keepe them from blame and shame before God seeing he came apparantly into the mids of his owne and his owne receiued him not But be they hote or key cold be they carefull or carelesse be they Gods friends or the Diuels feends be they one or other or neither or all Iohn preacheth to them all at once and teacheth one with another excepting against neither and accepting of al as of one he will graft this science of Christ into the true oliue and if the body cānot nourish it hee will remoue it into the wilde oliue tree he offereth them the sauour of life the Sauiour of the world but if they refuse him he turneth to the Gētiles if the children of the family will not eate their bread giue it to the poore that cry out for hunger at the dores if the true and next legitimate heyre be dead raise vp another heire by adoption if the common directest path be stopped vp all is plaine ground open way in the valley of Bethabara and God is not tide to any man or to any way vnlesse he be his man and it be his way for if once he be Gods chosen seruant and once in Gods booke of life if God shall once say Thou art my sonne and I wil be a father to thee then if euery haire of his head were a Cayn and euery pore of his body a Nymrod though euery drop of his bloud be an Ammon euery blast of his spirit the seuen spirits of Mary Magdalene his haires shal be washed his pores clensed his bloud purged his spirit purified and all his inward and outward man made a liuely sacrifice of a dead a holy oblation of a defiled an acceptable and gratious sauour of a putrified and noisome smell and in a word to Gods children chiefly is this doctrine appertaining which S. Iohn deliuereth here behold the Lambe of God that taketh away the sinne of the world to them specially is it spoken which are written in Gods eternall Register whose faith is euer liuely mouing working neuer idle A foundation surely grounded is not easily remoued but a building vpon sand is soone ouerturned that is bred in the bone wil neuer out of the body but an outward maladie is soone cured a Iewish father maketh a Iewish sonne as the scholler is taught so he beleeueth as the blinde is led so he walketh an owne counteth night as day and the Iewe loueth his owne darkenesse more then the light of Christ and the fault is not in the day but in the oule when Gods holy spirit forsaketh a man he goeth and wandreth he cannot tell whether but is compared to swine that tread vpon pearles to beasts that perish the Iewe will be obstinate in his superstition and wilfull in his blindnes as the Aethiopian will euer be blacke and the diuell a liar at euery hand a reprobate sense may be reproued but neuer amended a peruerse opinion wil very hardly leaue a peruerse and crooked minde superstitious premisses alwaies drawe after them superstitious conclusions Iewish and vncharitable presumptions make Iewish iudgements vnkind and vnchristian thoughts beget vnkind and vnchristian censures a preiudicate minde can neuer determine rightly a purposed inuectiue is commonly more affectionate then reasonable though a voice from heauen approue Christ the Iewish voice in earth will reproue him and his by hooke or by crooke probably or impudently euen Martinlike if the diuell once set in his pawe all the whole house will smell of his rankenes one morsell of leauen leueneth the whole lump of dowe then beware of the leauen of the Iewish Scribes and Pharisees that write vnrighteousnesse and boast of leesings Historians say that the crow and the ape suppose presume their yonglings are faire and so perhaps they are in their kinde but who else will say so besides the crowe and the ape Mercury in his methode imagineth selfe-loue to walke in a gallery beset and hanged with seeing glasses wherein she may view and vaunt hir owne pecock feathers I cannot stand now vpon this common place of wilfull and Iewish obstinacie mixed with hautie and Iewish self-loue the truest historie and poesie in the world is the historie and poesie of the Bible that teacheth the truest and surest beleefe and the truest beleefe neuer refuseth the right sentence or hopeth for more truthes then one faith tempered with charitie pearceth the cloudes and loue among brethren is a sweete smell in Gods nostrels the loue of Iesus is more sweet then the loue of all women for he shall neuer repent himselfe of his loue that loueth Iesus he came to vs as a frend he dwelt with vs as a brother he died for vs as a mother in trauell he rose for vs as a God he ascended for vs as a Captaine a captaine to leade and defend his christian Souldiers to loade and oppresse his Iewish enemies must therefore be loued with the loue of all frendes of all brothers of al children of all creatures of al seruants and souldiers in the whole world from the first day to the last There is but one world but one sunne but one king and but one Messias and Sauiour greater then the world cleerer then the sunne stronger then king great without fault cleare without spotte strong without change the world of ioy the sunne of righteousnes the king of peace let vs goe out of this world and dwell in that world walke in that light obey that king but first follow the counsel of Iohn-baptist and beholde behold the lamb of God that taketh away the sinne of the world and then dwel with him walke with him and obey him Thus for vpon the first part of this text which is the historie Now followeth the doctrine which the wicked heare and marke not or if they marke it they soon forget it if they remember the word it taketh no roote in their hearts or if it be rooted it rotteth and withereth at the last and scarcely bringeth foorth the least tokens of regeneration but geueth leaues and no fruite and is therefore cursed with Christes owne curse as the Fig-tree was cursed for bearing no figges Marke c. 11. ver 13 21. Who then must cheefly wey and examine this sentence of Iohn-baptist Let all those that delight in their saluation behold this lambe of God with louing eye and constantly perswade themselues that he taketh away the sinne of the world let all such as loue their owne liues consider this sentence throughly deepely from which al meditations and prayers are growen and vpon which all the bookes and volumes of holy writers and godly learned fathers are buylded written for as al their works belong to the two testaments the old and the new so the two testamentes are singularly belonging to this one sentence But to leaue the longest and largest obseruations it shall suffice to set downe a compendious and if God will a fruitfull exposition Behold saith the Baptist behold with ioy awake
or will any peeuish vaine and factious tongue on that side once say for his life that maister Reformer knoweth in his wisedome better then did Salomon what is best belonging and behouefull to the Church Christs beloued spouse or may the zealous bounty of Christian Emperours the deuoute giftes of noble and godly Princes the liberall adoptions of magnificent and mightie men bestowing worldly goods on heauenly vses and bequeathing mortall heritages to immortal seruices may these lawfull and iust and successiue possessions priuiledges and charters and codicilles of ecclesiasticall endowmēt and maintenance be once abrogated ought all these liberties and prerogatiues to be made voyde to be disanulled and brought vnder then which none can be or should stand in more full strength and vertue for Bishops and vnder them Elders ought no lesse to bee reuerenced of all christened soules in the churches then fathers are of their children in the familie as Heresbachius writeth in his Christiana iurisprudentia But the liuing Lord of heauen and God of peace the God of our forefathers and king of all kinges preserue and arme his owne christian children from that outrage from that desolation from such abhomination standing in the temple of God where it ought not frō such heathen turkish martinish and carterly brutish rauine and make vs like his owne Moses like his owne Salomon like all his owne godly gouerners and Christian Princes and other good men of his owne in all ages not like any other vnlike them that maintaine seminaries of schisme and malignitie that hatch the Cockatrices egge and weaue the spyders webbe and woulde make men beleeue they are for their eating and wearing which in finall proofe would eate vp and weare them out to the poysoning and vndoing of thēselues of the whole Realme and of the whole world too as may easily appeare to them which can compare consequents and antecedents together Then looke not to them but looke into Gods owne holy and faultlesse booke the onely chiefe doctor and reformer of gouernment that is by Gods gracious prouidence more common among vs then it was with grandfathers in England by print by translation by expositiō meditatiō in which booke we know the euer lasting will and testament of God more then they did wherin we learne all that pertaineth to our direction and instruction for all spirituall and temporal iurisdictions and regiments whatsoeuer Here you haue and you reade or may haue and reade the Oecomenickes and Politicks of the Hebrew common-wealth which is the most auncient and excellent of all other as Sigonius wryteth in the yeares of his best and ripest iudgement when he had intreated vpon the Athenian and Roman common-wealth in his younger dayes and by which the most and best Nations of the earth haue bin taught and ruled to this present day in all good counsels in all great affayres in euery good intendment or order in personall and actionall and reall causes In this heauenly and righteous booke the same hande of Moses which gaue the Hebrews lawes from aboue and said Thou shalt not steale from the Clergie or Laitie thou shalt not couet thy neighbors house or any thing that he hath in the church or out of the church doth also institute and ordeyne that the measure of the sanctuarie should be much more then the measure of the congregation and the weight as much more againe the sanctuarie seruing God and his ministers the Elders of the Leuites and the high Priest set ouer them the other belonging to the people of Israël and other tribes only among themselues who reckoned in their accounts to the tribe of Leuie two for one and double for single as the sicle and talent of the Sanctuary was as much more as the sicle and talent of the congregation the cubite much more euen a hand breadth which is named a great cubite Ezech. c. 41. v. 8. c. 43. v. 13. Exodus c. 30. v. 13. Leuit. c. 27. v. 25. Num. c. 18. v. 16. Cenalis tomo 5. fol. 87 88 89. and tomo 9. fol. 133 134 c. Whose zealous example and godly deuotion all good men and women that loue God and his rulers ought readily to followe yea much more willingly and earnestly in this light of the trueth that shineth out among vs nowe then other did in time of ignorance next past whose reddinesse notwithstanding was more forwarde then our least we learning more and doing lesse then they be beaten with more terrible and wofull stripes according to Christs owne sentence in Luke c. 12. v. 47. Neyther yet Moses the soueraigne teacher and Lord of the Hebrews staied there but God bad him command the people of Israël and in them all true Israelites for euer to giue the cleanest the purest the fattest and lustiest of the sacrifices of lambs and goates and other cattell the tenths and first-fruites of all fruite vnto Gods vses Gods seruices Gods seruitors and euery thing that belonged to the church and sanctuary both liuing and dead both agent and instrument to bee appointed in the best and goodliest manner that could be deuised beside other certaine and determinate prescriptions giuen indefinitely by God himselfe agreing with that eternall statute of S. Paul 1. Cor. c. 14. where lastly he chargeth them in the name of the holy spirit which he verily beleeued to be in him both to keepe a good order alwaies and specially to haue a special care of adorning and bewtifying it with all seemely supplements or additions euen as the circumstance of the place or the time or the person may deserue and require In this consideration when the Hebrews vsed mettals for the sanctuary they were cleere and pure in the highest degree their wood must euer be that durable Sethim and the best or smoothest their oyle the sweetest and cleanest their frankincense the brightest their odors pleasantest their sacrifices males without blemish their flower similage and no meaner their fruits of the fairest trees the place of offring without all foulnesse the fatte must be the Lords and if any man eat it he shal be cut of from his people their musick choicest of all sorts harpes and trumpets and cymbals and organes and psalteries and other instruments together with lowde harty voices their vestures and garments of finest linnen and finest silke furnished with gold and precious pearle their workemen the most famous and cunning that could be gotten the churchmen without deformities of body comely and cleanly as it euidently and notably appeareth in Exodus from the 25. chapter to the 32 and in Leuiticus almost throughout and much elswhere For seeing these outward and momentany goods are not our but the good blessings of our God lent and giuen vs for his vse and glory then iudge I pray to whom they may so rightly or truly belong by way of dispensation as to Gods owne spirituall and temporall ministers which in all earthly and heauenly businesse and actions serue him and his
say let it alone it is mine not your seeing he speaketh truly and may not an other man or lord say let it stand it is mine not your it is Gods not your giuen as truly lawfully to his house and housholders as euer any right and title was giuen in the world by Gods word or mans by Gods written promise and couenant or by mans or by any other meanes Learne of Comes Purliliarum in his first booke of the art of war to abstaine from sacred things not to touch them your selfe being captaine and to punish them grieuously that touch them lesse you come to naught by making God and godly men your enemies which being a rule of warre with the best Admirals of the field toward the enemie must for horror of shame not once be broken in peace toward the neighbour Learne of Onosander Platonicus first to haue a cheefe eye to holy matters that by this skill of the generall other matters may prosper in his booke De optimo Imperatore Learne of Dions first precept De regno not to dally with God as if he were Prauus or Stultus but principally to adore him in his visible ministers the only way in this life to approue our faith Learne of Xenophon in his Hipparchicus to pray to the God of the world aboue all things for helth and glory and not to esteeme him vnder all learne of Pythagoras God immortall must be first honored of Phocylides worship God first of all teachers to excell pagans in that Eusebeia which hath the first place in Isocrates and al other gnomographers increasing daily in piety and vertue there is Meum in the clergie not only in the laity and if either of them plead lawfull inheritance and possession they say well and speake no lesse then truth and yet the clergie should in equity truth be first and more forward then the other by how much Gods plea interest must haue greater audience then the plea of men Yea reason and truth crie out vpon these Mosemastiges and Theomastiges too who when they heare Moses say in Gods law all the fat is the Lords Leuit. c. 3. v. 16. that is the best is the Lords offring as may appeare Num. c. 18. v. 12. Ps 81. v. 16. they answer him in their lawlesse mouths and malcontented harts let all the leane be his he hath no need the lambe is fat enough already his pasture is good enough neither needeth he either of them the fat or the leane or any thing els because he hath all things at commaundement without your leaue and is the Lord of Lords both ghostly bodily yet thus by your incōsiderate wits and spritish mockeries and new-founded minds which you beare you incur the danger of his heauy wrath ô ye sonnes of Belial with your incredible vanities and credulous followers that in S. Pauls eye c. 16. v. 17. Rom. fight all for the belly maintenance and bring al their zeale to the merchants shops their learning to mony matters their pure meditations to set vp shifters their discipline to bannish or imprison roialties now stablished their christianisme to open Iulianisme their wits to Lucianisme beware in time of Gods displeasure which being once kindled yea but a little blessed are al they that trust in him and cursed are they that make such a turkissing and furbushing of his omnipotent and irreprehensible word which hath bin euer hetherto the word of ioy and comfort and wil be hereafter the word of Iubilee it selfe of victorie herselfe which Iubilee is neither against the institutions grounds of our or of other soundest lawes or any way against the analogie of christian religion or regiment but a true restoratiue for decayed families and a good preseruatiue against the proud pouertie and is therfore so highly extolled and magnified by Moses Leuit cap. 25. v. 10. as these are professed of vs with heart and voyce and yet are dayly defaced and weakened among vs so farre as trueth may be enfeebled which is inuincible by priuie and open treacheries falsly called reformations O mercifull God seeing it is thy soueraigne maiesties most gratious and apparant worde not to touch thine annoynted or doe thy Prophets any harme Psal 105. v. 15. either execute thy will and poure out thy vengeance vpon such wicked ones as seeke both to touch thine annoynted and hurt thy Prophets or els shorten the day of thy second comming and quicklie sound the last thundering trumpet of thy greatest glorie that all these impostors and intruders may knowe that thou ô Lord art God aboue all men and emperor of all the world but specially of thy little flock to geue it a kingdome according to thy word which thy sonne and our Sauiour purchased with the inestimable and vnspeakeable price of his most precious life bloud which to vs is so heartie and full of life and in which lieth the life of our soules as the life of our bodies is in our owne bloud They went out from vs ô God of heauen earth they went out from among vs and why are they suffered to liue by vs that would betray vs and thy sheepeheards vpon no iust causes but by vaine vile meanes out they went from vs and were not of vs but they were of that malicious arch-rebel Caine and that pecuniarie Ringleader Iudas they were of themselues and their owne selfewil that haue rebelled against our reuerend spirituall fathers and our honourable spirituall Lords and but for feare of losing their heads woulde holde vp their pennes and Printes that come from Ouids Europa a metamorphosed defloured beast or rather from Aristotles Euripus a desperate probleme and throwe their bookes their libels their lies at temporal fathers and secular Lords for both these tenures holde alike by thy seruice in ruling the soules and bodies of thy people O Lord they haue opened a gappe to all obstinacie outrage and miserie their malicious proceedings haue put shamefull and peruerse paradoxes into Subiectes mindes how much better were it to hold them down and as it were to the grinstone as Moses and Lycurgus did by iust executions then thus to let go the reynes and to let them loose till they looze themselues and al as the Athenians and Rhodians which therfore at this day are of no account but slauish and vnknowen did play the part of childrē in breaking their lawes so soon as they made them or the part of spiders in catching small flies and letting goe great hurtfull hornettes and dors by the discipline of their reformatiōs many haue reached beyond the compasse of thy worde in these common places of accepting no persons of vnequall comparisons in striuing against externall decent ceremonies and customes as though they were principals of our saluation cases of life and death matters of hell and heauen they haue been disobedient to the Magistrates of thy Sanctuarie and congregation they would ouerrule thy rulers in indifferent things rather then be ruled by them as
soft tender hearts euery one to other that wee perish not in our owne folly by discord that wee open no gates or dores to confusion and misrule that we proue not a by worde or laughing stocke to our enemies but that God may blesse vs and bee blessed in vs for euer and euer Let vs alwaies remember that memorable sentence and comparatiue suppose of our highest teacher and archbishop Iesus Christ and applie it vnto our naked hearts and be fully persuaded of it without wayning minishing in this faith that if any one despiseth his preachers and messengers he despiseth him and that he which despiseth him despiseth the father which sent him Luke cap. 10. vers 16. whereby he is necessarily brought to a naughtie and shamefull ende hauing God and his Christ with the same Christ and his faithfull ones his accusers and iudges which precept of personall regard is in all reason so necessarie to maintaine discipline that the Romans hauing onely a politick regard of religion in their blindenesse grounded their deuotion vppon Numaes fourth lawe Feroces animos non posse in officio contineri nisi deorum metu ideoque religionibus ceremoniis esse alligandos so honoured their chiefe bishops or Archbishops and namely among other Marcus Aemilius Lepidus their chiefe Bishoppe that they set a great punishment and fine vpon Cneus Cornelius the pretors head for abusing him and in him religion with reprochfull words whose name they tendered cheefly next the greatest name of all other as Alexander ab Alexandro recordeth l. 2. c. 8. genia how much more shoulde true honour bee geuen to the cheefe priest in a true religion then in a false then in the profane religion of Orestes yet being sober and of his sister Iphigenia among the Commani where the priest is next the king in honor seeing he that is a king and he that is a priest are commonly of one familie and progeny in so much that their priests on the feast dayes twise in the yeare did weare a crowne or diademe and Pompeius that conquered their coūtrey Cappadocia made the inhabitāts subiect to Archelaus their high priest who had by his decree 6000 seruants at commandement for holy things and for his vse two skoenes or 60. furlongs or 7. miles and a halfe of ground about the citie Comana as Budaeus reporteth in his third booke de asse out of Straboes 12. booke of Cosmography then in that vaine religion of the Druides among the primitiue Galli where the priestes were in chiefest account and honour they had a high priest they enioyed priuiledges miuerualia and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in being free from warres in paying no tribute in other immunities they were iudges in priuate and publike controuersies so that they were excommunicated from all companies which yelded not to their decrees and to the shame of these newfangled brablers it is written that artes were much esteemed that iudges were in great authoritie that the propitiation and diuination of sacrifices was no lesse then augustae maiestatis and euen imperiall To let passe the cleane beautifull and reuerend order of the Tanagraei and the Cabiri commended by Paufanias lib. 9. for the regard they had to religious buildings and many other whose policie was greater and learning profounder then the skill of all church-robbers in this Iland Let vs not lay vp for our selues treasure in earth specially not ill gotten goods against Gods will but make vs frends of vnrighteous Mammon that the mountaines or greatest men may bring forth peace and the little hilles or inferiours righteousnesse vnto the people that they may receiue vs into euerlasting habitations where Seraphin and Cherubin and Angels and Prophets and Apostles and Martyrs prayse the God of this Church for euer and euer Let vs follow the widdow of Sarepta and euer bee like her whose prayse is in the Gospel Luke chapter 4. verse 26. that hauing but a little oyle and a little meale was so obedient and faithfull toward God when she had but once heard Gods word that she woulde rather euen in a great famine put her selfe and her sonne in danger then not doe for Elias the man of God and what lost shee by it or what loose any other by the like 3. Kings chapter seuenteene verse nine Let vs liue and dwell among our selues in vnitie and concorde like Lambes and Doues like fathers and sonnes and be Lyons in Gods name to our forrayne enemies that are Gods enemies not to our neighbours whom we must loue as our selues seeing God is not the authour of confusion but of peace 1. Cor. c. 14. v. 33. Let vs liue let vs the prince and people of England liue in the bande of impregnable loue and charitie like fellow-labourers and sworne men and sworne bretheren and because the Cleargie soweth vnto vs spirituall thinges is it any matter if they reape our temporall thinges which without their diuine regiment the strong commonaltie would by force pul from vs idle politicks too idle in suppressing the foes of holy Church 1. Cor. cap. 9. v. 11. Let vs hold fast togither in vniformitie lyke the partes of one and the same bodie not defying and enfeebling one another without all wisedome and compassion that become true Christians seeing the body shall be too much defied by the enemies God knoweth though it hurt not it selfe for who euer in a good minde hated his owne bodie Ephes c. 5. v. 29. Let vs leaue the motespying of wordly men and hypocrites that Iuda and Israël Roboam and Ieroboam Ierusalem and Samaria may be no more among vs in England according to that historicall prayer of Tertullianus against the Arrians Let Martin and his Martinets not thinke the realme so rude as to be delighted in his vndecent and vnciuill language or the rulers so vnlearned as to be persuaded by his grosse and ignorant opinions but leaue to strike at them whom hee cannot reach though hee hath three more sheaues to stand vpon What if the old cockes of Danubius and Rhenus haue putrified humors in them and thereby lay vnhealthful egges must the merchants of Tamesis and Seuerne bring them hither for nouelties where the swelling corner birdes and toades of the hellish calumniator are so ready to broode them and breede such Serpents and Cockatrices as are lately flowne abroad or if wee shall haue 100000. Iudasses and as many Caines to betrray Christes holy Church for 100000. pounds and crucifie his disciples and giue him and them gall and vinegar to drinke by reedes of pitomees and pistles let vs bee sure that Christ shall rise againe from death for it is impossible that he should be holden of death neither can his ministery see corruption be sure that Abels bloud will cry from the earth and then woe be to them by whom the Sonne of man was betrayed it had bene good for them if they had neuer bene borne and then shall their scornefull generation be cursed from the