armour of God we are not able to resist the deuill for what power is therein a subiect to resist a Prince what strength is in weake flesh to withstand a mighty spirite what wisedome is there in a foolish man to counteruaile the subtill Serpent but if we bee armed with the armour of God and furnished with his deuine grace then and there by we are made able to c. Therefore saide our Sauiour Christ to this Apostle when 2. Cor. 12. he was in this battell and prayed for aide My grace is sufficient for thee and hee hauing experience that it was so saith I am able to doe all things by the heple of him that strengthens me and if it should be obiected Paul was an olde man therefore we cannot doe as he did Saint Iohn writes to the church and speaking of common Christians saith Hee that is borne of God ouercomes 1. Ioh. 5. 4 the world If we reade the Scripture wee shall see what great temptations the seruants of God haue ouercome by grace as Moses Ioseph Iob Daniel and others we must be like the people of Ciuiensis who when the ambassadors of Brutus would haue them deliuer their Citty vnto him returned his answer tel your captaine Brutus our ancestors haue left vs weapons to defend our selues and our Citty so when the diuell tempteth vs to yeelde our selues to him let vs answere our God hath left vs weapons to defend our selues from him Therefore if we would be able to stand vpright against the temptations of the diuell let vs heare reade praye and euery waye labour to furnish our selues with knowledge faith hope trueth iustice mercye loue humilytie patience meekenesse and all the graces of Gods spirite And let vs knowe this is none of the least of Sathans temptations to perswade men they may doe well enough without them or with some though they seeke not for all of them and to thinke that those that haue them doe no great matters with them How great a temptation of the diuell in the person of a woman did Ioseph Gen. 39 ouercome by grace when numbers with farre lesse inticementes are carryed to adulterye how great a temptation did the three children ouercome by grace Dan. 3. when thousandes were for want of grace carryed to idolatrye as one saith this prooues not a man an innocent because hee is not accused but beeing accused he is able also to cleare himselfe so it prooues not a man a Christian that hee is not tempted but beeing tempted he is able to ouercome therefore saieth the Apostle Put on the whole armour of God that yee may bee able to resist As the graces of God doe inable vs to withstand the diuell in his temptations so wee must put foorth our strength and resist him When Peter had sayde 1. Pet. â— your aduersary the diuell goeth about like a roaring Lyon seeking whome he maye deuoure hee addeth whom resist stedfastly in the faith Iames sayeth Resist Iam. 4. the diuell and hee will flye from you some to excuse their falles saye the temptation was so strong that it was vnpossible to withstand it It may bee it was vnpossible for an vnarmed man but not vnpossible for a man furnished with Gods grace Therefore let such a man knowe it was not so much the strength of temptation as his owne weakenesse and cowardise that ouerthrewe him hee wanted grace or did not resist if hee had hee might haue ouercome for there haue beene men yea women that haue ouercome as great temptations as those and let him tell mee did hee not vse his owne handes his owne eyes his owne feete his owne tounge whereof the diuell hath noe power except by speciall license or authoritye in the case of possession which is not ordinary but his power and practise is to intice mens hartes and hauing wonne their Iudgement and wonne their affection they giue their toung to speak euil or their hands or other members of the body to commit euill why doe men these things and not resist but suffer themselues to be ouercome of their spirituall enemy By this time we see cause seeing it stands vs vpon life and death to resist the diuell but some man may aske how we should doe it I answere our resistance must be spirituall as our enemy is spirituall it is not enough to say I defie the diuell as some thinke but if we would resist the diuell we must resist sinne what sinne soeuer it bee that wee are tempted to whether against the first table or the second table of the law whether it be against God directlye as idolitry blasphemy periury or the worship of God as the neclect of the worde sacraments or sabothes or whether it be against men or women in the abridgement of their authority of their liues of their chastity of their goodes of their name for we neuer are mooued to any sinne but we haue to doe with the diuell directly or indirectly If it be asked how we should resist sinne I answere I resist the motions vnto it within and the perswasions and occasions vnto it without resist it in iudgement and saye with our selues the diuell stirres vp my corrupt nature in my hart or stirres vp such a man or such a woman to perswade me to such or such an euill thing I may not doe it resist it in affection such a thing that the diuell or his instrument would drawe me vnto is euill I wisl not doe it resist it in conuersation such a thing that the diuell perswades mee to is euill I will haue no hand I will haue no finger in it I will stop my eares from hearing of it I will shut my mouth from defending it I will turne away my feete from following it Some may aske how a man should know the temptations of the diuell from the corrupt motions of our owne nature I answer there is such an affinity likenes betweene them as it is hard to distinguish them therefore the safest way is to thinke that we haue to deale with both these enemies at once and so to be the more strengthened against them but for a difference let vs know when all euill motion to any sinne is raysed if spirituall force be added to draw vs or spiritual subtilty to perswade vs which be two properties of the diuelles nature let vs thinke besides our owne corruption which is the broker the diuell himselfe is present is the prouoker let vs resist the first corrupt motions of our nature which the Apostle seemeth to call the 2. Cor. 12 messengers of Sathan as hee saith to the Collossians mortifie your earthly members Col. 3. if wee make such faire warres with these spirituall enemies and kill them not as many doe we shall haue foule handes with them and let vs resist the diuell who will double and inforce those suggestions by what reasons or perswasions soeuer he doth it that all the power of hell may not
preuaile against vs and to this end let vs know as our Sauiour Christ saith to his Disciples Yee haue neede of patience so wee haue neede of knowledge of faith of hope of loue and other graces of the spirit of God for Sathan will not onely assault vs but perhaps continue his siege battery a day a weeke a moneth and giue vs no respight and though he will sound the retreate and depart sometime for a season as Saint Luke Luk. 4. saith yet he will returne againe perhapes another way and set vpon vs by some other meanes therefore arme your selues saith the Apostle and resist him and if this battell seeme hard and tedious vnto vs remember in what cause we fight and for what crowne our Sauiour Christ saith in the Reuelation He that ouercometh shall inherite great and glorious things and Paul saith The Saintes shall iudge the Angelles that is the deuilles Paul saieth to 1. Cor. 6. Timothy I haue fought a good fight and then he addeth I looke for the Crowne the Saints in heauen that are now crowned haue come vnto it thorow many temptations and tribulations therefore let vs harken to the Apostles exhortation be strong in the Lorde put on the whole armour of God and resist in the euil day and the God of peace shall treade Rom. 16. downe sathan vnder ouâ— feete shortly ⧠The Houre-glasse of Mans life PSALME 90. 12. Teach vs so to number our dayes that we may apply our hartes to wisedome THIS whole booke is called the booke of Psalmes because it contayneth in it for the most part matter of praise and thankesgiuing though there be many other doctrines mingled therewithall They are called the Psalmes of Dauid because he compiled most of them not because he made them all for this was made by Moses as yee may see by the title of it We call this the 90. Psalme because it is bound with the Psalmes and standes in the place of that number but it is intituled and that more fitly agreeing with the matter of it A prayer of Moses In which Moses setteth forth the estate of mans life generally and perticulerly of the people of Israell in the wildernesse where he saw many thousands of them that came out of Egypt dye some by one meanes and some by another as it is more largely recorded in the booke of Numbers Now Moses considered that many of their forefathers liued almost a thousand yeares whereto hee hath respect in the 4. verse where he saith One thousand yeâ—res in thy sight is but as yesterday and the life of man was growne shorter and shorter and in his time ordinarily it was not one hundred yeares as appeares in the 10. verse The dayes of a man are threescore yeares and tenne or perhaps fourescore which was nothing to their fathers how much lesse when they were cut off by strange punishmentes in the middest of their course and dyed thicke and three-fould without warning Now after the mention of those things he breakes out into this speech Teach vs to know our dayes that we may apply our harts to wisedome In which words are two things to be considered first a petition secondly a reason of the petition The petition is in these first wordes Teach vs to number our dayes The reason is in these other wordes in the end of the verse that we may apply our hartes to wisedome Wherby we are taught first of al that there is a number of euery mans dayes for this difference to be considered betweene this life and the next life this life hath an end therefore it is called temporall the next life endes not therefore it is called eternall the certaine number of our daies is knowne Iob. 14. 5 to God and not to vs. But he doth not desire to know the certaine number of his dayes but rather the vncertaine number of them that is that God would teach them to know the breuity and shortnes of mans life Therefore he sets it downe by dayes not by yeares and this he desires not for himselfe only but for the people and therefore he saith not teach me but teach vs to number our dayes Now according to Moses prayer God hath taught vs this point in the Scripture that all men are mortall and must dye as the Lord saide to Adam In the day that thou eatest of the tree in the middest of the garden thou shalt die although the diuell who for that cause our Sauiour Christ saith Iohn 8. Was a lyer from the beginning spake contrary and said to Eue Thou shalt not die at all yet indeed Adam died for although he dyed not by by yet he was a dead man because sentence was passed vpon him and all his life afterward was but a dying life euerything then sauoring of death and euery day beeing a step vnto death If any will inquire what death is to speake generally it is a seperation from the condition of this mortall and temporall life but to speake more properlye it is a seperation of the soule and body as the ioyning togeather of the soule and body at the first was the cause of life as it is said God breathed into Adam the breath of life and Gen. 1. man was made a liuing soule so the seperation of the soule from the bodye is the cause of death as Christ saieth to the ritch man This night they shall fetch away thy soule thou shalt dye This Adam by his sinne brought not onelye vpon himselfe but vpon all his posteritye as Paul saieth Rom. 5. By man sinne entred into the worlde and death by sinne and death went ouer all men forasmuch as all men haue sinned therefore it is saide not onely of Adam himselfe but of dyuers of the fathers that were his posterity to shew the trueth of Gods threatning to Adam In the daye Gen. 5. thou doest eate of such a tree thou shalt dye And to shewe the falcehoode of the diuelles promise to Eue that though sâ—e did eate it she should not dye at all such and such a one liued thus many hundred yeares but he dyed for though the day be neuer so long at length comes euensong Heb. 9. the Apostle saith It is appointed to al men once to dye after that comes the iudgement when all men are dead then comes the general iudgemeÌ„t but when euery one dyes then comes his perticuler iudgement as appeares in the example of the ritch man and Lazarus for as the day of death leaues vs so the day of doome shall finde vs therfore Dauid when he laye sicke said I goe the waye of all the worlde for death is as an vnpartiall iudge that is indifferent to all poore and rich Iob speakes of some men that would seeke death either for the auoyding of present sorrow or procuring of future ioy but whether a man seekes it or no he shall be sure it will seeke him We read of a HeatheÌ„
thereof our Sauiour Christes owne wordes My father is greater Iohn 14. then I Ergo say they he is not God because he saith he is inferior to the father not vnderstanding the misterye of those speeches that he speakes there of himselfe as he is man or mediator and so he is inferiour to the father but in the second to the Philipians it is said He Phil. 2. thought it no robbery to be equall with God in his deuine nature Those that haue denied his manhood aledge these words of Paule God sent his sonne in the similitude of sinfull Rom. 8. flesh Ergo say they he was not man because it is sayd he had but a similitude of flesh but the Apostle saith not he had the similitude of flesh But the similitude of sinnefull flesh For though he seemed to be a sinner as others were as the Pharises wrongfully Iohn 7. said of him Yet Peter saith In him was no 1. Pet. 2. sinne neither was there guile found in his mouth So that though he had true flesh yet he had but the similitude of sinnefull flesh those that confound his two natures as if the one of them did destroy the other were led thereto by this that the scripture doth sometime attribute that to his manhood which belongeth to his Godhead as that it is saide the sonne of man is in heauen when he talked with the Iewes and sometimes doth attribute that to his God-head which belongings to his man hood as Paule saith to the elders of Ephesus Acts. 20. watch ouer the flock which God hath purchased with his owne blood Which speeches are vsed by reason of Christes personable vnion that is the vniting of his two natures in one person for as in owne nature of God there are three persons so in one person of Christ there are two natures But to leaue the confuration of heretickes whose property is alwayes to passe ouer all plaine places of scripture that doe shew the trueth and to cauill with darke places that may seeme to maintaine their error Those that would bee confirmed in the truth of the deuine and humane natures in the person of Christ let them read Iohn 11. Rom. 9. 5 Heb. 1. 8. 1. Ioh. 5. 20. these few places of scripture quoted in the margeant for the heaping vp of many testimonies is needlesse in this point that is so pregnant and plaine in this very Text which saith That God was manifested in the flesh Furthermore let vs marke that the sonne of God did not onely become base man but the basest of men for hee was borne of a base person a poore maide that had not a Lambe to offer for her purification but was faine to offer a payre of Pigeons he was borne in a base place in a Stable or Stall for beastes he liued diuers yeares in a base trade of a Carpenter and after he entred vpon his publike office he kept company with base persons with Fishermen Paul saith Hee made himselfe of no reputation yea he was Phi. 2. so base in outward appearance that the 〈◊〉 5. Prophet sayde There was no forme nor 〈◊〉 in him but he was despised and reiected of men The reason of this basenesse was because he did not onely take on him our nature but our case and condition that is the frailties and infirmities of our nature I meane not our sinfull infirmities for that is alwayes excepted in his humanity else how should he haue beene ioyned to God who can abide no impuritie but I meane he tooke on him our naturall infirmities both of minde and body The infirmities of minde that he tooke on him without sinne were both in his iudgement and affection For iudgement it is sayd of him He grew in wisedome Luke 2. which he could not haue done except there had beene some want and also Mark 13 it is said he was ignorant of the day of iudgement for his affection it is said he sorrowed Mat. 9 Heb. 5. and he feared and that he tooke on him our infirmities of bodye appeares when it is said he was hungry and that he Mat. 4. Iohn 4 was weary c. But we are not to thinke that he tooke on him euery particuler mans infirmities that grow of some speciall cause franzinesse of minde or lamenesse of body but generally the infirmityes which bee common to the nature of all men that hauing experyence of infirmities he might be able to succour vs in ours as the Apostle saith Heb. 2. But is this all the mistery of religion to know that the Godhead was ioyned to our base and fraile nature No but there is much more in it that doth carrie our consideration a great deale further as appeares by the wordes of the text that follow He was preached to the Gentiles and beleeued on in the worlde yea it reaches not onely to this world but to the worlde to come He was receiued vp into glorye A great part of the mistery of Christes personall vnion standes in the vse of it to vnite mankinde vnto God by a spirituall and misticall coniunction the Apostle Paul hauing said The faithfull are members of Christes body of his flesh and of his bones Ephe. 5. He addeth This is a great mistery but I speake concerning Christ and the Church The sonne of God was manyfested in the flesh that he might be the redeemer not of Angels but of men as it is said He Heb. 2. tooke not the Angels nature for the Angels that fell shall remaine in the state of perdition without recouery for euer therefore one wondring at the worke of our redemption saith let all the Angels tell me if euer God did any such thing for them but he tooke the seede of Abraham saith the Apostle That is our humaine nature that he might be the redeemer of men and yet not of all men for reprobate men are no more ioyned to God by Christ then reprobate Angels but the elect that Ephe. 1. were chosen in him although by their fall in Adam they deserued to be for euer seperated from God yet they are in and by Christ againe reconciled and ioyned vnto him againe God was manyfested in the flesh that he might doe that for men that no other could doe but he Yea that hee might doe that for man that he himselfe could not haue done except he had beene both God and man For if he had not beene man how could he haue performed our obedience in all the dueties of holinesse righteousnes and temperance which the law of God doth require of men and sanctifie mans nature that was defiled in which respect he is called our wisedome righteousnesse and 1. Cor. 1. sanctificatiō againe if he had not bin man how could he haue suffered our miseries and borne the punishments which by sinne we had deserued in which respect he is called our redemption this is that one saith is a matter of
the name of Broade cloathes yea it is euident that oftentimes they gaine three times foure times then shillings in a Cloath and more it is not knowne what But they say their gaines growes otherwayes then by their workefolkes as by buiing their wooll their oade their indico and the like at the best hand by selling their Clothes well I answer first for their buying except the corrupt deuices that some I hope not all doe vse that way which I will not speake of my Text onely reproouing iniury to the poore I suppose their gaine is not great that waye but as it falles out in all such vncertaine things that sometime they may gaine and sometime they may loose sellers beeing as prouident as buyers now for the gaine that they haue by selling they meane by selling of time to this I answere Although I would haue such gaine examined by the rule and reason whereby we condemne vsury seeing they venture not charitably with the Marchant but if his state crackes not their stocke holdes though his ship sinkes yet I deny not but as they gaine sometime by their buying so they gaine often by this kind of selling although some time they loose by both But their certaine their ordinary and so their chiefe gaine I dare say in the iudgement of reason is that they get by from the poore people by the more cheape doing of their worke then other mens which is miserable gaine as if a man should rob the spittle-house Now as wee haue seene the Clothiers gaine let vs see the poores losse in the law when they bought men women and children for mony kept them only for their worke when the yeare of their freedome came they might not send them awaye empty but in this case I haue in hand it is otherwise that where some Clothiers dies worth twenty thousand poūd some workeman that hath wrought vnder him not seuen but twenty yeare dies not worth twenty groates let it bee considered how the poore can liue of the wages they haue as it is set downe before what they can earne if they be wel and not hindred by sickenesse sucking children or the like but if any of these hindrances fall vnto them how shall they buy them theirs bread clothes fire-wood pay their house rent and such like necessaries for their life Yea this abridgement of wages is a cause of all the misery of the poore both in body and soule for by reason of their small earnings they cannot spare an houre in a weeke but must take the Saboth to washe their cloathes to peece their ragges to fetch a bundle of wood when they should come to Church to serue God yea they do not onely this way sinne by occasion thereof but are hazarded vpon dangerous temptations of pilfring stealing as Agar said Prou. 30. giue me not pouerty least I steale which I feare is one woful meanes of many of the poores liuing let it be considered Christianly and equally if it bee not so that by this meanes a fewe Clothiers in a countrye growe ritch and many thousandes growe poore and if the inritching of two or three in a Towne bee not the impouerishing of many if I may not saye the hindring of all the Towne for not onely those that worke vnder them finde it those waies yee haue hard but other Townsmen also and not to speake of that that other men beare out rates according to their ability that is seene when Clothiers go away much more easily in that their ability is not seene that other men maintaine the minister of their landes and labours when Clothiers do nothing that they do put away Corne either that they buy for dayes or that they haue growing to their workefolkes at a greater rate then the market so are occasions of raising the price thorow the country But onely to speake of that that is pertinent to my purpose that other men partly by compulsion and partly by compassion are faine to releeue those by charity whome the Clothiers as before doe impouerish by iniury other men lend the poore money Corne and other things beeing faine to loose it when Clothiers if they lend them any thing will paye themselues againe in their worke The Prophets doe much and often complaine of ritch mens grinding the faces of the poore flaying of their skinnes buying the needy for siluer and for shoes now who may be charged with these things in our time and in our country but the Clothiers that generally doe deale with them But some will say the Marchantes deale as euill with their workemen patching and pressing them with commodities if the Marchantes doe so as I know some haue done and thinke still some doe they are in the same condemnation but who doth it in any comparison of number or measure like the Clothiers who haue all the time and all the labour and all the cunning I wil not say of all but of almost all the poore for all which in the winding vp the poore get nothing but a lowse But as it is wisedome and iustice in all controuersies to heare both tales so besides their perticuler obiections that before haue fallen in by the way let vs heare further what Clothiers can aleadge for themselues either against this occasion or for their owne accusation Clothiers pleade for the defence of their course in this wages and say they may giue their workefolkes lesse wages then others doe because they set their workefolkes on worke all the yeare when others sometime doe want worke by the waye marke that wee haue their confession that they giue their workefolkes lesse wages then other men doe theirs now they saye they may doe so for this reason that they set them on worke all the yeare which saye they others doe not but to this I answere if they doe set them on worke all the yeare they haue the more gaine and not the lesse worke is this a good reason that because the poore doe lengthen their worke therefore they maye shorten their wages but most Clothyers doe not set the poore on worke all the yeare but all Labourers and Masons doe sometime want worke in Winter so doe their workefolkes in Summer and their workefolkes in Summer doe worke in the fieldes about Haye or Corne and haue the wages of Labourers aforesaid that is foure pence and sixe pence a day and meate and drinke but in Winter when Labourers shall want worke shall spinne and carde vnder them they cannot earne two pence or three pence towardes their bread and drinke and whereas husbandmen giue better diet and better wages in haruest for their hast Winter being the Clothiers time of haruest and hast they giue no more then their former pittance The Clothiers say we can haue our worke done thus if one will not another will I answere necessity hath no law the poore must worke sot little rather then sit still for nothing for among the Clothiers