some care of a Godly life and to repent them of their wickedness And therefore well did Moses and we with Moses wish that men would consider their latter end And yet this is not the end of all for after death comes judgement And so Secondly 2 Judgment and that two sold This judgement is either 1 Particular or 2 General 1. As soon as ever the soul is parted from the body 1. Particular before the body is laid in the grave the soul of the wicked is fetched by the Devils and carried into the place of torments and the soul of the godly is received by the Angels into Abrahams bosom Luke 16.22 23. as our Saviour sheweth most plainly in the story of Dives and Lazarus And 2 Because the whole world 2. General both of men and Angels might see and approve the just judgement of God and that the whole man both body and soul might receive the full reward of their due deserts the Lord hath appointed a day saith the Apostle in the which he will judge the world in righteousnes Act. 17 31. that is by Jesus Christ And this is that day which Christ and his Apostles and all the faithful preachers of Gods word would have all men always to remember and to set it before their eyes For so Saint Hierom saith Whatsoever I doe whether I eat or drink or whatsoever else I am about me thinks I hear that dolefull voice of the Arch-angel sounding in mine eares and saying surgite mortui venite ad judicium arise you dead and come to judgement saith the Holy Father I tremble all my body over and so Felix though he was but a Heathen trembled Act. 24.25 as Saint Paul reasoned of righteousness temperance and judgement to come And so indeed it should make any heart to tremble that would seriously consider but these two things Two things to be considered concerning this judgment 1 The manner of Christ his coming For 2 The terror of his proceeding For First in that day there shall be signs in the Sun and in the Moon and in the Stars The Sun shall be darkned the Moon shall not give her light the Stars shall fall from the skies and all the powers of heaven shall be moved the Elements shall be dissolved with heat and the earth shall be consumed with fire Whereby you may see what a dreadful thing is sin for what have these senseless creatures deserved that they should be thus severely punished and thus travel in sorrow and pain but because they rose not up against us when we rose up against God He will therefore fight against them because they did not fight against us when we doe fight against him And what a fearful contagion of sin is this that subjecteth the very heavens unto vanity And therefore most wretched are we in whom dwelleth nothing else but heaps of sin and iniquity But to go on The distress of Nations how great Then the distress of nations shall be great and men shall wither away for fear saith our Saviour for when destruction shall be dispatched as a whirlwind and God shall burn the earth as Holophernes did the Countrey of Damascus what fears think you shall then affright the hearts of men and what heapes of perturbations shall run upon the damned sort when they shall see all these things playing their last act upon the fiery stage of this world And then they shall see the son of man cloathed with the clouds as with a garment riding upon the heavens The glorious manner of Christ his coming as upon an horse and coming flying as upon the wings of the wind in the glory of his father with his Angels and what manner of glory is that Moses tells you that the Lord our God is a God of Gods Deut. 10. and a Lord of Lords a great God mighty and terrible that accepteth no person nor taketh reward and Daniel describing the great Majesty of God saith that his garments were as white as snow the haires of his head like the purest wool his throne like the fiery flame and his wheeles like burning fire Dan. 7.9 10. and there issued forth a fiery stream and went out from before him a thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him And it is recorded of the Angels that one of them slew all the first-born of Egypt in one night and that another of them made such a havock in the army of the Assyrians that a hundred fourescore and five thousand of them were all slain in one night and were laid on the ground as corn by a sickle And if one Angel could do such Tragick feates The great power 〈◊〉 the Angels what shall become of the enemies of God and wicked men when Christ like a man of warr shall buckle his harness unto his side and come in the glory of his Father with so many myriads of heavenly Angels attending him Eusebius Emysenus demandeth Si talis tantus sit terror venientis quis poterit terrorem sustinere judicantis if his coming be such and so terrible who shall be able to endure the terror of his judgement And if the Israelites durst not abide his Majesty when he came to deliver the Law how shall the wicked abide and stand before him when he cometh to render vengeance unto them for transgressing his Lawes And yet they must endure it And it will be very terrible unto them For 2. In that day saith our Saviour He i. e. God shall send his Angels with the sound of Trumpets and with a mighty cry to raise the dead and to gather together the Elect from the four windes and from the one end of the world to the other and to bring all men before the judgment seat of Christ for I have sworn by my self saith the Lord the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness Esay 45.23 and shall not return that every knee shall bow unto me and not one man shall be hidden from my presence Alas beloved if all the bodies of one Army did lie naked upon one heap what a ruthfull sight would it make And what a spectacle then will that be when so many myriads of men like the sand of the Sea shall stand quaking and trembling before the face of Christ For Then their eyes shall be opened and what shall the wicked see but all things crying vengeance against them for above them shall be an angry Judge beneath them Hell like a boyling furnace ready to receive them on the right hand their sins accusing them How the wicked shall be encompassed with miseries on the left hand the devils ready to torment them within them a guilty conscience like Prometheus vulture continually gnawing them without them all damned souls bewailing and on every side the world burning O good God what will these wicked wretched sinners do being thus enclosed with
taedebat apprehendere quia priusquam pene teneretur avolabat if any prosperous thing in this world did seem to smile and offer it self unto me I was loath to take it because that before I could scarce enjoy it it was presently snatched from me For 1. Friends are like the waters of Tenia sliding away and turning as the wheele of your fortune turneth 2. Riches saith the wise man betake themselves to their wings as an Eagle and the sea can drown it fire consume it servants waste it and thieves bereave us of it Prov. 23.5 3. Honour is but Vertues shadow a winde that maketh fooles to swell but cannot satisfie any wise man 4. Beauty is such a thing as the Daughters of Vanity can tell you that the Sun will tanne it a scarr will blemish it sickness waste it and age consume it away as we read fair Helen wept when she saw the wrinckles of her old face which all your black patches cannot make young 5. And for our Health which is the greatest happiness in this life we see mans body is subject to a thousand diseases fraught with frailties within wrapped in miseries without uncertain of life and sure of death And so all the things of this world are but like the Apples of Sodome pleasant to the eyes and provoking to the appetite but vanishing into smoak when they are touched with the teeth And therefore our whole life is but painted over as some Ladies do their faces with vain semblances of Beauty and Pleasure and it is attended on the one side with whole troopes of sorrows sicknesses wants and discontents and on the other side with uncertainty of continuance and certainty of dissolution And 2. The uncertainty of our state Rom. 9.21 2. For our state all is in the hand of God as the clay is in the hand of the Potter who can of the same lumpe make one vessel to honour and another to dishonour and the Heathens conceived all was at the disposing of fortune which they according to their ignorance took for God and said Te facimus fortuna Deam When they saw that as the Poet saith Vna eademque manus vulnus opemque tulit The same hand that hath cast us down can raise us up and the same God that raised us to honour can bring us down to the dust and can either prolong our dayes or cut them off at his pleasure And who then would not serve such a Master and be affraid to offend such a Lord as hath our life our wealth and our woe in his own hands and at his own disposing O consider this all you that forget God and think of it lest he take you away and tear you all to pieces or if this cannot move you to fear God Then 2. Cast your eyes before you 2. To look unto the things that are to come to look unto the things that are to come and must fall upon the world and they are many but especially and inevitably these four 1. Death 2. Judgement 3. Heaven 4. Hell And these are quatuor novissima terribilissima the four last things and the most terrible things that can be to all wicked men to think of them and they may serve as four excellent Preachers to disswade and terrifie all men from evil and to call them continually to the service of God For the Son of Syrach saith Whatsoever thou takest in hand Eccles 7.36 remember the end and thou shalt never do amisse And 1. Death makes an end of our life 1. Of death and before it shuts the eyes of our bodies it commonly openeth the eyes of our consciences And then every man shall see his owne state though he seldome or never thought of the same before For 1. The state of the wicked Revel 12.12 1. The wicked man shall see all his sins set before his face and Satan will now bestir himself to gain his soul for he knoweth that his turn is short and therefore he will tell him that if he would have entred into life Rom. 2.13 he should have kept the commandments that not the hearers but the doers of the Law shall be justified that if the just shall scarce be saved where shall he being such a wicked wretch as he is appear when as the Apostle tells him plainly that neither adulterer nor fornicator nor covetous person nor the like Traytor Rebel Perjurer 1 Cor. 6.9 10. or such other shall inherit the kingdome of God and so what the Preachers of God now cannot beat into the thoughts of these careless men this damned spirit will then irremovably settle in their deepest considerations O then what agonies and perplexities will tear the wofull hearts of these wicked men In that day saith the Lord I will cause the Sun to go down at noon Amos 8.9 10. and I will darken the earth in the clear day I will turn their feasts into mournings and their songs into lamentations that is I will make all those things that were wont most sweetly to delight them now most of all to torment them for now that pleasure which they had of sin shall turn to be as bitter as gall when they do see that as the Father saith transit jucunditas non reditura manet anxietas non peritura and now they must die and live they can no longer and Satan whose will they did and whose wayes they followed all their life will not forsake them at their death but will say Me you have served and from me you must expect your wages For so we read that the Devil assailed some of the best Saints as Saint Martin Saint Bernard Ignatius Eusebius and others and if these things be done in a green tree what shall be done in a withered saith our Saviour If he be so busie about the Saints what will he do to sinners And this is the state of a wicked man at his dying day 2. The state of the godly But 2. In the death of the godly it is not so for having served God all his life he hath hope in his death and he knoweth not whom he needs to fear Prov. 14.32 2 Tim. 1.12 because he knoweth whom he hath believed and when his body is weakest his faith is strongest and therefore with Saint Paul he desires to be dissolved and he longs for death that he may be with him which was dead and is alive and liveth for evermore and he is well contented that his body shall go to the grave that his soul may go to glory and that his flesh shall sleep in the dust that his spirit may rejoyce in heaven And this is the state of the godly man at the day of his death And therefore if men would seriously consider this before they come to this then certainly the fear of the most fearful death of the wicked and the love of the most comfortable death of the godly would make them to have
acervus auri Aegroto domini deducunt corpore febres They can neither deliver us from death nor preserve us in health nor yet keep us out of prison when God delivereth us into the hands of our enemies And therefore the wise man saith That when the rich mens eyes are opened they themselves will cry out Sap. 5.8 What hath pride profited us Or what hath the pomp of riches availed us Just nothing because they are but like the Spiders web that as the Prophet saith will make no garment for us 3. They are all deceitful 3. All the things of this world are deceitful and do deceive most of those men that love them and rely upon them for so our Saviour in the Parable of the Sower saith The seed which fell among thorns Matth. 13.22 is like unto him that heareth the Word of God and presently the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choak the Work for rich men and all other worldlings are like unto him that in his sleep dreameth he feasteth and is at a pleasant banquet filled with all dainty fare but when he awaketh behold his belly is empty and his soul is hungry And so the Prophet David saith The rich men have slept their sleep and when they awaked they found nothing in their hands And so now they are asleep and dream that themselves are the most happy men in the world and the dejected Servants of God to be the most miserable but when death openeth their eyes and their souls are once out of their bodies they do see that now all worldly things have forsaken them and they must go naked of all wealth and disrobed of all honour before the seat of Judgment to give a strict account of their Stewardship how they have gotten and how they have imployed all their wealth and then they will confess as you see they do in the fifth of Wisdom Sap. 5. What the worldlings at last do confess O how were we deceived for these are they Quos habebamus in risum whom we derided and had in a parable of reproach we fools thought their life madness and their end without honour and our selves only happy but now they are among the Sons of God and their lot among the Saints Sâ—p 5.3 â— 5. and we have erred from the way of truth and the light of understanding hath not shined unto us Et sic decipimur specie recti and thus in all these things we do but as Ixion did imbrace a Cloud for Juno and so deceive our selves with the shadow of things 4. The things of this world as riches honours 4. They are hurtful and the like are not only deceitful but also hurtful and so hurtful that the Apostle saith They that will be rich do fall into temptations and a snare and into many hurtful and foolish lusts 1 Tim. 6.9 which drown men in destruction and perdition For as the Vipers do gnaw out the bowels of their own Dams so the riches honours authorities and the like things of this world do many times prove the only bane and poyson that destroy their owners both in this world and in the world to come As witnesseth the story of that rich Roman Citizen who having done nothing against the Commonwealth nor any man else that he knew of yet being desirous to see the proscribed he finds himself with the first in the Proscription and then he cries out How vanities and vain desires have destroyed many men That it was his fair house at Nola and not any thing that ever he did had undone him and caused him to be proscribed So Plotius Plancus the brother of Minutius Plancus Consul and Censor of Rome was so rich and lived so delicately that being sought for by the Souldiers during the Proscription of the Triumvirate Valer. Maxim l. 6. c. 18. to be put to death and being hid in a very sure place by the faithfulness of his Servants he was betrayed and discovered only by the smell of his perfumes as was also Mulcasses King of Tunis discovered in like manner Jovius hist l. 47. as Paulus Jovius recordeth whereupon the Poet saith So many men whom vertue might have saved Are by fond pleasures of their lives bereaved And so many Women too For Demonica a Maid of the City of Ephesus promised to Brennus that besieged the same City to deliver up the Town unto him if for a recompence he would give her all the golden Chains and Bracelets of the Gaules to which Brennus yielded and after he got the City he caused all his people to cast all the golden Jewels they wore about them into the lap of this covetous Maid and she being opprest with the weight of so much gold yielded her life under it And Titus Livius relateth the like story of the daughter of Sp. Tarpeius But to search no further for ancient examples to confirm this point How many men have we seen searched after imprisoned and killed for being rich and of great possessions and being in honour and authority which perhaps had never been looked after if they had been poor and of no command and had neither place nor wealth to lose and their persecutors to gain nothing thereby For you know the old saying Cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator The poor traveller that hath never a penny to lose never fears the thief when the rich Merchant oftentimes loseth both his life and his treasure And Dives the rich Glutton will tell you that the riches and treasures of this world do not only prejudice their possessors in this life but most of all in the life to come And therefore well doth bur Saviour advise us and say Labour not for the food that perisheth that is John 6.27 labour not so much for any thing that vanisheth and is of no certain continuance but labour for that which endureth for ever and which will bring us to eternal life And well doth he here perswade us not to be too careful for the things of this world especially because they are all so vain so fruitless so perfidious and so pernicious unto their possessors that too greedily do hunt after them And so much shall serve to be spoken for the Negative part of this Text that teacheth us What we should not do 2. In the Affirmative part Christ setteth down 2. The Affirmative part What we should do that is Seek the Kingdom of God c. In which words you may observe these two parts 1. A Precept 2. A Promise Or else 1. A Work 2. A Reward And 1. In the Work or Precept you have three things to be observed 1. In the work three things to be considered 1. An act to be done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seek ye 2. The things that are to be sought and they are two things 1. The Kingdom of God 2. His Righteousness 3. The time when we are to seek them first
none was healed from the stinging of the fiery Serpents but they only that looked up on the Brasen Serpent so it is impossible for any man to be healed from the poyson of sin but by a lively quick-sighted Faith in Jesus Christ and him crucified because Christ tells us plainly that none cometh to the father but by him Joh. 14.6 4 Resemblance 4. As all that were bitten by the fiery Serpents were cured by looking upon the Brasen Serpent whether they were before it or behind it on the right hand or the left if they turned their eys to the Brasen Serpent they were healed so all that went before Christ as Adam Enoch Noah Abraham Moses David and the rest of the holy men of the Old Testament and all that lived from the beginning of the world before he was lifted up and all we that now live long after his lifting up and all the men that were since or that now are in the East or in the West in the North or in the South if with the eys of Faith they look to Christ and believe in this lifted up Son of Man that is their Crucified Saviour they shall be saved from all their sins for so Christ himself here testifieth to Nicodemus that he was to be lifted up that is to be Crucified and like this Serpent fastened to his Cross Joh. 3.15 that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life And therefore away with them that do abridg and abbreviate the great mercie and favour of God towards his people as if he were a respecter of persons and sent his Son to die for some chosen men that he pleaseth to elect out of all the rest of the relapsed posterity of Adam No no beloved God is no such niggard of his Graces but as he openeth his hands and filleth all things living with plenteousness Ps 145.16 and here caused the Brasen Serpent to be lifted up on high in the open Wilderness and not in a secret corner where all and not a few might look up unto it so he gave his Son to be born in the Stable of a publick Inne where all travellers may boldly and justly challenge a room to lodg in and he was lifted up and Crucified not in the walled City where the enemies as we were all enemies unto God may not enter but without the gates as the Apostle noteth it and upon Mount Calvarie where every man might come and see him and so he calleth all men to come unto him and never denied or refused any man that came as he ought to come unto him And therefore if any man receives not the grace of Christ culpa non est vocantis sed renuentis the fault is in our selves and not in God that desires not the death of a sinner not taketh any pleasure in the miseries of his creatures but tells us plainly Perditio tua ex te because we will not look up to him 5. As this Brasen Serpent was first moulded and made 5. Resemblance and then hung up and fastened on a pole and exposed to all winds and weathers not for its own good nor any evil that it had don but for the good and benefit that redounded to others and for the evil that others had committed and could no other way be helped but by looking up to this harmless and innocent Serpent so the Son of man was contented to be made Man and then to be lifted up and Crucified or fastened to his Cross not for any benefit unto himself who was in the form of God equal to his Father from all eternity nor for any evil that he had done who by the confession of his enemies was a just man and did all things well but exinanivit se ipsum he emptied himself of all his Glory and was made Man for us and for our benefit as the prophet Esay sheweth Esai 9 5. Vnto us a Son is born and unto us a Son is given Dan. 9 76. and he underwent that shameful death and suffered those bitter paines not for himself saith Daniel but for our sins saith S. Peter 1 Pet. 2.21 that we by his stripes might be healed and our sinful souls cleansed by his blood which could not otherwise be redeemed with a thousand Rams and ten thousand rivers of Oyl And yet I must tell you how unlikely in the judgment of the world both the one and the other was this way to be effected For It is affirmed by some Naturalists that if one be poysoned with the Sting and Venom of a Serpent the very looking upon shining Brass is present death unto him that is stinged and how then should it be likely to be believed that the looking upon the brazen Serpent should or could be the only means to save these peoples lives from the venom of the fiery Serpents Even so when Christ told the Jews that If he were lifted up from the earth John 12.32 he would draw all men unto him that is if he were put to death his death should give life or at least be sufficient to give life to all men the people answered We have heard out of the Law that Christ abideth for ever and how sayest thou That the Son of man must be lifted up and so by his death restore life unto the world This is a riddle to us not possible to be believed that thy death should preserve our life Esay 55.8 But you must know That Gods wayes are not as our wayes nor his thoughts as our thoughts for we say with the Philosopher that Ex nihilo nihil fit but God made heaven and earth and all the things that are therein out of nothing and he drew the light out of darkness and the beauty and well-composed frame of this universal World out of a rude unshapen Chaos And therefore when God hath appointed and commanded any thing to be done and promised it should produce such and such effect it is not for us to doubt or to examine whether such a cause can bring forth such effect or to consider whether it be likely or unlikely to do the same but we ought to do what God commandeth us whatsoever it be and to believe whatsoever he saith and be sure of whatsoever he promiseth how unlikely soever it be to be effected for so when God said unto Abraham that Sarah should have a Son that is Isaac and that she should be the mother of nations and Kings of people should be of her which should spring from Isaac and afterward bad Abraham to sacrifice his Son Isaac which made the former promise very unlikely and in mans judgment altogether impossible that he should be sacrificed and killed and yet be the father of so many Nations yet seeing God commanded him to do it Abraham neither doubted of Gods promise nor disobeyed his command but presently carried him to Mount Moriah to be sacrificed So when God commanded Moses to
lift up his Rod over the Sea and promised the Sea should be divided Exod. 14.16 so that the children of Israel might go on dry ground through the midst of the Sea and so likewise when he commanded him to smite the Rock of stone and promised that the waters should flow thereout which had no possibility with all the power of nature to be done yet Moses never doubted of Gods Promise but presently did what God commanded both in the one and the other Even so when God commands us to do any thing and promiseth we shall have such and such blessings by doing it as to have our sins remitted by being baptized in a little water and by the worthy receiving of a little Sacramental Bread and Wine to injoy all the benefits of the body and bloud of Christ and by a stedfast faith in the death of Christ to be assured of eternal life how unlikely soever they may seem to be we ought with Abraham and Moses and the rest of Gods faithful Servants most readily do what God biddeth us and undoubtedly believe what he promiseth And though it may seem a strange wonder that cannot sink into worldly mens heads that Christ his death should procure to us eternal life and therefore the preaching of this doctrine is to the Jews that looked for such a Christ that should abide alive for ever a stumbling-block and to the Grecians that gloried only in their eloquence and ascribed all things with Aristotle to their natural causes meer foolishness 1 Cor. 1.23 as the Apostle testifieth Yet if you truly weigh this doctrine of our deliverance from eternal death How just it is that the death of Christ should free all men that believe in him from eternal death and obtaining of everlasting life by the death of Christ we shall find it very consonant to just reason and no wayes to be doubted of and that in a twofold respect 1. Because that although we for our sins deserved most justly to die the death that is to suffer the eternal wrath of God whom we have and do so highly offend yet seeing it Reason 1 pleased Christ out of his great pity to our miserable condition and his infinite love to mankind to become our Surety and to die and so satisfie the wrath of God for us Is it not agreeable to reason that Christ paying our debt and suffering for our sins as the Prophet testifieth he hath done we should be discharged and have our lives spared For so when the Officers came to apprehend Christ and to arrest him and he asked them Whom seek ye And they answered Jesus of Nazareth And he said I am he and if you seek me then let these that are my Disciples and do believe in me go their way It is apparent by these words that Christ held it agreeable to all reason that if he paid the debt the debtor should be free and if he suffered death for us we should be delivered from that death which we deserved Reason 2 2. Because that although the death of Christ was but the death of one man and we that sinned and deserved death are many thousand millions of men even all the posterity of Adam yet the death of this one man Propter unionem hypostaticam by reason of the hypostatical union of the Godhead with the manhood in the person of that one man whereby he is not only man but also God himself his death being the death of God must needs be of sufficient worth and value to satisfie God and be more satisfactory to his justice then the death of all Men on Earth and all the Angels in Heaven in as much as the death of the Creator is of more infinite value then the death of all creatures And therefore well might Christ say and happy are we that he said it That the Son of man must be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And I if I be lifted up or being lifted up will draw all men unto me that is all which will believe in me And so you have seen what was typified in the Wilderness unto the Jews by the brazen Serpent was presented and performed to us by Jesus Christ to whom for his infinite love and favour towards us and his bitter Passion and death when he was lifted up and crucified for us to deliver us from eternal death be all honour and glory and thanks and praise for ever and ever Amen A SERMON PREACHED AT THE PUBLICK FAST The eighth of March in St MARIES OXFORD Before The Great Assembly of the Members Of the HONOURABLE HOUSE OF COMMONS There Assembled By GRYFFITH WILLIAMS L. Bishop of OSSORY And Published by their Special Command JOHN 14.6 I am the way the truth and the life London Printed by J. Hayes 1664. Die Sabbati nono Martii 1643. ORdered that Mr. Bodvell and Mr. Watkins give the Bishop of Ossory thanks and desire him to Print his Sermon Noah Bridges THE ONLY VVAY TO PRESERVE LIFE Amos 5.6 Seeke the Lord and you shall live LIght is the first born of all the distinguished Creatures The excellency of the light the first word that the Eternal Word after so many ages of silence uttered forth was Let there be light Gen. 1.3 light that giveth life to all Colours that is the mother of all beauties which hath no positive contrary in nature which maketh all things manifest to the detestation of all evil and the crowning of every good and which is a creature so beloved of the Creator that he calleth himself by this name saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 John 1.5 and he makes it the most worthy associate of Truth when he saith Send forth thy light and thy truth therefore Light is a Jewel Psal 43.3 not to be valued by the judgment of man And yet the sight by which we partake of all the benefits of the light and without which the light will avail us nothing nor yield us any comfort as good old Toby sheweth saying Quale gaudium est mihi qui in tenebris sedeo is but one sense and but scarce the fifth part of the happiness of the sensitive Creature a small thing in respect of that most invaluable good which is termed Life Life how precious and which is of more worth to every living creature then is all the world for the Father of Lies spake Truth herein though to a lying end That Skin for Skin and all that ever a man hath Job 2.4 he will give for his life Therefore as the greatest threatning that God laid upon Adam to deter him from Rebellion and to detain him within the Compass of his Obedience Gen. 2.17 was In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death so the greatest Blessing that he promiseth to any man for all his Service is Life or to live â—s The just shall live by faith Hab.
vengeance in his anger so when the Jews were grown incorrigible he saith Jer. 21.7 He will deliver them into the hand of those that seek their life and they shall smite them with the edge of the sword and shall not spare them nor have pity nor have mercy upon them and such a sin is murder and the shedding of innocent bloud whereof the Lord saith Deut. 19.13 21 Et vide Ezek. 8.17 18. Thine eye shall not pity him but life shall go for life And such a sin is the sin of Rebellion which is as the sin of Witchcraft and spreadeth it self like a Gangrene and infecteth many millions of men and therefore the resisting of authority deserveth more severity and less clemency than any sin as you may see it in the punishment of Corah Dathan and Abiram who in the judgement of God himself deserved no less than to be consumed with fire from Heaven Rebellion how horrible a sin or to be sent down quick to Hell which in the judgment of Optatus is so fearful and unparallel'd a vengeance shewing the transcendent odiousness of rebellion that the like cannot be found since the creation of the world because rebelling against lawful Authority is no less than fighting against the divine Majesty and therefore the most holy Saints of the Primitive Church that were most innocent in all their lives would notwithstanding suffer the most cruel death rather than they would resist this ordinance of God or otherwise if they had so impudently reviled their Heathen Judges and so rebelliously resisted their persecuting Kings as you see many have done of late against the most gracious Princes the Church had never canonized them for godly Martyrs but had registred them among the most wicked Malefactors 3. Contempt of the Priest was the last The third sin of the Israelites Ver. 10. but not the least sin whereby the Israelites lost the Lord when they hated him that rebuked in the gate and abhorred him that spake uprightly that is the Prophet or Preacher saith Cornelius à Lapide because the Jews had their Tribunals and Judgements in the gates of their Cities as Moses sheweth and therefore Jeremy Amos Deut. 21.10 and the rest of Gods servants sate also in the Gates as you may see * Jer. 17 19. Esdras l. 2. c. 8. to rebuke the wrong Judgements as St. Hierom and Lyra note and to speak uprightly that is Perfectum sanctum sermonem a perfect and a just Judgement as the Septuagint and Symmachus render it and this the people hated and abhorred which is the height of all iniquity to reject the Prophet and to exclude his counsel from our judgements Sinners that reject their Teachers and Pastors are incurable for as the Gout is the shame of the Physitian because he cannot cure it so this is the plague of the soul and a sin that is incurable for though a man commits many and great sins and leads a very dissolute life yet if he will dutifully hearken unto counsel and patiently bear with his rebukes there is great hope of his amendment but as the diseased that is deadly sick and yet like Harpaste that would not be perswaded that she was blind though she could see no more than a milstone will not believe that he is sick and cannot indure the sight of his Physitian runs on a pace to death without any hope of life so the Judges that hate the Prophets company and abhor the assistance of the Priests in their judgements as the Israelites now did and that sinner who doth hate his Teacher and shuns the society of him that seeks to save his soul have little sign of grace and as little hope of eternal life and therefore the Scripture describing the deadly estate of the most desperate sinners such as with Ahab had sold themselves to work wickedness saith they are like those that contend with their Priests Hos 4.4 of whom there is little hope and less good to be expected any waies for is it possible that a blind man should find his way when he beats away his Leader Or that a child should thrive when he bites and beats away his nurse that gives him suck So it is impossible that they should do well which hate the light or that they should ever learn any good which abhor the Teachers of all godliness Gem. de coelo l. 1 c. 22. Job 9 9. The Preachers like the Hyades Geminianus tells us thâ—t the Ministers of Gods word are like the Hyades whereof Job speaketh 1. Because the Hyades or Pleiades as we translate them are watry stars so called from their effects the word Hyades of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying nothing else but rain So the Preâ—chers pour Respect 1 out the showers of heavenly doctrine upon the barren ground of our souls to make them fruitful even as Moses saith My doctrine shall drop as the rain Deut. 32 2. and my speech shall distill as the dew Respect 2 2. Because that as when the Pleiades do arise the daies lengthen the Sun is hotter and the Earth produceth more plentiful fruits so by the preaching of Gods word the light of truth is increased the heat of Christian love and charity is kindled and the holy fruit of all good works is increased Therefore if the Preachers be as the rain to make us fruitful as the light to direct our waies as our Fathers to instruct us and as the Angels of God to bring us into heaven as the Scripture testifieth that they are then I beseech you tell me what holy fruiâ— what heavenly light or what Christian good can be in them that despise their Teachers and expell their fathers from their societies Yet this was the sin of the Israelites and I fear we cannot free our selves from it for how have they been used since the beginning of this Parliament Was not he most cried up that cried most against the Church and Church-men And men of no note became famous in the House by making invective speeches against the Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 4.13 Heb. 11.38 and 37. and he was deemed most eloquent that was most bitter against them and how hâ—ve they been handled ever since Voted out of all their means and not any thing left them to buy them bread graviora morte and being thus made as the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things unto this day as the Apostle speaketh they are either cast with Joseph into the dungeon or driven to wander in desarts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth being destitute afflicted tormented And I may say of some of them with Jeremy Jer. 5.9 they that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets they that were clad in scarlet embrace dunghils they sigh and seek bread and have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve their souls Lam. 4 5. 1.11 And shall I not
wholly frustrated because he knew Way 1 God was of pure eys and could not endure rebellion and disobedience to his commands and therefore thought he if I can seduce Adam to eat the forbidden fruit I shall evacuate that design of God and break that Gordian-knot all to pieces And when he saw that this Plot could not prevail to annihilate the decree of God to love and to unite man unto himself but that the wisedom and goodness of God found out a way to verifie that saying qui struit insidias aliis sibi damna dat ipse he that digs a Pit for another shall fall into it himself when God said Gen. 3. that the seed of the woman which Satan had seduced should break the Serpents head and so bring more damage to the Devil then to either Man or Woman then Way 2 2. He inticed Cain to kill his owne Brother Abel still to provoke God against Man and to hinder this Union betwixt God and Man and when he saw that God in mercy had granted another seed by the birth of Seth then he thought to work more wisely and more generally to corrupt the whole World and to make the Sons of God whom he loved to run a Whoring after the Daughters of those men whom he hated And seeing this device that was so devilish yet would not do the deed that he desired but that Noah found favour in the sight of God to preserve the generation of mankind and that God which is the God of truth would not alter the thing that is gon out of his mouth Then Way 3 3. He puts off the shape of the Serpent and leaves to play the Fox and putteth on the Lions skin and like a Lion indeed he seeks by his cruelty at sundry times and in divers manners to destroy that blessed seed from whence Christ the God and Man should spring As 1. When he stirred up and moved wicked Pharaoh Exod. his first-born Tyrant to kill all the male children of the Israelites from whom God had promised unto Abraham the blessed seed should spring And then raised up proud Haman to root out all the Jews and the whole off-spring of David to whom God had sworn and made a faithful Oath that the Messias should come out of his Loyns and after that caused Antiochus whose sirname Epiphanes signified Illustrious but his deeds were most odious to persecute all the Jews and to butcher the best of them that so he might hinder the birth of that blessed Seed and crush the Chickin while it was in the shell And when all this his subtletie and cruelty could not serve the turn but that Christ was born indeed and had hypostatically united our flesh unâ—o his deity Then Way 4 4. He playes the Devil indeed and stirreth up Herod to kill all the Children that were in Bethlehem and in all the Coasts thereof that so by that means he might kill Christ and when he seeth he could not kill him he laboureth to corrupt him to make him to forsake his God as he had done and to throw himself down from the Pinnacle and to break his neck or to fall down and worship him for he knew this if he could effect it would unty the knot and hinder the progress of Gods purpose But as holy Job affirmeth non est potestas quae comparetur ei Job 42.2 and saith Job 24.2 to God I know that thou canst do every thing and that no thought of thine can be hindred Quia non est consilium contra Dominum because no counsel can prevail against the Lord therefore his counsel did stand and his will is done and the Word is made flesh John 1.14 and we saw his glory as the glory of the onely begotten of the Father full of grace and truth And yet for all this though he seeth the Promise of God fulfilled and his truth accomplished and God united to our nature he still persisteth in his pride and prosecuteth his malice against man to frustrate and oppose the will of God And though Christ by his death which he brought him to hath overcome death and led captivity captive yet doth he never leave to hinder men to reap the benefit of Gods favour and the fruits of the death and passion of Jesus Christ but fostering still his pride and rebellion against God and his malice against man he entereth into the hearts and possesseth the very souls of all wicked men so that he maketh some of them to become meer Atheists scarce to believe that there is a God and many more to deny the mysterie of Christs Incarnation as do the Jews and Turks to this very day and others he bewitcheth to believe most damnable errors as with that Dog Servetus to deny the humanity of our Saviour Christ and others to blaspheme against his Deity as that accursed Arius and his followers and so he still laboureth to hinder this truth to be believed at all or at least not to be believed in that manner as it should be Zanchius de Operibus Dei l. 4. c. 2. And all this you may more amply see in Rupertus Tuitiensis de victoria Verbi Dei and in Zanchius de Operibus Dei de peccato Angelorum And this consideration of the Pride and Rebellion of the Devil against God and his implacable malice against man should teach us all to take special care to beware of him and to pray to God to bless us from him and not to have him so often as we have him in our mouths nor especially in our hearts So you have seen that although by nature the Devils were good and so created good by God yet by their pride and continual rebellion against God they made themselves Devils and the Authors of all evil for evermore Yet lest we should erre about their nature Two points to be considered about the nature of the Devils as they are now in statu corrupto corrupted by their own wickedness we are to consider these two points 1. That there are many things that in themselves are good in them 2. That all those good things are perverted and corrupted by them to a perverse and wicked end For 1. You must understand that by their fall they have not Point 1 lost all those endowments and excellencies which God had given them in their creation and whatsoever they do retain which they have had from God the same is and must needs be good but their natural substance and their natural qualities as their knowledge their understanding wisdom agility invisibility immortality strength and the like are all given them by God and they are the works of God and these in themselves simply considered must needs be good because all that God made were and still are exceeding good And therefore let not wicked men oppressors Church-robbers Adulterers proud persons and the like That men should not think it enough to have some good things in them
cleansed before we can receive the graces of God Spirit because as Solomon saith The holy Spirit of discipline flieth from deceit and dwelleth not in the body that is subject unto sin and can no more stand in one heart than the Ark of God and the Idol Dagon could stand upon one Altar and then as S. Chrysostom saith If thine hand be full of Counters thou must cast them out of thine hand before thou canst receive it full of Gold so if thy heart be full of sins thou must cleanse the same and cast thy sins away before there can be any room for the graces of God Therefore our Saviour first of all telleth us what we should not do that is not to be too carefull and solicitous for the things of this world but to take heed and beware of covetousness And to that end he laboureth much and produceth many reasons to pluck up out of our hearts this evil weed of Covetousness which as the Apostle saith is the root of all wickedness And the Summ and substance of the whole Discourse is this that of all the wealth and riches of the whole world 1 Tim. 6.10 no man no King no Lord can have any more but his food and rayment And the Providence of God hath so wisely disposed things that every man the poorest man hath these things though not so excellent yet competent while he liveth as we see the poor Labourer hath his food of coarse bread and roots as healthfull to him and his sleep as delightfull and oftentimes better then the daintiest Diet is to the greatest Glutton and the mean man that is clad in Frize or with John Baptist in Camels hair may be and is as well preserved from the heat of Summer and the cold of Winter and hath his nakedness as well covered thereby which is all the use and end of apparel as they that are clothed in Purple or Scarlet or fine Linnen And this Providence of God to find competent food and rayment for all men the poor as well as the rich our Saviour illustrateth by the example of the Fowls of Heaven and the Lillies of the field whereof the one i. e. the Fowls are sufficiently fed though they neither sow nor reap and the other i. e. the Lillies are as bravely clad though they neither weave nor spin And yet Solomon in all his royalties was not arrayed like one of these nor all the colors in the Court of Spain cannot make so glorious a show as these fading flowers and Sardanapalus Diet Herodian in vitae Heliogabali or Heliogabalus fare that as Herodian saith feasted on the rarest Fish when he was the furthest from the Sea and would have the daintiest Flesh and Fowls that could be gotten when he was nearest unto the Sea could add no more unto their stature then the Ravens carkases or the Horse his grass doth any whit lessen his full growth and therefore seeing none can have but food and rayment S. Paul saith that having food and rayment we should therewith be contented 1. Tim. 6.8 But seeing we are all so bewitched with the love of this world that we spend most of our time and bestow most labour and weary our selves in the pursuit of the vanities of this world give me leave to explain unto you four special properties of these wordly things that will shew unto you the great folly of them that are their greatest followers and are most delighted with them and beautified by them for The four inseperable proparties of all worldly things 1. They are variable 2. They are unprofitable 3. They are deceitfull 4. They are very hurtfull 1. They are variable and Solomon tells us 1. They are variable they are all vanities evanescentia transeundo and vanishing away by passing away from one to another as being with one to day with another to morrow and gone again from him the next day after as the Stories tell us how Cheops King of Egypt that built the Pyramides all of Theban Marble and kept every day above thirty thousand men afore that work became so poor that he was fain to prostitute his Daughter to relieve his necessities And of Croesus the rich King of Lydia the Poet saith Irus est subito qui modo Croesus erat He suddenly became as poor as Irus And to what end should I tell you of Caius Marius that was seven times Consul and yet was brought so low as to hide his head in the Fens of Mynturnes Or of Marcus Attilius Regulus that had fettered many a noble Carthaginian yet at last found himself fettered in Carthage Or of Belisarius that brave Commander and most excellent Souldier under Justinian and that was more famous then the King of Sweden and had taken Gilimer and Vitiges two mighty Kings his Prisoners yet came to so low an ebb as to cry Date obolum Belisario quem virtus exaltavit malitia depressit et fortuna caecavit O give one half-penny to Belisarius whom Vertue advanced Malice suppressed and Fortune hath made now a poor blind Beggar Or of a thousand more that Histories do record to have been tumbled from the top of all honour wealth and dignity to the lowest degree of all misery when as within these few years your own eyes may see and observe thousands of wealthy men and honourable persons that are brought to the dust and to have nothing and a thousand of others that had nothing to become filled some with the riches of Egypt and others with the spoils of Israel which doth sufficiently shew unto us how vain and variable a thing is wealth honour and all other worldly things that turn round like a wheel Et ut Luna mutantur And are as changeable as the Moon and unconstant like the Wind. 2. They are unprofitable 2. As they are vain and variable so they are unprofitable for none of all these things can redeem our souls from hell nor make satisfaction for one sin when as the Prophet tells us Mich. 6.7 That thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of oyle will not satisfie our God for the sin of our soul And the Prophet David saith It will cost more to redeem our souls then so And Christ himself saith Matth. 16.26 What is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul As if he had said All the wealth and all the honour in the world are not sufficient to redeem one soul The which thing St. Peter meaneth when he saith 1 Pet. 1.28 That we were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold that could not do it but with the pretious blood of Jesus Christ And as all the riches of the world cannot purchase the redemption of one soul so no more can they procure the health of our bodies For the Poet tells us Non domus fundus non aeris