THE holy Apostles having gathe­red themselues together by the special appointment of Christ, & beeing in expectation to receiue from him such instructiōs as they had beene accustomed with, were told that which they least looked for, namely, that the time of his departure out of the world was now come. Where­vpon they fell into consideration first of the manifolde benefits which his absence should bereaue them of, and secondly of the sundrie evils which themselues shoulde be subiect vnto beeing once bereaved of so gracious a master and patron. The one consideration overwhel­med their soules with heavinesse, the other with feare. Their Lord and Saviour whose wordes had cast downe their hearts raiseth them presently againe with chosen sentences of sweet encouragement. My deare, it is for your own sakes that I leaue the world. I know the affections of your hearts are tender, but if your loue were directed with that advised and staide iudgemente which should be in you, my speech of leaving the world [Page 2] and going vnto my father would not a little augment your ioie. Desolate and comfortlesse I will not leaue you, in spirit I am with you to the worlds end, whether I bee present or absent nothing shall ever take you out of these hands, my going is to take possession of that in your names which is not only for me but also for you prepared, where I am, you shalbe. In the meane while My peace I giue, not as the world giveth, giue I vnto you, Let not your hearts be troubled, nor feare. The former part of which sentence having otherwhere already beene spo­ken of, this vnacceptable occasion to open the latter part thereof here I did not looke for. But so God dis­poseth the waies of men. Him I hartily beseech that the thing which he hath thus ordered by his providēce, may through his gracious goodnesse turne vnto your comfort.

Our nature coveteth preservation from things hurt­full. Hurtful things being present do breed heavines, being future do cause feare. Our Saviour to abate the one speaketh thus vnto his disciples, Let not your hearts be troubled, and to moderate the other, addeth seare not. Griefe and heavinesse in the presents of sensible evils cannot but trouble the mindes of men. It may there­fore seeme that Christ required a thing impossible. Be not troubled? Why, how could they choose? But we must note this being naturall and therefore simplie not reprouable, is in vs good or bad according to the cau­ses for which wee are grieved, or the measure of our griefe. It is not my meaning to speake so largely of this affection as to go over all particulers wherby men do one waie or other offend in it, but to teach it so far [Page 3] only as it may cause the very Apostles equals to swarne. Our griefe and heavines therfore is reproueable some­time in respect of the cause from whence, sometime in regard of the measure wherevnto it groweth.

When Christ the life of the world was led vnto cru­ell death, there followed a number of people and wo­men, which women bewailed much his heavie case. It was naturall compassion which caused them, where they saw vndeserved miseries, there to poure forth vn­restrained teares. Nor was this reproved. But in such readines to lamēt wher they lesse needed, their blindnes in not discerning that for which they ought much ra­ther to haue mourned, this our Savior a little toucheth putting them in minde that the teares which were wa­sted for him might better haue beene spent vpon them­selues. Daughters of Ierusalem weepe not for me, weepe for your selues and for your children. It is not as the Stoickes haue imagined, a thing vnseemely for a wise man to be touched with griefe of minde, but to be sor­rowfull when we least should, and where we should la­ment there to laugh, this argueth our small wisedome. Againe, when the Prophet David cōfesseth thus of him selfe, I grieved to see the great prosperitie of godlesse men how they flourish and go vntoucht. Psal. 73. Himselfe here­by openeth both our common and his peculiar imper­fection, whom this cause should not haue made so pen­siue. To grieue at this is to grieue where we should not, because this griefe doth rise from errour. We erre when we grieue at wicked mens impunitie and prospe­ritie, because their estate being rightly discerned they neither prosper nor goe vnpunished. It may [Page 4] seeme a paradox, it is a truth, that no wicked mans e­state is prosperous, fortunate, or happie. For vvhat though they blesse themselues and thinke their happy­nesse great? Haue not franticke persons many times a great opinion of their owne wisdome? It may be that such as they thinke themselues, others also do accompt them. But what others? Surely such as themselues are. Truth and reason discerneth farre otherwise of them. Vnto whom the Iewes wish all prosperitie, vnto them the phrase of their speech is to wish peace. Seeing then the name of peace containeth in it al parts of true happynesse, when the Prophet saith plainly that the wicked haue no peace, how can we thinke them to haue anie part of other then vainely imagined felicitie? What wise man did ever accompt fooles happy? If wic­ked men were wise they woulde cease to bee wicked. Their iniquitie therefore proving their follie, howe can wee stande in doubt of their miserie? They abound in those things which all men desire. A poore happy­nesse to haue good things in possession, A man to whō God hath given riches and treasures and honor, so that hee wanteth nothing for his soule of all that it desireth, but yet God giveth him not the power to eate thereof: such a feli­citie Salomon esteemeth but as a vanitie, a thing of no­thing. Eccl. 6. ver. 2. If such things adde nothing to mens happines where they are not vsed, surely wicked men that vse thē ill the more they haue, the more wretched. Of their prosperitie therefore wee see what wee are to thinke. Touching their impunitie the same is likewise but sup­posed. They are oftner plagued then we are aware of. The panges they feele are not alwaies written in their [Page 5] foreheads. Though wickednesse bee sugar in their mouthes, and wantonnesse as oile to make them looke with cheerefull countenance, nevertheles if their harts were disclosed, perhaps their glittering estate would not greatly be envied. The voices that haue brokē out from some of thē, O that God had giuē me a hart senseles like the flint in the rockes of stone, which as it can tast no pleasure so it feeleth no woe, these & the like speeches are surely tokens of the curse which Zophar in the booke of Iob powreth vpon the head of the impious man, Hee shall sucke the gale of Asps, and the Vipers tongue shall sley him. If this seeme light because it is secret, shall we thinke they goe vnpunisht because no apparent plague is presently seene vpon them? The iudgements of God doe not al­waies follow crimes as Thunder doth Lightning, but sometimes the space of many ages comming between. When the sunne hath shined faire the space of six daies vpon their Tabernacle, wee knowe not what cloudes the seventh may bring. And when their punishment doth come let them make their account in the great­nesse of their sufferings to pay the interest of that re­spect which hath beene given them. Or if they chance to escape cleerely in this world which they seldome do, in the day when the heavens shall shrivell as a scrole & the mountaines moue as frighted men out of their places, what Caue shall receaue them? what mountaine or rocke shall they get by intreatie to fall vpon them? What court to hide them from that wrath which they shalbe neither able to abide nor to avoid? No mans mi­serie therefore being greater then theirs whose impiety is most fortunate; much more cause there is for them [Page 6] to bewaile their owne infelicitie, then for others to bee troubled with their prosperous and happy estate, as if the hand of the Almightie did not or would not touch thē. For these causes and the like vnto these therefore bee not troubled.

Now though the cause of our heavinesse be iust, yet may not our affections herein bee yeelded vnto with too much indulgencie and favour. The griefe of com­passion whereby we are touched with the feeling of o­ther mens woes is of all other least dangerous. Yet this is a let vnto sundry duties, by this we are to spare some­times where we ought to strike. The griefe which our owne sufferings doe bring, what temptations haue not risen from it? What great advantage Sathan hath ta­ken even by the godly griefe of hartie contrition for sinnes committed against God the neere approaching of so many afflicted soules whome the conscience of sinne hath brought vnto the very brink of extreame dis­paire doth but too aboundantly shew. These things wheresoever they fall cannot but trouble and molest the mind. Whether wee bee therefore moved vainely with that which seemeth hurtfull and is not: or haue iust cause of griefe being pressed indeed with those things which are grievous, our Saviours lesson is, tou­ching the one, be not troubled, nor overtroubled for the other. For though to haue no feeling of that which meerely concerneth vs were stupiditie, neverthelesse seeing that as the Author of our Salvation was him­selfe consecrated by affliction, so the way which we are to follow him by, is not shrewed with rushes but sette with thornes, be it never so hard to learne, wee must [Page 7] learne to suffer with patience even that which seemeth almost impossible to be suffered, that in the houre whē God shall call vs vnto our tryall and turne this hony of of peace and pleasure wherewith wee swell in that gall and bitternesse which flesh doth shrinke to tast of, no­thing may cause vs in the troubles of our soules to storme and grudge and repine at God, but every heart be enabled with divinely inspired courage to inculcate vnto it selfe Be not troubled, & in those last and greatest conflicts to remember it that nothing may be so sharp and bitter to be suffered but that still we our selues may giue our selues this encouragement, Even learne also pa­tience, o my soule.

Naming patience I name that virtue which onely hath power to stay our soules from being over exces­siuely troubled: a virtue wherein if ever any, surely that soule had good experience which extremitie of paines having chased out of the Tabernacle of this flesh, An­gels, I nothing doubt; haue carried into the bosome of her father Abraham. The death of the Saints of God is pretious in his sight. And shall it seeme vnto vs super­fluous at such times as these are to heare in what man­ner they haue ended their liues? The Lord himselfe hath not disdained so exactly to register in the booke of life after what sort his servants haue closed vp their daies on earth, that he descendeth even to their very meanest actions, what meat they haue longed for in their sick­nesse, what they haue spoken vnto their children, kins­folke, and friends, where they haue willed their dead Carkases to be laid, howe they haue framed their wills and testaments, yea the very turning of their faces to [Page 8] this side or that, the setting of their eies, the degrees whereby their naturall heat hath departed from them, their cries, their groanes, their pantings, breathings, & last gaspings, he hath most solemnly commended vnto the memory of all generations. The care of the living both to liue and to dy well must needs be somwhat in­creased when they knowe that their departure shal not be folded vp in silence but the eares of many bee made acquainted with it. Againe when they heare how mer­cifull God hath dealt with others in the houre of their last need, besides the praise which they giue to God, & the ioy which they haue or should haue by reason of their fellowship and communion of Saints, is nor their hope also much confirmed against the day of their own dissolution? Finally the sound of these things doth not so passe the eares of them that are most loose and deso­lute of life, but it causeth them sometime or other to wish in their hearts, O that we might die the death of the righteous and that our end might bee like his. Howbeit because to spend herein many wordes would bee to strike even as many wounds into their mindes whom I rather wish to comfort, therefore concerning this vir­tuous Gentlewoman, only this little I speak, and that of knowledge, Shee liued a Doue, and died a Lambe. And if a­mongst so many vertues, harty devotion towards God, towards poverty tender compassion, motherly affecti­on towards servants, towardes friends even serviceable kindnesse, mild behaviour, and harmelesse meaning to­wards all; if where so many virtues were eminent, any be worthy of special mention, I wish her dearest friends of that sex to bee her neerest followers in two things. [Page 9] Silence, saving only where dutie did exact speech, and Patience even then when extremitie of paines did en­force griefe. Blessed are they which die in the Lord. And concerning the dead which are blessed let not the harts of any living be overcharged, with griefe overtroubled.

Touching the latter affection of feare which respe­cteth evils to come, as the other which we haue spokē of doth present evils; first in the nature thereof it is plaine that we are not of every future evill afraid. Per­ceaue we not how they whose tendernesse shrinketh at the least rase of a needles point, do kisse the sword that pearceth their soules quite through? If every evill did cause feare, sinne, because it is sinne, would bee feared; whereas properly sin is not feared as sin, but only as ha­ving some kind of harme annexed. To teach men to a­void sin it had beene sufficient for the Apostle to say, fly it. But to make them afraid of committing sin, be­cause the naming of sinne sufficed not, therefore he ad­deth further that it is as a Serpent which stingeth the soule. Againe, be it that some nociue or hurtfull thing bee to­wards vs▪ must feare of necessitie follow herevpon? Not except that hurtfull things doe threaten vs either with destruction or vexation, and that such as wee haue nei­ther a conceit of abilitie to resist, nor of vtter impossibi­litie to avoid. That which which we know our selues a­ble to withstand we feare not, add that which we know we are vnable to deferre or deminish, or any way avoid we cease to feare, we giue our selues over to beare and sustaine it. The evill therefore which is feared must bee in our perswasion vnable to bee resisted when it com­meth, yet not vtterly impossible for a time in whole or [Page 10] in part to be shunned. Neither doe we much feare such evils, except they be imminent and nere at hand, nor if they be neere, except we haue an opinion that they bee so. When we haue once conceaued an opinion, or ap­prehended an imagination of such evils prest and ready to invade vs, because they are hurtfull vnto our nature, we feele in our selues a kind of abhorring; because they are though neere yet not present our nature seeketh forthwith how to shift and provide for it selfe; because they are evils which cannot be resisted, therefore shee doth not provide to withstand but to shun and avoid. Hence it is that in extreame feare the mother of life cō ­tracting her selfe avoiding asmuch as may be the reach of evill, and drawing the heate together with the spirits of the body to her, leaveth the outward parts cold, pale weake, feeble, vnapt to performe the functions of life, as we see in the feare of Balthasar king of Babell. By this it appeareth that feare is nothing else but a perturbati­on of the mind through an opinion of some imminent evill threatning the destruction or great annoyance of our nature, which to shun it doth contract and deiect it selfe.

Now because not in this place only but otherwhere often we heare it repeated Feare not, it is by some made a long question, whether a man may feare destruction or vexation without sinning. First, the reproofe wherewith Christ checketh his Disciples more then once, O men of little faith wherefore are yee afraid? Secondly the punish­ment threatned in the 21. of Revelations, to wit, the lake, and fire, & brimstone, not only to murtherers, vncleane persons, sorcerers, Idolators, lyers, but also to the feare­full [Page 11] and faintharted, this seemeih to argue that feareful­nesse cannot but be sin. On the contrary side we see that he which never felt motion vnto sin had of this affectiō more then a slight feeling. How cleere is the evidence of the spirit that in the daies of his flesh hee offered vp prai­ers and supplications with strong cries and teares vnto him that was able to saue him from death, and was also hearde in that which he feared? Heb. 5. 7. Wherevpon it followeth that feare in it selfe is a thing not sinful. For is not feare a thing naturall and for mens preservation necessarie, implanted in vs by the provident and most gratious gi­ver of all good things, to the end that we might not run headlong vpon those mischiefes wherewith we are not able to encounter, but vse the remedie of shunning those evils which we haue not habilitie to withstande? Let that people therfore which receiue a benefit by the length of their princes daies, that Father or Mother that reioiceth to see the offspring of their flesh growe like greene and pleasant plants, let those children that would haue their parents, those men that would gladlie haue their friends and bretherens daies Prolonged on earth, (as there is no naturall hearted man but gladly would,) let them blesse the Father of lights, as in other things, so even in this that he hath given man a feareful heart and setled naturally that affection in him which is a preservation against so many waies of death. Feare then in it selfe being meere nature cannot in it selfe bee sinne, which sinne is not nature, but thereof an accessary deprivation.

But in the matter of feare we may sinne, and do, two waies. If any mans danger be great, theirs greatest that [Page 12] haue put the feare of danger fartherst frō them. Is there any estate more fearefull then that Babilonians Strum­pets, that sitteth vpon the tops of the seaven hils glory­ing and vaunting, I am a Queene, &c. Revel. 18. 7. How much bettter and happier they whose estate hath been alwaies as his who speaketh after this sort of himselfe, Lord from my youth haue I borne thy yoke. They which sit at continuall ease, & are setled in the leeze of their secu­ritie, looke vpon them, view their countenance, their speech, their gesture, their deedes; Put them in feare, O God, saith the Prophet, that so they may know thēselus to be but men, wormes of the earth, dust & ashes, fraile corruptible, feeble things. To shake of securitie there­fore and to breed feare in the harts of mortall men, so many admonitions are vsed concerning the power of evils which beset them, so many threatnings of calami­ties, so many discriptions of things threatned, and those so liuely, to the end they may leaue behinde thé a deepe impression of such as hath force to keepe the heart continually waking. All which do shew that we are, to stād in feare of nothing more, then the extremity of not fea­ring.

When feare hath delivered vs from that pit where­in they are sunke that haue put far from them the evill day; that haue made a league with death and haue said, Tush we shall feele no harme; it standeth vs vpon to take heede it cast vs not into that wherein souls destitute of all hope are plunged. For our direction, to avoide as much as may be both extremities, that we may knowe as a ship master by his carde, how far we are wide, either on the oneside or on the other; we must note that in a [Page 13] Christian man there is first nature, secondly corruptiō, perverting nature; thirdly grace correcting, and amen­ding corruptiō. In feare al these haue their severall ope­rations. Nature teacheth simplie, to wish preservation and avoidance of things dreadfull, for which cause our Saviour himselfe praieth, and that often; Father if it bee possible. In which cases corrupt natures suggestions are for the safety of temporall life not to sticke at thinges excluding from eternall: wherein how farre even the best may bee led the chiefest Apostles frailtie teacheth. Were it not therefore for such cogitations as on the contrarie side grace and faith ministreth, such as that of Iob, Though God kill me, that of Paule, Scio, cui credidi, I know him on whom I do relie small evils would soone be able, to overwhelme even the best of vs. A wise man, saith Salomon, doth see a plague comming and hideth him­selfe. It is nature which teacheth a wise man, in feare to hide himselfe, but grace & faith doth teach him where. Fools care not, where they hide their heads. But where shal a wise man hide himselfe when he feareth a plague comming. Where should the frighted childe hide his head, but in the bosome of his loving father? Where a Christiā, but vnder the shadow of the wings of Christ his Saviour. Come my people, saith God, in the Pro­phet Enter into thy Chāber, hide thy selfe, &c. Esay. 26. But because wee are in danger like chased birds, like Doues that seeke & cannot see the resting holes, that are right before them, therefore our Savior giveth his Disciples these encouragements before hand, that feare might never so amaze them, but that alwaies they might remem­ber, that whatsoever evils at any time, did beset them, to [Page 14] him they should still repaire, for comfort, councell, and succour. For their assurance where of his Peace hee gaue them, his peace he left vnto them, not such peace as the world offereth, by whom his name is never so much pretēded as when deepest treachery is meant, but Peace which pas­seth all vnderstanding, peace that bringeth with it all hap­pines, peace that continueth for ever and ever with them that haue it. This Peace God the Father graunt, for his sonnes sake, vnto whom with the holy Ghost, three per­sons, one eternall, and everliving God be all honor, glo­rie, and praise, now, and for ever; Amen.