A1r

The
Arraignment.

By the Lady Eleanor.

Mark 9.

“And he said unto them, verily I say unto
you, that there be some of them that
stand here, which shall not taste of
death till they see the Kingdom of
God come with power.”

Printed in the year, 16501650.

A1v 2

Mark 9.

“And whosoever shall offend one of
these little ones that believe
in me, &c.”

And so who should be greatest,
or bear the sway; this Lesson
appointed for the present, occasioned
upon that dispute: Also to whom
it points about a Thing, of no little
weight doubtless, where declared, A
milstone better hanged about his neck
,
be he whosoever, standing no better
on his guard, (the sate-guard of no
few) on whose behavior or vigilancy
depends, to whose lot the Milstone
falls as follows, even the Military or Sword A2r 3
Sword profession, their judgement
here called to hold up their hand at
the Bar; behold as this seals it a free
passage: Verse, “And if thy hand offend
thee cut it off, it is better for thee
to enter into life maimed”
; likewise of
the foot, “Better to enter halt into life,
&c.”
Where by the natural Body,
reports the case concerning the
politique, to slight the least or lowest
degree, coming in his name how perilous.

So here anatomiz’d whose ferdin. Lord
fairfax
Father
discern I pray: “Then lose a foot,
suffered his whole body to perish”
, who
thought little of the thriird or term
cut off so of his days: By means
of a festred Toe, a Corn, turned
to a Gangren dyed, falling into a violent
Feaver, that very Ignis non
extinguitur
, or Wilde-fire, his A2 doughty A2v 4
doughty heart leaving it to his heir
how paterizaring, of late far and near
not unknown misled or overmaster’d
when put on his tryal, what metel
or salt in him: Better much had been
without assistants such hands, eyes,
or feet, unless more command over
himself had, whether friends, wife or
followers.

From the Omnipotent General,
Lord of Hosts when as sent unto,
dreading neither sacred watch words
these or Alarm: These thunderings
vouchsafed not so much as to see the
party, the like unparaleld in Divine
presidents or other, of such greatness
stood upon or manhood notwithstanding,
Quisquis scandalizaverit
unum ex his
, be he never so eminent,
his doom in the bottom of the Sea better A3r 5
better to have taken up his quarters:
To whom had some great thing been
commanded, To have departed his native
soil, or half his goods have parted among
the poor
, how much rather, but
when to lend an ear required: Even
cowardize in the highest degree, or
weaknes, who keeps his distance with
such, thereafter from his presence excluded
as far (as much to say) Write
their Epitaph on the sand, reward them
with a cup filled double, a portion let
them be for fishes, all as deaf and mute
like themselves, no burier, &c.

And for such Saints, so much suffices;
as his name, Thomas
Dydimous
, &c. and for them
also whose voyce the mountains obey,
or Monarchs confined them
to the ocean, Trees no small ones pluck A3v 6
plucks up by the roots, whose estate
blest when hated and cursed, in poverty
rich, their cottage Heaven
.

Against whom, all their Enemies
can alledge, for silencing the Holy
Ghost thus; or to cloak their arrogancy,
is because, former times as it were
barren signs and token discontinued,
therefore abolished, That may affirm
as well, or maintain Hell shall prevail
against Heaven, as that ordinary spirits
shall unseal the Books of Prophets,
or that other Book (so stiled)
Revel.20. “And I saw another book opened,
&c.”
to be explained ever by
them, “The word of the Lord induring
for ever having spoken it”
, Isa.40. “Whatsoever
is crooked, shall be made strait,
And the rough be made plain fields”
, the
voyce of deserts accompanying it as those A4r 7
those waste parts at this day, though
depopulated, “again to be ploughed as in
days of old; proclaiming the Spirit of
Prophesie opposed, though shall prevail,
The first and the last”
, in the mean time
that begets these distractions to destroy
themselves: The Bottomless
Pit witness, as they term it (or Abyss)
even when heaven opened; the other
its poysonous Fogs as free ( Apoc.9.)
That Assemblies description. Latine
habens nomen exterminans
.

Where lastly, after that ample
admonition (of health compared to
Heaven, and languishing sickness to
Hell) by way of Terror, expressing
the last general day of judgement,
at hand, with ambition how seasonable;
“as his wives looking back to
Sodom, vers.”
as here bidden, “To have A4v 8
have salt in themselves”
, the spirit
judgement, without which never
expect to have other rest, or to be
found in peace at his coming, even
to try the spirits, &c. each thing
in its season, salt the life being of
all things, quintessence of the elements,
both the good spirit resembles
and the bad, the best
of all things and the worst, for the
dunghil not profitable, otherwise
nothing so pure, to have a discerning
spirit the sum of all.

Where touching the perpetuity
of the aforesaid fire and worm: The
old explaining the other; herewith to
go forward a Lesson proper for the
age: “And the men that have transgressedsed B1r 9
( Isaiah the last) for their worm shall
not dye; neither shall their fire be quenched”
;
as much to say, the latter or last day
approach’d: “No more dry bones henceforth,
whose worm shall continue or remain
in them”
; as moreover, “They shall be
an abhorring to all flesh, (to wit) their intollerable
stink able to poyson man and
beast, &c.”
also of Calenders out of
date; but from new Moon to new
Moon, from Sabbath to Sabbath, like
weekly Bills of mortality.

And so much for this Habeas Corpus,
or moderating the severity of such
places, concerning their enlargement
one word, where serves both for the
grave and hell, supposed to be without
redemption, as from this place such
another Abys, saying, Descidite Maledicti,
aluding to the different seasons, B the B1v 10
the life and death of the creature, when
the Sun enters into Aries, the reviving
Spring, and in Capricorn Winters
tedious nights Decembers, “preparing
fuel, &c. Mat.25. shadowed under the
sheep on the one hand, the goats on the
other,”
left surprised unawares as the old
world by the deluge, “to have oyl in their
lamps all, &c. when some taken up in
the air, changd, in a moment, after the
Trumpets loud alarm, others swallowed
up by sea and land”
.

So again, for his shewing afterward
“Every sacrifice shall be seasoned with salt”,
bidden to have “Salt and peace, &c.” refers
to another passage in the Levitical
Law, their Peace-Offerings,
“The Priests laying his hand on the
head of the Oblation”
, as it were at the
bar holds up his hand, in behalf of him- B2r 11
himself and the people, under a gross
cloud of ignorance, acknowledging
guilty of that creatures sufferings, shadowing
forth what they liable unto.

Also for setting at large the ful meaning
of these, without needless Apology,
by way of what tedious objection
might require, farther to shew the
depth and plenitude of this place of
Scripture, like the fiery pillars light
side, and dark toward others, even
of its descending to Humane Sciences,
Divinities Handmayds: a word more
from the Whale to the Worm, from
the Milstone to the peble, nothing to be
despised
, as commodious and useful the
the least as the greatest, even so
points to our everlasting arms, that of
material salt, or sulpherous Barrels of
powder to be provided that way; also the B2v 12
the endless worm to have match in
like readiness: And that fire unquenchable,
the flint for another, as before
shewd, supposing to quench the Spirit
by way of retaliation, our Capernaums
alarm, or caveat enterd disesteemed other,
themselves to be abased as low
next door to his doom, Good for that
man had he been unborn, to exalt themselves
like those rebels
, gain-saying
core and his fifties rewarded.

And thus in his name, concluding by
vertue of his all-sufficient Arm, that
fasted forty days, I charge thee thou deaf
and dumb foul spirit, wherewith possest
from his infancy, &c. a thou melancholick
spirit, come forth of him, and enter no
more into him.

Jubile Lent.

Finis.