was so notorious for this sin that they had the name of the Bygods given them and were so usually called I remember Mr. Fox in his History of the Acts and Monuments of the Church reciting many evidences whereby he proved the antiquity of Priests Marriage sets down the copy of a Release made by William Bygod Lord of Little Bradley to Henry Denardestone Clerk and Alice his Wife and questionlesse that name of Pigot was originally the same though in succession of time and very wisely it was changed Omne peccatum suam habet excellentiam Every sin hath some peculiar vilenesse wherein it may be said to excel other There 's not any sin that doth more plainly discover the great profanenesse of the heart as common swearing especially by the name of God for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh 3. Some times that are gone over our heads and therefore far behinde us have been infected with an itching humour after Superiority wherein persons not content to abide in the calling that God set them in have indevoured to go beyond their proper line and so broke their ranks Thus Absalom was not content with the place of a Son nor Hazael with the rank of a Subject nor Jezabel with the condition of a Wife whose desires should be subject to her Husband whose right it was to rule over her Thus the lowest of the people under the countenance of Jeroboam would be Priests and it was a small thing in the eyes of Corah and his company that God had brought them nigh unto himself to do service but they must seek the Priesthood also Thus Jeroboam the Servant of Solomon is not contented unlesse he may lift up his hand against his Master How sad was that time amongst the Scythians who whilest they made their third Expedition into Asia and tarryed seven yeers as Justin in his History reports were turned out of their beds and possessions by their servants that were left behinde to keep their cattle and at their return were kept out by force of Arms by those slaves who had taken their Wives and possessed their goods Not much unlike that of the people of Israel servants ruled over them and there was none to deliver them Caesar riding one day through a Towne was asked by one whether there were any striving for offices and places of honour in that place answered that he had rather be the chief man in that little Village then the second person in Rome an itching humour it is after greatnesse that hath run in a blood from Adam and Eve to this day who were not content with their standing but would be as Gods knowing good and evill Now as the root of this humour is extreme pride so the fruit is confusion first I say pride is the cause there are none that are so low in their deserts but are very high in their thoughts even the bramble hath great thoughts and high words too of his shadow and it was but a shadow Absalom and Hazael and Iezebel and Ieroboam thought they could manage the affairs of a Kingdome better then David or Benhadad or Ahab or Solomon Every simple Cobler thinks he can go beyond his Last and preach far better then his Priest Ye Sons of Levi saith he take too much upon you But the fruit of such ambition is mischief and confusion Some Countrey Pesants that behold the stars to glister in the horizon on the top of a mountain think if they were there they could reach the heaven order the stars but being exalted on that mountain they are as far to seek as before What became of Absalom the Rebel and Hazael the Traitor and Iezebel the Proud of Ieroboam the Servant and Corah and his company As none did so ill so none sped worse their mischief lighted on their own heads and like to Phaeton their violent dealing on their owne pates Those Scythian slaves though their Masters could not beat them with their weapons yet at the sight of their Masters rods and whips ran all away and at last perished But you will ask me What may be the sin of this time Somewood is more apt to breed worms and some cloth more ready to breed moths and some times have their peculiar sins But what is the sin of this age which is more considerable for us then the looking back to the times that are past 1. Some say our great divisions our most bitter contentions and that amongst Brethren is the sin And indeed this evill is grown to that height that they that should dye one for another can hardly live one by another Surely such divisions amongst those that professe godlinesse cause great thoughts of heart for the neerer the union is the more dangerous is the breach broken bones are not so soon healed nor sinews that are cut so soon knit as great gashes in the flesh may be cured if a cable rope be broken it is very hardly tyed together If the Father and the Son if the Husband and the Wife fall out they are hardly reconciled and as Solomon saith A brother offended is harder to be won then a strong City We do not finde that Paul and Barnabas ever met together again after they parted asunder through their sharp contention Which made Cosmus a Duke of Florence say We are commanded to forgive our enemies but we never read that we are bid to forgive our friends And that which makes our contention so much the more grievous is that one speciall means that God hath appointed for the uniting of Brethren is become a ground of the greatest quarrell The Lords Supper is a feast of Loves a communion ordained to nourish union and yet at this feast we have found a bone of contention and an apple of strife And it is observable that when any listen to seducing spirits and separate from this ordinance they grow sowre and sullen to their dearest friends Our Saviour Christ foretelling the evills of the latter dayes gives this as a badge of the last and worst the old and cold age of the world Iniquity shall abound and the love of many shall grow cold But what is the cause of both Many false Prophets shall arise and shall seduce many and surely the difference of judgement will ever cause a distance in affections Firebrands though they doe not smoak more when they are out of the chimney yet I am sure they offend more and may prove dangerous The novel opinions of these times kept within dores do too much harm but spread abroad by the boutefewes of these times through their burning charity are ready to set all on fire And most people either out of ignorance or easinesse are like foot-travellers who when they come to a stile that stands neer a gap leave the stile and go in at the breach take up any error that causeth division rather then take the pains to try the spirits to prove all
things and keep that which is good Unity is the highest mystery in heaven and would be the greatest happinesse on earth could we enjoy it Union is from God division from the Devil who where he comes with his cloven feet separates chief friends and surely such are factors for hell that cause divisions that observe Machidvel's rule they divide that they may rule but surely the end of such wayes will be their owne confusion The champion Mile when he thrust his hands into the clefts of an Oak thinking thereby to make the breach the wider was caught and there held till he was devoured by wilde beasts God grant that such envyous persons that do sow the tares of division may reap the fruit of such labours even confusion He graciously fulfill his promise and give us one heart and one way He hear the prayers of his dear Son and grant that we may be one He turn our heart-burnings into heart-breakings and unite us fast together in the unity of the spirit with the bond of peace This I contesse is one of the sicknesses of these times which alone is enough to make a gracious heart weary of his life and long to be at home in heaven out of the reach of â—o mischievous an evil Melanchthon when he lay on his death-bed discovered not only much willingnesse to dye but much joy â—t the thoughts of his approaching end and being asked by one the reason of it answered that it was because he should then see Christ and his Church above where he was sure there was no such contentions amongst brethren as was here which he often â—amented with tears This I say is our sicknesse but yet my finger is not upon the plague-sore 2. Some peradventure will think Hypocrisie to be that sin and indeed much profession of Religion without the power of godlinesse is common in these dayes wherein men have learned the art of looking one way and rowing another pretending one thing and doing the quite contrary These are like not onely Apothecaries boxes that have golden titles and nothing in them but like painted sepulchres full of rottenâ—esse and noysome filthinesse There are seven abominations in such mens hearts These men are like curious pictures of men and women drawn to life but if you look behinde them you may see store of dust and cobwebs Or they are like to some of our Innes in Market-towns where you may see a Crown for the Signe and a Begger for the Host an Angel at the dore and a Devil for the Hostess who under the glorious profession of sanctity dare act the greatest villany Jehu his pretence is zeal for the Lord of Hosts but his plot is the Kingdome Ahab and Jezabel proclaim a Fast pretending the punishment of blasphemy but they intend thereby to take away Naboth's both life and vineyard And though all hypocrites have not attained to this height of hellish iniquity yet they are like some children that are sick of a disease they call the Rickets who have great heads and big bellies but shrimpled hands and weak knees They are men of great parts but no gifts not one of many are given to good works whileft they live and when they dye something is given to the poor by their Testament but not by their Will It is said that Isaac digged more Wells and found more water then Abraham and questionlesse the knowledge of most men is this latter age of the world exceeds that of former times The earth is full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters that cover the earth Nay mens knowledge is profound like waters that came out of the Sanctuary it is grown deeper from the ankles to the loyns but it is to be feared the waterâ— of the Sanctuary have put out the fire that should burn in the Sanctuary and that our great knowledge hath quite drowned our zeal so that all those mens religion is run out of the heart into the head The world is full of such who are like the heads that Jehu caused to be laid at the gate of Jezreel a great many heads but never an heart amongst them all The Toad some say hath a pearl in the head I am sure it hath poyson in the belly These speak like Cato but live like Lucullus Leah had bad eyes but she was fruitfull Rachel had a better sight but she was barren Our Fathers saw lesse but did more these men professe they know God but in works â—deny him being abominable and unto every good work reprobate such knowledge will end in â—utter darknesse and this tree of knowledge rob them of the tree of life Quis non iraseatur saith St. Aug. videns homines ore Deum confitentes negantes moribus Quis non iraseatur videns homines secuio verbis non factis renunciantes Who can choose but be angry that shall see men that confesse God with their lips and deny him in their lives that shal see men renounce the world and the lusts thereof in words but not in deeds Such men are like rogues that use to lye in the Church porch whilest others make it but the way to their attendance upon divine ordinances and religious duties These men rest in an outward profession of religion and a very form of godlinesse and go no further I wish some men were called as these be Hypocrites or be as they are called solid and judicious Christians But questionlesse many such are miscalled they have a name to live but are dead Like many of the Popes of Rome if the man were a Coward they called him Leo if a Clown Vrbanus if a Tyrant Clemens Such hypocrisie is hated of all The Cardinal of Lorreign a bitter enemy to Geneva and the reformed Churches when Bernardinus Ochinus offered him his service in writing against the Protestants slighted him with the greatest scorn because he knew he had dissembled and played the hypocrite And Trajan that wise and worthy Emperor professed that he had reason to hold himself discharged of all debts to those that offended more by prevarication then they ever deserved by industry But yet this is not the sin 3. There are others that will say that Apostasie is the sin of this age and certainly there may be some reason for it for we are a people given to backsliding and how hath the secret hypocrisie of many broken out into open apostasie in these times These are like gallant ships with glorious titles as the Bonaventure the Triumph c. but in a storm are ventorum ludibrium if the temptation come from the fears or flatteries of the Times they are taken with many foolish lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition and so they make shipwrack of faith and a good conscience There are three sorts of persons that are most dangerous I wish all to take great heed of them First such as might have been good but are not as the children
have proved the instrument of preserving his Father and his family from perishing in the famine and providing for them a dwelling place in the Land of Aegypt And yet God made choyce of him Amongst all the Sons of Jesse even Samuel the Seer would not have chosen David the youngest and the least regarded and therefore set to keep the sheep to be the man whom God would anoint amongst his Brethren to be King of Israel And yet God made choyce of him and leaves Eliab and Shammah and Abinadab though proper persons great Souldiers and prime Courtiers When this David was sent by his Father into the Camp to visit his Brethren none would have judged him a fit man to encounter with Goliah yea even Saul himself could not believe it Thou art not able saith he to go out against this Philistine to fight with him for thou art but a youth and he is a man of war from his youth And yet God chose him as the man that should slay that Giant and save Israel that day Jethro a Midianite shall give good counsel to Moses and Gideon shall be fetcht from the threshing floor and made Captain Generall over all the forces of Israel he shall save them from the hands of the Midianites and that with three hundred men alone This God doth not onely to magnifie his power and wisdome whose wayes and thoughts are above ours past finding out often secret but alwayes just but to check the haughty thoughts of proud man who is ready to limit the holy one of Israel and to conclude that if God go not his way to work that cannot be effected which is promised and expected It was the fault of good Melancthon though a man of excellent parts and very serviceable for Christs cause who was extreme pensive for fear of some sad issues of the great meeting at Auspurge who though very humble yet had this pride his projects must like the counsels of God unerringly and unchangeably stand or the cause was lost whereupon Luther wished Spalatinus his friend to exhort him yea charge him in his name Nefiat Deus that he make not himself a god It was as some have observed the proud humour of Ferdinand Alvares Duke de Alva to neglect the advice of others if beneath him though never so good and would rather stumble then beware of that block that another had warned him of because he scorned the instrument Such an one was Cardinall Matheo Langi Archbishop of Saltzburg who at the Diet of Ausburg confessed that the reformation of the Masse was needfull that liberty of meats was convenient but that Luther a poor Monk should reform all and tell them what was to be done must not be endured But he that walks much with God and observes him in the wayes of his providence shall in his owne experience finde that he receiveth least from those from whom in reason he might expect most and most oftentimes from those from whom he could expect nothing Even the Aegyptians shall favour the Israelites and lend them jewels of silver and gold for their better accommodation in their journey It was the Lord indeed that gave them favour in the eyes even of their enemies The very Ravens in a famin shall bring Elijah food morning and evening and when that means fails a poor Widow shall provide for him when never a Prince nor noble Lord in Israel did bear so much love to the Prophet as to sustain him in that extremity Ebedmelech the Aethiopian is very kinde to Jeremiah and through his interest with the King works out his inlargement When his own Countrey-men cast him into the dungeon Nebuzaradan by the commandment of Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon delivers Jeremy out of prison gives him liberty to go whither he please when Zedekiah his own King shuts him up in prison It is an excellent rule therefore I wish all that fear God to observe it Use means love prayer and trust God which was well implyed in that embleme of some Heathens A man with his hand on the plow but his eye in heaven There is no restraint with God saith Jonathan to his Armour-bearer If there be many means God must blesse them if but few means he can multiply them if they be contrary means he can use them if there be no means he can create them or work without them He it is that appoints all means of our good He gives virtue to those means that he appoints he draws out that virtue that he gives he blesseth that virtue that he draws out and by the finger of his providence points us to the use of those means that he will blesse and in the want of all will work wonderfully for our good In the Creation God had light without Sun Moon or Stars He made the earth fruitfull and caused every plant to flourish when there was no rain nor any man to till the ground and could finde out an help for Adam that was most meet though he could not 2. Observe Gods goodnesse in the choyce of the time As God doth all things well so he doth all at the best time The greatest things that God hath done in the world he hath done for his Church and the greatest things that God hath done for his Church he hath done as by the most unlikely instruments so at the most unlikely time and yet those instruments were the best instruments and that time the best time The Aegyptians had wont to picture Time with three heads Time past with the head of a greedy wolfe as one that had devoured much time Time present with the head of a crowned Lion triumphing in the enjoyment of the present time Time to come with the head of a dog fawning on that which is to come But all our times are in Gods hands and in better hands they cannot be our time to come into trouble our time to continue in trouble and our time to come out of trouble is at his dispose God seldome comes at our time alwayes at his owne And if deliverance from dangers successe in our endevours supply of our wants had come sooner or later it had not been so good for us Christ is said to be sent at the fulnesse of time or at the full time so called because it was just that time that God had designed Moses was sent to deliver Israel out of Aegypt at the full time though the tale of bricks were doubled and their burthens encreased and at the end of 430 years even the self-same day as it was promised it came to passe that all the hosts of the Lord went out from the Land of Aegypt Christ came to his Disciples when they were distressed by a storm â—t Sea in the best time though it were at the fourth Watch in the night and they most in danger Our extremity is Gods opportunity to magnifie his wisdome and goodnesse to us when we
honest man meeting with a very rich neighbour in his Corn-fields upon harvest very plentifully stored consisting of many acres said to him You have Sir a very rich crop answered Yea I wil have a good crop and gave not God the praise Within a few dayes after by a mighty storm of wind the greatest part of his corn was blown out of the ear and with other wet weather it was so wasted that it came to little If we forget God he will forget us He will remember our sins and punish us for them but he wil forget our persons in time of trouble To wâ—ch purpose I shall relate a sad story which I had from a good hand in the hearing of very many and I believe it to be very true A man that on his sick bed that proved his death-bed had one time an extraordinary appetite and desired something that he might eat which being brought to him he did as much loath as before he longed for and therefore without touching any part of it was carried away suddenly he called for it again his stomach to such provision being as strong and quick as ever which was done accordingly and set before him but his stomach rose against it with as great abhorrency as before This was done a third time upon the former ground carried away again for the same reason At last he confessed that it was just with God so to deal with him that never craved a blessing from God upon his meat when he sat down at his table nor gave God thanks when he rose up but forgat God the giver of all And indeed it is just with God to forget us in our straights that never remember him in our enlargements The keeping of such a Journall would conduce much to the preventing of such an evil Fourthly it is a very profitable course to have such a Journal or Diary by us and you know Who wil shew us any good Who wil bring us any profit is the great question of the world and prevails very far Now it is profitable these 7 ways 1. As it would be an excellent way to advance the name and honorable memoriall of some so it would thereby much promote the good of others For would such as are of singular worth and speciall note for their learning piety and usefulnesse in Church or Common-wealth be perswaded to this duty of keeping a Journall how easie were it for their posterity or speciall friends to write a history of their Lives especially so far as concerned their parents their birth and breeding either in 〈◊〉 University or Innes â—of Court their great preservations from dangers their great preferments to places of trust with their employments and successe in those places and such like Other things might be added as occasion is offered from the relation of others which as it would much conduce to the honor of the dead so it would very far advance the good of those that survive them Most people believe their eyes rather then their ears and walk more by patterns then they do by any rules Mahomet the Great the first Emperor of Constantinople did ever set before him the examples of Alexander and Caesar in all his Wars whom he laboured to imitate And it is reported of Themistocles that he had always in his thoughts the victories of Miltiades which made him unsatisfied till he had imitated him Christians that have such a cloud of witnesses not unlike the pillar of a cloud to Israel in the wilderness may the better be guided through the dark labyrinths of this evil world till they come to that Canaan of unutterable joy and happinesse of which those worthies are now made partakers And indeed who can behold their love to Gods truth their zeal for his glory their patience in tribulation their courage in a good cause their perseverance in well-doing their holinesse of life their prayers fasting tears alms temperance modesty heavenly mindednesse with their triumph at their death but must needs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stir up the grace that 〈◊〉 them stir the coals of their servent desires till they break out into a flame in being followers of those worthies as they followed Christ The Lacedemonians for the better stirring up of young men to noble enterprises used to have the statues of their most famous Worthies either Gown-men or Sword-men set up in their Senate-house with this sentence in golden letters Si fueritis sicut hi eritis sicut â—i If you will be like these for their service you shall be like these for their honour Some have taken good pains in writing the Lives and Deaths of such as have deserved well in their generations a Work in this regard very commendable How many such examples would be preserved and left to posterity which otherwise were like to be lost were this course of keeping Diaries observed 2. This practice would bring Christians into great acquaintance with God and his most gracious nature So the Psalmist who having fully discoursed of his providence over divers sorts of persons in answering their prayers and relieving them in their necessities concludes Whoso is wise and will observe these things even such shall understand the loving kindnesse of the Lord. Now what better way to observe such things then by a constant keeping of such a Journal Thence we may discern his loving kindnesse 1. How full it is who giveth us richly all things to enjoy 2. How free it is who doth all for us for his name sake 3. How firm it is with whom there is no variablenesse nor shadow of turning whose gifts and calling are without repentance And who would not endevour by all means to be wel acquainted with God whom to know is wisdome indeed to fear is godlinesse indeed to enjoy is happinesse indeed 3. It will from hence much inlarge our love to God for we must needs love him that hath loved us first especially that hath loved us thus Certainly the more we know God the better we shall love him I will deliver him saith the Lord by the Psalmist because he hath set his love upon me and he hath set his love upon me because he hath known my name Even Publicans saith our Saviour will love those of whom they are beloved by whom they are rewarded And shall not Christians be in love with such a God whose mercies are more then we can number greater then we can value And will not this our love to God be beneficial to us If we love him he will love us again and in his love there can be no lack for they that seek him early shall finde him He that loveth me saith Christ shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my self unto him And again If any man love me he will keep my commandements and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him Now this