consider of the fruits for by their fruits as Christ hath told us we shall know them Of us it is expected that we rest not satisfied with the outward shew that we esteem not of the seed because the Husbandman is painful at his Plough continually and seemes in face as was Nathaniel in his heart an Husbandman that had no guile Of us it is expected that we sift the grain to see if it be Wheat indeed or at best but tares This we shall easily discern if we reflect a little upon the nature of these tares and take a just view of the same both in the seminary and the seed zizania in medio tritici tares among the wheat my next Couplet Naturale est odisse quem laeseris It is a natural vice in man having once wronged another to resolve to hate him and being once resolved to hate him to seek occasions how to wrong him A vice derived originally from the Devil in whom my Author first observed it drawn into practise by them only whom the old enemy of God hath instructed in it for he by his aspiring sins having displeased his Lord and Maker conceived so deep an hate against him that now it is not possible he should desist from doing the effects of spight and fury In the expressing of which hate and fury he deales with God as Sampson with the Philistins when he could hurt him no way else he destroyes his Harvest So much the Text affirms for certain sevit zizania in medio tritici that he sowed tares among the Wheat And of the tares themselves what they should be and how the place must be expounded it resolves so clearly that if we will we may with ease compose that difference of opinion which seemes to be betwixt the Fathers Clemens of Alexander Origen Eusebius Athanasius St. Hierome and Theophylact conceive by tares the Devils Doctrine haereses mala dogmata 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dogmata haereticorum Beda will have them to be generally vices faeditates vitiorum not to descend to later writers And on the other side St. Basil Chrysostome and Euthymius interpret it of Hereticks of the men themselves St. Austin makes a question whether the Schismatick should not be added to the other and leave it in a manner with a potest dubitari as a matter doubtful St. Cyprian conceives it generally of the wicked men and Justin Martyr seemes to me to lean more that way then the other And unto these these Fathers that do so expound it our Saviours glosse upon the Text gives most advantage who tells us that the Tares are the Children of the wicked one i. e. of the Devil To reconcile which difference or rather to interpret favourable of those other Fathers who seem to have departed from the letter of our Saviours Commentary we may thus resolve it that those whom first we named apply the Text as in the morall and that the others keep themselves unto the letter Or thus the tares are said to be the Children of the wicked one not properly but by a Metonymie ab effectu that is they are that seed by which the Children of the wicked one are all begotten A Protestant Writer of good note doth expound it thus Quid fecit inimicus Seminavit in agro Domini haereticam doctrinam ex eo autem semine nascuntur zizania i. e. filii nequam nor doth he stand alone herein without some to second him for Origen amongst the ancients comes up close unto him In toto mundo seminavit malus ille zizania quae sunt sermones pravi ex malitia orti mali filii Where plainly he makes wicked and malicious Sermons sermones pravos as he calls them to be these tares these children of the wicked one which must needes be because the children of the wicked one are many times begotten by them So then we draw to this atonement that we may understand these tares not only of the Hereticks and other children of the Devâ—l as in the letter but of their wicked Doctrine as in the morall yea and according to our Saviours garb of speech which was by Allegories Tropes and Parables in the true meaning of the figure Sevit zizania inimicus the enemy sowed tares And certainly the Devil could not more cunningly have express'd his malice then in this particular for in it self the tare is of a dangerous and malignant nature and in particular it is noted by the Herbalists of all times and ages lolium oculis officere that it hurts the eyes This Ovid also hath observed in his book de Fastis Et careant loliis oculos vittantibus agri as his words there run An observation so exact that lolio victitare to feed on tares was grown into a common Proverb applyed to those which were dim-sighted It is an excellent note of Aristotle that as the eye is to the body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that so the minde or understanding is to the soul it is that part thereof which doth illuminate and direct the rest the will and the affections and if that eye be single the whole body will be full of light but if we feed upon these tares tares of the Devils sowing and doctrines of the Devils raising how great a darkness will invade us what a perpetual night confound us For if the light be darkness ipsae tenebrae quantae how great then is that darkness saith Christ our Saviour shall we not then be like the Citizens of Sodom blind upon the sudden enquiring for the Sun at noone wearying our selves to finde that door that is shut against us or rather shall not that great misery befall us which we finde mentioned in this Chapter that seeing we shall see but shall not perceive Error and Heresie and Schisme how plausible soever they may seem in the outward shew are but unkind and treacherous guests We may compare them to those sparrowes in the Book of Tâ—bit which roosted in his walls and made their nests within his Courts but when he took his rest and did least expect it they muted warm dung in his eyes and a grosse whitenesse came upon them that he could not see nor knew his Doctors how to help him They are blinde leaders of the blinde saith Christ our Saviout i. e. as Lyra glosseth on it exaecant alios errore suo they make the people blind with errors There is another dangerous quality in the tare as great as this for being mixt in bread it procureth giddiness Aera saith Plinie cùm est in pane celerrimè vertigines facit Rovillius a late Herbalist observes that it is intoxicating also et temulentiam vini modo excitare and that it makes men drunk as it were with Wine So farre avowed by Theophrastus that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sluggish and dull and breedes Diseases in the head the capitall and
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
and familiar friends like a Pellican in the desert Wilderness Shall not he presently be exposed unto the heats of persecution and colds of poverty and drowned in the Waves of cruel and unprosperous fortune Shall not the storms of trouble and affliction shew their fury on him till they have laid him flat on his very back and scattered his dispersed and mangled members over all the Earth yet shall this man this faithful and religious man that hath endured so great a measure of affliction such a sâ—oâ—m of tyranny be gathered at the last in horreum Domini into the Barn the safe Repository of the Heavenly Husbandman Not one of all those scattered limbs not a broken bone but shall be recollected by the Angels when they go a gathering made up into the same one body which before it was and laid up in the Lords Barn with joy and triumph that the body which fell in dishonour may be raised in honour and the bones which have been broken may rejoyce together Come then thou blessed Soul into the place of thy rest Thou hast been long a wearied Pilgrim on the face of the earth tossed from one station to another spent with continual travel and worn out with labours yet all this while couldst find no rest for the sole of thy foot Here is an everlasting rest provided for thee Enter thou good and faithful Servant into the joy of the Lord Thou hast been faithful in a little employed thy Masters Talent to the best advantage and for so doing hast been reviled and beaten by thy fellow-servants wounded and shamefully intreated by those Husbandmen to whom the Lord let forth his Vineyard and slain in fine in hope the Lords Inheritance would be shared among them Here is a joy a perfect everlasting joy made ready for thine entertainment Welcom thou glorious Citizen of the new Hierusalem to the continuing City thou hast so long looked for in which thou shalt enjoy after all thy troubles the Beatifical vision of Almighty God the goodly fellowship of Prophets the glorious company of the Apostles the noble Army of the Martyrs the dear society of those who have died before thee in and for the Lord. Mount mount victorious Soul into the Throne prepared for thee where thou shalt presently receive the immarcessible Crown of glory which Christ the righteous Judge shall give thee in that joyful day with great pomp and triumph millions of the celestial spirits attending on the solemnities of thy Coronation and the harmonious quire of Angels singing with thee and with the residue of the Saints departed Allelujah Gloria in excelsis Deo and all the holy Anthems extant in the Book of God And for our parts although we are not worthy in this humane frailty to sing in quire and consort with those blessed spirits yet let us bear the burden of those heavenly ditties which are chanted there singing with heart and voice all with one accord All honour praise and power and glory be unto him that sitteth in the highest Throne and to the Lamb and to the blessed and eternal Spirit now and evermore And let all the people say Amen SERMON I. At LAMBETH Jan. 13. 1638. ACTS 20. 30 31. Also of your own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them Watch therefore I Might here shut the Book and end and say as did our Saviour in another case Impleta in nostris haec est Scriptura diebus this day is this Scripture fulfilled in our eyes So many are there of our selves that rise up continually whose lips speak proud words and pervert good meanings that so they may be followed and cryed up and draw away much people after them St. Paul foresaw this mischief and forewarns us of it and of a Preacher instantly becomes a Prophet He doth begin his charge with an Attendite Take heed unto your selves and to all the flock and he concludes the same with a vigilate Watch therefore and remember that you have been warned Reason enough there was for both as well for the attendite as the vigilate Wolves grievous Wolves were entring in and such as would not spare the Flock that follows close on the attendite and perverse Fellows rising up to make a rupture in the Church and draw away Disciples after them that goes immediately before the Vigilate Attendite vigilate are two good Caveats and entred here by the Apostle in the name of Christ that so he might preserve that interest in the Church of God which he had purchased to himself with his own dear blood In one of these he arms his Prelates contra saevitiam persecutorum against the fury of the persecutors which assault without and in the other he prepares them contra fraudulentiam deceptorum against the fraud of the perverters and other secret sicknesses which infect within In both he layes before them the Churches dangers that so they may bethink themselves of convenient remedies As for the words now read unto you we may consider in them these two generals the sickness of the Church and the cure thereof The sickness is a swelling or a rising up of certain ill-affected humours in the body mystical which we shall first consider in the thing it self Exurgent viri then shall men arise Secondly in the unde from what part or place Ex vobis ipsis from our selves Thirdly in the effect what they do being risen loquuntur perversa speaking perverse things And lastly what it is they aim at ut abducant discipulos post se to draw away Disciples after them In the next general the Cure we have these particulars 1. The Physician that 's the Prelate to whom the charge promised is given And 2. The Medicine here prescribed which is the care and vigilancy of the Prelates Vigilate igitur Watch therefore Of these c. Exurgent viri that 's the first And sure it might be well supposed comparing these two dangers with one another that the poor Church were in no mean degree of safety having escaped those grievous Wolves to fall into the hands of men for homo homini fit Deus as the Proverb hath it But if considered as it ought the danger is no lesse then before it was for homo homini fit lupus is a Proverb too There we had men who for their rage and cruelty were entituled Wolves here Wolves who for their seeming gentleness and humanity are entituled men But here and there their purpose is the same to subvert the Church there openly by force and violence here secretly by fraud and cunning and therefore here the danger greater because lesse suspected as undermining is more dangerous to beleaguered Cities then an open battery As long as Satan had no other instruments to subvert the Church then those grievous Wolves he took great pains to lose his labour The Tyrants all from Nero down to Dioclesian when they made havock of the faithful what did they but confirm them
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 work and travels of the Husband-man who having laboured and manured his field with his utmost care and sowed it with his choycest seede betakes himselfe unto his rest in expectation of a plentiful and joyful Harvest yet so it hapneth many times that notwithstanding all his cost and travel it brings forth tares instead of Wheat weedes instead of flowers Longique perit labor irritus Anni Gods field is many times too like his Vineyard when he had digged it and dressed it and that there could be nothing done unto it which he had not done yet when he came and looked for grapes it brought forth wilde grapes such as were only fitted for the Wine-presse of his indignation So that at last the meaning of the Text will be briefly this That it so falls out with our Saviour in the administration of his heavenly Kingdom as with a man that sowed and sowed good seed and sowed it in a field of his own possession but at the comming on of harvest found it full of tares And he put forth another Parable unto them saying The Kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a man c. Hitherto have we gone in the way of preparation and spake as much as was convenient touching the subject of and in this Parable the Kingdom of Heaven And in the Predicate thereof wherein the substance of the Text doth consist especially we have these parts to be considered The Husband-man the Seede the Sâ—yle First for the Husband-man it seemes he was a man of action for we finde him sowing and next a man of quality as one that did not all his work by himself immediately but used sometimes the ministery of his servants as may appeare out of the 25. and the 27. Verse compared together Then for the Seed that is to be considered also first in the substance it was Wheat the best kinde of grain for the Text tells us of the Tares that they were sowen in medio tritici in the middle of the Wheat and secondly it was bonum semen a good sort of Wheat Last of all for the field we will look on that first in it selfe as it is ager a place fit for tillage and then in the Proprietarie it was Ager suus his own field a field not hired nor rented but his own possession Of these c. Prima Ceres ferro mortales verteret erram Instituit The art of Husbandry is of such antiquity that it is attributed by the Poets to the Gods themselves That and the calling of the Shepheard coeval in a sort with the very world We read it of the Sonnes of Adam that Abel was a keeper of Sheep and Cain a tiller of the ground Both Offices united in the first man Adam till his Sonnes came to age to discharge them for him and both united also in the second Adam till he intrusted them to his Apostles their successors in the Evangelical Presthood Philo hath noted to our hands that the name of Shepheard was antiently applyed unto Kings and Law-givers yet not to Kings and Statesmen only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but that it is as justly attributed to the Lord Almighty But behold a greater then Philo is here For Christ hath told us of himself that he is a Shepheard Ego sum pastor bonus I am the good Shepheard Joh. 10. And his Apostle tells us of him that he is Princeps Pastorum the chief Shepheard and Pastor animarum the Shepheard of our souls Even that good Shepheard which did once lay down his life for his Sheep and doth still feede them in the pastures of eternall life But questionless the Husband-man is of the two the better Gentleman descended as we use to say of the Elder house And therefore Philo in his Book de sacrificiis Cain Abel conceives that in the distribution of their Fathers business Cain having choyce of both as the elder Brother made choyce of Husbandry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as his words there are Indeed it was the first imployment of our Father Adam No sooner was he fallen cast out of Paradise but he was put to till the Earth and that too in suâ—dore frontis with great care and sorrow So that being in the infancy of the world the portion of the elder Brother and before him the business of his Father Adam sole King and Monarch of the world it came in fine to be the exercise and delight of the greatest Potentates For it is written of Uzziah King of Judah that he loved Husbandry And Florus writes of Quinctius the Dictator in the State of Rome that being taken from the Plough to manage the affaires of that growing Empire after the Warres were ended and his Triumphs over he returned back unto his labours Rediit ad boves suos triumphalis Agricola But behold a greater then either Quinctius or Uzziah is here also For Christ himself hath told us of his heavenly Father that he is an Husband-man Joh. 15. I am the true Vine and my Father is the Husband-man So that the marvel is not much if having likened his most glorious Father to an Husband-man he doth resemble his most heavenly Kingdom and his administration of and in the same unto a man that sowed and that sowed good Seed In this respect our Saviour is as well the Husband-man as he is the Vine an Husband-man whose labour like the Countrey Plough-mans is never at an end but runs round in circulo My Father worketh hitherto saith Christ our Saviour and I also work As if he had thus said in more plain discourse Hitherto hath my Father worked from the beginning of the world to this very time nec ullum sibi cessationis statuisse diem and lost no time nor intermitted any opportunity of sowing the celestial seed of life eternall And I his deare and onely sonne work also and am continually imployed in doing the will of him that sent me For wot ye not that I must go about my Fathers business and that what ever thing he doth he doth it in and by the Sonne Per me enim facit cum fecit per me regit cùm regit God made the world but by the Sonne for by him all things were made Joh. 1. And God instructs the world in his holy mysteries but it is only by the Sonne who is both God the word and the word of God Master said his Apostle to him whither shall we go Thou only hast the words of eternall life Which institution being as it is here called but a kinde of sowing hath been the care and labour of the heavenly Husband-man from the first fall of Adam to this very day and will still be his care and labour from this day forwards to the end of all things For the first man being fallen almost as soon as made became the most calamitous ruine of a goodly fortune His understanding darkened
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
a malady which is confirmed and setled by a long delay And so t is also in this case with the Churches Doctors He that doth undertake the cure of a crazie Church must be instant in it not put it off until the morrow Hodie si vocem ejus To day if you will hear his voyce saith the Prophet David and operamini cùm vocatur â—odie Work whilest t is called to day saith the Sonne of David No tense so proper as the present for this weighty work If they intend to go and gather either by labouring in his Vineyard or by setting forth against the enemies it must be imus and colligimus in the present tense before their courage is grown cold and theiâ— zeal abated Sure I am so it was with my servants here and yet they were not so intent on the present service as not to take their Masters leave and instructions with them guiding their courage by his will and governing their zeal by his directions This shewes their temper and obedience as before I noted Vis imus colligimus eaâ— Wilt thou that we go and gather them up Turpe est in extremo actu deficere To fail in the last Act in the close of business is a foul reproch and derogates not only from the Agent but from the enterprise The servants had done all things well since they were awakened both in their coming and enquiry the resolute expressions of their zeal and courage their readiness and unanimity in the promoting of their Masters business There wanted nothing now to dispatch the work but a Commission from their Master And certainly it stood with reason that in a business wherein their Master was concerned in so high a manner they should do nothing rashly without his consent Had they gone otherwise to work they had not merited so much for their zeal and courage as they had forfeited and lost for want of wisdom Saepe honestas rerum causas ni judicium adhibeatur perniciosi exitus consequuntur as he in Tacitus Zeal without judgement and advice may be compared to a brush-Bavin-Faggot in a Country-Cottage more likely farre to fire the House then to warm the Chimney And zeal and courage destitute of consent and counsel is but like Sampson in the Story when as his hair was grown and his eyes put out and seldom serves to other purpose then to pull the House upon our heads But here zeal yielded to obedience and courage thought it no disparagement to submit to temper Here was both modus caritatis temperamentum fortitudinis This made them first consult their Master before they went to execute their own desires and it did well with them the bit of respect being oftentimes as useful as the spur of courage Discretion is a sure guide to zeal and only that which keeps it that it breaks not out into open fury If good directions do not hold the reins our good intentions many times may chance to break their own neck and the Riders too and which is yet most strange of all without such guidance and instruction our zeal to God may lead us from him Besides the business which they came about was their Masters chiefly the field of which they were so zealous did belong to him as the sole owner and Proprietary and therefore Ager suus his field v. 24. The enemy against whom they resolved to go was not theirs but his or their 's no otherwise then as they did retain to him and weare his Livery and therefore inimicus ejus his enemy v. 25. Men might have said they had bin desperately bold and perversely zealous if they had entred on his field and against his enemies without his liking and consent It had been little to the prayse of their discretion of their duty lesse how much soever they might have been admired by unknowing men for great undertakers And though they had returned with success and victory yet who can tell but that instead of being made welcom with an Euge Well done my good and faithful Servant they might have been reproved at their coming home with a quis haec quaesivit who required these things at your hands It is the approbation of Authority which makes courage usefull and zeal if it be publick warrantable Without that both become unprofitable in some cases dangerous We may affirm of them as we say commonly of fire and water that they are excellent Servants but ill Masters or as St. Ambrose of the Sun that it is melior in ministerio quà m imperio never more useful to us men then when the beames thereof are most meek and gentle and so the more applyable to our necessities In these regards the servants had too much neglected both themselves and him had they been all for imus colligimus and ascribed nothing unto vis to the Masters pleasure Solomon in the Book of Canticles compares the Church unto an Army an Army terrible with banners And t is indeed an Army most exactly ordered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never was Army better marshalled in the words of Chrysostom Now t is well known that an Army is a gallant sight when it hath all one motion and that so many thousand bodies seeme to be guided by one soul and every one observeth that rank and station in which he hath been placed by the chief Commander or other Officers of the field The poor Centurion in the Gospel was so far sensible of his own Authority as to appoint the Souldiers under his Command not only what they were to do but when it was fit to go and when fit to come Had they been doing of their own accord without his Fiat or going upon any action without his vade or appointment no question but they should have felt their error though they would not see it And he affirms it of himself that he was sub potestate constitutus a man under the Authority and command of others implying this that as he did expect obedience from the common Souldier so he did yield it to his Colonel or his Serjeant Major or whosoever else was in place above him The Discipline of Warre could not else be kept Ita se ducum autoritas sic rigor Disciplinae habet And if that be not kept as it ought to be confusi Equites pâ—ditesque in exitium ruunt the whole will soon run on to a swift destruction Thus is it also with the Church with the Camp of God that Acies castrorum ordinata as the Scripture calls it If there be no subordination in it if every one might do what he list himself as did Gods people in those dayes in which there was no King in Israel what a confusion would ensue how speedy a calamity must needs fall upon it The servants of my Text understood this rightly and therefore though they came provided and desired nothing more then to give the onset yet thought they â—it to hear how
feed Jacob his people and Israel his Inheritance Psal 78. v. 70. Nor hath the name of Shepherd been accounted anciently an honorary adjunct only to the greatest Princes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to God himself as Philo hath observed in his Book of Husbandry An observation not so strange in Philo by birth a Jew and so acquainted with the Scripture as it may seem to be in Plato who was a meer stranger to the Covenant And yet in Plato do we finde it and that in termes no lesse expressive then in those of Philo for speaking of the peaceable and happy lives which men are said to lead in the first Ages he gives this reason for it in his Book de Regno 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. God saith he was their â—hepherd and he did lead them and conduct them as now Princes do whom therefore we are bound to honour in the next degree to the Gods immortal A Speech so excellent and divine that nothing but the written word can go beyond it But behold a greater then Plato is here also for God hath told us by the mouth of his Servant David that he is a Shepherd Dominus Pastor meus the Lord is my Shepherd Psal 23. and hear O thou Shepherd of Israel Psal 80. If therefore God may without diminution of his power and greatness assume unto himself the name of a Shepherd assuredly the Sonne of God will think it no disparagement to be called so too Or if it were what poor and low condition would not he gladly undergo for the sake of man whose bowels yerned so oft within him when as he saw his wretched and neglected people wandring like sheep without a Shepherd And certainly if we consult the Scriptures we shall there finde that God designed him to this Office long time before his incarnation the taking of our flesh upon him for in the 34. of Ezekiel thus saith the Lord about his flock I will set up one Shepherd over them and he shall feed them ipse erit eis in Pastorem and shall be their Shepherd A Prophecie accomplished by our Lord and Saviouâ— in the whole work and business of his life amongst us for being appointed by Almighty God to be the Shepherd of his people he caused the first tidings of his Birth to be proclaimed to a company of shepherds chose a stable or a sheep-coat rather as most Fathers think to be the place of his Nativity Conversing here amongst us men he took unto himself the name of a Shepherd being styled so in this Chapter twice and talking of his Sheep throughout the whole After all this being to take his farewel of us for as much as did concern his bodily presence he left no greater charge unto his Disciples then Pascite oves meas to feed his sheep One further evidence to this purpose we will make bold to borrow out of Plutarchs works who tells a Story of one Thames that as he sailed towards Greece was by a strange voyce but from whence he knew not commanded to make known when he came on Land that Pan the Shepherds God was dead This Pan the Authour takes to be the sonne of Mercury and Penelope when the Gentiles worshipped But they which looked with more advice into the matter conceive it rather to be meant of the Sonne of God and the Virgin Mary who much about the time which that Authour speaks of did suffer death upon the Crosse for our redemption and was indeed the true God Pan chief Shepherd of the soul of man A Shepherd then our Saviour was there 's no doubt of that we might have took it absolutely on his Ipse dixit But how he doth discharge the office is in the next place to be considered And this we shall the better see by looking for a while on the Country-shepherd whose duty doth consist in three points especially 1. In the feeding 2. In the ordering And 3. In the guarding of the sheep committed to him For feeding first there is no question to be made but that it is a part of the shepherds office The very name doth intimate so much unto us for Pastor à pascendo a shepherd is so called from feeding and that not in the Language of the Latines only but in Greek and Hebrew This duty mentioned in the Georgicks Luciferi primo cum sydere frigida rura carpamus in which he doth advise his shepherd that at the dawning of the day he unfold his sheep and drive them out into their Pasture And this exemplified in Jacob and the sonnes of Jacob honest shepherds all it being said of Jacob in the Book of God that he did feed the Sheep of Laban of Jacob's sonnes that they did feed their Fathers flocks in Sichem And finally this took for granted in Almighty God in his expostulation with the Priests and Prophets of the House of Israâ—l nonne greges à Pastoribus pascuntur should not the Shepherds feed the Flocks That Christ doth punctually discharge this duty is past all controversie The Prophet hath foresignified that he should so do I will set up one Shepherd over them and the Evangelists declare that he did so do For what were all those heavenly Sermons those frequent exhortations unto faith and piety which he so often made unto them but a spirituall feeding of the inward man a sweet refection of the soul a celestiall nourishment His feeding of so many thousands by a few Loaves of Bread and two small fishes what was it though a signall miracle compared with those many millions which he doth feed continually with the bread of life We need not doubt of the success when he that fed them with the Word was the Word it self or of the spreading of the Gospel when he that was the Preacher was the Gospel too or of the nourishment of the Guests in the fruits of godliness when he that carved unto them the life of bread was of himself the bread of life For he indeed was magnus ille panis qui mentem replet non ventrem that holy bread which feedes the soul and not the body as the Father hath it the living bread as himself tells us of himself which came down from Heaven of which whosoever eateth he shall live for ever Which bread if it be meant of Christ who is God the Word we then partake it principally in the Sacraments but if we understand it of the Word of God as St. Hierome doth we must then look for it in the Scriptures By these two meanes the preaching of Gods holy Word and the administration of his Sacraments are we still fed and nourished unto life eternal if not by Christ himself the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or chief Shepherd as St. Peter calls him yet by those under-Officers those inferior Ministers to whom he hath intrusted that most weighty duty First for the preaching of the
let us look upon the sheep as they are a flock as they are Oves first in the plural number and secondly as Oves meae my sheep the sheep of Christ a multitude or number under the command of one supreme Sheepherd First Oves in the plural number otherwise Christ could have no Church and the great Sheepherd would have never a Flock One sheep can no more properly be called a Flock then one Swallow may be said to make a Summer and on the other side a multitude of sheep without rule or Government is no more a flock then several shreds of Cloth may be called a Garment So is it also with the Church one man though never so replenished with celestial Graces cannot so properly be called a Church as a Chappel of Ease and multitudes of men that live not under one Lord one Faith one Baptisme cannot with such propriety be termed a Church as a confusion of opinions To the making therefore of a Church a Flock there is a number first required and next an union or consolidation of those numbers It s true this number hath not been at all times eminent nor equally conspicuous in all places and yet there have been still a number Seven thousand knees there were in Israel which Elijah knew not that had not bowed themselves to Baal and infinite numbers in the Realm of Judah who never offered sacrifice to that wretched Idol visible Professors of Gods saving truths and devout worshippers of his holy name Nor ever was the Church so destituâ—e of the grace of God as not to hold those necessary fundamental Doctrines which are required unto salvation and those professed and taught in some place or other according to the will and pleasure of Almighty God Since God first had a Church there have still been numbers of Professors though more or lesse according unto times and seasons more in some places then in others although not alwayes in such whole and sound condition so free from erroâ— and corruptions as it ought to be But number simply is not so great a strength to the Church of God as is the unity thereof For as the holy Ghost in the Book of Psalms compares the Church not unto men but to a City a City at unity in it self and in the Canticles not unto Souldiers but an Army an Army terrible with banners so doth he liken it not unto sheep but to a flock a flock new come from washing in the same Song of Solomon a little flock as himself calls it in St. Luke And if a flock it must be then united and collected into one Fold under the leading and command of the same one Sheepherd unum â—vile and unus Pastor being joyned together in this Chapter v. 16. To finde this one Sheepherd who it is we need seek no further then my Text it is Christ our Saviour who therefore calleth them oves meas his own sheep his as the chief sheepherd and proprietary the Lord and owner of the flock And this supreme and universal sheepherd we acknowledge gladly and should account our selves in an ill condition were we not under his command fed by his blessed Word and Sacraments and safely sheltered under the wings of his protection There is indeed another who pretends to this this universal Empire over all the Flock one who cries out with Polyphemus in the Poet Hoc pâ—cus omne meum est that all the sheep upon the Downs are his or like the sheepherd in the Eclogue Mille meae Siculis errant in montibus Agnae and so are all the Lambs on a thousand Hills And whereas antiently it was conceived to be a perfect definition of the Church of Christ viz. that it was a body of men professing one Lord one Faith one Baptisme our Masters in the Church of Rome have now added this sub unius Christi in terris Vicarii Romani Pont. that this collected body must be under the command of the Bishop of Rome A patch subjoyned to the old definition of a Church much like the piece of new Cloth put to an old Garment which our Saviour speaketh of That which is added to it to make up the rent takes from the beauty of the Garment Et scissura fit pejor saith the Text the Schisme or rupture is made worse then before it was For by this patch this new addition the Churches of the East which are large and numerous those of the Moscovites and Aâ—thiopians which are farre more entire though not so populous and all the Churches also of the Reformation are cut off for ever from having any part in David or hope of an inheritance in the sonne of Jesse But with this new Divinity we have nought to do We know but one chief Sheepherd onely even the Lord Christ Jesus whose voyce we are to hear whom we ought to follow If it be asked whether the number or the unity of the flock be the more considerable no question but we must determine it in behalf of unity A small flock if it hold together are lesse obnoxious to the Wolf then multitudes of sheep dispersed and scattered without rule and order Luporum insidiis oves minus patent quod ita catervatim incedant à reliquis non aberrent as mine Authour hath it When the sheep keep together in a flock a Body the Wolf dare hardly meddle with them for it were madness in him to attempt a flock But if he meet them single or in scattered Companies divided from the main Body of their fellows or otherwise stragling from the Fold then takes he his advantage of them and destroyes them utterly As long as Dinah kept her self within the Sanctuary of her Fathers House fenced by the valour of her Brethren and guided by the counsels of a careful Parent it went well with her she preserved her honour But when the gadding humour took her and she must needs abroad to see the Daughters of the Land she forthwith met with Sichem the Sonne of Hamor who seized upon her and defiled her And so it also is with the stragling Christian such as do peevishly divide themselves from the Communion of the Church and wander from the rest of that sacred Body They either fall into the jawes of the roaring Lion who walkes about in expectation of his prey seeking out whom he may devoure or else by hearkening to the voice of strangers whom they should not follow they make themselves a spoyl unto Theeves and Robbers Keep we then all together in one Fold one Flock and so we need not fear the violence of Satan nor the power of Hell nor any mischievous design of malicious men And if we would preserve the spirit of unity in the bond of peace we cannot do it with lesse hazard nor with more assurance then if we hearken diligently to the voyce of Christ and tread with patience in his steps which are the duties to be done