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A05416
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The bruising of the serpents head A sermon preached at Pauls Crosse September 9. 1621. By Roger Ley Maister of Arts, and minister of Gods word in Shoreditch.
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Ley, Roger, b. 1593 or 4.
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1622
(1622)
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STC 15568; ESTC S103082
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34,316
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56
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This perswasion called him into a right frame Thinkest thou that I cannot pray to my Father Matth. 26.58 and he shall presently giue me more then twelue legions of Angels This one ground-worke of true obedience made Iob know his vilenes the lofty tyrant his weaknes the zealous Disciple his due compasse as generall patternes vnto all to limite their extrauagant humours and alwaies â—are to keepe within their bounds That neither the complaint of natures weakenes should vrge distrust in necessity nor presumption swell in windy showes nor busie attempting meddle beyond the rule of Gods direction Weake is that strength which his arme doth not support and strong are those endeauours hee blesseth though full of weakenesse We haue seene the stronger man able to ouercome by power and greatnes now see the way of conquering and the strength destroyd that lay against him All know his force is infinite but by what conueiance this vertue is exprest and frames the Creature is wonderfull who can trace the footsteps Semper agens semper quietus as Austen speaketh alwaies working and alwaies quiet He worketh without change without labour or any difficulty To speake the neerest to truth is to speake the greatest his will is his worke his word his law he commanded and they were created Among men words being of small worth are sayd to be but winde their labours must toile a little in effecting things of moment but God decreeth and the Scripture reduceth all to his word which executeth his sentence By this effectuall meanes all are brought about and that by a double word to which hell and Satan and all his enemies yeeld The word whose sound we heare to teach vs and his word of prouidence whereby he sustaineth vs whereof the enemy maketh confession Matth. 4.4 Man shall not liue by bread alone but by euery word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God The first rules within the second without and one goeth along with the other to iudge and correct the Worlds courses The first commeth and ouercommeth It is the power of God to saluation Rom. 1.16 If that power excelleth all which goeth beyond all nothing can equall it It subdueth the minde and comming into the bosome medleth with a mans secrets with an inuisible controll It worketh vpon tyrants themselues and pierceth into that place where neither tyranny nor the whole earth can get an entrance It bringeth euery high thought into captiuity and the proudest is brought vpon his knees in lowest submission if hee once be sensible of himselfe The word of God is quicke and powerfull and sharper then any two edged sword piercing euen to the deuiding assunder of the soule and spirit and of the ioynts and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart Heb. 4.12 Strong in successe when God giueth his commandement vpon the Earth it runneth swiftly and nothing can stop or cast impediments sufficient in the way Compared for that end to leauen hid in three measures of meale till the whole was leauened to mustard-seede a little graine yet cast into a garden groweth into a great Tree and the foules of the Aire are lodged in the branches Vpon small and poore beginnings it hath taken such roote and fixed it selfe where it got possession that no Dominion hath beene larger It was at first and shall be last though people fall and Kingdomes like to Kings haue their periode Though nations loose it and where the day is gone before the night may be expected though persecution hath made it almost inuisible yet hath the Sunne risen againe or shined in another place it hath beene raised vp against the hope of ill willers and beyond the reach of humane wisdome and worldly helpers This word expelleth Satan and as by saying the word the deuills obeyed and the possessed were set free so are sinfull hearts gained out of thraldome by him that came to preach deliuerance to the captiues and to set the bruised at liberty But one may thinke where is this power if we iudge by the successe so many hearts continue flinty in their sinnes as if the spirituall weapon wanted power or the strong man trusting in his Armour were able to beare of the blow Good fellowship can sometimes wash away the strokes it giueth bad example can ouermatch it beyond comparison and custome can seare the conscience that often hearing careth not if reprehension beate againe and againe vpon a knowne fault Besides it sauours of simplicity teacheth a man to deny himselfe to take vp the crosse to turne out of his beloued way and repent that the Pillars of strength and policy are here defectiue and in their roome all points of infirmity These manifold supposed wants that arise from the ill speeding may haue an answere branching out into equall diuersities for this strength is not alwaies seene nor alwaies working If God should let his power and iudgements dwell vpon the conscience of euery reprobate minde confusion would fill all places Many hearers are condemned and made euill by the strength of the Word one that hath no resolution to amend in hearing taketh truth by the halfe and snatcheth sentences to his purpose When he heareth of Gods mercy there is an occasion to presume or of iudgement when he seeth not the effect at first there is an occasion of doubt of negligence and deferring The Law being vnfolded and strict obedience vrged giueth occasion to reiect that seruice as a seuere taske or a yoâ—ke too tedious to carry And the word of God is strong still as physicke may be strong though it cannot cure but account it strong as physicke it either worketh the good or the bad way either as the sauour of life vnto life or the sauour of death vnto death as the Apostle speaketh Moreouer the word is a sauing instrument and hath one end and property for this maketh an instrument more perfect to execute one sufficient seruice and there rest seeing nature maketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 euery thing for a peculiar end therefore it may want some ornaments and perfections which belongeth to other ordinances The weaker it is if stronger effects be produced the principall agent is more commended and made manifest and for this cause God hath kept the glory of all workes to himselfe imparting onely some portion to the meanes The word then being an instrument is weaker because it aimeth at one end onely to make way for iudgement and not to execute it and because it dependeth vpon God the chiefe worker but in this regard exceeding mighty because the hand of God goeth with it so it can make no shew at all yet inforce the good and terrifie the bad As the strongest body is weake and stirres not without the soule so are words nothing without him that giues-them efficacy from aboue Shouting and sound of trumpets were no such engines in military assaults these by Gods appointment did fell the walls of Iericho And S. Paul sheweth
THE BRVISING OF THE SERPENTS Head A Sermon Preached at Pauls Crosse September 9. 1621. BY ROGER LEY Maister of Arts and Minister of Gods Word in Shoreditch GEN. 3.15 I will put enmity betweene thee and the Woman and betweene thy seede and her seede it shall bruise thy Head and thou shalt bruise his Heele LONDON Printed by Iohn Dawson for Nicholas Bourne and are to be sold at his shop at the Royall Exchange 1622. TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVLL Mr. ROBERT DVCIE Alderman of London peace and saluation YOur eare hath beene partaker of that I nowe present to your eye In all things vsually one sense maketh way for the other and the second perfecteth the first for hearing doth render that but farre off which seeing giueth neerer hand A speaker is then happiest in his labour when words are permanent and fixed And that either in the heart and meditation of the hearer when the Spirit and finger of God by zeale and industrious labour printeth them there as so many engrauen letters or when to helpe memory they are exposed to publique view for sounds doe passe in the aire this hath the priuiledge of a constant continuance Sermons deliuered in that audience are principally for the gouernours of this Honourable Cittie Therefore I offer it to you by dedication as I did before in speaking vnto many Many were absent you a present hearer in the time of vacation when your place being Sheriffe required residence Moreouer being for a time a labourer in your Parish as smaller riuers vse not to breake out into seuerall Chanels if one be preserued full I let this come to you among the rest as with a greater confluence Small I terme this gift in respect of the Authour and his sufficience The words eminence which may be seene in plannesse and natiue simplicity is onely worth the reckoning God the great guide of this world hath giuen the smallest starres their influence And the milky circle in Heauen so it is called consisteth of those starres that are scarce discernable they are not for that excluded from the Firmament For although the great Philosopher supposed that circle to be lower and out of the Heauens yet the fictions of vnskilfull antiquity made it the way to Paradise and the caelestiall Court My desire is that the word being forcible in the meanest instrument may moue in the Orbe by this publique passage to direct on earth and yeeld the way to Heauen For this end I hold it better to commit the prosperous successe of it to him aboue that committed the deliuerance to me then to feare the vncertaine censures of a Criticke This being the intent of the Writer I desire the Readers true practise and entertainment may make it good Your vnfained well-willer in all obseruance and due respect ROGER LEY THE BRVISING OF THE Serpents Head At Pauls Crosse September 1621. LVKE 11.21 When a strong man armed keepeth his palace his goods are in peace 22. But when a stronger then he shall come vpon him and ouercome him he taketh from him all his Armour wherin he trusted and diuideth his spoiles 23. He that is not with me is against me and he that gathereth not with me scattereth IT is a fault grieuous and yet too common that good things are least esteemed but of all errours the basest is to misconster good actions and to depraue the shining worth of excellencie This as it is the basest so the last shift of men hardened against goodnesse for when the desart of others seemeth to touch and wound their insufficience then they cast blemishes vpon that which was feared to lay some blots vpon their vnworthinesse The story of our Sauiour affords vs an incomparable example He came to his owne and his owne receiued him not He came not among them empty handed without fauours nor led an vnprofitable life but all his workes were witnesses of his loue and all their wants and miseries euident declarers of an incomparable working Hauing now cast out a Deuill which made the people wonder the Pharisees swelling with enuie said he did it by the power of the chiefe Deuill so to disgrace the worke they could not hinder Against these men he directs his speech and sheweth in them their intollerable blasphemie a sinne against the holy Ghost neuer to haue pardon Our present History then setteth out a double conflict of Christ the King and Sauiour of the world against Satan the enemie of mankind the Deuill in the body and in the tongue in the body of a poore man possest in the tongue of the proud and rebellious Pharisees The one was a Deuill blind and dumbe the other a seeing and a slandering aduersary Because violence doth not make an enemie so dangerous as when craft conueyeth his enterprise by some secret vndermining the blind and dumbe man soone cured where the enemie shewed himselfe by force but these cauillers vnder whose lips lay hid the poyson of Asps were not so soone put to silence These Pharisees seemed holy men they called the chiefe Deuill Belzebub out of zeale and a deuout pretence in detestation of their ancestours idolatry who worshipped Baal and among seuerall kinds of that heathenish idoll which had many names according to the places of worship Baalzebub whose name they now abhord And because all things require gouernment they supposed Belzebub the chiefe in hel seeing withall so many miracles performed by Christ they said he did combine with the chiefe Deuill and by that power cast them out This calumnie is confuted by sundry arguments First out of the seuenteenth verse Euery Kingdome deuided against it selfe is brought to desolation and a house deuided against it selfe cannot stand If Satan also be deuided against himselfe and Belzebub the chiefe ioyne with Christ against the lesse how could that gouernment in dure The second argument we haue verse 19. Their iudgment was partiall and with respect of persons for their children cast out Deuills and had no blame He meaneth the Iewish exorcists who had a power giuen them from aboue by calling vpon Gods name to cast out these vncleane spirits It is more then probable these Iewes did cast them out by vsing the name of Christ which then was become famous S. Iohn saith to our Sauiour Marke 9.38 Maister we saw one casting out Deuills in thy name and he followeth not vs. These then escaped the Iewish hatred but Christ did not therefore hee inferreth against them they shall be your iudges to condemne you that malice the cause of slander that the mother of falsehood haue cast vpon me this iniustimputation A thirâ— argument is in these words A strong man keepeth his house and goods vntill a stronger force him out and take possession in his place I doe this expelling him with my word therefore his power is subiect vnto mine and my miracle is true yee ought then to embrace my saying and to stand to my cause confirmed with such cleere testimony or to be scattered in