LECTVRES VPON IONAS DELIVERED AT YORKE In the yeare of our Lorde 1594. By JOHN KINGE Newlie corrected and amended Printed at Oxford by IOSEPH BARNES and are to be solde in Paules Church-yarde at the signe of the Bible 1599. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE SIR THOMAS EGERTON KNIGHT LORD KEEPER OF THE GREAT SEALE MY very singular good Lord such honor and happines in this world as may vndoubtedly be accompanied with the happinesse and honour of Saintes in the world to come RIGHT Honourable in this prodigall and intemperate age of the vvorlde wherein every man writeth more than neede is and chooseth such patronage to his writinges as his heart fancieth If I haue taken the like libertie to my selfe both of setting my labours openly in the eies of men and your Honours eies especially over my labours I hope because it is not my private fault your Lordshippe will either forget to espie or not narrowly examine it The number of bookes written in these daies without number I say not more then the worlde can holde for it even emptieth it selfe of reason and moderation to giue place to this bookish folly and serveth vnder the vanitie thereof but more than well vse the titles whereof but to haue red or seene were the sufficient labour of our vnsufficient liues did earnestlie treate with mee to giue some rest to the Reader and not to devide him into more choice of bookes the plentie whereof hath alreadie rather hurte then furthered him and kept him barer of knowledge For much reading is but a wearinesse to the flesh and there is no ende of making or perusing many bookes For mine owne part I coulde haue beene wel content not to haue added more fulnesse to the sea nor to haue trained the credulous Reader along with the hope of a new seeming booke which in name and edition and fashion because the file hath a little otherwise beene drawne over it may so bee but touching the substance that of the Preacher was long since true and togither with the growth of the worlde receiveth dailie more strength That that is hath beene and there is no new thing vnder the sunne But as we all write learned and vnlearned crow-poets and py-poetesses though but our owne follies and ignoraunces and to purchase the credite of writers some as madde as the sea some out their owne shame and vncurable reproch whose vnhonest treatises fitter for the fire then the bookes of Protagoras presses are daily oppressed with the worlde burthened and the patience of modest and religious eares implacably offended so the ambitious curiositie of readers for their partes calling forth bookes as the hardnes of the Iewish heartes occasioned the libell of divorce and a kinde of Athenian humor both in learned and vnlearned of harkening after the Mart asking of the Stationers what new thinges thereby threatning as it were continually to giue over reading if there want variety to feede and draw them on made me the more willing to goe with the streame of the time and to set them some later taske wherein if their pleasure be their idler howres may be occupied My end and purpose therein if charitie interpret for mee will be found nothing lesse than vaine ostentation Because I haue spoken at times and may hereafter againe if God giue leaue and grace the meditations of my hearte to as manie and as chosen eares almost as these bookes can distract them vnto and these which I nowe publish were publicke enough before if the best day of the seven frequent concourse of people and the most intelligent auditory of the place vvherein I then lived may gaine them that credite So as this further promulgation of them is not much more then as the Gentiles besought Paule in the Actes the preaching of the same wordes an other sabbath day and some testimonie of my desire if the will of God so bee to doe a double good with my single and simple labours in that it grieveth mee not to write and repeate the same thinges And to adioine one reason more I shall never bee vnwilling to professe that I even owed the everlasting fruite of these vnworthie travailes to my former auditours who when I first sowed this seede amongst them did the office of good and thankefull grounde and received it with much gladnesse To whom since I vvent aside for a time farre from the natiue place both of my birth and breede as Jonas went to Niniveh to preach the preachinges of the Lorde or into the bellie of the fish out of his proper and naturall element to make his song so I to deliver these ordinarie and weekelie exercises amongest them the providence of God not suffering mee to fasten the cordes of mine often remooved tabernacle in those North-warde partes but sending mee home againe let it receiue favourable interpretation with all sortes of men that I send them backe but that labour which they paied for and therein the presence of my spirite pledge of mine hearte and an Epistle of that deserved loue and affection vvhich I iustlye beare them I trust no man shall take hurte heereby either nearer or father of excepte my selfe vvho haue chaunged my tongue into a penne and whereas I spake before with the gesture and countenance of a livinge man haue nowe buried my selfe in a dead letter of lesse effectuall perswasion But of my selfe nothing on either part I haue taken the counsaile of the wise neither to praise nor dispraise mine owne doinges The one hee saith is vanitie the other folly Thousandes will bee readie enough to ease mee of that paines the vncerteinty of whose iudgement I haue now put my poore estimation vpon either to stande or fall before them Howbeit I will not spare to acknoweledge that I haue done little heerein without good guides And as Iustus Lipsius spake of his Politicke centons in one sense all may bee mine in an other not much more then nothing For if ever I liked the waters of other mens vvelles I dranke of them deepely and what I added of mine owne either of reaching or exhortation I commende it to the good acceptance of the worlde with none other condition then the Emperour commended his sonnes sipromerebuntur if it shall deserue it Nowe the reasons which mooved mee to offer these my first fruites vnto your good Lordshippe may soone bee presumed though I name them not For when the eie that seeth you blesseth you and all tongues giue witnesse to your righteous dealing shoulde mine bee silent yea blessed bee the God of heaven that hath placed you vpon the seate of iustice to displace falshood and wrong The vine of our English Church spreadeth her branches with more chearefulnesse through the care which your honour hath over her You giue her milke without silver and breade without mony vvhich not many other patrons doe In this vnprofitable generation of ours wherein learning is praised and goeth naked men wondering at schollers
and the beautifull flowre of the roote of Iesse though withered and defaced for a while in his passion hath so reflourished by raysing him selfe that in him is the blooming and springing of all that loue his name This is that which Paul in his aunswere before Agrippa called the hope of the fathers and this I may as properly tearme The faith and patience of the Saintes For as in every action the vertue that mooveth the agent to vndertake it is the hope of good to come for hee that soweth soweth to reape and hee that fighteth fighteth to get the victory so take away the hope of resurrection and all the conscience or care of godlinesse will fall to the grounde Gregorie vpon these wordes of the last of Sainâ— Matthew But some doubted VVherevpon hee else-where â—oteth that it was the especiall providence of God that Thomas shoulde bee away and afterwardes come and heare heare and doubte doubte and handle handle and beleeue that so hee might become a witnesse of the true resurrection and that it was not so much a touch of infirmitye in them as a confiâ—mation to vs who by that meanes haue the resurrection prooved by so many the more argumentes there are many saith hee who considering the departure of the spirit from the flesh the goinge of that flesh into rottennesse that rottennesse into dust that dust into the elementes thereof so small that the eie of man cannot perceiue them denie and despaire of the resurrection and thinke it vnpossible that ever the withered bones shoulde be cloathed with flesh and waxe greene againe Tertullian frameth their obiections more at large Can that body ever bee sounde againe that hath beene corrupted whole that hath beene maymed full that hath beene emptied or haue any being at all that hath beene altogither turned into nothing Or shall the fire and water the bowels of wilde beastes gordges of birdes entralles of fishes yea the very throate that belongeth to the times themselues ever bee able to restore and redeliver it to the former services thereof Heerevpon they inferred vvho had no longinge after life nor desire to see good dayes let vs eate and drinke for to morrowe vvee shall die that is they will not die before to morrowe but in drunkennes and excesse they will bury themselues to day And liue whilest thou mayest liue And it is better to be a living dogge then a deade lion And there is nothing after death no not death 〈◊〉 selfe Who if they helde not saith Gregorie the faith of the resurrection by submitting themselues to the worde of God surelie they shoulde haue helde it vpon the verdite of reason For what doth the worlde daylie in the elementes and creatures thereof but imitate our resurrection VVe see by degrees of time the withering and falling of the leaues from the trees the intermission of their fruites c. And beholde vpon the suddaine as it vvere from a drye and deade tree by a kinde of resurrection the leaues breake foorth againe the fruites waxe bigge and ripe and the whole tree is apparrailed with a fresh beauty Consider wee the little seede whereout the tree ariseth and let vs comprehend if wee can in that small-nesse of seede howe so mighty a tree and where it was couched Where was the wood the barke the glorie of the leaues the plenty of the fruit when we first sowed it when wee threw it into the grounde was any of these apparant what marvaile is it then if of the thinnest dust resolved into the first elementes and remooved from the apprehension of our eies God at his pleasure reforme a man when from the smallest seedes he is able to produce so huge trees The Apostle vseth this similitude of the seed and the body that springeth from it Thou foole that which thou sowest is not quickened except it die And that which thou sowest thou sowest not that body that shall bee but the naked and simple seede whereof the blade and the eare with the rest of the burthen and encrease ariseth And Tertullian much wondreth that the earth is so kinde vnto vs to returne our corne with such aboundance of a deceaver shee becommeth a preserver And before shee preserveth shee first destroieth First by iniurie then by vsurie First by losse then by gaine This is the manner of her dealing He addeth to giue more light even from the starre of nature the revolutions of winters sommers autumnes springes as it vvere so many deathes and so many resurrections the dying of the day dayly into night and vprising to the worlde againe as freshly be-decked with honour and bravery as if it had never died So true it is vvhich Arnobius wrote against the Gentiles Beholde howe the whole creature doth write a commentary to giue vs comfort in this pointe If wee shall shewe this booke to the Atheistes and Epicures of these daies and bid them reade therein the resurrection of the flesh liuely discoursed and they answere vs againe either that they cannot reade it because the booke is sealed and not plaine vnto them or will not because their heartes are seared I say no more but this at Paul of the hiding of the Gospell to the like nighte-birdes I am sure they are seared and sealed to them that perish So let them rest their bodies rotting in the grounde as the seede vnder the clods which God blesseth not the graue shutting her mouth and destruction closing her iawes vpon them and when others awake to singe themselues awaking to howling and everlasting lamentation For our owne partes wee rest assured in the authour and finisher of our faith that if the spirit of him who raised vp Ionas and Iesus from the dead dwell in vs hee that raised vp them shall also quicken our mortall bodies And as hee spake to the fish and it cast vp Ionas spake to the earth and it cast vp Iesus for vpon the trueth of his fathers word did his flesh rest in hope so the time shall come when all â—hat are in the graues shall heare the voice of the sonne of God vvhen hee shall speake to the earth giue and to the sea restore my sonnes and daughters to all the creatures in the vvorlde keepe not backe mine inheritance and finally to the prisoners of hope lodging a while in the chambers of the grounde Stande foorth and shew your selues And as Ionas was cast vp against the wil of the fish his bowels not able to hold him longer then the pleasure of God was and Christ returned to life with a songe of triumph in his mouth O graue where is thy conquest because it was vnpossible that he should be hoâ—den of it so when that howre commeth the earth shall disclose her bloud and shall no longer hide her slaine And the sea shall finde no rest till the drowned be brought forth nor any creature of the world be able to steale one bone that hath bin
the settled lees of their long continued abhominations and thou shalt end many labours in one thou shalt doe a cure vpon the heart of the principall cittie the benefite whereof shall spread it selfe into the partes of the whole countrie But if Niniveh bee so greate in vvealth and so deepely rooted in pride that shee vvill not bee reformed tell hâ—r shee hath climbde so high to have the lower downe-fall though her children should die in their sinnes yet their bloud for example given shall especially bee required at her handes Many goodly citties were there in Asia Babylon so big that Aristotle called it a country not a citty and Niniveh greater then Babylon and Troy lesse then them both but in her flourishing daies the piller of that part of the world of vvhich and many their companions wee may now truely say O iam periere ruinae the very ruines of them are gone to ruine The king of the Gothes when he saw Constantinople pronounced that the Emperour there was an earthly God They write of Quinsay at this day that it is an hundreth miles about and furnished with 12000. bridges of marble Let not Ierusalem leese her honour amongst the rest Though her honour and happinesse were laide in the dust long since They that were alive when IerusaleÌ„ lived to have numbred her tovvers considered her walles and marked her bulwarckes and to have tolde their posterity of it might have made a reporte skarsely to have beene beleeved I am sure vvhen the Kinges of the earth were gathered togither and sawe it they marvailed they were astonied and suddainely driven backe Let mee adde the renowned citties of Italy by some never sufficiently magnified Rich Venice Greate Millaine Auncient Ravenna Fruitfull Bononia Noble Naples with all their glorious sisters and confederates and her that hath stolen the birth-right from the rest and saith she is ancientest and the mother to theÌ„ all which only is a citty in the iudgment of Quintilian and others are but townes were they all cities great and walled vp to heaven as those of the Anakins were they regions as hee spake of Babilon and every one a world in it selfe yet time shall weare them away sin shall dissolue and vndoe their composition and hee that is greate over all the kingdomes of the earth can cover them with brambles sowe them with salt and turne them vpside downe as if they had never beene When the Emperour Constantius came in triumph to Rome and behelde the companies that entertained him he repeated a saying of Cyneas the Epirote that he had seene so many Kings as Citizens But viewing the buildinges of the cittie the stately arches of the gates the turrets tombes temples theatres bathes and some of the workes like Babell so high that the eye of man coulde skarcely reach vnto them he was amazed and said that nature had emptied all her strength vpon that one cittie Hee spake to Hormiâ—da maister of his workes to erect him a brasen horse in Constantinople like vnto that of Traian the Emperour which hee there sawe Hormisda aunswered him that if hee desired the like horse hee must also provide him the like stable All this much more in the honour of Rome At length hee asked Horsmida what hee thought of the cittie Who tolde him that hee tooke not pleasure in any thing but in learning one lesson which was that men also died in Rome This was the end of those kinglie men which Constantius so tearmed and the end of that lady citty the mirrour and mistresse of the worlde vvill bee the same that hath befallen her predecessours And as nature emptied her selfe vpon it so shee must empty her selfe into nature againe if shee be so happy to fulfill the number of her daies and come to a perfit age but such may bee the iudgement of God vpon her notorious and vncureable witchcraftes that as an vntimely fruite shee may perish reape the meede of the bloud-sucker in the Psalme not to liue out halfe her daies Preach vnto it the preaching which I bid thee Or proclaime against it the proclamation which I enioyne thee So that first the matter must be receaved from the Lord secondly the manner must bee by proclamation and out-crying which requireth not onelye the lowdenesse of voice but the vehemency and fervency of courage to excecute his makers will In Esay they are both ioyned togither For first the Prophet is willed to cry And secondly because he was loth to trust the invention of his owne spirit hee taketh his texte from the mouth of the Lord What shall I cry that all fleshe is grasse c. Iohn Baptist in the gospell is but a voice himselfe not the authour nor speaker but onely the voice of one that cried in the wildernesse prepare the waies of the Lorde And whether hee spake as lowde as the will of that Crier was I report mee to the Scribes and Pharisees Publicans souldiers Herode and Herodias vvhose eares hee claue in two with denouncing his maisters iudgementes The preaching which I bid thee Howe daungerous it is for any messenger of the Lord to exceede the boundes of his commission by addinge his owne devises thereunto and taking words into his mouth which were never ministred vnto him or to come shorte of it by keeping backe the couÌ„sailes of his master which he hath disclosed to be made knowne let that fearefull protestation in the ende of the booke summing and sealing vp all the curses and woes that went before testifie to the worlde I protest vnto euerie man that beareth the wordes of the prophecie of this booke and of all those other bookes that the finger of God hath written If any man shall adde vnto these things God shall adde vnto him the plagues that are written in this booke And if any man shall diminishe of the wordes of the booke of this Prophecie God shall take away his parte out of the booke of life and out of the holy cittie and from those thinges which are written in this booke The protestation hath vveight enough vvithout helpe to make it sinke into the dullest eares of those who dare adventure at such a price to set their sacrilegious handes to those nice and religious pointes Let them bevvare that preach themselues and in their ovvne names and saye the Lord hath said vvhen he never said that abuse the worlde vvith olde wiues tales olde mens dreames traditions of Elders constitutions of Popes precepts of men vnwriten truthes vntrue writings or that sell the worde of the Lorde for gaine and marchandize that pearle which the vvise marchant vvill buy vvith all the treasure hee hath that holde the truth of God in vnreghteousnesse and dare not free their soules for feare of men and deale in the worke of the Lorde as adulterers in their filthines for as these esteeme not issue but lust so the others not the glory of God nor
can preiudice the bounty of our GOD and those rich benefites of his grace which his beloved sonne hath purchased for vs. I nowe conclude GOD saw the workes of the Ninivites and in those vvoorkes not onely their outwarde countenance but their inwarde and vnfeined affection and faith the roote from whence they sprang and as the fruites of their faith so he accepted them not for the worth and accounte of the workes which they dare not themselues rely vpon but through the riches and abundance of his owne loving kindnesse This is the plea that Daniell helde in the ninth of his Prophecie a man of as righteous a spirite as ever the Lateran pallace of Rome helde according to all thy righteousnesse for the LORDES sake for thy greate tender mercies for thine owne sake and vvith direct exception to their inherente iustice for wee doe not present our supplications before thee for our owne righteousnesse This plea we must all sticke vnto Gods mercy in his owne gracious disposition Gods righteousnesse in his promises Gods goodnesse in the Lorde his anointed his Christ his Messias And this shal be a blessed testimony vnto vs at the last day that wee haue stood and fought for the seede of the woman and for the preciousnesse of his bloud and passion against the seede of the serpent that we never gaue place no not for an instant to Pharisee Iew Pelagian Papist Libertine to diminish or discredite the power thereof Giue mee that soule that breatheth vpon the earth in plight as the soules of these Ninivites were nowe called to a reckoning of their fore passed liues their consciences accusing them of hydeous and monstrous iniquities the law pleading the anger of GOD flaming against them the throate of hell gaping wide and ready to swallow them downe when they were to take their leaue of one worlde and to enter another of endlesse punishment vnlesse they coulde finde the meanes to appease the fury of their maker and iudge Giue me the soule that dareth for the price of a soule stande in contention with the iustice of GOD vpon the triall of good workes either to bee iustified the meane-time or heereafter to be glorified and liue by them O sweete and comfortable name nature operation of grace grace and onely grace blessed bee the wombe that bare thee and the bowels that ingendered thee When it commeth to this question iustificemur simul Let vs bee iudged togither if thou haste ought to saie for thy selfe bring it forth O happy heavenly and only grace that bearest thy children safe in thy bosome and settest them with confidence and ioy before the seat of God when the clients followers of their owne righteousnes be it what it may bee with the least flash of lightning that fleeth from the face of God shal tremble and quake as the popler in the forrest O the Ocean maine sea of over-flowing grace and we drinke at puddles We sit in our cels and comment we come into the schooles and dispute about the merit of good workes without trouble But lie we vpon out beds of sicknes feele we a troubled perplexed conscience wee shal be glad to cry grace and grace alone Christ and Christ alone the bloud of Abell and Peter and Thomas and Paul shall be forgotten and the bloud of the Lambe shal be had in price as for the merits of our vnprofitable service we shal be best at ease when we talke least of them The only one fiftith Psalme Haue mercie vpon me O Lorde c. his memory bee blessed that gaue the note hath saved many distressed soules and opened the kingdome of heaven vnto them who if they had stood vpon riches and sufficiencie in themselues as the church of Laodicea did they had lost the kingdome It is vsually given to our seloâ—s for their necke-verse when the lawe is disposed to favour them Wee are all felons and transgressors against the law of God let it bee our soules-verse and God will seclude the rigour of his law and take mercy vpon vs. Some of the wordes of that Psalme were the last that Bernarde vttered even in the panges of death Let them also be the last of ours a brokeÌ„ contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Finally the choise is briefely proposed and as quickely made if grace not workes if workes not grace if this be the choise let vs humbly beseech God to illighten our eies to open our vnderstandings to direct our affections and to reach forth our handes to the better part which shall never be taken from vs that leaving our workes to his favourable interpretation either to follow vs or to stay behinde and either to bee something or nothing in his sight his mercy may only triumph and his covenant in the bloud of Christ Iesus may ever be advanced that we may sing in our Ierusalem as they sing in the courtes of heaven worthy is the Lambe that was killed to receive the glory and honour and praise and to beare the name of our whole salvation THE XL. LECTVRE Chap. 4. vers 1. Therefore it displeased Ionas exceedingly he was angry THE whole prophecy of Ionas againe to repeat that which ought not to be forgotten is the preaching of mercy An history written to the world and as a publique evidence instrument from God delivered vnto vs in every page line wherof his goodnes towardes mankind is mervailously expressed And as the 4. beastes in Ezechiel were ioyned one to the other by their winges so the 4. Chapters of this booke hang togither by a continuation and succession of Gods loving kindnes Open this booke as our Saviour opened the booke of the prophecie of Esaias by chance and read at your pleasure from the first of it to the last you shall never vvant a text or example of comforte whereby a distressed conscience may be relieved The marriners are delivered from the fury of the elements Ionas both from those and from the belly of a cruell fishe the Ninivites God knoweth from what whither from fire and brimstone or from sinkinge into the grounde or any such like weapons of wrath which in his armoury of iustice in heaven are stored vp and reserved for the day of the wicked but all are delivered Notwithstandinge which rare examples of mercy as Christ spake in the gospell beholde more than Ionas is heere so though the prophet did his parte before in penninge those discourses yet in handlinge this last he is more than himselfe though the mercy of God abounded before yet here it excelleth Then was mercy practised I confesse but heere it is pleaded maintained prooved by argumeÌ„ts apologies parables the equity and reasonablenes thereof vpheld and means made vnto Ionas in some sort that if God be gracious to Niniveh hee will bee pleased favourably to interpret it The distribution of the Chapter is into three partes 1. The affection of Ionas vpon the
sopitus est it vvas an heavy stupide deadly sleepe The best inducement to sleepe you know where the body is aptly framed vnto it is stillnesse and quietnes and therefore the Poet describeth the place of sleepe to bee in a vault of the earth where the light of the sunne never commeth a long gallery or porch leading vnto it to remoue it from the assembly of people no doore to the house least the turning of the hinges should disquiet his ease and neither dog nor cocke nor goose nor any wakefull creature to breake silence nor tree to make a noise thus is he lodged vpon a bed of downe in a bedsteede of ebony free from the annoiance of any thing This was the reason that the Sybarites a sleepie lascivious riotous nation of men who would lodge themselues for pleasure in beddes of violettes the better to take their ease banished cockes from their citties and all kindes of trades wherein hammeringes or noise might be vsed Ionas hath nothing in the world neither without nor within to invite sleepe clamours and commotions and cursitations one way vexation and trouble of heart an other way these were his helpes Admitt he were weary with travell from the citty to the haven as Iacob was weary when he went to Haram and lay downe by the way and slept vpon a pillow of stone what so vveary that neither the voice of men nor God nor conscience nor the voice of the shippe which as before I noted yearned in her inward spirit and thought to be rent could awake him The sleepe of Adam was an heavy sleepe so the text tearmeth it when God tooke a rib from his side and closed vp the flesh againe and hee felt it not But the reason is there given God cast him into it it was a matter devised and composed before hand The sleepe of Sisera Iudg. 4. was an heavy sleepe when a naile was driven into the temples of his head But he had runne one foote from the battaile and was wearied with hotte pursuit The sleepe of Isboseth 2. Sam. 4. an heavy sleepe when his two captaines slew him at noone vpon his bed But the heate of the day procured that sleepe The sleepe of Sampson Iudg. 16. an heavy sleepe when the 7. locks of his head were shaven off But the charmes and enticements of Delilah caused him to sleepe vpon her knees The sleepe of Eutyches Act. 20 an heavy sleepe when he fell from the third lofte and was taken vp dead But the night which was the time of rest was far spent that reason Scipio giveth and it holdeth in nature Quia ad multam noctem vigilassem arctior me somnus complexus est Because I had watched long til a great part of the night was spēt I fell into a deeper sleepe It was a marveilous sleepe which Lot was surprised with when his two daughters abused themselues with him and he neither perceived when they lay downe nor when they rose vp But the text noteth their shamelesse pollicy They gaue him wine to make him sleepe The seaven sleepers in the time of Decius the Emperour if the history deceiue vs not slept in an hill by a miracle Epimenides the Cretian slept fourescore yeares in a caue they that say fewer say enough beyond a miracle and I nothing doubt but beyond the trueth Surely the sleepe of Ionas though neither so fabulous as some nor so miraculous as others and more vnprobable then the most is for the time not inferior to any before mentioned and no right cause can be rendred of it For what can we say was it because he was vexed and troubled in his spirit as the disciples of Christ Matthew the 26. and in the number of the disciples the choice Peter Iohn and Iames to whome our Saviour came and saide could ye not watch with me one houre and a second time in the same manner But they are there excused in parte by the weakenesse of nature For their eies were heavy and surely the heavinesse of their eies came from the heavinesse of their spirits Or was it not rather the hardnesse and resolution of his heart the dregges of sinne frozen and congealed within him sin beyond measure sinfull and beyond measure dull that so oppressed him Vndoubtedly there is a time and state in sinne let it be heard attentiuely that the enchantments thereof get not to deepe a possession there is a time and state in sinne when the heart is as fat as grease the conscience feared as with hott irons and as they write of Dionysius Heracleote though they thrust needles into his belly to let out his fat by reason of his grossenesse hee felte them not so vvounde and extimulate and grieue this head-strong iniquity never so much it careth not stoutly bearing it selfe against God and man and as it hath no hope so having in a manner no desperation Such vvas the case of Catiline vvhen hee had fired the cittye of Rome vvith his conspiracies hee had no better comforte then this Incendium meum ruina extinguam I will quench the fire I haue kindled with a finall ruine I vvill adde vvorse to evill thirst to drunkennesse and leaue the successe of my mischievous and vngratious actions to the extreamest adventures Cyprian vvriteth of himselfe who had sometime beene a great persecutour and afterwardes proved a glorious Martyr that being entangled in the errors of his former life past hope of getting out hee even gaue over himselfe to his adherent vices and favoured his sinnes as nowe become proper vnto him borne as it were in his owne home and incorporate into his flesh and bones by long acquaintance And Bernard in his bookes of consideration to Eugenius doth notablye describe an hard heart what it is saith he It is that which is not cut with compunctiō a rasour will sooner cut a whetstone not softned with loue not moved with intreaty yeeldeth not to threatnings with scourges is hardened vnthankefull for benefits vnfaithfull in counsels vnmercifull in iudgments shamelesse in dishonesty rechlesse in daungers in things appertaining to men voide of humanity in matters concerning God full of temerity vnmindfull of what is past negligent of vvhat is present improvident of vvhat to come This mighte bee the cogitation of Ionas I haue runne too farre in rebellion to returne I know the worst that can befall me but be it as it may from henceforth sleepe my soule and take thy ease bury thy selfe in security and digest thy sorrow with carelesnesse Or was it a spirite of slumber sent from God was hee brought into this drowsinesse for some ende vnknovvne vnto him vvere his eyes helde of purpose as the eyes of the two Disciples that vvent to Emaus his senses bounde vp that some extraordinary vvorke of GOD might aftervvardes bee manifested There is a conflict and repugnancy heerein which I know not howe to reconcile a man so troubled in conscience that hee descendeth into the sides
children within the citty of Shusan throughout all the provinces of the kingdome should be destroied But did the Almighty sleepe at this wicked and bloudy designemeÌ„t or was his eie held blind-folded that he could not see it No that powerfull and dreadfull God who holdeth the bal of the world in his hand and keepeth a perfite kalender of all times seasons had so inverted the course of thinges for his chosens sake that the moneth day before prefined became most dismal to those that intended mischiefe Without further allegations this may suffice as touching the successe of the lots and consequently the providence of God in the moderation thereof It is now a questioÌ„ meete to be discussed the offender being found whether it stande with the iustice of God to scourge a multitude because one in the coÌ„pany hath transgressed For though I condemned their arrogancy before in that not knowing who the offender was they wiped their mouthes each man in the ship with the harlot in the Proverbs asked in their harts Is it I yet when the oracle of God hath now dissolved the doubt and set as it were his marke vpon the trouble plague of the whole ship they had some reason to thinke that it was not a righteous parte to lay the faults of the guilty vpon the harmelesse innocent This was the cause that they complained of old that the whole fleete of the Argiues was overthrowne Vnius ob noxam furias Aiacis Oilei for one mans offence Nay they were not content there to rest but they charged the iustice of God with an accusation of more vveight Plerunque nocenâ—es Praeterit examinatque indignos inque nocentes as though oftentimes hee freed the nocent and laide the burthen of woes vpon such as deserved them not It appeareth in Ezechiell that the children of Israell had taken vp as vngratious a by-word amongst them the fathers haue eaten the sower grape and the childrens teeth are set on edge and they conclude therehence the waies of God are not equall It was an exception that Bion tooke against the Gods that the fathers smarte was devolved to their posterity and thus hee scornefully matched it as if a physitian for the grandfathers or fathers disease shoulde minister physicke to their sonnes or nephewes They spake evill of Alexander the greate for razing the city of the Branchides because their auncestoures had pulled downe the temple of Miletum They mocked the Thracians for beating their wiues at that day because their foreruÌ„ners had killed Orpheus And Agathocles escaped not blame for wasting the island Corcyra because in ancienter times it gaue entertainment to Vlysses Nay Abraham himselfe the father of the faithfull heire of the promises friend of God disputeth with the Lord about Sodome to the like effect Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked Againe Be it far from thee for doing this thing to slay the righteous with the vnrighteous and that the iust should be as the vniust this be far from thee shal not the iudge of al the world do right In the booke of Numbers when God willed Moses Aaron to seperate themselues froÌ„ the congregation that he mighte at once destroy them they fel vpon their faces said O God the God of the spirits of every creature hath not one man only sinned wilte thou bee wroth with all the congregation In the first of Chronicles when for the offence of David in numbring his people the plague fell vpon them slew seventy thousand of them the king with the elders fell downe cried vnto the Lord Is it not I that commanded to number the people It is even I that haue sinned and committed this evill but these sheepe what haue they done O Lord my God I beseech thee let thine hand bee vpon me and vpon my fathers house and not on thy people for their destruction I answere this hainous crimination grievance against the righteousnes of God in few words froÌ„ the authorities of Ezechiel Ieremy before alleaged Behold all soules are mine saith the Lord both the soule of the father also of the sonne are mine the soule that sinneth it shall die O yee house of Israel is not my way equal or are not your waies vnequall If it vvere a truth which the poet sang to his friend Delicta maiorum immeritus lues Romane thou shalt beare the faultes of thy forefathers vvithout thine owne deservings the question vvere more difficult But who is able to say my heart is cleane though I came from an vncleane seede though I were borne of a Morian I haue not his skinne though an Ammorite were my father and my mother an Hittite I haue not their nature I haue touched pitch am not defiled I can wash mine handes in innocency say with a cleare conscience I haue not sinned But if this be the case of vs all that there is not a soule in the whole cluster of mankind that hath not offended though not as principal touching the fact presently enquired of as Achan in taking the accursed thing Corah in rebelling David in numbring the people yet an accessary in consenting coÌ„cealing if neither principal nor accessary in that one sin yet culpable in a thousand others coÌ„mitted in our life time perhaps not open to the world but in the eies of God as bright as the sun in the firmament for the scorpion hath a stinge though hee hath not thrust it forth to wounde vs man hath malice though he hath not outwardly shewed it it may be some sins to come which God foreseeth some already past which he recouÌ„teth shall we stand in argument with God as man would plead with man charge the iudge of the quicke dead with iniurious exactions I haue paide the thinges that I neuer tooke I haue borne the price of sinne which I neuer committed You heare the ground of mine answere We haue al sinned father and son rush branch deservedly are to expect that wages from the hands of God which to our sin appertaineth touching this present company I nothing doubt but they might particularly bee touched for their proper private iniquities though they had missed of Ionas Bias to a like fare of passengers shakeÌ„ with an horrible tempest as these were and crying to their Gods for succor answered not without some iest in that earnest hold your peace least the Gods hap to heare that you passe this way noting their lewdnesse to be such as might iustly draw downe a greater vengeance Besides it caÌ„not be denied but those things which we seyer part in our conceits by reason that distance of time place hath sundred theÌ„ some being done of old some of late some in one quarter of the world some in an other those doth the God of knowledge vnite and veweth them at once as if they were done
their iewelles and ornamentes All which and the like singularities Cum Deus iubet seque iubere sine vllis ambagibus intimat quis obedientiam in crimen vocet When God commaundeth them and maketh it a cleare case without any perplexities that so his pleasure is vvho can accuse thy obedience But before be assured in thy conscience that God hath commaunded them tie and vntie a thousand knottes and both make and remooue as many obiections as thy hart can devise The Anabaptistes in Germany framed and fained an imagination to themselues that by the will of God the auncient magistracie must bee quite rooted from the earth they saide and happily beleeued that they had speech with God and that he enioyned them to kill all the wicked in the lande and to constitute a new world consisting only of the innocent VVho perswaded them he that spake vvith GOD concerning Ahab I wil be a lying spirite in the mouthes of all his Prophetes to deceaue Ahab a spirite of errour and falshoode a spirite borne and bread within their owne braine The conceipte was extraordinarye that private men by violence and force of armes shoulde not onelye displace but destroye their rulers and magistrates VVhat slaughter and havocke it caused vvhat profusion of bloude betweene the nobles and the commons Germany then felt and smarted for histories and monuments of time will relate to all posterity and the president thereof may make the worlde take heede how they be drawne by fanaticall spirits into these or such like vnaccustomed and vnprobable courses What disputing skanning vvas there of late within this realme of ours by conference in private by broakers and coursers vp and downe by bookes and balleâ—s in print whether there were not in these daies extraordinarye callings Vpon the perswasion hereof what hasty headlong heathenish endevours to reforme a church to dissolue gouernement to vniointe order to compell a prince and not to tarry her leasure if shee presently agreed not each man hauing a forge in his owne hande to make marre to turne square into round white into blacke church into no church ministery into no ministery sacramentes into no sacramentes this man coyning himselfe a prophet that man a Christ others they knew not vvhat thus travailing and toyling themselues in the fire of their owne fansies till they lost themselues their wittes their grace and some their liues VVhat shall we say heereof but that it was a singular enterprise proceeding from the singular spirits of singular persons and if GOD had not vvrought for vs in mercy the sequele must needes haue beene singular vnhappinesse My conclusion is that by the example of these marriners fearefull and nice to deale in so daungerous a matter wee follow the common rule as the kinges beaten vvay which the lavve of nature engraffed and of the will of God revealed hath prescribed vnto vs and if euer vvee meete with actions which haue not agreement with these two to examine al ambiguities therein and to be certaine of the will of God before vve enterprise any thing That this was the purpose of the marriners is plainelye to bee gathered both by the vvhole contexte and body of the history hitherto continued when though they had many provocations to free themselues and their shippe they with-helde their handes and by a phrase of their further paines most effectually significant wherein as they contended with their ores to bring their shippe to lande so writers haue contended with their wittes howe to expresse their labours Our English hath simplie and in a vvorde the men rowed truely but not sufficiently The latin saieth no more but remigabant vvhich is as much as our English The 70. Interpretours 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they offered violence to the sea and Ierome with an excellent circumlocution rerum naturam vincere cupiebant they desired to exceede nature and to doe more than they coulde doe The originall tongue saith they digged and delved and furrowed the sea vvith their ores as a man the grounde with culters and shares aquae fundum investigabant they searched and sounded the bottome of the vvaters as men that would turne them vpside downe rather then misse the successe of their charitable intention Solon coulde doe no more for Athens than hee did when Pisistratus had taken it he aftervvardes hunge vp his speare and target at the courte gates vvith this protestation O my countrey I haue ayded thee both with vvord and deede so betaking himselfe to his owne house to take his rest Alexanders souldiers tolde him when as they thought hee prepared to goe into an other worlde and to seeke an India vnknowne to the Indians themselues vvee haue done as much as men mighte vndergoe These men heere mentioned to their vttermost power stood and fought for Ionas against the rage of the tempest Qui amat aut non laborat aut ipsum amat laborem Hee that loveth either laboureth not or at least hee loveth and taketh pleasure in his labours As the paines of hunters hawkers and fishers seeme not grieuous vnto them and it is the property of loue to transforme and alter a man into that he loueth These men thinke of Ionas I take it as of themselues make it their owne case thus speaking in themselues why should we cast away a man if there bee any meanes to deliuer him See what a bonde they plotte of reciprocall kindnesse one to the other Ionas to the marriners in the former verse willing to forgo his life for preservation of theirs Take mee and cast mee into the sea that it may bee quiet to you and these as earnestly labouring vvith hazard of themselues if it be possible to saue Ionas It is such an image me thinketh of that sociable and mutuall amity that turning and winding and retaling of curtesie which ought to passe betweene man and man as is worthy to leaue behinde it an heedefull observation For what were the life of man vvithout this harmony and consente of friendshippe where there is not date dabitur Givinge and taking lending and borrowing gratifying and regratifying as it were light for light changing of offices and good turnes what were it but the life of beastes vvhich as they are sundry in kindes so there is no communion betwixt them in fellow-like dueties I vvill not novve declame against the inhumanitye of men that one thinge vvhich all men knovve I vvill not so much vtter to others as holde to my selfe that by the biting of a serpent vvee loose our liues but by the biting barking breathing of a man togither with life all that wee haue perisheth The Prophet once cryed O yee heauens droppe downe righteousnesse when righteousnesse was taken vp into the cloudes and the earth voide of it we may cry for lacke of loue amongst vs O yee heauens droppe downe kindnesse and charity into our times that the vncurteous and churlish Nabals of this present generation
haue saved Ionas Put from the succor of the ship froÌ„ the frieÌ„dship of his associats having no rocke to cleaue vnto far from the shore and neither able perhaps nor desirous to escape by swimming yeelding himselfe to death and to a living graue with as mortified an affection as if lumps of lead had been cast down yet God had prepared a meanes to preserue the life of Ionas EveÌ„ the bowels of a cruel fish are as a chariot vnto him to beare him in safety through those vnsearchable depthes O how many wonders in howâ— few wordes how many riddles and darke speeches to the reason of man he will scarselie beleeue when they shall be tolde vnto him 1. That so huge a fish shoulde bee so ready to answere at the call of the Lorde to saue his prophet 2. So able to devour a man at a morsel without comminutioÌ„ or bruise offered to any one bone of his 3. That a man could liue the space of 3. daies and nights in a fishes belly But so it was The Lorde doeth but vse a preamble to finish his worke intended He suffereth not the ship to carry him forth-right to the city but so ordereth the matter that the Mariners deliver him to the sea the sea to the whale the whale to the Lorde and the Lorde to Niniveh That we may learne thereby when our sinnes hange fast vpon vs the harbour of a warme shippe cannot bee beneficiall but when wee haue shaken them of the sea shall make a truce and the vngentlest beastes bee in league with vs. The demaunde of the earthlie man in these vnprobable workes hath ever beene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how can this bee Though an angell from heaven shall tell Sarah of a sonne after hath ceased to bee with her after the manner of women shee will 〈◊〉 within her selfe and saie What after I am waxen olde and my Lord 〈◊〉 But what saith the Angell vnto her Shall any thing bee harde to the â—orde VVhen the children of Israell wanted flesh to eate and cryed in the eares of the Lorde quis dabit VVho shall giue vs flesh to eate God promised it for a moneth togither vntil it should come out of their nostrels And Moses saide sixe hundreth thousande footemen are there among the people of whom I am and thou saiest I will giue them flesh to eate a moneth long Shall the sheepe and the beeves be slaine for them to finde them either shall all the fish of the sea bee gathered togither for them to suffice them But the Lorde aunswered him is the Lords hand shortened Thou shalt see now whether my word shall come to passe vnto thee or no. Elizeus prophecied in that wofull famine of Samaria when they bought an Asses head and Doues dunge at an vnreasonable rate To morrowe by this time a measure of fine flowre shall bee solde for a shekell c. Then a prince on whose hande the king leaned aunswered the man of GOD Though the Lorde woulde make windowes in heaven can this thinge come to passe the prophet aunswered him Beholde thou shalt see it with thine eies but shalt not eate thereof Saint Augustine in his thirde epistle to Volvsian and elsewhere giveth the rules to satisfie these distrustfull reasonings Wee must graunte that GOD is able to doe some thinge vvhich wee are not able to finde out in such works the whole reason of the doing is the power of the doer It is GOD that hath done them Consider the authour and all doubts will cease Therefore if Marie receiving a message of vnexpected vnwonted conception shal say at the first how shall this thing be yet when the angell shal say vnto her that it is the worke of the holy ghost and the might of the most high that her coâ—zen Elizabeth hath also conceived in her olde age though shee had purchased the name of barren by her barrennesse because with God saith the angell nothing is vnpossible then let Marie lay her hande vpon her heart and saie Beholde the hand-maide of the Lorde that is without further disceptation I submit my selfe to the power of God But if that former reason of his all-sufficient might bee not of strength enough to resolue either pagans abroade or atheistes at home touching the likelihoode and probability of such vnlikely actes but the innocencie of the sacred Scriptures wherein they are written must be arraigned and condemned by their carnall reason and our whole religion derided because wee iustifie them I will say no more vnto them but as Augustine doth in his bookes of the city of God Quicquid mirabile fit in hoc mundo profectò minus est quà m totus hic mundus The very creation of the worlde which being the booke of nature they runne and read and can deny no part of it though they deny depraue the booke of scripture sheweth them a greater miracle in the world it selfe than whatsoever in these or the like singularities seemeth most incredible A great fish Some of the rabbines thinke that the fish was created at that moment when Ionas was to be swallowed Others that he had lasted from the sixt day of the world A thirde sorte that it was a whale that first devoured Ionas that afterwardes the Lord beckened vnto him then hee cast him into the mouth of a female which was full of yong where being streightned of his wonted roume he fel to praier Fabulous inveÌ„tions fruit according to the trees that bare it Whither tâ—e fish were created at that instaÌ„t or before sooner or later I list not enquire Neither will I further engage my self herein thaÌ„ the spirit of God giveth me direction Only that which the prophet setteth downe in 2. words by a circumlocution a great fish it shall not be amisse to note that the evaÌ„gelists abridge name more distinctly in one shewing the kinde of the fish therefore Matthew calleth it the belly of a whale So do the 70. interpretours from whom it is not vnlikely the expositour of Matthew tooke his warrant I never found any mentioÌ„ of this goodly creâ—ture but the wisdoÌ„e of God the creator was willing to commeÌ„d it in some sort In the first of Genes God saide Let the waters bring forth in abundance every creeping thing that hath the soule of life howbeit in all that abundaunce there is nothing specified but the whale as being the prince of the rest and to vse the speach of Iob the king of all the children of pride vvherein the workemanshippe of the maker is most admired for so it is saide Then God created the whales and not singlie vvhales but vvith the same additament that this prophet vseth the greate vvhales So doth the Poet tearme them also immania caete the huge vvhales as being the stateliest creature that mooveth in the waters Likewise in the Psalme The earth is full of thy riches so is the
al posterity to come that I will not meane-while forget to looke vp to the mountaines from whence my helpe was It is the parte of an honest ingenious minde to confesse vvho they are by whome thou hast profited but on the other side the marke of a most vngratious amd vnhappy nature rather to be taken in the theft than to returne like for like And what doe they else but steale and embezell the graces of God which either dissembling their authour assume them to themselves or confessing the authour extenuate their worth as if they were not meete to bee accounted for These are the theeves robbers indeede capitall malefactours sure to bee cut of on the right hand and on the left and not to inherite the kingdome of God as the Apostle threatneth The stealing of temporall things may bee acquited againe either with single or double foure-folde or seven-folde resolution But the filching and purloming of the glory of God can never bee aunswered Others steale of necessity to satisfie their soules because they are hungrie and but equall from equall man from man But these of pleasure and pride breake through heaven which though it bee free from violent theeves yet these by a wile and insidiation enter into it and steale away the honour of God which is most precious vnto him When Iohn Baptist was borne the neighbours and cousins vpon the eighth day at the circumcising of the childe called him Zacharias after the name of his father Elizabeth aunswered them not so but hee shal bee called Iohn though it were a mervaile to them all and none of his kinred were so named and Zachary wrote in his tables that Iohn should be his name They knew that hee was the gift of God which his mother in her olde age and in the state of her barrennes had conceaved and therfore called him Iohn that is the gift of God in remembrance of natures vnfuitfulnesse and their vndeserved sonne whome neither father nor mother nor kinred I meane not ordinary and carnall generation could haue given vnto them· such are the children of our wombes a gift that commeth from the Lorde And such are our children and fruit otherwise whatsoever wee possesse outwarde or inwarde wee holde it in Capite even in the Lorde of Lordes who is the giver of every good perfit gifte as Iames writeth Scipio Africanus the elder had made the citty of Rome being in a consumption and readie to giue vp the ghost Lady of Africke At length being banished into a base country towne his will was that his tombe should haue this inscription vpon it Ingrata patria ne ossa quidem mea habes vnthankefull country thou hast not so much as my bones Many and mightye deliverances haue risen from the Lorde to this lande of ours to make provocation of our thankefulnesse For not to goe by a kalender but to speake in 2. wordes wee haue lien in ignorance as in the belly of the whale or rather the belly of hell for blindnesse of heart is the very brimme and introduction into the hell of the damned the Lorde hath pulled vs thence Wee haue also lien in the heart of our enemies as in the belly of the fishe Gebal and Ammon and Amelek and the Philistines with those of Tyre haue combined themselues and cried a confoederacy a confoederacy against vs the Lorde hath also delivered vs to make some proofe of our gratefull spirites For this a rule in beneficence Ingratus est adversus unum beneficium is a man vnthankefull for one benefite for a seconde hee will not Hath hee forgotten two the third will reduce to his memory those that are slipt thence God hath liberally tried vs with one and an other and a third and yet ceaseth not But what becommeth of our gratitude It hath bene our manner for the time to haue pamphlets and formes of thankesgiving in our churches our heartes haue burnt within vs for the present as of the two disciples that went to Emaus to assemble our selues at praiers preachings breaking of bread and to give an howre or two more than vsuall from our worldly affaires as a recompense of Gods goodnes Our mouthes have beene filled with laughter and our tonges with ioy and wee have bene content to say the Lord hath done greate thinges for vs wherof wee reioyce But how quickly forget wee all againe Ingrata Anglia ne ossa quidam habes Vngratefull England thou hast not so much as the bones of thy patrone and deliverer thou hast exiled him from thy thoughtes buried him in oblivion there is not one remnant or footeprint left to witnesse to the worlde that thou hast bene protected What others have testified in former times by building of altars pitching of huge stones raysinge of pillers dedication of feastes vvriting of bookes that their childrens children might aske a reason and bee instructed in GODS auncient mercies thou haste not lefte to thy race to come by one stone one turfe one post one paper or schrole of continuaunce in remembraunce vnto them of thy ampler benefites It deserveth the protestation of GOD 1. Esay Heare O men and harken O Angels no. A greater auditorie is required Heare ô heavens and harken ô earth I have brought vp preferred and exalted sonnes and they have despised me If servauntes and bond-men the sonnes of Agar of whome it was saide Cast out the bond-man it mighte lesse have beene marvayled at but sonnes of mine owne education adopted by speciall grace these have despised mee They had an action in Athens against vnthankefull persons The more their blame Qui cum aequissima iura sed iniquissima haberent ingenia moribus suis quà m legibus vti maluerunt vvho having good lavves ill natures had rather vse their manners than their lawes For if some of those excellent men which Athens despightfully and basely required Theseus who was buried in a rock Miltiades who dyed in prison and the sonne of Miltiades vvho inherited nothinge amongst them but his fathers bandes Solon Aristides Phocion who lived in banishmente shoulde bring their action against Athens in the courte of some other cittye vvere it able to aunswere their iust exprobrations O Athens thy wals thy people thy trophees and triumphes farre and neare by lande and sea are thus and thus multiplyed Horum authores vbi vixerint vbi iaceant responde But put in thine aunsvvere and shevve vvhere the authours of those thinges lived and vvhere they are buryed God hath an action of ingratitude against his sonnes and bringeth them into lawe not before citty or nation but to note the horror of the vice before heaven and earth that all the corners and creatures of the vvorlde may both knowe and detest it And surelye it was well marked by a learned man No man wondreth at dogs or wolues because they are common but centaures and satyres such monsters of nature al gaze vpon It may be drunkennes
to our cities and townes barres to our houses a surer cover to our heads than an helmet of steele a better receite to our bodies than the confection of Apothecaries a better receite to our soules than the pardons of Rome is Salus Iehovae the salvation of the Lord. The salvation of the Lord blesseth preserveth vpholdeth all that we have our basket and our store the oile in our cruises our presses the sheepe in our folds our stalles the children in the wombe at our tables the corne in our fieldes our stores our garners it is not the vertue of the stars nor nature of the things themselves that giveth being continuance to any of these blessings And what shall I more say as the apostle asked Hebr. 11. when he had spoken much and there was much more behind but that time failed him Rather what should I not say for the world is my theatre at this time and I neither thinke nor can feigne to my selfe any thinge that hath not dependaunce vpon this acclamation Salvation is the Lordes Plutarcke writeth that the Amphictyones in Greece a famous counsell assembled of twelve sundrie people wrote vpon the temple of Apollo Pythius in steede of the Iliades of Homer or songes of Pindarus large and tyring discourses shorte sentences and memoratives as Know thy selfe Vse moderation Beware of suretishippe and the like And doubtlesse though every creature in the world whereof we haue vse be a treatise and narration vnto vs of the goodnesse of God and wee might weary our flesh and spend our daies in writing bookes of that vnexplicable subiect yet this short apopthegme of Ionas compreheÌ„deth all the rest and standeth at the ende of the songue as the altars and stones that the Patriarkes set vp at the partinge of the waies to giue knowledge to the after-worlde by what meanes hee was delivered I would it were dayly preached in our temples sunge in our streetes written vpon our dore-postes painted vppon our walles or rather cut with an admant claw vpon the tables of our hearts that wee might never forget Salvation to bee the Lordes wee haue neede of such remembrances to keepe vs in practise of revolvinge the mercies of God For nothinge decayeth sooner than loue And of all the powers of the soule memorye is most delicate tender and brittle and first waxeth olde and of all the apprehensions of memory first a benefite To seeke no further for the proofe and manifestation of this sentence within our coastes I may say as our Saviour in the nineteenth of Luke to Zacheus This day is salvation come vnto this house Even this day my brethren came the salvation of the LORDE to this house of David to the house of this Kingdome to the houses of Israell and Aaron people and priestehode church and common wealth I helde it an especiall parte of my duety amongst the rest the day invitinge and your expectation callinge mee thereunto and no text of mercy and salvation impertinent to that purpose to correcte and stirre vp my selfe with those fowre lepers that came to the spoile of the Syrian tentes I doe not well this day is a day of good tidinges and shoulde I holde my peace let the leprosie of those men cleaâ—e vnto my skinne if it bee not as ioyfull a thinge vnto mee to speake of the honour of this day as ever it vvas to them to carrye the happye nevves of the flight of Aram. It is the birth-day of our countrey It vvas deade before and the verye soule of it quite departed Sound religion which is the life of a kingdome was abandoned faith exiled the gospell of Christ driven into corners and hunted beyond the seas All these fell with the fall of an honorable and renowned plante which as the first flowre of the figtree in the prime and bloominge of his age was translated into heaven they rose againe with the rising and advancement of our gracious Lady and Soveraigne Were I as able as vvillinge to procure solemnitye to the day I would take the course that David did I would begin at heaven and call the Angelles and armieâ— thereof the sunne moone and starres I woulde descend by the aire and call the fire haile and snow vapours and stormy windes I would enter into the sea and call for dragons and all deepes I woulde ende in the earth and call for the mountaines and hilles fruitfull trees and cedars beastes and all cattell creeping thinges and feathered fowles Kinges of the earth and all people Princes Iudges yonge men and maidens olde men and children to lend their harmony and accord vnto vs to praise the name of the Lorde to accompany and adorne the triumph of our land and to showte into heaven with no other cry than this salus Iehovae salvation is only from the Lord by whome the horne of this people hath so mightily bene exalted O happy English if wee knew our good if that roiall vessell of gold wherein the salvation of the Lorde hath bene sent vnto vs were as precious and deare in our accounte as it rightly deserveth Her particular commendations common to her sacred person not with many princes I examine not Let it bee one amongst a thousand which Bernard gaue to a widowe Queene of Ierusalem and serveth more iustly to the maiden Queene of England that it was no lesse glory vnto her to liue a widowe havinge the worlde at will and beinge to sway a kingdome which required the helpe of an husband than a Queene The one saith he Came to thee by succession the other by vertue the one by descent of bloude thâ— other by the gift of God the one it was thy happinesse to bee borne the other thy manlinesse to haue atteined vnto a double honour the one towardes the worlde the other towardes God both from God Her wisedome as the wisedome of an Angell of the Lorde so spake the widowe sometimes to David fitter for an Angell than my selfe to speake of her knowledge in the tongues and liberall learninge in all the liberall sciences that in a famous Vniversitie amongst the learnedest men shee hath bene able not onely to heare and vnderstand which were somethinge but to speake perswade decide like a graduate oratour professour and in the highest court of parliameÌ„t hath not onely sitten amongst the peeres of her realme and delivered her minde maiestate manus by some bodily gesture in signe of assent but given her counsaile and iudgemente not inferiour to any and her selfe by her selfe hath aunswered the embassadours of severall nations in their severall languages with other excellent graces beseeming the state of a prince though they best know on whose hande shee leaâ—eth and that are nearest in attendaÌ„ce and observance about her maiesty yet if any man bee ignorant of let him aske of strangers abroade into whose eares fame hath bruited and blowne her vertues and done no more but right in giving such giftes vnto her
bee ashamed at his presence O let vs all from the highest to the lowest fall downe and kneele before the Lorde our maker let vs lie lowe before the foot-stoole of his excellencie and withall submission both of bodie and spirite acknowledge his hand power over vs. He is our God and will thus bee served our Lorde and will thus be honoured our father and will thus be followed our iudge and dreadfull revenger and will thus be feared THE XXXVI LECTVRE Chap. 3. vers 7. And he proclaimed and said through Niniveh by the counsaile of his king and nobles saying let neither man c. IN the particular explication of the repentance of Niniveh begunne in the sixte verse I observed principally both the order of their dealing that without the knowledge and warraunt of their king they attempte nothing in private and the example or precedency of the king therein for his owne parte vvhich was as if he had thus pronounced against himselfe a iudgemente is come foorth against all the sinners of Niniveh and I am first and the onely vvay to mitigate the anger of God is repentance and I will bee first therein also The repentaunce of the king was in effecte the repentaunce of the whole citty as it is noted of the ruler Ioh. 4. when hee hearde the wordes of comforte Goe thy waies thy sonne liveth hee first beleeved himselfe afterwardes vvhen hee better knewe the time and other circumstances then hee beleeved and his whole housholde You haue hearde alreadye in what life the repentance of the king is described for whatsoever he had making for honour and princelyhood that hee forsooke and whatsoever there was on the other side to degrade and discountenaunce himselfe in the eies of his subiectes that hee admitted and endured hee rose from his throne and threwe of his robe as much as to say hee laide downe all his authority state excellency and forgate himselfe to bee a king and the monarch of the countrey and more then that covered himselfe vvith sacke-cloath and sate in ashes so farre from being a kinge that hee seemed in his owne sighte to bee lesse then nothinge The throne and the robe with other royall preheminences as the scepter the crowne and gorgeous attire in difference from other men haue ever preferred vnto the eies of the worlde an image of that glorie and honour wherewith the kings of the earth are invested It appeareth in the booke of Genesis what maiesty the Egyptian kinges had by that seconde degree of honour which Pharaoh awarded vnto Ioseph hee put a ring vpon his finger and araied him in garmentes of fine linnen and hunge a golden chaine about his necke placed him vpon the best chariot saue one they cryed Abrech before him hee onely reserved vnto himselfe the Kings throne Likewise we may read what honor belonged vnto the kings of Chaldaea and of the Medes and Persians in the bookes of Esther and Daniell and of the throne of Salomon with all his other port and prosperity wondred at so much by the Queene of Saba in the first of kings and other places And there is no question but the kings of Niniveh being growen and swollen in pride were not far behinde these The stranger it is vnto me that this golden cup of honour authority made him not drunke and draue him from all sense of his earthlines and mortality it is so vsuall an intoxication to the rulers beneath making them forget that God which sitteth aboue them We haue seene what the king of Niniveh hath done in his owne person now we must also attend what he did with the multitude and in common for he is not content to mourne or pray or fast or repent alone or alone to be freed and delivered from the curse of God hanging over them but he is carefull of his people too by giving the best example he can he is both carbo and lampas a cole burning vnto himselfe and a lampe shining vnto other men The ointment runneth downe from the head by the beard to the border of the garment repentance I meane descendeth from the king by the counsaile and nobility to the meanest soule of the city First he calleth his counsaile togither secondly they make an acte thirdly they cause it to bee published fourthly that acte vvas onelye for repentance and the service of God VVho ever hearde the like I say not in Israell vvhere prophets and Apostles and Christ himselfe preached but even in paradise the garden of the Lord vvho ever heard the like to this that vvas done in Niniveh The Lord had but one paire of men in paradise and preached but one word vnto them himselfe by his owne mouth and they obeied him not but in the citie of Niniveh barbarous wild and barren Niniveh where all the plants were vnnaturall and it could not be hoped that the fruite shoulde be other then sowre and vnsavoury to him that gathered it they are all turned saintes at the preaching of one Ionas As one reported at Rome after his long voyage that he had seene in England a goodly king in Fraunce a goodly kingdome in Spaine a goodly counsaile so beholde all these togither in Niniveh a good king a good counsaile a good nobility a good people the whole city good The king commandeth the princes consent the people obey all iointly excecute as if all Niniveh vvere but a single man and had but one heade and one heart amongst them It vvas vndoubtedly the vnction of Gods spirite and not their naturall gifte that caused such tractable and tender heartes prophets may preach long enough as the droppes of raine fall vpon marble stones but if the God of peace and vnity ioine not two in one and tie the tongue of the preacher to the eares and conscience of his hearer not by a chaine of iron or brasse but by the bond of his holy spirit and wrappe a blessing and power in his wordes to subdue the soule of man and bring it in subiection to the will of God it can never be effected By the order and course of the things themselues though not of the wordes the first thing that the king did was the assembling of his princes and counsailours as appeareth manifestly by the parenthesis that followeth by the counsailr of the king and his nobles Thus the king doth nothing without his counsaile nor the counsaile without the king but both togither No man is ignorant that the greatest offices haue neede of the greatest supportation and that a king must haue many eies eares and hands as Xenophon wrote in his institution of Cyrus that is many subordinate counsailours ministers and assistantes by whome to discharge the burden of his place VVhen Iethro saw Moses his sonne in law sitting himselfe alone and iudging the people from morning vnto even he did not lesse then reprooue him for it VVhat is this that thou doest to the
people vvhy sittest thou thy selfe alone the thinge vvhich thou doest is not vvell thou both vveariest thy selfe greatly and thy people that is vvith thee and he caused him to apoint rulers cover thousands rulers over hundreds rulers over fifties and rulers ouer tennes to iudge the people at all seasons in their smaller causes Moses confessed asmuch Deuteronomy the first as Iethro complained of I am not able to beare you my selfe alone It vvas a saying of Seleucus one of the kings of Syria that if men did considerately know how troublesome it were onely to reade and write so many letters of so waighty affaires if the crowne were throwen at their foote they woulde not take it vp Anacharsis one of the Sages of Greece thought it the onely felicity of a king to bee onely vvise and not to neede the helpe of other men but vvho vvas ever so wise to attaine to that happines I vvill not deny but he that can counsaile himselfe in all thinges is very absolutely vvise but it is a second degree of vvisedome not to reiect such counsailes and directions as are given vnto him And therefore worthely was it spoken by Antonius the Emperour with much more reason it standeth that I shoulde bee ruled by the advise of so many and such my friendes then that such and so many shoulde yeelde to my will alone We read that Assuerus the king of the Persians Esther the first did nothing in the remooue of Vashtie the Queene without the advise of the seven Princes vvhich sawe the kings face and sate first in the kingdome Salomon 1. Kings 10. had his auncient counsaile it vvas senatus indeede because it consisted of graue and olde men according to the proverbe speares are fit to be handled by yong men counsailes by the aged But Roboam his yong son provideth counsailers like himselfe yong in yeares and yong in descretion which howsoever they were friends to Roaboam they were not friendes to the king though happily they loved his person well they were enimies to his kingdome As it is meete that the king shoulde haue peeres to consult with so it is a blessed combination and knot vvhen all their consultations and actes are referred 1. to the glory of God for that is the first and great commandement then to the peace safety of the weale publique For as the lawe of God saith Cyprian is the sterne that must guide all counsailes and bee of counsaile vnto them so if it bee not also the haven where all their counsailes arriue and both the beginning and ending of their decrees their successe will be according The qualities of those whom the superiour magistrate should associate to himselfe in administring his government are numbred in the 18. of Exodus and 1. of Deut. to bee these seven 1. they must be men of courage 2. fearing God 3. men of truth 4· hating filthy lucre 5. the chiefe of the tribes 6. wise Lastly knowen men such as had experience of the people and the people of them Without these conditions and respectes they were very vnfit helpers For what were a magistrate without courage but a lion without his heart or courage without the feare of God but armed iniustice or what fear of the true God where his truth is neglected or how can truth consist with aucupation of filthy gaine or if their persons parentage be in contempt how shall the people regard theÌ„ or if they haue not wisdome to rule what are they els but an eie without seeing or as if the day the night should be governed without sun moone Lastly as artes are made by experiments so they must be tried and approoved before hand by the sight of their vertues Otherwise to meete at any time to lay their heads togither for the dishonoring of God defacing of his religion and so to intend policie that his worship is not cared for and his feare lieth at the threshold of their counsaile-house not admitted amongst them is to make themselues such counsailers as Alecto called in Claudian Concilium deforme vocat glomerantui in vnum Inumerae pestes Erebi Vntoward and vnfashioned counsailers so far from being the pillars props of the common wealth that they are rather mischiefes and plagues which hel hath cast vp Now as it is meete that the king his nobles should come togither to decree wholesome constitutions so it is as meete to publish them abroade that the subiects may know what their duety is The statutes of a kingdome must not be lockt vp in cofers as the bokes of the Sybils in Rome nor as the sentences of Pythagoras which no man might write bee kept from the knowledge of the vulgar sort In the 1. of Sam. 14. Saul had charged his people by othe not to taste any thing till night vpon an eager intention he had to pursue the Philistines Ionathan his sonne heard not of it and as he went through a wood beeing faint with hunger raught forth the ende of his rod and dâ—pt it in an hony combe and put it to his mouth you know what danger it brought him vnto I tasted a little hony with the end of my rod and lo I must die Therefore it is not amisse to publish such decrees if for no other cause yet to safegard the people from that daunger which by their ignorance they might incurre Besides the glory of God is proclaimed by such proclamations as Nabuchodonosor Dan. 3. made a decree that every people nation and language that spake any blasphemie against the God of Syrach Misach and Abeduego should be drawen in pieces and that it might be knowne abroade he caused it to be publisht Nabuchodonosor king vnto all people nations and languages that dwell in all the world c. The like did Darius in the sixth of that booke first hee made an acte that all shoulde tremble before the GOD of Daniell in the dominions of his kingdomes and aftervvardes for the promulgation of it vvrote to all people nations and languages in the vvordle vvhat the acte was Let neither man nor beast c. The matter enacted and proclaimed is in one word repentance wherein they were blest from heaveÌ„ with as great a measure of wisedome as the sons of men were capable of when they were to bethinke theÌ„selues to beat their braines wherwith to wrestle with the iudgmeÌ„t of god that they made their choise of repentance Repentance an act of all actes if they had spent their daies in consulting this one in steede of infinite thousandes to saue their liues An enimie did aproach vnto them a spirituall enimye from the higher places iustice I meane from the throne of GOD vvhose forces were invisible and could not be repelled with sworde and target What gate or fortresse should they then vse to shut out iustice but onely repentance their citie had beene laid in the dust their candell put out their monarchie translated their carkasses
invincible courage in defending the Church Nazianzen writeth of Basile that betweene him his followers there is no more cōparison than betweene pillers their shadowes I omitte the rest But such are our vnequall iudgementes of those whose equalles wee shall hardelye bee that if vvee were willed to speake what we thought of Basile we would reckon him but a shadow and counterfeit to our selues and great Athanasius as one of the least amongst vs and thrust out the eyes of Ambrose and tearme him a crow and a chough as the Pie of Mirandula did Cyprian should haue a letter of his name changed as sometimes it was and bee but Caprian vnto vs one that wrote of trifles and vanities I omitte the rest the classicall and principall Doctours of the church next the Apostles of Christ and their next succeeders the starres and ornamentes of learning the pillers of religion and Christianity in their time who put their bodyes and soules betwixt Christ and his adversaries who spake and vvrote and lived and died in defence of his truth whose labours were then renowned and GOD in his providence hath reserved their bookes to this day monumentes to vs of their infatigable paines and helpes to our studies if wee bee not enemies to our selues I could be content to say much for them because I vse them much For I never could bee bold to offer mine owne inventions and conceiptes to the world when I haue found them such in S. Augustine and others as might not bee amended I would not wish the learned of any sort that hath but borne a booke to dispraise learning She hath enemies enough abroade though she be iustified by her children It is fitter that wisedome be beaten by fooles than by wisemen and that Barbary disgrace artes rather than Athens the mother and nurse of them But aboue all other places a blow given in the pulpit leaveth a skarre in the face of learning which cannot easily be removed It preiudiceth the teaching of others as if they fed the people with akornes huskes in steede of bred because they gather the mēbers of truth togither dispersed through oratours philosophers poets fathers scriptures make one body of them all which God is the author of they are thought in a manner to preach falshod Or at least it is vanity in those that preach itching in those that heare in neither of both to be allowed I also condēne it whē it is so Vaine vaine glorious invention let it wither at the braine that sent it forth And let itching eares fret consume away with the malignity of their humours Where we find them itching afte◠pleāsure it is good to make them smart with the acrimony of severe reprehension But where it is otherwise let not a rash conclusion without proofe be admitted against good learning If Asclepiodorus will draw with a cole or chawke alone I iudge him not if others will paint with colours neither let them bee iudged If some will barely teach and others proue if some affect to speake with simplicity and others with variety illustrate If some conferre with men of yester day others with antiquitye some binde themselues precisely to the words of God others not refraine the words of men vsing thē as the words of God If some stande narrowlye vpon the tearmes and sentences of faith others not depart from the proportion of faith nor bring in anye thinge dissonant and disagreeing to the vniformity thereof both may doe well but the latter in mine opinion doe farre the better That which concerneth you in this little dissent of iudgementes the sheepe of his pasture by whome wee are set in his house to giue you your portion in due time is this that you be not dismaied heereat For wee preach not our selues in such kinde of preachinges but Christ Iesus the Lorde not to commend our giftes but to edifie your consciences And to this ende I may saye vvith some alteration of vvordes as the Apostle to the Corinthians All thinges are yours whither it bee Paul or Apollos or Cephas or the vvorlde or life or death or thinges present or thinges to come so all thinges are yours in our preachinge whither it be scripture or nature or art all is yours Yours are Philosophers Orators Historigraphers Poets Iewes Gentiles Grecians Barbarians Fathers new-writers men angelles that you may be saved this only is the end where vnto our knowledge learning of what kind soever is directed To returne to Ionas discontented and withall to conclude you see the fall nay you see the relapse of a chosen prophet a sicknes recovered and a recidivation into the same or a worse sickenes Before hee had sinned and recanted his sinne and washed his disobedience away with the water of the sea but now is returned to the mire againe mire indeed wherein his heart as a troubled muddy spring is so disordered that he discerneth nothing a right neither in faith to God nor charity to man nor loue to himselfe accusing the most righteous Lord envying his innocent brethren and carried away headlong with a kind of detestation towardes his owne person once angry and angry againe and not onely conceaving but defending anger angry with the worme in the earth angry with the sunne in the skie angry with the winde in the aire angry with the former and governour of all these who could haue ended his passion with the least breath of his angry lippes A daungerous and grievous wound in a Sainte If I woulde thrust my fingers into it and thoroughly handle it But I leaue it to the order of my text vvorthy of another sea and of another whale and once more of the belly of hell even of hell indeede if God would exactly stand to repay it Improbe Neptunum accusat qui iterum naufragium facit Hee hath no reason to accuse Neptune that so presentlye after a late daunger will hazard himself to take shipwracke againe God is admirable in his Saintes not onely in their risinges but in their fallings also The best amongst them haue fallen And I loue to report their falles not that I take any pleasure with vngracious Chain to vncover the nakednes of my fathers but because that mantell and cloke of charity which God casteth over their sinnes to cover their weaknesses with is the comfortablest reading and learninge that the world hath S. Augustine spake wisely of the errour of Cyprian Propterea non vidit aliquid ut aliquid per eum supereminentius videretur There was something which he saw not that hee might gaine the knowlege of some more excellent thing That vvhich hee lost in faith hee gott in charity So there is somewhat that Ionas doth not to make way to the doing of some bettter worke For if hee gained nothing else the mercy of God might by this meanes bee the more commended in the forgiuenesse of his trespasse and that which hee
chardge you at this time with these particulars 1. what Ionas made a booth 2. for what vse to sit vnder the shadowe of it 3. how long to continue till hee mighte see vvhat vvas done in the cittie The 1. and the 2. shew vnto vs the one the nature the other the vse of all buildinges By nature they are but boothes and tabernacles and such as the Prophet reporteth of Sion that shee shoulde remaine as a cottage in a vineyarde and like a lodge in a garden of cucumbers Or as Iob speaketh in the 27. of his booke like a lodge that the watchman maketh no longer to abide than till that service is ended I would be loth to tearme them the houses of spiders and moathes as Iob doth but compared with eternity such they are The patriarches and people of auncienter times dwelt but in tentes easily pight and as easily remooved and as many other things in antiquity so this amongst the rest was a figure to all the ages of the world to come that so long as they dwell vpon the earth they haue but a temporall and transitory habitation The earth which we dwel vpon is but our place of soiourning and wherein vvee are strangers as God tolde Abraham Gen. 17. In the 47 of the same booke Pharaoh asked Iacob howe many were the daies of the yeares of his life Iacob to expresse our condition of travailing and flitting vpon the earth to and fro aunswered the king the whole time not of my life but of my pilgrimage or rather pilgrimages by reason of often remooues is an hundreth and thirty yeares Few and evill haue the daies of my life beene and I haue not attained vnto the yeares of the life of my fathers in the daies of their pilgrimages David 1. Chron. 29. giveth thankes vnto the Lord in behalfe of himselfe and his people that they were able to offer so willingly towards the building of the temple because all thinges came of him and from his owne hande or liberalitie they had given vnto him For saith he we are strangers before thee and soiourners like all our fathers our daies are as the shadowe vpon the earth and there is none abiding Thus Iacob and his fathers David and his Princes and his people and their fathers al were pilgrimes Let vs see nowe what vse the Apostle maketh hereof Hee saith of Abell Enoch Noah Abraham Sarah and the rest that all these died in faith and received not the promises but sawe them a farre of and beleeved them and receaved them thankefullie and confessed that they vvere strangers pilgrimes on the earth For they that say such things declare plainly that they seeke a country It may bee their owne from whence they were exiled the Apostle aunswereth no. For if they had beene mindefull of that countrey froÌ„ whence they came out they had leasure to haue returned But now they desire a better that is an heavenly Wherefore God is not ashamed of them to be called their God for he hath prepared for theÌ„ a citty Likewise he exhorteth vs Heb. 13. As Iesus to sanctifie the people vvith his owne bloud suffered without the gate so that we should goe forth of the campe bearing his reproach for here we haue no continuing citty but wee seeke one to come And our Saviour told his disciples Ioh. 4. that in his fathers house there were many mansions or settled dwellings for here wee haue but tabernacles Houses I confesse we haue as foxes haue thtir holes birdes their nestes and bees their hiues to be chased and driven from them but till the promise be fulfille which is mentioned Revel 21. that the tabernacle of God shal be with men that is men shal be with the tabernacle of God and God dwell with vs and we with him in heavenly Ierusalem we must trust to that other prophecie Mich. 2. surgite ite arise and depart for this is not your rest The vse of buildings is that we may sit vnder the shadowe thereof The posterity of Noah Gen. 11. having fouÌ„d out a place in the plaÌ„ie of Sinar said go to let vs build vs a citty towre to get vs a name Was that the end of buildings Nabuchodonosor Dan. 4. built them a palace for the house of his kingdome and for the honour of his maiesty to vaunt of the mightines of his power and to forget the God of heaven Was that the end of building It seemeth by the wordes of Salomon Eccles. 2. that hee made him great worke and built him houses to prooue his hearte vvith ioie and to take pleasure in pleasant thinges Or was that the end of building Some build wonders of the world as the walles of Babylon set vp by Semiramis the house of Cyrus the tombe of Mâ—usolus All which buildings whither they be summer-parlours as Eglons Iud. 3. or winter-caÌ„hbers houses in the citty or TusculaÌ„ farmes in the couÌ„try were they as stately for heigth as the spires of Egypt or as the teÌ„ple of the great Diana of the Ephesians which as they were woÌ„dred at for their buildings so for their ruine dissipation or were they as sumptuous for cost as that pallace of king Alcinous the wals wherof were of brasse the gates of gold the entries of silver they are all but vanity and vvhen vvee haue all done there is none other vse of building than to sit and shadovve our selues and to defend our bodies from the violence of the weather and other forreigne iniuries It is a sickenesse that some men haue to spend their time in building as the Epigramme noted Gellius Gellius aedificat semper Gellius is alvvaies building or repayring or chaunging or doing somewhat to keepe his hand in If a friend come to borrowe money of him Gellius hath no other word in his mouth but I am in building Alas to what purpose are these lardge and spacious houses without inhabitants chimneyes without smoake windowes not for prospect but for martins to breed and owles to sing in Such are the tenants insteed of families heretofore kept hospitality maintained nowe hedge-hogs lying vnder the walles wesels dwelling in the parlours Ieremy doth notably taxe the vanity of a great builder Hee saith I wil build me a wide house and lardge chambers so he wil make himselfe greate windowes and seele theÌ„ with Cedar paint them with Vemiâ—ton But shalt thou raigne saith the prophet because thou closest thy selfe in Cedar did not thy father thy grandfather eate and drinke and prosper when they executed iudgement and iustice kept houses relieved the poore but thine eies thy heart are but only for covetuousnes oppression for vainglory to coÌ„maund and over-looke the country round about and to leaue a name behind thee even to do this and according to the endes thou proposest herein so shall the Lord visite thee Till he might see what should be done in the citty But the
body of a litle Ant is no lesse to be wondered at thaÌ„ the huge body of Behemoth And as Vulcane is coÌ„meÌ„ded in the Poet for beating out chaines nets so thin that the eie could not see theÌ„ smaller than the smallest thred or thaÌ„ the web of the spider so the smaller the creature is the more is the workmanship of God to bee admired both in the shaping in the vsing therof We al know that God hath scourged the mightiest tyraÌ„t in the earth as much with worms as if he had sent out whole armies against him As he plagued Zenacharib with an Angel froÌ„ heaven the Sodomites with fire brimstone Corah his conspiratours with the opening of the earth so he destroied Herode with wormes Antiochus with wormes against many other bloudy persecutours of his church vsed none other executioners And bee it spokeÌ„ to the dauÌ„ting of all flesh to pull downe the pride thereof that the day shal come when wormes shall cover them they shall say to the wormes you are our brethren sisters to the coÌ„fusion of all the wicked daÌ„ned of the earth that their worme dieth not wherby though an infinite tormeÌ„t be meant yet the gnawing of a poore worme is made to expresse it The time which God chose for smiting the gourd was in the rising of the morning a litle before the sun caÌ„e forth of his chaÌ„ber when the shadow of the gourd should most haue pleasured him for in the night season the aire was cold enough Ionas passed it with sleepe so that the covering of the boughes was superfluous for that time But when the morning arose the rightest houre that the crosse could haue falleÌ„ vpoÌ„ Ionas the worme is sent They say in Esay let the couÌ„sell of the holy one come what need they cal for it it shal not only coÌ„e but come in a time which God hath apointed fittest for their smarte Al the iudgmeÌ„ts of the Lord are nuÌ„ber measure he reckoneth the houre and the minute of the houre when it is most convenient to inflict them Sisera shall not die in an army nor by the handes of a man nor any bow bent nor sword drawne against him the Lord hath reserved him to a tent to a ten-penny nayle to be driven in to his head by the hands of a feeble woman This was the time these the meanes which the Lord made choise of to punish him Zenacherib shall not be slaine in the field nor by the Angell of the Lord which smote a greate part of his army but at home in his owne citty and in the temple of his idoll and by the handes of his sonnes that sprange from his bowels This is the time and these the meanes that the Lord hath kept him vnto to shew his iustice Therefore the day of vengance and destruction is evermore called the day of the Lord not that the rest are not his but these he hath specially marked out and allotted to exercise his iudgementes in There is a time to plant and a time to roote vp that that hath beene planted Babylon is as a threshing floore saith the prophet the time of her threshing is come yet a little while and her harvest is come so Babylon you see hath a time for her threshing Our Saviour Revel 3. speaketh of an houre of temptation which shall come vpon all the world to try them that dwell vpon the earth And in the fourteenth of the same booke the Angell flyeth in the midst of heaven saying with a lowd voice feare God giue glory to him for the houre of his iudgment is come And another Angel cried vnto him that sate vpon the clovvd thrust in thy sickle and reape the harvest of the earth for the time is come to reape it God suffered the gourd in the night time when Ionas had litle benefite by it but when the morning arose and when his soule most desired the comfort thereof then it vvithered Rich men shall haue riches when they haue least vse of them but when the evill day commeth they shall cast them avvaye to the mowles of the earth and Epicures shall haue their pleasures for a time but when they shall say vnto pleasures stand vp and helpe vs they shall flie away from them And as he chose the vnhappiest time for the plaguing of Ionas so he made speede to plague him for how shorte a time did Ionas enioy the pleasure of the gourd God prepared a worme the very next day to smite it Where are those greedie dogges that never haue enough of pleasure Who say come wee vvill bring wine and wee will fill our selues vvith strong drinke and to morrow shall bee as this day and much more abundant What els is this drunkennesse of yours in wine strong drinke and fulfill of pleasures but the merry madnes of one houre to be recompenced with sorrow for ever and ever Go to you that say to daie and to morrow wee will doe this and that and yet yee cannot tell what shall be to morrow for what is your life or what is your pleasure intended It is even a vapour that appeareth for a litle time and aftervvarde vanisheth away Boast not thy selfe of to morrowe for thou knowest not what a day may bring foorth Nescis quid serus vesper ferat thou knowest not what a chandge the next evening may make Did Elah the king of Israell thinke vvhen he was feasting in his stewardes house that his time had beene so shorte and that a capitaine of his own should haue slaine him Did the sonnes and daughters of Iob vvhen they were banqueting in their eldest brothers house dreame of the winde that came from the wildernesse smote the foure corners of the house that it overwhelmed them Did Babylon which was called tender and delicate and the Lady of kingdomes which assumed to her selfe I am and there is none else I shall not â—it a vvidowe nor know the losse of children shee that trusted in her wickednesse and said none seeth mee did shee imagine how neare they were that came with a contrary newes Advenit finis tuus Thine ende is come Dumah calleth to the prophet in scorne Esa. 21. watch-man vvhat is in the nighte watch-man vvhat is in the night The watch-man aunswereth The morning commeth and also the night that is thou hast had a time of light and delightes thou shalt also haue a time of darknes Thus the Edomites and Epicures of our daies mocke their prophetes and watch-men You speake of a night yee watch-men and of a day of iudgement but when commeth that night or where is the promise of his comming We tell you againe The morning commeth and also the night If yee will aske aske to amendement of life aske not to scoffe vs and to deceiue your selues enquire returne and come that is continue not still in your former abominations The
handes but at your feete to your feete submitte their neckes and hold your stirrops or that Princes shoulde eate bread vnder your tables like dogges I shame almost to report that a skar-crow in an hedge should thus terrifie Eagles Wher was then the effect of that praier which David made in the Psalme O Lord giue thy iudgement vnto the king wheÌ„ the kings of the earth were so bewitched and enchanted with that cup of fornicatioÌ„ Christ though the iudge of the quicke and dead refused to be a iudge in a private inheritance who made me a iudge or divider over you these wil be iudges and disposers of Kingdomes Empires Dukedomes and put Rodolph for Henry Pipin for Childericke one for another at their pleasures And when they haue so done no man must iudge of their actions why because the disciple is not aboue his maister Let not a priest giue an accusation against a Bishop not a Deacon against a priest not a sub-deacon against a Deacon not an Acolyth against a sub-deacon not an exorcist against an Acolyth but as for the highest prelate hee shal be iudged by no man because it is vvritten non est discipulus c. So did the Devill apply the scriptures The Apostles all concurre in one manner of teaching let every soule be subiect to the higher powers hee meaneth of temporall powers because they beare the sword require tribute Chrysostome expoundeth it of all sortes of soules both secular religious Submit your selues to every ordinance of man feare God honour the king let prayer and supplcation bee made for all men for kinges those that are in authority that wee may leade a quiet and peaceable life vnder them This is the summe of their doctrine Now either the Bishop of Rome hath not a soule to be subiect or he is a power aboue all powers and must commaund others And so in deede he vsurpeth abusing that place of the Psalme Omnia subiecisti sub pedibus eius thou hast put all thinges in subiection vnder his feete all sheepe and oxen yea and the beasts of the field Where by oxen are meant Iewes and heretiques by beast of the field Pagans and infidelles by sheepe Christian both kings and subiects by birdes of the aire Angelles in heaven by fishes in the sea soules in purgatory I do wrong to your sober eares to fill them with such fables but subiection I am sure they deny if the whole world should be filled with bookes legall Evangelicall to admonish them Nay they will take both the law and gospell and make them speake vanity blasphemy meere contradiction rather than want authorities to vphold their kingdome Thus when Adrian set his foote in the necke of the Emperour he alleaged the words of the Psalme thou shalt tread vpon the adder the basiliske c. The Emperour highly sinned that he had not a sting to thrust forth against him and to tame his pride Iohn the 22. perverted the words of Christ to this purpose behold I haue set theeover kingdomes c. Innocentius the 3. fetcheth a prophecy of his vsurped Hierachie from the first creation God created two light in the firmament of heaven so in the firmament of the earth two rulers a greater light and a lesser light that is the Pope and the Emperour the one to governe the day the other the night that is the Pope to governe the Clergie the Emperour the laitie for this cause they say to shew the difference the Pope hath his vnction on the head the Emperour but on his armes· To leaue their glosses and devises let vs harken to their practise What a strange commauÌ„dement was that which Gregory the 7. sent forth we commaund that no man of what condition soever he be either king or Archbishop Bishop Duke Earle Marques or Knight be so hardly to resist our legates if any man do it we binde him with the bond of a curse not onely in his spirit but in his body and all his goods In excommunicating the Emperour then being he vsed this forme Henry the king sonne of Henry late Emperour I throw downe from all both imperiall and royall administration and I absolue from their othe of obedience all christians subiect to his authority and being requested to vse more mildnes in proceeding to excommunicate him answered for himselfe when Christ committed his church to Peter and said feed my sheepe did he exempte kinges afterward he calleth vpon Peter Paul saith vnto them go to now so vse the matter that all men may vnderstand if your selues haue power to binde loose in heaven that we may haue also power on earth both to take awaye and to giue Empires kingdomes principalities and whatsoever mortall men may haue Boniface the 8. whome Benevenutus called the tyrant over Priests Petrarch the terrour of kings nâ—mâ—d himselfe the Lord not only of FraÌ„ce but of the whole world Philip sirnamed the faire theÌ„ king of FraÌ„ce advised him not to vse that kind of speech to the overthrow of his kingdome Hence grew all those stirres and tumultes betweene them It is a notable admonition which Massonus there giveth in the knitting vp of his life I vvoulde wish the Bishoppes of the cittie not to make kings their enemies who are willing to be their friendes for let them not thinke that they are sent from GOD as bridles vnto kinges to maister them at their pleasure as wilde and vnbroken horses let them admonish and pray them and ther harty praiers shall bee insteede of commanding but to threaten terrifie raise vp armes is not beseeming Bishoppes Platina concludeth him almost to the same effect thus dieth Boniface vvhose endevours evermore were rather to bring in terrour than religion vpon Emperours kinges princes nations and peoples This Platina was a professed catholique living within a colledge at Rome that you may the lesse thinke the author willing to sâ—aunder them On a time vvhen Paul the seconde vvent about to pull downe that colledge hee besought the Pope that the matter might first bee hearde before the maisters of the rowels or other like iudges itané aâ—t nos ad iudices revocas What Is it come to this saieth hee doest thou call vs backe vnto iudges doest thou not knovvs that all the lavves are placed in the shrine of my breast Innocentius the sixt sendeth Carilas a Spanish Cardinall but withall a cardinall warriour into Italie to recover Saint Peters parrimonie if praiers were vnavaileable by force of armes for armes are the succours of Popes vvhen praiers vvill not serue Innocentius the seventh had a meeker spirite of vvhome Bapâ—ista Fulgosus vvrireth that such idle houres as hee had he bestowed in pruning his orcharde and wisheth that other Popes had done the like vvho vvere better pleased with making warre for it is fitter for the Bishopes of Rome to prune orchardes than men Iulius the 2.