Uitis Palatina. A SERMON APPOINTED TO be preached at WHITEHALL upon the Tuesday after the marriage of the LADY ELIZABETH her Grace. By the B. of London. LONDON, Printed for JOHN BILL. 1614 TO THE PRINCE HIS MOST excellent Highness. Most gracious Prince, AS one not ambitious to preach or print myself, but desirous to preach the honour of God and publish his mercies, I give light and afterlife to this Sermon. I preached it at the marriage of your peerless sister; not on the day itself, but before the days of that feast and celebrity were expired. I publish it at the birth of her son, the first-fruits of the riches of God towards the Christian world from that Princely garden. My gracious Sovereign who commanded my service at that time, out of his zealous and religious heart, enjoined me likewise my task namely to bless the marriage, as with Crescite & multiplicamini, (the fundamental blessing of God) and other such like prayers and prefaces of happy prediction belonging to marriage: and as often as my matter fitted me, to draw from the hearts of the people, which sat in the doors of their lips and waited the watchword, their answers and Amens to those wishes of blessing: that both the Priest and the people like the voice and echo in the woods, uniting their spirits and speech together, might sing to the new married pair their joyful God speed, O Lord prosper Ps. 129. 8. them, we wish them good luck in the name of the Lord. Thus having so glorious a star to point out my way unto me, and the readiest affections of mine heart lending me wind and sails at will to do what service I might to that wished conjunction: as Ophir in the days of Solomon was the place for gold, because the most and best was there; so went I for a marriage text to that golden and beaten Psalm, as Psal. 128. well traveled in this kind as Ophir for gold, because there was the richest vein to furnish such an occasion. Thence I extracted a small model for my building: the subject thereof was a wife; the mirror and metaphor of that wife, a vine; the honour and attribute of that vine, fruit; the marrow and meaning of that fruit, children, which lay at the next door to my text. But when I came to the fruit of the vine, I paused and withheld my speech, because the time of her fructifying was not yet come. I went on with my song of the vine in the words of Esay, Vinea facta est etc. Es. 5. 1. hoping there would be a day and days, when we should change our ditty, and sing as cheerfully of the olive branches in those sweet notes of the Psalm; Nati Psal. 45. 8. sunt tibi filii etc. This day is this word fulfilled in our ears, both in substance and circumstance. For not only the word and work of God, prophecy and event, are really met together: but with a reciprocal service, and reflected aspect of each to other, that work and his word are once more met again: those very words and syllables of the Psalm, wherein at the first our hopes were conceived and uttered, not forced from their own rank and station, but by the monthly order and course of the day, aptly and happily ministering to the entertainment of that news which by his majesties princely care was conveyed unto us. For at the morning prayer of that day which his Majesty by a speedy messenger posting upon the wings of the night was zealous to prevent, it being the day of our Christian Sabbath, whereon the tribes do usually ascend to the houses of God, the people, I mean, assemble in their great Congregations to praise his glorious name: I say at the morning prayer of that day, being the ninth of the month, by the natural use of the Church, was that Psalm read, wherein was that verse contained of that first dextrous presage, Nati sunt tibi filii etc. As if from out the whole bunch of that sacred Volume a Psalm had been picked of purpose as proper to that day, to yield a consonant voice and acclamation to that joyful tidings. I apply the words of that other Psalm, Dominus dedit verbum, euangelizantium Psal. 68 12. exercitus multus, God gave the word (appointed as it were our text, so just to the time, so meet for application, that he that ran might have read God's meaning therein:) and great was the company (as great as all the Churches of London could yield) of those that read and pronounced the same, but not many perhaps that minded it: that joined the text and the gloss together, the body and the soul, the letter of the book and that instant goodness of God which that letter imported. Therefore to recall their meditations to that which they might overslip, and to revive mine own, to seal the joy of my heart and my thankfulness to God in the presence of all his Saints, and to inflame others with the like, and to congratulate to your royal house your new titles of honour and comfort, as of grandfather, grandmother, uncle, which you had not before; and one line of degree the more to your royal pedigree, which for root and branch is the most glorious in these Northern parts: to these and the like ends I send this Sermon abroad, making that the cause of my printing it, which was the end why I preached it; that as I preached it in honour of a fruitful vine, so to honour that vine and her fruit I might now publish it. O Lord of hosts look down from heaven, behold and visit Psal. 80. 14. this vine, and the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch which thou hast made (we trust) so strong for thyself. Let thine hand be upon the man of thy right hand (the father) and upon the son of man (his tender babe;) that he may grow up in age and grace to strengthen thy kingdom. Perfect that good work which thou hast begun upon us. Thou hast begun it in the former part of the Psalm, Nati sunt tibi filii etc. (saving for number, that natus is not nati, which number of years may supply hereafter:) perfect it in the latter, quos constituas principes. Continue thy covenant with them for ever, and establish their throne upon earth as the days of heaven. The prince of the kings of Apoc. 1. 5. the earth prosper your princely beginnings (the morning of our future hopes) with length and strength of days, and such accessary blessings as depend thereon; that your loins may be as fortunate to your people as your sister's womb, and both the one and the other redouble and multiply the name of Grandfather to your happy father; and the fruit of both your fruits improve that name to a great grandfather: that he may long and long live, the first-born of God, higher Psal. 89. 27. than the kings of the earth, to see his children's children, and leave behind him a Lawgiver from the midst of his & their feet to sway the sceptre of these kingdoms till Shiloh come again. By him that serveth your Highness with prayer and humble observance, Jo. London. PSAL. 28. vers. 3. Thy wife shall be as the fruitful vine by the sides of thine house. MY charged is to bless, a work better beseeming the mouth of a Patriarch, or some one of the ancient prophets, for the less is blest by the better. Hebr. 7. 7. I have therefore chosen to bless by the mouth of David, or rather by the Spirit of God moving and tuning the harp of David. And whence should I rather draw my blessing, then from that Psalm (of all others) the promptuary and storehouse of all blessing? from every corner whereof, as from the mount Garizim, a blessing resoundeth. Deu. 27. 12. It blesseth in the first verse; Blessed are they that fear the Lord: blesseth in the second; O well to thee, and happy shalt thou be: blesseth in the fourth; Lo, thus shall the man be blessed: blesseth in the fifth; The Lord from out of Zion shall bless thee: and concludeth in the last with that which concludeth and compendiateth all blessing, peace upon Israel. The subject of all this blessing is Timentes Dominum, they that fedre the Lord. See how the Lord loveth the man that feareth him. In himself, his wife, his children, his posterity, in the Church, the City, the whole commonwealth, in all that belongeth unto him, or that he belongeth unto. Confine him within himself, take him as a single person; Thou shalt eat the labours etc. Divide him into his other half; Thy wife shall be etc. Multiply him into his issue; Thy children like the Olive branches. Eternize him in his race; Thou shalt see thy children's children. engraft him into the Church; The Lord out of Zion shall bless thee. Bestow him in the City; Thou shalt see the wealth of jerusalem. rank him amongst the people of the whole kingdom; And peace upon Israel. Whither in resolution, or composition, or multiplication, or propagation and succession, or the communion of Saints, or corporation of Citizens, or association into the state, he shall be blessed throughout. You now see, it is canticum graduum or ascensionum; and you may add, excellentiarum, Title as the title goeth, that is, an excellent song that ascendeth by degrees. Amongst other blessings of God, it blesseth this very blessing that we have in hand. It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a Psalm that blesseth marriage. I rest in the second branch of blessing; uxor tua sicut vitis etc. In which Division there are two parts. 1 The subject, uxor tua, thy wife: 2 the attribute, sicut vitis, as a vine etc. Vxor tua, may well be the subject of Subject. the proposition, for it is the subject, the prior terminus, the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is substantial, fundamental term of all mankind, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the gate of entrance into living. Hence began the world; God buildeth the woman (aedificat costam, finxit hominem: man was figmentum, woman aedificium, an artificial building) and from the rafter or plank of this rib is the world built. Therefore was Heva called matter viventium, the mother of the living; quia mortali generei immortalitatem parit, she is the means to continue a kind of immortality amongst the mortal sons of men. No sooner was man made, but presently also a woman; (not animal occasionatum, a creature upon occasion, nor mas laesus, a male with maim and imperfection, (philosophy speaketh too dully:) but out of the counsel and skill and workmanship of almighty God; aedificat, a goodly frame:) and no sooner a woman, but presently a wife. So that man, and woman, and wife are simul tempore, of the same standing; and the first vocation of man was maritari, to be an husband. Mulier propter virum, The woman was made for the man to be his wife: so that, according to the Hebrew proverb, Cui non est uxor, is non est vir, A man without a wife is not a man. Virro and uxor, man and wife, are primum par, fundamentum parium, the first original match of all others. All other couples and pairs, as father and son, master and servant, king and subject come out of this pair. The beginning of Families, Cities, Countries, Continents, the whole habitable world, the militant, yea and triumphant Church, matter matris Ecclesiae, the mother of the mother Church, of no small part of the kingdom of heaven, is uxor tua, this subject of my text, out of this combination it all springeth. No marriage, no men; no marriage, no saints. The wife is the mother of virgins that are no wives; (Laudo connubium quia generat virgins, saith Hierome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉) no generation, no regeneration; no multiplying beneath, no multiplying above; no filling the earth, not so much filling the heavens; if not filii seculi, neither will there be filii coeli. The parcels in uxor tua, are two, Subdivision. societas, society, fellowship, wife; and proprietas, propriety without copartnership, Thy wife. First, relation, wife, she must be the wife of an husband. Secondly, possession, thy wife, she must belong to that husband alone. The one, the margarite or pearl, wife; the other, the cabinet or ark to keep this jewel. I am sure I abuse not my Wife. terms. For the spirit of GOD by the mouths of holy men hath styled her donum, and bonum, and Coronam, and gaudium, and gratiam super gratiam, a jewel of singular estimation. The image and inscription she beareth, is donum dei, The gift of God. She is indeed God's gift, the first and best that GOD gave to man, his xenium, newyears, new-worlds' gift. Adduxit Deus, GOD the pronubus, Gen. 2. 22. praesul Coniugij as Ambrose calleth him, the author of marriage, presented the man with this gift, brought it as his present: the riches of the whole earth yielded not the like. Cast this pearl before swine, let Manichees, and Marcionites, and Encratites, and Antichrists, those that prefer the doctrines of men, the doctrines of Devils, before the sacred ordinance of GOD, judge of it; and they will tread it under their feet, and burden it with whole wagons and cartlodes of reproaches. I stay not to confute them. Only I say with Saint Augustine, Bonum nuptiarum semper est bonum, The good of marriage from the beginning of the world ever was and to the end shallbe good. Ante peccatum, adofficium; post peccatum, ad officium & remedium. Before sin, for the Hag. Card. duty of procreation and comfort of life; after sin, both for that duty, and further for a remedy. And albeit foelicior coelibatus, single life may be more happy in some respects; yet matrimonium tutius, marriage is more safe. Or to speak in the highest strain, in virginitate culmen, virginity may have the top of honour; in Connubio not Crimen, there is no fault in matrimony. Consider Moses and Elias, the one a married man, the other a virgin. Elias called down fire from heaven, Moses obtained manna from heaven. Elias, auriga in aëre, was a wagoner in the air, rode in a chariot, through the clouds: Moses viator in mari, was a passenger, a travailer through the red sea: GOD honoured them both alike. We have found the treasure, we Tqy wife. must add the cabinet to keep the the treasure. Thy wife: not uxor vestra, one woman to many men, against the doctrine of the Nicolaitans: not uxores tuae, many women to one man, against the encrochment of Lamech: not uxor tua & non tua, to take and leave, put on & put off, as thou dost thy coat. Vxor tua, is as much to say, as tu & uxor, uxor & tu, no more, no fewer, no other: duo in carne una, two in one flesh, not three, or four; not mulier multivola, a woman that will Eccles. 9 have many men, not mulier univira, (which was Hieromes term of Hieromes time) a woman that must have one man besides her husband. The like holdeth also for the man. For she that is not tua is aliena, extranea, Gen. 1. 27. a strange woman. Look to the alpha. masculum & faeminam creavit eos, male and female created he them. not masculum & masculum, nor faeminam & faeminam, both males, or both females, for than had there been no procreation; not masculum & faeminas, nor faeminam & masculos, much less scortatorem & scortum, those that should live in uncleanness together. unus, unam, uni: One God hath ordained one woman to one man. Let the subject be well weighed, uxor tua, that is, thou and thy wife; & sustinebitis potius complexus ursorum & draconum, you will rather endure the embracings of bears and dragons then of strange flesh. I add no more, but lament our times. Quo modo quos coniunxit Ecclesia, disiunxit camera? Bern. how are we joined together in the face of the Church, and disjoined in private chambers? more truly, quo modo, quos coniunxit Deus, disiunxit diabolus? how doth the Lord join us and the devil sever us? I have done with the subject. Sicut vitis abundans. If there were 2 Attribute nothing more than sicut, that word Sicut alone might suffice. The woman at her first creation was made to be a sicut. Sicut is of similitude, so is a woman. Look back to the first institution, Faciamus adiutorium (not mancipium, she is not a servant, nor iumentum, though iumenta our cattle in their kind be adiumenta infirmitatis nostrae, helps to our wants,) but sustentaculum, fulcrum, adminiculum, a support or stay. Of what quality? simile sui, like to himself: There is the sicut. Simile? what is that? proportionatum, that holdeth proportion of sex for generation: that is not all, but simile, as like as bone may be to bone, flesh to flesh, ISHA to ISH, that is woman to man. Will you have a fuller commentary? Simile sui, that which is contra ipsum, not contrary, but è regione, face to face, as the Angels stood over the mercy-seat; coram ipso, as a glass that reflecteth and returneth upon a man his own image, that is, quasi alter ipse, ipse coram se, an other self, himself before himself. Or simile, that is, secundùm, juxta, penes, propè, proximè, ad manum, the next of all others, and at hand to minister unto him whatsoever is wanting. This is that sicut, which I speak of. A sicut in mutual love, in natural affection, in the communion of woe, (for they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, yokefellows; and must remember that bonum coniugium, sed à iugo tractum, in marriage is an yoke) in the participation of good things, in society of offices, in conjugal faith, indissoluble covenant, (that is particeps foederis) in Mal. 2. 14. parity of religion. They must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, coheirs of 1. Pet. 3. 7. the same grace. Si acceperit jacob uxorem de filiabus Heth, ut quid mihi vita? If jacob take a wife of the daughters Gen. 27. 46. of Heth, what availeth it me to live? Numquid non est in filiabus fratrum tuorum jud. 14, 3. & in omni populo tuo mulier? Is there never a wife amongst the daughters of thy brethren, and amongst all thy people? the one the voice of Rebecca, the other of the parents of Samson. Nulla arbor praeter vetitam? Is there no tree but the forbidden tree? No friend and companion of the life of man but a foe? no helper but a tempter and mover to evil? It is a devise of the Rabbins, but the moral is good, that in the names of ISH and ISHA, is included JAH the name of God; and that if you take out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, jod and He, whereof that name consisteth, there remaineth nothing but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ignis, ignis, the fire of dissension and brawl, which burneth and consumeth to the fire of hell. The meaning is, that God must be present at the joining of man and woman, that they must marry in Domino, in the Lord; not in Pluto the God of riches, nor in Venere, the goddess of lust: and Christ must be a bidden guest, or else the wine of this vine will be turned into water, into vinegar, into the wine of dragons. The sons of God and daughters of men joined together, bring forth Nephilim a monstrous and misshapen generation. There is not, neither can be such a sicut upon earth, as betwixt man and wife; where there are duo in carne una, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, one as it were in body and soul, as a stock and a graff make but one tree. Nor is there any image to represent this sicut, but that which the Apostle speaketh of, Eph. 5. 25. sicut Christus Ecclesiam, as Christ loved his Church. So that I may truly say, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. He that never had experience of wife and children, never tasted what the truest and nativest kindness was. " Foelices ter & amplius Horat. " quos irrupta tenet copula. Happy, thrice happy these that keep this bond without breach. Amicus & socius commodè conveniunt, sed Eccl. 40. 23 utrumque antecessit uxor juncta viro. A friend and a companion come together at an opportunity, but above them both is a wife with her husband. And the whole infelicity of marriage for the most part, that Iliad of evils which accompanieth some matches, is when this sicut is wanting; when men choose not similes their likes, when matches are made of such as match not; for they either marry by their eyes for beauty, or by their finger's ends for money, or by their ears upon hearsay, taking their wives upon trust. And then in all such matches, sicut is turned into secus, all goeth amiss, planets are joined together of unhappy conjunction, and malignant are the effects which issue from them. But I must not rest here. I must seek my pattern from abroad, from some of the parts of nature. where so fitly as amongst trees? Sicut Uitis. A tree and a man or a woman how nearly do they symbolise? The root of the tree, is the mouth to convey in nourishment; the pith or heart of the tree, is the matrice, belly, or bowels; the knots, the nerves; the fissures of concavities, the ●eines; the rind, the skin; the boughs, the arms and limbs; the sprigs, the fingers; the leaves, the hair; the fruit, unless the tree be barren, the children. There is yet a nearer affinity. A tree is a type not only of man or woman, but of matrimony. Plants are distinguished, say the writers of nature, by males and females, and have their plain distinctive notes of either sex: insomuch that if the leaves of the male and female be joined together, cohaerebunt invicem & vix separari possint, you can hardly put them asunder. Yea, if the wind do but carry the sent of the male to the female, citiùs matur abitur eius fructus, the fruit thereof will sooner ripen. We have then found out sicut, our sampler among trees. But what may that tree be? Not a bramble; it is too sharp, too full of prickles: not an oak; it is too sturdy. A woman was made of a bone, and but one bone, ne esset ossea, that she might not be too bony: not a Cedar, it is too high. her place is a middle and indifferent place, as we shall see hereafter. But what then? Vitis, quia invitat ad vuas (my grammar telleth me;) a vine, which hath her name of invitation to the fruit thereof. Surely a vine is a noble plant, and an excellent emblem of a wife. First, there is nothing more flexible and tractable: you may bow it which way you will. So is it the wisdom of a woman matrimonij legibus obtemperare, to conform herself to the rules of her husband. Secondly, nothing more tender and sensible of a wrong: if you cut it, it will weep and bleed itself to death. Thirdly, it yieldeth as fair a shadow and arbour of leaves as any tree, that there may be refrigerium, a refreshing to the wearied husband. When he cometh from his labour abroad, laetabitur sub vite sua, is his welcome home. Fourthly, the smell of the vine in the time of her flourishing driveth away serpents & venomous creatures: and the cogitation of a man's own wife, seasoned with the fear of God, is a supersedeas and bar to all the temptations of Satan. The worst you can deem of it, is, that it is fragile lignum, a frail kind of plant. Whereto serveth the art of the husband man, I mean the wisdom of the husband, but to amend that infirmity, according to the rule of the Scripture, Let him awell 1. Pet. 3. 7. with the wife as with the weaker vessel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, according to knowledge and discretion? Lastly, all this is fully recompensed with the liquor and blood of the grape, the sweet nectar and comfort of life that floweth from it. Sicut vitis. Will you be pleased to observe by the way what a paradise and second garden of the Lord the wisdom of God planteth in economy, in the house and family of a married man: wherein there are two trees, as in that ancient garden, of principal note, the vine, and the olive in the words following, that is, the wife and the children: the one as the tree of knowledge of good and evil (for I confess both these are in marriage:) the other as the tree of life, for a man liveth in his children. Mortuus est & quasi non est mortuus, quia reliquit sibi similem: he is dead and not dead, because of his image left behind him. The vine, and the olive? Mark them well, their fruit is both alimentum, nutriment, (wine comforteth his heart, & oil giveth him a fresh and cheerful countenance; he shall speak freely with his enemies in the gate that is environed with children:) and medicamentum, physic; medicamentum Evangelicum, the physic of that good Samaritan in the Gospel, wherein there was morsus & mollities, a corrodent and Greg. lenient, compunction and consolation; a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, bitter-sweet. I mistake myself, there is nothing bitter, but rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, an oxymel, acetum mulsum, somewhat pleasant and somewhat tart. At non est dimittendus favus propter aculeum, Lose not the honey for the sting of the be, one said in this very case of marriage. But of all the properties of a vine, Abundance I find myself restrained in my text to one alone, and that is fertility. Sicut vitis abundans; Abounding, with what? not stems, nor leaves, nor gems, nor the like; all that cometh short. Therefore they render it truly, fructifera, abounding with fruit, bearing in plenty fructum nativitatis suae, the fruit of her kind. The blessing then of the vine in my text, is the fruit of the womb, children: Liberi not spurij, freely and honestly borne, not an adulterous generation: semen Dei, a godly seed; vincula, pignora, bonds and pledges, for ratification of love between man and woman. They are mentioned in the next words to my text, filii in circuitu mensae, children round about the table, satellitium filiorum a guard, a garland, a wreath of children about the board, as angeli in circuitu throni Dei, a garland of Angels about the throne of God, or stellae in circuitu poli arctici, a garland of stars about the North-pole. The end of marriage is proles, issue. Therefore is it called matrimonium, because they who are married pater & matter esse meditantur, propose to themselves to become father and mother. To which end serve the proverbs of the Hebrews, Cui non sunt liberi, is non est aedificatus; and Cui non sunt liberi, is reputatur tanquam mortuus: He is a man unbuilt, and accounted as dead, who hath not children. Alcibiades asked Socrates how he could endure the skolding of Xantippe: Socrates asked him again, how he could endure glottientes gallinas, the noise of his hens. Because, saith Alcibiades, gallinae pariunt mihi pullos, my hens hatch me chickens. Socrates' answered, At Xantippe parit mihi filios, Xantippe beareth me▪ children, which maketh amends for all. It is actio naturae, perfectum opus viventium, the action of nature, and perfect work of all that hath life, generare, procreare sibi simile, to bring forth their like. To leave a seed behind, to preserve their species, to continue their name and posterity upon earth, to represent and shadow in some sort immortality, by deriving life from the root into the branches, from the father unto the son, and sons sons in longinquum, as David spoke, 2. Sam. 7. 19 from one generation to an other for long time to come. But the time of abounding and fructifying is not yet come. The voice Cant. 2. 12. of the turtle is not heard, nor the singing of birds. We must await the spring season. Crescite & multiplicamini, is a blessing from him alone that hath the key of the womb, and openeth where none can shut, shutteth where none can open. Mean time we sing the song of the Vine: many a cheerful song may we sing hereafter of the olive branches. Many a welcome messenger be blessed from God and man, for bringing us tidings, a child is borne. And as now the matter and ditty of our song is, vinea facta est in cornu filio olei, that is to say, in colle pingui, our Esa. 5. 1. vine is planted in a fat and fruitful soil, husbanded and dressed by the hand of God & man, so may the matter and ditty of our song hereafter be; * This Psalm was the Psalm for the day, being the ninth day of the month, and for that morning service, wherein our Churches received the first publication of news. Psal. 45. 6. Nati sunt tibi filii quos constituas principes super omnem terram, children are borne unto thee whom thou mayest make princes over all lands. God grant the branches may be suitable to the vine: she cometh from a princely stock, majesty and sovereignty be ever their portion. By the sides of thine house. How shall our vine abound, or prosper at all without a stay? Her manner is to grow up by an help. Vae soli, quoniam si ceciderit, non habet sustentantem se. It is the weakest of all plants, and must have somewhat to sustain it. Therefore the prime care of the husbandman is, when his vine is nubilis of ripeness and groweth for marriage, (as the Poet describeth it, " Adulta vitium propagine Horat. " altas maritat populos) to marry her to a popler, or elm, or some other tree. Or in steed thereof he provideth maceriam a wall, or pergulam a frame, or capreolos shores to bear it up. Solitude and celibate, a single monastic life agreeth not to it. The first thing then required, is, that it must be vitis pergulana or characata, a vine by some stay. But what stay? It followeth in order; Latera domus, the sides of the house. Where there is a duplex uúi, a double site or position. First, the house, secondly the sides of the house. The first position of a vine must 1 Domus. be by an house, not an hedge; the field, the high way, the market place, the street is no place for this vine. You remember Thamar and Dina; the one sitteth by the highway-side, the other gaddeth in the field, both miscarry. The station, kingdom, commonwealth of a woman is the house. She is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, mistress of the house; ubitu Caius, ego Caia, the husband master, the wife mistress. Therefore Phidias carved Venus treading upon a tortuis, which is ever under her shell. The Tortuis and the Snail are the proper hieroglyphics of a good housewife, ever bearing her house upon her back. Provided always, that the house Domus tua. be domus tua, her husband's house; not the house of any other. Audi Psal. 45. 10. filia etc. Hearken o daughter, incline thine ear, forget thy people and thy father's house. Thus Sarah (whose daughters ye 1. Pet. 3. 6. are if you do well) followed Abraham from Vr to Gerar; Rebecca Isaac from Mesopotamia to Canaan; Sephorah Moses, and Mary (the mother of our blessed Saviour) joseph, both of them into Egypt. It skilleth not where the house be, so it be domus tua, the husband's house. She that is married by a significant word of art, ducitur, is carried and transported to an other habitation. And albeit the glory and splendour of the moon be in the furthest distance from the sun▪ yet the greatest glory and grace of a woman, is when she is nearest to her husband. He is velamen oculorum, the vail of her Gen. 20. 16. eyes, she is not to look to the right hand nor to the left, but forthright upon her husband. The second ubi or situation of this 2 Latera domus. vine is the sides of the house. We have found already that the vine is sustentaculum some kind of stay and assistance to the house; 2. umbraculum, an arbour or shade unto it; now 3. it is propugnaculum, being spread upon the sides of the house, a fence against the violence of the weather. Vbi non Eccl. 36. 25. est sepes, diripitur praedium, where no hedge is, there the possession is spoiled. I am sure above all the rest, it is 4. ornamentum a beauty to the house, so you bestow it in the right place. And that is in lateribus, in the sides, not in fastigio the top, (the woman must not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, bear rule; Mulier si primatum 1. Tim. 2. 12 habeat, contraria est viro suo:) not in pavimento, the floor of the house: Eccl. 25. 30 the one is to high, the other to low, but in a middle and equal place betwixt both, that is, in lateribus, devexis, declinationibus, the sides or descents of the house. The son of Sirach assigneth her her right place, when she standeth ut lucerna splendens super candelabrum Eccl. 26. 17 sanctum, as a bright candle upon an holy candlestick. Now no man setteth his candle upon the top of his house; no man upon the ground, but upon the table, or the like convenient room. So must the place of the wife be, honest and honourable befitting her condition. If you call to mind, you shall find that the place of the woman from her first creation was the sides of the house. 1 First you will not deny unto me, but that she was framed in the house. She was opus domesticum not peregrinum, a work done at home not abroad. Not as the temple of Solomon was built; the materials whereof were fitted and prepared a far of. The woman was built and fashioned in the house of her husband, out of his very essence and composition; and is some part of him. Secondly, when she 2 was thus made, she became not one of his movables, to be parted and removed from him; but was fixed to her house, adhaerebit vir uxori, the house and the vine must not be sundered. Thirdly, God so ordered the matter 3 betwixt them, that this adhesion and agglutination of one to the other should be perpetual. For by taking a bone from the man (who was nimiùm osseus, exceeded and was somewhat monstrous by one bone too much,) to strengthen the woman, & by putting flesh in steed thereof to mollify the man, he made a sweet complexion and temper betwixt them, like harmony in music, for their amiable cohabitation. Fourthly, that bone 4 which God took from the man, was from out the midst of him. As Christ wrought salvation in medio terrae, so God made the woman e medio viri, out of the very midst of man. The species of the bone is expressed to be costa a rib, a bone of the side, not of the head, a woman is not domina the ruler; nor of any anterior part, she is not praelata preferred before the man; not a bone of the foot, she is not serva, an handmaid; nor of any hinder part, she is not postposita, set behind the man; but a bone of the side, of a middle and indifferent part, to show that she is socia a companion to the husband. For qui iunguntur lateribus, socij sunt, they that walk side to side, and cheek to cheek, walk as companions. Fiftly, I mightadde, a bone 5 from under the arm, to put the man in remembrance of protection & defence to the woman. Sixtly, a bone not 6 far from his heart, to put him in mind of dilection and love to the woman. Lastly, a bone from the left side, to 7 put the woman in mind that by reason of her frailty and infirmity she standeth in need of both the one and the other, from her husband. To conclude my discourse; if these things be duly examined, when man taketh a woman to wife, reparat latus suum, what doth he else, but remember the maim that was sometimes made in his side, & desireth to repair it? repetit costam suam, he requireth and fetcheth back the rib that was taken from him. And when the woman taketh an husband, she is but joined again to that side from which she was first taken. Meanwhile, if aches, or stitches, or plewrisies, or other the like maladies befall the man by reason of his side; let him remember they came from himself, thence they had their beginning, and therefore with the more patience he ought to endure them. We have at length brought and Application. fastened our vine to the sides of her house. Viderunt oculi nostri, inviderunt alieni, Our eyes have seen it done, though the eyes of many others have maligned the doing; and we bless those eyes of ours, that have so long sitten and waited in the tabernacles of our heads, as to do us so acceptable a service. Let the day wherein it was done, be light and not darkness; let God regard it from above, & the light of his gracious countenance shine ever upon it. All the parts of our Land (almost of Christendom) have been full of rumours; the hearts of all the faithful in the Land full of horror and mistrust; I am sure the hearts of the Jesuits are full of malice, the heads of the Jesuits full of devise, the hands of the Jesuits full of practice, the books of the Jesuits full of principles and bloody persuasions: yea, the tongue and actions of the Jesuits not void of predictions and prognostications. But thrice blessed be the name of our gracious God, our vine is placed by the sides of her house, she is where she should be, vitis pergulana, a vine upon her frame. A vine, a most generous vine, of noble condition, the wine that floweth from her gladdeth the heart both of God and man: borne of a regal and religious jud. 9 13. stem;— Deus est in utreque parent. She grew in vineâ pacifici, Cant. 8. 11. in the vineyard of our Solomon: a branch of that true vine, joh. 15. 1. planted and dressed by him that is there the true husbandman, comforted with the sun and rain of his principal benedictions both from heaven and earth, and fit to be transplanted hereafter in the fullness of her days into the paradise of his glorious kingdom. The sides of the house not unanswerable to the vine. It is not domus lateritia, but marmorea; not an house but a palace, a prince's house; not a palace, but a sanctuary for piety & religion, a God's house. So as our vine is not only vitis pergulana a vine upon a frame or vitis parietaria a vine upon a wall, but vitis Palatina, a vine ordained by God to grow up by the sides of an illustrious Palatine. The Lord uphold for ever & keep from dilapidation and decay these sides of the house, and make them as an unvanquishable fort against the impressions and assaults of all adversary forces, that it never be heard of upon the earth, Posuerunt eam in ruinam & aceruum lapidum, they have laid this house in a ruin and an heap of stones; as impregnable as the tower of David, Cuius fundamenta in montibus sanctis, the foundations whereof are upon the two mountains of the everlasting might and mercy of God. Salvation be for ever the walls, and praise the Es. 60. 18. gates unto this house. I am sure it is founded upon the rock, the true faith and profession of the saving blood of Christ; the sands of the doctrines of men, and quagmires and bogs of Romish superstition this house was never acquainted with. Never then may the winds and tempests of foreign persecutions infest, never the rain and floods of domestical dissension disquiet this house, never may the gates of hell itself, neither that nethermost of the devil and his angels, neither this hell upon earth, the practices and complots of Jesuits and their confederates prevail against it. And the Lord likewise bless the vine by the sides of this house; the goodwill of him that dwelled in the bush ever Deu. 33. 16 dwell in this vine, that the sun do not burn her by day, nor the moon by night; that she be not beaten with the wether of adversity, nor blasted with the breath of sickness, nor nipped with the frost of an untimely death: that she may take root in an honourable people, Eccl. 24. 14. a portion of the Lords inheritance, and be set up as a Cedar in Libanus, as a Cypress upon the mountains of Hermon, as a palm-tree in Cades, and as a rose-tree in jericho; and as a terebinth stretch forth her branches, and those branches may be the branches of honour and grace. How do the words of the 80. Psalm from the 8. verse fit my purpose throughout? Vineam de Aegypto transtulisti etc. Thou art removing a vine out of England. All the blessings of God pronounced upon that vine, fall upon the head of this. And the blessing upon Sara be added unto them, that she may be the mother of nations, Gen. 17. 16. and kings of the people may come of her: and the blessing upon Rebecca make up the measure, Grow into thousand thousands, Gen. 24. 60. and thy seed possess the gate of thine enemies. And finally the Lord bless the root, (both the one and the other) that bore this vine, indeed the root that beareth us all, whereof we say daily, Under his shadow we shall be safe. The flower of jesse cause them long to flourish and prosper amongst us. O my beloved brethren, if ever there were a time of prayers and supplications for ourselves, for all men, especially for kings, if ever for kings, especially for kings that adore not the beast, especially that king that hath angered and provoked the beast by fight against him, especially that beast that is singularis fera, the beast of Psal. 80. 13. beasts, the wild boar of the forest, wilder than the wilderness itself, that will not be held nor emparked within any laws or limits of God or man, that breaketh forth into an unbounded sovereignty and dominion over all the princes and nations of the earth: these are they, Exurge Deus judica Psal. 74. 22. caussam tuam, Arise o Lord and avenge thine own cause. Give not the soul of thy turtle-dove unto the multitude of thine enemies, nor into the hands of this beast. Think upon thy covenant, and forget not the voice of thine enemies. The earth is full of darkness and of cruel habitations: and the presumption of them that hate thee, increaseth daily more and more. Take us these foxes, these little foxes that destroy this vine. Priests, I mean, and their proselytes, legions of recusants within this kingdom, neglect them not. They dig at the very root of sovereignty and regality, the allegiance of your subjects: they rob you of the hearts of your people. The more proselytes to Rome, the more aliens from England. The gain of the Pope, is the loss of the King. Recusants of our Churches for the present, hereafter they will prove recusants of their sovereign; Nolumus hunc regnare super nos. Nay, recusants now in their wane, when their strength is not fully ripened; they will prove rebellants in their full moon. Nae ista vobis mansuetudo & patientia, si illi arma ceperint, in miseriam vertet. But whatsoever be done with the foxes, yet from the teeth of that efferous beast, from the tusk of the wild boar, from the sucking and drawing of Romish horseleeches, from the bloodthirsty dropsy of Antichrist and his adherents, from the cursed assassinates of Jesuits and their dark disciples, from the peremptory knife of Popish, worse than paganish, pruners, o thou that art the root & generation of David preserve our root and all his generation, together with his most glorious stem. And the vine that is now parting from them, and the sweet olive branch, that shooteth up under them, the eye of thy fatherly providence ever watch over them. Be they all as dear unto thee as the apple of thine own eye; as near as the ring that the bride weareth upon her finger: and as thou hast married this vine, so marry them all unto thyself in everlasting faithfulness & compassion. Let all the miscreants, reprobates, Ravaillacs upon the face of the earth receive their prohibition and charge from thy mouth, Touch not mine anointed ones, and do my chosen no harm. And let all that hear me this day (thousands and millions that hear me not do no less) call heaven and earth to witness, that from the ground of their hearts, in singleness and uprightness of soul, they say and redouble in the ears of God & his holy Angels, Amen, Amen.