SERMONS BY Humph. Sydenham late Fellow OF Wadham College in Oxford.  
Religioni, non Gloriae.  
LONDON, Printed by William Stansby, for Nathaniel Butter, at Saint Austin's Gate. 1630.   

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE Edward Lord Howard, Baron of Escrick, my very Honourable good LORD.  
SIR,  
WHen you were pleased, the other year, to admit me your Chaplain, I had intended, and prepared my praemetiall oblations to your Lordship, from the Pulpit; But I was, then, prevented by a sudden, and severe sickness, which hath, hitherto, disabled me to tender you any thing that way. Now, because I would not be obnoxious to a double misconceit, I present you this piece from the Press, that your Lordship may read, and so remember the record, both of my devotions, and endeavours. I hearty wish I were so completely recovered for attendance, that I might as well speak, as write my labours; and then (perhaps) I should better satisfy your Lordship, then in this common kind; which hath made many of my Profession (and may me) ridiculous. But I fear my infirmities, and therefore, as I must beg the honourable charity of your Patience, so of your Protection also. For as I was, at first, a suitor for your service, (In which I have cause to glory) both for the greatness and goodness of your self, and name) so I am, still, for the graces of it: and do hope, that when you have made a fuller enquiry, who I am, and where I have spent my time, and talon; your Lordship will not disdain to own, and honour me with your succeeding favours. In a word (my noble Lord) I shall not forget what you have made me, nor the duty enjoined me by it: I will pray for you, for your Lady, for your little Ones, and for the growth, and continuance of the house begun in you; and what else is required in a religious observance, you shall surely find in the faith and loyalty of  
Your Lordship's humble servant, Hum. Sydenham.   

The several Texts, and names of the Sermons herein contained.  
I. The Royal Passing-Bell: or david's Summons to the Grave.  The Text. PSAL. 39.6. 
Thou hast made my days as a span-long, and mine Age is nothing before thee; Surely, every man, in his best state is altogether vanity.  
II. The Rich man's Warning-piece.  The Text. PSAL. 62.10. 
If Riches increase, set not thy heart upon them.  
III. Waters of Marah and Meribah, or the sour of Bitterness, and Strife, Sweetened and Allayed.  The Text. ROM 12.1. 
I beseech you, Brethren, by the mercies of God, to offer up your Bodies, a living Sacrifice, Holy, acceptable to God which is your reasonable service.   

THE ROYAL PASSING-BELL: OR, DAVID'S SUMMONS to the GRAVE. A Sermon preached (lately) in the Parish-Church of Orchard-Portman in SOMERSET. At the Funeral of the most hopeful, and truely-noble, Sr. HUGH PORTMAN, Baronet; the great loss and sorrow both of his Name and Country.  
By HUMPHREY SYDENHAM, Master of Arts, late Fellow of Wadham College in OXFORD.  
Qui virtutem alterius publicari vult, virtuti laborat, non gloriae.  ANT. SEN. 
LONDON, Printed by W. Stansby, for Nathaniel Butter, An. Dom. 1630.   

TO MY DESERVEDLY honoured, JOHN HELENA, of Wembury, Esquire; the great hope of his NAME, and expectation of his COUNTRY.  
SIR;  
THis flies not to you for perusal barely, and survey, but for protection; I want not a a Reader, but a Vindicator; such a one, as can aswell justify Jnnocence, as shrine it: an Agent remarked, no less for Goodness, than for Power. And, in this my Appeal to Worth and justice, I sincerely wish, that, whilst I awake your Charity, I pull not on you Envy, or Dishonour; 'tis not my intention, but my fear. For, amongst other my weak endeavours which have formerly advanced me to the undeserved applause of many. This had the Happiness to displease, and I think it not my wound, but my Glory. Impartial discourses are equally blunt, and honest; and tho' sometimes, they have their relish and farewell in distaste, yet that is their Crown, and not their Fate. However, an affected Stoicism I ever loathed, and not only as a Stoicism, but as affected. There is nothing so open to contempt and laughter, as a composed sullenness. 'Tis true, a native roughness and austerity of language, I have pupilled from my youth, That's mine own, I confess, but I dote not on it; my Child but I lull it not; and therefore, if it sometimes prove wayward, and offensive, Nature praevaricates, and not will. I was never yet guilty of a premeditated trespass on men's Names, or Honours; I have neither so much time for rancour, nor disposition; or had I both, I should have here strangled them for his dear memory, to whom I owed, not only my services, but myself. He was nobly your Associate, (my honoured Sir) and (for I must still boast in the livery) my Master; nay, my Patron; and, what is higher yet, my friend, my unshaken friend. These have so engaged me both in Civil and Religious bonds, that should I labour to dissolve either by any Real affront, or discourtesy to his Tribe, I were neither moral man, nor Christian; and yet, lo, I am more than both, a Divine; but, a saucy one ('tis rumoured) and a Cruel; a sordid also, and Contemptuous; and, (O my impossible guilt! my unjust calamity!) a false one, and unthankful. Such Liveries I can wear with as much patience as the the former, though not triumph; and yet these, again are not my Cross, but my Laurel; I grow green in the opinion of mine own innocence, tho' whither, perhaps, in the Respects of others; who, if they were not so hot as to ravish words unnaturally, and force them from the honest intentions of the Speaker, they should find, I am a Levite, still, and not a Libeler; and, what I preached, was not an Inuective, but a Sermon. Me thinks, it is neither Charity, nor judgement in a hearer, to wrest Divinity to the disvantage of his own honour; 'twas ne'er my Custom to rubbe harshly, on particulars; my reproofs were, as they should be, of sins, and not of Persons; and those too, ran generally, which no Circumstances can reduce to paticulars, but where the Parties are either prejudicate, or guilty; And, if any such I met with, (as I hope I did not) let them learn to reform, and not to censure; and thank him for his homespun advertisements, who was rather a Remembrancer of their errors, than a judge. This is the way to rescue their honour, and my innocence; which, as it hath been ever taught to magnify worth in others; so, to presume on yours, that, when you have read impartially this sad piece of mine, you will say that I have been a faithful Servant to my dead friend, and yours, whose noble respects to me, I have found to survive in you; whom, for many solid and material favours, I am captived to observe, whilst I am  
Yours most thankfully devoted, HUM. SYDENHAM.   

THE ROYAL PASSING-BELL: OR, DAVID'S SUMMONS to the GRAVE.  TEXT. Psal. 39 v. 6. 
Thou hast made my days as a span-long and mine Age is as nothing before thee; surely, every man, in his best state, is altogether vanity.  
THE Text is a sad Story of man's frailty here; And 'tis a Prophet's, and a King's; a King, as mighty in Religion, as in valour; one that knew as well how to tune his sorrows, as his triumphs, and had often warbled sweetly to them both, and sung many a dainty Anthem in his Israel; so that, here wants neither eloquence, nor state; nothing that may persuade an auditory, or awe it. I need not beg then either your patience or attention; the one is enjoined you from a Prophet, the other from a King; a good Prophet, and a King; David, the King, and the Prophet after God's own heart; whose words here are are as Compact, as they are powerful, so jointed and knit together in one piece (a piece so uniform, and exact) that should I disrank or sunder them, I must either deface this beauty, or destroy it. I take them then as I first found them in their rich pile and fabric; wherein I have observed three stories or ascents.  
Days in the first; and these days measured, and in that measure, resembled Instar pugilli; as a span-length; and this length, punctual, and prefixed, not alterable by any power of man; for, in posuisti, thou hast made it so.  
In the next; these Days, are an Age; and this Age; weighed and compared, falls light in the scale, tanquam nihil, as nothing; not absolutely nothing, but comparatively, Ante te, before thee.  
In the third; these Days, and this Age, are man's; not man's in his Autumn, or declination, but in his best state; and man thus in his best state is but vanity; no peice-meale vanity; but omnimoda vanitas, altogether vanity; man is altogether vanity; man is so; not man in particular, this man, only; not I, David, the Prophet, or the King; but universus homo, every man; as well the Beggar as the King, or the Prophet; all mand-kinde; every man; every man, in his best state, is altogether vanity.  
Thus I have showed you the front of the Text, and what it promise's in the rooms within; if not so fully as you expect, or desire, please you to take a review; and than you may see, more at large; Days, in the first part; these days, proportioned; who did it: and how: and all this in a Tu posuisti, thou hast made them; and thou hast so made them that they are as a span long; there I begin. Thou hast make my days as a span-long.  

A span-long.  

Pars prima.  TO weigh the misery of things transitory, with the glory of others more permanent and solid, is the most exact way to judge of either; the life of opposites is in Comparing them, when the good seem better; and the bad worse. Our Prophet therefore, in a deep speculation of the Almighty, and the frail rarities of his creatures here below, looking up at length to the beauty of the Celestial host, Sun, moon, and stars, brings up man unto to them; not to rival their perfection, but to question his; and, after some stand, and pause, in steed of Comparison, makes an enquiry; a double one; first, what man is? and then, what is the son of man? in his eighth Psalm, the fourth verse.  
Here is Homo, and filius hominis, and both, in the text, have their energia, and weight of emphasis. The word enosc, or enosh, translated, man, signifies miserum & calamitosum hominem (saith Musculus) a man of calamity, and sorrow; 
Musc. in Psal. 8.4.  and 'tis given to all men as a remembrance of their mortality; so Psal. 9.20. Let the Heathens know that they be Enosc, men, mortal men. Moreover, son of man, hath in the root. Adam; ut primae originis admoneamur, 
Musc. ibid.  to mind us of our carnal pedigree; and that our source and offspring is but Adamah, and so all mankind, earthy. And therefore some translations, following closely the track of the original, 
Aynsworth. Psal. 8.4.  read thus; what is sorry man that thou remember'st him, and the son of Adam, that thou visitest him? not what is man, that rare creature endued with wisdom, and understanding, the almighty's Masterpiece, the Image of his maker, and model of the universe? But, what is Enose? what is Adam? What, the son of calamity and sorrow? the son of earth and fraili●●? what is he? nay what is he not? what not of calamity and earth? insomuch that the patiented man, under the groan and sense of humane imperfections, and the daily bruise of his manifold affliction, is driven to his expostulation also, with a quid est homo,? what is man? job. 7.17. where we meet again with the word Enosc, misellus homo, wretched man; and not nakedly the word, but a particle joined with it, not mah, 
Bolduc. in Cap. job. 17.  but mi, (as Bolducus observes) non quis, sed quid quaerere intendens, as if the enquiry looked not to the person, but his condition; not, who is man? but what he is? knowing that man is not only the concrete, miserable; but, the very abstract misery itself; such a misery as may be an example, and precedent of all others. And, if we but observe the criticisms and curiosities of expositors upon the word man, they are neither impertinent nor fruitless; for we shall never meet it through the whole current of sacred Story without some descant and paraphrase from the Hebrew. To particular in that of Esay, where (in one text) words of opposite signification mask under a single antithesis, as in the fifth of that Prophecy, 
Bolduc. in cap. 4. job. 17.  Incuruabitur homo, & humiliabitur vir, man shall be brought down, and man shall be humbled. Homo, there, is in the original, Adam, quod nomen infirmitatis est, a name of crazines and languishment. Vir, Ice, or Ish, Heroem, magnumque importans, which involues something of eminence, & renown; and so our new translation gives it, 
Esa. 5.  the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled; so that let man be of what condition or estate soever, he shall not be long in it, without a bringing down, or an humbling. If he be Isc, mighty in possession and name; humiliabitur, he shall be humbled; if he be Adam, of course and popular condition, and so humble already, yet he must be lower, incuruabitur, he shall be brought down; brought down and humbled with a witness, ad infernum, says the Text, even unto Hell. Aperit infernus os suum, the 16. verse of that Chapter. 
Esa. 5 16.  But Hell is the misery of another Age; our Text hath little to do with that, and so this place makes not for our purpose; but, the word Sheol will befriend us here, and make this infernum, a grave, too, and thither we are humbled every day; and then we ask nomore Quis? or quid est homo? who, or what is man? but, Vbi homo? where is man? 
job. 14.10.  for so the pensive man interrogates; man wasteth away, and giveth up the ghost, and where is he? job. 14.10. where is he? fuit, non vixit, he was here but now, but he is gone; gone from his Caluary to his Golgotha; his gall & vinegar in his late agony (the bitter Cross of his body) to his sepulchre (here) he wed out of the rock; 
He was buried in a vault.  his bed ready made for him in the dark, where he lies down, and rises not, till this fuit hath put on a resurrexit, this mortality, a resurrection. And, seeing he is now gone, let us no more ask, Quis? aut ubi? who, or where man is? but once more, quid est what he is? or rather, what his Age is? or (if you please) what his days in that age? and then the text will answer by way of similitude and resemblance, Instar pugilli, as a span-long. A short time (no doubt) that is inched out, or singred by the span; other things remarked in holy story, have their dimensions lin'dout by the farhome, or the cubit, or the foot, at least; nothing that I remember, by this frail measure, but the life of man; a thing so fragile and momentany, that there was nothing to express it, but a span; a word so tumbled by Expositors, that they are somewhat driven to the plunge, to give the original of it a proper signification in a second language, and therefore some translations have it instar pugilli; or, ad mensuram pugillorum, a little handful; so Felix, and Musculus; others ad mensuram quatuor digitorum, or palmi minoris longitudinem; the breadth of four fingers, or small inches; so Pagnine, and Tigurina; and near these, junius and Mollerus palmares posuisti dies thou hast made my days as a hand-breath. The word of the Septuagint, is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, which the vulgar Latin read's mensurabiles; and Hierome, 
Vide Musculum in Psal 39.6.  Breves something that is measurable, and therefore, short. For, though the age of man, in holy writ, wears sometimes the attribute of days; sometimes, of months; sometimes, of years; yet these days, and months, and years are not without their frail Epithets of, vani, or, breves, or the like; so job is said to possess many months; but they are menses vanitatis, months of vanity, job. 7.2. & not only months, but years also; but these years are anni pancissimi; or breves anni, few years, and short job. 16.12. However, suppose these years were multiplied, and lengthened somewhat in their span, yet they are short still, because numbered. 
Pineda in job 16.22.  And therefore the Latin version here, breves annos, the Hebrew reads annos numerari; and the Septuagint, annos dinumeratos, years to be numbered, or years already numbered, and not only numbered, but prefixed; and not prefixed barely, but circumscribed; circumscribed by the finger of the Almighty; and that in a narrow circuit, this span-long; so job says, man's days are determined, and his months are with thee; thou hast appointed his bounds that he cannot pass, job 14.5. Insomuch that days, 
Bolducus in cap. 16. job. v. 23. Pined. ibid.  or months determined are but short; and short days and months, the Hebrews call dies numeri, and menses numeri; days, and months of number quia pauci, & numerabiles (saith Pineda) because they are numerable, and therefore few. Neither are days only, and months, and years so styled, but the men of those days, and months, and years; so in the twelfth of Ezekiel, 
Ezech. 12. v. 16, 17.  the Prophet speaking of the desolation of the jews, says, that God will scatter them amongst the Nations, and disperse them in their Country, but would leave of them homines paucos à gladio, & a fame, some few of them, that is, homines numeri, some few that he had selected and numbered, these he would reserve from the sword, the pestilence and the famine, that they might declare all their abominations amongst the Heathens, whether they came, that they might know that he is the Lord their God.  
Thus, measure, or number, of times, or seasons, in what proportion soever, presuppose a kind of rottenness and instability; so our months are numbered, and our days measured, 
Pineda in cap. 14. job. v. 5.  job 14.5. that is, short. The Latin word there, is praecisi, (according to Tremeluis) decurtati, others; curtailed and contracted; from the original, Charats; which signitieth, acuere, or, praescindere; to sharpen, or cut off. So, the lofty Prophet, assuring to a remnant of Israel, their safctie form the Assyrians, tell's them of a consummatio praecisa, in the midst of the Land. A consumption decreed, 
Esay 10.22.  the English says, but that rendering is to narrow, and will not bear up with the latitude of the original, and therefore not, a consumption; for, that linger's too much; but rather, a consummation; a precise one; such a one as argues both a certainty, and quickness in the doing; so quick and certain, as if it were done, 'ere it began; and, acted, as soon as prophesied; so joel also calls the valley of jehosophat, 
Pin. in cap. 4. job.  vallis concisionis; multitudes, multitudes in the valley of concision; that is, vallis abreviationis; or, vallis praecisionis; the valley of abreviation, or cutting off; because that the vast multitude of people there met, should be rarified, and lessened; 
joel 3.14.  and only a few number of the Just selected. In like sort, the days of man, here, may be called dies concisionis, or dies praecisi, because they are abreviated maimed, cut off, determined, & straightened to a prescript time; a strict measure; this span-long, which man can neither diminish, nor dilate in his own power; but he is penned up, here, in his narrow Royalty; his frail enclosure, where his days are spanned out, his pillars pitched; his non ultra limited; his circuits bounded; & tu posuisti terminos, and thou (O God) hast appointed those bounds, & tu posuisti dies, and thou hast made those days; so made them, that thou hast measured them; measured them, exactly; by a span; a narrow span, which he shall neither fall short of, nor exceed, no not one tittle or punctum of it; not the breadth of the smallest hair, or atom; no, not the rare-spun gothsimere; or any other extenuated or imaginary thinness whatloever. For tu constituisti, and, tu posuisti, thou hast appointed, and thou hast made it so: 
job. 14.5. Psal 33. &  and whatsoever is thy appointment, is thy Law; a Law not to be corrupted, or minced, or disannulled, either by equivocation, or partiality, or rigour, or any other juggling or imposture of flesh and blood. There is none (saith job) that can deliver out of thy hand. Statuta eius fecisti, & non praeteribit, 
job 10.7. Lat. Interp. in 10. cap. job. v. 20.21. Prou. 8. v. 24.  thou hast appointed man his bounds that he cannot pass, statutes which he cannot violate certain channels & banks in thy decrees, which he cannot possibly exceed. And as thou hast established the clouds, and strengthened the fountains of the deep, bound up the floods from overflowing, and given them thy command that they shall not pass, but placed the sand as a wall about them by a perpetual Decree; and though the waves thereof toss themselves, 
jer. 5.22.  yet can they not prevail, though they roar, yet can they not swell over; so all those tossing; and swellings of flesh and blood the surges and billows rising in the tempests of our life, 
job. 38.10, 11.  have their cliffs and shores, & strict limits, and God hath done to them, as to the great deep, broke up for them his decreed place, and set baries and doors, and said, hither you shall come, no further; here shall your proud waves stay: for tu posuisti dies, thou hast made our days, and those days but a span-long & tu constituisti terminos, thou hast appointed our bounds, and those bounds we shall not pass. 
Pineda in cap. 14. job.  And therefore the afflicted man seems to complain of the Almighty, that he had environed him, terminis suis, with his bounds; that is, praeceptis suis, & statutis, with his precepts, and his statute; such orecep saved statutes, as he cannot abrogate; so in the eight of the Proverbs 29. the Wiseman speaking of the mighty providence of God in ruling and ordering the vast deep, says jegem ponebat aquis, he gave the waters a law, or a decree, that they should not pass his command, and yet the singer of Israel calls this very law, a bound, thou hast set a bound that they cannot pass, Psal. 104 9 so that, that terminus, or bound was a law to them; and this lex, or decree, a bound to us; and neither this bound, nor law, to be overpassed; and therefore we find it once again spoken of in the 148. Psalm, and there is a non praeteribit, to it; it shall not pass away, pass away? No, not one jot, or tittle of it. Heaven and earth shall first pass away, before one jot or tittle, either of God's Word or Law, his posuit, or his constituit, his bound, or his span-long, which are a law to him; a law irrevocable, both in matters of life, and death. And therefore this necessity of fate, Saint Paul expresseth, by the name of a law, with a statutum est, and a semel statutum est, it is appointed to man to die, and it is once appointed. Statutum est there is the law, or the decree, and the semel once, says, that this law is firm, constant, inviolable; for God speaks once, and he speaks but once, 
Pinedain cap. job.  ut iterato pracepto opus non sit, saith Pineda, that we should not expect any iteration or doubling of his command. And therefore in the seventeenth of the Acts, we have, though not this statutum est, the law punctually set down, yet we have the statuta tempora, the times prefixed for the execution of that law; so the text, God hath made of one blood all the nations of men, and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation, which they cannot pass, the six and twentieth verse of that Chapter. And lest we should think times determined to be no law, our death, which is a thing determined, and to a time determined, is called, a Testament, or, a Law. Remember that death will not be long, in coming, and that the Covenant or Law of the grave, is not showed unto thee. Ecclus 14.12.  
So that this business of death and the grave, is a law certain, and prefixed, both for the time and manner, and that beyond all possibility of alteration; and therefore whether we style it a decree, or a statute, or a law, or a testament, or a bound, 
Pin. ibid.  or this span-long, Semper dicis aliquid quod praeteriri non poterit, says the jesuite, there is something involved that is both constant and inviolable; whose rampiers, and walls, and bulwarks, thou shalt never scale nor dig through; for 'tis the Almighty's Citadel and strong fort, so garrisoned and entrenched by his eternal power, and wisdom; the doors and gates of it so barrocadeed, and blockt-up against all invasions of flesh and blood, that no earthly stratagem, no temporal assault, no humane policy, shall ever raze or demolish; but it stands unshooke, against all tempests; firm, against all batteries; solid, against all undermine; so that if the floods rise, and the winds blow, and the waves beat, they shall never stagger it.  
Seeing then there is a Statutum est passed upon all mankind, that it must once die (and that statute is not rough, though it be sometimes unpleasing, to die once, so we die no more, for a double death is our due, though not our pay) and knowing that there are precise bounds, and limits, and span-longs to flesh and blood, beyond which it cannot pass, and these bounds, and spans, and limits have the Inscription of God's unalterable Decree, with the authority of his stamp and seal, his posuit, and his constituit, let us take up the prayer here of our Psalmist. 
Aug. in Psal. 38.  Lord make me to know mine end, and the number of my days, what it is; the number, what it is? & est, & non est, saith Saint Augustine.  
The measure of our days you have had in an exact proportion, in this span-long; but the number of them, 
Aug ibid.  is both secret, and uncertain: it is and it is not, truly. Nec esse possumus dicere, quod nòn stat, nèc nòn esse, quod venit, & transit, says the father, we cannot properly say that that is which remains not, nor that is not, which comes and goes. Day's past, and future, are as no days. Yesterday, was; and to morrow, will be; and so, now, are not; and of such things as are not, there is no number, today, only, is man's; and this not long his, neither; for it is going; or if it did not go, it is but one day, and of that, there is no number, neither; so that the total here, aut nòn est, aut quasi est, is either no number at all, or, 
Aug. ut supra.  as it were, a number. Summe up all the minutes and hours thou canst, and those, truly, and thine own; thou shalt make up but one day, and that day (wholly) not thine own neither. Let's begin from the first dawn, or hour of it; where is that hour, saith the father? 'tis gone, where is the second then? perchance thou wilt say that's gone too; but, the third (doubtless) thou enioy'st; that's thine own; 
Aug. ibid.  be it so; and yet si tertiam dabis, non diem, sed horam dabis. Dost thou talk then of number, that hast but a day, or of a day, that hast but one hour? an hour? not that neither, not that very hour thou thinkest thou enioy'st; for, if some part of it be now past, and another as yet remaining; and of that which is past thou canst not dispose, because it is not now; nor, of that which remains, because it is not yet, what canst thou give of this hour? or if thou givest, what is't of thine own thou givest? the Father is at a stand, here; and in steed of a resolution put's a quaere. Cui committam hoc verbum, ut dicam, Est? what shall I do with the word. Est (saith he?) 'tis but one syllable, and one moment, and three letters in that syllable, and moment. We cannot come to the second, but by the first, nor to the third, but by the second; and then quid mihi de hac una syllaba dabis? & tenes dies, qui unam syllabam non tenes? do we talk of years, and months, and days, and hours, when we cannot give an account of one syllable? not of one letter of it? Away then with this vain credulity, this fond assurance of our settled plantation here below; momentis transuolantibus cuncta rapiuntur, all things are snatched away in moments; moments that have wings, and no feet; momentis transuolantibus, moments that fly away, as if they were afraid of mortality, or loath to assist it. And yet, behold, our tents here are not so thinnly built, but they will endure the blasts (or breathe rather) of a few days, a few days (indeed) that are spann'd-out; and when these are gone, Lord, what are we? surely, even as nothing; as nothing before thee: so the Prophet in the words following Mine Age is as nothing before thee.   

Mine Age is as nothing before thee.  
Mine Age, etc.  
IVstinian reads it vitamea; 
Pars secunda. awm meum. vulg. lat: Jun. & Trem. Musc. in Psal. 39 Aynsworth. in Psal. 39 1. Cor. 7.31.  Pagnine, tempus meum, my life, and my time; the two Fathers, Hierome and Augustine (following the Greek) substantia mea my substance; the Caldee (not much unlike) Corpus meam, my body; but, the Hebrew word, Cheled, signifies, the World, Psal. 17.14. used here, for man's life or Age, or time in the world; so that, as the fashion of this greater world passeth away, saith the Apostle, so doth the body and substance of the lesser; insomuch that this whole pilgrimage on earth, is but as nothing (most translations reading here ut nihil, or tanquam nihil) and though some be so merciful in their renderings, 
Aewm meum coram te est, ac sinon essot. Musc. Aewm meum ac si nibil esset ante te, Molcrus.  as to make man's Age a something, yet that hath but an Est, acsi non esset: or else an Ac, with a si nibil esset: so that I find little difference in the readings, the one making man's age as nothing; the other, a something, as if it were not. But suppose it were a something, indeed, such an age as had a stability both of days and years, and these not spanned so narrowly, but they might climb up to the miracle of a thousand years, yet this huge mass of time is little better than the tanquam nibil in the Text, as nothing before thee, such a nothing, as is resembled to the decursion and sticklenes of one day, not a day present, but already spent, A yesterday, 
Psal. 90.4.  a yester day that is past. A thousand years in thy eyes are but as yester day that is past, or as a wacth in the night. Psal. 90.4.  
Had our Prophet resembled it to a day, such a day as we enjoy; this day, or, one hour of this day; or one minute of this hour; or, one moment, or ictus of that minute, we might have presupposed some stability, though short-breathd, and panting, in the course of man's age; but, to a day, a day languished, and consumed; to yester day, to yesterday expired; how doth it whisper our frailty? how our transitoriness? not such a frailty, and transitoriness, as shall hereafter fade and whither, but a rotten transitoriness, a putrefied frailty; a yester days frailty and transitoriness; a yester day that is worm-eaten and dusty; a yesterday that is past. The natural man than looked not home to the brittleness of our constitution, when he styled Man a creature of a day; 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Arist. job. 8.9.  nor the righteous man, when he clothed him with an hesterni sumus, we are but as yester day, job 8.9. but, the man after Gods own heart (whose knowledge was as pure as his integrity) he displays him at the full, when he makes his Age, a season obsolete; 
Psal. 90.4.  a Calendar out of date; a yesterday that is past.  
And therefore in a deep contemplation of our mortality (bottoming and sounding (as it were) all humane wretchedness) he opens the fleetness of his age by a nihil, here, a nihil (I confess) with a tanquam to it, Mine Age is as nothing before thee: as nothing (indeed) before thee; thy Omnipotency, thy Infiniteness; before these, as nothing. For, if a thousand years to thee be but as yester day, must be nothing to thy thousand; thy thousand thousands; thy myriades of thousands, thy eternity; thy everlastingness. And therefore, my Age, or, my substance, is a tanquam nihil ante te, Ante te, qui vides hoc (Saint Augustine echoes) & cum hoc video, ante te video, ante te homines non video. I confess, that it is nothing that I am, in respect of him; that is, ante te domine, ante te; ubi oculi tui sunt, non ubi oculi humani sunt; 
Aug. in Psal.  so the Father warble's. To a blemished or a deluded eye (and such a one is a mortal eye) my age may be something; a something of some few dimensions, a span-long, and yet this is but a tanquam nihil, a tanquam nihil, unto man, too; as nothing before him: but to thee; to thy eyes (which are brighter than those beams, which dazzle mine) those eyes, substantia mea, purè nihil; no tanquam, there; mine age is nothing; purely nothing, there. Nothing? why? universa vanitas omnis homo, every man is vanity; such a vanity as is stol'n-by; or else, now going; as, yester day; or, as a watch in the night. And, these have their tanquam nihil, too; are as nothing before thee; so truly nothing, that they make not up an Age, or a day, but some few hours; enough to make up the watch of a night; no more. But suppose this tanquam nihil beaten out to the perfection of an Age; and that age, threescore and teu: this, trodden on to an hundred; that trebledup to Nestor's; and his, to Methusalah's; yet all these would not make up our number of a thousand; and so, in God's eyes, would be less than a day; then a day that is past. Than a day? one night; nay, one poor watch in that night; a watch of some three houres-space, that's all. For the jews divided their day into twelve hours, and subdivided their night into four watches, and every watch, three hours. 
1. Evening. 2. Midnight. 3. Cock-crowing 4. Dawne. Mare. 13.35. Math. 14.13.  A goodly monarchhie, of flesh and blood; a spacious; sovereignty (no doubt) both in power and time; a Reign of some three hours; three hours of a night too, not of a day; as though the time of our sway, and sceptre, here, were attended merely with obscurity and dulness, a scene of heaviness and slumber, such as are incident to this watch in the night. And, indeed, what is our life, but a very Watch? and the the time of it, but as the night season? wherein, by reason of the darkness that mantles, and o'respreads it, we grope in uncertenties and errors: the light we have of things is but weak and borrowed; a glimmering, or twinkling only, no true light; and, rather a conceit, and apprehension of what we seem to see, than an exactken or knowledge of what we should.  
Moreover, in this watch of ours, we are apt to nod, and forget; forget, not only that we are here at Sentinel; who set us here; and the short time we are at it, our three bowers; but the strict charge of our Commander, and the danger of surprisal and defeat, by the invasion of our powerful Adversary. But, night and frailty (as what is our age but these?) are beauie-eyed, and drowsy; and then, our three hours, are (perchance) no more a watch, but a dream; And what is our age but a dream too? a dream of some three hours; and that's a long one (you will say) but, however long, 'tis but a dream; and, as a dream, not long neither. But did I say, man's Age was a dream? nay, rather, man, in that Age, 
Tob 20.8.  a dream. He flieth away, as a dream, and is chased as a vision in the night. job. 20.8. So that, now, here is a dream in a dream, Ezechiels' vision; a wheel in a wheel, this mole's in that, and yet, but one vision, one dream; or, if there be disparity any where, 'tis in man; and he, the vainer dream of the two.  
Our life (you know) hath been called a shadow; and not only a shadow, but a vain shadow, in which man is said to walk; He walketh in a vain shadow, in the seventh verse of this Psalm; And not only walk's in it, but dream's in it; so dream's in it, that he is of it, too; and therefore the Heathen calls him umbrae somnium, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Pindar.  the dream of a shadow; and what is that, but the shadow of a shadow? for there is nothing so truly a shadow, as a dream, in which (oftentimes) there are strange objects presented to the fantasy, whereof in nature, and true being, there is not so much, as a resemblance, no, not a shadow; and yet, even these so captive and shackle the whole man, that (according to the variety of species offered) they take us, either with delight, or horror; sometimes commanding our sigh, our groan, our tear; sometime, our elevation of spirits; our applause, our laughter; even then, when our out ward senses seem fettered and chain'd-vp in the bands of sleep; and all this was but the Fisher-man's dream in Theoeritus, whose Golden Booty vanished with his dream, and he awak's at length to himself, and his old wants gulled with an apparition and shadow of that substance, of which he now finds there was neither shadow, nor substance, truly, but, a dream of both.  
Again, Dreams are the true Hieroglyphics of our mortal state, in which the whole passages of our life, are either prophesied, or acted; and that, much to the complexion, or quality of humours in him that dreameth. Sometimes, they are ambitious; and then we think we are upon the tops of hills, or mountains; now on Basan, then, on Libanus; where (for our pride and loftiness) we are called Oaks, and Cedars; sometimes they are more humble, and dejected, and then we grovel in bottoms, and in valleys; where, for our low estate, we are called shrubs and hyssop; sometimes they are presumptuous, and then we are at the fall of a steep Cliff, or Rock; sometimes, they are desperate, and then we are at the quicksand, or the gulf; sometimes, they are vainglorious, and then we are at the battlement, or pinnacle of the Temple; sometimes they are pusillanimous and fearful; and then we are at the roaring, or swallowing of the great deep; sometimes they insinuate a kind of auspice and blessed abundance, and then we tumble in Arabian spices, gold of Ophir, Indian Diamonds; but this (for the most part) is a very dream, such a one, as our fantasy tell's us, in our dream, is a dream indeed; sometimes again, they are Ominous, and then ghastly apparitions, and fearful shrieks startle and affright us; Galbas' halter, or knife, or poison, or some other Engine of blood and death more horrid; lastly, sometimes they are fatal, and then we dream that we have feet of clay; walk in a Caemeterium, or a Golgotha, tread amongst tombs, or dead men's bones, stumble at a Coffin, or (perchance) a green meadow, and that (they say) is an infallible predication of mortality; I know not whether a meadow be, I am sure grass, or a flower is; or, if not a prediction, at least, an emblem. All flesh is grass, 
Esay 40 6.  and the beauty thereof as the flower of the field, the grass withereth, and the flower fadeth, Esay 40.6.  
Mark, the substance of flesh and blood (here) is but grass, such grass as withereth, and the beauty of that substance, as a flower, such a flower, as is open to all tempests, a flower of the field: and that flower of the field which fadeth too. Here is nothing but withering, and fading, no time of flourishing, as if man were a piece merely of declination, and wasted before he grew. And yet lo, he groweth, and he flourisheth too, but it is for a day only; a day? nay. the first part of that day, the morning; so says our Psalmist. 
Psal. 90.6.  In the morning be flourisheth, and groweth up, Psal. 90.6. That's well; here is man, and the glory of man; he groweth, and he flourisheth; and all this is in the morning; But what follows this morning, and this growth, and this flourishing? surely, a ripeness, a sickle, and a harvest; an evening, a cutting-downe, and a withering. In the evening he is cut down, and withereth, the same verse, of the same Psalm.  
But, hath all flesh and blood (the grass here mentioned) a time of growing up ' ere it be cut down? a flourishing before it wither's? we read of grass, that wither's before it grows; before it grows up, up to any ripeness, or perfection; and this the Psalmist calls grass on the house top, Psal. 129.6, 7. 
Psal. 119.6, 7.  So thinly grown, that the mower, filleth not his hand, nor he that bindeth up fheaves, his bosom. Oh, that the Top of a house, the main beam, and rafters of a Family, the chief buttress, and pillar of a name, should be so barren, the fruit of it so soon fade, when those that are nearer earth, take better root. But lo; He grew so thinly up, that there is not so much left of him, as to fill a hand, not to make up this span-long, in the text, no not this tanquam nibil; He withered before he grew-up; we had him only in the morning, in the blooming of youth, when the Damask and the Lily danced in the cheek: Before his noon, he is reaped away, and his sheaf bound-up, and now he is gone, gone like the day you heard of, the yester day, or the watch, or the shadow, or the dream, or the grass, or the frail flower, nothing remaining, but the memory, that He was; And why? Vniversa vanitas omnis home; surely, man is vanity; every man is vanity; every man, in his best state is vanity; every man, in his best state, is altogether vanity. So the words run in the next part. Every man in his best state is altogether vanity.   


Pars tertia.  Every man in his, etc.  
THe translations (here) run diversely; so do the fancies on them. Vniversa vanitas omnis homo; 
August. Musculus. Mollerus. jun. Trem. in locuin.  so, Saint Augustine; omnis vanitas universus homo; so Musculus; mera vanitas omnis homo; so Mollerus; and omnimoda vanitas omnis homo; so, junius and Tremelius. Every Translation is double-strung, and harp's altogether on the plural. The Prophet says not, I am vain, or man is vain, or, man is vanity; nor that men are vain, or vanity; but the whole series, 
Aynsworth in Psal. 39  and descent come within the chorus; Every man is vanity; nay, every man is every vanity; all mankind, all manner of vanity; so the Root, All Adam, all Hebeb, all mankind, all vanity. There is nothing within the round of this little world, the whole circuit of flesh and blood, (whosoever, whatsoever, or how great soever) but it is vain, 
Bolduc. in cap. 11. joh. v. 11.  vanity, all vanity. And therefore some Commentators (perusing that of the eleventh of job, vers. 11. God knoweth vain man) read it novit Deus hominum vanitatem, God knoweth the vanity of men: or, as others, more nimbly, novit Deus homines vanitatis; God knoweth the men of vanity. So, Saint Augustine, paraphrasing on that of the Preacher, Eccles. 1. Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. will not read the words, 
Aug. lib de vera Religione cap. 21.  Vanitas vanitatum, but vanitas vanitantium, as if men made the vanity, and not vanity the men, so. Neque frustra additum est vanitantium, (saith the Father,) quia si vanitantes detrahas, non eritcorpus vanitas, sed in suo genere, quamuis extremam pulchritudinem, sine ullo errore remonstrabit, in his Book, de ver a Religione, cap. 21. And, indeed, we too much injure and disparage, not only the times we live in, but also, those of our Predecessors, crying out on the vanity of either, when the Stoyicke tells us, hominum sunt ista, 
Sen. Epist. 56.  non temporum; the vanity is in the man, and not in the Age; or, if it were there, and the vanity of all creatures within it, man would engross it all; so, the same Saint Augustine, expounding the Apostles, 
Aug. in cap. 8. Ro. cap. 53.  vanitati subiecta est creatura, the creature is subject unto vanity, Rom. 8. First, put's all vanity into the creature, and then; all creatures into man, and that without the least calumny, or, injustice (so he professes) omnem creaturam in ipso homine, sine ulla calumnia cogitemus, in his tract upon the Romans, cap. 13. And, indeed, it was just, that he who had the glory of all creatures, whilst he stood clothed in his integrity, should have all their frailty, too, when he was disrobed; and so it fell out at length; that he that was the occasion of all vanity, man, was all vanity himself. 
Verse 4.  There was a time, when he was but like unto it, Man is like unto vanity, Psal. 144. now He is vanity itself, 'tis his essential, and proper quality; not in part, or resemblance only, but, altogether vanity; man is altogether vanity. And what is that? 
Aug. in Psal. 38.  Totum hoc quod transit vanitas dicitur. Every transitoriness is a vanity; That which reside's not, we call vain, because it vanisheth; so doth a vapour, we say, or a smoke, and man is both; and therefore a vanity, and a vanity; or, (if you please) once more, a vanity of vanities; for that which the Septuagint read's so in their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉; Hierome, and others would have read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, vapour fumi, and, aurea lenuis, the vapour of a smoke, or, a thin air; Hebel, a soon vanishing vapour, as the breath of ones mouth, or nostrils; so Viues note's upon the Father, in his twentieth, De Civitate Dei, cap. 3. 'tis true then, whatsoever vanisheth, we call vanity; and man, that vanished vanity; insomuch that he seems to be a frail creature, indeed; some what less than vanity, or beyond it. 
Psal 109.23.  And therefore our Prophet doth not only compare him to a shadow (which must as a shadow vanish) but to that shadow, when it declineth, Psal. 109.23. and it seems this is not enough neither, and therefore, 
Psal 102.12.  Psal. 102.12. Dies mei similes umbrae declinatae; I am gone ae a shadow declined. He is gone, and declined, not declining, as if his passage were rather conjectured then discerned. And therefore, in Scripture, we seldom find man's Age resembled to a shadow, but there is a fugit with it, fugit velut umbra. job. 
job 14.12.  14.12. He sties as a shadow; flies with a nimble wing; so nimbly, that sometimes He out-doe's the acuteness of our sight; I be held him (says David) and he was gone, 
Psal 37.37.  I sought him, and he was no where to be found; so also, dies nostri, quasi umbrae super terram, 
1. Chron. 29.15.  & nulla est mora, 1. Chron. 29.15. Our days are as a shadow upon earth, and there is no stay; they pass along; nay, they fly; fly so swiftly, that they are gone, when we think them going, like a gasping coal, which in one Act, glare's, and dies; or the rude salutations of fire and powder, which but meet, and part; touch, and consume. And, indeed (if we but observe) a shadow is not so proper a resemblance of our life, as of our death; or, rather, something between both. 'tis an unequal mixture of light and darkness; or rather, a light masked, or vayl'd-vp in darkness, so that, the greater part must be obscurity; and that resemble's death; what remayne's of light, is screened and intercepted, and so looks but dimly towards life. Every shadow is an imperfect night, and every night, a metaphorical death. Sleep and Death have been long since called two sisters; and Night, the mother of them both. Moreover, as every shadow is an imperfect night, so every life is an imperfect death. The greater the shadow is, the nearer unto night, and so is the life protracted, unto death. And therefore our Prophet knowing that his earthly Tent was a little wind-shooke, and obnoxious to daily ruin, will have his age emblemed by a shadow that is declined, ad occasum vergens, 
In Psal. 102.12. & 109.23.  & in tenebras evanescens, saith Muscuius; hastening to darkness, and the night, and that night, death. When the Sun is in the Meridian, and the beams of it perpendicular to our bodies, shadows change not suddenly, but when it begins to decline to the fall, every moment, almost, they vary; and therefore his days are velut umbrainclinata, seu serotina, 
Museul. ibid.  as an evening shadow which declines with the Sun, and so set's. For, though shadows appear larger, when the Sun is near the fall, yet that greatness is not fatre from vanishing; vanity (I should say) the vanity in the text (here) man; whose honours and triumphs, at the height, and, in his best state, are but as shadows at noon; and his days, but as shadows near the set; nay, not so hopeful, for they return again with the Sun; but man once set, riseth not, till the Sun and Heavens shall be no more. job. 14.12. And 'ttwere well that only the time of man's life were vanity, but his actions in that time are a wilder vanity than the other. The Poets signified so much, when they set in combustion all Greece and Asia for a gaudy Apple; and all Troy and Greece, for a fair Courtesan; two dainty trifles to cause such bloody agitations in States and Empires. What, but vanity could have projected it? What but this, omnimoda vanitas, put it in execution? But, who knows not, that most things arrive mankind, as they seem, not as they are? As we please to fancy them, not as they prove in their own nature? And so we are fooled out of the truth, and realty of things, by a vain apprehension of what they are not; showing one thing in the rind, an external appearance, another, in the core and internal essence; Sophistications, Impostures, Lies. And therefore the Prophet complains on the sons of men, that they loved Vanity, and followed after lies, Psal. 4.9. not only because all worldly allurements yield no true contentation, and felicity, but because (in very deed) they tend either to equivocation, or falsehood; a deceivable falsehood (so the word Cozab signifies) which is such a lie, 
Aynesworth. in Psal. 4.9.  as deceiue's men's expectations; and therefore that which in the twelfth Psalm, verse 3. We translate deceitful lips, according to the Hebrew, is false vanity, or vain falsehood, the word Shau noting both vanity of words, and deeds, and sometimes that which is false too. Here upon the Prophet Agur amongst other petitions he preferred to his God, his principal desire was, that he would remove from him, vanity and lies, Pro. 30.8. And commonly they go hand in hand; for, whatsoever is vain must be false too; Insomuch that under the word vanity, a lie passes frequently in Scripture, or, 
Vide Pineda & Boldnc. in cap. 11. job 11.  at least in the Expositions on it: so in the eleventh of job, what the vulgar read's, hominum vanitatem, vanity of men, Pagnine calls homines mendaces, and Caietan, homines falsitatis, lying men, or, men of falsehood; 
Pagn. Vatab. Caiet. in cap. 11. Job. 11.  and Vatablus, (unwilling, as it seems, to sunder vanity from the lie) translates both ways, Novit Deus quàm vani, & ne quàm homines. God knoweth how vain and false men are; And therefore in the 62. Psal. 10. the Latin hath it, Mendaces homines in stateris, men are lies in the balance; the English, thus, men are vanity in the balance. And, indeed, the whole race of mankind comes within the verge of these two words; if they be of cheap and humble condition, they are called Vanity; if, of a more climbing, high, and noble estate, a lie. Men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are ally, Psal. 62.9. 
Aynsworth in Psal. 62.9.  A lie, or a vanity? nay, lighter than both; so that if they were laid in balances together, they would mount up, says the text; In balances to mount up, they together are lighter than vanity; intimating, 
Psal. 62.10.  that if all men were put together in one balance, and this vanity and lie, in another, the balances would mount up, and the frailty in man's side. A pretty piece of aeyre, and levity, that vanity should weigh-downe; or, alley; childhood, or wantonness, or folly, or ignorance, are not so light; nay, not the levity of all these, woman.  
The Locust, or the Grasshopper (creatures of emptiness and fear) are no greater slaves of the wind than he. He is tossed to and froas the Grasshopper, and driven away as the Locust, 
Aug. jun. & Trem. Psal. 30. In imagine none in umbra.  Psal. 109.23. Thus, his whole life is but a tossing, or a driving (types of instability, and trouble) and these in a vain way too; so our Psalmist, here; He walk's in a vain Image (as if his life were rather suppositious, and imaginary, than a life indeed) and in this, he is at no peace, but he disquieteth himself in vain, or, (as some read it) in vanity doth he make a stir; And what is the issue of this vain tumult? He beapeth up riches, and knoweth not who shall gather them, in the seventh verse of this Psalm. Of all earthly vanities this is the most superlative; the omuimoda vanitas in the Text, 
Aug. de Temp. 49. in cap. 3.  is not so vain as this. Conturbaris, o homo (saith Augustine) Vanè conturbaris; quare? thesaurizas; cui? nescis. A rare providence (no doubt) to treasure up, I know not what, for I know not whom. The Scripture scarce affords a fleeting at tribute to flesh and blood, but Riches have a share in it. Men are called vanities, so are Riches, shadows, so are Riches; nothing, so are Riches. Hark, Mammonist, here is a vanity, as well of Riches, 
Aug. ibid.  as of men, and both these a shadow, and a nothing. But suppose those riches firm, and solid; what then? Non infructuosè conturbaris, sed vanè conturbaris, (says the Father) perchance the trouble is not so fruitless; but, 'tis as vain; vain? Why? Thou knowest not who shall gather them; and, if thou knowest not that, why dost thou heap them up? or, if thou dost, tell me, for whom? thyself? darest thou say so, that art to die? thy issue, then? darest thou say so of those that shall? Magna pietas! thesaurizat pater filijs; imò, magna vanitas, thesaurizat moriturus, morituris; the Father, still, in his nine and fortieth Sermon, de Tompore.  
But grant thy heaps enlarged; thy fortunes, prosperous; thy loins, fruitful, yet there is a moth and gangrene haunts that estate that is purchased with too much solicitude, the heir of it, (oftentime) subject to a fit of improvidence, or luxury, or pride, or folly, or else, that common fever of lust, and riot; or (perchance) the palsy of a die, shake's out his posterity into misery, and want; and then I'll fluenào perdidit, quod tu laborando congregâsti; 
Aug. ut supra.  what before was a dropsy, is now grown to a consumption, thy base avarice, to a reproachful penury; and what thou hast long fed on, with the bread of carefulness, is at last brought to the bread of sarrow, to the lean cheek, the hollow eyes, and the clean teeth; and he that was before the object of thy wretchedness, and poor anxiety, is now, 
He that by usury and unjust gain increaseth his substance, he shall gather it for him that will pity the poor. Prou. 28.18. Vide Eccles. 2.26. Psal. 127.  of another man's Charity, and remorse; and then thou wilt acknowledge this vanè conturbaris, too, that thou hast disquieted thyself in vain, and to no purpose heaped up riches, since thou knowest not who hath gathered them. But, suppose thy issue, both hopeful, and provident, such a one as will not only preserve thy treasure, but enhance it; yet oftentimes his vine is barren, and there are no Olive plants about his table; God doth shut up the womb, or so emasculate his loins, that either the fruit of it is abortive, or none at all; or, if he have any (as Bildad said unto job) the first borne of death shall devour his strength, 
job. 18.13, 14.  and bring him to the King of terrors, 
Eccles 5.4. job 33.34. job 15.33. Vide Eccles 4.8  he shall shake off his unripe grape as the vine and cast off his flower as the Olive; and then the vanè conturbaris comes here also; He hath disquieted himself in vain, and heaped up riches, and knows not who shall gather them. Thus, Except the Lord build the house, they labour but in vain that build it; 
Psal. 127.2.  Children are the heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is his reward; others may plant, and water, but be give's the increase; and where he give's them as blessings (as oftentimes he does) they are as arrows in the hand of the strong man, 
Psal. 127.4.5.  and happy is he that hath his quiver full: but when they are given otherwise (as they are sometimes) as the whip and sword of a declining house than they are as arrows in the hand of the Almighty; arrows that are sharp, and keen, shot from a deadly hand, and a bow of steel; arrows that stick fast, 
job 7.  and pierce the very joints and the marrow; the venom whereof drinketh up the spirits, the spirits of a Name and Family, when the light of it shall be put out, 
job 18 5.  and the sparkle of his fire shine no more. Who knows not that God doth often scourge the sin of the Father in the children? and, for the foul 
a The crimes here mentioned, were Avarice, Oppression, Sacrilege; which (spoken only in communi, and as a positive truth in Divinity) the misprision, or prejudice of some did wiredraw and restrain too personally; and broughthome that to particular Families, which was intended only in general, and at large. And therefore, if there be any bosom so guilty, as to eutertaine them otherwise, I am sorry for the Application: the Author is innocent.  obliquities of the Predecessor, set's a rot upon the whole Posterity, when the name shall moulder with the Body, and the Fortunes with the name; so that the curse against the wicked man, runn's double; first, against his fortunes; they shall dry up as a river, and shall vanish with noise like a great thunder in vain; next on his Issue; they shall not bring forth branches, but are as unclean roots upon a hard rock. Eccles. 40.13, 15. Here is a vanè conturbaris, indeed; and not barely so, but, an infructuosè conturbaris, also; not only a vain anxiety, but a fruitless; for, here is neither a thesaurizas, nor a congregabis; no Riches left that were heaped up; or (if there be) none to gather them.  
Thus, they that sow vanity shall reap the wind; not a wind that shall lull and whistle them, but a wind that driue's and scatter's; scatters them, as the chaff from the face of the whole earth. And though they grow mighty in possession, or name; so mighty, that in height they reach the very cloud's, yet God shall persecute them with his tempest, 
Psal. 18.12.  and make them afraid with his storm; at his presence, these clouds shall be removed; and then, hailstones, and coals of fire. Or, though they aspire not so high, but climb the mountains only (though some mountains (they say) kiss the clouds, too) yet, tangit montes, & fumigabunt, God shall touch those mountains, and they shall smoke; and as they smoke, vanish, and vanishing, confess Tusolus altissimus super omnem terram. Thou, O Lord, art above those mountains, and not only above them, but all the World beside.  
And I could wish that my words were altogether at random here; and looked not collaterally, both to the text and the occasion. Who see's not (and let me not be thought rough, or uncharitable, in that I say, who see's not) that in latter ages the almighty's Bosom hath been here; and, in the circuit of a few years, swept away many brave Worthies of the name; and not only his Bosom, but his Axe too, lopped off many a hopeful twig, and glorious branch; and now of late, strooke at the 
b The Root (however) is still green; & I wish hearty that it may growup, and bud, & branch, to the flourishing and perpetuity of the Name; though some have barked at my integrity, making my words here, a churlish prophecy, of the extirpation of it, and sinal doom. But such snatlers and closebiters of men's honours, I mustproclaime ignorant, or unjust, or both; for, either they understood not what I spoke, or, if they did, were injurious in their application. Hoc tu Romane caveto.  Stem, of the Family; and at a blow heweed down, one of the goodliest Cedars in all our Libanus. The very stones and walls speak so much; those untimely Blacks, and these sorrows. And yet (me thinks) our sorrows are not as they should be; our Firre-trees howl not that their Cedar is fallen, neither are our Harps (as yet) hung upon the willows; but we can sing an Epithalamium, when we should be sighing of an Elegy, as if our projects could befool the Almighty's, and 'twere in our power to raise or establish a name, when God seems to threaten the pulling down. But (O thou altogether vanity) look up to the Hills above, and to the Heavens above them; and there, to the maker of them both; who sits in his great watchtower, and obserue's all the passages of the sons of men; and not only obserue's them, but laughs them to scorn; and, childing our presumptuous and vain designs, bids us look back to the text here; where we may read the story of our wretchedness, and so acknowledge, at length with our Prophet, that, Thou, O God, hast made our days as a span-long, and that our Age is as nothing before thee; and surely every man in his best slate is altogether vanity.  
I have done now with the text, and should begin with the occasion of it; the death of our Honourable Friend; but I was commanded only for a Sermon, not for a Panegyricke, that (I suppose) you might have had (here) in a more keen and accurate discourse; mine (I confess) like my griefs, heavy, and bedewed. True sorrow is more hearty, then Rhetorical; and not so fit for applause, as for a groan. Your sauning eloquence playe's to much with the tongue, and leaue's the inward man unsearched; but, my bosom is engaged here, and not my lips; and that is too full to be emptied in this span-long of an Auditory; the world shall have it in an impartial Anniversarie: or, should I vent my respects, here I could be only your Remembrancer, not, your Informer.  
The Country was not so much a stranger to his worth, but must acknowledge this truth with me; that he was not guilty of any peculiar sin, either of greatness, or of youth; no lofty-ones, of arrogance or scorn; no grinding-ones, of cruelty or oppression; no flaming-ones, of riot, or of lust; no base-ones of anxiety, or solicitude; no lewdones, of profanation or debauchment; no biting-ones, of rancour, or detraction; no creepingones, of Insinuation, or popularity; no painted-ones, of ceremony, or hypocrisy; but all his Actions went by the line, and the square, as if his life had been an exact Epitome both of morality, and Religion. There was nothing mortal about him, but his Body, and that was too frail a cabbonet for those rich eminences to lodge in, 
Plin: Paneg.  so that, as Pliny told his Traian mortalitas magis finita est, quam vita his life was not terminated, but his mortality; Goodness and virtue (which were his being) have a kind of Divinity in them; and so, not mortal. Bonus a Deo differt tantum tempore, saith the Stoic, 
Sen. Ep. 73.  Between God and a good man, there is no distinction but in time; nor in that neither, if he mean (as it seems he does) a titulary God, 
Idem Ibid.  not an essential; for, nulla sine Deo mens bona, there is no good mind without a God in it: and that's the reason (I think) great men were first called Gods; for, greatness presupposeth some rarity and perfection in it, and where that is, there is a kind of God head. And, if it were ever in greatness, it was here; whether you take greatness for the name, or for the spirit; not, that he was either haughty or supercilious, but of a temper, truly generous, and heroic, and (what is above either) truly Christian. A fast friend, and a noble brother, A munificent and openhanded Master; and (what I know, and therefore speak, and speak that you should know, and so imitate) an uncorrupted Patron; no firebrand in his Country, nor Meteor in his Church; a flash, and falfe-blaze in Religion, he was so fare from approving, that he loathed; neither was he so benighted in his intellectuals, as to be led up and down in a perverse ignorance and darkness, by an Ignis fatuus; your vocal purity, and tongue devotion, and furious zeal, even when he was no more a dying man, but a Saint (and the words of dying Saints are Oraculous to me) he both censured and disclaimed; wishing the walls of our Jerusalem built up stronger in Unity and Peace; and, a more temperate and discreet silence amongst the wayward Hot-spurres of our Spiritual Mother. And, indeed, this Clamorous Sanctity, this affected dress of holiness, without, is not the right dress. 
Prou. 30.12.  There is a generation (saith the Prophet) that are pure in their own eyes, and yet is not washed from their filthiness; the rag, or the menstruous clout, not so loathsome as some of these. Our bodies (you know) are called the Temples of the Holy Ghost; our heart, the Altar of that Temple; true devotion, the fire of that Altar; sighs, and groans, and sobs, the sacrifice for that fire; These castup the acceptable odour; these, only these, the sweet incense in the nostrils of the Almighty. The Hecatomb, and outward pomp of sacrifice, hath too much of the beast in it, the manyheaded beast, the multitude; that, within, is of the spirit; and that of the spirit, is the true Child's of God; And this our noble friend had, without gloss or varnish, his life a recollected Christianity; his sickness, a penitent humiliation; and his death, an unbattered assurance of his richer estate in glory; Insomuch, that I knew not, whether I might envy, or admire, that God had bestowed such a plentiful mortification, on a Secular condition, and left Divinity, so barren. No Viper in his bosom; nor Vulture at his heart; no convulsion or gripe of Conscience; no pang of the inward man (so he confessed to me) for the reigue of any darling sin. And (indeed) his private meditations, groans, soliloquies, pensive elevations of eyes, and spirit, rapture's full of sublimity, and contemplation (such as the heart could only eiaculate, and not the tongue) undaunted resolutions and defiance of death, and all her terrors, spoke him glorified, before he died. And thus, having made a full peace with God, and with the world, he sang his Nunc dimittis, and made a willing surrender of his Soul into the hands of his Redeemer; where he hath now his Palm and white Robe, his Penny of true happiness, and Crown of ever lasting glory; to which God bring us, with him, for jesus Christ his sake. Amen.  
Gloria in Excelsis Deo.  
FINIS.    

THE RICH MAN'S WARNING-PIECE. A SERMON, UPON OCCASION, FORMERLY PREACHED, AND NOW published, by the Author, Humphrey Sydenham, late Fellow of Wadham College in Oxford.  
Monendi sunt divites, qui tanta patiebantur pro auro, quanta erant sustinenda pro Christo; inter tormenta, nemo Christum confitendo, amisit; Nemo aurum, nisi negando, seruavit; quocirca, utiliora erant (fortasse) tormenta, quae bonum incorruptibile amandum docebant, quàm illa bona quae sine ullo utili fructu dominos sui amore torquebant.  Aug. lib. 1. de civet. Dei. cap. 10. 
AT LONDON, Imprinted by Felix Kyngston for Nathanael Butter. 1630.   

TO THE GREAT ORNAMENT OF HER SEX, AND NAME, MISTRESS ANNE PORTMAN, etc. THE accumulation of Honours, here, and of Glory, in future.  
My worthiest,  
WHat you formerly vouchsafed to peruse in a rude transcript; I here present you in a character, like yourself, and virtues, fair, and legible; I think it my prime honour, that it must now wear your livery, and what shall immortal it, your name; Had it nothing else to make it live in the opinion, and esteem of others, this were enough to give it both countenance, and eternity; Greatness can only patronise our endeavours, Goodness glorifies them. Under that stamp and seal of yours I have adventured it abroad, that you might know my respects are the same in public, which they were, lately, under a private, though noble roof; I never yet whispered an observance, but I dared proclaim it to the world, and then, too, when there might be some pretence and colour to suspect my loyalty; where I am engaged once in my services, and profess them, I am not beaten off by the causeless distastes of those I honour; you I ever did, and the name you beautify; on which, though I am no longer an Attendant, I am still a votary, and such a one, whose knee speaks as loud for it, as his tongue; his devotions, as his thanks; and both these from a heart swept so clean of deceit, or fulsehood, that could it lodge so much sophistry as to teach the lips to quaver, and dissemble, I had not been thus (perhaps) under the furrows of a displeased brow, but might have proved as fair in the smile and cringe of many, as I am now down the wind, both in their countenance, and opinion. But, sincerity is the same, still, whether in exile, or advancement, in disgrace, or honour; wheresoever I travel I carry myself with me; I am not torn into distractions, and fears, not parceled (as others) into doubts, and hopes; but, where I am, I am in the whole man; and, where I am, so, I am All yours; All in my moral, civil, and divine observances, one that will thank you, honour you, and pray for you, unfeignedly, willingly, constantly, whilst I am thought worthy of the name, or attribute of  
Your most humbly-devoted Humphrey Sydenham.   

THE RICH MAN'S WARNING-PIECE.  PSALM. 62.10. 
If Riches increase, set not thy Heart upon them.  
I Find no dispute here, about the title of this Psalm; 'tis David's to jeduthun; that jeduthun who prophesied with the Harp, and with Trumpets, and Cymbals, and loud instruments of Music, magnified the Lord, 1. Chron. 16.42.  
The Therm and Subject of it is various, and mixed; not set mournefully to strains of penitence or mortality, (as in others of his sacred Anthems) but to Aiers of more spirit and life, such as would sublimate and entrance the Devotion of the Hearer. The former part whereof is keyed high, very high, and reacheth God, and his powerful mercies; the other tuned lower, to Man, and toucheth on his frailties and weak deportment. That which concerns his God is (as 'twere) the plainsong; the ground and burden of it grave, and sober, but full of majesty, My soul waiteth upon God, He is the Rock of my Salvation and defence, at the second verse; but, The Rock of my strength, and Refuge, at the seventh. That which concerns Man, is full of Descant, runs nimbly on his state, degrees, condition; divides between the humble, and the proud, and censures both; Men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie, verse 9 Thus having warbled sweetly about the heart and middle of the Psalm; at length he shuts up his Harmony in Discord: In the front of this verse He quarrels with the Robber, and the Oppressor; and at the foot thereof (as if the Great Man were near allied them) He throws in a cavil concerning Riches; where He first, put's the case, with a si affluxerint, If Riches increase, then, the resolution or advice on it, nolite cor apponere, Set not your heart upon them. These are the parts, plainly, without violence, or affectation; so is the discourse on them; in the delivery of which, I must beg that double charity which doth commonly encourage weak men in their endeavours; Patience, Attention: and first of the si affluxerint, if Riches increase.  
Riches have carried their weight of Honour and esteem through all Ages, 
Pats. 1.  and, almost, all conditions in them; but not always, at the same height; Those of our Forefathers lay most in their Flocks, and Droves; the Fold was their Treasure-house, and not, the Tent. The word poecunia, money, was not then heard off, but Peculium, Gaine, which (as Viues notes it upon Augustine) was first derived from pecudes, Cattles, 
In lib. 7. de ciu. Dei cap. 12. Aug. etiam lib. de Domo disciplina cap. 6.  because these were all the wealth of Antiquity; for, they were then (for the most part) Shepherds. The glory and respect of Riches were near their Meridian in the days of Solomon, when they first began to shine in their full lustre; before a few Asses loaden with Lentïles and parched Corn, were thought a large present for a King; Then, multitudes of Camels, with Spices, gold, 
1. King. 10.2.  and precious stones scarce worth acceptance; Of old, 
1. King. 10.27. Exod. 30.18.  a few shekels of silver were a canonised treasure; Now, they were of no repute, but as stones in the streets of jerusalem. In fine, 
1. King. 10.22.  Lavers of brass were in the beginning rich enough for the Tabernacles of our God; but vessels of beaten gold must be here hammered, for the utensels of a King.  
Riches are now at their high spring; every Tide wafts in silver, in ships of Tarshish, and gold in the Navy of Hiram; Treasure flows in that abundance, that it doth no more satisfy, but amaze; a Queen beholds it, and there's no spirit in her. 1. Reg. 10.27. From amazement in this age, it grows to veneration in the next; that which was, erewhile, but an Ingot, or rude lump, is, Now, tricked up into a Godhead; Gold shall be no longer for use, or ornament, but for worship; and now the Nations begin to kneel to it, and give it the devout posture of the whole man; the elevation of the eye, and expansion of the hands, and the Hosanna of the tongue, and the Magnificat of the heart; and thus, in a zealous applause of their new-got Deity, the Cornet, the Flute, the Sackbut, the Psaltery, and the Dulcimer shall sound out their loud Idolatry. Nay, the ancient Romans were grown so superstitious to their mass of Treasure, 
Aug. lib. 7. de ciu. Dei cap. 12. &, de discipl. Christ. tract. cap 6.  that they made not only money their God, but called God, money; so their jupiter was named pecunia, because there was (as they conjectured) a kind of omnipotency in money, which though it creates not, yet it commandeth all things. O magnam rationem Divini nominis (saith Augustine) hoc Auaritia jovi nomen imposuit: Avarice, no doubt, thus Christened jupiter, at first, that Those which affected Coin, should not seem to love every God, 
Aug. ibid.  but the very King of gods. Had He been called Riches, the Title had been more passeable, and the devotion less sottish; for, Divitiae are one thing, and, Pecunia, another; we call the Good, and the Just, and the Wise, Rich; which have little, or nothing but in virtue; the Avaritious, and Greedy, Poor; because they ever want. Moreover, God himself we truly style Rich; yet not, Pecunia, but, Omnipotentia; so saith the Father in his seventh book De Civitate Dei. cap. 12. And indeed, the God of our happiness we style Omnipotence, and not Money; but, sometimes, to beautify and set out his perfections, Riches. So we find, Riches of his goodness, Rom. 2. and Riches of his mercy, Rom. 9 and Riches of his grace, Ephes. 2. and Riches of his wisdom, Rom. 11. Lo, his Goodness, Grace, Mercies, Wisdom, and to show their Height, and Greatness, and Immensity, and everlastingness no thing to express them, but Riches; which, if they afford such glory in the Metaphor, no doubt, there is something of worth and estimation in the letter, too; Riches, as they are Riches, have both their virtue and applause; for the Spirit calls them Blessings, and Good things; but they are externa media, Good things without us, which we may, uti, not frui, use only, not enjoy, or rather not joy in them; if Delight, here, be not more proper than joy; since joy (for the most part) points to things Spiritual; Delight, to pleasures Temporal. However, Riches may sometimes lawfully touch, both with our Pleasure, and Desire, so the Aim be not preposterous, and obliqne; either, to make them as Fuel for our Pride, or Bellowes for our Lust, or Oil for our Concupiscence, or Flames for our Ambition, or Smoke for our Uncharitableness. For, though matters of Beneficence and gift look towards Riches, as their Source, and Instrumental cause; yet, commonly, where there is most of Fortune, there is least of Charity, and so when there is Ability of Distribution, there wants Will; and that ever strangles the Nobleness of Those which are to give, and the shouts and Benedictions of them which should receive. And this, I believe, first gave life and breathing to that grey-haired paradox: Si opes sint bona, cur non reddunt possidentes bonos? If Riches be good, why have they not influence into him that owns them, and so make the possessor good? Soul, (saith the Rich man in the Parable) Thou hast much good, laid up for many years, 
Luke 12.  sleep and take thine ease; mark the Paraphrase. Quid est iniquius homine, qui multa bona vult habere, & bonus ipse esse non vult? Indignus es qui habeas, qui non vis esse, quod vis habere: The Father in his 28. Sermon de Diversis. What a mass of iniquiquitie is man swollen unto, that still desires much good, yet not to be good himself? He is unworthy to have any thing that he might Be, which would not be what he would have.  
Riches therefore, though they challenge the Name of good, yet there are such, as both Good and Bad do indifferently inherit, and whilst they are good, cannot denominate their Master good; and therefore to rectify this obliquity, Saint Augustine acquaints us with a Twofold Good; Bonum quod facit bonum, and Bonum undè facias bonum: There is a Good which doth make good, and that's thy God; and there is a Good by which thou mayest do good, and that's thy Mammon. Do good; how? Hark, the Psalmist; He hath dispersed abroad, 
Psalm. 112.  He hath given to the poor, his righteousness endureth for ever, Psalm 112.9. Hoc est Bonum, hoc est bonum undè sis justitiâ bonus; si habeas bonum undè sis bonus fac bonum de bono, undè non es bonus: So the Father warbles, in his third Sermon de verbis Domini. Behold, thou hast large heaps of Treasure; distribute them; in so doing, thou dost enlarge thy happiness; Hear is but giving to the Poor; and then, Righteousness for ever. Lo, an exchange of infinite advantage; weigh thy Disbursements with thy Gain, thy Diminutions with thy Increase; thy store, perhaps, is somewhat thinner, but thy justice is enhanced; That only is lessened which thou wert shortly to lose; and this improoved which thou art ever to possess. In fine, there is only a Dispersit, or a Dedit, in respect of the gift; he hath disposed, or given; no more; but there is a Manet in aeternum: for the Reward of the giver, His Righteousness endureth for ever; for ever, why? The Anostle answereth, He that hath charity, hath God; 
1. john 4  God dwells in him, and He in God: and where God dwells, there must needs be a Manet in aeternum; for, God is eternity. A Rich man, then, if he have not Charity, what hath he? And a Poor man, if he have Charity, what hath not? Tu fortè putas, 
Aug. serm. 64. de Temp.  quòd ille sit diues cuius Arca plena est Auro, & ille non est diues cuius conscientia plena est Deo: Thou thinkest, perchance, that He is Rich, whose chests are thronged with gold, and he not Rich, whose Conscience is filled with God; But the Father puts the Lie upon this foul misprision with an Ille verè Dives, in quo Deus habitare dignatur, in his 64. Sermon de tempore. He is truly Rich in whom God hath vouchsafed to dwell; for, There is Satiety, and full content, Metellus or Croesus not half so rich; and He truly poor, in whom God hath refused to dwell, for, There is nothing but Anxiety and lamentable Indigence, Regulus, or Irus, not half so poor. Qui te, & alia novit, non propter illa beatior, sed propter te solùm beatus: The same Saint Augustine in the third of his Confessions, cap. 4.  
How miserable then is the condition of those who suffer the current of their Affections) to be inordinately carried from the everspringing fountains above, upon broken Cisterns that will hold no water? From the Creator of the world, to Creatures here, of overvalued, and false esteem, a little Idolatrized Earth, or magnified trash; a few garish Transitories, Riches but improperly; for they have neither Truth, nor Certainty; their worth is lame, and crutched merely upon opinion; their lustre counterfeit, like those false lights which delude the wand'ring Seamen; and betray them to shelves and rocks, where both their Hopes, and they, are untimely split. But suppose those Riches (as I suppose only) to be as true, as those Lights are false; yet thus to indulge them is dangerous Idolatry, since that which is ordained for a Servant, they make not only their Master, but their God. And indeed, Such may be said to have Riches as we are said to have the Fever, when the Fever hath us; 
Sen. ep. 78.  They have not Riches, but Riches, them; for, They which are either transported with their glory, or rapt with their possessions, do by Riches as birds do by Daring-glasses, play with their own ruin; however, such are their fair allurements and invitations, that Those who are only taken with the outside, and Bark of things, are strangely infatuated: but in this, They resemble little Children, which value every painted trifle, as a Treasure; a Bugle, or glassy Carcanet, as precious as that of Onyx. And what difference is there (saith the Stoic) between them and us, Nisi quòd nos circa tabulas & statuas insanimus, chartùs inepti, we are madding after Statues, and Pillars, more costly foolish, Illos, reperti in littere calculi leaves, & aliquid habentis varietatis, delectant, they taken with stones and shells of various colours, found on the Seashore; 
Sen. Ep. 119.  we, with pillars of jasper, and Porphirie, from the Sands of Egypt, or Deserts of Africa, to shoulder some Porch, or Dyning-roome, to banquet or revel in. All this Equipage of Greatness is but a Glorious vanity, and that which the Moralist calls Bracteata faelicitas, a spangled happiness, 
Sen. ut supra.  a leaf of gold laid on Iron, which for a time glitter's, and then rust's; a gaudy Vane, or Streamer on the top of some Turret,, whiuers and flicker's with every blast; a acquaint jewel, hung lose in hair, which, as it dangles, falls; a very Glassy Pomp, cùm splendet, frangitur; like Bubbles, which in their swelling, break; Flattering and deluding Blessings, and such as prove better to them that hope for them, then to those that do enjoy them; For, instead of that Contentment which should assail them by the fruition of their desires, here is nothing but Calamity & new torment; Care of their preservation, and doubt of their disposal, and fear of their loss, and trouble of their improvement; to these, lean watchfulness, broken thoughts, hollow resolutions, interrupted peace, besides a whole Host of selfe-vexations and) the wheel the Rack not half the Torture. Thus, Gold is a stumbling-Blocke to him that doth sacrifice unto it, and very fools shall be taken with it, (saith jesus the son of Sirach) shall be taken with it? nay, shall be taken from it, even when he doth sacrifice unto it; so saith jesus the son of David, Fool, this night shall thy soul be taken from thee, taken from thee, two ways; First, thy soul from the riches of thy body, and then thy soul from the body of thy riches; And therefore, there is a vae Divitibus, denounced against such, 
Amos 6.1.  Woe to you that are at ease in Zion, and trust in the mountains of Samaria, which, though the Marcionite would make a vae, only of Admonition, and not of Malediction; yet, Tertullian, in the chastisement of that error, saith; that a Cavete is always used in matters of Advice, but a vae never, but in those thunderclaps of fury and malediction. So, we find only a Cavete against Avarice, because That is the Semen, and first matter (as 'twere) of Riches, Beware of Coveteousnesse; for, man's life consisteth not in Abundance. Luke 12.13. But there is a fearful vae against Riches, as though they still cried for divine Castigations, Woe unto you that are rich, why? you have received your consolation, Luke 6.24. your consolation, how? Ex Divitijs, de gloriâ illarum, & secularibus fructibus, of your riches, and their glory, and all secular content, not otherwise. So saith the Father in his fourth Book against Martion. Cap. 5. What folly is't then to pursue that with violence and Intention, which when we have gained is no satisfaction, but a torment? what madness thus to macerate and crucify the whole man for a few titular and opinionated riches; of which he that carouse's and drink's's deepest is ever thirsty? Nothing quenches an immoderate appetite; poculum respuit, quia flwium sitit (saith Augustine). Cataracts and rivers are but draughts competent for such concupiscences to swallow. Habes Aurum, habes Argentum, concupiscis aurum, concupiscis argentum; & Habes, & concupiscis; & plenus es, & sitis; morbus est, non opulentia, the same Father in his 3. Sermon de verbis Apostoli. How miserable are those desires, which are not bounded by what we do possess, but by what we can achieve. If a man suppose that Fortune he is Lord of, not voluminous enough, although he be Monarch of the whole world; yet is he wretched: he is not happy, 
Sen. lib de paupertate.  that thinks himself happy; he that agreeth well with his poverty is a rich man, and he that agreeth not well with his riches is a poor man; he is not rich that still lack's something, nor he poor that wanteth nothing; utrum maius habere multum, an satis, 'tis the Stoics Dilemma; whether hadst thou rather to have much, or enough? he that hath much, desires more, which is an argument, he hath not yet sufficient; he that hath enough, hath obtained the end, which never befalls a rich man. Seneca labours to press this home to his lucilius; 
Ep. 119.  Set before me the reputed rich, Crassus, or Lucinius; let him calculate his full Revenues, what he hath in present, and hoped-for Possessions; this man (if thou believe me) is poor; or (if thyself) may be poor; whether is he Covetous, or Prodigal? if Covetous, he hath nothing; if Prodigal, he shall have nothing; The Gold thou callest his, is but his Cabonets, Et Quis Aerario invidet? who would envy a full coffer? The man whom thou suppose'st to be Master of his treasure, is but the bag that shut's it up.  
Lo then, the base Idolatry of these times, and men, which not only raise their Hecatombs to their Golden Saint, but Deify the very Shrine that keep's it. A piece of wrinkled providence, or gray-hayred thrift; nay worse, a mere decrepit Avarice; when for a little languishing and bedrid Charity, they embalm the Honours and Memory of rich men with their precious Perfumes and Ointments, such as should cast only their Odours on the Monuments of good men; And not only so, but they advance their Statues and Pillars in our very Temples, I know not, whether more to the dishonour of our God, or to the Immortality of their own Name. What's this but to turn Israelite again, and take off from the glory of the Lord of Hosts, to worship a Golden Calf? By the Law of Nature (saith the Epicure) the greatest riches are but a composed poverty; and by the Law of God, the greatest poverty is but ill-compesed riches; for he that piles them by fraud or violence, builds Aavarice one story higher, to oppression; and then not only Poverty, but judgement follows; God shall rain snares upon them, 
Psal 18  That which should otherwise cherish, shall now entangle them; and then, Storm and Tempest shall be their portion to drink, such a storm as will not be allayed without a shower of vengeance. Hark, how it blowe's? Woe unto them, That join House to house, and lay field to field, till they be placed alone in the midst of the Earth; This is in mine ears; saith the Lord of Hosts; of a truth, many houses shall be desolate, even great and fair without an Inhabitant; Ten Acres of vineyard shall yield one Bath, and the seed of an Omer shall yield an Ephah: Is this all? No, the Thunder clap is behind, Hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure, and their multitude and their Pomp shall descend into it. Esay 5.14. There is no misery to unjust riches; no leanness of teeth like those which grow fat with the substance of another; but, to them which grind Poverty by Extortion, & devorant plebem, sicut escam panis, eat up my people, as a morsel of bread, what Hell, here? what Horror in after times? Oh, the fearful Eiulations some have shrieked! Would God had given me a heart senseless like the flint in the rocks of stone; which, as it can taste no pleasure, so no Torment; no torment, here; but, when the Heavens shall shrivel like a scroll, and the Hills move like frighted men out of their place, what Mountain shall they get by entreaty to fall upon them? what covert to hide them from that fury, which they shall never be able to suffer, nor avoid? judgements do not always follow Crimes as Thunder doth Lightning, Instantly; but, sometimes, an Age is interposed, as between two Earthquakes; though they may escape the darts and wounds of temporal persecutions here, yet the sting that lies behind is Dreadful. They shall suck the Gall of Asps, 
job 20.14.  and the Viper's tongue shall slay them.  
Thus, we see, Riches and Blessedness do not always kiss; He's not ever Happy that is prosperous; the acquisition of much wealth, is no End of misery, but a change: the Low-built Fortune harbour's as much Peace, as that which is Higherroofed; and hath one advantage beyond it, 'tis less wind-shooke. The humble Hyssop and Shrub of the valley are not so exposed to Tempests, as the Cedar in Libanus, or the Oak in Basan; they are threatened with many a Cloud and Exhalation, which the other neither Fear, 
Epicurus.  nor Suffer. Contented Povertie (saith the good Athenian) is an Honest thing; but 'tis no more Poverty if is be content; we cannot say, he is poor that is satisfied, but he that couet's more. He that is at peace with his desires, and can compose himself to what Nature only requires from him, is not only without the Sense, but without the Fear of misery; is he poor that hath neither Gold, nor Hunger, nor Thirst? plùs jupiter nòn habet. jupiter himself hath no more; That is not little which is enough, nor that much which is not enough; He that think's much Little, is still poor; and he that think's Little much, is ever Rich; Rich in respect of Nature, though not Opinion. The man thou callest poor, hath, doubtless, something that is superfluous; and where Superfluity is, there can be no want; where no want, no poverty; on the otherside, the man thou stillest Rich, is either Poor, or like a poor man; he cannot improve his Store but by Frugality; and Frugality is but paupertas voluntaria, a voluntary poverty, Seneca calls it so in his fifteenth Epistle ad Lucillium. Let's, then, 
Epist. 91●  borrow Advice from that sacred Heathen (pardon the Epithet, Seneca will own it) and press it home to the practice of a Christian, Measure all things by natural desires; only, beware thou mix not Vices with Desires; Nature contents herself with a little, what is, beyond, or above that, is impertinent, and not necessary. Thou art hungry, reach not after Dainties, the Appetite shall make that toothsome, which is next; whether thy bread be white, or brown, Nature question's not. Illa ventrem nòn delectari vult, sed impleri. She would have the body fed, not delighted. Thou art dry; whether this water run from the next Lake, or that which is arted by Snow, or foreign cold, Nature disputes not; she labours to quench thy Thirst, not to affect thy Palate; whether the cup be Gold, or Crystal, Sabinian, or that of Murrha, or else the hollow of thine own hand, it matter's not; Fix thine eyes upon the End of all things, & thou wilt loathe Superfluities: Nùm tibi cùm fauces urit sitis Aurea quaeris pocula? Nùm esuriens, fastidis omnia praeter pavonem? Hunger is not Ambitious, she looks not after the quality of meats, but the measure; how she may Fill the body, not pamper it; These are torments of an unhappy Luxury, when we seek new ways how to provoke, and glut the Appetite, and not only to refresh our Tabernacles, 
Ecclus 37.  but to cloy them. Delicates poured upon a mouth shut up are like messes of meat set upon a grave, things only for Spectacle, not Repast. Of all Gluttonies', that of the Eye is most Epicuricall, when it would still see Dainties which it cannot taste, till the Desire hath as much surfeited, as the Body, and so we abuse the Bounty of a better Nature to satisfy the Lust and Concupiscence of the whole man; and this Rapine and greediness of the sense, is as unwarrantable, as that of fortune, which breaks down all banks of moderation; and therefore, without either Moral or Divine prescription. There can be no Virtue in Extreme; no good, which consists not in exactness of proportion, so that by the diminution or excess of that proportion, Vice insinuates; insomuch, that in the exuberancy of these outward creatures, Sin is conceived, 
Aquin. 2.2. q. 118. Art. 1.  a Capital, and Daring sin, when above a due equality, and measure, we either acquire or retain them eagerly; And this the Schoolman calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, an Immoderate hunger, and pursuit of temporals, in secundâ secundae 118. quaest. Art. 1. There is no outward state of life so blessed as that which Diuide's between Penury and Abundance; the extreme on either side is Misery. And therefore the wisest King that ever was, and the greatest both for Treasure and Retinue, in his own desire of secular things, ever mixed his Orisons with this Petition, Lord give me neither Riches nor Poverty, Sed victui meo tribue necessaria, Feed me with food convenient (the English give's it) but the Latin, necessarium, is more Emphatical; there are some things Convenient for the Majesty of a King, which are not always Necessary for his person; but Solomon, here, desire's only to have Nature accommodated, and not State; Riches he would have none; and these are convenient for him as a King, but something to feed him with, and that is necessary for him as a Man; an humble request for so mighty a Potertate, and yet so much as he need's to beg, though, not so much as God hath purposed to bestow; his Blessings come oftentimes in showers, when they are sued for but as sprinklings. In that exquisite platform and rule of Prayer prescribed us by our Saviour, all temporal desires are involved in this, Give us this day our daily bread; 'tis Bread, only, we ask, and bread only, for a day, and these are Both necessary; Necessary two ways; First, in respect of ourselves, for Bread (saith the Psalmist) strengthen's the heart of Man; man's chiefest part, the Heart; and that chief part, frail; and frailty needs strengthening every day; Then, in respect of the command; it must be Bread, for a day, too; The Lord bids the Israelites gather Manna, only for a day, and the Gospel enjoines the Disciples, with a Nolite cogitare in crastinum, Care not for to morrow, but let to morrow care for it self. Meritò ergò Christi Discipulus victum sibi in Diem postulat, qui de crastino cogitare prohibetur; saith Cyprian; 
Cyp de Orat. Dom.  He rightly demands bread only for a day, who is forbid to provide any thing for to morrow. I came naked out of my mother's womb (saith job) and naked shall I return. We brought nothing into this world (saith Paul) and nothing we shall carry out; Nakedness? and Nothing? into the world? and out of it? What then can we require here, but Necessaries? and what these are, the Apostle give's in two words, Victum, Tegumentum, Food and Raiment, and enioyne's Content with these, 1. Tim. 6.8. But what food, what raiment must we be contented with? Necessarium victum, Necessarium tegumentum, nòn inane, nòn superfluum, Saint Augustine resolue's in his fifth Sermon, De verbis Apostoli, Food and Raiment necessary, not Luxurient, not Superfluous; Nature require's not the Latter, but if God sometimes bestow them, make those Superfluities fewer Necessaries, Sint tua superflua pauperibus necessaria; 'tis the same Father's advice in the same Sermon. Mistake me not; I am no Disciple of Rome, nor Athens, no Stoic I, nor jesuite, I hate a Cloister, or a Stoa; I like not the Monk in his Monastery, nor the Cynic in his Tub, nor the Anchoret in his Cell; I loathe the Penitentiary and his water, the Capuchin and his Stony Pillow; I pity the threadbare Mendicant, and the  Pilgrim; such wilful penancing of the body (for aught I read) God neither commands nor approue's. A voluntary retirement from Society, or Fortune sauour's more of Will, than judgement, of peevishness, than Religion. If God send me Riches I accept them thankfully, and employ them, in my best, to his service, and mine own; But if by Casualty, or Affliction, or some unhappy Accident, I am driven to Indigence, or Calamity; or else, if God have proportioned me such an humble Condition; I'll take no indirect course to any higher, but carry this cheerfully, without Solitariness, or Discontent; and, as with the spirit of old Attalus, so with his Language too, Torqueor, sed fortitèr, benè est: 
Sen. Epist. 5.  occidor, sed fortitèr, benè est.  
And hence, (no doubt) it was, that Augustine so magnified his Paulinus; who having fallen from infinite riches to a retired poverty, 
Aug. lib. de Civit. Dei, cap. 10.  when the Barbarians besieged Nola, (of which he was Bishop) spoiling all as they went, as a general Deluge, and making him prisoner both to shame, and want, thus poured-out his devout expressions to his God, Domine non excrucior propter Aurum, etc. Lord, I am not troubled for gold, or silver; for where all my treasures are, thou knowest: even there had he reposed all his, where He advised to lay them, who foretold these miseries to fall upon the world. A brave resolution, and worthy of that Crown, which wreathe's all Martyrdoms; and yet but such as we, out of the honour of our Profession, should have, and, in our fires of Trial, aught to use. That Christian who hath sometimes shined in the glory of outward Fortunes, and afterwards endured the Batteries of some temporal afflictions, and yet in the midst of these cannot awake his Harp, and psaltery, and sing with David, My heart O God is fixed, my heart is fixed, I will give praise, Praise, aswell for thy punishments, as thy Blessings, is a very Coward in temptation, and unworthy either of his Countenance, or Colours; He that cannot take up the Cross with patience, and lose all to find his God, deserves him not; Minùs te amat, 
Aug. 10, Cons. cap. 9  qui tecum aliquid amat, quod non propter te amat, saith Augustine: He love's thee little, who love's any thing with thee, that he doth not love for thee; All this shadow and froth of transitory things must vanish, for the hope of our bliss in future; Master we have left all and followed thee (the Disciples cry) What shall we have? What shall ye have? All things in having him, so saith Saint Cyprian, 
Cyprian. de Coen. Dom.  Cùm Dei sint omnia, habenti Deum nil deerit, si ipse Deo nòn desit. Since all things are God's, to him that hath God, nothing can be wanting, except he be wanting unto God; Nothing, saith the Father? No good thing, saith the Prophet, The young Lions do lack, and suffer hunger, but they that seek the Lord shall want nothing that is good; Psal. 34.10. Though all earthly persecutions entrench thee, and Misery seems to come on like an Armed man; and thou art fallen into the jaws of those enemies, whose Teeth are Spears, and Arrows, and their Tongue, a sharp Sword; yet Angels shall encamp about thee, and the Lord of Hosts shall be thy Buckler, and thy Shield; the Neighing of the Horse, the Noise of the Trumpet shall not invade thee; or if They do, and at such a straight, that the Arm of Flesh grows weak, and all earthly fortification, vain, yet his mercy is great unto the Heavens, and his Truth reacheth unto the clouds; the glorious Host above shall muster all their forces to assist thee, the Stars shall fight for thee, and Thunder speak loud unto thine enemies; Nay, God himself shall undertake thy quarrel, He shall bow the Heavens, and come down; the Earth shall tremble, and the Foundations thereof shall shake because He is angry; He shall set his Terrors in Array, and fight mightily thy Battles, his severe wrath he shall sharpen as a sword, and put on jealousy for complete Armour; Lo, how he breaketh the Bow in pieces, and Knappeth the Spear insunder, and burneth the Chariots in the fire; Hailstones full of fury he shoots as Arrows, his right aiming thunderbolts go abroad, and from the clouds, as a well drawn Bow, they fly unto the Mark. Thus in thy Height of miseries, God shall be thy Castle, and strong Tower; and under the shadow of his wings shall be thy refuge, till these calamities be overpassed. God never leaveth His, in their extremities; whether in the Cave, or in the Mountain; in the Den, or in the Dungeon; he is always there, both in his Power, and Assistance, and, sometimes, in his Person, too; when all natural supplies grow hopeless, God purueye's for his children, by his Miracles; Rocks shall burst with water; and Ravens provide Bread; and Clouds drop fatness, and Heavens showr'e Manna; and Angels administer comforts; And at length when all these whirlwinds, and fires and earthquakes of thy persecutions are gone by, God himself shall speak in the still voice, Peace, peace unto thee; Peace aswell in thy outward, as inward state; he that hath given thee Poverty, can give thee Riches, and (upon thy Sufferings) will; But when they come, take heed of that disease which commonly attends those which are risen from a despised and mean condition; other goods give only greatness of mind; Riches, insolence. And therefore the Apostle's advice comes seasonably here, Be not highminded, but fear; Fear, lest that God which bestowed them on thee for thy Humiliation, will take them off again for thy Pride; and so, when Riches come, put not thy trust in them, and if they increase, set not thy heart upon them: that's the second part, the resolution, or advice given on the Case put, If Riches increase, set not thy heart upon them.  

Set not thy heart upon them. 
Pars secunda.   
THe Rabbins, and Hebrews, of old, attributed the whole Regiment of man to the Heart, and made that the Throne and chair of the Reasonable Soul; seating in it not only the powers of understanding; Choice, but of Will and Action too; So did the anncient Grecians; specially, their Poets. The Philosophers, on the other side, place them in the Brain; and leave only the Affections to the Heart; But, Divinity is more bountiful, the Scripture giving it the whole rational power; understanding, will, judgement, consultation, thought, endeavour; hence 'tis, that God so often scourge's the Hearts of men, commanding us to confess, honour, love, and fear him with all our heart; And therefore, that part is sometimes taken for the reasonable Soul; sometimes, for the whole man; Hereupon the Prophet's Lacerate corda vestra, Rend your Hearts, and not your garments; and This people honour me with their lips, but their Heart is fare from me; the Heart, the Shrine and Temple where I am truly worshipped; that Holocanst and Oblation only which smoke's from this Altar, bear's the acceptable Odour; all other Sacrifices are abominable; the Heart is God's jewel; he doth appropriate it to himself, only, and wholly; the hand, or foot, or eye are not forbidden to do their office, both in gathering lawfully, and preserving riches; any member but the Heart may be thus employed, that must not intermeddle; for this were to whore after a false Numen, and Burn Incense to a strange God: 'Tis not the mere possession or use of riches that offends, but the Affectation; And to this purpose, Lombard puts in his Observation, with a non dicit Propheta, the Prophet says not, nolite habere, but nolite cor opponere; 
In locum.  we are not forbidden riches; but when we have them, to set our Hearts upon them; so that, the error hang's not upon those, but us; not on Riches, but that which Idoll's them, our Heart. And therefore, Moses gave a stung Caveat to the Israelites, that when their Folcks and herds increased, and their Silver, and their Gold was multiplied, they should beware le●st their hearts were lifted up, and so they should forget the Lord their God. Deut. 8.13.14. Those sublunary creatures raise not Distraction in us, so we make them not our Centre, if we rest not in them, if we can lock through them, to the Giver; And, doubtless, we may entertain the unrightous Mammon, not only as a Servant, but a Friend, by no means, as a Lord. There is Virtue in the true use of it, if there be a Qualification in our desires. And therefore, S. Augustine disputing of that impossible Analogy between Heaven, and a Richman, a Camel, and the Eye of a Needle, would have a Rich man understood there Cupidum rerum temporalium, & de talibus superbientem, such a one, as joins Avarice to Riches, and Pride to Avarice, in his 2. Book of Euang. quaest. Cap. 47. And this is the Burden of his Interpretation in three several Tracts more, non opes damno sed desideria, in his 10. Sermon de tempore; non Divitiae, sed Cupiditas accusatur, in his 5. Sermon de verbis Apostoli; in Divitijs reprehendo cupiditatem, non facultatem, in his first Book de Civit. Dei. Cap. 10. A moderate and timely care of necessary temporals is not prohibited, but the inordinate Appetite is cried down by the general voice and consent both of Fathers and Schoolmen; if you require a Catalogue; view more punctually Gregory de Valentia upon Aquinas 2.2.3. Tome 4. disputation, 5. question. Hereupon, 
Sen. de Beat. vit.  the Moralists, and those of rigid and severer Brow, would have a wise man pass by Ríches, in contempt, Nonnè habeat, sed nèsolicitus habeat, not in regard of their propriety, and possession, but the difficulty and eagerness of the pursuit; which as he can manage without Indulgence, in their fruition; so, without disturbance, in their loss; In what store house may Fortune better look up her Treasure, than there, from whence she may fetch it without the complaint of him that keeps it? M. Cato, when he praised Curius and Caruncanius, and the voluntary and affected poverty of that Age, wherein it was a Capital offence to have some few plates of Silver, 
Sen. Epist. 119.  Possidebat ipse quadragies sestertiùm, saith Seneca, had his own store crammed with many a Sesterce. A wise man, as he will not make Riches the Object of his pursuit, so not, of his refusal, non amat Divitias, sed mawlt; non in animam illam gazam, sed in domum recipit; nec respuit possessas Divitias, sed contemnit; 'tis Seneca's again, to his junius Gallio, he weighs them so evenly between, Desire, and Scorn, that he doth neither undervalue, nor indulge them; he makes not his mind, their Magazine, but his House, in which he doth not lock, but lodge them; he love's them not, properly, but by way of comparison, not as they are riches, but as they are aloof from Poverty: Yes, Stoic, 
Sen. de Beat, vit. cap. 7.  as they are riches, they may not only be temperately loved and desired, but also prayed for, prayed for as our daily bread; not absolutely, as for our spiritual improvement, but by way of restriction; first humbly, with submission to the will of God; then, conditionally, so they prove advantageous either to our civil or moral good. But here we must warily stee●re between a vigilant providence, and a fretting solicitude, a discreet and honest care, and that which is anxious, and intemperate; for, if they are pursued either with unlawful, or unbridled desire; they lead our Reason captive, Blindfold our Intellectuals, startle and disturb our sublimated, and better thoughts, wean our Cogitations from Sacred project to matters of Secular employment, steal from us the exercise of spiritual duties, and so damp and dead all the faculties of the Inward man, that in way of Conscience or Religion, we are benumbed merely; Naball himself not so stony and churlish, not half so supine and stupefied as we. And therefore, your earthly Sensualists have this woeful brand set upon them by the Spirit of God. They are men of this world, they have their portion in this life only. Psal. 17.14. Riches have nothing substantial in them that may allure us, but our custom of admiring them, Non quia concupiscenda sunt, 
Sen Ep. 119.  laudentur; sed quià concupiscuntur, laudata sunt, They are not praised, because they are to be desired, but they are desired because they are praised. To cut out our desires by weak precedents is at once folly and madness; 'tis miserable to follow error by example; That this man hugg's his Mammon, is no authority for my Avarice; I must chalk out my proceed by the line of precept, square them by the rules of Divine truth; and that tells me Ríches are but snares, thorns, vanities, shadows, nothing. 
1. Tim 6.9. Math. 13.22.  Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not? saith the Wise man; For, certainly, Riches make themselves wings, they fly away as an Eagle towards heaven, Pro. 18. Mark, all their pomp is without certainty, or station: Things not only fleeting, but voluble; they steal not from us, but they fly away; fly away as an Eagle doth, both with strong, and nimble wing; Their Ebb is as sudden, as their flow doubtful; the Text only presupposes the one, with a si affluxerint, if they flow about thee, as if their increase were merely casual: But if they do, what then? Nolite cor opponere, set not your heart upon them; They are transitory objects, they fly away, not only with the pinions of an Eagle, but with the wings of a Dove, of the Dove, in the Psalmist, whose wings were covered with silver, and her feathers with gold. Riches (I confess) have their Beauty, and lustre; but they are false, like globes of Crystal, which though they take the eye both with variety and delight of Objects, yet have of themselves but a hollow and brittle glory, nihil ex his quae videmus manet, currit cum tempore: Winds and Seas are not so rolling and unstable as Riches are, when they begin to surge and swell the Heart, that is set upon them: vides quia fluunt, 
Ambros. ad Mamme.  non vides quia praeter fluunt; fluenta sunt quae miraris; quomodò veniunt, sit transeunt, et receduntut discas superflua non acquirere, Lo, how the Father, playing on the word, chide's his folly, and opening the stickle condition of these sliding temporals, prohibite's all desire of unnecessary Treasure, to sweat after superfluities, and vain Abundance, since the way to them is both steep, and slippery, and like the climbing of a sandy hill to the feet of the Aged. No man can be possessed of a peaceable and quiet life that toil's much about the enlargement of it. Seneca's habere quod necesse est, & quod sat est, may well complete all earthly happiness, and terminate our desires in way of riches, to have that which is necessary, & that which is sufficient; But this latter we must bond again with the rules of Nature, not opinion. The Epicure tells us, If we live according to Nature, we shall never be poor; if, according to opinion, never rich. Our natural desires have their lists, and Bounds; Those that are derived from false opinion, have no pale; to him that goeth in a right way there is an end; Error is infinite. As therefore there are diverse sorts of Riches, so there are of Desires, too; there are Riches natural, and there are Riches Artificial; there are Desires of Nature, and there are Desires of Choice. Natural Riches, such as are surrogated to man for the supply of natural defects; as meat, drink, clothing; Artificial; by which Nature is not immediately relieved, but by way of consequence, as Coin, Plate, jewels, and the like, which the Art of man first found out for easier traffic and exchange; or (as the unhewed language of the School. man rough's it) propter mensuram rerum venalíum. Now natural desires shake hands with natural Riches; they are not infinite, but have their measure, and growth, and proportion with the other. Artificial Riches are without period, and come up to those desires of Choice; which because inordinate, and not modified, are no less than infinite. He that drink's's of this water (saith Christ, by temporals) shall thirst again, joh. 4. The Reason is, because their insufficiency is most known when they are had, and therefore discouer's their imperfection more; so that Natural Riches are more exquisite, because they have natural desires which are infinite; The other not without Confusion and Disorder, because their desires depend on Choice, which are mutable and various; and so, Infinite. 
Aquin. secunda secundae, q. 1. art. 1. ad secundum. Cato.  That Rigid censor of the Romans, was both Home, and witty, to the superfluous vanities of his time, Any thing will suffice, if what we want we require of ourselves; he that seeke's for content, without him, looseth both himself, and it; not to desire, 
Vis fieri diues, Pontifice? nile cupias Mart, Sen. Epist. 119.  and have, are of a near Blood- Quare igitur à fortunâ potius impetrem, ut det, quàm à me, nè petam? saith the Stoic, Why should I rather desire of Fortune, that she would give me? then of myself that I would not desire? Riches have nothing solid in them; for if they had, they would sometimes either fill or please us; but they play with our appetites as the apples did with the lips of Tantalus, which he might kiss, not Taste; or, suppose, Taste them, 'tis but as water to one sick of a violent fever, now drinking eagerly to allay his thirst, enlarges it; and seeking something to cool his Torments, he enflame's them. We are never in ourselves, but beyond; Fear, or Desire, or Hope draw us ever to that which is to come, and remove our sense and consideration from that which is, to muse on that which shall be, even when we shall be no more. Inuentus est, qui concupisceret Aliquid post omnia. There are some, that having all things, have (notwithstanding) coveted somewhat; like wide-mouthed Glasses brimb'd-vp with rich Elixirs; put gold in them, They are ne'er the fuller; And this is a punishment ever waits upon unbridled, and immoderate Appetites; He that loveth silver, shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth Abundance, with increase, Eccle. 5.10. Miserable Desires, have miserable effects; They degrade and divest Man of that pre-eminence he hath above other Creatures, and bring him down to Beasts; nay, under them; For they having quenched their Desires, by their Fruition, remain fully satisfied, till Nature quicken again their Appetites, like plants in a fat soil, which never require showers, but in drought; those of Man are ever ravenous and insatiate, like barren & thirsty ground, which even then lacks moisture, when over-flowed. Thoughts which stream towards wealth, or Honour have no certain channel; but, like a Torrent or full tide, either beat downe'or else overrun their banks. There was never Mammonist, whose Excess of Treasure, or Extent of Fortune, could limit his Concupiscence; but it might well rival the Ambition of those Proud Kings of old, who not satisfied with the Glory of their own Crowns, and having nothing more on earth to be desired, would counterfeit the Lightning and Thunder, to have themselves thought powerful in Heaven also; make him Lord of the whole Earth; give him her Ours of Gold, Coasts of jasper, Rocks of Diamonds; nay, all the Treasure the womb of the Earth, or bowels of the great Deep have swallowed; yet, even in these floods, he thirsteth, in this surset, he is hungry, in these Riches, poor. O the Inexhaustednesse of Humane Appetite. Quod naturae satìs est, Homini nò est. 
Sen Epist. 119.  Nature hath not in her vast store-house wherewith to supply our bottomless Desires; those Desires, I mean, which attend our Choice; For as they depend on the Imaginations of men, (which are fertile, and ever blooming) as this Power represents the forms and Images of infinite Objects, so our desires multiply strangely to pursue all those things the Imagination hath propounded; insomuch, that we prosecute them (oftentimes) without Rule, or Measure, and there is sooner an end of us, then of our Covetousness. I know there are Desires Innocent enough, if they had their Bounds; But their Excess, and Restlessness, doth blemish their pursuit; the Chrysolite, the Berill, and the Saphire, and all the sparkling, and shelly Majesty, of Pearl, and Stone, are the Objects of a harmless delight, if we could use them moderately; But, we suffer ourselves to be transported with such violent Affections, and we seek them with such enraged heat, that 'tis rather Madness, than Desire; Nay, of all humane Aspirations there are none so lawless, and Exorbitant, as those which wander after Riches; For, whereas the Rest aim only at the joy and Content which may arrive them by the possession of their Objects, and so, lull, and slumber, (like two loud and steep Currents, which meeting in a Flat kiss, & are silent.) Those of Riches, grow more violent, by Abundance, like the flame of a great fire, which increaseth by casting wood into it. There can be no true Riches, without Content; and there can be no true content where there is still a Desire of riches; will you have the Reason? the Moralist give's it. 
Sen. Epist. 112.  but not home, Plùs incipit habere posse, qui plùs habet, He that hath much, begins to have a possibility, to have more; and thus, as our Heaps are enlarged, so are our Affections, and They once Inordinate, the Heart is instantly rend asunder with the whitle-winds and distempers of various lusts; sometimes, it hunt's for Treasure, sometimes for Honours and Preferment, and having gotten the possession of these, still fight's against her own Satisfaction by desiring more; Insomuch, that if we could empty the Western Parts of Gold, and the East of all her Spices; the Land of her vndiged, and the Sea of her shipwrecked store; if we could lay on our Mass to the very Stars; yet Desire is as woman, and the Grave, as Death and Hell, which will not be satisfied. Such are the restless wanderings of our Affections, set once on temporals, that They find neither Bank, nor Bottom; there is no rest to man's Soul, but in God's Eternal Rest; for there being no proportion between Spirits, and Bodies; 'tis impossible that the infinite desires of the Soul should be confined to Creatures here below, as Things too Languishing, and Transitory, for such Divine Substances to reside in, with full satisfaction, or final Rest: The heart of man, not fixed in the contemplation of Eternity, is always erraticke, and unstable, Et omni volubilitate volubilius (saith Augustine) more voluble than volubility itself; It trauel's from one Object to another, seeking rest where there is none; but in those frail and fleeting Temporals, in which, our Affections are (as 'twere) shackled, and let bound, It shall never find any Lasting and true Content; For, our Soul is of that vast comprehensivenesse, and our Desire of that wild Latitude, and Extent, that no Finite Excellency or Created Comfort, can ever fill it, but it is still tortured on the Rack of restless Discontent, and Selfe-vexation, until it fasten upon an Object, infinite, both in endlessness, and Perfection; only admit it to the Face of God by Beatifical Vision, and so consequently to those Rivers of pleasure, and fullness of joy flowing thence; and then presently (and never till then) It's infinite desire expire's in the Bosom of God, and lies down softly, 
Bolt. walk with God, pag. 125.  with sweetest peace, and full contentment, in the embracements of everlasting Bliss.  
And now, O Earth, Earth, Earth, hear the Word of the Lord. Thou whose Body and Soul, and Desires are lumpish, Earth merely, thrice Earth; Raise thine Affections from this Dull Element where they now grovel, and look up to the Hills from whence thy salvation cometh: why do they flutter here about corruptible Glories? Why do they stoop to false and vain Comforts, such as are not only open to Casualty, but to Danger? Riches are to Both? to Both, in a triple way; First, in their Acquisition, Secondly, Possession, Thirdly, Deprivation. In their Acquisition, first; As the Partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so He that getteth Riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his Age, and at his End be a fool. jer. 17.11. Next in their Possession, where Moth and rust doth corrupt them, and where Thiefs break through, and steal, Math. 6.9. Lastly, in respect of their Deprivation, or Loss. He hath swallowed down Riches, and He shall vomit them up again; God shall cast them out of his Belly; the Increase of his house shall departed, and his goods shall flow away in the day of his wrath, job 20.15, 28. Lo, how the Hand of justice hovers here, and with a Double Blow strikes through the very joints and marrow of the Worldling, even to the sundering and dissipation both of his Posterity and Fortunes. His goods shall flow away, and the Increase of his house shall departed; shall departed? whither? to the Grave; with whom? (two lamentable Companions.) The Fool and the Beast that perisheth. So saith the Singer of Israel in his 49. Psalm, thrice in that one Psalm, at the sixth verse, He trust in his wealth, and glory's in the multitude of his Riches; and at the tenth Verse, He is a fool, and brutish, and leaveth his goods to others. O vain Insolence? O transitory height? what? After all those overflowings and swarms of Treasure, must he leave his Substance to Others? Yea, to others, perchance, neither of his Tribe, nor Country, Please you to look upon him at the eleventh Verse, his very heart is transparent, and you may discover his inward thoughts. He conceiue's his house shall continue for ever, and his Dwellingplace to all generations, and therefore calls his Lands after his own Name; yet view him again at the fourteenth Verse. He is a Beast, a silly one, a sheep laid in the grave, Death shall feed upon him, and the upright shall have Dominion over him in the morning, and his strength shall consume in the pit from his Dwellingplace. Once more, He is twice in that Psalm styled A Man of Honour, but 'tis sauced with a Never thelesse, He abideth not, at the twelfth Verse; and He understandeth not, at the twentieth Verse; and in both, He is a Beast that perisheth. Mark, how the Spirit of God paints out this very Earthworm, this great Monopolist of pelf, and Rubbish. He is ignorant, Transitory, Sensual; He abideth not, he understandeth not, and (anon) he dieth; Dieth? no, perisheth; perisheth as a Beast doth, as if the Soul rotten with the Body, or his Memory with the Soul; no Remainder either of Name, or Fortune, and which is worst, of Honour; so saith the Text; What though rich; and the Glory of his house increased? yet, He shall carry away nothing with him, his Honour shall not descend after him, verse 17. what? carry nothing away with him? not that Glorious Earth? that Gaudy Luggage his Soul Doted on? that shining Saint? that Burnished Deity, which he could, at once, both touch and worship? what? not the Cabinet he huged and clasped? not the Gold he Idoled? nothing of Treasure, or Repute, or Name? Of neither; All these false beams which were wont to dazzle him shall be now clouded in perpetual darkness, where they shall never see light again; thus the Text doome's him, at the nineteenth Verse of the same Psalm.  
Seeing then, All earthly Dependences are vain and fragile, and there can be no true peace but that which looks upward; Take for Conclusion the advice of Siracides, Lay up Treasures according to the Commandment of the most High; 
Ecclus 39  and they shall bring thee more profit than gold; Treasures of the most high? What are These? How laid up? and where? The Commandment of the most High tell's thee, Lay up for yourselves Treasures in heaven, Bags which wax not old, the good foundation against the time to come, the hold of eternal life, the Everlasting Memorial before God; that Treasure which the Angel shown Cornelius in the Vision; even thine Alms, and thy Prayers; not thy large-lunged Prayers, without Alms, such as the old Pharisee bleated in his Synagogue, or the New one, in his Conventicle; but thine Alms, and thy Prayers, hand in hand, with one cheerfulness, and Truth; thy hearty Zeal towards God, and thy willing Charity towards Man, and both these, in secret, and without noise. Such, and only such, are Golden Vials full of Odours, sweet Incense in the Nostrils of the Almighty; They shall yield a pleasant smell, as the Best Myrrh, as Galbanum, and Onyx and sweet Storax, and as the fume of Frankincense in the Tabernacle. Hear are Treasures which never fail, where no Moth corrupteth, nor Thief approacheth; these shall fight for thee against thine Enemies, better than a mighty shield, or a strong spear. If thou break the Staff of thy Bread unto the hungry, and afflicted, God shall make fat thy Bones, and satisfy thy Soul in Drought; Thou shalt be like awatred Garden, and like a spring whose streams faïle not; Treasures thou shalt lay up as Dust, and Gold of Ophir, as the stones of the Brook; Thy Pastures shall be clothed with flocks, the Valleys also shall stand so thick with Corn, that they shall laugh, and sing; In fine; Thou shalt take root in an honourable place, even in the portion of the Lord's Inheritance, when thou shalt be exalted as a Cypresse-tree upon the Mountains of Hermon, like a Palm tree in Engedy, and as a Rose plant in jericho: And, at length, when the Glory of those Earthly Mansions must be left, when thou canst be no longer Steward, but art to pass thy strict Account before the Great Householder at the General and Dreadful Audit, when the Book of all our Actions shall be vnclapsed, thine shall be found square, and even, and thou shalt receive that happy Applause, and Remuneration, Well done, thou good, and faithful Servant, Enter into thy Masters joy.. Which the Lord grant for Christ jesus sake, Amen.  
Gloria in excelsis Deo.  
Road caper vites, tamen hic cùm stabis ad Aras,  
In tua quod fundi cornua possit, crit.  
FINIS.    

WATERS OF MARAH, AND MERIBAH: OR, THE SOURCE OF BITTERNESS, AND STRIFE, SWEETENED AND ALLAYED, By way of Advice, Refutation, Censure, Against The Pseudo-zelots of our Age: By HUMPHREY SYDENHAM, Master of Arts, late Fellow of Wadham-Colledge in OXFORD.  
Disposui nasum secare faetentem, timeat qui criminosus est; quid ad te, qui te intelligis innocentem? De te dictum putae in quodcunque vitium stili mei mucro contorquetur.  HIERON. ad MARCELLINUM. 
LONDON, Printed by Elizabeth Allde, for Nathaniel Butter, An. Dom. 1630.   

TO THE FRIENDS INDEED, both of my Name, and Fortunes, Sir Ralph Sydenham, and Edward Sydenham Esquire, Servants to his Sacred Majesty.  
My dear honoured,  
WHilst I labour to join you so closely in my respects, let me not sunder you in your own, like two great men, who the nearer they are in place, the farther off in Correspondence. I presume 'tis no Solecism to link you together in one Dedication, whom Nature hath twisted so fast in one Blood, and Education in one virtue, and Familiarity, (a knot, I hope, indissoluble) in one heart; It is not my lowest glory, that I can boldly, and in a breath, speak Kinsman and Friend, and Patron, and these three in two, and these two, but one; A rare harmony, where Affections are so strung, that touch them, how, and where, and when you please, they are still unisons. I have hitherto found them so in all my ways, both of Advancement and Repute; and these set me up in a double gratulation, and applause; in my Hosannas, for you to my God, and then in my Reports to men. This is my All of requital yet, and yours (I believe) of expectation, which looks no farther than an ingenuous acknowledgement of your Favours, such as the proclivity of your own worth hath suggested, not any industrious proseqution of mine, which could have been contented to have worn an obscurer Title, but that it must now vaunt in a Rich one, That of  
Your Seruant-Kinsman, HUM: SYDENHAM.   

WATERS OF MARAH, AND MERIBAH.  TEXT, Rom. 12.1. 
I Beseech you, Brethren, by the mercies of God, to offer up your Bodies a living Sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God which is your reasonable service,  
THe Text hath a double forehead, one looks towards the Letter, the other, the Allegory; that of the Letter glances on the Legal Sacrifice, by the jew; that of the Allegory, on the Spiritual, by the Christian; the one was a carnal oblation of the Body only, the other a Mystical, of the Affections; That spoke in the rough Dialect of the Law; Horror, Blood, and Death; This, in the sweet language of the Gospel, Brethren, and Beseeching, and Mercies of God. Here then is no Hecatomb or slaughter of the Beast, no Bullock or Ram, or Goat slain for immolation, as of old; but the Sacrifice required here, must be Living; 'tis a Body must be offered, and not a Carcase: here's no death but of in bred corruptions; no slaughter, but of carnal lusts, and concupiscences. Affections must be mortified, and not the Body; that subdued only, and chastised, not slain; and yet still a Sacrifice, a Living Sacrifice, a Sacrifice so living, that 'tis both Holy and Acceptable to God, and so acceptable to him that he accounts it not only a Sacrifice, but a Reasonable Service.  
The words then, as they lie in their mass and bulk, are a Pathetical persuasion & incitement to the mortification of the old man; pressed on by an Apostolical power & jurisdiction, & that of the great Doctor of the Gentiles, Paul; Where you may observe, first, his manner of persuading, I Beseech; Secondly, the Parties to be persuaded, jew and Gentile, under an affectionate, and charitable compellation, Brethren; Thirdly, the Argument or motive, by which he doth persuade, By the Mercies of God; Fourthly, the Substance or Matter of that which he labours to persuade, To offer up your Bodies a Sacrifice to God; Fifthly, the Modus or manner of it; that's various, expressed by a threefold Epithet; Living, Holy, Accepble; Lastly, the Antithesis, in the words following, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Reasonable Service.  
These are the Parts offered to my difcourse, which upon the first perusal and Survey, I thought particularly to have insisted on; But finding that I had grasped more Materials, than I could sow and scatter in the Circuit of an hour, I was enforced to bond my Meditations for the present with the two former, leaving the remainder, till a second opportunity should invite me hither; And at this time only, I beseech you Brethren.  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in the Original; not Obsecro, 
Pars prima.  as the vulgar reads, but, Exhortor: Beseeching is too Calm and Gentle, and therefore rather, I Exhort, 
* Obsecro non satis apt. Annot. Beza in cap. 12. Rom. v. 1.  saith Beza: But Exhortor used only in this place, elsewhere, Precamur, & that from the same Idiom, by the same Translator. And indeed, Fairly and Plausibly to exhort, is in a manner to beseech: 
* Hortamur etiam sponte facientes, quod decet. Bez. ibid.  For not only the Refractory, but the facile, & spontaneous, the volunteer in goodness, we Exhort, and Beseech in the same Word. And if Multitude or Number, do not too much alter the nature and signification of things or Language, we shall make Beza's Exhortor, and Ierome's Obsecro, all one by the same Pen, and Dialect; For in this place to the Romans, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Singular, (which is rendered by Exhortor) to the Thessalonians, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, in the Plural, is translated, Precamur, by the same Beza, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, We beseech you, brethren, 
Vide Bez. ibid. et in cap. 12. Rom. v. 2.  1 Thes. 5.14. So that 'tis probable, the Greecke word signifies Both, but, here more openly to Beseech, then to Exhort; For Obsecro comes nearer to Misericordia, in the Text, then Exhortor doth, We Beseech ever by the mercies of God; but, sometimes we exhort by his justice; And in this sense, the Miracle of the Greek Church, Saint Chrysostome, 
Chrys. Aquin, Estius in cap. 12. Rom. v, 1.  will interpret it, and that for three Reasons, here Aquinas tells me; first, to specify and open our Apostle's humility: (for so the Wise man) Cum obsecrationibus loquitur pauper. The Rich man answereth roughly, 
v. 23.  But, the poor man useth entreaties, Pro 18. Entreaties, not for his own sake, but for God's, And therefore Obsecrare (saith he) is nothing but, 
Aquin. ut supra.  Obsacra contestari. Secondly, that He might rather out of love, move them by gentleness and request, then, out of fear, command them by his power. And this is not only his practice, but his precept, You that are spiritual, restore him that is fallen, 
v. 1.  by the spirit of meekness, Gal. 6. Thirdly, for the reverence he owed to the Roman jurisdiction, the great Senate to which he wrote (where there was both gravity and State,) which he labours to win by persuasion, and not by violence. And this also is not only his Custom, but his Advice; Rebuke not an Elder, but Beseech him as a Father, 
v.  1 Tim. 5. So that whether in matters natural, or Civil, or Apostolical, the Obsecro is both opportune and necessary: But in this last more especially: For I Beseech you; is more insinuative, than I Exhort; and I Exhort, then, I Command; And yet (as Aretius pathetically) In Apostolo obsecrante, 
In cap. 12. Rom. v. 1.  Deus est mandans, & obsecrans: In that the Apostle beseeches, God both commands and beseeches too; not immediately, but by way of a Substitute: so Saint Paul testifies of himself, We are Ambassadors for Christ, 
2 Cor. 5.20.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, As though God did beseech you by us. We are the Instruments; He, the mover; we but the pipes and Convoy; He, the Source and Cistern; The waters of Life run from him, by us; not by him. And therefore the Greek text hath the particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Quasi, as it were, 
Bez Annot in 12. Rom. v. 1.  because God doth not really beseech us, but As it were beseech us in the Person of his Ambassadors, for so it follows, We pray you in Christ's stead, 2 Cor. 5.20. So that there are Two here which beseech; God, and his Apostle. Either had lawful authority to command; 
Aret. ut supra.  He, as a Creator in full right: This, as a Legate in his name; but they had rather win fairly by a compassionate persuasion, then harshly induce by a rigorous command. And this way of instruction best suits with the staidness & temper of God's Ministers. Nè pro imperio dictatoriè praecipiant, & rigidè postulent, quod lenitate, & precibus faciliùs obtinent ab auditoribus. So Pareus. 'Tis true, 
In cap. 12. Rom. v. 1.  that the Law, and the Interpreters of it, the Prophets, not only not Beseech, but Command and terrify; and 'twas the way then; for, stiffe-neckes and stony hearts, (as the jews had) required both the Yoke, 
Pet. Mart. in locum.  and the Hammer. Neither did Christ himself (for any light we have from the Evangelists) ever use this humility of Language. For, He taught as one that had authority (says the text) and not as the Scribes. 
Mar. 1.22.  But after Christ, the Apostles; and after them the Fathers made it their Rhetoric, the chief Engine of their persuasion thorough the general Current of their Epistles: And indeed, a true Servant of the Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, must not strive: Non oportet litigare, 
Vide Bez Annot. in 2 Tim. 2.24.  says the vulgar, Non pugnare, Beza, Must be no Wrangler, nor fighter. 2 Tim. 2.24. A striker in the Church is dangerous: dangerous? intolerable, no less than He that is contentious; For certainly they are Both of an Alliance, 
Graec. Interpr.  Qui litigat verbis, pugnat: there is as well a striking with the Tongue, as with the Hand, and sometimes a Word is smarter than a Blow, especially if it do proceed from a mouth enured to bark which can nought but rail, when it should beseech; A Servant you know, should imitate his Lord: Now, the Lord is not the God of Tumult, but of Peace, 1 Cor. 14.33. And therefore, his sincere and faithful Servant Saint Paul beautifies with a threefold Epithet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
2 Tim. 2.24.  Gentle to all men, apt to teach, patiented, Rare eminencies, & in that Orb they move, spangle, & shine gloriously; He must be gentle, not to some only, but to all (so says the text) to all, of all sorts, not the particulars of his own Cut and Garb, but even to those Without. Next Teaching and not barely so, but Apt to Teach, 
Estius in cap. 2. Epist. 2. ad Tim. v. 24. Sic etiam Aug. lib. 5. de Bap. cont. Donat. cap. 29.  Apt as well for Ability, as Will; and to Teach, not to Compel; and sometimes to learn too, as well as to Teach. So Saint Cyprian tells Pompeianus, Oportet Episcopum non tantùm Docere, sed & Discere, quia ille Meliùs Docet, qui Discendo proficit. Lastly, Patient; patiented two ways; in respect of Occurrences and Men: of occurrences, first; Persecutions, Scoffs, Detractions, are the Liveries of the Multitude, which He wears with as much humility, as peace; 
1 Cor. 4.12.  and of This, our Apostle, I know not whether Complains, or Glories, Maledicimur & Benedicimus, We are reviled, and yet we bless, which some Translations read, 
Vide Pet. Mart. in cap. Rom. p. 3.  Blasphemamur & Obsecramus, We are blasphemed, and yet beseech; So that Reviling, it seems, is a kind of Blasphemy, and Beseeching, a kind of blessing; He that reviles a good man, blasphemes him, & he that beseeches an evil, in some sort blesses him. Patient next, in respect of men; not only of the Good; for, they seldom provoke distaste; but even of the wicked and malicious, Non ut vitia palpet, aut dissimulet sed ut eos quamuis à veritate proteruos, & alienos, 
Estius in 2. Tim. 2.24.  mansuetudine vincat; Not that He should dissemble or bolster vice, but that the Straggling and Perverse he might reclaim with more facility and meekness. Thus the Intelligent man ever applies his Sails unto the wind, and as that turns, and blows, so He steers. And this was the Spiritual policy of Our great Doctor, Factus sum infirmus infirmis, ut infirmes luerifacerem, 1 Cor. 9.22. To the weak I became weak, that I might gain the weak; not weak indeed, (though the two Fathers, Cyprian, and Augustine read it so,) but weak, 
Cyp. in Epist. ad 〈◊〉. Aug. Epist. 9 ad Hieronym.  that is, As weak, the Original using the Aducrbe, de, Tanquam, as tho' weak. For weak really he was not; So he professes of himself, We that are strong, aught to bear the infirmities of the weak, 
Ambros. in Psal. 104.  Rom. 15.1. Strong there; and yet, weak again, 2 Cor. 11. with a Quis infirmatur, & ego non infirmor? Who is weak, and I am not weak, who is angry, and I burn not; But this Infirmor hath a Tanquam too, 
Estius in Epist. 1. ad Co. cap. 9 v. 22.  as well as the former; or whether it have or no, it Matters not, seeing the sense is one; For He says, He became weak unto the weak; or else, as it were weak, that is, like unto the weak; Like two ways; In mind and work; In mind, by an Affect of Commiseration; In work, by a Similitude of Action; as a Nurse doth with her Child, or a Physician with his Patient, And in this sense, his Omnibus omnia factus sum, is to be understood also, I am made all unto all, 1 Cor. 9.22. All unto All? how? not that he did Idol it with the Superstitious, or Lewd it with the Profane, played the Cretian, with the Cretian, or the jew, with the jew; 
Estius, ut supra.  But, He was made all unto All, partly by commiserating them, partly by doing something like Theirs, which (notwithstanding) did not oppose the Law of God, or else, (as Saint Augustine paraphrases it) Compassione misericordiae, non similitudine fall aciae, or else, Non mentientis actu, sed compatientis affectu, in his ninth Epistle to lerome, and more voluminously, 
August. etiam, lib q. 83. q. 71.  in his book contra mendacium, 12. chapter.  
Neither was he all, to All, in way of Conversation only, but also, in matters of Discipline, and Advice; in which he deals with the Delinquent, as a discreet Husbandman with a tender plant, or tree; He waters it, and digs about it; and, if then it leaf, and bud only, and not fructify, He puts his Axe unto it; not to root and fell it, but to prune it; He lops off a sprig, or a branch, but He preserves the body; Thus, the Inordinate must be admonished only, not threatened; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, (saith the Greek;) not, Corripite, or, Castigate, (as Castellio, and Erasmus would have it) but, Monete, saith Beza; 
Bez. Annot. in 1. Thes. 5.14.  warn them that are unruly, 1. Thess. 5.14. So also, the Feeble-minded must be solaced, and encouraged, not rebuked; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Consolamini; Comfort the Feeble-minded, the same chapter and verse. Lastly, the Weak must not be depressed but supported; Support those that are weak among you; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Sublevate; hold up, 
Sustinete, infirmum opitulamini; sic ex Ambros. & Tertul. Bez. ut supra.  as a Crutch doth a Body that is lame, or a Beam a house that is ruined; which word hath reference to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Acts, Suscipere infirmos, or Sustinere; I have showed you all things, how that so labouring, ye ought to Support the weak, Act. 20.35. Here then are Weak, and Feeble-minded, and unruly; and these must be supported, and comforted, and warned; no more; I find no authority for Indignation; I do, for patience for patience to all these; nay, to all men; in the heel and close of the same verse, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Be patiented towards all men, 1. Thes. 5.14. and not only so, but to all men, with all patience too; so Timothy is advised 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Exhort with all long-suffering, and Doctrine, 2. Tim. 4.2. And indeed this Doctrine of Long-suffering, is a Merciful Doctrine; we seldom find true patience without Commiseration; Mercy is the badge and Cognizance of a Christian; It marks him from a Cannibal, or a Pagan; And doubtless, Those that have not this tenderness of Affection, whether in the Natural, or in the Spiritual Man, are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, of Savage and barbarous Condition, Tigers, and not Men; And therefore as Mercy divides a Man from a Beast, so doth it a Christian from a mere Man. He must be Merciful, 
Mat. 6.  as his Father which is in Heaven is Merciful. O how beautiful upon the Mountains (says that great Oracle of God) are the feet of him that bringeth glad tidings of good things, 
Esay 52.7.  that preacheth peace, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth? Esay 52.7. Those were said to have beautiful feet amongst the Hebrews, whose Messages were shod with loy, 
Estius in Rom. cap. 10. vers. 15.  who spoke comfort to the people, and not Terror. Now, what such joy and Comfort to the Children of Zion, as the glad tidings of good things, those excellent good things, Preaching of Peace, & Publishing of Salvation? How beautiful upon the Mountains are the feet of him that doth it? 
Aug. lib. 32. contra Faust. c. 10.  Quàm speciosipedes? (as Augustine reads it) how Precious? or, Quàm tempestivi & Maturi? (as Tertullian) how Mature and timely? 
Tertul. lib. 5. contra Marcionem. cap. 2. & 5.  〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the Septuagint, Quàm pulchri? quàm decori? how Fair, and Comely? which some of the Ancients, (and with them, 
Leo Castrensis in Esay 52.7.  S. Jerome) have read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (cutting off the three latter vowels) which they expound sicut Hora, that is (as they say) sicut tempus opportunum, or, tempus vernum, as the Spring time, when all things flourish; so that (making the Text, mutilated, and imperfect) they would have the words run thus: 
Scholar Roman. sequens septuagint.  Sicut hora super montes, sic Pedes Euangelizantis Pacem: As the Spring upon the mountains, so are the feet of him that preacheth peace; where all things are green, and fragrant, when we are led into fresh, and sweet, and pleasing pastures, the pastures of the Spirit; the Staff and Rod of the Lord to comfort us, his Peace, and his Salvation, whereby we may walk cheerfully in the paths of Righteousness, and so following the great Shepherd of our Souls (who will feed us as his chosen flock) we shall graze at length upon the Mountains, the everspringing mountains, the Mountains of Israel.  
And are the feet of him that preacheth peace, that publisheth salvation, so beautiful? beautiful on the mountains too? what shall we think then of the feet of those, the Black feet of those, who, like the possessed man in the Gospel, still keep among the Tombs? tread nothing but destruction, 
Mark 5.2.  and the grave? and as if they still walked in the vale of darkness, and the shadow of death, beat nothing but Hell unto their Auditors, which by continual thundering of judgements, so shake the foundations of a weake-built faith, that they sometimes destroy the Temple they should build up; and in this harsh and austere manner of proceeding, they oftentimes exceed their Commission, when pressing too fare the rigour of the Law, they trench on the liberty of the Gospel, as the Disciples did, 
Luke 9.55.  who requiring fire from heaven to consume the Samaritans, 
2. King. 1.10.  they text it with the severity of Eliah: As Eliah did unto the Moabites. But the Lord of mercy is so fare from approving this fiery zeal, that He not only rebukes it, but the spirit that suggested it. You know not of what spirit ye are; for the Sanne of Man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them, Luk. 9.56. And doubtless, the destroying spirit is not the right Spirit: The Holy Ghost (you know) appeared in the form of a Dove: and as the Dove is without gall, so should the Organ of the Spirit be, the Preacher. Detrahendum est aliquid severitati, 
Aug. ad Bonifac. de Cor. Donat.  (saith Augustine to Boniface) ut maioribus malis sanandis, charitas sincera subveniat. Who would not tax it in a judge as a crime and custom too unjust, to be moved to choler against a Delinquent or Malefactor, when charity should guide him, and not passion? He doubles the offence, that doth both exaggerate, and punish it; That Divine labours too preposterously the reformation of his hearer, that chides bitterly, when he should but admonish, and admonish, 
Isid. lib 3. de summo bono. cap. 2.  when he should Beseech. Qui veracitèr fraternam vult corripere infirmitatem, talemse praestare fraternae studeat utilitati, ut quem corripere cupit, humïli corde admoneat, saith Isidore. Sweet and mild persuasions, and the admonitions of an humble heart, work deeper in the affections of men, than all the batteries of virulence, and Inuection. Oil (you know) will sink into a solid and stiff matter, when a dry and harder substance lies without, and can neither pierce, nor soften it; That which cannot be compa'st by the smother insinuations of Advice and Reason, shall never be done by force; or if it be, 'tis not without a tang of baseness: There is Something that is servile in Rigour and Constraint, 
Char. lib. 3.  and takes off from the Prerogative and freedom of humane will. The Stoic tells us, 
Facilius ducitur, quàm trahitur. Seneca.  there is a kind of generousness in the mind of man, and is more easily led, then drawn; Impulsion is the child of Tyranny, and holds neither with the laws of Nature, nor of Grace. Deus non necessïtat, sed facilïtat. God doth not necessitate, or if necessitate, not compel man to particular actions, but supples and faciles him to his Commands. And (doubtless) he that would captivated the affections of his hearers, and smooth and make passable what he labours to persawde in the hearts of others, must so modify and temper his discourse, that it prove not bitter or distasteful; like a skilful Apothecary, who to make his Confections more palatesome, and yet more operative, qualifies the malignity of Simples, by preparing them, makes poison not only medicinable, but delightful, and so both cures and pleases. I writ not these things (saith Saint Paul to his Corinthians) to shame you, 
1. Cor. 4.14.  but as my beloved sons, I warn you. He will not shame them; and at roughest, He will but warn them; & that as Sons too, as beloved Sons; And if this will not suffice, he will beseech them also: 
1. Cor. 4.16.  I beseech you be followers of me, as I am of Christ, in the 16. verse of the same chapter. Calmer admonitions are for the most part seasonable, when reproofs over-rough and blustering, not only not conform the hearer, but exasperated him; and therefore what our Apostle advised the natural parents, I may without prejudice, the spiritual. Parents, nè provocetis ad iracundiam filios vestros: nè despondeant animum: Parents, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged, Coloss. 3. For, certainly, words are the image of the soul, and if they flow from a gentle and meek mind, they produce the like effects, Gentleness, and Meekness; But from a swelling and tempestuous spirit, they recoil, as a piece that's overcharged, and start back as a broken Bow; They provoke, nay, they discourage, and find no better entertainnement than the strokes of a hammer upon an anvil, which the more violently they are laid on, the more violently it rebounds: and therefore Saint Paul is so fare from obiurgation, 
Philem. 7.8.  or menacing, that he will not so much as enjoin his Philemon, but labours with an Obsecro, when he might have used a Mando: Though I might be much bold in Christ to enjoin thee, yet for love's sake, I rather beseech thee, Phil. 7.8. So that where Love is, there is still an Obsecro; & where it is not, there is commonly a Damno. Hence 'tis, that the Pulpit is so often the Mount of Terror and of Vengeance, the Throne of personal ejaculations, the Altar, where some belch nothing but fire and brimstone, vomit the Ite maledicti too uncharitably, and (which is worst) too particularly; who scare and terrify, when they should entreat, and in stead of Beseeching fall to Reviling; 
Rom. 12.11.  who under a pretence of fervency of the Spirit, and serving the Lord sincerely, ransack God's dreadful Artillery, and call out all his Instruments of justice to assist them; his furbisht sword, and glittering spear, his bow of steel, and sharpe-set arrows, his horse with warlike trappings, neighing for the battle, his smoking jealousy, and devouring pestilence, his flaming meteors and horrid earthquakes, his storm, his whirlwind, and his tempest, floods and billones, and boilings of the deep, his cup of displeasure, and vials of indignation, his dregs of fury, and bosom of destruction, his hail stones and his lightnings, his coals of juniper, and hot thunderbolts. Thus in fearful harness having mustered up all God's judgements in a full volley, they (at once) discharge them against the pretended corruptions of particular men, whom their virulence labours rather to traduce, than their Devotions to reform; And this is but a spirituall-distraction, a devout frenzy, a holy madness, through which (like the Lunatic in the Gospel) they fall sometimes into the water, 
Mark 9.22.  sometimes into the fire; Nothing will satisfy them, but floods and flames; floods to overwhelm the sinner, or flames to martyr him; But Quis furor, o ciues, quae tanta dementia?  
Public reproofs, when they are clothed with Terror, not only disparage, but dishearten; They break the bruizedreede, 
Esay 42.3.  and quench the smoking flax, run many on the shelves of despair, where they make an unhappy shipwreck of their faith; and not of their faith only, but of their body also, exposing it to poison, or the knife, to strangling, or to the flood; to the wilful precipitation of some Tower or Cliff, or the unnatural butchery of their own hands; and so tormenting the body for the soul, by a temporal death, at length they feel the torments both of soul and body by an eternal death. Thus if Incisions be made too deep in the ulcers of the Soul, and the spiritual wound searched too roughly, it more relishes of cruelty, then of Love; and he that doth it, rather preaches his own sin, than endeavours to cure another's; Qui delinquente superbo vel odioso animo corrigit, 
Jsid. lib. 3. de summo Bono, cap. 91.  non emendat, sed percutit: Rebukes which taste of envy or superciliousness, do not reform, but wound, and in stead of lenifying and making more tractable indifferent dispositions, they stubborn them, knowing that reproofs too tartly seasoned: are the services of Spleen, and not of Zeal: 'tis called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Zeal, from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the seething and boiling of a pot; Now, a pot (you know) not temperately fired, boyles over; and certainly if Moderation sometimes blow not the Coal, but we make virulence the bellowes of our zeal, it not only seethes and rises to passion and distemper, but boyles over to Envy and Uncharitableness; And therefore our Apostle (deviding the properties of true Charity from a false zeal) makes this one Symptom of that great virtue, Charitas non aemulatur, 
Estius in 1. Cor. cap. 13.3. Cyp. lib. de zelo & Linore.  1 Cor. 13.3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Original, non zelat: That is (as Cyprian reads) non invidet, envies not; for zeal in her perfection, and as it leans to virtue, is but emulation, but screwed up to vice, 'tis envy; Envy? Nay 'tis fury: 
Isid. lib. 3. de summo Bono. cap. 91.  Quicquid proteruus vel indignans animus protulerit, obiurgantis furor est, non dilectio corrigentis, saith the Father: what in way of Admonishment passion produces, is Reviling, and not admonishment, and doth not touch so properly on sincerity, as malice; And therefore Envies and Euill-speakings, are linked with Guile and Hypocrisy. By Saint Peter, Lay aside all guile, Hypocrisies, and Envies, and evill-speakings, 1 Pet. 2.1. A temperate reproof will mould and work us to reformation, when an Inuective fires us: 
In cap. 5. Luae.  Illa pudorem incutit, Haec indignationem movet; saith Ambrose: That touches us with remorse, and slumbers, and becalms all passion; This kindles our Indignation, and with that, our stubbornness; For certainly harsh speeches do not so properly move, as startle us, and are like sharp sauces to the stomach, which though they sometimes stir the appetite, yet they gnaw; And for this Error, some have censured Saint Chrysostome himself, That if He could have moderated his zeal, and tempered his reproofs with a little mildness, (especially to the Empress Eudoxia) He might have done more service to his Church, and rescued his honour from the stain both of Imprisonment and Exile.  
I press not this so fare (Beloved) to fat and pamper vice, or rock and lull men in a careless sensuality; Though I do Beseech, yet I would not fawn: This were to kill our young with coling them, and with the ivy, barren and dead that tree which we embrace. I know, a Boanerges is sometimes as well required, as a Barnabas, a son of Thunder, as of Consolation; But these have their vicissitudes, and seasons. There is an uncircumcised heart, and there is a Broken Spirit: There is a deaf Adder that will not be charmed; and there are good Sheep that will hear Christ's voice; For these, there is the spirit of Meekness; for the other, loud and sharp Reproofs; If Nabal's heart, be stony, the Word is called a Hammer, let that batter it: If Israel have a heart that is contrite and wounded, Gilead hath Balm in it, and there is oil of comfort for hïm that mourns in Zion. Thus, as our Infirmities are diverse, so are the cures of the Spirit, sometimes it terrifies, sometimes it Commands, sometimes it Beseeches; But let not us terrify when we should but Command; nor Command when we should Beseech, lest we make this Liberty a Cloak for our Maliciousness. 
1. Pet. 2.16.  In all exhortations, first make use of the still voice; and if that prevail not, Cry aloud unto the Trumpet; and if that be not shrill enough, raise the Thunderclap; 
Aug. lib. 2. de sermone Domini in monte. se●m 1.  But this latter, Rarò & magnâ necessitate, (saith Augustine) seldom, and upon great necessity; Ità tamèn, ut in ipsis etiam obiu● gatienibus non nobis, sed Deo seruiatur intestinus; If we must needs lighten and thunder, let it be as from God, not us, who are to scourge the sin, not the person, except upon capital offences, open blasphemies, 
Acts 15.  wilful profanations. Saint Paul then may call Elymas the Sorcerer, the child of the Devil, and Peter say to Simon Magus, Thou art in the gall of Bitterness, and the very bond of Iniquity. Rebukes (I confess) too merciful for the grand Disciples of Sorcery, and Magic, and yet sour enough for those other Novices and Babes in the school of Christ; Though such also are not only open to the Check, but to the Rod, Vultis ut in virgâ veniam? Shall I come to you with the Rod, or in Love? 1 Cor. 4.21. To wound and offend a little, to profit much, is to love sound; Habet & amor plagas suas, 
Ambros. super x. cap. ad Cor.  quae dulciores sunt cùm amariùs inferuntur: Love itself hath her whips and thorns, and the more they are laid on, the less they wound, to our Ruin, tho' not our Smart. There is a sharpness of speech used to Edification, not to Destruction, (saith Saith Paul,) 2. Cor. 13.10. A religious chastisement, sometimes more profits, than a partial connivance or remission; This may perchance soften and melt a perverse nature, The other skums' it; There is as well a Cruel mercy in remitting offences which should be punished, as a merciless Cruelty in over-punishing others which might have been remitted; And therefore 'tis an Evangelicall Commandment, Si peccaverit in te frater tuus, corripe eum, If thy brother sin against thee, reprove him; Reprove him? how? openly? No; Secretò corripe (saith Augustine) Reprove secretly. 
Aug. de Verbis Dommi super illae verba, Si peccaverit in te frater suus.  For if thou art knowing his offence, and by way of a taunt or exprobration dost diwlge and blazon it, Non es Corector, sed proditor, (says the Father) Thou art not a Corrector, but a Betrayer; or as Origen aggravates it, Non reprehendentis hoc, sed infamantis, 
Orig. in Levit. cap. 23.  This is no part of Reproof, but of Defamation. A wholesome holy Reprehension may be viciously applied, especially not ballaced by those two great weights, Chaerity, and judgement: judgement to mould it, and Charity to sweeten it, otherwise we may Wound perchance, when we desire to Heale, and in stead of reproving others, condemn ourselves; And therefore that of Saint Augustine is very energetical, Cogitemus cùm aliquem reprehendere nos necessitas coegerit, utrum tale sit vitium quod nunquàm habuimus, 
Aug. lib. de sermon. Domini in monte. ser. 1.  & turn cogitemus nos homines esse, & habere potuisse, vel quòd tale habuimus, & iam non habemus, & nunc tangat memoriam communis fragilitatis, ut ill am correctionem, non odium, sed misericordia praecedat:) When necessity impels us to reprehend another (as the Father will have no reprehension without necessity,) let us consider, whether it be such a vice as we never had, and then, welgh that we are but men, and might have had it; or whether such a one as once we had, and now have not, and then let it whisper to us the common frailty of mankind, that so Mercy and not Hatred may be the Rule and platform of our Reproof. 'Tis true, the words of the Wiseman are compared to Goads and Nails; and the Reason, or Moral rather, 
Greg. Hom. 6. super Euang. in illa verba.  Gregory affords, Culpas delinquentium nesciunt calcare, sed pungere: Lapses and depravations, they will prick, and not smother. But take heed how they prick too fare, lest bleeding them, they rankle. Applications come too late, when the part gins to gangrene; And therefore sometimes our Balsams are opportune, sometimes our Corrasives; How to time, and qualify them, the Divine Moralist will prescribe you, 
Greg. Moral. lib. 29.  Regat Disciplinae vigor mansuetudinem, & mansuetudo ornet vigorem, & sic alterum commendetur, ex altero, ut nec vigor sit rigidus, nec mansuetudo dissoluta: Discretion must be the Guide to decline hatred, and avoid negligence, to blunt and meeken Rigour, and to edge and embolden Softness; that so we may not only rebuke Delinquents, as men merely, but sometimes encourage them as Christians, and not always terrify them, as Aliens and enemies to the Church, but, now and then Beseech them as our Brethren; so the Charity of our Apostle runs in the words following, I beseech you Brethren.  

Brethren.  
Brethren? how? by Nature? or Country? 
Pars 2.  or Alliance? Neither; For, 
Aquin. part 3. q. 28. Art. 3. ad 5.  the Roman Church was then a mixed Church, a Throng of jews and Gentiles promiscuously; And these could not be properly his Brethren, either in respect of Parents, or Nation, or Consanguinity; and therefore, Brethren, by Affection, Singulari affectu, (saith Aretius,) 
Aretius' in cap: 12. Rom. Pareus Ibid.  And so Pareus too, Fratres compellat, ut de amore eius frater no non dubitet, He uses this sweet Compellation, Brethren, not (perchance) that they were so, either by Grace, or Nature; but, Brethren, that they might not distrust his brotherly affection; For though of old the word Fratres was a common Attribute and name to all Believers; yet, not used to the Romans (here) because, Believers, Sed ut fraternam benevolentiam, 
Carthus. in cap 12. Rom. v. 1.  & charitatem, in illis declaret suam, saith Carthusian; Not so much to manifest their faith, as his Charity; For though many of them were strangers to him, and some his sworn enemies, yet notwithstanding their extremity of hatred, he would not refuse to call them Brethren, that would be his Executioners. Nay, such were his overflowings of Zeal and Love; Love towards them, for God's sake; and Zeal towards God, for theirs, that he will not only expose his Body to tortures for them, but (if it were possible) his very Soul; And lest this should be thought a Flourish merely, He calls his own Conscience to witness it, My Conscience bearing me record, that I could wish, 
Rom. 9.3.  that myself were accursed from Christ, for my Brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, Rom. 9.3.  
Thus, the great Lamps and Beacons of the Church, as they have abounded ever in Grace, so in Love too; their Charity went hand in hand with their Zeal, and sometimes out-stept it; and indeed Charity is the very Salt of Religion, the seasoner of all our Spiritual and Moral Actions; without which, even our Devotions are unsavoury, our Orisons distasteful; and therefore to this great virtue, some have made three Stories or Ascents; 
Polan. Syrtag. lib. 9 cap. 10.  Dilection, Love, Charity; Dilection at the foot; Love in the midway; Charity at top; That, the groundwork or foundation; Th'other, the walls and body; This, the roof and battlement; Dilection (say they) includes the judgement of the Chooser, and a separation of the thing chosen from others which are not; Love follows Dilection, by which we are united in affection to the thing we chose, and so love; But Charity is greater than both, by which we so embrace the thing loved, that we endeavour always to preserve it in our love. Dilection is an Effeminate, light and transitory affection; Love more Masculine, though somewhat violent, and so unstable too; Charity, sober, and hung with gravity, and involues both strictness of Tie and inviolablenesse. Thus the Moralist will Cryticke on the words; the Divine is not so curious; But if he find any difference, He makes Love and Charity towards God, 
Polan. Syntag. lib. 9 cap. 10.  the causes of Dilection, and This the effect of the other Two, so Polanus. But indeed Charity includes all, hath a divers Aspect, and casts every way, like a well-arted eye in a curious Statue; stand what side of it you please, It seems still to glance and dart upon you; Sometimes It looks ad nos, to us, and that is our home- Charity, Charity to ourselves; Sometimes supra nos, above us, and that's towards God; Sometimes praeter nos, beside us, and that's towards our enemies; Sometimes iuxta nos, with us, 
Aug. lib. 1. de Doct. Christiana. cap. 23.  and that's towards our neighbour; Sometimes extra nos, without us, & that's towards the Infidel; Sometimes infra nos, below us, and that's towards the world. What? Charity towards our Neighbour, the unbeliever, and the world? and none towards the Text here, Our Brethren? Yes; Charity towards our Neighbour includes that; or if it did not, Charity towards God commands it, Hoc mandatum habemus à Domino, This command we have from God, that he that loveth God, should love his brother also, 1 john. 4.21. So that this Diligere Deum, presupposes diligere fratrem; and this diligere fratrem, diligere proximum; and this diligere proximum, diligere omnem hominem: so Saint Augustine, upon our saviour's Diliges proximum tuum, thou shalt love thy neighbour; Manifestum est omnem heminem proximum esse deputandum, 
Aug. ut suprae.  1. Book de doct. Christ. 30. cap. So that, to love God, doth insinuate to love every man by the rules of Charity; not every man for himself only, but for God, & therefore for himself, because for God; according to that of the same Saint Augustine, 
Aug lib. 3. de Docl. Christiana. cap. 10.  Charitas est metus animi ad fruendum Deo, propter ipsum, & see; atque prexïme, propter Deum. Charity is a motion of the mind, by which we enjoy God for himself, and ourselves, and our Neighbour for our God. Thou shalt love thy God (saith Christ) with all thy heart, and thy neighbour as thyself. As thyself? how is that? with all thy heart too: so that He shares in thy whole man, as well as God; but not so Extensively; God principally, thy Neighbour in Subordination to him. And question less, Ratio diligendi proximum, Deus est; hoc enim in proximo debemus diligere, ut in Deo sit: God is the Reason why we love our Neighbour; for, in this respect we ought to love our Neighbour, that he be in God; and therefore 'tis manifest that the same Act in Specie (saith Thomas) is, by which we love God, 
Aquin. secunda secundae. q. 25. Art. 1. Conct.  and by which we love our Neighbour, and so the very Habit of Charity must not only extend itself to the love of God, but to the love of our Neighbour also.  
Neither is this great virtue terminated here, but extendeth also to our very enemies; and that not only out of command, because God enjoines it, but out of Necessity, because Charity will enforce it. The very Laws of Charity will have us love our Enemies, but not merely, as our Enemies; for, that were to love another's sin; but, in universali, as men, and partakers of our Nature; and, not only, in this Generality of love neither; 
Aquin. secunda secundae. q. 25. Art. 2.  but sometimes, more personally, In articulo necessitatis, secundum praeparationem animi (as the Schools flourish it) In an Article of Necessity, by some mental preparation; To wit, That our mind should ever be so prepared, that if Necessity did comply, we could love our enemy in Singulari too, more specially, more particularly.  
And not only, Thus, to our enemy, but the Wicked enemy. Charity binds there, too; but there as before, Non culpâ, quâ peccatores, sed naturâ, ut divinae beatitudinis capaces. For there are two things considerable in the wicked man, Nature, and Sin; According to Nature, which he hath from God, he is capable of Beatitude, and so, the Object of our Charity; But according to Sin, by which he stands in Diameter, 
Debemus in peccatoribus odire quòd peccatores sunt, et diligere, quòd homines sint beatitudini capaces. Aquin. secunda secundae. q. 25. A. 6.  and direct opposition to his God, and so finds an impediment of this blessedness, he is rather the But and Aime of our hatred, than Commiseration. And therefore, whereas the Prophet is often violent against the wicked man, debarring him (as it were) of all Charity, with his Conuertentur peccatores in Infernum, The wicked shall be turned into Hell, Psal. 9.17. 'Tis spoken per modum praenunciationis, non imprecationis, by way of Prophecy, not Curse; and therefore 'tis not Conuertantur peccatores, 
Psal. 50.10.  Let the Sinners be turned; but Conuertentur, in the Future, They shall be turned; or perchance too, per modum optationis; by way of wish, yet so, that the desire of him that wishes, be not resered to the punishment of man, but the justice of him that inflicts it; Because God himself punishing, doth not rejoice in the destruction of the wicked, but his own justice; or else, that this desire be referred to the remotion of Sin, not the very Act of punishment, that so the Transgression be destroyed, and yet the Man remain. 
Secunda secundae. q. 25. A. 7. ad 3.  And there is Charity in this too, great Charity, that we wish the preservation of the Sinner, when we desire the destruction of his Sin; But this is Charitas secundùm naturam also, which is not only exposed to Man, and the worst of men, but to Creatures reasonless, nay, to the very Devils themselves, whose nature we may even (out of Charity) love, forasmuch as we would have those spirits to be conserved in suis naturalibus, 
Secunda secundae. q. 25. A. 11. Concl.  as they are naturally spirits, to the Glory of that divine Majesty that created them, so Aquinas, secunda, secundae, quaest: 25. Art. 11.  
Thus we have followed Charity in her largest progress, through heaven and Earth, to the Horrid pit; From God, by men, to Spirits; if there be a place or subject else where Goodness may reside or pitch on, Charity will dwell there also: It beareth all things, 
1. Cor. 13.7.  believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things; Are there Prophecies? They shall fail. Are there Tongues? They shall cease. Is there Knowledge? 
1. Cor. 13.8.  That shall vanish; but Charity shall never fail, never in matters of Nature, or Grace, or Glory; of the Law, the Gospel, or their Consummation; Charity fulfils the Law, comprehends the Gospel, and completes Both. All the Moral virtues lie shrined here; 
Secunda secundae quaest. 65. Art. 3. Concl. August. Serm. 46. de Temport. 1. Cor. 13.23.  so Aquinas; all the Cardinal, saith Augustine; all the Theological, Saint Paul, though not ex confesso, yet by way of Intimation; for Faith and Hope are not only with it, but under it: The greatest of these is Charity, 1. Cor. 13. vlt. The greatest of these? All these, they are all in Charity, and Charity in God; In God? God itself, God is Love, and he that dwelleth in Love, dwelleth in God, and God in him, 1 john 4.16.  
'Tis plain then, where Charity is, there is an habitation for the Lord; and where 'tis not, there is a Thoroughfare for the Devil; Religion is but rottenness without it, and all this front of holiness, but dross and Rubbish: Tell me not of Faith, without thy works; nor of Prayers, without thine Alms; nor of Piety, without thy Compassion; nor of Zeal, without thy Charity; what is Devotion when 'tis turbulent, or Conscience when 'tis peevish? or Preaching, when 'tis Schismatical? I love not Divinity, when 'tis stipendiary; nor purity, when 'tis factious: nor Reprehension, when 'tis Cruel; nor Censure, when 'tis Desperate: Oral vehemency hath more tongue than heart: & therefore that Zeal which is ouer-mouthed, we may suspect either for counterfeit, or Malicious.  
Believe not every spirit, 
1. john 4.1.  (saith Saint john) but try the spirits, whether they be of God or not for many false Teachers are gone out into the world: Into the world, in all: Ages, and all Churches: Let's particularise in some, in that of the Apostles first, when under a pretence of sincerity, and suppressing Innovation, (labouring to establish the jewish ceremonies more firmly,) there were some that subtly cried down the very seeds of Christianity, as those false apostles did, which came from judea, unto Antioch, and taught the Brethren; That except they were Circumcifed after the manner of Moses, 
Acts 15.  they could not be saved; whom Paul and Barnabas first, and afterwards Peter and james, and the rest at jerusalem, both zealously did resist, and in their Synod, or first convocation, powerfully suppress. But this Pseudo-zeale in the time of the Apostles, did but smoke and sparkle (like fire under green wood,) In that of the Fathers, it broke out into flames, when some turbulent and discontented spirits, burning in hatred to the true Professors, or leaning partially to some faction against the Church, notwithstanding out of a mere tickling and itch of glory, offered themselves unto death, for the confession of the name of Christ, 
Vide Estius in c. 13. ad Rom.  as the Montanists, Novatians, Arrians, Donatists, whom the Catholic Church never honoured with the Title of Martyrs, but reprobated and cast out as the wilful Patriarches of Schism & heresy; as Saint Augustine, and Saint Cyprian more voluminously; The one, in his Disputation against the Novatian; the other, against the Donatist. And doubtless, Suffering is not always the way to Glory; 'Tis not Passion, but the Cause of it, that both creates, and crownes our Martyrdoms. Timeo dicere, 
Hieron. in cap. 5. ad Galat.  sed dicendum est; Jerome is loath to speak it, but he must: That those Corporal tortures which for Religion we undergo, even Martyrdom itself; if it be therefore undergone, to purchase Admiration and Applause of men, frustrà sanguis effusus est, That blood was spilt in vain. We honour not Martyrs, because they suffer, but because for Christ, and his Church, they suffer. 'Tis not thy carcase then, but thy Charity that casts up the grateful Incense; and therefore those that glory in their wilful passions under a false name of Martyrdom, Hear how Saint Augustine descants on: Ecce, venitur ad passionem; 
Aug. serm. 50. de Verbis Dom.  venitur & ad sanguinis effusionem; venitur & ad corporis incensionem; & tamen, nihil prodest, quià Charitas deest, We offer our Bodies to the stake, our Blood to the flames, our Lives to the fury of the Tormentors, all this is nothing without Charity, 'tis that makes the Suffering glorious. 
1. Cor. 13.4, 5.  If I give my Body to be burned (saith Saint Paul) and have not Charity, it profiteth me nothing, nay had I all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not Charity, I am nothing; Not, Nullus sum, but Nihil sum, Not so much, not a Man, as not a creature, nothing.  
Harken then, thou son of Tumult, whose lips enter into contention, and whose mouth calleth for strokes; Thou which raisest tempests in Religion, 
Pro. 8.5.  and sowest thy Tares of Faction amongst the multitude; thou which bringest in the strange Leaven of New Doctrines, and colourest them with thy probable allegations, whereby the Consciences of the Simple are entangled, and the peace of the Church disturbed, though otherwise perchance, thou art punctual enough, both in thy conversation and thy Tenants, hast the gifts of Prophecy, understandest all Mysteries and all Language, yet, because in some things thou hast made a breach of this Harmany in the Church, 
Schismatici, qui extra Ecclesiam Catholicam, praesentem siniunt vitam, in ignem eunt aeternum. Aug. seu potiùs. Fulgent. de fide ad Petrum Diaconum, cap. 38  thou art a Rebel both to it, and thy Christ; and except by Retractation and Submission thou art recalled to the Fold from which thou hast wandered, thòu standest outlawed and excommunicate to Heaven, and neither Imprisonment nor Death can make atonement for thy Mistread. Is this harsh? 'Tis Saint Augustine's, and he will yet go farther: A Schism iticke brought unto the stake, not for that Error which did separate him from the Church, but for the truth of the Word and Sacrament which he doth else maintain, suffering the Temporal flames, to avoid the Eternal, and bears it patiently; though that Patience be commendable, and a gift of God, yet (because in part a Schismatic) not of that kind of gifts which are imparted filijs jerusalem, but to those also which are filij concubinarum, (saith the Father) which even carnal jews, and Heretics may have; and concludes at length, that This suffering and patience nothing profits Him towards Heaven; but supposes that the great judgement will be in this more tolerable to Him, 
Aug. lib. de Patientia, cap. 26.27.28.  Quàm si Christum negando tormenta mortémque vitâsset, Then if by denying Christ, he had evaded the cruelty of his Death and Torment: in his Book de Patientiâ, 28. chapter.  
You have heard what primitive times have done for the bark and outside of Religion; the very skin and shell of Christianity; Let us now compare them a little with our own; and we shall find, that they have not any-whit gone beyond us in the Externall profession of sincerity, though in their suffering and Tortures they have much. We have deceitful workers as well as they, 
2. Cor. 11.13.  Transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ, 
2. Cor. 5.20.  which glory in appearance, and not in heart.  
We abhor, That Age should outdo ours, either in Hypocrisy or profaneness; we have our Donatists and Catharists, and Anabaptists, as plentifully as they; and some beside, They had not; the Brownist, the Barrowist, and the Familist, and one more that both fosters and encloses all these, (may he be whifpered without offence, my Brethren) the Puritan; but he will not be Titled so; the very Name hangs in his jaws, and the chief way to discover him, is to call him so; That fires and nettles him, and so repining at the Name, he owns it; and questionless 'tis his, though he shroud and veil it under the word Brethren in the Text; whose Purity consists much in washing of the out-ward-man; 
Vide Ro. Art. 19 A. 1. prop. ubi citat H. N. 1. exhort c. 1. § 10. the Brownists to Cartwright, page 39 Barrow in his discovery, p. 33.  whilst their Tenants look towards a Legal righteousness, and a triumphant and glorified condition of man here upon earth; professing by their open Pamphlets, that the visible Church, the true visible Church, is devoid of Sin and Sinners, and for Manners cannot err; and therefore Paradox it, That the Assemblies of good and bad together, are no Church, but Heaps of profane men; as if in one field, 
Math. 25.  there were not as well Tares as Corn; in one house, vessels of wood and earth, as of gold and silver; a Mixture of good and bad, 
Math. 2.3.  in all Congregations; which as an Emblem of the Church visible, our Saviour types-out in the parable of the Sour, the Marriage, and the Virgins; 
Math. 13.  Nay his Blessed Spouse, of herself, freely professes her deformity, Tho' I am comely, I am black, 
Cant. 1.5.  O ye Daughters of jerusalem, black as the Tents of Kedar. And yet These will have her all clean and lovely, like a face without spot, or wrinkle; when we know a Mole or Wart (sometimes) beautifies a feature; and in this War of opposites, there is both gracefulness, and Lustre; and therefore I suppose the Church was first compared unto the Moon, not so much for change, as obnubilation, being obvious to clouds, and Eclipses; and when 'tis at clearest, 'tis not without a mole in her cheek neither, at leastwise, to an ocular apprehension, or if it were all fair and Lucid, yet, 'tis by way of Influence, beamed from a greater light, borrowed, not her own; so is this of the Church too; one Sun of righteousness enlightens Both; and therefore, Woe unto them, that call Light, Darkness & Darkness, Light; make a Church of itself shine, which cannot, or not shine, which might, if they were not, by others; dogmatically, & peremptorily laying down, that where Errors are, there is no True Church, (when there was never any, nor will be, whilst 'tis militant, without them;) But They are no more of the substance of our Religion, or any Essential part of our Church's Doctrine, 
‛ Ro. Artic. in the Preface.  then ill humours which be in, are of the Body, or Dregs in a vessel of wine, part of the wine, or vessel.  
'Tis true, some Ceremonies we retain yet, as matters of Indifferency, and not of Substance, and these (forsooth) are so heinous, that they are Thorns in their sides, and prickles in their eyes; matter of Ceremony, is now matter of Conscience, and rather than subscribe, Silence, Suspension, Imprisonment, they venture on, and sometimes suffer too; where A Brethren-Contribution more fat's them, than all the Fortunes they were masters of before; and this (beloved) cannot be zeal, but Schism, or if it be zeal, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 
Rom 10.2.  it wants Eyes, and Intellectuals, 'tis not according to knowledge; For what judgement would expose our Body unto prison? our Calling to the stain of Separation, and Revolt, for a thing merely of indifferency and Ceremony? No; there is more in it, than This; the Rochet, Tippet, and the Surplice is not that they shoot at, but the thing called Parity; Moses and Aaron they like not for the Ephod, and the Rod; they speak power, and command, and so intimate obedience; But these struggle for equality; the Ecclesiastic Hierarchy they would demolish, Episcopal corruption is the great Eyesore; Down with it, down with it, even to the ground. And yet I dare say, there are some subtle pioneers, and secret Mutineers in Commonwealth, pretending plausibly to the flourishing of Religion, which, if they could once glory in that Babel they endeavour to erect, they cared not, if jerusalem were An heap of stones; 'Tis impossible, that Civil Authority can ever subsist without the other; and if there be once a full rent & flaw in Church-policy, what can we expect from that of State, or either, but vast Anarchy, and Confusion?  
Thus, he that strikes at the Mitre, God grant he catch'th not at the Sceptre, and (if he could grasp it) the very Thunderbolt; no Bishop, no King, and so by consequence no God; He proclaims himself the God of Order, and These would make him the Father of Confusion; and so, in circumstance disgod him too, seeing his greatest glory consists in the Harmony of his Creatures, the Peace of his Church, and unanimity of his Saints and Servants; and therefore (brethren) let me beseech you in the words of the Apostle, Mark them which cause Divisions, 
Rom. 16.17, 18.  and offences, contrary to the Doctrine which you have heard, and avoid them. For, they that are such, serve not our Lord jesus Christ, but their own Belly, and by good words, and fair speeches, deceive the hearts of the simple, Rom. 16.17, 18, ver.  
I have yet but Beseeched you in the words of an Apostle; Let me warn you also in the Language of a Saviour, Beware of Those which come to you in sheeps-clothing, with such a Cast of Mortification and Integrity, as if their conversation spoke nothing but Immaculatenesse, when within they are ravening wolves: such as will not only tondere pecus, and deglubere; but devorare too; subvert whole houses for filthy lucre: 
Tit. 1.13.  You shall know them by their fruit; Their fruit unto the eye beautiful and glorious, but to the finger, Dust and Smoke; or if not by their fruit, by their Leaves, you may, a few wind-falne virtues which they piece and sow together to cover their own Nakedness. Will you have them in their full Dress and portraiture? Take the draught and pattern, then from the Pharisee, Matthew 23. There the character is exact; where if you observe, They are twice called Blind Guides: Blindness of knowledge brings on Blindness of Heart; and therefore twice also Fools, and Blind; ver. 17.19. To this Blindness of Heart, Fried is annexed; They make broad their Phylacteries, and enlarge the Borders of their Garments; ver. 5. To this Pride, vainglory; They love greetings in the Market, uppermost rooms at feasts, and chief seats in the Synagogues; ver. 6.7. To this Vainglory, Hypocrisy; They make clean the outside of the cup and platter, and for a pretence make long prayers; and all to be seen of men, v. 14.25. To this Hypocrisy, Spiritual malice; They shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against men; for they neither go in themselves, nor suffer them that are entering, to go in, ver. 13. Lastly, to this Malice, there is uncharitableness; They bind heaur Burdens, and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders, but they Themselves will not move them with one of their fingers, ver. 4. Rare perfections, doubtless, for the Sanctified Child of God Observe the Catalogue, Blindness of Heart, Pride, Vainglory, Hypocrisy, Malice, and Uncharitableness: Let us make it out, Envy, and all Uncharitableness, and then Liber a nos, Domine, Good Lord, deliver us; deliver us from all falsehood in his Services, and faction against his Church, that we may be his Ministers in Sincerity, and not in show, as those false Teachers were of old, or our Brainsick and discontented. Neotericks' at the present, whom Saint Paul discovers by a double Attribute, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, vaniloqui, & Seductores; unruly and vaine-talkers, and Deceivers, Titus 1.10. 
Estius in cap. 1. Tit. v. 10.11.  They talk (it should seem) They do not Teach; and talk vainly too; and not only so, but his vanity must be noised, 
Lectio Hieron. in 1. cap. Tit. v. 10.11.  unruliness goes with it, and Those which in their Doctrines are vain and unruly too, sometimes prove Deceivers, Mentium Deceptores, (as Jerome reads it on the Text) Deceivers of minds, 
2. Tim. 3.6.  of weak and simple minds, Mechanics, and captived women, which have been the disciples of all Schisms and all Heresies in all Ages. And such indeed are the chiefest Proficients in their Schools now: for none are so pinned to the strict observation of their Precepts, as these Silly one. There is nothing so furious as an ignorant zeal, 
Vide 2. Tim. 4. ver 3.4.  so violent as a factious Holiness; and therefore when their Doctrines or their practices are touched unto the Quick, and made (once) the subject of a Pulpit Reprehension; their Charity is presently on the Rack; the Brass sounds loud, and the Cymbal tinckles shrill, their Censures are full-charged, and come on like a peal of Great shot, thick and terrible.  
The Cymbal (as Caietan observes) was an Instrument of old, 
Vide Estium in 1. Cor. 13.1.  Magis sonorum, quàm musicum, not so musical as loud and of more noise than melody, and such as women only used, both in their times of Triumph and Devotion. A pretty Invention for weakness and childhood to play withal, and be it spoken without disparagement of some glories in that Sex, a fit type of women and their frailties; who, for the most part are taken rather with the sound of things, than the things themselves, and are seldom without this Instrument of Noise about them. The Tongue is their proper Cymbal, 
Psal. 150.  not the well-tuned Cymbal David speaks of; but the Loud Cymbal, with which they do not so much praise God, as sometimes disparage men; Their Morality, and their zeal are near one, a shrillness as well in their Devotion, as their Actions, and their practice in both is a very Tinkling; Tinkling with their Feet, lead the Dance to the next Conventicle; Tinkling with the tongue too; Great talkers, in Divinity; and if they could exchange a Parlour for a Church, or a stool for a Pulpit, they would preach too, & ('tis thought) Edify as much as their zealous Pastor. But Away with those Echoes in Religion, fit for Silence, than Reproof; and for pity, than confutation; and therefore (once more) I Beseech you, and with the phrase of an Apostle too, 
Heb. ultimo.  Be not carried about with diverse and strange Doctrines; Halt and limp not between Innovation and an established Discipline. But (as Peter said to the Cripple) In the Name of jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk; 
Acts 3.6.  Return unto the Church, whence ye are straggling; not to your Stepdame, but your mother, the Mother of whom you were borne and nursed; dry those tears she sheds for you; peace those sighs, and groans, & complaints, which she wails for you; Fall upon those Arms which will embrace you, those Bowels which yearn for you, those Paps which gave you suck. What went you to see? A Reed shaken with the wind? Yes, a very Reed, shaken with every wind of Doctrine; A Reed with a bruised stalk or broken Ear, no Corn in it; or if it have, 'tis blasted with Sedition, fit for the Dunghill, them the Granary.  
Away then from Lebanon (my Beloved) from Lebanon; Look from the Den of Lions, 
Cant 4. ●.  and Mountains of the Leopards (where the peace of Religion is blood-sucked and devoured) and come hither to the mountains of Myrrh; and hills of Frankincense; The Altars of the living God, where the Incense of his Church flames cheerfully, with no less truth of devotion, than unanimity. Lo, her golden vials, full of odours, Sacrifices both devout and peaceable, Such as the heart of his peole offer, and not the hands, only; Calves of our lips, and groans of the Spirit, which touch both the ears and nostrils of the Almighty. Let the voice of division, then, jar no more amongst you, which if there were nothing else to noise our frailties, were enough to speak bondage to the flesh, and not yet, our freedom to the Spirit. For whence are strifes and envyings? are they not from your lusts? And whilst one saith, I am of Paul, 
1. Cor. 3.4.  another, I am of Apollo, are ye not carnal? Christ is not divided, 
Cant. 6.7.  his Church is one; My Dove, my undefiled is but one, she is the only one of her mother, the choice one of her that bore Her, Can. 6.7.  
The Church, (you hear) is God's only one, his choice one; He hath no more; and we, tho' many, are but one neither, 
1. Cor. 10.17.  the Churches one, Her choicest one, one Body, nay, one Bread, 1 Cor. 10.17. Moreover, Christ's Spirit is but one; tho' it be in many, 'tis there still one Spirit, no division where that is, but all peace; 
Ephes. 4.3.  and therefore 'tis called the unity of the Spirit; and this unity must be still kept in the bond of peace. Mark, here's no wavering, or Temporary peace; but this peace must be still kept, and not slightly kept, but there is a Tie on the keeping of it, The Bond of peace: 
Ephes. 4.3.  and 'tis this Bond that makes the unity, and this unity that keeps the peace, and this peace that preserves the Spirit, so that 'tis still an unity of Spirit, kept in the Bond of peace.  
Come hither, then, my Faithful Brother in the Lord, and let us no more ceasure, but expostulate. Hast Thou the true Faith thou so much gloriest in? where is thy zeal? hast thou true zeal? where is thy Charity? hast thou true Charity? why art thou Tumultucus? 
john 13.35.  By this shall you know (saith Christ) that you are my Disciples, if you love one another. Mutual agreement begets Love, and this Love makes the Disciple, and this Disciple is known to be Christ's, by a Si diligeritis, only, if ye love one another. And therefore in the first Dawne and rising of the Christian Church, the chief thing remarked in it by the Gentiles, was the Christian Love: 
Teytul. Apol. 36.  Vide ut invicem se diligunt! ut pro alterutro mori sint paerati! as Tertullian stories it. Lo how they Love! the Heathens cry, How ready to Die one for another! But this L●ue of the Brother unto Death, I press not here; (for the very Infidels had their Commorientes, as well as we) but Love unto Sincerity and Constancy, of which he that is destitute, falls short both in Religion, and Morality. And therefore that Text in Saint Peter runs Methodically, Fear God, 
1. Pet. 2.17.  Honour the King, but first, Love the Brotherhood; as if there could be no true fear of God, or honour of the King, except there be first Love to thy Brother; to thy Brother? nay, the Brotherhood: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, saith the Greek, Achava, the Hebrew; 
Beza Annot. in 1. Pet. 2 17.  Brotherhood, for the company and conjunction of Brethren in the Church; and in this, not so much a Conjunction of persons, as of Minds, otherwise 'tis no Church. And therefore the multitude of them that believed at the Apostles Sermon, were said to be of one Soul, and one heart, Acts 4.32. And this one Soul, and one heart; S. ●aul calls one mind, and one judgement: And this one mind and one judgement, must not be thinly mixed, 
1. Cor. 1.10.12.  but perfectly icyned together, and so joined together, that there be no Division among us; and therefore he conjures his Corinthians by the Name of jesus Christ; 
Rom. 15.5, 6.  not only to Do, but to Speak the same thing. I Beseech you Brethren, by the Name of our Lord jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, that there be no Division amongst you, but that ye be perfectly joined together, in one mind, and the same judgement, 1 Cor. 1.10.  
Maximum indicium malae mentis fluctuatio; 
Sen. Epist. 121.  Reeling between opinion and opinion, is a Mental drunkenness and there is no such Index of a Depraved Disposition, as waving & unsettledness. And therefore the Stoic describing the unconstant man, 
Senec. Jbid.  Thus lashes him, Nunquàm eundem nec similem quidem, sed in diversum aberrat; He so traverses and wanders in himself, that he is neither the same, nor like, but divers. So that the Wise man is the Man only of Resolution; for He is one, and the same still: Praeter Sapientem n●mo unus, Seneca tells his lucilius in his 126. Epistle. And doubtless, 'tis this one mind and one judgement, that makes both the discreet Meralist and the wise Christian: Videmus qualis sit, quantus sit, and unus sit: 
Epist. 26.  the same Seneca. Unanimity is the Soul of Brotherhood, whether in that of Nature, or of Grace; And therefore, what Abraham, of old, said unto Letoy, is worthy both of your memory and observation, 
Genes. 13.8.  Let there be no strife between me and thee, nor between my Herdsmen, and thy Herdsmen; why? We are Brethren; as if the very word did involve union, and where there was Brotherhood, there could be no strife; no not amongst their very Herdsmen, that brawling Regiment, which, for the most part, are as unruly as the Droves they keep; and in some things 'tis disputable, which is the verier Beast; for they both go one way, 
Sen. Epist. 135.  non quâ eundum est, sed quâ itur, As the multitude treads, so they follow, squadroned into a Faction, as That is, not only in the State, but the Church too; And so 'twas of old, in the time of the Apostles, 
Acts 14.4.  when at Iconium there was a great uproar amongst the jews and Gentiles, about the preaching of Paul and Barnabas; in stead of suppressing the fury of the Tumult, the Rabble of the City was Divided, and part held with the jews, and part with the Apostles, Act. 14.4.  
Thus popular convocations were ever the Nurses of Distraction; and These, now occasion the Hubub and Out-cries in Our Church; the strife is not so much between Lot, and Abraham, as their Herdsmen, the People more side it in Religion, than their Pastors do; and that's the best Doctrine which They fancy; not what the Others teach. And to this purpose, They have gotten, lately into most Corporations of the Kingdom, certain Lapwing-Dinines, and featherlesse Professors of their own Cut; prescribe them Principles which they may not transgress; and not only their Posture, Habit, and Conversation, but the very Method, Tone and Language cued them. Miserable Age, when Divinity shall be thus slaved to a Stipend and a Trencher! and the Apostles of jesus Christ, for a morsel of bread! or some Mechanic, or Leane-cheeked Contribution, shall disparage the Powr● and sacredness of their Keys! But fie on this Factious Holiness, this jezebel in Religion, that smells too much of the Painter, and his Varnish: Let it no more with uncharitable contentions, or novelty of Doctrine, or unseasonableness of suggestion, disturb the peace of our Spiritual Mother; but let her sleep and rest sweetly in that Divine truth, which she hath received from Primitive plantations, and sealed since, with the Blood of so many Martyrs. I tharge you, O Daughters of jerusalem, by the Roes and Hinds of the field, that ye stir not, or awake my Love, until she please, Cant. 3.5.  
'Twas long since the complaint of a disconsolate Church, and ours hath in part revived it: Eccepace amaritudo mea amarissima, pax ab haereticis, pax à paganis, bellum à filijs: O my bitter bitterness in the days of peace, peace amongst pagans, peace amongst Heretics, but wars and struggle by the twins of my own womb! My sons, my divided sons, are more unnatural than all these. The Protestant, that hath been so long the Star of the Reformed Church, the Ensign and Standard-bearer of true Religion, must be now buffeted and spit upon by the obloquy and scorn of upstart Sectaries!  
You then, that thus dig out the Bowels of your hallowed mother, and stick your Daggers at her very heart; 
Serm. 57 de Diversis in Append.  Hark, Saint Augustine, the devout Saint Augustine, All those gifts and rewards of Beatitude, which God hath treasured up for his Children and Elect, in pacis conseruatione promisit, are appropriate only to the Sons of peace. And hence is our Saviour's Beati pacifici, Blessed are the peacemakers; why? They shall be called the sons of God. 
Aug. Serm. 463. de Temp.  Non pervenitur ad vocabulum Filij, nisi per nomen pacifici, says the Father: They had never been called the Sons of God, had they not been first the sons of peace; nor entitled to the Attribute of Blessed, had they not been formerly the Sons of God. And therefore 'tis the Substance of Christ's valediction to his Disciples; 
john 14.27. Aug. Serm. 63. de Temp.  My peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: Proficiscens voluit dare, quod desiderabat rediens in omnibus invenire; the same Saint Augustine; He gave to all, at his departure, what he desired to find in all, at his return; his peace, his blessed peace: For where there is a Congregation of men, and not of opinions, or of opinions, and not of love; Christ is not there with his Pax vobis: so that where peace is not, there is no Christ; and where no Christ, no Church. Thy Religion, thy Faith, thy Hope, are dead without it, thy Groans, thy Sighs, thy Deuctions, are false and empty, like vaults that sound merely from their hollowness; thyself like an Instrument that's cracked, or a string that jarr's. And therefore to the peaceless Brother, that of Tertullian to the Gentiles, shall be both my Aduïce, and my Conclusion; Fratres vestri sumus, 
Tertul. Apol. 36●.  iure nostrae Matris unius; et si vos parum homines, qui mall fratres; at quanto digniùs, fratres & dicuntur, & habentur, qul unum Patrem Deum agnoverunt, qui unum Spiritum biber unt sanctitatis, qui de uno utero ignorantiae eiusdem, adunam Lucem expaverint veritatïs? Itaque, quia Animâ, ani●óque miscemur, nihil de rei communicatione dubitemus: Since we have one God, our Father; one Christ, our Brother; one Church, our mother; one Spirit, our Comforter; 
Ephes. 4 vlt.  let us all have one mind, one heart, one peace, our Director; that so the God of peace, which is above All, may be through All, 
Cant. 4.15.  and in us All. And then Arise, O North, and come, O South, and blow on my Garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. 
Cant. 7.12.  Arise ye Sovereign winds of the Spirit of God, and breath on this garden of the Spouse, where the Pomegranates bud forth, and the tender grapes appear, that the fragrant odours of these her Plants may be both increased and dispesed, and at length carried into the Nostrls of her well-beloved, who shall bring her out of this Wilderness below, 
Cant. 3.6.  like pillars of smoke, perfumed with Myrrh and Incense, which as swee●e savours, shall ascend on high; where the Day breaks, and shadows fly away, where Darkness is banished everlastingly, and the Sun of Righteousness shines for evermore. To whom, etc.  
Gloria in excelsis Deo.  Haec, at que huiusmodi verba obtrectantium, siuè non obtrectando, sed quaerendo talia loquentium, operosius fortassè refellerem, nisi hae disceptationes haberentur cuni viris liberaliter institutis; Aug. de Apoll. & Apul. ad Marcellinum. Epist. 5. Respon.  
FINIS.