A Divine Herbal Together with a Forest of Thorns, Title page 2 – Part 3
THE GARDEN Or, A Contemplation of the HERBES. The THIRD SERMON.
The Song of Salomon. Chap. 6. Ver. 2.
My Beloued is gone downe into his Garden, to the beds of spices; to feede in the gardens, and to gather Lillies.
AMB. super LVC.
Non Virtus est non posse peccare, sed nolle.
LONDON, Printed by George Purslowe, for Iohn Budge, and are to be solde at his shop, at the great South-dore of Pauls, and at Brittaines Burse. 1616.
THE GARDEN OR A Contemplation of the Herbes.
THE THIRD SERMON.
HEB. Chap. 6. Vers. 7.
For the earth which drinketh in the raine that commeth oft vponupon it, and bringeth forth Herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiueth blessing from God.
THat the Herbes of our graces may be meete for the dresser; contentful to GOD, who hath planted, watred, husbanded the Garden of our hearts; wee will require in them foure vertues: Odour, Taste, Ornament, Medicinall Vertue.
1. That they hauehave a good odour. God is delighted with the smell of our graces. My Beloued is gone downe into his Garden, Cant. 6. 2.to the beds of spices, to feed in the gardens, and to gather Lillies. The vertues of Christ are thus principally pleasant; and all our herbes onelyonly smell sweetly in his Garden. Because of the sauour of thy good ointment, Cant. 1. 3.thy name is as ointment powred forth, therefore doe the Virgins louelove thee. This sauour is sweetly acceptable in the nostrils of God. All thy garments smel of Myrrhe, Psa. 45. 8.Aloes, and Cassia: It is his righteousnesse, that giues all our herbes a good odour: and in him it pleaseth God to iudge our works sweet. When Noah had built an Altar, Gen. 8. 21.and sacrificed burnt offerings on it, the Lord smelled a sweet sauour and sayd, I will not againe curse the ground any more for mans sake. Mat. 2.Myrrhe and Prankincense were two of the oblations, which the Wise-men offered to CHRIST being an Infant.
Tres Reges, regum Regitria dona tulerunt:
Myrrham homini, vncto aurū, thura dedere Deo.
Tutriafac itidem dones pia munera Christo,
Muneribus gratus si cupis esse tuis.
Pro myrrha lacrymas, pro auro cor porrige purum,
Pro thure, ex humili pectore funde preces.
Three kings to the great King three offerings bring,
Incense for God, Myrrhe for man, gold for king.
Thy Incense be the hands a white soule reares.
For gold giuegive a pure hart, for myrrhe drop tears.
The way to make our herbes smell sweetly, is first to purge our garden of weedes. For if sinne be fostered in our hearts, all our workes will bee abominated. God heareth not the prayers of the wicked.Leuit. 26. 31. If yee will walke contrary to mee, saith the Lord, I will bring your sanctuaries vntounto desolation, and I will not smell the sauour of your sweete odours. But being adopted by grace in Christ, and sanctified to holinesse, our good works smell sweetly, Phil. 4.Phil. 4. 18. I hauehave receiued of Epaphroditus the things which were sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God. It seemes, GOD highly esteemes the herbe Charitie in our gardens. Hee that serueth the Lord, shall smell as Lebanon: Hos. 14. 6. 7.hee shall growe as the Vine, and his sent shall bee as the wine of Lebanon.
Man is naturally delighted with pleasant sauours, and abhorres noysome and stinking smels. But our God hath purer nosthrils, and cannot abide the polluted heapes of iniquities. The Idle man is a standing pitte; and hath an ill-sauour'd smell, an ill-fauour'd sight. The drunkard is like a bogge, a fogge, a fenne of euill vapours: God cannot abide him. Your couetous wretch is like a dunghill; there is nothing but rottennesse and infection in him. Omnis malitia eructat fumum. All wickednesse belcheth forth an euill sauour. Wonder you, if God refuse to dwell with the Vsurer, Swearer, Idolater, Adulterer? There is a poyson of lust, a leprosie of putrefaction in them: no carryon is so odious to man, as mans impieties are to God. Yea the very oblations of defiled hands stinke in his presence.Esa. 66. 3. Hee that sacrificeth a Lambe, is as if hee cut off a dogges necke, &c. As if Ass a foetida was the only supply of their gardens. But good herbes giuegive a double sauour: one outward to man, another inward to God. The sweete smoke of a holy sacrifice, like a subtil ayre, riseth vp to heauen; and is with God before man sees or smels it. It also cheares the hearts of Christians, to behold Christian workes. Reuerence to the Word, hallowing the Sabaoths, releeuing the poore, deeds of merciemercy, pittie, piety, giuegive a delightful sent: solacing the soules of the Saints, and pleasing him that made them both men and Saints. Therefore Hearken vntounto me, ye holy children, Eccl. 39. 13.and budde forth as a Rose growing by the brook of the fielde. GiueGive ye a sweet sauour, as frankincense, and flourish as a Lilly, send forth a smell, sing a song of prayse, and blesse the Lord in all his workes.
2. That they taste well. Many a flower hath a sweet smell, but not so wholsome a taste. Your Pharisaicall prayers and almes smelt sweetly in the vulgar nosthrils: taste them, and they were but rue, or rather worme-wood. When the Pharise sawe the Publican in the lower part of the Temple, standing as it were in the Belfrey; he could cry, Foh this Publican: but when they were both tasted, by his palate that could iudge, the Publican hath an herbe in his bosome, and the Pharise but a gay, gorgeous, stinking weede. The herbes, that the Passeouer were eaten with, were sowre: yet they were enioined with sweet bread. Sowre they might be, but they were wholsome. Herbes hauehave not onelyonly their sauour, but their nutriment. He causeth the grasse to growe for the cattell, Psa. 104. 14and herbe for the seruice of man: that he may bring food out of the earth. Herbs thē are food, and hauehave an alimentall vertue. So we may both with the herbes of charitie feed mens bodies, and with the herbes of piety feede their soules. A good life is a good sallet: and in the second place to precepts, are vsefully necessary good exāples. The bloud of Martyrs is sayd to hauehave nourished the Church. The patience of the Saints, in the hottest extremity of their afflictions, euen when the flames of death hath clipped them in their armes; hath been no lesse then a kindly nourishment to many mens faith. It is expounded by an vniuersall consent of Diuines, that one of those 3. feedings, which Christ imposed on Peter, is Pasce exemplo; let thy life feed them. Blessed Gardens that yeeld herbes, like Iothams vine, that cheare the heart of both God and man. Iudg. 9… 13.The Poets fain'd, that Nectar & Ambrosia were the food of their Gods. Iupiter Ambrosia satur est, est Nectare plenus. But the true Gods dyet, is the vertues of his Saints, wherwith he promiseth to suppe, when he comes into their hearts. Faith,Reu. 3. 20. louelove, patience, meeknes, honestie; these dishes are his dainties.
If thou wouldest make Christ good cheare in the parlour of thy conscience, bring him the herbes of obedience. Doe not say, I would hauehave beene as kinde and liberall to my Sauiour as the best, had I liued in those dayes, when he blessed the world with his bodily presence. But now I may say with Mary Magdalen: They hauehave taken away the Lord, Ioh. 20. 2.and I know not where to finde him. Damne not thy selfe with excuses. Wheresoeuer his Church is, there is he; exercise thy piety. Wheresoeuer his members are, there is he; exercise thy charity. Thou art very niggardly, if thou wilt not afford him a sallet, a dinner of herbes. Yet, sayth Salomon, A dinner of greene herbes with louelove, is better then a fatte Oxe with hatred.
3. That they be fitte to adorne. Herbes and flowers hauehave not only their vse in pleasing the nostrills, and the palate, but the eye also. They giuegive delight to all those three senses. Good workes are the beauty of a house, and a better sight then fresh herbes strew'd in the windores. The Chamber, where Christ would eate his Passouer, was trimmed: and the Palace of our Princely Salomon is paued With LoueLove of the daughters of Ierusalem.Cant. 3. 10.
There is no ornature in the World like good deeds: no hanging of Tapestry, or Arrase, comes neere it. A stately building where an Idolater dwells, is but a gawdy coate to a Sodome-apple. When you see an Oppressour raising a great house from the ruines of many lesse; depopulating a Countrey to make vp one Family; building his Parlours with extortion, and cimenting his walls with the morter of bloud: you say, there is a foule Minotaure in a faire Labyrinth. Be a man dead, it is a foolish hope to reare immortalitie with a few senselesse stones. Perhaps the Passenger wil be hereby occasioned, to comment vponupon his bad life; and to discourse to his company the long enumeration of such a mans vices. So a perpetuall succession of infamie answeres his gay sepulchre: and it had bin better for him, to hauehave been vtterly inglorious, then inexcusably infamous. The best report, that can be drawne from him, is but this. Here lyes a faire Tombe, and a foule carcase in it.
These things doe neither honest a man liuing, nor honour him dead. Good works are the best ornaments, the most lasting monuments. They become the house wherein thy soule dwelleth, whiles it dwels there: and blesse thy memorie, when those two are parted. A good life is mans best monument: and that Epitaph shall last, as if it were written with a pen of iron, and claw of a Diamond; which is made vp of vertuous actions. Good herbes beautifie more then dead stones. Wheresoeuer thou shalt be buried, obscurity shall not swallow thee. EueryEvery good heart that knew thee is thy Tombe; and eueryevery tongue writes happy Epitaphes on thy memoriall. Thus height vp your soules with a treasure of good works. Let your herbes smel sweetly, let them tast chearfully; let them adorne beautiously. So Gods palate, his nosthrils, his sight shall be well pleased.
4. That they be medicinable; and serue not onelyonly as Antidotes to preuent, but as medicaments to cure the soules infirmities. The poore mans physicke lyes in his Garden: the good soule can fetch an herbe from his heart (of Gods planting there) that can helpe him. Plinie writes of a certaine herbe, which he calls Thelygonum; we in English, The grace of God. A happy herbe, and worthy to stand in the first place, as chiefe of the garden. For it is the principal, and (as it were) the Genus of al the rest. We may say of it, as some write of the Carduus benedictus, or Holy-thistle; that it is herba omnimorbia; an herbe of such vertue, that it can cure all diseases. This may heale a man, who is otherwise nullis medicabilis herbis. Wretched men, that are without this herbe, The grace of God, in their gardens.
Hysope and Humilitie.
IS a man tempted to pride? and that is a sawcie sinne, euer busie among good workes, like a Iudas among the Apostles: let him looke into this Garden for Hysop, Humility of Spirit. Of which herbe it is written.
Est humilis, petrae que suis radicibus haeret.
Let him be taught by this herbe, to annihilate his owne worth, and to cleaue to the Rocke, whereout he growes, and whereof hee is vpholden, IESVS CHRIST. Or let him produce the Camomill, which smels the sweeter, the more it is trodden on. Humility is a gracious herbe, and allayes the wrath of God; whereas pride prouokes it. It is recorded of an english king, Edward the first, that being exceeding angry with a seruant of his, in the sport of hawking, he threatned him sharply. The gentleman answered, it was well there was a riuer betweene them. Hereat the King more incensed, spurr'd his horse into the depth of the Riuer, not without extreame danger of his life; the water being deep, and the banks too steep and high for his ascending. Yet at last recouering land, with his sword drawne, he pursues the seruant; who rode as fast from him. But finding himself too ill-hors'd, to out-ride the angry King; he reyned, lighted, and on his knees exposed his neck to the blow of the kings sword. The King no sooner saw this, but he put vp his sword, and would not touch him. A dangerous water could not with-hold him from violence; yet his seruants submission did soon pacifie him. Whiles man flyes stubbornely from God, hee that rides vponupon the wings of the winde, postes after him with the sword of vengeance drawne. But when dust and ashes humbles himselfe, and stands to his merciemercy, the wrath of God is soone appeased.
This Camomill or Hysop growes very lowe: Humblenesse roots downeward, yet no herbe hath so high branches. We say, that proud men hauehave high mindes: they hauehave not. For their mindes only aspire to some earthly honours, which are but low shrubbes indeed. The humble man aspires to heauen, and to bee great in the eternall Kings fauour; and this is the true, but good height of minde. His desires hauehave a high ayme, though their dwelling bee in the vale of an humble heart. There are engines, that raise water to fall, that it may rise the higher. A lowly heart, by abasing it selfe in the sight of God and men, doth mount al the other graces of the soule as high as heauen; and the eye of merciemercy accepts them. Pride is a stinking weede; and though it be gay and garish, is but like the Horse-flower. In the field it is of glorious shew: croppe it, and you cannot endure the sauour. At the best, the proud man is but like the bird of Paradise, or the Estridge; his feathers are more worth then his body. Let not thy Garden be without this herbe Humilitie. It may be least respected with men; and among other herbs ouerlooked; but most acceptable to God. Respexit humilitatem ancillae suae, sings the Virgin MARY. He had regard to the lowlinesse of his hand-maiden. It shall not want a good remembrance, a good recompence. For the last, the least, and the lowest may come to be the first, the greatest, and the highest. This is a necessary herbe.