TWO SERMONS PREACHED AT WHITE-HALL IN Lent, March 3. 1625. And february 20. 1626. BY Henry King, D. D. one of his majesties chaplains in ordinary. LONDON, Printed by John HAVILAND, 1627. TO THE SACRED majesty OF MY sovereign Lord and Master, King CHARLES. Most gracious Sir: TO invite you to this could service, is to bid you to loss, and to practise part of that trouble vpon your Eye, which hath already exercised your ear. if it appear an importunity, J dare not excuse myself, but humbly sue for Pardon. Which my own clear purpose, and your Bounteous Inclination assures me, you will not deny; When your majesty pleases to consider, J do but restore what in the intention and Course of my service was Yours before. Nor might J presume to communicate it, unless J obtained leave from you, and it had first passed your Princely Hand. Then, as you haue ever been my gracious Master, vouchsafe to dignify by your acceptance the mean endeavours of him, who, though he err in point of discretion, will never err in the zeal and duty which becomes Your majesties most loyal and humbly devoted Seruant, HEN. KING. A SERMON PREACHED at White-Hall in Lent. 1625. Ecclesiastes 12.1. Remember now thy creator in the dayes of thy youth. MY division is plainly thus: 1 A Monition to quicken the Memory, Remember. 2 The object presented to it, the creator. 3 The Application of that object, Thy creator. 4 The Distance at which wee must take him, Youth. 5 The Light by which we best may view this object, In the daies of thy youth. 6 The Time which hastes to bring us home and set us near unto God, Now. I wonder why Tertullian was so stiff and peremptory in that assertion of his, Remember. Tertul. lib. de Anima. cap. 23. Animam obliuionis capacem non cedam, That the soul could not forget; holding Plato paradoxicall for affirming it could and did. For my part, I think Plato spake no paradox but plain truth; since amongst all the curious Caskets of Nature wherein the secrets of Art and Knowledge are locked up, there is not any so loose, so false a Cabinet as the Heart; nor in the whole mass of Creation is there so thankless, so forgetting a Creature as Man. Who began early to practise his ingratitude, and that he might justify the Prophets complaint which charges him with rebellion from the womb, made himself perfect in the lessons of forgetfulness from the first day he could remember he was made Man. It hath been known that some old Persons haue lived so long that they haue outgon their reckoning, outlived the computation of their time, not being capable of so much arithmetic as to say how old they were. Which fail of memory is pardonable in such relics and ruins of Nature, whose pergnant imperfections haue dispensed with their understandings and given them now a privilege to dote. But how shall we excuse, or indeed how think charitably of Man? who in his best state, in the freshness of his youth, and vigour of his intellectual faculties revolted from his creation. For whereas a little before, God in the reasonable soul had advanced his own Colours, imprinted his own Image, Bern. ser. Paru. 1. and for a richer testimony of his love, creavit quandam Trinitatem ad imaginem suam( as Bernard hath it) gave him leave to wear the sacred mystery of the Trinity as an ensign& badge of that high Order unto which his Maker intended him, in his souls three faculties, consisting of understanding, Will, and Memory; yet for all this, Bern. ib. Cecidit ab illa pulchrâ Trinitate in quandam contrariam & foedam Trinitatem, he willingly defaced and blurred the glorious Image of his Maker, and recoiling from his obedience, exchanged those three purer faculties wherein the blessed Trinity was at first portrayed for a confused mass of imperfections; his Memory became, like himself, perfidious and impotent; his Knowledge dark and besotted; his Will perverse and most corrupt. Who then is able to wonder enough at his disloyalty, or speak his falsehood in so high an Accent as it deserves? who forfeited all his titles to happiness in less time than the readiest tongue can relate it. That when he was new from the Mint and hand of his Composer, the Articles betwixt God& him for his allegiance not yet fully dry, himself scarce warm in the possession of the World then given him, flew off from his allegiance, and with such speedy precipitate violence, that he left but very few houres betwixt his creation and his fall. In the morning of the sixth day was Man made, Gen. 1.31. and before the evening of that same day had he, vpon the devils short parley, surrendered up his innocence& liberty, quiter sold away his Patent, the privileges of his birth, and at that scornful rate wherewith we purchase the love of children, Gen. 3.6. for an Apple. For this is evident out of the Text; In the cool of the day God walked in the Garden, Vers. 8. and having received the confession of his guilt, cast him from thence, Vers. 23. making the same light a witness of his admission into Paradise, and his expulsion. So that his happiness was but like a waking dream, which vanished before his bed-time; or like a shadow, in the morning with him, at evening behind him, past and forgotten. How much more happy are other creatures in their deformities, than Man in all his perfections! It is a kind of comfort which deformity hath, that it cannot impair, but may enjoy that being without the envy of any, or danger of growing worse, so cannot wee, who are not yet at the bottom of our misery, but still in danger of falling lower. How well were it for mankind, if we might glory in that infirmity which beasts may do, they cannot be said to haue lost what they never had, nor to forget what they never had organs to remember. We had a great dealelesse sin to answer for, could we say so too. Man once had what he now hath lost, and for default of a little memory at the first, hath taught us to forget wee might haue been happy. And therefore( saith the Psalmist) Man being in honour had no understanding, Psal. 49.12. but was compared to the beasts that perish: Nay, it had been well if he had not sunk below that mean comparison. In the Prophet Esay God justifies the gratitude and knowledge of the very beasts above mans: Esay 1.3. The ox knoweth his owner, but my people would not know, nor own, nor remember me that made them. Certainly, were our memories as strong as are our sins, were we as retentive of Gods great favours, as we are of the slightest injuries which affront us, there were no need of precepts to quicken our Remembrance, but rather of drowsy opiates or Mandragora's, to dull and stupefy the brain that works too strongly vpon the apprehension of a wrong. There would be no use of Tutors to instruct us in the Art of memory, but we should cry as Themistocles sometimes did to that famous Artist, who undertook to teach him that Art, Mallem obliuisci doceres. I had rather thou wouldest read some Lectures of oblivion to me, that thou couldst teach me to forget, for there be many things that I remember too well. Mans nature is a wondrous masterpeece of perverseness, a mettall not to bee wrought vpon by soft and easy ways. He that thinks by laying the obligation of a good turn vpon us, to make us remember him, takes the wrong course. We are not so soon apt to forget any, as those who haue done best for us, nor is there any so certain means to make us Remember, as by doing us some vnkindnesse or hurt. Wee writ the benefits we receive in water, they leave no track behind them longer than the very doing; but for our injuries, wee print them in capital letters, that he that runs may read them, — Scribunt in marmore laesi. We writ them in Marble with points of Daggers for Pens, and in such ink as Dracoes laws were writ in, blood. By such fearful Charters as these, do too many contentious spirits amongst us hold their wrongs. Pardon the speech, I think if God had not done so much good for our souls as he hath, we should better haue remembered, been more mindful of him. Our saviour asked the Iewes, joh. 10.32. for which of his good works they stoned him? Certainly we expel God from our thoughts and memories for no other quarrel but this, his good deeds. Any cross by him thrown vpon us, awakes the slumbering faculties of our souls, Vexatio dat intellectum: like a warning-piece discharged at Sea, it makes us stoop and come in, Psal. 85.7. {αβγδ}. In the day of my trouble I sought unto thee. Our hearts are tough and stubborn as the Adamant: and as nothing but the dust of the Diamond can cut or shape it, so nothing but our own Dust, misery, and Affliction can cut our hard hearts into any form of duty or obedience to our Maker. With what strange eyes doth man look, that sees clearest in an Eclipse, when God frowns vpon him? and unto whom the puddled troubled waters of adversity are the best perspectiues to show him God? How frowardly do wee combine against ourselves? We shut up our apprehensions, yet wee understand; wee wink, yet thus blind-fold we see God against our wils. We know not well how to remember him, and yet wee know worse how to forget him; for every thing wee meet discovers him, and every creature without our enquiry doth not onely give us cause to Remember, but in visible demonstrations makes us see the creator. INdeed Mundus nile nisi Deus reuelatus, The whole universe is nothing else but an evidence, a revelation of God, creator. every creature {αβγδ}, Basil. a master in his Science, to instruct us in the knowledge of our Maker. Those numberless atoms of dust on which wee tread, bid our feet as wee walk inform our heads of his infinity: That he whose power did compact this great body of the earth, and from the aggregation of those small atoms, made it grow into such a magnitude, is no more to bee contained in finite numbers than is that dust. We cannot open our eyes to look up to heaven, but at those casements we let in the confession of His immensity. When wee consider how many stars there fixed, are bigger far than the Earth, and then again lose ourselves in the capacious extent of that Greater body which contains those stars, we find this maxim to collect our scattered confounded apprehensions, that He who made those orbs, is far more immense than is his work. Nay, even whilst we think all this, yet are not able to wield our own imaginations, to grasp, or circumscribe, or confine in any limit of Sea or Land, of Earth or heaven, our quick thoughts, or give a reason why they in an instant comprehend all these, Bernard. Meditat. 1. Ex me intelligo quàm incomprehensibilis sit Deus quoniàm me ipsum intelligere non possum, quem ipse fecit. From this our own incapacity and inability to understand or know ourselves, wee may learn how much more incomprehensible our Maker is. So that every thing is so full and pregnant in the proof of its creator, that I may cry with david, Psal. 139.7. Quò aufugiam à spiritu tuo? Whither shall I fly from Thee? In what dark corner of the world shall I hid my understanding from taking notice of Thee? Not all the curtains of night drawn about the soul, not all the thick vailes of ignorance, darker and blacker than the night, not all the blind retreats which a guilty conscience hath sought, or which is more, wished for, to shrowd itself from the iustice of the Creator, are able to conceal our apprehensions so low that the confession of God shall not reach vs. Abyssus abyssum vocat, this is a theme which hath pierced as low as the region of darkness, which one abyss hath related to another. The power of the creator, is a perpetual Tradition, which day and night successively deliver, One day telleth another, Psal. 19.2. and where the light failes, the night goes on and repeats those discoveries which day hath made. just as the memory wraps up the speculations of the phantasy, to deliver them back again to us, so oft as our use requires them. The beams of the sun, which illuminate each part of the Horizon, style Him the Father of light, and the moist collection of the clouds, Psal. 65.11. which drop down fatness vpon our Land, speak Him the God of plenty. And if there be any so stiff in their misbelief, that will not bee informed by these still Messengers that daily deliver Him to our thoughts, He hath louder heralds to proclaim Him, creatures that in a more exalted note voice the greatness of their Creator. There is no Meteor, but in this argument, is able to be our Interpreter; the tempestuous winds, that break the Cedars of Lebanon, the quick ejaculations of the lightning, which haue sometimes made the palaces of Tyrants, the tombs and funeral piles of their Owners, haue evinced deaf atheism, and made it aclowledge the creator. By such boisterous messengers as these, did He once treat with the Iewes; for wee find in the gospel, that when all the miracles our saviour had wrought amongst them, nor his preaching uttered in such a Dialect, as never man spake in, could induce that stony-hearted people to beleeue his deity: The Elements in disdain to see their Maker made the subject of their scorn and tyranny, undertook the cause, and like victorious advocates, vanquished their incredulous malice. The violent earth-quakes, that not onely affrighted the vpper world, but shooke the territories of death, leaving the graues without their Tenants, and dislodging the bodies of many Saints, which had long slept in the earth: the unnatural darkness at noonday, the Rending of the vail of the Temple, and above all, the rhetoric of thunder persuaded, nay extorted this confession from them, Matth. 27.54. Of a truth this was the son of GOD. Thus you see, that as God out of stones can create sons to Abraham, so from every piece of his creation, can he raise proofs of the creator. For all creatures are but his tongue to speak him, and the mutest of them all is articulate, hath a peculiar language to utter Him, Psal. 19.1. Coeli enarrant; heaven declares, and Earth reports, and all that move in the one, or on the other, convey the praise of Him that made them. Therefore the Psalmist summons all things animate and inanimate, Psal. 145.10. all seasons, all conditions, Angels and Men, Light and darkness, Dragons and deeps, worms and Vegetables, to praise the Lord. Indeed, the whole universe is but Gods Lieger-Booke, wherein his Acts are written, every Species is a line in that book, every peculiar work a character for Man, to red his Maker. And sure with much delight are the most of us willing to red this book, the curiosity of the style, and variety of the story, invites all eyes to run it over. It is a most pleasing kind of geography, in this large Map of the created world, in the celestial and terrestrial Globe, to contemplate the creator: But when wee come to apply this study, to bring it nearer to ourselves, considering God not in his exterior creation, but as he is our creator, in this application of the object most fail: Remember thy creator. IT is the general 'vice of Man, Thy creator. Bernard. he loues not to bee acquainted with himself, Multi multa sciunt& seipsos nesciunt, alios inspiciunt seipsos deserunt. Like an humorous Nouelist he travels other Countries, but is not able to give any account of his own: so censorious& critical in surveying others, that he is still finding or making faults in them, but so indulgent to himself he will not peruse his own breast. The Elephant doth not more abhor the representment of himself in the clear stream, than Man declines all those occasions which might present himself unto himself. Choosing rather to live disguised in those fantastic dresses wherein flattery or self-love attires him then to set his looks by the true glass of reason, which might make him understand himself. Like those old Impostors the Soothsaiers, Seneca. Peritiores in alienô iecore quam suô, better red in the fate of others than their own. Wee love always to be studying other men, when wee should first begin at home, and make our own bosoms our chief Libraries. Which is the main cause that we are so raw, so ill studied in the knowledge of God, for( as S. Bernard) Quanto in cognitione mei procedo, tanto ad cognitionem Dei accedo, so much as I profit in the science of myself, so near come I to the apprehension of my Maker. And yet it is not sufficient onely to know him, unless thou knowest him the right, the best way. When the Philosopher would interpret himself what he meant by knowing, Aristotle. he does it thus, Scire est per causam scire, the knowledge he meant reached as far as the discerning of the first cause: so the knowledge of God here understood is not shallow or superficial, only as he is in a general consideration the cause of things, a creator at large, but in a nearer dependence, Thy Cause, thy creator. True speculation doth not always hunt objects at the view, nor must it stop at the numerous effects wrought by the creator. This is rather to make thyself acquainted with the History of the Creation, than the knowledge of thy creator, but it must thread the whole Herd of the visible Creatures, and with a most intent vndiuerted eye trace& follow him home unto the place elected for his abode, thy soul which is his Temple. John 20. And as Mary when she went in quest of her saviour, stopped not at the empty Monument, but searches and follows him so far that she discovered him under the disguise of the gardener, and then casting herself at his feet takes possession of him, with this acclamation Rabboni, which is in effect as much as Thomas his gratulation, My Lord and my God: Verse 28. So when thou hast tracked him to his retiring Chamber within thyself, in the humblest postures of obedience falling down before Him. Apply Him to Thee, and derive thyself from Him as the author of thy being, Thy Lord, Thy creator. To remember, or to know God Historically, is a wild vnusefull theory. If thou canst make no nearer approaches than such, the devils haue profited as far in Faith as Thou: for Diaboli credunt, They beleeue the History of Christ: but such a belief doth no good at all. An historical faith which gazes on Christ, and takes Religion at a large distance, can never save any. There must be a nearer scale to bring thee to heaven, Fides iustificans, a justifying, a saving faith, which consists in the laying hold on Christ, and applying his merits to thee. Was ever any fed by the report of a Feast? or had any consultation of Physitians such good success that it could talk the Patient into health? The sight of meat nourisheth not me, nor can my wounds heal at the relation of other cures. Poisons and Antidotes haue all one effect vpon me, if not ministered; and a sovereign plaster is as vnbeneficiall as a corsiue, if not applied. Christ is both my Feeder, and my Meat, my physician, and my Remedy, if my Faith concoct him not in the Sacrament, if it apply him not in my Penitence, my wretched soul lies under two dangers, of a Famine, and of Death. Woe unto me if I know God onely by Report, my salvation will then prove as barren as my knowledge. Nor shall I enjoy any thing of it beyond the name. I may hear of heaven, but never must set foot within the gates. Religion and Faith are but airy empty sounds, if we possess nothing of them beyond the words. The fruit of either consists in their Application. Tis true that Christ is the saviour of the World, but that an useless truth to me unless my Faith entitle me to Him, and by appropriating his work be able to call him my Redeemer. Therefore Luther says well that Meum, Luther in Galat. 1.& 3. and Nostrum, these two words are the sum of all Christianity. In that Masterpeece of prayer, the first thing our blessed saviour taught his Disciples was to possess themselves of God under the style of Pater Noster, Our Father. In these stiles of Mine and Thine, is not onely the whole world owned and divided, but the possession of all Gods promises are delivered and taken by those terms. And surely, if we were as apt to plead our Titles to heaven, as we are forward, though we wrestle with many troubles of svit to maintain our right in Earth, we would not then so easily forfeit the remembrance of God as we do, but with Iacobs resolution hold him even by force, making Him ours by all the ties which might confirm a just possession. But we are better Stewards for the world then for God: with more thrift do we husband our Estates then our Time allotted for our Repentance; with fuller intention do wee pursue the business of Earth, than the great business of our salvation. Either our thoughts are so taken up in temporal affairs that there is no room for God. Wee Remember not our creator at all, or not so much, or not so oft, or not so early as wee ought; In luuentute, In the daies of our Youth, Remember thy creator in thy Youth. YOuth is a headstrong unruly thing, In thy youth. rash in his apprehensions, violent in the execution of his designs, that acts first, and considers after. It is an easy combustible matter, apt to take fire at every train. It is like Wax chafed and tempered by the excess of heat reigning in the blood to receive the seals of damnation, and the impression of any sin. It is like a beleaguered city assailed on all sides, the Cinque Ports of his Senses so blocked up with several Temptations, that it is not safe for him to look out at any of them. Oft-times even with the air his Nostrils suck up the savour of Death, and an harmonious witchcraft ever deludes his ear, whispering to the abused Sense, that those Actions Ambition or Delight prompts him to, become his yeares. In so much that the many invasions unto which he lies open and vnguarded, might justly require this Admonition to fortify him. But yet it was not onely the contemplation of Youths proneness to do ill which occasioned it, but as well the consideration of his abilities to serve his Maker, which moved the Wiseman thus far before hand to be-speake Mans younger yeares for God. Trees that are newly planted bear the fairest and best relished fruit, whereas a longer growth impairs them both in beauty and taste. Salomon himself, whose Sunne-rise was so glorious,& in the morning of his reign expressed so much maturity of iudgement in deciding controversies, so much devotion to God, and received so much approbation from him again, that whereas God did in a manner but sojourn with his Fathers in a Tent, he had the honour to make him his guest, and to raise a standing house, a Temple for him to dwell in; Yet for all this in the declining of his yeares he set as in a black cloud, darkly and ingloriously. For he fell by the practise of his strange wives, who alienated his heart not onely from the remembrance of what himself once was, but from his creator, who had advanced his Throne above his predecessors. It doth not therefore ever follow, that the discerning of age is better than youths. It may be sometimes more stayed, but never so clear: a dim sight looks longer, and with more intention vpon its object, and wee know the reason, because it can take but a slow survey of what it sees. Yet who will deny, but that he who wears his eyes in his head, sees better than one that wears them cased up at his girdle. A spectacle may present things bigger than they are, yet not so truly; for any addition unto truth is Imposture, as well as to detract from it. I may walk well enough by a candle enclosed in a lantern, though I cannot read by it so well as by a taper, whose free light is not immured or shadowed at all. undoubtedly Adams youth, I mean his morning and first part of his birth-day, was his best: and so I do not say is, but should be ours. Man should be then most Man, when the Ministers of Reason are most active, all which flag in his evening; and therefore as they decrease and lessen, so must he. he that remembers God but a little in his youth by the rule of Nature, should quiter forget him when he is old, and then wee know the doom that follows, August. Hom. 2. de Innocent. Hâc animaduersione punitur peccator, vt moriens obliuiscatur sui, qui dum viueret oblitus est Dei. he that hath no remembrance of God in his life time, shall be forgotten by him in death. he that hath expended his young dayes in riot, shall grow old in want. He that hath been unfruitful in the former part of his life, must needs be barren at his death. Nay( saith S. Cyprian) Fructus non invenitur in arbore in quâ flos prius non apparuerit. He that never blossomed in youth, whose goodness never put forth into a flower, can never bear fruit when he is old. It is a great adventure, for a man to let himself loose at One and twenty, and think to reclaim, or take himself up again at Threescore: when decay hath prevailed vpon him, and age cast as many wrinkles vpon his mind, as he wears vpon his fore-head. To haue lived till fifty or Three-score, is a faire calendar of time, but virtue doth not go by that calendar. To be old, is not to be wise, nor doth antiquity leave off the vices which it nourished from youth, but oft change them into worse. Men use not to be superannuated in sin, rather their impotence so deeply seduces their iudgement in their latter times, that they give their evils leave to prescribe vpon them, and pled custom. I speak not this to credit youth, or diminish age, or by any rude comparison to take from riper yeeres that reverence which their goodness or experience may challenge, {αβγδ}. I confess, and must deliver it from a more authentic mouth, job 12.2. that Amongst the ancient is wisdom. I do not here set youth as an emulous opposite to age contesting for priority, nor put the person of the young in balance with the old; I onely confer Mans younger time with his elder, his past dayes with his present: which is no more in effect, but to compare man with himself, and such a comparison can disparaged none. The scope of all I can say, discharges itself briefly vpon these two issues, to prepare youth, and to hasten age; as a Monitor to the one, and a Remembrancer to the other. Since ill customs grow strong vpon us when we are weakest, I should aduise those that are the Guardians of youth, and whom the care of a family employs, to enter them betimes in the school of virtue, and season these new vessels with Religion, knowing that casks long retain the taste of their first liquours which were infused into them. Youth is a fertile garden, and though the heat and rankness of the soil bee apt to sand up many weeds, yet if well dressed in the fore-hand of the year, it is capable of faire plantations. Manure it therefore betimes, whilst it is Spring, and it can look vpon the drooping autumn at a great distance. Such a plot to work on, as is Man in his prime, such a planter as Paul, and such a waterer as Apollos, would make it in short time {αβγδ}, fit to be reaped by Angels, 1 Cor. 3.9. and inn'd by God. Aristotle was so precise in admitting schollers to his moral Lectures, that he would haue them past their wardship first, thinking their green capacities could not bee mellow enough for his ethics till thirty at least. But Christ our Master was of another mind; Mar. 10.14. his Sinite paruulos, &c. Suffer little ones to come unto me, encouraged parents and superuisors of children to enrol them in his Bands, his Church, before they were Masters of so much tongue as to name Christ. What though their narrow apprehensions cannot reach the high principles of faith? in a few yeeres, their understandings elevated with their statures, will grow up to them, and the accession of a little time, digest those precepts which their infancy drew in, into the constant habit of a good life; not bowing themselves into any crooked postures of error, nor forgetting that strait form into which their first education wrought them. Therefore it was the counsel of the wise King, Prou. 22.6. train up a child in the way he should go in, at the door& entrance of his life, and when he is old he shall not depart from it. Such happy blossoms in youth, are the prognostications of a rich autumn. And the wise Heathen vpon the same ground, undertakes for the felicity of that state and those subiects, who enjoy the blessing to haue a religious Prince, trained up in goodness from his infancy, set over them; Seneca. Nulla erit processu temporis difficilis clementia Principi, qui in annis puerilibus didicit servire pietati. I need not( though without flattery I might) give it English, nor would I speak it in any lower vulgar language, but onely the language of thanksgiving to almighty God, who hath placed vpon this Throne such a King, whose religion sprung up with him from his minority, and whose riper yeeres exhibit this fruit, which each day fals plentifully into the observation of all that are about Him, That He is not only the Defender of Religion, but morning and evening a personal actor in that service. Not only careful to enact hews for the continuance of the gospel, but making himself a Law and a glorious Example to his whole Court. Lord, thou that knowest this truth, and bearest me record, I do not mingle this as an officious Parenthesis in my Errand, rather to add glory to my present Master, than to Thee, never, O never be unmindful of Him who so early and so oft Remembers Thee. I haue performed my first intent, in doing the office of a Remembrancer to the Elder, touching the Education of youth; This last concerns themseles. And it were a shane for those that undertake the manage of others time, to be unthrifty in their own; to teach such as are submitted to their care to set out towards heaven in the Morning, and yet themselves not follow till the evening. I do not prejudicate a gray-headed Penitence, though I must needs prefer the younger; that may be True, but this more Safe. I will hope well of the one, yet beleeue better of the other. Winter voyages are very dangerous and uncertain, by reason of the east-wind which is then let loose vpon the Earth, and sure he were not wise that might take his journey in the Summer, yet by delaying his Opportunity would expose himself to the inclemency of the weather or fury of the Sea. Old Age is Mans Winter, witness that Snow which covers his head more could and lasting than the Russian Frosts which scarcely the raging Dog star can thaw. Youth is his Summer, wherein the better temper of the air, the clearness of his sky, wherein are fewer clouds, less storms to hinder his prospect to heaven, promise a more successful voyage. Therfore whilst wee can see our way, whilst those Pilots which direct the body are able to discover that shore whereunto wee bend our course, whilst our Lights are not damm'd up, Eccles. 12.3. nor they wax dark which look out at our windows, Let us fix our Eyes, our Faith and Memory constantly both vpon the journey, and Him who is able to reward our travell. God did not place the Memory in the hinder part of the head, that wee should Remember Him last; Nor did he place our last Day below all other Daies in our almanac, that wee should make it the farthest part of our Reckoning. By Christs rule our Last must be First, and as the end of every Action is first in the intent of the Author, so should God be freshest in our Memory and our End always in our sight. How can He that preceded all Time take it well at our hands to be put back unto the last minute of Time? How can He that requires the first-fruits of our Lands be content with the Latter harvest of our lives? How can He that expects a sacrifice of a sweet smell, but distaste our vnsauory zeal, when for a fragrant flower, wee present him with a dry stalk and withered leaf, the lees of our Age for the Vintage of our youth. They that seek me early, Prou. 8.17. shall find me( saith He) so if He bid us come at morning our own inexcusable neglect forfaits the appointment if wee go not till the evening. Let us therefore prevent the morning watch; not defer our journey till the dusty evening or Twilight of our Daies, but set forward whilst we are yet a few houres from the dawning of Time, and( as the Apostle speaks) Whilst wee can say to day. Hebr. 3.15. In the dayes of thy Youth. HOw every attribute lessons and shortens life, In the dayes. to make us understand what shadows and dreams of happiness take up our Time! Our whole Age, our Delights, and their Fruition as short as is the day, yea much shorter, since oft-times our Pleasures, our beloved sins, and their Repentance lodge but three Minutes asunder. The schoolmen distinguish the day into temporal or moral. By the temporal day they understand that common Measure of Time, whose compass is 24. houres. By the moral day they mean our Prosperity, Eccl. 12.2. whilst our sun is not darkened; in which clear vnclouded Time wee are most apt to forget God. 2 Chron. 12.1. As it is said of Rehoboam, who when he had established the kingdom, and strengthened himself, forsook the law of the Lord. And then the sense of the Text is, that we not only then think vpon God, when want of his help& our own Misery prompts us, like Mariners at Sea, whose religion oft-times rises or falls with the wave; who with Ionahs Shipmates pray devoutly in a storm, but in a calm lay their devotion to sleep till the next Tempest awake it; But in our happiest condition, in our abundance, before adversity like a black cloud ouershadowes us, Whilst the evil dayes come not, Verse 1. nor the yeares wherein thou shalt say I haue no pleasure in them. Vpon which Interpretation, though proper to our authors purpose, and warranted by the best Expositors, I dare not at the end of my journey embark myself, but insist vpon the literal meaning and temporal acception of Dayes, taking the Dayes of our youth, for that short portion of Time set out for Mans being. Which is best computed by Daies,& that Stylo veteri, the style being drawn down from our Fore-Fathers. jacob demanded by Pharaoh how old he was, calculates himself by Dayes, and those summed up in sorrows in stead of houres, Gen. 47.9. Few and evil haue been the Dayes of my Yeares. If he whose Age doubled ours at the largest extent, numbered his Time by Dayes, wee that are be-dwarfed both in our Stature, and our Yeares so many spans below him, by what short measure shall wee take our life? Dayes are too large a size. For when wee think that half our Timeis Night, which wee sleep out; and of the other part which wee call Day, much is laid out vpon Ceremony,& the circumstance of Life, our Dressings, our Meales, our Visits, our recreations; I say, when wee consider this, wee shall confess that Minimum est quod vivitur; nay lower yet, Punctum est quod vivitur, Seneca. & adhuc puncto minus. Life hath the least share in our Dayes, the Dimensions of it appearing no bigger than one sand in the hourglass to the whole hour, or less than a small point to a Line. Wherefore then doth improvident Man soothe himself with the imagination of many yeares to come, when his whole Time is comprehended in a few Dayes? nay begun and finished in one Day, Factum est Mane, Biel. Lect. 70. de Missa. & véspere vnus Dies, sc. Mane Iuuentutis,& vesper Senectutis. Genes. 1.5. As at first the evening and Morning made the natural Day, so Youths morning, and Ages evening make but one Day of Life. What hast then ought wee to make in our conversion? when our whole term is bounded by such narrow Confines, and the flying Minutes in their sly Motion beguile us so fast, that wee are not sensible of times stealth, or our own declining to the evening. Why do wee so adjourn religious duties, sending away those better thoughts which bring God near unto us, Acts 24.26. as Foelix did Paul, I will hear Thee some other Time, when wee are not Owners of so poor an Election, as to promise another piece of Time, which may bring those thoughts and us together again? August. serm. 16. de verb. Dom. Indulgentiam Deus promisit, said Crastinum non promisit. He that hath promised thee a Pardon this Day for thy Sin, hath not promised thee a Reprieue for thy Life one day longer. And therefore if thou dismiss Christ when he knocks for entrance at thy heart, Prou. 3.21. with a Vade& cras revertere, go and come again to me to morrow, thou forgettest Christs summons in the gospel, luke. 12.20. Stulte hâc nocte, fool thou hast no assurance of thy soul this night, nay past this minute: and therefore Now collect thyself, delay not beyond this instant. Ecce nunc tempus acceptabile: 2 Cor. 6.2. Now is the accepted time. Remember Now thy creator. OF all the several distributions of Time, Now. there is none that we can lay claim to but the Present, Aug. Confess. 11. Temp{us} praeteritum iam non est, tempus futurum nondùm est, praesens autem solùm temp{us} est, The past time is not now, the future is not yet, onely the present may be called a time, and that only called ours. Arist. phies. lib. 4. Therefore Aristotle delivered it in a blunt, but true phrase, Nihil habemus de tempore nisi Nunc; Wee haue no interest in time beyond this present Now. And that so short, that like a flash of lightning, it leaps out and dies at once. That which I call Now, lasts no longer than the very syllable, which delivers it to your ear, but changes in the mid-way, past and gone in that breath which name it. Thus doth Time incessantly feed on us: it eats vpon our dayes, digesting them so fast and greedily, that our Future, which was a minute since before us, not yet arrived, is in the twinkling of an eye behind us, lost and swallowed up in the wide gulf of time Past. O wretched condition of mankind, that stands accountant unto God, for every sand that moves& passes thorough Times hourglass, yet scarce is allowed so much of time as to number his receipts, and to compute his charge, which powers and empties itself so fast vpon him, that his Present is suddenly mingled with the Past, and all the several pensions and contributions, which out of Times Exchequer are payed to life, no sooner grow due, but they become arrearage. In which fickle momentany flights, what security haue wee in life? How shall wee make up our Audit with God, for these sums so hastily thrown vpon us, but by laying hold vpon this instant, Now? Nay, how shall wee possess ourselves of that Now of time, which vanishes as it appears, but by preventing it, by anticipating the day before it climb too far out of our reach, and our sun in a precipitate descent hast towards the West? Tis hard for a routed army to re-enforce itself in the end of the day, or but to make an orderly retreat; and it is as hard for man in his old age, when an army of infirmities mustered against him, make the ministers of Reason disband, and every disease hath him vpon the execution; when the approaches of death affright his dayes, by looking in at his windows, and by knocking at his door, disturb his rest, making his nights sleepelesse, to deliver up a clear vndisturbed account to God, or to retire without confusion and disorder, unto the dust from whence he was taken. It is not a perfect will, when the Testator is not in perfect memory. I would bee loth to make my last Audit with God, in worse state of mind than my Audit with the world; the not disposing of my goods, being but a trifle, to the not disposing of my soul. My goods, if I haue any, will find an owner, though I appoint none, when I am gone, a brother, or a friend, or a child; but if on such loose unsettled terms I part with my soul, who shall own it? He that by the right of creation hath best title to it, and made it mine, will not receive it back from me, unless by my assignment, unless my prayers and my penitence make it a legacy fit for Him. It doth concern me therefore to bequeath it to Him betimes, whilst I am in my right mind and perfect understanding; as S. Augustine advises, Age poenitentiam dum sanuses: August. hom. 41. before my weak age confine me to my chamber, or sickness lay me on my death-bed. But then to leave off sinning, when I am ready to leave life, argues, I would yet sin longer if I might live; That it is necessity, not my own will divorces me and my vices. Such a bed-rid recantation as this is scarce worth the name of a Repentance. For I cannot so properly be said to repent me of my sins, rather my sins repent themselves of me; nor do I discharge them, but more truly they discharge me, casting me off as an vnusefull minister, unable and unfit now to serve them any longer. S. Ambros. lib. de penitent. Ambrose pronounces a woe vpon them, who put a period to their licentious courses and life together: Vae illis qui tunc habuerunt terminum luxuriae quamdò vitae. S. August. Augustine goes nearer, Periculosum est& interitui vicinum ad mortem protrahere poenitentiae remedium: A repentance protracted and delayed to the last hour of life, borders vpon destruction. But yet though it be so dangerous, so near the brink, it is not desperate. God forbid that I or any should miscensure the late conversion of a dying sinner. Christs pardon to that condemned, nay executed man vpon the cross, shows that his mercy is not limited by any circumstance of time. far therefore be it from us to lay such a stumbling block before the feet of those that are now falling into earth, as to imagine the penitence of Him that hath waxed old in his iniquities( as the Prophets phrase is) should not be acceptable to God. Though young-begun devotion be more durable, an elder is not unwelcome. God accepts a late conversion better than none; for, Ambros. l. 3. de Virgin. Omnis aetas habilis Deo. whilst wee haue any interest in life, we need not despair; wee are not past the acceptable time, or the day of our salvation. Gerson. Tempus opportunum est tempus vitae mortalis in quâ est opportunum tempus remissionis. Any part or moment of life is capable of Gods mercy in the remission of sins. Tis true that after death Gods Court of Audience is shut up, all prayers return empty, and repentance is ineffectual: but the last part of age, though it be the picture of death, tis not the original. Though it bee the Vigill and eve of our last festival, revel. 14.13. wherein wee shall finally rest from all our labours, yet it is not death. There is yet a Nunc, a Now; there is a spark of Life, raked up in the embers of Age, able to kindle hopes as high as our salvation. Psal. 148. Therefore the Psalmist invites the Children of the Winter Snow and hail, as well as Fire, old Men as well as Children, to praise God. There are none that can so Adaequatè, so truly, so punctually be said to possess this Now, as old Men. For they haue but barely this present Minute, so much of Time, and no more. Tis true that Youth hath no Assurance of Life past this very Instant, but Age hath no Hope beyond it. Vitae summa brevis, Horat. Spem vetat inchoare longam. Yet all I enforce from hence is not to terrify, but to hasten them, as devout Ananias did Paul to his conversion, Acts 22.16. {αβγδ}; Now why tarriest thou? arise, and wash away thy sin. That they may employ this short allowance of Time to the best advantage; that since they Now haue so little Day to travell by, they gird up their loins, and hold that place which Eliah did before the Chariot of his Enemy Ahab, run, not creep, being as swift and instant in their preparation, as death is on them. Lest the consideration of themselves, that they are now like trees loosened at the root, falling into earth, and as they Now fall, so must they for ever lye, whether to the right hand, or to the left, to mercy or to Iudgement; or else the consideration of that great journey which they are now going, from Earth to heaven, and their fear of being benighted ere they get thither, having so small a time to journey in, perplex and dissettle their thoughts, making them amazedly cry out, as they did in the Prophet, Woe unto us, Ierem. 6.4. for the day declineth, and the shadows of the evening are stretched out. The Conclusion and sum of all is; Conclusion. that wee beseech almighty God to feather us with the wings of the morning, that wee may begin our flight to him betimes; that wee may Remember him in the dayes of our youth. But if like sluggards wee haue outslept our Morning, yet that He will vouchsafe us his grace, to bring us to Him in the afternoon or evening of our life: That he will entertain us into his Vineyard in his own time, whether it bee at the Sixth, or Ninth, or eleventh hour. I know the morning is the best to enter vpon this task; And to hid ourselves out of the way, or out of a presumption to defer it to the latter part of the day, is sin and Danger. But yet if wee can stand in Christs way, to bee called by Him at any of his houres, wee need not fear that wee are tardy, or doubt our recompense. They that were hired at the eleventh and last hour, Matth. 20.9. had their penny as well as the earliest that had born the heat of the day. And Nicodemus had his access to Christ by night. John 3.2. What then though our Lifes short Taper be wasted to a snuff, and almost burnt out: if that snuff of our dying candle will but last so long, Ecclus. 17.27. that wee may see to praise God before our death; if it will but serve to light us fairly towards our graues, wee shall not then fear to go unto our last beds in the dark. Our Bodies will sleep in their dust without a candle, and for our souls they will need none, being translated into that region of light, revel. 22.5. where there is no need of a candle, but the brightness of Gods face holds on the day everlastingly, not suffering the night to rival it any longer. Where their spring never droopes, nor their Youth declines: where the presence of their creator, whom they Now contemplate, perpetuates that Now unto them, fixing it to an eternal Consistence of Time, which cannot alter, or get beyond them, and makes their Fruition as immortal as their joys. AMEN. FINIS. A SERMON PREACHED AT WHITE-HALL IN Lent 1626. February 20. BY Henry King, D. D. one of his majesties Chaplains in Ordinary. LONDON, Printed by John HAVILAND, 1627. A SERMON PREACHED at White-Hall in Lent. 1626. PSAL. 55.6. And I said, O that I had wings like a dove, for then would I flee away, and be at rest. I Know that some Writers interpret this psalm in a mystical sense of the Passion of Christ, Gloss. Hilarius. Hierouymus. Cassiodor. Lorinus. and the Persecution of his Church: And apply this Text to our saviours Resurrection, desiring to Ascend up into heaven, and to assume his proper place at the right hand of his Father. But my discourse runs not by that compass; I take it Literally, as it is the complaint of david, 1 Sam. 23. and the History of his distress, flying from Sauls fury into the wilderness of Ziph: Vatablus. Arias. Or as others will haue it, from the conspiracy of absalon and Achitophel. under whose Person I shall consider the Misery and disquiet of Mans life, Bewailing his wretched condition, and desirous to Go out of the World. O that I had wings like a dove, for then would I fly away, and be at rest. 1 To give you a clearer view of the troubles which distemper Mans life; Behold him first with david in a sad solitary Consultation, debating with himself how he might compass his Flight, And I said. 2 The conclusion unto which he grows, as comfortless as the other; wherein his Escape is only formed in his Imagination and Wish, Quis dabit? O that I had, &c. 3 The means of his conveyance or subject of his Wish is, Wings. 4 The Quality, wings like a dove. 5 The use he would make of them, his flight, For then I would fly away. 6 The End of his Flight, and Scope of his Wish, Rest, I would fly away, and be at rest. My Meditations are now on wing, and I shall make but a short and speedy flight thorough each circumstance. THere is no greater torment to the mind than suspense; And I said. when Men are vnresolu'd in their courses, and uncertain what to do. But when amid this anxiety they are exposed to solitude, when they are left to themselves with all their sorrows and fears about them, I know not unto what higher pitch Calamity can be wrought. A certain Death is better than a doubtful reprieve: and a Sociable Woe sweeter than a solitary Content. Mirth in a wilderness, is a strange antic: but Misery sequestered from relief or advice, a very Monster. The orator said, he would not live alone in heaven without a Companion to communicate his joys unto. I dare not say so. But sure the Society of Angels& Saints contributes very much to those unutterable joys: And then, if the Communion of Saints be an Article in my Creed, to cheer my languishing Faith, I haue good cause to put the Desertion, the being forsaken of Men into my litany, and pray against it. The Dereliction of the Father was so exquisite a Torment, that it caused the son of God to confess the weight of it by his loud cry vpon the cross, Matth. 27.46. Why hast thou forsaken me? The apprehension of it, did some way daunt that invincible Patience, which all the preceding Agonies could not shake. For amid them He was, Vt ovis coram tondente, dumb and silent as the sheep before the Shearer: Onely this affliction broken open the sacred doors of speech, which before Silence had locked and sealed up, forcing Him in the highest accent of sorrow to expostulate his forlorn Condition. The curse of Men, or vengeance of God can finish in no more fearful issue than Desolation. Nor could the mournful Prophet, whom grief had made eloquent, bewail jerusalem in a more learned Dirge, or writ a sadder Epitaph vpon her ruins, than Desolata est, Esa. 64.10. she is left alone, desolate, and forsaken, and there were none to comfort her. If this Desolation in misery cracked the very axle-tree of heaven, and made the son of God, who upholds all things, Hebr. 1.3. shrink under the weight of it; what son of Man, though strong as Atlas, can stand below this burden, and not perish underneath it? Affliction looks cheerfully, when it may repair to such as will afford it pity or Comfort: But when it is straightened, and lies under a solitary Confinement, it is the very picture of despair. If mishap single me out, and I fall in Company, a Friend may raise me up again: but, Vae soli, Eccles. 4.10. if I fall alone, when I am left and given over to myself, Woe is me: What hand shall then lift me up, or who shall raise my soul from that dejection whereinto Calamity hath thrown her? How hopeless is my redress, when amazement seizes the Organs of reason, and every faculty that should assist me is confounded, when only fear is predominant, and the perplexed phantasy, like a false glass, multiplies the danger, and makes each mischief look far bigger than it is? Concluded under this Misery shall you find david, He lies here under the pursuit of swift Enemies: and which is worst, naked, and vngarded; left to himself, to consult with his own troubled bosom, what course of safety to take. Which Deliberation of his is attired in the same livery his Fortune now wears, Pale and Distracted: He calls for help, and the best relief his Iudgement can furnish him with, is but the name of a Rescue; and rather a desire of his Escape, than the means how to effect it; Tis but A Dixi, I said, He doth but talk of it. To promote which Purpose, he would become a Debtor to a creature of the air for wings to help him from the Earth; and to procure this courtesy, he is constrained to use the fruitless mediation of an Agent, more empty than the air, a Wish; Quis dabit? O that I had this opportunity of Flight! Though david be the history, Man is the moral: whose condition at best is as full of anxiety as Dauids: If david had enemies, he hath more. And if he had cause to wish his departure, he hath so too. Tis vnsafe for him to stay here, and yet uncertain when he can get off. Onely Desire is his Pilot, which looks at a great distance vpon his delivery; and his wishes bespeak that happiness, which yet he is not near unto. O that I had, &c. 'tis a miserable relief, when we can onely hear the sound of comfort, O that I had. but feel none. Wishes that are laden with the richest blessings, reach not farther than the ear, but die there: as sparks leaping from the fire, lose their noise and light together. Did ever the history of a Medicine cure a sick man? or the smell of a feast feed one that was hungry? or the contemplation of liberty bail a Prisoner? If so, then haply I may be induced to think that wishes haue somewhat in them besides the sound, and are more than mere shadows. shadows indeed, dilated or contracted according to the phantasy, from whose uncertain Light they are cast. They are but as meat set vpon the hearse of the Dead, for show, not use: or like dreams, whose success is as empty as their Birth. The day will not rise a minute the sooner for my wishing: nor shall a man haue a whit the more, because he desires an Addition to that he hath. Those desires may bring him less quiet, less contentment, not more wealth. Let me apply the words of Esay, our wishes at best are but as a Night vision, Esay 29.7, 8. as an hungry man dreameth that he eats, but he awakes and his soul is empty. As their relief, so their Parentage is miserable. Our words haue a fuller pedigree than our wishes; for those spring from plenty, Matth. 12.34. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks: But wishes spring from penury, they are the Dictates of our necessity, and the onely Grammar by which they are taught to speak, is Want; which prompts us to wish what we haue not. There is not in the World any thing so lawless as our desires, which like Freebooters, rifle others to enrich us: Seneca Ep. 32. Multos compilant, vt te locupletent. There is not any thing so wild, as our wishes. Reason cannot bound, nor Religion reclaim them; but like Haggards, that go out at every check, they fly at all game that crosses them. We rove and bangle after every Fortune, most eagerly pursuing that which wee are prohibited, and affecting least that estate which wee enjoy. Quî fit Maecoenas, vt nemo, Horat. Sat. 1. quam sibi sortem Seu ratio dederit, seu force obiecerit, illa Contentus vivat? 'twas a question long ago proposed, but never to be resolved, so long as Fortune or Nature haue any interest in Man. Our mindes lye in our bodies, just as sick men in their beds, who by tumbling and tossing from one place to another, think to gain ease, yet by their unquiet Motion heighten their Distemper. We varie our desires, shift our Imaginations from one object to another, in which wilderness of thoughts we lose ourselves; and by this confused way, the more wee seek after Rest, the more we tyre ourselves. Either we grow weary of the State of the Times, or of our own; weary of others, or of ourselves; We think our good daies if wee haue any) fly too fast; but our Ill ones, josh. 10.13. as if governed by that sun which stood still in Gibeon, hang too long over our heads; which makes us oft-times, ere it be noon with us, ere wee haue arrived at half our age, to wish it Night. Thus to help the lazy Motion of Time, to get the start both of it and our own miseries, wee plume ourselves for flight, and our Wishes are Wings. O that I had Wings! AS sparks fly up, Wings. so should Mans thoughts; The flamme without Instruction can find out its own Center; but all the Lessons or Instructions divinity can read, will hardly raise Man, who is a spark lighted from the deity, or make him bear up unto his proper Sphere. Habet anima volatus suos; Ambros. de Virg. lib. 3. as other winged Creatures, so the soul hath her flights too, and the period of those flights is heaven. Her proper Motion then is to go to Mount, to work up: Should shee forget that Motion, the very form of the body would quicken her memory; which is therefore built in that streight upright figure, to make us understand, that as our future abode, so our present Contemplation must be heaven. When other Creatures, in sign of Homage to the earth that bare them, decline downwards, and with dejected postures, confess their whole Parentage to bee nothing else but Dust, into which ignoble Element they shall bee taken back again, and so digested into their confused Principles, as if they never had been: When all their memory is shut up in earth, and determines in that corruptible mass, out of which they were at first extracted; Man, like a Monument of Honour, like a Pillar or Pyramid, erected for the glory of his creator, points upwards at Him: And though his Base or pedestal bee grounded in Earth, his head is in the Clouds, like that great three in Nebuchadnezzars vision, Dan. 4.10, 11. whose plantation was earth, but his Height reached heaven. How much then do those Men degenerate from their Creation, whose groveling Meditations are ever bedded in Earth, and like Moles, butted below the the cares of this world, work under ground? more zealous to find out the veins and Mines of Treasure, locked up within the womb of the Earth, than to make themselves capable of those richer blessings, which are treasured up in heaven. I do not justify one sin by another, nor by any diminution of the one, contend to make the other plausible; but by way of Comparison I dare be bold to say, the Ambitious Man hath more of Man in Him, than the covetous, and bates less of his pitch. A hawk that keeps her wings, though shee be otherwise ill-conditioned, and fly not true, does less degenerate from the Aierie, than one that being thrown off, uses to take stand vpon the ground. The proper Motion of my soul is to ascend, and though an aspiring Man makes his ascent by the wrong stair, he more preserves the dignity of his being, gives more testimony that He hath a soul, than a wretched drudge of the World. And( though it be far from me to commend either, both being execrable) I should rather pity a phaethon falling in a brave Misfortune, than a low slave of the Earth, that never would look up to the sky, nor care'd for any Sun-shine, save onely that, which his bright sun of Metals, Gold casts. To take up this loose Excursion, and to fix you where I left. Earth is no competent object for Mans thoughts. If the souls active Faculties lie still imprisoned within that Body of day which she informs, the Dull sense would be as faire a difference of Man, as Reason and the discursive part. Anatomists would haue the soul learn to contemn the World from the very figure of the heart, which is dilated upward, but pointing and narrow below, to show wee should touch the earth only, In Puncto. Our Meditations must rather glance, than fix vpon the business of the World. And therefore the soul( in Boëtius) sensible of her own elevation, confesses shee hath wings to lift her far above the contemptible earth. Sunt pennae volucres mihi, Beetius de Consol. lib. 4. metr. 1. Quas sibi cum velox mens induit, Terras perosa despicit. S. Ambros. Ser. 14. in Psal. 118. Ambrose makes the Application, Satis est tibi vt auem te esse noueris, assumptum in naturam volandi, &c. Quid te in terram deijcis? Since, O Man, like a bide thou hast the Liberty of Wings, why dost thou clog thy flight with the cares of this world? why dost thou set up thy Rest on Earth, that shouldst build thy Tabernacle in heaven, and Nest above the stars? But every Plume makes not a like speed, nor flies at the same pitch. As in the feathered Creatures there are diversities of wings; so there are degrees of Knowledge in mens souls, and diversities of flights. Some haue quicker, and more lofty apprehensions than others, some haue Eagles wings, some but the wings of the Sparrow. revel. 12 14. The Woman in the revelation had the wings of an Eagle given her to accelerate her flight, and carry her into the wilderness. But david in the psalm had onely the wings of the Sparrow to convey him from danger, which pursued him, Anima vt Passer erepta, Psal. 1247. My soul is escaped as a Sparrow from the Net. Here for this Escape He desires a wing of larger stroke, stronger to maintain a flight, and more able to go at stretch, from that mischief which threatened him, the wings of a dove: For she is held to haue the speediest wing for the time she fly, of any other Fowle. Therefore Euripides when he would commend swiftness, does it in this Phrase. Not inferior to the dove, whose nimble pinnions even cut the air with their quick Motion. Radit iter liquidum, Virg. Aeneid. 5. celeres neque commouet alas. O that I had wings like a dove. 'tis a judicious regular phantasy that works by an authentic copy. Like a dove. Did all our wishes, all our desires determine like this, we should not then at any time blushy to own them: nor need wee fear though they were printed on our foreheads. 'tis S. Pauls Rule, 1 Cor. 12.31. That wee covet the best Gifts. I think the Prophet here was Example to the Apostles Rule, who shapes his Wish by the very best of all flying Creatures, The dove: emblem of unspotted Chastity, of white Innocence, and harmless Simplicity. The dove hath ever been lucky to mankind. It was the dove that had the dignity to be dispatched, as the first ambassador that ever went betwixt God& Man, after the Deluge: discharging the trust of him that sent her out of the ark so well, that she gave him ocular proof of the falling of the Waters. Returning home with a Banner of Truce displayed in her Mouth, Gen. 8.11. and bearing the Articles of Gods covenant, and Mans Peace sealed to him in the olive Branch, which she presented to Noah. And when the Spirit of Comfort came from heaven, to rest vpon the head of Christ, Matth. 3.16. he borrowed onely this shape to descend in, making his first visible apparance in the form of the dove. Which dignity our saviour preserves to her in an high measure, Cant. 2.10, 14. when He courts his beloved the Church under this style, My dove. And again in the gospel, where he vouchsafes to make the dove his own Text, and our copy, proposing her in his Sermon, as a pattern worthy the imitation of all Christians, Estote Simplices vt Columbae, Matth. 10.16. Be ye wise as Serpents, simplo as doves. If the world had quiter lost the Character of all moral goodness, wee might profitably search for it, and recover it in the dove. mild, and soft, and calm as the stillest air, having no Malice to sour, no gull to dis-sweeten her Temper. I may truly apply that of wisdom, Wisd. 8.16. Non habet amaritudinem conversatio ipsius. So loving to her Mate, and so True, that shee hath given life to a proverb by her properties: True as the Turtle, is the highest language conjugal loyalty can speak in. Nescit adulterij flammam intemerata Columba. never stained by adulterous Couplings, but of so reserved and could a Chastity, which the hot flames of Lust cannot thaw. Not Loose, and yet most Free in her conversation, for shee loues Company, and therein shows, Chastity is not onely confined to Nunneries. A sociable woman may be as honest as a Recluse, and though free, more chast and virtuous in her Mirth, than many a Cloystred frailty is in her deuotions. She is no light gather like Dinah, no straggler from her house like the factious Separatist, paratist, that flies off from the Congregation. 'tis one of the doves notes, that Gregatim volat, she will assemble with the flock. Not tainted with excess in her feed; She eats for hunger, not wantonness. Her habitation though not Curious, yet clean, and White like her own Thoughts. Matth. 7.24. In the Choice whereof she imitates the wise Builder in the gospel, laying the foundation of her House in the rock, Cantic. 2.14. Columba mea in foraminibus Petrae. And for her lodging, 'tis not like the proud Daughters of Tyre, soft and lascivious. Her Nest is hard, Hugo Cardinal. and this hardness( saith a Writer) signifies Repentance and strict life; to repress& choke the growth of those weeds, which People of dissolute addictions, pampered in ease and riot, like rank soils sand forth. It was Iobs speech, Moriar in nidulo meô, job 29.18. I shall die in my Nest. I do not wonder then, if david here going in quest of a Peace not to be found on Earth,& of that final Rest, which onely can compose the troubles that distemper life, wish to be furnished both with Instruction and means for his flight by the dove. First desiring her virtues to qualify him, to make him capable of that last Quiet, and then the speed of her wings to hast unto it, O that I had wings like a dove, For then would I flee away. I Blame not any for being weary of his stay here, For then would I flee away. or desirous to leave the World. Sure the World now froward and peevish in her old Age, grows weary of her Guests, and makes more speed to bee gone from us, than wee can to fly away from it. For let us set out never so soon, all that we can call happiness here on Earth, hath already taken Wings, Prou. 23.5. and Flies before vs. Riches haue Eagles Wings( saith Salomon) to fly away from the Owner: so suddenly is the Worlds wealth amnihilated and shrunk to nothing. And for those Graces which Honour or favour contribute unto us, the giddy wheel of Fortune turns about so fast, that none can take sure footing there. The Apostle says, some Mens ills do {αβγδ}, 1 Tim. 5.24. lead the way, anticipate Iudgement, I am sure all our good meets with its critical day, before wee ourselves do, who generally outlive our best Times, and survive all wee could haue wished ours, save onely our Miseries. So fleeting is the plenty or glory of the World, so short a stay do those blessings make with vs. Should they stay longer, wee could not stay with them. infirmity and Decay thrust on our Earthy Bodies, with such violence to their Center, which is the grave, that, as in a Scene, our Entrance and our Exit are but a very little distant from one another. Therefore the Philosopher, when he was asked what life was, gave a brief, but significant resolution in his dumb show, when he but turned and so went out. The Motion of our Time is so precipitate, that as if the dayes of our life were measured by that winged sun in Malachy, the Minutes fly away so fast, Malach. 4.2. even our Thoughts cannot lackey, nor our Desires keep place with them. The Shadow, or the dream of a shadow, {αβγδ}, which was Pindarus his Expression of Life, job 7.6, 7. or the weavers shuttle, or the wind, are too slow Comparisons for Life. When wee haue name all, wee must conclude with job, Dies mei velociores, Our dayes are swifter than all these. So that wee cannot stay here, nor, if we could, do I find any thing to make us enamoured of staying. When I consider that each day adds to my sorrows, or which is worse, my sins, making their guilty account rise still higher in the doomsday book, how can I better make my abatements, than by going hence? Since living here I cannot but continually sin, how shall I fly the dangerous occasions of sin, Aug. in Psal. 54.11. but by quitting Life, and flying away? Vellem vt abirem, ne manendo augeam peccata peccatis. O therefore that I had wings to fly away. again, job 7.3. when I consider with job, The tedious moneths of vanity, which I am made to possess, and the wearisome nights which are appointed for me; and that( as Salomon saith) All is labour, Eeoles. 1.24. and sorrow, and vexation of Spirit: Can any man blame me to take Saint Pauls, Phil. 1.23. Cupio dissolui, into my mouth? I desire to bee dissolved. Tis but Iustice, being thus toiled out with Labour, and ouerwatcht with Care, at length to bid the World Good Night, and wish myself that rest, which is the End of Dauids wish, O that I had wings like a dove: for then would I fly away, and be at Rest. AS the shadow to the seruant, who hath wrought in the heat of the day; And be at Rest. or Reward to the Hireling, or sleep to the traveler: so sweet, so desirable is Death to one weary of Life. Psal. 104.23. Man goeth forth to his labour till the evening, saith the Psalmist: All life is but a laborious Day; wherein, as inheritors of Adams curse, wee eat our bread in sorrow and sweat: Onely Death is our evening, in whose succeeding Night, wee bury all the troubles of our Day; taking possession of a quiet, which wee might wish for before, not taste till then. compared to this, all else wee call Rest, is counterfeit; it bears the Name, but not the true stamp, and rather resembles, than is Rest. sleep, which is the best, most cunning Picture of Rest, which the curious hand of Nature ever drew vpon us, is but a Picture, and by the Rules of Art a copy must lose much of the original. If ever Rest were drawn to the life, 'tis in that most exact Night-peece, Death; wherein all memory of preceding trouble is so slumbered, that no relic awakes to disturb the quiet which it affords. But 'tis much otherwise with us, that live here, whose busy Cares not content with the Latitude of Time which Day allows them, encroach vpon our Nights, when, though the doors of sense are locked up in sleep, with false keys they enter at the phantasy, which they affright with visions, job 7.14. and distemper with dreams: making the same cares which bring us to bed, keep Company with us there, and become our alarms, to raise us in the Morning. Sic nec quietem sine labour mortales habent! Thus the very Rest which we take is a toil. O miserable condition of Mortality, when the relaxation of our Bodies is our Mindes exercise, when our recreations are a business: when our Vacation is a term: when our broken sleeps, and our Rest interrupted with thoughts, like the Intermissions of a fever, cannot properly bee termed an ease, but a less pain. But thus he gives his beloved sleep: This is the rest which even the Darlings of the World, and Lords of the Earth take here. I would it were not too true; That they often sleep worse, never better than thus. Nor will the numerous Cares, which like a wreathe of thorns impale their heads, and swarm within the circled of a crown, give them leave to expect more quiet, till they shall exchange their ivory Beds for a grave, their canopy of State for a Coffin, their Sheets for a Shrowd, their rich Mantles for a coverlet of Dust. Esay 26.20. Then they shall find a Chamber in Death will be a more quiet Dormitorie than a Palace; and( as job says) Glebae( so the Chaldee Paraphrase renders it) The clods of the valley shall bee sweet unto them. job 21.33. They shall rest softer vpon that could pillow of earth, than on a Bed of down. Therefore, Faeliciores mortui vivis, Eccles. 4.2. happier are those that Sleep in Death, than any that live. Reu. 14.13. For, They( saith the Spirit) rest from all their labours. Their perfect Peace is signed, when wee here in our War-fare cannot obtain a Inducias usque ad Mane. truce for the Night, nor will our Disturbances allow us quarter in our Beds: Nay scarcely in our last and lowest Beds, our Graues. Wherein( let me truly say) though wee enjoy a quiet Rest, compared to that wee had here, yet even that, compared to the Rest wee shall hereafter enjoy, when that Dies Refrigerij, Acts 3.19. Great day of refreshing is come; I say, that Rest which Death allows is imperfect; and the grave will appear rather a Resting place, than a Rest; As a traveler sits down to ease himself a little on the way, that he may be fresher to hold out the latter part of his journey. certainly, as, in the language of the schools, there is Beatitudo viae, a Beatitude on the way, before wee reach our country: so there is Requies viae, A rest by the way. And in that high Road of Nature, Death, is this seat, this Resting place erected, where though wee sit down, wee cannot stay: Though wee dispose ourselves to sleep there for a Time, that sleep is not our everlasting Rest. Though wee there Rest from our labours, Apoc. 14.13. wee do not Rest from our Hopes. Caro mea requiescit in spe. Wee still Rest in Hope. Psal. 16.9. And Hope is a watchful, sleepelesse quality, that will keep us waking, and knocks at the doors of our Graues, using the Call of Micah to raise us thence, Arise and depart, Mica. 2.10. for this is not your rest. That Hope solicits God for the re-vnion of the soul and the Body. And the soul, though after her separation admitted into the Presence of God, loth to partake that happiness without her body, hastens Gods coming, that shee may the sooner meet with her Companion again, Veni citò. revel. 22.20. And the body, though peacefully composed in the Dust, weary of the dark lodging and tedious Night which ouershadowes it, wishes for the Morning of the Resurrection, as earnestly as job did for the Dawning of the Day, job 7.4. When shall I arise, job 7.4. and the Night bee gone? Tis not enough then for us, Quiescere in place, to rest in our graues in Peace. Our Peace is not complete till wee shall Rest in glory; nor will our Faith bee satisfied, till it determine in Fruition, and wee are made partakers of that Beatitude, which yet we apprehended only in belief. Then our Rest shall bee perfect, when this Quies shall become Acquiescentia, an Acquiescence, which is the highest Degree of Rest; the Delight and Content which arises from the Contemplation and the possession of this Rest; when Christ shall say unto us, as the Prophet david does unto Him in the psalm, Arise and come into thy rest. Psal. 132.8. To finish all. Conclusion. The Rest which david in this Wish aims at, lies higher than the grave: heaven is the Resting place he means: and that celestial Rest in glory, which will succeed the Resurrection of the just, is the Period of Christian Faith. The attaining of this Rest shall be the End of my Flight and your Application. I shall persuade well, and you apply profitably, if wee rightly prepare ourselves for this Rest. As the Body hath preparatives to procure Rest; so hath the soul too; but the Ingredients are quiter different. Physitians of the Body use to prescribe Mandragora and drowsy Opium to call on sleep. But the Great physician of our souls hath in his gospel tempered our preparative to Rest, with active stirring Simples. The Cup he gives us is not a Calix soporis. Esa. 51.22. Cup of slumber, but of watchfulness, and the full Receipt, Vigilate& orate, To watch, and to pray here, Matth. 26.41. that wee may Rest hereafter. A sleeping heavy Christian like the drowsy Bridemaids in the gospel, may enjoy that mischief which david prays against, Psal. 13.3. sleep in Death, but never Rest in Life. To prevent which lethargy, and to lighten the soul of all impediments and dull obstructions, which may retard her Motion, 'tis fit before wee take our Flight hence, Psal. 39.13. and be no more seen, wee take an exact survey of the Conscience, Quò nullus hominum intrat, August. in Psal. 54. ubi nemo tecum est, ubi tu& Deus; which close Cabinet admits no scrutiny, no spectator but God,& ourselves: where if we find any weighty Crime that oppresses, or Secure sin that besots and stupefies the soul, that we endeavour to expel that could venom by the precious Antidote of Repentance; that wee disburden ourselves by Confession, and by a devour Sorrow throw out the dangerous lading. It was an Heathens advice; Seneca. Nemo cum sarcinis enatat, an encumbered Man cannot swim. If we adventure thorough the waters of Death, Natures Dead Sea, with such a Mill-stone hanging at our necks, as a mortal sin, wee must not hope to recover the safe shore, but drown everlastingly, and perish in that bottomless gulf. If wee hope to fly up to our final Rest, with such Manacles about us, as the violence of hands, or such shackles as the transgressions of our feet, swift to pursue all occasions of sin, how presumptuously do wee tempt God, and delude ourselves? When such a weight as Guilt, Zach. 5.7. or( in Zacharies phrase) such a Talent of led as sin depresses and holds us down, the powerful Wings of the cherubins shall never be able to lift us up from the Earth. Wee must therefore first shake off these Fetters, these chains, divest ourselves of this weight, and by applying the mercies of Christ to us, Psal. 55.22. Cast the heavy burden of our sins vpon him, who is willing to take them off vs. And then being alleuiated, lightened of our burden, and capable of Flight, the Prophet DAVID will fit us with Wings, The Wings of the dove. These Wings, saith Saint Ambrose, are good Conditions, Ambr. serm. 26. habitual virtues, Pennae nobis sunt boni mores: For this goodness must not be slight and superficial, and temporary, but Constant and lasting to the end, Id. lib. 3. de Virg. p. 32 Alarum remigium, non materialium compago pennarum, said continuus ordo bonorum factorum. They onely that continue to the end shall bee crwoned with this Rest. Or else these Wings are our Prayers, Genes. 28.12. that like the Angels in Iacobs vision Ascending and Descending, maintain our traffic with heaven: or( saith Saint Augustine) they are charity to those that want, and forgiveness of such as haue offended us; August. these( saith he) are a pair of Wings to convey us to heaven, Hae sunt duae alae orationis quibus volatur ad Deum, si illud quod committitur ignoscit delinquenti,& donat egenti. Or they are Repentance, which is the seal of our peace with GOD. Hieron. lib. 2. Ep. 10. ad Rustic. Assume pennas Columbae,& voles,& requiescas,& clementissimo reconcilieris Patri. In one word, these Wings are the qualities of the dove. mildness, and Simplicity, and Innocence, and Cleannesse, Properties that divide the rich blessings both of Earth and heaven; Matth. 5.5, 8. for the meek shall possess the Earth, and the clean in heart shall see GOD. A mildness which fury cannot exasperate, nor heighten to a Reuenge; but rather is content to suffer wrong, or to remit it, or by a secession desires to shun both the Person that did the injury, Ambr. lib. 1. offie. cap. 21. Lorin. in Bsa. 54. and all provocation of returning it together.( Which Saint Ambrose, and other Writers collect to haue been the intent of david in this avoidance of his unjust Enemies.) A Simplicity never adulterate or discoloured with hypocrisy: A pure white Innocence, never fullied with levity, nor bespotted with foul action. Rare and certain capacities to wing our souls, and to promote our flight into the Tabernacle of Rest. When the Psalmist asks the question, Psal. 15.1. Who shall abide in thy Tabernacle, or who shall dwell in thy holy Hill? The demand is answered punctually, he that hath clean Hands, Psal. 24.4. and a pure Heart. When wee are feathered with this happy Plume, when our Prayers haue obtained these graces from God to qualify our last Flight, which shall end in glory, and then with their advanced Wings beat at the Gates of heaven for Entrance, those everlasting doors shall open themselves wide to our Admission, and the King of glory, Christ himself vouchsafe to receive us, sealing unto us our eternal Quietus est, as he did to that poor Accountant in the gospel, Well done good and faithful seruant, Matth. 25.21. Enter thou into the Ioy of thy Lord. Amen. FINIS.