MY Text, yee see, is Verbum diei in die suo, much like to King Salomons apple of gold in his picture of sil­ver, a word spoken in due Prov. 25.21. season: and as that golden apple artifi­cially [Page 2] set within that hollow silver globe, when placed against the orient brightnes of the Sun, did thorow that chrystall glasse fastened in the globe before it, at­tract beholders delightsomely to view the beautie, and the splendor of it; so may this word, so opportune and seasona­ble, raise up your serious thoughts unto its observation: And for that I find this storie of Hezekiahs sicknesse no lesse than thrice reported, viz. in 2 Chron. 32.24. in Isa. 38.1. and here in this Text: and ingeminations, or redoublings of the same things in the Scriptures, being no vaine tautologies, but the stronger arguments to perswade our notice, for this it doth pro­merit also, if not chalenge your best at­tention.

The Divi­sion.We have, in the words read, two gene­rall parts.

• 1 Hezekiahs sicknesse: and
• 2 Isaiahs visit: or,

The Kings evill; and the Prophets charge, or commission to him, under that [Page 3] evill: each of these againe are amplified by severall circumstances: 1 Of the per­son sick, Hezekiah, a King, and hee not more great than good. 2 Of the disease it selfe, aegrotavit, he was sick. 3 The ex­tremitie, or the danger of that disease, it was mortall and deadly, aegrotavit (letha­litèr) he was sick unto death. 4 Of the time when, in diebus illis, in those dayes: In those dayes was Hezekiah sick unto death. Thus for the first generall.

In the second also we have many parti­culars to be noted; as, 1 The person comming to visit the sick Prince; and he described to us a three-fold way. 1 By his name, Isaiah, 2 By his function, a Pro­phet. 3 By his pedegree, or birth, the son of Amoz, who was descended, as some say, of the blood royall it selfe: The Prophet, Isaiah, the son of Amoz. Here is the visit it selfe, He came to him. 3 His employment, when come, a punctuall deliverie of his message, or commission from the Lord; which is described to us in a verie Rheto­ricall way. 1 Formally, He said unto him, [Page 4] thus saith the Lord. 2 Materially, and this three wayes. 1 [...], Positively, Mori­eris, Thou shalt dye. 2 [...], Negative­ly, to cut off all hopes of a further pro­rogation, ac non vives, and not live. Last­ly, [...], by a serious exhortation, what in this desperate condition he would advise the King solemnly, and without delay, readily to resolve upon; and that is to make his will, to set his house in or­der, e're a sudden stroke of death should seize him: ô Hezekiah, listen unto me thy Prophet, set thine house in order, for thou shalt dye, and not live.

These are the parts; the present mea­sures of my Sermon, and your Christian patience, which yet I shall be forced to pace over, as King David did before the Ark, 2 Sam. 6.16. 2 Sam. 6.16. in a manner without stay, leaping: and for that they be so ma­ny in number, I shall doe as your La­pidaries of rich jewels are wont, only shew them to you in a glance, or cursorie sight, and so put them up againe. The same hand that gave the opportunitie, [Page 5] vouchsafe to give successe to this busines. In those dayes was Hezekiah sick unto death, &c.

The person that leads me by the hand to my first discourse, is Hezekiah; The first Part. who was both a mightie, and withall, a godly Prince; his greatnesse and his goodnesse, like Davids palace, and Gods Taberna­cle, dwelt both together on mount See Psal. 132.13, 14. Sion; or like to Jonathan and David, they were lovely and pleasant in 2 Sam. 1.23. their lives▪ and in their deaths they were not divided; or like to Ezechiels Ezek. 1.21. wheels, and the living creatures, which were both lifted up from the earth (together): of his honour, o­pulencie, and exceeding riches, we have a large record, 2 Chro. 32.27. 2 Chron. 32.27. and of his pietie and goodnesse, 2 King. 18.3.5. 2 King. 18.3, 5. He did all that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father did, he clave to the Lord, so that after him was none like him among all the Kings of Judah, nor any that were before him: besides, we have a set commendation of him in Syracides, [Page 6] Ecclus. 48 17. Ecclus. 48.17. Yet neither could the glittering of his Diadem, or the wealth in all his store-houses, or all the honor he had before the people, exempt him from the common fate of all men: as Death is said to be to Nature, which still desires to preserve it self in being from destructi­on, (which appeares in creatures meerly sensitive, as the Beaver, to preserve his life, bites off his cods and leaves them as the prey to them that chase him) as Death, I say, is unto Nature, [...], the King of feares, so is it also the feare of Kings: great ones be indeed as Gods, Psal. 82.6. Psal. 82.6. by See Dr. Scla­ter, my father, Serm. at the Assises at Tan­ton, Edit. 1616. p. 8. upon that Text. deputation and by au­thoritie delegated from on high, but it is all but tanquàm lumina illuminata, as S. Au­stin and Lyra interpret, so only by partici­pation, as the stars are lighted from the chiefe taper of the Sun; all earthly maje­stie being but a ray of that which is omni­potent, and independant above in heaven; even (there) all crowns are cast before the Throne of God, Rev. 4.10. Apoc. 4.10. how much more must they be so here below? there­fore [Page 7] it is added in the Psalme, that they shall (die) like men: indeed it is true, as Agapetus in Paroen. ad Ju­stinian. Agapetus told the great Justinian, that [...], in the right and emi­nencie of dignitie they resemble God, be­ing clad (to borrow Psal. 93.1. Davids phrase) with majestie and honour, before the people, their loyall subjects; yet [...], in the substance, and the composition of their bodies, of the same materials with meanest men; so that it is certain, though they be gods with men, yet are they men with God, and come all under that one common doom, Cinis es, & in cinerem; Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt re­turne, Gen. 3.19. Gen. 3.19.

Heare this then, ô all ye gilded pot­sherds of the earth, ye great ones all, I meane, that would faine nestle in the clouds, and in your soaring thoughts, with that proud Persian Sapor, write brother to the Sun and Moone, and like those twelve great Caesars, divide the moneths betweene your selves, singing to your be­guiled soules, as that Atheist in the Go­spell, [Page 8] Luc. 12.19. Soul take thy rest for many years; lo! thy coffers are full crammed with gol­den ingots, thy barns and territories grown wider, and be enlarged: vain man! Truly saith the Prophet, Psal. 144.4. Psal. 144.4. Man is like to vanitie, or, as My Lord the peerlesse Bishop of Exeter, in his Character of man, p. 33, Edit. 1635. one most divinely doth invert the sentence, Vanitie is better like to man, for verily everie man living is altogether vanitie. Selah. Psal. 39 5, 6. Psal. 39.5, 6. yea, and that too in his verie best estate: Be yee in your vain imagination as teeth, that dwell in the mouth of eminence, grinding the faces of the poore thereby, thunder in your words, — [...]. Homer. [...]. de oculis Aga­memnonis irati: & paulò pòst, [...]—ib. lightening in your looks; stay a while, and this bladder shall burst anon, and as a wall that swels before it fall, so shall your pride bring you all down as low as dust, and if impenitent, as Hell: what though yee dwell in Cedar, stretch your selves, as Amos speaks, on beds of Amos 6.4. ivorie, and carrie your houses over your heads as snails, painting the earth as you go, with your silver slime: alas! what's all this to purpose? if death but spurn up­on you, yee are all crushed instantly into [Page 9] worms meat, and must shortly become provant for crawling Creatures to revell with in the grave: tis not Belshazzar's greatnesse, that can keepe him from, or rid him of a fit of Dan. 5.6. trembling, where once the handwriting on the wall had startled him amidst his cups; nor the vainglori­ousnesse of, an haughty Herod, that could exempt him from the stroke of a destroy­ing Act. 12.23. Angell, or make him other, then a B [...]. Morton, c. 13. sect. 5. p. 252. grand imposture edict. 1628. Rex Herodes Agrip­pa, sub claudio; Jacobum inter­fecit, qui & ipse non multo post (phthiria si) pe­riit Joh. Carri­on, Chron in claudio, l. 3. p. 234. & 228. e­dict. 1584. in 8 ^o confer. Euseb. l. 2. c. 10. Histor. ecclesiast see pla­cina in vita for­mosi, de Arnul­ [...]ho Imperatore. lowzy god: no nor the bigmouth'd ostentation of that peerelesse prodige of pride, great Nebuchadnezzar, keep him from the society of an Dan. 4.33. oxe that eateth hay; so besotted was he in his intellectuals, that for quality, and disposition, through the predominacy of his owne melancho­lique humour in him; that though he had perhaps the forme, and figure, yet he had altogether lost the reason of a man: In a word, as that little stone in Daniel, cut out of the mountaine Dan. 2.45. without hands, brake in peeces the yron, the brasse, the silver, and the gold, in that great image of the same mighty Babylonian; by [Page 10] which is meant, in mystery, (saith Hierom ad Eustoch. Hierom, Sulpit. Sever. l. 2. sac. Hist. p. 93. in 8 ^o cum Drusio. & Bar­rad. l. 3. c. 4. p. 95. & l. 6, c. 2. p. 282. concord: Evang. Sulpitius severus, and other greatly lear­ned,) our Lord and King Christ Jesus, who, as that stone was cut out of the moun­taines without hands, was borne of a pure virgine, without contamination, or deflowring; who shall, when installed to his spirituall throne and Kingdome, crush and shiver into nothing all the foure great monarchies of the world, Assyrian, Persi­an, Graecian, Roman, and make all Kings and nations of the earth, as the Matt. 2.11. Magi of East did at his birth in Bethlem, bring Psal. 72.10. & 68.29. pre­sents to him and to bow before him, that is, he shall make all scepters in the world to stoop to his one Scepter of the Gospell, in token of submission, homage and obe­dience, in like sort shall all potency and greatnesse under heaven be forced at last to yeeld to those his instruments of subju­gation, either sicknesse, or death, or both: Loe here, and see, even Hezekiah, though a mighty and a wealthy Prince, yet could not wave off sicknesse; no, nor much time, Death; so sayth my text, Hezekiah, [Page 11] though a mighty King, was Sicke.

Now as Hezekiah's greatnes could not exempt him, so neither could his goodnes, for howbeit he were as eminent in grace, as rich in outward pompe & glory, yet sayth my text even he was (sick:) It's true indeed that Hezekiah's graces, though sometimes they might seem sick, to be weak and lan­guish, as the Angel of the Church in Sardis had, in regard of use & exercise, his graces almost ready for to Rev. 3.2. dye within him; for which cause Saint John excites him to stengthen, by more vigorous employment, that life which yet remained in him; yet his (body) that was, as the Exod. 26.1. vi­de Granatens: tō 3: concio: de Tenpore, conc: 1: Dominica post ascens: p, 413, in 8 ^o, Latin. Tabernacle of testimony, with imbroyderies and works of divers colours, adorned with those eximious ornaments of grace (that) must stoope, not unto sicknes only, but to death: surely it's true even the best men, (for castigation, or at least probation) are exposed to these outward miseryes, and calamityes as well as others; and by what we can discerne without, we can descry no sure judgement of their mutuall future [Page 12] blisse or woe Eccles. 9.1. Eccles. 9.1. These out­ward things, sayth Solomon, come a like to all, though it be true not to all a like; for either in the cause or in the end, or in the use and carriage under them; in these (modifications) here is indeed a diffe­rence, not in the things themselves: yea if wee judge only after the appearance; and not as we are commanded, John 7.24. righteous judgement; then we shall soon subscribe to that etymology of Christianus, to be quasi Crucianus, to come from Crux, as well as Christus the Hebrew letter η (tau) in the figure of the Crosse was that which Ezekiel with his pen and inkhorn Ezek. 9.4. (mar­ked) the chosen peeces of election under the old law, with Ezek. 9.4. and old Ja­cob when on his death-bed he blessed the sons of Joseph, Manasses and Ephraim, Gen. 48.13.14. is noted by Gods spirit to have Ge. 48.13, 14. (crossed) his hands of purpose, thereby to note, say some, that either all blessings of this life have their mixture in them of sure see below, pa. 140. crosses; as Christ is said to have had wine offered him, but such wine [Page 13] as was mingled with Mar. 15.23. myrrh, which is of an harsh and uncouth taste; or else that the whole vertue of a parents benediction was alone and only from the (crosse) of Christ; for it is only the blood of his crosse that made heaven at peace with man, Col. 1.20. Col. 1.20. all the partriarchs of the first Testament had therefore their share therein; the Jews reckon up ten severall afflictions, that even Abraham (the Rom. 4.1. Fa­ther of the faithfull) met withall; in all the Psalms of David, yee have nigh as ma­ny hearse-like ayres, as carols; and for us Christians now, who sees not the My Lord Ve­culam, Essay 5. blessing of the new Testament to consist almost in crosses? which yet carrieth the grea­ter benediction and the clearer Revelati­on of Gods favor; for which cause we see it's set before the Alphabet of our little ones, and we receive it as the badge of of our enstalment into the Church of Christ at our Baptisme, in loco pudoris, in our foreheads, to denote our unashamed­nesse of the master we fight for: the very new-born babe with his first noise expres­seth, [Page 14] ere yet he is able to Infans à non fando. speake, a Nondum loqui­tur tamen pro­pheta. pro­phecy of his succeding misery; to which a man, sayth Job is born as naturally Job 5, 7. sparks, by reason of their innate levity, fly up­wards, every man living being like to Ra­chel's younger sonne, born a Gen. 35, 18. Ben-oni, a sonne of sorrow: in a word, our Lord and Master Christ hath trodden a full Isa. 63, 3. wine­presse of woe before us, if we be his 2 Tim. 2, 3. soul­diers (as if truely his members, we all are) then as Gideon said to his, as we see him doe, so must we do Judge 7, 17. likewise; for that's his word, learn of Matt. 11, 29. me; lo! he hath taken off the full cup, there are left for us onely the [...], some few Col. 1, 24. remainders, as a smack alone. Col. 1.24. And indeed what are we better then monsters in Chri­stianity; if we who pretend to be Christs members, should be so mishapen, as not to hold proportion with him our head? He is a monster in nature; who hath the head of a Serpent, and the body of a man; and he is a monster in Christian ty who hath the Rev. 12, 9. old serpent the devill, as his head to guide him; and yet the body of a Chri­stian [Page 15] in shew before men as Saint Bernard f, 25, k Bernard tels us: Now we all know that as the Is­raelites, Gods old people passed through a Eod: 14. red-sea ere they came to their Canaan, so Christ went by his crosse, and by his blood, unto his Crown and glory. Multivolunt Christum conse­qui, sed non se­qui, Bern. Da­stards that we are, thus to give out, and to be cowed in our following so glorious, so victorious a Captaine; who hath in­deed promised us a Kingdome, but yet hath tyed the enjoying of it, to the una­voydable condition of our first 2 Tim. 2, 12. suffering with him in this life; for which cause, we never read in all the scriptures, that Christ in all his life time, ate any hony; but that he tasted of vinegar and of gall, the Matt. 27, 34. go­spell mentioneth; with (this) his cruell foes would have drench'd him on the crosse: indeed (after) his Resurrection, we find that he did eate of a broyled fish, and of an Luc. 24, 42. honicombe, to wit, by way of dis­pensation & indulgency, (condescending herein to the weakenesse of his disciples fayth) though not of indigency & want, as the Schoole distinguisheth: but as Tertul­lian [Page 16] observes it was, post fella favum, first the gall and then the honicombe; his suf­ferings went before his comforts; which was also noted, in the broyling of the fish he ate of, Pisces assus est Christus pas­sus, say the Fathers; the broyling she­wed his sufferings past, the honicombe, his instant, yea and his future joyes to come.

It's worth our notice, in what phrase of speech, our Saviour puts the question to the sons of Zebede, that were it seems, of somewhat a climbing Spirit, and looked more for that time being, after their tem­porall advancement in Christ's outward Kingdome, (which their weake mother fancied too much) then otherwise; he puts the question to them thus, Matth. 20.22. Matth. 20.22. are yee able to be (baptised with the baptisme, that I am baptised with? what Baptisme is this, that our Savior here speaks off? Surely, its neither fluminis nor flami­nis, that of water, nor that of the Spirit; but sanguinis, of blood, of affliction and persecution in this world, therfore Christ's [Page 17] garments are said to be dyed from Bozra, that is, in Tribulatione, (as Philo judaeus, de nominibus Hebraicis, pag. 378. in patrum [...]. Philo Judaeus in­terprets) and to be red, and stayned with blood, Isa. 63.1, 2. a direct prophesie of his after sufferings: Now therefore are these outward calamities compared to a Baptisme, saith one, because they set Gods ( M ^r Goodwin p. 149. in his child of light walking in darknesse c. 13. sect 2. marke) upon his Church, as the first Baptisme of water seales and marks her for his own: wherefore, what Simon of Cyrene was ( Matt. 27.32. compelled) to do, we must do (willingly,) carry Christ's crosse; for no crosse, no disciple, Luke 9.23. no suffering with him, no being glorifyed with him, Rom. 8.17. Rom. 8.17. For this cause, all Church story shewes us, that the blood of persecution hath al­wayes kept running in the veines of the Church of Christ, from it's first Sanguine fun­data est ecclesia, sanguine crevit, sanguine succre­vit, sanguine fi­nis erit. foundation; even from the blood of righteous Abel to this day; so that there can hardly be a truer inscription, wherewith to incir­cle so despised a coyne, as the Church is, then that of Salomon, Cant. 2.2. Cant. 2.2. as is a lilly among thornes, so is my love among the Daughters; a lilly she is indeed, love­ly [Page 18] and amiable to behold, but a lilly a­mong thorns, therfore sure to be scratched by adversity: for whom God Heb. 12.6. loves hee will certainely correct and chasten; art thou weary then of Gods love-tokens? art thou ashamed of Christ thy Captaines badges? then long to want afflictions: this is, saith Saint Peter, no new thing that befals you, 1 Pet. 4.12. 1 Peter 4.12. Lo! long since is it, that the Dragon drove the Church (our Mother) into the wildernes, and not so contented, sends out after her water as a flood to carry her away if possi­ble, and to drown her in it, Rev. 12.6, & 15. Apoc. 12.6 and 15. viz. in the flood of reproches, slanders, disgraces, all afflictions. To shut up this point, (for how easy were it to be infinite this way?) S ^t. Peter hath resembled the Church of Christ unto living 1 Pet. 2.5. stones, which lying here rough in the quarry of this lo­wer world, must first be hewen by affli­ction, squared by repentance, cemented by love, and so polished and fitted for the Church Triumphant, the Hierusalem which is Gal. 4.26. above and free, the Mother of [Page 19] us all: Wherefore, let it no way trouble us, though our garments here, like those of the Kings daughter, in the Psalme, be of Ps. 45.13. needle worke, that is, (prickly) by affli­ction, so we be, as she, all glorious ( ver. 14 [...]. Macarius, ho­mil: 5. p. 79. in 8 ^o with­in,) multi vident punctiones, sed non vident unctiones; many see our punctions, none but God discernes our 1 John 2.27. unctions; this made the standers by to be amazed, to heare Paul and Sylas (singing) prayses to their God, though in the middest of (fet­ters,) Act. 16.25. Act. 16.25. All this layd to­gether, makes me admire how so great a Scholar, as the Roman Champion Bellar­mine was, should in this particular point so play the part of an ill Rhetorician (who is wont to place some of his strongest ar­guments in the Praecepta sunt eorum qui di­cendi rationem tradunt, ut ad extremam ora­tionis partem, quae potentissi­ma atque opti­ma in caussà sunt reserventur quoniam extremum illud in auditorum animis infixum haeret. Ludov. Granat [...]ns. quà supra conc. 2. p. 447. initio. close of his speech) as to set this note (last) after a large catalogue before, as a certaine marke of the true Church, Bellar. [...] lib. 4. de notis ecclesiae, cap. 18. initio nota 15. Temporall prosperity: where­as [Page 20] that is no where lesse to be found then there; for that precious vessel of 2 Tim. 2.20. honor would gather rust, were it not scowred often by afflictions. Beloved Christians, our good God deales with us, in this re­gard, as a refiner doth with his lumpe of oare of silver, or the richer metall; to purge it from the drosse, and fit it for his use, he casts it first into the furnace; so doth Almighty God his chosen ones, who (below,) are but as gold is in the oare, ha­ving the drosse of much corruption un­mortified in them; from which the Lord by sicknesse, or some such like affliction, would gladly purge them & refine them, so fitting and preparing them for his own use and glory; by (this) sayth Esay, shall the iniquity of Jacob be [ Isa. 27.29, and Mal. 3.3. purged:] And thus we read even of this very good King Hezekiah, 2 Chro. 32.31. 2 Chro. 32.31. that God left him, though a deare Saint, by a spiritu­all desertion to himselfe, for some time, to (know) what was in his heart: that is, sayth Austin, not that God meant hereby to informe himselfe (for all things [Page 21] lye open and naked to the eyes of him, ( Heb. 4.13. Heb. 4.13.) but to make Hezekiah know, that there was in his heart cor­ruption enough, which like a Jebusite in Canaan ('tis Saint Bernards comparison) was not as yet wholly expelled from his inward coasts. And here againe in this text, whether for probation of his faith, as of Zech. 13.9. Au­rum indiget per­cussione, & puer verberatione, Ben Syra, mo­ral. sentent. 4. est hoc ingenium auri, ut quo ma­gis illud malleo diducendo per­cusseris, eò ma­gis fulgeat; sic, &c. Paulus Fa­gius, in exposit. ibid: in 2. Tim. 2.20. electi vocan­tur [aurum.] gold, or for castigation of some speci­all delinquency, he is permitted to be, as St Paul was by his messenger, 2 Cor. 12.7. buffeted with a disease of sicknesse; yea, though an Isa. 38.3. upright man, and highly in Gods fa­vor: for so we read, In those dayes was Hezekiah, (a Prince not more great, then good) sicke, and that unto Death.

Now, for application of this point, let me say to all Gods true Children, as Saint Peter doth of the 1 Pet. 4.12. fiery tryall; my deare brethren, thinke not this strange, as if some new thing, when yee be afflicted, happened unto you; for lo! this is the su­rest badge of Christianity, the unavoy­dable portion of all that will live godly in [Page 20] Christ Jesus; yea, there is a necessity in it; we ( 2 Tim. 3.12. must) suffer, sayth Saint Paul, Act. 9.16. 2 Tim. 3.12. This meditation made the primitive Saints to be ambitious of such sufferings for the cause of Christ; the Apostles ( Act. 5.41. rejoyced) in it, as in the greatest worth and honor, in the dayes of persecution, when those ten bloody ty­rants, whereof Nero was the first Tertull: in A­pologet. c. 5. dedi­cator, as Tertullian cals him, the ring-lea­der to the rest, when Christianitie was nick-named a Act. 28.22. sect, and that sect every where (spoken against,) Act. 28.22. when but to name ones selfe a Christian, was crime enough to be sent unto the dungeon, or the metal-mines, or the teeth of Lyons, and such like other tor­ments; in these crimson-coloured dayes, your zealous Saints would so far strive, as 'twere to suffer, that no voyce was oftner heard then this, Sum & ego Christianus, And I am also a Christian; so had they then (to borrow Jeremies expression) Jer. 30.21. engaged their hearts to approach unto the Lord, that they would Heb. 12.4. resist iniqui­ty, [Page 23] even unto the shedding of their blood. The crosse we read, in following times, was that which was by Christian Princes displayed in their banners, and the figure thereof much preferred to all other pompous shewes what ever; so I See sir Henry Spelman, tom: 1. concil. Anglic. in anno, 712. ex concilio Londi­nensi, p. 207, 208 edit. 1639. find that Constantine the great commanded it, (instead of his wonted Labarum, richly decked with pretious Diamonds,) to be carried before his souldiers; as if, with the blessed Paul, he had Gal. 6.14. gloryed in nought else, save in the crosse of our Lord Jesus Christ. All these Saints well knew, that this was the way to glory: they were not ignorant, that before God rested the seaventh day, he did first work six dayes; so must we have our Hexame­ron of labor and enduring, before we may expect our Sabbatisme and eternall rest with Christ: But when we have thus suffered first, we may assure our selves of no lesse Crown, then of a Kingdome in eternall glory, 2 Tim 2.12. 2 Tim. 2.12. we see there is but a letters difference, nay but an a­spiration, between onerari, & honorari, [Page 24] and the same word in Hebrew signifyeth both a burthen and blisse; and the first Martyr under the gospell wore a Crown in his name; for [...]. Stephen in the greek so signifyeth: and surely, that I may con­clude this point, the more we suffer for Mat. 5.11, 12. righteousnesse sake (for 'tis the cause, not the smart that makes the Martyr) the ampler will be our glory; Qui habet in hâc vitâ multum crucis, habebit in alterâ multum lucis: this meditation, as the burthens did the Israelites, should make good Christians to encrease the ( Exod. 1.12. more) in number; and as those precious plants & sweet-smelling trees, though they bee cut in peeces and dryed, yet still do re­teine their sweet and pleasant sent; yea, doe keep within them more true peace of soule, then all the barren and unsavory trees of wickednes, in their full flowers and blossomes can yeeld out, being beaten and scourged with a cursed conscience: In a word, our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a farre more exceeding and eternall weight of [Page 25] glory, 2 Cor. 4.17. 2 Cor. 4.17. yea, the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us, Rom. 8.18. Rom. 8.18. Wherefore, silence all recoyling passions, and repi­nings under Gods strokes, whatsoever they be, and whensoever they doe fall on thee; see, sayth Saint Jam. 5.10.11. James, thou hast the Prophets, my brethren, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an ensample of suffering affliction and of pa­tience; and behold, we count them hap­py which endure: so that truly saith Saint Peter, as yee heard but now, this is no 1 Pet. 4.12. new thing happened unto you; for loe! Hezekiah, though a godly and a gracious Prince, was yet afflicted, he was sicke, and that unto Death.

And so I take my leave of Hezekiahs Person: and next I passe unto the con­sideration of his disease, aegrotavit, he was sicke: In those dayes, was Hezekiah (sicke.)

Aegrotavit, he was sicke: The second part. what disease this was, that now so heavily befell him, [Page 26] is a quaere made; and the best learned do resolve, that it was the very Plague it self; which they collect from verse the 7 ^th of this Chapter and from Isa. 38.21. where the prophet proves Physitian also of the body, and bids them take a lumpe of figges, and lay it on the boyle, which done, he streight recovered.

Now for the quality of this disease, the Plague, (had I either time, or list to expatiate thereon) I could tell you first what Physitians say of it; namely, that it is an epidemicall feaver joyned with dead­ly contagion: how scripture describes it in termes of greatest terrour; comparing it sometimes to the Exod. 9.3. murraine sent a­mongst beasts; else where, styling it the consuming evill, Deut. 28.21, 22 Deut. 28.21, 22. that on a sudden, flying night and day, (as an Psal. 91.5. arrow of Gods own quiver) maketh de­solate houses, Cities, Countries, so that thousands and ten thousands fall by it in a moment; as we read, Num. 16.49. Num. 16.49. of foureteene thousand taken almost instant­ly away by it, in a moment, for murmu­ring [Page 27] at the hand of God upon Corah, and in lesse then three dayes seventy thousand destroyed in the dayes of King David, 2 Sam. 24. In short, its reckoned by God him­self, Ezek. 14.21. Ezek. 14.21. not as a common judge­ment only, but as one of the foure (sore) judgements, that he hath in store for stub­born, and rebellious sinners: in which these things are eminent, and remarkable above other; viz. that it (suddenly) surprizeth, in the middest of our jollity; alas! how many, think you, in the very act of their sin? how many more, who thinke of no­thing lesse then death, nor at that time of making their peace with God? wherein, howsoever I would have no man censori­ous, for what thinke you of 1 Sam. 4.18. Eli and of 1 Chro. 13.10. Ʋzzah, good men both, for ought we know, or find in the maine of their lives, (and he that lives well, can never dye ill) at least, for ought we know, in respect of their finall, and eternall state to come; yet however, when God seizeth any by the pestilence, it must be acknowledged a judgment of the Lord, more then ordi­narily [Page 28] grievous; lo yet and see! even that good King Hezekiah is sick thereof: our note from hence is this; which I can but name, and leave it: in summe this; The hea­viest of Gods outward judgements light some­times on his own dear children, as well as upon Aliens: I could prove it largely, but that my mainely intended businesse is yet be­hind; see Amos 3.2. Amos, 3.2. you (only) have I known of all the families of the earth, you only in comparison (for here the Pro­phets expression is, if I mistake not, [...]) have I known, not sci­entiâ visionis alone, by my generall know­ledge, by which I see, behold, and know Gen. 1.31. all things, whatsoever I have created, yea, even the proud and wicked, though Ps. 138.6. afar off; but also scientia approbationis, by my knowledge of especiall approbation, having culled out, and as it were selected you from all the rest, as the choisest of my chiefe Mal. 3.17. Jewels, who are as tender to me, as the very Zech. 2.8. apple of mine owne eye; yet if you, so dear, so tender, do offend me, I will surely visite upon and punish you [Page 29] for all your iniquities: the like instance we have extant, ^t Deut. 28.59. where the Lord threatens his owne people, that if they fayle in their obedience and obser­vance of what was commanded, touching the feare of Gods dreadfull and glorious name, The Lord thy God, then would the Lord make even their plagues wonder­full, even great plagues, and for a farther aggravation, such as are of long continu­ance; yea more yet, Lam. 4.6. Lam. 4.6. the pu­nishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people, is greater then the punish­ment of the sin of Sodome, that was over­thrown, as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her; compare Ezek. 5.9. &c. and this is done mainely, when they are apt to be carried with the [...]. Nazianz. in od. streame of a generall iniquity; then must they share in like (outward,) though they do not al­wayes, in like (inward) epidemicall, and generall judgements; if Gods people will escape the Rev. 18.4. plagues of Babylon, they must forsake her sins, else there can be no hope to escape like punishments with her, [Page 30] though a monstrous strumpet: so S ^t Au­stin tels us, that the Christians therefore tasted like extremities from the Goths, and Vandalls, with the rest; for that they did not zealously enough stand up, in op­position to the lewd exorbitances of those godles times. It fals out often too, when they grow too wanton with Gods favors and indulgence, flattering themselves with this, that God will not destroy the Gen. 18.25. righ­teous with the wicked; nor shall the Psa. 91.7. plague come nigh their dwellings, where­as the Lord is pleased, as sometimes to take the rose and leave the thorny stalke behind; so yet sometimes againe, he takes them both away together; though the one, when plucked off, to take delight in, and the other to burne up in unquench­able and in endles torments: The righ­teous may be smitten ( Good Jacob is pinched with the common [famine] no piety can ex­empt us from the evils of neighborhood no man can tell, by outward events, which is the Patriarch, and which the Canaanite. B Hall in his con­templat. of Jo­seph, p. 56. edit. 1617. with) the wick­ed; but not the righteous (as) the wicked, namely, for the future finall issue of them both: they be not all damned eternally, who are smitten unto death by pestilence, who dye of the plague; Num 14.29.13. their [carkeises] [Page 31] indeed did; but God forbid ^c the Soules of all that fell in the wildernesse, by the plague, should be judged to miscary, Heb. 3.17. Heb. 3.17. so far as the (body) and the (outward) man, these temporall cala­mities come alike to all, saith Salomon, Eccles. 9.1. Eccles. 9.1. and who art thou that Jam. 4.12. judgest? The better use hereof is this; let Gods owne children feare to be se­cure; and let all the rebellious children of disobedience tremble at the expectati­on of their sure vengeance, even in the forest and the highest measure; for if judgement passe not by, but as S. 1 Pet. 4.17. Peter and Jer. 25.29. Jeremy say, (beginneth) first at the house of God, and the Citie called by his owne name; oh, what shall the end be of them that obey not the Gospell of God? and if the righteous themselves (scarcely) be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appeare? And if God be thus Psal. 89.7. ter­rible in the assembly even of his owne deare Saints, so severe to the Luc 23.31. green tree; oh what shall then become of the drie tree, that beares no fruit of grace at all? [Page 32] Luc 13.7. Cut it downe, saith the Lord, cut it downe, why cumbreth it the ground? let it be scorched for ever in flames un­quenchable and full of torment: The righteous shall indeed, saith Salomon, be Pro. 11.31. recompenced (with correction) on the See my Ser­mon lately published on John 6.54. p. 71. earth, but 'tis no farther than here upon the (earth) below, their woe endeth with their temporall life; how much more the wicked and the sinner? And thus much briefly, for Hezekiah's sicknesse, and his sore disease: In those dayes was Hezekiah (sick).

The third Part.A word next also of the great danger, and the extremitie of the same, it was mortall and deadly, aegrotavit (lethalitèr) hee was sick, and that unto (death): S. John tels us of a two-fold (sin), or, at least, degree therof; the one to be a sin (not) unto death, and the other to be a sin (unto) death, 1 Joh. 5.16. 1 Joh. 5.16. our Saviour tels us of a (sicknesse) also, such was that of Lazarus, [...], which was not unto death, Joh. 11.4. Joh. 11.4. and S. Paul, of the sicknesse of Epaphroditus, his fellow-souldier [Page 33] in Christ, that it was [...], nigh, and, as it were, next neighbour unto death, Phil. 2.27. Phil. 2.27. and here the Prophet, of a sicknesse unto death, that is so desperate and dangerous, that without a speciall mercy and preser­vation from on high, as once it fared with S ^t. Paul in that black tempest on the Sea, when the sight of Sun and Starrs, and all apparent hope of safetie was quite lost, Act. 27.20. Act. 27.20. there was no comfort left. It seems then that the Saints be not ob­noxious only unto outward judgements, but also are permitted often unto most deep (extremity) therein: our Prophet tels us, that Gods owne redeemed ones are emplunged into sorrow, and that sor­row seconded with deep (sighings), Isa. 35.10. Isa. 35.10. David is full of such expressions as these, the sorrowes of (death) compassed me; yea more, the pains of (hell) gate hold upon me, Ps. 116.3. ^t Psal. 116.3. the word (Sheol) there rendred by Hell, is most times used for the grave; and then his meaning is, that effectivè, his sorrowes [Page 34] were so exquisite, as that they threatened him with death, and with the grave; but it is used also for that Hell of the damned too, as Psal. 9.17. Psal. 9.17. and then the meaning is, that to his sense, his sorrowes had a cor­respondency with the very torments of the damned there; so again, Psal. 118.18. Psal. 118.18. though he were not wholly given over unto actuall death, yet the Lord had cha­stened him so sore, that he was [...], Ver. 5. Vers. 5. so penn'd up in a strait place, that as 2 Cor. 7.5. S. Paul in Macedonia, his flesh it had no rest at all, but he was trou­bled on every side; without were figh­tings, in regard of adversaries abroad, as Shimei, Doeg, the jeering drunkards, and the rest of such sons of Belial; within were feares, in regard of present sense of guilt, through want of evidence, and assu­rance of Gods pardoning mercy, and sen­sible acceptation of him: in like sort it fared also once with holy Job, (that peer­lesse man for piety upon all the earth, by Gods owne testimoniall of him, Job 1.8.) yet so far had the venome of Gods ar­rows [Page 35] drank up his spirits within him, so did God seeme, as the Sun enveloped in a cloud, to knit his browes upon him (as) an enemy, so to write bitter things against him, that in his owne present apprehensi­on, God meant outright to Job 13.15. (kill) him, Job 13.15. David againe, Psal. 39.10. Psal. 39.10. O Lord, remove thy stroake away from me, for I am (consumed) by the blow of thine hand; compare Psal. 102.3, 4, 5 Psal. 102.3, 4, 5. Joseph was not only sold to be a bond­slave, but his feet they hurt with fetters, and the iron entred into his soule, Psal. 105.18. Psal. 105.18. the like to which we read of Paul and Sylas, Act. 16.23, 24. Act. 16.23, 24. and to what exi­gents were the Israelites then brought, think we? when the Exod. 14. red sea roared be­fore them, and Pharaoh the cruell Tyrants wheeles were rattling behind them? nought but a quick destruction, as that whales chaps to Jonah, stood gaping wide to Jon. 1.17. swallow them. And wherefore is all this? but, as in the first place, to make the Lords owne power in their delive­rance from such deep straights, more glo­rious, [Page 36] according as the Hebrew proverb hath it, Cùm duplicantur lateres, venit Mo­ses, God sent a Moses to deliver Israel, when the bricks were doubled: so with­all, as the Prophet saith of Joseph, Psal. 105.19. Psal. 105.19. it was to ( Psal. 105.19. try) them, whether his children meant, as when Hur and Aaron Exod. 17.11, 12. let goe the hands of Moses praying, to give out, and languish in faith and invoca­tion under that crosse, or not: God hath promised to be a present help in the Psal. 59.16. need­full time of trouble, Psal. 59.16. but this is on condition of our early Psal. 50.15. calling on him, and timely, speedy Hos. 5.15. seeking to him in that same day of trouble, Ps. 50.16. Hos. 5.15. This done, the cloud is againe withdrawn, and with it, their sins and guilt doe all va­nish from Gods sight: Thus David pray­ing, he was Psal. 118.5. enlarged from his straights, Psal. 118.5. Jonah, from out of the very Jon. 2.1, 2. belly of Hell, kept calling still on God, and so was vomited alive againe: and so did Hezekiah here, in the next verse to my text, under this sicknesse, this plague sore, so unto death, and so extremely dan­gerous, [Page 37] he prayed, and so fetch'd off a quick adjournment of the execution of the first sentence of it on him, and was heard (to borrow Pauls expression) in that he Heb. 5.7. feared: all I adde more of this particular, is only that advise of our Sa­viour, or another occasion, to that young, man, in the Gospell, [...], every one of you that in this great audience can hear my voice, this day, go every one of you, and do Luk. 10.37. so likewise.

I have done with Hezekiahs sicknesse, The fourth part. and the danger of it: there is yet one cir­cumstance behinde more, in this my first generall part, and that is the time, when all this fell out, in diebus illis, In those dayes: of which shortly: what were [those dayes] here by Gods spirit so precisely noted, as the set time of Heze­kiahs sicknesse? If we reflect a little on the former chapter, we shall find it to be then when God had given him a rescue extraordinary, sending his Angell to smite the mighty army of Sennacherib, that proud Assyrian, with a sudden overthrow [Page 38] and by returning backe those poysoned arrows, even the Psal. 64.3. bitter words of that rayling and blasphemous Rhabshaketh up­on himselfe with shame and ruine, that as he cloathed himselfe with cursing, like as with a garment, so let it come into his bo­wels, as the Psalmist speakes, like water, and like oyle into his bones, Psal. 109.18. Psal. 109.18. Now, [after] this deliverance, was this good King Hezekiah sicke, even [in those dayes]: our note from hence me thinkes is fluent, viz. That even after the latest experience of Gods rarest outward favors, his servants sometimes taste of sore afflictions; Gods choisest left hand bles­sings secure not wholy from adversity: besides variety of experience herein dayly, the point is cleare (to seeke no farther) from the example of Abraham, the father, that is, the pattern of our faith, by doing of whose works, we may hope to rest, one day, sweetly in his bosome; we read of him Gen. 22.1. Gen. 22.1. that [after these things] God tempted Abraham; after what things? namely, after that miraculous adding vi­gour [Page 39] to his Heb. 11.11. past age, and fructification to Sarah his wives barren wombe, so far as to beget and beare a son, and (by) him to blesse all nations of the earth, and from him to have an issue like the stars, Heb. 11.12. innu­merable for multitude, Gen. 18. yet [after all these things] notwithstanding, God tempted him to sacrifice this his only son upon an altar, verse 2. surely it's true, in the middest of strongest confidence we may not promise our selves an utter im­munity, & exemption from Gods strokes upon us: only this caution, by the way, remember for your comfort; that if such things betide the Saints, without noting of a sin, as the speciall cause thereof, then such afflictions is for tryall, and probati­on, only; & such was Abrahams temptati­on, only for his ( Heb. 11.17. tryall,) as Saint Paul interprets, Heb. 11.17. for God knew he Gen. 22.12. feared him before sincerely; and withall, that he was able to encounter that temp­tation well enough, for he was Rom. 4.20. strong in faith, saith Paul, Rom. 4.20. therefore God laid no more upon him, then he was well [Page 40] able to beare, 1 Cor. 10.13. 1 Cor. 10.13. but if some (sin) be noted, as the occasion, then 'tis for castigation of some particular delin­quency seen in them: Now the reason of such tryalls is, partly to weane them from the overlove of outward blessings, and to teach them not to measure Gods eternall favor, by what appeareth from without, (that's no note Characteristicall of Gods love, Eccles. 9.1. eccles. 9.1. but rather by what comforts, and what future hopes he Rom. 5.5. sheds into them by his spirit, from with­in; and so let all Gods true Nathanaels make the application.

In diebus illis, in those dayes: I cannot yet thus leave this circumstance, as Orpah did her mother-inlaw, in a kisse, but as Ruth to Naomi, Ruth. 1.14. cleave yet to it, Ruth. 1.14. one thing more then; as God for tri­all sometimes deals thus with his servants, so if upon some speciall favor received, there be not returned See D Scla­ter in Psal. 116. v. 12. pag 123. set forth by me 1638. speciall obedience, but there follows after it, either a Psal. 106.13 forget­fulnesse, or a pride of heart, then must they surely looke to meet a speciall dis­pleasure; [Page 41] this is cleare from Hezekiah, in my text, who upon recovery from this deadly sicknesse, is observed not to have rendred againe, according to the benefit done to him; for his heart was lifted up, ( 2 Chron. 32.25. therefore) there was wrath a­gaine upon him and his people, 2 Chron. 32.25. See also, Hos. 13.6, 7, &c. They were fitted, saith God, and lo! instead of thankfull obedience, their heart was exal­ted, therefore have they forgotten me; ( Hos. 13.6, 7, &c therefore) I will be unto them as a Li­on, as a Leopard, by the Erat autem in via illa vastum desertum in quo erant (imma­nes) bestiae. Ri­bera in locum, ex Hieron: way, will I ob­serve them, &c. that is, I will more ( ^l fierce­ly) then usuall proceed to punish them: surely, where ever in [such] a case, un­thankfulnesse, and sin do go before, as E­sau, there punishment takes it shortly (un­lesse there be a Num. 16.56. quick, and a more then ordinary speedy prevention by repen­tance) by the Gen. 25.26. heele, as Jacob; or as Vul­can followed him, in the Poet, pede clau­do, with a slow, perhaps, yet with a sure, and with an Hec tene, nec Crimen quen­qam in pectore gesture, qui non idem Nemesin in tergo. Lipsius, l. 2. c. 13. de Cor­stant. overtaking foot: To apply.

[Page 42]Beloved Christians, well may I take up the speech of Moses to the Israelites, and say to you, as he, Deut. 4.7. Deut. 4.7. what See D ^r Scla­ter. psal. 116. p. 123, and p. 187. nation is there so great, who hath God so nigh un­to them, as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for? did e­ver people, under Heaven, find choicer blessings from the Lord, then we? who have long sate under our 1 King. 4.25. vines, and fig­trees, and are become as 'twere, the Jewell set in the Ring of the whol world, ena­melled with Halcyon peace, with more then Angelicall prerogatives in the Go­spell, and the meanes of Grace; so that the Lord may say to us, as of old to wan­ton Israel, Isa. 5.4. Isa. 5.4. what could have been done more to my vineyard? but we are surely a perverse and a crooked generati­on; and therefore I may well say as Moses, on like meditation, Deut. 32.6. Deut. 32.6. Do we thus requite the Lord, ô foolish people and unwise? [thus?] how? or which way? surely this sacred aposiopesis in­volves more then can be expressed; (thus?) thus inexpressibly with ingratitude and [Page 43] impious disobedience? My deare bre­thren, what calamities the Lord hath up in store for us, we know not; but he that sees not some in brewing for us, is blind, and he that sitteth not in secret ( Ezek. 9 4. sighing) and as those that had Gods marke upon their foreheads, in Ezekiel, Psal. 119 136. crying for all the abominations, which are, or may be the provocations of Gods wrath, is stu­pid, and senseles: do we provoke the Lord to anger? are we stronger then he? saith the great Apostle, 1 Cor. 10.22. 1 Cor. 10.22. yea rather, as Jeremy expresseth it, do they not provoke Jer. 7.19. themselves to the con­fusion of their owne faces? go to Ver. 12. ib. Shilo, view Thessalonica, Rome, Churches of Asia, &c. places where the Lord once set his name, yet for the unthankfulnesse, and impiety of the people, they are now be­come the sties of Antichrist, as the Augae­an stables, and receptacles of cursed Ma­homet; these their [...], should be our [...], their nocumenta, our documen­ta, their afflictions, our See Hos. 4.15. instructions: there was a people once as tender, and deare to [Page 44] him as the very Zech. 2.8. apple of his own eye, his chosen, his peculiar Psal. 135.4. treasure, and as Hag­gai saith of Zerubbabel, as a Hag. 2.23. signet on Gods owne right hand, who yet, for their impe­nitent rebellion, are become from an Hos. 2.11. Am­mi, and a Ruhamah, a lo-ammi, and a lo­ruhamah, Hos. 1.6, 9. that is, from being my people, and a people that had obteyned mercy, a no people of Gods favor, or of Gods mer­cy: take we heed, favours bestowed raise Isa. 5.4. con­fer Joh. 15.22. expectation of obedience, that disap­pointed, fetcheth off, as to the barren fig­tree, a Luke 13.7. succide, cut it down, why com­breth it the ground? and if God spared not these Rom. 11.21. naturall branches, so dressed and pruned and Isa. 5.2. fenced and watched, &c. be not so high-minded, but Rom. 11.20. feare; feare, what? even our own abscission also: take heed, saith St. Paul, lest he also spare not thee: my beloved, there is a thing called infidelity and sin, that doth not cause a mitigation only & an abatement of Gods love unto a people, but even make an utter Isa. 59.2. separation between them: we are much spoken of, or traduced by our ad­versaries, [Page 45] and, as Eli told his sons, It is no good 1 Sam. 2.24. report we have amongst them, for our dalliance with Gods mercies, and the blemishing of the Gospell by our evill conversations; surely, though [...]a [...]i [...]t id il­li quidem suo vitio, nulla ju­stà causa, fat [...] ­or; sed colorem tamen habet ca­lumnia. Jacob: Acontius, de Sa­tanae stratagem l. 7 p. 223, in 8. edi [...]. 1565. they, of all men else, have least cause thus to rowle that loose and busie filme of flesh, that they carry about with them in their black mouths, towards us, who (though we will not wholly excuse our selves of our infir­mities, and our Gal. 6.1. [...]) yet dare we make a challenge with them, upon that See Nicolaum de Clemangis in speculo Roman: Pontific. quarrell: yet there is, and may be much good use of slanders, they should be to us, as Jonathan 1 Sam. 20.20. arrows were to Da­vid, in the middest of danger, instead of watchwords to us, to avoyd the occasions of laying our selves justly open to so great a calumny, or danger: I conclude this point with that of our Saviour, in ano­ther case, [...], behold I have told you Joh. 13.19. & Joh. 16.4. before hand; remember then that there hath beene, if not a Prophet, yet a seasonable monitor amongst you. Hezekiah, yee have heard, though a great [Page 46] favorite of heaven, yet not 2 Chron. 32.25. rendring again to the Lord, according to the benefit done unto him, finds Gods displeasure in no low measure; for even (In those dayes) of favor, upon his not speciall obedience, but unthankfulnesse rather, Hezekiah was sicke, and that too very dangerously, even unto death; In those dayes was Hezekiah sicke, unto death.

And thus I take my leave of Hezekiah sicke, and now lying, as it was supposed, on his death-bed: Next, I will salute the Prophet, that came to visite him thus sore­ly sick; with whom yet I shall be forced, by the time, to exchange but only a word or two at present, because there is yet an ur­gent businesse not to be neglected in the Text, which I do reserve, as the master of the marriage-feast in Joh. 2.10. Cana of Galile did his best wine, till my last discourse, that it may stay the freshest in your longest memories.

The second generall part.Now this Person here visiting the sick Prince, is described to us a three fold way.

• [Page 47]1 By his Name, Isaiah.
• 2 By his Function, a Prophet.
• 3 By his Pedigree, the son of Amos.

In those dayes was Hezekiah sicke, unto death; and the Prophet, Isaiah, the sonne of Amos, came to him:

From every of these words, as flowers, some sedulous and industrious Bee would sucke out store of hony; see, I beseech you, a drop or two, 1 Isaiah, so by Name: Sundry large encomiums have been besto­wed on this Prophet; he carrieth in his Name [Salvation of the Lord] for so [...] (Ischaiahu) from Pase [...] ▪ [...], Salus, & [...] Dominus, doth signifie; he is stiled by Nazianzene, [...] Nazianzene [...]. p. 2. Eton excus. [...], the See the elo­quence of Isaiah set forth by M ^r Wotton, in his Sermons upon John, serm. 2. pa. 62. elegant and the lofty Prophet; our Saviour was much taken with the rea­ding of him, Luk. 4.17. Luke 4.17. and the Eunuch of Aethiopia Act. 8.28, converted by his writings, Act. 8.28. he is oftner cited then any Prophet else in the new Testament, one and twen­ty times at least, for which cause he is sti­led usually the Evangelicall prophet, be­cause he doth most graphically, as fore­tell, [Page 48] so describe our Saviour in his incar­nation, birth, preaching, passion, &c. with all the benefits from thence accruing to beleevers: and as in short, Siracides saith of him, Ecclus. 48.22. Esay the Pro­phet was great, and Ecclus. 48.22. faithfull in his vision, not great only, but faithfull; I will only name the note, and leave it, viz. None more fit to stand before a Prince then such as E­say was, so every way accomplished for that service; he was both great and faith­full, able for parts, and true to his service; so we read, Pro. 14.35. Pro. 14.35. The kings Pro. 22.29. favor is toward a wise servant; and againe, Pro. 22, 29. Seest thou a man Pro. 22.29. diligent in his businesse? he shall stand before kings, hee shall not stand before meane men, or, men of obscurity: the poynt is cleere, but I meddle now no farther; only let me say in the expression of the Scripture, in another case, Luke 10.23. [...], Blessed are the eyes which see the (men) which wee see, in this regard, both in Church and State; [such] as are second unto none in any a­ges past.

[Page 49]Secondly, by his function, he was a Pro­phet, one of Gods own Counsell, who had the knowledge of secret things, afore they came to passe, as Siracides hath ex­pressed Ecclus. 48.25. it, cap. 48.25. He, the (Pro­phet) came to Hezekiah, now sick unto death: Hence I observe; that none so fit to visit sick men, as the Prophets, Priests and Ministers of God: S. James directly presseth it, Jam. 5.14. Is any sick among you? let him call for the Jam. 5.14. Elders of the Church, and let [them] pray over him; what were those Elders of the Church? No See exactly clearing this point, B [...]. Bilson, in Epi­stle before his excellent book of the perpetu­all govern­ment of the Church p 4.5. &c. and c. 10. ibid. p 126, 127, &c. in 8 [...]. lay-presbytery I wis; (alas) for the So my Lords Grace p. 7. of his speech in Star-chamber 1637. new-fangled Geneva-device!) but presbyters in sacris; the publique Priests and Ministers of the Gospell: whose lips as at all times else, they should preserve most saving knowledge; so [then] espe­cially may (they) have, for thy soule, a word in Pro. 25.11. season; For where, in such dan­gerous distresses, have the common peo­ple leave, to be their (own) guides, and informers? and in [doubtfull matters] Mal. 2.7. Isa. 50.4. [Page 50] to be their owne Private per­sons may not presume of the spirit of [inter­pretation] as it came not from private motion at first, 2 Pet. 1.20, 21. which is proved from example of the [...]unuch, who referred the [exposition] of the text, unto his guide, Act. 8.31 private interpreters? when such an one is one of a thousand, Job 33.29. enabled and prepared for thee, by the Lord himselfe, according to his function: I am sure the power, to binde and loose the conscience, is (clave non er­rante) delegated only upon [Us,] Joh. 20.23. and [We,] not [You] have that word of 1 Cor. 5.19. Reconciliation, put into [our] mouths, whom the Lord sees 1 Tim. 1.12. faithfull: which one meditation, well Psal. 107.43. pondered by the people, would (in their soule-distur­bances) make our very Rom. 10.15. feet seem beauti­full, upon the mountaines; yea, our per­sons, for this worke sake of ours, more highly, (as Saint Pauls phrase is) to be 1 Thess. 4.31. esteemed by them; whereas the mis­conceite hereof occasions often much See the last L. B of Ely p. 23. epist. before his treatise of the Sabbath. discomfort, and distraction to their Soules.

Thirdly, as Isaiah by name, and the Prophet by function, so also by pedegree, the son of Amos: This Prophet is said by learned men to have descended of the roy­all blood it selfe, and therfore is this here [Page 51] set down to poynt us to his pedegree and birth; which, mee thinks, offers and pre­sents unto us, a two fold observation. First, how warrantable it is sometimes to own those honors that worthy persons are truly borne to; to which purpose that of Sa­lomon, it may be, tendeth, Prov. 17.6. Pro. 17.6. The glory of children are their fathers: but this full streame would neede some sluces to stop, or let it go, so as fit cautions may allow: First, this must not savor of a vain-glorious or a sinfull ostentation; for to curb such a temper, old Agapetus in paraen: ad Ju­stinian, sect. 4. Agapetus well told the Emperor Justinian, [...], that clay and dyrt was the antientest progenitor of us all; we know S. Paul [in casu] stood much upon it, that he was a Act. 16.37. & 22.25. Roman, Act. 16, 37, & 22, 25. and therfore he sent so farre as Troas for his 2 Tim. 4.13. cloake, and gives a speciall charge concerning his parchments, 2 Tim. 4.13. for that, as S. Ambrose ad 2 Tim. 4.13. Ambrose saith, these were left him by his progenitors as the badges and the evidences of his Ro­man [Page 52] freedom: Secondly, we must still remember, this may be done, not often, but when Gods honor may receive ad­vantage thence; as S. Paul got by those priviledges more liberty to preach the go­spell: confer 2 Cor. 11.22. &c. and 12.11. 2 Cor. 11.22, &c. and againe 2 Cor. 12.11. though, when he reflected on himselfe personally, all that he said of himselfe was but [...], I am nothing; yet when he saw the reputation of the go­spell to lie at stake, through the vile dis­paragement both of person and parts, in his absence from the church of Corinth, by the vaunting high-flown false Apo­stles, who being well-spoken men, and such as were well able to gloze over an ill matter with fine 1 Cor. 2.4. speech and very well worded language; had almost, as Absalom the peoples hearts, 2 Sam. 15.6. [...] stoln away the good affections of the Corinthians from the great Apostle; in this case hee forbeareth not to use an [...], in nothing am I behinde the very chiefest Apostles; he meanes the false Apostles: Accordingly may we Ministers make the application.

[Page 53]The other note is this; how it did no way disparage, rather much advance the honor of Isaiah, that though he were of royall blood, the sonne of Amos, yet was he withall a (Prophet); so they say that Daniel was the son of Nobles, Melchizedek king of Salem, the son of God, and yet withall the high-Priest of our profession; amongst us, some of generous and of no­ble parentage, that highlier esteeme the reproach of [ See my Father D Sclater, ad 2 Thes. c. 3. v. 2. p. 223. Priest-hood] then all the treasures of Aegypt; among carnall earth­wormes only holds the rule; dat census ho­nores; not worth, but wealth wins honor; can it be a dishonor to enjoy the Title of our Lord Christ himselfe? to be instru­mentall 1 Tim. 4.16. Obad. ver. ult. confer Matt. 1.21. Saviors of his people? see more­over, ye are 1 Cor. 4.1. Stewards of Gods heavenly Mysteries; clavigeri coeli; yea God's own Psal. 25.14. Secret, if we feare him truly, shall be with us; yea more yet, in this we doe out goe the very Angels themselves in honour; for, to which of the My Lord pri­mate of Ar­magh. Angels said he at a­ny time, Whose sins ye Joh. 20.23. remit, they are remitted? but unto (us 2 Cor. 5.19.) he hath given [Page 54] that great and most mellifluous word of Reconciliation: Oh dignity incompa­rable! how should this one meditation, my worthy Brethren, solace our hearts, and cheere up our spirits, under those out­ward abasures and undervaluings, that we somtimes meet with from your carnall & besotted worldlings? who know no more then Mat. 7.6. swine, to value the pearles of hea­ven; nor how to prize the inestimable 2 Cor. 4.7. Treasure of the Gospell, though brought unto them by us but in earthen vessells; Isaiah by name, the Prophet by function, the son of Amos by discent and Pedegree, one of noble and of royall linage: yee see how I may say as Paul doth of his letter written to his Galatians, cap. 6.11. this subject is very Gal. 6.11. large, and not only time, but copiousnesse of matter overwhelmes me. Wherefore, as Ter­tullus told his noble Foelix, Act. 24.4. Act. 24.4. That I be not farther tedious herein unto you; I pray you, that you would heare me, of your clemency and patience, a few words more, of this Prophets visite, and [Page 55] the matter of it; and then, as Foelix bad St. Paul, I shall go my wayes for this time, till a more convenient season may call me againe hither.

Yee have the visite it selfe in these words [He came to him:] A worthy act indeed; a good lesson to us Ministers, that we speedily addresse us to our people, in like case, and Jude 2.23. save we them with feare, as Saint Jude adviseth, ver. 23. pulling them out of the fire, of temptation, or of hell; to which the adversarie would per­chance in death emplunge them; and sure­ly there would be a very profitable use, of some My Lord B [...] of Ely quá su­pra p. 23. vide privat form of pastorall collati­on with their flock, for their direction and information in particular spirituall du­ties; such as was private confession (a­voyding the grosse, and intolerable abuse thereof, now among the Romish Masse-Priests, and the sillily deluded people led by them in the ancient Church.

But yet here is a lesson for our people too, to doe as Saint James exhorteth, when they be sick, to send and [ Jam. 5.14. call] for us, [Page 65] in season: so the good sister of sick Laza­rus [ Joh. 11.3. sent] to Christ, Joh. 11.3. yea, even Hezekiah here, when there was upon him a day of trouble, he sent the chiefest of his servants to the Prophet, and that be­times too, e're the evill spread too farre, that he might lift up his 2 King 19.2, 3, 4. Prayer for him, 2 King 19.2, 3, 4. a point this is, that merits your best notice, and cals for your carefull practice; who knows what dis­advantage to your selves? what discom­fort to your selves, and others standing by you, this delay may breed?

Well, the Prophet is come; and what now doth he do there? not sooth, or fish out for a legacy; but the text sayth, he fals instantly upon the discharge of his Commission to the sicke Prince, for so we read, he came to him, and being come, [Hee said unto him, thus saith the Lord.]

This part I called, in my division, the good Prophets employment; which stood in the delivery of his message to the King; and therefore it is described,

[Page 57]

• 1. Formally, in this expression, he said unto him, Thus saith the Lord.
• 2. Materially, and this three wayes.
  • 1. [...], Po­sitively, Thou shalt dye.
  • 2. [...], Nega­tively, and not live.
  • 3. [...], by Exhortation, Set thine house in order.

First, formally, in these words, He said unto him, thus saith the Lord: He [said,] it seemes he was a Prophet, and there­fore he would not be tongue-tide: surely he that likened Idoll-shepheards, who had mouths and Psal. 115.5. spake not, unto S ^t Gregory compares good Preachers to watchfull dogs, quia faciunt magnos latratus praedicationis. Dogs, yea, to Isa. 56.10, 11. dumbe dogs, (despicable crea­tures, the price whereof, and of an whore the Lord professeth to Deut. 23.18. abhorre alike) would not himselfe suffer his sick Patient, wanting comfort, to miscarry by his wil­full silence, or neglect: hee knew the [Page 58] blood of soules was precious in Gods sight, and as that of Abel, Gen. 4.10. cryed loud to Heaven for requitall. My worthy bre­thren, let us remember that when the Spi­rit did descend upon the Apostles, he came in the similitude of Act. 2.3. cloven tongues; first, of tongues, the best Psal. 108.1. member that David had, to [ Isa. 58.1. tell] Israel of her sinnes, and Judah of her great transgressions; yea to [ Psal. 66.16. tell] the people that feare God also, what mercifull things he will doe for their soules, if they would once but Psal. 34.8. taste, and see, and upon experience discover how 1. Pet. 2.3. gracious the Lord is; and then of [clo­ven] tongues, that they might rightly 2. Tim. 2.15. divide, and as it were cleave out of the whole lumpe and precious masse of the Word of God, to every one his Luke 12.42. proper portion, 1. Pet. 2.2. milke to whom milke, and Heb. 5.13, 14. stronger meate unto whom stronger meate is due, rightly dividing the word of truth; as our Saviour, making known ( John 15.15. all) things that he had heard of his Fa­ther unto his friends the Disciples; and as S ^t Paul, not shunning to declare unto the [Page 59] Church of Christ all the Acts 20.27. whole counsell of God; so much of it he meant, as was 2. Cor. 12.4. lawfull, and fit to be imparted: surely, God will never thanke a man for keeping in of his counsell; rather, I think, where the counsell, and the secret of the Lord is, there, as Jeremie professeth, Gods word is in the heart of a truly zealous Mi­nister, (rightly called and well qualified) as a Jer. 20.9. burning fire shut up in his bones, he is weary with forbearing, and cannot stay, namely, from giving of it a doore of Eph. 6.19. ut­terance; when the heart is hot within, and in the middest of musing thoughts, the fire of zeale burneth, David cannot, with­out much pain, hold his peace, but he must needs be speaking with his Psal. 39.3. tongue; thus doing, a faithfull Pastor may in the day of reckoning, and account with God, with comfort lift up his head, and say as my prophet here hath sayd before him, (though his words strictly were indeed a prophecy of Christ) behold I and the Isa. 8.18. chil­dren which by thy blessing, and giving of See Joh. 17.26. encrease unto my 1 Cor. 3.6. endeavours in [Page 60] the Ministry, thou hast given mee.

But to say no more of this [saying] of my Prophet here, (lest I incur those pro­verbiall scom's, sus Minervam; or else that, Cum nesciret loqui, nescivit tacere. [...]) let us next observe, how he (begins) his saying to the King; It is, yee see, with a sic dicit Dominus, thus sayth the Lord; which di­recteth us Ministers, to beware how we presume to vent any thing unto our peo­ple, without our first sure warrant for it from the Lord. If our Saviour gave such great caution to the (hearers,) that they should Luke 8.18. the Greeke word is ( [...]) which denotes a very earnest see­ing, [...] Beza. take heed how they (heare;) so must we likewise be as cautionate, how we ( 1 Pet. 4.11. speake) otherwise, then as the very oracles of God: so our Saviour saith, Joh. 12.49. that I have not spoken of my Joh. 12.49. self, and S ^t Paul calleth what he delivered to the Church for Doctrine, not his owne, but ( Act. 20.27. Gods) counsell, Act. 20.27. the con­trary vociferations made by ignorant and wilde Enthusiasmi id solum habent commodi, ut ho­mines in immen­sum aliquod pe­lagus abripiant, tandemque in Atheismi gurgi­tem praecipites demergant. Du­raeus Whitakero l. 1. sect. 30. p. 107. apud. Whi­tak. contra Du­raeum. Enthusiasts, spuing out their own froth, male contented, brainsick fancies, w ^th out Gods warrant & allowance; good lord! [Page 61] what noisome weeds of errour, Schisme, Faction, and all mad irregularity do they most dangerously occasion, (through the Rev. 12.9. old cunning of the Matt. 13.25. envious man, that de­lights in tares and hemlock) to grow up, and spread in the precious field, and seed­plot of wholsome and most proper grain? oh! for the Matt. 3.12. fanne of Christ, thorowly to purge the floore of his Church from the chaffe of all such Spiritus Ana­baptisticus ame­tia quaedam fuit & furor prae­ceps at (que) effrae­natus, quo acti (scripturas om­nes) abjiciunt, & toti exrepen­tinis Enthusias­mis pendent, Whitak. contra Duraeum, l. sect. 32. Anabaptisticall, Vitanda sunt deliria sectae Anabap­sticae, quae sine dubio à Diabolo est excitata, & monstrum est execrabile, ex variis haeresibus, & blasphemiis conflatum. Vrsin: Catech: qu [...] 74. unscrip­tured mouthings before the people; who are seduced unto error & beguiled, by this meanes mainly, in their 2 Pet. 2.14. unstable Soules; for that their fanaticall conceits have been at last defended (as a worthy instrument of much good, in this Citty, saith well) with no pretence, but the Mr. Paynter of Exeter. quâ supra p. 27. See Goodwyn p. 118, 119, cap. 10. quà supra. Motion of the holy Ghost; and yet, God knows, their motions oftimes differ as wide from the sweet, unerring inspirations and motions of Gods good spirit, as Heaven doth from Hell: Pray we therefore for the spirit of [Page 62] (wisedome) and Revelation in the know­ledge of God, as St Paul speaketh, Eph. 1.17, 18. and the spirit of (truth,) as our Savior stiles him, Joh. 16.13. that when we speake, as in the name of God, we may speake the wisedome of God, and that not, as a soothing, time-creature Prea­cher, with the intising words of mans wis­dome, but in demonstration of the same spirit and of power, 1 Cor. 2.4.7. then may we safely assure our hearts of a sic dicit Do­minus, Thus saith the Lord, as the Pro­phet in my Text. But to whom doth our Prophet here direct his [Thus saith the Lord]? unto the King himselfe: So 2 King 22.18, 19. Michaiah to Ahab; Nathan to David, 2. Sam. 12 7. Thou art the Man; John-Baptist to Herod Matt. 14 5. non licet (see his plaines) for thee to have thy brothers wife. But yet wee must re­member prudence in this poynt; for who knows not that in these speciall Prophets, there was somthing extraordinary? wee ordinary Ministers may soone, this way, be too bold with royaltie, at least in pub­lique: Nathan spake down-right to Da­vid, [Page 63] but it was in privat: But notwith­standing, whilest we are sure we bring, as Matt. 17.27. Peter's fish did, silver in our Mouthes, I meane, our sic dicit Dominus, Thus saith the Lord; why are we such dastards, as in the cause of Christ (when duely called thereto) to feare the furrows of a rich or great mans brow? And thus farre of the formall part of my Prophets imployment, in the delivery of his message from the Lord unto the sick-King Hezekiah; Hee said unto him, Thus saith the Lord.

I come now to the materiall part of his speech, and this is set down. 1. [...], positively, Thou shalt Die: and what new thing is this? was not this the doom of all mankind, immediately upon sin, Cinis es, & in Cinerem reverteris, Gen. 3.19, and Eccles. 12.7. Dust thou art, and unto Dust thou shalt return. The woman of Tecoah, long before, set a necesse upon it, 2 Sam. 14.14. we must needs die,; yea there is a statute, like those law of the Medes and Persians, Heb. 9.27. irrevocable, enacted for it and never to bee repealed, even so it is Dan. 6.8. ap­pointed, saith Saint Paul: And surely it's [Page 64] true, death is that common bag, into which all the chessemen upon the table, whether they be King or Queen, rich or poore, good or bad, must be all shuffled together, at the end of our game: death is as an See Quarles his poëms. archer, now it hits our superiours, and so shoots over us; then our inferiours, and so shoots under us; anon, our freind, roving on our right hand; then, our ene­my, flying on the left hand; at last, it hits the white, and strikes our selves: could Gen. 5.27.969. yeeres. age have excused it, Methuselah had e­scaped it; could Judg. 14 6. strength have declined it, then Sampson had missed it; could 1 Sam. 10.23. sta­ture have over-looked it, then Saul had avoyded it; could 2 Sam. 14.25. beauty have outfa­ced it, then Absalom had never met it: yea more, could Art have shifted it, by any curiosities, or contrivals, then the Gram­marian with a Criticisme might judge it off; and yet he that can decline a noune in e­very case, cannot decline death in any case: could the windings of wit, and the Mean­ders of reason, divisions and distinctions wave it off, then surely the Logician [Page 65] would dispute it away; and yet whilest he thinks fiercely to frame his argument in Barbara, rudely to puzzle it, death retorts upon him with another in Ferio, and at last ni celarent, and that sine modo & figurâ; Could the naturall Philosopher by his di­ving into Nature, and by his vanity of no­tions stave it off, then that Patriarch of Philosophers, as M ^r Hooker styles Aristo­tle, had never been swallowed in that sea, neither ebbing nor flowing; yet all his ens mobile was at last become, as Niobe (when metamorphosed) like to a stone in it's centre, a thing without motion; could the Mathematician by his strong imaginations phancy it off, or by the har­mony of the spheares charm it away, that so he might still spin-out a thread of im­mortality on those rowling wheeles, and between his two celestiall poles beate it from him; then the shoulders of Atlas had ne'r sunk under the waight of that globe, or Archimedes with his [...], e're found out death; nor Thales, the Milesian Astro­nomer, whiles he went gazing after the [Page 66] stars, been emplunged in a pond, where that was a bathing; could the Physitian Luke 4.23. cure himselfe of it, then Aesculapius, nor Hippocrates had ever wanted potions to keep it out; yea, if the Musitian make a league with death, and meant to be homo fidissimus, most true to his notes, most sweet in his tunes, most lawny in his tou­ches, yet would he be forced at last frange­re fidem, to crack his bargayne, and to breake his stringes, and his finest aires, like some faire coloured silkes, if too much ayred, they will lose their glosse; and all his descants be exchanged, in the issue, into a sad (ground) by death; in a word, nor can the Metaphysitian, by all his abstractions, so acutely contemplate it, severed from all bodyes, in his braynes, but it will closely be shooting of a forke into his sides, and, as Joab did Abner, 2 Sam. 3.27. stab him at unawares; the Arithmetician by all his numbrings and rules, can never make death to serve for a cypher; to conclude, nor can the Moralist, with all his Ethicks tutor this, [...], or rough hewen fellow [Page 67] so much as unto a civill forbearance; no more regards (it) the Cardinall vertues, then the Cardinals cap. Truly, saith Salo­mon, Eccles. 1.2. all is vanity, and againe, one genera­tion Eccles. 1.4. passeth and, another generation com­meth, but no generation [staieth;] there is a time, saith he, to be born, & a time to Eccles. 3.2. dy, but I find not there is any time to (live;) for orimur, morimur, & nascimur morituri, as St Bernard tels us; & though in all things else there be (a peradventure,) as St Austin tels us, yet in death there is none; peradventure a child is conceived, peradventure it's an Embryo in the wombe, peradventure it is borne, peradventure he passeth through all the degrees of age, and in the issue, if ye make up an acrosticke, out of the foure first Feltham, Re­solve cent. 2. re­sol. 57. in sine. capitall letters of Puer ju­venis, vir, and senex, the foure degrees of age, yee shall finde the word, and the man pius, peradventure; again, on the other side, a man may like to the river Jordane, glide thorow his life in a silver & pleasant stream, whilest he hems in himselfe within the banks and bounds of Civility; and yet, [Page 68] in the end, empty himselfe out into the Magirus geo­graph. in de­script. Palaesti­nae, p. 241. edit. 1608. in 8 [...]. dead sea of impiety, and prophanenes; but now in death, there is no peradven­ture at all, no, that's without all perad­venture; for 'tis not said wee may, but we must Dye, though not perhaps statim, pre­sently, yet surely ad tempus Heb. 9.27. statutum, at our set day by God; therefore the period, in the story of the creation of the longest-living man is this, And he Gen. 5.27. dyed. Moses, for that cause partly, it may bee, immediately after his Genesis, wrote an Exodus: In short, no age can balke it; for as death hath an axe to hew downe a snowy headed Methuselah into the grave; so hath it also a bow, to reach the yongest man afar off, even whilest the marrow is in his bones, and the Job. 21.24. milke is in his breasts, as Job speaketh; even whilest he is going forth, as the Giant like-Sun delighting to run his course, in his full Psal. 19.5. strength and might; yea, sanctity it selfe hath not the priviledge of exemption here: for even of Abraham, the peerlesse and prime ex­ample of Faith, we read that satur dierum, [Page 69] being full of dayes, he gave up the Ghost, and Gen 25.8. dyed: wherefore, though Hezekiah, here, were a gracious and a great Saint, yet he must at last too be Gen. 25.8. gathered, as the Scripture phraseth it, unto his Fathers, at his death and dissolution: so that when the Prophet here saith unto him, from the Lord, that he shall (dye) what new, or what strange thing is there in it? But if I mistake not, his ayme is now to tell him that he shall dye of this (particular) dis­ease, and plague-sore (now) upon him; and so indeed the learned Junius reades the Text, Tu ( Junius ad lo­cum. brevi) moriêris, Thou shalt dye [shortly;] thus much for the [...], or the positive part of his speech, Thou shalt Dye.

Now secondly, for the [...], or the Negative part; to cut off all hopes of any farther prorogation, he saith unto him, And not live, that is, Not live longer, but speedily be dissolved, and die: But how was this Prophesie of Isaiah accompli­shed? how fulfilled? sith we find it in the Story, in the 5 ^th and the 6 ^th verses follow­ing [Page 70] of this Chapter, that he dyed not so speedily, no, nor of (that) sicknesse then upon him; for he recovered, having used the remedy of the Isa. 38.21. bunch of Figges; and the execution of the sentence of Death was adjourned longer off, even to fifteen yeares more. Like instance we have in the case of Nineveh, when the Prophet told the City that there were yet but ( Jonah 3.4.10. for­ty) dayes before it was to be destroyed; and yet we read the contrary, and of a longer time, in point of execution: What was the reason? why, there was an im­plyed condition (according to Gods or­dinary dispensation, in those commina­tions of outward judgments) of repen­tance expected; which being actually, from the Throne unto the Sheep-crooke, universally fulfilled, the Execution was adjourned. Just thus it fared with Heze­kiah in this place, the Prophet told him, that he should dye, and very shortly too, of that disease he now laboured under; but the devout Prince well knowing the God he served so Isa. 38.3. uprightly (for the [Page 71] maine) in all his dayes, was such a God, as was a present Psal. 46.1. helpe in the needfull time of trouble, and that, if in the day of trouble he did Psal. 50.15. call upon him (one­ly,) and seeke unto him Job 8.5. betimes, and Hos. 15.5. early, God would deliver him; and so his Saint delivered should glorifie him: wherefore Hezekiah, doing this, and per­forming this condition of humble, peni­tent invocation, as David by his Con­fession, (when clearely, by the Prophet Nathan, he was convinced of his sin) pro­cured a speedy 2. Sam. 12.13. absolution; so he obtai­ned a quick adjournment of the present execution of Death, to which (now,) under that instant sicknesse, he was sen­tenced by the Prophet; for thus we read, verse the second, Then he turned his face to the wall, and ( 2. King. 20.2, 3, 4, 5, 6. prayed) unto the Lord: and verse the third, He wept sore; upon which, verse 4, 5, 6. the Prophet is sent back againe unto him from the Lord, with gladsome tidings of his sure recove­ry of that (though mortall) sicknesse; and withall, of the adjournment of his [Page 72] day of death, to fifteen yeares of longer time: And thus much also of the [...], or the Negative part of the Prophets saying unto the King, Thou shalt not live. But now, before the Prophet had a war­rant to returne him tidings of recovery, he first found him desperately diseased, and sicke unto death: and what then doth he? he bestowes his most usefull and most seasonable exhortation upon him, which is the third branch of his say­ing to the King, the [...], the advice of the good Prophet to him in his dangerous condition, in these words, (which concerne us every one of us very nearely, also even now most seriously to consider of:) Set thine house in order.

I might here take occcasion to menti­on, and discourse of the severall sorts of houses that the Scriptures doe at large point us to: The first is the bodily house, or the house of the Corpus nostr [...], quaedam domus est, quod in eâ anima velut in­habitat. Gerar­dus Moringus, ad cap. 12. Ec­cles. 2.3. body, which is also in an Analogicall resemblance, styled by Saint Paul, a Temple, yea the 1. Cor. 6.19. Temple of the holy-Ghost, 1 Cor. 6.19. in regard [Page 73] of the 1 Cor. 3.16. inhabitation of Gods spirit there, 1 Cor. 3.16. in this house of the body, the Eccles. 12.3, 4. keepers are the hands; the grinders are the teeth; the strong men, are the legs; those that looke out of the windows, are the eyes; the See Mic. 7.5. doores are the lips; all which are Solomons expressions; the daughters of Musique, are the eares and lungs; the kitchin we have in the stomacke, where is the pot that Stomachus pro­pior (coquendi) alimenti officina Antonius Cora­nus Hispalensis, paraphras: ad 12 ^nm eccles. v. 3. boyles our meat, as Anatomists observe; and, after the Chylus, and the Chymus, the first and second digestion, or concocti­on, the liver turns the good nourish­ment into blood, and disperseth it, as the spirit of life, into the severall, and the pro­per veins; the excrementitious part is from the hepar by the spleene, conveied unto the spermaticall vessels; or else, into the ventricle; which holds what is, as by a chanell, conveied unto it, till, at the backe doore, it be voyded out againe, to grati­fie nature, and to ease her of a burthen; for this house of the body, there is some good order to be set and taken; My Son, [Page 74] sayth the wise man, in thy sicknesse be not negligent, but as thou must, in the chie­fest place, pray unto the Lord, that he will make thee whole; so withall, thou must Ecclus. 38.1.9. honor a Physitian with the honor due unto him, for the uses which you may have of him, for the Lord hath created him; But this is not the house to be set in order by Hezekiah, (now shortly, by the Prophets saying, to Dye) mainely in­tended in this text.

Secondly, besides this bodily, there is also a spirituall house within; where the minde, the spirit and the understanding is, as it were, the Matt. 6.22. eye to see, and the [...], the guide to direct all the un­der and inferiour faculties, the servants; the will is, as the chiefe steward, in this rich palace of the soule, that receives the immediate Lege eruditum Hemmingii li­brum de lege Naturae. dictates, and commands of the understanding, unconstraynedly, but but yet [...] (as in Philosophy we use to speake) upon election and de­liberation too, yeelding unto, consenting and obeying that as good, which the chiefe [Page 75] Master of the house, the mind, first assen­ted, in himselfe, unto, as true and fit to be obeyed; next to this, the concupi­scible, and the Irascible faculties, as inferi­our servants, waite, to (desire) what the will propounds, as good; or else to fume, and fret at what may seeme to crosse, ey­ther the Principall masters, or their own propension; after these, the affections stand as the Pesants, or in the lowest rank of service, as the lackquaes, or the Animae affecti­ones (pedes) sunt dum in hoc pul­vere gradimur, Bernard. f. 35. f. foot-posts, ready to bee dispatch'd away in speed and post to execute, and to do that, which hath, with allowance passed down along, from the chiefe Master, to them­selves by the rest of the superiours, and the servants of greater authority in this house; these at length bring tydings to the wai­ters, at the doores without, the senses, who were, as the ( Nihil est in in­tellectu, quin priùs fuerit in Sensu: Axioma philosophicum. first) occasion to move the minde (the chiefe Master of the house) to bethinke it selfe of businesse, to employ his servants in, for the whole day following; and when thus (as by the primum mobile,) through a strong circum­gyration, [Page 76] the inferior orbes are whirryed about) all the whole house is set a wor­king; the businesse by the hands and arms and shoulders, and the rest of the out­ward, and field-servants abroad in the bo­dy, will be done, and brought to passe: Now as for this house of the soule, in the way, as I have (though in much weaknes) now propounded it; this is carefully, and in the first place to be looked into, and set in order, as at all times else, so principally when as Hezekiah, though by no immediate Prophet, as he did, or by any extraordinary revelation (which God now doth not, in these dayes, mul­tiply in vaine) as Deut. 34.5. Moses did; but by some sensible insinuation, we receive a sum­mons or a warning by any kind of sicknes, or the like harbingers of common dissolu­tions, of our Deaths; then principally must we look to set the houses of our souls in order; and then must the minde (the Master of the whole) chiefely labor to be solidly directed and informed in the per­fect and right knowledge, and faith in [Page 77] God and Christ: the reason that I main­ly presse this by, is only this (and 'tis a weighty one) because the Devill is most busie at such times as these, to disturbe the heart, and to fill the whole soule, as the winds can raise the billows in the sea, with a tumultuous hurry and violent perturba­tion; he is the Eph. 2.2. Prince of the ayery part of the little world in man, as well as of that See Mr Good­win, quâ suprà cap. 9. p. 111. Elementary Region in the great world; and so can raise unnaturall storms and va­pors, that shall darken reason; and cause such thunders & lightenings, as shall hurle all into a black confusion; such, as if hell and the soul would presently come toge­ther: wherefore, that the shaking of Sa­tans chaines may no way fright us, in that pale day of death, or sicknesse, let the houses of our Soules be rightly set in or­der; our minds Eph. 1.17. illightned with know­ledge; our wils furnished with Heb. 5.9. obedi­ence; our affections cleansed by 1 Joh. 3.3, & 2 Cor. 7.1. purity; our passions allayed by Luke 21.19. patience; our conscience Heb. 9.14. sprinkled from dead workes; the whole house so well fitted, drest up, [Page 78] and prepared, that when our Saviour shall Rev. 3.20. knock at the doore of our hearts by the Jer. 23.29. Hammer of his Word, or call to us by the Isa. 30.21. voice of the Spirit, we may rea­dily open unto him, and welcome him to supper with us in the Rom. 5.1. peace of soule, and Rom. 15.13. joy in the Holy Ghost, and may walke in that way which he shall shew us both of Repentance and Faith, and that by the direction of himselfe who is onely the Essentiall John 14.6. way, the truth, and the life, that in the issue we may not faile of the end of our faith, even the 1. Pet. 1.9. salvation of our soules.

Thirdly, there is yet another house be­sides these, and that is the house mysticall; and this house is the 1. Tim. 3.15. Church of God, yea of the living God, as Saint Paul hath fully taught us, 1. Tim. 3.15. this house is buil­ded upon a Matth. 7.24. Rock, and that Rock is 1. Cor. 10.4. Christ; the members of this house are re­sembled unto, and called by the name of a Eph. 3.15. Family; in this family the great Matth. 20.1. [...]. 1 House­holder is God himselfe, he hath Matth. 15.26. Children in this family; and being an indulgent Fa­ther, [Page 79] he hath a Son an Matth. 21.38. heire; and not onely so, but divers other both 2. Cor. 6.18. Sonnes and Daughters too; and as children, so Matth. 21.34. & Luke 17.10. Servants also: Of these servants some are chiefe, as Luke 12.42. Stewards of the House­hold; others emphatically Servants of speciall notice and favour, such an one was Job, whom the Lord (the great Householder) would have to be obser­ved above ordinary, and Job 1.8. considered as a patterne to others; some againe are re­markable for fidelity and Heb. 3.5. faithfulnesse in all the House, so was Moses the Num. 12.7. Servant of the Lord, 1. Cor. 7.25. and Paul: Others, as for faithfulnesse, so also for Luke 12.42. Wisedome joy­ned with it; some of these againe are so endeared, that though in themselves they be Servants, yet in their Masters high e­steeme they be his John 15.15. Friends, and so he u­sually calls them: and of these servant-friends, some walke Gen. 5.24. with him, so did Enoch; some, as Abraham, whom S ^t James calleth the James 2.23. Friend of God, doe walke Gen. 17.1. before him: in a word, some are so Psal. 19.13. & Psal. 119.76. ser­vants, that withall they are such men as [Page 80] are 1. Sam. 13.14. & Act. 13.22. after the Lords owne heart too, and such an one was David; out of all these, and much more that might be added to this purpose, (concerning the severall of­fices and imployments of these children and servants in this house of the Church, according to their 1. Cor. 12.4, 5, 6, &c. severall degrees and orders, of which the Apostle hath writ­ten at large, 1. Cor. 12.4, 5, 6, &c.) there is made up one whole entire Heb. 3.6. house of Christ, namely, if we, as Saint Paul ad­monisheth us, hold fast the confidence and rejoycing of the hope firme unto the end: how justly may I here take up that saying of the blessed Aegyptian Macarius, Homil. 49. pag. 535. in 80. Macarius on this occasion, and cry out in won­der and admiration at Gods great mercy in this regard to man, as he, [...]! Oh the unspeakable mer­cy of God, who freely gives himselfe un­to beleevers, to inherite him in a short [Page 81] time as a full possession! and oh wonder, that God should inhabite in the body of man, and that the Lord should have as it were a specious house to dwell in man! To which, even of the Angels, (though by creation farre more glorious creatures than man is, (for he is made Heb. 2.7. lower than the Angels) hath God said this at any time, that he would either come to Rev. 3.20. sup, or else to Eph. 3.17. & 2.22. dwell with them? but loe! thus hath he said, and doth doe to (men;) and the Church, built up of men, upon the Matth. 7.24. Rock Christ Jesus (as the chiefe Eph. 2.20. cor­ner-stone) of 1. Pet. 2.5. living stones, unto a compleate Eph. 2.21. building in the Lord; nor doth he onely lodge with us, as the An­gels did with Lot, for a Gen. 19.3, 4, 15. Night, and so a­way; but he John 14.23. abides, and stayes with his Church for ever, even unto the Matth. 28.20. end of the world. If then Lot was highly hono­red in entertaining and lodging of An­gels, what honour have we to lodge the (God) of Angels? and if the Babe Luke 1.41. sprang in the wombe, (when yet there was a double partition-wall, two wombs [Page 82] betweene Saint John Baptist and his Lord and Master Christ) when he came but in a Luke 1.40. visite, oh how should we rejoyce, who have him in us by a perpetuall Eph: 2.22. inhabi­tation? which meditation should, by the way, admonish us, how religiously care­full we should be of preserving these hou­ses from —Veniunt ad candida tecta columbae. pollution and all uncleanenesse, that we may not occasion our best guest, by meanes of some ill order or entertain­ment within us, to be Eph. 4.30. grieved, to divert and ( Hos. 5.15. go away) to some other better and sweeter mansion: oh let us not make our bodies and soules the 1. Cor. 6.15. Brothel-houses of lust, as a Babylonish Rev. 18.2. cage of all foule birds, of flying and of wandring thoughts of impurity; but let us rather purge our selves from all 2. Cor. 7.1. filthinesse of the Domus Dei spiritualis est, qui non in carne ambulat, sed in spiritu, Bern. f. 17. flesh and spirit, perfecting holinesse in the feare of God, purge we our hearts from pride by Humility, for with the Isa. 57.15. humble spirit God will dwell; yea, let us in all godlinesse and 1. Tim. 2.2. honesty, glorifie God both in our 1. Cor. 6.20. bodies and in our soules, sith both are Gods; and that not by Creation [Page 83] onely, but by Ibid. purchase: This is the way to make both bodies and soules not styes, or stews of filthinesse, but, as Saint Paul saith, the very 1. Cor. 6.19. Temples of the Holy Ghost, in which as in and among the true Church of God he will 1. Cor. 3.16, 17. dwell and abide, even for ever and ever: And thus much al­so of the mysticall house, which is, as yee have seene, the Church of the living God: Now, whether or no doth the ordering of this House come within the compasse of our Prophets exhortation to Hezekiah in this Text, to set his House in order before his Death? Saint Paul saith, that the 2. Cor. 11.28. care of all the Churches lay upon him; (those particular Churches of the Gentiles, I thinke he meanes, which were the members of the whole body of the Catholique and Universall Church at large) Surely so doth the whole Church, within the proper Territories of any pi­ous Prince, appertaine to him to order, for the best advantage of Gods glory, and the Psal. 122.6.7 peace and prosperity of the Church it selfe. Thus we find good Kings to stand [Page 84] affected in all ages of the Church; a speci­all example we have in that famous King 2. Chro. 19.5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Jehoshaphat, 2. Chron. 19. who tooke care not onely to appoint Judges able, and holy to end and order secular af­faires; but also in Hierusalem did Jehosha­phat, saith the Scripture, verse the 8 ^th ibi­dem, set of the Levites, and of the Priests, and of the chiefe of the Fathers of Israel for the judgment of the (Lord,) and for controversies, when they returned to Hierusalem; and he charged them, saying, Thus shall ye doe in the feare of the Lord faithfully, and with a perfect heart; and certainely when the Sword of a valiant Goliah, and the Ephod, the Sword of the Magistrate, and the Sword of the Spirit are brandished or drawn forth to­gether; as David said to Ahimelech of the Sword of Goliah, there is 1 Sam. 21.9. none to that; so there is no union, no ordering of the house of the Church like this; whilest the prophane Sensualist and the hypocriticall Atheist shall be smitten to the ground to­gether: Steddily and happily must the [Page 85] Arke of God needs go, when it is drawn by peace and holinesse tyed together, as those two milch kine keeping the high way, and turning not aside to either hand; saith a lear­ned and most elegant Mr. John Bu­ry, one of the Prebends of Ex­eter, in his epist. dedicat. before his Visitation serm. styled the Moderate Chri­stian, edit. 1630. Preacher of our western parts: Now the way to obteine, or to settle both these▪ is when, as Davids Palace and Gods Tabernacle dwelt toge­ther upon Mount Sion; both the spiri­tual first directs the temporall, and then the Temporall sword doth back the spiri­tuall, to defend and ayd; or like to Hippo­crates twins, they breathe and live and al­wayes go Inprom [...]venda justitia us (que) qua (que) gladius gladium adjuvabat, & nihil, incon­sulto sacerdote, (qui velut Sa­burra in navi fuit) agebatur. D Hen. Spelman epist. dedicat. ad Regem Car. prae­fix. Concil. Aug. together; for which cause, we find also that King David could not Psal. 132.4. sleep till he had provided for Gods house, and taken speciall order for the establishing and observation of Gods statutes, and di­vine ordinances, not only in the Taber­nacle at Sion, but by the whole Church of God, under his dominions; furnishing it with Priests and Levites, singers and the like; yea, cherishing, and honoring the Prophets of the Lord of hostes; and therefore, he so earnestly importunes the [Page 86] devotions of all good people, to Psal. 122.6, 7. pray for the peace of Hierusalem, and the prospe­rity of her palaces; as being the known type, and representation of the Jerusalem ci­vitas sancta. est sancta ecclesia Catholica, spiri­tualis Jerus [...]lem as Paulus Fagi­us, in libro Pre­cationum Hebr. prec. 8. Church of God; for by that antonomafia St Paul expressely calleth it; Gal. 4.26. Hieru­salem, that is, the Church of God, which is (above) that is, either as triumphant actually enthronized into her glory; as the woman in the Revelation cloathed with the sun, to wit, the Mal. 4 2. Sun of righteousnesse Christ Jesus him selfe (who is her 1 Cor. 1.30. righte­ousnesse) is above all in Rev. 12.1. heaven already; being there safe, and set out of the gun­shot of the Devill and all his annoying temptations; or else [above,] because though militant as yet below, notwith­standing, in Col. 3.2. affection, she is still (above) and her Phil. 3.20. conversation is in heaven al­wayes, howbeit shee here, as Abraham in a strange Country, Heb. 11.9. sojourneth a while in these earthly Tabernacles; for this Hie­rusalem (the Church of God) was King David so sollicitous and carefull: Nor did this care give up the ghost with [Page 87] those See D. Bucke­ridge his excel­lent serm. upon Rom 13 5. prea­ched at Hamp­ton court be­fore the Kings Ma [...] sept. 23. 1006. to this purpose. godly Princes; but, as if there had been a Pythagoricall [...], that zealous disposition hath passed by happy Transmigration, to the rest of those good Kings that succeeded; and (save only, when the woman was driven into the Rev. 12.14. wil­dernesse sometimes, and persecuted with the Dragon, so that she hath been faine to seeke for Heb. 11.38. dens, and caves to shelter her) in all ages, by the providence of good Prin­ces, she hath prospered, and (for that very cause too) the pious Kings themselves, as See 2 King. 22. Josiah, Asa, and the rest good Princes, the better also, we find in the Ecclesiasticall story of the Church, since the dayes of the Gospell, that the like care of her welfare hath not slumbered: for after that sore & long lasting tempest, in the first three hun­dred yeeres after Christ, of persecution, raised by those ten Scarlet Tyrants of those times, there was a dawning againe of some ease and rest, peeping out Narrant hunc Philippum Ara­bem (primum) ex imperatori­bus Romanis fa­ctum esse Chri­stianum [...] [...]quid intellexerit ille Arabicus mi [...] & qua [...]is ejus pietas fue [...]it, n [...] ­scimus. J [...]. Ca­rion, Chron. l. 3. p. 272. in 8 in Anno Christi, 248, [...] 252. first, in the short reigne of Philip an Arabian; but he being nipped in the very bud, or blossome of his government, within five [Page 88] yeeres space, or there abouts, could not bring any thing this way, to any noted perfection; but his pious intentions for the Church were interpretativè, I doubt not, esteemed as actions by the Lord: Im­mediately upon this, God raised up Con­stantine the great, the honor of whose birth our Britaine was enobled with; his care was not purposed alone, but put in execu­tion; for he spread the gospell of Christ, (in the sign of whose crosse he still gloried and prevailed) erected Churches, counte­nanced the Clergy, and indeed was fa­mous for the Churches cause. And when that foul heresie of Arius, (about the [...] of Christ with his Father) arose and as a gangrene festered so far, that, as Saint Hie­rome saith, the whol world even See B ^p Morton c. 15. p. 368. sect. 5. grand impo­sture. groaned to see it self become an Arian; so that the malady being now grown Epidemicall and universall, was like to be incurable without a generall remedy; His vigilan­cy therefore was, for the speedy redresse thereof, to summon a generall Councell; wherein according to the rules of Gods [Page 89] word, (which was still in those dayes long before the monster of papall pride was a hatching, the See Franc. Mason. de Mi­nister A [...]. l. 3. c 3. versus sine p. 273, 274. &c, & my Lo. Grace ag [...] A.C. sec. 26. nu. 1. p. 194, 195. & s. 26 nu. 3. p. 196, 197. & s. 93. p. 240, 241, &c. & p. 247, & s. 38. p. 330, 331, 332, 336, 338, 344, 359. & s. 39. p. 378, & p. 386. nu. 0. See my Lo. Usher ser. on eph. 4. 13. p. 12, 13. and D Rainolds p. 322. c. 8. divis. 5. and B ^p Lesly, in ser: of the au­thority of the Church & mul­titudes else Mr Jo. Down ag [...] Baxter p. 213, 214, & 256, 257. supream judge and umpire in all controversies of faith) by prayer, moderation, and the like proceeding; God gave a blessing, choaked the heresie, and the Atheist himselfe, that vented it, voyded out his bowels (by the appoint­ment of Gods immediate justice) into a sinke, whither his proud and blasphemous heresy was also fit to be detruded for ever. And that which was remarkeable in that first generall Councell at Nice, was this above other; That when the Bishops, in a great number, were assembled, and the Emperour in presence, he first caused all such private jars, or occasions of strife, as were risen among the Bishops them­selves, to be drawn up into a compendium of Articles, before they should meddle with the publique cause of the Lord in hand; Ruffin eccles. Hist. l. 1. c 13. which being accordingly perfor­med, and delivered to the Emperor, he received them all, and sealed them up with his own royall signet; and reserving [Page 90] them awhiles in his bosome; he then (not at all disclosing the secrets of those seve­rall papers) made this speech to the Coun­cell and the Bishops; Deus vos constituit sacerdotes, &c. God himselfe hath made you Priests, and hath given you power to judge even of us; and we are rightly jud­ged by you; wherefore expect the judge­ment of God alone between you, that your mutuall complaynings, and jarrings, whatsoever they be, may be reserved to that divine examen, and discussion; Vos e­nim nobis à Deo dati estis [ Ruffin Hist, ec­clesiast. l. 1. c. 2. Dii] for you are given by God unto us, as [Gods;] and therefore he alone shall judge you, of whom it is written, He standeth in the con­gregation of the mighty; he Psal. 82.1. judgeth among the Gods; wherefore laying aside these matters of private difference, without any more dissension of mindes, set about the serious discussion of those things that ap­pertaine to the cause of the Lord; which said, he commanded all those libels of mu­tuall particular complaynings to be burnt in one flame together, Ne innotesceret ulli [Page 91] odium & sugillatio sacerdotum, (as Carranza in Nicae [...] Concil ap­paratu, p. 45. in 16. Caran­za doth relate it to me) that the private discontents of one Priest towards another might not be made publique: Ps. 112.6. con­stat Constanti­num [sanctum] Imperatorem fuisse; & in ca­lendario Graeco­rum ejus nomen inter [sanctorū] nomina habetur. vide Bellarm lib 3. c. 6. de cultu sanctor: ex Am­brose orat. de o­bitu Theodosii & Epiphan: hae­res, 70. & Cyrill: Catech: 14. Blessed Prince for this, thou shalt be had in an ever­lasting remembrance, and thy memoriall shall endure throughout all generations: and I doubt much, whether in those crazy, yea broken times, if thou hadst not thus [primarily] respected the welfare of the Church, thou hadst ever had so happy a successe! I might go on to some other times after; even till the weeds of Romish superstition began to roote and grow, and flowre in Christendome: I let passe the mention of those blinde dayes, when Pope Hildebrand, otherwise Otho Frisingen­sis l. 9. c. 35. in anno 1073. Gregory the se­venth, first usurped (in a day of See my Lords Grace against A C. p. 180. s. 25. nu. 12. advan­tage) over the Emperor: I come down to the time of Charles the fifth; and I might at large discourse of the zelous courage of Frederick History of the Trent Councell l. 1. p. 7, &c. con­fer Sl [...]idan: Commentary lib. 1. fol. 7. Duke of Saxonie, who sup­ported Luther, and his cause, against that tenth Lyon of Rome; so, that neither by force of his roaring comminations, nor [Page 92] by the fawning (as sometimes the Lyons did upon Dan. 6.22. Daniel) of his sly promises, and other cunning insinuations, was he able to subvert his courage in, or divert his pur­pose from the cause of God: Come we to our own times; what a blessed course did the devout Prince Edward enter on? How was this seconded by that famous Isa 49.23. nursing mother of the Church Queen Eliza­beth for the vir­tues proper to her sex, deserved to be the Queen of women; and for her mascu­line graces of learning, valor, wisdome &c. the Queen of men. B. Hall ho­ly panegyr. p. [...]67. edi. 1617 Queene Elizabeth? how victorious was she? (and for her constant love to Religion) what wonders did shee? our Chronicles have long since astonished all the neighbour, and forraine Princes: How againe was the honor of the same our mother Church furthered, and advanced by the mirror, not more of Kings, then learning, King James of blessed memory? what care & vigi­lancy did he undergo to settle first the publique Liturgy, and Ceremonies of of most laudable decency, and uniformity in this Church? How was he, as Christ was at Hierusalem, still found disputing a­mong the Luke 2.46. Doctor and Bishops, asking them questions? yea, how gloriously did [Page 93] he himselfe See my Lord Bishop Halls Sermon styled An holy Pane­gyricke, pag. 569. edit. Anno 1617. moderate in all professi­ons even in the publicke University? But I shall but darken so rich a To­paze by my rude polishing. And, to conclude this large and copious point, should I here take (as I might) occa­sion, to blazon the excellent gra­ces of our owne present Prince, seene in his matchlesse piety and zeale for the Church of England, (one of the Religion, as it is professed in the Church of England, is nea­rest of any Church now in being to the Primitive Church. My Lords Grace, against A. C. pag. 376. Sect. 39. num. 3. in sine. purest Churches in all Christendome since the dayes of the Apostles) mine Oratory would faint under a thirst of such fit Me­taphors as might serve to amplifie and ex­presse them: in short, we have this great happinesse, that we live under a gracious and religious King, that will ever give us leave to serve [God] ( My Lords Grace, pag. 15. of his Speech in Star-cham­ber, 1637. first,) and [him] next; than whom, it would pose the wi­sest and most experienced Sagee in Chri­stendome, to finde a man more holy, more temperate, more just, and universally ac­complished: but some rare Apellos must be sought to pourtray, and some Lysip­pus (without parallell) to caave those ex­cellences, [Page 94] which I am so farre insufficient to expresse, that, methinks, my heart is still too narrow to containe thoughts wide enough of admiration, and of won­der at them. It's enough for me to awaken up my heart, to magnifie the King, and God of Kings, for that rich fruit of the Gospell, which I (as the meanest sonne of the Church) have reaped, and in my soule doe enjoy, by the royall underta­kings and religious establishments of so great a Isa. 49.23. nursing father to our Church: The [ Christus susten­tat [columnas] hoc est, [mini­stros,] & veram doctrinam: Conradus He­resbachius, in Scholiis, ad Psal. 75.3. pillars] of which Church, (by that resembling Christ, the Lords highest a­nointed, himselfe) he beareth up, as the Psalmist speakes; in supporting, cherish­ing, countenancing, and rewarding the holy Priesthood. And surely, (my Fel­low-brethren of the Ministery) would we not make our selves too cheape, nor under-value the dignity of our honorable Function, but know our stations aright, considering that we are men of 1. Tim. 6.11. God, and not men of the world; to busie us in those sordid imployments thereof, or [Page 95] entangle our selves in the over-familiarity with the men thereof, which are below us; would we listen to the sweet advice of our owne peerelesse Diocesan, (to whom that Epitaph of Nazianzene on the great S ^t Basil, is as due as ever 'twas to any) ‘ [...].’ by whose meeke, and yet impartiall go­vernment, through Gods great blessing, whether for Doctrine, Discipline, or Ha­bite, there is not to be found [one] re­fractary Minister in our whole spacious Diocese; whose words are these; Be heard above, be seene beneath, out-face sinne, out-preach it, out-live it: We are My Lord Bi­shop of Exce­ter, Holy Pa­negyrick, pag. 5 [...]4. edit. 1617. Starres in the right hand of God, let us be like any Starres, save (the Moone) that hath blots in her face; or the Starre Worme­wood, whose fall made Rev. 8.11. bitter waters; or Saint Judes Planets, that Jud. ver. 13. wander in irregularities; let the light of our lives shine in the faces of the world, and dazle them whom it shall not guide: we can ne­ver better testifie our thankfull and loyall respects to so good a King, in whose fa­vour [Page 69] is our life, and by whose grace we are upheld against the unworthy affronts of this sacrilegious age; then by crying downe, by living-downe those sinnes which threaten our happinesse in him: Let us not onely, as the daughters of Ze­lophehad, Num. 27.7. speake right, nor as Naphtali, give goodly Gen. 49.21. words, nor as Jacob, pre­tend a smooth Gen. 27.22. voice alone, whiles our [hands] like Esau, are rough and hairy; I meane, our actions prove disproportio­nable and incongruous; for still louder is the language of our lives than of our tongues, and of farre stronger efficacy to 1. Pet. 3.1. winne an aliene: For so I read, that very Pagan Kings of Britaine, as Arvira­gus, Marius, Coilus, &c. beholding the good [lives] of Joseph of Arimathea, and his twelve devout Disciples, were inclined (as sometimes Pharaoh granted Gen. 45.10. & 46.28. Goshen to the Israelites) to permit them to inhabite in Insulà Glasconiâ, in the Island of Glastenbury, by which meanes the Christian Religion was published in Britaine about foure yeares after Christs [Page 97] resurrection, in the last yeare of Tiberius Caesar; (and so Lege Francis­cum Masonum nostrum, lib. 2. de Minist. Aug­lic. cap. 2. p. 69.70. Conferre my Lords Grace against A. C. sect. 35. num. 9. pag. 312. and my Lord Bishop now of Exon, in Apo­logie against Brownists, sect. 23. where he saith and pro­veth, that the Church of (Rome) was ne­ver our Mo­thers mother; our Christian saith came not from the seven Hills, neither was derived, ei­ther from Au­gustine the Monke, or Pope Gregory. Britaine had a worthy Church be­fore either of them look't into the world, &c. before it came to Rome, which was not till the yeare of Claudius, say their Baronius, ad annum 39. & 40. a­pud Masonum. owne Chronologers) as that excellent Antiquary, S ^r Henry D. Henr. Spelman, in Apparatu, ad Concil. Anglic. edit. 1639. non multum ab initio. Spelman, hath most learnedly shewed us: Thus surely if we shall not (say) onely, but (doe) (for as Paulus Fagius, in prafat. ad sentent. morales Ben. Syrae. Paulus Fagius saith truely, Among the Grecians of old, the Philoso­phers were alwayes preferred before the Orators, quod [vitam] hominum institue­rent, because their imployment was the instruction of mens [lives] and manners, not of their tongues) then, (not being wanting to our owne honour) we may now (if ever) hope, and expect to see our Tribe to flourish yet once See how heretofore it did, in S Henr. Spelman Epist. Dedicat. to the King praefix. Con­cil. Anglic. more, and our Mother-church to be knowne by her more beautified and adorned Palaces, no longer exposed to our view, and the eyes of strangers, as some weather-beaten cot­tages, [Page 98] uncemented, unsieled, hung with no other ornament than meere cob-web laune; but by a specious, yet ungawdy Portall, by a comely contignation, and the like awing, reverentiall, decent beau­ty, it may make her farre more Psal. 84.1. ami­able in the eyes of all men: Now also shal her sonnes also be discerned by their Psal. 132.9. cloathing, not more of outward Exod. 31.10. habite than of inward righteousnesse, by their grave deportments, by their 2. Tim. 4.2. instancy in Preaching both in season, and out of sea­son; by their godly 1. Tim. 4.12. conversations Tit. 2.10. a­dorning the Phil. 1.27. Gospell, and Psal. 132.9. rejoycing the Saints: let us goe on cheerefully, by our doctrine to silence Rome, by our lives the ignorance the 1. Pet. 2.15. & 3.16. ignorance of the foolish, and lying slanderers: loe! thus shall God Psal. 22.8. delight in us to doe us Deut. 28.63. good: He shall be knowne in the Palaces of our Cities, the Bulwarks of our Sion shall be Psal. 48.13. marked by the following generations, for their Ver. 2. ib. beautifull situation, and as the joy of the earth; yea, (to borrow the ex­pression of the Prophet) the Psal. 45.11. King him­selfe [Page 99] shall greatly desire even (our) beauty: which meditation should, me­thinkes, glad and cheare us against all the affronts and abasures of carnall men; whether roofed in Cedar, or 2. Pet. 2.22. wallowing in Cotes; yea, or the feares of any Diony­sian-like, whether Lege Lactant. lib. 2. de orig. Erroris, cap. 4. expilations, or mucte­rismes, or other Sacrilegia sua jocularibus eti­am dictis prose­quebatur. Lact­ant. ibid. subsannations whatso­ever: And to whom, under the good God we serve, may we next ascribe these great blessings, but unto that King of ours, whose heart (to borrow the expression of the Scripture) the Psal. 69.9. zeale of the Lords house hath even consumed.

And now, for the close of this point, which hath thus farre enlarged the house mysticall of the Church, and shewen how pious Princes have in all times, (even to our (owne) now) set the same in order; Now I say, (were it not in some kind an unkind Prayer) how willingly would we all here, as loyall and faithfull-hearted subjects, importune of God, (oh blessed Soveraigne) an immortality for you even upon earth? however, this we will doe; [Page 100] we will pray, and ne're leave Gen. 32.25, 26 Lucta Jacobi est oratio, brachia, desiderium, ner­vi siccatio, car­nis extinctio. wrestling, till with Jacob we obtaine the blessing; that, (to ripen him the more for future glory) his yeares may be protracted to a long duration; he may be blessed in his person with health and safety, in all his enterprises with honour and good suc­cesse; and that, after his owne most happy Heb. 11.5. translation hence, all these his Royall graces may, like a Pythagorean soule, for ever transmigrate from one generation of his (owne,) unto another, even untill time shall be no more: and in the meane time let us all yeeld him the willing Rom. 13.7. Tri­bute of all due honour, of our true obedi­ence, of our loyall subjection, of our unstringed purses, of our sacrificed lives. To conclude, sith no Votary can be more true to his houres of Devotion, than he is unto God for [us,] let us againe be zealously earnest at the throne of Heaven for [him;] and not beseech alone, but, as Tertullian phraseth it, even besiege that throne uncessantly with a full army, as it were, of instant and most importunate [Page 101] prayers; that, sith his life is (now especi­ally) worth ten 2 Sam. 18.3. thousand of ours; the good Lord would be moved with compassion towards us, so, that he will not quench this blessed 2 Sam. 21.17. light of our Israel, but, even unto a long continuance yet, give him the glory of a prosperous kingdome here; and in a late, and well Prov. 17.6. crowned old age, advance him unto the Kingdome of eter­all glory for ever and ever and ever in the highest Heavens: Amen and Amen.

And thus I have endeavored to shew you the severall large rooms of this great Mysticall house the Church: Now the quere above propound about the orde­ring of this house, as it hath relation here to Hezekiah, in this text, comes to be re­solved; namely whether our Prophet E­say in this exhortation to the King, to set his house in order, did intend the orde­ring of the Church of God, under his do­minions? To this I resolve thus; that in a large sense it did; my reason is groun­ded on the former care, and practice of this good King, this way, in the story of [Page 102] his former life and actions: for Ecclus. 48.22. Siracides saith of him expresly this, viz. Hezekiah had done the thing that pleased the Lord, and was strong in the wayes of David, his father: now what were the waies of David his father? yee heard partly above, that he could not rest, or take his Psal. 132.4. sleep, till he had seene the Tabernacle, and the whole Church once well settled, and in Psal. 122.7. peacefull prosperity; & now let me add again out of another place, partly the mention of his griefe, and Psal. 137.1. tears, for the affliction and distresse of the Church; and partly also his Ver. 6. ibid: preferring of the happinesse thereof, even above his very chiefe joy: The par­ticulars of his practice this way, the story of his life abundantly make manifest; He 2 Chron: 29.3, 4, &c. opened the doores of the house of the Lord, which had been polluted, and repai­red them; he sanctified the Priests and Levites; he restoreth all things, which his predecessors had taken out of Temple, and establisheth pure Religion among his peo­ple, as we read, 2 Chron. 29.3, 4, &c. He, as he first ordeyned Priests and Levits to [Page 103] serve in the Temple, so, withall, he ap­pointeth for their 2 Chron: 31.4. maintenance, 2 Chro. 31.4. also, when he saw the Children of Israel burne incense to the Num: 21.8. brasen serpent that Moses had made, and that (which was at first intended for a mysticall See Joh: 3.14. type and remedy, in a dangerous distresse, as the story manifests, to be abused to most pro­phane Idolatry; he removed the high pla­ces, and brake the Images, and cut down the groves, and brake in pieces 2 King 18 4. the bra­zen Serpent, calling it in contempt, Ne­hushtan, a thing made of Copper or brasse, or, as some say, given of the Serpent; all this we read, 2 Kings 18.4. In such a god­ly My Lord B [...] Montague, late of Chichester, now of Nor­wich in Appello Caesarem part: 2. c. 23. p. 263, 264, 265. zeale also, our Predecessors and Fa­thers comming late out of Popery, living neere unto Papists and Popish times, by whom, and wherein, Images used to be crept unto, incensed, worshipped and a­dored amongst them; knowing, that if they were suffered to stand, as they did, they might put the people (newly conver­ted from the worship of them) in mind of their former practise, at least in [heart] [Page 104] to adore them; for this cause, they most vehemently and zealously cryed them down; and an homily to that purpose (as conteyning a godly and wholsome do­ctrine, necessary for those times) Artic: Anglic: 35. speaking of the second book of Ho­miles. was specially made against Images, and the perill of Idolatry, by their standing, or use: though now it is held by our grea­test Gamaliels, that a Picture for orna­ment, memory and history, may be had, and looked (abandoning, meane while, all religious worship of them, as most vile To a false faith is joyned false worship, by Idolatry, in worshipping of Images. B ^p Morton, grand Impost: c. 15. sect. 24. p. 403. and my Lords grace against A C, sect. 24. p. 155 num. 5. we cannot but de­ny that Images are to be ado­red, for such adoration is su­perstition, ibid. sect. 33. p. 278. & s 39. nu. 4. p. 377. See also my Lord Archb Usher, serm: on 1 Cor. 10.17. a p. 30, 31, 32, &c. ad finem &c. 4. of the Irish Religion, and multitudes more. Idolatry) upon: the like whereunto was performed also in severall times, and ages of the Christian Church; for nine­teen Bishops together in the Councell of See Mr John Downe, against Baxter, p. 237, 238. Eliberis; and the Bishops of the whole Councell of Frankford, under Charles the great, condemned the having of Images in Churches, for [adoration:] againe, about the yeere of our Lord, 801. Leo the third, (being urged by the clearenesse of the se­cond [Page 105] Commandement) Emperor of Con­stantinople, tooke them all away, ne po­pulus statuarum amans, eas Mart B [...]oal­dus▪ Chron. l. 4 c 8 sect. 24. p. 20 [...] adoraret, sayth Matthaeus Beroaldus; for which by Pope Gregory the third of Rome, to make him the more odious to the people, he was ex­communicated and styled Iconomachus, which signifieth, a fighter against Images: the Christians Primitive refused to adore them, saith Tertull Apol. c. 12. [...] ­lio ibid. nu. 184. Tertullian: Saint Cyprian de I­dolorum vani­ [...]ate. Cyprian wrote a set book of the vanity of such I­dols; and Lactant. l. 2. de orig. erroris, c. 2, 3, 4, &c. Lactantius much to the same effect: and among our own See B Hall c. 10. old Relig: & D [...] conclu [...]. 5. p. 653. against Hart. worthyes, which of them hath not cryed down their abuse by adoration? in like zeale, no doubt, that this good King Hezekiah was moved by, to remove the brasen serpent, as being the stumbling block of Idolatry to all the people; Saint Isidore in the Latine; and Saint Theodor. quaest. 6. in Exod. Theodoret in the Greeke think, that God appeared unto Moses, above o­ther things, in a Bush, because that, Exod. 3.2. of all things else, is most incapable of the stampe of an Image; by that meanes removing the occasion of Idolatryzing to it after­wards: [Page 106] and againe, when he was about to give the Law upon mount Sinai, there was a mighty [ Heb. 12 19. Deut. 4.12 vide Calvin. Instit. l. 1. c. 11. sect. 2. voyce] heard, which being a sound, cannot be shaped into any form, or figure, much lesse a picture: So then Hezekiah removing Idolatrous occasions, and withall establishing the true worship and service of God, as yee have heard, it appeares that this In 2 Tim. 2.20. the Church is compared to a [great house] as Adam Sas­bont, Bez [...], Esti­us, and most o­thers, except St Chrysostome and Theop [...]. publique House of the Church, was, if not mainely intended, (be­cause of the short time he had now to set his own private house in order); yet, I be­leeve, not excluded, but involved in this same exhortation of the Prophet now under this dangerous, mortall sicknes, sent to him from the Lord, set thine house in order.

But yet lastly, besides this bodily, this spirituall and this mysticall house; there is yet another; (which I also think to be the very purpose of Gods spirit, most di­rectly, in this Scripture) and that is the oe­conomicall, or the Secular house; the Pro­phet, under this expression, comprehen­ding all his affaires, that concerned the settling of his temporall estate, and the [Page 107] businesse that concerned the well-orde­ring of his family, and disposing of his ei­ther outward Kingdome, or worldly goods, for the benefit, and the quiet of posterity; For the story tels us, 2 Chron. 32.27. that Hezekiah had exceeding much riches and honor and he made him­selfe treasures for silver and for gold, &c. and I beleeve in this provident particular (avoyding all unlawfull affections, and en­tanglements) the (wisdome) of the world though not the (carnality) of the world (for 'tis not the [...], but the [...]) may be observed, as it is noted e­ven of Ahitophel, that minding to dy, (though God keepe all good people from that manner of dying!) he gate him home to his house, and put his 2 Sam. 17.23. houshold (though he for want of grace could not do so to himselfe) in order: for howbeit, the Children of this world are (to wit in re­gard of the world & worldly affaires) Luke 16.8. [...]. wiser in the comparative, as our Savior tru­ly saith; (because the Children will in this be like the Divell, their Joh. 8.44. Father, who is a [Page 108] Eph. 6.11. wily, a Isa. 27.1. crooked, & a 2 Cor. 11.3. subtile serpent, they therefore must and will be full of Eph. 4.14. sleights and cunning craftinesse too, yet that his owne sons, and children should not also be, in the positive at least, wise, I see no cause to the contrary: yea, Christ himself adviseth them, that if they will be Matt. 10.16. the greek word is [ [...]] which is com­pounded ex α privativa, & [...]: and de­notes wisdome, but without all mixture of harm, or craft, or guile. inno­cent as doves, and be sure principally Ps. 37, 35, 38. after the old translation. to keep that, they may be Matt. 10.16. [...]. wise even as ser­pents themselves: And that the word [house] is taken, in this sense, is evident from many texts of Scripture; (which is ever the best interpreter of it selfe) so we read for instance; first, for the house to be taken for the family, Gen. 7.1. The Lord said unto Noah, come thou and all thy Gen. 7.1. house into the Arke; which in the seventh verse, is interpreted by his sons, and his wife, and his sons wives, as the members of that house, or family; so againe, Josh. 24.15. As for mee and my Josh. 24.15. house we will serve the Lord, and, Act. 10.2. Cornelius, was a devout man, one that feared God, with all his ( Act. 10.2. house;) and 1. Cor. 1.16. I bap­tized also the ( 1 Cor. 1.16. houshold) of Stephanas: [Page 101] Act. 16.15. Lydia was baptized, and her ( Act. 16.15.34. houshold,) and ver. 34. ib. The con­verted Jaylour believed in God, with all his (house;) in these, and many places more to this purpose, that might be alledged, by House is understood a (Family,) wife, children, servants, &c. and that this House was intended to be set in order by this Prophets exhortation, is past all questi­on; for the Scripture expressely tells us, in the Hebrew Text, which is rendred more appositely in our margin, Give charge concerning thine house; which Junius and Tremelius render by, Da praecepta familiae tuae, that is, Give precepts and holy counsell to thy family: besides, in 2. King. 18.3. it's said, that Hezekiah did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that [ 2 King. 18.3. David] his Father did: Now David his Father, saith the Scripture, first tooke speciall care for the Kingdome it selfe, and gave speciall 1 King 1.33, 34. charge for Solo­mon to be anointed King in his stead for the next succession, as we read, 1. King. 1.33, 34. and then for precepts to his [Page 110] 1 Chron. 28.9. sonne himselfe, we have it cleare, 1. Chr. 28.9. And thou Solomon, my sonne, know thou the God of thy Fathers, and serve him with a perfect heart, and with a willing mind; for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and under­standeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seeke him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever. Hezekiah now doing according to (all) that David his Father did, did doubtlesse [this] too, endeavour to set his Family in order: in this, they both trod in the steps of their Father Abraham, of whom the Lord himselfe giveth this Testimoniall, Gen. 18.19. I know that he will command his children, and his Gen. 18.19. houshold to keepe the way of the Lord: The like was professed by Joshua, as ye heard but now, Josh. 24.15. and by David againe at large, Psal. 101.2, &c Psal. 101.2. &c. and of old Jacob we have a set forme for the benediction of his sonnes severally upon his Gen. 49.1, 2, &c. death-bed, Gen. 49.1, 2, 3, &c. to this purpose we have likewise many frequent exhortati­ons in the Scriptures for the Father and [Page 111] Master, duely and in good order to in­struct and Pro. 22.6. traine your children up be­times in the way they should goe; even in the Eph. 6.4 nurture, and in the feare of the Lord: Read at your leasure, and observe at all times these places; Deut. 6.7. Prov. 22.6. Eph. 6.4. Col. 4.1. of the duty of the Husband to the Wife, and so reci­procally, this way, see Eph. 5.22, 23. &c. 1. Cor. 14.34, 35. I might shew you this way, many excellent examples, even un­der the New Testament; where the whole house prove beleevers for the ex­ample of the Parents, and the Masters, the Husband, and the Wife, as 1. Cor. 7.14. Such an house was the Family of Cor­nelius; such that of Lydia; such that of the Jaylour; such a good woman was Ti­mothy's Grandmother 2 Tim. 1.5. Lois, and his Mo­ther Eunice; whose gracious instructions and example made Timothy to know the holy Scriptures even from a 2 Tim. 3.15. child; Pri­scilla and Aquila were so godly this way, that in their very house, saith Saint Paul, (though but a private Family,) there was [Page 112] a [ Rom. 16.5. Church,] Rom. 16.3, 5. the Col. 4.15. like whereunto is said of Nymphas, and the brethren which are in Laodicea, Col. 4.15. See also how S John greeteth, not the elect Lady onely, but her 2 Epist Joh. 1. children also, 2. Epist. John 1. and surely thus it alwayes is; when the voice of joy and health is in the Psal. 118.15. dwelling of the righteous, then are the righteous, in their dwellings, ever­more in joy and health: And certainely through the want of this comes all the mischiefe in the world; for if we knew well how to rule and governe our 1 Tim. 3.5, 15. owne houses, the Church of God at large must needs prosper the better for us. Many very godly and usefull directions, collect­ed out of the Scriptures, and the ancient Fathers, have beene already printed in the Church of England, and delivered o­ver from the Mother to her Children; so that I should but cast my drop into the Ocean, if I should here adde any thing thereto more; rather let me exhort you to the Joh. 13.17. practice of what already is Luc. 10.28. direct­ed to us in this particular, and thus if we [Page 113] (doe,) we shall live. Now, besides the setting in order of this house, the family; there is also another acception of the word house, when it is put to signifie all the estate and goods, or outward fortunes of a house; so, I thinke may that text be understood, 2 Tim. 1.16. the Lord give mercy unto the 2 Tim. 1.16. (house) of Onesiphorus, for he oft refreshed me, that is, not only to his posterity; but a propitious and prospe­rous benediction even unto all that hee had; God grant, though (as it follows, ver. 18. ibid.) in many things he ministred un­to me, in my chaines, yet that his store may never be exhausted; but that his Prov. 11.25. li­berall soule may be made fat, and after all, ver. 18. the Lord grant him; see that his own person seemes here to be distin­guished from the former house, that he may finde mercy of the Lord, in that day; and the originall Greek word there used is [ [...]. Ammonius, lib. [...]. [...]] not [...], which two words, though happily, (as indeed they are) they be confounded in common use; yet in the criticall acception, saith Ammonius, the for­mer [Page 114] denotes properly the whol substance of the house; the latter, the house of ha­bitation: and, to omit multitude of other Texts that might, to this purpose, be al­ledged, take that one, Gen. 39.4, 5. where it is said, that Pharaoh made Joseph over­seer over his house, and presently adds (all that he had) he put into his hand; and ver. 5. the blessing of the Lord was upon [all that he had] Gen. 39.5. in the house, and in the field: so that, without more adoe, by setting of the house in order, he means, the well disposing of his goods, and tem­porall estate: This we finde to have been practised first, by Abraham, the pattern of our Faith, who before his death, even (while he yet See Gen. 25.5, 6, 8. lived) saith the Scripture, he disposed by testament unto Isaac, his son and heire, all that he had, that is, all the chiefest of his substance; and to his other, sons he gave gifts; and [then,] or as Junius reads, postea, afterwards or after all this was done Abraham gave up the ghost, and dyed, in a good old age, an old man, and full of yeeres, and was gathered to [Page 115] his people; Gen. 25.5, 6, 8. and the like I read to have been practised by the twelve Patriarks; I have seen In Patrum [...]. p. 589 &c. a booke intit'led, Testamentum duodecim Patriarcharum, filio­rum Jacob, per Robertum Lincolniensem E­piscopum, è Graeco in Latinum versum: and surely, by this very praedisposall, and well ordering of our houses (so far as God hath any way blessed us, even in outward bles­sings) before hand; & cheifly whilest God affords us the good use of memory, or of our best intellectuals; by this, I say, much good will accrew to our own souls in the first place; & in the second, no mean benefit withall unto succession: First of all, to our owne souls; for by this voyding and emptying our hearts of these worldly things, in the first order, they shall by this become the more open hearted unto God, and heaven: like those swift flying birds, which, as the Aristot. lib. de animal. Philosopher tels us, do close their eyes ever with the under lid shutting up their ey-sight from the gar­badge here below; whereas the Ludolphus de sax. pt. 1. c. 38 de vitâ Christi. grosser sort of Creatures, close their eyes with the [Page 116] upper lid, alwayes poring downwards, as King David saith of worldly, carnall men, they have set their eyes bowing Psal. 17.11. down to the earth: thus when Elijah was about to be carryed unto heaven in a fiery cha­riote, its noted that he cast off, or let 2 King 2.13, E­lias dimisit pal­lium, id est, bo­na hujus mun­di, quandò in curru igneo Spi­ritus sancti in coelum rapieba­tur. Hugo de Prato florido, serm. 60 Domi­nica infra octav. Ascens. fall his mantle, that now perchance would have cumbred his shoulders; so certainly its most true, when we wrap our selves too closely, & bemuffled us in the warm weeds of these earthly businesses, we are too dull to mount nimbly into Heaven: when Moses was to approach the bush of Gods presence, he must, ere he shall come hi­ther, (as David e're he durst to compasse Gods Altar, Psal. 26.6. washed his hands in inno­cency) put off his Exod. 3.5. shoes from his feet; that is, he must wash the feet of his Soul, his affections from all the dirt and sweat, and [ Ber f. 43. L. Sterquilian] soyled cogitations of the world, as Saint Bernard glosseth it: as when Abraham was to go up to one of the mountaines of Moriah, to offer a Sacrifice to the Lord; its noted that he left his Gen. 22.5. servants, and his Asse behinde him at the [Page 117] foot of the hill; that is, as Barradius mora­lizeth it, his servile and worldly affecti­ons: as the blessed Virgine having beene saluted by an Angell, and greeted with good tidings from Heaven, immediately she left Nazareth, (of which the Proverb, it seemes, went among the Pharisees, that out of Nazareth no John 1.46. good thing came) and went with haste into the [ Luke 1.39. Hill] Countrey, and kept her selfe busied in things above: so that great Mercurius Trismegistus professeth, that when he fixed his mind to contemplate things [...], &c. Mer­cur. Trismegist. in Paemandro, cap. 1. initio. above, the senses of his body were affected even as a man oppressed by the heavinesse of sleepe; whilest his soule kept up, like a Meteor above the earth, still upwards towards Heaven, thus finding the speedi­est issue: much like the disposition of the Spouse in the Canticles, who, whilest her [heart] was (awaked) for her Husband Christ, she was in her sense of the body ( Cant. 5.2. asleepe) and drowzie to the world: wherefore, if we respect with old Simeon, our quiet in death, and then, as Gods ser­vants, [Page 118] to depart with him in Luke 2.29. peace; let us, though not cast our Mundo car­nem subtrahen­dam, non eo in­ficias; non è mundo tollen­dam, quod ip­sum in nostrâ potestate non sit Du Plessis pag. 61. in 8 ^o de vi­tae mortisque consideratione. selves out of the world, yet, as those Mariners, in Saint Pauls tempest, Acts 27.18, 19 lightned the Ship, by ca­sting out the tackling; let us cast the world, with the rubbish and appurtenan­ces thereof, out of our selves; dealing herein as Abraham did with his servant Hagar, when through too much cocker­ing and indulgence, she began to waxe malapert and sawcy, he cast her out, and Gen. 21.10, 14 sent her away to wander in the wilder­nesse of Beer-sheba: so when the world and flesh begin to Gal. 5.24. lust too eagerly a­gainst the Spirit, it must be subdued, though not destroyed; it must be in af­fection cast out, [...].] Chrsost. Hom. ad cap. 6. Rom. ver. 12. rectified, or crucified with the affections and lusts thereof: the reason hereof is, for that the more emp­ty the soule is of the world, the more full it is of God; and so on the contrary; therefore we read in Scripture, that God appeared mostly unto his Prophets, and great Saints in extasies, in visions, and in Cognitio futu­rorum meliùs potest fieri in (dormientibus) quàm in vigi­lantibus; eò quòd, quando anima abstrahi­tur à corporali­bus, ut in somno, aptior redditur ad percipiendum in fluxum Divi­num. Rayneri­us de Pisis, tom. 2. Pantheolog. cap. 12. de Pro­phetiâ, pag. 723. in quarto. dreames by night, when the soule hath [Page 119] beene estranged, as it were, from usuall commerce with the body: God and Mammon be such Jam. 4.4. enemies, that, like heate and cold (the first qualities in the Elements) in intense degrees they can­not dwell together in one and the same heart: The Aristot. lib. 3. de animâ, cap. 5. text. 4. cum Jul. Pacio, in comment. ibid. Philosopher gives a very ra­tionall argument to prove this; [...]. That which is within so intimate­ly existent already, that it is, in a sort, the same with what the minde is fastened upon; ( [...], as the same Philosopher saith) so the Scripture it selfe plainely; He that is joy­ned to the Lord, is [ 1. Cor. 6.17. one] Spirit:) this, I say, thus fixed within already, expelleth and bolteth out what is not of the same, but of another nature from without; and our Saviour is himselfe expresse, that no man can serve God and Matth. 6.24. Mammon at the same time, in intense degrees, and in that manner, as God himselfe expects it from him; Matth. 6.24. Hence we observe, that the Israelites, after they had once [Page 120] eaten of the old corne of the land, they found the Manna from Heaven on the next morrow to Josh. 5.12. cease, nor had they any of that Psal. 78.25. food of Angels [more,] Josh. 5.12. Saint Austin gives the reason of it clearely, Si animus habet, undè delecte­tur extrinsecùs, sine delectatione manet in­trinsecùs: that is, if the Aegyptian flesh-pots of fat and greazie delights from without can content the minde enough, then it cannot finde true inward cheare­fulnesse and delectation within; and yet from [ Psal. 45.13. within] all the glory of Gods Church is brought, yea, there principal­ly it [is,] and lyes. Certainely what an honourable person of great parts said of Riches, and other appurtenances of the world at large, is much more true in death; they are the very [ Lord Veru­lam, Essay 34. baggage] of vertue; the Romane word is better, impe­dimenta; for as the baggage is to an Army, so are riches to vertue; it cannot well be spared, nor left behinde, but yet it hindereth the march; yea, and the care of it disturbeth, often loseth the victory: [Page 121] and it's worth our notice, how Saint Paul hath joyned those two together; set your affections on things above, and Col. 3.2. not on things below, Col. 3.2. necessarily imply­ing, that whilest men do keep scraping with Aesops cock, and spurle for pearles of contentment in the dunghill of the earth below; and, as our Apostle saith, doe [...] Phil. 3.19. [...], mind earthly things; and, as the greeke word signifyes, do place their Luke 16.8. wisdome in them; they can­not then seeke those things, which be [...], above, and Jam. 1 17. from above; neither glory, the end; nor grace, the way to that end: and indeed what is wealth but the meer carkase of happinesse? many times the silver hath more guilt, and the world more Matt. 13.22. thornes, then as true godlinesse 1 Tim. 6.6. contentment, or great gaine: and if wealth be a carkase, it's a prey fitter for a vulture, and such ravenous creatures, then the repast of any cleane birds; and herein the comparison holds between the Vulture, and an envious slanderer, and a worldly muckworm: For as a malicious [Page 122] Shimei, or Doeg, or an hypocriticall slan­derer, lookes like an hooting owle, or a blindish bat, upon the virtuous [...]. recti­tudes, and actions of the party envyed, with a neglective eye; but loves to be like flyes upon a rawgalled back, still suck­ing, and stinging, and buzzing upon his infirmities; so doth the carnall worldling, looking askue upon heaven, (as the Vul­tures passing over, with speed, the pleasant gardens of delight, to the dead carkase, that lyes noysome to the senses) pitch his most intended thoughts upon the spirit-grieving garbage of the world: [...] Isidor. Pelusio­ta, l. 3. Epi. 237. [...], as Isidore Pelusiota hath it: S ^t. Paul hath expressely given that title to all worldly things, [...] Phil. 3.8. [...], Phil. 3.8. which signifyeth dung, or dirt, quasi [...], or that which is cast out to dogs, and swine, quasi [...], (from [...], ple­onasmo [...]) And yet, in this, I must not be mistaken; as if eyther the things of this world, in themselves, were simply thus [Page 123] or simply to be undervalued; but Ubi anima ipsa in contēplatione, quae est dulcedo quaedam divina, supra se evehi­tur exultans, cum cognoscat omnia haec mun­dana [in compa­ratione] boni [...] illius incommutabilis nullius valoris esse. Stel­la, ad c. 10. Luc. in fine. compa­ratively: Pharaohs Gen. 41.18.19. leane kine were (kine,) though not so [well-liking,] in compari­son of the fat ones; and riches, Gods left-hand blessings, be blessings, though in com­parison of those of the right-hand bles­sings, they be as none: as when the Queen of Sheba saw Solomon in his glory, though shee came to him in a visit from far South, laden, and full of wonder, Pro. 3.16. but onely up­on hear-say; yet when she beheld all her self, it's sayd there was 1 King 10.5. no more Spirit in her: how no more? not simply none; but none in exercise, none in comparison: be­sides, we must learne to distinguish (and indeed Christianity hath yet taught us nothing, if we have not learned this distin­ction) between the See my Lord B [...] of Exeter, Decad. 6. epist. 2. & decad. 1. epist. 2. (Love) and be­tween the (Use) of the world; or in Saint Pauls termes, between the (use) and the (abuse) 1 Cor. 7.31. the vanity of loving of it, at least too much, appeares from the next words, for the fashion of this world passeth away; acsi diceret, saith St. Gregor. mag. cur. pastor. part. 3. admonit. 28. Grego­ry, Nolite constantèr mundum diligere, quan­dò [Page 124] & ipse non potest, quem diligitis, stare; incassum cor quasi manentes figitis, dum fu­git ipse, quem amatis; that is, why will you stand loving of, and setting your affecti­ons upon that, which, while you love, doth vanish, and as Jobs riches, that had wings, fly away often before enjoyment: And indeed, saith a devout Prelate, it is a great weaknesse not to (see) but we must be inamoured; Elisha saw the secret state of the Syrian court, yet as an enemy; the blessed Angels see our earthly affayres, but as strangers; Moses his body was in the court of Pharaoh, amongst the delicate Aegyptians, his heart was suffering with the afflicted Israelites: Lot tooke part of the faire medows of Sodome, not of their sins; our blessed Saviour saw the glory of all Kingdomes, and contemned them; and cannot the world looke upon us Christi­ans, but we are bewitched? yea, let us but consider how very heathens many have not onely made orations, and de­claimed against riches, and vaine pompe; but have even laughed at their losse: mo­ney [Page 125] is the sinews of all outward negotiati­ons, and though, as the Scripture saith, the love thereof be the 1 Tim 6.10. roote of all evill; yet as King Philip said, all Asellus onustus auro; Cic: ad Attic. l. 1. epist. 15. Castles might be conquered by it; when all the brasen gates had shut in Danae, yet in a showre of gold, Jupiter came in to her; it doth wonders,

saith the Poët: and yet the Lacedemo­nians counted it as a very Apud Lacedae­monios pecunia fuit inutilis, nec expetenda. Phil. Beroald: com­ment. ad Cic. Tusc. quaest. l. 5. p. 248. improfitable and a vaine thing: and to give themselves wholly, Divinae delectationi, to divine de­light in the study of Phylosophy, &c. A­naxagoras, Democritus, others, have even quite left their lands and patrimonies; Anacharsis, the wisest Scythian of his time, sleighted it; the application is made rea­dy to my hand by the mellifluous Cic. l. 5. Tuscul. quaest. Tully, An Scythes Anacharsis potuit pro nihilo pe­cuniam ducere, nostrates Philosophi facere non potuerunt? shall Anacharsis a Scythi­an, account of gold as of nothing, and [Page 126] shall not our Countrey-men the Philoso­phers doe the like? yea, shall not Christi­ans shame to be outstripped by Heathens? How should we Bishop Hall Decad. 2. Epist. 10. scorne, to thinke that an Heathen-man should laugh either at our ignorance, or impotence? ignorance, if we thought too highly of earthly things; impotence, if we over-loved them. Let us rather imitate that woman above in Heaven, Rev. 12.1. which types the See D ^r Rai­nolds, cap. 8. di­vis. 4. pag. 483. against Hart. Church, cloathed (as ye saw above) with Christ himselfe the Sun of righte­ousnesse; and upon her head a crowne of twelve Starres, which are the twelve A­postles, who having borrowed light from the Sun, the fountaine of all light, Christ Jesus, converted many by that light from darknesse, and for that doe now Dan. 12.3. shine as Starres in the brightnesse of the Firma­ment; but under her feet was the (Moone;) By the Moone, Bishop Hall, Cent. 3. medi­tat. 100. earthly things are rightly resembled, which be­ing nearest to the region of mortality, is ever in Ecclesia mili­tans dicitur Lu­na propter mu­tabilitatem. S. August. epist. 119. cap. 6. changes, and never lookes upon us twice with the same face; and when it [Page 127] is at the full, is blemished with some darke blots, not capable of any illumina­tion; and all those outward things are (under her feet) to shew how she spurnes at and tramples them; even as we finde the Primitive Christians, when they had, in the Churches great necessity, sold their lands and possessions, they came and laid the money at the Apostles ( Acts 4.37. feet,) docen­tes calcandam esse pecuniam, shewing how that price was to be valued and dealt withall: and indeed, my Brethren, saith Saint Bern. fol. 96. K. L. confer. e­und. fol. 3. D. Ser. 4. de Ad­ventu Dom. Bernard, quid (in) hoc mundo a­gimus? aut quid facimus (de) hoc mundo? as the Lord said to Elijah on another oc­casion, What dost thou here Elijah? so I, 1. King. 19.9. what have we to doe here in this world? at least, what doe wee much make or meddle with it? loe, saith S ^t Paul, we are men of ( 1. Tim. 6.11. God,) should we then be 2. Tim. 2.4. en­tangled with the affaires of that world, the love of which is Jam. 4 4. enmity with God? besides, doe we not know that we are here but as mere Heb. 11.13. strangers and pilgrims? having here no continuing City, but [Page 128] seeking one to Heb. 13.14. come, whose Heb. 11.10. builder and maker is God? seeke we not another Heb. 11.14. Countrey? and whilest we are at home in the 2. Cor. 5.6. body, we are absent from the Lord? should our Phil. 3.20. conversations then be here, or else in Heaven? where our God, Acts 27.23. whose we are, and whom we serve, hath his Matth. 5.34. Throne, and who esteemeth of the earth but as of a Verse 35. ibid. foot-stoole? yea, saith holy Calvin, lib. 3. instit. cap. 9. Sect. 4. Calvine, Si coelum patria est, quid ali­ud terra, quàm exilium? &c. If Heaven be our Countrey, what is the earth other then a very banishment? and who can take pleasure in the richest soyle under the Sun, persecuted, and in such a condi­tion? if we consider it simply, nay, if you should like children dally with these fond knacks, and be taken with those toyes of the world; that when God sends us into the world, as he shewed some­times wonders unto Israel, Psal. 105.45. That they might keepe his statutes, and observe his lawes; loe! we, like those that were sent to Ophir for gold, bring backe home no trafficke but 1. King. 10.22. Peacocks feathers; or as [Page 129] those silly people in America, of whom Maginus, C [...] ­ [...]. Maginus tells the story, that they part with gold, the choicest metalls and jewels, merely for glasse and bawbles: if we will, like those infatuated Gentiles, needs be­come thus Rom. 1.22. [...]. foolish; yet, what will be the issue? behold, saith King David, this love, (or dotage rather) is but to love Psal. 4.2. Vani­ty; yea, as his sonne King Solomon doubles and redoubles it, Eccles. 1.2. Vanity Omnis geniti­vus reflexus su­pra suum [...] excellenti­am, & empha­sim; Domini­cus d. Flandria, q [...]. 1. Act. 4. in lib. 1. [...]oster. pag. 4. of vanities, all is vanity; and more than this too, Eccles. 1.14. vexa­tion of spirit; yea more still, is mere ly­ing, and Psal. 4.2. leasing, saith his Father David; and that we might be sure to notice it, he hath set to a (Selah) in the period of the sentence, Psal. 4.2. (which (Selah) was a note, no where used but in Davids Psalmes, and thrice in Habakkuk's third Chapter; and in the use it served, say the learned, to point us to a busi­nesse of speciall observation; the Chaun­ter of the Quire being wont, at such stops, to [...] ver­bo [...] exal­tavit, vide Conr. Heresba­chium, praefat. in Psalmos. pag. 16. in quarto. lift up his voice, and raise it to a high­er note:) But why are earthly things re­sembled unto See S Rich. Baker, meditat. on Psal. 11. pag. 32. leasing?) Ludolphus de Sax. in Psal. 4. ver. 2. Ludolphus [Page 130] makes the answer, quia amatores suos de­cipiunt, & non faciunt quod promittunt: because they are never so good as their word, nor ever doe they make good their promises; yea, they are in this like Ephraimites, when you thinke most to have them, like Davids mercies [ Acts 13.34 sure,] yet then they start aside like a broken, or a Psal. 78.57. deceitfull bow, and prove as Aegypt was wont to doe to Israel, onely as Eze­kiel saith, a Staffe of ( Ezek. 29.6. Reed;) the con­dition whereof is such, saith the Scripture else where, that if a man 2. King. 18.21. leane on it, it will not onely faile him as a supporter, and be as Jobs friends, many of them, were, in his adversity, Job 16.2. miserable com­forters; but, saith the Text, it will goe into his hand, and pierce it: for, saith my Author, they promise liberty, but pay bondage; they promise much like the See my Lords Grace against A. C. sect. 21. num. 7. p. 143, 144, &c. Romanists, that invited over John Hus, and Hierome of Prague, the Venetian See Bishop Morton, sect. 24. cap. 15. thes. 2. pag. 405, 406. & sect. 16 ib. pag. 389. 390. in fine. Fulgentius, the French Abbot of Boys, and after them the Dalmatian Spalatensis, which like (silly sheepe) were enticed by [Page 131] the faire pretences of safe conduct, and dismission againe in security: but loe! here is nothing but leasing; they pay feare, yea blood; for like the simple creatures in the Fable, they went to visite the Lyon in his den, but their blood was so sweet, that he sucked it out all: it were a happy spirituall use of the Foxes craft, if we perceiving no prints of Omnia te ad­vorsum spectan­tia, nulla retror­sum. Horat. lib. 1. epist. 1. returning foot-steps, would be wa­ry of the pawes of the old 1. Pet. 5.8. Lyon the De­vill; or of the ginnes of his under-broa­kers, the flesh and the world, for these must needs resemble their chiefe Master, and prove Rev. 12.9. deceivers even of the whole world. Well then, weigh these things thorowly, and know thy selfe aright, oh man, and then love the world if thou canst: loe! 'tis for brutes to looke down­wards; and for none but a besotted Ba­bylonian to eate Dan. 4.33. grasse with Oxen; tan­quàm vos poeniteat, non Lactant. lib. 2. de orig. error. cap. 2. & cap. 3. ibid. ver. fin. id ipsum vel maxi­mi erroris est, vitam pecudum sub figurâ ho­minis imitari — Nec figura corporis, nec ra­tio excellens in­genii humani significat, ad hanc unam rem natum homi­nem, ut fruere­tur voluptati­bus. Cic. lib. 2. de finibus. quadrupedes esse natos, saith Lactantius; What doe you wish you had beene made? or else repent that you were not made foure-footed [Page 132] creatures? yea, Minutius Fae­lix in Octavio. Sacrilegii vel maximi in­star est, humi quaerere, quod in sublimi debe­as invenire, saith Minutius Faelix: It's a kind of Sacriledge, oh Man, by which thou robbest God of that honour he ad­orned thee withall in thy first creation, to be alwayes poaring for that felicity be­neath, which is not but to be found a­bove; looke then but upon thine owne posture, and resemble in thy actions,

saith the Poet; Seeke then those things that are above; see, they be thy feet, the most ignoble and the worst part of thee that are placed downwards; to teach thee how to trample on those clods of earth below thee: O man, be not embrutished so farre, as to sinke below thy Species; and like that Orator Messala Corvinus, forget thine owne name or condition: See, 'tis a very unnaturall thing for man to love what he was never intended for in his first creation. What is wealth but dust? and what is dust but the condem­ned [Page 133] Gen. 3.14. food of the Serpent, that crawls? yea, turn not Caniball, ô man, and eate thy self, for what art thou but Gen. 3.19. dust? the Prophet Esay, ca. 60.8. hath resembled the Iles that waite for God, the spirituall men that come with acceptance to Gods altar, and that glorify the house of his glory by their devotion and obeience, unto Isa. 60 8. clouds: who are these that fly as a cloud? now clouds, we know in Philosophy, are va­pours elevated & drawn up from the earth by the heate of the sun-beams; so, Hugo. de prato florido, ser. 60. quâ supra p. 252 in 8. saith Hugo de Prato Florido, are spirituall men e­levated by the virtue of the holy Ghost, (whose comming to the Apostles, on the day of Pentecost, was in the likenes of Act. 2.13. fire, which by reason of its innate levity al­wayes striveth to See Ludovic: Granatens. tom▪ 3 concion: de Tempore conc: 3. in die Pentec: p. 470, 471. in 8. Latine. ascend from the love of earthly things, unto heaven, and hea­venly things; as Ezekiel saith that the spirit Ezek 3.12. tooke him [up,] between Heaven and earth: To end this point; if you aske me now, how indeed you would be directed for the use of outward things, thus take the resolution, in summe; Not, [Page 134] as in an unallowed, heaven-tempting See B ^p Hall Decad: 6. epist. 2. her­mitage, to abandon it, as a thing to be [al­together] and universally despised: for so doing, how do we but slight that wise, and great Creatour, 1 Chro. 29.14. of, and from whom are all things; and those all things are also good, and Gen. 1.31. very good? But in compari­son of spirituall things; to undervalue these worldy things; and not to place our Phil. 3.19. wisdome in them; or to set our princi­pall Col. 3.2. affection upon them; for this were not to use, but to 1 Cor. 7.31. abuse: He that touch­eth pitch, saith the wiseman, shall be Ecclus. 13.1 de­filed with pitch; but not, if yee touch it only with a cold hand, and do not keep a chasing, and a See Bishop Hall, Serm. at the consecrat: of a new Buri­all place in Ex­on, anno 1637. heating of it in your hand: for it is not the simple possessing of riches and honor, (were not Gen. 13.2. Abraham, and Lot, eminent this way?) but the being 2 Tim. 2.4. entan­gled in these affaires, that breeds 1 Cor. 7.35. distra­ction: when our Saviour said to Martha, that Luc. 10.42. one thing was needfull, and that her sister Mary, (lesse troubled about the house, then shee) had chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from [Page 135] her; (by which [one thing] was meant, saith Idocus Clich­toveus l. 1. c. 18. sect. 4. de con­stitut. Ecclesiast. Idocus Clichtoveus, unitas mētis in De­um collectae, per internam contemplationem, & quietem, rejectis [dividuae] vitae, & in plurima distractae, non sine ingenti turba­tione, curis; the uniting of the minde col­lected by inward contemplation, and rest towards God; the disturbing cares of the soule-dividing world being cast a­way) I say, our Saviour by [preferring] Mary's choyce of that chiefe one good thing, doth not universally condemn, as ab­solutely unlawfull, the employment of Martha; for as Peraldus, tom. 2. virtut. & vi­tior. p. 82. in 8▪ Peraldus saith well, neces­saria est tamen Martha Mariae, Martha was necessary, and usefull unto Mary; as Ja­cobs Gen. 32.10. staffe was to him, in his passage over Jordane; of some stay and defence; but, as it was said of those slings, in the old mi­litiae, they were of good use, and did some service in the battaile; yet without other armor and weapon, they were a weake munition; so say I of riches, without Gods other See Ec. 13.24 blessings added with them: and in short, we may use the world, as the Isra­elites [Page 136] did the Aegyptian Exod. 11.2. Jewels (to which St. Austin also compares the use of humane Arts in popular Sermons) for use or orna­ment; but if once we make an Idoll of it (as Saint Paul cals covetousnesse Col. 3.5. Ido­latry) it's time to cast them into the Exod 32.20. fire, and by that fire to consume them: surely otherwise they will prove to be what St. Paul saith of the love of money, the 1 Tim 6 10. see Estius ad [...], p. 280, 281. & quomodo uten­dum vitâ prae­senti, ejusquae adjumentis; lege Calvin instit. l. 3. c. 10. & Peter Martyrloc: com­mun: class. 3. c. 12. sect: 19. p. 643. & alios. root, that feeds all evils with it's sap. If I were to make a determination for the happiest condition, in this lower world, I should soon resolve with the Poet for the mean; neither to be too high, set up as a flage, obnoxious to every storme and tempest of envy and malevolence, the eye-sore of of the ambitious; in this advanced station, what are men, but as that golden cap'd Apud Lucian: Colossus, very specious without, and glo­rious to look upon; but pricked all with­in with nayles, and rust, and cares? like sickmen upon their beds, ever turning, yet ever discontented; and whilest wee spend our time in seeking enviously what is other mens, we dy, and then all our [Page 137] vaine thoughts perish, ere we can enjoy our owne.

On the other side, I would not be so low, as to become as one of Jeroboams Priests, the 1. King. 13.33. dregs of the people: I say as the Poet,

which is the same what Agur desired, Pro. 30.8, 9. Give me neither poverty, nor riches, feed me with food Pro. 30.8, 9. convenient for me, lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, who is the Lord? or lest I be poore, and steale, and take the name of my God in vaine. Well then, my Beloved, let not us with old Toby suf­fer our eyes to be blinded with the Swal­lows dung of this world, nor dare to make a willing shipwracke of conscience for the venture of a little ballast of gaine; wherein at last there is no more solid well-savouring taste than there is, as Job advi­seth me, in the white of an egge, Job 6.6. or else true light in the Cimmerian, and the blac­kest [Page 138] darknesse: But especially let us be wary that we shake hands with these kind of affaires before we come, as Hezekiah here, to be summoned to our dissolution, and forced on our death-beds to be rid of them, or of our soules; surely then these things will be just as Sauls Armour was upon the shoulders of David, 1. Sam. 17.39. too bigge, and cumbersome: Then, at that season a man, if ever, should be as S ^t Bernard once gave counsell to his Monke, that he should be as another Bern. in spe­culo Monachor. in fine, fol. 340. M. Melchizedech, with­out Father, without mother, without Genealogy; Nec patrem sibi vocet [super terram] neither let him call any man fa­ther upon earth: imò sic se existimet, quasi ipse sit solus, & Deus; yea, let him so e­steeme himselfe, as if God alone and himselfe were onely by themselves toge­ther: for assuredly, in such speciall times of distresse, Satan is much like to Pharaoh, the Aegyptian Tyrant to the Israelites in Goshen, when he thinkes the soule is go­ing Exod. 5.7. Tunc Diabo [...]s graviores ten­tationes homi­ni ingerit, dum [finem] ejus appropinquare prospicit: & quem viventem blandiendo dece­pit, morientem saeviendo capit, Claudius. off from his subjection and king­dome, he doubles the Bricks, and yet [Page 139] would not have any Eph. 6.16. straw allowed them; that is, doubles the force of his temptati­ons, but yet would have nought but stubble allowed the Sts. no solid matter, to make up a firme wall, or bulwark of comfort to dead the gunshot of his Viexmontius, Institut. ad Poe­nitent. part. 1. cap. 2. fiery & most fierce temptations of despayre: the cares of this world then, & God, are apt as Paul & Barna­bas to fall out and separate, yea to [divide] betwixt the Soule and God; our Saviour hath therfore expressed the Matt. 13.22. [...]. care of the world by such a word as doth signifie, as it were, a (parting) of a thing in sunder, Matth, 13.22. once more; The cares of this world then will deale with the heart of man, as the Levite did with his Judg. 19.29. Con­cubine, shread it into many parts; or as king David did with the people of 2 Sam. 12.31. Rab­bah, put it under sawes and harrowes, and axes of iron, grievously afflict with dif­ficulties and torments, even to make a tearing and a pulling of the Soule in pee­ces: surely good thoughts, in death, are like to Jeremie's basket of good figs, Jer. 24.2. very good; and evill ones on the other side, [Page 140] as his bad figs, very bad and naughtie: be­fore you Psal. 62.10. set your heart upon your Ri­ches, when they were encreased; now, bee assured they will set themselves upon your heart; old friends cannot well part on easie termes: Wherfore, if with the Prodigall, you hope to feast it at home with your Father in Heaven with joy; you must first resolve to returne home to your selves by thoughts of Repentance; and throughly resolve to forsake the Luke 15.16. husks of all earthly contentments, with men of a swinish disposition here belowe aforehand, else in vain shall we hope for a wel-come home, or a kisse from our hea­venly Father: In a word, the manner of old Jacob's Benediction of Manasseh, and Ephraim, the two sons of Joseph, on his Death-bed, is a lively platforme of all our demeanor in our Death-beds; Jacob first ( Gen. 48.13, 14. crosseth) his hands, in the giving of his blessing; and this was to shew, that either the whol vertue of his Benediction was to issue from the crosse of Christ, who was af­ter to issue from his loynes; or else that [Page 141] all blessings in this life were mixed with their crosses; (as I shewed before) and then he purposly laid his right hand upon Ephra­im, the youngers head, & his left hand upon Manasseh, though the elder brother; all w ^ch Hugo de sancto victore thus moralizeth; by Jacob is represented Christ; by Joseph, Man, by Ephraim, affection, by Manasseh, oblivion; by the right hand, things eter­nall; by the left hand, things temporall; now observe, Joseph, he puts his eldest son Manasseh towards Israels right hand, that is, Man sets oblivion towards things eter­nall; but Ephraim his younger son to­wards Israels left hand, that is, sets his af­fection towards things temporall; but Ja­cob doth quite otherwise, and crosseth this disposition; and so must a true, and a godly Christian set his affection mainely upon things eternall, and heavenly; but oblivion and forgetfulnesse to things temporall, and earthly; so St. Paul, as we read, when he was about to presse hard outwards toward the marke of perfection, Phil. 3.13, 14. forgot those things which were behind: [Page 142] Thus must we do likewise; we shall then finde these outward things, as he did, in comparison of the spirituall things of the 1 Pet. 3.4. hidden, and of the Eph. 3.16. inner man, to be but even as Phil. 3.8. dung and dirt; or, as St Austin styles it Res transitoria, quodammodo [ Augustin: l. 10. de Civitate Dei, c. 25. K. lutea] faelicitas: and St. Hierom also (in epist: ad Nepotian.) Divitias (lutum) putabimus: As therefore we would find peace, and com­fort first in our owne particular souls, let us be earely, and seriously exhorted, be­times, even whilest it is called to Heb. 3.13. day, e­ven whilest we have time; and no time is ours, but the very instant, that we breath in;) let us, I say, whilst we have time, and Gal. 6.10. opportunity, herein prize our own peace, and happinesse of Soule in death; to order the affaires of the world, to dis­pose of our estates by will, and legacy, or gift; we shall find much rest to our Soules hereby; and if yee shall happily suspect, that your posterity (as two many grace­lesse, and undutifull of-springs are too of­ten) will be fingring before hand, then let this satisfie that feare; where a testa­ment [Page 143] is, there must also of necessity be the ( Heb. 9.16, 17. death) of the testator; for a testament is of force (after) men are dead; otherwise, it is of no strength at all while the testator liveth, Heb. 9.16, 17. if any son of Belial, that shakes off the yoke of awfull obedi­ence to his parent, shall presume, before hand, to rob his Father, or his Mother, the Pro 30.17. ravens of the valleyes, saith the Scrip­ture, shall plucke out his eyes: and be­sides, you may reverse at pleasure, as God lendeth farther terme of yeares: Be exhorted then, first of all, for the peace and quiet of your own Soules, in this re­gard, as my Prophet here adviseth Heze­kiah, to set your house in order, even be­fore Death,

Secondly, besides this good to the Soul of him that is deceasing; there may here­by ensue much benefit even to our succes­sion: good God! what Aceldamas are of­ten made? what Acts 2.19. fields of blood by dire­full Duels between brethren, for an un­disposed, and unsetled Patrimony? as Esau and Jacob in the wombe, how do [Page 144] they (other some) all their lives long [ Gen. 25.22. struggle] for elbow-roome upon that earth, which as it was at first communis men­sa, as Procopius Ga­zaeus, comm [...]t: in Genes c. 1. f. 9. Latin. Procopius speaketh, the common boord that supplyed them with all things usefull, and convenient; yea the common mother, that first teemed them, and the nurse that cherished them; so e're long, it must be Commune Sepulchrum too, the common Sepulchre, and the grave to bu­ry them, and for ever to lodge them, till a powerfull resurrection: what envy is here? of Eteocles and Polynices (two bro­thers) its sayd, that their hearts were not more at ods in life, then their flames were in their death divided: To prevent there­fore these future divisions, (sith wealth gave occasion even to great Saints to Gen. 13.9. part, as (to Lot and Abraham) which often, as the Vultures upon Prometheus, gnaw up­on the body of an unordered estate, so long, till that is made good in the Psalmist, these goods were gotten with much care by the progenitors, but now they can­not tell who shall Psal. 39.6. enjoy them; whether [Page 145] the Lawyer, or the issue, or neither: To cut off, I say, these following dangers, and to leave behind you, what may rather make to live, and love, and not to Gen. 45.24. fal-out as brethren, (for what Pro 18.19. ods to that of brethren disjoynted in affection?) let us all be exhorted, as in the first place to 2 Cor. 12.14. lay up, as God shall 1 Cor. 16.2. enable, for our children (for not so doing what are wee else but 1 Tim. 5.8. worse then Infidels? 1 Tim. 5.8. yea,) how do your lavish, and profuse wantons, living in the world, as the Leviathan in the Sea, only to take Psal 104.26. pastime, and sport themselves in Rom. 13.13. rioting and drunkennesse, in chambering and wantonnesse, in a sinfull prodigality both of time, and estates; how do they, I say, by this (sinning withall against, and Eph. 6.4. provoking their children) even draw out almost all their substance to the bot­tome? and so leave their issue after them not only as Adonibezek, without Judg. 1.7. thumbs, and toes, nor as Hanun used King Davids servants, shaven by the one (halfe,) and cut off in their garments to the ( 2 Sam. 10.4. middle) but as Solomon saith of the whore, and the [Page 146] drunkard, they are often brought to a Pro. 6.26. morsell of bread, and go cloath'd in Pro. 23.21. rags; being not seldom more miserable in the want of Read Bp. Hall decad. 6. epist. 6. education, then of revenues; their Parents over-lavishnesse, as that land, that did Num. 13.32. eate up its owne inhabitants, Gen. 41.20. devouring with Pharaoh's lanke heifers, the fair & the fat kine; whose milk should have nourished the children that survive them: good God! what a grosse mistake is here of the right liberality? There is a liberality of expending, which maketh a good man, like the fields in Aegypt over­flown by Nilus, the richer soyle; its cal­led by divines, liberalitas charitativae lar­gitatis; and of this its true, what King Solomon long since experimented, saying, the liberall soule shall be made Pro. 11.25. (fat;) no one mite this way layd out, but its like that graine of mustard seed, in the gospell, it grows up unto a great Matth. 13.32. tree of an after encrease; but there is another kind, which is, (though abusively) called Liberalitas prodigae effusionis; which is not indeed, in its selfe simply considered, a liberality, [Page 147] save only [...], in the false opinion of a loose Epicure; and is, intruth, nought else but a prodigall effusion; and so it proves eyther, as that same water of the woman of Tekoah, which being spilt on the ground, cannot be 2 Sam. 14.14. gathered up again, or else it will, as that ill word in the pri­mitive times of Christs Church, of that paire of erroneous Teachers Hymeneus and Philetus; it will be as a 2 Tim. 2.17. canker, or gangrene; fretting to the very consumption of poste­rity; thus doe these godlesse Atheists (whose names the Lord Psal. 9.5. puts out, even as a candle in the snuffe, from under heaven for it, and makes them taste of corruption even before they dy) thus, I say, by this meanes do they, as the evill spirit did the Matth. 8.32 swine into the Sea, precipiate and hur­ry oftimes their un-bred posterity, into an engulfing confusion; their fathers throat was the Psal. 5.9. open sepulchre of their just pa­trimonies: holy Abraham, though he was the hospitablest man alive, insomuch, Gen. 18.2. that standing in his tent doore, his hospitality offered it self, after a sort, to every obvious [Page 148] passenger; and by that meanes entertain­ned Heb. 13.2. Angels unawares, in whose welcome, I believe, he spared no fit cost; yet would he not forget, that he had an Isaac for his heire too, and many other children, and favorites, to provide for, for after time; and as he was first carefull to pro­vide a patrimony; so also, was he as pro­vident, and Religious withall, to dispose, (even Gen. 25.5, 8. before his dissolution) of what he had provided; to which like practise let us (that I may once more renew my ex­hortation, in this particular) be all ad­monished; herein imitating him our Rom. 4.1. father, that is, the Pattern of our faith, and practice, and indeed, saith our Savior, if we were truly Abraham's sons, and chil­dren (as, if we beleeve aright, we cannot Gal. 3.29. but be) we would do the John 8.39. workes of Abraham; that at last we may not faile to share in the sweet comforts of Abraham's Luke 16.23. bosom; we read that after Abrahams death, there was a good issue of his providence, for God Gen. 25.11. blessed his son Isaac, &c. Thus, as our Prophet, in my text, adviseth his good [Page 149] Prince, let us all be seasonably exhorted, to set our house in order: My speech now like, Hezekiah on this his supposed death-bed, is ready to be dissolved; suffer it to gaspe a few minutes more, and it shall expire.

Ye have heard, what it is to set our house in order, and the benefit thereof: our worthy M ^r Peter Taylor. Brother, and my deare friend here departed; a man not more respective of my person, than a professed profitable Auditor of mine. He was not now to seeke to levell his accompt with God, nor to set the spirituall house of his soule in order; having had, (before this,) often sensible intimations within him of the de­cay of Nature; the stroke indeed of death it selfe, and the summons thereof was somewhat We of this City have ve­ry lately had divers exam­ples of suddaine death, of per­sons of no meane quali­ty; and heare of more a­broad. suddaine, (but a very few houres before his dissolution) yet not the expectation; and surely death can never be too suddaine, if it be not unlooked for; from a suddaine and (unlooked) for death, good Lord deliver us; but he that, with Saint Paul, dyes 1. Cor. 15.31. dayly to sinne, and with King David, carryeth his soule al­wayes [Page 150] in his Psal. 119.109. hand, in expectation of a dissolution, can never be unhappy in the (speediest) passage, from the body into Heaven; and he that lives Mors mala putanda non est, quam bona vita prae [...]esserit. Au­gustin. de Civit. Dei. lib. 1. cap. 11. well, can ne­ver dye ill. The manner of his deceasing, I know not to what better to resemble, than to S ^t Peters comming unto Christ upon the waters, Matth. 14.29, 30, 31. Matth. 14.29, 30, 31. when S ^t Peter was bid to come, (for he would not adventure on so high a busi­nesse, without a warrantable command first from his Lord Christ) he was come downe out of the ship, and he walked on the water, to goe to Jesus; but when he saw the winde boisterous, he was a­fraid; and beginning to sinke, he cryed, saying, Lord save me; and immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him: even so, he, Luke 24.1. early on the Lords day, Januar. 20. 1638. in conscience of Christs command, to Psal. 27.4. visite his Temple, and not to forsake the Heb. 10.25. assembly of the Saints; arising, and as S ^t Peter from the ship, going downe from his bed, was about to fit himselfe to goe to Jesus, though not on the Sea, yet [Page 151] in the Temple; where he knew he might in his Word, as old Simeon did in his Luke 2.28. Armes, embrace him; and where he was no slacke, but a frequent and diligent vi­siter of him, and a sincere honourer (without saction, without ostentation) of his worship: but as he assayed to goe, loe, the winde was boisterous, Death summons him; and beginning to sinke, (not in despaire,) but under bodily weaknesse, he cryed out, saying, as Saint Peter, Lord save me; so he, Lord be merci­full unto me; and speedily Jesus caught him; and (as I am perswaded) comman­ded his good Angell to carry up his soule into the John 14.2. mansion of blisse, Matth. 25.34. prepared for him from the beginning of the world. It is a notable both signe, and effect of true faith, in [suddaine] ( My Lord, the Bishop now of Exon, in his second [...]. on the History of th [...] New Te­stam pag. 135, [...] 1634. extremities) to ejaculate holy desires, and with the wings of our first thoughts to flye up in­stantly to the throne of grace for present succour: Upon (deliberation) it is pos­sible for a man that hath beene carelesse, and prophane, by good meanes to be [Page 152] drawne to holy dispositions; but on the (suddaine) a man will appeare as he is; what ever is most rife in the heart, will come forth at the mouth: it is good to observe how our [surprisalls] finde us; the rest is but forced, this is naturall; out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh: And when the strings of speech are broken, and the outward sen­ses have lost quite their externall pro­spects; who knows what things of joy 2. Cor. 12.4. unspeakable, in that abstention of the soule from the body, as S ^t Paul in his rap­ture, a good man (though seized suddainly by death,) may heare? Should I here next bestow my selfe in a copious Panegyrick, I should finde an houre more too little to dispatch my laudatory Oration; as E­lihu, in Job, said, on another occasion, I am Job 32.18. full of matter; I could tell you, how, as Onesiphorus did S ^t Paul, he oft 2. Tim. 1.16. refreshed the bowells of the poore and impotent; he was as Job 29.15. eyes to the blind, as a staffe and feet to the lame; and what a great and a secret Rom. 16.3. helper of poore Tradesmen [Page 153] in the dead time of Trading; and how carefull to see the hirelings Levit. 19.13. wages dis­charged; let them acknowledge, who, I beleeve, shall hereafter finde him wan­ting; and for fidelity to his friend, no — Fidus A­chates, saepè a­pud Virgil. faithfull Achates ever out-went him; nor was Jonathan ever more true to Da­vid, or David to Jonathan; of whom yet we read, that in their lives they were lovely and pleasant, and in their deaths they were not 2. Sam. 1.23. divided: were these ver­tues capable of bequeathment, I could wish that he had left them as Legacies to all that yet live, and survive him. But I must remember, that I am now in the Pulpit, not at the Deske; onely let me adde this, as the conclusion of all, (which also my entire affection to his memory urgeth from me) He was a true Natha­niel, an Israelite indeed, in whom was no knowne, no approved, or allow­ed John 1.47. guile: and such as these were they whom CHRIST commended, and hee, saith Paul, is 2. Cor. 10.18. approved, whom the (LORD) commendeth; and what [Page 154] is CHRISTS approbation, but the sure earnest of an eternall glorificati­on?

My beloved Christians, we have much to answer to Almighty God for pious and good examples; and who is there amongst us, but must be forced to cry out, Lord be mercifull unto me in this? Now at last yet, let us Jam. 4.8. cleanse our hands, and purifie our hearts, as S ^t James adviseth us: let us desire God to fit us for the worst of times, and the best of ends; let us Psal. 119.109. continually carry our soules as in our hands, ready to resigne them unto the hands of the God, that by infusing crea­ted them; and by creation infused them: We have breath yet indeed, but 'tis but in our Isa. 2.22. nostrills, ready each moment to give up. Wherefore let us, with King David, Psal. 16.8. set the Lord alwayes before us, and not onely so, but as S ^t Peter saith, let us 1. Pet. 3.15. sanctifie this Lord God in our hearts. Many know God, but yet they ( Psal. 50.22. forget) him, saith the Prophet; that is, as Saint Paul interprets, they doe [Page 155] not like to Rom. 1.28. reteine God in their know­ledge, that is, to ( Haec est sum­ma delicti, nolli [agnoscore] quem ignorare non possis. S. Cy­prian. de Ido­lor. vanitate. sect. 5. acknowledge) him to be such a God as he hath revealed him­selfe to be, in all his glorious attributes of Omnipotency, Omnisciency, Omni­presence, Infinitenesse, Eternity; did we not onely know, but also (acknow­ledge) and [ Psal. 45.10. consider] these things a­right; did we labour thoroughly to Isa. 42.25. & 44.19. lay them to our hearts, to Psal. 107.43. ponder them by continuall meditation, and as we ought, to be [affected] with them; it could not be, but that we should often remem­ber how Eternity depends upon a mo­ment; how great an Rom. 14.12. account every one of us, even from the Eph. 5.12. secret and 1. Cor. 4.5. hidden workes of darknesse, to an Matth. 12.36. idle word, must in particular make to this Psal. 77.13. great God, and 2. Tim. 4.8. righteous Judge of Gen. 18.25. all the earth; when, after death, wee must all 2. Cor. [...].10. appeare before his dreadfull Tri­bunall, and awfull seate of Judgment: how could we then, but, as Enoch, walke ( Gen. 5.24. with) God, and with Abraham, ( Gen. 17.1. be­fore) God? as alwayes in his presence; [Page 156] as to whose eyes all things lye open and Heb. 4.13. naked; yea, as one who knoweth all our thoughts, long Psal. 139.1. before they be, and when they are, findeth them all to be but 1 Cor. 3.20. vain: certainely, did we seriously [consider] this, we would in our severall places, speedily set our houses in order; whether it be the house spirituall, Corporall, Mysticall, Ecclesiasticall, Secular, or oeconomicall; our Conversation would be in heaven, Phil. 3.20. e­ven whilest we are alive here upon earth: And so being ready, as the good Matth. 25.4. Vir­gins with oyle in our lamps, how joyfully may we meet our Bridegroom, and cry out, with those blessed Spirits, Rev. 22.20. Come Lord Jesu, come quickely: This foregoing pre­paration made the ancient Martyrs to embrace death, as the prooeme unto im­mortality; Isidor: Pelusio­ta l. 4. epist. 52. [...], as Isidore Pelusiota told his good friend Theon: Labour we to get the meditation of the Lord, thus to be­come, as David professed, Psal. 104.34. sweet unto us; we shall then, with St. Paul, groane [Page 157] under the Rom. 7.24. misery of this body of death; even Phil. 1.23. long to be dissolved, and to be with Christ, which is best of all: Lord open thou our dim, yea our blind eyes, that we may see him; fasten our hearts upon him by a lively Faith alwayes; give us right apprehensions of thee, and heavenly things, that living the life of thine 1 Pet. 1.14. obe­dient children, Matth. 25.23. and faythfull servants in a conversation Psal. 50.23. ordered aright; wee may so honor thee our good God, here in this life of grace below; that in the end of all, wee may enjoy the fulnesse of thy promised, and Matth. 25.34. prepared glory above in Heaven, even at thy right hand, at whose right hand are Psal. 16.11. pleasures for evermore; even where there is health without sicknesse, life without death, joy without sorrow, even joy Pet. 1.8. unspeakeable, and full of glory; And that only and a­lone for his sake, who hath so dearely 1 Cor. 6 [...]0. bought us, Jesus Christ the 1 John. 2.1. righteous, to whom with thee, ô Father, and thy blessed spirit, three all-glorious persons, one infiite, and all- [...]s God, (our [Page 158] God,) be given of us, and of all thy Saints, all glory, praise, dominion, and Salvation, in the Church, Eph. 3.21. by CHRIST JESUS throughout all ages, World without end. Amen.

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