other that they may raign with Christ are willing to suffer with Christ. Some of the auncients speaks of a plea that shall be holden by the diuell against the wicked before God at the day of iudgement O glorious king these that stand before thee are thine indeed by creation but by their sins they haue canceld that image of thine that was vpon them they are thine by vertue of thy Sons passion but mine for want of naturall compassion in all matters of difficulty when the question was whither they would lean to thee or me they forsooke thee yeelded to my temptations therefore ô great King ô King of glory giue me my due There is danger you see in wearing the liuery of Satan no lesse then treading vpon the egs of a Cockatrice which is dangerous and weauing the spiders webbe which is fruitlesse Let it not seem euil and burdensome to you to serue the Lord for though there be no condemnation to them that bee in Christ Iesus yet this priuiledge belongs vnto them that liue after the spirit not after the flesh Rom. 8. 1. When the arke of the Lord was drawne by kine to Bethshemosh though their calues perhaps lowed vnto them and they as the text sayth vnto their calues yet they could not goe because they were tyed vnto the arke So doe you resolue vpon the keeping of the couenants of the Lord and then though your affections call you aside yet you cannot you will not goe wrong because you are tyed by vowe or by resolution though not to the Arke of the couenant yet to the couenants of the Lord but if you will needs follow your owne imaginations which are euill and that continually beware of ioyes no better then sick mens dreams those ioyes are quaedam nepenthica soporifera for a while charming and silencing the cries both of sinne and punishment but in the end the visions of your heads will make you afraide If you be wicked you will flie cowardly yea sottishly when no man followeth because you haue loued iniquitie and hated righteousnesse therfore the diuel whom you haue serued will annoint you with oyle of sadnesse aboue your fellowes then can you neuer be merrie though al the pleasures in the world should make you melody An euill conscience when you haue lost your selues as Iob lost all his goods children will haunt you and say vnto you you haue lost Gods fauour and your owne soules and I alone am left aliue to come and tell you to keepe you waking at midnight when you should sleepe When there bee many fiery pictures in the ayre a blast of wind breakes and dispearses them all when in your mindes there be fearefull terrible cogitations strange frightings and amazements there is no way to dispearse them but by Gods holy spirit that wind which bloweth vvhere it listeth When Dauid vnderstood that the water of the wel of Bethlem that was brought vnto him was gained by the ieopardie of mens liues he would not drinke it but powred it vpon the ground for a sacrifice vnto the Lord bethinke your selues that your soules are gayned not by the ieopardie but the loose of the life of Christ dedicate not your soules and bodies vnto lust and vanity but rather say O Lord they were dear bought I wil offer them both as a sacrifice to thee We must mourn for sin we must abandon sin and because sin will euer dwel in our suburbs and be a borderer it will hang on so fast and will neuer admit a Supersedeas from sinning so long as we dwell in houses of claie Wee must which I thirdly noted appeale vnto God for he is the highest court of appeale who is the Lamb of God and can only purge the sinnes of the world Let this Agnus Dei bee your choisest ornament For as the woman hauing a matter heard before Philip king of Macedon who being asleepe did not well apprehend her cause but gaue wrong iudgement therefore she sayde she would appeale from Philip to Philip from Philip sleeping to Philip waking So must we appeale from God to God from God iust and angry for our sinnes to God opening the bowells of compassion vnto vs. Out of the strong came sweete it was the riddle of Sampson the meaning of the riddle was out of the dead Lion came the hony combe which relieued him My application at this time is out of the strong Lion of the tribe of Iuda comes the sweete comfort of our sauing health for that Lion is vnto vn wisdome iustification sanctification and redemption As Iacob said vnto his father so we may say to thee O heauenly Father eat of our venison of our flesh the flesh of thy Sonne that thy soule may bless vs. Tho man being iust do liue as the Prophet sayth once and the Apostle doth canonize it once againe yet faith is the soule and breath of that life Iustus ex fide viuit When it was resolued that Christ should do his Fathers wil for the good of mankinde he was ready to say Loe here I come to doe thy will he came indeed to shed his bloud he bled not inward for that might haue indangered the body but his blood was powred out for the good of others the speare of the souldier that thrust him through the side may serue as a pen his bloud was ink wherwith was written our Quietus est We may now with Paul not onely challenge death saying death where is thy sting but with the same Paul sing a Requiem vnto our soules saying that neither powers nor principalities can make a separation betweene God and vs. Seeing then God hath reared vp a standard of hope vnto all beleeuers let vs not be like reeds wauering and shaking in faith for then we please the diuell who by som of the auncients is compared to Behemoth that takes his pastime among the reeds but rather let vs be like a wall strong that God may build vpon vs a siluer palace that he may make vs houses for himselfe Let vs acquit our selues like men wee haue for our right hand the sword of the spirit for our left hand the shield of faith for our breast the breast-plate of righteousnesse for our heads the helmet of saluation for our feet the shooes of the preparation of the Gospel furniture enough for all parts saue onely the backe to argue that if we fight against the diuell we may do well but if we turne our backs and growe faithlesse wee giue him aduantage against vs. What neede we turne back seeing like Rahel hee dyed in trauell of vs his children and though to him we were Benonies sonnes of sorrow yet in regard of ourselues we are Beniamins sonnes of his right hand He shewed his power and strength to doe vs good the deeper we diue into the fountaine of his mercie the sweeter we shall finde
vnprofitable seruants and like an impartiall christian he beginnes at home with himselfe and sayth Wretched man that I am who shall deliuer mee from this body of death If you beleeue not him yet melt at the lamentation of our mother the Church whose iron heart making her lumpish and vnfit to goe to GOD without Gods spirit like an Adamant to dravve her cryes out in the first of the Canticles and sayth Drawe me and I will runne after thee And yet the Papists do so much flatter flesh and bloud that they make mans soule as a birde in a cage hauing wings to flie if the cage were open and like a lame man going vpon chrutches needing perhaps a little helpe as though they woulde make him cooperate with God Whereas weak men God knowes we want both wings and legges both will and power vnto goodnesse for from God cometh trust Paul rather then Bellarmine himselfe velle perficere Lactantius who was the hammer of gentilisme pleades against the heathens and sayth that their gods were not the authours of corne and wine and oyle hee sayth hee can proue these things were in the world before eyther Ceres or Saturne were borne But if these things were inuented by them who but onely God gaue them wit to inuent such things We are all of vs of the metall of a stone wee can rowle downe a hill by our selues of our own nature but vp to heauen-ward we cannot go without the help of Gods holy spirit We are like a spring-locke of our selues wee can shut and keepe out the graces of God wee cannot open our selues to receiue them in but by the help of thee O Lord who art the onely key But blessed be God who takes away our hearts of stone and giues vs hearts of flesh who at the first by his preuenting grace doth worke in vs to be willing and after with his subsequent grace he accompanieth vs that being willing wee should not will in vaine Therfore In nullo gloriandum est quia nihil est nostrum we must boast our selues of nothing because nothing is our owne we are starres we deriue all that we haue from the Father of lights Iam. 1. Giue therfore Lord what thou commandest and then commaund what thou wilt For goodnesse is a flower that growes not in our gardens It becomes vs al to looke vpon our trailing wings and confesse that we cannot fly for no spices can flowe out of our gardens no vertues out of our soules vnlesse Gods holy Spirit inrich our soules vnlesse the North and South arise blowe vpon our gardens For of ourselues we are naturally inclined to euill as Ephraim was so if you aske who mixt he mixt himselfe if you aske where he mix himselfe among the people What Ephraim hauing all Israel as a traine to follow after they all making by many degrees the maior part of the sonnes of Abraham they being tenne tribes and Iuda but onely two being ioined with the people too were not they a goodly companie euen as the morning spred vpon the mountains Yes their multitude was great but they were not therefore holy because they were many and therfore insteed of wine Bellarmine brocheth that which is worse then water when for one of the markes of the Church hee sets downe multitude as though there were not a broade way that leades vnto hell and many passengers in that way Math. 7. 14. What glory did multitude bring vnto the Church when Elias mourned because there were so few that professed true religion as though he had been left alone as a sparrow vpon the house top In the daies of Traian the Emperor the Church of God was like a doue in the holes of the rock therfore the Christians in his time being excepted against for their conuenticles were apologized by Plinie the second who wrot vnto Traian and told him that he found no fault with the Christians vnlesse it were a fault to pray and praise their God in their antelucane hymns There was a time whē the Arrian heresies spred so fast that there was Athanasius against all the world and all the world against Athanasius Gods chosen was a pearle in the rock and a vain of gold hid in the earth hard to be found The wildernesse is great where the goates do range the folde of God but small yet feare not little flock it is your fathers will to giue you a kingdome Ephraim hath mixt himselfe among the people They were an irreligious and idolatrous people which were as thornes in the sides of Ephraim and means to draw them vnto euill Out of which words doth arise this second obseruation that wee must auoide euill companie For with the froward we shall learne frowardnesse The wicked are like stickes one vnto an other kindling the heate of concupiscence mid-vviues they are by their perswasions helping monstrous births in the world bringing to passe that the sooner lust may conceiue and bring forth sinne and sinne when it is finished may bring forth death They reach out one vnto an other the hand of errour saying not Come let vs goe vp into the house of the Lord but let vs go vp to Bethel and transgresse to Gilgal multiply transgression A wicked companion is like vnto Dan an adder in the path which bites the horse makes the rider to fal backward he makes those whō he worketh vpō by his perswasions to becom retrograde with Demas to forsake Paul embrace this present world with the Church of Ephesus to leaue their first loue becom Apostats in matters of Christianitie It is a perillous conflict between the fire and the stubble euen iron sayth Isidorus will melt at this fire the most stayed man seeing all men haue such flaxen soules and so apt to take fire will thaw into vanity when he meetes with euill company As Ieroboam reared vp golden calues in Dan and Bethel to keepe the people from going to serue God at Ierusalem So to draw those that are flexible from their good and godly purposes they erect vanities and games vnto Bacchus and Flora which idoles I meane drunkennesse and wantonnesse are better cliented vpon the Sabboth day then the Ministers of Gods word With a thousand lures euill companions prouoke vnto intemperate courses and like Fimbria in Tullies pleadings for Roscius who was angry with Scaeuola that hee would not receiue all his sword point and blade into his bowells so these are angry that all others will not runne with them into the same excesse of riot But it becomes you who haue better learned Christ to bee like Arethusa which passeth through the Sicilian Sea and yet takes no saltnesse to liue as Paul woulde haue men to liue blamelesse in the middest of a frowarde and crooked generation It is with the common corruptions of the world as with a
to battel So that we may be incouraged to wrastle with afflictions though it be vnto bloud we must remember the powring out of the pretious bloud of him who became for our sakes the slaughtered lamb of God We may learne it of the Martyrs of God also for in the garden of God there haue been as well Roses as Lillies as well purpur atimartyrio as candidati innocentia They were like rose leaues not withered vpon the stalk falling away but distilled with the heat of persecution till they sent out a water a bloud a precious bloud Right dear in Gods eies is the death of all his Saints These were the prime-roses of the Church which died quickly after Christ their great shepheard many yeers after there were many whom when I remember I remember also Ecebolius who recoiled many times and started from his God and in the end after his seuerall apostasies hee laide him downe in the Church porch and bade the passengers tread vpon him deeming himselfe no better then vnsauory salt his later end was better then his beginning By Christ and by these his Martyrs who had the soule of their soules for their comfort learne to submit your selues to the correction of God that you may legitimate his wisdome in correcting of you lest as was in the Prophet Ieremies vision after arod in this life there come a seething pot in the life to come Then then vnto the incorrigible there will be an accuser the conscience a witnesse the memory a iudge the reason all these within them if there were none without But there shall bee as Anselmus sayth the heauens lovvring aboue hell gaping belovve the Diuell accusing on the one hand sinnes vvitnessing on the other the conscience burning within the world flaming about these things to fly it will be impossible these things to indure it will be intolerable There will bee a paine by losse and a paine by punishment It vvas a griefe to Adam to forgoe Paradise but a greater griefe to toyle among brambles and briers misery too much to forgoe the presence of God at vvhose right hand there is fulnesse of ioy for euermore but a greater griefe to indure O that my head were a fountaine of water and mine eyes floudes of teares that I might weepe day and night for them that are in such a case to indure I say hell fire vvhere the vvorme euer gnaweth vvhere the fire euer burneth and neuer burneth vp vvhere death is euer liuing alas for pittie that aeternus ignis that euerlasting fire Bidde vvelcome to his correction in this life that you maie auoyde the second death Yet graie haires caused by affliction could not make Ephraim know his estate no not gray haires vvhich argued the approach of olde age and death could make him knowe it yet as I noted secondly the approach of age should make vs knowe our selues To day therefore if you will heare my voyce harden not your hearts let not cras cras to morrow to morrow bee your note vvhich Saint Austen misliked in himselfe when he was within the kenne of the kingdome of grace and therfore added Why not now Lord why not now neither flatter your selues as those did whom Saint Peter reproues saying Where is the promise of his comming to day and yesterday are both alike as though they could pleade prescription for Gods long suffering True it is you may haue mercy when you can repent but you cannot repent when it is your pleasure therefore remember though Christ saued one the theefe vpon the crosse at the last gasp least men should despair yet we read but of one only lest they should presume Moab was not powred from vessell to vessell but was at rest therefore Moab vvas settled vpon the lees therefore the Prophet shot a warning peece vnto them because danger vvas at hand saying Giue wings to Moab that hee may flie awaie You little knowe what losse you may haue by security therefore lift vp your head from Dalilaes lappe O let the world charme you no longer when the gale is fauourable goe and good lucke haue you to heauen ward vpon your great aduenture stay not till the winds are contrary olde age is attended by many impediments lay not the heauiest burden vpon the worst horse charge not your weakenesse with that high seruice adiourne not your repentance dedicate not the flower of your age vnto vanitie appointing only for God the dregges in the bottome rather awake thou that sleepest the night will come when no man can worke worke while you haue the twelue howres of the daie Be perswaded let not your hearts be vnmalleable perswade your selues that qualis vita finisita as the tree falls so will it lie as is the life so is the death and as death leaues so iudgement will finde In your memories let euer be ingrauen as vpon a tablet the picture of that rich man in the Gospell who when his barnes were full sayd Soule take thine ease but presently there came a summons vnto him Thou foole this night shall thy soule be taken from thee When Caesar warred against Pompey hee had no care of managing his businesse vvhile he vvas in his owne territorie for there hee could commaund helpe but vvhen hee once passed Rubicon the vtmost boundes of his dominion hee sayde The Die is throwen there is no vvaie but fight it out So while wee are in this life wee haue power to labour for our selues if our sinnes pleade against vs we may haue the counterpleas of prayers and holy meditations By hearing of the word of God and praying wee may haue parle with God vpon conditions of peace but when wee once passe the vtmost bounds of this life there is no purchase to be made by trentalls or masses At men haue sowen so must they reape To dreame of a serpent is an argument of felicitie Camerarius doth instance in the mother of George Castroit or Scanderbegge who the night before her sonne vvas borne dreamed of a Serpent that laied his head in the kingdom of Epyrus and stretched out his bodie ouer the dominion of the Turkes which argued hee should be as hee became the vanquisher of them Be this obseruation true or false in nature it serues mee for your instruction to land this doctrine vppon your owne banks Our whole life is but a sleepe in sinne in the depth of our slumber let vs like dreaming men haue our imaginations running vpon the olde Serpent Satan and his sleights so shall vvee be happie standing vvee shall preuent a fall But as for Ephraim hee was not so refined not so zealous for the Lord of hosts though strangers deuoured his strength though gray haires were heere and there vpon him yet he knew it not yet he knew it not his ignorance is redoubled Out of which words I obserue a iust imputation against diuers ignorant men Some
the obliquitie of the action when impietie was once aflote God by his wisedome ordained a channell for it that it might turne to his glory and the greatest good of Iob. When a skilfull musician plaies cunningly vpon a Lute that is out of tune the iarre if there be any comes from the lute not from the hand when mens liues are out of tune ought they to blame that wise and powerfull finger of God without which they cannot worke No no O sinner all that iarring comes of thy selfe It is not God O drunkard but thy selfe that drinkes thee drunke Not God O thou murtherer but thy selfe that staines thy selfe with bloud Not God O thou blasphemer but thy selfe that filles thy mouth with words that are clothed with death build not thy sinnes vpon the backe of God thou mockest thy self when thou thinkest to shift thy burden from thy selfe vnto his shoulders The same soule that sinneth the same must die vnlesse Gods mercy bee all the greater As the Diuell brings darkenesse out of light so the manner of God is to bring light out of darkenesse therupon Saint Origen speaketh of a great pedigree of blessings deriued from that vnnaturall sinne of the selling of Ioseph into Egypt which blessing after many yeares returned plentifully againe vnto his fathers house Saint Austen in fewe wordes determines this question the Diuell tempts man consents God forsakes Let God bee true and all men liers Let God be iustly esteemed pure and all the world be tainted with impietie God in his wisedome shewes his iustice oft and many a time vpon vs as at this time vpon Ephraim that by his correctioÌ„s hee may call vs home vnto him Hee drawes vs gently with the cordes of a man euen with the bands of loue least wee should bee drawen from him by Egypt or by Ashur by little sinnes or by great by the cordes of vanitic or by the careropes of iniquitie And therefore in the wordes following he cals them chastisements which chastisements when men are incorrigible deafe adders and stop their eares against the wise charmer are the best meanes to cast salte vppon affections and giues eyes vnto reason hee sayeth I will chastice them The chasticements of GOD lay heauie that my discourse may beare date then and not before the comming of our Sauiour in the flesh vpon the sonne of GOD himselfe the roddes wherwith God did suffer him to bee chasticed were his enemies and his friends his enemies were like as many dogges that came vpon him and as the Sunne entring into the constellation called the Dogge argueth a hote season so the conflict must needes bee hote when the Sunne of righteousnesse fell among so many dogges his friendes the flocke were so amazed the shepheard being smitten â—hat he was like a tree hauing all the leaues beaten of not only the withered leaues those which followed him for his bread and for his miracles fell away but the greene leaues also they which loued him best his own Peter both denied and forsware him If these things fell vnto the greene tree what shall bee done vnto the drie tree The Church could not scape sorrow but hath hen as a lodge in a garden of cucumers and as a besieged Citie When the diuell trieth hee trieth with a siue Satan hath dâ—sired to winome thee as wheat When God trieth heetrieth with a sanne With a fanne will hee purge his floore a siue keepes the bad and sends away the good a fanne keepes the good and sends away the bad therefore the trials of the diuell do rob vs of our vertue and the trials of God by affliction do dispatch away al our vices Be not afraid saith Petrarch though the house the body be shaken so the soule the guest of the body fare well Affliction is the whetstone of zeale which made God sometimes let his Church taste of it and lie among the pots though her wings be of siluer and her feathers of golde God doth come with loue or with a rod inter changeably as it pleaseth him Hee hath piped vnto vs by many earthly blessings haue our hearts danced for ioy and in our songs haue we pray sed him He hath mourned vnto vs by the shaking of diuers rods and calamities ouer our heads and hath our mourning for sinne beene like the mourning of the mother for the losse of her first borne If we will bee reconciled by neither meanes hee will doe vnto vs as hee did vnto Ephraim For when hee piped to Ephraim by his loue and by his worde they would not treade right measures by their obedience therefore hee tolde them they must adresse themselues to weeping for now he meant to mourn vnto them and to chastice them as their congregation had heard Such is the confluence of opinions for the exposiâ—ion of these words so diuers and so iustling the crowde of interpreters that I cannot without wronging you ouermuch marshall them into their seuerall rankes therfore I will at this time build vpon that which is subscribed vnto by the best and excepted against by none which I take to bee the quick of these words and that is this that they had often heard in their coÌ„gregations by thelaw the prophets that the chasticements and the rods of God would treade vpon the heeles of their sinnes if they continued in them Happy were the men of Ephraim if they had knowen their owne happiness yet being as they were they were happy for being forewarned they were forearmed So was Niniueh for the noyse of destruction after fortie daies made the Niniuites turne vnto the Lord and so preuent the danger Arise quoth Elias to Aâ—â—â—b and prepare thy chariot for I heare a sound of raine vnlesse thou passe quickly thou canst not passe there the sound of raine preuented the daunger that might haue come by raine So though the iustice of God require the cutting downe of sinners yet God in his mercie first putteth the axe to the roote of the tree to see if that repentance and amendment of life may preuent that cutting Seeing then you haue so many warnings in the congregations to forearme you against danger make vse of them and be bettered by them least they proue a cloud of witnesses against you I will chastice them as their congregation hath heard Out of which words I obserue first that the preacher who is the tongue of the congregation ought to tell the people of their danger to come Secondly the people who are the eare of the congregation ought to yeelde their obedience vnto the voice of the shepheard a well composed body that hath such a tongue and such an eare The preacher should tell the congregation of the danger to come but some cannot some dare not some will not some though they doe it doe it to no purpose Some cannot for they runne before they be sent not hauing eaten