malice hath Satan bestirred himselfe What a deale of deare and innocent bloud did that red Dragon drinke up in Queene Maries time For five yeares space the fire of persecution did flame in this land and the sacred bodies of our glorious blessed Martyrs were sacrificed amids the mercilesse fury thereof Afterward what a blacke and bloudy catalogue of most hatefull and prodigious conspiracies did run parallell with that golden time of Queene ELIZABETHS life that now glorious Saint of dearest memory But in all this hellish rage the Devill never played the Devill indeed untill he came to the gun-powder-plot that was such a piece of service against the light of the Gospell as the Sun never saw before the sons of men never heard of hel it self never hatcht Since Satan fel from heaven and a Church was first planted upon yâ— earth there was never any thing in that kind which made the Devils Malice more famous GODS mercies more glorious that Priest of Rome and his bloudy superstition more odious or that cast such a shame and obloquy upon the innocency of Christian Religion And all this was the Devils doing of pure spite and malice against the glory of the Gospell the power of the Word and the Saints of GOD. I say he was the arch-plotter and first moover of all these mischiefes The Pope and Iesuites and their cursed confederates were indeed his instruments executioners and agents as we well know and some of the Priests themselves confesse See Quodl 7. Act. 8. pag. 199. Scarce was that blessed Queene and incomparable Lady warme in her Princely Throne but Satan sets on the Pope Pius Quintus he sends from Rome two Popish Priests Morton and Webbe with a Bull of excommunication whereby the subjects and people of the Kingdome were in a Popish sense discharg'd and assoil'd from their allegiance loyaltie and obedience to her Majestie They sollicit the two traiterous Earles of the North Northumberland and Westmerland to be the executioners of this bloudy Bull which indeed was the fountaine and foundation of all the succeeding horrible plots and barbarous treacheries See Bells Anatomy of Popish tyrannie in his Epist. Dedic a little booke called The executioner of justice in England c. I pray GOD now at length turne these Popish murderous hearts from whetting any moe swords to shed the bloud of the LORDS annointed or returne the sharpe swords from the point with a cutting edge on both sides even up to the very hilts into their owne hearts bloud O LORD let the King flourish with a crowne of glory upon his head and a Scepter of triumph in his hand and still wash his Princely feet in the bloud of his enemies 3. This spitefull rage and furious oposition of Satan against the power of the word appears also by daily experience in those towns parishes where by the mercies of GOD a conscionable Ministry is planted before while Satan ruled and raigned amongst them by his wicked deputies ignorance prophanenes Popish superstitions sinful vanities lewd sports prophanation of the Saboth filthines drunkennes and such other accursed Pursevants for Hell Why then all was well all was in quiet and in peace O then that was a merry world and as good a Towne for good-fellowship as was in all the Country And no marvaile when a strong armed man keepeth his Pallace the things that he possesseth are in peace Luke 11. 21. While Sathan sits in their hearts and rules in their Consciences he suffers them to have their swings in their furious vanities and wicked pleasures without any great disturbance or contradiction And commonly he never sets prophane people together by the eares and at odds but when his owne kingdome may be more strengthened and their soules more endanger'd by dissention than by their partaking in prophanenesse and brotherhood in iniquity Let it not seeme strange then when townes and parishes where conscionable meanes are wanting live merrily and pleasantly for they walke together in the knot of good-fellowship through the broad way they follow the course of their owne corruptions and swing of their corrupt affection and swim downe the current of the times and are at Satans beck to do him any desperate and notorious service at all assaies in all passages of prophanenesse and offices of impiety and rebellion but bring amongst such a powerfull Ministerie which takes a right course for the plantation of grace and salvation of their soules and then marke how spitefully and furiously Satan begins to bestirre himselfe besides his owne malice and machinations he presently sets on foot and on fire too all that belong unto him in his instigation They band and combine themselves with great rage and indignation against the power of the Word and the faithfull messengers of GOD. They fret and fume picke unnecessary quarrels raile slander and indeed foame out filthily their owne shame in disgracing the truth of GOD without all truth or conscience and il Satan spies any poore soule amongst them to be pulled out of his clutches and kingdome of darknesse by the preaching of the Word he presently sets all the rest upon him as so many dogged curres or rather furious wolves for so our blessed Saviour makes the comparison upon a harmelesse lambe he whets like sharpe razors all the lying and lewd tongues in the towne and tips them with the very fire of hell so that they plead for prophanenesse prophaning the Sabbath and many sinfull fooleries and vanities in all places where they come He makes those who have a little more wit his close factors and under-hand-dealers for that stands not with Satans policy and the reputation of the worldly-wise that themselves should be open actors in childish vanities and profes'd enemies to the Law of GOD they do him sufficient service by being secret patrons and protectors of impiety counsellers and countenancers of the works of darknesse he fils the mouthes of the ignorant with slanderous complaints and cries that there was neuer good world since there was so much knowledge that there was never more preaching but never lesse working whereas poore soules they never yet knew what grace or good work meant or scarce good word but their naughty tongues and hatred to be reformed are true causes why both the world and places where they live are farre worse Those that are desperately and notoriously naught he inforces and inrages like mad dogs so that they impudently and openly barke at and with their impoysoned fangs furiously snatch at that hurtlesse hand which would heale and bind up their bleeding soules they are like dogs barking at the moone for GODS Ministers are starres in the right hand of CHRIST Revel 1. 16. If they would do them any deadly harme they must plucke them thence but let them take heed how they be bold and busie that way lest at last they take a beare by the tooth and awake a sleeping lion Thus you see what a stirre the Devill keepes when he is like to
unto him and those softned thoughts of mortality which are wont to attend these times that I may conveigh and commend them to your liking and practise with more successe and stronger impression And the first I shall commend unto you is 1. His singular integrity and honorable purpose in disposing those Ecclesiasticall Livings he had in his power And in this Point I my selfe can say more than any who tasted deepliest of his worthy dealing this way When I never sought after as it is famously knowne nor thought upon any such thing he sent for me and bestowed that which I presently enjoy most freely Which though every Patron ought proportionably to do yet the horrible corruptions abroad in the world in such cases do as it were by a kind of Antiperistasis make a duty a transcendent vertue And this was not all Though incrochments upon the Church be like the breaches of the sea a thousand to one never returne yet did he restore to a farthing all that which had a long time beene detain'd from the Church and parted with it most freely though he had as much wit and power as any other to have continued it so if he had pleas'd And I said Ecclesiasticall Livings though I instance but in one because I partly knew his purpose for the rest For he gave me himselfe this message to as worthy and reverend a man as I know unprefer'd in this Land that if he would come unto him he would give him the first that fell and for no other reason in the world but because he heard he was a reverend and worthy man Now lay these things to the practice of the times wherein there is such sinfull and Simoniacall packing together compacting secret covenanting with the party or friends for present money or after-gratifications some part of the tithes or his owne must be reserv'd to the Patron or he must be the Farmer at his owne price or pin a wife upon the sleeve of the parson as they contemptuously speake a base also and unworthy respect or the like such wretched combinations to helpe one another towards hell my disacquaintance must excuse my ignorance in the termes and then tell me if this was not a noble part in him worthy the imitation of the best I am perswaded in this Point he might be a patterne not only to all here present whom it might concerne though I looke upon the faces of some who have dealt also very nobly this way but to all the Patrons in ENGLAND Be pleas'd then you that lov'd him to tread in his steps herein and the rather because your unconscionablenesse in so high and important a point for the glory of GOD and the good of the Church may not only bring upon your owne heads your houses and posterity the curse of GOD in the meane time but also a company of poore soules cast away by reason of your corruption against you at that last and great day who will then cry out upon you before the face of GOD Angels and men that you were the men who for a little bloudy gaine put upon them an ignorant idle dissolute non resident or some way unfaithfull Minister For it is too common that those who enter corruptly deale unconscionably in their places whereby they must now perish everlastingly whereas if you had been honest and uncorrupt there had beene hope they might have liv'd in the endlesse joyes of heaven And what a vexing cry in the eares of all sacrilegious Church-robbers will that be of a damned wretch in hell when he shall complaine everlastingly that his soule had been sav'd if such a man had not been Symoniacall 2. His forbearing travell upon the Sabbath in his Circuit Whereby he wan a great deale of honour to his name over all this Kingdome prevailed in the same with others of his owne reverend ranke and by his example as hath been observ'd wan much encouragement increase and regard to religion in those Countries thorow which he past I would I might so much prevaile with you as that upon this occasion you would be content to take nearer to heart a more holy and heavenly spending of the LORDS Day Not onely in forbearing sin the workes of your calling idlenesse vaine sports this is but onely flying evill and privative good but also to ply with conscience and reverence all GODS holy Ordinances prayer reading singing of Psalmes publikely and privately the Word preached specially conference meditation and the like and to feed and satisfie your prepared and hungry soules with all that sweetnesse comfort and spirituall strength which they are wont to conveigh into humble hearts upon GODS holy Day this also is doing of good and positive piety For a thousand to one a constant keeper of the Sabbath is sound-hearted towards GOD and as great odds a common Sabbath breaker howsoever he may deceive his owne heart is in truth and triall a stranger to the power of grace and life of godlinesse 3. His patient yeelding and submission to private admonition A vertue ordinarily as farre out with great men as flattery is familiar Yet in him so as I tell you Something there was to which his private affection was very much endear'd and his reputation thereabout in the respect of the world was also entangled in some more publike engagement And yet when I in zeale and love to his soule and salvation prest upon him in private as a Minister of GOD and in the humblest manner I could tendering my reasons against his resolution after he had well thought upon 't it never went further all was dasht for ever Yet let me tell you he had formerly given me encouragement hereunto intreating me once in private to deale plainly with him And now I am griev'd at heart I did not more in this kind Now I would to GOD you would imitate him in this also especially you that are great ones Alas You 'le give the Physitian leave to tell you the diseases of your body the Lawyer to shew you any flaw that is in your state your Horse-keeper to tell you the surfets of your horse nay your Huntsman the surrances of your dogs and shall onely the Minister of GOD not tell you your soules are bleeding to everlasting death Now GOD forbid 4. His taking his high place to heart I meane his extraordinary industry and indefatigablenesse in his judiciary imployments His painefulnesse this way was wonderfull even after his last sicknesse had seaz'd upon him If I should report unto you the particulars from eye-witnesses you would marvell And I rather name and commend this unto you because the contrary is cause of great misery in a Common-wealth Oh it is lamentable when men mount into high roomes only in a bravery and vanity and desire to be ador'd above others or follow the execution of their places and administration of justice onely as a Trade with an unquenchable and unconscionable thirst of gaine which justifies the common resemblance
have their eares tickled than their consciences toucht and would rather have pillowes sowed under their arme-holes by such deceiving dawbers that they may lie more softly upon the bed of security than the keene arrowes of righteousnesse and truth fastned in their sides by GODS faithfull messengers to drive them to siâ—…cerity and yet after this he must serve his time in serving the times and through many miseries of secular martyrdome as Peter Blesensis cals it and many shipwracks of a good conscience by basenesse flattering attending depending and undoing his soule At last if he die not in the pursuit as many have done besides all these precedent miserable meanes by present simony or some other vile services he comes into some high place or at least becomes a negligent non-resident or insatiable pluralist Which wicked entrance being accompanied with GODS curse his heart already so hardened his ministeriall strength and veine of learning so wasted and dried up by discontinuance desuetude and worldly dealings having now attained his ends he drownes himselfe over head and eares either in secular businesses or sensuall pleasures to muffle up the mouth of his horribly guilty conscience cries downe preaching opposeth the power of godlinesse and so becomes rather a wolfe than a shepheard In a second place The rich worldling also is in a wofull case this way as appeares by CHRISTS owne words Matth. 19. 23 24. which is further confirmed by casting our eyes upon Luk. 16. 14. and 1 Tim. 6. 9. Luke 16. 19. And the Pharises which were covetous heard all these things and derided him And what heard they from CHRIST That it was impossible to serve GOD and Mammon So that there are some passages ever in a faithfull and searching ministry which covetous worldlings deride and will not downe with by any meanes but resolutely reject in their carnall wisdome as very foolish unnecessary precise and no waies to be given way unto Especially such as these 1. That they must restore whatsoever they have any waies gotten or detaine wrongfully and wickedly 2. That they must rather themselves starve and leave their children in beggery than put their hands to any unlawfull waies or meanes of getting so much as to tell a lie c. 3. That godlinesse is great gaine and that it is incomparably better to be religious than rich good than great 4. That there is a life of faith which will keepe a man in sweet contentment in any estate should he be never so poore 5. That Iob was truly richer with CHRIST alone than when before he was loaden with abundance of thicke clay 6. That riches are nothing Proverbes 23. 5. Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not 7. That they must leave all for CHRIST 8. That if they part with all for Him they shal be recompenced an hundred fold in this life 9. That if they had no recompence at all in this world yet the reward that they shall have in the world to come wil be a super-abundant recompence Notwithstanding these satisfactory and uncontrollable principles they will be rich in the Apostles sense after they have gotten a golden heape will be more rich still and therefore are easily tempted unto and taken in the snare of that execrable and most abhorred trade of usury In the exercise whereof they still negotiate with the Devill and receive all their increase at the Devils hands and therefore how is it possible they should turne on GODS side And that usurers trade with the Devill and have their usurious money from him Heare the judgement of the Church of ENGLAND to which ordinarily all Ministers subscribe Verily so many as increase themselves by usury c. They have their goods of the Devils gift Heare also the judgement of the State even of the King the Nobility and the whole Body of the Kingdome in Parliament and in that Statute whence usurers take very falsly some encouragement as though it were allow'd which is most untrue These are the words in the beginning of the Statute Forasmuch as all usury being forbidden by the Law of GOD is a sinne and detestable c. Thirdly though an high place be holden in the false opinion of vaine men the onely heaven upon earth yet in truth and upon triall by accident it prooves Satans surest hold to hamper them in his strongest and most inextricable snares untill he tumble them hence with a more desperate and headlong downefall into the pit of hell For as those of truest worth are ever timerous and most retiring in such cases so the worst men ordinarily are most ambitious and aspiring Consider for the purpose the unambitious modesty and magnanimity of the olive-tree fig-tree and the vine but the base and worthlesse bramble a dry empty saplesse kex and weed apt and able only to scratch teare and vexe must needs be up and be hoised into an high room and domineere over others Men of most prostituted consciences are for the most part the most pragmatical prowlers after undeserved preferments and the only men to serve themselves vijs modis as they say into offices honours and places of advancement For they want honest wit to conceive and fore-see the waight of the charge conscience to discharge it faithfully Now then where there is a concurrence of corrupt times a wicked wit a wide conscience and a vast gluttonous desire to domineere What will not be done to attaine their ends They will not sticke to lie dissemble breake their words forsweare machiavellize practise any policy or counterpolicy to honesty reason religion to flatter raise a faction humour the times supplant competitours gratifie the Devill do any thing We may proportionably conceive the malignity of inferiour ambitions by the monstrousnesse of higher aspirations Now who hath not observed saith that learned Knight in his Preface to the History of the World what labour practice perill bloud-shed and cruelty the Kings and Princes of the world have undergone exercised and taken on them to make themselves and their issues masters of the world Oh by what plots by what forswearings betrayings oppressions imprisonments tortures poysonings and under what reasons of State and politicke subtilty have these fore-named Kings c. By this time these men by these meanes are mounted I will suppose on horsebacke and have left many Princes walking as servants upon the earth And folly is set in great dignity And what then Then do they begin so to swell with pride untill they are ready to burst againe with over-weening of their owne worth selfe-opinion and selfe-estimation and to toyle extremely with revengefull inward indignation against all good men whose hearts as they conceive and their consciences tell them there was just cause did rise against their growing great and rising Being thus empoysoned at the first entrance with pride selfe-conceiptednesse prejudice revengefull jealousies and other exorbitant and base distempers they begin to consider and resolve how to behave themselves
Aspicis effigiem tantúm par nulla figura BOLTONI Genio qui super astra manet Doctior an melior fuit haud scio Dicere fas est Secula vix referent quem tulit una dies E. B. Mr. BOLTONS LAST AND LEARNED WORKE of the Foure last Things DEATH IVDGEMENT HELL and HEAVEN WITH AN ASSISE-SERMON and Notes on Iustice Nicolls his Funerall Together with the Life and Death of the Authour Published by E. B. LONDON Printed by GEORGE MILLER dwelling in the Black Friers MDCXXXII TO THE RIGHT WORSHIPFVLL FRANCIS NICOLLS Esquire one of His Majesties Iustices of Peace and Quorum for the County of NORTHAMPTON SIR IT was the desire of this reverend Author when that furious messenger of Death first seized upon his spirits giving him no more intermission than what would serve for some feeble preparations against a New Encounter that I would in case he died which afterwards lamentably fell out frame an Epistle to this Worke which he had then made ready for the Presse and dedicate it in his name to your selfe as a pledge of his avowed thankfulnesse for those many favours he received from that religious and renowned Iudge his noble Patron and from your selfe his immediate heire and successour This request from him that would deny me nothing I knew not how to with-stand though I wrong'd my selfe in the acceptance as to draw a line in that Worke from which so rare a Work-man had taken off his learned and eloquent pen. But yet a necessity lay upon me for he desired in his sicknesse that by this Dedication it might appeare to the world how much he honoured your selfe and family which first preferred him It was no small joy to his heart to see that speech of God himselfe fulfilled upon your House Those that honour me I will honour It is fit the world should know that it may blush and mend to what eminency of place the meere merits of Iustice Nicolls in that short race of his life rais'd him unto Called he was by the Writt of Queene ELIZABETH to be Serjeant at Law He was by King IAMES made Serjeant at Law to Prince HENRY his eldest Sonne Iudge of the Common Pleas and Chancellour to our now gracious Soveraigne when he was Prince of Wales But that which truly ennobles his memory and makes me call to mind what our Fleta reporteth was the honour of Iudges about King EDWARD the first 's dayes He had and held all these places Nec prece nec pretio nec praemio I am not afraid to english it for I well know the truth of it He neither begged them nor bought them nor gaue so much as a New-yeares-gift for them The like I can truly speake of your selfe Those dignities which have been cast upon you in your owne Country since he was taken to glory which are neither few nor meane they came to you you sued not for them you sought them not Nay you degraded your selfe of one of them a thing not usuall by making earnest suit to be out of the Commission of Oyer and Terminer after you had a while endur'd it From hence as I have good ground to conceive would this worthy Author have mounted you up on Eagles wings to the Throne of the Highest who hath done these and greater things for you and have prest upon you large and higheâ—… performances If ever there were a time for Righteous men that are in authority to shew themselues the time is now come Meane Christians their very persons and actions are by the abounding of sinne become a very Parable of Reproach A company of Block-heads as a melancholy Diuine cals them If those therefore that are in place should now be silent it is pitie but their breaths should be stopt for ever I have observed it long and not without wonder looking upon former times that in these dayes such a spirit of feare and faintnesse hath possessed the hearts of holy men that they dare not be couragious in the cause of God It is no strange thing for a man to be fearfull in the Darke but when such a light shines upon us from heaven as that our eyes are euen dazelled in the beholding of it now to be timerous now to be faint-hearted in a good cause for feare of men or any such ignoble respect is monstrous Cowardize What is there in the face of man made of the same mould tossed to and fro with the same vanity resoluble into the same Clay that we should feare it What is outward preferment to the losse or certaine hazard of a good conscience For they are rarely kept together what are mockings â—…revilings reproches imprisonment c. to godly men but deeper impressions of stricter holinesse and the very markes of the Lord Iesus The name of Christian is a name both of Honour and Valour and begets better spirits then either Romane or Grecian let Machiauell and other Atheists say what they will which of their stories euer made mention of so valiant an army as that Noble Army of Martyrs mentioned in the 11th Chapter to the Hebrewes How can they want spirit that deriue their courage from no lesse Author than the Lion of the Tribe of Iuda Nay it were no hard matter to proue might I recede from an Epistle to pursue a Common place That no man can be truly valorous but he that is truly religious As this Courage ought to be in all that feare God so specially in those that are Magistrates and sit in the seats of Iustice the very Tribunals of God himselfe For them to be dastardly and fearefull is to shame their Master Give me therefore leave by some warrant from the Author in your person whom I cannot but commend in this particular to presse this virtue upon all that beare rule in their Country It is part of the Essence of a Iustice of Peace to be a man of Courage The counsell of Iâ—…thro to Moses was to make onely such to be Magistrates as were men of courage fearing God c. Wherein the Spirit of God preferres the daughter before the mother and Fortitude before the Feare of God of which it is the effect because it is more conspicuous in the eyes of men For the feare of God is a thing hidden iâ—… the heart but that which drawes it forth and makes it illustrious is that valour and high resolution of spirit by which it worketh Almighty God makes this good by an example of his owne choice For when he had appointed Ioshua to succeed Moses and had mightily supported his mind with arguments of his owne assistance and presence with him he requires nothing else of him but to be strong and of a good courage with many iterations of the same thing in such phrases as these Be strong and of a good courage be very couragious be not afraid be not dismaid And as if there were no
Prophet in the first place doth furnish the people of GOD before hand with a strong counter comfort and cordiall against their faintings in the furnace of affliction we may thence be instructed that DOCT. It is an holy wisdome and happy thing to treasure up comfortable provision against the Day of calamity It is good counsell and a blessed course to store up comfort against the evill Day He that gathereth in Summer saith Salomon is a sonne of understanding But he that sleepeth in Harvest is a sonne of confusion Prov. 10. 5. If not by an immediate sense yet by a warrantable analogy and good consequent this Place will beare this Paraphrase That man which now in this faire and seasonable Sun-shine of his gracious visitation is lull'd asleepe with the Syren-songs of these sensuall times upon the lap of pleasure swims downe the temporizing torrent of these last and lewdest daies with full saile of prosperity and ease against the secret wasts and counter-blasts as it were of a reclaiming conscience as thousands do to their utter undoing for ever mis-spends his golden time and many goodly opportunities of gathering spirituall Manna in grasping gold gathering wealth growing great greatning his posterity clasping about the arme of flesh satisfying the appetite and serving himselfe In a word he that while it is called To day turnes not on Gods side and by forwardnesse and fruitfulnesse in His blessed waies treasures up comfort and grace against his ending houre shall most certainly upon his bed of death and illumination of conscience find nothing but horrible confusion and feare extremest horrour and insupportable heauinesse of heart his soule must presently downe into the kingdome of darknesse and bottome of the burning lake there to lie everlastingly in tempestuous and fiery torments the sting and strength whereof doth not onely surpasse the pens and tongues of Men and Angels but the very conceipt of those that suffer them which if a man knew he would not endure one houre for all the pleasures of ten thousand worlds His body the pleasing and pampering whereof hath plunged him into such a sea of calamity and woe must descend into the house of death an habitation of blacknesse and cruelty lie downe in a bed of dust and rottennesse covered with wormes guarded and kept full sure by the Prince and powers of darknesse unto the judgement of the great Day and then the whole man must become the woful object of the extremity and everlastingnesse of that fiercest and unquenchable wrath which like infinite rivers of brimstone will feed upon his soule and flesh without remedie ease or end But that happy man which in the short summers day of his miserable and mortall life gathers grace with an holy greedinesse plies the noble trade of Christianity with resolution and vndauntednesse of spirit against the boisterous current and corruptions of the times growes in godlinesse GODS favour and fruits of good life purchases and preserves though with the losse of all earthly delights peace of conscience one of the richest treasures and rarest jewels that euer illightened and made lightsome the heart of man in this world I say that man though never so contemptible in the eyes of the worldly wise though never so scornfully trod upon and overslowne by the tyranny and swelling pride of those ambitious selfe-flattering Giants who like mighty winds when they have blustered a while breathe out into naught shall most certainly upon his dying-bed meet with a glorious troupe of blessed Angels ready and rejoycing to guard and conduct his departing Soule into his Masters joy His body shal be preserved in the grave by the all-powerfull providence as in a Cabinet of rest and sweetest sleepe perfumed by the buriall of our blessed SAVIOVR untill the glorious appearing of the great GOD. And then after their joyfullest re-union they shall both be filled and shine thorow all eternity with such glory and blisse which in sweetnesse and excellency doth infinitely exceed the possibility of all humane or Angelicall conceipt Thus you see in short what a deale of confusion that miserable man heapes up for his precious Soule against the Day of wrath which spends the span of his transitory life after the waies of his owne heart and how truly he is a sonne of understanding who in the few and evill daies of short abode upon earth treasures up grace and spirituall riches against the dreadfull winter night of death For I would have you understand that by comfortable provision I meane not Lands livings or large possessions I meane not wealth or riches Alas These will not profit in the day of wrath Prov. 11. 4. They certainly make themselves wings and in our greatest need will flie away as an Eagle toward heaven Prov. 23. 5. I meane not silver or gold they shall not be able to deliver in the Day of the Lords wrath Zeph. 1. 18. Will he esteeme thy riches no not gold nor all the forces of strength Iob 36. 19. I meane not top of honour or height of Place this without religion serves onely to make the downfall more desperate and remarkable They are rais'd on hie saith the very Poet that their ruine may be more irrecoverable But what do I meddle with the Poet the Prophet is plaine and peremptory against the pride of ambition Thy terriblenesse hath deceived thee and the pride of thine heart O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rocke that holdest the height of the hill Though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the Eagle I will bring thee downe from thence saith the Lord Ier. 49. 16. I meane not the arme of flesh or Princely favours Assuredly that man which gratifies great Ones to the wounding of his conscience by the formall slavery of basenesse and insinuation or any ill offices of ambitious servitude in feates of irreligious policy in justice cruelty turning Turk and traitour to those that trusted him c. shall at last receive no other recompence of such abhorred villany when divine vengeance begins to take him in hand than that which justly fell upon Iudas in the extremity of his anguish and sorrow from the chiefe Priests and Elders Matth. 27. 4. If ever great men or earthly Potentates did take their slattering slaves out of the hands of GOD at that highest Tribunall or were able to free a guilty soule from eternall flames it were something to grow rich and rise by vile accommodations and serving their turne in the meane time But such a man sâ—…all certenly in the day of his last and greatest need be cast with horrible confusion of spirit and 〈◊〉 griefe of heart upon Wolsies rufull complaint and cry out when it is too late Had I beene as carefull 〈◊〉 serve the GOD of heaven as my great Master on earth he had neuer left me in my gray haires Favours of greatnesse may follow a man in faire weather and shine upon his face with goodly hopes and expectation of great
things but in shipwracks even of worldly things where all sinks but the sorrow to save them or especially upon the very first tempest of spirituall distresse they steere away before the Sea and Wind leaving him to sink or swim without all possibility of helpe or rescue even to the rage of a wounded conscience and gulfe many times of that desperate madnesse which the Prophet describes Isa. 8. 21 22. He shall fret himselfe and curse his King and his GOD and looke upward And he shall looke unto the earth and behold trouble and darknesse dimnesse of anguish and he shal be driven to darknesse By comfortable Provision therefore I meane treasures of a more high lasting and noble nature The blessings of a better life comforts of godlinesse graces of salvation favour and acceptation with the highest Majesty c. They are the riches of heaven onely which we should so hoard up and will ever hold out in the times of trouble and Day of the Lords wrath Amongst which a sound faith and a cleare conscience are the most peerlesse and unvaluable jewels able by their native puissance and infused vigour to pull the very heart as it were out of Hell and with confidence and conquest to looke even Death and the Devill in the face There is no darknesse so desolate no crosse so cutting but the splendor of these is able to illighten their sweetnesse to mollifie So that the blessed counsell of CHRIST Mat. 6. 19 20. doth concurre with and confirme this Point Lay not up for your selves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where theeves breake thorow and steale But lay vp for your selves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where theeues do not breake thorow nor steale By moth and rust those two greedy and great devourers of gay clothes and glistering treasures two capitall vanities upon which worldlings dote and two greatest inchanters of mortall men are insinuated and signified unto us all those iron teeth and devouring instruments of mortality by which corruption eats into the heart of all earthly glory wasts insensibly the bowels of the greatest bravery and ever at length consumes into dust the strongest sinewes of the most Imperiall Soveraignty under the Sun Somtimes A day an houre a moment is enough to overturne the things that seemed to have been founded and rooted in Adamant The LORD of Heaven hath put a fraile and mortall nature a weake and dying disposition into all worldly things They spring and flourish and die Even the greatest and goodliest Politique Bodies that ever the earth bore though animated with the searching spirit of profoundest Policy strengthened with the resolution and valour of the most conquering commanders sighted with eagle eyes of largest depths fore-sights and comprehensions of state crowned with never so many warlike prosperities triumphs and victorious atchievements yet like the naturall Body of a man they had as it were their Infancy youthfull strength mans state old age and at last their grave We may see Dan. 2. 35. The glory and power of the mightiest Monarchies that ever the Sun saw shadowed by Nebuchadnezzars great Image sink into the dust and become like the chaffe of the Summers threshing floores upon a windy day Heare a wise and noble writer speaking to this purpose though for another purpose Who hath not observed what labour what practice perill bloud-shed and cruelty the Kings and Princes of the world have undergone exercised taken on them and committed to make themselves and their issues Masters of the world And yet hath Babylon Persia Egypt Syria Macedon Carthage Rome and the rest no fruit flower grasse or leafe springing upon the face of the earth of those seeds No their very roots and ruines do hardly remaine All that the hand of man can make is either over-turned by the hand of man or at length by standing and continuing consumed What trust then or true comfort in the arme of flesh humane greatnesse or earthly treasures What strength or stay in such broken staves of reed In the time of need the Worme of vanity will wast and wither them all like Ionahs gourd and leave our naked soules to the open rage of wind and weather to the scourges and Scorpions of guiltinesse and feare It transcends the Sphere of their activity as they say and passeth their power to satisfie an immortall soule to comfort thorow the length of eternity either to corrupt or conquer any spirituall adversaries For couldest thou purchase unto thy selfe a Monopoly of all the wealth in the world wert thou able to empty the Westerne parts of gold and the East of all her spices and precious things shouldest thou enclose the whole face of the earth from one end of heaven to another and fill this wide worlds circumference with golden heapes and hoards of pearle diddest thou in the meane time sit at the sterne and hold the reines in thine hand of all earthly kingdomes nay exalt thy selfe as the Eagle and set thy nest among the starres nay like the sun of the morning advance thy Throne even above the starres of God yet all these and whatsoever els thou canst imagine to make thy worldly happinesse compleate and matchlesse would not be worth a button unto thee upon thy bed of death nor do thee a halfe-penny-worth of good in the horrour of that dreadfull time Where did that man dwell or of what cloth was his coat made that was ever comforted by his goods greatnesse or great men in that last and sorest conflict In his wrastlings with the accusations of conscience terrours of death and oppositions of hell No no It is matter of a more heavenly metall treasures of an higher temper riches of a nobler nature that must hold out and helpe in the distresses of soule in the anguish of conscience in the houre of death against the stings of sinne wrath of GOD and last Tribunall Do you think that ever any glorified soule did gaze with delight upon the wedge of gold that tramples under foot the Sun and lookes All-mighty GOD in the face No no It is the society of holy Angels and blessed Saints the sweet Communion with its dearest Spouse that unapproachable light which crownes GODS sacred Throne the beauty and brightnesse of that most glorious Place the shining Body of the SONNE of GOD the beatificall fruition of the Deity it selfe the depth of Eternity and the like everlasting Fountaines of spirituall ravishment and joy which onely can feed and fill the restlesse and infinite appetite of that immortall Thing with fulnesse of contentment and fresh pleasures world without end Thrice blessed and sweet then is the advice of our Lord and Master IESVS CHRIST who would have us to turne the eye of our delight and eagernesse of affection from the fading glosse and painted glory of earthly treasures wherein naturally the worme of corruption and vanity ever breeds and many times the worme of an
am I let Him do to me as seemeth good unto Him But the spirits of the other two false and rotten-hearted fellowes in the time of trouble were so overtaken nay over whelmed with griefe that they both hanged themselves 2. This holy providence before hand may happily prevent a great deale of restlesse impatiency reprobate feares forlorne distractions of spirit hying to the caves crying to the mountaines bootlesse relying upon the arme of flesh Cursing their King and their GOD and looking upward roaring out with hideous groanes Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire Who among us shall dwell with the everlasting burnings c. All which desperate terrours and tumultuations of conscience are wont to surprize and seize upon unholy and unprepared hearts especially when GODS hand is finally and implacably upon them 3. And we shall hereby excellently honour and advance the glory of Profession when it shall appeare to the world and even the contrary-minded are enforced to confesse that there is a secret heavenly vigour undauntednesse of spirit and noblenesse of courage which mightily upholds the hearts of holy men in those times of confusion and feare when theirs melt away within them like water and be as the heart of a woman in her pangs Worldlings wonder and gnash the teeth hereat When they see as Chrysostome truly tels us the Christian to differ from them in this that he beares all crosses couragiously and with the wings as it were of faith out soares the height of all humane miseries He is like a Rocke incorporated into IESVS CHRIST the Rocke of eternity still erect inexpugnable unshaken though most furiously assaulted with the tempestuous waves of any worldly woe or concurrent rage of all infernall powers But all the imaginary man-hood of gracelesse men doth ever in the day of distresse either vanish into nothing or dissolve into despaire 4. Expression of spirituall strength in the time of trouble from former heavenly store is a notable meanes to move others to enter into the same good way and grow greedy after grace to draw and allure them to the entertainment and exercise of those ordinances and that One necessary thing which onely can make them bold and unmooveable like Mount Zion in the day of adversity I have knowne some the first occasion of whose conversion was the observation of their stoutnesse and patience under oppressions and wrongs whom they have purposely persecuted with extremest malice and hate So blessed many times is the brave resolute and undaunted behaviour of GODS people in the time of triall and amidst their forest sufferings that it breeds in the hearts of beholders thoughts even of admiration and love nay a desire of imitation and turning on the other side When they represent to the eye of the world their ability to passe thorow the raging flames of fiery tongues untouched to possesse their soules in peace amidst scorpions thornes and rebels to passe by basest indignities from basest men without wound or passion to hold up their heads above water in the most boisterous tempests and deepest seas of danger to triumph over all adversary power in the evill day I say by GODS blessing this may make many come in and glorifie GOD marvelling and enquiring whence such invincible fortitude and bravenesse of spirit should spring concluding with Nabuchadnezzar Surely The servants of the most high GOD. And so at length their affections may be so set on edge after the excellency and amiablenesse of IESVS CHRIST who being The mighty GOD and The Lion of the Tribe of Iudah doth alone inspire all His with such a Lion-like courage that they may seriously and savingly seek His face and favour saying with those Cant. 5. 9. What is thy Beloved more than another Beloved O thou fairest among women That we may seeke Him with thee When they behold such a deale of Majesty and miâ—…th to shine in his face whom they make the marke of all their spitefull rage and revenge their teeth with which they could have torne him in peeces may water and they industriously desire to know what that is which makes such a man so merry in all estates Vses 1. This may serve to awaken and reprove all those secure and carelesse companions who if they may enjoy present contentment and partake in the meane time of the prosperity and pleasures of the times wherein they tumble themselves with insolency luxury and ease take no thought make no provision at all against a day of reckoning provide no food against a foule day treasure up no comfort against the LORDS coming prepare no armour or aid for that last and dreadfull conflict upon their beds of death Alas poore soules Did they know and feelingly apprehend what a deale of horrour astonishment and anguish dogs them continually at the heeles ready and eager after a few daies of filthy and fugitive pleasures to seize upon them like travaile upon a woman with child suddenly unavoidably and in greatest extremity and that so intolerable that they shall never be able either to decline or endure the very weakest biting of the never-dying worme or the least sparkle of those everlasting flames they would think all the daies of their life few enow to gather spirituall strength against that fearefull houre Nay some are such cruell caitifs and Cannibals to their owne soules and so accursedly blinded by the Prince of darknesse that instead of comfortable provision they heape up wrath against the day of wrath instead of grace GODS favour and a good conscience peace joy and refreshing from the presence of the LORD they lay up scourges and Scorpions for their naked soules and guilty consciences against the time and terrour of the LORDS visitation For let them be most assured all their lies oathes rotten and railing speeches all their covetous lustfull ambitious and malicious thoughts all their swaggering and furious combinations against GODS people sensuall revellings joviall meetings c. will all When their feare commeth as desolation and their destruction commeth as a whirlewind like so many envenimed stings run into their sinfull soules and pierce them thorow with everlasting sorrow Alas What will the sonnes and daughters of pleasure do then And all those spirituall beggers and bankerupts who have greedily hunted all their life long after these mortall things of this life as if their soules had beene therein immortall and utterly neglected those things which are immortall as if their selves after the world had been but mortall What do you think wil be their thoughts upon the very first approach of the Port of death to which in the meane time all winds drive them Fullsad and heavy thoughts LORD thou knowest then at leisure enough to reflect severely upon their former folly though formerly beaten from them by their health and outward happinesse and will pay them to the uttermost for all the pleasing passages of their life past O then they shall lie upon their last beds like Wild Buls in
experience of His all sufficiency extraordinary exercise of faith sweeter taste in the Promises closer cleaving to the Word clearer sight of divine excellencies heartier longing for heavenly joyes c. One drop of which spirituall refreshing deawes distilling upon the soule even in greatest outward distresse one glimpse of such glorious inward joyes shining from the face of the Sun of salvation into the saddest heart in the darkest dungeon doth incredibly surpasse all the comfort which wife children wealth or in a word any worldly good or mortall greatnesse can possibly yeeld 4. Or in posterity by a very remarkable if not miraculous providence and care for them Consider for this purpose that GOD-fearing Prophet 2 Kings 4. who upon the matter and in the true meaning denied himselfe and forsooke all for GODS sake For he doth so also who preferres the glory of GOD the Gospell the cause of CHRIST and keeping of a good conscience before any or all earthly things holding fast unfainedly a resolution if he be put to it and times require really and actually to leave all for CHRIST This good man might have applied himselfe to the present served the times sought the Court and sate at Iezabels Table with her other temporizing trencher-chaplaines But it is said in the Text that he feared the LORD and so disdained and abhor'd to gaine by humouring greatnesse to grow rich and rise by basenesse and flattery And therefore did chuse rather to die a begger to leave his wife in debt and expose his children to the bondage of cruell creditours than any waies to make ship-wracke of a good conscience or consent and concurre to the adulterating of GODS sincere and purer worship But mark what followes rather than the wife and children of such a man who preferred GODS glory before his owne preferment shall suffer want they must be relieved by a miraculous supply as appeares in the story 5. Or in good name which is rather to be chosen than great riches saith Salomon For instance compare together Bradford and Bonner The name of that blessed man shall be of most deare and glorious memory to all that love our LORD IESVS CHRIST in sincerity untill His second comming and it is like we shall looke upon him and the rest of that royall Army of Martyrs in Queene Maries time with thoughts of extraordinary sweetnesse and love in the next world thorow all eternity But now the remembrance of that other fellow who like a bloud-thirsty Tyger made such horrible havocke of the Lambs of CHRIST shal be had in a most abhorred execrable and everlasting detestation The name of the fore-named noble Marquesse who left and and lost all with a witnesse for the Gospels sake shall be infinitely more honoured of all honest men so long as any one heavenly beame of GODS eternal truth shall shine upon earth than his uncles Paul the fourth or all that Rope of Popes from the first rising to the finall ruine of that Man of sinne Nay theirs shall rot everlastingly but his shall re-flourish with sweetnesse and fresh admiration to the worlds end 2. That to die is but to be once done and if we erre in that one action we are undone everlastingly And therefore have thine end ever in thine eye Let all our abilities businesses and whole being in this life let all our thoughts words actions referre to this one thing which as it shall be well or ill ended is attended either with endlesse plagues or pleasures with eternity of flames or felicity 3. That thou maist looke upon thy last bed tobe full sorely terribly assaulted by the king of feare accompanied with all his abhorred horrours and stinging dread by the fearefull sight of all thy former sinnes arrayed and armed in their grisliest formes and with their fieriest stings with the utmost craft and cruelty of all the powers of darknesse and the very powder-plot of the prince of hell that roaring Lion who hath industriously laboured to devoure thy soule all thy life long with the terrour of that just and last Tribunall 〈◊〉 which thou 〈◊〉 ready to passe to reckon precisely with Almighty GOD for all things done in the flesh What manner of man ought thou to be 〈◊〉 iâ—… the meane time in all holy care fore-cast and casâ—…g about to give up thine account 〈◊〉 comfort at that dreadfull houre Be so farre from deserring repentance in this Day of visitation and patting off till that time For how canst thou possibly attend so great a busines when thou art beset with such a world of wofull worke and hellish rage That â—…hou â—…hould est in this thy day like a sonne of wisdome constantly ply and improove all opportunities occasions offers every moment Ministry mercy motions of the Spirit checks of conscience corrections temptations c. To store thy selfe richly with spirituall strength against that last encounter and of highest consequence either for eternall happinesse or unconceiveable horrour 4. That thy body when the soule is gone wil be an horrour to all that behold it a most loathsome and abhorred spectacle Those that loved it most cannot now find in their hearts to looke onâ—… by reason of the griesly dâ—…formednesse which death will put upon it Downe it must into a pit of carions and confusion covered with wormes not able to wagg so much as a little finger to remoove the vermine that feed and gnaw upon its flesh and so moulder away into rottennesse and dust And therefore let us never for the temporary transitory ease pleasure and pampering of a râ—…inous and rotten carkasse bring everlasting misery upon our immortall soules Let us never for a little sensuall short and vanishing delight flowing from the three filthy puddles of the lust of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life drowne both our bodies and soules in a dungeon shall I say nay in a boyling sea of fire and brimstone where we can see no banks nor feele no bottome 5. That when the soule departs this life it carries nothing away with it but grace GODS favour and a good conscience The Sun of all worldly greatnesse prosperity and joy then sets for ever Even Crownes Kingdomes Lands Livings and all earthly Possessions are everlastingly left And what will an immortall soule destitute of divine grace do then Then will that now newly-separated soule finding no spirituall store or provision laid up in this life against the evill day with an irksome and furious reflexion looke backe upon all its time spent in the flesh and beholding there nothing but abominations guiltinesse and sinne Presently awakes the never dying worme which having formerly had its mouth stopt with carnall delights and musâ—…'d up with outward mirth will now feed upon it with horrour anguish and desperare rage world without end O then let these precious deare everlasting things breath'd into our Bodies for a short abode in this Vale of teares by the
more Our mutuall knowledge one of another in heaven shall not be in outward and worldly respects but divine and spirituall as we know them in CHRIST by the illumination of the Spirit 5. We shall know the spirituall substances offices orders excellencies of the Angels the nature immortality operations and originall of our owne soules c. In a word all things knowable 6. We shall be beatifically illightened with a cleare and glorious sight of GOD Himselfe which Divines call Beatificall Vision About which the Schoolemen audaciously discoursing fall upon differing conceipts 1. Some say GOD shall then be knowne by a Species representing the divine Essence and by a Light of glory elevating the understanding by a supernaturall strength 2. Others That the divine Essence shall be represented to the glorified understanding not by any Species but immediately by It Selfe yet they also require light of glory to elevate and fortifie the understanding by reason of its weakenesse and infinite disproportion and distance from the incomprehensible Deity 3. Others hold that to the cleare vision of GOD there is not required a Species representing the divine Essence as the first sort suppose nor any created light elevating the understanding as the second sort think but onely a change of the naturall order of knowing It is sufficient say they that the divine Essence be immediately represented to a created understanding Which though it cannot be done according to the order of nature as experience tels us For we so conceive things first having passed the sense and imagination Yet it may be done according to the order of divine grace c. But it is sufficient for a sober man to know that in heaven we shall see Him face to face Upon my Patron And here by your good leaves I will be bold to make benefit of the instant occasion because it is very seasonably coincident with the Point And presse from that the practice of this last mortifying motive These artificiall Formes of sadnesse and complementall representations of sorrow in blacks and mourning weeds are nothing for my purpose neither do I desire to stirre up or renew in any man thoughts of heavinesse or griefe of heart which he might conceive and nourish by reason of some particular interest in the bounty love person and worthy parts of the departed many times men are too forward and overflowing in those tender offices and last demonstrations of natural affection And therfore my counsel in such cases is that we would shew our selves Christians and by the sacred rules of Religion ever prevent that unseasonablenesse and excesse which many times with a fruitlesse torture doth tyrannise over the hopelesse hearts of meere naturall men The Point that I would principally presse and perswade unto is a Christian and compassionate taking to heart the publike losse that every one of us may upon that occasion be truly humbled in himselfe and bettered in his owne soule And I tell you true especially in these times this losse is great He was a revexend and learned Iudge a Prince and a great Man in Israel nay a God upon earth for so are Iudges stiled by the Spirit of GOD Psal. 82. 6. Though he be departed this life like a man and fallen as one of the Princes But these are nothing they are but bare titles in respect of any true worth He was really remarkable and renowned for very speciall judiciary endowments and sufficiencies and those aided and attended with many worthy additions of morality and subordinate abilities As first 1. Such calmnesse in his affections and moderation of his passions as I never saw even in his ordinary cariage He might have been a mirrour me thinks in this point even amongst the exactest Moralists And they say that appeared most eminently in his publike passages and executions of justice And how needfull a vertue this is to a Iudiciall Place those may best conceive who either feele or but consider what a cruell and intolerable thing it is for an ingenuous man to stand before a Iudge who is prejudicately and passionately transported with anger malice or hatred against the party to be sentenced 2. Patience to heare the basest both parties all they could say And unwillingnesse to lend his eare to the one without the others presence 3. A great and happy memory 4. Singular sagacity in searching and diving into the secretest and utmost circumstances so farre as was possible of the causes that came before him that he might give the more righteous judgement 5. A marvellous tendernesse and pitifull exacttnesse in his inquisitions after bloud Holding on the one side the life of a man very precious and yet on the other side perswaded of the truth and terrour of that place Numb 35. 33. For bloud that defileth the land and the land cannot be cleansed of the bloud that is shed therein but by the bloud of him that shed it But yet all these whatsoever you apprehend in my conceipt had not beene much worth though good in their owne nature neither to tell you true should I have so much as nam'd them had they not been aided as it were and managed with three other most noble and necessary vertues especially in these times which actuated them as it were and gave them their life and lustre 1. A love to integrity the right and truth in all his judiciall courses which for any thing I know or could ever heare no man living upon just ground can or will contradict 2. With a constant and resolute heart-rising against bribery and corruption the cursed bane of all goodnesse honesty and good conscience wheresoe'er it comes And to this that high place he worthily held about the Prince can give royall attestation where he qualified fees to his owne losse and protested his resolution and all possible opposition to all offers for offices with this reason he would have them come in clearehanded that they might deale honestly in their places And his owne followers to whom he gave a charge at his first entrance to a judiciall place that they should not meddle nor make any motions to him that he might be secur'd from all appearance of corruption And as I am credibly inform'd his ordinary reading of great letters and rejection of gratuities after judgement given 3. With a noble and unshaken resolution and mighty opposition of Popery and that without respect or feare of any greatnesse as we have evident demonstration Now of this we need no further testimony though there be very pregnant and plentifull besides than the present triumph of the Papists and barbarous insultations of that bloudy and murdrous generation And especially in yonder Country of Lancashire and those Northerne Parts where he shooke the pillars of Popery more valiantly and succesfully than any these many yeares Officers in those Parts observ'd that in his two or three yeares he convicted confin'd and conform'd moe Papists than were in twenty yeares before And that last
of the Courts of Iustice to the Bush whereunto while the sheepe flies for defence in weather he is sure to lose part of his fleece when cunning heads hunt after greatnesse and promotion purposely to execute the lusts of their owne hearts and attaine their owne ends Oh! this is the curse and cut-throat of worthy States the bane and breake-necke of all honest government Formalities of justice without a reall care and conscience to search the truth and deale uprightly do but serve to smother innocency and right and that which was necessarily ordain'd for the common good is through shamefull abuse made the cause of common misery I would all the Magistrates in the Country were my hearers in this Point I would hence intreat them with all earnestnesse and contention of Spirit as they love either GOD or their Country that they would with all noblenesse of a free spirit and clearenesse of a good conscience take their Places of Iustice to heart be active conscionable resolute not onely formall and cyphers hunters after praise and plausiblenesse that they would abominate even all appearance of bribery and partiality to the pit of hell that they would not be angry with us when we presse and perswade them to round courses against the Papists and dejection of Ale-houses upon which point His royall Majesty and the worthy Iudges so much beat and when all 's said are the sinkes and sources of all villany c. otherwise howsoever they may please themselves with the common applause it were better the Common-wealth had never knowne them 5. His resolutenesse against rising by corruption and bribery Whereupon as I have heard when he was first presented to that place of honour about the Prince it pleased our gracious Soveraigne to stile him the Iudge which would give no money A blessed thing it were were this heart in all Then should we not have vines olive trees and figge trees wither away in obscurity and brambles brave it abroad in the world We should not have servants by insinuation and bribery clime on Horse-backe when Princes like servants walke upon the ground And this worthy Part in Him was a very convenient Companion and necessary Consequent as that was of the former For Iâ—…e never beleeve that a Man which purposes from his Heart to be faithfull in a publick Charge will ever be very forward in an ambitious pursuit of it The illumination of Nature taught the Heathens so and therefore they condemne it by a law de ambitu Hunting after one hie roome even morally is most unworthy a Man of honour and worth and He cannot better expresse His insufficiency and weakenesse of Spirit who is transported with an impotent and impatient Humour this way But now if to this ambitious basenesse there be an addition of bribery it makes the matter a great deale more vile and dishonourable Of this hatefull Merchandizing besides other infamies and iniquities which mingle with it it is commonly said That He which liueth in grosse selleth by retaile And therefore if a Man would continue truly Noble and Worthy comfortable in His conscience and faithfull in His Place if He be advanc't let him either rise fairely or els thanke GOD and be content with His present station 6. An easinesse of accesse affablenesse of cariage A faire loving kind deportment towards all I never saw a Man of such worth and greatnesse looke more mildly upon a meane Man in my life And yet with so grave a presence that neither the authority of his Person nor due attributions to His Place receiu'd any disparagement or diminution I omit not even this because even in this also He might have beene a notable Precedent to take downe the haughty imperious carriage of many abroad in the world of farre more inferiour Worth and Ignoble birth For amongst all the degenerations of our gentility I speake not of all wee have many truly so called and worthy Gentlemen from that true noblenesse and ancient Worth which dwelt formerly in the Gentle brests of English Nobles this is not the least That they thinke to beare downe all before them with an artificiall affected impetuousnesse as it were of Countenance a disdainfull neglect and contemptuousnesse in their Cariage with a kind of outbraving brow-beating of their Brethren As though brave Apparell and a big looke were demonstrations of a Noble Spirit whereas very often they only guild over a worthlesse weake and gracelesse Inside As amongst Professors of Religion Hee 's the best Christian which is most humble so in the Schoole of Morality he hath been holden the truest Gentleman which is most Courteous 7. His happinesse in having religious Followers Follow Him also in this He tasted the fruit of it in his last extremities For being cast by Gods Providence upon that Place in the Country where He had not such meanes and Opportunities for those last comfortable Spirituall Assistances which a dying Man would desire They were both able and did pray with Him to the Occasion and present necessities where with He seemed to be much affected and spoke seasonably unto Him out of the Booke of GOD. Whereupon I must tell you Let as many prophane scornefull Spirits iy be or gnash the Teeth at it as will Those Followers of His whosoever they were call them Puritanes or what you will Howsoever they might misse in some complementall circumstances by reason of those amazments and griefe which sate fresh upon their Hearts for the losse of their so Noble a Lord yet they did Him in those last Agonies more true service and Honour then all the swaggering Good-fellow Serving men will doe their Masters unto the worlds end Let them follow you as long as you will 8. A right conceit and commendation of profitable and conscionable Sermons He hath beene often heard of late times reply thus or in this sence to contradictions I cannot tell saies He what you call Puritanicall Sermons they come neerest to my Conscience and doe Mee the most good This of all the rest I had purpos'd to have prest most upon you If you were but thus affected to say the least you would begin to looke towards Heaven But I have already trespast too much upon your Patitience And therefore I conclude this Point with that of Paul Philip. 4. 8. Finally Brethren c. A SERMON PREACHED AT LENT ASSISES Anno Domini MDCXXX At Northhampton before SIR RICHARD HVTTON AND SIR GEORGE CROOKE His Majesties Iustices of Assise c. TEXT 1. COR. CHAP. 1. VER 26. For brethren yee see your calling how that not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called THE blessed Apostle Saint Paul perceiving that his preaching and plantation of the Gospell of CHRIST received strong and mighty opposition in the City of Corinth a famous Mart Towne seated betweene two Seas the Aegaan and Iönian and so fit for commerce with other Nations full of wealth knowledge glory and the rest of
and dearest bloud of her heart for one drop of CHRISTS bloud to do away her sinnes If corrupt affections fall in love with worldly pleasure such as are surfeiting and drunkennesse chambering and wantonnesse lust and uncleannesse unlawfull sports and recreations it begets a strange furious thirst and heat in the carnall appetite which cannot be satisfied but like the two daughters of the horsleech which cry still give give which is set on fire by hell and therefore it is as unsatiable as that bottomlesse infernall pit every taste of sensuality serves as fewell to increase the flame and fury of concupiscence We see it in drunkards who by drinking do not quench their thirst and satisfie their appetite but by their immoderate swilling both increase the burning thirst of their bodies and inraged intemperance of their minds We heare it of wantons Wisd. 2. Come let us enjoy the pleasures that are present c. Let us crowne our selves with roses before they wither let there be no pleasant meadow which our luxuriousnesse doth not passe over let us leave some token of our pleasure in every place for that is our portion and this is our lot Every Carnalist feeles it in himselfe after once he hath given the reins to his concupiscence he is like a strong man running headlong downe a steepe hill though he would never so faine he cannot stay himselfe but run still faster and faster till he breake his neck at the bottome If once he suffers the fountaine of originall pollution which naturally flowes out of his rocky heart to have that free and full course it will shortly gather in its passage many strong and heady streames of stub bornenesse and rebellion untill by growing by little and little in strength and swiftnesse it swell into a mighty and furious torrent so at last fall with fearefull noyse and horrour into the gulfe of irrecoverable misery In a word after the heart of a man be set upon any sensuall delight it feeds upon it as greedily as the horsleech upon corrupt bloud it will burst before it give over It will by no meanes part with its hold untill it either be broken with the hammer of the Word or burst with the horrour of despaire It drinkes so deepe and long of the empoysoned cup of carnall pleasures untill the LORD fill it unto its brim full of the cup of wine of his indignation and bid it drinke be drunken and spue and fall and rise no more Ier. 25. 27. A counterpoyson against this greedy wolfe of devouring earthly delights consider that at our conversion Mutantur gaudia non tolluntur Heavenly succeed carnall joyes See Iackson of Iust. Faith pag. 340 341. 4. If it fall in love with revenge it begets a base a cruell and wolvish disposition and an unnaturall thirst of bloud of all the sinfull passions of the soule desire of revenge is the most base and cowardly it ever breeds in the most hatefull and weakest minds And of all kind of revenge that is most execrable and deadly which like a serpent in the greene grasse lies lurking in the flatteries and fawnings of a sâ—…iring face which kisses with Iudas and kils with Ioab entertaines a man with outward formes and complement and curtesie but would if it durst or might strike about the third rib that he should never rise againe When a mans words are to his neighbour as soft as oyle and butter but his thoughts towards him composed all of bloud and bitternesse of gall and gun-powder for we commonly see that the basest and most worthlesse men are most malicious and revengefull seldome doth it find harbour in a well-bred and generous spirit but as thunder and tempests and other fearefull motions in the aire do trouble onely and disquiet those weaker fraile bodies below but never disturbe or dismay those glorious heavenly ones above so wrongs disgraces and wrongfull usages doe vexe and distemper men of baser temper and conditions but the causelesse spite and prophane indiscretions and childish brawles of fooles wound not great and high minds Above all others the true Christian which is onely of a true noble spirit contemnes scornes and disdaines to be revenged upon any though his undeservedly basest and greatest enemy For 1. He is completely fortified with the armour of proofe of his owne innocency against the malice and mischiefe of wicked men and comforted continually with that inward spirituall feast of a good conscience against all the lies and slanders of lewd and spitefull tongues 2. He leaves them to be scourged of their owne consciences for their causlesse ill-wils against him and wrongfull dealings then which except they repent and be reconciled there is no more certaine and severe revenger and executioner no scourges no scorpions can so lash and torture a man as his owne foule and guilty conscience 3. He is kept in awe by an holy feare from presuming to take vengeance out of GODS hands It is one of GODS royall prerogatives we must not meddle with that or incroach upon it Vengeance is mine I will repay it saith the LORD Rom. 12. 19. 4. He will not pollute so farre and defile the glory and noblenesse of his Christian resolution as to be mov'd and disquieted with the rage of any dogged Doeg or railing Shimei by procuring temporall punishments to the spirituall afflictions and outward vexations to the inward wofull misery of the soule of his prophane malicious opposite except he see it probable that by suffering justice to have its course the party may be humbled and others terrified 5. He knowes out of his Christian policy that a couragious and undaunted insensibility in suffering injuries is the way to tame and stop the rage and fury of the wrongers and to make them to returne and rebound wholly like heavy blowes upon their owne pates For a prophane malicious man cannot be possibly more vext than to see himselfe direct particularly his hate and contempt against his supposed adversary a good Christian and yet he is able to beare it away without wound or passion nay with reputation and comfort As revenge is base so it is bloudy and unquenchable and prodigiously thirsty that way I will give instance in the most revengefull wretch I am perswaded that ever lived It is reported of a man or rather a monster of Millaine in Italy when he had surprised upon the sudden one whom he deadlily hated he presently overthrew him and setting his dagger on his breast told him he would presently have his bloud except he would renounce abjure forsweare and blaspheme the GOD of heaven which when that fearefull man too sinfully greedy of a miserable life had done in a most horrible manner he immediately dispatch'd him as soone as those prodigious blasphemies were out of his mouth and with a bloudy triumph insulting over his murdered adversarie as though his heart had beene possest of all the malice of hell he added this horrible speech Oh saith he this
wherein such as these are ordinarily entangled and holden fast from which inferiours are for the most part free Let us come into a towne or countrey village and we shall find all the rest not so exorbitant but enter into the Noblemans Gentlemans or Knights house if there be any there there shall we find a nest of new-fangl'd fashionists naked breasts and naked armes like bedlams saith that excellent and learned Gentleman in his Oyle of Scorpions Bushes of vanity in the one sexe which they will not part with said Marbury untill the Devill put a candle into the bush and cut haire in the other stirs against the Ordinance of GOD and nature in both and many other such deformed lothsome and prodigious fashions censured by that stinging and flaming place against fashion-mongers Zeph. 1. 8. And these are the more pernicious because it were many times more easie for us of the Ministerie I speake out of some experience to undertake by GODS blessing caeteris paribus as they say the driving of an impure wretched drunkard from his beastly and swinish sin which would be a very hard taske than to draw such as delight in and dote upon these miserable fooleries from the abhorred vanity of strange fashions nay and though somtimes they would be thought to looke towards religion And thus I have done with the reasons peculiar to every severall sort of greatnesse I now come to those which are common to them all 1. All the great ones according to the flesh in any of these kinds I say ye are all as yet deadly enemies from the very heart-root to the profession and practice of the holy men without which holinesse we cannot see GOD you cannot endure to be called puritans much lesse to become such and yet without purity none shall ever see the face of GOD with comfort Mistake me not I meane CHRISTS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 CHRISTS puritans and no other Matth. 5. 8. Ioh. 13. 11. 15. 3. Secondly I meane onely such as Bellarmine intimates when he cals King IAMES puritan for he so cals him saith D. Harkwit against Carrier because in the first booke of his Basilicon Doron he affirmes that the religion professed in Scotland was grounded upon the plaine words of the Scripture And againe in his second Booke that the reformation of religion in Scotland was extraordinarily wrought by GOD. Gracious and holy speeches as you see with men of the world are puritanicall And if a man speake but holily and name but reformation Scripture conscience and such other words which sting their carnall hearts it is enough to make a man a puritan Thirdly I meane the very same of whom Bishop Downam one of the greatest schollers of either Kingdome speakes thus in his Sermon at Spittle called Abrahams Triall And even in these times saith he the godly live amongst such a generation of men as that if a man do but labour to keepe a good conscience in any measure although he meddle not with matters of State or Discipline or Ceremonies as for example if a Minister diligently preach or in his preaching seeke to profit rather than to please remembring the saying of the Apostle If I seeke to please men I am not the servant of CHRIST Gal. 1. 10. Or if a private Christian make conscience of swearing sanctifying the Sabbath frequenting Sermons or absteining from the common corruptions of the time he shall straightway be condemned for a Puritan and consequently be lesse favoured than either a carnall Gospeller or a close Papist c. Fourthly I meane none but those whom the Communion-Booke intends in that passage of the prayer after confession That the rest of our life hereafter may be pure and holy Now these come by their purity by preaching the Word Now saith CHRIST ye are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cleane by the Word which I have spoken unto you Ioh. 15. 3. The Word must first illighten convince and cast them downe so that out of sight of sinne and sense of divine wrath being weary sicke lost wounded bruised broken-hearted these are Scripture-phrases and thereupon casting their eyes upon the amiablenesse excellency and sweetnesse of the LORD IESVS and the All-sufficiency of His bloud to cure them resolve to sell all to confesse and forsake all their sinnes not to leave an hoofe behind and then taking him offered by the hand of GODS free grace as well for an Husband Lord and King to love serve and obey Him as for a Saviour to free them from hell They put on with the hand of faith the perfect purity of His imputed righteousnesse attended ever with some measure of inherent purity infused by the sanctifying Spirit and after entring the good way their lives are ever after pure and holy These are CHRISTS 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Puritans I meane And these men of purity some never meane to be nay they heartily hate the very image of IESVS CHRIST in them they speake spitefully against them David was not onely the drunkards song but those also that sate in the gate spoke against him they are your musicke and matter of your mirth I am your musicke saith the Church in the person of Ieremie Lam. 3. They will many times call upon a roguish vagabond at your feasts to sing a song against them whom they should rather set in the stockes they are transported and inwardly boyle with farre more indignation and heart-rising against their holinesse purity precise walking and all meanes that lead thereunto though enjoyned upon paine of never seeing the face of GOD in glory than more simple poorer and meaner men and that 's a reason they sticke faster in the Devils clutches than they and that few of them are called converted and saved according to my Text. Secondly ye that are thus the worlds favourites are very loth to become fooles and therefore in the meane time he lockt full fast in the Devils bands and cannot escape except ye be such I speake a very displeasing thing to worldly-wise men but they are the very words and wisdome of the Spirit of GOD 1 Cor. 3. 18. Let no man deceive himselfe if any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world let him become a foole that he may be wise Let no man deceive himselfe such caveats as this are wont to be premised when men out of their carnall conceipts are peremptory to the contrary and would venture their salvation as they say that it is not so See Ephes. 5. 6. 1 Cor. 6. 9. Mat. 5. 2. And did not most of your hearts rise against these words of mine you must become fooles or never be saved untill I brought Scripture Give me here leave I pray you to intimate in a few instances the meaning of the place and the truth of your false and selfe-couzening hearts in obnoxiousnesse to the point Suppose a messenger of GOD should deale faithfully
with you and tell you that upon the LORDS Day you must not serve yourselves and your owne turnes in idlenesse travailing sports gaming in any earthly businesse or mis-imployment whatsoever but spend that whole blessed Day wholly and onely in spirituall refreshing heavenly businesses divine worship and holy duties in meditation upon the creatures spiritually upon the great worke of redemption and resurrection of CHRIST and upon that everlasting rest above of all which the Christian Sabbath is a remembrancer unto us in both publike and private prayer reading singing of Psalmes hearing Sermons conference c. and in ruminating and as it were chewing the cud upon Scripture points I say ruminate as it were and chew the cud for it is the very phrase of the Church of England in the Homily for reading Scriptures And those reverend and godly men which composed them expresse the benefit thereof emphatically Thus run the words Let us ruminate of the Scriptures sc. that we may have the sweet juyce spirituall effect marrow honey kernell taste comfort and consolation of them I say suppose ye were thus prest would ye not presently out of your worldly wisdome and impatiency to be so snaffâ—…d at to be tied all the day to spirituall exercises and restrain'd from ordinary recreations conceive of it and cry out against it as a puritanicall novelty and foolish precisenesse Because you mention precisenesse and novelty I could as I am wont and to make you without excuse appeale unto and implore the aid of antiquity which will utterly take off such aspersions And here were it incident and seasonable I were able to procure Councels and Fathers and other authorities concurrently to testifie and take my part that upon the LORDS Day we are to recreate our selves onely with spirituall delights onely then to ply divine businesses and to do those things alone which belong to our soules salvation Heare their owne words We ought upon that Day Solummodò spiritualibus gaudijs repleri Concilium Parisiense Anno 829. Tantùm divinis cultibus serviamus August de Temp. Serm. 251. Soli divino cultui vacemus Idem Ibid. Eaque tantum faciat quae ad animae salutem pertinent Hierom. in Cap. 56. Isa. Nay the whole Church of England hath this threescore yeares and above complyed exactly with antiquity in this point in the Hom. of the place and time of prayer These are the words GODS people should use the Sunday holily and rest from their common and daily businesse and also give themselves wholly to heavenly exercises of GODS true religion and service And yet for all this you are so wise in your owne conceipts ye will none of this saving folly you are no such fooles as after so long liberty to fall â—…o any such strictnesse Secondly suppose a Minister should counsell you when you come home from the house of GOD to take your Bibles and call both your wives and children to the comparing together and conferring upon those things which were taught That the husband should exact of the wife and the wife aske of the husband those things that were there spoken and read or at least some of them That you should set this law to your selves to be kept inviolably and not onely to your selves but also to your wives and children that you would spend that one whole Day of the whole weeke whereon you meet to heare the Word in meditation of those things which are delivered I say now in this case your carnall wisedome would resolutely condemne such counsells as contrary to the counsell of great houses as a way to become a By-word to the whole Country and as savoring too rankly of a foolish strictnesse and needlesse singularity And yet this was totidem verbis wise holy advise above twelve hundred yeares agoe For it giving the counsell I have but rendred Chrysostome word for word in diverse places Hom. 5. in Matth. In Eph. Serm. 20. Hom. 2. in Ioan. Hom. 5. ad Popul Antioch Thirdly If Preachers should presse you to plant and preserve Family Duties in your house Prayer and reading Scriptures evening and morning Singing of Psalmes c. and you of greatest meanes may best spare time for such blessed businesses Would not your wisedomes thinke this more then need And that it would bee a foolish thing and much against your profit to rob your selves and servants of so much time from your worldly affaires And yet here I could produce foure or five Fathers above a thousand yeares ago pressing this point and punctuall for my purpose Besides Ambrose quoted in my Book of Walking with God pag. 67. Here other Fathers Basil Origen Chrysostome August Fourthly If you were moved by the Ministery to restore every halfe penny that you have any waies at any time got wrongfully or by any wicked meanes or that you detaine unjustly from any man And then casting your eye backe and considering How you are growne hastily rich and by what waies you are come to a great deale of wealth should finde very foule workes would you not force your selves by a strong counter-plea of carnall reason not to beleeve the point and thinke it extreame madnesse at the instance and prating of a precise companion which understands not the world for so or in the like manner would you speake to part perhaps with a good part of your estate And yet Austins Rule of above twelve hundreth yeares standing and confirmed concurrently by all Divines to this day is That Non tollitur peccatum nisirestituatur ablatum No restitution no remission And our owne Church tels us in the second exhortation before the Communion That without readinesse to make restitution and satisfaction for wrongs done the Sacrament as often as you come doth nothing else but increase your damnation Thus might I passe through all the points of Sanctification and passages of holy life And all the great men of the world either in Learning Wealth Nobility or Wisedome according to the flesh would passe these censures upon them and entertaine conceits of them proportionable to that of Nicodemus about the New-birth They will not become fooles in the Apostles sense And therefore they are soakt and fast fettered in the gall of bitternesse and bond of iniquity and that above ordinary Thirdly All ye great ones of the world in the sense I have said As yee are very wise in your own conceits and it may be truly so according to the flesh so you are selfe-conceited and soule-couseners about your spirituall state For you thinke all better then you too precise and all worse then you too prophane and your selves onely to have happily hit upon the golden meane and pitch upon that well-tempered moderation in Religion wherby you may enjoy temporall happinesse here and eternall hereafter Sleepe in a whole skin as they say and with a good conscience Live the life of pleasures and die the death of the righteous Whereas to be so conceited is the very complement and perfection
of folly And the very same attempt as to make two parallel lines to meet You thinke yee have a reach beyond the Moone To lie in some sweete sinne and yet to nourish in your selves some hope of salvation To have two heavens one in this world and another in the world to come which was never heard of to weare two crownes of joyes whereas IESVS CHRIST himselfe had the first of thornes But alas Beloved if you be saved in this condition you must have a new Scripture and there must bee found out another way to heaven then any of the Saints ever went since the Creation or shall doe to the end of the world And therefore we may say of you as Quintilian some where of some deluded with an overweening conceit of themselves That they might have prooved excellent Schollers if they had not beene so perswaded already So if you did not thinke falsly your selves safe already you might be saved But while you thus hugge the golden dreame of your mistaken states to GOD-ward like the Pharisees the very Publicans and Harlots shall goe into the Kingdome of heaven before you Matth. 21. 31. Fourthly you that are great in the world in the foure forenamed respects and meant in the Text cannot possibly downe with and digest downe-right dealing and the foolishnesse of preaching as it is called vers 21. And that vtterly undoes you You like well enough nay and much approve and applaud such Sermons as King IAMES censures in the reasons of his directions for preaching c. which he there cals a light affected and unprofitable kind of preaching which hath beene of late years saith he taken up in Court University City and Countrey whereby the people are filled onely with ayrie nourishment c. and I warrant you not especially hating to be reformed or disquieted for these are not wont to discover your consciences nor disturbe you in your present courses they never terrifie you with any fore-thought of the evill day neither torment you before the time but now let a man come with the foolishnesse of preaching by which it pleaseth GOD saith the Apostle to save them that believe with demonstration of the Spirit and of power and come home to the conscience if he suffer not Satan to revell in the bloud of your soules without resistance nor see you post furiously towards eternall fire but will tell you that the pit of hell is a little before you In a word if he take the right course to convert you and shew you therefore onely your spirituall misery that you may be fitted for mercy c. O such a fellow is a dangerous man a terrible and intolerable Teacher able to drive men to distraction despaire selfe-destruction he breaths out nothing but damnation and his searching Sermons are as scorching as the very flames of hel Fit phrases for the Devil himself railing in a drunkard or scoffing Ishmael against faithfulnesse in preaching and if you know where or when such men preach and it may be you entertaine some intelligence for that purpose to prevent the torture you will not you dare not heare them for your hearts except you cannot decline it for starke shame or for a time or two to satisfie your curiosities but as S. Paul saith you become their enemies because they tell you the truth to which truth not to have listened in this day of your visitation will herafter when it is too late torment you more than ten thousand fiery Scorpions stings and gnaw upon your consciences with unknowne and everlasting horrour Alas Beloved what meane you You will give your Physitian leave to tell you the distempers of your body the Lawyer to discover unto you any flaw in your deeds your horse-keeper to tell you the surfets of your horses nay your hunâ—…sman the surrances of your dogs and shall onely the Minister of GOD not tell you that your soules are bleeding to eternall death Preposterous and prodigious incongruity If it be thus then that of all the severall sorts of great men mentioned before by reason that they are beset with such variety of snares entangled in so many temptations so much taken up by the world and for other reasons rendred already very few are called converted and saved my counsell in a word unto all such is CHRISTS owne word Luke 13. 24. Strive to enter in at the strait gate lay violent hands upon flesh and blond strangle your lusts contend and wrastle as for the Garland in the Olympian Games to which the word seemes to allude become fooles in the worlds censure that you may be wise in the mystery of CHRIST be little and vile in your own esteeme that you may be great and gracious in the eyes of GOD. In a word submit your soules to the sword of the Spirit and foolishnesse of preaching as the Apostle cals it that you may be wrought upon savingly and brought into the good way and that by such works and waies as these Upon which before I enter give me leave to give you an account why at this time I labour rather to work upon your consciences for your personall conversion than as heretofore to tender unto you counsels and considerations for a more conscionable deportment in your severall publike places When I well weighed with my selfe the truth of that principle and position in Hooker That it is no peculiar conceipt but a matter of sound consequence that all duties are by so much the better performed by how much the men are more religious from whose abilities the same proceed And finding by experience of all ages and most of all in these worst and wofull times that men of publike imployment and in high places untill there be infused into their soules by the Spirit of grace an internall supernaturall principle and divine habit to worke by untill aliquid CHRISTI as they say be planted in them by the power of the Ministry they cannot possibly be universally thorow and unshaken Some strong affection feare favour or some thing will make them flie out and faile in some particular very fowly Upon extraordinary temptation they will serve the times and their owne turnes for alas as yet their spirits are not steeled with that heavenly edge and mighty vigour as to set to their shoulders against the torrent of the times and not to be overflowen with it I say upon this ground I have advisedly chosen to assay and follow this way at this time for if once you turne on the LORDS side in truth you are won for ever to an invincible constancy and conscionablenesse in an uniforme regular and religious discharge of your publike duties and will ever hold fast without partiality cowardlinesse or feare of mans face that brave and noble resolution Vt fiat justitia ruat coelum let heaven and earth be blundred together with horrible confusision before I make shipwracke of a good conscience or be any waies drawne to do basely Being
incorporated into the rock of eternity IESVS CHRIST blessed for ever you will stand like unmooveable rocks against the corruptions of the times and all ungodly oppositions and never before For in the meane time say Ministers what they will you will not be moved but you heare our discourses of a faithfull discharge of your places as ye would heare a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice they leave no more impression upon your consciences than a sweet lesson upon the Lute in the eare when it is ended for then both the vocall and instrumentall sweetnesse dissolve into the aire and vanish into nothing It is too truly so with our Sermons upon your soules Heare your character in GODS own words unto the Prophet They come unto thee as the people commeth and they sit before me as my people and they heare thy words but they will not do them for with their mouth they shew much love but their heart goeth after their covetousnesse and loe thou art unto them as a very lovely song of one that hath a pleasant voice and can play well on an instrument for they heare thy words but they do them not Let us lift up our voices never so high or cry never so lowd and â—…ll Iudges That they ought not to be afraid of the face of man for the judgement is GODS that in judgement they must neither respect the person of the poore nor honour the person of the mighty that they should not onely hold their hands from grosse bribes with Epaminondas who as the story tels us refused great presents sent unto him although he was poore saying If the thing were good he would do it without any bribe because good if not honest he would not do it for all the goods in the world But they must also be of Austins judgement that not onely money gold and silver or presents as they call them are bribes but the guilt of bribery also may be justly imputed even to any exorbitant affection which sways a man aside from an impartiall execution of justice as love feare hatred anger pusillanimity worldlinesse desire of praise and applause which is Austins instance c. That they beware of bringing more bloud upon the Law by sparing the spiller of bloud For bleâ—…d saith GOD it desileth the land and the land cannot be cleaâ—…sed of the bloud that is shed therein but by the bloud of him that shed it that they must not looke upon the caâ—…ses which come before them only through the spectacles of a favourite c and tell Iustices of Peace that they must be true-hearted patriots and not servers of themselves and their owne turnes that they must be serious reall and grave not onely formall not cyphers not unnobly light in their behaviour on the Bench that they must ever aime at the publike good and never at their owne particular and private ends that they should disdaine and scorne at any time to combine factiously or for a petty bribe to uphold a rotten cause apestilent alehouse or lewd companion and ever joyne with an unanimous magnanimity to honour GOD and do their Country good And tell the Lawyers that they should not make hast to be rich for so saith Salomon they shall not be innocent nor swallow downe gold too greedily least it turne to grauell and the gall of asps within them and they be enforced to vomite up the riches as Iob speaketh they have heaped together so hastily either by remorse and restitution in the meane time or with despaire and impenitent horrour here after that to oppose and wrangle against a good cause or undertake the defence of a bad are both equally most unworthy the very morall vertue of an honest Heathen that they must not learn to spin out the causes of their clients from Terme to Terme and wire-draw their suits untill they be utterly undone that they should not now be taking instructions from their clients when they should themselves here in the House of GOD be instructed to the kingdome of heaven had they this morning received a message from the Almighty that at night they should appeare before that high and everlasting Iudge to give an account for all things done in the flesh if they be not Atheists or Papists O with what eagernesse and violence would they have attended addrest and applied themselves to the present opportunity and little do we know what the evening may bring forth For assure your selves there is no man so assured of his riches or life but that he may be deprived of one or both the very next day or houre to come And tell the jurors and sworn-men that they should rather die than draw the bloud of any mans life livelihood or good name upon their owne consciences either by acquiâ—…ting the guilty or betraying the innocent Here had I time I would intimate unto you a mysticall but mischievous packing sometimes in choice of jâ—…ry-men I have seene I speake of that which was long since and at a Sessions some of the choicest drunkards in a Country chosen for that service Now is it not a pitifull thing that Country businesses should be put into the hands of such as labour industriously and with equall cunning to plague an honest man and deliver a drunkard I say now all this while we thus discourse unto you earnestly endeavouring and with a thirsty desire to do you good and direct you aright and by a divine rule in the severall duties proper to your places we do but plow in the sea and sow in the aire as they say except the immortall seed of the Word hath first moulded you anew and ye be brought by the foolishnesse of preaching out of the warme sun into GODS blessing and from the fooles paradise of worldly wisdome into the holy path of sincere professours and thereupon prize and preferre the peace of a good conscience before all the gold in the West and preferments in the world which blessed change from nature to grace is wrought by such stirrings of the soule and footsteps of the spirit as these lend me I beseech you while I passe along them something more than ordinary attention for I know they will seeme strange things to all such great ones as are intended in my Text and those who live at rest in their possessions and have nothing to vex them The naturall stoutnesse of their spirits will disdaine and scorne to stoupe to such uncouth humiliations and this mighty change And the more they are men of the world and wise according to the flesh the greater repugnancy and reluctation shall they find in their affections against these spirituall workings which makes the point good which was proved before But yet without them in truth and effect I define not the measure and degree GOD is a most free agent they can never become either gracious men or good Magistrates They must upon necessity become such fooles or they
point appeare yet further by reasons And first such as are peculiar to the severall sorts of greatnesse all which once for all I understand such secundum mundum secundum bominem secundum carnem according to the world according to man according to the flesh And first for excellency of learning understood still after the flesh implyed also by the Apostle in this place as appeares by the former words Where is the Scribe Where is the Disputer of this world Where are the learned Rabbins of the Iewes Where are the profound Philosophers of the Gentiles Let us take notice that learning of it selfe is a very lovely and illustrious thing which made Aeneas Silvius in his Epistle to Sigismund Duke of Austria say If the face even of humane learning could be seene it is fairer and more beautifull than the morning or the evening-starre But notwithstanding bent the wrong way and spent upon private and pernicious ends it becomes the fowlest fiend the Devill hath upon earth and his mightiest agent to do a world of mischiefe No corruption is worse than of that which is best mis-imployed it is of wofull consequence proportionable to its native worth And the longer and more prosperously it is imployed as an instrument of all and in the service of Satan ever the more pestilently which is for my purpose doth it harden and enrage the heart against all means of grace the power of godlinesse and possibility of conversion Secondly men of this world for the most part in the attainement and exercise of learning and knowledge propose to themselves and finally rest upon many bastard base and degenerate ends as pleasure of curiosity quiet of resolution refining and raising the spirit ability of discourse victory of wit gaine of profession ornament and reputation inablement for imployment and businesse Thus whereas variety and depth of knowledge should properly and principally serve to prepare fit and furnish the soule wherein it is seated First for a higher degree and agreater measure of sanctification in it selfe secondly to do GOD more excellent and glorious service Thirdly to do more nobly in Ephratha and be more famous in Bethlehem I meane by an edifying and charitable influence to illuminate and better all about them The most learned men have these worthy ends and comply exactly with the world hunting onely after by their knowledge and aspiring towards as their utmost aimes certaine second prizes as though they laboured onely by their learning to find as one sayes well a cowch whereupon to rest a searching and a restlesse spirit or a tarrasse for a wandring and variable mind to walke up and downe with a faire prospect or a tower of state for a proud mind to raise it selfe upon or a fort or commanding ground for strife and contention or a shop for profit or sale and not a rich store-house for the glory of the Creator and the reliefe of mans estate And so by the abuse and misapplying of it they put their great engine very powerfull either for excellency of good or excesse of ill as it takes into the Devils hands for the enlarging and advancement of his kingdome and turne the edge of it to the dangerous hurt of others and so by consequent and by accident it prooves a mighty barre to keepe CHRIST and His kingdome out of their hearts Let me in a word by an instance intimate unto you the traines and temptations to which they expose themselves the snares and curses which they incurre who bend their abilities of learning closing with the corruptions of the time to raise and enrich themselves the two maine ends of the most in these covetous and ambitious dayes First there is a plant in the nurceries of literature of great expectation and hope which being watered and warmed at the well-heads of Academicall learning and with the fruitfull heat of Polemicall exercises and agitations in the Schooles wherein the true worth and excellency of a Scholler consists growes ripe and becomes remarkable so that he heares after him in the streets a secret murmuring This is the man Dignum est monstrarier dicier Hic est Now by this time he begins to reflect with the eye of selfe-love and many vaine-glorious glaunces upon his personall worth and publike applause and then casts about what course to take GODS principle and path is It is better to be good than great religious than rich And therefore He would have him imploy and improove all his naturall and acquired endowments all the powers and possibilities of body and soule upon His glory and service that gave them and where they are more than infinitely due And that when the good hand of divine providence shall bring him to any place for the exercise of his gifts and ministeriall imployment he would there spend himselfe like a shining and burning lampe in the illumination and salvation of GODS people and so hereafter shine as the brightnesse of the firmament in the highest heavens and as the starres forever and ever Nay saies the Devill that 's a sowre strict precise way It is not meet that such admired eminency of learned parts should be confined to such obscurity that such rare gifts and depth of knowledge should be lost upon high shoes and amongst a number of rude ignorant and uncapable clownes and therefore he labours to raise his spirit to higher hopes and would have him plunge presently into the current of the times and become somebody in the world Hereupon his heart already ravisht with the pleasing apprehension of worldly glory and humane greatnesse represented by Satan in the most alluring formes to his ambitious imagination he resolves fearfully against his owne soule to follow the streame to ply the present and plot all meanes and wayes of preferment after which ordinarily every step towards an high roome or to be hastily rich is a snare and curse unto him and therefore at the height he must needs be holden fast in the clutches of Satan He now begins upon all occasions to disclaime all things that tend to precisenesse and in his deportment drawes nearer to good fellowship he remits and interrupts his care and constancy in study and studies how to understand the world negotiate for advancement and humour the times He merrily derides Doctrine and Vse as they scoffingly call it all edifying plainnesse and foolishnesse of preaching and now he digs with much adoe perhaps a whole quarter of a yeare into the rotten dunghils of Popish Postillers and phantasticall Friers and from thence patches together many gayish and gaudy shreds of painted bables and frothy conceipts and tricks of wit and at length comes out with a selfe-seeking Sermon just like that discourse which King IAMES compares to a corne-field in harvest pestered with red and blew flowers which choake and eat up all the good graine For he well knowes this is the way to ingratiate himselfe into the times and gratifie those great ones who desire farre more to