last hower the spirite of God lightened the harte of the théefe vpon the Crosse Luck 23.40 Ezech. 18. Eph. 1.4.5 Ioh. 1.9 1. Tim. 2.4 Eph. 1.18 Heb. 1.3 so that in yéelding to death he sawe Christ onely to be his lyfe So the same most louing father who wylleth not the death of a synner hath euen in the hower of death and in all the dayes of Popery tourned the hartes of as many as were predestinate before all tymes in Christ to lyue eternally And that our Christ which lighteneth all men that come into the worlde and would haue all men that is to say of euerye country nation people and families some to be saued and come to the knowledge of the truth Hath also illuminated the hartes of all those whome the father hath by his spirite drawne out of the Dungeon of Papistrie to thys brightnesse of his glory wherby they haue with the eyes of their fayth séene this Iesus Christ to be the onely saluation of Iewe Turke Pagan Papist and Gentyle and consequently haue in harte felt him for theirs to their greate and synguler consolation After which sight they haue in the integritie of their soules 1. Cor. 3.12 Phil. 3.8 accounted al the hey tymber stubble and Popishe stuffe as fylthie doung and paciently abode the paine of death for their former ignorance and rest in hope of eternall peace and in the assurance of hys spirite that their synnes in his bloude are washed awaye They are perswaded that death is to them lyfe in cause whereof they haue in Christ banished that feare which bringeth paynefulnesse 1. Io. 4.18 and with Symeon haue sayde Now Lorde let vs thy seruants depart in peace for the eyes of our minde nowe in the agony of our soule hath through the day spring which from an high hath visited vs perfitly seene the Lorde thy Christ to be our sauing health â—uc 1.78 in whome wee departe to thee who neuer before this hower in these dayes of ignoraunce could attayne to this grace But now Lord receiue vs in peace through Christ our lord our God of peace and the same to all his chosen children The prouydence of God in tyme of Popery féedeth this our sentence of the forefathers thus blessed in the dayes of ignorance In that he conserued and during those tymes continued among men the Symbole of our fayth which very manye at their death haue constantly repeated and by open declaration haue affirmed in that fayth to ende their lyfe But thys Symbole preacheth onely the gloryous fayth in God the Father God the sonne and God the holy Ghost In Popery no saluation wherfore I conclude that manye of our forefathers were in the daies of Popery saued by fayth alone in Christ and that by Popery no man may or can be saued For the whole course of the Romishe Religion is to disperce Mat. 12.30 and not to gather together the saintes of God to the vnitie of fayth and knowledge in the sonne of GOD but to hayle to the fayth of Rome which maketh as many Sauiours as the sunne shyning giueth shadowes which can in no case permit a man eyther to rest alone in the death of Christ or to assure himselfe of saluation in hym But to attayne lyfe Popishe Treasures the Papists must fetch the treasures of the Church of Rome parte whereof is the blood of Martyrs though some of them be notable Traytors It is to playne that they make such not Mediators onely but Sauiours also from synne Who can forget this solemne Anthemne to that Traytor Thomas Becket sometimes Byshop of Caunterbury which the Popes Portuse and all laten Primers haue farsed in them for men in prayer to vse In the Popishe Primers Tu per Thomae sanguinem quem pro te impendit fac nos Christe scandere quo Thomas ascendit That is graunt vs Christ by the vertue of saint Thomas his bloud which he shedde for thée to ascende whether Thomas is gone where note that Christ hath but that office which else they giue to Peter Namely to be the dore kéeper and to admit those soules into heauen which clayme it by the bloud of Barrabas I should say Thomas and they do refuse bicause they doe distrust the raunsome of Christ our onely way to lyfe Oh horrible and most abhominable blasphemy Ioh. 14.6 But deare Reader No man can come to the father sayth our sufficient Sauyour but by mee And therefore praying for the Papists conuersioÌ„ if it be Gods good will let vs as Paule doth exhort vs Heb. 12.19 seeing by the bloud of Iesus we may be bold to enter into the holy place into heauen by the newe and lyuing way which he hath prepared for vs thorow the vayle that is to say his fleshe and seeing we haue an high Priest ouer the house of God let vs drawe neare with a true hart in assurance of fayth sprinckled made pure in our hearts from an euil conscience and washed in our bodies with pure water Let vs keepe the profession of our hope without wauering for he is faythfull that promised And let vs consider one another to prouoke vnto loue and to good workes not forsaking the felowship that we haue among our selues as the maner of some is but let vs exhorte one another that so much the more bicause ye see the day draweth neere Let vs expect his comming and loue the Lorde so shall we not feare any perrill of death And God graunt our Englishe Papistes once to sée and be ashamed of their wylfulnesse to damnation sléeping in the bedde of the whore of Babilon Reuel 18. which is prepared to desolation and perpetuall fyre And to imbrace his Gospell which is the onely ioy of soule and solace in death â—â—t 3.17 the path to lyfe in that Sauiour in whome God the father is onely pacifyed The second note is that the godly are so farre from fearing naturall death that on the contrary part they humbly many tymes at the hande of God can earnestly pray for it and wyshe it yea and eaten vp of griefe for the dayes of synne they lament that they are not disburdened of the bodye thereof Finally in desyre of the full accomplishment of the bodye of Christ that the same his Church might be thorowly glorifyed in heauen as she is in parte and in earth perfitly sanctifyed The saints in this lyfe praye for the dissolution of the world and Christ to come with speede to iudgement For the fyrst Paule prayeth thus I desyre to be dissolued and to be with Christ and our Symeon here Lorde now let thy seruaunt depart in peace Secondly in the seuenth to the Romaynes Paule cryeth out of synne lamenting and saying O wretched man that I am who shall delyuer me from the body of this death that is from this lumpe of fleshly sinne and death Where note gentle Christian that the saintes of God are subiect to the
Mathewe he descrybeth Abrahams seate to be in the kingdome of heauen Luc. 23.43 Mat 8.11 Ioh. 14.23 And in Iohn our seates with him in the heauens as in our Mansion house But neuer in the scriptures is the place of our deade godly fathers called eyther Lymbus or Purgatory but contrary they affirme there is no payne to them And Purgatory hath the same paynes the Papists which fayne that place say that Hell hath onely this is the difference that they which be in Purgatory shall come thence by the merits of the Church and purging in fyre in Hell there is no redemption Wherefore the godly fathers were not in Purgatory paynes but in the handes of God which is a Paradise of most pleasure And whereas by the Apostle Peter they go about to proue their Fathers Lymbo as whence the soule of Iesus Christ brought them that place doth neyther affirme the naturall Soule of Christ to go to Hell after his death on the crosse or else that he did bring thence the soules of the fathers For his spirite discending left all those there which he found not in a fayned Lymbo but in the paynefull Helles For thus sayth the Apostle He suffred in the fleshe but was quickned in the spirite 1. Pet. 3.18.19.20 by the which he also wente and preached vnto the spirites that are in prison which were in tymes paste disobedient in the dayes of Noah c. The Apostle sayth not that Christ in his naturall Soule went downe into Hell but he sayth that by that spirite which raysed him to life he preached to them that are in prison Nowe againe he sayth not he fetched out the soules of the fathers which were before hys comming in this prison but he sayth his spirite preached vnto them that still are in prison So farre from delyuerie are they that they as obstinate Rebelles remayne in their former tormentes Nowe then the reason standeth thus By what spirite Christ was raysed from the deade by that same spirite he wente or came to the spirites that are in prison but Christe was raysed not by his owne soule but by the deuine spirite of God euen by the operation of the father Therefore by his deuine power Eph. 1.17.18 not in his humaine soule he came vnto the spirites that are in prison Again note it is one to say he delyuered the Gaole and an other to saye he made an exhortation to the prisoners This their alledged place were it the soule of Christ yet prooueth not a delyuerye but a preaching to them that now was that Sauiour borne dead and crucified for the redemption of the worlde which by his spirite in the mouth of Noah for one hundred and twenty yeares space preached to the disobedient in his dayes had they beléeued That it was not the soule of Christ which quickned Christ from death but the Deuine power these places approue 2. Cor. 13.4 Rom. 8.11 Althoughe he was crucifyed by infyrmitie yet he was raysed and lyueth by the power of God Againe But if the spirite of him that raysed vp Iesus to lyfe dwell in you he that raysed Iesus from the deade wil also quicken your mortal bodies bicause his spirite dwelleth in you And againe Act. 4.10 Be it knowne to you al and to the whole people of Israel that by the name of Iesus of Nazareth whom ye slue and hanged on high whome God raysed vp from death by this man standeth this person sound before you To the Romaynes also we are commaunded to beleue in him Rom. 4.14 which raysed Iesus Christ from death And in the vj. chapter thus As Christ is raysed vp by the glory of the father where note that not by the soule of Christ but by God the father Christ was raysed vp so let vs walke in a newe lyfe And to the Ephesians Ephe. 1.17 Alwayes in my prayers I praye for you that the God of our Lorde Iesus Christ the father of glorye might giue vnto you the spirite of wisedome c. And a little after that ye may know what the hope is of his calling and what the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saintes is and what is the exceeding greatnes of his power towardes them that beleeue according to the working of his mightye power which he wrought in Christ when he raysed hym from the deade set him on his right hande on heauenlye places These places sufficiently expounde our Apostle or rather assist his affirmation which sayth that he suffred in the Fleshe but was raysed in the spirite that is by the Godhead of the father by which spirite in his deuyne nature long before he had our humayne nature vpon him he by his Prophetes taught the inobedient then as by vs his Apostles sayth Peter he preacheth to you in that spirite at this present Yea and also to the verye damned in the Hels no doubt at the death of Christ by the deuyne power of his holye spirite was the glory of his crosse opened to their greater condemnation which contemned their saluation in him as the godlye fathers and their sacred bodyes in great comforte by his power were raysed sundry from their brethren to testifye the glory of this our crucifyed Christ raysed vp by his father and set vp wyth him in glory Adde to this this place of Peter is so farre from warrante to that Popishe opinion that the soule of Christ fetched forth the soules of the godly fathers Adam c. That of the flatte contrary he sayth they to whome thys spirite came were disobedient And that thou shouldest not dreame of Christs soule after his death herein he setteth thée the time when this office was fulfylled saying In the daies of Noah whyle the Arke was a preparing Last of all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the godly learned Beza doth interprete qui sunt which are not which were in pryson according to the efficacie of the gréeke worde And the Apostles purpose is not to tell vs that they were in prison what tyme Christe by his spirite in the dayes of Noah preached vnto them for then they were men in naturall lyfe as Noah was but he will giue the Iewes to vnderstande that all were drowned except eyght persons bicause they were disobedient vnto his worde All whose soules that then were damned nowe at the wryting of this Epistle and at this present and euer shall be thoughe their bodyes be rotten and dust are in prison So now most iustly they receyue damnation which refused their saluation in Christ preaching vnto them in spirite in the mouth of Noah not hauing as yet our nature vpon him We conclude therefore that Abrahams Bosome is a place of celestiall comforte a Paradise of pleasure vnspeakable the hande of God deuoyde of Hellish or any torments the Aulter of ioy the kingdome of God Iohn 14.2 Ephe. 1.18.19 Christes fathers house where he sayth are many Mansions euen the inheritance of the iust
for enstructions they are sent to the law and propheticall bookes of Gods holy scriptures To determine this disputation the Prophets saints and seruants of God refuse to take deuine worship giuen vnto them Apoc. 19.10 Act. 10.16 14.4 But this Spectrum dyd take it and reprooueth not the same an absolute conclusion that it was the spirite of Satan and not the Prophete of the Lorde Samuell who rightly sayde that Saule in soule should be with him on the morrow which is the place of all abiect Murtherers which from true religion fall to his opposite Hebr. 6.4 Idolatry as sayth the Apostle It is impossible that they which were once lightened and haue tasted of the heauenly gifte and were made partakers of the holye ghost and haue tasted of the good worde of God and of the powers of the worlde to come if they fall awaye should bee renewed by repentance seeing they crucifie agayne to themselues the sonne of God and make a mock of him And an other place Hebr. 10.26 If we synne wyllingly after that we haue receyued the knowledge of the truth there remayneth no more sacrifice for syns but a fearefull looking for of iudgement and violent fyre which shall deuoure the aduersaryes Apo. 14.3 To returne to our holy Symeon he sayth he shall now depart in peace for why as saint Iohn sayth Blessed are the deade which dye in the Lorde or for the Lordes cause euen so sayth the spirite for they rest from their labors and their workes that is Gods mercifull reward follow them In this sentence all feare of death to Symeon and trembling at the Popish Purgatory Three perfite consolations agaynst the pretensed Purgatory is taken awaye from the children of God and that by thrée most assured affirmations First he sayth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which importeth by and by presently no delay or interception but euen from the very instant of death and the last gaspe as Christ also hath promised the godly though in themselues synners shall passe from death to lyfe Secondly to assure vs hereof he sayth the Spirite of God sayth so which cannot lye or be deceyued Thirdly he sayth we thenceforth rest from our labors Now the labors of the godly are afflictions of mynde and body sorrows paynes torments and terror of conscience and such lyke But from all these at the hower of death the sonnes of God in Christ ending their lyfe doe take their quiet rest Therefore Purgatory which is sayde to consist most of these labors cannot touch those or anye of them which are else purged in the onely Purgatory to a christian soule or body Heb. 9.14 1. Ioh. 1.7 1. Pet. 1.19 Reuel 1.5 Namely the bloud of Iesus Christ once shed vpon the crosse by the which he hath in his owne person purged our soules from all sinnes and not in a popish Purgatory of an imagined fyre which is no other but the Hels whose nature is euer to burne and to tormente but neuer to purge those that be thether condemned Thys Christ was Symeons purgation and consolation peace and glory in whom to whom all that beléeue in him aright shall to him with Symeon at the hower of death departe in most comfortable and quyet resting peace Some reade this place thus The godly feare not but rather desyre at Gods will to ende thys lyfe Lorde now let thy seruante departe in peace c. As if hereby he had made peticion to the Lorde to ende these dayes of sinne in his bodye and to take his lyfe from him which reading is not wythout profitable doctrine For it teacheth vs that after Christ the Lorde is once faythfully embraced of vs in harte that be godly Ephe. 1.18 there remayneth no ioy to that earnest meditation of the heauenly lyfe which enflameth loue to hunger the day of dissolution and with Paule to saye I couet to bee dissolued and to be with Christ And for our enstruction there be in this reading thrée things to vs not improfitable First that the elect of God feare not death as doe the wicked whose consciences accuse them giuen to condemnation but they at the Lords leasure desyre it bicause they know 2. Cor. 5.1 if that they were delyuered from this earthly tabernacle they should be possessed of the heauenly with Christ And here let no man obiect vnto me the feare which was in Christ against death from which he prayed thrée tymes in the Garden to be delyuered For we denye it not Mat. 26.37 Mar. 14.35 c. Luc. 22.42 c. Hebr. 2.18 but to mans nature death is yrkesome and our Christ herein doth verily teach vs that he is of our nature a naturall man with vs tasting our infyrmities that he might haue the more compassion of vs his members And the which most is the Lorde Iesus had not to fyght against naturall death onely but he was to sustayne and fully beare in his body the syns of the whole worlde and for them he was to féele in his soule and body the whole wrath of God the father for the chasticement of our peace Esa 53. was by his father fullye layde vpon him Wherefore if that thou being one of the causes of this terror hauing earnest consideration of thy horrible sinnes and doest lyft vp thine eyes to God lookeing vpon him without Christ as thine angry iudge which who can abyde cannot but be eaten vp of all sorrowe into despayre Psa 130.3 How greatly our sauiour Christ then was caused which had the burden of the whole worlde of synne layde vpon him to praye for delyuerance to his fathers wyll thou mayest by thy selfe gyue sentence Yet was he not afrayde to dye as the wicked are which haue no hope but assured of his resurrection he sayth in ioye of harte and peace of conscience Math. 26.39.42 Iohn 17.2 Father thy will be done And againe he desyreth death Venit hora glorifica filium Father the hower is come glorifye thy sonne that is to say by death that thy sonne may glorifie thée in his resurrection Take not this for an obiect to thy duety in desyre to be cut from the dayes of synne or desyre to be with Christ which is a signe of infidelitie Christ hauing by his suffering slayne synne hell and death to and for thée but remember and learne hereby how horrible a thing it is to fal into the hands of the lyuing God by synne which synne wrought in Christ such terror and that bicause he tooke the paynes due to all sinne vpon his person on the Crosse therby to become our raunsome and mediator as being a very naturall man as he is truely God sweat in the agony of hys soule Luke 22.44 before his body was apprehended bloudy drops O synne most horrible And be assured that if by infydelitie popery and carnall trace thou crucifye a freshe the Lorde of lyfe this horror shall not profite thée but thus treading
miseries of sinne but so as with griefe and anguishe of heart they carry that lumpe of death Yet they in pacient mortification by his holy spirite wayte his tyme set for their delyuerie and earnestly desyre the same Note also the right ende of this peticion which by the wicked and desperate is abused A due respect in the desyre of naturall death The godlesse cumbred with piercing sting of conscience ashamed of their state and looking for his heauye iudgement doe also desyre and cry for death So doe the poore ignorante persons which in pryson in Gallyes or Iayles and pyning in payne The poore oppressed the néedie which cannot haue to satisfie the hungry crye of their children and selues the sick pacient which long hath lyen of an incurable disease These and such lyke desyre death but it is not to the right ende for which it should be desyred They only haue respect to the present paine or shame and to fynish that they do not onely desyre but the wicked desperate persons in despite of God his holy lawe and instinct of Nature doe with the pernicious knyfe of perpetuall paine bereaue for a tyme the sorrowes of thys synfull corps But such desperate death is the purchase of Hel with Iudas Achitophel king Saule and such others Now the true and lyuely ende of this peticion in the elect of God is That least they should by to much acquaintance wyth finne and death become resty in the bed of hir delight and so be slayne Sap. 4.11.12 sléeping with Holophernes in dronken pleasures of the fleshe the same daylie more and more assaulting them they doe pray for death as for the last remedye and perfite victory against sinne and Sathan Yet so as I saye still they doe by fayth in hope suppresse the dolorous griefe of sinne in lyfe with the continual meditation of the inwarde ioyes receyued by grace in Christ and therein solace themselues as with the earnest penny of their Fathers possession which they are assured of when the Lord in mercy shall call them to himselfe by death Till when they punishe this bodie of sinne least it shoulde proue to lustie 1. Tim. 5.23 but they nurrish nature weakned that she may the sooner and the better yéelde the office which their seuerall callings doe require And this is the heauenly ende of our desyre to die that so we may receiue to our selues that life which now is treasured vp for vs with GOD in Christ which is our onely lyfe Col. 3.1.2 And thirdly the loue and longing desyre which in the saintes is apparant for the whole and perfite ioye of the Church the Apostle S. Iohn manifesteth in these wordes O Lorde come quickly Apo. 22.17 which there is approoued by the Lorde who to the comforte of his Church sealeth vp thys prayer with Amen Saying So be it Beholde I come quickly Amen Lorde perfite vs in thée and shortly ende these dayes of sinne for thy holye names sake Lorde Iesu and giue vs that truely call vpon thée thy eternall glorye Amen Last of all when Symeon sayth Lord now let thy seruaunt departe in peace he doth teach vs to abhorre all troublesome and murtherous kinde of death And doth cōuince all those guyltie of this precept Thou shalt not kill which in any maner haue slaine themselues for any cause Symeon abhorreth al troublesome and murdering deaths And doth forewarne the Church of God to flye such damnable enterprises which are no other but the perswasions of Satan and the acte herein is the obsequie of his deadly will Though Symeon desyre to dye and that death is to him comfortable in that he hath séene in bodye and soule the Sauyour of the worlde come now in fleshe to saue his Church by the ransome of his bloud which fayth only maketh death desyred in hart yet will he not shorten his life by sodaine crueltie to be a Felondese But he will dye as hath ordayned the wyll of God And therefore he addeth according to thy worde What shall we then say to them which else haue their great commendation in that to auoyde some the dayes of tyranny some other the sight of Gods church persecuted or to auoyde the purpose of synful persons or the infamy of synne or therby thinking to glorifye God haue from the consistory of the harte giuen commission and commaundement to the violent hande to cut in sunder soule and bodye by murthering stroake of merciles arme Truely I say that neyther Cato Razias Lucretia Curtius or his lyke are sure warrants to thée or yet the Donatists which to bring the Christian Byshops into contempt would offer to kill themselues rather then to prouoke the Emperours sworde against them which they spake to winne more ease when the godly Bishops craued his ayde against their pernitious pollution and yet would they be accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cato in kylling himself thought to be ridde of Caesars tyranny by which meanes he offred himselfe to Sathans bondage yea he conuinceth himselfe of folly when he exhorteth hys sonne to obey and séeke the peace of Caesar from whome he ran by murthering death If it were good and a wise parte for his sonne to obteyne the Princes fauour why not for the father also His impacience which could not suffer himself to liue a bearing subiect was a thousande partes worse then the Tyrants crueltie But thou which fearest God hast another rule if the Prince be neuer so cruel thou art commaunded to pray for him that thou mayest liue a quyet godly honest lyfe 1. Tim. 2.12 which thing sayth Paule in that place is good and acceptable What to kyll himselfe from Nero his tyranny being a persecuted christian No but that God will vnder his Regiment giue thée at length a quyet lyfe For the same cause Ieremy sendeth by Baruck Baruk 1.11.12 exhortations to the afflicted Iewes in captiuitie vnder Nabuchadnezar that they should pray for his lyfe Persecuting Princes muste bee prayed for How much more ought wee to call vpon God for such as professe hys Gospell that they might also lyue quyetly vnder him And the Apostles doe arme vs to pacience and vnto forbearing of tyranny with long suffering as well by their owne example as doctrine But in no waies haue they eyther slayne themselues to be ridde of prisons Irons cruell murther or tyranny but haue sought by all meanes rather to maintayne their lyfe to doe more good therein to the Church of God then to hasten their ende by violent stroke For thys cause did Paule exhorte Timothie to pacience willing him to suffer aduersity to do the worke of an Euangelist 2. Tim. 4.5 and to make his ministery knowne He telleth him that he is now ready to be offred to dye for Christ but he feareth it not or will preuente Nero his cruelty by his owne hande but will lyue till the daye of his dissolution which the Lorde hath set
this Razias be thou iudge indifferent Reader thy selfe conferring them together Neyther can the excuse by Augustine and others made that something was lawfull for them which is not for vs wype this bloody body when as the same commandement was then which now is Thou shalt not kyll As for languyshing Lucrece I leaue her to her Torquine whose adultresse she seemeth and to her selfe a murtheresse But to vs godly and chaste Susanna is a contrarye and christian example But Curtius for the loue of his country cast himselfe into the gaping gulfe by whose death the earth reclosed yea but this was Satans arte to whome this Noble and valyaunt Champion was to seruiceable We are to fight for our Country to spend our lyues for our Prince but in the warres to doe our best against the aduersaries and not to cast oure selues desperatly to death by Satans delusion But some will say Did not Christ séeing that no waye else mankinde could be saued most wyllingly gyue himselfe to death for man And so did Curtius Yea but as Christ sayde I lay downe my lyfe for the people and take it to me agayne So did he it in most noble order First he obeyed his fathers ordinance herein A bodye hast thou ordeyned me Loe I am here to doe thy will O God Secondly Heb. 10.5 he nayled not himselfe on the crosse nor thrust hymselfe to the hart or crowned himselfe with thorne but quyetly tooke this crueltie at the Magistrates hande which dyd manger their hartes performe that which the deuyne counsell had determined Act. 2.23 Let Curtius shewe this order or lyke warrante to his case in truth and you shall haue answere Sampson freed from selfe murther As for Sampson which pulled the house vppon hys owne person and all that were therein This appeareth to haue warrante from God as well in that his strength being taken from hym was at this moment of tyme restored to him as also God did by this iudgement execute his wrath on them Iud. 16.30 Psal 1.1 Heb. 11.32 which were obstinately set in the chayre of Scorners And to conclude his actes are warranted to procéede of fayth in the cononicall Epistle to the Hebrewes Furthermore Sampson is not to be taken as a priuate person but he was in déede the Lords Magistrate which office he best executed in the office of his death wherin the Lorde by his hand did reuenge the blasphemy of the Philistines and their Idolatry And did also perfite that curse which by the Prophet Dauid is giuen to those Psal 109. which do afflict them whom the Lord doth scurge This horrible sinne is crauing vengeance vntitl it be powred out euen to the dredges of the Lords angry cup. Amos. 1.11 Wherefore Amos doth threat Edom for that Israell being exiles they vsed them most cruelly which God sayeth by the Prophete he wyll not leaue vnpunished So did the Philistines to Sampson whome God had delyuered into their handes for hys sinne and whoredome They put oute his eyes and caste hym in pryson and proclayming a Popishe feast daye to their Mungril God that Idol Dagon which was in forme aboue the Nauell lyke to a man but from the belly lyke to a Fishe they gathered themselues into his Temple to prayse him for their victory of their enimy Sampson The house was full of men and women and there were all the Princes of the Philistines and vpon the house top were 3000 men which looked down into the house to sée Sampson play whome these wicked Philistines made their iesting Foole. But as Dauid hath sayde Let his dayes bee fewe and another take his office Psal 109. for he remembred not to shewe mercy but persecuted the poore helplesse man the begger and the broken harted that he might slay him So came it to passe Their dayes were fewe for euen the hower of their most tryumph was the moment of their vtter destruction Sampson prayeth to the Lord O Lorde Iehoua remember me In which wordes he confesseth Gods power his owne sinnes calleth for mercy as by the same words did the théefe vpon the crosse Luc. 22.42 He expresseth his faith as well in that he maketh prayer to God for without faith it is impossible in hart to call vpon God as in the presently after he assayeth to doe that which he had prayed for And with the théefe he was receyued to mercye and his prayer heard For his desyre was graunted him he pulled downe the house so in his death he slue mo persons then he did during the dayes of his naturall lyfe Sampson cannot be charged sayth that godlye and learned Martyr Peter Martyr Iudi. ca. 6. For he sought not his owne death but by the spirite of God he roycally bente he desyred and executed herein the iudgement of the Lorde against his enemies which by this waye he knew should come to passe The Apostles acts and Sampsons he tyeth together putting on their persons saying If we teach as we haue begunne the Gospell of Christ without doubt we shall be slayne Well they contynued tho their preaching they were slayne and yet are not the causes of their owne death So sayth Martyr Sampson did not rashly cast himselfe to death but faythfully followed his vocation lyke as the hartie Souldiour albeit the Coward say vnto him beware go not there are arrowes Speares Gunnes and shot innumerable wherewith yée shall perishe They answere what if We go not to séeke death we go to defend our Countrie and goods and to bée reuenged of our enimies to followe our calling Euen so sayth he did Sampson and was thereto ledde by the spirite of God Ambrose sayth that Sampson herein was the Image of Christ who as he lyued he much vexed wounded the Deuill so by his death he tryumphed against him The Philistines he compareth with the Iewes Sampson with Christ as a figure of him The Philistines in the victory against Sampson receyued their vtter ruine and decay And the Iewes crucifying Christ cast themselues into eternall damnation The ende sayth Peter Martyr in nature was both one but in condition sundry twixte the Philistines and Sampson In nature they both dyed but in condition the Philistines in surfetting cruelty and Idolatry are destroyed And Sampson endeth his naturall lyfe in repentance in fayth and in prayer to God Sampson had fallen in déede sayth he but he is turned vnto God he calleth vpon him was heard As for these his wordes Let me loose my lyfe with the Philistines he spake them not of despaire but he hereby humbled himselfe before God for that he had so greatly neglected his function and calling beséeching God hereby to be aduenged of the Philistines who had put out the eyes of Gods magistrate not bicause they would this way punish his trespasse but this they did in despite of Israell and that he should no more be able to doe them violence And iustly sayth mayster Bucer
dyd he sorrow for the losse of his eyes Bucer in Iudic. cap. 16.30 For in that he bare the person of the Lordes magistrate the iniury done to hym was to the great losse and domage of the Iewes common weale In this that he desyreth to dye sayth he he expresseth hys earnest and that godly and good deuotion zeale to the people of Israel and to the glorye of God For the Lorde would not that he should lyue any longer therefore he rightly desyreth death And bicause he was now so contemned of the Philistines and with him the whole people of God and God himself also so as these enimies began to insult against God in great pryde he did also right iustly aske that the Lord would take vengeance on them Wherfore the Lord Iehoua heard his prayer fauoured his endeuour and gaue him good successe By this we gather sayth Bucer his death to be acceptable and approoued with God Sampsons death acceptable to God otherwise his holynesse woulde not haue giuen Sampson such successe And by this we sée sayth he that not euerye one which caste themselues to extreme death for the good of the people are to be condemned but such onely as without warrant from God doe murther themselues It was Sampsons office to saue and delyuer his charge Israell from the tyrannous opression of the Philistines and sythe he could not by any possibilitie else do it this way he rightly fynished his function So did Christ sayth Bucer offer himselfe to hys enimies from whom he might haue béene delyuered Where againe Sampson is by the spirite of God with Ionas apoynted to be the figure of Christ Sampson a Figure of our sauiour Christ And in sundry poynts Bucer setteth downe this figure as hée represented Christ chiefly in that he was the delyuerer of Israel So in these things also he became a lyuely Image of the most noble Mossiah His conception was by the Aungell to his mother Manoah with a speciall declaration foretolde So was Christ to Mary by the Angell Gabriel The mother was barren and brought forth no children So was the Virgin not bearing tyll she brought forth the Lorde Iesus All hys lyfe he was a Nazarite that is seperate from the worlde and dedicate to God So was Christ Iesus The spirite of God wrought wonderfully in miraculous things with him And that he imbraced straunge persons which in déede was sinne in the figure Sampson yet therein doth he not most vnséemely figure and shadow Christs receyte of the Gentyls Also that he suppressed the enemies of God and by a secrete and vnknowne waye and by his owne hand and in his death ouerthrew his destroyers Herein he was a most lyuely shadowe of oure Christ who by hys death brought true Israelits lyfe and wherin the Iewes thought to haue the victorie as in murthering of the heyre Mat. 21 38 therein they lost the inheritance and were cast into vtter destruction c. Further he did rather begin then make perfite the delyuery of Gods people from their foes Euen so our sauiour Christ did dayly more and more after his death then before worke the redemption of hys chyldren by the knowledge of the Gospell from the hands of Satan and shal perfite the same in the day of our resurrection Agayne Sampson more vexed his aduersaries by his death then he did during his fight with them in lyfe Mat. 27.64.65.66 So were the Phariseys and Iewes more troubled Christ lying in his graue then they were when he in preaching euerye where wrought their confusion wherefore they spared no payne to seale and set watch about the Sepulcher Last of all Sampson did so enter into the delyuerie of Israell that by this begynning his successors myght with more encrease profyte the same So our sauiour Iesu begynning to preache the Gospell and hauing in hys death wholy destroyed the power of Satan gaue blessing vnto his Apostles and Disciples and so to his Church to enlarge the borders of his spirituall body more then in his owne person himselfe brought to passe Thus you sée how Sampsons lyfe and death is sanctifyed being the shadowe of Christ and deliuered from the ignomy of selfe slaughter Of that last example of Ionas who wyshed the Maryners to cast him into the Sea Ionas 1.2 the storye reporteth it Gods action First by casting of lottes then by staying the Tempest and thirdly in that the Lorde had prepared a great Fishe to swallowe vp Ionas but chiefely the tyme of hys buryall in the belly of the Fishe which the text sayth was thrée dayes and thrée nightes And this man this Prophet and this his burial doth Christ alowe for his ymage of buriall in the heart of the earth saying As Ionas was in the Whales belly three dayes and three nights Math. 12.40 so shall the sonne of man be three dayes and three nightes in the harte of the earth This acte as it is here alowed of Christ for a figure of his buriall and death So Ionas being the Lordes Prophet knew from his God that this way he should appease the sea and tempest and therfore submitted himselfe to the ordinance of his good God Now vpon this place in Ionas Hierome holdeth that we ought not to cast our selues into death but stowtely to withstande except sayth he it be to conserue chastitie Where it séemeth he would for chastities sake permit a man or woman to kyll themselues Euse lib. 8 cap. 17. fol. 197. Ancient Ambrose leaneth on that side also And Eusebius Cesariences telleth vs of a modest Matrone called Sophronia the Gouernours wyfe of Rome whose bewtie bereaued Maxentius the Tyran of his modesty whereas he should haue defended mariage he most wickedly sought to defyle the same and sent such letcherous Courtiers as he himself was to fetch to his lust this bewtifull Dame Sophronia told her husband who after heauy pause cryed And what shall we doe To thys Tyran eyther we must yéelde or else we must lose our lyues But when she perceyued her husband for feare of death woulde delyuer her to the adulterous bedde she subtilly saide to the Baudes which were sent stay in a little vntill I dresse me comely for so Noble a man as Maxentius the Emperour and I will go wyth you she entreth her chamber she prayeth to God wyth a sworde she kylleth her self so kéeping her chaste promise to her christian husband The godly father Augustine maketh stay at this but in the ende he sayth the Law of God is most worthy and sure which sayth Thou shalt not kill And we are rather to commende the godlye policie christian acte The storye of godlye Dorothea of the other christian Virgin Dorothea of Alexandria mentioned by Eusebius in the same chapter who being for Christs cause led to death in this Maxentius tyranny was by his fylthie messengers assaulted to breake her Virginitie with the letcherous Lorde and Prince Maxentius But
in his syghte but by his Fayth Rom. 3.28 as by the hande wherwith he apprehended his righteousnesse in Christ Or maye any person obiect in right as opposite hereto The words of Iames declared By the papists abused the saying of Iames the Apostle was not Abraham iustified by workes For Iames doth not in that place dispute the meanes of mans iustification before God but requyreth that good works be to Christian fayth adioyned as by which grace holye men on earth doe approoue that which God in the Heauens before through the vndoubted fayth in hys Sonne Iesus Christ hath imputed to his beloued children which may easely appeare in the Apostles owne wordes Shewe mee thy fayth out of thy works sayth he and I will shewe thee my fayth by my workes Iam. 2.18 As if he had sayde Thou which boastest to haue fayth shewe me that am but man and therefore knowe not thy state before the Tribunall seate of GOD or his graces in the inwarde man by which meanes I cannot iudge of thée Shewe me I saye thy fayth by hys works in thée and I will beléeue thée then to be a faythfull Christian Gene. 22.16 This sence Moses also testifieth the Angel or rather the Lorde by his Angel to approoue which stayde the hande of Abraham from the sacrifycing of his sonne Touch not thy sonne with violent hands for nowe I knowe that thou fearest God bicause thou hast not spared thine only sonne for my commaundement sake To conclude the Epistle written to the Hebrewes doth attribute this great worke of Abraham to the excellency of his fayth saying By fayth Abraham offred vp his sonne Isaac Heb. 11.17 It resteth therefore sythe Symeon is not able to fulfill the lawe but fayleth in many poyntes thereof and therefore guyltie of all Sithe also that those good workes which he doth be polluted in Gods syght as procéeding from hym selfe by which meanes he is become in himselfe vniuste before God that nowe his righteousnesse consysteth herein that his synnes be not layde to his charge according to the saying of the Psalmist Psal 31.1 Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiuen and whose synnes be not imputed to them Thus was Symeon vniust in himselfe but iust in his consolation Christ Iesus and that bicause he fyrmely beleeued in him by whose merittes and death on the Crosse the Fathers iustice is answered Symeons synnes raunsomed mercye to hym procured his daylie synnes not layde to his charge bycause by imputation he is accounted for iust And in the same maner are all the elect of God alyke blessed with him And so lykewise all the workes of Gods saintes are impure in his sight if tryed by the phan of hys spirite before his Tribunall seate But such is his fatherly benigne mercye that in and for his sonne Christ he accepteth vs and then our holy actions for iuste as he accepted Habel and his sacryfice but he regarded not Caine Gene. 4. and therfore not his sacryfice also he casteth our iniquities quight out of his remembrance Ezec. 18. Secondly Symeon is called pius godly religious Iere. 31.22 or fearing God This is proper to the chylde of God if iustifyed by his grace then to lyue in his feare that is in his obedience Tit. 2.12 Luk. 1. We are also redéemed to this ende That we should denye vngodlynesse and walke in puritie of lyfe in holynesse and righteousnesse before our iuste God all the dayes of our lyfe So sayth the holye Ghoste in the mouth of Zachary the good maryed Priest So did the same holye man of God and his good wyfe by vertuous lyfe expresse the graces of Gods holye spirite in them as testifyeth Saint Luke saying Both were iuste before God and walked in all the commaundementes of the Lorde without reproofe Luc. 1.6 Here hast thou good Reader the true discription of a godly man namely he that being iustifyed by Fayth in Christ walketh though he cannot performe in perfection in all the commaundements and ordinances of the Lord. Deare Reader we glorye that we be called christians but onely this is a true christian lyfe of which here thou haste heard Our wants in this profession in these oure dayes bewray from top to the toe in the Courte and thence thorowe the Countrie from the Nobilitie to the Plowman and his mate The greater personages boast and bragge of great tytles Lordships Baranies Offices and liberties of bewty byrthe brauerie manhood chyualry and force of cunning skyll learned tongue But vnlesse my Lords ye relye vpon Symeons lore vnlesse ye be worthyly endowed with his style vnlesse ye be iuste before God walke in all the commaundementes of God not only to do holyly but to be holy your selues in déede Vndoubtedly your honor and all your other pompe in pryde shall you change for horror wéeping howling and gnashing of teeth and so shall all fleshe that lyueth not in the feare of God Math. 25.30 What benefite was it to Diues nowe boyling in Hell that he was endewed with all worldlye Epicurious pleasures Luck 16. as gorgious houses costly array after the fashion diuersitie of dyshes and the worlde at wyll Or what aduantage to the other Ritchman Luck 12. that pulled downe his Barnes to make them greater sayde to hymselfe Now soule be merrie for thou hast goodes and landes in store for many yeres But how did he possesse this large and newe buylded frame Thou foole sayth the spirite This nighte shall they take thy soule from thee and who shall then possesse thy goods Shall not the wicked ritche men lykewise haue their heauen in this lyfe Shall they not after the hower of death with Diues lye in the Helles lyke shéepe and say Sapi. 3. There was no greene pasture which we wente not through whereby they note in naturall lyfe their courtly pleasures We left no token of vertue behinde vs in thys they signifie their wicked lyfe buryed in contynuall securitie We thought these men fooles vz Symeon and such other the sonnes of God Whereby they vtter their ignorance of godly men and their owne fréedome from godlynesse These are they which wee persecuted scorned and cruelly intreated but nowe see how they are taken with the iuste By which the holye ghost sealeth vp the naturall disposition of all Atheists to their gréeuous and irrecuperable condemnation Wherefore beloued Reader Noble and ignoble Courtier and Countryman séeke the Lorde earely and whyle he is to be founde attayne to his seruice who by his grace will endue thée with iustification Esa 55. and holynesse with obedience to his holy law and delight to dwell therin Ephe. 1.14 bicause his holye spirite is his Arrha and earnest penny giuen thée for thy assurance of his loue and fauour towards thée So shall your Nobilities more encrease your state most surely stande your selues with Symeon shall be famous to your posteritie a good example
they will tourne the Popishe face into the inwarde mynde and be couered with this cloke to fawne vpon the gospell But marke their lyues and eyther they be manifest contemners of Religion hating reformation of their wickednes or they doe priuily shoote out their arrowes Psal 120.23 euen tongues as whote as burning coales into the eares of Princes and Potentates against the Lorde and hys truth and against his faythfull seruantes in déede which eyther by preaching exhortation or pen séeme to sommon their conscience to a better consideration of belonging duety to their God Then saye they Come let vs imagine some deuise against Ieremy Iere. 18.18 for the lawe shall not perishe from the Priest nor counsell from the wise The practise of Atheists nor the worde from the Prophet That is the Romaine Church cannot erre or the holy Pope sauing thy reuerence good Reader be deceyued and therefore whosoeuer speaketh against that as farre as we may kéepe credite in these dayes and though it be with some stayne Come let vs smyte him with the tongue let vs slaunder him and accuse him for we shal be beleeued and let vs not giue heede to any of his wordes But let not Ieremy be afrayd For Esay sayth The enimy shall come lyke a flood vz ioyned together vehemently working but the spirite of the Lorde shall chase him away and Christ our consolation doe we wayte for him giuing breade to our brethren in due season shall come to Sion and vnto all them that turne from iniquity in Iacob sayth the Lorde in the former places Wherfore I eftsoones say to you Fleshe bloud earth and ashes not wyse in God deceyuing your selues If ye lyue after the fleshe Rom. 8.13 yee shall dye but if by the spirite ye mortifie and kyll the deeds of the fleshe ye shall lyue which be these Adultery fornication Gal. 5.19 vncleannesse wantonnesse ydolatry which in our dayes is Popery Witchcraft hatred debate emulation hypocrisie wrath contention herisies enuye murther dronkennes gluttony and such lyke you shall lyue eternally Further here are conuinced euery such which not caring for anye Religion at all take parte of neyther side but accounte themselues Gods good seruants if they lead an honest cyuill lyfe amongst men But in Symeons commendation to be Gods seruante we fynde this principallye noted that he was iuste and religious To these we adde all hypocrites which professing outwarde shadowes of fayned holynesse doe spende their waste labors in mens tradicions for the obseruance whereof they make no care to transgresse all bounden pietie and seruice to God obedience to Princes and godlye Magistrates or obsequie to their natural Parents or louing brethren But Christ sayth these worship him in vayne Mat. 15.9 Remember wel the prouident care of the Euangelistes pen that he doth not commend to vs Symeons good lyfe first but his state from God and his religion in God as if hereby he would tell vs that we are not precisely to tye our selues to immitate this or that kynde of worke of the saints for works shall not be wanting in the children of God as we haue sayde but that we should séeke to follow their fayth in Christ First grace then graciousnesse and be zealous in his Religion walking therin with a right foote vpright in the sighte of God Gala. 2.14 We haue here also to consider the dyuers natures of earthly men according to the spirite whereby they are ledde whether of synne vnto death or of righteousnesse vnto lyfe Rom. 6.16 And this note I gyue vpon the reporte that Symeon wayted for the consolation of Israel The sonnes of Symon Magus the Pope and his adherents as carnall Gospellers and Popishe Atheists doe wayte also and séeke for all opportunitie but it is to haue wherewith to satisfie their worldly lustes and that is their expectation When will the newe Moone come say they that wee may sell our corne deare Amo. 8.5 and chaffe for corne and sell our brethren for smale tryflying pleasures and valors to suck the bloud of their Tenants and inferiors The fruite of carnall Gospellers These men can and doe fyrst pull downe Tyllage and dyke in pastures with Lammas cloking Closes they driue the poore pâ—wman to feast with pease breade on Christmas daye euen thys yere it was so These wayte but it is for the deare yeare Some of these nowe buy Corne in Markets hauing great store of their owne to bréede a dearth and in the latter parte of Sommer when the same is established Such mind such purpose then bring they forth their corne to fyll their lucring luste Yea and Dauid expecteth Bethseba her comming to his call And Iesabel the euente of her Deuillishe deuise against Noble Naboth for his Vyneyarde made Achab sicke Herodiadas that dauncing Dame also wayteth but it is for fytte oportunitie when best she maye by the caperous footing and vnwomanly vawting of her Daughter to begge at Herods hands the heade of her reproouer the holye preacher of God Iohn Baptist Whose graunte in delight of such perillous fantasies shall force the fleeting tymes retyre to be a wayling wytnesse of this Princes wicked decrée Iudas did wayte in lyke manner but to betray his mayster Christ And the Pharisies expected oportunitie to crucifye the Lorde of lyfe and yet to kéepe quyet in the common wealth 2. Tim. 4.10 Demas a follower of the Apostle Paule wayteth when best he maye vnder pretence of religion become ritche wherof fayling He forsaketh him and loueth this presente worlde Alexander the Copersmythe and Demetrius wayte to reuenge the ouerthrowe of Diana her shryne Act. 19.23 2. Tim. 4.14 3. Epist 9. vers and therfore become they enemies to the Apostles So doth Diotrephes to stop the Truth though Iohn the Euangeliste doth wryte the same The Pope and his wyll not permit the worde of God to come to lighte for then his kingdome must decaye The Satrapas doe wayte for tyme Dan. 6. that Daniel maye by Acte of Parliament be cast into the Lyons Denne and a lawe for his destruction to be established as the lawe of the Medes Daniels lotte which cannot be broken But bicause they cannot obtayne this in christian Cyrus daies they wayte for another Bull to bring in a Cambyses which shal vtterly forbyd the buylding of Ierusalem Athalia wayteth also after the Kings seede 2. Reg. 11.1 the Scarlet Romanist expecteth her tyme when to broyle once again Iehosophat his posterity but Iehoidah our highe and eternall Priest shall cause the Kings Commission at length to cast her out of the house of God that all christian Lords and Captaynes maye bathe their obedient blades in her thirstie bloode Oh that the house of Israel had not wayted the departure of Iehoiadah 2. Chr. 24.17 supposing with more ease to disswade vertuous Ioash from the Lorde The departure of godly Byshops the decaye of Religion God graunt our
the preaching of his worde then at any tyme he hath bene since the Apostles tyme. This only remayneth that with hart and will by the motion of his holy spirite we ioyntly enter our Churches where Iesus Christ is graciously offred not into our armes but into our harts and soules not in a body subiect to myseries and death but in the Maiestie of his worde which is his eternall power Rom. 1.16 1. Cor. 1.18 to bring vs by his light to that saluation assured in him and to engraffe quyetnesse in Conscience perswaded in his truth by the testimony of his sayde spirite of the full forgyuenesse of our sinnes That we shall with newe raysed hartes as men risen from a most déepe Dungeon of death most ioyfully with Symeon syng and saye in heart and truth Lorde nowe whensoeuer thou callest vs from this naturall lyfe 1. Cor. 1.30 Ephe. 1.7 Mat. 20.28 at thy good pleasure thou lettest vs departe to quiet rest in christian peace For the eyes of our fayth haue and doe sée Christ Iesus and receyue hym as he is to vs in mercy giuen our onely raunsome and full matter of our spirituall health and celestiall ioy to whom with thée our best father and the holy spirite be praise and glory for euer and euer Amen Thus much receyued by the Gospels wordes touching Symeon nowe let vs lende eare attentiuely vnto the words deliuered vs in this his ioyful song Thus he sayth Lorde now lettest thou thy seruaunt departe in peace according to thy worde For mine eyes haue seene thy Saluation This olde holye fathers song conteyneth shorte wordes and long matter wherein he giueth the Lorde his due praise by publique spéeche in ioyed hart and after the example of the former church for the present benefite receyued according the faythfull promise of God that he hath not departed to his Fathers before he sawe the Lordes Christ he singeth the Lords truth and blaseth the honorable armes of our Captaine Christe manifesting his power efficacie and glory in this his pithy encomia That done he setteth downe the perfite platforme of a quyet cōscience and the ancor of her health in the middle of many miseries in his owne person saying Now Lorde all if by the Romaine Tyranny thy people of Israell haue béene sore oppressed our fayth sore assaulted so that twixt hope and sorrow we haue wayted for Consolation in thy promise Now that thou hast giuen vs thy Christ our glory I ioy so much in him my Sauiour that death shall be to me welcome and my departure shall be in peace bicause by this Christ my Consolation Gods wrath to me is pacified my syns in him pardoned my selfe for him of my heauenly father dearely beloued and my soule shall rest in ioy for I am thy seruant wherfore Now let me I praye thee departe in peace I am satisfyed that I haue séene thée and the dayes of my age are in thy hande But whereas Symeon sayth Lorde Nowe doth thy mercy let me departe in peace he plainely sheweth that vntill he perfitely had the fruition of his hope he was in auxietie and griefe and walked with a heauie harte for the affliction of Israell This argueth not an absolute weakenesse of fayth in Father Symeon but rather expresly an ardent expectation of the promise of God nothing pleasured with the forreine matters of this lyfe albeit they should abounde to hym But by trauaile in fyght against temptations in worldly pleasures he hungreth and spiritually thirsteth in approoued hope the Lords promise enduring the griefe of present oppression assuredly by fayth to reape the rewarde of his pacient hope bicause he had the worde of God a most faythfull Norice therto for his warrante 1. Pet. 2.2 For thus sayde the Lorde by Reuelation to Symeon Thou shalt not dye before thou hast seene the Messias Christ the Lorde Luc. 2.26 Note here good Reader the nature of Gods promises giuen to his chosen children They are not performed at the first houre but they are deferred longer then our selues would desyre and they are not performed till the fayth of the parties be perfitly prooued and by the opposite occurrents sore exercised God the Father promised the comming of his beloued sonne Christ here imbraced of Symeon at the fall of Adam and Heuah Gene. 3. Gen. 22.18 Gal. 3.8 Esa 64.1 Mat. 13.16 Luk. 10.24 and renewed it to Abraham and by hys Prophets continued the same but the time prolonged forced many of the best fathers to cry Oh that thou wouldest pierce the heauens and come downe and to say Oh Lorde sende thy glory vnto Syon and thy sauing health vnto Ierusalem And as our Christ doth testifie many kings and Prophets haue desyred to sée Christ and haue not séene him or could the times enioy the performance of this promise till the fulnesse of time by him set were come Heb. 1.1 and that by contrary presumptions the fayth of his chyldren were thorowly exercised But when the tyme by his deuine wisedome appointed was come then did he faythfully giue the same Messias into the worlde that Symeon and the godlye then might beare wytnesse to vs his children nowe of his euerlasting faythfulnesse In this worde Nowe lyeth an Emphasis as if he had sayd The worde of my promise hath fed my fayth stablished my hope to wayte for thys our consolation Christ and sythe in thy mercy thou hast performed the word of truth Now let me depart in peace Here is to be well marked the force of true and lyuely fayth it doth persist in one it resteth vpon the promise of the worde The force of true fayth albeit that heauen and earth should séeme to runne on heaps together This is that most excellent gift of God that excelleth al vertues in whatsoeuer man Ephe. 3.17 Pray the Lorde therefore to giue thée fayth in Christ christian Reader and Christ thereby to dwell in thée then shalt thou abyde stedfast in hope after the worde of Gods promise whatsoeuer obstact shal arise against thée The Lord by his seruant Moyses promised the Israelits delyuerance out of the bondage of Egypt Exod. 4.29.30.31 But straight wayes wyth this promise arose such presumptions to the contrary as the hardnesse of Pharaos hart and cruelty their oppression and more labor thereby their sharpe correction for wants in worke and in the hower of their deliuerance his huge army persecuting them on the one syde the high Mountaynes and swallowing Seas to hold them in on the other syde that it might haue séemed to Israel Moyses warrant from God to haue bene rather a dreame of their desolation then the day of their delyuerance But they by this spirite confirmed in fayth did suppresse the present calamities by the Ancor of hope which from the shyp of their beléeuing consciences in these terrible Seas tossed they cast fyrmely pitched vpon the worde of promise which thus they had vz I will in a
the loue of Christ shall oppression shall extremitie shall persecution famishment Rom. 8.35 nakednes perill or sworde as it is written For thy sake are we al day slayne and brought as sheepe to the slaughter but in all these we are more then conquerors in and by him that loueth vs. So are we with Paule perswaded that neyther death nor lyfe Aungell principalitie or potentats neyther things present or to come neyther things aboue or yet belowe or any other creature can seperate vs from the loue of God which is in Christ Iesu our Lorde And this is that our fayth which is farre differente from the Iewes condemneth the Pagans conuinceth the Papists of Heresie and apprehendeth Christ Iesus which is our peace our saluation our light and eternall glory Further note here that as this christiaÌ„ faith is not without these workes of hope and loue So doe we learne that they procéede of fayth as they whose nature cannot be seperate from the same We are iustifyed by fayth sayth Paule and therefore haue peace with God by Christ Rom. 5.1 by whome we haue accesse by Fayth into that grace wherein we stande and glorye in the hope of the glorye of God Fayth hath two daughters Hope and Loue. Beholde the Apostle doth playnely affirme vs to haue accesse to God and peace in him the hope of glory by fayth in Christ But more playnely to the Ephesians saying We haue accesse in hope which is by fayth Ephe. 3.12 Here is hope sayde to be conceyued of the spirite and borne of fayth That Charitie also is borne of her as her second daughter 1. Tim. 1.5 Paule to Timothy doth wytnesse thus The ende of the commaundement is loue out of a pure harte and of a good conscience and of fayth vnfayned And how can it be but loue of force must procéede of fayth For thereby we beholde the Lorde our God to be our best good most mightie wise and best belouing father in whose loue he hath giuen vs his onely begotten sonne to dye for vs and wyth him hath giuen vs all things Howe cannot I saye then this Charitie to breake out of vs in floodes of loue to oure good God and elect brethren for him in euery such office as the rules therof requyreth at our hands But still obserue this for their order Fayth is the Noble parent the daughter of Gods holy worde whose father is Gods spirite begotten in the bed of a christian harte and hope is the fyrst Daughter of fayth Eph. 17. expecting the fruite of Gods faythfull promise and cannot be drawne from her mother bicause she is holden by the holy ghost nor thrust down to distrust or doubtfulnesse for that she is sustayned in her mothers lappe the most assured fayth in God And loue is the laste daughter and of longer contynuance For when the mother and her elder Sister shall giue ouer their office hauing attayned their rewarde and promise this vertuous loue in the saints of God shall neuer cease 1. Cor. 13.13 but contynue in the heauens with them for euer And thus hath loue of vs her due commendation but so as she is set orderly in her besytting place against the cauils of al Papists Atheists whatsoeuer Further to thée which art an olde man our aged Symeon standeth a perfite patterne to follow That not thy gray heares but thy graue and godly conuersation may with him approoue thée in the house of God a manne venerable and worthy regarde A Lesson to olde men His steps to lead thée are his fayth in Christ his feare in GOD his godly lyfe his loue to his Countrie and his desyre to departe these miserable dayes at the wyll and worde of God But in his godly lyfe thâ—e is by the Euangelist set downe for great and chiefe that he followed his guyde the holye Ghost O ye olde fathers whose gray heads doe sommon your toyled Soules to the Tribunall seate of God take care that ye follow Symeons trace in the obedience to Gods holye spirite For they alone are Gods children Rom. 8.14 which are ledde by his spirite and thereby doe mortifye and kyll the lustes of the flesh It is ynough and tootomuch that you haue spent the dayes of your youth after the wanton guyse of fleshlye lustes Learne to say with Paule when I was a chylde 1. Cor. 13.11 Psal 19.12 13. Eph. 24 7 I did as a chylde but now I am a man I haue cast away childishnesse Pray with holy Dauid O Lord forgiue me the rebellion of my youth lay not my presumptuous syns against me Reioyce with Sophocles that Nature hath bidde adue to the fleeting feates of fleshly affects Cast away whoredome and lasciuious delights A Christian cautar and aboue all delight not in thy former euils but reprooue thy selfe in them Ephes 5.11 and condemne thy hart for them Ioy in God and begge earnestly for repentance at his hands Luk. 15.21 and aske mercy with the prodigall sonne for thy wasting dayes past thee Defye the receypt of Satans baytes which now that Nature cannot ruffle as to fore do enflame thy hart with conceypt of fryuolous and fylthy ioy for the euill done déede so long time paste Eph. 4.29 Let no fylthy communication proceede out of thy mouth nor haue thou anye fellowship with the workes of darknesse but rather reproue them For so shalt thou be learned in Christ Be not so farre from the duety of an olde christian Father that a Heathen though a cyuill naturall man may well condemne thée A notable and pythie saying of Cicero Fylthy lustes sayth Cicero is hatefull to gréene dayes but most odyous to gray heares as of which commeth two pestilente euilles It bréedeth common crye of shame and dishonor to the aged Eccle. 9.25.2 and their example giueth beastly boldnesse to youthfull intemperance There be three things sayth the wyse man that God hateth A pore man that is prowde a ryche man that is a lyar and an olde Adulterer that doteth The Preacher Ecclesiastes Eccle. 11.9 derydingly sayth to a yong manne which olde men are in wisedome to recorde Reioyce in thy youth let thine harte cheere thee walke in the wayes of thyne harte and in the sight of thine eyes But knowe that for al these things God will bring thee to iudgement Doctrine for yong Gallants Therfore take away griefe out of thyne harte and cause euill to depart from thy fleshe for chyldhood and youth are vanity Hereto shall it much profite you you elder fathers if with Symeon ye enter the Temples of God where hys worde is daylie preached his graces exhibited and sealed to you in his Sacraments Where with the iust your contynuall prayers shall be acceptable and receyuing fruite in Christ Where shall this counsell of the Lorde be giuen you to your eternall good forth of his holy word Remember now thy Creator Eccle. 12.1 c.
whylst the euill dayes come not nor the yeres approche wherein thou shalt say I haue no pleasure in them A little after when the keepers of the house vz the hands of the body shal tremble and the strong men that is the legges shal bowe themselues and the grynders the téeth shal cease bicause they are fewe they waxe darke vz the eyes that looke out by the Wyndowes And the dores lyppes or mouth shal be shut without by the base sounde of the grynding that is when the the chawes shall scarce be able to open and he shal ryse vp at the voyee of the byrde namely he cannot sléepe halfe the night and al the daughters of synging that is the wynde pypes or deafnesse of eares shal be abased Also they shal be afrayde of the high thing euery thresholde shall be hard to stryde ouer and feare shal be in the way the Palsye shal cause the bones to tremble and the Almonde tree that is the gray heade shal floorishe and the Grashopper that is the least weyght shal be a burden and concupiscence shall be driuen away for man goeth to the house of his age euen to his graue and the Mourners goe aboute in the streete whyles the syluer corde is not lengthened meaning the Marow of the back bone of the synewes nor the golden Ewer broken the little skyn that couereth the brayne which is in coulour lyke Golde nor the Pitcher broken at the Well that is the veyns at the lyuer not dissolued nor the wheele broken at the Cesterne that is nor the head with the hart from whence he draweth his powers of life make an ende of their office and duste returne to the earth as it was the spirite note that the soule incontinentely goeth to ioye or tormente to him that gaue it Vanitie of vanities sayth the preacher all is vanitie This moste excellent counsell ye Noble Lords and louing Countrymen whose yong daies are now or already wel neare spent shall you haue in the house and worde of God contynually to your Christian consolation in Christ by repentance and fayth in him not onely to ioye with Symeon but with the whole Church of God to say most assuredly Lord now lettest thou thy seruant depart in peace c. Further consider gentle Reader that Symeon speaketh here of naturall death when he sayth he departeth in peace and yet he calleth his death not a destruction but a departure And a departure for thrée causes He departeth from this life and hath no more fellowship with those that lyue on the earth or they with him as men with men to be benifited And also his soule departeth from his bodye for a season and hath no more participation therewith tyll the day of Resurrection but this is also a departure for the soule dyeth not with the bodye but lyueth bicause she is immortall Thirdly he departeth from the vally of misery into the Mountayne of all ioy and felicitie into the Heauens there to raigne with God for euer In assurance whereof he concludeth his lyfe to depart in peace saying Now Lord thou lettest me depart in peace but al this warrant hath he from the spirite of God wherefore he addeth according to thy worde Eccle. 9.5.6 But as concerning the fyrst departure Ecclesiastes sayth The deade departed know nothing at all neyther haue they any more a reward For their remembrance is forgotten Also their loue and their hatred and their enuye is nowe perished they cannot by their loue profite those left behinde them No profite after death from the lyuing in earth or yet by their hatred had they any doe them hurte And they haue no porcion of all that is done vnder the sunne This doctrine considered the forged frame of popishe Purgatory must néeds fall out of our hartes For if of those prayers which daylie in popery be made for the deade the departed haue no portion howe vayne a thing is it to imagine a purgatory from whence our friends Soules are fetched by our sundry déedes for them As by Trentals Diriges Requiem and restles Masses Almes deedes Popes pardons and prayers for all christian soules with Aue Maria Amen Whose pelfe yong babes can scoffe and saye in these dayes Come tye the Mare Tomboy A cake a cake for all christian soules De profundis Salue Regina Godfather But if of these dead workes vnder the sunne done the departed haue not their portion as the spirite of God in this Canonicall Scripture sayth they haue not how wicked an opinion is popery Euen a damnable synke of most blasphemous false doctrine At the hower of death he had his iudgement Luc. 16.26.27.28.29.30.31 Diues is presently condemned to Hell and Lazarus from sentence sent to Abrahams bosome and thence cannot remoue though the cryes of the dead be many or the necessitie of teaching the lyuing neuer so great They haue Moyses and the Prophets Eccle. 11.3 sayth Father Abraham let them heare them And as the Tree falleth East or South and so lyeth Euen so as a man is founde by the spirite of God at the houre of his death so shall he be placed in the daye of his Resurrection when the soule shall be revnited to his body Thence forth in body and soule for till that daye onely the soule hath the iudgements censure to receyue the rewarde of their state in this mortall lyfe And this is most fyrmely proued by the words of our Sauyour in Iohn thus Ioh. 5.28.29 The hower shall come in the which al that are in their graues shal heare his voyce and they shal come forth that haue done good vnto the Resurrection of lyfe but they that haue done euil vnto the resurrection of condemnation Marke well he sayth not they whose friends haue done well for them they beyng dead but he sayth they which themselues haue done good shall go to lyfe Againe he affirmeth the state of the dead to remayne alwaies one and the selfe same that it was at the hower of death For he sayth not vnlesse their friends by their prayers their deuotions their déedes and their other Pelfe hath changed their condition synce death But thus the Lorde of truth which cannot lye Christ Iesus sayth They they which haue done euil and dye without his speciall gifte of repentance they shal go to Hel. And thus shall the matter stand in the day of Iudgement sayth Christ in the Gospell after saint Mathewe Mat. 25.41 Departe from me yee curssed into euerlasting fyre which is prepared for the Deuil and his Angels for I was an hungry you gaue me no meate c. But percase they might aunswere our friends gaue penny dole for vs during the dayes of the worlde But still this answere they shall haue Departe from me ye curssed into Hell you I say you gaue me no breade O poore Papists forget not Math. 25.1.2.3 c. how that the Virgins which had no Oyle
themselues but hoped after Oyle of the wyser Virgins were denyed and had the gates of the Bridegrome shut vp against them Séeke therefore by the Gospell of God to nourishe thy fayth in Christ by whom thou shalt be at peace with God and in a most quyet conscience thou shalt ende a godly lyfe and make a ioyful departure Otherwise albeit thou haue the Popishe Oyle of all the Virgin Priests and saintes in the worlde it cannot helpe thée thy departure shall be the beginning of sorrowe and an absolute departure from God his Aungels Saints and saued creatures and shalt haue thy portion in the Hels for euer Be not deceyued beléeue the truth God graunt thée with vs so to doe and to lyue in truth all the dayes of thy lyfe and in perfite departing from spirituall death which is sinne and iniquitie For after thy departure here hence thou shalt be as frée from the state of the lyuing and the actes and déeds of them for thée as the wicked dead in sinne are frée from righteousnesse estranged from the lyfe of God Secondly we haue sayde that the soule is immortall and therfore cannot dye For the holy Scriptures do euerie where recorde it Thou shalt not leaue my soule in Hell vz in graue sayth Dauid neyther shall thy holye one see corruption Psal 16.8 As this Scripture serueth chiefely to Christ so doth it to all other his members Againe the Preacher sayth deuyding the soule and body a sunder The bodye sayth he shal returne to dust from whence it came but the soule to him that gaue it Eccle. 12. And Christ Iesus sayth in Iohn Verily Ioh. 5.24 verily I say vnto you he that heareth my worde and beleeueth in him that sent me The soule sleepeth not with the bodye hath eternall lyfe and he shall not come into iudgement but hath passed from death to life This place as it most plainely prooueth the immortalitie of the soule saying He hath euerlasting life he hath passed from death to lyfe which cannot be once dreamed to bée spoken of the bodye for that passeth from lyfe to naturall death and to the sléeping graue So doth it refell those Heretiques which eyther denie the immortalitie of the soule or imagine the same to sleepe tyll the day of iudgement with the body And to this ende serue the words of Paule I desyre to be dissolued and to be with Christ But the Storie or Parable of Diues Lazarus Phil. 1.23 most lyuely expresseth the one the other Diues in body is sumptuously buried Luc. 16. but his soule is presently in Hell in torments and beholde he sléepeth not for he féeling his terrible payne is exercised in beholding the ioy of his late despised Lazarus and calleth for succour and maketh peticion for his Brethren which yet remayne a lyue all which approoue the soule immortall and not to sléepe a sencelesse death wyth the bodye So the bodye of Lazarus cast in some Dytche or open Fielde his soule by the ministrie of Angels Math. 8.11 is taken vp into Abrahams bosome where he sléepeth not but enioyeth the pleasant comforte of the Heauens But possible thou wouldst aske me then howe these places can stande with those which affirme the soule to dye and also say that the godly after death doe sléepe As that soule that synneth shall dye We confesse for answere that the soule is not altogether immortall as our God is and not all subiect to death we confesse that there is a death wherewith the wicked soule shall be ouerwhelmed and so is the soule but after a spirituall sorte both mortall and immortall The death of the soule is when his lyfe is not in him Mans soule mortall and immortall the lyfe of the soule is Christ Iesus by whose spirite the godly doe lyue in soule a lyfe to eternall lyfe Of this lyfe speaketh Paule thus I lyue yet not I Gal. 2.20 Colo. 3.3 1. Iohn 5.11.12 but it is Christ that lyueth in mee And to the Colloss Our lyfe is layde vp with God in Christ when Christ which is our lyfe shall appeare we shal appeare with him glorious That soule that hath not Christ hath not lyfe but is already dead though in bodye he lyueth For the wrath of God abydeth vppon him Vnderstande then that this worde Death is mente not of the substance of the soule which cannot dye but of her condition which shall lye in the Lake of fyre and shall burne and lyue for euer which is called the Second death Reuel 20.14 Eph. 3.17 Ephe. 2.1 1. Tym. 5.6 Tess 4.13 By fayth Paule prayeth that Christ may dwell in our harts and affirmeth Christ by fayth to lyue in him Ergo wythout fayth the soule is dead lyuing in dead workes and dead sinnes as the vnprofitable Wydowes are deade in soule though aliue in body To the place of Paule where he sayth He would not haue vs ignorant touching them which sleepe and such other places of scripture We must interprete him to speake of the body and not of the soule for as when the soule is ioyned with the bodye he alwayes waketh when the body taketh rest So disioyned much lesse he is said to sléepe And the body is sayde to sléepe not in respect that the soule lyeth deade or sléeping within him for we haue prooued the soule to be with God but in regarde of his rysing againe when the soule shal returne to his former bodye at the day of iudgement And by the sléepe of Death he awayteth the retyre of his mortall lyfe by the reconiunction of his selfe soule and bodye sanctified in Christ the lyfe of the bodye with whome tyll then the soules of the saints raigne vnder the Aulter in heauen not sléeping but waking and crying vpon God How long Lorde holy and true doest not thou iudge and auenge the blood of them that dwel on the earth These were the soules of them sayth Iohn Reue. 6. which lay vnder the Aulter which is Christ that were kylled for the worde of God and for the testimonie they maintayned Beholde ye cruell Papistes you haue killed the bodies but the soules of our English saints are with their Protector Christ Gen. 4.10 and their blood doth begge you vengeance if ye repent not Abrahams Bosome Thirdly Symeon calleth Death but a departure bicause for a tyme onely the soule taking leaue of the massy fleshe as we haue sayde doth depart to the rest in peace prepared for him in his consolation Christ Namely the Bosome of his Father Abraham which by Salomon is called the hand of God Sapi. 3. Apo. 69. The soules of the righteous sayth he are in the hands of God the torments of Hel doe not touch them And by Iohn the Heauens and the Aulter which is Christ and by Christ Paradise as to the Théefe saying on the Crosse This day shalte thou be with me in Paradise And in
Loe to thys place went the holy father Symeon departing wherof perswaded he departed in moste assured peace in conscience and with God who in his Christ with him being satisfied by his holye spirite setled the harte of Symeon in moste quyet rest That the soules departed walke not after death in earth againe But yet or I passe from thys worde departe for that I wryting this a most slaunderous reporte is raysed of an honest and vertuous Minister departed this lyfe that hys soule nowe walketh at this daye in his Parsonage house it shall not be vnprofitable Christian Reader that I saye something to the beating downe to death this error It is an olde sinister opinion of men that the soules of the dead depart not so from vs but that after buryall they walke in the earth and appeare vnto men exhorting them to this or to that as Gregory of Rome reporteth in his Dialogues Yea the Apostles might séeme to be combred wyth this error saying when they saw Christ vpon the water it is a Spirite Act. 12.15 And when Peter knocked at Iohn Markes mothers dore they saide to Rhoda the mayde it is his Angel This had they of the vulgare opinion receyued from Pithagoras teaching the soules of men to returne into the bodies of others eyther for correction or reward And thus deluded Herod hearing of Christ supposed Iohn Baptist to be rysen againe Mat. 14.1 Mar. 6.14 Luc. 9.7 whom he had beheaded And the better sort of the people dreamed Christ to be Helias Iohn Baptist Ieremy or some of the Prophetes all which we sée were most vntrue But as touching the departure of the soule once seperated from the bodye that it returneth not or can possibly into the world the storie of Lazarus doth affyrme Diues desyreth that Lazarus might come to help his tongue Luc. 16. but it is denied that they which be in ioy can come to the Helles He then desyreth that the soule of Lazarus may go to his brethren that are in the earth and may teach them to beware but he receyueth this aunswere They which be here cannot come hence and they which be there cannot come thence And they haue Moyses and the Prophets let them heare them and if they wil not heare them neyther wil they beleue though one should which is vnpossible before iudgement come from death againe Esa 8.19.20 Deut. 18. The Prophets doe forbid vs to aske counsell of the dead God lykewise in the lawe here Abraham doth sende vs to the Prophets and to Moses bookes for our instruction denying most constantly that any soules of the dead shall walke againe to teach or terrifie vs All they which departe thys lyfe be eyther godly or wicked If they be godly then are they by imputation iust and the soules of the iuste Sapi. 3. are in the hands of God And godly Lazarus cannot be permitted no not to do much good to come from Abrahams bosome But if they be wicked they lye in the Hels like sheepe and thence cannot Diues or his fellowes come though heauen and earth should runne together But thou wilt say what shall we saye to this there is much iumblyng in suche a house and there is séene lyuely such a man walke before vs Chrisost hom 29. whome we cannot but say to be our friend departed to all our sences iudgemente To thys I aunswere wyth Chrysostome vpon S. Mathew What shal we say to those voyces sayth he which saye I am the soule of such a man The Deuil not the soule of the deade it is that after buryall walketh to deceiue men Say it is not the soule of the deade man but it is the Deuill which doth fayne these things to deceyue the hearers thereby These are sayth he olde wyues Fables and fryuolous tales The soules of the righteous are in the hands of God and soules of Infants c. But the soules of synners are straight waye after their departure called to their place as playnely appeareth sayth thys father by Lazarus the righteous and the wicked rich man Loe this is no newe doctrine by vs deuysed but an olde truth by the Fathers concluded through the warrante of Gods worde that the soules of men departed be placed presently at the hower of death out of which place they cannot come againe to men in earth Whether Samuell apeared to Saule or no. before the day of iudgement But the Papistes séeme to presse vs with the apparition of Samuel to king Saule at the cuniuration of the Pythonisse To whome we soundly aunswere that Samuel appeared not to Saule but Satan abusing the king tolde him that he was Samuel But here againe they saye sée howe these men denye the playne Text of scripture Doth not the holye booke of GOD twise saye 1. Sam. 28. Eccle. 46. Samuel appeared vnto Saule we acknowledge the scripture to call the Spirite that apeared by the name of Samuel And albeit against the second place as not Canonicall we maye lawfully excepte August quest 3. yet we answere with Augustine ad Simplicianum the Bishop of Millaine It was not sayth he the spirite of Samuel raysed from his rest but it was some fantasie or imagination of the Deuill which the scripture notwythstanding calleth Samuel as Images be called after the names of such persons as they do represent Who doubteth sayth this father to name the Images of the Phylosophers pictured vpon the wall saying this is Cicero that is Salust and this is Achilles and this manne is Hector this is the flood of Simois and that is Rome when these be nothing other but bare pictures vpon a paynted wall No maruell therfore though the wryter of the sacred Storyes sayth he call this Image of Samuel by the name he represented or that the Deuill could transfigure himselfe to the shape of a holye man which hath power also to tourne hymselfe into an Aungell of lyght But Turtullian sayth Absit vt animam cuiuslibet sancti c. God forbid that wée should beléeue the Deuill to haue power to call vp anye soule of the saints of God much lesse of his holy Prophets for we are taught that Satan doth transforme hymselfe into an Angel of light with what ease then into the shape of a manne of lighte so he calleth Samuell bicause he is a member of Christ the true light of the worlde yea he doth sayth he affirme himselfe to be God and worketh great and prodigious things if it were possibly therby to seduce the elect people of God That learned father Peter Martyr sayth that Samuell apeared not to Saule but it was an imagined shape which by the delusion of Satan was brought vnto Saule and as we call it a Ghost and he gyueth probable reasons to approoue his assertion Diuers reasons proouing Samuell not to appeare to Saule First syth the case so stood with Saule that God would neyther answere him being often
vnder foote his death most auayleable and glorious Thou shalt dye a death immortall and ignominious But the heartes of the regenerate sonnes of God feare not death bycause they are assured by his spirite to lyue with Christ This is the cause why so manye Martyrs wyllingly giue their bodyes to the fyre and other deaths terrible to the fleshe Phil. 1.29 bicause his spirite which maketh them on this wise to confesse his holye name goeth with them through the midst of the flames and corroborateth their hartes moste constantly to wade through the valley of this shadowe of death by fayth in him Secondly the children of God Hebr. 12. for the moste parte are so farre from fearing naturall death that they desyre and couet the same as the last remedy against the enimy Satan 1. Cor. 15.26 Rom. 7. Ephe. 1.14 Luk. 21.28 Rom. 8.23 as the day of delyuerie from the body of synne lastly as the dore of entrance into their eternall redemption by Christ The wicked we graunt to hunger for death many tymes but it is not to shut vp the shop of synne but by that meane to ende the daies of their deserued shame And hereof come so manye murtherers Iudas children which ashamed to liue being charged with a most guyltie conscience doe hang drowne or cut their owne throates which is the force of Satan in them as thereby beginning their endlesse sorrowes but in the godly there is this mature moderation for as they most hartilye with Paule desyre to be dissolued So they submit themselues moste humbly to his worde of decrée Phi. 1.21.22.23 c. in their appointed course regarding the place they haue and the office they beare wherein their lyfe God will vse longer then their desyre to the profite of those to whome he hath giuen them for his honorable instruments to the benefite of his beloued Church Wherfore they restrayne theyr peticions in Symeons lyne thus O Lorde when it pleaseth thée according to thy worde for my dayes are thereby numbred which I shall not passe Note here that no Papist in the perswation of Popery can say vnto his soule Now shall I depart in peace according to thy worde No Papist in Popery can dye in peace For neyther hath Popery or any part therof warrant thence or doth that profession worke peace in the conscience of his pacient at the hower of death but farre the contrary For if when Satan féedeth their ignorant humors and with pleasure draweth them to the profession they neuer therein can finde sure foote of stay to quyet their minds for sinne How shall they thereby feele that necessary bulwarke and Ancor of health at the instant of natures farewell when that subtill Serpent doth now no longer dally but draw them into despaire shewing them the multitude of their sinnes their securitie in euil their ignorance in God their doubt of his fauour which is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Popery his seuere iustice and their forlorne estate Then aske they by what meanes shall I passe his iudgemente By Masses sayth one by the Popes pardon sayth an other by the merits of the saints sayth the thirde But then doth Satan sharply fight against the wounded conscience and openeth the truth as thereby further to pierce his conscience to death and enforcing to his harte these things cannot helpe thée thy trust is vaine in them Against which temptation what helpe in Popery They are fayne to cry this is thy helpe euen Iesus Christ but then his comfort is cut short in that they pull his meditation from the Lorde crucifyed and lay on bed before him a brasen Crucifixe They tell him that his friends shall praye for him and the Church shal be plyed with Trentals to delyuer him from Purgatory which doctrine is most troublesome and so the poore Papist for all that Popery can doe dyeth thereby moste doubtfull of rest if not most fearefull of eternall payne Consyder this well there is not the best treasure in Popery that doth warrante thée peace in death If the death of Christ be not sufficient hereto so say they most blasphemously where then shall we haue it in the Masse No for then would that sacrifice sometime cease But so long as the worlde endureth euen so long will they if God ouerthrowe not their seate contynue that deade sacrifice for the dead soule in whose cause it is daylie song or saide Doth not this argue a doubt of valor in the Masse And also of the peace of the soule for whome it is called Requiem Is not this true Can this worke peace in the hart Popery yeeldeth no quyet to mans conscience when the best account made at the foote therof he fyndeth an arrearege which his soule is to aunswere in burning fyre and flaming brimstone in a Purgatorie of payne whence he cannot by all the cunning of Popish arte know when or how to be delyuered Smale quyet in conscience to a poore Papist which séeth no remedy but that he muste from lyfe to death from earthly troubles to hellish paines without intermission to be boyled in lead and imprisoned by Deuils in paynes incurable O poore harte be wise in God imbrace his word beléeue in his Christ walke in his statutes by the grace of his spirite so shalt thou be assured that the popish Purgatory is Hell from whence no man can be delyuered So shall all terror of death be drawne from thée Luc. 16.16 Ephe. 1.13.14 1. Ioh. 5.10 Rom. 8.1 for his holye spirite shall seale thée vp to redemption and the witnesse shal be within thée agaynst Synne Satan Pope and Hell that no condemnation can come to thée which by fayth art ingraffed into Christ whose lyfe is not to walke after the wicked fleshe but after Gods holye spirite guyding thy soule and body into true righteousnesse and sanctification during thy naturall lyfe By this rule onely shalt thou obtayne peace but to the wicked sayth the Prophete vz to the Papist lyuing and dying in Popery there shall be no peace Esa 48.22 Obiection And here I preuent this obiection What say you then of all our forefathers in the long time of Popery are they all without peace What is become of our forefathers in Popry Are they all condemned No God forbid When Achab and Iesabell had ouerrunne all Israell with Idolatry so that Helias supposed hymselfe onely to stande for the cause of God 3. Reg. 19. the Lord answered that he had reserued seauen thousand that is to saye a great multitude in euery part of Israell which did not bowe the knée to Baal Nero was a most cruell persecutor of Christes Church and yet saint Paule wytnesseth Iesus the Lorde Phil. 4.22 to haue his Churche euen in his persecuting Courte But ye will saye these were drawne by preaching of the worde but in Popery the worde is kept hydden from the people It is so Yet we doubt not but as at the
for him reioycing in that such tyranny shall spéede him to that crowne which is layde vp for him at the ende of his lawful fight 2. Tim. 4.8 and fynished course And the same reward he assureth al other with hym which loue the appearing of Iesus Christ He also is glad of that naturall lyfe wherein though vnder the most fierce Lyon so he called Nero for his cruell tyranny he may yet more profite the Church by the preaching of his worde And when the Iaylor at Philippos awaking oute of sléepe saw the prison dores open wherin Paule and Sylas were fast in the inner prison chayned and straightly committed to his charge drew his sworde Act. 16. â—7 and woulde haue kylled hymselfe adiudging it better to dye at once then by many torments of the cruel Romanes to be tormented to death for the scape of his prisoners which he supposed to be fled Paule cryed vnto him doe thy selfe no harme for we are all here Note well when as by this meanes the Iayler slayne Paule and Sylas might the better haue fled yet had they rather abyde in the Prison still and afreshe to enter into the Iron Gyues then they by silence would séeme to approoue this wicked acte that the Iayler for feare of the Princes power should murther himselfe By which suffering both the Iaylors lyfe was saued Satan banished the Iaylor and his houshold baptized the Apostles the nexte day deliuered This myracle that the earthquake came the prison dores opened their Irons loosed and the gate set frée séemeth rather for the lyfe and conuersion of the Iaylor then for the delyuerie of the Apostles Sée then by how great a miracle God doth commaund to subiect our selues to the yoke of great tyranny to conserue lyfe Wherein we shal be more profitable to the Church then we can by death auayle her And also to auoyde Cato his rigour The godlye for the preseruation of lyfe maye craue ayde of an Heathen Magistrate in paine to preserue our selues yea and at the handes of such power to aske ayde for the preseruation of our lyfe to hys glory and the Churches profite which euer ought to be the ende of such desyre if we sée that vnlawfull might would depryue vs thereof rather then by anye meanes to suffer the pryuate hande to spoyle the publique Church and christian common wealth of a faythfull and profitable member in and of the same Thus did Paule imprisoned at Ierusalem when the high Priestes and Counsell had consented to the conspiracie of those fortie men Act. 23.14 which had made a vowe not to eate or drinke till they had slayne Paule when the Captaine shoulde bring him forth on the morrowe to the Counsell Loe then Paule admonished hereof praieth aide at the Romane power which now had him in prison to coÌ„serue his lyfe from the murthering hand of these men bicause that was forbidden in this Thou shalt not kyll O deare brethren be well instructed in thys point No cruelty tyranny or Popish oppression is cause sufficient for vs to become with them most cruell to oure selues We are commaunded by Christ if they persecute vs to flee Mat. 10.23 Hebr. 12.1 if arrested by authoritie constantly to endure the crosse And it becommeth vs with pacience to run the race that is set before vs. We maye not cut it shorter by priuate and monstruous death looking sayth the Apostle vnto Iesus the author and fynisher of our fayth who for the ioye that was set before him endured the crosse despised the shame and is set at the right hand of God Consider sayth he therfore him that endured such speaking against of synners lest ye should be wearyed and faynte in your minds Ye haue not yet resisted vnto blood striuing against sinne Loe the holy ghost is not glorified by kylling of our selues least we should be compelled to Idolatry But in that we resist sinne vntill our blood be taken from vs by the tyrannous power of bloudy sentence And if saint Peter wil not haue vs to suffer as murtherers 1. Pet. 4.15 much lesse would the spirite of God in him Why in part no christian oughte to shorten hys tyme. that we shoulde by kylling our selues be murtherers in déede which is most horrible and absurde and flatte opposite to the lawe of God in the bodye of the Scripture to the instinct of Nature which hateth death to the church of GOD which is the wyfe of the preseruing Christ and not the slaue of the murtherer Sathan and finally against the Prince and common wealth where the partie dwelleth to all whom he is borne to obey in christian duety Answere to the obiections of Razias Curtius Cato Lucreace and not to himselfe Deare brother therfore in al extremitie foster thy lyfe and with pacience runne that race of time which God in his mercie to thy gloryous lyfe in Christ hath set thée and be assured that if after his example thou suffer with him likewise by his warrant in truth thou shalt raigne with him in eternall peace and felicitie The example of Razias the elder of Ierusalem 2. Mar. 14.4 who first wounded himselfe and when he sawe it was not to death cast himselfe from the height of his Castle and yet hauing lyfe ranne to the Rocke and pulled out his owne bowels and cast them vpon the blasphemous Tyran Nicanor hys Souldiour crying vpon God and died and as this bicause he would not fall into the handes of his tyranny this example as it is priuate so it maye not tye vs to followe it That friuolous prayer for the deade in the same Booke which was the priuate fact of a Captain bicause both their actes are to be condemned thoughe in this Apocripha ouertly commended which thing the storie doth eyther bycause the author would lessen the crime in the men or that the parties supposed their facts lawdable And the author of these bookes is afrayde to stande the iudgement of the Canonicall scripture in these points as apeareth when he maketh this peticion as it were for fauourable construction in the last chapter of the second booke of Machabees 2. Mac. 15.39 saying If I haue done well as the storie required it is the thing that I desyred But if I haue spoken slenderly and barely it is that I could And that he hath thrust in sundry Schema of his owne of which these two haue their part it appeareth to the ende he would bewtify the story For thus he sayth As it is hurtefull to drinke Wine alone and then againe water and as Wine and water mingled together is pleasant and delighteth the taste So the setting out of the matter delighteth the eares of them that read the storye But how farre shorte this is of Gods spirite in the Scriptures which is not doubtfull but Amen so be it Againe howe farre from the commaundement of those wordes Thou shall not kyll is the example of
thys golden aunswere she gaue him It were a most wicked thing sayth she to take this temple of God my body once dedicated to his honor to cast it nowe eyther to Idolatry or fleshly lusts Secondly I am condemned to death for my Lorde Christ and louing husbande by your maysters sentence and am preparing my selfe thereto What should I now yeelde to wickednesse and luste But this is farre vnsytting your Lords estate to alure me a poore condemned prisoner to so lasciuious lyfe and by fugred words from tyrannous harte to counterfeyte suche fayre promises And if I could be thus bewitched to damnation yet howe coulde I be perswaded of the softnesse of Maxentius harte that cannot be mollified in the flowing Ryuers of our christian blood which euery daye he so cruelly sheddeth But now this Tyran was more set on fyre by these godly denials and would haue forced her had not she wisely for the tyme perswaded him from whose face as by intermission for a tyme escaped she priuily fledde forsaking her house her riches and all she had and that in the night tyme with her chast body from the face of so fylthie a Prince and corrupted Courte This Matrone had both regarde to her religion and therefore would not offend against it which sayth Thou shalt not kyll and to her chast conuersation also which caused her to flie from that satanicall synke of Venus Court And for the Romish Matrone I say her harte God might enclyne to him by repentance in the twinckling of her death so in her Christ vouchsafe her pardon But I cannot sée her acte to bée soundly warranted when as we may not doe an euill that good may come thereof Rom. 3.8 Deut. 23.25 But surely the violent force to adulterous acte is both by the lawe of God and man layde vpon the oppressor onely and the oppressed is set frée If a man fynde a betrothed mayde in the Féelde and force her In forced extremitie the compelled in thys syn guyltlesse and lye with her then the man that lay with her shall dye alone and vnto the mayde thou shalt doe nothing bicause there is no cause of death in her For as when a man aryseth against his neighbour sayth the Lord and woundeth him to death so is this matter Againe she cryed and there was none to succour her Loe the violator of virginity shal dye and the deflowred being hereto forced shewing her whole and contynuall power to the contrary she is by the lawe of God adiudged innocent Here is then the lawfull remedy against rape and pollucion Not with Lucrece to yéelde and then to kyll or with christian Sophronia to fall into an extreme miserie to auoyde a pestilente mischiefe but with best aduised Dorothe to flée and if you cannot with chaste Susanna to fall into the hands of Gods direction to vse all power ye may to kéepe your bodyes impolluted But in no wise kyll your selues for that is repugnant to the law and will of God which kynde of death whatsoeuer your good intentes bee God hath promised to reuenge vpon the impenitent And to conclude this matter wherein for the dangerous subtyltie of flattering temptation I haue sayde somewhat the more I say as Father Augustine sayde If we shal to auoyde sinne in vs déeme it lawfull to kyll our selues we shoulde not suffer our bodyes to lyue one little whyle after baptisme For what is he that lyueth and synneth not Not lawful to kyll our selues therby to shun synne But he that kylleth himselfe or others with bloudy hande that is without lawful authority from his God and Magistrate let him heare what the almightye sayth thereto Surely I will require your bloude wherein your lyues are at the hande of euery beast will I require it and at the hand of man euen at the hande of a mans brother will I require the lyfe of man that is to say whatsoeuer it be that taketh the lyfe from man whether it bée your selues that kyll your owne lyfe whether it be a beast that flayeth you or if it be thy owne brother that murthereth thee thy selfe that beast this thy brother shal answere his bloud for thine Looke for this ye tyrannous opressors ye Popish murtherers beastly butchers of Gods saints ye blinde guydes and dombe Dogs ye ydle shepeards ye obstinate heretikes ye théeues and murtherers for mens purses ye brawlers and fyghters and you that kyll your selues tremble and feare So then we maye not for anye cause by how much soeuer we should seeme to praise God or to auoyde daunger of the heathen or yet to kéepe oure bodies chaste from sinfull bedde by anye meanes laye violente hands vpon our selues thereby to bereaue our lyfe for that act is damnable We are to hate flee from syn as from a Serpent and to desyre the Lorde to ende the dayes therof Eccle. 21.2 and to delyuer vs from that euil Satan and his bodye of iniquitie yea and that by death but yet so that the same may be to vs in peace estranged from al violence in our selues and alwayes according to his worde To thys our holy Symeon giueth vs instruction to whose succéeding words we will giue eare which giue to vs the cause of his peticion thus For mine eyes haue seene thy Saluation During the dayes of Israels miserie Symeon euer hoped after release whereby he teacheth vs how plunged in Popery we should expect the returne of Gods holy gospel whereof we haue in our childrens daies had eftsoones the experience God make bs thankfull therefore And this is natural that after Winter commeth Sommer after stormy tempest serenious season and after the darknesse of the night the bright shyning day So is it also the spirituall course of God in his Christ from time to time as the testimony therof in the scriptures is most apparante We now are with ioye of heart to imbrace the Halcion dayes our Sommers warmth this quyet raigne the shyning countenance of Gods good fauour to vs mauger the malice of all Romanists at home and abroad and with effect but not in vayne to receyue the light of the gospell yet plentifully casting his blessed beames least we haue greater cause to saye when we see darknesse againe to shadow the sunne beames of righteousnesse Lord that we were with Symeon dead in peace from the miserable deaths we are lyke to féele in the sworde of thy wrath And nowe sayth Symeon that as well my bodily eyes as the inward of my soule haue séene thy sauing health Nowe Lorde for thys cause shall I dye most wyllingly But if so the naturall sight of Christ as yet an infante and subiect to infyrmities whose glorie yet was holden in the bodye of the little Babe wrought such and so great ioy in heart assurance in death to this good Symeon how muche more ought the same Christ to worke in vs quietnesse of conscience nowe that he is glorifyed and the
fulnesse of our lyfe perfited in him 2. Cor. 5.16 Heb. 1.2 We doe not in déede beholde Christ nowe anye more after the fleshe or that waye to imbrace him in our armes But he shyneth the beames of his fathers glorye into our ignorante harts and in the bosome of our faythfull brests he maketh his habitation By his holy gospell he sheweth himselfe face to face and not by the infyrmitie of his flesh but by the deuine power of his holy spirite he teacheth vs purgeth vs and pardoneth our sinnes and changeth vs to a lyfe most méete for his holy presence And to be short he is so absent from vs in body that we maye with boldnesse spiritually approch to his grace Heb. 12. Rom. 5.1 set on the right hand of his father in glory Loe this is that christian sight and heauenlye presence that we haue of our Christ And if this cannot worke in vs a wyllingnesse to dye with ioye bicause oure synnes by Christes death purged we shal raigne with him eternally then are we a thousand tymes more harde then the Adamant blinder then the Moules and more vnkinde then the vnnaturall Iewes it is verye significante that Symeon sayth No man saued but by hys owne fayth Because mine eyes hath seene c. In which wordes are layde vp this Emphasis that not other mens fayth could worke this comfort in this good father excepte together his owne eyes in fayth had séene this Babe to be hys sauiour Abac. 2.4 Gal. 3.11 Hebr. 10.37 according to the Prophet Abacuck his saying The iust man shall lyue by his fayth Note he sayth not by the fayth of the Church or by the fayth of another for him but he sayth he shal lyue by his owne fayth For the fayth of an other man cannot saue thée or yet the fayth of the whole church Or that which more is Christ will not saue thée or can his death be thy lyfe vnlesse thou in thine owne hart fyrmely beléeue in him Wherefore let not the Papist longer deceyue thee which teach it sufficient thoughe thou know not what to beléeue if thou yet beléeue as their Churche beléeueth which is the greatest daunger to thy soule that possibly can bée eyther to rest in the later Romishe fayth since the daies of Popery or not to beléeue vpon assured knowledge of Gods promise in the warrant of his word thy selfe For the holy scriptures do condemne al those which themselues effectually beléeue not in christ and promiseth saluation to him that beléeueth 1. Pet. 2.7 To you which beleeue sayth Peter he is precious but to them which beléeue not he is the stone which the buylders refused which stone shal crushe his enemies that beléeue not al to powder 1. Ioh. 3.36 Iohn sayth Hee that beleeueth in the sonne of God hath eternall lyfe But he that beleeueth not the wrath of God abydeth vpon him And Christ our Sauiour Hee that beleeueth in me hath eternall lyfe Againe Ioh. 3.18 He that beleeueth not is condemned already that is to saye it is impossible but he that dyeth not beléeuing shall be damned And to the Gallathians Paule sayth Gal. 3.26 Ye are all the sonnes of God bicause ye haue beleeued in Christ Iesu but as manye as rest in the workes of the lawe are subiect and vnder Gods cursse By this speciall gift in euerye mans owne soule from God is he made the sonne of God and by no other meane is God his father vpon whome he maye call with boldnesse in and by his spirite as the chylde vpon his Parentes and shall be heard For thus the Euangelist sayth As many as beleued in him he gaue them prerogatiue to be the sonnes of God The worde that was preached to Israell in the wildernesse profited them not sayth the author to the Hebrewes bicause it was not mixed with faith in those that heard it yet in the wildernesse God had hys Church Moses Aaron and the rest which beléeued notwithstanding the fayth of this Church could not saue the other Israelits which beléeued not No more can the fayth of the church of God nowe saue them which are not conglutinate by the same spirite in the fayth of Christ loue in him by which the whole body growing together by synewes and ioynts doth encrease to an holye temple in the Lorde But without this coniunction no fayth Ephe. 2.21 no saluation or can the workes of such please God in whose heartes Christ dwelleth not by fayth as sayth the scriptures without fayth it is impossible to please God I denie not Rom. 14.23 Gen. 18. but the fayth and godlynesse of some may temporally bring some benefite to the Infydels as the Cities of Sodome had bene saued if there had bene founde in them but ten iuste persons And for Helias sake the wicked king Achab Iesabel The faythfull may obtayne temporall blessings and bodily helth but saluation is the gift of God to him that beleeueth onely and that persecuting kingdome Samaria had raine to fertyl the soyle which thrée yeares had lyen barren Also the Euangelists report the fayth of them which bare the man taken with Palsye much to profyte his health to whose fayth the Lorde Christ gaue respect and not chiefely their worke and healed the man But to the man he sayde My sonne thy synnes are forgiuen thee This worde sonne approoueth the Palsye man to beléeue in Christ by which fayth his sinnes are forgiuen him as by his bearers fayth his body was healed Luc. 9.8 Mar. 2.3 Mat. 9.1 I also comfortably confesse that the fayth of our father Abraham doth so much profite his posteritie bicause of the couenant of God with him and hys seede after him so as they are imputed to be gods children and that so long as they continue in that couenant But when they degenerate from their fathers fayth Gen. 17. God cutteth of this imputation and that the chylde borne of contrarie parents as the father an Infidell the mother a christian 1. Cor. 7.14 Abac. 2. Ezec. 18.20 I say with Paule that the chylde is holye through the fayth of the beléeuing parent But to iustification it is established that euerye man should be saued by his owne fayth To this sayth Ezechiel The righteousnesse of the righteous shal be vpon him and the wickednesse of the wicked shall be vpon himselfe To this end serueth that whole excellent Chapter to the reading whereof I referre thée The prayers of the faythfull doe much preuayle to those that yet are not fully brought to Christ Yea the ardent zeale of others fayth doth enflame the soules of their brethren to follow their steps in Christ and the prayer of one faythful man doth promise auayle to another for encrease in fayth Ephe. 6.18 19. Phil. 1.19 Wherefore Paule prayeth for all saints and desyreth them to pray for him For by the prayers of the Phillipians he perswadeth the trouble of
God in vs we are none of Christs Ioh. 16.7 Rom 8.9 Act. 3.21 1. Cor. 15.25 This corporal presence is absolutely with a cloude taken from our eyes and is at the right hande of God and shal containe the heauens till his enimies be made his footestoole But the last enimy is death therfore till death by the dissolution of the world be slaine shall the corporall bodye of Christ inhabite the heauens from whence the faythfull and not from the priests head doe looke then for him their sauiour whose comming shall be with glorie and therefore not inuisiblye in a Popishe cake Thy sight knowledge and fayth in Christ now he is ascended must therefore be no more carnall 2. Cor. 5.7 but onely spirituall as Paule teacheth thée saying we walke by fayth and not by sight neuerthelesse we are bold loue rather to remoue out of the body and to dwell with the Lorde Againe Henceforth know we no man after the fleshe Vers 16. yea though wee haue knowne Christ after the flesh yet now henceforth know we him no more Fynally Symeon sawe Christ borne was blessed But we beléeue in him with Symeon that is dead yea rysen agayne set at the right hande of God his father and maketh intercession for vs vpon which sight our Sauior hath pronounced in check of Thomas sturdy fayth Ioh. 20.29 Thomas thou beleeuest bicause thou hast seene but I say vnto thee Thomas blessed are they which see not and yet beleeue This fayth in Christ is the speciall gifte of God I tell thée once agayne good Reader and ryseth not of our selues 1. Cor. 3.14 Mat. 16.17 For the natural man cannot perceyue the things that be of God Thou art sayth Peter the sonne of the lyuing God Truely beloued Peter but who gaue thée this fayth Not flesh and bloud but my heauenly father sayth Christ which is in heauen It is giuen to you sayth Paule to the Philippians not onely that you should beléeue but that you shoulde also suffer for his sake This is nourished and encreased by his worde For fayth commeth by hearing not of a Popishe Masse Rom. 10.17 or Saraphicall Doctor but of the word of God By the ministerie of preaching and not by daylie sacryficing is this obteyned How shall they heare without a preacher sayth Paule he sayth not without a Massemunger By his Sacraments and prayer the same encreased wherefore pray earnestly with the Apostles Luc. 17.5 O Lorde encrease our sayth And if thou wouldest learne to know that fayth which only iustifyeth This it is to beléeue vndoubtedly the Symbole of thy Creede or more shortly to beleeue God to be thy good God that goodnesse from whome all goodnesse commeth to be in Christ thy best beloued Father thy Christ to be thy brother Lord and onely sauiour by whose death and lyfe thou art in him fréed from synne death and Hell The holy Ghost to be the Lorde and giuer of lyfe thy comforte and Arha of saluation thy Guyde What fayth it is that iustifyeth and author of all goodnesse in thée and that power by whome thou doest thus beléeue by the rule of the worde and promise of God and by hys holynesse sanctifyed doest lyue and loue this thy good God and thy brethren for and by him And as the fruitfull trée in his tyme giueth profitable fruite So doest thou in this his spirite by thy good workes profite his church and glory thy father which is in heauen Mat. 5.16 This is that fayth which iustifyeth and is the onely gifte of God The Lorde graunt it sounde perfite stable experimented and alwayes stedfast as well in the author of this booke as the Readers thereof for Christes sake our Lorde So shall we see Christes day with Abraham imbrace him with Symeon depart in peace and rest in ioy All other opinions besides this or not fyxed in this are called fayth as an Image beareth the name of a man But as the Image is without lyfe so such fayth not adourned with good workes as Iames sayth is an Image of fayth a deade fayth This fayth working by loue Fayth compared to a Vyne is by Barnarde compared to a Vine thus Fayth is the Vine christian lyfe be her branches Psal 2. and good woorkes her clustering Grapes And Chysostome compareth it as elegantly to a Lampe wryting vpon Mathew For as a Lamp burning giueth light to the whole house So doth fayth giue light intelligence of God and Christ to the soule of man but as in a Lampe fyre and Oyle are ioyned together so in the shyning Cresset of a good conscience are contynually resiant fayth and good workes True fayth and good workes resydent in a good conscience alwaies Notwithstanding as the Trée is before the Apple so doth fayth go before good workes So the Apostle connexing Fayth Hope and Loue together giueth fayth the fyrst place And Augustine in his booke de fide operibus sayth Except fayth go before a godly lyfe cannot in any wise come after Cap. 7. If we be Virgins hauing our Lamps thus burning we shall be sure to enter wyth our Brydegrome Christ into his heauenly chamber Mat. 25.10 But in no case can our Oyle doe anye others good for our owne works shall follow vs good or euill they shall not be imparted to others Apoc 14. Ioh. 14. If we become such Vines our father wyll proyne and purge vs when he cutteth downe the wythered Images and dead branches and will make vs more fruitfull Laste of all note here that Symeon hauing séene the Saluation set by the God of heauen stayeth his conscience in him which is the true nature of lyuely fayth and though there be infynite saluations sought for by men yet he hungreth after Gods saluation and sayth Now I haue ynough let me Lord depart in peace For my eyes haue seene thy saluation Hee that hath Christ hath lyfe No Christ no lyfe So deare Reader hauing by the mercies of god once with the eyes of our fayth in hart séene confessed Christ our saluation Though the Iewe the Pharisey the Turke the Panyme Papist and carnall Atheist haue their trust in broken Cysterns which can holde no water yet doe thou stande with Symeon and the iust in lyfe to the ende of death in persecution and pleasure to this the saluation giuen of God to Iewe and Gentyle euen the Lorde Iesus And saye to kings and Prelates there is no other name giuen vnder heauen wherein we can be saued but the name Iesus Act. 4.12 Nor can other foundation be layde then which is already layde euen the Lorde Iesus Or can anye man attaine to iustifycation before the iust father by other then his beloued sonne in whome alone he resteth for our synnes well pleased Neyther are we from the pyt of perrillous death in Hell redéemed by Golde or syluer but by the bloud of this immaculate and
hym to preaching Paule And also of a most zealous Pharisey in blyndnesse made him most feruent in the Gospell of God to all our comfortes which be Gentyls For thys our Lord Christ Aelion most highe hath consecrated Paule aboue Peter to be our especiall Apostle both at Rome and else where in the rounde world Our Sauyour Christ our God Iere. 20. Esa 42. is also called of the Hebrewes El. to say of his great strength For whatsoeuer he wyll doe that can he doe For which cause he is called by the Prophets The God of strength and the mightye Lorde or Gygante Sometyme also Eloah and of the Trinitie in coniunction we may say Elohim which signifyeth God our Christ in his deuyne nature to be alwayes and euery where present in heauen and in earth and in peace and warre in persecution and preaching peace in workes and playes in actes and thoughtes in lyfe and death in all places at one and selfe instante Of whose presence the Psalmist sayth thus Whether shall I go from thy Spirite Psal 139. or where shall I flee from thy face If I ascend into heauen thou art there if I go down to hell thou art there also But if I shall take the wings of the morning and dwell in the farthest part of the Sea euen there shall thy hande gouerne me and thy right hande shall beholde me And Paule aptly pronounceth our Lordes presence to the Athenians Act. 17.28 testifying him not to be farre from them but they in him rather saying For in him we lyue moue haue our being And it séemeth probable for this cause the Grecians to haue called God Theos and the Latines to haue formed thence thys worde Deus As one learned affyrmeth Theos to come of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of redynesse and running to and fro so is God called by such a name as best can expresse his presence who is neuer absent from mortall men in earth but to euery man in all places gyueth all things that they possesse Of which his liberalitie some suppose him to be called Deus a dando for that he gyueth to all men that they haue God our Lorde and Christ is also called Schaddai .i. sufficient in himselfe and the sufficientcy to all creatures that whosoeuer hath him to their Lorde hath all sufficientcy to body and soule to this and the lyfe eternall And in oure tongue we call Christ in his deuyne nature God that is the most principall and best good Lastly he is called the God of Abraham the God of Isaack the God of Iacob insinuating vnto vs from whence the holynesse of these Fathers with their fayth came And also that as we are the posteritie of the Noble Abraham by fayth in Christ So is he to vs our best good and most excellent God so that with Paule we may conclude our selues in him most vertuous Rom. 8.31.32 sufficient and blessed saying If God be on our syde who can be against vs. It is God that iustifyeth who shall condemne Againe if he hath giuen vs Christ how shal he not giue vs all things with him And by him we shall bée more then Conquerors Loe this god is thy Iesus whose power is prest and ready to thy best good if thou faythfully put thy trust in him He is also called the Lordes Christ which word Christ Luc. 4.18 Esa 61.1 importeth his honorable Function by the excellent Oyntment aboue his fellowes euen the holy ghost by which he is annoynted of his father to be the king and Priest of his Church for euer according to this saying Heb. 7.17 Thou art a priest for euer after the order of Melchesidech So then he is called Iesus of the worde Iesehak and so called as the Angell testifyeth bicause he saueth his people from theyr synne Mat. 1.21 The worde Christ is a greeke word which aunswereth the Hebrewe vocable Messhiah annoynted In olde tyme with the people these persons Prophets Priests and Princes were annoynted with Oyle Wherefore our Iesus is called Anoynted signifying the plentifull graces of Gods spirite giuen to those called of god to these Functions and also into what perillous daungers and harde battles they were to enter which truely exercised that seuerall calling By which Oyling they were as with a Symbole put in mynd what couragious Champions they ought to be in their offices This was the cause why the noble Champions before the pryse playde were annoynted But in as much as the Lord Christ had a greater enimy then all other Champions and therewyth a most deadly fyght towards whose body and soule was to stande in the battle of death vppon the crosse against his fathers iustice for the synnes of the whole worlde Satans malice and mans corruption Hell and Death it was most necessary that he shoulde before thys cruel combate haue a more precious Oyntment then had his shadowing fellowes preaching Prophets sacrifycing priests and ruling Princes Wherefore he was annoynted with the holy ghost The spirit of God is vpon me sayth Christ because he hath annoynted me that I should preache the Gospell to the poore c. Esa 61. Luc. 4.18 This sentence expresseth Christs priesthood kingdome and preaching office He is sente sayth he to preache His kingdome he is annoynted to delyuer the oppressed His priesthood he is giuen to heale the broken and wounded hartes wyth synne and iniquitie by the sacrifice of his death vpon the crosse During hys lyfe he preached the gospel Rom. 1.16 which is Gods power in Christ to saluation to euery one that beleeueth In his sacrifice of hymselfe vpon the crosse he performed both the other By his death he healed our infirmities Esa 53. Col. 1.20 for the chastisment of our peace was layde vpon him In hys death he obtayned the victory hauing fully aunswered the Fathers iustice against synne death and hell and spoyled principalities and powers and hath made a shew of them openly Col. 2.15 and hath tryumphed ouer them in the same crosse He hath forgyuen vs our synnes put out the hande wryting that was agaynst vs he hath taken it out of the waye and fastened it to his crosse hath translated vs from the power of darknes into the kingdome whereof he is king of kings and Lorde of Lordes vz the body of hys Church of which he is the onely heade Whose kingdome is thréefold of power of grace and of glory Of power for all Nations shall bow the knee to this Lorde of Lordes and king of kings Christ the annoynted king and priest And who so wyl not kysse the sonne Christ Iesus shal perish whether Prince Psal 2. 1. Rom. 14 17. Potentate Preacher Magistrate people or pestilente Pope Of grace which he sayth by Luke is within vs and consisteth as Paule sayth in righteousnesse Christ the high Byshop of our soules in peace and ioy in the holy Ghost His kingdome of glory as well in that he