ad Eugen l. 2. I ergo tu tibi usurpare aude aut dominans apostolatum aut apostolicus dominatum c. Bernard was in the wrong for hee inferres the cleane contrary from it and which is most considerable in a booke of consideration dedicated to the Pope himselfe Peter could not give thee that which he had not what he had that he gave thee care over the Churches but did hee not also give thee dominion heare what himselfe saith not as being Lords over Gods heritage but being made examples to the flocke lest any man should thinke that this was spoken onely in humility and not in truth it is the voice of the Lord in the Gospell Kings of the nations beare rule over them but it shall not bee so with you it is plaine that Lord-like dominion is forbidden to the Apostles goe too therefore now and assume to thy selfe if thou dare either the office of an Apostle if thou be a Lord or Lord-like Dominion if thou be an Apostle Howbeit I deny not that the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used sometimes signifieth to rule with Princely authority and Lord-like command both in Scriptures and prophane Writers as a Hom. Il. 1. Homer stileth King Agamemnon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Shepheard of the people so God himselfe calleth Cyrus his b Esay 44.28 That saith of Cyrus he is my shepheard Shepheard and which is very observable Cyrus as if hee had taken notice of this name imposed by God upon him before his birth was wont usually to say c Xen. Cyr. poed l. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That a good Prince was like a good Shepheard who can by no other meanes grow rich than by making his flocke to thrive under him the prosperity of the subject is not only the honour but the wealth also of the Prince All this maketh nothing for the Popes triple Crowne to which hee layeth claime by vertue of Christs threefold pasce or feede Joh. 21.15.16.17 for neither doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 originally nor properly nor usually signifie to reigne as a King especially when oves meae or grex domini my sheepe or the flocke of God is construed with it nor can it be so taken here or Joh. 21. as the light of both texts set together reflecting one upon the other will cleer the point For that which Christ enjoyneth Peter Joh. 21. that Peter here enjoyneth all Elders the words of the charge are the same Feede my sheepe there Feede the flocke of God here But Saint Peter enjoyneth not all Elders in these words to rule with soveraigne authority as Kings over the whole flocke or as Lords over their owne peculiar for this hee expressely forbiddeth ver 3. therefore to usurpe authority over the whole Church or to domineere over any part thereof is not to feede according to Christs charge to Saint Peter or Saint Peters to all Elders What is it then if you have reference to the Etymology 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to feede as the word imports in the originall is to reside upon our cure or abide with our flocke where the spouse is commanded to seeke Christ d Cant. 1.8 goe thy way forth to the footsteps of the flocke And indeed where should the Sentinell be but upon his watch-tower where the Pilot but at the sterne where the intelligence but at his orbe where the sunne but within his ecliptick line where the candle but in the candle-stick where the diamond but in the ring where the shepheard but among his flocke whom hee is to feede for whom he is to provide of whom hee is to take the over-sight to whom hee ought to bee an example which hee cannot be if hee never be in their sight But because this observation is grounded only upon the Etymology I will lay no more stresse upon it The proper and full signification of the word is pastorem agere to play the good shepheard or exercise the function of a Pastor which consisteth in three things especially 1 Docendo quid facere debeant 2 Orando ut facere possint 3 Increpando si non faciant 1 In teaching those of his flock what they ought to doe 2 In praying that they may doe it 3 In reproving if they doe it not All which may bee reduced to a threefold feeding 1 With the Word Jer. 3. Jer. 3.15 I will give you pastors according to mine owne heart that shall feede you with knowledge and understanding 2 With the Sacraments Apoc. 2. Joh. 6. 3 With the Rod Micah 7.14 To feed with the Word and Sacraments is the common duty of all Pastors but to feed with the rod is reserved to Bishops they are Seraphims holding the spirituall sword of excommunication in their hands to guard the tree of life whose speciall office and eminent degree in the Church is implyed in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the vulgar latine rendereth providentes but Saint e Aug. de civ l. 19 c. 19. Supervidentes appellantur ut intelligant se non esse episcopos qui prae esse dilexerint non prodesse Austine more agreeable to the Etymology supervidentes super-visours or super-intendents Yet this is but a generall notation of the name every Bishop is a super-visour or over-seer but every super-visour is not a Bishop The Lacedaemonian Magistrates were called Ephori which is an equivalent stile to Episcopi and f Euseb vit Constant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Constantine the great spake as truely as piously to his Bishops Yee reverend Fathers are Bishops of them that are within the Church but I of them that are out of the Church where your pastorall staffe is too short I will piece it out and lengthen it with my scepter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the most proper and restreyned signification is to exercise Episcopall authority or performe the office of a Bishop which consisteth in two things 1 In ordaining 2 Ordering 1 Giving orders 2 Keeping order Saint Paul giveth g Tit. 1.5 Titus both in charge for this cause left I thee in Crete to ordaine Elders in every Church there is the first to wit ordination and to set in order things that are wanting or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to correct things out of order there is the second viz. ordering or reformation Timothy likewise the first consecrated Bishop of Ephesus is put in minde of these branches of his Episcopall function of the first h 1 Tim. 5.22.19 Lay hands suddenly on no man of the second Against an Elder receive not an accusation but under two or three witnesses i ver 20. Them that sinne rebuke before all that others also may feare Be not k ver 22. partaker of any other mans sinnes to wit by not censuring or punishing them These two offices to bee most necessary in the Church every mans reason and common experience will informe us For
how shall wee have Ministers at all without ordination and how shall wee have good Ministers or people without visitation Now for Presbyters or Ministers who are equall in degree to exercise authority one over the other and lay hands upon themselves so to become their own ghostly Fathers is to make order it selfe a confusion Therefore God in the law put a difference between the Priests and Levits and Christ in the gospell between the Apostles and Disciples and the Apostles after Christs death between Bishops and Elders Which the primitive Church kept so religiously that to oppose it in practice was accounted no lesse than l Act. Concil 1. Chalced. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sacriledge in doctrine flat heresie The first that I finde ever to have gone about to break downe the partition wall betweene Bishops and Presbyters was Aerius a man like his name light and aery easily carried away with the winde of ambition For as m Epiph. haeres 71. Cum episcopatus spe excidisset Eustathio posthabitus ut se consolaretur hanc haeresem excogitavit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epiphanius writeth standing for a Bishopricke and missing it hee invented this heresie to comfort himselfe and because hee could not raise up himselfe to the high ranke of Bishops hee sought to pull them downe to his lower ranke of Elders What difference saith he is there betweene a Bishop and a Priest none at all their order and honour and dignity is one and the selfe-same But for this his sawcy malepartnesse he felt the smart of the Crosier staffe and for ranking Bishops among Presbyters or Elders he was himself ranked among hereticks God who made greater lesser lights in the firmament and set Angels in ranks one above another hath erected an * See King James his Cygnea Cantio Bilson his perpetuall governement Bancroft his slavey of the holy pretended discipline c. de episc Downam his sermon at the consecration of the Bishop of Bath and Wells Andrew opus posthum Hallier defenc ecclesiast hierar l. 1. Aurelius vindiciae censurae tit 3. de epis curatis Hierarchy upon earth which as he hath ever yet so I hope he still will to the end of the world establish and support and propagate it as it hath wonderfully supported and propagated the Church The bounds therof extended by the preaching kept by the government of Bishops the Hereticks and Schismaticks in all ages suppressed by Councels and Synods of Bishops the Rubricks of Ecclesiasticall Kalendars coloured with the blood of so many martyred Bishops are sufficient evidence thereof And as the Church soone after her first plantation exceedingly prospered under the shade of James Bishop of Jerusalem Titus of Crete Timothy of Ephesus Marke of Alexandria Ignatius of Antioch Antipas of Pergamus Polycarpe of Smyrna and divers others ordayned by the Apostles or their immediate successors and in succeeding ages received her best sap and nourishment from the Greeke and Latine Fathers who for the most part were Bishops so n Beza de grad Min. evang cap. 18. Non tantum insignes Dei martyres sed etiam praestantissimos doctores pastores Beza himselfe acknowledgeth it to have beene the singular happinesse of the Church of England which he prayeth may be perpetuall that this reverend and sacred order hath yeelded not only famous Martyrs but also most excellent Doctors and Pastors As the Poet blazing the vertues of the Emperour then reigning said o Mart. epig. l. 1. Te volet invictus pro libertate Camillus Si Cato reddatur Caesarianum erit Brutus and Camillus and Cato the greatest sticklers for the liberty of the commonwealth if they were now alive would turne Royalists so wee may truely affirme that the greatest enemies of Episcopall jurisdiction could not but approve of such Bishops as now sit at the sterne in our Church And what if all are not such must the whole order suffer for their sake p Ovid l. 1. de art Desine paucorum diffundere crimen in omnes lay not upon all the fault of some If one or other budde of Aarons rod the bishopricke of Rome and the dependants thereon are turned into serpents shall the whole rod bee cast out of the Arke and Jonah's gourd put in the place thereof I meane the new sprung up mushrome the governement of lay Elders Elders whereof no elder age of the Church ever took notice and the younger cannot tell yet how to christen them because they are a kind of epicoens of both genders plant-animals partly animals partly plants like a sort of Nuns at Bruxels partly regular partly secular in the morning wearing the cowles and habit of Recluses in the afternoone the feathers and other attire of Gallants For they are Clergy-laickes and Lay-clerkes of their clergy they are for they together with their Ministers ordaine Ministers and inflict ecclesiasticall censures and yet laickes they are for they may not preach nor baptize Church-men they are for they beare rule in the Church yet church-men they are not for they may receive no maintenance from the Church They are the Elders that rule well and labour not in the word for such they will have intimated by S. Paul yet the honour which their owne Interpreters there expound honourable maintenance is not due unto them Spare me Men Fathers and Brethren if I spare not them who goe about to bereave us of our spirituall Fathers qui saeviunt in plagas vulnera ecclesiae who seeke to ruine the ruines and spoile the very spoiles of ecclesiasticall dignity and distinction left among us To place such Bats as these rather mice than birds must Christs Apostles and their successors be displaced and all rankes of ecclesiasticall order confounded is there any justice in this to breake all Crosier staves and tread all Miters under foot and teare all Rochets in pieces Unius ob noxam furias Ajacis Oilei for the usurpations and tyranny of one Bishop the Pope of Rome By this reason take away the reverend order of the Apostles for Judas sake take away the sacred order of Prophets for Balaams sake take away the soveraigne order of Princes for Julians sake take away the glorious orbs of starres for the starres sake called q Apoc. 8.11 wormewood in the Apocalyps nay take away the highest regiment of Angels for Lucifers sake and the rest of his faction somtime in the highest order in heaven but now reserved in chaines of darkenesse till the great day This may suffice to bee spoken of and for your calling two words of the two duties implyed in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 feede and take the over-sight You are Pastors and Bishops make good your titles feede as Pastors take the over-sight of your Diocesse as Bishops The three orders in the Church Bishops Priests and Deacons resemble the three faculties of the soule the vegetative sensitive and reasonable For as the sensitive
in Lambeth Chappell A.D. 1622. March 23. THE TENTH SERMON JOHN 20.22 And when hee had said this hee breathed on them and saith unto them receive yee the holy Ghost Most Reverend Right Honourable Right Reverend Right Worshipfull c. A Diamond is not cut but by the point of a Diamond nor the sunne-beame discerned but by the light of the beame nor the understanding faculty of the soule apprehended but by the faculty of understanding nor can the receiving of the holy Ghost bee conceived or delivered without receiving in some a Aug tract 16. in Joh. Adsit ipse spiritus ut sic eloqui possimus degree that holiest Spirit b Ciâ— de mat Qui eloquentiam laudat debet illam ipsam adhibere quam lâ—â—dat Hee that will blazon the armes of the Queen of affections Eloquence must borrow her own pencill and colours nor may any undertake to expound this text and declare the power of this gift here mentioned but by the gift of this power Wherefore as in the interpretation of other inspired Scriptures wee are humbly to intreat the assistance of the Inspirer so more especially in the explication and application of this which is not onely effectivè à spiritu but also objectivè de spiritu not onely indited and penned as all other by the spirit but also of the spirit This of all other is a most mysterious text which being rightly understood and pressed home will not only remove the weaker fence betweene us and the Greeke Church touching the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Sonne but also beat downe and demolish the strong and high partition wall betweene the reformed and the Romane Church built upon S. Peters supremacy For if Christ therefore used the Ceremony of breathing upon his Apostles with this forme of words Receive yee the Holy Ghost as it were of set purpose visibly to represent the proceeding of the holy Spirit from himselfe why should not the Greeke Church acknowledge with us the eternall emanation of the holy Ghost from the Sonne as well as the Father and acknowledging it joyne with us in the fellowship of the same spirit Our difference and contestation with the Church of Rome in point of S. Peters primacy is far greater I confesse For the head of all controversies between us and them is the controversie concerning the head of the Church Yet even this how involved soever they make it may be resolved by this text alone For if Christ sent all his Apostles as his Father sent him if he breathed indifferently upon all if he gave his spirit and with it full power of remittting and retaining sinnes to them all then is there no ground here for S. Peters jurisdiction over the rest much lesse the Popes and if none here none elsewhere as the sequell will shew For howsoever Cajetan and Hart and some few Papists by jingling Saint Peters c Mat. 16.19 Keyes and distinguishing of a key 1 Of knowledge 2 Of power and this 1 Of order 2 Of jurisdiction and that 1 In foro exteriori the outward court 2 Foro interiori the inward court of conscience goe about to confound the harmony of the Evangelists who set all the same tune but to a different key yet this is confessed on all sides by the Fathers Hilary Jerome Austine Anselme and by the Schoole-men Lumbard Aquinas Allensis and Scotus alledged by Cardinall d Bellar. de Rom. pont l. 1. c. 12. Bellarmine that what Christ promised to Peter e Mat. 16. he performed and made good to him here but here the whole f Hieronymus adver Lucifer Cuncti claves accipiunt super omnes ex aequô ecclesiae fortitudo solidatur bunch of keyes is offered to all the Apostles and all of them receive them all are joyned with S. Peter as well in the mission as my Father sent mee so I send you as in the Commission Lastly as this text containes a soveraigne Antidote against the infection of later heresies so also against the poyson of the more ancient and farther spread impieties of Arrius and Macedonius whereof the one denyed the divinity and eternity of the Sonne the other of the holy Ghost both whose damnable assertions are confuted by consequence from this text For if Christ by breathing giveth the holy Ghost and by giving the holy Ghost power of remitting sinne then must Christ needs bee God for who but God can give or send a divine person The holy Ghost also from hence is proved to be God for who can g Mar. 2.7 or Esay 43.25 forgive sinnes but God alone So much is our faith indebted to this Scripture yet our calling is much more for what can bee spoken more honourably of the sacred function of Bishops and Priests than that the investiture and admittance into it is the receiving of the holy Ghost * Primum in unoquoque genere est mensura regula caeterorum The first action in every kind of this nature is a president to all the rest as all the furniture of the Ceremoniall law was made according to the first patterne in the Mount such is this consecration in my text the originall and patterne of all other wherein these particulars invite your religious attention 1 The person consecrating Christ the chiefe Bishop of our soules 2 The persons consecrated The Apostles the prime Pastours of the Church 3 The holy action it selfe set forth 1 With a mysterious rite he breathed on them 2 A sanctified forme of words receive ye the holy Ghost 1 First for the person consecrating All Bishops are consecrated by him originally to whom they are consecrated all Priests are ordained by him to whom they are ordained Priests the power which they are to employ for him they receive from him to whom h Matth. 28.18 all power is given both in heaven and in earth By vertue of which deed of gift he maketh i Matth. 10.2 choice of his ministers and hee sendeth them with authority k Jâ—h 20.21 as my Father sent me so I send you And hee furnisheth them with gifts saying receive yee the holy Ghost and enableth them with a double power of order to l Matth. 28.19 Teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost 1 Cor. 11.24 This do in the remembrance of me preach and administer both the sacraments and of jurisdiction also Matth. 18.18 Verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall bee bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven And that this sacred order is to continue in the Church and this spirituall power in this order even till Christ resigneth up his keyes and kingdome to God his Father S. Paul assureth us Eph. 4.10.11.12 Hee that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens that he might fill all things and he gave some
of sinnes is peculiarly attributed to the Spirit and by a metonymie termed the Holy Ghost Barradius bringeth us an answer out of the schooles that z Barrad in harmon Evang. remission of sinnes is a worke of Gods goodnesse and mercy now workes of goodnesse are peculiarly attributed to the holy Spirit who proceedeth as they determine from the will of the Father and the Sonne whose object is goodnesse as workes of wisedome are attributed to the Sonne because hee is the word proceeding by way of generation from the understanding of his Father This reason may goe for currant in their way neither have I any purpose at this time to crosse it but to haste to the period of this discourse in which that I may better discover the path of truth in stead of many little lights which others have brought I will set up one great taper made of the sweetest of their waxe The Holy Ghost is sometimes taken for the person of the Comforter which sealeth Gods chosen to salvation sometimes for the gifts effects or operations of the Holy Ghost as it were the prints of his scale left in the soule these are principally three 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Grace 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spirituall power or authority 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vertue or ghostly ability to worke wonders and speake with divers languages 1 Is common to all them that are sanctified 2 Is peculiar to Christs Ministers 3 Restrayned to the Apostles themselves and some few others of their immediate successors z Joh. 3.5 Exceâ—t a man be borne of the water and of the spirit 1 Regenerating grace is termed the holyGhost 2 Spirituall order or ministeriall power is called the Spirit or holy Ghost in this place and Luk. 4.18 Esay 61.1 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me to preach the Gospell c. 3 Miraculous vertue is called the holy Ghost Act. 2.4 And they were filled with the holy Ghost and spake with divers tongues 1 The Spirit of grace and regeneration the Apostles received at their first calling 2 The Spirit of ecclesiasticall government they received at this time c. 3 The Spirit of powerfull and extraordinary operation they received in the day of Pentecost 1 In their mindes by infallible inspiration 2 In their tongues by multiplicity of languages 3 In their hands by miraculous cures Receive then the Holy Ghost is 1 A ghostly function to ordaine Pastors and sanctifie congregations to God 2 Spirituall gifts to execute and discharge that function 3 Spirituall power or jurisdiction to countenance and support both your function and gifts Thus have I opened the treasury of this Scripture out of which I now offer to your religious thoughts and affections these ensuing observations And first in generall I commend to the fervour of your zeale and devotion the excessive heat of Christs love which absumed and spent him all for us flesh and spirit His flesh he offereth us in the Sacrament of his Supper his spirit hee conferreth in the sacred rite of consecration His body hee gave by those words Take eate this is my body his spirit hee gave by these Receive ye the holy Ghost a gift unestimable a treasure unvaluable for it was this spirit which quickned us when wee were dead in trespasses and sinnes it is this spirit which fetcheth us againe when wee swoune in despaire it is this spirit that refresheth and cooleth us in the extreme heat of all persecutions afflictions sorrowes and diseases to it we owe 1 Light in our mindes 2 Warmth in our desires 3 Temper in our affections 4 Grace in our wils 5 Peace in our consciences 6 Joy in our hearts and unspeakeable comfort in life and death This is the winde which bloweth a Cant. 4.16 Blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits upon the Spouse her garden that the spices thereof might flow out This is the breath which formeth the words in the cloven tongues this is the breath which bloweth and openeth all the flowers of Paradise This is the blast which diffuseth the savour of life through the whole Church This is the gale which carryeth us through all the troublesome waves of this world and bringeth us safe to the haven where we would be And as the Spouse of Christ which is his mysticall body is infinitely indebted to her head for this gift of the spirit whereby holy congregations are furnished with Pastors and they with gifts and the ministery of the Gospell continually propagated so wee above all nations in the world at this day are most bound to extoll and magnifie his goodnesse towards us herein among whom in a manner alone this holy seed of the Church remaineth unmixed and uncorrupt not onely as propagated but propagating also not children onely but Fathers Apostolicall doctrine other reformed Churches maintaine but doe they retaine also Apostolicall discipline laying of hands they have on Ministers and Pastors but consecration of Archbishops and Bishops they have not And because they want consecrated Bishops to ordaine Pastors their very ordination is not according to ancient order Because they want spirituall Fathers in Christ to beget children in their ministery their Ministers by the adversary are accounted no better than filii populi whereas will they nill they even in regard of our Hierarchy the most frontlesse Papists must confesse the children begot by our reverend Fathers in the ministery of the Gospell to be as legitimate as their owne For albeit they put the hereticke upon us as the Arrians did upon the Catholike Fathers calling them Athanasians c. yet this no way disableth either the consecration of our Bishops nor the ordination of our Priests not onely because we have proved the dogge lyeth at their doores and that they are a kinde of mungrils of divers sorts of heretickes but because it is the doctrine of their Church b See Croy in his third conformity Whitaker in fine resp ad demonstrat Sanderi Rivet procem de haeref q. 1. Cath. orthod that the character of order is indeleble and therefore Archbishop Cranmer and other of our Bishops ordained by them if they had afterwards as Papists most falsly suppose fallen into heresie could not lose their faculty of consecration and ordination The consecration of Catholicke Bishops by Arrians and baptisme of faithfull Christians children by Donatists though heretickes is made good as well by the decrees of ancient as later Councels determining that Sacraments administred even by heretickes so they observe the rite and forme of words prescribed in holy scripture bee of force and validity Praysed therefore for ever bee the good will of him that dwelt in the bush that the Rod of Aaron still flourisheth among us and planteth and propagateth it selfe like that Indian fig-tree so much admired by all Travellers from the utmost branch whereof issueth a gummy juyce which hangeth
downe like a cord or finew and within a few months reacheth the ground which it no sooner toucheth than it taketh root and maketh it selfe a tree and that likewise another and that likewise a third and so forward till they over-runne the whole grove To draw nearer to you my Lord to bee consecrated and so to an end This scripture is part of the Gospell appointed for the Sunday after Easter knowne to the Latine Church by the name of Dominica in albis Which Lords day though in the slower motion of time in our Calendar is not yet come yet according to exact computation this Sunday is Dominica in albis and if you either respect the reverend presence Candidantium or Candidandi or the sacred order of Investiture now to be performed let your eyes be judges whether it may not truely be termed Dominica in albis a Sunday in whites The text it selfe as before in the retexture thereof I shewed is the prototypon or original of all consecrations properly so called For howsoever these words may bee used and are also in the ordination of Priests because they also receive the holy Ghost that is spirituall power and authority yet they receive it not so amply and fully nor without some limitation sith ordination and excommunication have bin ever appropriated and reserved to Bishops And it is to be noted that the Apostles long before this were sent by Christ to preach and baptize and therefore they were not now ordained Priests but consecrated Bishops as Saint c Greg. in Evan. Horum nunc in ecclesiâ Episcopi locum tenent qui gradum regiminis sortiuntur grandis honor sed grave pondus est istius honoris Gregory saith expressely in his illustration of these words Receive the holy Ghost whose sinnes yee remit c. Now Bishops who fit at the sterne of the Church hold the place of those to whom Christ gave here the ghostly power of forgiving sinnes a great honour indeed but a great charge withall and a heavie burden so ponderous in Saint Barnards judgement that it needs the shoulders of an Angell to beare it The Apostles had made good proofe of their faithfulnesse in the ministry of the Word and Sacraments before Christ lifted them up to this higher staire as likewise the venerable Personage now to bee taken up into that ranke hath done For more than thirty yeeres hee hath shined as a starre in the firmament of our Church and now by the primus motor in our heaven is designed to bee an Angell or to speake in the phrase of the Peripatetickes an Intelligence to guide the motion of one of our Spheres Which though it be one of the least his Episcopall dignity is no whit diminished thereby In Saint d Hiero. ad Evag Omnis Episcopus sive Romae sive Eugubii aequalis est meriti Hieromes account every Bishop be his Diocesse great or small is equally a Bishop Episcopatus non suscipit magis minus one Bishop may be richer than another or learneder but hee cannot bee more a Bishop Therefore howsoever e Basil epist 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianzen tooke it unkindly at Saint Basils hands after hee was advanced to the Metropolitical See of Cappadocia and had many good Bishopricks in his gift that he put him upon one of the meanest being ill situated and of small revenue telling him flatly that he gained nothing by his friendship but this lesson not to trust a friend yet it never troubled great Austine that obscure Aurelius worked himselfe into the great and famous Archbishopricke of Carthage whilest this eminent light of the Church stucke all his life at poore Hippo for hee well remembred the words of our Lord and Master f Matth. 25.21 Be thou faithfull in a little and I will set thee over much Suffer I beseech you a word of exhortation and but a word Be faithfull to your Master seeke not your owne but the things that are Jesus Christs It is not sufficient in Nazianzens judgement for a Bishop not to be soyled with the dust of covetousnesse or any other vice g Nazian orat 1 de fuga in pont Privati quidem hominis vitium esse existimet turpia supplicioque digna perpetrare praefecti autem vel antistitis non quam optimum esse he must shine in vertue and if hee bee not much better than other men h Idem orat 20. Antistes improbitatis notam effugere non potest nisi multum antecellat hee is no good Bishop Wherefore as it was said at the creation of the Romane Consul praesta nomen tuum thou art made Consul make good thy name consule reipublicae So give mee leave in this day of your consecration to use a like forme of words to you my Lord Elect Episcopus es praesta nomen tuum you are now to be made a Bishop an Overseer of the Lords flocke make good your name looke over your whole Diocesse observe not onely the sheepe but the Pastors not only those that are lyable to your authority jurisdiction but those also who execute it under you Have an eye to your eyes and hold a strict hand over your hands I meane your officials collectors and receivers and if your eye cause you to offend plucke it out and if your hand cut it off Let it never bee said by any of your Diocesse that they are the better in health for your not visiting them as the i Eras apoth Eò melius habeo quod te medico non utor Lacedemonian Pausanias answered an unskilfull Physician that asked him how hee did the better quoth he because I take none of your Physick Imprint these words alwayes in your heart which give you your indeleble character consider whose spirit you receive by imposition of hands and the Lord give you right understanding in all things it is the spirit of Jesus Christ he breathed and said receive the holy Spirit This spirit of Jesus Christ is 1 The spirit of zeale Joh. 2.17 Bee you not cold in Gods cause whip out buyers and sellers out of the Church 2 The spirit of discretion Joh. 10.14 I am the good shepheard and know my sheepe and am knowne of them Know them well whom you trust with the mysteries of salvation to whom you commit those soules which God hath purchased with his owne blood lay not hands rashly upon any for if the k Matth. 6.23 light be darkenesse how great will the darkenesse be If in giving holy orders and imposition of hands there be a confusion hand over head how great will the confusion be in the Church 3 The spirit of meeknesse Matth. 11.29 Learne of me that I am meek breake not a bruised reede nor quench the smoaking flaxe sis bonus O foelixque tuis be good especially to those of your own calling Take not l Histor Aug. in Aureliano Aurelian for your patterne whose souldiers more feared him than the enemy
but rather m Suet. in Tit. Titus Vespasian who suffered no man by his good will to goe sad from him and in this regard was stiled Amor delicrae humani generis the love and darling of mankinde The laity shew in their name what they are durum genus and how ill they stand affected to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stone and hardly entreat our tribe all have experience who have or ever had pastorall charges Wee cannot pray them so fast into heaven as they will sweare us out of our maintenance on earth And what reliefe wee have at secular tribunals the world seeth and if wee must yet expect harder measure from your officers and servants I know not to what more fitly to compare the inferiour of our Clergy who spend themselves upon their parochiall cures and are flieced by them whom they feed and by whom they should bee fedde through vexatious suits in law than to the poore hare in the Epigram which to save her selfe from the hounds leaped into the sea and was devoured by a sea-dogge n Auson epig. In me omnis terrae pelagique ruina est 4 The spirit of humility Matth. 20.28 The Sonne of man came not to bee ministred unto but to minister The head of the Church vouchsafeth o Joh. 13.14 to wash his disciples feet professing therein ver 15. that hee gave them an example that they should doe as hee had done to them Winde blowne into a bladder filleth it and into flesh maketh it swell but the breath of God inspired into the soule produceth the contrary effect it abateth and taketh downe all swelling of pride Take not Austine the Monke for your patterne from whose proud behaviour towards them the Brittish Monkes truely concluded that hee was not sent unto them from Christ but Saint Austine the Father whose modest speech in a contention betweene him and Jerome gained him more respect from all men than ever the Bishops of Rome got by their swelling buls and direfull fulminations According to the present custome of the Church saith he the title of a p August epist ad Hieron Bishop is above that of a Priest yet Priest Jerome is a better man than Bishop Austine As the q Bruson facet exempl Athenians wisely answered Pompey requiring from them divine honour We will so farre account thee a God as thou acknowledgest thy selfe a man for humility of minde in eminency of fortune is a divine perfection so the lesse you account your selfe a Prelate the more all men will preferre and most highly honour you When Christ consecrated his Apostles Bishops he breathed on them to represent after a sort visibly by an outward symbole the eternall and invisible procession of the holy Ghost from his person In regard of which divine signification of that his insufflation no man may presume to imitate that rite though they may and do use the words Receive the holy Ghost All that may bee done to supply the defect of that ceremony is in stead of breathing upon you to breath out prayers to almighty God for you that you right reverend Fathers may give and for you my Lord Elect that you may receive the holy Ghost for us that wee may worthily administer and for you that you may worthily participate the blessed body and blood of our Saviour and for us all that wee may bee nourished by his flesh and quickened by his spirit and live in him and hee in us and dwell in him and he in us So be it c. THE FAITHFULL SHEPHEARD A Sermon preached at the Consecration of three Bishops the Lords Elect of Oxford Bristoll and Chester in his Graces Chappell at Lambeth May 9. 1619. THE ELEVENTH SERMON 1 PET. 5.2.3.4 Feede the flocke of God which is among you taking the over-sight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind not as being Lords over Gods heritage but being ensamples to the flock And when the chiefe shepheard shall appeare you shall receive a crowne of glory that fadeth not away Most Reverend Right Honourable Right Reverend right Worshipfull c. ARchilochus a Arist Rhet. c. 2. sharpning his quill and dipping it in gall against Lycambes that his satyricall invectives might bee more poignant putteth the pen in Archilochus his Fathers hand and by an elegant prosopopeia maketh him upbraid his sonne with those errors and vices which it was not fit that any but his father should in such sort rip up And b Orat. pro M. Coelio Tully being to read a lecture of gravity and modesty to Clodia which became not his yeares or condition raiseth up as it were from the grave her old grandfather Appius Caecus and out of his mouth delivereth a sage and fatherly admonition to her In like manner right Reverend receiving the charge from you to give the charge unto you at this present and being over-ruled by authority to speak something of the eminent authority sacred dignity into which ye are now to be invested I have brought upon this holy stage the first of your ranke and auncientest of your Apostolicall order to admonish you with authority both of your generall calling as Pastours set over Christs flocke and your speciall as Bishops set over the Pastors themselves That in the former words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 feed this in the latter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bishoping or taking the over-sight of them Both they are to performe 1 Not by constraint 2 Not for lucre 3 Not with pride 1 Not by constâ—ant constraint standeth not with the dignity of the Apostles successors 2 Not for filthy lucre filthy lucre sorts not with Gods Priests 3 Not in or with Lord-like pride Lord-like pride complyeth not with the humility of Christs Ministers As Tully the aged wrote to Cato the auncient of old age so in the words of my text Peter the Elder writeth to Elders of the calling life and reward of Elders in the Church of God 1 Their function is feeding and overlooking Christs flocke enjoyned ver 2. 2 Their life is to be a patterne of all vertue drawne ver 3. 3 Their reward is a Crowne of glory set before them ver 4. 1 Their function sacred answerable to their calling which is divine 2 Their life exemplary answerable to their function which is sacred 3 Their reward exceeding great answerable to the eminency of the one and excellency of the other May it please you therefore to observe out of the words 1 For your instruction what your function is 2 For correction what your life should be 3 For comfort what your reward shall be As the costly c Exod. 28.14 ornaments of Aaron were fastened to the Ephod with golden chaines of writhen worke so all the parts and points of the Apostles exhortation are artificially joyned and tyed together with excellent coherence as it were with chaines of gold This chaine thus I draw through them all
words of the Psalmist k Psal 49.20 being in honour have no understanding but may bee compared to the beast that perisheth Their purple robes are no sooner on but they reflect upon their owne worth and wisedome and trample those who were before their equals under foot 4. The fourth stratagem policie or device is To tempt us by method beginning with questionable actions thence proceeding to sinnes of infirmity from them to wilfull transgressions after to heinous crimes and last of all to obstinacy and finall impenitency No wooll or cloath is dyed purple or scarlet at the first but after divers tinctures at the last taketh that deepest dye so doth the soule scarlet and crimson sinnes after many lesser faults of an inferiour dye or staine i Juven Sat. 2 Nemo repentè fuit turpissimus No man at one leap gets up to the top of all impiety therefore Satan takes him by the hand and leads him by these severall steps 1 An evill motion plot or designe 2 The entertainment of it with some kind of approbation 3 A determination to pursue it 4 A vitious action 5 An evill habit or custome 6 The defence or justification of his wicked course 7 Glorying in it and in a reprobate sense Hee that hastily turnes the pegge to winde up a treble to his pitch will sooner breake the string than tune it but if hee straine it up by little and little hee bringeth it without danger to the height Had Satan at the first dash tempted Saint Peter to forsweare his Master and curse himselfe doubtlesse the Apostle would have abandoned the suggestion and defied the tempter who yet wrought upon him by degrees and at length obtained his end First hee cooleth his zeale perswading him not to runne upon danger but if he were resolved to see what would become of his Master to follow him afar off when hee comes slowly to the high Priests pallace hee sets a damosell upon him to question him and upon a light apprehension of danger he gaines from him an unadvised deniall after upon greater feare a double and treble abnegation in conclusion an oath to make good his former denials If this grand Impostor of the world and cunning supplanter of soules meet with a man of a strict conscience who endevoureth to walke uprightly before God first he tryeth to bring him to venture upon questionable actions such things as may beare a dispute whether they are sinnes or no as statute usury to take eight in the hundred legall simony to buy the next advowson of a living the Incumbent lying desperately sicke customary sacriledge to pay a certaine rate for the tithe though far lesse in value than the due If hee get thus much ground of him hee easily presseth him forward to commit some undoubted sinnes but small in the kinde as to let his eyes range about vaine objects to entertaine a wanton thought for a while to keepe from Church in foule weather to salve a fault with a hansome excuse to mis-spend an houre or two with a friend in a Taverne after Satan hath gained thus much of him hee will easily draw him from making little account of small sinnes to make small account of great For as the wimble bores a hole for the auger so lesse sinnes make way for greater idlenesse for wantonnesse lust for adultery wrath for murder lying for perjury errours for heresies good fellowship for drunkennesse and all wickednesse Milo by carrying a calfe at the first and after a bullocke was able in fine to beare an oxe And it is storied of Mithridates King of Pontus that by taking weak poysons at the first by degrees stronger in the end he brought his body to that temper that no poyson could worke upon him Effecit poto Mithridates saepe veneno Toxica ne possint saeva nocere sibi Thus custome in small sinnes at the first and in greater after makes us in the end insensible of all This rule of Satans method extendeth farther than private corruption in mens mindes For thus sensim sine sensu tyranny heresie and superstition overran the greater part of the Church The Bishop of Rome in the beginning contended but for a bare primacy of order which considering the great power of that City being the seat of the Empire was without much difficulty yeelded unto him after hee pretends to a little more viz. receiving the last appeales from the sentence of the other Patriarchs this Sozimus stickled for alledging for it a Canon of the Councell of Nice which the African Bishops proved to be forged By Boniface the third his time he durst to put in for the title of Universall Bishop which hee obtained though m Plat. in Bonif 3. An. 666. with much adoe through the Emperour Phocas his meanes who murdered his Master Mauritius By vertue of this title his successour Vitalianus tooke upon him to give spirituall lawes to the whole Church and after him Pope Hildebrand to give temporall lawes to Kings and Princes to depose them at pleasure and to dispose of their crownes As tyranny so superstition and Idolatry stole pedetentim into the Church First to confirme Christians in the faith of the resurrection and to encourage them to constancy in their holy profession in the Church Liturgy there was some commemoration made of the dead after this commemoration succeeded anniversary panegyrickes in their commendation soone after publike giving thankes to God for them by name and last of all direct invocation of them In like manner grosse Idolatry crept into the Church First images and pictures of Saints were used in private for memory history or ornament onely after upon the like colour of pretence in St. n Epist ex Regist 9 Adorate Imaginâ—s omnibus modis devita Gregories dayes they were brought into the Church with an expresse prohibition of worshipping them In the next age the worship of them was enjoyned by Pope Adrian in the second Synod at Nice yet not for themselves but respectively onely in regard of that which they represent but now in our age since the Councell of Trent it is the tenent of the Roman Church that Images are to be worshipped for themselves o Bell. de imag sanct l. 2. c. 21. Ut in se considerantur non tantum ut vicem gerunt exemplaris and farther the Heathen goe not in their Idolatry nor the wiser of them so farre 5 The fift stratagem policy or device of Satan is to bring us from one extreme to another when our heart smiteth us for any grievous sinne out of detestation thereof unlesse we walke circumspectly we are easily carried to the opposite vice With this engine Satan maketh great batteries upon many weake Christians not onely because it is a hard thing to hit the middle but because we are apt to thinke that the extremest opposition to that vice which lieth heaviest upon our conscience is the worke of grace in us not considering that vices are not only
ruddy in the hiew of his passion white in his life and ruddy at his death or white in his garland of c Cyp. l. 1. ep 6. Floribus enim nec rosae nec lilia desunt pax acies habet suos flores quibus milites Christi ob gloriam coronantur lilies unspotted Virgins ruddy in his garland of roses victorious Martyrs or lastly as some flourish upon the letter ruddy in all his Disciples save St. John who shed their blood for his name and Gospell and white in the Disciple in my text who alone came to a faire and peaceable end abiding according to the words of our Saviour till hee came unto him by an easie and naturall death For this priviledge Christ gave him above them all that none should have power to lay violent hands on him who lay in his Redeemers arms d Joh. 1.17 The law was given by Moses but grace and truth by Jesus Christ and with grace came in John a name that signifieth grace Wee read of no John in the old Testament but wee finde two in the Gospell the one the forerunner the other the follower of Christ the one in allusion to the Hebrew Etymology of his name may bee called Gratia praeveniens grace prevenient the other Gratia subsequens grace subsequent the one may bee compared to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Morning the other to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Evening starre for Saint John Baptist as the Morning starre ushered in the Sunne our Saviour Saint John the Evangelist as the Evening starre appeared long in the skie shining in the Churches of Asia after the Sunne of righteousnesse Christ Jesus was set at his death This latter John is the Disciple whose feast wee now keepe and memory wee celebrate and graces wee admire and title wee are now to declare As Christ spake of the Baptist e Mat. 11.9 What went yee out to see a Prophet nay I say unto you and more than a Prophet wee may say of this Evangelist what are yee come to heare of a Disciple nay I say unto you and more than a Disciple a Prophet an Evangelist an Apostle f Cic. in Brut. O generosam stirpein tanquam in unam arborem plura germina sic in istam domum multorum insitam et illuminatam virtutem O noble stocke on which many grafts of the plants of Paradise are set In some parts of the skie wee see single starres in others a conjunction or crowne of many starres the other Disciples were like single starres some were Prophets some were Evangelists some Doctors some Apostles but in Saint John as a constellation shine the eminent gifts and callings of many Disciples Saint Luke was an Evangelist but no Apostle Saint Peter was an Apostle but no Evangelist Saint Matthew was an Evangelist and Apostle but no Prophet Saint John was all 1 In his Gospell an Evangelist 2 In his Epistle an Apostle 5 In his Apocalypse a Prophet And in all according to his divine Hieroglyphicke g Rev. 4.7 The fourth beast was like a flying Eagle An Eagle Hee was an Eagle in his Apostolike function h Mat. 24.28 Luk. 17.37 where the body was there was this Eagle still lying at his breast In his Gospell like an Eagle hee soareth higher than the other three beginning with and more expresly delivering the divinity of Christ than any before him Lastly in the Apocalypse like an Eagle with open eye hee looketh full upon the Sunne of righteousnesse and the light of the celestiall Jerusalem whereat all our eyes at this day are dazeled Yet this divine Eagle here flyeth low and in humility toucheth the ground stiling himselfe nothing but a Disciple Obser 2 Wee read in i Exod. 15.27 Exodus They came to Elim where are twelve Wels of water and seventy Palme trees In these twelve Springs of water Saint k Hieron tract de 42. mansionibus Nec dubium quin de Apostolis sermo sit de quorum fontibus derivatae aquae totius mundi siccitatem rigant Juxta has aquas 70. creverunt palmae quas ipsos secundi ordinis intelligimus praeceptores Lucà Evangelistà docente duodecim fuisse Apostolos 70. Discipulos minoris gradus Vid supr Ser. 10. The Apostolike Bishop Jerome conceived that hee saw the face of the twelve Apostles and on the branches of these seventy Palme trees the fruit of the seventy Disciples labour In allusion whereunto most of the Ancients make the Apostles the Parents and patterns of all Bishops and the seventy Disciples of Priests the Bishops they make as it were the springs from whence the Presbyters like the Palme trees receive sap and moisture whereby they grow in the Church and bring forth fruit in the parochiall Cures where they are planted The Bishops they called Pastours and Teachers primi ordinis of the first order or ranke the Presbyters or Priests Praeceptores secundi ordinis teachers as it were in a lower fourm To confound which rankes in the Church and bring a Bishop perforce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 downe to the lower fourm or degree of a Priest is defined sacriledge in the great Councell of Chalcedon Yet Saint John the Apostle here of himselfe descendeth into that lower step or staire assuming to himselfe the name onely of a Disciple 1 In humility 2 In modesty 3 In thankfulnesse to his Master 1 In humility to take all Christians into his ranke hëe giveth himselfe no higher title than was due to the meanest follower of Christ The weightier the piece of gold is the more it presseth downe the scale even so where there is more worth you shall ever find more lowlinesse the empty and light eares pricke up but the full bow to the earth 2 In modesty Saint John was the youngest of the Apostles and in that respect tearmeth himselfe rather a Disciple that is a learner than as hee was indeed a great Master in the Church though hee were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet hee was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 young hee was in yeeres but not in conditions his youth was wiser than others age his dawning was brighter than their noon-tide his blossomes fairer than their fruits his Spring exceeded their Autumne yet like Moses hee saw not the beames of his face which all other beheld Young men doe not so much usually over-value themselves as here Saint John doth under-value himselfe the stile wherewith the Church hath most deservedly graced him is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John the Divine but the title which hee taketh to himselfe is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Scholar or Disciple 3 In thankfulnesse to his Master he chuseth this title before any other thereby professing that whatsoever knowledge hee had hee suckt it from him on whose brest he lay About the time of our Saviours birth as l De vit Pont. tit Christ narrat Orosius l. 6. c. 21. Augustum Caesarem eodem die
faithfull and thy faith to be sound and thy patience to bee invincible and thy workes and the last to be more than the first The faire and magnificent Colledges lately founded and Churches sumptuously repaired and Libraries rarely furnished and Schooles richly endowed and Students in the Universities liberally maintained and the poore in Hospitals charitably relieved are standing testimonies and living evidences thereof Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee that thou sufferest the woman that sitteth upon seven hils the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth Jezabel of Rome which calleth her selfe a Prophetesse and Mistresse of all Prophets and Prophetesses by Priests and Jesuites to teach and deceive my servants to make them commit spirituall fornication and freely communicate with Idolaters and I gave her space to repent sixty yeers at least that she might not complain that I began with violent extreme courses and launced her wounds whilest they were greene but all this while she hath not repented of her Superstitions and abominable Idolatries therefore I will lay it heavie upon her I will send plague after plague and heape sorrow upon sorrow and adde affliction to affliction and if all will not serve I will poure out the dregges of my red wine on her and quench the fire of my wrath with her stained bloud I will kill her children with death and all the Churches shall know that I am hee that searcheth deep into the wounds of the heart and reines and discover filthinesse corruption in the inward parts and I will give unto every one according to his workes but unto you I say and to the rest in great Britaine as many as have not this doctrine of the Romish Jezabel and which have not knowne the depths of Sathan her mysteries of iniquity I will put upon you no other burden of Lawes or Canons but that which you have already Hold fast till I come to judgement In this Letter observe we 1. The superscription mysterious Ver. 18. 2. The contents various presenting to our religious thoughts 1. A sweet insinuation Ver. 19. 2. A sharpe reprehension Ver. 20 21. 3. A fearfull commination Ver. 22 23. 4. A comfortable conclusion Ver. 24. In the superscription wee have an admirable description of the glorified body of our Redeemer which shineth more brightly than a flame of fire or the finest metall glowing in the furnace Secondly an eminent title attributed to the Bishop or Super-intendent of the Church in Thyatira The Angel To the Angel in Thyatira saith the Sonne of God who hath eyes like a flame of fire to a Bullengerus in hunc locum Illuminat alios alios igne sempiterno concremat inlighten the godly and burne up the ungodly and feet like brasse to support his Church and bruise the enemies thereof I know thy workes proceeding from thy love and thy love testified by thy service and thy service approved by thy faith and thy faith tryed by thy patience and that the silver springs of thy bounty have more overflowed at the last than at the first Thus farre the sweet insinuation which afterwards falls into a sharpe reprehension like as the sweet river b Solinus c. 20. Hypanis Scythicorum amnium princeps haustu saluberrimus dum in Exampeum fontem inferatur qui amnem suo vitio vertit Hypanis into the bitter fountaine Exampeus Notwithstanding I have an action against thee that thou sufferest the filthy Strumpet Jezebel to corrupt the bodies and soules of my servants by permitting corporall fornication to them and committing spirituall with them whose judgement sleepeth not no not in her bed but even there shall surprise her For behold I will cast her into a bed where she hath cast her selfe in wantonnesse I will cast her in great weaknesse and will make her bed of pleasure a racke to torment her Ubi peccavit punietur where she swilled in her stolne waters that rellished so sweet in her mouth shee shall take downe her bitter potion Ubi oblectamentum ibi tormentum Of which plagues of Jezebel when God shall open the vials mouth at this time I purpose to gather some few observations from the two former branches of this Scripture but to insist wholly upon the third in the explication whereof when I have proved by invincible arguments that Jezebel is not to be tolerated in the application I will demonstrate that the Pseudo-catholike Romane Church otherwise called the Whore of Babylon is Jezebel or worse if worse may bee as God shall assist mee with his Spirit and endue mee with power from above for which I beseech you all to joyn with mee in prayer O most gracious God c. And to the Angel of the Church in Thyatira write c. The Naturalists observe that the thickest and best hony is that which is squeezed last out of the combe and usually the daintiest dish is served in at the last course and Musicians reserve the sweetest straine for their close and Rhetoricians take speciall care of their peroration The last speech of a dying friend leaves a deep impression in our hearts and art imitating nature holdeth out the last note of the dying sound in the organ or voice which consideration should stirre up our religious thoughts and affections to entertain with greatest alacrity and singular respect the admonitions and prophecies delivered in this booke as being the last words of our Lords last will and testament d Sen. ep 12. Gratissima sunt poma cùm fugiunt deditos vino potatio extrema delectu c. and the last breath as it were of the Spirit of God If that of the Poet be true that the beames of the c Esse Phoebi dulcius solet lumen jamjam cadentis Sunne shine most pleasantly at his setting how pleasant and deare ought the light of this Propheticall booke be unto us which is the last irradiation and glissoning of the Sunne of righteousnesse In it discerne we may 1. Counsels chapt 2.3 2. Predictions of the state of the Church 1. Militant from the 4th to the 21. 2. Triumphant from the 21. to the end The manner of delivery of both to Saint John was by speciall revelation which you will better conceive if you be pleased to take notice of the meanes whereby all knowledge divine and humane is conveighed into the soule As all water ariseth either from Springs below or falleth from the Clouds above so all knowledge is either gathered from the creatures by naturall reason grounded upon experience or immediately descendeth from the Father of lights and is attained unto by supernaturall illumination Supernaturall illumination is either 1. By ordinary inspiration common to all the Pen-men of the holy Ghost who wrote the dictates of the Spirit and were so assisted by him that they could not set downe any thing amisse 2. By extraordinary revelation which may be either 1. Of things past whereof there remaine no records monuments or memorialls to furnish
wretched and miserable and blind and naked Wherefore the Spirit n Ver. 17. counselleth them to buy of him gold tryed in the fire that they may be rich and white raiment that they may be clothed and that the shame of their nakednesse doe not appeare And to annoint their eyes with o Ver. 18. eye-salve that they may see 7. Lastly by the name Thyatira so called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to runne mad after and spend ones selfe they may bee put in minde of those in Thyatira who ranne awhoring after Jezebel and spent their estates upon her and committed filthinesse with her Cap. 2. Ver. 20. which because the Angel winked at the Spirit sharply reproveth him And to the Angel of the Church in Thyatira write I know thy workes c. Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee c. These Verses resemble the branches of the p Apoc. 22.2 tree of life which bare twelve maner of fruits 1. The first I gather from them is the dignity of the Ministers of the Gospel to whom the Son of God writeth stiling them Angels To the Angel of Ephesus of Smyrna c. 2. The second the difference of degrees in the Ministry for the Son of God endorseth his letter not to the inferiour Ministers which were many in each of these Churches but to the Angel in the singular number the Bishop or Super-intendent of the place to whom the government of the Church and ordering Ecclesiasticall affaires chiefly if not onely appertained 3. The third is the glorious majesty and divinity of our Saviour who was before stiled the Sonne of man but is here called the Sonne of God and described with eyes like a flame of fire piercing through the thickest darknesse and with feet like fine brasse walking through the midst of all the Churches and yet no way defiled according to the words of the Prophet the q Hos 14.9 waies of the Lord are undefiled 4. The fourth is mildnesse in just reproofe the physician of our soules who hath cured all our wounds with the smart of his prescribeth the weak Angel of Thyatira but one pill and that a gentle one yet see how he rowles it in sugar I know thy workes and thy love c. Of many faults he mentioneth but a few and of those few insisteth but upon one 5. The fifth is the condition of good workes to which foure things are required faith love service and patience they must be done in faith proceed from the love of God with a desire to doe him service thereby and lastly the performers of them must be constant in them and resolve patiently to endure all crosses and oppositions from men or Satan who seek to stay them in their godly proceedings 6. The sixth is growth in grace or proficiency in godlinesse those who were ever good are best at the last I know thy workes that they are more as the last than at the first 7. The seventh is the state and condition of the Church Militant which at the best is like the Moone at the full in which wee may discerne some blacke spots The sweetest r Eras Adag Omnibus malis punicis putridum granum inest Pomegranet hath some rotten graine the fairest beauty hath a freckle or wrinckle the most orient Ruby a cloud and the most reformed Church in the Christian world hath some deformity in her In ſ James 3.1 many things we offend all and many in all they are but a few against whom the Sonne of God hath but a few things Notwithstanding I have a few things 8. The eighth is the duty of a Magistrate who like a good Gardener is to plucke up noysome weeds by the rootes It is not sufficient for him to doe no evill he must not suffer it the Angel is not here blamed for any sin of commission or omission in himselfe but for the bare permission of evill in others I have somewhat against thee because thou sufferest 9. The ninth is a caution to looke to the weaker sexe for often the Divell maketh of them strong instruments to dispread the poyson of heresie t Hieron ad Ctes Simon Magus heresin condidit Helenae meretricis adjutus auxilio Nicolaus Antiochenus omnium immunditiarum repertor choros duxit foemineos Marcion Romam praemisit mulierem quae decipiendos sibi animos praepararet Simon Magus had his Helena Marcion his femall fore-runner Apelles his Philumena Montanus his Maximilla Donatus his Lucillia Elpidius his Agape Priscillian his Galla Arius the Prince his sister Nicolaus Antiochenus his feminine troupes and quires and all Arch-heretickes some strumpets or other to serve them for midwives when they were in travell with monstrous and mishapen heresies Thou sufferest the woman Jezebel Yet to doe the sexe right I willingly acknowledge with Flacius Illyricus that as the Divell hath used bad women in all times as Brokers to utter his deceitfull and dangerous wares so God hath made choice of many good women to be conduits of saving grace and great instruments of his glory Not to goe out of this City of Thyatira for instance we can produce a Lydia for a Jezebel where the Divell now vented poyson by the impure mouth of Jezebel God poured out before the sweet oyntment of the Gospel by the mouth of Lydia whose u Acts 16.14 heart he opened that shee attended to those things which were spoken of Paul 10. The tenth is an observation concerning the nature of Heresie which fretteth like a canker and if it be not looked to corrupteth the sound members of Christ Thou sufferest the woman Jezebel to seduce my servants 11. The eleventh is a consideration of the odious filthinesse of Idolatry which the Scripture termeth the soules naughtinesse and spirituall fornication To commit fornication 12. The last is a wholsome doctrine concerning the contagion of Idolatry which not only infecteth our bodies and soules but our meates and drinkes also and turneth the food of the body into the poyson of the soule to such as familiarly converse and table with Idolaters and feed upon the reliques of Idols sacrifices And to eate things offered unto Idols And to the Angel of the Church in Thyatira Glorious things are spoken of you O yee Ministers of the Word and Sacraments Yee are stiled Embassadours of the King of Heaven Stewards of the houshold of faith Interpreters of the Oracles of God Dispensers of the mysteries of salvation Keepers of the Seales of grace Yee are the Salt of the earth the Light of the world the Starres of the skie nay the Angels of Heaven To the Angel The Ministers of the Gospel resemble Angels in many things 1. Angels are x Heb. 1.14 ministring spirits and the Preachers of the Gospel are spirituall Ministers 2. Angels according to the derivation of their name in Greeke are y Matth. 11.10 Malac. 3.1 messengers of God and the Ministers of the Gospel are z 1 John
1.5 messengers of Christ 3. The dwelling of Angels is in Heaven and there is or ought to be the a Phil. 3.20 Our conversation is in heaven conversation of the Ministers of the Gospel 4. The life of Angels is a continuall b Matth. 18.10 beholding the face of God and what is the life of a good Minister but a continuall contemplation of the divine nature attributes and workes 5. The Angels gather c Mat. 24.31 the Elect from the foure windes and the Ministers of the Gospel gather the Church from all corners of the earth 6. The Angels d Apoc. 16.1 poure out the vialls of the wrath of God upon the earth and the Ministers are appointed to denounce Gods judgements and plagues to the wicked world 7. The Angels e 1 Cor. 15 52. sound Trumpets at the last resurrection and the Ministers of the Gospel at the first 8. When Christ was in an agony f Luke 22.43 there appeared an Angel strengthening him and when Gods children are in greatest extremity God sendeth the Ministers of the Gospel to g Job 33.23 If there bee a messenger with him an interpreter one among a thousand to shew to man his uprightnesse c. comfort them 9. The Angels carry the soules of them that dye in the Lord into Abrahams bosome Luke 16.22 and the Ministers of the Gospel give them their passe and furnish them with their last viaticum Now if it bee demanded why God so highly advanceth the dignity of the Ministry I answer to advance his glory He lifteth up the silver Trumpets of Sion on high that the sound of his praise may be heard the further As the visible Sunne casteth a more radiant and bright beame upon Pearle and Glasse which reflecteth them againe than upon grosse and obscure bodies that dead the rayes thereof even so the Sunne of righteousnesse casteth the fairest lustre upon that calling which most of all illustrateth his glory To other vocations God calleth us but this calleth us unto God all other lawfull callings are of God but of this God himselfe was and if it bee a great honour to the noblest orders of Knighthood on earth to have Kings and Princes installed into them how can wee thinke too worthily of that sacred order into which the Sonne of God was solemnly invested by his h Psal 110.4 Father I speake nothing to impeach the dignity of any lawfull profession make much of the Physicians of your body yet not more than of the Physicians of your soule yeeld honour and due respect to those that are skilfull in the civill and municipall Lawes yet under-value them not who expound unto you the Lawes of God At least take not pride in disgracing them who are Gods instruments to conveigh grace into your soules grieve not them with your accursed speeches who daily blesse you load them not with slaunders and calumnies who by their absolution and ghostly comfort ease you of the heavie burden of your sinnes goe not about to thrust them out of their temporall estate who labour by their Ministery to procure you an eternall It is not desire of popular applause or a sinister respect to our owne profit but the zeale of Gods glory which extorteth from us these and the like complaints against you For if Religion might bee advanced by our fall and the Gospel gaine by our losses and God get glory by our dis-esteeme we should desire nothing rather than to be accounted the off-scouring of all things on the earth that so wee might shine hereafter like precious stones in the foundation of the celestiall Jerusalem But if the Preachers and the Gospel the Word and Sacraments and the Ministers thereof Religion and Priests the Church and Church-men are so neere allies that the dis-reputation of the one is a great prejudice to the other and the disgrace of the one the despising of the other if the truth wee professe if our Religion if the Gospel if Christ if God suffer in the disgraces that are put upon our calling and the manifold wrongs that are done to it we must adjure you for your owne good and deeply charge you in Gods cause that as you looke to receive any good from him so you take nothing sacrilegiously from the Church as you hope to be saved by the Ministery preserve the dignity and estimation thereof be not cursed Chams in discovering the nakednesse of your ghostly fathers Alexander thought that he could not lay too much cost upon the deske in which Homers Poems lay and we daily see how those who take delight in musicke beautifie and adorn the instrument they play upon with varnish purfle gilt painting and rich lace in like maner if you were so affected as you should be at the hearing of the Word if you were ravished with the sweet straines of the songs of Sion ye would make better reckoning of the Instruments and Organs of the holy Spirit by which God maketh melodie in your hearts yee would not staine with impure breath the silver trumpets of Sion blowne not with winde but with the breath of God himselfe yee would not trample under foot those Canes that yeeld you such store of Sugar or rather of Manna Yee will be apt enough upon these and the like texts to teach us our dutie that we ought as Messengers of God to deliver his message faithfully and as neere as we can in his owne words as Angels to give our selves to divine contemplation and endevour to frame our lives to a heavenly conversation Let it not then be offensive to you to heare your dutie which is as plaine to be read as ours in the stile here attributed to the Pastour of Laodicea the Angell It is that you entertaine your diligent and faithfull Pastours as the i Gal. 4.14 Ye received me as an Angel of God even as Christ Jesus Galathians did St. Paul and as Monica did St. Ambrose tanquam Angelos Dei as the Angels of God receive them as Abraham and Lot did the Angels sent from God unto them defend them according to your power from wrong and make them partakers of the best things wherewith God hath blessed you Angelo to the Angel in the singular number chiefe Pastour or Bishop of the Church All Ministers as I shewed you before may challenge the title of Angels but especially Bishops who watch over other Ministers as Angels over men who are to order the affaires of the Church and governe the Clergie as the Peripatetickes teach that Angels direct and governe the motions of the celestiall spheres therefore Epiphanius and St. Austine and most of the later Interpreters also paraphrase Angelo by Episcopo illic constituto and verily the manner of the superscription and the contents of the letter and the forme of governement settled in all Churches at this time make for this interpretation For supposing more Ministers in London of equall ranke and dignitie as there are who would indorse a
letter on this manner To the Pastour of London unlesse he meant the Bishop or chiefe Pastour Now it is evident out of the twentieth chapter of the Acts ver 17. and all ancient stories that there were divers Ministers or Presbyters in each of these seven Churches He therefore to whom the letter was addressed in particular to the Angel could be no other than the Bishop or Superintendent of the place who is here blamed for suffering Jezebel to teach which sheweth that he had Episcopall power and authoritie to silence and suspend her or any other erroneous Teacher within his Diocesse What should I adde out of k Lib. 3. c. 3. Irenaeus Polycarpus ab Apostolis in ea quae est Smyrnae Ecclesiâ constitutus est Episcopus quem nos vidimus in primâ aetate nostrâ that the Angell of Smyrna was Bishop Polycarpus ordained by the Apostles themselves whom he himselfe saw in his younger years Or out of l In ep ad Tit. l. 1. Toto orbe decretum est ut unus Presbyterelectus superponeretur caeteris ad quem omnis Ecclesiae cura pertineret Jerome that to prevent schismes among Presbyters and Priests Episcopall governement was established through the whole world And let this suffice to be spoken of the office of this Angell we will now consider of his charge or that wherewith the Holy Ghost here burdeneth him the toleration of heresie and idolatrie I have a few things against thee That thou sufferest m Variam miscellaneam Religionem induxerunt sceptro tuendo ne unquam conspirare interse omnes possint Diodorus Siculus reporteth that the ancient Kings of Egypt made a kinde of medley of religion to serve their turne that the people might thereby be distracted and so disabled from attempting any thing against the State And we reade likewise in n Ecclesiast hist l. 4. c. 27. Socrates of Themistius that he laboured to perswade Valens the Emperour that God was well pleased with varietie of sects dum it a pluribus modis colitur because by this toleration of divers religions God is worshipped after divers manners And Father Parsons with whom o Lib. 3. de rep c. 7. Bodine the great Statesman of France and Cardinall p In Apolog. Allen and William q In his answer to the reformed Catholike Bishop Seminarie Priest joyne hearts and pens spending the strength of their wit and flower of their learning in this argument of toleration taking upon them to prove first in Thesi that Religions differing in substantiall points and fundamentall grounds are comportable in the same Kingdome and in Hypothesi that it is not only lawfull and expedient but also honourable for the King of Great Britaine to permit the publicke profession and practice of the Romish Religion within his Kingdomes For the proofe of their Thesis they alledge but one text of Scripture and that miserably wrested r Mat. 13.30 Sinite utraque crescere in messem let both grow untill the harvest The great want of Scriptures they strive in some sort to supply by conjectures of reason and examples of forreine States but the fairest glosse they set upon their foule assertion is from such plausible sentences of the ancient Fathers as these ſ Lactan l. 5. divin institut c. 14. 20. Quis tam insolens tam elatus est qui me vetet oculos in coelum tollere quis imponat mihi necessitatem vel colendi quod nolim vel non colendi quod velim Nihil est tam voluntarium quam Religio in quâ si animus sacrificantis est aversus jam sublata est jam nulla est Who is so proud as to forbid me to lift up my eyes to heaven Who will impose a necessity upon me either to worship that which I will not or not to worship what I will Nothing so much dependeth on the will as Religion which is not Religion but Hypocrisie if the minde be averse from it t Tertul. ad Scapulam c. 2. Nec religionis est religionem cogere It is against Religion to enforce Religion and constraine men to dissemble with God Verily the chiefest point of Religion consisteth in the inward sacrifice of the heart and devotion of the will and how is it possible to devote our u Bernard in Cant. Fides suadenda non imponend◠will against our will This reason against forcing Religion seemed so forcible to Theodoricus that he forbad all Inquisitions and Tortures in case of Religion For other things saith he we may Religion we cannot command Neither was he singular in this his opinion for upon the like grounds to his Theodosius and Leo Catholike Emperours permitted Churches to the Arrian Heretikes as likewise Constantius and Valentinian Arrian Heretikes granted Oratories to Catholike Bishops The Emperours of Germanie tolerate Lutherans and Zuinglians the French King Hugonots the Grand-Seignior Christians the Pope Jewes in Rome whereunto Bodin addeth the example of the ancient x Aug. l. 18. de Civit. Dei Roma cum omnibus penè gentibus dominaretur omnium penè gentium survivit erroribus Romans who permitted the free use of their Religion to all the Nations they conquered and of the Emperour Alexander Severus who kept in his closet the pictures of Abraham Orpheus Hercules and Christ and privily worshipped them all These are the fairest pretences and plausiblest arguments for toleration How few in number how light in weight how easie and short in the answer First for their text of Scripture let both grow to the harvest which Doctor Bishop setteth in the fore-front of his discourse Can any man of learning and judgement once dreame that our Lords meaning was thereby to inhibite all proceedings against Heretikes and wicked livers to enjoyne all Magistrates to suffer vertue and vice truth and heresie to grow together in the Church till the harvest that is the end of the world Could Doctor Bishop or any other Papist perswade himselfe that our Saviour commandeth that to be done for which he here blameth the Angell of y Mat. 13.30 Thyatira and before the Angell of z Ver. 14. Pergamus Doe not all Papists defend the Inquisition in Spaine and Italie and the Pope their Master his proceedings against Protestants under the name of Heretikes Certainely if Christ in this parable absolutely commands a toleration of Heretickes and Schismatikes under the name of tares the Popish Inquisition is a transgression of Christs command by their owne inference from it which if any Papist maintaine he will not be long out of the Inquisition if he trust not to his heeles he shall feele the gag soone in his mouth and assay the a See the book of the Spanish Inquisition and in it the forme of this bridle man-bridle As for the meaning of the place of Scripture it is cleere in it selfe and hath been long agoe by the Ancients declared to be this that God suffereth hypocrites and dissemblers
have somewhat against thee that thou sufferest The woman 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 e Com. in Apoc. Ambrosius Ansbertus Richell Dionysius Carthusianus and Hugo Cardinalis translate the word in the Originall uxorem thy wife which is the rather worth the noting in these Popish Interpreters who yet condemne Priests marriage Doubtlesse this Angel was a good Bishop for he is highly commended by our Saviour yet had he his wife by their confession Why therefore may not sacred persons enter into the sacred bands of matrimony Is it because as Pope Sirycius and after him Cardinall Bellarmine bear us in hand conjugall acts and matrimoniall duties stand not with the sanctity of the Priests function Now verily this is a strange thing that marriage according to the doctrine of their Church is a Sacrament conferring grace and yet a disparagement to the most sacred function marriage is a holy Sacrament and yet Priests are bound by a Sacrament that is an oath never to receive it marriage was instituted in Paradise in the state of mans innocencie when the image of God which the Apostle interpreteth to be holinesse and righteousnesse shined most brightly in him and yet it is a cloud nay a blurre to the most holy calling marriage was appointed by God as a speciall remedie against fornication and all uncleannesse and yet is an impeachment to holinesse The Aaronical Priesthood by Gods owne order was to be continued in the line of Aaron by generation not election and yet marriage cannot stand with the holinesse of Priesthood Who of the Patriarkes before the Flood was holier than Enoch who walked with God and was translated that he should not see death of the Prophets under the Law than Ezekiel of the Apostles than St. Peter and Philip and yet of Enoch we read that f Gen. 5.22 he begat sonnes and daughters and Saint g Chrysost in Gen. homil 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Chrysostome bids us take speciall notice of it that the Holy Ghost saith in the same Verse he walked with God and beg at sonnes and daughters to teach us that the bonds of matrimony are no such fetters that they hinder us from walking with God Ezekiels h Ezek 24.16 wife is mentioned in his prophecy and Peters i Mat. 12.14 wives mother in the Gospel and Philips k Acts 21 9. daughters that prophesied in the Acts with whose examples l Clem. strom l. 3. p. 327. ' H 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clemens Alexandrinus mightily confoundeth and convinceth those ancient Heretickes the fore-runners of our Papists who disparaged this holy ordinance of God What saith hee will they blame the Apostles themselves For Peter and Philip begat children Philip also gave his daughters in marriage Neither can our adversaries evade these instances by saying that the Apostles indeed had wives before they were ordained Priests but after they entred into that holy calling forsooke them and had no more commerce with them For m Clem. strom l. 7 p. 529. Arunt B. Petrum cum vidisset uxorem suam duci ad mortem nomine quoque compellâsse ac dixisse Heus tu memento Domini Clemens informeth us that Saint Peters wife kept with him till her death and that when he saw her led to martyrdome he called to her by name and encouraged her saying Remember the Lord. Howbeit the major part of the Expositors take not Jezebel here for the Bishops wife but a disciple of the Nicolaitans who is here named Jezebel because shee resembled Jezebel especially in three particulars 1. As Jezebel brought amongst the Israelites the false worship of the Idoll Baal so this woman laboured to bring into this Church of Thyatira Idolatry and other pernitious errours in doctrine and practice 2. n 2 Kin. 9 22. Jezebel was given to fornication for which vice the Holy Ghost brandeth this woman also 3. Jezebel was a woman of authority and by her place and dignity did countenance and maintaine Idolatry and so it is likely that this was a woman of some place and ranke which she abused to countenance wicked opinions and seduce Gods servants o Hieron de nom Heb. Jezebel in the Hebrew signifieth fluxum sanguinis or stirquilinium an issue of bloud or doung both which were verified in the wife of Ahab whose abominable life and fearfull death yee may see set forth in lively colours in the booke of p 2 Kin. 9.33 ad finem They threw her downe and some of her bloud was sprinkled on the wall and on the horses and he trod her under foot Ver. 37. The carkeis of Jezebel was as doung upon the face of the field Kings to breed in all men and women a detestation of the one by the shame and horrour of the other A lamentable spectacle deare Christians to see the daughter and wife of a King trampled under foot in the dirt and the dogges tearing her flesh and licking up her bloud Shee who spent so much time in dressing and tricking up her selfe at the window is throwne downe headlong out of that window shee that looked so high falls full low and is trod under foot by her servant shee who spilt Naboths innocent bloud in Jezreel expiateth the place with her owne bloud that face on which shee a little before had laid costly colours and oyntments is now besmeared with dirt and stained with her owne bloud that flesh of hers which she pampered with all kindes of delicious meates is now cast to dogges Let them heare this and feare who weare Jezebels colours and tread in her steps who defile themselves with corporall or spirituall fornication who either idolatrize or idolize worship painted images or make themselves such Jezebel was the first we reade of that tooke the pensill out of the hand of her Maker endeavouring to mend his workmanship and what became of her you heard but now And howsoever some of late as they have sowed pillowes under mens elbowes so have tempered colours also for women and made apologies for painting yet all the ancient Fathers condemne it as a foule sinne Saint q Cyp. de hab virg Nonne metuis oro quae talis es ne cum resurrectionis dies venerit artifâ—x tuus te non recognoscat ad sua praemia promissa venientem excludat removeat increpans vigore censoris judicis opus hoc meum non est nec haec imago nostra est cutem falso medicamine polluisti crinem adultero colore mutásti Deum videre non poteris cùm oculi tibi non sint quos Deus fecit sed quos Diabolus infecit Cyprian thus schooles a young Jezebel in his dayes Art not thou afraid saith hee that plaisterest thy face and paintest thy body lest at the day of judgement thy Maker will not know thee but when thou pressest among the rest to receive the promised rewards to his servants will put thee backe saying Who art thou
licitos esse censuisset When ye walked in lasciviousnesse lusts revellings banquettings and unlawfull and abominable idolatries What need saith hee Saint Peter deterre us from unlawfull idolatries if some kind of idolatry were not lawfull Good God! Idolatry lawfull holy hypocrisie pious frauds honest sodomy Did ever Nicolaus of Antiochia or Jezebel of Thyatira set abroach such impure and unsavoury doctrine did ever the Carpocratians who let the reines loose to all kinds of lewdnesse and villany maintaine more damnable positions But to keepe close to the patterne in my text and to draw a perfect picture of the Church of Rome by notes taken from Jezebel Imposture First Jezebel called her selfe a Prophetesse and doth not the Church of Rome usurpe the same title and boast of her Propheticke Spirit If any be ignorant hereof let him cast but a looke into * L. 4. c. 15. Dâ—odecima nota est lumen propheticum Bellarmine his booke of the notes of the Church there shall he see Lumen propheticum the light of prophesie drawne out in a faire and goodly character for the twelfth note of the Romane Church You see the first marke of Jezebel visible in the Church of Rome As Jezebel calleth her selfe a Prophetesse so the Church of Rome arrogateth to her selfe that supernaturall gift Impurity The second marke is as foule as the other is faire in shew She teacheth to commit fornication I would be loth to cast so foule an aspersion upon the Roman Church if the ancient Rubrick in the Canon law blushed any thing at these words q Distinct 34. Qui non habet uxorem loco illius concubinam debet habere He that hath not a wife ought to have a concubine in stead of her or the Pope his holinesse were ashamed to draw a revenue of many thousand Duckets by the yeere out of somewhat worse than Vespasian his tribute ex lotio But sith the Marozia of Sergius the Matildis of Gregory the s venth the Lucretia of Alexander the sixt the Magdalena of Leo the tenth the Constantia of Paul the third were as infamous as Ovids Corinna sith ancient Popes have erected stewes and later take toll of them at this day in Rome Vid. Wessâ—l Groniâ—g de indulgent Avennion and elsewhere sith ancienter Popes have dispensed with unnaturall lusts and the later with incestuous marriages sith the Riarius of Sixtus the fourth the Germanus of Julius the second the Hippolytus of Leo the tenth and Innocentius de monte of Julius the third gave but too much cause to Mantuan and other later Poets to proclaime to the world Sanctus ager scurris venerabilis ara cinoedis Servit honorandae divûm Ganymedibus aedes Sith their owne r L. method concord Ne admittantur sacra concubinariorum quos Deus magis odit quâ—m manifestarios incestus Wicelius professeth himselfe scandalized at the allowed concubines of Masse-Priests and the Germans in their Å¿ L. centum gravam Gervam Episcopi eorum Officiales non tantum sacerdotum tolerant concubinatum dummodo certa persolvatur pecunia sed Sacerdotes continentes qui absque concubinatu degunt concubinatus censum persolvere cogunt grievances put up this for one That the Bishops and their Officials doe not onely tolerate concubines in Priests so they pay a certaine rate for them but also constrain Priests who live continently and keepe no concubines to pay the former taxe sith Picus Mirandula in ep ad Leo. 10. and Cardinal Alliacus in his treatise of the reformation of the Church report of their Cels that they were become meere stewes sith Costerus yea and Cardinal Bellarmine teach in expresse words That it is a greater sinne in a Priest or Votary to marry than to commit fornication Est majus malum sic nubere quà m fornicari sith Panormitan their great Lawyer delivereth it for a ruled case t Panor extra de consang affin Ideo hodie ex simplici fornicatione clericus non deponitur That a Clergy man is not to be deposed for simple fornication nay sith the Councell of Toledo u Concil Tol. Potest admitti ad communionem qui concubinam habet modo non sit uxoratus admitteth such persons to the holy Communion who keepe a concubine so they bee not married no Papist can have an action of slaunder against me for charging their Church with somewhat more than bare toleration of simple fornication Verily * Espenc com in Tit. c. 1. Espenceus had good cause to affirme That more naughtinesse and filthinesse might bee learned out of Taxa camerae Apostolicae whereunto I adde Zanche's de Matrimonio and other Casuists than out of all the obscene satyres and epigrammes of profane Poets What Christian eares can endure that preface of Pope Gregory x Greg. extrav de jud c. 4. De adulterio aliis minoribus criminibus potest Episcopus cum Clericis post poenitentiam dispensare For adultery and other lesser sinnes the Bishop may dispence with a Priest after penance But I list not to bring to light other of their works of darknesse let the night cover her owne shame I proceed from Jezebels corporall to her spirituall whoredome wherein the Church of Rome exceedeth her For Jezebel taught onely that it was lawfull to keepe company and make merry with Idolaters and partake of their offerings but the Church of Rome partaketh with them in their Idoll-worship For albeit shee pretendeth that shee tendereth no religious service to the Idols of the Heathen the enemies of God but to the images of Saints and shrines of Martyrs this no way cleareth her from spirituall uncleannesse For it will not be allowed for a good plea in a disloyall wife to say that she gave no entertainement to any of her husbands enemies but onely made much of his dearest friends and admitted them into bed for his sake The adulterie in it selfe is foule with whomsoever it be committed and Idol-service in it selfe is abominable to whomsoever it be performed To pay the debt of conjugall love to any save her husband in a wife is adulterie and to tender divine honour to any save God is idolatrie Therefore if wee can bring any good proofe hereof that the Church of Rome doth this and avoweth the doing of it we doe her no wrong to call her the great Whore of whose cup of abominations whosoever drinke become so giddie that they fall before stockes and stones like men whose braines are intoxicated take images and pictures for men and women bring presents to them put costly apparell on them speake to them embrace and kisse them y Lactan. divin instit l. 2. Adorant insensibilia quisentiunt irrationabilia qui sapiunt exanima qui vivunt terrena qui oriuntur è coelo O sottish folly the living image of God falleth downe before dumb and dead pictures and statues men to whom God hath given sense and reason adore
some of the reformed Churches with eyes sparkling like fire and stamping with his brazen feet to see these abominations of Jezebel winked at as they are in so many places I meddle not here with any deliberation of State fitter for the Councell Table than the Pulpit but discover to every private Christian what his duty is to refrain from the society of Idolaters I beseech them for the love of him who hath espoused their soules to himselfe and hath decked them with the richest jewels of his grace and made them a joynter of his Kingdome to beware that they be not enticed to spirituall fornication to forbeare the company of all those who solicite them in this kind nay farther to detect such persons to authority that they may learne not to blaspheme the truth of our Religion nor seduce his Majesties subjects from their allegiance to the Prince and conformity to his Lawes Pliny writeth of certaine m Plin. nat hist l. 8 c. 15. Indiginis innoxii peregrinos interimunt Efts in Tyrinth and Snakes in Syria that doe no hurt to the natives but sting strangers to death it may bee some have the like conceit of our English Seminary Priests and Jesuites who have done so great mischiefe beyond the Sea that they have no power or will to hurt any here at home and therefore dare more boldly converse with them because their outward carriage is faire But I beseech them to consider that the Panther hideth her ougly visage which shee knoweth will terrifie the beasts from comming neere her alluring them with the sweet smell of her body but as soone as they come within her reach shee maketh a prey of them Therefore as you tender the salvation of your body and soule your estate in this life and the life to come take heed how you play at the hole of the Cockatrice and familiarly converse with the great Whore or any of her Minions lest they draw you to naughtinesse and spirituall lewdnesse Have no part with them that have no part in God or have part with abominable Idols If the good Bishop Saint Ambrose being commanded by Valentinian the Emperour to deliver up a Church in his Diocesse to the Arrians gave this answer That hee would first yeeld up his life Prius est ut vitam mihi Imperator quà m fidem adimat shall wee give up our soules which are the Temples of the living God to Idolatrous worship If Saint John the Evangelist would not stay in the bath with Cerinthus the Hereticke shall we dare freely to partake with worser Heretickes in the pledges of salvation and wash our soules with them in the royall bath of Christs bloud o Ambros ep 37. Pollui se putabat si Aram vidisset ferendâ—mve est ut Gentilis sacrificet Christianus intersit Constantius the Emperour thought himselfe polluted if he had but seen an Heathenish Altar and Saint Ambrose proposeth it as a thing most absurd and intolerable that a Christian should be present at the sacrifices of the Heathen Our Saviour in this place and Saint p 1 Cor. 10. Paul in the first Epistle to the Corinthians would not have Christians to eate any of those things that were sacrificed unto Idols Nay the Prophet q Psal 16.4 David professeth that he will not so much as name an Idol Their offerings of bloud will I not offer nor make mention of their names in my lips I end and seale up my meditations upon these words spoken to an Angel with the words spoken by an r Apoc. 14.9 Angel If any worship the Beast and his Image and receive his marke in his forehead or in his hand the same shall drinke of the wine of the wrath of God and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone before the holy Angels the Lamb and the smoake of their torments shall ascend for ever ever And they shall have no rest neither day nor night which worship the Beast and his Image whosoever receiveth the print of his name Gracious Lord who gracest the Ministers of the Gospel with the title of Angels make them in their knowledge and life angelicall keep them not only from sinnes of omission and commission but also from sinnes of permission that all may see their works and their love and their service and their faith and their patience their love of thee and their service to thee and their faith in thee and their patience for thee and their growth in all these graces and that thou maist have nothing against them And sith thou hast displayed the Romish Jezebel unto us by her three markes of imposture impurity and idolatry breed in us all a greater loathing and detestation of her abominations preserve us by the sincere preaching of the Word and powerfull operation of thy Spirit that wee bee neither deceived by her imposture to beleeve her false prophesies neither defiled in our body by her impurity to commit fornication nor in soule by her idolatry to eate things sacrificed unto Idols SERMONS PREACHED AT OXFORD FOURE ROWES OF PRECIOUS STONES A Rehearsall Sermon preached in Saint Maries Church at Oxford Anno 1610. THE XXXV SERMON EXOD. 28.15 16 17 18 19 20 21. 15. And thou shalt make the breast-plate of judgement with cunning worke 16. Foure square shall it be being doubled 17. And thou shalt set in it settings of stones even foure rowes of stones the order shall be this a Rubie a Topaze and an Emrald in the first rowe 18. And in the second row thou shalt set a Carbuncle a Saphir and a Diamond 19. And in the third row a Turkeise and an Agate and an Amethist 20. And in the fourth row a Beril and an Onyx and a Jasper and they shall be set in gold in their inclosings or imbosments Hebrew fillings 21. And the stones shall bee with the names of the children of Israel twelve according to their names like the engravings of a signet every one with his name shall they be according to the twelve Tribes Right Worshipfull c. QUintilian a Institut orat lib. 1. cap. 1. instructing parents how to lay the ground-colours of vertues in the soft mindes of tender infants and acquaint them with the rudiments of learning adviseth Eburneas literarum formas iis in lusum offerre To give them the letters of the Alphabet fairely drawne painted or carved in ivory gold or the like solid and delectable matter to play withall that by their sports as it were unawares those simple formes might be imprinted in their memories whereby we expresse all the notions of our mind in writing even so it pleased our heavenly Father in the infancy and nonage of his Church to winne her love with many glorious shewes of rites and ceremonies as it were costly babies representing the body of her husband Christ Jesus and to the end she might with greater delight quasi per lusum get by heart the principles of saving knowledge
ardebat cor vestrûm in vobis cùm exponeret vobis Scripturas The second jewel was a Saphir according to the Hebrew derivation from Sepher a booke wherein we may reade both the doctrine and graces of the second Speaker Hic lapis ut perhibent educit corpore vinctos saith Vincentius and was not his doctrine a Jayle-delivery of all deaths prisoners It is a constant tradition among the Rabbins that the tables of stone Bellar. l. 2. de Verb. Dei wherein the ten Commandements were written with the finger of God were of Saphir For although Pliny affirmeth Nat. hist l. 37. that the Saphir is a stone altogether unfit for sculpture yet this can be no just exception against this tradition sith the engraving of the ten Commandements was done by the finger of God above nature Moreover it is cleare out of this Text that the name of one of the Patriarchs was written in the Saphir Such a Saphir was the second Speaker having the Lawes of God imprinted in his heart The third jewell is a Diamond in Hebrew called Jahalom because it breaketh all other stones in Greek Adamas that is unconquerable because it can neither be broken by the hammer nor consumed in the fire nay the fire saith Zenocrates hath not so much power as to stain the colour much lesse impeach the substance of this stone Call to mind among the vertues of a Magistrate conspicuous in this divine Oratour his unconquerable courage unstained integrity and the comparison is already made Pliny reporteth Adamantem sideritem alio Adamante perforari thinke you not that if a man could have a heart as hard as the Adamant this Adamant pointed with sacred eloquence could breake it and make it contrite Lastly Pliny addeth that the Diamond is a soveraign remedy against poyson Et ideò regibus charissimus iisque paucis cognitus in high esteem with Princes if as our gracious Soveraigne hath so all Christian Princes had such Diamonds as this if such Preachers were their eare-rings they should be free from the danger of all poysoned and hereticall doctrine If as the stones placed in the second row agree with the gifts of the Speaker so they sort as well with the doctrines of his Text I am sure you wil all say that this second order of stones is not out of order A most remarkable story of the Carbuncle we have that cast in the fire among live coals it seemeth to have no grace in it but quench the other coals with water it shineth more gloriously in the ashes than ever before so our Saviour in the brunt of his passion while he was heat by the fire-brands of hell Scribes Pharisees Jewes Romans seemed to be dead and lose all his colour beauty nay was indeed dead according to his humane nature his soule being severed from his body but after the consummation of his passion and the extinction of the fiery rage of his persecuters with his bloud in his resurrection he shewed himself a most glorious Carbuncle shining in majesty burning in love After his resurrection in the day of his ascension hee taketh possession of his throne in heaven which Chap. 1. V. 26. in Ezekiel is said to bee like a Saphir stone now sitting at the right hand of God the Father having conquered sin death hell made all his enemies his footstoole he is become the only true orient Diamond in the world whether you take the name from the Greek ἄδαμασ ab ά δαμαω or the Hebrew ×להי from ×לה being invincible himselfe and overcomming all adverse power breaking his obstinate enemies in pieces like a potters vessell with a rod of iron The embossment of gold in which these gems of divine doctrine were set was his Text taken out of A Sermon preached by Doctor John King then Dean of Christ-Church and Vicechancellor of the University of Oxford afterwards Lord Bishop of London upon Easter day in Saint Peters Church in Oxford ESAY 26.19 Thy dead men shall live together with my body shall they rise awake and sing yee that dwell in dust for the dew is as the dew of herbes and the earth shall cast up her dead IT would aske the labour of an houre to settle this one only member I finde such a Babel of tongues at odds about so few words Variae lectiones Whereas we reade terra projiciet or ejiciet the earth shall cast up or bring forth as it doth her herbs and winter prisoners Junius hath Dejecisti in terram Castalio terram demoliris the Seventy Terra cadet S. Jerome Dejicies in terram the Chaldee paraphrase Trades in infernum and for mortuos in Hebrew * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rephaim from a word signifying to cure per antiphrasin the Seventy reade 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the wicked or ungodly S. Jerome Gigantes stout and robustious against God But to set you in a right and inoffensive way I reduce almost an infinity of distractions to two heads For all of them either speak of the resurrection of the dead indefinitely which they doe that say Terra ejiciet to wit postquam in terram dejecisti For the earth cannot cast up that it hath not and Manium terram demoliris or of the destruction of the wicked one only species of the dead which the Seventy call impios others Giants mighty to transgresse both senses as the Northern and Southern rivers running from contrary points meet in the Ocean so these from sundry and discrepant conceits run into one common place of the generall resurrection save that the latter adde a straine to the former of Gods vengeance and wrath prepared for the wicked Sense twofold Thus having set the letters of my Text together accorded the words it remaineth that their scope and intent be freed from question There is not one of the learned Scribes old or new Jew or Christian whose spirit and pen hath not fallen upon one of these two senses viz. that the Prophet either speaketh of the resurrection of the dead at the last day or of the restitution and enlargement of the people from their present straights in which say they calamity is a kind of death captivity as the grave Gods people as the seed in the ground Gods grace and favour as the comfortable dew to revive and restore them to their wonted being Of these two companies some goe after the literall grammaticall sense lending not so much as the cast of their eye toward the allegory as Strigelius Clarius Brentius Others on the other side of the banke standing for the shadowed resurrection are not so peremptory but si quis aliter sentire mavult per me liber hoc faciat and Calvin himself in his commentary layes out as it were a lot as well for the true as the typicall resurrection Falluntur Christiani qui ad extremum judicium restringunt Prophetatotum Christi regnum ab initio ad finem
she is rather encreased by it For the ashes of Martyrs in this exceed the ashes of the Phoenix out of her ashes riseth but one Phoenix but out of the ashes of one Martyr many hundreds The Arke at the first was carried on the shoulders of the Levites but in later times was put in a z 2 Sam. 6.6 Cart and drawne by beasts who shooke it and were like quite to have overturned it I need not make the Antapodosis ye shall find it in the Writers of the Ecclesiasticall storie at the first the Church was governed for neere sixe hundred yeeres by worthy Prelates and Pastours but afterwards especially in some parts by such as deserved rather the name of beasts than men and some of them of monsters than beasts The arke removed still from place to place a See Spec. Pontif Plat. omâ—h Mâ—gaeburg till Solomon brought it with joy and triumph into the Temple which he had built for it even so the militant Church is tumbled and tossed from one countrey to another and shall finde no resting place till the true Solomon Christ Jesus carry her in triumph into the Temple which hee hath built for her in heaven meane while she still remaineth under the Curtaines Under the Curtaines The Curtaines under which the Arke remained saith an ancient Father prefigured the Bishops and Governours of the Church who are set in high and eminent places above their brethren as the Curtaines made of Camels haire and badgers skins were spread over the Arke to cover it and save the precious stuffe within it from wet and soyling Which interpretation if we allow certainely they who live in Colledges and private Cures under the governement of Bishops and Prelates have no cause to envie at their eminent dignity but all reason to pray for their safety For if any storme of persecution arise and beat upon the Church the curtaines that are uppermost must beare it off and while they hold out the inferiour Clergy who resemble the inward linings of blew silke are safe There are many fruits that are set in sunny places to ripen them but as good are scorched and dryed up with the heat of the Sunne beames which would have thrived in the shade As the corall branch is fresh and greene under the water but as soone as it appeareth above it turneth red according to the motto of the Poets embleme nunc rubeo ante virebam so have wee seen many that prospered under the government of others and flourished as it were in the shade who after they came into the Sun that is into the eye of the world being advanced to great dignities and preferments have turned red with the corall blushed with shame enough having too narrow mindes for such ample dignities and estates Thus I might enlarge and spread my meditations to the full length of the curtaines in my Text but because I see the time will out-strip mee if I make not the more haste and because I see many composing themselves to their rest and some fast already I will begin to draw the curtaines and shut up all that hath beene delivered with a briefe application to our selves Behold now I dwell in an house of Cedars and the Arke of the Lord within the curtaines If ever God affected any King above others David was he a man after Gods owne heart If ever David affected any worke above others it was the building of Gods House which he solemnly a Psal 132.2 vowed and largely contributed of his b 1 Chron. 29. owne to it as we may reade in the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah Yet David who dedicated himselfe wholly to God was not permitted to dedicate a Temple unto him David whose heart so boyled with the zeale of Gods house that it consumed away in sighes and teares and these and the like meditations and exclamations Whom have I in heaven but thee O Lord and O how amiable are thy dwellings thou Lord of hosts My soule is athirst for God even for the living God When shall I come and appeare in the presence of God David whose ambition was to be a doore keeper in the house of God and his greatest envie against the birds that built upon Gods Altars where he desired to repose his soule yet could not obtaine the honour to begin much lesse to finish the holy worke of building the Temple What may wee conceive to bee the reason hereof God forbad him Why did God forbid so good a King to undertake so good a worke God himselfe yeeldeth a reason Because his hand had shed much bloud Yet it may be truly alledged in Davids defence that his warres were just and that it was his infelicity not his fault that his sword had bin so often drawne against his enemies Howsoever because hee had embrued his hands in bloud God would not suffer him to lay a stone in the foundation of the Temple to teach us that the foundation of the Church is not to be laid in bloud Speares and Swords are not fit to build withall Phyfes and Drummes are no proper instruments to sound out the Gospel of peace Religion is such a professed friend to peace and a sworne enemy to bloudy warres that shee suffereth not willingly a sword to be drawne in her owne defence How then doth she make her part good against her mortal enemies cruell persecuters not by the Sword but by the Word not by c Lactan. divin instit l. 5. c. 20. Non occidendo sed moriendo non saevitiâ sed patientià non scelere sed fide nam si sanguine si tormentis si malo religionem defendere velis non defendetur illa sed polluetur violence but by patience not by resisting but by submitting not by killing but by dying The best armour of a Christian is his proofe of patience and his only lawfull weapons against his lawfull Soveraign are prayers teares wherewith S. Ambrose fought against the Arrian Emperor Rogamus Auguste non pugnamus we fall down before thee O Emperor we rise not up against thee we beset thee with petitions not with armes And when the Emperor commanded him peremptorily to give up a Church to the Arrians hee useth no other violence in withstanding the command of the Hereticall Prince than of passionate affection no troupes but tropes I can sorrow saith he I can sigh I can weep these are my weapons by other means I neither may nor can make resistance If you seeke for my goods take them if you desire my life I lay it at your feet I will not stand upon my guard I will not flye to Sanctuary to save my life I will most gladly be sacrified for the Altars of my God if it so please you upon them This was the ancient carriage of Christian subjects towards their Soveraigne though infected with heresie enraged against the true professours not to take armes against them but to lift up their hands to
the New the one proper and materiall the other figurative mysticall the one the seat of Nebuchadnezzar the Emperors of Assyria the other the seat of Antichrist the on situate by the great river by whose banks the Israelites sate downe and wept the other sitting upon many waters that is as the Angel expoundeth it many u Apoc. 17.15 peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues the one keeping the bodies of Gods people the other their soules in captivity and bondage This latter not only the ancient Fathers Irenaeus Tertullian Saint Jerome and Saint Austine but also the Jesuites themselves Ribera Vegas and Bellarmine put upon the racke and sorely tortured with the arguments of Protestants confesse to bee Rome For the Whore of * Apoc. 17.18 Babylon is said to be the great City which reigneth over the Kings of the earth and ver 17. Shee is said to sit upon a beast having seven heads which are seven hills ver 9. Now there was no City in the world which ruled over the Kings of the earth at that time when St. John wrote but Rome neither was there any place so famously and generally knowne by any marke as Rome by the seven hills upon which it is built which is therefore called septi-collis urbs and her inhabitants in Tertullians time septem collium plebs and the chiefest feast which they kept in December upon those seven hills septi-montium What of all this will some Papists say let the daughter of Babylon be the mother of fornications let the speech of Saint x Aug. l. 18. de civit Dei c. 20. Rom◠altera Babylon prioris filia Ibid. Vives in comment Hieronym epist ad Marcellam Non aliam existimat describi à Johanne in Apocalypsi Babylonem quà m urbem Romam Austine be as true as it is elegant Babylon quasi prima Roma Roma quasi secunda Babylon what will ensue hereupon nothing but this That the Pope is Antichrist This consequent cannot be avoided by their usuall distinction of ancient and new Rome Heathenish and Christian Imperiall and Papall for Saint John speaketh of Rome in her later time when Antichrist should sit in her when Babylon should fall and be broken into ten peeces or kingdomes which was not fulfilled in the reigne of the Heathen Emperours and therefore must be accomplished in the reigne of Popes who are the seventh head of the Beast that is the seventh forme of government of that City Five were fallen in Saint Johns time viz. Kings Consuls Tribunes Dictators Decemvirs the sixth was upon it viz. the head of Emperours the seventh was to rise up viz. the head of Popes But because ye may suspect that out of prejudicate opinion against the Pope we wrest these Sciptures against the See of Rome I will bring in all my evidence at this time against the Pope out of the writings of the ancient Fathers who cannot be thought to deprave Scriptures out of an ill affection to Rome For they then honoured and highly esteemed the Church of Rome as a principall member of Christs Spouse yet even then they conceived that she would in time become the Whore of Babylon For Irenaeus calculating the number of the Beast 666. maketh of it this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The name of Latinus saith he containeth the number 666. and is very likely to be the name of the y Iren. l. 5. adv haer c. 30. Beast for they are the Latines that now reigne And Tertullian ghessing at the time of Antichrists rising saith z Tertul. de resurrect Romani Imperii abscessio in decem reges divisi Antichristum superinducit The decay of the Romane Empire being divided into ten kingdomes shall bring in Antichrist Saint * Ep. ad Algas Jerome strikes neerer the Popes triple crowne The purple Whore is Rome and her name of blasphemy is Roma aeterna Saint a Ep. ad Thes Vacantem Imperii principatum invadet Chrysostome expresly affirmeth that Antichrist his throne shall be the vacant seat of the Romane Empire Saint b Greg. ep l. 4. Sacerdotum ei paratur exercitus Gregory seemeth to have received some particular advertisement of the approach of the man of sinne in his dayes Antichrist saith he is setting forth and an army of Priests is levied for him Lay all these particulars together and the totall summe will be that the Pope is Antichrist The name of Antichrist is Latinus his seat is Rome his rising is upon the fall of the Empire his guard is an army of Priests Saint Gregory implies that Antichrist shall be a Bishop c P. Mouline contr Coeffet part 3. Accomprirement des prophecies Irenaeus that he shall be a Latine or of the Latine Church Saint Jerome that Rome shall be his See Tertullian and Chrysostome that hee shall waxe in the waine of the Romane Empire The Romane Empire is fallen long since being divided into ten kingdomes to wit of the Almanes England France Spaine Denmarke Scotland Poland Navarre Hungary Naples and Sicilie These ancients were farre from the times of Antichrist and yet you see how right they aime at him d Catalog test verit the lesser marvell that many in succeeding ages as Echardus Otho Frisingensis Robert Grosthead Dulcinus Navarenus Marsilius Patavinus Dante 's Michael Cesenus Johannes de Rupe-scissa Franciscus Petrarcha Henricus de Hassia Walter Brute John Huz Johannes de Vesalia divers others hit him full and fastened upon him the name of Antichrist For they as being neere him saw in him cleerly all those markes whereby Saint Paul and Saint John describe that man of sinne and son of perdition from which we thus argue He in whom all or the principall marks of Antichrist are found he is the Antichrist But in the Pope all or the principall marks of Antichrist are to be found Ergo the Pope is the Antichrist By Pope we understand not this or that Pope in individuo but rather in specie or to speak more properly the whole succession of Popes from Boniface the third or at least Gregory the seventh otherwise called Heldebrand As the word Divell in the New Testament for the most part signifieth not any particular spirit but indefinitely an evill spirit or the kingdome of Sathan and as the foure beasts in Daniel stand not for foure Monarchs but foure Monarchies so the Beast in the Apocalypse in whose ougly shape Antichrist appeares seemeth not to represent any singular Pope but the See of Rome after it degenerated into the Papacy Now in the Bishops of Rome after Boniface and Heldebrand we find the name the seat the apparrell the pride the cruelty the idolatry the covetousnesse the imposture the power and the fortune of Antichrist 1. The name of Antichrist containeth in it the number 666. which Irenaeus findeth in the word Latinus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. The seat of Antichrist is a City built upon seven hills that ruleth over the whole
setteth them r Aug. serm de Pent. Tanquam duodecim radii solis seu totidem lampades veritatis totum mundum illuminantes forth twelve beames of the sunne of righteousnesse or twelve great torches of the truth enlightening the whole world They were as the twelve Patriarks of the new Testament to be consecrated as oecumenicall Pastours throughout all the earth they were as the ſ Exod. 15.27 twelve Wels of water in Elim from whence the chrystall streames of the water of life were to be derived into all parts they were as the twelve t Apoc. 12.1 starres in the crowne of the woman which was cloathed with the sunne and the moone under her feet and as the twelve u Apoc. 21.14 pretious stones in the foundation of the celestiall Jerusalem The present assembly in this upper roome was no other than a sacred Synod and in truth there can be no Synod where the Apostles or their successours are not present and Presidents For all assemblies how great soever of Lay-persons called together about ordering ecclesiasticall affaires without Bishops and Pastours are like to Polyphemus his vast body without an eye Monstrum horrendum informe ingens cui lumen ademptum But when the Apostles and their successours Bishops and Prelates and Doctours of the Church are assembled and all are of one accord and bend their endevours one way to settle peace and define truth Christ will make good his promise to be in the * Matt. 18.20 When two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the middest of them And middest of them and by his spirit to lead them into x John 16.13 When the spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth all truth With one accord All the ancient and later Interpreters accord in their note upon the word accord that Animorum unio concordia est optima dispositio ad recipiendum Spiritum sanctum that Unitie and concord is the best disposition of the minde preparation for the receiving of the holy Ghost The bones in Ezekiel were y Ezek. 37.7 8. joyned one to another and tyed with sinewes before the wind blew upon them and revived them so the members of Christ must bee joyned in love and coupled with the sinewes of charitable affections one towards another before the holy Spirit will enlive them Marke saith S. z Serm. de Temp. Membrum amputatum non sequitur spiritus cùm in corpore erat vivebat precisum amittit spiritum Austine in the naturall body how if a member bee cut off the soule presently leaveth it while it was united to the rest of the members it lived but as soone as ever it was severed it became a dead peece of flesh so it is in the mysticall body of Christ those who sever themselves by schisme or faction from the body and their fellow-members deprive themselves of the influence of the holy Spirit Peruse the records of the Church and you shall finde for the most part that faction hath bred heresie When discontented Church-men of eminent parts sided against their Bishops and Superiours Gods spirit left them and they became authours of damnable heresies This was Novatus his case after hee made a faction against Cyprian Donatus after hee made a faction against Meltiades Aerius after hee made a schisme against Eustatius and doe we not see it daily in our Separatists who no sooner leave our Church but the spirit of God quite leaveth them and they fall from Brownisme to Anabaptisme from Anabaptisme to Familisme and into what not The Church and Common-wealth like the * Plin. l. 2. nat hist c. 105. Lapis Tyrrhenus grandis innatat comminutus mergitur Lapis Tyrrhenus while they are whole swimme in all waters but if they be broken into factions or crumbled into sects schismes they will soone sinke if not drowne And so I passe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from their unanimitie of affection to their concurrence in place In one place The last circumstance is the place which was an upper chamber in Jerusalem The Apostles and Disciples stayed at Jerusalem after the ascension of our Lord partly in obedience to his a Acts 1.4 command which was not to depart out of Jerusalem till they were indued with power from above partly to fulfill the prophecie the b Esay 2.3 Law shall goe out of Sion and the word of God out of Jerusalem They kept all together out of love and for more safetie and they tooke an upper chamber that they might bee more private and retired or because in regard of the great confluence of people at this feast they could not hire the whole house or as Bernardinus conceiveth to teach us that the spirit of c Com. in Act. Ut discamus quod datur spiritus iis qui se ab imis attollunt rerū sublimium contemplatione ut cibo se oblectant God is given to such as raise up themselves from the earth and give themselves to the contemplation of high and heavenly mysteries Now to descend from this higher chamber and to come neare to you by some application of this text It will be to little purpose to heare of the Apostles preparation this day if wee prepare not our selves accordingly to discourse of their entertainment and receiving the holy Spirit if wee receive him not into our hearts It is a mockerie as Fulgentius hath it Ejus diem celebrare cujus lucem oderimus To keepe the day of the Spirit if wee hate his light If wee desire to celebrate the feast of the Spirit and by his grace worthily receive the Sacrament of Christ his flesh wee must imitate the Apostles and Disciples in each circumstance 1. Rely upon Gods promises by a lively faith of sending the spirit of his Sonne into our hearts and patiently expect the accomplishment of it many dayes as they did 2. Ascend into an upper chamber that is remove our selves as farre as wee can from the earth and set our affections upon those things that are above 3. Meet in one place that is the Church to frequent the house of God and when we are bid not to make excuses but to present our selves at the Lords boord 4. Not onely meet in one place but as the Apostles did with one accord to reconcile all differences among our selves and to purge out all gall of malice and in an holy sympathy of devotion to joyne sighs with sighs and hearts with hearts and hands with hands and lifting up all together with one accord sing Come holy Ghost so as this day is Pentecost in like manner this place shall be as the upper roome where they were assembled and we as the Apostles and Disciples and the Word which hath now beene preached unto us as the sound of that mightie rushing wind which filled that roome and after wee have worthily celebrated the feast of the Spirit and administred the
teacheth quia minister huic populo in salutem datus as a minister of salvation to this people Here then I cannot but reflect upon mine owne calling and preach to Preachers and all Ministers of the Gospel that by the example of our Lord and Master the high Priest and Bishop of our soules we take chiefly and in a speciall manner to heart the calamities of Gods people and ruine of his Church The eyes of our Saviour here as likewise of q Esay 22.4 I will weep bitterly labour not to comfort mee because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people Esay r Jerem. 4.8 9.1 Jeremy and Å¿ Ezra 10.1 Ezra glazed with teares are looking-glasses wherein wee may see the duty enjoyned to us by the Prophet Joel t Joel 2.17 Let the Priests the Ministers of God weep between the porch and the altar For in the spoiling of the country and demolishing the Churches and the houses of Prophets and Prophets children Gods honour suffereth whereof we ought to be most jealous the soules of men are in no lesse danger than their bodies and estates whereof we are to render an account and as we are Gods mouth to the people to declare his will to them so we are their mouth to God to present their supplications to him All the measures of the Sanctuary were double to the common As the measure of our knowledge is greater so the measure of our gâ—iefe and sorrow in the affliction of Gods people ought to be corresponding The same proportion holds in sorrow and joy And therefore as in the common joy Saint u Cypr. ep 1. Exprimi satis non potest quanta ista exultatio fuit quantâ— laetitia cum de vobis prospera fortia comperissemus ducem te illic confâ—ssionis fratâ—ibâ—s extitisse sed confessionem ducis de consensione fratrum crevissâ— c. Et Ep. 5. In comâ—uni gâ—udio Ecclesiae Episcopi portio mâ—jor est Ecclesiae enim gloria Praepositi gloria est Cyprian allotteth the Bishop a greater portion so also in the common griefe our portion must needs bee the greatest Wee stand upon the watch-towers of Sion and the people take notice of dangers from the fiering of our beacons we are as the praecentores chori to give them the tune we are as Trumpeters in Gods army and if the Trumpet bee cracked or give an uncertaine sound how shall the souldiers prepare themselves to fight the Lords battels If we like Epaminondas ought to fast that the people may feast the more securely watch that they may sleep with more safety weep that they may rejoyce more freely how much more ought we being the Asaphs in this sad quire accord with you in your groanes and cries when we are strucke with the same griefes and feares when the enemy aimeth not so much at the Common-wealth as at the Church and not so much at the body as at the soule of the Church the Religion wee professe and our most holy faith O ubi estis fontes lachrymarum O where are you fountaines of tears where are gales of such sighes such as love and devotion and sympathy breathes out in my Text If thou knewest And so I passe to the last step 5. Oravit he prayed saying O that thou knewest or If thou knewest In this prayer of our Saviour our thoughts may find themselves holy imployment in seriously considering 1. The manner or forme of speech which is 1. Figurative 2. Abrupt 3. Passionate 2. The matter which presenteth to our spirituall view 1. The intimation of a desire O that or If. 2. The exprobration of Ignorance Thou knewest 3. The aggravation upon the person Thou even thou 4. The designation of a time In this thy day The sentence riseth by degrees and Christ in every word groweth more and more upon Jerusalem It is sinne and shame to be ignorant most of all for Jerusalem and that in the day of her visitation especially of those things that belong to her peace If other Cities might plead ignorance yet not thou if thou mightst plead ignorance at another time yet not in this thy day if in this thy day thou mightst plead ignorance of other things yet not of those things that belong to thy peace To begin with the forme and manner which the more imperfect it is the more perfectly it expresseth the passion or rather compassion of the speaker As a cracked pipe or bell giveth a harsh or uncertaine sound so a broken heart for the most part uttereth broken speeches interrupted with sighes Constantine kissed the empty holes where Paphnutius eyes were plucked out and we cannot but reverence the seeming emptinesse and vacuity in Scripture sentences where the omission of something is more significant than the supply if the speech had been filled up would have been Those which have bin transported with passion utter halfe x Calv. in harm Scimus in quibus ardent vehementes affectus non nisi dimidiatâ ex parte sensus suos effari sentences and faulter in the midst of a period as the father in the Poet who lost his only sonne beginning to vent his griefe and saying Filius meus pollens ingenio My sonne of rare parts my sonne of great hope there stops and before he could say mortuus est is dead became himselfe speechlesse Christ was here seized on by a double passion 1. Of Commiseration 2. Of Indignation Commiseration out of the apprehension of the overthrow of Jerusalem the Queen of all Cities and the Sanctuary of the whole earth Indignation at the obstinacy ingratitude and bloud-thirsty cruelty and desperate madnesse of the present inhabitants who wilfully refusing the meanes of their salvation runne headlong to their owne perdition I have been the briefer in handling the forme that I might enlarge my selfe in the matter Thou knewest Ignorance of Gods judgements draweth them upon a state for the Lord hath a controversie with the land saith y Hos 4.1.6 Hosea because there is no truth nor mercy nor knowledge of God in the land My people perish for lack of knowledge The Schooles rightly distinguish of a double ignorance 1. Facti of the fact 2. Juris of the Law Ignorance of the fact in some case excuseth but not of the law which all are bound to take notice of for Lex datur vigilantibus non dormientibus The law is given to men that are awake and may and ought to heare it not to men when they are asleep The law for the violation whereof the greatest part are condemned is written in the tables of their hearts to exclude all plea of ignorance and certainly of all the errours of Popery one of the grossest is their entitling ignorance the mother of devotion for so farre is ignorance from being the mother of any vertue that it is both 1. Peccatum 2. Mater peccati 3. Poena peccati It is sinne and the punishment of sinne and the parent of sinne