calling wee are said to take Orders Yours are called Trades and Occupations and Mysteries Law and Phisicke are called Sciences and Professions many others haue many other names ours is Orders When by his Maiesties leaue we meet in our Conuocations and being met haue his further leaue to treat of remedies for any disorders in the Church our Constitutions are Canons Canons are Rules Rules are Orders Parliaments determine in Lawes Iudges in Decrees wee in Orders And by our Seruice in this Mother Church we are Canonici Canons Regular Orderly men not Canonistae men that know Orders but Canonici men that keepe them where wee are also called Prebendaries rather à Praebendo then à Praebenda rather for giuing example of obedience to Orders then for any other respect In the Romane Church the most disorderly men are their men in Orders I speake not of the viciousnesse of their life I am no Iudge of that I know not that but they are so out of all Order that they are within rule of no temporall Law within iurisdiction of no Ciuill Magistrate no secular Iudge They may kill Kings and yet can be no Traytors they assigne their reason Because they are no Subiects He that kils one of them shall be really hang'd and if one of them kill hee shall be Metaphorically hang'd hee shall bee suspended Wee enjoy gratefully and wee vse modestly the Priuiledges which godly Princes out of their pietie haue affoorded vs and which their godly Successours haue giuen vs againe by their gracious continuing of them to vs but our Profession of it selfe naturally though the very nature of it dispose Princes to a gracious disposition to vs exempts vs not from the tye of their Lawes All men are in deed we are in Deed and in name too Men of Orders and therefore ought to be most ready of all others to obey Now beloued Ordo semper dicitur ratione Aquin. principij Order alwayes presumes a head it alwayes implyes some by whom wee are to be ordered and it implyes our conformitie to him Who is that God certainly without all question God But betweene God Man we consider a two-fold Order One as all creatures depend vpon God as vpon their beginning for their very Being and so euery creature is wrought vpon immediately by God and whether hee discerne it or no does obey Gods order that is that which God hath ordained his purpose his prouidence is executed vpon him accomplishd in him But then the other Order is not as man depends vpon God as vpon his beginning but as he is to be reduced and brought back to God as to his end that is done by meanes in this world What is that meanes for those things which wee haue now in consideration the Church But the body speaks not the head does It is the Head of the Church that declares to vs those things whereby we are to be ordered This the Royall and religious Head of these Churches within his Dominions hath lately had occasion to do And in doing this doth he innouate any thing offer to doe any new thing Do we repent that Canon Constitution in which at his Maiesties first comming we declar'd with so much alacrity as that it was the second Canō we made That the King had the same authoritie in causes Ecclesiasticall that the godly Kings of Iudah and the Christian Emperors in the primatiue Church had Or are we ignorant what those Kings of Iudah and those Emperors did We are not wee know them well Take it where the power of the Empire may seem somwhat declind in Charls the great we see by those Capitularies of his that remain yet what orders he gaue in such causes there he saies in his entrance to them Nemo presumptuosum dicat Let no man call this that I doe an vsurpation to prescribe Orders in these cases Nam legimus quid Iosias fecerit We haue red what Iosiah did and we know that wee haue the same Authoritie that Iosiah had But that Emperor consulted with his Clergie before he published those Orders It is true he sayes he did But he from whom we haue receiued these Orders did more then so His Maiesty forbore til a representation of some inconueniēces by disorderly preaching was made to him by those in the highest place in our Clergie and other graue and reuerend Prelates of this Church they presented it to him and thereupon hee entred into the remedie But that Emperour did but declare things constituted by other Councells before but yet the giuing the life of execution to those Constitutions in his Dominions was introductorie and many of the things themselues were so Amongst them his 70. Capitularie is appliable to our present case there hee sayes Episcopi videant That the Bishops take care that all Preachers preach to the people the Exposition of the Lordes Prayer and he enioynes them too Ne quid nouum ne quid non Canonicum That no man preach any new opinion of his owne nay though it bee the opinion of other learned men in other places yet if it be Non Canonicum not declared in the Vniuersall Church not declared in that Church in which he hath his station he may not preach it to the people And so he proceeds there to Catechistical Doctrine That is not new then which the Kings of Iudah did and which the Christian Emperours did But it is new to vs if the Kings of this kingdome haue not done it Haue they not done it How little the Kings of this kingdome did in Ecclesiasticall causes then when by their conniuence that power was deuold into a forraine Prelates hand it is pitie to consider pitie to remember pitie to bring into Con emplation And yet truly euen then our Kings did exercise more of that power then our aduersaries who oppose it will confesse But since the true iurisdiction was vindicated and reapplyed to the Crowne in what iust height Henrie the eight and those who gouerned his Sonnes minoritie Edward the sixt exercised that iurisdiction in Ecclesiasticall causes none that knowes their Story knowes not And because ordinarily wee settle our selues best in the Actions and Precedents of the late Queene of blessed and euerlasting memory I may haue leaue to remember them that know and to tell them that know not one act of her power and her wisedome to this purpose When some Articles concerning the falling away from iustifying grace and other poynts that beat vpon that haunt had been ventilated in Conuenticle and in Pulpits too and Preaching on both sides past and that some persons of great place and estimation in our Church together with him who was the greatest of all amongst our Clergy had vpon mature deliberation established a resolution what should bee thought and taught held and preached in those poynts and had thereupon sent down that resolution to be published in the Vniuersitie not vulgarly neither to the people but in a Sermon Ad
A SERMON VPON THE XX. VERSE OF THE V. CHAPTER OF THE BOOKE OF IVDGES Wherein occasion was iustly taken for the Publication of some Reasons which his Sacred MAIESTIE had been pleased to giue of those Directions for Preachers which hee had formerly sent foorth Preached at the CROSSE the 15th of September 1622. By IOHN DONNE Doctor of Diuinitie and Deane of Saint PAVLS London And now by commandement of his Maiestie published as it was then preached LONDON Printed for Thomas Jones and are to bee sold at his Shop in the Strand at the blacke Rauen neere vnto Saint Clements Church 1622. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE GEORGE Marquesse of Buckingham High ADMIRALL of ENGLAND c. WHen I would speake to the KING by your LORDSHIPS Meanes I doo Now when I would speake to the Kingdome I would doe that by your Lordships Meanes too and therefore I am bolde to transferre this Sermon to the World through your Lordships hands and vnder your Name For the first part of the Sermon the Explication of the Text my Profession and my Conscience is Warrant enough that I haue spoken as the Holy Ghost intended For the second part the Application of the Text it will be warrant enough that I haue spoken as his Maiestie intended that your Lordship admits it to issue in your Name It is because Kings fauour the Church that the Prophet sayes they are her Foster-Fathers and then those persons who haue also interest in the fauour of Kings are her Foster-Brothers and such vse to loue well By that Title as by many other also your Lordshippe loues the Church as you are her Foster-Brother loued of him who loues her And by that Title you loue all them in the Church who endeauour to aduaunce both the vnitie of our Church in it selfe and the vnitie of the Church with the godly designes of our religious King To which Seruice I shall euer sacrifice all the labors of Your Lordships humblest and thankefullest Seruant in Christ Iesus IOHN DONNE IVDGES 5.20 De coelo dimicatum est contra eos stellae manentes in Ordine cursu suo aduersus Siseram pugnauerunt They fought from Heauen The stars in their courses fought against Sisera ALl the words of God are alwayes sweete in themselues sayes Dauid but sweeter in the mouth and in the pen of some of the Prophets and some of the Apostles then of others as they differed in their naturall gifts or in their education but sweetest of all where the Holy Ghost hath beene pleased to set the word of God to Musique and to conuay it into a Song and this Text is of that kind part of the Song which Deborah Barak sung after their great victory vpon Sisera Sisera who was Iabin the King of Canaans Generall against Israel God himselfe made Moses a Song and expressed his reason Deut. 31.19 why The children of Israel sayes God will forget my Law but this song they will not forget and whensoeuer they sing this song this song shall testifie against them what I haue done for them how they haue forsaken me And to such a purpose hath God left this Song of Deborah and Barak in the Scriptures that all Murmurers and all that stray into a diffidence of Gods power or of his purpose to sustaine his owne cause and destroy his owne Enemies might run and read might read and sing the wonderfull deliuerances that God hath giuen to his people by weake and vnexpected meanes This world begun with a Song if the Chalde Paraphrasts vpon Salomons Song of Songs haue taken a true tradition That assoone as Adams sinne was forgiuen him he expressed as he cals it in that Song Sabbatum suum his Sabboth his peace of conscience in a Song of which we haue the entrance in that Paraphrase This world begun so and so did the next world too if wee count the beginning of that as it is a good computation to doe so from the comming of Christ Iesus for that was expressed on Earth in diuers Songs in the blessed Virgins Magnificat My soule doth magnifie the Lord In Zacharies Benedictus Blessed be the Lord God of Israel and in Simeons Nunc dimittis Lord now lettest thou thy seruant depart in peace This world began so and the other and when both shall ioyne and make vp one world without end it shall continue so in heauen in that Song of the Lamb Great and marueilous Apoc. 3. are thy workes Lord God Almighty iust and true are thy wayes thou King of Saints And to Tune vs to Compose and giue vs a Harmonie and Concord of affections in all perturbations and passions and discords in the passages of this life if we had no more of the same Musique in the Scriptures as we haue the Song of Moses at the Red Sea and many Psalmes of Dauid to the same purpose this Song of Deborah were enough abundantly enough to slumber any storme to becalme any tempest to rectifie any scruple of Gods slacknesse in the defence of his cause when in the History and occasion of this Song expressed in the Chapter before this we see That Israel had done euill in the sight of the Lord againe and yet againe God came to them That God himselfe had sold Israel into the hands of Iabin King of Canaan and yet he repented the bargaine and came to them That in twenty yeeres oppression he came not and yet he came That when Sisera came against them with nine hundred Chariots of Iron and all preparations proportionable to that and God cald vp a woman a Prophetesse a Deborah against him because Deborah had a zeale to the cause and consequently an enmity to the enemie God would effect his purpose by so weake an instrument by a woman but by a woman which had no such interest nor zeale to the cause by Jael And in Iaels hand by such an instrument as with that scarce any man could doe it if it were to be done againe with a hammer she driues a nayle through his temples and nayles him to the ground as he lay sleeping in her tent And then the end of all was the end of all not one man of his army left aliue O my Soule why art thou so sad why art thou so disquieted within me Sing vnto the Lord an old song the song of Deborah and Barak That God by weake meanes doth mighty workes That all Gods creatures fight in his behalfe They fought from heaven the starres in their Order fought against Sisera You shal haue but two parts out of these Diuision words And to make these two parts I consider the Text as the two Hemispheres of the world laid open in a flat in a plaine Map All those parts of the world which the Ancients haue vsed to consider are in one of those Hemispheres All Europe is in that and in that is all Asia and Afrike too So that when we haue seene that Hemisphere done with that we might
Gods cause and doe not thinke that they haue done all or done enough if they haue done something some one time The Morall man hath said well and well applied it Plutar. A Ship is a Ship for euer if you repaire it So sayes hee Honour is Honour and so say wee A good Conscience is a good Conscience for euer if you repaire it But sayes he well Aliquid famae addendum ne putrescat Honour will putrifie and so will a good Conscience too if it be not repaired He that hath done Nothing must begin and hee that hath done something for Gods cause must doe more if hee will continue his name in the Booke of Life though God leaue no one particular action done for his glorie without glorie as those who assisted his glorie heere haue a glorious Commemoration in this Song In the fifteenth verse Princes haue their place The Princes of Issachar were with Deborah when the King goes to the field Many who are in other cases Priuiledged are by their Tenures bound to goe It is a high Tenure to hold by a Crowne And when God of whome and whome onely they hold that hold so goes into the field it becomes them to goe with him But as God sits in Heauen and yet goes into the field so they of whome God hath said Yee are Gods the Kings of the Earth may stay at home and yet goe too They goe in their assistance to the Warre They goe in their Mediation for Peace They goe in their Example when from their sweetnesse and moderation in their Gouernement at home their flowes out an instruction a perswasion to Princes abroad Kings goe many times and are not thanked because their wayes are not seene and Christ himselfe would not alwayes bee seene In the eight of Iohn he would not be seene When they tooke vp stones to stone him he withdrew himselfe inuisibly hee would not be seene When Princes find that open actions exasperate they doe best if they be not seene In the sixth of Iohn Christ would not bee seene When they would haue put vpon him that which was not fit for him to take when they would haue made him King he withdrew himselfe and was not seene When Princes are tempted to take Territories or possessions in to their hands to which other Princes haue iust pretences they doe best if they withdrawe themselues from engagements in vnnecessarie Warres for that that onely was Iofiahs 2. Reg. 23.29 ruine Kings cannot alwayes goe in the sight of Men and so they lose their thankes but they cannot goe out of the sight of God and there they neuer lose their reward For the Lord that sees them in secret shall reward them openly with peace in their owne States and Honour in their owne Chronicles as here for assisting his cause hee gaue the Princes of Issachar a roome a straine in Deborah and Barakes Song And in the ninth verse the Gouernors the great Officers haue their place in this praise My heart is towards the Gouernors of Israel that offered themselues willingly It is not themselues in person Great Officers cannot doe so They are Intelligences that moue great Spheares but they must not bee mou'd out of them But their glorie here is their willingnesse That before they were inquired into how they carried themselues in their Offices before they were intimidated or soupled with fines and ransomes voluntarily they assisted the cause of God Some in the Romane Church write that the Cardinalls of that Church are so incorporated into the Pope so much of his body and so bloud of his bloud that in a feuer they may not let bloud without his leaue Truly the great Persons and Gouernors in any state are so noble and neere parts of the King as that they may not bleed out in any subuentions and assistances of such causes vnder-hand as are not auowd by the King for it is not euident that that cause is Gods cause at least not euident that that way is an assistance of Gods cause But a good and tractable and ductile disposition in all courses which shall lawfully bee declared to bee for Gods glorie then not Contra but Praeter not against but besides not in opposing but in preuenting the Kings will before hee vrge before he presse to be willing and forward in such assistances this giues great Persons Gouernors and Officers a verse in Baraks and Deborahs Song and Deborah and Baraks Song is the Word of God The Merchants haue their place in that verse too For as wee said before those who ride vpon white Asses which was as honorable a transportation as Coaches are now are by Peter Martyr amongst ours and by Serarius the Jesuit amongst others well vnderstood to be the Merchants The greatnesse and the dignitie of the Merchan of the East is sufficiently expressed in those of Babylon Thy Merchants were the great Men of the Earth And for the Merchants of the Apoc. 18.23 West we know that in diuers forraine parts their Nobilitie is in their Merchants their Merchants are their Gentlemen And certainly no place of the world for Commodities and Situation better disposed then this Kingdome to make Merchants great You cannot shew your greatnesse more then in seruing God with part of it you did serue before you were free but here you do both at once for his seruice is perfect freedome I am not here to day to beg a Beneuolence for any particular cause on foot now there is none but my Errand in this first part is first to remoue iealousies and suspitions of Gods neglecting his businesse because he does it not at our appointment and then to promoue and aduance a disposition to assist his cause and his glory in all wayes which shall bee declar'd to conduce thereunto whether in his body by relieuing the poore or in his house by repairing these walls or in his honour in employments more publique And to assure you that you cannot haue a better debter a better pay-master then Christ Iesus for all your Entayles and all your perpetuities doe notso nayle so hoope in so riuet an estate in your posteritie as to make the Sonne of God your Sonne too and to giue Christ Iesus a Childes part with the rest of your Children It is noted perchaunce but out of leuity that your Children doc not keepe that which you get It is but a calumny or but a fascination of ill wishers We haue many happy instances to the contrarie many noble families deriued from you One enough to enoble a World Queene ELIZABETH was the great granchild of a Lord Maior of London Our blessed God blesse all your Estates and blesse your posteritie in a blessed enioying therof But truly it is a good way to that amongst all your purchases to purchase a place in Barak and Deborahs Song a testimonie of the Holy Ghost that you were forward in all due times in the assistance of Gods cause That testimonie in this Seruice