Christi impropriè per accidens posse honorari cultu latriae that by the help of a distinction our Saviours Images may be adored with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And this I may account for another fruit of this Image-worship that it drawes down on them that use it that curse recited in the Psalms viz. That such as worship them are like unto them Add unto these the scandall which is hereby given unto Jewes and Turks and the great hindrance which it doth occasion unto their conversion who do abominate nothing more in all Christianity then this profane and impious adoration of Images In which respect we may affirm that of the present Romans which St. Paul tells us of the ancient nomen Dei per vos blasphematnr inter gentes that by their meanes God is blasphemed among the Gentiles Inâ—initum est ire per singula To run through all particulars in this manner were an infinite business Suffice it that there is no point in difference between them and us the falshood and absurdity whereof is not discovered in the fruits in fecisset fructum however it lay hid in crevisset herba The Doctrine of indulgences and merchantable pardons to be bought for money what fruit doth it produce but licentious living when for so small a trifle one might purchase pardon non solum pro praeteritis verùmetiam pro futuris not only for sins past but for those to come The holding back of Scripture from the common people and celebrating Gods divine service in an unknown Tongue what fruits do they afford but ignorance of Gods holy pleasure and blind obedience to the precepts of sinful men and coldness in the exercise of devotion and finally contempt of Gods word and whole Commandements The equalizing of their own Traditions with Gods holy word according to the Canon of the late Trent-Councel what fruits doth it afford but contempt of Scripture The Doctrine of that Church in the point of merit what fruits doth it produce but high presumption or that of transubstantiation but most grosse Idolatry or that of half Communion but most horrible Sacriledge Such fruits if all meanes else should fail us would serve sufficiently to manifest and declare their noxious nature and thereby make us able to determine of them though none at all observed them when they were in semine and few were able to distinguish them when they were in herba Nam quod latebat in herba manifestatur in spica quod celatur in germine aperitur in fructu as saith Paschasius on the Text. You see by this that hath been spoken that there are other meanes still left us by Gods infinite mercy to know Gods Seed from Satans the good Wheat from tares besides the observation of time place and persons Ex sructibus corum cognoscetis eos by their fruits ye shall know them saith our Saviour And yet the triall of these tares is not made only by the fruits the fruits first brought them to apparuerunt made them plain and visible and brought them to appear in the open Court But having entred their appearance they were to be examined tried and judged by the word of God The Lord hath given it for a Rule ad legem testimonium that in all doubtful controversies we should have recourse to the law and testimonies And Christ our Saviour being asked his judgement touching the business of Divorce refers himself to the first Institution saying Ab initio non fuit sic it was not so in the beginning So that whoever can demonstrate from the Book of God that either the Doctrine or the practice of the Church of Rome differeth from that which was first preached and published by our blessed Saviour and the holy Apostles doth manifestly prove a change therein nay prove as forcibly that they have departed from the rule of Faith which was once given to the Saints as if he could or did demonstrate all the circumstances when and by whom and in what Country every particular deviation and corruption did at first creep in Quid verba audiam cùm facta videam what need we search for circumstances when we have the substance or look into the root when we see the fruit But here may those of Rome reply and say Are there no â—ares at all in your reformation are all your Geese Swans and your Grain good Wheat Did Satan never take you sleeping Whence is it then we see amongst you such opposition to all publick Orders such a neglect of fasting such contempt of holy dayes though both of Apostolical institution such practises and attempts against Episcopacy though ordained by Christ such quarrelling against those sacred Ceremonies in Gods publick service which you pretend to be derived from most pure antiquity Whence is it that we have observed such Covenants and Combinations against lawful Government such obstinate and strong if not perverse resistance against just Authority of your supreme Lord as well in temporal matters as Ecclesiastical such common stocks and contributions to support your factions and relieve those that are condemned for their disobedience Whence is it that there are maintained amongst you such blasphemies in laying upon God the blame of sin such Stoicisme in necessitating all mens actions by the fatality of Gods Decrees such Donatisme in appropriating to some few amongst you the names of Saints and true Professors Qui alterum incusat probri c. you that have found so many tares in the Church of Rome had best be sure that your own floore be very throughly purged and your wheat well winnowed and that you search not our wounds with too sharp an hand till you have cleansed and cured your own This they object and what shall we return for answer We will be more ingenious then they are to us and confess the action and so not put them to the needless trouble of looking after the particulars of time place and persons Too true it is that some amongst us though not of us have set on foot those Doctrines and pursued those practises which are become a scandal to our Reformation and further will dishonour it and in time subvert it if care and order be not taken to prevent the mischief We see them in their fruits already and that hath brought them at the last to apparuerunt But what they are and whose and what fruits they bear and what is aimed at in those innovations which they have thrust upon this Church and yet cry out of innovations as if these were none I cannot shew you for the present The time is too far spent and the season past to venture on a new Discovery but what is wanting now shall be made good hereafter at next setting out when I shall come to the unde haec zizania in the following verse Have patience but till then I will pay you all which that I may the better look for I shall not tire your patience further at this present time
THE PARABLE OF THE TARES EXPOVNDED APPLYED In TEN SERMONS Preached before his late Majesty KING CHARLES The Second MONARCH of Great BRITAIN By Peter Heylin D. D. To which are added three other Sermons of the same Author LONDON Printed by J. G. for Humphrey Moseley at the Prince's Arms in St. Pauls Church-yard 1659. To his ever Honoured Cousin LAVRENCE BATHVRST Esquire Eldest Son of Sr. Edward Bathurst of Lerhlad in the County of Gloucester KNIGHT and BARRONET IT was the Saying of St. Gregory surnamed the Great that the holy Scripture was nothing else but an Epistle sent from Almighty God to his Creature man by which he might be rightly informed in all those points which were fit or necessary to be known and trained up in the practise of all those duties which were fit and necessary to be done Quid enim est Scriptura sacra nisi epistola Omnipotentis Dei ad creaturam suam as that Father hath it According to which great example though possibly not in reference and relation to it it hath been the custom of men in all times and nations not extremely barbarous when they could not personally expresse their minds to one another to mannage intelligence in the way of Letters of Epistles in which they comprehend all such particulars as were expedient to be known to either party Inventae erant epistolae as Tully tels us ut certiores faceremus absentes si quid esset quod eos scire aut nostrum aut ipsorum interesset And to say truth they are our ordinary Messengers of love and friendship our extraordinary Posts for dispatch of busines◠By them we commonly receive advice counsel in our affairs of greatest moment and to them we commit the close conveyance of such secrets as cannot with like confidence be trusted to friends or servants His arcana notis terra pelagoque feruntur as Ovid's passionate Lady writeth to her dear Hippolitus In which respect considering that God hath placed us at a distance so that I cannot personally acquaint you with some particulars touching the publishing of these Sermons which I think fit for you to know that you may make them known to others I am compelled in a manner to expresse them in this present Epistle In which I shall first present you with those impulsives which have induced me contrary to my former custom and resolutions to commit these Sermons to the Press and then to let you know the reason why I have made choice of your name in this Dedication And first I must needs say and I may say it very truly that I never did any thing in this kind of which I found my self more obliged to render a just account then of the publishing the ensuing Sermons which seems like the adding of fresh leavs to a well grown tree in the midst of Sommer of stars to a cleer firmament in a Winter night or finally of water to a full and unfathomed Ocean and you may justly say to me in the Poets words Quid folia Arboribus quid pleno sidera Coelo In Freta collectas alta quid addis aquas That is to say Why dost thou adde fresh leaves unto the Trees Stars to the Heavens or Water to the Seas In answer to which objection I can neither plead the importunity of friends the command of superiors nor the preventing of false Copies from being brought unto the Press which I observe to be the common pretences for printing Sermon upon Sermon most of the which without any sensible losse to Learning or disadvantage to the Church might have been buried in the Studies of them that made them And yet I would not have it thought but that I have some reason for what I do more then the vulgar desire of being in print there having been so much of mine on the Press already as might have satisfied the folly of that desire were I guilty of it and therefore I shall let you know and in you all others who shall read them thas these Sermons are now published on the same occasion on which they were first penned and preached which was briefly this It was about the Year 1636. in which the Press began to swarm with libellous and seditious Pamphlets destructive of the publick peace and tending to a manifest desertion of the received Government and Formes of Worship by Law established in this Kingdom In most of which the Bishops generally were accused for having a design to bring in Popery the regular Clergie of this Church my self more frequently then any of my ranck and quality traduced and defamed for subservient instruments I had before and sometimes after been cast upon the managing of some of the puritan Controversies as they then called them particularly in writing the History of the Sabbath the Answer to the seditious Sermon and Apologie of Mr. H. B. of Friday-street the book entituled A Coal from the Altar the defence thereof called Antidotum Lincolniense touching the ancient most convenient scituation of the holy Table which so exasperated the spirits of those bitter men who then disturbed both Ch. and State with their venemous libels that hardly any of that numerous litter had crept into the world in which I was not openly accused of Popery or at the least of being an Under-factor unto those who had the chief managing of that design For the decrying of which scandal so unjustly raised for actū est de homine ubi actum est de nomine as the old rule was I fell upon a resolution of preaching these ensuing Sermons before the King whose Chaplain for Ordinary I then was and had been many years before upon the Parable of the Tares and giving in them such an assurance of my Orthodoxie in Religion and averseness from Popery as might declare me for a true son of the Church of England And this I did at such a time when the inclinations unto Popery were thought but falsly thought to be most predominant both in Court and Clergy a course which gave such satisfaction unto a great part of the auditors who before did seem to be otherwise perswaded of me that some of the more moderate sort did not stick to say not to touch here on some comparative expressions which were used by others that in the third and fourth of these Sermons I had pulled up Popery by the very roots and subverted the foundations of it Not much unlike to which was the expression of a great Peer of the Realm who being present at the sixth Sermon was pleased to say that it was generally affirmed in the Country that no Sermons were preached before the King but such as might be preached in the Popes Chapel but that if the Doctor had preached the said Sermon before the Pope what breakfast soever he had made for himself he would have found but a sorry dinner This as it was the occasion which moved me at that time to make choice of this parable for the
that dreadfull Court the ordinary Officers or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Almighty Judge and bound to execute the mandates which are issued thence whether mens sins be ripe for vengeance or that affliction and repentance make them fit for mercy First in the wayes of temporal punishment it is most clear and evident in holy Scripture that God sent down his Angels with a full Commission to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah two rich populous Cities after they had so long abused his patience and their own prosperities and that he sent his evil Angels amongst the Egyptians when neither signes nor wonders could prevail upon them by whom he gave their life over to the Pestilence slew the first-born in all their dwellings and finally overwhelmed them in the red Sea Where note that they are there called mali angeli or evill Angels not that they were so in themselves but ab effectu by reason of the several evils which they did inflict on that perishing and wretched people by the Lords appointment Thus do we also read of a destroying Angel by whom according to the Word and Command of God no fewer then 7000. of the Jewes were consumed in an instant when once they boasted in their numbers and did presume too farre in the arm of flesh and of another which went out and smote in the Camp of the Assyrians no lesse then 185000. men after they had blasphemed the Lord and put a scorn upon the holy one of Israel not to say any thing of Herod who when he had beheaded James imprisoned Peter and troubled certain of the Church was miserably smitten by an Angel and consumed by worms It pleased God to imploy them in these acts of vengeance though well affected in themselves to the good of mankind and a necessity was layd upon them to obey his pleasure Nec quicquam est in Angelis nisi parendi necessitas said Lactantius truly So farre the point is clear from the Book of God and if we will believe the Learned as I think we may there is no signall punishment of ungodly people ascribed to God in holy Scripture but what was executed by the Ministry of these blessed Spirits except some other meanes and Ministers be expresly named That great and universall deluge in the time of Noah was questionless the work of God Behold I even I do bring a flood of waters upon the Earth But this was done Ministerio Angelorum by the Ministry and service of the holy Angels whom God employed in breaking up the Fountain of the great deep and opening the Cataracts of Heaven for the destruction of that wicked unrepenting people Thus when it is affirmed in the 14. of Exod. That the Lord looked into the Host of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and overthrew them in the midst of the Sea non intelligendum est de Deo sed de Angelo qui erat in nube we must not understand it of the Lord himself but only of the Angel or that ministring spirit of whose being in the Cloud we had heard before And when we read that in the Battel of the five Kings against the Israelites the Lord cast down great stones from Heaven upon them in the 10. of Josuah it is not to be thought as Tostatus notes it quòd Deus mitteret sed Angeli jubente Deo that this was done by Gods own hand but by the holy Angels at the Lords appointment The like may be observed of those other acts of power and punishment whereof we find such frequent mention in the holy Scripture that though they be ascribed to God as the principal agent yet were they generally effected by his heavenly Angels as the meanes and instrument But the most proper office of the holy Angels is not for punishment but preservation not for correction of the wicked but for the protection of the just and righteous not for the rooting up of the Tares but for the safety of the Wheat for they are ministring Spirits saith St. Paul sent out to minister unto them who shall be heirs of salvation That 's the chief part of their imployment the businesse which they most delight in and God accordingly both hath and doth employ them from time to time For by the Ministry of his Angels did he deliver Ishmael from the extremities of thirst and Daniel from the fury of hunger Lot from the fire and trembling Isaac from the Sword our Infant-Saviour from one Herod his chief Apostle from another all of them from the common prison into the which they had been cast by the Priests and Sadduces But these were only personal and particular Graces Look we on those which were more publick and such as did concern his whole people generally and we shall find an Angel of the Lord encamping between the Host of Israel and the Host of Egypt to make good the passage at their backs till they were gotten safe to the other side of the Sea Another Angel marching in the front of their Armies as soon as they had entred the Land of Canaan and he the Captain of the Lords Host Princeps Exercitus Domini the vulgar reads it some great and eminent Angel doubtless but whether Michael Gabriel or who else it was the Rabbins may dispute at leisure and to them I leave it More then so yet That wall of waters which they had both on the right hand and upon the left when they passed thorow the Sea as upon dry ground facta est à Deo per Angelos exequentes as learned Abulensis hath it was the work of Angels directed and employed by Almighty God Which also is affirmed by the Jewish Doctors of the dividing of the waters of Jordan to make the like safe passage for them into the promised Land which the Lord had given them The like saith Peter Martyr of the raising of the Syrians from before Samaria when the Lord made them hear the noyse of Charets and the noyse of Horsmen that this was Ministerio Angelorum effected by the Ministry of the holy Angels whom he employed in saving that distressed City from the hands of their enemies And by an Angel or at least an Angelical vision 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by a Dream or Oracle delivered unto them in their sleep as Eusebius tells us did he forewarn the Christians dwelling in the Land of Palestine to remove thence to Pella a small Town of Syria and so preserved them from the spoyl and fury of the Roman Armies This was Gods way of preservation in the times before us and for his way of preservation in all Ages since God is the same God now as then his holy Angels no lesse diligent in their attendance on our persons then they have been formerly Let us but make our selves by our faith and piety worthy to be accounted the Sonnes of God and the Heires of salvation and doubt we not
and come next in order to be handled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sense of hearing saith our Master Aristotle is the sense of Discipline that sense whereby we are made capable of learning and thereby gain unto our selves that knowledge which could not be begotten with us by our Parents We may upon the same grounds call it the sense of salvation For Fides ex auditu Faith comes by hearing saith St. Paul And without faith it is impossible we should be saved because it is impossible that without faith we should please the Lord. Now no man brings this knowledge of or this faith in Christ into the World along with him nor can a man believe in the Sonne of God into whose soul the Doctrine of belief is not distilled and infused through the outward senses Faith though an habit principally of the Lords infusing yet requires somewhat on our parts to be done and acted as hearing reading conference and such like preparatives whereby our understandings are informed and our mindes enlightned and so prepared to entertain it Besides it is the observation of an ancient Father that many faculties of the soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are likened and resembled to the outward members Upon which ground the eare may not improperly be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the spirituall mouth by which we do receive both food and Physick for the languishing soul It hath been noted of the sheep that it is naturally subject to the rot Ossa minutatim morbo collapsa trahebat as the Poet hath it Which as it naturally doth arise from the moyst and flegmatick constitution of their bodies so is it then most frequent and predominant in them when to the natural moysture of their bodies is added also the corrupt moysture of their Pastures No way to help it or prevent it but to change their Pastures to lead them up unto the Mountains to places of a sweet but more wholsom Herbage So is it also with us men with our Saviours sheep We are all rotten from the womb in sin our Mothers have conceived us saith the Royal Psalmist but then most dangerously affected with it when to the natural corruptness of our disposition are added also the diseases of our education Crederes nos naturâ non tam improbos esse nisi accederet etiam disciplina But being thus diseased and ill-affected what means is left us for the cure surely there is no other way to remedy the diseases of our conversation but by the physick of the Word nor other way to make that physick efficacious but by applying it to the ear That is the mouth wherewith we must take down those potions which the Physitians of our souls have prescribed unto us Next let us look upon the Word as it is our food man living not by bread alone but by every word proceeding from the mouth of God food fitted for all Ages and for all conditions Are we but Novices in the things of God but Babes of yesterday then it goes for milk As new-born babes desire ye the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby so St. Peter hath it Are ye of riper years and more setled judgments then it stands for meat Strong meat belongs to them that are of full age who have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil so St. Paul hath told us Are ye of curious tasts and affected palates then it is a banquet a banquet of all others the most rich and nourishing A banquet full of all Varieties in which there are both Sweet-meats to delight the Tast Salsado's to revive the Palate Tart stuff to set an edge upon the Appetite Lenitives to open and unknit Obstructions Cordials to heighten and advance our Spirits And by what means do we become partakers of those heavenly Viands but onely by the mouth of our Understanding auditu devorandus est hic panis Intellectu devorandus Fide digerendus This sacred and celestial food must be first swallowed with our Ears chewed with our Intellect or Understanding and finally digested by our Faith as Tertullian hath it so that in each of those respects and in all together Qui habet aures audire audiat He that hath ears to hear let him hear and yet that 's not all Not all assuredly there 's no thought of that the way to Heaven were very easie if it should be so There 's not a Scribe or Pharisee in all the Gospel but had been Sainted long before this time if hearing onely in it self ex opere operato as the Schoolmen phrase it could have brought them thither They heard the voice of Christ none oftner but they onely heard it and in this place audire goes a little further The hearing as it is the sense of discipline so was the ear the instrument of hearing of old times consecrated to the memory Physici dicunt singulas corporis partes Numinibus consecratas esse ut aurem Memoriae frontem Genio as Servius notes it upon Virgil We must so hear then that we do remember not make our ears a thorough-fare and no more then so and yet this is not all we must look to neither Audire est credere obedire as mine author tells me To hear is to believe and practise first to believe that what we heare delivered in the Word is true and then to practise it as fit and necessary to be done this is the hearing we must trust too if we look for Heaven 'T is not the shutting of our eyes and turning all the body into an ear that will save our soules there 's somewhat else which must be thought of First to commit to memory those saving Doctrines which we have heard delivered from the Word of God and next to express the power thereof in our lives and actions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as in Oecumenius with all alacrity of mind and spirit for not the hearers of the Word but the doers of it shall be justified so the Apostle to the Romans Nor is it strange that hearing in the Book of God should be interpreted Obedience It was the first quarrel which God had with Adam quia audiisti vocem uxoris tuae because he had hearkened to the voice of his wife What had God given her to him for a comfort and doth he now find fault that he heard her speak what comfort can there be in a sullen woman in a dumb woman none at all Not so 't was not the hearing of Eves voice that the Lord condemned but his obeying of the same his yielding to her wanton motions and attributing more unto her desires then to Gods Commandements Audisti i. e. adimplesti to hearken there is to obey because thou hast obeyed the voice of thy wife and willfully transgressed the precepts of the Lord thy God therefore the Lord shall curs◠the earth and make thee labour for thy living so in the 1