cause is the unaequal proportion seen in the Kirk where one is hungrie and starved an other drunk by reason wherof it cannot be that the state of the Kirk can long endure As he cleareth by the comparison of the proportions in Musik in common wealths and in the bodie of man wherupon he inferreth If in the bodie of the wealth Ecclesiasticall some who be the heads be so enormously overgone in riches and dignity that the weak mēbers of the body be scant able to beare them up there is a great token of dissolution and ruine shortly A third cause is the pride of Prelates declared in their great horses troupes of horsemen the superfluous pomp of their waiting men and great families To them the Lord speaketh by the Prophet Amos ch 4. Hear you fatted kine of Samaria ye that doe poore men wrong oppresse the needy the day shall come upon you c. Besides these he allegeth the tyranny of Prelates which as it is a violent thing so it cannot long indure the promoting of the unworthie and neglecting of the worthie the tribulations of outward policie cōmotions of people the refusing of correction in the Princes and Rulers of the Kirk the backsliding from righteousnes lack of discreet and learned preachers promoting of children unto Kirk offices and such other like This sermon changing the name time might seem to haue bene studied for our present estate And happy were we if we were not miscaried with the perillous opinions which he ascribes to the Prelates of that time One opinion is of them who thinke the Prelates to bee the Kirk which the Lord will alwayes keep and never forsake An other who deferred time thinking that the causes tokens before rehearsed have been in the Kirk at other times no lesse then now The third of such as say Let come what will come let us conforme our selves to this world and take our time with temporizers And the last is of such as being unfaithful beleeve not that any such thing shall come But so long as men are drunken with one or moe of those errors what hope is there of happinesse of recovery We might heare Henricus de Hassia in the yeare 1371. speaking that of our times which he said of his own That the Ecclesiasticall governours in the primitive Kirk were compared to the Sunne shining in the day time and the politicall to the Moon shining in the night But the spiritual men which now are doe neither shine in the day nor in the night But rather with the darknesse of impiety ignorance and licentious living doe obscure both the day and the night The renowned Bishop of Spalato as holy Bernard before him complaines more bitterly of that damned couple of crying sins Avarice and Ambition two monstrous beasts and ravenous Harpies which have seized upon the harts of Kirkmen in the time of peace then of the crueltie of persecution and craft of heresies which seeme to you to be the most desperate and onely evils Then saith hee speaking in the person of the Kirk was I at my highest and at my best esteeme whiles I went in a thin coat such as I was cloathed with when my spouse Christ Iesus betrothed himselfe to me c. And afterward They have thrust upon the world their owne inventions and established their own ordinances not drawn out of that testament which my spouse left to me and them namely the holy Scriptures but craftily hammered out of their own capricious projects and tending to the prejudice of your poore soules my deere children So true it is that wealth is a viperine brood of devotion Riches heaped together for reverence of so great a function almost have removed the cause of reverence And lest my calamity should seeme common or my present miseries to be lesse then the greatnesse of my by-past felicities may not every feeling soule rightly affected towards unity verity mournfully deplore this my estate in the words of Nazianzen describing the case of the Kirk in his time to this meaning My mind sayes he leads me seeing there is no other remedy to flee and convoy my selfe unto some corner out of sight where I may escape frō the cloudy tempest of maliciousnesse whereby all parts are entred into deadly warre amongst themselves and that little remnāt of love which was is now consumed to nothing The onely godlines we glory in is to find out somewhat whereby we may iudge others to be ungodly One of us observes the faults of another as matters of upbraiding and not of mourning By these meanes we are growne hatefull even in the eyes of the heathen themselves and which woundeth us the more deeply we cannot deny but we have deserved their hatred with the better sort of our own our credit and name is quite lost the lesse wee are to marvell if they iudge vily of us who although wee did well would hardly commend us On our backes they also build that are leaud and what we object one against another the same they use to the utter scorne and disgrace of us all But I come now my beloved brethren to the conscience of your duty in this case which was the third and principal purpose the religion whereof will bind so many as think seriously of the exceeding bountifulnesse of God to mee his Kirk and upon my manifold crosses here on earth One common dutie of all is that seeing they be all under the guiltines of ingratitude and are become a sinfull nation loaden now with iniquities as ye have been with mercies before which doe provoke the Lord to remove his kingdome altogether from you and to give it to others that would bring forth the fruits thereof according to the constant course of the severity of his Iustice both with his own people the Iewes and with many other famous Kirkes in the East and West given over to beleeve that great lye because they received not the love of the truth and rendred not to the great King the fruits of his kingdome in due season that now before the fiercenesse of his wrath come on all of you from the house of David to the house of Levi look with melting hearts and mourning eyes upon him whom you have pierced with your iniquities Oh that yee had lights to search your hearts and hearts to repent for your sins in the evening of this your day that ye could turne unto the Lord with one heart before yee bee overwhelmed with darknesse At least if in these godlesse and devotionless dayes wherein all your wonted fasting is turned into feasting a general humiliation cannot be obtained ye that are the Lords owne and delight in his tents yee that love the beauty of Sion and have accesse to the face of God contend with him by the spirit of deprecation fill your chalmers with strong cries fill heaven and earth with the grones of his owne spirit poure out
grieved them whoÌ„ he should have made to rejoyce had made theÌ„ rejoyce whom he should have grieved Many speeches as lots are offered to your Princely consideration but the disposition is of the Lord whom we pray to grant that the best cause may have the first lot And who knowes but your Honors are advanced at this time to intercede for me that his highnesse may blesse and reward you for hindering hard courses against his harmlesse ministers and most dutifull subjects sincere professors of the Gospell Dorotheus and Gorgonius men of great authoritie and place and of the Emperours privie chamber when they beheld the punishment of one Peter with them spared not to say Wherfore O Emperour why doe yee punish in Peter that opinion which is in us all Why is that in him counted an offence which wee all confesse wee are of that faith and religion which he is off The truly noble Terentius for all other suâ—es which the Emperour desired him to make craved onely liberty for Christians and beeing refused of that gathered up the peeces of his riven supplication and could not be induced to seek any thing else The Lord requires not onely profession but confession at your hands in this case Wheâ— can yee better make your affection knowen then when the Lord Iesus in the persons of his spouse and your owne mother becomes a petitioner unto you As yee would wish to see his face in mercy in that day of his second comming make not by your unkindnesse his countenance to fall down upon you now send him not away with a repulse He hath run many times like the Roe or the yong Hart over the highest mountaines of difficulties to succour you in your distresse when ye have called upon him Let no pretended impediment be an hinderance unto you to help his cause most instantly suing for support at your hands If there bee any iniquity in my children let them suffer for it spare them not But if they be innocent smite them not Open your mouth for the dumbe Iudge righteously the afflicted and poore Deliver the oppressed that they may offer sacrifice and pray for the life of the king and his sonne If hard courses be taken against faithfull ministers and people let not your honours wash your hands of that harme It is all one to doe them evill and not to helpe them against wrong done by others The hoast of Israel spake in great courage for the life of Ionathan and Ionathan for David to the danger of his life Ebedmelech spake a good word for Ieremie and was saved when his master Zedekias was slaine But curse yee Meroz curse the inhabitants thereof because they came not to the helpe of the Lord against the mightie although they had no hand against them God that hath given you grace and credit with his highnesse requireth that ye bestow it upon his matters and that yee reserve it not for your own Remember the example of that worthy Courtier Nehemiah who esteemed a libertie to build up the walles of the Citie of God a sufficient reward for all his faithfull service As your solicitude is great to leave the common wealth and your own honorable houses in good case so dilapidat not my libertie Leave me not of whom ye have both your first second birth in worse estate to your own incredible griefe and the desolation of your posterity Invenistis marmoreane ne relinquitâ— lateritiam Vpon the wall that yee have found rather build a palace of silver Cant. 8. 9. It was that name of Iehovah and holinesse to the Lord put upon the head of the high Priest that was the greatest beautie and crowned all the other inferiour ornaments The truth of religion and the purity of your profession as it hath been so let it still bee your glory and the luster of all those inferiour gifts wherewith the Lord hath inriched you As this is the first great triall of your hearts Love to Christ and me so it may be your last occasion It is not long since the places which ye possesse were filled with your ancestors of worthy memory whose constancy in defending the liberty of Gods worship is frequently observed in your owne history who now are passed to their eternity and ere be long according to the succession of generations one after another others shal have their time of your present dignities both in degree and continuance Bend your wits and credit to do good while ye haue time Hazard not the happinesse of your eternity Do not that which at the least while yee live will be a bleeding wound in your soules Set your eyes upon him that is invisible and that recompence of reward so shall yee esteeme the reproach of Christ greater riches then the treasures of AEgypt And shall choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season The Lord who searcheth the reignes sees you and the secrets of your deliberation and conclusions and could make them to found again outwardly in your eares and to the hearing of others All your thoughts are legible to that piercing eye from which nothing is hid Look not what ye may say for your excuse or what one partie may say against another whether in private conference or publick velltation by print or dispute But in the sight of God coÌ„sider upon your beds by the light of his spirit whether of the two courses from the beginning ye find to be of through and for God And we have no great feare but ye shal be moved to break down that wall of ceremonies hurtfull to all and profitable to the souls of none that both the houses may be one as the Lord himselfe abolished the Iewish ceremonies and put none in their place I have many children some aged some poore some consumed with godly griefe not so much for their own trouble as for the decay of purity and my desolation They would doe all things for pleasing all parties wherin God is not displeased and their consciences not disquieted But the honour of God and peace of their soules they dare not but regard And albeit obedience to the word should destroy their own all other mens worldly estate yet they must still and uncessantly urge it If in times past your honors have been pleased to hearesome of them in pulpit and in privat in the matters of religion and have not despised their speeches when there was greater probabilitie for suspition there is greater reason now when they are in hazard of suffring to beleeve and take to heart that which they say and require Wherof as they must be couÌ„table to the eternall Iudge of all the world so shall yee be for your hearing and shall not escape his hand if yee harken not for disobedience to the truth The world may well dally for a time and make men so drunke with the wine of wickednes that through security they
generation which knew not the Lord nor yet the work which he had done for Israel A generation not onely unthankfull but contumelious against that glorious work of God worthie instruments therof and therefore ready to bless that which the Lord hath cursed and to build that which he hath destroyed For is there not start up of late within my skirts a new sect of shameless mishapen formalists my indignation cannot bear such monsters who blush not to joyne with my enemies the papists in breathing out reproachful obloquies against your reverend fathers and brethren Calvin Beza Knox etc. as though their zeale against Romish idolatrie the deformities whereof by new colours are now beginning to seeme beauties had been excessive and by disparaging their credite to bring the truth preached by them in suspition and that glorious work of reformatiō wherin they were so worthy instruments into question He that is the keeper of Israell vindicat his owne cause from the blasphemous mouth and uncouth stratageme of this generation of vipers Finally that the Lord might shew that he left nothing undone haue ye not experienced the blessing of Abraham hath he not blessed them who blessed you and cursed them who cursed you he hath been not onely our sunne but our shield What instrument framed against you hath prospered What tongue arysing against you hath not the Lord cōdemned that all the world might know that God was your saviour and the strong God of Iacob your avenger Your forraigne enemies haue bene made the objects of your pitie and so many as haue rent my bowels within have perished tragically in their own divices No sooner began they till now to reedifie the cursed walls of Iericho but they have beene buried under the ruines of them All which hath proceded of his own good pleasure If ye should say that the cause were any worthynes in your selves above other nations not onely my spouse Christ and his faithfull servant Moses would cry out against you but all the world that knowes what ye are in other respects would laugh you to scorne The Lord who shewes mercie on whom he will shew mercie hath done it It is wonderfull in my eyes and should have moved the most obdured and stonie hearts amongst you to melt answerably to spend themselves to his honour in the duties of holines and righteousnes which alas ye have not done as now shall appeare by the sequel of your iniquities casting me your poore mother into so great a doole desolation which is the second point of your Christian consideration propounded in the beginning Would God it might please him to blesse your senslesse soules with a holy remembrance of that which ye once were and from whence ye are fallen Ye would surely finde that as in manners and conversatiō from small beginnings by degrees ye are now come to great abominations so both in the lyfe of your profession and in the outward worship of God ye are further fallen from that which of late ye were then now your case is distant from that which ye feare To let pass the desperate profaness of many crying sins even beyond the cry of Sodome considering all the circumstances of the mercie of God of the meanes and space graunted to you to repent by continuall importunitie deaving the eares of divine justice that had not the Lord had respect to some of his secret ones who kneele before him day and night to continue his gracious favour with you misregarded of the world but my chariots and horsmen had he not a purpose to prevent the insolencies of my enemies I have sayd I would scatter them abroad I would make their remembrance to cease frō amongst men save that I feared the furie of the enemie lest their adversaries should waxe proud And which is principall did not the Lord for his own names sake and the praise of his mercy spare me we had long since beene consumed and the enemy had entered within my gates To let passe that lukewarmenes careles mediocritie in the matters of God that neutrall adiaphorisme in my affaires which hath in it a native and proper power to hasten at the hand of God the removall of my candlestick and to bring in the famine of the word For how can the Lord without indignatiō suffer men to esteeme basely of the least circumstance which he willeth to be observed And not to insist in that fall from your first love decay of your wonted zeale secret indevotion even in true christians where is that wonted power and demonstratiō of the spirit in preaching that cheerfulnes in holy exercises that circumspect walking before God in all your wayes that preparation to divine dueties that spirit of deprecations that spiritual profite of hearing communicating meditation and conference that consciencious diligence in winning of others working upon your acquaintāce to bring them within the bosome of my love that jealousie over your hearts that indignation against errours idols Apostates Is not the life of religion condemned under the names of hypocrisie singularitie melancholie simplicitie puritanisme etc. And the light thereof either smothered under the ashes of this errant tyme◠or put in a theefes bowet so that the godly now born down with a bastard modestie and spirituall pusillanimitie dissemble and conceale the grace of God for eschewing the shame offence of the world which the wicked not long since did simulat and counterfeyt for currying of credite with me and my follovvers But leaving all these I come to complaine of the alteration made upon my outvvard face and goverment May not I novv as once the vvorld becomming Arrian poure out my sighes and vvonder hovv so suddenly I am changed from that vvhich I vvas and become that vvhich novv I am All the rites of Rome are not more odious to many novv then my present ceremonial cōstitutiō vvas to them of late The formes and fruites of preaching fearfully changed the crystalline fountaines of holy Scripture troubled with the mudd of mans putide learning the ministration of the Sacraments brought in under a new guise of mans shaping the painfull ministerie turned into a busie Lordship and these who are set over soules should warre unto God are become seculars intangling themselves with the affaires of this life nothing but a pompous shadow for Gods simple service Demas Diotrephes are become the paterns of wisdome and praeeminence Chrysostome is thrust out and Arsatius placed in his rowme beloved Liberius is set a syde and lightlied Foelix is set to feede the flock pratling tymeservers are become preachers powerfull pastors put to silence plaine and frequent preaching reproved a redd liturgie commended Alevite for a Preist and lesse then a levite for mouth and messenger to Gods people Non residents with their flattering varlots sit in the chaires of dignitic fed with pluralitie of benefices and painfull promoovers of the Kingdome of Christ and subverters of Antichrist
with ignorance the mother of devotion borne down and despised Labourers vexed with angvish of Spirit loyterers live in wealth ease In the tyme of confusion wicked men attayne to honours and that seat of dignitie wherof in a peaceable common wealth they dispared in the tyme of trouble they hope to procure Commandes are cancelled Canons are made commandes And as Gerson complained in his tyme a Monke more severely punished for going without his cowle then for comitting adulierie or sacrilege Or as Chaucer the Fryer more bound to his habit then a man to his wife The duties of Ministers and edification of Christians tyed to the sensâ—es practise of trifling ceremonies And hence we see it is that old hypocrites are become professed Atheists Philadelphian professors are come to a Laodicean temper Papists wax insolent and obstinate the faithfull pastors either put froÌ„ the building of the Sanctuarie or forced to build with the one hand and with Nehemiah to beare off these corruptions with the other the people through publick contradictions and present practises contrary to late preachings know not what way to incline But as usually it falleth out in multitudes when they are shaken with contrarie doctrines and tossed betwixt errour and trueth from being doubtfull in questions moved about religion their hearts in end are opened and themselves made naked to receive everie corruption vanitie As the contentions about Eutyches opinion thrust out Christ and brought in Mahomet Yea except the Lord restreyne and stay they rush into Atheisme in opinioÌ„ and Epicureisme in conversation where through the lyfe of religion is utterly extinguished The case of religion herein not being unlike unto that of the miserable woman in Plutarch whoÌ„ her suters divided amongst themselves in members because that every one could not have her whole Thus she perished and they were disappointed What may be the finall event your synnes may make you justly to feare what it shall be the alpowerfull God who rules all events knowes well This ye may see at least that pulpits and schooles taverns and alehouses towne and village Gath Askelon are all busied with these broyles Which make me the daughter of Sion to complaine and in doole to deplore that in so distressed a case there is no compassion in my sonnes That of so many whome I have brought forth and brought up there be so few to coÌ„fort me almost none to guide me or take me by the hand Yea after tryall I finde that my own ministers and domestickes beholding the invention of their own heades concupisence of their own hearts without respect to God or his word are the prime authors of my calamitie actors of this my mischief according to the bitter complaint of the godly learned of old searching the causes of all the abuses wherwith the glorie of the christian Kirks my sisters in the tyme of their peace hath beene blemished or defaced I will content me with two witnesses who speaking of their own tymes directly point at ours taxing the enormities of the Kirks then paint out in lively colours our present corruptions that we may see the coincidence of the course of synne and may feare the similitude of judgements The one is learned Gerson about the yeare 1420. who observed two principall causes of the sicknesses soares of the Kirk in his tyme. One was the neglecting of the lawes of God and direction of Scriptures and the multitude of mans inventions No tongue sayth he is able sufficiently to expresse what evill what daunger what confusion the contempt of holy Scriptures which doubtlesse is sufficient for the government of the Kirk for otherwayes Christ had beene an unperfect Lawgiver and the following of humane inventions hath brought into the Kirk For proof hereof he addeth let us consider the state of the cleargie to which heavenly wisdome should have beene espoused But they have committed whordome with that filthie harlot earthly carnall and divelish wisdome so that the estate of the Kirk is become meerely brutish monstrous heaven is below and earth is above the spirit obeyeth and the flesh commaundeth the principall is esteemed as accessorie and the accessorie as principall Yet some shame not to say that the Kirk is better governed by humane inventioÌ„s then by the divine law and the law of the gospell of Christ which assertioÌ„is most blasphemous For the Euangelicall doctrine by the professors of it did inlarge the bounds of the Kirk and lifted her up to heaven which these sonnes of Hagar seeking out that wisdome which is from the Earth haue cast down to the dunghill And that it is not wholly fallen and utterly overthrowne and extinct it is the great mercy of our God and Saviour The other cause of the Kirks ruine he observed to be the ambition pride and covetousnes of Bishops and their Hierarchy He â—pareth not to say that in imitation of Lucifer they will be adored and worshiped as God Neither doe they think themselves subiect to any but are as sonnes of Belial that have cast off the yoke not enduring whatsoever they doe that any should ask them why they doe so they neither feare God nor reverence men Hence was it that not onely hee but innumerable others of the wise men holyest of the Kirk longed and looked for a reformation a long time before Luther was borne wishing that all things were brought back to that estate they were in the tyme of the Apostles And what wonder that perceiving among our selues the same causes and many the like effects we tremble for feare of a more dangerous â—ecidivation The other witnes is Nicolas Orem a man learned pithic who in a sermon before Pope Vrban the fyft in the yere 1364 noteth among many moe these causes of the approaching miserie of the Kirk The profanitie of the Kirk beyond the synagogue we know sayth he how Christ rebuketh the Pharises the cleargie of the Iewes for covetousnes 1. for that they suffered doves to be sould in the temple of God 2. for that they honoured God with their lipps and not with their heart and because they sayd but did not 3. for that they were hypocrites To the first then let us see whether it be worse to sell both Kirk and sacraments then to suffer doves to be sould in the temple To the second there be some who neither honour God with their heart nor with their lipps who neither doe well nor say well neither doe they preach any word at all but be dumbe doggs not able to barke impudent doggs that never have ynough And truely there be also some whose intollerable pride malice is so manifesty and notoriously kindled up like a fyre that no cloke nor shadow of hypocrisie can cover it But are so past all shame that it may be well verified of them which the Prophet speaketh Thou hast gotten the face of an harlote thou wouldest not blush An other