THE eagle's FLIGHT Or Six principal notes, or sure marks for every true Christian, to so are up to the everlasting nest of God's Eternal kingdom.  
AS IT WAS DELIVERED in a most godly and fruitful Sermon at Paul's Cross.  
By Master Price of S. john's in Oxford.  
¶ Imprinted at London by RICHARD BRADOCKE for john Busbie, and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the Crane. 1599   

THE eagle's FLIGHT.  Luk. 17 37. Wheresoever the dead body is, thither shall the Eagles be gathered together. 
WEre that fruit a grape (as some schoolmen hold;) or a fig as (with Moses Barcepha) Theodoret resolves; or an apple as some other suppose) for a taste of which our first Parents (Esau-like) sold their birthright in Paradise; Sure I am that (in that) there was not juice enough to quench that thirst after higher knowledge, which the heat of Ambition had bred in the root of mankind: But that draft which in his infancy (but like a corn of salt) a little distempered Adam his taste, since (rising to a greater growth) like an habitual salt phlegm, hath bred the passion of dropsy in his posterity, that now the more they do know, the more they may know, and the admitting them to one secret is but the heartening them to challenged to be made partakers of another: So itcheth both the eye after the variety of sights, and the care of sounds, that (as the wise man saith) neither is the one satisfied with seeing, 
Eccl. 1.8.  nor the other with hearing. Christ no sooner took occasion by a bold question (which a Pharisee asked him of the time of the day of judgement) to disclose unto his disciples the signs which might give them warning of the approach of it, and the sudden separation of the elect from the reprobate; but one pressed him, and (as it were setting shoulder to the portal of Gods very privy Chamber,) in they must, and be told they must where also this great Sessions should be held.  
Our Saviour (to leave a testimony in the world how well curiosity pleaseth him) shaps them a kind of answer, which might so far resolve them as their salvation needed, though not so fully as their humours desired: and (in a proverbial kind of speech taken from the flight of Fowls unto their prey) gives them to understand, that the distinct place of this appearance was not to be inquired after: But a place there should be, in which it should be made, and towards it should all flesh as assuredly flock (to receive their doom) as ever flow did to gorge themselves with their prey.  
Here therefore is a flight of Fowl to a mark: the Fowl that must fly are Eagles: the mark (at which the flight must be) is a body: the manner (in which this Fowl shall fly) is, they shall be gathered together. And the place (where the mark or body shall be set) is yet unknown to these Fowls; but wheresoever it is, thither shall they make repair.  
By the body is meant Christ jesus; who at the fullness of time shall appear glorious in that body, in which he once conversed with us contemned.  
By the Eagles, are understood the elect & faithful servants of God, who at this appearance shall (as David saith, Ps. 36.8.) be not only banqueted, but even to the fullness satisfied, or (as the original word signifieth) in a sort surcharged with the fatness of his house.  
By the gathering together of these Eagles, is shadowed the resurrection of the just, in which the Trump shall blow, and the dead shall rise (incorruptible,) and they who have fallen asleep in Christ, shall from all the quarters of the world be summoved to meet him in the Clouds.  
By this little therefore that hath been ●●oken, some small glimpse being given of me natural meaning or drift of this scripture: let us I pray you for the better conceiving of it, enter into a more particular view of the several parts of it, taking them in order as they lie.  
Wheresoever.  
This wheresoever of our Saviour, is a reply upon a Where (of his disciples,) whereby in the words (next before my Text) they had made bold to demand of him of the place in which that separation should be of two in one bed, and two in one field, and two at one mill, whereof he had told them, that the one should be received, the other refused. The original greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (where Lord) though it more ordinarily import but the places and be englished where: yet also sometime signifying the motion to a place, and being fitly translated whither (as it appeareth by that one verse of Sophocles, into which in both these senses he hath contrived it  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 
makes it probable that they made two demands in one word, one after the place in which this sentence of separation should pass, another after the place into which they (that were thus separated) shoule pass.  
In effect, first to what bar should all flesh repair for their doom, then whither they should be directed by that doom.  
Duo quaerentibus unum respondet saith one; Christ shapes them but one answer to two questions. True, but such an one for an answer, as the Perspectives say it is, (one for a Sunbeame, which is made of two beams gathered into one) or such a one as you use to say, two friends make, which are one in deed in heart, but two in strength.  
For it cannot be but the Epitomiser of Ten in Two, (the digester of so large a volume, as the whole law into so brief a sum, as Love God above all things, and thy neighbour as thyself) should be as plentiful in his answer, as flesh and blood should be in a question, Is their question where they should make their appearance? see his answer, wheresoever he shall keep his Court. Is there question whither they shall be translated? See his answer, whither he hath gone before to prepare them a place. In fine see in one wheresoever, both a snib for the curious, & a comfort for the fainting. First a word of the Snib then a word of the comfort.  
Wheresoever.  
The divine nature, as it is very mercy itself, so it is also very wisdom itself: and as in mercy it hath vouchsafed to impart untoman, that he shall one day be brought unto judgement, so it hath in wisdom thought good to conceal from him when shall be this day, & where this judgement into which he shall be brought.  
For as the assurance of a judgement (to be endured) cannot choose but work a fear of often or grievous offending in a reasonable man. So it is not unlikely but that so great favour as to be made privy to the time & place of this judgement would breed a security in the heavy heart & a pride in the swelling heart of wicked men. Hereupon th'eternal wisdom (by whom the world was made) fore seeing how much more convenient, the ignorance than the knowledge of these two circumstances would prove unto us, hath in the one prevented, and in the other (as it were) put by our curiosity.  
For concerning the time, 
Mark. 13.32.  he clean discourageth us to inquire, elsewhere telling us, that with it not the Angels, nor the Son himself, much less may we be acquainted. And for the place, here gives he us almost as little heart, making his Apostles (whose privilege he said it was to know the mysteries of heaven) no director than an indefinite answer, & vouchsafing their where, not so much as a Here or a There, but putting it by as a demand which misliked him with an unresolving wheresoever.  
Of which wheresoever of his, you are not yet to conceive, as of an answer, whereby he purposed to shake them off utterly as unresolved, 
Luk. 2.27.  (for more liberal of these secrets than thus was he, when in a generality he gave them to understand, that he would come in the Clouds:) but the mystery which he refuseth to break unto them, is the particular place or part of this Air, where this great Assize shall be held: which notwithstanding, yet are there (of the peaching lineage of ambitious Adam) Wizards, who (as if they had crept into the heart of the Almighty, and overheard his secrets) would bear the world in hand, that they have learned and distinctly know, that over the valley josaphat near jerusalem at the foot of the hill (from whence the Lord was taken up into heaven) shall this judges throne be settled. This Counsellor, this mighty God (so Esay terms our Redeemer) is silent: and yet dares dust and ashes presume to speak? Wheresoever, quoth he (and designs no place:) even here say they, and appoint at the valley josaphat. True indeed is it, that the Lord will summon all nations into the valley josaphat, for so hath he promised, joel. 3.2. but whether into material josaphat, or josaphat so termed because the judgement which here shall be pronounced, shall resemble that which there was executed upon the Moabites and Amonites, trustly (with Rapertus Fuitiensis) doubt. For what is josaphat (if you interpret it) but the judgement of the Lord: and what is the valley, but the depth of that judgement, into which Salomon● assures sures the young man that God will bring him after all the jollity of his youth, after he hath cheered himself in the days of his youth and walked in the way of his heart, and in the sight of his eyes? Eccl. 11.9. Now long these men for a reason of me why the Prophet should specify this place? 
Quest.  Meant he not to teach the Church that here literally was this judge to be expected?  
My answer is ready: two reasons had he to make choice of it, 
Answ.  by allusion to which he might shadow to the jews the day of judgement: One, the freshness of that famous deliverances memory, which the Lord had wrought in it for them: Another, the great resemblance that will be between that general and that particular judgement of his.  
For, from the time of this Prophet yet had there not a man's age passed, since (without stroke of theirs) the Lord had in this valley, within the sight of this City, dispatched three whole Armies, which had joined forces to beleaguer them; and further in such sort as in that general judgement he will dispatch the wicked.  
For as here though the Moabite, the Amonite, & the inhabitant of Seyre bound themselves against juda, Yet cannot they prevail: So there though the Moabitish flesh, the Amonitish world, the savage inhabitant of Seir the Devil, enter a league against th'elect, yet shall they have no hand at them. As theirs had, so shall these & their complices have, swords of their own consciences accusing them to turn into their own bowels.  
And as the same place was to them a valley of judgement, which to the jews was a valley of blessing. 2. Chron. 20.26. so shall the great day be to the wicked a day of judgement, for they shall receive that heavy doom, go you cursed; which to the godly shall be a day of blessing, for they shall hear that joyful voice come you blessed. etc.  
Here therefore let proud flesh take warning to give over inquiry after this secret of God: & let careless flesh take advice to look into the secret of his own heart. Let it not busy thee to know where thou shalt be judged, but how thou mayest answer at iudgedment. Knowest thou the place? yet canst thou not withdraw thyself from it, appear thou must. And knowest thou not thyself, ill canst thou answer for thyself, defenceles wilt thou be condemned.  
Bethink thyself whether, if here in earth thou wert to come to thine answer for a crime pretended to be committed by thee, it were wisdom to spend thy time in hearkening after the place of execution, and not rather to employ it in providing thyself of friends & answers against the day of thy trial: And then say how much better thou shalt be then mad, if (knowing that thou must once render an answer of thy life passed) thou yet weary thy wit only in search after the place where, never bethinking thyself so much as how thou mayest render thy account. 
Luk. 10.42.  Thinkest thou not thou shalt at last have Martha's check for troubling thyself about many things, where as thou mightest with more case, have purchased many commendations, & by offending but that one thing which is necessary, have one of the three (which witness in heaven) give thee testimony of so much discretion as to choose the better part which shall not be taken from thee. 
john. 21.22.   
This question thou seest likes thy Saviour as ill, as that of Peter's did, what should become of john: and therefore propose it when thou list unto him, his reply to thee is like to be as then was to him, busy body what is that to thee? follow thou me.  
This of the Snib (the first of those two notes in this Wheresoever): now a word of the other, that is the comfort.  
Flesh and blood is (naturally) wont in a calm to heed to hope: So in a storm to abject to despair, and like a Bladder that swells indeed with a puff, but irrecoverably shrinks with a prick.  
Be we confronted with no temptation, and assail there neither persecution, our constancy, nor cross our patience, nor guiltiness our peace of conscience: On scour we, and so high a top bear we, as to devour no less than heaven in expectation. But hap there either the smallest trouble to fall fowl of us, or ourselves a far off to descry the justice of God with the hideousness of our own sin: Strait vail we Bonnet and (scarce haling on) look for nought, but when we should wrack. Then can we not hear of a Saviour, the voice of an accuser rings so loud in our cares: then can we not see to heaven, the steam of hell hath so blinded our eyes, then seem we still to strike either upon the sands of some secret, or the rock of our known sins. Rise we to the top of a billow? why there is the throne of a judge to condemn us. Fall we again to the bottom? why there is a place of torment to follow us. Then have we not memory, for all (even so short a speech as that of the Apostles, 
Luk. 8.24.  Lord help us or we perish:) But so possessed are we with the thought of our own end, that no more but the end of it runs upon our tongues, and we cry only, we perish.  
Here, even so constant a mind as Bernard's (incredibili met●● ac miserabiliconfusione deiecta, as he himself speaks) stricken as it were to the ground with so great fear as no heart would think but any would pity: Nay tenebroso circumfusa horrore, as it were close prisoner in darkness and horror, Hoc solum, and that de profundis too, clamabat as it were from the bottomless pit; will not have a word to speak, but quis novit pot estatem iraeti lae, Lord who is able to conceive aright what the power of thy anger is? And whom doth any fear so little appall, that his wits serve him to reckon the torments that attend on thy displeasure? Here needs not (trow we) to so perplexed a Pilot, as that poor soul of ours which God hath set at the stern of this unwieldy body, some landmark to give it comfort against the fear in which it is, and direction for the course it is to take? Is it not high time that a Saviour by a general wheresoever should show that Haven, when the destroyer by a general Nowhere, hath almost persuaded there is no Heaven? yes, and that fails he not to do: Hear him (distressed soul) whosoever thou art. Hang sin so heavy upon thee, that it seems thou canst not make any wing, And be the place (to which thou must take thy flight) wheresoever it will, yet shalt thou be able to recover it. Fair it with thee as that did with the Dove, and find thou no other place, yet shalt thou not miss of thee hand of this Noah for thy foot to rest upon: Spectat militem suum ubique pugnantem (as Cyprian saith) Be it wheresoever it will that the adversary set upon thee, it cannot be so dark a place but thy saviours eye is upon thee too, either (if thou faint) to cheer thee, or (if thou fight it out) to Crown thee.  
Is it the guard with which this way is kept, that scares thee? why is it stranger than was that of Paradise? It cannot cut thee off.  
Take not an Angel, but Angels, even Principalities unto thee, and join they unto themselves no less than Powers. Attend there upon these: death, to dispatch thee: life, to corrupt thee: things present, to delight thee: things to come, to suspend thee: height, to discourage thee: depth, to affright thee: Nay an army royal of all creatures to overrun thee: what great thing shall they all be able to do? Not so much as to separate or withhold thee, not from the person, but neither the very love, and that is in the heart thou knowest; and of whom? of God himself. Rom. 8.38. Know thou no more particulars of this kingdom than Abraham did of that which was the type of it: And have he which calls thee hither from out thy kindred and from thy father's house, told thee no more but that he will show thee this Land: yet pass thou on securely: there will come a time, in which, brought to thy journeys end ere thou be a war, thou shalt hear, This is the land which I will give to thy seed: And know thou no more of the coast of this way, than Abraham's servant did of that which led to Bethuell, yet rely with him but upon the conduct of the GOD of his master: and he shall bring thee as strait hither, as he did him whithersoever.  
It followeth.  
The body is, or as Theophilact readeth, and that both in the judgement of Hierome, and upon the warrant of good reason, and even by the confession of the Sire-newe Scholiast himself more significantly, The dead body.  
For this kind of reading makes both the Syriac edition of this place, in which for this body we reader Dephegad, of Phagad, to destroy, as one would say the destroyed or slain, And the original to the fellow text to this in the 24. of Mat. where we find not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to shall likewise, for acakrasse, 
Mat, 24.27.  because as jerom saith, It falleth by death. And the ground whence this proverb in the 39 job. 33. verse, where even the vulgar Latin enforced by the nature of the hebrew Calalim, coming of Calal to wound or kill, reads this, ubicunque fuerit caedaver flatim adest, wheresoever the carcase or dead body is, thither will it (speaking of the Eagle) shortly resort.  
Hear therefore, not to say how inconvenient it may in reason be, to take this body (which so many ways is a dead one) for the Church, whose very stones Saint Peter tells are living. 1. Peter, 1.51 In this mark, at which this flight is to be made, there are two things to be considered.  
First, it is termed a body: Then this body is said to be a dead one: Both not without singular wisdom of the Spirit.  
First of the body itself, then of the quality of it, it is a dead one.  
Very much is there worth both our attention & memory, in this little which here the Evangelist gives our Saviour, when he terms him a body. For without labour (such is the dexterity of the Spirit of God) both arms he us against an error, which the Devil hath sown in the Church, and warns of a benefit, which our God hath bestowed upon his Church. For what Christian (having his Saviour termed a body) is either so dull as not to conceive, that then Martion mistook his mark, who taught that he was but a shadow; or so unthankful as not to recount that for his sake was this body in unspeakable humility, assumed of God in the birth of Christ, and in unconceivable love offered upon the Altar of the Cross in the death of Christ.  
At this wisdom stand amazed with me; At this love, melt with ice, flesh, if thou be not harder than stone. Thy Saviour is a body; remember this, & with this also in the 24. Luk. 39 wherewith himself satisfied his Disciples, that he was not a Spirit, For he had flesh and bones: and with these two texts stop the Heretics mouth, if ever he assault thee.  
Thy Saviour is a body, remember this: and with this also, that which his Apostle S. Peter tells thee, 
1. Pet. 2.24.  that with this body he hath borne thy sins upon the Cross, and then lift up thy head and rejoice: let thy thoughts be comforts to thyself, thy words praises to thy God, thy deeds good deeds to thy brethren.  
Thy Saviour is a body, remember this, & withal that which the Doctor of the Gentiles, 1. Cor. 6.15. tells thee, that thou art a member of this body: And then bethink thyself what honour is due to thy body: How ill it will beseem thee to pollute it with any sin, which he who was without sin, hath vouchsafed to accept as his own flesh. Thy Saviour is a body, remember this, and with all, That in this body he shall return to judge the earth. For it was the son of man, whom the high Priest was promised one day to see in the Clouds. Mat. 26.64. And no other but very him whom they preached, undertakes john unto the soldiers they should behold john. 19.37. And to the son hath the father given the power to judge, and by this title as to the son of man joh. 5 27. And then say, whether that speech of Paul unto Agrippa, Act. 26.2. will not be fit for thy mouth than it was even for his; I think myself happy sweet Saviour if I shall answer this day before thee, Chief because thou hast knowledge of all customs, whether they be the adversaries (who is busy in assalting) or this flesh's, who is false in betraying, or this poor soul which is weak in resisting. That flesh of mine, which judas-like with a kiss to thy Deity delivered thee into the hands of so many Temptations, hath given thee experience of them all. I see the wounds yet bleed, which were taken for my sins, and lo my nature is assistant in judgement to assure me it shall be pattaker in glory. 
Gen. 43, 34,  Is my joseph thus great? then shall not his brother Benjamins entertainment be small. And if Hester be so dear to Assuerus, sure her kinsman Mardochy shall have his day. 
Hest, 6, 1.  There is in store for him a rob and a ring and a horse, and a crown, and a train to proclaim his savour, Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king will honour. Thy Saviour is a body, remember this, & withal that which himself hath averred in the sixth of john, That this body and flesh of his is meat indeed, and then never doubt but thou shalt have wherewithal to strengthen thine heart.  
Let the windows of heaven be shut, that the rain cannot fall to moisten; let the face of the sky be darkened that the Sun cannot break out to ripen; let the poors of the earth be locked that the fruit cannot spring forth to feed thee: yet art thou provided for thy diet.  
Thy Saviour his body shall be to thee the widows Barrel and Cruse: never shall this meal (if I may so term it) of his flesh, 
1, King, 17 16,  nor this Oil of his blood fail thee. The meat that he will give thee endureth unto everlasting life.  
So saith himself, john, 6.27. The water that he will give shall be to him that drinketh of it, a Well of water springing to everlasting life: so undertakes himself, john. 4.14. Finds the Fowl her prey delightful when she tires upon it? Be ruled by David, Come and taste of thy Lord and thou shalt find him more than so, no less than even sweet. Finds the Fowl her prey hearty, 
Heb, 10, 22,  and grows she high by tiring upon it? Be advised by Saint Paul, Draw near thy Saviour, with a pure heart in assurance of faith, and thou shalt find him more than so. Such fullness shalt thou meet with (in him,) whereof not thou, but we all, both may & do receive: and what receive we? no meaner things than very grace, and it not mincingly, But so think, 
john. 1.16.  as grace for grace, or, as some interpret, grace upon grace, or grace in the neck of grace, Pro Legis gratia, Gratiam evangelii (as Augustine speaks.) In time past the grace of the law, but it not serving to bring us to God: In the fullness of time the grace of the Gospel, and with this one grace (as with one hand many fingers) how many graces? The grace of Redemption, for to purchase it unto us, he gives himself who is this body, 1. Tim. 2.6. The grace of spiritual growth; for both is his age The measure, and his Spirit, The means of this growth of ours. The grace of Sanctification: for this that he might confer on us, 
Ephes. 4.13.  fanctified he himself. The grace of Glorification: for (to harbing as it were, 
john. 17.19.  & to prepare for our installment therein) is he before ascended into heaven, so that sparing is his commendations of our saviour, as the Psalmist, 
john, 14, 2 Psal, 45, 2  full of grace are not his lips only, but his whole body also.  
In whatrespect Christ is termed a body, you see: why a dead one, let us now inquire.  
May it be in regard of the estate wherein he either now is, or hereafter may be? No, he hath had his ●●persedeas for death, ever since his resurrection. Christ once rising from death, 
Rom, 9, 6  dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him. And though himself confess that he was dead, yet adds he, that now the case is altered: For why? he is alive, & that not for a time but for evermore Amen. 
Reue, 1, 18   
The term therefore of being dead, which here the Evangelist gives him, hath relation to a state of his which is past. For he was indeed (as you have heard) dead: 
Exo, 12 46  witness the soldiers who because they found him so, unwittingly full filled the scripture, whilst they saved the needless pains, 
john, 19, 33,  as they took it, of breaking his legs: And had he not so been, hard of digestion would our weake-stomackt faith have found him.  
For as in the law, 
Levit, 17, 13,  were it beast or fowl that was taken by travel, such as for his kind might lawfully be eate●● yet must the blood of it be shed a●● covered with dust ere it were eaten 〈◊〉 in the gospel were this Lamb which we had not caught indeed, 
Gen, 27, 20,  but which (as jacob said of his venison) the Lord our GOD hath brought it into our hands, never so clean (and indeed without spot of sin was it) yet must his side be opened with the spear, and his body hid in the dust of the grave, before he could be diet for our souls.  
Physicians both in their directions in diet, prescribe the flesh of the dove as wholesome, and in their practice apply the blood of it a sovereign against certain diseases of no base parts than the eye, and the brain. For Galen in his tenth book of the virtue of Simples gives it against the bruises called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which make every thing we look on seem red. And jul. Alex. liber 12. Capite 4. salubrium commendeth it as a most special balm to be dropped upon the corners off the Brain called Pia and dura matter, in the wounds of the head: which though they do, yet in the fear of inflammation council they a kind of divorce of these two so wholesome parts, and wish this bird to be let blood ear it be eaten.  
Not unlike is the case of this harmless and guiltless dove our Saviour, upon whom so many of us (as be right Eagles) must pray: 
john. 6.50.  wholesome is his flesh, for of it who so eateth shall not die. So precious is his blood, had it not been dropped upon these eyes of ours, yet had we remained in our blood, and (looked we whither we could,) still should we have been troubled with these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: No where could we have found a pleasanter spectacle than the gore of our sins: And had it not been applied to that wound which we took in our head (Adam,) died had both he and we of it.  
Yet see, strooken must he be, ear we can be healed: 
Esay. 53.5  For by his stripes are we made whole. Dye must he that we may live, for his life it is that this good shepherd must lay down for his sheep. And spilled must his blood be, 
john. 10.14. 1 Co. 5.50 1. john. 1.7, Mat. 26.28,  that we might be purged from that blood, to which possession of the kingdom of heaven is denied. For his blood is it which cleanseth us from all our sins, and the way by applying this blood is by shedding it.  
We read in the greek story of one Codrus king of the Athenians, 
justin.  who in the time of war between his people and their neighbours of Peloponnesus, being by the Oracle, a putative Deity, to which in time of Paganism they had recourse for council, admonished that theirs should the day be whose king was by the enemy slain, to purchase his Army victory entered this course; having clad himself in base attire, he privily conveyed himself to the enemy's Camp, where offering such speeches of defiance as could not be borne at one's hand so mean in show, in reward of his boldness he was slain: upon which success ensued unto the Athenians, as the Oracle had foretold, and conquerors they became. Thus kind, & kinder was our Codrus our prince of peace, knowing not by any deceitful information of a doubting Oracle, but by that infallible wisdom, whereby he understandeth all things, that either he must accept of death, or we might not hope to aspire to life, such were the bowels of his love, that first he denied as it were to draw upon the glory of his Deity this vile clothing of our flesh, and then so disguised went at hell mouth to challenge our enemy, who towed on with the baseness of his outward appearance, quickeneth many, while he thought to kill one: Fallente illum malignitate sua (as a Father saith) dum intulit supplicium filio Dei, 
Leo.  quod cunctis hominum filijs on remedium verteretur: overdrawne even in his own bow, and busy to hasten on the Son of God's execution, with all the sons of men's redemption. Ruens dumirruens, captus dum capit, dum mortalem persequitur in salvatorem incidens: falling whilst following, caught whilst catching, and in the heat of his pursuit after, as he thought, a mortal man, confronted by the puissance of the eternal Cod.  
Pyrrhus' king of the Epirotes having in two set battles with great loss of men put the Romans, the Lords of the world, to the worst, and hearing by a favourite of his, this his so great good fortune: smothingly gratulated him, that two victories indeed he had gotten of them, but them so dear, that should he at the same rate buy a third, the purchase would no less than undo him.  
A greater complaint than this may the prince of darkness take up, so dear hath this one coming forth at Christ cost him, that the mortgaging of his kingdom will not bear the charge of a second conflict: For what did Christ in this conflict? even Parthian-like Vivit cadendo through death he no less than destroyed him, who had power of death, neither had he other means left to attain this so glorious a conquest. 
Heb, 4, 27 2, 14, Exod, 30, 16,  In thee must into the second Tabernacle; thither was no access without blood: Remission must he procure; that could he not without shedding of blood: 
Heb, 9, 22.  A kingdom he had by will to bequeath, that could not be entered upon, till by his death it were enforced: 
Heb. 9, 17 Rom, 6, 3  For what is our tenure by which we hold of him? Is it not this death of his? Not into his birth, but into his death are we baptised.  
True it is which Fulgentius hath: Macula vitiatae propaginis inde incepit aboleri, vnder in unoquoque nascentium videbatur existere: As we were sinnets in the Cradle, so was Christ our Saviour in the Manger. And on foot indeed was our salvation, the first instant he was in the flesh; but no more but in hand was it, till the last moment he was fit to be in the grave. He began our exaltation when he resolved upon his own humiliation: And after past there him not so much as an idle action, but still busy was he to satisfy for our rebelling by his obeying, for our surfeiting by his fasting, for our blasphemy by his praying, for our wronging by his suffering: Yet never sway he an issue of all this, till we saw that issue of two streams out of his side, The soldiers spear was the pen, & his blood the ink, wherewith he signed: And that triumphant consummatum est, it is finished, the Seal he set to his quietus est, or discharge of ours.  
Threatened he had death by his Prophet. Hose. 6.13. that he would be his death: yet hear we not him undertake as if he had been as good as his word, till after his passion: he must be lifted up and then will he draw all men unto him? Then dare his Apostle make bold with death, 
joh. 12, 32 1, Cor. 1●. 55  and ask it where is his sting? and with the grave, and demand of it where is his victory? Upon point of his departure, according to his prophecy that the children of the Bridal should mourn when the Bridegroom was taken from them, his disciples grew out of heart: to comfort them he tells them of a conquest of his, I have overcome, saith he: but what? No more but the first of the three combats of the world; I have overcome the world. 
joh. 16. 3● 1. Cor. 15.26.  That last enemy (death) was yet to be grappled with; who (tanquam Briareus) for his valour being set as it were to guard the standard of hell, could not be eaten with looking upon. But so hard a skirmish was to be endured in the quelling of him, as after a retreat again and again to his father, with if it be possible let this cup pass from me, should cost the victor a sweat, and it not natural, but even a sleet of water mixed with blood.  
Hear therefore is the use of this title here given this body: dead it is termed to assure you ye shall live; And strucken is the blood of you paschal Lamb Christ jesus, upon the dore-post (as I may turn it of your houses, that is in each of your views, that it may serve to secure you from the destroyer.  
For as in the full of the Moon, where the landlord of light the Sun, and his freeholder the Moon be farthe stasunder, the Sun is no sooner set, but you look, and are not decieved, the that Moon should strait arise: Even so in the fullness of time, in which your sins had separated (as the Prophet speaketh) between you and your God, the Lord of your life, 
Esa. 59.2.  no sooner set in the West of his death, but he drew up all you, that are lightened by him, into the Ascendent of your new life.  
Now therefore as it is written of the Elephants, 
1. Mac. 6.34.  that they grow fierce by the sight of the blood of the grape spilled before them so will it be expected at all your hands, that this blood of your Saviour (which is the true vine) thus powered out before you, put stomach in all you against the power of darkness: and that you follow where you General hath led, marching to life, if it were to death, and dying to sin since be hath died for sin, Letting vanity understand you have not an ear to hear it, and leasing you have not a tongue to speak it, & malice you have not a heart to conceine it, & pride you have not an eye to admit it, and gluttony you have not a stomach to banquet it, and a bride you have not a hand to receive it, & sin you have not a mind to commit it. You read in the Psalm, of the death of a Saint  is precious in the sight of the Lord; Haec est illa mors (saith Leo) why this is the death GOD hath in so high regard, Vbi h●mo occiditur in mundo, non terminatione sensuum sed fine vitiorum when a man dies, before he dies, and shakes hands, not with his senses but with his sins.  
This of the dead body, or mark at which this flight is: now of the flight itself.  
Thither shall the Eagles be gathered together.  
And therein: 

First of the end of their flight.  
Then of the choice of the fliers.  
And last of the manner of their flying    
The end whither they shall make: Thither.  
The flyers: who they shall be: Eagles.  
Their flights: In what manner it shallbe: Thither shall these Eagles be gathered together.  
Thither: both aloft into the air to meet their judge, and above into the heavens to reign with their God.  
Thither: for their doom for there they shall receive that Patent for a kingdom, Come ye blessed, etc.  
Thither, for the crown: for where himself is, even there is that our saviours will, there whom his Father hath given him be they: 
john. 17.  where an Angel shall be the Clerk, Messiah the judge, Saints the jury, Innocent the verdict, Receive a kingdom the sentence.  
Thither shall the Eagles be gathered together:  
Where the glory of their God, whose brightness they shall see: their safety from their foes, whose ruin they shall behold: the comfort of the Saints, whose company they shall enjoy: the receipt of a kingdom, upon receipt of which they shall enter the Fee simple of life, which they shall never lose: the temper of their joy, which shall satisfy, and yet not glut, shall join and strive to fill them with happiness.  
Thither shall. etc.  
Where is a city, and the gates of it Pearl, and the streets of it Gold, and the Walls of it Precious stones, and the Temple in it, the almighty God, and the light of it, the Lamb; and the Vessels to it, Kings of the earth.  
Thither shall. etc.  
Where is a river, and the spring of it, the Throne of God, and the water of it Crystal, and the Banks of it are set with the trees of life.  
Thither shall etc.  
Where the cheer is joy: the exercise, singing: the city praise: the Subject, God. the Choir, Angels.  
Thither shall, etc.  
Where there shall be no more need to fear least either the eyes be dimmed with tears, or the soul surprised by death, or the heart damped with sorrow, or the ears a frighted cries, or the senses dosturbed with pain. For from thence (whither these shall be gathered) shall all they depart far away: Where they shall be good and not persecuted, happy and not envied, rich & not rob, kings and not flattered.  
Thither shall, etc.  
Where they shall have possessions without inpeachments, Seignories without cares, length of years without decay of strength, love of all without jealousy of any, greatness of state without conscience of corruption.  
Thither shall, etc.  
Where they shall be together in the same instant ravished with seeing, satisfied with enjoying, and secured for retaining.  
Thither shall, etc.  
O then how happy they who shall be gathered thither! could this heart conceive it, or this tongue tell it, or these cares hear it, than were they translated thither. O then how had pie they who shall be gathered? But who they? Non qualiscunque (saith Origen) not ot every feather I wisse.  
We have Peacocks, all whose glory is their Plumes, they are all ready; but too too square: they shall not do well to spread: They are not they.  
We have Vultures, all whose Tenure is in their pomp, they are all ready, but too too high, they shall not do well to tower They are not they.  
We have sparrows, all whose sport is in their lust, they are all ready, but too too pleasant, they shall not do well to Chirp: They are not they.  
We have Ostriches, all whose feeding is on mettles, they are too too overcloide, they shall not do well to stretch: 
In Mat. tract. 30,  They are not they.  
We have Cormorants: whose God is their belly, they are all ready, but too too fed, they shall not do well to gape, They are not they.  
All they to this Thither are Scarabees or Beetles, and it to them a Rose, It is so sweet it kills them.  
The breath of man if you mark it, hath this property at the same instant to warn that which is near it, and to cool that which is far off So fares it with the Lord of Hosts.  
Is one near him? 
Psal. 85.9.  (and so is every one that feareth him) then warm lights the breath of this Thither upon him, and so cordial is it, 
Wisd. 1.3.  as is no confection of the Apothe carries. But let one be far off him, and less than so cannot any be who lodgeth wicked thoughts, for they separate from God, then bleak comes it to his heart, & a very shaking sends it through his bones.  
Then 'sounds Thither to the grave, as to the goal, to judgement as the Assize, to Hell as the place of execution.  
Then, where is a judge and his presence worse to be endured than the weight of Mountains, it is so fearful, where are thousands of home-born witnesses, and their evidences against thee, all are so cruel; where a sentence shall pass, and it, Go you cursed, It is so severe:  
There is their Thither.  
Where an execution is done, and the officer the Devil: And the Instrument of Fire, and the kind, Burning; and the measure eternity,  
There is their Thither.  
O then how cursed they who shall be gathered thither?  
But who they? All save so many as shall be gathered to that other Thither. But who they? hearken and he will tell you who must bring you thither: Eagles, not a wing of other male shall be gathered thither. For it is like lightning that this judge told you he will come: And lightning, you know, 
Mat. 24.27.  no bird but the Eagle will broke. Now should you doubt who these Eagles be, and ask first of Origen, he will answer in general, Qui in passionem domins credunt, They which jay hold upon Christ's passion: Then of Hiero, and he will return, Sancti, The same, but in fewer words: Then of Cyrill, and he will jump with Jerome both in sense and words, Sancti the Saints: Then of Ambrose, and he will tell you in effect as much, 
2 Chro. 5.13.  Instorum Animae, the souls of the just.  
Thus like salomon's noise of Priests, which sounded trumpets at his bringing in the Ark into his temple, they were of the city of David as these are (that is) of Jerusalem which is from above, were there no fewer than 120. of them, yet such an Vni-sound would they all keep, that you would say they were as one blowing trumpets, & that they sang and made but one sound in singing.  
But would you in particular know, whether you be any of those Eagles yea orno, And by consequent whither you shall be gathered together? Take of me 6. notes of an Eagle that will not fail you.  

1 Your Nest,  
2 Your eye,  
3 Your Flight  
4 Your Foe,  
5 Your Age,  
6 Your wit,   

1 If it be on the Rock.  
2 If it can broke the Sun.  
3 If it be high and swift.  
4 If it be the Dragon.  
5 If it be well renewed.  
6 It it be first to pease, then to carry what you seize on.   
By each of which, that you may be better able to examine yourselves, I will by God his assistance speak a word of each.  
Be you right bred therefore, 
john 309, 1.30.31.  First you will not build but upon the rock: for so saith john. The Eagle makes her nest on high, she abideth on the rock, even upon the top of the rock; So far will you be either from the negligence of some, who perch they care not where: or the pride of other some who build high enough, but not sure enough: or the stiffness of other some, who nest in the ruins of the rock.  
There is a first kind of men, who having caught justus ex fide sua vinet, the just shall live by faith by the end, run away counter with Pythagoras his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they have found, and flatter themselves with a conceit that the way forsooth to heaven they cannot lose, follow they the trace of Arrius, yea almost of Mahomet himself.  
For the just (that is, say they, the morrallie-honest man) shall live, that is, shall be admitted into the joys of heaven by his faith, that is in the am of that kind of devotion or religion whereto he addicted himself, be it whatsoever it will.  
Be any of you of this feather & so headdie as to take that way which cometh next to hand, for the next way to heaven: 
1. Cor. 10.4.  he is no Eagle, he buildeth not on the Rock. For the Rock is Christ jesus, and besides him there is not given a name by which they may be saved.  
As it fared with Paul's fellow-passengers in their wrack, the ship (continued they in it) would save them all: but the shipboate were it kept in to it, would lose all. So fareth it in this wrack of salvation, Be this rock Christ built upon, he will secure all: But be any other Saviour relied upon, he will no less than fail all.  
As of the privilege his death had in saving alone, it is excellently said, multorum etc. Many a Saints death hath been precious in the sight of the Lord, but never a one to be so innocent as the ransom of the whole world: Solus dominus noster jesus Christus extitit, in quo omnes crucifixi, omnes mortui, omnes sepulti, omnes etiam suscitati. One Christ jesus is found, through whose side all men are crucified, with whose last gasp all men gave up the ghost, in whose grave all men are buried, by whose resurrection all men are quickened: Even so of the privilege his faith hath, may it be as truly added Multorum inconspectu hominum speciosa fides: many another religion hath been a fair show in the sight of men, but none of them could justify before God. Only a true faith in Christ jesus hath been able to crucify the heat of lust, to kill the heat of concupiscence, to bury the memory of sin, & to quicken to the life of righteousness. The life which is gained by knowing him hath a singling Haec in the forehead of it; Haec est vita aeterna, 
john. 17.3.  this is the eternal life indeed, to know thee, and the jesus thou hast sent. And this is that one faith which is compassed in with so glorious a couple, as one God before and one Baptism behind.  
There is a Second kind who build, 
Ephes. 4.5  & super altitudmem too (indeed aloft) but it is cordis sui (as Just saith) the fit of their own proud he art: And this heart of theirs (as in an Anatomy you know it is) like the Poets Parnassus being Biceps double-ridged, having a left knoll puffed up with the conceit of innocency in abstaining from evil, and a right (and yet wrong) swollen with opinion of desert by doing good, hath given site to two other mis-builders, neither of which can make good that they are Eagles: for they build not on the rock.  
The one sort, our young Angelical masters, whom Donatus hath had the scouring of, and left them nothing but purity.  
The other our old Meritours, who are so far beforehand, as to have made even with God for the purchase of heaven.  
The former would be reputed ready in the Text: were they so, they could not (me thinks) but meet with that Rebater, (at least would they mark it) in the fourth of james, we offend: & who? not only a few worldlings, which will hear a sermon at the Cross, but all new recusants too, and that not in one or two, but in many things: In many things we offend all: Or that through-cooler in the 65. of Esay. 5. where they hear better news of these perfect on's, who were so much holier than the rest: 
Esay. 65.5  that none must press into their company: then that they were as smoke in the wrath of the Lord and a fire that burneth all the day long.  
The latter would be esteemed as pregnant in the Fathers: were they so, They could not (me thinks) miss: of either that of Leo (It is so obvious) Necessarium est trepidare de monito, Religiosum gaudere de dono: Be thou never so good, yet must thou learn to build so little on it, as to tremble at the thought of it: And be heaven given never so free cost, yet so, down must thy stout heart, on this condition to be glad to accept it: Or that of Bernardus, Merita habere cures, merita data noveris frùctum, spears dei miseric ordiam. Do not like the men of this barren generation of ours, who (as securely as they sit) are the next door to cursing, and in the way to burning too: 
Heb. 6.  for that's the issue they should find of so little fruit after so long tilling. Bee doing a God's name, and God (though he will not sell the) yet will give thee heaven but yet see thou be sure to remember of whom it is given thee to be able to do this good, and then in any case let thy Plea be, Not mine own merit but his mercy.  
A third sort of men there is who build, and about the rock too, but not on the top of the rock, as job tells us the Eagles do, but where the storm hath worn a hole in the rock, These are rather Pliny's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, so termed, because they naturally want feet and cannot stand, in english Martinets, who as the same Author lib. 10 chap. 39 of his natural history writeth, have certain good qualities.  
First they be very rife court and country swarm with them. Then they are as busy as rife, His quies nisi in nido nulla, aut pendent aut jacent, They are still stirring, but in their nests, and there you shall not take them but either hanging or lying. Last they are as diverse as either rife or busy, & ingenia aequè varia, scarce two of them in one mind.  
First they build in the Ruins of the Rock: for what between the sacrilegious preferrer, which will not beg all but have some: And the simonical gratifier, who like our new kind of purchasers, makes away land to get Lordships by sea: and the fantastic Reformer, Qu● nomine imperij impugnat imperium, 
Act, 5.38.  who hath been so long building the Church, till he hath almost pulled down the Church (for there are more kind of Martinets than the Libelers) never wrought Hannibal's scalding vinegar upon the Alps, as these fellows, as hot as tart Spirits, do upon this poor Rock (the Church) to make it moulder down. But the comfort is, they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, they have no feet. For if Paul his tutor's rule hold, and by Saint Luke (registering it) it should seem it doth, This council of theirs, which is not of God, cannot stand: the root of that cannot be but rottenness, whose fruit is but corruption, and no longer can this fog of their greatness last, than till the Sun be risen to dispel it; and towards day it cannot but already be, so many Cocks have crowed against them.  
This of the first note of an Eagle, the nest, and such as by it may be known to be no Eagles.  
Now a word of the second to wit the eye, which (be you of the right male) is all ways so quick as to ken a far off, & so strong as to look strait against the Sun. For her eyes behold a far off saith job: & Plin. lib. 10. cap. 3. Illi acies contra radios solis stat firma, her eye will never water though she gaze into the Sun. And these two virtues shall you still mark in their eyes who shall be gathered hither. 
job. 39.32  See the first in Abraham, in whose bosom Dives would feign have been: he can see and rejoice at Christ's day almost 2000 years off. See the second in Eagle john himself, and his fellows he runs not with bare 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (we have seen) but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
joh. 8.56.  our eyes have served us to stand and gaze upon no less than even his glory: yet what manner glory was his? very such as is the only begotten sons of the Father.  
Gracious God, how far are the Atheists of our age from both this strength and sharpness of sight! Light itself is so dim they cannot see it: themselves are so far off they cannot discern themselves, for God is light (so saith the truth,) and their souls are themselves, so says their Philosophy.  
They cannot see a God (that is the fountain of all natures) in so clear a glass as the Mirror of all creatures. A work so fair would in reason prove a workman as skilful. For to an effect above the bent of his own nature, can no cause any better reach, than a child's wit can to the building of this Church. And yet can they (Bussards as they are) see a world, that is a building, infinity admirable for the firmness, capacity, majesty, use, order, motion of it: And not find as much as the tract of any creatures either omnipotence in that fitmenes, or infiniteness in that capacity, or glory in that majesty, or goodness in that use, or wisdom in that order, or life in that motion of it.  
Suppose one of these politic depose-Gods were but a master Chemic (as such working wits are very ingenious) & having done me the favour to show me some one of his especial Magistrals (as greatness of skill, & pride in kindness are oft compenions) should hear me judge it to be the distillation of some peddler Aqua-vitae-man, would he not take me to be of small judgement in that Art? And then demand I of him (whosoever he be) whether as mean an opinion (for his judgement in very nature) may not be well had of him, who seeing an heaven, which he confesseth abundant in variety of influence, and they all as marvelous as manic, managed by a consort of motions which thwart and yet disturb not one another: Who treading upon an earth which yields bread to strengthen him, wine to comfort him, gold to enrich him, drugs to heal him, wonders to astonish him: who sailing upon a sea, which he knows is water, (that is a humour naturally spreeding) and yet sees it higher than the earth, that is against nature without limit, solid: can yet surmise so hab-nab a cause as chance, nay any but so above nature a cause as GOD could be the compactor of this heaven the endower of this earth, the controller, of this sea? He sees huge Elements, earth, water and air, yet so overawde as to give their substance, moisture, and breath to the nourishing little plants and herbs. He sees fierce & sturdy beasts, yet so overruled, as to yield their backs to serving, their lives to feeding weak and little man: O can he doubt there is an umpire of impeachable right, unmatchable power, unsoundable wisdom which could, without repining, subject those so great to these so little?  
Let me beg of him (be there any present of this mind) first to be think himself what interest his prince (who may command his life and land) hath in him: Then should she (from which wrong, thanked be God, her highness hath ever been far) having forced him to yield both into her hands, dispose of the one to her Exchequer, of the other to his underlings service, whether he could brook such measure even at her hand or no: whether he would fast to feed that underling of his, watch to guard him, die to save him: And then say how dear needs must this title be to all, how sovereign his power to all, that at his beck, pride hath not thought much to bow to baseness, learning to be taught by rudeness, power to be manacled by weakness, millions to be won by twelve, and the earth to be caught by fishers. O had I now but Ananias his gift, that after the shining of this great light from heaven & earth, & all upon these princes of the darkness of this world, I could much them and make the scales fall from their eyes: how clearly should they see, not only that God who of nothing made them, and of most wretched mould blessed them; but also that soul of their own, which now though their quickest sense be too slow to descry, yet one day will their slowest be quick enough to feel. For yet, as they cannot see a God in his creatures, so neither can they a soul of their own in his effects.  
Live they? yet is it not by a soul: their temperature forsooth cannot give them to do so much: yet is this temperature of theirs of four deads' they say (for such are the elements) and of dead added to dead can life (I am sure) no better arise, than some what of nought multiplied by nought: for millions of Ciphers you know will not raise so much as one unit.  
Find they somewhat in them little selves of capacity enough to hold this great world & it not thronged, but so distinctly as in a moment to present them with it all the heaven moving, the stars shining, the fire mounting, the Air piercing, the sea swelling, the earth resting, gems glistering, variety entertaining: why even yet is not this somewhat (which within so little as they are holdeth so great as these are) in any case a soul; for they have nothing in them which is not a body: & yet every body is bound, they say, to this law that it cannot hold any thing bigger than itself.  
Feel they somewhat in themselves which waxeth as the body waineth, and which is wisest to prescribe, when the bones & sinews are weakest to execute: which enables that body now to grow move & speak: which it may be ere night, having every part that they so it now hath & a greater quantity than now it hath, will be as unable to grow, move or speak as the dullest stone we se: And yet cannot this same what (whatsoever it is so thwart the body in nature, so separate from it, continuing it so perfect) obtain of them to be other than either somewhat of the body or nothing in the world. Stony senseless men, what can there be possibly, thus to infatuate them?  
They could yet never see for soothe this God, this soul we so much talk of, Plautus (as I remember) in Asinaria brings in an old strumpet playing upon a worn-out customer of hers, (with whom the world ran so low that he was feign to ask days of payment for his pleasure) with these words, Oculatae nostra sunt manus, credunt quod vident: my friend, people of our trade have eyes in their hands, if your present be so fine they cannot see it, they believe it is so far off they do not receive it. It is as old as true, that like will to like: for see, our gallants of Diagora his religion have kissed their mistresses hand so oft, that they are woxeven like them, why they are come to credunt quod vident too. It will not sink into their heads, that any this which is not so gross, it may beseen. I marvel whether these men think themselves breath in Summer as well as in winter: It should seem they do not. For the sharpest he among them sees no breath he then sendeth forth: But as cold grows on, and the air rarefies begins it to appear. Fools as they are. God and his providence, and their souls, and the like, are things of so subtle nature, that all this Summer of their pleasures, or harvest of their profit, they cannot see them. But there is a winter of judgement drawing on, and it so cold an one, that it will force a trembling of their flesh, and gnashing of their teeth.  
Then will the air grow so sharp, that it will show them a God in their judgements, his providence in their damnation, and to a (now unbelieved) soul themselves have, an unspeakable torment which in it they shall feel.  
Then shall they be so mad with pain, that they shall stare and roar, and cry O what is this I feal? It cannot be a head, a hand, a leg, a breast, a back that beareth all I feel: these teeth have made me rage with pain, yet was that case to this: this flesh, these neaves, these joints, the wind hath even racked, yet was it ease to this: It is now but a moment, yet feel I what eternity can inflict upon me: And though I feel what it can inflict, yet will it have somewhat to inflict I never felt. It is that soul, which (then reputed fools now found too wife) Christians taught was immortal, that tasteth all this.  
O that I were so happy as to make but one of you have sense of this, and that if you would be entreated to spend but some few hours in marking some despairing man's fit, who (though sound in body) yet in somewhat else you should see inconceiveably panged, you could not choose but have. How joyful should I post with such a soul unto God? with how sweet hymns of consorted Angels would heaven entertain us? It were pride to say we should come to joy but hundred thick, (that were to intimate that we supposed one of us were just,) Noah we should both be then so good (of yet so bad) that there should be for each of us his 99 degrees of joy a piece. But would there more come in & our company increase, O then how would that vaulting ring? How full would each one make the number of all, and how exceeding all the joy for each ones part?  
Now to the third, to wit the slight: wherein are to be densidered two things, the pitch or height of it, & poise or strength of it. To botls which God himself alludes Exod 19.40 where he putting his people in mind both how far above the earth (as we ●erme it) of danger, and how quickly before the expectation of longing, he had conducted them out of Egypt, he tells them he had borne them upon eagle's wings. Of the latter some Grain-marians say, that it hath the greek name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it rushes forward with a force: And of it again the North (that is the most boisterous wind) hath the latin name of Aquily, because it scours and makes head forward like an Eagle: And if these two qualities of your flight want, woe be to you, you are no Eagles.  
You must fly high: so did Saint Paul: his and his likes conversation was not lower than heaven. 
Act. 3.20.   
You must fly strongly: so did David, He had gotten to the Lord before the morning watch. 
Psa. 130.6.   
You must fly high for heaven (whither you are bound) is the measure of height itself; 
Esay. 55.9.  when God will she we how much higher his ways are than ours, so much is it as are the heavens higher than the earth.  
You must fly strongly: for heaven (which you would recover) is that Islud quod violenti rapiant, The hold which none but such as will have nonay, surprise: 
jud. 6.  the violent forsooth, (no colder) they: may take it, and they not by doring neither, but by force.  
Now because it would little boot you to hear that you must fly thus high & thus strong, unless you withal knew both how you might do & when you had done so; I will fust tell you the means to rise, (with the note whether you be risen) And then whence is this strength, and whereby known that you have it.  
The means first of rising is to take the Apostles 〈…〉, to shake off sin: for that which could not jet an Angel stay in heaven, will not suffer a man to rise from the earth▪ And that which sat so heave upon our saviours head, as to make him bow his neck, sits upon our backs that it will not suffer us to sproede our wings: Qui peccatorum granant●● sepulchris, 
joh. 19.30  discussa obstaculorum mole prosiltant, if we will rise as Christ did, we must roll away the stone that lies upon us, as he did.  
The note that you are risen, is the kind of object you have chosen there about even are you, where that is upon which you have set your delight. For from your hearts you cannot be, and where your treasure is, there will they be. Now would you know where this object is? First show me where your joy is: and would you hear where your joy is? tell me where your mind is. Are you young & are you witty? what's your mind on it? Are you old & are you wealthy? what's your mind on it? are you minions & in favour? what's your mind on it? Are you parents & have your sweet children? what's your mind on them? Then here's your joy, for here's your mind, and Lapwing-like you cry there till you be hoarse, but you are but here: 
Mat. 6.21.  for here's you joy: were you once risen, you would seek the things that are above. 
1. Cor. 2.15.  No farther than to the top of this steeple, he seems (you know) scarce a boy in stature, which (when you are by him) proves a tall man: Marvel not though you think nothing in heaven worth the having: the reason is, you which grow here on earth, are so far off, that all there is out of kenning.  
The learned in Astronomy, have by demonstration found that the Moon (which the ignorant think the biggest star but the Sun) is indeed the least Planet. But Mercury (which is your evening star) though it seem the greatest (but these two) is in truthbut the smallest of all the rest. But ask you of them why they seem so big, they will return because they are low. Things of this world, as for their short lasting & often changing they have been likened to the Moon, whose motion is most swift & face most diverse: So also for their pliableness to any use: wherinlike their master man, Cum justo sunt justi, cum perverso pervertuntur, Such are they as he employs them: like unto Mercury, who hath this property that he is good or bad as the star is with whom he is joined. But see, they agree with these two in more than so; they borrow also their fair show they make us of their nearness to us, and therefore seem they bigger because they are lower than better things. Had we taken the two wings of the morning (prayer and meditation) for his, as Bernard saith, apprebenditur summitas scalae, by these we may soar to the top of jacobs' ladder: Quickly should we have descried both this so sophisticated greatness of things transitory, and so conveyed infiniteness of eternal glory.  
Now concerning the strength of your flight, and both the means for it, and the trial of it, Paul hath together delivered them in the 2. Cor. 10.4.  
The means, if you be mighty through GOD: the trial, if your proceed be stern, that no impediment can withhold you from him. For if you be once thus winged, down must even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 impregnable holds before you. And therefore fore will I say the less of both. For as for thes means, I am persuaded, there is none present so self conceited, as (in cold blood) to impute it to any other, but him, who put those sinews into David's arms as could break a bow of brass. 
Psa. 18.34  Only to advertise fleh and blood to stand ever on his guard (that so presumptuous a thought never steal upon it by consequent, as to claim the least part in this honour) I cannot conceal what old Lactan. hath to this point excellently noted, 
Tull. de Natur. dear. lib. 2.  who by the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of jupiters' name, which came as the heathen said, a iwando of helping, concluded to them he could be no God: Iware, opus aliquid conferentis, he only is said to help which doth less than all that is done.  
Of the tokens of this strength, (to wit the overbearing hindrances that oppose themselves, which will appear by our speedy recovery of the place, towards which we make, I will say as little. Only let resolution learn, this of me: it is not yet resolute enough, if this world have aught at which thou rub: If a kingdom cast in your way, mark your start, you have sick feathers in your wing, and for your speed, build not upon Mercedem adepti vnd-cimae horae operarij, they had their pence which came in the last hour: But remember it was not operis (as Hillary saith) sed miscricordiae, his mercy that gave them, not their work that earned them. And then think we may well miss of this mercy, which we know hath been so strange, as to give no ear to so great Suit as knocking, and of so young and innocent as Virgins.  
And this of the third Note of an Eagle, (her flight high and strong:) now of the Foe, which is the Dragon: for so writes the Poet.  
Nunc in reluctantes Dracones,  
Egit amor dapis, 
Horat. car. lib. 4. ode. 4.  at que pugnae.  
The Eagle is no sooner sligded, but strait she is grappling with the Dragon. And here's a right note of an Eagle indeed to single such an enemy, who hath been thousands of years in arms against his God. jerones' his head would now give proof of a good subject to his prince; but this Dragon's head of a better to his God. Should we turn tail to this foe, we should do what in us lies to make both God a liar, & ourselves perjured, He hath promised to put an edge in 
Gen. 3.15  us against him, (I will put enmity between this feed and her head) And that this enemy should grow to encounter him, & wound him in the very head, He shall bruise thy very head: And we ourselves have undertaken in our baptism, to do as much.  
You have often herad how careful Hawiball was of maintaining the quarrel against the Romans', which his father Hamalcar had sworn him to. And you have often heard, how hard God pressed the disobedient jews with the Rhecabits observance of their father's charge. Put these together: Shall not heathen Hannibal rise in judgement against us, if we rise not in courage against this Dragon, against whom we have passed an oath still to be in arms? Were the loss small by his friendship, it were another matter. But it cost us (if we remember) Paradise. Or were the gain but small by this conquest, it were another matter: But it is even that or greater, for which once we ventured.  
All we shall be like (not Dij, Gods that are so base to have fellows, but) Deus that one God that is above all & in all. And how so? He made all good▪ and so (saith Origen) in a sort shall we do, Nobis saltem, qui malis aduer samur, we shall make the Devil himself good unto us, the conquest of whom shall be the matter of our glory.  
Nowlong you to be bickering with him, and would any of you know where to find him? Ask Macarius, he will tell you: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here man here is his form: when God bids you be angry with the Dragon, he bids you be angry with yourselves; and when he wills you to fight against him, he wills you to fight against your own lust; for they (as the Apostle hath given you intelligence) fight against you.  
Leo in his sermon of the 7. of Macab. hath descried within you, a whole Ambuscado of his: covetousness, which tell me citizens if you never found there: pride, which tell me Ladies if you never found there: Anger, which tell me Captains if you never found there: Pleasures, which tell me Courtiers if you never found there: Lies, which tell me Lawyers if you never found there. And if you ever did, do (as there be wishes you) Cum viderit is multiplicem pugnam, numer● sam quaerite victoriam, Set upon all there, and get many crowns for many conquests.  
One saith, a Captain and his company is like a bird, whereof the Captain is the body which moveth the wing, and the company the wings which bear up the body. As therefore if you can break the wings you may easily seize upon the bird; So if you can cut off these forces of the Dragon (which are his wings) you shall! at pleasure catch him which is the body. And thus briefly of the Foe, the fourth note of an Eagle.  
The fist (if you remember) was the Age, and that of the nature that it might be renewed. And this is that peculiar of the Soints, 
job. 11.17  which was Zephers warrant to promise just jobe that his age should shine and appear more clear than the moon day: 
Ephes. 4.23.  And Paul's commission to enjoin the converted Ephesians to so great a task as to be renewed in the spirit of their mind: And Augustine's ground, for that note of his upon Abraham's sacrifice in the 15. of Gen. where, though the age of every beast he offered be set down, (his Ram, his Goat, each three year old) yet of his birds (by which, Spiritual men are meant) he are we no such thing: De avium aetaete tacetur, they have specified no stint of years, 
Esay. 40.31.  because they have indeed no end of years. Now this repairing of the Eagle is in two points, The melting her soarefethers, & the casting her overgrown bill, Plin. lib. 10. Cap. 3. (For the former of which her means is, as some Hebrews. writ, to bathe in a spring: for the latter with Augustine, the stream of waters accord, to beat it against a rock:) Even so have the chosen once of God, both two means, and two degrees of their revocation.  
The first of their means, baptism; answerable to her bathing. 
Gal. 3.27.  For as many of us as are baptised have put on Christ.  
The second, 
2. Co. 1.10.  Repentance, like her beating against the Rock: for both as painful is it, having sorrow for his mother, of whom it is bred; 
Act. 11.18  and it is fruitful having life for his daughter which it bringeth forth.  
The first of their degrees, Vivification, or a spiritual joy, upon a feeling they have of pardon for having done amiss, and strength hereafter to do better.  
The other their Glorification (or the change of their corruption into the state of Angels by their resurrection.)  
Of the former, we have one example in Paul, now so woe begun, as to break out into Owretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? 
Rom. 7.25.  I thank God through jesus Christ our Lord, never more desperate disease, never more quick cure.  
For the latter, they have his word, whose credit is so good that he needs not the testimony of men. In the resurrection they shall be like the Angels of God in heaven: 
Ma. 22.30  though not with out bodies as they, yet as free from corruption as they. But of this I have elsewhere spoken at large.  
Here my note is, that every one who will go for an Eagle, must both moult and replume. Shall I speak plain? 
Vide pro. cap. 24. v. 16.  must so search every corner in his heart for sin, till he find himself almost as far gone as even now you heard Paul was. They be the broken hearts Christ came to heal. The whole in opinion (for in truth there are none) they either have no need, or shall have no use of his physic. But you must not stay here. Bernard saith, God hath two knees, a left one of judgement, and a right one of mercy. If thou be a sinner (and therefore on his left hand) thou must indeed take his left knee in thy way till thou tremble for fear: But then by it creep to the right, which will make the spring for joy.  
Hear secure wantoness, from whom sin yet never wrong tear, whom the Viol de la jambo, hath a charge to keep from melancholy, look up & see another Viol that will one day as much noble all your senses, as that delighteth one: It is a Viol of wrath which shall be powered upon you. 
Revel. 16.1.  Weep a while to save a howling for ever: Come moult, you are yet no Eagles.  
And here drooping spirits (be there any present) who languish in despair, if this earth have Eagles, you (of all men) sure are they, you have molted, you have knocked your bills against the Rock: let it suffice. O cheer at last and pray for us who never had the grace to do so much: if ever any came to suffer with Christ, it cannot be but you are they from whom torment hath wrong, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me. And then bid that disputer say, how you can miss of reigning with him, who when he had promised you should do so, (to exclude pretence of doubt) sent that his promise with a letter (as it were of commendations) to you, that if he were true, who never can be false in that he was truth itself, It is a faithful saying, Est & Amen hath protested it, you which have suffered with him shall reign with him, Est & Amen hath promised it. 
2. Tim. 2.  And this briefly of the Age, the fist of my notes of an Eagle.  
The sixth was her wit, (seen in her custom to peife or weigh her prey, before she attempt to fly with it.) Rapta non protiaus ferans, sed primè deponuns, (saith Plin●●) expertaque pondus tum demùm abeunt: the manner of these birds is not to snach and away, but first to try how heavy that is they seize on, and if they find it portable, then to be gone with it.  
Man indeed is the Lord of all creatures, yet oft fareth it with him, as once it did with Lord Naaman, vouchsafing not to be advised by some servants of his, It is a venture but he will Hoose so great a blessing, as a cleansing from his leprosy, for so small pains as a washing in jordan, Pismires, they must teach him diligence in making his provision, or he will be to seek of necessaries, lilies they must learn him confidence, to build upon God's care of him, or he will have lost the memory of his providence. And eagle's th●y must teach him discretion, to consider what he gains, or he will be so heady, to engage himself for that, the gain of which will venture him his very soul.  
Ananias found it to be true, 
Act. 5. ser. 59  dumb pretty quarit compendium, anunaefecit detrimentum, saith Ambrose: while he was so sly as to save his money, he proved so rash as to lose his soul. And so did Gehezy, while he weighed not the money and raiment, would overloade his own soul with that which loaded two Syrians backs: he cast himself into such a heat of sin, that it broke out upon him into an hereditary leprosy.  
Hear be great preys to be found by trading in this City, but they have oft an oath, or lie hanging at them: these will be so heavy on your souls they will press you down to hell: these would be left alone.  
There be great preys to be found by presentments in the Church, but they have oft a weighty lease or somewhat else hanging at them: weigh these leaves (both demisors and receivers) you shall find that they will cost you the Fee simple of a better thing: These would be left alone.  
There be also perhaps great preys to be found in some Courts, by abridging poor Universities ancient privileges: but weigh the privileges I beseech you, lest they prove (more than by their name they seem) not Legis, but evangelii privationes, & bereave you of the comfort of the very Gospel. I cannot doubt either of the wisdom or the conscience, to whom the hearing of this matter is referred: but yet give me leave (out of the abundance) of my duty too, and my fear for my mother) in the name of learning and virtue to entreat you, that as you will not have your memories stink in the noses of all learned posterity, as you will not unawares take from that pretogative to which you would seem to add, by disabling it to give that, which you say it must needs recall: As you will not be able for that slander to the preaching of the gospel; that it hath taught, to take from learning that which ignorance persuaded to give it, you would in your determination hereof use both your wisdom & your conscience.  
There be great preyer to be found by counterfeit reprisal at Sea, but they have oft a conscience of piracy hanging at them. These are so heavy they will sink you in a burning lake: These would be left alone,  
There is indeed a kind of bastard Eagle, termed Halietus, (as who would say the Sea Eagle:) See wanteth this forecast I talk of; She will souse at any fish she sees, but she pays for this her hearts, (that oft befalls her, as the writers of the natural history record)  cum ferre quod caperet ne que at; in gurgitem demergatur: That being not able to lift up that she fastened on, she is drawn under water and drowned. But these (remember) are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 right bred, and likely to be drenched before they be gathered hither.  
Physicians for the body, divide their whole practice into two general parts: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (or preventing physic,) and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (or recovering physic.) The former not so troublesome, but consisting most in keeping of a wholesome diet: The latter very painful, as in taking of it there must be purge, sweatings, lance, and the like.  
We for the soul have two parts of our practice too: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, one so pleasant that it will never trouble you, and that is this weighing discretion in the get (to which now I would persuade,) And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (another bitter one) of having ease by lancing your own hearts, and by confessing that which you would now think a death the world should know, which you shall be forced to use, accept you not of this.  
If you make this rule unto yourselves, to gain nothing but with a good conscience, all the comfort you shall have of it my heart is not able to conceive. But this I know you shall find, to live in credit with men, to die at peace with God, and to scape those pangs, which when you feel them, you would be willing to buy out with the loss of all you have.  
But if all be fish with you that comes to net, and any thing to be done whereby something may be gotten, then say upon your deathbeds that I lie, if there either you be not given over to have no remorse at all, and so to go to torments like fools to the stocks:) or, if you find the mercy to have remorse, between a settled resolution, you shall hear that there is no salvation without restitution, & impossible you should seek to make this restitution, when you find not scarce any other means than to despair and die.  
And this I thought good to observe by occasion of these six notes of an Eagle, the kind of bird by which our Saviour chose to shadow them who shall be gathered hither. Now it remaineth that from this choice of the Fliers, I proceed to those near circumstances in the flight itself, contained in these words, shall be gathered together: which as I conceive them are three.  
The first, the efficient cause of it, or he in whose strength it is made.  
The second, the manner or after what sort it shall be made.  
The third, the certainty or the assurance we have that it must be made. All three distinctly delivered us in that one Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which we in english express by these many words shall be gathered together.  
The first of which notes (or the efficient cause) I gather by Abnegation out of the voice of this Verb, which being Passive, giveth to understand that they who shall be gathered are no Actors in their own gathering.  
The second (or the manner of this Flight) I find in the Preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which imposing upon the Verb, (that is compounded with it) a community, as the Grammarians speak (indeed stretching the action or passion of it to many) argueth in this gathering a shoaling or an assembling of some company.  
The third (or the certainty of this flight) I deduce out of the nature of this Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 itself, which at least importeth a pre-eminence, and not seldom an unresistible violence in conducting, or as one would say a sovereignty in drawing, whither it enjoins a necessity of following. For so useth Aesebines it, with whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sounds as much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to drag or hail one to the b●●●●, no less than to leave him no shift whereby to escape making his answer: or, to speak more to the capacity of the meaner; first in that it is said, these Eagles shall be gathered, I conclude that it is not they that shall gather themselves: Then in that it is added, in that they shall be gathered together, I collect there must be some number of them who shall be gathered: Last in that it is told us that they shall be gathered or enforced to make this appearance, I resolve they shall not have power to deny it, out come they must.  
By the gathering I told you in the beginning was the resurrection meant, and therefore cannot now doubt but you conceive that by the cause in this gathering is the Author of our resurrection, By the certainty of this gathering is the assurance of our resurrection understood.  
Now concerning that which I had intended in each of these three, I have place only for our saviours complaint, john. 16.12. I have many things to say, but you cannot bear them away; not that your capacities would not serve to receive them for their greatness, but that my strength cannot last to deliver them, for their number. For besides what I had intended of the two first points (the cause, & the manner) with the sum of which, 
Mor. 24.  I should have been better able in few words to acquaint you, my especial purpose was (in the third) to have attempted the making good unto the Atheists of our time that, which long time Gregory undertook to their fathers in infidelity, that Resurrections fidem qui in obedientia non tenent, eaudem in ratione debuerant teners: They whose faith was so weak, that they could not therefore believe a Resurrection, because God had promised it; should yet in reason have made no doubt of it, because very reason in a sort persuaded it.  
But here as the straightness of time hath prevented me (for uttering that which it may be might have done some good) so hath it made me amends with bidding me to the keeping of that best rule, given but in one, (but true in every such mystery of religion) which otherwise I should have ventured to have broken, Fides credat, intelligentia non requirat, Let faith believe it, let wit seek no reason of it: Ne aut non inventum putet incredibile, aut reperium non credat singular, lest curiosity for his pains gain one of these two things, either (if it be in judgement dazzled and cannot find it) like an Apostata to think it incredible: or, (if it be in mercy illightened and able to reach it) then (like almost as ill) to esteem it no more than ordinary.  
Howsoever therefore, either in an other place or at another time in this argument I may venture to do as swimmers use, & put myself to diving to save others from drowning (for so much danger is there in seeking to establish that by reason which is above reason:) here & now, that one promise of him (who is the truth itself, that all that are in their grave, shall hear the voice of the son of God) shall suffice me both for direction to the Author & intelligence of the company, 
joh. 5.28.  and assurance of the Appearance upon this Summons.  
The Son of God (whose voice shall be heard) he saith, my soul shall be the Author, that All which shall hear it, they shall be the company, and that hearing which shall be restored unto them, shall be the warrant they shall rise.  
Now the God of wisdom and consolation give us both (in our searching) modesty, and (in our suffering) faith, that to us may the comfort redound, and the check not stretch of our saviours wheresoever.  
The body which was slain for us, quicken us: which is united to us, sanctify us: which feeds us, strengthen us: which shall judge us, acquit us.  
The majesty (at whose commandment the Eagle mounteth) aslure us of our kind, by our nest so sure as on the rock, our eye so strong as vnd aseled by the Sun, our flight so true, as high and swift, our Foe so choice as the Dragon; our age so fresh as renewed: our wit so discreere as peizing before bearing away: And last the Son, who we know shall at last raise us all out of the sleep of death, in the mean time raise us his people out of our slumber in sin, that our first life may secure us from the second death. To this Son, with the Father, and the holy Ghost (three persons but one God, power, wisdom, and love itself) be ascribed all praise dominion & glory, now and for evermore  
Amen.  
FINIS.