constant argument of my Sermons before the King so on the like occasion I am now induced I may not unfitly say compelled to make them publick unto others For notwithstanding that I have so fully declared my self against the errors and corruptions of the Church of Rome in my late Comment on the Creed yet on a sudden whither I will or no I must be a Papist a Jesuit or some Agent for the See of Rome suspected at the least for such by Dr. Bernard and as he tells us by others for which consult the book entituled The Judgement of the late Lord Primate c. pa. 115. The author of the History of the Life and Reign of King Charles ecchoeth the words of Dr. Bernard which like an Eccho he reiterateth vocesquè refert iteratque quod audit as it is in ovid in his scurrilous pamphlet called the Post-Hast Reply c. It was accounted for a prudent part in Sophocles as indeed it was when he was once accused of madness to produce one of his Tragedies then newly written to read the same before the people of Athens and then to ask his Judges Num illud carmen videretur esse hominis delirantis whether they thought it like to be the work of a man distracted And I hope it will be counted no imprudence in me being again accused of popery or at the least suspected of it to commit these Sermons to the Press to offer them to the reading of the people of Engl. then to put this question to them Whether they think such Sermons could proceed from the pen of a Papist som Jesuit or Agent for the See of Rom Adde hereunto that finding it wondred at in print that so many of my books do so little concern my profession though I know none that do so little concern the same as the Pamphlets hath it I hope the printing of these Sermons will take off the wonder that they will be looked upon as in which my profession is concerned Such being the reason of bringing these Sermons to the publick view I shall observe in the next place with what injustice the Court-Chaplains have been accused for flatterie and time serving for preaching up the Kings prerogative and derogating from the property and liberty of the English subject in which if one or two were faulty it stands not with the rules of Justice and much less of Equity that for the fault of one or two unius ob culpam furias in the Poets words a general blemish should be laid on all the rest Certain I am no flatterie or time-serving no preaching up the Kings prerogative or derogating from the propertie of the English subjects will be found in these Sermons nor could be found in any other of mine had they been sifted to the bran In confidence whereof when some exceptions had been made against some passages in one of my Sermons preached at VVestminster by a mistake of some that heard it I offered the Committee for the Courts of Justice before whom that exception had been started to put into their hands all the Sermons which I had either preached at Court or in Westminster Abbie to the end that they might see how free and innocent I was from broching any such new Doctrines as might not be good Parliament-proof when soever they should come to be examined and had they took me at my offer certain I am it might have redounded very much to the clearing of my reputation in the sight of those Gentlemen and nothing to my hurt or disadvantage at all In the digestion of these Sermons I made it my chief care rather to inform the understanding then to work on the affections of them that heard me For having for seven or eight years before felt the pulse of the Court and finding that many about the King were not well principled in the constitution of the Church of England and thereby gave occasion to others to think as sinisterly of it as they did themselves I thought that course most fit to be followed in my preaching which was like to be most profitable to them that heard me for the Understanding being well informed and the Judgement of men well setled on so sure a bottom I doubted not but that their affections would be guided by the light of their Understanding and bring them to be all of one mind and of one soul like the Christians in Acts 4. 32. Voluntas sequitur intellectum is a maxime of undoubted truth in the schools of Philosophie and holds good in all the practical duties which concern Religion Which way of preaching had it been more generally followed as it might have been I think it probable enough that we might better have kept the unity of the spirit in the bond â—f peace then by striving to stir up the affections with little or no improvement to the understanding Knowledg without Zeal may be resembled to a candle carried in a Dark-lanthorn or hid under a bushel which wasts it self without giving light to others and is uuprofitably consumed without any benefit to the publick but on the other side zeal without knowledg or not according to knowledg may be compared unto the meteor which the Philosophers call an Ignis Fatuus which for the most part leads men out of the way and sometimes draws them on to dangerous precipices or to a brush-Bavine-faggot in a Country Cottage more apt to fire the house then to warm the chimney So much being said as to the Motives which induc'd me to print these Sermons upon the parable of the Tares and to my handling and accomodating that Parable to the use of the Church as then it stood established by the Laws of the Land I am in the next place to let you know the reason why I have made choice of you name in this Dedication And herein I can make as little use of those common aims which are so frequent in Dedications of this nature that is to say protection profit or preferment as I did before of those common pretences which are so frequently alledged for publishing many of those books which without any loss to Learning or disadvantage to the Ch. as before was said might have been reprieved from the Press Protection I expect none from you in these perilous times in which without a prudent care of your life and actions you will be hardly able to protect your self nor is this dedication made in the way of gratitude for any benefit or profit formerly received from you in which respect I dedicated my book called Ecclesia Vindicata to my kind and honoured Schoolmaster Mr. Edward Davies or out of any covetous hopes of being gratified by you with any profit or preferment in the Church for time to come of which if I were capable I might by the same capability return again unto my own and being made uncapable can receive none from you or from any other though my present condition be
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
for so the Spirit calls it in the Book of Canticles and men we know are farre more curious in their Gardens then about their Fields But in this Church this Garden dress'd with Gods own hand there are some Plants that thrive and prosper more then others and those the Lord hath chosen to inoculate in the Tree of Life for every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth as himself hath told us that it may bring forth more fruit John 15. Let us all therefore have a care in our severall places that we amend our lives and yield fruits worthy of Repentance that being fruitful of good works in this present Nursery we may be all of us transplanted into the glorious Eden of eternal life I should now speak of Gods propriety in this Field and shew that it is ager suus Gods own Field alone but I have spoken of it sparsim through and in each part of this discourse and cannot but perswade my selfe that you all know the Earth is his because he made it and the World his because he governeth and directs it And therefore here I will conclude beseeching God c. SERMON II. At WHITE-HALL Jan. 21. 1637. MATTH 13. v. 25. But while men slept his enemy came and sowed Tares among the Wheat and went his way SPiritus isti insinceri non desinunt perditi jam perdere c. It is the observation of Minutius that the Devil being alienated from the love of God endeavours nothing more then mans destruction It is too great a misery as he conceives it to be miserable by ones selfe alone and Hell too hot to be â—â—dured if none else should endure it but the Devils upon this ground no sooner had the Lord made man but Satan laboured to undo him He had before procured himself a party in the Heaven of glories and amongst the Angels how much more easie was it for him to infect Paradise and seduce a woman In which attempt the issue proved so answerable to his hopes that man became devested of his chief indowments his Justice and Integrity Nor was there any way to repair those ruines but by the preaching of the word which he hath laboured ever since either to hinder that it be not preached at all or so to practise on the hearers that it be preached with little profit Three parts of that good seed which God had sown upon his Field are by those arts made barren and unprofitable and for the fourth that which did fall upon good ground and took root downward and began to bear fruit upwards even that if possible shall be corrupted in it self or mingled with a grain of different dangerous nature for sin as Chrysost hath noted he neither could destroy it in the seed nor scorch it in the blade nor choak it in the stalks as we are told he did in the former Parable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is resolved upon another neat device not like to fail this was to watch his opportunity and when the servants of the Husbandman were grown no lesse careful of their charge to scatter tares among the wheat and go his way Cum autem dormirent homines c. These words contain in them the two inseparable qualities of the old murderer his malice and his subtility his malice first express'd in this that he is inimicus ejus Gods enemie and secondly in his devilish plot to destroy Gods harvest sevit zizania in medio tritici his sowing tares among the Wheat His subtlety described in this first that he took his opportunity when as the servants of the Husbandman were fast asleep cum dormirent homines while men slept and lastly by his quick and crafty leaving of the place venit abiit he came secretly and departed suddenly Of this his speedy going thence and of the manner of his comming we shall say nothing at this time It is not for our benefit to be too zealous of his company in a business of this nature and therefore abeat let him go as for the residue of the Text we shall discourse thereof in these several Couplets First we shall speak unto you of the Devill and his diligence sevit inimicus ejus his enemy sowed next of the Seminary and the seed zizania in medio tritici tares in the middle of the Wheat and thirdly of the servants and their sluggishness cum dormirent homines while men slept of these in their order Victoria sine certamine constare non potest nec virtus ipsa sine hoste vertue is never made more amiable then by opposition nor should the valiant man be more remembred then the Coward if he had no Adversary how little had we known of David had he consumed his time in sloth and payed perhaps unto the Nations round about him for a secure and quiet bondage for this cause God hath pleased to let his enemy the Devil continue still and his creatures and to continue still a Devil had he but said the word he could have quickly made him nothing or had he pleased he could have made him meerly passive and only capable of torments but God did leave him as he was save that he cast him down to Hell ut eo superando vim suam vel exerceat vel ostendat that so there might be still some enemy on which to exercise his power and expresse his greatnesse I will put enmity saith God between thee and the Woman and between thy seed and her seed not betwixt the Devil and us men though we do all descend from her who was the Mother of all living but between him and our Redeemer the promised seed the expectation of the Gentiles he only is of power to bruise the head of the old Serpent the Devil therefore is at enmity with him alone to him an enemy ex professo inimicus ejus his enemy to us an enemy no further then we have reference to him and are the children of his Kingdom the servants of his holy Houshold with this St. Chrysost accords Satan saith he doth bend his forces most against us men but the occasion of his malice is not so much in hate to man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as an inveterate hate to God whose badge and cognizance we bear just so the King of Ammon dealt with Davids servants not that he was displeased with them for how could they poor men deserve the anger of so great a Prince but that he bare no good affection to the King their Master In ancient times the Images of such as capitally had offended or otherwise were grown odious with the common people were broken down and publickly defaced in the chief assemblies on them the people used to expresse their fury when such as they distasted were above their reach too high for them to strike at Thus they of Rome effiggâ—es Pisonis in Gemonias traxerant had drawn the Images of Piso unto the place of execution had not
chief fortresse of the Isle of man which once surprized with ache and giddiness and distemper how easie will it be to subdue the rest Thus is it also with false Factions and Schismatical Doctrines if mingled with the bread of Life The Word of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how excellent is it in it self how sweet a nourishment unto life eternal But if the tares of Heresie and Schisme be mingled with it then it becomes as the wise man calls it panis impietatis bread of wickedness panis mendacii bread of lies and panis mendax bread of falshood Such as do eat thereof however it may please the palat will finde it gravel in their mouthes and bitterness within the stomach and giddiness within the head The Cup of the New Testament how pleasant is it in it self how powerful to the remission of our sins yet if the juyce of these foule tares be mingled in it then is it vinum iniquitatis the wine of wickedness and vinum prostitutionis the wine of fornication as the Prophet calls it such as do drink thereof how drunken will they be with the Cup of abomination and filthiness the wine of the wrath of God poured out in the Cup of his indignation We note it of this kind of men with what a giddiness they are possessed in all their wayes how strangely they are madded on their own dear fancies and as it were besotted with the folly of their own inventions The Lord hath mingled spiritum vertiginis the spirit of giddiness and perverseness in the midst of Egypt and made them erre in every work thereof as a drunken man staggereth in his vomit Galen relates in his first Book de facultate alimoniae how once the year being unseasonable and intemperate there sprung up an exceeding quantity of tares among the wheat the store of wheat in the mean time was very small and therefore neither the Husbandmen nor Bakers did sift it as they ought to do with skreenes and triers for that purpose but sold the wheat and tares together hereupon many of the people began to be diseased and ill affected in their heads but at the comming on of Summer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they brake out all of them into boyles and botches On this the wise Physitian gives this Caveat that we do carefully pick out these tares 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his words there are and part them from our heaps of Corn lest else we also fall into the same distempers and inconveniences Do we not note it also thus in the condition of false schismatical and factious Doctrines and the progress of them The enemy hath been diligent there is no doubt of that in sowing tares amongst the wheat and many of his Baylâ—ffs careless in the sifting of them because their store of wheat is small and are not some of them which are as were those Bakers of whom Galen speaks the makers the dividers of this bread unto the people either on negligence or set purpose guilty alike of this Imposture That such there are fraudulent and deceitful Bakers of the bread of life is more then certain the destiny of Pharaohs Baker be upon them for what can follow hereupon but strange distempers in the head and foul diseases in the body fallings away from God breach of the common bond of peace and in the end perhaps totall Apostasies from the faith and Gospel And then what next but that in the Apostles Language as they did not like to acknowledge God so doth God give them over to a reprobate minde to do those things which are not convenient If Nicolas the Deacon fall away from the holy truth and overthrow the faith of some no question but that he or his will also do those things which the Lord hateth and Simon Magus if he have once the Gall of bitterness within what else can be expected from him but a promiscuous and lawless liberty indifferenter utendi foeminis which came in fine to be his Doctrine The Shipwreck of the faith is commonly attended by as great a Shipwreck of the Conscience however for the most part notably dissembled for remedy whereof we will apply the counsel and advice of Galen in our Saviours Language Take heed of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadduces or in the phrase of the Apostles Purge therefore out the old leaven the leaven of wickedness and malice and let us keep the feasts of God with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth But yet the Devil stayed not here the Devil as in malice he is inimicus a malignant enemy so in his cunning he is serpens as wise and subtile as a Serpent therefore he did not only sowe his tares in agro Domini in the Lords field but even in medio tritici in the middle of the wheat it self and in that act play'd both his prizes for it is generally noted of the tare that it is frugum pestis the very bane and plague of all other grain and for that reason called by Virgil infelix lolium nor doth the name thereof in the Greek Originalls assure us of a better Omen for the zizanion of my Text is in the grand Etymologicon so called quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because it growes up with the wheat and at last destroyes it And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by which name the two great Doctors Galen and Theophrastus have given it to us in the same work is said to be derived by a Metathesis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies to vitiate or to corrupt the tares corrupting the good seed by being mixed and made up with it into bread as I have told you out of Galen but that which is the greatest danger is that if not looked to in time the wheat may chance to be destroyed and all the field run over and pestred with them for Pliny tells us of a certain triticum circumligando enâ—care that winding round about the wheat at the last it kills it or if not so as he delivers yet it devoures it in the end by growing up with it and overspreading all the field in the which it groweth as Theophrastus rather thinketh And have we not observed it thus in Heresie false Doctrine Schisme Hath not St. Chrysostom observed that Satan did forbeare his tares when there was nothing to be hurt and that he sowed them when the wheat had taken root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that so he might destroy the hopes and whole endeavours of the heavenly Husbandman And hath not Lyra noted well that therefore did the enemy sowe his tares even in the middle of the wheat ad ipsius destructionem only of purpose to destroy it destroy it how either by winding round about it or over-running all the field in which it is By winding round about it first as doth the Ivie with the Oak till it hath sucked out all
been quite wanting to his Church The Arians grown so insolent that they made open profession of their Heresie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if they had been authorized and licensed to it The Macedonians so presumptuous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. that they were formed into a Church and had a titulary Bishop of their own Sect. The Apollinarians held theâ—r Conventicles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with as much safety and esteem as the Orthodox Christians And for Eunomius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bosom-mischief of those times he thought so poorly of a general connivence that at last nothing would content him but to have all men else to be his Disciples Of all which scandalls and disorders the said Nectarius then being Patriarch of Constantinople the greatest Prelate of the East is there affirmed to be the cause A man as the Historian saith of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of an exceeding faire and plausible demeanor and very gracious with the people one that chose rather as it seemes to give free way to all mens fancies and suffer every mans proceedings then draw upon himself the envy of a stubborn Clergy and a factious multitude A pregnant evidence that possibly there cannot be a greater mischief in a Christian Church then a popular Prelate If so if by the negligence connivence of one man alone so great a spoil was made in the Church of God how busie think we was the enemy in sowing tares when as this negligence was epidemical and in a manner universal over the people The second kind of sleep which did invade the Church of God was the sleep of ignorance a sleep of such a generall latitude that neither Priest nor people were able to hold up or to look abroad The Priests lips destitute of knowledge the people so regardless that they did not seek it both so defective in their duties that at the last the Priest like those in Irenaeus veritatis ignorantiam cognitionem vocant taught that the safest knowledge was to know nothing and as they preached even so the people did believe if not tell me who can what was become of the gift of tongues is it not noted to our hands Quòd Graecè nosse suspectum foret Hebraicè propè haereticum that it was Heresie almost to be seen in Hebrew and a misprision of Heresie to be skilled in Greek And for the Latine the Books still extant of those times will inform us easily that there was nothing left of it no not the words Or of the Arts doth not Sabellicus complain how totally they were forgotten in the middle Ages Quanta bonarum artium per id tempus oblivio invaluerit Or of the Lawes do we not read how they were buried in a manner with the great Emperour their Collector till in the latter dayes Lotharius Emperour of Germany found an old Copy of them at Amalphi in the Realm of Naples Or of the Scriptures was not the Book sealed up for many Ages and had not worldly policy so farre prevailed above true piety that it was made unlawful if not capitall to look into it Nor was this ignorance only in the people but as the Prophet said in another case Aâ— is the people such was the Priest and as the Priest was such were the people nay even the Cardinal complaineth of an infelix seculum an unhappy age in which was neither famous Scholar nor Pope that cared much how Religion went which being so Divinity it self and all the Arts and helps unto it layed to so long and dead a sleep no question but the enemy was exceeding diligent both in the ripening of his old tares and in sowing new There is a kinde of sleep yet left as hurtful â—o the Church as the other two the sleep of sensuality and of immoderate ease and pleasures a sleep like that described in the sixth of Amos They lie saith he upon benches of Ivory and stretch themselves upon their couches they carouse wine in bowles and anoint themselves with the chief oyntments Did not the Prophet think you reflect a little on the last Ages of the Church or may not his description with good reason be applyed unto them if not why did St. Bernard in a pious anger upbraid the Clergy of those times with their Stage-like gestures their meretricious neatness their pompous habits and retinue Incedunt nitidi ornati circumamicti varietatibus more like saith he unto a spruce and Court-like Bridegroom then the severe Guardians of the Spouse of Christ Could it be thought that men so neat and complete as those drowned in effeminacy and ease and surfeited with too much fullnesse would leave the pleasures of the world to minde the business of the Church or shake away their pleasant slumbers to entertain so sowre a Mistress as the perplexities of learning and the severities of Discipline Nunquam putabam fore I never thought said Cicero that such a curious youth as Caesar one that so smoothly comb'd his hair and rnbbed his head with his fore-finger would either have the happiness or the heart to vanquish Pompey Though Tully was deceived in the event of that great action yet his conjecture had good grounds And we may well apply it to them that sure such men as in those dayes had the sole managing of the Church when as these tares were sowen and had brought forth fruit were never like to crosse the enemy in that purpose or disappoint him of his hopes or overcome him at the last in the main encounter not that the Priests and Prelates were all such without exception for the worst times have brought forth brave and vertuous men and such as stand upon record for their eminent piety but that they were thus for the most part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus have I shewn unto you three several kindes of sleep which had not only seized the people but also had surprized the Watchmen and made blinde the seers and laid up the Guardians and hard it is to say which of the three gave most increase to the Devils Harvest The Pastors careless of their duties aimed at this especially that they themselves might live in peace and die if possible in the generall love and good opinion of their people Here were the tares first sowen and neither noted in the seed nor in the blade for either the opinion taken up was but the fancy of some few eminent like enough in point of learning or some such innovation in the Churches orders as seemed not in it self to violate the sacred truth or threaten any present danger to the common quiet And then what was it but a vain and faulty curiosity either to quarrel with a man so much renowned in point of knowledge or to enquire into their meaning and intentions who loved the Lord too well to disturb his Church By which connivence this plausible and popular beheaviour of the Watchmen the enemy first entred upon Gods
never wanted some since the time of Constantine that have opposed the errors of the Church of Rome the names of whom who list to see may finde them in Catalogus testium veritatis with their times and qualities so that the Cardinall might well have spared this bold expression non solum pastores sed et Deum valde dormivisse that God not men alone had been fast asleep had he not in so many ages stirred up one or other to make resistance to those errors which were sowen by Satan A speech which in another man might be called a Blasphemy but comming from the mouth of so grave a Father may passe among the Oracles of the Roman Conclave But since those circumstances of time place and person are pressed so frequently by the adversary and that the Cardinall insists so much upon it quod nullum horum in nobis possunt ostendere that we can finde none of them in the Church of Rome we must answer further that as the satisfaction of these Queres is not possible so it is not necessary Shall not my Doctor think me sick although he finde a general decay over all my body not one sound part from head to foot unless I can inform him punctually both when and where and in whose company I sickoned or should we conceive him a sory Architect that being called to view an old ruinous Building would not believe it wanted any thing or was out of order unless I could acquaint him where it first took wet and in what part it first decayed and who then dwelt in it Do not corruptions creep into the strictest Governments labente paulatim disciplina the rigour and severity of Discipline day by day declining And should we not repute him a most excellent Statesman that would think nothing fit for a Reformation unless some wiser then himself could tell him when and by whom and in whose Government the abuse crept in But to restrain our selves to matters that concern Religion Josephus tells us of the Pharisees what innovations they had made in the Jewish Church and that they published many things as the traditions of the Fathers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which were not to be found in the Books of Moses Our Saviour also tells us of them that they had made the Word of God of none effect by their traditions But for the time when they began and from what Authour they descended Josephus could not tell us and our Saviour did not which shewes our Saviour did not think it necessary nor Josephus possible Our Saviour looked not on the root but upon the fruit and by the fruit gave judgement of the Tree it self there being no Doctrine of what sort soever but it beares some fruit by which it may be known whether true or false my next particular and next in order to be handled Nemo non in vitia pronus est There are few men but are addicted to some vice either by the corruption of their nature or the iniquity of their education We are all sinners from the womb but are then most sinful when we are seasoned with ill Principles and that the poyson of our education is superadded to the venom of our dispositions And this is that which Tully charged upon Mr. Anthony that he had took great pains and studied most extreamly hard to be lewd and vitious ac si putaret se natura tam improbum non potuisse evadere nisi accessisset etiam disciplina But on the other side the benefit of a vertuous institution is so great and excellent that it correcteth in us our most prevalent frailties and rectifieth the obliquities of our affections which made the wise man give this testimony of and to Philosophy that by his knowledge in the same he could live uprightly and exercise those vertuous actions of his own accord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which others did upon compulsion and for fear of law How much more operation think we have those Doctrines on us which come apparalled in the habit of Religion and the Cloak of piety on a conformity to the which we are perswaded that all our comforts do depend for the present life and all our hopes for that to come Assuredly these precepts and instructions which we take from them whose words and dictates we imbrace as celestial Oracles are of power incredible either to make us fit for mischief or to inable and prepare us for the works of goodness so that in case there were no other way to know what leaders we have followed and what instructions have been given us the fruits of our affections would at full declare it The reason is because of that dependence which the affections have on the understanding that which the understanding apprehends as true being recommended to the will as good and forthwith by the will desired and followed so that as often as the understanding is deceived in its proper object and entertaineth falshood instead of truth so often is the will misguided in courting those things which indeed are wicked but yet are clothed in the habit of dissembled vertue upon this ground St. Paul hath told us of the Gentiles that having their understanding darkned through the ignorance which was in them they gave themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all manner of uncleanness with greediness If so if that so sad effects did follow upon the darkness of the understanding no question but the misperswasion wherewith sometimes it is effected produce more wretched consequents in our outward actions for if the understanding be depraved with false opinions the will most commonly is led aside by vain affections the errors of the same being farre more dangerous because more active Now there is nothing entertained in the understanding which is not recommended to it by the outward senses Nil est in intellectu quod non priùs fuit in sensibus say the old Philosophers And of all outward senses there is none more serviceable to the understanding then the sense of hearing for Fides ex auditu Faith is by hearing saith the Apostle By meanes whereof it comes to passe that as we preach even so the people do believe and as they do believe even so they practise Take we heed therefore what we preach and that we sowe not tares among simple men who cannot know them from the Wheat Now of the tares I told you in my last Discourse from Galen Plinie Theophrastus and many of the best of our modern Herbalists that they affect the sight with dimness and the head with giddiness and the whole body with Diseases And so it is also with the false opinions those dangerous and erroneous Tenets intended in the present Parable for in our eyes conceive we of our understanding they do occasion such a dimness that either we cannot see the way that leads to happiness or seeing see the same but will not perceive it And in our heads it doth produce so great a giddiness that we
Pards and Lyons creatures that never sucked the milk of Women Certain I am as most Interpreters agree that by the name of Lyon in the 2d of Tim. St. Paul designes the Emperor Nero I was delivered saith the Apostle out of the mouth of the Lyon Ex ore leonis i. e. persecutoris saith St. Hierome i. e. Neronis saith Lyranus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so saith St. Chrysostome with whom accord Theophylact and Oecumenius And when he laboured to envenom it by scandalous and noysom Hereticks he made use of Serpents that by the poyson of their impious Doctrine she might be brought unto destruction Certain I am that Epiphanius resembleth every severall Hereticks unto some speciall sort of Serpent But in the sowing of these tares in bringing in that deviation from the true Religion which is intended in this Parable he then thought it his best way to make use of men men who knew how to time it and to watch advantages and to make use of all occasions and so with more assurance might effect his purpose because leasâ— suspected The Devill never went beyond himself but in this invention in putting on the shape of man when he did this feat that he might passe unseen by the houshold-servants This is the true cause as I conceive it why Satan is here called inimicus homo the envious and malicious man or if you will the enemy-man as the Rhemists read it What kinde of men the enemy made use of to effect his purpose and how he makes the lusts and passions of his several instruments subservient to his wretched purposes we shall see in the hoc fecit my last particular Aetatis cujusque notandi sunt tibi mores He that desires to be esteemed a Master in the Art of man must be well skilled in all the humors and affections which are peculiar to his nature and incident unto his age Nay he must be well read in mens wants and weaknesses their imperfections and defects which if applied with cunning and employed with care may prove exceeding serviceable to the aims and projects of the cunning practiser And as the thrifty man that desires to prosper turns every thing unto his profit and makes no small commodity out of toyes and trifles so he that trades in men and hath the art of diving into their affections may husband and improve the meanest passion to his great advantage The Devil the old enemy is a cunning man a subtle practiser and is not now to learn this lesson When he was once resolved on the fecit hoc to sowe his tares his dangerous and hereticall Doctrines in the Church of God he was not to be taught how to deal with men how to make use of their affections of their lusts and passions for the promoting of his purpose or how to use their weaknesse and deficiencies as an help unto it Whether men be voluptuous arrogant or vain-glorious whether they pine with envy or are stirred with choler or be they rash or head-strong t is all one to him He knowes full well his opportunities how to apply himself unto them as the humour takes and by their meanes to do that businesse which he durst never undertake without them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not that the Devil hath a power as the Father notes it to thrust men into his employments whether they will or not but that he makes such use of their lusts and passions as may best suit with his intendments The enemy in this business deales by craft not force And first if we begin with the ambitious man as certainly he would take it ill if we should do otherwise how much hath Satan wrought upon this affection from the beginning of the world What was it but ambition in our Father Adam when he desired to be as God knowing good and evill And did not Satan work upon that humour to the undoing of that wretched upstart and his whole posterity What was it but ambition in Simon Magus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first-begotten of the Devil as Ignatius calls him which made him love to be entituled the great power of God And did not Satan work upon that humour for the promoting and divulging of those desperate blasphemies with which the Church was long tormented What was it but ambition in the Popes that moved them to affect the Title of Universall Bishop in the Church of Christ And hath not Satan wrought upon that humour to the distraction of the Church if not the totall ruine of it This Doctrine of the Cardinall Si Papa doceret virtutes esse vitia c. that if the Pope determine vertue to be vice all men are to believe so without more ado that of Aquinas and the Schools that he may make new Articles of faith which Pius Quartus put in practise that of the Canonists in generall that as the Vicar-generall of our Saviour Christ he is Lord of all and consequently hath a power to do what he list as also to dispense what and how he list in matters which concern the Church with Oaths and Vowes and Leagues and Mariages yea with the very Law of nature these and the rest what are they but the fruits of the Popes supremacy and what produced the Popes supremacy but the Popes ambition I fear a spice of this ambition and a shrewd one too is still left amongst us in them most visible who would be every one a Pope in their severall Parishes The Fathers of the Consistory claim as great Authority as ever Pope did in the Conclave and at their feet according to their own dear principles the Pâ—inces of the Earth must lay down their Scepters Huic disciplinae omnes orbis principes fasces suos submittere parere necesse est as Travers hath resolved it in his Book of Discipline Vain-glory may come next ambition and many times they go together This was the motive that incited Theudas to take upon himself the name of some doughty Prophet that he might draw away much people after him and be counted somebody This Austin notes to be the fountain of all Heresies Superbia mater heresâ—on as the Father hath it St. Bernard speaks it out more fully captare gloriam de singularitate scientiae to get himself a name for a man of eminency Somewhat they needs must teach which is not ordinary to gain themselves opinion and increase their followers St. Dominick St. Francis and all the rest which have so surfeited the Church with their several Orders what aimed they at in all their institutions but the vain-glory of a new Invention and to have their followers called by their own names So fared it also with the Schoolmen Lombard Aquinas Bonaventure and the rest that followed every one superadding some new niceties unto those before them Those intricate debates first raised amongst them touching Predestination Grace Free-will the Merit of good works as well
their Master liked it and to apply themselves to his resolution 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it is in Chrysostom They durst not trust saith he to their own opinion in a matter of so great concernment but referred all unto their Master Courage and zeal do never shew more amiably then when they are subordinate to good directions especially when they take direction from the right hand from their Master only not from the interest and passion of their fellow-servants Though it be imus colligimus in the plural number yet t is vis only in the singular One to command and many to obey makes the sweetest government 'T was prayse and commendation enough for them that they came fitted and prepared to pursue the action It was the Masters office to direct and theirs to execute Vobis arma animus mihi consilium virtutis vestrae regimen relinquite as he in Tacitus Nor were the two Brethren those Sonnes of Thunder which I spake of to be taught this lesson however they may seem transported with zeal or passion Though the Samaritans had incensed them in an high degree and that they long'd for nothing more then to inflict some grievous punishment upon them yet they submitted their affections to their Masters judgement They fell not presently on the affront to their imprecations nor called for fire from Heaven to consume them utterly as on the blasting of the breath of their displeasure As vehement as their zeal and displeasure was yet they proposed the business to their Master first It is not dicimus ut descendat ignis it is our pleasure to command that fire come down from Heaven to destroy these wretches but it is vis dicimus is it your pleasure that we shall Vis imus colligimus here vis dicimus there In both the Masters leave and liking is the thing most sought for And 't was no newes this in the Church of God that they who were in any publick place or Ministry should fit their zeal and courage to the will of God and to the guidance of such persons who under him and by his appointment had the chief ordering of the Church Isaâ—ah though both bold and zealous in the cause of God and that his lips were touched with a Coal from the Altar yet durst not meddle in Gods matters before he had both Mission and Commission too God had first said Vade dices huic populo Go and tell this people before he undertook the business or put himself upon the work of reformation And which is there of all the Prophets that went upon Gods errands without his consent and stood not more on dixit Dominus then on dicam populo I trow the times were then corrupt and the people sinful The whole contexture of their several Prophecies make that plain enough yet finde we none of them so hasty in rebuking either as not to take a speciall Warrant and Commission from the hand of God No imus colligimus in the dayes of old in point of extraordinary mission and employment but still there was a vis expressed some warrant looked for from the Lord to make way unto it So for the way of ordinary Reformation when the fabrick of the Church was out of order the whole worship of the Lord either defiled with superstitions or intermingled with Idolatries as it was too often did not Gods servants tarry and await his leisure till those who were supreme both in place and power were by him prompted and inflamed to a Reformation How many years had that whole people made an Idol of the Brazen Serpent and burnt incense to it before it was defaced by King Hezekiah How many more might it have longer stood undefaced untouched by any of the common people had not the King given order to demolish it How many Ages had the seduced Israelites adored before the Altar of Bethel before it was hewen down and cut in pieces by the good King Josiah Where can we finde that any of Gods faithful Servants any of those 7000 souls which had not bowed the knee to Baal did ever go about to destroy the same or that Elijah or Elisha two men as extraordinary for their Calling as their zeal and courage did excite them to it or told them it was lawful for them so to do without the Fiat of Authority to make good the work Where shall we read in the whole course and current of the Book of God that the common people in and by their own authority removed the high places or destroyed the Images or cut down the Groves those excellent Instruments of superstition and Idolatry that they appointed Fasts and ordained Festivals or that they did so much as attempt such matters without this vis the power and approbation of the supreme Magistrate This was the Doctrine and practise both of the former times so far forth as Gods Book directs us in the search thereof nor ever was it preached or printed till now of late that it should be otherwise or that the work of Reformation belonged unto the common people in what capacity soever they were clothed and vested Of late indeed I finde it to be so determined it being affirmed by Glesselius one of the Contra-Remonstrants of Roterdam that if the Prince and Clergy did neglect their duties in the reforming of the Church necesse esse tum id facere plebeios Israelitas that then it did belong to the common people And t is with a necesse if you mark it well they might not only do it but they must be doing Do it but how what in the way of treaty by mediation and petition and such humble meanes by which the dignity of the supreme Magistrate may be kept indemnified not so but even by force and violence licèt ad sanguinem usque pro eo pugnent even to the shedding of their own and their Brethrens blood In which it is most strange to see how soon this desperate Doctrine found as lewd an use how soon the people put in practise what the Preacher taught them but farre more strange to see and who can chuse but see it if he be not blinde how infinitely their Scholars in this Island both for the theory and the practise have out-gone their Masters And wonder t is in all this time they made it not an Article of their Christian Faith and put it not into the place of some one or other of the twelve which they think lesse necessary Here is a vis indeed they say true in that but no such vis as is intended in the Text. The servants of my Parable knew no other vis then that of Proposition only it being not their intent nor custom either to run before or against Authority And having made the Proposition they did with patience and humility attend the Answer of their Master which they were faithfully resolved to conform unto however it might crosse their own dear
are so intermingled that there is no perfection to be looked for here and 2. That there want not great and weighty reasons why it should so be of which some relate unto the Tares some unto the Wheat some to God himself whose glory is most chiefly aimed at These are the points to be considered and of these I shall discourse in order beginning with Gods sufferance and the season of it and therein with the first enquiry What is here meant by messis the approching Harvest and what use we may make thereof for our own advantage Priùs dividendum quà m definiendum It was the Orators Rule of old First to distinguish of the termes before we take upon us to state the question A Rule exceeding necessary in the present business and much conducing to the Explication of the points in hand For the word messis is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word of various significations according to the scope of the severall places where it doth occur And first not taking notice of it in the literall sense in the 9th Chapter of St. Matthew it signifieth the times and seasons fit for the preaching of the Gospel There read we messem esse multam that the Harvest was great i. e. that there were many people whose mindes were cheerfully prepared to receive the word And there 's another Harvest which the Baptist speaks of the bringing forth of fruits meet for repentance fruits worthy of the Preachers pains and the hearers diligence the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Harvest of good works which we finde in Chrysostom But we have other Corn to thresh and therefore must look out for another Harvest an Harvest not of hearing nor of fructifying but of receiving the reward of our severall labours an Harvest in the which each workman shall receive his wages according to the works which he hath wrought in the flesh whether good or evill And this again is either taken for the day of Gods temporall judgements upon particular Men or Sects or Collective bodies or for the day of generall judgement when all flesh shall appear before the Lord to receive its sentence In this last sense the word is taken in the 14 of the Revelation where the Angel said to him that sate upon the Throne mitte falcem mete Thrust in thy sickle and reap for the time is come and the Harvest of the Earth is ripe i. e. all Nations were now ready to receive that judgement which God in his just anger should pronounce against them And in the other sense it is said by the Prophet Jeremy The Daughter of Babylon is a threshing-floore the time of her threshing is come yet a little while and the time of her Harvest will come Tempus messionis ejus veniet and what time was that even that wherein she had made up the measure of her iniquities and abominations and was to be given up for a prey to the Medes and Persians I know that most Interpreters as well old as new do take the Harvest in my Text for the generall judgement that which our Saviour doth describe in the 25. of this Gospel And they expound it thus for this reason chiefly because our Saviour gives this descant on his own plain song v. 39. Messis est consummatio seculi the Harvest is the end of the World A man would think the sense must be very obvious even to the vulgar wits when he that writ the Text made the comment also But then a question may be made what our Redeemer meanes by consummatio seculi or the end of the World or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Greek Text hath it Assuredly not alwayes the last day precisely but the last times generally or the particular time appointed by Almighty God for the effecting of some speciall and particular purpose For in the 9 Chapter to the Hebrews the same words occur where the Apostle treating of the passion of our Lord and Saviour saith it was done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in consummatione seculi in the end of the World Ask Beza what is meant there by the end of the World by the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he will tell you that it is the same which the Apostle calls in another place plenitudinem temporis or the fulness of time i. e. saith he and so both Caietan and Ribera do expound the Text Seculorum perfectionem complementum the full perfection and accomplishment of some time appointed So then upon this disquisition we have gained thus much that though the Harvest in my Text be for the most part understood of the general judgement of which hereafter in the next yet may it also mean the time of Gods temporal punishments upon particular men or Sects or Collective bodies Whom though God suffereth for a while till their sins be ripe and lets them flourish and grow mighty both in power and wickedness yet have they all their severall Harvests in which they shall be mowed and threshed and winnowed to his greater glory The sickle of the Lord is alwayes ready and his van alwayes in his hand And when his Harvest-time is come and the fruits of wicked men be ripe he shall not only mowe them down as when the Harvest-man gathereth the corn and reapeth down the eares with his arme in the Prophets language but he will throughly purge his floore and make them like the chaffe in the Psalmists words which the wind drives away before it But for the just and righteous person he either shall be saved from the day of trouble or preserved in it Or if he fall as fall he may sometimes into the hand of the Reapers like a good eare of corn well grown or Grapes fully ripe he shall be congregatus in horreum gathered into the barn of the heavenly Husbandman In execution of which acts of his will and justice he many times makes use of Angels literally and properly so called which are the Reapers of this verse and the 39 and many times of other Ministers who do supply the place of Angels and may be called so in a borrowed metaphoricall sense as Attila the Hun the scourge of the impenitent Western Christians was in the Stories of those times called Flagellum Dei That there have been such Harvests in former times and that such Harvests are in the compass of our Saviours meaning the Stories of Gods Book and all the Monuments of the Church do most clearly evidence And to say truth did not the Text admit such Harvests all the seditious aggregations of unquiet men all the Idolatries of Rome Heathen and superstitions of Rome Christian the Pride of Babylon and the filths of Sodom with all the rabblement of pernicious Hereticks and factious Sectaries which have disturbed the Church in foregoing Ages must be still extant and unpunished to this very day But they have had their severall Harvests and the Lord hath reaped them
the open Traytors another the Adulterers and Adulteresses shall make one Fagot and the Fornicators another the Hereticks shall make up one Fagot the Schismaticks and Sectaries shall be bound up in another the Idolaters shall make one Fagot they that commit sacriledge to pull down Idolatry shall make up another the Glutton whose belly is his God shall make one Fagot the Drunkard whose glory is his shame another The Thief that knowes no other Trade to maintain himself but by undoing of his Neighbour the cunning Hypocrite who makes a gain of godliness and puts his Religion unto usury and they who basely and perfidiously invert the publick money to their private profit shall each make up their several Fagots Pares cum paribus saith St. Austin every man shall be punished in the world to come according to the sin which he hath committed and in the company of those with whom he hath most offended And though it be an old said Saw Solamen miseris that it is a comfort to those in misery to have others bear a share in their griefs and sorrows a miserable comfort at the best there 's no doubt of that yet it is nothing so in the present case for of that nature are the punishments which attend this binding that the pains thereof are nothing lessened by being communicated but are then multiplied when divided Well being bound and bound in bundles what comes after next Ad comburendum saith the Text binde them in bundles for to burn them And here the case is somewhat altered as it relates unto the Ministers though still the same as it hath reference to the Malefactors It was before colligite alligate here not comburite but ad comburendum The holy Angels were the Ministers to attach the sinner to bring him before Gods Tribunal and after sentence was pronounced to lay hands upon him and make him ready for the punishment which he is condemn'd to but that being done they give him over to the fiends of Hell to the tormenters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as our Redeemer calls them in the 18 Chap. The Officers of the Court or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which he speaks of in the 7 of Matth. differ from these tormenters from these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which he tells us in the 18. as the Usher or Cryer of a Court from the Executioner or the Under-Sheriff from the Hangman The Angels then I mean the holy and good Angels they only do colligere alligare and having so gathered and bound them up deliver them ad comburendum assign them over by Indenture to the Executioners to see them punished and tormented according to the will and sentence of the dreadful Judge The holy Angels are the Ministers the Devil and his Angels are the Executioners who bearing an old grudge to man as being adopted by the Lord unto those felicities from which he miserably fell will doubtless execute his office on him with the most extremity Non desinunt perditi jam perdere said Minutius truly It hath been his chief work to tempt man to sin out of an hope to have him at his mercy one day and be we sure he will not spare him when he hath him there The Devills chief delight is in mans calamity And could we fancy such a thing as an Heaven in Hell the Devill would enjoy it in this opportunity of tyrannizing over those whom he hath seduced and brought into that pit of torments Ad comburendum to be burnt for that 's the punishment appointed to the wicked in the Book of God Here in the Exposition of this Parable it is said by Christ that the Angels shall gather out of his Kingdom all things which offend and them that do iniquity and shall cast them in caminum ignis into a furnace of fire And in the Parable of the Net we have it in the very self-same words in caminum ignis Thus the rich Glutton in St. Luke is said to be tormented in the flames And in the 20th of the Revelation it is called expresly Stagnum ignis sulphuris a Lake of fire and brimston a most dreadful Lake A truth communicated to and by the Prophets of the former times who give us this description of Tophet or the Vallie of Gehinnon that the Pile thereof is fire and much wood that the breath of the Lord is like a stream of Brimstone to kindle it and that the stream thereof shall be turned to Pitch and the dust into Brimstone And Malachi speaking of the day of Judgement telleth us that it shall burn like an Oven and that all which do wickedly shall be as the stubble Et inflammabit eos dies veniens whom the day that commeth shall burn up A truth so known amongst the Gentiles whether by tradition from their Ancestors or conversation with the Jewes need not now be argued that by the verses of the Poets and the works of the most learned Philosophers illius ignei fluminis admonentur homines men were admonished to beware of that burning Lake And unto those it were impertinent to add the testimony of the ancient Fathers by some of which it is called Divinus ignis poenale incendium by another ardor poenarum by a third aeternus ignis by a fourth Et sic de caeteris And though a question hath been made as all things have been questioned in these captious times whether this fire be true and reall or only metaphorically called so in the Book of God yet by all sound Interpreters it is thus agreed on as a learned Jesuite hath observed metaphoram esse non posse quae sit tam perpetua that such a constancy of expression doth exclude a Metaphor Now as it is a fire a devouring fire so is it ignis inextinguibilis a fire unquenchable in the third ignis aeternus an everlasting fire in the 25. of St. Matthew the smoak whereof goeth up for ever in the Prophet Esay a fire which feeds both on the body and the soul yet shall never consume them and such a fire as breeds a kind of worm within it which shall never die but alwayes gnaw upon the conscience of the man condemned and create farre more anguish to him then all bodily torments And to this truth all the old Catholick Doctors do attest unanimously whether Greeks or Latines Tatianus one of the most ancient of the Greeks calls the estate of the damned in Hell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a death which never dieth an immortal misery Tertullian the most ancient Latine cruciatum non diuturnum sed sempiternum not only a long and tedious torment but an everlasting one St. Austin answerably unto that of Tatianus doth call it mortem sine morte adding moreover of those fires punire non finire corpora that they torment the body but destroy it not he goeth further and saith that it burns the body but
Ego is here the second person and yet as worthy as the first That God by his meanes would repaire the ruines of our mortall nature himself had frequently foretold in holy Scripture It was the first promise made to Adam to comfort and revive him after his defection that the seed of the woman should bruise the Serpents head that he should crush the sting of death and swallow up the grave in victory It was the first promise which God made to Abraham when he commanded him to leave his own Country and his Fathers House that in his seed should all the Nations of the World be blessed Promises not to be fulfilled but in him that made them never to be accomplished till God descended so much beneath himself as to come down from Heaven and be incarnate in the womb of the Virgin Mary This the great mystery of godliness which St. Paul inculcates God manifested in the flesh the Verbum caro factum which St. John remembreth For who but he that is the Word could by his words procure this testimony from his enemies nec vox hominem sonat never man spake as this man speaketh Who but God manifested in the flesh could by his works extort this true Confession from his executioners Surely this was no other then the Sonne of God Adeo veritas ab invitis etiam pectoribus erumpit said Lactantius truly And yet besides Gods gracious pleasure and the necessity of mans estate that so it must be it stood with most convenience that so it should be Qui alterum erigit seipsum incurvat He that lifts up another must first stoop himself and bow down his own body first before he can raise up a man that 's fallen And this was it for which the second person in the glorious Trinity became the first in the construction of my Text He made himself the Sonne of man that so we might be made the Sonnes of God He for a time did bow down the Heavens and remained with us on the Earth for a certain season that man created of the Earth might be taken with him up to Heaven and there live for ever His incorruptible did put on our corruption that so our mortall might be clothed with his immortality And this in the good Fathers Language non similitudo sed res ipsa est is neither Allegory Trope nor Figure but a most sacred necessary truth and of all men to be believed who have not forfeited their faith to advance their wits or rather have not forfeited those great wits they boast of in bringing all the Principles of the Christian faith to be indicted and arraigned at the Barre of Reason Id fides credat intelligentia non requirat was the Fathers Rule but thrown aside in this unlucky Age wherein men are so apt to dispute themselves out of all Religion and set up a new Creed of their own devising So then this Ego of my Text relates to Jesus v. 1. and that unto the first of Matthew where he had his name and where he was proclaimed by the heavenly Herald to be conceived of the holy Ghost by the Virgin Mary Ego here Jesus there in both Texts a Saviour a person of a mixt condition between God and man such as a Saviour ought to be For being sensible of our infirmities as a man and able to relieve us in them as our God as God and man he mediates for us that being freed of those infirmities which are inherent in our flesh we may hereafter reign with him in his endless glories We read in Livie that when the Romans had violently surprized the Sabine Women and taken them to their Wives the angry Sabines took up Arms to revenge the injury The Armies being ready for the fight the Women seriously taking into consideration that as they were begotten by the one so they are now as flesh with the other people rush in between them Hinc viros inde Patres orabant Sometimes they pray unto their Fathers to remit the wrong and sometimes call unto their Husbands to admit a Parley never desisting from that pious office till both the Armies were made friends and an eternall League was sworn between them The Application is so easie and familiar that I need not press it Only I note that this great work of our Reconciliation could not be wrought by any but a Saviour and such as had relation to both parties both to God and man that being jealous of the honour of the one and zealous for the preservation of the other he might make up that peace betwixt us which all the powers of Hell should not interrupt Which work of reconciliation being a special part of that Pastorall charge which he hath taken to himself leads me on fairly to my second generall which is the Office of our Saviour Ego sum ille Pastor I am that Shepherd And here perhaps it may be said that we have took great pains to a little purpose Have we endeavoured all this while to prove our Saviour to be the Sonne of the eternall ever-living God and do we now so much debase him as to make him a Shepherd Have we advanced him up on high and set him at the right hand of God in the heavenly places ut lapsu graviore ruat only to make his fall the greater Or with the Tempter in the Gospel have we advanced him to the top of the highest Pinacle and told him that he was the Sonne of God and then come out with mitte te deorsum cast thy self down as farre as poverty and contempt can make thee This were a cunning peece of malice if it were so meant in case the office of a Shepherd were so contemptible and inconsiderable as some men have made it But if we look upon it well we shall finde the contrary there being no inferior place of charge or Government more like unto the Kingly Office then the Shepherds is Upon which ground Homer calls Agamemnon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Shepherd of his People And Philo gives it for a Rule that not Homer only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the whole Tribe of Poets also have honoured good Princes with the same Attribute Nay in his Book of the life of Joseph he gives this note that the best Shepherd makes the best King and in his Tract de vita Mosis doth affirm expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the best preparation to the Kingly Office is to be a Shepherd In which regard St. Basil tells us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the Pastoral and Imperial Offices were near of kin the one being but a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or preparation to the other But behold a greater then Philo or St. Basil here For God himself hath said of Cyrus that he was his Shepherd and purposely exalted David from the Sheep-fold to the regall Throne that he might know the better how to
Word that belongs equally to all his Ministers to whom he granted a Commission to this end and purpose when he commanded his Apostles and in them all other Ministers of his holy Gospel to teach all Nations or as St. Mark doth change the Phrase to preach the Gospel This the most excellent kinde of feeding and most peculiar to our Saviour in his Pastoral Office the feeding of our bodies appertaining rather unto God the Father who on the opening of his hand filleth all things living with plenteousness In which respect our Saviour tells us in his Gospel that man liveth not by bread alone but by every word proceeding from the mouth of God This is that part of heavenly nourishment from which we are at no time barred from which no age no sex no quality is to be repelled Universos homines sine discrimine sexus vel aetatis Minutius adds vel dignitatis ad coeleste pabulum convocamus This bread is offered unto all of what condition or estate soever and being offered unto all requireth the more hands to make tender of it And therefore all the Ministers of the Church in their Ordination have this authority intrusted to them that they should preach the Gospel where and whensoever they are appointed thereunto For the administration of the Sacraments especially the holy Eucharist that belongs only to the Priests who hath power to consecrate and blesse the creatures which are appointed by the Lord our Saviour for the commemoration of his death and passion Hoc facite is there the Priests Commission to take the bread and blesse and break it hoc edite hoc bibite take eat and drink are a Commission to the people to partake thereof And certainly never was Table better furnished then that of our Redeemer in the blessed Sacrament a Banquet of all others the most rich and nourishing where Jesus Christ is set before us and he himself is both the Entertainer and the Feast If any hunger here is the bread of life spiritual Mannah farre better then the food of Angels whoever eateth of this Bread he shall live for ever Is any thirsty here is the well of life eternal farre better then the well of Jacob or the waters of Jordan Whoever drinketh of these waters he shall never thirst Will you have more and in that more the proof and reason of the whole he telleth us that his flesh is meat indeed and that his blood is drink indeed in St. Johns Gospel A bountiful and liberal feast and such whereof our blessed Saviour is no niggard we may participate of it monethly weekly daily as our spiritual necessities and estates require Panem hunc dat quotidie dat omnibus dat semper as Ambrose hath it The second duty of the Shepherd is that he order and direct the Flock committed to him so to direct them that they do not wander or if they do that he reduce them back to the Fold again to order them both when they are in state of health and when they chance to fall into those Diseases to which they naturally are inclined The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greek doth imply a Government the Poet else had not called Agamemnon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Prince or shepherd of his people And so we finde it also in the Book of God in which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is interpreted to rule or govern as in the 2d of St. Matthew for out of thee shall come a Governour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which shall rule my people Israel Now for the exercise of this part of his Office the shepherd hath not only his Oyls and waters and other implements of Chirurgery Scyllamque helleborosque graves nigrumque bitumen as the Poet hath it but he is armed also with his Shepherds Crook which is the Scepter of his Empire called therefore Pedum in the Latine eò quòd retineat pecudum pedes as Servius notes it upon Virgil. In this regard the shepherds in the Book of Jeremy are called Optimates gregis the Princes or the principalls of the Flock as the English reads it as having principal authority in ordering and disposing of them And David when he kept his Fathers sheep in Bethlehem is represented to us with his Shepherds staffe Et tulit baâ—ulum suum in manibus suis He took his staffe in his hand as the Text informs us i. e. the staffe or Shepherds Crook wherewith he used to order and direct his flock and pull them in as often as they went astray Thus also deals our Lord and Saviour with the sheep of his Pasture Did any of them prove unsound he then applyed himself unto the cure Et medicas adhibere manus ad vulnera and to the salving of their sores Witness that heavenly speech of his when being taxed for keeping company with Publicans and sinners he returned this answer that the whole had no need of the Physician but the sick Did any of them go astray he tells us of himself by his holy Prophet that he would seek that which was lost and bring back that again which was driven away and tells us by himself in his holy Gospel that the Sonne of man was come to seek and save that which was lost which in the Parable of the lost sheep is at large exemplified Were they grown wanton and unruly we finde him armed with power to destroy the fat and the strong pascere illos in judicio and to feed them with judgement Ezek. 34. to feed the flock of his inheritance with a rod Micah 7. and finally the Prophet David doth represent the Lord his Shepherd with a rod and a staffe Psal 23. i. e. as Austin doth expound it with a corrective power with the Rod of Discipline according to the quality of the offence and the condition of the offender Disciplina tua tanquam virga ad gregem ovium tanquam Baculus ad grandiores filios as he states the business This power of Government the Lord when he withdrew himself from the sight of man transmitted over to the Church and the Ministers of it Whether indifferently to all alike that 's the point in question Bellarmine looking through the Spectacles of the Popes Ambition ascribes this solely to St. Peter and to his Successors in the See of Rome His reason is because the charge of Pasce oves meas Pasce agnos meos was given peculiarly to Peter and to him alone But herein he and those of his opinion are destitute of that antiquity and consent of Fathers which usually they do pretend to In this the Fathers leave them to themselves to make good the cause and run a very different opinion from them A Jury of them at the least might be here impanneled which opine the contrary And if St. Austine were the fore-man he would find it thus that Pâ—ter oftentimes in the holy
of God that they may seem to have consulted with the Scriptures and yet God did not leave them so as if he had done bountifully for them in giving them this knowledge that there is a God and that this God is to be worshipped but he revealed so much of his will unto them as might enable them to live in a vertuous manner or leave them utterly inexcusable before God and man The Gentiles saith St. Paul which know not the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law which shewe the Law written in their hearts their Conscience also bearing witnesse Hence it is that the ancient Heroes attained to such a height in all moral vertues that for bounty valour magnanimity chastity justice and the rest they stand ennobled on record unto all posterity so that God did his part among them and sowed good seed his seeds of knowledge and Religion over all his field It was no want in him that they went no further that they proceeded not from morall to spirituall graces the fault was only in themselves who when they had received as much as might make way for their ambition or vain-glory or esteem with men cast off all further progresse in the works of piety as an unnecessary burden of no use at all by meanes whereof as St. Paul chargeth it upon them they held the truth of God in unrighteousness and so became without excuse Others there were who made no benefit at all of the seed sown in them whose hearts were waxed grosse their eares dull of hearing such as had closed their eyes as it were of purpose that so they might not see the great works of God whence I beseech you came this backwardness this most stupid dulnesse not from the Lord who is natura naturans nor from the faulty error and defect of nature which is natura naturata but it came meerly from themselves from their own evil wills and corrupt affections their wilfulness or negligence or both together The Lord hath so made man that he hath naturally in himself a power of seeing How comes it then to passe that some do not see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so saith Theophylact there 's none so blinde as they that will not see so saith the Proverb God gives men eares that they may hear and hearing may conceive his most holy will How comes it then to passe that they do not heare or hearing do not understand 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith mine Author it was their own fault only that they are so wilful And being so wilful as they were and so regardless of the mercies and grace of God no marvel if the Lord withdrew from them his most heavenly seed or sowed it with a sparing and lesse liberal hand The carelesse servant in the Gospel that hid his talent in a napkin and neither did employ it to his own or his Masters benefit not only was rebuked for so great a negligence but had his talent taken from him and it was given to one that knew how to use it Gods field is large and like a large field it consists of severall parts some places full of stones and some full of thorns and many times a foot-path or high-way that crosseth over it God soweth his good seed every where over all his Field but more in some parts then in others more in the good soyle then in the stony or the thorny-ground or the high-way side more in the Church then in the Synagogue more in the Synagogue of the Jewes then amongst the Gentiles according as it gives increase Of this we have a pregnant instance in the Jewes themselves the Word of God had been long preached unto them and hearing they did hear but would not perceive the Sonne of God had been long conversant among them and they had seen those wonders that he had performed which seeing they did see but would not believe They had ascribed the one to Belzebub he casts out Devils by the help of Belzebub the Prince of Devils the other t as Diabolical and impure a spirit Said we not that thou art a Samaritan and hast a Devil both of them slighted and contemned in that scornful question whence hath this man this wisdom and these mighty things Such men as these that had so vilified and abused the grace of God could not but make themselves unworthy of a clearer light then that which might shine forth unto them from a Cloud of darkness therefore he spake unto them in a Parable and without Parables spake he not unto them not that the Lord envied them a more perfect ray of his Divinity he being that light which lighteth every man that comes into the World or that he was not willing to impart unto them sufficient meanes for their salvation who would that all men should be saved not so but that he found by their former actions how his Gospel would be entertained if it came among them how strong a resolution they had made not to be converted he that had lessoned his Disciples not to cast Pearles before the Swine had very ill observed his own direction had he layed open all the treasures of salvation to such obstinate Chapmen as were resolved to buy neither milk nor honey though they might buy them without money yet that he might not leave them destitute of all outward meanes by which they might attain to the eternal life he speaks unto them though farre off openeth his mouth to them though obscurely in dark speech and Parables This served to intimate that he was not yet departed from them that he had still a care of their preservation that he would yet be found if they pleased to seek that even they also should finde favour to understand the Word of God if they as his Disciples were would be sollicitious to enquire the meaning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Father hath it and he himself hath said They that seek shall finde and unto them that aske to them it shall be given to know the Mysterie of the Kingdom of Heaven Thus also is it with the Gentiles with Gods Field in general God sowes it only with good seed but so disposeth that good seed as may be most unto his Glory God sowes his good seed in his Field over all the World although not over all in an equall measure but the Church only brings forth fruit agreeable unto the seed sowne in her and God rewards this fruitfulness with a further favour in speaking to her after a more evident and significant manner then unto those that are without In which regard the holy Prophet having said that God had shewn his word to Jacob his Statutes and his Ordinances unto Israel exults with a non taliter that so he had not done unto other Nations nor had the Heathen so exact a knowledge of his holy Laws God sowes his good seed in his Church his best seed in that as being not his Field only but his Garden too
confidence of this they did not only think all Christians else unworthy of their salutation and of the common courtesies between man and man but taught their followers and Disciples ne ave dicant cuiquam nostrum not to bestow an Ave or All hail upon them And more then so scandala contra nos ponitis they raised false clamors scandalous reports against their Brethren nor was there one of all the Sect qui non convitia nostra suis tractatibus misceat whose Pamphlets were not full of opprobâ—ious railings against the Orthodox professors Nay they went so farre at the last as violently to assault and kill their opposites as did Purpurius Lerinensis who with his own hands killed his own Sisters Sonne and being asked the reason of it returned this answer Et occidi occido non eos solos sed quicunque contra me fecerit that he had done it and would do the like to any he who durst oppose him How came they shall we think to this dangerous height why certainly because they had disclâ—imed the jurisdiction and authority of the civill Magistrate thinking themselves exempt from all humâ—ne Ordinances and that not only in such matters which concern the Church according to that frequent dictate of Donatus quid imperatori cum Ecclesia No they were better studied in the point then so and thought the King or supreme Magistrate a most unnecessary calling in a Christian State Quid Christianis cum Regibus What need have Christians of a King was their common saying and that went very high indeed Other particular notes and characters of this desperate Heresie I omit of purpose These are enough if not too many to make plain manifest how deep a root this dangerous tare hath gotten in our Reformation for he knowes not any thing who knowes not this that some amongst us have appropriated to their secret Conventicles the name and title of the Church and to themselves the names of Christians and Professors that they bestow no better attributes on such as are conformable to the publick Government both in their Pamphlets and their prattles then such as are not fit for the eares of Christians that out of an opinion of their own dear sanctity they will have no commerce and much lesse humanity with such as they conceive not to like their courses These things are notiora quà m ut stylo egeant There are some other points and circumstances in which they come more near the Donatist one Burchet a great zelot of the former times being come at last to be of this opinion with them Licitum esse Evangelicae veritati adversantes occidere that it was lawful to destroy all those which opposed the Gospel How the said Burchet put in execution his own divellish Principles and what effects they wrought on that furious Welchman in that most barbarous Assassinate on his innocent Mother is not now my business All I shall say is briefly this that men are principally led into these extremities on this misperswasion that Kings have no Authority in sacred matters and consequently every man of what sort soever in matters which concern Religion may be a King unto himself Which if it once be took for granted if once they come to ask this Question quid imperatori cum Ecclesia assuredly in little very little time they will make bold to alter and invert the other and ask quid regibus cum Christianis what right have Kings to Lord it over Gods Inheritance Occultior Pompeius Caesare non melior Pompey saith Tacitus was something secreter then Caesar in his proceedings though nothing sounder in his purposes to the Common-wealth So stood the case between Priscillian and the Donatist Priscillian was the warier of the two but perhaps more wicked his Doctrine and his practise too tending to the subversion of all publick Government and humane society His Doctrine was fatalibus astris homines alligatos esse that all mens actions were necessitated by the Starres above A Paradox by him derived from Bardesanes who ascribed all things unto Fate by Bardesanes from the Stoicks And for their practise what it was we may conjecture at it by their so celebrated Maxime which St. Austin speaks of Jura perjura secretum prodere noli That swearing forswearing any thing was lawful which did conduce to the concealing of their counsels and the promoting of their Sect. The Doctrine of Predestination as by some delivered comes home unto the dreames and dotages of Bardesanes and Priscillian necessitating all mens actions by the fatality of Gods Decrees By which we are informed decretum esse à Deo ut sua defectione periret Adam that God decreed the fall of Adam before all eternity and that the actions of the Sonnes of Adam are so prescribed and limited by the like Decrees ut nec plus boni faciant nec plus mali omittant that they can neither do more works of piety nor commit fewer deeds of darkness then their stint or measure But for the Maxime of Priscillian and the great use is made of that whether for the concealing of their purposes or the advancement of their projects Cartwright himself shall come to give in evidence who being cited to appear in a Court of Judicature indicted an Assembly of his Church in London and there proposed this question to them Whether or not it were convenient for him being to be examined upon Oath to reveal any of the matters which had passed amongst them A very tender case of conscience such as I trust is neither to be found nor parallel'd in all the Casuists and School-men from Bonaventure down to Bonacina I only add this and so leave Priscillian and that is how Justantius one of his Associates and a chief stickler in the Sect was for his factious and seditious cariage banished for ever to the Isles of Scilly Ad Sillinam insulam ultra Britanniam deportatus as Sulpitius hath it But Popery and Pelagianisme are the darling errors the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the bosom-mischiefs of the time as some men conceive it Are none of these crept up in our Reformation Pelagianisme some that 's certain and that no otherwise esteemed and cherished than if it were a part of our Saviours Gospel St. Hierome tells us of Pelagius how generally he was offended with the Surplice how much it went unto his heart Ecclesiasticum ordinem in candida veste procedere to see the Priest administer the blessed Sacrament in a white Vesture Pelagians of this kinde we have too too many such as not only hate the Surplice and refuse to wear it but think the Gospel of our Saviour to be unprofitable and of none effect if preach'd by one that doth approve it A learned man who once was of that party pars magna too hath so informed me in his Books and I dare take it on his credit For Popery
that is grown amongst us to the very height and in the points and parts thereof in which the life and essence of Popedom doth consist especially The time was when as Kings and Emperors had the sole power of calling Councils of moderating or presiding in them by themselves or Deputies and finally of confirming their Acts and Canons This power the Popes have long usurped and think it a great favour unto secular Princes if they vouchsafe to give them notice of their purposes or trust them with the execution of their Lawes and Ordinances The time was too when Princes thought themselves supreme in their own Dominions accomptable to none but God But now the Popes have challenged a disposing power both of their Persons and Estates as being the Vice-gerents of Almighty God the Vicars general of Christ our Saviour To produce Authors for the proof of such evident truths especially in such a knowing and discerning audience were a foul impertinency and indeed sensibile super sensorium ponere to light a Candle to the Sun In these two points which are the very life and essence of the Popedom as before I said the Puritan is no lesse Popish then the Pope himself The power of calling the Assembly that appertains no longer unto Kings and Princes it belongs only to the Church that is themselves God was mistaken sure when he said to Moses Fac tibi duas tubas argenteas that he should make to or for himself two silver Trumpets t is well if Dathan Corah and Abiram will allow him one And for the civill power to command that one according to the Doctrine now it is originally in the people too and in the King by way of derivation only and that too cumulativè not privativè as they please to word it the people having still a liberty inherent in them to reassume the Government as they see occasion There is much talk indeed of Solomon and all his wisdom think we he was not out when he broached this Doctrine per me Reges regnant by me Kings reign or speaking as he did in Parables and Proverbs which are hard to construe his words may brook some other meaning then they seem to signifie Buchanan was a learned man too but speaks plainer farre Populo jus est imperum cui velit deferat The people have a power saith he to dispose of Kingdoms from man to man and line to line as they list themselves Nor stood he single in it neither Goodman and Knox the two Apostles of the Sect led the way to him and they first brought it to Geneva The Kings and Princes of the Earth must change their styles and tenures if this Doctrine hold It is no longer Dei Gratia that they hold their Scepters but Populi clementia by the peoples courtesie And Tenant at the will of another man is the worst tenure or estate in all my Littleton The greatest Kings and Princes by their opinion are but as Bayliffs and sworn Officers of the Common-wealth and therefore to be called to a publick reckoning either upon pretence of mal-administration or any popular dislike or disgust whatsoever nor will there want some Tribunitial Spirit when occasion serves to take them by the throat and say unto them Redde rationem villicationis tace that is to say as our last Translations read Give an account of thy Stewardship for thou shalt be no longer Steward This is indeed the Doctrine proper to the Sect for which they have no precedent nor pattern in the former times and is withall the true foundation of that disobedience and desire of liberty which is become so Epidemical amongst us There are none so blind but may discern this for a tare of the enemies sowing It is already come to fecissent fructum I could now to these points of Popery add a point of Judaisme in the imposing of a Sabbath on the Church of Christ and that to be observed with so great severity that they have gone beyond the Jewes and shewed themselves more Pharisaical then the very Pharisees But hereof I have spoken more at large elsewhere and cannot now contract it in a narrower compasse I could say somewhat also of those Pharisees both for their Doctrine and their practise their Doctrine in maintaining Fate and Destiny as the Stoicks did and setting up their own traditions above the word of God and the Churches Ordinances their practises in the compassing of Sea and Land to increase their Proselytes the ostentation of their zeal and piety to the publick view the absolute command they attained unto both on the purses and the consciences of the common people and on the strength thereof their disobedience and contempt of all Authority but these I only glance at and so passe them over Nor shall I now insist on the Nazaraei excluding the necessity of good works out of the Covenant of grace nor on the Heresie of the Anomaei or Eunomians who for themselves and their Disciples had cancelled the Obligation of the morall Law nor of the Apostolici who had all things common or rather common stocks and contributions for the promoting of the Sect. I should be endless in this tedious and ungrateful search should I present you all those tares which have been scattered in Gods Field since the Reformation Tares then there are we see in our Churches too not only in the Church of Rome those I discovered to you at my last being here these I reserved untill this present with promise then that if you would have patience I would pay you all and now I hope I have discharged my self of that Obligation And in this way I went the rather for the performance of my duty to Almighty God and to your sacred Majesty as Gods Vice-gerent in these Kingdoms and unto those who under God and you have the chief ordering of this Church These tares I saw not in the Sevit I was then unborn nor in crevisset herba when the blade sprung up for if born then I was then too young But being now a servant though the meanest of the heavenly Husbandman and having noted and observed them in fecissent fructum I have made bold to come before you as did the servants of my Text saying Sirs There was good seed sowâ—n in the Field of God but unde haec zizania but behold these Tares And having said this I have done my duty God so direct your royall Counsels and the aviso's of your Pâ—elates for the Churches peace for the averting of those mischiefs which these tares do threaten that so not any of them no nor all together may either prove infectious to the Wheat the Lords own good Seed or any way destructive to the Field it self And let all good Christians say Amen SERMON VI. At WHITE-HALL Jan. 21. 1639. MATTH 13. v. 28. Et ait illis Inimicus homo hoc fecit He said unto them An enemy hath done this FAcilius est in contubernalibus disputare