thou art Thus thus alas it too often falls out Diomedes is a Pirate but Alexander a Monarch Magnum prosperum scelus virtus vovatur Landlords and such as doe eminently beare the image of Gods in respect of his power and consequently should shew themselves Fathers to those that are under them if they prove unto their Tenants like Briars and Thorny hedges and squeaze and waste whole Towns and Villages and turne those Streets which used to be sowne with the seed of men to the sending out of Bullocks and the treading of Sheep they take but their owne the Law must be their discharge The poor hunger-starved Caitiff if in extream necessity he take a Sheep from a Pasture or a Sheet from a Pale must and deservedly hold up his hand at the Barr for it If a Cutpurse take a few pence out of a mans pocket its felony a Magistrate or an Advocate if for expedition or procrastination or managing of an unjust cause or otherwise unjustly or deceitfully he shall exhaust the Purses and Coffers of many its Honorarium the former by his practice becomes odious and disgracefull the latter by his great and worshipful Ille crucem paenam scelenis fert hic diadema Verily for the matter I see no difference but that the latter is in a greater degree an oppugner of Justice not onely in respect of the sin it selfe which is farr fouler as Alexanders sin was worse then that of Diomedes and of the cause impulsive want and necessity being the one pride and avarice the other but chiefly in respect of the persons who act a part directly contradictory to their profession If upon the Stage a father sitting to examine and correct the faultes of his family shall cheat some of them or if a Magistrate sitting on the Bench when a Suppliant shall come to him with a Petition shall put his hand into the Suppliants pocket and â—eale away his Purse Attollent omnes equites peditesque cachinnum All the spectators would deride the folly of the Poet as when an inâ—ulse Actor cryed O Jupiter and held his hand downward and after cryed O terra and looked up to Heaven Polemo who was Master of the company rann off the Stage and cryed out Manu hic soloecismum fecit â—aliud voce aliud gestibus designans No more but this Id histrio videbit in Scaena quod non sapiens in vita The two lowest Elements are not heavy but when they are out of their proper places no more is sin any where so heavy as when it is displaced Meretrix male facit quòd est meretrix sed non male facit accipere quatenus meretrix saith Bodin So it may be said of a Thiefe and consequently of all Offenders A thiefe doth ill that he is a thiefe but hee doth not ill to steale quatenus a thiefe This is after a sort his profession he is in his owne element But a Magistrate and such as should be a Father to those that are under his jurisdiction for him to play the Thiefe is to imitate Horace his Painter Delphinum sylvis appingit fluctibus aprum It 's to displace the Elements and to put the water in place of the fire with Cleanthes to put vice in Vertues chair with Antiochus to set up the image of Jupiter in Solomons Temple and the abhomination of desolation in the holy place For a filcher and hedg-creeper to pill a sheep it 's no great matter it 's ordinarily done but for a Shepheard to do it were a foule blemish If a man be cosened at Cards with a common Cheater I 'le never pittie him he might have looked better to himselfe but to be cosened by a common Lawyer to whom he shews his cards hoping by his direction to win the game here is an element displaced it 's heavy and grievous to be borne and I am sorry that it should be applied to any of that worthy profession which was spoken of Usurers Alienas negotiantur miserias lucrum suum aliorum adversitatem faciunt They make it their vocation to make men miserable and to make themselves great by other mens falls and hurts to hurt them whom they pretend to help But enough of this subject I know well that it befalls a Minister in touching the faults of great men and such as are heads of the people as it doth a Butcher in fleaing a Beast he goes smoothly away with the skinn that covers the Carkas but when he comes to the head it sticks so that unlesse he work very warily he shall be reprehended for mis-guiding his hand If he hold his knife high hee shall leave part of the skin behind if low he takes part of the flesh with him So it is with a Minister in preaching to men of place if he as is commonly done preach nothing but Placentia and sing a Gloria patri without a Sicut erat and Gentleman-like shoot faire and farre off and for feare of hurting hold his knife too high he shall leave sinne top whole if he go deep hee shall be censured for cutting the quick flesh a meane were to be wished but it 's of so little latitude that it 's hard to be hit upon of the extreams I hold the latter the better I had rather be reproved for saying too much against sinne then for speaking too little I had rather be counted an enemie then a flatterer in Gods businesse Plus timeo illum qui jubet quam illum qui detrahit I am more affraid of him who saith Cry aloud and spare not then of any that can censure me for want of discretion Christs Church in my Text is a little Flock And he said truly if he be rightly understood Multi sunt Placentini Landenses pauci Veronenses Lauden and Placentia are populous Townes and their Citizens swarm every where but Verona is a poor ruinated Village and hath few Inhabitants Tacitus writes that Caepio Crispinus a man well acquainted with the vitious life of Tiberius accused Marcellus an honest Citizen of Rome for certain bad speeches touching the Emperour The Emperour knowing the things to be true that Marcellus was accused to have spoken was easily perswaded that he had spoken them Nam quia vera erant ideo dicta credebantur None I hope will Sure I am none justly can censure mee for aiming at any particular save he whose conscience with Tiberius accuseth him to be guilty of the same sins I have reproved and Si vera sint ideo in eum dicta credantur If he find those things in himselfe let him think that he is the man or rather his sins the mark that I have aimed at And let him goe his way and sinne no more lest a worse thing befall him I am perswaded we have at this day as many worthy and religious Gentlemen as many learned and religious Lawyers as many reverend learned and religious Judges and Magistrates as ever England had and for you
spirituall weapons I end seeing the Church is like unto the Moon sometimes in a glorious splendour sometimes clouded with Schism and sometime so darkned with the shadow of heresie and superstition and persecution that the eyes of Linceus can scarce behold her Seeing that the Papists at this day cannot compare neither with the number of Christians taking the name generally for all such as professe the name of Jesus nor with the Protestant Churches if we take an account onely of such as understand the Principles of their Religion I see no reason why Bellarmine should make multitude a Note of the true Church or if it were why the Papists should challenge it themsemselves and therefore he may be well censured with a hic magister non tenetur or not a quod haec nota nihil notat it was onely to make up the number of notes that he may number one note Nam cum non prosunt singula multa juvant though they be of little force being severally considered yet if they be all joyntly taken they will prove like Seleucus his roddes or like a threefold cord which is not easily broken Indeed he had need to be stronger then Hercules that could cut oft all the heads of Hydra at one blow but a simple warricuâ— taking one by one may make an end of them before he be wearied for they are like to the tail of Sertorius his horse which a valiant Souldier taking it altogether could not pull off but a poore Skull pulling one hayre after an other had quickly made it bare Secondly doth Gods flock sometimes consist of a very small number then it behoveth thee beloved Christian with greater diligence to trie and examine thy self whether thou be comprehended in this number for as in that universall deluge of waters all were drowned that were not in Noahs Arke so in the great floud of fire which shall be at the end of the world all shall be swept away with a river of brimstone which are not of this flock it is a common saying he shall never have God for his father which hath not the Church for his mother and he shall never be a member of the Church triumphant which is not first of the Church Militant first then thou art to enquire whether thou be of the true visible Church and this thou shalt know by two marks by the true preaching of the word by the right use of the Sacraments for where these two are performed according to the prescript of Gods word there must needs be a true church this is somewhat but it is not all for what did it availe Judas to be numbred amongst the twelve he was in hell before any of the rest came at heaven all that are in the Church be not of the Church there are both good and bad fish in this net there is wheat and tares in this field Sheep and Goats in this fold thou must goe further and examine whether thou be one of that Company which God from eternity elected unto life and in time effectually calleth by his holy Spirit and makes true Members of his Sonne Jesus Christ which is the head of this body whether thou be of that flock which Christ calleth his garden his sister his spouse his love his doue his undefiled which the pillar and ground of truth 1. Tim. 3. 13. the body of Christ Eph. 1. 23. the temple of the Lord Eph. 2. 21 which the gates of hell shall never prevaile against Matth. 16. 18. Here thou must exercise thy wits this must be thy care to finde thy selfe in this little number but how may this be knowne by the cause that is the will and good pleasure of Gods which dwelleth in light that none can approach unto This is a bottomlesse depth who can sound it Never man looked into this Arke and lived busie thy braines about it and when thou hast done all thou canst thou art but like a flie about a Candle which playeth so long with the flame that at length she burnes her wings and fals downe and good reason it should be so for it is enough for wretched man to be of Gods Couâ—t and it is too much to be of his Privie Councell Thou must therefore doe as Theseus die with the Labyrinth thou must catch hold of the threeds end that hangs without the doore and so by winding steps come at length to the first cause Seeing thou canst not know it a â—riori by the cause thou must know it a posteriori by the effect one effect of Gods immutable decree and an undoubted marke to let all others passe of Gods child is Sanctification for as on the one side it is certainly true that without holinesse of life no man shall see God Heb. 12. 14. So it is as true on the other side that hee which walketh not after the flesh but after the Spirit is ingrafted into Christ and shall never be condemned So then holines of life is the true touchstone to trie whether thou be of this number but here deceive not thy selfe for there is a verball holinesse and a Pharisaical holinesse and a Herods holines and a Popish holines and an Anabaptisticall holines The verball holines is of such as draw neere unto God with their lips but with their hearts are farre from him as the Prophet speakes the Pharisaical holines is of those which devoure widowes houses under colour of long prayers and such as will not leave a mote on the outside of their cup but never care how filâ—hy it be within The Herods holinesse is of them which will quench the fire on the harth and leave it burning in the top of the Chimney will mend their least faults and let their worst bee marring The Popish holinesse is in observing humane traditions and treading under foot the law of God The Anabaptisticall holinesse is of such as are well perswaded of themselves though without all reason but can never have a charitable opinion of any others they are troubled with a Noli me tangere touch me not come not neare me for I am holier then thou but I say unto thee except thy righteous exceed the righteousnes of all these men thou shalt not enter into the Kingdome of Heaven it is another kinde of holines which thou must have if thou wilt assure thy soule that thou art one of Christs flock it is indeed in the tongue but it proceedeth from another fountaine the heart and makes a man say with David thy words have I hid within my heart that I might not sinne against thee It makes a man have a care to approve by outward actions unto men but much more to approve the cogitations of his heart unto God it strives not to breake off some branches of sin such as may be best forgon reserving the rest but it is most severe against those sinnes which are the sweetest to man because such
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
reason is very plain for though the understandings of the wicked be so darkned that they call good evil and evil good sowre sweet and sweet sowre though their appetites and affections be so perverted that they swallow up sinne with greedinesse and drinke iniquity like water yet there is some reliques of the image of God in their understanding whereby they have a glimpse of good and evil which though it cannot moderate the will and affections from running into sinne yet it doth so farre forth bridle them as that they will not commit any hainous impiety but when some thing is offered which puts as it were a vizard upon the object of the will and makes it chuse that which otherwise it would refuse For the will by nature is alwayes carried unto his proper object which is good and abhorreth that which is evill So that when it chuseth evill it is not as it is a will but as it is depraved and as the understanding which judgeth of the object before the will choose or refuse it counteth that good which indeed is evil 3. Here two sorts of men are to be censured the first is such as think themselves sufficiently excused for committing any sinne if they can bring any occasions or the allurements which have moved them to commit it The drunkard will say that company hath drawn him to forget himself and therefore he must be pardoned The adulterer will plead for himselfe that his own corrupt affection hath moved him and that the circumstances of time and place have caused him and therefore he must be excused But these excuses are such as that if they would serve the turn the wickedest reprobate upon the face of the earth might be found not guilty For might not Judas have pleaded for himself that he would never have betrayed Christ but that he expected some reward from the high Priests Might not Ahab have sworn that he would never have sought Naboths bloud if it had not been for his vineyard which was so commodious for his house Might not Achan have avouched that he would never have transgressed the Lords commandment by taking of the excommunicate thing but that it so offered it self that he thought he might have taken it and none been privy to it Might not Cain have excused the slaughter of his guiltlesse brother that he would not have killed him if the Lord had not had a greater respect unto Abels sacrifice then unto his It is true indeed that such objects may occurre such inducements may happen as that the dearest of Gods children which as long as they remain in these houses of clay do taste too much of the old Adam may thereby be led to commit grosse impieties We know that the fear of death moved Peter to deny his master That idlenesse and the sight of Bathsheba caused David to adultery That Lots daughters brought their father to commit incest That Solomon by his wives was drawn to Idolatry That the fear of the Egyptians made faithfull Abraham to distrust Gods providence and to say that his wife was his sister But this onely shews their imperfections it excuseth not their facts that they had sundry provocations to these sinnes If Peter had thought that the fear that the Jews put him in by reason of the great cruelty which they used against his master might have excused him for denying Christ he might have spared his teares If occasion and time and place might have purchased a pardon for David he would never have been so vehement and passionate in confessing his fault and craving a pardon for the same And indeed this is the onely course to be freed from Gods plagues not to excuse our sinnes and say that such and such provocations brought us to them for so the wickedest reprobate might be innocent but to humble our selves before the Majesty of God and to confesse our misery that he may receive us to mercy 4 There is another sort of men which if they commit not such iniquities as others do either because their natures are not so prone and bent to those vices of because such objects and allurements are wanting as others have had will boast at least within themselves that they have attained unto a farre greater measure of holinesse then others which by their naturall pronenesse or some external cause are drawn to wickednesse But alas what credit is it for the Scythians that they were no drunkards when they never got wine nor strong drink What commendation for the old Germanes that they abstained from the unlawfull company of women when by nature they were not addicted to wantonnesse What credit is it for a young childe or withered old man to abstain from carnal pleasure when the heat of youth in the one is quelled and the other never knew what lust meant What grace for a weak spirited man who was never moved with any excessive anger not to be a murtherer This is rather commendation worthy if we shall abstain from those vices to which our corrupt nature doth most propend If the Dutch can leave his drunkenness the Italian his lustfulness the French his factiousness the Spaniard his haughtiness the English his gluttony and greediness if the cholerick can lay aside his anger and rashness the phlegmatick his sloath and idleness the melancholick his hatred and enviousness the sanguine his concupiscence and wantonness in a word if Herod can be contented to part with Herodias and every man his beloved sin to which by nature he is most addicted When a certain Physiognomer looking upon Socrates gathered by his complexion that he was given to lust and wantonness the people which knew the continencie and vertuous life of Socrates mocked him as unskilful of his art thinking that Socrates was not addicted to any such vice But Socrates acknowledged the judgement of the Physiognomer to be true and confessed that by naturall disposition he was prone unto it thinking it a greater vertue to conquer and keep under the corruptions of the flesh then to keep himself under and within the bond of reason when he had nothing to draw him away And yet this is little worth unless it be at such time when some externall means and provocations do concurre for bringing that into act which depraved nature most affecteth The drunkard will sometimes abstain from his beastliness but it is when he can get no wine The oppressor from grinding and grating the faces of the poore but it is when he lacks matter to worke upon The wanton from his pleasures but it is when he wants time and place to effect his desires The glutton from his excessive eating but it is in a dearth or scarcity when he knowes not how to fill hâ—s paunch It had been praise-worthy in Judas if having a covetous minde the high Priest had come unto him and offered him a large summe of mony upon this condition that he would have betrayed his Master and he should
have by unlawful means gotten with Zachaeus they restore it again four-fold 20. From the Locust we come to the Cankar-wormë from oppressing Ahab to bribing Gehazi of whom I may truly affirm that which Tacitus speaks of the Astrologians in Rome it is genus hominum pestilens fallax quod in hac republic â semper prohibetur semper retinetur a pestilent and froward kind of people which hath been still gain-said and yet never more common and frequent then now an off-spring not so degenerate from the loynes of Judas as is the oppressour Because the oppressour like the fat Buls of Basan closeth the poor on every side and gapes upon him with his mouth as it were a ramping and a roaring lion whereas the briber lieth closely in the thievish corners of the streets that he may ravish such as he shall get into his net The oppressour takes it perforce the briber gets all by secret compact What will ye give me None might come to the inner court of king Ahashuerosh save hee to whom the king held out his golden scepter But none may come to the bribers inner court save hee that shall hold out a golden scepter unto him Be thy cause never so light in the balance of equity it is not material if thou canst make it up in gold it shall be currant through his liberties Right and wrong truth and falshood are onely distinguished by their attendants If injustice get the overthrow it is because she is not guarded with such companies as are expected But I have not Elisha's eyes to point out Gehazi and to observe what he hath done in secret and therefore I will passe him over onely thus much I would have him to know that Judas cannot so secretly compact with the Priests but Christ knoweth it That speech of our blessed Saviour which that worthy Martyr Hugh Latimer used for his posie is an undoubted truth There is nothing so secret but it shall be revealed Thou mayest well flatter thy selfe with an outward shew of justice like that monster in the Poet Pulchra Laverna Da mihi fallere da sanctum justumque videri Noctem peccatis frandibus objice nubem O beautiful Laverna grant that I may deceive the world with a counterfeit shew of holinesse cover my sinnes with a cloud of obscurity that they may be hid Deceive the world thou mayest but thou canst not deceive God Soloculis hominem quibus aspicit omnia cernit God whose eyes are ten thousand times brighter then the sun can pierce through this cloud if it were darker then hell and behold thy doing It is no heathenish counsell which a heathen man gives neither doth it smell of Epicurisme though it was his dictate who was the father of that Swinish Sect that whatsoever thou art about to doe though never so secret thou shouldest still imagine that some doth behold thee and observe thy actions Vt sic tanquam illo spectante vivas omnia tanquam illo vidente facias saith Seneca And therefore whatsoever thou art about to doe saith the same writer imagine that Cato a severe reprehender of the least vices or if this be too much suppose that Laelius a man of a quiet disposition but such as cannot brook any notable offence doth behold thee This is good counsell of a heathen man which knew not God aright But thou which dost professe Christianitie shouldst goe a step further and fully assure thy selfe that not a sinfull man but that a sinne-revenging God doth watch thee Propè à te Deus est intùs est And Sacer in te spiritus sedet bonorum malorumque observat custos as the heathen Stoick divinely speaketh there is a holy spirit within thee which seeth whatsoever thou doest good or bad Doe not then deceive thy selfe like that Sophister in Aristotle who thought it impossible to know by demonstration the affections of a number or triangle because he kept some number or triangle in his fist which others did not know of Be it Nummus or Numerus triangle or crosse or whatsoever it bee thou canst not keepe it so closely in thy hand but God lookes into it and will one day call thee to an account for it 12. In the last place comes the Grashopper the cozening Lawyer who feeds his Client with sugered words and golden hopes but all proves in the end for a quid mihi dabitis Here as Tully said unto the Romans touching the Catilinarians Cupio me patres Conscripti esse clementem cupio non dissolutum videri I would gladly hold my peace and not be judged by any to exceed the limits of modestie But voces reipublicae imo totius regni me nequitiae inertiaeque condemnarent the voice of the whole kingdome exclaiming against the great abuses of these times would condemn me of negligence The time is protracted unnecessarie delaies are used new doubts are dayly invented insomuch that the causes are oftentimes more uncertaine in the latter end then they were at the first beginning What postings off from Court to Court what delaies and procrastinations from tearme to tearme from yeare to yeare to yeare insomuch that a man may sooner travell about the whole globe of the earth then passe through an English court The Lawes are made like a game at the cards wherein all the players are loosers and all the gaine comes to the butler which found them cards to play on And the Lawyers prove such Arbitrators as was Quintus Fabius in Tullie who being appointed a daies-man between the Nolanes and the Neopolitanes touching the borders of their grounds tooke a great part of their right from both or rather like to Philip of Macedon who being chosen a judge betweene two Brethren touching their fathers kingdome tooke it from them both and reserved it to himselfe They take from both the Parties though not the same numero which they contend for yet the same specie I meane the value of the same and gaine it to themselves The filly sheep in a tempest runs to a briar bush for a shelter when the storme is overblown he is so clapsed in the briars that before he get out he is enforced to leave some good part of his fleece behind him so that he is made unable to indure the next storme And yet better it is that he should indure with patience then by having recourse to such an Harbour have his skin riped by the bramble I will not apply I reverence the profession It is good and necessary for the commonwealth and a calling warrantable by Gods Word And I make no qustion but there are many of this profession which doe study to approve their doings in the sight of God and man And so I am perswaded of you all though I thus speake but as the Apostle saith of himselfe I know nothing of my selfe yet am I not justified so say I though I know nothing by any of you yet
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
Heathen knowledge of his Laws he that prohibits to cast Pearls before Swine and to give that which is holie to Doggs he that brings a drought upon one City when he makes it raine upon another he that commands Paul to Preach in Macedonia and forbids him to Preach in Asia shewes plainly that he is not tyed in any obligation to offer so much as the internall meanes of Salvation to all but of those many that are called few are chosen Matth. 20. Will ye have a type of it six hundred thousand are called out of Aegypt but onely two of them enter into the promised Land Three and twenty thousand are called to fight against Midian but onely three hundred are chosen Jud. 7. Gideons Fleece is wet when the whole Earth is dry Eight persons are saved in the Ark when the whole World that would not hearken unto the Preacher of righteousness is drowned five Cities are burned only three Soules that believed God and fled unto the Hills were preserved The Seed falls foure waies out of the Sowers hand some amongst Thornes and that is choaked some amongst stones and that is withered some by the way side and that is devoured scarce the fourth part falling into good ground is preserved Christ hath a little Flock but the Devill hath a Kingdome nay a world of Kingdomes All these are mine He lyed but in some sort his speech was true he is the Prince of this World he drives the whole World in a drift before him as a Butcher doth his Flock to the Shambles Christ catcheth here a Sheep and there another out of Satans Drove to make up to himselfe a little Flock he hath the Vintage Christ hath the Gleanings as the scattered Grapes when the Vintage is ended and as the after shaking of an Olive Tree here a Berry and there a Berry on the outmost boughs Isa 24. 13. For this cause as if it were too much that Christs Church should be called a Flock it is elsewhere called a Houshold Eph. 2. Gal. 6. This is too large a name and therefore is it limited in a House there be Vessels of honour and Vessels of dishonour the former onely are Christs the other he leaves to Satan there be Sons in an house and there be Servants Christ makes challenge to none but Sons and Daughters the reason is plaine the way to Hell is a broad way they may go by thousands to it there is roome for Foot and Horse and Cart and Coach and all it is plaine and pleasant no hedges to keep passengers in no mire to withhold them no blocks to stop and hinder their passage But the way to Heaven like that described by Livie to Tempe in Thessalie is but one single narrow craggy path all that go that way must as neer as may be tread in the footsteps of him that is gone before Viz. Christ There is the sharp thorny hedge of the Law to pale them in and the fiery Cherubs to affray them and the blade of a Sword shaken to discourage them and the mire and clay of tribulation to keep their legs as it were in the stocks and many blocks and stops doth Satan cast before them to bring them to the ground and when thou art come to the gate it is but like a needles eye If thou be puffed up with luxury and drunkennesse thou must empty thy selfe If thou bee swelled with pride and ambition thou must humble thy selfe If thou be loaden with the drosse and trash of this world thou must disburthen thy selfe thou must pull downe thy top-mast and strike saile and become slender and little and nothing in thine own eyes or thou shalt never finde entrance This being thus I much wonder why either Bellarmine or the most impudent and brazen-faced Divine that ever the Roman Church bred should not blush to place multitude and a glorious visibility of Professors amongst the infallible marks of the true Church which if they prove I will not say to be proper and inseparable marks the mark which Bellarmine aimes at but to carrie so much as a shew of probability I dare boldly inferr that neither Abraham nor any of the Patriarchs nor Elias nor any of the Prophets nor Athanasius nor any of the Orthodoxall Bishops of that time nor Christ nor any of his Apostles were of the true Church all of which had multitude and glorious visibility of Professors as strongly against them as the Romanists can prove it to be on their side Where was this multitude and visibility when Abraham and his Wife were Pilgrims in Aegypt and Canaan and had not so much as a child to leave behind them where when Elias complained that he was left alone that small remnant which God had reserved to himselfe being so hid that they were unknown to Elias himself though a principall member of the Church Where when the Prophet complained that not a righteous man could be found in Jerusalem Jer. 5. 1. Where when Christ first began to preach and made choise of 12. Apostles for this purpose one of which proved a thief Where in the time of the Arian persecution when to use Hieroms words the whole world groaned and wondered to see her selfe become an Arian When this plague spread over the whole Christian world and infected two Bishops of Rome and was strengthened by ten severall Councels in which the decrees of the Nicene Synod were repealed When whole burthen of the Church in respect of men lay upon the shoulders of Athanasius and a few other forlorn Bishops which endured either imprisonment or banishment or otherwise hid themselves and durst not shew their faces By this which hath been spoken as it is evident that this note of multitude notes nothing or if any thing the contrary to Bellarmines note So is it also as cleare that that glorious shew of visibility of which these Thrasoes make such great boast neither makes their cause good nor hurts ours Where was the Protestants Church for divers hundreds of years before Martin Luthers dayes many there were not of that Church true there needed not Christs flock is little gloriously conspicuous it was not true for neither was that needfull Where was this great multitude of Believers and glorious splendor of Professors when the Prophet complained that he was left alone When Esay exclaimed That from the sole of the foote to the crowne of the head there was nothing but bruises and putrified sores Isa 1. When all Jerusalem was troubled about the birth of Christ when the Christians groaned under the ten bloody persecutions inflicted by the Pagans and under the eleventh caused by the Arians As in those times so in the times before Martin Luther the western Church was at a low ebbe and the Moon did suffer almost a totall Eclipse No marvail seeing it was foretold that there should be an apostacy 2 Thes 2. And that the second Beast should cause all both great and small rich and poor free and bond
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
Protestants such carnal Gospellers prove themselves to be sonnes of God when they are matched and out-stripped by the sonnes of Satan when they are matched with Simon Magus in their baptisme and with Judas in receiving the Lords Supper and Pharaoh in hearing the word preached and with the Devill in believing and with Pagans and Infidels in the practise of civill and morall duties Nay when Judas goes beyond them in repentance and Ahab in sorrow and humiliation and Herod in delight in the Word and reverence of the Preacher and amendment of life and Jehu in zeale of Gods glory and Pharaoh in desiring the prayers of the godly and Foelix and the Devill in trembling at Gods judgements Oh pittiful If you should live I speak to them that are such and I doubt there are too many in this place the hearts of most are like this Country climate where they live cold and their brains more subject to Lethargies then Phrenfies If you should live amongst the Turks or Tartars where the sound of the Gospel is scarce heard if you had lived and dyed in those dayes when God gave his lawes to Jacob his statutes and Ordinances unto Israel and dealt not so with any Nation Or if you should live in Spain or Italie where the heavenly treasure is locked up from ignorant men in the closet of an unknown tongue and where no more is required of a sonne of the Church for that 's a term they are better acquainted with then a sonne of God then to be baptized to say his prayers in Latine to hear and see a Masse to keepe fasting dayes and to believe as the Collier told the Devill as the Church believeth you might have some excuse for your selves But now that you live where the judgments of the Law are denounced and the sweet promises of the Gospel proposed now that the Sun doth shine and no better blossoms of righteousnesse appeare in you how can you escape the hatchet of Gods wrath How can you call God your Father or Christ your Brother Shall Judas be sorrowfull and make confession of his sinnes and will not you Shall Ahab and the Ninivites be humbled and manifest their humiliation by fasting and sacke-cloath and tears and will not you be humbled for your sins Shall Herod amend many faults at the preaching of John Baptist and will not you reform your lives Shall the Devill believe and tremble and will not you believe with him Or if you believe with him will ye noâ— tremble with him Shall all these I have named be damned to hell and look you for the reward promised to Gods children the Kingdome of Heaven No assuredly no. I deliver unto you that which I have received from the Lord Except your righteousnesse shall exceed the righteousnesse of all these you cannot enter into thâ— Kingdome of heaven The spirit of adoption is not severed from the spirit of sanctification it 's one and the same individual spirit Holinesse becometh Gods house for ever It 's written over Heaven gates as it was over Plato's School door Let no man that is not a Geometrician enter this roome Let no man that hath not measured his life by the line of the Law that hath not this Motto written on the Table of his heart Holinesse to the Lord presume to come into Gods Tabernacle or rest upon his holy Hill That for the first duty we owe unto God as he is our Father and we his children The second is to our Neighbour For if God be our Father then all we which make profession of that faith which was once given to the Saints are brethren and should live as brethren and love as brethren And how brethren should be affected one to another we see in the members of our bodies our two feet are as it were two brethren one to support another two armes two eyes two ears one to help another the utmost part of the hand divided into five fingers one for assisting and strengthening another No otherwise even by the judgement of naturall men should one brother be affectioned to another Hence in Poets came the fable of Briareus with one bodie and 100. hands and of Geryon with one bodie and three heads by the first was meant fiftie by the second three brethren so linked together in the bands of brotherly love as if they had all been members of one and the fame individuall bodie And he that for his owne particular benefit seeks the losse and hurt of a brother doth as if one foot should supplant and trip up another or as if the fingers of the hand should fall out and one wrest another out of joynt Nay further a brother that forsakes his brother and joynes himselfe into society with a stranger saith Plutarch doth as if a man should cut off one of his owne legs and take a wooden leg in the room of it As their love is the greatest so their hatred if they fall out is noted to be the greatest so that of all others they are hardest to be reconciled For as those things that are glued together if they goe asunder may easily be reunited but a bodie that is all of one peece if it be broken cannot be so fastned againe but you may discern where the breach was When friends who by affections are joyned together if they dissent may easily be reconciled but brethre who are as it were one by nature can hardly be so united but there will remaine some scarre behind for which cause it concerns them to avoid the least occasions of disagreement Now that I may bring that which I have spoken home to my purpose grace is a stronger bond then nature If then naturall brethren should be thus affected one to another how much more brethren in Christ begotten by one father God bred in one womb the Church fed with one milke the Word animated by the same spirit justified by the same faith And this love must shew it selfe chiefly in two things 1. In pardoning wrongs without private revenge If the injury be little forget it if great yet must thou not be Judge in thine owne cause but as children say when they are wronged I will tell my Father so do thou All malice and private revenge lay aside out of a zeale of justice make thy complaint to those who are the Ministers of God to take vengeance on them that do evill 2. In supporting and relieving such as stand in need of thy help As the great stones that are laid in the bottome of a building beare the weight of the lesse that are laid above them or as a bundle of rods bound together to use Seleucus his comparison do one strengthen another Or as when a faggot of grove sticks is laid on the fire and warms and kindles another and that which he hath be ready to communicate to such as want those that are learned to instruct others that are ignorant those that be strong to support them that are
in the end of Q. Curtius goes under Alexanders name to tell the Athenians that they should overcome their Enemies the Dorenses and the Lacedemonians that they should prevaile against the Persians if their King should be slain in the field and Brutus that hee should have the government of Rome who should first kiss his old Mother the Earth they be things purely contingent and such as the Devill by his owne knowledge could never reach unto What shall we say of the Sybills and their Prophesies peradventure some of them are spurious and illegitimate such as that of Sybilla Erithraea in Eusebius and Augustine where the first letter of every verse being put together make up these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And that of the same Sibyll which Munster hath borrowed I know not out of what Author In ultima aetate humiliabitur deus humanabitur proles divina unietur humanitati divinitas jacebit in faeno agnus puellari educabitur officio and that of I know not which Sibylla cited by Lactantius and Austin In manus iniquas infidelium veniet dabunt deo alapas manibus incestis impurato ore expuent venenatos sputus c. He shall come into the hands of the wicked and they shall buffet him with their fists and with impure mouths shall spit upon him c. All which and many such like were I am perswaded forged by Christians to make the Gospel more passable amongst the Gentiles especially seeing amongst none of Gods Prophets no not in Isaiah himselfe whom Hierom calls not only a Prophet but an Apostle and Evangelist are extant such clear testimonies touching Christ Yet surely that in Virgils Eglogs was never as yet questioned by any which the Poet finding in the books of Sibylla Cumaea and gathering by the first letter of every verse as Ludovicus Vives thinkes that the time was at hand when that Prophesie should take place applyed that to Saloninus the sonne of Asinius Pollio which can be fitted to none save Christ the redeemer of the world Vltima Cumaei venit jam carminis aetas What Verses be these Let us heare them at least let us have the sense of them A strange exchange in course of things This present time unto us brings The Maide is come'd the Iron age is spent A new borne Babe Gods dearest Son From highest Heaven is sent Magnus ab integro seclorum nascitur ordo Jam redit virgo redeunt Saturnia regna Jam nova progenies caelo dimittitur alâ—â— Chara dei soboles And what benefit shall he bring to mankinde He shall save his people from their sins Hoc duce si qua manent sceleris vestigia nostri Jrrita perpetuà solvent formidine terras And as it followes a little after The Serpent shall be kil'd and th' of poyson dead Our Ladies Rose from Syâ—ian land through all the World shall spread Occidet Serpens fallax herba veneni Occidet Assyrium vulgo nascetur amomum What is this Serpent but that wily Serpent that deceived our first Parents What 's this Fallax herba veneni but sinne And what is this Assyrium amomum but the Balme of Gilead or to give it its English name our Ladies Rose or the Herbe of Jerusalem the Gospel of Christ begun to be Preached at Jerusalem a City in Assyria for Palaestina was then vulgarly accounted part of Assyria according to Christs direction and thence dispersed into every corner of the World See Constantines Oration Ad Caelum sanctorum fidelium cap. 20. in Eusebio These things are so plaine that a learned Rabbin amongst our Adversaries unto whom we appeale in this point Let our enemies be Judges Deut. 32. is not ashamed to confesse that Prophetae demonum non semper loquuntur ex demonum revelatione sed interdum ex inspiratione divinâ And another that God sometimes permitted amongst the Gentiles some Prophets to foretell future things And a third in his Commentary upon this Text that false Prophets have truly Prophesied The truth of this Proposition being confirmed unto us by such a cloud of witnesses I wonder what came in Bellarmines head to make Lumen Propheticum a mark of the true Church especially where he proposeth to speak of such notes by which it may most easily be distinguished from all false Religion of Jewes Hereticks and Pagans and such as are proper and againe such as though they make it not evidently true which is the true Church yet they make it evidently credible not probable onely for that 's the weaknesse of our Notes as he saith nay amongst those which admit the Scriptures and Histories and Writings of the ancient Fathers and all these we admit Faciunt etiam evidentiam veritatis Shall we count him a Master in Israel that speaks thus Doth that make it evidently appeare which is the true Church doth that difference true Religion from all false Religion of Jewes Hereticks and Pagans or is that proper Quarto modo to the Church which all Sectaries Apostates Hereticks Jewes Gentiles Devils may challenge But let us follow Bellarmine a little further and leave these slippery Snakes no think to creep out at I demand had the Gentiles no true Prophesies amongst them Imo multa falsa saith he but because they had many false had they therefore none true Speak plainly were there no true predictions of future things amongst the Pagans No forsooth Nisi forsaâ— fierent in testimoniuÌ„ nostrae fidei ut fuerunt vaticinia Sibyllarum Baalami Very well And if these were true how is lumen prophetitum proper to the true Church But we will not stand upon this advantage let us grant that there were no true Predictions amongst the Ethnicks save onely such as were for the confirmation of the Catholick faith and that all others were of such things as had naturall causes though unknowne to men known to Spirits by reason of their subtill nature and quick apprehension Verily seeing neither the reasons thereof were knowne nor the Spirit from which this knowledge proceeded could be discerned they might and may as truely be tearmed Prophesies as any of those which the Papists brag of and if they were not Prophesies indeed yet were they so in the opinion of men Saltem ipsorum opinione is a strong argument with Bellarmine to infringe the Notes which our Divines have set downe Let some of his side answer it Thales for seeing by Astronomicall Observation the abundance of Olives which would be the next yeare might by the Chians and Milesians which knew not the reason of it be counted a Prophet Columbus was for a lesse prediction little lesse respected by the barbarous Indians then Paul and Barnabas was by them of Lystra when they called Barnabas Jupiter and Paul Merourie This man being in great distresse in an Island the Inhabitants denying him all kinde of releife he understanding that shortly after there would
be a great Eclipse of the Moone signified unto them by a Messenger that he was a Prophet sent unto them from the great God of Heaven and Earth and that if they would not furnish him and his company with such things as they wanted God whose Prophet he was would utterly destroy them In token whereof quoth he the next night at such an houre the Moone shall loose her light they for all this continued in their obstinacy and scorned his threatnings At the houre named the Moone by degrees entring into the shadow of the earth was at length in those parts for a space quite darkened which when the Barbarians saw presently they ran unto Columbus they fell down at his feet they honoured him as a man they worshipped him as a God they offered themselves and whatsoever was theirs to be wholly at his service Verily the Papists do Columbus great wrong who for this witty shift deserves rather the name of a Prophet amongst them then that great Elias of the new World Francis Xaverius for his juggling Tricks in those Parts deserves the name of a waker of Miracles To end this Point Seeing it is a matter of such difficulty to distinguish a true Prophet from that which is false both because they are of things to come the truth whereof cannot be sifted out before the time be expired and though they have naturall causes yet be they such as cannot be known unto men and if they could yet seeing as already hath been proved the Infidels and Pagans have had their prophesies let the Papists prove the gift of Prophesy to be perpetual in their Church which they can never do and let them bring us as great Catalogues of their Prophesies as they do of their Miracles and lying Wonders a thing not impossible to men of such rare invention but let none from these slender Premises infer this conclusion that there is the true Church of God but rather let him undoubtedly beleive that the words of my Text are verified of these men Many shall say unto me at that day Lord Lord have not we by thy name prophesied c. Let us not think that the Precept of the Law was given in vaine If there arise a Prophet or a Dreamer of Dreames and give thee a Signe and a Wonder and the Signe and Wonder which he hath told thee shall come to passe saying Let us follow strange Gods as these men do thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that Prophet for the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your Heart and with all your Soule Deut. 13. 1 2 3. Thus much of the first the second followeth A man may be a Preacher of the Gospell and a meanes of saving others and be damned himselfe I have a long Journey to go and the time allotted me but short so that I cannot stand upon the proofe of this Proposition neither is it needfull I should having no Donatists no Anabaptists to impugne let it suffice to add unto my Text the words of the Apostle Phil. 1. 15. Some preach Christ through envie and strife truly for all that not sincerely else would not the Apostle have added that which followeth I therein joy yea and in that will joy This Sermon upon the Mount of which my Text is a Branch was preached at the Consecration of the twelve Apostles of which number Judas was one whom a while after he sent abroad to preach the Gospell then called he the twelve Disciples and sent them to preach the Kingdome of God and to heale diseases and they went through every Town preaching the Gospell and healing every where Luk. 9. 2. 6. For all Judas his preaching and healing he did not preach unto nor heale himselfe it had been good for him that he had never been born Matth. 26. The first Use and Inference of which let me â—rave your patience to spend some time shall concerne the hearers of the word It may lesson them not to have the truth of the glorious God in respect of persons as Iames speakes or that I may expresse my selfe in other words that they do not forsake or neglect a truth preached because the life of the Speaker is offensive and scandalous Saul may prophesie and Caiphas may prophesie and Iudas may prophesie And many shall say unto me at that day Lord Lord have not we by thy name prophesied Shall not Saul be credited because he is rejected why not is not Saul also amongst the Prophets 1 Sam. 19. Shall Caiphas his prophesie not be esteemed because he took away the life from the Lord of life surely yes for this spake he not of himselfe but being high Priest that yeare he prophesied that Jesus should die for the Nation Ioh. 11. 51. Shall Iudas his Sermons be set at nought because he is a damned Reprobate himselfe surely no For whosoever shall not receive you nor heare your words it was spoken to the twelve of which Iudas was one Truly I say unto you it shall be easier for them of Sodome and Gomorrah in the day of Iudgment then for that City Matth. 10. 14. 15. Oh then shall any man be such an Enemy to his own Salvation as that if the life of his Teacher be misliked he will therefore set at nought the word of God truly though not sincerely delivered what were this but to reject God himselfe as he saith unto Samuel It is not thee but me whom they haue rejected 1 Sam. 8. 7. The word of God is a Touch-stone to try every mans Actions whether they be Gold or Drosse it is a line and squa re to make us fit Stones for Gods Temple Now shall I mislike the Touch-stone because the Gold is counterfeit shall I make fit the Rule for the Stone and so make it a Lesbian Rule especially if it be a rough and unhewed Stone and as yet not fit for that building whereof Christ Jesus is the corner Stone If I be sick unto death shall I refuse physick because I mislike the Physician or because he will not take the same physick himselfe An tibi cum fauces urit sitis aurea quaeris Pocula cum esurias fastidisomnia praeter Pavonem rhombumque When thou art thirsty will thou refuse Drink unlesse it be given thee in a guilded Bowle When thou art hungry will no Meat content thee but Patridges and Pheasants Surely thou hast too dainty a Stomack it commonly falls out otherwise men that are hungry will not refuse wholesome meat though they have no good opinion of the Party that reacheth it and when they are thirsty they will not refuse Drink though it be given them in a woodden Dish Shall a man have a care of his Body and none of his Soule if my Soule be sick unto death shall I refuse physick because the Physician takes it not himselfe or shall I refuse the bread of life and water of life
to either side of the Zodiack so must he keep a strict course under the line and rule of the law and not decline to either party further then equity and a good conscience will warrant him he must not like Marriners and Saylers Obliquare Sinus fetch a compasse when the wind will not serve his turn but rather be like the two Kine which carried the Ark of the Lord from Eckron to Bethshemesh and turned neither to the right hand nor to the left unlesse as in some case it may fall out there be just cause of mitigation In a word he must lay judgment to the rule and righteousness to the ballance and as the ballance puts no difference between gold and lead not giving a greater weight to gold because it is gold nor a lesse to lead because of the baseness of the mettall but giveth an equall or unequall poyse to both without respect of either so should a Magistrate with an equall hand weigh every mans cause alike not respective to one more then another This the Aegyptians figured by the hieroglyfical from of a man without eyes or hands intimating thereby that he should neither have hands to receive bribes nor eyes to behold and respect the persons of men The same did the Greeks signifie when they painted Justice between Leo and Libra meaning that the Judg should be courageous in executing and equall and indifferent in determining For the effecting whereof three things are to be avoyded as so many dangerous rocks any of which of it self is enough to cause him make ship-wrack of honesty and a good conscience The first is that which the Apostle calls the root of all evill Covetousness it 's the very cut-throat and cankerworm of all Justice it and Justice be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non bene conveniunt nec in una sede morantur they cannot lodg within one breast Facite me Romanae urbis Episcopum ero pretinus Christianus said the wicked Pagan in Hierome Give a covetous man such and such an Office give him gold enough or what will ye give him and you shall have him sure he will be what ye will he wil doe what ye will though as absurd and repugnant to justice and right reason as that Atheist thought it was to be a Christian He will make the Laws as fit for your purpose as Procrustes fitted his guests for his Bed if they were too long he cut them off by the knees if too short he stretched out their joynts till they were as long as the Bed For avoyding of this the Judg must remember that it is a property of every good Officer and Magistrate to be an hater of covetousnesse as a thing eâ—diametro repugnant to his profession Exod. 18. 21. And that he cannot act such works of darkness though never so closely neither by himself nor by such Brokers as he keeps about him for like purposes But God who is like a wel-drawn picture that eyeth every man in the room doth behold it Quaecunque capesses testes factorum stare arbitrabere divos saith the Poet. Quare si peccare vis quaere ubi te non videat fac quod vis saith Saint Austin The 2. Rock is fear or favour of great persons but a Magistrate must be a man of courage and where doth courage appear but in resisting the mighty in using the severity of the Law against Great ones if they offend He is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Poet called a King a Shepheard of his people and should have that care over those that are under his charge which a Shepheard hath over his Flock who will not only destroy Maggots and flesh-flies and such little Vermine as are noysome to his Sheep but much more Foxes and such Beasts as make havock of them because one Fox may do more hurt in one night then 10000. Maggots can in a whole year Now to make the Laws like Cobwebs to hold Flesh flies and such little Vermin and for fear of displeasure or hope of gain to let great ones escape is as if a Shepheard should kill the Maggots in his Sheep but withall give liberty to Foxes to worry them at their pleasure or with Domitian to have a flap for every flie that cometh and neglect the weighty affayrs of the Common-wealth Hath not God styled the Magistrate with his owne name Psal 82. I have said ye are gods Hath he not made him a promise of his presence and assistance God standeth in the congregation of gods he is a Judge among Gods He will be with you in the cause and judgement 2 Chr. 19. 6. And he that hath assurance of Gods presence needs not feare any other though his Magistracie set aside far greater then himself no more then David the Lion and the Beare when they assaulted his Sheep The third and last Rock is Kindred and Friends and surely if any thing may give the Magistrate leave to set the Law upon Tenters to rack and stretch it beyond its compasse or to strain courtesie with it or to muzzle and smother it if it be against him it must be Kindred Those whom Nature hath made dear and neer unto us we cannot choose but love this is a lesson we learn not by reading or hearing but Ex natura arripuimus expressimus hausimus as the Oratour speaks This every man may see if his own affections will not tutor him in this point in Davids love to his sonne Absolon an incestuous person a murtherer a Rebell against his own Father one that sought to kill him from whom he received life all this could not make David forget he was his son What a mournfull Elegie sings he upon news of his death O Absolon my son O my son Absolon would God I had died for thee O Absolon my son my son This was it that made good K. Asa dispense with the rigor of the law against Idolaters when his Mother was found guilty 1 King 15. 13. And which made Seleucus King of the Locrenses to be cruell unto himself that he might shew some pity on his sonne when he had made this law against Adulterers that both their eyes should be pulled out his own son being taken in the act and brought before him out of a fatherly pity he divided the punishment between his sonne and himself and caused one of his sons and one of his owne eyes to be pulled out But this how potent soever to flesh and blood must not prevail with Gods Deputy and Vice-gerent to cause him to make the least digression from the course of Justice Truth must be neerer to him then any of his Kindred If thy brother the sonne of thy mother or thine owne sonne or thy daughter or the wife that lyeth in thy bosome or thy friend which is as thine owne soule shall offend the law thou shalt deale with him according to law Deut. 13. All should be of like kinn to the Judge he should be as it is