which some Schoolmen make a fifth kind of feare which they call naturall which is not evill if it be kept within its bounds For to be touched somewhat with those things which be by nature terribilia and may do evill as Death Famine want of necessaries for this life is not evill Aristotle notes it as a kind of brutishnesse in the Celtae that they feared not Lightnings nor Inundations nor Earth-quakes But now to exceed in this kinde and for avoyding of mundane evills to incurre the displeasure of God with Elisha's servant to see thine Enemies but not thy Friends with Saul to be greatly afraid of Goliah and not to see the power of God in little David It proceeds from an evill root an immoderate love of this world and is joyned with a distrust to his providence who hath said I will not leave thee nor forsake thee and is here forbidden by our Saviour Feare not Janus-like it looks both back-ward and forward Backwards to the precedents of this Chapter so it contains the use which we are to make of that which hitherto hath been delivered concerning Gods providence Forward to the latter part of the verse and so it is a conclusion of an argument a majori thus Gods elect are Kings sonnes States of Paradise and heires apparent to the crown of Heaven Ergo they need not feare but he will watch over them with his fatherly provision protection and direction in his kingdome of grace Take it whether way ye will and it will afford us this proposition Such is Gods fatherly care and providence over his children that they need not be discouraged by humane nor mundane fears As the night Crow sees in the night but is blind in the day So a naturall man is quick-sighted in temporall things but blind in spirituall For as the Sun lighteneth the Earth but darkeneth the Heaven So his understanding giveth him direction about earthly things but for heavenly and spirituall them it darkneth and obscureth This as by many other things it is evident so especially by the worlds rash judgement touching Gods providence over his children while they remaine in these houses of clay for they seeing that the godly are oftentimes hunted as a Partridge upon the mountains or as a Pelican in the Wildernesse and an Owle in the Desart whereas the ungodly as Job speaks have their houses peaceable and without fear and the rod of God is not upon them they rejoyce in the sound of the Organs and spend their dayes in wealth They I say seeing these things not being able to give the true reason of them because God made them neither of his Court nor Privie Counsell and yet storning to be ignorant in any thing though they knew nothing as they ought to have known began to lye and libell against that eternall power in which they live move and have their being Some of them because they would not seem to impute any injustice unto God thought that such as they saw groaning under the heavy burden of affliction howsoever unto the worlds eye they might seem devout and righteous yet in very deed and before God which seeth not as man seeth for man looks on the outward appearance but God beholds the heart they were dissemblers and hypocrites Thus Paul when he had gathered a few sticks for the fire and a Viper came out of the heat and leapt on his hand was by the Barbarians counted a murtherer Job when the heavy hand of God was upon him was by Zophar thought to be a man forgotten of God for his iniquity Nay Christ our Saviour that immaculate Lamb who had done no wickednesse neither was there any guile found in his mouth was judged by the Jewes as a man plagued and smitten of God for his sinnes Isa 53. 5. Others not much unlike the old Thracians who as Herodotus writes when it thundered used to shoot up their arrows towards Heaven and to tell God that he cared for none but himselfe affirmed that though God had made the world yet the government thereof he committed to Fortunes wisdome and direction Others that he ruled Caelestiall bodies and those that are above the Moone but for these base creatures that are below it is against his divine Majestie to respect Scilicet is Superis labor est c. Others that hee was tyed to second causes and could work no otherwise then he found them disposed Hereupon came the fable of the three Fates sitting by Jupiter the one holding a Dâ—staff the second spinning the third cutting the thread whose decrees Jupiter cannot alter nor resist and Homer brings in Jupiter with a chain in his hand to which the whole world is tyed in certaine links of Causes Jupiter hath in his owne power the moving of the first linke but after the first like is moved then hee meddles with no more but one link draws on another The same Poet brings in Jupiter complaining upon the Fates by whose immutable decree he is hindered that hee cannot deliver Sarpedon from death And Neptune desiring to hinder Vlysses from coming into his Countrey for the hurt done to his sonne Polyphemus but cannot because the Fates are against him So Juno in Virgil complaines that she is resisted by the Fates from hindering Aeneas to come into Italie Mene incoeptodesistere victam Nec posse Italia Teucrorum avertere regem Quippe vetor fatis Nay some upon this occasion stickt not to come to that height of impiety that they adventured to deny that which with a pen of iron and with the point of a diamond is written in the tables of their hearts that there is a God Marmoreo Licinus tegitur tumulo Cato parvo Pompeiâ—snullo And hereupon to make up the verse came that blasphemous speech Quis putat esse deum Yes blasphemous mouth there is a God and this God is not God of the mountaines only but he is God of the valleys too he looks not only to the things which are in Heaven his Throne but also unto the things that are on Earth his foot-stool the young Ravens are fed by him one Sparrow cannot fall unto the ground without him he numbers the haires of our heads and puts our teares into a bottle and marks our treadings and reckons our steps Hee careth for his chosen as a Shepheard doth for his Flock nay as a Master doth for his houshold nay as a Father for his own Children As a father pittieth his owne children so is the Lord mercifull to them that feare him Nay as a mother loveth the sonne of her wombe which is greater then the fathers love as Aristotle well noteth Can a woman forget the child of her womb Isa 49 Emphatically spoken a woman Women where they love love earnestly David to shew the ardency of Jonathans love towards him hyperbolically extolls it above the love of a woman Can a woman forget her child Her love to children is great not only by reason
SERMONS PREACHED UPON Severall Occasions BY LANCELOT DAWES D. D. Now Minister of Barton in Westmorland and sometimes fellow of Queens Colledge in Oxford MATH 23. 37 38. O Jerusalem Jerusalem how often would I have gathered c. LONDON Printed for Humphrey Robinson at the three Pigeons in St. Pauls Church-yard MDCLIII The Contents First Sermon Gods Mercies and Jeusalems miseries Ieremie 5. 1. Runne to and fro by the streets of Jerusalem and behold now and know and inquire to the open places thereof If yee find a man or if there be any that executeth Judgment and seeketh the truth and I will spare it pag. 1. Second Sermon Matth. 26. 15. What will yee give me and I will deliver him unto you pag. 53. Third Sermon Matth. 27. 3 4. Then Judas which betrayed him saw that he was condemned repented himself and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the Chief Prieâ—ts and Elders saying I have sinned betraying the Innocent bloud but they said what is that to us see thou to that and when he had cast down the silver pieces in the Temple c. pag. 89. Fourth Sermon Psal 82. 6 7. I have said ye are gods but you shall dye like men pag. 105. Fift Sermon Galat. 3. 10. As many as are of the works of the law are under the curse for it is written cursed is every man that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them pag. 139. Sixt Sermon preached at the funeral of Dr. Senhouse Bishop of Carlile Job 14. 14. If a man die shall he live again all the dayes of my appointed time will I wait till my changing come pag. 159. The second part Four Sermons on this Text. Luk. 12. 32. Fear not little flock for it is your fathers pleasure to give you the kingdome pag 1. The second Sermon upon the same pag. 30. The third Sermon upon the same pag. â—5 The fourth Sermon upon the same pag. â—â— Fifth Sermon Matth. 7. 22 23. Many will say unto me that day Lord Lord have not we by thy name prophesied and then I will professe to them I never knew you pag. 93. Sixth Sermon Jer. 22. 3. Thus saith the Lord Execute yee Judgement and Righteousnesse pag. 129. GODS MERCIES AND IERVSALEMS MISERIES JEREMIE 5. 1. ¶ Runne to and fro by the streets of Jerusalem and behold now and know and inquire to the open places thereof if ye can find a man or if there be any that executeth Judgement and seeketh the Truth and I will spare it MAny means did the Lord use to reclaim Jerusalem from her rebellion against him by sundry commemorations of his benefits he wooed her by the sweet promises of the Gospel he incited her by the captivity of her sister Samaria he forewarned her but yet she continued like her forefathers a faithlesse and stubborn generation a generation that set not her heart aright she runs still on a wrong Bias in stead of being a faithfull Spouse she becomes a filthie harlot and playeth the Whore upon every hie mountain and under every green tree her wine is mixed with water her silver is become drosse her Princes rebels and companions of theeves and as she growes in years so she increaseth in all impieties she which at the first did onely pull little sinnes with the small cordes of vanity doth now draw greater transgressions with the huge cartropes of iniquity so that now from the sole of her foot to the crown of her head there is nothing sound in her but wounds and swellings and sores full of corruption In this case God which cannot abide wickednesse neither can any evil dwell with him as the Psalmist speaketh begins to loath her and to give her up into the hands of her most savage and cruell enemies the Chaldeans who shall defile the holy Temple and make Jerusalem a heap of stones Oh but shall the husband be so unkind to his Spouse whom he hath married unto himself shall a Father be so severe to his child shall the God of mercy be so unmerciful unto his chosen Shall not the judge of the world do right farre be it from God that hee should slay the righteous with the wicked God answereth that there is no reason why she should repine against him or accuse him of cruelty her Apostasie is so generall her disease like a Gangraena is spread through every member of the body her malice is so incurable that he cannot without impeachment of his justice spare her any longer Runne to and fro by the streets of Jerusalem c. as if he had said O yee men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem do not say that your teeth are set on edge because your fathers have eaten sowre grapes do not object that my wayes are not equal it is your wayes that are unequal it is your sins that brings this heavy doom upon your heads whether this be so or not you your selves be Judges for I beseech you seek up and down not in the Countrey towns onely and villages of Judah but in the Metropolis of the whole Kingdome in the holy City run through every corner of it search and enquire in the houses and allies and back-lanes and high streets thereof marke their conditions observe their practises consider their behaviour take a full view of their whole carriage if after such enquiry there be found but one man amongst the whole multitude that feareth me or maketh any conscience of his wayes and I will spare the whole City for that one mans sake but if after you have sought man by man there be not one godly man found amongst them all think it not cruelty if now at length I inflict in justice my judgements upon her the summe is contained in this short proposition I will spare Jerusalem if there can one righteous man be found in her Wherein wee may observe these two principall points Gods mercy in that hee would have spared Jerusalem for one mans sake Jerusalems misery in that not one righteous man can bee found in her the former I deliver in this proposition Gods mercy in sparing doth exceed his justice in punishing and with this wee will beginne But alas who am I dust and ashes that I should intreat of this Subject it is a bottomelesse depth who can dive into it it is an unaccessible light who can behold it if the Heathen Simonides after three dayes study how to describe God was further from any resolution in the latter end then when he first began nay if Moses a man more familiar with God then any that ever lived upon the face of the earth when he was put in a clift of a rock and covered with Gods hands could not behold the glory of his face then may it not seem strange if the tongues of men and Angels faile in describing the very back parts of this one
attribute being more proper and essentiall unto God then any whatsoever That Tyrian proved the wisest in the end who having concluded in the Evening with his fellowes that he which could first in the next morning behold the Sun which they worshipped as a God should be King looked not toward the East where he riseth but towards the western mountains where his rayes did first appear We will follow his Example and seeing we cannot seek into the fountain at which the Cherubs did cover their faces let us behold it in the mountains that is the Prophets and Apostles as Jerome expounds the word or the mountains that is the creatures and works of God in all which it doth most clearly shine there is no work of God in which there do not appear such manifest Characters of his mercy that he which runneth may read them Those benefits intended towards his children as namely Election before all time creation in the beginning of time Vocation Redemption Justification in the fulnesse of time Glorification after all time c. To prove them to be so many rivers of the bottomlesse Ocean of Gods never dying mercy it were but to busie my self about a principle which I hope none of you will call into question Gods almighty power is manifested unto us in that he hath created the world of nothing and made all the hoast of heaven by the breath of his mouth and it is a property in describing of which Gods Secretaries do strive to be eloquent Job to shew it faith that hee spreadeth out the heavens like a Canopie and walketh upon the height of the Sea that he maketh the starres Arcturu and Orion and Pleiades and the climates of the South Elihu sets it forth under Behemoth whose taile is like a Cedar and his bones like staves of brasse yet the Lord leadeth him whither soever he will and under Leviathan which makes the depth to boile like a pot and the sea like a pot of ointment and yet the Lord can put a hoâ—k in his nose and pierce his jawes with an Angle David to shew it faith that he maketh the mountains to skippe like Rammes and the little hils like young sheep Esay to expresse it saith that all nations before him are as a droppe of a bucket and are counted as the dust of the ballance that hee taketh away the Isles as a little dust that he hath measured the waters in his fist and counted heaven with a span comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in a weight and the hils in a ballance and yet his mercy goeth beyond his power in that his omnipotency hath made nothing but what his mercy moved him to create and it comes after too in preserving and guiding and protecting by his heavenly providence a branch of his mercy whatsoever his powerfull hand hath made if he should but once stop the influence of his mercy all the works of his hands should presently be annihilated The earth is full of the mercies of the Lord saith the Psalmist hee saith not the heavens saith Austen Quia non indigent misericordia ubi est nulla miseria they needed no mercy where there is no misery and yet in another place hee addeth the heavens too thy truth an other of his attributes goeth unto the clouds there it stayeth but thy mercy goeth further it reacheth unto the heavens in fewer words It is over all his works But my text leads me to entreat of his mercy as it hath reference unto his justice where you shall finde that of two infinites one doth infinitely surpasse an other to bee called a mercifull God and the father of mercy is a title wherein God especially delighteth but he is almost never called the God of judgement here how hee proclaimeth himself The Lord the Lord strong there is one Epithete of his power merciful gracious slow to anger abundant in goodnesse and truth reserving mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin there are six of his mercy Then comes his justice in punishing of offences not making the wicked innocent visiting the iniquity of the Fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation there he confines his justice hee saith unto it as he doth unto the seas in Job Hither shalt thou goe and thou shalt go no further here shalt thou stay thy raging waves it shall not passe the fourth generation and that is more then Ordinary if it come so farre it is but as a high spring upon such as hate him but his mercy flowes like a boundlesse Ocean upon thousands of those that love him Nay the Prophet tels us that to punish is with God a rare and extraordinary work The Lord saith he shall stand as in mount Perazim hee shall be angry as in the valley of Gibeon that hee may do his work his strange act This is an act of judgement where you see that to punish with him is an uncouth and strange work an act indeed unto which without compulsion of justice hee could not be drawn he is more loath to put out his hand for to inflict a judgement then ever was Octavius to subscribe his name to the execution of any publike offender whose usuall speech was this Vtinam nescirem literas I would to God I could not write How oft doth miserable man offend against his maker surely if the just man fall seven times then the wicked falleth seventy times seven times and yet he maketh his Sunne to shine upon them both he makes his rain to fall upon them both still almost he containeth the sword of his justice within the sheath of his mercy If in case he be enforced to draw it he is as it were touched with a feeling of that which the wicked suffer hear himself speak Therefore thus saith the Lord of hoasts the holy one of Israel ah I will ease me of mine adversaries and avenge me of mine enemies it is a kinde of ease to be avenged of thine enemie and therefore God when the Jews continue still to provoke him to his face will ease himself by inflicting his judgements upon them I will ease me of mine enemies but it comes with an ah or alas it is pain and grief to him he is wounded to the very heart his bowels are rolled and turned within him a few tears might have made him sheath his sword and deferre his punishments the history of Ahab will prove as much who was one that had sold himself to work wickednesse that provoked the Lord more then all the Kings of Israel that were before him then Baasha then Omri then Jeroboam the son of Nebat that made Israel to sin therefore the Lords sends unto him the Prophet Eliah telling him that in the field where the dogs licked up the blood of Naboth they should lick his blood also and that he would wipe
when God writeth thy sinnes in dust wilt thou write thy Brothers in Marble When he forgiveth thee ten thousand talents wilt not thou forgive thy Brother an hundreth pence If thou wilt be indeed his Sonne be like unto him be pitiful tender-hearted full of mercy and compassion if thou be angry beware that thou sin not by speedy revenge if thy wrath be conceived in the morning and perchance increase his heat with the Sunne till mid-day yet let it settle with the Sunne at afternoon and set with it at night Let not the Sunne go down upon thy wrath if its conception be in the night use it as the harlot used her child smother it in thy bed and make it like the untimely fruit of a woman which perisheth before iâ— see the Sun to this purpose remember that the Citizens of this Jerusalem are at unity amongst themselves the stones of this temple are fast coupled and linked together the members of this Body as they are united in one head with the nerves of a justifying faith So are they knit in one heart with the Arteries of love The branches of this Vine as they are united with the boale from whence they receive nutriment so have they certain tendâ—els whereby they are fastned and linked one to another Now if without compassion thou seekest thy brothers hurt thou dost as it were divide Christ thou pullest a stone out of this Temple thou breakest a branch from this Vine nay more then so thou cuttest the Vine it self Virgil tels us that when Aeneas was pulling a bough from a miâ—tle tree to shadow his sacrifice there issued drops of blood from the boale trickling down unto the ground at length he heard a voice crying unto him thus Quid miserum Aenea laceras jam parce sepulto parce pias scelerare manus the Poet tels us that it was the blood of Polydorus Priamus his sonne which cried for vengeance against Polymnester the Thracian King which had slain him in like manner whensoever thou seekest the overthrow of thy Christian Brother and hast a desire to revenge thy self of him as hee had to pull a bough from the Tree think that it is not the branches but the Vine thou seekest to cut down Think that Christ will count this indignity done to his members as it were done to himselfe Think that thou hearest him cry unto thee after this manner jam parce sepulto parce tuas scelerare manus imbrue not thy hands in my blood hand cruor hic de stipite manat it is not the branches thou fightest against Nam Polydorus ego I am Jesus whom thou persecutest I am now come near to a point which I have pressed heretofore in the other publick place of this citie therefore I proceed no further but turn aside to my second general point observed in this verse which was Jerusalems miserie The Tree is very fruitful and I am but a passenger and therefore must be contented to pull two or three clusters which I conceived to be the ripest and the readiest to part with the boughs which when I have commended to your several tastes I will commit you to God First the Paucity of true Professors if ye can finde a man or if there be any Secondly the place where In Jerusalem Thirdly that God will bring his judgements upon her because of her wickednesse not expressed but necessarily understood From these three I collect three Propositions from the first Gods flock militant may consist of a small number from the second There is no particular place so priviledged but that it may revolt and fall from God from the third No place is so strong nor city so fenced but the sins of the people will bring it to ruine Of these three in order Gods holy Spirit directing me and first of the first God made all the world and therefore it is great reason that he should have it all to himself yea and he challengeth it as his own right The gold is his and the silver is his and all the beasts of the field 〈◊〉 his and so are the cattel upon a thousand hills and the Heavens are his for they are his Throne and the earth is his for it is his footstool and the reprobate are his for Nebuchadnezzar is his servant and as Judah is his so is Moab likewise but in another kinde of service in a word The earth is the Lords and all that therein is the compasse of the world and all that dwell therein but not in that property which is now meant for that belongs only unto men and yet not unto all but to a few which are appointed to be heirs of salvation God made all men so that they are all his sons by creation but he ordained not all to life so that there is but a remnant which are his sons by adoption our first Father did eat such a sowre grape as did set all his childrens teeth on edge by transgressing Gods commandment he lost his birth-right and was shut out of Paradise by committing treason against his Lord and King his blood was stained and all his children were made uncapable of their fathers inheritance but God who is rightly termed the Father of all mercy and God of all consolation as he purposed to shew his justice in punishing the greater part of such as so grievously incurred his displeasure so on the contrary side it was his good pleasure to shew his mercy in saving of some though they deserved as great a degree of punishment as the other and therefore in a Parliment holden before all times it was enacted that the natural son of God the second person in the Trinity should in the fulnesse of time take upon him mans flesh and suffer for our transgressions and gather a certain number out of that Masse of corruption wherein all mankinde lay these be they which shall follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth these be his people and the sheep of his pasture these be they which have this prerogative to be called the Sons of God and the heirs of God annexed with Christ and these are they which I affirm to be often contained in a very narrow room in respect of the wicked There is much chaffe and little wheat it is the wheat that God keeps for his garner there are many stones but few pearls it is the pearl which Christ hath bought with his blood Many fowls but only the Eagles be good birds Sathan hath a Kingdom and Christ but a little flock it is like to Bethleem in the land of Judah but a little one amongst the Princes of Judah it is like to Noahs flood going and returning like the 〈◊〉 flowing and ebbing or like to the Moon filling and waining and sometimes so eclipsed and darked with the earth that thou canst not perceive that Christ the son of righteousnesse doth
to doe according to all that they enforme thee Deut. 17. Beside this the law was there more diligently then in other places expounded the Prophets did reveale Gods secrets unto the people and by thundring out the Canons of the law did strive to weane them from their evill wayes and by the promises of the Gospell tâ— woo them unto God the Iebusites which before time God had permitted to dwell amongst them that they might be thornes in their eyes and prickles in their sides were now extirpated so thaâ— they could not choke the word of God which was sowne amongst them and make it unfruitfull Was there ever Citie upon the face of the earth which had such a Charter as this the Citie where God had promised to be resident where was the Arke of the Covenant and the glorious Temple which Solomon had built at Gods appointment where the Kings of Iudah had their abode where the Law and the Prophets were diligently read and expounded unto the People where all points of difficulty were handled where was the Priests Palace whither the whole land had recourse out of their severall Tribes as unto the place where men ought to worship it was a heaven upon the earth and a type of that glorious City which is above and is Ierusalem so fallen from God can there not one righteous man be found within her walles is the holy citie become so wicked is the faithful Spouse becom a harlot are her Princes become rebels her Judges murtherers her gold dross her charitie oppression her ripenes rottennes her almesdeeds al-mis-deeds Hath the leprosie of sin so infected every part of her body that from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head there is nothing whol therein but wounds and swellings and soresful of corruption what need we go further for proving our conclusion for as he speaks in Tully Either this is enough or I know not what wil suffice If you would have topical arguments after such a demonstration as this I could lead you through many places of invention which would manifestly confirme my assertion I could shew you the Churches of Galatia and Philippi and Corinthus which Paul had plantâ—d Apollos and other Disciples had watered and God had wonderfully encreased I could instance in Smyrna and Pergamus and Laodicea c. In which the Evangelist Iohn had so painfully laboured in Constantinople and Ephesus and Nice and Chalcedon famous for the generall Councels in Carthage and Hippo and other Churches of Africke in Anticohia the first God-mother of Christians and in a word in all the Easterne and African Churches in which so many Worthies have flourished What is the case of these particulars at this day behold they are fallen as though they had not been planted as though the seed of the word had not been sown amongst them as though that stock had taken no root in the earth the Lord hath blowne upon them and they are withered and the whirl wind hath taken them away like stubble the abomination of desolation let him that heareth it consider it sitteth in their holy places which are now nothing else but as it were an habitation for Dragons and Courts for Ostriches instead of the Sacred Bible they have entertained the blasphemous Alchoran their Mophâ—i Mezin and Antippi and such Idolatrous Mahometans have gotten the rooms of the ancient Fathers What and are these also fallen then let her that thinketh shee standeth take heed lest shee fall I meane that strumpet which advanceth her selfe above the starrs of God which saith I am and none else and sings with Niobe in the Poet Sum foelix I am in a happy estate and there shall no harme happen unto me which with Laodicea thinketh that she is rich and encreased with goods and needeth nothing where as indeed as anon you shall heare she is wretched and miserable and poore and blind and naked Nineve had such a conceit of her selfe and did so farre presume upon her strength that she thought it had been impossible for all the powers of the world to bring her under the hatches And therefore the Lord bids her looke upon the state of Alexandria a stronger Citie then Nineve and yet she was destroyed Art thou better saith he then No which was full of people that lay in the rivers and had the waters round about it whose ditch was the sea and her wall was from the sea Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength and there was no end Put Lubin were her helpers yet was she carried away and went into captivitie The same may be said of Rome suppose that none of these cities which I have last mentioned may paralell with her is she better then Jerusalem which was seated upon such strong bulwarkes as already hath been mentioned yet she fell from God and moved the holy one of Israel to anger against her grant unto her all that she can claim and she will be sure to lack nothing for want of challenging for she is not unlike to him who could not espie a ship floating upon the seas but presently said it was his and more then all the Papists in the world can prove to be her due yet she hath no more to brag of then had Jerusalem is she the mother-Citie of all other and the Metropolis of all Christendome So was Jerusalem in respect of the Inhabitants of Iurie Which at that time wer the only people which God had chosen Are all others to appeal unto her as unto their supream Judge in matters of difficultie so were Jewes unto the high court of Ierusalem did Peter the Prince of the Apostles the porter of heaven gates remove his chaire from Antiochia and placed it at Rome so did the Lord his tabernacle from Shiloh to Ierusalem hath Rome the head or chiefe Bishop of all christendome Ierusalem had the like is she the keeper and dispenser of the Lords treasurie So was Ierusalem doth she challenge a freedome for persevering in the truth Ierusalem had better grounds to doe the like and verily as Rome doth at this day flatter her self with a false application of universall promises So did Jerusalem Abraham is our father we are the Children of Abraham this is my rest forever the scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from under his feet the temple of the Lord the temple of the Lord this is the Temple of the Lord. All her titles that she can any way lay claim unto will not make her better then Ierusalem which became such an Apostate that not one godly man could be found in her So that she cannot challenge any priviledge to her selfe from falling to the like wickednes that which happens to the one may befal the other Uâ—lesse she can deal with the truth as the old Romanes handlâ—d dâ—d the goddesse 〈◊〉 who after they had wâ—ne the field used to â—ippe her wings that she might not
the way The third was Lazarus and he was dead stinking in his grave and Christ raised him there Saint Austin doth thus moralize the stories ista tria genera mortuorum sunt tria genera peccatorum c. These three kinds of dead men are three kinds of sinners whom our Saviour doth daily raise from death unto life These are those that be dead in the house these be they that have conceived sinne in their hearts but have not actually committed the same he feare dead in the house for there is no sinne no not the least exorbitant thought of its own nature venial but he that raised Iairus daughter will upon their repentance raise these the second sort are those that are dead in the way these are they that have conceived sins in their souls and actually committed the same these are in the way to be buried in Hell but he that said to the widdows sonne of Naim young man arise is able and willing upon their repentance to raise these The third are those that with Lazarus lye stinking in the grave these are they that have not onely conveyed sinne in their hearts and actually committed the same but by long continuance have got an habit of sinning and continued custome like a great stone is laid upon their graves the case of these men is fearefull but he that said Lazarus come forth is able and readie if they lay as deep as Hell upon their serious repentance to raise these Non haec dico fratres saith he ut qui vivunt vivant sed ut qui mortui sunt revivificant I speak not these thiâ—gs Brethren that those that live in sin may be incouraged to continue therein but that those who are dead in sinne may be revived well then let us be sorry with Judas let us make confessâ—ion with Judas let us make fatisfaction with Judas but let us never despaire with Judas be our sins never so hainous for there is no more proportion between our sins and Christs merits apprehended by faith then there is to use Tullies phrase inter Sillam muriae mare Aegeum between a drop of brine and the Aegean nay the whole Ocean Sea For as Rahab the Harlot was saved by reason of a red thred which was tied to her window when Jericho was destroyed so be thou ten thousand times worse then ever Rahab was if the red thred of Christs bloody passion be tyed to the window of thy heart by faith doubt not but thou shalt be saved though not Iericho but the whole world should be destroyed But without this faith our legal sorrow will availe nothing our confession nothing our satisfaction will profit nothing for as a plaster be it never so excellent if as soone as it is laid upon a sore it be wiped off will not heale the sore and as a potion be it never so precious if as soone as it be drunke it be vomited up again will not 〈◊〉 he inward maladies that are in a mans bodie So the precious plaster of Christs merits will not heal the wounds of our soules if it be wiped off by unbeliefe nor will the Soveraign potion of his merits cure our inward maladies if they be vomited up by incredulitie I have read somewhere of a Lacedemonian who riding on his way hapned to finde a dead man and not knowing perfectly that he was dead he alighted from his horse to trie whether he could make him stand when he could not but the dead fell sometime this way and sometime that he said to himself deâ—st profecto aliquid intus there is something wanting within that should keep him up he said truly for his soul was wanting a man without faith be he never so sorrowfull for his sinnes make he never so ample a confession of them be he pressed even to the mouth of hel with a dolefull remembrance of his iniquities yea though he could say the whole Bible on his fingers ends he is never able to stand in judgement nor to make answer before the Lord in the congregation of the righteous and no marvell for by faith wee stand 2 Cor. 1. 24. and therefore it stands us all upon for the best of as all hath but fidem implicitam I mean a weake and imperfect faith to pray with the Apostles O Lord encrease our faith and with the father of the possessed child Lord I believe help my unbeliefe PSAL. 82. 6 7. I have said ye are Gods but yee shall die like men THere are three sorts of men who if they be faithfull in their places and follow the direction of their books are the chief pillars to support a Christian common-wealth the Physitian the Divine and the Magistrate These three are in the body politick as the three principall parts the liver the heart and the braine are in the body of man The Physitian is the liver the Divine is the heart and the Magistrate is the brain of the common-wealth The liver is called the beginning of the natural faculty it segregateth the humours it ingendreth alimental bloud and by veins sends it into each part of the body whereby the whole is nourished and preserved Like unto it is the Physitian who purgeth the body of man from such noxious humours as whereby it may be endangered and prescribeth such a diet as whereby it may be best nourished and kept in health The heart is called the beginning of the vital faculty it ingendreth the vital spirits and by arteries sendeth them into every particular member To which I compare the Divine For as the heart is the fountain of the vital spirits and the beginning of the vital faculty so is the Divine the fountain and beginning though not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of generation nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of radication yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to use the Physitians terms of the dispensation of the true vital spirit Hee is the means to make thee of a natural man such as the Physitian leaveth thee a spiritual substance The brain which is called the beginning of the animal faculty is the chief commander of the whole it sitteth in the highest room as in a stately palace being compassed about with the pericranium the cranium and the two meninges as so many strong castles and countermures against all forrain invasion It hath the five externall senses as intelligencers to give notice what is done abroad the common sense the phantasie and the understanding as privy counsellers the memory as a book of records But yet it is not idle but is continually busied in tempering the spirits received from the heart which it sendeth by the nerues through the whole body thereby giving sense and motion to every part A fit embleme of a good Magistrate who as he hath his forts and guard and counsellours and records c. so must he remember that he hath not these for his own proper use but for the whole and therefore should bestir himself for benefitting the whole
done great things for them so he requireth much at their hands But alas it often falleth out that those which owe God the most pay him the least and those who of all others should be most careful of their places of all others make the least conscience of their wayes Tacitus reporteth of Claudius that he was a good subject but an ill Emperour of Titus that he was an ill subject but a good Emperour Where one proves like Titus two prove like Claudius Honours change manners And those goodly blossomes which did appear in many when they were private men when they come in Gods-place like frost-eaten buds wither away and prove like thunder-blasted fruit not worth the touching much lesse the tasting It is noted of Aeneas Sylvius that when once he became Pope and got his name changed into Pius secundus he condemned divers of those things which he had written when he was a private man Whereupon upon one came over him with this quippe quod Aeneas probavit Pius damnavit that which Aeneas commended Pius condemned A fault to which men of eminent place are too much subject to condemne and dislike those good things when they are in authority which they approved when they were privat men Quod Aeneas probavit Pius damnabit Thus those whom God cals Elohim change their natures and prove Elilim idols and vanities The heathen persecuters as some writers have recorded in the place where Christ was crucified had placed the image of Venus a heathen idol that if any should worship Christ he might seem to adore Venus This is the devils practise to set an idol in Gods room sometimes a Venus or a Cupid that use their authority for the enjoying of their own carnal pleasures sometimes a Mars using his power to bloud and revenge fometâ—mes a â—aturn that eateth up his children that is his inferiours which he should affect as a father doth his own children as if they weâ—e bread sometimes a Mercurie who is eloquent in speaking but withall nimble in fingring having a smooth tongue lie Jacob but rough hands like Esau nay Eagle clawes like Nabuchadnezzar to scrape and scratch together whatsoever comes in his way using his place only for his own advantage Here is the undoing of all for besides that Gods place is polluted and the people wronged there is an evil president given to privat men to follow the wicked example of their Governours For as the lower spheres follow the motion of the higher so in the common-wealth those that are of an inferiour ranke are ready to follow the practise of those that are set over them When a shrub or bramble falleth they hurt none but themselves but when a Cedar of Lebanon or an oake of Basan falleth down goes all the underwood that growes about them It is the nature of the plague to infect upwards from a lower to a higher room but the plague of sinne is more forcible in effecting downwards from an higher to a lower room It descends from the top to the toe and from the head to the skirts of the clothing If Herod be troubled about the birth of Christ all Jerusalem will be in an uproar with him And if Jeroboam be an idolater componitur orbis Regis ad exemplum all Israel will go a whoring after him And hereupon it is that ye shall seldome meet with his name in the book of kings but you shall find him branded in the forehead with this mark that he made Israel to sinne 13. God be thanked we have no great occasion of complaint at this day especially in our chief Magistrates and I wish I might without check of conscience say as much of those that are of an inferiour ranke The Lord hath set over us his name for ever be blessed for it a most godly and religious King of whom as Tacitus saith of Trajane and Cocceius Nerva a man may think what he will and speak what he thinks God hath given him as he did unto a Solomon a large heart as the sand that is upon the sea shoar to judge his people according to right and to b discern beween good and bad Whose princely care is to observe the practise of the old Romanes c to set Honours temple close on the backside of Vertues temple and not wittingly to suffer any to come into the Temple of Honour which have not first done their devotion in the Temple of Vertue not to make his Judges and chiefe Magistrates like Jeroboams Priests of the basest and lowest of the people but such as Moses at Jethro's perswasion made Judges over Israel men of courage fearing God men dealing truly and hating covetousnesse 14. And such R. H. you have by good demonstrations evidently proved your selves to be So that to make any large discourse before you of your particular duties may peradventure seem unto some as needlesse a piece of work as it was for Phormio to make a military discourse before Annibal or for Plotin to read a lecture in Philosophie in the presence of Origen Yet because it comes within the limits of my text I beseech you that you will with patience hear me while I shall say somewhat of that dutie which God requires at your hands in that he hath seated you in those high rooms Many will tell you of the greatnesse of your places but not so many will truly acquaint you with that which God requires for the discharging of those places For my part me thinks I may say unto you as Lucius Posthumius sometimes said unto the Senatours of Rome Noâ— sum Patres-conscripti adeò vestrae dignitatis memor ut obliviscar me esse Consulem I am not so mindful of the greatnesse of your places that I should in the mean time forget mine own how that God hath made me his Ambassadour and commanded me to acquaint you with some part of his will 15. It is our parts and duties to give you that reverence and honour which is due unto men of your place But yet as the people said unto the Asse that carried the image of Isis when the beast seemed to be proud because the people bowed as it went along the streets as if the honour had been given unto it and not unto the image religioni non tibi said they it is not thee but the goddesse whom we worship So it is not to you as ye are men but as you are in Gods place and do bear and resemble his person that we exhibit this reverence You are Gods but ye are Gods on earth and Gods of earth as we shall hear anon Mathematitians tell us that the whole earth is but a point in respect of the highest moveable it is no more in respect of that heaven which is Gods throne then Alcibiades his lands were in that mappe of Greece that Socrates shewed unto him The greatest Judge in the world if his circuit should extend
disgorge and cast up whatsoever lies on his stomach I doubt not but their apish tricks will in time move the heart and stomach of our gracious and merciful Coeur de Lion and other Magistrates in their places to cast up and shew such tokens of their inward grief as they shall have just occasion to conceive against them and to purge the body politick from these noxious humours wherewith it is endangered And without this there is no assurance of peace For as Jehu said unto Jehoram when he went against the house of Ahab is it peace Jehu said Jehoram What peace said the other while the whoredoms of thy mother Jezabel and her witchcrafts are in great number So say I what peace can be expected as long the whoredoms of the Romish Iezabel and her witchcrafts and inchanting cups wherewith she withdraweth the people from their obedience to their Soveraign and stealeth their hearts from him as did Absolon the hearts of the Israelites from David his father are in great number As long as the Pope can set any foot-hold in Britain he will bestir himself to molest the peace of our Sion Et si non aliquâ nocuisset mortuus esset But enough if not too much of this subject It is a point which I vowed to handle not out of any spleen to any particular person whosoever he that seeth the thoughts of my heart knowes that I lie not but for the love of the truth the zeal of Gods glory the integrity of my conscience and the discharge of my duty And herein liberavi animam meam look ye unto it The third proposition followeth 23 Ye shall die What mettal other creatures were made of whether immediately of nothing or of some preexistent matter I finde no expresse mention in Gods book This I finde that man was made of a matter and that not gold nor silver pearl or pretious stones but of earth the basest and vilest of all the elements yea of the dust of the earth even of dry dust which is good for nothing that if he shall with proud Phaeton in the Poet boast that Apollo God is his father he might presently call to mind that poor Clymene the earth is his mother that he was made of dust that he is but dust and that he shall return to dust And yet I know not how it comes to passe but I am sure it is true that many in authority resemble the dust in no property better then one that as the dry dust in the streets is with every blast of winde blown aloft into the air so are their hearts blown aloft and swelled up with a windie tympanie of their own greatnesse But let them climbe as high as they can God will one day send a shower and lay this dust They are but natural men and the threed of nature as a Poet feigneth is tyed unto the foot of Jupiters chair he can loose it when it shall please him Though Adams wit was such that he could give names unto every creature according to their natures yet he forgot his own name He did not remember that he was called Adam homo ab humo by reason of that affinity that was between him and the earth These sons of Adam are very like their old grand-father they are witty in seeking out the names and properties of other creatures but they forget their own names and their natures too And this is the cause why they be so holden with pride and overwhelmed with cruelties They will with Nebuchadnezzar strive to advance themselves above the stars of God and to match their old grand-father the first Adam who though he was made of earth yet with the wings of pride and arrogancie would needs soar up into heaven and care little for resembling their elder brother the second Adam who took upon him our weaknesse that we might be strengthened our poverty that we might be inriched our nakednesse that we might be clothed our basenesse that we might be exalted our mortality that we might be invested in the robe of immortality and was contented to descend from heaven to earth that he might make a way for us to ascend from earth to heaven But let them secure themselves as much as they will their hour-glasse is continually running the tide of death will tarry no man Our father hath eaten a sowre grape and his childrens teeth are set on edge Our grand-father for eating of the forbidden tree had this sentence denounced against him that he should return to dust And his children are liable unto it till heaven and earth be renewed and there be no more death Those great and mighty Gods of the earth which clothe themselves in purple and fine linnen and dwell in houses of Cedar and adde house to house and land to land as if the way to heaven layd all by land have a time appointed them when their insatiable desires shall be contented with a Golgotha a place of dead mens skulls a little portion of the great potters field as much as will serve to hide and cover a dead carkasse in it You which sit on the seat of judgement whom the Lord hath so highly extolled as to be called Gods you have your dayes numbred your moneths determined your bounds appointed which ye cannot passe It is not the ripenesse of your wits nor the dignity of your places nor the excellency of your learning nor the largenesse of your commission that can adde one inch unto the threed of your dayes Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauperum tabernas Regúmque turres Deaths arrow will as quickly pierce through the strong castle of a King as the muddie wall of a countrey swain Were ye wiser then Solomon stronger then Samson richer then Iob mightier then the greatest Monarch of the earth faithfuller in your places then Samuel that faithful Judge of Israel Ire tamen restat Numa quò devenit Ancus This must be the conclusion Ye must die as men and yeeld your bodies to deaths Serjeant to be kept prisoners in the dungeon of the earth till the great and general assizes that shall be holden by our Saviour Christ in the clouds of the skie at the last day The conclusion is most certain howsoever the premises be fallible and doubtful Alexander when by his followers he was called a God forgot that he was to die as a man till by a poysoned arrow he was put in minde of his mortality and then he confessed the truth Vos me Deum esse dixistis sed jam me hominem esse sentio You said that I was a God but now I perceive I am but a man And shortly after he perceived it with a witnesse when he was poysoned by Antipater and then inclosed in a small parcel of ground whose aspiring mind the whole world could not fil Cui satis ad votum non essent omnia terrae Climata terra modò sufficit
to permit them to fall as namely to humble them to make them more earnestly implore his help to shew unto them their own miserie in relapsing and to make knowne his owne mercy in forgiving but still he is ready to receive them again if they returne unto him by repentance For if he would have us to forgive our Brethren their trespasses when they turne unto us and ask forgiveness not seven times but seventy times seven times that is as oft as they offend us much more will the Lord out of the bottomlesse depth of his mercie pardon his children when they fall if afterward they returne unto him by earnest and unfeigned repentance And thus much in effect the Novatians did at length confesse holding that such as sinned after baptisme were not to be admitted into the congregation but yet they should be exhorted to repentance that so they might obtain remission of sinne of God who alone can forgive sinnes meaning that if after their relapse they should repent the Lord would have mercie upon them and this is the difference betwixt Gods children and revolting hypocrites these when they fall they fall away but Gods Elect though they fall seven times yet they rise as often The fall of the wicked is like the fall of Eli from his chaire or of Iesabel from the window it is a breakneck fall but the fall of the godly is like unto the fall of Eutychus though they fall from the third loft yet they are taken up though dead and some good Paul by embracing them with the sweet promises of his Gospel doth revive them the wicked are like to the Raven which as the vulgar corruptly reades it went out of the Arke and returned not they goe out of the Arke the Church and return not but feed upon the carrion of this world but the godly are like the Dove they flie somtimes out of the Arke the church of God yet when they find no rest for the soles their feet they returne again with an olive-branch in their mouthes like the Dove I mean with an humble confession of their offences and earnest and hearty prayers unto Almighty God which when they do then Noah the true Preacher of righteousness will put forth his hand and again receive them into the arke And therefore let not the weake Christian be discouraged with the remembrance of such sinnes as he hath faln into after his justification as if now there were no hope of pardon but let him prostrate himselfe before the throne of God and with many bitter groanes crie after this or the like manner Father I have sinned against Heaven and against thee I dare not lift up my impure eyes unto the heavens the seate of thy majesty I am one whom thou hast vouchsafed to adopt to be thy son and yet I have never reverenced thee as a loving Father but like a stranger have transgressed thy precepts and neglected thy statutes so that I am most unworthy to be called thy sonne I am one for whom thou hast given thine owne and only sonne Christ Jesus God and man the very brightnesse of thy glorie the engraven form of thy person the essential word by which thou madest all things and yet I have been unmindfull of so great a benefit I have rejected the sweet promises of thy sons Gospel I have denyed the faith I have sinned Father I have sinned against Heaven and against thee I am no more worthy to be called thy sonne I am one whom thou out of the bottomlesse depth of thy mercie many others of better desert being still leftin darknesse hast illuminated with the light of thy word hast called unto faith and repentance hast ingrafted into the true Vine when I was a wild branch thou hast made me partaker of thy holy sacraments and yet these inestimable Jewels these heavenly treasures these rich indowments I have set at naught and trodden under foot I have sinned Father I have sinned against Heaven and against thee I am no more worthy to be called thy sonne I am one whom thou hast washed with the blood of thy deare sonne whom thou hast restored to newness of life and yet I have returned like a dog to my vomit and with the Sow to the wallowing in the mire to thee therefore to thee belongeth righteousness but unto me belongeth nothing but shame and confusion of face yet O my God the greater my offences are the more earnestlie I implore thy help and the more shall thy mercie appeare if thou pardon and forgive them I have polluted and defiled all my wayes thou O Lord Jesus which art puritie it selfe which camest into this world to save sinners whereof I am chief wash my filthiness revive my deadness quicken my dulness awake my drousiness kindle my zeale increase my faith Lord Jesus I flie unto thee my soule gaspeth after thee as a thirstie land Peter denyed thee and thou didst receive him again the Apostles forsooke thee and yet thou forgavst them Paul persecuted thee and yet thou didest receive him to mercie David did grievously trespasse and yet thou O God hadst pittie and compassion upon him the Israelites oftentimes provoked thee and yet thou didst in thy mercie forgive them thy love is not abated thy bowels of compassion are not lessened the bottomlesse-Ocean of thy mercie is not dried thou hast protested and made it to be proclaimed by thy Herauld the Prophet that thou wilt not the death of a sinner but that he turne unto thee and live Lord I turne unto thee receive me to mercie let thy favourable countenance once againe shine upon me And when his heavenlie Father shall heare these and perceive that they proceed from an humble and contrite heart presently he will have compassion upon such a prodigall Child and fall on his neck and kisse him and bring forth his best Robe even the Robe of Christs righteousnesse and put it upon him and put a Ring on his finger and shooes on his feet Thus farre of the first Proposition the second followes It is not enough for a Christian to perform obedience to some of Gods precepts and to beare with himself wilfully in the breach of others Cursed is he that continueth not in all There were some of opinion as saith Lombard that a man might truely repent of one sinne and obtain pardon for the same and yet continue in another but these did never rightly understand the nature of mortification which requires a detestation and forsaking of all sinne and not a paring away of some which may best be spared as wee cannot at the same time look with one eye into Heaven and another unto the earth so may wee not in somethings serve God and in other things be servants of sinne when a man seeth his house on fire he will not quench some part of the flame and let the rest be burning but he will use all possible meanes to extinguish all the fire lest peradventure if one spark
Goliath like give him a sword for the cutting of our own throats Againe Is it so that in the regenerate so long as he remaineth in this earthly Tabernacle there remain not some few reliques but many fragments of the natural man so that there is a combat between the flesh and the spirit where then be the Papists which maintain justification by works Can a clean thing come out of that which is unclean saith Job and can our minds wils and affections wherein the flesh and the spirit are mixed together produce any effect which is not impure and imperfect and therefore farre short of that perfection and righteousnesse which is required by the Law I do not say that they are sinnes that is but a slander of the Papists but they have some degrees of sins and imperfections joyned with them the best come that groweth in our fields hath some grains blasted the best fruits that we can bring forth are in some part rotten the best gold that we can show is much mixed with dross and cannot abide the touchstone it is an easie matter I confesse for a sinfull and unregenerate cloysterer to say somewhat for the dignitie of workes in justifying a man but when we enter into an examination of our own consciences and find so many sins and imperfections lurking in every corner of our hearts it will make us crie out with Bernard meritum meum miseratio domini my merit is the Lords mercie and again sufficit ad meritum scire quod non est meritum Nay if we look up unto God and consider him not as a mans brain considereth him but as his word describeth him unto us with whose brightness the stars are darkned with whose anger the earth is shaken with whose strength the mountains melt with whose wisdom the crafty are taken in their own nets at whose pureness all seem impure in whose sight the heavens nay the very Angels are unclean we must needs confesse with Job that if we should dispute with God we could not answer him one for a thousand and confesse that he found no stedfastness in his Saints yea and when the heaven is impure in his sight much more is man abominable and filthy which drinketh iniquitie like water and therefore pray unto him with David that he will not enter into judgement with us because in his sight shall no man living be justified but I must leave this point and come unto the second All the dayes of my appointed time c. Every man hath an appointed time by God which he cannot passe Though Adams wisdome was such that he could give names to everie creature according to their nature yet he forgate his owne name because of his affinitie between him and the earth the sons of Adam are like their father they are witty enough about the creatures but they quite forget their own names and their natures too and this is the cause why they be so holden with pride and over-whelmed with crueltie they wil contend with Nebuchadnezzar in Isa to advance themselves even above the stars of God and to match their Grand-father the first Adam who though he was made of the earth would with the wings of pride soare into heaven and care little for being like their elder brother the second Adam which from Heaven came unto earth and took upon him our infirmities and miseries but let them secure themselves never so much the tide will tarrie for no man for their Father eat sowre grapes and his childrens teeth are set on edge their Father for eating a grape of the forbidden Vine had this sentence pronounced against him Unto dust thou shalt returne and his children shall be lyable to it till heaven and earth be removed and there be no more death The tender and dainty women which never adventure to set the sole of their feet upon the ground for their sofness and tenderness as Moses speakes have a day appointed when their mouthes shall be filled with mould and their faces which they will not suffer the sun of the Firmament to shine upon lest it should staine their beautie shall be slimed with that earth which they scorned to touch with the soles of their feet those rotten posts which spend themselves in whiting and painting as though they would with Medea recal their years or with the Eagle by casting their old bill renew their youth have a day set them in which deaths finger shall but touch them and they shall fall in pieces and returne to their dust those which cloth themselves with linnen and build them houses of Cedar and add house to house and and to land as though they should continue for ever or at the least as if their journy to the heavenly Canaan lay all by land and nothing by Sea have a determinate time when their unsatiable desires shall be content with a Golgotha a place of dead mens souls a little part of a potters field asmuch as will serve to hide and cover their earthen vessel Cui satis ad votum non essent omnia terrae Climata terra modo sufficit octo pedum Are not his dayes determined saith Job the number of his moneths are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds which he cannot passe it is not nobility of Parents nor wisdom nor comelinesse of person nor strength of bodie nor largenesse of dominions that can lengthen the thred of a mans dayes Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauporum tabernas regumque turres Deaths Arrow will as soon pierce the strong Castle of a King as the poor cottage of a Countrie Swain be thou more zealou then Moses or stronger then Sampson or beautifuller then Absalom or wiser then Solomon or richer then Job or faithfuller then Samuel Ire tamen restat Numa quo devenit Ancus This is the conclusion of all flesh at the time appointed thou must dye yield thy body to deaths Serjeant to be kept Prisoner in the Dungeon of the earth till the great Assises which shall be holden in the clouds at the last day the conclusion is most certain howevsr the premises be most fallible and doubtfull I say not that the time of our lives are equally lengthened or that the dayes our life consist of like houres some see but a winter day and their breath is gone some an â—quinoctial day and they live till their middle age some a long Summers day and live till old age all of them with the Beast called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be sure to dye at night the course of mans life is like the journy of the Israelites from Aegypt to Canaan some dye as soon as they are gone out of Aegypt some in the midle way some with Moses come to the edge and borders of Canaan some indeed with Caleb and Joshua enter the promised Land alive such as shall be living at the last day but this is without
use the meanes they can to put this evill day from them as being the beginning of their eternall woe and sorrow but let the children of God be no more afraid to dye then they fear a Bee without a sting then they feare a sleep when their eyes are heavie or they feare to be comforted when they are in miserie or to be at home when they are abroad in a strange Country FINIS TO THE READER Reader IF the reverend Author of those Sermons had not been one of those Qui male merentur de viribus suis for so I shall take leave to expostulate with his modesty his more then vulgar Abilities might have added much to the lustre of his Name with which he hath hitherto dealt so unkindly as to detaine it though not in the shade yet at too great a distance from the Sun Whilst he lived in the Vniversitie he was a singular Ornament to the Colledge where Providence had bestowed him and being thence called forth to a Pastorall charge over the place which first welcomed him into the World he was quickly taken notice of as worthy of a more eminent Station in the Church to which he was accordingly preferred with the generall acclamations of all the knowing and pious Divines in the Diocesse with whom to say nothing of others though of greatest note in that Precinct for a comprehensive and orthodox Judgement adorn'd with all variety of learning he hath ever been held in greatest Estimation As for these Sermons some of which saw the light and all have been delivered many yeares ago they are able to speake for themselves Their maine designe is to heale the plague of the Heart not the Itch of the Eare Animis composuit non auribus Here is good wholesome â—iands 〈◊〉 before you and if your Palate be not over 〈◊〉 you will have no cause to quarrell with the Sance What help soever the Booke shall afford you in your spirituall negotiations give God the glory and the Author I doubt not hath his End T. Tully LUKE 12. 32 Feare not little Flock for it is your Fathers pleasure to give you the Kingdome CHRIST the Great Shepheard of our soules being shortly to finish that for which he came into the World the work of our Redemption and to lay downe his life for his Sheep and according to his corporall presence to have them in the wildernesse of this World where they should find Amalekites to encounter them the Sonnes of Anack to impugne them fierce Serpents to sting them Lyons and Beares and Foxes and Wolves to devour them and the very Wildernesse it selfe by its naturall barrennesse ready to starve them doth in the precedents of this Chapter warne and arme them against all humane and mundane fears Humane from Verse 4. till the tenth Mundane from the tenth till this thirty second both which if I be not mistaken are by way of recapitulation wrapped up in the beginning of this Verse Feare not c. And in the later part confirmed by an Argument a majori For it is your Fathers pleasure c. As if he should have sayd My friends which have forsaken all and followed me in the regeneration though ye be as a flock of Sheep subject to wandring unfit to provide fot\r your selves things necessary unable to resist the Wolves amidst whom ye are though ye be little in the opinion and estimation of the World being reputed the scum of the earth the filth of the world the outcast of the people and of-scouring of all things lesse in comparison with the world being in respect of them as the first fruits in respect of the Harvest as the gleanings in comparison of the Vintage yet be not dismayed nor discouraged for any thing that the world wiâ—l or can inflict upon you for loe he that was your enemy is now become your friend he that had a Sword of vengeance drawne against you will now fight for you he that was a just and severe Judge is now become your Father because you are in me and howsoever of your selves you have deserved no better then others whom he hath left in that masse of corruption wherein all Adams Children lay drowned yet his good will and pleasure is such that he will at length freely bestow upon you an inaccessible Inheritance in his Kingdome of glory much more will he watch over you by his heavenly protection provision and direction in this Kingdome of Grace Feare not c. A Doctrine proposed by way of exhortation Which words divide themselves into two branches 1. Feare not little Flock 2. A reason or argument to confirme this For it is your Fathers pleasure c. In the first of these observe 1. The object Flock 2. The quantity of it Little flock 3. An incouragement against feare In the second note these particulars 1. The Grantor Your Father 2. The cause impulsive that makes him respect us and that is his good pleasure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Our Father is pleased 3. The manner of conveyance by Franck Almaigne to give 4. The quality and quantity of the gift a Kingdome Of each of which particulars because I cannot now particularly discourse for as much as they seem unto me like Elishaes Cloud still bigger and bigger or like the waters of the Sanctuary deeper and deeper I will by your patience make the object of our serious speech the subject of my speech at this time Flock The party to whom this speech is directed are his Disciples Verse 1. and Verse 22. those which he had picked and culled from amongst all the Sons of Adam and effectually called to his grace the Church without that was actually existent at that present so that what is here spoken to them is spoken to the whole Church of God They then were shee still is a Flock of Sheep for that is meant as may appeare by conference with like places John 10. 11. 16. 27. John 21. 15. Matth. 25. 33. Psal 100. 3. Whence observe two things 1. The quality of the members in that they are resembled unto sheep 2. The unity of the whole body in that it makes but one Flock of Sheep Concerning the first The Church of God is called a Flock of Sheep not a Herd of Swine nor a Kennell of Dogâ— nor a Stable of Horses nor a Fold of Goates nor a Mew of Hawks nor a Capine of Foxes nor a Den of Wolves nor a Puddle full of Toades because she must not wallow in the filthy mire of sin like Swine nor bite one another like Dogs nor be proud and stomackfull like Horses nor stink in her corruption like Goates nor be ravenous like Hawks nor fraudulent like Foxes nor cruell like Wovles nor poysonfull like Toades but in patience and sincerity in meeknesse and simplicity in innocensie and humility she must resemble a Flock of Sheep So then the ungodly miscreant that drinks iniquity like water and is frozen in his own Dregs and
undique undique pontus So that it hath cost me one dayes travell already and is like to put me yet to more before I shall be able to waft it over The last time I spake in this place upon this occasion this Scripture was divided into two streames First An incouragement against all humane and mundane feares Secondly A reason For it is your Fathers c. In the first of these 1. A dehortation 2. The object of it Flock 3. The quantity Little In the second First a gift a Kingdome 2. The Donor or Grantor your Father 3. The Grantees not to all but to his children You 4. The manner of conveyance in Franck Almes He gives it 5. The cause impulsive or the consideration not Faith nor foreseen works nor any thing in man but that love wherewith from everlasting he loved them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is your Fathers good pleasure Or Your Father is well pleased I began with the object and made it the subject of my speech at that time and therein observed first the unity of Christs Church it is but one Flock Secondly the quality of the members a Flock of Sheep not a heard of Swine c. So farr already We are now to come to the second branch the quantity of Christs Church A few Matth. 7. A remnant Rom. 9. 27. A little Sister Cant. 8. 8. A little City whose inhabitants are few beleaguered by a mighty King Satan and preserved by the wisedome of a poor man Christ So Olympiodorus expounds that of Eccles 9. 13. A little Flock here in my Text Little in two respects First little in the esteeme of the World Secondly little in comparison with the World From which two respects we may gather these two propositions 1. Those that are in the sight of God the dearest are commonly in the eyes of men of meanest and basest esteeme 2. The number of true Beleevers is little being compared with the World The former of these for I must handle them severally although to a naturall man it may at the first blush rather seem a Philosophicall Paradox then a Theologicall conclusion especially seeing man naturally desires that which is good and what he desires he loves and the better any thing is the more hee loves it and the more he loves it the more he esteemes it Yet he that is acquainted with the Oracles of God and the writings of the Ancient and the practice of present times and finds what befell the Patriarcks and Prophets and Apostles and Evangelists and Martyrs and Confessors and Christ himselfe and the best in all Ages since the Serpent began to bite the heel of the Womans Seed and sees what miseries they endured what indignities they suffered in what account and estimation they were had in the World will rather take it for an undoubted principle then a disputable Probleme That which David spoke of himselfe or of Christ whereof he was a figure was true of all Prophets and Patriarchs before and in his time I am a worme and not a man a shame of men and the contempt of the people all that see me have me in derision Psal 22. 6 7. We are a reproach to our neighbours a scorne and derision to them that are round about us Psal 79. 4. Paul speaks or himselfe and the rest of the faithfull in his time Wee are made a gazing stock to the World and to Angels and to men We are fooles we are despised we are made the filth of the World and of-scouring of all things 1 Cor. 4. And that which the Pagans spoke of one they meant of all that were of his profession Bonus vir Caius Sejus sed mutus tantum quód Christianus Nomen non crimen in nobis damnatur ignotam sectam vox sola praedamnat quia nominatur non quia revincitur saith Tertullian And yet to say the truth they spared no lyes to excuse themselves and make Christians more odious to others Pliny calls Christianity a wicked and excessive superstition Christià ni per flagitia invisi saith Tacitus And againe Exitialis superstitio Christianorum the deadly superstition of Christians Christiani genus hominum novae ac maleficae superstitionis saith Suetonius These were but small crimes they were Idolaters troublers of States overthrowers of Empires Atheists with Diagoras Worshippers of the Sun with the Persians incestuous like Oedipus Man-eaters like Thyestes and what not And what marvaile that these should finde such entertainement with strangers when their Master found no better entertainement with his owne but was accounted as Isaiah long before had foretold a man forsaken and contemned of men Isa 53. A deceiver a Samaritane a Wine-bibber a freind of Publicans and Sinners nay a Witch a Sorcerer whom none of the Rulers or of the Pharisees but a few ignorant and cursed people which knew not the Law made any reckoning of John 7. 48. I dare not spinn along this thred to our times neither is it needfull I should seeing these present dayes doe sufficiently demonstrate my proposition to be true I speak not of the Beast and those that have its mark in their foreheads and right hands between whom and such as are sealed with the Seale of the living God there must needs be immortale odium nunquam sanabile vulnus a wonderfull great antipathy as between the Serpents and the Womans Seed I count little how little these account of us it is indeed a singular honour to be dishonoured by them I speake not I say of these though these do sufficiently confirme the truth of my proposed Doctrine It is well known would God I might be found a lyer that even in our English Church which is fled out of Babylon and professeth her selfe to be a follower of the Lamb whethersoever he goeth such as yet carry the most evident and apparent mark of Gods Sheepe in their foreheads are not by professed Enemies but by many thousands which in outward profession joyne with them counted the excrements of Christians and out-cast of all things and branded with the odious names of Precisians Catharists Puritanes and I wot not what odio est in hominibus innocuis nomen innocuum as Tertullian spoke of Christians in his time Mistake me not I desire to be counted a Son of our English Church and am not come to make an Apology for our Donatists that have burst the unity of Gods Net because of the bad Fish that are within it and have leapt out of Gods Fold because of the Goates and have forsaken his Field because of the Tares and his floore because of the Chaff which they finde mingled with the Wheat those that will live in no Church on Earth but such as is without spot or wrinkle must as Constantine said to Acesius a Novatian Bishop make Ladders for themselves to climbe into Heaven here is no place for them under the Sun Neither go I about to patronise such as agree with us in
that the sex doth daily converse with children which is a meanes of encreasing love but also by a naturall sympathy between them Can a woman forget the child of her owne womb She loves others but much more that which is neerest of her blood a part of her selfe whom she loved before she either knew either name or sexe Can a woman forget the child of her wombe It s almost impossible but because such Monsters have been heard of in the world Saevus amor docuit natorum sanguine matrem Commaculare manus Therefore he adds Though she should yet I will never forget thee His love to his is more then a womans to her owne child He respects us as a member of his body to speak after the manner of men Nay as his dearest member as his eye nay as the chiefe part of his eye As the apple of his eye Zach. 2. 8. And though Baal as Elias mocked may perhaps be weary or be in pursuit of his Enemies or asleep and would be awaked Yet he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep Witnesse the wonderfull preservation of his Church against the persecutions and cruelties of Pharaoh Haman Antiochus Sennacherib Decius Dioclesian and other Pagans Valeâ—s and other Hereticks of old and many other both of former and last times whose names I will not now repeat because I may not load your eares with such harsh stuffe If I might presume upon your attention in this kind I had rather instance in this little Israel of ours since she fled out of the dark Aegypt of Poperie through the red Sea of Queen Maries Reign What curses hath the Romish Babylon intended Nay what hath he not intended against her He hath sent his fierce Buls to push her down to trample her honour in the dust He hath thundred out his Canons charged with bullets of Anathemaes against her He hath set open Hel gates for to this three-crowned Cerberus is given the key of the bottomlesse pit and sent out locusts to annoy her He hath used base flatterie open hostility cunning practises secret conspiracies dangerous treasons hellish deviles to overthrow her But behold the watchfull eye of God our heavenly Father over his Children His Bulls which in former times have seemed so wilde that scarce some hundreds met together in a Provinciall Synod duâ—st baite them have proved such cowardly Dastards that every single Curre hath been able to lugge them proving much like to the counterfeit shews of Semiramis when she was to fight with the Indian King which afar off seemed to be Dromedaries and Elephants but when they came to tryal proved nothing but Oxen hides stuffed and bumbasted with straw His Canons troll like Domitians thunder a noise heard but no bullet felt His locusts hurt none but such as had not the Seale of God in their foreheads His plots and devises against Queen Elizabeth and King Iames so defeated and brought to nought that maugre the beards of all Romish Traytors and in despight of all the Devils of Hell they were both brought unto their graves in peace Give me leave before I make use and application of this proposition to put you in mind of two deliverances which as they are never to be forgotten but to be written with pens of iron and the point of a Diamond in the tables of our hearts So do they give evident testimonie of the care which our heavenly Father beareth over his Chosen The one was in 88. when our Enemies were purposed to swallow us up quick they were so wrathfully displeased with us Then the Kings of the earth stood up and the Rulers Mâ—â—rulers Baâ—lac and Balaam the Spaniardâ— and the Pope tooke counsell together against the Lord and against his Anointed saying Come and let us root them out that they be no more a people and that the name of England may be no more in remembrance But what followed He that dwells in Heaven laughed them to scorne the Lord had them in derision He spake unto them in his wrath and did vex them in his sore displeasure He put a book in their noses and a bridle in their lips and carryed them back againe not the same way they came as he did Sennacherib but a strange and unknown way to the Spaniard for all his sayling through the cold Northern Seas and the boysterous Western Ocean Whence after Leviathan had taken his full of them and the Sea which then faught for England was glutted with the multitude of dead corps a few weather-beaten Souldiers returned home in torne and tattered Ships to carry their Master word that it was hard for him to prevaile where God was his enemie Pretty were those verses of Claudian spoken to Theodosius the first when hee prevailed against his Enemies by help of the wind which blew dust in their faces applyed to Queen Elizabeth O nimium dilecte deo cui militat aether Et conjur ati veniunt in praelia venti Turned thus to Queen Elizabeth O nimium dilecta deo cui militat aequor Et conjur ati veniunt in classica venti Neither is the Zelanders invention to be forgotten who upon this occasion in a new coine of silver stamped a Ship sinking with this motto Venit ivit fuit and in a coine of Gold Homâ— propouit Deus disponit 1588. This though of it selfe great may find examples parallel to it but the other which happened Novemb. 5. 1605. which is such that a man would scarcely beleive that the Devil himselfe though he be a subtle Serpent could invent so wicked a plot or he and all his Angels though they be murtherers from the beginning would not tremble to put in execution so cruel a device if wee shall turne over all Histories of ancient and later times we shall not finde one to match it What shall I say unto you by way of Preface but as Isaiah begins his Prophesie Hear heavns and hearken O earth Or with Ioel Heare ye this O yee Elders and hearken all ye Inhabitants of this land whether ever such a thing hath been in your dayes or in the days of your fathers or in the dayes of your fore-fathers Tell ye your children of it and let your children tell their children and their children tell another generation When Balaams servants did not onely wish as once that Barbarian did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor as Nero added when he set Rome on fire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when I am living let the whole World burne with fire but had almost put in execution their cruell intendments Nor as Tarquin in Livie and Periander in Herodotus to cut off the chiefe heads that there might be a paritie Cousin german to confusion amongst the rest but to cut off head and tayle branch and rush in one day To make the body of this Kingdome like dead Priamus in the Poet Avulsum humeris caput fine nomine corpus When that place which was ordained for the establishing
shall ever perish Thou art a Souldier in that Camp whereof the weakest in the end shall be a Conquerour Feare not the Lord is with thee thou valiant man Neither tribulation nor anguish nor nakednesse nor sword nor death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus He whose name is Amen the faithfull and true Witnesse and therefore cannot goe back with his word hath promised to his whole Flocke his divine protection and assistance in his Kingdome of grace and will at length bring us to everlasting happinesse in his Kingdome of glory Feare not little Flocke for it is your Fathers pleasure to give you the Kingdome The Third Sermon LVKE 12. 32. For it is your Fathers good pleasure c. HAving finished the former branch the Doctrine we are now to come to the second part the Reason and herein observe 1. The granter your Father 2. The thing granted a Kingdome 3. The grantees Not all Adams sons but the Sheep of this little Flock you 4. The consideration or cause impulsive and that is nothing in Man but the love and good pleasure of Almighty God your Father is well pleased At this time only of the first the Grantor your Father He who hath one only naturall sonne God begotten from everlasting of the same substance with himselfe and in all things equall to himselfe and one only begotten sonne by grace of Conception Man made of the seed and substance of a Woman both which concur to the making of one and the same individuall person of Immanuel the Messiah is if you take the word not personally but essentially 1. A Father of all his Creatures Similitudine vestigij because there is not the meanest creature in the world wherein he hath not imprinted some characters and foot-steps of himselfe in which respect Job calls the Worm his sister and mother Job 17. 14. 2. A Father of the Angels Similitudine gloriae So they are called The sonnes of God John 1. 6. 3. A Father of all Man-kind Similitudine imaginis wherein man was created Gen. 1. 27. 4. Not of all mankind but only of a certain number whom he before the foundation of the world was laid not for any goodnesse either of faith or works which he did foresee for what did he foresee but what he decreed to bestow upon them of his free grace and love pick'd and cull'd out of that masse of corruption into which by Adams sin they were to come and in the fulnesse of time effectually calleth that is separateth from the world and admits into his houshold and familie and makes them Who by nature were dead in sinnes and trespasses living members of Christs mysticall bodie Thus he is a Father of all believers I will be a father unto you and ye shall be my sonnes and daughters saith the Lord Almighty 2 Cor. 6. 18. The spirit of adoption beareth witnesse that we are his children and bids us cry Abba Father Rom. 8. 16. In this sense our Saviour bids us Call no man father on earth because we have but one Father which is God Matth. 23. 9 and sends us in our prayers to our Father which is in Heaven Matth 6. 9. Thus is he a Father of his little flock And well may he be called Father for what doth a natural parent to his child which the Father of Spirits doth not in an infinite larger and better measure to his 1. An earthly father begets his child and is the cause of his naturall being 2. He gives him a name 3. He feeds him 4. He cloatheth him 5. He protects him from wrongs 6. He corrects him for his faults 7. According to his meanes he provides an inheritance or a portion for him God doth all these to his sonnes the Sheep of this little flock 1. He begets us Jam. 1. 18. For which cause he is styled the father of spirits Heb. 12. 9. This is a meer work of God to which the power of free-will doth no more concurre then a child is a Coadjutor to his father at his natural generation I grant that as in substantial mutations before a forme be corrupted and another educed e potentia materia there are certaine alterations or previal dispositions for making way to this change So in this supernatural mutation when a sonne of Adam is to be made a son of God God ordinarily useth certain previal dispositions The Law and the Gospel are preached the heart of man is shaken with the terrors of the law and cast down to the ground as Paul was at his conversion and touched with feare of punishment sorrow for sinne desire and hope of pardon c. But as those previal alterations are no essential parts of natural generation though preparatives thereunto Nor is there in the Matter any more then a meer passive power for receiving the substantial form so neither are these previal dispositions any essential part of our supernatural regeneration Nor is there in the wil any active but a mere passive power for receiving this supernatural being which is only wrought by the finger of God The Apostles evidences are strong for this point let us heare them we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus meaning that there is no more power in a naturall man for begetting himselfe a new then there was in that dry dust whereof Adam was made for assisting God in the creation of man A naturall man is dead in sinne Can a dead man revive himselfe Could Lazarus when he had been three dayes stinking in the grave move hand or foot till Christ had put his soule into him No more can a natural man so much as move himselfe to a supernatural and spirituall work till God regenerate him and as it were create him anew and infuse into the powers and faculties of his soule a quickning spirit He hath a heart of stone I will take the stonie heart out of their bodies a heart of stone not a heart of iron for though iron be hard yet the heate of the fire will mollifie it and the stroak of the hammer will turne it into a new forme but no heat will mollifie a stone no hammer can beate it out or bring it into a new shape but by breaking it So our hearts are by nature such that they cannot be softned or turned to that which is right till they be broken in pieces and cast in a new mould And again as no water can be drawn out of a stone so no goodnesse can be educed out of a natural mans heart We are by nature evill trees and an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit The Apostle tels us That of our selves we cannot so much as think a good thought That it is God that giveth both the will and the deed And our great Master whom we are
commanded from heaven to heare saith That without him we can do nothing That those to whom Power is given to be the sonnes of God are not borne of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God 1. They are not borne of blood that is they come not by naturall propagation for by this nativity wee are children of wrath 2. They are not of the will of the flesh This may be referred to them which are borne of faithful Parents yet begotten carnally For as the wheat is sown without chaffe but when it grows the chaffe comes up with it Or as the Hebrew Males which were circumcised begat children which were uncircumcised so the most holy and spiritual man begets a carnal sonne the reason is Quia ex hoc gignit quod adhuc vetustum tenet inter filios seculi non ex hoc quod in novitatem promovit inter filios dei as Austin He begets according to that corruption which hee retains amongst the sonnes of men not according to that perfection which he hath attained unto amongst the sons of God 3. They are not borne of the will of man That is the will of man doth not co-work with God at his regeneration to receive grace and convert himselfe Let the Papists and Pelagians and Semi-pelagians busie their braines and confederate themselves and joyne their forces against Christ and his Apostles maugre their beards it shall stand which is confessed by an honest Frier that there is not in the whole world of natural men vel mica virium so much as a dram or crum of power whereby he may convert himselfe and become a sonne of God Thus then first he is our Father not only by grace of adoption but by grace of regeneration he regenerates and begets us a new by the washing of the new birth and the renewing of the holy Ghost 2. To his children thus begotten and born anew he gives new names Thou shalt be called by a new name Isa 62. 2. To him that overcometh I will give a white stone and in the stone a new name Rev. 2. 13. I will write in it my new name Rev. 3. 12. Old things when they are renewed have new names given them So old Byzantiū renewed by Constantine was called after his name So a son of the old Adam who of himself Is a child of wrath a firebrand of hell Gods enemy and an alien from the common-wealth of Israel being renewed and regenerate and having given his name to Christ is called a Christian This is a new name received from him who after he had spoyled Principalities and Powers and like a triumphant Conqueror shewed them openly in his Chariot of triumph so Origen calls it the Crosse hath received a name above all names that are named not in this world only but also in that which is to come The name also we receive in our Baptisme when we are admitted into Christs Church is a new name and may put us in mind of our new and spirituall estate as the other which we receive from our Parents and Ancestors is a mark of our natural state we received from them So that whensoever we think of our names given us in our baptisme we should think of our new birth and be more and more renewed according to that of the Apostle Old things are past behold all things are become new Therefore as many as are in Christ let them be new creatures New names and old natures are like new wine in old vessels or like new cloath in an old garment 3. He feeds us 1. with corporall food for the sustenance of our bodies The greatest Prince of the world hath not so much de proprio as a morsell of bread to put in his mouth but what he receives from him who hath Heaven for his throne and Earth for his foot-stoole who opens his hand and gives to all creatures that wait upon him their meate in due season For which cause Christ sends us to heaven gates to begge our daily bread viz. not only the substance of bread but baculum panis as the Scripture calls it the power and strength to nourish us without whose benediction be our tables furnished with never such variety of dishes wee shall be but like Caligula's guests at his golden banquet we may well feed our eyes but not our stomacks Or like to him that eates in a dreame and when he awakes behold his soule is empty 2. He feeds us with spiritual food that which was figured by the tree of life and the waters that flowed out of the stony rock as some of the Fathers expound it the bodie and blood of Christ unto eternall life 3. He cloatheth us as the Kings daughter with a vesture of gold the robe of Christs righteousnesse which we must put on as a wedding garment that our filthy nakednesse may not appeare in his sight and withall by degrees makes us glorious within with the habite of sanctification and inherent righteousnesse 5. He protects us against all dangers as hath been already shewed 6. He corrects us for our offences as a father doth his child in whom his soule delighteth 7. He provides for us an Inheritance immortall and undefiled in the heavens For it is your fathers good pleasure to give you a kingdome The next thing that comes to be handled But let us first by way of use and inference reflect upon the point we have in hand Is God Almighty a Father of his little flock and such a father as doth not only regenerate but feedeth and cloatheth and protecteth and directeth and hath in a readinesse a Kingdom for the meanest of them that be his Here then let us take notice of the dignity and worth and happinesse of the meanest Christian above all the sonnes of Adam be they never so great swell they never so high with a conceit of their owne worth The greatest of heathen Philosophers tells us that felicity consists in a cumulation of moral vertues Others place it in worldly pleasures The common sort of men in worldly honours and preferments and the higher a man is advanced the more worthy the more happy they repute him But alas what great felicity is it for a base fellow to act a Kings part upon the Stage and when the Play is ended to be contented with a ragged coate far lesse to be a King in this world and then to be cast into Hell fire Here is the state and condition of the greatest Potentates on Earth that have not Christ for their Brother and God for their Father when they have acted their parts upon the stage of this world downe they must goe into the infernall lake The Spider thinks her selfe no base creature when she hath got her selfe into the roofe of a Princely palace and there woven her webbe and rests there secure as shee thinks from all danger but anon when
or their King or their Countrey as if they were borne to live on the Land as Leviathan in the Sea whom God hath made to take his pastime therein and that I may come to a second use superciliously scorne and contemn such as in meanes or lineage come short of them as if they were not in the same Predicament nor originally hewen out of the same Rock nor regenerate by the same Father Who art thou that contemnest a state of Paradise one of the blood-royal of heaven whom God hath adopted for his Son over whom he hath appointed the Angels to be his Protectors and Governours Psal 91. 10. Whose enemies he hath threatned to curse Gen. 12. Whose prayers hee hath promised to heare Psal 50. For whose sake he reproves Kings Psal 104. Whom he tendereth as the apple of his eye Zach. 2. The hairs of whose head he numbers the teares of whose eyes he bottles If a Kings son should come to us in Beggars attire like Codrus or lame and impotent of his feet like Mephibosheth or with any other imperfections of body or mind we would not scorn him because of his imperfections but yeild him all honour due to a Kings son Have thou the like respect to Christs little ones let their outward condition be never so mean subject to coÌ„tempt let them be poor ignorant of base parentage friendlesse servants bondslaves let them be all these or whatever else may cause contempt in the eyes of man if they believe in Christ for of these I speake they are sons to the King of Kings and consequently more noble then the Turke or Persian or the greatest Monarch of the world that is without Christ It 's not noblenesse of Parents nor Lands and Possessions nor riches nor humane wisdome nor worldly dignities that makes a man truly honourable and worthy of respect nor is it the want of these that makes a man contemptible but the want of Gods favour and adoption in Christ Stemmate si Thusco ramum Millessime ducis If thou couldst number thy Progenitors for a thousand generations if God be not in thy pedigree as I sayd thou art a bastard and no sonne Hadst thou all humane knowledg in the world and dost not know Christ crucified thou art but a foole Hadst thou all the riches in the world and wantest the great riches which the Apostle calls godlinesse thou art but a beggar Hadst thou all dignities and honours in the world and be not one of Gods houshold servants thou art base and of no respect in comparison of Christs little ones I doe not derogate from such as are well discended nor from such as are rich nor from such as excell in humane Acts and Sciences nor from such as are set over others in honours and worldly preferments God forbid I should I allow them that which of right pertains to them a civill honour because of some divine representations that are in them as of his eternity in such as can shew the antiquity of their stock of his dominion in such as are rich of his Soveraignty in such as are in authority c. But such must remember that it is no more then a civil honour that is due unto them for these And howsoever for these considerations they ought to have their due respects according to their places in the civill Regiment and to be honoured above others Yet in the spirituall Regiment the poorest Christian that believes with his heart and confesseth with his mouth that Christ died for his sinnes is their equall There is no difference saith the Apostle in the Kingdome of Heaven Saturnsâ—easts â—easts are continually kept Master and Servant are both alike There is neither Jew nor Grecian there is neither bond nor free there is neither male nor female c. Gal. 3. He that is called being a servant is the Lords free-man and he that is called being free is Christs servant All then of what state soever they be in the politicall Regiment must think of the poorest Christians as of their brethren and remember that rule given by God even unto Kings to read the book of the Law that their hearts be not lifted up above their brethren and imitate the example of holy Job who did not contemn the judgment of his servant nor of his hand-maid when they contended with him My third inference shall containe a double duty one we owe unto God as our Father the other to our Neighbours as sonnes of the same Father and consequently brethren one to another It 's the summe of Johns first Epistle and Synopsis of the whole Law and comprehended in one verse 1 John 3. 10. In this are the children of God known and the children of the Devill be that doth not righteousnesse is not of God neither he that loveth not his brother these are children of the Devill Gods are known by the practise of two affirmatives 1. Doing of righteousnesse 2. Loving of the Brethren Touching the first They that call God their Father must carry themselves as children of such a Father and without limitation obey him in whatsoever he commands A son honoureth his father If I be your Father where is mine honour saith the Lord of Hosts to the rebellious Jewes who called God their Father and neglected his precepts Many such Jewes are amongst us common Drunkards abhominable Idolaters blood-sucking Usurers prophane Atheists blasphemous Swearers filthie Whore-mongers and that hellish and damned crew of impenitent sinners that live within the bosome of the Church though they be no integrall parts of it no more then hairs and other excrements are parts of a mans bodie or dogs swine essential parts of a familie will call God their Father If God be your Father where is his honour where is that filial obedience you should perform to his commandements when the Jews told Christ that Abraham was their Father he tells them no Because it Abraham were your father yee would do the works of Abraham And when they said that God was their Father he proves it false If God were your father ye would love mee Ye are of your father the Devill and the lusts of your father yee will doe So say I to these miscreants If God were your father yee would doe the works of God If God were your father ye would love him and keepe his commandements Because ye walke in darknesse ye are of your father the Devill and the lusts of your father ye wil doe And if ye would speak aright yee should not say as Christ bids his brethren say when they pray Our Father which art in heaven But rather as Latimer speaks of such truly though somewhat plainly Our father which art in hell Beloved in Christ Behold what love the father hath shewed us that we should be called the sonnes of God Let us be followers of God as deare children and in all things study to resemble him Who hath called
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
is wronged make complaint rather then to his Father and to whom shall a man have recourse for redress of injuries done to him but to them who are Gods Deputies Fathers of their Countries and living Laws to give every man his owne And if every wrong should be put up with patience it would imbolden such as we speak of to multiply their abuses and with greater impudency to goe on in their lewd courses Veterem ferendo injuriam invitas novam whereupon the Ephori amongst the Lacedemonians did punish a man that had put up many injuries and never made complaint Nam si primum vel alterum accusasset vel jure vindicasset cateri abstinissent But yet it 's not fit that Fathers of great Families such as our reverend Judges should be molested with the petty complaints of every peevish Boy that is in the house In this case there is utterly a weaknesse of mind amongst men especially in these parts so remote from the chief Coures of Justice that they go to Law one with another As for the Wrangler of whom I was last speaking who makes the Law sometimes a Sword to revenge himself of his Brother sometimes a Coak to cover his theft Surely if that law of Pittacus was good that he who committed a fault when he was drunk should suffer a double punishment one for the offence the other for being drunk then this deserves a double one one for abusing the Law the other for wronging his Neighbour to whom he should perform all duties of brotherly love But I leave him and will end this branch with a generall exhortation As we all professe our selves to be children of one father so let us be affectioned to love one another with brotherly love Rom. 12. 10. Now then as the elect of God children of one father holy and beloved put on the bowels of mercie kindnesse meeknesse long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any man have a quarrell against another even as God for Christs sake forgave you And let the peace of God rule in your hearts and the God of peace shall be with you O holy Father sanctifie them whom thou hast given unto thy Christ the sheepe of thy little flock keep them in thy name pour into their hearts the spirit of peace and unity That they may be all one as thou thy sonne are one Last of all Is Almighty God the great Judge of the World Is he a Father to his little flocke Here then Judges and Magistrates and the great ones of this World and all those whom the great God of Heaven and Earth hath set over others and stiled with his owne name are to be exhorted to imitate him whose person they beare in this relation of Paternity remembring bring that as they are called Gods so are they also named Fathers so Job a Judge or as some think a King is stiled Job 29. 16. And David speaks to his Subjects as unto children Psal 34. Come ye children Naamans servants call their Master father 2 King 5. 13. And Joseph when he was made ruler over Aegypt was called Abroch that is tender Father and the Philistims called their Kings Abimilech as who should say the King my Father So amongst the old Romans the worthiest of their Senators were called Fathers as Juvenall speaks of Tullie Roma patrem patriae Ciceronem libera dixit They must then as Jer. exhorts not only abstain from violence and shedding of innocent blood but after Gods example deliver the oppressed from the hands of the Oppressor as much as in them lies shew themselves fathers and protectors of the righteous This God requires at their hands and those that purposely neglect it shall one day hold up their hands and answer for it when the Judge of the world shall sit on the Bench. And this they are the rather to look too because the more eminent their places are the more conspicuous will their faults be if they neglect their duties As a blaine on the eye beseems worse then a wart on the face and a wart on the face worse then a wenne on the back or other part that is not seen That which others may doe great men and those that are in authority may not Quibus omnia licent propter hoc ipsum multa non licent saith Seneca other men may looke out at a window and observe passengers in the streets Sophocles when he is on the bench may not Praetorem decet non manus solum sed oculos habere abstinentes another man may stoop and take up something that lies in his way Themistocles may not Others may weare Sycionian Pantophles but they become not Socrates though fit for his feet Magistrates play Gods part and a Fathers on the stage and therefore have need to remember Jehosaphats rule Take heed what ye doe They walk upon the top of a steep Rock they have need to tread warily And if their places and their names put them in mind of their duties especially of protecting the innocent after Gods example a shame befall those Courts and Magistrates and Advocates too who by the greatnesse of their places think to manage and inlaw the foulest enormities Vbi is qui sedet crimina vindicaturus admittit as Cyprian complains Or as Aeneas Sylvjus once said of the Court of Rome where Justice is made the lure Suiters the fowls Attorneyes and Solliciters the drivers Pleaders the fowlers the Law the net and he that should sit in the gate to protect the cause of the Innocent sits lurking in the theivish corners of the streets that hee may ravish the poore and such as he gets into his net It was a bold but a true Speech of Diomedes a Pirate to Alexander the Great when he was convented before him for Piracy I who robb with one poor Pinace am called a Pirate and thou that dost it with an invincible Navy art called a Monarch I because I robb one private man am called a Theife and thou because thou robbest and wastest whole Kingdomes to which thou hast no right art called an Emperour I by the misery of a few have purchased a name of disgrace and thou by the misery of a great part of the World hast got the Sirname of Magnus If I had thy Navy by Sea and thy Forces by Land to command I should be saluted Emperour if thou wert alone and a poor prisoner as I am the whole World would condemne thee for a notable Theife For in the cause we differ nothing save that he is the worse who doth more manifestly forsake Justice and more notoriously impugne the Laws those whom I flee thou persecutest whom I after a sort reverence thou scornest it was the iniquity of Fortune and want of necessaries that made me it 's intollerable pride and insatiable avarice that made thee a Theife had I more I would be better thou the more thou hast the worse
reponere A Kingdome Of this as Salust once said of old Carthage its better to say nothing then to say but a little and yet if I should say more then I am able to expresse it were nothing to that which might be said Non mihi si linguae centum sint oraque centum ferreae vox Had I a thousand mouthes and a thousand voyces had I a tongue of steele or spoke with the tongues of those thousands of thousands that waite about the Throne of God I were not able to set forth so much as the shadow or back parts nay the shadow of the back parts of those joyes which God hath prepared for them that love him Nature failes me reason failes you the whole Bible failes me in this point Paul was taken up into the third Heaven the Kingdome here meant and what saw he The glory was such that it did not only dazle his eyes but struck him blind that he could see nothing at all Acts 9 8. Well but what heard he Things that cannot be conceived neither is it possible for man to be uttered 2 Cor. 12. Saint Austin when he was young did thus de cant upon it Ibi erit summa certa securitas secura tranquillitas tranquilla jucunditas jucunda faelicitas faelix aeternitas c. There shall be certaine security secure safety safe delightsome happinesse happy eternity c. O gaudium supra gandium O gaudium vincens omne gaudium extrae quod non est gaudium quando intrabo in te ut videam Deum meum qui habitat in te ubi inventus nunquam senescit ubi vita terminuÌ„ nescit ubi dolor nunquam pallescit ubi amor nunquam tepescit ubi sanitas nunquam marcescit ubi gaudium nunquam decrescit ubi dolor nunquam sentitur ubi gemitus nunquam audit ur ubi triste nihil videtur ubi laetitia semper habetur c. Aust. Soliloqui O joy beyond all joy O joy without which there is no joy when shall I enter into thee that I may behold God which is in thee where youth never growes old De verbis Domini in Joh. Serm. 64. where love never grows cold c. After when he was growne somewhat old he takes a pause and demands this of himselfe after a long discourse What shall I say Surely I cannot tell but I know that God hath such things to bestow And facilius invenire possumus quid ibi non sit quam quid sit We may easilier finde what is not there then what is there Non ibi erit lassari dormire non ibi esurire sitire non ibi erit crescere senescere Behold what I have spoken and yet I have not spoken what is there Eccejam vita jam incolumitas est jam nulla fames nulla paena nulla si is nullus defectus tamen nondum dixi and yet I have not told you what is there that which eye hath not seen how can I discerne that which eare hath not heard how can I speak that which never came into the heart of man how can it come into my heart to declare and indeed to make a long discourse about this subject were but with the blinde man to discourse about colours He may talk long about them but with eyes he cannot know them and we may talke much of Heavens joyes but till we come there and see God we cannot see them Our knowledge is no more able to reach to the excellency of them then a new borne childe is to make a demonstration in the Mathematicks or he that is blinde to name every colour that is layd before him Eye hath not seen nor eare heard saith the Apostle Quicquid recipitur recipitur in modum recipientis A Quart will not containe a Gallon nor a Gallon an Hogshead nothing can receive more then its able to containe Our understandings are like Vessels of small capacity and therefore our heavenly Father who in the Scriptures is often pleased Balbutire cum pueris to condescend to the meannesse of his Childrens capacity expresseth these joyes by such things as their understandings are capable of The Jewes report of Manna that it gave a taste to every man according to their severall appetites and desires For the trueth of this Credat Judaeus apella non ego The Scripture tells us that the taste thereof was like Wafers made with Honey â—um 16. 31. But it may be truely sayd of this Kingdome that in the Scriptures its expressed by such names as may give satisfaction to every mans appetite Some are delighted with faire houses it 's therefore called an house 2 Cor. 5. and Solomons house 1 King 7. was a type of it but far short of the antitype Yea and the house of the Sun too Sublimibus alta columnis clara micante auro flammasque imitante pyropo It 's the house that wisdome hath built Prov. 9. a stately house with a witnesse for her stones are Carbunâ—les her foundation Saphirs its windows of Emeralds and all its gates of shining stones Isa 54. In a word It s a house made without hands eternall and that in the heavens 2 Cor. 5. Some it contents not to dwell in a fair house unlesse it be seated in a goodly Citie It 's therefore likened unto a Citie a Citie having a foundation that is a sure foundation all earthly Cities are founded in quag-mires they want a foundation they are like the house builded upon the sand which cannot endure the weather but downe it goes as Athens Lacedemâ—n Niniveh Babylon and others have done a Citie of the best structure Whose builder and maker is God Heb. 11. 10. A Citie having the glory of God a Citie of pure gold like unto cleare glasse Revel 21. Oh how excellent things are spoken of thee thou Citie of God But neither faire Houses nor goodly Cities will give contentment to some unlesse they may have wealth at will in which many place their chiefe felicity It 's therefore likened unto a pearle for which the wise Lapidariâ— sells all that hee hath to buy it A treasure which neither rust nor moth can corrupt nor thiefe steale All these will not satisfie the mindes of some unlesse beside them they may have honours and dignities heaped upon them Here is that that may give these contentment too it 's a Kingdome A kingdome that cannot be shaken Hebr. 12. and the greatest Kingdomes of the world have been often shaken and shivered in pieces A kingdome that shall have no end Luk. 1. Or as was foretold by the Prophet A kingdome that shall never be destroyed Dan. 7. 14. Pyrrgus said of Rome when as yet it was not Mistresse of all Italic That it was a Citie of Kings marry one thing was wanting to that Kingly Citie which Hormisda Legate to Constantine did wel observe when he saw the Emperour ravished with the beauty of it as if with Paul he had been wrapt up into the
said of Melchisedec without Father without Mother without Kindred or as Moses saith of Levi Deut. 33. Who said to his father and mother I have not seen them neither knew he his brethren nor his own children Father and Mother and Brother and Sister and Wife and Children and Kindred and Servants and Favourites if they be as dear to thee as thine own eye or right hand erue abscinde cut them off cast them from thee part with them rather then they shall part thee and justice A worthy example we have in the Romane story Junius Brutus first Consull of Rome a Heathen man yet indeed divers of the Heathen have out-stripped Christians in the practise of morall duties though through want of faith their best works were but splendida peccata when sundry young Nobles had conspired to reduce Tarquin after his banishment he proceeded with to lesse severity against his owne and Brothers sonne being of the conspiracy then against the rest which were nothing allied unto him The like authority did Titus Maulius use against his son when he had offended the Law Histories are full of the like one of our own shall suffice for all About the beginning of Edward the sixth his Reign when in stead of Romish Superstition and Idolatry the Gospel of Christ began to be planted in England Clarles the Emperour made request to the King and his Councell in behalf of the Lady Marie the Kings sister that she might have Masse in her house without prejudice of Law the Councell amongst other matters of policy consulting about this sent unto the King Arch-Bishop Cranmer and Ridley then Bishop of London to intreat for the same who coming before him alleadged the best reasons they could to accomplish it which reasons he so pithily answered and confuted out of Scripture that they were forced to confess his Replication to be true Then they set on him another way alleadging Civill and Politick reasons her neerness unto him in blood the dangers the denial thereof might bring to the Realm the breach of Amity on the Emperours part the troubles and rebellions the deniall thereof might renew at home to which he replyed that all those reasons should never move him to yeeld to that he knew unlawfull and that he was ready to part with Goods and Kingdome and life and whatsoever he had rather then to yeild to that which he knew certainly to be against the Truth When all this would not move him but they set on him a fresh and would have no deniall he burst into sobs and teares and desired to desist from further molesting him in that matter which made the Arch-Bishop when they were gone to say to the other Bishop that the King had more Religion in his little Finger then they had in their whole Bodies If this resolution was seated in the hearts of all to whom the Lord hath committed the Sword of Justice then should we not have so many Jethroes that dare not strike when God bids them so many Ananiasses that give command to smite when God forbids them then should not the person of the mighty be so much honoured nor Kindred so much respected nor friends and followers so much favoured nor should the Dorick Pipe seem so sweet Musick in many of our Courts nor should the Lawes cry out that they are sometime smothered in their Beds like the Harlots Childe and sometime stretched like a Traytor on the Rack nor should truth renew her old Complaint out of Tertullian that she wanders up and down like a stranger in the World and cannot finde Entertainment with some that professe it nor should Justice exclaim that she is sometimes shouldered out of her Predicament of Quality and inforced to take a room in Relation to become a meer respective thing which hath no entity of it selfe without relation to some other thing I have perswaded my selfe far better things of you R. J. who as you have a long time already given sufficient demonstration of your learning and abilities for those high places wherein God hath set you so have you also of your care and zeale for executing of righteous Judgment Now as Plutarch writes of Rue and Garlick that being planted beside Roses they make them smell the sweeter So the corruption of evill Magistrates set by the vertues of the good make them more pleasant in the nostrils of all good men I doubt not but you may say with Samuel whose Oxe have we taken or to whom have we willingly done wrong or at whose hand have we received any Bribe to blinde our Eies therewith Onely for conclusion because you are men and therefore cannot challenge unto your selves any immunity or priviledge from falling let me beseech you that the Doctrines already proposed and proved may serve as Rules to keep you in an even course let the feare of God be upon you take heed and do it To this purpose first remember that God hath set you in his own room and stiled you with his own name it s the chiefe study of a Poet that every speech and action and gesture be sutable to the person he brings upon the Stage Siâ— Medea ferox invictaque flebilis Ino Perfidiuâ—â—xion Ioâ—vaga tristis Orâ—stes You are upon the Stage and you act Gods part with whom there is no iniquity nor respect of persons nor receiving of reward 2 Chron. 19. 2. think that God is present with you God standeth in the Congregation of Gods he is a Judge among Gods he notes your Actions he heares your words he pries into your hearts and spels every syllable of your conceits the Almighty cannot be more fully expressed to the eye then by that old Hieroglyphick of an eye upon the top of a Staff an eye upon the top of a Staff looks every way a Staff is not onely a prop to support him that leanes upon it but it is a weapon both of defence and offence God is an Eye do what yee will he sees you he is a sure staff if yee lean unto him he will support you if yee do well he will defend you if amisse he will beat you Wherefore now let the feare of God be upon you take heed what yee doe for yee execute not the judgments of man but of the Lord let not reward blind you nor friends sway you nor intreaty move you nor might terrifie you nor one thing nor other draw you aside from that which is right honour the mighty pitty the poore respect friends and favourites love kindred but still Salva pietate justitia preferr truth and a good conscience before them all These God and the King and the Laws and the Countrey and all good men expect at your hands and if yee doe them the evill shall dread you the good shall pray for you the Heavens shall applaud you the Angels shall rejoyce at you God shall blesse you with his best blessings and yee shall not need to be ashamed when you shall speak with