ESAI. 50. 1.
Thus sayth the Lord: Where is the Bill of
your Mothers Diuorcement whom I haue
put away? Or which of my Creditors is it,
to whom I haue sold you? Behold, for your
iniquities haue you sold your selues, and
for your transgressions, is your Mother put
away.
ALL Lent is Easter Eue;
And though the Eue be
a Fasting day, yet the
Eue is halfe holiday too.
God, by our Ministery,
would so exercise you
in a spirituall Fast, in a sober consideration
of sinne, and the sad Consequences
thereof, as that in the Eue you might see
the holy day; in the Lent, your Easter; in the
sight of your sinnes, the cheerefulnesse of
his good will towards you. Nay, in this
Text, hee giues you your Easter before

B

Lent, your Holyday before the Eue; For
first he rayses you to the sense of his goodnesse,
Thus sayth the Lord, where is the bill of
your mothers Diuorcement, whom I haue put
away, Or which of my Creditors is it to whom
I haue sold you? And then, and not till then,
he sinkes you, to the sence of your sinnes,
and the dangers of them, Behold, for your
iniquities you are sold, and for your transgressions,
your Mother is put away. And this Raising,
and this Sinking, are his Corks, and his
Leads, by which God enables vs, whom
hee hath made Fishers of Men, to cast out
his nets, and draw in your soules.
Hæc dicit Dominus,
Thus saith the Lord,
sayes our Prophet here; And,
Semel locutus
Deus, duo hæc audiui,
sayes the Prophet Dauid,
Once spake the Lord, and twice haue I
heard him; In one speach of the Lords, two
instructions, in one peece of his Word,
two directions. Thus saith the Lord, where
is the Bill, &. And in these words, some
heare him once, some heare him say, That
how desperate soeuer our case be, how irremediable
soeuer our state, we our selfes,
and not God, are the cause of that desperate
irremediablenesse; some heare him
twice, some heare him say, There is no
such matter, there is no such peremptory
Diuorce, there is no such absolute sale,
there is no such desperate irremediablenes
declard to any particular conscience, as is
imagind, but you, any, may returne to
me, when you will, and I will receiue
you. Some Expositors thinke they haue
gone farre inough, when they haue raysed
that sense, God is no cause of our perishing,
though wee must perish, Others,
and fairely carry it thus much farther,
There is no necessitie that any Man, any
this or that Man should perish. Some determine
it in this, It is true, your Damnation
is vnauoydable, but you must blame
your selfes, Some extend it to this, There
is no such avoidablenes in your damnation,
and therefore you may comfort your selues,
Once hath the Lord spoken, and twice
doe we heare him; we heare him once speaking
for his owne honour, Hee does not
damne vs, if wee bee damned, And wee
heare him againe speaking for our comfort,
we need not be damnd at all. And

B2

therefore, as God hath opened himselfe to
vs, both wayes, let vs open both eares to
him, and from one Text receiue both
Doctrines.
You may apprehend the parts easily,
and as easily comprehend them; They are
few, and plaine, & of things agreed by all;
But two; Those, these; Gods dischardge,
and Mans Dischardge; Gods dischardge
from all imputation of tyranny, Behold, for
your sinnes you are sold, and for your transgressions
your Mother is put away. And then
Mans dischardge from the necessitie of perishing,
Vbi iste libellus,
Where is the Bill of
your mothers diuorcement, whom I haue put away,
Or which of my Creditors is it, to whom
I haue sold you? I might iustly haue done
both, and left you without iust cause of
complaint, but yet I haue not done it;
looke to your Bill of Diuorce, and looke to
your bill of sale, and you will find the case
to be otherwise. In each of these two parts,
there will be some particular branches; In
the first, which is Gods discharge, first the
Ecce, Behold, Behold this and this will fall
vpon you; first there is a light showd;
there is a warning afforded, of those calamities,
that will follow, God begins not
at Iudgement, but at Mercie. That Mercy being
despisd, It will come to a selling away,
venditi estis, you are sold, And it will
come to a putting away, Dimissa est, your
Mother is put away; For God may sell vs
to punishments for sinne, that when the
measure of our sinne is full, he shall emptie
the measure of this Iudgements vpon vs,
And God may sell vs to sinnes for punishments,
God may make future sinnes, the
punishments of former. And here may
be a Diuorce, a putting away, out of Gods
sight and seruice, in any particular soule,
and there may be a putting away of your
Mother, a withdrawing of Gods spirit
from that Church, to whose breasts hee
hath applied you. But if all this be done,
it is not done out of any tyannicall wantonnesse
in God, for, For your iniquities you
are sold, and for your transgressions is your
Mother put away: So God is fully dischargd
in the first part; But, least in the second it
should lye heauy vpon Man, for, howsoeuer
God be dischargd, He does not kill

B3

me, though I dy, it is but poore comfort
to me, if I must dye, to be told that I haue
killd my selfe God tells me here, there is
no such necessitie, I need not dye; show
the bill of Diuorce, sayes he, which makes
your case so desperate, and see if I haue
not left you wayes of returning to me,
show the bill of Sale, which makes your
state so irrecouerable, and see if I haue not
left my selfe wayes of redeeming you.
And in these few branches, of these two
parts, I shall exercise your Deuotion, and
holy patience, at this time.
First then, for the first branch of the
first part, the Ecce, Behold this will fall vpon
you, Vpon those words of Dauid, Ecce intenderunt,
Ecce parauerunt,
Behold the wicked
haue bent ther bow, and Behold they haue
made ready their arrow, Origen saies, Ecce antequam vulneremur, monemur, Before our
Enemies hit vs, God giues vs warning, that
they meane to doe so. When God himselfe is
so far incensd against vs, That he is turned
to be our enemy, and to fight against vs, It
was come to that, in this Prophet when
he hath bent his bow against vs, as an Enemy,
It was come to that in the Prophet Ieremy
yet still he giues vs warning before
hand, and still there comes a lightning before
his thunder: God comes seldome to
that dispatch, a word and a blow, but to
a blow without a word, to an execution
without a warning, neuer. Cain tooke
offence at his brother Abel; The quarrell
was Gods, because he had accepted Abels
Sacrifice; Therefore God ioynes himselfe
to Abels partie; and so the party being too
strong for Cain to subsist, GOD would not
surprise Cain, but he tells him his danger,
Why is thy Countenance cast downe; If thou
doest not well, sinne lyes at thy dore: you may
proceed if you will, but if you will needs,
you will loose by it at last. Saul persecutes
Christ in the Christians; Christ meets him
vpon the way, speakes to him, strikes him
to the ground, telles him vocally, and tels
him actually, That he hath vndertaken
too hard a worke, in opposing him: This
which GOD did to Saul reduces him;
that which God did to Cain, wrought
not vpon him; but still GOD went his
owne way in both, to speake before hee
strikes, to lighten before he thunders, to
warne before he wounds. In Dathan and
Abirams case, God may seem: to proceede
apace towards Execution, but yet it had
all these pauses in arrest of iudgement,
& these reprieues before Execution. First,
when Moses had information & evidence
of their factious Proceeding, hee falls
not vpon them, but he falls vpon his face
before GOD, and laments, and deprecates
in their behalfe. Hee calls them to a faire
tryall, and examination, the next day, To
morrow the Lord will show, who are his, and
are holy; And they sayd, we will not come;
And againe, which implies that Moses
cited them againe we will not come. Then
GOD, vpon their contumacy, when they
would stand mute, and not plead, takes a
resolution, to consume them, in a Moment;
And then, Moses & Aaron returne to petition
for the~, O God, the God of the spirits of
all flesh, shall one Man sinne, and wilt thou bee
wroth with the whole Congregation; And
Moses went vp to them againe, And the
Elders of Israel followed, and all preuaild
not: And then Moses comes to pronounce
Iudgement, These men shall not dye a common
death, and after, and yet not presently after
that he gaue iudgement, Execution followd,
The earth opened and swallowd them:
but God begun not there; God opened his
Mouth, and Moses his, and Aaron his, and
the Elders theirs, before the Earth opened
hers. It is our case in the Text; For, whether
this Iudgement wrapt vp in the text,
This selling away, and this putting away,
haue relation to the Captiuitie of the Iewes
in Babylon, before Christ, or to the Dispertion
of the Iewes since Christ, some Expositors
take it one, some the other way
still it is of a future thing: The Prophecie
came before the Calamitie, wheresoeuer
you pitch it; wheresoeuer you pitch it,
still there was a lightning before the thunder,
a word before the blow, a warning
before the wound. In which, as we see,
that God alwaies leaues a latitude, between
his Sentence, and the Execution, for that
Interim, is Sphæra actiuitatis, the Spheare, in
which our Repentance and his Mercy
moue, and direct themselues in a benigne
aspect, towards one another, so where this

C

repentance is deferd, and this Mercie neglected,
the execution is so certaine, so infallible,
as that, though this in the Text, be intended
for a future Iudgement, a future
Captiuitie, a future Dispersion, yet in the
Text it is presented as present, nay, more
then so, as past, and executed alreadie; it is
venditi estis, you are sold, sold alreadie, and
Dimissa Mater, your Mother is put away, put
away already. All gathers and con-centers
it selfe in this, Gods Iudgements and executions
are not sodaine, there is alwayes
roome for Repentance, and Mercie but his
Iudgements and Executions are certaine,
there is no roome for Presumption nor
Collusion.
To pursue then the Holy Ghosts two
Metaphors, of selling away, and putting away,
First, venditi estis, sayes our Prophet
to the Iewes, and to all, Behold, you are sold;
And so they were; sold thrice ouer; sold
by Adam first; sold by themselues euery day;
and at last, sold by God. For the first generall
sale by Adam, wee complaine now,
that Land will not sell; that 20. is come
to 15 yeares purchase; but doe wee not
take too late a Medium, too low a time to
reckon by? How cheape was Land at
first, how cheape were we? what was Paradise
sold for? What was Heauen, what
was Mankinde sold for? Immortalitie was
sold, and what yeares Purchase was that
worth? Immortalitie is our Eternitie; God
hath another manner of eternitie in him;
He hath a whole eternall day; an eternall
afternoone, and an eternall forenoone too; for
as he shall haue no end, so hee neuer had
beginning; we haue an eternall afternoone in
our immortalitie; we shall no more see an
end, then God hath seene a beginning; and
Millions of yeares, multiplied by Millions,
make not vp a Minute to this Eternitie, this
Immortalitie. When Diues values a droppe
of water at so high a price, what would
he giue for a Riuer? How poore a Clod of
Earth is a Mannor? how poore an inch,
a Shire? how poore a spanne, a Kingdome?
how poore a pace, the whole World? and
yet how prodigally we sell Paradise, Heauen,
Soules, Consciences, Immortalitie, Eternitie,
for a few Graines of this Dust? What
had Eue for Heauen, so little, as that the

C2

Holy Ghost wil not let vs know, what she
had, not what kinde of Fruite; yet something
Eue had. What had Adam for
Heauen? but a satisfaction that hee had
pleasd an Ill wife, as St. Hierome states
his fault, that he eate that Fruite, Ne contristaretur
Delicias suas, least he should cast her,
whom he lou'd so much, into an inordinate
deiection; but if he satisfied her, and
his owne Vxoriousnesse, any satisfaction is
not nothing. But what had I for Heauen?
Adam sinnd, and I suffer I forfeited before
I had any Possession, or could claime any
Interest; had a Punishment, before I had
a being, And God was displeased with me
before I was I; I was built vp scarse 50.
years ago, in my Mothers womb, & I was
cast down, almost 6000. years agoe, in
Adams loynes; I was borne in the last Age of
the world, and dyed in the first. How &
how iustly do we cry out against a Man,
that hath sold a Towne, or sold an Army.
And Adam sold the World. He sold Abraham,
and Isaac and Iacob, and all the Patriarchs,
and all the Prophets. He sold Peter,
and Paul, and both their Regiments, both
the glorious Hemispheres of the World.
The Iewes, and the Gentiles. He sold Euangelists,
and Apostles, and Disciples, and the
Disciple whom the Lord loued, & the beloued
Mother of the Lord, her selfe, say what they
will to the contrary. And if Christ had
not prouided for himselfe, by a miraculous
Generation, Adam had sold him: If Christ
had bene conceiud in Originall sinne, hee
must haue dyed for himselfe, nay, he could
not haue dyed for himselfe, but must haue
needed another Sauiour. It is in that Contemplation,
as hee was descended from
Adam, that St. Paul sayes of himselfe,
Venundatus,
I am carnall, sold vnder sinne.
For though St. Augustine, and some others
of the Fathers, doe sometimes take the Apostle,
in that place, to speake of himselfe,
as in the person of a naturall Man, that euery
Man considerd in nature, is sold vnder
sinne, but the Supernaturall, the Sanctified
Man is not so yet St. Augustine himselfe,
in his latest, and grauest Bookes, and particularly
in his Retractions, returnes to
this sense of these words, That no man,
in what measure soeuer Sanctified, can so

C3

emancipate himselfe from that Captiuitie,
to which Adam hath enthralld him,
but that, as hee is enwrapped in Originall
sinne, hee is solde vnder sinne. And
both S. Hierome, and S. Ambrose, both
which, seeme in other places, to goe an
other way, That onely they are sold vnder
sinne, which haue abandond, and prostituted
themselues to particular sinnes, doe
yet returne to this sense, That because
the Embers, the Spaune, the leauen of Originall
sinne, remaines, by Adams sale, in the
best, the best are sold vnder sinne.
So the Iewes were, and so were we sold
by Adam, to Originall sinne, very cheape;
but in the second sale, as wee are sold to
actuall, and habituall sinnes, by our selues,
cheaper; for so, sayes this Prophet, You haue
sold your selues for nothing: Our selues, that is
all our selues; or bodies to intemperance,
and ryot, and licenciousnes, and our soules
to a greedines of sinne; and all this for nothing,
for sinne it selfe, for which wee sell
our selues, is but a priuation, and priuations
are nothing. What fruit had you of those
things, whereof you are now ashamed; sayes the
Apostle; here is Barrennesse and shame;
Barrennesse is a priuation of fruit, shame is a
priuation of that confidence, which a good
Conscience administers, and when the Apostle
tells them, they sold themselues for
barrennesse and shame, it was for priuations,
for nothing. The Adulterer waits for the
twy-light, sayes Iob. The Twy-light comes,
& serues his turne; and sin, to night looks
like a Purchase, like a Treasure; but aske
this Sinner to morrow, and he hath sold himselfe
for nothing; for debility in his limnes,
for darkenesse in his vnderstanding, for
emptinesse in his purse, for absence of grace
in his Soule; and Debilitie; and Darkenes,
and emptinesse, and Absence, are priuations,
and priuations are nothing. All the name
of Substance or Treasure that sinne takes, is
that in the Apostle, Thesaurizastis Iram Dei,
You haue treasurd vp the wrath of God, against
the day of wrath: And this is a fearefull
priuation, of the grace of God here, and
of the Face of God hereafter; a priuation
so much worse then nothing, as that they
vpon whom it falls, would faine be nothing,
and cannot.
So then we were sold, so cheape by Adam,
to Originall, and cheaper by our selues,
to Actuall Sinne, but cheapest of all, when
we come to be sold by God; For he giues
vs away, casts vs away, deliuers vs ouer, to
punishments for sinne, and to sin for punishment;
God makes Sinne it selfe his executioner
in vs, and future sinnes, are the punishments
of former. As some Schoolemasters
haue vsd that Discipline, to correct the
Children of great Persons, whose personall
correction they finde reason to forbeare,
by correcting other Children in
their names, and in their sight, and haue
wrought vpon good Natures, that way, So
did Almightie God correct the Iewes in the
Ægyptians; for the ten plagues of Ægypt,
were as Moses Decem Verba, as the ten
Commandements to Israel, that they should
not prouoke GOD. Euery Iudgement that
falls vpon another, should be a Catechisme
to me. But when this Discipline preuaild
not vpon them, God sold them away, gaue
them away, cast them away, in the tempest,
in the whirlewinde, in the inundation
of his indignation, and scatterd them
as so much dust in a windy day, as so many
broken strawes vpon a wrought Sea.
With one word, One Fiat, Let there bee a
world, nay with one thought of God cast
toward it, for Gods speaking in the Creation,
was but a thinking, God made all of
Nothing. And is any one rationall Ant, The
wisest Phylosopher is no more Is any roaring
Lyon, the most ambitious and deuouring
Prince is no more Is any hiue of
Bees, The wisest Councels, and Parliaments
are no more Is any of these so establishd,
as that, that God who by a word,
by a thought, made them of nothing, cannot
by recalling that word, and withdrawing
that thought, in sequestring his
Prouidence, reduce them to nothing againe?
That Man, that Prince, that State thinks
Past-board Canon-proofe, that thinkes
Power, or Policy a Rampart, when
the Ordinance of God is planted against it.
Nauyes will not keepe off Nauies, if God
be not the Pilot, Nor Walles keepe out
Men, if God be not the Sentinell. If they
could, if wee were walld with a Sea of
fire and brimstone without, and walld

D

with Brasse within, yet we cannot ciel
the Heauens with a roofe of Brasse, but
that God can come downe in Thunder that
way, Nor paue the Earth with a floare of
Brasse, but that God can come vp in Earthquakes
that way. God can call vp Damps,
& Vapors from below, and powre down
putride defluxions from aboue, and bid
them meet and condense into a plague, a
plague that shall not be onely vncureable,
vncontrollable, vnexorable, but vndisputable,
vnexaminable, vnquestionable;
A plague that shall not onely not admit a
remedy, when it is come, but not giue a reason
how it did come. If God had not set
a marke vpon Cain, euery Man, any Man,
any thing might haue killd him. Hee apprehended
that of himselfe, and was afraid,
when we know of none, by name,
in the world, but his Father, and Mother:
But, as Saint Heirome exalts this consideration,
Cains owne Conscience tells him,
Catharma sum, Anathema sum, I am the
plague of the world, and I must dye, to
deliuer it Catharma sum. I am a separated
Vagabond, not an Anachorit shut vp betweene
two walls, but shut out from all,
Anathema sum. As long as the Cherubim,
and the fiery Sword is at the Gate, Adam
cannot returne to Paradise; as long as the
Testimonies of GODS anger lye at the
dore of the Conscience, no man can returne
to peace there. If God sell away a
Man, giue him away, giue way to him,
by withdrawing his Prouidence, he shall
but neede as the Prophet sayes Sibilare
Muscam, to hisse, to whisper for the Fly, for
the Bee, for the Hornet, for Forraigne Incumbrances;
nay, hee shall not neede to
hisse, to whisper for them; for at home,
Locusts shall swarme in his Gardens, and
Frogs in his bed-chamber, & hailstones, as big
as talents, as they are measured in the Reuelation
shall breake, as well the couerd,
and the armd, as the bare, & naked head;
as well the Mytred, and the Turband, & the
crownd head, that lifts it selfe vp against
GOD, lyes open to him, as his that must
not put on his Hat, as his that hath no
Hat to put on; when as that head, which
being exalted here, submits it selfe to that
GOD, that exalted it, GOD shall crowne,

D2

with multiplied crownes here, and hauing
so crownd that head with Crownes
here, hee shall crowne those crownes,
with the head of all, Christ Iesus, and all
that is his, hereafter.
If God sell vs away to punishments for
sinne, it is thus, but if God sell vs to sinne for
punishment, it is worse. For, when God,
by the Prophet, offered Dauid, his choise
of three Executioners, warre, famine, and
pestilence, if all these three had taken hold
of him, it had not beene so heauy, as
when God had sold him ouer, giuen him
away, into the hands of an Executioner in
his owne bosome, The studying and the
plotting of the prosecution of his sinne.
When God made Murther, in the death of
Vriah, his Bayliffe, to attach Dauid for his
Adultery, And made Blasphemy, in the
triumphant Armie of the Gentils, his Bayliffe,
to attache Dauid for his Murther,
And then made impenitence, and a long
sencelesnes in his sinne, his Bayliffe to attach
Dauid, for that blasphemy, then was
Dauid sold, vnder a dangerous sub-hastation,
then lay Dauid vnder a heauie Excution.
Let me fall into the hands of God, and
not of Man, sayes Dauid; Betweene God
and Man, in this case, there may be some
kinde of comparison, But would any sinner
say, Let me fall into the hands of the Deuill,
and not of Man, rather into more sins,
then some punishments. Dauid himselfe
could not conceiue a more vehement
prayer and imprecation, vpon his, and
his Gods Enemies, then that, Add Iniquity
to their Iniquity; Nor hath the Holy Ghost
any where exprest a more vehement
commination, then that vpon Ierusalem,
as the vulgat reades that place.
Iniquitatem,
Iniquitatem, Iniquitatem ponam eam;

Which is not Gods multiplying of punishments
for sin, but his multiplying of sin it
selfe vpon them, till he had made them all
Iniquity, all sin. For this is, in a great part
that which the Apostle calls, Gods giuing ouer,
to a reprobate sence; to mistake false, and
miserable comforts for true comforts; to
mollifie and asswage the anguish of one
sinne, by doing another; to maintaine
prodigality, by Vsury, or Extortion; to
ouercome the inordinate deiections of

D3

spirit, with a false cheerefulnesse and encantation
from strong drinke: In one
word, as the wise man expresses it to call
great plagues peace; To smother sinne
from the eye of the world, or to slumber
the eye of our owne conscience from the
sight of sinne, by interposing more sinnes.
And farther, we carrie not this first Metaphor
of the Holy ghost, Venditi estis, You
are sold, for, for the deeper impression,
he presses it with another, Dimissa est,
for your transgressions, your Mother is put
away. And here in the way, we consider first
Dimissam animam, Gods putting away of
the Daughter, of any particular soule. And
his putting away of such a soule, is his leauing
of that soule to it selfe; when God
will not come so neere louing it, as to hate
it, nor giue it so much peace, as to trouble
it. For, as long as God punishes me, hee
giues me Phisick; if he draw his knife, it
is but to prune his Vine, and if hee draw
blood, it is but to rectifie a distemper:
If God breake my bones, it is but to set
them strayter, And if hee bruse me in a
Morter, it is but that I might exhale, and
breath vp a sweet sauor, in his nosethrils:
I am his handy-worke, and if one hand be
vnder me, let the other lye as heauie, as
he shall be pleased to lay it, vpon me; let
God handle me how he will, so hee cast
mee not out of his hands: I had rather
God frownd vpon mee, then not looke
vpon me; and I had rather God pursued
mee, then left mee to my selfe. It is the
heighth of his indignation, O people laden
with iniquity, why should ye be smitten any
more? Why should I study your recouery
any longer? Vox est animi non habentis in
promptu, quid statuat, et desperantis salutem;
When God sayes so, sayes S. Basil, he is as a
Father who had tried all wayes to reduce
his sonne, and fayld in all, and then leaues
him to his owne desperate wayes; This is
the worst that God doth say; we may say,
that God can say which he sayes in Ezech.
Auseram zelum,
My zealousie shall depart from
thee, and I will be quiet, and be no more angry:
God is most angry, when hee lets not vs
know, that hee is so. And then, Refuse
siluer shall men call thee; because the Lord

23

hath reiected thee, sayes the Prophet;
Though thou mayest haue some tincture
of a precious mettall, fortune, power, valour,
wisedome, yet Refuse siluer shalt thou be, and
more, Refuse mettall shall man call thee,
for Men are often worse, then men
dare call them because the Lord hath reiected
thee. Cain cryes out, that his punishment
is greater then hee can beare; and
whats the waight? This; From thy
Face shall I be hid; It is not that GOD
would not looke graciously vpon him,
but that GOD would not looke at all
vpon him. Infinite, and infinitely desperate
are the effects of Gods putting away
a soule; but we wait vpon the Holy Ghosts
farther enlargement of this consideration,
Dimissa Mater, for the Childrens
transgressions, the Mother is put away.
This Mother, is the Church; that
Church, to whose breasts GOD
hath applyed that Soule; and Gods putting
away of his Mother, is as it was
in the Daughter his leauing her to her
selfe. So those imaginary Churches, that
will receiue no light from Antiquitie,
nor Primitiue formes, GOD leaues to
themselues, and they crumble into Conuenticles:
And that Church, which will
needes be the Forme to all Churches, God
leaues to her selfe, to her owne Traditions,
and Shee swells into tumors, and
vlcers, and blisters. And when any
Church is thus left to her selfe, deuested
of the Spirit of GOD, then follow heauie
Symptomes, and Accidents; That
which is forbidden in the Law, That Men
that haue blemishes, offer the Bread of our
God; Men blemished in their Opinions,
in their Doctrine, blemishd in their Lifes,
in their Conuersation, are admitted to Sacrifice
at Gods Altar. Then followes
that which is complaind of in Ieroboams
time, The lowest of the People, and whosoeuer
will, shall bee made Priests; Contemptible
men shall bee made Priests; and so the
Priesthood shall bee made Contemptible.
Then followes that which the Prophet
Ose sayes, The Prophet shall be a Foole, and
the Spirituall Man madde; Madde, as Saint
Hierome translates that word; Arreptitius,
possest; possest with an aery spirit of ambition,

E

and an Earthly Spirit of Seruilitie, And a
watrie Spirit of Irresolution, and disposest
of the true Spirit of Holy fire, the
Zeale of the exaltation of Gods glory.
There is a Curse in remoouing but the Candlesticke;
That the Light shall not bee in
that eminency, and euidence, that becomes
it, but that some faint shadowes, some
Corner Disguises, some Temporizings,
some Modifications must
be admitted. There is a heauier Curse,
in weakning the Eye of the beholder,
when as this Prophet sayes God shall
make hearts fatt, and eares deafe, and eyes
blinde; There shall bee Light, but you
shall not see by it, there shall be good
Preaching, but you shall not profit by it.
But the greatest Curse of all, is in putting
out the Light, when GOD blinds
the Teachers themselues: For, If the light
that is in thee bee darkenesse, how great is
that darkenesse? This is that Potestas tenebrarum,
when power is put into their
hands, who are possest with this darkenesse.
And this is that Procella tenebrarum,
The storme of darkenesse, The blackenesse
of Darkenesse, as we Translate it
when darkenes, & power, and passion meete
in one Man. And to these fearefull heights
may the sinnes of the Children bring the
Mother, That that Church, which now
enioyes so aboundantly Truth and Vnitie,
may bee poysoned with Heresie, and
wounded with Schisme, and yet GOD
bee free from all imputation of Tyranny.
And so wee haue done with all those
peeces which constitute our First Part,
Gods Dischardge; His Mercy in his Ecce,
that hee warnes vs of his Iudgements before
they fall; And his Iustice, in his
Proceeding, though after wee bee solde
cheape by Adam, to Originall sinne, So
Saint Paul sayes, He was sold vnder sinne,
And Cheaper by our selues, to actuall sinnes,
for Nothing, for Priuations, So the Prophet
told Ahab that hee was sold to sinne,
God also Sell vs away, Cast vs away, To
Punishments for sinnes, So hee did the Israelites,
and then to sinnes for punishments,
So hee did Dauid, and so hee did
Ierusalem, and though hee come to a
Diuorce, of Daughter and Mother, of our

E2

Soules in particular, and the Church it selfe
in generall.