Upon the Copper-piece. MAn formed (in Mind, Word, Spirit) by th' Trinity (Bears eke the Image of that glorious Three in's Understanding, Will, and Memory.) I'th' strict examine of the World can find Nothing that is not Vain, to show his Mind For some more excellent Object was designed. Therefore his Soul, (whose Hieroglyphic is The Phoenix,) knowing that she could not rise Renewed from such course ashes, nimbly flies And busily pursues the Hierarchy But 'tis not Angels that can satisfy Th' ambitious Bird. Some higher flight she'll try And in the Sun, a representative Of the Great Essence that all light doth give She finds a flame that only makes her Live. THE ARRAIGNMENT of the whole CREATURE Att the Barr● RELIGION REASON'S EXPERIE● THE ARRAIGNMENT OF THE WHOLE CREATURE, At the Bar of RELIGION, REASON, and EXPERIENCE. Occasioned upon an Indictment preferred by the Soul of Man against the Prodigals variety and Vain Prodigality. EXPLAINED, Applied, and TRIED in the History and Mystery of that Parable. From whence is drawn this DOOM Orthodoxal, and JUDGEMENT Divine. That no Earthly Vanity can satisfy Man's heavenly Soul. And by reason of the variety of Instances and Demonstrations, it may serve in some sort as a COMMON-PLACE, for almost all manner of Readins. LONDON. Printed by B. ALSOP and THO: FAUCET, 1631. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE, GEORGE WHITMOUR, Lord MAYOR: And to the rest of that Honourable FRATERNITY and SOCIETY; the Aldermen, Recorder, and Sheriffs, of the famous City of London: Health in the Lord. (* ⁎ *) My Lord and Gentlemen: WHen I considered, that All of you are Potential Lords, and Actual Magistrates; and not only so, in your severals, but a Society of such: So many Members of an Honourable Head (The Lord Major) and so many Heads of the several Members of this City, the Metropolis of the most renowned Kingdom in Europe. Every particular of which considerations, bearing with it a weight of Honour in the balance of my judgement, have moved me to entail upon you all, the Title of Right Honourable; which being the highest and lowest of my ambition in the Dedication of this Treatise, I have made choice of your Honours to tender the Patronage unto. Wherein it cannot be imagined, I should have any End of gratifying some favours received, seeing I never had occasion to be acquainted with any of you, in all my life hitherto. Neither may it be safe to acknowledge any such weakness in the Work, as that it could not walk without such pillars of supportment (a common pretence;) For then I should be grossly guilty of dissimulation or ignorance, two such great infirmities, two such soul deformities as I cannot easily determine whether more to abhor. Neither can I conceit, That your Honours can want any requisite means for instruction and direction in the ways of Godliness 〈◊〉 in Pulpit or Pr●s●●● for 〈◊〉 were a mistake as manifest 〈…〉. But my Ends 〈…〉 more General, and (of ●erre not much) more Gen● also 〈◊〉 only respecting Your own, but the Common-good. And for the first. If I spoke with the tongue of Men and Angels, I could never enough set forth the lustre and beauty of that Goodness, which concurres with Greatness; nor the misery of that Greatness that goes unconsorted with Goodness: The former is instrophiated with the Title of Gods upon Earth; The latter lies subject to the tyranny of Devils in hell. Which deliberation (Right Hon:) when I entered upon I was abundantly inflamed with desire, that You all might be as gracious as you are Great; And that your virtue & goodness might march in equipage with your State and Authority, whereby your Future glory may transcend your present Honour as fare as the Sun doth the Earth's Centre. In which happy possibility although I am ascertained; That some of you are in a high manner, and all of You in some sort seated and stated; notwithstanding could not my zeal & ambition, but desire and endeavour to have a finger in the affairs of this high importance; Luk. 24.6. And (according to the Angel's course in the case of our Saviour's resurrection) to be your Remembrancer in these things, wherein (no question) you have former acquaintance. Again, how well it sorts with Persons of great substance, that they be put in mind of the emptiness and vanity that is in all Earthly things, lest their hearts should be stolen away therewith. For Satan is malicious, Sin is subtle, our Corruptions are strong, and we (since the Great fall) are full of frailty and weakness. To which purpose, this subject serves well; not only, to discover the unsatisfying Husks of Earthly Vanities; but also, to show us that Bread and Water of Life, that immortal Inheritance of the Saints: The only satisfaction to the soul of Man. A Subject no doubt as necessary for the Times, as the Times are subject to Necessity. 2. Concerning the Common-good. If this mean Present may be entertained by such Honourable Persons, the benefit will flow further than to your own particulars. For as it is in Vices, that they are more or less accounted of, as is the quality of him that commits them; Omne animi vitium, c. Iwenal. Even so it fareth with Graces and Virtues, according to the Poet: Regis ad exemplum totus componitur Orbis. The eyes of the World are wholly bend, either for Love, fear, or flattery, upon the placets, and practices of those Great Persons, where it hath dependence or relation. Each being led more by Examples than Precepts. Which whether it be done by an inward Principle of GOD'S own stamping in man's heart (as in all other Creatures in their kind) inclining to that perfection which either Authority of Person, meliority of Judgement, or pulchritude of Appearance presents to the apprehension: Or it come by an Influence from the actions, or persons of Superiors, moving the mind of the admirer or intentionate observer; It is rather fit for the Mimeticks to dispute, then for me to determine. Certainly our Sensuality is much moved with sensible Objects. And sure I am, that your Honours by your godly conversation, and countenancing of good Actions and intentions, shall not only shine in your several Spheres, like Stars in the firmament, Firma ment stare est firmamenti astero splendid●or. but also Edify your souls in your most holy faith, benefit the Church, and people of God, 1 Tim. 4.8. bring much Honour to his great name, And make yourselves capable of all the promises both of this Life and of that which is to come. Consider what I say, 2 Tim. 2.7. and the Lord give you understanding in all things. One word of the Work wherein I am not ignorant of divers Tautologies, which notwithstanding I have admitted, some for their goodness, bonum quo communius eo melius; Others for the fitness when they fall, considering withal how requisite such repetitions sometimes are to beget a conviction in judgement; an impression in memory, the Masterpieces of true Knowledge and Wisdom. If the Simple find fault with the Method, or the Cynic with the Style, we seek neither of their satisfaction. If any be Contentious, 1 Cor. 11.16. we have no such custom, nor the Church of GOD. The more Judicious are more Ingenuous, and by consequence more Courteous also: Together with whom, so your Honours accept it, who else like not may look off, if they please. I will say no more for it, than the Parents said on their Son's behalf whom our SAVIOUR cured, joh. 9.21. It is of age to answer for itself. Lastly, the concealment of the Author's name carries this benefit therewith; That neither can the Faults of the one, reflect upon the other, while he goes unknown. Praestat agere dictum, quam actum dicere. Aug. Neither can he be counted guilty of, or subject to be tempted, with that great Vainglory, which makes many so forward to become fool in Print. So that every way that excellent Proverb is worthy of all approbation. Quo obscurior, eo securior. Obscurity is the best security against Censure and Selfe-conceipt, Persijs Satyr. 1. Non te quaesieveris extra. But lest my Boldness should be burdensome, in that which is spoken before, I have made choice of St. PAUL'S charge, for mine Apol●gie. Charge them that are rich in this World that they be not high minded, 1 Tim. 6.17 and that they trust not in uncertain riches, but in the living GOD, which gaveth us abundantly all things to enjoy. That they do good and be rich in Good works, ready to distribute and communicate. Laying up a store for themselves, a good foundation again the time to come, that they may obtain Eternal life. And so I close all with that Doxology of the Author to the Hebrews. Heb. 13.20. The GOD of Peace which brought from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting Covenant, Vers. 21. make you perfect in all good works to do his will, working in you, that which is pleasing in his sight, through JESUS CHRIST (our Lord) to whom be Glory, both now and ever. AMEN. Your Honours, in all due observance: R. H. THE CONTENTS. CHAP. I. THe Preface with a Paraphrase upon the Text and Context. pag. 1 CHAP. II. The main Point propounded, that No Earthly Vanity satisfies Man's heavenly Soul. pag. 13 CHAP. III. The amplification of the Point, and the Proof entered upon. pag. 17 CHAP. four The Prodigals Husks explained, and the effect of Hunger. pag. 22 CHAP. V The Prodigals hungry Husks further applied to Epicurish, profuse and profane Men. pag. 31 CHAP. VI The Reason why the vainest Men, cannot always attain their worst desires. pag. 41 CHAP. VII. How vain it is to trust to vain Men, in any Distress. pag. 50 CHAP. VIII. The Insufficiency of the Husks of Vanity, to satisfy and content the unsatiable appetite of the Soul, further explained. pag. 55 CHAP. IX. CHRIST'S Verdict of the World's waters, insufficient to quench the Souls thirst, without the waters of Life. pag. 63 CHAP. X. SECT. 3. SECT. 1. The hungry Husks of vain Worldlings and the blessed Bread of GOD'S Children declared, and compared by the Prophet Esay. p. 71 SECT. 2. God's Children, as they have God's plenty, so they have God's peace, which Worldlings want. pag. 81 SECT. 3. The joys of the Saints, never conceived, nor received by Sinners. pag. 87 CHAP. XI. SECT. 2. SECT. 1. IONAS his judgement and Experience of lying Vanities. pag. 92 SECT. 2. Eight Demonstrations of Lying Vanities. pag. 100 CHAP. XII. SECT. 6. SECT. 1. SOLOMON'S depth of Wisdom, diving and wading into the vility and Vanity of things Sublunary. pag. 108 SECT. 2. Solomon's Censure of lying Vanities, from his own Experience. pag. 113 SECT. 3. Solomon's three Books compared; The sum of his Ecclesiastes, being his Verdict against Vanity. pag. 121 SECT. 4. The aims, and ends of Solomon, that he may Effect what he doth Affect. pag. 126 SECT. 5. Solomon's Repentance, Sanctification, and Salvation, proved by Scriptures, and Reasons. pag. 136 SECT. 6. SOLOMON'S Salvation, proved from Authors and Authorities. pag. 156 CHAP. XIII. SECT. 4. SECT. 1. The Nature of these Vanities, their disproportion with the Soul, the immensity of Man's Appetite further declared. pag. 168 SECT. 2. The Vnfatiablenesse of the Appetite, and Concupiscible Faculty. pag. 191 SECT. 3. The Composition of the Heart, Sublimity of Man's Soul; Centre of his Spirit; GOD'S Image; Man's Pilgrimage. pag. 205 SECT. 4. The Verdict of Divines; force of Religion; union betwixt Holiness and Happiness. pag. 218 CHAP. XIIII. SECT. 2. SECT. 1. The Inconstancy and uncertainty of Life, Health, Prosperity, Common blessings and all Externals. pag. 224 SECT. 2. The uncertainty of Honours, Riches, Pleasures, further exemplified. pag. 237 CHAP. XV. SECT. 5. SECT. 1. GOD'S just judgement on Vanities, and Vain men. pag. 251 SECT. 2. The Vanity and vexation of that Love which is Humane, placed on the Creature, alured by Beauty. pag. 253 SECT. 3. The Vanity, Fury, and Frenzy of Lustful Lovers. pag. 258 SECT. 4. The unquietness of Earthly Loves, proved by Inductions. pag. 265 SECT. 5. Several Reasons united, convincing the first propounded Proposition, placing all Contentation in the Creator, not in the Creature. pag. 270▪ CHAP. XVI. These Huskish vanities are never so fully, and freely enjoyed, but there is always something wanting to the Concupiscible or rational Appetite. pag. 278 CHAP. XVII. There is no absolute Comfort and Contentation in any thing, every calling hath its cross, even Marriage itself. pag. 293 CHAP. XVIII. Our inordinate appetites after earthly things so divide, disturb, distemper and distract our hearts, by divers passions and perturbations, that in steed of hoped contentation, we reap vexation, exaggeration, distraction, and destruction. pag. 306 CHAP. XIX. These outward things used out of Christ, in carnalities, in the abuse of Christian Liberty, ever leave a sting in the Conscience more or less, which deprives of all true peace and contentation. pag. 328 CHAP. XX. The Peroration, and Conclusion of this Tract. pag. 333. AN APOLOGVE FOR AN EPILOGUE. IT is not unknown how hard it is to preserve a Treatise of this make from faults in Printing, I will not therefore trouble myself with gathering, nor the Reader with perusing of every mistake, the ingenuous have not only judgement to discern, but also courtesy to connive at small errors. I could not be present myself at the Press, neither list I to plead further for the Corrector and Compositor. Let this that follows suffice for the Text; the Margin is matter for Scholars, who need no other help then their own ingenuity. Errata. Page 108. line 17. for Pyripatitions, read Peripatetics. pag. 109. l. 24. r. Incident. pag. 114. l. 7. r. Aquila, & line 22. deletur as, line 23. place the Colon at Fools: line 24. for indeed, read, is here. pag. 141. l. 20. r. Adoption. pag. 259. l. 9 r. Theseus. l. 26. r. kiss. pag. 260. l. 19 r. Comes. pag. 261. l. 3. r. Glean. pag. 264. l. 19 r. fly. pag. 276. l. 1. r. Perhibent. pag. 283. l. 20. r. Chrysostome. pag. 284. l. 10. r. Richard. pag. 285. l. 27. r. Lion-like. pag. 287. l. 2. r. Sorrowful. pag. 288. l. 26. r. Meat. pag. 292. l 1. r. whit. pag. 293 l. 21. for where is stung, read where he is stung. pag. 301 l. 3. r. Pleasures. pag. 311. l. 20. r. joseph. pag. 335. l. 24. read Worke. In behalf of this learned Work, to the Reader. THat Parable so seldom well applied, So frequently ill practised; understood By wealthy ones of such as want their food; Is here declared: The meaning verified Appeaches worldlings most: and fools beside Whose covetous desire, for earthly good, Neglects the bread celestial. This foul brood Which loves to feed like swine, is here descried. Who pleads not guilty? None I fear. What then? As he did think upon that better diet Ordained for man at home: return again And have it: here's the means, do thou apply it. If my commends might move (alas theyare small!) Only therein I would be Prodigal. T. C. Libelli ad quos pertinet lectores dialogus. O Curas hominum! O quantum est in rebus inane! Quis leget haec? Mollis? Non. Sed avare? Neque Cùr? Nòn me spectant. Mutato nomine de te Textus narratur. Prodigus ille nepos, Hàud ego. Coelorum Dominum, & coelestia temnis Munera, perdis inops. Quìn pretiosa magìs, Danubius, Nilus, Ganges, & America dives Quae mittunt, rapio. Nil minùs indè sitis. Dulcia sed quis nòn? Epicuri de grege porcus, Vesceris & siliquis. Da meliora. Cape. Quìn ubi? Praestò vide. Sed verba haec! Immè salubri Fonte petita. Probè niteris. Ergò lege. Consulentibus Horatio, Persióque libellus hic ita suadet; adminiculum suppeditante, T. C. THE ARRAIGNMENT OF THE WHOLE CREATURE, At the Bar of Religion, Reason and Experience. CHAP. I. The Preface with a Paraphrase upon the Text and Context. THere is no end of making of Books, saith SALOMON, Eccles. 12.12. and much reading is wearisomeness to the Flesh; which consideration made me a long while suspend and put off my daily solicitations for this Works preferment to the Press; And the rather for that according to the Proverb, Nil dictum quod non priùs, There is no new thing under the Sun but even Inventions are vicissitudes, and the actions of our mind, though different in a manner, are but Tautologyes upon the matter, which relish no more to our captious curious Intellects, Cram his coctum. than Colwoorts twice boiled to Epicurish palates. But when I considered that the hungry soul sweetly gusts again the same Spiritual cates, as did sometimes the hearers of Saint PETER, 2 Epist. 3.1. And of Saint PAUL, Decies repetita pla●bunt. Acts. 13.42. Both jews and Gentiles. I held it unmeet, to balance the deserts of the one with the Censures of the other. Or to bring the consideration of mine own credit in competition with the benefit that may happily redound to the Commonwealth of Christ's congregation. Conceiving withal, that; In regard of the multitude of men and minds the variety of Capacities and apprehensions, it is very requisite that in like sort there should be variety of methods and expressions of the selfsame truth of God. For which reasons I have been induced, to forward the public appearance of this Treatise, hoping that the well taking thereof may be a means to produce the remainder, for the further satisfaction of the Reader, and to encourage the Author for the fuller accomplishment of God's honour, and the good of his Church. And so I settle upon the basis of the ensuing building, in the Parable of the Prodigal. Luke. 15.16. And he fain would have filled his belly with the husks, but no man gave unto him. THis Parable sets before our sense and consideration the best and the worst of this Prodigal, his gold and his dross, his corn and his chaff, his flowers and weeds, his wine and dreggs, his sins and his sorrows, his vanities and vexations, his transgressions and humiliations: His unnatural flight from his Father's house, and his return again, by weeping cross, tandem aliquando, Basil. in suo exem. Ho●. 8. like the Stork repairing to her old nest which seemingly she had forsaken. Herein we may observe, 1 What he was. 2 What he did. 3 What he suffered. 4 What use he made thereof. How he was active in sinning, Si pergit dicere qua vult quae non vult audiet. and passive in Suffering, according to the Pagan. Sin and sorrow being as Esau and jacob: Twins borne both at a birth, The latter supplanting the former; As the Conclusion, (indeed the confusion) following the premises. As the Father's feigned pleasure and pain, to be linked in one chain; To break the Ice, as it were, and make way for the intended Treatise, we will observe in some epitomised heads the substance of this Parable, both in the Life and Spirit thereof, the outward rind and bark of the words, and the inward fap and pith of the Spirit; in the sense and meaning of our Saviour who propounds this Prodigal as a true Image and Idea of a humbled Penitent? A true Map and model of a Sinners misery. By Faith and Repentance an Object or Subject of God's all-Salving all-Saving mercy. Which General gives itself to our consideration, in several observable particulars; As namely, 1. Who the Father of this Prodigal was; Even God the Father of Spirits, and of all mercies; compared here to a Man, as in other Scriptures the parts, members, and affections of man are attributed unto him, Per figuram, (saith Saint AMBROSE) Non naturam, figuratively, not naturally, as some conceited Heretics have dreamt. Expressing in their outward shapes and figures his philanthropy and good will to Man, which our Saviour Christ especially demonstrated in his frequent appearing to the patriarchs in the form of Man; chiefly in his merciful, miraculous, and mysterious Incarnation, Ha' apparitiones, praeludia incarnationis, Tertul assuming the nature of man but without sin in that Nature, all the former apparitions being so many preludes hereof, according to TERTULLIAN. As also, who these two Sons of this Father be, not so probable the jews and Gentiles as some would with pregnant arguments maintain; But even the Proud self-conceited Pharisie, and the repenting heart-humbled Publican, to whom and for whom, both this, and the two other preceding Parables of the lost Sheep, and the lost Groat, were propounded, as appeareth plainly in the Context. The penitent Publican typified in this our Prodigal, and exemplified in all his actions and affections both Temporal and Spiritual, being called a younger Brother as the Philosopher termed his Auditors young: Not so much in respect of years as of manners, not wanting age, but wisdom; as indeed all Sinners according to Scripture phrase, are in God's account, in respect of any Spiritual wisdom, held foolish, unwise, indiscreet, childish, etc. Yea branded and stigmatised with the very marks and Epithet of fools, simple ones, and ignorants, however the world's blind Arithmetic number and rank them amongst the Machiavillian Politicians, Achitophel's and subtle serpentine spirits of this generation, in respect of the Moral and Natural wisdom. 2. Now as it appears, what he was, forthwith anatomize his Corruption, search his wounds, and the ruptures of his soul to the quick, and we shall see what he did, & so expose him to the view of Men and Angels, acting his several obscene parts in the public Scenes, as openly as ABSOLOM in the top of his father's Palace; behold him in his stuff and pomp, as the Peacock glorious in his plumes, his wings furnished with Silver Feathers, flying into all excess of riot, spending his means which proudly and peremptorily (by a Mandamus rather than an Oramus) he had extracted from his Father; misspending them on Hawks, Hounds, Harlotts, and all voluptuous and licentious courses, till sucked to the last drop, by these horseleeches, fed upon by these Harpies, devoured by his lusts, as ACTAEON by his dogs, brought to beggar's Bush, (the usual end of Prodigality) wanting oil to his Lamp, fuel to his luxurious fires, means to his mind, yea and a mind to his mean means, he was in such Meanders of misery and labyrinths of troubles, brought to so low an ebb and exigent, the black Ox treading so sore upon his toes; Penury and poverty as a strait shoe, so pinching him, that he is even as a Bear at gaze or at a maze, as the Buck at the bay, not knowing what to do, even at his wit's end. Observe him, turning his back off his Father, setting him exceeding light, as many Fond Prodigals since and even at this day; yea, setting him on a Lea-land, as they say; contemptuous and regardless of the Privileges and Prerogatives of his Father's house, as ESAY of his birthright; the Gadarens of Christ; AESOP'S cock of the found Pearl, never knowing the good of a Father (as wicked men and ungrateful vipers neither know nor acknowledge the benefit of any blessing till they want it, and be wholly deprived of it) as a stern wife sometimes of a loving husband: an unthankful people sometimes of a Faithful Pastor; as the Israelits of MOSES and ELISHA, and a bad servant of a good Master. 4 Trace him as a Fox or Hare, every foot as he went from his Father's house; follow him as the storms and winds did IONAS; as the hue and cry doth the fell on into that fare Country; The region of Sin, the Oblivion and forgetfulness of God; into which, by the vanity of his mind and manners, deprived and depraved of Grace, he fled and hastened with the fleet of his corrupt affections, as the horse rusheth into the battle. 5 Set eyes and spies upon him, and see what he doth there, wasting and consuming all his goods (his talents and gifts being abused in the service of sin) with riotous living, by which his means melted as wax before the fire, and thawed as ice before the Sun, never leaving nor taking up with himself, till he had spent all; as a bird, deplumed of all his fair Feathers. As indeed give some an inch, and like their father the Devil, it will take an Ell. Once admit it, it pleads possession, as the spirits in the Gospel it is loath to be cast out, nor will it leave its hold, but (Ejection firma) once over shoes and over boots also. Wicked men leave not off sinning, till by degrees they grow from Serpents to Dragons, from Cubbes to Foxes, from evil to worst, till they have, as hellish Graduates, commenced in the highest degree of sin, sitting as Lot's sons in Law, and SAILOMONS' fool in the chair of pestilence; the seat of the Scorner, hating Counsel and contemning instruction, till by their doings, they have irrecoverably undone themselves, so long hoisting up their high Sails, bearing up their top and top Gallant in the impetuous sea of their lusts, till wanting the Pilot and Palmure of their reason and Religion, they run themselves upon the rocks, and make shipwreck of goods, good-name, credit, coin, conscience, yea body and soul, all at once; as this Prodigal had done, had not his Father's remainning mercies, been above his demerits: chief Prodigality, (vulturelike) gnaws a man to the very bones, the profuse prodigal that gets (as a Beast an ill haunt) an ill habit and custom in sin; usually never leaves till as a great Snowball in a Sumner day he melt all away, not able to take up with himself, unless the Lord himself, by a special curb and bit restrain him, till (like a wooded horse with a childish rider) he runs himself out of breath, and perhaps break his neck too down some hill or promontory, having no more power to stay himself, than a man that runs down a hill, till he come to the bottom, he wasted all, the usual end of Prodigality. 6 Behold him also in his low ebb and exigent after this full sea, let blood as it were in his vain veins, till he could bleed no more; what he did, what diet he used, after this vehement purse purging in the flux of prodigality, to recover himself again: his course indeed being too course and too carnal, his salve worse than his sore, he goes not, as he should have done (and as indeed he did afterwards) to his Father, crying Peccavi, with confession in his mouth, contrition in his heart, compunction in his soul, and tears in his eyes, extracted by the fire of the Spirit, from the limbeck of a penitent heart, and sin wounded soul; No, no, his hour was not yet come; All the Elect are not converted at once, he was not yet called; the wind bloweth where it listeth, and the Spirit worketh where it listeth, when it worketh it is energetical indeed, and powerful in operation, not resisted by the very gates of Hell. It dissolves the very works of the devil, jaile-delivers his prisoners, untyes their chains, as the Angel did PETER; brings them as Israel out of Egypt from the bondage of that spiritual PHARAOH, with a mighty hand and outstretched arm indeed, but it had not yet wrought on this Prodigal, the cross was yet unsanctified unto him, as sometimes unto Pharaoh, AHAB, AHAZ, ISRAEL, and others; he was not by these afflictions converted: Oh no, afflictions without God's Spirit are (as the word & Sacraments) the favour of death to death, as perfumes to the Beetle, washing to the Aethiopian, or rensing to Clay; they more soil the soul of the impenitent. Besides, conversion of a sinner is not so easy a work, hoc opus, hic labour. It's a marvel, a miracle, as great as to turn water into wine, stones into bread, nay into children of ABRAHAM, yea as to create a new world, a new Microcosm, It's digitus Dei, must do it, it's only the work of the Almighty. Besides, the Elect are not all called at once into the Lord's vineyard, but some at one hour, some at another, some in the morning, some in the Evening, some at noon day, as appears in the Conversion of MANASSES, MARY MAGDALEN, SAUL, ZACHEUS, AUGUSTINE, CYPRIAN, Confess. l. 8. c. 7.8.9. the thief on the Cross, and this our Prodigal. Besides, he takes the staff by the wrong end, Osiand. Epit. Cent. he goes not in this penury directly to his Father as he should have done, (who as he is an Ocean of grace, a Fountain of mercy, both could and would have made supply as did JACOB and JOSHVAH, MOSES and DAVID, ASA, JEHOSAPHAT, EZECHIAH, DANIEL, the Gospel's Centurion, blind Bartimeus: Mark. 8. Mark. 9 Math. 15. the distressed Father, the Cananitish Mother, the friends of the Possessed, the unclean Lepers, and all holy men, humbled penitents: and Publicans in the Old and New Testament. But first he seeks to the Citizen of the Country as the Context is: That is indeed to the very Devil himself: compared to a Citizen for his obstinacy and tenacity in sin, as a dweller therein, as a Citizen in his house: as a Map and model of all Natural men, who in their distress will touch every string: attempt every means lawful or unlawful, from earth or from hell, ere they seek unto GOD by Faith, by Prayer, Repentance, and Humiliation, as his children do, he'll cleave to this Citizen rather than seek to his Father: As carnal men at this day in their distresses will seek; First, either to the Creatures; Secondly, to friends in the Court; Thirdly, to their Idols of gold or silver; Fourthly, to the Physician; Fiftly, or to Nature; Sixtly, or to Saints & Spirits; as our Popelings, to Saint ERASMUS, St. BLAZE, St. ANNE, St. VRBAN, St. ANASTASIUS, St. ROCH, St. OTTLIA, St. MARGARET, St. APOILONIA, St. SEBASTIAN, St. LOY, St. CHRISTOPHER, and Saint EULALIA, for their several sicknesses, dangers, and diseases. Seventhly, or else to the very Devil and his instruments, Conjurers, Necromancers, white and black, Witches, as PHARAOH, to JANNES' and JAMBRES his Magicians; as AHAZIAH, to Baalzebub the god of Ekron, or Beelzebub the Prince of Devils; SAUL to the Witch of End●r; as BALAAK to BALAAM, the Witch of Pethor; NABUCHADNEZZAR and BALTHAZER, to the Magicians of Babel; the Romans' to their Augurists, the Gentiles to their Soothsayers. If GOD be sought to at all by Carnal men, it must be as a Miser goes to law, or takes Physic, Tanquam ultimum refugium, as his last refuge. When other means fail (as usually they do as a broken staff or a staff of Reeds, that deceives the leaners trust) this Prodigal doth not only serve this Citizen, but he adheares and cleaves unto him, intimating how nearly and dear he affects him and his service, in the very inwards of his soul, as JACOB did RACHEL, as SAMSON did DALILAH, and the Harlot of Zoreck, and as SICHEM did DINAH, whose soul is said to cleave unto her. But how doth this Citizen requite his love, his service and observance? Very basely, and badly, (for the service of Sin, of all other services, slaveries and thraldoms, is the basest, worse than the bondage of Egypt, or the Turkish Galley-slaves;) he employs him even to keep Hogs, hogs of Epicurus his sty, he feeds even Swine; For wicked and graceless men, that now must be his followers, his Comrades, and boon Companions, at his pots, his Punks, his drink and his Drabs, are compared as to Lions, Bears, Wolves, Foxes, evil beasts, so even to Hogs, and Dogs; those Hogs he must feed, till they sponge him of all his substance. Oh bad and base exchange, from a Son to be a Swineherd, from feeding at his Father's table, to fill the Hogs-trough; Oh, how Sin turns our light into darkness, our gold into dross; yea, even our Heaven into Hell, Mercies into judgements, favours into frowns, honey into gall and Aloes, blessings into banes: as Repentance on the contrary, changeth evil into good, darkness into light, war with GOD and the Creatures into peace; yea, Hell into Heaven; awakens those, that are asleep; raiseth up those that are dead; heals those that are wounded: Makes of fools! yea of Bedlams and mad men, as this Prodigal once was, sober and wise men; yea, of sensual Sinners, sanctified Saints: of limbs of Satan, heirs of Grace, Coheires of glory. Acts, 26.18, 19 But yet this is not all; his misery, as a rankling ulcer, grows worse and worse; as his service is base, so its burdensome, and grievous: many a poor prentice, though he be put to base offices, yet it's some comfort to him that he hath meat and drink enough; but in that great dearth and famine, both in respect of Corporeal and Spiritual food, to which he and the rest in this Region of Sin, were subjected; he was pinched and plagued with hunger, he was pained and pined in his belly, he had the plague in his paunch, as in his Purse, he had a stomach for meat, no meat for his stomach; he might grin like a Dog, gruntle like a Hog, roar as a Lion, or howl like a Wolf, for any meat, that he got; for as it is in my Text; He fain would have filled his belly with the husks, but no man gave unto him. CHAP. II. The main Point propounded: That no earthly Vanity satisfies man's heavenly Soul. FRom whence (the Text, and so the Context in the preceding part of the Parable, being thus briefly opened, and Paraphrased) to aim at the mark at which I directly shoot, in the explanation, and application of this Scripture; Committing all other Points and particulars, which might be extracted in the curious and exact examination of every word, which in this, as in other Scriptures, * Instat Laelius de expresso Dei verbo, & J●liricus in claevi Scripture, lib. 2. hath his weight, and Emphasis; I only fix and insist in one Proposition, truly Orthodox, (though to the world it seem a Paradox, or Pseudodox,) which naturally ariseth out of the very body and bowels of the Text, as beams from the Sun, and sparks from the fire; And that's this, which speaks the Title of this Treatise. That all Earthly and Sublunary things whatsoever, all carnal desires, and delights; the concupiscence of the Eyes, concupiscence of the Flesh, and pride of * Propositio, 1. joh. 2. Life; all the pleasures, profits, and preferments of this present evil world, with the best of earthly contents; yea, the whole lustre and glory of the world, such as Satan shown our * Math. 4. Saviour, with all the unsanctified Pleasures that ever any seemingly enjoyed, or superficially joyed in, with which the heart of man hath been bewitched, and ensnared; that these in their severals, and all these jointly, and united, (with what ever in this nature, can be conceited and imagined, are not all of them, of any validity, or sufficiency, to give any true Comfort and contentation, any sound, solid, lasting (much less everlasting) satisfaction to the heart and soul, and spirit of a man, till by Faith in CHRIST and Repentance, he truly turn and convert unto GOD, the true and sovereign good, as this Prodigal here, to his Father's house; all these are but windy Husks, which fill not the belly, fulfil not the desire of this Prodigal. This point I desire, to press and further to express: both because it is so contradicted in the judgement and practice of Carnal men, whose blear and Beetle eyes, being not able to behold the Sun of that beauty and excellency which is in GOD, the Fountain and Wellspring of all Good, whose hearts and affections also being chained and imprisoned, yea married and wedded with the things here below, on whose painted beauty they dote, as SAMPSON on DALILAH'S, or as the Forest beasts on the speckled Panther, * De fraud Pantherae Plinius, hist. lib. 8. cap. 17 Aelian, 5. c. 40. & Solin. cap. 20. to their own destruction. They build their contents here below, on a quagmire or sandy foundation, which proves fatally and fearfully ruinous; as neither being able, nor willing to mount up any higher, their wings being glowed with the worst Birdlime; here they glut themselves in carnal delights, as Kites and Dogs with Carrion, as the Prodigal son did before his Conversion. As also, because this one proposition, being throughly proved, the judgement of these infatuated men being convicted, their lethargical Consciences roused, their intellectual part better informed▪ the eyes of their understanding opened, if GOD please to join the colliery and Eyesalve of his Spirit: they may at last look up as that * Dan. 4. Brutish Nabuchadnezzar, and as awaked out of a golden dream, or sluggish slumber, brought as out of their fool's paradise, restored as Bedlams or madmen to their right wits: they may see how far all this while like lost sheep, they have straggled, or strayed out of the way, run themselves out of breath, as in a Wild-goose chase, in the prosecution of these worthless vanities, as Boys to catch Butterflies, or their own shadows; sown the wind, reaped the whirlwind, built Castles in the Air; yea, fed themselves with Air as the a Solo aere nutritur. Plin. lib. 8.33. & Lib. 11.37 Chameleon, in their frothy and airy conceits of Imaginary felicity, in these Externals; that so seeing they have spent their Oils and their toils b Operam & olcum perdere. Erasm. adag. in vain, wearied and tired themselves in the ways and works of wickedness, run all this while Counter; or in Paths as dangerous, as devious: laid out all their money (spent and misspent their talents) but not for Bread, c Esa. 55.2. spent all their labour as the Prophet speaks, without any profit, for that which satisfies not, being still an hungry and thirsty as the Poets d Exponitur Fabula per Natalem Com. in Mythiologijs; & in fine Textoris Offic. lib. 9 pa. 853 TANTALUS, or as this our Prodigal in the midst of sensual dainties at the Devils banquets, filled only (as the empty stomach with air, grief, or wind, as an empty bladder with breath) but not refreshed, desiring and requiring even windy Husks; yet neither their desires fulfilled in getting them, nor the bulk of their bellies filled with them, if they have them; I say, if the Lord ever make them conscious of their aberrations, sensible of their miseries, how they have glutted down painted poisons; swallowed (though invisibly) the hook of hastening judgements under the bait of their bewitching sensualities, how all this while, they have built upon false grounds; they may at last, after the large Circuit and Circumference of their errors, after all their fluctuations in the waves of several Lusts, after so long wading and dabbling like Children in the puddles of those vanities, return to GOD the Souls true Centre, the hearts only Anchor; leaving their false rests, by idolatrizing with the Creature, and cleaving to their true rest, the Omnipotent and All-sufficient Creator, to be blessed and praised for ever. (* ⁎ *) CHAP. III. The amplification of the Point. And the proof entered upon. NOw to prove what I have propounded, in which lies the pith of all; without which I should but build without a foundation, and never rear this projected edifice: This Prodigal Son, which our Saviour propounds in this Parable, even for the demonstration (as of other Theological axioms) so of this Proposition; that all Sublunary vanities satisfy not the Soul of a Sinner, which is the nail I drive at: (he being the basis and main ground of my intended structure,) I desire he may be considered in A threefold Condition. 1. When he was in his Father's house as a Son. 2. When he straggled from his Father as a Sinner. 3. When he returned to his Father as a penitent Sinner. Or in his Map. First, the Sinner his Egress from GOD. Secondly, his Progress in Sinne. Thirdly, his Regress by Repentance, to the throne of Grace; is seriously to be considered: with the fruits and sequels of all these, plainly and perspicuously proving, both the parts of the Proposition, the affirmative and the negative, the one including the other, by necessary corollaries and consequents: Namely, first, That as all light that comes to the world is by the Sun, and that comes to the body, is by the Eye * Math. 5. ; and that as without the Sun there's nothing but darkness to the world: without the Eye, Polyphemian and Cymmerian darkness to the body: So first, all true, saving and solid rest, and tranquillity to the Soul, is GOD, and from GOD: Secondly, and without GOD, nothing but horror, and terror, tumults, and troubles, want rest, and unquietness, vanity and vexation of Spirit (as the wise SALOMON found and affirmed * Eccles. 1.1 in the Idolatrous love, the sinful and sensual abuse of the Creatures:) so both these are seen as plainly in the Prodigals glass, even in the Text, compared with the Context, as the Sun at the noon day. For the first: The all-sufficiency that is in GOD: and so by a Climax or gradation to show the second: The insufficiency of Sin; as most contrary to God, and to man's true good; besides what's writ, and characterized as in golden Letters, in the heart, and feeling experience, of every illuminated and sanctified Christian; Habemus reum confitentem: We have the Prodigal himself giving in his verdict, of the All-sufficiency that is in God, and the Insufficiency of every worthless lying vanity, to give to the heart, and soul of man, any solid satisfaction or true desired contentation. For, as Vexatio dat intellectum, vexation gives understanding, his crosses and afflictions being sanctified unto him, he being at last awakened out of a dead slumber, in which like those that dream of meat and drink, he found that his soul was hungry and thirsty; being sensible of the insupportable burden of Famine, which makes Man, and beasts, birds, and fishes cry out and complain in their Articulate, and Inarticulate languages, he himself reflecting on himself, in the serious Soliloquies of his now illuminated Soul, brought by the power of Repentance * Hive Ressipiscere, Resapere, & rescipiscentia, quasi receptio mentis ad se. Tertullian, sic Mentzer. & Calvinus in Esa. 46.8. into his right wits again, from which as the Context signifieth, he was formerly distracted; being now able (which is an inseparable property of a true man, not communicable with beasts) to number and recount, to deliberate and discuss, to confer and compare himself with himself, his present estate of a Swineherd, with his pristine and former estate of a Son, laying in an equal balance his pinching Penury, his strait Commons, his famishing unsatisfying Husks, with that satisfactory sufficiency of Bread: Including every thing necessary in his Father's house, pitifully complaining (as some Felons in Tiburnes language, as the luxurious Fool in the * Prov. 5.11 Proverbs, as these inconsiderate ones in the Apocryphal book of * Wisd. 5.12, 13. Wisdom; yea, as some distressed men in Prison, or in their last dying groans; as an Ox bellowing thats pricked with the goad: he breathes and pathetically bleeds out this vocification; Oh, how many hired Servants in my Father's house have bread enough, but I here dye and perish for hunger; In which verdict of his, he speaks (what my Text speaks) plainly and perspicuously: That the servants of Sin and Satan, are famished; their best food, is windy unsatisfying Husks: the Region of Sin, in which they live is a land of Famine, in which they usually dye, and perish by famine, sometimes in their bodies, and outward man: as millions in the dearth of Samaria and jerusalem, and Thebes, and other Countries a De quibus Hebrai, ex Tharg. Ruth. Dio. l. 60. & Hilarius, feria 2. post 3. Dom. Quad when they were straight besieged by their enemies. Famine, as it is one of the Plagues and Rods wherewith the Lord threatens to Whip a stubborn and rebellious b Deut. 28.20. 2 King. 21. Ezek. 14 12, 21. Lev. 26.16. Ose, 2.9.12. Psa. 106.33, 34. people; So of all others it is the sharpest, a whip indeed of iron, worse than either the Sword, or Plague, as appears by JEREMY'S c jer. Thren. 4.9. complaint, in his Lamentations, and by DAVID'S d 2 Sam. 24. & 1 Chron. 21. choice in his propounded castigations: but ever in their souls, how ever they are not sensible of this worse Spiritual famine, no more than the Church of Laodicea of her e Rev. 3.17. nakedness; yet certain it is, famished they are, what ever the spacious world, with her specious Contents, and choice delights can afford them, is but vanity, and wind, unto the Soul, vacuity and emptiness, unto their hearts; husks, and draff, fit for Hogs and Swine, than Men: mere Sodomes' apples, beauteous in show, yet once touched fall into dust and f De his Pomis Sodomiticis, Solinus cap. 36. Aegisippus, lib. 4. cap. 18. Orosius, l. 1. c. 6. Imò Tertul. Apol cap. 39 & August. de Civit. Dei, lib. 6. cap. 30 & 21. Cap. 5 rottenness, he that tastes them, gets no more refreshing by them, than our Saviour CHRIST got from the flowering g Math. 21.19. Figtree, which deluded the eye, with lustrous leaves but satisfied no hungry stomach, by substantial fruit. Nay, all these externals being so fare from satisfying the soul, and contenting the Conscience, that (as Husks, and Apples, and raw fruit in the bowels of Children) they breed worms h Barrow, his Method of Physic, Chap. 19 pa. 134. and wind, Inflations, and ventosities, Colics, and Convulsions: Gripings in the maw, and grinding in the guts; horror of heart, and terror of Conscience: they press and oppress the Soul, their best operation after digestion, is vexation of Spirit, as the waters of jealousy drunk, they corrode the bowels, gnaw the heart, as that Eagle or Vultur, the heart of PROMETHEUS in the i Textor, in Theatro Philos. lib. 8. pag. 845. Fable; disquiet the mind, as the biting Gnats the Lydian Lions, who cause them in their rage, to scratch out even their Itching k Simon Majolus de diebus Canicularib. part. 1. eyes: how ever their stolen waters seem sweet, and their bread of deceit pleasant l Prov. 9.17 which they eat in hugger mugger, (as some Thiefs their stolen venison;) yet it is harsh in digestion, Mors in m 2 King. 4.40. Olla, mors in illo, mors in Ilijs; There's Death in the Pot, death in the Platter, death in the Paunch; every dish they taste in the Devil's n Read adam's his Devil's banquet, de istis plenius, et planius. banquet, is as Mercury, or Cicuta, or Ratsbane; yea, as the blood of a mad Bull, or the poison of Toads, either instant death (without by the receipt of the oil of Grace it be evacuated and disgorged again by Repentance; as DAVID did his surfeit, on URIAS his o 2 Sam. 12. & Psal. 38. Psal. 51. sheep,) or at best, terrible danger; for as the wisest of mere men said, of one vicious vanity p How vicious this drunken or drinking vanity is: read Basil Serm. de Ebrietat●. Aug. in Psal. 125. In● pissed. ad sacr. Virgins. Epist. 182. Hieron. Epist. ad Oceanum. Ambros. de Elia. As also our Mr. Downam, in one of his 4. Treatises. Smith in his Sermons. And Harris his Drunkards Cup. it holds in all the fellows: at last it bites like a Serpent, & stings like a q Prov. 23.32. Cockatrice, it's unto them, as the venom of Asps, as the hook in the belly of the Fish; they vomit up again their sweet morsels, saith r job, 20.14 15. JOB: and (which once, the heathen Orator feared) when the dart of destruction strikes through their s Prov. 7.23 liver, mourning in their latter end, as the dying HYAENA, they are constrained to buy Repentance, at too dear a rate, t Non tanti poenitentiam emam. Demosthen. paying too sour a shot, for their sweet meats of unlawful delights. CHAP. four The Prodigals Husks explained; The effect of Hunger. But to drive this nail further to the very head: reflexing more fully on the Prodigals husks, which he desired, yet wanted: As also, on that bread, in his Father's house, which the meanest hirelings enjoyed; for want of which, he now was at the very point to be starved; even these two Phrases opened, if we had no other Arguments, plainly demonstrate the all-sufficiency which is in the service of GOD, the Insufficiency which is the slavery, and vassalage of Sin: To satisfy and content the immense, and desires of this immortal Soul, and working Spirit, which the GOD of Spirits hath breathed into a Creando infusa, infundendo. Creata. August. Man. For the first, Vtor concessis: to take the benefit of my Text, to get Grapes from Thorns, or Figs from Thistles; as MOSES got Water from the Rock, b Exo. 17.6. or as SAMSON got a refreshing Spring, from the jawbone of an c judg. 15.19. Ass, and Honey from the belly of a d judg. 14.9 Lion; to extract solid Manna, to feed the soul, even from these unfilling husks, according to the aim, and scope of our Saviour; husks feed not, fill not the Prodigals belly: earthly lying vanities with which he was now intoxicated, as Birds with Nux vomica, fill not, fulfil not the desires of the Prodigals soul: The letter and the spirit, the body, and the soul of my Text, speak this Proposition, and declare it more evidently, than Shiboleth declared a e judg. 12.6 Gileadite, than the Cowle declares a f Cucullus non facit Menachum. Monk, or treason a jesuited Papist; and shows it more evidently, than the whiteness of the skin shown NAAMANS' g 2 King. 5. Leprosy, or the blue spots, the Plague. 1. For whether by Husks here with AUGUSTINE, we understand the Doctrine of the Scribes and pharisees, which (like the Doctrine of the Turks in their Alcoran: of the jews in their Thalmud: of the Gnostickes, Valentinians, and Montanists in their h De quibus omnibus lege Augustinum, Jreneum, Epiphanium & Philastrium, de Haeresibus. etiam Vincentium in speculo, Bergomens. in Sup. Chron. Magd. Centur. & Osiandrium, in Epit. Centur. passim. Heresies: of the Anabaptists, Zwingfeildians, and Davigeorgians in their fantasies: of our Papists, and Friars in their Postils, Sermons, Missals, Breviaries, and i Of which amongst the rest, read the Beehive of the Romish Church, and Stephens his Apology for Herodotus, Pomerium de Sanctis & Bernardinun de Bustis, in Mariali. Liturgies) is frothy and without substance, stuffed with Tales, and Fables, ungrounded traditions, and fictious vanities; yea, mere dreams, and vain Dotages, chaff and husks, without kernels, as JEREMY taxeth their predecessors the false Prophets in former k jer. 23.16 & 25. Times; which feed the Soul as much as Guegayes, or painted Plumes, or ZEUXES his painted Grapes, can feed the bodies of beasts, or birds. 2. Or whether by Husks with the same AUGUSTINE l Home 17. ad fratres de Eremo. & Anton. de Milan, in Locum. elsewhere, we understand worldly Honours, and Vain glory, which is windy and full of ventosity, consisting of popular applause: the wind and breath of the unconstant vulgar. 3. Or by these Husks we understand Riches, and temporary Goods, these externals of Gold, Silver mines, Minerals, Lands, Live, revenues, Pearls, precious Stones gems, jewels, called by the Heathens Bona Fortunae, the goods of Fortune; which in some famines by Land or Sea, have no validity to feed the body, (for MIDAS may with some Captives, eat sooner his own flesh than his gold:) much less the soul. 4. Or by Husks with m Tom. 2. in loc. in Hom. de Patre, et duob. filijs. CHRYSOSTOME, we conceive vain Pleasures, which in their after-births bring greater gripings and convulsions to the soul, than husks to the belly: the crop and harvest of a voluptuous seedtime, being ever pain and perplexity. 5. Or by these Husks, we conceit with others, the foments, and seeds, and Incendiaries of vain Lusts. As first, loud, and lewd laughing. Secondly, Lascivious looks. Thirdly, filthy and rotten Speeches. Fourthly, promiscuous and wanton Dance. Fiftly, Amorous discourses. Sixtly, Vain songs, and sonnets. Seventhly, Effeminate Music. Eightly, Fantastic apparel. Ninthly, Frothy love letters. Tenthly, Uncivil and unseemly familiarities with the weaker sex, the * Albertus Magnus in Lucam 15. prologues of tasting the forbidden Fruit, the very roots of filthiness, the fuel, the oil, nay, the very bellowes to the fire of n How all these are incendiaries to Lust, read that elaborate book called Democritus Junior ex Poaet. Medicis, Philosophis. Part. 3. M. 2. Subs. 2. pag. 327. ad p. 389. Uncleanness. 6. Or more generally, all kind of carnality, Voluptuousness, Epicurism, whatsoever consisting in excessive, abusive Eating, Drinking, Drabbing, Feasts, Festivals, frolic merriments, or in Hawking, Hunting, Fishing, Fowling, Bowling, Gaming, Carding, Dicing, Tabling, etc. 7. Or more particularly by Husks, we understand all Lawless unlimited venereal Pleasures, in the sins of the Flesh, in Adulteries, Whoredoms, Incests, Fornications, Rapes; carried hither and thither as an Ignis fatuus with the Air, as a wildfire with the wind, fit to fasten on any object, as a Kite to stoop to any Carrion, as a Hog to rake and drain in any dunghill; to let the heart lose to every Strumpet, as was said of o Omnium mulierum vir fuit Caesar, corrupit, enim Posthumiam Servij Sulpitij, Lolliam Auli Gabinij, Tertullian, Crassis, Mutian Pompeij uxorem: ut etiam Juniam Serviliae filiam. Textor officin. lib. 5. p. 671. CESAR, and to grind with every false Miller; as did that unsatiable p Et lassata viris non satiata recessit. MESSALINA: this being as q In Postillis. GRANATENSIS, r In Paraphrasi in locum. ERASMUS, and s In Scholijs, in cap. 15. in Lucam. ISODOR CLARIUS, clearly see into it, even to eat Husks indeed, and to feed with Swine. 8. Or lastly by these Husks, if we understand simply all Sins and lusts whatsoever, Concupiscence of the Flesh, concupiscence of the Eye, and Pride of t 1 joh. 2.16 Life; sins Actual, and the foment and Seminaries of them, sins Original, Birth sins, and bred sins, by which; First, GOD is Dishonoured. Secondly, Religion blasphemed. Thirdly, Profession stained. Fourthly, Man's sensuality glutted. Fiftly, the Devill-delighted▪ Sixtly, the Conscience soiled; having like their father the Devil, many names, but (as was said of that turncoat u Alias Cowbeck, alias Dolman, aut vir Dolosus. PARSONS) never a good * Multorum nominum, vix boni nominis. name: sometimes called x Psal. 25.18 Sins, y Psal. 51.1. Iniquities, z Psal. 38.4. Transgressions, a Ezra 11. 1● Abominations, b Tit. 3.3. Lusts; yea, first Lusts of the c Gal. 5.24. Flesh, as the Mother of them. Secondly, Lusts of the d joh. 8 24. Devil, as the Father of them. Thirdly, Lusts of e 1 Pet. 1.14 Ignorance, as the Nurse of them. Fourthly, Lusts of the Gentiles f 1 Thes. 4.5 and Heathens, as the chief Actors of them. Fiftly, Lusts of Uncleanness, as the fruit and effect of them, defiling the Soul as pitch the Body; leaving (as the Snail that goes over a Stone, a Toad over the herbs) a kind of venom, filth, and pollution behind them. Sixtly and lastly, deceivable g 1 Tim. 6.9 lusts, as imitating their Father, being the greatest deceivers, and Impostors, above all Mountebanks, Quacksalvers, Empirics, Gipsies, Conic●chers, whosoever; Cozening us of no less than Grace, from GOD, Peace with h Esa. 57 ultim. GOD, Tranquillity of Soul here, and Eternal felitie hereafter; All these Lusts, take these Husks in what sense you will, are (as AUGUSTINE i Tom. 10. Hom. 27. ad Fratres in Ereme. calls them) Demonum cibi quibus Peccator repleri desiderat; the Devils cates, with which the Sinner (as here our Prodigal, a type and model of all unregenerate men) desires to be filled and refreshed; but all in vain: for as ERASMUS k In his Periphrase on Luk. chap. 15 hath it, though like sweet Husks, they puff up the belly (as a windy bladder, or the Pipers bag) and delight for a time, yet they neither fill, nor furnish the mind, with any good: they neither satisfy, nor fatten l Nec sati●t nec saginant animam. the Soul: they vanish like Tobacco, into smoke, and as smoke into Air, and like Air into nothing: they m Et redit in Nihilum, quod fuit ante Nihil. never turn, in Succum & sanguinem, (as good meat, as the children's bread) into solid nutriment, to sustain the Similary or dissimilary part, to augment and nourish either the Body, Blood, or Spirit, vital or animal. But as we have seen this in the Mysterious and Spiritual sense, so we shall see a little more clearly into the propounded point, from the very Letter: If from the grounds of Physic, Philosophy, and History, we make a little further scrutiny into the Name, nature, quality, and operation of these Husks in Symbolical Theology, we shall from the School of Nature, as many more have done n As job chap. 37.38 39 Solomon in Canticis passim & Proverbijs, Valesius in sua sacra Philosophia, Alstedius in Theolog. Naturali. Dane us in Physic. Christian. Gemimanus in summa exemp. Bercherius, in Reductorio: & in Sylva Allegoriarum, in folio. before us, read in this most pleasing and profitable point, to every illuminated Christian, even lectures of Grace; For whether we take husks, as some do, for Mast or Acorns, an ordinary meat for Swine, falling from Oak trees: for which purpose they put their Swine into some woods in England, Westphalia, Ireland, and other Countries, till they be fatted. Secondly, or we take them for that fruit which is like Acorns or Mast, which o Liber, 7. Simplic. Fereus siliquam ut glandes quercus. GALEN saith comes from a tree, by him called Siliquastrun, by him compared (though by others distinguished) to that tree which p Lib. 13. hist. cap. 8. PLINY calls Ceraunia. Thirdly, or with AMBROSE, we take them for certain Cod or swads, which they give their swine in Africa. Fourthly, or as we call them, the husks of Beans, or Pease, or Fitches, which the poorer people cast to the swine, after they have eaten the Peascods, as our Country calls them. Fiftly, or as some q Reidanus Medicus, in Geldria, apud Levinū Lemnium de secretis. call them, a kind of light Pelfie corn, enclosed in certain ears, which are long and swampe, and full of awnes, abounding in Apulia, and Italy, of a sweet taste, but of little nourishment, which those of Genoa call Carube or Carabole. Sixtly, or if the husk be that Silicon which ISODORE saith is corruptly called Siliquam, taking the name of the Greeks, from the Etymology of it, because the fruit of it is r 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enimlignum dicunt & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dulce. sweet. Seventhly, or take them in the best acceptation that we may, and speak all the good of them that VARRO and COLUMELLA affirm of them: and place them amongst some kinds of fruits; yet they are seldom or never used but of the poorer sort, or in case of dearth or famine, such as was in jerusalem besieged by TITUS VESPASIAN, in Perusia besieged by OCTAVIUS, in Melus by NICIAS, in Athens by SCYLLA; and other Countries, in which according to Scriptures, and other Historians, worse meat than husks, even Mice, and Rats, and Dogs, and Cats, and Ants, and Frogs, yea old Shoes and leather, herbs and plants: s De quibus Dio lib. 16. Suetonius in Claudio, Liv●vs, Suidas, Thucydides, Appianus, lib. de bello Mithridatis. Bosquerus, in Academ. peccar. Cicero lib. 5. add Attic. Cap. 51 Ammianus, lib. 19 & 33 Vegetius, lib. 3. cap. 3. L●rinus in Acta, cap. 11. pag. 483. yea, Cabs, and Doves dung, the heads of Asses, t 2. King. 6.25. and flesh of Horses was desired food: Hunger I say which BASIL u Oratione de Fame, & si●itate. calls the head of evils, MARCELLINUS * Rom. Hist. lib. 19 the last of miseries: HOMER x Odyss. 12. the worst of evils, MENANDER the most dire and dolorous evil: GALEN y Lib. de Cibis Cuchemicis. a lingering death, with other Epithets appropriated by OVID z Metam. lib. 8. , and others; that hunger which as we say breaks the Iron-wall, constrained this Prodigal to eat these Husks. 8. But take these husks, in the worst sense, as they are meat for Swine, with which Swine are fed, and fatted, both with us, and in Syria and other Countries, as PLINY notes: a Lib. 18. Hist. Cap. 12. So this Prodigal as an Hog of Epicurus b Epicuri de Grege porci, Horatius. his sty, was fain to seek to the trough too, for Mast, or to Woods for Acorns, or to the Dunghill for husks: as his course was Swinish, so his fare was course, his Commons were with the Swine, (the common case of Prodigals: the fairest end of Luxury: from superfluities to want necessaries: the burning Fevers, and pleurisies of Lusts, ending in a cold Palsy of want, a consumption or consummation of means, extremity of lack, being the Daughter killing the Mother c Filia devoravit Matrem, ut portus ille viperinus de quo Ploughs, lib. 10. cap. 62. Aelian. lib. 1. c. 25. Lasciviousness, as NERO killed AGRIPPINA d Suctonius in vita Neronis. :) Oh durum telum necessitas▪ need hath no Law: needs must he run whom need drives: he plays at small games, ere he sit out: he fain would have filled his belly with the husks, saith my Text, etc. Oh the all-prevailing Oratory of Hunger, what a crafts-Master, yea a Master of Arts e Magister Artium jugenijque largitor Venture. Pers. Sat. is the belly? What a hand and a Hank, hath it over Men and Beasts? It tames the wild Panther, the Wolf, and the Tiger: Not only gratitude as to his Physician, for medicine: but hunger even for meat, makes the conquered Lion follow ANDRODIUS f Aulus Gellius de noctibus atticis lib. 5. cap. 14. Aelian. lib. 7. cap. 43 the Roman fugitive as a Dog his Master: it makes the wild Deer (even Bucks, Hearts and Hinds, as I have seen, follow the Woodman in the Snowy Winter, for green Boughs: yea it brings the Wild Hares to fodder with the Sheep; it teacheth the Indian Parrot to prate, g Sic de Psittaco Ascanij. lege Prodigium. Antiq. lect, lib. 3. cap. 32. & de alio mira refere Zonaras in Basil. the Cardinals Popin jay to salute her Master, CAESAR'S Crow to cry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Cobbler's Crow to chatter out Ave Caesar, h De istis Plinius lib. 10. cap. 3. & 4. sic cap. 42 43. yea the Birds of Sapph i Magnus Deus Sapph? Polyenus in suis stratagem. , (or Hamo) to play the Parasites, and Carroul out their desired Deities: yea it makes the young Hawks and Eagles active and agile for their prey: being first taught by the old ones. Yea this hunger brought the Dove, back again into NOAH'S Ark, after she was sent out as a scoutwatch, to discover the desired k Gen. 8.9. dry land, after the deluge: and this famine brought refractory HAGAR l Jnterposito Angeli mandato. Gen. 16.7.8. back again, as tamed and obsequious to her Mistress SARAH. CHAP. V The Prodigals hungry Husks, further applied, to Epicurish, profuse and profane men. IF I might make a digression from my intended scope, (though still jumping in equal parts, with the Text) my pursuit being one only point, (as the Falconer and Woodman follow but one game) as the Lioness that brings forth but one young one, at one m De partis hoc leonino. Plin. l. 8.16. Basil. hexam. Hom. 9 birth, but yet it is a n Reusneros in Symbolis. Lion, no Ape, no Mouse, no Monkey: I would from this hint, and opportunity, wish all Birds of the Prodigals feather, to see their faces in his Glass: to measure at last their foot; and their shoe too, at his Last: To take up with themselves ere they be at last cast, split upon his Rocks: boged in the quagmire of his misery; not to bleed any more like pruned Vines, or as a sick man, in the flux of his nose, when they have lost too much blood already; lest their mean means daily washing, (as Coneys and Lambs, in wet o Columella & Varro de rebus Rusticis. weather) they come to a speedy irrecoverable consumption of all; Lodge in beggar's Inn, sit under Beggar's bush, stand without as Pierce penniless the Client, before the door of the p Si nihil attuleris, stabis Homere Foras. Lawyer, lie begging as that Lazarus before the gates of churlish q Luk. 16.21 Dives, without either Crust or crumb; make a knagged staff, and a wallet their Fidus Achates, their individual companions, their miserable Comforters: yea lest they make their mother earth, their bed, the Circling Air their Curtains: the heavens their Canopy, the water springs their Tavern, their fists (as once that r See Staffords Diogenes, and the Forest of Histories, ex Laertio, Fulgoso cum aliis. Cynic) their drinking Dish; Fig leaves their : painted their best apparel: green herbs their diet, Duke Humphrey their host; Mother Need their hostess: their meat sighs, their tears Drink, hunger their sauce, and patience their s Levius fit patientia quicquid corrigere est nefas, Horat. Physic, to endure what ever God's justice, man's hardheartedness, and their own demerits shall bring upon them. Besides, think upon the desolate Case of this prodigal, you dainty Courtly Dames, you pampered Citizens, you full crammed Countrymen, that make feasts like t 1 Sam. 25.36. NABALL, far deliciously every day, as that rich Churl in the u Luk. 16.20 Gospel; that abound in all Asian luxuries, and more than Sabaritish delights; that rob the Sea of the choicest fishes; the Forests and fields of beasts; the Air of birds, to sacrifice to that Curtain gulf, that devouring Minotaur, your bellies: to satisfy your Epicurish curiosities; Think of it too, you who make your Belly your * Phil. 3.17, God, who spare no cost, nor pains to content your paunch, that love your Gut, better than your GOD; that, had you Pearls like CLEOPATRA, would dissolve & drink them; you that feast as superflously as that Roman GALBA, VITELLIUS, LUCULLUS, and the greatest Epicures; That eat like gurmundizing Helluohs: drink as that PROCULUS, TRIGONGIUS, and TIBERIUS x De hisce omnibus allisque Gulosis, lege Textor. in Theat. Phil. lib. 5. p. 641. Brusonium exemp. & Facet. l. 3 cap. 1. pag. 165, 166. in 4. Athen. lib. 2. l. 10. l. 11 Crantzium, lib. 10. cap. 5 lib. 11. cap. 7 Lonicerum in Theat. lib. 9 folio, 660, 661. ad pag. 674. & in Catalogo gloriae Cassaneun part. 2. p. 64. NERO, whom the ordinary Creatures cannot content in fuellizing and refreshing Nature, which is content with a little; but you must overbalance the bulk of Nature, with superfluities, both in Quantity, and Quality: nothing satisfying your Pride, your vanity, your curiosity; Oh know, that God's inflicting justice, and the demerits of your provoking Sins concurring; if the LORD should turn your Plenty into Penury; your Fullness into Famine; your superfluities into want of necessaries: If your full bags, full barns, full baskets should be emptied; your full Seas and springtides of meats, and moneys, revert to a shallow: If Bread, and the staff of Bread, should be taken from you, leanness, by Cleanness of teeth, be brought upon you; if you should try and experiment the miserable fruits and effects of Famine, which some of the Pagans, and Heathens have felt, as they are described by y De tuenda valetudine. PLUTARCH, z Noct. Attic. l. 16. c. 3. GEILIUS, a Antiq. lect. lib. 13. c. 24. CELIUS RHODIGINUS, b Lib. 8. Metamorph. OVID, c Lib. 5. Epist. 21. TULLY, d Lib. 3. de Bello Phars. LUCAN; and of later times, by PHILIP BOSQVIER the e In Flag. Acad. peccat. Gallice, lect. 1. Num. 21. jesuite, and f Conc. in Serm. 2. post Dom. 3. Quadrig. MAURICE HILARET, but chief by g supra Orat. de Fame. 5. St. BASILL, that hath writ a whole tract of this Argument: Or if you were exercised, but the one half in this trial of Dearth, bit with the hungry teeth of this monster Famines, in any measure, as were the ancient Patriarches, and the people of GOD, at Nine several times, for several Sins: (as the Hebrews, and the Chalde Paraphrase have observed; The first, happening in the days of ADAM, as the castigation of his Disobedience, Gen. 3.17, 18, 19 The 2. under LAMECH the first Bigamist, Gen. 5.29. The 3. in the days of ABRAHAM, Gen. 12.10. The 4. in the days of ISAAK, Gen. 26.1.5. The 5. in the days of JACOB. Acts, 7.11. The 6. in the days of BOOZ, because the unthankful Israelites began to serve BAALIM, and ASTEROTH, Ruth, 1. vers. 1. The 7. in the days of DAVID, for the sins of the bloody house of SAUL, 2 Sam. 21.1, & 2. vers. The 8. in the days of AHAB, for his and JEZABELS' barbarous outrages, against ELIAS, and the Lords true Prophets, 1 King. 17.1.9. The 9 under ELIZEUS in distressed Samaria, even for the like causes, 2 King. 6.) I say, had these our delicious Libertines that now so prodigally, profusely, and profanely abuse the Creatures in all excess of h 1 Pet. 4.4. Riot, been pinched and pressed with this pressure of Hunger, and suffered scarcity of Bread with these pristine patriarchs, or scarcity of Drink either, as did once the i Exod. 17.3. Israelites in the Wilderness; HAGAR and her Son, ISMAEIL in the k Gen. 21.15 Desert; victorious l judg. 15.8 SAMSON; flying m judg. 4.19 SICERA; the Army of n Apud Curtium. ALEXANDER, of o Whose army was relieved by the prayers of Christians. Apud Eusebium, lib. 5. c. 1. Tertull. lib. ad Scapulam. & Apol. cap. 5. ANTONINUS, and some Kings of p 2 Kin. 3.9 Israel; or had they but in some measure, been Passive in the sufferings of this our Prodigal, in this kind, as they have been Active in his sins; acting over and over again his vainest, his vildest parts, and pageants; Oh surely than Carendo, magis quàm fruendo, as the phrase is, they would have more poized and prized GOD'S abused blessings (their misspent means) in the want of them, than in their fruition they would have done; they would have been thankful, 1. With Pease and pulse; with q Dan. 1.12 DANIEL and his three Companions. 2. With Locusts and wild Honey, as once r Math. 3.3. JOHN the Baptist. 3. With broiled Fish and a honeycomb, as once CHRIST s joh. 21.9. and his Apostles. 4. With Barley bread and Fish, as once five Thousand of CHRIST'S t Mark. 6.41 Auditors. 5. With one parcel of a Calf, and Cakes, as once ABRAHAM'S Angelical u Gen. 18.7, 8. guests, in the form of * Vide Pareum & Pererij disput. in locum. Men. 6. With a little Oil in a Cruze, as once the poor Prophets, poorer x 2 Kin. 4.2. Widow and her Children. 7. Yea, with Flesh and Bread in the morning, and Flesh and Bread in the y 1 King. 17 6. Evening: (right Scholars Commons,) with water out of the River, as once ELIAS, yea with a little Cake and Oil z Vers. 12. as the poor Widow of Sarepta, without seeking for any further variety, to satisfy curiosity and sensuality: yea, rather than they would have tried the extremity of Famine, they would have gnawn their own flesh, sucked their own blood, as some Felons have done that have hung in Chains; yea, eaten their own Children; as those woeful Mothers did in the siege of a De excidio Hieros. apud Hegesippum cum Josepho, de b●llo judaico, lib. 7. cap. 16. & Lo●accro in Theater exempl in 3. p●acto. pag. 265 jerusalem, and b 2 King. 6.28 Samaria, much more would they have eaten the flesh of Strangers, as the Savages and Cannibals; or eat Snails as the wand'ring and roving Gipsees; or Frogs, as in some places the Italians; or bread of Acorns, as the ancient c Ante usum frugum Arcades vescebantur glandibus: Argaei pyris. Palmulis Carmani. Persae Cardamo. Agriophagi Pantheris. Opiophag. Serpentibus, Anthropophagis humana ●ar●e. Heathen, before the Invention of Tillage by d Textor. pag. 232. CERES, and e Jdem pag. Applicatio. SATURN: bread of Rotten wood, as once in besieged Paris: flesh of Horses, as at this day the Scythians: Guts and Entrails of Beasts, as still the Aethiopians: yea, they would eat the sourest Bonniclapper, and make Bread and Cates of the Blood of their Phle●tomized bullocks: yea, eat dead Sheep and Swine, (as our poorer Irish have been known in their late scarcity of victuals:) yea with the Prodigal, they would make a search, and scrutiny amongst the Swine, and scramble amongst the Hogs for husks: rather than they would starve by famine, and perish by hunger. Oh! in the midst of our dainties and varieties, let us according to the prescript of the f Deut. 8.10 1 Tim. 4.4 Scripture, and practise of the g Act. 27.35 Saints; yea of our h Mark. 6.41 Saviour, bless the Creator, for the free and liberal use of his Creatures: and acknowledge this unspeakable mercy; that we have not yet in our several Families, according to our demerits, experienced this insupportable burden of Hunger, with which other Nations, Kingdoms, and Countries, have been pressed and plagued; but have food Corporeal and Spiritual i De pane Corporali, Spirituali, & Sacramentali disserit Bosquerus, in locum. too, even Bread enough. And let no man vilify and abase, contemn and despise the meanest of the Creatures, appointed by the LORD of Life, for the preservation and sustentation of the life of Man; how ever there be a secret Antipathy k Vide Magirum in Physicis, de sympathia, & Antipathic, & Scaligerun, Exerc. 345. p. 1075. ●. 77 79. c. betwixt thy stomach and some meats: yet do not so fare disparage the dish thou lovest not, that thou persuadest thyself, thou couldst not eat Butter, nor Cheese, nor Pig, nor Swine's flesh (and yet no jew,) if thou shouldst even dye for it: Oh no! I tell thee, there goes two words to a bargain; Life l job, 2.4. is sweet, Lions, and Worms, Eagles, and Wrens, prise it: rather than thou shouldst dye, thou wouldst eat the coursest Bran: yea, Crusts and scraps with beggars; Onions, Lentiles, and Leeks, with Captivated Israel: yea even Flesh in Lent, with that good old m De quolge apud Euseb. lib. 6. cap 40.41. & Hist. Magd. Cent. 3. pag. 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 Serapion; yea Swines-flesh on good Friday, and Eggs on every Wednesday (without all fear of the hatched fleshly Chick.) Notwithstanding all the Bonds, and Ligaments of Papal n Apud Navarrum, & Toletum, in Casious Conscientiae. Superstition, Nay with out Prodigal, thou wouldst make a public personal search, even for windy Husks, rather than thou wouldst hunger starve; the Swine's diet in a famine is a dainty. Lastly, from these premises extract thy conclusive resolution, never so to drink Wine in the bowls, that thou forget (like PHARAOHS ungrateful o Gen. 40.23 Butler, the afflictions of poor p Amos, 6.6 JOSEPH; let NABALL in his Regal feasts, spare DAVID and his distressed followers some of the q 1 Sam. 25.8, 9 offals, the broken meat may refresh them, as did BARZILLAES' r 2 Sam. 17.28. Present, and ABIMELECHS' s 1. Sam. 21.6 Shewbread, as DAVID'S Figs and Raising, revived again the faint t 1 Sam. 30.11.12 Egyptian, left sick in the field by his merciless Master: Oh think, what a torturing Tyrant Famine is; worse than u De his & alijs Tyrannis, vide Lonicerum in suo Theatro. praecep. 4. folio 351. ad 361. Textor. in officin. lib. 5. pag. 603. Ovidium lib. 1. de arte. Valerium l. 9 cap. 2. Phalaris, Periander, or * See the Book writ of this subject. Busiris; the English Rack, Spanish strappado, the Cruelty of their x Jpse Perilleo Phalaris promisit in ore, Edere mugitus et bovis ore queri, Ovid. Inquisition, PERILLUS his y Fox in his martyrology, and D. Beard, his Theatre of God's Judgements, pag. 47.48, 49. Bull; MAXENTIUS lincking the quick with dead: JOHN de Roma and MINERIUS, their invented y Fox in his martyrology, and D. Beard, his Theatre of God's Judgements, pag. 47.48, 49. Tortures, for the Protestants torment, not so long, so lingeringly, as this macerating, massacring, murdering Famine. Yet is the rage of this hungarian, soon appeased, with a small Meat offering, or Drink offering: Nature is content with a little, Grace with less: Oh then, In medijs patinis & poculis, in the midst of thy full pots, and full platters, throw some sop, or chop, or chip, to stop the mouth of this barking Cerberus, that (like some Spirit in the z Apud Delrium in Magicis disquis. & Lorinum, in Actus, cap. 16. v. 16. Pythonists,) howls, and cries in the paunch of a poor man; give him therefore something out of thy superfluities, Citò, & scitè, speedily, and seasonably; For qui citò dat, bis dat, he that so gives, gives twice; or twice as much, as he whose help is out of season, as a Pardon after an Execution. Then, Si non pr●pter hominem, propter a Augustinus. humanitatem: If not for the man's sake, who perhaps (like many Beggars) is stubborn, debauched, b Qui & quales Mendici, sunt suste●tandi, vide Zepperun, de legibus Mosaicis l. 4. c. 26. p. 625, 626, 627. profane; yet for Humanity's sake, suffer, him not to roast at a lingering fire, when thou mayst take him off the spit: pull him off his Rack, pluck him (as REUBEN did JOSEPH) out of the Pit c Gen. 37.23. of his perplexity: If thine own danger move thee not, subjecting thyself to that fearful thunderbolt of AUGUSTINE, Si non Pavisti, Occidisti: If thou feedest him not, thou killest him, (as he that will not pull one out of the pit when he may, it's all one, as if he put him in;) and he that will not put oil, to the dying lamp, fuel to the fire, it's all one, as if he put it out: yet consider his distress, and danger, that begs of thee coin, and crumbs: Think with thyself, it's not for nothing, that this poor Caitiff so importunes my alms, that (as the Cananitish woman with d Math. 15.23. CHRIST, the poor Widow with the unjust e Luk. 18.5. judge: Another, with TRAIAN the f Wronged by one of his Soldiers, apud Suetonium. Emperor; and a fourth with King g Pausanias. PHILIP,) he will have no nay say: more than the Shunamite of ELISHA in another h 2 King. 4.30. Case: Alas, Venture non habet aures, the belly hath no ears, it hears no denying, nor can bear no deferring: Therefore dispatch this suitor, rid thy hands, of this Orator, Impo●itie: think what a burden he suffers, that hath his Wife fainting, his Children crying about him, (as so many hungry vociferating birds, flocking after the dam, as so many Prisoners in York Castle, or Ludgate; howling, meat, meat, Bread for the LORDS sake:) yet he none to impart, unless like the i Isodor. lib. 12. cap. 7. Albertus' anim. lib. 23. applicat. August. in Psal. 101. & Gregor. in Psal. 7. Paenitentiales. Pelican, he prick and pick his own breast and feed them with his own Blood: having no oil for his own Lamp, much less for others; Oh that hunger, of which the Beasts are so sensible, that it makes the Lion's roar, the Ox bellow, the Wolf howl, the Dog and the Fox grin and bark, the Ass bray, the Chick chirp; the Kite pule, yea the young Ravens and Eagles, and all Creatures else by a natural instinct call and cry, and seek their meat at k In Psalm. GOD: That hunger which caused our Prodigal to seek even for Husks: That hunger which made the Cynic DIOGENES (as now the Capuchins) to beg alms; it causeth this poor Irus, poor Codrus, poor Lazarus to cry at thy door, complain at thy gates. Oh, cast thy Bread upon his l Eccles. 11. vers. 1. Waters, so thou conjures down, or casts out a hunger-starved Spirit: Thou followest the Precept of the m Math. 26.11. Mark. 14 7.2 Corint. 8. ver. 2.14. Exod. 22.21. Exod. 23.9. Levit. 19.33, 34. Deut. 15.4.7. Scripture, and the practice of the n job, 29.12. Math. 25.35. Luk. 21.2. 1 Cor. 16.1. Act. 11.29. Rom. 15.26. Tertulliam. Apol. cap. 39 de Christianis: de Elemosinis autem Attici, lege Tripped. Hist. lib. 12. cap. 2. Cyrilli, lib. 5. cap. 37. Ambros. lib. Offic. cap. 28. Laurentij, Johannis Elemosinarij, & aliorum, apud Ecclesiasticos. Saints. CHAP. VI The reasons, why the vainest men, cannot always attain, their worst desires. I Might observe also, that this Prodigal seeking for these Husks to fill his belly, no man gave him them: he sought for husks (as the hungry dog sometimes seeks for Carrion, the hungry Lion for his prey) but could not find them; even wicked men, sometimes do want their wish, want their will: not only good things in justice are held from them, their sins sequestrating betwixt GOD and o Hos. 59.2. them, making the Heavens to be unto them as Brass, the Earth as p Lev. 26.19 Iron, as in Common Famines; causing the Clouds to withhold their rain, as in the days of q 1 Kin. 17.1 AHAB; but which is more strange, they cannot have always their glut, their fill, and their will in Sin; even Husks: Vanities, unlawful delights, are sometimes withheld from them: even such sensual and sinful delights are kept from them, which if they enjoyed would do them no more good, than poison to Rats, than MIDAS his r Rex Phrygiae optavit, ut quicquid tetigisset, in aurum verteretur. Ravis. in Theat. Phil. lib. 2. pag. 90. Treasure, or the Tholouse s Omnes qui aurum ex Tholosano diripuere (Q. Caepione Consul) misere periere, affirmante, Aulo Gellio, noctib. Attic. lib. 3. cap. 9 & Majolo de dieb. Canicul. Colloqu. 19 pag. 604. Gold, to the possessors. Not only GOD curbs, and restrains them in their revengeful desires, as he did t Gen. 31.24 LABAN from JACOB; SAUL u 1 Sam. 23.28. from DAVID, Pope LEO with all the Sanderim of the enraged Papacy, from touching the least hair of LUTHER'S * De Herocis acts, & mirae praeservatione Lutheri, ex Nigrino, Slei dano, & Bacholizero, vide Osiandrun, in Epit. hist. Centur. lib. 1 c. 22. a. pag. 55. ad paginam, 84. head; JEZABELL from murdering x 1 Kin. 19.3 ELIAS; HEROD from y Act. 12.11 PETER, and these 40. votive jews from shedding the blood of z Act. 23.21 PAUL: and also in their Luxurious desires, as he kept ABIMILECH a Gen. 20.6. from touching SARAH: the lustful Elders, from polluting b In hist. Susannae. SUSANNA: and in their proud and ambitious desires: ABSOLOM from his Father's c 2 Sam. 15.4. Crown; ADONIAH from being a d 1 King. 1.18. Monarch: Cardinal WOLSEY e Fox in Martyr. & Speed in Cronic. Henr. 8. a Pope; ARRIUS f Arrius, Florinus, Blastus; Haereticos propter Episcopatuum repulsas: testatur Niceph. lib. 4 cap. 7.12.20.30. & 8. Cap. 5. a Bishop: and DIOTREPHES g Epistol. 3. joh. vers. 9 more in eminency, and preeminency than he was: though (as is usually seen in profane men) their aspire, and their rise, be their fearful and fatal h Numb. 22.23. ruins: they being rapt and carried sometimes on high, as the Eagle carrieth the shell Fish, that they may be crushed down again with the greater i ●o●e●ruant graviori. fall: I say God, doth not only curb wicked men, in their unlawful aims, and projects, denying even some sinful pleasures, to the Voluptuous: the knowledge of some Arts to the Curious, (as Necromancy to k Vide Cardan● Encomium Neronis post tractaetum de curationibus admirandis. NERO; the Philosopher's l Though some say Lullius, and Kelly had it, which I believe, as Guianaes' gold. stone, to our Alchemists, etc.) Gold to the Covetous, though it would stand them in no more stead than drink to the Dropsy: nor do them any more good than the stolen Wedge did m Iosh. 7.24 ACHAN, or the thirty pieces, (the price of the best blood) did that viper n Mat. 27.3. JUDAS; the Lord in his merciful providence so shackling, curbing, bridling crossing, and keeping in sometimes the corruptions, lusts, and affections, of men unregenerate, as the Stallion within his stall: the Lion within his grate, the raging Sea, within his bounds: Even for the good of the Universe, the whole society of Man, lest if they should break out so fare as they would, it this kerbing bit of Gods own hand were not over their belluine appetites, they should overrun all: as the waters that break out, in some universal o Omnia ab secum, ventus & unda rapit. Deluge; as the rage of the Goths and Vandals once overranne p Vide Procepium de bello Gothorum. Italy: and the Turks q Quomodo Turci attracti in Grecian, omnia Ferro, & Flamma devastantes, vide Melanct. in Chron. pag 573 Greece: yea, lest they should make an universal Combustion of all, as the Greeks of r Dares Phrygius de bello Trojan. Troy, and NERO of s In incendio Romae, Homericos decantavit versus. Sueton. in Nerone. Rome: their rage being unrepressable, like wild fire in the Flax, or Powder; yea lest else, there should be no peace to the Civil and Religious to live amongst them, more than Sheep amongst Wolves, Kids amongst Bears: or Hens amongst Hawks: as was the case of LOT in * Gen. 19 2 Pet. 2. Sodom: DAVID in the tents of Kedar. But even the Devil also that subtle Serpent, sometimes in his more than Machiavillian policy, as much as in him lies, cuts short their Commons: even in their most Doglike devouring appetites, when they have the most insatiable greedy-worme, and the most longing Lust, after some lying vanity, which they love and long after (as SICHEM after t Gen. 34. DINAH, AMMON after u 2 Sam. 13. THAMAR, SAMSON after * judg. 15. DALILAH, HERCULES after DEIANIRA, Dei x Multorumque, fiat spes invidiosa procorum. Ovid. lib. 9 Met. ira,) to their own destruction; even that very poisoned delight which they so much desire, (as a Bedlam, a Sword) to their own ruin: it may be they shall miss the Cushion, and not obtain it, as they will, and when they will: the Devil they shall have as soon, as that lust, at which their teeth waters: they shall no more attain it, than the Fox the grapes that hang on the tree, which he cannot reach: HOLOFERNES loseth his y In libro judith. life, rather than he attains his lust with JUDITH, though he seem to have her in his power. Many English and Romish jezabels, Italian Courtesans, frying, boiling, and broiling in their luxurious desires, as did that strumpet mentioned by Saint a Ego non sum ego; apud Ambrosium, lib. 2. de paenitentia. AMBROSE, (after her converted companion) after such as they are enamoured on, yet prevailing no more than that enticing b Apud Valerium tit. de coatinentia & Text. in Offic. p. 647. PHRINE, with cold ANAXAGORAS, or then wanton Venus, with Adonis in the Fable; to omit infinite other instances which prove and demonstrate this assertion, that even wicked men and women cannot procure and achieve always even those Soul poisoning lusts after which they long, no more than the Prodigal in the Text could get those husks, which he sought after; for as the words are plain: he would have filled his belly with the Husks, and no man gave unto him; In which, though it may seem very strange: that the devil will not suffer his fellow Commoners, to glut themselves at his banquet, with what dish they like best, and to fall too (after the Court fashion) even where they lust, till they be crammed like Capons, & gorged up to the very throat: knowing the sooner these Bulls of Basan, are fed in his Pastures, (as these Psylli and Merfi in c De quibus Plinius, lib. 7 c. 2. lib. 18. cap. 25. lib. 25. cap. 10.12. Italy, with poison) the fit, the faster, the fatter, they come to his Shambles; the sooner their sins are ripe, in number and measure (as the sins of the Amorites d Gen. 15.16 and Canaanites) the speedier God puts to his Sith, and Syckle; yet nevertheless the Devil is no fool (the Devil he is as soon) he knows well enough what he doth. 1. He keeps those whom he diets, sometimes something sharp, Hawk like, that they may in their corrupt desires, with the wings of their enlarged infected affections, fly swifter, and faster, after the game, which the Spaniels of his inward temptations, and outward instruments continually spring. 2. He fears too credibly to glut his guests by too full a diet (as some horse with Oats, if they be poured all in the Manger at once) therefore that these his stallions may still neigh after their Neighbour's e jer. 5.8. Wives, he keeps them in heart, and lust, and at soil, as ever fit for any unclean fact, as opportunity is offered: and lets them see oftentimes, rather than enjoy, the object of their desires, to set still a fiercer edge upon them: he diets them now and then sparingly, that they may keep good (or rather bad stomaches, to his desired Cates, and Viands, till he diets them in Hell, where they shall gulf down (as fast as here the Drunkard his german quaffs, and his English pots and pledges) fire and Brimstone f Psal. 11.6. Esa. 5.11. 12 Revel. 21.8 their Belly full, passive in suffering, as active in sinning. 3. He knows well by his created, and his experimental acquired knowledge, that the mind makes, or mars the man; that the heart is all, and that who hath the heart, hath all: therefore as God's Corrival he pleads for the heart too, as well as God doth g Lege Juchinum Jesuitam, de 4. No●issimis in Proverb. 23.26. ; as the true Mother and the false, pleaded for the Child before h 1. King. 3. SALOMON, as We, and the Papists plead for the i Apud Morneum nostrum: Feildum & Sonnium (in Thesibus) de Eccles. sic in progressu Papatus ejusdem Mornei: & apud Sutclivium, & Whitakerum de Ecclesia: & de Romano Pontifice. Church; as the seven Cities pleaded for k Smyrna tamen vera patria apud Ravisium. fol. 82. HOMER, as two Suitors about one Woman. He knows that if God have the heart, as he had the heart of l 1. King. 15 3. DAVID, m 2. Chron. 14.2. ASA, n 2. King. 18.3. EZECHIAH, o joh. 1. v. 47. NATHANIEL, though there be many infirmities, he hath the whole man. As there is no danger of Life natural, though there be many biles and botches in the flesh, so long as the heart is sound; so it is in the life p See Dike of the Heart's deceit, in fine libri. Spiritual: neither doth the Tree whither so long, as the sap is sound at the root, though the bark pill, the flowers fall, the blossoms whither, and the fruit be blasted; or worm-eaten: therefore he bids fair for the heart, and useth all his tricks, and stratagems (chief politieke pleas) to get it from God: as ABSOLOM with his Compliments sought and wrought the alienation of the people's hearts, from his Father q 2. Sam. 15.6. DAVID; he is sure enough of the whole, if he have the principal, the best pledge and pawn, which is the heart: as the jailor hath the Prisoner sure enough, if tied but by one leg; as the Fowler hath the Bird safe enough, if but snared by one foot, limb, or wing: though the rest of the body be free; and therefore, Satan is not so careful to content his Vassals in all points, for he knows that if this Prodigal hath but an heart and an appetite to these husks, and fain would have them, though he get them not, no man giving them: even this very desire after Vanity, speaks him vain and dissolute; as HAMANS' plotting and projecting k Esth. 3.6. the massacring of ESTHER, of MARDOCHEUS, and all the race of the jews (as our powder Papists l See the Earl of Northamptons' speech, with other books extant in verse and Prose, of the powder Treason. the like of us, and SENACHARIE m 2. King. 19.27. the ruination of EZEKIAH, and jerusalem) even this very Machination, and Imagination of Murder, this hatching of their Cockatrices n Esay. 59.5 Eggs; to prove killing Basilisks; this spinning of their Spider's Webs, speaks them Murderers: even as the lusting and burning after the beauty of a o Mat. 5.28. woman, speaks an Adulterer; TARQUIN p Cum Lucretia uxore Collatini, apud Livium. as well as CLODIUS; ABIMELECH q Gen. 20. as well as r Quaeritur aegistus, quare sit factus adulter. Ovid. AEGISTUS; APPIUS CLAUDIUS s Cum Virginea filia Virginei. , as well as t Mark 6.18 HEROD: though not in the effect of the Act, yet in the affect of the u in bonis sic in malis apud Deum voluisse & valuisse. heart; which God respects above all the rest, both in bonam & malam partem, in the evil, as in the good; accepting ABRAHAM'S willingness to * Gen. 22.16. sacrifice, as much as NOAH'S active building of the x Gen. 6.16.22. Ark: DAVID'S desire to build God a y 2. Sam. 7.5. house, as well as salomon's deed: the Will as much as the Work z 2. Cor. 8.1, 2, 3. in the poor Elemosinary Macedonians, so he abhors, the very desire and endeavour, and hunting after sin, in the Reprobates, though they even miss of their game; for such causes as I have shown, as much as he abhors the very act of sin in the Regenerate, sinning of frailty and infirmity, as did a Gen. 19.33 LOT, b Gen. 9.21. NOAH, and c Math. 26. Vltimo. PETER, without any desire, affection, premeditation, or resolution: the desire without the deed, showing in the one the heart, to be more corrupt than the deed, without the desire (by the reluctance of the d Gal. 5.17. spirit) in the other: all being corrupt when the heart is corrupted, as the whole body of the fish smells, when the head e Observat Geminianus in summa exempl. & similit. stinks: as all the streams be infected, when the fountain is poisoned, and the fruit being nought, when the Root is rotten. Applicatio. Look to this point who ere thovart, and look thy face in this glass, thou that hast months mind to any sin, at which thy lips water; yet either thou canst not commit it, for want of opportunity (as AMMON thought it hard to do any thing to his Sister THAMAR, whom he lustfully loved, because she was a f 2. Sam. 13.2 Virgin, which was the case also of Antigonus, in respect of his Mother in g Strotonica uxor Selenchi. Law, and of that Immundus h Polienus in stratagem. & Loyer de Spectris. Mundus, who without the help of a feigned Deity, could not obtain his purpose on her, who had * Paulina. imprisoned his heart:) or darest not commit it, for fear either of the Laws of man as paenall in Civil and Ecclesiastical Courts, or in slavish fear of Hell, or the Prologue to it, terror of Conscience; yet hugs it in thy heart, as the Ape her i Complectendo Necans, Plivius, Hist. lib. 8. cap. 54. young. Embraceth it in the arms of thine affection, as the mother her child, art content to live and dye with it; as CLEOPATRA with her k Ravissius in Officina, Pag. 553. MARK ANTHONY: suffers it to reign in thy heart, as a King in his throne: to take up thy thoughts, as by a Commission: continually contemplates thereon; yet darest not be active in it, for fear of after claps; (as the thief that hath a mind to a fair well mertald horse, yet fears to ride the halter at Tyburn: as the Fornicator, that follows his desired DINAH: his beauteous Galatea: in the pursuit of his affections, with as much vehemency as the Hawk her prey, or the Hound the Hare; as blinded with his lusts, madded and enraged in his desires; yet dares not prostitute and pollute her, for fear of the world's shame in his base bastardy: As the Egyptian Dogs dare hardly lap at Nilus, for fear of the m Plinius lib. 8. cap. 25 & Aelian. Hist. lib. 9 cap. 3. Crocodile: as the Bear dare hardly intermeddle with his desired honey, for fear of the stinging of the Bees; I say, who ever thou art in this predicament, make of thyself what thou wilt, thy true Heraldry is, the son of the n joh. 8.44. & Act. 13.10 Devil, as yet thou art in the snares of Satan: the gall of bitterness, the bond of o Act. 8.23. iniquity, thou art captivated of him to do his will: for thy affection to sin in God's account, is action; and he that commits sin, is of the p 1. joh. 3.8 & joh. 8.34 Devil: so the Scribes, and Pharisees, Saducees, and Horodians, were Murderers and Crucifiers of CHRIST (as they were called) both before q joh. 8.40. and after r Acts. 4.10 they put CHRIST to death; because they sought his blood, as SAUL sought s 1. Sam. 20.33. DAVID'S: Even as the Prodigal seeking Husks (as vain men do their pleasures, their profits, their preferments, and the achievement of their Covetous, ambitious, and luxurious desires and designs) is accounted a fool, a Younger Brother, a Bedlam, a vain man, (as are all those of whom he is a Type and a Map) notwithstanding, that he did not accomplish his desire: for the Text saith, No man gave unto him. CHAP. VII. How vain it is to trust to vain men in any distress. Observation. NO Man! The phrase is observable. 1. Oh this it is to put any confidence in man, or in the son of man, or in the best of men, the greatest of men; Kings, and Princes, terrestrial Gods, whose breath is in their Nostrils. 2. But chief, this it is, to serve the Citizen of the Country, to hold a candle before the Devil; to observe him, and offer sacrifices to him; as the Indians, Virginians, and other Savages, in their devilish bloody devious t De hisce Daemonum sacrificijs lege apud Majolum de diebus Canicul. parte. 2. pag. 47. & 64, 65. titulo de cultu Daemonum & Purchase, hic pilgrimage passim. devotions. 3. And this it is also, to rest and rely on wicked and profane men, to feed Hogs and Swine: as this wasteful Son once; what trust is there in man that is altogether u Psal. 39.5. On which read Purchase, his Microcosmus extant. vanity: What in the Devil, that old * Rev. 12.9 Dragon, the Father of lies? Who always leaves his Clients (Witches, Conjurers, and Necromancers, though in their own esteem, his darlings, and of his Privy x Delrius disquis. Magicarum & Pierius de Magia. Council) as he left Dr. Faustus, Cornelius y jovius in Elogijs illust. Agrippa, and others, on a Lea-land, in their greatest exigents, and pressures of body and soul: fishing even for their souls (as he did for z 2. King. 1. AHAZIAHS', and a 1. Sam. 28. SAULS') in the troubled waters of their greatest miseries: but chiefly what repose is there to be put in vain and profane men; in carnal Comrades, and Pot-companions, those Swine: into which the unclean c Mar. 5.12. spirit, still enters? What help or assistance, what comfort, or good Counsel had the Prodigal now in his extremest hunger, from these Swinish Epicures, on whom he had spent, and misspent his means, those whom he fed so long as aught lasted; or that had fed upon him as Harpies, and flesh Wolves, would they now feed him? Can he get so much as Husks from them? Though this had been but faint feeding: he to feed them with the best corn, with the distillations of the Malt, the best broth of the Barley, the best blood of the Grape; and he to receive again from them, even in his gnawing hunger, not so much as Swads and Husks, not awnes? Not Leas? Not Dregs, to drink? Hoccine humanum factum, apud Comicum, aut inceptum, hoccine officium amici? Is this square and candid dealing? Is this the part and office of a friend? Is this the fruit of carnal friendship? To use thy companion (as the Spaniel doth the water) so long as thou canst get and gain by him, and wipe the fat off his beard, as d 2. Sam. 16 Ziba did from Mephibosheth: and then in his misery to shake him off: to leave him as the twattling e Jngrati symbolum, apud Whitnaeum Alciatum, & Reusucrum. Swallow, the Country man's house in the Winter: to pick his meat, as some Lawyers with their Clients; as the Eagle with the opened Oyster, and to leave him the shell to feed on, which his strong Patience must digest as he may, as the Ostrich doth f Ass●runt plerique Hi●stori● negat. sotum modo Albertus anim. lib. 23. li●. 5. Applicatio. Iron. Oh consider this you unadvised Hotspurres, summon your wits together, you younger Brothers, or rather you elder Brothers, you Prodigal Heirs, whose wings for a time are better feathered: as you may see, the Lion by his g Ex unguibus leonem. paw, see the end of your race, in the course of this Prodigal: be not h It is a Phrase used in the book called the Jesuits Catechism, in Quarto, whereby these sharkers are discovered. drained, (as the Jesuits deal with young Gentlemen) out of your means: be not gulled and flattered out of your Revenues, by Sycophants, and flaging Companions; that seek to feed on you, as the little Bird Trochilus, in jaws of the i De quo Plinius lib. 8.25. Aeli●nus lib. 3. c. 11. & Heroditus lib. 2.5. Crocodile; that seek to grow up by you, (as the Ivy that spreads on the Churchwill,) till they suck your moisture, and bring you down, for all together, building on your ruins: be not uncased, out of your lands, your live: as the Cooks uncase Coneys, by such g●atonicall Coney- (money) catchers: be not C●rrion, for such chattering Crows to prey upon: you had better feed all Diomedes wild k qui Throicij quoudam praesepia regis: fecerunt dapibus sanguinoleus▪ suit. Ovid in Jbidem. horses; or with this Prodigal, feed all the Town's Swine: or with the Roman CRASSUS, feast an l De divitijs & numeroso exercitu Crass●, Ravisius, in Theat. phillip Pag. 92. & Pag. 258. Army, than feed such Helluohs: such trencher Gulls, that haunt you as SOCRATES his Genius: or BRUTUS his m Who met him fatally at his Pharsalian battle, apud Livium. Ghost: whom at last you will occasionedly curse, as n De eujus querelis vide josephum, Antiq. lib. 18. Cap. 13. lib. 19 cap. ultima. Et Lorinum in Acta, cap. 12. v. 23. HEROD, and o Alexander apud Indos, vulneratus en inquit vestrum Deum. Apud Curtium. ALEXANDER did their Flatterers, in their greatest exigents: as ADRIAN did his multiplicity p Turba medicorum occidet Cae●arem. of poisoning Physicians; as FAUSTUS cried out, on his Mephistophilus, some Witches, on their attending spirits; some heart broken penitent, on his blood sucking Whore; (some SAMSON on his DALILAH,) even at his death, whether natural in his bed, or violent at the Gallows, lamenting your acquaintance with them; as CORNELIUS AGRIFPA did his familiarity with the Devil, in the form of a black r Abi inquit perdite, qui me totum perdidisti. See the Theatre of God's judgements in Quarto, cap. 23. Pag. 124. Dog; at the best know, that if ever you stand in need to those Cannibals, that have so long fed on you: as here this Prodigal did to his former Comrades, you shall cough for comfort, as he did: you shall have as much relief even for your out ward man, as DAVID had of s 1. Sam. 25.10. NABAL; you shall be denied cold water; as once the churlish Samaritan, did to the best of t joh. 4.9. men; you shall have such respect as our English King LEIR of his two unnatural u Lanquet in Cronicis. Daughters; ●s POMPEY had of his ungrateful * Ptolemy King of Egypt, to whom he fled from Caesar. friend, who sent his Head, q See the Death of Doctor Faustus, extant in English. as a Present to CAESAR; or as TVILY had of his viperous friends; OCTAVIUS, HERENNIUS, and POPILIUS, who presented his hand, and head, and tongue, and all, to his enemy x Apud Brusonium, de Jngra● lib. 3. c. 11. pag. 18. ANTHONY, and tyrannising FULVIA: you shall be used as the Countryman that warmed the cold Snake, in his y Apud Aesopum in Fabulis. bosom, by whom he was stinged: or as the Pilgrim in the well moralised Fable, who plucked the hunger-starved Serpent, out of the Cliff of the Rock; and she in requital would needs eat him, as her first prey: Look for as much good from such, what ever they now pretend, in their French, Spanish, and Italian Compliments: as JUDAS got from the Scribes and z Mat. 27.4. pharisees, when he made his moan to them, in his distress: Expect from them nothing but scathe and scorn, as the jangling jay in the Fable, had from the flattering Fox, when he had by his Oratory gulled her of the Cheese, which she had in her beak. Get thou Gold from the Prodigals dross, gain from his loss, Grapes from his Thorns, Figs from his Thistles; as VIRGIL got gold out of ENNIUS his Dunghill, and SAMSON; honey from the dead a judg. 14. Lion; so get thou Corn even from the Prodigals husks; warning from his b Premoniti premuniti, & felix quem faciunt, aliena pericula cantum. harming; as the Lion is instructed, when the Dog is beat before him. If he could not get Husks for his hunger, from those that had sucked him, and his means: think, that there's the same nature in every Serpent, every viper, every ungrateful varlet, that's in one: Do what good thou canst, to a wicked graceless, godless man: chief to a Hog; a Drunkard, an Epicure; thou casts but a Pearl before a c Math. 7. Swine, a precious Stone, before AESOP'S d In Faebul. 1. Cock, thou sowest but thy seed, in an Irish bog: with ULYSSES e Cuius ficta Insania, fuit à Palamede delecta, apud Homerum. plowest but the sand; all is lost f Perit quod facis ingrato. that's done for such a fellow: he'll regard thee and reward thee if ever thy errand be in his way: as PHARAOHS Butler did JOSEPH, Genes. 40. ultimo. CHAP. VIII. The insufficiency of the Husks of Vanity, to content the insatiable appetite of the Soul, further explained. THus, we see our Prodigal would have eaten Husks, if he had them; but all the craft is in the catching: No man gave unto him. But what would he have done with them, if he had got them: he should have had as much good of them, as the Dogs of grass: they had stood him, in as much stead as a cold stone for the heart-burne: for Husks feed not, fill not; He fain would have filled his belly with the Husks, etc. saith the Text: He gladly would: that intimates that he could not: he would, but could not: That's the Point: for to keep us, a while to the Letter, till we extract our first conclusion further from the evidence of the Spirit: Husks (like vanities, of which they are true Hierogliphics) fill not: satisfy not: and good reason: 1. For Husks are windy and vaporous; therefore forbidden by VALERIUS FRACCUS a g Medicus viterbiensis, lib. 1. c. 130 Physician, that lived in the time of PLINY. 2. According to DIOSCORIDES, and PLATINA; they hurt the stomach and lose the belly, chief it they be new. 3. The Husk according to h Lib. 3. de tuenda valetud. & lib. 2. de Facultate Alimentorum. GALEN, is Pravi succi edulium, of a very evil favour and relish. 4. Such a Drug which seems soft without, and empty within; by which according to i In Lucam, in locum. AMBROLE, Corpus non reficitur, sed impletur, The belly is not refreshed, but only puffed up, as an empty bladder; or as the ordinary gloss hath it, being of that kind, Quod ventrem magis onerat, quam reficit, which rather onerates and loads the belly, than contents it. But to return to my first Proposition, that all these Husks of honours, profits, pleasures, riches, beauties, knowledge; all lusts, luxuries, vices, vanities whatsoever, are but windy vaporous, frothy, airy, etc. which rather hurt the heart, distemper the Soul, bring a flux of all kind of follies; than satisfy the desires of the sons of men: For all these Husks, there is a dearth, a famine, a want, a k Desiderantur nonnulla. defect, a vacuity still in every worthless vanity. I know they promise much, as the Harlot to the young man, Prov. 7.18. in her Corporeal Lust; that if we will commit with them Spiritual fornication, we shall take our fill of love; yet this filling proves but emptiness, this conjunction with them, brings forth but a Mooncalf, a wind-egge: or some unperfect misshapen Embryo; rugged and deformed like a whelp of a l Lamhendo Eaetus deforms efformant ursi. Solinus. Cap. 28. & Aelian. lib. 2. cap. 19 Bear, unworthy of our loves, of our affections: those that dote on them imagine like the Nimrodian builders of m Gen. 11.4 Babel, that they have got a great purchase; that by them they shall eternize, and perpetuate their names, and climb up as high as heaven, but in the truth and trial, they walk upon Ice, their feet slip; and they fall down to the lowest Centre of n Psal. 9.17. Hell, to their trouble and confusion; we think they will prove to us, rocks of refuge, and Castles of defence, as the Coat to the Dove, the stony rocks to the Connyes; in all our exigents: but by the delusion of that great Magician the Devil, they prove but Castles built in the Air, we think we may trust to them as to true and trusty friends, as faithful to us as JONATHAN to DAVID, etc. But in our chief distresses they prove to us, as the Figtree to our Saviour, that had leaves fair promising, but no fruit to satisfy o Mat. 21.19 hunger: they flatter us with our embrace, in our prosperity, (as beautiful Strumpets their Lovers and Amorites) whilst like horseleeches, they suck the blood from their veins, the moisture from their bones, and (as p De vi Magnetis August. de Civit. Dei lib. 4. cap. 6. & Vives Comment. Lodestones) draw the Mettle from their purses; but after in our adversity, they leave us, as HAGAR did her q Gen. 21.16 ISHMAEL, to die and perish for the want of the waters of refreshment in the Wilderness, and dry Desert of the world, not once vouchsafing their looks, and attendance; in which respects, those who think to satisfy their soul, in their fruition: or as the hungry man in the Prophet, who dreams that he eats, but when he awakes he is empty: or as the thirsty man, who dreams that he drinks, but awaked from sleep, his soul is thirsty still: Esay. 29.8. Like the Hound, that by the working of his fantasy, opens in his sleep, as though he were pursuing the Deer, or the Hare; which is nothing else but a dreaming deceit: They which desire these Husks, or which once taste them, are as those, that have appetitum Caninum, the disease called the Dog's hunger, always eating but never t Barrowes Method. lib. 3. cap. 7. pag. 110. satisfied, with the Horseleech daughter, they still cry give; u Pro. 30.15 give, as the Grave Hell and * Pro. 27.20 Destruction, they are never sufficed, never contented: there is still a hunger after these husks be received, concocted, and digested, as there is still a thirst, in the Dropsy x Barrow ut supra, lib. 3. Cap. 32.33 p. 155, 156 man, even after he hath well drunk, now hunger we know, always intimates a desire, and an appetite: therefore as we read, of a holy, a heavenly, and a spiritual hunger, which is in part here y Math. 5.6. Luk. 1. v. 52 satisfied, with Grace, and after shall be fully satiated in Glory: 1 As a hunger, and thirst after Righteousness. 2 After the Waters of life, Esay. 55.1. 3 After the salvation of the soul, and after the souls of others, joh. 4.32.34. 4 After God, yea after the living GOD, like the thirst of the Hart, after the Rivers of water, Psal. 42.1.2. As it is dexterously applied, by some of the z Chris. hom. 33. in cap. 4 johan. Tom. 3. Bernard. Serm. de passione, & Aug. Serm. 2. in Psal. 34. cum Arnoldo tract. de vorbis domini, in Cruse. Fathers. 5 Yea, a hunger after the Word of God, that spiritual Manna, and a thirst after the waters of life: such as was in DAVID, the a Psal. 119.103. Patriarch, in the Publicans in the days of b Luk. 15.1 CHRIST, in the Catechists and Converts, in the days of AUGUSTINE, in the c Act. 8.28. Eunuch, and the noble Baeraeans in the d Act. 17.11 Acts: such as e Hom. 3. de Lazare. CHRYSOSTOME, and Saint f Epist. 103 ad Paulanun. JEROM, commend to the men of their age: such as NICEPHORUS commends in THEODOSIUS the g Niceph. l. 4. c. 3. junior: EUSEBIUS h In vita Constantini lib. 4. in CONSTANTINE the Great: RANULPHUS i Lib. 6. c. 1. in ALFRED a English King; PANORMITAN in ALPHONSUS King of k Lib. 1. de vita Alphonsi. Arragon: PAULUS EMILIUS in CHARLES the l Lib. 3. hist. fift, and which at last, even some Jesuits m Lorinus in Act. Apost. convicted with the truth they cannot but commend: so there is also a Carnal, a Metaphorical, insatiable hunger, after these externals: there is a hunger after Gold in n Aurisacra Fames. VIRGIL, a hunger after Crowns and Sceptres in PLATO; a hunger in Lusts and Concupiscences in this our Prodigal, a hunger after sin, and a hunger also in sin; sin being by o Tom. 5. eperis Imperfecti, in Mathaeum. CHRYSOSTOME, called a banquet for the Devil; as righteousness of the spirit, a banquet from God: Now in this feast, in which the Prodigal had tasted and gulphed down, so many of the Devil's dainties: after all this, he suffered hunger: after he had consumed both gifts of Nature, and common graces; abused all his Talents; weakened and corrupted both Will, Reason, and Understanding; eclipsed all the light of Nature; decayed all his Natural, dulled all his Spiritual powers, in the service of sin, in the prosecution of Vanities; as Interpreters p johannes Major, & Granatensis in locum. note; yea, after he had made shipwreck of coin, credit, conscience, honour, reputation, and all: then he began to be in need, and suffer hunger: then according to q Lib. 7. in Lucam. c. 15 AMBROSE and r Cemment. in locum. ALBERTUS, he began to long after those pleasures a fresh, which he had enjoyed: with which he was not contented; for according to BOETIUS, he needed still, because he still desired: Eget eo, quod quisque s L. 3. de consel. Psal. 3. desiderat: He had the will still to desire, what he had not power to t Habuit voluntatem non valetudinem Fruendi. Enjoy; his hunger, being the appetite of delectation, saith a u Stephanus paris. hom. 18. Modern, it could not be fulfilled: the ardour of his Concupiscence according to * Parte 2. in parabolam prodigi. Observatio. CALISTUS, being so much the more inflamed, as fire with the oil, by how much his carnal delights abounded. From whence I would have all men to see with open eyes, and to consider with enlarged and illuminated hearts: The World with all her chief, and choice contents, is of no validity to give to any man, this inestimable jewel, this happy Dowry of true content: she never was the Maecenas and Patroness of such an Advowson, as true contentation: this, like x Terras Astraea reliquit. ASTRAEA comes from Heaven; it's the largeness and bounty of the sovereign Monarch of Heaven and Earth, to his especial Favourites elected, (selected) to Grace, to Glory; of greater worth than joseph's y Gen. 41.42 chain, or MARDOCHEUS, his z Esth. 6.11 honours, daniel's a Dan. 5.29 royalties, than all the gold of Peru, the Pearls and Mines of India, and treasures of the Earth, even as the Sun is more glorious, than the Moon; the Moon more glorious than the Star, the brightest Star above the dimmest candle: & as well may the Sun be said to come from the earth (as the Poets feigned TITAN to set in the Ocean,) as to excogitate, the beams of this content, to have any earthly original: (as that PALLAS from JUPITER'S b Jovis filia, ex Cerebro orta Minerva, textoris Theat. Phil. l. 4. p. 342. brain) it comes from God: as the baptism of JOHN, it comes from Heaven, for the world here below, with all her sublunary pleasures and treasures, is not able to make a man to be undique c Arist. in Ethicis. quadratus, every way square, and happy. Let her open both her hands, set wide her doors, and Windows: bring forth all her best d Totum penu depromere. wares, show all her treasury, and store-house, furnish her shop of vanities, pleno cornu; with a full horn, power on one man (which seldom happens) all other choice favours; yet all this is nothing: * Let Nature's best Graces which she severally disperseth, (as the Sea her Rivers) run in one torrent, meet all in one Subject, as in a Centre, let a man be imagined 1. More Heroic than the nine Worthies. 2. More valiant than Theseus or Hercules. 3. More Courageous than Hector and Achilles. 4. More prudent and politic than Ulysses and Nestor. 5. More victorious than Caesar and Alexander. 6. More learned than Philo judeus, or Faber Stapulensis, so extolled by Cassanenus, in Catol. Gloriae mundi: To be Omnium sui temporis doctissimus. 7. A better Poet than Homer. 8. A better Philosopher than Aristotle. 9 Moralist than Seneca. 10. Historian than Plinny. 11. Humanist than Plutarch. 12. A greater Schoolman than Aquinas. 13. A better Divine than Augustine. 14. A greater Critic, than Lipsius, and the two Scaligers, I●lius and josephus, whose praises appear in the Epistle ante libros de sub●itate. 15. More subtle in Nature than Cardan. 16. In Theology than Scotus. 17. Better read than Erasmus. 18. A better Physician than Galen. 19 Mustian than Nero. 20. Mathematician than Tycho Brahe. 21. A deeper ginger than Ptolemy. 22. Geometrician than Eucl●d. 23. A more exquisite Lawyer than Vlpia● or Baldus. 24. A greater Canonist than Panormitan. 25. Chronologer than our Broughton. 26. A sweeter Orator than Tully or Demosthenes. 27. A more general Linguist than Mithridates. 28. A more perfect Grammarian than Priscian. 29. Logician than Ramus or Keckerman. 30. Rhetorician than Quintilian. 31. Grecian than Turnebus. 32. Hebri●ian than Drusius and Buxtorfius. Yea in a word let him be, 1. A Properer man than Adoniah. 2. Taller than Saul. 3. Fairer than joseph. 4. More lovely than Pompey. 5. Better beloved than Titus Vespasian, dilitias dictus humani generis. 6. More desired than Augustus. 7. Stronger than Samson or Sangar. 8. Richer than the Lydian Croesus. 9 Every way more fortunate than Polycrates, spoken of by Erasmus in Adagijs. Let such an Eutopian man be imagined, coined in our conceits, new minted in our minds, in whose one lap all these good things are poured (as Jupiter is feigned to shower gold in Danae● lap) even while he is a sleep, notwithstanding all these, the conclusion holdeth firm. They can administer no true Content. all these without the fear, the service, the knowledge; the worship of the true God, man's sovereign good: without eating bread with this penitent Prodigal, in our father's house, refreshed with God; best bounties, in his true Church; all these besides and without this, can bring no true rest, tranquillity and satisfaction to the Soul of man, no more than the Husks to this our younger Brother. CHAP. IX. CHRIST'S verdict of the world's waters, Insufficient to quench the Souls thirst; without the waters of Life. But least in reading this Orthodox truth, which to the Incredulous world, may seem a Paradox, some Sceptic or Critic say of me (as some say b Mornaens de veritate Relig. Christianae. Galen, others say Aristotle, said in reading of MOSES, Hic vir multa dicit, nihil probat: This man speaks much, but proves little; since in many positive truths, we deliver, we may complain as ESAY, concerning Christ's c Esay. 53.1 incarnation, who hath believed our report. Most natural men even within the Church, (as well Turks and Pagans without:) being either unbelievers as d joh. 20.28 THOMAS, or contradicting Antagonists, as Elimas the e Act. 13.10 Sorcerer, and the jews against f Act. 14 14 & 17.13. PAUL: Porphiry and g De cujus Blasphemijs, vide Zozim. lib. 6. cap. 2. Socrat. lib. 3. cap. 21. Theod. lib. 3. cap. 25. julian, against the Primitive Fathers: or flat Atheists, as that noble man h 2, King. 7, 2. in ELISHA's time; the scoffers in PAUL'S i Act 17.32 time; the mockers k 2. Pet. 3.3 in St. PETER'S time; the desperate ones in jeremy's l jer. 18.12 18. time, when they should receive and embrace any truths, without the Sphere and Circumference of their own carnal reason; which breeding (as the Serpent in the dead m Plinius l. 10. hist. c. 66. & Thol. Syntax artis mirabilis, l. 33. cap. 10 pag. 647. man's) in their living brains, is the greatest enemy they have unto Religion, and most prejudicial unto Salvation: knowing too well, how many are endangered in their souls, by their own abundant reason; as NOAH was n Gen. 9 v. 21. drunk with his own wine; GOLIATH slain with his own o 1. Sam. 17 51. sword: this reason, too much relied on the birth of their own brains, being the very bane of their souls: (as the Moth that breeds within the Cloth, the Canker that breeds within the Rose, the Worm that breeds within the Apple: the Wolf that breeds within the flesh, are all of them the bane of their breeders and feeders, as the viper is of her own p Plin. hist. l. 10. cap. 60 dam, as NERO was of his own Mother q Suetonius in Nerone. AGRIPPINA:) therefore because reason must be convinced, the Conscience convicted, the heart persuaded, the judgement enlightened; I will, as God shall give the door of utterance, in the best improvement of my Talon, add as it were a Soul, to the Body of my first Proposition. 1. From Testimonies. 2. Reasons. 3. Demonstrations; my Testimonies shall be fewer, my Reasons 24. My Demonstrations divers, from particular inductions; then the uses will follow (as the thread the needle) for our instruction and edification. First for my Testimonials, though I could produce many, yet as in an Orchard I pluck not every fruit, nor in a Garden gather every flower, but some choice once: so I only limit, myself to fewer witnesses, since even in the mouth of two Witnesses, every matter shall be decided. My first testimony, shall be from the Author of the Testaments, CHRIST himself; my second from ESAY, that noble Evangelicall s De landibus hujus Prophetae Multa & Mira legimus apud Hier. Epist. 103. & 117. Aug. 18. de Civ. Dei, c. 29. Greg. l. 5. in 1. Reg. cap. 13. Prophet: my third, from the verdict of IONAS; my fourth, from the experience of SALOMON the wisest of men: and these will we produce, if God permit. For the first, to begin with Gods own Testimony: our Saviour Christ, in that conference which he had with the woman of Samaria, in the 4. of johu, discussing with her, and declaring to her, the worth of the waters of Life, those living waters; to set an edge, on her affections, to long after them, and to loathe these filthy luculent, t P●…ius in Panyger, p. 360. Plato in ●…ymaeo. p. 704. Cicero lib. 2. de leg. pag. 320. Zenophon in Oechon. pag. 239. & lib. de Iside Plutarch, come. 2. pag. 611. and puddle waters of her lusts, in which the soul of this Adulteress had been too long soiled, she still pleading for the excellencies of the waters of jacob's u joh. 4.12. Well, and the privileges and prerogatives of that Patriarch, (as NAAMAN * 2. King. 5.12. extolled Abana, and Pharpar rivers of Damascus, above the jewish jordan:) as the jews bragged of MOSES and x joh. 8.53 & joh. 9.29 ABRAHAM, above CHRIST; as our Papists now of their own waters, though bloody, as these seen of y 2. King. 3.22. Moab, bitter as these of z 2. King. 2.19. jericho: as they run from the Romish a As Traditions so urged, and answered by D. W●…t, i●… his reply to ●…sh●…. A Pa●… pag. 47. Sea, above the waters of Shiloh, the mundifying waters of the Word; as they extol the puddles and broken p●…s of their own b Alti●… summa●…. 3. cap. 12. q. 2. Rhemists in Heb. 6. An●…. 10. V●…sques sup. 1, ●…. p. ●… disp. 2●4. Cap. 1. works, above the Crystalline fountains of God's mercies, Christ's merits:) our Saviour instructing her ignorance, rightly informing her judgement, reforming her errors, tells her by way of Anttihesis or comparison, that whosoever drinks of the water of jacob's Well, shall thirst again, but he that drinks of his water shall never thirst c joh. 4.13 14. intimating, that there is a defect in the waters of jacob's Well; and so in every other earthly thing d Roger's in his true convert in locum pag. 91. whatsoever: it cannot quench, this inward thirst of the soul (no more than these Husks could satisfy hunger) but causeth a greater thirst, than was before, even as sprinkling of a little water, upon a raging hot fire of coals, makes it burn the faster and fiercer: all the vain men in the World fed with Swinish husks, and drinking on the World's Cisterns, chiefly gulping down stolen e Pro. 9 vlt. waters, and swallowing the bread of Deceit, (as HAGGAI f Hagg. 1.6 Prophesieth of those Carnalists, jews and Gentiles:) they eat but they have not enough; they drink but they are not filled with drink: they put their waters into leaking vessels, that run out: and again (as AUGUSTINE) saw in his vision by the Seaside, g Poffidonius in vita Aug. ) they seek but to fill a sieve with water, a frivolous labour, they eat as a man that hath a consumption, wondrous greedily, but their meat doth them no good, they are still, as lank and lean for all they devour, as PHARAOHS Lean Kine, which eat up the h Gen. 41.4 fat: (nay for all their feeding; they famish: at evening, they return, and make a noise, like a i Psal. 59.14.15. Dog, they go round about the City, wand'ring up and down for meat and grudge if they be not satisfied, saith the Psalmist: which cannot be meant so much in respect of food corporal, (for NABAL makes a Feast like a k 1. Sam. 25 36. King: the rich Churl fareeh deliciously every l Luk. 16.19 day, and the wickedest have their Barns m Lu. 12.70 full, their Cow calving, their Oil, and their Wine n job. 21.10 abounding) but there is deficiency in their Souls, notwithstanding, all their abundance in externals, in respect of Nutriment Spiritual: In which respect, even the young o Ps. 34.10. Lions, those great, and mighty Peers, Princes, and Potentates, of the world, that seem to bathe themselves in Oceans of delights, (as once that proud p Vxor Neronis. Popea, in Goat's milk) which here rule the roast, are Domine fac totum, as the Lion in the Fable: Ninerodian q Gen. 10 9 hunters tyrannising over others, as the young Lions which are most agile and spirited, over Beasts: the Eagles over Birds: even these do lackc, (as did r De Tantali supplicio, apud Inferos, fame sitique torquente: Vide Proportium, lib. 2. & 4. Horatium in Epod. Senecan in Octavia: & Ravisium pag. 81. Tantalus, and that Midas) in the midst of their opulency, and superfluity: and suffer hunger as this our Prodigal. * To have all homebred arities, all venereal junkets such as are reckoned up by Pliny. Lib. 26. cap. 10. and ab. 28. c. 14. ad finem. By Galen, lib. 5. the sin●p. di●. 6. cap. 2. And by Ty●aquell, lib. 14. conub●ul. All fare fetched and dear bought booties, as Figs and Lemen from Spain, J●cca from Cuba, Moyze from Peru, Ryce from Pegu, and Cambaja, the bread of Luce, from Congo, the fruits of the Palmtree from Guinee, yea Tobacco from Trinidaao, which to some is i●star omnium: And for liquors, the peerless, pearled health of Cleopatra, Quae centies sestertium. 1.250. milia anreorum uno ferculo consumpsit. Tex. p. 62 9 Or some Ganymede draw them the neatest Wines whether Cyprus and Candise Muskadine, Italian Falerne, Spanish Sack, Germane Rhenish, French Claret, or the rest; whose several species are reckoned up by Cassaneus in Catol. gl●. fol. 352. Pt. 12. And kin●s are recounted by Pliny, lib. 14. etc. By Columell lib. 4. cap 3 de re rustica, etc. Let them have C●ya from Gre●ce, C●ffa from Turkey, Aqua vitae and Rosa s●, from our mother Alb●, Whisky from ●reland, Or which of all is most rare, let them suck up the Ferrall, which drops from the ever dropping Tree, in the Island of Canaris, reported by Mazi●s, De rebus Jndicis All these, and what ever else in this kind can be desired cannot satisfy the soul, nor content the spirit of man, without that spiritual ●od here spoken of. If the Earth should bring forth (for these sons of men) all her choicest store of herbs, fruits, and flesh; the water afford all plenty of the most desired fish; the Air administer the most esteemed Fowls, the whole lap of Nature's store laid open, and all Arts, and Inventions fare and near, improving and preparing the best materials therein, for the filling and satisfying of the most sensual senseless, and unlimited appetites in the world. Yet unless they by Faith Spiritually eat the flesh, and drink the blood of their incarnate a joh. 6.51.53. Saviour, unless they feed on the Milk and Manna of the Word, and Wine of the Sacraments: unless they be a thirst, and come to the waters, buying Wine and Milk without b Esay. 55.1, 2. money, without merits, without price (without Popish Peter-pences) unless the Lord prepare for them, a Feast of fat things, upon his holy c Esay. 25.6. mountain: unless with spiritual Israel, they eat that Pascall d Exod. 12. Lamb, slain in God's decree, from the beginning of the e Rev. world, to take away the sins of the f joh. ●. 29. world, off the Elect: unless with this repenting Prodigal there be killed for them, this same Vitulus saginatus, this fat g Luk. 15.30. Calf; for all the rest of their dainties, they suffer a dearth: they are pinched with spiritual famine, as this our Swine-feeding prodigious Prodigal: as their Viands are of no valour, no value without these, they do but breed gravel in the belly; or turn to a stone in the heart, more dangerous than the stone in the reins: as the waters of jealousy drunk by the guilty jewish women, they turn to putrefaction and swelling: they are as rot grass to sheep: yea as puddle waters which some have unadvisedly drunk, in which there is the froth and sediments of Frogs in time of engendering, they cause crawling and trouble in the bowels, or as green Apples, and raw-fruit breed worms, yea that great hag-worme of a Corroding Conscience, still gnawing (as the Vulture on i Ovid. 4. Metam. & l. 3. de Po●to & in ibidem. TITIUS and PROMETHEUS k Propert. l. 2. & Ravis. pag. 81. Ethi●e Interpretatur, lib. Offic. pag. 845. his Liver) as the children of Vanity: yea, when Vanity is sweet in the mouth, and hid under the tongue, favoured and not forsaken, but devoured and digested, it shall turn to the gall of Asps, yea to very poison; it shall be disgorged and vomited up again: job. 20. ver, 12.13 14.15. No quietness shall the soul have, no more than the Ship or Whale had in which IONAS l joh. 1, 4, & cap. 2. v. 10 was; no more than the rankling heel, in which the thorn is: no more than the side in which the stitch is, or the eye in which the moat is, or the flesh in which the empoisoned bullet is: or the stomach surcharged with meat, or overbalanced with drink; till like an Impostumated breast, or a ripened Ulcer, the rotten dregs and filthy matter of every vicious vanity, be purged, evacuated, and emptied out of the soul, by contrition of heart, compunction of spirit, confession of mouth, and actual dereliction: till this fostered, and harboured guest be dislodged, till vanities rankest veins be phlebotomized, there is nothing but unrest in the Soul: distraction and division in the heart, a taxie, disorder, and confusion in affections, nothing but broils, and civil wars in the whole m Hominem esse Microcosmum vel parvum mundum lege (●um varije aliusovibus ad mag●um mundum) ex Aste●io, in Theologia naturals. Microcosm of man; as there was no peace in Abraham's family till Hagar and Ishmael the bond woman and her son were cast out of n Gen. 21.9 14. doors: for there is no peace to the wicked saith my o Esay. 58.20.21 God: but they are as the raging sea: even boiling and surging, in the waves of several lusts, they cannot rest, or come to any true repose; every dish of vanities cooking, either stupifies and benumbs them (as Henbane that cold poison) as is seen in those that have p 1. Tim. 4.2 Read the learned book daled the Physic of the soul. Cap. 8. pag. 103.104. cautherized, and lethargical Consciences, without any sense of any sin whatsoever, or else (like those that eat Hemlocks) mads, and inrageth them, as in those that have too waking, and working Consciences, as had q Gen. 4, 13 Cain, r Mat. 27.3 & Act. 1.25 judas, Francis s Apud Grineum in Theorem. theol. part. 2. pag. 151.152. Spira of Milan: the Advocate Ponsen●s of t The History of France under Francis the second. France: the Germane Kraus, a Doctor in Swabe: Dr. Latonius: Gerlach: and Bomelius of Louvain with many u See the memorable Histories of our rises of our Times, in Quarto, Pag. 186.187. Added to the C. Crescense, apud Sleidanum, Lib. 23. moe: The Husks of Vanities are no true diet for this Prodigal: they are neither meat nor medicine for the mind of man: they either benumb or enrage: bring their feeders into the cold Palsy of security: or into the burning Fever of desperate fury. CHAP. X. Sect. 1. The hungry Husks of vain worldlings: and the blessed Bread of God's Children declared and compared. I Have brought in my first witness, from Him that is indeed the judge, in this and every other controverted case and cause, the plain testimony of CHRIST, concurring with the scope and drift of his own Parable: as the Prince of the Prophets breaks the ice, so that Prophet which is the foreman of the jewry of the twelve, wades after: for as ESAY is accounted by * Evangelij vocationisque gentium, pronunciator apertior. lib. 9 confess. cap. 5 AUGUSTINE a more evident Trumpet and Proclaimer of Christ, than the rest: so setting up a Siquiss, as it were, or making a general Proclamation, to all and every one, Jews and Gentiles, Grecians and Barbarians, that were a thirsty after x Esay 55.1. CHRIST, and after his merits, heated scorched, and burnt up, with the fiery indignation of the Law, revealing sin, desirous to be cooled, and refreshed with the Gospel: heraldring out the worth of that water of Life CHRIST, with all his mercies and merits, as freely offered and preferred unto all, that are rightly qualified, with hungry hearts y Math. 5.6 to receive him as the Air to breath in: the earth to walk on: the Sea to sail in: the Sun of his mercy, casting beams on all that groan under the z Math. 11 28. & Math. 9.12, Luk. 19.10. burden of their sins: so expostulating with them, further, after the manner of the Prophets (as MOSES oft, with a Deut. c. 1. Exo. 32.21 Israel: SAMAEL with b 1 Sam. 15 14. SAUL, NATHAN with c 2. Sam. 12.9 DAVID, and others; with others in like cases) by way of Increpation and redargution, he demands of them of wherefore they lay out money, for that which is not bread, and their labour for that which satisfies not: Esay 55. v. 2. In which he shows! 1. What they do foolishly: 2. What they reap frivously they spend (as all other vain men) their oil, and their toil; their costs and their pains, their money and their labour, in non panem: upon that which is not bread? What ever any man doth in a blind zeal, in a false Religion, as the jew in his judaisme: the Turk in his Mahometan fine, d Act. 9 ●. 2 Act. 22. ●4. 1 Tim 1 13 Saul once in his Pharisa●sme e Vidi S●u●te●i Censuram de Tertulliano i● patrum Medulla. TERTULLIAN in his Montanisme: the Anabaptists at this day in their ᶠ Anabaptisme: the Familists in their ᵍ Familisme: the Papists chief in their Papism, in their Massing, Cross, Crep, Sprinkling, Idolatrizing, h Lege Doc. Rainolds, te Jdol. Rom. Ecclesiae, & in Thesibus. St Worshiping, Pilgrimages, Trentrals, Dirges, Shrifts, Pardons, Exorcisms, Crucifixes, Shrines, Relics Images, Superstitious Ceremonies, Observations of Times, Meats, Will-worships; Traditions, and the i De quibus omnibus, lege Willers Synops. & Tetrastylon. Sutcliffs works against Bell. his Turcopapismas, his Abridg. of Popery. D. Morton his Protestants appeal. D. White against Fish. D. B●ard his 13. reasons, D Fowls: ●o●el, Down●m, de Antichristo. D. Feild de Eccl. Morney of the Mass and his progress of Papacy. Humphrey in 10 reasons of Champion, cum alijs. like. or what pains soever are employed k Quicquid est homini, studij luboris Industriae Calvinus lavater & Marlorat in locum. in prosecution of any inordinate lust, vice, vanity carnality, concupiscence watsoever that tend not to, ends not in Christ; these, and all these, are non panis, they are no bread, they are but Husks and Acorns, they satisfy not: these that follow after such, follow but after their shadow, pursue a Flea; run after a butterfly: they have a great catch for their labour: they beat but the Air; they gape for the Wind: they miss their mark, they run at uncertainties; they wander in Devious l Toto errant coelo. paths; they sail without their Compass, and Card; they dash upon the Rocks; they sow the Wind, and reap the Whirlwind; when they look for Harvest and crop of felicity, they are answered with the thorns of Cares, the Briars of sorrows, the brambles of anxieties: with AESOP'S Dog, they snatch the shadow for the substance: with that m Fabula in Ambitiosos applicatur a Ravisio, in Officina. l. 8. pag. 853. IXION, they embrace a Cloud, for JUNO; they wed blear-eyed n Gen. 29.25.26 LEAH, for beauteous RACHEL; as dim-eyed ISAAC, they mistake o Gen. 27.22, 23 JACOB for ESAY, that which they think plants them, supplants them: these which they take (as ADAM received EVE) to be their helpers to beatitude) they prove p Remora piscis adhaeret Navibus & sistit. testibus vincenti●, l. 17. c. 29. Plin. l. 9 c. 25. & Basilio exem. hom. 7. Remoraes, and Hinderers: they gripe these worthless trifles, as Fools do Thorns, till they prick at last their very hearts, till they bleed again, they dally and play with them as the Child at the hole of the Asp and of the Cockatrice, or at the hive of the Bees, till they be stung again, till they die or cry: in a word, they prove not bread unto them, as they thought, but Husks which they thought not: they gain over shoulders by them, when all their Cards are cast: their pains and their perils being counterpoized, with the best that they promise: their chief Clients rue their bargain, and buy repentance at too dear a q Non Tanti paenitentiam emam. Dem. rate: they bring them as much content in the issue and event, as Mercury to a green wound, as smoke to sore eyes: the pleasure and profit they promise, ends in pain and perplexity, as AMMON'S unlawful love to THAMAR ended in r 2. Sam. 13.15 hatred; as sweet wine oft corrupts to sour Vinegar: Hugging these in their arms, as MOSES his s Exod. 4.3. rod, they turn Serpents, they break promise as perfidiously, as LAEAN with t Gen. 31.7 JACOB, as the Carthagenians with Rome, as Vlidislaus the Hungarian with the u Knolls in his Turkish History, Bonfinius in Hist. Hungaria, & Jusius in Theatro judicierum Dei, Anglice scripto. cap. 29. pag. 166 167. Turk, and the Turk with the Christians. They answer not expectance; they promise bread, for sustentation, but they perform Husks, vanities: vexation: Parturiunt Montes nascetur ridiculus mus: they indent golden Mountains, but pay chirping Mice, or micry Molehills: they allure him with the bait of painted beauty, but strike with the book of experimented bane. My Rivers return to their first Seas, they are not bread they satisfy not. For the better clearing of which point, it's worthy our consideration, the use, the excellency the necessity of bread, even according to the literal sense, as we have seen the vility, and vacuity of Husks, that so contraries being opposed may more manifestly * Contraria juxta se opposita magis elucescune. appear, as Venus pictured besides Vulcan seems more beautiful, as Arion's Harp is more melodious after Pan's Pipe, as honey more relisheth the palate, after Aloes and Gall: and as the rose smells more fragrant after assa faetida: bread than we must know, both in the Scriptures and Authors, hath a very large x Panis Doctrinalis sacramentalis victualis apud Ludolphum de vita Christi. extent: for it contains all sufficiency of food and nutriment, both for soul and body, and therefore some would derive the Latin paniss, of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: which signifies, saith one, the multitude of all safeties: the magnitude of all y Multitudinem salutum magnitudinem solaminum, & plenitudinem omnium bonorum. comforts, the plenitude of all good things, what ever is needful for corporal, or animal sustenance, which me thinks better agrees to CHRIST, in the mysterious sense, who is called that bread of life, joh. 6.51. Then to the literal sense: yet consider the creature as it is, in it own nature: of all the blessings which God hath given for the preservation and sustentation of the life of man, for his esse, and bene z Tullius de Officijs. esse, his being, and his well being: there is none of more use than bread: for if we consider either what account the Patriarches, the Prophets, the men of God, yea Pagans, Heathens, Turks, Savages, in all Countries, and Kingdoms, have made and still do make of it, in all ages: 2. Or how, well we are with it: 3. Or, how ill we can be without it, we shall say of it, as a Ad Laelium de Amicitia. TULLY said of friendship: è coelo tollere videntur: they seem to take the Sun out of the Heaven, that would deprive mortal men of it. For the first use and antiquity of it; however it be a question whether flesh were eaten or no, before the b Negative determinant Theod. q. in Gen. 25. Chris. hom. in Gen. 27. Hier. contra Jovin. lib. 2. Peter Martyr & Lyranus in Gen. 9 Aquina. 1.2. q. 102. d. 2. dubitat. tamen Calvinus in Gen. 6. Reprobavit sententiam dominicus a Soto. l. Justit. 5. q. 1. art. 4. Flood, or only herbs and plants, which then had more vigour and force in them, than now: yet, I persuade myself, bread was a food used of the Patriarches even before the flood, as since: for CAIN being a c Gen. 4.2. Husbandman, (as ABEL a Shepherd) and tilling of the ground, sure corn came of his tillage, and of Corn, bread? And after the Flood MELCHISEDECH brought to ABRAHAM bread d Gen. 14.18 and Wine: and the sons of JOB, whom some think was about the time of e Pineda & Mercerus perfat in Jobum. MOSES, banqueted, and eat bread together, in the Elder brother's f job. 1.13 house and JOSEPH from Egypt, sent Corn for bread, for his Father JACOB, into g Gen. 42.15. Canaan. I know some Countries were long without the use of it: using Acorns for bread: yea PLINY reports it in his time, (which was some 40. years after CHRIST) there were men eaters (as the Cannibals now) that lived without bread: and it's certain the Art of Baking was very lately brought to i 380. years after the Persian war. Rome, for till the time of the Persian War they used boiled Corn instead of bread: and before the use of Corn came up, many Countries lived of k Lib. 8. cap. 11. idem Plinius. justin. l. 2. & Ovid. 4. Fast. Pulse, and Gland, and Dates, and other such fruits of Trees: but after it was once found out, by tillage, by OSIRIS in h Lib. 16. Egypt, TRITOLEMUS in Graecia and Asia, SATURN in m Macrobius in Sat●ru. Latium, o Pliny lib. 7 Cap. 16. CERES (or Isis) in Attica, Scicile as also the way and means how to grind Corn, knead it, and bake it in bread: as did PILUMNUS p Diodorus Siculus lib. 6 c●p. 15. & Polydorus Virg. de juvent. lib. 3. cap. 2. the first Baker in Rome: how wondrously was the invention welcomed? And the Inventors dignified, (yea deified with divine honour, and how this good Creature since hath been esteemed (except to profane and unthankful persons, to whom plenty of it, as of all other common blessings, makes it disrespected) who knows not? And good reason it is to be equalised nay preferred before all other foods besides, used in Authors of divers r As Camel's flesh being the food of the Arabians, Lizards and Nuts to Syrians and Africans, Grasshoppers to the old Lybians, Lions and Bears to the Nomads of Assricke, Serpents to the Indians, Horses and Wolves to the Vandals, and Sarmatians, Crocodiles to the Egyptians, de quibus Hier. count. Jovinian. lib. 2. Stra● de situ orbis, ●b. ●6. Plutarch in synops. Aristoph. Sallust. in bello Ingur. & Gibbons in Ge●. cap. 7 p. 264. All these are little wholesome without bread. Nations. First, it is more wholesome of itself than any other meat, without it, for let a man eat flesh of Bullocks, Beefs, Kids, Calves, or so much desired Venison, Hares, Hearts, yea Quales, Partridges, Pheasants, he shall soon be weary of them, without bread: yea tasted all or most of them together, in the excessive riot of Feasts, I think with SENECA they rather clog the stomach, than s Diversa non ●lant sed inquinant. nourish; fight together in their divers qualities t Humida pugnantia siccis. and operations, as the Eliments do, yea as so many Cocks in a Pit. Therefore those that eat, of those meats without bread, as Savages and Cannibals, are seldom clear complexioned, but blackish, and swarthy, of a smelling and stinking breath, as is observed, neither so strong and nervous as those that use bread. Secondly, other meats though never so neatly and curiously cooked, oft bring satiety chief in sickness and distemper, or after some surfeit of them: that they are never so distasted, but that even after sickness, the appetite returns to it again. Thirdly, other meats are not well relished without this: this, always even without other meats. Fourthly, some naturally hate and abhor u There is a secret Antipathy in some against Cheese, Mallards', Apples, Eggs, Pigs, Pies, of which Physic knows neither cause nor cure Like. I may say of Oil, Butter, Caviar and Tobacco of some much loathed. other meats, or at least in superstition abstain from them, as once the Pythagoreans from beans; the Papists at this day from all flesh & white meats in Lent, and Saints Eves, against that Christian liberty which the word * Coll. 2.16 1. Cor. 10.25. Rom. 14.17 1. Tim. 4.4. 1. Cor. 8.8. allows: the Turkens also and Jews, with whom Papisme u Vide Sutcleus Turcepaspanun Reinoldum de Jdol. Rem. Ecclesiae. & Omerod his book called the picture of a Papist. in many things doth sympathise abstain from divers meats, at divers times superstitiously observed: as y Epiphan. her. 66: Aug. de her. 46. & 30. contr. Faustum. Cap. 5.6. Heretics, have done in former times: our judaizing Threskites lately, but never any (except in our marvelous if not miraculous prodigious Fasters, that have by report exceeded even MOSES and ELIAS) have totally and wholly abstained from z Recorded by Wierus in his Tractaite of Abstinence, and the memorable Hist. of our Time. p. 352. Bread, yea bread and water have been used of our strictest Paenitents, in their fasting humiliations: Yea, Pambo Macarius, Paulus Simplex, Anthony Hilarion, of whose Austerity Hospinian writes wonders, were daily dieted with bread in their pittances, or portions more or a De M●ra abstanentia horum & aliorum Menachorum & C●itatum lege, Theod. lict. lib. 1. Cellat. Soc. 4. c. 23. Evagrium. 6.13. Zozom. l. 5. c. 10. & 15. & l. 6. c. 28.29.33.34. Niceph. lib. 11. Surium. Tom. 1. & Tom. 6. de vitis Patrum. less: yea DANIEL himself b Dan. 10.3 though he abstained from all pleasant bread, (as DARIUS c Dan. 6.18. once from Music) in his occasioned humiliation, for one and twenty days, yet it's no consequent but he eat ordinary bread, since according to the rule of that zealous d Hier. lib. 2 Epist. 14. linguist, fortissimum jeiunium est aqua & panis: bread and water, are the chief Fasts; yea for the whole term of life, though some have abstained from Wine as the e Josephus in bello Indaico lib. 2. cap. 8. Essens, amongst the jews, the Nazarites, f Baronius annalium Tom. 1. & Bel. lib. 2. cap. 5. de Monachis. and the Rechabites, from flesh, yet none from bread: except such, as cannot get it: as these in Navarre, that live in Rocks and Cliffs by the Sea side, only on stockfish all winter: and in other frozen Countries, as our poor Mountainous Irish also have made poor shift, with course far, even without bread: Insomuch that the Poet observed some in his time, content only with bread, salt and water: as was sometimes, that Cynic in his Tub: therefore it's well observed by some, that our Saviour instituted the Sacrament of the Eucharist in bread, as a Type and figure of his body: because it is in use amongst all Nations: nor ever forbidden by any politic Law, as other meats are; as flesh in Lent, the not killing of Calves, Lambs, Pigs, for propagation of Cattles, after some rot or Murrain: or for supply of war, or the mating, of some Country, as now Virginea: or some other politic ends: nay it is observed, that even most creatures affect bread, more than any other meat, appropriated to man: The Elephant, the Dear, the Dog; the Fox, the Wolves (those wild vild Dogs) the Coney, the Hare, have been all known to eat bread; but especially all Nations whatsoever, delight in bread: as Villamontanus notes, that in the Haven of japha, as they travailed to jerusalem, the Moors and Arabians flew to their ships, requiring nothing but bread; many such Histories we purchase by the Pilgrimage g Purchase his Pilgrimage passim of that learned Preacher: and HERODOTUS tells us, that the Egyptians glorying in their antiquity, than tried it thus; PLAMMETICUS their King tried this Conclusion; he made two Children to be kept two years, by a Herdsman from all company, at last visiting them, the first word they spoke, was Bec, Bec, which both in the Phrygian tongue, and the lower Germany, signifies Bread: Bread. Fifthly and lastly, bread is Instar omnium instead of all; nay taken for all other victuals; as I have noted this Greek word Pan, intimates: therefore it's a curse mixed with a Command, that ADAM shall eat his bread, that's earn, whatever is needful ad victum cultumque for meat, drink, and apparel, in the sweat of his h Gen. 3.10 Marlorate inlocum. brows, in some lawful calling; and that which is the best of i Danaeus in orat. Domini Ambrose in Psal. 118 & Babington on the Lord's Prayer, fol. 75. prayers, the rule and square of all other prayers, directs us to pray for our daily bread: that is whatever is needful for our temporary life, according to our places, callings & conditions. SECT. 2. GOD'S Children as they have GOD'S plenty: So they have GOD'S peace which worldlings want. NOw from these praemises according to the letter, we extract this truth, that as Husks signify every vanity, as opposed to bread, including, concluding, every good blessing, so the truth (as a square shows what's crooked) showing itself, and the contrary, demonstrates to it both the propositions: first propounded, that in the service and observance of sin, and Satan, the Citizen of the Country, (the Author and Father of all the sins, of the City and Country) there's nothing but hungry Husks; emptiness, vacuity, vility, vanity, insufficiency, as on the contrary in our Father's house: in the true Church of God, in the service and worship of the true JEHOVAH, the Father of Mercy, the Father of all Flesh; of all spirits; there's bread enough, Corporal, Sacramental, spiritual, comfort, and contentation enough, external, internal, eternal. GOD providing a large allowance, a liberal diet for his family, above that which SALOMON daily allowed for k 1. Kings, 4 22.23. his, every day being to them a solemn Feast, a Christ-tide a Festival, as in the new Moon, and solemn Assemblies: a great Feast, indeed: above that of l Esth. 1.3. ASSVERUS, or the Roman Galba, or m When he supped in Apollo. LUCULLUS; a Feast of fat things in his Holy n Esay, 25.6 Mountain, his Zion: a Feast of Wine on the Lees of fat things, full of marrow of Wine on the Lees well refined; p Mat. 22.4 for Wisdom hath killed her Beasts o Prov. 9.2. already: her Oxen and her Fatlings: yea the Paschall Lamb and fat Calf: Omnia q V 8. & Luk. 14.17. parata all things are prepared: she hath mingled her wines; she hath furnished her Table; the milk of the Word, the Wine of the Sacrament; the oil of the Spirit: the unction from above, cheers the countenance, and glads the heart of all the Israel of GOD; they are all abundantly satisfied with the fatness of their father's house; he makes them drink of the rivers of his r Psal. 16. vers. 11. & Psal. 17, 15 pleasures, the faith-espoused soul, married to the King's son, is brought into the bridal s Cant. 1.4 & Chap. 2.4 & Chap. 5, 1 Chamber, takes her fill of love: yea is led into his banqueting house, in his pleasing Garden; there eats honey, with the honey comb drinks wine, with milk; yea drinks abundantly till she be inebriated, t Rom. 14.17 with love, u Gal. 6.16 which is better than wine, yea till she be even in a Love Qualm, sick again with love; as in a spiritual ecstasy of joy: For the Kingdom of God is Love, Peace, and joy, in the Holy Ghost: and this Peace is upon all the Israel of God, whosoever: this Peace as his last and best legacy, the Prince of Peace left, with all that have true and * joh. 14.27 saving Grace; to which peace is inseparably united and married: yea linked, as in a golden x Gal. 1.3, Rom. 1.7. 1, Cor. 1.3 2. Cor. 1.2 Eph. 1, 2, 5. chain: For it's a false Calumny and frivolous imputation which the Children of darkness, cast upon the Children of Light: that they are ever sad, sullen, y Semper taciti tristesque recedunt. Lucretius. sighing, z Sic dictum ●lim, Calvinianos', esse Melancholicos. melancholy as a Hare or a See Demecritus of Religions Melancholy, Part. 3. sect. 4. pag. 493. ad p. 537. Owl, never enjoying themselves, but pine, and droop and hang down their heads as a Bulrush: so pure and precise, that they take no content in the Creatures, but deprive themselves of all joys, or pleasures: unsociable, besides, as Timon b Tymonille Atheniensis Misanthropos. retired, or as Students: unhewen, unmanly, unmannerly men: such as take delight in no company, and none in them; and so consequently that they are starved in respect of any true content? For have they no joys because the beetle blind blear-eyed world sees them not? Is there no soul in man, this little world, no God in the world this great c Homo Microcosmu●, Mundusque Megacosmos comparantur ab Alstodio in Theol. Nat. Part. 2. pag. 643. man, because man sees neither? Had the Israelites no Manna, because the Moabites and Ammonites tasted it not? Doth not the Sun shine, because the blind Beggar, discerns it not? Is there no sweetness in Honey and Sugar, because the distempered palate of the aguish sick man, gusts it not? Is ABRAHAM'S ISAAC sacrificed, because he was on the Altar? No ISAAC then (and still) d Gen. 22.12 lives: ISAAC the son of laughter, the Father's joy: the joy of GOD'S salvation ever lives in the heart of the Elected and called: the Ram is only e Gen. 22. 1● sacrificed, carnal, sensual, Sodomitish, sinful, belluine, brutish, fleshly, unclean and impure joys, in the abused Creatures, such as brutish, Swinish, hoggish Epicures, lose Libertines, wallow in; as the Eel in the mud, in the abuse of Wine, womans, Music, Meres, Drinks, Apparel, Hawking, Hunting, Sports, Pastimes, Feasts, recreations, turning liberty into licentiousness, Christianity into Carnality: these joys and contents, in which vain men live, (or rather by which they die) as it were laughing, even tickled to death: these only are moderated, mortified, sacrificed, yea crucified, on the Cross of CHRIST: but ISAAC the son of Promise; spiritual joys they still live: yea then live most when ABRAHAM (or the son of ABRAHAM a believing f Gal. 3.7. Christian) is most tempted, tried, afflicted persecuted: as the Laurel is greenest, when the winter is g Imo vivit & viget in Mari Rubro Plin. lib. 13. cap. 25. foulest; the Dolphin most plays, when the Sea is most h Solinus c. 17. stormy; the Swan sings sweetest, when death is the i Cantaetor cygnus funeris ipse sui. nearest; as it may be seen; DANIEL rejoicing in the Lion's k Dan. 6.21 Den, PAUL and SILAS singing in l Act. 16.25 Prison; the Apostles glad, that they were threat, and beat for the Name of m Act. 5.41 Christ, the Martyrs triumphing at the n As Jgnatius Polycarpus A●talus Bi●rlaam. Fabianus Victoria apud Eusebium, lib. 3. c. 30. lib. 4. c. 15. lib. 6. c. 29. Niceph. lib. 3.19. l. 14, 15. lib. 5 7 & apud Basilium, sermon. de Barlaam. Stake; as CAESAR in his Trophies: and JOHN most ravished in spirit, when by bloody DOMITIAN, he was banished to the Isle Pathmos: Yea as carnal men, like that politic Prince in the Poet, are most sad in heart, when they seem most glad in face, in the midst of their madding mirth, as SALOMON calls it, their hearts being most heavy; there being a pad in the straw, a Serpent under the green grass, a Corn in their toe; a stone in their straight shoe, a moat in their eye: Sonitus horroris: a sound of horror and s Lev. 26.36. & De● 28.65 66.67. terror in their hearts which the world sees not: the guilt of their kerbing crucifying Consciences as they prolong to a further Tragedy, the flash to hell fire, summoning them to Death and judgement, to which, they are most near approaching; Hannibal ad Portas: Even to the Pit brinck, when they are most secure, sensual, Lethargical lewd, licentious and outrageous in their sinful vanities, as appears in Sodom t Gen. 19.9 24. Gomorah, the old u Luk. 17.25, 26. world, * 2. Sam 16 22. ABIOLOM, x 1. Sam. 15 32, 33 AGAG, sampson's y judge 15.26. Philistines, drunken z 1. Sam. 25 36, 38. NABAI, a Dan. 5.4, 5 BALTAZAR, the Gospel's b Luk. 12, 20 worldlings, the purpled c Luk. 16, 22 Glutton, with many moe: (who if they knew all, had more need to act the parts of HERACLITUS, than DEMOCRITUS; to weep than to laugh, as St. IAME● d jam. 4.9. counsels, to mourn with the Dove and Pelican, (as did DAVID) for the miseries coming on them, than to jangle like lays; chatter like Crows; croak like Frogs, prate like Parrots, nay roar like Bulls, in their unsanctified vanities and scandalous soul-killing poisonous mirth: JEREMY'S Threenes, the times lamentations, the the Psalmographes penitential e 7. Psalmi Paenitentiales cum Commentarijs Vegae, Lorini Marlorati Molleri Strigellij. Psalms, recited by f Possiaonius in ejus●ita & Hist. Magd. cent. 5 pag. 11 13 AUGUSTINE, and g Grinaeus in suis Apot●. Mo●entum, pag. 9●. CALVIN, on their deathbeds (and the Lachryma of the Saints, better befitting them, than Songs of Sodom, unclean ribaldry, which they vent and vomit out in every Tavern; Inn, Alehouse and Tippling house) So again on the contrary, the sanctified Christian, the true Convert; rejoiceth when he is afflicted, triumpheth when he is persecuted: her seth in holy affections, as the h Ponderi non sedit, Aulus Gellius lib. c. 6. preci●ue Gerliciu●, in Epist. ante axiom. Eceles. ex Plinio, lib. 13. cap. 4. Palmtree, in despite of all the weight of Afflictions: Crosses are, but as cold water sprinkled on a hot flaming fire; they more enkindle the heat and ardour of his love: which much water cannot quench (as the sap to the root, the besieged Garrison, to the strongest part of the Castle: the spirits to the heart of the dying man, dying Swan: the natural heat to the stomach and inward parts) so his spiritual comforts retire inward, to his heart, and soul, and conscience, in the coldest winter of outward troubles, trials and pressures: his Sun shines even in his Rains and Storms; his Roses of Comforts, grow in the midst of his Thorny trials: yea, they flow from afflictions, as refreshing-waters, to all Gods Israel, even out of stony Rocks; out of his sours, come sweet, as sampson's i judg. 149 Honeycomb, out of the belly of the Lion: he finds joy even in Tribulation, as JONATHAN found strengthening Honey even in the k 1, Sam. 14.27 Desert, and as some find Pearls, even in the heads of Serpents, and l uniones ex Ostreis'. Ovetanus hist. l. 19 c. 8. ex Conchis asserit, Aelian. l. 14. c. 8 Fishes, when the Winds of afflictions beat upon the outwals of his flesh; even than he hath a wonderful calm, and tranquillity, in the inward house of his heart. Even as it's quiet under the Deck, when the Waves and billows bluster; against the outside of the Sea-floting Ships: In a word, the godly man hath his inward haven, and sure Anchor, when he seems to be fluctuate; his inward heaven, when to the world he seems to have his hell: nay says that judicious m M. Perkins Divine, he sails to Heaven by or through the Gates and straits of Hell: to apply all to my purpose; he is full and satisfied, he hath bread enough in his Father's house, when he seems to be hungry: the carnal worldling, his soul is empty, he feeds but on Windy Husks, in the service of Sin, when he seems to be satisfied? Satan's service (like the careless Cures of some of jeroboam's n 1. King. 13.33. Priests) is mere o Se Pascunt non Oves. Ezech. 34.3 4. Starve— his. SECT. 3. The joys of the Saints never received, nor conceived of Sinners. IF any be a doubtful Didimist in this point, or a disputefull Sceptic, as hard of belief: besides the testimony of the Prodigal himself, in which habemus reum, confitentem, we have the confession of the guilty, and what needs more; we have also the dicision and determination of the Sovereign, judge himself: who by the mouth of ESAY thus decides the controversed case; betwixt his own servants, that did hear and fear his word, and rebelling Israel, that choose their own works and ways, as that evil servants to a worse Master: Behold saith the Lord p Esay. 65.1 13.14. God, my servants shall eat, and ye shall shall be hungry: Behold my Servants shall drink, and ye shall be thirsty: Behold my Servants shall rejoice, but you shall be ashamed: Behold my servants shall sing for joy of heart, and you shall cry for sorrow of heart, ad shall howl for vexation of mind, thus GOD expresseth himself aptissimis verbis, in plain phrases, to put the point out of all question, for his word is more permanent than Heaven and earth, as the Decrees of the Medes and Persians q Dan. 6, 8. irrevocable; and indeed it must needs be so; for the servants of GOD, enjoy GOD himself, CHRIST dwells in their hearts r Eph. 3.17 by faith, there's the privy Chamber of the great King; there's the Hive into which the spirit that Paraclete, the Comforter s joh. 14 16 brings the sweet honey of spiritual Comforts; it's the banqueting-house of the bridegroom, yea his nuptial bed of heavenly desires, and delights; the Elect are the Temples of the holy t 1. Cor. 6 19 Ghost, according to the promise of Christ, GOD the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, the true invisible Trinity, Cohabites with them, as blessed Inmates inhabits in them, is Enthronized in their very spirits: yea spiritually and mutually sups and feasts with u Rev. 3.20 them, and is feasted by them, as in the days of his flesh; in our flesh he was feasted by * Mat. 9.10. MATHEW, x joh. 12.2 MARY, y Luk. 19.8 ZACCHEUS, and z Luk. 14.1 & cap. 7.36 others, now can there want Cates, Viands, and junkets where GOD himself Cators and cooks the Dishes? Where he is the maker and Mr. of the Feast, can a man want water that is in the Sea? Can he want light that walks in the Sun, unless he be either blind, or shut his eyes? Is it probable (possible) that he should perish for thirst, that hath a fountain opened to him, as once to HAGAR and a Gen. 21.19 Haec fons Christus Zach. 13. v. 1. ISHMAEL, or that those should want solid consolation, and contentation, that enjoy Christ; his mercies, his merits, his Grace: his spirit? The fountain and foundation of all true joy whatsoever: without whom there's no true joy, as no light to the world without the Sun, no life to man, without the soul: No life to the Soul, without Grace: even as there's no heat in the Winter to frozen Norway, without the fire: for there's no peace to the wicked, saith my b Esa. 57.21 GOD; as no light to the body without the eyes: no light to the house without the Windows: I know the world seeing with eyes quicker than c Cujus visus solida paenetrat corpora. Vincent. Natur. l. 19 cap. 79. LYNCEUS, or the Serpent EPIDAURUS, into that penury and poverty, in external things, which GOD sometimes humbles his own children withal, as sometimes he did JACOB, and his d Gen. 42.1 family, NAOMI and e Ruth. 1.13 RUTH, f 1. King. 17 11 ELIAS, the Widow of g Vers. 12. Sarepta, the poor Widow of the h 2. Kin. 4.1 Prophet, i 1. Sam. 21.3 DAVID, k Luk. 16, 20 LAZARUS, with many moe: keeping them for their safety, for fear of Rot-grasse, as Sheep, in a short Pasture: and not able to see (more than Moales, Beetles and Owls, the lustre of the Sun) into that abundant supply of inward consolation, which as the Unicorn's l Plin. hist. 8 cap. 21. & jovins hist. l. 18. Horns, or ELISHAES' m 2. King. 2 21. Salt, seasons all the bitter waters of their outward afflictions: will not believe this copy, and redoundant plenty, with which they are furnished, no more than that incredulous Lord, would believe n 2. Kin. 7.2 the prophesied plenty of Corn that should be in Samaria, when he dreamed of nothing, but of a dreaded dearth: but is it so, that the Bell, ever ringeth, what the Fool thinketh? Is a pearl no Pearl, because AESOP'S Cock, or a Swine (an ignorant Swain, or an intoxicated Drunkard) knows not the value of it? Is JACOB no better for the blessing, because ESAV doth so little o Gen. 25.34 prize it? Is there no exquisite Music in DAVID'S p Psal. 150.5 Cymbals, in ORPHEUS, or ARION'S Harp, in LYDIAN or DORICKS' q De his & alijs speciebus Musicae, Julius Pollu. lib. 4. Onen. c. 8.9.10.11. Rhodig. lect. l. 5. cap. 2, 3.25 26. & Polyd. de inven. lib. 1. cap. 15. music, because the Deaf man hears it not? No exquisite r De quibus Plinius lib. 33. c. 4. l. 35 c. 6. & Discorides. lib. 5 cap. 61. & enerrat 68 Colours, in ZEUXIS, or APELLES Tables: because the blind man, discerns them not? Nor shines not the Sun, because the old wife of Bathe sees it not? Let God be true and all men Liars? Let the Spectators say what they list; believe the judge: as that good OECOLAMPADIUS a splendent light in the s Conveniunt rebus nomina saepe suis. Church; when the Sun shone on his face, as he lay on his deathbed, being asked if he would have the Curtains drawn, laying one hand on his face, the other on his breast, answered; abundance of light, abundance of light, meaning outward light on his face, and inward light in his heart; so the Sons of GOD, the Children of Light, have abundant comforts, which the children of darkness discern not: As CHRIST himself u joh. 4.32. once, so Christians ever they have meat to eat, even spiritual Manna which the world knows not of: t Grinans in Epist ad D. Fabritium, Capiton & jacobus Grinaeus in Apoth. Morient. pag. 91. Jdem de Zwingero, p. 97. Ob lux caendida, lux mihi. they have bread in their Father's house: a large and a liberal allowance, there is in the Church of GOD, in the Word and the Sacraments: for all the sons of Zion, (however the Papists as false Stewards, and Soule-murtherers, abridge the Lords people of their allotted Portions, or rather steal or purloin it from them, to their own carnal and sinister ends) whereas Hypocrites, Heretics, and profane ESAVES within the Church, which are but as rotten bows to the Tree, wooden legs to the body, having no stomach to the Lords Viands, or finding, no relish in them, more than in a rotten Post, or white of an egg: as also Pagans, Heathens, jews, and Turks without the Church, wanting these means of life, this solid meat, as the rush in the Summer, that wants mire: both the one and the other, fed with the poison of humane inventions, deceivable lusts, traditionary vanities, as this Prodigal here; as AOAR, and ISHMAEL in the Desert for want of water, ere they were shown the Fountain by the Angel. CHAP. XI. SECT. 1. jonas his judgement and experience of lying Vanities. WE have heard one Prophet speak, the truth, first propounded: confirmed and further expounded by him, who inspired the Prophets: the point is farther illustrated, by IONAS, who had as good experience of man's sinning misery, of sins lying vanity, of God's all-saving satisfactory mercy, as ever any mere man, excepting SALOMON; whom we reserve for the last: for this IONAS as you know, being commanded by the Sovereign Monarch of Heaven and Earth, to go preach and cry against the crying sins of Ninivee, projecting doubts and dangers, finding knots in a Bulrush, fearing the might and malice of man more than God: consulting with flesh and blood, and carnal reason, the greatest enemy to religion: against his mission and Commission; he sails to Tarchus: but as he was cross and contradictory to GOD, GOD crosseth him, he meets with him in his own Eliment; wounds him at his own weapon: The storm and the * Vbi peccatum ibi procellae. Aug. Tempest, the Waves and the Billows of the Sea, the utmost rage of Wind and water, are sent out by GOD, as hue and cry after this fugitive Felon, he is apprehended in the ship, ipso actu, ipso factu, in the very act of of sin; justice finds him sleeping, jon. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.14.15. takes him in the manner, just napping: the Lot finds him guilty; as if Martial Law were executed on him: he is instantly thrown overboard, by the Mariners, as GOD'S Executioners: but the LORD in justice remembering Mercy: Inter fontem & pontem accedens Gratia: Grace coming as betwixt the Bridge and the River, betwixt the Ship and the bottom of the Sea: Vers. 17. he is reprieved and bailed by a Fish: yet kept imprisoned, as for his good abearing, three days, and three nights in the bowels, and Garbage of the Whale, as in a living Grave, hanging as a feather in the Air betwixt life and death: truly humbled for his sins; yet apprehending and applying mercy, with a bleeding, yet believing heart, he makes his Prophetic Song, in manner of Lyric Verses, according to the Hebrews, which he pens, when he is cast upon the x See the learned Lectures of D. Abbot, and D. King, upon jonas. Shore. In which Song, aggravating in many Phrases and Metaphors his own misery both in his outward and inward man: amongst the rest he tells us, that even his very soul was overwhelmed with him, or as some translations express, it was even failing or sainting y Cum deficeret anima, secundum 70. Interpretes cum Augustaretur secundum Hierom. cum obrueretur secundum junium. quando desperab●t, ●t Pomeranus. in him, straitened in him: yea even despairing in him: in the very soliloquies of his soul, he tells us the distracted and desperate thoughts of his heart: that he was (according to sundry readings) even excisus & succisus, cut off from z jon. 2.4. God: Eiectus, reiectus: Cast out, cast off: Ejected, rejected, of the Almighty: forgotten, yea forsaken of him; yet thus under water, he lifts up his head; he remembered the a Vers. 7. Lord, here was his Faith, his Prayer, as a winged Mercury, darted out as Pellets from a Gun, in the heat and fire of fervency, penetrated the Heavens, pierced the Clouds, and ascended the Clouds (as an Aeagle mounts) unto the Almighty: and in this heavenly soliloquy, with GOD, the eye of his soul, being quickened, opened, and anointed, with Collyrium of the spirit, he sees also the insufficiency, of every deceivable Lust, and worldly vanity, to give his sin distressed soul any satisfaction: his old burdened conscience any contentation. Nay rather as by interposition, this sublunary lying vanities, as he calls them, do cloud and eclipse from him, the sin of that mercy, in the heat and light of which was his true tranquillity: for so indeed are his express words, Commenting my Text (as the Prodigal before his repentant return, both felt, and found) they which embrace lying vanities, forsake their own b jon. 2.8. mercy: that is, that mercy, which as a man a Lease, by purchase, from a Landlord, they might have made their own, and appropriated to themselves, as sure, as the Coat to their backs, that mercy they have neglected and rejected: repudiated, and refused, yea despised, and despited, by following, and persecuting, hugging, affecting, and embracing (as once our unregenerate Prodigal) their Fancies, Follies, and vicious vanities. Which Text that I may press to the quick, because it Parallels my Text in the substance of matter, and plainly and prospicuously speaks the point in hand. Whither by vanitics here (the subject and object of the love of vain men) we understand with HUGO VICTORINUS, that double vanity that is in every sublimary thing: the vanity of mutability and change, that is in the Creature, not only Terrestrial, but Celestial, even in the Heavens themselves, as the Fathers c Hier. Comment. in Esaiam, lib. 8. cap. 24. & lib. 14. c. 51. & Origen. in Rom. 8. v. 20. allude, all which Creatures are vain in respect of God, man's sovereign good: whose name is only I am d Exod. 3.14. incommunicable to any e Hierom. Epist. 50. & Comment, in 24. Esaiae. Creature: as also vain in respect of man: by reason of his sin; man being the end of the Universe, according to f Homo finis universi Arist. 1. Phys. text. 25. Philosophy, even a Microcosm and little world, being himself altogether vain: Psal 59.5. Subjects them also to vanity: Rom. 8.20. 2. Or the vanity of sinful corruption, that is man: by submitting, and subjecting himself, to the Creature, which was made to be subject unto him, by placing and planting his desires and affections, or things terrestrial or temporary, and not on him that is infinite, incomprehensible and eternal, making himself exceeding vain, as the Ancients g Augustinus de moribus Ecclesiae, cap. 21. Athan. in Synopsi. & Guep. lib. 5. in lib. 1. Rep. have discussed: Or in a larger division, if with a modern h Berchorius (vel nonullis Sterchorius) in verbo vanum. Friar, in whose Dunghill there is yet some i olim Virgilius extraxit, ex Enyo. gold, we consider, either vanities natural which are in every Creature, being nothing in respect of the Creator, and returning again unto nothing: being of the earth, and from the earth, and returning again to the Earth, their prima materia, their first matter, (as the Rivers to the Seas, as the Ice, Frosts, and Snowes, into waters, which came from waters. 2. Or Vanities temporal, and Temporary, of these outward and external things, called abusively by Pagans and Heathens, and Paganizing Christians, the Goods of k Bona Fortunae. Fortune: such as Riches, honours, wealth, worship, profits, praeferments. 3. Or Vanities acquiring, as Arts, Sciences, liberal, mechanical: languages; moral wisdom: eloquence, oratory. 4. Or Vanities personal, there being so many vain men and Fools of the world, as there be vicious men, wicked men in Scripture l Psal. 14.1. Psal. 53.1 Psal. 39.6 Prov. 7.7 Chap. 8.5 Chap. 4.9. language, being ever unwise; and bad men: mad men. 5. Or Vanities Criminal, which are all the vain works, words, actions, affections, thoughts, cogitations, imaginations of vain, sensual, sinful, and unregenerate men. 1. Whether they be mental in errors of judgement, as all these Heresies old and new, lopped off as Hidra's heads, by Counsels and m Augustine Epiphanius. Jrenaeus. Sluselburgus in Catalogo Hereticorun. Fathers, now revived, and sprung up again in Popery: the Sponge of all Abominations, and Corruptions in Doctrine and manners. 2. Or Cordial, as rooted and eradicated in an unsanctified heart, the fountain and root whence n Mat. 15.19 they proceed: the Seminary and Nursery where they are fostered, and cherished, the very shop and furnace where they are moulded. 3. Or Actual: as they are acted, wrought, and produced, by the Organs, instruments and members of the o Rom. 6.13 body, the slave and servant of a worse Master; the corrupted. 4. Or Oral and Vocal, bleared and blazed from the Hell-inflamed p jam. 3.6. tongue, sending and darting out Oaths, Lies, Slanders, Calumnies, rotten words, unsavoury speeches, blasphemies: against the q Vide Peralin summa de Peccatis li●guae in sine libri. Holiness; the verity, the charity, sanctity, sincerity; purity, that should be in speech. All these vanities, with many more, which might be referred to these, and other heads: our IONAS here terms and Christens them, by the name and Epithet of lying Vanities, (by which as by a r Gen. 4.15 Vers. 2. brand set upon CAIN) they shall for ever be marked, and stigmatised to all generations: being indeed as deservedly so termed, as s Nescio a ABEL, was termed Vanity by EVE: LENTULUS a vain man by t Vanior, an stolidior. TULLY; NESTORIUS a u Qualis fa. v. Nestorius vide apud Magd. cent. 5. cap. 9 Osiand. p. 242 243. l. 2. & Tom. 1. conc. pag. 559. firebrand; HANNIBAL the Scourge of Rome: TAMBURLAINE, TOTILAS and * Esa. 10.5. ASHUR, the Scourge of God: CALIGULA Day mixed with blood, by x Lucum sanguine conjunctum. SVETONIUS; SYNESIUS the great SYNESIUS, by PLUTARK. And NABAL, a fool by y 1. Sam. 25 26. ABIGAL, because as she gave the Etymology of that fool; NABAL is his name, and folly is with him: so I say of these Vanities, lying are they called, because lying is with them. For, besides the Experience that our Prodigal had, in his own person of these lyings and delusions, the fruits of his sinful vanities, affording him only Husks, for bread: emptiness and vacuity for plenitude, and promised plenty: smokes for fires; as the barren figtree, afforded leaves, for fruit: by whose experience, if vain men will not be warned, in getting salves from his sores, health from his wounds: wisdom from his follies; they themselves shall taste of his sauce; eating of his unfilling meat, they shall be thrust through as with his spit, in many darts of sorrows; till they purchase their bought wit, at too dear a penny worth: (like a melancholy man, that could not be persuaded he had a nose, till by wresting and pinching his next fellow made him feel z D. Bright his Treatise of Melancholy. it; or as the Fool, that could not believe the fire was hot, till his finger was burned, in the flame. I say besides his experiments, that Comments this Text: we have evident Demonstrations. For if that be a lying Vanity, according to a In Psal. 4. CHRYSOSEOME, that hath Nomen sinere, a titulary name without reality, as is Vtilitatis expers, devoid of Profit, which as the Parisian Divine enlargeth b Guielmus Parisiensis. it; Nec confert plenitudinem, pontinenti, nec fulcimentum innitenti: nec fructum laboranti. Neither brings fullness to the subject containing it; nor sound stay to those that rely on it; nor fruit, nor benefit, to those that labour about it: then all sublunary vanities, are of this nature: (as we shall see anon, in the persecution of particulars, are indeed Mendaces, & Infidi: because they grossly and greevously lie, to those which set their hearts upon them: as c Gen. 31.7 LABAN to JACOB, promising fair, but performing foul: Like Mountebanks, Impostors, Empirics, and Quacksalvers, that to set out their vaenall drugs, and magnify their skill, with braggodokean and bombasted words, promise great cures which they never accomplish; their wares, (as their works) their deeds (as their drugs, and dregs) being altogether sophisticate, or like a painted JEZABEL, a frizzled Whore, which promiseth a man desired d Prov. 7.16 17, 18 delight, but brings his Name to wounds and scars; his Conscience on the Rack; his Estate, to a morsel of bread: his Body to Diseases; and his Soul to e V 26.32.33 See Downan in one of his 4. Treatises: de adulterio. Damnation: they promise more than CYRUS did, to his f Zenophon l. 7. de paedai Cyri. & Camer. Cent. 2. oper. Suc. c. 32. Soldiers; more than SAUL to his Courtiers, and g 1. San. 22.7. Campers; more than CROESUS to h Craeso valde Familiaris apud Brusonium & Fulgosum. tit. de amicitia. ANACHARSIS, yea more than BALAACK to i Num. 22.7 BALAAM: but as PYRRHUS was called Doson daturus, because he was ever about to give, but never gave: so every vanity, is promissurus, promising by else, (as the Athenians are said to speak) but (as they are said to do,) performing by Inches: as that George, on Horseback: ever on Cockhorse, but never riding: all their glory, being but as the shining of k In Italia, Cydendulae, vel Lampyrides dictae Plinius l. 11 28. Vincent. l. 20. c. 126. Glow-worms, in a winter's night: as a painted Post, fair without, and rotten dust within; as a Quagmire, green above, but full of Muds, Toads, Frogs, and nuts at the bottom: as a glorious Sepulchre, laid over with brass, or carved marble, yet within full of dead Skulls, Scalps, rotten bones, and mummiamized Earth: as a painted face, which shining and glittering a fare off, appears ugly, old, and wrinkled, when the fasting breath hath dispersed the varnish, and shown the graceless grace, which lay hid, (as a Serpent under the green grass, or a Toad under Sage) under the oily colours: thus there is a false Gloss, and varnish set on them, and thus commended to the sons of vanity, by him, who is the Father of ●…l Lies. SECT. 2. Eight Demonstrations of Lying Vanities. But if these be too general, every sublunary Vanity, may be detected and discovered; A Liar, as plainly as CAIN a murderer, JUDAS a Traitor, ACHITOPHEL a Politician; ACHAN a Thief; DEMAS a worldling; JULIAN an Apostate, ANANIAS an Hypocrite, or HEROD an Adulterer, and that from these specialties. First, because these vanities promise contentation and satisfaction, to the soul of man, but that grape never grew from these thorns, they produce anxiety, grief, vexation, anguish, discrutiation and discontent, in their procuring, purchase, persecutions, retentions, but especially like the Devil himself, in those he possesseth, they most disquiet in their farewell, and leave taking: as some meats, and drinks, they have an ill gust, and taste at their going down; as it's with Lovers, there's the shrewdest play, at parting; that goes hard, and kills the very old one on the nest; as may be seen, in riches, and honours especially. Secondly, they promise pleasure, and profit, but their pleasure, ends in pain: as a hot gleaming Sun, in a storm of Rain: as the honey, in the Bees mouth, ends in a sting in the Tail; Voluptas decedit, poena remanet: the pleasure is transient, the pain permanent: breve est quod delectat, aeternum quod m Augustine cruciat: its momentany that pleaseth the flesh: eternal that cruciates and torments the n Pro. 23.33 spirit; here inchoate, in the Conscience, continuate (but never consummate) but in Hell: and for profit: what profit have you in these things, tells the Apostle his Convert Romans, whereof you are now ashamed: JUDAS, his golden hopes; ABSOLOM his ambitious hopes, ends both in two Halters, the one of o Rom. 6.21 Hemp, the other of his own p Mat. 27.4 hair, and now both meet, in one Centre q 2. Sam. 11.9 of Hell. Thirdly, they promise happiness, and felicity, as Siferaes' mother promised him r Psal. 9.17, & Act. 1.25 victory, as Poole and Cardinal Woolsey promised themselves s judg. 5.28 Popedomes; as Pyrrhus promised himself, the Empire of Grecia, but they perform as much as the crafty old t Apud Foxum in Martyrol●gia & Speed in Chronicis, in vita Mariae & Henrici. 8 Prophet, who deluded the credulous young; when Pylat after his Presidentship, lies and dies in a Ditch at Lions, when Richard the 3. after all his Butcheries, is slain in Bosworth u 1. King. 13 18 Field; when Croesus is taken by Cyrus, and tied to the stake to be * Euseb. l. 2.7. & Nicep. lib. 2. c. 10. Say he killed himself, but Hierom. in Math. 2. & Antoninus, 1. Part. hist. tit. 6. c, 20. Say he was banished to Lions, there died in a Lake. burned; when Cyrus as thirsty of blood and gold, is thrown a Vessel of molten gold, to drink his fill; when that proud Pelian youth is poisoned, in the midst of years, and glories, as a tree cut down in the blooming x Of all these, see Speed, Stow, & Hollinshed, in our English Chron. apud Her. l. 1. & Orisium, l. 2. c. 6. spring; when WOOLSEYES' head on a sudden y Apud Curtium Plut. in vita Alexandri, Arrianum l. 7. Diod. Sicul. l. 10. is sent to be chopped off from his treacherous n He prevents it by poisoning himself, as it was thought. body: when NAEUCHADNEZZARS' pride is thrown down, from feasting in great Babel, to feed in the Forest, with bruit o Dan. 4.33 & apud josephum Antiq. lib. 10. c. 18. beasts: yea above all, when the Georgeous, and gluttonous Gospel's Helluo, that would not feast LAZARUS, is feasted in Hell, with fire and p Luk. 16.24 brimstone, without so much drink as one q Qui non dedit Micam, non accepit guttam Augustine. drop: all these, with thousands more, in examples, sacred, civil, and profane, give in their testimonials, what felicity, tranquillity, beatitude, blessedness, there is in the enjoying, of any earthly vanity in any humane estate, and condition, whatsoever. Fourthly, they promise certainty; but they are as uncertain as the Waves in their fluctuations, as the weather in the variations: as the wand'ring r De quibus lege Purbaechium in Theorica Planet. Oswaldum & Jmlserum in easdem Theoricas cum Tabulis Blanchini & Prugneti. Stars, in their motions, yea as the Winds in their sufflations, (altering in all their uncertainties, in their 32. s De Omnibus divisionibus ventorum lege, Plin. lib. 2. c. 47. Gellium l. 2. c. 22. Arist. l. 2. c. 4.6. & Senecam lib. 5. quaest. nature. points; so uncertain are those sublunaries in their purchases, use, residence: getting: keeping, parting. Fifthly, they promise Perpetuity & Continuance when they are as brittle as glass: as frail as Ice: as unconstant as the Moon; as light as a feather; as momentory as thought: as short lived as Pigmees, (which at most usually live t Odorious de rebus Judicis lib. 1. & Albert. Anim. l. 7. c. 6. but 8. years) nay sometimes as that u Mane Oritur nocte moritur unde Ephemerum, 1. Diarum appellatur, secundum Arist. l. 1. c. 5. l. 5. c. 19 & Aelian. l. 2.6.4. Ephemora, that life's but eight hours (like TULLY'S Consul, that never slept all the time of his Magistracy, but died the same day he was created:) alas how soon do honour and riches, take their wings, us an Aeagle? And suddenly take their leave, as the Swallows in Winter? The Cuckoos in june? How doth one day see JOB, the richest, and the * job. 1. poorest, the most mighty, and the most miserable man, of all the East? One hour sees BAIACETH, the great Commander of the Ottomans; and an iron Caged x Melancton in Chronicis, lib. 5. pag. 644. Camerarins. oper. succ. pag. 330.331. Precipue Spinaeus de Am. tranq. pag. 373.374.375. & Gorlic. in axiom. Pol. pag. 655. instant in Bajarete Bellisario regulo Pompejo, Julio Aemilio Zerxe ugolinor. alijsque fortunae judibrijs. Prisoner: NABUCHADNEZZAR a petty God in his y Dan. 4. Josephus contra Appion, lib. 1. & Sleidanus do 4. Monarchijs in decimo sexto. p. 27. Palace, and a Beast (in his own imagination) in the Park? What a short Interim was there betwixt haman's honours in the Court of z Esth. 5.11. ASSVERUS; and his hanging on the a Chapt. 7.10. Gallows? Betwixt ADONIAHS' attendance, with fifty footmen, as a conceited b 1. Kings. 1.5. King, and his footing it for his life (as some murderer making, for a Sanctuary or a Monastery) to depend on the Horns of the c Vers. 51.52. Altar, as a guilty Traitor? So glories fade as the morning's mists, the Summer's dew: and the breath of man, upon steel, Sic transit gloria Mundi. Sixthly they promise much sweetness, joy, delight, and contentation hence they are desired vehemently (as the Dogs and Crow's Carrion) men venture neck-breake for them, as the Panther for man's desired d Solinus cap. 20. & Plinius lib. 2. cap. 25. excrements: and when they have them, for a time they are sweet unto them; they suck them, as children their Teats, they cry for them, as fools for Babbles; they retain them as HERCULES his Club; they gripe them, as the Eagle, and Hawk their prey; they are as unwilling to part with them, as with the blood from their veins; as PARISH from his HELENA; Phaltiel from his wife e 2. Sam. 3.16 Michall; or f Gen. 31.30 LABAN and MICHAY from their Idols: g judg. 18.24. they hid● them in their hearts (as Children Sugar under their tongue roots) sucking sweetness from h job. 20.12 them, but at last, the sweetest wine of vanity, turns into the sourest i Vinegar quasi Wineaeager. Vinegar of vexation: the best contents of vicious vanities, ends in discontents, as a squib in smoke, and sulphur: as SALOMON speaks of one drunken Vanity, we may speak of all; at last they bite like a Serpent, and sting like a k Pro. 23.33 Cockatrice; they vex like a Tick; they pierce like a sword; they gnaw like a Viper; they smell like Assa fetida: they grow loathsome in the end, like Israel's lusted l Num. 11.32 Quails. Seaventhly, they promise much: and many good things both to soul and body: as achan's stolen m Iosh. 7.25 wedge, & Ps. 78.30 31 JUDAS treason-gotten n Act. 1.25 silver; ANANIAS and SAPHIRAES' lying and juggling for o Act. 5.5.10 gain; promised to make them all rich; as AMMON'S incest with p 2. San. 13.32. THAMAR, SICHEMS' lust with his darling q Gen. 34.26 DINAH, promised them fleshly contentation, but these sinful, and sensual vanities, burned the first; hanged the second; strooke suddenly dead the third, and fourth; shed the blood of the fift, and sixth; So every other vanity, not only sinful and criminal in it own nature, but these that are natural, temporary, adventitiall, acquired (according to their first distinctions, these things, that are good in their own nature, (or indifferent) once being by our ignorance, pride, vanity, perverseness, sensuality, abused; they prove noxious and hurtful unto us, as good meat to a corrupt stomach; they are to us as a knife in the hand of a r Ne puero gladium. Child, a Sword in the hand of a madman; as being accompanied with many evils: and mischiefs: causing, and occasioning; pride of heart, forgetfulness of GOD: (as once in s Deu. 32.15 Israel, security: as in t Luk. 17.28 Sodom, and the men of u judges, 18 Laish) neglect of GOD'S call; contempt of Grace, blindness of mind, alienation, and estranging of the heart, from God: yea Idolatry itself, with many such fearful effects produced, both in respect of God, our neighbours, and ourselves. Eighthly, (or the eight-lye) of these Vanities is, that they promise us ease, and help, in the day of trouble, and of trial: when then they themselves prove the greatest troubles; like the wings of a Bird that's limed, help not, but hinder her flight, in a danger: as the two great sails spread in a little Pinnace, rather overbeare her, than clear her in a storm; as a wedge of gold (the worldlings * Pro. 18.11 help and hope) if he were cast into the Sea, with it hung about his neck, would sooner drown him, than deliver him, these externals like sick men not able to help themselves (like the Trojan Penates, the Heathens Household x Vide Majolum de diebus Canicul. Part. 1 de culau de movum Textor 15. Officinan. pag. 25. de Deorum multitudne. With our English Atheomastix in Folio GOD'S; Israel's Golden Calf, the Ammonites Baal, and our Popish Gods, of brass, lead and y Vide Reinoldum de Jdolatria Romanae Ecclesiae. stone: being not able to deliver themselves, can they deliver us? When troubles come upon us, as sudden storms: as travel on a woman; not to be prevented: when sickness seizeth on us as an armed man, Diseases and Death arrest us, as God's Sergeants; when grievous pains hold us as God's jailors: the Gout, Stone, Strangury, colics, Stitches, Tooth-akes, Agues; the demerits of z Lev. 26.16 & Deut. 28. Vers. 21.22 sin: torture and torment us, as God's Executioners: but chief, when the Conscience within us, houkes like a Wolf, bites like an Asp, stings as a viper, the bowels that bred a De horrore terrore, & latraetu malae conscientiae, qui vult. consulat Lutherum in Gen. p. 486.652. & 671. in cap. 31.43. & 45. cum Strigellio, in lib. 1. Ethic. pag. 6, 7, 8. & Pezelio in Gen. cap. 37. pag. 714. cap. 42. pag. 794. & 789. & in cap. 45. pag. 835. Sic in c. 50. Pag. 971.5. it; In these and such like trials, troubles, and exigents, in the day of Affliction and Visitation, what help? What hope? What remedy? What redress? What comfort? What contentation? Is in these externals? Do they not fly as Israel at the sight of b 1. Sam. 17.24. GOLIATH: are they not the reeds of c Esay, 30.3. Egypt, to rest upon? They brag indeed much what they will do (as d judges, 9.28. Gaall once against Abimelech) but in the storm of Afflictions, external and internal, like Snails, they pull in their heads, they hide themselves when they are sought for, as SAUL behind the e 1. Sam. 10.22. stuff; and if they present themselves, they prove like JOES' three friends to that perplexed Patriarch: only miserable Comforters, they cannot mitigate and assuage the least pain; not quench the least fire; not bail out of the least fetters of Affliction: not reprieve us one hour from the stroke of death? Yea in every trouble, danger and distress, in the outward and inward man: like false friends, they leave us in the lapse, and in the lurch: they say to us, as the rebelling revolting Tribes, to REHOBOAM Look to thine own house DAVID; 1. King. 12.16. Thus as the Touchstone discerns the badness of the mettle: as the Candle discovers, the Thief: as the Sun dispels the dark, the spirit of Truth, reveals the falsity and insufficiency of these lying Vanities: so that whosoever rest, on these broken staves: may say with those in the Prophet: We have made falsehood our refuge, and under Vanity are we hid. Thus IONAS hath given in his Verdict. CHAP. XII. SECT. 1. Salomon's depth of Wisdom diveing and wadeing into the utility and vanity of things Sublunary. But in the last place (as the best Wine in the Feast was reserved for the last) we have our last Argument from Solomon, as most Archillean, invincible, demonstrative, and conclusive: which is Omni exceptione maior: we have salomon's Verdict, truly resolving the insufficiency of every sublunary transient, transitory Vanity, to satisfy the soul of man, more than the Husks of the Prodigal: for Solomon speaks more certainly than that Apollo, extripode: of every earthly experimented carnal content: Vanity of Vanity, yea all is but f Eccl. 1.2. Vanity, saith the Preacher. Which vehement & grounded Assertion of his, aught to carry a thousand times more weight with us: than any axiom of Aristotle: amongst his Pyripatitions: of Zeno amongst his Stoics: than Pythagoras his ipse dixit: among his Pythagorians: than the saying and Apothegms of Socrates, Solon, Byas, Periander, Thales, and other wise Sages amongst the Greeks and g Collected by Fulgosus Brusonius, Diogenes Laertius, Valerius, & others in their examples, and by Lycosthenes in his Apothegms. Romans: yea than the Delean Lots: or these Oracles, whether Pythian, Delphic: Dyndimean, Pernassean, Antiochean, Tryphonean, Amphiarian, Egyptian, Thrafian (as they are distinguished h Apud M●…j●…um de di●…bus Ca●…i●…. parte 2. colloq. 2. p. 1●…6 137, 138. among the Heathens: with which the best and most of them consulted; for these Oracles (as if juggling Priests and equivocating i De Jmposturis & mendacijs Monachorun, lege plurima exempla, apud lom●…rum, in 6. praecep. folio, 495, 496. Jesuits, had spoke in them, as usually in their Popish Images) gave very ambiguous, doubtful, and deluding answers, to the Greek k Quod capturas esset Jlium. Agamemnon, the Theban l Apud Sindam & Parsaeniam, in Arcadicis. Epamminond, the Persian m Herod. l. 3 Cambyses, the Lydian n Herod. l. 1 Croesus, the Macedonian o Valer. l. 1. cap. 8. Phylip, Dionysius the p Diodor. l. 1 Syracusan, Eschilus' the q Valer. lib. 6 cap. 14. Tragedian, Daphidas the r Valer. lib. 1 cap. de Mir. Sophist, and divers more: because indeed, they were not inspired by Apollo, jupiter, Hamon, Mars, Bacchus, and other their fictitious Gods, (as their Paganish Theology, believed) but by the very Devil himself, that spoke in them, as he spoke in the tempting s Pareus & Parerius in c. 8. Gen. Serpents, in an Ox at t Aug. de Civ. Dei, l. 1. c. 31. ex Liv. Rome, in the u Vide Lorinum in acta Apost. c. 16. Pithonists, and some possessed: and in former times and perhaps at this day, in some * Exempla extant apud Lavaterum de spectris Part. 1. c. 7. Sleidanum, de Statu reip. sub. Carolo. 5. l. 9 Cypr. de Valeria de missa in fine l. p. 424, 425, 426. de Imposturis Papisticis. Images, amongst the Papists: But Solomon spoke by an unerring spirit: by a wisdom incomparable: both Moral, Theological, and Experimental: more than ever was infident to mere mortal man: in which three particulars, if we should but a little insist, and reflex both upon the man, and the matter: the Preacher, and his Text: his Testimony, will take a greater Impression, both in our judgements, and affections: chiefly if we consider the time, when he gave this his great his grand, judicious verdict of Vanity: For the first, since the Wisdom of a man, whether real, or only in men's imaginations, gives a great weight and lustre, unto his words (as the same words spoke, by an old man, by reason of his approved gravity, carry more force, than if spoke by a young man, of less experience:) so SALOMON, being for wisdom, as an Angel of God: as the woman of Tekoah said of his father x 2. San. 14 22 DAVID, yea as an Oracle of God, shining amongst men, as the Sun amongst the Planets: y Extat elogium Zenocratis lib. 4. de dictis Socratis; & Platonis in fine Phedenis. de Socr. wiser than all the Greek and Roman Sages, than all the Persian magi, the French Druids, the Indian Bracmans, the ancient Philosophers (SOCRATES himself not excepted, whom APOLLO's Oracle judged most wise) yea wiser than ETHAN the Ezrite: than HEMAN, and COLCOLL, and DORBA, the sons of z 1, Kings, 4 31 MAHOL●, which were wise men, living in the time of SALOMON, or Prophesying in Egypt, as the learned a Josephus l. 8. antiq. c. 2 think, and not the ancient Patriarches, as some b H●r in q. imagine: yea SALOMON for mortal Wisdom: (as JOHN COONATUS, CAIETAN, and PERERIUS limit it) and for humane knowledge, being not inferior (as some e Rabbi Moses, lib. 1. ductores, & lib. 3. cap. 35 Rabbis and Vibaldus f Tract. de Magnif. Salomoni in cap. de sapi. ex joseph, Antiq. 8. c. 2. have imagined) either to JOHN the Baptist, or to MOSES, learned in all the learning of the Egyptians: Act. 7.22. Or to ABRAHAM; or to DANIEL, that was wiser than all the Chaldeans, and Augurists, in the University of Suza, or to his father DAVID, that was quo sanctior, eo sapientior, as holier, so wiser than other men, yea, wiser than his Teachers, or than the aged: Psal. 119. Wiser, thinks g Vives in l. 18. de Civ. Dei. cap. 20 Augustine, h Orat. 2. Nazianzen, and i In cap. 1. Eccles. v. 16 Thanmanturgus, than any mere mortal man, not only wiser, than all the men of his time, to which St. k In c. 1. Ec. Jerome seems to parallel him, only; but even wiser than all mere men that went before him, not only in jerusalem as himself confesseth, but in the whole world of jews and Gentiles: equal thinks l In l. 1. Reg. cap. 3. q. 7. Abulensis, to Adam himself, even in his Created Wisdom: transcendent, and superlative in wisdom, as Symmachus the Hebrew, and the Chaldee express it, from his own m Addidi sapientiam, super alios, c. v. 16, 17. phrases: so wise a Philosopher, that he was able to dispute of any thing in Nature, from Angels to Worms, from the Cedar of Libanon, to the Hyssop on the n 1. Kings, 4 33 Wall: from whom o Proemio in Canticis. Origen thinks, that even the greatest Philosophers, had their greatest light, into the mysteries of Nature, since the most and best of them, as Clemens Alexandrinus p L. 5. Stron. proves, writ after Solomon, and so probably reading his works, (which are now q Incuria vol iniuria temporum. perished) lapping in his Basin for Philosophy, as the Poets in Homer's for Poetry: Solomon whose wisdom was not so much acquired, by study, industry, education (as the Indians dig their Mines, and as Abraham and Isaac had their wells and r Gen 26. v. 18, 19, 21. waters, by digging; but infused as the fruit of s 1. Kings, 3 9.12. Prayer, as waters that are reigned, and showered down from above; in such abundance, that he is said to have Wisdom and Understanding exceeding much; even a large heart, as the sand of the Sea t 1. Kings, 4 29 shore: SALOMON whose wisdom was so glorious and splendent, as a Beacon on a Mount, a City on a Hill, that was conspicuous to the whole world, being the Adamant not only to draw HIKAM the King of Tyre, and the Queen of Sheba from the utmost u 1. King. 10 2 South, but all the Kings of the Earth, to hear his * 1. King. 34 Wisdom, (as many came from all parts, to hear and see Origen in Alexandria, LIVY in Rome, and LUTHER in Saxony, that were as much inferior to him, as the least Star to the Moon, the Moon to the Sun: SALOMON more famous for wisdom, than x judg. 16 30. SAMSON and y judg. 3.31 SAINGAR for strength: than ACHITOPHEL for z 2. Sam. 16.23 policy; than TULLY or DEMOSTHENES for eloquence; than a 2. Sam. 14 25 ABSALON, b Gen. 39.6 JOSEPH, or c 1. Kin. 1.6 ADONIAH, for beauty, or any other for any common gifts, or graces: who gave excellent demonstrations of his wisdom, both in the Acts, he did, in judging between the true mother and the pretended, in the case of the controverted d 1. Kings, 3 Child, as also in the words that he spoke, disputing not only in Natural Philosophy, of the Heavens, the Earth, the Eliments, the Sun, Moon, Stars, Planets, Comets, Meteors, Beasts, Birds, Fish, Fowle, Infects, Herbs, Trees, Plants, Mines, Minerals, more truly and judiciously, than either ARISTOTLE, PLINY, AELIANUS, VINCENTIUS, ALBERTAS GALEN, THEOPHRASTUS, DIOSCORIDES, GERALD, DODONAEUS, or any other Philosopher, Physician, or Herbalist whatsoever: but in Economical, Moral, and ethical Philosophy, in three thousand Parables, and e 1. King. 4.32. Proverbes, which he spoke at his Table, and at other times, by special Providence collected, and preserved, by the Servants of EZECHTAS, (as the Psalms of his Father DAVID, by EZRA the Scribe; and the speeches of LUTHER; MELANCTON, ERASMUS, and other famous lights of the Church, are gathered and digested by f Vide Mālij Colloquia, in 8. MANLIUS, and g So Melanctons' Chronicles are finished by Carion his Poschils, by Pezelius Chimnitius, his Harmony is perfected by Lyserus. Zanchy on the Commandments by Quirinus. Mr. Perkins on Galatheans, by Mr. Cu●worth, other writings preserved, and perfected by others. others) this SALOMON as a stream from the Fountain, as a beam from the Sun of his fire-shining wisdom: tanquam Doctor é Cathedra: as a Doctor from his Chair, as a judge from his seat, or Throne, gave this sentence, and censure, of all things under the Cape of Heaven, disjointed and disjoined from the knowledge, fear, and worship of God, (which he makes the summa totalis, and the end of all: that they are Vanity of Vanity and all but Vanity, emptiness, and vacuity, like our Prodigals Husks, in this my Text: Incompetent and sufficient, to fill the vast, and immense desire, of the soul of man. SECT. 2. Salomon's Censure of lying Vanities, from his own experience. THis you see is the Verdict of him, whom it may be better said than PLUTARK of SENECA, that he was nulli secundus, second to none, to whom these hyperbolical Eulogies, and Commendations, which PLATO and ZENOPHON give to SOCRATES, HIPPOCRATES, to DEMOCRITUS; IVI JAN the Apostate, and PHILOSTRATUS, to Apollonius h julian did compare that Nicromancer, with Christ. Tyraneus, LUCRETIUS to his Master Epicurus, ENNAPIUS of Longinus, Scoppius of julius Scaliger: PAULUS JOVIUS of Picus Mirandula; others of ARISTOTLE, may be truly and fitly appropriated, for he indeed was Aquilus in Nubibus, an Aeagle in the Clouds: a miracle of Nature; a walking i Keckerman so called D. Reynolds. Library, the Sun of Sciences: A Sea and an Abyss of Knowledge; a Lamp of the World: Qui genus humanam, ingenio superavit, & omnes, restrinxit Stellas exortus ut aetherius Sol; Whose wisdom did excel all men, as fare, As doth the splendent Sun, a twinkling star. Being sanctuarium Sapientiae, a Sanctuary of sapience: fare shining above, either the Britain Druids, the Aethiopian Gymnosophists: or the wisest of the Heathens, whom LACTANTIUS in his books of k Lib. 3. de Sapientia, c. 17. & 20. Wisdom, Censures, as l Tractatu & de curatione Grac. affect. Theodoretus censures Socrates, (even the wisest of them,) as the Apostle before them both, speaks of all of them: to be very m Rom. 1.21 22. fools, such an one indeed, that if SUPPUTIUS n Aut. Dial. in PONTANUS, had lived in the time of SALOMON, he would never so peremptorily have affirmed that travailing over all Europe to meet with a wise man, he had missed his mark, and returned without his errand: had he made but a step into Asia, and met with SALOMON, and heard him utter his Parables, (as his own Servants and the Queen of Sheba did) chief preach this Ecclesiastes, or verdict against vanity, he would have been of an another opinion. But which is further remarkable, Solomon doth not only utter this, out of the Fountain & deep abyss of his wisdom, but drawing these waters out of the well of his own experience, to quench the fire of lustful vanities, as more effectual, than all the Pope's holy-water, he besprincles the souls of the sons of men: For besides his pious and Prophetical spirit, with which this holy Prophet, as some call o Augustinus de Civit. Dei l. 17. c. 20. him, was inspired, like the rest of the holy Prophets, when he writ the same Canonical Ecclesiastes, or book of the Preacher, the true testimonial of his Repentance, and so cons quently, of his (needlessly questioned) salvation: he draws this book (whereof repent Vanity is the Argument) as the p De hac Bembice vel verim Jndico Ambr. in Exem. l. 5 c. 23. & Basil in Exe m. hom. 8. Silkworm her clew, or the Spider q De miris istis Aranearum Texturis Arist. 9 bist. cap. 39 Aelian. lib. 6. c. 56. August. Ep. 101 her web, even out of the bowels of his own experience: for as Paul writes, I aged r Ad Philem. v. 9 Paul; so Solomon, aged Solomon, preaching Solomon converted, and turned now from his vicious Vanities, his manifest and manifold Adulteries, and Idolatries; as Saul from his s Acts. 9.20 Acts, 23.6 Pharisaisme Augustine from his u Ex Confess. l. 8. ex Possidoneo in ejus vina & Magcent 3. c. 10. pag. 11 13. Mantchisme, Luther from his * ●idanus & Osia●der. Cent. 16. l. 1 p. 5● Papism, he like blessed Peter, converted and x Lu. ●2, 32 turned, labours the conversion and turning of others his own filthy soiled soul, deformed and defiled, w●shed in the Laver of Regeneration he seeks to wash others in the waters of the Sanctuary, himself being plucked, as a brand out of the fire as Reuben plucked joseph out of the y Gen. 37.29 Pit, he would drag & draw out others, out of the puddle of polluting pleasures: as a note of a true Convert, distinguishing him, and all in his case, from all temporizers, and hypocrites (as SIBBOLETH and SHIBBOLETH, distinguished z judg. 12, 6 EPHRAMITES, from GILBADITES, as the Touchstone the Gold from the Copper, as he had sinned publicly, (as his Father DAVID, by publishing his penitential a Psal 38. Psal. 51. cum caeteris, Vide Vegam in Psalmos penitent. Psalms, after his grievous falls; as St. AUGUSTINE publicly retracting b In lib. retratactionum his leaving errors; as c Fox in Martyrologio. CRAMMER, publicly burning that his culpable hand, which subscribed to Popish Heresies) so he testifying this his Repentance publicly by this his Ecclesiastes or book of the Preacher having true and saving grace, (as the Sun his light, the fire his heat, the Seas the waters, the air his moisture, the earth her fruits) he is studious and desirous to communicate this grace to others: Like that other Disciple, and d joh. 1.4. & v. 46. ANDREW, that having found CHRIST themselves, call their friends PETER and NATHANIEL to them, as the Samaritan e joh. 4.29 woman, preacheth him to her Samaritans' the noble Aethiopian Eunuch, (as the learned f Jrenaus l. 3 cap. 12. & l. 4. cap. 40. sic Euseb. l. 2. c. 1. & Nicep. lib. 1. cap. 6. think, to his Aethiopians) being first inflamed with his love themselves, as the Church was in the g Cant. 5.9 10. Canticles, they would with her kindle sparks of love in all others, (as PAUL with h Act. 26.27 29. AGRIPPA) desirous to win others to the faith, like themselves; for the whole argument of this book, being not only natural, and moral Discipline; but according to i Prologa i● Ca●. ORIGEN, and and k Hom. 1. in Principio Proverbio. BASIL, a fire or a light set upon a Beacon to discover to the sons of men, a dangerous enemy, out of whose jaws he himself, by a special mercy had now escaped; or a spiritual Herald, blowing a trumpet to sound a retreat from their dangerous March, after these soule-polluting perishing vanities, the whole argument and subject, of the book, being a discovery of several l Vanitates naturae, culpae miseriae. Vanities; which the m Vaellanicensis de ratione stud. l. 2. c. 16. Canus in locis cap. ultimo Salmera●. Tom. 1. proleg. 9 sic. Bonaventure Hugo Card. & Hugo Victor. Moderns rank in several heads. In the first Chapter, demonstrating the vanity of humane Arts, and Sciences, and worldly wisdom. In the seoond, the vanity of the appetite, and desire of pleasure, and delicious things. In the third; vain desire of long life, and propagation of our days. In the fourth, and fifth, the vacuity of ambitious desires, of rule, place, dominion, and superiority. In the 6. the vacuity of that devouring gulf, the unsatiable desires after riches. In the 7. the vacuity of divining, prognosticating, and foretelling things to come. In the 8. the vanity of hunting after applause, and praise of men, catching the popular Air. In midst of the 8. Chapter, and 9 the Vanity of the Heathenish and Paganish fortune. In part of the 9 and 10. the vanity of corporal and bodily strength. In the 11. and 12. the Vanity of flowering, and flourishing youth; all these heads as a spiritual HERCULES, though as many and monstrous as that m De Hercule Ethice, apud Ravisium, in Theat. l. 8. p. 85 5. & de Hydra apud Majolum de dich. Canic. part. 1. Colloq. 1. p. 12. Hydra's, he labours, to lop off with the sword of the spirit, lest they sting others, as they have wounded him: all these Cates of vanities, like those of Appolonius Tyrancus, he shows to be painted; or like the wine which Pope Alexander brewed his Cardinal's poison, but drunk n Nauclerus Balaeus, & Chron. Funccij fol. 165. apud Osiandrum cent. 15 l. 4 p. 492. it himself; or at least as our Prodigals Husks, or Gland, unsatisfying: as he hath received the Aconite and Mithridate against their poison, so he administers it, as preventing or purging Physic to others: he knows, the dangerous sting that is in every vanity, which fixing in the soul of any vain man, like some sting with some kind of o De quibus Majolus ut supra volumin. 1. Coll. 8. tit. serpentum. Serpents, he either dies laughing: or else sleeping, as they that have taken supe●bundant of Poppy, or Opium, or such dormitory potions, unless they be awakened, in a determinate time: therefore as a Physician, careful of his Patients, to keep them waking: or to awake those that are asleep or slumber in vanity with their golden deluding gulling dreams. Cynthius' aurem Vellit, he plucks them by the ears; he rings them a peal as loud as Bow-bell, yea as loud as Thunder: he lifts up his voice as a Trumpet, that as it's said of the old p Allusio Origenis Hom. in Psal. 38. & Geminiani, in summa Exempl. Lions, that by their loud yell awake their long sleeping, dead-seeming young: he may rouse, and raise men out of their Lethargical slumbers in their vanities: Solomon as now escaped, from these enemies, sets up a flag of defiance, against them; as a man new got out of the gulf & quagmire of Vanity, he now sets up a stake as the fashion of charitable men is to forewarn others of the same peril: as the rich Helluoh, in the q Luk. 16.28 Gospel, would have his brethren forewarned, that they come not into the like danger; as an incautelous Mariner, having dashed on some sand-bed, and by splitting on some rock himself, having by repentance (which is the second repair of the Navy of the soul r Secunda post naufragium Tabula secundum Canonistas. after shipwreck) swum out as by some board or plank: he cautelously admonisheth others to steer from the discovered shelves: as that Tyrian Queen, he commiserates others, having been in the furnace s Non ignaeramali miseris succurrere disco, apud Virg. himself, as we pity those that are diseased and distressed, by the Gout, Stone, Strangury, Colic, Toothache; if we have been afflicted with these maladies, and as by sympathising tenderly affected, prescribe for their ease, our best experiments. That we have found good in ourselves: so it is betwixt Solomon now recured and recovered, out of his spiritual sows & qualms, & the sons of men surcharged and surfeiting on the Cates of vanity at the Devil's Banquet: he cries to them, as a Mother to a child, ready to eat Mercury, or Ratsbane, with an opinion of Sugar: oh! Hands off, Mors in t 2. Kings, 4 40 olla: death is in the pot, or in the platter: he cries to vain men, in the utmost extension of his powers, as CROESUS dumb son, on a sudden to those that would have murdered his u Apud Brusonium. Father; as Paul and Sylas to the * Act. 16.28 jailor, that would have murdered himself. Oh! do yourselves, oh do yourselves no harm? Ye vain men? Why do you set your hearts on x Psalm. 4.2 Vanity, and follow after leasings? Why do you imagine a vain thing: why do you spin spider's webs? Set nets, & snares, and gins, for your own Souls? Why do you feed on Husks and Swads? As the Israelites once (and the Muscovites now) on Garlic, y Democritus Junior part. 1. Sect. 2. pag. 101. and Onions? As once the Italians, (and our now roving Gypsees) on Frogs and Snails? As our poor hungry vulgar Irish oft on Hawes, and Shamrocks? For such is vanities best food: best Commons? When God's larder, your Father's house, allows you bread enough? (Which bread in God's language includes concludes all, satisfactory good: even the coursest bread, that God's servants eat, being as Israel's Manna above all the Food of worldlings; better than the African and Spanish roots: the American Palmitos and Potatoes: the Chinaes' herbs; the Nomads milk: the Westphalian fat meats: the Tartars raw meats; the Flemings Butter: the Camhro-britaines' white meats: the Scandians fish; Or the chief, and choice of food of any Nations? Ye● GOD'S bread affords more varieties of contents, than that one Indian z Palmae Instar, totius orbis arboribus praestan-Linschoton, cap. 56. Tree, which yields them Coquernuts; meats, drink, fire, fuel, apparel with his leaves; yea oil, Vinegar: and cover for their houses: if Authors relate truly. SECT. 3. Salomon's three Books compared; the sum of his Ecclesiastes, being his verdict, against Vanity. TO express salomon's verdict, of lying Vanities (as jonas calls them, these unsatisfying Husks, as our Prodigal found them: Not bread, as GOD himself in Esay termed them: earthly waters which quench no thirst, as our Saviour himself expressed them) and to press it somewhat fuller and further: We may consider that this book of Ecclesiastes according to Cyrill, being the letters testimonial or Certificate (sealed by the spirit) of his repentance; being (as Most generally hold) the book of his old Age, as joseph was to a Gen. 37.3 jacob, his youngest, his darling, most near and dear unto him: as Abel b Habel: id est vanitas. to Eve his second birth, his better birth: experience being the Godfather, and late (though true) repentance the Godmother, he christens it Vanity: as Tully's book of Offices, and de Senectute, being his last works: the mental issue of his understanding part (as the learned Critic calleth them) show the most maturity of judgement: so this being salomon's last work (as his Canticles was his Benjamin the Son of his right hand, in the prime of his youth) this is his Benanis: the son of the sorrows of his old Age: (as Isaac is called the son of c Gen. 18.14 Promise; d 1 Sam. 1.27 Samuel and e Luk. 1.13. john Baptist, the sons of Prayer: Monicaes' Augustine the son of f Filius precum & lachrimarum, dictus ab Ambrosia. Tears,) he sends this Book as jacob g Gen. 37.14 his joseph, as jesse his youngest son David h 1 Sam. 17.17. to visit his Brethren, to ask them of their welfare, to wish their health and happiness: That as john writes to i Epist. 3. ad Gajum, n. 2. Gaius, they may farewell, even in their Souls as he now fared himself: Yea, he sends this book, as Abraham his Steward Eleazar out, with a k Gen. 24.6 7. blessing, to fetch Rebeccha from her Father's house, and to marry her to his Isaac, the Father's joy: (if I may allegorise with Origen) to fetch the Soul of man, that fair Rebecca out of her Natural birth and abode, in the state of Corruption, in her natural condition, wallowing in her l Ezek. 16.6 blood, soiled with her old and vain Conversation to be Spiritually espoused and married, unto ISAAC'S Antitype, her Lord and Saviour, her head m Berchorium vid. in reduct Morali, vol. 10. cap. 18. and husband, that Ithiell and Vcall; as he, or wise AGUR calls n Prov. 30.1 him, in whom she shall find true joy, and true rest: as NOAH'S Dove o Gen. 8.9. found in NOAH'S Ark, if she will at last leave to feed (with NOAH'S Raven) on the Carrion of the world's vanities; yea this Book, may be as David's spokesmen to p 1 Sam. 25.39. Abigall, after her Disjointing from Naball (the world's folly) to unite, and contract herself, to the GOD of David: or it may be to the Soul, as salomon's Parinimphs and Suitors to Pharaohs daughter, to forget and forgo her Father's q Psal. 45.10 house; to leave and loathe her birth sins, and bred sins: to mortify and crucify her original and actual sins, and transgressions; to break out of all the entangling fetters of all her vicious vanities, and so to marry and unite her self: unto the true, the typified Solomon, the GOD of Solomon: the Prince of peace; the everlasting r Esa. 9.6. Father, in whom, from whom, and by whom, only is perfect joy, and true tranquillity to the immortal Soul, and spirit of mortal and (without God) miserable man. For the better conceiving of this: It's worthy our Animadversion: That as SALOMON as we all know, was the Amanuensis, or penman of the Spirit, to write three Books, the Proverbes, the Canticles, and this his Ecclesiastes: So, as s Lib. de Isaac, cap. 4. & in Psal. 36. in titulo, & in Psal. 118 v. 1. & Praef. in Lucam. AMBROSE, t Hom. in princ. Prov. BASILL, and other expositors note: There is in them a certain Climax or gradation ascending by certain stairs and degrees to more sublime and heavenly matter: For in the Proverbes he allures Ephaebi and young men to honest and lawful things, by that beauty and lustre, that is in virtue, and from the reward of well doing: And this they say answers his Name, Ididiah, or Amabilis: u 2 Sam. 12, 25. Lovely: In this Ecclesiastes, or Book of the Preacher; he provokes these that are Adulti, and more strong and perfect, to the despising and repudiating earthly and terrestrial things: from their insufficiency, blemish and deformity, discovering their perilous and painted beauty: from whence he is termed the Preacher: In the third, his Canticles, his Ep●thalium, or mystical Song: from the consideration of natural and earthly things, Paulo maiora * Virgil. cadendo, he ascends to the speculation, and contemplation of mystical, divine and supernatural things, in which Metaphysical meditations, w●e rest and fix, as in an internal and settled peace; truly anchored in GOD: The Asilum, and Sanctuary of all true rest, and tranquillity: and this answers his third name, SALOMON, or Pacificus: The Peacemaker, or peaceable: Others make his three Books answer the three Courts of the Tabernacle: The outward Court, the inner Court, and the Sanctum Sanctorum: CASSIANUS alludes to that double Abrenuntiation enjoined unto ABRAHAM, of house and habitation: of vices, in manners and Conversation: and of approaching to JEHOVAH by heavenly Contemplation. Others x Richardus. apply his three Books to the three Patriarches; ABRAHAM y Gen. 12.4 & Gen. 22.3 was obedient; ISAAC digged z Gen. 26.19.21, 22, 32. Wells; JACOB saw a Gen. 28.12 visions, even Angels ascending and descending: His Proverbes urgeth and persuades obedience to the voice of Wisdom: Even to CHRIST, the second person in Trinity, the wisdom of the Father: Ecclesiastes is a well or fountain of heavenly Counsels, and conclusions, digged deep from his own dear bought experiments, to the watering and refreshing of the Israel of GOD: The Canticles soars higher as an Eagle, under the veil and shadow of the letter from his matrimonial love to PHARAOHS Daughter, as carried up into a Divine rapture and ecstasy, singing the mystical love, betwixt Christ and the Church: But least (as is the fashion of the Speculative Friars, and contemplative Monks) these allegories be too fare stretched, as on the Lasts, and Tentors (as a man's nose that's too hard wrung, gives blood:) Popery affording moe allegorising Origenists, than found Textuists: So I like that tropological order, which BERNARD observes b Bernard, in Canticis. that In primo pellitur superfluus amor sui: In secundo: Vanus amor mundi: In tertio perscribitur, castus amor Dei: The Proverbes dissuade, that Philautia and superfluous foolish love of ourselves: The Ecclesiastes dissuades, the vain and worthless love of the vicious world: The Canticles persuade, the pure and chaste, and perfect love of GOD: who as he best deserves, only desires our hearts c Prov. 23.26. and affections: I will not discuss (much less determine) the Time, when these three Books were writ, whether his Canticles were writ in his youth d The Book called salomon's solace, cap. 27. pag. 113. thinks the Canticles writ before the 20. year of his Age. before his Fall: Or according to e Praefatione in Joshuam. BEZA, and f De Haeres. PHILASTRIUS, in his old Age, when his heart was purged and purified: Though according to others, his Proverbes were writ in his elder years, his Ecclesiastes in his extreme old Age; I will not stand on things Conjectural, in the fluctuations of opinions; but I like the allusions of the Ancients: That they are all three of them like the triple Passeover in Egypt: (Exod. 12.1.) In the Wilderness: and in Gilgall beyond jordan: (josh 5.10.) Or like that triple kiss of the hand, the foot, and the g Oseulum oris mannum, pedum, etc. mouth, testifying Love, observance, and obedience: Or like that threefold Cord, not easily broken; drawing and dragging the Soul of man, out of the pit and puddle of vanity, (as JEREMY was drawn out of the miry Dungeon) and pulling it upwards, nearer unto God: the Souls sole and sovereign good. SECT. 4. The aims and ends SALOMON, that he may effect, what he doth affect. LEt us mark further, as very worthy our consiration, with what vehemency, and ardency SALOMON speaks, what pathetical and emphatical words and phrases he useth: and we shall see that neither ULYSSES nor NESTOR, so famoused by h In his Odyses and Iliads. HOMER, for their eloquence: nor ZENOPHON the flower of i At. 9 Melipta dictus. Rhetoric, nor the Orator CYNEAS whose tongue won PYRRHUS more Cities than his k Patritius de regno lib, 1. tit. 5. & Gorlicij axiom. Oecon. p. 309. Army, nor DEMOSTHENES whose eloquence, PHILIP, more l Impediebat ejus Conacus excitata contra cum Graecia: Gorlicij axiom. Politica axiom. 126. p. 293. feared, than all the war engines of the Athenians: nor CATO CENSORIUS called the Roman DEMOSTHENES: nor TULLY held the Prince of Latin m Oratorum facile Princeps, & Gorypheus'. Orators, nor LACTANTIUS called the Christian CICERO: nor STURMIUS called the Germane TULLY; nor CORNELIUS GATHEGUS, the marrow of n Populi delibutus, suadaeque Medulla. Persuasion; nor CATO GRAMMATICUS, the Attic o Attic. Syr. Siren, nor that learned linguist, called the HOMER of p Hieronimus Theologorum Homerus. Divines, nor any other, ever used more exquisite Oratory, either persuasive, or dissuasive; than this our SALOMON, to expel and supplant out of the hearts of men, the vain love of the world, and to fix and plant instead of it, that same Regius amor; that royal, loyal, regal, and only legal love of God: for as was said of the Oratory of PERICLES', we may much more affirm it of salomon's, Quasi fulminare & acculeos, in animis auditorum relinquere videtur Alstedius, in Epistola Dedicatoria ante Rhetoricam. he seems as it were to thunder, and to leave pricks and goads in the hearts of his Auditors; for as the fire long smothered, breaks out into a sudden flame, he being in a deep and serious meditation of the world's vanity, awaking as affrighted out of a terrible dream, or out of a dead swoon: in a sudden rapture, or ecstasy: as having presently escaped drowning, burning, massacring, or some immanent (eminent) danger: he cries out of a sudden; Oh Vanity of Vanity Vanity of Vanities, saith the Preacher; like that passionate r Cicero. Orator, that reasonates; Oh tempora? Oh mores? Oh times? Oh manners? As the Comedian, Oh Coelum? Oh terra? Oh Heavens? Oh Earth? As the s Horatius Persijs, Sat. 1 Poet, Oh curas hominum? Oh quantum est in rebus inane? Oh the fond cares and conceits of men? Oh what Vanity, what Villainy is in the Earth; As the mournful Prophet t jer. 22.29 JEREMY, Oh Earth; Earth; Earth; Hear the word of the Lord: as that Evangelicall Prophet u Evangelista potius Propheta, Hierom. ESAY; Hear oh Heavens, and hearken oh * Esay. 1.2. Earth, with such like passionate declamations, exclamations: SALOMON at the first setting forth, breaks and breathes in the ears and hearts of men, as the fire set to powder, sends out the pellit, the string from the bow, the sling from the hand, send forth the arrow, and the stone, to the intended mark, with the greater vehemency; so the fire of salomon's inflamed zeal; and strong-bent affections, meeting with a fit object and subject to work upon, sends to the eager pursuers of Vanity, his dissuasives speedily forth, with the greater force, Emphasis and Energy: yea SALOMON knowing how firm and fixed the hearts of men, were radicated and rooted in these earthly Vanities, (however, their boles and boughs, their buds and chats, their leaves and flowers, sprouting upwards, (the external and outward profession, the words and gestures of many Temporizers hypocritically mounting towards Heaven) made show of the contrary: he gives the stronger assault and push even in the first encounter, to move and remove them from their strong holds: transported and carried with zeal, as ELIAS in a fiery x 2. Kings, 9 20 Chariot, marching vehemently like JEHV, rushing as it were amongst the Pikes, he gives at first career a stout and courageous assault, against the chief Garrison of Vanity, to overthrow, and overblow her strongest Bulwarks and fortifications, even in an instant: at least he sets up a flag of defiance, and as an Heroic martialist professeth open hostility and enmity, against all kind of Vanities: for as JOHN was the voice of a Crier y Math. 3.3. in the Wilderness: and IONAS the voice of a vehement Cryer, against Niniveh: proclaiming a jonas. 3.4 Woes and Anathemaes against her, (as one JESUS once against jerusalem, before her overturn by b josephius de Bell. Jud. l. 2 c. 19 21, 22 24. l. 6. c. 16 l. 7. c. 7.8. TITUS VESPASIAN) so SALOMON as God's Herald, and Trumpeter, to the whole world; doubles and trebles his thunderbolts, against all kind of Vanities: crying Vanitas Vanitatum, or as some read it, with a greater emphasis Vanitantium: and lest he should be mistaken he speaks it again and again with a witness; as Christ three times to c joh. 21.15 PETER, to testify his love to his relapsed Apostle, repenting in verity: so SALOMON to testify his hatred against Tyrannising and domineering Vanity; which rules in the heart of men, (as a tyrannical DIONYSIUS, PHALARIS, or Idumean HEROD, in an usurped Kingdom, three times inveighes against it, to disthronize and dispossess it from that seat, which properly and peculiarly belongs only to GOD: for as that Gracian c Demosthen. Orator, being asked three times, what was the first, what the second, what the third part of Oratory; answered still e Pronunciatio, prima, secunda, tertia pars Oratoris. pronunciation, pronunciation, pronunciation: so let SALOMON be demanded what he thinks of all these sublunary and earthly things, he'll epitomise his censure in one word, Vanity; but be better advised SALOMON? Primae cogitationes seniores: secundae saniores: the first thoughts are elder, but the second sounder, and riper: yet he is the second time in the same Tone, the same Tune; his verdict is Vanity: but deliberandum diu, quod perficiendum semel, deliberate SALOMON more seriously, & cave quid dicis, take heed what thou speakest, thy words will go fare, for they are of weight and consequence; as thou art the greatest of men, a King: the worthiest of men, the wisest King: SALOMON as a pattern and precedent indeed of a right wise man; (more perfect than TULLY draws his Orator, ZENOPHON his CYRUS, CASTILIO his Courtier, GALEN his just Temperament, or ARISTOTLE, his Quadratus) is still like himself; Sibi constans, & sui similis: the same man the same mind, fixed as the Pole, firm as the Rock; his words-master; he says it, and stands to it, the third time, as though like a zealous Preacher (as did the Ministers and f De quibus lege apud Eusebium, l. 3. cap. 4. l. 4 cap. 15. l. 5. c. 1. l. 6. c. 4.34. l. 7. c. 11 12. l. 8. c. 17 lib. 9 cap. 6. Theod. l. 3. c. 7.14.16. Ruffinum. l. 2 c. 2. cap. 16. Magd. lib. Centur. 3. & Niceph. l. 3.36. l. 5.26 l. 7.16. & l. 10. c. 10. Martyrs in the Paganish, Arian, and Popish Persecution, JOHN g Nauclerus & Funccius, in Chron. fol. 162. & Osiander Cent. 15. l. 1. pag. 471. HUSS at Constance, and our Queen MARY'S h Fox in Martyrolog. Martyrs) he would seal what he had spoke, and preached, even with his very blood, he affirms and assevers, the third time, that all is but Vanity: even Atmos, At moon, as JEROME notes the Greeks interpret it, even Vapour fami, & aura tenuis, quae cito resolvitur, A vapour of smoke, or a tender Air, soon dissolved, a squib soon ending in smoke and smother: Sodoms' i Habent intus fuliginem, favil, testatur Solin. c. 36. Aegisip. l. 4. c. 18. Orosius l. 1. c. 6. Apples, fair to look too, yet touched soon dissolving into stink: and sulphurous Ashes: shadows, sharks, and mere delusions, such as are used by Conjurers, composed of air, by the Prince of the Air: Like the seeming dishes that CORNELIUS AGRIPPA in the Army of CHARLES k Apud. P. J. the 5. Abbot TRITHENIAS: the Germane FAUSTUS, and other Migitians: have set before their guests, feeding the eye, but not the taste, no more than these our Swinish husks, like these dishes which Phoenissa presented before Menippus her lover, (as those that have writ of the contempt of the world, and of the Vanity of these earthly things, Hugo Cardinalis, Hugo Victorinus, Bonaventure, Carthusianus, Innocent the third, Titleman, and Arboreus of later times, but above all, Didacus' Stella, and our zealous and learned Countryman, l In his Christian warfare. M. Downam, with the French Phoenix, the noble Du Plessis, plainly have discovered; all which seeming to light their candles, from salomon's Torch, and as the Moon, to take their light from salomon's Sun; let us hear himself speak, in his own proper phrase and dialect; as he was a Preacher: as he was a King: even such an one as Plato wished for a Philosophical Prince, and a Princely Philosopher: as he was a Preacher: Vanity of Vanity, Vanity of Vanity, all is but Vanity, saith the Preacher: The Emphasis of his words, the zeal of his soul, the strong move of his hart, and the earnings of his affections, are to be pondered, and poized again, and again: even as when we would show the excellency, or denotate the certainty of any thing, both in Theology and humanity, we see it is redoubled: as Canticum Canticorum, the Song of Songs, intimating the Canticles, of Solomon: the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords: God of Gods: the true jehovah: the mystery of mysteries: Christ incarnate, the Heaven of Heavens: the Imperial Heavens: the Virgin of Virgins: Marry the Virgin Mother, the Sabbath of sabboth's; the Sacrament of Sacraments: the Eucharist: the world of worlds; and the like; as also threats, and denunciations redoubled: as to Adam eating the forbidden fruit, moriendo m Gen. 2. 17Vide Paraeun & Marloratum in locis. morieris, in dying thou shalt dye: so also visitando visitabo: in visiting, God will visit, expressing the certainty: so here, Vanity of Vanities, notes a settled persuasion and estimation of the Vanity of these terrestrial things; to give to the soul and spirit of man, any true contentation, or solid satisfaction, which is the nail I still drive at, and the mark which I shoot at. CHRYSOSTOME notes that Exoken in the n Chris. hom. 55. ad populum Antiochenum. Phrase, by which the Greeks use to express the Emphasis of a thing: NYSSENUS o In locum. alludes to our vulgar adages: as we use to say, Mortuo, magis mortuum: more dead, than death itself: as having also the force of an abstract, as when we call a foolish man even folly itself. A wise man even wisdom itself so these vain things even Vanity itself: which is further illustrated & confirmed by this triple or threefold repartition; in which number as the Platonists and Pythagoreans included great o Apud. Cornel. Agrip. deoccul. Philos. lib. 2. c. 3. Plinium l. 28. c. 2. Arist. Metap. 1. c. 5. Macrobius. lib. 1. in Som. Scip. c. 6. & l. 2. c. 21. & apud Venetum lib. problem. sect. 2. q. 85. Tun. 1. Nec non apud Galatinum, l. 3. c. 9 contra Judeos mysteries, (and our Friars and Jesuits greater) so in the principles of Peripatetical Philosophy rightly understood; Tria sunt omnia, Three are all: so that, as the French, when they would express, that which is excellently good; they call it Tres bon, or Ter bonum, Thrice good: so SALOMON when he would express the Vanities of these sublunary things: (not to meddle with the Heavens, though some p Hieron. l. 8 in c. 24. Esa, & l. 14. in cap. 51. say they are here also included, nor with the Angels which are q Origen in c. 8. ad Rom. & Amb. Epist. 21. de Angelis intelligunt. above) he calls them all, Tria vana, three veins, or three vanities; or ter vanum, thrice vain. But SALOMON gives not only this Verdict as he was a Preacher, but also as he was a King: I was (saith he) King of jerusalem: and I purposed in my heart to find out wisdom in all these things, that are under the Sun: I saw all that was done under the Sun: and I saw all was r Eccl. 1.12 Vanity: Before we heard Vanity of Vanity, saith the Preacher, now saith the King: this may strike a deeper impression in us, to contemn & condemn these Vanities, from the authority of the Person, which doth dislike and disallow them: and that is SALOMON a King: yea the greatest of earthly Kings, in magnificence, s Vide Vivaldi tractatum de magnificentia Salomonis. & josephum in Antiquitat. munificence, riches, honours, glory, wisdom, renown, surpassing all of mere men, that went before him, or shall come after him: not that great hunting NIMROD; the Chaldean NAEUCHADNEZZAR, the Persian ASSVERUS, ZERXES, or ARTAXERXES, the Eagle ALEXANDER, the Turkish Ottomans: the Egyptian ancient Ptolemy's, or Souldan's: the Latin Albans: the great Mogul, the Cham of Cathay: PRESTER JOHN, The Roman, Aethiopian, or Tartarian Emperors, in every thing, hardly in any thing surpassing him, nay not equalizing him: as those that have writ of him plainly demonstrate: now we know, as we writ after the lines, and follow the lives of great t Regis, ad exemplum, totus componitur orbis. men, so chief of Kings, the greatest of men; earthly Gods as they are called, Solo Deo minores, only less than GOD: being here Vice Dei, instead of GOD, with whom they change names: as offices: we believe Kings rather than Philosophers, as the Philosophers observed; we insist their steps, whither crooked or strait: as their words are Oracles; their acts examples, to tutor us only to good, or evil cum privilegio: so we usually subscribe to their judgements, what they hold and enact, whether true or erroneous, as four hundreth Prophets yielded to the false opinion of one u 1. King. 22 12 AHAB, that it was good for him to fight at Ramoth Gilead: and most of Israel worshipped the Calves at Dan and Bethel, * 1. Kings, 12.29.30. because jeroboam erected them, and millions turned Arrians, in the days of x Arrianus apud Funccium. 109. h. Magd. Cent. c. 3. p. 101. Constantius, y Jdam Cent. 4. c. 3. p. 40 Theod. l. 4. c. 26. Valens, and z De quo sigfridus saccus Dom. 8. post. Trinit. & axiom. Eccl. Gorlicij pag. 315. Anastatius, Denying Christ's Divinity, because these Emperors were Arrians: as the whole Christian world was Orthodox, professing the truth, as zealous proselytes, in the days of Constantine, Honorius, Arcadius, Gratian, jovinian, justinian, Theodosius the elder and the younger, because these Christian Emperors were Orthodox, zealous, sincere and religious: as a Hist. l. 7. c. 10. & l. 10. c. 7. & in vita Const. l. 1.2, 3, 4. Eusebius, b 〈…〉 c. 9 etc. 6. c. 2 l. 7. c. 22. etc. 23. & l. 5. 〈◊〉 10. Socrates, c Hi●. 〈…〉 6. 〈…〉 Zozamen, d l. c. 2. cum hist. trimpert. l. 1. c. 8. Ruffinus, Nicephorus, and that Tripartite History, testify of them: such force (as is more largely proved, in the Eare-jewell for judges) have both the judgements and practices of Princes, with their Plebeian subjects: every superior like the heavenly bodies, having a wondrous operative influence, upon their dependant sublunary inferiors: why should not then salomon's Verdict, being so great, so wise a King; excelling amongst men (yea even amongst Kings) as the Lion amongst the Beasts: as the male Deer amongst the heard: as the e Cassanaeus in Ca●. p●. 2 full. 373. et Plin. l. 10. c. 5. Eagle (if not f Idem ibid. Phoenix amongst birds; the Lily amongst flowers; the Cedar amongst Trees; why doth it not, I say as a golden Seal in soft wax, work in us the same impression, that was in himself? Why should we be Didimists, Sceptecks; or Athists, to doubt discuss, and deny: what he knew speculatively as he was a wise man, practically: as a sinful (but repentant) man; and declares to us authoritively, upon his word, and the pawn of his honour, as he was a King, and the greatest of men; that all these terrestrial & transitory things; which we admire; on which we dote, with which we Idolatrise, by which we perish: are but mere Vanities, toys, trifles, delusions, dreams golden slumbers, husks, vacuities, in conclusion (except the means of our confusion) nothing and therefore not to be rested in, nor relied on, more than on a broken staff, or the Reeds of g Esa. 30.2 Egypt, lest as burnt at last, as the fond Flea, by coming too near these dazzling flames, we occasionedly exclaim on these Impostors, as here repenting Solomon, and lament that ever we put any trust or confidence in them, as did that good old john the King of h Reale●n Historia per Marinaenus l. 18. rorum Hispanio●nū Arragon, on his death bed; yea lest being brought by our credullty to such exigents, as Croesus was captivated by Cyrus, and tied at a stake, to be burned we then cry, oh Solomon Solomon, as he cried oh Solon i Apud Herodotum l. 1. Solon, or at least trying them all to our no small pains, cost, and prejudice, every way both in our credit with men, and conscience with God: we occasionedly complain as even Tully the Heathen did, ego omnibus tentalis nihil invenio in quo acquiescere k Verba recitantur, per Majolum de diebus Canicul. Coll. 7 pag. 520● possum, trying and attempting every thing (like a sick man rolling every way in his bed) I can find rest and contentation in nothing, no more than our Prodigal here in his hungry Husks. SECT. 5. Salomon's Repentance, Sanctification, and Salvation, proved from Scriptures, and Reasons. But if we believe not SALOMON, as he was morally wise; as he was practically experimented, and traded in all the mysteries of Vanities; as he was a Preacher, proclaiming his best notions, and motions of his repeated Vanities, shooting off a warning piece, to the admonishing of others: yet let us believe him, (which is my last and not least Argument) as he was a Prophet, and so like ESAY, JEREMY, JOEL, AMOS, EZECHIEL, and the rest of the greater and lesser l See Gualther & Danaeus, in their Comments upon the small Prophets. Prophets, in their Sermons, and extant Prophecies, endued in the penning, preaching, and publishing of this Ecclesiastes, (being Prophetical, and so m Lelius de express Dei verbo, & Zanchi de sacra Script. prove that no books in the old Test. are Prophetical, but those are also Canonical. Canonical. with an unerring spirit, to expatiate a little into a Champion, and Field of matter, concerning SALOMON, and yet to find the truth of the point, we still prosecute, as the Centre in a large Circumference. That SALOMON sinned fearfully, who knows not? That hath read his best, and worst in the sacred Scriptures? In JOSEPHUS, and others; chief some Hebrew Rabbis, that have writ his life: so fearfully indeed, and foully in his manifest and manifold Idolatries, his gross and grievous Adulteries, his lusts insatiable (more than these of PROCULUS, AEGISTUS, NERO, n De hisce omnibus, & alijs vid. Ravisium in Theat. Philo. lib. 5. cap. 53 pag. 65 3. ex Plutarcho, Thucid. Coelic. Gellior. cum alijs. CAESAR, SARDANAPALUS of old, the Turkish Emperor, and the Kings of Morocco now, or any of hers that ever we read of) that I know, as BELLARMINE, CANUS, GREGORY de Valentia, and other Schoolmen o Answered by Zanchius de preservatione Sanctorum, Willet in Synopsi Pelargus, Ju jesuitismo. cum alijs, contra Modernot nostros Arminianos'. and Jesuits reckoning without their Host, and swimming without their Cork, have untruly as uncharitably concluded his reprobation, as falsely as the damnation of Infants, dying without Baptism: So even some of the Fathers p Inter quos Cyprianus, l. 1. Exempla 5. vel Epist. 7. & de unitate Ecclesia poss medium, Aug. de Civit. Dei, lib. 17. cap. 20. & de Doct. Christ. lib. 3. cap. 21. cum Tertul. lib. 2. contra Marcio. c. 23. & l. 3. c. 20. Reasons of the fall of Solomon, and so of the sins of the Elect. 2 Cor. 12.7. I know have questioned, whether by his Fall, he fell finally from Grace, or no; as did SAUL: and even those that have been most favourable to him; as St. BASIL, Exempla, ad Cytonem: JUSTIN MARTYR, contra Tryphonem, together with ORIGEN, IRAENEUS, CHRYSOSTOME, BARNARD, have wondrously lamented his fall, as also the fall of Samson, and have laid down, some, reasons, why it pleased the Lord so to permit him to fall. As namely, that the Lord by his fall might humble him, as he did PAUL, after his q revelations, and as usually he doth his Children, to whom he hath bestowed excellent gifts and graces shining in eminent places; letting them oft see their black Feet, to deject them, lest with the Swan, and Peacock, the contemplation of their proud plumes, and feathers too much erect them, and puff them up, (as bubbles, and blathers) with pride which of all other sins, God most hates and abhominates. Secondly, that we should know him to be but man: and so know, what is in man: chief if God leave him to himself: as a Cripple, without his Crutches: a vine without his prop: a house without his foundation; a staff without an upholding r See my Preface before origen's Repentance hand, a weakling weanling Child, without the leading Nurse, necessarily failing in good: falling into evil; without the continual preventing Grace of God. Thirdly, that we should not build, upon the flesh: or upon such a Clayie foundation as man: since the best and worthiest of men: SALOMON the s 1. King. 11 wisest. t 2. Sam. 11 DAVID, the sincerest. 3. u judg. 16.4 SAMPSON the strongest. 4. * Gen. 42 15. & 43, 3 JOSEPH the most . 5. x Math. 26 70 PETER, and 6. y john, 20 25 THOMAS, Disciples. 7. z Gen. 9.21 Noah. 8. a Gen. 19.36 LOT. 9 And b Gen. 38.26 JUDAH Patriarches. 10. c Euseb. l. 6 cap. 40.41 ORIGEN the learned. 11. Grave d Damnat Heres. Montani de Pres. Herit. ●. 52 Postea defeudit contra Prax. cap. 1. TERTULLIAN. 12. Zealous e Lib. 7, 8, 9 Confessionum AUGUSTINE, with the rest of the Fathers, in the Greek and Latin Church as have been proved to have had their Naevi, their warts, their wants, their defects, in judgement, or practise: as the clear Sun his Eclipse; the clear Moon, her weaning; the pure gold, his dross; the best wheat, his ●ares; the best Garden, his weeds; and the healthfullest body some ill humours, or sickish fits: as appears in the Polyganies of the first, the Adulteries of the second; the Effeminacies of the third; the Swearing of the fourth; the Denials of the fift; the Incredulity of the sixth; the Drunkenness of the seaventh; the Incests of the 8. and 9 the Idolatry of the tenth; the Montanisme of the f Scultetus in Medulla Patrum, p. 172. Sic Chron. Funccij fol. 101. Hist. Magd. Cent. 3. eleaventh; and the Maniohisme of the g Mag. Cent. 5. & Osiand. in cent. 4. l. 4. p. 168. en Possidonio. twelfth: all which jury give in their Verdict: that when the Seas are without Waves and froth: the Air without Clouds: the best wines without leas, and dregs, Trees and Vines, without superfluous branches; the body of living man without excrements, than the best of mere men living on earth here, militant, shall be without h Hinc illud Lencij, in Apoth. Polit▪ p. 137. & Gorlicij in Oeconomicis pag. 36. Magna Indoles non sine sin, ere they come to Heaven triumphant, and so make a more exact, pure, perfect, spotless, Eutopean, Amsterdamian Church; without any blemish, than was either in Rome, i 1. Cor. 3.3 Corinth, Ephesus, Philippos, Galatia, Asia, Smirnia, k Apocal. 2 c. & 3. c. per totum. Thyatira, in the Apostles times: or then is expected even of the jews, after their promised and believed l Read Dr. willet's Hexapla Parens Parr, Drax and Wilson, on Chapter 10. ad Romanos. Proving by many arguments, the jews Conversion. Conversion. Fourthly, which is Ambrose m Apol. David. cap. 4. & 1. cap. 3. his reason, his fall was permitted, to show that he was mere man, not God; and so not the expected Messiah of the jews: for whom, in respect of his manifold perfections, had he been sinless, that infatuated people, had more probably entertained him: than either the Egyptian n Apud Niceph. & Socratem lib. 7. cap. 37 MOSES, or o Of whose Acts and end, out of Rabbis, see Master Purchase his Pilgrimage, lib. 2. cap. 10. pag. 132. BEN COSEA, or any other Impostors at several times, to their own destructions, both of bodies and souls, as histories p Josephus de bello Jud. l. 7 c. 17. Nicep. lib. 3. c. 25. Eus. l. 4. c. 6. relate. Yet nevertheless for all this fearful fall, thus permitted for these and other reasons, his fall was not final, his sin was not unto death; and so consequently (as the point I aim at) this Testimony of his, and Verdict against temporary Vanities, is not the testimonial of a Reprobate, (for then like the passport of a canting rogue, made under a hedge, it were of final validity) but the Testimony of a repentant Patriarch: a sanctified Prophet, and so consequently an elect vessel of Salvation? Which I easily convince, against all oppugning Antagonists, by these querees and expostulations. First, was he not an Amamiensis, a Penman of the Spirit of GOD, in writing and inditing three whole books of Canonical Scripture, as the Church hath always acknowledged, and received them into the sacred Canon? In which respect, q De Civit. De●, l. 17. c. 20 AUGUSTINE, and r Lib. 2. de THEOPHILACT, call him a Prophet? And some of the Hebrew s R. Moses l. 2. Mor●ch cap. 45. Rabbis reckon him with his Father DAVID, JOE, Fide. and DANIEL: Now was any Penman of the Spirit ever a Reprobate? Look upon all the Prophets from MOSES, to MALACHY: all the four Evangelists: the Evangelizing Apostles, that in their Epistles writ as they preached; the sum and substance of the Gospel? And tell me, if ever any of those, whom the Lord used as his Organs and instruments in this blessed work, for his own glory, and conversion of Souls, were ever castaways? Sacondly doth not Saint PETER call all the Prophet's holy t 1. Pet. 1, 21 Prophets: and if holy, then everlastingly happy: SALOMON then being in the Catalogue of these holy ones, how should he be excluded from these happy and blessed ones. Thirdly, was not SALOMON an excellent Type, and figure of CHRIST the Messiah, as is by all acknowledged, without contradiction? Now was ever any personal Type of CHRIST, a Reprobate? AARON, a type of his Priesthood, ABEL and ISAAC types of his Passion: JOSEPH of his betraying: IONAS of his Resurrection: ENOCH and ELIAS of his Ascension: JOSHVA, GIDEON, OTHINEL, JEPHTE: SAMSON, temporary Saviour's, types of his Salvation, as also ABRAHAM, NOAH, MOSES, MELCHISEDECH, DAVID, and all the rest that typified u See an useful book in 8. called Moses unvailed, and the Pilgrimages of the Patriarches and Prophets, in 4 passim. de hisce Typis. CHRIST, it appears in these particulars. First, in his birth, the Child of Promise: the Sons of God: as Christ, by * Luk. 3.31 Nature, he by x 2. Sam. 7.14 Adrption: both called the son of DAVID: according to the flesh. 2. In his Names, as first SALOMON, peaceable, foreshowing the Messiah, the true MELCHISEDECH, the Prince of Peace. Secondly, jedediah, beloved of God, 2. Sam. 12.25. So Christ is proclaimed the well-beloved y Mat. 17.5 Son in whom the Father is well pleased. 3. z Pro. 31.3 Lemuell; so called by his Mother, signifying God with him, or God with them; answering the true a Mat. 1.23 Emanuel, God with us: SALOMON being withal, b Exod. 7.1 as was said b Exod. 7.1. of MOSES, a God to his people. Fourthly, Koheleth, a Congregator, a builder, a Preacher: as he laboured by his preaching, and by the Book of the Preacher, to congregate and gather unto God, both jews and Gentiles, so in this answering the true c Gen. 40.10 Shiloh, to whom the gatherings of the people shall be. Thirdly, a Type of CHRIST in his Princely Office, set over God's people and heritage, (even as the Messiah is set a Captain and governor over his Elect) because the Lord loved them. d 1. Kin. 10 9, Fourthly, in his admired Wisdom: for are not in CHRIST all the treasures of e Coloss. 2, 3 Wisdom. Fifthly, in his judgements and Equity (the improvement of his judgement and wisdom) having the true Urim and Thummim; for shall not Christ judge the people with righteousness, and the Nations with f Psal. 96.13 equity. More specially, as he judged the two g 1. King. 3, 27 Harlots, and discerned the true Mother of the controverted child from the false: shall not CHRIST judge Jews, Turks, and Papists, for all their false Pleas, and deluding lapwing cries. 2. His strict proceed against h 1. King. 2 25 ADONIAH, and i V 31.32 JOAB, his plotting enemies, doth it not prefigure how CHRIST will proceed in judgement, against all his enemies, breaking them in pieces, like a Potter's Vessel: Psal. 2.9. Sixthly, salomon's translating of the Priesthood, from ABIATHAR of the house of ELI, to k V 27. ZODO, doth it not show how the Messiah removed the annual levitical Priesthood of AARON to himself, the true sacrificing Melchisidech: a Priest for l Heb. 7.17 ever. Seaventhly, as SALOMON built the Lord a Temple; is not CHRIST the spiritual builder, of Koheleth the m See Morney and our D. Feila, de Ecclesia. Church. Eighthly, as SALOMON fetched timber from n 1. Kin. 5.6 HIRAM, a Gentile to the building of this material edifice, doth not CHRIST cull and call, and gather, even of the Gentiles, as living stones, built on the corner stone, to the structure of his spiritual Temple. God persuading JAPHET to dwell in the Tents of SEM. Gen. 9 vers. 7. Ninthly, the Queen of Sheba bringing presents unto SALOMON, from so o 1. Kin 10 10 fare, shows it not, that the Magi from the East and great Kings and p Mat. 2.11 & Ps. 45.12 Princes, from the East, West, North, and South, shall bring their presents and yield their homage unto CHRIST, by receiving the Gospel, and believing in him, to their Salvation: Math. 8.11. Tenthly, leaving all other particulars; the great glory, riches, magnificence, and royalty of q Lege Ludevicum Viv. de magnificentia Salomonis. SALOMON, together with the excellency of the Temple in the lustre, and structure of r De hoctemplo preter 1. Reg. 6 2. Chron. 9 Chris. in Math. hom. 88 Sixtum in Biblioth, l. 6. ann. 12. Mogdonetum de Monte Calvariae: Ruffinum l. 11. & Eusebium hist. l. 9 cap. 2. it, exceeding either the brightness of the Sun; the Image of JUPITER, the Walls of Thoebes', the Tower of Babylon: the house of CYRUS: the Mausolean Tomb: the Egyptian Pyramids: the Walls of Niniveh: the Temple of DIANA: or any other most memorable wonders of the World: which not only Heathenish Hystorians, as s Plin. l. 34. l. 26. c. 5. etc. 8, 9, 11, 12 14. PLINY, t Lib. 1. c. 5. MELA, u L. 12. c. 16 STRABO, CURTIUS, DIODORUS, * Lib. 2. HERODTUS, but even Christians, as x De Civit. Dei, l. 2. c. 4 AUGUSTINE, y L. 14. c. 16 ISODORE, z Ant. Lect. l. 23. c. 6. RHODEGINUS, ALDUS, have so famoused: doth not the first answer to that beauty, blessing, grace, glory, might, worship, renown, honour, truth, righteousness: which is in Christ; to which DAVID alludes in his a Psal. 45. Psalms, and SALOMON himself, in his mystical Canticles, typifying Christ's matrimonial Union, with his Church, under the veil of his marriage with PVARAOHS' b Lorinus in Eccles. & Soto Major Praefat. in Cant. Cantico. Daughter. The eminency too of his material Temple, doth it not typify the beauty and glory of the spiritual Temple, the Church of the new Testament under Christ. Now in all these particulars, could such an excellent Type & figure of the Messiah, be a Reprobate? Were not his sins pardoned upon his repentance, as well as the sins of others, who praefigured him. But here's the question of all questions: whether SALOMON truly repent? For we know the promises to the repentant, be their sins never so great, and c Esa. 1.18, Exek. 18, 27 jerem. 3.14 joel, 2.12 grievous: now SALOMON repenting of his grievous transgressions, as did his Father DAVID, why might not he be the object and subject of mercy as well as d 2. Sam. 12.13 DAVID, e 1. Tim. 1.13.14. PAUL, f 2. Chron. 33.11.12. MANASSES, g Mat. 26.75. PETER, and all the rest of the Scripture-Paenitents. Luke, 7.47. Luke, 19.9. Luke, 18.13.14. Mat. 9.10. If any doubt of salomon's true Cordial, unfeigned, and saving repentance: let him consider these things; in General, in special. In general: that those, who are once dedicated to the Lord, and whom the Lord love's, they must repent, at one time, or other: though they sinne fearfully, yet not finally; though they fall dangerously, yet not desperately; for the foundation of the Lord remaineth sure, the Lord knows who are h 2, Tim. 2 19 his: his gifts and graces are without i Rom. 11, 29 Repentance: whom the Lord loves once, he loves to the k joh. 13, 1 end: his love is not fickle, wavering, and unconstant, as the love of ASSVERUS to l Esther, 6.6 & 7.10 HAMAN, Ammon to m 2, Sam, 13 15 Thamar, Putiphars' wife to n Gen. 39.7 14 joseph: ending (as man's lustful and unlimited love oft) in hate: but more constant than jonathans' to o 1. Sam. 20 17 David, Philades to Orestes, Nisus to Euryalus, Damon to p De his & alijs, fidelis amicitiae exemplis: lege apud Valer. Fulgosum & Brusonium, tit. de amicitia, sic apud Ravisium, p. 570. & Loncerum, in suo Theatro. fol. 422. Pythias, as hot as fire: as firm as flint, as strong as Death; Now it's said, the Lord loved q 2. Sam. 12 24 SALOMON, and gave him a Name, answering this love: and as an effect of this love he gave him not only common graces, such as he bequeathes to Hypocrites, and Reprobates: but even specifical, special, and saving Grace: even the Spirit of r 2. Chron. 6 Prayer: to which rightly s Vide Alstedium in Theol. Cat. sect 3. p. 736 737. ad 745 & Scultetum, de precatione, ap. 121. ad pag. 178. de modo oranat. qualified, Salvation is promised and t Act. 2, 21. annexed; which Grace SALOMON had in that excellent measure, together with Eucharistical thanksgivings, a branch and species of Prayer, that twice praying that we read of, once in public in the u 1. Kings, 8. Temple: and in * 1. King. 3.5.6. private: for Wisdom, the Lord appears unto him, in Giboah: testifies his acceptation and approbation of his x V 11.22. Prayer; and of his Sacrifices: which he never did in any oblations and sacrifices of a wicked man, an hypocrite, a Reprobate, all whose services (as himself reveals) his very Soul doth loath and y Esa. 1.11.2 & 58.4.5. & 66.30. & jer. 7, 8, 9 sic. joh. 9 v. 31 abhor: from whence I could with z De perseverat. Sanctorum. Zanchy, a In locis. Aretius, b In locis Communibus Musculus, c In locis. Peter Martyr, the French d In his book called the Buckler of Faith. Et alibi contra Armen. Moulins, and all the late Hammerers of e D. Morton D. Willet. D. Sutcliffe, and the two D. Whites. Papists, that Solomon having true Grace, never lost it: though the Sun of his grace were clouded and eclipsed by his fall, yet it shined again, in his repentance: his grace might lose both leaves and fruit, as a Tree in winter, in his temptations and seductions, yet there remained still sap at the root of his heart, the seed of God remained still in him, as he had an ebb in sensual sinning, he had a springtide again in godly sorrowing: it being indeed with Solomon, as with all God's Children: as it is with the wood, whose nature is to swim on the water; but overladen with iron sinks: but take off this iron of sin by repentance; Grace in them surgeth, riseth aloft g Grace in the Elect is like the herb Ady●ntō, which long steeped in water rots not, but comes forth dry. again: the application is very easy, or they are in the act of sin, f Mr. Yates, Mr. Anisworth, Dr. Featly, Mr. Burton: chief Mr. Pryn Lincolinensis. Instar omnium a. p. 364. ad p. 393. as a man in a swoon, or in a fit of falling sickness; not wholly dead: by rubbings, and unctions, and stir, and administering of strong waters, they come again to themselves: in such a fit, in such a swoon, was Solomon, but at last revived by his Spiritual Physician, whose grace gave him, the true Aqua vitae or water of life, cordial repentance: wise Solomon was poisoned with: or at least had surfeited like our Prodigal, in the husks of Vanity, but the Lord gives him a Lotion, a Potion, the oil of his Grace, which makes him evacuate, purge and empty them all, up again, by repentance: he casts them out at his Eyes, by Contrition: chief (as other surfeits (out of his mouth, by true, hearty, humble, public Confession, for to intimate some particulars of his Repentance, he freely and ingenuously confesseth his sins: for whereas as one well h Salomon's Solace, Cap. 130. p. 123 observeth, he might in this his Ecclesiastes, have pointed at the folly and vanity of ADAM, CAIN, NIMROD, ESAV, PHARAOH, SAUL, ABIMELECH, ACHAN, NABAL, LABAN, MICHAY, and divers others: as men do when they would hide and extenuate their own fins, and accuse others; yet justus accusator sui; the just man, casting the first stone against himself, he inroules himself as the principal, in the forefront of the Bead-roule of vain ones; he proclaims himself the chief fool in Vanities Kingdom: therefore, so freely confessing his sins, yea his special and particular vanities of which he makes a full Catalogue: (as his Father i Psal. 51.14 DAVID, confessed his particular murder: PAUL his k 1. Tin. 1.13 Persecutions: the penitent l Ezra. 10.2 jews, their marrying of strange Wives: their rejecting of GOD and m 1. Sam. 12 10. & v. 19 SAMVEL, in ask a King: LUTHER oft his particular abominations, when he was a blinded Papist: ORIGEN his particular Idolatry, sacrificing to Heathenish n De quo Eusebius l. 6 Nioeph. 5. c. 12. Magdab. hist. Cent. 3. & slander in Epit. Cent. 3. c. 6. pag. 11. Idols, no doubt of it, but the LORD, as he was just and faithful forgave him all his sins. 1. joh. Cap. 1. v. 9 Secondly, his Confession was according to the nature of his sin; his sin public, as if with Absalon he had spread a Tent with his o 2. Sam. 16.22 Concubines, on the house top, as David's lust with Bathshehah, it was known in Gath and Ascalon, amongst the p 2. Sam. 12 14 Uncircumcised: So his Repentance is public; as if at our Paul's Cross, or Heraulded in the midst of jerusalem, q Iosh. 7.19 by his own tongue, and pen: his salve (as in the repentance of David, and all true paenitents) was proportionable to his sore, he took away glory from God, and scandalised the Church by sinning: now as joshuah desired Achan, he glorifies God, and satisfies the Church by r Public sins must have proportionable acknowledgement according to the Apostles rule. 1. Cor. 5.5. confessing. Thirdly, his Confession was joined with Contrition of Soul, and compunction of Spirit, with humiliation of heart, and true dejection: and that appears, first from the Title, that he gives himself, and that's not the King of Israel, and jerusalem, as he might have done had he sought popularity, and Vainglory, which Airs the most ( s Aaere nutritur absque Cibo & potu Plinius l. 8. cap. 33. Chameleon-like) gape after: but Solomon the Preacher: the poor penitent perplexed Preacher; in the sense and sight of his sin, he thinks himself unworthy the dignity of a King, (as the Prodigal here after his feeding on unfilling husks) thought himself unworthy the Name of a t Luk. 15.19 Son: as his Father David, thought himself too mean, u In Psalm. to be a Doorkeeper in the house of r Public sins must have proportionable acknowledgement according to the Apostles rule. 1. Cor. 5.5. God. 2. He doth not say I am a King, but I was King of * Eccl. 1.12 jerusalem, as now, thinking himself by reason of his sins, indignus nomine, unworthy that name, and title: which he thinks best befits the Messiah: as also thinking of that Message, which he lately received from the Lord, that his Kingdom should be divided: and ten parts given to his Servant x 1. Kings, 12.29.30.31 jeroboam, and but two reserved to him, and his seed: being in that respect hardly King of Israel, in jerusalem. 3. As an Argument (further) of his humiliation, it's observable, that in this whole book of Ecclesiastes, he useth not the name Tetragrammaton, as being ineffable, and to sinners most terrible, and dreadful, in the Consciousness of his sin; he doth not once mention it: Mindful of that, in the 50. Psalm, ver. 16. of his Mr. Asaph, forbidding the wicked once to take the Name, or Covenant of God, in their mouths. Which Text when Origen read after his Apostasy, mentioned by Eusebius, Lib. 6. Magdeb. Cent. 3. and Niceph. Lib. 5. Cap. 12. He burst out into tears and could not preach. He in awe and reverence thinks himself unworthy to name JEHOVAH. Fourthly, being converted himself, he labours, as Christ enjoined y Luk. 22 32 PETER, and in him all true Paenitents, and as PAUL z Act. 9.28 practised, the Conversion of others: for this book of the Preacher, preacheth repentance unto all, both jews and Gentiles; yea it teacheth mortification from the world's Vanities, the Fear of the Lord, and obedience to his a Eccl. 12.13 Commandments, therefore in respect of the affe●t of it, or Salomon's affections to do good by it ●s called by some b Rabbi Solomon, in Cantica. the book of the calling again of the jews: c Comment in Cantica. Origen calls it, Ecclesiastes, à Congregando Ecclesiam: from that desire which Solomon had to congregate a Church to God: and some of the Hebrews (as two famous amongst the d Hierom. in Eccles. cap. 1 & in Ezek. cap. 46. Fathers, and e Aquinas de Regimine principum, l. 3. cap. 8. Schoolmen) have called it his Book of repentance, in which book, as a true Preacher indeed, he labours to find out right Scriptures, Delight some words, and words of truth, that as goads and nails he might rivet them in the hearts of others to work that remorse in them, which he found and felt in himself: which indeed is a sign of true and saving Grace, when it is Communative, and diffusive, for the conversion of the wicked, or confirmation of the weak: when we would imprint grace in others, which is sealed in ourselves, herein tutored by the Cock who when he hath found a Barley Corn clocks, and calls to it, his Hens (as the Hen calls her Chickens) and when we are awaked ourselves out of the dark dream of our sins: by clapping our wings and g Gall● vigilantis Episcopi Typus apud Majolum, de dieb. Canic. Colloq. 7. p. 210 crowing (as Solomon here, and since LUTHER, that h Vide Epistolas ad Leonem Papam ad diverses Episcopos nobiles. Libellis de captivicate Bab. de Missa disputationes & scripta apud Sleidanum, Nigrium, Bucholcheram, & Osiander Cent. 16. lib. 1. Cock of Belgia) to awaken others; either out of Popery, or profaneness: is a sure sign of a sanctified heart, and of a Conscience truly touched. Fifthly, salomon's confession was joined with faith: he believed with his heart: as did PHILIPS i Acts, 8.37 Eunuch: as he confessed with his mouth, to his k Rom. 10.10 Salvation, for his confession here to to GOD primarily (as in the judgement both of charity and verity, we are to conclude) and to his scandalised Church secondarily; was not the Confession of a Felon, to his judge, as achan's to l Iosh. 7.20 ●1 JOSHVAH, fearing execution. Nor as the Confession of JUDAS, to the m Math. 27.4.5. Pharises, for want of Faith, ending in a halter, and in n Psal. 9.17. & Act. 1.25 Hell: but as the Confession of a Son to his indulgent Father, (for that reference the Lord himself professeth he hath to o 2. Sam. 7.14 SALOMON) or as a Confession of a Patient to his Physician, in hope of help, and health: and he confesseth to the offended Church, as any man may in the like case confess, even unto man, t As appear by that comfortable letter which Luther sent the sick Duke of Saxony, apud Osiandrum Cent. 16. l. 1 pag. 70. (steering yet fare enough, from the Rocks of Popish Auricular Confession) not only to give satisfaction, in case of p Mat. 5.23 24 scandal, but as a diseased man to his Surgeons, (as the perplexed CHRIST- crucifying paenitents to q Act. 2.37 PETER, the Publicans to r Luk. 3.12 JOHN, the Magical s Act. 19.18 19 Nicromancers, and others converted by PAUL, and as many in our days have done, to the zealous GRENHAM, PERKINS, DENT, DEERING, DODD; and others: to whom the Lord gave the tongue of the u Esa. 50.4. learned, and created the fruits of their lips to be * Esa. 57.17 Peace, even in Case of desired Comfort, and Consolation. Esay. 57.19, job, 33.23.24. Sixthly, salomon's Repentance, was constant and Conscionable: it was not in a flash, or in a Crocodiles x Vincentius hist. l. 17. c. 606. tear, or two, like y Heb. 12.16 ESAWES and the hypocriticrll z Deu. 1.45 jews, not in a SAULS' a 1. Sam. 15.24 Confession: but as PAVL's, it begun and continued in that true Conversion, the very life and soul of repentance, that sincere aversion from sin, and turning unto b Haec vera paenitentia preterita plangere plangenda non committere. August. de pan. God which the Prophets, every where call for, he did not after any feigned humiliation, return to his sin again, as the Dog to his vomit, the Sow to her wallowing: as did Ahab, Saul, Adoniah, joab, Semei: but to the rule and Canon: he did Praeterita plangere, plangenda non committere: Lament his bypast Vanities, and as a man that gives a Bill of Divorce to his whorish wife, never to intermeddled with her more: as Noah, Lot, judah, David, Peter, and others: he did not Apostate again and backe-slide to his repentant and abandoned follies; now he esteems all the Honours, Pleasures, Riches, Dignities, Policies, Studies, Counsels thoughts, actions, endeavours of men in this life, without the Wisdom, Word, Worship, Fear, and Favour of God: to be mere Husks, and Vanities, such as will never help, ease, profit, comfort, or content him in life, in death nor death: and his judgement ushering his practice, he made a Covenant with his heart, never to feed more, on these Husks, to sinne more in the use, abuse, of these Vanities? But as a Traveller, ever talking of, and fitting for his journey, his Thoughts, and tongue, now walk and talk another way: even how to fear GOD, and keep his Commandments, (Legal, and Evangelicall) being indeed, that Regia Via Vitae, the true way to life: and herein indeed was his true repentance, according to CHRIST'S l joh. 5.14. Precept, and AMBROSE his prescript, when he sinned no more, in that culpable kind as m Haec vera poenitentia cum sic paenitet hominem peccasse, ut crimen non repetat. Amb de poenit. before: the best repentance, saith that zealour Belgic n Luther, called oft by Hennius Eccardus and others, the Elias of Germany. Apostle, being in one word, A new o Optima paenitentiae, nova vita. life. Now true Repentance, being never incident to CAIN, ESAV, PHARAOH, or any other Reprobate; SALOMON truly repenting, who can (without manifest untruth) deny him mercy: unless he deny the Scriptures, and make GOD to deny himself. Besides, doth not the Lord himself say, that if he sinne (as he did too grossly) he would visit his sins with Rods, and his transgressirns with p 2. Sam. 7.14 Scourges, as indeed he did, by stirring up enemies q 1. Kin. 11 14.26. against him, as oft against rebelling r judg. 4.2. c. 6.2. etc. 10.6.7. Israel, according to his s Lev. 26.17 Deu. 28.25 threats, but yet, he would not take away his mercy and loving kindness from him: Gods visitations, being to him, as to all God's children, as Rods corrective from a father, as Physical purges from his Physician: instructive and redargative, for the good and health of his soul, as Rhubarb and Aloes to purge the viscous and gluttonous humours of his follies, as t Discorides and Dodoneus in their Herbals de Helebro. Hellibore, to cure his Spiritual Frenzy: they were not condemnatory judgements from a judge; not as plagues upon the Reprobate: as we read of the plagues of u Exod. Ch. 7, 8.9, 10. Egypt, of * Gen. 19.24 Sodom, of x Esa. 16. v. 11.13 Moab, of Edom, y Esa. 17. v. 1.2. of x Esa. 16. v. 11.13 Damascus, and of the z 1. Sam. 5, 6 7. ●. Philistines, in a word, they were to the instruction of an adopted Son, not to the destruction of a rejected a 〈◊〉 instruct●onem non ad ru●m. Reprobate; Nay further see, the Antithesis, in the Comparison, betwixt SAUL and SALOMON: the Lord promising, that he will not take his mercy from him, as he did from b 2. Sam. 7.14 Saul: doth it not include, yea conclude, that SALOMON is as certainly Elected, as SAUL rejected; whether we take it of a temporary rejection from his Kingdom, as the rigged c Hunnius & Huberus, in Thesib. & Eccardus in fas●iculo controversier● & Osiander in Euchirid. Lutherans and some Armenians: wrist that place of the d Mal. 1.2, 3 Prophet, and of the Apostle, concerning ESAV, and the jews, to be meant of a temporary not of a final Reprobation: or we hold his reprobation absolute and final without any participation of saving e Rom. 9.12.15. mercy, grace, or glory: as is more probable: since God took away from SAUL, even here his common graces, his spirit of Magistracy; sent an evil f 1. Sam. 13.14 spirit, working on his g See willet's Hexapla, in locum. Melancholy, as his executioner to torment him; gave him over to a Reprobate sense: to commit reiterated sins, with greediness: (as his maligning and persecuting first DAVID, h 1. San. 19.3 etc. 20.22. hunting for his blood: ungratefully and ungraciously, after so many l 1. Sam. 22 18, 19 kindnesses, received from him, i 1. Sam. 24.14 perfidiously breaking his promises; bloodily k 2. Sam. 21.1 murdering the Gibeonites, more bloodily the Lords Priests, vowing, m 1. Sam. 14.44 swearing, and n V 45. forswearing, the death of just JONATHAN his son, his railings o Chap. 20.27. & 30. revile, Cursings, vain p Ch. 22.7. boastings, main disobedience, and q Ch. 15.22.23. rebellion against GOD: hypocrisy and r Ch. 11.15 & Ch. 14.33 & 35. formality in all his seeming profession; proud and peremptory intermeddling, with the Priests s 1. Sam. 13.10. Offices, as once t 2. Sam. 6.7 VZZAH: Consulting with the Witch of u 1. Sam. 28.7. Endor: and other sins, for aught we know unrepented do plainly testify) and at last, as the conclusion of his Tragedy here, and beginning of a greater in Hell, (unless Grace came as it may come in an * Jnter pontem & ●ontem See Abrevethy his Physic of the Soul, c. 24. p. 374. & Democritus junior de Melancholia, p. 782. instant, when his own Sword was in his own bowels) giving him over, to the power of his spiritual and corporal enemies, the Devil and the Philistines: and to paynick and agonizing x 1. Sam. 28 30. fears, suffered him to be Felo de se: a mutherer of y 1. Sam. 31.4 himself, I say however we hold of SAUL from these praemisses: it's plain that SALOMON was an object and subject of that mercy, which the Lord denied unto SAUL; and therefore as contraries illustrate one z Contraria juxta se opposita magis clucescunt. another, as black shows white, to be more white; GOD'S strict justice upon SAUL, as a Vassell of wrath: shows SALOMON to be an Elect Vessel of Mercy. I might say more for salomon's salvation, as that he is joined with his Father DAVID, as a true worshipper of God, therefore saved, as his Father DAVID; for 2. Chran. 11: 27. the Tribes of Israel are said to walk in the ways of DAVID, and of SAMPSON: and indeed however I have no heart to Apologise for the sins of SALOMON: (as some me thinks too fare for the a Apud Willetum in sua Hexapla in Genesin. Polygamy of the Patriarches) yet it's plain in that Chapter, that notwithstanding the Idolatries, superstitions, provocations, of his strange Women, Religion was not altered in salomon's days, an Argument, some b Salomonis Solace, Ch. 29. p. 219. think, that the foundation of his Faith was unshaken: And it is not probable, that he himself did adore Astoroth, Milcom, Molock, or Camos: in his own person; no more than AARON himself did worship the golden Calf, which the Idolaters importunity, caused him to c Exo. 32. ● erect; though in tolerating his Wives in their strange worship, he is said to follow these Idols, which his Apocryphal book of Wisdom (if it be d Some attribute it, to Philo Judaeus his) divulged even to the Gentiles, shows how much, he disprooves, and dislikes, and e Sapientiae c. 13.10. & 14.8. & 15 3. abhors. Lastly, salomon's last virtues, did so fare counterpoise, and countervail his first Vanities, that as worthy of eternal Record, they are registered by three Prophets; NATHAN, AHIIAH, and JEEDO: 2. Chron. 9.29. Insomuch, that these praemisses considered, Ambros. in Apol. Davidis cap. 3. & Author lib. Eccles. cap. 47. with more Arguments, that might be alleged, notwithstanding his humane sins, some f Nazianzen Orat. 11 have called him Divinum Salomonem, Divine SALOMON: yea, others though he were such a sinner (since his sins were his sorrows, his Vanities his vexation, to the comfort of all sincere paenitents, such as was SALOMON, and my Texts Prodigal:) have called him a Saint, others a most h Hierom. Epist. ad ami●um Aegrotu●, Tun. 9 holy man. SECT. 6 Salomon's Salvation proved from Authors, and Authorities. ANd indeed if I may free myself, from transgressing, in this my seeming digressing, for some reasons, which time permits me not now to relate, as once over shoes, over boots too, it were easy to these Arguments, to bring in the whole jewry, yea Grand-Iewries of Antiquity to prove, both the repentance of SALOMON after his sin; his remission upon his Repentance: and his Salvation upon his remission: his justification, Sanctification, the fruit and effect of his salvation. For besides the constant opinion of the Hebrews, as we have i Hierom. in c. 2. Eccles. heard, that his Ecclesiastes was his Repentance: as may be seen in their book, called Sedar Olam: Cap. 15. Lorinus k Prolegom. in Eccl. c. 2. thinks that Saloman in his Proverbes, seems himself to testify his repentance: as though in passing by the Field of the sluggard, and the Vine-yard of the Man devoid of understanding, seeing it all overgrown with Thorns and nettles, considering it and laying it to heart. Pro. 24.30.31.32. He should by this Field understand his own heart, all overgrown with the Thorns and Weeds of lust and Idolatry: and by the Instruction he received by it, should intimate his repentance: as the reading of the l Novissimus ego egi paenitentiam & respe●i, ut eligerem, disciplinam. septuagint, seems to confirm it: elsewhere by St. m In cap. 28. Ezek. Jerome, this repenting Solomon, is called King of jerusalem, and opposed against Ahab, jeroboam, joram, and the evil Kings: and compared with David, joshuah, the Patriarches, Prophets, and other religious Kings and judges of Israel and judah: and in an Epistle to Eustachium, Epist. 22. though he lament his fall; yet he denies not his repentance, in an other o Ad salvinam Epist. 9 victi sunt quasi homines. Epistle, he makes use of his fall, as also of the fall of his father David; that we that stand should not presume, but take heed lest we fall; of later time Gregory de p Praesat. in Conitica Ca● Valentia pleads much for SALOMON, confutes some that denied this book of the Preacher, to be sacred Scripture, or to be placed in the Canon, as though he had transcribed it from his Father DAVID, or received it from some other: and though it were quaestioned as Apocryphal, even in the days of JEROME: because SALOMON Chap. 2. vers. 21. Seems to give way to Epicurism and Licentiousness, warranting to eat and drink, and be jovial, as the Helluohs of the world: yet (as he is well cleared by that learned q Comment in c. 1. Eccles. Apolagie, SALOMON is fare from giving way to Luxury, or any Vanity, which as by Clubs and mals, in the whole book, he beats down, only approving a a free lawful, liberal, use, of the Creatures, such as the holiest men have used, standing with moderation, reason, religion, and Christian gratulation. Hence for all these and such like frivolous exceptions, the book is approved: his Verdict of Vanity, of all religious hearts, and illuminated spirits, subscribed to: the Author himself, by the Chalde Paraphrase, hath the name of a Prophet; yea r In Ps. 118 v. 1. lit. 2. & lib. de fide resurrectionis. Saint ANBROSE besides that formerly alleged, in many places, gives him the best Epithet of holy Solomon: chief in his Praface before Saint LUKE, and in his book of his Faith in the Resurrection, where he cities this Ecclesiastes: elsewhere s Apol. David. l. 2. c. 3. he parallels him, with Saint PAUL and DAVID: and placeth him as a true Penitent, in the midst betwixt them: sinning and repenting, CYRIL t Catech. 1. of jerusalem exhorts to repentance, after the example of AARON, DAVID, EZEKIAS, MANASSES, NABUCHADNEZVAR, PETER, and amongst the rest SALOMON: HILARY u Hilarius on Psal. 52. is confident; that like AARON, DAVID, and others, he was seriously reproved, for his sins, and repent: the very same IREVEUS * Lib. 4. cap. 45. saith, he received by tradition, from one that was an Auditor of the Apostles: CHRISOSTOME is alleged by ALVARUS x De Placitis Eccl●ari. 45. PELAGIUS, for the same purpose to testify the repentance of SALOMON; of whom the same Father writes y Serm. contra Concubia. Tom. 9 elsewhere, that after his lust and inordinate concupiscence, after terrestrial and sensible (sensual) things, returning as it were out of a park and shadowy Wood, to true, and heavenly wisdom: he uttered as it were, ex Tripod, that sublime and heavenly voice, truly worthy of a heavenly man; and a heavenly mind: Vanitas Vanitatum: Vanity of Vanity, Vanities of Vanities, all's but Vanity, saith the Preacher: yea saith that z Periphrasi in c. 2. Ecol. THANMATARGUS, abhorring and hating all his former life, in which he had wasted and wearied himself, spent as a Taper in pursuit Vanity: as a man shipwrecked, weatherbeaten on the Rocks of Vanity, swimming to the shore by Repentance, at last he sets up Sea-marks, whereby others may avoid these Sulla's, and Charybdis, on which he was newly ruined: hereupon a Epistola de recuperandis laps. BACHIARIUS, that lived about the time of AUGUSTINE, in his Epistle, concerning the restoring of those that were fall'n in the fiery time of Paganish Persecution, as it is extant in these Volumes: called the Library of the b Bibliothera Patrum Tun. 3. in Folio. Fathers, persuades JANVARIUS amongst others things, that he would not doubt to receive an Adulterous Monk into the Church, upon his repentance: because that mercy was not denied even unto Solomon upon his humiliation; affirming moreover that it makes nothing against his repentance that it is not registered, and recorded in express words in the Scripture, no more than the repentance of Aaron, Noah, Lot, judah, Reuben, Samson, who yet truly repent: his being though not so public as his Father David's (which was publicly sung in the Church) yet as true in secreto Conscientiae, in the inwards of his Soul, and secrets of the heart, and Conscience: yea and that his sin was pardoned, he makes this an Argument. (I know not how sound) in that he was buried amongst the Kings of Israel and judah, which he affirms was a privilege denied unto some, that persisted in their Perverseness, disobedience and impaenitency to the end of their lives: the like argument is used by one Martin c Lib. 10. Hypotypos. Regula. 25. Cantapretensis: as also by one d Epist. 65. Fulbar in Saint Bernard's time, who spends an whole Epistle, on this Subject: so one Ticonius in Augustine's time, that was a little affected with Donatisme, otherways a learned man, in one of his e Extat regula in lib. 3 de Doct. Christ. c. 31 Rules, entitled of the Promises, and of the Law: extant both in the works of Augustine, and f L. 1. do summo bono cap. 25 Isodore, is very confident, that as that as the Lord did not deprive SALOMON, of his earthly Kingdom, as he did g 1. Sam. 15 28. Saul, h 1. ●in. 12.16. Reheboam, i Dan. 4.31 Nabuchadnezzar, k 2 Kin. 19 37 Sonachar●b, l Dan. 5.30.31. Baltazar, and other wicked Kings, of their Crowns and lives, or both, no more did he deprive him of his Heavenly Kingdom: by his repentance being reprived and pardoned: what needs more witnesses, to add water to the Sea, or light to the Sun: THOMAS AQVINAS in his m Oppose. 20 & 〈◊〉 Regimine principis lib. 3. c. 8. Opuscula, BONAVENTURE, HUGO CARDINALIS, CARTHUSIANUS in their Comments on Ecclesiastes, SOTO Maior, in his Preface before the Canticles, VINCENTIUS BELLOVACENSIS in his glass of n L. 2. c. 84. Histories: SIXTUS SENENSIS in his o Lib. 8. Heres. 7. Bibliotheke: the learned jesuite p Prolegom. in Eccles. LORINUS; with other modern Papists, besides Protestants, and more ancient than all these, ALBINUS Schoolmaster to CHARLES the Great, with many more; from these, and other Arguments persuade themselves of his sound Conversion: and conclude his salvation. The Arguments or rather opinions and conceits of BELLARMINE, and other Papists, of his Reprobation, being as weak, as false, and uncharitable, being not worth recording: or if I should relate them, (as one saith in the like case) to relate them, is to confute q Recitasse, est confutusse See M. Prins Book of the Perpetuity of a Regenerate Man's Estate. Pag. 393 them: Mole ruunt suo, they fall of themselves, all their force may be referred to two heads. First, that this repentance of SALOMON, which I so urge is no where recorded in Scripture: therefore he repent not? The Argument holds together like ropes of sand. 1. The repentance of NOAH, LOT, and SAMPSON, (as I said is not recorded:) therefore were they not repentant? It's as untrue, as uncharitable? 2. The Scripture speaks, some things ipsissimis verbis, in plain words, some things by necessary r Jlliricus l. 2. in Clavi Scriptura. consequence: and so salomon's repentance, as also the repentance of SAMSON and GIDEON: for in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Ch. 11. v. 32. they are approved for their Faith: so is NOAH, vers. 7. Now as there is no real mother without a child: so no justifying faith, without Repentance▪ being both united by the true object of Faith himself. Mark. 1. v. 15 So ADAM'S repentance is not recorded: yet believing the promises. Gen. 3.15. Of necessity he could not but s Colligit August. Ep. 99, ex c. 10 Sapien. v. 1. repent, for though there may be a legal repentance without Faith: as in t Gen 4.13 CAIN, u Mat. 27.3 JUDAS, * Historia Fusius recitatur, a Grineo de Apostas. pag. 151 A Lud. Rabbi de Martyrib. et a Lonicero, in Theatro, exemp. f 101 102. FRANCIS SPIRA, and usually in the Reprobates, yet there can be no Evangelicall Repentance, without saving Faith: nor no saving Faith, without Repentance: more than a true Sun, without light; or fire without heat; now SALOMON being so excellent a Type of the Messiah, could not in all probability, but believe the Messiah, and in the Messiah: therefore as PICUS MIRANDULA well notes, in his Apology for ORIGEN, by the Testimony of x Comment. in c. 3. Gen. HENRICUS DE ASIA, the Schooleman: it's no good Argument to say any is damned, because the Scriptures reveal their sin: but for some causes secret, never unjust, silence their sorrow: since also salomon's repentance may be registered by some other Writers, as NATHAN, AHIIAH, JEEDO, who writ his life and Acts, whose works are now perished, (iniuria & incuria temporum) by the iniquity of the Times. The second Dart that's shot against salomon's sincerity is: that in his time, he did not purge out the Idolatry, that was in his Kingdom: pulled not down the Altars and Idols, which by his permission if not approbation, his Heathenish Wives, had erected, as did y 2. Chr. 33 15 Manasses, upon his repentance & as a sincere hart, would have done, after the example of z 1. Kin. 15.12 Asa, a 2. Chr. 30.14. Ezekias, b 2. Kin. 22 43. jehosophat, c Or Vzzah. 2. Ch. 26.4.5 Azarias, and others: this knot, some think is hard to lose; but the satisfaction that may be received is only this 1. That his not reforming of Religion, in every thing exactly and precisely is no true Argument, that he was not converted: no more than the pulling down of Groves and Idols, is always a note of sincerity: for whose zeal was hotter this way than d 2 King. 9 C. 10. per totum. jehues', yet where have we a more formal Hypocrite? 2. Even e V 28.29. in the times of the best of the Kings of Israel and judah, as you shall see in these nominated; as the Canker in their Roses, there was ever something amiss in the matter of Religion: some high Places or other untaken away: as even in the time of MANASSES, after his repentance: the people did Sacrifice still in the high Places. 2. Chron 33. v. 12.13.17. 3. His f So 2. King. 12.3. sincere joash reform not all. Wives were so wedded (according to the Nature of that Sex) to their Idolatries, that he could not dissuade them, would not perhaps displease g Quam infelix est Gynacocratia & Polypragmosu● mulierum & in Ecclesiasti is et politicis, instant Pencerus in Chron. Bodinus l. 6. de Rep. c. 5. pag. 11●4. 1115. the: withal the people being settled in their Leas, and frozen in their dregs, as too obstinate and pertinatious; he could not perhaps with that facility do what otherways he would and should even as GIDEON was overswayed and resisted, when he went about to pull down the Altars, and cut down the Groves of h judg. 6.27.30. Baal: perhaps as the sons of i 2. Sam. 16 10. ZERVIAH, once for his Father DAVID: There were some too hard for him; too many like Tobiah and k Nehem. 4.1.2.3. Samballat, too near him, and dear to him, were perhaps ill affected, or Idolatrously infected: to hinder the effecting of this weighty and worthy work: the supplanting and eradicating of all kind of Idolatry: and Idolaters out of his Kingdom. These mists dispersed, these Clouds remooved, the Sun of this truth shines clear; that Solomon was sanctified, and consequently saved: yea, that he was gracious with God and his Church, even when he pronounced this his Verdict of Vanity: if I would use more inartificial l Argumentum Jnartificiale ex. authoritate apud Ramum. Arguments from Authorities, or Achillean from Scriptures and reasons, to prove my Assertions, no Paradox but Orthodox: I could with m In his history Ecclesiastical. Peter Comestor conclude my positions from that Promise which the Lord made to his Father David, 2. Sam. 7.12.13.14. of establishing the Throne of SALOMON, and that the Lord would be his Father: Which Promise n Comment in 2. Sam. c. 7. Paul Burgensis, and a Gloss of the Decretals: persuade themselves was made to DAVID, rather concerning the Heavenly Kingdom of Solomon, and his eternal beatitude, then of his temporal Kingdom, since he was named the beloved of God: as also, that the Lord heard the Prayer of David for o Compare 〈◊〉 28.29. him, to accomplish the thing which he had promised. I could also use the Arguments even of p In Com●d. Paradisi Cant. 11 Dantes the famous Italian Poet, who from his excellent institution, and education from his Father q Prov. 4.4. & Prov. 31. David, and Mother Bethshebah: such as r 2. Tim. 1.5 Timothy, from Lois, and E●nice, Constantine from s Euseb. in vita Const. lib. 3. Helena, Augustine from t Passim fatetur in Confess. Monicha: from his singular Love unto Wisdom; his study of the Trinity: his love to the Word, to which, in the person of Wisdom; he so earnestly u Pro. 4.1. & Cham 5.1. c. 7. c. 8. c. 9 exhorts: his religious worshipping of God, in the dedication of the * 1. King. 8. Temple, his excellent Virtues and gifts wherewith he was ennobled; chief from his contempt of the World and all worldly Vanities, which in this Book of the Preacher, or preaching book, he so proclaimed; concludes him in the state of Grace; I could also from Finus Sadeus a x In cap. ●e invitat. de Constit. Num. 7. & de praeser. Num. 1. cap. 1. Canonist, and y Lib. 17. Theosophiae, cap. 20. johannes Arboreus: strengthen mine own hopes and others, of Salomon's everlasting welfare, from that hope he hath in the Messiah, under the borrowed person of the wise Agur, making a true confession of his sins, unto Ithiel, and z Pro. 30.1. Vcall, even JESUS CHRIST: acknowledging himself, though the wisest of mere men, yet as even some of the Hebrews held him, by reason of his sins, saith Lyra, to be more foolish and brutish than any man: so with a job. 42.10 holy job, in the sense and sight of his sins even abhorring himself, and his bypast follies: Lamenting, and repenting with this our Prodigal, his feeding on the Husks of Vanity, in the service of his lusts; when he might have been fed with the pure Mancher, the Heavenly Manchet of the sweetest mercies, in the service of the Lord: but Manum de Tabula: I doubt I am within compass of correption, or running wide, or Counter: from our Prodigal, to SALOMON, but if it be an error, it's on the right hand, error a dextra: I say, as DAVID, in another case, is there not a cause: Si parvis, 1. Sam. 17 19 componere magna, if we may compare Wrens with Aeagles? Did they not both Convenire in eodem tertio? Did they not both feed on Husks: both buy repentance too dear? Both return unsatisfied (as that c Et lassata voris ●on sa●recessit. Messalina from the Stews) from Vanities Banquet? Were they not both gulled, deluded, deceived, with windy Swads for solid meat? Did they not both return home, by weeping Cross: from the Commons of Swine, the gland of Hogs; the fleshly sensualities of Epicurish men: to the delights, and desires of Saints, and the joy of Angels? * Applicatio Vade & tu fac similiter? Oh that all in their case had grace, to do the like! Oh how would they loathe their husks, and like their exchange! How would they bless God, for the prescriptions, and directions, the Instrumental means, and motives, of their internal peace here, which they never before found: and their eternal Peace hereafter, after this short Pilgrimage of life: which they can never lose. Thus have I discharged my last, and longest Bill, my strongest Battery against the paper Walls of Vanity: SALOMON, as the wisest of men speculatively: as the best experienced of men, practically: as remorseful amongst sinful men, paenitentially: from his wisdom moral, experimental, Theological, (that threefold Cord, which cannot be broken) from his spirit humane; yea, from the unerring spirit Divine, by which the Preacher penned and published his Ecclesiastes, or book of Repentance: giving in his true unpartial, judicious, and undeniable, determinate Verdict: as the very mouth of God: that all earthly and sublunary things, under the Sun, in their several Species and individumus: Riches, honours, pleasures, profits, Praeferments, Wine, womans, Music, Meats, Feasts, Festivals, Frolicks: yea Learning, Knowledge, Arts, Sciences, Languages, Beauty, Strength, Favor, Wit, Policy, Humanity, Wisdom, Children, Friends, Favourites, Credit, applause with men: whatever, disjointed from the Grace, Fear, love, favour, service, worship of the Almighty not used in God, from God, to God, and his Glory: all these are mere Husks, Vanities, Vacuities, Dreams, Delusions: To give to the Soul of man, that rests in them, any true real satisfactory Contentation, more than snow in Harvest, Vinegar to the aching Teeth, smoke to the eyes: Mercury to a green wound, or a cold stone to him, that hath the heart-burne. Thus, we have heard the verdicts & testimonials of the greatest and best men: casting this case controverted, with the vain sons of men? infatuated with the Dregs and Drugs of Vanity: Esay, jonas, nay JESUS, SALOMON, and the God of SALOMON, have spoke to the purpose; that unless men will be mad with d Cum ratione infanire. reason, or against reason, as he that resolved in the Comedy, not to be persuaded, though he were e Non persuadebis etiamsi persuaseris apud Comicum. persuaded: or as our Papists, as once the Pharises, (unless they will even shut their eyes against the Sun, till they fall into the Pit of Perdition:) their Consciences must needs be convicted. CHAP. XIII. SECT. 1. The nature of these Vanities: their disproportion with the Soul: the Immensity of man's appetite further declared. But least these proofs, be too general, from expatiating as it were in an open Champion, we will come to the strict enclosures of particulars: from Testimonies and Authorities, we will come to more special Arguments, and Reasons, as from shooting at long Marks, and running at Tilts, and justs (wherein we may take our breathe, and fetch our cyrcling Carieres) we will come (as in a Land, or Sea-fight,) to grapple and gripe, with Vanities, these speckled kill f Panthera (vanitatis effigies) odour enim & conspectu animam tia sibi allicit obtecto capite dum devorat. Solinus cap. 20. & Plinius hist. lib. 8. c. 17. Panthers, and to lay on with downright blows, that we may lay them all at once prostrate, (if we can, as DAVID did g 1. Sam. 17.49 GOLIATH, or as the Greeks did h Mortuo Leone insultant Leopores. HECTOR) to trample upon them, and insult over them, yea to kick them, as we use to do with discovered Cheators, and Sharkers, as moor deluders, and Impostors, not able to perform (more than Husks to the Prodigal) these desired contentations, and satisfactions, which they promise: and that (amongst many more) for these subsequent Reasons: partly from the nature of man: partly from the nature of these Vanities themselves: partly from comparing both together: partly from GOD himself: to which heads, all may be referred. First, Vtor concessis, to take at the first hint, what hath been already proved, and demonstrated, without begging of the quaestion: take it as granted, that these externals are Husks, Vanities, Vacuities: how should they fill the stomach? Fulfil the immense desire of the heart of Man? Take thousands of blown blathers, and put them into a Newcastle, or Rochel ship, of a great burden (will they fill it) At least will they balance it? Or load it? Fill a great Tith-Barne full of Chaff: is it filled, though it seem to be filled? Let a man's stomach be so full of Wind, till he belch i Galen. l. 30 de Sympt. caus. 70. again, and Rift, and break wind k Barrowes Method of Physic, l. 3. pag. 116. & Hipp. Aph. 39 offensively, or let a woman be swollen, and blown up with a l Method of Physic, c. 35. p. 159. & 53. p. 198 Tympany, as big as a Pipers bag, as though she were with two children, all this is but an empty kind of filling; Such food, such filling, hath the heart of man, with these Husks of Vanities; alas are they not as we have shown them, altogether flatuous, and windy? Nay are they not shows, shadows, and painted pictures? As ESAY calls, even the best of them, the shadow of Egypt? Now can a hungry man, feed on shadows? Can a hungry Lion feed on painted flesh? Can the deluded Birds, feed on ZEUXIS his painted Grapes? Is not the hungry Hawk oft deceived with a painted Lure; as the hungry Fish, with a Flee of Hair? As the lustful Quail with a false call? And the Lark with a luring Pipe, and a flattering Glass? Are not vain men so gulled with Images? As some have been with Visions, and Spectors? As PYGMALION and m Ovid Metam. lib. 3. NARCISSUS were infatuated, the one with a n Oculos pictura pascit. Inani. Picture, the other with the shadow of himself: as some fools stand gaping and gazing on a well limbed Picture, till their bellies called for Tribute, they are like to fall down for meat: could that vast Anteus, or that Cyclops, o De his, & alijs Gygantibus in Poetis. & Historicis, lege Textorem, in officina, lib. 2 c. 37. p. 121 Polypbemus, in their time be fed with Air, and voices, without solid meat? Can Ixion take any delight in that Cloud of Air, which he clasped, and p Tibullus l. 1. & Seneca in Hercule Furente. embraced. Now alas; are not all these externals, mere Clouds? Airs? Mists? Shadows? Or at best Glow-worms? Comets? Blazing Stars? Yea very dreams? Such as NABUCHADNEZZARS' dream, of his great q Dan. 4.18 Tree: PHARAOHS dream of his r Gen. 41.1 Fat Kine: joseph's dream of the Sun, Moon, and s Gen. 37.9 Stars, worshipping him: and the hungry man's dream in the Prophet, of eating and drinking: and lo when he wakens it is nothing so: his Soul is empty: and so is the Prodigals still, for all these Husks of Vanities. Secondly, (to make our next Argument comparative) there is a wondrous incongruity, and disproportion betwixt these Vanities, and the soul of man, in respect of nutriment, and sustentation; for (as we know) by Nature, and by the God of Nature, there is a proper nutriment assigned to every Creature, that hath a sensative, vigetative, or reasonable soul: as to Trees roots, Plants, herbs, and Flowers, the humidity and moisture of the Earth, with the dew of Heaven: to the Ox, Ass, Horse, Mule, Bullocke: Grass, Hay, Corn: To the Lions, Aeagles, Vultures, Hawks, Flesh. to the Otter, Osprey, Cormorant, Kings-Fisher, Fish; to the Hogs, Mast; to Dogs, Bones; to Serpents, t Arist. hist. anim. lib. 8. c. 4. & Plinius l. 8.14. Blood; to the Hedgehog, u Poma collegit & servat in Hymem. Aelian. 3. cap. 1● fruits; Milk: yea, to the Spider * Statim cum natae sinet, fila mittunt, ut capiant Muscas, Arist. 9 Hist. c. 39 Flies; to the Mole, Worms: to the Struthion, x Albertus' l. 23. anim. disputat. Iron: to the Salamander, y Arist. l. 5.19. Plinius l. 10.17. Fire: to the Chameleons, z Idem lib. 8 33. & Arist. 8.11. Air: to the Bear, Honey: to the Panther, a Antidoton contra Venenum S●linus cap. 20 Man's excrements: to the Fox, grapes: (if they can come by them) yea they have drinks also proportionable to their Natures, as the Camel delights, in troubled b Arist. lib. 2.1. Solinus c. 50. & Pli. 8. cap. 17. waters, the Horse, Hart, and Unicorn, in clean water: the Sheep, Hare, and Conny: chief in our Septentriall cold Countries, in no waters; which proper peculiar feeding, if you offer to change, and alter, as by giving grass to the Lion, flesh to the Horse: and so of the rest, you go against the nature of the Creature; So it is with a man, as he consists of body and soul, so he hath his nutriment proper for both: for his meats, Fish, Flesh, Fowls, Herbs, Plants, Roots: for his Drinks; Water, Wine, Milk, Distillatory waters: yea proper meats and drinks, are assigned to several Countries: as before hath been instanced; so in like proportion, the Lord hath also assigned a Nutriment to the Soul: for as the Messiah himself allegeth from MOSES, Math. 4. Deutr. 8. Man lives not by bread only, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God: for God's word, yea CHRIST himself the word c joh. 1.1. incarnate, is that spiritual Manna, the living Bread, or the Bread of d joh. 6.33 Life: sent down from Heaven, the proper food of the Soul: as the temporary and typical Manna was for two years the proper food of the e Ex. 16.15 Body, to the Israelites in the Wilderness: the flesh of Christ also spiritually eaten by Faith is meat f joh. 6.53, 54. indeed: and his blood is drink indeed: and look as the nutriment of the body is so necessary and needful, that without it the Soul cannot continue in it; but dissolves and separates (as the fire dies without fuel, the Lamp without Oil; the Trees without Earth; the Rush without g joh. 8.11 Myre; and the Sedge without moisture) so needful is this spiritual food, to the being, and well-being of the Soul: for as the Soul is the life and form of the body, so is God the very essence and life of our life, and Soul of our Soul: and as the body without the Soul, is a dead Carcase; rotten Carrion; an Augean stable, a Golgotha, of dead Skulls; so the Soul without God, is a very Dunghill, a Cage of Scorpians, a nest of unclean Birds: A Hog-sty for Swine, yea for Zims and Oyms, and unclean spirits: at best a Vineyard laid waste, a ground untilled, overgrown with Briars: and as meat by eating, digesting, and concocting, is turned in succum & sanguinem, into blood and humours, and incorporated into the body; so the Souls food; if I may so say, is spiritualised to the sustentation of the spirit. Now these proportions and many more, holding; this is the thing that I urge: that as other Creatures, cannot be fed with such food as is discrepant, from their natures, as hay cannot be food for the Dog, Wolf, Fox, (those wild Dogs,) nor bones for the Horse, Cow, Sheep, as not fitting their kinds, holding so in their several Individuum; so the soul cannot be nourished with these earthly things; they are not food convenient, for which wise Hagar prays, k De usu partium l. 1. cap. 17. & l. 9 c. 4. & l. 3. de locis affect. cap. 3. in the h Pro. 30.8 Proverbs, for as material things, cannot be filled with i Materiale non agit, in Jmmateriale spiritual, as a man's stomach cannot be filled with wisdom: nor a Chest with virtue; so that which is material, cannot be filled, with that which is immaterial: now the Soul being neither composed of the Elements, and humours, as Empedocles * Sic Clearchus Anaxagoras, Aerium in quid putaverunt. held: nor being the vital spirit of the blood, as the Stoics held: nor a certain exhalation of the purest of the blood, as Galen held: nor a fiery body, as Lucippus and Hipparchus l Tholos. syntax. artis mirab. l. 24. c. 4. p. 599. held: nor an Aerial body, as Critias, Anaximenes, and that Cynic m Alij quadam alia, ut tradit. Theod. l. 5. cont. infid. Arist. 1. de anima, cap. 2. held; nor a watery n Jdem ibid. substance, as Hippon thought; nor an earthly, as Hesiod imagined; nor a fire and Air, as Epicurus: nor of Water and Earth, as Zenophon conceited: nor a heat, Complexion, or any Corporeal quality, diffused; through the body, as Zeno, Cleanthes, Antipater, and Possidonius were persuaded; nor extraduce, by propagation, from the Parents, as Tertullian and some Philosophers o Nutat in hae sententia Arist. l. 2. c. 1. sic Galen. & Tertullianus & Apollinaris Alexand. ut refert. Gr. Nissenus lib. 2. de anima c. 6. & in h. tripert. l. 5 cap. 44. thought, confuted by p De Haeresi ad quod vult. Deum haer. 58.59. & Hier. Tun. 7. in cap. 12 Eccles. sic idem Aug. Epist. 157 Tom. 2. St. Augustine, not a middle thing betwixt the spirit and the body, as q In Clavi p. 138.137 142 Dorne, a late Writer thought; nor a third substance, as Didimus and Origen conceited, as they are refelled by the same r De Eccl. Dogm. Tom. 3. cap. 2. Father: but as s De anima p. 19 Melancton, and more fully the learned t Lib. de Defin. animae et Epist. 7. de Orig. an. Augustine, defines it, and Athanasius confirms it. Since this Soul in man, is a substance created, a spirit intelligent, invisible, immortal, incorporeal, like the Angels: and most like unto God, in bearing the image of her Creator: It will never take any complacency, in these gross, earthly, material, terrestrial things, as clean contrary, or contradictory, to the nature of it: it cannot be nourished, nor (as Hippocrates well * Lib. 1. de victus ratione. disputes) is able to be altered, by meats and drinks: or ought else corporeal: The proud man's Soul can never be filled, with Popular Air, though he gape never so wide; the Soul of the Covetous man, will never be filled with Gold, Silver, Pearls, gems, Stones, Metals, though he should swallow the best of the Earth's, or Seas Extractions, as the Aestridge doth Iron; The Soul of the Luxurious man, will never be nourished with the flames of Lust, as the x Negat. Galenus lib. 3. cap. 4. de Temper. et Diosc. l. 2. c. 56. Salamandrum igne vivere, asserit tamen praeter Ar. et Plin. Aug. de Civ. dei. Salamander, the y In Aerarijs fornacibus, bestiolas quasdam pennatas in medio igne nasci asserunt. Arist. l. 5. hist. c. 19 Fire-flye, and u Tom. 4. tract. de definite. Eccl. the Crecket with the fire-materiall. Nor the Envious man, will ever feed with Poison, like the Spider. Aristotle's z Section. 28 Problem. 9 rule in these, and all the rest, holding right, that qui solido cibo non vescuntur, perinde afficiuntur, ac si nullum penitus capiant: Those that feed not on meats solid, and right fitted, and suited for them, it's all one, as if they were fasting. The third reason of the insufficiency of these huskish Vanities, and the sufficiency that is in God, the prime and principal verity: is deducted and drawn, from the immensity of men's appetites: which are so infinitely extended, and dilated, that they cannot be replenished, by any finite object, more than the Coat or Armour of a Pigmy, will fit the Giant a Que Brachia Centum Briareus apud Claudianum et Virg. l. 6. Aeneid. Briareus, or the b Nam quantus qualis cavo Polyphemus in Antro Vir. l. 3. Aeneid. Polyphemian Cyclops; for no faculty of the Soul, so represents Gods infinity, as that which Philosophy calls Epithumetike; the burning appetite, or desire of the Soul: which is so spacious and extensive, that the Prophet hath compared it to Hell, and and to c Hab. 2.5. Death, which cannot be satisfied: and therefore since no finite object is able, to fill up this gaping Chasma, this insatiable Gulf, of the Souls appetite: to satisfy this all-devouring Minotaur, till it cry Ho, or d Pro. 30.15 enough, there must be some infinite object; for the better conceiving of this: suppose according to e Aquinas 1.1. q. 78. art. 1.3. p. 168 Schoole-divinity, that every faculty in nature, requireth such an object as is fitting unto it: it must needs follow, that Appetitus & Appetitum, the desire, and what's desired, must be proportioned (as Locus & Locatum) or else there should be both Vacuum & Vanum, in nature: which is against the rules of f Prob. sect. 8. Probl. 9 Tun. 2. p. 461 Philosophy: for since God and Nature, do nothing in g Arist. l. 1. de Coelo. c. 4. Tun. 1. p. 156 vain, if there were not in Nature some object fitted and proportioned to fill the appetite, the largeness of it unfilled, should admit both Vacuity and h Inanis, & vanus, erit appetitus Arist. l. 1. Eth. c. 1. Tom. 2. pag. 604. Vanity: which errs, and abhors from the very scope and course of Nature: now if any doubt the Capacity (and indeed rapacity) of man's appetite, let us take a brief Synopsis, or survey, into the severals, and according to i Aquinas 1. q. 7. art. 2. p. 14. & q. 59 art. 1. p. 127 & q. 6. art. 1 pag. 129. Aquinas, dividing the general appetite into the three special kinds, of Natural: Sensible: Intellectual: we shall see in all and every one of them, an infinite avidity and greediness, not to be filled with any finite Creature, or aught else than the infinite Creator, as Aquinas in many places disputes, and of which many instances might be given. And first, to begin with the Natural appetites: to instance with, k Lib. 3. Ethic. cap. 11 Tun. 2. p. 640 Aristotle in three of them, the appetites of Eating, Drinking, and Sleeping: none of these is able to content the Souls appetite, for though all the labour of a man, be for his mouth, yet for all that the Soul is not filled, saith l Eccles. 6.7 SALOMON: there may be a repletion in the belly, and yet a vacuity in the Soul notwithstanding: as we may see in the Gluttons, the Helluohs, and Drunkards of our days: who when their bellies are stuffed full, yea stretched on the largest Last, and size: swollen as big as blown bags: the bulk of their nature overbalanced, by adding thirst unto m Deut. 29.19 Drunkenness, rising up early to follow it, and sitting up late, as the Prophet n Esa. 5.11 12 speaks, drinking down the Evening-star, and up the Morningstar, as the Comedians phrase o Ad Diurnam stellam potantes Matutinan Plan. in men. act. 1 Scen. 2. pag. 421 is, making their very ipsum Vivere, to be nothing else but Bibere: not drinking to live, but living to drink; being mere walking Mushrooms, and Sallowes, fed with moisture (as Bonosus once was p Amphora pendens apud Brusion. en Flavio Vop. called) even very Hogsheads, as though like Lurdans, or our once Lord Danes, and Abbey-Lubbers, they had been made for nothing but eating and drinking, wilde-Geese-like to devour q Epicuri de Grege Porci, ad fruges consumere nati: Horat. Grain: as Aristotle truly terms r L. 3. Eth. c. 11. Tom. 2 pag. 640. them: Furentes circa ventrem, men out of their wits, with pampering of their paunch: Drinking as once that Nero, Tricongius, Proculus, and other famous infamous s Piso, Ennius, Hylaeus, Lacyd. Erycaeon, Caeto minor, Apit. Vitellius Bela, Galba, Phago, in Text. Of. l. 5 c. 51. p. 644 Drunkards, till there be neither Wine in their pots, nor wit in their pates; yea till with the companions of Diomedes and Ulysses, by that great Circe's, that Malt with strong drink, they be Metamorphized into worse beasts, than ever Pliny, Aristotle, or Aelianus writ of, yea into worse Monsters than ever Africa bred, or fed, or then LEO AFFRICANUS, t De die. Cancrone. col. 2. pa. 70 ad pag. 84. MAIOLUS, or u L. de Prod. LYCOSTHENES, ever mentioned: eating like Cormorants (or Corn vorants) as though they had obtained POLYXENUS, his * Apud Ar. 3. Eth. c. 10. wish, even their necks as long as Craines, to glut down their beloved pots and goblets, with the greater pleasures: and drinking till they be Ape drunk, Swine drunk: Mouse drunk, Muck drunk, Maudlin drunk, Mad drunk, Beastly drunk: worse than Devils in this sin, who being mere spirits, were yet never drunk: yet nevertheless, though there bellies be Capon-crambed with meat: and their brains even sod, in drink, so intoxicated, as though like catcht Crows they had drunk Nux vomica, yet nevertheless herein God's hand; fearfully pursues and overtakes those Epicurish libertines, that though they eat much, yet are they not filled: and though they drink much: yet have they not x Hab. 1.6. enough: (though more then enough) their stomaches may be filled; yea overpressed, as a Horse with Maltsacks, and a Cart with sheaves: overcharged as some guns till they burst again, or exonerate as a Wolf or Dog, too full gorged, with Carrion: making (more than many biting Usurers) y By Doglike vomitings, and shameful spewings. restitution, where they have taken too much; yet their appetites all this while are insatiable; Venture improrum est insaturabilis: The belly of the wicked ever wanteth, saith the Wise man: Prov. 13.15. Which is the difference which God himself both there and elsewhere z Esa. 65.13 14, 15 puts betwixt his own servants and the Devil's Swine, these sons of BELIALL, Hogs of EPICURUS sty: who as if they had Caninum appetitum, the Dogs greedy worm in their tongues: and (like some drunken Smiths) ever a dry spark in their throats, are never satiated with liquor, more than that MESSALINA once with lust: Nec sitis est extincta, prius quam vita bibendo. a Ovid. l. 7, Metan. p. ● 28. Their thirst, and their life, as the Heathen Poet noted, being extinct and quenched both together, this their insatiableness plainly appearing, in that by all the inventions of Cookery, these Epicures provoke their oppressed stomaches to eat more, by their Salads, and Sauces: so to drink more by their salt meats, their Red Herrings, salt Neat Tongues, Spanish Anchovies: with the like, being as the needle to draw on the thread of their unthriftiness, sensuality, and gurmundizing gluttony. The like instance may be given in the appetite of Sleeping, which like the rest knows no limits if a man once addict and give himself to it: as SALOMON well notes, in the Proverbes, as exactly Characterizing a sluggard; as ERASMUS his Morio: and setting him out as Graphically, as any vice or humour, is expressed by THEOPHRASTUS, or our b In Sir ●hom. Overbury his Characters. moderns in their Characters, c See Montaigres Essays As also Essays of Sir F. Bacon, M. Stephens. cum alijs. Essays, d Dialogi Petrarchi & Luciani. Dialogues, e Emblemata Alciati Reusneri et nostri Whitnai. Emblems, or f D. Halls & Withers Satyrs. Satyrs, for in form of a short Colloquy or Dialogue, first he rouzeth him as a Dear out of his Lare: a Bear or Boar, out of his Den: sounds him a hunts up to awake him out of his sound and heavy sleep: with, How long wilt thou sleep O g Prov. 6.9.10.11 sluggard, and When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep: Then being as willing to awake, as the Indian h Sic Asi●i Mauritij Fessi in Itinere Immobiles jacent, Aelian. l. 14 c. 9 Ass; and to come out of his bed, as the Serpent out of his Cave, or CACUS out of his i Furto Polluit ille lo●um, Propert. l. 4. et Textor. l. 5. c. 46. pag. 633. hold; and as willing to go to any work, as the Thief to go to the Gallows: or the Dog to hanging; he entreats him, that he would not molest and trouble him, or awake him out of his St. GILLIAN'S dream; (as they say) but permit him, to have yet a little further sleep, a little longer slumber, a little more folding of the hands together: and though SALOMON reply and plainly tell him; that if he continue in this Lethargical sleeping, his poverty will come upon him as a Traveller, and seize upon him, as an armed Soldier: yet scilicet id curet populus? He cares not for all this, it's but brutum fulmen; it will not serve the turn; he was so possessed still with his Veternus, and sleeping k Such as Physicians call Carus or Subeth, as also, the Catoche, the profundus somnus, or Coma somnolentum: de quibus Galenus, lib. 4. de locis affectis, et Method of Physic, lib. 1. cap. 18 p. 29, 30, 31 Sicknesses, as if he had been a very Dormouse: he sleeps as if l Quid tibi dormitor, proderit Endymion. Martialis, l. 10. ENDYMION had been his Father, or he brother to these seven Sleepers in the Golden (leaden) m Aurea vel potius plumbea legenda. Legend: as if he had drunk Poppy, or Opium: or meant to act over that Gorbianus and Gorbiana, in the book of the Sluggardly n Writ by the Dutch Dydikind, & translated into harsh English verse, in 4. sloven: He turns still in his bed, as a Door on the hinges, and cannot see the time to rise at high o Such a slovenly sleep is described in an odd tractate, called, The Gull's Hornbook. noon; so that even this drowsy humour (like the drunken humour) is not abated by yielding to it, but rather like the Dropsy the more augmented. And as it is thus in Natural, so it is in Sensible appetites too, they can no more be satisfied, than the former; for the Eye of man, saith SALOMON, Is not filled with p Eccles. 1.8. seeing, nor the Ear with hearing: these two, the Sight, and the Hearing, which the Philosopher makes the senses of Knowledge q Sensus doctrina apud Arist. in Eth. , are (as well as the Touch, and Taste) insatiable; for as the Grave, and Destruction cannot be filled: so cannot the Eyes of a man: Prov. 27.20. As our Proverb is, It's easier to fill a man's belly than his eye, the Concupiscence of the Eye, aswell as of the flesh: is not to be satisfied: Faemina vidit uritque videndo: the more that PUTIPHARS' wife, looks on r Gen. 39.7 JOSEPH, SICHEM on s Gen. 34.2 DINAH, t 2. Sam. 11.2 DAVID on BETHSHEBATH: as EVE on the forbidden u Gen. 3.6, fruit: the more they are thralled, ensnared, and captivated by the eye, the more they dote on the beauteous object; as PYGMALION on his Image; as MUSEUS excellently expresseth it, in his * Intuens sum defessus satietatem, non inveni aspiciendo Musaeus, de Herone. p. 342. HERO: who was wearied, not satisfied, with looking on LEANDER: which consideration made both Solomon, and the Wise man his Apocryphal Ecclesiasticus, Chap. 9 v. 7.8. As also both ancient and modern Divines, and z Vide Senecam l. 4. Ep. 33. Gyrald. in hist. Deorum, synt. 13 Philosophers, persuade every man to turn away his eyes from beholding Vanities; chief vain women and vain pictures: lest the eye as a traitor shoot a poisoned bullet to the heart, making Vulnus insanabile a wound incurable: lest when it is past time, to shut the door of the Cage, when the Bird is flown: crying with that Amoretto in the Poet. vidi, ut perij: ut me malus abstulit error. How have I seen, and been overseen, in a Thus Mark Anthony with Cleopatra: apud Appian. l. 1 seeing, therefore the Counsel is, When VENUS comes thee nigh, Oh shut, oh shut, thine eye: Oh fond do not eye her, Much less do thou sit nigh her: Lest that thou perish by b Quid facies, facies, veneris, cum veneris ante. Ne sedeas, sedeas, ne poreas pereas, sphinx. Phylosophica her. So for the Ear, Socrates likewise c Apud Zenoph. l. 1. de factis Socratis, pag. 166 observes: that Aures suscipiunt, voces omnes, nunquam vero implentur: our Ears do receive all manner of voices, and found'st: and yet there be none of them, that be able to fill them; and the like may be said of all the rest as we have instanced in our Taste, in eating and drinking; much more holding, in the touch, in which most sympathising, with the beasts we are most sensual: Which made that luxurious Zerxes, as Tully observes d Lib. 5. Tuscul. pag. 170. propound great rewards, to the Inventors still of new Pleasures, as being so much glutted and dulled, but ne'er contented with the old: Now if it hold thus in natural and sensible appetites, what shall we say of our Intellectual and Spiritual, which have their seat in the Soul: what shall we say to the Irascible, Concupiscible, and rational Appetites, which that great e Arist. lib. 1. Mag. Mor. cap. 13 Tom. 2. pag. 931. & lib. 3. de anima cap. 9 Tom. 1. pag. 834, 835. Jtem Philo, lib. de confus. Linguarum, pag 450. Naturian, placeth in several faculties of the Soul: how insatiable is the Irascible in matter of revenge? As never satisfied with blood, though drunk with it as with Wine, as were once these inhuman Monsters, f De Crudelitate Neronis, Deccis: Trajani, Domitiani, cum ceteris truculentssimis Jmperatoribus et Pagan●, et Arrianis: vide Tacetum annal. 5. Entrop. lib. 7. Niceph. lib. 3. c. 23. lib. 7. cap. 6. et cap. 22. Et lib. 11. cap. 25. Euseb. lib. 7. cap. 1. et cap. 30. l. 8. c. 7. et cap. 16. cum alijs. Nero, Caligula, Domitian, Scylla, g Theat. Philos. pag. 604, 605. Marius, Dionysius, Periander, Busiris, the jewish Athalia, Simeon, jehocanan, Antiochus, h Machab. Ephiphanes, or Epimanes; and of later time, that Romish jezabel, and the whelps of that Wolf; i Fox in his book of Martyrs, pag. 1788.2114. Gardiner, Bonner, Weston, Minereus, john de k De his et alijs; See the Theatre of God's judgements. Roma, and other bloody agents, for the scarlet Papal whore? How insatiable, the Rational, after Learning and Knowledge: As appears in the travels of PLATO, and l De Jndef●ssis horum et aliorum studijs, praecimpue C●a●t●, Sophoclis Planti Apollo●. jul. Caesaris, Alexandri magni, Diodori, Siculi, Juliani, Hieron. Lege Marcellinum, l. 16. Gellium lib. 3. cap. 3. Coelum Rhodig. l. 5. c. 35 et lib. 6. cum Textore, p. 347. PYTHAGORAS: the nocturnal pains of CLEANTHES, the Lucubrations of ARISTOTLE, with his brazen Bull: the studies of CATO and SOCRATES in the Greek: and inquisition after knowledge, even in their old Age: yea some on their dying Couch: but chief how infatiable the concupiscible in respect of four main, and principal m Cupiditatis natura, est infinita: Arist. lib. 2. polit. cap. 5. Tom. 2. pag. 773 objects; Power, Honour, Riches, Pleasure; whole Volumes may be writ in the extractions from Histories and experiments: in which we shall further enlarge ourselves when we come to instances and inductions: strengthening in the mean space, our first Proposition with a fourth reason, and that is. That the insufficiency of these vain Husks, or Husks of Vanity to feed or fill, or fulfil, the desires of the Soul of man, comes from the marvelous, wonderful, and almost infinite activity and working of the Will of man, and of his understanding part: for to enlarge a little my discourse of the rational faculties. there is nothing created, and apparent, so various different, and numerous, but the heart of man can imagine, understand, contrive, conceive, will, affect, and desire, still more, till it be satisfied with that Summum & ultimum bonum: that last, that first, and everlasting infinite good, which is GOD himself: beyond whom, there is, non ultra, no further Progress: as for instance; GOD bids ABRAHAM, Aspice Coelos, & numera Stellas, si n Gen. 15.5 potes: Behold the Heavens, and number the Stars if thou canst: as if he should intimate the stars to be so many, that they could not be numbered: more than the sands of the Seas; the piles of grass, the leaves of Trees, in the Woods: the Hairs on the Head of man: and yet though these be beyond the Compass of Arithmetic: as being to us innumerable: the mind of man is able to conceive more stars, more piles, more sands; more leaves: because to every finite according to Philosophy, there may be an o Omni finito potest majus estimari. Addition: as also if a man had the gold of CROESUS, CRASSUS, and of a hundreth richest Kings, and Emperors in one heap: yea if he were possessed of all the Indian Mines, and had all the sand of Tagus, and Alcumized in gold; yea if he were so exquisite a Chemist, to turn all the Brass, and Tin in Cornwall into gold, and silver; or had as in salomon's time, gold as the stones in the p 2. Ch. 1.15 street, yet he might conceit, & conceive more: yea in his Covetous desires; will and affect more: even that, all the imagined gold, in q See the Book called the discovery of Guiana Guiana: were real, yea and really his too: so if there were a man, so proper & goodly as the Poets GANYMEDE: as ALEXANDER'S r Apud Mellaficium, Historicum, p. 476 HEPHESTION, ADRIANS' ANTONIUS; CHARMIDES in PLATO, MAXIMINUS, the Emperor: yea, as s 2. Sam. 14.25 ABSALON, and t 1. Sam. 9.2 SAUL, so extolled in the Scripture: or as JOSEPH himself, whom ORIGEN, and GERSON, think the fairest man that ever was; were he as fair as that CLODONEUS, called the fair King of u Apud Paulum Aemil. France: or as PYLADES the Player, on which the Wife of JUSTIN was * Cured by Galen in her Lovesick Passion. enamoured: or as that Fencer, on which FAUSTINA the Empress so doted: small and white handed: like our English Longimanus yellow, and golden haired, as HOMER makes PATROCLUS and ACHILLES: yea had all these accomplishments and perfections according to the very Letter, which the Spouse in the Canticles, attributes to her x Cant. 5, 10 11, 12, 13 beloved: yet one may be imagined (and perhaps of some lustful MESSALINA or unconstant CRESSIDA desired) more fair, more rare, more goodly: or if there were a Woman so fair and debonair, as the Israelitish, y Gen. 12, 11 SARAH, z Gen. 27.19 RACHEL, and a Gen. 26.7 REBECCHA, the jewish b Esth. 2.7 AESTHER, jacob's c Gen. 34 DINAH, david's d 2. Sam. 11 BETHSHEDAH, The Elders e Histor. Susa●. in Apocryphis. SUSANNA, ammon's f 2. Sam. 13 THAMAR: The Roman g Apud Pl. LUCREECE, the Corinthian LAIS: the Athenian THAIS, the Turkish h Knolls his Turkish History. IRENE, the Saxons i Saxo Gramat. Danica Hist. l. 8. SINALDA, the Gracian HELENA, k Paris apud Ovid. the Trojan CRESSIDA: so comely, so Courtly, as the Thracian RHODOPE, ANTONIUS his CLEOPATRA, ACHILLES his l Serva Briscis, Nivio colore movit Achillem. Horat. BRISEIS, VIRGIL'S m Re gina ad Templum formam pulcherima Dido incessit Virg. DIDO, CALISTHENES LUCIPPE, ZENOPHONS' PANTHEA, THIAMIS his CARACLIA, ALEXANDER'S n Curtius, l. 5. ROXANE, ORLANDOES n In Ariosto. ANGELICA, sampson's DALILAH, HENRY the seconds ROSAMOND, SOLIMAN'S ROXELLANA, or any other, so loved and desired of many worthies, famoused for Arts or o De his & aliis magnoram ut etiam doctorum amasiis lege, passim apud Ovid Virgilium, Catullum, Tibullum, Propertium, & Martialem in Theat. Po●tice, pag. 140.141, 142. Arms: were she capable of all these praises which PETRARCH gives his LAUREA, OVID his CORINNA, HELIODORUS his CARACLIA, TATIUS to LUCIPPE, PETRONIUS to CATALECTES, LELAND of King ARTHURS GI●THERA, Museus of Hero, Lucian of his Mistress, Apuleius of his Psyche: Longus the Sophist of Daphnis and Cloe: if all these one and thirty parts which john Navisan the p Silva ●u●tiali. 〈◊〉 ●plif. 7. Alba tria tria Rubra puella. Lawyer, and Cassanaeus the q In Catalogo gloriae mundi Par. 2. p. 61. Civilian require to a perfect beauty, should meet in one woman, as lines in one Centre, should some Zeuxis, take the best beauties from the Paragons of their Sex, to purtray one Venns: if she were composed of all graces, and Elegancies, an absolute Masterpiece indeed: Her head from Prague, her paps from Austria, her belly from France, back from Brabant, hands from England, feet from Rhine, yea let her have the Spanish gate; the Venetian r See the Book called Democritus Junior. Par. 3. sect. 2. fol. 642. Ingen●um, enim est confiteri per quem profeceris. Tyre, the Italian Compliments, and endowments, the colours and proportion of our English trained Irish, such an one throughout as Lucian deciphers in his Imagines, Anacreon in his Greek Epigrams: Propertius, Gallus, Tibullus, Catullus, in their Cynthia, Lesbian, Licoris, Astrophels-Stella, Pontanus his Corolla; Venus, Charis, Parthenius, Ovid, our new Ariosto's, Boyards', Authors of Arcadia's Fairy Queen, describe several beauties, in their Poems, Love-Stories, Odes, Sonnets, Songs, Fancies, Emblems, Empressaes', Devises, yet nevertheless, even such an one may be bettered in conceit, and a fairer, both for Colours, and Proportion: a wittier, a wiser, a worthier, may be imagined: yea perhaps desired, and sought after by some goatish s Centum Sarnatas virgins diebus is gravidas reddidit testibus Vopisco. & Sabellico in exemp. PROCULUS, some lustful t De ejus ●pri● Plut. in vita Cice●nis. CLODIUS, who could not be long contented with any one, though the very quintessence of beauty; unless like a Common Bull, or Boar, he may range where he will, and enjoy as many severals, as once u 1. Kin. 11 3 SALOMON, and * Est. 2, 3, 12 ASSVERUS, or as the x Sometimes the grand Turk, hath 400. at once in his Seraglio, Knolls in his Turkish History: And Sands in his Travels, lib. 1. pag. 74. Turks, Muscovites, Zeriffes, and Persians, at this day. So for Honours, if a man be in never so high, and eminent a place: yet he may conceit there is a higher yet; the Gentleman conceits he may be a Knight: a Knight, a Baronet, a Baronet, a Viscount, or Baron: a Baron, an Earl, or Marquis; a Marquis a Duke: a Duke, a Prince: a Prince a King, a King an Emperor; an Emperor ruling over many Countries, conceits (like as that PYRRHUS once projected to his Wife CYNNEAS) that there be still more to conquer; yea if he have half conquered the known visible World, he may conceit with that proud Pelian y Vnus Pele● juvem (id est Alexandro) non suffecit Orbis. Youth, that there may be more Worlds than one to Conquer. So for Knowledge, if a man were a walking Library: a Treasury and Storehouse of all Arts, and Sciences: yet with SOCRATES he should improve his best knowledge, to see his z Hoc scio quod nihil scio. ignorance: if he be not blotted with self conceit this dangerous Philantia, he shall see, for one thing, he knows, he is ignorant of a In eruditissimis, est docti quaedam ignorantia. many; both in Humanity, and Theology. So for memory: if one had as strong a retentive faculty: as CYRUS that could repeat all the names of his Soldiers) as THEMISTOCLES all the names of the Athenian Citizens) or did excel (whether by Nature or Art) more in that faculty, than either CYNEAS, SENECA, METHRIDATES, CHARMIDAS; the Emperor HADRIAN, or QVINTUS the Precedent of Asia, commended by b Facetiarun & exemplorum, lib. 4. pag. 265. Brusonius; or then SIMONIDES, THEODECTES, METRODORUS, HORTENSIUS, JULIUS CAESAR, PORTIUS, applauded by c In Tuscul. & de senect. Tully, and others; some, as Inventors, some as perfectors of, some as exquisite practitioners in that Art of Memory: So (as if he had drunk of the Boaetian d Haustis fontis Boaetica undae. fountain) he should find, that his Appetite, and desire is still to remember more than he can possibly retain, for all his will, and skill, in this memorative exercise: and that some things of weight and moment, which he hears, sees, & reads, will escape him, will he, nill he; as some waters run by the Mill, the miller knows not of. So in all other things; the Understanding can understand more, the Will can desire more; the Memory can retain more, the affections can love more, than those finite objects on which they are placed; for according to Philosophy, as our affection can extend as fare as our e Affectio potest se extendere sicut aestimatio. estimation: As we can prise, and value, and estimate greater things, than those sublunaries, we now enjoy: even him whom ARISTOTLE is said to call Ens entium, the thing of things; PROSPER f Lib. de previdentia, pag 180. , Authorem naturae: the Author of Nature: and PLATO, Animam mundi, the Soul of the World: So we can desire and affect even to know, acknowledge and worship this GOD, this supreme Deity, as the most Barbarous of the Gentiles have done (as all Historians g patet, apud Cicer. lib. 1. de Nature. Deorum pag. 190. l. 1. Tuscul. pag. 112. Alex. ab Alex. Geneth. lib. 6 cap. 26. & 261. p. 321. Aug. de Civit. Dei, c. 8 Tertul. in Apol. cap. 24. p. 54. Lact. lib. 1. Instit. cap. 15. p. 39 & l. 2. c. 16. Maximum Tyr. Serm. 1 pag. 6. Athanas. lib. 1 p. 21. Munster. Cosm. l. 5. p. 1087 Maffaeum, lib. 6. hist. Jnd. p. 118. Linschot. cap 36. pag. 70. et pag. 81. cap. 44. Cum Petro Martyr in Decad. pag. 284. Et Plinio, hist. lib. 2. c. 7. pag. 2. relate) however mistaken, in the manner and object of their h Passim apud Morneum, de veritate Christianae religionis, et apud Purchasium nostrum in sua Peregrinatione. Worship, by superstition, and devilish delusion: And indeed, till the Soul truly know and serve this true GOD, and so rest and fix, and Anchor in the fruition of this sovereign good; it hath as many fluctuations as the River i Euripus in Aegeo septies Fluit et refluit: secundum Majolum Bocat. et Basil. in Exemer. hom. 6. Euripus, distracted hither and thither, as a feather driven with the wind, or a Ship tossed on the sea with different k Ventis jactata et undis. waves, still sensible of the want of something, that's better, than all these earthly things, with which, it is bewitched and besotted: as much as Gold, is better than dross, the Sun brighter than Clouds; the heavens, purer than the earth; as (me thinks) is well shadowed in the popish Fable of their l In Aurea et Lomb. legenda: sic in Pom. de Sanctis. St. CHRISTOPHER, who resolving with himself, to serve the greatest Master, betook himself to the service of the Sultan of Egypt, then to the great Cham of Cathay, to the Emperor of Tartary; after, to the Ottoman Turk: as hearing still, that the last Masters were greater than the former; at length he served the Pope, as greater than these; at last the Devil (he and the Pope being well joined) as greater than he: (as the Father, is above the Son) but after all, he came to the service of CHRIST, as the greatest of all the rest. Paulo maiora Canens, the Moral being; That man's Soul (like the Hawk, the Hobby, and the Eagle,) still soars upwards, (unless kept down with the weight of Sin, or fly crossway, the great gross way, through Ignorance,) never quieted, nor resting right, till she be a true Christopher indeed; Christum ferens, carrying Christ, as in their Legend he did, taking Christ's burden upon it, which is easy m Math. 11.29. and his yoke which is sweet, when she is at this, she is at her true height, true pitch, true Ela: she cannot go a note further, without overstraining, and breaking; till she be at this, she is as the Needle touched with the * De his & alijs Mirabilibus Magnetis, lege Plinium lib. 36. c. 16.26 & l. 34. c. 14 et l. 20. c. 7. Diosc. l. 5. c. 168. & August. de Civ. Dei, lbi. 21. Nec non Orpheum de Gemmis: et Theophrastum de lapidibus. Loadstone, ever quivering and tottering, shaking, turbulent and timorous, till she be fixed directly on the Northern Pole; her Motto, till then, may be that of CHARLES the fift, Vlterius, still forward: There's a further mark to be shot at, a higher prize to be aimed; greater peace and perfection to be attained, than these externals, will or can afford: Which Truth (me thinks) even the Pagan seemed to grope after in the dark night of Nature: For speaking of men's Immense and unmeasurable desires, after Riches, (which holds also in other externals) he adds to their appetites a Vix ultra: he doth not say nec, or Non ultra, which the verse perhaps might have borne: that they can go no further, for they may soar still higher and higher after GOD, if they be right placed: or spread or dilate after the world if wrong placed, but he adds n Tempore crevit amor, qui nunc est summus habendi vix ultra, quo iam progrediatur habet. Ovid. Vix ultra, they are so exorbitant after the World, that they scarce can extend and stretch any further than they o Observat hoc & Bosq. jesuita, in sua Acad. peccat. do. SECT. II. The insatiableness of the Appetite, and Concupiscible faculty. FIftly, the Insufficiency of these earthly, huskish Vanities, for the ends, they promise and project, which is true contentation; is plainly discovered: By the unproper application of them, to the Soul of man; having no right Analogy and proportion, to the Concupiscible part; for when the Object is not fitted, to the proper Faculty, it can never satisfy, or content it: As for instance, let any Organist or Lutanist, if as exquisite for voice, or instrument as p De quo Horat. de arte Poetica, Virgil. l. 6. Aeneid. & Ovid lib. 4. Trist. Orpheus, or q Dictus et Amphion, Theb. Conditor urbis, Horat. Amphion: the Italian, r Aequalis Pyladi apud Plutarchun, Philomelo apud Mart. l. 3. Hormog. apud Horat. Papi. jopa: et Creteae, apud Virg. lib 1.9. et 12. Aeneid. vel cateris arte Musica claris. Orlando di Lassus; our English Bird, Bull, Morley, Douland: play on his Lute, or sing, to a Deaf man: he takes as much content in Pan's pipe, or a Shepherd's oaten Reed: Let a Painter as cunning as Apelles s De his, et Ceteris, arte pingendi, Claris apud Ravis. in Theat. Phil. pag. 448. or Zeuxes, or as the Romish Michael and Raphaell, present the most exquisite Colours to a Blind man: he regards them, as much as if you should show him a Fish, or a Frog: Offer meat to a Sick man so long as his stomach is filled with wind, or gross humours, either he loathes it, or his palate being distempered; he didistasts it: chief offer meat or money to a dead man (as a Dog of Sabinius carried Meat to the mouth of his dead t Plinius hist. lib. 8. c. 40 & Zonaras in Tiberi●…. Master) he takes no notice of it, no nourishment by it: because colour being the proper object of the Eye, music of the Ear, meat of the Gust, and taste, if there be no sensitive faculties recipient, in vain are the Objects presented: Now the right satisfactory, and true contentive Object of the Soul of Man, is God: all other outward and external objects, and subjects, which are not used in God, as from God, and to God, are wrongly applied, for solid consolation, and contentation: as rather increasing the diseases, than tending to the health, and happiness of the Soul; as for instance; let an expert Physician whether Galenist, or Paracelsian, rightly apply Drugs, Unguents, Balms, Potions, julips, Confections, Simples, or Compounds: as in the course of Physic, Chirurgery, will by God's blessing, cure any outward disease, or inward Malady the Patient in all probability lives, though greevously before pained, or dangerously m Of strange and extraordinary cures performed by exquisite Physicians, Instance in Cardan, l. 8. c. 43. de rebus diversis in Lemnius l. 2. cap. 6. in Brasovil. come. in 26. Aphor. l. 3. Hypoc. in R. Solenander l. 5. Consil. Cons. 15. sect 9 In Pontanus l. 4. c. 2. de Sap. Chief Ambrose Par. l. 9 c. 31.32. & lib. 5. Obs. 9 & l. 4. Obs. 6. & l. 10. c. 4. cum multis aliis. sick: whereas an Empiric or Quacksalver, missing it in the matter, or manner of application: in the cause or occasion of the disease; or in the quantity or quality of his ingredients: ordinarily rather kills than n Turbamedic. occidit Caesar. cures, Thus it is with every vain man, the ill affected part, is his Soul: his several sins, are as several o De morbis animi et corporis, conqu. sunt (praeter Patres) etiam et Pagani, ut Jsocrates de pace, Sen. de vita Beata, & de Jra. l. 2. c. 9 Cic. Tusc. 3. & de fin. 1. et 7.23, diseases, or ill humours in the body, or as distempers in the brain, or in the p See spiritual & corporal diseases paralleled, by the Scot Bish. Abernethy in his Book called the Physic for the soul blood, now there's but one Physic, the Herb of Grace, but one Physician the God of Grace: all Earthly Vanities, to this Cure are but Oil to the fire: as the herb Bufonium, to the Ox, as the Chenomicon to the Goose: as water to the poisoned Rat, as the poison of the Weasel, to the greatest Beasts; or as the company of Physicians to Adrian the Emperor on whom he exclaimed, that they had amongst them killed Caesar: instance in some particulars, either in the burning Fever of q Idem ibid. cap. 30. pag. 435 Lust: the Dropsy of r Cap. 25, p. 377 Covetousness; the Tympany of Ambitious s Pag 393 Pride, the Consumption of t Cap. 21, p. 313 Envy; the Madness of u Cap. 19, p. 272 Anger; the Frenzy of * Cap. 18, pag. 25.5 Passions; the Pleurisy of ˣ Self-love: or what else (as quot mali, tot morbosi, so many bad men, so many diseased men:) and we shall see all those are caused, by the full and frivolous abuse of earthly Vanities; as the raging Toothache, by sour y By which they are more imaged. Vinegar: to review them over again, come to the ambitious man: he delights in great Titles: as of Mr. Sr. Rabbi, Rabboni, right Worshipful, right Honourable, Reverend, Renowned, Magnificent, Munificent, Don, Senior, Mounsieur, Magnifico, if it please your Majesty, Excellency, Highness, Grace: He loves greeting in the Marketplace: as once the z Math. 23 6, 7 Pharizees, to be called gracious Lords, worthy Sir, noble Spirit The affects the Title of Great, as great a Passim apud Plutarchum, et Tranquillun: Caesar, great b Sic de Pōp●io. Pompey, great c In every thing he affecting greatness, as wearing great shoes, great , Ind magnus dictus. Synelius, Charles d Caerolus 5. the great, as once great e Melander dictus ab occardo Hunnio, Hub●ro. Luther, Athanasius f Vide Nazianz. in Fiunius Athan. et Scultetum, in medulla Patrun Part. 2. pag. 2 the great, Basill the great, Olaus magnus, and others; so honoured for Zeal and Learning, Arts and Arms: but when he hath attained all those desired, rather than deserved honours, hath run through the best of these Titles, as the Sun through the several signs in the Zodiac: hath commenced in the highest degree of Vainglory: attained to his Superlatives: to be not only, 'tis megas, a certain (though uncertain) Great man, but O'megas, ille magnus (as Simon Magus amongst his g Acts, 8.9 & Eusebius, lib. 2. cap. 12 Samaritans') Pythagoras, amongst the h Ipse dixit. Pythagoreans, Lycurgus amongst the i Plutarch de Licurgo. Lacaedemonians, Tamburlaine amongst the Rustic k De quo Camer. in oper. succ. p. 330 331 Scythians: Mahomet amongst his l Apud Lonclavium in hist. Turcica Sarazens, Ignatius m Of whose Impostures, life and death, Read Pelargus his Preface, ante jesuiti sinum and the jesuits Catec. in Quarto. Loyola, amongst his jesuited (jebusited) Ignatians: honours content him not? He swells still, to be greater than he is, like the Frog in the n Apud Aesopum. Fable: his heart is proud, ambitious, vainglorious still; he is not cured of this his Tympany of Pride, by all these adventitials; why so? He hath neither right Physic, nor rightly applied: (but as Eels, Geese, Pigeon, fresh Beef, in a wound impostumated, strong Wines, hot Waters; in a burning o How things cool and moist, mitigate Fevers: hot, increase them. See Method of Physic, in Quarto, cap. 6. & 5. l. 4. p. 230.231. Fever) those things are administered which rather increase than mitigate his disease: because he aims still rather at greatness than goodness, is studious rather to be great than good: seeks as did the p joh. 12, 43 Pharisees, rather that honour, which is from men; then with joseph, q Numb. 12.3 Moses, r Esth. 3, 2 Mordocheus; s Ps. 131, 1 David, t 1, San. 8, 7, & cap. 12, 3. Samuel, the Virgin u Luk. 4, 48 Mary, the * Math. 8, 8 Centurion, x Dan. 2, 30 Acts, 12, 23 Daniel, and other holy and humble Souls) that Honour which is from God. he rather seeks to magnify and glorify himself; (as did that haughty ʸ Herod, proud z Exod. 5, 2 Pharaoh, blasphemous a 2. Kin. 19 Rabsakah, the Pseudo b 1. Kin. 22 24. & jer. 26, 8 Prophets, and false Apostles, in their times: c Theod. l. 1. cap. 14. Arius, and Haereticall d Lvag. lib. 1. cap. 7. Nestorius, with e Hist. Mag. Cent. 4. c. 10 102 Paulinus, in the primitive Times: the Antichristian f 2. The. 2.4 Popes, and Prelates in these and in pristine Papal times) then to receive (as did Moses, joshuah, job, Abraham, Cornelius, the humbled Cananite, yea Christ himself, and his forerunner the Baptist) that honour, glory, Encomium, praise and testimony which is from God; which if they once could attain, they had then soared, to the highest top, and period of the best and most blessed Ambition, giving unto God, his true and deserved honour, (who would render it them again, as the Rivers come from the Fountain, whither they run.) h judg. 18, 24 Their own vain and vile glory, for which they contend, Tanquam pro aris & focis, as g Gen. 31, 30 LABAN and his Daughter, for their Idols: as the Heathen for their Penates, or the Popes and once the i The Patriarches of Constantinople, Antioch, jerusalem, and Alexandria, whose contentions hatched the Pope. Patriarches, for Universal Supremacy, I say this their Vanity, as Mists, and Clouds, and May-morning dews, would vanish before the Sun of GOD'S Glory: and fall down flat and crushed, as k 1, San. 5, 3. DAGON before the Ark: as it is with CASTOR and POLLUX, the two observed l Hinc Clara Gemini signa Tyndarida Micant apud ●eneca●, et Ovidium. stars, the rising of the daystar of God's glory in their hearts, would be the setting of the Comet, and Blazing-starre of their own vainglory, and the rising of the true Sun of their evershining, never setting Glory; Can they thus fall down humbly upon this shade, and shadow of honour, they should truly catch it: and could they fly from this selfe-glorie; m Pr●ter alias as●utias apud Ael●anum l. 9 c. 3 et Vincent. 30. c. 9 et 17. c 606 Crocodile fugientem sequitur sequentem fugit honoris emblema apud Al●iatum et Whitnaeum. Crocodile-like, it will pursue, and follow them: Can they with the twenty four Elders, in the Revelation: Cast down their honours, and n Rev. 4.10 Crowns, before the Lamb: they should receive them again, with the holiest, the happiest, Interest; else they do but sow the Wind, and catch the Whirlwind. Again, the Covetous man, is wonderfully in love with money: he is troubled with the disease called the Philargury, or as that Athenean o Demosthenes. Orator, with p Non Auginam pass●s est, led Argentanginan. Argentanginy: or if you will, the Golden Dropsy; the Wedge of Gold: is his help, his hope, his joy, his Genius, his GOD, his sovereign good, his beloved, adored Idol; for Covetousness saith the inspired q Ephes. 5 5 Apostle, is Idolatry, and so the Covetous man consequently a great, a gross Idolater: he as Idolatrously worships his golden Calf, which in his heart he hath erected: as Israel once in the days of r Exo. 32.6 AARON & once the Calves in Dan and s 1. Kin. 12, 28, 29 bethel; yea, there is more hearty honour given to it, and confidence put in it; and he makes it a better GOD than the Thebans their adored t Aelian. l. 12 de anim. c. 5. p. 260. Weasill, the Troyans' their u Clemens Alex. per trept. p. 11. Mouse, the Egyptians their Dogs, Cats, and Crocodiles: Than the * Aug. lib. 4 de Civ. Dei, cap. 8.10. Lact. lib. 1. cap. 20. pag. 51. Clemens Rom. lib. 5. Recog. pag. 79. & Arnob. lib. 1. contra gentes, pag. 776 Romans their men Gods, their Fortune, their Volupie, their Flora, and the rest of the rabble of their contumelious, and impudent Dietyes, by them and the Athenians recounted: Then the Brackmans' in the East, the japones in the North, and other Provinces in the Indies, their Worme-Gods, Fly-Gods, Ape-Gods, etc. Then the z Athaneus lib. 1. pag. 21 Persians and a Cicero lib. 3. de nat. Deorum, p. 231 Pagans, their Starry, Tutelary, Elementary Gods, our b Vide Reinold. de Jdol-Romanae Ecclesiae, l. 1. c. 1. pag. 63. et cap. 8. pag 220. et Passim in libro sic Powellum de Antic. l. 1 p. 215. et l. 2 p. 439. Sutclivium, in Synopsi, c. 10. p. 77. et c. 24, With D ●oro●s his Trysag. p. 161. et 194. et 147. et passim, l. 1. et l. 2. Papists, their Cross-Gods, Grosse-Gods, Bread-Gods, Pope-Gods, or other c 2. San. 15.6. Heathens their Serpentine and viperous Gods, the very garden-Gods (of which Aristophenes speaks in Nubibus act. 5. Sect. 2. pag. 228. & juvenal Sat. 15. pag. 60.) this God he gives his heart to, or rather this golden God, steals it from him, (as itself may be stolen, as well as Michaes) a Cripple rests not more on his Crutches, a Vine on his Prop, than he on it: he desires (as an Adulterer on his Concubine, on which he dotes) that his eye, may be ever upon it; yea when he hath his handful his eye full, his Purse full, his Bags full, his Chests full of it; his heart is not yet full: Avaro deest: he wants still; he is not contented, he would have this his dead Idol, as God commanded his d Gen. 1. ●. Creatures, (as well as his Cow, and his Sow, by biting Usuries, cutting Oppressions, bleeding Extortions, to increase still, and multiply, one piece of Coin to beget another: as one Circle in the water produceth another: and what's the reason of all this; because the Medicine is not rightly applied, as if that were applied to the heels, or the hands; which should be laid to the head; augmentation of Coin, never curing Covetousness, but the stipulation of a good Conscience: addition of Money to the Miser, being to his desires as drink to the sick of the Dropsy; as pitch and powder to the flame: Gods all-salving, all-saving, all-satisfying, sanctifying grace, being the only salve to this Hydropical sickness; the only remedy to this malady: and not corruptible, concupiscible Gold. As may be instanced in Matthew and Zachaeus, whose insatiable Covetousness was never cured, till they had lodged CHRIST, in their houses and hearts, as appears Math. 9 vers. 9 and Luke 19.4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Lastly, (to instance in no more) the heart of the Luxurious man burns with e Vrit te Glycera intor Horat. lib. 1. od. 19 & Mollis Flamma Medullis: Aeneid. 4. sie, in pectus caecos absorbuit Jgnes. Mant. Aegl. 2. Lust, (as did AMMON'S f 2 Sam. 13.2. towards his sister THAMAR, SICHEMS' towards g Gen. 34. DINAH, HOLOFERNES towards JUDITH, MARS towards his h Mars vidit hanc, visamque cupit. potiturque cupita. Ovid. VENUS, CLITOPHON towards i Apud Lucianum. LUCIPPE, THYAMIS towards k Heliod. lib. 1. CARACLIA, and old CALYSIRIS the Priest of Isis, towards the Thracian RHODOP●, as is recorded of them, and by some of themselves confessed:) now suppose he have his desire and enjoy his beloved GALATEA, as the son of ANTIGONUS l Jdem, l. 2. did his Mother in law STRATONICA; which Physicians prescribe m Cum Avicenna Guianareus, cap. 15. tract. 15. Arculanus, cap. 16. in 9 Rasis: et Art. l. 3. c. 3. as the only Cure of Love; or lust Melancholy: yet nevertheless frequently it falls out, that either Lust thus enjoyed, turns into loathing, the most lustful Love, into the most real hatred; as sweetest wine corrupted turns into the sourest vinegar, (as appears in Hamon towards his sister n 2 Sam. 13.15 Thamar, in Putiphars' wife towards o Gen. 39.10, 14 joseph, in Roxellana p Lonclavius hist. Turcic. towards the noble Ottaman-Mustapha: and in others recorded) many women as they either love dear, or q Antony's vehementer amat aut crudeliter odit. hate deadly: So many men when they have plucked the fruit, scorning the Tree, leaving it to blast, or waste, to stand, or fall: shaking them off, (as the Spaniel shakes off his water on the shore) whom they have once used; or else their desires being at large (as their Fires r Rev. 21.8 shall be) as hot as Hell itself; not limited in the strict enclosures of any one, as common Bulls usually, and Stallions, they run after every Gill: jerem. 5.8. Neigh after every jennet, in the open Champion, as it were, not being willingly tied to any one woman, (more than GALBA LUCULLUS and other Gluttons s Apud Bruson. exempl. lib. 3. p. 165 to one dish of meat) seeking still after varieties (as did that Nero, t Apud eundem, c. 29. p. 230, 231. Proculus, Sardanapalus, julius Caesar, Caesar Borgia, Alexander his Father) one nail driving out another; forgetting one, as they get another: (as Euryalus forgets his u Aeneas Silvius, in historia, de Euryalo, et Lucretia. Lucretia, by a new Mistress: Cressida, her Trojan * Road Chaucer his Troilus, & Cressida. Troilus, for the Greek Diomedes, Demophoon his x Apud Ovid. in Epistolis. Phillis, for a fairer: sampson's wife rejecting him in one y judg. 15.2 Moon, for his Companion: even Aetna, and Vesuvius shall as soon be quenched with Oils, as their raging Lusts, thus z As instances before were given in Solomon, for men, and Messalina, for women, Semiramis, Pasiphae, Joan of Naples, and other insatiable whores of that sex, do verify the point. satisfied, though perhaps satiated: and good reason, since these effeminate men, enjoy their desires, but only by the Organs of their bodies, and by their external senses: they are not heated and warmed, with these truly Promethian a Ignis Promethei explicatura majolo, de cultu Deorum, Col. 1. pag. 21. Fires, which come from Heaven, the fires of the Spirit, which fell on the b Act. 2.3 Apostles, which exhilarated the hearts of the sadded c Luk. 24.32 Disciples, which was so sensibly felt, of d De qua re extat Epist. Eccesiae Smyrneae & apud Eusebium lib. 4. cap. 15. Polycarpus, St. e De quo lege Ambrosium lib. 1. Offic. cap. 41. et lib. 2. cap. 28. Laurence, that zealous Glover, f Apud Foxum in Martyrologio. Sanders, and many both g De constantia, et consolatione aliorum Martyrum, lege apud Eusebium, Hist. lib. 8. cap. 7, 8, 9 et Victorem lib. 2. et 3. de Persecutione Vandalica. Primitive, and Queen Mary's Martyrs, that it made them patiented: yea joyful, at the very stake: this fire (which would expel, quench, and quell all luxurious and lustful fires, as burning sometimes cures burning) this spiritual celestial fire, never entered their hearts, never heated and exhilrated their spirits, never warmed them, in the inwards of their souls, they were never thus baptised, with the Baptism of fire: if they had, this ignis fatuus, this Pooles-fire, this wild fire of fond Lust, h Prov. 2.20. had ceased: as the lesser stars are not seen when the Sunshines; but so long as this is wanting, all their luxurious delights, in which they live, as once the delicious i Quos lux●i●perdidit Aristot. Sabarites, all their filthy soule-soyling pleasures, in which they wallow and welter, as Swine in the Myre, k As some instances are in the French Goulart his Histories, now translated by E. G. in Quarto. and Eels in the Mud: and with which the garments of their Natures are besmeared and defiled: as if the garments they wear, were besputted with the foam of a Boar, the slaver of a Dog, and the slime of a Snail; all these, quiet their hearts and content their souls, as much, as if they should put Mercury into a green wound, lay Aqua fortis upon their flesh; swallow a Nate or Asp into their mouths sleeping: or drink (as some have done unadvisedly) the spawns of Toads and Frogs: never shall they be at ease, till as their Physical (Metaphysical) cure, they have taken such Pills of Paenitency; such Potions of Grace; (as did l 2. San. 12, 13 David, m Gen. 38.26 judah, n Heb. 11 32 Samson; o Vbi nimfides ibi paenitentia Evangelica, Mar. 1. v. 15 Lot, p 2. Pet. 2.7 Rahab, q Heb. 11.31. Mary Magdalen, r Called Pelagius Lacrimarum, apud Surium, et Marulum. Pelagian, that Egyptian s Per annos 47. in descrt● Nudae oberrans teste Paulo Diacono de vitis Patrum. Mary, St. t Lib. 8. Confess. c. 6.7.8.9.10. & l. 9 c. 6. Augustine, that Convert in St. u Ego non sum ego, apud Amb. l. 2. de Pae●it. Ambrose, Saint * De quo Euseb. hist. l. 2. c. 67. 〈◊〉 Niceph. l. 2. c. 42. alij resitantur, in pratospirituali c. 143. et 165. ●t on vitas Patrun, p. 2. c. 141 John's reclaimed Prodigal: yea SALOMON himself: of the repentance of all which we have such infallible Testimonies) as shall make them disgorge, evaporate, and evacuate by cordial compunction, contrition, and confession; all these x Prov. 9.17 stolne-waters, sweet Morsels poisoned fair flesh, windy husks, which did for a while content their sensualities, but for ever distress their Consciences, distract their hearts, divide their minds, and damn their y Pro. 9.32 Souls. If I may stand to give a Soul of exhortation, to the Body of this reason: as other famoused Physicians, Galen, Avisen, Rhasis, Hypocrites, Arateus, Aetius, Gordonius, Guianerius, Alexander, Paulus, and of later times; Funccius, Fracastorius, Fernelius, Celsus, Hermus, jason, Practensis, Piso, Wecker, Donatus, Altomarus, Faventinus, Victorius, Mercurialis, Hercules de Saxonia, Laurentius: our Butler, Bright, Barlow, have prescribed Cures and Medicines for all kinds of corporal Diseases, whether Acute, Chronicke, First, Secondary, Laethall, Salutary errant, fixed, simplo, compound, connexed or consequent, as they are divided, by z Parthem. l. 1. c. 9, 10, 11, 12. Fernelius Funcsius in his Institutions, a Lib. 3. c. 7. Sect. 1. et c. 11. sect. 1. Weckner in his Syntagma: and some others; and as they are numbered by b 300. Morbi recensentur a Plinio, lib. 7. c. 11 Pliny in all their varieties: so (as c 1. Sam. 21.9 David said of the Sword of Goliath in another case) there's none like this, prescribed for the Soul: it may be Christened None-such: for the kerbing cooling and curing of the Fever and Frenzy or every tyrannising Lust; only the sons of Vanity are hard to be persuaded to receive Gods own prescribed Ingredients: as Impatient Patients, they slight, scorn, and vilify, both the Physician and the physic, with us his Ministers, his administering Apothecaries; which makes them continue still like Babel, incurable; from the crown of the head, to the sole of the foot, nothing but wounds, blains, bruises, and putrified d Esa. 1.6.7 sores; neither closed, nor bound up, nor mollified, with ointment, they take their own cures, imagining to satisfy Lust, by fuellizing and feeding it: which is to cure Venus, by e Sine cerere et Bacehe, friges Venus. Ceres, and Bacchus, to stop bleeding by lancing the green wound deeper, and deeper: this is preposterous Soule-physicke, since Concupita non possunt applicar● concupiscenti, as an eloquent Modern well f Bosquerus de paenitentia filij prodigi. observes, these forbidden fruits, these husks of Vanities, unlawfully lusted after, as the Israelitish g Exad. 16 12, 13 Quailes, cannot rightly, religiously, safely, and savingly be administered, and applied to the lusting Heart: no more than a sharp knife, or poison, can safely be given to a youngling child, though he cry for them like a froward Vixan; since as in some diseases, arising of contrary causes as in the Dropsy and the jannice that which cures the one, increaseth the other, (to which Physicians in all their praescripts, have a principal eye) so these Lusts which transitorily delight the flesh: eternally destroy the Soul. These Lusts (like these loves, which are procured, or cured by such Magical spells, Characters, Philters, and Lovepotions, as are related by Lobelius, Fernelius, Cardan, Delrio, Wier, Mizaldus, Codronchus, Paracelsus; and other Physicians) they end and tend to grief, sorrow vexation, exangeration, distraction, desperation, damnation: and therefore as all other Creatures by the very instinct of Nature for the most part know how to cure themselves, and have taught, as some q Plin. l. 8. cap. 23 think, the first use of Physic to man: as the Dog and the Egyptian Ibis, cure their sickness by vomit; the heart his wound, by Dictany; the Swallow recovers her sight by Chelidine: the Weafill preserves her self from poisoning, by Row: the Panther by Aconite, and man's ʳ excrements; the Dragon helps himself by wild s Contra Vernam Nauseam. Lettuce; the sick Bear by eating Ants, and Pismires; Stork Doves, jays, Marls, Partridges, Crows, their yearly Meat loathe, by the leaves of Laurel, and other Birds, and Beasts, by other means, as those that have writ of Husbandry, and cures of Cattles; besides St. t Vrsam saxciam varbusc●, testudinem Or●gano anguem Feniculose mederi, refert aexem. hom. 9 Basil, have particularly u De his omnibus lege Columellam de re rustica lib. 8. cap. 2, 3, 4, 5, et 7 Virg. lib. 3 & 4. Georg. Varronem, l. 2. cap. 2. Nec non nostrates Tusser, & Martham. related, chief Gregory Tholosanus? Syntagm. artis mirb. l. 28. cap. 38. pag. 541.) So me thinks, man the Lord's * Psal. 8. Deputy, and Vicegerent from God, over all the Creatures, should take only God's Physic, and prescript, which is Faith in Christ, and Repentance from dead works; to purge his x Acts, 15.9 Lusts, to crucify his sinful y Gal. 5.24 Vanities, his soul Sicknesses, and so to purify his heart, the fountain z Mat. 12.34 of his words and works: otherways to expect a sound heart, and a quiet conscience, and yet let lust reign, and not disthronized, is to think to heal a green wound, with suppliant oils, & yet the poisoned bullet stick still in the flesh, and fix in the Flank: for its merely Faith, which gets a victory over the a 1. joh. 5.4 world, and what ere is in the b 1. joh. 2.16 world; and where Lusts tyrannise, there's no list of Faith, nor right application of Christ crucified. SECT. III. The Composition of the Heart: Sublimity of Man's Soul: Centre of his Spirit; God's Image●Mans Pilgrimage. SIxthly, the insaturity of the Soul of man, taking so little Complacency and Contentation, from these externals comes partly too from the diversity of the place, where we are, and reside: for we are here on earth, Pilgrims and Strangers, as c Gen. 47.9 jacob, d 1. Chr. 29 15 David, and the e Heb. 11.13 Patriarches acknowledged themselves; our bodies are Earth, from the Earth, and tend to f Gen. 3.19 Earth, as the ye is from the water, water itself, and dissolves into g Aqua es ex aquaes, et in aqua● redibis Bra● millerus in Concior. funeb. water, earth then is the proper place of the h Carnis proprius locus, terra est Gregorius. body, as water of the Fish: but the Soul is from Heaven, Olli caelestis Origo: She hath a celestial i Animam esse spiritum, et incorporale● ass●r●t, Eusch. lib. 6. de praepar. Evan. c. 5. Claudianus Mamertus, de statu animae, lib. cap. 4. Plotinus lib. 7. Ennead. 4. cap. 2. Nec non. ●ug. l. 1. de anima. Origine cap. 3. ad Hieronimum. original, and offspring: Poets say (but Divines more truly) that she is Divinae particula aurae: breathed by the inspiration of the k Factum a solo Deo, et ex Dei Flatu, ex nihilo asserunt August. ut supra Epist. 7. frenaeus l. 2. c. 63. 〈◊〉 6● Greg. Nazian, in apolog. Lact. l. de Opit. Dei cap. 19 & Aqu● 〈◊〉 iusus Gentes, lib. 2. cap. 88 Almighty, Creando infusa, et infundendo creata: by Creation infused, and by infusion created: here she is, but for a time, as it were banished and exiled (as Themistocles and some others) by Ostrecisme; she is here Tanquam in ergastulo: a● in a Prison: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi Sema, the Earth, is the Prison of the Body, he stocks or little ease of the soul: Now we know that Honours, Riches, Pleasures, and all worldly things being but from Earth, how can they satisfy the Heavenly Soul? As a man in a foreign Land, whose heart is at home with his wife, and Children, blood, friends, and Consanguinity, Riches, and Revenues, takes little Complacency, till be at his own homely home again: as the Bird at her old l ●uus Nedus curque Magnus. Nest, the Bee at her old hive: Ulysses at his own m Optat Vlisses fumum de patrijs posse videre focis Ovid. Ithica, as AENEAS above all things, to see old n Vrbes Tr●janas primum, & Priami Tecta alta Maioris. Troy, as all other men the place of their birth and o Nescio qua Natale solum dulcedine cunctos ducit, et Inmemores, non sinit esse sui. breeding: so the Soul, coming from Heaven, (as Noah's Dove p Gen. 8.8, 9 sent, from the Ark to the Earth) is never well, till she return and retire thither again, as to her Centre and resting place: we know every Creature, every Element, tend properly to it own Centre: the fire upwards, the water, stones, and other heavy and gross things q Omne leve sursum, grave deorsum. downwards: so the Soul hath her Centre, that's Heaven: or the God of Heaven by Faith here on Earth; which indeed is her true Heaven, in the midst of all corporal and spiritual afflictions and fluctuations, her true Heaven (as the waters and Rivers to the Seas) she tends to the proper place, from whence she came, till she come thither, to heaven locally, after her dissolution, as the Soul of r Kuk. 16.21 LAZARUS, or Heaven come here into the Soul, by the blessed influence of Grace, and the sanctifying, comforting Spirit: she hath no more true and solid content, in these outward things (with which she may be besotted, for a time but never satisfied) then the Mole hath out of the Earth: the Fish out of the waters; like some Seamen, or Sea-monsters, or Fishy men, or men Fishes, I have s Many such are recorded by Olaus lib. 21. c. 1, by Alexan. ab Alexandro Gene. dier. lib. 3. c. 8. By Peter Hispalensis, c. 22. pag. 1. et de Pisce Calano scribit, cap. 21. ex Alexandro l. 2. c. 21 cum alijs Historicis. read of, that are never quiet, but sometimes pine, or perish, till they be let go into the Sea again: not contented with all that the Land can afford them; so it is with the soul till she be carried, by meditation, contemplation and divine speculation, into that main Sea, and Abyss of Majesty, and mercy of God: nothing contents her, no more than that Avis Paradisi, that Bird of Paradise, which you see pictured in your great Maps, which never leaves mourning till she die, if she be once snared and captivated till she be loosed and set at liberty. Seaventhly, not only the disposition, t How the Soul with her 3. Faculties, is an image of the Trinity it's lively showed, by Roseliu● in his Comment upon the Pymander of Mercuriut Trismi●sius but even composition of the heart, seems to plead and persuade the incompetency of any sublunary Vanity, to give it any true contentation for the heart of man being in the composure of it, parva trinacria, (like the letter Delta, amongst the Greeks, Triangular in form) the Soul being as a little Trinity: adorned with three faculties, Understanding, Will, Memory, as the heart in proportion is three cornered: we know according to the principles of the Mathematics, and experimental demonstration, no Spherical, or ●ound figure can fill that which is triangular, but some Corners will be void, some Angleses will be empty: Now the whole world is spherical, u Mundum alij Sphericum alij turb●natum alij in Formae Ovi, asserunt, apud Plutarchum, l. 2. c. 2. de placit is Philosopherum. orbiculer, and * Nec est tamen rectilineus, nec triangularis, alterius ve figurae quam ro●un●ae, Plimus l. 2. c. 2. Arist. l. 2. de Coelo, cap. 4. Al●inous l. 2 de doctrina Platonis, c. 10. vide orbis dictus. round, therefore called Orbis, the whole Earth is a Globe, voluble or round, the Sea is a crowned Circle, compassed round by the Land, for that cause called perhaps by some of the Ancients, Amphitrite the Heavens too are all Spheres, and encompassing Circles, circling the Land and the Sea, as the heart is enclosed in the body, the yolk of the egg within the shell: on this is a wondrous Globe, the whole Earth, the whole Sea, the Heaven's vast, and great being all Spherical: this whole Globe, this Sphere, cannot fill this little triangulary heart: so many Omicrons, cannot fill one little Delta: yea one corner of the heart, is able to contain more than the whole world: even our understanding part (as I have proved) is able with that ALEXANDER, and ANAXAGORAS, to understand, imagine, and conceive more Worlds, and the will is able to desire more; the memory to retain and remember more, than this visible World, and therefore if there be no Vacuity x Nullum est ●cuum v● rerum ●ra. in Nature, as hath been discussed, what shall fill, who shall fill, the Inanity and Vacuity of the heart of man; but the true God, who shall fill every Angle of this trianguler heart and spirit, but the Triune God, the blessed Spirit, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, to be blessed and praised for ever? Without whom, it is ever empty, ever hungry: it's like the Country in which the Prodigal once lived in his aberration from his Father, in which there was a great famine y Facta est sum●s valida Luk. 15, 14 spiritual, as once corporal in jerusalem, and z De quibus supra in Margin. Samaria, when GOD left them. Eighthly▪ for the further manifestation of this: we know there must be ever a Proportion, betwixt the Continent, and the thing contained: when we would fit a thing, we fit it to the measure & quantity of that it will contain: we cannot hoist in the Sea, or a River into a narrow Vessel, (as Augustine in a Vision meditating on the Trinity by the Seaside, saw a child attempt to put the Sea into a a Possidonius in ulta Aug. Sieve) nor can a great gutter, or vast bottom cut out with banks, which is capable of many Floods, be filled with some few drops of rain; we seek not to fill the large Scabbard of Guy of Warwick, or Goliahs' Sword, with a little Scotch pocket Dagger: Nor is Hercules shoe, filled with the foot of a Pigmy or China Woman: and so for Creatures animate and living, we fill not the belly of a Whale, with a little Gudgeon Nor the stomach of an Elephant with a Flea Nor must we think to fill and satisfy the Soul, with things finite, which is capatious of that sovereign good, which is infinite. In the poor Widows enriching by the Prophet b 2. Kin. 4.6 Elizeus: the Oil was more, than the Vessels: but the heart of man is a Vessel, (greater than that Cauldron I have c Placed 'tis said, by the Father of the now Prince Palatine. heard, in the Palatinate of Rhine) which all the World's oil will not fill: more than a grain of Mustardseed will fill a hungry Camel, a little Dormouse a Wolf, or a Lion: a little Wren a rapatious Eagle, oh no! The heart is not to be filled like that Roman or Phrygian Gulf, but with some great d Like that Gulf into which armed Curtius leapt, apud P●utarchum thing even him, Ens Entium, thing of things. Ninthly, I offer it, as a further meditation, and confirmatory Reason annexed to all the former: that the Soul, according to St. e L. despir. & anima, sic de Civit. Dei lib. 12. cap. 1 AUGUSTINE, is created, in the Image of God, & Dei capax, and capable of God; Quod minus Deo, impleri non potest, cannot be filled, with any thing less than God: with these outward things (Occupari potest, impleri non potest) she may be exercised and cumbered, but not satisfied and contented. Tenthly, besides Insatiabilis mala f Simon de Cassia. voluntas, the perverse Will of man (to epitomise many other Reasons) seizing on these terrestrial egene, and hungry things (as a Wolf on a lean Carrion, that is all bones, no flesh) must needs itself always be hungry and lank egene and lean. Eleventh, moreover a man cannot be happy, in that which he enjoys g Nemo beatus qui eo quod amat quod avet quod habet non fruitur. Aug. de Civit. Dei, l. 8. c. 9 not, now fruimur eye, in quibus voluntas delectata h Idem de Trinit. l. 10. cap. 10. conquiescit, we are properly said, to enjoy these things in which the will being delighted, rests contented: and remains fully satisfied; which indeed it doth not, in these external and outward things: as is demonstrable by Reason, observation, and all experiments. Twelvethly, which is also AUGUSTINE'S Reason, inde beatus, unde i Jdem Epist. 121 bonus, That makes a man truly happy, which makes him holy: For Holiness in the Church militant i Jdem Epist. 121 ploughs & ushers k 1. Th. 3.13 & 4 v. 3, 4, 7. & Heb. 12 v. 14. happiness in the Church triumphant: l Apud Mornaeum de veritate Christianae religionis. Varro enumerating three hundreth several opinions of the Heathens, concerning man's summum bonum, his chief, and Sovereign good: all these Philosophical Archers, guided by the dim spark of Nature, (like Ahab's 400. m 1. Kings, 22.6 Prophets, in an other case) shot wide and miss the mark: DAVID by an unerring Spirit, makes the Holy man, the only happy n Psa. 1. v. 1. Psal. 112. v. 1. & 119. v. 1 Sic Psal. 15. per totum. man, the good man (which was also a Paradox even in Philosophy,) the only great man; now all these outward things (however in Christian Liberty a holy heart knows how to make a holy and sanctified use of them) cannot make a man more holy: all the gold in the world cannot purchase one dram of grace, which is every way gratuita and given gratis: else according to true o Gratia, non est gratia, isi omnimodo gratuita. Theology it's no grace at all: and so consequently these externals incompetent in the means, can never accomplish the end of man, which is true tranquillity, happiness and felicity. Thirteenth, again, wondrous is the excellency and sublimity of the Soul of man, we are created to more excellent ends, than (excepting the p Lege Casmamni Angelographiam sic Smalculdi libellum, de naetura & dignitate Ang●lorum. Angels,) all other Creatures, whatsoever: the Soul to use LACTANTIUS his q Lactantio an't▪. 7. Institue 5. ● 〈◊〉 de ●ra, In h●●m● words, is infused into the body, that she might know GOD, love GOD, worship GOD: or as he hath it more largely, the world was made, that we might be borne into it: (as Eden was made so ADAM, the House built for an inhabitant) we are borne that we might acknowledge the Maker of the World, which is God we acknowledge God that we might worship him, we worship him that we might attain eternal felicity by him: or as the Master of the Sentences hath r it, GOD made man, a reasonable Creature, to understand the chief Good: in understanding it, to love it, in loving it, to possess it, and in possessing it, to enjoy it: this then being the end of our Creation, not that we should contemplate and adore the Sun, (as the Persians do) as some Philosophers thought, and taught: nor only to rule over the rest of the Creatures, as some others s dominari in caetera possit. Ovid. Metam. thought: but that Eagle like we should mount and ascend higher, to the knowledge, worship, and fruition of the Creator himself: till this end be attained, (which indeed is our right hoc t Multi aliter agunt, nihil agunt, parum agunt, male agunt, inquit Seneca, ast. Christiani est hoc agere Agere, the one thing that is necessary: Hoc unum necessarium: u Luk. 10. vers. 40.41 MARIES part to be acted) in acting MARTHAES' part, trading and traffiking so much with the World, affecting and loving the Creature above the Creator: temporary and apparent good, before that which is real, and eternal: we do but Aberrare a Scopo, err from our true end, and scope of our Creation: yea Toto errare Caelo: wander as wide, as the Earth is distant from the Heavens: yea we do but (aliter agere, nihil agere, male agere, vel * Seneca lib. 1. Epistolarum, Epist. 1 malum) otherways, than we should and ought to do: we do evil, for the matter, or manner: yea we run at an uncertain mark; in which we do Operam & oleum per dear: lose our labour: and so do as good as nothing; like him that ploughs the x As once Ulysses feigning madness. Sands, and sows his seeds in an Irish bog; as good do nothing as to no purpose: as good sit still, as rise and fall: be idle as ill employed: as our Phrases are. And therefore (as partly before is prosecuted) as every thing rests only in its own Centre, and is not contented till it accomplish his praescribed y Finis & bonum convertuntur. end: so it is with the soul of man, whose Centre is God: place a ponderous stone, where you will, in the Air, in the Fire, in the Water, it still descends downwards, and rests not, till it come to his bottom, to which naturally it moves, unless it be fixed, and stayed by the way: (as a bowl by some rub or rough cast, may be stayed in midst of a steep Hill, that it descends not to the Valley,) lay what Wood, what weight, what fuel you will on the fire, it breaks through all, and as is said of the z Plin. hist. l. 13. cap. 4. Palmtree, in despite of weight surgit in Altum, it ascends upwards, to his Centre: our material fire, we see aspires even to the Elementary Fire, with which it hath some affinity, and similitude: so we see the Rivers cease not their motions, till they run into the Sea, from whence originally they came, as doing naturally their duteous and tributary homage, to their Sovereign: yea the Sun that Monoculus, the world's great eye, runs his daily course like a Giant, and rests not till he have (judgelike) rid, or run his Circuit, from the East to the West, as it runs his Annuary or yearly course, through all the twelve Signs of the a Sic per annum, id est. 365. aies totum percurrit Zodaicum, Abenezra in cap. 12. Exodi, & Tholos. Syntax. artis lib. 8. c. 43. p. 63. Zodiac: so it holds in other motions, both Natural and Artificial, and Voluntary or rational, proceeding from the will of man: the twelve Tribes, we know, that went up at their solemn Feasts to worship at jerusalem, rested not till they came to the Holy b Psal. 84.7. City: no more did the Aethiopian c Act. 8.27. Eunuch and other religious Proselytes: even as our Superstitious Popelings at this day, in their devious Devotions, tending in their Pilgrimages, to the holy Sepulchre of jerusalem, to Saint JAMES of Compostella: to the Lady of Loretto in Italy, and to other Superstitious places in Spain, France, Rome, and elsewhere: rests not satisfied (more than the Turks travailing to Maecha to adore their Mahomet) till they have offered up their Prayers, and gifts, to those Images and Shrines of supposed Saints, as are in such places erected: even as the ancient Philosophers PLATO, PYTHAGORAS and some of their Sectaries, travailing to Athens, Egypt, and to the Indian Gymnosophists, to better their knowledge, rested not till they accomplished their ends; as a wayfairing Traveller by Land, and a Mariner by Sea, in an Indian or Virginian voyage, rests not contented, till they come to the places, which to themselves they propose, and as in these and other motions, in which nature still inclines to his end, till this end be attained (as in a perplexed d Res est soliciti, plena timoris amor Ovid. Lover) there's nothing but want, rest, fears, cares, jealousies, suspicions, doubts, dangers projected, troubles, molestations, incertainties, fluctuations: but when the utmost end is once accomplished, there's a quies, after motion, a rest, a cessation and contentation, as in a marriage: when PAPHHILUS enjoys his e Apud Torentium. GLYCERIUM, the Italiam f Guiccardine in his History of Italy, recorded by Gonlari, pag. 465. LIVIO his CAMILLA, RHODOMAMT in g Ariosto l. 29. Stan. 8. Ariosto his ISABELLA, EURYALUS in AENEAS SILVIUS, his LUCRETIA, or JACOB h Gen. 29.29 in the sacred Story his RACHEL: thus it is with man in his motions supernatural, and spiritual, as he was created for that end, that he might know, love, embrace, rest and remain in God, his ultimum finem, his last his lasting and everlasting good, till he come unto God by Prayer, into God by Faith, (as the graft into the stock) resemble God, by a Holiness, in a renewed Image; all the Creatures subjected to Vanity, cannot content him; as all the jews comfort not Martha and Mary mourning for i joh. 11.19 27.1. Lazarus, till Christ came; so all the Creatures cannot satisfy the Soul, till the Creator come: as all joseph's brethren could not content joseph, till Benjamin k Gen. 42.34 came, his best beloved; the soul that's thirsty after Christ, and not contented with the World's broken pits, and dry puddles: saith unto Christ, as once the Evangelist Philip: Show us thyself and it sufficeth: She weeps and mourns with that zealous Mary l joh. 20.15 Magdalen, at the Sepulchre, unsatisfied with all earthly comforts (as the Prodigal here with husks) till Christ reveal himself, and manifest his comfortable presence; yea as m Luk. 2.48 Mary the Virgin Mother, & the loving Spouse in the n Cant. 3.1, 2 Canticles: having by any means lost him, she seeks him sorrowing; mourns for him, as the Nightingale for her young: pursues after him with a spirited zeal, as the o Solinus c. 21. & Mela lib. 3. c. 2 Tiger after her little ones, taken away by the Hunter: and never rests till she have recovered him; and having once found him, she is overjoyed, as jacob in meeting with his desired p Gen. 46.30 joseph, hence it is that touring and soaring over these sublunary Vanities, and trampling the Moon, these momentary & mutable things under her q Rev. 11.1 feet, as unworthy of her love: as Alexander thought any one unworthy his contesting with who was not a r In Olympicis apud Plutarchum. King, & as that Tiger bred s Gesuer de quadrupedibus, cap. de Ca●ibus. Indian Dog, thought every creature unworthy his encounter, that was less than a Lion, shooting at the fairest mark, even at the Sun itself, the true Son t Mal. 4.2. of Righteousness, the righteous Son of GOD, she still aspires to the highest, and rests in the holiest, using all these outward things, but as steps and stairs, or as Coaches and Chariots, to carry and convey her upwards to GOD: These like little revolets lead her to the Spring of Grace, and fountain of mercy: as rivers they direct her, to find out him who is the ocean u Qui vult Mare, inventatumnem. of comfort, and sea of consolation: or as Ships and Boats, they are used only for their turns and times to carry her to her Elysian Fields, her happy and blessed Lands: even that Cape of good * Caput bonae speranzae. Hope, to which she constantly, conscionably, and courageously sails, not placing in the interim, her heart and affections on these her vehicula or convoys: more than the wise men set their hearts on those Drommadaries that carried them from the East to x Vide Fusius Bosquerun, de Magis, in Echo Concionum. Bethlem, where they met with CHRIST: or then PAUL, set his heart on that Ship, badged with Castor and Pollux, in which he sailed to y Act. 28.11 Rome, leaving her very willingly, as soon as ever he got to the meanest shore: yea, using them only, as the Traveller doth his Inn, for a night or two z Hic tanqan in Diver●rio. Tullius. lodging: or as the Pilgrim his hired Arabian Camel to a See Sands his Travels, & the Voyages of divers English men. In Print. Damascus, or the like; his heart being merely on his journey's end, or on his own home, and not vainly there, where he knows he hath no continuance. And herein the heart of man, is compared by some to the Needle touched, with the Adamant or * supra de Adamant. Loadstone which is ever quaking or shivering, till it stand directly towards the Northern Pole, and there being steady and fixed: (by which happy invention the Art of Navigation came to so exact a perfection) or it is like the Ark, which never rested till it was brought into the Temple: for so long as it was in the Wilderness: in Canaan, or amongst the b 1 Sam. 5.2 Philistimes, or in the house of c 2 San. 6.10. Obed Edom, it was still movable, tossed hither and thither, till at last with joy and jubilee, it was brought into salomon's Temple, (typifying d See the Book in 8. called Moses unvailed, & Sylva● allegoric in F●l●. CHRIST) and there it rested and remained: What the Northern Pole, is to the Mariner's needle; what the Temple, to the Ark of the Covenant: that is GOD unto the Soul; yea, as NOAH's Ark to NOAH, his sons, and the Creatures, in which they are e Gen. ●. 1● safe, sure, secure, and quiet: when all without the Ark are turbulent▪ nuquiet, drowned, destroyed: floating on the waves like so many drowned Dogs and Rats; as I could illustrate in the many and and manifold Turbulencies, tumults, distractions, divisions, disturbances of ●arnalists, and worldlings every thing, (as the evil Spirit to f SAUL,) vexing and tormenting them, as Bugbears; terrifying them, as so many Fairies pinching them; as Executioners torturing them, Friends, Foes, Childre● Servants, prosperity, poverty, crosses, losses, disgraces, besides the Devil and their own Lusts, horribly yea hellishly disquieting them; as though every day, every way, brought or wrought their rack, their Gibbet; their purgatory g Thus was Nero perplexed, after the Murder of Seneca, & Agrippina: apud Suetonium: the Herod's after their out rages, apud josephum, l. 2. antiqu. c. 17. & cap. 11. cap. 29. & lib. 8. v. 9 Pilate after his condemning Christ. Cassius and Brutus, after Caesar's murder. Decius, Hadrian, Diolesian, Valens, Paulinus, with many more after their bloody butche●es of the Saints, apud Eutrop. l. 7. Niceph. lib. 7. ca 6. Euseb. l. 7. c. 1. Vincen. l. 10. c. 56. Deut. 28.67. compared wih the Calm, quiet, serene tranquillity of God's Children, who by the power and comfort of all sufficient grace, the corroboration and consolation of his Spirit, the true Comforter: like some Birds even sing in the winter: rejoice as DANIEL h Dan. 6.22. and JEREMY in Dens, and Dungeons: sing Psalms as PAUL and SILAS i Act. 16.25 in Prison; and (as the Axletree) are fixed in k 1 Sam. 30.6. GOD, when all the world (like the Circling wheels) are in motion: yea terrible and tragical commotion: it never going better with just l Gen. 19.17.24. LOT, than when Sodom was all on a flaming fire: nor with m jer. 39.12. JEREMY, than when the incredulous jews were carried Captives into Chaldea: This holding in NOAH, DANIEL, and divers moe. SECT. four The verdict of Divines; force of Religion; union betwixt Holiness and Happiness. 14. IF we may add to all these reasons, Amplifications and illustrations, Arguments from Authorities humane, by some called inartificial: Augustine n Argumentum in artificiale ex authoritate apud Ramistas himself, who spoke I persuade myself, as experimentally, as ever any excepting Solomon: in his zealous and judicious Soliloques, Meditations; and Confessions, speaks to the purpose, to the proposed point: as striking with the great o Dictus enim Mallaeus. Haereticorum. Hammer, he hits the nail on the head: Oh domine Deus, fecisti nos propter te, & irrequietum est cor nostrum doneo perveniat ad p Confess. l. 1. cap. 1. te: Oh Lord God, saith the zealist, thou madest us only for Thee, and our hearts are restless, and unquiet, till they come again to Thee; as we see in Nature, the inferior that cannot help itself, is never quiet till it be united to the superior, of whom it hath immediate dependence, for his esse, and bene esse: his being & wellbeing: as we see how restless are the little chirping Chirks, Partridges, and other birds till they be covered, fed, and brooked by the Dam? What rest hath the little harmless Lamb, in continual bleating, if it be separated any time from the Ewe? What help hath it against the Fox, the Wolf, the Dog, without the Shepherd? How doth the little Calf burst itself with bellowing? The young Fawn with earning? Yea the young suckling Child, with crying? If the one be kept long from the C●w, the other from the Do, the third from dug of the Mother, that did breed it, or the Nurse that doth feed it? Now God in whom we live, move, and have our q Act. 17.28 being, whose offspring we are: (as Paul proves to the Athenians) is more to the well-being of the Soul, than any Creature, to that seed, which issues and proceeds from it: yea more than the foundation is to the house: the prop to the Hop or Vine; on which it rests: yea than the Crutch to the Cripple, without which he falls: since the Soul is even dead in r Ephes. 2.1 sins, without God: as the Apostle shows in the estate of the Ephesians, and other Gentiles before their Conversion: even as the body (though as strong o●ce as sampson's and Hector's) is dead without the Soul, of this the same Augustine, had good experimental knowledge; that where ever he was without God, his case was miserable, and it went sorily with him, both in the outward and inward s Hoc confiteor hoc scio, domine Deus meus, quia ubicunque sum, sive te, male mihi est, praeter te, non solum extra me, sed etiam in me Seli●. cap. 13. man: yea he accounted his best plenitude and plenty without God (even as the Prodigals Husks) extreme penury: t De ultimis Cygnaeis verbis Lutheri, Calvini, Philippi, Zwingeri, Zwin glij, Oecolampadij, & alierum. Vide apud Grinaeun, in Apothegmat. morientem. Omnis copia, quae non est Deus meus, mihi egestas est: the like Anselme, Bernard, Basil, Cyprian, and other devout spirits felt, and acknowledged: together with our zealous modern Divines, Luther, Melancton, Calvin, Oecolampadius: as appears both by their writings extant, and by the last words they uttered, when they concluded their Holy lives, with Happy Deaths▪ as their farewells to the world with her Vanities, and their welcomming of Christ with his comforts, are plentifully recorded by that godly Grinaus in one special Tractate: I conclude then my Testimonials, with that of Simeon u Lib. 6. cap. 16. in illud Luca 16. ca●it ●gere. Cassianus, that the evil will of man is insaturable, his desire insatiable, and always subjected, to need, and misery, till both be made capable of the Deity: and partaker * 1. Pet. 1.4 of the Divine nature. 15. Moreover it is considerable, that GOD in the first Creation and fabrication of this Universe; when in six days he had made the Heavens, the Earth, the Seas, the Eliments; and all contained in them, however he saw they were all good: yet he is not said to rest till the seaventh x Gen. 2.2. & Exod. 20. day: till he had made man (excepting the Angels) his best work, as his last: in man's production then, as God rests, and not before; so it holds in good Symmetry and the best proportion, that man never truly rests, till he rests in God: God rests as in a kind of Complacency, when he hath created Man in his own Image: and man never truly rests, till this Image of God deformed and defaced by original and actual sin, be again in Holiness and Righteousness renewed according unto GOD▪ for as man fell at first saith y In Symbolo GRANATENSIS, into this restlessness, by falling away from GOD, by Pride, Infidelity, and Curiosity; by which means he became as an arm or leg broken, and luxate; so he cannot be recovered jointed, and knit right again, till he return to God, by Faith, Humiliation and z Hence called repentance unto life, Acts, 11.18 & rescipiscere re-sapere velredire in se, et Ire in Deum. Luk. 15.17 Repentance, it's Grace only, saving Grace that ties man again to GOD, and knits the Soul to GOD, from whom it hath made Apostasy, by transgression: hence Religion as some a A Religando docitur Relig. Lact. lib. 4. Instit. cap. 28. think, from the Etymology of the Word, hath his denomination, because it combines and binds the Soul to b Hoc Vinculo Deo relegati sumus. Cicero de natura deorum, lib. 3. God: and as an Anchor holds it fast towards Heaven, which before was fluctuate after Vanities; to whom when it is inseparably knit and married, as it were in an indissolluble bond; as having hit her aimed mark, and attained her utmost desire: Hoc adepto beata est, quo amisso misera; this gained and retained, makes the Soul truly happy, of this bereft and stripped, (as a Bird deplumed of his flying feathers, the Fish of her swimming Scales) she is every way a Spectacle of misery: saith c De Civit. Dei, lib. 12. cap. 1. AUGUSTINE: and since this Soul saith GREGORY the Great, was created that she might wholly exercise her concupiscible faculty in desiring God: what ever she lusts after lower than God, in all reason cannot content her, because it is not d Omne quod infra appetit Minus est jure ei, non sufficit quod Deus non est Moralium, lib. 26. cap. 36. God. Therefore foolish, and frivolous is their imagination, that aim at Contentation without Religion: even in the power of it true Conversion: that hope for Satisfaction, without Sanctification: for Happiness, without e Impius & f●lix sic simulesse cupit, ve nolit pius esse velit, tamen esse beatus, quod Natura negat, nec recipit ratio, de Macrino dictus apud. Capitolinum. Holiness: as well may they walk without legs; see without eyes; fight without hands; live without hearts or heads; yea as well may the whole world be enlightened without the Sun; as well heat be in the deep of Winter; in the cold Norway and frozen Regions, without Fire, or Furs: since as AUGUSTINE writes to his f Ep●i. 56. friend, Etiam sine istis, homo possit esse beatus: without these outward things, that the world dotes on, a man may be happy: (as were once poor Naomi, g Lib. Ruth. passim. Ruth, the Widow of h 1. Kings, 19 Sarepta, i Luke, 16. Lazarus, yea Christ k Foxes have holes. himself, with his poor l Acts. 3. Apostles, persecuted Prophets, and constant Martyrs, that were m Heb. 11.36.37. peeled and polled of all they had) but without Religion and filial fear of the Almighty, none can be happy but accursed (as were n Gen. 4.11 12 Cain, and o joh. 17.12 judas, p Ex. 14.28 Pharaoh, q Mal. 1.3. Esau, r 1. Kin. 22.38 Ahab, s 2. Sam. 17.23 Achitophel) for as God blessed Abraham and made him rich without the King of t Gen. 14.23 Sodom, from whom he had not so much as a shoe latchet, so God can truly satisfy and content his children without the trash, and Husks and gland of the world, which the Apostle in respect of Christ, held but us dross and u Phil. 3.8 Dung: else were he not as he promiseth and performeth, to all the Spiritual * Gal. 3.7 sons of faithful Abraham, el Schaddai, x Gen. 17.1 God all-sufficient: else were it vain as the Hypocritical and profane spirits have ever y Mal. 3.14 scoffed, to serve the Almighty: else Godliness were not great z 2. Tim. 6.6 gain: but as the world holds it preposterously, gain should be godliness: else the reward of Religion, should not be in the Superlative, Merces a Gen. 15.1 magna, & maxima, the great, yea the greatest reward, both in Earth, and in Heaven: yea else godliness should not have the promises of this life, and of the life to b Tim. 4.8. come. * ⁎ * CHAP. XIIII. SECT. 1. The Inconstancy and Incertainty of Health, Life, Prosperity, common blessings, and all Externals. THese Reasons already rendered, have been drawn and extracted according to our first proposed Method, partly from the nature of the Soul, partly from the Nature of these Vanities, paralleled and compared together: further reasons confirming and concluding our first Proposition may be deducted from the Inconstancy, Uncertainty, Varieties, of these Vanities: from our own experience in them: Gods judgements, or justice upon them, of which in order: and then we will conclude, with such uses as are the very life, and Soul of all, and this will we do, if God permit. And first, I offer it, as our sixeteenth Consideration: that the insufficiency of these earthly transitory and momentary things, to satisfy the immortal Soul, and spirit of man, may be seen in them constantly; as the godly man, doth in God, in whom and from whom, he hath his hearts c See D. Playsers Sermon called Hearts delight. desire; for particulars: what meat can give the Epicures stomach long content, though he love it as well as that angry Pope, once his d Apud Platinam, alleged in the mirthful book called the World of wonders. Peacock: and long for it as much as nice Ladies, and Gentlewomen do for Cherries, Strawberries, and Garden Pease, at their first coming in: yet after some few repasts, he loathes it, as glutted with it; he cares no more for it, than Courtly Dames, for Butcher's Meat, or for Cherries at three pence a pound, as too vulgar and common; neither fare fetched, nor dear bought: Curious lips, must have more e Rara semper preclara. rare, and costly Cates? So, what one Woman gives some voluptuous man long content? What need we go further than experience: have we not seen some luxurious Gallant married to Virgins honourably (or worshipfully) descended, in respect of Birth: beauteous in the two essentials of beauty, Colour and f Discussed in the book called the Courtier translated, out of the Italian: Proportion: witty, wise, ingenious, virtuous, courteous, every way trained, g Est. 2.1.2. gifted qualified, and demeaned, to give content: yet the same men, within some few hony-Moones, when appetite was glutted as Wife-sicke, as ASSVERUS was of his Vasti, some other ESTHER, desired suited, h K. H. 8. laboured of this discal solicited: as once that Roman, the shoe that others thought i Apud P● fair, hath pinched them: they have thought to put it off, and throw it away: yea some Hagar hath been preferred, before beauteous Sarah: some Chambermaid, or the Wife of some k As o● Jane Sh● and you Ros●m● before 〈◊〉 nor, a 〈◊〉 befog 〈◊〉 Quee● Mechanic, or Country Farmer, as a Kite, or kestrel hath peerked into the eagle's Nest; Even Mab, hath been preferred before Madam; she that once in the heat, fury, or frenzy of love, or lust, was prosecuted by so many and so monstrous promises, protestations oaths, vows, solicitations, gifts, Letters, Sonnets, as the Orators and Lures of l Burt●n in his Love. melancholy in diversified readings, from Poets, and Histories instanceth in all. affection; is now undeservedly distasted, yea detested; abhorred as Ammon did Thamar; forsaken & disrespected as Demophon did m Phillis Jllis untrue Demophon, apud Anglicum poetam. Phillis: set on a Lea land as they say, and disrespected: only because it is the nature, & nurture of such Beasts, be they never so well in their own enclosures, to break over all n Ruimus in vetitum nofascupimusque negata. Hedges of Credit, Conscience, Civility, Christianity, for new Pastures, fresh Fogs, though they prove to them, as rot grass to the o Prov. ch. 6 c. 7. per totum. See one of Downams' 4 Treatises, de Adulterio. sheep; thus it is with all other vain men, no other pleasure contents them long: In Hunting, Hawking, Fishing, Fowling, Bowling, Carding, Dicing; they find satiety after a time, and still seek out new p As Cyrus propounded rewards to those who could invent new pleasures. Apud Coe●um Rhodiginum. varieties: they surfeit of any one of these and the rest, if they have not diversities: and they should be more dulled with them, and even tired, as a tired Hackney, should they be tasked and tied to any one of these: what they do voluntarily, if they should do it of necessity, enforcedly, and compulsorily, their pleasure would be their Purgatory; yea, as toilsome and irksome, as the rowing in the Turkish Galleys to a Captived Christian, or rolling the Wheelebarrow at Rotterdam: hence it is that still they have prosecuted Vanities diversified: one succeeding, being still as the sauce, and shooinghorne, unto an other; as the Scarabean Flea, or Wagtail, that skips from place to place, they move from one Vanity to another: still wavering as Weathercockes; q Like noddies into the Land of Nod. Gen. 4. v. 14.16. wanderers, like CAIN, like r Gen. 49.4 REUBEN; light as water, fluctuate as the Waves, flowing reflowing as the Sea: ever in motion (but when the dead sleep diseases, and sickness chain them) as if quicksilver were in their brains: cork in their s De Inconstantia & levitate horum vanorum lege plurae apud Bosquirum in Academa peccatorum, part. 4. p. 141. heels; carried hither and thither as Clouds, driven with the Winds, or as a Ship that hath weighed Anchor, or broken Cable, till they split on the rocks, of their self-wrought t Sic necet empta dolors voluptas. ruin: now even this changing of their delights, as Children do their babbles, (as sick men, gouty men and childbearing women, change their places: yet no where eased, and contented;) constant only in inconstancy; certain in incertainty; changing their minds, manners, and demeanours, according to variation of Times and Ages, as the Hodge-hog u De quo Aristot. de admirandis, c. 64. & Aelian, l. 3. c. 10. changeth his hole, according to contrary Winds: in Youth hunting altogether after Pleasure, in Manhood after Credit, and applause: in old Age after Riches, loading themselves with thick clay: making the greatest provision and viaticum, for their journey, when they are nearest home, as having one foot in the Grave: even this their trying every Vanity, touching every string, yet resting in none; shows that no Vanity several, nay not all of them together, can give that contentation to the Soul of man; which a sincere Christian enjoys, only in one thing: the knowledge, and worship of the true jehovah: to be blessed and praised for ever. 17. Reason. Besides what Contentations have we, in those things whereof we have no certainty nor assurance? What content hath he that is only a Tenant at Will, in any Land, House, or Farm? Ready to be turned out at the pleasure of his Landlord, upon hour's warning? What content, hath he that pitcheth his Tents in the Sands, ready to be washed away with the rolling of every Sea? As the web of the Spider, to be swept down with every Feather? Now what certainty there is in honours, riches, pleasures, and all these outward things, who knows not? Whose eyes God hath in any measure opened? What constancy is there in health, wealth, and worship? What Charter and assurance have we of credit, and applause, respect with men? Strength, beauty, or any external gift, yea or internal either, except the gifts of Grace? It's manifest to any that will consider and understand. As to instance in some of these briefly (not to intercept a larger discourse) for health, how uncertain is it, is not AHAZIAH in health to day, and falling out of a Lattice in his upper * 2. Kin 2.2 Chamber, in his sick Bed to morrow? EZEKIAH, sound even now, and ere long set thy house in x 2. Kin. 20 1.2. & Esay 38 order, for thou must die? The Son of the Sunnamite, is perfectly well, with the Reapers in the Field, and presently struck with Sickness: Caput y 2. Kin. 3.19 dolet, his head aches? As the Philistines where instantly struck with z 2. Sam. 5.9 Emerods'; a 2. Chr. 20 19 VZZIAH and b 2. Kin. 5.5 GEHEZI, with Leprosy: c Luther's great Adversary, apud Osiandr. in Epit. Cent. 16. pag. 57 is said to die frantic ECCIUS and Cardinal d The Pope's Ambassador at the Council of Trent anno 1552. frighted by the Devil in the likeness of a black Dog. Sleidan. l. 231 Comment. CRESSENSE with frenzy: e In the memorable Histories of our time, a pag. 187. ad paginam 195. FRANCIS SPIRA, with d●spaire: f De cujus morte lege Caelium Rhodig. Antiq. Lect. l. 29. c. 8 ARISTOTLE, HOMER, SOPHOCLES the g Val. Max. l. 9 c. 12. Tragedian: ANTONIUS the h Apud Plutarchun. Roman: APOLLONIUS, the i Apud, Plin. l. 7. c. 23. Rhodian: HOSTRATUS the Friar, and divers k As Latonus and B●melius and Gerlach of Lov. D. Kraus of Hall in Germ. P●usenas Advocate of Dolphin in France, with others who died desperate. others, upon sundry occasions, were suddenly surprised with grief, and melancholy, of which they died. Pomponeus Atticus and Antonius Caesar, sick with Fevers. Hieronimus Vrsinus suddenly wounded in Rome: Matthew King of Hungary diseased of an Apoplexy: Wenslaus the young King of Bohemia, thrust through with a Sword: johannes Medici's, and Henry the second King of France, unexpectedly wounded in justs and Turneaments, Tiberius' the Emperor, Hannibal the Carthaginian, Philippomones General of the Messineans, Alexander the fixed, and Caesar Burgias, poisoned with millions more, that might be l Apud Ravisium Broson. Fulgosun, & Zwinge●ium in magno suo Theatro passim. enumerated, in their perfect healths in the Sunshine of their glory, struck some with one sickness, some with another disease: show how uncertain the health is of the strongest, and most vigorous, since both naturally and casually, as also deservingly, by reason of m Gen. 2.17. & Rom. 6. sin, we are subjected to more diseases, than either Horse, or Hawk, or any other Creature whatsoever. So for life itself, alas how uncertain Lubric and frail is it; as brittle as Glass, as fading as a o job. 14.1.2.11 Esay. 40.6 2 Pet. 1.24 Flower, as vanishing as smoke, as swift as a Post, or a Weavers shuttle, the Scriptures, Histories, and experience of all times do demonstrate, as I have seen elsewhere in varieties of p In Simeons' dying Song in the Book called 7. helep to Heaven. examples; together with Reasons: which if they be not satisfactory, the consideration of so many excellent Worthies, both for Arts and Arms, even amongst Christians; to omit Turks, jews and Pagans, as have been cropped by that meager Death, even in the budding and blossoming of their years, together with others, that have been taken away in their prime and flower, or full strength plainly show unto us, as in a Map or Glass, on what a weak and uncertain Thread, our life depends: amongst the rest praetermitting that good JOSIAH, the son of JEROBOAM; ACHAZ King of juda, the Babes of Bethlem, the first borne of Egypt: DAVID'S spurious Child, with others in the Scriptures: when I consider the fatal and untimely fall of that Roman BRITANICUS the Son of CLAUDIUS; De diebus canicularibus par. colloq. 4. p. 271 de 〈◊〉 & alijs CONSTANS the son of CONSTANTINE the Great, slain by MAGNENTIUS; the son of MAXIMINUS slain with his Father by the tumultuous Soldiers: LADISIAUS the young King of Polony, slain by the Turks: LODOVICK GRATUS that excellent Linguist and Astronomer, as he was commended by MAIOLUS; all four cut off in the 21. year of their q Plurimaque exempla recinantur a Gregorio Richtero in axiom Oecono, pag. 35. Age: together with PHILIP the young King of Spain; HIPPOLYTUS MEDES the Cardinal: HERACLIUS CONSTANTINUS; HENRY RANZONIUS, JEROM TIRUSANUS, that young Bishop: who all were taken away, some by a natural, some by a violent death in the 28. year of their r Idem p. 36. Life: to omit CHRISTOPHER LONGOLIUS, and the Marquis of Brandenburg, who died in the 35. year of s Jdem ibid. their Age: as RADOLPHUS AGRICOLA, and that delight of Nature, TITUS VESPASIAN, in their 42. t Idem. p. 37 year, ere ever they came to their u Quam fatales fuere anni septenarij climat terici & rebus & personis magnis & Familijs Consulo Fencerum de divinat. pag. 21. Bucholcherum in Indice Chronico sub anno 1463. Strigellum, in Chronicis, part. 2. pag. 277. Perel. in Gen. cap. 2 p. 32. Bodinum lib. 4. de repub. cap. 2 p. 647.658. Climacteriall, in which so many worthy men have been taken away; in these instances, wherein I see such tall Cedars untimely fall'n and cut down, by the Axe of Death; I see how vain it is, to take any contentation, in a hoped long life, with neglect in the mean space of a good life, by deferred repentance: since Hodie mihi, cras tibi, & quod cuiquam contigit id cuivis: That may happen to every man, which happens to any man. Serius enim aut Citius, metam properamus ad unam. We sail to one Haven, we must lodge in one common bed the Grave, and with that BRUTUS, kiss our Mother Earth, God knows how soon. Besides, how uncertain is the Prospertty of this Life: suppose there should be a man amongst a Million, Rara avis in terris, A rare one indeed, a black Swan; that were as healthful as OTTO HERWARDUS, a Senator in Ausborough, in Germany, who if we believe Astrological * Exemplis Genit. praefixis Ephem. cap. de infirmit. LOVITUS, could never remember that ever he was sick, in all his life: or that this age could afford such an one as NESTOR, that is said, to live three hundreth x Nestoris est visus per tria secle Civis. propter lib. 2. et juven. Sat. years: such an on, as PARACELSUS, boasts of, that in the best improovement of his Art, by Paracelsian physic, could be made to live 400. years If a man could preserve himseife so long by meats medicines exercise, Baths, Diets: as that polo ROMULUS, is said to preserve himself by y Jntus Mulso foras oleo. wine. and oil: though now it be a rare thing to see a man live 127. years (as our late deceased friar at LISMOORE) yea to live 105. years as ZENOPHILUS, that musician in z Lib. 7. hist. c. 5. Though Narcissus of Jerus. is said to have lived 116. years. Paul the Hermit, 113. Prosdocimus a Bishop, 114 Florentinus a Priest, 123 T. Fullonius 157. B. Syrus, 132. Homer, 108 nay more, one Heroimes, 304. & johannes de temporibus, 361. PLINY: if besides all this, he had all that inward worth in him which the Romans' ascribe to their Cato's, Curioes', ffrabritioes: the Greeks to their Socrates, Solon, Aristides: Homer to Agamemnon: that he was like ᵘ jupiter in ffeature, Mars in Valour, Pallas in wisdom: and had what all such outward Prosperity, as d Regis filia, Vxor, Mater Pliny, lib. 7. Paterculus, ascribes to Quintus Metellus: Plutarch to P c Fuit Crassus ditissimus, nobilissimus, eloquentissimus, Juris peritissimus, & Pontifex Maximus. Mutianus, Crassus, Pliny to Lampseta the Ltcedimonean Lady, that was Daughter wife and mother to a King, as our illustrious Queen Ann deceased. was sister wife unto a King: and Mother to two royal Princes) let him be, in the opinion of the world, jovis Pullus, Gallinae filius alboe: stristotlles undique e Lib. 1. Aethic. quadratus, the world's jewel, Comet, blazing star, lulled in ffortunes Lap: let him be called as Tully said of Octovianus Augustus Matris Partus vere aurelibus: a golden branch, from a galden Tree junonius puer juno's own white boy; a Os oculosque jovi pares. let all men's b Volumine, 1 eyes be upon him, all men's tongues speak all good of f Omnes omnia bona dicere. him: and let him be as he is g Esto, quod audis, apud Horatium. reported, let every man observe him more than that Volvon in the sportful Comedy: bring Presents to him as the Persians to their Kings: applaud him as the Sidonians did h Acts, 12. non vox hominis sonat. Herod: rise to him as to Themistocles in the Olympics: run to see him as Shebaes' Queen, to see i 1. Reg. 10. Solomon: the Barbarian k Paterculus volumin. poster. Prince to see Cesav: Gaze on him as the l Filiae decurrunt pro Murum, & ad fenestras. Glossa ordinaria. Egyptians once on honoured joseph, the Citizens of Cullen on Matilda, the Empress: the Sultan of Sanas wife in Arabia, on fair m Navigat. Vertom. l. 3. cap. 5. Vertomanus: let songs be made in his praise, as the daughters in Israel on o 1 Sam. 18.7 David: let him have all the praises, that Tully gives p Oratione pro rege Deiotar. & alib. Caesar: Plato to Socrates, and Chramides. q Suspect. lect▪ lib. 1. cap. 2. Scoppius to Scaliger, r In Colloq. et Epistolis. Erasmus to Sir Thomas Moor, or s In Cyrop. Zenephon to Cylus in all moral endowments; besides let him have all the good, the world can afford him, let him dwell in such a house as t Numeratur cum Dianae templo. phidiae simulachro solis Colosso. inter Memorabilia mundi. Cyrus his house: Nabuchadnezzars' Babel the Palace of Escurial, in Spain: Fontenblew in France our English Tibbalds: None-such: let there be united such Gardens, as that of Adonis; the Turks gardens, in his Seraglio: the Pope's Belvedere in Rome, the Lord Chantelowes in France, or the Earl of * Quem honoris Causa nomino ille enim nulli semp. Magnus Apollo vix. Mator mihi non Melior Alter. Corks at yoghall in Ireland: let his Orchards, be like these of the Aespide.: let his ear be daily delighted u Daniel 4.27. with such Music as Alexander had from Timolaus: the Thebans from Amphion: the Mariners from Orpheus: let him hear daily such Plays as the Romans in their theatres, and Amphitheatres: see such sports and Pageants daily, as the Greeks had in their Olympian, Pythean, Istmian, Athenian, and Corinthean Games: let him moreover Feast daily and deliciously as that Epicure in the x Luk. 16.19 Gospel, and Lucullus in his own House, or let him be feasted with more rarieties than AESTHER u Esth. 7. entertained ASSVERUS, DIDO the a Apud Virg. Trojan AENEAS; or CLEOPATRA MARK ANTHONY: let him be clothed in Tyrian purple; as royally as b Acts, 12. HEROD, in as many varieties of Suits, as c Suetonius in Nerone. NERO: let him be attended and guarded with more men than SALOMON, or the French King: yea, and with Women too, as LILLIUS GERALDUS reports of an Egyptian Prince: and d Who had 150 Maids waiting at his Table. CTESIAS of a Persian King, yea let him wallow amongst his Concubines, as e De q●n Orosius Lampridius et Herodotus. HELIOGABULUS, or f De quo justinus lib. 1. Vellejus l. 1. Atheneus, l. 12. cap. 12 Orosius lib. 1 c. 19 et Angust. de Civ. 2.20. SARDANAPALUS give himself over to all pleasures, as that Pope, g joh. 22. JOHN: Hunt more than LEO the h Jovius in ejus vita. tenth, or ADRIAN the Emperor: Hawk more than the Muscovian Emperors, and Persian i See Shirley's Relations. Kings were wont: Dance more than that k Matchiavel in ejus ●vita. CASTRUCANUS, the Italian General: Card, Dice, Chess more, than once the Thebans: the Muscovites now, and these of Fessa, in l Leo Afer, ● 3. de Africa. Africa: let him in all these be as merry as he may: rejoice with salomon's young m Eccl. 11.9 man: laugh more than the Sardinians: sacrifice, as once the Lacedæmonians, Deae Risui, to the Goddess of Laughter: or as the old Greeks, ad Libidinosam Deam, to the Goddess of Pleasure, yea to conclude in every thing, Secura naviget aura; Let him hoist up Sails, set up top and top-gallant; launch forth into an Ocean of Delights, deny his soul no content, the Creature can afford, yet if all these could be incident to one man, and meet in one subject, as lines, in one Centre: that he should enjoy even here, a Turkish n Bohemus Lonclavus, Bredenbachus, et Purchasius noster in suis Turcicis, Historijs passim. Heaven, for Wine, womans, Music, Feasts, Festivals, Houses, Orchards, Gardens, Granaries, Arbours, Walks, Cards, Dice, Hawking, Hunting, Fishing, Fowling, Bulls, Bears, Players, Fiddlers, Fools, Rhymers, Buffoons, jesters, Spices, Perfumes, Masking, Mumming: in touching every string of Vanity: that he might sup as the phrase is, even in o A rich decked Chamber, so called, apud Plutarchum in Lucullo. Apollo: yet all these, could not afford him strong (because not long) Content: since there is no hold of any one of these, nor of all of them to be taken, more than of a slippery Eel: for those things that are the ground of this content, are as rot as our Irish bogs, or English Quagmires: there is no certainty in them: they fly as shadows from us, when we would be most cooled and refressed by them: they sometimes but salute us, and are gone, as if in a Dumb show, they did but present the Stage, and went presently off again: yea they are to us usually, as the p Apud gillium. Paladian Horse to the Troyans', trains and lures to our bane, and destruction: their short glimmering Sun ends in a long rain: for even those that had I will not say enjoyed) the best of these contents, specified, were not h●ppy in them, nor free from discontents, for we all know not what was the end of q In decem voti compos, apud Plinium, lib. 7. tamen ab Octavio in pugne apud Actium devictus Sabel. l. b. 3. & Loncer in Theat. p●g. 373. Metellus, r Inscitia regionis & loci, perit in bello contra, Parthes' Patrit l. 3. de regno tit. 14 pag. 213. Crassus, s In site auri Cruci affixus est per Or●t●m apud Heroditum, lib. 3. p. 100 101. Polycrates, and many more, whom the blear-eyed world thought happy in those things: they died unhappy, and violent deaths, as did also Cato t Vticensis dictus ab Vt. urbe Affricae, in qua se occidit, secundum Plinium lib. 5. & Gellio lib. 3. Vticensis, u Veneno perijt apud Ciceronem l. 1. quaest. Tusc. Socrates, of whom Theodoret and Lactantius have but a mean opinion, though the world and that Delphic Oracle, thought him most wise: and sure? As these, have proved miserable Creatures, to others, so they are like to prove us, though they seem fair Roses to day, we may feel their pricks to morrow, a fair * Gen. 23.24. morning (as it was with Sodom) may have a louring (yea fire-shouring) Evening? Do we not see experimentally that as Seneca said of a City consumed with fire, una dies interest, inter maximam Civitatem, & nullam: There's but a day betwixt a great City, and none: (as was seen in the overture of great y De quo Josephus de bello jud. Tragice l. 2. c. 19.21.22. et l. 6. c. 16. l. 7. ●. 7, 8. jerusalem, the rich z Thebae excisae ab Alex. magno Gorlic. axion. p. 103. Thebes, warlike a De cujus ruina Bodinus de rep. l. 5. c. 6. p. 249. Numantia, renowned b 14. Dies, incendio absumpta, Gorlic. in axiom. Pel. p. 590. Carthage, stern c Per Hanibalem del● ta. Jd. in axion. hist. p. 249. Sagunt, old d Apud. Virg. & Darem Phrig. ex Argivis, corruere 886. Millia ex Troianis 766. apud Maiolun, in dieb. Cani, part. 2. p. 359. Troy, famous e De cuius Called consul Krautrium Saxon. l. 11. c. 33. Constantinople, so sometimes, we see in midst of prosperity, by reason of many grievous accidents, occurrents, and variations: x De Constantia. there's but one day betwixt a man and no man: Betwixt Bellisarius a Leader in the Fields, and Bellisarius a blind f De cujus Tragico exitu, vide Fulgosum lib. 5. cap. 3. et Loincerum in Theatro fol. 336. Beggar, by the High way side: betwixt g Strigellius part. 21 Chr. 230. Cyrus, and h Apud Herod. ●b. ●. Croesus, opulent, and potent Princes, and captived condemned Prisoners: even in a Trice: yea small difference, in few days (as our Pharises bee) betwixt a Knight, and a knitter of Caps: all human contents from Wives, Children, Blood, Friends, Consanguinity, wealth, worship, and what not; may prove to us, as they have proved to others, even in respect of their mutability, mere Husks: yea Mulier formosa superne, every one of them, didinens in i Horatius. piscem, beauteous as are Maids, at the first blush: when first we embrace them, but foul, filthy, and gliding, slippery as Fishes, yea stinging as Asps, when we discover their worst, in their Vltiman vale, and scornful farewell, they sometimes take of us. SECT. II. The uncertainty of Honours, Riches, Pleasures, further exemplified. TO contemplate this Reason, a little further; and (as Seleuchus with his Rods) to unclose those unto several, which have bundelled up together; what certainty is there in Honour, and in Popular applause, which depending on the breath of the k Honour est, in Honorante, non in honorate. vulgar, as it is Wind, doth it not change with the Wind? Do not the common people even now cry l joh. 12. ●3 Hosanna, even now Crucify, crucify m Luk. 23.21 him; is not the same Christ, even now a n Mar. 6.15 Prophet, and anon a o joh. 7.12 20. Samaritan, that hath a Devil: is not Paul even now a p Act. 28.4 murderer, with the Barbarians, and instantly a q Vers. 6. God: is not the same Paul and Barnabas, now honoured in a Paganish Devotion, as though they were r Act. 14.12 jupiter, and Meroury, now stoned as though they were s Vers. 19 Malefactors? Paul and Silas now imprisoned in the lowest Dungeon at t Act. 16.24 Philippos, now honoured and adored of the same u Ve. 30.33 jailor, that was their Executioner, as Christ was honoured of the same * Math. 27.4. judas that was his betrayer: of the same , that was his x Math. 27.24. Condemner; james Abbot of the same man that set fire to his y Who cried, james Abbot was a good man, but I am damned. In the Book of Martyrs. Martyrdom: as Iepht● amongst the z judg. 11.7 8 jews: Chrysostome amongst the a Votis Episcoporum, ab exilio revocatur. Nice. lib. 10. etc. 2. & Histor. Magd. Cent. 5. cap. 10. Orthodox: Tully, Themistocles, and Coriolanus amongst the b Apud Livinm in Decad & Plut. in vitis. Pagans, were honoured in their reduction, and recalling home, some even of them, by whom they were exiled, and banished? I must ingenuously confess, as I have been much affected, when I have considered how some meanly borne, and as mean in place, or race, have been raised from the dust, and set with c Psal. 113.7.8. Princes, as that Maximinus, Probus, Aurelius, Pertinax, Philippus Arabs: who from common Soldiers became d De his & caeteris vide apud Valerius lib. 3. Titulo, de his qui infimo loco nati clari evaserunt. Theatrum Philosoph. lib. 2. pag. 99 & Cassanaeum in Catalago gloriae mundi Consid. 65. Fol. 42.43. Emperors: as Herculus, Romulus, Themistocles, our King Arthur: and William the Conqueror: the Scriptures jephte, and Abimelech though Bastards, were famous for Arms: as Peter Comestor, Gratian the Collector of the Decretals, Lombard the Master of the Sentences, first founder of Schoole-Divinity, the Bastards of Nuns, were famous for Arts: as Agathocles the son of a Potter, Abdolominus a Gardener, Iphicrates and Marius meanly borne, came to be Kings of Sicily, Syria, and great Potentates: with others moe, recorded by Cassanaeus in his Catalogue, Zwinger, in his Theatre, Gorlicius in his Politiciall Axioms, and Machavell in his Florentine e Lib. 7. Historia Florent. His add Saulum, et Davidem, Asinas et Oves Pascentes ad regnum pervenientes. 1. San. 9 et 16 De quibus etiam le ge Josephum l. 6. antiq. cap. 4. & cap. 9 History: chief when I consider how Cosmus Medici's being all his youth obscure and miserable, on a sudden had the Sun of his glory, shining as from under a f Post annum aetatis 40. Cloud, how Huinades was fetch out of Prison, Henry the third of Portugal, out of a poor Monastery, to be crowned Kings; so again when I have perused Histories and pondered how (as in the turning of the Wheel, those spokes that have been lowest in the dust, have been suddenly highest, and those that have been highest, in a trice lowest again) so the greatest have been suddenly depressed, and dejected, as the meanest have been exalted: laying to heart how soon Pharaoh with all his pomp was drowned in the red g Ex. 13.28 Sea: Herod consumed with h Act. 12.23 Worms: Hatto the rich Bishop of Mentz devoured with i An. Dom. 314. ut testatur Job Fincellinus, & Munster Cosmog. l. 3. & Loincer, in. 5. praecep. et 6. p. 346. et 539. Rats: Adonizebech disgracefully mangled in his Hands and k judg. 1.6 Toes: ●ating Crumbs, as a Dog under a Table: Agag a King, hewn in l 1. Sam. 15.33 pieces, as an Ox, jezabel a m 2. Kin. 9.35 Queen, and a King's Daughter, gnawn by Dogs as a Carrion: n Dan. 4.34 Nabuchadnezzar turned out of his Palace: like a Beast to graze in the Park: Great o Chronica Phil. l. 5. & Campo Fulgosus lib. 9 cap. 5. Baiacet as a Wolf or some wild Beast, carried up and down by the Conquering Tamburlaine, in an Iron Cage: p De quo praeter E●tropium, lib. 9 Zonarum & Petrum Hisp. in vita) Euseb. hist. l. 7. c. 9 Valerian as a Slave and Vassal to Sapor holding his Stirrup (as though he were Pope) whilst he got on Horse back; Frederick the third, one of the best of Emperors, trod upon by Alexander the q Bergomensis in supplem. Chron. & Adventinus. sixth, the worst of Popes: in St. Marks Church in Venicec as though he had been an Asp, or Basilisk: how that Scythian Shepherd, had his Couch drawn with the Kings of r Marlowe in his Poem Asia, as though they had been his Coach-horses: how Mauritius the s Niceph. hist. lib. 18. c. 40. et 58. Emperor (as before him that perverse t jer. 39.6. Ezekiah:) had his Empress, and his Children, slain before his eyes, by that bloody Phocas, his Servant, the first Countenancer of Papal u De quo Fusius Mor. naeus, in suo progressu Paepatus. Superiority, which was the case also of that aged Priamus of Troy: and Palaeologus the Emperor of * De Turcica called et crudelitat lege ex Punc. in Churnol. p. 163. O fiandrnmin Epit. o●nt. l. 3. pag. 482. Constantinople, when those two famous Cities were destroyed: the one by the Greeks, the other by the Turks: with many moe great ones suddenly cast (as was threatened x Luk. 10.15 Capernaum, from the Heaven as it were, of highest exaltation, into the Hell of the lowest Confusion: yea into the darkest Dangeons of Desolation, by grievous Imprisonments: as was once the case of Richard the second King of y Miserum Senem, it a Fame et calamitatibus in Carcere fregit Cā●d. in Britania, in Wiltshire. England: Roger the Bishop of Salisbury, the second man to King Steephen: Francis King of France, imprisoned by Charles the z Guiccard. fift, Robert Duke of a Matthew Paeris. Normandy: Huinades and divers other worthy personages: I say, of myself, pondering these examples of the Tragdeys of so many great ones, they wrought in me such impressions, as the reading of the death of Socrates, in Plato's Phaedon wrought in Scaliger, and the death of Dido; with the destruction of Troy, wrought in St. b Confessienem. l. 1. Augustine: even to make my heart full, and mine eyes weep: being ready to say, as St. Gregory, when he was to speak of the repentance of Mary Magdalen. Flere magis libet quam dicere: I would turn my pen into an eye, my Ink and my tongue into c In fontem frontem in flumina lumina vertan. Tears: but chief, I see in all these Glasses, how vain a thing it is for any man, to place his felicity and chief contentation in eminency of place, and high exaltation, (with neglect of the dignity of dignities, saving Grace) since in the revolution of the Globe, in the once turning of Sesostris his d Magnus ille Aegypti rex, qui habuit copijs pedestribus 600. peditum millia equitum 24. Wheel, even in a trice, in the twinkling of an eye, all humane glory may be laid in the dust, the Sun of all honour set, or Eclipsed, or Clouded in ignominy: all Grace turn to disgrace; as the hot gleaming Sun, to a sudden storm: like honoured Haman that was taken immediately from Feasting with Assuerus and Esther, and hanged on the Gallows. Esther, 7. v. 10. So for pleasures, alas how short lived are they? Even the best of them, how soon do they fade as vapours? Pass away as a Dream that is told? Perish as the grass upon the house top, or untimely fruit of a Woman: how soon are they dashed and quashed in a moment? As the news of SALOMON proclaimed King, and the noise of Trumpets suddenly struck dead, all the joys and jollities of ADONIAH, and his feasting e 1. King. 1 vers. 49. Guests: and the hand writing on the wall, with daniel's interpretation: did as a sudden Damp, put out all the light of sensual content which Baltazar had in carousing out of holy Vessels (unholily profaned) the healths of his Queens and f Dan 5.6.7 Concubines: so the sudden fall of Dagons' house upon the Philistines, when they were Idolatrizing, (as grossly as if they had been at a g Caeteraquis nescit, ah, si fas dicere Mass) sacrificing to their Pagan Gods, mocking as Asp●s that Lyonly Nazarite SAMSON, (as if he had been a Hugonite an Heretic, a Lutheran, a Calvinist, a true Christian) this unexpected fall of the house about their h judg. 16. v. 25.26.30 ears, as unwilling to bear the burden of their abominations, instantly as a Vessel of water cast on a smothering brand, quenched and cooled (yea schooled) all their madding (I had almost said Massing) mirth: And indeed it's true of all pleasures, if they die not like Children, in their very birth; yet the least cross that bites, and comes to the quick, nips and blasts them, as the frost the tender buds, and the lightning and h De causis et effectibus Tonitru, & fulgurationis consul Arist. l. 3. Meteor. Plin. l. 2. c. 49. et 50.54. et Pontanum in Metoris. Thunder: the setting fruit, till they whither and decay, and dye again: the pain in one Tooth, the Cramp in one joint, the Gout in one Toe, the Megrim in the Head: the Colic in the Guts: the Fever in the Blood: the Wolf in the Flesh: the Scyatica in the Thigh: the Fistula, but chief the Hemeroides in the nether parts: or any other perilous or painful disease, makes your Voluptuous man all amort, turns his singing into sighing: his music, and ministrelsie into Mourning or madding, and his Riot, into rage. So for Riches, are not they as uncertain, as any of the rest: take they not sometimes the Wings of an Aeagle, and fly away when their possessors think they are as sure of them, having them close prisoned, in bags, and bolts, under lock and key: as the Romans thought themselves sure of the Goddess i Apud Majolum de Cultu deorum. Victoria, when they clipped her wings, and walled her within their City: at least these Riches are Fugitives, and by degrees take their times (like Semeies' k 1. King. 2.39 Servants, l Paul's Epiad Philemon. Onesimus and that captive Androdius, in the Roman m Apud Aelian. hist. l. 7. c. 34. & Anlum Gellium Noct. attic. lib. 5. c. 14. Story, to run from their masters, never perhaps returning: (like a word n Ne●cit vox em●ssa, reverti. once spoke, a Bird flown; a loss in honour, or lost Virginity) never perhaps recovered again: though their once owners in pursuing after them too fare, beyond the limits of religion and conscience, lose their souls for silver: p Acts 1.18 judas-like, as Semei lost his q 1. King. 2 46. life, in seeking his servants: for indeed well may we call Gold, and Pearls, and Plate, o Reductio per impossibile. and all kind of Riches and Revenues Currant, as well as Currant money; since we see with most men, like fools, Travellers, Gypsces, Cheators, Beggars and fickle headed Servants, whose shoes are made of running Leather) they will not stay long, (except some few that have the wit, the will, the Art, the heart, to chain them) as Leopards, Lions, and Cats do after their prey, they skip from place to place, from man to man: like some fawning Dog, or insinuating Whore: (for the Scripture puts them both r Deu. 23.18 together) that will be every man's, and yet no man's further than they will themselves: they are movable as Shittlecookes, or Tennis Balls, now racliated here, now there: or as Frolicks at Feasts, sent from man to man, returning again at last, to the first man, after they have had their course about; or else, they take their leaves of all, as some guests in an Inn, and are never seen more; and some they can no more be caught, than Ghosts or Shadows) as that DAPHNE from APOLLO) the more they are pursued, the farther the faster they fly, s Quo fugis ah demons. as fast as that Eagle that snatched up Ganymede in the Poet, but when they are expected to return, they have alas Passarinas wings, as feeble as Sparrows, yea sometimes (as Stags and Dear, howted and hunted into another Country) they never return: they come again to their first owners, when some Cheater or Politic Bankrupt payeth his Debts, ad Calendas Graecas, as our Country Phrase is, when Hens make Holy-water, at new-Nevermasse: If any doubt whether Riches be thus fickle and fugitive or no, if we had not the example of t job. 1. job, who in one day, may one hear, lost with his Children, such moveables of Oxen, Camels, Sheep, as the greatest man in the East hardly possessed the like: and of Zeno the u Apud Brusonium▪ Philosopher: that in one bottom lost all his goods by Shipwreck: and of the Turks Pashas that sometimes in shorter (space than Naboth lost his questioned * Vineyard, or the mother of x judg. 17.2 Michay these eleven hundreth shackles of silver, about which she so cursed) lose their heads their honours, their beck and command of the Turkish y Knolls in his Turkish History, Passim. Tyrant: if we had not the lamentable relations of Historians and Travellers how the poor Armenians, the Greeks, and those Christians, that are dispersed throughout the Ottoman Dominions, are upon all occasions, chief at the death of the grand Turk, bereft sometimes by the janissaries (as the Israelites once by the z judg. 6.11 Madianites, the Saxons by the Lord a Dane once ruled in every house called the I. Dane, now such as live Drones and Abbey-lubbers, are called Lurdanes. Holins' Cosmog. Danes) of all that ever they have: as were the Citizens of jerusalem, in the siege of Titus Vespasian, spoilt by Simeon and b jesephus et Egisippus de excidio Hieros. jehocanan, their seditious Captains, as our vulgar Irish, and some of better note are squeazed, spunged, and c The word is used for cheating, in the Jesuits Catechism druried, by the Priests, of all the monies and means they are able to scratch and scrape from them; as some of their own (overburthened as once the d Vide C●tum gravamina Germa●e vel onus Ecclesiae. Germans, have confessed and complained; I say if these instances were not so pregnant: as he that (with that Reynold e In his discovery of Witchcraft, extant in 4. Scot, denies there be any Witches, besides the Testimonies of f Magos enim habuit Pharaoh Exod. 7.11 Scriptures, and g Delrius Pierius Wierus, cum Antiquis et Modernis. Authors, let him but be present at the Assizes of several Shires, and his own eyes and ears will convict him, so he that) credits not the relations of others, in this point, let him but observe in one year, nay but in a very few Months, how many men formerly reputed of good rank and fashion, of all sorts, Gentlemen, Merchants, Mariners, Tradesmen, Mechanics, Yeomen, Citizens, Country men, within the Circuit of some few shires, and Cities in Great Britain, are come from a Springtide, to a low Ebb: from CRASSUS, to a poor CONON, from DIVES to a LAZARUS: some by Shipwreck by Sea: some by Surety-ship, the House wrack at home; some by bad Debtors, and politic Banquerupts, these Shopwrackes; some by Sickness, Diseases, Physic, and Physicians: some by bi●ing Usuries, and paying Forfeitures, brought to an irrecoverable Consumption: some by careless, Thievish, fugitive Servants; some by good (bad) Fellowship: great Housekeeping, their minds over-bowing their means; some by Hawks, Hounds, Horses, and Whores, devoured by their own Lusts, and eaten with the Wolf bred within their own flesh; or as ACTAEON eaten up with their own h Theatrum Philos. lib. 8. p. 855. Ethice applicat. Fabulam de Acteone. Dogs: some by intermeddling in callings in which they have no skill: some by one means, some by another, lodging in Beggar's Inn, and Suttons Hospital: perusing their Briefs and Passports, that come every Sabbath to the City and Country Churches, in England, and Ireland; and that very man, in these observations, shall be persuaded, that there is as much rest, repose, and confidence to be put in momentary transitory and uncertain Riches, as in a broken staff: or in a false DALILAH, a Whorish i Money is compared to a fair Harlot, whom many court (as the Greeks did Lais) yet she is constant to none woman, of whose love and constancy, the wisest man on the Earth, can have no further assurance, than stands with their own ends, turns, like, and Lusts. But however these external, and adventiall good things, as Philosophers call k Bona Fortunae. them, may stay with some, as though they were wedded to them, not to departed for term of Life, yet there must be a separation in death, therefore they are not that, which can make the Soul eternally happy; as DAMASCEN hath the Fiction, of three Friends, who all professed love, the trial is this: one Friend would stay with him, all the time of his health and prosperity; that friend was Pleasure, Voluptuousness, Mirth: the second friend would stay with him in his Sickness, yea to the hour of death; that Friend was Riches, Wealth, Worship; but at the Crave, there it left him: a third Friend, would go with him into the Grave: after the manner of the best beloved Wives amongst the l Acosta Maffaeus & Petrus Hispalensis de rebus Indicis Indians, and some other Savadges: yea as a friend, indeed that will go with his friend to the Court, stand by him, and plead for him, it will go with him to judgement, even to God's Tribunal, and this friend, is God's fear, and God's favour, but as for the second friend, Riches, they leave us you see, at the Grave (as I have seen at an Assize, some Popish Gentlemen, leave the judge and the justices at the Church door) as purposing to go no nearer towards Heaven, with us, these friends saith BERNARD, either have their end before we die, or see our end, when we m Habent aut fi●em suum aut tuum dye: either they forsake us, or are forsaken of us: we are active or passive in our dereliction, saith n Aut possidentem deserunt aut a possidente deseruntur. Ambrose Epistola 9 AMBROSE; Naked we came into the World, and naked shall we go out again, saith holy JOB: the great Saladine the Conqueror of Asia; a second TAMBURLAINE, well applied it to himself, for dying in his Army, in stead of all other obsequies: (such as ACHILLES made for his friend PATROCLUS, ALEXANDER for EPHESTION, the Greeks for AIAX and ACHILLES, the Trojans for HECTOR, or English for the noble SIDNEY, and many moe military men) he caused only a Linen Cloth, a winding sheet, to be carried on the top of a Spear, throughout the Camp with this Proclamation: Saladini quod o F●lgosus hist. l. 7. c. 2. & Theatrum histor. in 9 praeceptum p. 707. reliquum: Here's all that's left of great SALADINE: Ensigns, Trophies, Victories, Conquests, Triumphs, all are included, concluded, in this linen rag: the Cover for my dead Corpses, and except this, all the rest must remain behind: this Earth, Houses, Lands, Wife, Children, must we shake hands p Linquenda rellus domus & placens vicar. Hora. with, when we depart our Pilgrimage: the Poet in his Paganish Divinity, thinks we carry none of these to the lower Manes, the infernal Ghosts q Divitis ad manes, nil feret umbra suos. Ovid Tristium 5. beneath, but most truly, the heavenly inspired Prophetical Poet tells us that the rich man when he dies, shall carry nothing away with him, his Pomp shall not descend with him to the Grave: Psal. 49.17. Therefore that excellent AUGUSTINE bids r Vide viventem cogita morientem, quid hic habet, quid secum tollit attend. Aug. & etiam Ruffinin Psalm. 48. us, Eye the rich man: Poise and ponder his estate, living and dying, to consider what he hath here, and what he takes with them, from hence: and in this meditation, we shall find the men of this world, those Brutigenists, or Terrigenists, as they are called, Earth-bred worms, which with that BRUTUS, kiss and cull the l Osculare terram, Jussus est, ab Oraculo apud Plutarchum Brutus. Earth, (as in the jewish Fields, and Vineyards, to be permitted to pluck, and eat, whilst they were there, but to carry and pocket none away with him: Deut. 23.24; 25. Or their condition to be like boys, that having stolen a great many of Apples, or Pears in an Orchard, stuffing and stopping their sleeves and pockets full, besides these, with which they cram their bellies full; but at the door, there standeth one that searcheth them, takes all their fruit from them, knocks them about the ears, and so sends them away with no more than they brought in: the World is the m Mundus est Pomarium, nos p●tri, Mors Janitor. Gal●lmus Parisensis, de vitijs. Orchard, the Cormorants of The World, are those greedy Boys: the Fruit stolen are Riches engrossed, the Porter is Death: or we may conceit them like a poor man, that is invited to a Rich man's Table, he hath the use of plate to drink in, of silver spoons to eat his meat with, whilst he is there at the Feast, but if he presume to pocket up any Plate, or carry away the least spoon, there is search made by the Porter, for what is missing, and it's taken from him, with a check and n Similitudo Stellae, in suis en erratio ibus in Lucan. disgrace: as JOSEPH said of PHARAOHS o Gen. 4●. 25 dreams, both the Parables are one, to one end: one application serves both: we are here as in an Inn, saith TVILY we may use the world, as our Hosts house, and our bed too, that proper place, to which GOD hath called us, for the time we lodge, but we must carry away no , no Cover, except we borrow one Sheet, as our Winding sheet, useful (as the seconds to the p We secunda ad oditum, Infantem. Sen. Epist. 92 Child, to wrap us in: excepting this, Death as a Pirate or q Mors Latro est, qui Mundanos omnes Nudos dimisit Ranlimus Doct. Mor. tract. 1. c. 6. & Chrysost. in Psal. 48. de hoc argument. Thief, strips us of all our , and robs us of all the rest, of all our best: now if there be any felicity to be found: Contentation to be hoped, in these fluctuate and uncertain things, which either ere long will leave us: or of necessity we must leave them, let any judge, who is not too fare already hoodwinked, and bewitched with these Vanities: I might show further the uncertainty not only of these extetnals, but even of those gifts which are Common (to the Reprobates as well as to the Elect, to Pagans, as well as Christians) which are internal too: whether acquired, as Arts, Sciences; Languages: or Natural as humane wisdom, Prudence, Policy, memory: for it were easy to instance in many particulars in all ages, of many that either from natural causes, or adventitiall, as Sickness, Frenzy, Fancies, Beat, bruisings of the brain, Age, Colds, Rheums, Apoplexies, Lethargies: or from GOD'S hand, inflicting (for causes best known to his Majesty, either as trials of probation, r Exempla extant apud Plinium, l. 7. c. 24. apud Maximum l. 1. & Solinum. c. 6. or as penal for sin) of Wisemen are become Fools; of learned men, become Ignorants, and unlearned: of Politians simple witted: yea some of strong and retentive memories, become oblivious and forgetful to admiration, not so much remembering their own names: God usually taking away his Talents from those that either bury them, suffer them to rust, for want of employment, as that idle Servant in the s Math. 25. v. 24, 25. Gospel: or else in the Pride of their hearts, and profaneness of their lives, employ them ill, to their own sinister and lustful ends, the hurt and damage of his Church, and Children, and God's dishonour. CHAP. XV. SECT. 1. GOD'S just Judgement, on Vanities and vain Men. MY next proof and reason of the insaturity and insufficiency of all these huskish Vanities, Reason. 18 on which our Prodigal eats, but neither feeds, fills, nor fat's: is from God's mere justice, and judgement on him, and on such as he: that Recedens a satiabilibus, impotentia saturandi: mulctetur: Departing from his Father's house, in which was bread enough: he should be hungered and starved, with Husks, for want of bread: thus it's just with God, that when sinners leave him, the Fountain of living Water, they should dig to themselves Pits that will hold no water: that whilst they will not buy Wine of him without t Esay. 55. ● money, and drink freely of his living waters: they should as Reeds without moisture, and as the Rush without u Ib. 8. 1● Myre, perish for want of water: thus whilst they will not believe the truth, its ' just with God, to give over the sons of Vanity, to believe Lies, and * 2. Thes. 2 10.11. Fables: to dream and dote in their sinful slumbers▪ and as sick men and madmen to imagine strangely, and talk idly, as the jews do in their Thalmud: the Turks in their Alcoran, the Papists in their Mass books, Rosaries, Catechisms, and golden Legends; as I might show more plainly, in the application of these things, and therefore whereas jonas saith, that Those that embrace lying Vanities, forsake their own Mercy: some read it by way of Concession, and by way of an Ironical Conclusion, as well? Go too? If they will needs embrace Vanities, let them: I give them over to the Vanities of their own mind, if they will not (as mad Colts) be restrained, I give them the Reins: Counsel is no Command, I leave them to themselves, and to the Lusts of their own hearts, but let them know that as Cain had long x Gen. 4.15 life: b V 27. de his aquis fusius, apud Paulum Fagium. in Thargum on Keli ex Hebraeorum Scriptis & ex Zeppero legibus Mosaicis l. 4. c. 18. pag. 466 the Israelites y Ex. 16.12 Quails; and the jews a z 1. San. 8.22. King, with a Curse annexed: as the Coloquintida that spoiled their Pottage: so they shall enjoy their Vanities with a Curse: they shall have no more good of them, than Dogs of Grass: than the stomach of Mercury: than the whorish Woman amongst the jews, of the waters of a Numb. 5.12.13.14. jealousy: that filled them indeed with swelling and rottenness, but plagued and pained them, never refreshing them: or those that have a c Barrow his Method of Physic, l. 3. c. 35. pag. 160. Tympany, filled with wind and putrified water, yet empty for all their filling: these Vanities shall prove lying to them, as jugglers and Impostors, they shall merely cheat, and deceive them; but not content them: as if a Father should say to a refractory, resolute, dissolute Son, that's not to be counselled nor controlled: well Sirrah, follow your own ways, take your own courses; think your own wit's best; as a Buck of the first head, run on wildly, and vildly still; but know you will be beat enough with your own rod? Yourself will be the greatest Plague unto yourself? If these courses thrive and prosper, if this way lead not just unto the Gallows, my Prognostication fails me? Do as thou wilt? I can but pity thee, and pray for thee, I leave thee to thyself, to run on to thine own ruin: Liberavi animam meam: I have discharged the part of a Father. SECT. II. The Vanity and vexation of that Love which is humane: placed on the Creature; alured by Beauty. MY next Reason, Ratio 19 which is as convincing and conclusive as any (if not as all) the rest, is from Experience, which though she be said, to be the Mistress of d Experientia Stulterū Magistra. fools, yet from their repentance bought at too dear a rate, she oft teacheth and tutoreth Wise men, now in this Glass of Experience (as in the Ship of fools, into which some of all professions entered) do we not see how many men are vexed, tortured, & diversely distracted and disquieted, with their earthly loves or their own lusts; as Noah was drunk & discovered, by his own Wine: Gociahs' head cut f 1. Sam. 17 51 off, e Gen. 9.21 by his own Sword: whereas had they placed their love wholly and solely up GOD, as that Ignatius the Martyr, and Polycarpu● did, g Deus meus et omni●. Oh jesus esto mihi jesus. Amor meus Crucifixus est. who have said with DAVID'S heart, I love the h Psal. 18.1. Lord: and with PETER, Lord thou knowest that I love i joh. 21.15 thee; could all their love have run in that stream, and torrent after God; oh what a calm? What a quiet? What a tranquillity, should they have had in their hearts? Yea, what a Heaven upon Earth? Whereas now they are vexed with their own passions, or rather perturbations; as the Tick vexeth the Ox, and the Indian Gnats, the Lydian Lions, which sitting on their eye-bryes, cause them to scratch themselves k Plin●us. blind: if any doubt of this, let us but observe the passionate melancholy Lover, as he is graphically discovered, in many Poets and Historians, as he is acted and personated in many Comedies, and Tragedies; yea as he reveals and discovers himself in his words, habit, gestures, looks, sighs, Sonnets, Lovesongs, Masks, dances, and what not? (Love being no more to be hid, than fire in the Thatch) alas, how the poor man is perplexed? Doting upon the natural, if not painted, or imagined beauty of a humane Creature: which perhaps after all his toiling and moiling, he never enjoys, more than Apollo did Daphne, or that Actaon Diana, or those luxurious old judges, did Susanna: or if he purchase this his supposed Paragon, as his Fee-simple: he hath caught perhaps a Frog, a Snake, or a Sneak for a Fish: Copper for gold, or if a Fish, an Ecle, by the l Qui capit anguilla● per canda●, non tenet illam. tail: a wanton (wanton) Venus: ascolding Xanthippe: a brawling juno: or else Pygmalion's Image, a very picture: a silver feathered Goose: a fair Fool; a very Babble, to play with: a Bessy Babe, that must be dandled, and in every thing * A description of a Sheep, and of a shrew. honoured, else she feeds all upon Poutes, by which match he gets a Pearl in his eye; wears a strait shoe: all his life (though seeming meat) eats a Salad of Nettles, every meal, or else dines with a Woodcock, or a Dottrill, hath a chiding worse, than half a hanging, every day: and carries a Warming pan, or chase dish, into his bed every night: where he hears Curtain, (if not Courtesan) Sermons, ere the m Alternaque Jurgia lecto in quo nupta facet. Morning: thus for a hoped Paradise: purchasing a real Purgatory, drawing in an unaequall Yoke; he is more shackled and worse fettered, in his grieved Soul, in retaining will he, nill he; than before in his thoughts, in attaining, such a beauteous Cross, if not curse: but supposing the best, that his love aiming at the best ends, lawful marriage, post varios casus, after many off's, and on's; too and fro, he obtain his desired n Co●bie junge●s stabili Phillida solus habet●. Galatea, and sings oh hymen Hymen: that his yoke-fellow prove something, according to his desires, or deserts: or suppose (as in too many) that he courts only his Concubine, or Courtesan, whom he means to prostitute, and abuse as Diomedes did Crassida as at Rack, and Manger, and to keep her as his Mistress, as Achilles did Briscis, and the grand Turk, his Greekish Irene, either to please his eye, or satisfy his Lust: in the mean time, ere this good Instrument be turned, to his content: ere this Bow, be right bend; ere this Virgin or Virago be right wrought, and framed, as wax to his wicked will: oh what pitiful pickle is my Amoretto or Luxuriosa in, all the time of his wooing, (or wooing) chief if (as the Fiction is) if Cupid shoot his golden Arrow at the one, to fire him: and his Leaden shaft at the other, to cool and quench her: oh what Symptoms hath this his Love, or Lust all this while on his body? Or mind? Or both? As even some Physicians have o Langius Epist. 24. l. 1. cum Valberiola Obs. l. 2. c. 7. & jasone Praten. de Morbis cerebri cum Gordonio c. 20. observed: how doth he show himself to be Planet-struck: by his pale cheeks, hollow eyes, lean body, abstinence from meat and sleep, want of appetite, sequistration from company, solitary sitting, as an Owl, or Hare, Melancholy walking, in Woods and p Such Simp comes Accius Zanezarius, expressed ●loga 2. de Galatea. Virgil Aeneidos in Dido, Eumathius in his Jsmenius, & Terence in Eunucho. Groves: as that Musidorus in the Arcadia: till the spirits being distracted; and the Liver not turning the Aliment into blood, the members waxing weak, and the whole body pining away, as the herbs in the Garden, in a Summer's drought, for want of moisture; he by this means becomes a very Sceleton, or the very Anatomy of a man: as that fair Maid of Delphos, who was in love with a young man of Minda: confessed not much less than these, in q Aedyl. 2. Theocritus: and Euryalus in his Epistle sent to Lucretia: in Aeneas Silvius; and Chaucer in his Knight's Tale, Yea their very blushing at one another's r Alterno facies sibi dat responsa pudore. sight, as jason when he met with s Apollonius argon. l. 4. Medeae, as Arnulphus hath observed, and the very beating of their pulses, from the inward Commotion of their hearts (by which Erostratus discovered the Love of Antiochus, to his Mother in Law Stratonica: t L. 3. Fen. 1. Aviceuna ex Galeno. Galen the love of justa, a Consul's wife to Pylades the Player; josephus Struthius the enamouring of one of his u Lib. 4. c. 14 Patients) even these (as Physicians also * Guianerius Tract. 15. Valescus & Langius ut supra cum Nevisano, l. 4. Silu. nupt. Numb. 66. note) do bewray and betray what flaming fires there's inward, by these smokes outward: even as the print of the foot in the Snow, descries a Lion, a Bear, a Fox, or a Hare, or as the young maid discerned Peter to be a x Mark. 14.70. Galilean: by his very speech: and Gideon the Gileadites, by their pronunciation of y judg. 12.6 Sibboleth: besides other expressions of themselves: Their gazing, glancing their eyes, as though they would shoot them out of their heads: their starting, as Children affrighted: and staring as Fools at Pictures: * Ob eximium forma decus, stupidos reddere spectatores assert. Celius l. 13. cap. 9 as though they had seen Gorgon's head) as though a Wolf had seen them z Lupi M●rim videre priores Virg. first, when they get a sudden sight of their beloved one: as Apollo of his Lycothoe, besides their sighing, weeping, sobbing to themselves, as JUNO tells JUPITER of IXION in LUCIAN'S a Dialago 3. Tom. 3. Dialogues: their watching the Twilight as SALOMON b Prov. 7.9. speaks, hover like Hawks, near the places where their Darlings dwell, lurking in Corners, as Lions for their Prey, or as Sergeants for an Arrest, only to see or speak with them; yea running and riding, by day or night, in all Winds, all weathers: venturing neck-breake, (as Goats in Winter, that climb for Ivy) over Pales, and Walls: yea as it were for Cholcos Fleece, riding or swimming, deep and dangerous waters, exposing themselves to all perils and desperate adventures, only to be one hour in the Company of their Goddess, whose shrine is erected in their hearts: these and moe than these, even outward Symptoms, in the outward man; show how fond & foolishly men of light heads, & unstable hearts do disquiet and torment themselves in vain, about that which is neither worth seeking nor possessing; perhaps the purchasers of such prizes, bringing in to their houses, and hearts, the Paladian Horse again into Troy, to their own destruction: as Cleopatra, was to Mark Anthony: Aeneas to Dido: and Dalilah to c judg. 16.1 v. 19.20.21 Samson, or at least perpetual vexation, as d Eja Xanthippe: Eja Socrate. Xanthippe, was to Socrates. SECT. III. The Vanity, Fury, and Frenzy, of lustful Lovers. But when I consider after all these, or conjoined to these, the biting Cares, Perturbations, Passions, Sorrows, Fears, Suspicions, Discontents, Discords, Wars, jars, Errors, Terrors, Affrights, immodest Pranks, Sleights, Flights, jealousies, Heart burnings, Wants, Neglects, spleen, Wrath, Bloudsheds, Murders, Slanders, Detractions, Treacheries, Enmities, Flatter, Cosening, Riots, Lust, Impudence, Cruelty, Knavery, and all that's nought; which besides Experience, e De Civit. Dei, lib. 22. cap. 22. Augustine the best of the Fathers, f In Mercat. Plautus, g In Eunuch. Terence, h De arte Amandi. Ovid, i In E●logis. Mantuan, not worst of Poets, have observed as Handmaids, and Pages to attend upon Love: when I see the best, & wisest of men, for a time bewitched and besotted with it: such as k judg. 14.2 Samson, l 2. Sam. 11.2 David, m 1. Kin. 11.1 Solomon, n Gen. 38.15 judah, in the Scriptures: (omitting o Gen. 34.2. Sychem, p 2. Sam. 13.2 Ammon, Putiphars' q Gen. 39.7 Wife, r 2. Sam. 3.7 Isboseth, Holofernes in judith, as not worth naming) besides Caesar Hannibal, Thesus, Achilles, Pompey, Mark Anthony, Troilus, Hercules, yea and Socrates himself amongst the Pagans: with all the Worthies that might be named amongst Christians: when I hear Dido in Virgil, Phaedra in Seneca: Myrrha in Ovid, so vehemently expressing their pinching Passions, as if they cried out in the pain of the Gout, the Stone, or the Strangury: when I see a man Created according to God's Image: ennobled with many excellent parts, so wholly taken up and possessed with the Love of a Creature, that he can do nothing; think of nothing walking, t Te vigilans oculis animo te nocte requiro. dream of nothing sleeping; desire nothing; delight in nothing, but only one, making a weaker woman (as Orpheus his s Te veniente die, te discedente Canebam. Eurydice, as Clytophon his Lucippe, in Achilles Statius: and that Lover in Patronius) his Goddess, his Idols, his Mistress, his Life, his Soul, hit every thing; his mouth, heart, eyes, ears, thoughts, being all full u Te dies noctesque amo, te cogitote desidero, tevoco te expecto, te spero. Euryalus apud Aeneam Sylvium. of her: (as he that is bit with a mad Dog, thinks all he sees is Dogs: Dogs in his meat, in his drink, in his dish: so) his mistress still in his eyes, ears, heart: which was the very case, of one of the Patients of V●lleriola, that excellent Physician: of another in Vlricus * De Pythovisse. Molitor: and of thousands yearly both in Cities, Court, and Country: from great Peers, to Plowmen; from Courtiers, to Carters:) being as merry when he is with her as Pope john: as frolic as that mad Wench, Pope joane: as jovial as the Persian x Donec gratus eram tibi persarum Vigui rege beatior. Horat. Od. 9 lib. 3. King: but without her as the Sun in the Eclipses: as the Moon under a Cloud, as Melancholy as a Cat, as discontented as Pompey, and Mark Anthony, after they had lost the Field, or as mad and enraged as Aiax, when he had lost Achilles' Armour: when I hear the Poets feigning some men degenerate into Dogs, y Apud Ovidium in Metan. Hogs, Asses, Bruits, as jupiter into a Bull for Europa; into a Swan for Leda: Apulaeus into an z Feram induit dum Rosas comedit (id est) dum ad se redit. Ass, Lycaon into a Wolf: Tereus into a Lapwing: Calista into a Bear: Elpenor, and Grillus into Swine, by Circe: expressing by their Morals and Muthologies: as Fulgentius interprets of one of them: a Rex fueram sic Christa do cet sed sordida vita immundam, è tanto culmi●e feoit avem Alcia. Emb. de upupa. Alciat in another of them; and Natales Conees of all of them, how men by their foolish lusts make very beasts of themselves; when I see how fare this love, (as if dust or sand were cast in their eyes) blinds these fond Lovers: or as though they had eaten Hemlocks, and stood in need of b Opus est Heleboro Hor. Hellibore, plainly deprives them of their wits and senses: that as the Ape, and Crow, thinks their young ones the c Suns cuique pulcher. fairest, though wellnigh most deformed of all Birds and Beasts, so though their Mistresses, in the eyes of others, that are often times sounder judgements be but meanly guifted, and qualified; either for wit, beauty, breeding and training, inferior to thousands of her Rank: yet of these deluded Gulls, she must be estimated yea Heralded proclaimed, Trumpetted, as the only Paragon of her d Quisquis am● Ranam ranam putat esse Dianam. Quisquis amat Luscan, Luscan putat esse Venustan. Sex, in a thousand Sonnets (as the gleaming out of all Poetasters that ever writ) Helena, Panthea, Flora, Rhodope, Rosamond, yea Venus herself, must hold the Candle to her, yea case their caps to her; he that commends Phillis; or Nerea, Amarillis, or Galatea, Tityrus, or Melibea; must after hold his tongve, or else he doth her wrong: she must be as Polypheme courts his e Condidior folio Nive● Galatea Ligustri Floridior prato. O vid. Met. 13 Galatea, whiter than the Withywand: fresher than a Verdant field: brighter than Glass: softer than Swans down: yea Phoebo pulchrior & Sorore Phoebi, yea brighter than Phoebe, or Phoebus' himself: yea the Stars, Sun Moon, Metals, sweet Flowers, Odours, Colours, Gold, Silver, Ivory, a Lydia bella que bene superat, lac, & lilium Petrenij Catal. Snow: painted Birds, all brought to express and delineate her. When I see again, how servile and slavish they be to their beloved Idols: all their Actions, Cares, Thoughts, being subordinate to please and pleasure them, more than to please God himself: making themselves as Castilio notes b Lib. 3. de Aulico. well, in his Courtier: their Servants, Drudges, Prisoners, Lackeys, yea Bondmen; as Hercules was to his jowl: Sardanapalus to his Concubines (amongst whom he Carded and c Suidas in vocab, Sardanapalus, sic Ovid in Jbim. Spun) Aeolus to d Mihi Jussa cap●ssere, fas est. juno, e Me vel sarorem vel fas m●l●m voca Sen●ca in Hipp. part. 2 Phedra to Hypolites, Philostrotus to his Mistress, and all others so besotted: refusing no labour, no toil, in a blindfold obedience (as the Papists to their f In caeca obedientia. Priests, the Novices jesuited, to their Superiors:) if to go as fare for her as jericho or jerusalem, to the Sonldan of Egypt, or great Cham of Caehay: yea with Drake and Candish to Compass the World, for her: to undertake great Adventures for her, as Orlando for his Angelica, in g L. 1. Cant. 1. Staff. 5. Ariosto: and your Knight errants in your fabulous books: much more, to serve two Prenticeships for her, as jacob once for h Gen. 29.28 Rachel: and to endure harder tasks than Theseus, and Paris. 8. Yea, when I consider how this fond love, make, those that are bewitched with it, valorous, venturous, above i Audacem faciebat a●r. measure, as was Ferdinand King of Spain, at the siege of Granado, in the sight of Qu. Isabel and her Ladies, a few Spanish Knight's overcoming a multitude of Moors: causing Sir Walter Manney in Edward the thirds time, to fight like a Dragon, being loaden with Lady's Favours: and others to express wondrous valour in justs and Turneaments: Venus making Mars himself more courageous, if we believe k In Convivio. Plato; as even Prodigal of their blood, in their Mistress Quarrel: of which they would not spend perhaps willingly, the least drop in the Cause of God, and of Religion. 9 When I think further, how in the praedominancy of this passion, they have not only wished to dye for them, as Theagenes for his Characlea: or to dye with them; that one Grave might hold l Hujus ero vivus mortuus hujus ero Prop. l. 2. Vivam, si wat si cadat illa cadan. Id. both: which was the Prayer of Callicratides in Lucian: but they have indeed, one died for another, as Dido died for Aeneas, (which wrought such compassion in St. Augustine to think it) and one died with another, as Priamis with m Ovid. 4. Met. Thisbee: yea have been so drunk with Passion, that if their Mistresses have frowned upon them (which was the case of Patronius) they have drawn their n Si occidere placet, ferrum vides. Swords, and wish them to kill or stab them, or whip them to death: as I heard of an Italian, that at the Command of his Mistress, (protesting how much he would do for her) threw himself off of a Bridge, and drowned himself: Oh when I consider how they strive, and study to strain, o Clamidemque ut pendeat apte Collocat ut limbus totumque appareat aurum. by all means, to delight and content their Mistresses: to please their eyes, and to infinuate into their affections, by curious and costly , decking their bodies with Rings, jewels, and Laces: by wearing their Hats, Doublets, Cloaks, Breeches, all in fashion: by entertaining of Tailors, Barbers, Perfumers, to teach them how to cut their beards: wear their Lovelocks: turn up their Mushatoes, Curl their Heads: Perfume their hair: Prune their Pickitivant: yea to wear neatly their shoestrings, points, Garters; that all the Fantasticalites of their bodies, may be correspondent to their minds: not neglecting for that purpose, according as Hensius writ to Primierus, even to walk in Print, talk in Print, cat, drink, p Preterquam res patitur student ele●antiae Plautaes and do all in print: yea and above all to be mad in Print too: doing more to please a mortal Creature (which caused Pambo to shed tears, when he saw a painted perfumed Courtesan) by Fantastic apparel, Masks, Music, Dances, Gifts, Presents, Love-letters, Encomiums, Praises, oily flatteries, and what not! Then the strictest Hermit, the most zealous Christian, to please the immortal God: to epitomise all that's said, (as a whole Country in a little Map:) since this earthly, this terrestrial, this humane, this fleshly and sensual Love is such a frenzy, such a madness as you have heard, in the ten enumerated particulars, in this my Conclusive Meditation, when I consider it such a plague, such a Rack, such a Torture, such an Execution q Credo ad hominis Carnisicinam amorem esse inveutam. Plautus. as Plautus called t Non deus ut prohibent amor est, sed amaror & error. it: such a bitter s Eripite, hanc postem, perin ciemque mihi, Ovid. potion as the Poet called it: such a Pest, as Ovid called it; that the Spanish Inquisition, in every point is not comparable to it: yea last such a Fire as all the streams of the Poets call it; that it's hotter as they say, than Vulcan's t Mantuan, Egl. 2. Fires, burns as Aetnaos u Qualis Aetneo vapor exundat antro. fire, more unquenchable than Wildfire, either by * Nec aqua perimi potuere nec Jmbre. water, or showers, scorching the very inwards and x Est mollis flammae medullis. Virg. Aeneid. 4. marrows, of those that entertain it into their y Pectus Insanum vapour am orque torret, Seneca. bosom; and that yet notwithstanding (like our Prodigal that consumed all he had upon Harlots, as his Elder Brother upbraided him) that men should be so mad as to roast or toast themselves at this fire: to scorch the Wings of their Credit and Conscience with it: as the fond Flea, by flying too near the Candle; to enter into this voluntary prison: to be shackled with these golden fetters, to admit (as a Horse or an Ass his saddle and bridle) this voluntary slavery and subjection: in the mean space the love of God being quenched and cooled in the heart (which will not admit two reigning Loves, in the highest degrees: no more than one Heaven two Suns, one Rome two Caesars, two Popes: one body two heads, or two hearts) if this be the way to give true sound solid Contentation, Consolation, tranquillity, to the heart and Soul, and Spirit of man, sure than my Observations and Calculations fail me: and I mistake the point, which in all these variations, I go about to prove. SECT. four The unquietness of Earthly Loves, proved by Inductions. THus you see these Earthly Loves, (for I might say as much of the Love of Riches, Honours, high places, and the like, in the exorbitancy of Affections, being in the same predicament with the former:) they are filled only with unquietness, as a troubled Sea with Waves; and till CHRIST come into the heart, who with one word stayed the raging of the z Mark. 6.51 Sea, and by the same word and spirit, can stay the fluctuations of the Soul: they stay not (like those that have the disease called St. Vitus a Sola musica curat fur●rem S. viti Boden. lib. 5. de Rep. his Dance:) except through weariness or despair of attaining: which is no rest, but a disability and listlestnesse to move; for force failing, desire doth still continue, like to a horse, which is tied, yet champs and gnaws the bit, as impatient of his tying; and indeed this is the case of most in persecution of their Loves or lusts, they have strong desires of attaining, but oft times little power; like a man that hath a stomach to eat like a Hawk or Aeagle, yet hath not money enough to buy meat to suffice a Sparrow; or as a man that hath a desire to run 40. miles a day, yet being shackled, or fettered cannot go so fare, as a man may hop or dance a morris: they are neither able to command, or obey their lusts: not to command them in the impetuosity of their affections: not to obey them in the want of means, to attain them: I conceive further, what ever is the object of our loves and desires, either we enjoy it, or enjoy it not; if we desire it, and cannot attain it, than the desire is enraged, as the Fox after Grapes, the Bear after honey, which he smells in the bowl of the tree, yet cannot reach it; as the hungry Dog that sees the Cook's Mutton, yet cannot (dare not) taste it: and as the Grayhound that sees the Hare or Deer; and the Mastiff that sees the Bear or Bull, yet both are holden or tied up, from their desired sport: desires resisted (like a Torrent or Brook dammed up) the more they rage, and surge, and swell: like Vixan Children, usually we cry for what we cannot have, though they be but Babbles: and again when we have and possess what we desire, our desires are frequently glutted, even with having: as flowers that are gathered with delight, smothered once and soiled in the bosom, afterwards are thrown away with neglect, when we see newer, fresher, fairer, and more fragrant, as fit Objects in our opinions, than the former, to content the Senses of our seeing and scenting: the new (as one nail drives out b Successore novo, vincitur omnis amor. Ovid de Arte. another) still expugning and expelling our desires to the old. Besides I consider these externals, the wrong placed objects of our love, they are either facile, and easy to come by: or difficult and hard to attain; if the first, even their facility breeds satiety: the very easiness itself, brings a distaste withal: our worldly love, being inflamed by some resistance, and whetted by difficulty: as the fire is more enkindled, by the blowing of the wind: when some simple ones think, it would blow it out: or not unlike to those Fishes; that love to be in violent streams, and flood gates, but die in a calm, or still water; whereas again, if the difficulty be such as there is no probability (possibility) of obtaining, as if a Pigmy should attempt to lift as much; to reach as high, as a Giant, the Frog to swell as big as an Ox: a poor Plebeian or a Shoemaker to be a Knight, or an honourable man: (as a fantastic Tailor, once tendered his love and service to a great Princess) the desire by reason of the extreme difficulty, faints, as a Bird in the bosom, or dies in the Birth: at least if any fruit be produced, it is an Agrippa: Aegre parta: hardly come by: like Racheli c Gen. 35.18 Benjamin, the Son of Sorrow, or like the Rainbow, Thaumantis filia, the Daughter of d Prov. l. 2. et Arist. 3. Met. 6. ●um Titelm. ●. 6. de natura rerum c. 12. & 13. Wonder: but if we can by no means effect what we affect; (as Parsons that for all his Policies, could never compass, a Cardinal's e Jesuits Catechism so scoffs him. Hat: f De quo Ni● l. ut etiam 〈◊〉 Flo● 〈◊〉 bla● 12.20. ut 〈◊〉 Eccius. for all his Disputes could not conclude for a Bishopric: Arrius for a Dignitary: nor Cardinal g S● Woolsey for all his fishing with golden books and baits, even in troubled waters, could not catch the Papal triple Mitre) Desire then turns into Despair, we fret and torment ourselves in vain, as greedy Boys that see ripe Cherries in the Orchard, but cannot (d●re not) s● the entrenching Wall; or as the Cat, that 〈◊〉 Bird chirping in the Bush; and the h Catus vult Pisces sed non vul. tangere pedes. Fish gliding in the waters, that is ready to hang herself, that she can catch neither. Now the cause of all this unquietness, is because our Love, is placed upon false Objects, as if the love of a great Princess, should be placed upon a Mechanical man, as once the French Kings daughter upon a Forester, (else never trust Ballad more) as if Pasiphar should love a Bull, or the i As Semiramis loved a Horse. Aristus the Ephesian an Ass, Fulvivia Mare; Theat. Phil. l. 5. cap. 75. pag. 677. like; which Objects cannot satisfy: for if we reflex upon all things in the world, we shall find (besides the Creator, Preserver, and Redeemer of the world) nothing firm, fixed, stable, permanent, worth the least corner of our hearts; no more than a Kite or kestrel, to roof in the Nest of an Aeagle; or an unclean Hog or Dog worthy to Kennel in the privy Chamber of some great k Vide luch●num Jesu●un, de Novissimis, Serm. de Munditia cordis, in 8. Jmitio libri. King: all sublunary things being but a chain of Cares, linked together, and a Web of successive woes woven in a Loom of Sorrows, from several threads of diversified Crosses, drawn out, by the hand of Experience, on the Rock of Time, our best meats, having tart sauces, our chief sweets mixed with sowers, as Aloes and Worm seed, with Figs and Rayzing, our chief Comforts in meanness, eminency, Riches, Poverties, Age, Youth, Marriage, Single-life, in every Calling, Profession, Estate, Condition, from the Crown to the Cobbler, having annexed their several Crosses, as those that have writ of the miseries of man, l As Innocentius 3. The French Morney, in his Tract of death. The Author of the French Academy, Stella ac contemptu Mundi. Purchase his Pilgrim. With Carpenter his preparative to Contentation, cum multis alijs. have punctually demonstrated: from which Crosses, our Persons, State, Callings, can no more be exempted, than the Air from Clouds, the Sea from Waves, the middle Region from Meteors: chief in the achievement of the best of these things; with which we Idolatrise, we are sure to meet with many pricks, in the pursuit, ere we come to the Rose, & when it is plucked, it proves perhaps after all our pains & perils but a Cockrose, or Canker Rose, for all that? Or it may be, we never pluck it, after so many pricks of Cares, and anxieties, (like the Hawk that oft flies, yet never toucheth feather: and the Archer that oft aims, yet never hits the mark:) I could wish that as that m Zeno vel Thales. Philosopher which lost all his goods, by Shipwreck; was by this means driven more closely, to the study of Philosophy: as n Alexandrinus Preceptor Hieron. Didimus by the loss of his external eyes, was driven to internal Contemplation, as Ignatius Loyola by the loss of his o Pelargus prefatione, ante sun● Jesuitismun. Lamb, was driven to be (at least in show) Religious: So making again of their losses, as Plutarch directs how to gather fruit, from our very p The Fruit of Foes in English translated. Foes. I wish, I say, that we could be at least, even Epimethians, so after wise, at q Prestat tamen esse, promet hium quam Epimethium. last: as beat by the rod of our own and others experience, tutored by the doctrine and discipline of Solomon, and this our Prodigal: as to leave and loathe these uncertain, momentary Vanities, as unworthy the love of a man: much less of a Christian: and turning the stream of our love (as once jordan r 2. King. 2.14. backwards, to give our hearts, our affections, our loves, our lives, as the best Persian present, to our Heavenly King; an absolute, resolute deed of Gift, to the Lord JESUS s Totus figatur in Cord, qui totus pro te fixus in Cruse. CHRIST, who as he bought and purchased them with his own t 1. Pet. 1.18 blood, no less u 1. Cor. 6.20 prize: who most desires * Prov. 23.26. them, of all other Suitors he best deserves them. SECT. V Several Reasons united, convincing the Proposition first propounded, placing all Contentation in the Creator, not in the Creature. AS many little Brooks meeting together, and running in one torrent, make it the deeper, and carry it the swifter: so these things promised, as now aiming at my Conclusion: to make a great Grand-Iury indeed, of several reasons; all truly and unpartially giving in their Verdicts against these Huskish Vanities, as we have expressed them both in the letter and the sense: as x In promptuario Morali. Stapleton, Philip Diez, and Granatensis, in their Postrils, bring in sometimes together by bandles, Congeries similium, many similes, as united in one, to one y Sic vis unita fortior. purpose: so I bring in Congeries rationum, a whole jury of Reasons, all united (as the rods Seleuchus shown his sons bound up in one Faggot) for the greater strength; proportioning my munition and fortification, according to the opposition, as by the many mighty and numerous friends and favourites of Vanity, which will be strong and vehement: Vanity like a beauteous Italian Courtesan having many (as once that Corinthian Lais) to court her: as Lawyers and Advoates to plead for her: yea as Champions to fight for her, as once for the Greekish z Belli deceunalis causa Theat. Phil. l. 2. p. 143. Helena, maintaining her false Plea and qu●rrell in this: that she is able to give to her Favourers and followers, as much Contentation and satisfaction, as either Lady Virtue, or the Queen Regent of man's Microcosm: God's grace, with all her goodly godly train, the renewed faculties of the Soul, and the affections of the heart: changed into her own nature (as fire changeth whatever it meets with into fire) to sweep down further this Pestilent Paradox, of theirs, as Spider's webs, & to crush it as Hercules did the heads of young Snakes, in his z Textoris Offic. l. 2. c. 36. pag. 115 Cradle: let them, if they will not believe the Scriptures as Christians, which the very Devils believe and a See D. Moss his Sermon of the Faith of Devils, in jac. 2. v. 18 tremble (which Scripture, as the Sovereign judge, in this and all other Controversies: hath decreed and determined against them judicially, as we have made manifest already) yet let them with Pagans and Philosophers, at least believe reason: which tells them, that corporal things, do not work upon b Corporea, non agu●, in spirituale, nec materiale, in im●ateriale. Bedae axioms. spiritual, nor material upon immaterial, let a sword divide ones belly in the midst, as Solomon would have divided the Controverted child, yet the Soul and Spirit is not divided: we know what Anaxarchus said to Neocreon the Tyrant, when he crushed him and tormented him: oh Tyrant knock Anaxarchus his c Tuned, tuned Anaxachi Vaseulun, Anaxarchun non laed●. Cask, exercise thy cruelty upon his out- vessel: thou hurtst not Anaxarchus himself: his soul, his better part, is untouched, as the Scabbard may be broken, & yet the sword remain safe, all the weapons in the world will not paenetrate a Spirit, as our foolish Swashbucklers think, to defend themselves in their drunken flourishes, against the Devil himself, with their Swords; aswell may they cut the Air, or wound a flame of fire: yea aswell in their pride, or rage, might the Persian d Nec veluti Zerxes, Neptimo vin cla minamur Classibus insolitum quum patefecit Iter Stroza pater. ZEKXES, or our English King e Lanquet in Chronicis. CANUTUS, shackle and fetter the Sea, or command the Waves: therefore this is the Counsel, and comfort which our Saviour himself, gives to his endangered Disciples, Fear not them which can hurt the body: but, animam occidere non possunt, they cannot kill the Soul: which was the dying comfort of dying Zwinglius, when he was deadly wounded, in his fight before f In bello, inter Fig●rinos, & Quinquepagicos apud S●eidanum, & Osiand●li, cent. 16. l. 2. cap. 20. p. 203. Zuricke, now to make application, in a word, what are all the huskish Vanities in the World, such as have been enumerated in their particulars, but things corporeal and material, subjected to sense, from the sense carried to the intellectual part, what work or operation, these can have upon the immaterial Spirit, and Soul of man: I leave it, even to the the Consideration, of those that understand any thing in Philosophy, besides Divinity. Ratio. 21 Besides, to abbreviate other Reasons: man's Soul is as immaterial, so immortal, capable of Immortality, yea affecting and desiring Immortality: (as appears by the works and writing of Philosophers: the famous Acts and Adventures of Martialists and good Patriots: the g Dua in Memphi, stulta fuere Ostentatio regum secundum. Plen. l. 36. cap. 15. Pyramids, h Acud Ph. l. 36 c. 8.9. & Rhodig. l. 23. c. 6. Obelests, i De Manpalo curiae regis Jdem Pl. l. 36. c. 5. etiam de alijs obelescis, l. 37. c. 5. Mausolems, Cities erected, and named after the founders, by Rings, and k As Alexandria named from great Alexander. and Adrianopolis from Auria n. Potentates, like Nimrods' l Gen. 11.5 Tower, Nabuchadnezzars' Babel, and Absoloms n 2. San 18.18 Pillar, only to get and perpetuate to themselves a living name, after death: which was the chief and main thing, that the Pagans aimed at, as may be gathered by many circumstances out of their o jamque opus exegi, quod nec Jovis ira, nec Jgnis, nec ulla potuit abolere vitustas. Ovid in finem Met. writings, now man being capable of Immortality, desirous of, m Dan. 4.27 and aspiring to Immortality, what contentation and satisfaction can his Soul have, in these things, which are merely mortal, and momentary, non est mortale, quod oped: Moreover, if God created the world, for the use and service of man; then sure, he hath reserved some better, and moreable thing to content man: since no man takes any great felicity in his slave, or Vassal: this Reason might be amplified, in more particulars. Further if the heart of man, be especially ravished, Ratio. 22 and delighted with beauty, the chief Object of love: as Philosophy holds: which is the cause, why we behold and contemplate with such singular delight, the bright splendour of the Sun; the clearness of the Moon; the purity of Gold, the rich Marble, sparkling Diamond, Tyrian Purple, yea the white Lily, red Rose, spetious Damask, purpled Violet, fair Primrose, speckled Daisy: the colour of Birds, tails of Peacocks, silver scales of Fishes, the feature of the well proportioned Horse; Majesty of the Lion; good shape of Greyhound, but especially a proper man, and beauteous Woman: (above all varnished Pictures, or other Lustres of Art and Nature) as coming nearest rest of all the rest, the Image of God: Beauty being the Privilege of Nature; a dumb Comment, a silent fraud: a still Rhetoric; a Kingdom without a guard, a commanding Tyrant, a great Dowry, a sufficient Patrimony, an ample commendation, an accurate Epistle, prevailing with men: yea the strictest of men; Stoics, p As Virgil loved Al●xis, and Apollidorus Antiphanes. Philosophers, yea commanding Beasts, and Pagan Gods: according to the Encomiums given of it, and Epithets to it: by q Naturae gaudentis opus. Plato, Theophrastus, Carneades, Socrates, Zenophon, r Dialogoamorum. Lucian, s L. 2. Connub. c. 27. Tiraquellus, t Lib. 2. de Magia. Apuleius, u Parad. 2. cap. 101. Abulensis, and divers other; now all this earthly beauty, which we dote upon: even the best and brightest of it: what is it but a derivative from that pure, most perfect and primitive beauty, which is in God: a spark from that fire; a glimpse from that Sun; and indeed if this little Image, and Idea of Beauty, which is but corporal and external, so delight the natural man, that it transports and carries him, even beyond himself: as the Ship that breaks Cable, is carried into the main continent: even sometimes against the main Rocks; oh then as Plato and Tully speak of Virtue, could we view and contemplate that beauty which is in God: which is indeed pure and essential, without all mixture of Corruption Natural; or Pigments of Art? Mirabiles amores excitaret sui: How should we be taken with it? How ravished? How refreshed? As the * How sweetly and necessarily the Angels love God, Vide Aquin. contra Gent. cap. 67. Angels and Souls, and Spirits of the lust are now in Heaven: how should we say as PETER, JAMES, and JOHN, who saw but a Glimpse of it in the Mountain, where Christ was transfigured: Bonum est esse hìc: It is good for us to be here? Let us build x Mat. 17.4 Tabernacles: this is Bethel, God's house: here God will be y Goe 21.16 seen; the place is holy ground. Exod. 3.5. Whereas on the Contrary, that Love, which is merely kindled and inflamed, from natural beauty inherent, in the Creature: unless in obedience to God's ordinance, in the lawful use of marriage: as ABRAHAM enjoyed his beauteous z Goe 12.11 SARAH, ISAAC, his beauteous a Gen. 26.7 REBECHA, JACOB his beauteous b Gen. 29. RACHEL: or by nature's instinct, amongst the Heathen; Collatine his Lucretia, Adnetus his Alcestis, Orpheus his c Quintil. l. 2. Orpheus. Eurydice, and Assuerus his Aesther: if this Love I say, be not kept as Fire, within the Chimney: as the Lion within the Grate: the Sea within his bounds: but be lustful, e Homer. Odysse. et Ovid Metam 4. extravagant, exorbitant, placed on wrong objects: where's then the content that's in it? Nay what Rack is it to the Mind? What torture to the Soul? A Gibbet to the Conscience? A stain to Reputation? A wound to d Pro. 6.33. a good name: in a word, a pleasing, yet fatal Poison: a bewitching Circe's: a kill Basilisk, a Vulture gnawing on Titius his Liver: a furious Disease of the Mind: as one quaestions f Carolus a Lorine. an amor sit morbus. it, and Tully concludes g In his Tusculcanie, quaestions. it; a lingering Fire, as the Poets styled h Horat. Od. 19 lib. 1. it: stupifying i Obstupuit primo aspectu S●donia Didu Gorgon: yea a species of madness; as Ficinus termed it: a Melancholy madness, as Rhasis held it, yet madness itself, as Plato called it: an Error and a Terror as the Proverb speaks it: k Comment in Plat. c. 12 and the practice of most have found it. Non Deus ut prohibent amor est, sed amaror & error. Love is no God, as foolish Men do call, But error, terror, bitterness, and Gall. And therefore if we have any peace in this affection of Love, we must turn the stream of Natural love, into a Spiritual Love: Philosophy tells us, that natural motion, is better than that which is against Nature; but Divinity tells us otherways: that Love is best; which is different from Nature: the fruit of l Gal. 5.22 Grace, for ever since we were (as the demerit of sin) turned out of Paradise, in that Apostasy and fall, like as when a man falls topsy turvy, from a Rock or promontory: our desires have been turned, upside down, as a dish with the bottom upwards: we falling headlong as it were, from Heaven to Earth, like a Child that turns in the Mother's body, our love is turned wrong, we need the hand of a skilful Midwife, even the Spirit of Grace, to turn it right again, else the birth of this Carnal love, may be the death of the Heart that breeds it, as proving a Viperous m Faetum ulpere matris, Alvum lacerare testam. Aelian. hist. l. 1. c. 25. Isodor. l. 12. c. 3. & Basil exem. hom. 9 offspring: and therefore as when a man bleeds too much at the Nose, to stay blood another n The General practice of Physic, in Folio. way; so it's our best Soule-Physicke, to turn the course of our earthly loves, which satisfy not, into a Heavenly and Spiritual love, towards God, in whom is all Contentation, Consolation, and Satisfaction: So shall we be assured of true peace, from the God of Peace: Philip 4.7. joh. 16.33. For as the lower part of of the Elementary Region, is the seat of Winds, Tempests, Earthquakes: but that part which is towards Heaven; is always peaceable and o Applicat Gaminianus in summa, exempl. & similitudinum, l. de Coelo & Elementis. still: so our love shall be ever full of unquietness; and unsettledness, whilst it rests and seats on these base and brittle things below: but when it takes the wing of an Aeagle ascends up above, raiseth itself up towards Heaven, fixeth upon God's Promises, in the assurance of the pardon and forgiveness of sins, (the want of which assurance is the cause of all the doubts, distractions and want-rest p Psal. 6. Ps. 32.3.4.5. & Psal. 38. per totum. of the Soul) then is the Soul at rest, as in her proper Centre, and fixed, as on the true Pole, till this: her best food is but Husks for Swine: her best peace, security, satiety, her best Harvest of Vanities seed; either horror of Conscience: q Gen. 4. Cain, and r Mat. 27.3. judas, or lethargical be numbedness, as in s 1. Sam. 25.37 Nabal: yea her best Consolation, heart's vexation, or approaching confusion: though for the time neither felt nor feared; for as the Snow water easily turns into ice; the ice into water again: as it is now frozen, now thawed; seldom constant, some few hours in one form, (but as an acute Philosopher concludes t Scaliger contra Cardanum exercit. 119 pag. 435. it) when the ice is so congealed in the Alpes that it turns into u De Generatione Christalli, ex aquis Basil. exem. hom. 3 Isodor, l. 16. c. 1 3. et August. de Mirab. Scripturae, l. 1. c. 24 Crystal, then by reason of the hardness of it, turns into no other form, all the Sun and heat in the World, will not melt it, nay the Iron Mall, will hardly break it: so in our earthly loves, we are changed, and carried, yea hurried, divided, distracted, now this way, now that; hither and thither: backward and forward, to, and fro, as a feather in the Air, with the Wind now pleased, now displeased: now frolic, now froward: now sad, now glad: now merry, now melancholy; ever vain, and foolish, and fluctuate in all our ways, irregular in every Act; but when our Love is once truly fixed, and fastens upon God himself; than it is as firm as Crystal: as strong as * Cant. 8.6 Death: as unmoveable as Mount Zion: as joyous as when sorrowing x Luk. 2.48 Mary, weeping y joh. 20.15 Magdelen, and mourning z joh. 11.20 15 Martha, met with Christ, their Saviour whom their Souls loved. CHAP. XVI. These Huskish Vanities, are never so fully and freely enjoyed, but there is always something wanting to the Concupiscible, or rational appetite. AS a Tree ●oted in the Earth, is hardly removed, by the strength of many men: so the conceit● and opinion that's radicated, and rooted in the hearts of most man, of the plenary, Contentation, tha●'s to be found in these Huskish Vanities; is as hard to be r●o●ll●d, as Hercules' Club to be wrung out of his a Jovi Fulmen Herculi Clavam Homero Versun subtrahere, tria hac olim ●redita Jmpossibilia, Authore Macrobio lib. 5. Sat●rnalium fist, which is the Reason that I still add ●e Reasons, Demonstrations, Arguments, Inductions, to remove that false imagination, to expel these Conceits (these indeed deceits) and delusions, as Mists and Clouds, by the Sun of this one Truth, that all sufficiency and satisfaction, is to be found in God the Creator, and not in these sublunary Creatures, I have shot many arrows out of a full b Pulchrum, ex magno tollere acervo. Quiver, to wound the world's false Paradoxes. I will venture on one more, perhaps (as DAVID'S stinged stone) c 1. Sam. 17 49. it may lay GOLIATH grovelling: convince and convict Vanities chiefest Champions; at least it shall make up the full, and Grand jury of four and twenty, to Ratio. 24 give in the Verdict of Verity, against Vanity: and that briefly in this main Consideration; that these Outward things are never so fully and freely enjoyed, in their largest extent; but there is something still a wanting: Desiderantur nonnulla, In something the Shoe still wrings; the Desire is unsatisfied: either Covetousness, Curiosity, Lust, or Necessity, desires something that's not to be had, or hard to be had; Improbable and impossible, to be accomplished, or it be wails and bemoanes something, that's lost, gone, praetermitted, and not to be recovered. The want of which, doth more fret vex, torture and torment, an unmortified man, an unsanctified soul, (yea and too much oft disturbs, and disquiets even the godly man too, by reason of humane passions, stirred up and wrought upon by Temptations) than the fruition of all the rest and best of these externals, gives no Contentaion nor satisfaction, even as the pain of one tooth, the Cramp in one joint, is more felt in pinching pain, than the health of the whole body: as for instance in some particulars. Haman hath more honours in the Cour● of Assuerus, than he did deserve: yet not more than he did desire; for he wants the Cap and Knee, and the observance of d Est. 3.5. & Chap. 5.11.12.13. Mardocheus) the jew, which (as Mercury pot into a green wound) did so sting and nettle him; that as he told his Wife Zeresh, and his friends, all did him no good which he enjoyed: neither Honours from the King, nor respect from the Queen, nor glory of his Riches, nor muliitude of his Children, nor high places of Promotion, in all which he boasts and triumphs, gives any content to that accursed Amalakite: So long as the Knee of the Religious jew, is so stiff, that it will not bow to him: so Ahab was a King; had Lands, Live, Riches, Revenues, Orchards, Gardens, Fields Vineyards, no doubt of it in abundance, proportionable to the Estate of a King of Israel: yet so long as he wants the Vineyard of e 1. Kin. 21.6.7 Naboth; at which his teeth watered; and over which his nose dropped, as lying so fit and so p●t for him, just in his mouth: so long he is sick in the suds, and diseased in the sullens: res●esse in his thoughts, he turns him in his Bed, as the Wheel on the Axletree, and the door on the Hinges: and had not jezabel that good Bird, made him a Potion and Caudle of the blood of the Vinetor, and Grapes of the Vineyard, as a froward Vixan, he had taken the Pet or the Pip: and died: so Ammon notwithstanding he was the King's Son, and might have matched himself with some of the Daughters of the greatest Princes and Peers of the Realm, or with some foreign Princess, yet he is so vexed and perplexed, that he falls sick for the love of his own Sister THAMAR: f 2. Sam. 13.2 as PUTIPHARS' Wife, though of great place and means, matched to a gre●t Officer under PHARAOH; yet hath small content, so long as beanteous JOSEPH, answers not her longing g Gen. 39.9 80. Lust: the like I may instance in all others, who are crossed or curbed in some one thing or other, they inordinately desire, the want of which, more afflicts them, than the enjoyment of all they have, contents them: like Children in their minority, that pelt it, and pule, and cry, for one toy they want, of which they are more sensible, than of all the present good, or future hope they have from their Parents; thus Themistocles is more fretted at the glory of Miltiades, and Aristides his amulated h Patritius l. 4. de regno tit. 20. p. 291 Corrivals: than at all the Honours he receives from the Athenians. Instance in others; to begin with the ambitious man: Is he not ever swelling like the Frog in the Fable: till at last he break and burst? As did the Israelitish i 2. Sam. 18 14.15 Absolom: the Roman k Dion in vita Tiberij, et Gerl. in axiom. pollit. p. 67. & pag. 409. his Tragedy is also penned to the life, in English. Sejanus: the French l Preper. Galica Chronica, extat tragedia Angl. Byron, and thousands more? Did not the denial of one office make the great Spirit Byron, break out into treasonable words, if not complots, against his King (as they were construed) from whom, he had received so many honourable favours: can such men when they are at their height like strings of an instrument contain themselves: but they must stretch higher till they break? Besides if any stand in their way, either to hinder their rising, by opposition, or to eclipse them, by their worth, oh how are they madded, and enraged? What content have they more than a Felon, in his Executioner? How do they busy their brains and heads, night and day, to put them down, by disgracing whom they emulate, by flanders, Calumnies, aspersions, or by poisons, Matchavillian Tricks, Projects, Conspiracies, open or secret murders, one way or another, to rid them out of the way; being ever restless, so long as they are eyesores, and heart-sores, and unto them: as may appear in the passages betwixt Saul and m 1. Sam. 20 21.22.24. ad 28. David: who was hunted as a Hair: and pursued as a Partridge: by that Tyrant, because the Virgins of Israel ascribed more to David, than to him; the like I might instance in Domitian towards Agricola; in Phalaris, Dionysius, Busiris, Periander, the Turkish Tyrants successively; in Herod of jury, john Basilius the Muscovian Tyrant: and millions more, who in their ambitions, and jealous furies and frenzies, ever made quick riddance, of such as they either feared, hated, envied: or such, as by whom they were any way n Of the tragical effects of Ambition, in all ages, and of the Massacres it hath made all Historians & Chronicles instance, in these and others: chief Pencer in Lectione, Chr. 14. Iam. an. 70. et Tun. 4. Declam. fol. 260. Stri gel. in Prov. Salom. p. 132 et l. 1. obscured; Selimus killing Coruntus his youngest o Lovicer. T●om. 1. Turcicae h. c. 24. Brother: and five of his Nephews, together with Mustapha, Bassa, and many moe; p Jovins in ejus vita. Batacet causing Armet Bassa, to be slain, as jealous of his valour: Soliman the magnificent, murdering his own Son, the valiant q Knolls his Turk. Hist. Mustapha, Arian the Emperor (according to Lampridius) killing all his Emulators: Maximinus causing all his Senators, r Heroditus l. 7. (as s De cujus crudelitate, passim Iosephus antiq. l. 15.16.17. c. 8.9.10▪ cummarrobio, l. 6. Saturnalium et Soz●meno l. 5. cap. 21. Herod all the Synedrim, and blood royal of the jews, that were nobly descended) to be bloodily butchered: The like pranks Suetonius relating of Claudius Caesar, and Domitian: Herodian of Antonius, and Geta: The French Historians of Henry the t Ferres fol. 56. an. 1588. third: cutting off Henry of Lorraine Duke of Guise: our English Chronicles relating the like of the strange fears and jealousies which Henry the u Mat. Paris. first, had of Robert the Duke of Normandy; whom he perpetually imprisoned: which Henry the fourth had of * Cambdens' Remains. King Richard the second: (though deposed) and of his own son Henry, (though causelessely, as is proved,) These with many more, show what a rack, what a Gibbet it is, to a proud man, to have any to share with him in his honours; to be equal with, or greater than himself: this emulation, being an Ate, a Megaera: a Ghost to hunt them; a Fury to whip them: a secret wound, as Cyprian calls x Serm. 2. de zolo & Fervore. it: a Worm to Gnaw them, as the Moth gnaws the Garment, as Chrpsostome calls it; and some Physicians observe y Faelix Platerus. rus. it; a rotting in the bones, as Solomon termed z Prov. 14.13. it; making of men very Skeletons and Anatomies, as some have Characterised a D. H. in his Characters. it, being the greatest torment, as the Sicilian Tyrants found b Jnvidia siculi non invenere Tyranni, tormentum magis Horatius it; can he have any content, that's hunted with such a Hag? When I read of the fearful effects that this (Emulation the Daughter of pride & ambition) daily c De Tragedijs invidiae, passim Instant Polybius l. 1. p. 54. Cureus de annal. Silesiae, pag. 330. Livius de Scipione lib. 35. pag. 337. sic apud Modernos. Philippus lib. 1. Eth. pag. 21 Antimatch. l. 3. pag. 571. produceth, what Tumults, Tragedies yea truculent massacres it stirs, in the Church: Common wealth: Private Famelies, and all societies (the Gulphish and Gibline Faction, that d A●ud Guiccardin 'em of the Adurin and Fregofi in e Fusius. Genoa: of Caesar and Pompey: Scylla and Marius: Cneus Pompeius, and Quintus f In the History of Italy. Apud Plutarchum & Livium. Fabius, in Rome: of Orleans, and Burgundy in g De quibus Antimach l. 3. pag. 773.774. & Comineus de rebus Gestis, Lodivici & Caroli, l. 60. p. 318.319 of France: of York and Lancaster in h In which were slain a C. thousand men, 'tis thought in years 28. Apud nostros Histor. Stow Speed, & Pelialbion. England: being the bloody fruit that grew on this Tree: yea Dionysius banishing Plato, and Phyloxenus the Poet, because they Eclipsed his glory: King Philip of France, hating King Richard the first, of England: with a vatinian deadly hatred, because at the siege of Achon, he bore away the prize for his famoused valour: Alexander being unquiet in his thoughts, for the Trophies of Achilles: the Romans envying Cecinna, because he was more richly k Tacitus h. l. 2. part. 2. adorned: as the Ladies maligned Solinna his Wife, because her Horse was so richly furnished: it being the like plague to Women, that it is to men, in whom usually it is predominant: as appears in Rachel envying her sister l Gen. 30. Leah, because she was more fruitful: in the Companions of the Attic Merfine, who murdered that beauteous Virgin, because she excelled m Constantine Agriculturae lib. 11. cap. 7. them: In juno (if we may moralise Poets) that turned Praetus Daughters into Kine: and the Goddess, that envied Cyparissae, King Eteocles Daughters, for their n Jdem. Agricol. l. 10. cap. 5. beauties; i Heraldus l. 2. c. 12. de Bello saecro. Niobes Arachne's. and Marsias Tragedies proceeding from the same original: besides all the experiments which we daily have in this kind, in both Sexes, of all sorts and conditions) all these, let us see plainly, and prospicuously as in a Glass: the small content which the proud Ambitious man, hath in all that he possesseth: so long as he wants that which his Vanity desires and dotes after: or so long, as another hath aught above him, by which he thinks himself disparaged, disgraced eclipsed. And as it holds thus in the Ambitious, so much more in the Covetous man: he wants that he o Avaro deest quod ●bet et quod non habet. hath: (being possessed of his money rather then truly possessing it:) much more is he perplexed with what he either really, or imaginarily wanteth▪ the Pagan saw it; the practice of Thousand Covetous Carnalists proves it: Crescum divitiae. Curtae tamen nescio quid, semper abest, rei, as riches, increase so the desire swells to them, and surgeth much more: It's enlarged as Hell; and insatiable as the fire: as the barren womb, the Grave: and p Prov. 30.15.16 Death: for though they load themselves with thick Clay: though they have more provision, and Viaticum: than they know well how to spend in the short journey, of their way fairing life: yet the richest are as mad on the world, as the poorest Peasants: they toil and moil, how to get or gain over the Devil's back, or under his belly: they care not how, whence, where, from whom by what q Perfus aut nefas jure, vel injuria: non refer● quomodo sed oportet habere. 1. Thes. 4.6 means; Lyonly force, or Foxlike t Ex. 22.25. Eze. 18.13. Psalm, 15. fraud; Nimrodian s Gen. 10.9 Oppression; Usurious exhortation; or cozening Circumvention, it must be had: though as Ahab got Naboths' u 1. Kin. 21. Vineyard, Achan * Iosh. 7. his Wedge of Gold: judas x Lu. 22.4. Math. 26.15 On which Text see D. Rawlison & M. Dawes Sermons. his silver: Michay his Mother's y jud. 17.2. money: Gehezi his z 2. King. 5. silver Talents: Crassus and Dionysius their abundant Treasuries: Balthasar the Holy a Dan. 5 Veslels: the Romans, their Tolusse b Aurun Tholosanum a Q. Caepione direptum Jnfaelix Aulus Gellius l. 3. cap. 9 Gold: by biting Usury, bloody Extortion, cunning Thefts, sly Cheat, loud Lies, hellish Oaths: pilling the poor, yea Church-robbings, Sacrilege; reaving from God c Mal. 3.8. himself, and spoiling his Altars: and to effect these their Covetous ends; they ride, they d Per mare per terras, currit Mercator ad Jndos. run, they frisk, they fling, they curse, they swear, they tear, they rage, they rave, as Bedlams, and men possessed with the Spirit Mammon, yea they toss and tumble in their Beds, they set their wits a working, in the nights, as a seething Pot, or bubbling Spring, their hands and their feet work in the day: as d De Industria apum. ● Virg. in Georgicis. Plin. l. 11. c. 10.11 Bees, and e De Fornicis Arist. l. 7. cap. 38. Ants, to lead home with all sedulity to their (honey) money Hives: their Chests, their Nests, in the bottom of their bags, which like Hell, receives all that come in, but willingly lets nought go out that's there jayled: thus is the miserable- able-Miser, this Laban, this Nabal, ever restless in his thoughts, and never satisfied: a slave a wretch, a dust Worm, a Brutigenist, a Terrigenist; a Mole, a Swine, ever rooting in the Earth, with never an eye to look up to Heaven: yea a very Mushroom, creeping from the Earth, on the Earth: a Serpent licking the f Gen. 3.14 dust, a Toad sucking the very Earth; a very Tree, his heart rooted in the Earth: a slave to his Mammon, an Idolater to his golden g Coloss. 3.5 Calf: a debtor even on his deathbed to his back, and belly: yea as that Father Sparges in h In his Remains. Camden's Epitaphs, sometimes dying to spare charges; what shall I say more? He that as Augustine saith, is troubled in his abundance, and sorrowsuil in i Augustatur ex Jnopia contristatur ex opulentia, August. plenty; he that is sad and Tetricke even at Feasts and Festivals, because his heart is locked in his Chest, he that ever fears, as that City Mouse in the k Apud Aesopum. Fable: even at his repast, yea in his very Bed, as Theophrastus expresseth, in his Characters, lest the Trunks should not be shut: the Chests fast, the Capcase sealed; the Hall door bolted; yea if he see, but a Crow scratch on the Dunghill; takes it as an ominous sign, as did that Enelio in l In Amularia. Plautus; that his money shall be digged up where he had hid it: he that is jealous of all, and trusts none, as Pliny m Suspicatur omnes timidusque sibi ob auram insidi ari putat. Plinius proemio lib. 14. notes; that fears his Wife, Children, Servants; as so many n Timidus Plutus semper predicatur, a Luciano & Aristophane. Thiefs: Nulli fidentes omnium formidant: he that serves his Genius, keeps back from his blood: as Cyprian p Epist. 2. l. 2 notes, and lives even besides himself; he that is as the Dog or Hog in the Manger, never eating Hay themselves, nor suffering the Horse to eat, as the Gryphins, o Eras. adag. Chil. 3. Cent. 7 and great Indian q Non mincres Canibus, Formicae aurum custodiunt Aelian. 3.8. Ants, neither touching some Mines themselves, nor suffering the Natives to dig them; neither well employing his wealth, nor permitting others, he that sighs when others r Cantabit vacuus coram Latrone viator. sing: and (Vigilans in pluma) cannot sleep upon a Bed of down: there be such Fleas in his head, such distracting carking cares in his heart; which eat it up daily (yea mightily) as the Moth doth the Garment, and the rust the iron, he that's ever t jllorum cogitatio nunquam cessat qui pecunias supplere diligunt Guian tract. 15. cap. 17. thinking quid Idolo suo immolet: How to serve his u Cyprian prologo ad Sermons. Idol: s Cyprian Epist. 2. ut supra. he that if his Corn or Cattell, fail or fall, is ready to hang himself: (were it not for the cost of a Halter) he that thus basely sometimes changeth his very life for his lucre; as did Ananias and Saphira: yea sells his very Soul for silver, as did judas; his hands for bloody Treasons, as did x In our Chronicles. Parry, and once Lopus: his health as did y 2. Ki. 5.25 Gehezi: yea, Heaven itself: as do those whose z 1. Cor. 6.9 & Phil. 3.17 God, is only white and yellow Earth, he that is diseased with this madness of the Soul, as Augustine calls it; this insatiable Drunkenness as Chrysostome notes it; this incurable Disease: as Cyprian terms a Apud Polyantheam & Polanum in Symph. Cath. it; this ill habit, yielding to no remedies, as Budaeus thinks it; this torture of the Soul, as Gregory held it; this Plague and vexation of Spirit; this second Hell, as Solomon determines it, by an unerring spirit: shall I say, this heart so hurried, and harrowed, with the Covetous Devil, have true Contentation? This soul, solid satisfaction, which with the body is as it were turned into Earth? And buried in Earth? Even as much peace affords, this lying vanity, as Titius had (if the Poets had feigned true) when the Vulture gnawed his Liver: as Ravillack, when his flesh was pulled piecemeal with Pincers? Or as that b Propertius l. 2. & 4. et Seneca in Octavia. Tantalus, when he starved in the midst of meae and drink. Lastly, to instance in the appetite intellectual, he that knows the most of any mere mortal man, and hath attained to the period, and perfection of Arts, Sciences, Languages, as fare as is attainable in the short limit of our c Ars longa ulta brevis: secundum Hipoeratem. life; yet as more fish go by the net, than come into it, so in some mysteries, secrets, Conclusions, Notions, he may be so fare to seek, that ignorance or mere conjecture of what he knows not, may as much in some things perplex him, as all the rest, of his speculative, and practical knowledge contents him: as for instance, notwithstanding that Pliny was a great Naturian yet how did he grieve, that he could not find out the reason of the burning of the Hill Vesuvius: in the inquisition after which he came so near, that he was choked in the d De cujus morte Plin. Junior in exempla, ad amicum, querdam. Smoke: so ARISTOTLE, though the Prince of Philosophers, out of whose Basin, those that followed him, may seem to lap (as the Poets out of HOMER'S) yet because he could not understand the motion of e Caelius Rh. Antiq. Lect. l. 29. cap. 8. Eurypus; g Quod capio perdo quod non capio mihi s●vae. is said to drown himself: so HOMER the Laureate Poet, whom HORACE compares with the best f Quid utile quid nou plenius ac melius Cratippo ac Crantore dici. Horat Philosophers, is said to dye for grief, because he could not unfold a Fishermans' riddle: as SOPHOCLES is said too, to kill h Valer. Max. lib. 9 cap. 12. himself, because that one of his Tragedies was not approved: as Apollonins Rhodius, imposed voluntary Exile on himself, and lived ever, as a desolate man, because he was Nonplus in one of his i Plin. l. 7. cap. 23. Poems: others overcome in Disputation public (like the k Cantando victa moritur Mizaldus Cent. 7. Nighting all overcome in k Cantando victa moritur Mizaldus Cent. 7. singing: have died for sorrow, so how did NERO fret and vex himself, because do what he could, though otherways he was an ingenuous man, and a great l Cardan his Encomium Neronis ●nter opusc● Scholar: he could never attain to the knowledge and practice of the m Dia● N●ra● Art Magic: (no more than our greatest Alchemists, after n Hujus rei extant varia Chimicorum volumina ut opus Ortulani codicilli Lulij Chenica Johan. Cancinij Praxis Anglici Diaconi Morieni de transfiguratione Met. Thomae de Albertus, l. 2. et 3. de Metallis. S●aia Philos. Liber dictus lapis Philos. secundum Arnaeldi Rosarius philos. alius liber de pract. lapidis Phi. alius Gebrialius Hermetis. Alius lumen novum ast. omnes Mir. ca●unt, vix credenda. Stone, so much admired, desired as the Alchemists Helena, their Colchos, golden Fleece, their silver G●ose (as a Pope once called Venice) if they had it; but all the craft is in the catching; so what Cosmographer can exactly tell me whether there be Antipodes or no? What Traveller hath found the head of o Determinat Petrus Alvares, l. hist. 18. et Gasp. Iesui●a, Scribens anno 1549. Dubitat tamen Basilius exem. hom. Plinius l. 5. cap. 9 Nilus? What Navigator can can tell me, why the Needy in the Compass still bends towards the North pole, as if there were a great Rock of p Plinius lib. 34. cap. 14. Euseb. hist. 11. cap. 23. et Vives in lib. 21. de Civit. Dei mira ascribunt Magneti. Loadstone, to attract it. So let Philosophers tell me, when or how the Baerincles do breed in Wood? On Trees, in the q De quibus vide Vincentium, hist. l. 15. cap. 40. Fulgosum, l. 1. ap. 6. et Ortelium in Scotia. Orchard? Without any further Generation? How the Phoenix comes to be revived out of dead Ashes? How they prove that she is one, and but one? What virtue there is in the blood of the Pelican, to revive from death to life her dead young ones? Besides, the true cause of the ebbing and flowing of the Sea: as also of the annual overflowing of Nilus once yearly fructifying r Vnde fertilior seges et piscium et Frugan. Ael. lib. 10. c. 44. Egypt, is disputed, the reasons given by s Lib. 2. Heroditus, t Natur. quaest. lib. 4. cap. 2. Seneca, u Lib. 9 cap. 9 Pliny, to some are not satisfactory, the Causes to, of * Diversas terra motus causas et diversorum sententias lege apud Senecam, lib. 6. quaest. Nat. Plutarch. de plac. Phil. 3. c. 15. Arist. Met. c. 7. Earthquake; they are not Conjectural? And the reasons why the Adamant attracts the iron: the jet the straw, why the strings made of Wolves: will never tune right, with those made of the Thermes of Sheep: with other such like secrets in Nature, can be given no other, but only sympathy, and Antipathy: so for Divinity, how many Divines are sceptic and doubtful, for the manner of Christ's dissension into x See Disputes of B. Bilson, D. Willet, and Parks, and Perkins his Problems. Hell: 2. Of his presence, in the Sacrament. 3. Of the use of z See Hockers Policy, Eccles. Mr. Sprints book of Conformity, and powel's de Adiaphoris. Ceremonies. 4. Of communicating with an unable Minister. 5. Of the exact beginning and ending of the a Read D. Bound on the Sabbath. Sabbath. 6. Of the fittest gesture in the b See Dr. morton's disputes extant, compared with Parkers Works Antagoniste. Sacrament. 7. How the Soul comes to be infected with sin, since it is created and infused c Disputatur per Pareum et Pererium, in Gen. et per Z●nchium de seper operibus. pure. 8. Whether we shall know one another or no in d See Mr. Holland of the fourfold state of man, fi●e libri. in 4. Heaven. 9 y See Morney of the Mass in Fol. Whether the Angels be any way e Vide Casmanni Angelo graphian & Smalcaeldum quon●am Jesuitam de Natura Angel. Anglice. material. 10. Whether there be Incubus and f Apud Majolum de d●bus Canic. & Wierum de Prestig. et Fonsecam nec non Timplerus in suis Metaphicis. Succubus, as is affirmed with many Texts of Scriptures, that like that the Eunuch read: Act. 8.30. are difficult and hard to be understood, even of the most learned: are amiss understood of the profane and perverse: wrested (as Peter speaks of some of Paul's g 2. Pet. 3.16. Epistles) to their own destruction. No what satisfaction hath the Soul in these things that are so defective and Heteroclite? What Contentation, where so much is wanting? No more than a hungry Giant hath, that is but half filled, and riseth with as great an appetite, as when he sat down? Is not the Heart in this case, like a Barrel or Vessel, half filled, that makes a noise, and a harsh sound if it be touched, even as though it were empty? Or as a Ship half balanced, tossed like a Tennis-Ball, on NEPTUNES Waves? Subjected to as many fluctuations, and dangers as if she had in her no balance at all. * ⁎ * CHAP. XVII. There's no absolute Comfort and Contentation in any thing: every Calling having his Cross, even Marriage itself. Look to the further verifying of this point by Experience: for what man hath absolute Comfort and Contentation, in any one external thing, without his Cross? his Molestation? Vexation, Perturbation? The cross being annexed to every estate, calling, condition, from the Sceptre to the Ploughshare, from the Court to the Cart; as inseparable, as blackness from the Aethiopian: else we should and would have our Heaven, here upon Earth, and look for no other content from above, than the World affords us here below: to prevent which, to wain us from the world, (as Children from the Dug) our Spiritual Physician imbitters these externals so us: no man but knows in some things where is stung, wrung, pained and pinched? None is so well tuned and composed, but there is some string jarring, and out of Tune, which spoils all his music, some cross, or other, commixed with that Creature, that lust, that Idol, which most takes up his heart, (as Aloes and Gall, mixed with honey) makes his lips worse relish his Lettuce: and as sour sauce to his sweet meats, distastes his ; yea as Coloquintida, spoils his Pottage, or as a sudden damp either quite puts out the light of his chief delights at some times, or other; or at least Clouds and shrowds it, that it is scarce seen. The largeness of the matter already discussed; will not suffer me to run through every particular, or most, as I have done in other Arguments. I'll only instance in one, and that's Marriage: Instituted of h Gen. 2.18 God, honoured of i john. 2. Christ was borne of a Virgin: yet a Virgin married: so he honours both estates, by his birth: Marriage & single-life. God, Men and Angels: yea honourable among all men, saith the Apostle, not only Christians, but jews, Turks, and Pagans, k Heb. 13.4 as Histories tell us: (and why not amongst Friars and Jesuits too, l Dant de uxore dunenda, & dear Oeconomina interceter ipse Plato l. 3. de legib. as well as jews, if they be men) in praise of which Ordinance of God, as the Pens of the learned, ancient, and modern, m Bellarm. de sacram. matr. Anton. et Gerson ●n opere morali Papists themselves, that will needs coin it a Sacrament, have been exercised: so I will not now expatiate into this Field of matter; but only offer to your consideration, how few carnal men (which like the n Luk. 17 27 Sodomites, and old worldlings, marry in the Flesh, only to satisfy Carnality and sensuality, without ever having an eye, to marry in the Lord) have Contentation in their matches: (for of God's Children, who make the Lord, their delight, who marry in the o i Cor. 7.39 Lord, and are blessed in their choice, as was p Gen. 12. Abraham, and q Gen. 24. Isaac, and who using marriage as though they used it r 1. Cor. 7.27 not: with moderation and mortification, having patience to bear, and overcome the crosses incident to marriage, of such I speak not: (though these also sometimes find this estate, a yoke heavy r Est vita illa humuis quidem, ut seulpsit Melancton ad Camerarum de Matrimonio Lutheri, inter consilia Theol. extat. pag. 37. enough) as did Elkanah, and t 1. Sam. 1.8 Anna, Elizabeth, and u Luk. 1.13. Zachary, Rachel and * Gen. 30.1. Sarah in their barrenness: Abraham in the Turmoils with x Gen. 21.11 Hagar and Ishmael: David in the withholding of his Wife y 2. Sam. 3.14 Michol, the untimely death of three z 2. Sam. 12.17 Children: the deflowering of a fair a Thamar. Daughter: Gesuer and Cardan though great Scholars, in their poor means to maintain a Family: Beza, in his second match, with a brawling Xanthippe: to omit Moses his bicker about his Aethiopian b Numb. 12 1.2 Wife: jobs just anger against his blasphemous c job. 2.10. Wife: jacob's anger at Rachel his fair, yet impatient d Gen. 30.2 Wife: his greater anger at the deflowering of e Gen. 34.5 6.7 Dinah: the bloody cruelty of Simeon and f Vers. 30. Levi, the Incest of his eldest g Gen. 49.3 Reuben: the conceited murder of his beloved h Gen. 37.34 joseph: the departing of his youngest i Gen. 42.36 Benjamin: to omit all others, that have found the best contents in wife, & children, but comfortable Crosses) but I speak of such Carnalists, and sensualists especially, who as cursed of God in whatever they set their hearts on, and their hands too, have God against them in this business: not sending any good Angel with them (as with Abraham's k Gen. 24.40 servant) to prospe● them: but rather as the Angel did with l Num. 22.12 Balaam, to oppose, and resist them: such either find Crosses, if not curses in their matches: or make their Crosses, by their lewd, luxurious, filthy, foolish, churlish, jealous, indiscreet, unconscionable carriage towards their Yoke-fellowes: like the Mice or Rats in the Walls, or as the Coneys in the Rocks, if they find no hole, make holes; making and taking faults themselves, if they find none; or as an Ape, with his claws in a cut Taffeta gown, making little holes, greater: venial faults mortal: molehills, Mountains; by their unequal aggravation, to their no small vexation, yea opposition, (as two strange snarling Dogs, in a pair of couples) if not divorce and sequistration, from the Bond and m A Vinculo et a T●oro. Bed of marriage, wit, beauty, all external, internal, gifts (when they come once to be sick, and to surfeit one of another) giving no more content than a guilded painted poison; than that fair, yet straight shoe, which so pinched that Roman, that he could not be quiet till he put it off! To verify this that is affirmed let us but open our eyes, and look into the world; and we shall see such plenty of inductions, that plenty will make us n Jnop● me copia reddit. penurious, not knowing which first to take: for my part, when I read and consider, how soon, and on how sleight an occasion, Assuerus repudiates his beauteous o Esth. 2. Vasti: Mark Anthony the Daughter of Caesar, enamoured on the gorgeous p Appianus l. 1. Cleopatra: the cause of his Tragedy: how Philip the French King is weary of the Daughter of Denmark, in one night, and sends her back q Nubrigensis l. 4. c. 24. again, because she had a smelling-breath: (as Selenchus King of Syria, never more affected his fair Stratonices, because by chance he saw her bald pate) how Herod upon false suspicions, beheads his r Josephus Antiq. Marian: and after finding her clear, had well nigh hanged himself: how Nero divorced his fair painted s Suetonius et Diana in Nero●e, & Tacitus lib. 16. Poppea, though she washed herself every day in Goates-milke, (after the fashion of some Court-painted jezabels') to give him (or some else) content: how soon justina, the Roman Lady, was made away by her jealous t Camerarius Cent. 2. c. 54. oper. succ. sic discite patres. ne nubat fatuo, filta ustra viro Jnstat, autem Aurelius in Constantino V●lateranus in Chilperico: Plin. l. 14. l. 27. Husband: how cruelly the fair Irene the Constantinopolitan Captive, was butchered by the grand Turk, at the very time, which she expected to be Empress. 2. When I read again how many great worthies have been wronged by the Luxury, and Incontinency of their Wives: as Agamemnon, by his Clytaemnestra: Menelaus of Greece, by his Helena: Phylip of Macedon by his Olympia: Artax●xes of Persia by his u Abused by Apollonious Chous a young Physician. Empress: Pertinax * His Wife prostitute by a Fiddler. the Emperor: Arthur x Defiled by Mordred one of his Knights. of England, by his Gynthera: or Helena Alba: as also how many goatish and luxurious great men, have wronged their Wives: as besides these newly recited: that great Caesar, who (like many great y ●s●a, in Vitellio, Galla Alcibiade Antonio Cleomene Philippo, patre Alexandri, immo in ipso tamdem Alexandro, cum Roxana Barbara cum alijs, Patritius l. 4. de regno tit. 11. pag. 258. Soldiers) was as effeminate in his z Courting E●o Cleopatra, Lollia posthumia Mutiae Tertulla cum alijs, unde omnium Mulierum, vir dictus. Apud Ravisium in Theatro Philos. l. 5. c. 54. p. 653. Tent, as Martial in the Field: Mahomet the great Turk: LADISLAUS King of a Montaigne in his Essays l. 2. c. 23. Naples: Philippus called bonus of b Who had 14. Bastard Huterus in ejus vita. France, Laurence Medici's: and the great Captain Castrucanui of d Idem in vita Castrucani Italy: Casmirus e Comerus l. 12. hist. with many more, that have been as much blemished by Venus, as famoused by Mars: as Celius lib. 16. cap. 62. Instances in Pausanias: Tully lib. 2. de finibus, in Appius Claudius. c Match. l. 8. hist. Flor. Livy l. 8. in Papirius. 3. Withal, when I have considered how many fearful fruits and Tragical effects of jealousy, are recorded in all Authors, seen in all experiments, chief when Age and Youth, are unequally yoked: as january and May, in Chaucer's Tales: old Sophocles doting on young Archippe: or an old woman married to a young man: (as if Maxentius again; should chain the living, and dead together) as fit for him as Snow for f Tamapta Nuptijs quam Bruma frugibus Navis Sylva Nupt. lib. Harvest: as a fit subject for Marshal, and Apuleius again to scoff at: g Cum tros Capilli quatuor dentes, pectus Cicadae, Mart. 7.3. Epigran. 62. or when men have only aimed at Beauty without honesty: wedding to their woe, the fair and false-hearted: the beauteous and vicious, with as good success, and to as much content, as Vulcan who married Venus: Claudius the lustful Messalina: Plotomy the whorish Thais: or Hierome King of Syracuse in Sicily, h L. 5. de Asino aur●. who espoused Pytho, a Keeper of the Stews. 4. When I read of the whorish tricks, which such as are branded with the name of Meretrix have, to gull and beguile their husbands, which I had rather any should read in i Stephanus praefat. Her. Navisan, and k Dial. aemoris. Platina, than I relate. 5. Considering how inconstant and incontinent many couples be, that after the first- Honey-moone (as they say) after which the edge of appetite, in many is dulled: their thoughts begin to mad, and gad after others, as Beasts that run to rut, imagining every face fairer, than that they may call their own, womanish Viragoes (like that Lucretia a Lady of Senes, doting on l Aeneas sylvius. Euryalus: and Putiphars' wife (on m Gen. 39.9 joseph) enamoured on some one they see properer than their Husbands) or (like that Miloes' wife in n In Asino aureo. Apuleias) doting on every one: I then think, the small Contentation, some have in marriage: more than the Fish in the Net, the Fox in the Trap. 6. But above all, when I seriously consider the strange, and almost incredible effects of jealousy: (whether justly caused, or causeless) even to admiration and commiseration: this Hag, this Davus, this Devil, this fury, this frenzy, this fever, as Ariosto calls it, ever full of fears, treacheries, and suspicions, as o Hom. 80. suspitionum. plena & Jusidiarum. Chrysostome notes it, so hurrying and transporting those that have been possessed with it. 1. That it hath caused some to watch, their suspected Mates, wherever they p As Procris did watch her husband Cep●alus, hunting in the Wood, by whom she was slain. Ovid. lib. 7. M●am. hinc Procridis Telum apud Erasmum. went, as narrowly as the Cat watcheth the Mouse, as q Apud Ovidium & Tex torem pag. 1. Argus, watched Io, as the watchful Dragon, the golden r Aureun Vellus à Jason● deporta●um. Fleece, as the waking s Virg. 8. Aeneid te Jamter Orci. Cerberus, that passage to Hel. 2. To others it hath lent legs, if not wings, to fly after them, follow them, as the Dog that scents the Fox, or the Hare: haunting and hunting them, as spirits, per mare, per terras, by land, and Sea, as did JOAN Queen of Spain, Wife to King Philip, and mother to Ferdinando and Charles the 5. who out of furious jealousy, could not be restrained either by her Mother Isabel, or the Archbishop of Foledo, from following Philip into the Low-Countries: where she played strange t Gomesius l. 3. de rebus gestis Ximenij. Reeks. The like spirit, possessing the Wife of jovianus Pontanus, as himself confesseth. 3. Others that durst not go abroad, until they had committed their Wives, u Ant. Dial. to the custody of special Keepers; * Vide Epist. a Dionisium amicum, in have rem. which was the case of Hypocrates the Physician, when he went to Abder, to visit Democritus: as also the Sophies of Persia, the Tartarian Mogors, the Kings of China, and the Grand-Senior of the Turks, Geld yearly innumerable Infants, and keep Eunuches, for this purpose, even at this x Riccius expeditione in Snias, l. 3. c. 9 sic Lanclavius de rebus Turcicis. day. 4. Others, keeping up their Wives: jayled, and confined to their Prison, as the Zeriffes of Persia, that none see them: (if not locked up, as the Italians) seldom coming abroad, and not then neither, except y Alexander ab Alexand. l. 5. c. 24. Vilata teta in●edunt. vailed, as is related also of the Persian Wives. 5. Others most shamelessly inclined, as is related by Leonius Var. hist. lib. 3. cap. 59 6. Others as shamefully abusing themselves, as is recorded by Steukins, Observat. l. 4. 7. Others would never be satisfied, till they have caused their Wives to swear for their Honesties: as though Perjury, saith a Contra Mendacium Augustine, were no less sin, than Adultery. 8. Others, as though their Wives (like Stockfish, Walnut Trees, and Irish boys,) were better for beating, giving them sound, this Vnguentum Bacchulinum, as they say of the b Alexander Gaginus his Descriptions of Muscovie, cap. 5. Muscovites, till they make them confess, as upon a Rack, their Culpabilities. 9 Others, at their pleesures, divorcing them, when they either are weary of them, suspect them, or too much respect some, as sometimes our wild or vild Irish. 10. Others in their Paganish and Popish Devotions or Deviations, trying their honesties, at the Shrines of Saints, or Tombs of Martyrs, as that squeazie stomached Tailor, in the World of c In Folio, or the apology for Heroditus. Wonders, with his bare bald-head, entreated so long on his knees, the shrine of S. JOHN Baptist, (that chafed Saint as he called him) to tell him whether his Wife were dishonest or no, till the wind blew a stone down upon his Crown, from the old Image, which sent him away raving, raging, and blaspheming: as it was a custom once too, if we believe our Superstitious Irish, to try their Wives at that great Stone, which may be seen as you ride to Waterford, called St, Loures d Camden mentioneth it in his Britannia. Stone, now cloven a sunder, since it lost his Virtue) out of which; the Devil, (if ought as at Delphos once) gave answer. 11. Others, have tried the honesties both of Wives and Maids at other places, as Feronias' e Halicarn, lib. 3. Temple: Memnon's Statue, Pan's f Tabitus h. ●. 6. Cave, were used to that purpose: as also Diana's g ●amathius ●. 8. W●ll, Augustine relates h De Civit. Dei, l. 10. c. 16. some so tried; all by the delusion of the Devil; saith i De spectris P●rt. 1. p. 19 Lavater. if any effect were produced. 12. Others causing them to go over hot coals, for their Trial: as Nicephorus of Cuneganda, the wife of Henry Bavarus Emperor, who was put to this Trial: Sigonius of k An. 887. Richarda, Wife to CHARLES the third, and PIUS the l Descriptione Europa c. 46. second, and others. 13. Other jealous Husbands, strangely tyrannising over them, whom they suspected: of which there be innumerable examples, in Greece, Spain, Italy, Turkey, Africa, Asia, and in all the hot Countries, where hotspur Zelotipists have resided. 14. Some raving so fare in this mad frenzy, of jealousy, (chief Women, in whom according to m Poe●. l. 3. Scaliger, and n In his Essays. Montaigne, by reason of the weakness of their Sex, this Passion or perturbation most reigns) that they have lost their health: been distempered in their bodies, and brains: as Physicians in some, o Skenkius Observe. l. 4. c. de uter. exemplify. 15. Others, as Tigers, and enraged Lionesses, armed with fury and frenzy, setting upon those, whom they have suspected to have wronged them in their Mates: as a Merchant killing his Wife in his humour, q Apud Fulgosum, et Poggium. afterwards precipitating himself; a Doctor of the Law, cutting off his man's nose: chief Women (that like all p K. James his Observation on the 5. Petition of the Lords Prayer. Cowards, are most cruel, where they prevail) have exceeded. That Queen JOAN of Spain, that tyrannised over a poor Wench, with whom she suspected her Husband, cutting off her hair, and dragging her about: yea our English Queen Elinor, as a second Medea poisoning and tyrannising over, that fair r In t● strit Chronicis. Rosamond, her husband's Paramour: but especially the Wife of great Zerxes, as a Megaera, or infernal Fury, falling upon the Wife of Masista, cutting off her Paps, ears, lips, tongue, throwing them to the Dogs, flaying off her skin, slitting besides, the Nose of her Daughter s Heroditus l. 9 in Calliope de Amestri. Artaynta: are sufficient proofs how mild, and moderate jealous Women be, where they may revenge, 16, Lastly, to Epitomise many Histories in one; when I read the Tragical examples, recollected in this t By Democritus Junio● part. 3. Memb. 3. kind, both new and old, of Alexander u Tullius Of. l. 2. sic Ovid. in Ibem. inque tuo Thalamo jugaleris more Pheraei Phereus', of Antonius * Lucilla● uxorem veneno petijt Volaeter. Verus, of Demetrius the son of Antigonus, of Nicanor: Pherus of Egypt, Toreus, Atrens, Thyestes', * Virg: Aen●id. l. 11. Juvenal. S●tyra 6. & Seneca in Agamemnone. Agamemnon: with many more; chief Hercules poisoned by * Officina. Text. lib. 2. pag. 204. Dianira: Cilpericus made away by Ferdigund his Wife, the French y Pau●us Aemilius hist. Franciae l. 1. Queen; and other Husbands poisoned; massacred, and murdered by their z As Ninus by his wife Semiramis, the son of Aegistus, by the Daughters of Danaus. Antiochus by Laodice, Claudius by Agrip. Apud justinum. Senecam Palerium Maximum. Plin. l. 32. cap. 22. Wives, out of jealousies chief, or some other discontents: loathing whom they should love, and loving those lustful men, whom they should loathe; as Clytaemnestra did Aegistus: Wives again, and other suspected persons, being as cruelly cut off by Husbands, for the same causes; (as was justina a Roman Lady; and Cecinna murdered by Vespasian, with many more examples of both Sexes; which both a Aug. lib. 7 de civ. Dei. Divines, b Camer. horarum jubis. cap. 53. & cent. 2. Historians, c Faelix Platerus Observe. l. 1. Physicians, and d Ariosto l. 31. Staff, 1. Poets, have Coacervated and gathered as in a Bundle) and yet nevertheless, when I consider: that notwithstanding all these eyes and spies in the head, and bloody Knives in the hands of jealousy, wicked and wily men, (but especially subtle and Serpentine Women) have had Mercuries to charm this Argus: means to hoodwincke this Lyncaeus: to muzzle this Cerberus, to delude this wakeful Dragon jealousy: by one means or other, venting their stolen waters by the Milne, which the Milnar knows not of: e In Horto h. l. 2. c. 24. as Garcias reports of Women in the East Indies, about Goa, that will by a certain Herb, make their Husband's sleep for 24. hours, like Dormice, till they abuse them at their pleasure: with a thousand such pranks, if we believe the witty f Ariosto l. 28. Staff. 7. Italian, that knew them best: when I ponder that hard Dilemma (knottier than sampson's and Sphinx Riddles, to some to unclose) which the Pagan long since propounded: he that marries a foul one, shall have a Clog, and burden: (as deformed g Filia Henrici Lanagraviae Hessiae: Cromerus hist. l. 2. Aleida was to Casmirus) if a fair one, perhaps a common and a wanton want-out, as Messalina was to Claudius (there being moe such; than Lucretia's, Penelopees, h Vxor Tigridis apud Zenephontem in Cyroped. l. 3. Armenaes') the i Rara est concordia forma atque pudi citiae, Ovid. fairest, not ever being the chastest, unless God's Grace, & fear make than as the King's Daughter, all beauteous k Psal. 45. 13 within: as were the Matrons of the Patriarches: besides all the Crosses from Children, which here might be enumerated: many having no more comfort of them, than NOAH of his accursed l Gen. 19.25 CHAM, DAVID of his m 2. San. 18.33. ABSOLAM, MAURITIUS the n Nieeph. h. lib. 18. c. 58. Emperor, and o jer. 51.10 ZEDECHIAH of others, whom they saw murdered, before their eyes: but a great deal of sorrow and discontent, as ISAAC and REBECCHA had of their profane p Gen. 26.34 ESAV, that was a heartbreak unto them: many living to see them take ill-courses, like the q Lu. 15.13 Prodigal, or to come to untimely ends, as Eli's r 1. Sam. 4.17 sons, and s 2. Sam, 13 29. Ammon. I say all these things poised and pondered, speak to my judgement, and work upon my affections: that even Marriage itself, the nearest and dearest Union with the Creatures, (being to all profane persons, but even a snare and a curse, as all other Ordinances of God abused) but even Darius his golden t Aureis Catenis vinctus suit Darius, a Besso apud Curtium. fetters, can give no true rest, and Contentation to the soul of man, till it be by a true, a lively, and a justifying Faith, married and espoused to the Lord u Osee 2.19 JESUS CHRIST, and forsaking all others, keep it only unto him never to departure, no not when death (as in terrestrial Marriages) sequestrates it from the body. * ⁎ * CHAP. XVIII. Our inordinate Appetites after Earthly things, so divide, disturb, distemper, and distract our hearts, by divers passions and perturbations, that instead of hoped Contentation: we reap vexation, exangeration, distraction. I Consider yet more, in this Argument, ere I draw in my Sails, in this Ocean of matter, (knowing the judgements of men must be convicted, ere their hearts can be converted; else we build without a foundation) to keep me then still, (according to the practice and precept of best * Melancton, in concilijs Theolog. & Camerbrius in Cent. 2. oper. succis. p. 287. & Gorlicius in axiom Eccl. pag. 334. Divines) to old and known Phrases, in weighty points without words new coined, and minted: these sublunary Vanities, allegorized, and masked here under the phrase of unfilling Husks, being too much desired and doted on, by men of vain hearts, and unstable minds, as once the Prodigal, are so far from filling, satisfying, and contenting their Souls, or producing and procuring unto them, that true Peace, assured joy, fixed Rest, satisfactory Contentation, and contentive satisfaction, which all would have (as they pretend in their ends, yet seek not to attain in the right use of the means) that on the contrary they subject the Soul to exceeding divisions, distractions, exangerations and vexations, by differing dominiering passions, lusts, affections, perturbations, which reign in the heart, as ill-humours, in the body; as Rebels in the Commonwealth, or factious spirits in a City: chief, when there is neither mean nor measure, observed in prosecuting, nor moderation, temperancy, and indifferency kept in possessing; nor patience in the parting, with these outward things, but the heart being too much overjoyed in the Flux, and Springtide of these externals: too much again contracted, and straitened by grief, and overwhelmed by dolour; in the want (for quantity or quality) of the things desired, or in the total, or partial deprivation of them once possessed, in these cases, straits and exigents, such strange unexpected, and Tragical effects, are produced, as abandon all peace, and make it fly further, than Saul or Absalon caused David to fly, and put to death all true trantranquility, as Athalia did the King's x 2. Kin 11.1. seed: for by the reign of some one Lust, the rage of some one desire, unaccomplished, or the struggling of some two or moe different Passions, (as the struggling of contrary Elements: or the striving of JACOB and ESAV, in the womb of y Gen. 25.22 REBECHA) Reason is usually eclipsed, the memory dulled, the Will blinded or bewitched: the imaginations corrupted, the affections as a Harp, or a Cytarin untuned: or (as the bones of a Felon in the wheel, or in the Strappado, broke or disjointed, the heart distempered, and distracted: the natural, vital, and animal spirits, consumed, or corrupted the mind, (as the Flint by the droppings of z Gutta lapidem, sic paulatim, hae peuctrant animum. August. Rain, penetrated and pierced; the Conscience gauled and wounded: a black unconquerable (and oft uncureable) melancholy a De modo vide apud Cardanum, de subtilitate lbi. 14. & Corn. Agrippani de occulta Phylos. l. 1 cap. 63. produced: the brains dried, natural, rest and sleep deprived, or abated, by which according to Physicians) further, natural heat, is sometimes overthrown; Diseases are engendered, Health b De his effectis consule lemium de Jnstitutione ad vitam optimam c. 26 Galenum de sanitate tuenda, l. 3. & l. 2. Cratonis Consil. 21. abated: and life shortened: in a word, all parts, all powers, of man, perverted, subverted, or turned topsy turvy, as a man with his head downwards, or heels c Augustinus de Civitaete Dei l. 14. c. 9 upwards, or or as a door turned off the d Philo judaeus l. de alleg. hinges: these Thunderbolts of passions and pertbrbations, as they are e Pycolomineo Grad. 1. c. 24. called, over-blowing all; as sharp Gales of Winds, overthrew the Ship; or as the bolt from the broken Cloud, breaks down the Oak, or as a violent Torrent, or Sea broke out: bearing down all before them: overthrowing all, as a foolish Coachman, guiding wild Horses, overthrows the g Fertur aequis auriga, nec currus audit habenas. Coach, and all that are in it; as that foolish Phacton, misguiding once the Chariot of the f Torens velut agere rupto, sternit agrot, sternit sata. Sun, in the h Ovid. l. 11 Metam. Poet, sets all in a fiery i Fabula Ethice exponitur per natalem Committem in Mythiol. & in Theatro, Ph. pag. 850. Combustion. According to my use, it's easy to give useful instances of the pernicious and dangerous, if not deadly and deplorable effects of all Passions and Affections whatsoever, if once exorbitant and extravagant, (as Augustine himself hath noted) placed upon wrong Objects. To instance in joy it self, which seems to be most pleasant and delectable of all the rest, k De Civ. Dei l. 14. c. ●…9. yet as NOAH was subjected to scorn and fcaith, by overdrinking even of that Wine, which moderately taken, had been to his Contentation, so many by their inordinate, and unlimited joys, expose themselves to derision, distraction, if not destruction, for have not some in the obtaining of these Honours, Victories, Offices, Praeferments, Possessious, which they hoped for been so over-ioyed that they could not sleep? Have not others run stark mad? As overjoyed, and over conceited of their own worth? In accomplishing some well-deserving work? As l Lib. 5. S●…p. Cardan mentions of a Smith in Milan, that upon some extraordinary commendations given, for his refinding of an Instrument of Archimenides, for joy run mad like that Soldier, Camus in m In vita Artaxerxis Plutaroh, who wounding King Cyrus in Battle, grew thereupon so arrogant, that in short space he lost his wits: Others we see laughing in their sleeve, and singing jubilemus, and a Plaudite to themselves, in something done, name and fame, worthy, as they suppose, as overjoyed, and tickled in their own conceits, in a spice of Frenzy, have proclaimed themselves fantastickes, and proud fools, to the whole world: as appears in Zerxes, that would needs whip, shackle, and manacle the Sea: and send a Challenge to Mount n De quo●t supra. Athos 2. In Canutus a King of England, that would needs command the proud o Lanquet in Chronicis. Waves. 3. In Menicrates the Physician, that for his great Cures, would needs be named p Aelian. lib. 12. jupiter. 4. In Alexander, that would needs be the Son of q Ex Curtio Strigel. lib. 1. Ethic. pag. 39 jupiter, and be clothed like Hercules, in a Lion's skin. 5. In Cotys King of Thrace, that in all haste must be married to Minerva. 6. In Sapor the Persian King, that after his Victories over Valerian, will needs be Brother to the Sun and Moon. t De his & alijs, ex superbia et Jnsolentia insaenius, consul Philippum, in locis Manlij, p. 476. ●t part. 1. Postil. p. 576. Strigell●us in Psal. 73. p. 7. Praecipua in Themistocle, Pōp●io, Philippo Metello, ●t Wolseo nostro Anglo. instant Patritius de regno l. 4. tit. 18. p. 286. Pencerus in Chron. 26. Aprilis et. 14. junij. Anno 72. Cytre● in Chron. Saxoniae, l. 7.213 et Hyppolit. in s●o Consiliario p. 220. 7. In Antonius, the Roman, that will be crowned with Ivy: and adored like r Paterculus poster. Volun, Bacchus. With other such fits of Frenzy: as Petrarch once acknowledged s Lib. 1. de Mundi contempts. ingenuously, he himself was subject unto. Yea some by too much dilating and diffusing their spirits, have died suddenly, as over-ioyed, and too vehemently surprised, as was that aged Father at Rhodes, embracing his two sons, that came Victors from the Games of Olympia: jovius u Apud Goulart. pag 478 reporting the like of Sinan, General of the Turk● Armies, recovering his only son, whom he supposed slain; the like the French Histories of a Mother, that received her Son in the Civil Wars safe and sound, whom she supposed dead: the like the Italian Histories * Guiccard. alleged by the same Goulart. relate of Livio, and Camilla, two Constant Lovers, that being long crossed by the Father, and Claudio the Virgin's Brother: at last, enjoying one another, as overjoyed the first night of their marriage, were found dead in one Bed together: but above all, as most memorable, being that which both x In vita L● onis ho. l. 4. jovius, and that jovial y Essays l. 1. cap. 2. Montaigne writ, of that merry Pope Leo, the tenth: who upon certain News of the taking of Milan, which he extremely desired, (like a peaceable Praelate as he was) fell by an excessive joy, into such a present Feav●r, as shaked him out of Saint Peter's Seat, like a mellow or rotten-Apple. But a great deal more dismal and Tragical, have been, and are the contrary Passions, and perturbations of sorrow: as in thousand examples may be instanced, and in daily experience verified. 1. Some for the death and loss of Friends: as David for his z 2. Sam. 18 33 Absalon, for his a 2. Sam. 1.17 jonathan; for b 2. Sam. 3.3 Abner, for c 2. Sam. 13 31 Ammon: jacob for his d Gen. 37.34 Ios●ph: Alexander for his e Impe●dit, in ejus Funus 10. mi●lia Talentorum Gorlicus axiom. Pol. pag. 244. Ephestion: Achilles for his f Apud Hemerum. Patroclus: Hercules for his Hylas: Adrian for his Antonius: Aegens for his g Officina Textor. pag. 255. Son, the Widow of Naim for h Luk. 7.13 hers: Augustine for Monica, his i He often speaks of her in his works: Chief in his Confessions, & l. de cura pro●mortuis. Mother, Quintilllian for his k Praefat. l. 6. Son: Cardan and l De libris proprijs. Mezentius for their only Sons: Niobe for her m Solicito lachrimans defluis, a Scypio: propertius l. 2. Children: Portia for her n Vixisset Brutus tunc non tam clara fuisset Portia, Pamph. Brutus: Pompey's Wife for her ᵖ Pompey: Hecuba for her o Off. Tex. l. 5. pag. 553 Apud Sen. in Traged. Priamus: ANDROMACHE for her HECTOR: mourning sometimes, to madness: sometimes, to fearful howl, and loud laments, (as the Greeks and our Irish over their dead) sometimes in sorrow continuated, (like Rachel for her q Mat. 2.18 Children,) not to be comforted: even to annual, if not continual) memorials of them, and mournings for them: as the Primitive Church celebrating her Martyr., the whole Roman Empire lamenting the death of Augustus Caesar, and of Titus s Totus orbis Lugevat Victor. Vespasian: The jews bewailing their r Apud Tumulos ●artyrum inde tamdem superstitio●e, invocationes. See M. Perkins his Problens, de Invoca●. joshuah; and u 2. Ch. 35.25 josias: Rome Papal, their Leo decimus: the French, their Lewis the 12. t Iosh. 24. the Bohemians their x Aeneas Silvius. Zisca: the Turkish Army their y Mortuns est Mustapha, hodiè Turcicum. Proverb. Mustopha, We English our Prince Henry, Edward the sixth, and Queen Elizabeth: yea Patients some: mentioned by z Montan. Cons. 242. Physicians, Turtle-like) have bemoaned the death of their Mates, many years together, * Budaeus l. 5. de ass. some being so greeved and sadded: that they have suddenly died with them: as Pyramid with a Apud Ovidium. Thisbee, some dying for them, as Dido for the absence of her b Apud Virgilium Aeneas. 2. Brother's also as impatient of life, following voluntarily their Brothers to the Grave: as Zeanger son to Sultan Solyman, stabbing c Centorius l. 6. de bello Transilvano himself, when he saw is worthy Brother Mustapha strangled with a Bowstring. 3. Son's deadly surprised with grief, at the death of their Parents: as one of the Sons of Gilbert Duke of Montpenzier, falling down a● the sight of his Father's d Guiccard. l. 5. de belloltalico, sect. 5 Tomb, at Pouzzoll. 4. Chief, Fathers bursting their very hearts, at the death of their Children, as RAIZCIAT, a Nobleman, discovering under his Helm, that i● was his own son new slain, that fought so valiantly, in the Hungarian Wars, violence of grief vanquishing his vital e Montalgno Essays, l. 1. c. 2. & Jovius in Histor. Spirits, he fell down instantly dead. 5. Others, being so enraged and impatient, that they have themselves leapt into the Graves of their f Sic Pythius Bythinius in mortui filij Monumentum, se coniecit. Dead: as the best beloved Wives amongst the g M. Polus Venetus, & Vertomamnus Indians: others have slain many living (in an unadvised distraction) to accompany the Ghosts of their dearest dead: as the Tartars at this day, killing h Boterus Amphitheat. many Inferiors, to attend the Funeral of great Princes. Others again, have been as passionate, and sorrowful, at and in the loss of Honours in War, and in Peace: as MARK ANTHONY, that sat silent in his Ship, and sullen three days together, after he was overcome by i Plutarch in Antonio. Caesar: drooping as a Cock, that is beat out of the Cockpit: as Figueroa a Spanish Captain, kills himself with his man's Pistol, for his negligence and Cowardice at the siege of k Ascanius Centurius l. 4. Belli Transilv. Segedin: as PHILIP, Father to PETER STROSSE, chief of the banished men of Florence, against Duke COSMO of Medicis; being taken Prisoner in fight, falls upon his own sword, and kills l Jovius in supplements Sabellici. himself: as did m 1. San. 31.4. SAUL and his Armour-bearer in like case, rather than they would fall into the hands of the Uncircumcised: as CLEOPATRA with her Maids, stings herself to death with n Plutarck. et Ravisius, lib. 4. p. 553. Asps, rather than in her Captivity, she will serve, either the Triumph, the love, or the Lust of Caesar: as Bajazet knocks out his brains in an Iron o History of Tamburlaine, chief Amerarius ●per. succ. pag, 330.331. Cage: rather than he will be carried about as an African Monster, by his Conqueror Tamburlaine: as our Cardinal Woolsey will rather poison himself, by the way from Caw-wood to p Speed, in Hour●cum 8 London, ere he will to his foreseen shame, (as a second Achitophel) stand to the trial of his accusations: as Cato q Plutarch. in Catone. Vticensis, will rather out of sullenness and stearnesse of his spirit, kill himself, than he will submit to Caesar's mercy: thus either felt or feared shame and disgrace, and not attaining or retaining Credit, Reputation, Honour, desired, and (thought to be deserved) hath troubled the best, even in their spirits: as baroness (disgraceful in these days) not a little troubled r Gen. 16.1 Sarah, s Gen. 30.1 Rachel, t 1. San. 1.8.13. Anna: the Spirit of Prophecy, that was on others in the Camp, as well as on MOSES, (JOSHVAHS' Master) troubled JOSHVAH: the fame of CHRIST'S Preaching, u Mat. 11.2. and Miracles, troubled not a little JOHN'S Disciples: but especially, they are Racks, and Gibbets to the envious Scribes, and malignant Pharises, who know themselves Eclipsed, and let down by the gracious words, glorious works, and unspeakable worth, that was in CHRIST: thus * 2. Sam. 17. ●3. ACHITOPHEL had rather hang himself, than live to see HUSHAYS council preferred before his: as HOSTRATUS the Friar, hath as good a warrant to hang himself, if REUCLIN writ a Satirical Book against x Sub nomine Epistolarum obscur●rum vi●orum. him, as did those two saucy Painters, (whom Hypponax with his Satirical lambicke, so whipped and y Plin. hist. l. 36. c. 5. stripped) most men being as impatient o● an Affront, or disgrace, as that APOLLONIUS RHODIUS, who banished himself voluntary, because he was once z Idem. l. 7. cap. 23. Nonplus, in reciting his Poems: and as PROTHAEUS, the son of Aulcan, who is feigned, to-cast himself into the fire, because he was mocked, to be crooked and lame like his Father- And ere not we as Waspish and impatient now, at every idle word, as the Gilieadites, (by a judg. 12.4 Ephramites) to be called runagates: as DAVID was at the currishness of b 1. Sam. 25.22 NABAL; and ABISHAI, at the revile of c 2. Sam. 16.9 SEMEI: do we not take the least disgrace (as our Tobacco) in snuff? Are our Academics more patiented to be put by their Graces, at our public Commencements, than those of China? Who if they be excluded and thrust out as Ciphers, in cheir exquisice d Math. Riccius expeditione ad Sinas, l. 3. c. 9 Trials, usually run mad and distracted: are our Divines more patiented to be put by a Benefice by any Senior immerito, e Act. 8.19. that hath gifts like SIMON MAGUS, rather than SIMON PETER, more than AERIUS (and some say NESTORIUS and PAULUS f Apud Magdeburgenses, et Osiandrun, in Epit. Cent. SAMOSATENUS) who are said to turn Heretics, (as some of ours g Campian. Cresewell. Rainolds. Carter. Papists) because they missed of that praeferment, which they gaped for? Are our Courtiers more patiented of Corivals, than HAMAN of a h E●th. 5.13 MORDOCHEUS: the Princes of DARIUS of a i Dan. 6.3.4 DANIEL: are we more patiented of Banishment, than ABSALON from the Court of k 2. Sam. 13.3 Israel, amongst the Geshurites? Or OVID amongst the Geteses, l Ovid de Tristibus. and Sanromatians, are we not as impatient of Imprisonment, and the restraint of Liberty, even the meanest of us, as was m Quomodo Huniades, bis captus, et his evasit lege Chronica Melancth. lib. 5. p. 64. et 650. & deincarceratione Mathiae patris. apud Camer. 2. oper. Succ. c. 3. p. 190. Huniades, Valerian the Emperor, BAJAZET the Turk: RICHARD the second: ROBERT Duke of Normandy: ROGER Bishop of Salisbury (whom we have formerly named) with other such great n De omnibus hisce incarceralis (quibus addi possunt) ex Germaenicis, Henricus 4. ex Gallis, Carolus Martellus: ex Turcis, Amurathej. ex Persis Jsmael 2. ex Graecis Dionis. ex Gal. regibus Chilpericus. ex Hispanis, Filia vinco Regis Castaliae Masi●issa ex Numidis, ex Mediolanensibus Ludovicus Sfortia ex Aug. Comes, Richmontius cum multis alijs. spirits? Are we more patiented of disrespect any way, though our means be but mean, what ever our inside be? Then men of excellenter knowledge, and moral parts, than we in former times? Can we without grudging, feed on Pulse with o Dan. 1.12. DANIEL and his three Companions? Can we go clad in Camel's hair? (As in ruged Mantles) and feed on Locusts, as JOHN the p Mar. 1.6. Baptist? Can we beg a piece of Barley bread with ELIAS? Be driven to seek our lodgings we know not where, with the Levite r judg. 19.15. and his Concubine? Can we lie hard in the Fields and in Tents as s 2. Sam. 12. URIAS? Can we wear old shoes, and eat mouldy bread with the t Iosh. 9.12.13. Gibeonites? And cut Wood as they, and as PHILOPAEMEN once the u Plutarc. in vita eius. Orator? Draw water as CLEANTHES in the Night time? Serve a Baker and be stint of our bread we eat, as once x Apud Seru. & Sabel. VIRGIL? Yea, beg our bread, as some say HOMER y Herodit. in vita eius, & Scalig. in Poeticis. did? I am sure as great z Date obilum Bollisario. BELLISARIUS, and that Cynic DIOGENES did: and the Capuchians q 1. Kin. 17.10. * Theat. Phil. l. 4. p. 340. now do? Can we be contented to be excluded, and not admitted to a Feast, as was the case once of that famous a Gomesius l. 3. c. 31. de sale. Dantes, the Italian Poet, because of our mean (which neither Gnatho nor Thraso respects?) or if admitted, to be set, as Terence once at the lower end of Cicilius his b In Vita Terentij. Table, beneath the salt: (usually the Chapleines place?) Would we not take it as unkindly, as that Philosopher in c In Lapith. convivio. Lucian, if we were not invited? And as harshly as that spruce Gentleman in d Apud Plut. Praetextatus, or as the e Luk. 14.7 Scribes in the Gospel, if we did not perk up to the highest place? It might be, we would shrink away chafing and repining, as too much neglected. Can we be content to have our secrets disclosed, or our infirmities publicly revealed, to our disgrace: more than that Gentlewoman which Ronseus tells f Epist. Miscel. 3. us, grew mad or melancholy, upon such an occasion? Can we be patiented, to play the Courtiers, or to Act the parts of wise Pilgrims, and strangers, to receive injuries and give thankes? Can we hear ourselves reviled (as Pyrrhus once by certain Drunkards: as Charles the 5. by his muttering g Cavete dixit audit Imperator, apud jovium Soldiers: yea as Socrates when he was brought upon the Stage by Aristophanes) and yet dissemble all and take no notice: pass by as a Lion, or Courser thorough barking Curs, nor casting down head, nor lifting up heel: but (as that Albanian Dog, presented to h Gesuer de quadr●pedibus, translated by Topsell. cap de Cambus. Alexander: vindicating and revenging ourselves merely by Contempt: as holding it a most Princely thing: yea, that which is incident to GOD himself: to do well, and hear i Regium est bene facere, et male audere. evil, of a blasphemous multitude: or rather do we not as Bees, Wasps, and Hornets, sting upon the least stirring, as Cur's bark and snarl at every pebble stone that is fling▪ besides, are we patiented at the loss of our goods, as was the Patriarch k job. 1. Vltimo. JOD; or as these Pagans l Olim nobilis attamen pauper Florus lib. 4. Thales and Bias? Can we be contented with Poverty, as were not only the Pagans, the Curij Fabritij? But even the m 2. King. 4. Prophets, the n Acts. 3.6. 2. Cor. 6.10 Apostles, yea CHRIST * Fox's hay holes. himself: as GVALTER well notes, and gives the o Lucam c. 2. v. 18. Reason: Do we approve of all these Encomiums given of it; by Scriptures, p Pro. 11.4 Eccles. 4.13 Fathers, q Aug. Conf. l. 6. Philosophers, r Qu●t Clari docti, & virtuto praestantes viri punperimi fuere, vide apud Aelian. l. 5. lib. 9 l. 11. Pontanum, de Fortit. l. poster. p. 76. & apud Patritium, l. 9 de regno, tit. 10. pag. 595 Orators, s Hor. Sat. 6. l. 2. Serm. Poets, or rather do we not fly it, as a mad Dog, Bear, Tiger, or Snake, as MOSES from his Rod, turned a Serpent? If we get not, and gain not, at every commodity, or mercenary ware we deal with, if we make not money contrary to Nature; and GOD'S Institution, to increase, and t D. Fentous book against Usury. multiply: but chief, if we go down the Wind, and lose aught, we then think we are utterly undone: we rage, and rave, as MICHAYES u judg. 17.2. Mother, when her son stole her silver: yea some have run even stark mad, as Birds fit to be Caged in Bedlam, as did that ROGER the rich Bishop of Salisbury, being spoilt of all his Goods and Manors by King Stephen, Vi doloris obsertus, even swallowed of sorrow, he did and said, he knew not what: saith NUBRIGENSIS: at least we grow melancholy and malcontent, as * Montanus Consil. 26. Physicians tell us of some in such cases: yea some as leaping out of the Frying-pan into the fire, out of diffidence, distrust, carnality, Atheism, Infidelity: losing their silver, even lose their Souls too, by being Felons and Butchers, upon themselves, like TERENCE the Comedian, that would needs drown himself, because some of his Comedies perished by Shipwreck, not considering that many great men, Noble men, Good men, yea learned men, have been poor, yet respected for their gifts and x Aristotle by the great Macedonian, apud Ca●ier. tent. 2. Virgil, Horae●, and others, by Augustus Pollio and Maecenas Eunius, by Scipio, Diogenes and Calamus by Alexander: Erasmuus by Sir Thom. Moor. So Cardan, Gesher. Lipsius, by other Patrons. graces, whereas wicked men that have been wealthy, have been rejected, and disrespected, for their retchlessnesse, notwithstanding their riches. Besides, who can say that he is absolutely contented with his estate? That saith, his Lot is fall'n on a fair ground: that's indifferent whether he be higher or lower, or in a mean and indifferency, as the wise y Pro. 30 8. HAGAR wished? That is willing to shape his Coat according to his cloth: to bear sail, just as he hath Wind and Water, that with the z 2. Kin. 4.15 Shunnamite, dwelled amongst his own people: without much troubling, or being troubled by intermeddling: that lives and reigns, as a Viceroy and Centurion over his Affections: that is indifferent whether he be carried in a great Boat or a little, since he reach and attain, his scope and Haven: but rather, how few such, are there amongst us? How rare are such Black Swaus, as the Poet thought in his a Rara avis in torris, Nigro similim● Cygno. time? How are our heads still working, as new Wine in the Vessel? And how still consulting and projecting by ourselves and Friends: (as HAMAN with his Wife b Esth. 5.10 11 ZERESH, and Counsellors: ABSALON with c 2. Sam. 16.20 ACHITOPHEL; AMON with d 2. Sam. 13 3.4 JONADAB, PYRRHUS with his Orator e Patrit. l. 2 de regno tit. 3. pag. 92. CYNEAS: ALEXANDER with his EPHESTION, DARIUS with his ZOPIRUS, AGAMEMNON with his f Axiom. polit Richteri Gorlicij axiom. 45. pag. 124. NESTOR and ULYSSES) still, how to be more great, rather than how to be more good. 13. So how can we bridle these Concupiscible appetites, in respect of all Lusts whatsoever? Are we so mortified from desire of Honour, which we call Ambition: from that Philangury or love of money which is called Covetousness, from that Philantia and desire of Vainglory and applause, that we fly it as a g Tanquam matter multorum malorum, authore Daneo, l. 3. Eth. p. 310.318. sic Strigellio, in 2. San. 12. p. 138. Crocodile? Or from effeminacy and love of Women: or from excessive and inordinate love of other Earthly things, as were the Apostles, and Primitive Martyrs and Confessors, that forsook all to follow CHRIST: or as PAMBO, ANTHONY, HILARION, MACARIUS, PAULUS SIMPLEX, and other h Heb. 11.36.37. Hermit's, and Anchorites: that pretended, i Of the strict lives of these and many more, read Sozomen, l. 1. c. 12 and it's probably intended, to place their Affections only on things above, and not on things below: yea, are we so moderate and mortified (in the outward man, at least) as the very Heathens? Love we money? No better than Fabritius, that refused the gifts of the k Apud Tul. Samnites, Honours? No better than Phocian the Athenian, who fled from l Nudis pedibus ple●umque incedebat, apud Plutarc. Magistracy? (As that Martin in the Ecclesiastical Histories, m Apud Soc. lib. 4. c. 30. Ambrose, and others, from being Bishops:) Women? No better than Anaxagoras who was no more moved with the allurements of Lai●, than a stock or a stone? Yea are we so indifferent for all other externals, that we could content ourselves like that Cynic, with our n See Staff. Diogenes: Anglice. Tub, and a Book, and a Dish? Or as that Israelitish Prophet, with a Chamber, a Stool, a Bed, and a o 2. Kin. 4.10 Candlestick? Or with that Dioclesian (after he was elected Emperor) with a p Imperium sponte depesuit, Lelius Zecchius l. 1 de principe, c. 4. & Philippus lib. 3. Chron. Cottage-house: like an Irish , and a little Garden, with a few herbs, roots, and lentils for food, with apparel as mean? As did the jewish q De quibus Josephus de bello Jud. l. ● cap. 7. & antiq. l. 18. c. 2 Essein: the Indian r Vnus existis Brackmannis fuit Calanus Indus ut Cicero habet in l. 1. de divin. & 2. Tuscul. quaest. Brachmians, and s Herod. l. 5. c. 5. & The. hist. l. 7. cap. 48. pag. 814 Gymnosophists: the Popish t De quo stricto ordine, Hospinianus, de Orig. Monoc. l. 6. c. 67. p. 297 Capuehians now: Alexander's Calanus: or Staffords Diogenes: when by Sycophantizing, and observance, he might have been a Favourite to Alexander, and been in Grace as u Calco Platonis Fastum. Plato, and * Si sciret regibus uti, fastidiret Olus. Apud Hor. Arist. de Diogene. Aristippus: these Courtly Philosophers? I doubt we come fare short of these, and such as these? If we would ingenuously confess (what other zealous and devout spirits have confessed before us, in their Sololoquys and Meditations) keeping a true audit, in our hearts, and a Court in our Consciences, we should against ourselves give in x In soliloq. Augustine's Verdict: that our hearts are even rend, and raekt, and torn in pieces, with Multiplicities of desires, now haling one way, now another, as two Birds, that are flackering, and flying at the two ends of a thread, one drawing Eastward, the other Westward, we would confess with y In Ca●ticis. Bernard, the restlessness of our desires, to be thus and thus (as a longing Wife, desiring now this now that) in such diversified passions, that we can no more reckon, and number than the Sands of the Seas, or Motes in the Sun: our appetite extending itself to every thing, that superfluously we seek after: our desires being restless, as a man that runs in a round, or traceth in a labyrinth: or as a Horse, that goes about in the Milne, as though our thoughts and cogitations every minute, did roll Sisyphus his z Rela●entem Saxum, ad Montis verti●em, perpetuo volvens apud inferos Ovid ●. Metam. stone: or turn Ixion's a Rotam perpetuam voluere fingunt quod se Juncne gloriaretur concubuisse. Tibullus l. 1. & Seneca in Hercule Furente. Wheel: or, as if we were laid on a Bed, on which it raines, turning now this way, now that: or stretched on a Rack, ever in pain, and perplexity, till we be taken off. For Ambition? We would confess we had been, and are infected with this Canker, this b Oh Ambitio ambientum Crux. De variis censuris doctorum vide supra, Margin. plague, this poison, as the learned call it: that we had been hunted with this Hag: and pricked forward; (like a Bird or Squirrel in a Cage: an Ape in a chain: a Dog in a turnspit Wheel) still to climb and climb, though we never come to the top: in danger still to fall, as the Goat that seeks after Ivy, upon old Trees and rotten walls. For covetousness? We would confess, that even this weed too, had grown and spread as a Pompion, and seeded too fare, in the Garden of our hearts, & that (according to the counsel of Hypoc to Grateva the Herbalist) we had not yet so rooted it out: but the remainders have been left: as the cause (if we believe c In varijs sermonibus, et homilij●, ad populum Antioch. Chrysostome) of the most of the miseries and maladies of our life. And for popular applause? Who is it amongst many, but with that Themistocles thinks it the best Music? Who but is sometime tickled with it, as that Grecian Orator: that took delight to hear even the vulgar d Hic est ille, Demosthen. Athenians, to whisper and point with their fingers, This is Demosthenes, as he passed by them: Augustine himself when he was a Manichee, and a Rhetoric Lecturer at Milan, as himself e In l. Confess. At pulchrum est digito monstrari, et dicier hic est Pers. satire confesseth, being (Tyger-like) too much affected with these clawing and tickle. By which that proud Herod was as a man, tickled even to death: when the Angel plagued him, as his Sydonians palpably praised him. So for Effeminacy? How few can we add in our own experience to that Catalogue of Chastones, Christians and Pagans, Virgins and Widows, which that f Contra Jevinianum. Chast-Father enumerates in his Antagonisticall opposition against jovinian? As they are alleged by that once zealous Chancellor of g Genson. Paris: nay, if we durst reveal our hearts & thoughts to any, but the knower and searcher of hearts, we would confess with the same Hierom, in one of his Epistles: that when our bodies were cooled and beat down with h Quoties ego, in eremo constitutus. Jeinnijs mens aestuabat desiderijs. pains, and Fast: our souls and affections, were burning and boiling in concupiscential desires. 14. So for the Irascible Faculty? Who amongst a thousand, was ever seen like Socrates, Zeno, and other Stoics, for the most part, ever in one temper? (As Seneca i Lib. de Ira. reports of Cato) who was ever seen free from passions? Or indeed: (because no man can attain to that perfection, which the Stoics dream of, to be continually freed from all passions and perturbations whatsoever, ever, no more than the Sea from waves, the Air from winds: since as the Learned note, we propagate them from our Parents, and bring them with us into the world, and to put them off, and to be insensible of evils, (like that stupid Nation of Africa, which Aubanus speaks of) were Exuere hominem, to put off the nature of a Man, and to be (as is said of a Solitary man) either a GOD: an Angel, or a Beast: an Eagle, or an Owl: a Saint, or a Stock) who keeps this Passion of Anger, like the Sea, within his banks and k Et exemp. & preceptis Antidota & Pharmaca contra hanc Jram. habemus apud Senecam, lib. 3. de Jra. Zene. lib. 2. Cyrop. Oros. l. 2. cap 16. limits: who can so fare bridle and moderate those fierce Bellerophon horses of Angry heats by that minerva of Reason; that he can say of his offending inferior, as once Plato to his Servant; I would beat thee if I were not Angry? Who can so fare master and conquer this Passion, as (following the counsel which Athenodorus give to Augustus,) he can repeat over the letters of the Greek * See Master Downam his Treatise of Anger. Alphabet, ere he execute any Mulct and penalty in his anger? But rather as bruit Beasts, incensed Tigers, and enraged Unicorns, inflamed and wholly fired with this Passion; carried as with a tempest or whirlwind, as besides ourselves, as he acknowledged in the l Apud Plaut. Comedian: in a short fury m Ira furor brevis est: animum rege Hor. l. 1. Ep. or frenzy, with sparkling n Et ex oculis Micat. acrius ardour: Lucr. l. 3. de rer. Natur. scintillant oculi, dicis facisque quod ipse, non sani esse hominis: non sanus Juret Orestes, Pers. Sat. 3. eyes, stammering o Ora tum. Ira. Ovid. l. 3 de Arte amandi. Tongues, gnashing p Morde●t. labia Jracandū describit Homer. Odys': 1. in procris Jratis, in Telemach. Teeth, grinning like q Lumina Gorgoneo, Savins angue Micant, Lucr. Dogs, foaming like r Jracundaque mens, vicest vi●lenta Leon. Boars, (as this Ate is set out) we play oft such mad pranks, as did that hare-brained Aiax in Homer: that Medea s Actu. in Euripides; that lunatic Charleses the sixth, in the French history; that Alexander in Quintus Curtius: when he stabbed his dear t Apud Plutarc. & Strigell. in Ethic. lib. 1. p. 247 Clitus, and cut off his valiant u Apud & Curtium, et Bodinum, lib 4. de Repub. c. 7. p. 736. Philotas; as Soliman in the Turkish history, when he strangled the martial Mustapha; yea, as * Apud eundem, pag. 74 1. Et apud Patritium, l. 6. de rep. tit. 5. pag. 289. Pausanias, that passionately murdered King Philip; or enraged Herod, that leaped out of his Bed and killed josippus; as that choleric Contaren the Venetian, who (rejected in an Office) stabbed the Duke of x De isto Contareno Codro et Herode: vide, Democritum Juniorem, de Melanc●lia. Venice; as Anthony Vry (called the Learned Codrus) that for the loss of his Library, died mad; and as that carnal Cardinal Hippolytus, who full of fury in an angry Frenzy, pulls out the Eyes of his Brother Count y Guic●ard. in his history of Italy. julio, as his Corrival in his Love or lust; or as that Ninacheturin the noble Governor of Malacha, who being Commanded by Alphonse, the Lieutenant of the Portugal King of the z Petr. Hispal. et Maffa●s, de rebus Jndicis. East-Indies, to resign his Office, immediately makes a fire and burns himself. 15. So who is so free from Envy and Emulation, at his Colleagues, Copartners, or Corrivals, (chief, if they in place, pains, parts, or praise parallel or exceed him) but he finds an inward grudging? If not gnawing, about his heart? As the Moth (saith Cyprian,) gnaws the Garment; or as the Eagle in the Poet, is feigned to gnaw the heart of Prometheus: and the Worm the Gourd of a jonas, 4. jonas: yea, we cannot see our Inferiors advanced, but we labour of that Disease, which Lypsius found in himself; we cannot look upon them, ourselves being neglected, Sine gemitu & fremitu, without grieving and grudging, every man would be ant Caesar, aut nullus: either Caesar, or no body: either a Knight; or a Knitter of caps: as the practice of proud spirits, verifies the Proverb. Conclusio totius. Thus in this Peroration, at last to draw to a Conclusion: we see the Tumultuations, rollings, revolving, and restless reeks, of our inordinate affections misplaced, or too vehemently fixed upon wrong Objects. Now let Clodius, Aegistus himself, or the losest Libertine & licentious wretch in the world be judge, that hath any feeling or knowledge of these passages, speculative, or experimental in himself, or others: if the Soul of man (which is the point I still aim at) can have any true contentation: assured Consolation, or solid satisfaction: (which is still as the conclusive undersong to the discanting of my larger Ditty) in these toss, tumblings, blusterings, bicker, bandyings, and exorbitances of the unruly passions? Is there any rest in these, more than a man can sleep quietly in a surging Tempestuous Sea? Or on a Galloping Horse? Only when the affections are rightly tuned, and (as the right Gauntlet put on the right hand, the right saddle (as they say) put on the right Horse: the right Lines met in the right Centre) truly and duly placed upon God, man's sole and sovereign good: there they rest; when the Love is so placed on God, as the souls spiritual Bridegroom, that all false and Adulterous Loves are abhorred and abandoned. 2. The filial fear, so fears GOD only, that Men, Devils, Tyrants, the Creatures, are not feared: as by Faith kerbed, by dependency from a superior Power. 3. b The full difference betwixt a Carnal sorrow and a Christian, a natural and spiritual, see in Dike his deceitfulness of man's heart: and Negus, of Man's active obedience, in 4. When the sorrow is turned from a natural, or adventitiall melancholy, from a Carnal, deadly, desperate sorrow, such as is in d Mat. 26.57 Worldlings, Hypocrites and Reprobates, into a godly sorrow, (such as was in c Psal. 6.6. David, d Mat. 26.57 Peter, e Luk. 7.44 Marry) merely for sin; because it is sin, and not as in f Gen. 3.13 Cain, g Exo 9.27 Pharaoh, h Mat. 27 34 judas, Carnal i Deu. 1.45. Israel, k Heb. 12.16 Esau merely for the punishment of sin 4. When our joy is not as the Sodomites, and sensual Worldlings, in l Luk. 17.27 28. Eating, drinking, marrrying, and such good blessings abused: nor in Lusts in their own Nature sinful: such as Chambering and m Rom. 13 13, 14 Wantonness, Surfeiting and Drunkenness, and all Sabyritish, Epicurish Voluptuousness: in which profane spirits wallow (as the Eel in the mud, the Scarabean Flea in the Dunghill; the Swine in the Mire) but it is placed as was david's; and the Pristine and Primitive Saints; in the n Psal. 32. 1● Lord: in his Christ, in the joys of the spirit: in the Word, in the o Ps. 119 72 Law, in the Promises, in God's Ordinances, and in the Saints, which p Psal. 16.3 excel. 5. When our jealousy is turned (as was jobs and Davids) to ourselves, and our own ways, that we offend not. 6. Our Anger turned against our own sins: into a holy revenge: and to a zeal of God's glory, such as was in q Ex. 32.19 29.32 Moses, r Num. 25.7.11 Phinees, s 1. Kin. 19.10. Elias, t Acts, 2.14. Peter, u Act. 13.10. Paul, * 2. Sam. 6.20. David, and our x Psal. 69.9. & joh. 2.17. Saviour himself. 7. When as a Clock all the strings of our affections, thus set, strike right: then and not before, as the crying Child that sucks his own desired Dug? We receive from the Lord, the blessed Influence of plenary Consolation, all sufficient Contentation. CHAP. XIX. These outward things used out of Christ in Carnalities, in the abuse of Christian liberty: ever leave a sting in the Conscience more or less: which deprives of all true Peace, and Contentation. LAstly, my last Meditation runs briefly in this: that all these externals, be what they will be, (not needing to particularise them again in their severals) even the choice, and chief of them; nay all of them, disjoined, and disjointed from the fear and service of the true God: used and abused (as the fashion ever is) by Worldlings, Naturalists, and mere Civil honest men, (which neither know nor regard, that sanctified use of the Creature, to the honour and glory of the Creator, which is taught only, by the Word: in the School of Grace, and not by the practice of the world, or the precepts of morality, in the School of Nature) all of them I say, thus enjoyed, or ioyedin: or rather, merely usurped by vain men, like Felons and Traitor's encroaching on God's best blessings, or purloining to their own abusive ends, his best Creatures; cannot but leave a sting in the Soul, and a prick in the Consciences of their dearest Favourites: unless they be wholly y 1. Tim. 4.2 seared, cautherized, and hardened, as the nether Millstone, as was once z Exod. c. 7. ch. 8, 9, per totum. Pharaohs, and stark dulled and dead, as that a 1. Sam. 25 Nabal: no more penetrable, than the Adamant, or scales of a Dragon: For we must know, that the Conscience doth not only gall, and cut, and sting, in the perpetration of great and notorious sins, which (though they be transcient in Act) leave behind them a stain, a blot, a spot, and a permanent Rack: such as Cain, Nero, Caligula, Maximinus, Maxentius, Antiochus, Epiphanes, Herod, Pilate, judas, and many others, felt as their greatest torment (this Gild haunting them in their very sleeps and dreams; chief, when the hand of God was upon some of them, in the extremities of their diseases, in the hour of death: in the times of Lightning, Thunder, and other manifestations of God's power, presence, justice; as themselves have acknowledged, as appears by the Marginal b De horrore terrore vindicto, et Judicio malae Conscientiae in his et aliis instant et Antiqui & Moderni, inter alios. Ambr. l. 5. Epist. 18. Authors: the guilt of Conscience ever following and dodging sin, as the hue and cry doth the Felon, and overtaking it, as the Storm and Tempest the Fugitive jonas:) but javerre further, that the Wicked have no Peace of Conscience, even in the use of these things, that in their own Natures, are the good gifts of GOD, even positive blessings. Gold, Silver, Riches, Revenues, Houses, Lands, Farms, Friends: Health, Strength, Honours, Dignities, Wife, Children, what ever they call and account good, are not good to them: or for them: no more than Wine is good for him that hath a Burning Fever, Eels and stirring meats for him that hath an Irish Ague: or much drink for him, that hath a c Method of Physic, l. 3. c. 2. p. 156 Dropsy; nay no more, than a Knife is good for a child, a Sword in the hand of a B●dlam or Madman, with which he wounds himself or some other: their very Table (that's all their external Prosperity) is a very snare to them, as the Psalmist speaks, it's as the Limb●-bush to the Bird, the Trap which the great Nimrodian Hunter the Devil, sets for their Souls, and as they have no good by them: so (which is the point I drive at) they have no true and solid Comfort in them: there's no peace to the Wicked, saith my d Esa, 57.21 On which Text read Adam's Sermon. God: no kind of true Peace in any thing that they set their hands too, and their hearts on; their Hearts, and their consciences being e Tit. 1.15. defiled the very in●als and ewards of their souls, being polluted; how can the clear streams, the sweet fruits of Peace, proceed from such a heart, such ●roo●, such a fountain, as is unpurged, and unpurified, by Grace? Since Grace, and Peace are always (as that Aeneas and Achates) f Grace and Peace as Husband & Wife seem married together, Rom. 1. v. 7. 1. Cor. 1.3. 2. Cor. 1.2. inseparable, and individual Companions, true Relatives as the two Cherubins looking one directly towards the other, one answering the other, as face answers face in a Glass: as the Apostle speaks of Love, it holds too of joy, the other Sister, both proceeding from the same Progenitors, a pure g 1. Tim. 1.5 heart, and a good Conscience: and as in some Births, the Mother and the Daughter, both live; or both h As in the Caesarian Section, Instances are given by Geum out of Rousset and Banhin, & other Physicians, Hist. p. 259 ad 267. dye: so it holds in this; their hearts, are dead in respect of any Grace, therefore this root, being dead, there can be no fruit; nay, no bad, no blossom, of any sound and solid peace: they have these outward things indeed, oft times, in great abundance, even to the grudging and repining sometime of GOD'S Children, (as appears in the querulous Complaints of i Psal. 73. v. 1.2.3.4. & v. 21.22. David, k ●ob. 1. per to●um. job; l ●er. 12.1.2 jeremy, who as the Elder Brother, in the m Lu. 15.29 Parable, seem to be neglected, in respect of these prophainer Prodigals, as though they had not an equal portion; of that their Father were partial in sharing: allowing the rich purpled Churl, dainty n Lu. 16.19 cates, when Lazarus had not o Vers. 21. crumbs jezabels' false Prophets p 1. Kin. 11.19 feasting, when good Elias was kept fasting: the I●o●s Philistines being jovial and triumphant all in their Puff, and jollity, swelling with pomp and q 1. Kin. 17.11.13 pride, when Samson the Nazarite, was mourning and grinding in the s judges. 16 23.24 s Vars. 21. Milne, NABAL feasting as a King, and in t 1. Sam. 25.36. superfluities, when good DAVID and his people, were u Vers. 8. distressed, for want of necessaries: yet nevertheless; GOD'S Children have more Comfort, and Contentation in a Salad of herbs, in a little * 2. Kin. 4.2 Oil in a Cruse, and a cake of x 1. Kin. ut supra. Meal: than these pampered, lust fed Stallions of the world, * jer. 5.8. in their stalled Oxen, more peace in pease & pulse, with Daniel and his 3. y Dan. 1.12. Companions: than the other, the increase of their Wine and z Psal. 4.7 Oil: because they have them as duteous Children their Portions, though never so poor, with their Father's blessing; as obsequious Servants they receive these gratuities, as tokens and Pledges of their Master's Favour: as Rebeccha received a Gen. 24.22 jewels, as Testimonials of isaack's lo●e, whereas the other have their abused blessings, from God (as Samson had Dalilah, and the Tymnites Daughter from the b judg. 14.4 Philistines, merely to ensnare them; as the Troyans' had the Palladian Horse, from the Greeks, to entrap them: God gives them these things in wrath: as he did give c 1. Sam. 8.11.12. Saul, to the discontented jews: as that jupiter in the Fable, gave to the croaking d Apud Aesopum. Frogs: a destroying Stork, for a King: having the Creatures without the Creator, they have no more comfort in them, than a vain Man the misspent Dowry of that Woman, whom he neither loves, nor ever was beloved of her, his Matrimony being merely aimed a matter of money, which God never joined, nor ever blessed. Now the premises considered, these outward things sequestrated from the assurance of God's love (being accompanied (in all unsanctified hearts) either with too-working and waking a conscience:) as in Saul, whom every thing troubled, friends, foes, Philistines, David, jonathan, Michol, the Priests of Nob; yea the Evil Spirit itself, enjoying no peace, though he were a valiant and victorious King; Or else with too Lethargical, cautherized, and drowsy conscience: as in Naball, who lived like a Belly-God, and died like a Beast, which is no Peace, but a perilous security, the Herald and Prologue of their approaching destruction. In either of these, what true contentation hath the Soul? More than a Traitor in his Rack, Securitaetis Comes ruina, Mel●eth. Tom. 2. pag. 431. Penc. de Divinatione p. 67 a Felon in his jailor his Executioner? More than the Eye in the Moat or Pearl that pains it? The heel in the thorn that pricks it? The Toe in the corn that pesters it? Or the foot that is pinched in the Shoemakers Stocks? This Vanity is vexation of Spirit. CHAP. XX. The Peroration or Conclusion of this Tract. THus in these discussions, discourses, discoveries, and demonstrations, from premises truly grounded, both from Philosophy, and Theology: The principles of Art, Grace, and Nature, we have etrxacted our Conclusion at first propounded; as truly Orthodox (though to the blear-eyed world, it may seem a Paradox) that as in the darker Night we have all the glimmering light of the Stars, yet we want the Sun, which is Instar omnium, in steed of all: yea more than all, to the illumination of the World, to the cheering and refreshing of Men and Beasts: so in the dark Night of our Ignorance and Vanity, we may participate of all the glistering and glimmering comfort and contentation which is in the Creature, and yet as children of Darkness, roman still disconsolate; Vbi Cimmerij extitere, est de Pr●verbio Tenebrae Cimmeriae. Pli●. l. 3 c. 8. et 6. c. 6 Melancth. lib. 1. c. 4. as in Egyptian and Cimmerian darkness, and in the shadow of Death, wanting the vivification, enlightening and inliving, which is from that Son of Righteousness, that Father of lights, that GOD of all Comfort and consolation unto his Elect ones, the Children of Light. And therefore (to knit up all in one word) as its the only fishing in the Sea, with Peter, james, and joha, especially when CHRIST is present: and the only drinking at the Fountain, rather than at dry puddles, standing waters, marish bogs, or broken pits: So (since Pacem te poscimus omnes) All would have true joy, peace and contentation, it's the best course, and most compendious way to seek it where it is to be had, in the fountain in the wellspring, and Original of it, in GOD the one, and only Author, donor, and giver of this true Comfort. Seek not the living among the Dead, as the Angel revealed concerning CHRIST; so I say concerning that Consolation which is sought for of every true Christian. Resurrexit non est hic, it's Risen (yea and ascended too) it is not here. It is an Eagle mounted up above, (as that ultima Coelestum, quae terras Astraea reliquit) It's returned to Heaven from whence it ever came, it is not to be found here below, in these things terrestrial, they are too low, unworthy, the affections, love and desires of that heavenly infused Soul which came from above. Finally, in this case, the counsel of the Apostle is worthy our observation, worthy our imitation. Set your affections (therefore) on things that are above, and not on things beneath. Col. 3.2. Mortify your earthly Members; whether Concupiscible, Verse, 5. as Fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil Concupiscence, and Covetousness, which is Idolatry; Verse, 8. Or Irascible, as Wrath, Anger, Malice, Blasphemy, and the like; Verse For which things sake (not only) the wrath of God cometh on the children of Disobedience, whereby they are liable to an unsupportable curse, but also, they do even so much disappoint, disorder, and distress the Soul that is with them infested; that they utterly deprave it, deprive it, and make it uncapable of any true Peace, comfort and content. I might here amplify at large upon these Uses of Exhortation and Dehortation, and use divers Motives to both of them, to make these Considerations sink deeper into the drowsy conceits of our bewitched Worldlings, and also to spur forward, the slow motions of other tardy Christians: But (by these that warily peruse the Works) enough may be found (dispersed in the Body thereof) to these and the like purposes. Besides, the Volume is swollen fare ●ger in the Press, than I suspected by the Manuscript, I will therefore drive this Part no further. The Apostles practice to the Hebrews shall be my pattern. I beseech you Brethren suffer the words of Exhortation, Heb. 13. ●2 Galat. 6.18 for they are but few. The Grace of our Lord JESUS CHRIST, be with your Spirit, AMEN. FINIS. LONDON. Printed by B. ALSOP and T. FAUCET, M.DC.XXXI.