the Gospel of peace his ministers the Ambassadours of peace his natural Son the Author of peace his adopted sons the children of peace if then ye will be the sons of the most highest your endeavor must be this to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Consider what I say and the Lord give you wisdome and understanding in all things Finally to speake unto all and so to make an end of all seeing that we are all Tenants at will and must be thrust out of the doors of these earthly Tabernacles whensoever it shall please our great landlord to call us hence let us have our loines girt and our lampes continually burning that whensoever the Lord shal call us hence in the evening or in the morning at noon-day or at mid-night he may find us ready Happy is the man whom his Master when he comes shall find watching Let us every day sum up our accounts with God Ita aedificemus quasi semper victuri ita vivamus quasi cras morituri let us build as if we would ever live but let us live as if wee were ever ready to dye Then may every one of us in the integrity of heart and syncerity of conscience when the time of his departing is at hand say with the blessed Apostle If have fought a good fight and have finished my course I have kept the faith from hence forth is laid up for me a crowne of righteousnesse which God the righteous Judge shall give me at that day Unto this God one eternall omnipotent and unchangeable Iehovah in essence three persons in manner of subsistence the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit be ascribed all honour and glory power might and majestie both now and forever more Amen Galathians 3. 10. As many as are of the workes of the Law are under the Cuurse for it is written cursed is every man that continueth not in all things which are written in the booke of the law to do them IN which words observe two things 1. A Doctrine 2. A Reason of the doctrine in the former part the reason in the latter I have spoken of the doctrine I purpose now to speake only of the reason for it is written c. wherein observe three things 1. It is to no purpose to begin a good course of life unlesse thou hold it out and continue till the end 2. It s not enough for a Christian to performe obedience to some of Gods precepts and to bear with himself wilfully in the breach of others Cursed is he that continueth not in all 3. That the rule of our obedience is no unwritten tradition but the written Word of God that are written in the booke of the Law But before I speak of these I gather from the connexion this conclusion That no man can in this life perfectly fulfill the Will of God it followeth thus because as it is written Cursed c. So it is written This doe and thou shalt live and the man that doth these things shall live in them So that the Apostle takes this for granted or else his argument is of no force this is evidently confirmed by many places of Scripture 1 Kings 8. 49. Eccles 7. 22. Psal 143. 2. Isa 64. 6. Acts. 15. 10. Acts. 13. 39. 1 Ioh. 1. 8. 2. It is confirmed by reason the first is drawn from the corruption of nature which is in the best Christians from which wee may thus argue he that consisteth of flesh as well as of Spirit cannoâ— fulfill the Law no not in his best actions but the best Christian that ever lived consisteth of flesh as wel as of Spirit therfore he cannot fulfill the law The minor hath been formerly proved The Major is plaine for as he is carnall he is sold under sinne The wisdome thereof is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Thus it is proved from the the death of Christ for if righteousnesse be by the workes of the Law then Christ dyed without a cause Gal. 3. 21. and if they which are of the law be heires then saith is made void and the promise is made of no effect Rom. 4. 14. for he came to fulfill the law Matth. 5. 17. which was impossible to be fulfilled of us in as much as it was weake because of the flesh Therefore God sent his sonne in the similitude of sinfull flesh Rom. 8. 3. But the Romish Sophisters answer that this maketh against the Pelagians which were of opinion that a man might by the strength of nature fulfill the law not against them which hold that this abilitie comes from grace and that the good workes of a Christian proceed from Christ as the juice in the branches proceedeth from the Vine To this I answer 1. That neither the Pelagians nor these against whom the Apostle disputeth did altogether exclude grace and therefore if it be strong against them it will be of force against the Papists too 2. Their answer is grounded upon a false supposition as that the works of a Christian doe proceed wholly from Christ for they they doe in part proceed from the flesh and therefore though as they are the workes of the holy Ghost who applieth unto the faithfull the force and efficacie of Christs resurrection they be perfect yet in respect of the flesh they be stained and polluted 3. Christ died for us not by any inherent but by his imputed righteousnesse which righteousness is applyed and appropriated unto us principally by the holy Ghost instrumentally by faith whereby wee are incorporate into Christ and so partakers of his righteousnesse wee might be justified I thinke Abraham was as holy a man as Ignatius the father of Jesuits or Dominicus and Franciscus the founders of Friers in whom saith Bellarmine their very adversaries can find nothing that deserveth reprehension praeter nimiam sanctitatem save their too much holiness and yet it was not his good workes but his faith for which he was counted righteous I know that this imputative righteousnesse is counted with them a putative and imaginarie righteousness but herein the injurie is not done unto us but unto him who saith to him that worketh not but believeth in him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is imputed for righteousnesse Even as David declareth the blessednesse of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousnesse without workes saying Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth no sinne wee say that faith was imputed to Abraham for righteousnesse now it is not written for him only that it was imputed unto him for righteousness but also for us to whom it shal be imputed for righteousnesse c. A third reason to prove that no man can fulfill the Law is because all have need to say forgive us our debts who more excellent amongst the old people saith Austin then the holy Priests and yet the Lord commanded them that
gathering when he complaineth that the covetous luxurious ambitious incestuous sacrilegious and all such hellish Monsters did flock to Rome to get a warrant from the Apostolick Sea for their proceedings And that they made no more conscience of sinning then theeves after they had robbed a man by the high way are afraid to divide the spoile Curiae tua recipere honos magis quà m facere consuevit he speakes unto the Pope mali enim illic non proficiunt sed boni deficiunt I intend now to lay open her monstrous cruelties and bloody massacres of such as truly professe the Gospel of Christ in which point she doth very well resemble Shall I say Ierusalem which killed the Prophets and stoned them that were sent to her Nay rather old Rome under Nero as often as the Emperour gave commandement that any should bee slaine or banished saith Tacitus did they give thankes unto God and those things which in former time had been notes of some prosperous success were now the ensigns of publick slaughter Is not this her custom at this day are there any bloody butcherings of Christs flock any cruel murthering of Christian Princes by Romish Jebusites but it shall be received at Rome with Bonefires and Hymns in most triumphant manner all which things when I consider I am fully resolved that a learned Divine of later yeares doth not speak of any malicious humour when he saith that there be three points of divinity he calleth them Capita arcana Theologiae which go current in Rome The first that there is no God the Second that whatsoever is written of Christ is lies and deceits The third that the Doctrine of the resurrection and the last judgement is meerly fabulous now then this being the case of that great and glorious Citie we may well collect that her horrid desolation and fearfull downfall is at hand For there is no state so strong no Citie so fenced but the sinnes of the people will bring it unto destruction which is my third and last proposition out of the second generall branch of my Text whereof I am now by your patience to intreat That Kingdoms and Common-wealths have their periods and downfalls is a conclusion which the premises of all former ages do demonstrate learned Athens stately Sparta rich Babylon victorious Carthage ancient Troy proud Ninive and a thousand more have numbred their years and at this day have no stronger fence then Paper walls to keep their names from oblivion the great enemie of antiquitie Now for the true cause of their subversions it is a truth which the greatest wizards of this world after much study and many serious consultations with nature could never finde out The Epicures attribute it to Fortune the Stoicks to Destinie the Pythagorians to numbers Which last opinion Plato made such reckoning of that he will have numbers to be the sole cause of the transmutations of Common-wealths Whose words be so Aenigmatical that Tullie makes them a Proverb and Marcilius Ficinus invocateth not Oedipus but Apollo to unfold them Aristotle who of all others cometh nearest unto the truth maketh the cause to be a disharmonie in the bodie politick as too much wealth of some few the great miserie of many injurie fear c. I little marvel that Heathen Philosophers should shoot so wide when Christians have so grossely mistaken their mark Bodin how wittie is he in pleading for numbers what vertue doth he attribute to 7. or 9. or 12. and their squares and cubiques How doth he shift himself to prove his opinion sound by instances of the most Common-wealths that have been hitherto in account adding or detracting years at his pleasure from the Calculation of the best Chronologers to make the number square or cubick or spherical or at the least some way consisting of 7. or 9. or of their roots or squares Cardanus hangeth all upon the tail of the greater Bear The common sort of Astrologians refer it to the Planets and Stars making such a scheme at the first foundation of any Citie which made Varro as Plutarch witnesseth so earnest with Taruncius Firmanus to enquire the opposition and aspect of the Planets when Rome was first situated thinking here by to conjecture how long that Empire should endure Copernicus will have the conversion and motion of the center of his imaginary excentricle circle which circle according to him is not caused by the Heavens motion for the Heavens in his opinion are unmoveable but by the earth which he will have to be continually wheeled about to be the cause of these alterations of Common-wealths Thus while they groped in the dark they missed their mark as the Sodomites did Lots door and while they professed themselves wise they became fools And little marvel for the wisdom of this world is foolishnesse with God None of all these have happened on the true cause it is the sins of the people which bringeth every Common-wealth to ruine And how can it be otherwise for if thou lay more weight on the root then the piâ—â—ars can support the house must needs fall Now sin is of such an intollerable weight that no house nor citie nor common-wealth can stand under it but it will presse it down it is a burden to the whole earth and makes it reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man it is a burden to all the creatures and maketh them groan and travel in pain it is a burden to God himself which makes him cry out in the Prophet against the Jews that they had pressed him with their iniquites even as a cart is pressed with sheaves it lay so heavy upon Christs shoulders that it made him sweat drops of blood This burden of it self so heavy like a malefactor that is pressed to death cries for more weight to presse the sinner to the pit of Hell it calls to Heaven for the burden of the Lord that is for vengeance to be inflicted upon the impenitent sinner God in regard of his patience and long suffering is said to have leaden heels he cometh slowly even against his will to punish but in respect of his justice he is said to have iron hands He striketh with a witnesse when once he begins to smite in his proceedings against the sins of men he hath a double method sometimes and this method is most usual when he proceedeth against the sins of his children he comes to them as he came to Elias First he sendeth a mighty strong winde to blow down the tall cedars and cast them to the ground as Paul was before he was converted Then an Earth-quake to shake the flinty rocks I mean the stonie hearts of men and to make them tremble as Felix did when Paul disputed of the judgement to come then a fire to burn up the stubble and consume the bryars and then when these fore-runners like John Baptist have
hangeth over your heads like Damocles his sword for our iniquities flatter your selves no longer in your own sinnes but turn unto him by speedy and unfained repentance that he may repent him of the evill and turn away his plagues from you let the wanton leave his dallying and the drunkard his carrowsing and the Usurer his biting and the swearer his blaspheming and the oppressor his grinding and every one amend one in time before the Lords wrath be further kindled then will the Lord be mercifull unto this land he will quickly turn the sowre looks of an angry and sinne-revenging Judge into the smiling countenance of a milde and gentle Father Hee will take the rodde which he hath prepared for you and burn it in the fire These plagues which do hang over you for your iniquities he will blow away with the breath of his nostrils as he did the Egyptian Grashoppers into the red-sea hee will command his destroying Angel to put up his sword into the sheath he will open the windowes of heaven and powre down a blessing upon you without measure Then shall you be blessed in the City and blessed in the field blessed at your going out and blessed at your comming in and whatsoever you put your hands unto shall be blessed your sons shall grow up as Olive branches and your daughters shall bee as the polished corners of the Temple Your grounds shall so abound with grane that the tillers shall laugh and sing your garners shall be full and plenteous with all manner of store your presses shall abound with Oyle and wine your sheep shall bring forth thousands and tenne thousands in your fields Every thing shall prosper nothing shall stop the current of Gods blessings there shall be no decay nor leading into captivity and no complaining in your streets and which is better then all these he will give you faithfull and painfull Pastors to feed you his spirit to comfort you his word to instruct you his wisdom to direct you his Angels to watch over you his grace to assist you and in a word He will be your God and you shall be his people thus shall it be done unto all those whom the King of heaven shall honour so that all the world shall wonder at your felicity and say Blessed be the Lord which taketh pleasure in the prosperity of his servants and happy are the people that be in such a case yea blessed are all they which have the Lord for their God thus will he be with you and direct you in the desert of this world till he bring you into a faire and goodly place the promised land a land that floweth with better things then abundance of Milke and Honey the celestial Paradise the heavenly Canaan the kingdome of glory prepared for you from the beginning of the world even that kingdome where the King is verity the Lawes charity the Angels your company the Peace felicity the life eternity To this kingdom the God of all mercy bring us for his sake that bought us with his own blood to whom with the Father and the holy Spirit three persons in trinity and one God in unity be ascribed all honour and glory power and Majesty both now and for evermore Amen TO THE Right reverend father in God the Lord Bishop of CARLILE RIGHT REVEREND WHen I preached at Carlile at the last Assises I made no other account but that my sermon should like Aristotles Ephemeron have died the same day that it took breath Since which time I have been intreated by divers to make it common to whom I would not yield the least assent as doubting that their desires proceeded rather from affection towards the speaker then from a sound judgement of the things spoken But when I perceived how distastfull it was to some that beare Romish hearts in English breasts I resolved as David did when Michal mocked him for dancing before the Arke to be yet more vile by publishing that unto their eyes which before was delivered to their eares hoping that the more it displeaseth them the better acceptance it shall finde with the true Israelite Which now at length I have effected So as that before they heard it or at least heard of it so now they may read it And if I have evill spoken let them beare witnesse of the evill but if I have said well why doe they smite me It seems to them a meere calumniation to say that there is no probability that a Papist shall live peaceably with us and performe true and sincere obedience towards our Prince To whom I might returne the short answer of the Lacones to their adversary Si if it were so my speech was not to no purpose because not only rebels to the King but much more to God and his true worship and service are to be rooted out of a Christian commonwealth And if those be worthy a sharpe censure which agreeing with us in the fundamental points of Divinity cannot away with the carved worke of our Temple but cut it downe as it were with Axes and Hammers how much more those Sanballats and Tobiahs that strike at the foundation thereof and say of it as did the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem down with it down with it even to the ground But I rather say O si I wish it were so and that there were no feare of danger by their meanes and devises But this I doubt cannot be effected unlesse there be I will not say with the Oratour a wall but a sea between them and us Till then there is as great probability of peace between us as there was of old time between the Catholicks and the Donatists the Orthodoxall and the Arians the Hebrewes and the Aegyptians the Iewes and the Samaritans Immortale odium nunquam sanabile vulnus And for true loyalty and faithful obedience there is as great probability as that the two poles shall meet The King and the Pope are two contrary masters none can truly serve them both Either he must hate the one and love the other or he must leane to the one and despise the other The obedience which either of them requires is so repugnant that they cannot lodge within one breast This loyalty which our adversaries do outwardly pretend is but equivocal no more true loyalty then a dead hand is a hand it wants the very forme and soule if I may so speak of true dutifulnesse which is to perform obedience voluntarily and with a free heart for Gods cause as to Christs immediate Vicar over al persons within his dominions It is with some secret reservation till their primus motor the man of sin upon whom their obedience depends shal sway them another way rebus sic stantibus the state standing as it doth donec publica bullae executio fieri possit untill they may have power and strength to resist So that I may use the same words unto them which
the threatnings of the law would not mollifie his stony heart When the High Priests and Elders send Officers to apprehend Christ Judas goes with them as their captain and brings them to the place where Jesus was and though the barbarous Souldiers and pittilesse Officers and cruel servants were so appaled and daunted with his speech that when he told them that he was the man whom they sought they were so farre from apprehending him that presently they started back veluti qui sentibus anguem pressit humi nitens as a man doth when he treads upon a snake and were beaten down with the breath of his mouth For the text saith they went backward and fell to the ground John 18. 6. and moreover were struck into such amazement and astonishment of heart that when Peter drew his sword and smote off one of their eares they scarce or as it is probable not at all observed it For when they were come into the High Priests hall and Peter amongst them though they could say this is one of them and sayth his speech betrayeth him yet none could say this is he that cut off Malchus his eare yet all this wind shakes not Judas Is seu dura silex stat vel Marpesia cautes all the thunderbolts of the law will not make a breach in his flinty heart whereby repentance might enter in For all this when hee heares that Christ is condemned then he begins to repent The conscience is of marvellous great force saith the heathen Oratour and that two wayes for those that have done well are not afraid poenam ante oculos semper versari putant qui peccaverunt and those which have done amisse think that God is alwayes shaking his rod over them The righteous is bold as a Lyon his conscience hath passed upon him and found him not guilty but the wicked flieth when none pursueth his own guilty conscience hath condemned him He may perhaps be hid from the eyes of men but he can never assure himselfe that he cannot be catched as Epicurus in Seneca speaketh Suppose his sinne be hid from the eyes of men let him think that the Angels that are about him do not take the least notice of it let him imagine that he hath drawn a curtain before the eyes of God so that he cannot behold it let him say with those Epicures in the Psalmist tush God doth not regard it there is no knowledge in the most highest He hideth away his face and he will never see it yet there is one within him that noteth it in the table of his heart as it were with a pen of iron and with the point of a diamond it is a witnesse to accuse him a bayliffe to arrest him a prison to contain him a jury to convince him a judge to condemn him an hangman to kill and torment him The Poets fable of Prometheus that he was tied to the mountain Caucasus and had an Eagle still gnawing upon his heart for offending Jupiter me thinks it is a fit embleme of a sinner who for offending his God is as it were tied to a stake and hath the worme of conscience as a hungrie eagle still gnawing upon his heart Plutarch compares it to a boyle or impostume in the flesh For as a boyle pricketh and eateth the flesh so doth a sinners conscience his mind Now as those that have cold or hot agues within them are more troubled then when they are made cold without by the frost or heated by the beams of the sunne So those grievances which happen by some external cause are farre easier then this inward sting of conscience and therefore saith he a mind void of sin were more to be wished for then houses then lands then dignities then riches then any thing which this greedy world doth so much gape after The saying of Diogenes is notable for this purpose who seeing his host in Sparta making great provision for a feast what needeth all this said he for an honest man hath a feast every day meaning that an honest man hath a good conscience and a good conscience is a continual feast Prov. 15. 13. Those that were to be crucified amongst the old Romanes did beare the Crosse upon which they were to suffer So the wicked do carrie with them the crosse of a guilty conscience which though for a little they may lay it down yet can they never cast it from them till they come to the place of execution indeed they willmake a goodly shew outwardly as though nothing did trouble them within they laugh they jest they quaffe they play but all this is but from the teeth outward they are like theeves saith one in aprison which are condemned to death who will sometimes play at dice or cards to put out of their mindes the cogitation of their future execution but all in vaine for haeret lateri laethalis arundo It is so rooted in their hearts that no spunge of oblivion can wipe it out they are in Damocles his case they see Gods sword of vengeance still hanging over their heads readie to fall upon them and to hewe them in pieces that deep wise man saith Tacitus said not without cause that if Tyrants hearts and what he spake of Tyrants is true of all such as sinne with a high hand were laid open a man should see them torne and rent asunder for as the body is torne with stripes so their minds are rent with the sting of conscience for their cruelties their lasciviousnesse their oppression and such other sinnes as they have committed for the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the conscience of a sinner doth whip and scourge his soule therefore saith the Poet Turpe quid ausurus te sine teste time When thou art about to doe any unlawfull act feare thy selfe though thou want a witnesse for thou art not alone Nocte dieque tuum gestas in pectore testem Thou carriest a witnesse withthee thy bosome and that is thy conscience which is as good as a thousand witnesses wretched and desperate is thy case if thou make not account of this witness 3. Examples will make this point plaine begin with the first man that ever sinned and the first sinne that ever he committed Our great Grandfather Adam had no sooner transgressed Gods commandement by eating of the forbidden tree but presently his conscience accused him and made him ashamed for when he heard the voice of God walking in the garden in the coole of the day he hid himselfe from the presence of the Lord among the the trees of the garden Why was Adam so afraid of Gods presence had he not been with him before He had made him he had made a helper for him he had made him Lord over the whole world and put all things in subjection under his feet all Sheep and Oxen yea and all the Beasts of the feild the fowles of the aire and the fishes of the seas and therefore a man would thinke that
a dead letter It is like a sword in the warres without a souldier to draw it Many make no more account of transgressing it then Remus did of going over the furrow which Romulus had caused to be drawn Or the frogs in the fable of skipping over the Lion when he was fast a sleep Therefore God hath added the Magistate as the life and soule of the law as a Captain to manage this sword Him he hath made if I may so speak the summum genus of the common-wealth by two generical differences of poena and praemium to coarct and keep his inferiours in their several ranks that as Jehu and Jehonadab went hand in hand together for the rooting out of Ahabs posterity and destruction of Baals Priests so the Magistrate being as Aristotle cals him a living law and the law being a mute and dead Magistrate should joyn hand in hand and proceed valorously to the rooting out of sinne the suppression of Idolatry the protection of justice and maintenance of true religion 4. Now that they have this authority only from God it is a point which I hope in this place I shall not need long to insist upon For if every good and perfect gift be from above even from the father of lights much more this excellent and supereminent gift of governing Gods people must proceed from this fountain And to think otherwise is but with the Epicures to be of opinion that though God made the world yet the government thereof he leaveth to fortunes discretion to be directed by her One of the stiles wherewith God is invested is this that he is the authour of order and not of confusion if of order then of Civil government seeing that an Anarchie is the cause of all disorder and confusion in the state Insomuch that the reason of all the sinnes that were committed in Israel is often in the book of Judges ascribed unto this that they wanted a Magistrate There was at that time no king in Israel Judg. 17. 6. 18. 1. 19. 1. 21. 25. It is a miserable life to live under a tyrant where nothing is lawfull but farre worse to live in an Anarchie where nothing is unlawfull But I shall not need to trouble my self or to tire out your attention by heaping up multitudes of reasons for proving of this point seeing it is a conclusion so plainly averred by the holy Ghost by me kings reign sath the wisdome of God by the mouth of Solomon and Princes decree justice by me Princes rule and the nobles and all judges of the earth As if he had said it is not by the wit and policie of man that the governments of states is committed unto kings and other inferiour Magistrates it is effected by the wisdome and providence of God With which the Apostle agreeth when he tels us that there is no power but of God and the powers that be are ordained of God It was sometime said of Nebuchadnezzar that great king of Babylon that whom hee would he pulled down and whom he would he set up But it is alwayes true of the king of heaven who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the King of Kings and Lord of Lords he pulleth down one and setteth up an other he disposeth of their rooms at his pleasure For if the hearts of kings much more their kingdomes are at his disposition This is a truth to which the very heathen themselves have subscribed It was God alone that did exalt Solomon unto the throne of his father David so the Queen of the South affirmed that did exalt Cyrus to the kingdomes of the earth so he himself confessed Agreeing with that of the prophet David Promotion comes not from the East nor from the West no nor yet from the South And why God is the judge he putteth down one and setteth up another 5. And is this true Here then first the Anabaptists come to be censured which withdraw their necks from the yoke of civil government and condemn it as not beseeming the liberty of a Christian man A lesson which they never learned from the prophet Esay who foretold that in the time of the gospel an assertion which they cannot away with for though they graunt that the Jewes at Gods appointment had their Magistrates yet they think it not fit for a Christian to be subject to such slavery in the time I say of the Gospel he will appoint kings to be patrons and propugnators of his Church Kings shall be thy nursing fathers and Queens shall be thy nurses Nor from our Saviour Christ who though he told his disciples when they strove for superiority amongst themselves that one of them should not domineer over another as did the kings of the nations yet it was never his meaning to withdraw them from obedience to superiour governours but that Caesar should have that which did belong to Caesar Nor from Peter who commands us to honour the King Nor from Paul who commands us to pray for Kings and all that are in authority and that to this end that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godlinesse and honesty God knowes better what is meet for Christians then the Anabaptists do Hee knowes that wee are strangers on earth and not angels in heaven And being strangers and pilgrims stand in as great need of these helps as of fire of water of aire of apparel of any thing which is necessary for the sustentation of our lives seeing that they are not onely the means that we are partakers of all these while they effect that we may live together in civil society but also the promoters of true religion the advancers of vertue the rewarders of piety the punishers of sin the destroyers of Idolatry superstition and all misdemeanours amongst Christians So that as God said unto Samuel concerning the Jewes when they dislâ—ked their present government they have not cast thee away but they have cast me away that I should not reign over them so I may say of these fanatical spirits it is not the Magistrate but God himself whom they have rejected that he should not reign over them 6. There is an other sort of men who though not directly with the Anabaptists yet indirectly and by a consequent crosse my proposition I mean the Papists These do not altogether take away the civil Magistrate but they tie his thums and abridge his authority It must be only in temporalibus for spiritual matters he must have no more dâ—alings with them then Vzza had to touch the arke of God This they willingly grant that the Magistartes are Gods but as the Aramits said of the Israelites that their Gods were Gods of the mountains and not Gods of the vallies so say they the civil Magistrates are Gods of the montains and not Gods of the vallies they are Gods of the Laity but not of the Clergy This
octo pedum He whom the whole earth could not content was at length contented with a parcel of ground of eight yea of six foot long Herod when upon a day he was arrayed in royal apparel and sate on the bench and gave such an excellent charge that the people cried non vox hominem sonat It is the voyce of God and not of man immediatly after proved neither God nor man For he was eaten up of wormes and gave up the Ghost Rare examples for the Gods of the earth to look down into their own bosomes and to remember that they must die as men It is a good custome of the Emperour of the Abyssenes Prester John to have every meal for the first dish that comes on his table a dead mans skull to put him in mind of his mortality So was that which was used by Philip namely to have a boy every day to put him in mind that he was to die as a man Not much unlike was the old practise of the Egyptians who when their Princes went to banquet used to beare before them the picture of a dead man to put them in mind of their mortality 24. Seeing then that ye must die study to have your accounts in readinesse that whensoever the Lord shall call you hence hee may finde you provided Be faithfull in those high rooms wherein God hath placed you Ye execute not the judgements of man but of the Lord. Aske counsel therefore of God and weigh your proceedings in the ballance of the sanctuary Do nothing but what God commands you and the testimony of a good conscience will warrant to be lawful remembring that ye must one day God knowes how soon that day will come be summoned to appear before the common Judge of all flesh who is a burning and consuming fire who is not blinded with secret closenesse nor corrupted with bribes nor moved with friends nor allured by flatterers nor perswaded by the importunity of intreaters to depart anâ— haires breadth from the course of justice no though these three men Noah Daniel and Job should stand before him and make intercession in your behalf These things remember and do and ye shall have comfort in your lives comfort at your deaths And when your souls shall be removed from those earthly cottages wherein they now dwell they shall be translated into everlasting habitations and received with this joyful and comfortable welcome it is well done good servants and faithful ye have been faithful in a little I will make you rulers over much enter into your masters joy 25. Like men It is implied in the conclusion of my text that it is the lot and condition of all men to die And therefore as it concernes magistrates so it concerns all others to provide themselves for their end because as the tree fals so it lies that is as the day of death shall leave them so the day of judgement shall finde them Remember this yee that are to be witnesses for giving testimony unto the truth and jurers for giving a verdict according to the truth And as you love and reverence the truth it selfe as ye desire the benefit of your Christian brethren which ye should love as your selves as ye wish the glory of God which ye should tender more then your selves let it be a forcible motive unto you to deal uprightly in every cause with every man without declining to the right hand or to the left then shall ye sanctifie the name of God by whom ye do swear to speak truly to deal truly ye shall give occasion to good men to praise God for you and ye shall not need to be ashamed to meet God in the face when he shall call you to a reckoning for your doings But on the other side if rewards shall blind you or fear enforce you or pitty move you or partiality sway you or any respect whatsoever draw you to smother the truth and favour an evil cause yee pearce your selves through with many darts For first you are false witnesses against your neighbour secondly ye are thieves ye rob him of his right thirdly ye are murtherers ye kill him in his body or in his name or in his maintenance fourthly and which is worst of all ye take the name of your God in vain yea as much as in you lieth ye take his godhead from him and make him who is the truth from everlasting to be all one with the devil who is a lyar from the beginning If ye must be countable unto God when he shall call you hence for every idle word that goes out of your mouthes and if the least ungodly thought of your hearts in the rigour of Gods justice deserve eternal death how shall ye be able to stand in judgement under this ponderous Chaos of so many crying sins I cannot prosecute this point only for conclusion I say with Moses behold this day have I set before you life and death blessing and cursing choose life and ye shall live If not I pronounce unto you this day ye shall surely perish The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it 26. You whose profession is to open the causes in controversie and by your knowledge in the laws to distinguish between right and wrong truth and falshood remember that ye must die And therefore I beseech you in the fear of God to study to make the cause of your clients sure as that ye do not in the mean time forget S. Peters counsel to make your own election sure I urge this the rather because absit reverentia vero I will speak the truth in despite of all scoffes and I hope such as are ingenious will bear with my plainnesse if as Philip said of the Macedonians I call a boat a boat and a spade a spade because it seemeth to be much neglected by many of your profession who with Martha trouble themselves about many businesses but anum necessariâ—m to meet Christ and talk with him they scarce remember it I remember the saying of Demades touching the Athenians when they refused to make Alexander one of their Gods and Cassander who was his successour threatned that unlesse they would do it he would presently overthrow their city the Athenians said Demades have reason to look to themselves lest while they are too curious about heaven they lose the earth But these men have need to look to themselves lest while they trouble themselves too much about the earth they lose heaven by whose means especially it is effected that our courts do too much resemble the Lyons den which howsoever other beasts in simplicity went flocking on heaps unto yet the fox that found by experience how others sped durst not come near it Quia me vestigia terrent said she Omnia te adversum spectantia nulla retrorsum All comes to them little from them they have as attractive a force for silver as the loadstone
he of whom I may complaine as Nazianzen did of some Pugnant pro Christo contra Christum saith he and Pugnant pro lege contra legem say I they fight for the Law against the Law and Legis nomine armantur contra legem dimicant They arme themselves with the Law to fight against the Law as Leo speakes Ad Palaestinos Thus the Covetous and the unconscionable dealer makes the Law his Patron the oppressing Land-Lord makes her his Sanctuary the deceitful bargainer makes her his stalking horse the bloody Revenger makes her his sword and buckler to offend his Enemies and defend himselfe and thus shee that is ordained for a publick good proves the hurt of many she that is the Mistris of Justice proves the Minister of injustice she that is a Preserver of Peace proves a Trumpet and an occasion of War not that of her selfe she is any such cause no no but as the middle region which of all the three is the coldest by antiperistasis produceth the hottest effect Thunder and Lightening as water which naturally doth quench being poured upon lime causeth it to burn as the morall Law the Law of all righteousnesse is the cause of sin Rom. 7. 8 10 11. as the Gospel of Peace is an occasion of War Matth. 10. 34 35. So our Law which of it selfe is holy and Just and good by accident turnes to be a cause and occasion of Evill All the blame hereof rests upon the heads of two men the wrangling Client the unconscionable advocate the 1. is that Ahab that troubles all Israel who is as Jeremia speakes of himself upon another occasion a contentious man and a man that strives w th the whole world that rough Ismael that hath his hand against every man and every mans hand against him that Salamander that loves to be bryling and broyling in the fire of contention Et lachrymas mittit cum nil lachrymabile cernit he is never well but when he is doing or plodding some ill he goes to Law not out of a desire of publick peace for what hath he to do with peace he may say as Nero did when he set Rome on fire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. So that it go well with him he cares not if the whole world be set on fire not out of an honest defence of his own Right for his own conscience tels him he hath none but either of a desire of revenge or because he knowes himselfe to be more skilfull in packing and shuffling of Cards then the party with whom he is to play or presuming upon his own purse or upon the simplicity of his Adversary or out of an hope by spinning In infinitum the thred of contention and bringing his opposite into an inextricable maze of troubles to inforce him either wholy to depart from his own right or to say of it as the Whore did of the child Let it neither be mine nor thine but let it be divided or at least which is the ordinary work that such Archers aime at to draw him to a Composition This is sometimes sacriledge when it is for depriving the Church of her right sometimes these when it is for stripping men of their lawfull Rights sometimes murther when it is out of a desire of Revenge sometimes other sinnes when other ends are proposed shrowded and sheltered under a cloak of Law Well the cause cannot be so bad so repugnant to common Equity to Law to Honesty to Conscience but some will be found to sollicite it and not only privately to countenance and support it but publickly if need so require to plead and report it this is done by such as makes his vocation a Monopoly for himselfe and levels all his paines not at the publick good but at his private gaine and in his heart applauds that saying of Vespasian to his son Titus when he gathered a tax from some homly matters lucri bonus est odor ex re qualibet It is no matter how bad the cause be so the fee be good Weight it never so light in the ballance of Justice Gold is a heavy mettall and will soon make it weight Of both these I may well use the words of the Heathen Orator Totius injustitiae nulla capitalior est pestis quam eorum qui tum cum maxime fallunt id tamen agunt ut boni viri esse videantur Of all kinds of injustice none is so capitall a crime as of those who when they hurt worst yet do they it under a pretence and colour of right In the time of King Edward the third there was a Phamphlet set out in Latine verse bearing the style of Paenitentarius asini The Asses confessor The Argument is this The Wolfe the Fox and the Asse goe to Shrift and doe pennance First the Wolfe confesseth himselfe to the Fox who doth both absolve him and extenuate his faults then the Fox makes confession to the Wolfe who obtaines like favour at last comes the Asse and makes his confession who as his fault was lesse so the more he expected absolution And what was his fault marry this Being very hungry he had pulled a Straw out of the Sheafe of a Pilgrim that was travelling towards Rome this is no sooner confessed but it is made a capitall crime Immensum scelus est injuria quod peregrino Fecisti Stramen subripiendo sibi Such as for which he must have the rigour of the Law and that is to be slaine and devoured The Author of that Book did no doubt obliquely gird the Pope whom he meant by the Wolf and his Prelates whom he understood by the Fox I thinke we may not unfitly apply it to the persons whom we have in hand The wrangling Client is the Wolfe the unconscionable Advocate is the Fox the plain dealing man is I would say the Sheep but the Fable calls him an Asse and indeed he is made the Asse and inforced to beare the burden away The Fox and the Wolfe shrive themselves one to the other and all their sins are minced and qualified mountaines with them are but Mole-hills blocks in their wayes are but straws beams in their eyes are but motes great sins are little sins and little sins are no sins Let the poore silly Asse when he comes to shrife the least wrong that can be pretended especially if it be against one of them though it be but the turning of a straw Immensum scelus est c. It is an action of Trespasse and unlesse he will compound for the wrong that he hath done he must undergoe the rigour of the Law Let not our learned and worthy Lawyers mistake me as if I sought to disgrace and defame their profession I respect I reverence I honour it and I make no doubt but there are very many of this Profession as learned and skilfull in the Law so also honest conscionable religious And to use Jethros words concerning Magistrates men of courage fearing God men
to receive a marke in their right hands and in their fore-heads Apoc. 13. 16. And that all Nations should be drunk with the wine of the fornication of the whore of Babylon Apoc. 18. 3. Yet even then I make no doubt but God had his true Church because the gates of Hell shall never prevaile against it Although I could neither neither name the persons who nor the places where which notwithstanding I can do both as I doubt not but wee had all Ancestors living 120. yeares agoe and yet none of us can name either person or place or profession of any of them and I doubt not but there is a moone immediately after the change although I cannot point out the place with my finger and say here it is Now as this doctrine proves amplitude and multitude of Believers to be no true and infallible 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Gods Church So it takes away an excuse which is common in the world to do as the most do wherein we may justly renew Seneca's complaint Inter causas malorum nostrorum est quod vivimus ad exempla nec ratione componimur sed multitudine abducimur Quod si pauci facerent nollemus imitari cum plures facere caeperunt quasi honestius sit quo frequentius sequimur recti apud nos locum tenet error ubi publicus est factus Here comes into my minde a story recorded by Munster in his discription of Frisland Carolus Mertellus Duke of Brabant coming into Frisland perswades Rapotus Duke thereof to embrace Christian Religion and to this purpose sent Wolfrancus a certaine Bishop to instruct him in the grounds of Christian Faith After a time Rapotus yeelds and going into the water with the Bishop to receive the Sacrament of Bapt. having one foot in the River where he was to have been baptized he demands of the Bishop whether more of his Progenitors were in Hell or in Paradise the Bishop replying in Hell presently the Duke steps back and refusing baptisme said I had rather be in Hell with the most then in Paradise with the fewest Many deride the folly of this man who follow his example rebuke the Adulterer for his dallying or the Drunkard for his carousing or the Swearer for his blaspheming or the Usurer for his grinding or the Sabboth-breaker for his prophaning What but universality of sinne must procure him a pardon but multitudâ— peccantium non parit erroris patrocinium saith Hierome and he that excuseth his fault by alledging of multitude saith St. Austin seeks not a patron for his cause but a fellow for his punishment and God hath commanded us not to follow a multitude to do evill and we have now learned that Christs Church is not a great but a little flocke It is a true saying of Livie major pars plerumque vineit meliorem In doing of good it is good to have company but where they leave the way of God we must leave their wayes It is the worst kind of good fellowship to go to Hell for company Bonum quo communius eâ— melius but malum quo communius eo pejus It 's more dangerous when a whole house is sick of the Plague then when only one of the family is infected worse when it is in a whole Towne but worst of all when it is spread through the whole Kingdome The universality of sin is an argument that Gods plague is wayting at the doors of that house or City or Kingdome to fall upon it and to destroy it Poets fable that a little before the Trojane warre the Earth made complaint to Jupiter that she was loaden with the sins of wicked men and could no longer beare them the offenders were â—o many Whereupon Jupiter stirred up the Trojan wars to ease of the earth of the multitude of offenders and indeed Warres are commonly Gods new brooms which sweep cleane whereby he purgeth this Augaeum stabulum and sweepeth away the common heaps of sinnes And in them it falls out according to the proverb Vt victor fleat victus intereat That both parties sustaine losse as then it fell out But wee have better examples then Poeticall fictions for illustration of this point What was the cause of the drowning of the old World See Gen. 6. 12. Universality of sinne All flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth What was the cause why Sodome was burned See Gen. 18. Community of sinne not ten righteous men could be found in five Cities For shame then plead not universality for sinne lest if thou be partaker with the multitude in their sinnes thou suffer with them in their punishments If Noah had been like unto them of the old world he had been drowned with them And if Lot had been like his neighbours of Sodome he had been burned with them If thou wilt enter into life be singular goe not with the most but with the best Abraham must come out of Chaldaea though none but his Wife accompanie him and Lot must leave Sodome though all his neighbours forsake him He that will follow the streame and current of Rivers shall at length come to the deep Sea and hee that will follow the stream and current of times shall at length come to the deep of Hell So much of the second the third followeth Feare not Of that feare whereby a man is moved either to obey God or depart from his precepts Peter Lombard sets downe 4. kinds Servile which hath poenam for its object it ariseth from the apprehension of Gods wrath and curses of the Law He that is the subject of this fear will abstaine from sinne and do that which is good Non virtutis amore sed formidine paenae as Horace speaks Non timore amittendi aeternum bonum quod non amat sed timore patiendi malum quod formidat as Austin notes This is a preparation or previall disposition to the next kind of feare which is called chast and filiall It is the beginning of wisdome as Solomon calls it and it is to filiall feare as the needle is to the thread so Austin illustrates it the needle makes way for the thread and draws it after it yet so as that the thread not the needle remaines in the cloath and tyes the parts together Filiall feare the second kind is joyned with faith and love of God and hath Culpam for its object this is a speciall part of Gods worship Thou shalt feare the Lord thy God and serve him Deut. 6. 13. The third is Initialis which doth not specifically but modally and gradually differ from filiall And indeed in the best of Gods children as all other vertues so also filiall feare is but Initiall Cunctorum in terris gementium imperfect a perfectio est saith Hierome they are pilgrims and a pilgrims motion is as all mutations are actus entis in potentia as the Philosopher defines motus The fourth is mundane and humane unto which we may referre that
fulfilled the Commandements of God yet wantest thou one thing for that work which must merit must be Opus indebitum Now obedience to every branch of Gods law is a debt which we are owing to God by the law of creation and God may say to every one of us as Paul said to Philemon Thou owest to mee even thine owne selfe Doth a Master thank that servant which did that which he was commanded to do I trow not so likewise When yee have done all things which were commanded you say we are unprofitable servants we have but done that which was our duty to do Inutilis servus vocatur saith Austin qui omnia fecit quia nihil fecit ultra id quod debuit And Theophylact upon that place The servant if he work not is worthy of many stripes and when he has wrought let him be contented with this that he hath escaped stripes 3. That work by which thou must merit must be thine own but thy good works if thou look to the first cause are not so Quid habes quod non accipisti 1 Cor. 4. It s God that worketh both the will and the deed Phil. 2. 13. Not I but the grace of God in me 1 Cor. 13. So then put case thou couldst fulfill the law and it were not a payment of debt yet is no merit due to thee but to him whose they are Dei dona sunt quaecunque bona sunt Every good and perfect gift comes from above even from the father of lights And Deus sua dona non nostra merita coronat 4. Admit it were in thy power to fulfill the law that it were no debt that thy works were wholly thine and God had no part in them this is not enough there must be some proportion between the work and the reward or no proper merit Now between thy best works and the Kingdome of heaven promised to Christs little flock there is not that proportion that is Inter stillam muriae mare Aegeum as Tullie speaks between the light of a candle and the light of the Sunne between the least grane of sand that lies on the Sea-shore and the highest heaven as shall presently appear 5. Last of all that thy work may merit at Gods hands some profit or honour must thereby accrue to him But my goodnesse saith David O Lord reacheth not unto thee but to the saints that are on the earth If thou be righteous saith Elihu what givest thou to God or what receiveth he at thine hand Job 35. Who hath given unto him first Rom. 11. 35. All these five things are requisite for the merit of works but not onely some but all of them are wanting to our best works and therefore we must with the Scriptures ascribe our whole salvation to the grace of God and acknowledge nothing inherent in us to be the prime cause of all his graces but his owne good will and pleasure I count the afflictions of this world not worthy the glory that shall be revealed Rom. 8. And in another place he tells us That wee deserve hell for our evill workes The wages of sinne is death but not heaven for our good deeds and sufferings but of Gods bounty and mercie Eternall life is the gift of God Rom. 6. Not by the works of righteousnesse which wee had done but according to his mercie he saved us Tit. 3. And ye are saved by grace through faith not of your selves it is the gift of God Eph. 2. And how doth he prove that Abraham was justified by faith and not by works because Ei qui operatur merces non imputatur secundū gratiam sed secundum debitum And if Abraham had been justified by works he had wherein to rejoyce but not with God Rom. 3. These are places of Scripture and let me build upon this occasion to produce an assertion which once I brought upon another point which some that I see here present were pleased to except against as savouring of blasphemy though the words excepted against were none of mine but of Justin Martyr who lived above 1400. years agoe and confidently brought by him in his discourse with Tryphon a Jew if any I will not say Pelagian or Arminian or Papist but if all the Fathers of the Primitive Church if all the ancient Councels if Moses and all the Prophets if Paul and all the Apostles if an Angel from heaven nay if God himself these are the words of Justin the Martyr should deliver any doctrine repugnant to that which is contained in this booke I would not believe him Agreeable unto these places of Scripture was the doctrine of the ancient Church Gratia evacuatur si non gratis donatur sed meritis redditur Aug. Epist 105. Non dei gratia erit ullo modo nisi gratuita fuerit omni modo And in a third place Non pro merito quidem accipimus vitam aeternam sed tantum pro gratia Tract 3. in Ioh. And thus have I confirmed my proposition by reason by Scriptures and by the testimonie of the Church and Contra rationem nemo sobrius contra ecclesiam nemo pacificus contra scripturas nemo Christianus senserit as a Father saith Unto all these might be added if it were needfull the confession of the learnedst of our Adversaries let our Enemies be Judges who cry down this blasphemous doctrine of Merit God saith one of them doth punish Citra condignum but rewards Vltra condignum and Scotus as Bellar confesseth holds that Bona opera ex gratia procedentia non sunt meritoria ex condigno sed tantum ratione pacti acceptationis divinae And of the same opinion saith he were other of the old Schoolmen and of the new Writers Andreas Vega. Ferus as in many other points between us the Pontificians so in this he is as sound a Catholique and as good a Protestant as Calvin himselfe or any that hath written on this subject in Math. cap. 20. vers 8. Gratis promisit gratis reddit si dei gratiam favorē conservare vis nulla meritorum tnorum mentionem facito And in Acts 15. Qui docet in operibus confidere is negat Christi meritum sufficere Both which places many others of the same Author their Index Expurgatorius hath wiped out using him the ancient fathers as Tereus dealt with Progne who cut out her tongue lest she shold tel the truth Yea and Bellarmine himselfe after he hath spent seventeen leaves in defence of merit of works and scrapt and catcht and drawn in by the shoulders whatsoever he could out of the Scriptures or ancine Fathers for colouring that Tenent at length brings this Orthodoxall conclusion with which I will conclude this point Very Orthodoxall indeed if two letters be transposed Propter incertitudinem propriae justitiae let it be Propter certitudinem propriae injustitiae propter periculum inanis gloriae tutissimum est fiduciam totam in sola Dei misericordia benignitate
till they finde it Some falsities at the first seeme no lesse probable then some truths as the Croy-cole beares the colour of the best and many base mettals make as faire a shew as the gold Ore till the Fire discover them The false Mother cryed as loud the child was hers as the true Mother did and therefore as a good Physitian doth first view the Urine and feele the Pulses of his Patient and enquire diligently into the cause and manner of his disease before he prescribe physick so the Magistrate who is the Physitian of the body politick as the other is of the naturall bodie lest he erre in prescribing medicines must dive into the bottome of the cause heare witnesses examine evidences weigh all circumstances and omit no meanes that may conduce for boulting out the truth It 's good counsell which was given to the Israelites touching the abuse done to the Levites Wife by the Benjamites 1. Consider apart 2. Consult amongst your selves 3. Givesentence The two former be as the two propositions in a syllogisme and to proceede to sentence before the other be throughly done is to conclude without premises No sinner was by the law of God so severely punished as the Idolater but not upon a bare hear say For Si unusquisque erit accusator quis erit innoeens The Judge must seek and make search and enquire diligently whether it be true and the thing certain Deut. 13. 14. It 's the glory of God to conceale a thing secret but it is the Kings honour to search out a matter Prov. 25. 1. So did Job a petty King as some suppose a Judg at the least When I knew not the the cause I sought it out diligently Job 29. 16. But he that for expedition gives sentence upon the first relation may judge as untruly as the accuser informes falsly as David did against Mephibosheth upon the report of a false servant The Magistrate then in using all the helps and advantages that may probably conduce for the clearing of the truth and informing his understanding in the thing controverted may not be justly censured for a delayer of judgment marry if after the cause be ripened and all things fitted for Sentence he shall then either for his own benefit or for friends or Favorites in the Court use delayes let others plead for him that can for my part I cannot excuse him from being partaker at least in other mens sinnes But I blame most the wrangling Client whom I define a Salamander that loves alwaies to be broyling in the fire of contention Qui lachrymas mittit cum nil lachrymabile cernit He is never well but when he is working some ill a right eele-catcher no fishing for him but when the waters of peace be troubled and mudded This is that Ahab that troubleth all Israell who as Jeremie speaks of himself but in another sense a contentious man and one that striveth with the whole world A rough Ismael that hath his hand against every man he goes not to law out of a desire oâ— peace for what hath he to do with peace nor out of an honest desire of maintaining his owne Right his own conscience can tell him he hath none but either out of a desire of revenge or because he knoweth himselfe more skilfull in packing and shuffling the Cards then the party with whom he plaies or presuming upon his own purse or the simplicity and weaknesse of his Adversary or out of hope by spinning in infinitum the thread of contention and bringing his Adversary into anin extricable many of troubles to inforce him at length either to part with his own Right or to say of it as the false Mother said of the true Mothers Childe let it be neither thine nor mine but let it be divided This is much furthered by Birds of a like feather unconscionable Pleaders Attornies Solliciters Clarks and such like mistake me not I speak not to disgrace their Professions they are all necessary and warrantable Callings and I doubt not but there be many of their Profession not only skilfull and learned but which is better honest conscionable religious and to use Jethroes words concerning Magistrates men of courage fearing God men dealing truly and hating covetousnesse but withall it cannot be denied the more pitty that there be to many that use their places as Monopolies for themselves and levell all their paines and studies not at the publick good which every private Trades-man in the works of his calling should principally intend much more such as have the least imployment in Courts of Justice but at their private gain they count not how bad the Cause be so the Fee be good Gold is a heavy Mettall an I will soon make it weight When these shall meet with a tough and wrangling Client as it is not like but Birds of a feather will meet they will invent for his and their own advantage mille nocendi artes a thousand delusory and venatory delaies by demurrers and Writs of Errour and appeals and I wot not what to make the Suit endlesse Souldiers live better by war then by peace and these gain as much by contention as they would loose by quietnesse Maggots and flesh-flies feed on galled Horse-backs and putrified soares which if the skin were whole and sound would quickly perish for want of food These Vermin know no better meanes to preserve their own lives then to keep the soare raw and open And many Empiricks that want meanes and have little practise when they meet with a Patient that is for their purpose will impoyson the wound that it may be long in healing and spend as much time in curing a rue-rub or a blind blayne then an honest and skilfull Physician will do in healing a Gangraena or a fistula I will not I need not apply When the Cause is ripened for hearing and like to go against them in the same Court then if all other tricks and advantages faile an appeale must be made to another and thence perhaps after much time and mony spent dismissed and returned to the place whence the appeale was made as Christ was first brought before Pilate as a computent Judge before whom he was to be tried thence upon better advise was sent to Herod where after he had been falsely accused and shamefully abused a Consultation was had and he returned to Herod Give me leave to instance in one particular a Minister wronged by his Parishoners in payment of Tithes commenceth a Suit for his releife in an Ecclesiasticall Court as a place proper for triall of such things and when after much trouble and many journies and long time spent and that which is not only of war as Vespasian laid it was but of Law-Suits also the string and strength much mony wasted he is in good hope of Sentence in comes a Prohibition and blowes all away Velut ventus folia aut panniculum tectorium Methinks those Verses which were made of Caesar and
fellowes Come and bring wine and wee will fill our selves with strong drink and to morrow shall be as this day and much more abundant But few or none will say with those good professors Come and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us his lawes and we will walk in his paths I think I cannot truly say with Hosea that the Lord hath a controversie with the inhabitants of this land because there is no knowledge of God in the land For our heads are not so sick as our hearts are heavie I mean our heads are not so void of knowledge as our hearts are of obedience but I dare boldly say that which followeth By swearing and lying and killing and stealing and wâ—oâ—ing they break forth and bloud toucheth bloud Will you heare the judgements annexed in the subsequent words Therefore shall the land mourne and every one that dwelleth therein shall be cut off This is a terrible curse and he that dwelleth in heaven still avert it from u but yet it is a conclusion which the Lord useth to inferre upon such premises Give me leave to repeat a paâ—able unto you My beloved had a vineyard in a very fruitfull hill and he hedged it and gathered the stones out of it and he planted it with the best plants and hee built a Tower in the midst and made a winepresse therein The Prophet in that place applieth it to the land of Judah Surely the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the land of Israel and the men of Judah are his pleasant plants me thinks I may not unfitly apply it unto this Island Surely the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the land of Britaine and the men of this land are his pleasant plants Now therefore O ye inhabitants of this land judge I pray you between him and his vineyard what could hee have done unto it that he hath not done He hath planted it with his own right hand he hath so hedged it about with his heavenly providence that the wilde boare out of the woods cannot root it up nor they that go by pull off his grapes He hath watered it most abundantly with the dew of heaven he hath gathered the stones of Popery and superstition out of it hee hath set the winepresse of his word therein hee hath given it a Tower even a king as a strong tower against his enemies whose raigne the Lord continue over us if it be his pleasure as long as the moon knoweth her course and the sun his going down and let all that love the peace of Britaine say Amen Now he hath long expected that it should bring forth grapes but behold it bringeth forth wild grapes Hee looked for judgement but behold oppression for righteousnesse but loâ— a crying These were the sinnes of Jerusalem and you know her judgements hee that was Jerusalems God is Britaines God too and therefore if shee parallel Jerusalem in her iniquities let her take heed shee taste not of her plagues God though he hath not yet begun to punish her in his fury yet hath he sundry times shaked his rod of correction over her if this will not worke amendment her judgement must be the greater Fearfull was the case of Samaria whom Gods punishments could not move to repentance I have given you cleannesse of teeth in all your Cities and scarcenesse of Bread in all your places yet have ye not returned unto me saith the Lord God I have withholden the raine from you when there was yet three moneths to the harvest and I caused it to raine upon one City and brought a drought upon another yet have yee not returned unto me saith the Lord. Pestilence have I sent amongst you after the manner of Egypt and yet ye have not returned unto me saith the Lord. I have smitten you with blasting and mildew c. yet ye have not returned unto mee saith the Lord God The Lord hath not hitherto dealt with us after our sinnes nor plagued us according to the multitude of our iniquities yet he hath made it manifest that he is displeased with us His mercy hath pulled back his hand from drawing his sword of vengeance against us yet he hath left us sundry tokens that he is angred with our sinnes It is not long since that the heavens were made as brasse and the Earth as yron nay the very waters became as yron or as brasse so that neither the heavens from above nor the earth or water from below did afford comforts for the service of man This extraordinary cold distemperature of the ayre might by an Antiperistasis have kindled some heat of zeal and devotion in our breasts when it had not the expected effect then he Called for a dearth upon the land and destroyed our provision of bread even such a famine that if we were not relieved from forrain countreys Ten women might bake their bread in one Oven as the Lord speaketh Levit. 26. 26. But all this hath not brought us upon our knees nor humbled our soules before our God therefore once againe hee hath put life in his messenger of death and set him on foot which hertofore of late years hath raged in this city like a man of warre and like a gyant refreshed with wine and bestirred himselfe though not with the like violence almost in every part of this kingdom I mean the pestilence that walketh in the darknesse and the sicknesse that hath killed many thousands at noon day all these are infallible tokens that he is offended with our sinnes Howbeit he is so mercifull that he will not suffer his whole displeasure as yet to arise Horum si singula duras Flectere non possunt poterint tamen omnia mentes If each of these by themselves cannot prevaile with us yet if they be all put together they may serve as a threefold cord to draw us unto repentance If these be not of force but still we continue to blow up the coales of his anger then let us know for a certainty that they are the forewarners of a greater evill as the cracking of the house is a forewarning of his fall these be but the flashing lightnings the thunder bolt will come after The cloud that is long in gathering will make the greater storme he is all this while in setting his stroke that hee may give the sorer blow Eurum ad se Zephirumque vocat hee is in bringing the windes out of his treasures that hee may rain upon our heads a showre of vengeance which shall be the portion of all the ungodly to drink I began like a Barnabas I will not end like Boanerges my song had an Exordium of mercy I am loath to bring for an Epilogue a thunderclap of judgement Wherefore my beloved Brethren now that you see the true causes of the ruines of every common-wealth and the judgement that