uc -HBLF B 302 6^ JOSEPH'S PARTY-COLOURED COAT : A COMMENT ON 1 COR. XI., WITH SEVERAL SERMONS: AND DAVID'S HEINOUS SIN, HEARTY REPENTANCE, HEAVY PUNISHMENT : A POEM. BY THOMAS FULLEE, D.P., M AUTHOR OF THE CHURCH HISTORY OF BRITAIN, IT.. I ti EDITED BY WILLIAM NICHOLS. LONDON: WILLIAM TEGG. 1867. \\s +~> <*- ^ i o FZ JOSEPH'S PARTY-COLOURED COAT: CONTAINING A COMMENT ON PART OP THE ELEVENTH CHAPTER OF THE FIRST EPISTLE. OF ST. PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS J TOGETHER WITH SEVERAL SERMONS; NAMELY," I. GROWTH IN GRACE. II. HOW FAR EXAMPLES MAY BE FOLLOWED. III. AN ILL MATCH WELL BROKEN OFF. IV. GOOD FROM BAD FRIENDS. V. A GLASS FOR GLUTTONS. VI. HOW FAR GRACE MAY BE ENTAILED. VII. A CHRISTENING SERMON. r" VIII. FACTION CONFUTED. By T. F. John vi. 12. " Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.* LONDON: PRINTED BY JOHN DAWSON, FOR JOHN WILLIAMS ; AND ARE TO BE SOLD AT HIS SHOP, AT THE SIGN OF THE CRANE, IX PAUL'S CHURCH YARD. 1640. " THE RIGHT WORSHIPFUL THE LADY JANE COVERT, OP PEPPER HARROW, IN SURREY. Madam, Custom hath made it not only pardonable, hut necessary, to flatter in Dedicatory Epistles. Epitaphs and Dedications are credited alike. But I will not follow the stream herein : First, because I account it beneath my calling to speak any thing above the truth. Secondly, because of you it is needless. Let deformed faces be beholden to the painter; Art hath nothing to do, where Nature hath prevented it. Wherefore I will turn my praising of you into prayer for you; desiring God to strengthen and increase all goodness in you, and give you perse- verance, — that golden clasp, which joins grace and glory together. Thus desiring to shroud my weak labours under jour favourable patronage, I rest Your Ladyship's in all service, T. F. b 2 EDITOR'S PREFACE. This volume contains two of Fuller's earliest and scarcest works. The Poem, indeed, " David's Heinous Sin," 4c., seems to have been his very first venture in the market of letters; being- published in 1631, when he was only in his twenty-third year. Though, as might be ex- pected, parts of it are rather juvenile in style and matter, yet it is well worth preserving, contain- ing as it does many bright thoughts and quaint phrases ; and bearing promise of the genuine and ready wit which afterwards gave to the name of Thomas Fuller an individuality as distinguished as that of Thomas Hood in our own age. " Joseph's Party-coloured Coat " was published in 1640, and, as will be seen, is replete with valuable matter clothed in a lively style. Whilst modernizing the spelling, I have not thought it right to follow the example of some editors in reducing every quotation from Scrip- ture to a conformity with our present Authorized Version: — a process which often obliterates the 'point of an old author's sentence, and which appears to be carried out in ignorance both that there ever was any other English version besides the one now universally current, and that many divines of former days were in the habit of giving their own rendering of the original. William Nichols. 6, Stratheden Villas, Hackney, 1867. CONTENTS. JOSEPH'S PARTY-COLOURED COAT. TAOE Comment on 1 Corinthians xi 5 Growth in Grace 99 How far Examples are to be followed 112 An ill Match well broken off 125 man with the dew of God's word, Isaiah lv. 10 : " For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but wa- tereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater ; so shall My word be that goeth forth out of My mouth," &c. And the same allegory is followed by Moses, Deut. xxxii. 2 : " My doctrine * [In the obsolete sense, " grow or spread out." — Ed.] 102 GROWTH *IN GRACE. shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb,, and as the showers upon the grass." Thirdly, The blessing of God is requisite, without which both the former are nothing worth. Paul may " plant," and Apollos may " water ; but God giveth the increase." It was observed of Master Greenham, that painful and zealous preacher of God's word, that, though he was very industrious in his calling, yet his people still remained most ignorant ; and, as one saith, f Greenham had pastures green, But sheep full lean." So true it is, that God's blessing is the key of the work, without which all is but labour in vain. 6. Now we may take notice of two remarkables in the growth of a Christian. First, Plants have their clk/jlt], their bounds, both in height and breadth, set by nature ; (" Hither shalt thou come, and no further ;") to which when they have attained, they grow downward and wax less. Yea, all sublunary things habent suos tei'minos, qua cum venerint sistunt, retrocedunt, ruunt. But groivth in grace admits of no such period, but still there is plus ultra. What St. Paul saith, " Pray continu- ally ; rejoice evermore," (1 Thess. v. 17,) is as true of spiritual growth : grow continually ; increase evermore ; never stop nor stay in grace, till thou GROWTH IN t?RAC53. 10S com est to glory. Secondly, Trees dote, as well as men, in their old age ; yea, then they are barren, and bring forth little or no fruit : whereas Chris- tians, on the contrary, "that be planted in the house of the Lord, shall flourish in the court of our God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age ; they shall be fat and flourishing." (Psalm xcii. 13, 14.) Like wine, they are best when they are oldest ; like Caleb, able and active men, even at fourscore years of age. 7. Come we now to set down those things which do either in part hinder, or in whole destroy, men's growth in grace. For the first, let us take- heed of sucker 8 in our soul ; such superfluous ex- cremental sprigs which, like so many thieves, steal away the nourishment which should maintain the tree. By these u suckers " we may understand those felonious avocations of worldly employments, which either out of season, or out of measure, busy our souls in earthly things, when they should be employed in heavenly matters. The only way to prevent this mischief is to prune and cut off these suckers, and speedily to stop up these emis- saries, by outlets and private sluices, lest they drain dry the very main channel of grace in our hearts. 8. As for destroyers of grace, it is twofold. First, the blighting or blasting of a conscience- wasting sin. Thus drunkenness and incest de- stroyed grace in Lot for that very instant^ till he 104 <' '• <'"< ««« <*&(?tVTB:. IN' GRACE. recovered himself again by unfeigned repentance. Secondly, the drowth [drought] and scorching heat of persecution. How promising a plant! what a shoot in goodness did he give on a sudden, who said to our Saviour, " Master, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest !" But how quickly was he withered with one scorching beam, when Christ told him how hard service he must un- dergo ! 9. Observe by the way : there is a double rooting in grace, — the one a sound and sure one, the other but shallow and superficial. The former rooting belongs to the saints of God ; and these, though they may be blighted with sin, or scorched with persecution, yet still, as I may say, there is a secret sprig of life in the root, though in outward appearance the leaves and boughs may seem quite dead; and in God's due time they grow out of their sins by repentance, out of their afflictions by patience. Let us therefore take heed of being too tyrannical, in passing sentence of condemnation upon them before the time. Scotus, that famous schoolman, being in a strong fit of an apoplexy, was, by the cruel kindness of his over-officious friends, buried before he was dead.* Many, over- hasty in their uncharitable censures, seeing one fallen into a sin, bury him alive in their judgments, -counting him a castaway and reprobate, when by * Camden's " Britannia,"' in Northumberland. GROWTH IN GRACE. 105 God's mercy and his own repentance he may re- cover again, as still retaining in his heart some sparks of spiritual life. As for the wicked, which have only a superficial hold in grace, rather sticked than rooted in it ; we see what our Saviour saith of them : " And forthwith they sprung up, be- cause they had no deepness of earth : and when the sun was up, they were scorched : and because they had not root, they withered away." They were quite dried up, and here made fuel for hell, never recovering themselves any more ; whereas the godly, though they seem dead in the winter, they may grow again next spring. USE. • 10. This doctrine, if applied, serves to confute many. First, those that grow backward in grace, and are worse now than they were seven years be- fore ; like the Galatians, " You have run well ; who hindered } r ou ? " Secondly, those who stand still in goodness ; like those women whereof the apos- tle complaineth, that they were u ever learning, and never come to the knowledge of the truth." Thirdly, those that grow, but not proportionably to the long time wherein they have been planted, the fat soil wherein they have been set. (1.) The long time wherein they have been planted : u For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, you have need that one teach you again which be the hrst principles of the oracles of God ; and are be- 106 GEOWTH IN GRACE. come such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. 5 ' (Heb. v. 12.) (2.) The fatness of the soil wherein they have been set, and plenty of water poured on them : and herein no country comes near to ours ; and therefore we are most unexcu sable, if we grow not in grace. Outlandish men call our land "the rainy land/' because we have such plenty thereof, arising of the store of vapours, from the vicinity of the sea. They call it also "the ringing island," because it hath bells, so many and so tuneable. I am sure, without flatter- ing, it may be thus called in a higher sense : the dew of God's word is nowhere poured more plen- tifully ; and we have (God increase their number !) many and melodious bells, tuneable amongst them- selves, and loud-sounding the word of God to others. Most heavy, therefore, will be our ac- count, if we yield not some proportionable growth in grace to these great means God affords us. 11. Now, in examining themselves, I find three sorts of men to be deceived. Some account them- selves to be grown in grace, when they are not : others esteem themselves to be not grown, when they are. Of the former, some account themselves to be improved in goodness, when God takes from them the ability to commit sin they had formerly. An old man saith, u I thank God I am grown in grace." Well, how shall this appear? "Thus," saith the old man : " twenty years ago I was given GROWTH IN GRACE. 107 to lust and wantonness; now I have left it." Alas ! he puts a fallacy on his own soul ; for the sin hath left him, his moisture is spent, his heat abated, and he disabled from performing the task of wickedness. So the prodigal, who hath spent his estate, hugs himself in his own happiness, that now he is grown in grace, because he hath left vanity in clothes, curiosity in diet, excessiveness in gaming ; when, alas ! needs must the fire go out, when the fuel is taken away ; he is not grown in grace, but decreased in estate. Others construe it to be growth of grace in themselves, when only God takes away from them the tempta- tions to sin. He that, living in a populous place, was given to drunkenness, who now, being re- tired to a private village, takes himself to be turned very sober : — alas ! it is not he that is al- tered, but his place. He wanteth now (a want with gain) a crew of bad good-fellows to solicit him to the tavern ; but, had he the same tempta- tion, let him examine himself, whether he would not be as bad as ever he was before. A third sort count themselves grown in grace, when they have not left, but only exchanged, their sin ; and perchance a less for a greater. " Thou that abhorrest idols, committest thou sacrilege ? " (Eom. ii. 22.) Some think themselves improved in piety, because they left prodigality, and reel into covetousness ; left profaneness, and [have] fallen 108 GROWTH IN GRACE. into spiritual pride, or peevish affecting of outside holiness. Thus, like the sea, what they lose in one place, they gain in another, and are no whit grown* in grace. 12. Others conceive themselves not to be grown in grace when they are grown ; and that in these fonr cases. (1.) First, Sometimes they think that they have less grace now than they had seven years ago ; because they are more sensible of their bad- ness. They daily see, and grieve to see, how spi- ritual the law of God is, and how carnal they are ; how they sin both against God's will and their own, and sorrow after their sin, and sin after their sorrow. This makes many mistake themselves to be worse than they have been formerly ; whereas, indeed, the sick man begins to amend, when he begins to feel his pain. 13. (2.) Many think themselves to have less saving knowledge now than they had at their first •conversion ; both because (as we said before of grace) they are now more sensible of their ignor- ance ; and because their knowledge at their first conversion seemed a great deal, which since seemeth not increased, because increased insensi- bly and by unappearing degrees. One that hath lived all his life- time in a most dark dungeon, and at last is brought out but into the twilight, more admires at the clearness and brightness thereof, than he will wonder a month after at the sun at GROWTH US GRACE. 10$ noonday. So a Christian newly regenerated, and brought out of the dark state of nature into the life of grace, is more apprehensive, at the first illumination, of the knowledge he receives, than of far greater degrees of knowledge which he receiveth afterwards. 14. (3.) Some think they have less grace now than they had some years since, because a great measure of grace seems but little to him that de- sires more. As, in worldly wealth, crescit amor nummi quantum ipsa pecunia crescit ; so is there a holy, heavenly, and laudable covetousness of grace, which deceives the eye of the soul, and makes a great deal of goodness seem but a little. 15. (4.) Many think they are grown less and weaker in grace, when indeed they are assaulted with stronger temptations. One saith, u Seven years* since, I vanquished such temptations as at this day foil me ; therefore surely I am decreased in grace." Non sequitur ; for, though it be the same temptation in kind, it may not be the same in de- gree and strength ; thou mayest still be as valiant,, yet thy enemies may conquer thee, as assaulting thee with more force and fury. When thou wert newly converted, God proportioned the weight to the weakness of thy shoulders; bound up the devil, that he should set upon thee with no more force than thou couldest resist and subdue. JSTow thou hast gotten a greater stock of grace, God 110 GROWTH IN GRACE. suffers the devil to buffet thee with greater blows. 16. (5.) Some think grace is less in them now than it was at their first conversion, because they find not in their souls such violent flashes, such strong, impetuous, — I had almost said, furious, — raptures of goodness, and flashes of grace and heavenly illumination. But let them seriously consider, that these raptures which they then had, and now complain they want, were but fits short and sudden, — Nimbus erat, citb prceteriit, — not settled and constant, but such as quickly spent themselves with their own violence : whereas grace in them now may be more solid, reduced, digested, and concocted ; — Bos lassus fortius figit pedem ; — more slow, but more sure ; less violent, but more constant. Though grace be not so thick at one time, yet now it is beaten and ham- mered out to be broader and longer ; yea, I might add also, it is more pure and refined. This we may see in St. Peter : when he was a young man, in a bravery, he would walk on the water ; yea, and so daring was he in his promises : S€ Though all forsake Thee, yet will not I : " but afterwards in his old age he was not so bold and daring; experience had not only corrected the rankness of his spirit, but also in some sort quenched, surely tempered, the flashes of his zeal for the adventu- rousness of it. Yet was he never a whit the GROWTH IN GRACE. Ill worse, but the better, Christian : though he was not so quick to run into danger, yet he would answer the spur, when need required, and not flinch for persecution, when just occasion was offered ; as at last he suffered martyrdom glo- riously for Christ. 17. To conclude : grace in the good thief on the •cross, like Jonah's gourd, grew up presently; for he was an extraordinary example : but in us it is like the growth of an oak, slow and insensible ; so that we may sooner find it crevisse, than crescere. It must therefore be our daily task all the days of our lives : to which end let us remember to pray to Ood for His blessing on us. Our Saviour saith, "Which of you by taking care is able to add one cubit unto his stature " in the corporal growth ? (Matt. vi. 27.) Much less able are we in the spiritual growth to add one inch or hair's breadth to the height of our souls. Then, what was pride in the builders of Babel will be piety in us, — to mount and raise our souls so high, till the top of them shall reach to heaven. Amen. HOW FAR EXAMPLES ARE TO BE FOLLOWED. RUTH I. 15 : And Naomi said. Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone hack unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister-in-law. In these words Naomi seeks to persuade Ruth to return, alleging the example of Orpah, who, as she saith, was " gone back to her people, and to her gods." Where, first, we find that all the hea- then, and the Moabites amongst the rest, did not acknowledge one true God, but were the worship- pers of many gods ; for they made every attribute of God to be a distinct deity. Thus, instead of that attribute, the wisdom of God, they feigned Apollo the god of wisdom ; instead of the power of God, they made Mars the god of power; instead of that admirable beauty of God, they had Venus the goddess of beauty. But no one attri- bute was so much abused as God's providence. For the heathen supposing that the whole world, and all the creatures therein, was too great a HOW FAR EXAMPLES ARE TO BE FOLLOWED. 113 diocese to be daily visited by one and the same Deity, they therefore assigned sundry gods to several creatures. Thus God's providence in ruling the raging of the seas was counted Nep- tune ; in stilling the roaring wind, iEolus ; in commanding the powers of hell, Pluto ; yea, sheep had their Pan, and gardens their Pomona ; the heathens then being as fruitful in feigning of gods, as the Papists since in making of saints. Now, because Naomi used the example of Drpah as a motive to work upon Ruth to return, we gather from thence, examples of others set before our eyes are very potent and prevailing arguments, to make us follow and imitate them; whether they be good examples, — so the forward- ness of the Corinthians to relieve the Jews pro- voked many, — or whether they be bad, — so the dissembling of Peter at Antioch drew Barnabas* and others into the same fault. But those exam- ples, of all others, are most forcible with us, which are set by such who are near to us by kindred, or gracious with us in friendship, or great over us in power. Let men in eminent places, as magistrates, ministers, fathers, masters, (so that others love to dance after their pipe, to sing after their music, to tread after their track,) endeavour to propound themselves examples of piety and religion to those that be under them. 114 HOW FAR EXAMPLES ARE TO BE FOLLOWED. When we see any good example propounded unto us, let us strive with all possible speed to imitate it. What a deal of stir is there in the world for civil precedency and priority ! Every one desires to march in the forefront, and thinks it a shame to come lagging in the rearward. that there were such a holy ambition and heavenly emulation in our hearts, that, as Peter and John ran a race, who should come first to the grave of our Saviour, so men would contend, who should first attain to true mortification. And when we see a good example set before us, let us imitate it, though it be in one which in outward respects is far our inferior. Shall not our masters be ashamed, to see that their men, whose place on oarth is to come behind them, in piety towards heaven go before them ? Shall not the husband blush to see his wife, which is the weaker vessel in nature, the stronger vessel in grace? Shall not the elder brother dye his cheeks with the colour of virtue, to see his younger brother, who was last born, first reborn by faith and the Holy Ghost ? Yet let him not therefore envy his brother, as Cain did Abel ; let him not be angry with his brother, because he is better than himself; but let him be angry with himself, because he is worse than his brother ; let him turn all his malice into imitation, all his fretting at him into following of him. Say unto him, as Gehazi did of Naaman, HOW FAK EXAMPLES ARE TO BE FOLLOWED. 115 *< As the Lord liveth, I will run after him : " and although thou canst not over-run him, nor as yet over-look him ; yet give not over to run with him, follow him, though not as Asahel did Abner, hard at the heels ; yet as Peter did our Saviour, " afar off; " that though the more slowly, yet as surely thou mayest come to heaven ; and though thou wert short of him while he lived, in the race, yet thou shalt be even with him when thou art dead, at the mark. When any bad example is presented unto us, let us decline and detest it, though the men be never so many, or so dear unto us. Imitate Micaiah, (1 Kings xxii.,) to whom when the mes- senger sent to fetch him said, " Behold now, the words of the prophets declare good unto the king with one mouth : let thy word therefore, I pray thee, be like to one of them ; " Micaiah answered, " As the Lord liveth, whatsoever the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak." If they be never so dear unto us, we must not follow their bad prac- tice. So must the son please him that begot him, that he doth not displease Him that created him : so must the wife follow him that married her, that she doth not offend Him that made her. Wherefore, as Samson, though bound with new cords, snapped them asunder, as tow when it feeleth the fire ; so, rather than we should be led by the lewd examples of those that be near and i 2 116 HOW FAR EXAMPLES ARE TO BE FOLLOWED dear unto us, let us break in pieces all their engagements, relations whatsoever. Now here it will be a labour-worthy discourse, to consider how far the examples even of good men in the Bible are to be followed. For, as all examples have a great influence on the practice' of the beholders, so especially the deeds of good men registered in the Scripture (the calendar of eter- nity) are most attractive of imitation. FIRST KIND OF EXAMPLES. We find in Holy Writ nine several kinds of examples. First, actions extraordinary, the doers whereof had peculiar strength and dispensation from God to do them. Thus, Phinehas in a heavenly fury killed Cozbi and Zimri ; Samson slew himself and the Philistines in the temple of Dagon ; Elias caused fire to descend on the two captains of fifties; Elisha cursed the children, thp children of Bethel. USE OF THEM. These are written for our instruction, not for our imitation. If, with Elisha, thou canst make a bridge over Jordan with thy cloak, if, with him, thou canst raise dead children, then it is lawful for thee, with Elisha, to curse thy enemies. If thou canst not imitate him in the one, pretend not to follow him in the other. ABUSE OF THEM. When men propound such examples for their HOW FAR EXAMPLES ARE TO BE FOLLOWED. 117 practice, what is said is imputed to Phinehas for righteousness will be imputed to us for iniquity, if, being private men, by a commission of our own penning, we usurp the sword of justice to punish malefactors. SECOND SORT. Actions founded in the ceremonial law : as, Abra- ham's circumcising of Isaac, Hezekiah's eating the passover, Solomon's offering of sacrifices, &c. USE OF THEM. We are to be thankful to God, that these sha- dows in Christ the substance are taken away. Let us not therefore superstitiously feign that the ghosts of these ceremonies may still walk, which long since were buried in Christ's grave. ABUSE OF THEM. By those who still retain them. Excellently Ignatius, Epist. ad Magnesios, Ov jap XpL&riavia- jibs ovk eariv 'IovSaio-fjLo?. Yea, we must forfeit the name of Christians, if we still retain such old rites. Let those who are admitted in the college of grace, disdain any longer to go to the school of the ceremonial law, which truly may be called " the school of Tyrannus." THIRD SORT. Actions which are founded in the judicial law ; as, punishing theft with fourfold restitution, putting of adulterers to death, and raising up seed to the brother, &c. 118 HOW FAR EXAMPLES ARE TO BE FOLLOWED* USE OP THEM. These oblige men to observe them so far as they have in them any taste or tincture of a moral law ; and as they bear proportion with those statutes by which every particular country is governed. For the judicial law was by God calculated alone for the elevation of the Jewish commonwealth. It suited only with the body of their state ; and will not fit any other commonwealth, except it be equal to Judea in all dimensions. I mean, in climate, nature of the soil, disposition of the people, quality of the bordering neighbours, and many other particulars, amongst which the very least is considerable. ABUSE OP THEM. When men, out of an over-imitativeness of holy precedents, seek to conform all countries to Jew- ish laws. That must needs break, which is stretched further than God intended it. They may sooner make Saul's armour fit David, and David's sling and scrip become Saul, than thfr particular statutes of one country adequately to< comply with another. FOURTH SORT. Actions founded in no law at all, but only in an ancient custom, by God winked and connived at ; yea, tolerated, at the leastwise not openly forbid- den in precept, or punished in practice. As poly- gamy, in the patriarchs having many wives. In- HOW FAR EXAMPLES AEE TO BE FOLLOWED. 119 deed, when God first made the large volume of the world, and all creatures therein, and set it forth, cum regali privilegio, u Behold, all things- therein were very good," He made one Eve for one Adam. Polygamy is an erratum, and needa an Index expurgatorius, being crept in, being more than what was in the maiden copy: it was the creature of Lamech, no work of God. USE. We are herein to wonder at and praise the goodness of God, who was pleased herein to wink at the faults of His dear saints, and to pass by their frailty herein, because they lived in a dark age, wherein His pleasure was not so plainly manifested. ABUSE OF THEM. If any, in this bright sunshine of the Gospel, pretend, as a plea for their lust, to follow their example. FIFTH SORT. Doubtful examples; which may be so termed, because it is difficult to decide whether the actors of them therein did offend or no ; so that, should a jury of learned writers be empanneled to pass their verdict upon them, they would be pifzzled whether to condemn or acquit them, and at last- be forced to find it an Ignoramus. As, whether David did well to dissemble himself frantic, thereby to escape the cruelty of Achish, king of 120 HOW FAR EXAMPLES ARE TO BE FOLLOWED. Gath :— whether Hushai did well in counterfeiting with Absalom, or whether therein he did not make heaven to bow too much to earth ; I mean, policy to intrench upon piety ; and so in this act was so good a statesman that he was a bad man. USE OF THEM. Let us not meddle with imitation of these actions, that are so full of difficulty and danger that our judgments therein may easily be deceived. The sons of Barzillai, (Ezra ii. 63,) because their genealogies were doubtful and uncertain, were put by the priesthood, till a priest should rise up " with Urim and Thummim ; " by which we may understand some especial man amongst them, who by God's Spirit might be able to decide the con- troversies which were questioned in their pedi- grees. So let us refrain from following these doubtful examples, till (which in this world is not likely to be) there arise an infallible judge, which can determine in these particulars, whether these actions were well done or no. ABUSE OF THEM. By such who, though they have room enough besides, yet delight to walk on a narrow bank, near -the sea ; and have an itch to imitate these doubtful examples, wherein there is great danger of miscarrying. SIXTH SORT. Mixed examples; which contain in them a HOW FAR EXAMPLES ARE TO BE FOLLOWED. 121 double action, the one good, and the other bad, so closely couched together that it is a very hard thing to sever them. Thus, in the unjust steward, there was his wisdom to provide for himself, which God doth commend : and his wickedness, to purloin from his master, which God cannot but condemn. Thus, in the Hebrew midwives, (Exod. i.,) when they told the lie, there was in them fides mentis, et fallacia mentientis, the " faithfulness " of their love to their country- men, and the "falseness of their lying" to Pharaoh. USE OF THEM. Behold, here is wisdom, and let the man that hath understanding discreetly divide betwixt the gold and the dross, the wheat and the chaff; what he is to follow and imitate, and what to shun and avoid. In the first year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the students of Christ-Church in Ox- ford buried the bones of Peter Martyr's wife in the same coffin with the ashes of Fridswick, a Popish saint ; to this intent, that if Popery (which God forbid !) should ever after overspread this land, Papists should be puzzled to part the ashes of a supposed heretic from one of their canonized saints. Thus, in some actions of God's saints in the Bible, which are of a mixed nature ; wickedness doth so insensibly unite and incorpo- rate itself with that that is good, that it is very 122 HOW FAR EXAMPLES ARE TO BE FOLLOWED. difficult to sever and divide them without a sound and well advised judgment. ABUSE OF THEM. In such as leave what is good, take what is bad; follow what is to be shunned, shun what is to be followed. SEVENTH SORT. Actions absolutely bad, so that no charitable comment can be fastened upon them, except we will incur the prophet's curse and woe, to u call good evil, and evil good." Such were the drunkenness of Noah, the incest of Lot, the lying of Abraham, the swearing of Joseph, the adultery of David, the denial of Peter. USE OF THEM. Let us read in them, first, a lecture of our own infirmity. Who dare warrant his armour for proof, when David's was shot through ? Secondly, let us admire and laud God's mercy, who pardoned and restored these men on their un- feigned repentance. Lastly, let us not despair of pardon ourselves : if through infirmity over- taken, God in like manner is merciful to forgive us. ABUSE OF THEM. When men either make these their patterns, by which they sin ; or, after their sinning, allege them for their excuse and defence. Thus Judith did. (Judith ix. 2.) For whereas that murder HOW FAR EXAMPLES ARE TO BE FOLLOWED. 123 wliicli Simeon and Levi did commit upon the Shechemites, (Gen. xxxiv. 25,) was cursed by Jacob, as a most heinous and horrible sin ; yet she propounds it as a heroic act, and the unworthy precedent for her imitation : " Lord God of my father Simeon, to whom thou gavest the sword to take vengeance on the strangers, which opened the womb of a maid, and denied her," &c. Well, if the arm of Judith had been as weak as her judgment was herein, I should scarce believe that she ever cut off the head of Holophernes. EIGHTH SORT. Actions which are only good as they are qualified with such a circumstance, as David's eating the showbread in a case of absolute necessity ; which otherwise was provided for the priests alone* Such are the doing of servile works on the Lord's Day, when in case of necessity they leave off to be opera servilia, and become opera misericordiai. USE OF THEM. Let us be sure, in imitating of these, to have the same qualifying circumstance, without which otherwise the deed is impious and damnable. ABUSE OF THEM. In those which imitate the example without any heeding that they are so qualified as the action requires. NINTH SORT. The ninth and last sort remains ; and such are 124 HOW FAR EXAMPLES ARE TO BE FOLLOWED. those which are eminently good; as, the faith, of Abraham, the meekness of Moses, the valour of Joshua, the sincerity of Samuel, the plain deal- ing of Nathanael, &e. Follow not, then, the infidelity of Thomas, but the faith of Abraham ; the testiness of Jonah, but the patience of Job ; the adultery of David, but the chastity of Joseph : not the apostasy of Orpah, but the perseverance of Euth here in my text. AN ILL MATCH WELL BROKEN OFF. 1 JOHN II. 15 : Love not the world. The Stoics said to their affections, as Abime- lech spake to Isaac, (Gen. xxvi. 16,) "Get you out from amongst us ; for you are too strong for us." Because they were too strong for them to master, they therefore would have them totally banished out of their souls, and labour to becalm themselves with an apathy. But far be it from us, after their example, to root out such good herbs (instead of weeds) out of the garden of our nature ; whereas affections, if well used, are excellent, if they mis- take not their true object, nor exceed in their due measure. Joshua killed not the Gibeonites, but condemned them to be "hewers of wood and drawers of water for the sanctuary." We need not expel passions out of us, if we could conquer them, and make Grief draw water-buckets of tears 126 AN ILL MATCH WELL BROKEN OFF. for our sins, and Anger kindle fires of zeal and indignation when we see God dishonoured. But as that must needs be a deformed face, wherein there is a transposition of the colours, — the blue- ness of the vines being set in the lips ; the redness which should be in the cheeks, in the nose, — so, alas ! most misshapen is our soul, since Adam's fall, whereby our affections are so inverted, joy stands where grief should, grief in the place of joy. We are bold where we should fear, fear where we should be bold; love what we should hate, hate what we should love. This gave occasion to the blessed apostle, in my text, to dissuade men from loving that whereon too many dote. " Love not the world." For the better understanding of which words, know that the devil goes about to make an unfit- ting match, betwixt the soul of a Christian, on the one party, and this world, on the other. A match too likely to go on, if we consider the sim- plicity and folly of many Christians, (because of the remnants of corruption,) easily to be seduced and inveigled, or the bewitching, enticing, allur- ing nature of this world : but God by St. John in my text forbiddeth the banns : " Love not the world." In prosecuting whereof, we will first show the worthiness of a Christian soul ; then we will con- sider the worthlessness of the world \ and from the AN ILL MATCH WELL BROKEN OFF. 127 comparing of these two, this doctrine will result, that It is utterly unfitting for a Christian to place his affections on worldly things. Let ns take notice of a Christian's possessions, and of his possibilities ; what he hath in hand, and what he holdeth in hope. In possession he hath the favour of God ; the Spirib of adoption crying in him, "Abba, Father;" and many ex- cellent graces of sanctification in some measure in nis heart. In hope and expectance he hath the reversion of heaven and happiness, (a reversion not to be got after another's death, but his own,) and those happinesses which eye cannot see, nor ear hear, neither it can enter into the heart of man to conceive. Now see the worthlessness of the world. Three loadstones commonly attract men's affections, and make them to love, — beauty, wit, and wealth. Beauty the world hath none at all. I dare boldly say, the world put on her holiday apparel, when she was presented by the devil to our Saviour. (Matt. iv. 9.) She never looked so smug and smooth before or since ; and had there been any real beauty therein, the eagle sight of our Saviour would have seen it : yet, when all the glory of the world was proffered unto Him at the price of idolatry, He refused it. Yet, as old Jeze- bel, when she wanted true beauty, stopped up the 128 AN ILL MATCH WELL BROKEN OFF. leaks of age -with adulterated complexion, and painted her face ; so the world, in default of true beauty, decks herself with a false appearing fair- ness, which serves to allure amorous fools, and (to give the world, as well as the devil, her due) she hath for the time a kind of a pleasing fashion- ableness. But what saith St. Paul ? Ilapwyet, 'yap to o~xr)/jLa rod /c6a/j,ov tovtov, " The fashion of this world passeth away." (1 Cor. vii. 31.) The wit of the world is as little as her beauty, however it may be cried up by some of her fond admirers ; yet as it is, 1 Cor. iii. 19, " The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God ; " and Cuilibet arti- fici credendum est in sua arte ; what Wisdom itself counts foolishness is folly to purpose. Her wealth is as small as either : what the world calls " substance " is most subject to accidents, un- certain, unconstant ; even lands themselves m this respect are moveables. " Riches make them- selves wings, and fly away ; " they may leave us whilst we live ; but we must leave them when we die. Seeing, then, the world hath so little, and the Christian soul so much, let us learn a lesson of holy pride, to practise heavenly ambition. Descend noc so far, Christian, beneath thyself; remember what thou art, and what thou hash; lose not thyself in lavishing thy affections on so disproportioned a mate. There is a double dis- parity betwixt thy soul and the world. AN ILL MATCH WELL BROKEN OFF. 129 Firsts that of age. Perchance the world might make a fit mate for thy old man, thy unregenerate half, thy relics of sin ; but to match the old, rotten, withered, worm-eaten world to thy new man, thy new creature, the regenerated and re- newed part of thy soul, grey to green, is rather a torture than a marriage, — altogether dispro- portionate. Secondly, that of quality or condition. Thou art God's free-man. " If I have freed you," saith Christ, " then are you free indeed ; " the world is, or ought to be, thy slave, thy vassal. " For who- soever is born of God overcometh the world : and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." (1 John v. 4.) Be not then so base as to make thy vassal thy mate. Alexander denied to marry Darius's daughter, though proffered unto him ; scorning to be conquered by her beauty, whose father he had conquered by his valour. Let us not make the world our mistress, whereof we ought to be the master, nor prostitute our affections to a slave we have conquered. OBJECTION. Yea, may some say, this is good counsel, if it came in due season. Alas ! now it cometh too late, after I have not only long doted, but am even wed- ded to this world. Infant affection may be easily crushed, but who can tame an old and rooted love ? Think you that I have my affection in my hand, K 130 AN ILL MATCH WELL BROKEN OFF. as hunters their dogs, to let slip or rate off at pleasure? How then shall I unlove the world, which hath been my bosom darling so long ? ANSWER. Art thou wedded to the world ? then instantly send her a bill of divorce. It need never trouble thy conscience; that match may be lawfully broken off, which was first most unlawfully made. Yea, thou wert long before contracted to God in thy baptism, wherein thou didst solemnly promise thou wouldst " forsake the devil and all his works> the vain pomp and glory of this world." Let the first contract stand ; and because it is difficult for those who have long doted on the world to unlove her, we will give some rules, how it may be done by degrees. For indeed it is not to be done on a sudden ; (matters of moment cannot be done in a moment ;) but it is the task of a man's whole life, till the day of his death. RULES HOW TO UNLOVE THE WORLD. 1. Look not with the eyes of covetousness or admiration on the things of the world. The eye is the principal Cinqueport of the soul, wherein love first arrives : Ut vidi, ut perii ! Now thou mayest look on the things of the world, ut in tran- situ, " as in passage ; " (otherwise we should be forced to shut our eyes ;) and we may behold them with a slighting, neglectful, fastidious look. But AN ILL MATCH WELL BROKEN OFF. 131 take heed to look * on them with a covetous eye, as Eve on the forbidden fruit, and Achan on the wedge of gold. Take heed to look * on them with the eye of admiration, as the disciples looked on the buildings of the temple, (Matt. xxiv. 1,) won- dering at the eternity of the structure, and conceiving the arch of this world would fall as soon as such stones, riveted to immortality, might be dissolved. Wherefore our Saviour checketh them, "Verily I say unto you, There shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be cast down." Excellently Job, (xxxi. 1,) u I have made a covenant with mine eyes, that I should not behold a woman." A covenant? But what was the forfeiture Job's eyes were to pay in case he brake it ? It is not expressed on the bond ; but surely the penalty is implied, — many brackish tears, which his eyes in repentance must certainly pay, if they observed not the covenant. 2. Silence that spokesman in thy bosom ; I mean, the allurements of the flesh and devil, who improveth his utmost power to advance a match betwixt thy soul and the world. And when any breach happens between thee and the world, so that thou art ready to cast her off, the flesh in thy bosom pleads her cause. "Why wilt thou," saith it, " deprive thyself of those contentments * p. e., " against looking," as we shouJd now express it.— -Ed.] x 2 132 AN ILL MATCH WELL BROKEN OFF. which the world would afford thee ? Why dost thou torment thyself before thy time? Ruffle thyself in the silks of security ; it will be time enough to put on the sackcloth of repentance, when thou liest on thy deathbed." Hearken not to the flesh, her enchantments; but as Pharaoh charged Moses to get him out of his presence, he should u see his face no more/' (Exod. x. 28,) so strive, as much as in thee lieth, to expel these fleshly suggestions from thy presence, to banish them out of thy soul ; at leastwise to silence them ; though the mischief is, it will be muttering, and though it dare not halloo, it will still be whisper- ing unto thee, in behalf of the world, its old friend, to make a reconciliation betwixt you. 3. Send back again to the world the love tokens she hath bestowed upon thee ; I mean, those ill- gotten goods which thou hast gotten by indirect and unwarrantable means. As for those goods which thy parents left thee, friends have given thee, or thou hast procured by Heaven's providence on thy lawful endeavours, these are no love-tokens of the world, but God's gifts ; keep them, use them, enjoy them, to His glory. But goods gotten by wrong and robbery, extortion and bribery, force and fraud, these restore and send back : for the world knoweth that she hath a kind of tie and en- gagement upon thee, so long as thou keepest her tokens ; and in a manner thou art obliged in AN ILL MATCH WELL BROKEN OFF. 133 lionour, as long as thou detainest the gifts that were hers. Imitate Zaccheus : see how he casts back what the world gave him: "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor ; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold." (Luke xix. 8.) 4. Set thy affections on the God of heaven. The best wedge to drive out an old love is to take in a new. Postquam nos Amaryllis habet, Galatea reliquit.* Yea, God deserves our love first, because God a loved us first." (1 John iv. 19.) It is enough, indeed, to blunt the sharpest affection, to be re- turned with scorn and neglect ; but it is enough to turn ice into ashes, to be first beloved by One that so well deserves love. Secondly, His is a lasting love : " Having loved His own that were in the world, He loved them to the end." (John xiii. 1.) Some men's affection spends itself with its violence, hot at hand, but cold at length; God's [is] not so, it is continuing. It is recorded in the honour of our King Henry the Seventh, f that he never discomposed favourite, one only ex- cepted, which was William, Lord Stanley ; a rare * [Virgil, Eel. i., 31.— Ed.] f Look [at] Lord Bacon in his Life. 134 AN ILL MATCH WELL BROKEN OFF. matter, since many princes change their favourites,, as well as their clothes, before they are old. But the observation is true of the Lord of Heaven without any exception : those who are once estated in His favour, He continues loving unto them to the end. Hark, then, how He woos us, Isai. lv. 1 : " Ho,, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money ; come," &c. How He woos us, Matt. xi. 28 : " Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Love His love-letter, His Word ; His love-tokens, His sacraments ; His spokesman, His ministers, which labour to favour the match be- twixt Him and thy soul. But beware of two things. 1. Take heed of that dangerous conceit, that at the same time thou may est keep both God and the world, and love these outward delights, as a con- cubine to thy soul. Nay, God He is t€ a jealous God ; " He will have all, or none at all. There is a city in Germany, pertaining half to the bishop thereof, and half to the duke of Saxony, who named the city Myndyn, that is, "Mine and thine ; " because it was theirs communi jure, and at this day by corruption it is called Minden.* But God will admit of no such divisions ; He will hold nothing in coparceny ; He will not share or * Minister's Cosmog., de Germ., lib. iii., p. 143. AN ILL MATCH WELL BROKEN OFF. 135 part stakes with, any ; but He will have all entire to Himself alone. 2. Take heed thou dost not only fall out with, the world, to fall in with it again, according to that, — Amantium irce amoris redintegratio est.* For even as some furious gamesters, when they have a bad game, throw their cards out of their hands, and vow to play no more ; (not so much out of mislike of gaming as of their present game ;) but when the cards run on their side, they are reconciled to them again; so many men, when the world frowns on them and crosses them, and they miss some preferment they desire, then a qualm of piety comes over their hearts ; they are mortified on a sudden, and disavow to have any further dealing with worldly contentments. But when the world smiles on them again, favours and prospers them, they then return to their former love, and doting upon it. Thus Demas (2 Tim. iv. 10) would needs have another farewell embrace of the world, even after his solemn conversion to Christianity : " Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world." But when we are once at variance with the world, let us continue at deadly eternal feuds with it ; and as it is said * [Terence, Andria, iii., iii., 24. — Ed.] 136 AN ILL MATCH WELL BROKEN OFF. of Amnon, (2 Sam. xiii. 15^) that "the hatred wherewith he hated his sister Tamar was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her ; " so, (what was cruelty in him will be Christianity in us,) once fallen out with the world, let the joint he never set again, that it may be the stronger ; but let our hatred be immortal, and so much the stronger by how much our love was before. GOOD FROM BAD FRIENDS. 2 SAM. XV. 31 : And one told David, saying, Ahithophel is among the conspirators with Absalom. This text is a glass, wherein God's justice is plainly to be seen. David had formerly falsely forsaken Uriah, and now God suffers Ahithophel to forsake David. Uriah neither in loyalty nor valour, though placed the last in the list, of the list of David's worthies, was any whit inferior to any of David's subjects. How did he sympathize with God's ark, and his fellow soldiers, stayed still in the camp, though he was in the king's court, in that he would not embrace those delights the marriage bed did afford him ! No, though they practised upon him to make him drunk, yet in his drunken- ness he tv as so sober, that all their wine washed not from him his first resolution, but he remained 138 GOOD FR03I BAD FRIENDS. still constant. But how falsely did David forsake him, sending him with that snake in his bosom, which was to sting him to death ! I mean the letter, which was Uriah's passport to his own grave. Well, Uriah placed much confidence in the love of David, who deceives him : David, with no less trust, relies on the loyalty of Ahitho- phel, and see what my text saith : " And one told David, saying, Ahithophel is also among the con- spirators with Absalom." OBSERVATION I. Before we go farther, let us learn, when our friends forsake us, to enter into a serious scrutiny of our own souls. Hast thou never played foul or false with thy friend; if not in action, yet in intention ? Dost thou not mean to prove base, if put to the trial, and if occasion be offered to deceive him ? If so, know, thy false friend hath only got the start of thee, and played the fore- game, doing what thou meanest to do. Rail not, then, on the times, nor speak satires against the faithlessness of men ; but, laying thy hand on thy mouth, confess God hath justly found thee out, and dealt with thee as He did with David. OBSERVATION II. Secondly, hence we may observe, the most politic heads have not always the faithfullest hearts. Ahi- thophel was the Jewish Nestor, or their Solomon before Solomon, and like " the oracle of God for GOOD FROM BAD FRIENDS. 139 his wisdom/ 5 but like the oracle of the devil for his deceitfulness ; for, whilst David swayed the sceptre, who more loyal to him than Ahithophel ? and once when David is in banishment, he falls first to Absalom; he loved to worship the sun rising ; yea, whilst David, the true sun, was but overcast with a cloud, he falls adoring that blazing star, that comet, only fed with the evaporations of pride and ambition, which shined for a while, and then went out in a stink. REASONS WHY THE MOST POLITIC AEE NOT ALWAYS THE MOST FAITHFUL. 1. Because that cement which conglutinates hearts, and makes true friends indeed, is grace and goodness, whereof many politic heads are utterly devoid. 1 Cor. i. 26 : u For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called." 2. Politic men make their own profit the rule and square of their loves ; they steer their course by the pole-star of their own good ; and as in their actions, so in their affections, have an invi- sible end to themselves, which beginneth where that end endeth, which is apparent to others. USE. Do not, then, undervalue and despise the love of those who are of mean and inferior parts. Wise men have made use of such servants, and 140 GOOD FROM BAD FRIENDS, found them more manageable and more profitable ; though their judgments were weaker, their affec- tions might be stronger, than wiser men. OBSERVATION III. Thirdly, observe, false friends will forsake thee in time of adversity. He that believeth, that all those who smile on him and promise fair in time of prosperity, will perform it in time of his want, may as well believe, that all the leaves that be on trees at Midsummer will hang there as fresh and as fair on New Year's Day. Come we now to consider, what good uses one may make to himself from the unfaithfulness of friends, when they forsake us. 1. First, consider with thyself, whether thou hast not been faulty in entertaining tale-bearers, and lending a listening ear unto them. Solomon saith, "A whisperer separateth chief friends." (Prov. xvi. 28.) Whithersoever he cometh, he bringeth with him the fire, fuel, and bellows of contention. 2. If herein thy conscience accuse thee not, examine thyself, whether there was not a la=sum jprincigium in the first initiation of your love. How came you acquainted ? whereout grew your amity? whereon was your intimacy grounded? Didst thou not first purchase his favour with the price of a sin ? For, know, friends unjustly gotten are not long comfortably enjoyed. Thus Absalom GOOD FROM BAD FRIENDS. 141 "by sordid flattery stole the hearts of the Israelites, descending too much beneath himself; (2 Sam. xv. 5 ;) as always ambitions spirits, when they would personate humility, over-act their part^ and play baseness. We see king Hezekiah, who procured Sennacherib's love by his sacri- lege, enjoyed not that purchase which he made God and His temple pay for. (2 Kings xviii. 16.) For Sennacherib no sooner received his money, but, hoc non obstante, [he] persisted in his former enmity and hostility against the Jews, and, as it followeth in the very next verse, sent up his captains to besiege Jerusalem. 3. If there be no fault in the inchoation, examine, hath there been none in the continuance of your friendship ? Hast thou not committed many sins, to hold in with him ? If so, then it is just with God He should forsake thee. Thus tyrants often- times cut off those stairs by which they climb up to their throne : yea, good princes have oftentimes justly sacrificed those their favourites to the fury of the people, who formerly have been the active instruments to oppress the people, though to the enriching of their princes. Hast thou not flat- tered him in his faults, or at leastwise by thy silence consented to him ? If so, God hath now opened thy friend's eyes ; he sees thy false dealing with him, and hath just cause to cast thee out of his favour. 142 GOOD FROM BAD FRIENDS. When Amnon had defiled his sister Tamar, the text saith, (2 Sam. xiii. 15,) that "the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her. " Poor lady ! she was in no fault ; not the cause, but only the object and the occasion, of her brother's sin ; and that against her will, by his violence. Now, to reason a minore ad majus : if Amnon, in cold blood viewing the heinousness of his offence, so hated Tamar, which only concurred passively in his transgression, how may our friends justly hate us, if haply we have been the causers, movers, and procurers of their badness ! If we have added fuel to the flame of their riot, played the panders to their lusts, and spurred them on in the full speed of their wanton- ness, deserve we not (when their eyes are opened, to see what foes we have been unto them, under pretended friendship) to be spit in the face, kicked out of their company, and to be used with all contumely and disgrace ? 4. Hast thou not idolatrized to thy friend? Hath he not totally monopolized thy soul, so that thou hast solely depended on him, without looking higher or further ? Tu jpatronus ; si deseris tu 9 being young, have hot and quick digestion; of those who, living in a cold climate, thereby have the heat of their stomachs intended;* of those whose stomachs are strong, by reason of their labour and travail. And not to speak of the disease called boulimia, — men's natures being thus- diverse, by what standard shall I measure them ? Let this be the rule : he shall be arraigned and condemned before God for gluttony in the quantity of meat, who hath eaten so much as thereby he is disabled, either in part, or wholly, to serve God in his general or particular calling, be his age, climate, or temper whatsoever. * [t, e.y intensified. — Ed.]] 152 A GLASS FOR GLUTTONS. 2. In quality; and that four ways. (1.) When the meat is too young. Exodus xxiii. 19 : " Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother's milk ; " that is, Thou shalt not eat it before it hath age to be just and firm flesh. Circumcision was deferred till the eighth day ; one reason rendered T>y divines is, because a child before that time is not caro consolidata ; and sure there is a time, before which beasts and fowls are not solid, fast, and lawful to be eaten. I must confess, we are to live by the creatures' death ; they, being born, are condemned to die, for our necessity or plea- sure ; and these condemned persons desire not a pardon, but deserve a reprieve, that they may be respited and reserved so long, till they be good and wholesome food, and not clapt into the glutton's bowels, before they be scarce out of their mother's belly. (2.) Secondly, when the meat is too costly. Thus Cleopatra macerated an union, a pearl of an inestimable worth, and drank it in a health to Mark Anthony; a deed of hers as vain as the other wicked, when she poisoned herself. (3.) Thirdly, when the meats are only incentives and provocations to lusts, in some kind thereof. I could instance, were I not afraid to teach sin by •confuting it. Why is the furnace made seven times hotter than ever it was before ? Is not the devil of himself sufficiently mischievous ? Is not A GLASS FOR GLUTTONS. 153 our own corruption of itself sufficiently forward, yea, headlong to evil, but also we must advan- tage them by our own folly ? Have we vowed in our baptism to fight against, and do we ourselves send armour and munition to, our enemy ? Yea, many set their own houses on fire, and then complain they burn. Labor est inhibere volantes : Farce, puer, stimulis, et fortius utere loris. * (4.) Lastly, when the meat is such as is only to increase appetite ; when one before is plentifully fed. Such is the cruelty of the Spanish Inquisi- tion, that when they have brought a man to the door of death, they will not let him go in ; when by exquisite tortures they have almost killed him, then by comfortable cordials they do again revive him ; and whereas of God u it is appointed for all men once to die," these men's cruelty makes men to die often. Thus men, when they have stabbed and killed hunger with plentiful eating, with sauce and salt meats of purpose they restore it again to life ; and for several times, according to their own pleasures, kill and recall, stab and revive their appetites. 3. In the manner of eating. (1.) Greedily, without giving thanks to God; * [Ovid, Metamorph., ii. 128, 127.— Ed.] 154 A GLASS FOR GLUTTONS. like hogs, eating up the mast, not looking up to the hand that shaketh it down. It is said of the Israelites, (Exod. xxxii. 6,) "The people sat down to eat and to drink," — there is no mention of grace before meat, — (€ and rose up to play," — there is no mention of grace after. (2.) Secondly, constantly. Dives fared deli- riously every day ; there was . no Friday in his week, nor fast in his almanack, nor Lent in his year : whereas the moon is not always in the full, but hath as well a waning as a waxing ; the sea is not always in a spring-tide, but hath as well an ebbing as a flowing. And surely the very rule of health will dictate thus much to a man, not always to hold a constant tenure of feasting, but sometimes to abate in their diets. (3.) Lastly, when they eat their meats studi- ously, revolving all the powers of their mind upon meat, singing Requiems in their soul, with the glutton in the Gospel, " Soul, take thine ease," &c. And whereas we are to eat to live, these only live to eat. Let us therefore beware of the sin of gluttony ; and that for these motives. MOTIVE I. Because it is the sin of England ; for though, without usurpation, we may entitle ourselves to the pride of the Spanish, jealousy of the Italian, wantonness of the French, drunkenness of the A GLASS FOE GLUTTONS. 15& Dutch, and laziness of the Irish; and though these outlandish sins have of late been naturalized and made free denizens of England; yet our ancientest carte is for the sin of gluttony. MOTIVE II. It is the sin of our age. Our Saviour saith, (Matt. xxiv. 37,) " But as it was in the days of Noah, so likewise shall the coming of the Son of Man be. They did eat and drink," &c. That is, excessively ; for otherwise they did eat in all ages* It is said of old men that they are twice children : the same is true of this old doting world ; it doth now revert and relapse into the same sins whereof it was guilty in the infancy : we, on whom the ends of the world are come, are given to the sins of gluttony, as in the days of Noah. MOTIVE III. The third motive is from the time. "These seven full ears, these seven fat kine," these seven weeks of feasting between Christmas and Shrovetide, are past ; these seven lean ears, these seven lean kine, the seven fasting weeks in Lent, are now begun. Practise therefore the counsel which Solomon giv^es, Proverbs xxiii. 1 : " When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee : and put thy knife to thy throat, if thou beest a man given to thy appetite." This is thy throat, that narrow passage of import- 156 A GLASS FOR GLUTTONS. ance ; guard it with thy knife, as with a halbert, that no superfluous meat pass that way, to betray thy soul to gluttony. But it is to be feared that we will rather turn the backs of onr knives than the edges : I mean, we will use little violence to repress and restrain our own greediness. That our knives may therefore be the sharper, let these whetstones set an edge on them. 1. Consider, the bread that thou eatest is the bread that perisheth : and our Saviour saith, " Labour not for the meat that perisheth, but for that which endureth to everlasting life." Biscuit is but peiishing bread, though it may last two years ; for what is two years to eternity ? 2. We shall perish that eat the meat, but God shall destroy both it and that. And then the glutton which hath played the epicure on meat whilst he lived, the worms shall play the epicures on him when he is dead ; and whilst the temperate man shall give them but ordinary commons, the larded glutton shall afford them plentiful ex- ceedings. To conclude this point : wary was the practice of Job, (Job i. 5,) who, after the days of his sons' " feasting were gone about, offered burnt offerings " to God for them : for he said, " It may be my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts." So, sith [since] gluttony is so subtle a sin, and so hard to be discerned ; when we have been at a A GLASS FOR GLUTTONS. 157 great feast in the day, let us sacrifice our prayers to God, and sue out a pardon from Him, lest peradventure, in the heart of our mirth, with- out our knowledge, and against our will, we have inseverably been overtaken with the sin of gluttony. HOW FAR GRACE CAN BE ENTAILED. 2 TIMOTHY I. 5 : When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith which is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grand- mother Lois, and thy mother Eunice ; and I am persuaded that it is in thee also. WJien I call to remembrance. OBSERVATION I. It is good to feed our souls on the memories of pious persons : partly that we may be moved to praise God in and for His graces, given to His saints ; and partly that we may be incited to imitate the virtues of the deceased. Ahaz was so taken with the altar at Damascus, (2 Kings xvi. 10,) that he would needs have one at Jerusalem, made according to all the workmanship thereof. When we call to mind the virtues of the deceased, HOW FAR GRACE CAN BE ENTAILED. 159 and cannot but be delighted with their goodness, let us labour to fashion ourselves after their frame, and to erect the like virtues in our own souls. OBSERVATION II. Godly children occasion their parents to be called to memory. St. Paul, beholding Timothy's goodness, is minded thereby to remember his mother and grandmother, Eunice and Lois : thej can never be dead, whiles he is alive. Good children are the most lasting monument, to per- petuate their parents, and make them survive after death. Dost thou desire to have thy memory continued? Art thou ambitious to be revenged of Death, and to outlast her spite ? It matters not for building great houses, and calling them after thy name; give thy children godly education, and the sight of their goodness will furbish up thy memory in the mouths and minds of others, that it never rusts in oblivion. Which dwelt first That is, which was an inhabitant in their hearts. Faith in temporary believers is as a guest, — comes for a night, and is gone ; at the best is but as a sojourner, lodges there for a time : but it dwelleth, maketh her constant residence and abode, in the saints and servants of God. 160 HOW FAR GRACE CAN BE ENTAILED. Grandmother Lois, and mother Eunice. QUESTION. Why doth not St. Paul mention the father of Timothy, but as it were blanch him over with silence ? ANSWER. 1. First, it is probable that St. Paul had not any special notice of him, or that he was dead before the apostle's acquaintance in that family. 2. Likely it is, he was not so eminent and appearing in piety. The weaker vessel may sometimes be a stronger vessel of honour. Yea, the text intimateth as much, Acts xvi. 1 : " Be- hold, a certain disciple was there, named Timo- theus, the son of a certain woman, which was a Jewess, and believed ; but his father was a Greek." Let women labour in a holy emulation, to excel their husbands in goodness : it is no trespass of their modesty, nor breach of the obedience they vowed to their husbands in marriage, to strive to be superiors and above them in piety. 3. Eunice and Lois, the mother and grand- mother, are only particularly mentioned, because deserving mosb commendation for instructing Timothy in his youth; as it is in chapter iii., verses 14, 15 : " Knowing of whom thou hast learned them; and that from a child thou hast HOW FAR GEACE CAN BE ENTAILED. 161 known the Holy Scriptures." For the same rea- son the names of the mothers of the kings of Judah are so precisely recorded for their credit or disgrace, according to the goodness or badness of their sons. Let mothers drop instruction into- their children with their milk, and teach them to pray when they begin to prattle. DOCTRINE. Though grace be not entailed from parent to child, yet the children of godly parents have a great advantage to religion ; yea, that fivefold. 1. The advantage of the promise ; yea, though they come but of the half blood, (much more if true born on both sides,) — if one of their parents be godly. "For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the " believing * wife ; and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband : else were your children unclean ; but now they are holy." (1 Cor. vii. 14.) 2. Of good precepts, some taught them in their infancy ; so that they can easier remember what they learned than when they learned it. Genesis xviii. 19 : ig For I know Abraham, that he will command his children and his household after him to fear the Lord." 3. Of good precedents. Habent domi unde dis- cant : whereas the children of evil parents see daily what they ought to shun and avoid, these behold what they should follow and imitate. M 162 HOW FAR GRACE CAN BE ENTAILED. 4. Of correction ; which, though untoothsome to the palate to taste, is not unwholesome to the stomach to digest. 5. Of many a good prayer, and some no doubt steeped in tears, made for them before some of them were made. Filius tantarum lacrymarum toon peribii, said St. Ambrose to Monica, of St. Augustine, her son. Disdain thou, then, out of a holy pride, to be the vicious son to a virtuous father ; to be the profane daughter of a pious mother : but labour to succeed as well to the lives as to the livings, the goodness as the goods, of thy parents. OBJECTION. " Tea, but," may the children of bad parents say, " this is but cold comfort for us ; " and they may take up the words of the soldiers, Luke iii. 14 : « And what shall we do ? " ANSWER I. First, if thy parents be living, conceive not that their badness dispenseth with thy duty unto them. Thou hast the same cause — though not the same comfort — with good children to obey thy parents. This do labour, to gain them with thy conversation. It was incest and a foul sin in Lot to be husband to his daughters, and beget children on them ; but it would be no spiritual incest in thee to be father to' thy father, to beget him in grace who begat thee in nature ; and, by HOW FAR GRACE CAN BE ENTAILED. 163 -±h.e piety and amiableness of thy carriage, to be the occasion, by God's blessing, of his regenera- tion. And what Samuel said to the people of Israel, (1 Sam. xii. 23,) " God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you ; " so God forbid thou shouldest ever leave off to have thy knees bended, and thy hands lifted up, for jthe conversion of thy bad father. Moreover, labour more especially to shun and avoid those sins to which thy father was addicted ; and chiefly such sins, the inclination whereto may depend from the temper and constitution of the body; so that a proneness thereto may in .some sort seem to be entailed to posterity. Was thy father notorious for wantonness ? strive then to be noted for chastity. Was he infamous for pride? labour thou to be famous for humility. And though thou must not be dejected with grief at the consideration of the badness of thy parents, yet mayest thou make a sovereign use thereof, to be a just cause of humiliation to thyself. If thy parents be dead, and if thou canst speak little good of them, speak little of them. What sullenness did in Absalom, — He " spake to his brother Amnon neither good nor bad," (2 Sam. xiii. 22,) — let discretion do in thee ; seal up thy lips in silence ; say nothing of thy parents. He is either a fool or a madman, who, being in much m 2 164 HOW FAR GRACE CAN BE ENTAILED. company, and not being urged thereunto, by any occasion will tell others, " My father lies in the Fleet ; " " My father lies in prison, in the Coun- ter." More witless is he who will speak both words uncharitable and unnatural concerning the final estate of his father, in an eternal bad con- dition. And I am persuaded, there is a threefold kind of persuasion, whereby one may be persuaded of" good in another man, 1. The persuasion of infallibility. And this only God hath. Acts xv. 18 : u Known unto God are all Has works from the beginning of the world." He alone "searcheth and trieth the hearts and reins." And they also have it to whom God immediately reveals it. Thus Ananias knew that Paul was a true servant of God, after it was revealed to him : t€ For he is a chosen vessel unto* Me, to bear My name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel." (Acts ix. 15.) And in this sense of infallible persuasion we may understand St. Paul in the text; because it is- said, 1 Tim. i. 18, " This commandment write I unto thee, son Timotheus, according to the pro- phecies which went before upon thee, that thou by them shouldst fight a good fight." 2. The persuasion of charity. And this, I must confess, is but weak, and rather a presumption than a persuasion. Charity "thinketh no evil;/* HOW FAR GRACE CAN BE ENTAILED. 165 it *' believeth all things, hopetli all things ; " (1 Cor. xiii. 5, 7 ;) and in this land of persuasion we conceive that all men have faith dwelling in them, of whom we know no just reason to conceive the contrary. 3. The persuasion of a well and strong grounded opinion ; to make which, these three things must concur. First, the party that con- ceives this opinion must have a good judgment and discerning spirit, well to dive and pierce into rfche natures and dispositions of men. Secondly, he must be long acquainted with that person, of whom he hath such an opinion, that faith dwelleth in him. Too bold are these men who, upon a superficial knowledge and short conversing with any, dare peremptorily pronounce, that such an one hath saving grace and sanctity in him. These are professors of spiritual palmistry, who think that upon small experience they can see the " life- line," the line of eternal life, in the hands of men's souls ; whereas, for all their skill, they often mistake the hands of Esau for the hands of Jacob. Lastly, they must have intimate famili- arity with them, and be not only their acquaint- ance [at] large, but in ordinary. Te intus et in cute novi* Put all these three together, — that one hath a discerning spirit^ long and intimate ^acquaintance with one ; and he may arrive at St, * [Persius, Sat. iii., 30.— Ed.] 166 HOW FAR GEACE CAN BE ENTAILED. Paul's persuasion in my text, to be persuaded of faith dwelling in him, with whom he hath been; thus long and intimately acquainted. And in this sense (though it may be of the infallible persua- sion by revelation) understand we that, 2 Kings iv. 1 : " Now there cried a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha^ saying, Thy servant my husband is dead ; and thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord." Yet for all this we may set this down for a true position, that the wisest of men easily may [be],. and sometimes are, deceived, in counting them good which are very counterfeits ; and especially in these cases : — 1. First, in close-natured men, such as lie in at a close guard, and offer no play ; whose well is deep, and men generally want buckets to measure them; so that one may live twenty years with them, and be never a whit the wiser, in knowing their disposition. 2. In various and inconstant men, which, like Proteus, never appear twice in the same shape,, but differ as much from themselves as from other men, and are only certain in uncertainty ; so that one can build no certain conclusion on such float- ing, flitting sands ; and even know not what to* make of them. 3. In men of an excellent nature, such as Titus HOW FAR GRACE CAN BE ENTAILED. 167 Vespasian, [who] was called delicice 1vwm 6. Now David, when on Bathsheba loose eyes He fix'd, his heavenly half did him dissuade : t€ Turn, turn away thy sight from vanities ; Exchange thy object ; else thou wilt be made Unmindful of thy soul, her corps * to mind ; Made for to lose the truth, such toys to find ; By looking long, made at the last stark blind. 7. " What though her face and body be most fair ? Behold, the sun her beauty doth surpass ; His golden beams surmount her yellow hair As far as purest crystal dirty glass : Her skin, as is the sky, not half so clear ; Her curious veins for colour come not near Those azure streaks that in the heavens appear.. 8. " There let thy hungry sight her famine feed, Whereon it cannot surfeit with excess : Whilst tongue, heart, harp, are tuned up with speed, The grand Contriver's glory to express ; Framing with words, to raise His mighty name,. That with a mighty word did raise this frame, And by His providence preserves the same. * [Fuller frequently uses this word simply in the sense of body t — not dead body, — and sometimes treats it as a plural noun. — Ed.] 206 david's heinous sis. 9. " But let no lustful thoughts lodge in thy mind ; Before that they be born, they must be kill'd ; Or else the man is cruel that is kind, To spare the foes wherewith his soul is spilPd : And if a wanton motion may request Leave for to lodge a limb, th' encroaching guest Will soon command room to receive the rest. * 10. u Look towards the midday sun, and thou shalt see A little tower * o'er tops of hills to peep ; That is the birth-place of thy pedigree ; Full oft there hast thou fed thy father's sheep, And kept his flocks upon the flowery plain. But now the sheep-hook of a country swain Is turn'd the sceptre of a sovereign. 11. " God made thee great ; O, do not Him disgrace, And by His weighty statutes lightly set. He honour'd thee ; 0, do not Him debase : He thee remember'd ; do not Him forget. Why should fat Jeshurun f sd wanton grow As at Ids Master's head his heels to throw ? Master, that all his feeding did bestow. * The tower of Eder, nigh Bethlehem, seven miles from Jerusalem, t Deut. xxvii. 15. david's heinous sin. 207 12. *' Behold high cedars in the valley set ; They in thy eyes like little shrubs do show, Whilst little shrubs upon Mount Olivet Seem lofty cedars. Men whose states are low, Their sins are not so obvious to sense. In princes, persons of great eminence, A smaller fault doth seem a great offence. 13. ** But grant no man thy wickedness espies ; Surely the Searcher of the reins doth mark Even infant lust : can fig-leaves blear His eyes ? Or can thy shame be shrouded in the dark ? Darkness shall then be turned into light ; Yes, darkness is no darkness in His sight, But seem the same to Him both day and night/ 5 14. The Spirit had resolved more to speak, But her half-spoken words the Flesh confounds. Nor wonder is it she, so used to break God's laws, not passing for to pass their bounds, Against man's rules of manners should offend; Which now, impatient longer to attend, Began before her rival made an end. 208 david's heinous sin. 15. " If ever Nature lavishly did throw Her gifts on one, which might have served more. Yet make them comely ; if she e'er did show The prime, and pride, and plenty of her stort Lo, there's the form wherein she hath express'd Her utmost power, and done the very best, Her master-piece surpassing all the rest. 16. "What if those careless tresses were attired? Sure, then her face for comeliness transcends ; What now seems lovely, then would be admired > If Art might but begin where Nature ends. Alas ! ten thousand pities 't is indeed That princes on so common fare should feed, Whilst common men on princely meat exceed. 17. " Always the same doth glut the appetite, But pleased is our palate with exchange ; Variety of dishes doth delight : Then give thy loose affections leave to range. Forbidden things are best ; and when we eat What we have slily gotten by deceit, Those morsels only make the dainty meat." david's heinous six. 209 18. But, 0, reserve thyself, my maiden Muse, For a more modest subject, and forbear To tune such wanton toys as may abuse And give distaste unto a virgin's ear. Such rotten reasons first from hell did flow, And thither let the same in silence go, Best known of them that did them never know* 19. Thus he that conquer'd men, and beast most cruel, (Whose greedy paws with felon goods were found,} Answer' d Goliath's challenge in a duel, And laid the giant grovelling on the ground ; He, that of Philistines two hundred slew, No whit appalled at their grisly hue ; Him one frail woman's beauty did subdue. 20. Man is a ship, affections the sail, The world the sea, our sins the rocks and shelves j God is the Pilot : if He please to fail, And leave the steering of us to ourselves, Against the ragged rocks we run amain, Or else the winding shelves do us detain, Till God, the Palinure, returns again. p 210 david's heinous sin. 21. Yet David, bold to sin, did fear the shame ; He shunn'd the sheath, that ran upon the knife ; With a fine fetch providing for his fame, He fetcheth home Uriah to his wife : So, under his chaste love, to cloak his own Unlawful lust, to fault most careless grown, Most careful that his fault should not be known. 22. But in their plots God doth befool the wise, By ways that none can trace, all must admire : Short of his house that night Uriah lies, And David so came short of his desire : The man a nearer lodging-place did use, (Which made the king on further plots to muse,) And, sent home, home to go did thus refuse : 23.