〈◊〉 who professe to eat Christ corporally 〈◊〉 censure so bitterly Verse 8. The sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath q. d. Say they were not innocent yet have you no cause to condemn them for Sabbath-breach sith I am Lord of the Sabbath and may 〈◊〉 with mine own as me seems 〈◊〉 True it is that Christ hates sinne by nature not by precept only and therefore cannot dispense with the breach of his own laws those that be morall in themselves such as are all the ten but the fourth The fourth Commandment is morall not by nature but by precept saith one and so the Lord of the Sabbath may dispense with the literall breach of the Sabbath Verse 9. He went into their Synagogue These were Chappels of ease to the Temple of ancient use Act. 15. 21. and divine authority Psal. 74. 8. This here is called the Pharisees Synagogue because they did Dominari in concionibus Rom. 2. 19 20. and are for their skill called Princes 1 Cor. 2. 8. Verse 10. Which had his hand withered So have all covetous 〈◊〉 who may well be said amidst all their 〈◊〉 to have 〈◊〉 currant coyn no quick-silver They sit abrood upon what they have got as Euclio in the 〈◊〉 and when by laying 〈◊〉 their money they might lay hold on eternall life they will not 〈◊〉 drawn to it But as Alphonsus King of Spain when he stood to be King of the Romans was prevented of his hopes because he being a great Mathematician was drawing lines saith the Chronicler when he should have drawn out his 〈◊〉 So here Verse 11. What man shall there be c. If a 〈◊〉 slipt into a slowe must be relieved how much more Christs reasonable sheep all which bear golden fleeces and every thing about whom is good either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or ad usum Verse 12. Is it lawfull to do 〈◊〉 Nay it is needfull sith not to do well is to do ill and not to save a life or a soul is to destroy it Mar. 3. 4 Not to do justice is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not to shew 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then cruelty Verse 13. And he stretched it forth So would our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out their hands to the poor would they but 〈◊〉 to Christ and hear his voice as this man did But till then they will as easily part with their bloud as with their good All their strife is who like the 〈◊〉 shall fall asleep with most earth in his paws As when they die nothing grieves them more then that they must leave that which they have so dearly 〈◊〉 whiles alive I reade of one wretch who being at point of death clapt 〈◊〉 piece of gold in his own 〈◊〉 and said Some wiser then some I mean to have this with me howsoever Verse 14. How 〈◊〉 might destroy him All envy is bloudy Men wish him out of the world whom they cannot abide and would rather the Sun should be 〈◊〉 then their candle 〈◊〉 David durst never trust Sauls protestations because he knew him to be an envious person Nero put Thraseas to death for no other cause but for that it was not expedient for Nero that 〈◊〉 worthy a man as he should live by him Verse 15. Great multitudes followed him Maugre the malice of earth and hell They lose their labour that seek to quell Christ and subvert his Kingdom Yet have I set my King upon mine holy hill of Sion Psal. 2. 6. The Kingdom of heaven suffereth violence 〈◊〉 11. 12. Or as Melanctbon rendereth that text Vierumpit procedit enititur vi scilicet 〈◊〉 ut sol enititur per nubes ergo irriti 〈◊〉 conatus it bursts thorow all Verse 16. That they should not make him known This his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who sought to get credit and glory among men by his 〈◊〉 works upbraid him with Joh. 7. 4. If thou 〈◊〉 these things shew thy self to the world say they and so proclaim that they believed not in him Joh. 7. 5. with Joh. 5. 44. Joh. 12. 43. Verse 17. That it might be fulfilled The old Testament is the new fore-told the new Testament is the old 〈◊〉 Ezekiel saw a wheel within a wheel This is saith 〈◊〉 the one Testament in the other Verse 18. Behold my servant My servant the Messias as the Chaldee 〈◊〉 renders and expounds it The Septuagint somewhat obscure the text by adding to it Behold my servant Jacob and mine elect Israel They are said to have 〈◊〉 against 〈◊〉 wils no 〈◊〉 then they deal not so faithfully Sure it is that they have perverted sundry 〈◊〉 Prophecies 〈◊〉 Christ as 〈◊〉 for instance which therefore our Evangelist and the rest of the Apostles alledge not out of their translation but out of the Hebrew 〈◊〉 The Latins drink of the puddles the 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 but the Hebrews of the 〈◊〉 said Iohan. Reuchlin Whom I have chosen my beloved c Ecce electum dilectum The Latines have a proverb Deligas quem 〈◊〉 Chuse for thy love and then love for thy choice God hath also chosen 〈◊〉 in the beloved Ephes. 1. 6. that we should be the beloved of his soul or as the Septuagint there emphatically render it his belived soul. And he shall shew judgement That is the doctrine of the Gospel whereby is convey'd into the heart that spirit of judgement and of burning Isa. 4. 4. or the sweet effect of it true grace which is called judgement a little below vers 20. Verse 19. He shall not strive To bear away the bell 〈◊〉 others Nor cry Nor lift up his voice saith the Prophet as loth to lie hid and 〈◊〉 making an O yes as desirous of vain-glory and popular applause Laudes nec curat nec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He despiseth it as a little stinking breath or the slavering of mens lips which he disdains to suck in Verse 20. A bruised reed shall he not break A reed shaken with the winde is taken for a thing very contemptible at the best how much more when bruised The wick of a candle is little worth and yet lesse when it 〈◊〉 as yeelding neither light nor heat but only stench and annoiance This men bear not with but tread out So doth not Christ who yet hath a sharp nose a singular sagacity and soon resents our provocations He 〈◊〉 also feet like burning brasse to tread down all them that wickedly depart from his statutes Psal. 119. 118. But so do not any of his and therefore he receiveth and cherisheth with much 〈◊〉 not the strong oaks only of his people but the bruised reeds too nor the bright torches only but the smoaking wick He despiseth not the day of small things Smoak is of the same 〈◊〉 with flame for what else is flame but smoak set on fire So a little grace may be true grace as the filings of gold are as good gold though nothing so much of it as the whole wedge The least spark of fire if cherished
fallen by the hand of this vile strumpet the world who by laying forth her two fair brests of profit and pleasure hath cast down many wounded as Solomons harlot Prov. 7. 26. And by the glistering of her pomp and 〈◊〉 hath 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the going fire leads men into hedges and ditches 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which when she cannot over take the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth with her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so that they have no power to 〈◊〉 away till she have 〈◊〉 them to death Verse 9. And he saith unto him All these things will I give thee A great catch sure even just nothing for he shewed out Saviour only shews and shadows apparitions and resemblances of things The word also used in the former verse for glory 〈◊〉 an opinion or imagination So St Luke stiles all Agrippa's 〈◊〉 but a fantasie David tels us that man walketh in a vain shadow Now a shadow is something in appearance nothing in 〈◊〉 So the Apostle calleth all these things that the devil 〈◊〉 our Saviour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an accidentall mathematicall figure without solidity or substance And further tels us that this figure 〈◊〉 away is ever in transitu like the streams of a river that 〈◊〉 by the sides of a City no man can stop or if we could retain the things of this life yet not the world only passeth away saith the Apostle but the lusts thereof So that a man 〈◊〉 make his heart delight in the same thing still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fastidio sunt We loath after a while what we lusted 〈◊〉 as Amnon did Tamar and quickly finde a satiety yea an unsatisfy ingnesse in the creature For he that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver nor though he could heap up his hoards to the stars and ingrosse a monopoly of all the wealth in the world Non 〈◊〉 satiatur cor 〈◊〉 quà m corpus aurâ You may assoon 〈◊〉 a bag with wisdome a chest with 〈◊〉 or a circle with a triangle as the heart of man with any thing here below All that earth can afford is fumus 〈◊〉 saith one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith another Vanity and vexation saith Solomon the wise To whose impartiall verdict grounded upon so good 〈◊〉 we shall doe well to subscribe without believing the 〈◊〉 crakes or trying any further conclusions The Centurists 〈◊〉 All these things will I give thee thus I will make thee Pope And indeed many Popes were advanced to that Sea 〈◊〉 by the devil as Histories relate Who had they but 〈◊〉 what is usually done at their inthronization would never have been so hasty For before the Pope is set in his Chair and puts on his tripple Crown a peece of row or wad of straw is set on fire 〈◊〉 him and one appointed to say Sic transit 〈◊〉 The glory of this world is but a 〈◊〉 This is only 〈◊〉 of form and Ceremony As is also that that one day in the year the 〈◊〉 Almoner rideth before him casting abroad to the 〈◊〉 certain peeces of brasse and lead saying Silver and gold have I none but such as I have I give you Whereas that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 holds a golden cup in her hand and her merchants that trade with her are the Grandees of the earth Revel 18. and are 〈◊〉 rich by her vers 15. The Cardinall of Toledo hath a hundred thousand pound a year comming in The Arch-bishops of Germany are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many of them and have revenues accordingly Petrarch reporteth that in the treasury of Pope John the 22. were found after his death 250. tuns of gold And of Boniface the eighth it is storied that when he was taken by Philip the fair King of France and his palace rifled there was more treasure found then all the Kings of the earth were able to shew again Otto one of the Popes Mice-catchers as the story 〈◊〉 them sent hither by Gregory 9. after three years raking 〈◊〉 of money by most 〈◊〉 arts at last departing 〈◊〉 he left not so much money in the whole Kingdom as he either 〈◊〉 with him or sent before him Judge by this what they did thorowout all Christendom The Pope saith one could never want money so long as he could hold a pen in his hand Thus it was then but how now Bellarmine complains that since by us the Pope was cried down for Antichrist his Kingdom 〈◊〉 not only not encreased but every day more and more decreased And Cotton the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the authority of the Pope of Rome is incomparably lesse then it was And that now the Christian Church is but a diminutive Hereupon also the Cardinals who 〈◊〉 wont to meet oftener meet but once a week because the 〈◊〉 of the Court of Rome grow 〈◊〉 And albeit the 〈◊〉 good and 〈◊〉 bloud his honours and manners rose together yet abates he as little of his former pomp and pride as the 〈◊〉 doth since his fall in taking upon him here to dispose of all the Kingdoms of the earth as his and requiring our Saviour the true Lord of all to 〈◊〉 down and worship him The Cardinals he still createth with these words Estote fratres nostri principes mundi And as another 〈◊〉 who was the first that 〈◊〉 that honour he holdeth forth his feet to be kissed having the sign of the 〈◊〉 shining with pearls and 〈◊〉 stones 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 crucem Christi derideat saith mine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In 〈◊〉 word with his pomp and primacy gain and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and riches fat Bishopricks and Cardinalships as he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luther and gain him to his side so he gets and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to that rotten religion Pauper Lutherus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said Erasmus it being then the ready way to 〈◊〉 to write and rail against Luther as Eccius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 others found it But Christ will one day whip such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and their customers out of his house as he did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Gospel chase them out of his presence as Nehemiah did 〈◊〉 son in Law Curse them with a curse that runne 〈◊〉 after the errour of 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 Let the Romish 〈◊〉 offer as large as the devil doth here every one that hath any thing of Christ in him will answer with that noble Italian 〈◊〉 Galeacius Caracciolus Marquesse of Vico in 〈◊〉 who being tempted by a Jesuite to revolt for money 〈◊〉 out Let their money perish with them who esteem all the gold in the world worth one daies society with 〈◊〉 Christ and his holy Spirit And cursed be that Religion for ever c. If thou wilt fall down and worship me Luke saith Worship before me So that to worship before an Idol is to worship the Idol whatever the Romanist pretend and plead to the contrary And not only so but to fall down as the devil would have had our Saviour here though it
Pope to a dark dungeon lading him with bitter scoffs and curses There are not many years past since the Realm of France was ready upon the Popes refusall to reblesse K. Henry 4. upon conversion to them to with-draw utterly from the obedience of his Sea and to erect a new Patriarch over all the French Church The then Arch-bishop of Burges was ready to accept it and but that the Pope in fear thereof did hasten his benediction it had been effected to his utter 〈◊〉 and decay Before he would doe it he lashed the King in the person of his Embassadour after the singing of every verse of miserere untill the whole Psalm was sung out Sed 〈◊〉 Evangelij jubare sagaciores ut spero principes adnutum hujus Orbilij non solvent subligacula saith a great Divine of ours King Henry the eighth and the French King some half a year before their deaths were at a point to have changed the Masse in both their Realms into a Communion Also to have utterly extirped the Bishop of Rome c. Yea they were so thorowly resolved in that behalf that they meant also to exhort the Emperour to doe the like or to break off from him The same Emperour to be revenged upon Pope Clement his enemy abolished the Popes authority thorowout all Spain his native Kingdome declaring thereby the Spaniards themselves for example that ecclesiasticall discipline may be conserved without the Papall authority The Eastern Churches have long since separated the other four Patriarchs dividing themselves from the Bishop of Rome and at their parting using these or the like words Thy greatnesse we know thy covetousnes we cannot satisfie thy encroaching we can no longer abide live to thy self Neither are the Western much behinde especially since all was changed in that Church manners doctrine and the very rule of faith in the Trent 〈◊〉 Then according to some Expositours did the second Angel pour out his vial upon the sea upon that conflux of all sorts at Trent and it became as the 〈◊〉 of a dead man those deadly decrees are written with the bloud of heretikes and every living soul died in that sea as once the fish of AEgypt For none that worship the beast have their names written in the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of the world Revel 13. 8. Slain I say as in his fathers decree and promise as in the Sacrifices of the Law and faith of his people so in his members and Martyrs beheaded as John Baptist or otherwise butchered for the witnesse of Jesus and for the Word of God But the bloud of the Martyrs was the seeding of the Church God was never left without witnesses as is seen in our Catalogues but although John was cast in prison yea beheaded in the prison as if God had known nothing of him quoth that Martyr yet there never wanted a Jesus to goe into Galilee And that guilty Edomite Herod was sensible of it Matth. 14. 2. when he said to his servants This is John Baptist he is risen from the dead In like sort the Romish Edomite after he had done to death Christs two ancienter witnesses that Baptist-like came in the spirit and power of Elias to confute and confound their Baal-worships yet to his great grief and regret he hath seen them revive and stand upon their 〈◊〉 again in that heroicall Wicliff who is said to have written more then 200. volumes against him in that Goose of 〈◊〉 that Swan of Saxony those three 〈◊〉 Angels That flew in the midst of heaven 〈◊〉 the everlasting Gospel to preach to them that dwell on the earth together with those other noble Reformers in all Christian Churches By whom ever since the Pope was declared to be 〈◊〉 his authority saith Bellarmine hath not only not 〈◊〉 but daily more and more decreased The fourth 〈◊〉 hath lost a head as Cusanus the Cardinall had prophesied Anno Domini 1464. and after him Trithemius the Abbot Anno 1508. A sect of Religion saith he shall arise once within this 〈◊〉 years to the great destruction of the old Religions It is to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the fourth beast will lose one of her heads This he 〈◊〉 in his book concerning Angels and Spirits What kinde of spirit it was black or white that dictated unto him this prophecy which fell out accordingly and was fulfilled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luther I cannot tell But the godly learned 〈◊〉 it was from that evil spirit who is said to have sung before 〈◊〉 tibi subitò motibus ibit amor As the Emperour Frederick is reported also to have fore-told in this distich Roma 〈◊〉 titubans variis erroribus acta Corruet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 esse 〈◊〉 Verse 13. And leaving 〈◊〉 Where he had had his conception and education and did 〈◊〉 in a speciall manner affect them and 〈◊〉 their good but they would not For when 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have healed Israel then the iniquity of Ephraim broke our as the leprosie in their fore-heads Hos 7. 1. they refused to be reformed they hated to be healed Some few sick folk he healed there and that was all he could doe for them more then marvell at their unbelief He could doe there no mighty work saith St Mark and therefore left them saith St Matthew then the which he could hardly have done them a greater 〈◊〉 For woe be unto you if I depart from you Hos. 9. 12. In the 9 10 〈◊〉 11. 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 God makes divers removes And 〈◊〉 as he goes out some judgement 〈◊〉 in till at length he was 〈◊〉 gone out of the City Chap. 11. 23. And then followed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 calamity in the ruine 〈◊〉 O pray that the Sunne of that dismall day may 〈◊〉 arise wherein it shall be said That our 〈◊〉 stick is removed that our Sunne is eclipsed that the 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 from our English Israel that Christ hath turned his back upon this our Nazareth 〈◊〉 preces lacrymas cordis logatos saith Cyprian Currat poenitentia ne praecurrat sententia saith Chrysologus Wish we for our Church as 〈◊〉 did for the Romish Synagogue that we had some Moses to take away the evils and abuses therein Nam non unum 〈◊〉 vitulum sed multos habemus And then sing as another did Ah ne diem illum posteri Vivant mei qiso pristinum Vertantur in lutum aurea Quae nos beârunt saecula He came and 〈◊〉 in Capernaum Happy town in so sweet and precious an Inhabitant and is therefore said to be lifted up to Heaven Matth. 11. 23. as Revel 7. among those that were sealed of the severall Tribes Judah is first reckon'd of all Leahs children because our Lord sprang out of Judah and Nepthali of all those of Rachels side because at Capernaum in that Tribe he dwelt Ut utrobique superemineat Christi praerogativa saith an
became a bitter enemy to the truth that he had profesled 1 Tim. 1. 19 20. 4. 14 15. Faelix 〈◊〉 an Anabaptist of 〈◊〉 being put to death for his obstinacy and ill practices at Tigure praised God that had called him to the sealing up of his truth with his blood was animated to constancy by his mother and brother and ended his life with these words Lord into thy hands I commend my spirit What could any hearty Hooper trusty Taylour or sincere 〈◊〉 have said or done more in such a case It is not then the suffering but the suffering for righteousnesse sake that proveth a man 〈◊〉 and entitleth him to heaven The Philistims died by the fall of the house as well as Samson sed diver so fine ac fato as one saith Christ and the theeves were in the same condemnation Similis paena sed aissimilis causa saith Austin their punishment was all alike but not their cause Baltasar 〈◊〉 the Burgundian that slew the Prince of Orange 1584. Iun. 30. endured very grievous torments But it was pertinacy in him rather then patience stupidity of sense not a solidity of faith a wretchlesse disposition not a confident resolution Therefore no heaven followed upon it because he suffered not as a Martyr but as a malefactour For theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Surely if there be any way to heaven on horseback it is by the crosse said that Martyr that was hasting thither in a fiery charet The Turks account all them whom the Christians kill in battell Mahometan Saints and Martyrs assigning them a very high place in Paradise In some parts of the West-Indies there is an opinion in grosse that the soul is immortall and that there is a life after this life where beyond certain hills they know not where those that died in defence of their countrey should remain after death in much blessednesse which opinion made them very valiant in their fights Should not the assarance of Heaven make us valiant for the truth should we not suffer with joy the spoiling of our goods yea the losse of our lives for life eternall should we not look up to the recompence of reward to Christ the authour and finisher of our faith who stands over us in the encounter as once over Stephen with a Crown on his head and another in his hand and saith Vincenti Dabo to him that overcommeth will I give this Surely this son of David will shortly remove us from the ashes of our forlorn 〈◊〉 to the Hebron of our peace and glory This son of Jesse will give every one of us not fields and vineyards but Crowns Scepters Kingdoms glories beauties c. The expectation of this blessed day this nightlesse day as one calleth it must as it did with Davids souldiers all the time of their banishment digest all our sorrows and make us in the midst of miseries for Christ to over-abound exceedingly with joy as Paul did Q. Elizabeths government was so much the more happy and welcome because it 〈◊〉 upon the stormy times of Q Mary She came as a fresh spring after a sharpe winter and brought the ship of England from a troublous and tempestuous sea to a safe and quiet harbour So will the Lord Christ do for all his persecuted people Ye see said Bilney the Martyr and they were his last words to one that exhorted him to be constant and take his death patiently ye see saith he when the mariner is entred his ship to sail on the troublous sea how he for a while is tossed in the billows of the same but yet in hope that he shall once come to the quiet haven he beareth in better comfort the troubles that he feeleth So am I now towards this sayling and whatsoever storms I shall feel yet shortly after shall my ship be in the haven as I doubt not thereof by the grace of God c. Lo this was that that held the good mans head above water the hope of Heaven And so it did many others whom it were easie to instance Elizabeth Cooper Martyr being condemned and at the stake with Simon Miller when the fire came unto her she a little shranke thereat crying once ha When Simon heard the same he put his hand behind him toward her and willed her to be strong and of good chear For good sister said 〈◊〉 we shall have a joyfull and sweet supper Whereat she being strengthned stood as still and as quiet as one most glad to finish that good course Now I take my leave of you writeth William Tims Martyr in a letter to a friend of his a little before his death till we meet in Heaven And hie you after I have tarried a great 〈◊〉 for you And seeing you be so long in making ready I will tarry no longer for you You shall finde me merrily 〈◊〉 Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabaoth at my journies end c. And I cannot here let slip that golden 〈◊〉 wherewith those 40 Martyrs mentioned by St Basil comforted one another when they were cast out naked all night in the winter and were to be burned the next morrow Sharpe is the winter said they but sweet is Paradice painfull is the frost but joyfull the fruition that followeth it Wait but a while and the Patriarks 〈◊〉 shall cherish us After one night we shall lay hold upon eternall life Let our 〈◊〉 feel the fire for a season that we may for ever walke arm in arm with Angels let our hands fall off that they may for ever be lifted up to the praise of the Almighty c. Verse 11. Blesse are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of 〈◊〉 against you falsly for my sake There are tongue-smiters as well as hand-smiters such as maligne and molest Gods dearest children as well with their virulent tongues as violent hands Such as will revile you saith our Saviour 〈◊〉 and upbraid you with your profession hit you in teeth with your God as they dealt by David and that went as a murthering weapon to his soul and 〈◊〉 your precisenesse and 〈◊〉 in your dish This is the force of the first word Further they shall persecute you eagerly pursue and follow you hot-foot as the hunter doth his prey The word betokeneth a keen and eager pursuit of any other whether by law or by the sword whether by word or deed For 〈◊〉 also are persecutours as Ismael and for such shall be arraigned Jude 15. And cruell mockings and scourgings are set together by the Authour to the Hebrews as much of a kinde chap. 11. 35. Especially when as it follows in the text they shall say all manner of evil against you call you all to peeces and thinke the worst word in their bellies too good for you This is collaterall blasphemy blasphemy in the second table
the fire at Uxbridge so did George Carpenter the Bavarian Martyr so did Wolfgang us Schuh a Germane when he entred into the place heaped up with fagots and wood he sang Laetatus sum in his quae dicta sunt mihi in domum Domini ibimus Two Austin Monks at Bruxelles anno 1523. the first among the Lutherans that suffered for religion being fastened to the stake to be burnt sang Te Deum and the Creed Others clapt their hands in the flames in token of triumph as Hawks and Smith and five Martyrs burnt together by Bonner Bainham at the stake and in the midst of the flame which had half consumed his arms and his legs spake these words O ye Papists behold ye look for miracles here you may see a miracle For in this fire I feel no more pain then if I were in a bed of down but it is to me as a bed of roses Now what was it else whereby these Worthies of whom the world was not worthy quenched the violence of the fire and out of weaknesse were made strong Was it not by their heroicall and impregnable faith causing them to endure as seeing him that is invisible and having respect as Moses to the recompence of reward Heb. 11. 26 27. For great is your reward in heaven God is a liberall pay-master and no small things can fall from so great a hand as his Oh that joy ô my God when shall I be with thee said a dying Peer of this Realm So great is that joy that we are said to enter into it it is too full to enter into us Elias when he was to enter into it feared not the fiery charrets that came to fetch him but through desire of those heavenly happinesses waxed bold against those terrible things Atque hoc in carne adhuc vivens it is S. B 〈◊〉 observation and this he did whiles he was as yet in the flesh For he 〈◊〉 oculum in metam which was Ludovicus Vives his Motto his eye upon the mark He prest forward toward the high prize with Paul and looking thorow the terrour of the fire saw heaven beyond it and this made him so valiant so violent for the Kingdome A Dutch Martyr feeling the flame to come to his beard Ah said he what a small pain is this to be compared to the glory to come Hellen Stirk a 〈◊〉 woman to her husband at the place of execution spoke thus Husband rejoyce for we have lived together many joyfull daies but this day in which we must die ought to be most joyfull to us both because we must have joy for ever Therefore I will not bid you good night for we 〈◊〉 suddenly meet within the Kingdome of heaven The subscription of Mistresse Anne Askew to her 〈◊〉 was this Written by me Anne Askew that neither wisheth for death nor feareth his might and as merry as one that is bound toward heaven Oh how my heart leapeth for joy said M. Philpot that I am so near the apprehension of eternall life God forgive me mine 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 of so great 〈◊〉 I have 〈◊〉 much joy of the reward prepared for me most wretched sinner that though I be in place of darknesse and mourning yet I cannot lament but both night and day am so joyfull as though under no crosse at all yea in all the daies of my life I was never so merry the Name of the Lord be praised therefore for ever and ever and he pardon mine unthankfulnesse The world wondereth saith he in another place how we can be so merry in such extreme misery but our God is omnipotent which turneth misery into felicity Believe me there is no such joy in the world as the people of Christ have under the crosse I speak by experience c. To this joy all other being compared are but mournings all delights sorrows all sweetnesse sowre all beauty filth and finally all things counted pleasant are 〈◊〉 Great then we see is their reward in earth that suffer for Christ they have heaven afore-hand they rejoyce in tribulation with joy unspeakable and glorious they have an exuberancy of joy such as no good can match no evil over-match For though I tell you said M. Philpot in a letter to the Congregation that I am in hell in the judgement of this world yet 〈◊〉 I feel in the same the consolation of heaven And this lothsome and horrible prison is as pleasant to me as the walks in the Garden in the Kings bench What will it be then when they shall have crowns on their heads and palms in their hands when they shall come to that generall Assembly 〈◊〉 12. 23. and have all the Court of heaven to meet and entertain them When they shall follow the Lamb wheresoever he goeth Revel 14. 4. and have places given them to walk among those that stand by Zech. 3. 7. that is among the Seraphims as the Chaldee Paraphrast expoundeth it among the Angels of heaven Alusively to the walks and galleries that were about the Temple Majora certamina majora sequuntur praemia saith Tertullian Quisquis volens 〈◊〉 famae meae nolens addit mercedi meae saith Augustine The more we suffer with and for Christ the more glory we shall have with and from Christ. For so persecuted they the Prophets which were before you Your betters sped no better Strange not therefore at it start not for it Persecution hath ever been the Saints portion How early did Martyrdome come into the world The first man that died died for religion And although Cain be 〈◊〉 to his place yet I would he were not still alive in his sons and successours who hate their brethren because they are more righteous Et 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rubentem circumferunt as one speaketh 〈◊〉 that is not to be wished or at least it is Magis optabile quam opinabile that ever a Prophet shall want a persecutour while there is a busie devil and a malicious world The Leopard 〈◊〉 said so to hate man that he sleeth upon his very picture and 〈◊〉 it 〈◊〉 doth the devil and his imps God and his image The Tigre is said to be enraged with the smell of sweet odours so are the wicked of the world with the fragrancy of Gods graces Noah rose up and condemned them by his contrary 〈◊〉 and therefore under-went a world of calamities Puritan Lot was an eye-sore to the sinfull Sodomites and is cast out as it were by an ostracisme His father Haran the brother of Abraham died before his father Terah in Ur of the Caldees The Hebrews tell us that he was cruelly burnt by the Caldees because he would not worship the fire which they had made their god How 〈◊〉 was Moses made as 〈◊〉 among the Romans to plead for his life And although Davids innocency triumphed in
beetle for writing a book against the marriage with the Duke of Anion entituled The gulf wherein England will be swallowed by the French match c. he put off his hat with his left-hand and said with a loud voice God save the Queen So when God strikes a parting blow between us and our dilecta delicta our right-hand sinnes let us see a mercy in it and be thankfull let us say to these Idols Get thee hence What have I to doe any more with Idols that God may say as there I have heard him and observed him I am like a green fir-tree from me is thy fruit found when he shall see thee pollute those Idols that thou wast wont to perfume Isa. 30. 22. And not that thy whole body be cast into hell Our Saviour is much in speaking of hell And it were much to be wished saith S. Chrysostom that mens thoughts and tongues would run much upon this subject there being no likelier way of escaping hell then by taking ever and anon a turn or two in hell by our meditations A certain Hermite is said to have learned three leaves a black red and white one that is he daily meditated upon the horrour of hell the passion of Christ the happines of heaven Verse 31. It hath been said Whosoever shall put away his wife c. This Moses permitted as a Law-maker not as a Prophet as a civil Magistrate not as a man of God meerly for the hardnesse of the mens hearts and for the relief of the women who else might have been misused mischiefed by their unmannerly and unnatural husbands Mal. 2. 13. Those hard-hearted Jews caused their wives when they should have been chearfull in Gods service to cover the altar of the Lord with tears with weeping and with crying out So that he regarded not the offering any more A number of such Nabals there are now-adaies that tyrannize over and trample upon their wives as if they were not their fellows but their foot-stools not their companions and copesmates but their slaves and vassals Husbands love your wives and be not bitter unto them Col. 3. 16. He saith not as it might seem he should with respect to the former verse Rule over them and shew your authority over those that are bound to submit unto you But love them that their subjection may be free and ingenuous Live not as Lamech like lions in your houses Quarrelsome austere discourteous violent with high words and hard blows such are fitter to live in Bedlam then in a civil society The Apostle requires That all bitternesse be put away all and in all persons how much more in married couples The Heathens when they sacrificed at their marriage feasts used to cast the gall of the beast sacrificed out of doors Vipera virus ob veneratioâ—em nuptiarum evomit Et tu duritiem animi tu feritatem tu crudelitatem ob unionis revâ—rentiam non dâ—ponis saith Basil. I confesse it were better be married to a quartan ague then to a bad wife so saith Simonides for there be two good daies for one bad with the one not one with the other But that should have been looked to afore-hand A hard adventure it is to yoke ones self with any untamed heifer that beareth not the yoke of Christ. And as grace so good nature a courteous disposition is a thing to be especially looked at in a wife which Eleazar Abrahams servant understood and therefore singled out as a token of a meet mate for his sonne Let her offer me drink and my Camels also saith he But what if it prove otherwise and men by leaping unadvisedly into the marriage estate have drawn much misery upon themselves Quid si pro conjugio conjurgium contraxerint Varro answereth Uxoris vitium aut tollendum aut tolerandum est A wives faults must be either cured or covered mended if we can made the best of if we cannot If the first she is made better if the second we Conjugium humanae divina Academia vitae est And hence it cometh to passe that Quae modo pugnârant jungant sua rostra columbae Quarum blanditias verbaque murmur habet As on the other side where this meeknesse of wisdome is not made use of by married folk they are together in the house no otherwise then as two poisons in the stomack as live Eels in the pot as two spanniels in a chain their houses are more like kennels of hounds then families of Christians or as so many fencingschools wherein the two sexes seem to have met together for nothing but to play their prizes and to try masteries Job was not more weary of his boils then they are of their bed-fellows cursing their wedding-day as much as he did his birth-day and thirsting after a divorce as he did after death Which because it cannot be had their lives prove like the sojourning of Israel in Marah where almost nothing could be heard but murmuring and mourning conjuring and complaining Verse 32. Saving for the caeuse of fornication Taken in the largest sense for adultery also Adulterium est quasi ad alterum aut alterius locum This sinne strikes at the very sinew heart and life of the marriage-knot and 〈◊〉 it Further it directly fights against humane society which the Law mainly respects and was therefore to be punished with death as a most notorious theft Master lay they this woman was taken in adulery in the very act In the very theft saith the originall to intimate belike the great 〈◊〉 that is in adultery whiles the childe of a stranger carries away the goods or lands of the family 〈◊〉 may any 〈◊〉 from our Saviours words to that woman ver 11. N 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 is not to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more then he may that inheritances are not to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who was no 〈◊〉 would not divide them Luk 12. 14. The marriage-bed is honourable and should be kept inviolable 〈◊〉 and the purity of posterity cannot otherwise 〈◊〉 amongst men which is well 〈◊〉 by 〈◊〉 to be the reason why adultery is named in the Commandment under it all 〈◊〉 being forbidden when yet other 〈◊〉 are more 〈◊〉 as Sodomy and bestiality Causeth her to commit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is God that both maketh and 〈◊〉 the bonds or wedlock which is therefore called The Covenant of God Prov. 2. 17 〈◊〉 are either 1. 〈◊〉 as when a man tieth himself by vow to God to 〈◊〉 such a sinne or doe such a duty 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 man and man as in our common contracts bargains and 〈◊〉 Or 3. Mixt that are made partly with God and partly with man And of this sort is the Marriage-Covenant the parties 〈◊〉 tie themselves first to God and then to one another Hence it is that the knot is indissoluble and cannot be undone or recalled at the pleasure of the parties
must be admonished to take heed how they aggravate punishment upon a malefactour out of private 〈◊〉 Parents also and Masters how they correct in a rage and fury For although they be publike persons yet to give correction in a 〈◊〉 mood is to 〈◊〉 their heart by way of revenge it is a degree of resisting evil The tyrant saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is in my power to doe it the good Governour saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it concerneth me to doe it in point of duty quoth a Philosopher But whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek Socrates a Heathen when 〈◊〉 had received a box on the ear answered What an ill thing is it that men cannot fore 〈◊〉 when they should put on a helmet before they go abroad And when he was 〈◊〉 by another If an Asse should kick me said he should I spurn him again 〈◊〉 we have 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 to be 〈◊〉 lest they should seem to be Anabaptists in taking two blows for one will give two blows for one yea for none sometimes it is but a word and a blow with them as it was with Cain Lamech 〈◊〉 who said The daies of mourning for my father are at hand then I will 〈◊〉 my brother Iacob In which words he either threatneth his 〈◊〉 as Luther thinketh for blessing his brother q. d. I will be the death of my brother and so cause my father to 〈◊〉 Or else he threatneth his brother as most Interpreters sense it after his fathers head is once laid without any respect at all to his mother whom he not so much as mentioneth He took no great care how she would take it and his deferring till his fathers death was more out of fear of a curse then conscience of a duty There are that read the words by way of a wish Let the dayes of mourning for my father draw nigh c. And then it is a double 〈◊〉 Sure we are that as concerning his brother he comforted himself purposing to kill him He threatned him saith the Septuagint q. d. I will sit upon his skirts and be even with him The nature of ungodly men is vindictive and rejoicing in other mens 〈◊〉 which is the devils disease especially if provoked by any injury or indignity as smiting on the cheek But God will 〈◊〉 them on the cheek bone so hard as that he will break the teeth of the ungodly smite them in the hinder parts where we use to whip froward children and so put them to a perpetuall reproach Neither only will he smite upon their loyns but thorow them yea he will crack their crowns cleave their 〈◊〉 wound their hairy scalps be their locks 〈◊〉 so bushy their looks never so 〈◊〉 and terrible that count it courage to turn again and revenge which every Turk and Heathen nay every bull and boar can doe The Lamb of God gave his cheeks to the smiters so did 〈◊〉 the meek Iob the just and Paul the patient yet not so patient but he could set forth his priviledge when he was to be scourged and clear his innocency 〈◊〉 meeknesse of wisedom and so may we yea we may safely decline a likely danger in some cases especially as our Saviour did Verse 40. And if any man sue thee at the Law and take away thy coat Rather remit of thy right and sit down by the losse then suffer the trouble of a vexatious law-suit Quiet is to be sought above 〈◊〉 therefore Isaac removed his dwelling so oft when the spitefull Philistims strove with him about the wells he had 〈◊〉 Not but that we may take the benefit of the Law and crave the helpe of the Magistrate for preventing or punishing of wrong 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Paul sent to the chief Captain and appealed to 〈◊〉 But this must be done neither with a vindictive nor a 〈◊〉 minde as the manner is Therefore after Who made 〈◊〉 Iudge our Savionr presently addeth Take heed of covetousnesse He that complaineth of another to the Magistrate must 1. Love his enemies 2. Prosecute with continuall respect to Gods glory and the publike gnod 3. Use the benefit of the law with charity and mercy without cruelty and extremity 4. Use it as an utmost 〈◊〉 when it cannot otherwise be lest strangers be filled with thy wealth and thy labours be in the house of a Lawyer and thou mourn at last with Solomons fool when thine estate is consumed upon him there being but few such as Servius Sulpitius of whom Tully reports that he was not more a Lawyer then a Justicer referring all things to moderation and equity and not stirring up suits but composing them Verse 41. And whosoever shall compell thee to goe a mile Under colour of the Magistrates authority which he abuseth rather then by resisting thou shouldest revenge thy self goe with him two miles yea as farre as the shoes of the preparation of the Gospel of peace can carry thee In the course of a mans life many wrongs are to be put up which whoso cannot frame to let him make up his pack and be gone out of the world for here 's no being for him Many pills are to be swallowed down whole which if we should chew them would stick in our teeth and prove very bitter Patience is of cont nuall use to us at every turn it s as bread or salt which we cannot make one good meal without It s a cloak to keep off all storms a helmet to bear off all blows a paring-knife that cuts the crosse lesse and lesse till it comes to nothing As there be two kindes of Antidotes against poison viz. hot and cold so against tribulation and temptation praier and patience the one hot the other cold the one quenching the other quickning Dan. 6. 20. The King cried unto Daniel with a lamentable voice verl 21. Then Daniel talked with the King c. with a voice not distressed as that of the King was for as by faith he stopped the mouths of the lions so by patience he possessed his own soul l. uk 21. 19. he became master of himself which is the only true man-hood So patience had her perfect work in Joseph therefore he became as St James hath it perfect and entire wanting nothing Julius Caesar beholding the picture of 〈◊〉 in Hercules Temple at Gades lamented that he had done no worthy exploit at those years wherein 〈◊〉 had conquered the whole world Joseph at thirty shewed more true vertue valour piety patience purity pollicy knowledge of secrets skill in government c. then either of them Giles of Brussels a Dutch-Martyr when the Friers at any time did miscall him he ever held his peace at such private injuries insomuch that those blasphemers would say abroad That he had a dumb devil in him And Cassianus reporteth that when a Christian was
earnestly to his mother to pray God to make him worthy to suffer not only imprisonment but even very death for his truth religion and Gospel Femella 〈◊〉 a 〈◊〉 godly woman understanding that her son went heavily on to his death for Christ 〈◊〉 him and encouraged him bidding him look up to heaven and behold the Sun in his glory Which when he 〈◊〉 done Knowest thou not my son said she that thou shalt shortly be in that heavenly 〈◊〉 and there out-shine the Sun it self 〈◊〉 Hunter the Martyrs mother 〈◊〉 unto him standing at the stake That she was glad that ever she was so happy as to bear such a childe as could finde in his heart to lose his life for Christs Name sake Then 〈◊〉 said to his mother For my little pain which I shall 〈◊〉 which is but for a short braid Christ hath 〈◊〉 me a crown of joy May not you be glad of that mother With that his mother kneeled down on her knees saying I pray God strengthen thee my son to the end Yea I think thee as well bestowed as any childe that ever I bare John Clark of 〈◊〉 in France being for Christs sake whipped three severall daies and afterward having a mark set in his fore-head as a note of infamy 〈◊〉 mother beholding it though his father was an adversary encouraged her son crying with a loud voice Blessed be Christ and welcome be these his prints and marks Is not worthy of me viz. Because he holdeth not me worthy of more love then his best friends Eli for 〈◊〉 to please his sonnes Moses his wife had like to have lost a friend of God who had much adoe to forbear killing him Exod. 4. 24. Verse 38. And he that taketh not up his crosse Omnis Christianus crucianus saith Luther Every Christian is sure of his crosse but first it 〈◊〉 be his crosse such as God hath laid upon him not such as he hath created to himself as Baals Priests who cut themselves with knives and launcers the Circumcelliones of old and the Monks at this day with their voluntary pennances c. Next he must take it and not stay till it be laid upon him or then bear it as an asse doth his burden because he can neither will nor chuse But he must 〈◊〉 active in suffering and take Gods part against himself Nay he must as he may be chearfull under his crosse and thankfull for it as a favour an honour Act. 5. 41. 20. 24. The very beasts take blows from their keepers Turks when cruelly lasht by their officers give them thanks and go their waies Porters go singing under their burdens c. Levius fit patientiâ quicquid corrigere est nefas And followeth after me 〈◊〉 cometh not behinde me and this not aloof off as Peter Mat. 26. 58. but close at heels as Caleb Numb 14. 24. walking in Christ Col. 2. 6. as Christ 1 Joh. 2. 6. putting him on in his 〈◊〉 as Constantines sons did their father and preaching forth his praises 1 Pet. 2 9. He is a Saviour to none but those to whom he is a samplar neither have any his redemption but they that take his direction Verse 39. He that findeth his life shall lose it This is a strange expression a riddle to the world a seeming contradiction such as naturall reason can never reconcile But if the paradoxes of the Stoicks might be proved much more may those of the Gospel He that findeth his life that is redeemeth it with the forfeiture of his faith with the shipwrack of his conscience makes a 〈◊〉 bargain makes more haste then good speed whiles in 〈◊〉 from death as farre as he can he runnes to it as fast as he can Christ will kill him with death 〈◊〉 2. 23. and sentence him as an apostate unto double 〈◊〉 He that loseth his life for my sake c. For else all 's lost sith it is not poena but causa that makes a Martyr Christ and the thieves were in the same condemnation Samson and the 〈◊〉 in the same destruction by the downfall of the house 〈◊〉 poena dissimilis causa saith Augustine Martyrdom is a crown as old age if it be found in the way of righteousnesse One Martyr cried out Blessed be God that ever I was born to this happy hour To another when it was said Take 〈◊〉 it is an hard matter to burn Indeed said he it is for him that hath his soul linked to his body as a thiefs foot in a pair of fetters Shall finde it For the line of his lost life shall be hid in the endlesse 〈◊〉 of Gods surest mercies The passion-daies of the Martyrs were therefore anciently called Natalilia 〈◊〉 the birth daies of salvation the day-break of eternall brightnes Those poor seduced souls that lost theirlives in the holy Wars as they called them and were perswaded that thereby they made amends to Christ for his death were much to be pittied Verse 40. He that receiveth you 〈◊〉 me And who would not be glad to entertain the Lord Christ 〈◊〉 held it a great matter that the mother of her Lord should come to her Luk. 1. 43. Behold Christ comes to us in his servants in his Ministers especially Receive them therefore as so many Angels yea as Christ himself Gal. 4 14. accounting their very 〈◊〉 how much more their faces beautifull We know with what great respect Cornelius entertained Peter Non tantus sum ut vos alloquar said Tertullian to certain Martyrs He tels us also that it was a custom of some in those times to creep to the 〈◊〉 bonds in way of honour to them which perhaps was more then was meet Receiveth him that sent me The Heathens held it a great honour to entertain their gods and the Poets tell us of much evil that 〈◊〉 those that refused to do so That which we have heard and seen saith S. John declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us But what so great matter is that might some say You and your fellows are but men of mean condition True saith the 〈◊〉 but as mean as we are our fellowship is with the Faether and with his Sonne Jesus Christ who will also come in and sup with such as receive his servants And may they not be glad of such guests Verse 41. He that receiveth a Prophet in the Name c. Though haply he be no Prophet This takes away the excuse of such as say They would do good if they knew to whom as worthy Shall receive a Prophets reward Both actively that which the Prophet shall give him by teaching him the faith of the Gospel casting pearls before him c. And passively that reward that God gives the Prophet the same shall he give his host Gaius lost nothing by such guests as Iohn nor the Shunamite or Sareptan by the Prophets Of such Christ seems to say as
to Henry 2. King of France whom she had so subdued that he gave her all the confiscations of goods made in the Kingdome for cause of 〈◊〉 Whereupon many were burned in France for Religion as they said but indeed to maintain the pride and satisfie the covetousnes of that lewd woman This was in the year 1554. And in the year 1559. Anne du Bourge a 〈◊〉 of state was burnt also for crime of 〈◊〉 not so much by the inclination of the Judges as by the resolution of the Queen provoked against him because forsooth the Lutherans gave out that the King had been slain as he was running at tilt by a wound in the 〈◊〉 by the providence of God for a punnishment of his words used against Du Bourge that he would see him burnt Verse 9. And the King was sorry Iohns innocency might 〈◊〉 so triumph in Herods conscience as to force some grief upon him at the thought of so soule a fact But I rather think otherwise that all was but in hypocrisie For laciviousnesse usually sears up the conscience till the time of reckoning for all comes and brings men to that dead and dedolent disposition Ephes. 4. 19. Only this fox fains himself sorry for Iohn as his father 〈◊〉 himself willing to worship the Lord Christ Matth. 2. as Tiberius Herods Lord and 〈◊〉 would seem very sorry for those whom for his pleasures sake only he put to death 〈◊〉 Germanicus Drusus c. And as Andronicus the Greek Emperour that deep dissembler would 〈◊〉 over those whom 〈◊〉 had for no cause caused to be executed as if he 〈◊〉 been the most sorrowfull man alive Dissimulat mentis suae malitiam 〈◊〉 homicida This cunning murtherer craftily hides his malice saith St Hierom and seeming sad in the face is glad at heart to be 〈◊〉 of the importunate Baptist that he may sin uncontrolled For the oaths sake and them which sate All this was but pretended to his villany and that he might have somewhat to say to the people whom he feared in excuse for himself As that he beheaded the Baptist indeed but his guests would needs have it so because he had promised the damosell her whole desire and 〈◊〉 would not otherwise be satisfied Besides it was his birth-day wherein it was not fit he should deny his Nobles any thing who minded him of his oath c. But the oath was wicked and therefore not obligatory He should have broken it as David in like case did 1 Sam. 25. when he swore a great oath what 〈◊〉 would do to Nabal But Herod for the avoyding of the sands rusheth upon the 〈◊〉 prevents perjury by murther not considering the rule that no man is held so perplexed between two vices but that he may finde an issue without falling into a third And them which sate with him at meat These he had more respect to then to God An hypocrites care is all for the worlds approof and applause They should have shew'd him his sinne and oppose his sentence But that is not the guise of godlesse parasites those Aiones Negones aulici qui omnia loquuntur ad gratiam nihil ad 〈◊〉 These Court parasites and Parrots know no other tune or tone but what will please their masters quorum etiam sputum 〈◊〉 as one saith soothing and smoothing and smothering up many of their foul facts that they thereby may the better ingratiate Principibus ideo amicus deest quia nihil deest there is a wounderfull sympathy between Princes and Parasites But David would none of them Psal. 101. and Sigismund the Emperour cuffed them out of his presence And surely if wishing were any thing said Henricus Stephanus like as the Thessalians once utterly overthrew the City called Flattery so I could desire that above all other Malefactors Court-Parasites were 〈◊〉 rooted out as the most pestilent persons in the world Verse 10. And he sent and beheaded John Put him to death in hugger-mugger as the Papists did and do still in the bloody Inquisition-house especially many of the Martyrs Stokesby Bishop of London caused Mr John Hunne to be thrust in at the nose with hot burning needles whiles he was in the prison and then to be hanged there and said he had hanged himself Another Bishop having in his prison an innocent man because he could not overcome him by scripture caused him privily to be snarled and his flesh to be torn and pluct away with pinsers and bringing him before the people said the rats had eaten him And I have heard of a certain Bishop saith Melanchton that so starved ten good men whom he held in prison for religion that before they dyed they devoured one another Quis unquam hoc audivit in Thalaridis historiâ saith he who ever heard of such a cruelty But so it pleaseth God for excellent ends to order that all things here come alike to all yea that none out of hell suffer more then the Saints This made Erasmus say upon occasion of the burning of Berquin a Dutch-Martyr Damnari dissecari suspendi exuri decollari pijs cum impijs sunt communia 〈◊〉 dissecare in crucemagere exurere decollare bonis judicibus cum pirat is ac tyrannis communia sunt Varia sunt hominum 〈◊〉 ille foelix qui judice Deo absolvitur The Athenians were very much offended at the fall of their Generall Nicias discomfited and slain in Sicile as seeing so good a man to have no better fortune But they knew not God and therefore raged at him But we must lay our hands upon our mouths when Gods hand is upon our backs or necks and stand on tiptoes with Paul to see which way Christ may be most magnified in our bodies whether by life or by death Philip. 1. 20. Verse 11. And his head was brought c. This was merces 〈◊〉 the worlds wages to lohn for all his pains in seeking to save their soules Surely as Cesar once said of Herod the great this mans father It were better to be Herods 〈◊〉 then his sonne So saith one many Ministers have through the corruption of the time cause to think It were better to be Herods Ministrell then Minister Player then Preacher Dauncer then Doctour And given to the 〈◊〉 The 〈◊〉 condemned it for a detestable cruelty in 〈◊〉 Flaminius that to gratifie his harlot Placentina he beheaded a certain prisoner in her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a feast This Livy calleth facinus saevuni atque atrox a cursed and horrid fact And Cato the Censor cast him out of the Senate for it Neither was it long ere this tyrant Herod had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from heaven For Aretas King of Arabia offended with him for putting away his daughter and taking to wife Herodias came upon him with an army and cut off all his forces Which 〈◊〉 all 〈◊〉 interpreted saith Iosephus as a just vengance of 〈◊〉 upon him for
then they so that the floods of 〈◊〉 and oppositions cannot come so much as at their feet or if they reach to the heel yet they come not at the head or if they should dash higher upon them yet they break themselves Shall not prevail against it No though the devil should discharge at the Church his 〈◊〉 ordinance say they were as big as those two cast by Alphonsus Duke of Ferrara the one whereof he called the earthquake and the other Grandiabolo or the great devil Whether may the Catholike Church erre in fundamentals It is answered that 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 Church of Christ taken for his mysticall to 〈◊〉 upon earth and complete number of h select cannot erre in matters fundamentall yet the externall visible part of the Church may erre because the truth of God may be locked up within the hearts of such a company as in competition of suffrages cannot make a greater part in a generall Councel so that the sentence decreed therein may be a fundamentall errour Verse 19. And I will give unto thee the keyes i. e. I will make thee and all my Ministers stewards in my hous 1 Cor. 4. 1. such as Obadiah was in Ahabs house as Eliakim in Hezekiahs upon whose shoulder God laid the key of the house of David so that he opened and none shut and shut and none opened Isa. 22. 22. Now let a man so think of us Ministers how mean soever and we shall not want for respect Verse 20. That they should tell no man viz. Till the due time Every thing is beautifull in its season saith Solomon Taciturnity in some cases is a vertue as here The Disciples might preach that Christ the Son of David was come to save the world though they might not particularly point himout as the Son of the living God which when Pilate himself heard he was afraid saith the text and sought to deliver him Verse 21. How that he must go to Jerusalem He must necessitate non simplici sed ex supposito It being supposed that God had decreed this way and no other to glorifie himself in mans salvation by the death of his dear Son wherein the naked bowels of his 〈◊〉 were laid open to us as in an anatomy it was necessary that Christ should be killed and raised again at the third day Voluntu Dei necessitas rei And be killed and raised again That we might live and raign with him for ever who else had been killed with death as the 〈◊〉 is Rev. 2. 23. that is had come under the 〈◊〉 of the second death David wished he might have died for Absolom such was his love to him Arsinoe interposed her self between the 〈◊〉 weapons sent by 〈◊〉 her brother to kill her children The 〈◊〉 not only feeds her young with her own bloud but with invincible constancy abides the flames of fire for their preservation Christ is that good shepherd who gave his life for his 〈◊〉 He is that true Pellican who saw the wrath of God burning about his young ones and cast himself into the midst thereof that he might quench it He was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our justification which began in his death but was perfected by his resurrection Verse 22. Then Peter took him Took him by the hand led him apart as we do those we are most 〈◊〉 with in great courtesy and secrecy to impart to them things of greatest importance Peter was strongly possest with a fond conceit of an earthly kingdom and as Joseph dreamt of his preferment but not at all of his imprisonment so neither could Peter think or hear of Christs being killed whom he had even now confessed to be the Christ the son of the living God See here how easily we slide by the deceitfulnesse of our hearts from the mean to the extream Peter having made a notable profession of his faith and being therefore much commended by Christ presently takes occasion to fall from the true holinesse of faith to the 〈◊〉 of presumption in advising his Master to decline the crosse And began to rebuke him saying No he did not rebuke him saith Maldonat the Jesuite but friendly counselled him only as if 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were not to chide and charge as masters do their servants even with threatnings and menaces But these patrons of Peter as they pretend will not abide that he should be blamed for any thing Baronius blusheth not to say and so to put the lie upon the holy Ghost himself that Paul was out in reproving Peter Gal. 2. 14. and that it had been better manners for him to have held his tongue Others of them have blasphemously censured S. Paul in their Sermons as a hot-headed person of whose assertions no great 〈◊〉 was to be made by the sober 〈◊〉 and that he was not secure of his preaching 〈◊〉 by conference with S. Peter neither durst he publish his Epistles till S. Peter had allowed them Verse 23. Get thee behinde me Satan Come behinde as a 〈◊〉 ciple go not before me as a teacher understand thy distance and hold thee to thy duty by moving in thine own sphear that 〈◊〉 be not thus 〈◊〉 eccentrick another Satan who sets thee a work thus to tempt me as he once did Eve to seduce Adam here Maldonat is hard put to 't to save 〈◊〉 blamelesse and saith that Get thee behinde me is an Hebrew phrase and imports no more then Follow me But when he comes to consider that Christ calls him Satan and that it would not be 〈◊〉 that Christ should bid Satan follow him he is 〈◊〉 to confesse that it is the speech of one that bids another be packing out of his presence with indignation like that of Christ to the tempter Mat. 4. Get thee hence Satan Prosit 〈◊〉 sternutatio 〈◊〉 Maldonate 〈◊〉 art an offence unto me Thou doest thy good will to 〈◊〉 me in the course of my calling as Mediatour wherein say some he sinned more grievously then afterwards he did in denying his Master and was therefore so sharply rebuked So when 〈◊〉 was sollicited by Criton to break prison and save his life by flight Friend Criton said he thine earnestnesse herein were much worth if it were consistent with uprightnesse but being not so the greater it is the more trouble 〈◊〉 I know not said that 〈◊〉 Martyr by what reason they so called them my friends which so greatly laboured to convert pervert me Neither will I more esteem them then the Midianites which 〈◊〉 times past called the children of Israel to do sacrifice to their Idols But the things that be of men Erewhile it was of Satan now of 〈◊〉 How 〈◊〉 is it to descry a devil in our best friends sometimes as 〈◊〉 the French Martyr did in his parents Satan suborns such as may do much with us and works in them effectually for our hurt as a Smith doth in his forge Ephes. 2.
〈◊〉 as Sedulius testifieth Ridiculum caput Many such like examples may be met with in the Legends of the Fathers of such as were voluntaries in humility as the Apostle stiles them or rather in hypocrisie For hujus virtutis postea 〈◊〉 Christiani 〈◊〉 studiosi aemuli 〈◊〉 ut tota in hypocrisin verè abierit saith 〈◊〉 here Humility in many of the 〈◊〉 degenerated into 〈◊〉 Ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven One sin allowed excludes the kingdom be it but ambition or some such inward 〈◊〉 such as the world takes no notice of makes no matter of Inward bleeding killeth many times and God by killing Jezabels children with death i. throwing them to hell will make all the Churches know that he searcheth the inwards Verse 4. Whosoever therefore shall humble c. Children are 〈◊〉 lifted up with pride for the great things 〈◊〉 are born to neither minde they high places but the childe of a Prince will play 〈◊〉 the poorest and make him his mate Christians should not minde high things but condescend to the meanest and be carried by them as the word signifieth especially since we are all born again by the same seed there is no 〈◊〉 at all in our birth or inheritance Why then look we so bigge one upon another Why do we slight or brow-beat any Have we not all one father The same is greatest in the Kingdom He that can most vilifie and nullifie himself shall be highest in heaven When had David the kingdom given him in 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 he was as a 〈◊〉 childe When was 〈◊〉 advanced to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but when he made himself a dog and therefore fit only to lie 〈◊〉 the table yea a dead dog and therefore fit only for the ditch He that is in the low pits and caves of the earth sees the stars in the firmament when they who are on the tops of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 them not He that is most humble seeth most of heaven and shall have most of it for the lower the ebbe the higher the tide and the lower the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 is laid the higher shall the roof of glory be over laid Verse 5. And whoso shall receive 〈◊〉 such c. S. Luke 〈◊〉 it Whosoever shall receive this childe in my Name 〈◊〉 our 〈◊〉 the childe or those that were humble as that childe Both surely See here how highly Christ regards and rewards humility even the picture of it in 〈◊〉 ones Now if the shadow of this grace have such a healing vertue what then hath the body If the leaves be so soveraign what then the fruit Verse 6. But whoso shall offend c. By false doctrine or loose life or making a prey of their simplicity and humility which many times draws on injury A Crow will stand upon a sheeps back pulling off wooll from her side She durst not do so to a Wolf or a Mastiff That a milstone were hanged c. The nether milstone called in Greek the Asse either because it is the bigger and thicker of the two or because the milstone was drawn about by the help of the Asse This kinde of punishment the greatest malefactours among the Jews were in those daies put to as saith S. Hierom. And hereby is set forth the heaviest of hell-torments Thus the Beast of Rome that grand offendour of Christs little ones whom he worrieth and maketh havock of is threatned by a like kinde of punishment to be cast alive into the burning lake Revel 19. 20. And for his City Babylon a mighty Angel is seen to take up a stone like a great milstone and cast it into the sea saying Thus with violence shall that great City Babylon be thrown down and shall be found no more at all This by an elegant and emphaticall gradation notably sets forth the remedilesse ruine of Rome In that an Angel a strong Angel taketh a stone and a great stone even a milstone which he letteth not barely fall but casteth and with impetuous force thrusteth into the bottom of the sea whence nothing ordinarily is recovered much lesse a milstone thrust from such an hand with such a force c. Drowned in the depth of the sea In that part of the sea that is farthest off from the shore q. d. he is a brat of fathomlesse perdition he shall be desperately drowned in destruction ita ut in aquae summitate rursùs non ebulliat So the Romans served their parricides and the Grecians other grievous malefactours they wrapt them up in lead and cast them into the deep Verse 7. Woe to the world because of offences 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 propriè tendicula hoc est lignum illud curvum quo moto decipula clauditur The world besides the â—ffâ—nces they give to the Saints they give and take much hurt one from another and so heap up wrath whiles besides their own they bring upon themselves their other mens sins to answer for I have read of a woman who living in professed doubt of the God-head after better illumination and repentance did often protest that the vitious life of a great scholar in that town did conjure up those damnable doubts in her soul. When therefore corruption boiles and thou art ready to run into some reproachfull evil think the name of Christ and thy poor brothers soul lies prostrate before thee And wilt thou trample upon that and thrattle this It must needs be that offences come By Gods permission Satans malice and mans wickednes Venenum aliquando pro remedio fâ—it God oft draws good out of evil as wine draws a nourishing vertue from the flesh of serpents as the skilfull Apothecary of the poisonfull viper maketh an wholesome triacle 1 Cor. 11. 19. Verse 8. If thy hand or thy foot offend thee c. Chap. 5. 29. 30. Our Saviour forbids all his to defile themselves with the filth of sin here to offend others thereby See the notes there Verse 9. Pluck it out This is the circumcision of the heart the mortification of earthly members which is no lesse hard to be done then for a man with one hand to cut off the other or to pull out his own eies and then rake in the holes where they grew And yet hard or not hard it must be done for otherwise we are utterly undone for ever Hypocrites as artificiall jugglers seem to wound themselves but do not as stage-players they seem to thrust themselves through their bodies whereas the sword passeth only through their clothes But the truly religious lets out the life-blood of his beloved lusts laies them all dead at his feet and burns their bones to lime as the King of Moab dâ—d the King of Edom Amos 2. 1. As Joshuah put down all the Canaanites so doth grace all corruptions As AG deposed his own mother so doth this the mother sinne It destroies them not by halves as Saul but hews them in pieces before the Lord
looked upon with an envious eye Envy is a quick-sighted and sharp-fanged malignity Prov. 27. 4. and doth de aliena mente tam promptè quam pravè conjicere as one saith nimbly and naughtily guesse at another mans meaning Verse 16. So the last shall be first c. This is the purport of the preceding parable Application is the life of preaching Few are chosen It 's a strange speech of Chrysostom in his fourth sermon to the people of Antioch where he was much beloved and did much good How many think you shall be saved in this City It will be an hard speech to you but I will speak it Though there be so many thousands of you yet there cannot be found an hundred that shall be saved and I doubt of them too For what villany is there in youth What sloth in old men and so he goes on See the notes on Mat. 7. 14. Verse 17. Took the twelve Disciples To rouse them and raise them out of their carnall fears and dejections Jerusalem was the 〈◊〉 slaughter house Luk. 13. 33. as Rome is now which therefore is spiritually called Jerusalem Egypt Sodom c Hither our Saviour bent his course hereupon they were amazed and afraid Mark 10. 32. and gave him counsell to goe back rather into Galilee for his own and their safety Joh. 11 8. He takes them therefore apart and tells them as followeth what they must trust to and that though he be brought to the dust of death he will rise again gloriously to their great comfort Verse 18. Behold we goe up to Jerusalem Behold as it requires attention and this was no more then need for St Luke tells us that they understood none of these things c. so it sets forth our Saviours forwardnesse to goe this dangerous voyage Verse 19. To mock and to scourge and to crucifie him What are all our sufferings to his and yet we think our selves undone if but toucht and in setting forth our calamities we adde we multiply we rise in our discourse like him in the Poet. I am thrice miserable nay ten twenty an hundred a thousand times unhappie And yet all our sufferings are but as the 〈◊〉 and chips of that crosse upon which Christ nay many Christians have suffered In the time of Adrian the Emperour ten thousand Martyrs are said to have been crucified in the mount of Ararath crowned with thorns and thrust into the sides with sharp darts after the example of the Lords passion The chief of whom were Achaicus Heliades Theodorus Carcerius c. Verse 20. Then came to him c. Then most unseasonably when Christ had by the parable been teaching them humility and now was discoursing of his death and passion then came these sonnes of Zebedee to beg a principality in Christs imaginary earthly Monarchy And this is not the first time of their so foul mistake so unseasonable a suit to him or strife among themselves The leprosy was cured at once in Naaman so is not 〈◊〉 in the Saints but by degrees and at times The mother of Zebedees children Set on by her two sonnes who were ashamed to make the motion themselves but as good they might for Christ knew all and therefore directs his answer to them Mark 10. 35. and she also was not well assured of the 〈◊〉 of her request and therefore came curtesying and craving a certain thing not telling him what at first as going somewhat against her conscience And surely her request had been impudent but that she presumed upon her neer alliance to Christ For she is thought to have been sister to Ioseph who was Pater Christi politicus and thence her boldnesse by reason of her right of kindred by the Fathers side And this is some kinde of carnall excuse Yet not for her and her sons foliy and vanity in dreaming of an earthly kingdom and therein a distribution of honours and offices as in Davids and Solomons daies Verse 21. What wilt thou We may not over-hastily ingage our selves by promise of this or that to our best friends but hold off and deliberate Alioqui saliens antequam videat cafurus est 〈◊〉 debeat The one on thy right hand Quid voveat dulci nutricula 〈◊〉 alumno Our Saviour had promised in the former chapter that the twelve should sit upon twelve thrones c. These mens suit was for the first and second seat Self-love makes men ambitious and 〈◊〉 them to turn the glasse to see themselves bigger others lesser then they are Paul on the contrary was least of Saints 〈◊〉 of Apostles Verse 22. Ye know not what ye ask Ye ask and misse because ye ask 〈◊〉 A prayer for things not lawfull begs nothing but a deniall as Moses did in praying to enter into the land Deut. 3. 25. as Job did in that peevish request of his that God would let loose his hand and cut him off as the Disciples did in that over-curious enquiry Lord wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdome to Israel Our Saviour answers that that 's not fit for them to know But a better thing he could tell them that they should shortly after be clothed which the holy Ghost God sometimes in much mercy crosseth the prayers of his poople as he did Davids for the childes life who if he had lived would have been but a standing monument of Davids shame Was it not better for him to have a Solomon The Saints have their praiers out either in money or moneys-worth provided they bring lawfull petitions and honest hearts Are ye able to drink of the cup c. Afflictions are frequently set forth by this metaphor of a cup taken say some from an ancient custom that the father of the family should give to each under his charge a cup fit for his use according to his bignesse Or as others think from the manner of feasts whereat the Symposiarch or ruler of the feast as he is called Ioh. 2. prescribed what and how much every man should drink And to be baptized with the baptisme Or plunged over head and ears in the deep waters of affliction Of these we may 〈◊〉 as one doth of the Spa waters that they are more wholesome then pleasant Ever since Christ cast his crosse into them as Moses did that tree Exod. 15. 25. the property of them is altered the waters healed They say unto him we are able In your own conceit at least not else For these two Disciples as they knew not what they asked so they knew not what they answered And yet Maldonat hath the face to defend them in it as if they here 〈◊〉 their alacrity rather then betrayed their precipitancy Sed exitus 〈◊〉 probavit they shewed their valour at Christs apprehension Verse 23. Ye shall drink indeed of my cup Illud solum quod 〈◊〉 est limpidius The Saints sip of the top of Gods cup as for the dregs the wicked
title as if you were the only ones and others not worthy to be named in the same day with you Swelling in the body is an ill symptom but worse in the soul. For one is your master Your guide to godlinesse and happinesse your Doctour and dictatour your Oracle your Ipse dixit whose bare word you are to take without further proof or pawn And all 〈◊〉 are brethren Not as the Pope calls his Cardinalls brethren when in creating them he useth this form 〈◊〉 fratres nostri Principes 〈◊〉 Odi fastum illius Ecclesiae saith Basil which caused the lamentable seperation of the Eastern or Greek Church from communion with the Latine the other four Patriachs dividing themselves from the Bishop of Rome for his encroaching upon them Verse 9. Call no man your father i.e. Give no man absolute power over you be not the servants of men or slaves to their opinions or mandates as Friers are to their superiours to argue or debate on whose commands is held high presumption to search their reasons proud curiosity to detract or disobey them breach of vow equall to sacriledge Verse 10. One is your master Where then are Magistri nostri Parisienses our Doctores resolutissimi our Masters of opinions whose word must stand for a law whose tenets must passe for Oracles By the Canon-law Omnes sanctiones Apostolicae sedis irrefragabilitèr 〈◊〉 observandae The Pope may not be disobeyed Verse 11. Shall be your servant The word signifies one that is ready prest to raise dust to do his utmost endeavour with all possible expedition in any businesse that he is set about Verse 12. And whosoever shall exalt himself c. Loe here a great miracle saith Augustin God is on high and yet the higher thou liftest up thy self the farther thou art from him the lower thou humblest thy self the nearer he draweth to thee Low things he looketh close upon that he may raise them proud things he knows afarre off that he may depresse them The proud Pharisee pressed as 〈◊〉 God as he could the poor Publican not daring to do so stood aloof off yet was God far from the Pharisee near to the Publican Verse 13. 〈◊〉 unto you Scribes c. By these eight dreadfull woes as by so many links of an adamantine chain our Saviour draws these hypocrites down to hell their place and there leaves them to be reserved unto judgement St Hierom was called Fulmen 〈◊〉 the Churches thunderbolt How much more might this be attributed to Christ How terribly doth he here thunderstrike these stupid Pharisees though he saw well with Father Latimer that whosoever will be busie with 〈◊〉 vobis shall shortly after come coram nobis Ye shut up the kingdom of heaven By hiding heavenly truths teaching damnable errours excommunicating the well affected or corrupting them by evil counsell and example and all this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cor à m in os before men and to their faces making fools of them even whiles they look on casting a mist before their eyes as those Egyptian juglers did Exod. 7. and keeping from them that collyrium that should cure and clear up their eye-sight Revel 3. 18. Thus did Arundell Archbishop of Canterbury who bound up the word of God that it might not be preached in his time as the Historians words are and was therefore according to this woe here denounced so smitten in his tongue that he could neither swallow nor speak for certain daies afore he died Steven Gardiner was plagued in like manner for like reason And generally the Popish Clergy are vexed with that grievous and noisome sore of develish spite against the Reformation Revel 16. 2. which they therefore oppose with might and main till wrath come upon them to the 〈◊〉 And albeit many of them escape the visible vengeance of God yet this terrible Woe as a moth doth secretly 〈◊〉 them up like a garment and as a worm eateth them up like wood Isa 51. 8. as it did these Pharisees on whose outside nothing could be discerned all was as before but their soules were blasted seared and sealed up to destruction He that hath drunk poison falles not down dead presently in the place but he hath his death about him as we say Saul lived and reigned long after he was cast off by God and the very devils are respited in regard of their full torment but the more is behinde Verse 14. Ye devoure widdows houses Though they pretended to be great fasters Luk. 18. 12. yet their 〈◊〉 prepared deceit as Eliphaz hath it Job 15. 35. and their throats those open sepulchres swallowed up whole houses such was their covetousnesse and that of widows such was their cruelty and that under a pretence of long prayers which was their hypocrisie for while their lips seemed to pray they were but chewing that morsell that murthering 〈◊〉 that made them receive the greater damnation Multi in terris 〈◊〉 quod apud inferos digerunt saith Augustin Many 〈◊〉 that on earth that they must digest in hell where the never-dying worm will feed greedily upon all such covetous caitiffs as have the greedy worm under their tongues and their ill-gotten goods gotten already into their bowels 〈◊〉 these Pharisees had which therefore God shall fetch thence again with a 〈◊〉 Make long 〈◊〉 God takes not mens praiers by tale but by weight He respecteth not the Arithmetike of our praiers how many they are nor the Rhetorike of our praiers how eloquent they are nor the Geometry of our praiers how long they are nor the Musick of our praiers the sweetnesse of our voice nor the Logick of our praiers or the method of them but the divinity of our praiers is that which he so much esteemeth He 〈◊〉 not for any James with horny knees through 〈◊〉 in praier nor for any 〈◊〉 with a century of praiers for the morning and as many for the evening but S. Paul his frequency of praying with fervency of spirit without all 〈◊〉 prolixities and vain bablings this is it that God maketh most account of It is not a servants going to and fro but the dispatch of his businesse that pleaseth his master It is not the loudnesse of a preachers voice but the holinesse of the matter and the spirit of the preacher that moveth a wise and intelligent hearer So herenot gifts but graces in praier move the Lord. But these long 〈◊〉 of the Pharisees were so much the worse because thereby they sought to entitle God to their sin yea they meerly mocked him fleering in his face Verse 15. Ye compasse sea and land They walked the round as the devil doth to gain proselytes they spared for no pains to pervert men as now the Jesuites those Circulatores 〈◊〉 should not we be as diligent and indefatigable to convert them to God Shall we not be as 〈◊〉 in building stair-cases for heaven as seducers are
Themistocles to his friend for thou art not Themistocles Ye have done it unto me Christ saith Salvian is 〈◊〉 maximus as one that shareth in all the Saints necessities and who would but relieve 〈◊〉 Christ Look out some 〈◊〉 in whom we may seal up love to deceased 〈◊〉 My goodnesse extendeth not to thee saith David but to the Saints Christs receivers M. Fox never denied beggar that asked in Iesus name And being once asked Whether he knew a certain poor man who had received 〈◊〉 from him in time of trouble he answered I remember him well I tell you I forget Lords and Ladies to remember such Verse 41. Then shall he say also c. Then Judgement as it begins here at Gods 〈◊〉 so shall it at the last day The elect shall be crowned and then the reprobates doomed and damned Depart from 〈◊〉 ye cursed c. A sentence that breaths out nothing but fire and brimstone stings and horrours woe and alas 〈◊〉 without end and past imagination Mercy Lord saith the 〈◊〉 miser No saith Christ 〈◊〉 be packing Yet blesse me before I go Depart ye cursed To some good place then To hell-fire not materiall fire but worse in many respects But let me then come out again It is everlasting fire eternity of extremity This is the hell of hell this puts the damned to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as much as if they should say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not ever Lord torment us thus But they have a will to sin ever and being worthlesse they cannot satisfie Gods justice in any time therefore is their 〈◊〉 everlasting But let me have some good company in my 〈◊〉 The devil and his Angels But who appointed me this hard condition It was prepared of old The all-powerfull wisdom did as it 〈◊〉 set down and devise most 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that most formidable fire And here it is hard to say whether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Depart from me ye cursed or that which followeth Into 〈◊〉 fire Pain of losse or pain of sense Sure it is that the 〈◊〉 of hell are not sufficient to be wail the losse of heaven the 〈◊〉 of grief gna 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 painfull as the 〈◊〉 burns If those good souls Act. 20. wept because they should see 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no more how deplorable is the eternall deprivation of the beatificall vision Verse 42. For I was an hungred c. Ill works are the just causes of damnation as being perfectly evil But good works can be no such causes of salvation because due debts to God and at the 〈◊〉 imperfect Verse 43. I was a stranger c. These fools of the people 〈◊〉 a price in their hands to get 〈◊〉 as Joseph by his 〈◊〉 bought the Land of AEgypt but they had no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it 〈◊〉 son to Henry the third of England was elected King of 〈◊〉 being 〈◊〉 therein before 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Spaniard pretended and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have been first elected But being it seems a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 drawing lines when he should have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 and so came prevented of his hopes And is not this many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fault and folly Verse 44. Lord When saw 〈◊〉 c. They were 〈◊〉 and could not see Christ in poor Christians whom they should have looked upon as the only earthly Angels the dearly beloved of Christs soul Jer. 12. 7. The house of his glory Isa. 60. 7. An ornament of God Ezek. 7. 20. A royall diadem in the hand of Jehovah Isa. 62. 3. Verse 45. Inasmuch as ye did it not to one c. Omissions then are damnable 〈◊〉 Ammonites and Moabites were bastardized and banished the beauty of holinesse the Tabernacle of God to the tenth generation because they met not Gods Israel with bread and water in the wildernesse Not to do justice is injustice not to shew mercy is cruelty Where then will oppressours appear that grinde the faces of the poor that quaff their tears and make musick of their shreeks Go to now ye rich men weep and howl c. Iam. 5. 1 2 3. If not relieving of the poor damns men What shall robbing do but double damn Verse 46. And these shall go away c. The sentence began with the godly the execution with the wicked 〈◊〉 that the godly may see their desire upon their enemies Psal. 58. 10. and 79. 10. And also that in the others misery they may behold by the difference their own felicity and thereby be moved to lift up many an humble joyfull and thankfull 〈◊〉 to God CHAP. XXVI Verse 1. And it came to passe when c. THis is our Evangelists transition from the Ministery of Christs Doctrine to the Mystery of his passion He had hitherto taught salvation and now is declared how he wrought it He had done the office of a Doctour now of a Redeemer of a Prophet now of a Priest Verse 2. Is the feast of the passeover At which feast Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was sacrificed for us 1 Cor. 5. 7. and we were purchased by his bloud as Israel was typically out of the world by the bloud of the paschall lamb our hearts being sprinkled therewith by the 〈◊〉 bunch of faith from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water Heb. 10. 22. Verse 3. Then assembled together c. Here was met a whole Councel of 〈◊〉 to crucifie Christ. Generall Councels may 〈◊〉 then in necessary and fundamentall points as the Councel of 〈◊〉 and Seleucia held in two Cities because no one was able to contain them for multitude yet 〈◊〉 for Arrius against the deity of Christ. The truth of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be locked up within the hearts of such a company as in competition of 〈◊〉 ages cannot make a greater part in a generall Councell Verse 4. Take Iesus by 〈◊〉 and kill him Craft and cruelty go commonly coupled in the Churches 〈◊〉 Neither of them wants their mate as the Scripture speaks of those birds of prey and desolation Isa. 34. 16. These 〈◊〉 and Elders were so bitterly bent against Christ 〈◊〉 nothing would satisfie them but his bloud All plants and other 〈◊〉 have their growth and encrease to a period and 〈◊〉 their declination and decay 〈◊〉 only the 〈◊〉 who grows bigger and bigger even till death So 〈◊〉 all passions and perturbations in mans minde their intentions and remissions except only malicious revenge This dies not many times but with the man if that as nothing 〈◊〉 quench the combustible slime in Samosaris nor the 〈◊〉 flame of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but only earth Saint 〈◊〉 tells us That our Saviour being reviled did not only commit his cause to God but Himselfe to God as expecting the encrease of his enemies opposition till they had put him to death Verse 5. Not on the feast-day lest c. But God would have it on that feast-day and no other Act. 4. 27. And
I will but c. Here Christ doth not correct his former request for then there should have been some kinde of fault in it but explicateth only on what condition he desired deliverance and becometh obedient unto death even the death of the crosse Philip. 2. 8. crying out Not as I will but as thou wilt which shews that he had a distinct humane will from the will of his Father and so was very man as well as God And here Aristotle that great Philosopher is clearly confuted For he denies that a magnanimious man can be exceeding sorrowfull for any thing that befalls him Our Saviour his Churches stoutest Champion was exceeding sorrowfull even to the death and yet of so great a spirit that he yeelds up himself wholly to God Magnus est animus qui so-Deo tradidit pufillus degener qui obluctatur saith Seneca He is a brave man that trusts God with all Verse 40. And he cometh unto the Disciples They were his care in the midst of his agony so was Peter upon whom he found time to look back when he stood to answer for his life So was the penitent thief whose prayer Christ answered even when he hung upon the tree and was paying dear for his redemption Our high-priest bears the names of all his people on his shoulders and on his breast so that he cannot be unmindfull of them Behold he hath graven them upon 〈◊〉 palms of his hands their walles are continually 〈◊〉 him Isa. 49. 16. he loveth to look upon the houses where they dwell And findeth them asleep When he should have found them at prayer for him Prayer is 〈◊〉 creature of the holy Ghost and unlesse he hold up mens eyes there while even Peter James and John will fall asleep in prayer and put up yawning petitions to God And saith unto Peter Who had promised so much forwardnesse and stood in so great danger above the rest Luk. 22. 31. For Satan earnestly desired to deal with him he challenged Peter forth as Goliah called for one to combate with And was it for them to sleep then or with Agrippa's dormouse not to awake till boyled in lead What could you not watch with me c. How then will ye do to dye with me as erst ye promised me If the footmen have wearied you how will ye contend with horses Jer. 12. 5. If you cannot endure words how will you endure wounds If ye cannot strive against sin how will you resist unto bloud Heb. 12. 4 If ye cannot burn your finger with Bilney your right-hand with Cranmer how will you bear the burning of your whole body Alice Coberly being pitiously burnt in the hand by the Keepers wife with a hot key which she cunningly sent her to fetch revoked Verse 41. Watch and pray Yea watch whiles ye are praying against corruption within temptations 〈◊〉 Satan will be interrupting as the Pythonisse did Paul praying Act. 16. 16. as the fowls did Abraham sacrificing Gen. 15. 11. as the enemies did 〈◊〉 with his Jews building who therefore praid and watcht watcht and praid Amongst all actions Satan is ever busiest in the best and most in the best part of the best as in the end of praier when the heart should close up it self with most comfort Watch therefore unto praier Set all aside for it and wait on it as the word imports Coloss. 4. 2. while praier stands still the trade of godlinesse stands still Let this therefore be done whatever is left undone Take heed the devil take you not out of your trenches as he did David likely 2 Sam. 11. 2. Out of your strong-hold as Joshua did the men of Ai. 〈◊〉 children saith Saint John abide in God keep home keep close to your Father if you mean to be safe if that evil one shall not touch you 1 Joh. 5. 18. nor thrust his deadly sting into you c. The spirit indeed is willing q. d. Though the spirit purpose otherwise yet the flesh will falter and ye will be foiled else Or our Saviour speaks this by way of excuse of their infirmity q. d. I see you are willing so farre as you are spirituall and regenerate but the flesh is treacherous and tyrannicall It rebels ever and anon and would gladly raign It hangs off when called to suffer and makes shy of the businesse So Peter was carried whether he would not Joh. 21. 18. So Hilarion chides out his soul which plaid loth to depart with Egredere ô anima c. So M. Saunders Martyr in a letter to his wife a little afore his death Fain would this flesh said he make strange of that which the spirit doth embrace O Lord how loth is this loitering sluggard to passe forth in Gods path c So M. Bradford going to his death Now I am climing up the hill said he It will cause me to puff and blow before I come to the 〈◊〉 The hill 〈◊〉 steep and high my breath is short and my strength is feeble Pray therefore to the Lord for me pray for me pray for me for Gods sake pray for me See more in the Notes on 〈◊〉 21. 18. Verse 42. The second time and praid Praier is that arrow of deliverance that would be multiplied God holds off on purpose that he may hear oft of us that we may ply the throne of grace and give him no rest The Church Psal. 80. commenceth thrice the same sute but riseth every time in her earnestnesse 〈◊〉 3 7 19. If thy petition be not lawfull never preferre it as if it 〈◊〉 never give it over God suspends thee to 〈◊〉 thee If this cup may not passe except I drink It passeth then even while we are drinking of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hold our faith and 〈◊〉 It is but a storm and will soon be over It is but a death and that 's but the day-break of eternall brightnesse It is but winking as that Martyr said and thou shalt be in heaven presently Verse 43. He came and found them asleep again After so sweet 〈◊〉 admonition so soveraign a reproof Who knows how oft an 〈◊〉 may recurre even after 〈◊〉 See it in 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 in these Apostles for their 〈◊〉 Who should 〈◊〉 greatest c. For their eyes were heavy For sorrow saith S. Luke which exhausting the spirits renders a man more sluggish and hindering concoction sends up vapours to the brain and so causeth sleep This was somewhat but not sufficient to excuse them Christ took them with him into the garden for their society and 〈◊〉 But they not only not help him but wound him by their dulnesse unto duty and instead of wiping off his bloudy sweat they draw more out of him Judas had somewhat else to do now then to sleep when Peter was fast and could not hold up 〈◊〉 the Prophet lay under such a like drowsie distemper chap. 4. 1. for though awaked and set to work he was even
ready to fall asleep at it Verse 44. And he left them and 〈◊〉 away again A most memorable and imitable pattern of patience toward those that condole not or that keep not touch with us we must neither startle 〈◊〉 storm but passe it by as a frailty And praid the third time A number of perfection And Si 〈◊〉 pulsanti c. Paul praid thrice and gave over 2 Cor. 12. because he saw it 〈◊〉 Gods will it 〈◊〉 be otherwis pardoning grace he had but not prevailing vers 9. So our Saviour here had an Angel sent from heaven to strengthen him that he might the better drink that cup which he had so 〈◊〉 deprecated Hence the Apostle doubts not to 〈◊〉 That he was heard in that he feared he was and he was not there 's no praying against that which Gods providence hath disposed of by an infallible order And when we see how God will have it we must sit down and be satisfied That which he will have done we may be sure is best to be done Saying the same words And they were no whit the worse for being the same Let 〈◊〉 comfort those that complain they cannot vary in prayer though that be a desirable ability The 〈◊〉 were enriched by God in all utterance and knowledge 1 Cor. 1. 5. But the businesse of praier is more dispatcht by inward groanings then outward 〈◊〉 Verse 45. Sleep on now and take your rest q. d. Doe so if you can at least But now the hour is come wherein you shall have small either leasure or list to sleep though never so drousie spirited for The Sonne of man is 〈◊〉 c. Luther readeth the words 〈◊〉 and by way of 〈◊〉 thus Ah Do ye 〈◊〉 sleep and take your rest Will ye with Solomons drunkard sleep upon a mast-pole Take a nap upon a Weather-cock Thus this heavenly Eagle though he love his young ones dearly yet he pricketh and beateth them out of the nest The best as Bees are killed with the honey of flattery but quickned with the 〈◊〉 of reproof Verse 46. Rise Let us be going To meet that death which till he had praied he greatly feared So it was with Esther chap. 4. 16. and with David Psal. 116. 3 4. See the power of faithfull praier to disarme death and to alter the countenance of greatest danger Quoties me oratio quem paenè desperantem susceperat reddidit exsultantem c How oft hath praier recruted me Behold He is at hand Behold for the miracle of the matter yet now no miracle 〈◊〉 frequensque via est per amicifallere nomen Tnta frequenque licet sit via crimen habet Verse 47. Lo Iudas one of the twelve Lo for the reason next afore-mentioned The truth hath no such pestilent persecutours as Apostates Corruptio optimi pessima sweetest wine maketh sowrest vineger With swords and staves What need all this ado But that the bornet haunted them an ill conscience abused them When he put forth but one 〈◊〉 of his Deity these armed men fell all to the ground nor could they rise again till he had done indenting with them Verse 48. Whomsoever I shall kisse Ah lewd losell Betraiest thou the Son of man with a kisse Givest thou thy Lord such rank poison in such a golden cup Consignest thou thy treachery with so sweet a symboll of peace and love But this is still usuall with those of his Tribe Caveatur osculum Iscarioticum Jesuites at this day kisse and kill familiarly 〈◊〉 occidunt as one saith of false Physitians When those Rhemish Incendiaries Giffard Hodgeson and others had set Savage awork to kill Queen Elizabeth they first set forth a book to perswade the English Catholikes to attempt nothing against her So when they had sent Squire out of Spain to poison the Queen they taught him to anoint the pummel of her saddle with poison covertly and then to pray with a loud voice God save the Queen Lopez another of their agents affirmed at Tiburn That he had loved the Queen as he had loved Jesus Christ Which from a Jew was heard not without laughter So Parsons when he had hatched that namelesse villany the powder-plot set forth his book of resolution as if he had been wholly made up of devotion Esocietate Iesu fuit qui Iesum tradidit Verse 49. Hail Master and kissed him But love is not alwaies in a kisse saith Philo the Jew nor in crying Rabbi Rabbi as the traitour here did Mark 14. 45. out of a seeming pitty of his Masters misery There are that think that he would have carried this his treachery so cunningly as if he had 〈◊〉 no hand in it and therefore kissed him as a friend and so would still have been taken Verse 50. Friend Sith thou wilt needs be so esteemed though most unfriendly Wherefore art thou come As a friend or as a foe If as a friend What mean these swords If as a foe What means this kisse Christ knew well enough wherefore he came but thinks good to sting 〈◊〉 conscience by this cutting question Laid hands on Iesus and took him By his own consent and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Irenaeus hath it while the Deity rested and refused to put forth it self Verse 51. One of them which were with Iesus This was Peter who asked 〈◊〉 to strike but staid 〈◊〉 till he had it out of a preposterous zeal to his Master and because he would be a man of his word A wonderfull work of God it was surely that hereupon he was not 〈◊〉 in an hundred pieces by the barbarous souldiers Well might the 〈◊〉 say He that is our God is the God of salvation and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death Psal. 68. 20. My times are in thine hands Psal. 31. 15. But this stout 〈◊〉 could not be found when his Master was after this apprehended and arraigned Plato hath observed That the most skilfull 〈◊〉 are the most cowardly 〈◊〉 Verse 52. Put up again thy sword See the Notes on Iohn 18. 11. For all they that take the sword Without a just calling 〈◊〉 those sworn sword-men of the devil the Jesuites whose faction as one saith of them is a most agile sharp sword the blade whereof is sheathed at pleasure in the bowels of every Common-wealth but the handle reacheth to Rome and Spaine Their design is to subdue all to the Pope and the Pope to themselves Verse 53. Thinkest thou that I cannot pray q. d. Need I be beholden to thee for help 〈◊〉 very boldly told his 〈◊〉 and Protectour the Electour of Saxony That he by his 〈◊〉 gained him more help and safegard then he received from him and that this cause of Christ needeth not the 〈◊〉 of man to carry it on but the power of God set a work by the prayer of faith And this way saith 〈◊〉 I will undertake to secure your Highnesses soul
need no refutation These hypocrites were not worthy of an answer from our Saviour who knew also that now was the time not of apologizing but of suffering therefore as a sheep before her shearer is dumb so he opened not his mouth Besides he saw that his enemies were 〈◊〉 to have his blood and therefore held it more glorious 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Basil hath it to choak their spite with silence injuriam tacendo fugere potiùs quam respondendo superare as another saith to set them down by saying nothing Verse 63. I adjure thee by the living God So had the devil done once before horrendo impudentiae exemplo Mark 3. 7. Sed os Caiaphae culeus Satanaein 〈◊〉 sunt praedicamento It is nothing with the devil and his to pollute and dissallow that nomen majestativum as Tertullian stileth it that glorius and fearfull name of God as Moses calleth it and to call him in at 〈◊〉 turns as an author or abettour at least of their abominable plot and practises How much better that holy man that said My heart head and tongue trembleth as oft as I speak of God Yea the very Heathen Sages had the same thoughts that men ought to be better advised then to tosse Gods reverend name upon their tongues as a tennis-ball or to wear his image for an ornament c. And surely as St Mark relateth this history one would think Caiaphas a very conscientious person For he brings him in saying to our Saviour Art thou the son of that Blessed one Mark 14 61. So he calls God by a periphrasis as if he were afraid once to name God when as yet presently after he profanely adjureth our blessed Saviour by the living God that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ c. And this he doth not out of any desire to know the truth but as seeking an occasion from his bold and free confession of the truth to put him to death so going about to entitle God himself to his villanous enterprizes See here the hatefull nature of damned hypocrisie and abandon it Verse 64. Thou hast said That is as St Mark expresseth the Hebraisme in plainer tearms I am q. d. Thou hast said it and I must second it I am indeed the promised Messias and the only-begotten sonne of God This was the naked truth without Equivocation a device that the Jesuites have lately fet from hell for the consolation of afflicted Catholikes and for the instruction of all the godly as Blackwell and Garnet blush not to professe in print Let us learn here of our Saviour to make a bold and wise confession of the truth when called thereunto although we create our selves thereby never so much danger from the enemy who shall so be either converted or at least convinced and left inexcusable Hereafter shall ye see c. q. d. Now I am in a state of abasement God having hid his sonne under the Carpenters son whom ye have now bound and shall shortly crucifie But not long hence ye shall see me in a state of advancement sitting on the right hand of power powring out my spirit upon all flesh Acts 2 33. and after that coming in the clouds of heaven as in a charet of state to judge you that are now my Judges c. Verse 65. Then the high-priest rent his clothes Which the high-priest ought not by the law to have done howsoever Levit. 10. 6. 21. 10. and here had no colour of cause at all to do no not so much as Joab had when for company and at his Lords command he rent his clothes at Abners funerall whom he had basely murthered 1 Sam. 3. 31. Verse 66. He is guilty of death Servile souls they durst do no otherwise then concur with 〈◊〉 So in popish councels and conclaves the Bishops and others those Aiones Negones 〈◊〉 have no more to do but simply inclinato capite to say Placet to that which in the Popes name is proposed unto them The Legats in the Councell of Trent were blamed for suffering the article of Priests marriage to be disputed And in Colloquio 〈◊〉 after that Beza had spoken much of the Eucharist before the young King of France the Queen-mother and the Princes of the blood a Spanish Jesuite having reproached the Protestants did reprehend the Queen-mother for medling in matters that belongd not to her but to the Pope Cardinalls and Bishops Verse 67. Then did they spit in his 〈◊〉 Condemned prisoners are sacred things and by the law of Nations should not be misused and trampled on but rather pitied and prepared for death But these barbarous miscreants not without the good liking of their Lords the Priests and Elders spare for no kinde of cruelty toward Christ who was content to be spit upon to cleanse our faces from the filth of sinne to be buffeted with fists and beaten with staves to free us from that mighty hand of God 1 Peter 5. 6. and from those scourges and scorpions of infernall fiends Verse 68. Saying prophesie unto us thou Christ This is dayly done to Christ by the children of darknesse which sin securely and say who seeth us they put it to the triall as Ananias and Sapphria did whether they shall be detected Verse 69. And a damsell came unto him A silly wench daunteth and dispiriteth this stout champion Sic Elias ille 〈◊〉 ad mulierculae 〈◊〉 minas trepidat factus seipso imbecillior What poor things the best of us are when left a little to our selves when our faith is in the wain Thou also wast with Jesus She was just of her masters minde and making We had need take heed where we set our children to service for like water on a table they will be led any way with a wet finger and as any liquid matter they will conform to the vessell whereinto they are powred Be sure to teach them Gods fear and to pray and then where ever they come to 〈◊〉 they shall do good and finde favour as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the court of Babylon 〈◊〉 1. and as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 family that great Lord 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 maids coal so 〈◊〉 a thing is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 works of God 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verse 70. I know 〈◊〉 what thou 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not either her words or her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this 〈◊〉 dissembling was a true denying St 〈◊〉 saith 〈◊〉 now the cock crew chap. 14. 68. A fair warning to so soul a sinner but he took no notice of it till Christ looked back upon him to teach us that without the helpe of divine grace no means can convert a sinner from the errour of his way God himself preached a Sermon of repentance to Cain but it prevailed not Whereas Christ no sooner looked back upon this falne Apostle but he went out and wept bitterly Christ cured him with lesse ado then he did Malchus
pleasure to do men in misery any office of curtesie And led him out of the town Either that the miracle he wrought might be the lesse noticed or as holding the inhabitants unworthy to behold it All Israel might see 〈◊〉 go towards the Rock of Rephidim none but the Elders might see him strike it Their unbeleif made them unworthy this priviledge so might their unthankfulnesse the men of Bethsaida Wo to thee 〈◊〉 It is no small favour of God to make us witnesses of his great works Verse 25. He saw every man clearly Procul dilucidè longè 〈◊〉 When we come to heaven we shall see as we are seen who now see but as in a glasse obscurely as old men do thorough Spectacles 1 Cor. 13. Verse 26. Neither go into the town Christ would not vouchsafe such an ungratefull people the benefit of one more Preacher though never so mean This was a greater judgement upon them then if he had turned some other way that arme of the sea that brought so much wealth into their town Verse 27 28. See the Note on Matth. 16. 13. Verse 29. Thou art the Christ This was much in few Here is not Thou art Peter and upon this Rock c. Which if either Saint Mark or Saint Peter had esteemed as Papists now do the foundation of the Christian Church it had not been here omitted as Beza well observeth sith it goes for currant among the Ancients that Saint Mark wrote this Gospel at Saint Peters mouth Verse 31. And after three dayes That is within three dayes or on the third day Verse 34. Whosoever will come after me See the Notes on Mat. 10. 38. and Mat. 16. 24. Take up his Crosse It is but a delicacy that men dream of to divide Christ and his Crosse. Every Christian must be a Crucian said Luther and do somewhat more then those Monks that made themselves woodden Crosses and carried them on their backs continually making all the world laugh at them Verse 35. For whosoever will save his life As that revolting 〈◊〉 Host to Philbert 〈◊〉 Martyr slaine by his enemy upon a private quarrell As those Angrognians that yeelded to the Papists that came against them and were more cruelly handled by them then their neighbours that continued constant in the truth As Denton the Smith of Welle in Cambridgshire that could not burn for Christ and was afterwards burned in his own house As West that was Chaplaine to Bishop Ridly who refusing to dye in Christs cause with his Master said Masse against his conscience and soone after pined away for sorrow If I shrink from Gods truth said Doctor Taylor Martyr I am sure of another manner of death then had Judge Hales who being drawn for fear of death to do things against his conscience did afterwards drowne himselfe Verse 36. For what shall it profit a man And yet many do as Shimei that to seek his servants lost himself And as Jonas that was content to be cast into the Sea that the Ship with her lading might come safe to shore Verse 38. In this adulterous sinfull c. The worse the times are the better we should be Stars are most needed in a dark night We may as well saith Zuinglius Adaram Jovis aut Veneris adorare ac sub Antichristo fidem occultare Antichrists limbs have their mark in their hand which they may shew or hide at pleasure but Christs members have their mark in their foreheads only Davids parents and brethren came down to him to the cave of Adullam though to their great danger 1 Sam. 22. 1. Onesiphorus was not ashamed of Pauls chain at Rome 2 Tit. 1. When he commeth in the glory David going against Goliah took only his sling and a few stones but when against Nabal he marched better appointed So Christ came at first in a mean condition but when he comes again to judgement he shall march furiously attended with troops of Saints and Angels CHAP. IX Verse 1. Shall not taste of death SAints only taste of death sinners are swallowed up of it they are killed with death Revelation 2. 23. Whereas the righteous do mori vitaliter death is to them neither totall nor perpetuall Rom. 8. 10 11. Verse 3. Became shining Gr. Glistring and sparkling as stars which twinckle and beckon to us as it were to remember their and our Creatour Verse 10. And they kept that saying With much adoe they kept it as the word imports for the rest of the Disciples were very inquisitive likely what was said and done in the Mount A friend that can both keep counsell and give counsell is worth his weight in gold Verse 12. Set at nought Vilified and nullified as an 〈◊〉 or one that had nothing in him Vermis sum et non 〈◊〉 I am a worm and no man saith the Psalmist in the person of Christ. Verse 15. Were greatly amazed To see him come in so opportunly in the very nick which is his usuall time See the Note on Matt. 17. 14. Verse 20. The spirit tare him Thus things oft goe backward ere they come forward as the corn grows downward before it comes upward Duplicantur lateres venit Moses This child had never such a sore fit as now that he was to be cured See verse 26. Verse 22. It hath cast him into the fire c. So doth blind zeal deal by them in whom it is But if thou canst doe any thing This wofull father had no further patience to parley but through weaknesse of faith and strength of affection to his distressed child breaks off his tale and begs present help Hee that beleeveth maketh no haste Esay 28. 16. Verse 24. I beleeve This act of his in putting forth his faith to beleeve as hee could was the way to beleeve as hee would Help thou mine unbeleefe That is my weak faith which hee counteth no better then unbeleef howbeit God counts the preparation of the heart to beleeve faith as in those Samaritanes Joh. 4. Doctor Cruuger cryed out on his death-bed Credo languidà fide sed tamen fide Much faith will yeeld unto us here our heaven and any faith if true will yeeld us heaven hereafter Verse 29. But by prayer and fasting The cause why they could not cure the child was unbeleef the cure of unbeleef is sought and wrought by fasting and prayer Verse 34. Who should be the greatest viz. In Christs earthly Kingdom in the which they vainly dreamt of a distribution of honours and offices as once in the dayes of David and Solomon Verse 37. Receiveth not me Non removet sed corrigit saith Erasmus He receiveth not me only but him that sent me Verse 38. And John answered him John was soon sated with that sad discourse of our Saviour and begins a relation of another businesse little to the purpose Verse 39. Forbid him not It is probable that this man would not forbear
company thorough extreame perplexity which made him return so oft to them calling upon them to watch with him Verse 42. If thou be willing He was so astonied with the greatnesse of his present pressures that he seems for a time to suffer some kind of forgetfulnesse of his office Verse 44. And being in an agony 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith a Greek Father Alphonsus is honoured in Histories for this that he abased himself so far as to help one of his subjects out of a ditch Shall not Christ much more be honoured that helped all his out of the ditch of damnation Great drops of bloud Clotty bloud issuing through flesh and skin in great abundance Oecolampadius tels of a certain poor man who being kept hanging in the trusse of the cord which is a certain hanging by the hands behind having a weighty stone fastened at their feet the space of six hours the sweat that dropt from his body for very pain and anguish was almost bloud But here was no almost in our Saviours bloudy sweat whiles without any externall violence meerly by the force of his own saddest thoughts working upon him sanguinem congelatum quasi extruserit So great was Scanderbegs ardor in battell that the bloud burst out of his lips But from our Champions not lips only but whole body burst out a bloudy sweat Not his eyes only were fountains of tears or his head waters as Jeremy wished Chap. 9. 1. but his whole body was turned as it were into rivers of bloud A sweet comfort to such as are cast down for that that their sorrow for sin is not so deep and soaking as they could desire Verse 45. He found them sleeping Who should have waked and wiped off his sweat as the Angell did Theodorus the Martyrs but they rather added to it by their security Verse 48. Judas betrayest thou c. Sic Judaei sub praetextu pietatis maximè delinquebant Deo osculum sine amore 〈◊〉 Julian the Apostate was no friend to Basil though he wrote to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor was Libanius the more to be beleived for saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If Basil commend me I despise other mens worse censures Verse 49. Lord shall we smite But before he could answer Peter smot which might easily have cost him his life Quod 〈◊〉 ne feceris is a safe rule Verse 51. And he touched his eare c. After he had laid them flat on the ground So he tryed them both wayes but nothing would do Verse 53. And the power of darknesse The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty Psal. 74. 20. Creatures kept in the dark are 〈◊〉 and furious Had they known they would never have crucified the Lord of glory I did it ignorantly saith Paul concerning his persecuting the Saints Verse 61. And looked upon Peter A stroke from guilt broke Judas his heart into despair but a look from Christ brak Peters heart into teares CHAP. XXIII Verse 2. Perverting the people GRaece Turning them up-side down wreathing them from their right minds So Verse 5. He Stirreth up the 〈◊〉 Gr. He maketh an earthquake in them rectam toll it de cardine 〈◊〉 he throws them off the hinges Verse 8. He was exceeding glad As if he had got some 〈◊〉 or inchanter that would shew him some pleasant sight Verse 9. But he answered him nothing Princes use to 〈◊〉 the undecencies of Embassadours by denying them audience as if 〈◊〉 were the way royall to revenge a wrong Christ 〈◊〉 not a word to 〈◊〉 saith one because Herod had taken away his voice by beheading the Baptist who was vox clamantis Verse 10. Vehemently accused him Gr. With great intention of spirit and contention of speech Clamant ut Stent or a vincant Verse 11. Set him at nought Gr. Made no body of him Arrayed him in a gorgeous robe Or a whit robe as the old Interpreter hath it Pilates souldiers clad our Saviour in purple a colour more affected by the Romans Herod in white as more affected by the Jewish Nobility Verse 12. Pilate and Herod were made friends Two dogs that are fighting can easily agree to pursue the Hare that passeth by them Martiall brings in the Hare thus complaining In me omnis terraeque aviumque marisque rapina est Forsitan coeli si canis astra tenet In littore Siculo cum lepus canum 〈◊〉 vim 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 marimo captus dicitur Est enim voracissima 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Bodin The wicked can easily unite against the Saints Verse 20. Pilate therefore willing c. I read of one that did verily think that Pilate was an honest man because he was so unwilling to crucifie Christ. But this arose only from the restraint of naturall conscience against so foul a fact Verse 25. Him that for sedition The Jewes before they were banished out of this Kingdome threw bags of poyson into the Wells and Fountains that the people were to drink of and so indeavovred to poyson them all so deale those that sowe sedition these are the Pests the botches of humane society Verse 28. Weep not for me We are not so much to lament dolorous sufferings as Papists use to do in their histrionicall descriptions of his passion as to lay to heart and lament our sinnes the cause of 〈◊〉 When a Papist came to Master Hooper at the stake and said Sir I am sorry to see you thus Be sorry for thy self man said hearty Hooper and lament thine own wickednesse for I 〈◊〉 well I thank God and death to me for Christs sake is welcome Verse 29. Blessed are the barren Better be so then bring forth children to the murtherer Hence Hoseas prayes for barrennesse as a blessing on his people Hos. 9. 14. Verse 31. What shall be done in the dry Lo little sucklings also are here called dry trees 〈◊〉 wood such as Gods wrath will soon kindle upon Verse 33. Which is called Calvary As sad a sight to our Saviour as the bodies of his slain wife and children were to Mauricius the Emperour who was soon after to be slain also by the command of the traytour Phocas Let us learn to consider the tyranny and deformity of sin as oft as we passe thorough Church-yards and Charnell-houses Verse 34. Father forgive them See the sweet mercy of Christ mindfull and carefull of his enemies when the paines of hell had taken hold of him and they like so many breathing devils were tormenting him Pendebat tamen petebat saith Augustine He was slain by them and yet he begged for them Verse 35. Derided him 〈◊〉 Blew their noses at him Verse 36. Offered him vineger In stead of wine which Kings drink much off Verse 38. Greek Latine and Hebrew This venerable Elogy and Epitaph set upon our Saviours Crosse proclaimed him King of all religion having reference to the Hebrews of all
wisdom to the Greeks of all power to the Latines Verse 39. Which were hanged railed c. Sic plectimur a Deo nec flectimur tamen saith Salvian corripimur sed non corrigimur There are many quos multò facilius fregeris quà m flexeris saith Buchanan Monoceros interimi potest capi non potest The wicked are the worse for that they suffer and will sooner break then bend Verse 40. But the other answering Silent he was for a while and therefore seemed to consent till hearing Christs prayers and the enemies outrages he brake out into this brave confession worthy to be written in letters of gold Verse 42. Lord remember me By this penitent prayer he made his crosse a Jacobs ladder whereby the Angels descended to fetch up his soul. So did Leonard Caesar burnt at Rappa in Bavaria whose last words were these Lord Jesu suffer with me support me give me strength I am thine save me c. See the Note on Matt. 27. 38. Verse 43. Verely I say unto thee See the infinite love of Christ to penitent sinners in that when he hung upon the tree and was paying dear 〈◊〉 mans sin he rejected not this malefactors petition Shall he not hear us now that all is paid and finished To day shalt thou be with me This is not every mans happinesse A pardon is sometimes given to one upon the gallows but who so 〈◊〉 to that the rope may be his hire It is not good to put it upon the Psalm of Miserere and the neck-verse saith one for sometimes he proves no clark Verse 47. Certainly this was a righteous man Bennet the 〈◊〉 in King Henry the Eighths daies being brought to execution the most part of the people he exhorted them with such gravity and sobriety as also the Scribe who wrote the sentence of condemnation against him did pronounce and confesse that he was Gods servant and a good man So when Wiseheart and March the Martyrs went toward the stake they were justified by the beholders as innocent and godly persons Verse 51. The same had not consented This proved him to be a good man and a just as Psal. 1. 1. Sir John Cheek was drawn in for fear of death to be present at the condemnation of some of the Martyrs The remorse whereof so mightily wrought upon his heart that not long after he left this mortall life whose fall though it was full of infirmity yet his rising again by repentance was great and his end comfortable saith Master Fox Waited for the kingdom of God Gr. Entertained and embraced it CHAP. XXIV Verse 1. Very early in the morning ABout which time probably our Saviour rose Verse 9. And told all these things Per os mulieris mors ante processerat per os mulieris vita reparatur saith Ambrose So Chap. 1. an Angel of light communeth with a woman about mans salvation as an Angel of darknesse had done Gen. 3. about his fall and destruction Verse 11. As idle tales Set on with great earnestnesse Verse 12. And stooping down Obstipo capite propenso collo We need not doubt therefore of the certainty of this history of Christs resurrection Verse 13. About Threescore furlongs About sixe miles Verse 14. And they talked together So did Elias and Elisha when the heavenly chariot came to sunder them Christ is still with two or three met for such an holy purpose Verse 16. But their eyes were held Ut ulcus suum discipuli detegerent 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 susciperent saith Theophylact That they may tell their own disease and receive healing Verse 17. That ye have one to another Gr. That ye tosse one to another as a ball is tossed betwixt two or more And are sad Christ loves not to see his Saints sad hee questions them as Joseph did his prisoners Wherefore look ye so sadly to day Gen. 40. 7 and as the king did Nehemiah Chap. 3. 2. Verse 18. And one of them whose name was Cleophas They that hold the other of these two to have been Saint Luke are 〈◊〉 by the preface he hath set before the Acts saith Beza Art thou only a stranger c. Tragedies have no prologues as comedies have because it is supposed that all men take knowledge of publike calamities Verse 19. Which was a Prophet Yea and more then a Prophet But the disciples were wondrous ignorant till the spirit came down upon them Act. 2. Verse 21. But we trusted q. d. Indeed nowwe cannot tell what to say to it Here their hope hangs the wing extreamly their buckler is much battered and needs beating out again Ferendum sperandum said the Philosopher And good men find it more easie to bear evill then to wait for good Hebrews 10. 36. Verse 25. O fooles c. Those in a Lethargy must have double the quantity of physick that others have Some slow-bellies must be sharply rebuked that they may be sound in the faith Verse 26. Ought not Christ Ne Jesum quidem audias gloriosum nisi videris crucifixum saith Luther in an Epistle to Melancthon Agentem fortiter 〈◊〉 aliquid pati said a Theban souldier out of Pindarus to Alexander when he had received a wound in battle For the which sentence he liberally rewarded him Verse 27. The things concerning himself Christ is authour object matter and mark of Old and New Testament the Babe of Bethlehem is bound up as I may so say in these swathing-bands Turn we the eyes of our minds to him as the Cherubins did their faces toward the Mercy-seat The Angels do 1 Pet. 1. 12. Verse 28. And he made as though he would c. So did the Angel to Lot Gen. 19. 2. See the like Josh. 8. 5 6. 1 King 3. 24. If Salomon might make as though he would do an act that was unlawfull we may surely do the like in things indifferent Yet this was never done as is well observed but 1 by those that had authority over others 2 For some singular good to them with whom they thus dealt Verse 29. But they constrained him Though they had been sharply rebuked by him whom they know to be no other then a meer stranger to them For it is toward evening Cry we now if ever ere it be too late Vespera jam venit nobiscum Christe maneto Extingui 〈◊〉 nec patiare 〈◊〉 Verse 30. And blessed it It s thought they knew him by his ordinary form of giving thanks before meat Versy 32. Did not our hearts burn By that spirit of burning Esay 4. 4. that kindleth the fire of God Cant. 8. 6. on the harth of his Peoples hearts whiles the mystery of Christ is laid open unto them Ego verò illius oratione sic incendebar saith Senarclaeus concerning Diarius the Martyr ut cùm eum disserentem audirem Spiritus sancti verba me audire existimarem Me thoughts when I heard him I heard the Holy Ghost himself