family, parity would never be liked. And thus, there have been some, both in church and commonwealth, that so earnestly longed for equality in the one, and parity in the other, that they would no longer dispute for it, but fell to fight for it; and since they could not bring it in with their tongues, they would therefore take help of their hands. But it were to be wished, that all so minded, would learn some wit from Lycurgus, in their anger; and first weigh in judgment, by the poise of wisdom, in the balance of indifferency, hanging upon the beam and rule of right, the inconvenience of pulling down all officers, and setting up community of rule in an army; and then consider, whether the like equal masterdom may be justly put upon the church, which is an army with banners, or such a level flatted upon the face of the commonwealth, which is to consist of governors and governed.* Plutarch, Moral. Mr. Woodnoth, ut antea Ordine servato, mundus servatur. Lucan. Cant. vi. 4. * Rom. xiii. 115. The true Christian's Hopes of Heaven. 2 SIR THOMAS BODLEY, that great advancer of learning, did give for his arms three crowns, with this posie, Quarta perennis erit; as if he should have said, These three crowns which I bear in my coat, are but the difference of my house and gentry; but Quarta perennis erit, the fourth crown which I look for in heaven, shall be everlasting and immortal. That fourth, though it be but one crown, yet shall be worth all those three crowns, yea, three thousand more than such as those are the fourth shall be eternal. Thus it is, that the men of this world may abound in such things as may make them seem more excellent than their neighbours, may be crowned with rose-buds, with outward pomp and splendour. But this crown, if not taken off their heads by violence, will fall of itself by mortality, and then there is an end of all their hopes and honours both together.* Now, the state of many of the dearest of God's children here in this life, is not usually so eminent and illustrious: they wander up and down in sheep-skins, and goat-skins; are made a bye-word, a laughing-stock, the drunkard's song ;+and instead of roses, they are crowned with thorns, and for the testimony of a good conscience, many times with martyrdom Yet here is their comfort, that there is a crown of life, of righteousness, immortal, incorruptible, laid up for them in the highest 1 The Levelling Party. 2 Founder of the great Library at Oxford. heavens, which God the righteous Judge will set upon their heads in that day,§ when all their enemies shall be clothed with shame and confusion of face for ever. Th. Playfer's Sermon. *Job xix. 9. Alii flammis exusti, alii ferro perempti, +Heb. xi. Credula vitam Manet altera (cælo). &c. Euseb. Hist., Zib. viii. cap. 11, 12. 116. What true Repentance is. +Rev. SIN is an aversion from God, and conversion to the world; repentance therefore must shake off the world, and embrace God. Nazianzene sets it forth in a very fit resemblance, comparing the soul to a pair of writing tables, out of which must be washed whatsoever was written with sin, and instead thereof must be entered the writing of grace; both these are necessary in true repentance. God hath dedicated both parts in His own repentance, for as when He repented of the evil intended against us, He doth not only give over to hate us, but also He doth embrace us with love: even so, when we repent of our sins against God, we must not only cease to hate Him, but begin to love Him also. B. Lake, Sermon on Luke iii. Scelerum si bene pænitet, Eradenda, &c. Horat. 117. Content, a great Blessing of God. ONE observes concerning manna, when the people were contented with the allowance that God gave them, then it was very good; but when they would not be content with God's allowance, but would be gathering more, then, says the text, there were worms in it. So when we are content with our conditions, and that which God disposeth us to be in, there is a blessing in it; but if we must needs be reaching out for more than God hath allotted, or to keep it longer than God would have us to have it, then there will be worms in it,—a canker to eat it, a moth to fret it, nothing at all that is good. Alph. Tostatus. * 118. Not to envy each other's Gifts or Preferments. It is said of one Pelaretus, a Lacedæmonian, that standing for a place of credit, to be one of the 300, which was a degree of honour at Sparta, and missing it, though a man highly deserving, yet he was so far from complaining, or grudging, or grieving thereat, that when others marvelled at his contentment, and inquired his reason, he told them, That he rejoiced at the happiness of that commonwealth, that it had three hundred men more worthy to govern than himself. But how many are there in these times of clearer judgment, wherein it is apparently known, that true godliness teacheth every man contentment, to move in that orb and place where God hath placed him, with that portion that God hath given him. Yet, as sore eyes are offended at clear lights, so they fret at the brightness of other men's fortunes, virtues, and prosperity, and envy, because of other men's wealth or honour. How many rage and storm like Æolus, not that three hundred, nor three, but some one eminent person is preferred before them. Plut. Apophthegm. ut antea. Alterius rebus non macrescit opimis. 119. Riches have Wings. Ir is a term amongst falconers, that if a hawk fly high, she lessens, O she lessens (saith the falconer); but if she soar yet higher, then he cries out, O she vanisheth, she vanisheth. And it is now found to be true by sad and woeful experience, that riches are upon the wing, and have of late by one means or other taken such a flight out of many men's purses, that they have lessened and lessened every day more and more, and are now at present by the continuance of time even as good as quite vanished. Th. Fuller's Serm. at S. Clem., Lond., 1647. 120. Rulers and Governors are the Supporters of a Commonwealth. THERE is a generation of men that are murmurers and mutineers, such as speak evil of authority, and do withdraw their necks from obedience upon this ground, that superiors live by the sweat of the inferiors' brow, being themselves devoid of care; their quarrel is like that in the apologue: The outward members of the body fell out against the stomach; they complained of his laziness and their own painfulness, and therefore conspired to starve him and ease themselves; they even discovered their folly, for soon after the hands began to faint, and the legs to falter, and the whole body to pine; then, and not till then, they perceived that the stomach, which they condemned as lazy, laboured for them all, and that they were beholden to the labour of the stomach that themselves had any strength to labour. So it is in the body politic; though the state of the prince or ruler be supported by the commons, yet the spring of the commonwealth is the providence of the prince, and soon will the streams dry if that fountain be dammed up. Plutarch, in Coriolan. Val. Max., Lib. viii. cap. 9. B. Lake's Sermon on Isa., chap ix. gubernator, &c. Piato, apud Volat. Menenius Agrippa. Non populus causa gubernatoris, sed 121. The Devil, a Deceiver, deceived by Christ. A FISHERMAN, when he casts his angle into the river, doth not throw the hook in bare, naked, and uncovered, for then he knows the fish will never bite, and therefore he hides the hook within a worm or some other bait, and so the fish, biting at the worm, is catched by the hook. Thus, Christ, speaking of Himself, saith, Ego vermis et non homo :*He, coming to perform the great work of our redemption, did cover and hide His Godhead within the worm of His human nature. The grand water-serpent, Leviathan, Job xl. 20, the devil, thinking to swallow the worm of His humanity, was caught upon the hook of His divinity; this hook stuck in his jaws and tore him very sore; by thinking to destroy Christ he destroyed his own kingdom, and lost his own power for ever. Joh. Andrews, a Serm. at St. Paul's, Lond., 1616. Nyssen. Orat. cap. xxiii. * Psalm xxii. 6. Greg. 122. A young raw Minister is Blameworthy. PYTHAGORAS bound all those whom he received into his school to five years' silence, that they might not fly nor be chirping on every hedge before they were fledged; that as soon as ever they crept from the shell they might not aspire to the house-top; that their tongues might not run before their wits; that they might hear sufficiently before they spake boldly. And so strong was his avros pa, so much did his word prevail with them, that faithfully and constantly they obeyed his commandment. Many tutors now-a-days, though wiser and better than Pythagoras, yet, seeing their young ones too forward to make wing, cannot possibly beat them back into the nest, cannot keep their pupils within the limits of learners five years, no, nor four years, till they have taken some degree in schools; but they must needs in all haste take upon them the sacred profession of God's Word; and not only some thin, obscure, ignorant Roguel, some parishes of the country, but Jerusalem and the chief cities, but the greatest congregations, and most knowing people, must take notice of their ripe and rare intelligence in their own, though raw in other men's opinions. Being drunken with pride, they delight to be seen in the most public assemblies, as there are some that must needs show themselves in the market or fair, being drunken with wine or some meaner liquor. Laert. Diogen. in Vita. Erasm. in Adag. ex Suida. Mr. Woodnoth, ut antea. Quis homo est tanta confidentia ut sacerdotium, &c. Plaut. Rud. Barbarus has segetes? Virgil. 123. The Blessed Trinity co-operate in the Righteous Man's Prayer. If a great king should encourage a poor man in his suit, and say unto him, Alas, poor man, I perceive thy distress, do but draw up thy petition, and I will give thee a satisfactory answer, this would be a ground of great hope; but if he shall say, Go to my secretary and bid him draw it up thus and thus, and in this manner, would not this be a matter of greater comfort? Yea, but if he shall say to the prince, his son, standing by him, Do you present this poor man's petition into my hands, what unspeakable comfort must this needs be. And just thus God dealeth with His children; God heareth our prayers, the blessed Spirit draweth them up, and Jesus Christ, the Son of God, presenteth them to His Father.* Without all doubt, great is the comfort of that poor soul, that can by prayer have two or three walks a day upon this Mount Tabor, and with holy Moses converse with God in three persons on the Horeb of fervent prayer,. for then, with Jacob, he sees the sweet vision of angels ascending and descending, climbing up and down that sacred ladder which stands betwixt heaven and earth; at the top of it is the Father, the whole length of it is in the Son, and the Spirit doth firmly fasten it thereunto. Alphons. ab Avendano in Matt. cap. v. * Rom. viii. 34. |