A SERMON PREACHED AT PAUL'S CROSS THE seventh OF MAY, M. DC. IX.  
By GEORGE BENSON, Doctor of Divinity, sometimes fellow of Queen's College in OXFORD.  
Imprinted at London by H. L. for Richard Moor, and are to be sold at his shop in S. Dunstan's Churchyard. 1609.   

To the Christian Reader.  
GOod Reader, though we live in an age which is more merciless to ink and paper, than the ages of our forefathers have been; and therefore it might seem a 
a Stulta est clementia cum tot ubique vatibus occurras, periturae parcere cha●tae. Iwen. Sat. 1.  foolish pity in me to spare that which will be spent: yet have I ever dedicated my poor labours to the ear only, that thereby (if God would) they might be conveyed to the heart: not unto the eye with a desire to have them exposed to the censure of the world. Notwithstanding mine own private judgement & resolution, mistake me not, I can very well digest the publishing of other men's labours. 
b Plut. Symp. lib. 3.  For as Simonides seeing a man silent at a feast, said unto him; If thou be'st a wise man, thou art a fool for concealing thy wisdom: if a fool, than thou art wise for not revealing thy folly: So, I hold it wisdom in them which are enriched with extraordinary gifts, to impart their graces unto the world: But as for those to whom knowledge hath either not dawned, or not so plentifully shined as upon their fellows, I advise them as 
c Seneca in Troa.  Ulysses did Andromache (when her son Astyanax was in danger of the enemy) Lateat, haec una salus: let them silence their labours, if they would not be traduced, and censured by those that love them not. I justly rank myself amongst the later sort, and would have followed the counsel that I give to others, but that I am weighed against my own mind by such reasons as I hope will pass for weighty in the judgements of others as well as of myself. When by the commandment of the right reverend Father in God, the Lord Bishop of London (by whom I was and ever will gladly be commanded) I was called unto this service, and delivered this sermon in that honourable presence where it was bestowed, I found that it was swollen far too big for the time allotted to that exercise: which might by me have been more fitly proportioned to the time, if I had endeavoured (as heretofore I have done) to draw my speech into knots and borders, and set my words checkerwise for the delight of the ear only. But I thank my good God, who hath set me in the country to be schooled by experience (which teacheth fools and all) at whose hands I have learned to intend not mine own credit, but the glory of my great Master, and the soul's health of the Lambs of his little flock. We, who strive not to amaze the world with curiosity, but having the timber of our building ready reared up, wait for such vanes, & turrets, and earnings, and embellishments, such words as God shall enable us withal 
d Math 10. 19  in illa hora, we (I say) cannot digest our matters by the clock: and therefore (my case being such) I was forced to cut off much of that which I had provided, and to mangle that which I spoke, because I breathed with an eager desire toward the end of my text. Neither was it my length only that crossed my desire: but I was checked by those infirmities, which I cannot truly say were painful, but so dangerous (God is my witness) that I feared oftener than once or twice, that that my labour would have proved my 
e Gen. 35. 18.  Ben-oni and myself like Rabel to have died in travail of that Sermon, if God (blessed be his name) had not spun out and continued his love towards me, which hath been 
f Cant. 2. 4  a banner over me 
g Psal. 22. 10  ever since I hung upon my mother's breasts.  
These are the reasons which induce me to present that unto the eye, in his full shape and proportion, which came maimed unto the ear, and much abridged for want of time. Unto mine own purpose, for publishing hereof, there hath not wanted the concurrence of the desires of men of good sort and rank. Neither could I want one to patronize it being published; for God hath given me some honourable and worthy friends: among the rest, the right reverend Father in God, the Lord Bishop of Hereford my Diocaesan, to whom (under God) I am indebted for much of my livelihood in this world: 
h job. 29. 4  The providence of God ever be upon his tabernacle. Yet shall not this small and weak issue of mine, presume to take sanctuary, under his or any other great name, as though it would dare and defy the world by virtue of that protection: but rather think that I tender it to thy courtesy and favourable censure; humbly entreating thee, when thou meetest any obliquity, to remember that I am a man, and thy brother, and not free from error: when thou meetest with any thing worthy thy view, give the glory unto God 
i jam. 1. 17.  the Father of light from whom cometh every good and perfect giving, 
k john 14. 6  who is the way the truth and the life: let him have the praise for what I have, and me thy prayers for what I want. Thus I leave thee unto God's mercy, & this small Treatise to thy favourable censure: and I send it out with that prayer or benediction that jacob sent with his sons into Egypt; 
l Gen. 43. 14  God Almighty give thee mercy in the sight of the man: in the sight of the great man, that thou mayst make him humble: of the poor man, that thou mayst make him content: of the stubborn man, that thou mayst hammer and supple him: of the penitent man, that thou mayst bind up his wounds and sores. Of every man, that thou mayst touch his conscience and win his soul: especially of joseph, our puruayer against the time of dearth, especially that man, the man CHRIST JESUS, that thou mayst win his favour, Amen. From the Rock in Worcester shire.  
Thine in the Lord jesus, GEORGE BENSON.   

Errata.  
Pag. 13. line 23. meditation for mediation.  
Pag. 50. line 23. nearer for never.   

A SERMON PREACHED at Paules-crosse the 7th day of MAY, 1609.  Hosea, Chap. 7. Ver. 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. 
7. They are all hot as an oven, & have devoured their judges: all their Kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth upon me.  
8. Ephraim hath mixed himself among the people: Ephraim is like a cake on the hearth not turned.  
9 Strangers have devoured his strength, & he knoweth it not: yea, grey hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth it not.  
10. And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face, and they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this.  
11. Ephraim also is like a dove deceived without heart: they call to Egypt they go to Ashur.  
12. But when they shall go, I will spread my net upon them, & draw them down as the fowls of the heaven: I will chastise them as their congregation hath heard.  
RIght Honourable, right Worshipful, dearly beloved in our Lord and Saviour jesus Christ: If the worth of this Prophecy of Hosea could be rightly valued, we should find that herein is embarked as great riches of grace, as ever yet the word of God, the silver stream of the water of life, hath landed unto our souls, since first we sinful men had traffic with that renowned King 
a Zach. 9 10  Whose dominion is from sea to sea, and from the river unto the end of the world. Among all the Prophecies, especially this of Hosea; among the chapters of this Prophecy, this the 7. and in this 7. these verses that I have read unto you, do aim principally at the kingdom of Israel, not of juda; at the 10 tribes committed to the government of jeroboam, not unto the two tribes left with Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. In the handling of which words I desire your minds as well as your bodies, and that my words may rather dive down into your hearts, then swim in your ears; therefore I will not entangle you in the maze of any curious division, but plainly I will observe these three things:  

1. The sin of Ephraim and all Israel. 7. 8. which is, 

1. Bred at home. All like an oven. Which sin had 3. effects. 

1. The devouring of their judges.  
2. Slowness in not returning.  
3. Their not calling upon God.    
2. Borrowed abroad. Ephraim mixed himself. etc. which borrowed sin had one effect, and that wss this: he was as a cake on the hearth not turned.    
2. The dullness of Ephraim: of which dullness I observe 

1. The arguments or evidences: which were 

1. Wilful ignorance in not knowing, ver. 9  
2. Slowness in not returning. ver. 10.  
3. Simplicity and credulity in being overreached. v. 11    
2. The aggravation: & that is by these circumstances or for these causes. 

1. Strangers devoured their strength.  
2. Grey hairs were here & there upon him.  
3. The pride of Israel testifieth to his face.      
3. God's alarm to rouse them out of their slumber, and awake their dullness. ver. 12. but when they shall go, etc. where I observe these five things: 

1. God's providence: he will see them as they go.  
2. His wisdom: he will spread a net.  
3. His power: he will draw them down.  
4. His justice: he will chastise them.  
5. His truth: he will make good what he hath said in the congregation.     
As if the Prophet should have said, O ye men of Israel, especially you of the house of Ephraim, concupiscence boiling within you hath made you hot as an oven. Kings, and judges have been your fuel, you have not called upon the Lord: by reason of the mixture of yourselves among the people, you have been tainted with idolatry, partly raw and partly roasted, you have had a knee for God, and a knee for Baal: you might have been warned by the invasion of strangers and by the approach of old age, yet you have been possessed with blind and lame, and lumpish spirits, for I observe your dullness, and your slowness, and your simplicity: you have been without eyes not knowing: without feet not returning: without hearts, and as a dove deceived: yet (saith God by the Prophet) when you go, I will see you by my providence, and spread a net for you by my wisdom, and draw you down by my power, and chastise you by my justice, and make good the truth of that which you have heard affirmed in your congregations.  
They are all hot as an oven. Which is a borrowed 
Oven.  speech, implying their sin bred at home. There is a fire wherewith Christ baptizeth, Matth. 3. and wherewithal, the Apostles were enriched, Acts 2. (I mean the virtue of God's holy spirit) which when it takes possession of a man, it makes his heart hot within him 
b Psal. 39 4 , and while he is musing the fire kindleth, and he speaks with his tongue. But his words are like the words of Nepthali 
c Gen. 49 , Who is like a Hind giving good words: they are either praises unto his God, or charitable comforts unto his brethren, or holy meditations unto himself. Yet the same devil that had a flood of water to send out of his mouth to drown the Church and her children, Revel. 12. hath water also to quench this holy fire, and in stead thereof he hurls balls of wildfire into our souls, he fanneth them with the blandishments of the world, that the sooner 
d jam. 1. 15  Lust might conceive & bring forth sin, that sin when it is finished might bring forth death. Such is the form of an oven, that by reason of the vault and damning up thereof, the inward parts thereof are black and unclean, and the fire worketh more vehemently then in ordinary places: so it is with sin.  
It takes possession of the heart (the strongest hold) 
Vncleaut.  which is the throne of the mind, and by degrees surpriseth the other parts of the body: 
e Psal. 14. 5.  The tongue by dropping the poison of asps under it: the hand by making them the hands of iniquity: the feet by making them swift to shed blood: the eyes by making them swell with lust: the ways by making them exorbitant from the ways of peace: So that when God seeth the garment of righteousness, which he hath bestowed, rend and torn, the work of sanctification out of reparations, and his own image canceled, he may say as his son our Saviour did once say of the Roman coin, 
f Mar. 12. 87  Whose image and superscription is this? It is Caesar's: then give unto Caesar, that which is Caesar's, and unto God, that which is Gods. Whose image and superscription is this? It is the devils, or the worlds, or the fleshes; then give unto them that which is theirs: they are not stamped with my seal, I acknowledge them not to be mine own.  
When 
g Plut. & Suct.  Caesar was wounded unto death by the Senators of Rome, it grieved him much, but much more when he perceived himself to be hurt by Brutus, whom he loved above the rest: therefore his doleful tongue copied out of a more doleful mind these words, Et tu fili? And thou my son also? So no doubt but it grieves God to be pierced through with the sins of Atheists, and irreligious men: but it grieves me more (may God say) when thou that art my child rebelst against me: thou whom as mine own son I have created, whom I have redeemed, whom I have justified, whom I have sanctified, whom I mean to glorify: For, where the more debt is forgiven, there the most love and obedience is due, saith Christ to Simon, Luke, 7. The world is old and very sickly: and one (we see) is distempered with a consumption of envy, an other with a hot fever of malice, another with lunatic and raving fits of swearing, an other with a tympany or swelling of ambition, an other so loseth himself by drunkenness, that a man may seek a man in a man and not find him. Yet, if you in this sinne-sicke world, can avoid the tinctures and stainings of concupiscence, and make wrack neither upon the Rocks, nor upon the Sands, neither upon open nor secret sins, 
h Psal. 91. 5  than neither the arrow that flies by day, nor the Pestilence that walketh in the darkness, nor any evil that destroyeth at the noon day, shall do you any harm.  
I exhort you therefore unto that warmth of the holy Spirit, which softened the hearts of the 
i Luke, 24. 32  two Disciples as they went unto Emmaus, or if you will to that higher degree of zeal for God and God's house 
k john 2. 17. Psal. 69. 19  that eat up DAVID. So may your Souls (Salamander-like) live by that spirit of burning which purged the blood of jerusalem. Esay, chapter 4. So being free from stainings and blackness by that smoke of that other fire, you may be clean, and fit to stand before the Lord your God. Say therefore unto concupiscence I will not nurse thee up: harbour not that smooth faced enemy which will not only pollute (which first I noted) but it will make your own affections rebels and mutinous within you, it will work violently.  
Witness the three effects of this home-born sin. 
Violent.  First. Their judges were devoured. Secondly, Their Kings were fallen. Thirdly, They did not call on God. Behold how they were infatuate: in all their difficulties whither were they to fly? To their judges: yea but their judges were devoured. Their judges being gone, whither then? to their Kings: yea but their Kings were fallen. Their Kings being fallen, whither then? to God; there was their highest Court of appeal: yea, but they called not upon me (saith God). Lo here, with their own hands they have pulled down all the sanctuaries they had, and 1. their judges.  
judges and judgement 
a Ex. 18. 21  (to avoid confusion) are blessings given unto kingdoms by God, who is the God of 
judges.  order and not of confusion. Therefore Micheas groaned in spirit when he 
b 1. Reg. 22. 17  saw all Israel as sheep without a Shepherd: & our Prophet Hosea thought it a curse unto Israel when they should remain many days 
c Hos. 3. 4  without a King, and without a Prince, and without an offering, and without an image, and without an Ephod, and without Teraphim. Machivel, who for his villainy is exempt from comparison, though he have long since spawned in the world, and dipped in his opinions much of Christendom, sets down a rule, how a Conqueror may weaken a subdued kingdom, unjoint the sinews thereof, and make them fall by their own weight, that is 
d See Simon Patrichs answer to Mach. part. 3. maxim. 5. ; by taking from them order and government, by laying the reanes on their own necks, and allowing them to live lawless. But lift you up your voices in praise and thanksgiving among such as keep holy day, because you live in a kingdom, where 
e 1. Cor. 15. 41  one star differeth from another in glory, where the judges in their several ranks, have their mouths as oracles, & their bosoms as treasuries of good counsel: who when they see 
f Hos. 4. 2  blood swelling to touch blood, they give it 
g job. 38. 10  bars and doors: saying, Hitherto shalt thou come, and thou shalt come no further, here shalt thou stay thy proud waves. They are vines, and olives and fig trees, judg. 9 They leave their fatness, and their sweetness, and their wine, to reign over the trees of the forest, both ease & pleasure for the good of God's people. Prize at no low rate these jewels in your own ground, let not your sins serve as brokers to embeazle these commodities, and convey them from you; but rather by good meditations and endeavours, husband your grains of mustard seed, that from the less you may grow to more grace, and become so lovely in the sight of God, that your case may never be as Ephraim's was, who for their sins had their judges devoured, and 
h Zecha. 11. 10  the staff of beauty (that is, comely government) broken among them. And you the reverend judges of this land, who are ordained to launce the impostumes, and prune the luxury of this kingdom, weigh well your high standing, look upward, and downward: upward, & consider that 
i Psal. 81. 6.  you are Gods; downward, and consider also that you shall die like men. There be two sins, whose forges, and anuils are never cold, but like Pioneers they are ever undermining your seats of justice: they are bribery and partiality brethren in evil, 
k Gen. 49. 6.  into their secrets let not my soul descend.  
Bribery is marked in the forehead for a sin, and therefore 
Bribery.  dares not approach near your seats of justice: but I pray God it play not the usurper, and take possession of some about you, by unlawful intrusion. If it be true which is commonly received in the world, than there have been many belonging unto men of great place, who have deceit and nimbleness of wit, and bribery, and other sins, like as many porters to bring them in Pretium sanguinis, the price of blood. Yet have they cried like the silversmith in the Acts: 
l Acts 19 18  The great goddess Diana, great is Diana of the Ephesians: the great goddess justice, great is she: when their care was not for justice, but for their own gain, by pretending justice, as the silversmithes intended their own thriving by making images in Diana's temple. These things I have heard, but I hope for better things in you, and yours, else may the servant break the master's head with precious balms, and make them (like Rehoboam) 
m 1. Reg. 12 14  whip with Scorpions in stead of rods, and by turning 
n Amos 6. 12  justice into wormwood, become like 
o Soph. 3. 3.  the wolves of the evening, that leave not the bones until the morrow. Mean while the Client finds his physic worse than his disease: poor seafaring man, he coming toward the judge (who like a goodly promontory, or land mark gives assurance of calm and harbour) makes wrack unawares upon the sands, secretly by the way before he can have audience in open court. Whosoever they be that by such under-working do abuse their Lords and masters, & tire out the poor subjects, let them know that their hands taking bribes, are like the wind 
p Arist. Metor. 2. cap. 6.  Caecia which draweth clouds of witnesses against themselves.  
Now though Bribery dare not be seen in the place of justice, yet Partiality is not such a stranger to flesh and 
Partiality.  blood: and the more acquaintance, the more danger. The mother of all laws, (that is, the law of Moses) would have judges the masters of their affections, neither 
q Exod. 23. 3.  fearing the rich, not favouring the poor, and therefore justice (the mistress of the laws) is described blindfolded, as discerning neither friend nor enemy, and being too holy to consult with flesh and blood in matters of so great consequence: which rule while Pilate did not observe, he would, but could not, 
r Matth. 27. 24  wash the filth of his impiety from his hands. Peter Martyr 
s 1. Reg. 10 18  allegorizing upon the seat of Solomon, saith, that the height, and the gold, and theivory of the seat must put the Magistrate in mind of his eminency, purity, and spotless innocency. Wherefore, let your hands be ever at the stern, and your eyes be fixed on the star, the bright morning star: and consult jehesophat 
t 2. Chr. 19 6.  who told his judges, that their judgements, were the judgements of God, and not of man: and be it (ever to be remembered) written upon your walls, that you are the nursing-fathers' of the Commonwealth: and therefore aught to hold out to the king's Subjects the breasts of consolation. To have such judges it is a blessing, indeed a blessing which this people of Israel was not worthy of, for by their sins they devoured their judges: whither then could they fly for succour? up to their Kings? no, for their Kings were fallen.  
It were much to tell you how, and how many kings of Israel fell: but if you look unto the 2. of Kings the 
Kings.  15. Chapter, you shall see it described by a better pen. You shall see a rank of many, whereof one supplanted and spread a net for an other, by treason and conspiracy: one of them inherited an others impiety. 
u Eze. 18. 2.  The fathers eat sour grapes, and the children's teeth were set on edge: with a false key they opened the door for vengeance unto themselves: 
* Ezech. 33. 11.  Why will you do o house of jacob, why will you die? Had they pleased God, he would have clipped the wings of peace, and plenty, and prosperity, and victory, that they should not have flown out of their borders. They had Peace, the child of heaven, and Plenty the child of Peace, and the daughter devoured the mother: their opulency broke their peace, and made them rebel even against their Kings. Their confused state makes me remember the blessedness that overshadowes our own. In the time of Queen Elizabeth our Sovereign of blessed memory, several Popes authorised several disloyal subjects to reach at her crown and person; being all, as it seems of that opinion that Cardinal Baronius was of, when of late upon a controversy betwixt the Pope and the Venetians, he made a foolish gloss upon a good text, 
t A book called variance between the Pope and Venice pag. 42.  telling Paul the fifth, that whereas the vision came to Peter of things clean and unclean, and a voice that he should kill and eat, it was a warrant to Peter's successor, that he should first kill, and then eat: his principal office was to kill, to excommunicate, to depose. How this is racked above the highest pin, and beyond the meaning of the H. Ghost, let Divines judge. I insert this new occurrence with matters that are far ancienter, because I would have the world know that though there hath been a change of Popes, yet there hath not been a change of the minds of Popes: This that now is, is animated to kill, and so were those in the time of Queen Elizabeth. But yet she outlived many of them; to prove (in them) that of the Prophet David, that the bloodthirsty shall not live out half their days, and (in her) that of Solomon, Prou. 3. that wisdom (which she embraced) carrieth length of days in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and glory. The Ministers of the word of God are commanded to baptise and preach: those Popes baptised not in water, but in blood, and their preaching was nothing but a denouncing of war unto Christian Princes; planting and rooting out: planting, but their own opinions: and rooting out those Kings and Princes which God hath planted. Witness Cardinal Comensis his letter unto Doctor Parry, for killing that gracious Queen, who was ever a mark for the envenomed arrows of them, who forgot that saying of Solomon, Eccles. 10. Curse not the King, no not in thy thought, neither curse the rich in thy bed chamber: for the foul of the heaven shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall declare the matter. The Popes commanded, and they obeyed; cruel Fathers, and too too forward sons. 

u Virg. Ecl. 8  Crudeles natimagis, an pater improbus ille?  
Improbus ille pater, crudeles vos quoque nati.   
She lived (for all their plots) till she was old and mellow for the kingdom of God: and when we lost her (though many wished their eyes might be closed up before they saw a change) yet of our Commonwealth we may say as doth the Prophet Esay 66. 7. Before she traveled she brought forth: and before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child: we changed almost nothing but the Sex: after a David we have a Solomon: after a David the youngest of isha's sons, and ashepheard, Elizabeth the youngest of King Henry's daughters, not a shepherd, but one that desired to be a milkmaid in Woodstock park, we have a Solomon, who hath spoken and written many parables and wise sentences, and can skill (witness all the learned of the land) of all the 
x 1. Reg. 4. 33  plants from the cedar of Libanus, unto the hyssop that grows upon the wall. And now I speak of things pertaining to the King, for such an argument 
y Psal. 44. 1  my tongue should be the pen of a ready writer. God no doubt said unto him, well done good Steward 
* Luke 19 17. jacobus Steward.  Thou hast been faithful in a little, I will make thee ruler over much, thou hast well governed one country, thou shalt be governor over an other. So he was brought unto us with acclamation, as it were upon the shoulders of all the kingdom, not ferried over upon the waves of blood: So that if ever March came in like a Lion, and went out like a Lamb; it was then, when, in the beginning of that month, the sickness of her Majesty, made us fear her death, and after her death, Lion-like devouring by our enemies, and in the end thereof the inauguration of our gracious King, and his hopeful issue, gave us assurance of an everlasting lamblike calm. The authority that runs like lesser streams, through all courts and offices of this land, fills up the banks in him, yet hath his anointed person (since Popery was a mint of treason) been a mark for traitors. When I recount all their hellish machinations, the thought of the powder treason takes up all the room. That, that may say with the devil possessing the man in the Gospel, 
a Mar. 5. 9  My name is legion; for we are many: many devils, many treasons, many heads, many devices were in this one devise, which shot at the king the anointed of the Lord, the Queen the mother of our hope, the Prince the branch of our hope, the Council the brain of the kingdom, the Bishops the charets of Israel & the horsemen of the same, the nobility and gentry the flower of our country and commonwealth: They, they of that confederacy were like to 
b 2. Reg. 9 20  jehu the son of Nimshi, they marched furiously, they marched as they had been mad. And how could it otherwise be? they must needs run whom the devil drives.  
Wonderful closely was this snare laid by the Prince of darkness: 
c Ps. 129. 3.  The plowers would have ploughed upon our backs, and have made long furrows: but abyssus abyssum invocavit, one deep called an other, the depth of God's mercy called danger out of the depth of the vault, his love was 
d Cant. 2. 4.  a banner overus, we were not buried in the bowels of confusion, misery scarce knocked at our doors, scarce touched the hem of our garments, mercy hath embraced us on every side; whereas Ephraim was compassed about with the iniquity of their own heels, for by their sins they devoured their judges, by their treason their Kings are fallen: Kings and judges being gone, whither could they fly for succour? up unto God? no, for it followeth, There is none among them that calleth upon me.  
The language of the Prophet is all and none, all are like an oven, none call upon God, they went all with one accord down the stream: they were either possessed with 
None calls upon God.  a dumb spirit; they did not call; or with a frantic spirit, if they called, they called not upon God: they did not, but we must call, and call upon God: we must call, or else we are sluggish: call on God, or else we are foolish: in the name of Christ, or else we are presumptuous: for things lawful, or else we are impious: zealously, or else we are but like warm Christians.  
We must ask if we will have, seek if we will find. Luke, 11. for the blessings of God are not the 
e Tul. off. li. 1.  spoils of Salmacis 
Call.  without sweat and blood: though they be cheap yet they come not always without our own endeavours: which endeavours of ours if they be used, O with what joy may we expect God's blessings upon us, 
f jam. 5. 7.  as the husband man waits for the former & the later rain. Israel sinned (as they did often) God was angry, Moses prayed, God said unto him 
g Gen. 32. 28  Stay me not Moses: as if prayer had been a cord to bind the hands of God, that he could not smite: Mark well the words, Stay me not Moses, but let me smite the people. 
h jam. 5. 13  Is any man afflicted, let him pray. Yea but God many times seems not to hear, but makes his children, like them that go down into the pit. Yet, tarry thou the Lords leisure, be strong, prescribe him no time: but as 
i Num. 20. 11  Moses struck the rock twice, and the waters gushed out, so be not you weary of prayer, but with your prayers beat at the rock of your defence again and again: and if not at the first, yet in God's good time the waters of comfort will issue out, and make your souls like unto a watered garden; you shall be changed from 
k Gen. 32. 28  Jacob's to Israel's, that is prevailing with God. Pray you must, and not be sluggish; and when you pray you must be wise and call upon God. 
Upon God.   
Such was the practice of Constantine the Emperor, (when his enemy Licinius begun his wars with exorcisms and charms) he undertook 
l Eusebius de vita Const. 2. 4.  all with prayer and holy meditations, and therefore the Lord of heaven made him Lord of the field, and he found such comfort by prayer, that he stamped upon his coin the 
m Idem de vita Const. 4. 15  image of himself kneeling unto his God. Pray to God you must, and not be foolish: in the name of Christ, and not be presumptuous.  
For 
n Phil. 2. 10  the name of him is the only name whereby we must be saved. jacob in his journey toward Padan Aram, as he 
In the name of Christ.  dreamt saw 
o Gen. 28. 12  a ladder reared from earth to heaven, which (by the 
p See Doc. Willer upon Gen.  judgements of Divines) was a figure of Christ who by his human nature touched earth, and heaven by his divinity: upon this ladder there were Angels that passed up and down, at the top of the ladder there stood Almighty God: whereby we may be assured, that if we or our prayers pass by the ladder, by Christ jesus, we have God the Father at the top of the ladder ready to receive us, and our prayers; whereas we have no such assurance, if we go by Saints, or Angels, or any other bypath, save only the King's high way. 
q 1. Reg. 10. 18  The ascending to the throne of Solomon was by six stairs, or steps, and at the end of every stair was engraven a Lion. Ascend you unto the throne of a greater than Solomon, by the six petitions of the same prayer that the Son of God composed, and you shall find annexed to every petition a lion, even the Lion of the tribe of juda, who by his meditation will procure you both audience and favour. 
r joh. 2. 8.  When the wine failed at the marriage at Cana of Galilee, Christ took six water pots full of water and turned them into wine: though those six petitions delivered by our hearts and tongues (by reason of the mixture of our vanity) be full of water, weak, wallowish, and not seasoned with that salt which every man should have in himself, Mark 9 Uer. 50: Yet by his power and mediation he can make them strong as wine, and us so strong, that by wrestling with God, we shall be called no more jacobs but Israel's, that is prevailing with God. Yet for all this the devil would lead 〈◊〉 
s jere. 2. 13.  from the fountain of living water unto pits which have no water. When demand was made of the Oracle in Daphne near unto Antioch 
t Theod. ec. hist. 3. 9  why it ceased to give answers as formerly it had done; the devil made answer that he had no power, because in that place the bones and relics of the Martyr Babylas were buried, insinuating some extraordinary holiness and power in the dead martyrs, and by consequent inviting the simple to call upon them: but you have otherwise learned Christ, you know that your high Priest who hath felt your infirmities, Hebrews, 2. saith, Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden, and I will ease you, Mat. 11. 
u Ester 4. 11.  When King Ahashuerus waved his golden sceptre toward any man, he might boldly come unto him into the inner court, without using the means of any courtier: What need we use the means of either Peter, or Paul, or the virgin Mary or any Saint, seeing the K. of kings hath called us unto him by his word, the sceptre of his kingdom? 
x joh. 16. 23  What soever you ask the Father in my name (saith Christ) he will give it you. You must pray in the name of Christ, & not be presumptuous: for things lawful, and not be impious.  
For otherwise, you may ask and not have, because you ask amiss. If you ask either for things unlawful, or for things 
For things lawful.  lawful, to be spent unlawfully upon your lusts, I am. 4. If you pray for things unlawful 
y Rom. 8. 26  how can the Spirit help your infirmities? Clemens Alexandrinus 
* Strom. lib. 4.  observeth of the Pythagoreans, that they cried loud in their prayers, not because they thought their Gods did not hear them, but because they would have the world hear that they prayed for nothing, but for things justifiable. Let not impiety dead a thing that is so lively of itself, as prayer is: happy are they that have their quivers full of these arrows: it is not every man's, but 
a I am. 5. 16  the prayer of a just man, that prevaileth much if it be fervent. Moses was allowed to ascend up into the mount to confer with God: but (saith God) 
b Exod. 19 13  If any beast shall touch the mount, that beast shall die: So, you may send your sanctified thoughts up unto the throne of God; but as for the beasts, let not them once touch the mount: away with all beastly cogitations, away with cruelty that tiger, away with deceit that fox, with lust that goat, with drunkenness that swine: in your prayers consult not flesh and blood, pray not for satisfaction of your idle, vain, carnal, and sinful imaginations, but pray for things lawful, and be not impious: zealously too, and be not lukewarm Christians.  
For, as a pot full of water in the heat of summer, is troubled 
Zealously.  and polluted with many flies, but if the same water were boiled upon the fire, the flies neither durst nor would come near to pollute it: so, whiles our souls in prayer are cold and lifeless, we are perplexed with vain and idle cogitations; whereas if our minds were inflamed with zeal, it would abandon all those vanities, and so rectify our prayers, that we should not offer 
c Ecclesiastes 4. 17  the sacrifice of fools. This care had not the men of Israel in their prayers, for either they called not, or not upon God. Kings & judges were their fuel, they devoured them both; the highest in place, were the deepest in sin: for whereas God had taken away 
d 1. Reg. 12. 13.  ten tribes from Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, and given them to jeroboam of 
e 1. Reg. 11 16  the kindred of Ephraim, even the house of jeroboam (the fountain) was corrupted, the root of the King, the blood royal, they that looked high in the court, they that sat at the stern of the common wealth were corrupted; against these especially the 
f Zanch. in prolegom. sup. Hos.  Prophet Hosea speaketh in this prophesy, so doth Amos too; whereas Esay, & Micheas directed their prophecies against juda not Israel, not one meddling with an others charge, as though they were all ruled by the form of their commission. Here I may justly tax our wandering planets, 
Ephraim.  wandering levites: who though S. Paul make profession against boasting of an other man's line & labours; Yet they are never well, but when they have their scickles in an other man's harvest, as though they would rob all the Ministers about them of their 
g 1. Thes. 2. 19  crown of rejoicing: like ivy winding about the oak, that it may stand itself, but yet sucking the juice out of the oak they flatter so, that they wind themselves into favour with great ones, thereby standing themselves in credit, and sucking no small advantage. I call God to record, I aim at no particular man in the world neither am I so uncharitable as to repine at any Minister of God's word, whom necessity forceth to take pains in many places now in this hard hearted age; neither so uncourteous as to disallow that usual exchange of labour in this kind, among friendly Ministers of the word: but I think those worthy of reproof, who willingly (for advantage sake) hold this unsettled course, presuming that the Citizens of London are like them of Athens, 
h Act. 17. 21  itching and longing for novelties, & loathing Manna itself, especially if it come from them to whom they pay tithes. Thus these oily mouthed Absalon's speak plausible things, to bring the people out of love with their true Father, their true governor, their David, their true Shepherd: 
i 2. Sam. 15 6  thus they steal away the hearts of the weaker sort in whose brains there are many forgeries. Mean while those Ministers & Pastors of parishes, who, like candles spend away themselves to give light to others, who have borne the heat of the day, are disgraced, and the other sort suggest that beside (what is among them) 
k jer. 8. 22.  there is no balm in Gilead, there is no Physician there. And the people come to hear their own Parson or Vicar, 
l Fox in Mar  as M. Bilney a godly Martyr said the people came to hear him, like Malchus, having their right ears cut off: they bring their left only, sinisterly interpreting whatsoever they hear. So the nurses of Schism do invade the possessions of many painful labourers. There have been in times past some about this City, peddlers of learning, not engrossing whole volumes by reading, but gleaning and deflowering printed books and Sermons, pickpurses of other men's wits, mere banquerupts if every man had his own: they had 
m Gen. 25. 22.  Esau's hands though they had Jacob's voices. And whether there be any such now a days or not, I can not tell: but if there be, I fear it is still the sickness of this City, to admire them and disesteem your own Shepherds. They say your houses are the 
n 1. Cor. 1. 11.  houses of Cloë, your households the 
o 2. Tim. 4. 19  households of One siphorus: that house, that household would never be drawn to forsake their own Paul for 
* 2. Tim. 4. 3  an heap of teachers: I desire you of this honourable City even in the bowels of Christ jesus, that you will not be willing to entertain (you care not whom) so it be not your own Minister, that you will not gad (you care not whither) so it be from your own parish Church, but rather think that God in his wisdom hath placed your own Ministers over your own parishes; hear their voices: if you will not hear them but rather choose unto yourselves other places and hunt after other men, you go about preposterously and saucily to break that order which the God of wisdom hath set. Your own Minister like 
p Exod. 28. 29  Aaron (having the names of the ten tribes upon his breastplate) should have his parishioners near and dear unto him: and 
q Gala. 4. 15  you should even pull out your eyes to do him good, as the Galathians would have done for Saint Paul: your own Minister is the man whose prayers and preachings are countermures for your defence against the enemy. Say then of your own Pastors, 
r 2. Reg. 2. 12  My Father, my Father, the chariots of Israel and the horsemen of the same: 
s 2. Cor. 10. 4  for the weapons of their warfare are not carnal but mighty in God through Christ to cast down holds: they are the perfumers of the world, and though they be earthen vessels yet they carry that in them, that sweetens you. Such love I say should you carry toward your own Ministers: So should Ephraim ever have had an ear for their Prophet Hosea, for the Prophet leveled his speeches against Israel which was his butt, and in the midst of this butt his fairest white was the house of Ephraim, Ephraim hath mixed, etc.  
There was a time when 
u Gen. 48. 14  jacob laid his right hand upon 
Ephraim.  the head of Ephraim, the younger son of joseph, and his left hand upon Manasses the elder; from whom he gave the superiority: which prognostication began to be fulfilled, judg. 8. when one cluster of the grapes of Ephraim was thought better than the vintage of Abiezer: whereby Gedton intimateth that the men of Ephraim in pursuit of Oreb and Zeb had the wheels of their chariots like the whirlwind, and in surprising them being so pursued, their strength was as the strength of stones. But how are the brawns of the arms of that Ephraim fallen? Ephraim is degenerate: which Ephraim? Ephraim that was sometimes godly and in God's favour, Ephraim that was now pompous and of the kindred of the King; this Ephraim is become degenerate. I will draw blood out of these two veins, and briefly handle these two points. 
* Apoc. 2. 7.  He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear.  
jerusalem (as you know) was the chosen Cedar among all the trees of the forest, it had the birthright from all the 
Godly.  Cities in the world: and so long as holiness kept residence in it, it was the Cistern into which the fountain of all grace powered his blessings by many conduit pipes and means: 
x Apoc. 2. 4.  But she left her first love: 
y Matth. 27. 25  She cried loud for Christ's blood to fall upon her and upon her children, and so it fell upon her, and now, How is the gold become so dim? The Prophets complain in divers places, that the house of God was turned into the house of vanity: and that the 
* Esay 22. 1  valley of vision was turned into the valley of the shadow of death. Therefore trust no undermining jesuit, though he cry loud, The church of Rome, as ever the jews did 
a jer. 7. 4.  Templum Domini, the Temple of the Lord. I confess that which no man can deny, that in Paul's 
b Rom. 1. 8.  time the faith of Rome was famous over all the world, but now I fear that mother is not much more than a Church, she is so gaudily trapped with the inventions of man. Though (like one claiming a monopoly from God) she engross holiness, and arrogate more unto herself, than her sister Churches, yet I fear she is one of those stars 
c Apoc. 12. 4.  which the Dragon with his tail hath swept down from heaven, she deserved to lose her praise, when she lost her piety: 
d Lamen. 4. 1.  How is the gold become so dim? Such was the case of Ephraim, which first, and which secondly I noted: Ephraim, that was a Ruler among the people, was become out of measure sinful.  
An inconvenience indeed, seeing that great men's actions 
Great among the people.  are made precedents among their inferiors, who suit themselves after the fashion of their governors: that knew the devil well enough when he said unto God, I will be 
e 1. Reg. 22. 22.  a lying spirit in the mouth of Achabs' Prophets: he knew the Prophets could lead Achab, and Achab the people; if he could guide the leaders, than he knew he should win the field. jeroboam is never met withal in the book of God but like a captive with a chain at his heels: and as one doing public penance with a plate of impiety upon his forehead, he is called 
f 2. Reg 3. 3  jeroboam the son of Nebat that caused all Israel to sin. If a little shrub or twig fall to the ground, it falls itself only: but if a Cedar fall, it falls not only itself, but with the fall it breaks down the little trees that grow about it: So the sins of private men are only banes to themselves; but if great men fall into impiety, they are accessary to the ruin of many others, whereas 
g 2. Reg. 23.  josias serving God himself was a mean to put down the hill altars, destroy the Chemarims, and utterly to abolish Idolatry: his goodness was like 
h Psal. 133. 2.  Aaron's ointment flowing from the head to the beard, and so by degrees unto the skirts of his garment. There was a dispute among the Philosophers (as Plutarch reporteth) whether an army of Lions (a Hart being their captain) or an army of Hearts (a Lion being their captain) were more powerful: 
i Opinio Chabriae apud Plut. in apotheg.  It was determined for the army of Hearts following the Lion, to show what virtue is infused into the followers by the leader.  
If then the inferior be the image of the superior, and (like an image in a glass) look upward or downward to heaven or hell, as the body (I mean the superior) doth, then give me leave to advise you that sit at the stern whether of little barks or greater ships, whether of houses, cities, or of countries, that your evil conversations be not thorns in your children's eyes and others whom you command: If they perceive your eyes to be swelled with lust, your hearts to be as hard as the neither millstone, your tongues to be envenomed with slander, your whole life to be 
k job. 1.  a compass of the earth by deceit (as Satan's was) they will deem strait their warrant sealed for committing the like offences; and then: 
l 2. Sam. 1. 21.  O ye Mountains of Gilboa, upon you be neither dew nor rain, because upon you the shield of the mighty is fallen: O ye great ones of the world there is a curse upon you; because, if not upon you, yet by your means, virtue, the blessing which should clothe the children of God, and as a shield defend them from the strokes of God's vengeance (for they are safe that appear in their saviours righteousness) virtue (I say) is cast down, trodden under foot, and made of none account among the lesser sort because of the example of the greater: So 
m Math. 18 7  evil doth come, and woe be to them by whom it doth come. How much better is it for a man of worth to say with Nehemiah, 
n Neh. 6. 11.  Should such a man as I flee? His meaning was, Not I, by any means; lest others should be discouraged by my flight: how much better is it to have the saying of joshuah for a motto ever to be remembered, 
o josh. 24. 15  I and my house will serve the Lord: ay, (and because I) therefore my house.  
O you Superiors then, who with a respected grace sit 〈◊〉 the stern of example, how can you escape a double death, having their blood upon you as well as your own for being accessary to their guilt? Such was the case of Ephraim; who being great in Israel caused Israel to sin, as may appear by the first verse of this chapters for when God would have healed Israel, he was led by the hand from the stream, to the spring; from Israel to Ephraim, whose example was the bane of Israel, which Ephraim hath mixed himself among the people: so by that means he had not only sins bred at home, but also borrowed abroad. Ephraim hath mixed himself among the people, Ephraim is as a cake upon the hearth not turned. If you ask who mixed? Ephraim mixed himself: if you ask where? among the people: if you ask what were the effects? he was as a cake on the hearth not turned.  
Ephraim, and so all mankind is poyzed down the 
Ephraim hath mixed himself.  wrong way by his own plummets: and the by as being set upon the left side of us all, we are of ourselves naturally more prone unto evil than goodness. 
p jer. 31. 29  Our fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge. Eve, our great grandmother being beguiled by the Serpent, saw, and liked, and eat the fruit of the forbidden tree: well may that in the Poet be fitted unto her;— 
* Virg. Eclog. 8.  Vt vidi? ut perij? intravit mors per fenestras, her eye was accessary unto the sin of her soul. Adam committed treason, and we that are Adam's heirs forfeited our estates, we have our wills fettered, and our understanding (the candle of our souls) put out: there is a dash in our coat for ever. The world was like a well tuned instrument, all the creatures in their kind gave praise to God, there being no jar, till man who was the chief of the consort, strained a note beyond his reach: ever since, the sons of Adam have had their meditations brackish & impure. Saint Paul becomes our Herald, and tells us in many places 
q 2. Cor. 3. 5.  that of ourselves we cannot think a good thought, and the best of us, 
r Luk 17. 10  when we have done all that we can, we are but unprofitable servants: and like an impartial christian he begins at home with himself, and saith: 
s Rom. 7. 24.  Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? If you believe not him, yet melt at the lamentation of our mother the Church: whose iron heart making her lumpish, and unfit to go to GOD without God's spirit (like an Adamant to draw her) cries out in the first of the Canticles, and saith: Draw me, and I will run after thee.  
And yet the Papists do so much flatter flesh and blood, that they make man's soul as a bird in a cage, having wings to fly if the cage were open; and like a lame man going upon chrutches, needing perhaps a little help, as though they would make him cooperate with God: Whereas weak men (God knows) we want both wings and legs, both will and power unto goodness: for, 
t Phil. 2. 13.  from God cometh (trust Paul rather than Bellarmine himself) & velle & perficere.  
Lactantius (who was the hammer of gentilism) 
u Liber instit. 4.  pleads against the heathens and saith, that their gods were not the authors of corn, and wine, and oil: he saith he can prove these things were in the world before either Ceres or Saturn were borne.  
But if these things were invented by them, who but only God gave them wit to invent such things? We are all of us of the metal of a stone, we can roll down a hill by ourselves, of our own nature: but up to heavenward we cannot go without the help of God's holy spirit. We are like a spring-locke, of ourselves we can shut and keep out the graces of God: we cannot open ourselves to receive them in, but by the help of thee (O Lord) who art the only key. But blessed be God, who takes away our hearts of stone, and gives us hearts of flesh: 
* Aug. Ench. ad Laur.  who at the first by his preventing grace doth work in us to be willing, and after with his subsequent grace he accompanieth us, that being willing, we should not will in vain. Therefore, 
x Aug. de bono pers. cap. 19  In nullo gloriandum est, quia nihil est nostrum, we must boast ourselves of nothing, because nothing is our own: we are stars, we derive all that we have from the Father of lights, jam. 1. 
y Idem eod. lib. cap. 20.  Give therefore Lord what thou commandest, and then command what thou wilt. For, goodness is a flower that grows not in our gardens: It becomes us all to look upon our trailing wings, and confess that we cannot fly, for no spices can flow out of our gardens, no virtues out of our souls, unless God's holy Spirit enrich our souls, 
* Cant. 4. 16  unless the North and South arise & blow upon our gardens. For of ourselves we are naturally inclined to evil, as Ephraim was: so if you ask who mixed? he mixed himself: if you ask where? he mix: himself among the people.  
What, Ephraim? having all Israel as a train to follow after? they all making by many degrees the mayor part of 
Among the people.  the sons of Abraham, they being ten tribes, and juda but only two? being joined with the people too, were not they a goodly company, even as the morning spread upon the mountains? Yes their multitude was great, but they were not therefore holy, because they were many: and therefore instead of wine, Bellarmine broacheth that which is worse than water, when 
a Quarta not a eccls secund. Bel.  for one of the marks of the Church he sets down multitude, as though there were not a broad way that leads unto hell, and many passengers in that way. Math. 7. 14.  
What glory did multitude bring unto the Church, 
b 1. Reg. 18. 22  when Elias mourned because there were so few that professed true religion, as though he had been left alone as a sparrow upon the house top? In the days of trajan the Emperor, the Church of God was like a dove in the holes of the rock: & therefore the Christians in his time being excepted against for their conventicles, 
c Plin. ep. ad trajan.  were apologized by Pliny the second, who wrote unto trajan, and told him that he found no fault with the Christians, unless it were a fault to pray and praise their God in their antelucane hymns. 
d Hoc colligitur ex varijs locis eccles. hist. Soct. & Soz.  There was a time when the Arrian heresies spread so fast, that there was Athanasius against all the world, and all the world against Athanasius: Gods chosen was a pearl in the rock, and a vain of gold hid in the earth hard to be found. The wilderness is great where the goats do range, the fold of God but small: 
e Luke, 12. 32.  yet fear not little flock, it is your father's will to give you a kingdom. Ephraim hath mixed himself among the people.  
They were an irreligious and idolatrous people, which were as thorns in the sides of Ephraim: and means to draw 
People.  them unto evil. Out of which words doth arise this second observation, that we must avoid evil company. For, with the froward we shall learn frowardness. The wicked are like sticks one unto an other, kindling the heat of concupiscence: midwives they are, by their persuasions helping monstrous births in the world, bringing to pass that 
f jam. 1. 15.  the sooner lust may conceive and bring forth sin, and sin when it is finished may bring forth death. They reach out one unto an other the hand of error, saying, not, 
g Ps. 122. 1.  Come let us go up into the house of the Lord, but 
h Amos 4. 4.  let us go up to Bethel, and transgress to Gilgal & multiply transgression. A wicked companion is like unto Dan 
i Gen. 49.  an adder in the path, which bites the horse, & makes the rider to fall backward, he makes those whom he worketh upon by his persuasions to become retrograde, 
k Tim. 4. 10.  with Demas to forsake Paul & embrace this present world, & with 
l Apoc. 2.  the Church of Ephesus to leave their first love, & become apostates in matters of Christianity. It is a perilous conflict between the fire and the stubble, even iron 
m Lib. 2. Soliloq.  (saith Isidorus) will melt at this fire, the most stayed man (seeing all men have such flaxen souls and so apt to take fire) will thaw into vanity when he meets with evil company. As 
n 1. Reg. 12 28  jeroboam reared up golden calves in Dan and Bethel, to keep the people from going to serve God at jerusalem: So, to draw those that are flexible from their good and godly purposes, they erect vanities, and games unto Bacchus and Flora: which idols, I mean drunkenness and wantonness, are better cliented upon the Sabbath day, than the Ministers of God's word. With a thousand lures, evil companions provoke unto intemperate courses; and like Fimbria in Tully's plead for Roscius 
o Pro Ros. Amer.  who was angry with Scaevola that he would not receive all his sword (point and blade) into his bowels: so these are angry that all others will not run with them into the same excess of riot. But it becomes you who have better learned Christ, to be like 
p Virg. ecls. ult.  Arethusa which passeth through the Sicilian Sea, and yet takes no saltness, 
q Phil. 2. 15.  to live (as Paul would have men to live) blameless in the midst of a froward and crooked generation.  
It is with the common corruptions of the world, as with a common plague; when no man may safely converse with these, but the Physicians to cure them, nor any with those but grave and wise men to draw them unto goodness by their good counsel. 
r Exo. 25. 20  Over the ark of the Lord in the tabernacle there were portrayed cherubins, & they had their faces and wings looking and pointing one toward an other, but all of them toward the ark of testimony: So, every one must aim at an other by their love, but all of them at the Lord; they must love in the Lord, and ever maintain that true love knot of the communion of Saints. And here for the use of this doctrine, I can not pass over a triple caveat, which is meet to be given to three sorts of men: the first, simple men: the second, men of wandering conceits: the third, self conceited.  
Simple are they, who upon a consideration that all 
Simple.  the World is wicked, do sequester themselves from the World, affecting a Monastical life, forgetting that God in the Nonage of the World, said; 
s Gen. 2. 18  It was not good for man to be alone: avoiding (perhaps) some occasions of doing hurt; but foregoing (without doubt) all means of doing good. And here you have the pedigree of Eremites, whose lives were led under 
t Math. 5. 15  a bushel, whereas both life and doctrine should have been on a candlestick; they ever quarreled with human society; like candles turned downward, choking the flame of themselves, with the oil of themselves: themselves by their own peevishness damning up the light that the world might have been the better for: and so retiring themselves from all occasions of intercourse (in their dull judgements) become Antipodes, and tread opposite unto the world: their lives are a continual rowing against the stream, and their own houses may seem to deserve the names & the inscriptions of their sepulchres. 
u Bucchij liber aureus de conform. vitae Francisci & Christi et lib. conf. Franc. pag. 138  S. Francis was one that left the society of men, and conversed with beasts, and birds; and so much joyed in solitariness & a private life, that the Papists take him to be a man that transgressed 
x 1 Matt. 5. 18  no one jot of the law; and therefore they have compiled hymns and songs in praise of him, as though he had had a maiden soul, free from sin: yet for all these boastings, no question but he & all their darlings were men, and had their affections, they found many mutinies and rebellions in their little Commonwealths.  
A second sort of men there be, who think they cannot sufficiently 
wandering conceits.  mingle themselves with evil company at home, therefore they affect travailing abroad, that having traffic with foreign countries, they may borrow the sins of other nations. God I confess hath enriched several countries, with several commodities; that (no country being absolute of itself) every country should crave help of an other: So the wisdom of God hath decreed, that the need of every country should occasion love among all countries. Hence doth arise the necessity of the merchants trade, which triumpheth as a Queen in this honourable City, and makes it like unto Tyrus, Esay, 23. having the riches of the river to be a revenue unto it, & her merchants as the Nobles of the world: Yet in my opinion the traveles of many young gentlemen are more ordinary, then beneficial. I do not censure all, much less condemn them, for I know the use thereof hath been, and may be behoveful to our common mother: yet many I know (
y Gen. 34. 2.  like Dina the daughter of jacob) have lost their virginity by going abroad, and have returned home impure; and our country which in former ages was plain and downright, they have made like Arras, full of strange forms and colours, having in it twisted and woven the fashions of all countries that are inhabited, as though the four winds had conspired to blow their chaff, and their feathers & their dust among us, and make a dunghill of our country. They imbrue their minds in the impieties and suck up the infections of other countries; and returning home with stomachs fully charged, they vomit their poison in their mother's lap; they practice in England, what they have unhappily learned abroad. 
* 1. Reg. 11. 4.  Salomon's outlandish women brought in outlandish religion, and conditions, and so much estated themselves in the bosom of the king, that they drew him and his people to idolatry. 
a 1. Reg. 10. 22  The same Solomon sent his Ambassadors into strange countries for gold and silver, and ivory; So they went over and brought them, & withal they brought apes and peacocks: I fear it is the case of many, whose friends send them abroad to learn knowledge & experience, whereby they may better the church and commonwealth, which perhaps they leave behind, and bring home only the apes and peacocks; I mean proud and fantastical conditions. Else what means this revolution of fashions, when men that should be mere English are not themselves; but compounded men, Spanish, Dutch, Italian, and what not? I would therefore (in the bowels of Christ) exhort all you young Gentlemen, that intent this course of traveling, that you would strive to bring home, not the apes and peacocks, but the gold, and silver, and ivory, viz. that learning, and those manners that are precious: so shall you make a saving voyage unto your own souls, and gain that good experience whereby your country shall be enriched.  
A third sort of people there be, who pretend such an 
Men of proud conceits.  abhorring of evil company, that they look asquint & disdainfully upon all men, as being not holy enough to converse with themselves. They are so tasty that they quarrel with the orders of the Church, reputing them as old hair which superstition hath shaken off. They are Brownists and Barowists, peace-breakers of the Church: though our country now be not much molested with them, 
b judg. 5. 15  yet for the divisions of Reuben there have been great thoughts of heart. It is with our souls while we live in these houses of clay, as with men while they live in houses: neither can they enjoy the full benefit of the sun, but both light and heat is abated; neither can our souls of the Sun of righteousness, there is found such imperfection both in the warmth of love and in the light of understanding. Though the Prophet reproved them that said one unto an other 
c Esay 65. 5.  I am holier than thou: Though Christ said that 
d Math. 13 30  tars will grow among the wheat until the harvest: Though Saint Paul saith that 
e 1. Cor. 15. 10  If we will depart quite from the wicked, we must depart out of the world: Yet for all this the Brownists, & the Barrowists hold opinion, 
f See their writings M. Gifford and others against them  that we of the Church of England are not true members of the Church, nor our Church the true Church of God, because stained (say they) with irrelligion and impiety.  
The varnish of their own hypocrisy deludes them so, that they make love unto themselves, and grow amorous of their own virtues, which they draw far beyond the staple, that of it they may weave unto themselves a garment of righteousness. What could the Pharisie have done more, who pleaded his own merit, saying: 
g Luk. 18. 12  I fast twice awecke, I give alms to the poor, and give tithe of all I have. If you look into their conversations and observe their vaunts, with judicious eyes & ears; O! what a rank shall you see of barren figtrees, and 
h Ps. 37. 35  green bay-trees, to whom David compares the wicked? O what a noise shall you hear of tinkling cymbals; to which S. Paul compares them which have a show of religion, but no love. 1. Cor. 13. So little love to their equals have these men, that when the rod of God is shaken over our heads 
i Gifford against Barrow pag. 8●.  they make themselves the only men that are fit to stand in the gap▪ they blaze the honour of their own preaching, as though it were so full of life, that they only knew the blood and marrow of the Scriptures: of their own prayers, as though they were so effectual that Elias his spirit were only redoubled upon them, and that every one of them is a second Elizeus. So little obedience have they to their superiors, 
k Giff●rd against Barrow. pag. 83  that the reverend fathers of the Church (who may well borrow that saying of the Church in the Canticles; 
l Cant. 1. 5.  The sons of my mother (were angry with me) are by these men scorned, disobeyed, resisted: Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. Luke 23.  

m Tull. de Senectute.  The sons of Sophocles being desirous to rule, impleaded the Father for dotage, that they might have all matters committed to themselves; but Sophocles presented, to the judges, his Oedipus colonaeus, a tragedy which he had penned in his old age, and bade them judge whether that was the work of a doting man or not; which they all esteeming to come from a wit full of nimbleness and activity, condemned the sons, and justified the Father: So these fiery spirits, longing to have the staff in their own hands, have by their words, and in their writings traduced the Fathers of our Church: but if we look upon their Oedipus colonaeus, and mark with what discretion they govern, and how behoveful their government is for our times, we shall surely find them not to be doting Fathers, but their accusers to be wicked sons.. And here, my brethren, bemoan with me the estate and calamity of our mother the Church, which (Rebekah like) hath divers opinions striving in her womb: must not her pangs needs be great? 
n Plin. nat. hist.  Amphisbena-like, two heads one against an other strive for the sovereignty: is not the body then like to break? O! how well doth it become the sons of oil to nourish peace, a fruit of him which is anointed with the oil of gladness above his fellows? When wind blows against wind, schism against schism, the Church may say as jocasta sometimes said, weeping over the malice of her two sons, Eteocles, and Polynices: 
o Sen. in Thebay.  Tu times illum, & ille te, ego utrumque sed pro utroque thou fearest him, and he fears thee, and I fear you both, because I fear the destruction of you both. O you then that are too prodigal of enmity one towards an other, 
p 2. Sam 1. 20  let not the streets of Gath, and Ascalonring your disgrace, nor the daughters of the Philistines tune your shame to their tymbrells, be not the nails and teeth of the Church to scratch and bite your brethren: howsoever your sails swell with a favourable gale, yet Lipsius in his fifth book of Politics adviseth you to take in at the harbour of peace: it becomes not members of the same body to interfere and work one upon an other. 
q 1. Cor. 3. 3.  When there are jars among you, are not you carnal? Yes, for peace becomes those spirits which relish and taste of him, whose birthday song was 
r Luke 2.  Peace upon the earth.  
Better 
s Bar●. epist. 102. ad quendam Abbatum. , saith a learned Father, ut pereat unus quam unitas: and therefore with enlarged bowels, I speak, not now unto Brownists, and Barowists, but unto those who are nearer friends to our Church (men for their diligence and other good parts worthy of much praise) and yet so impatient at the ceremonies of our Church, that they be scarce willing (in the observing of them) to join with us. I would pray them to remember that in the Canticles, where the Church is compared unto 
t Can. 6. 3  an army with banners displayed: Now if there was ever army without order let them judge: if there ought not to be order in the Church, let Saint Paul judge, who saith; 
u 1. Cor. 14. 40  Let every thing be done decently and in order. Seeing then there is one God the Father of us all, one Church the mother of us all, one Christ the elder brother of us all, one Baptism the seal of us all, one faith the hand of us all, one salvation the mark whereat we all shoot, let us strive 
* Ephes. 4. 3.  to maintain the unity of the spirit, and in the band of peace. Let us not be so conceited of our own holiness, as to distaste all men's company; nor yet so lavish of our company as to mingle ourselves among the wicked, but be cautelous lest we be like to Ephraim, who mixed himself among the people: and the effect of this mixture was lamentable, he was as a cake on the hearth not turned.  
Raw on the one side, and roasted on the other, partly 
A cake not turned.  religious, and partly idolatrous, 
x Apoc. 3.  lukewarm, fit to be spewed out of God's mouth, a sin indeed to halt between two opinions, to have 
y 1. Reg. 18. 21  a knee for God, and a knee for Baal; and for 
* Reg. 5. 18  Rimmon, in the house of Rimmon, to profess two religions, to woo the flames of persecution, lest they should endure the punishment of either. 
a 1. Sam. 5. 4  If Dagon presume to stand by the ark of the Lord, it is well worthy to fall: 
b 2. Cor. 6. 15  there is no communion between Christ and Beliall. 
c Euseb. ec. hist. lib. 3. cap. 22.  Saint john could not endure to be with Cerinthus in the bath: Saint Ieromes pen like a lance was charged against Uigilantius and many others. S. Austen in his disputations spoke hot words, coals of juniper against the Arrians, the Pelagians, the Donatists, and the Manachees. 
d 2. Reg. 2. 23.  Before all these josias whose name remains upon record in the calendar of the just (whose soul is bound up in the bundle of life, and his life hid in Christ with God) could not endure idolatry while he reigned: 
e Ecclus. 49.  Therefore, his name is like a perfume, made by the art of the Apothecary. 
f Philip. Camerar. in operibus successivis.  It is remembered of a certain soldan which died at the siege of Zigetum, that being persuaded by the Muphtis (who holds the place of a Bishop or Patriarch among the mahometan turks) not to suffer so many religions as were in his dominions; he answered, that a nosegay of many flowers smelled more sweetly than one flower only: which I confess to be true, but the case with religions is neither the same, nor the like; for in a nosegay they may be all flowers, but among religions they must be all weeds, all heresies, except one only flower which is the truth. 
g Apocalip. cap. 2. 3.  The spirit of God blames the Church of Ephesus for embracing the doctrine of the Nicholaitans: the Church of Smyrna for embracing the doctrine of Balaam: the Church of Thyatira for embracing the doctrine of jezabel: religion is the jewel of the ring, 
h Neh. 13. 24.  therefore the same mouth that speaketh the language of Canaan, why should it speak the language of Ashdod? the same chair of state which holds religion stamped with the image of the most high, why should it hold the 
i Apoc. 17  purple harlot, the whore of Babylon with all her paintings and complexions upon her face, and the cup of fornication in her hand? There be two reasons to the contrary, the one political, the other theological or divine.  
The reason political is drawn from the mutinies and 
Political.  uproars that are made where there are two religions professed. There were in the Church of Germany the opinions of servetus and Gentilis: what ruptures those meteors bred in that sky, what breaches in that Church I will not tell you; but I refer you unto 
k Epist. ad Duditium & epist. ad orthodoxos omnes.  M. Bezaes' epistles, where you shall see the judgement of M. Calvin, and many others against the toleration of them. When Martin Luther under the countenance and conduct of Fredrick the Duke of Saxony held a candle in the dark before God's bleared children, and awaking antiquity for his succour opened a door unto the truth, there was a book published by authority for the allowance of interim Germanicum, 
pag. 640.  that is, till matters of religion were settled among them, men should enjoy what religion they would in the interim or mean time. It was misliked by many great divines, among the rest by Gasper Aquila a Minister of great account at that time, by the Lubicenses, the Lunebergenses, 
pag. 658.  the Hamburgenses, the Magdeburgici, and for the most part by all the lower Saxony. The relation of these things would require a long time: therefore I refer you for your better knowledge unto divers parts of sleidan's commentaries, where you shall find the stirs were great, and the consequents had like to have been bloody.  
If God in his wisdom would set a mark of distinction, upon all such as did not mourn for our Zion in her Widowhood, nor pray for the peace of our jerusalem, what a show would the rank of our hollow hearted English make, who would pull down our culver house, our little Church? How often hast thou heard them, O God, (though they whispered unto themselves) say of the enemies of our peace; 
l judg. 5. 28.  Why are the wheels of his chariot so long a coming? I thirst not after their blood or trouble, their veins shall ever be springs of blood for me: but seeing they will not be charmed not hear, then if the house be shaken about their ears, it is but justice. If the liberty of them say unto the conscience, I am restrained for thee: If the wealth say unto the conscience, I am impaired for thee: If the strength of the body say unto the conscience, I am brought low for thee; justice I say upon them, of whom our enemies may say unto us, 
* jud. 14. 18  If we had not ploughed with your heifers we had gained no advantage against you.  
The reason Theological, or divine, is drawn first from the weakness of man, secondly from the commandment 
Theological.  of God.  
The weakness of man is such, that the devil who can 
Weakness of man.  turn himself into an Angel of light, plays upon that advantage: and therefore it quickly came to pass that all the eastern Churches 
m Constat ex diversis locis Soz eccls hist.  almost were corrupted with arianism, and the world wondered that it was so suddenly turned Arrian. Heresy is like a rainbow, it hath a thousand colours glorious and seeming celestial: but 
n Aduerso sole colores Virg.  it is ever against the Sun, 
o Malach. 4.  the Sun of righteousness: therefore it is fit for no man to mingle himself among the heretical, but rather to get out of Babylon, that there may be recovered out of the jaws of the devourer, a leg or a piece of an ear, Amos the 3. & the 12. some one or other silly and miscarried soul.  
Besides the weakness of man, there is the commandment 
The commandment of God.  of God also enforcing; the tenor whereof is, that 
p Leuit. 22. 9  no ground should be sown with two seeds, that no garment of linsey wolsie should be worn, that no ground should be ploughed with an ox and an ass together: all which were shadows of two religions, whereof there ought not to be a mixture. For, to join old ceremonies of superstition with God's truth, is to stitch 
* Luk. 5. 36.  a piece of an old garment unto a new vesture, which will make the rent or breach the greater, the sin more odious unto God. It is observable that Noah prayed for his sons, and said; 
q Gen. 9 27.  God persuade japhet to dwell in the tents of Sem, and let Canaan be their servant: he knew how well it pleased the holy Trinity, to see the union of the godly, and their loathing of the ungodly: it pleased God indeed, else would the Prophet David never have hung up a table of statutes for his own house (his little Commonwealth) Psal. 101. whereby he chased away all the wicked, whom (as the same David testifieth elsewhere) God himself loved not: the ungodly and him that delighteth in wickedness doth his soul abhor. Psa. 11. 5. Happy are we then, in whose land Popery is not enfranchised and made free Denizen. So God would have it, 
r Mat. 5. 29.  he would have the offending eye or hand cut off. Therefore 
s Cant. 1.  tell us still, O Lord, where thou feedest, and where thou liest at noon, we will only cleave unto thy truth, and not hunt after the opinions that are heretical, the inventions of man's brain: 
t Cant. 1.  for why should we be as she that turneth aside unto the flocks of those companions? I will conclude this point with the testimony of the Cappadocians by Gregory Nazianzen in his Monodia: who seeing them live in safety and peace, when all their neighbour countries about them were mudded with contention, said, that sure they were preserved by the holy Trinity; because they did without rent, with one accord so zealously maintain the Trinity against the Arrians. I hasten to that which followeth: among religions 
u Luk. 10. 42  unum est necessarium, one thing is needful.  
And so from the sin of Ephraim, I come to the punishment of Ephram, which out of these words the interpreters say, was this: that as men being hungry & coming with a ravenous desire unto a cake that is upon a hearth, devour and eat it up, though it be not baked but raw on the one side; so shall the enemies of Ephraim like those hungry devourers, come with violence against them, hastily make spoil, and prey upon them. The handling of which point of their punishment, though I will not adiourn until another time, yet I will square it and make it fit unto another place of this text; namely, the verse following, upon which this doctrine may more suitably be grafted, for it is said: Strangers have devoured his strength, & yet he knoweth not &c.  
Which punishment (without doubt) was deep, if not the bottom of the cup of trembling. Deep indeed, whether we respect the devourers, they were strangers: or the thing devoured, which was the strength of Ephraim.  
Many times in the book of Moses, joshua, the Kings, and Chronicles, it is averred unto the children of Israel, 
Strangers.  by God, who is only true; that if the people of Israel would serve the Lord, they should enjoy the land: If not, than they should be dispossessed by strangers, 
* Deu. 28. 49  a people of a stern countenance, and an unknown language. Which admonitions of Almighty God being knit together, like as many beams of the sun in a burning glass, may serve like those beams to kindle a fire, to inflame the hearts of men, to make themselves zealous for the Lord of hosts; that by their obedience, the daughter of that zeal, they may prevent the invasion of strange devourers, of 
x jere. 51. 7.  Babel who is a golden cup in the hand of the Lord (as the Prophet jeremy saith) to make the nations drunken with vengeance, and then they rage. As it was the prophesy of God, who knew before; so was it the case of Israel, who felt it, when it came upon them: For, 
y Psal 137. 1.  By the waters of Babylon they saete down and wept when they remembered thee, O Zion; as for their harps they hanged them upon the willows that were thereon, while they that led them captive said; Come and sing us one of your songs of Zion: but alas how could they sing the Lords song in a strange land? This was their first captivity after the law: but they were surprised the second time anon after the death of Christ, like men who were willing to bear neither the hard yoke of the law, nor that of the Gospel which is easy, Matth. 11. though (in the judgement of S. james) 
* I am. 2. 12  it be called a law of liberty. For the Eagle in the Roman ensign (that was their arms) towered aloft with incredible majesty, and couched all the nations of the world under it like lesser birds, and made them tributary unto Caesar: among other countries the land of jury was dead in sins and trespasses, and therefore (as one saith) became a carcase or a smelling carrion, and therefore fittest to be preyed upon by that Aeagles they endured the devouring of a stranger, but by whom? but when? but how? By whom? 
a josephus.  by Vespasian the Emperor, and Titus his s●n: when? about 40. years after the prophecy of Christ, of the destruction of jerusalem: how? that I may tell, who gives me the pen of Esdras the Scribe? or the tongue of some fluent Orator? There were divers apparitions in the City, besides voices from the East, and from the West, all as prognosticatious of their ruin; within the walls they were divided into divers companies, under divers captains, they turned their sword upon themselves (quis furor hic cives?) as though their own hands had been ordained to be their executioners, as well as their souls were malefactors, and rebels against their God. 
b josephus.  Then came hunger, and pestilence, and the sword (like God's good servants) shouldering out one another, and striving which of them should first revenge their master's quarrel: Famine made mothers eat their children: and those wombs that gave them harbour, were now become the places of their burial: one cut an others throat that he might catch the morsels before they fell into his belly: extreme hunger made their practices lamentable and monstrous, both to be pitied and abhorred. When famine had played his part, then came pestilence and layed-along whole herds of them grovelling upon the ground: which misery when they felt they gasped, and gazed upon the temple, as the story saith. Which misery when Titus (the delight and honour of mankind) beheld, he lift up both hands and eyes together to heaven, and called God to witness, that it was not his cruelty but their impiety that did thus awake him whose hand holds vengeance for to repay. When famine and pestilence had powered out their vials, than came the man upon the red horse, Apoc. 5. Blood, and war, and the winged sword flew with triumph among them: there were slain (as the story saith) very many, there were taken prisoners many; the Romans in scorn sold 30. Iewes for one penny, because among them their Master was sold for thirty pence. 
c Euseb. eccls hist. lib. 4. cap. 6.  Aelius Adrianus had a purpose (if it could have holden) to have re-edified the City, and to have called it Aelia, after his own name. 
* Soz lib. 5. cap. 21.  julian the Apostata, in his blasphemous imagination, thought to build up the City again as glorious as it was before, because he would have disproved Christ, who had prophesied of the utter dissipation thereof: but he that sits in heaven laughed him to scorn, his workmen and his work were hindered by the falling of lime, and sand, and a great gate, by the flashing of fire, and by the quaking of the earth, and by other means, as if God had said of jerusalem, as sometimes he said of jericho, 
d josh. 6. 26.  Cursed be the man before the Lord, that riseth up and buildeth this City: he shall lay the foundation thereof in his eldest son, and in his youngest son shall he set up the gates of it. Thus jerusalem, O thou, who like 
e Gen. 49. 2.  Reuben waste the beginning of God's manly strength, thou wast unstable as water, and didst forsakethy God: therefore O Reuben, O jerusalem, thy dignity is gone. 
f Senec. in Troa.  Seneca describes the miseries of captivity, where (by the Chorus) he saith, that Priamus now is happy, for he seeth not the burning of Troy, his victorious hands are not bound behind him, he is not dragged at Agamemnon's chariot,— nunc Elyzij nemoris tutus erat in umbris. And surely they whose eyes are closed before they see the woes of their friends and country, may have that applied unto them, which was said of Crassus (in Tully's Orator) upon the like occasion; 
g Lib. 3. de Orat.  Vt non tam erepta vita, quam mors donata videatur, life may not be so fitly said to be taken away, as death given for a special comfort. 
h Zach. 9 14  Give them: Lord what wilt thou give them? a barren womb, and dry breasts: a favour indeed; better to be barren, then to bring forth children to the murderer. But why should I spend my time in searching records for evidence in a matter so plain as this? you know as well as I, that foreign invasion and captivity openeth the door to murder, and rapine, and oppression, and mutinies, and liberty far from Christian, and confusion more than barbarous: good governors are deposed, the incendiaries of the world are enthronized: in stead of many years crowned with gladness, in stead of the thickness of corn, which should have made the valleys laugh and sing; there is seen a blurred countenance of the commonwealth: weeds the brood of negligence, the ensigns of poverty do stain the face of the earth, the land howleth and is abashed, 
i Hos. 4. 2.  By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and whoring they break out, and blood toucheth blood: yet in the end 
k Psa. 34. 10  these lions lack and suffer hunger, when they that fear the Lord, want no manner of thing that is good. 
l Psal. 144. 5  Blessed are the people therefore that have no leading into captivity, nor no complaining in their streets, yea blessed are the people which have the Lord for their God.  
This doctrine may serve as a spur, & as a bridle: as a spur 
Spur.  to drine us forward unto praise and thanksgiving, and as a bridle to keep us back from running inordinate courses: it may well stir us up unto praise (yea, praise the Lord with understanding) for we have not as yet been scared with the barkings of any uncouth wolf; but under our own vines, and our own fig trees, we have quietly reposed with our wives and children: our Land hath been a treasury and a storehouse for God's blessings, whereas our neighbour countries have been the cockpits for all christendom to fight their battles in: we have been raised up unto our labour by the noise of the cock, who in his chirping so merrily can greet the morning; whereas others have been roused up with the sound of a trumpet unto battle: we have had the light of the Gospel, and they the light of beacons: we have had peace the child of heaven, and plenty the child of peace, while they have been measured with the line of Samaria, and have had stretched out upon them the plummets of the house of Achab: we have lived on the lee side of the world, we know not what a storm means: as upon Alexandria it is said the Sun shined once every day, so we have not wanted our daily comforts; but like God's minions we have had daily cause of rejoicing both great and small; Our mountains have skipped like rams, and our little hills like young sheep: 
m Leuit. 23. 34.  if we did well, all our feastings should be feasts of tabernacles in remembrance that our forefathers lived unquietly in respect of our settled estate. 
n Psa. 129. 1  Oftentimes may England with Israel now say, from my youth up have they fought against me, 
o Psal. 83. 7  the plowers ploughed upon my back and made long furrows, both Gebal and Ammon and Amaleck with them that dwell at tire: did they not even write and in grave victory upon their own ships, assuring themselves of the conquest before the encounter? but how they sped, the seas, the narrow seas can tell: ask of the wind, ask of the whirlwind, and they will tell you. Besides the attempts of our foreign enemies, our country hath been gnawn and wrung with the gripings of home-born traitors, looking still for the troubling of the stream that they might fish. They said in their hearts as Esau said, 
p Gen. 27. 41  The days of mourning for my father will shortly come, then will I kill my brother jacob; the days of mourning for Queen Elizabeth will come shortly, then will we make havoc of our brethren, and either kill them or drive them like Owls into the desert, and like pelicans into the wilderness: whereas (ignorant men) their simplicity would have betrayed them unto their enemies; who knew how to love the treason but hate the traitor: and their malice was like the Duke of Alnaies' or the Guise's sword, which after the victory would know neither English, nor French, nor Spanish, nor Dutch, nor any friend, nor any hired favourite, ● What? noe return of thanksgiving for all these blessings? Ingrata 
Valerius Maximus. Lib. 5. cap. ●. de Ingrat.  patria, ne ossa quidem? (said Scipio, Africanus) have I gotten so many victories for you my countrymen, and not so much as my bones remain among you? Have I gotten so many victories for you (may God say) and no remembrance of me left among you? 
q Luk 17. 17  Vbi novem, where are the nine? But one among ten? but one among ten thousand that returns to give praise? all like the Moon, which totum adimit quo ingrata refulget, darkens that Sun that gave it light? Do we all take that cup of Salvation with the left hand, which God hath reached out unto us with the right hand of his bounty? Have we not all cause to call upon the name of the Lord? Let not Gods blessings fall upon us as pure water upon sinks, which return nothing in stead thereof, but annoysome smell again. jacob could cast his accounts; and remembering what before he wanted, and what now he had, could say out of a thankful mind: 
r Gen. 32. 10  With this staff, came I over jordan. 
s job. 1. 9  Doth job serve God for nought? It was the speech of the Devil: The Devil himself can tell, that where God bestows his blessings, man ought to pay tribute, praise and obedience. 
t Aug. in med.  unthankfulness is a parching wind, damning up the fountain of God's blessings. 
u Realdus' Columb.  There is given unto man (as the Anatomists do observe) one muscle in the eye, more than in the eye of a beast, to teach that men are born to look upward (in token of thankfulness) rather then beasts. Therefore 
* Abak. 1. 16  let none sacrifice unto their nets, nor burn incense unto their yarn; but let every one of us (like a bird leaping from branch to branch, and singing as she leapeth) leap by our meditations from one blessing unto an other, from our creation to our redemption, to our justification, to our sanctification, to our glorification, from branch to branch; and ever as we leap sing out that hymn of David: 
x Psa. 103. 1  Praise the Lord, O my soul; and (as though that were too little) all that is within me praise his holy name.  
As this doctrine is a spur to stir us up to thankfulness, so I told you it might serve as a bridle to curb those sins which 
Bridle.  are the occasions, that strangers may devour our strength. God hath planted us as 
y Esay. 5. 1.  a Vineyard upon a very fruitful hill, he hath hedged us about with his providence: what could he have done for his vineyard, that he hath not done? In stead of good grapes if we bring forth wild grapes; iudgethen juda and jerusalem, judge yourselves, can you have truce with any of his creatures? will not God command the heaven to be as iron & the earth as brass unto you? Will he not deny you the former and the latter rain? Will he not give your fruits unto the caterpillar, your labours unto the grasshopper, and your mulberry trees unto the frost? Yes, he will meet you 
* Zecha. 5. 3.  as well on this side as on that: though (
a jere. 22. 24  Coniah-like) you be a signet upon the finger of God, yet if you wring the finger he will pull you off; 
b joel. 1. 4.  that which is left of the palmer worm, the grasshopper shall eat, and the residue of the grasshopper shall the cankerworm eat, and the residue of the cankerworm shall the caterpillar eat. Though you escape the pit, you shall be taken in the snare, jeremy, 48. You shall fly from a Lion, and a Bear shall meet you: or lean your band upon a wall, and a serpent shall bite you. Amos. 5. 
c 2. Reg 9 22  Is it peace lehu or not, quoth the messenger of jezabel. What talkest thou of peace (quoth he again) seeing the whoredoms and witchcrafts of jezabel are great in nuraber? So, how can we talk of peace, with God and ourselves, while our sins and impurities are great in number? For the which, God (being the Lord of hosts) can unmuzzle all his creatures, fire, water, hail, ye, snow, storm, and tempest to be the portion for the wicked to drink.  
The world is old and now in her dotage: but good God, what a wonder is it? though she be old she is ever in childbed, in travel every month of new fashions, of new sins, of new vanities; of all new things, save only of the new man.. That hath brought in so many uncouth diseases, as punishments for these new sins. That old man is in such request, that the world is ready to say with the young man in the Gospel, whom Christ bade follow, that she will follow; but first she must 
d Luk. 9 59  go bury her Father: She hath an old man at home that is not yet dead; an old man, the old Adam, the man of sin, living, and not dead, not dead but living in her own loins. 
e Plu. de Solertia animalium.  Thales Milesius had an ass which being laden with salt, melted the salt in the water, and so was disburdened; and afterwards being laden with wool, & plunging the same burden in the water, was more burdened: we are all fraught in some measure with that 
f Mar. 9 50.  salt which every man should have in himself: that we melt away by bathing ourselves in the pleasures of the world; then we are laden with vanity, far lighter than wool: which while we plunge in the same stream we are unawares so burdened, that we cannot climb unto the hill, not to the hill of Zion, not up to heaven, not up to those hills from whence cometh all our help.  
These vanities, these sins, these, these do lime the souls of men, and hinder their flight to heaven: and with a false key they open the door to vengeance. They wring the sword out of the hand of God. Presume not therefore to sin: for that will make your sins, sins of a whorish forehead: but rather be led by the punishment, to the sin, as by the stream unto the spring. Slander not the frost & the hail, and the wind, and the weather: they are Gods pursuivants sent to call you home, though you think them unseasonable and unwelcome: rather kiss the rod and submit yourselves unto his power, and look into your own distempered estates, suppress those rebels within you, your affections: retain S. Paul for your counsellor, who tells you that 
g Gal. 6. 8  as you sow, so shall you reap: 
h Hos. 8. 7  Sow not (saith the Prophet) the wind, for fear you reap the whirlwind for your harvest. So we not drunkenness, for fear you reap for your harvest, the canceling of the image of God which is upon you: bend not your knees to drink healths and carouses, which should be bend in your prayers and soliloques, for the service of the living God: nor let that mouth which should praise your God, be like Idols ever gaping to devour much of that which would relieve God's children. 
i Phil. 3. 19  Stand in awe, and fear least those two cannot be severed, which Saint Paul hath linked together; the belly the God, and the end damnation.  
When the devil wounds or kills by any sin (excepting drunkenness) he pierceth with a single bullet, one sin only; but when by drunkenness, then by chain shot, many sins linked together: it is never alone, it draws on swearing, and quarreling, and ribaldry, and words, what not? save only them that are powdered with salt: and deeds, what not? save only the fruits of the spirit. 
k Leuit. 3. 1 Mala. 1. 8  By the law Levitical there was no beast allowed to be a sacrifice, that was blind or lame, or unclean: when men are so drunken that they cannot see, and therefore blind; that they cannot stand, & therefore lame; that they foam at the mouth, and therefore unclean, neither God nor the world will judge them to be living sacrifices unto their God. Beware of drunkenness, for surely there is, mors in olla, 
l 2. Reg. 4. 40  death in the pot, if it be abused. So we not blasphemy and swearing, lest you reap for your harvest many plagues; 
m Ecclus. 23  yea, that plague that never departeth out of the house, 
n Zecha. 5. 2.  yea, that flying book which will break into your houses, whether you will or not. The wheels of the clock within are never in order, when the bell makes not true report of the time of the day: the tongue is the index of the mind. Apply it to yourselves; if the tongue sound not forth good words, the mind within (without doubt) is distempered: that man is scarce to be thought a temple of the Lord, but a nest for owls, and ostriches, out of whose mouth there comes such a flight of unclean birds. Sow not covetousness: let not the daughters of the horseleech, yawn within you; crying, give, give, with a desire as large as hell: Let not your heaps of wealth be your graves, 
o 1. Tim. 6. 9 10.  for than you are in danger to fall into many snares, and be pierced through with many sorrows: but rather 
p Mat. 6. 20.  treasure up your hearts in heaven, where neither rust nor moth doth corrupt: you will find this gains greater than ten in the hundred, there is nothing but loss to be had by being as Ninive was: and (I pray God you be not) 
q Nah. 3. 1.  a bloody City and full of lies, and robbery, and one from whom the prey departeth not; she is famous for the lion's den, and the pasture of the lion's whelp: Bloody by oppression, full of lies and robbery in bargaining, famous for lions, for devourers, and for the lion's den, 〈◊〉 chests and coffers, wherinto many men's goods do fall, and they are eaten up.  
While I touch this vein and speak of this matter, I doubt not but some (and they none of the meanest) could be content to say to me, at the servants of Hezekiah say de unto Rabsaketh, 
r 2. Reg. 18. 26.  Speak we pray thee to thy servants in the Aramites language, for we understand it, and talk not with us in the jews tongue in the audience of the people that are on the wall.  
I make no question, but you are loath the world should know much of your dealings, and he that comes to ransack among you, must needs be an unwelcome guest. Sow not idleness lest you reap brambles, and briars; it is a lethargy, it dulls a man's faculties: but many about this City be 
s Luk. 12. 27  like the lilies which neither labour nor spin, yet (whether by robbing or swaggering, or coney-catching, I cannot tell) they farewell, & they are clothed like Solomon in all his royalty. Many of us (God knows) are like him in the Gospelso possessed with a devil, that 
t Math. 17. 15.  sometimes we fall into the fire, sometimes into the water, sometimes the devil tears us and we foam at the mouth: we fall sometimes into the fire of concupiscence, sometimes into the water and overflowing of drunkenness, sometimes the devil tears us with rage and anger, and then we foam at the mouth by slander and blasphemy: we have little sins (like little thieves) to creep in at the windows unto our souls, and make way for greater, till sinners be robbed of their best treasure: like little wedges they make way for greater, till in the end they be cleft for fuel unto the fire of 
u Esa. 30. 33  the valley of Tophet that was prepared of old. Be not infatuate with any sin, with any sickness; the great Physician of your souls will discern your diseases, when he feels your pulses: but above all other, beware of hardness of heart, and final impenitency; lest as she in the Poet, who 
Pectorapercussit, pectus quoque robora fiunt. 
Ovid metamorph.    
So you m●● desire to repent, but cannot have the grace, because your breasts, your hearts are hardened, and 
* Heb. 12. 17  like Esau, you cannot have repentance though you seek it with tears. Go not from spirit to flesh, from flesh to iron, from iron to brass, from brass to Adamant: lest God proceed from love to anger, from anger to a rod, from a rod to a scourge, from a scourge to a scorpion, and from a scorpion to eternal fire. weave not (O weave not) your own calamity on your own looms: but rather say unto lust, I have no purpose to nurse and dandle thee, and unto deceit, I have no head to forge thee, unto drunkenness, I have no brain to try thee, unto gluttony, have no stomach to banquet thee, unto cruelty, I have no hand to execute thee, unto sin, I have no mind to commit thee. 
x Fasc. Tèp. anno, 1426  There was a time when there was a conscience in the world: and is the World better for age? nay, for conscience shrunk unto science; and under the full sails of men's knowledge, they fall to make wrack of good conscience. And now we live to hear every day the knell, and see the dying of good life and conversation. If we take an inventory of good works in this age, we shall find it not much worth. What is the remedy for this? to turn unto GOD, when all the world turns? no: if the enemy be behind an army (say the learned in military discipline) they will be surprised afore the whole army be whirled about. How then? let every one turn one, & the whole army is turned. If you will avoid the assaults of the Devil, tarry not until the whole army, the whole world turn unto God, but every man turn one and say for his own part; 
y Luk. 15. 18  I will go to my father, and say, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against thee. 
* Esay. 29. 1  O Altar, Altar of the City of God, add year unto year, and kill lambs, lest now when 
a joh. 4. 35.  the regions are white for the harvest, and we even mellow for the judgement of God, and 
b Amos. 8. 2.  like a basket of summer fruit, prove like a bottle in the water, that never sinks until it be full, neither can we look for a downfall until we have filled the measure of iniquity; but when those waters of Mara, those bitter waters are brimful, than God's Angels will reap the world, with that unperceived sith, the pestilence that walketh in the darkness: the rest shall be gnawn upon by famine, and the remnant gleaned by the hand of war, by the war of strangers: such was the sinne-sicke state of Ephraim, that needed letting blood by such a boisterous hand: for strangers devoured not the refuse and bran of his livelihood, but his riches, and friends, and credit, and power, and what not that was worldly? even his strength.  
Where we may learn these two lessons: first, that we 
Strength.  may have these worldly things, because they are the gifts of God: secondly, that we ought not to be had of them, or by them, because they are transitory and subject to the devouring of strangers: my meaning is, we must have them to use; not let them have us, not let them fetter us in their love: if God send them, we must have them to use not to abuse.  
In the 16. of Ezechiel, God gave the people, corn, and 
We may have them.  wine, and oil to use: but when they abused them, he did expostulate with them for bestowing his corn, his wine & his oil upon their Idols. God hath bestowed many blessings upon us, he must needs be angry if we spend the time he gives us, upon vanity: the strength that he gives us upon lust: the power that he gives us, to the oppressing of others: the wit that he gives us, to the circumventing of others: the riches that he gives us, to the eating out one of another: his blessings, to those inordinate affections which like Idols we honour and worship. 
* Herodotus in Clio.  When the river Giudes had drowned one of Cyrus his white horses: he threatened to cut so many Channels into which the river should be derived, that it should lose both depth, & name, & glory. If those floods and great streams of God's blessings upon us, drown and overthrow not our white horses, but our souls which should be white and spotless, God can derive that worldly pomp of ours, into many channels, convey it into many hands, dispossess us both of the name and glory that we had by those things; and therefore it was not without cause that God gave the people of Israel a caveat, that they should not forget him, when they cawe 
c Deut. 8. 8  into a land of corn, a land of wine, and a land of oil olive. He knew that these blessings were like fire and water, good servants, but bad masters. And though for your good (beloved in our Lord & Saviour jesus Christ) 
d Amos 9 13  the ploughman touch the mower, and the treader of grapes him that soweth seed, yet you are but stewards of that you have: and though it be not so cheap service as you would wish, yet I would advise you to bestow some portion of that you have to these two uses▪ to the relieving of the poor, God's children, & to the garnishing of the Church, God's house.  
For the first, there be many, whose hearts are as hard as the neither millstone, their hands are withered they cannot stretch 
The poor.  them out, they live unto the poor members of Christ, as though the rocks had fathered them, and the wolves of the wilderness had given them suck: those shall one day find that their white silver and yellow gold can draw black lines, Gods blessings by them abused can pollute their souls. Let me land this doctrine upon your own banks; and exhort you, not to give sparingly, that you may reap liberally, for he that forgave the greatest debt that ever any in the world owed, lays claim unto that of charity, & will not forgive it: therefore he saith by his Apostle, 
e Rom. 13. 8  Owe nothing to any man but this, that ye love one another. A shooter aymethat a mark in the midst of a white: the white he seeth, the mark he seeth not: he cannot hit the mark that he seeth not, unless he hit the white which he seeth. We must all by our love aim at God and man; man the white which we see, God the mark which we cannot see: we can never hit God the mark which we see not, unless we (by our love) touch our brother whom we see. S. john, makes good that which I say, 
f 1. joh. 4, 20  If we love not our brother whom we have seen, how can we say truly, we love God whom we have not seen? If many lines be drawn from the circle to the centre, the nearer they come one to another, the nearer they come unto the centre: judge this by the spokes of a wheel meeting in the middle: compare the lines unto men & the centre unto Christ, unto whom all heavy things tend (all those that are heavy laden with their sins) the nearer they are joined one to another in love, the nearer they come unto Christ. Those that are filled with God's blessings, should be like the full end of an hour glass, they should empty & evacuate themselves into those that want, that those that have wanted, may be raised up. You that are great in this world, you do not wind & turn those things which are absolutely your own, you are but feoffees in trust with them to the use of God's Orphans. 
g Greg. Naz. Monod. in Basil. Mag.  Gregory Nazianzen registering the life of Bazill the great speaks of a Xenodochium or house of harbour which he built for poor strangers: he prefers that goodly pile and monument of charity before the Sepulchre of Mausolus and the Colossus of Rhodes and the rest of the wonders of the world. If I should not commend you Londoners for much bounty and liberality towards houses of learning and hospitals, I should do you wrong: but if you rob and cirumvent others, that you may be enabled to do good unto these, you wrong yourselves. As the former is justly to be termed a work of mercy, so the later can by no means stand with good justice: in doing so 
h Rom. 3, 8  you do a great evil that good may come thereof. Let not your city, which is worthily accounted the head of a kingdom, be made by your greediness the belly of the kingdom for devouring the rest. I judge you not: but 
i M●th. 7. 3 1. Cor. 11. 31  judge yourselves that you be not judged of the Lord. O happy are you then, if in your gardens this sweet flower, this charity be well blown; charity (I mean) which is neither a fool to give to the idle, nor hard hearted to deny the needy: and as at all times and to all of the household of faith, so it becomes her well to have an open bosom unto the Church which is the house of God.  
Yet many are loath, in regard of the charge, to be open 
Church.  handed unto the Lord's treasury, but had rather make themselves rich (as they suppose) by stealing from God: so they become Church-mothes and chapmen of souls, defrauding God, perhaps to give fuel unto their own vanities: so the Church God's 
* Cant. 5. 2  dove, is now become a partridge pursued and preyed upon by tyranny and oppression. That religion that in times past, wanted an eye, was a nurse, was a mother unto the Church: and is our welsighted religion become a stepdame? If it be not, what means the cry of the Church 
k Ier 31. 15. & Math. 2. 18.  like that of Rachel's in Ramah, weeping for her favourites because they are not? Could those Church-leeches imagine they 
l 1. Macch. 1  see Antiochus (after his reveling in the Temple) killed in a strange Land by an invisible hand: 
m Dan. 5.  or Belshazzar pale and wan, breathing his last after the abusing of the vessels of the temple: or could they consider 
n Celsus his disiwasive.  that dissuasive used by Celsus of Verona unto the Senate of Venice, whereby he makes it plain, that since they meddled with the Church goods they never prevailed against their enemies, then would they cease to cry with judas, 
o Mat. 26. 6  What needs all this waste? grudging at all that is powered on Christ's ministers: then would they not 
p Deut. 25. 4.  muzzle the mouth of the Ox that treads out the corn: they would let them live by the altar, who serve at the altar, they would not invade the inheritance of Levi, they would not seek for those ministers who are content to prostitute their worths upon any terms, 
q judg. 17  for a morsel of bread and a few pieces of silver; but they would bring their own offerings into the storehouse of the Lord, that God might not only rebuke the devourer, but open also the windows of heaven, and power upon them a blessing without measure. Mal. 3. 10. If many in our age should use for their daily prayer, the prayer of Nehemiah, 
r Nehem. 13. 14.  Remember me, O my God, herein, and wipe not out my kindness that I have showed on the house of my God, and on the offices thereof: I doubt they would pull every day much wrath upon themselves, because the Church finds as little favour at their hands, as at the hands of those mentioned in the first of Aggai, 
s H●ggi. 1. 4.  Who dwelled themselves in sieled houses, and let the house of the Lord lie waste. Therefore (lest the Lord should blow upon that which you have) use the things of the world, use them well, have them yourselves: let not them have you, let not them fetter you, they are but transitory.  
Solomon weighed them all in a balance, and found them 
They must not have us.  but vanity: Therefore he said, 
t Eccles. 1. 2  Vanity of vanities, and all is but vanity. We may say unto laughter, what ailest thou? and unto folly, what dost thou mean? 
u Dan. 2. 32  The image of Nabuchadnezzar was part of gold, part of silver; part of brass, part of iron, and part of clay, resembling the several Monarchies of the World: but there came a stone from the mountain, that crushed them all in pieces. The square corner stone, Christ jesus, is able to beat to powder all the might of the world, and to fan the mountains. Esay, 41. He is Lord paramount of all, he coucheth under him the potentates of the earth like lesser birds: therefore be not idle but seek, defer not the time but seek first, be not base minded, but seek a kingdom, be not earthly minded, but 
* Math. 6. 33  seek the kingdom of God, and the things of the world shall be ministered unto you, like a retinue they shall follow after. The flesh doth inficere, infect: the world doth deficere, forsake: but Christ doth reficere, refresh. 
x Luk. 4. 5  The glory of the world was showed to Christ in the twinkling of an eye: it is a gliding pomp, of small continuance, for all it seems to have (like a glow-worm) yet it hath neither true warmth nor light. 
y Animula vagola b●ancula.  That knew Aelius Adrianus well, when having no hope in any thing but the world (which he saw to fail him) he commanded his soul (the guest of his body) for ever to bid farewell to all comfort. That knew they also that admired the whore of Babylon, when they felt, that the apples which their souls lusted after, were departed from them, and all things which were fat and excellent were departed from them, they found them no more. Apocalypse 18. 14. Riches that are so high rated in the world, are but like thorns in a man's hand: both when thorns come thither, while they stay, and when they are gotten out there is still pain: So, riches are gotten with care, kept with fear, and not lost without great anguish. 
* job. 8. 14.  The rich man's confidence shall be cut off, and his trust shall be as the house of a Spider: Be he never so enamuled with worldly things (be they, lilia terrae or ilia terrae, the pleasures of the earth, or the guts of the earth) yet he finds for his inheritance, but 
a job. 7. 3  a month of vanity.  
They that rest upon a round thing, they sit unsure, it is ever rolling; rely not upon the round world: they that sit upon a square thing they sit firm; repose upon Christ jesus the square Cornerstone, he will nearer fail you. The first is proved by the wicked, who say, Who will show us any good? Psalm. 4. 6. The second by the godly, who say, Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us. Psalm 4. 7. The goodly things of the world are like Ships which are graced with the titles of triumph, and victory, and honour, and such like: yet are they subject to wrack. 
b Bern. de inter. dom.  Which Bernard well considering saith, that the soul in the body is like a Queen in a Palace; She enjoys the pleasures of the earth by the 5. senses, as by five windows, which windows as long as they are open, things of the world bring much delight, and when they are shut up and decayed, the pleasure decayeth with them. Prepare unto thyself (O thou soul) the joys of the holy Ghost, which will remain with thee when the windows are shut, when the senses are enfeebled, even in the hour of death and in the day of judgement. There is no nobility like unto a new birth in Christ, no feast to the peace of conscience, no crown to a crown of immortality, no life to a conversation which is in heaven. And therefore, call home your affections that are set some on pleasure, some on profit, some on preferment, gather up their dispersed limbs, and knit them all together that they may fasten on your God: So it becomes your houses and your families, which are like houses of Cloë, and the households of Onesiphorus; so shall your strength not be food for the devouring of strangers, you shall be yoked by the hand of no Rehoboam, 
c 1. Reg. 12. 10. 11.  who would whip with scorpions instead of rods, whose little finger would be heavier than all his father's loins. Though the land of jewrie and the 
d Apoc. 1. 20.  Seven golden candlesticks, which were the seven Churches of Asia, be now grown inglorious for sin, yet the enemy hath not shined with our gall. God hath said of us (as of his vineyard) 
e Luk 13. 8.  I will dig it, and dung it, and dress it, and try it yet another year. Only he hath often come to us and found us sleeping in our sins, as 
f 1. Sam. 24. 5.  David came to Saul sleeping in a cave, cutting a piece off our garments, only touching us by some small affliction, when he might have killed us, but leaving peace within our walls and plenty within our palaces, and crowning many years with gladness unto us. Which makes good the saying of an old Writer concerning the rainbow; that God's bow is without an arrow, he threateneth long before he suffer his whole displeasure to arise: What then? 
g Rom. 6. 1.  Shall we continue still in sin that grace may abound? God forbid: that will enhance and improve God's wrath, seeing Gods long suffering should lead us to repentance, Romans 2. Rather let us, who thrice happy (as looking from the shore) have no venture in the wrack that we see in others, turn unto God that we may live; so did not Ephraim, therefore strangers have devoured his strength and yet he knoweth it not, yea grey hairs were here and there upon him, and yet he knoweth it not.  
Grey hairs were upon him, & they were (as interpreters 
Grey hairs  say) signs of sorrow, or the forerunners of old age, or both: So the doctrines then which hence are derived are these: first, that sorrow causing hoarnesse: secondly, that hoarenesse the messenger of old age, should make men know and consider their estates. And first for sorrow and affliction.  
This doctrine is like Demetrius, 
h Ioh 3. Epist. 〈◊〉. 12.  it hath a good report of 
Affliction  all men, and of the truth itself: O Lord thy word is truth. joh. 17. What the word saith, you may hear in the 5. of Hosea. 14. where God saith by the Prophet, I will be unto Ephraim as a Lion, and as a Lion's whelp to the house of juda: ay, even I will spoil, and go away, and none shall rescue it. If you look into the 107. Psalm, and the 4. of Amos, you shall find two fortresses for this doctrine: I pray you read them & hide them in your hearts till you be truly learned. The prodigal son had perished, if he had not perished: he had perished in soul, if he had not perished in state, he was forced to go by weeping cross to his father. Clodoveus, 
i Vid an. do. 496. joh. Pappum de cover. gent.  the king of France, could not be persuaded unto christianity by his wife Crotildis a religious Burgundian, till by the Almains there was given him an overthrow in battle: which calamity wrought so with him, that he vowed (if God would restore unto him what he had lost) he would bequeath & dedicate himself to his service, while he did live: so he prayed, so he prevailed, so he performed. 
k Apoc. 15. 2  This world is a Sea, and therefore turbulent; of glass, and therefore brittle; mingled with fire, and therefore dangerous: we must go with a low sail (if we do well) and humble our▪ selves; but not be too much afraid because of the noise of the water pipes: for God's Church is like 
l Exod. 3. 2  the bush that burned and was not consumed, because the Lord was in the bush. 
m 2. Cor. 12. vers. 8. 9  Paul prayed thrice, that he might be freed from the buffet of Satan: but God thought it meet, that he should not want temptations to scour him and make him bright; and therefore he promiseth not to free him from his wrestlings, but to back him in his agonies: saying, My grace is sufficient for thee. Affliction keeps the soul of a Christian in breath, it is the eyebright to make him see both his own weakness (for David, before he was afflicted went wrong) & the strength of God upon him. As is the fire unto the gold, a purger: as is the pruning knife unto the tree, a pruner: as is the fan unto the wheat, a purifier: as is the thunder unto the air, a cleanser: So unto the soul is affliction, which God doth use as mustard to anoint the teats of this world withal, to wean us from it. Affliction is like 
n Exod. 4. 3. 4.  Aaron's rod; if it be used, it is the rod of God sent for our good: if it be cast under foot and despised, it is a serpent, it stings us, it doth us harm: to be brief, affliction is a part of the dowry of the Church of God. Now therefore when you are afflicted, look not only upon the arrow that hits you, but up unto the hand that drew the bow: we may learn this lesson of the Son of God, and of the martyrs of God: the Son of God spread out his arms to embrace affliction, he died willingly for our sins. Now as Antiochus the younger 
o 1. Machab. 6. 34.  powered out of the juice of mulberries upon the ground, that thereby he might enrage his Elephants to battle: So, that we may be encouraged to wrestle with afflictions, though it be unto blood, we must remember the pouring out of the precious blood of him, who became for our sakes 
p joh. 1. 29.  the slaughtered lamb of God. We may learn it of the Martyrs of God also: for in the garden of God there have been as well Roses as Lilies; as well purpur atimartyrio, as candidati innocentia. They were like rose leaves; not withered upon the stalk, & falling away, but distilled with the heat of persecution, till they sent out a water, a blood, a precious blood: 
q Psal. 116. 13  Right dear in God's eyes is the death of all his Saints. These were the primroses of the Church, which died quickly after Christ their great shepherd: many years after, there were many, whom when I remember, 
r Socrat. Eccl. hist. li. 3 cap. 11.  I remember also Ecebolius, who recoiled many times, and started from his God, and in the end after his several apostasies, he laid him down in the Church porch, and bade the passengers tread, upon him, deeming himself no better then unsavoury salt: his later end was better than his beginning. By Christ and by these his Martyrs (who had the soul of their souls for their comfort) learn to submit yourselves to the correction of God, that you may legitimate his wisdom in correcting of you; lest (as was in the Prophet jeremy's vision) 
s jere. 1. 11. 13  after arod in this life, there come a seething pot, in the life to come. Then, then unto the incorrigible there will be an accuser, the conscience: a witness, the memory: a judge, the reason: all these within them, if there were none without. 
t De similitude. mund.  But there shall be (as Anselmus saith) the heavens lowering above, hell gaping below, the Devil accusing on the one hand, sins witnessing on the other, the conscience burning within, the world flaming about; these things to fly, it will be impossible: these things to endure, it will be intolerable. There will be a pain by loss, and a pain by punishment. It was a grief to Adam to forego Paradise, but a greater grief 
u Gen. 3. 18.  to toil among brambles and briars: misery too much to forego the presence of God, 
* Psa. 16. 12  at whose right hand there is fullness of joy for evermore; but a greater grief to endure 
x jerem. 9 1.  (O that my head were a fountain of water, and mine eyes floods of tears, that I might weep day and night for them that are in such a case) to endure, I say, hell fire, 
y Mar. 9 44.  where the worm ever gnaweth, where the fire ever burneth, and never burneth up, where death is ever living, (alas for pity!) that aeternus ignis, that everlasting fire. Bid welcome to his correction in this life, that you may avoid the second death. Yet grey hairs caused by affliction could not make Ephraim know his estate: no, not grey hairs (which argued the approach of old age and death) could make him know it: yet as I noted, secondly the approach of age should make us know ourselves.  

* psal. 95. 8.  To day therefore if you will hear my voice, harden not your 
The messengers of old age.  hearts: let not cras, cras, to morrow, to morrow be your note, 
a Lib. 8 de confess. cap 5.  which Saint Austen misliked in himself, when he was within the ken of the kingdom of grace; and therefore added, Why not now Lord? why not now? neither flatter yourselves as those did (whom Saint Peter reproves) saying, 
b 2. Pet 3. 4.  Where is the promise of his coming? to day and yesterday are both alike: as though they could plead prescription for Gods long suffering. True it is, you may have mercy when you can repent: but you cannot repent when it is your pleasure: therefore remember, though Christ saved one (the thief upon the cross) at the last gasp, least men should despair, yet we read but of one only lest they should presume. 
c jere. 48. 9 11.  Moab was not powered from vessel to vessel, but was at rest, therefore Moab was settled upon the lees: therefore, the Prophet shot a warning piece unto them, because danger was at hand; saying, Give wings to Moab that he may fly away. You little know what loss you may have by security, therefore lift up your head from dalila's lap: O let the world charm you no longer: when the gale is favourable go and good luck have you to heaven ward upon your great adventure, stay not till the winds are contrary: old age is attended by many impediments, lay not the heaviest burden upon the worst horse, charge not your weakness with that high service, adjourn not your repentance, dedicate not the flower of your age unto vanity, appointing only for God the dregs in the bottom; rather awake thou that sleepest, 
d joh. 12.  the night will come when no man can work, work while you have the twelve hours of the day. Be persuaded, let not your hearts be unmalleable, persuade yourselves that qualis vita, finisita, as the tree falls so will it lie; as is the life, so is the death, and as death leaves, so judgement will find. In your memories let ever be engraven as upon a tablet, the picture of that rich man in the Gospel; who when his barns were full, said, 
e Luk. 12. 19  Soul take thine ease: but presently there came a summons unto him; Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be taken from thee. 
f Plu. & Val. Max.  When Caesar warred against Pompey, he had no care of managing his business while he was in his own territory; for there he could command help: but when he once passed Rubicon the utmost bounds of his dominion, he said, The Die is thrown, there is no way but fight it out: So, while we are in this life, we have power to labour for ourselves; if our sins plead against us, we may have the counterpleas of prayers and holy meditations. By hearing of the word of God, and praying, we may have parley with God upon conditions of peace; but when we once pass the utmost bounds of this life, there is no purchase to be made by trentals, or masses. 
g Galat. 6. 7.  At men have sown, so must they reap: To dream of a serpent is an argument of felicity: 
h Philip. Camerar. in operibus succe●●uis.  Camerarius doth instance in the mother of George Castroit, or Scanderbegge; who, the night before her son was borne, dreamt of a Serpent, that laid his head in the kingdom of Epyrus, and stretched out his body over the dominion of the Turks; which argued he should be (as he became) the vanquisher of them: Be this observation true or false in nature, it serves me for your instruction, to land this doctrine upon your own banks. Our whole life is but a sleep in sin: in the depth of our slumber, let us (like dreaming men) have our imaginations running upon the old Serpent Satan, and his sleights: so shall we be happy, standing we shall prevent a fall.  
But as for Ephraim he was not so refined, not so zealous 
Yet they knew it not.  for the Lord of hosts: though strangers devoured his strength, though grey hairs were here and there upon him, yet he knew it not, yet he knew it not: his ignorance is redoubled. Out of which words I observe a just imputation against divers ignorant men: Some know not because they cannot, those be the unlearned: Some know not because they must not, those be the weaker sort of papists: Some know that which they need not know, those be curious questionists: Some know not that which they need to know, and those be they which know not the things that belong to their peace. 
i Luk. 19 42   
First, the unlearned know not, because they cannot know; they roll along with the stream of the world, all of 
1. The unlearned.  them enacting, that learning in this age is not a thriving course: whereas (O blessed knowledge!) they that have thee, live two lives, whereas others live but one. The mind is exempted: their little (all) falls not with the unlearned, a prey into the land of forgetfulness. Thou art the soul of the world, knitting together these present times with ages passed by thee we that are living call to counsel those that are dead and gone. Many huge dumb heaps, many goodly piles and monuments, had been wronged by forgetfulness: but that by thee (O learning) they survive: they are vented out unto us by antiquity, which for reverence sake we must not count a liar. O knowledge, how much hast thou won from the waste of time? The want of this knowledge unsinewes the powers of a man, and unmannes him quite. Learning hath no need like a Curresan to open her breasts whereby she may gain love; nor to beg an alms at the gate of fame, to have her gentry blazed: she is rich enough of herself, and her glory is great at home, though fame were tongue tied, and could not speak.  

k Theodore tripartit. hist. lib. 6. cap. 17.  julian that wicked Apostata, would have abolished schools of learning, arts and sciences, because the Christians using the help of these things wounded them with their own quills. Learning seasons tender years with graces, & with virtues key tunes the strings of nature.  
Therefore prise at no low rate the two Universities of this Land, 
l Psal. 45. 16  Unto whom instead of founders and fathers, God hath given children, into which two this and former ages have emptied themselves, they are the two plentiful breasts of our mother England: they are deep died and engrained with knowledge from above: like Hercules' pillars they may have engraven upon them Non ultra, for there are no Universities in the world that go beyond them, no not equal to them. And as Hercules pillars standing by the straits of Gibraltar are the way 
m Tabula Petri Plancij.  from Europe to the fortunate Islands: so these (if they be used) will serve as a direction for England to a place more fortunate; where all happiness dwelleth.— 
n ovid. Meta. lib. 13  Deus est in utraque parent. There Philosophers reign, and they that reign may seem to learn Philosophy.  
Secondly, the weaker sort of Papists know not, because 
Secondly. the weak Papists.  they must not know. It was the case of our forefathers: the book was a book sealed unto them, & therefore they had cause to weep much. Reu. 5. 
o 1. Cor. 14. 1  the trumpet gave an uncertain sound: how could they know when to go to battle? the sword was sheathed up in an unknown tongue, how could they fight? 
p Mat. 5. 15  the candle was under a bushel, how could they see? the land mark whereby they knew their bounds, was removed: the law sayeth of this sin, 
q Deut 27. 17.  Cursed is he that doth so, and let all the people say Amen, Their Cleargiemen were as 
r Hos. 5. 1  snares upon Mispah, & as nets spread upon Thabor, they did entangle the people; who hearing their latin service which they could not understand might go home again, and say with Nabuchadnezzar, 
s Dan. 2. 3.  We have dreamt a dream, and we cannot tell what it means. And yet the weak ones will not stick to say, It was a good world in time of Popery, things were cheap and plentiful; much like to them that dwelling in Pathros, despised the prophecies of jeremy, and say de It was well, and there was no scarcity when they burned incense unto the 
t jere. 7. 18  Queen of heaven and baked cakes to make her glad. But those and these loved darkness better than light. When the truth of God in despite of papistry would needs break forth as the noon day, and so 
u Esa. 30. 26  the light of the Moon became as the light of the Sun, and the light of the Sun seavenfould, 
* Esa. 60. 18  Salvation became the walls of our Church of England, and praise her gates; they went about to dim the stars when they could not darken the Sun, and by a malicious invasio they endeavoured to sophisticate the fathers of the Church. 
x Praefat. Junii indicis expurg.  For Philip the second, King of Spain, gave commandment to Christopher Plantine his printer at Antwerp to print a Catalogue or Index, which should give direction how to geld and purge the Fathers of all such sentences as might make against the Church of Rome: which Index should not be publicly sold, but should serve for the use of the Spanish inquisition, that by their tyranny all the old copies might be called in and the new ones published unto their minds: So with this one sword had Pharaoh meant that those 
y Exod. 1. 15  Midwives of Egypt should kill all the Children of Israel. But see how 
* Psal. 121  He that keepeth Israel, doth neither slumber nor sleep: It pleased God, that reverend M. junius, having conference with a friend about this matter, had the whole plot discovered unto him, got an authentic copy of their Index, & by the permission of john Casimere, county Palatine of Rhine, he got it placed in his Library, where it remains (I think) until this day to the shame of them who would have wronged Antiquity so much. If they had effected their purpose, they had had the Father's crying as loud for their opinions against God's truth, as ever 
a Luk. 23. 18  the jews cried for Barrabas against the son of God. But to prevent this 
b 2. Chr. 6. 41  there did arise thou (O God) and the ark of thy strength.  
Thirdly, curious questionists seek to know those things which they need not know: they entangle themselves in 
Three curious questionists.  Genealogies and matters impertinent, and out of a desire they have of praise for launching into the deep, they pry into the secrets of the Thunderer, and when they have seen what they can, they say more than they have warrant for, wisely they tell foolish tales, & bring long lies very smoothly to an end. To give you a taste of their vanity, some dive into the mystery of the resurrection: such were the persecuting Gentiles in France (as Eusebius witnesseth) who in scorn of the resurrection, which the Christians do believe, did burn many of the Martyrs, and afterward threw their ashes into the river Rhodanus, with this foolish exprobration, Let us see now if their God be able to revive them. They were not so well studied in the schoolmen, as to know that which Peter Lombard hath, sentent. lib. 4. Dist. 44, (urging this point of the resurrection) that though an image be broken in a 1000 pieces, it may be made up again so long as the image maker doth live: So he that made all of nothing, can much more of something make what he will. Nay (which was more pity) they were such strangers in the book of God, that they knew not what was delivered concerning the resurrection by Ezechiel, unto whom was showed great heaps of scattered bones, which 
c Ezech. 37. 6  the Lord yet put together and laid sinews upon them, and made flesh grow thereon, and then covered both with skin, and afterward breathed life into them. God 
d Chrysost. in 2. Cor. 2. Hom.  (saith Saint Chrysostome) dealeth with the soul, as a man pulling down a ruinous house doth with himself: he retires himself into some other place lest he be annoyed with dust and rubbish, and returns into it again when it is built more firm and glorious: so God gives the soul a repose in heaven, it is not annoyed with the dust of the grave: but at the day of the resurrection, when the house is built more glorious than it was before, 
e 1. Cor. 5  when this mortal shall put on immortality, then shall the soul take possession of the body again: but these things are to be scanned by faith, they are out of the reach of human reason: 
f Napier in Apoc. pro. posit. 14. part. 2. 8. Maxim.  some again take upon them to tell the time of the day of judgement; and grounding upon the saying of Saint Peter (that a 1000 years with GOD is but as one day, and one day as a 1000 years) have set down that after 6000. years should come an eternal Sabbaoth or rest. Now because it is said, for the elects sake, there shall be a shortening of those days, therefore they affirm the time of Christ's second coming shall fall out between the years 1688, and 1700.  
Some again are so impudent, that they venture (as far as humane reason will lead them) to prove incongruences in the book of GOD, and some belch their impiety so openly that they would prove in justice in the designs of GOD: as namely, 
g See Sim. Pat. confut. of Machivel.  Machivel who is not ashamed to say, that Moses and the Israelites were as much usurpers upon the Land of promise, as the Goths and Vandals were upon Christendom. That desire of knowledge, that like a corn of salt distempered the taste of our first parents, is become an habitual saltness in Adam's posterity: unto which malady Saint Paul applieth a corrective when he adviseth men 
h Rome 12. 3  to be wise unto sobriety.  
Fourthly, they that know not the things that belong unto 
Fourthly, some know not those things that belong to their peace.  their soul's health, know not what they need to know: & such was Ephraim in this place. Semblable unto Ephraim are many, who know too much and too little: too much of other men's states, but too little of their own.  
Therefore pry not into other men's actions and words, scour not your mouths upon them; as 
i Lib. 3. de bap. contra Donat. c. 10  Petilian the heretic 
Too much.  doing, gave Saint Austen occasion to tell him, that his tongue was no fan for the Lords floor, to discern the wheat from the chaff: look not over other men's hedges, as they that have tender eyes do when they complain that the Sun is waterish and dim when it is not so, but themselves are weak sighted. Such men as are ever commenting upon other men's actions, make the godly 
k Psa. 120. 4  woe that they are constrained to dwell with Mesech, and to have their habitations in the tents of Kedar. Rather turn your eyes into your own bosoms, as Christ bid them that judged the woman taken in adultery, john 8, He that is without sin cast the first stone at her: so they went away from the eldest unto the least.  
Pry not you too much into other men's estates, nor too little 
Too little.  into your own: you have husbandry enough at home, you have 
l psal. 14  eyes, look that they be not swelled with lust: you have hands, look they be not hands of iniquity: you have feet, look they be not swift to shed blood: you have tongues, look the poison of asps be not under them: you have members, look they be not weapons of unrighteousness. 
m A. Gellius  But as Polo the Tragedian acting the part of Electra upon the stage, & being mournfully to bring in the bones of her brother Orestes in a pot, he brought the bones of his own son lately buried, that the sight of them might wring forth true tears indeed, and therefore he might act it more famously: So shall we more truly express joy in the holy Ghost, and repentance for our sins, if we take a view of the estates not of other men but of our own souls: that will breed true joy and true grief indeed, when we say not as the disciples said (when Christ told them that one of them should betray him) 
n Mat. 26. 22  Master, is it I? Master is it I? but Master, it is I, Master it is I that have sinned, that have committed treason against thee, the King of Kings, and Lord of Lords. Let yourselves be the centre of your own circling thoughts, and bend yourselves to know those things that may serve your turns at the day of account. Scipio could weep when he saw Carthage a burning, because the like misery might befall Rome his native country. But Belshazzar made not so good use of his father's troubles, and therefore Daniel saith, 
o Dan. 5. 22  And thou his son, O Belshazzar, hast not humbled thyself, though thou knowest of all these things. God shareth out his stripes unto the ignorant, 
p Luk. 7. 47  and many stripes unto them who have means to know and will not. And therefore the Prophet Esay delivers a burden against 
q Esay. 22. 1  the valley of vision, as well as against Egypt, where was ignorance & Cimmerian darkness. 
r Saint Barn. sup. cant. serm. 36.  Saint Barnard speaks of some, who know only because they would know, and that is curiosity: some know because they would be known, and that is vanity: some know because they would edify, and that is charity: some know because they would be edified, and that is true christianity. That learned Father fans away as chaff the two former kinds of knowledge, but as wheat he preserves the two later, which tend to the edifying of the soul. The word of God hath flowed among you like Nilus or Gihen in the time of harvest. 
s Rom. 10. 22  God hath stretched out his hand all the day long, his arm is revealed, the preachers of the word have carefully planted in this place. 
t Psal. 78. vers. 47. 48  O give not their fruits unto the caterpillar, nor their labours unto the grasshopper, not (as I may be bold to compare it) to the world, not to the flesh, nor the mulberry trees unto the frost, not unto the cold numbness of zeal, of charity. Experience, that having many relators seeth with the eyes of all the world, tells us that frustra sapit qui sibi non sapit: and therefore they that know and do not use their own knowledge to their own good, they fall upon a wrong sent, and run counter after their salvation: knowledge and performance should be twins of one burden. He that sayeth, 
u 1. joh. 2. 4  I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; he offers no sacrifice, but a lie unto the author of truth.  
Learn that you may know, know that yourselves may better yoursoules: so did not Ephraim; though grey hairs were here and there upon him, yet he knew it not, and the pride of Israel (his stubborness, his impudence) testifieth to his face, and they do not return unto the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this. They did not know their danger, they did not return unto their harbour: they did not return unto the Lord their God.  
When we have sinned, we must return unto the Lord our God, first by repentance for our sins, He is a jealous God: Secondly, by reforming of our sins, He is a holy God: Thirdly, by hoping in God, who doth pardon our sins, he is a merciful God.  
By repentance for our sins: for in the first and second 
By repentance.  of Amos the language of the prophet is nothing but a volley of judgements against Damascus, Tyrus, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and juda; under whose sins God was pressed, as a 
Amos. 2. 13  Cart is pressedwith sheaves, for they had threshed Gilead, with threshing instruments of iron: for three transgressions and for four (sayeth God) I will not turn unto them. It concerned them then, and us also to turn unto him by repentance, left for 3000. transgressions or for four, he come with the bosom of his wrath and sweep us all away. We are beleaguered and compassed about with iniquity of our own heels: let us not hypocritically dote upon ourselves, saying 
x jer. 6. 14  peace, peace, when there is no peace: let us rather by the heat of zeal distill tears from our eyes, for 
y Esay. 57 21  there is no peace (as my God saith) unto the wicked. There was a woman in the 7. of Luke, who (as one in travail of a new soul) had the grace to repent her of her sins; and therefore 
* Cant. 4. 9  she wounded Christ with one of her eyes and with the chain (the chain of graces) about her neck: she came into the pharisees house boldly: and stood behind him shamefastly: at his feet humbly: and mournfully, she washed his feet with her tears: and as one one neglecting her best ornament in respect of Christ, she wiped them with the hairs of her head: lovingly she kissed his feet: and bountifully, she anointed them with ointment. 
a Leuit. 12. 8  When a woman came to be purified in the time of the Law, she was to offer a Lamb: which if she were not able to compass, than she was to offer a pair of turtle doves: the authors of the heroglyphickes compare a Lamb to innocency, and a pair of turtle doves to a pair of mournful eyes: if any be so poor in good works that they cannot offer the one, let them be so forward in repentance as to offer a pair of the other; and let them desire of God as the wife of Othoniel did of Caleb and joshua, that seeing they are parched with sin and with the heat of concupiscence (as she complained of an hot country) there may be given unto them 
b judg. 1. 15  springs above, & springs beneath, springs of tears in their eyes above, and springs of blood (if it be possible) in their hearts beneath. It is God's will, that as jacob was first married unto 
c Gen. 29. 17  Leah, that was blear eyed; and after an other prenticeship, unto Rahel that was more beautiful: so should the sons of jacob, first unto repentance blear eyed and full of tears, and after the enduring of that 
d 2. Cor. 7. 10  godly sorrow (which will cause repentance unto salvation) they shall enjoy the joys of heaven, which are beautiful like Rahel: 
e Apoc. 7. 17  For all tears shall be wiped away from their eyes. Grammarians derive terra a terendo: So why should not man (who is earth and ashes, terra quiateritur) because he is harrowed up with a feeling of his sins? When the wind is enclosed in the hollows of the earth it strives for passage, & so makes an earthquake: many times (O earth and ashes) thou tremblest & quakest at the remembrance of thy sins: but fear not, that sorrow comes of God, it is because there is within thee the holy Ghost, 
f joh. 3. 8  (that wind which bloweth where it listeth.) When thy soul (O man) is troubled for thy sins, that garboil within thee is like the troubling of the water, john 5. Be thou sure, the Angel of the Lord hath been there, that sorrow of thine comes from God: hope in Christ, but sorrow for thy sins, 
g Exod. 12. 8  eat thy paschal Lamb with sour herbs. 
h Plut. in vit. Syll.  As they that looked upon Sulla's ring, could not choose but take notice both of Sulla's seal and the treason of jugurtha, because that was graven upon upon the seal: so consider & weigh both the 
i Eph. 1. 14  seal wherewith you are sealed against the day of redemption, and the treason of your forefathers also which gave occasion of the sealing of such a pardon unto you. Therefore as the nightingale in the night time sings merrily with a prickle at her breast: so in this valley of the shadows of death, sing praises unto your God; but ever with a compunction, a feeling of your sins, and sorrow for them.  
Neither must you only mourn for your sins, but you must abandon them also, for fear of the devils re-entry, with 
k Luk. 11. 26  seven Devils worse than himself, and then your latter end will be worse than your beginning.  
But as I noted in the second place, you must turn unto the Lord by reforming of your sins, and observing Gods 
By reforming of ourselves.  commandments: which injunction unto flesh and blood, is durus sermo. For, though we could be content to die the death of the righteous, and say with Balaam, 
l Numb. 23. 10  Lord let my later end be like unto theirs; yet this living of the life of the righteous is hard of digestion, as hard as the gaining of the land of promise was to those spies which confessed that the 
m Num. 13. 28. 34.  land was a good land, and full of fruits, but there were in it the sons of Anach, and they were giants. The reward of a Christian many think to be a good prize, but they are loath to wrestle with the difficulties of Christianity, those be the sons of Anach and they be giants: it is better for flesh & blood 
n Wis. 2. 8.  to crown themselves with rose buds before they be withered, then 
o Psa. 127. 3  to sit up late, and rise early, and eat the bread of carefulness, though God so give his beloved sleep. When they feel the pain that belongeth unto the service of God, they say with her (who longed for children but could not endure the pain of childbearing) 
p Gen 25. 22  Seeing it is thus why am I so 
q Lamprid.  wanton. Florus could say: Ego nolo Caesar esse, equitare per Britannos, cursitare per Germanos, pati pruinam, etc. I would not for any good be Caesar, to endure so many frosts, & watchings amongst the Britan's and Germans: but Caesar thirsting after victory, retorted it thus upon him: Ego nolo Florus esse, ambulare per tabernas, latitare per popinas, etc. I would not, for any good, be Florus to spend my time in vanity. There is great difference betwixt a carnal man, and those that desire (through jesus Christ) to be more than Conquerors: the carnal rather than they would lose their 
r Math. 8. 34  swine, desire Christ to depart out of their coasts, whereas the other 
s 2. Tim. 2. 12  that they may reign with Christ, are willing to suffer with Christ. Some of the ancients speaks of a plea that shall be holden by the devil against the wicked, before God, at the day of judgement: O glorious king, these that stand before thee, are thine indeed by creation, but by their sins they have canceled that image of thine that was upon them; they are thine by virtue of thy Son's passion, but mine for want of natural compassion: in all matters of difficulty, when the question was whither they would lean to thee or me, they forsook thee & yielded to my temptations: therefore (o great King, o King of glory, give me my due. There is danger you see in wearing the livery of Satan, no less 
t Esay 59 5.  than treading upon the eggs of a Cockatrice, which is dangerous; and weaving the spider's web, which is fruitless. Let it not seem evil and burdensome to you, to serve the Lord: for though there be no condemnation to them that be in Christ jesus; yet this privilege belongs unto them that live after the spirit, not after the flesh, Rom. 8. 1. 
u 1. Sam. 6. 12  When the ark of the Lord was drawn by kine to Bethshemosh, though their calves perhaps lowed unto them, and they (as the text saith) unto their calves, yet they could not go because they were tied unto the ark: So do you resolve upon the keeping of the covenants of the Lord, and then though your affections call you aside, yet you cannot, you will not go wrong because you are tied by vow or by resolution, though not to the Ark of the covenant, yet to the covenants of the Lord: but if you will needs follow your own 
* Gen. 6. 5.  imaginations which are evil, and that continually; beware of joys no better then sick men's dreams: those joys are quaedam nepenthica, & soporifera, for a while charming and silencing the cries both of sin and punishment: but in the end 
x Dan. 4. 2  the visions of your heads will make you afraid. If you be wicked, 
y pro. 28. 1  you will fly cowardly, yea sottishly when no man followeth, because you have loved iniquity and hated righteousness: therefore the devil (whom you have served) will anoint you with oil of sadness above your fellows, then can you never be merry though all the pleasures in the world should make you melody. An evil conscience (when you have lost yourselves, as job lost 
* job. 1. 19  all his goods & children) will haunt you and say unto you, you have lost God's favour and your own souls, and I alone am left alive to come and tell you, to keep you waking at midnight when you should sleep. When there be many fiery pictures in the air, a blast of wind breaks and dispearses them all: when in your minds there be fearful & terrible cogitations, strange frightings, and amazements; there is no way to disperse them but by Gods holy spirit, that wind which bloweth where it listeth. When David understood that the water of the well of Bethlem, that was brought unto him. 
a 2. Sam. 23 17  was gained by the jeopardy of men's lives, he would not drink it, but powered it upon the ground for a sacrifice unto the Lord: bethink yourselves that your souls are gained not by the jeopardy, but the loose of the life of Christ: dedicate not your souls and bodies unto lust and vanity, but rather say (O Lord) they were dear bought, I will offer them both as a sacrifice to thee. We must mourn for sin, we must abandon sin; and because sin will ever dwell in our suburbs and be a borderer it will hang on so fast, and will never admit a Supersedeas from sinning, so long as we dwell in houses of clay,  
We must (which I thirdly noted) appeal unto God 
By trusting in God.  (for he is the highest court of appeal) 
b joh. 1. 29.  who is the Lamb of God and can only purge the sins of the world: Let this Agnus Dei be your choicest ornament. 
c Plut. in Apothegm.  For as the woman having a matter heard before Philip king of Macedon, who being asleep did not well apprehend her cause, but gave wrong judgement; therefore she said she would appeal from Philip to Philip, from Philip sleeping to Philip waking: So must we appeal, from God to God; from God just and angry for our sins, to God opening the bowels of compassion unto us. 
d jud. 14. 4  Out of the strong came sweet, it was the riddle of Samson: the meaning of the riddle was, out of the dead Lion came the honey comb which relieved him: My application at this time is, out of the strong 
e Apoc. 5. 5.  Lion of the tribe of juda, comes the sweet comfort of our saving health; for, that Lion 
f 1. Cor. 1. 30  is unto un wisdom, justification, sanctification and redemption. 
* Gen. 27 19  As jacob said unto his father, so we may say to thee O heavenly Father; eat of our venison, of our flesh, the flesh of thy Son, that thy soul may bless us. though man being just do live (as the Prophet saith) once, and the Apostle doth canonize it once again; yet faith is the soul and breath of that life: 
g Hag. 2. 4.  justus ex fide vivit. When it was resolved that Christ should do his Father's will for the good of mankind, he was ready to say; Lo here I come to do thy will: he came indeed to shed his blood: he bled not inward, for that might have endangered the body; but his blood was powered out for the good of others: the spear of the soldier that thrust him through the side, may serve as a pen, his blood was ink, wherewith was written our Quietus est. We may now with Paul not only challenge death, saying, 
h 1. Cor. 15. 55  death where is thy sting? but with the same Paul sing a Requiem unto our souls, saying, that 
i Rom. 8. 38.  neither powers, nor principalities can make a separation between God and us. Seeing then God hath reared up a standard of hope unto all believers; let us not be like reeds wavering and shaking in faith: for than we please the devil, who by some of the ancients is compared to 
k job. 40. 10  Behemoth, that takes his pastime among the reeds; but rather, let us be like a wall (strong) that God may build upon us 
l Cant. 8. 9  a silver palace, that he may make us houses for himself. Let us acquit ourselves like men: we have for our right hand, 
m Ephes. 6  the sword of the spirit, for our left hand, the shield of faith, for our breast, the breastplate of righteousness, for our heads the helmet of salvation, for our feet, the shoes of the preparation of the Gospel: furniture enough for all parts, save only the back; to argue that if we fight against the devil we may do well, but if we turn our backs and grow faithless, we give him advantage against us. What need we turn back? seeing (like Rahel) he died in travel of us his children, and though to him we were 
n Gen. 35. 18  Benonies sons of sorrow, yet in regard of ourselves we are Benjamins, sons of his right hand. He showed his power and strength to do us good, the deeper we dive into the fountain of his mercy the sweeter we shall find the water, we shall find 
o joel 2. 13.  he is gracious and merciful: if that be not enough let us dig deeper and we shall find he is of great goodness, plenteous in goodness, and one that is sorry for any evil that happeneth unto us. Our Saviour openeth the breasts of consolation unto us: now the more the breasts of a nurse are drawn by sucking, the more ease it is unto her: by sucking therefore these breasts and calling for mercy at his hands, shall we not please him? yes, as one desiring a vent for his abundant mercy he cries, and saith: 
p Math. 11. 18  Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden, and I will ease you. He our Head is ascended into heaven, and now above the water; temptations may assail us, but they cannot overcome us: so long as the head is above the water, we that are his members can never be drowned: therefore let us with an intemerate faith make way through 
q 2. Cor. 6. 8  honour & dishonour, good report, and bad report, and dismayed with nothing, take hold on Christ jesus: he, he will traverse the indictment, cancel the debt, suspend the rigorous doom, acquit our souls, and this pardon will be ripened with an influence from above, with the best aspect, the trine aspect, the holy Trinity will say Amen unto it. Ephraim sinned: well had Ephraim been if he had turned unto the Lord, by repentance mournfully, & by reformation holily, & by cleaving unto Christ jesus hopefully; but he did not, he sought not the Lord (as the text saith) of which point I spoke unto you out of the 7. ver. & therefore now I pass it over: nay, Ephraim was so far from cleaving unto God, that Ephraim was like a dove deceived without heart. Like a dove? that was good, 
r Mat. 10. 16  be ye innocent as doves▪ a dove deceived? that was nought, be you wise as serpents also. 
A dove deceived.  But the devil took such order to infatuate that wisdom, that he gained possession of the tower the strongest hold, the heart, unto which all the affections owe suit & service. 
s 1. Reg. 22. 31.  Fight against neither small nor great, but only against the king of Israel: quell the the captains, & all the soldiers will be amated: the temper of the head spring is either the sweetening, or the poisoning of the streams: the heart being surprised, the retinue of affections must needs do their homage & follow after. But whither did the affections of the men of Ephraim follow their hearts? to Egypt, to Ashur, where there were the sinews of might & strength: the earth's terror, Ottoman hath not greater at this day: but see how unsurely the foot of worldly pomp standeth, they stood in slippery places, though they did call to Egypt, though they did go to Ashur.  
Simple doves, being well in their dove-house the Church of God, where they wanted neither meat, nor nest, nor warmth, nor the protection of God, they could not be content, but lured with the charms of Egypt & Ashur, flew willingly into their nets, and there changing their gold for copper, forfeited their estates in God's providence: they wanted help, & though being under God's wing, they 
t 2. Reg. 6. 16.  were more that were with them than they that were against them, yet did they call to Egypt, and go to Ashur.  
I call to mind two kinds of doves deceived without 
Spiritual.  heart; the one in matters spiritual, the other in matters temporal. In matters spiritual, those that in the quest and pursuit of their salvation, make not to Almighty God, the strong rock of their defence, but they make wrack upon the sands, upon the unsure ground of masses, trentals, indulgences, pardons, the number (not the weight) of prayers, nay upon their own good works, which are no better than sins, passing the sands in number: and there might they drown, their 
u Esay 1. 18.  sins being as red as scarlet, if God in his mercy did not make the sinners as white 
* psa. 68 14.  as the snow in Salmon.  
The spider hath many legs, and little or no blood. If you ask why the church of Rome standeth upon so many legs, and leaneth upon so many helps not warranted by the scripture; it is because they have too little confidence in the blood of Christ. Among other their reeds of Egypt they stand to the mercy of the Pope, who pretends to have the key of the church's treasury, and can sell or lend good works unto them that want, as though he were worthy to be of God's privy counsel.  
I read of one 
x Lampr. in Se. Verco.  Verconius, in the time of Alexander Severus; who pretending familiarity with the Emperor, took men's money for preferring their suits, abused them, did them no good at all: being convented before the Emperor, he was judged to be hanged up in a chimney and so perish with smoke, for that he sold smoke to the people. The man of sin makes great boast of familiarity and power with God. Though he take men's money for indulgences, yet how little good he doth them, the wise can judge, he sells but smoke: and if God's mercy be not all the greater, he may perish by the smoke or by the fire of the valley of Tophet that was prepared of old. 
y Vid. a little treatise. of the description of the world.  In the country of the Abisanes where Prester john governeth, there be certain mountains called Montes lunae, out of which the river Nilus issueth with such violence, that it would overflow the lower country (which now the Turk possesseth) if it were not received into certain deep pits and dams in the country of Prester john; to whom for that cause the Turk yieldeth a yearly tribute: the deluge of sin is so great that it would overflow us body and soul, but that Prester john, or Presbyter john, john the Priest, Christ both King and Priest for ever, doth swallow up sin, and bury it in the depth of his mercy. Shall we not then yield a tribute for his favour? yes, and all too little. 
* Dubravius lib. 26.  As Zisca that valorous Bohemian did not only quell his enemy being alive, but commanded that when he was dead there should be a drum made of his skin thereby to terrify him: So, Christ jesus for our sakes did not only when he was alive 
a Gen. 3. 15.  break the head of the Serpent, by his preaching and miracles, but by his death and after his death also he wrought the devils woe and our good, he 
b Rom. 4. 25.  died for our sins, and rose again for our justification. So now, non gens sed mens (as 
c Reusner Leor. in symb. imperator.  julius Aemilianus said in his Emblem or Poesy) not only jews but Gentiles also (if they fear God) find favour at his hands: While we walk through 
d Psal. 84. 6.  the valley of Mulberry trees, or of misery (as divers translations render it) we may use these meditations, as pools of water to refresh us, and learn to fly to God, not to Ashur, not to Egypt. As I have noted unto you a kind of doves deceived without heart, in matters spiritual concerning their souls; so I note another kind that are as much deceived in matters temporal, shrinking from God and leaning upon the broken reeds of Egypt.  

e Dan. 7. 9  O thou ancient of days, thy mercy is as ancient, and from the beginning: O thou whose name is wonderful, thy 
Temporal.  love is wonderful: why should men then, from the breasts of consolation, fly and call to Egypt or go to Ashur? Lean upon the world's lap as long as you will, she will prove but 
f judg. 16. 18.  a Dalila, to rob you of your strength, she will prove like that 
g Cant. 8. 8  little sister, Cant. 8. that hath no breasts: but Christ is your true Vine. john 15. 1. A vine grows near the house, so he is near to all them that call upon him: a vine is an ornament to the house, so Christ is to us: therefore we must cast all our crowns down at his feet. The Vine keeps the house from a storm: So, CHRIST keeps us from storm and tempest, which is the portion of the wicked to drink.  
But which is tremblable and monstrous, there be some, who, when God smites them, they fly unto a witch or an Enchantress, and call for succour; as though job had been deceived when he said, 
h job 5. 18.  O God thou woundest and healest again, thou woundest and killest again: or when he said 
i job. 1. 11.  The same God that takes away, the same God doth give. When Ahazia was hurt, he sent to 
k 2. Reg. 1. 2. 3. 4  Beel-zebub the God of Eckron, but God sent Eliah the Thisbite in haste to meet the messenger on the way, and bade him say, What, is there never a God in Israel, but thou must seek for help of Beel-zebub the God of Eckron? Because thou hast done this thing, thou shalt never rise out of thy bed. God's favour never was upon Saul after he left him, and 
l 1. Sam. 28. 7  went to the Witch of Endor: therefore, it is said, that 
m 1. Chr. 10. 13.  Saul died in his sin, because he forsook the Lord, and asked counsel of a familiar spirit. Let this doctrine serve as eyesalve unto all you (if there be any in this place) who for the love of your goods and your body's health, seek unto, not the hurting witch (for flesh and blood abhors her) but the good witch (as you call them commonly) who is more sought unto, therefore the more dangerous; who assure yourselves is, the more Saint, the more Devil.  
Therefore deal you with God by prayer, be in league with God: this blessed league of love, was not concluded betwixt God, and the men of Ephraim, because they left their first love and started aside like a broken bow: but God was angry, his jealousy burned like fire, he found their goodness 
n Hos. 6. 4.  to be as a cloud and as the morning dew, quickly come, and quickly gone, their zeal short breathed in going up the hill to heaven. He found their motion not to be natural, not from the heart, because it was tardior in fine quam in principio, more flow in their latter end then in their beginning.  
His family admits no dwarves or unthriving souls, which grow not in grace, which do not 
o 1. Cor. 9 24.  run that they may obtain, but rather with Demas, 
p 2. Tim. 4. 10.  go back and embrace this present world; therefore he 
q Dan 5. 27.  weighed them in a balance, and found them too light, and divided their kingdom. here stand amazed with me and tremble at the angry words of our just God. But when they shall go, I will spread my net upon them, and draw them down as the fowls of heaven: I will chastise them as their congregation hath heard. verse 12.  
As if God had said, O ye men of Ephraim, though you be without an eye, and see not your danger: without a foot, and return not unto me: without a heart like a dove deceived, and go to Ashur: yet I will see you when you go, for 
r Zepho. 1. 12.  I search jerusalem with a candle: I will spread a net by my wisdom, and draw you down by my power, and chastise you in my justice, and make good my truth by performing that which you have heard in your congregation. He will see them when they go: where I note Gods all seeing 
But when they go.  providence watching over the godly and over the wicked: over the godly, to protect them: & over the wicked, to restrain them.  
Over the godly, for their protection: and therefore in 
Godly.  the 9 of the Proverbs, Wisdom (that is Christ the wisdom of his father) is said, to buildher an house, (that is the Church) upon seven pillars (that is upon a sure foundation) and in the foundation of the Church (as of the Temple of jerusalem, Zach. 4.) there is laid 
s Zecha. 4. 10  the stone with seven eyes, Gods all seeing providence; which is is so mounted upon the wings of birds, that 
t Mat. 10. 29.  two silly Sparrows sold for one farthing, cannot fall to the ground without his permission: much less, man who is of more worth than many sparrows: lest of all Gods elect, for whose good his Angels are appointed to be a guard and to all that are heirs of salvation. Heb. 1. 14. The difference between the God of Israel and the Gods of the Gentiles is this: the God of Israel holds his people in his hands, Apoc. 2. 1. But the Gentiles held their Gods in their own hands, Gen. 35. 4. The wheels in the first of Ezechiel, (things whose motions are giddy and uncertain) resembled the round world and the things therein, which things (like the rings of those wheels) are full of eyes, full of God's providence (for now jerusalem, being without walls hath God's 
u Ze l. a. 2. 5  providence to be awall of fire about her, and himself, is the glory in the midst of her) for the good of his people, he 
* Hos. 2. 21  makes the heavens to hear the earth, the earth to hear the corn, the wine, and the oil, and them to hear the cries of Israel: when Israel cries he must be heard; For he that keepeth Israel doth neither slumber nor sleep.  
Lest then we plow the Sands and labour in vain, we must wrestle with all difficulties and businesses, and overcome them as the people of God did the Madianites with 
* judg. 7. 20  the sword of the Lord, and the sword of Godion: neither being wanting unto ourselves, nor yet depending upon our own endeavours without the blessing of the Lord, who will say to the 
* Esay. 43. 6  North Give, and to the South keep not back. It was a worthy resolution of jacob, that he would not go into a strange Country upon a great business, 
x Gen. 28. 20  unless GOD would be with him in his journey. Let it be your resolution, not to undertake any business for soul nor body, but with a request unto God (before you undertake your work) that he will further your enterprise. When you come into the Church to hear for your soul's health, or when you are about to labour in your vocations, remember this; GOD is the supervisour of his own will to see that it be performed, by the godly and by the wicked: he helps the godly that they may do it. If the ungodly do it not, He tears them in pieces, while there is none to help: for (according to the position of the schools) in him there is bona potentia and potens bonitas.  
Over the wicked a power, and that is good: for the sakes 
Wicked.  of the godly a goodness and that is powerful. Let no man say that when he is about to sin, Tush 
y Psal. 11. 14  God doth not see it, what is there knowledge in the most high? Those men are like to stage players, personate men, they seem what they are not, their deeds give their words their lie: like idle housewives (which sweep the dust behind the door) they have filthiness enough though it be not to be seen.  
There is in this world a great swollen body of ostentation, both words and deeds: it is the great physician of our souls, who can only skill of the Anatomy of this body; and therefore though the jews cried, 
* jere. 7. 40  The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, yet he tried what gold they were, not only by the ring and sound, but by the touchstone also: and when he found what they were, he said, 
a Mat. 7. 21  Not every one that sayeth unto me Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doth the will of the Father that is in heaven: When a man had a sore, that was not covered, by the judgement of the law Levitical, it was but a sore, but 
b Levi. 13. 30  when it was covered over with a yellow lock it was a Leprosy: every sin may pass for a sin, but when sin is covered over with a fair yellowish lock, with a fair show or smooth excuse (as namely when pride is glorified with the name of cleanliness, covetousness with the name of good husbandry, deceire of wisdom, drunkenness of good fellowship) than it is more than a sin; a man may suspect himself for a Leprosy, than he must proclaim himself before God (as the Leper was to do in the streets) 
c Leu. 13. 45  I am unclean, I am unclean. Now in this seeming age (when complement goes as far as one of the liberal sciences, and to be a fashionable man is as high rated as to be learned or honest) 
d josh. 6.  Seven days, and seven Priests, and seven rams horns are all too little to cast down this sin, which is as mighty as jericho. Christ was never so loud against any sin as against this sin of hypocrisy, crying oftentimes, 
e Mat 23. 13  Woe unto you Scribes and pharisees hypocrites. Therefore if there be any of you, who give Christianity occasion— 
* Virg. lib. 2 Geor  mirari suas frondes, et non sua poma— Who seem to make account of 
f Esay. 1. 13  New Moons and Sabbaothes, and of the Church of GOD, and of religion, and have your hands full of blood, grinding 
Vers. 15.  the faces of the poor by hard bargains, having your mouthesfull of lies, and yet wiping your mouths, as though you were no such men; take heed the vizard will be pulled from your faces, and Godwil smite you, you whited walls. Act. 23. 3. God will see you, you cannot deceive him, he saw the purpose of Ephraim: and when he saw it, he said, I will spread 
I will spread my n●t and draw them down.  my net upon them, there is his wisdom; and draw them down as the fowls of heaven, there is his power: he spread his nets and drew down Nabuchadnezzar that Lucifer, that sun of the morning, while upon his Turret, he was making an Idol of himself; and many others: among the rest, 
g Corn. Tacit. & alii.  Nero, who piled cruelty upon cruelty; witness many villainies chained together at one time: When first he set Rome on fire: Secondly, he played upon his Lute and song verses of Homer, concerning the burning of Troy, comparing the two Cities together: Thirdly, he charged the Christians with the burning of the City. Fourthly, he clothed them with the skins of beasts, that being taken for beasts they might be devoured by dogs. 
* Seemaster Knowles his Turkish History in the life of Amurath the 2.  Though divers of the Turks kill their brethren to prevent treason, and thereby to make themselves great in the world, yet God can put hooks at his pleasure in their nostrils, and turn them back whither soever he will. He can spread his net and pull down the greatest oppressors of the earth, and make their 
h Prou. 20. 17.  bread of oppression to be gravel in their teeth, and make 
i job. 31. 38.  the furrows of their Land to complain against them: which Land being gotten by the hurt of Christ's members betrayed and sold, (as judas betrayed Christ) will prove no better than 
k Mat. 27. 8.  Aceldamaes, fields of blood. 
l Exod. 6. 5.  He that saw the wrong offered by the taskemasters of Egypt, and heard the cries of Israel, will ever hear the groans of his distressed people crying,— quem das finem Rex magne laborum? 
m Apoc. 6. 10  How long Lord, how long Lord holy and true? They that wound Gods children, touch the apple of his eye: 
n Act 9 4.  Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Saul through the sides of the Church, wounded Christ. Benhadad was deceived when he said, the God of Israel was 
o 2. Reg. 20. 23.  the God of the mountains, and not of the valleys, as though the Lord cared for the high and mighty and not for the lowly and dejected: there will be a time when God will no longer suffer the wicked 
p Esay 65. 15  to spoil upon his holy mountain: 
q Psal. 12.  but for the comfortless troubles sake of the needy, and because of the deep sighing of the poor, I will up (saith the Lord) and when he ariseth, who is able to resist? Herod was a King, and (as the greatest are) he was but Lord over a little corner of God's footstool; yet he grew impetuous, and when he sat upon his royal seat, he remembered not him that sitteth upon the circle of the heavens: when he stretched out his hand, he remembered not him that with the span of his hand reacheth from the East unto the West: when he spoke, he remembered not him whose voice is like the sound of Thunder: when he was clothed with royal apparel, he remembered not him who is clothed with righteousness, as with a garment: therefore he found that Omne sub regno graviori regnum est, 
r Act. 12. 23.  He was eaten up with worms. It is GOD that can visit 
s Esay. 27. 1.  Leviathan, that piercing Serpent, yea even Leviathan that crooked Serpent, and can slay the Dragon that is in theses and as for those who are any way displeasing unto him, he can take them though they hide themselves 
t Amos 3. 12.  in Samaria, as in the corner of a bed, and in Damascus as in a couch: for God in this place saith of Ephraim, I will draw them down as the fowls of heaven.  
This may seem harsh to flesh and blood: which out of weakness may even seem to plead against God, and say that God is the cause of their ruin and perishing in their sins, seeing he shows his power in punishing of them, for those sins which himself by infusing grace might have prevented. Dust and ashes dispute not thou with thy maker, 
u Hos. 14. 2.  Perditio tua ex te Israel, Every reprobate is choked with his own venom. God can touch pitch, and not be defiled: as for example, 
* job. 1. 15.  The Sabaeans and the Chaldaeans spoiled and robbed job, the Devil caused them, God suffered them, nay in some some sort he was an agent; for 
x Act. 17. 28  by him men live, move, and have their being: author I say of the action, but not of the obliquity of the action: when impiety was once afloat, God by his wisdom ordained a channel for it that it might turn to his glory, and the greatest good of job. When a skilful musician plays cunningly upon a Lute that is out of tune, the jar (if there be any) comes from the lute, not from the hand: when men's lives are out of tune ought they to blame that wise and powerful finger of God without which they cannot work? No, no: O sinner all that jarring comes of thyself. It is not God (O drunkard) but thyself that drinks thee drunk: Not God (O thou murderer) but thyself that stains thyself with blood: Not God (O thou blasphemer) but thyself that fills thy mouth with 
y Ecclus. 23 12.  words that are clothed with death: build not thy sins upon the back of God: thou mockest thyself, when thou thinkest to shift thy burden from thyself unto his shoulders. 
* Ezech. 18 4  The same soul that sinneth, the same must die, unless God's mercy be all the greater. As the Devil brings darkness out of light, so the manner of God is to bring light out of darkness: thereupon Saint Origen speaketh of a great pedigree of blessings derived from that unnatural sin of the selling of joseph into Egypt, which blessing after many years returned plentifully again unto his father's house. 
a Aug. in Fau●●um Manich.  Saint Austen in few words determines this question: the Devil tempts, man consents, God forsakes. Let God be true, and all men liars: Let God be justly esteemed pure, and all the world be tainted with impiety. God in his wisdom shows his justice oft and many a time upon us, as at this time upon Ephraim, that by his corrections he may call us home unto him: 
b Hos. 11. 4  He draws us gently with the cords of a man, even with the bands of love, lest we should be drawn from him by Egypt or by Ashur, by little sins or by great, 
c Esay. 5. 18  by the cords of vanitic or by the careropes of iniquity.  
And therefore in the words following, he calls them 
Chastise.  chastisements: which chastisements (when men are incorrigible, deaf adders and stop their ears against the wise charmer) are the best means to cast salt upon affections, and gives eyes unto reason: he sayeth, I will chastise them. The chastisements of GOD lay heavy (that my discourse may bear date then, and not before the coming of our Saviour in the flesh) upon the son of GOD himself: the rods wherewith God did suffer him to be chastised were his enemies and his friends: his enemies were like 
d Psa. 22. 16  as many dogs that came upon him: and as the Sun entering into the constellation called the Dog, argueth a hot season: so the conflict must needs be hot when the Sun of righteousness fell among so many dogs: his friends, the flock, were so amazed (the shepherd being smitten) ●hat he was like a tree having all the leaves beaten of: not only the withered leaves, those which followed him for his bread and for his miracles fell away, but the green leaves also, they which loved him best, his own 
e Mark. 14 71  Peter both denied and forswore him. 
f Luk. 23. 31  If these things fell unto the green tree, what shall be done unto the dry tree? The Church could not scape sorrow, but hath hen 
g Esay. 1. 8  as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, and as a besieged City. When the devil trieth, he trieth with a siue, 
h Luk. 22. 31  Satan hath desired to winome thee as wheat: When God trieth, heetrieth with a sanne; 
i Luk. 3. 17  With a fan will he purge his floor: a siue keeps the bad, and sends away the good: a fan keeps the good, and sends away the bad: therefore the trials of the devil do rob us of our virtue, and the trials of God by affliction do dispatch away all our vices. Be not afraid (saith 
k Petr. de remedio utriusque fortun●  Petrarch) though the house, the body be shaken so the soul, the guest of the body fare well. Affliction is the whetstone of zeal, which made God sometimes let his Church taste of it, and 
l 〈…〉 13  lie among the pots, though her wings be of silver, and her feathers of gold. God doth come with love or with a rod inter changeably as it pleaseth him: He hath piped unto us by many earthly blessings; have our hearts danced for joy, and in our songs have we pray said him? He hath mourned unto us by the shaking of divers rods, and calamities over our heads, and hath our mourning for sin been like the mourning of the mother for the loss of her first borne? If we will be reconciled by neither means, he will do unto us as he did unto Ephraim: 
m Mat. 11. 17.  For when he piped to Ephraim by his love and by his word, they would not tread right measures by their obedience, therefore he told them they must address themselves to weeping, for now he meant to mourn unto them and to chastise them as their congregation had heard.  
Such is the confluence of opinions for the exposition of these words, so divers and so justling the crowd of interpreters, 
As their congregation hath heard.  that I cannot without wronging you overmuch, marshal them into their several ranks: therefore 
n Zanchius & ●hi.  I will at this time build upon that which is subscribed unto by the best, and excepted against by none; which I take to be the quick of these words; and that is this, that they had often heard in their congregations, by thelaw & the prophets, that the chastisements and the rods of God would tread upon the heels of their sins, if they continued in them. Happy were the men of Ephraim, if they had known their own happiness: yet being as they were they were happy, for being forewarned they were forearmed. So was Niniveh: for the noise of destruction 
o jon. 3. 4.  after forty days made the Ninivites turn unto the Lord, and so prevent the danger. Arise quoth Elias to A●●●b and 
p 1. Reg. 18. 44.  prepare thy chariot, for I hear a sound of rain; unless thou pass quickly thou canst not pass: there the sound of rain, prevented the danger that might have come by rain: So though the justice of God require the cutting down of sinners, yet God in his mercy first 
q Mat. 3. 10.  putteth the axe to the root of the tree, to see if that repentance and amendment of life, may prevent that cutting. Seeing then you have so many warnings in the congregations, to forearm you against danger, make use of them and be bettered by them, lest they prove a cloud of witnesses against you.  
I will chastise them as their congregation hath heard. Out of which words, I observe first that the preacher who is the tongue of the congregation, aught to tell the people of their danger to come: Secondly, the people who are the ear of the congregation, aught to yield their obedience unto the voice of the shepherd; a well composed body that hath such a tongue and such an ear. The preacher should tell the congregation of the danger to come: but some cannot, some dare not, some will not, some though they do it do it to no purpose.  
Some cannot, for they run before they be sent, not having 
Some cannot.  eaten 
r Apos. 10. 10. Ezech. 3. 1.  the little book that Saint john and Ezechiel were commanded to eat: they give counsel before they receive it of the Lord, they preach without meditation, they only turn the cock and let the water run; whereas fishers of men should be as the Apostles were (when they were fishers) who were not always casting in their nets, but some times mending their nets: so if these men be always feeding others by their preaching & never feeding themselves by reading and meditation, they will prove but dry nurses in a while, and unfit to give the sincere milk of the word to others: what then, 
s jer. 8. 22.  is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? Yes, but some dare not. Some dare not, forgetting (that when occasion serveth) they must be 
t Mar. 3. 17  sons of thunder, as well as of consolation. Woe unto them that gilled over ragged walls and rotten posts, 
u Ezech. 13. 10.  who daub with untemperedmorter, & sow pillows under the elbows of sinners: saying peace, peace, when there is no peace: 
* Ps. 137. 6  Let such a tongue cleave to the roof of the mouth, let such a daubing right hand forget his cunning. In the Gospel we read of 
x Mat. 13. 33  a woman, that seasoned three pecks of meal till all were leavened. I compare the three pecks of meal to three sorts of men, our superiors, our equals, our inferiors: some preachers can be content to put leaven (sharpnesseinough) into their equals and inferiors, but when they should come to season their superiors, they dare not, they Hatter; in stead of leaven, they bring honey: they are in some sort like Surgeons, though they have not Lions hearts, courage to lance, and pierce, & cure the sins, yet they have Ladies hands, which (they say) are enured to complexions and paintings, they have complexion for every vice; both will and skill to justify the balances of deceit and wickedness (be it never so great) in a friend or in a man of power. They be like ciphers which are nothing of themselves, but serve to raise the figure to a higher number: so these are men of no worth, only they serve by their flattery to puff men up with an opinion that they be more than indeed they are. 
y Hotto. in his treatise called the ambassador.  Hottoman a learned Lawyer, saith that an Ambassador should not be like a stage player to change his person, he must stand constantly upon the will and pleasure of his King. If an Ambassador must be so, than God's Ambassador must be so, & more than so, delivering neither more nor less, than the counsel of God. john Baptist (that day star before the Sun) the forerunner of Christ did not stick to tell Herode that 
* Mat. 14. 4  it was not lawful for him to have his brother Philip's wife; though 
a Amos. 7. vers. 12. 13  Amaziah said unto Amos, Go thou Seer into the Land of juda, & prophecy there, but prophecy not in Bethel, it is the King's chapel, it is jeroboams court: Such agents for the Devil (that breed singing in the ears of great men, and make their heads giddy) vould persuade that those great men of the world (who have their authority given them as a talon whereby they may punish others) should become sanctuaries for sin, and that no man should dare to meddle with any vice that they are given unto. 
b Deut. 19 5  When the hatchet of any man hewing timber did by chance fly out of his hand, hit, hurt, or kill a man, there was allowed him a City of refuge: If any preacher hewing timber for the building of the Lord, touch or wound any of his auditors, shall there not be allowed unto him a City of refuge? Yes, the necessity that lies upon him to discharge his own conscience, & deliver the Lords counsel, will be sufficient to plead his pardon.  
Some again will not though they can and dare; they are 
Some will not.  like 
c Gen. 49. 14  Issachar, who was a strong ass couching down under two burdens, (two or three livings) saying, Rest is good. Such a one was Alexander the sixth, who was more fit to keep the castle of 
d Pageant of Popes.  Saint Angelo against Charles the eight, King of France, then to tend the flock of God against the invasions of Satan: he I say having sons whom he especially advanced unto honour, viz. the prince of Sicily, Caesar Borgia, first a Cardinal, than Duke of Valentia, 
e Aut Caesar aut nihil.  first Caesar, than nothing, according to his own speech, & the duke of Spain, who being murdered and cast into Tiber, and dragged for by his careful father, made his father then, & perhaps only then worthy to be accounted a fisher of men. Christ (if you mark them well) with many working words, doth enforce ministers to be careful guardians of their congregations: though Peter himselftels him thrice that he loves him, yet he will not take his love to be sincere unless Peter will 
f joh. 21. 17  feed his sheep, feed his lambs: by all the terms of love that may be, he pleads and becomes an advocate for his people, lest the sheep of his fold should wander in the wilderness without a guide. Ministers are called shepherds, watchmen, labourers; their names are not still borne, but have their signification and teach them their duty: yet some will not, though their office be to be orators for the people & Ambassadors from God.  
Some again, though they do it, do it to no purpose: as 
Some do it to no purpose.  when they give good oracles out of Moses his chair and yet have not consecrated hands to perform what they speak; which makes the people think of some great mystery of Atheism, that was never yet imparted to them. It should be with the minister as in the vision that Ezechiel saw, 
g Ezech. 1. 8  a hand under a wing: they should not only have knowledge to mount upwards, but a hand also to perform that which they know is meet. Therefore in the old Testament, there was not only Aaron that had upon his breast plate, 
h Exod. 28. 30.  urim and Thummim, perfection of life as well as light of understanding: but in the new Testament also there was john Baptist, who was 
i joh. 5. 35  a shining and burning candle, not only shining with knowledge but burning also, such was his zeal. It was an argument of the calling of Moses, when his rod 
k Num. 17. 8  brought forth both blossoms and ripe almonds: No man will deny that Minister to be lawfully called, who hath both the goodly blossoms of learning, and the ripe fruits of a lively faith: those that have the one are like Saul 
l 1. Sam. 8. 7  who overcame his thousand: but those that have them both are like David who overcame his ten thousand, and being made keepers of the vines they may rejoice that they keep their own vines also. Cant. 1. 5.  
Some cannot, some dare not, some will not, some though they do it, do it to no purpose. These words I doubt not are drunk up into the ears of many, with as longing a desire as 
m job. 40. 18  Behemoth would swallow up jordan into his mouth: but what? Is there sin only in the house of Levi, & not among the rest of the Tribes? no, not only: I may not silence the sins nor the duty of the people: the people also should hear the threatenings that are delivered in the congregation. But some will not come, some will not mark when they come, some will not be pleased when they mark, some be they pleased or displeased, will not obey.  
Some will not come, but (like beetles who care more for the dung of the earth then for a rose) they esteem more of 
Not come.  that which is 
n Phil. 3. 8  loss and dung, 
o Rom. 15. 12  then of Christ, the flower of the root of jessee: they cannot abide the savour of him, though his word be 
p 2. Cor. 2. 16  the avour of life unto life: though his word turned Lions into Lambs, making the soldiers say, 
q Luk. 3. 14  Master what shall we do? the subtlety of the serpent into the simplicity of a dove, making the Publicans say, Master what shall we do? many heads into one tongue, making the people say, Master what shall we do? All this, when it was put into the mouth of john the Baptist, Luk. 3. 
r judg. 5. 23  Curseye Meroz, (saith the Angel of the Lord) indefinenter maledicite (as junius and Tremelius render it) curse it with an everlasting curse; because the men of that City would not come out to help the rest of the Tribes in the day of battle. When we come all to the Church of God upon the Sabaoth day we come (like an army) to join together to war against the devil by our prayers and holy meditations: if there be any that be either idle, or drunken, or wanton, or worldly, or (for any cause) unwilling to come to join with & help their brethren in this high service, shall I curse them? I pray God they be not cursed with an everlasting curse. While we blaze the glory of the word, there comes unto the ignorant a jesuit or a Seminary or perhaps a pupil of theirs, & beguiles them with a show & pretence of antiquity, as the Gibeonites beguiled joshua, by telling him a tale 
s josh. 9 vers. 4. 5.  of old shoes, and old bottles, and old mouldy bread: they tell them the old good world was then at the best, when they lived under the Latin law, and knew no Scripture, but believed as the Church believed, and so by this means many simple men have been drawn to make a league with them (as joshua did) 
t josh. 9 14  without ask counsel of God. I do with reverence ascribe all convenient authority unto the Church, whose beauty within is far more than I can comprehend.— 
u martial.  Par domus est coelo, sedminor est Domino. The Church, the house of God is glorious, and even the gate of heaven, but the Church (especially those hoodwinked Churches in those sickly times whereof I spoke before) is far inferior to Christ the Lord of the Church, and his holy word which is his will, whereby he governeth this house of his. And therefore despising the words of God 
* 2 Cor. 1. 20  (which are Yea and Amen) we must not only eye the Church, which may err while she is militant here on the earth. Those that travail Southward have the Northern pole for their direction, till they come beyond the hot and burning zone or part of the world: which when they have once passed they lose the sight of the Northern; and the Southern pole ariseth to be their guide: so while we pass to heaven ward through 
x Apoc. 15  this glassy sea mingled with fire, which is the world, we are directed (as by a star) by the word of God: but when we are once past the hot fits and pangs of death, than we lose that direction, we need it no more, an other light is our comfort, even 
y Apoc. 21  the light of the Lamb for ever and ever. 
* josh. 5. 12  No falling of Manna unto the children of Israel, when once they had gotten a crop in the Land of promise, so long it fell, and no longer; no more the word, no more the bread of this life shall nourish us, we need it not when we have the blessings of that place which floweth with better things than either milk or honey.  
Some will not mark when they come, yet both strong 
Some do not mark when they come.  and weak Christians should mark, for the word of God is a 
a Greg. in mor.  River where the Elephant may plunge and the Lamb may wade. In the Church 
* Chrysost. Hom. 24. in acta.  when the Priest prayeth and blesseth, I see one talking and another laughing: when thou sittest and kneelest there, dost thou not know that thou art in the company of Angels? and yet dost thou laugh or scorn. If these things be not worthy of a thunderbolt, I know not what is. 
* August. contra Donatistas'.  To pollute a common well, where the whole City fetcheth water, is a thing that cannot be endured: how much more to abuse the Church where God's people come for the waters of comfort? 
* Tertull. Apologet. cap. 19  Coit coetus, the people gather together, & like a band of men they set upon God with their prayers. Grata est haec vis: God is pleased to have such violence offered unto him. When you come then unto the Church, mark well the use of the Laver in the sanctuary, Exodus the 30. and the 18 verse: and wash yourselves before and when you offer your sacrifice. 
b Leuit. 11  No beast was clean, but that which chewed the cud: If you will be clean, and pleasing unto God, hear not only, but mark and chew the cud by serious meditations. God cared not so much for David's sacrifices as for his obedient attention unto his word: the former he needed not, for His are the bullocks upon ten thousand Plains: but the later he required, and gave David power to perform it: whereupon David saith, 
c Psal. 40. 8  Sacrifice and burnt offerings thou wouldst not have, but mine ear hast thou opened: he made account he should hear, and attention would be more pleasing unto God than any sacrifice. 
d Exod. 21. 6  If a man for love of his master were willing to be his servant continually, he must by the judges of the city have his ear bored: If you vow yourselves continual servants unto the Lord, you must desire the judge of quick & dead to boar & open your ears that you may hear & know his wil When you come up them with the Tribes into the house of the lord, bring your buckets with you unto the well, your ears & hearts that they may be filled, 
e Mat. 26. 40  Grudge not to watch with God one hour, let no temptation of flesh, the world, or the devil steal away your hearts. Like children dote not upon babies while you should learn your lesson, be not miscarried by worldly shows & vanities. Say unto every evil suggestion, 
f Mat. 16. 23  Turn thee behind me, Satan: know that 
g Exod. 3. 5  the ground where you sit & kneel and stand, is holy ground. Let God in his own house be the Emperor of the field: and by his word he will hammer you so, that if he find you 
h Lactantius lib. 3. divin. institut.  like Lions, he will make you lambs, if he find you weak, he will make you resolute, never to be outfaced by the flames of persecution: 
i 2. Cor. 2. 16  who is sufficient for those things? for the message of God? yet 
k Eph. 4. 8  God hath given gifts unto men, whereby they deliver the word of God (as Vincentius 
l Vinc. Ler. contra. hae res. cap. 17  Lerinensis saith) nouè, but not nowm; after a new manner, but no other word then that which was from the beginning: and they stand upon the watch towers in your Churches to descry the danger & give you warning, hear them, & by their preaching together with the power of gods holy spirit (a beam of the Sun of righteousness) you will quickly perceive your souls not to be virgins, you will see your own sins & corruptions that you may amend, as the beam of the sun shining in a house discovers many motes which before were unperceived: wouldst thou not be caught by the hooks of Satan? then let not thy mind leap out of the pool, out of the well of the water of life, at every fly, at every worldly vanity: wouldst thou have thy affections deep died in religion, so that thy mind clothed with them may be taken to wear the livery of God? then let them stay long in the liquor; let thy body stay in the Church, & thy mind besetled upon the word that is read & preached: so by the hammer of God's word without, and the fire of the holy Ghost working within, thou wilt be beaten & fashioned into a signet, near & dear unto God: but if (
m jer. 22. 24  Coniah like) thou being a signet on God's finger dost rebel against him, he will pull thee off.  
But some will not be pleased when they mark; but like 
Not pleased.  Apes & Monkeys which break every glass they look into, because every glass doth show them their own deformity: so they quarrel with all preachers and preaching because the truth delivered cannot choose but show them their own ugliness. They have their galls in their ears: whatsoever they hear turns into the gall of bitterness, they love to have their ears sheaths for flattery, they relish nothing but placentia, if there be any sin that rules in them (as who hath not one or other that is predominant) than they acknowledge no king, but Caesar, no ruler but that evil affection, the word of God shall not overrule them by their good wills. How much better were it for men when they are touched by sermons, to give God thanks for it, because God hath sent a special messenger that day to take them (above others) as brands out of the fire, & like stinging spirits to bring them unto God. For such words 
n Psa. 149. 8  bind kings in chains, and nobles in links of iron: they carry not away the ear unto God for a present, but a heart 
o Pro. 23. 26  which he himself requires of all his sons: O God (may they say, who are touched for their sin) I thank thee, 
p Luk. 19 9  this day is salvation come into my house.  
Some again (be they pleased or displeased) will not obey. 
Not obey.  Though the word of God like the 
q josh. 10. 12  Sun standing still in Gibeon, and the Moon in the valley of Aielon, hath been a long time at the noon point and height, that by the benefit of it we might be revenged of our greatest enemy: yet I fear, the Devil may still walk 
r Mat. 12. 4  in dry places, as he delights to do, among those (I mean) that are not moistened with this well of living water, or if they have heard the word, yet 
s Math. 13  it takes little or no root because it hath fallen in stony or thorny places. When Naaman murmured at Elisha saying, that 
t 2 Reg. 5. vers. 12. 13  Abanah and Pharphar rivers of Damascus were better than either jordan or any river in Israel: the servant of Naaman said unto him, If the man of God should bid thee do a great matter, wouldst thou not do it? much more when he bids thee wash thyself seven times in jordan and be clean. So should we do any thing that God commands in his word (even because he commands) much more when he bids us obey and be saved. The assurance that we have for our salvation is in the word of God, we know in whom to trust: but God keeps a counterpane thereof, he is not ignorant, but knows whom we must obey: as he will on his, so must we on our parts perform conditions. 
u Chrysost. in 2. Math.  If having gone astray and being in danger of Herod (of the Devil worse than Herod) we will not with the wise men of the East return home another way, than God may say (as David said in the pang and burden of his soul) 
* 2. Sam. 18. 33.  O my son Absalon, O Absalon my son, my son; you would needs be rebels: but, as he was hanged in his own hair, so your lot is to perish by your own rebellion. Hear the word then, as though the very message brought you wings to fly to God: let not sin (that shot without noise) wound you unawares and possess you so strongly, that you be loath to leave it till it leave you; so that you say of it, as Abraham said of the son of the bondwoman, 
x Gen. 17. 18.  O that Ishmael might live in thy sight. And surely such is the nature of man, that every one hath a sin (which I may call a peculiar) beloved with an extraordinary love, for which he desires a dispensation, though he can be content to forego all other sins but that. As Let said of Zoar, 
y Gen. 19 20  O Lord spare it, it is but a little City: so every man saith of his be loved sin, O lord spare that, it is but a small sin, I am naturally inclined unto it, and therefore to be borne withal, from other sins I am content to be weaned. Thus every man would be so sawey as to pass a faculty with God, if he were not both wise & just. The devil is like Nimrod a great hunter, O Lord keep us out of his chase: yet men like the pleasures of sin: and though they be in danger to be molested with many spirits and terrors, who come within the compass of sins enchanted circle, yet are they never willing out of the devils by-paths to follow their mother the Church, by the steps of the flock. Cant. 1. 7. not from virtue to virtue, from grace to grace; which is the progress of Christians, to whom Christ saith 
* Cant. 2. 10  Arise my love, my fair one and come away. Moisture in the feet strikes up into the head, the sin of the meanest member dishonours our head Christ. Let them the girdle of verity be strait girt about your loins; I mean, observe strictly that which God commands: he saith Prepare yourselves for heaven: say you, 
a Psal. 57 8.  O God my heart is ready, my heart is ready: he saith, Seek ye my face, answer you again, and say, Thy face O Lord will I seek: lay your noses open unto the sweet savour of life unto life: your eyes unto the day-star that is sprung from on high: your ears unto the charms of the wise charmer: and seeing God by his word knocks at your doors, 
b Psal. 24. 7.  Lift up yourselves you gates, and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors, that the King of glory may enter in. Let not the Ministers of God's word, row any longer against wind and tide: but seeing they are appointed to raise up seed to their elder brother Christ jesus, by preaching 
c Lib. 1. pastoral. curae cap. 5.  (as Gregory doth moralise that levitical decree) be flexible at their persuasions. 
d Our eng. Chr. M. Fox and others.  Then shall that of Pope Gregory be more fitly applied to you, than when it was spoken; Angli quasi Angeli, not for the beauty of the body, but for that beauty which is the beauty of your mother the Church, who is alglorious within. 
e Pro. 30. 26.  conies are a people not mighty, yet they make their houses in the Rock: howsoever many of you in this world be but mean, yet be wise, and build upon the Rock of your defence: do it in deed by your obedience unto the word, if you will stand against all temptations: if you do but in show only, it is but a sandy building and will fall. 
f M. Krolles his hist. of the Turks.  Uladislaus no less than a king of Polone and Hungary, and therefore a Christian King, was punished with a great overthrow at Verna for breaking his promise & oath made to Amurath the 6. who was no better than a cruel and an irreligious Turk: how shall men who are base, far worse than Kings, and yet Christians by profession, escape Gods fearful judgements for breaking their promise and vow made in their baptism, not unto a Turk, but unto God, not irreligious but the author of all religion? Therefore remember your vow and yield your obedience? If ever it was a time to hearken to God's word in God's congregation; it is now, when 
g Exod. 8. 28  the wicked swarm like the flies in Egypt. 
h Apoc. 8. ●1  The star called wormwood is fallen into this glasly sea, and hath poisoned the world. Antigonum quaero (quoth one) I seek Antigonus: So may we: Where is the innocency of former ages? Now the wicked, 
i Gen. 41. 4.  like the lean kine (which Pharaoh saw in his dream) eat up the fat ones (the good men) yet are they never a whit the fatter themselves, but as ill favoured as they were before. In this age one may see 
k Zecha. 3. 1.  jehoshua's, the best men, standing before the Angel of the Lord, in the best place and presence, and Satan on their right hands hindering their best actions: The Lord reprove thee Satan, even the Lord, that hath chosen jerusalem, reprove thee.  
Especially now seeing the ends of the world are drawing near unto us. It is (in respect of us) long, since Christ said, 
l Apo. 22. 20  Surely I come quickly. And now by the forerunners of the end, we may guess the beginning of sorrows unto the wicked: but as for you that have better learned Christ; 
m Lu. 21. 28  Lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth near. One forerunner, is carnal security; men shall (as they did in the days of Noah) put far from them the evil day: even now men pamper the flesh, their bellies have no ears. 
n Zech. 1. 11.  The man among the myrrh trees said most truly then (so might he now) that all the world is at rest: Such is the security and sleep in sin, that with the world it is midnight: but beware; 
o Mat. 25. 6.  at midnight will the Bridegroom come, he will once more 
p Hag. 2. 7  shake not only the earth, but the heavens also. Look you be not taken unawares in your bloody feathers, unbrace not yourselves as though the armour of a Christian were no wearing for you: ye are yet in the militant church: the devil so long as the world endures will never dislodge his camp, but be up in arms against you. Yet blessed be your God who leads you against him, with the 
q Zech. 11. 7.  two staves, beauty and bands, a beautiful and comely government, and with the bands of love: do not all the other forerunners follow after with 
r Zech. 5. 9  windin their wings, 
s Matth. 24.  wars abroad, rumours of wars at home, a general conflagration among private men, by strife & envy: the pestilence knocking at our doors: So 
t Luk 21.  little faith among men, that the wiser sort and more nimble headed are pioneers & underminers of others: which made David in his time say, having the choice of three plagues (& we have now much more cause) 
u 2. San. 24. 14  Lord let me not fall into the hands of men.  
Antichrist, 
* 2. Thes. 2. 4  the man of sin, sitting as God in the temple of God, whose mystery of iniquity beginning to work in Paul's time, hath now filled the world brim full of poison: many false Christ's (if you look into our Chronicles) have lift up their heads many years ago: how many jews be converted to Christ we cannot tell, but we are to hope that God● privy seal hath marked many among them who live in Italy, France, Germany, and other places of Christendom. We have seen signs by fire, many and fearful: Signs by water, when God did let it loose to the spoil of whole countries, the next year he bound it up with frosts, and gave it bars and doors, saying 
* An. 1572.  Hither to shalt thou come, and thou shalt come no further, here shalt thou stay thy 
x job. 38. 11.  proud waves.  
There have been signs in the stars set by him who guides 
y job. 38. 32  Arcturus with his sons: as there was a blazing star seen in Cassiopaea, for the judging of whose place and altitude our Mathematicians wrote two books, the one called Ala mathematica, the other called Scala mathematica; but they could neither fly so high nor clime so high, but they found that digitus Dei, the finger of God was above them. These signs and tokens (beloved) are not limetwigges to catch you, but rather marks to direct you: let all your kowledge of these and other things end at home: your best Geometry is to measure the length, and the breadth, and the depth of God's mercy: your best Arithmetic is to learn to 
a Psal. 39 5.  number your days: your best Grammar to learn to know the property of that name which is a name above all names, whereat 
b Thil. 2. 10.  all the things in heaven and earth do bow themselves. These signs are past and gone: when 
c Ma. 24. 29  the sun will be darkened, and the moon turned into blood, we cannot tell: but for the publication of the Gospel over the world, it may be proved by many instances. One most pregnant, most fresh, is that of Virginia which now (by God grace) through our English shall hear news of Christ, the gospel of Christ shall be published, no doubt 
d Rom. 10. 18  the sound of the Preachers will go out into that corner of the world, and make it as a 
* Esa. 58. 11  well watered garden. There were a people of the like quality (with the natural inhabitants of Virginia) poor and naked things, (I call them so, the more to endear your affections) when they were conquered, there was that cruelty used unto them, that scandal was given unto the name of Christ, the name of Christianity grew odious unto them, by reason of that cruelty they would let it have no room in their thoughts. It would require a just volume of itself, to tell you what Benzo and Bartholomeus a Casa write of this argument: but I hope our English are of that metal, that having in their hands the key of the kingdom of God, they will not keep those weak ones out, but rather make way for the Gospel (as I hope they may) by their gentle & human dealing. You see many of the forerunners of the end, have already run their race: 
e Mat. 24. 32  as the summer followeth the blowing of the figtree, so the end follows these things; it is the application of Christ himself. O that I had the tongue of the learned, that I might clothe & enrich with due lights of speech this point, which was ever acknowledged by as many Philosophers as looking upon the Sun of righteousness through the cloud of Nature, held the immortality of the soul, and not now denied by any but by 
f Psa. 14. 1.  that fool that saith in his heart there is no God. He is a fool, scorn him: he saith in his heart, he is a dissembler, trust him not: he saith there is no God, therefore he is a blasphemer, abhor him: and rove not upon these things in the tempest of your judgements; but let zeal the careful nurse of Christianity, whose warmth doth much help the blowing of virtue, maintain in you these meditations. 
g Prudent hymn.  So did it in Prudentius, who framed a song unto the crowing of the cock, whose noise resembled the last trump, which should awake men sleeping in their graves, and give warning of the great day. 
h jerom super Mat.  So did it in S. Jerome, who (whatsoever he did) thought he heard in his ears the sound of the last trump, saying, Arise you dead, and come unto judgement. The Pilot who governs the ship, sitteth at the stern which is at the hinder end of the ship: if a man will govern his life well, his meditations must be settled upon the later end of his life: Who 
i Ecclus. 7. 36  so remembers his end can never do amiss. And (God knows) it is a needful thing to be remembered: for miile modis morimur, uno bene, there be a thousand ways to die, and but one way to die well. When Christ came first, he came to vanquish the Devil, that 
k 1. Sam. 17. 8.  Goliath that braved the host of the living God: when he comes the second time, he will come to be revenged of those churlish Nabals, who have unkindly rendered unto him, hatred for his good will: examine yourselves of what rank you be: and as Christ adviseth the man of war in the Gospel 
l Luk. 14. 31.  to sit down and take counsel whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand; if he be not, then while he is a great way off (if he be wise) he will send Ambassadors and desire conditions of peace: So think and know, that you are not able to answer God one for a thousand: therefore while he is yet afar off, before the ends of the world come upon you, send your Ambassadors to entreat a peace: cast out the dumb spirit and pray unto him: the deaf spirit and hear his word: the lame spirit and walk unto him in your lives and conversations: the fearful spirit and believe in him: that you may sing victoriously as Deborah did, 
m jud. 5. 21.  O my soul thou hast marched valiantly.  
Let your thoughts be sublimed by the the spirit of God. Arise unto yourselves, arise in yourselves, arise from yourselves, and arise above yourselves: unto yourselves by knowing of your sins, in yourselves by acknowledging of your sins, from yourselves by forsaking your sins, and above yourselves by having 
n Phil. 3. 20.  your lives a conversation in heaven. God would have you (his sons) to be 
o Ps. 144. 12  as goodly plants; and you (his daughters) to be as the polished corners of the Temple. Therefore he doth in his congreations oft & many a time persuade by his word: therefore, per haec lumina, for the light of the Gospel's sake: suggest by his spirit: therefore per haec lumina & auras, for the sake of the spirit of God, 
p Acts 2. 2  that wind that is rushing & mighty: God's justice doth enforce, therefore 
q Virg. Aeneid libro sexto.  per genitorem oro, for God the Father's sake: the mercy of Christ doth allure: therefore per spem surgentis juli, for the sake of God the Son in whom you hope, I desire you that you will meditate upon your day of account. And while I sound out unto you these things, it becomes me like a Cock to clap mine own wings upon mine own breast, & rouse up myself out of my slumber, before I give you & others warning of the approach of the great day; that you with me, and I with you, may all upon Angels wings be carried up to heaven, & like Larks sing merrily while we are mounting. Then & there (that at length I may take my work out of the looms and conclude) shall we have joy of ourselves, joy of our friends, joy of the King of heaven, and joy of the joys of heaven. joy of ourselves; for, though 
r 1. Cor. 15. 40  one differ from an other in glory, yet we shall be like pots full of water, one being greater than another: he that hath least (being brim full) shall have as much glory as he can have or desire. joy one of another, for if the rich man in hell 
s Lu. 16. 24  knew which was Abraham, and which was Lazarus in heaven: and if at Christ's transfiguration (being but a shadow of immortality) 
t Math. 9 4  Peter, james and john, knew Moses and Elias, though they had never seen them before much more shall we (I take it in the fullness of glory) know one another, who have been acquainted upon earth. joy of the king of Heaven, who 
u Reu 12. 1. 2  shall be our light for ever, at whose right hand there is fullness of joy for evermore. joy of the joys of heaven, where we shall not hunger, there is the tree of life: nor perish with thirst, there is the water of life: nor be perplexed with melancholy, there is a choir of Angels & Archangels ever singing & making melody: which melody that we may be partakers of, I desire of God, & let all the people say Amen: and let Christ jesus 
* 2. Cor. 1. 20  whose words are Yea, and Amen, 
x Apoc. 1. 5.  that faithful witness in heaven set to his seal, and say Amen unto it. Even so Lord jesus, Amen, Amen.  
LAUS DEO SOLI.  
FINIS.