most incredulous heart if it were not filled with all blindness could not conceive the least thought against it Yet because the Devil is still tempting mâ—n to incredulity and to doubt of these things and is still so powerfull with these worldlings that he quite blindeth them so that they cannot see the clearest light noâ— understand the plainest truth Therefore to undeceive these silly souls that do so miserably deceive themselves we are still bound to defend and vindicate these truths and in that respect I likewise shall not think much to produce some few Reasons that the Devil himself cannot answer to make it manifest that although man in this life is altogether vanity and but a blast of no continuance as hereafter I shall shew unto you yet God made man to be perpetual for God made all things thâ—â— they might have their being and especially man not to be reduced to nothing and he made the soul of man immortal and never to dye but to live for ever For 1. Moses tells you that when God had framed and made man of the dust of Arguments proving the immortâ—lity of the Soul and the life to come the earth He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and so man became a living soul and not a dying soul or a soul that should dye but such a soul as should live for ever because the soul is the cause of our natural spiritual and eternal life whence the Latines do call the soul Life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quia vivificat corpus dum adest seipsam cum abest à corpore And when God threaâ—ned Adam that if he did eat of the forbidden fruit he should dye the death that death signifieth Or surely dye Gen. 2. 17. not the death of the soul or the aâ—nihilation of the body but the dissolution or separation of the soul from the body that as iâ— was made out of the dust so it might return to the dust again which while the soul remained in it unseparated it could not return and this St. Paul sheweth plainly when he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If our earthly house be dissolved that is disjoynted 2 Cor. 5. as a house that we pull down is separated one part from another but not destroyed so is the soul separated from the body and neither of them destroyed and reduced into nothing but the soul remaineth still immortal for ever and as God saith the body returneth to the dust from whence it was Gen. 3. 19. taken 2. It is said that Abâ—l being unnaturally murdered by his blood-thirsty Brother vox sanguinum clamabat ad deum and the Hebrew word saith Collerâ—s signiâ—ieth ex ingenti animi dolore exelamare to cry out with a vehement grief of mind queritando vociferari and to complain with a most lamentable voice therefore surely his crying soul was still alive though his slaâ—ghtered body was lain dead 3. God saith unto Moses I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob and the God of your Fathers therefore Abraham Isaac and Jacob Exod. 3. 15. and the rest of their Fathers were still alive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 secundum aliquid and that is in respect of their Souls because as our Saviour saith unto the Sadduces God is not the God of the dead but the God of the living and the bodies of these men that were turned to dust could not be said either to be alive or to be Abraham Isaac or Jacob therefore Abraham Isaac and Jacob were still alive in respect of their Soules 4. Moses is said to have died in the Land of Moab and to be buried in a valley â—ver against Beth-peor and yet S. Matth. saith that when Jesus was transfigured Deut. 34. 5 6. Mat. 17. 3. on the Mount Moses and Elias appeared to the Apostles talking with Christ therefore Moses was dead and not dead and was buried and not buried 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. dead in respect of his body and living in respect of his Soul and so Moses and Elias were still alive and they themselves in respect of their Souls and not their shadows or phantasmes which can no waies be â—aid to be Moses and Elias did then appear unto the Apostles 5. David saith I will not die but live and declare the works of the Lord and yet David is dead and was buried therefore it is his Soul that liveth 6. The wise man saith that when a man dieth then shall the dust that is his Eccl. 12. 7. body return to the Earth and the Spirit shall return to God that gave it and being with God it cannot be dead but remain immortal for ever 7. When Lazarus died he is said to be carried up by the Angels into Abrahams bosom i. e. in respect of his Soul for his Body was not carried up into his Luke 16. 22. Bosom And so Dives being in torments must be understood in respect of his Soul for it is said that being dead he was buried in respect of his Body and therefore the Souls both of the good and of the bad do still remain immortal 8. Our Saviour saith Fear not them which kill the Body but are not able to kill the Soul therefore the Soul is immortal whenas all the strength of man and all the Mat. 10. 28. power of Hell is not able to kill it 9. The hope of Glory and Reputation and the desire that every man hath of the continâ—ance and perpetuity thereof how vain soever it be yet doth it carry a great evidence of the Immortality of our Soules 10. The impression of that vice which robbeth a man of the knowledge of humane Justice and is alwaies opposite to the Justice of God and indelibly imprinted in every mans Conscience doth infallibly conclude that the Justice of God requireth the same should be chastised after death and therefore that our Soules must needs be immortal 11. In the Book of Wisdom it is most plainly said the souls of the righteous are in the hands of God and there shall no torment touch them in the sight of the unwise Sap. 3. 1 2 3. they seemed to die but they are in peace A place so plain that sense can desire no plainer And many more Reasons might be produced to confirm this Truth but these are sufficient demonstrations to shew unto you that although man in respect of his being in this life is altogether Vanity yet simply considered he is to be eternal and to have a perpetual Being because God never made man to have an end and to be reduced to nothing but as the wise man saith he created all things and much rather man that they might have their being And what madness is it therefore that men will not believe this Truth especially Sap. 1. 14. considering it is most certain that the remembrance of their end and the shortness of their
there remaineth nothing of us to be any waies prejudiced nor any thing any waies at all and the Doctrine of the Stoicks is nothing different when as Seneca though he seemed to be a friend to that Principle of the Immortality of the Soul yet this is one of his proper Aphorismes that non potest esse miser qui nullus est he cannot be a wretched man that is no man and to shew that after death there is no more tidings of any man he writes unto Martia quod How many men denied the immortality of the soul and the life that is to come mors omnium est solutio ultra quam mala nostra non exeunt that death is the resolution and period of all things beyond which our evils cannot extend and Cicero tels us that his friend Atticus was hardly perswaded to believe the immortality of the Soul and before him Cebes in Plato was of the same mind and Dicâ—archus that as Cicero saith wrote three Books of the mortality of the soul and Panetius whom Cicero in all his Offices doth so much commend and so often imitate and divers Philosophers as Epicurus and Democritus that lived in the time of Alexander the Great were in like manner so blinded by the devil as not only to doubt but also to believe this damnable Doctrine and Pliny judgeth this Doctrine to Plin. Nat. Hist l. 2. c. 7. Arnob. in Oâ—t be puerile deliramentum a childish simplicity and so likewise Cecilius as Arnobius â—estifieth calleth these Tenets of the Christians Anniles Christianorum Fabulas old wives Fables and Nicephorus writeth that Synesius the Platonist quoad Nicephorus l. 14. c. 55. alia quae Christiani proâ—itentur promptum se facilem praebuit approved well of all other points that the Christians professed sed Resurrectionis doctrinam nefandam ac detestandam judicavit but the Doctrine of the Resurrection he liked not and the Poets cried out with Theocritus Non est Spes ulla sepultis But as Catullus saith though Soles occidere redire possunt the Sun and Moon may Catul. ad Lesâ— p. 3. lie down and rise again yet nobis cum semel occidit brevis lux nox est perpetua una dormienda when once our short life is fallen down we shall have one perpetual night to sleep and so Lucretinus and Enninus and many more were of the same faith And which is wonderfull in the School of Christ we finde some of the same minde as of old time Hymenaeus and Philetus with whom joyned the Valentinians Carpocratians Cerdonians Gnosticks Marcionites Selucians Manichees Hieracliâ—â—s Priscillianists and the rest of that litter as Saturninus Basilides Secundus Marcus Appelles and some of the Popes themselves with John the 23 and Leo the 10. that as they were transcendently wicked so they were wickedly tainted with this errour and liked not of this truth and many more of their associates in these our own dayes that following Hobbs his Leviathan have fallen away from the faith and as if per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 animarum the souls of these Hereticks had entred into their bodies they will neither believe the resurrection of the body nor the immortality of their souls and therefore they labour not for their union with this Eternity Yea and that which is more to be admired such is the corruption of our nature and the madness of our mindes that although the continual sight and most sensible apprehension of our vanity and the shortness of our lives in this world mingles all our best wine with most bitter waters and puts a stop unto our pleasures and many sad thoughts into our heads and perplexities into our hearts yea though it seemeth that there is in a man a kinde of inclination and disposition of nature and an earnest desire to continue and perpetuate his being and that it is a thing universally religiously because it is the principal foundation of all Religion and peaceably received and concluded throughout all the Christian world especially by an outward and publick profession that the soul of man is immortal and shall so continue for ever and that there shall be a resurrection of the body and another life after this yet seriously and inwardly in their hearts not onely the Epicures and the Hereticks aforenamed and the Sadduces the That many worldly professours of the Christian Religion do believe neither the immortality of the soul nor the resurrection of their bodies nor any other life after this life greatest Lords of the Jews that did not stick with open mouth to deny it but also the greatest part of these our Christian Professours as I fear do believe neither the immortality of the soul nor the resurrection of the dead nor any other life after this the short life of their vanity For is it possible that men should be so haughty and so proud so covetous and such oppressours of their Neighbours so sacrilegious and such robbers and spoylers of God himself as we see men are so as the Poet saith Vnde habent curaest pancis sed oportet habere Is it possible I say they should be such if they did believe that their souls are immortal that after this momentary life of their vanity their bodies shall awake and rise out of their graves and that Christ shall come to judge them according to the works they have done in this life and as he saith himself To render unto every one as his deeds shall be No surely it cannot be that they do believe these things but as the Fool whatsoever he profest with his mouth to deceive the world yet said in his heart There is no God so they whatsoever they say in words yet factis negant their deeds tell us to their faces that they do but dissemble and deceive themselves but they cannot deceive God nor all wise men that will rather believe their own eyes in what they see them do than their words in what they say they do believe And therefore as when Carbo swore any thing in the Senate the Senators and What a persidious fellow Carbo was the people of Rome presently sware they did not believe him So when these sacrilegious persons and these grievous oppressours of the poor and the roorers out of the innocent from their possessions do profess that they believe these things I do profess unto you that I believe them not But as Apollodorus the What Apollodorus dreamed Tyrant dreamed that he was taken and flead by the Scythians and his heart thrown into a boyling Caldron should say unto him I am the cause of all this mischief so I say The hearts of these men deceive them for as the Wise man saith The heart is deceitfull above all things and for a man to deceive himself is the worse deceit in the world for excepting the worst of thoughts which is the thought of the Fool that said in his heart There is no God there cannot be a more
the Papists in Ireland and to get that Act to purchase all the Lands of the Rebels had tasted too much of this bitter root of such destructive Doctrine whereby you see how the Religion of these men robbes us of our Estates keeps no faith with us and takes away our lives 7. Though among the works of God every flower cannot be a Lilly 7. They would have a party among all men both in Church and Common-wealth Gal. 5 6. Câ—l 3. 11. every beast cannot be a Lyon every bird cannot be an Eagle and every Planet cannot be a Phoebus yet in the School of these men this is the doctrine of their to be new erected Church that with God there is no respect of persons and neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but whether they be bond or free masters or servants Jew or Gentile Barbarian Scythian a country-Clown or a Court Gallant rich or poor it is all one with God because these Titles of Honour Kings Lords Knights and Gentlemen are no entities of Gods making but the creatures of mans invention to puffe him up with pride and not to bring him unto God and therefore though for the bringing of their great good work to passe they are yet contented to make the Earl of Essex their General and Warwick their Admiral and so Pym and Hampden great Officers of Stateâ— yet when the work is done their Plot perfected and their Government established then you shall find that As now they will eradicate Episcopacie and make all our Clergie equall as if all had equally but one talent and no no man worthier than another so then there should be neither King Lord Knight nor Gentleman but a parity of degrees among all these holy brethren And to give us a taste of what they mean as the Lords concurrence with them inabled them to devour the Kings poweâ— so they have since with great justice prevailed with the House of Commons to swallow up the Lords power and have most fairly invaded their priviledge when they questioned particular Members * As my Lord Duke and my Lord Digbie 8. They would have no man to pray for temporal things Matth. 33 34. Matth 6. 1â— 9. Not to say the Lords Prayer 10. Not to say God Speed you 2 John 10. 11 12 Not to pray for the Malignants 1 John 5. 16. for words spoken in that House and then the whole House when they brought up and countenanced a mutinous and seditious Petition which demanded the Names of those Lords that consented not with the House of Commons in those things which that House had twice denied 8. Because our Saviour saith Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven and the righteousnesse thereof and all these things that is meat drink and cloathes and all other earthly things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be cast unto you and again Be not carefull for to morrow they teach their Proselytes that they ought not to pray by any means for any of these things whereas Christ biddeth us to say Give us this day our daily Bread 9. They cannot endure to say the Lords Prayer for that 's a Popish superstition but their Prayers must be all tautologies and a circular repetition of their own indigested inventions 10. You must not say God speed you to any neighbour or any traveller lest he intends some evill work and then you shall be partaker of his sin 11. They will not allow any of their Disciples to pray for any of the Reprobates and therefore they do exceedingly blame us and tear our Liturgie because we say That it may please thee to have mercy upon all men 12. Because Christ saith Call no man father on earth for one is your Father which is in Heaven the child must not call him that begat him and nurseth him his father nor kneel unto him to ask him blessing nor perform many other such duties which the Lord requireth and the Church instructeth her children to do to this very day and this foolish Doctrine of calling no man Father no man master or Lord and the like in their sense because they understand not the divine meaning of our Saviour's words hath been the cause of such undutifulnesse and untowardnesse such contempts of superiours and such rebellions to Authority as is beyond expression when as by their disloyalty being thus bred up in them from their cradle they first despise their father then their Teachers then their King and then God himself CHAP. IX Sheweth three other speciall points of Doctrine which the Brownists and Anabaptists of this Kingdom do teach 13. BEcause they can find no Text in Scripture when as the Alcoran is not so impudently hellish as to justifie the action for to warrant men to absolve our consciences from any Oaths that we have voluntarily taken for the performance of any businesse I cannot say that they do professedly teach but I do hear they do usually practise this most damnable sin as that Master Marshall and Master Case did absolve the Souldiers taken at Brainceford from their Oath which they took never to bear Arms against his Majesty which is a sin destructive both to body and soul when their Perjury added to their Treason makes them two-fold more the children of hell than they were before and if they be taken again they can expect nothing but their just deserved death and therefore I do admire that any man can challenge the name of a Divine which doth either preach or practise a point so devilish 14. Because Saint Paul saith These hands have ministred to my necessities 14. They think sacriledge to be no sin Acts 20. 34. 1 Thes 2. 9. 1 Cor. 1. 12. and to them that were with me and again Labouring night and day because we would not be chargeable to any of you we preached unto you the Gospel of God and because the rest of the Apostles and Disciples were Fishermen Tradesmen or professours of some Science either liberal or mechanick as Saint Luke was a Physician Joseph a Carpenter and the like who did live by their manual crafts and were chargeable to none of their people but sought them and not theirs to win their souls to God and not their monies unto themselves therefore they think it no robbery to take away all the revenues of the Church nor sacriledge to rob the Clergy of all the means they have because they should either labour for their livings as the Apostles did or live upon the peoples Almes as many poor Ministers do to the utter undoing of many souls in many distressed and most miserable Churches But because this revenue of the Church and the Lands of the Bishops is that golden Wedge and the brave Babylonish garment which the Anabaptistical Achans of our time do most of all thirst after in this their pretended holy Reformation I must here sistere gradum stay awhile and let you know 1. That the taking away of any Lands or goods given and
and will not hearken to the words of thy mouth in all that thou commandest he shall be put to death surely this was an absolute government and though martial yet most excellent to keep the people within the bounds of their obedience for they knew that where rebellion is permitted there can be no good performance of any duty and it may be a good lesson for all the higher powers not to be too clement which is the incouragement of Rebels to most obstinate trayterous and rebellious Subjects who daring not to stir under rigid Tyrants do kick with their heeles against the most pious Princes and therefore my soul wisheth not out of any desire of bloud but from my love to peace that this rule were well observed Whosoever rebelleth against thy commandment he shall be put to death * 3. The wisest of all Kings but the King of Kings saith The fear of a King is as the roaring of a Lion who so provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul And I believe that the taking up of Armes by the Subjects against their own King that never wronged them and the seeking to take away his life and the life of his most faithful servants is cause enough to provoke any King to anger if he be not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too Stoically given to abandon all passions and that anger should be like the roaring of a Lion to them that would pull out the Lions eyes and take away the Lions life 4. The King of Heaven saith of these earthly Kings That where the word of a King is there is power and who may say unto him what dost thou And Elihu demands Is it fit to say to a King thou art wicked or to Princes you are ungodly Truely if Elihu were now here he might hear many unfitter things said to our King by his own people and which is more strange by some Preachers for some of them have said but most maliciously and moâ—e falsely that he is a Papist he is the Traytor unwoâ—thy to reign unfit to live good God! do these men think God saith truth Where the word of a King is there is power that is to blast the conspiracies and to confound the spirits of all Rebels who shall one day finde it because the wrath of God at last will be awaked against Jerem. 27. 8. their treachery and to revenge their perjury by inabling the King to accomplish the same upon all that resist him as he promised to doe in the like case 5. The Israelites being in captivity under the King of Babylon were commanded 5. To pray for the king Ezra 6. 10. 1 Tim. 2. 1 2. to pray for the life of that Heathen King and for the life of his sons And Saint Paul exhorteth Timothy to make supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks for Kings and for all that are in authority and how do our men pray for our King in many Pulpits not at all and in some places for his oveâ—throw for the shortning of his life and the finishing of his dayes nullum sit in omine pondus and they give thanks indeed not for his good but for their own supposed good success against him thus they praevaricate and pervert the words of the Apostle to their own destruction when as the Prophet Psal 109. 6. saith Their prayers shall be turned into sin 6. To render all his dues unto him 6. Christ commandeth us to render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars that is as I shall more fully shew hereafter your inward duties of honour love reverence and the like and your outward debts tolls tribute custome c. and the Rebels render none unto him but take all from him and return His Arms to his destruction I might produce many other places and precepts of Holy Scripture to inforce this duty to honour the king but what will suffice him cui Roma parùm est Luke 16. 31. if they beleive not Moses neither will they believe if one should arise from the dead and if these things cannot move them then certainly all the world cannot remove them from their Wickedness Yet 3. Quia exempla movent plus quà m praecepta docent you shall finde this 3. All kings should be honoured by the example of all Nations 1 The Israelites 1 In Egypt Exod. 12 37. Exod. 1. 9. doctrine practised by the perpetual demeanour of all Nations For 1. If you looke upon the Children of Israel in the Land of Egypt it cannot be denyed but Pharaoh was a wicked king and exercised great cruelty and exceeding tyranny against Gods people yet Moses did not excite the Israelites to take arms against him though they were more in number being six hundred thousand men and abler for strength to make their party good then Pharoah was as the king himself confesseth but they contained themselves within the bounds of their Obedience and waited Gods leisure for their deliverance because they knew their patient suffering would more manifest their own piety and aggravate king Pharoah's obstinacy and especially magnify Gods glory then their undutiful rebelling could any ways illustrate the least of these 2. Davids demeanour towards Saul is most memorable for though as one 2. Under Saul The loyal Subjects belief p. 55. faith king Saul discovered in part the described manner of such a king as Samuel had foreshewed yet David and all his followers performed and observed the prescribed conditions that are approved by God in true Subjects never resisting never rebelling against his king though his king most unjustly persecuted him Samuel also when he had pronounced Sauls rejection yet did he 1 Sam. 15. never incite the people to Rebellion but wept and prayed for him and discharged all other duties which formerly he had shewed to be due unto him and Elias that had as good repute with the people and could as easily have stirred 3. Under Ahab up sedition as any of the seditious Preachers of this time yet did he never perswade the Subjects to withstand the illegal commands of a most wicked king 1 Reg. 21. 25. that as the Scripture testifieth had sold himself to work wickedness and became the more exceedingly sinful by the provocation of Jâ—zabel his most wicked wife and harlot but he honoured his Soveraignty and feared his Majesty when he fled away from his cruelty And because these are but particular presidents I will name you two observeable Two examples of the whole Nation under Heathen kings 1 Under Artaxerxes Ezra 1. 1. examples of the whole Nation 1. When Cyrus made a Decree and his Decree according to the Laws of the Medes and Persians should be unalterable that the Temple of Jerusalem should be re-edified and the adversaries of the Jews obtained a letter from Artaxerxes to prohibit them the people of God submitting themselves to the personal command of the king contrary to that unalterable Law of Cyrus pleaded neither the
of themselves so any Statute that disinableth the Kings Government must needs be void ipso facto as I have partly shewed in my Discovery of Mysteries p. 32. 3. Because it may be beleived no King would ever grant such an act unless he were either subtilly deceived and seduced or forâ—ibly compelled thereunto for feare of some inavoidable extremity which according to all outward appearance could not otherwise be prevented without the concessions of such unspeakable disadvantages as a man gives away his sword when he seeth his life in danger if he deliver it not Therefore the premises considered 5. The Quaere is whether any King should be bound and obliged to 5. Quaere In all these Quaeries I conclude nothing whatsoever I beleive observe such grants and make good such Acts as are thus fraudulently obtained or forcibly wrested from him and are thus contradictory to Gods will thus prejudiciall to the power of Government and thus destructive to his Subjects which for the fore said reasons is by many men beleived he is not but that this right was unduly procured from him so when God inableth him he may justly acquire it and re-assume it without any offence to God or the least reluctancy to his own conscience And if this Act that hath passed in our Parliament makes it immediately to be no Parliament * As I know not whether it doth or not neither will I determine it as being now another forme of government which the Divines hold ought not to be effected then certainly all Acts that passed since are no Acts but are void and invalid of themselves Or be it granted that the Act for the perpetuity of Parliament doth not annul the Parliament yet it is doubted by many whether the Parliament may not themselves without the kings pronouncing it void or dissolved make it no Parliament when of Counsellors for the King they become Traytors unto the Quid prodest tibi nomen usurpare alienum vocari quod non es King and of Patriots that should protect the Common-wealth they become Parricides and Catilines unto the same because these duties being as the soul the life and the end of Parliaments when these are changed to be the bane and death of King and Kingdome it is doubted how it can be a Parliament any more then a dead carkase that is deprived of his soul can be said to be a man for the circumstances and ceremonies of times places and the like are not essentialia Parliamenti but as accidentia quae possunt adesse abesse sine interitis subjecti and may be ad benè esse but are as Punctilio's in respect of the end and essence of a Parliament And therefore as God promiseth infallibly to do a thing for example that He will not fail David his seed shall endure for ever and of Eli he said indeed Psal 89. 34. 1 Sam. 2. 30. that his house and the house of his father should walke before him for ever yet this unchangeable God when the change is wrought in David or his seed or in Eli his house David doth immediately say Thou hast abhorred and forsaken thine Anointed and art displeased at him and of his promise to Eli God Psal 89. 37. 1 Sam. 2. 30. saith in the same place now be it far from me so it may be conceived that when any Parliament changeth its nature faileth in its very being and of a I should never acknowledge Judas after he betrayed his master and resolved to persist in his wickednesse to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ no more then I should take the Temple of Jerusalem to be the house of God so long as it continued the den of theeves preservative becomes a poyson both to the King and Kingdome the King and Kingdome may then without any change in themselves or failing of their former promises justly say they are no Parliament but as the Romans said unto a worthy Patriot that had formerly saved them from the Senones and at last became an enemy to the State We did honour thee as our deliverer when thou didst save us from the Senones sed jam nobis es quasi unus ex Senonibus so may we say of any Parliament that turnes to be the destruction of a Common-wealth that it is but a shadow and no substance a den of theeves and no Parliament of Counsellours And I assure my selfe much more may be spoken and many in answerable arguments may be produced to confirm this to be most true so I have set down what I conceive to be true about the Kings grants and concessions unto his people and his obligations to observe them And if His Majesty whom I unfainedly love and heartily honour and in whose service as I have most willingly spent my slender fortunes so I shall as readily hazard my dearest life be offended with me for setting down any of these things that my conscience tells me to be true and needful to be known and my duty to declare them I must answer in all humility and with all reverence that remembring what Lucian saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many men shunning the smoake fell into the fire and that Job saith Timentes pruinam opprimentur à nive which Saint Gregory moralizeth of them that fearing the frost of mans anger which they may tread under foot shall be overwhelmed with the snow of Gods vengeance that fals from Heaven and cannot be avoided I had rather suffer the anger of any mortal man then endure the wrath of the great God and now I have freed my soule let what will come of my body I will fear God and honour my King 5. We are to consider the end for which God ordained the King to rule and 5 The end for which God ordained Kings govern his people and that is to preserve justice and to maintain peace through out all the parts of his Dominions for as the Subjects may neither murmur nor resist heir Soveraign at any time for any cause so the King must not do any wrong or â—njustice to his meanest Subject neither do we presse the obedience of the Subject to give licence unto the King to use them as he listeth but we tell Kings their duties as well as we do to the Subjects and that is to doe justice unto the afflicted and to execute true judgement among all his people for as Plato saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 82. 3. Zâ—char 7 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all men cry out with one mouth how beautiful a thing is temperance and righteousnesse Cicero calleth her the Lady and Mistresse of all virtues and Pindarus saith that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a golden eye and a Cicero offic l. 3. golden countenance are always to be seene in the face of justice and that Jupiter Soter dwelleth together with Themis whereby he would give us to understand Pindar apad A then Cl. Alex and Sirom l. 5. regem
the Gospel was formerly published by as many famous Fathers as now England How Constant was lost and what the Turk then said hath Preachers for the Emperour foreseeing the Siege made many motions for contributions towards the repairing of the Walls and continue the military charge but the Subjects drew back and pleaded want until it was too late and the City lost for though the enemy having a long time besieged it was intended to give over the Siege and to be gone yet tydings and intelligence being given him that the Souldiers within the Town were grown very thin and discontented for want of â—heir pay the enemy returned and in a short space took the City and there found in private mens hands such infinite store of gold and all manner of treasure the hundred part whereof would have paid all the Souldiers kept out the enemy and preserved them all that the Turk seeing the basenesse of the Citizens so foolishly hiding their wealth and denying just aid unto their Emperour stood amazed and lifting up his hands to heaven lamented their folly and asked what they meant that having such a store of wealth they would suffer themselves to be thus destroyed onely for want of wit or of grace to use it and thence grew the Proverb among the Turkes unto this day when one becommeth very rich you have been at the Siege of Constantinople And I pray God it may not so fall out with us for our covetousnesse that we prove not Lucans speech to be true omnia dat qui iusta negat to lose all unjustly unto strangers unto rebels because we deny what is just unto our King But I will conclude this point with the Poët Astra Deo nil majus habent nil Caesare terra Sic Caesar terras ùt Deus astra regit Imperium regis Caesar Deus astra gubernat Caesar honore suo dignus amore Deus Dignus amore Deus dignus quoque Caesar honore est Alter enim terras alter astra regit Cum Deus in caelis Caesar regat omnia terris Censum Caesaribus solvite vota Deo 5. Defence of his Person is another princâ—pal part of that honour which we 5. Defence of the kings person owe unto our King And the very heathens did think their lives well bestowed for their Gods their family and the father of the Country how much more willing should the Christians be to hazard their lives in defence of their King which is quasi unus è decem millibus worth ten thousands of us being as the Scripture termes him the Light of Israel and the breath of our nostrils 2 Sam. 21. 17 Lâ—ment 2 4. Ps 78. 71. 72. vide Hos 3. 4. c. 10. 3 and Lament 2. 9. the head of his Subjects the shepheard and Pastor of the people and as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 importeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the foundation of the people without which they must all fall unto the ground for where there is no governour all must perish and there will be no Priest no Prince no Religion no Nobility no gâ—â—d but anarchy and confusion and the destruction of all things And if we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren as S. John saith how much rather 1 Joh 3. 16. ought we to do it for our King it is recorded in our annals to his eternal praise that Sir Hubert Syncler at the Seige of Bridge-north seeing an arrow that Nulla gens â—tà sollicita est â—ir ca regem suum sicut apes unde rege incolumi omnibus mens â— na est quando nequit vola re fert ipsum turba apum si moritur moriuntur ipsae was shot at his Master King Henry the second stepped betwixt the shaft and his Soveraign and receiving the arrow into his body was therewith shot through to death that he might preserve the life of his King which otherwise had been slain in his stead So Turnbull had his name for killing a Bull that had otherwise slain one of the Kings of Scotland and we read that when David was assailed by a mighty Giant named Ishibibenob which was of the sons of Rapha the head of whose speare weighed three hundred shekels of brass Abishai the son of Zervia with the danger of his owne life runs in succouâ—s the king and kills the Philistim 2 Sam. 21. 17. and so all other good Subjects have had a speciall care to preserve the lives of their Kings whom they loved better then their own Parents yea then their wives or children or their own lives as it appeareth by the foresaid examples and abundance of the like that you may find in the Histories of the Heathens for they had not learnt the new divinity of our time to destroy the King for the good of his Subjects but they thought as it is most true that salus regis est salâ—s populi and they beleeved as all good Christians do that Vna salus nobis nullam sperare salut em Principe calcato sublato jure coronae because as S. Chrysostome saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their safety is our Chrysost in 1 â—im 2. 2. Aug. to 9. tract 6. in Johan security and as S. August saith si tollis jura Imperatorum quis audet dicere mea â—st illa villa if you take away the government of Kings who dares say haec mea sunt this or that is mine as now God knowes since these Rebels have abused our King we can say nothing is our own our houses goods lives and liberties are at the disposing of them that are strongest what then shall we say of those Subjects that strive with all their wit wealth and strength to destroy their King and if you ask me why I must answer as Aristides was banished out of Athens justus quia justus so must our King be killed if these men could do it with their Cannâ—n Bullets because he is too good to reigne over them who deserved not a pious David nor a wise Solomon to rule over them but a foolish Rehoboam that Ps 2. 9. would whip them with Scorpions or such a one as would rule them with a rod of iron and breake them in pieces like a potters vessel for had our King been not Caesar Augustus but Augustus Sevâ—rus so severe as Henry 8. or some other more unmercifull Princes these Rebels durst as well eate their own flesh as thus to devoure the flesh and bones of the Kings loyall Subjects and seek the death of the King himself For it is most certaine of the vulgar people and of ill bred natures that ungentes pungunt pungentes molliter ungunt and therefore though the manifold offers of Peace and the unparallel'd promising of Pardons to most obstinate Rebels do insinitely commend the piety and declare the mildness of a most clement Prince and the refusall thereof betray the ingratefull stubbornnesse of graceless Subjects to all posterity yet
into the time past you shall find that as Cicero saith Fuit quaedam ab infinito tempore aeternitas quam nulla Cicero de Nat. Deorum l. 1. circumscriptio temporum metiebatur there hath been a certain Eternity from an inâ—inite space of time which no circumscription of time could measure sed qualis ea spatio fuerit intelligi non potest but what manner of space that should be cannot be understood quod nec in cogitationem quidem cadit ut fuerit tempus aliquod nullum cum tempus esseâ— neither can it fall into the thought of man to consider truly how any time should be when as yet there was no time but also if you look forward into the time to come you shall find that when there shall be neither Sun nor Moon which are appointed to be the measure of time yet there will be an endless infinite space of time that cannot be terminated And Apuleius the Platonist saith that time iâ— but the Image of Eternity and What time is and how expressed Apuleius de dogm Platonis that time moveth but Eternity moveth not being naturally fixed and eternally immoveable and also that time passeth towards Eternity and endeth in the Perfection thereof the time being dissolved whensoever the Creator of this world pleaseth but Eternity abiding for ever And in this respect the Egyptians that taught all by Hierogliphicks represented Eternity how expressed Eternity by a Circle which had neither beginning nor ending and for the same cause Numa Pompilius that was unto the Romans as Moses was unto the Jews the Author of all their Religion and Religious Ceremonies and others the ancient Pontifices of the Romans erected their Temples which they dedicated unto their gods whom they conceived to be eternal in a circular form and Mercurius Trismegistus one of the most ancient Philosophers that we read of expressed this Eternity by an intellectual Sphaere whose Center is every where and Circumference no where because Eternity cannot be bounded within any compass nor terminated by any Limits And the difference which these wise men assigned betwixt Eternity and Perpetuity The difference betwixt Eternity and Perpetuity is this that Eternity is that which hath neither beginning of dayes nor end of time as is God alone and none else but perpetuity is that which though it had a beginning yet it shall never have an end as are the Angels both good and bad and the Soules of all men both the righteous and unrighteous And therefore it is naturally ingrafted in the Soul of every man to affect perpetuity All men desire perpetuity and to be united to Eternity and to desire to have an Union and Communion with God which is Eternity because as S. August saith God made us for himself that we might be perpetually with him ideo irrequietum est cor nostrum donec requiescat in â—o and therefore as no Element no thing can rest satisfied and contented until it cometh to its own proper place as the fire to be on high and the stone to come to the bottom so our hearts can never attain to any true rest until they do rest in God and nothing in the world can satisfie the mind of man but that which is above man neither can all the Gold of Ophir all the Sand of Tagus all the Treasures of Egypt all the riches of the World and all the allectives under Heaven make a proportionable Object to satisfie the Soul of man for seeing as some Philosophers have observed the heart of man is after a sort made triangle wise and the world circular therefore as a Globe can never fill a triangular figure so no more can the whole world replenish the vast corners and the illimited desires of mans heart Therefore the very Heathens that knew no more of â—od than what Nature taught them had an earnest desire to attain unto an Union with this Eternity as How the heathens affected to have an union with Eternity we read how Cleombrotus hearing the Philosophers discoursing of the excellency of Eternity and the Felicity of the soul united unto the Deity in an over-hasty desire of this Unition tumbled himself voluntarily to death that his soul might presently enjoy that happy Life and Socrates smiled upon his Hemlock that his Adversary gave him to dispatch his life while he assured himself that it would send him from this mortal Frailty unto eternal felicity And not only these particular men and the like learned Philosophers and wisest sorâ— of men but we read also how those famous Nations of the Brachmans Indians Persians and indeed all other Pagans whatsoever had this desire of Immortality and Eternity imprinted in their hearts by the pen of Nature Why they desired perpetuity And no marvel for as thou canst not like so well of the longest Lease of thy House or Lands as of the Free-hold and Perpetuity so there can be no true rest nor any satisfying content in any transient thing but only in that which is perpetual for when we have improved our Ambition to our own content even to the height of our hearts desire and have attained to so much happiness as this world can afford us and are become the only men both in Court and Countrey both in Church and State and as able to do so much in the Ecclesiastical Affairs as Eusebius Bishop of Nicomedia could do with Constantius the Arian Emperor and as much in the Political State as Haman could do with Ahasuerus Sejanus with Tiberius or Hebraem Bassa with Saladine the Great Turk who were the only Favourites that were most powerful with these great Monarchs and as dearly beloved of them as Ephestion was of Alexander or more than this could we come to be the Pope that challengeth to be the Head of the Church or to be such a Monarch as was Alexander Nebuchadâ—ezzar or the most Illustrious of all the Rom. Emperours yet then we may be cut off with Belshazzar in the midst of our dayes or if we can be permitted to spin the Thread of our Lives to the fulness of years yet at last and that soon enough time and age will take us down and we shall bring our years to an end even as a Tale that is told and then as Job saith the eye that saw us shall see us no more and the men that feared us shall fear us no more but seeing that as Solomon saith a living Dog is better than a dead Lion the poor living Snakes that are now â—ode upon by the Tyrants and Oppressors of this world may then tread upon the Graves and trample upon the necks of their greatest persecuters even as Diogenes did upon those buried Kings and Princes amongst whom he sought for the bones of King Philip but could not distinguish them from the bones of a Peasant But what of that What matter of all this when as the Divinity of the School of Epicures is that after death
brutish and perverse thought than to imagine that the soul perisheth when the body is dissolved for what need we care what evil we do what need we fear what Judge condemn us or why should we abstain from any of our desires if our souls dye when our bodies are dead But to shew you that whatsoever they say yet they do not believe in any The former point proved eternal being either of body or soul after the end of this their vanity I pray you look into an excellent Book though sleighted by some Fanatick spirits where the Wise-man sheweth how the prophane worldlings and the worldly Atheists do make this conclusion of their incredulity to be the ground and foundation of all their impieties for they say but not aright Our life is short and tedious and in the death of a man there is no remedy neither was there any man known to have returned from the grave for we are born at all adventure and we shall be hereafter as though we had never been for the breath in our nostrils is as smoak which being extinguished our body shall be turned into ashes and our spirit shall vanish as the soft air Sap. 2. 1 2 3. This is their faith and therefore they make this conclusion saying Come let us injoy the good things that are present and let us speedily use the creatures like as in youth Cap. â—od v. 6 7â— 8 9 10 11 let us fill our selves with costly Wine and Oyntments and let no flower of the Spring pass by us let us crown our selves with Rose-buds before they be withered let none of us go without part of his voluptuousness for this is our portion and our lot is this Let us oppress the poor righteous man let us not spare the widow nor reverence the ancient gray hairs of the aged let our strength be the Law of Justice and let us lye in wait for the righteous And this was the very reasoning of Sardanapalus Ede bibe lude post mortem nulla voluptas There is no felicity after death therefore soul take thine ease sit down and be merry and I fear it is the occasion of so much wickedness in many men and of such a deluge of sin in these dayes that doth overflow both the Church and Commonwealth to the destruction and ruine of many thousand souls that in their hearts they scarce believe their souls to be immortal or that there shall be ever any resurrection of their bodies or any account to be given for what they do for so you see the reason why they oppress the poor and rob both God and man and satisfie themselves with all kinde of delights because their breath in their nostrils is as smoak which being extinguished their bodies shall be turned into ashes and their spirit as they suppose shall vanish as the soft air And truly I think the conclusion very good if there were any truth in the premises for though Plato and Socrates and Seneca and the like vertuous men did so much love vertue for the very beauty of vertue and did hate vice onely for the ugliness of vice and Anselimus is reported to have said he had rather to be vertuous though severely punished for it than be vicious though never so highly rewarded yet because these Ejaculations spring from more than ordinary knowledge no less than some sparks of the motions of Gods Spirit which God sometimes wrought in the hearts of the Heathens and much more in Anselimus that was a Christian It is contrary to all shew of reason that a man which believeth The incredulity of the life to come the cause that men commit much wickedness the mortality of the soul should have any desire to be vertuous or any fear to be most vicious unless it be onely for fear of some Temporal punishment For if our time be but a very shadow that soon passeth away and after that our end there is no returning why should I endure so much labour and suffer so much want or want so much pleasure as the reach of my wit or the laws of my strength can any wayes afford me or why should I abstain from any vice from any villany and fast and weep and mourn and go in sackcloath and ashes if after one moment of time I shall be reduced to nothing and be never more questioned and neither rewarded for my good deedâ— nor punished for my evil doings Therefore I think that this Aâ—hâ—istical conceit of the aâ—nihilation of the soul and the incredulous thought of the immortality thereof is the main cause of so much wickedness as is now raging in the world And on the other side if men did but seriâ—usly think and faithfuâ—â—y believe that after this short time of a few dayes pilgrimage our souls shall remain for ever and receive either everlasting joyes if they do well or eternal punishments if they do evil I do assure my self that men would have some care for the time to come and like Moses choose rather to suffer a mâ—mentary affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of â—in for a season and so engage themselves to â—ndure Heb. 11. 25. the punishment of sin for ever And therefore to root ouâ— so pestilent an errour and to confirm so necessary a The necessity of rooting out this incredulity truth as is the doctrine of the Immortality of the soul for the perpâ—tuating of man all wise men that had any love of goodness in them and all the holy men of God both in the Old and New Testament and all the Fathers of the primitive Church and their successours the Bishops and other godly Preachers to this very day have been carefull to preach this truth and have shewed themselves very punctual and plentifull in this point for to let pass what Ovid saith Morâ—â— carent animae and what Propertiâ—s saith Sunt aliquid maâ—â—s lathum non omnia Ovid. Mâ—tam Tibul. l. 4. Propertius Claud. Manilius l. 4. Plato in Tim. Cicero de repub somâ—o Scip. l. 1. Tusc quest finit luridaque evictos effâ—git umbra rogos and what Claâ—dian saith Hâ—c sola manet bustoque superstes evolat and to pass over the testimony of Pherâ—cides that was Master unto Pythagoras and of Socrates and Platâ— and Cicero and the rest of the Philosophers and Orators that with unanswerable arguments have maintained the souls of men to be immortal and so likewise to pasâ— by the unanimous consent of the Fathers that were so plain and so plentifull to prove the same as you may see in S. Clement Recog l. 1. Iren. l. 2. c. 63. 64. cont Valent. Tertul. de res carnis S. Aug. dogmat Eccles c. 16. Arnobius de side resur and the rest of them almost in every place I finde the Prophets and our Saviour himself and his Apostles be very exact and diligent to declare the same and to prove it so fully that the
blunt the Swords of our gallant Souldiers that have just causes to make War for when wickedness groweth so wilfâ—ll as to seek our lives that desire to live in peace or to rob us of our livelihood lands or goods that God hath justly given us then you must know that out God is the God of War as well as the God of Peace and his name is the Lord of Hosts and he will make his sword drunk with blood and will strengthen our hands if we trust in him to scatter all those people that dâ—light in War and to destroy those Enemies that maliciously labour for our destruction What Wars the Author blameth But I blame all shedding of Christian blood in any War either to plant Religion which should be done by preaching and not by fighting which in seeking to make them Christian men will make them no men or dissembling hypocrites in stead of faithfull believers or else to satisfie the ambition of any man that desires to inlarge his Dominion and so unjustly to wrong his neighbours when as every man from the King unto the beggar should be contented with what God hath justly given him and that policy can never be justified which is not every way consonant to equity or especially for any subjects out of a rebellioâ—s discontent or ambitious desire to usurp the Power and Authority of their Soveraign to turn the sweet waters of Peace to become rivers of Christian blood This is that warfare which I chiefly discommend as the greatest of all vanities But 3. If the Sword or Bullet in this warfare taketh not man away yet Age and 3. His egress Sickness will soon summon him to his death and dissolution and till then his whole life is spent inter suspiria lachrymas betwixt sighs and teâ—rs troubles of minde and distempers of body and a thousand such sad accidents that will soon bring hoc vitrium corpusculum this our frail and brittle body and our distressed life to a miserable death and when we dye or as the Psalmist saith When the Psal 146. 3. breath of man gâ—eth forth he shall turn again to his earth and then all his thoughts and all his high designs and vain conceits perish and then it will appear which till then proud man will not believe that the life of man is but a flower that soon withereth a smoak that soon vanisheth and a bubble that suddenly falleth or as others say a shadow a dream a nothing And it were well for many men if as their great thoughts either on some deep plots of state or how to hook unto themselves their neighbours inheritance or to wreak their malice on their poor brethren or the like 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Castles in the air as Aristophanes calleth them do vanish into nothing when their soules part with their bodies so likewise their bodies and their soules should then with their Thoughts return to nothing But that cannot be for that now mans soul must pay for all his evil thoughts and suffer for all the wicked works and the great wrongs that he hath done and though è corpore vermis é vermibus foetor his body turnes to woâ—ms and those wormes yield such Sâ—nt as all the Spices of Arabia cannot keep away yet the living spirit of every wicked man that cannot and shall not die must now for his unrepented evil be hurried into the dreadful Regions of all horror where it must live and lie for ever and ever to suffer unsufferable and unconceivable torments a life that lives not and a death that dies not And so you see that man is Vanity and a wicked man in misery worse than vaniâ—y And therefore Reason should perswade you all to labour to become more than men that is more than meer men and to desire to be born again not of flesh and bloud but of water and of the Spirit of God that you may be brought again to that Union and Communion with God which you had when we were first made by God 2. The Prophet saith that totus lâ—mo vanitas all the whole man that is both 2 Point That whole man is vanity 1. The Body his Body and his Soul is vanity for what is this body of ours but a piece of earth which we tread upon Saccus stercorum saith S. Bernard a fack full of dust to say no worse and a Magazine of all Diseases Coughes Agues Feavers Gouts and what not and when these have satisfied and feasted themselves upon our bodies what are our bodies but a feast for Worms And the Soul though it be a pure Spirit as it proceeded from God yet as it is now traduced from our Parents as many Divines think it is or as it is infused 2. The Soul into our flesh as others do believe and remaineth in our bodies all the Faculties thereof are corrupted the Understanding is darkned with ignorance the Memory dulled with forgetfulness and the Will defiled with Misse-affections And so as Earth is good and Water is good yet being mingled together they do make a dirty Puddle and neither of them can be said to be then a pure Element so the body and soul of man though both were good in their Originals and good in their own kind yet now being both coupled together as Mezentius coupled the dead bodies to the living they are both marred and become so deformed by corrupting one another and associating themselves in their desires that now the eyes are the burning-glasses of Concupiscence and lusting after our neighbours Wives Lands and Goods the Tongue is a Razor of detraction to defame and slander our own Mothers Sons the Throat is an open Sepulchre the Hands Engines of violence to rob wound and kill the Heart a Mint of all Villanies the Feet swift to shed bloud and the whole man is become a Beast saith the Psalmist and a Devil saith our Saviour for one of you is a Devil Psal 74. John 6. 70. And so you see that all the whole man if he be but meer man as he is begotten of flesh and bloud in his best is but vanity in his next iniquity and in his worst consideration a meer misery and so miserable that being but meer man he hath little cause with the Philosopher to thank God that he was made a man when it had been better for him as our Saviour saith of Judas that he had never been made and never born Mark 14. 21. And therefore if we labour not to become more than men that is to be like Bacchus bis genitus as the Poets faign of him to be born again of another Mother That we should labour to become more than meer men the spouse of Christ and so to become double men and to consist of the old man begotten of mortal Seed and of the new man that is begotten by the immortal Seed of Gods Spirit we shall never be happy and never otherwise than as