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<DATE>2012-10-16</DATE>
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<NAME>Colm MacCrossan</NAME>
<RESP>MURP</RESP>
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<ITEM>Proofed and reviewed.</ITEM>
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<VID>116244</VID>
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<DIV1 TYPE="title page">
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<P>ENGLANDS New-yeares Gift, <HI>OR,</HI> A Pearle for a Prince: WITH Such Grapes from Thornes, and Fruits from Foes, to the whole Land, as none &s;hall be wor&s;e for wrongs, nor hurt by any but them&s;elves, though the times &s;hould prove wor&s;e and wor&s;e.</P>
<Q><HI>Tolle &amp; lege.</HI> <BIBL>Augu&s;tinus.</BIBL></Q>
<Q><HI>Et experto crede</HI> <BIBL>Hieronimo <HI>ex Hibernia Redivivo.</HI></BIBL></Q>
<P><HI>LONDON,</HI> Printed by <HI>Robert Au&s;tin.</HI> 1648.</P>
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<DIV1 TYPE="to the reader">
<PB REF="2">
<HEAD>To every pa&s;sive Reader.</HEAD>
<L>TO all, who parallell me with their wrong'd &s;elves,</L>
<L>In two climes &s;horne, torn, &s;plit on rocks and &s;helves:</L>
<L>Be&s;t fruits from foes, this paper pre&s;ent &s;hewes,</L>
<L>From mine own bowells drawn, as Silkwormes Clewes:</L>
<L>Chiefe here my kindne&s;&s;e creeps, which cannot goe</L>
<L>To all my <HI>Brides</HI> firme Friends, from whom, my Foe,</L>
<L>Satan divorc'd me long: though love regaines</L>
<L>Spleens lo&s;&s;e, if Sectaries forbid not baines.</L>
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<DIV1 TYPE="text">
<PB N="1" REF="2">
<HEAD>Englands New-years-Gift, or a Pearle for a Prince.</HEAD>
<P>IT is reported of Doctor <HI>Ridley,</HI> a faith-&s;ealing Martyr, that the onely way to make him a mans friend, was to doe him an ill turne, at lea&s;t this was the way to gaine his prayers. Parallel to his practi&s;e was the Coun&s;ell, that M. <HI>Om&s;tead</HI> lately (a zealous Preacher in Ireland) gave to one that complained of &s;ome emulating &s;neaks, or &s;nakes of his owne Tribe, who had &s;tung him by detraction, and bit him with a dogged and Theonine tooth, that if he might advi&s;e him in this ca&s;e, he &s;hould pre&s;ent|ly goe to the Throne of Grace and powre out his &s;oule in prayer for him, as <HI>David</HI> put on &s;ackcloth and mourned for his enemies, even &s;uch as <HI>Saul Doeg</HI> and <HI>Achitophel;</HI> and this is all the revenge he would take on them, as the be&s;t way withall to doe him&s;elfe good, &s;ince to do evill for evill, this was Pagani&s;h and Bruti&s;h, one Dog, Wolfe and Fox tearing and de|vouring another: to doe good for good was carnall and naturall, <HI>manus manum fricat, &amp; mulus &s;cabit mulum,</HI> one hand rubs another, one &s;cabb'd mule knaps another, one good turne requires and requites another; to doe evill for good, as <HI>Judas</HI> did to Chri&s;t, and <HI>Laffin</HI> the fal&s;e friend to his Pa|tron the French <HI>Byron,</HI> and as &s;ome Favorites and Traytors to their Kings, bringing downe like Elder trees the walls in and by which they grew, as the Cuckow teares the kind hedge Sparrow who bred her and fed her, this is vile and viperous, yea diabolicall; but to good for evill, and to overcome evill with good, <HI>Rom.</HI> 12.21. this is truly Angelicall, the highe&s;t pitch of Chri&s;tianity, &s;ympathizing with <HI>Abraham,</HI> who prayed for <HI>Abi|melech</HI> that would have wronged him in his wife, <HI>Gen.</HI> 20. with the Prophet who&s;e prayer re&s;tored that withered hand of <HI>Jeroboams,</HI> which was &s;tretch|ed out again&s;t him, 1 <HI>King.</HI> 13. with <HI>Paul</HI> and <HI>Silas</HI> who improved their be&s;t to &s;ave the &s;oule of that cruell Jailor, who whipped and abu&s;ed their bodies, <HI>Act.</HI> 16. yea to Chri&s;t him&s;elfe, who healed the eare of <HI>Malchus,</HI> one of his riotous and rigorous apprehenders, <HI>Joh.</HI> 18.10. and in this ca&s;e of retaliating or remitting injuries, as <HI>Julius Cae&s;ar</HI> and <HI>Pyrrhus</HI> the Epirote, and many more which might be hi&s;torified, gained friends from foes, chief|ly the two <HI>Scipioes,</HI> A&s;ian and African, &s;o I would have it &s;eriou&s;ly poized, that as patience is the mo&s;t heroick fortitude, overcoming a mans &s;elfe
<PB N="2" REF="3">more then others, as <HI>fortius e&s;t qui &s;e, qu&agrave;m qui forti&s;&s;ima vincit,</HI> &s;o impa|tiency is the greate&s;t follie, yea a madne&s;&s;e fit to be whipped in Bedlam; for a man not to take his cro&s;&s;e quietly, and to bear it with <HI>Simon Cyreneus</HI> after Chri&s;t, but to make his Cro&s;&s;e heavier by his owne fretting, and fu|&s;tian fuming then it is in it own nature, as <HI>Thales</HI> his A&s;&s;e made her burden of wool heavier by laying her &s;elfe downe with it in the water, as before &s;he had melted her load of &s;alt lighter by the like po&s;ture, as if a man &s;hould give me a box on the one eare, I &s;hould give my &s;elfe a box on the other, or lay another load on my right &s;houlder, becau&s;e a heavy burden is impo&s;ed on my left; impatiency being &s;uch a &s;alve for every fore, as &s;oute, inke and tarre is to the wa&s;hing of a foule face to make it &s;eem faire, or as the cutting of the thumb or the toe is medicineable to the curing of the Gout.</P>
<P>But if by patience and penitence thou live like &s;ome fire-flies called <HI>Pyruu&s;tae,</HI> in brazen furnaces, in the heat of mo&s;t &s;corching cro&s;&s;es, and come out of them as gold out of the fire more pure, with the dro&s;&s;e and tin of thy hereditary corruptions more purged by the &s;pirit of fire and of burning, <HI>E&s;a.</HI> 4. then thy mo&s;t inte&s;tine and inveterate foes mu&s;t doe thee good whether they will or no, even &s;ore again&s;t their wills; like that Ro|man, who re&s;olving to kill his enemie in a Duell, by running his &s;word into his bre&s;t, &s;o cured him of an Impo&s;tume which he broke, that he made him a &s;ounder man then ever he was; as it is &s;aid of a bone, that after breaking is &s;oundly knit, proves &s;tronger then it was before; to this purpo&s;e of get|ting &s;ummer fruits from tempe&s;tuous and winter foes, (as <HI>Virgil</HI> gathered gold from <HI>Ennius</HI> his dro&s;&s;e, as <HI>Plato</HI> had a curb for his pride, by <HI>Diogenes</HI> trampling on his bed with greater pride, and as from the very oyle of Scorpions the Italians are &s;aid to re&s;erve Antidotes again&s;t the &s;tinging of Scorpions, and Surgeons to cure the bitings of mad Dogs, from the very livers of the &s;aid dead Dogs,) &s;o I heard of a patient and religious Gentle|man, that being unequally yoaked and pe&s;tered with a wife, little better then <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> his <HI>Zepporah, Socrates</HI> his <HI>Xantippe,</HI> or <HI>Jobs</HI> wife, (thought to be <HI>Dinah,</HI>) as &s;oon as ever her wa&s;pi&s;h and a&s;pi&s;h &s;pirit was &s;o conjured up, that &s;he gave him his broth all &s;calding hot, and &s;corched him with her tongues wild-fire, immediately he fled from her as from a Snake, and reti|red him&s;elfe into a wood or &s;olitary grove, where in his devout &s;oliloquies he powred out his &s;oule unto God in mentall and ejaculatory prayer; in this and the like patterns of imitation and vertuous emulation, <HI>quod cui|quam id cuivis,</HI> it is ea&s;ie for any man in the like ca&s;es or cro&s;&s;es, inriched with the like graces of prayer, patience, and penitence, to gather the like figs from thi&s;tles, the like ro&s;es of &s;weet refections from the briers, bram|bles,
<PB N="3" REF="3">and nettles of the like afflictions, the like golden fruits from the like cro&s;&s;e and cankred foes, more precious then any hi&s;torified or poetized fruits in the Gardens of <HI>Adonis,</HI> or the Orchards of the <HI>He&s;perides,</HI> kept &s;o &s;trictly by waking Dragons, or Gryphins, <HI>oh fortunati nimium &s;i &s;ua bona norint,</HI> happy are the patient in what kind &s;oever pa&s;&s;ive, all the waves that blu&s;ter again&s;t this rocke of patience, more excellent then all the white cliffie rocks in our Albion be&s;ides, however impetuous in the&s;e tumultu|ous and to&s;&s;ing times, they doe but da&s;h them&s;elves to &s;ome and froth, and wa&s;h it whiter, as the accu&s;ations of <HI>Potyphars</HI> wife, <HI>Phedra</HI> and the goati&s;h Judges did the innocency of <HI>Jo&s;eph</HI> of <HI>Hippolitus</HI> and <HI>Su&s;anna;</HI> the raging waves indeed, and wraths of Tyrants, and hell-hatched Hereticks may blu&s;ter again&s;t the out-&s;ide of the Church built on Chri&s;t the true Rock, as the &s;tormes beat again&s;t the out-walls of a hou&s;e, a Pallace, or a Temple, but they di&s;turb not nor di&s;tract not the Inhabitants or Sojour|ners within; the in&s;ides of Rocks are not penetrated by the mo&s;t roaring and &s;urging &s;eas, enemies indeed like &s;erpents and toads, and ravenous bea&s;ts, may <HI>manducare terram,</HI> lick this du&s;t of ours, feed as wolves on Carrion, on our outward mould, our terre&s;triall part; <HI>but ultra alam for|tunae,</HI> they hurt our &s;oules no more (if &s;anctified, anchored, and &s;etled in our pre&s;ent Fluctuations) then a &s;word or a &s;peare doth a &s;pirit or an An|gell, or the chop of an axe the beames of the Sun which &s;hine upon a blocke; now what great hurt is there in the cracking of a &s;hell, and the &s;aving of the kernell, in the lo&s;&s;e of a rotten pur&s;e, (emblemes of our bo|dies) the &s;oul, like pure gold being re&s;erved and pre&s;erved &s;afe.</P>
<P>When <HI>Zuinglius</HI> that zealous Belgick Light, received his deaths wound in the wars of the Quinque Pagi about Religion, his la&s;t words (as his <HI>ultimum vale</HI>) to the world were the&s;e, <HI>Corpus occidi pote&s;t animam occidere non po&s;&s;unt,</HI> my enemies can kill my body, but they cannot kill the &s;oule, this <HI>divinae, par|ticula aurae,</HI> this cele&s;tiall heavenly infu&s;ed &s;oule, as it is immateriall, &s;o it is no more penetrable by any terre&s;triall weapons then the Sun, the Moon, the Planets and the Angells and Intelligences which more them, this &s;oule is <HI>extra alam,</HI> beyond the power of Tyranny and Cruelty, a note above the Ela of humane ho&s;tilitie, <HI>tunde Anaxarchi Va&s;culum Anaxarchum non laedis,</HI> a <HI>Phalaris</HI> a <HI>Bu&s;iris,</HI> an <HI>Anacreon</HI> may knock in pieces the out-ve&s;&s;ell, the out-cask, the out-cabinet, the out-cage of the body, the continent of the &s;oule: but the &s;oule it &s;elfe which is in a manner <HI>totum hominis</HI> the whole man or the be&s;t of man, this inward wine they cannot tilt, this in|clo&s;ed Pearle of Pearles (better worth then a world) they cannot plunder, this Phoenix, this bird of Paradi&s;e, they cannot kill; though the lightning which we &s;ee, and the thunder that we heare breaking the inclo&s;ed clouds,
<PB N="4" REF="4">chiefly the conden&s;ate bolt oft breake the bones and the mettled &s;word without any great &s;ignalls on the fle&s;h or the &s;cabberd, according to <HI>Ari&s;to|tle</HI> and <HI>Seneca,</HI> yet when truculent Tyrants &s;peak <HI>lapides &amp; fulmina,</HI> &s;tones and fire-bolts, and lighten and thunder, as <HI>Jezabel</HI> once again&s;t <HI>Elias, Eu|doxia</HI> that &s;econd <HI>Herodias</HI> again&s;t S. <HI>Chri&s;o&s;tome, Innocent</HI> or <HI>Nocent</HI> the third again&s;t the Emperour <HI>Otho, Innocent</HI> the fourth again&s;t <HI>Fredericke, Gre|gory</HI> the &s;econd again&s;t <HI>Leo I&s;aurus, Zacharias</HI> again&s;t the French <HI>Childe|ricke, Pius</HI> (or <HI>Impius</HI>) <HI>Quintus</HI> again&s;t Queen <HI>Elizabeth;</HI> yet the&s;e <HI>Bruta Fulmina,</HI> as the French Authour derides them,<NOTE N="a" PLACE="marg">See the Booke called <HI>Bru|tum Fulmen.</HI></NOTE> and our <HI>Rof|fen&s;is</HI><NOTE N="b" PLACE="marg">Adver&s;us Bellarminum, pag. <HI>944.</HI> &amp; pag. <HI>974.</HI></NOTE>, the&s;e roaring Bulls of Ba&s;an, the&s;e &s;quibs and fire-workes, how ere like <HI>Davu&s;&s;es</HI> or Devills, they di&s;turbed the peace of their States and Kingdomes, as their Incendiaries and Fire-brands the Je&s;uits, have &s;et all in a Phaetonian confu&s;ion in <HI>Moravia, Helvetia, Sile&s;ia, Au|&s;tria, France, England, and Ireland:</HI> yet they wrought and brought no more prejudice to &s;anctified &s;oules then the cur&s;es of the Witch <HI>Balaam</HI> to Gods owne I&s;raelites, <HI>Numb.</HI> 23.19, 20. Hence it was a wi&s;e Con&s;olatory &s;peech of <HI>Augu&s;tus Cae&s;ar</HI> to his daughters <HI>Livia</HI> and <HI>Julia,</HI> telling him that all the people of Rome &s;poke evill of them, he thanking his Gods, that though they &s;poke evill of them, yet it was not in their power to doe them any evill,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Apud Plutarchum.</NOTE> and therefore wi&s;hed them to &s;uffer free &s;peech in a free Citie, which free &s;peech all the wit and worth of man, yea of Inno|cency it &s;elfe, can no more curb in malignant minds and mouthes, then they can &s;tay the winds, or &s;tint the waves, or &s;hackle the Helle&s;pont, or do &s;uch impo&s;&s;ible things, as once <HI>Xerxes</HI> and <HI>Canutus</HI> attempted, &s;ince Lions have been tamed, and Elephants in the warres of King <HI>Porus</HI> and <HI>Pyrrhus,</HI> Otters have been tamed like Water-Spaniels, Ravens have been tamed and lured as Hawks, Wolves and Foxes, wild and vild Dogs, have been tamed as hou&s;hold Curres, Quoy-ducks have been ta|med to deceive the tame; &s;o Storks, Cranes, Crowes<NOTE N="c" PLACE="marg">Ave Cae&s;ar.</NOTE>, Po|pinjayes, all kind of birds, and &s;ome kinds of Serpents and Fi&s;hes<NOTE N="d" PLACE="marg">See in&s;tan|ces in Corne|lins de Lapi de in cap. <HI>3.</HI> Jacobi.</NOTE>; but the tongue-like Panthers and Field-mice is in|domable without the help of <HI>Mors</HI> and <HI>Morpheus,</HI> death and deadly &s;leep: Angells men and Devills cannot tame it, the wild fire in it kindled from hell, <HI>Jam.</HI> 3.6. like the coales of Juniper, yea like hell-fire it &s;elfe unquenchable: the Inno|cencie of an <HI>Elias</HI> counted a troubler of I&s;rael, 1 <HI>King.</HI> 18.17. of <HI>Paul</HI> held a factious fellow, <HI>Act.</HI> 24.5. of <HI>Jo&s;eph</HI> of Hippolitus the
<PB N="5" REF="4">Pagani&s;h <HI>Jo&s;eph;</HI> of <HI>Su&s;anna,</HI> of <HI>Abner,</HI> of <HI>Eugenius,</HI> accu|&s;ed of incontinency, of <HI>Athana&s;ius</HI> called <HI>Sathana&s;ius,</HI> and taxed as a Murtherer<NOTE N="c" PLACE="marg">Apud Cen|tur. Magde|burg pa&s;&s;im.</NOTE> of <HI>Cato</HI> and <HI>Scipio,</HI> oft produced and traduced before the Romane Senate: of S. <HI>Jerome,</HI> branded by the Prie&s;ts of Rome<NOTE N="d" PLACE="marg">Of which he complains in many E|pi&s;tles.</NOTE> for his holy and hone&s;t conver&s;ing with <HI>Paula, Paulina, Eu&s;tochium, Demetriades</HI> and other cha&s;t Matrons and Maids, yea the purity of Chri&s;t him&s;elfe conver|&s;ing with Publicans and Sinners (as the Sun &s;hines upon Quagmires and rotten Bogs without any contamination) could cau&s;e none of the&s;e to e&s;cape the a&s;per&s;ions and calumnies of &s;can|dalizing tongues, no more then the Sun and the Moon can muzzle the barkings of &s;ome dogs again&s;t their lu&s;terous &s;hines, as <HI>Doegs</HI> and emula|lating <HI>Momi&s;ts</HI> and <HI>Zoili&s;ts</HI> &s;till will bark, <HI>invita Minerva,</HI> again&s;t &s;hining gifts and graces, and places among&s;t Arts and Armes, yet as we have a greater and more certaine tutelary God, then <HI>Augu&s;tus</HI> had, we may con|dignely thanke this God, that though in unbloudy per&s;ecutions we daily heare the mocks of Romi&s;h <HI>Michols,</HI> 2 <HI>Sam.</HI> 6.20. the railing of Athei&s;ticall and Papi&s;ticall <HI>Rab&s;hakehs,</HI> 2 <HI>King.</HI> 19.22. the flouts of rejected <HI>I&s;maels, Gen.</HI> 21.9. the cur&s;es of Sathanicall <HI>Shemcis,</HI> 2 <HI>Sam.</HI> 16. the &s;coffes of malig|nant <HI>Tobiahs, Nehem.</HI> 4.3. and <HI>Sanballats,</HI> all haters of God, of the godly and of all goodne&s;&s;e, all oppo&s;ers, Remoraes and ob&s;tacles of Religion and Reformation, all as inte&s;tine enemies to all of the hou&s;e of <HI>David, Zech.</HI> 12.8.9. all <HI>Ezekia&s;&s;es, Ezraes</HI> and <HI>Nehemiahs,</HI> who would rebuild and purge our polluted Temples, as ever <HI>Hanniball</HI> was unto the Romanes a &s;worne Antagoni&s;t; or <HI>Haman</HI> the cur&s;ed Amalekite to <HI>E&s;ther, Mardocheus</HI> and all the religious Jewes, yet <HI>Gratias &s;uperis,</HI> God be prai&s;ed, the&s;e whelps of <HI>Cerberus,</HI> though they barke and &s;hew their tongues and their teeth, they cannot bite further then God plea&s;es to unchaine them and un|muzzle them, and &s;et them upon us, for our playing the pranks of wild Heifers and indomable Bullocks, breaking over the hedges of all comman|ded and limited obedience into forbidden pa&s;tures, as <HI>David</HI> in his Adulte|ry, 2 <HI>Sam.</HI> 11.9. and <HI>Solomon</HI> in his uxorious Idolatry, for which God &s;et <HI>Ab&s;alom, Semei, Sheba</HI> and <HI>Ammon</HI> again&s;t the one, 2 <HI>Sam.</HI> 16. &amp; 13. &amp; cap. 20. and <HI>Rezon</HI> and <HI>Iereboam</HI> 1 <HI>King.</HI> 11.23. &amp; v. 26. again&s;t the other, all the Organs of evill to Sion, all the Factors and Agents for Antichri&s;t, for the Scarlet Whore, for the Prince of darkne&s;&s;e, chiefly in their unlawfull, lu&s;tfull, and unlimited warres again&s;t the Saints, all and every one of them are under the power and command of the King of Sion, the Father of the Saints, he hath all the malignant powers, plots and policies of earth and hell, even Witches, Conjurers, and infernall &s;pirits them&s;elves, all the &s;or|cering
<PB N="6" REF="5">Sorcering Ma&s;&s;e-Prie&s;ts and Friers of the Romi&s;h Hierarchie, and all the I|ri&s;h Nigromanticks at this day, the Lord of Ho&s;ts hath them all as Wolves and Dogs in their chaines, as Lions in their grates, as roaring Bulls at their &s;takes, and Bears at their rings, he keeps them all in as Seas and rivers with|in their banks and bounds, or lets them out as in the inundations in <HI>Duca|lions</HI> time, and in <HI>Noahs</HI> flood; he hath all created powers as &s;taves in his owne hands, as arrowes in his owne quiver, as <HI>David</HI> his &s;tones in his &s;ting, to keep in or imploy at his plea&s;ure: he being the true <HI>Aeolus</HI> who hath all the winds in a bag, all the waves in a bank, all the wicked Hereticks and Tyrants within and without the Church, hooked by their no&s;es, as he had <HI>Pharoah, Senacherib, Rab&s;hekch,</HI> 2. <HI>King.</HI> 19.27, 28. <HI>Holofernes, Antiochus, Epiphanes,</HI> proud <HI>Co&s;roes, Saul</HI> before his conver&s;ion, <HI>Act.</HI> 9. cap. 22. &amp; 26. and all &s;anginnolent per&s;ecutors in all times, letting them play their reaks and pranks &s;o long, till he got him&s;elfe a name upon them, either in the conver&s;ion of &s;ome few of them, or the confu&s;ion of the mo&s;t of them; when their &s;innes like the &s;innes of the Amorites <HI>Gen.</HI> 11.16. and Sodomites were at the full ripene&s;&s;e, and fit for the &s;ickle of de&s;erved vengeance, this then is the fir&s;t cordiall I give to the coro&s;ives of the Saints, the fir&s;t ground of comfort to our pre&s;ent mourners in Sion, <HI>Ezek.</HI> 9. the wicked which plow deep furrowes on our backs, God him&s;elfe yoakes them, they are but rods in the hands of our Father, but the Jailors and the Executio|ners of the will and decree of our Father Judge, as a moderne Divine &s;weet|ly alludes to God, they are but Gods Serjeants to arre&s;t us, for our undi&s;|charged debts, our unrepented &s;ins, they cannot hurt us more then a &s;word in the &s;cabberd, till it be drawne and laid on by a valiant Martiali&s;t, being of it &s;elfe a dead in&s;trument without a living hand to weild it; as indeed the creature of it &s;elfe, whether animate or manimate, can doe us neither good nor hurt, without the re&s;training or mannaging of the Creator, as Doctor <HI>Pre&s;ton</HI> hath lively demon&s;trated as an experimentall Divine, in his golden work of Gods All-&s;ufficiency: and I have fully explained in the Book called <HI>the Arraignement of the Creature:</HI> And indeed this is a wonder|full ground of comfort to all that by the &s;pirit can cry <HI>Abba</HI> Father, <HI>Rom.</HI> 8.15. that their cro&s;&s;es come from a Father, not from a &s;evere Judge, that they are but love-tokens from the Bridegroom to his Spou&s;e, <HI>Rev,</HI> 3.19. hea|ling pills from a Phy&s;itian, ca&s;tigating rods and ferulaes in in the hand of a Father, <HI>Heb.</HI> 12.5, 6, 7. as Queen <HI>Elizabeth</HI> &s;aid once in &s;ome reall or imagi|nary Delinquencies of her heroick <HI>E&s;&s;ex, ad correctionem non ad ruinam,</HI> to correction not to de&s;truction; as Gods &s;courges were &s;o Idolatrizing and Adulterizing <HI>Solomon,</HI> whom though he afflicted in the revolt of ten Tribes, and in excited enemies, 1 <HI>King.</HI> 11. yet he rejected not, he tooke
<PB N="7" REF="5">not his mercy from him as from <HI>Saul</HI> the Reprobate, 2 <HI>Sam.</HI> 7.14. 1 <HI>Sam.</HI> 16.1.14. Oh, this is indeed <HI>Oleum vulneris latificans Galeni, mell in ore melos in aure,</HI> as the phra&s;es be melodie to the eare, mu&s;ick to the mind, and ho|ny to the heart, yea as <HI>Ro&s;a Solis</HI> and <HI>Aqua vitae</HI> to our dead &s;ownes and fainting &s;pirits, that though we be whipped for extraordinary &s;innes and rebellions with &s;harp rods, even as it were of wire and knotted cords, not with ordinary willowes and birches, as in former times, that yet not|with&s;tanding a whipping Father is a Father, and purpo&s;es to be&s;tow his in|heritance upon his crying Child if as penitent as peccant: he takes not a &s;word to run him through, nor a Dagge to pi&s;toll him when he is pro&s;trate on his knees imploring mercy, like the Go&s;pells relenting prodigall, with a mouth of confe&s;&s;ion and teares of contri|tion, extracted by the heat and fire of love from the Limbeck<NOTE N="a" PLACE="marg">Few fathers prove Tyrants to their owne children, like the Romane <HI>Manlius,</HI> and <HI>Brutus,</HI> or as once <HI>Mana&s;&s;es</HI> was before his conver&s;ion, and the Jewi&s;h <HI>Saul</HI> to his <HI>Jona|than,</HI> whom he would have executed.</NOTE> of a heart full of compunction, <HI>Luk.</HI> 15.17, 18, 19. Oh <HI>pau|lulum &s;upplicii &s;atis est patri,</HI> a little puni&s;h|ment is enough for a father, as we may &s;ee in the pa&s;&s;ages betwixt <HI>David</HI> and <HI>Ab|&s;alom,</HI> 2 Sam. 14.21. &amp; cap. 18.33. the be&s;t Father and the wor&s;t child: all the water of the Sea will not wa&s;h away the love of a Father, it is as &s;trong as death, even when he frownes outwardly, he favours inwardly, as <HI>Jo&s;eph</HI> did his Brethren, when he &s;poke roughly to them, <HI>Gen.</HI> 42.6. <HI>aequa tamen &s;emper mens e&s;t &amp; amica voluntas:</HI> Oh &s;uck this refre&s;hing hony, as a &s;econd <HI>Jonathan,</HI> in thy faintings in the wil|derne&s;&s;e of thy woes, that though the evill of &s;in this <HI>malum culpae</HI> be from Satan and thy &s;elfe, yet this <HI>malum paenae,</HI> the evill of puni&s;hment is from God, <HI>Amos</HI> 3.6. &amp; cap. 2.4. <HI>per totum,</HI> puni&s;hment doe I call it? I thinke I mu&s;t recant the phra&s;e, for though we read of the plagues of <HI>Aegypt,</HI> of <HI>Sodome,</HI> of <HI>Moab,</HI> of <HI>Edom,</HI> of <HI>Dama&s;cus,</HI> of <HI>A&s;hur,</HI> of <HI>Gaza,</HI> of <HI>Teman,</HI> of <HI>Ammon,</HI> and of <HI>Tire, Amos</HI> 1. <HI>per totum,</HI> yet Divines di&s;like the phra&s;e of puni&s;hment ever to be inflicted on the Church of God, or any living members of the Church, the puni&s;hment of the &s;ins of all believers being already and at all times laid upon Chri&s;t the true <HI>Atlas</HI> who hath borne the burthen of his Fathers wrath, paid the ran&s;ome of his brethren, di&s;char|ged all their debts, cancelled all their bonds, and given them their <HI>quietut e&s;t</HI> and Acquittance out of the Chancery or Exchequer of mercy, though they were cleane ca&s;t by <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> and his infringed Law at the Kings Bench of Ju&s;tice, <HI>E&s;ay</HI> 53.4, 5, 6. <HI>Rom.</HI> 3. v. 19, 20, 24, 25. cap. 5.1. &amp; <HI>Ephe.</HI> 2. <HI>per totum,</HI> and in this re&s;pect it being unju&s;t with the Judge of heaven and
<PB N="8" REF="6">earth, <HI>Gen.</HI> 18.25. to do ought but right, in craving a debt twice to be paid by the principall, when it is paid by the &s;uerty, 1 <HI>Joh</HI> 1.9. the &s;oule married and e&s;pou&s;ed to Chri&s;t by faith, <HI>Ho&s;.</HI> 2.19. <HI>Eph.</HI> 5.25. being now as under covert Baron, not liable to the debts and the arre&s;ts of her widdow-hood, when &s;he was e&s;tranged from Chri&s;t, <HI>Eph.</HI> 2.12. Chri&s;t her husband being liable unto them, who hath &s;atisfied and paid them by his blood, <HI>Eph.</HI> 1.7. 1 <HI>Pet.</HI> 1.18. even <HI>eo nomine</HI> in this very ca&s;e, the child of God being freed both from the guilt and puni&s;hment of his &s;inne in life, and death, and judgement, whatever happens to him, being not in the nature of a puni&s;hment from a &s;terne <HI>Aeacus, Minos, Radamanthus,</HI> or an <HI>Orbilius Fla|gellator,</HI> or a <HI>Dioni&s;ius in &s;chola,</HI> a &s;evere Tyrant, an inraged Schoolema&s;ter, but a ca&s;tigation from a Father, <HI>non quod odio habet &s;ed quod amat,</HI> not out of hatred, but out of love, what a motive is this to drinke patiently, as Chri&s;t his Ma&s;ter before him, <HI>Mat.</HI> 26.39. and <HI>Job. Iob.</HI> 5.11. and <HI>Ezekias, E&s;a.</HI> 39.8. and <HI>David, P&s;al.</HI> 39.9. and old <HI>Eli,</HI> 1 <HI>Sam.</HI> 3.18. and all the Martyrs <HI>Iam.</HI> 5. v. 10. and Confe&s;&s;ors, the Phy&s;icall cup his Father hath prepared for him, though very bitter, in the divine providence &s;o much the better; if another man equall to thy &s;elfe, or inferiour, yea if &s;uperiour, hit thee a blow on thy eare, or &s;purn thee with his foot, perhaps thou art moved, and wa&s;pi&s;h, even a <HI>Micah</HI> or a <HI>Paul</HI> him&s;elfe, &s;uffering <HI>humani aliquid,</HI> &s;ome reluctance, to be unju&s;tly beaten by a <HI>Zedekias,</HI> a fal&s;e Prophet, a Prelaticall <HI>Anani|as,</HI> a painted wall, 1 King. 22.24. <HI>Act.</HI> 23.2, 3. or to be &s;courged unju&s;tly by a Governour, <HI>Act.</HI> 22. v. 25. but put the ca&s;e that thy King, thy Leige So|veraigne, or thy naturall and affectionate Father give thee a blow or two, (chiefliy upon thy demerits) wilt thou grudge? wilt thou grumble like a cur&s;t Cur? whil&s;t thou as a whipped dog fly in thy Fathers face? &s;ure|in this ca&s;e of muttering, murmuring, impatiency, like the carnall I&s;raelites, again&s;t God, again&s;t <HI>Mo&s;es,</HI> again&s;t <HI>Aaron, Exod.</HI> 16.2, 3. cap. 17.2. <HI>Num.</HI> 21.5. in every cro&s;&s;e and lo&s;&s;e that hath befallen thee in thy pa&s;t or pre&s;ent pre&s;&s;ures, thou &s;hewe&s;t thy &s;elfe not a mournfull dove, but a hi&s;&s;ing Snake, yea a &s;tinging Serpent, not a patient plundered &s;heep, but a gruntling Hog, a tusk-whetting Bore, when the hand of heaven toucheth thee, chief|ly if Satan enter &s;o farre into thee, as he did into <HI>Iudas, Ioh.</HI> 13.27. and into <HI>Ananias, Act.</HI> 5.3. and into <HI>Elimas</HI> the Sorcerer, <HI>Act.</HI> 13.10. and into <HI>Edens</HI> Serpent, <HI>Gen.</HI> 3.1. and into the Pithoni&s;t or Ventriloqui&s;t at Philippos, <HI>Act.</HI> 16.16. as &s;till he &s;peaks in &s;educing Friers and Je&s;uites, in bla&s;pheming Hereticks, and in all cur&s;ing and accur&s;ed &s;wearers, that in&s;tead of ble&s;&s;ing God in thy cro&s;&s;es, in thy lo&s;&s;es by the plundering Caldeans, or Papall Babiloni|ans, as <HI>Iob</HI> ble&s;t God in his greate&s;t exigents, <HI>Iob.</HI> 1.20, 21. thou rave and rage like a Bedlam, &s;et thy mouth again&s;t heaven, like <HI>Homers</HI> Centaures to
<PB N="9" REF="6">&s;ight with <HI>Iupiter,</HI> cur&s;e thy Creator, in the devilli&s;h Dialect of <HI>Iobs</HI> wife, bla&s;pheme thy Redeemer in tearing againe, wor&s;e then the Jewes on the Cro&s;&s;e his heart, wounds, bloud, as a Dog doth a harmele&s;&s;e Hare, and a Wolfe an innocent Lambe. In this ca&s;e thou ha&s;t a &s;oule as blacke as pitch, &s;tinking and &s;ulphurious. I &s;ay of thee, as <HI>Simon Peter</HI> &s;aid of <HI>Simon Magus, Act.</HI> 8.23. thou art in the gall of bitterne&s;&s;e, and in the bond of iniquitie, in the very &s;nare of the Devill, 2 <HI>Tim.</HI> 2.26. yea his &s;ympathizing &s;onne, <HI>Ioh.</HI> 8.34. he bla&s;pheming God in hell, or in the aire where ere he carries his hell about him, and thou on earth, like a Dutch|man, a French-man, a Spaniard, or an Italian, thou may be known by thy Tongue, to what Countrey thou belonge&s;t, even to the lower and infernall Regions, to the reall <HI>Styx, Tartaerus,</HI> and <HI>Flegeton,</HI> thy very &s;peech be|wrayes thee, <HI>Mat.</HI> 26.37. were Satan on earth, in the forme of a man, or <HI>Caine, Iudas, Achitophel, Iulian</HI> the Apo&s;tate, <HI>Porphiry, Libanius, Hacket, Kett, Michael, Servetus, Dio&s;corus, Ne&s;torius, Arrius,</HI> here againe returned out of hell, they would bring their hell-fired tongues with them, and bla&s;pheme ju&s;t as thou bla&s;pheme&s;t, they would be (as birds of a feather) fit companions and comrades with all God-dam-mees, and Roarers, who&s;e mouthes like Butchers dogs, are bloudy with bloudy oathes, <HI>Herod</HI> and <HI>Pi|late, Ahab</HI> and <HI>Iezabel, Simeon</HI> and <HI>Levi,</HI> the Athei&s;t and the Papi&s;t, the Caldean and the Sabaean never agreed better now or heretofore in any mi&s;chiefe plotted or performed, then thou, both in thy mouth and in thy minde, would con&s;ort with &s;uch Sathanicall &s;ympathizers with thy helli&s;h humours: Oh this cour&s;e, this carriage, is not to ki&s;&s;e thy Fathers rod, like a dutifull, a patient, a penitent, a &s;ubmi&s;&s;ive Child, but to &s;nuffe up the wind like an Onager or wild A&s;&s;e, yea to kick and &s;purn (like <HI>Ie&s;urum,</HI> Deu. 32.15.) with the heel, as a Mule, when God would catch thee, as we catch wild Colts, in a &s;trait, in a lane, or betwixt thorny hedges, as <HI>Iudah</HI> catched <HI>Adonizebek, Iudg.</HI> 1.4. and the A&s;&s;yrians <HI>Mana&s;&s;es</HI> among&s;t the thornes, 2 <HI>Chron.</HI> 33.11. this &s;hewes thou art (as M. <HI>Deering</HI> once u&s;ed the phra&s;e at the Court) not <HI>tanquam ovis,</HI> as a &s;heep &s;ilent before the &s;hearer, <HI>E&s;a.</HI> 53.7. who never bleats when the Butchers knife is at the throat, but <HI>indomita juvenca,</HI> an un|tamed Bullock, bellowing when <HI>Sauls Doegs</HI> or Dogs be about thine eares: I tell thee <HI>Siboleth</HI> and <HI>Shiboleth</HI> did not more clearely di&s;tingui&s;h an E|phraimite from a Gileadite, <HI>Iudg.</HI> 12.6, 7. or the fire doth not more di&s;tin|gui&s;h gold from dro&s;&s;e, or the touch-&s;tone gold and pure &s;ilver from coun|terfeit and adulterate metalls, then patience and impatiency, ble&s;&s;ing or bla&s;pheming, the language of Canaan and the language of <HI>A&s;hdod;</HI> &s;hew thy heart (thy mouths fountaine) to be carnall or &s;pirituall, degenerate
<PB N="10" REF="7">or regenerate, the habitation of Chri&s;t, 1 <HI>Cor.</HI> 13.5. <HI>Eph.</HI> 3.17, or a den of Devills, a cage of Scorpions and a ne&s;t of uncleane Birds, <HI>Mat.</HI> 15.19. yea, I &s;ay, the blew &s;pots nor the Carbuncle broke out, doe not more &s;hew the plague, nor the white &s;pots the Lepro&s;ie of a <HI>Gehezi,</HI> a <HI>Miriam,</HI> a <HI>Naaman,</HI> nor a &s;tinking breath demon&s;trates not more infected lungs, nor the red ploukes and rubies in the face and no&s;e of a Drunkard, te&s;tifie not more plainely a too much heated and inflamed Liver, then oaths, cur&s;es, and bla&s;phemies demon&s;trate a rotten, an ulcerous, a poi&s;oned and a pollu|ted heart.</P>
<P>Oh, looke to it! thou &s;ai&s;t it is thy nature, to cur&s;e, and &s;weare, and tear when thou art aba&s;ed, abu&s;ed, wronged or exa&s;perated, thou art of a hot and cholerick di&s;po&s;ition (&s;o indeed are all Serpents which make them by a kind of Antipathie with the moi&s;ture of the &s;oils, to die as &s;oon as ever they are brought into the I&s;lands of Gaulon in Creet, or into the Northerne Lap|ponia, or to Ebu&s;us, or Sardinia,<NOTE N="a" PLACE="marg">Apud Aelianum lib. <HI>5.</HI> Hi&s;t. c. <HI>2</HI> cum Solino, cap. <HI>9.</HI> cap. <HI>25.</HI> cap. <HI>31.</HI> &amp; Mela, lib. <HI>2.</HI> ca. <HI>5.</HI></NOTE> as well as they died in Ireland, for the &s;ame cau&s;e, ere ever S. <HI>Patrick</HI> was born) then, thou hot &s;pawne of the old Serpent know this, that in this plea of nature, thou &s;hewe&s;t there is in thee little grace, rectifying, ruling, conquering, curbing, cruci|fying nature, with all naturall lu&s;ts, affections and infections, Gal. 5.24. alas! if there be in thee nought but uncleane and polluted nature by gene|ration, without regeneration by grace, in thee new birth, the true birth, thou &s;halt (dying in that polluted e&s;tate) come to heaven, when the Devill and the damned come out of hell, Joh. 3.6. 1 Cor. 15.50. Rev. 21.8. &amp; 27.</P>
<P>Be&s;ides to bru&s;h downe the Cobweb lawnes of this excu&s;e, and to &s;hew thee the weakne&s;&s;e of this poore paper cloake, to keep off the &s;howers and the &s;tormes of de&s;erved vengeance, may not a Dog as well as thou plead, it is his nature to bark, to bite at &s;trangers, to worry &s;heep; the Wolfe, (yea the Iri&s;h Wolfe called Rebell) that it is his nature to devoure our En|gli&s;h Lambs? the Hog, that it's his nature to gruntle, to de&s;pi&s;e Pearles? the A&s;&s;e to bray? the Lion to roare? the Hor&s;e-leach to &s;uck bloud like a biting U&s;urer? the Scarabean Flea, like a Lecher, to delight in filth and dunghills? the drunken Ape and the Monkey to de&s;ire &s;trong liquids? the &s;ilent Serpent <HI>Dip&s;as,</HI> like the poy&s;oning whi&s;perer and caluminator, &s;ecret|ly to &s;ting? the Turky-cock like an open railer, to blu&s;ter? the hou&s;e Cur like a dogged detracter to bite at the be&s;t, if they feed him not with cru&s;ts? the Parrot, like a trencher Para&s;ite and a Buffon, to prate for an Almond? the Swan and the Peacock like a fauta&s;tick to be proud of their plumes,
<PB N="11" REF="7">without ever looking at their foule and black feet? and &s;o the re&s;t of bea&s;ts &s;ympathizing with gracele&s;&s;e men, in name, natures, and nurtures, 2 Pet. 2.12. Tit. 1.12. may plead nature for their wor&s;t properties mo&s;t prejudiciall unto man, as well as naturall men for their belluine and bru|tizing conditions, poetized by <HI>Ovid</HI> to be turned into bea&s;ts. But let me expo&s;tulate with thee a little further, what gette&s;t thou by thy impatient imprecations or execrations? (which thou maye&s;t as well &s;pare as dirt from thy nailes, or &s;moke from thy chimney) they gaine thee not &s;o much as a &s;hooe latchet; nay, (like jealou&s;ie and gnawing envy) they are their owne plagues, cau&s;ele&s;&s;e cur&s;es like balls throwne up into the aire, light pat on thine owne pate; thou hurte&s;t none by them but thy &s;elfe, like &s;quibs they fla&s;h and crack, and &s;end their &s;tink in thy owne no&s;e: the ball thrown again&s;t a wall hurts not the wall, no more then the waves which da&s;h a|gain&s;t the rock hurt the rock, but breake them&s;elves to froath and foame: in raging again&s;t God or man thou kicke&s;t again&s;t an Iron prick, and the Iron enters into thy owne &s;oule, Acts 9.6. thou roa&s;ts at thy owne fire, and hurts thy fretting furious &s;elfe: be&s;ides impatiency in a cro&s;&s;e cures it, as mire and &s;oot wa&s;h thy face fowler and fowler, what is it but as Mercury to a green wound more to fret it? yea, as the hor&s;e in a quagmire, a bird in the limebu&s;h, and the rabbet in the Warreners net; the more the impa|tient madcap &s;trives and &s;truggles, the more he intangles him&s;elfe; if he belongs unto God, he will make him quiet for all his plunging: if he be his Child by adoption, he will u&s;e more rods, and lay them on more &s;ound|ly, but he will ere he have done with him, make him as calme as a Lambe, and as meek as a Dove: when Gods winds of wrath begin to blow and blu&s;ter again&s;t any &s;oule, he will either make it bow by humiliation, like a yeelding reed, as did <HI>David,</HI> P&s;a. 6.5, 6. <HI>Ezekias,</HI> 2 Chron. 32.24, 25, 26. <HI>Ma|na&s;&s;es,</HI> 2 Chron. 33.11, 12. and oft repenring I&s;rael, Judg. 2.5.6.7. 1 Sam. 7.6.7. Judg. 3.9. or he will blow it downe as a &s;terne and &s;tubborne Oake, by an utter rooting out and &s;ubver&s;ion, as he did <HI>Pharoah,</HI> Exod. 14.27. <HI>A|hab,</HI> 1 King. 22. <HI>Jeroboam,</HI> and <HI>Jeconiah,</HI> buried (like many now) with the buriall of an A&s;&s;e, with millions more in all ages, 1 King. 3, 34.</P>
<P>Be&s;ides, I &s;ay unto thee, in thy cur&s;es and execrations again&s;t this Malig|nant and that Round-head, in City, Court, or Camp, or &s;ound head, as our turbulent times have made the unhappy di&s;tinctions, as once betwixt the Guelphs and Gibellines in Italy, betwixt the Aurelians and Burgundians in France, and betwixt the Lanca&s;trians, and tho&s;e of the hou&s;e of Yorke in England; as once God &s;aid to <HI>Rab&s;hakeh</HI> and <HI>Senecharib,</HI> whom ha&s;t thou reproached and bla&s;phemed? and again&s;t whom ha&s;t thou exalted thy voice, even again&s;t the holy one of I&s;rael, 2 King. 19.21. again&s;t whom
<PB N="12" REF="8">do&s;t thou ca&s;t thy &s;quibs and darts and fire-brands? again&s;t whom (like an Armenian Dragon) do&s;t thou &s;pit fire? thou &s;aie&s;t again&s;t man, a weake worme like thy &s;elf, I tell thee, nay, it is again&s;t God, as I have before made it plaine, who now hath &s;et man again&s;t thee, as his rod to whip to &s;courge thee, as he calls the King of A&s;hur, his rod again&s;t I&s;rael, even the rod of his anger in the hand of his indignation, I&s;ai. 10.5. as <HI>Attilas</HI> the cruell Goth, called him&s;elfe <HI>Flagellum Dei,</HI> the whip of God to &s;courge the world, as <HI>Tamberlane</HI> was but Gods rod again&s;t <HI>Bajazet:</HI> the Turke, and as the Turk in his conque&s;ts of Cyprus, Rhodes, Famagu&s;ta, Con&s;tantinople, Malta, and in his inroads &s;till into Hungary, Tran&s;ilvania, Dalmatia, Cracovia, and lately into &s;ome Sea coa&s;ts in Ireland, hath been and &s;till is Gods rod and &s;courge to Idolatrous, Adulterous, bloudy, cruell, extorting, proud, drunken, prophane, and hypocriticall Chri&s;tendome, to apo&s;tatizing Europaeans from their fir&s;t faith, as well as the Romans now in &s;ome points, and as the Mahumetanized Churches of A&s;ia, once planted by the Apo&s;tles: &s;o what are the Imperiali&s;ts and Au&s;trians now, but the rod of angry <HI>Neme&s;is</HI> again&s;t Germany, and the Palatinate for their con|tempt of the Go&s;pel, chiefly for their over&s;preading painted Popery called Arminiani&s;me, and &s;o what is the confederacy now of <HI>Ephraim</HI> and <HI>Ma|na&s;&s;es,</HI> again&s;t <HI>Judah,</HI> our Hibernified Athei&s;ts, Papi&s;ts, Carnalli&s;ts, with I|ri&s;h Caniballs, &s;poiling the goods and &s;ucking the blouds of many true-hearted <HI>Naboths</HI> and <HI>Nathanaels:</HI> what are the&s;e but Gods rods up|on us to correct our long forborne Delinquencies now vi&s;ited in Gods great Audit or Correction day, Jer. 9.6, 10. yea one of us fighting again&s;t another of the &s;ame Religion and Profe&s;&s;ion, as many heads of the Serpent <HI>Amphi&s;bena</HI> are &s;aid to fight one with another, as we lately (like the Midia|nites in Gideons time, Judg. 7.22. again&s;t the Midianites, the Ammonites, and Moabites in <HI>Jeho&s;aphats</HI> time, again&s;t the Syrians, 2 Chron. 20.23. as the &s;ervants of <HI>Abner</HI> and of <HI>Ioab</HI> in <HI>Davids</HI> time, 2 Sam. 2.15, 16.) &s;heathing our &s;words in the bowells one of another, as it is writ of <HI>Cadmus</HI> his bre|thren, and of <HI>Brennus</HI> and <HI>Brentius, Polinices</HI> and <HI>Eteocles, Romulus</HI> and <HI>Re|mus,</HI> one of us de&s;troying another, like Bees in a Hive, in a bloudy faction, not Bees again&s;t Church-Drones, and State-Catterpillers at home, or a|gain&s;t Romi&s;h Wa&s;ps and A&s;ps at home and abroad; what are the&s;e but rods in Gods hand, by which in his ju&s;t &amp; un&s;earchable ju&s;tice, he makes us to whip and &s;courge one another more bloodily then the Iewes once &s;courged S. <HI>Paul,</HI> 2 Cor. 11.14. or then the Monks of <HI>Bangor</HI> whipped once poore King <HI>Iohn;</HI> the re&s;ult of all is, when any man is an in&s;trument to doe us a|ny good, as <HI>Obadiah</HI> to a hundred poor Prophets, 1 King. 18.13. and <HI>David</HI> to lame <HI>Mephibo&s;eth,</HI> 2 Sam. 9. and the good Ethiopian <HI>Ebedmelech</HI> to
<PB N="13" REF="8"><HI>Ieremy,</HI> Ier. 38.7, 8. <HI>Paul</HI> to <HI>One&s;imus,</HI> and <HI>Philip</HI> to the noble <HI>Eunuch,</HI> Act. 8.36.37. &s;uch a man is unto us a rod of beauty in Gods right hand, <HI>Zech.</HI> 11.10. when any doth unto us any damage and detriment, either in plunde|ring our goods, as Caldeans to <HI>Job</HI> 1.17. or &s;hedding our bloods, as <HI>Caine</HI> did <HI>Abells,</HI> Gen. 4. or impri&s;oning our bodies, as the Philippian Magi&s;trates did <HI>Paul</HI> and <HI>Silas,</HI> Act. 16. or &s;miting us, as <HI>Pa&s;hur</HI> the Prelate did <HI>Jere|remy,</HI> Jer. 20.2. or doing us much evill, as <HI>Alexander</HI> the Copper-&s;mith did <HI>Paul,</HI> 2 Tim. 4.14. in the&s;e ca&s;es and the like, man is unto us (as he is called in <HI>Zachary,</HI>) a rod of hands in Gods hands, yea how ever man is to man, <HI>homo homini Deus, aut demon aut lupus,</HI> a God, a Devill, or a Wolfe, though in &s;heeps cloathing, whether a <HI>Jonathan,</HI> a <HI>Ioab,</HI> or a <HI>Iudas,</HI> he is but an in|&s;trument of God to plague man, or to plea&s;ure man, God him&s;elfe &s;etting even Kings them&s;elves over men good or bad in ju&s;tice or mercy for his owne &s;ecret ends; the &s;ame God (if we believe S. <HI>Augu&s;tine</HI>) who gave <HI>Augu&s;tus Trajan, Adrian,</HI> and good Emperours, Fathers of their Countries, giving al&s;o <HI>Nero, Caligula, Decius, Domitian,</HI> and other truculent Tyrants: <HI>David</HI> was &s;o &s;en&s;ible of this truth, that when <HI>Shemei</HI> reviled him, he at|tributed to God the &s;etting this Bandog upon him, 2 Sam. 6.10. &s;o <HI>Job</HI> at|tributes his plunderings not to the Sabeans, the in&s;truments, but to Gods permi&s;&s;ive providence, giving and taking Goods from him, Job 1.21. and <HI>Jo&s;eph</HI> a&s;cribes his &s;elling and &s;ending into Egypt not &s;o much to his bre|thren as to God him&s;elfe, Gen 45. v. 5. yea what&s;oever <HI>Herod</HI> and <HI>Pilate,</HI> and the Jewe and the Gentiles, and <HI>Judas</HI> did to Chri&s;t in his crucifying, the Apo&s;tles attribute it to the Coun&s;ell and Decree of God, Act. 4.26, 27. <HI>Judas</HI> acting in the death of Chri&s;t out of covetou&s;ne&s;&s;e, Luk. 22.5. the Pha|ri&s;ees out of envy, Mar. 15.10. <HI>Pilate</HI> out of ba&s;e and &s;ervile feare to di&s;|plea&s;e <HI>Cae&s;ar,</HI> and the Jewes, Mar. 15. v. 15. but God wrought in all the&s;e permi&s;&s;ively and di&s;po&s;itively, to the glory of his mercy and ju&s;tice, to the redemption of his elected one, Col. 1.14. the obduration of the repro|bates, the ri&s;ing and falling of many in I&s;rael, Luk. 2.34. as I have reflexed fully on this point in my <HI>Origens</HI> repentance.</P>
<P>The&s;e premi&s;es con&s;idered, thou never looking up to God in thy pre&s;ent lo&s;&s;es, cro&s;&s;es, pre&s;&s;ures, plunderings, the chiefe efficient cau&s;e, Iam. 3.38. not to thy owne unrepented &s;innus, the meritorious and de&s;erving cau&s;e, 1 Sam. 12.18.19. Iam. 3.39. but meerly unto man the in&s;trumentall cau&s;e, like a Swine, who hath eyes onely to look downeward to the earth, but never upwards to heaven, looking upon the creature with the eyes of car|nall rea&s;on, without the Creator, thou art inraged again&s;t this man and that man, thy heart ri&s;eth at him, as at an Incendiary object, as Turky-cocks and Unicornes be inraged at the &s;ight of red Stammell, and as Bullocks
<PB N="14" REF="9">bellow at the &s;ent or &s;ight of blood; hence thou goare&s;t thy enemy in the &s;ides, thou teare&s;t him with thy tongue, as a cha&s;ed Hor&s;e or Boare, thou ca&s;ts thy &s;cums and froths upon him, and art as much exa&s;perated again&s;t him, as the Romanes again&s;t <HI>Ca&s;&s;ius, Brutus,</HI> and <HI>Dolobella,</HI> when they &s;aw the bloudy garments of &s;tabbed <HI>Cae&s;ar.</HI></P>
<P>In the&s;e mad po&s;tures of thine acting the parts of a &s;econd mad <HI>Ajax</HI> again&s;t <HI>Vli&s;&s;es,</HI> or of <HI>Hercules, Furens,</HI> or <HI>Ore&s;tes,</HI> in the Tragedians, again&s;t meer man, never looking up to God nor into thy &s;elfe; what do&s;t thou but like a te&s;ty dog which runs after a &s;tone throwne at him, which he bites and &s;narles, never looking at the hand that throwes it, as if a foole &s;hould breake an arrow all to fitters which hits him and hurts him, wreaking his wrath on it (as the fabled Weazle to her owne burning, bit the hot yron which fell upon her foot) never looking to the arme which drew the bow and &s;hot it; as &s;ome gracele&s;&s;e Fellons and their friends as I have &s;een, throw &s;tones at the Hang-man and cur&s;e the Executioner, never con|&s;idering that it is the Judge, the Law, and their owne demerits and fello|nies which execute them, the poore hang-man doth but his office: thou in this ca&s;e that rage&s;t again&s;t thy foes, thy formall friends, plunderers, yea, again&s;t Committees, Excize men, Seque&s;trators and the like, licking their owne fingers, and feathering thou thinke&s;t their own wings, (&s;ome of them as receivers, deceivers have been, yea, Emp&s;onians, Dudleans, Zacheu&s;&s;es, and Publicans have &s;itten at the receit or deceit of cu&s;tome, cu&s;tomarily in all ages;) thou art po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ed with &s;uch a mad and malignant, &s;pirit as whi&s;ome that great hearted <HI>Byron</HI> in France, and <HI>Fi&s;her</HI> the Arch-Traitor in England who in their impatiency breathing revenge, even in death would have wrea|ked their wraths on their very Executioners, whom our once noble <HI>E&s;&s;ex,</HI> Sir <HI>Walter Rawely,</HI> Sir <HI>Thomas Moore</HI> and the late Hibernian Heroes as freely forgave, as S. <HI>Stephen</HI> did his &s;toners, Act. 7.60. Chri&s;t and his primitive and moderne Martyrs, their Crucifiers, Luke 23.34. <HI>vade &amp; tu fac &s;imiliter,</HI> doe thou the like according to Chri&s;ts practice and precept, Mat. 5.44. if thou wille&s;t be a patrizing &s;ympathizing &s;on of a heavenly Father.</P>
<P>And to &s;et a further edge upon thee to the performance of this dutie and to curb and bridle thy corrupt heart, which is ever meditating mould|ing, plotting, &s;earching and projecting revenge again&s;t tho&s;e that have made thee extreamly pa&s;&s;ive in plucking thy golden feathers, and making thee as naked as a worme, or as <HI>E&s;ops</HI> Crow, when &s;he was deplumed, nothing (according to Machiavells rule and the Italians practice) being &s;weeter then revenge, to give a <HI>Rowland</HI> for an <HI>Oliver,</HI> to pay an enemy home in his own coine in retalinted vengeance, an eye for an eye, even as one mad dog or wolfe devoures another; but chiefly &s;ince this forgiving and forgetting
<PB N="15" REF="9">injuries as the E&s;tridge forgets her egges, writing wrongs in du&s;t, is <HI>du|rus &s;ermo,</HI> a bitter pill to &s;wallow a hard mor&s;ell to dige&s;t, going again&s;t the haire, again&s;t the heart, again&s;t the very &s;treame and torrent of cor|rupt nature, again&s;t the cour&s;e and cu&s;tome of the world and worldlings, &s;ince <HI>hoc opus hic labor,</HI> to &s;ubdue thy rebellious nature, and conquer thy corrupt heart in this ca&s;e is more then an Herculean taske, a greater Conque&s;t then to &s;ubdue a <HI>Cacus,</HI> a <HI>Cerberus,</HI> an <HI>Hidra,</HI> a <HI>Leana,</HI> a Cali|donian Boare, with <HI>Meleager,</HI> or a Serpent at Bagrada, with <HI>Regulus:</HI> therefore to help thee in this conque&s;t; this one con&s;ideration may be as valiant a Champion for thee as <HI>Achilles</HI> for his <HI>Patroclus,</HI> namely, that tho&s;e again&s;t whom thy heart &s;o ri&s;eth and rageth, are not thy enemies, and then with whom &s;ighte&s;t thou thus, but with thine owne &s;hadow? or as a <HI>Don Quixot</HI> with Rams and Windmills? but at this thou &s;tart|le&s;t as <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> at his rod turned Serpent, Exod. 4.2. and crie&s;t out, as once <HI>Michay</HI> and <HI>Laban,</HI> Gen. 31.30. they have &s;tollen away my Gods, Judg. 10.24. my goods, my golden Calfe which I adored. Col. 3.5. and are they not mine enemies? but <HI>bona verbil quae&s;o,</HI> be not &s;o ha&s;ty, <HI>fe&s;tina lent&egrave;,</HI> paw&s;e a little upon it, and thou wilt find that if thou could&s;t but fol|low the rule of <HI>Plutarch</HI> a Pagan, how to make u&s;e of enemies, and to get fruits from foes, even grapes of grace from the thornes and thi&s;tles of their ho&s;tility, as <HI>Samp&s;on</HI> got hony even out of a dead Lion, Judg. 14.8. then thou woulde&s;t &s;ee, that as <HI>I&s;aac</HI> mi&s;took <HI>Jacob</HI> for <HI>E&s;au,</HI> Gen. 27.24. &s;o thou ha&s;t all this while mi&s;took thy friends for thy foes; and as one cried in Stobeus, <HI>O philoioud&egrave; philoi,</HI> O friends, no friends, &s;o thou &s;hould&s;t cry, O foes no foes; or if foes in the effects of your Vatinian hate, yet in the effect you are no foes, as you better mine e&s;tate, as you are fierce winds to drive my &s;in-fraught &s;oule to the haven of grace, to the port of peace, as you are like gall and &s;oot laid to the de&s;ired duggs of the bewitching world, to weane me from it, as Surgeons with &s;harp Goads to Phlebotomize my vaine veines, to cure me in the dangerous Pluri&s;ies and burning Feavers of my boiling lu&s;ts, to prick and breake (though with your &s;words and rapiers) the &s;ecret Impo&s;times of my pu|trid hypocri&s;ie, my &s;ordid covetou&s;ne&s;&s;e, with the &s;welling tympany of my pride, and vaine glory, getting thus good from the intended harms of thy foes, as <HI>Io&s;eph</HI> and <HI>Mardocheus</HI> were brought to exaltation by a envious oppo&s;ition, <HI>Daniel</HI> to further grace with <HI>Darius,</HI> and his three companions to higher places by calumination, and detraction, Gen. 40.38. E&s;ther 7. Dan. c. 3. cap. 6. which was al&s;o the ca&s;e of <HI>Herod</HI> at the ta|ble of <HI>Augu&s;ius Cae&s;ar</HI> in <HI>Io&s;ephus,</HI> and of <HI>Themi&s;tocles</HI> in Athens, exiled to his advancement: I &s;ay if thou get &s;weet &s;iggs of grace from the
<PB N="16" REF="10">and wormwood of thy enemies, as Phy&s;itians and Paracel&s;ians ex|tract Antidotes and Mithridate again&s;t poi&s;ons, and Re&s;toratives again&s;t Con&s;umptions, even from poi&s;onous Toads, Nutes and Serpents, then thy &s;uppo&s;ed foes are but men made of &s;trawes, but Scar-Crowes in Cherry Trees; thou fighte&s;t but with &s;hadowes, as &s;ome Hiperboreans are &s;aid to fight with the North wind, and Pigmees with Cranes, thou art more frighted then hurt with the&s;e Eutopians, as children with Bug|beares, who onely (like the Apes in <HI>Plutarch,</HI> who marched with green boughs in their Clawes on the &s;ide of a mountaine) &s;eem to be enemies, but are not, or at mo&s;t enemies in their acts, but friends in their effects, as the divine providence di&s;po&s;eth of their evill wills to effect in thee his owne good worke, as their deep furrowes plowed in thy humbled and rent heart, fits it by receiving the &s;eed of the Word, the Go&s;pell of grace to bring forth the harve&s;t of &s;anctified fruits more abundant|ly with patience, which being the very marke I &s;hoot at, and the naile I drive at, that the City may be an&s;werable to the gate, this Tractate to the Title of Fruits from Foes, let me but hammer into thy head and heart the&s;e &s;ub&s;equent con&s;iderations.</P>
<P>Fir&s;t, that if thou be a foe to thine owne lu&s;ts, which fight again&s;t thy &s;oule, 1 Pet. 2.11. and hate&s;t meerly what God hates, &s;in in thy &s;elfe and others, as did <HI>David,</HI> P&s;a. 119.115. and <HI>Lot,</HI> 2 Pet. 2.7. and <HI>Ieremy,</HI> Jer. 9.1. it is an evident argument to thy own &s;oule, that as was &s;aid of <HI>Abra|ham,</HI> Jam. 2.17. of <HI>Lazarus,</HI> John 11.11. and Chri&s;ts Di&s;ciples, John 15.11. thou art Gods friend, and therefore no marvell if the world be thy foe; for if thou wert of the world, the world would love his owne, John 15.19. as every Ape her owne young, every Crow and Owle her owne Bird, every Ethiopian Mother her owne Child, though as black as her &s;elfe, as <HI>cicada cicadae chara, &amp; Graculus a&s;&s;idet Graculo,</HI> one Jay jangles to another, and birds of a feather flock together; <HI>Ego novi Sino|nem, &amp; Sinon novit me,</HI> as <HI>Era&s;muus</HI> hath it in his adage, a couple of Knaves are as well met, as the biting u&s;urer and his broker, the thiefe and the refetter, the braggadochean <HI>Thra&s;o</HI> and his trencher Para&s;ite <HI>Gnato,</HI> and as a luxurious Prince and a <HI>Gave&s;ton</HI> his fatall Pander, a co|vetous Prince that like a Hawke would pounce golden game, loves &s;uch Officers as are Spaniels to &s;pring it, and a drow&s;ie, dull, dead hearted people, love &s;uch a Pa&s;tor as will charme them a&s;leep in their Lethargi|call &s;ecurity, and &s;ow pillowes under their elbowes, to further their &s;lumbering in the &s;hadow of death, but a <HI>Boanerges,</HI> a &s;onne of thun|der, that will &s;ound in their eares <HI>E&s;ayes</HI> Trump, and ring <HI>Aarons</HI> Bells, and cry with the voice of a Bapti&s;t to awaken them ere the Trump of
<PB N="17" REF="10">Judgement, 1 The&s;. 4.16. he is no Lettice for their lips, away with &s;uch a fellow from the earth, Act. 22.22. <HI>&s;imilis &s;imili gaudet,</HI> like loves his like, by a naturall &s;ympathie and &s;imilitude, <HI>cau&s;a amoris,</HI> &s;imilitude drawes love as the adamant the iron, and the Cae&s;ian winds the clouds, but di&s;|&s;imilitude breeds di&s;like and di&s;ta&s;te in judgement and affection: Hence if thou bee&s;t in Chri&s;t, and crucified to the world and the world to thee, Gal. 2.20. &amp; cap. 5.24. there is as great an Antipathie betwixt thy enemy and Chri&s;ts enemy, and the worlds friend and favourite that is meerly carnall, 1 Cor. 3.3. Jam. 4.4. 1 Joh. 2.15. and thou that art &s;pirituall, 1 Cor. 2.15. and truly an&s;were&s;t thy name Chri&s;tian, Acts 15.26. as there is a di&s;|agreement betwixt grace and nature, light and darkne&s;&s;e, God and Mammon, Chri&s;t and <HI>Belial,</HI> 2 Cor. 6.15, 16. <HI>Michael</HI> and the Dragon, Rev. 12.7. yea as there is contrariety betwixt the Elephant and the Uni|corne, the Fox and the Lamb, and the Wolfe and the Sheep, who&s;e very guts made into &s;trings will never accord and tune together in a Lute, more then the bloods of <HI>Polinices</HI> and <HI>Eteocles</HI> would mix together after they had &s;laine each other: a&s;&s;ure thy &s;elfe, let a carnall man, either an open prophane wretch like <HI>E&s;au,</HI> or a rotten hearted hypocrite &s;yco|phantize with thee and ob&s;erve thee for his owne &s;ini&s;ter ends, and ad|here unto thee as <HI>Demas</HI> once to <HI>Paul,</HI> 2 Tim. 4. yet &s;o long as thy works are good and his evill, and thy life and light a reall Sermon to blame and &s;hame his, he loves thee no better then <HI>Judas</HI> did Chri&s;t whom he betrayed, then <HI>Herod</HI> did the Bapti&s;t whom he beheaded, though he reverenced and heard him gladly, Mar. 6.20. nay he hates thee inwardly for the &s;ame cau&s;e that <HI>Caine</HI> hated <HI>Abel,</HI> 1 John 3.12. <HI>Jezabel Elias,</HI> 1 King. 19.2. and <HI>Ahab Micaiah,</HI> becau&s;e he prophe&s;ied no good unto him, 1 King. 22.8. becau&s;e thy right &s;teered life, like <HI>Noahs</HI> once among&s;t the worldings, and <HI>Lots</HI> among the Sodomites, Luk. 17.27, 28. &s;hames the irregularities of their vaine di&s;cour&s;es and vitious cour&s;es, <HI>Lux oculis aegris odio&s;a,</HI> thy light which &s;hines before men, Mat. 5.16. offends their blood-&s;hotten eyes, as the Sun doth the pur-blind Owle, the Lion, Wolfe, Fox, Badger, Otter, Fowmant, Weazill, Poulecat, and all bea&s;ts of prey, love the night better then the day, darkne&s;&s;e more then light: now thou art of the day, if Chri&s;t the Day-&s;tar be ri&s;en in thy heart, Luk. 1.78. and &s;hine in that Orb by faith, Eph. 3.17. thy enemies are of the night, 1 The&s;. 5.4, 5. therefore however they &s;eem to collogue and to clo&s;e with thee, they are as di&s;crepant from thee in their di&s;po&s;itions, and at as farre a di&s;tance in their infected affections, as the Northern and Southern Pole; the Raven is thought by &s;ome to for&s;ake her young ones for a time, be|cau&s;e in their fir&s;t hatching they are white and downy, then God is &s;aid
<PB N="18" REF="11">to feed them; but after a while when &s;he returnes and finds them black like her &s;elfe, &s;he takes to them as her owne, <HI>fabula de te narratur, Ber|corius</HI> in his Morall Reductory, and <HI>Geminianus</HI> in his Similies make the Application.</P>
<P>Now is this no fruit from a Foe, that his ho&s;tility proclaimes thee to be Chri&s;ts friend? who&s;e love will &s;tand thee in a thou&s;and times more &s;tead then <HI>Ionathans</HI> did <HI>David,</HI> or <HI>Damons</HI> to his <HI>Pithias:</HI> A wi&s;e Courtier had rather have his King his friend, with his <HI>Ego &amp; Rex meus,</HI> though all the emulating Court be again&s;t him, then to curry favour with the Court, and be at a frowning di&s;tance with the King, <HI>&s;i Deus nobi&s;cum, quis contra nos?</HI> if God be with thee, who can be again&s;t thee? Rom. 8.31. if I have the Sun &s;hining in my face, what need I the le&s;&s;er twinkling Starres, or the light of a candle which may go out with the lea&s;t windy puffe, and leave in my no&s;e a &s;tinking &s;nuffe? it's &s;ome con|tent to be a&s;&s;ured I am in the right way in my Pilgrimage to my heaven|ly home, though all the Dogs (and <HI>Doegs</HI>) barke at me in every Town thorough which I pa&s;&s;e.</P>
<P>Secondly, as a Corollary to this con&s;ider &s;eriou&s;ly, that if thou be pa|tient, <HI>&s;u&s;tinendo &amp; ab&s;tinendo,</HI> in which <HI>Epictetus</HI> epitomized Morall Phi|lo&s;ophie, in &s;u&s;taining and bearing the brunts and bla&s;ts of thy foes, and in ab&s;taining and forbearing from revenge, then God is ingaged by promi&s;e, which he ever performes, 1 The&s;. 5.23. to be thy avenger on thy enemies if in thee they oppo&s;e him, Rom. 12.19. as he avenged <HI>David</HI> of <HI>Michals</HI> mocks, 2 Sam. 6.16.20.23. of <HI>Shimeies</HI> revilings, 2 Sam. 16.10. 1 King. 2.44. of <HI>Nabals</HI> churli&s;hne&s;&s;e, 1 Sam. 25.39. <HI>Ezaekiah</HI> of the rai|lings of <HI>Rab&s;hakeh,</HI> and the bla&s;phemies of <HI>Senacherib,</HI> 2 King. 19.28.37. <HI>Abraham</HI> of the intended wrongs of <HI>Abimelech,</HI> Gen. 20.7.18. a zealous Prophet on <HI>Ieroboam,</HI> who&s;e hand he withered, 1 King. 13.4. <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> on <HI>Korah, Dathan,</HI> and <HI>Abiram,</HI> whom the earth &s;wallowed, Numb. 16. <HI>Lot</HI> on the Sodomites whom he fir&s;t blinded, Gen. 19.11. and then burn|ed, V. 24. as he did <HI>Valens</HI> the Arrian in a Shepheards Cottage, the great enemy to S. <HI>Ba&s;il,</HI><NOTE N="a" PLACE="marg">Apud Marcell. lib. <HI>3.</HI> Hi&s;t.</NOTE> &s;o he avenged the Coun&s;ell of Calcedon on their grand enemy <HI>Ana&s;ta&s;ius</HI> whom he &s;mit with a Thunderbolt, <HI>Eutropius,</HI> lib. 3. cap. 5. <HI>Azariah</HI> the high Prie&s;t, on pre&s;umptuous <HI>Vzziah,</HI> whom he &s;mit with Lepro&s;ie, 2 <HI>Chron.</HI> 26.20, 21. <HI>Athana&s;ius</HI> on <HI>Con&s;tantius</HI> the Arrian Emperour, whom hee cut off in great di&s;traction of mind,<NOTE PLACE="marg">Idem Hi&s;t. lib. <HI>12.</HI> Amb. lib. <HI>5.</HI> Epi&s;t. <HI>52.</HI></NOTE> S. <HI>Ambro&s;e</HI> on <HI>Valentinian</HI> his per&s;ecu|tor, who was hanged by his owne &s;ervants,
<PB N="19" REF="11"><HI>Gregory</HI> the be&s;t Roman Bi&s;hop of tho&s;e that &s;ucceeded him, on <HI>Mauri|tius</HI> the covetous Emperour &s;lain by <HI>Phocas</HI> a cruell coward<NOTE N="d" PLACE="marg"><HI>Blondus</HI> lib. 3. decad.</NOTE>, with many more which might be enumerated in all times and ages, the Lord ever &s;iding with his Sion, his Militant Church, again&s;t all her malignant oppo&s;ers, as he did with his Chri&s;t her Head and Husband again&s;t <HI>Herod,</HI> the Scribes, the Phari&s;ees, <HI>Annas</HI> and <HI>Caiphas,</HI> chiefly on <HI>Pilate,</HI> who hanged him&s;elfe after his di&s;graces with <HI>Tiberius</HI> and <HI>Caius,</HI> as their Tragedies are recorded, not onely by <HI>Eu&s;ebius,</HI> Hi&s;t. lib. 2 c. 7. and <HI>Nicephorus,</HI> lib. 2. c. 10. but even by the Pagani&s;h Writers of the Olim|picks of the Greeks.</P>
<P>Now is this no fruit from a foe, that as his wrongfull, unde&s;erved, un|provoked hatred and oppo&s;ition &s;hewes thee (as I have proved) to be Chri&s;ts friend, &s;o reciprocally Chri&s;t to be thy friend: as <HI>Pilades</HI> was to <HI>Orestes,</HI> as well as <HI>Orestes</HI> to <HI>Pila|des</HI><NOTE N="e" PLACE="marg">&V;t prae&s;tem <HI>Piladem</HI> ali|quis mihi prae&s;tat <HI>Ore&s;tem.</HI></NOTE> <HI>Ni&s;us</HI> to <HI>Eurialus, Titus</HI> to <HI>Gi&s;ippus,</HI> as well as <HI>Eurialus</HI> to <HI>Ni&s;us, Gi&s;ippus</HI> to <HI>Titus,</HI> according to the rule, <HI>ut ameris ama|bilis e&s;to,</HI> love begetting love, as one candle lights another, one burning coale kindles another, yea, as Naphtha is &s;aid to take fire at the neere approach of fire: and is Chri&s;ts friend&s;hip barren of golden, of gracious fruits? Can a true friend indeed, an <HI>alter ego,</HI> a &s;econd &s;elfe, a <HI>Phila|delphus,</HI> a &s;worne brother, a friend and a brother, in the bond of bloud, in the neere&s;t link of love, as Chri&s;t is to his Church, Heb. 2.12, 17. &s;tand by and &s;ee his friend need and bleed, yea in the paw of a Wolfe, or a Lion, or in the fangs of a mad Dog, or on the hornes of a Bull of Ba&s;an, and he admini&s;ter no helpe from a &s;trong and an armed arme? Can a father, though as &s;terne as a <HI>Manlius,</HI> or a <HI>Brutiu,</HI> do this to a child, if there be any &s;torge or &s;parke of affection in him, if he do not more &s;tu|pidly then a Stoick or &s;tock, <HI>hominem exuere,</HI> put off all that &s;peaks him man, like a brutized mon&s;ter? yea, can a Husband doe this that loves his Wife in the neere&s;t and deare&s;t union, which <HI>Tullie</HI> him&s;elfe makes mariage, in his book of friend&s;hip. Now was there ever any Father lo|ved a Child as Chri&s;t doth all his Children by adoption, who cry <HI>Abba,</HI> Father, Rom. 8.14, 15. Did <HI>Abraham</HI> ever &s;o love his <HI>I&s;aac,</HI> his &s;onne by nature and by promi&s;e, as Chri&s;t doth every beleever the &s;onne of <HI>A|braham</HI> by faith, Gal. 3.7. as <HI>Zacheus</HI> was called, Luke 19.10. Was there ever in the be&s;t improvement of love, &s;uch a neer and dear union and communion of morall love, betwixt <HI>Solomon</HI> and <HI>Hiram, Agamemnon</HI> and <HI>Ne&s;tor,</HI> Theologicall love, betwixt <HI>Ba&s;il</HI> and <HI>Nazianzene, Augu&s;tine</HI>
<PB N="20" REF="12">and <HI>Alipius, Eu&s;ebius</HI> and his <HI>Pamphilus,</HI> naturall love betwixt <HI>Jacob</HI> and <HI>Io&s;eph, Helena</HI> and her <HI>Con&s;tantine,</HI> Matrimoniall love betwixt <HI>J&s;aac</HI> and <HI>Rebecka, Elkanah</HI> and <HI>Anna, Admetus</HI> and his <HI>Alce&s;t, Brutus</HI> and his <HI>Portia, Collatinus</HI> and his <HI>Lucrece,</HI> as betwixt Chri&s;t and his e&s;pou&s;ed and contracted Church, and every living and loving member of the &s;ame? Ho&s;. 2.19. Eph. 5.23.24.32. now thou art ingrafted into Chri&s;t as a wild Olive by nature into a good Olive tree, Rom. 11.24. and in him brings forth much fruit, John 15.4, 5. this is one fruit among&s;t the re&s;t which growes on the tree of thy penitence and patience, that if thou &s;tand for Chri&s;t, for his Truth, for his Religion, as once that <HI>Athana&s;ius</HI> called the <HI>Atlas</HI> of the Faith, he will be &s;ure to &s;tand for thee, and to be with thee as thy Champion, and deliver when thou pa&s;&s;e&s;t through the wa|ters, and through the rivers that they doe not overflow thee, as he was with <HI>Mo&s;es,</HI> and <HI>Aaron,</HI> and I&s;rael in the red Sea, Exod. 14. and with <HI>Noah</HI> in the fir&s;t univer&s;all Deluge, Gen. 7.1. and he will be with thee when thou walke&s;t through the fire, as he was with the three Jewi&s;h Martyrs in the furnace, Dan. 3.25. and with S. <HI>Iohn</HI> in the furnace, into which <HI>Domitian</HI> ca&s;t him,<NOTE N="a" PLACE="marg"><HI>Tert.</HI> in prae&s;crip. adver|&s;us Haeret.</NOTE> according to his promi&s;e to all true I&s;raelites, the &s;pirituall &s;onnes of <HI>Iacob, E&s;ay</HI> 43.1, 2, 3. yea he will be with thee as he was with wre&s;tling and con|quering <HI>Iacob,</HI> Gen. 32.24. when any <HI>Laban</HI> or <HI>E&s;au</HI> comes again&s;t thee for any intended mi&s;chiefe; Oh a&s;&s;ure thy &s;elfe he will be with thee when thou art among&s;t Lions, as he was with <HI>Daniel,</HI> cap. 6. and when thou fighte&s;t with &s;uch bea&s;ts as <HI>Paul</HI> fought with at Ephe&s;us, 1 Cor. 15.32. with Beares as <HI>David,</HI> 1 Sam. 17. with young Lions as <HI>Samp&s;on,</HI> Judg. 15. and with men who&s;e tongues are &s;words and &s;harp arrowes, and under who&s;e lips is the poy&s;on of A&s;ps; yea if thy enemies with the horne of their power pu&s;h thee into pri&s;on he is with thee there al&s;o, as with <HI>Io|&s;eph,</HI> in <HI>Putiphars</HI> Goale, Gen. 29.21. with <HI>Ieremy</HI> in the dark Dungeon, Jer. 32.2. with <HI>Paul</HI> and <HI>Silas</HI> in the Philippian Pri&s;on, Act. 16.25, 26. yea with pious <HI>Philpot,</HI> once in the Bi&s;hop of Londons Cole-hole, and with that Martyr in Mr. <HI>Fox</HI> his Martyrologie, who writ from his pri&s;on his delectable Paradi&s;e in Argiers, yea if thou bee&s;t exiled and bani&s;hed from thy hou&s;e and harbour, he is with thee where ever thou art racketed and bandied, as he was with <HI>Abraham</HI> in a &s;trange Countrey, Gen. 12.7. with <HI>I&s;aac</HI> among&s;t the Phili&s;tines, Gen. 26.12.24. with <HI>Jacob</HI> in Padan-Aram, Gen. 20.43. and in Egypt, Gen. 47.27. yea if thou bee&s;t led to execution and to &s;uffering for his names &s;ake, to which there is a ble&s;&s;ing pro|nounced, Mat. 5.12. he is with thee there al&s;o, as he was with <HI>Peter</HI> and
<PB N="21" REF="12"><HI>Paul,</HI> crucified with their heads downwards, with <HI>Laurence</HI> roa&s;ted on a Gridiron, with <HI>Polycarpus,</HI> grinded to be pure Manchet for Chri&s;t, with the teeth of Lions, with <HI>Dagilla, Tecla, Quintilia, Petronella,</HI> pulled and torne in their fle&s;h from the bone with burning Pincers, yea with our Q. <HI>Maries</HI> Martyrs, &s;incere <HI>Saunders,</HI> ble&s;&s;ed <HI>Bradford</HI> joyfully pay|ing his vowes in Smithfield, tru&s;ty <HI>Tailor</HI> skipping in joyfull Levaltoes when he was neere his burning &s;acrifice, godly <HI>Glover</HI> &s;en&s;ible of the ap|proach of the Spirit, and with that young man who at the &s;take no &s;oo|ner cryed Sun of God &s;hine upon me, but in a dark and gloomy day the Sun ca&s;t &s;uch gleames on him on a &s;udden, as a&s;toni&s;hed all the Spectators, yea as their la&s;t foe and enemy that is to be &s;ubdued is death, 1 Cor. 15.</P>
<P>Chri&s;t according to his promi&s;e, P&s;al. 41.3. is with his Saints, they have him with old <HI>Simeon</HI> in the armes of their faith: and with <HI>Paul</HI> live and die by faith; both in their naturall death as he was with <HI>Jacob</HI> bowing and wor&s;hipping on his &s;ick bed; and with <HI>Theodo&s;ius, Augu&s;tne, Am|bro&s;e, Luther, Calvin, Oecalampadius</HI> and others, who&s;e la&s;t &s;pirituall breathings, with Spirits &s;urrendred into their Fathers hands, are recorded to exultation and admiration by <HI>Grineus</HI> in his <HI>Apothegmata morientium,</HI> among&s;t his <HI>The&s;is in quarto,</HI> as al&s;o he is with them in the mo&s;t virulent &amp; violent deaths, which cruelty and tiranny can invent; as he was with every one of his Apo&s;tles, who were martired (excepting S. <HI>John</HI>) who&s;e acts, lives and glorious deaths, are fully recorded to any that will for con|&s;olation and imitation peru&s;e them in <HI>Eu&s;ebius</HI> his fir&s;t book of Hi&s;tories cap. 25. his &s;econd book, cap 1. his third book. cap 1. his ninth book cap 1. <HI>Nicephorus</HI> his &s;econd book cap. 40. his fourth book cap. 7. <HI>Sabellicus</HI> his &s;eventh book Eneid. 4. <HI>Ru&s;&s;inus</HI> his fir&s;t book cap. 9. <HI>Hierom</HI> in the life of <HI>Paul,</HI> the Magdeburgians in their Centuries, Cent. 1. lib. 2. cap. 10. and <HI>Ho&s;iander</HI> their Epitomizer, Cent. 1. lib. 2. cap. 30. which I alledge as Inns by the way, where the learned reader may drink if he will, the un|learned pa&s;&s;e by them if he like them not.</P>
<P>The re&s;ult of all is this, if thou be a Believer, (for I have Cordialls onely for &s;uch as cora&s;ives to the &s;laves of &s;inne and Satan) if thou ha&s;t &s;uch relations to Chri&s;t as I have touched upon, as to a head, a husband a father, a friend, then let who will be the rod in Gods hand to afflict thee, the in&s;trument or executioner to torment thee, be they <HI>Achito|phels</HI> and <HI>Hamans</HI> for pe&s;tilent plots, <HI>Juda&s;&s;es</HI> and <HI>Joabs</HI> for treachery, <HI>Ne|roes, Caligulaes,</HI> and <HI>Perianders,</HI> for cruelty, Serpents for &s;ubtilty, Lions for power, Foxes for policie, though they &s;pin never &s;uch Spiders webs to catch thee, &s;et never &s;o covered &s;nares to intrap thee, though they de&s;pi&s;e thee, di&s;pight thee, vilifie thee, nullifie thee, revile thee,
<PB N="22" REF="13">pee&s;ecute thee, and hunt thee as <HI>Saul</HI> did <HI>David,</HI> as <HI>Iezabel</HI> did <HI>Elias,</HI> and Pope <HI>Leo Luther,</HI> though they defame thee and &s;leight thee, as the fal&s;e Apo&s;tles did <HI>Paul,</HI> as the Phari&s;ees did Chri&s;t, as the Arrians the Orthodox Chri&s;tians, as the Papi&s;ts all Prote&s;tants, &s;ome calling their very hounds by the name of <HI>Luther, Calvin,</HI> and the like, as the mad and unwormed whelps of <HI>Cerberus,</HI> our Famili&s;ts, Fanta&s;ticks, new See|kers and Anabablers, terme now all zealous and judicious Divines no bet|ter then black Dogs barking in Pulpits, in Steeple and Stone Churches, as Satan &s;peakes in them as at fir&s;t, &s;o &s;till in Serpents: I fay, if they could hate thee, and howle at thee more then <HI>Iulian</HI> the Apo&s;tate, <HI>Por|phiry</HI> and <HI>Lucian</HI> the Athei&s;t again&s;t thy incarnate Saviour, yet neverthe|le&s;&s;e I can give thee this mirth in mourning, joy in tribulation, light in darkne&s;&s;e, rejoycing in &s;uffering, Act. 5.40. 1 Cor. 4.9, 10. honour in thy di&s;grace, 1 Sam. 2.30. and &s;uch an <HI>Ariadnees</HI> thred to bring thee out of the mazes and Labyrinths of their perturbations, (as I have given Cor|dialls for every other cro&s;&s;e in the end of my &s;even helps to Heaven) that thou maye&s;t be &s;ure of a good i&s;&s;ue in a victorious Trophie and Tri|umph over all thy enemies, if thou can&s;t but re&s;t and rely by faith and affiance on the Lord of Ho&s;ts, who fights in thee, with thee, and for thee, as he fought in and for <HI>David</HI> again&s;t <HI>Goliah,</HI> 1 Sam. 17.45. in and for <HI>Ionathan</HI> again&s;t the Phili&s;tines, 1 Sam. 14.6. for <HI>Gideon</HI> again&s;t the Midianites, Judg. 7.20. for <HI>Ieho&s;aphat</HI> again&s;t the Amorites and Syrians, 2 Chro. 20.12.13. in and for <HI>Abraham</HI> again&s;t five Kings, Gen. 14.13. in and for <HI>Jo&s;huah</HI> again&s;t the Canaanites, Jo&s;. 1.5. cap. 5.14. in and for <HI>A|biah</HI> again&s;t Idolatrous <HI>Jeroboam,</HI> 2 Chron. 13.9, 10. in and for <HI>A&s;a,</HI> who relyed on him again&s;t the Lubims and Ethiopians, 2 Chron. 16.8. in and for <HI>Barak</HI> and <HI>Deborah,</HI> again&s;t <HI>Jabin</HI> and <HI>Si&s;era,</HI> Judg. 4. yea be&s;ides infallible Scripture in&s;tances, as he is the &s;ame God to day, ye&s;terday and for ever, Heb. 13.8. <HI>&s;emper prae&s;enter hic &amp; ubi&abque; potenter,</HI> as the great &s;oule of the world, as <HI>Plato</HI> calls him ever pre&s;ent and re&s;ident with his Church, Mat. 28.20. ever neer to them who draw neer to him, Jam. 4.8. as a friend to helpe at a dead lift, even in the la&s;t exigent of extremity, which is u&s;ually his oportunity, even when a red Sea is before his Church, and a <HI>Pharaoh</HI> behind: &s;o why can he not, why will he not deliver thee, yea this whole nation according to his promi&s;e, Jer. 18.4, 5. in his due time, &s;ince his hand is not &s;hortned, E&s;ay 59.2. as well free us from our in-bred enemies to our Sion, to our grace and peace at home, as he deli|vered <HI>Rehoboam</HI> and all I&s;rael from the Egyptian <HI>Shi&s;hak,</HI> a mighty for|raign enemy abroad, could we act the &s;ame parts with them in godly &s;orrow which brings &s;alvation, 2 Cor. 7.10. as we re-act their &s;ins, yea,
<PB N="23" REF="13">the very &s;ins of Sodom, Ezek. 16.49. E&s;ay 1.10. yea, though all things in Church and State &s;eem to be luxate and di&s;-joynted, as a body without nerves and &s;inews, as once in I&s;rael, when there was no King, Jud. 18.1. or as &s;ome &s;ay in <HI>Rehoboams</HI> time, when the green blades were preferred before the riper heads, the young coun&s;elling <HI>Phaetons</HI> before the &s;olid Senatours, yea though all things, as &s;ome mutter, &s;ome vociferate, &amp; utter, &s;eem to be turned <HI>&s;uique deque,</HI> top&s;ie turvie, up&s;ide downe, in our an|tipodized times by the wracks of warre, as if a di&s;h were turned with the bottome upward, and a &s;hip with the &s;ails downward, in &s;uch a <HI>Hy&s;teron Proteron,</HI> as few Ages have ever &s;een, chiefly Plebeian Owles throwing downe Eagles ne&s;ts, Crowes chattering, and Nightingales the &s;weet &s;ingers of I&s;rael, &s;ilent, learned and Orthodox Buclarks Cyphers, and Dolts and Dorbells Figures, knowledge a meere mute, and ignorance a &s;ounding Vowell, though never Con&s;onant, Mechanicall, blind arro|gance perking into <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> his Chaire, with as much perill to mu&s;hrump ungifted, uncalled u&s;urpers, both to their own &s;oules and others, as once to leprous <HI>&V;zziah</HI> intruding into the Prie&s;ts Office, 2 Chron. 26. to <HI>&V;zzah</HI> in &s;taying the tottering Ark without a call, 2 Sam. 6. to <HI>Nadab</HI> and <HI>Abihu,</HI> in offering &s;trange fire, Lev. 10.1, 2. and to <HI>Dathan, Korah</HI> and <HI>A|biram</HI> re&s;i&s;ting proudly and rebelliou&s;ly <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> and <HI>Aaron,</HI> Numb. 16. as though they were dropt out of the clouds to curb, yea to cru&s;h both Magi&s;tracy and Mini&s;terie, which tooke too much upon them, and that they had &s;uch a fla&s;h and flux of Revelations to guide and governe both them&s;elves and others for life and Doctrine, that Chri&s;t as <HI>Office perde,</HI> cleane out of Office, unable or unwi&s;e to rule Church or Commonwealth by his Powers or Ordinances &s;ecular or &s;pirituall, might take them back againe to heaven if he would, and lock them as <HI>Aeolus</HI> the di&s;turbing winds into his owne clo&s;et, they had no more need of them then the Ephe&s;ians had of <HI>Pauls</HI> Go&s;pell, when they would cry up their <HI>Diana,</HI> Act. 17. then Idolatrous I&s;rael had of <HI>Mo&s;es</HI> when they cau&s;ed <HI>Aaron</HI> to &s;et them up a golden Calfe of their owne making, Exod. 32.3. then <HI>Iohn a Leyden, Knipperdolin,</HI> and <HI>Mun&s;ter</HI> had need of any other warrant from the word, but Revelations for ma&s;&s;acring a hundred thou&s;and Commons be&s;ides Nobles in their Ru&s;tick Belgick Warre, or then the Fratricelli, the Flagellants, the Beguardines, the Famili&s;ts, the naked A|damites of latter times in Germany and Italy, with the Enthu&s;ia&s;ts and David-Gorgians, the Swinekfeldians, and the Anabapti&s;ts, <HI>Michael Ser|vetus</HI> in Geneva, <HI>Gentilis</HI> in Berne, <HI>Iack Cade, Wat Tiler,</HI> and <HI>Straw</HI> in Eng|land, <HI>Ket</HI> the bla&s;phemous Arrian in Norfolk, <HI>Hacket</HI> once in London, yea <HI>Montanus</HI> and <HI>Pri&s;cilla,</HI> who both hanged them&s;elves in <HI>Tertullians</HI>
<PB N="24" REF="14">time, the Donati&s;ts and Circumcellians in <HI>Augu&s;tines</HI> time, or any that would &s;et up thirteen or fourteen Religions in one Kingdom again&s;t one Truth, one Chri&s;t, one Salvation, Joh. 14.6. Eph. 4. all as erroneous as the Jewes Thalumd or Tucks Alchoran, and with as much warrant, as to grant thirteen wives to one husband, thirteen Suns in one Firmament, thirteen Kings in one Land, &s;hould for all their folly, fanta&s;ticalities, bla&s;|phemies, and here&s;ies of old, from hell new varni&s;ht, &s;tand any more in need of the Word, of Scripture, Coun&s;ells, Fathers, or Schooles of the Prophets, then of a &s;ixt-finger Revelations and a pretended &s;pirit, like the Popes all-commanding unerring Authority in his Chaire mu&s;t be the <HI>Domine fac totum,</HI> that which &s;trikes with the great ham|mer hits the naile on the head, the great <HI>Apollo,</HI> the <HI>Ip&s;e dixit</HI> the deciding Judge, the Oracle of truth; though from a Diabolicall <HI>Delphos</HI> from which there is no appeale, like <HI>Hercules</HI> his pillars, <HI>n&egrave; plus ultra,</HI> now I &s;ay though in &s;uch Apo&s;tatizing in part or whole, many have for&s;aken their fir&s;t faith, fallen from their fir&s;t love, &s;et up &s;trange Gods, &s;trange Idolls, even as I&s;rael in <HI>Rehoboams</HI> time were &s;aid to for|&s;ake the Law of the Lord, and the Lord to for&s;ake them, 2 Chron. 12. yet there is hope in I&s;rael, as repentance hath ever won what &s;in hath lo&s;t, as may be &s;een in <HI>Mana&s;&s;es,</HI> 2 Chron. 33.9, 10, 11, 12. in <HI>Nebuchadnezar,</HI> Dan. 3. in the Ninevites, Ionas 3. in <HI>Peter,</HI> and oft in &s;inning and re|penting I&s;rael, Iudg. 3.9 cap. 6.7. cap. 10. v. 10.</P>
<P>So had we but Ninevehs and <HI>Rehoboams</HI> humiliations, 2 Chro. 12.6. why might not we have their exaltations? if we could &s;ow in tears, why might we not reape in joy? P&s;a. 126.6. if we have a wet &s;eed time, why might we not have a hopefull harve&s;t? if we did mourne, why might we not yet be comforted? Mat. 5.4. why might not all things pro&s;per as in <HI>Rehoboams</HI> time, ver. 12. and goe well with us, and with our po&s;terity? why might we not have Halcyon dayes after all the&s;e &s;torms and clouds? why might not our Horizon clear after all the&s;e &s;howres of bloud? why might we not, like a bone that is broke and right knit, be &s;tronger then ever we were, both with God and man? P&s;al. 51.8. could we with <HI>Jacob</HI> wre&s;tle with God, we &s;hould prevail with men yea with our foes, with our &s;elves being our owne foes, as I hope by degrees to manife&s;t, Gen. 32.28.</P>
<P>Let the conclu&s;ion of this pre&s;&s;ed point be this, let us turne like Jordan and the red Sea backward, all the &s;treame and torrent of our ho|&s;tility and hatred one to another, again&s;t our &s;elves and our owne &s;inne, which onely make us odious unto God, which are onely the <HI>Ates</HI> and Haggs, which throw the balls and brands (as Adultery betwixt man and wife) of divi&s;ion betwixt God and us, E&s;a. 59.2. take away the
<PB N="25" REF="14">cau&s;e, and the effect will cea&s;e; take the mote out of the eye, the thorne out of the heele, the thiefe out of the candle, the eye leaves watering, the heel rankling, and the candle &s;moaking: let us ca&s;t our refractory <HI>Jona&s;&s;es</HI> out of the Church, <HI>Achans</HI> out of the campe, <HI>Achitophels</HI> out of the Court, <HI>Sinons</HI> and Hereticall <HI>Simon Magu&s;&s;es</HI> out of our Cities, &s;elf-&s;eekers, finger-lickers, pence-&s;pongers, &s;tate-caterpillars, corrupt Officers out of place and grace, both in City and Country, chiefly every man hew every <HI>Agag</HI> in pieces at home, mortifie his owne lu&s;ts, put the &s;acri|ficing knife of the word and &s;pirit to his bo&s;omed <HI>Delilah,</HI> his owne be|witching domineering &s;in that mo&s;t reigns in him, or as an entertained &s;pi|rit is his familiar; and &s;o all remoras &amp; ob&s;tructions removed, the chamber of our hearts furni&s;hed for Chri&s;ts cohabitation, Joh. 14.23. Rev. 3.20. as he lodged with <HI>Zachous,</HI> Luke 19. then he that is the Lord of our Ca|&s;tles will be &s;ure to keep them, the &s;trong armed man being thrown out, Luk. 11.22. we need no more then feare foes &s;pirituall or corporall, for|raign or dome&s;tick, then one, of the &s;ons of <HI>Anak,</HI> or a <HI>Briarcus</HI> feares a Pygmie, then <HI>Ajax</HI> or <HI>Ashilles</HI> feared babling <HI>Ther&s;ites:</HI> will men both <HI>cominus</HI> and <HI>eminus,</HI> in offen&s;ive and defen&s;ive warres, fight for their own rights, and po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ions: and will not the Lord of Ho&s;ts hold his owne in us? will a Spaniard keep a Hold or Fort with tenacity, that he once po&s;&s;e&s;&s;eth? and as <HI>Jepthah</HI> told the King of Ammon, Jud. 11.24. will every man hold his owne, and keepe that which God hath given him, and will not God hold his owne? if we be his, will he &s;uffer men to &s;wallow us up quick, as the great Whale did <HI>Ionas?</HI> if God command us not to for&s;ake our friend and our fathers friend, Prov. 27. he that hath been a friend to our father <HI>Abraham,</HI> and to <HI>David,</HI> and delivered them out of all their troubles, P&s;al. 139.1. if we in&s;i&s;t in <HI>Abrahams</HI> &s;teps, Rom. 4 12. and be of the &s;pirituall Hou&s;e and heart of <HI>David,</HI> Zach. 12.10. he will al&s;o deliver us as he did them, according to his purpo&s;e and pro|mi&s;e, P&s;a. 34.18.19. he will not faile thee nor for&s;ake thee, more then he did <HI>Io&s;hua,</HI> cap. 1.5. Heb. 13.5. he will lift up him&s;elfe, and his &s;trength again&s;t thine enemies, P&s;al. 7.6. he &s;hall turne them backward, P&s;a. 9.3. and breake the armes of then power, P&s;a. 10.15. they &s;hall fall into the pit that they have digged, and into the &s;nare they have &s;et for thee, as <HI>Faux, Garnet, Digby,</HI> and our Je&s;uited powder Traytors were catcht in their own &s;nares, P&s;a. 9.10, 11. he will keep thee as the apple of his eye, and hide thee under the &s;hadow of his wings, from the wicked that intrea|cheth thee, P&s;. 17.9.10. though he come upon thee like a Lion greedy of his prey, v. 11.12. If God once ari&s;e, and be pre&s;ent with thee, thy enemies &s;hall be &s;cattered as the du&s;t and cha&s;&s;e before the wind, they &s;hall vani&s;h
<PB N="26" REF="15">as &s;moak, and melt as the wax before the fire, P&s;a. 68.1.2. though they come about thee like Bees, or like Thornes, they are but a blaze, they &s;hall be extinct.</P>
<P>Call thou upon God in the day of thy trouble, that's thy duty; he will deliver thee, that's thy dignity, <HI>P&s;al.</HI> 50.15. Will the Regall Lion lo&s;e life, but he will re&s;cue his Whelps if he heare them yell? and will not the Li|on of the Tribe of Judah, to whom vengeance belongs, <HI>P&s;al.</HI> 94.1. avenge the cau&s;e of his little ones, who cry night and day unto him? Did not the Romans, the Athenians, and all the Pagans fight to the death <HI>pro focis,</HI> for their wives and children, as well as <HI>pro Aris,</HI> for their <HI>Paenates,</HI> their hou&s;e Gods! Oh! if the Greeks were &s;o incouraged in their <HI>Ajax</HI> and <HI>Achil|les,</HI> the Trojans in their <HI>Hector</HI> and <HI>Troylus,</HI> the Phili&s;tines in their <HI>Goliah?</HI> and mo&s;t Nations in the Colyphonians (though mercenary, like our Swit|zers) if they could get them to &s;tand for them? Shall not he that is arm|ed <HI>cap a pe,</HI> with the &s;hield and buckler of faith, be confident of a Tro|phie over every malignant enemy, externall, internall and infernall, that fights under the banners of <HI>Jehovah Elohim,</HI> the great Commander and di&s;po&s;er of all created powers and natures, Angelicall, humane and belluine, from the Lion to the Worm, and the wretched Wren who can do a thou&s;and times more for his friends and favourites, then ever <HI>Achilles</HI> for his <HI>Patrocius,</HI> who&s;e death he &s;o revenged; or <HI>Hercules</HI> for his <HI>The&s;e|us,</HI> or <HI>Pirotheus,</HI> not being able to &s;ave him&s;elfe from the plots of <HI>Ne&s;&s;us</HI> the Centaure, no more then <HI>Sam&s;on</HI> (the Jewi&s;h <HI>Hercules</HI>) from the com|plottings of his Harlot and the Phili&s;tines again&s;t his life and liberty, <HI>Iud.</HI> 16.20. &s;o unhappy is all humane power and &s;trength (as all may &s;ee in the&s;e two broken gla&s;&s;es) if God once leave it, as the German Phoenix <HI>Melancthon</HI> hath well ob&s;erved: &s;o happy are all tho&s;e true I&s;raelites, true-hearted <HI>Nathanaels,</HI> patrizing with <HI>Abraham,</HI> to whom God hath made a promi&s;e, that he will ble&s;&s;e tho&s;e who ble&s;&s;e them, and cur&s;e tho&s;e who cur&s;e them, <HI>Gen.</HI> 12.3. there being as it were a covenanted League (as now betwixt two Nations, and oft betwixt the Romans and their Con|federates) betwixt Chri&s;t and his Church, mutually to aid one another in all e&s;&s;ayes and a&s;&s;aults. Oh! if the Saints be ble&s;&s;ed who offer them&s;elves willingly to help the Lord, <HI>Iudg.</HI> 5.9.23. it's no que&s;tion of the other aux|iliary; God will never be wanting to help them, <HI>&s;ecundum nece&s;&s;itatem, non voluntatem,</HI> according to their nece&s;&s;ity, when God will, not according to their own will, (which is now the ca&s;e of our Engli&s;h Sion) forbeggers mu&s;t be no choo&s;ers: <HI>Novit Medicus, non agrotus,</HI> our Phy&s;itian knowes better then we, poore impatient Patients, how and when to balme our long Phlebotomized bleeding times from our regnant crimes: we mu&s;t
<PB N="27" REF="15">not indent nor articulate with the King of Kings, nor limit the Almigh|ty by our pre&s;criptions, as did the Bethulians, <HI>Iudith</HI> 7.30, 31. and that wicked <HI>Iehoram,</HI> 2 <HI>King</HI> 6.33. it is enough that he will not alwayes be plowing, and that the rod of the wicked &s;hall not alwayes be upon the godly, but at la&s;t be burned, when his peccant children are &s;courged and humbled, upon his promi&s;es of deliverance, <HI>tandem aliquando,</HI> at his good lei&s;ure and plea&s;ure, not at ours: In the interim, let every perplexed &s;pi|rit work upon this meditation, (even parallelling <HI>parvis magna,</HI> the &s;trong God with the weak arme of fle&s;h:) that if the Romans put &s;uch &s;uc|ce&s;&s;efull confidence in their <HI>Manlius,</HI> the defender of their Capitoll; in their <HI>Camillus,</HI> langui&s;hing Romes re&s;torer; in their <HI>Marcellus,</HI> Romes &s;word; in their <HI>Fabius,</HI> Romes <HI>Atlas</HI> again&s;t <HI>Hannibal,</HI> the Greeks in their <HI>Themi&s;tocles,</HI> the prop and pillar: in their eloquent and thundering Orators <HI>Demo&s;thenes</HI> and <HI>Pericles,</HI> and of latter times the French in their <HI>Huon</HI> of Bourdeaux, their great <HI>Virago Jean de Pucill,</HI> but chiefly in their <HI>Charles</HI> the &s;onne of <HI>Pipin,</HI> called the Hammer of their enemies; as the Germanes in their <HI>Otho</HI> the fourth, called for his victories, <HI>Mundi mira|culum,</HI> the wonder of the world; as the Hungarians once in their <HI>Hunni|ades</HI> and <HI>Mathias,</HI> with others, who&s;e Martiall exploits are famou&s;ed in <HI>Plutark, Livie, A. Gellius,</HI><NOTE N="a" PLACE="marg"><HI>Lib.</HI> 2, <HI>cap.</HI> 11.</NOTE> <HI>Sabellicus,</HI><NOTE N="b" PLACE="marg">Lib. <HI>6.</HI> Aeneid. c. <HI>13</HI></NOTE> <HI>Aventinus,</HI><NOTE N="c" PLACE="marg">Lib. <HI>3.</HI> an|nal.</NOTE> <HI>Pontanus,</HI><NOTE N="d" PLACE="marg">De Forti|tudine.</NOTE> <HI>Fulgo&s;us, Alex. ab Alexandro,</HI> lib 2. c. 11. and others, yea if our Engli&s;h were &s;ometimes &s;o confident in the glories of our Nation, our <HI>Bevis</HI> of Hampton, our Prince <HI>Arthur</HI> and his Knights, our <HI>Ed|mond</HI> &s;on of <HI>Etheldred,</HI> called Iron &s;ides, our <HI>Guy</HI> of <HI>War|wick</HI> the Conquerer of <HI>Corinaeus,</HI> and other &s;ubduers of men and mon&s;ters, yea, if we that were lately &s;tormed and di&s;tre&s;&s;ed in the Land of Ire by the numerous Rebells, were &s;o happy in the ever &s;ucce&s;&s;efull valour and Heroick re&s;olves of that un|daunted Sir <HI>Charles Coot,</HI> the &s;courge Kerne as his Anagram beares it, and the terrour to the Rebells, as <HI>Richard</HI> the fir&s;t once to the Turks, and our <HI>Talbot</HI> to the French, who&s;e very name put them into a pannick feare, and made them fly as tripping Does and Ra&s;calls before our Mar|tial Beagles into <HI>Tyrones</HI> old Forts of Woods and Bogs.</P>
<P>I &s;ay, if there have been &s;uch helps, &s;uch hopes in all Ages, in armes of fle&s;h, in fraile men, who&s;e breaths were in their no&s;trills when God plea&s;ed to animate them, as Organs of doing good, or preventing e|vills in &s;ome States and Common-wealths, then rouzing our hearts a little higher, how much more hope and affiance ought we to place in the fountaine of &s;trength, then in the &s;treames? in the root and &s;trong bole,
<PB N="28" REF="16">then in the weak and broken branches? in the primitive power, then in the derivative? in him that both in the Ab&s;tract and Concrete is both power|full and power it &s;elf, both mighty and might it &s;elfe, even omnipotent as well as omni&s;cious, and omnipre&s;ent, who as by &s;peaking but a word he made the heavens, Gen. 1.15. calmed the Seas, turned the red Sea backward, Exod. 14.22. &s;tayed the raging of the waves and winds, Mat. 8.26. ca&s;t out Devils, Mark 1.26. cured the Leapers, Mark 1.40. rai&s;ed the dead, Joh. 11.43, 44. recovered the Centurions &s;ervant, Mat. 8.8. hea|led all di&s;ea&s;es, Mat. 9.2.29. &s;o if he &s;peake but the word he can &s;heath the &s;word, it &s;hall not drink a drop of blood more: if we could but turne to him as we are injoyned, with rent hearts and broken, as corn in a Mill, and pepper in a Mortar, Joel 2.12. P&s;a. 51.17. we &s;hould by turning our mirth into mourning, Jam. 4.9. &s;o turne his frownes into favours, his judgements into mercies, that in a trice his eare being not heavie to heare, E&s;a. 59.2. more then in the like ca&s;es with ours, 1 Sam. 7.6, 7, Judg. 2.5, 6, 7. &amp; cap. 20.26. with one word he would turn our &s;torms into calmes, our warres into peace, our &s;ighs into &s;ongs of deliverance; yea our Swords into Scythes, our Iron Helmets into Bee Hives, our in|&s;truments of cruelty into in&s;truments of mercies, our <HI>Mars</HI> into <HI>Mi|nerva,</HI> our Martiall Guns into Gownes: were but we turned as once <HI>Saul</HI> to <HI>Paul,</HI> Act. 9.6. from Wolves to Lambs, from Goats to Sheep, from Newtralls and Laodiceans to anchored Zeali&s;ts, yea from Lions and rearing Tygers, to Kids, living and loving together in a peace, in&s;epara|bly married unto grace, E&s;a. 11.6, 7, 8. Oh! could we with the old yeare ca&s;t away the old man, which is corrupt, and old fa&s;hions and deceivable abhominable lu&s;ts, Col. 3.9. Eph. 4.22. Rom. 12.2. and with the new yeare put on Chri&s;t the new man, and be renewed in the inner man, Rom. 13.14. Eph. 4.23, 24. as the Serpent ca&s;ts off his old &s;lough, the Stag his old head, the Colt his old haire, the Lob&s;ters their old &s;hells, the Eagle her old bill, whereby her age reneweth, and &s;ome men, women and chil|dren their old teeth, (rather then their old tongues) could we thus ca&s;t off our abominations, Ezek. 18.31. our lying vanities, Jon. 2.8. our heart Idolls, E&s;a. 31.7. our works of darkne&s;&s;e, Rom. 13.12. with hatred and indignation, in loathing and leaving every &s;in, the true &s;ignall of &s;a|ving repentance, 2 Cor. 7.10.11. how &s;oon then would God ca&s;t all our tran&s;gre&s;&s;ions into the grave of his &s;onne, into the mid&s;t of the Sea as a mil&s;tone, Micah 7.19. how &s;oon would he make an act of oblivion, Ezek, 18.22. of all our former Delinquencies, how &s;oon (contrary to the na|ture of Foes, but &s;uperficially reconciled) would he write our enmity in du&s;t, our repentance in bra&s;&s;e? were we but once ca&s;t in a new
<PB N="29" REF="16">mould, as old metalls broke melted and renewed, to ring better peales of prayers, and prai&s;es, how &s;oon &s;hould we be ca&s;t into the armes of his mercies, that by a ju&s;tifying faith having peace with him, Rom. 5.1. by our grand peace-maker, Eph. 2.14. we &s;hould &s;oon have peace one with another, though as yet there is no peace to the wicked, &s;aith my God, E&s;a. 57, 21. neither let us ever expect it, or delu&s;ively dreame of it, &s;o long as the Whoredomes and Witchcrafts of &s;o many <HI>Jezabels</HI> conti|nue, 2 King. 9.22. of he and &s;he, fal&s;e Prophets, Rev. 2.20. as by &s;uch old Here&s;ies new conjured up from hell, and &s;uch new fanta&s;mes and fop|peries as Angells and men fearce ever heard before, the &s;oules of &s;o many millions are &s;o poi&s;oned, their minds &s;o di&s;tracted, and their inte&s;tine hatreds &s;o inflamed one again&s;t another, more then ever the Samaritans again&s;t the Jewes, Joh 4.9. that <HI>Timpler, Althu&s;ius, Arni&s;aeus, Tholo&s;anus, Bodin</HI> the French-man, our Engli&s;h <HI>Ca&s;e,</HI> and all Politicians within the &s;phere of my reading, &s;hould be deceived, if <HI>Schi&s;ma Eccle&s;ia&s;ticum</HI> an Eccle&s;ia&s;ticall Schi&s;me, as it is now the mother, &s;o it do not continue as in all States where it kindles her wildfires) the Nur&s;e &s;eminary and fu|ellizer of <HI>Schi&s;ma Politicum,</HI> of perpetuated factions, fractions, di&s;tra|ctions, and (Germany tells us) de&s;tructions al&s;o in our Common-wealths, and for my part I wi&s;h my predictions might prove as fal&s;e, as they will be &s;leighted, though as true as tho&s;e of <HI>Laomedon, Chalcas</HI> and <HI>Ca&s;&s;andra,</HI> which were not believed, till &s;upine &s;ecure and incredulous Troy were fired, that the Toleration of many Religions in one Kingdome, which &s;ome would thru&s;t in upon us by head and &s;houlders, <HI>invita Minerva,</HI> without one breathing of the Spirit from the word, or the lea&s;t glimp&s;e of Con&s;cience grounded on Science, <HI>Con&s;cientia cordis &s;cientia,</HI> taking light from the unerring Scriptures, as the Moon from the Sun, without which it is but like a Papall Purgatory, a Triton, a <HI>Chymaera,</HI> an opinion at be&s;t, or a phanta&s;me, that &s;uch a Toleration of Liberty as the Libertines in Belgia once pleaded, and planted at la&s;t in bloud, in the Ru&s;tick war, will bring any more peace among&s;t us, then betwixt <HI>Menclaus</HI> and <HI>Paris,</HI> &s;triving for one <HI>Helena;</HI> or betwixt the true Mother and the fal&s;e in <HI>So|lomons</HI> time, conte&s;ting for one Child; or betwixt <HI>Cae&s;ar</HI> and <HI>Pompey,</HI> bandying bloudy blows for one Supreme Power; or betwixt the &s;even Cities that conte&s;ted for one <HI>Homer;</HI> or then was in Rome Papall, when three Anti-Popes, &s;iring the whole Chri&s;tian world, run at Tilt for one Triple Miter; or then was betwixt <HI>Henry Monmouth,</HI> the right Heir to an Albion Crown, and <HI>Richard</HI> the U&s;urper, when the &s;word decided the undivided Scepter in Bo&s;worth field: yea, no more probable peace among&s;t many Religions, or indeed many painted errours, vanities, and
<PB N="30" REF="17">gro&s;&s;e Here&s;ies, if not &s;uch bla&s;phemies as in the Jewi&s;h Thalmud, or Tur|ki&s;h Alcoran, which (as our late powder Trea&s;on, the Iri&s;h Rebellion, <HI>Ab&s;aloms</HI> con&s;piracy, <HI>Ahabs</HI> a&s;&s;a&s;inating of <HI>Naboth,</HI><NOTE PLACE="marg"><HI>Read in&s;tances in</HI> Tholo&s;a|nus de rep. <HI>lib.</HI> 13. <HI>pag.</HI> 878. <HI>c.</HI> 7. <HI>pag.</HI> 909. <HI>c.</HI> 8.903, 904, 905. Bodin de rep. <HI>lib.</HI> 7. <HI>c.</HI> 7. <HI>pag.</HI> 547. Eu&s;ebius <HI>lib.</HI> 2. <HI>c.</HI> 13. Scorates <HI>lib.</HI> 5. <HI>hi&s;t. c.</HI> 16.</NOTE> <HI>Herods</HI> inten&s;ive butchering of the Bethlehem Babe, and the mo&s;t pe&s;tilent plots and de&s;ignes for vile and &s;ini&s;ter ends, ever among&s;t Jews, Turks, Chri&s;tians and Pa|gans, have ever been palliated and cloaked and vailed in the habit of Religion, and in the helmet of holine&s;&s;e and hone&s;ty.</P>
<P>I &s;ay all the&s;e Hydra-headed errours, different from truth, and from them&s;elves, will no more gain or retain any peace, with one true Ortho|dox and Uniforme Religion, then there was peace among&s;t the diver|&s;ified lu&s;tfull Lovers of one <HI>Penelope,</HI> all hating <HI>&V;ly&s;&s;es</HI> her legall husband, as well as one another; or then peace betwixt <HI>Agamemnon</HI> and <HI>Achilles,</HI> about <HI>Bri&s;eis; Troilus</HI> and <HI>Diomedes</HI> about one <HI>Cre&s;&s;ida; Turnus</HI> and <HI>Aeneas</HI> about one <HI>Lavinia:</HI> alas &s;uch Peace, (as any may fore&s;ee a &s;torm, that &s;ees the pendent pitchy Cloud,) as hath been ever among the Tur|ki&s;h <HI>Ottomans,</HI> when he that prevailed in the Throne, whether ju&s;tly or unju&s;tly, ever either impri&s;oned, exoculated, or executed all the re&s;t of the Bloud-Royall, as <HI>Abimelech</HI> the bramble, dealt with all his Brethren, the &s;ons of <HI>Gideon,</HI> Judg. 9.5. and <HI>Jehu</HI> with all the &s;ons of <HI>Ahab,</HI> 2 Kings 10.17. or &s;uch Peace between Here&s;ie and Truth as will &s;et all on fire, Luk. 12.47. as would be between 6 or 7 Cocks of the game in one Pit, where they will either be all victors, or all die, though upon no other quarrell then Ambition, which domineers in Bea&s;ts and men, but mo&s;t in men metamorpho&s;ed to Bea&s;ts, by being brutized either by lu&s;ts in their life and conver&s;ation, or drunke with errours and &s;trange opinions, as a Crow with <HI>Nux vomica;</HI> even to reeling, and &s;taggering, and occa&s;ioning or cau&s;ing a whole Kingdom to reel, &s;tagger, and totter with them to pro|bable ruination, <HI>quod omen avertat Deus:</HI> which to prevent, let us halt no more betwixt two opinions, nay betwixt more opinions then colours in the Rain-bow, if not then <HI>Argus</HI> eyes in the Peacocks traine: if every Babilon and every <HI>Baal,</HI> every reared <HI>Dagon,</HI> be God or for God, or from God, adhere to it, 1 Kin. 18.21. but if God be God, and there be but one God, <HI>ip&s;i&s;&s;ima veritas,</HI> as one e&s;&s;entiall &s;oule, &s;aving truth, and but one true way of wor&s;hipping this God, in &s;pirit and truth, John 4.23, 24. as there is but one &s;oul and &s;pirit in man to be &s;aved by this right wor&s;hip, without will wor&s;hips, Papi&s;ticall, Phari&s;aicall, or Schi&s;maticall, and if this God will admit no corrivalls in a Church or &s;tate (as was told the
<PB N="31" REF="17">Romane Senate, that Chri&s;t would have no copartner&s;hip with their Pagani&s;h Gods,) yea if this God hate all plowing with an Oxe and a Hor&s;e, all &s;owing with mi&s;cellanian &s;eeds, all lin&s;ey-wool&s;ey weavings; all compounded, interwoven, intermixed Wor&s;hips in a hotch-potch, and a galley-mawfrey Religion, as hee is a pure and &s;imple Spirit, no more mixing with fal&s;e Spirits of lies and errours, then fire with wa|ter, oyle (which ever &s;wims above) with any poy&s;oned liquids: if it be thus with God, then let my pen, as well as tongue, in pre&s;&s;e, pew, and Pulpit, preach to all <HI>John</HI>-indifferents, all Scepticks, all Seekers for any new Religion, as if they went yearly or monethly to Poland, or Am|&s;terdam, or Holland, to &s;eeke a new one, or were white paper, fit to take any print or blot, or wax for any &s;eale, new ve&s;&s;els for any &s;ea&s;oning, &s;weet or &s;ower, with wine or vinegar: let me &s;ay to &s;uch, even what Chri&s;t preached to Sathan him&s;elfe, who is a liar in the tongues of Here|ticks, as well as a murtherer in the &s;words of Tyrants, John 8.44. doe thou wor&s;hip the Lord thy God, and him only do thou &s;erve, Mat. 4.10. &s;o &s;halt thou gain &s;uch figs from thi&s;tles, &s;uch fruits from foes, both to thy body and &s;oul, goods, goodne&s;&s;e and good name, that though the Land &s;hould be darke like Egypt, yet thou &s;halt find a light&s;ome Go&s;hen in thine owne &s;oule, Exod. 10.23. thy fleece &s;hould be wet like <HI>Gideons,</HI> with the dews of grace, though the whole Kingdome &s;hould be as dry and barren as the &s;ands of Africk: thou &s;hould&s;t be as a cube or &s;quare, <HI>undique quadratus,</HI> to fall right and &s;traight, which way &s;oever the many headed multitude moved, right or wrong; thou &s;hould&s;t bee fixed as the two poles, the Axhurried as in a ratling Coaeltrees of Heaven, which way &s;oever the &s;copperill and whirligig times did volve and rowle, thou &s;houlde&s;t ca&s;t the Anchor of truth in our tempe&s;tuous &s;eas, in the high &s;woln waves of all wind|blown-opinions, ruffling in &s;uch fierce and furious oppo&s;ition; yea if thy wayes do plea&s;e the Lord, thy enemies &s;hall be at peace with thee: Let the&s;e curative cordials, be as words &s;poken to the weary in due&s;ea&s;on, let them be as apples of gold, with pictures of &s;ilver to refre&s;h him who &s;aith with <HI>Gideon,</HI> if the Lord be with me, why then is all this evill befallen me? Judg. 6.13. why goe I thus heavily oppre&s;&s;ed with my foe? as <HI>Han|nah</HI> was provoked by her adver&s;ary, to make her fret, 1 Sam 1.6. how long &s;hall mine enemy be exalted over me, P&s;a. 13.2. how long &s;hall my fal&s;e familiar friend, my <HI>Junior Achitophel</HI> plot mi&s;chiefe again&s;t me? yea, being unequallly yoaked with a <HI>Zipporah,</HI> or a <HI>Xantippe,</HI> my <HI>uxor,</HI> my vexer, how doe I wear a &s;trait pinching &s;hoe, yet unle&s;&s;e I goe barefoot and wear upon the hoof, I cannot put it off, no more then the hor&s;e in the Fable could put out of his mouth the curbing bitt, or throw off the &s;addle
<PB N="32" REF="18">of &s;ervitude which man his rider and derider put upon him, when he was once as free as the wild Stag and Buck upon the wide mountaines, ere he fooli&s;hly va&s;&s;alized him&s;elfe, like an infranchized free-man made a &s;lave? Oh how long &s;hall I hold a Wolfe by the eares, if I hold him he bites, if I let him goe and re&s;i&s;t him, he worries? how long &s;hall I be hurried as in a ratling Coach, or to&s;&s;ed &s;hip, which way I would not: yet if I leap out, I break my leg or neck by land, or drowne by &s;ea? <HI>quo me vertam ne&s;cio,</HI> doe what I can, I faile betwixt <HI>Scylla</HI> and <HI>Charibdis,</HI> I &s;plit on one rock or other: my propo&s;ed &s;alves will be as ill as my &s;ores, like <HI>Androdus</HI> the Roman: I am fed as in the Lions Den; all the waies I pro|ject to helpe my &s;elfe, &s;eem to me as de&s;parate as to him who cut off his great Toes to cure the Gout, yea, leaping as it were out of the frying-pan into the fire, lik to the Flounder, <HI>a malo ad pejus,</HI> from evill to wor&s;e; for e&s;caping (with &s;uch difficulty and danger, as the Hare from the Hounds) from the Iri&s;h Caniballs and Nimrodians, thinking here to &s;wat &amp; tapez &s;afely, I have in two or three places &s;heltred my &s;elfe as the &s;heep under brambles and briers with &s;ome torne fleece, if not fle&s;h; and at this in&s;tant I and my poor peri&s;hing Children, roa&s;ting as at a lingring &s;ire, and dy|ing and con&s;uming by degrees, as Lampes goe out wanting Oyle; wee cry for bread as hungry Birds to their Dams, and children to dry nur&s;es, yea as Pri&s;oners in Ludgate to Adders eares: while the corne (&s;aith <HI>vox populi</HI>) to feed us reaped in a &s;ilver Harve&s;t in Holland and in England, is either (as is <HI>vox loculi</HI>) put into private poakes, from whence like the prey in the Lions paw, there is <HI>reductio perimpo&s;&s;ibile,</HI> or elfe diverted a|nother way, as if <HI>Peter</HI> &s;hould be rob'd to pay <HI>Paul;</HI> and further this is my mi&s;ery, that though <HI>venter non habet aures,</HI> the belly hath no eares, and tho&s;e that grieve mu&s;t groan; yet if hunger the wor&s;t of all plagues as <HI>Homer</HI> calls it, find but a complaining tongue, it's probable to get me a bolted heel: if I do but vent my mind, my wind, like the Whale and the Otter in the water, and the Moal above the Earth, I may be &s;truck with the &s;harp &s;pear of con&s;truction or correction. Oh is there any hope in I&s;rael for the&s;e harmes? any balm in Gilead for the&s;e griefs? any Mi|thridate for the&s;e maladies, mi&s;eries? any Ro&s;es from the&s;e pricks, cries Pierce Pennile&s;&s;e) Oh yes: for if we beleive <HI>Dio&s;corides Dodoneus,</HI> &amp; Sir <HI>F. B.</HI> Centuries, Ro&s;es grow be&s;t and &s;mell &s;weete&s;t, neer unto &s;trong &s;ented Onions and Garlick, yea we &s;ee among&s;t Nettles and Thornes: and it is ob&s;erved by Herbali&s;ts, that tho&s;e Ro&s;es that are without pricks, as your wild Cop-ro&s;es in cornes, and Canker-ro&s;es in hedges, are ill &s;ented and good for nought, ba&s;e (as excellent Emblemes of pro&s;perity and adver&s;i|ty) in re&s;pect of tho&s;e with pricks, excellent in colour, odoriferous in &s;mell,
<PB N="33" REF="18">which though they oft grow low, and among&s;t thornes, yet exceed your canker-ro&s;es high bloom'd in hedges, as much as a &s;cale weighed downe with gold is above a &s;cale fild with feathers and fuzballs, which flurts up like &s;ome light heads, from low barnes, chaires and tubs, as high as <HI>Ez|ra's</HI> pulpit, <HI>Nehem.</HI> 8.4.</P>
<P>O it is a comfortable truth, which is affirmed and confirmed from many examples in all ages by the be&s;t Belgick Divines,<NOTE N="a" PLACE="marg">Melancthon in po&s;tillis part. <HI>4.</HI> pag. <HI>4.37.</HI> &amp; in locis, fol. <HI>466.</HI></NOTE> <HI>Luther</HI><NOTE N="b" PLACE="marg"><HI>Pag.</HI> 241.</NOTE> in his Colloquies; <HI>Stri|gellius</HI> in his Chronicles<NOTE N="c" PLACE="marg">Part. <HI>1.</HI> pag. <HI>351.</HI> part. <HI>2.</HI> p. <HI>51</HI></NOTE> <HI>Sigfridus Saccus</HI> in his Po&s;tils<NOTE N="d" PLACE="marg"><HI>Part.</HI> 1. <HI>pag.</HI> 126.</NOTE>, with others; that as Ro&s;es grow the be&s;t with pricks and among thornes, Onions be&s;t and bigge&s;t in &s;tormes and tempe&s;ts<NOTE N="e" PLACE="marg">Pezelius de Margaritis c. <HI>3.</HI></NOTE> the Palme tree (according to <HI>Pliny</HI>) <HI>in terra &s;al&s;a &amp; nitro&s;a,</HI> in a &s;alt earth, and when it is mo&s;t pre&s;t with weight, according to the old ver&s;e,</P>
<Q><L>Nititur in pondus palma, &amp; con&s;urgit in altum,</L>
<L>Quo magis &amp; premitur, hoc mage tollit onus.</L></Q>
<P>Yea as it is green like the Lawrell in winter as well as in Summer, and buds againe <HI>&s;ucci&s;a &amp; emortua,</HI> when cut, and &s;eemingly dead, with many other rarities in it, de|&s;cribed by <HI>Camerarius</HI><NOTE N="g" PLACE="marg"><HI>Cap.</HI> 84. <HI>pag.</HI> 472.</NOTE> in his Centuries: &s;o the Church of Chri&s;t, and every true Chri&s;tian is and hath been ever more glorious under the Cro&s;&s;e, under Tyrants, Sophi|&s;ters and Hereticks, (the three great pe&s;ts and plagues of the Church now) as they have been ever, (if we be|lieve <HI>Hemingius</HI><NOTE N="h" PLACE="marg">In his Po&s;tils fol. <HI>264.269.</HI></NOTE> <HI>Gualter</HI><NOTE N="i" PLACE="marg">In Mat. cap. <HI>23.</HI></NOTE> <HI>Strigellius</HI><NOTE N="k" PLACE="marg">In Argum. P&s;al. <HI>28.</HI> &amp; <HI>83.</HI> fol. <HI>79.</HI></NOTE> and <HI>Melan|cthon</HI><NOTE N="l" PLACE="marg">In his Po&s;tils part. <HI>4.</HI> p. <HI>585.</HI></NOTE>) then when it had mo&s;t re&s;t and peace, it increa|&s;ing more, and budding more under <HI>Nero, Domitian, Decius, Iulian, Maximinus, Gen&s;ericus, Theodorick</HI> and other Pagan and Arrian per&s;ecutors, when it was water|ed and grew by the bloud of the Martyrs, as both <HI>Ter|tullian</HI><NOTE N="m" PLACE="marg">Plures effi|cimur quoties metimur.</NOTE>, and <HI>Eu&s;ebius</HI><NOTE N="n" PLACE="marg">Lib. hi&s;t. <HI>9.</HI></NOTE>, yea experience have ob&s;erved, then when it had mo&s;t re&s;t and peace under <HI>Con&s;tantine,</HI> and other Halcyon dayes of tranquillity, when Here&s;ies were hatcht like Summer Gnats in heats and Sun&s;hines: and at la&s;t the Antichri&s;tian Pope, from ambition of Prelates and Patriarchs for &s;uperiority<NOTE N="o" PLACE="marg">See Morney de progre&s;&s;u Papatus.</NOTE>, when Reli|gion begot riches, and the daughter viper-like devoured the mother: when pro&s;perity (like the Sun which cau|&s;ed the Traveller in <HI>Plutarch</HI> to ca&s;t off his cloke) made men ca&s;t off the true wor&s;hip of God, and adver&s;ity (like the raine, which made him<NOTE N="f" PLACE="marg">Hi&s;t. lib. <HI>13.</HI> c. <HI>4.</HI></NOTE>
<PB N="26" REF="19">buckle his cloke to him) cau&s;ed men to cleave clo&s;er towards God, even as <HI>Iacob</HI> was more glorious in his vi&s;ion of Angells when he lay in the open fields with a &s;tone under his head, then when he po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ed Canaan, <HI>Gen.</HI> 28.11, 12. <HI>Noah</HI> more glorious pent a whole yeare in the Arke, pre&s;erved a|mong wild bea&s;ts, then when he planted vines and was drunk, <HI>Gen.</HI> 7.1. c. 8.1. cap. 9.20, 21. &s;o <HI>Jo&s;eph</HI> was mo&s;t glorious in pri&s;on, where God revea|led dreames unto him, <HI>Gen.</HI> 39. <HI>Iohn</HI> in his exile in Pathmos, where he re|ceived Revelations, <HI>Rev.</HI> 1. The children of I&s;rael in the red Sea, where they had their pre&s;ervation, <HI>Exod.</HI> 14. In the wilderne&s;&s;e, where Manna from heaven was their meat, and the rock gave them drink, <HI>Exod.</HI> 16. The captived Jewes in Babylon, where God &s;tir'd them up &s;uch excellent Pro|phets, as <HI>Daniel, Ezekiel, Zachary, Haggai,</HI> and propagated his wor&s;hip by them to Kings and Kingdomes. And as Chri&s;t him&s;elfe was more glo|rious on the Cro&s;&s;e, then when the Jewes entertained him with their Ho|&s;anna's, <HI>John</HI> 12.14. for then the Centurion, <HI>Luke</HI> 23.47. <HI>Pilates</HI> wife, <HI>Mat.</HI> 27.15. the darkne&s;&s;e of the earth, <HI>Marke</HI> 15.33. the eclip&s;ed Sun, <HI>Mat.</HI> 27.15. the earthquake, the opened graves, the veile of the Temple, and the rocks rent, ver&s;. 51, 52. te&s;tified his innocency, as al&s;o <HI>Iudas</HI> his betrayer, <HI>Mat.</HI> 27.4. and the thief that was crucified and converted, <HI>Mat.</HI> 27.43. &s;o if thou be a true di&s;ciple of this Ma&s;ter, a living member of this my&s;ticall Head, and not as a wooden leg, and a gla&s;&s;ie eye, livele&s;&s;e and &s;en&s;le&s;&s;e: the more thy enemies &s;eek to cloud thee, the more thou &s;halt &s;hine, like &s;tarres in a darke night: the hotter the furnace of their wrath, the more &s;hall the gold of thy Faith be purified: the more the winds blow, the more Oake like &s;halt thou be fixed and rooted in thy holy re&s;olutions, 2 Sam. 6.20, 21. as <HI>David</HI> by the mocks of <HI>Michal:</HI> the more thy foes rub thee like a Pomander, yea pounce thee in the mortar of their malice, the &s;pices of thy graces &s;mell the &s;weeter: the more that Sathan and his Organs winnow thee, the le&s;&s;e chaffe they leave in thee; the more thy Kitchin-&s;culs &s;cum thee and &s;cour thee as a ve&s;&s;el of Honour, the brighter they make thee: the tongues of the&s;e Dogs, the&s;e Cerberized whelpes, doe but medicinably lick the &s;ores of thy &s;ins, as once the ulcers of <HI>Lazarus;</HI> their Gall and Aloes doth but imbitter the dugs of the world to thee, that Chri&s;t may be more &s;weet; the&s;e bug-beares do but make thee cry and fly into the armes of thy Fa|ther, <HI>&amp; faelix crux quae ducit ad Christum,</HI> it is a happy Cro&s;&s;e which drives thee, yea drawes thee nearer unto Chri&s;t; it is no matter how fierce and rough the winds be, that drive the loaden &s;hip &s;ooner and &s;afer into her Haven, the Port of Peace.</P>
<P>The conclu&s;ion of all is to prevent confu&s;ion, we may be wronged
<PB N="35" REF="19">by others, hurt only by our &s;elves, others may plunder our goods, but &s;o long as the fle&s;h is &s;ound the &s;ilver feathers may grow againe, as in <HI>Jobs</HI> ca&s;e, Job 42.10. the Devill him&s;elfe could not hurt <HI>Job,</HI> nor his cur|&s;ed wife, though called the Devills Dam, <HI>Naomi</HI> that is emptie may be full againe, Ruth 1.21. however, thou runne&s;t thy race never wor&s;e to heaven, though thon wante&s;t thy trappings and golden Bo&s;&s;es, and though thou bee&s;t in as great exigents as once <HI>David,</HI> 1 Sam. 21.3. &amp; ca. 25.8. and as <HI>Elias,</HI> 1 King. 17.12, 13. to beg thy bread of &s;ome <HI>Nabal,</HI> &s;ome poor Widdow, yea as poore as <HI>Job</HI> on the dunghill, or as once Chri&s;t thy Ma&s;ter, Luk. 9.58. yet in all this not for&s;aken, P&s;a. 37.21. the Lord for&s;akes not his Saints, V. 28. though the Lions lack and &s;uffer hunger, yet they &s;hall not want, P&s;al. 34.10. though they gather but a little Manna it &s;ufficeth, Exod. 16.18.20. godline&s;&s;e with contentation is enough, 1 Tim. 6.8. God can ble&s;&s;e to them a little meale, a little oyl in a cru&s;e as to two poor Widdowes, 1 King. 17.13. 2 King. 4.2. a little pul&s;e to <HI>Daniel,</HI> cap. 1.12.13. as &s;ometimes a few Turnops and Potatoes, when we were be&s;ieged in Ireland as well as a &s;talled Oxe. There is one Pearle even for a Prince which cannot be plundered, it adornes a Crown though be&s;et with Thornes, and this Pearle is patience, a great po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion unto all, as Chri&s;t calls it, Luke 21.19. a rich dowry to a Widdow as poore as <HI>Ruth,</HI> a po&s;&s;e&s;&s;ion out of which the Devill him&s;elfe could not di&s;po&s;&s;e&s;&s;e <HI>Job,</HI> c. 1.22. withall, thou maye&s;t be wronged in thy name, a <HI>Jo&s;eph</HI> may be fal&s;ly accu&s;ed, a <HI>Cato,</HI> a <HI>Scipio,</HI> an <HI>Abner,</HI> a <HI>Themi&s;tocles,</HI> a <HI>Phocion,</HI> a <HI>Socrates,</HI> yea the be&s;t Patriots and Patricians may be que&s;ti|oned, an <HI>Athana&s;ius,</HI> an <HI>Eugenius,</HI> a <HI>Narci&s;&s;us</HI> may be &s;candalized in life and Doctrine by the Arrians, as was <HI>Calvin, Beza, Luther,</HI> our be&s;t Belgick Divines, by <HI>Cocleus, Bol&s;ecus, Scurrilous Kelli&s;on, Endemon, (Caco|demon,)</HI> and other Romi&s;h <HI>Rab&s;hakehs:</HI> but what of this? is an Eagle hurt by the chartering of a Crow? or a Lion by the yelps of a Curre? doth the Moon &s;hine le&s;&s;e though the Dogs of Egypt bark at it? can earthly or lunatick interpo&s;itions long ecclip&s;e the Sun&s;hine of the Saints? we have heard of a Grandee which wi&s;hed his man to call him Knave, and then &s;hakt the lap of his Gowne, and what was he wor&s;e for it? words are but wind, they breake no bones, <HI>quid male feci,</HI> what evill have I done may any <HI>Plato</HI> &s;ay, that a bad man &s;peakes well of me, <HI>de me male dicunt a&s;t mali,</HI> God will doe <HI>David</HI> good, even <HI>eo nomine,</HI> becau&s;e <HI>Shimei</HI> reviles him, 2 Sam. 16.12.</P>
<P>Be&s;ides thou art impri&s;oned, yea <HI>Paul</HI> and <HI>Silas</HI> may be &s;o far wrong|ed as whipt in pri&s;on, Act. 16. yet not hurt, the&s;e ble&s;&s;ed Birds &s;ing &s;wee|ter tones in their cages, v. 25. then ever the birds of <HI>Hanno</HI> or <HI>Sapho;</HI>
<PB N="36" REF="20">thou maye&s;t be al&s;o &s;o farre wrong'd, as to be bani&s;hed thy Countrey, and bandied, and racketed from po&s;t to pillar, and find no re&s;t like <HI>Noahs</HI> Dove, to the &s;oale of thy foot, yet not hurt, &s;o long as thou find&s;t re&s;t in Chri&s;t, &s;o long as the Spirit doth vi&s;it thee in thy Pathmos, Rev. 1.10, 11. <HI>omne &s;olum forti Patria,</HI> the Sun &s;hines every where, and God is found in every Countrey, indeed could thy foes bani&s;h God from thee, as thy &s;innes doe, thy wor&s;t foes, then thy ca&s;e were lamentable, as once <HI>Sauls,</HI> 1 Sam. 16.14. &amp; cap. 28.15, 16.</P>
<P>La&s;tly, thy foes may take away thy life, yet they hurt thee not, onely &s;in hurts thee, that deprives thee of the life of grace and of the life of glory, that deads thy &s;oule here, Ephe&s;. 2.1. Luk. 6.60. and damnes it hereafter, Rom. 6.23. it is onely &s;inne the &s;ting of death which hurts thee, 1 Cor. 15.55, 56. which &s;ting being taken away by Chri&s;t, thou mai&s;t put this &s;tingle&s;&s;e Bee in thy bo&s;ome, v. 57. death is to thee a &s;weet &s;leep, E|&s;ay 57.2. a ble&s;&s;ed re&s;t, Rev. 14.13. in <HI>Abrahams</HI> bo&s;ome, Luk. 16.22. in the&s;e and whatever el&s;e is obnoxious to humane nature, the Saints are Conquerors, Rom. 8.37. now did Conque&s;ts ever hurt a <HI>Cae&s;ar,</HI> a <HI>Pom|pey,</HI> a <HI>Lucullus,</HI> a <HI>Fabius?</HI> doe all things health, wealth, poverty, &s;ick|ne&s;&s;e, life, death, friends, foes, worke together for the good of the E|lect, Rom. 8.28. as all the Phy&s;icall Simples in a compound for the good of a Patient? all the Starres and Planets by their influence, for the good of the&s;e &s;ublunary bodies? and can that which works for our good doe us hurt, unle&s;&s;e we hurt our &s;elves? as indeed we doe, bring|ing the wor&s;t foes we have from home with us, yea carrying them a|bout with us as Snakes in our bo&s;omes to &s;ting us, our &s;innes our darling regnant unmortified &s;innes bred in our &s;oules, the&s;e and onely the&s;e be|ing the <HI>Achans</HI> in our Camps to di&s;turb us, the <HI>Sinons</HI> in our Cities, chiefely in our Troynovant, yea the Quoy-ducks, the <HI>Dalilahs</HI> in our Families, our Chambers, our Clo&s;ets, to betray us, the vipers which breed within our bowells, the wormes within our intralls, the Fle&s;h Wolves within our fle&s;h which corrode us, yea kill us, the <HI>Cantharides</HI> in our oynt|ments to &s;oile us, to &s;poile us, the Moaths in our Garments to fret us, the Midianites among&s;t us to vex us, the Canaanites in our borders, as pricks in our &s;ides and thornes in our eyes, Judg. 2.31. to torture us, to torment us: that of <HI>Chri&s;o&s;tome</HI> being to me oraculous, truer then from <HI>Delphos,</HI> that <HI>nemo laeditur ni&s;i &agrave; &s;eip&s;o,</HI> hone is hurt but by him&s;elfe, by his owne &s;innes, as <HI>Noah</HI> was drunke with his owne wine, Gen. 9.22. <HI>Cam|bi&s;es</HI> &s;laine with his owne &s;word, <HI>Marlow</HI> &s;tabbed with his owne Dag|ger, &s;o we are &s;laine by our owne lu&s;ts which fight again&s;t our &s;oules, 1 Pet. 2.11. and va&s;&s;allize us as they did <HI>Hercules, Samp&s;on, Alexander,
<PB N="37" REF="20">Cae&s;ar, Hannibal, Achilles,</HI> and the greate&s;t Conquerers, who were &s;laves to their owne unlimited luxuries, as I could largely Hi&s;torifie them and Parallel our very po&s;tures and pre&s;&s;ures with that fond hor&s;e in the Fable, bred neare the &s;moaks and fogs of &s;ome thick aire, not on the pure airy Mountaines with the wily Stag, who &s;uffering man to ride him, being as free as the Buck, was &s;o va&s;&s;allized by man his rider and deri|der, that he could never yet for all his fretting at his owne folly, put the curbing bit out of his mouth, nor &s;hake the &s;addle of &s;ubjection from his back.</P>
<P>Oh! we are &s;laves to our lu&s;ts, as that great <HI>Alcides</HI> to his <HI>Dianira,</HI> to him <HI>Deiira,</HI> the&s;e are the Lord-Danes which rule us as by armed Law, either we cannot or will not re&s;i&s;t them; the&s;e are to us like Traytors bred in the brea&s;ts and bo&s;omes of Kings, yea as Favourites growing up by their Kings, as Ivies by &s;trong Oakes, and Elder Trees in and by walls, yet bringing them downe by whom they grew, and every way as fatall to them as <HI>Ieroboam</HI> once to <HI>Solomon</HI> and his hou&s;e, <HI>Cleander Phrix</HI> to <HI>Comodus, Philip Arabs</HI> to <HI>Gordianus, Calippus</HI> to <HI>Dion, Phocus</HI> to <HI>Mauri|tius, Giges</HI> to <HI>Candaulus,</HI> and our Court <HI>Ganimede Gave&s;ton</HI> once to <HI>Ed|ward</HI> the &s;econd, with many more recorded by <HI>Tholo&s;anus</HI> in his Com|monwealth, l. 22. p. 1403, 1409. <HI>Guicciardine</HI> in his Politikes, part 2. p. 94. and the French <HI>Bodin</HI> in his republick lib. 6. c. 5. p. 1154. with others, who&s;e fates and falls to prevent, &s;ince a volumn might be multiplied, what States and Potentates &s;uch &s;ins have ruinated, as are regnant at this in&s;tant both in our Church, State, Countries, and Cities; let us cru&s;h them as Cockatrices in their &s;hells, and Serpents in their heads; let us put the &s;acrificing knife of the Word to their throats, and mortifie them by the Spirit, Rom. 8.13. &s;o killing the&s;e vipers that will otherwi&s;e kill us, we &s;hall gain, and re|tain Grace and Peace with God, with man, and with our &s;elves, even Peace externall, internall, eternall: chiefly let us clo&s;e ha&s;tily, heartily with Chri&s;t our Peace, Eph. 2.14. with <HI>Simeon</HI> let us cla&s;pe him in the arms of an applying faith, Luke 2.28. then we &s;hall be &s;ure to find Sun-&s;hine in our Rains, &s;ongs in our &s;ighs, calmes after &s;tormes, peace after warres: in this Sun we &s;hall have all light, in this Manna all meat, in this fountain all refre&s;hing waters of life, John 4.10. in our dead times, <HI>Deus meus &amp; omnia,</HI> &s;aid a Martyr) my God and all things, my Rock, Refuge, Sanctu|ary, and Salvation, P&s;al. 18.1. <HI>Ie&s;us esto mihi Ie&s;us,</HI> O Saviour be to me a Saviour, AMEN, AMEN.</P>
<TRAILER>FINIS.</TRAILER>
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<OPENER><DATE><HI>Jan.</HI> 29. 1647.</DATE></OPENER>
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<HEAD>Po&s;t&s;cript to the candid Reader.</HEAD>
<P>THough the Authours eye is &s;aid to perfect the Pre&s;&s;e, as the Masters eye to fat the hor&s;e, yet &s;ome Errataes may &s;cape the eyes of an <HI>Argus,</HI> as <HI>pag. 15. lin. 25. effects</HI> for <HI>affects,</HI> in &s;uch venialls thou art de&s;ired to wink at &s;mall faults: as al&s;o, <HI>p. 32.</HI> and <HI>p. 37.</HI> the Fable of the &s;adled Hor&s;e, and the wily un&s;ubjected Stag, are by our over-&s;ight twice reflexed upon, perhaps u&s;efull to &s;ome that read the Riddle right, though <HI>decies repetita,</HI> though to a too criticall Carp-fi&s;h, <HI>bis repetita &s;ordent.</HI> Others liking (as our Iri&s;h their Rainebow Butter above Veni&s;on) ought &s;lubbered in Pre&s;&s;e or Pulpit in a Luxate &s;tile, &s;avouring of <HI>Gregory</HI> Non-&s;en&s;e better then ought reli&s;hing of <HI>Demo&s;thenes</HI> Lamp-oyle, <HI>Lip&s;ius</HI> his <HI>Multa paucis,</HI> or <HI>Chri&s;o&s;tomes</HI> and <HI>Chri&s;ologus</HI> golden tongues, or poli&s;ht by Chri&s;ts owne Scribe, pre&s;cribed to bring out of his trea&s;ure things old and new: before whom in this antipodi|zed age, where light heeles go up, and grave heads down, every green blads, though died black or block, is preferred, if but Lettice for Schi&s;maticall lips. And to &s;peak where the &s;hoe pincheth, as ju&s;t (or unju&s;tly) now I com|ment what I write Fruits of, and from Foes, though as the Swan and Peacock I am &s;o con&s;cientious to my black feet, that I am not proud of reall or imagi|nary faire feathers, of too much reading Hi&s;tory and eloquence, of which factious Hot-Spurs fal&s;ly would cry me &s;o guilty, that as though &s;tore were a &s;ore, for this they frisk from me, perhaps to &s;ome Doctor <HI>Dulman</HI> in a gray coat with a gro&s;&s;e note, and on &s;uch frivolous pretexts go about to divorce me once more from my <HI>Brides,</HI> to whom I offer to demon&s;trate again&s;t all di&s;|putes, that above all Mini&s;ters I have as lawfull a call as <HI>Collatine</HI> to his <HI>Lucrece,</HI> though any young <HI>Tarquin</HI> who had need &s;tay at Jerico till his beard and braine be growne, &s;hould offer to ravi&s;h her from me, who&s;e heart I have ten to one above any intruder, yea though his factious Favourites (like the fa|tall &s;ons of <HI>Brutus</HI>) &s;hould arme his u&s;urpations by a mi&s;informed Parliamen|tary power, again&s;t my life or Doctrine, <HI>in cau&s;a inaudita,</HI> in defect of &s;uch a Ju&s;tice as <HI>Nicodemus</HI> taxed in the Jewes, and <HI>Paul</HI> found in <HI>Felix, Fe&s;tus,</HI> and <HI>Agrippa,</HI> though Pagans, to be condemned ere I &s;peake, yet once heard I here pawne that very blood which I have ventured for them more then any Prea|cher in three Climes, that I de&s;erve more gratefull regard and reward then by unju&s;t divorcing me from my Mini&s;teriall marriage, to be expo&s;ed to &s;corne, impoveri&s;hing and per&s;ecutions verball and reall, yea to fly for means, without cau&s;e &s;hown why, in the winter of the yeare, and of my yeares; If this be not <HI>&s;ummum jus, &amp; dare veniam corvis, vexat cen&s;ura columbos,</HI> I am like my &s;ucce&s;&s;or <HI>Ignoramus:</HI> to &s;ay no more: yet <HI>jacta e&s;t alea, pejo|ra tuli, majora meliora &s;piro &s;pero. Hercules invidiam &s;upremo fine do|mavit. Ah &s;i fas dicere, &s;ed fas&mdash;in utramque paratus,</HI></P>
<CLOSER><SIGNED>Re&s;olute <HI>Hierom</HI> again&s;t the di&s;&s;olute times.</SIGNED></CLOSER>
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