out present judgement against the Court against the chiefe cities of his kingdome and against the Church established in this kingdome 2 But whether are more faulty Magistrates and Superiours in giving just occasion to bee thus thought of or inferiours in taking occasion where none is given or greater then is justly given this I leave to the searcher of all hearts who hath reserved the judgements of times and seasons and of mens demerits in them unto himselfe alone by peculiar right of prerogative The most usefull point that I can pitch upon will be to discover the errours or fallacies by which we usually deceive our selves even whilst we endeavour to examine or judge our selves 3 Now as into cities strongly fortified well stored with men and victualls the enemy oft times findes entrance either by the negligence of the watch or at some secret places for the time ill manned So into Churches or common weales well grounded in points of faith and Orthodoxall doctrine and abounding with all spirituall foode destruction and ruine such judgement as Micah here threatned finde easie passage by a twofold negligence or incogitancy rather then grosse errour The first incogitancy common to most is that we hold it sufficient to repent us of our owne sinnes or of the sinnes of our owne times The second that even such as are willing to take an accurate view aswell of their fore-fathers or predecessors sinnes as as of their owne sinnes or of the sinnes of the time and place where they live do often use a false or imperfect scale For preventing the first incogitance we are to consider that albeit God do never punish the children for their fathers sinnes yet he usually visits the sinnes of the father upon the children at least with temporall plagues or punishments aswell publique as private And this visitation is sometimes drawne upon posterity not so much by a pronenes to imitate their fore-elders in those actuall sinnes by which they did first provoke Gods wrath as by a promptnesse to maintaine the Arts of their fore-elders without addition unto them especially if they have beene warranted by any kind of legality For children not to confesse the sinnes of their forefathers not to repent of them not to make satisfaction for them so farre as they have beene iniurious to men is by the rule of divine Iustice sufficient to charge the inheritance which descends unto posterity with the punishments due to their actuall transgressions from whom it descends Not to visit the sinnes immediately upon the first transgressions or transgressors but to give them and their successors a larger time for repentance is a branch of Gods long suffring and mercy But to visit the sins not duely repented of by the first and second upon the third and fourth generation is a branch of Iustice declared and avouched by God himselfe in the second commandement But this point will meet us againe in the reformation attempted by the good Iosias The second incogitance is more pertinent to this place and in it selfe more dangerous And it is this Many which carefully endeavour to frame their lives and actions by the propheticall rule are not so carefull and provident to measure theire transgressions by the propheticall scale or by the ballance of the Sanctuary but according to the rate of moderne corrupt language Thus when we heare the Prophets compare the oppressors or corrupt Magistrates of their times to ravenous wolves to brambles or thorny hedges most men instantly conceive that the parties whom Gods Prophets which were no slanderers did thus deepely censure had taken away their neighbours lives or goods by strong hand by some notorious disturbance of publique peace by such palpable facts as with us are said to be contrary to the crowne and dignity of the Prince And by this grosse calculation many Potentates and Magistrates many that take upon them to be reformers of others runne further upon the score of Gods wrath then the Iewish Rulers in Mica's time did before they bethinke themselves of any danger Many againe of tender consciences in respect of divers duties whereof others make no scruple when they heare or reade the woes denounced against hypocrites will with the Poet detest such lying lips even as the gates of Hell which speake well and meane ill which have God in theire mouths and the Divell in their hearts But he that measures this sinne of Hypocrisie by this Heathenish scale may come to make up the full measure of it before he hath charged it upon his accompts or bethinke himselfe to be in such arrerrages for this sinne as deserves to be called for 4 By the same oversight many people which firmely believe the propheticall rules to be most infallibly true make up the measure of their iniquity before they have made up their intended accounts or suspect themselves to be in any such arrerrages as may deserve the Prophets censure or to be called upon by threatning Gods Iudgements The error it selfe is much what the same as if a factor which stands charged with a thousand pounds sterling according to the old hanse or esterling pay should make up his private reckonings according to the rate of pounds or coyne this day currant throughout this kingdome he which thus accompts for any great summe must needs fall into the error of the Church of the Laodiceans Rev. 3. to thinke himselfe rich or well before hand when hee is poore and wretched and lyable to a debt unsatisfiable by himselfe unsupportable by his friends yet our accompts unto God we make up for the most part afthis manner 5. To make these different calculations agree or to reforme or rectify our corrupt language by the rule of the Sanctuary that which wee usually call warrines in dealing or wit to use the benefit of the Law or the advantage of times in making bargaines This in the propheticall language is hunting our brother with a net and whereas the Prophet saith of the Iudges and Magistrates of his times that even the best of them was but a bramble and the most upright amongst them as a thorny hedge This is the very Scantlings of the fayrest course of legall proceedings which poore men in time shall finde The least protection which the customary course of law affords unto them is but like the shelter which silly sheepe in a storme find under a hedge of thorne or bush of brambles However the law may protect them from the violence which other intend against them yet shall they be sure to leave their fleece for this protection It is a thing much to be wish'd that either the courts of temporall law were not so open or the doores of the Sanctuary might be closer shut than they are specially against such as are upon petty occasions farre more ready to spend a hundred pounds in legall vexation of his neighbour or Christian brother than to give an hundred pence for Christ's sake or his Church be the cause never so
ipsam cum ex antiquis tum novis exemplis agnoscere oportet confiteri omnes magnos motus quicunque aut vrbi aut regioni evenerunt vel à coniectoribus vel à revelatione aliquâ prodigijs aut coelestibus signis praedici ac praenunciari solere Matchiav disput lib. 1. cap. 56. But besides the induction made by Herodotus whose works I doubt but know not whether Matchiavel had red many other instances he brings out of his owne observations and experience But some will aske what credit is to bee given to Matchiavel or men of his temper Litle or none I must confesse in point of censure or opinion concerning matter of religion or sacred use But as the testimony of the Iew in matter of fact is the most pregnant proofe that wee Christians can use against the Iewes themselves or for confirmation of our religion so Matchiavels testimony in matter of fact of this nature whereof we treat is most authentique against the Atheists or men of no religion For this great Politician was so farre from being too superstitious or credulous in this kinde that by his writings many have suspected him to have been rather irreligious more inclining to Atheisme then either to the Christian or Iewish nation And whatsoever in this kinde he hath observed as hee himselfe confesseth was in a manner evicted or extorted from him by the evidence of truth The true cause of such prodigious signes or forewarnings he professes he did not know and we have reason to believe him in this because he was ignorant of the right end or use of them But this saith he all we of Florence know that the comming of Charles the eigth French King with a puisant army was foretold long before by Ierome Savanorola and likewise foreshewed by many other signes rife in his times throughout the Dukedome of Tuscany Now this divination of Savanorola was not gathered from any politique observation for Charles his attempt was in all politique esteeme so incredible and rash that the grave Senators of Venice would give no credence unto the first newes of his entring into Italy untill one of their ancients better acquainted it seemes with that French Kings disposition then the rest told them that he could more easily believe this rash attempt of that French King then of any of his predecessors But besides the testimony of Matchiavel for this particular wee have the undoubted testimony of Philip de Comtnes that grave and religious Historian who was then agent for the French King in Italy and relates this prediction from Savanorola his owne mouth with more particulars then Matchiavel mentions for he expresly foretold him of that unexpected successe which Charles at his first comming did finde but this hee foretold with this proviso or caution that unlesse the King his master did faithfully execute the worke whereunto the Lord of Lords and King of Kings had designed him he would quickly call in his commission and bring the French armies backe againe into their owne land with disgrace and losse The event did prove both these parts of this prediction to be most true This great alteration of state and warres in Italy as Matchiavel confidently affirmes was likewise portended or foresignified by such apparitions in the ayre as the Authour of the second booke of Maccabees in his 5. chap. mentions that is by apparitions of great armies of men joyning battel over Aretium a Towne in Tuscany The words of the Authour of the second of Maccabees before cited are these And then it hapned that through all the city for the space almost of 40 daies there were seene horse-men running in the ayre in cloth of gold and armed with lances like a bande of souldiers and troopes of horse-men in array encountring and running one against another with shaking of shields and multitude of pikes and drawing of swordes and casting of darts and glitterings of golden ornaments and harnesse of all sorts wherefore every man prayed that that apparition might turne to good He instances in another signe or prodigie well known to all in Florence which did portend or fore-signifie the death of Lorenzo de Medices who laid the first foundation of the present Dukedome of Tuscany in his family being a man who by his wisdome had preserved all Italy a long time in peace For a litle before his death the roofe of their chiefe Church or Temple tooke fire from heaven which much defaced it The banishment of Petrus Soderinus a great peere and pillar of the state of Florence in his time and the calamities which ensued thereupon were likewise fore-signified or portended by the burning of their Guild-hall or Senate-house by lightning or fire from heaven These examples he brings from his owne knowledge another he brings out of Livy of one Aeditius an honest countrey-man who was warned and commanded by a voice in the dead of night more cleare and shrill then the voice of man to tell their Magistrates that the Gaules their enemies were comming to be revenged upon the Romans So hee concludes his discourse as hee did begin it that whatsoever might be thought of such conjectures or forewarnings this is most certaine by experience that some great alterations alwaies follow upon such signes or forewarnings As for Herodotus I like his verdict in this kinde the better because hee refer'd this observation of prodigies or signes of the time unto the Egyptian nation which was the most ancient and most remarkeable Kingdome amongst the Heathens And what reason the Egyptians had to observe these prodigies and signes of the time more than others both Iewes and Christians canno but know or may remember seeing God had shewed such signes and wonders in the land of Egypt as had not beene shewne in any nation before such as can scarce be paralleld in any nation since besides in the destruction of Ierusalem untill the day of judgement or the signes which shall bee given before it come Vnto matters related by the Author of the second book of Maccabees if not for his own esteeme yet for S. Pauls or whoever were the Author of the epistle to the Hebrewes we owe such an historicall beliefe as may ground maters of sacred or canonicall use or application because that sacred Author hath given him credit or countenance in his relations of the persecutions of Gods people long before his owne time which are not registred by any ancient Author now extant besides this Author of the second booke of Maccabees 2. Maccab. 7. 7. Heb. 11. 35. They extend an undoubted truth too farre which make canonicall scriptures to bee the only rule of our beliefe as well for maters of fact as for matter of Doctrine or use For some maters of fact though not related in canonicall scriptures wee may and doe beliefe or know as certainly as those maters which are related by sacred historians Wee all of us as stedfastly believe and know that God hath often visited this land with the
urgent or iust That which in the language of great landlords is no more then to make the most or best of their owne is in the Prophets dialect neither better nor worse then to play the ravenous wolves to eate the flesh and gnaw the bones of their poore brethren It Micah or Ieremy or Zephany were now alive and should see many poore hunger-starved wretches whose freinds and parents had beene undone by racking of rents or hard bargaines or by suites of law they would take the boldnesse upon them to plucke our bravest gallants our wealthiest Citizens our greatest landlords our gravest lawyers by the sleeves in the open street and tell them to their faces the limbs and bones of these poore wretches are in the beames and rafters of your stately houses their flesh and bloud is in your dainty dishes you sucke their very marrow in your pleasant cups The bread of the poor saith the son of Sirach is the life of the needy he that deprives him of it is a man of bloud he that taketh away his neighbours living slayeth him and he that defraudeth the labour of his heire is a bloud-shedder Ecclus. 34. 21. 22. This Character goes deeper then a murtherer with us So doth the Prophet Zephany censure of the corrupt Rulers in his time exceed the Notion which we have of Canibals the Princes of the oppressing City are roaring Lions her Iudges are evening wolves they gnaw not the bones untill tomorrow Zephan 3. 3. But are not the sonnes of Levi in our times as liable to these Prophets censure concerning the Priests and Prophets of Iudah in their daies Hath the Cleargy no portion in the measure of this lands iniquity Surely if the sinnes of this land that at any time within these forty yeares past had beene divided into tenne parts the transgressions of the pulpit and Print-houses would have largely made up a tenth part And they have not in any point more offended then either in giving this people a false or in not giving them a true Scale of that hypocrisie which the spirit of God so much condemnes A kinde of hypocrisie there is which consists in pretending one thing and meaning another but this is so grosse that the very heathens detest it The greatest cunning or proficiency that practitioners in this kinde attaine unto is to deceive others not themselves To applaude their owne wits men of this guise may have some occasion but no temptation to applaud themselves for extraordinary honesty or sanctity of life whereas to deceive themselves more then any others To thinke themselves more righteous and religious then their neighbours is the inseparable Symptome of hypocrisie truely pharisaicall this is a disease of the soule which cannot be directly intended or caused It hath it's being only by resultance and it alwaies results from an extraordinary measure of zeale but of zeale obstructed or not uniformely dispensed throughout the whole body of Christian religious duties Now wheresoever zeale is not uniforme or free from obstructions the greater zeale men beare unto some particular duties as to hearing of the word or that which they conceive to be the forme of wholesome doctrine or to observance of rules for avoiding superstition or prophanesse the more censorious they become of others and more uncharitable towards all that will not comply with them in their rigid zeale or curiosity of reformation It was not a pretended nicety but an interanall zeale of straining of gnats which did so blind and embolden the Pharisees to swallow Camels They knew themselves to bee as free from grosse Idolatry and were as zealous reformers of it and breach of Sabboth as any living men could be yet these were the two speciall sinnes for which their forefathers were punished and out of that deepe notice which they had in reforming these grosse abuses they said as they were perswaded if wee had lived in the daies of our forefathers wee would not have beene partakers with them in the bloud of the Prophets and yet by thus judging their forefathers they did condemne themselves and were even then making up the measure of their iniquity as our Saviour foretels them Mat. 23. v. 32. their meere overprising this reformation did bring forth worse effects in them than worshipping of Idols or breach of Saboth Their fathers had killed the Prophets for diswading them from these two delightfull sinnes These later Iewes put the Prince of Prophets to death because he would not comply with them in the rigid reformation of these two sinnes This was the very roote of their extreame hatred against him Were there any Evangelicall Prophets or men of Apostolicall spirits amongst us they might and would make application of our Saviours speeches in particular to many which take the name of professor or of reformed religion as their owne peculiar woe unto you hypocrites which say if we had lived in the daies of the Scribes Pharisees we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the Sonne of God There is scarce a Christian which is not apt to thinke thus charitably of himselfe and your ordinary minister cannot in particular disprove them only thus much wee know and forewarne in generall Corruptio optimi semper pessima that kind of hypocrisie spleene or envy which ariseth from obstructed zeale or partiall observance of Evangelicall duties is worse then that hypocrisie which sprung from partiall observance of the law For men professing Christianity and great zeale unto truth to make up the measure of Iewish enmity against Christ to condemne themselves by judging the Scribes and Pharisees as greater hypocrites then themselves is a matter as easie God grant not as usuall as it was for the Iewes to make up the measure of their forefathers sinnes and to condemne themselves by judging their Ancestours as more bloody persecutors then they would have been in like case And if unto this branch of iniquity divination for money and teaching for hire naturally afford nutriment our sinnes have beene in these particulars more faulty then the times wherein Micah lived in any likely-hood could be The covetous Priests and Prophets of Iudah were not meere hirelings Iudah I take it had not many few or none whose maintenance did wholy depend upon the voluntary benevolence of them they were to teach 2 Whereas amongst us the greater number of such as take upon them to teach Gods people are meere stipendiaries and yet contend for the pulpit in opposition to such as have their lively-hood from the altar by course of law established as eagerly as the Iesuites and Dominicans have done of late about the chaire in the Vniversities of Spaine Vpon these occasions the meanest corporation amongst us though consisting for the most part of apron-men have found opportunities to have their fancies humoured and their eares tickled by their hireling shepheards after a more delicate manner then any heathen Emperour or Christian King could ever procure from their parasites and the sheapheards