conscience joyned to the burning flame for their worm dieth not saith our Saviour Or if it may be that this Vermis Conscientiae this tormenting spirit and wounds of conscience do not vex and affright these wicked men then must you remember that as Saint Bernard saith there are four kinds of consciences 1. A good but not a quiet 2. Both a good and a quiet 3. A quiet but not a good 4. Neither a good nor a quiet Conscience But of these I shall further speak in the next Treatise So you see the resolution of Jezabels question Had Zimri peace And what application will you make of it but to demand Shall they have peace that have most butcherly massacred their brethren and especially they that have most maliciously and in the highest degree of wickednesse judiciallâ— murdered the best of all Christian Princes and their own most just and pious King or shall we suffer them to jet up and down in pride and pardon those shedders of innocent blood whom the Lord will not pardon That I should delight in any mans blood God forbid Yet If there be any Zimri living still in peace either by the favour of friends or the ignorance of his fact I say Nunquam sera est ad justitiam via And as Saint Ambrose said to Theodos in a case of blood also Quod inconsultò factum est consultius revocetur If any thing be done inconsiderately let us more advisedly amend it and it is no disparagement to us quia secundae cogitationes sunt saniores And if you desire peace let Justice be done and Judgement be executed and then you shall have peace because righteousnesse and peace have kissed each other or otherwise where righteousnesse is not but unrighteous men flourishing and the transgressours walking still in pride and unjustly detaining what they have most unjustly possessed we may preach of mercy and pardon and of charity and peace but I fear that peace will not long continue if Justice and Judgement go not along with it because there is no peace to the wicked saith our God and the cry of the oppressed still calleth for vengeance against them but righteousnesse exalteth a Nation and just judgements do prevent and preserve us from the judgements of God THE THIRD TREATISE Esay 57.21 There is no peace to the wicked saith my God In which words you may Observe 1. A Proclamation 2. The Proclaimer WE do read that Aristotle the School-master of Alexander the Great and the Prince of Philosophers 1 The Proclamation so much admired for his Logical wit hath been characterized by Scholars in three especial Epithites as 1. That he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lover of Vniversalities and to deal in Generalls 3 Excellent properties in Aristotâ—es 2. That he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great lover of Method 3. That he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a subtile searcher out of causes And these three exquisite points we find here expressed in this short sentence of our Prophet for 1. The Proclamation is general No peace to no wicked man in no place at no time 2. Here is the Cause of it fully and plainly expressed the wickednesse of men 3. The Method is clear without ambiguity There is no peace to the wicked saith my God First then I say the Proclamation is generall and therefore more grievous The generality of the Proclamation for you must understand that there is 1. Nulla pax no peace 2. Nullo loco in no place 3. Nullo tempore at no time 4. Nulli impio to no wicked man And Peace is the most excellent of all earthly blessings so the Jewes thought and so the Fathers of the Church have ever taught for as the Poet saith Omnia pace vigent pacis tempore florent And therefore Virgil saith Pacem nos poscimus omnes And yet the Lord saith There is no peace to the wicked no peace or not any kind of peace for we do read of a three-fold peace whereof each one is exceeding good and is desired by all but not one of them is obtained by the wicked Peace is threefold as 1. Peace with men For 2. Peace with God For 3. Peace with our selves For 1 Wicked men are neither Peace-makers 1 The wicked have no peace with men Math. 5.9 nor Peace-takers Our Saviour saith Blessed are the Peace-makers but wicked men are so far from making peace and reconciling neighbours that they are rather like a pair of bellows to blow the coals of contention and to set them further together by the ears and if any be at oddes with them then as the Prophet saith when we speak unto them of peace they make themselvs ready to battle and as it was with King Charles and some others the more he sought and laboured for peace and accommodation the more averse were they from all reasonable conditions so it is with all wicked men the more we desire to live peaceably among them the more will they prepare for war and make themselves ready for battel But for the war that both we and they should make they are farthest from it Tertul. l. ad Martyres for though we all desire peace yet as Tertullian saich Pax nostre bellum est contra Satanam Our peace consisteth and is obtained by our war against Satan and we shall never have peace unless we do as Christ did and as the Church of Christ must do that is to suffer in this war and to overcome in medio inimicorum even as the Jews did when they were re-edifying the Temple Neliem 4.17 and building up the City of God they wrought with one hand and held their weapon in the other For we have enemies enough on every side as Satan on the one side the world before us the wicked behind us and our own carnal lusts within us Contra quos viriliter pugnare est pacem consequi To fight against these is to obtain the true peace Yet the wicked the worldlings and the hypocrites will never fight against any of these their enemies but think to escape all dangers in that they are Neuters and do hold of neither side But that can never be for the godly will never cohere with the wicked neither can the wicked indeed agree among themselves Esay 9.21 chap. 19.2 21.2 but Ephraim will be against Manasses and Manasses against Ephraim an Egyptian against an Egyptian a transgressor against a transgressor and Proditoris proditor one sray tor will betray another As you may observe it now amongst many of our great Commanders and our late King's enemies Lesse peace is betwixt them than betwixt the â—rute beasts for of the little Bees S. Ambrose saith that aegrotante una lamentantur omnes Ambros Hâ—xam l. 6. c. 4. And we say that Saevis inter se convenit Vrsis and the sheep can live in amity without the least hurt of the one to the other Yea the
Lions the Hogs and the Dogs qui mori pro dominis parati sunt which for a crust of bread are ready to die for their Masters can love their kind and live in unity among themselves and do good service unto man and shew themselves kind and curteous unto him as the Ravens brought food unto Elias and the hungry Lions did no hurt unto Daniel when he was thrown into their Den to be devoured by them And yet wicked men will plunder rob fight wound and kill one another Wherefore the holy Martyr Cyprian in serm de oratione Dom. S. Cyprian cryeth out O detestandam humanae malitiae crudelitatem aves pascunt ferae parcunt homines saeviunt O the most hateful cruelty of humane malice the fowles of the air do feed us and the wild beasts do spare us and serve us and men that are of our own flesh and blood perhaps our kindred or our brethren will destroy us and prove Wolves and Lions one to another And so as our Prophet saith The wicked have no peace with men but are lawing one with another and our fighting and our warring makes this point plain enough that we are a wicked generation because there is no peace amongst us 2. As the wicked have no peace with men 2 The wicked have no peace with God Esay 1.24 Aug. Confess l. 10. c. 43. so they have lesse peace with God for he professeth that they are his enemies saying Ah I will ease me of mine adversaries and avenge me of mine enemies and whereas Christ came down from Heaven to be our peace and to become the Mediatour between the mortal sinner and the immortal God and so to make our peace with God And as the Apostle saith to be peace as well to them that were afar off as to them that were nigh that is as S. Hierom expoundeth it Hierom. in loc Ephes 2.17 as well to us that were Gentiles and so far from the Covenant of Grace as to the Jews that were the children of Abraham to whom the Covenant was made that he would be his God and the God of his seed Gen. 17.17 But Christ is no Christ to the wicked for if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of his and the Spirit of Christ flieth from deceit and dwelleth not in the body that is subject unto sin And Christ tells us plainly that if we be his sheep and would have him to be our Christ our Mediatour and our peace then we must hâ—ar his voice and follow him that is John 10.27 to be as he is meek and lowly in heart loving one another and ready to lay down their lives the one for the other even as he laid down his life for us all But the wicked will neither hear his voice to believe it and to obey it nor follow him in any grace or goodness but as the Jews followed him to Mount Calvary to crucifie him and to take away the life of his members and true followers as now you may see they do in every place And therefore as Linacrus reading the Sermon of Christ in the Mount set down in the 5th 6th and 7th Chapters of S. Math. and considering the wicked lives oppressions and wrongs that were practised among the people in every place by all degrees of men he threw away the Book and cryed out Certè aut hoc non est Evangelium Christi aut nos nonsumus Christiani Either this is not the Gospel of Christ or we be no Christians So I seeing how wickedly men do live and do proceed in their wicked wayes from bad to worse from worse to worst of all must needs conclude they neither have nor can have any peace with God for there is no peace to the wicked saith my God and especially so long as they do thus continue wicked 3. As the wicked will have no peace with men 3 The wicked have no peace with themselves Bernard l. de conscient sect 2. fol. 1784. That there are four kinds of consciences 1. The good yet not quiet conscience and can have no peace with God so they have no peace with themselves that is no quiet minds nor peace of conscience Where not with standing you must observe that as S. Bernard saith there is a fourfold conscience as 1. A good but not quiet 2. A quiet but not good 3. Both good and quiet 4. Neither good nor quiet Whereof the first that is the good conscience but not quiet and the third that is the good and quiet conscience do both belong unto the godly and the true servants of Jesus Christ that have made their peace with God and yet may they sometimes be troubled with many doubts and fears for some offences and infirmities which their consciences tell them have offended God And though these doubts and fears may disturb their consciences The fears of the godly produce very good effects and abate their joy and lessen their assurance of Gods love and their peace with God for a time yet will they bring no great damage unto them but rather produce very good effects and fruits of grace as to make them sorry for those offences that are past and do now trouble them and to be more careful to prevent the like to come But 2. They that have a good conscience and a quiet one have 2 The good quiet conscience Hoâ—atius Greg. super Ezeck hom 6. as Solomon saith a continual feast and a Heaven upon Earth And the very Heathen can tell us that Murus aheneus esto nil conscire sibi And therefore S. Gregory saith Quid poterit obesse si omnes derogent sola conscientia defendat What hurt is it to us though all men blame us if our conscience doth defend us Aug. cont lit petil For Vt malam conscientiam laudantis praeconium non sanat ita nec bonam vulnerat conv tium As all the praise in the world cannot heal a bad conscience so all the aspersions and dispraise can no wayes wound a good conscience But as these two kinds of consciences do appertain unto the godly so the other two appertain unto the wicked that is 1. A bad conscience and yet quiet which is a seared conscience that tells them the truth like Cassandra and shews them what evils they have done and what they are like to suffer for it but they like the careless Trojans will give no ear thereunto And this conscience is like that sickness that takes away from the patient all the sense of his sickness which is therefore the more dangerous because it is insensible and we cannot perswade the sick man Aug. confes l. 1. c. 13. which is ready to die that he is sick at all And quid potest esse miserius misero non miserante seipsum What can be more miserable than a miserable man Bern. Epist 2. not understanding his own miseries And therefore S.
Bernard tells his friend that Ideò dolet charitas mea quòd cum sis dolendus non doleas inde magis miseretur quod cum miser sis miserabilis tamen non es And S. Hierom saith in like manner to Sabinian Hoc ego plango quod te non plangis This do I bewail in thee that thou dost not bewail thy self For as our Saviour saith when a strong man armed keeps his house the things that he possesseth are in peace So are these wicked men in peace and quiet while the strong man Satan keeps their hearts as his house to reside in but this secret peace with Satan is but an open war with God Hierom ad He liodorum de vita eromit and as S. Hierom saith Tranquillitas ista tempestas est This calm is a cruel storm And nothing can be more miserable than these senseless sinners that perceive not their miserable condition But as Josephus saith The wickedest men in Jerâ—sâ—lem that were the destruction of the City profest themselves to be the only Zelots So these wicked men think themselves the only Saints of God walking towards Heaven when as their wicked deeds do shew they ride poste to Hell And as the Lord tells Cain If thou doest ill sin lieth at the door So will their sins lie at the door and like wild beasts dog them wheresoever they go and perhaps awaken them at the last to let them see their miserable condition And then 2. 2 The bad tormenting conscience Their tormenting consciences will be a hell upon earth here unto them for as the godly have the joy of a good conscience as the earnest of the heavenly happiness So the wicked have this vermis conscientiae the vexation of a tormenting conscience as the earnest of hell-torments wheresoever they are Isidor l. 2. soliloq And as Isidorus saith Nulla poena gravior quam poena conscientiae quiae nunquam securus est reus animus for as Solomon saith The spirit of a man can bear his infirmities but a wounded spirit who can bear And Lucan saith Lucan pharsal l. 7. that a wicked man doth Nocte dieque suum gestare in pectore testem And that Hunc omnes gladii quos aut Pharsalia vid it Aut ultrix visura dies stringente Senatu Illa nocte premunt bunc infera monstra flagellant And as Ovid saith Ovid. de ponto lib. 1. Impia perpetuos curarum pectora morsus Fine quibus nullo conficiantur habent Nec prius himentem stimuli quam vita relinquet Quique dolet citius quam dolor ipse cadet And Pictorius in his Epigrams saith Istud habet damni vitium inter caetera quod mens Palpitat assiduo flagitiosa metu Semper enim velsi non deprendatur in ipso Sese deprendi pâ—sse putat scelere Deque suo alterius quoties de crimine sermo est Cogitat credit se magis esse reum Inque dies timor hinc crescit And S. Augustine renders to us the reason of all this saying Jussisti Domine ita est ut animus inordinatus sit sibi ipsi poena And as the Poet saith Heu quantum misero poenae mens conscia donat For we do read how Theodoricus being troubled in his conscience imagined that he saw as he sate at Supper the visage of Symmachus Procopius lanquet Chron. fol. 146. whom he had unjustly slain in a fishes-head and after that he could never rest quiet nor be comforted by any means but pined away most miserably And Sleidan writes how Crescentius Sleidan com l. 23. in fine the Pope's Vice-gerent in the Council of Trent being conscious of many ill carriages in that Council saw the Devil in the likeness of a black dog And Polydore Virgil writes of Richard the Third that after he had caused his two Nephews the sons of Edward the Fourth to be secretly murdered he could never have any rest or quiet mind whiâ—e ne lived but would be still starting and clapping his hand on his Dagger And to be brief so it is with all wicked men that either they have a seared conscience void of all sense or if it awakes a tormenting conscience that vexeth and plagueth them continually For my Text is most true that there is no peace to the wicked neither with men nor with God nor with themselves And therefore howsoever they deem us for their enemies yet in very deed they are the greatest enemies that can be found on earth unto themselves 2. As there is no peace to the wicked so they have no peace in no place 2 The wicked have no peace in no place but as S. Augustine saith Fugiet ab agro in civitatem à publico in domum à domo in cubiculum à cubiculo in lectum ecce hostem suum invenit à quo confugerat seipsum scilicet à quo fugiturus est 3. They have no peace ullo tempore at any time but 3 The wicked have no peace at no time as I said before out of Lucan the wicked do Nocte dieque suum gestare in pectore testem both night and day early and late bear in their bosome a relator that doth accuse them and a witnesse that doth testifie against them the great and horrible wick edness that they have done and a Judge that doth continually condemn them And therefore the Text saith not non erat pax nor non erit pax but non est pax and in the Original the Text is set down indefinitely without a verbe as naming no time that assoon as ever we have sinned we might fear Gods judgements presently and expect our punishment instantly and at all times thereafter Because as Lipsius saith Cognatum imme innatum Lipsius do constantial 2. c. 13. omni sceleri est sceleris supplicium And S. Paul saith The wages of sin is death to shew that as the work is present so the payment must be present nec aufertur nec defertur it shall neither be remitted nor deferred But as the Lord commandeth not to detain the labourers wages until the morning but presently to pay him assoon as ever he hath done his work before the Sun goeth down So when the sinner hath done the sin the punishment lieth at the door waiting for him So you see here is no peace in no place at no time after the wickednesse is done and the sin is oncè committed And 4. 4 There is no peaâ—e to no wicked man To make the generality of the sentence full there is no peace to no wicked man that is not to any man that is wicked for with God there is no respect of persons but if Coniah the Prince do sin though he were as the signet upon my right hand I will cut him off saith the Lord. The Jews were Gods own peculiar people of whom the Prophet saith You only have I chosen of all the Nations of the earth yet when they became
way to bring wars and troubles unto himself and to the Common-wealth and a curse at least if not a rooting out of his posterity while the innocent blood that he hath shed or caused to be shed doth continually cry to God for vengeance against him or them that did it And so you see that neither Zimri nor any other killer of his King and of his Master or of any other man can have any peace either with God or with men 3. 3 King-killers and murderers and the like wicked men can have no peace with themselves The murderer and wicked man can have no peace with himself nor any rest or quietness in his own thoughts and conscience for as Lipsius saith Cognatum immo innatum est omni sceleri sceleris supplicium Sin bears its own punishment alwaies on his back they are so inseperably knit together that the one cannot be committed but the other will be inflicted because as S. Augustine saith Jossit Dominus ita est ut animus inordinatus sit sibi ipsi paena Lipsius de constantia l. 2. c. 13. the Lord hath ordained it and it is so that a wicked disordinate mind should be a punishment unto it selfe for as God said unto Cain so it is with us if we do ill sin lyeth at the door that is the reward of sin Gen 4.7 or the punishment due for that sin is alwaies at hand like a wild Beast to dog us and to bite us wheresoever we go and the conscience of sin especially of these bloody sins beareth forth such bitter fruit as that nothing in the world can be more grievous or more miserable to a mortall man for as Menander saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The conscience is as a god to all men to be a witness of our debts a judge of our deeds and a tormentor of all our transgressions and the wise man saith The spirit of a man will bear his infirmities that is all the sad calamities and misfortunes that may happen unto him a brave mind and a Heroick spirit will bear them all but a wounded spirit who can bear For as the Poet saith Strangulat inclusus dolor Ovid. Trist l. 5. atque exaestuat intùs And the Examples that might be brought hereof are infinite beyond number I will name to you but a few Oedipus that bloody incestuous King of Thebes is said to be led to Athens by his daughter Antigona i.e. to be doggd up and down by his own conscience and to be buried in the Temple of Erinnys i.e. to be overwhelmed with sorrows and perturbations for his lewd forepassed life and his wife and mother Jocasta in like manner strangled her self saith Sophocles And Procopius writes that Theodoric King of the Gothes after he had most unjustly put to death Symmachus and Boetius two noble Senators of Rome his own thoughts and conscience did so molest him that as he was at Supper with many friends about him and a Fish his head of great bigness being set on the table his imagination conceited It was the head of Symmachus that with angry eyes grinned upon him whereby he was so oppressed with fear and trembling that he suddenly rose from the table and could never afterwards be comforted but his conscience did continually so torment him that he pined away most miserably till he died And Polydore Virgil saith Polydor. l. 25. that Richard the third of this Kingdome after he had slain his two Nephews had the like tormenting conscience till he was slain by Hen. 7. at Bosworth Field And we read that Tiberius after he had been the death of very many that he hated was so vexed with such grievous torments of his wounded spirit that he desired all the gods rather to destroy him all at once then to suffer him thus to pine away with the continual sting and stripes of a tormented conscience wherein the just God dealt with him as he had done to many others to suffer many deaths before he put them to death as the subtle Fox was wont to say and Nero the monster of men when he had most unthankfully put to death his own Master and Tutor Seneca and most unnaturally caused his own natural Mother to be killed with many others of the faithful servants of Christ he was so grievously vexed in conscience that he could not be comforted by any means but thought in his mind that he did alwayes see his Mothers Ghost still crying for vengeance against him And to passe over those infinite examples that might be produced of this kind I will only alleadge that one of Apollodorus the Tyrant who dreamed that he was flea'd by the Scythians and that his heart thrown by them into a boyling Caldron should say unto him I am the cause of all this thy miseries my self so the heart and conscience of every malefactor especially the shedders of innocent blood will perpetually tell them where they are and what they must expect and howsoever they may put on a seeming countenance of peace and a quiet mind of no disturbance yet indeed they are but like the glow-worm that in a dark night makes a fiery shew but being prest you shall find nothing in him but cold moisture for the worm of conscience doth alwaies gnaw their wretched souls within them when their faces seem to smile without But it may be some will object that all sinners have not such unquiet minds and all murderers and King-killers have not as we see wounded spirits I answer that some indeed are of such brasen faces that they can laugh their sins out of countenance and smile with the fool when they go to the gallows but lassure my self their hearts bleed when their faces counterfeit smiles and they are like Dives that saw Lazarus a far off in Abrahams bosom but was himself tormented in Hell for the heart and soul may be sorrowfull when the face and countenance may seem cheerfull And it is a thousand to one but it is so with all murderers and the like haynous transgressors for that it is unpossible that such men should ever want furies so long as they have themselves or if they could find a way to run away from themselves and to cause their souls to forsake their bodies as Saul Zimri Achitophel and Judas did yet their consciences will not flie away from their souls nor their sins from their consciences but let a murderer King-killer or Master-killer or any other man-killer flye ab agro in â—ivitatem à publico ad domum à domo in cubiculum from the field into the City from the City into his house and from the house into his bed and thence like those impatient fishes that leap out of the frying pan into the fire from the private hell of their own breasts into the publick hell of damned souls yet Ecce hostem inveniet à quo confugerat behold there he shall find the enemy whom he feared that is a tormenting
considered that if the war was unjust yet as S. Augustine saith Aug. contra Manich. Reum facit regem iniquitas imperandi innocentem militem ostendit ordo serviend the iniquity of commanding makes the commander guilty and the order or duty of serving sheweth the Souldier to be innocent because that being commanded he may not refuse and he must not resist nor lift up his hand against his Governour but tolerate whatsoever is inflicted upon him unlesse he can by a fair and lawful means prevent it because it is far better to be a Martyr then a Traytor and as the Prophet saith Obedience is better then Sacrifice and Rebellion it is as the sin of Witchcraft And if the Apostles and Martyrs and the Primitive Christians were thus dutiful obedient and loyal subjects to such Tyrants and Usurpers and Persecutors as the aforesaid wicked Governours were how much more dutiful and obedient and thankful to God for him ought we to have been to such a loving mild and godly Christian King as wronged none of us but did preserve peace in these dominions and upheld Justice and Judgement among us untill that Antichristian long-Parliament rebelled against him And so the premises being well considered to the boyling spirits of discontented persons that distast all meats that sute not with their palats and have not the patience to tarry Gods leisure and to espic a convenient opportunity to do the work that is just and ought to be done in its due time but will inconsiderately and unseasonably like Brutus and Cassius attempt to do good service uuto the Common-wealth by taking the usurper out of the way I say their intention is very good and their desire most laudable yet lest with Brutus and Cassius they disturb the Common wealth and lose their own wealth and destroy themselves by their unseasonable prosecution of their commendable design I would advise them and all of their mind in all places where such Vsurpations are maintained to follow the example of Jehoiada to watch their opportunity and then to do it throughly and not to fail which as I conceive is both a just and a wholesome counsell But this people whereof this our Prophet speaketh murmured and spurned and like our Parliament rebelled and kicked not against an Vsurper which had been commendable in them but against their own lawful king which was most displeasing unto God And therefore these Jewes and all that imitate these Jewes are here justly threatned to be rejected and cast off by God for their stubbornesse 1 Sam. 15.22 disobedience and rebellion against their lawful King For as Samuel saith that obedience is more acceptable to God then sacrifice so I say that obedience to our lawful King and his Magistrates is the best thing that we can do to procure the peace and tranquillity of the Common-wealth 3. The last branch of their wandring from the right way 3 Branch of their wandring three-fold was their injuries and oppressions against their neighbours and this was three-fold 1. The robbing of their goods 6 Robbing their neighbouâ—s of their good Jerem. 22.17 2. The imprisoning of their persons 3. The taking away of their lives 1. The Prophet tells us the heart of this people was for covetousnesse and for oppression and for violence they builded their houses by unrighteousnesse and their chambers by wrong C. eode v 13. they used their neighbours service without wages and gave him not for his work and this they did saith the Prophet that they might build them wide houses or stately Palaces V. 13. with large chambers and great windowes cieled with Cedar and painted with Vermilion They cared not what wrongs they did to others so they might get it unto themselves they had no regard to justice as you may see it in the 15. and 16. verses but whatsoever they did to inrich themselves and from whomsoever they took it it must be reputed just and none dare speak against it And yet the Prophet tells us that as a Cage is full of birds so are their houses full of deceits Jer. 5.27 and therefore they are become great and waxen rich yea they are waxen fat and shine and do overpasse the deeds of the wicked And Amos 8.6 as the Prophet Amos saith they bought the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes So greedy was this people to scrape together the wealth of this world and had no regard to equity honesty or good conscience And which is more wonderful from the least of them even to the greatest of them every one is given to covetousnesse and from the Prophet even to the Priest Jerem. 6.13 Esay 56.1 every one dealeth falsely and the Prophet Esay calleth them greedy dogs that could never have enough And whether any such covetousnesse and oppression be amongst our men and especially amongst our Levites in these dayes let them that are oppressed with over-heavie Taxes Customs Excise c. judge I leave it to you that have best experience of these times to determine and I will not be the accuser of my brethren as some Duns Scotus of them have been of me though to no purpose But whether it was the love of Justice to punish us for our sins or covetousnesse to inrich themselves and their associates that made our Grandees of late years to take away the reward of our labours even of all our labours from our very youth to our decrepit age I leave it to the Judge of all the world to detetmine for they have done it and he knoweth best why they did it onely we professe it to all the world that our consciences cannot tell us of any thing that we have done to deserve to be deprived of it And therefore we presume to pray to God though we taxe them not that the woe which the Prophet denounceth against this people Jerem. 22.13 for their covetousnesse and injustice may not light upon any of them that took away the bread out of our mouthes and our childrens and left many of the most painful labourers in Gods Vine-yard to dig or beg or starve 2. 2 Imprisoning their persons Jerem 5.26 This people laid wait as he that setteth snares to catch men i.e. they had spies in every corner and if they found any that spake any thing against them or against their covetousnesse or injustice though it were never so true then as they did with Jeremy they would throw him into the dungeon so Herod did with John Baptist and with S. Peter and with the rest of Gods Servants that reproved their injustice and spake the truth to them And do I say that any of our men in these day es did so or doth the like But as when the Sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord in the dayes of Job Satan came also among them so I fear that when the children of God do now come to present themselves in his
this world better than Peace for as the Poet saith Omnia pace vigent pacis tempore florent All things do prosper in the time of peace And as the Prophet saith Our garners are full and plenteous with all manner of store our sheep bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets our oxen are strong to labour and there is no decay no lâ—ading into captivity and no complaining in our streets Psal 144.14 but our houses are repaired our Cities inlarged our Fields tilled and the poor are relieved which the Souldiers cause to starve and to die at their doors which have nothing to help them And therefore the very heathen man could say Cicero Iniquissimam pacem justisfimo bello antefero that he preferred the worst peace before the best and justest war and the onely outward blessing that comprehended all the other blessings which the Israelites desired was peace their onely salutation was Peace be unto you John 20.19 when Christ arose from the dead the first word that he spake to his disciples was Peace be unto you and when he was to leave the world the chiefest Legacie that he left to his Apostles was My Peace I give unto you and so the Apostolical wish to all Saints in all their Epistles is Grace and Peace be unto you and the most frequent Counsel most principall Precept that is given 2 Cor. 13.11 Colos 3.15 Phil. 4.7 Luc. 10.3 To love one another to honour all men to live in peace with all men the same thing in effect Which was Cromwels that Arch-souldier's Motto and is to be earnestly urged to be observed in all the New Testament by all the Ministers of Christ is to love one another to honour all men and to live in peace with all men which are the very same things in effect though exprest in divers forms and where this bond of peace is broken our Saviour saith Blessed are the Peace-makers for they shall be termed and called the children of God which is the God of Peace And what think you then of the souldiers that fight and war and break the bands of peace and the golden chain of unity and concord all to pieces whose children be they and may they not fear to be accursed Yes certainly and therefore they pretend that Pax quaeritur bello they make war to purchase peace To whom I may justly answer as Cyneas did to King Pyrrhus when the wise Oratour demanded of him what he would do when he had conquered Italy and Sicilie and Africk and Macedon c. Pyrrhus answered we will then be quiet and make peace and eat drink and be merry to whom Cyneas replyd And what letteth us my good Lord but that we may do so now before the shedding of so much blood as must be spilt in these enterprises So I say if you make War to procure peace why will you disturb the peace and not rather now when men do live in peace embrace it and suffer it to continue before you purchase it with the slaughter of so many men as must be killed in war But would you know the reason All the graces of Christ without the this grace will availe us nothing why they are so blessed that do procure peace and do embrace it and why we are so earnestly so often and in so various terms sollicited by Christ and his Apostles to observe this duty Saint Augustine telleth us it is because all the graces of Christ without this grace of loving all men and living in peace with all men will avail us nothing at all Namsicut spiritus humanus nunquam vivificat membra nisi fuerint unita ita Spiritus sanctus nunquam nos vivificat nisi sumus in pace conjuncti For as the Soul and humane spirit doth not quicken and give life unto our members unlesse they be joyned together so the Spirit of God will never quicken us to become members of Christ unlesse we be united together with love and in the bond of peace as the same Father speaketh and Saint Paul plentifully proveth the invalidity of all graces 1 Cor. 13. per totum without this grace of love and charity towards all men and what love can be in them that kill their neighbours And therefore not onely of our peace and reconciliation with God or the peace and tranquillity of our consciences but even of this peace among men Esay 52.7 the Prophet saith How beautifull are the feet of the Embâ—ssadours of peace and our Saviour doth so earnestly perswade us to embrace this peace without which we can never attain unto any peace with God or to any quiet mind for as Saint John saith he that loveth not his brother and I may adde 1 John 4.20 and is not at peace with his neighbour whom he hath seen how can he love God and be at peace with God whom he hath not seen And therefore The piety of our Liturgy and Letany howsoever they that think themselves to be the holy brethren and yet are the incentives of war do exclaim against our Liturgy and cannot endure the Letany yet our Church doth most piously pray Give peace in our time O Lord and again That it may please thee to give unto all 〈…〉 peace and concord 〈…〉 the first part of that honour which we owe to all men that is to do 〈◊〉 wrâ—ng to shed no blood to hate no man in our heart to traduce no man with our tongues and to smite no man with our hands but to love and to live in peace with all men 2. As we are no wayes to hurt or to wrong any man so we ought 2 Every way to assist and help them that need our help to the uttermost of our power to be always ready to relieve help and succour every one that is oppressed and that standeth in need of our help nihil est tam egregium tam liberale tamque munificum quà m opem ferre supplicibus excitare asfâ—ictos dare salutem homines à periculis liberare and there is nothing more royall more liberal and more munificent then to help the poor supplicants and distressed Petitioners to raise up the afsticted and to free the oppressed out of the hands of their oppressours saith the Oratour Câ—cero Orat. 1. and in his Oration for Ligarius he saith Homines ad Deos nulla re propiùs accedunt quà m salutem hominibus dandâ— men can by no way be made more like unto God than by doing good and by yielding health and deliverance unto men Therefore Solomon saith with-hold not good from them to whom it is due when it is in the power of thine hand to do it and say not unto thy neighbour Prov. 3.27 28. Go and come again and to morrow I will give it thee when as thou hast it by thee because as Lucian saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Celeres Gratiae dulciores sunt
will endeavour to discharge his duty by good report and evil report 2. You may observe that goodness it self is hated and truth it self slandered and traduced for in his mouth was found no guile but as Saint John saith he is the way the truth and the life and yet all that malice can invent is thought little enough to be laid on him he must bear in his bosom the reproach of a mighty people and he must endure the contradictions of a wicked generation And therefore what wonder is it if the best King and Governour in the world were he as mild as Moses as religious as King David as upright as Samuel and as bountiful to Gods servants as Nehemiah or if as worthy Preachers as ever trod pulpit were they as faithful as Saint Peter as loving as Saint John and as zealous as Saint Paul should be maligned traduced and slandered for you may assure your selves it is no new thing though a very true thing for the wicked to deal thus with the good and godly at all times But among all the subtil arguments doubtful questions and malicious disputations that the Scribes Christs good deeds inraged the wicked Pharisees and Heredians had with our Saviour Christ which were very many and all only for to intrap him in his speech that they might bring him to his death and not to beget faith in their own hearts that they might attain-to eternal life this conflict in this chapter seemeth to be none of the least for after he had so miraculously healed the poor man that was born blind their malice was so inraged and their rage so furious against him that they excommunicated the poor fellow and thrust him out of their Synagogue for speaking well of him that had done so much good for him or because he would not be so wicked and so malicious as themselves and then gathering themselves together round about Christ they began to question him about his office and very strictly to examine him whether he was the Christ the Messias or not And Our Saviour Christ Christ answereth for the good of the godly that knew their thoughts better then themselves intendeth not to satisfie their desire which was to receive such an answer whereby they might accuse him yet for their instruction that would believe in him he setteth down an institution or an infallible induction whereby both their subtil question was fully answered and his own true servants perfectly expressed and distinguished from them that serve him not in these words My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me Wherein The means ways to save us our Saviour setteth down the means whereby the true Christians are eternally saved in being called justified and sanctified which are the three main steps or degrees whereby we pass from our natural state of corruption unto the blessed state of grace that brings us to eternal glory 1. Called in these words My sheep hear my voice 2. Justified in these words I know them 3. Sanctified in these words They follow me 1. Then the Christians are called to come to Christ in that he saith My sheep hear my voice for as Adam after his transgression never sought for God until God sought for him and said Adam Where art thou So all the children of Adam would never come to Christ if Christ did not call them to come unto him but as wisdom crieth without and uttereth her voice in the streets Prov. 1.20 so doth this wisdome of God Jesus Christ cry Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you and if he did not cry and utter forth his voice his sheep could not hear his voice but God sendeth forth his voice yea and that a mighty voice and as the Prophet David saith The Lord thundered out of heaven Psal 68 33. and the most high uttered his voice And that not onely as he did once unto the Israelites God uttereth his voice two wayes when he delivered his laws on mount Sinai but also to all others whom he calleth and uttereth his voice unto them two special ways 1. To the ears of his people by the mouths of his Prophets 1 To our ears Apostles and Preachers of his holy Word that do continually call and cry unto them to come to hear his voice and to obey his Precepts 2. To the hearts of his servants by the inspiration of his blessed Spirit 2 To our hearts which teacheth them to cry abba Father and perswadeth them to yield obedience to all his heavenly motions And our Saviour saith that his sheep or servants will hear his voice that is both uttered by his servants and inspired by his Spirit and they will neither neglect to hear the preaching of his written Word nor suffocate or choak the inspired Word that is the internal motions of his holy Spirit but they will most readily and willingly hear both these voices My sheep hear my voice howsoever uttered Three things observable For the further and the better understanding of which words you may observe these three things 1. The denomination Sheep 2. Their appropriation my sheep 3. Their qualification hear my voice 1. By Sheep here is understood not those four-footed silly creatures The children of God called sheep in a double respect that by their wooll and lamb and milk and their own flesh are so profitable unto us and by their simplicity are so easie to be kept and are the most innocent among all the beasts of the field but those children of God and true Christians that are called and compared unto sheep in a double respect 1. In respect of Christ that is their Pastour or Shepherd 2. In respect of themselves that are his flock 1. Christ is often called in the Scriptures our Shepherd 1 Grand Shepherd of the sheep Christ the good Shepherd in two respects 1. A lawful entrance into his Office Heb. 5.4 1. By the testimony of his own conscience 2. By an outward approbation and he is set forth unto us in this 10. c. by a double manifestation 1. Of a lawful entrance into his Office 2. Of an absolute performance of his Duties 1. The Apostle saith No man taketh this honour unto himself that is to be the Shepherd over Gods flock and a Priest to teach Gods people but he that is called of God as was Aaron And how was Aaron called 1. By God inwardly by the testimony of his own conscience that tells him the Spirit of God calleth him to such an Office 2. Because a man is not to believe his own private spirit that many times deceiveth us therefore God would have Aaron to take his commission and his ordination from Moses as you may see Exod. 28.1 and as the Lord had formerly said unto Moses that he should be instead of God unto Aaron to call him unto the Priests office And as no man taketh or should
because this our City is built upon a Rock and the gate of hell shall never be able to prevail against it not only because that being upon a Rock it can never be undermined but especially because as S. Cyprian saith Cyprianus Non plus valet ad dejiciendum terrena paena quam ad erigendum divina tutela And this good Shepherd which is the Lamb that standeth upon Mount Sion to defend it is more powerful to save it then the Roaring Lyon which is the Prince of darkness to destroy it 2. The same Prophet David saith The Lord is my Shepherd 2 From wants Psal 23.2 therefore I shall want nothing he shall feed me in a green pasture and lead mo forth besides the waters of comfort And in the Propher Ezekiel this good Shepherd saith Ezek. 34.14 The best food for Gods sheep what it is I will feed my sheep in a good pasture and upon the high Mountains of Israel shall their Fold be there shall they lye in a good Fold and in a fat Pasture shall they feed upon the Mountains of Israel where you must observe that this Fold is the Church of Christ and the fat Pastures are the Lilies Violets and the sweetest of all pleasant flowers especially the three leaved grass that as Aristotle saith is most delight some unto the sheep for this is the food of the Shepherd even as he professeth in the Canticles Cantic 2. that he feedeth among the Lilies and that is as Psellus doth interpret it where he seeth the graces of Gods holy Spirit and the virtuous examples of the Saints these are as meat and drink unto him and so they are unto his sheep For as S. Ambrose saith the Pastures of Gods sheep are the blessed Sacraments the holy Scriptures heavenly Sermons pious books and holy meditations of heavenly things and especially the three leaved grass which is the understanding of that great mystery of godliness that our God which is but one God in Essence is distinguished into three Persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost And the waters of comfort The waters of comfort what they are are those plentiful streams of milk and honey of Divine Consolation wherewith the Spirit of God doth as it were inebriate the souls of his servants for the Church of Christ is the Land of Promise which floweth with milk and honey it is the Wilderness where the Lord raineth Manna the bread of heaven to fatisfie the fouls of his children it is the Spouse of Christ whose loves are better then Wine and it is the House of God Cantic 2. whereof the Psalmist speaketh that the sheep of Christ shall be satisfied with the plenteousness of his house and he shall give them drink of his pleasure as out of a River that is alwayes running Psal 36.8 and yet never dried up And Christ being our Shepherd his sheep shall not only have the spiritual food of their souls and be satisfied with these heavenly juncates but they shall have also whatsoever is necessary for the sustentation of their temporal life For as S. Paul saith Godliness is profitable unto all things having the promise of the life that now is 1 Tim. 4.8 and of that which is to come And our Saviour saith that if we first seek the Kingdome of God and his righteousness and so to become the sheep of this good Shepherd Matth. 6. then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the other things that you seek as food and rayment shall be given unto you for your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of these things therefore he that feedeth the young Ravens that call upon him will much rather feed you that are the sheep of Christ if you relye upon him And they shall not only have sufficient for themselves but also to help and to relieve many others as the poor and their children and their childrens children for the blessing of the Lord saith Solomon maketh rich and a good man leaveth an inheritance to his childrens children Prov. 10.22 Prov. 13 22. Psal 112. v. 2 3. Iob 22.23 for riches and plenteousness are in his house and his Seed is blessed And Eliphas the Temanite saith If thou return to the Almighty and put away iniquity far from thy Tabernacles then shalt thou lay up gold as dust and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks Yea the Almighty shall be thy Defence and thou shalt have plenty of silver even as the Lord blessed Abraham that he became very rich in cattel Gen. 13.2 c. 12.16 in silver and in gold and had sheep and oxen and he-asses and men-servants and maid-servants and she-asses and Camels Or were it so that God did not thus bless us with outward wealth but suffer the world to frown upon us and to bring us to some want and poverty as he did to Job Lazarus and others either for the tryal of their faith patience and constancy in his service or for some other causes best known unto himself yet if we be the sheep of Christ what need we care or fear any such want so long as we want not the Wedding Garment and the spiritual food of our souls Quia major est suavitas mentis quam ventris because the garment of righteousness is of more worth then any Imperial Robe and the satisfying of our Souls is a great deal better then the filling of our bodies whose food be the same never so dainty is compared with the other nothing but ackorns and husks and other like vanities that are as soon done and gone as they are begun whereas a good conscience is a continual feast and the food of our souls Iohn 6.50 54. which our good Shepherd giveth us never perisheth but feedeth us to everlasting life as our Saviour sheweth O then beloved Brethren What a blessed and a happy thing it is to be the sheep of Christ to be thus innobled with such a Master thus protected from all evil and thus satisfied with all good though therefore the Proverb tells us and it is very true if thou make thy self a sheep the Wolfe will eat thee yet it is far more excellent and to be chosen rather to be a sheep of Christ then a wolfe of the world and to be a Lamb of God rather then a Lyon of the devil when at the last we shall find it far better to be devoured then to devoure and to be spoiled then to spoil our Neighbours 3 The duties and properties of Christ his sheep Two special points Iohn 10. v. 5. But then 3. If you would be the sheep of Christ you must be qualified with these two special properties 1. To hear the Voice of Christ 2. To refuse the hearing of a strangers voice For So our Saviour saith My sheep hear my voice but a stranger will they not follow but will fly from him because they know not the voice of strangers So
and other places round about and that only for Religion and not for worldly Dominion which is the suffering of the Christians under the Turk that permitteth any profession so they yield themselves to his subjection He must ingenuously confess this truth of Isidorus that the greatest of all Persecutions is that which is prosecuted by the Ministry of Antichrist that now raigneth in the world But if you would desire to know who is this Antichrist that now reigneth and thus rageth in the world I answer VVho is the Great Antichrist divers opinions That although many good Arguments are produced to prove the Great Turk to be that Great Antichrist and Constantinople to be that Babylon which is the Throne of that bloudy beast and as many good Arguments are alleadged by Powel Whitaker Downham Thompson and others of our Protestant Writers to prove that series paparum from Boniface in Phocas time to this present Pope is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spoken of by St. Paul 2 Thes 3. and that Rome is his proper seat and so called Babylm by St. Peter Yet divers others of no small Learning do avouch That as Ecclesia credentium corpus cum capite the whole Catholick Church of Christ head and members is said to be and is so termed unus Christus one Christ as in Joh. 3.13 And Christ saith unto Saul Why persecutest thou me when he persecuted his Church So Ecclesia malignantium the Congregation of the wicked or especially Senatus consultus the great Sanedrim of the people the supream Counsel A pack of wicked men is termed the Antichrist and the highest Court of any Nation which is the representative mystical body of that dispersed and nefarious Synagogue is oftentimes for their unanimous consent in all wickedness spoken of quasi unus homo as if they were but one man because they all have but one head one will and one end to destroy the truth and the true Church of Christ And this supream stool of wickedness that establisheth mischief by a Law 2 Thes 3.8 doth now appear to many men to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That man of sin and the child of perdition whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming because they say First There is neither Note Argument Saying nor Testimony of holy Scripture that doth competere antichristo and is sutable unto Antichrist but it is most properly found to agree with that Cumulus Senatorum the representative Council of all wickedness As 1. They have seated themselves in a mystical Babylon the Amsterdam of all confusion where you may easily find almost all Heresies maintained that have been invented and any Religion used but the true Religion that dares not be professed 2. They do sit in the Temple of God as God that is they do possess the truest Church of God that we know to be on earth and as God they establish Worship and Religion and ordain Laws for the Government of that Church and root out that Worship and Government which God himself hath ordained 3. They exalt themselves above all that is called God i.e. Above Kings This point of the Great Antichrist is fully and at large handled in my Book of The Great Antichrist revealed of whom the Scripture most properly saith Dixi Dii estis I said you are Gods because they are in Gods stead and do exercise Gods Power here on Earth and yet this grand Council of the Great Synagogue would not only be worshipped themselves as Kings but will suppress Kings deny any service to be done to them and suffer none to do them Worship which is properly to exalt themselves above Kings when they keep Kings so low 4. When by their false assembled Prophets they deny the Notions whereby we understand the Father and the Son to be the true God as they plainly do by the cashiering of the words Essence Person Trinity and the like words which the Church of God penes quam norma loquendi hath ever used to bring her Children thereby to some sure knowledge of that great mystery of godliness and to inable them to confute those wicked Hereticks that denied the same they do manifest themselves to be that Antichrist who as St. John saith denieth the Father and the Son 1 Joh. 2.22 which neither Turk nor Pope as yet ever did 5. The unfolding of that great mystery of the Beast Aug de Civitat Dei l. 20. c. 9. 14. which Beast St. Augustine understandeth of the Society of wicked Christians and the City of Satan that is signified by that Beast and the mystery which the Holy Ghost setteth down to be observed as the most proper Note of the Beast is that it containeth 666. touching which if you omit one thousand which is a full and perfect number and which is not an unusual thing in the Scripture to do to make the other the more mystery and consider that in 646. this great Sanedrim or superlative Council demanded the Militia or soveraign rule over the King for twenty years which being added to 646 do make up the just number of 666. This they say is a strong Argument to prove the grand Council to be that Great Beast 6. And lastly The unspeakable unparalelled persecution of this Antichrist above all the persecutions that preceded it either of Pope Turke or heathen Tyrants do plainly prove them to the judgment of some men to be the greatest Antichrist that as yet is revealed unto the world though some think that a greater may yet come before Christ does come to judgment which I do not believe But though I say as St. Augustine doth in the like case Alii atque alii aliud atque aliud opinati sunt Divers men have divers opinions about the time place and person of Antichrist which neither my Text nor my time will give me leave either to discuss or to disprove any of the same now Yet thus much I dare boldly say that letting pass the persecutions of the Preachers not to be paralelled in any History if you consider first the number of them all the Reverend Bishops all the Deans all Prebends and all the best Divines in the whole Kingdom And 2. the misery that is imposed upon them worse than death Quia dulce mori miseris To be spoyled of all their means banished from all their friends wife children and Parents and exposed to all wants and contempts so that neither Nero Domitian Dioclesian nor Julian brought such a storm upon the Church of Christ as is now brought upon the body of the whole Clergy within these five years and omitting the many thousands of good Christians No Historian can shew me any king that hath suffered more indignities at any â—nchristian hand than King Charls hath suffered from the Long Parliament that for their Religion and good conscience have lost their lives livings and liberties I say letting
all these things pass I dare appeal to any impartial Reader that neither Eusebius nor Socrates nor Thuanus nor Chammier nor any other Hystorian Ecclesiastical or Prophane that have written of Persecutions or of the cruelty of Antichrist can shew me any King since the King of the Jews that by his own Subjects and for no vice of his own that malice it self can tax him but only in reality whatsoever is otherwise pretended for the defence of Christ his faith and the true service of God the protection of all faithfull Preachers and the upholding of the Fundamental Laws of his Kingdom hath or could suffer more unkingly indignities by any Antichrist than our gracious King hath done by his own ungraciaus Subjects of these three Kingdoms But stay and let us consider that although these Persecutions be exceeding great yet our sins and transgressions are far greater and God in all this is most just and as Ezra saith Ezra 9 13. Punisheth us less than our iniquities deserve for certainly we must confess what the world seeth that we have sinned with our Fathers we have done amiss and dealt wickedly and therefore as Eusebius confesseth the iniquities of the Primitive Christians to have pulled upon them those Heathen Persecutions so must we acknowledge this Antichristian Tyranny to have most justly fallen upon us And not only so but seeing we have so justly deserved it let us submit our selves under the mighty hand of God repent and be sorry for whatsoever we have done amiss and pray to God for grace and strength to suffer what shall be laid upon us either for the punishment of our sins or the trial of our Faith to God and our Loyalty to our King not only the loss of all worldly things but even of our life it self because that in so suffering unto death we shall be sure to have the Crown of life which the Lord grant unto us for Jesus Christ his sake to whom be all glory and honour for ever and ever Amen I have spent two hours in treating of this one verse already and because here is magnum in parvo abundance of treasure in this little mine I must crave leave to spend one hour more and with that I hope I shall finish all that I have to say on these words You may remember I told you the words contain 1. Gods love to Man 2. Mans love to God The first I handled in my first Sermon And In the second I shewed you three parts that is to say 1. The Persons We 2. The Act Love 3. The Object him We love him 3 The Object of our love God The two first in my last Sermon And now because I love neither Tautologies nor to stand long upon repetitions I will proceed unto the object of our love where the Apostle saith We love him that is God And I would to God that we did all love him quia actus distinguitur per objectum because it is not our love that doth hurt us but the object of our love maketh or marreth all for as St. Augustine saith Duas civitates duo faciunt amores our love to God buildeth up Jerusalem Aug. super Psal 64. the Church and City of God and our love to the world and these worldly things buildeth up Babylon the Synagogue of Satan And therefore this is the errour of the sons of men The errour of men not that we are subject unto Passions and endued with the affections of Fear Hate Love and the like but that we misguide our Passions and misorder our affections by misplacing them where they ought not to be setled for we may fear so it be him that can cast both body and soul into hell fire we may hate so it be the thing that is evill and we may love so it be what we ought and as we ought to love But this is that which God cannot endure that we should fear men more than God or fear temporal losses goods or lands more than the loss of our souls and the wounding of a good conscience or that we should hate our brethren and not their sins which we cherish in our selves though we detest them in all others or that we should love the world and not God or any thing in the world more than God or so much that it should any waies lessen our love to God And therefore here I may stop my course and stay a while to reprove those many millions of men that are as the Philosophers said The Citizens of the world and do freely bestow their loves not on God but either upon the vain pleasures The love of vain things choaketh our love to God or the vile profits of this wicked world And it is a strange thing to see how one affecteth Honour another Beauty a third Authority and most of us some one kind of vanity or other that either drowneth or driveth away and so lesseneth much our love to God And above all things the love of Riches choaketh this divine love in all worldly men For as Apolonius Tyanaeus saith That he hath seen a stone called Pantaura which is the Queen of all other stones and hath in it all the vertues that are to be found in all the other pretious stones So to this stone do some men compare riches Kiches what they are like because they suppose riches to contain in them the force and vertue of all other things and are able to bring mighty things to pass as the fiercest beasts are made tame by them the fairest Ladies are won by them as Jupiter prevailed with Danae What great things wealth and riches have done when as the Poets feign he came unto her in a golden showre The greatest Kings are subdued by them when as no weapons can overcome the shields of Gold and Rome it self might have been bought if Jugurth had had wealth enough to purchase it as he said when he passed out of Rome And you see the Fishes of the Sea that are overwhelmed with water and drowned in the Deep cannot escape the force of Riches and the Fowls of the air though of the swiftest Wings yet can they not fly from their Empire yea what Altitudes have not Riches abated What difficulties have they not vanquished What improbabilities I will not say impossibilities have they not facilitated And what things have they desired that they have not obtained Therefore St. Augustine shewing the folly of the Pagans about their selected gods Aug. de Civit. Dei l. 7. c. 3. wondreth that if wise men were their Selectors why Venus was preferred before the Lady Vertue or if Venus deserveth her enhansement because more do affect her than those that love vertue then why was not Lady Money more famous than Minerva seeing that in all sorts of men there are more that love coyn better than knowledge and all Trades aime at Money and say with the Poet Quaerenda pecunia primum est virtus
of death for the King then to be perswaded for what pretense of good soever and by whomsoever were it an Angel out of Heaven to consent unto his death is to become guilty of a great fault and to say that he was perswaded thereunto by the Bishops whose fault was therefore greater then his Majestie 's can no more excuse him then for the man of God to say that he was seduced by the old Prophet And therefore this might be a just cause with God to suffer him that to satisfie sinful men would offend his good God by giving way to them to take away the life of an innocent man to have his own life taken from him even by those men to whom he had yielded to take away the life of another man which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a conformity of our punishment to our offence and is nothing else but lex talionis an eye for an eye a tooth for tooth and death for death which was the first Law that God published after the Deluge saying Whosoever sheddeth man's blood that is either per se as Cain did Abel or per alium as David did Vriah's and Ahab Naboth by Act or it may be by consent by man shall his blood be shed Secondly touching the Bishops my self knoweth that he loved them all and honoured their Calling very much being fully satisfied of the truth of their Divine and Apostolical Institution as appeareth by that learned and exquisite defence that himself most graciously made against the Presbyterians of the Episcopal Order and he was indeed a right Constantine to all the Bishops rather hiding their infirmities if he spyed any fault in them with the Lap of his Garment then any ways multiplying or publishing the same unto the People And this was a most Christian course in him for I may justly say Victima sacra Deo res est succurrere Cleris And as our Saviour saith of them He that receiveth you receiveth me And the Bishops of all other his Subjects were his most loyal Servants and most faithful Oratours never thwarting their King nor crossing any of his just Designs but ever cleaving unto his Cause and voting on his side so far as truth and right and a good Conscience would give them leave contrary to which his Majesty never desired any thing And therefore when the King saw the malice of most wicked men qui oderunt eos gratis and did bear an intestine hatred against these true Servants of God and did strive manibus pedibúsque with all their might against all justice to thrust them out of their undoubted Right by the favour we confess of our most pious Princes for him as we conceive against his own mind and to his own prejudice to please and satisfie the implacable hatred of his and their enemies to pass an Act to exclude the Bishops out of his Great Council the Parliament when above thirty Acts of Parliament had confirmed their right Interest therein since the confirmation of Magna Charta was an errour as I conceive not salvable and a fault that cannot be justly excused by his best Friends and therefore God might justly suffer all his Counsels to fail and his Counsellours to become perfidi familiares his familiar Traytours such as the Poet speaks of Saepe sub agnina latet hirtus pelle Lycaon Subque Catone pio perfidus ille Nero. And though I do not nor dare not say it was so yet I may say that for this God might so give way to his Enemies to prevail against him and to thrust him out of his Kingdom when he gave way to thrust his Embassadours out of his house which is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and even as Solomon divided God's Service betwixt God and the Idols of Zidon Moab and Ammon 1 Reg. 11. c. 12. so God divided his Kingdom betwixt his Son Rehoboam and his Servant Jeroboam so might he deal with King Charles when he yielded to expel the Bishops that were his true Friends and God's Servants out of his Council to suffer his Enemies to exclude him out of his Kingdom and not unjustly or without cause neither as the same proceeds from God whose ways are always just for who could better declare the right and truth of things unto the King then the Expounders of the Book of Truth Who could advise and direct him to make better and juster Laws then the Teachers of the Law of God and who fitter to judge of right and to require Justice to be enjoyned and practised by all People then they whose Calling is continually to call upon all men to live godly and soberly and justly in this present World Why then should they be excluded from the Seat of Justice either in the making of Laws or to see those Laws executed unless it were that the Lay-Justices might do what they would without shame and what they pleased without controul when as heretofore the reverend Presence of the Bishops and grave Divines and their sage Counsel did oftentimes stop the Current of Injustice and made some ashamed of some gross dealings that in their absence they were not ashamed to have effected and therefore I suppose I may justly say that as it was said of the Emperour Justinian when he caused Aetius his brave General to be cut off he had cut off his right Arm with his left Hand so did King Charles when he pâ—ssed that Act that prejudiced himself more then the Bishops Thirdly touching the Parliament we must understand that Parliaments were first instiâ—uted by the Kings of this Nation to inform them of the Abuses Dangers and Defects which the Lords and Peers and the wiser sort of their Subjects which each Countrey had elected and the chief Cities had chosen for that purpose had observed and to advise and consult with their King de arduis rebus Regni of these and all other difficult and great Affairs of the Kingdom as the Writs that call them together do declare and then to consider by what good means the Dangers of the Kingdom might be prevented by what Laws ' the abuses might be redressed and which ways the peace of the People might be preserved and the happiness of all his Subjects continued and enlarged and if they understood of any sorreign dangers invasions or injuries to consult how the same might be prevented and rectified And when the King understood what his Lords and Commons conceived fitting to be done He with the Advice of His Council ratified what he approved and rejected what he disliked with the usual phrase in that kind But in process of time the Parliament-men as I heard wise men say began to incroach more and more upon the Rights of Majesty upon the Power and Authority of the King especially of those Kings that either had no Right or at the best but doubtful Titles unto the Crown or those that were of less Abilities or of an easie and facile disposition and would soon be perswaded
as Justin saith it did in Semiramis Cicero pro Cor. or if not yet as Cicero saith Cùm mors extinxit invidiamres gestae sempiterna nominis gloria nituntur when death slayeth envy the virtuous Acts of good men will shine to the eternal praise and glory of their good name for as the Rain or Dew will not stick upon a Sea-gulls back so the reproaches and imputations of the malicious cannot prejudice the honour and good name of the godly quia ut malam conscientiam laudantis praeconium non sanat ita bonam non vulnerat convitium because that as no praise nor flattery can heal a bad Conscience nor make a wicked man good so no slander nor dispraise can wound a good Conscience or make a good man wicked nor diminish any of his deserved honour but as Christ Laudatur ab his ut culpatur ab illis though he be blasphemed of the Jews yet is he truly honoured of all Christians and all Saints in all Nations that do him service and sing with St. Ambrose Thou art the King of glory O Christ thou art the everlasting Son of the Father that sitteth on the right hand of God in the glory of the Father so our late good King Charles notwithstanding that false In the Royal Exchange and infamous Inscription set up where his Picture and Statue stood and notwithstanding all that the venomous mouths of malice can vomit out against him which shall vanish like the Summer's Snow or the grass upon the House-top that withereth before it be plucked up shall have his virtues his goodness and his godliness Chronicled fama perennis erit and so long as we shall be able to speak or write we shall leave it recorded as in Marble to the eternal honour of this good King and the everlasting shame of his malicious enemies both which Nec ira nec ignis Nec poterit abolere vetustas Thirdly In his Posterity For his Posterity God said not of him as he did of Coniah Write this man childless but he gave him a numerous and a glorious off-spring and as Moses saith of the first Fathers and replenishers of the World He begat Sons and Daughters and he needed not to say of them as Clytemnestra said of her Children Ista Clytemnestra digna quevela foret For when my Nuts are ripe and brown My leaves boughs are beaten down Certè ego si nunquam peperissem tutior essem Nor with the Nut-tree In felix fructus in mea damna fero But the world seeth he was most happy in them all in whom he still liveth and shall live though his enemies studied their death manibus pedibusqúe laborârunt and have used all machinations and all plots and devices that either subtlety or cruelty could invent to cut them off but God preserved them and his Providence watched over them and especially his eldest Son after a strange and almost miraculous manner from the last Fight at Worcester where through the cowardize of some the over-sight of others and as they say the treachery of some chief Commanders in his own Army and by the prudent Carriage of a brave and valiant General to give the Devil his right as the Proverb goeth such as this Age will scarce equal he had been taken or swallowed had not he that dwelleth in the Heavens most graciously preserved him in a manner as he preserved Daniel from the Lions mouths and sent his Angel as he did to Tobias to direct him in his Journey and to carry him safe through Sea and Land which is wonderful in our eyes and doth sufficiently presage that God hath kept him for some great work that in his divine wisdom he intendeth to effect by him as now we see the same begun to his great honour and our unspeakable comfort And as God hath thus mercifully preserved his Eldest Son so he hath made his second and his third Son the Duke of York and the Duke of Gloucester famous for their excellent parts and Heroical Exploits like their Brother and Ascanius-like followers of their Father's Vertues passibus aequis Neither may I here omit that Virtuous and Heroick Lady the Princess of Orange that with her Brothers and as her Brothers will perpetuate the blessed memory of that blessed King for ever who is herein not like King Henry the 8th that notwithstanding his six Wives besides all his Concubines hath not a branch of his Body that we know of remaining under the Cope of Heaven nor like Ahab and other Tyrants and wicked men whose seed for their sins God rooteth out but as God hath promised and since performed unto Abraham that his Seed should be as the Stars of Heaven for number that is innumerable and hath likewise promised to all the faithful Children of Abraham that their Generation should be blessed so he hath done it and no doubt but he will perform it to this good King to muliply his seed and to bless them for ever even as the Prophet Esay saith of all God's people Their seed shall be known among the Gentiles and their offspring among the People all that see them shall acknowledg them that they are the seed Esay lxi 9. So shall the seed of King Charles be which the Lord hath blessed Fourthly The Prophet saith the age of man is but seventy years and Pindarus saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 umbrae somnium homo man is but the shadow of a man a thing of nothing Sicque in non hominem vertitur omnis homo In his eternal selicity Man's life is but a shadow that soon vanisheth and Job saith he hath but a short time to live and that short time is full of misery interminabilis labor even an endless toyl like the tumbling of a Sysiphus stone or the filling of the fatal Tunn by King Danaus daughters where the water run out as fast as they poured it in or as the Poet saith most truly Passibus ambiguis fortuna volubilis errat Et manet in nullo certa tenáxque loco Sed modò laeta manet vultus modò sumit acerbos Et tantum constans in levitate sua est And when the affairs of this world are best and our happiness at the highest then as the very Heathens have observed they presently decline and begin to turn like the Cart wheel Res humanae in summo declinant Which warneth all on Fortune's wheel that clime To bear in minde that they have but a time And such was the time of King Charles of whom I cannot say with him that wrote A short view of the long life and reign of Henry the third A dainty piece of story presented to King James Es liii 8. but I must say the short life and reign and long troubles of Charles the First for as the Prophet saith of Christ non dimidiavit dies suos he hath not lived out half his daies being cut off è terra viventium from the land of the living at a few moneths
fall that would not help him to stand which agonized strived and sweated to keep them up And yet I will shew you greater abomination for Thirdly The greatest fault of the Bishops When the Parliament thirsted after the blood and so eagerly sought to take away the life of that good and wise Earl of Strafford and the King like a just and a Christian King would not against his Conscience consent unto his death to shed the blood of him whom he conceived if not innocent yet not worthy of death nor guilty of the crimes laid to his charge they chose some Bishops to perswade the King and to rectific his Conscience as they pretended wherein he erred and they were the heads of the people the heads of the Clergy and the chiefest amongst the Bishops two Arch-Bishops and two of the prime Bishops that I can name and these all but one * The Bishop of London which I am sure herein was the honester the wiser and the more Christian advised the King and I pray God the Earl's blood be not laid to their charge howsoever after they had been with the King the King was induced to subscribe unto his death though still with some reluctancy of his own Conscience as himself confessed which makes me to conceive it was for none other cause then as Pilate delivered Christ to be crucified for fear of some evil if he denied it or as Herod committed St. Peter unto the Goal to please the people that would needs have it so so did the Bishops so did the King though unwillingly commit this great evil to satisfie the desire of the long Parliament but O Lord I hope and am sure thy mercy is such that thou hast not laid this to the charge of him that was deceived by those guides that with Balaam had their eyes open Numbers 24.15 and yet did set a stumbling-block before the blinde and therefore are the more inexcusable who knowing the judgement of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death not onely joyn with the Parliament themselves though not in that sentence yet in approving by not disproving the sentence of his death but also be the means at leastwise ut causa sine qua non to draw the King to deliver him into the hands of his Executioners Who then but such as with the Sodomites do grope for the wall in the clear day can not see the judgment of God to be most just against us and far less then we deserve to suffer the Parliament to thrust us out of their Society when we would be companions with them in this Iniquity and to put all the Bishops out of their Honourable calling when the chiefest of them would have any Finger with the Parliament to put such an honourable person out of his life a person The just commendation of the Earl of Strafford for a true Friend of the Church that I dare say it upon my knowledg did more favour and more good to the Church and Church-men then any man except the King in these three Kingdomes for as men that saile in a Ship when a Storme cometh must all both good and bad endure the same loss so the Bishops sayling with the same winde must all perish with their heads in the same Boat And as their sufferings and the judgment of God was most justly inflicted upon them all in general as we may conceive for these master-faults and the general corruption that was amongst them not much inferior if true to those wherewith Corn. Agrippa taxeth the Roman Prelates so I could descend to everie particular man and shew you how the violent death of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and the sudden death of the Arch-Bishop of York and the Childishness of the Arch-Bishop of Armath and whatsoever disaster befell to any other of them they have for some offence or other more then most justly deserved the same But I love not to rake in the dunghil of their shame and dishonour wherein I have no other pleasure but to amplifie the Declaration of the just Judgments of God even upon these otherwise most worthy men and the faithfull witnesses of Jesus Christ and upon the sight hereof to teach every one of them and every like of them to say with Job I do abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes and to proclaim it with Saint Paule to all the World Let God be true and just and every man a lyar and every one of them to have more cause to rejoyce and to praise God that he hath so favourably spared them then either to complain and murmur or to grieve that he hath too severely dealt with them and to warn all men to consider 1 Pettr 4.17 that if these things be done in the green trees what shall be done in the drie and if judgment thus begins in the house of God and upon his own faithfull Witnesses for their delinquences what shall be end of them that obey not the Gospel of Christ Secondly 2 The Insetior Clergy For the other Clergy the Priests that have suffered and felt the rod of Gods anger within these few years wherein the Wars raged amongst us I may distribute them into these two Ranks that is either 1. Presbyterians or 2. Episcopalls or First Revel xiii 11. The Presbyterians are the false Prophets and the Beast that rose out of the Earth and they were duces omnium malorum the Fountaine from whence sprang all the mischief they hated both the King and the Bishops and therefore contrary to their oathes taken many times both of their Faith and allegiance to the King and of their submission and canonical obedience to their Diocessans have rebelled against their King and railed against their Bishops and became the incendiaries and the bellows to blow and to inflame that fierie zeal of some of our blinde zelots and the infernal malice of some others both of the Parliament Citties and Countries to dethrone the King and to degrade the Bishops And truly The causes of the differences and distast betwixt the Bishops and presbyterians 1 On the Bishops part though I have deligently searched into the cause of this mischief yet I could never fide it to be any other then First too much austerity superciliousness and neglect if not contempt of these men in some of the Bishops for which they cannot be excused when of all others they should be curteous and affable like Pompey of whom it is Recorded that no Petitioner departed from him discontented because he either granted his request or he gave such reasons with that curtesie and affability that the Petitioner could not be offended and as Titus the Son of Vespatian was wont to say non oportet quemquam a Caesaris colloquio tristem discedere so should a Bishop especially endeavour to let none of his coat and calling to depart from him in discontent Sueton. in vita Titi. if reasons and faire speeches could do the same Multum quippe placent
unsearchable ways to pull down the pride of men and to cross the ambition of aspiring spirits should not rather fear to deal unjustly and be contented with his own unblameable station then seek to raise himself by unwarrantable courses and especially such as are by the downfall of others When as Pliny writeth of the Hart-wolf Quamvis in fame mandens si respexerit aliud oblivionem cibi subrepere aiunt digressumque quaerere illud c. that be he never so hungry and eating yet if he seeth another prey Venator sequitur fugientiae capta relinquit Semper inventis ulteriora petit Ovid. Amor. lib. 2. he forsakes his meat and followeth after the same and thereby doth oftentimes like Aesops Dog lose the morsel in his mouth by snatching at the shadow in the water so the ambitious covetous wretches making no account of what they have but greedily and unjustly hunting after more do by the just judgement of God amittere certa dum incerta petunt as Plautus saith lose what they justly had by their unjust seeking of what they should not look after Secondly The Episcopal Clergy For those Clergy-men that were not the Members of the false Prophet but were Royalists and the approvers of the Episcopal Function and yet have not escaped the fierie tryal but have been driven through fire and water and have suffered many heavy things to be plundered of their Goods deprived of their Livings and often times detained in Bonds or driven to flie from their house and home I say that besides other causes best known to God into whose secrets we dare not dive we know good reasons that they were not thus handled without good cause nor any ways unjustly dealt withall by the just God as specially if there were nothing else but because they were not 1. Either right Royalists or 2. Right Episcopals but as the Poet saith of the Maremaid Desinit in piscem mulier formosa superné or like those half-Christians that begin in the spirit but end in the flesh or those Apostles that would build Tabernacles to remain with Christ on Mount Tabor where he was transfigured in glory but will flinch away and forsake him on Mount Calvary when his face was filled with ignominy so they like the Jews in Elias his time halted betwixt God and Baal were staggering betwixt the King and the Parliament and tottered betwixt the Bishops and the Presbyters as doubtful what would be the event and issue of this debate For 1. Divers indeed loved the King and approved his Cause as most just and right and their Consciences told them how far they were obliged even by God's word to honour and obey him in all his just Commands and to assist him against his unjust enemies but they like Ephraim that was as a Cake baked on the one side or like the Church of Laodicea that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were termed a righteous people and yet were neither hot nor could but luke-warm in their Profession so were these men as they pretended for the King but did nothing against the Parliament nor any thing to any purpose for the King for had they all with their tongues and with their pens hi scriptis illi verbis published and thundered it out like Trumpets unto their several Congregations and to all the World how unjustly and how unchristian-like it is for any Subjects to rebel and to warr against their King and how far they and all other true Subjects and good Christians are bound in Conscience and obliged by God's Word to defend him whom they know without question is their undoubted King and had they themselves to give good examples unto their people opened their purses and extended their bounty to the uttermost of their power and sent their Servants and their Children to assist his Majesty I doubt not but am sure of it that they had herein pleased God and in all probability defended the King and freed themselves from that yoak of Tyranny and all those burthens and afflictions that since the Parliament prevailed were imposed upon them and they were necessitated to undergo them but they were such as Pliny speaks of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mouthless men that could not or would not speak a word in the King's cause and they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men without hands able to do nothing or at least willing to do nothing for him that underwent all his trouble for the Church and Church-men And therefore when they neglected their duty to do what in their Consciences they were perswaded they should do it was most just that they should suffer what they would not suffer because the sins of omission are as punishable as the sins of commission and he that is not with me saith our Saviour is against me and he that gathereth not scattereth abroad and so the Angel cursed Meroz and cursed bitterly the inhabitants thereof because they came not forth to help Israel against Jahin King of Canaan and so they are justly punished that being in their hearts for the King they did not with their tongues hands and purses do the uttermrst of their endeavours to aid and assist the King for as the Poet saith Foederis haec species id habet concordia signum Vt quos jungit amor jungat ipsa manus Our hands should ever go with our hearts and I am confident had all we that in our hearts were for the King given to his Majesty in time the fifth part of that which the Parliament hath since plundered and wrested from us we might by the assistance of God have preserved both our King and our selves from all the miseries and losses that the Parliament hath since brought upon us and what fools were we to save our wealth and shut our purses to enrich our enemies and to impower them to destroy our selves O let ns never do so again Secondly For those that approved of Episcopacy and had subscribed to the Articles and allowed the Liturgy of our Church and were in their Consciences perswaded of the purity and excellency thereof the same being composed by those godly Martyrs that weeded all superstition and superfluities from it and then sealed the rest that was inoffensive and pious with their blood and the same also being justified by all the convocations of all the Bishops and Clergy ever since and accordingly confirmed by acts of Parliament throughout the reign of four most pious Princes for the space of well near one hundred years for them I say through hope to save and to retain their livings and so for the love of the World to comply with the Parliament and to embrace their directory so indirectly to serve God every Presbiter after his own fancy and to omit the whole set form of God's Worship injoyned to be observed in all Churches save onely the reading of a Psalm and two Chapters which notwithstanding they did not according to the Rubrick and to
righteous and just Secondly I say that there is crudelitas parcens misericordia puniens a sparing which is cruelty and a punishment that is a great mercie and such are the troubles pressures and punishments of God's Children mercies rather then judgments because they proceed not from God's Wrath but as the chastisements of a Father to his Children so do these come from the love of God towards his servants for their good whom he afflicteth here for a moment that they should be bettered and not be condemned with the Wicked hereafter for ever Thirdly I say that the Miseries Crosses and Calamities Reason 1 that the Faithfull suffer in this World are not always so much a punishment for their Sins Reason 2 though their Sins deserve much more Reason 3 and Sin is the root from whence all miseries do spring as trials and probations of their Faith and Constancie in God's love and service for so the Scripture saith that God tempted Abraham not temptatione deceptionis to deceive him as Satan tempteth us but temptatione probationis to try him whether he would obey the Commandment of God or not when he commanded him to offer his Son his onely Son Isaac for a Sacrifice unto God and so he tried the Israelites at the waters of Strife and as Moses saith in their Fourty years wandring through the Wilderness to see whether they would love the Lord their God and cleave unto him and continue faithfull in his service and so he doth plainly tell the Church of Smyrna that the Devil should cast some of them into Prison that they might be tryed and they should have Tribulation ten dayes and that is either ten years as Junius expounds it or else several times as others think yet all to this end that they might be tryed whether they would continue faithfull unto death or not and such were the afflictions of Job and of many other of the Saints of God they were justly deserved by their Sins and God in mercie sent them for their trial What the former Doctrine teaching the us And therefore whatsoever and how great soever a measure of Miseries Crosses and Troubles we have or shall suffer yet let us not faint nor be affraid of them and let not the Children of God be like the Children of Ephraim that being Harnessed and carrying Bows and so well prepared for the fight yet turned themselves back in the day of Battaile when there was most need of their assistance but as we have loved our King and have suffered all the calamities and burthens that are layd upon us for our faithfulness to him and the preservance of a good conscience so let us continue unto the end and never comply with any of the King's Enemies in the abatement of the least jot of our love and good opinion of the deceased King or with the Factious Non-conformists in the dis-service of God and the new invented Religion of our upstart Schismaticks let neither weight of trouble nor length of time change our minds because perseverance in Faith and Virtue is that which crowneth all the other Virtues and if at any time even at the last we forsake our first love and change our Faith we lose all the reward of all the former good that we have done and do by our revolt testifie that we were not good for the love of goodness nor adhered to the truth for righteousness sake but for some other by-respects for our own ends that never brings any to a good end and therefore the primitive Christians could never by any means be drawn to alter the least point of their Faith Prudent De Vincéntio and the right service of God but as Prudentius saith Tormenta carcer ungulae Stridénsque flammis lamina Atque ipsa paenarum ultima Mors Christianis ludus est All the Torments and Terrours of the World could never move them to change their mindes But some man may say Objection Providence hath decided the Controversy the King is dead Victrix causa Dits placuit and the Parliament hath prevailed against him and all his Friends and therefore what should I do now but comply with the stronger side and use that religion which they profess and that form of worship which they prescribe and so redeem the time that I have lost and repair some losses that I have sustained I answer Solution that our Saviour Christ to prevent this very Objection that the Jews might make to terrifie the Christians and to with-hold them from the faith of Christ because they had killed him and he was dead and therefore to what purpose should they adhere to a dead Saviour and hazard their lives and their fortunes to maintain the honour of a dead man that could not preserve his own life because a Living Dog is better then a dead Lion saith unto his Servant John I am he that liveth and was dead and behold or mark it well I am alive for evermore Amen and therefore let not my death deterr any man from following me or believing in me so I say that faith and truth are still alive and though oftentimes suppressed and afflicted yet not killed and therefore the Poet saith Dispaire not yet though truth be hidden oft Because at last she shall be set aloft And as another saith Terra fremat regna alta crepent ruet ortus orcus Si modo firma fides nulla ruina nocet And for King Charles I say though he is dead yet he is still alive many ways and that his blood like Abel's blood being dead yet speaketh and speaks aloud not onely to God These things were written and preached by the Author in the time of Oliver but also to every one of them that loved him that they should not so soon forget their faith and love to him that lost his life for their defence and the defence of the true Catholick Faith and though he be dead he is still alive alive with Christ in Heaven for evermore and alive with us on earth in the good that he did bring to us in the love that he shewed towards us and in the good that he left amongst us and shall we leave him and leave our love to him and our remembrance of him and forsake our faith and prove perfidious both to God and to the honour and to the memory of our deceased King and cleave to them to say and do as they say and do that have bereft us of him and would have destroyed us with him No no let us abhor them and their evil doings detest their false Faith and hate their Wickedness with a perfect hatred And though we have suffered much and may suffer much more at the hands of these Tyrants that are our new Masters yet let us submit our selves unto them but as Daniel and the rest of God's people did unto the Chaldeans full sore against their wills Iames v 11. Job lxii 12. and let us yield none otherwise to this present Government
Collections taken out of Petreius his Library God suffered this Hatto to be carried away by Devils and to be thrown headlong into a burning pit in Mount Gibel and a voice was heard in the Air at his throwing in crying out Debito supplicio scelus luere Budaeus Sic peccando lues sicque luendo rues Thus art thou worthily punished for thy wicked deeds so the Psalmist demandeth Shall they escape for their wickedness So heinous a sin is a perfideous perjury and so just is God in the Severity of his punishment for the same and the reason is Why God doth so severely punish Perjury because every perjured person makes a mock of God more then most of other Sinners do either denyeth his wisdom as not thinking him to know all things or else argueth him of injustice as not regarding the innocent and conniving with the faults and malice of the most false and wicked men which the Lord will never endure And yet with these sweet Scots these over zealous Saints Tam facile pronum est superos contemnere testes It is but a small matter to break their faith they make so small account to forswear themselves when they deem Oathes but as Lysander How the Scott account of Oaths and Dionysius said of them and Alexander the sixth used them that they were as Toys and Rattles whereby we deceive fools and delude Children for as soon as the Parliament had contrived their wicked Covenant and sent to the Scots for their conjunction and association in this impiety which they knew was the onely Bait to take them they presently swear contrary to all former Oaths and subscribe unto the same and accordingly to disannul their Allegiance to the King and to evacuate their Oaths of Fidelity to him they join in Arms with the Parliament against him to compell him because they could not perswade him to take that Covenant and thereby to forswear himself and to become as wicked as themselves And therefore Vt Carbone pollicenti quidpiam addente jus jurandum What kind of fellow Carb◠was populus Romanus vicissim juravit se illi non credere as when Carbo promised any thing and added his Oath swearing that he would perform it the people of Rome in like manner would presently swear they did not believe him even so when these men that do thus slight their Oaths do swear any thing I might swear that I will not believe them and as the Prophet Jeremy saith of the Jews Shall not the Lord visit them for these things Jer. v. 9. 29. and shall not his Soul be avenged on such a Nation as this And yet this is not all the Wickedness and impiety of these men but they do still proceed from bad to worse from worse to worst of all for as one saith most truely to betray a Kinsman Friend or Confederate is contrary to all law odious to all men injurious to the party betrayed and a most abominable impiety in the sight of God and Petrarch saith Proditore turpius nihil unquam sol vidit cujus obscoenitas tanta est ut qui artificio ejus egent execrentur artificem caeterorum scelerum famam quaerunt hujus infamiam reformident the Sun never beheld any thing filthier then a false Traytor whose Villany and Treachery is so great and so hateful that they which need and love his helpe and treacherous art do notwithstanding abhor and detest the Traytor and they which hunt after the same of other vices do exceedingly shun and fear the infamy of this vice Cicero pro Ros and the reason is rendred by Cicero Quia nemo ferè credit nisi ei quem fidelem putat because no man willingly trusteth any man but whom he thinketh and believeth to be an honest and a faithful man and therefore saith he Perditissimi hominis est fallere eum qui laesus non esset nisi credidisset it is the part and practise of the worst and vilest Wretch in the World to deceive and betray that man who had never been hurt nor betrayed if he had not trusted and believed the Traytor to be an honest man And yet when the good King by intimation from some friends understood he might be safe with these his own native Subjects who as the King saith have oft professed they fought not against him but for him as you may see in the 22. page of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In his Letter the 3. of April 1646. and as his Majesty writes to the honourable Lord Marquess of Ormond saying that having received very good security that he and all that should adhere to him should be safe in their persons honours and consciences I would all perfidious traitors would read the seventh Chapter of the 1. Book of Camerar hist Medit. that sheweth the just reward that perfidious Traytors deserve and have received for betraying their King Countrey or frien ◠in the Scottish Army that would really and effectually joyn with them and imploy their armes and forces to assist them for the procuring of a happy peace he resolved on that course that is to go unto them and thereupon with a very great hazard of his own person he adventured to pass throughout all difficulties and through the very Pikes of his Adversaries and to commit himself into the hands of these men they very fairly but most falsly made a good Merchandise of his Majesty and sold him to the Parliament at a far deerer rate then the Traytor Judas sold the Saviour of the World and the King of Kings unto the Jews and no such wonder neither because Judas was but an Ass to Lesley who had been a Pedlar or Merchant as they term Pedlars in the Country before he became Commander of an Army and therefore he knew how to sell his ware better then the other though his sin in one respect was far worse for Judas repented of his treachery and he brought the thirty pieces of silver all that he had received every penny and he threw them down contemptu quodam with a kinde of disdain and contempt and confessing his fault said I have sinned in betraying the Innocent Blood But we do not finde that either Lesley or any other of these Scottish-Merchants either repented them of their falshood and Treachery or confessed their fault or brought any part or penny of the price they received for their King back again But we finde here is in them morbus complicatus a multiplicity of all kinde of wickedness The manifold sins of the Scots First Impiety Secondly Injustice Thirdly Coveteousness Fourthly Perfidiousness Fifthly Perjury Sixthly Treachery and what not And shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord and shall not my soule be avenged on such a Nation as this Yes certainly How justly God hath requited the treacherous Scots God will visit them and in some measure he hath held his visitation amongst them already and he hath sent his Deputies to redress