The devils banquet described in four sermons [brace], 1. The banquet propounded, begun, 2.…The deuills banket described in foure sermons [brace], 1. The banket propounded, begunne, 2.…

SIR:

SYR:

There are four sorts of Banquets, which I may thus distinguish: Laetum, letiferum; bellum, belluinum. The first is a joyful Feast: Such was the Break-fast of the World, in the Law, or the Dinner, in the Gospel, or (yet the future more fully, the Lambs Supper of Glory: this is a delicate Feast. Yet not more, then the next is deadly; the black Banquet, which is prepared for the wicked in Hell. Which consists of two Dishes, saith the School: Poena damni, and poena ⟨image 76⟩sensus; or as the Philosopher distinguisheth all misery, into copiam & inopiam: copia tribulationis, inopia consolationis. Or after some, of three: amissio coeli, privatio terrae, positio inferni: the missing of that they might have had, the privation of that they had, the position of that they have, and would not have, torment: or according to others, of four: Merciless misery, extremity, universality, eternity of anguish. Our Saviour abridgeth all into two, or rather one, (for they are homogenea) weeping and gnashing of teeth. This is a bloody Banquet, where (cross to the festival proverb, the more the merrier) the multitude of guests shall add to the horror of miseries; so afflicting one another with their echoing and reciprocal groans, that it shall be no ease socios habuisse doloris. This is a lamentable, but the third a laudable Feast. It is that the Christian maketh, either to man (which is a Feast of Charity) or to God, (which is a Feast of Grace.) Whereunto God hath promised to be a Guest, ¹and to sup ⟨image 76⟩with him. The last is a bestial Banke• ▪ wherein either man is the Symposiast, and the Devil the discumbent; or Satan the Feast-maker, and man the Guest. Sin is the food in both. The dye• is not varied, but the Host. Satan feasts the wicked, whiles they feed on his temptations to surfeit. The wicked feast Satan, whiles their accustomed sins nourish his power in their hearts. S S. Hierome, Daemonum cibus ebrietas, luxuria, fornicatio & universa vitia. Our iniquities are the very diet & dainties of the Devils. With this last only have I meddled, endeavouring to declare it, to dissuade it; (according to the dichotomized carriage of all our Sermons,) by explication, by application. Sin is the white (or rather the black mark) my arrow flies at. I trust, he that gave aim to my tongue, will also direct, level, and keep my Pen from swerving.