong? On this pillow doth sick Hezekiah lay his head. 
Esay. 38. 3  Remember Lord, that I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. So job solaceth himself. My heart shall not condemn me for my days. When no clogs of usury with their heavy pressures, nor folds of injustice with their troublesome vexations, disquiet our peace-desiring sides, or lie upon our consciences. When thou hast no need to say to thine heir, Restore this or that which I have fraudulently or unjustly taken away. You see how false the Proverb was; Plain-dealing is a jewel; and he that useth it shall die a beggar: But it is well returned in the supplement; he that will not use it, shall die a dishonest man.  
8. Lastly, thou shalt finderest for thy soul. Thou hast dealt plainly, so will God with thee; multiplying upon thee his promised mercies. If thou hadst been hollow, not holy; fraudulent, not plain; thy portion had been bitter; even with hypocrites. But now of a plain Saint on earth, thou shalt become a glorious Saint in heaven.   
FINIS.   

THE THREE DIVINE SISTERS.  JOHN. 13. 34. A new commandment give I unto you, That you love one another: as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. AUGUST. Domus Dei fundatur credendo, sperando erigitur, diligendo perficitur. 
LONDON, Printed by Thomas Purfoot, for Clement Knight, and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Churchyard, at the Sign of the Holy Lamb. 1616.   

THE THREE DIVINE SISTERS.  1. COR. 13. 13. Now abideth Faith, Hope, Charity, these three: but the greatest of these, is charity. 
WHen those three Goddesses, say the Poets, strove for the golden ball, Paris adjudged it to the Queen of love. here are three celestial graces, in an holy emulation, if I may so speak, striving for the chiefedome; and our Apostle gives it to love. The greatest of these is Charity.  
Not that other Daughters are black, but that Charity excels in beauty. We may say of this Sister, as it was said of the good Woman, 
Pro. 31. 29.  Prou. 31. Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou surpassest them all. Paul doth not disparaged any, when he saith, Charity is the greatest. All stars are bright, though one star may differ from another in glory. 
1. Cor. 15.  We may say of graces, as of the Captains of the sons of Gad; the least can resist a hundred, the greatest a thousand. Or as the song was of Saul and David. Saul hath slain his thousand, David his ten thousand. Faith is excellent, so is Hope; but the greatest of these, is Charity.  
Me thinks these three Theologall Virtues may not unfitly be compared to three great Feasts, which we celebrate in the year; Easter, Whitsuntide, and Christmas. Faith, like Easter, believes Christ dead for our sins, and risen again for our justification. Hope, like Pentecost, waits for the coming of the holy Ghost, God's free Spirit of grace to come into us, and to bring us to Heaven. And Charity looks like Christmas, full of love to our neighbours, full of hospitality, and mercy to the poor.  
These are three strings often touched; Faith, whereby we believe all God's promises to be true, and ours: Hope, whereby we wait for them with patience: Charity, whereby vee testify, what we believe and hope. He that hath faith cannot distrust: he that hath hope, cannot be put from anchor: he that hath charity, will not lead a licentious life; for, Love keeps the commandments.  
For Methods sake, we might first confer them all, then prefer one. But I will speak of them according to the three degrees of comparison. 1. Positively. 2. Comparatively. 3. Superlatively. The greatest of these is Charity.  

Faith  
IS that grace, which makes Christ ours, and all his benefits. 
1. Cor. 12. 9  God gives it. 
Rom. 10. 17.  1. Cor. 
Phil. 1. 29.  12. Faith is given by the spirit. By the Word preached. Rom. 10. Faith comes by hearing. For Christ his sake. To you it is given for Christ his sake, to believe in his name. This virtue is no sooner given of God, but it gives God. So soon as thou believest, Christ is thine and all his. For he that gives us Christ, 
Ro. 8. 22.  will also with him give us all things.  
Without this, 
Heb. 11. 6.  it is impossible to please God: Let us not otherwise dare to come into his presence. There is nothing but wrath in him, for sin in us. joseph charged his brethren, that they should come no more in his sight, unless they brought Beniami● with them. We come at our peril into God's presence, if we leave his beloved Benjamin, our dear jesus behind us. When the Philosopher heard of the enraged Emperors menace, that the next time he saw him▪ he would kill him; he took up the emperors little son in his arms, and saluted him with a potes ne? Thou canst not now strike me. God is angry with every man for his sins; happy is he that can catch up his son jesus: for in whose arms soever the Lord sees his son, he will spare him. The men of tire are fain to intercede to Herod by Blastus. Act. 12. 
Act. 12. 20.  Our intercession to God is made by a higher and surer way; not by his servant, but by his son.  
Now this Mediator is not had without a medium, Faith. Fides medium, à quo remedium. Faith is that means, whereby we lay hold on this Christ. Diffidence shall never have jesus for the Advocate. Though every man may say; I believe, Lord help my unbelief.  
Saint Paul useth one word, that very significantly expresseth Faith; calling it the Evidence of things not seen. 
Heb. 11. 1. Heb. 11.  Fides est credere quod non vides; cuius merces est videre quod credis, Faith is to believe what thou seest; whose reward is to see what thou believest. Now the Metaphor may be extended thus.  
1. Christ dying, made a Will or a Testament, scaling it with his own blood, wherein he bequeathed a certain Legacy of Inheritance to his brethren with himself. joh. 17. 
john. 17. 24.  Father, I will that they whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me. This is the substance of his Will and Testament.  
2 The Conveyance of this Will is the Gospel, Whosoever believes, and is baptised, shall be saved. A large Patent, a free and full grant. There is no exception of persons; either in regard of state, quality, or Country. There is neither jew nor Greek, 
Galat. 3. 28.  bond nor free, male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ jesus. The conveyance is of an ample latitude.  
3. The Executor or Administrator of this Will, if I may so speak, is the holy Ghost: that Comforter which Christ promised to send, 
joh. 14. 16.  that should lead us into all truth. This Spirit begets faith & sanctification in our hearts, puts Abba into our mouths, applies the merits of our Saviour to our souls; and indeed seals us up to the day of redemption. 
Eph. 4. 30.  Without his assistance we could appropriate no comfort by his Will; nor challenge any Legacy therein bequeathed.  
4. Lastly, the Evidence, whereby every particular man apportions to himself this title and interest, is his Faith. Thou unregenerate soul pleadest a Legacy in this Will: Go to, let us join issue, & come to trial. Where is thy Evidence? Here it is, my Faith. This Evidence, as all other, must have some witnesses: produce thine; and before the Bar of the great Chief justice, the King's Bench of Heaven, let them not lie.  
The first is thy Conscience. Alas! give this leave to speak without interruption (and one day it shall not flatter thee.) This saith thy Evidence, is false & counterfeit; forged by a wretched Serivener, flesh and blood: for thy heart trusts in uncertainly good riches, or in certainly bad vanities, more than in the living God.  
The next, is thy life. Alas! this is so speckled with sins, so raw and sore with lusts: that as a body broken out into blains and biles, argues a corrupted liver or stomach within: so the spots and ulcers of thy life demonstrate a putrefied heart. Lo now thy witnesses. Thou art gone at the common Law of justice: It is only the Chancery of mercy that must clear thee. What wilt thou now do? What, but humble thyself in repentance for thy false faith; take prayer in thy company, for pardon of former errors; go by the word preached; for the Minister is, as it were, the Register, to engross the deed; and desire God on the humbled knees of thy soul, to give thee a new and a true Evidence. Let this instruct us to some uses.  
1. Be sure that thy Evidence is good. Satan is a subtle Lawyer, (and thou dost not doubt of his malice) and will soon pick holes in it; find out tricks and cavils against it. He will winnow and sift thee, grain after grain: take heed, lest thou run not all to chaff. There is a Faith of Saints. 
Gal. 2. 20.  Gal. 2. Now live not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life that I live, I live by the Faith of the Son of God. And there is a faith of Devils. jam. 2. 
jam. 2. 19  Thou believest, thou dost well: the Devils believe and tremble. There is a faith, which cannot perish. joh. 3. 
joh. 3. 15.  Whosoever believeth in him, shall not perish. And there is a faith, that in the time of temptation falls away. Luk. 8. 
Luk. 8. 13  The rocky ground receives the Word, and for a while believeth, but in the time of temptation fall away. There is a faith which the world overcometh; such was the faith of Demas. And there is a faith that overcometh the world. 1. joh. 5 
1. joh. 5. 4.  This is the victory whereby we overcome the world, even our faith. There is a dead, idle, and infructuous faith, jam. 2. 14. And there is a lively, active, working faith. Gal. 5. 
Gal. 5. 6.  Faith worketh by love. Be sure then, that thy faith will endure the toucheven the fiery trial.  
2 Do not lose such a Legacy, as Christ hath bequeathed, for want of faith. Glorious is the inheritance, but where is thy Evidence? Flatter not thy soul with hope of this possession, without the assurance of faith. Christ gives his life for his sheep: What is this to thee that art a Wolf, a Swine, a Goat? God dresseth his Vineyard, pruneth it, watereth it, is provident over it: What's this to thee, that art a thorn, and no branch of the Vine? Look thou to be weeded up, and thrown out. The blood of Christ runs fresh: but where is thy pipe of faith, to derive it from his side to thy conscience? Say, it should shower mercy, yet if thou wantest faith, all would fall besides thee. There would be no more favour for thee, then if there was no Saviour.  
Let then no miseries of earth, much less pleasures, quench thy faith. Satan seeing this spark of fire kindled in thy heart, would blow it out with storms, or work thee to smother it thyself with vanities, or to rake it up in the dead embers of cold security: but believe against sight and sense. As David prophesied, that he should be a King. Eo plus habet fides meriti, quo minus argumenti. Faith shall have so much the more recompense, as it had the less argument to induce it.   

Hope.  
IS the sweetest friend, that ever kept a distressed soul company: it beguiles all the tediousness of the way, all the miseries of our Pilgrimage. 
jam mala finissem letho; sed eredula vitam  
Spes fovet, & melius cras foresemper ait.  Therefore dum spiro spero, says the Heathen: but dumb, expiro spero, says the Christian. The one, whilst I live, I hope; the other, when I die, I hope: so job, I will hope in thee, though thou killest ●ee. It tells the soul such sweet stories of the succeeding joys; what comforts there be in heaven; what peace, what joy, what triumphs, mariage-songs, and Hallelujahs, there are in that Country, whether she is traveling; that she goes merrily away with her present burden.  
It holds the head whilst it takes, and gives invisible drink to the thirsty conscience. It is a liberty to them that are in prison, and the sweetest Physic to the sick. Saint Paul calls it an Anchor. Let the winds blow, and the storms beat, and the waves swell, yet the Anchor stays the ship. 
Heb. 6. 19  It breaks through all difficulties, and makes way for the soul to follow it. It teacheth Abraham to expect fruit from a withered stock; and joseph in a dungeon, to look for the Sun and Stars obeisance. It counsels a man, as Esdras did the woman; 
2. Esd. 10. 17.  that having lost her son, would needs die languishing in the disconsolate fields. Go thy way into the City to thine husband. Mourn not wretch for the loss of some worldly and perishing delight: sit not down and die, though the fruit of thy womb be swallowed into the earth. But go home to the city, the City of mercy; to thine husband, even thy husband jesus Christ; let him comfort thee: This is the voice of hope.  
Though misery be present, comfort absent, though through the dim and waterish humour of thy heart, thou canst spy no deliverance; yet such is the nature of Hope, that futura facta dicit: It speaks of future things, as if they were present. Rom. 8. 
Rom. 8. 24.  We are saved by hope. Yet sic liberati, ut adhuc speranda sit haereditas, postea possidenda. Nunc habemius ius adrem, nondum inre. We have our inheritance, in hope; which gives us the right of the substance, though not the substance of the right: assurance of the possession, though not possession of the thing assured. This tells us, that Nemo valde dolebit & diu, no man should grieve much and long. God making our misery, aut tolerabilem, aut brevem, either sufferable or short.  
These are the comforts of Hope. Now, that you may not be deceived, there is (as I said before of Faith) a thing like Hope, which is not it.  
There is a bold and presumptuous Hope, an ignorant security, and ungrounded persuasion, the very illusion of the Devil; who, when he cannot prevail with downright evil, cousin's with the shadows of goodness: that how wickedly and wretchedly soever a man shall live, though he suck the poisonous dugs of lust, though he surres himself warm with poor men's hearts, though he forbids his brains (as on covenant) one sober hour in the yeaaes to think of heaven, though he thirst for carouses of blood, though he strives to powder a whole Kingdom with the corns of death and massacre, though he carries half a dozen impropriate Churches on his sacrilegious back, though he out-thunder heaven with blasphemies, though he trample under his profane foot the precious blood of God's son; yet still he hopes to be saved by the mercy of God. But we will sooner cast pearls to swine, and bread to dogs, than the comforts of Zion to such. We say not, Rejoice & tremble, but tremble without rejoicing. We sing not to them, with the Lord is mercy, that he might be feared: but with the Lord is judgement and vengeance, with him is plague and pestilence, storm and tempest, horror and anguish, indignation and wrath, that he may be feared. Against this Hope, we shut up the bosom of consolation, and the promise of safety by the merits of Christ; and so far as we are charged, the very gates of everlasting life.  
There is an Hope, sober, faithful, well grounded, well guarded, well assured. This is like a house built on a rock. The rock, is God's promised mercy; the building, Hope in Christ: it is (as it were) moated or entrenched about with his blood, bulwarked and rampirde with the Sacraments, assured by the sweet testimony of God's Spirit to the Conscience: known by the Charity of the Inhabitants; for it keeps bread for the hungry, clothes for the naked, entertainment for strangers. To this Hope we open the doors of the kingdom of Heaven; and so far as the Commission of the Keys jeades us, we unlock the gates of eternal life, and allow entrance. We call this the Blessed Hope.   

Charity  
IS an excellent virtue, and therefore rare: if ever in this contentious age; wherein Fratrum quoque gratia rara est: the unfeigned love of brothers is strange. Woe is me; before I am come to define what love is, I am fallen into a declamation against the want of it: what is here chiefly commended, is chiefly contemned: as if we had no need of mutual succour; nor could spare a room in our hearts to entertain Charity, lest we should expel our old loved guests, fraud, malice, and ambition. Love hath two proper objects, the one immediate and principal; the other, mediate and limited.  
The proper and immediate object of our Love, is God. This is the great Commandment, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength. As if he would not leave out the ●east sinew or string of the heart, the least faculty or power of the soul, the least organ or action of the strength. So Bern. With all the heart, that is, affectionately. With all the Soul, that is, wisely. With all the strength, that is, constantly. Let the zeal of thy heart inflame thy love to God, let the wisdom of thy soul guide it, let the strength of thy might confirm it. All the affection of the heart, all the election of the soul, all the administration of the body. The Soul judgeth, the Will prosecutes, the strength executes. God can brook no rivalles: no division betwixt him and Mammon, betwixt him and Melchom, betwixt him and Baal, betwixt him and Belial. Causa dilige●di Deum Deus est, modus sine modo. The cause and motive to love God, is God: the manner, is without measure. Minus amatte, qui aliquid amat praeterte, quod non amat propter te, He poorly loves God, that loves any thing besides him, which he doth not love for him.  
The subordinate object of love, is man: and his love, is the effect of the former cause; and an actual demonstration of the other inward affection. Waters coming from the sea, boil through the veins of the earth, till they become springs, and those springs rivers, and those rivers run back to the sea again. All man's love must be carried in the stream of God's love. Blessed is he that loves Amicum in Domino, inimicum pro Domino; his friend in the Lord, his enemy for the Lord. Rom. 13. 
Rom. 13. 8.  Owe nothing to any man, but this, that ye love one another. Other debts, once truly paid, are no more due: but this debt, the more we pay it, the more we owe it; and we still do acknowledge ourselves debtor to all, when we are clear with all; proverbially: I owe him nothing but love. The communication of this riches doth not impoverish the proprietary: the more he spends of his stock, the more he hath. 
Pro. 1●. 24.  There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth. But he that will hoard the treasure of his Charity, shall grow poor, empty, and bankrupt. There is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth unto poverty. Love is the abridgement of the Law, the new precept of the Gospel. Luther calls it the shortest, and the longest Divinity: short for the form of words; long, yea, everlasting for the use and practise; for Charity shall never cease.  
Thus for the first degree of compariion, Positively. The second is Comparative; where, though it be said, Virtues and great men must not be compared, yet we may without offence, bring them to a holy conference; else how shall we perceive the Apostles intended scope, the transcendency of Charity? I will therefore first confer Faith with Hope; and then with them both Charity.  
The distinction between Faith and Hope, is nice, and must warily be discovered. I will reduce the differences into three respects, of Order, Office, and Object.  
For Order, Paul gives Faith the precedency. Hebr. 11. Faith is the ground of things hoped for. Faith always goes before, Hope follows after; and may in some sort be said to be the daughter of Faith. For, it is as impossible for a man to Hope for that which he believes not, as for a Painter to draw a picture in the air. Indeed, more is believed then is hoped for; but nothing is hoped for, which is not believed. So that on necessity, in respect of order, Faith must precede Hope.  
For Office; Faith is the Christians Logic, Hope his Rhetoric. Faith perceives what is to be done, Hope gives alacrity to the doing it. Faith guides, adviseth, rectifieth; Hope courageously encounters with all adversaries. Therefore Faith is compared to a Doctor in the Schools, Hope to a Captain in the wars. Faith discerns the truth, Hope fights against impatience, heaviness of Spirit, infirmity, dejectedness, desperation. Divines have alluded the difference between Faith and Hope in Divinity, to that between wisdom and valour in Philosophy. Valour without wisdom, is rashness: wisdom without valour, is cowardice. Faith without Hope, is knowledge without valour to resist Satan: Hope without Faith, is rash presumption, and an undiscreet daring. You see their different Office.  
For Object; Faiths object is the absolute word, and infallible promise of God; Hopes object, is the thing promised. Fides intuetur verbum rei, Spes verò rem verbi: Faith looks to the word of the thing, Hope to the thing of the word. So that Faith hath for the object, 
Alsted System. Theolog. lib. 3. Loc. 17. Aug.  the Truth of God, Hope the Goodness of God. Faith is of things both good and bad, Hope of good things only. A man believes there is a hell, as truly as he believes there is a heaven; but he fears the one, and hopes only for the other. Faith hath objected to it things past, present, future. Past, it believes Christ dead for our sins, and risen again for our justification. Present, that he now sits at the right hand of his Father in heaven. Future, that he shall come to judge quick and dead. Hope, only respects and expects things to come. For a man cannot hope for that which he hath. You see how in some sense, Hope excels Faith. For, there is a faith in the Devils; they believe the truth of God, the certainty of the Scriptures, they acknowledge Christ the judge of quick and dead, therefore cry, Why tormentest thou us before the time? They have faith joined with a Popish preparatory good work, Fear; the Devils believe and tremble: yea, they pray: they beseech Christ not to send them into the deeps; what then want they? Hope, a confident expectation of the mercy of God: this they can never have. They believe, they cannot hope. This is the life of Christians, and the want makes Devils. If it were not for this hope, 
1. Cor. 15. 19  we of all▪ men were most miserable.  
Charity, differs from them both. These three divine graces, are a created Trinity; and have some glimmering resemblance of the Trinity uncreate. For, as there, the Son is begotten of the Father, and the holy Ghost proceeds from them both: so here, a true faith begets a constant hope, and from them proceeds Charity. Thus is God's Temple built in our hearts, saith August. The foundation whereof is Faith, Hope the erection of the walls, Charity the perfection of the roof.  
In the godly all these three are united together, & cannot be sundered. We believe in God's mercy, we hope for his mercy, and we love him for his mercy. Faith says, there are good things prepared: Hope says, they are prepared for me: Charity says, I endeavour to walk worthy of them. So that, what good Faith believes, shall be, Hope expects for herself, and Charity aims at the way to get it, by keeping the commandments. Faith apprehends both reward and punishment: Hope only looks for good things for ourselves: Charity desires the glory of God, and the good of all our Brethren.  
The second degree, gives way to the third, last, best; the Superlative. But the greatest of these is Charity. Time will not afford me to answer all the objections, which subtle wits have inconsequently deduced from these words. Neither were it to other purpose, then to write Iliads after Homer: they have been so sound and satisfyingly answered already. I will only mention two, and but report a responsive Solution.  
1 The principal promises are made to believers. Whosoever believes, and is baptised, shall be saved. So no less a promise is made to Lovers, 
Rom. 8. 28.  Rom. 8. All things shall work together to the best, to those that love God, etc. God, saith the Psalmist, is near to those that call upon him. He is close by all those that suffer for him: but he is within those that love him. here is Prope, ●uxta, Intus. This same Intra, within is of the highest degree. 1. joh. 4. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, 
1. joh. 4. 17.  and God in him. O unspeakable felicity!  
2 If Charity be greater than faith, then is not man justified by faith only. Inconsequent illation. Saint Paul commends not love for the virtue of justification: it may fail in that particular action, yet receive no impeachment to the excellency of it. By demonstration. A Prince doth excel a peasant: shall any man therefore infer, that he can plow better, or have more skill in tillage. A Philosopher doth excel a Mechanic; though he cannot grind so well as a Miller, or limb so cunningly as a Painter. A man is better than a beast: who but a madman will therefore conclude, that he can run faster than a horse, draw more than an ox, or carry a greater burden than an Elephant. Though he fail in these particular arts, yet none will deny, but he is better than a beast.  
The truth is, that in Fàith stands originally our fellowship with God. Into that hand he poureth the riches of his mercy for salvation: and were the actions of Charity never so great, and (foolishly thought) meritorious; yet, if not the effects of a true saving Faith, they are lost, and a man may for his Charity go to the Devil. And though they would plead from the form of the last judgement, Math. 25. that God accepts men to life for their deeds of Charity: feeding, clothing, relieving. Yet the Scripture fully testifies, that God neither accepts these, nor ourselves for these, further than they are the effects of a true faith. Our persons being first justified by faith in Christ, than God will crown our works. Yet a Christian must work: for no nudifidian, so well as no nullifidian, shall be admitted into heaven. Therefore saith the Apostle, 
Gal. 5. 6.  Faith worketh by love. For Faith is able to justify of itself, not to vorke of itself. The hand alone can receive an Alms: but cannot cut a piece of wood without an axe or some instrument. Faith is the Christians hand, and can without help receive Gods given grace into the heart: but to produce the fruits of obedience, and to vorke the actual duties required, it must have an instrument; add Love to it, and it worketh by love. So that the one is our justification before God, and the other our Testification before men. Wherein then consists this high transcendency of Charity? In two privileges, incommunicable to Faith and Hope; Latitude and Perpetuity.  
1. For Latitude, Love is the greatest. Faith and Hope are restrained within the limits of our particular persons. The just man lives by his own faith: and hopes good to himself; but Love is like the Vine, which God brought out of Egypt, 
Psal. 80. 8.  and cast out the heathen to plant it, which covereth the mountains with the shadow of the boughs, & spreads the branches unto the sea and the rivers: It is like the Sun in the sky, that throws his comfortable beams upon all; and forbears not to warm even that earth that beareth weeds. Love extends to earth & heaven. In heaven it affecteth God the Maker and mover: the Angels, as our Guardians; the triumphant Saints, for their pious sanctity. On earth, it embraceth those that fear the Lord especially: it wisheth conversion to those that do not: it counsels the rich: it comforts the poor: it reverenceth superiors, respecteth inferiors: doth good to friends, no evil to foes: wisheth well to all. This is the latitude of Charity. The property of faith, is to receive into itself: the property of love, to lay out itself to others. So that faith hath but narrow limits, but the extent of Love is universal, not bounded with the world. Faith believes for thyself, but Charity derives, & drives the effects of thy faith to others. Thy faith relieves thyself, thy charity thy brother.  
2. For perpetvity and continuance. Faith lays hold on God's gracious promise for everlasting salvation: Hope expects this with patience: but when God shall fulfil his word, & us with joy, than Faith shall be at an end: hope at an end: but Love shall remain between God & us, an everlasting bond. Therefore saith the Apostle, Now abideth faith, etc. Now. Now three, than one: and that is Charity. When we have possession of those pleasures, which we hoped and believed, what longer use is there of Faith or Hope? But our loves shall not end with our lives. We shall everlastingly love our our Maker, Saviour, Sanctifier, Angels, & Saints; where no discontent shall breed any jar in our Hallelujahs. If the use of love be so comfortable on earth, what may we think it will be in heaven!  
Thus saith Chrysost: Only love is eternal. Now Faith and Hope hold up the hands of Charity, as Aaron and Hur held up the hands of Moses: but then their use and office shall cease. Tunc non erit spes, quando erit spes. Hope shall not be, when the thing hoped is. Hope shall bring in possession, possession shall thrust out Hope. Therefore saith Augustine, is Charity greater; Et si non propter eminentiam, tamen propter permanentiam; If not for the excellency, yet for the perpetuity.  
Thus to justify a man, Faith is greater, but in a man justified, Charity is greater. Let Faith alone with the great work of our salvation: but that finished, it shall end, & so yield superiority to Love, which shall endure for ever.  
Thus you have commended to your souls these three sisters, Faith, Hope, and Charity. Faith we must have, or we are reprobates; Hope, or wretches, Charity, or not Christians. There is a promise made to Faith, that it shall have access to God. Heb. 11. 
Heb. 11. 6.  To Hope, that it shall not be ashamed, 
Ro. 5. 5  Rom. 5. But to Charity, that it shall dwell in God, and have God dwelling in it, 
1. Ioh 4. 16.  1. joh. 4. 
1. Ioh 4. 16.   
I should now tell you, that as these three fair Sisters come down from heaven; so in a cross contrariety, the Devil sends up three foul fiends from hell. Against Faith, Infidelity: against Hope, Desperation: Against Charity, malice. He that entertains the elder sister, unbelief, I quake to speak his doom, yet I must; He is already condemned. He that embraceth the second ugly Hag, 
joh. 3. 18.  Despair, bars up against himself the possibility of all comfort: because he offends so precious a nature, the mercy of God, & tramples under his desperate feet that blood, which is held out to his unaccepting hand. He that welcomes malice; welcomes the Devil himself: he is called the Envious, and loves extremely to lodge himself in an envious heart. These be fearful, prodigious sisters; fly them, and their embraces: and remember, O ye whom Christ concerns, the commandment of your Saviour; Love one another.  
I will end with our Apostles exhortation to his Philippians. 
Ph●l 2. 1.  If there be any consolation in Christ; and there is consolation in him, when the whole world cannot afford it: If any comfort of love; and he that knows not the comforts of love, knows no difference betwixt man and beast: If any fellowship of the spirit, by whom we are all knit into one Communion, and enriched with the same treasures of grace: If any bowels and mercies; if uncharitableness and avarice hath turned our entrails into stone and iron; if we have not forgotten the use and need of mercy. Fulfil my joy, that ye be like minded, and have the same love. Fulfil the Apostles joy only? the joy of the Bride and Bridegroom, of the Church on earth, of the Saints in heaven; of the joy of the blessed Angels; the joy of the Father, Son, & holy Spirit; and last of all, the joy of your own hearts; that you Love one another. Forget not that trite, but true saying.  
They shall not want prosperity,  
That keep Faith, Hope, and Charity.   
FINIS.   

THE TAMING OF THE TONGVE.  MATH. 12. 37. By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. BERN. Lingua, quae facilè volat, facilè violate. 
TP   printer's or publisher's device 
LONDON, Printed by Thomas Purfoot, for Clement Knight, and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Churchyard, at the Sign of the Holy Lamb. 1616.   

THE TAMING OF the Tongue.  IAM. 3. 8. But the tongue can no man tame: it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. 
HEre is a single Position, guarded with a double reason. The Position is, No man can tame the Tongue. The Reasons, 1. It is unruly. 2. Full of deadly poison. here is busy dealing with a wild member: a more difficult action, and intractable nature could not have met. Tongue is the Subject (I mean in the discourse;) and can you ever think of subjecting it naturally to reason, or taming it to Religion? Go lead a Lion in a single hair, send up an Eagle to the sky to peck out a star, cope up the thunder, and quench a flaming City with one widows tears: if thou couldst do these, yet nescit modo lingua domari: the Tongue can no man tame. As the Proposition is backed with two reasons; so each reasons; so each reason hath a terrible second, The Evil hath for the second unruliness: the Poisonfulnes hath deadly. It is evil, yea unruly evil: it is poison, yea, deadly poison. The Fort is so barricadoed, that it is hard scaling it: the refractory Rebel so guarded with Evil and Poison, so warded with unruly and deadly; as if it were with Giants in an unchanted Tower, as they fabulate; that no man can tame it. Yet let us examine the matter, and find a stratagem to subdue it.  

In the Proposition.  
We will observe, 1. The Nature of the thing to be tamed. 2. The difficulty of accomplishing it. The insubiectible subject is the Tongue: which is, 1. a member, and 2. an 

Excellent  
Necessary  
Little  
Singular   Member,   

It is a Member.  
He that made all, made the Tongue: he that craves all, must have the Tongue. Quicreavit necessariam, postulat creatam. It is an instrument, let it give Music to him that made it. All creatures in their kind bless God. Psal. 148. They that wanttongues, as the heavens, Sun, Stars, Meteors, Orbs, Elements; praise him with such obedient Testimonies, as their insensible natures can afford. They that have tongues, though they want reason, praise him with those natural Organs. The birds of the air sing, the beasts of the earth make a noise; not so much as the hissing Serpents, the very Dragons in the deep, but sound out his praise. Man then, that hath a tongue, and a reason to guide it, (and if more, a religion to direct his reason) should much, much more bless him. Therefore says the Psalmographer, that for the well tuning of his Tongue, is called the sweet Singer of Israel, I will praise the Lord with the best Instrument I have; which was his Tongue.  
Not that praises can add to God's glory, nor blasphemies detract from it. The blessing Tongue cannot make him better, 
Aug. in Psal. 134  nor the cursing, worse. Nec melior si laudaveris, nec deterior si vituperaveris. As the Sun is neither bettered by birds singing, nor battered by dogs barking. He is so infinitely great, and constantly good, that his glory admits neither addition, nor diminution.  
Yet we that cannot make his name greater, can make it seem greater: and though we can not enlarge his glory, we may enlarge the manifestation of his glory. This both in words praising, and in works practising. We know it is impossible to make a new Christ, as the Papists boast the almightiness of their Priests: yet our holy lives, and happy lips (if I may so speak) may make a little Christ, a great Christ. They that before little regarded him, may thus be brought to esteem him greatly: giving him the honour due to his name, and glorifying him, after our example.  
This is the Tongues office. One member, without arrogating any merit, or boasting the beholdingness of the rest unto it, is to do that duty which is assigned it. The eye is to see for all, the ear to hear for all, the hand to work for all, the feet to walk for all, the knees to bow for all, the Tongue to praise GOD for all. This is the Tongues office, not unlike the Towneclarkes, which if it perform not well, the Corporation is better without it. The Tongue is man's clapper, and is given him, that he may sound out the praise of his maker.  
Infinite causes draw deservingly from man's lips, a devout acknowledgement of God's praise. Quia 

Creator ad esse.  
Conseruator in esse.  
Recreator in bene esse.  
Glorificator in optimo esse.    
He gave us being that had none; preserved us in that being; 
Hug. Cardin.  restored us voluntarily fallen, unto a better being; and will glorify us with the best, at the day of the Lord jesus. 
August.  Then let the Tongue know, Si non reddet Deo faciendo quae debet, reddet ei patiendo quae debet: If it will not pay God the debt it owes him in an active thankfulness, it shall pay him in a passive painfulness. Let the meditation here of put our tongues into tune. A word fitly spoken, 
Prou. 25. 11  is like Apples of gold in pictures of silver.  
It is a member you hear: we must take it with all the properties; Excellent, Necessary, Little, Singular.  
1. Excellent. Abstractively and simply understood, it is an exceeding excellent member, both Quoad 

Maiestatem.  
Incunditatem.    
For the Majesty of it, it carries an imperious speech: wherein it hath the pre-eminence of all mortal creatures. It was man's Tongue, 
Genes. 2. 19  to which the Lord gave licence to call all the living creatures, and to give them names. And it is a strong motive to induce, and to beget in other terrene natures, a reverence and admiration of man. Therefore it is observed, that God did punish the ingratitude of Balaam, when he gave away some of the dignity proper to man, which is use of speech, and imparted it to the Ass, man alone speaks. I know that spirits can frame an aerial voice, as the Devil when he spoke in the Serpent that fatal temptation, as in a Trunk; but man only hath the habitual faculty of speaking.  
For the Pleasantness of the tongue; the general consent of all gives it the truest Melos, and restrains all musical organs from the worth and praise of it: Eccles. 40. 
Eccl. 40. 21  The pipe and the psaltery make sweet melody: but a pleasant tongue is above them both. No instruments are so ravishing, or prevail over man's heart with so powerful complacency, as the Tongue and voice of man.  
If the Tongue be so excellent, how then doth this Text censure it for so evil? I take the Philosophers old and trite answer. Linguanihil est, vel bona melius, vel mala peius. Then a good Tongue, there is nothing better; then an evil, 
Hieron.  nothing worse. Nihil habet medium: aut grand bonum est, aut grand malum. It hath no mean; it is either exceedingly good, or excessively evil. It knows nothing but extremes: and is or good best of all, or bade worst of all. If it be good, it is a walking garden, that scatters in every place a sweet flower, an herb of grace to the hearers. If it be evil, it is a wild Bedlam, full of gadding and madding mischiefs. So the Tongue is every man's best, or worst movable.  
Hereupon that Philosophical servant, when he was commanded to provide the best meat for his Master's table, the worst for the family: bought & brought to either, neats tongues. His Moral was, that this was both the best, and worst service; according to the goodness or badness of the Tongue. A good Tongue is a special dish for God's public service. Parsoptima hominis, 
Prud.  digna quae sit hostia. The best part of a man, and most worthy the honour of sacrifice. This only, when it is well seasoned. Seasoned, I say, with salt; as the Apostle admonisheth: not with fire. Let it not be so salt as fire, 
Coloss. 4. 6.  as that Proverb, which no man living hath tasted. There is a City of salt, mentioned, joshua 15. Let no man be an Inhabitant of this salt-citie. 
josh. 15. 62  Yet better a salt-tongue, than an oily. Rather let the righteous reprove me, than the precious balms of flatterers break my head; whilst they most sensibly soothe and supple it. We allow the Tongue salt, not pepper: let it be well seasoned, but not too hot. Thus a good Tongue is GOD'S dish, and he will accept it at his own table.  
But an evil Tongue is meat for the Devil, according to the Italian Proverb: The Devil makes his Christmas pie of lewd Tongues. It is his daintiest dish, and he makes much of it: whether on earth to serve his turn as an instrument of mischief, or in hell to answer his fury in torments. Thus saith Solomon of the good Tongue. 
Pr. 10 20, 21  The tongue of the just is as choice silver, and the lips of the righteous feed many. But Saint james of the bad one: It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison,  
2. It is Necessary; so necessary, that without a tongue I could not declare the necessity of it. It converseth with man, conveying to others by this organ that experimental knowledge, which must else live and die in himself. It imparts secrets, communicates joys, which would be less happy suppressed, than they are expressed: mirth without a partner, is hilaris cum pondere foelicitas. But to disburden griefs, and power forth sorrows in the bosom of a friend, O necessary tongue! How many hearts would have burst, if thou hadst not given them vent! How many souls fallen groveling under their load, if thou hadst not called for some supportance! How many a panting spirit hath said, I will speak yet ere I die; and by speaking received comfort! Lastly, it speaks our devotions to heaven, and hath the honour to confer with God. It is that Instrument which the holy Ghost useth in us, to cry Abba Father. It is our spokesman: and he that can hear the heart without a tongue, regardeth the devotions of the heart better, when they are sent up by a diligent messenger, a faithful tongue.  
3. It is Little. As man is a little world in the great▪ so is his tongue a great world in the little. It is a little member, saith the Apostle, verse 5. yet it is a world; verse 6. yea pravitatis universitas, a world of iniquity. It is parnum, but prawm; little in quantity, but great in iniquity. What it hath lost in the thickness, it hath got in the quickness: and the defect of magnitude is recompensed in the fortitude: an arm may be longer, but the Tongue is stronger; and a leg hath more flesh than it hath, besides bones which it hath not, yet the tongue still runs quicker and faster; and if the wager lie for holding out, without doubt the Tongue shall win it.  
If it be a talking tongue, it is mundus garrulitatis, a world of prating. If it be a wrangling tongue, it is mundus litigationis, a world of brabbling. If it be a learned tongue, it is as Erasmus said of Bishop Tonstall, mundus eruditionis, a world of learning. If it be a petulant tongue, it is mundus scurrilitatis, a world of wantonness. If it be a poisonous tongue, it is mundus infectionis, saith our Apostle, verse 6. it defileth the whole body. It is Little.  
So little, that it will scarce give a Kite her breakfast, yet it can discourse of the Sun and Stars, of Orbs and Elements, of Angels and D●uells, of Nature and Arts: and hath no straighter limits, than the whole world to walk through. Homuncio est, gigantea iactat, verse 5. It is a Little member, yet boasteth great things.  
Though it be Little, yet if good, it is of great use. A little bit guideth a great horse, adequitis libitum, to the Rider's pleasure. A little helm, ruleth a great vessel: though the winds blow, and the floods oppose, yet the helm steers the ship. Though little, yet if evil, it is of great mischief. A little leaven sours the whole lump. 
1. Cor. 5. 6  A little Remora dangers a great vessel. A little sickness distempereth the whole body. A little fire setteth a whole city on combustion, verse 5. Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth!  
It is Little in substance, yet great ad affectum, to provoke passion; ad effectum, to produce action. A Seminaries Tongue, is able to set Instruments on work, to blow up a Parliament. So God hath disposed it among the members, that it governs or misgovernes all; and is either a good King, or a cruel Tyrant. It either precedes to good, or perverts to evil; purifieth, or putrefieth the whole carcase, the whole conscience. It betrayeth the heart, when the heart would betray God: and the Lord lets it double treason on itself, when it prevaricates with him.  
It is a little leak that drowneth a ship, a little breach that looseth an army, a little spring that powers forth an Ocean. Little; yet the Lion is more troubled with the little Wasp, then with the great Elephant. And it is observable, that the Egyptian Sorcerers failed in minimis, that appeared skilful and powerful in maioribus. 
Exod. 7. 22  Doth Moses turn the waters into blood? the Magicians did so, with their Enchantments. Doth Aaron stretch out his hand over the waters, 
Exod. 8. 7  and cover the Land with Frogs? The Magicians did so with their Enchantments. But when Aaron smote the dust of the Land, and turned it into Lice, 
Verse 17. 18  the Magicians could not effect the like. Nor in the Ashes of the Furnace turned into boils and blains. In Frogs and Waters, 
Chap. 9  they held a semblance, not in the Dust and Ashes turned into Lice and sores. Many have dealt better with the greater members of the body, then with this Little one. Defecerunt in minimis: Virtus non minima est, minimam compescere linguam.  
4. It is a singular member. God hath given man two ears, one to hear instructions of human knowledge, the other to hearken to his divine precepts; the former to conserve his body, the latter to save his soul. Two eyes, that with the one he might see to his own way, with the other pity and commiserate his distressed brethren. Two hands, that with the one he might work for his own living, with the other give and relieve his brother's wants Two feet, one to walk on common days to his ordinary labour: 
Psal. 104. 23  Man goes forth in the morning to his labour, and continues till the evening: the other on sacred days to visit and frequent the Temple, and the congregation of Saints. But among all, he hath given him but one Tongue: which may instruct him to hear twice so much as he speaks; to see twice so much as he speaks: to work, and walk twice so much as he speaks. 
Psal. 139. 14  I will praise thee (O Lord) for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: maruaillous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well. Stay, and wonder at the wonderful wisdom of God.  
1. To create so little a piece of flesh, and to put such vigour into it: to give it neither bones nor nerves, yet to make it stronger than arms and legs, and those most able and serviceable parts of the body. 
1 Cor. 12. 23  So that as Paul saith, 1. Cor. 12. On those members of the body, which we think less honourable, we bestow more abundant honour: and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. So on this little weak member hath the Lord conferred the greatest strength; and as feeble as it is, we find it both more necessary, and more honourable.  
2 Because it is so forcible, therefore hath the most wise God ordained, that it shall be but little, that it shall be but one. That so the parvity and singularity may abate the vigour, the rigour of it. If it were paired, as the arms, legs, hands, feet, it would be much more unruly. For he that cannot tame one tongue, how would he be troubled with twain! But so hath the Ordinator provided, that things of the fiercest and firyest nature, should be little, that the malice of them might be somewhat restrained.  
3. Because it is so Unruly, the Lord hath hedged it in, as a man will not trust a wild horse in an open pasture, but prison him in a close pound. A double fence hath the Creator given to confine it, the lips and the teeth; that through those mownds it might not break. And hence a threefold instruction for the use of the Tongue, is insinuated to us.  
1. Let us not dare to pull up God's mownds; nor like wild beasts, break through the circular limits, wherein he hath coped us. 
Eccl. 28. 24  Look that thou hedge thy possession about with thorns, and bind up thy silver and gold. What, doth the wise man intent to give us some thrifty counsel, and spend his ink in the rules of good husbandry, which every worldling can teach himself? No; Yes: he exhorteth us to the best husbandry, how to guide and guard our Tongues, and to thrive in the good use of speech. Therefore declares himself; Weigh thy words in a balance, and make a door and bar for thy mouth. Let this be the possession thou so hedgest in, and thy precious gold thou so bindest up. Beware thou slide not by it, lest thou fall before him that lieth in wait. Commit not burglary, by breaking the doors, and pulling down the bars of thy mouth.  
Much more, when the Lord hath hung a lock on it, do not pick it with a false Key. 
Psal. 51. 15  Rather pray with David, Psal. 51. O Lord open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. It is absurd in building, to make the Porch bigger than the House: it is as monstrous in nature, when a man's words are too many, too mighty. Every man mocks such a gaping boaster, with Quid feret hic dignum tanto promissor hiatu? Saint Bernard gives us excellent counsel. Sint tua Verba 

rara  
vera  
ponderosa   contra 

multiloquium  
falsiloquium  
vaniloquium.    
Let thy words be few, true, weighty, that thou mayst not speak much, not falsely, not vainly. Remember thy bounds, and keep the non ultra.  
2. Since God hath made the tongue one, have not thou a tongue and a tongue. Some are double-tongued, as they are double-hearted. But God hath given one tongue, one heart; that they might be one indeed, as they are in number. It is made simple, let it not be double. God hath made us men, we make ourselves monsters. He hath given us two eyes, two ears, two hands, two feet. Of all these we will have, or at lest use but one. We have one eye to pry into others faults, not an other to see our own. We have one ear to hear the Plaintiff, not the other for the Defendant. We have a foot swift to enter forbidden paths, not another to lead us to God's holy place. We have one hand to extort, and scrape, and wound, and not another to relieve, give alms, heal the wounded. But now whereas God hath given us, but one tongue, and one heart, and bidden us be content with their singularity; we will have two tongues, two hearts. Thus cross are we to God, to Nature, to Grace: monstrous men; monoculi, monopedes; bicordes, bilingues: one-eyed, one-footed; double-tongued, double-hearted. The slanderer, the flatterer, the swearer, the talebearer are monstrous (I dare scarce add) men: as misshapen Stigmatickes, as if they had two tongues, and but one eye: two heads, and but one foot.  
3. This convinceth them of preposterous folly, that put all their malice into their tongue, as the Serpent all her poison in her tail. And as it were by a chemical power, attract all vigour thither, to the weakening and enervation of the other parts. Their hands have chiragram; they can not stretch them forth to the poor, nor give relief to the needy. Their feet podagram, they can not go to the Church. Their eyes opthalmiam, they can not behold the miserable and pitty-needing. Their ears surditatem, they can not hear the Gospel preached. Oh how defective and sick all these members are! But their Tongues are in health; there is blitheness and volubillity in them. If they see a distressed man, they can give him talkative comfort enough; 
jam. 2. 16  Bewarmed, be filled, be satisfied: they can fill him with Scripture-sentences; but they send him away with an hungry belly. Whereas the good man's hand is as ready to give, as his tongue to speak. But the fools lips babbleth foolishness; volat irrevocabile verbum. Words run like Hazael; but good works, like the Cripple, come lagging after.  
We see the nature of the thing to be tamed, the tongue: let us consider the difficulty of this enterprise. No man can do it. Which we shall best find, if we compare it with other 

members of the body.  
creatures of the world.   With other members of the body: which are various in their faculties and offices; none of them idle.  
1. The eye sees far, and beholdeth the creatures in coelo, solo, salo: in the heavens, sun and stars: on the earth birds, beasts, plants, and minerals: in the sea, fishes and serpents. That it is an unruly member, let our Grandmother speak; whose roving eye lost us all. Let Dinah speak, her wandering eye lost her virginity, caused the effusion of much blood. Let the jews speak concerning the daughters of Madian; what a fearful apostasy the Eye procured. Yea let David acknowledge, whose petulant eye robbed Vriah of his wife and life, the land of a good soldier, his own heart of much peace. Yet this eye, as unruly as it is, hath been tamed. Did not job make a covenant with his eyes, 
job 31. 1  that he would not look upon a maid? The eye hath been tamed, but the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly, etc.  
2. The ear yet hears more, than ever the eye saw: and by reason of the patulous admission, derives that to the understanding, whereof the sight never had a glance. It can listen to the whisperings of a Doeg, to the susurrations of a Devil, to the Boyse of a Siren, to the voice of a Delilah. The Parasite through his window creeps into the great man's favour: he tunes his warbling notes to an enlarged ear. It is a wild member, an Instrument that Satan delights to play upon. As unruly as it is, yet it hath been tamed. Marry sat at the feet of Christ, and heard him preach with glad attention. The ear hath been tamed, but the Tongue can no man tame, etc.  
3. The foot is an unhappy member, and carries a man to much wickedness. It is often swift to the shedding of blood: and runneth away from God jonahs' pace; flying to Tharshish, when it is bound for Niniveh. There is a foot of pride, Psal. 36. a saucy foot, 
Psal. 36. 11  that dares presumptuously enter upon God's freehold. There is a foot of rebellion, that with an apostate malice kicks at God. There is a dancing foot, that paceth the measures of circular wickedness. Yet as unruly as this foot is, it hath been tamed. David got the victory over it. I considered my ways, 
Psal. 119. 59  and turned my foot unto thy testimonies. The foot hath been tamed, but the Tongue can no man tame, etc.  
4. The hand rageth and rangeth with violence, to take the bread it never sweat for, to enclose fields, to depopulate Towns, 
Micah 2. 2  to lay waste whole countries. They covet fields, and houses, and vineyards, and take them, because their Hand hath power. There is a hand of extortion, as ahab's was to Naboth; the greedy landlords to the poor tenant. There is a hand of fraud, and full of Liegerdumaine, as the usurers to his distressed borrower. There is a hand of bribery, as judas, with his Quantum dabitis; what will you give me to betray the Lord of Life. There is a hand of lust, as Ammon's to an incestuous rape. There is a hand of murder, as joabs to Abner, or Absalon's to Ammon. O how unruly hath this member been! yet it hath been tamed: not by washing it in pilate's basin, but in David's holy-Water, Innocence. I will wash my hands in innocency, and then, O Lord, will I compass thine altar. Heereuppon he is bold to say; Lord, look if there be any iniquity in my hands. God did repudiate all the jews sacrifices, 
Psal. 7. 3.  because their hands were full of blood. David's 
Esay 1  hands had been besmeared with the aspersions of lust and blood; but he had penitently bathed them in his own tears: and because that could not get out the stains, he faithfully renseth and cleanseth them in his Sons and Saviour's fountain, the all-meritorious blood of Christ. This made them look white: 
Psal. 18. 24.  whiter than Lilies in God's sight. Therefore hath the Lord recompensed me according to my righteousness: according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight.  
Thus the eye, the ear, the foot, the hand, though wild and unruly enough, have been tamed; but the tongue can no man tame: it is an unruly evil, etc.  
With other creatures of the world; whether we find them in the earth, air, or water.  
1. On the earth, there is the man-hating Tiger; yet man hath subdued him; and (they write) a little boy hath led him in a string. There is the flocke-devouring wolf, that stands at grinning defiance with the shepherd; mad to have his prey, or lose himself; yet he hath been tamed. The roaring Lion, whose voice is a terror to man, by man hath been subdued. Yea, serpents, that have to their strength two shrewd additions, subtlety, and malice; that carry venom in their mouths, or a sting in their tails, or are all over poisonous; the very basilisk, that kills with his eyes, as they write, three furlongs off. Yet all these savage, furious, malicious natures have been tamed, but the tongue can no man tame: it is an unruly evil, etc.  
2. In the sea there be great wonders. 
Psal. 108. 24  They that go down to the sea in ships, and do business in great waters. These see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep. Yet those natural wonders have been tamed by our artificial wonders, ships. Even the Leviathan himself; Out of whose mouth go burning Lamps, 
job 41. 19  and sparks of fire. Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a boiling Cauldron. Squama squamae coviungitur; the flakes of his flesh are joined together; they are firm in themselves, and cannot be moved. Yet we know, that this huge creature hath been tamed; but the tongue can no man tame, etc.  
3. In the air, the Birds fly high above our reach, yet we have gins to fetch them down. A lure stoops the highest-soaring hawk. Nay, Art makes one foul catch another, for man's delight and benefit. Incredible things, if they were not ordinary. Snares, lime-twigs, net●es tame them all: even the Pelican in the Desert, and the Eagle amongst the cedars. Thus saith our Apostle, verse 7. Every kind (not every one of every kind, but every kind or nature of all) of beasts, of birds, of serpents, and of things in the Sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of the nature of man: but the Tongue can no man tame, etc.  
Thus far then Saint james his proposition passeth without opposition. The tongue can no man tame. The tongue is too wild for any manstaming. It would be a foolish exception, (and yet there are such profane tongues to speak it) that woman stands without this compass and latitude: and to infer, that though no man can tame the tongue, yet a woman may: It is most unworthy answer. Woman, for the most part, hath the glibbest tongue: and if ever this impossibility preclude man, it shall much more annihilate the power of that weaker sex. 
Prou. 7. 11 and 9 13  She is loud, saith Solomon: a foolish woman is ever clamorous. She calls her tongue, her Defensive weapon; she means offensive: a fire brand in a frantic hand doth less mischief. The Proverb came not from nothing; when we say of a brawling man, he hath a woman's tongue in his head.  
The tongue can no man tame. Let us listen to some weightier exceptions. The Prophets spoke the oracles of life, and the Apostles, the words of salvation; and many men's speech ministers grace to the hearers. Yield it; yet this general rule will have no exception: no man can tame it: man hath no stern for this ship, no bridle for this colt. How then? God tamed it. We by nature stammer as Moses, till God open a door of utterance. 
Esay 6. 5  I am of unclean lips, saith the Prophet, and dwell with people of unclean lips. God must lay a coal of his own altar upon our tongues, or they can not be tamed.  
And when they are tamed, yet they often have an unruly trick. Abraham lies, Moses murmurs, Elias for fear of a Queen and a quean wisheth to die, jonas frets for the Gourd, David cries in his heart, All men are liars: which speech rebounded even on God himself; as if the Lord by Samuel had deceived him: Peter forswears his Master, his Saviour. If the tongues of the just have thus tripped, how should the profane go upright? The tongue can no man tame.  
The instruction hence riseth in full strength; that God only can tame man's tongue. Now the principal actions hereof are: first, to open the mouth, when it should not be shut: secondly, and to shut it, when it should not be open.  
To open our lips when they should speak, is the sole work of God, Psalm 51. 15 O Lord open thou my lips, and then my mouth shall be able to show forth thy praise. God must open with his golden key of grace, or else our tongues will arrogate a licentious passage. We had better hold our peace, and let our tongues lie still, then to set them a running, till God bids them go. God commands every sinner to confess his iniquities: this charge, David knew, concerned himself: 
Psal. 32. 3  yet was David silent; and then his bones waxed old with anguish. His adultery cried, his murder cried, his ingratitude cried for revenge: but still David was mute; and so long, day and night the hand of the Lord was heavy upon him. But at last God stopped the mouth of his clamorous adversaries, and gave him leave to speak. I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou for gavest the iniquity of my sin. It is Christ, that must cast out this dumb Devil. The Lord is the best opener. He did open Lidia's heart, to conceive. 
Acts 16 2 Kings 6 Esay 50. 5 Coloss. 4. 3  He did open Elishaes' servants eyes, to see. He did open the Prophet's ears to hear. He did open Paul's tongue, to speak.  
To shut our lips, when they should not speak, is only the Lords work also. It is Christ that casts out the talking Devil: he shuts the wicket of our mouth against unsavoury speeches. We may think it a high office (and worthy even David's ambition) to be a doorkeeper in God's house, 
Psal. 84.  when God vouchsafes to be a doorkeeper in our house.  
Thus all is from God. Man is but a lock, God's Spirit the key; that openeth, and no man shutteth; that shutteth, and no man openeth. 
Reu elat. 3. 7.  He opens, and no man shuts. I must speak, 
jerem. 20. 9.  though I die, saith jeremy: his word is like fire in my bones, and will make me weary of forbearing. He shuts, 
Luke 1. 22  and no man opens; so Zachary goes dumb from the Altar, and could not speak.  
Away then with arrogation of works, if not of words. When a man hath a good thought, it is gratia infusa; when a good word, it is gratia effusa: when a good work, it is gratia diffusa. If the man cannot produce words to praise God, much less can he procure his works to please God. If he cannot tune his tongue, he can never turn his heart. Two useful benefits may be made hereof.  
1. It is taughtus, whether we have recourse to tame our tongues. He that made the tongue, can tame the tongue. He that gave man a tongue to speak, can give him a tongue to speak well. He that placed that unruly member in his mouth, can give him a mouth to rule it. He can give Psalms for Carols; the Songs of Zion for the ballads of hell. Man hath no bridle, no cage of brass, nor bars of iron to tame it: God can. Let us move our tongues, to entreat help for our tongues: and according to their office, let us set them on work to speak for themselves.  
2. We must not be idle ourselves: the difficulty must spur us to more earnest contention. As thou wouldst keep thy house from thieves, thy garments from moths, thy gold from rust; so carefully preserve thy tongue from unruliness, 
Psal. 141. 3.  As the Lord doth set a watch before thy mouth, and keep the door of thy lips, Psal. 141 So thou must also be vigilant thyself, and not turn over thy own heart to security. 
Math. 12. 34.  How can ye being evil, speak good things: for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. Look how far the heart is good, so far the tongue. If the heart believe, the tongue will confess: if the heart be meek, the tongue will be gentle: if the heart be angry, the tongue will be bitter. The tongue is but the hand without, to show how the clock goes within. A vain tongue discovers a vain heart. But some have words soft as butter, when their hearts are keen swords: be they never so well traded in the art of Dissembling, sometime or other the tongue, Iuddas-like, will betray the Master: it will mistake the heart's errand, and with stumbling forgetfulness trip at the door of truth. 
Eccl. 21. 26.  The heart of fools, is in their mouth: but the mouth of the wise, is in their heart. To avoid ill communication, hate ill cogitation: a polluted heart makes a fowl mouth. Therefore one day, Ex ore tuo, Out of thine own mouth will God condemn thee.  
I have with some prolixity insisted on the Position; the reasons shall be but lightly touched.   

1. It is an unruly evil.  
The difficulty of taming the tongue, one would think were sufficiently expressed in the evil of it: but the Apostle seconds it with an other obstacle, signifying the wild nature of it, unruly. It is not only an evil, but an unruly evil. I will set the Champion and his Second together in this fight; and then show the hardness of the combat.  
Bernard saith: Lingua facile volat, & ideo facile violate. The tongue runs quickly, therefore wrongs quickly. Speedy is the pace it goes, and therefore speedy is the mischief it does. When all other members are dull with age, the tongue alone is quick and nimble. It is an unruly evil to ourselves, to our neighbours, to the whole world.  
1. To ourselves. 
Erasm.  Ver. 6. It is so placed among the members, that it defileth all. Though it were evil, as the plague; and unruly, as the possessed Gergeseus, Math. 8 yet if set off with distance, the evil rests within itself. A Leper shut up in a pest-house, rankleth to himself, infects not others. A wild Cannibal in a prison, may only exercise his savage cruelty upon the stone walls, or iron grates. But the tongue is so placed, that being evil and unruly, it hurts all the members.  
2. To our Neighbours. There are some sins that hurt not the doer only, but many sufferers. These are districtly the sins of the tongue and the hand. There are other sins private and domestical: the sting and smart whereof dies in the o●ne soul; and without further extent, plagues only the person of the committer. So the Lavish is said, no man's foe but h●s own: the proud is guilty of his own vanity: the slothful bears his own reproach: and the malicious wasteth the marrow of his own bones, whiles his envied object shines in happiness. Though perhaps these sins insensibly wrong the commonwealth, yet the principal and immediate blow lights on themselves. But some iniquities are swords to the Country; as oppression, rapine, circumvention: some incendiaries to the whole land; as evil and unrnly tongues.  
3 To the whole world. If the vastate ruins of ancient monuments, if the depopulation of Countries, if the consuming fires of contention, if the land manured with blood; had a tongue to speak, they would all accuse the Tongue for the original cause of their woe. Slaughter is a lamp, and blood the oil; and this is set on fire by the tongue.  
You see the latitude and extension of this unruly evil; nor eunraly than the hand. Slaughters, massacres, oppressions are done by the hand: the tongue doth more. Parcit manus absenti, lingua n●mini. The hand spares to hurt the absent, the tongue hurts all. One may avoid the sword by running from it; not the tongue, though he run to the Indies. The hand reacheth but a small compass, the tongue goes through the world. If a man wore coat of armour, or mail of brass; yet, Penetrabunt spicula linguae; The darts of the tongue will pierce it.  
It is evil, and doth much harm; it is unruly, and doth sudden harm. You will say, many wicked men have often very silent tongues. True, they know their times and places, when and where to seem mute. But jeremy compounds the wisdom and folly of the jews: That they were wise to do evil, 
jere. 4. 22  but to do good they had no understanding. So I may say of these, they have tongue enough to speak evil, but are dumb when they should speak well.  
Our Saviour in the days of his flesh on earth, 
Luke 11. 14  was often troubled with dumb Devils: but now he is as much troubled with roaring Devils. With the fawning Sycophant, a prattling Devil. With the malicious slanderer, a brawling Devil. With the unquiet peace-hater, a scolding Devil. With the avarous and ill-conscious Lawyer, a wrangling Devil. With the factious Schismatic, a gaping Devil. With the swaggering ruffian, a roaring Devil. All whom Christ by his ministers doth conjure, as he once did that crying Devil; Hold thy peace, and come out. These are silent enough to praise God, but loud as the Cataracts of Nilus to applaud vanity. 
Psal. 32. 3  David saith of himself, Psalm 32. that when he held his peace, yet he roared all the day long. Strange! be silent, and yet roar too, at once? Gregory answers; h●e that daily commits new sins, and doth not penitently confess his old, roars much, yet holds his tongue. The Father pricked the pleurisie-vaine of our times. For we have many roarers, but dumb roarers: though they can make a hellish noise in a Tavern, and swear down the Devil himself; yet to praise God, they are as mute as fishes.  
Saint james here calls it fire. Now you know fire is an ill master: but this is unruly fire. Nay, he calls it the fire of hell; blown with the bellows of malice, kindled with the breath of the devil. Nay, Stella hath a conceit, that it is worse than the fire of hell: for that torments only the wicked, this all, both good and bad. For it is Flabellum, invids, and Flagellum, justi. Swearers, railers, scolds have hell-fire in their tongues.  
This would seem incredible, but that God saith it is true. Such are hellish people, that spit abroad the flames of the devil It is a cursed mouth that spits fire: how should we avoid those, as men of hell! many are afraid of hell fire, yet nourish it in their own tongues. By this kind of Language, a man may know who is of hell. There are three sorts of languages observed. Celestial, terrestrial, and infernal. The heavenly language is spoken by the Saints, Blessed are they that dwell in thy house: 
Psal. 84. 4  they will be still praising thee. Their discourse is habituated, like their course or co●uersation; which Paul saith is heavenly. 
Philip. 3. 20.  The earthly tongue is spoken of worldlings, He that is of the earth, is earthly: and speaketh of the earth. 
john 3. 31  Worldly talk is for worldly men. The infernal language is spoken by men of hell; such as have been taught by the devil: they speak like men of Belial. Now, as the Country man is known by his language: and as the damosel told Peter; Sure thou art of Galilee, for thy speech bewrayeth thee: so by this rule, you may know heavenly men by their gracious conference: earthly men by their worldly talk: and hellish, by the language of the low Countries, swearing, cursing, blasphemy.  
Well the efore did the Apostle call this Tongue a fire; and such a fire, as sets the whole world in combustion. Let these unruly tongues take heed lest by their roar they shake the battlements of heaven; and so waken an incensed God to judgement. 
Zechar. 5. 4  There is a curse that goeth forth, and it shall enter into the house of the swearer, and not only cut him off, 
jere. 23. 10  but consume his house with the timber, and the stones of it. It was the Prophet jeremy's complaint; that for oaths the Land mourned. No marvel, if God curse us for our cursings; and if the plague light upon our bodies, that have so hotly trolled it in our tongues: no wonder if we have bl●sterd carcases, that have so blistered consciences; and the stench of contagion punish us for our stinking breaths. Our tongues must walk, till the hand of God walk against us.   

2. Full of deadly poison.  
POison is h●omini i●imicum, loathsomely contrary to man's nature: but there is a poison not mortal; the venom whereof may be expelled; this is deadly poison. Yet if there was but a little of this resident in the wicked tongue, the danger were less; nay, it is full of it; full of deadly poison.  
Tell a blasphemer this, that he vomits hell fire, and carries deadly poison in his mouth; and he will laugh at thee. Beloved, we preach not this of our own heads; we have our infallible warrant: 
Psal. 14  God speaks it. The poison of Asps is under their lips, saith the Psalmist. It is a loathsome thing, to carry poison in ones mouth: we would fly that serpent, yet willingly converse with that man. A strangely hated thing in a beast, yet customable in many men's tongues. Whom poison they? First, Themselves; they have speckled souls. Secondly, They sputte their venom abroad, and bespurtle others: no beast can cast his poison so far. Thirdly, Yea, they would (and no thanks to them that they can not) poison Gods most sacred and feared nam●. Let us judge of these things, not as flesh and blood imagineth, but as God pronounceth.  
It is observable, that which way soever a wicked man useth his tongue, he cannot use it well. Mordet detrahendo, lingit adulando. He bites by detraction, licks by flattery; and either of these touches rankle: he doth no less hurt by licking, then by biting. All the parts of his mouth are instruments of wickedness. Logicians in the difference betwixt vocem, and sonum, say that a voice is made by the lips, teeth, throat, tongue.  
The Psalmographer on every one of these hath set a brand of wickedness. 
Psal. 120 2  1. The lips are labia dolosa, lying lips, Psal. 120. 2. The teeth are frementes, frendentes, gnashing teeth. 
Psal. 120. 3  3. The tongue, lingua mendax, lingua mordax. What shallbe done unto thee, 
Rom. 313  thou false tongue? 4. The throat patens sepulchrum. Their throat is an open sepulchre. This is a monstrous and fearful mouth: where the porter, the porch, the entertainer, the receiver are all ●icious. The lips are the Porter, and that's fraud: the porch the teeth, and there is malice: the entertainer, the tongue, and there is lying: the receiver, the throat, and there is devouring.  
I cannot omit the Moral of that old Fable. Three children call one man Father, who brought them up. Dying, he bequeathes all his estate only to one of them, as his true natural son; but which that one was, left uncertain. Hereupon every one claims it. The wise Magistrate for speedy decision of so great an ambiguity; causeth the dead father to be set up as a mark; promising the challengers, that which of them could shoot next his heart, should enjoy the Patrimony. The elder shoots, so doth the second, both hit: but when it came to the yongers turn, he utterly refused to shoot: good nature would not let him wound that man dead, that bred and fed him living. Therefore the judge gave all to this son, reputing the former bastards. I he scope of it is plain, but significant. God will never give them the Legacy of Glory, given by his Son Will to children; that like bastards shoot through, and wound his blessed Name. Think of this, ye swearing and cursing tongue's  
To conclude, God shall punish such Tongues in their own kind: they were full of poison, and the poison of another stench shall swell them. They have been inflamed, and shall be tormented with the fire of hell. Burning shall be added to burning; save that the first was active, this passive. The rich glutton, that when his belly was full, could lose his tongue to blasphemy, wanted water to cool his tongue. His tongue sinned, and his tongue smarted. Though his torment was universal, yet he complains of his tongue. That panted, that smoked, that reeked with sulphur and brimstone: that burns with the flame of hell dead, that burned with it living. For a former tune of sin, it hath a present tune of woe. It scalded, and is scalded: as it cast abroad the flames of hell in this world, so all the flames of hell shall be cast on it in the world to come. It hath fired, and shall be fired, with such fire as is not to be quenched.  
But blessed is the sanctified tongue. God doth now choose it as an instrument of music, to sing his praise; he doth water it with the saving dews of his mercy, and will at last advance it to glory.   
FINIS.   

 

 
Mat. 3. 11. 12.