and domineered over most and almost all the Nations of the World that the Jews will they nill they may see that omne mundi regnum omnis mundana sapientia omnia divinae legis sacramenta testantur quia Jesus est Rex every kingdom of the earth all the wisdom of the World and all the sacraments of the divine law do bear witness that Christ is King and this Lion here spoken of in this Text. And the difference betwixt this Lion and all other Lions is that as Franciscus Vallesius de sacra Philosophia c. 55. saith Mos Leonis est sibi tantum pradam capere non Leaenae but Christ took the prey for his Church and not for himself And we finde that his kingdome by three special prerogatives excelleth all other kingdomes of the world that is 1. Preheminence of Christs kingdome threefold 1. Eternity 2. Purity 3. Largity 1. The Prophet saith thy Throne O God Psal 110. is for ever and ever and thy Dominion shall endure throughout all Ages but transibit gloria mundi all other Kings within so many years shall not govern and after so many dayes they shall not be for death spareth none but sceptra ligonibus aequat And as Nazianzen saith Constantinus Imperator famulus meus ossa Agamemnonis Thyrsitis death makes no difference betwixt the bones of King Agamemnon and base Thyrsites the Emperour Constantine and my servant but when their race is run and their glass is out we may say of each of them as Horace saith of his Friend Torquatus Non Torquate genus non te facundia non te Horat. Restituet pietas But this King hath a prerogative above them all for he was Rex à seculo a King from everlasting and he shall be a King in secula seculorum world without end Luke 1.33 for so the Angel Gabriel testifieth that of his kingdome there shall be no end And this should batter down the pride of Tyrants that say with Nebuchadnezzar Is not this great Babel that I have built For mene mene tekel peres their glory is but as the grass of the field or otherwise if they were immortal they were intolerable And this should teach us to labour to become the Subjects of this King in whose kingdome there shall be Aug. l. 1 c. 10. de Trinitate as Saint Augustine saith requies sempiterna gaudium quod nunquam anferetur à nobis An everlasting rest and joy that shall never be taken from us 2. Preheminence The second preheminence of his kingdome is purity for of this King the Prophet speaketh thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity and the scepter of thy kingdome is a scepter of righteousness For this King is not like Ahab that would take away Naboths Vineyard nor like Rehoboam that would oppress his Subjects with over-grievous Taxes but he is a righteous King and a most just Judge far unlike some Judges of former dayes that for a word have made a man a transgressour and for a syllable or one letter have quite overthrown a mans cause and right and so have made the Laws a nose of wax to bend and turn as they pleased and to be rete Vulcanium like Vulcans iron net to catch the poor and friendless but tela aranea like the spiders web so easie for the rich and powerful to passe through it But blessed be God for it we have few such now and we hope we shall not provoke God so far as to send such amongst us for if you suffer oppression and wrongs when as the Poet saith Mensuraque juris vis erit Then surely peaceable men shall not be able to live in the Common-wealth But the equity and justice of this King should perswade all other Kings to follow his Example and as the wise man saith Sep. 1.1 to love righteousness all they that are Judges of the earth 3. Preheminence The third preheminence of his kingdome is that God anointed this King with the oyle of gladness in all things above his fellows for their time hath an end their dominion a limitation but his time is not limited and his rule hath no marches but exivit in omnem terram it hath gone forth into all Lands because he is the King of all the earth and when as all other Kings are but Reges Gentium Kings of some few Nations he is Rex Regum Dominus Dominantium the King of all other Kings and the Lord of all Lords And therefore Eusebius saith that the distinction or difference betwixt this true Christ and the other imaginary Christs that were anointed Kings before him may truely and very easily be discerned Euseb l. 1. c. 1. Eccl. Histor quia illi priores Christi nulli penè nisi genti propriae cogniti sunt those former Kings were scarce known to any but to their own proper people but not onely the name but also the rule power and kingdome of this true King is extended over all Nations per universum orbem terrae and through the compasse of the round world And though when the Jewes would have crowned him King Rex fieri noluit he refused the same yet to shew that this Dominus Angelorum was also Rex Judaeorum Beda l. 5. in c. 19. Luc. as Beda speaketh when he rid to Jerusalem upon the Asse he willingly permitted the people to cry Hosanna and to intitle him King of the Jewes and he confessed as much himself unto Pilat that he was a King And what meaneth this saith the Venerable Bede that he now willingly embraceth quod prius fugicudo declinavit that which before he declined and fled from it and the kingdome that while as yet he lived in the world he would not accept he now denieth not to take it when he is by and by ready to go out of the world He answereth that he formerly refused it Beda l. 3. in c. 11. S. Mar. because of the gross imagination of the Jewes that conceited him to be a temporal King like unto others but he doth now accept it to shew quod non temporalis terreni sed aeterni in coelis Rex esset imperii that his kingdome was not of this world as himself said unto Pilate but as the King of Heaven he ruled all the world Well then What we may learn from this Doctrine that Christ is our King seeing Saint Matthew doth by so many inanswerable arguments prove Christ to be a King and that he is a perpetual universal and principal King and here exprest by the Lion in this Text we may collect and draw matter both of comfort and fear both of joy and of grief For 1. Seeing Christ is King then as the Psalmist saith Psal 97.1 exultet terra let the earth rejoyce for if we will obey him and be ruled by him he will appoint over us such Viceroyes and under-rulers that will lead us sicut
that is himself upon Earth and Camerarius saith that this is a perpetual custom in the race of the Ottomans and Turkish Souldans to put all that pretend to succession unto death Neither is it only a Turkish custom to do so but it is the practice of most of them that are bewitched with this inordinate desire to rule as Kings to do the like for Plutarch writeth that Deiotarus having many Sons and being desirous that only one of them should reign slew all the rest with his own hands and Justin saith that Phrahartes the Son of Horodes King of the Parthians killed his own Father and after that massacred all his Bretheren that he might reign and rule alone And the Sacred Storie sheweth that the very people of God the Sons of Israel were not free from this fault Judges 9. but were pestered with this disease for Abimelech the Son of Gedeon slew seventy of his Bretheren in one day and played many other Tragical parts that he might make himself a King and the furious ambition of Absolon did let him on to play the Parricide 2 Sam. 15 16. and to end his Fathers days that he might reign in his place And not to go from our own home did not Henry the Fourth put by Richard the Second his own King and Cozen German that himself might be the King And did not Richard the Third cause the true King and his own Nephews the Sons of his own Brother Edward the Fourth to be done to death that he himself might be King And did not that arch-Rebel and Traytor now of late amongst our selves play the like Tragical parts that he might gain the rule of these Kingdoms And so did many others in many other Kingdoms for there is not any thing so Sacred which the great men of this world that desire to be made greater will not violate and spare neither King Father Brother or Friend to bring themselves unto advancement and to be the rulers of the People and to have the command and power over their Goods and Lives as the proof hereof is seen in Antoninus Caracalla who when he had murthered his own Brother Geta in his Mothers lap and betwixt her arms and being advised by some of his friends to Canonize him among the Heroes and to place him among the Gods to mitigate the thought of so execrable a fact answered like a wretch sit divus modo non sit vivus let him be a God among the dead so he be not alive among Men Camerar quo supra so great an enemy is the inordinate desire of bearing rule to all Piety and right saith mine Author Therefore our Saviour doth not stop when he had said seek a Kingdom which he knew most men would be ready enough and some too ready to do without bidding but he addeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Kingdom of God and not the Kingdom of this world nor the Kingdom of the Antichrist nor of sin but the Kingdom of God And the Kingdom of God is taken many waies but especially The Kingdom of God three fold 1. For the Kingdom of Nature 2. For the Kingdom of Grace 3. For the Kingdom of Glory 1. The Kingdom of nature The first is all the world Heaven Hell Sea and Earth and all men good and bad are the subjects of this his Kingdom for he is Rex universae terrae super omnes nationes mundi whom he ruleth with his mighty power and by his wisedom disposeth all things sweetly even when he permitteth the wicked to flourish and chasteneth his own children every morning our King doing herein as the Husband-man doth with his Oxen mactandus liber ibit ad pascua servandus jugo premitur that which is appointed for the slaughter shall freely run to the best Pasture but that which is to be preserved shall be pressed under the Yoak 2. The Kingdom of Grace 2. The Kingdom of Grace comprehendeth not all creatures nor all men but the elect only that is the good and godly men in whose hearts this King writeth his holy Laws and ruleth them by his Spirit that guideth and directeth them to observe his Laws 3. The Kingdom of Glory 3. The Kingdom of Glory is that which the Apostle describeth whose joyes passeth all understanding whose subjects are the Saints and Angels and whose King is Jesus Christ the King of kings The first of these was established by power when the Almighty God created all things by his powerful Word or the Word of his power which is Jesus Christ but it shall be finished through its weakness when languishing Nature that still groweth weaker and weaker can hold out no longer The second was begun in weakness when Christ the Son of God began the same in the the infirmity of our flesh and to gather his Church by the preaching of a few Fisher-men but it shall end in power when after he hath put all his enemies under his feet he shall by the power of his Deity absolve the same and deliver it as the Apostle sheweth 1 Cor. 15. unto God his Father but The third shall begin in power and continue in power without ending when as the Poet saith Gloriosum Imperium siue fine dabit Cui nec metas rerum nec tempora ponit God shall give us a glorious Kingdom without ending and eternal happiness unto his Saints where there shall be no fight because they have no enemie no tears because they can recieve no hurt no fear because there is no danger and no grief because there is no evil but all peace all joy all felicity because God will be all in all And of these three Kingdoms we ought to submit our selves with all contentedness unto the first and with all care and diligence to seek the second that so to our everlasting comfort we may attain unto the third Which kingdom we shall never come unto unless we seek the second which is the kingdome of grace as we ought to do for as among the Romans none came to the Temple of Honour but by the Temple of Virtue so none shall come to the Kingom of glory but the Subjects of the Kingdom of grace and therefore we must seek for that as we ought to do and that is 1. Generally that the Church of Christ may be enlarged by the preaching of the Gospel and by all other ways that we can to convert men to the faith of Christ and not to pervert them by wicked errours or the evil examples of an ungodly conversation 2. Particularly that the Spirit of God and not the Spirit of Satan the grace of Christ and not our fleshly lusts or any other sin might reign in us and rule our hearts to do all things according to Gods Laws that so we our selves might be members of his Church and subjects of this kingdom And as I told you before our seeking for this kingdom must not be as children seek for their
out of his hands and said this is a Sermon that I carried with me to preach where I should rest on the Lords day but that the Letters that were to the King and to the Bishop of York and others were in the Satchel and he for haste to see the Letters suffered me to put my Sermon and the Grand Rebellion into my Pocket which I feared would have been my death or utter ruine if the Commissioners had seen it Then Sir John having taken out the Letters asked me how I durst at those times carry Letters unto the King I answered they were Letters from those poor Bishops that therein shewed to his Majesty how they were pillaged and persecuted by the Popish Irish Rebels and I knew and had a Copy of what was in them before I would carry them then Sir John said I did wisely to do so and so he went in unto the rest of the Commissioners and left me lockt in the room yet very joyful for having gotten my Grand Rebellion out of his hands but behold still the malice of Satan and the subtilty of his Instruments while I was walking up and down the room and had torn the worst case that I had writ against the Parliament and chewed it in my mouth and threw it away an arrand knave was peeping at the key hole and went unto the Commissioners and told them that I had some desperate or treacherous Papers which he saw me tear then Sir John North comes to me again and aked what Papers those were that I was seen tearing I smilingly answered Alas Sir ever since I came from Sea I was troubled with a looseness and having by chance a loose leaf in my Pocket I pluckt it out and said this is the Paper that I had in my hand to go to the house of office and he looking upon it and finding it of no effect said Is this all And went his waies and then I remembred what our Saviour said When you are brought before Rulers Mark 13.11 take no thought what you shall speak for it shall be given you in illa hora in that very hour what to answer and God also wrought in the Commissioners such thoughts of me and my sufferings by the Irish that they gave me a Pass to go home and delivered me my horses which Captain Flaxon hoped to have had for his reward and the forty pounds which he found in my house and which I told the Commissioners was all that I had to keep me and my Family So graciously did God help me that I went home with joy contrary to the expectation of my Neighbours that informed the Rebels of my return to those parts And within a few daies after was the Battel at Edge-hill at which time I went to his Majesty and waited on him untill he came to Oxford And here in Oxford I printed fiâ—st my Grand Rebellion and afterwards my discovery of mysteries and last of all The rights of Kings where immediately I printed my Grand Rebellion and finding how well and how graciously his Majesty accepted of my endeavours therein I went to Wales and studied my discovery of mysteries or the plots of the Parliament to overthrow both Church and State and by the next Winter I came to Oxford to Print it and being printed Secretary Faukeland misliking a passage that I had set down of the Episcopal power in causa sanguinis would have had it called in but his Majesty would not suffer it to be supprest therefore I resolved by the next Winter to publish as I did my Book of the Rights of Kings both in Church and Commonwealth and the wickedness of the pretended Parliament and in the interim I was perswaded to go to London to see what I could work upon my Lord of Pembroke whom I had served so many years and tutored all his Children whereof two were now with his Majesty and when I came to London I took the opportunity to go unto him For I conceived that time to be the safest time while he was in bed and after much conference with him about the differences betwixt the King and his Parliament and their disloyalty to his Majesty and that I saw he began to be offended and very angry for fear he should deliver me to the Parliament that formerly had caused all that they found of my Grand Rebellion to be burnt I took my leave of him and presently highed me to go out of Town but was denied to pass untill I used my wit to the Maior of London to get a Pass by telling him that I was a poor pillaged Preacher of Ireland that came to London to see my friends and now having some other friends in North-hampton and thereabout And I have his Pass by me to this very day I humbly desired his Pass to go to see them and he pitying my case called for a cup of Wine and commanded his Clerk to write me a Pass without a Fee And then after I had passed a good way towards North-hampton I turned to Oxford and from thence within a while to Wales and from thence to Ireland and after Nasby fight being bound with my L. Taafe in a thousand Marks a peece unto his Majesty for the appearance of Collonel Vangary that returned at Edge-hill fight from the Parliament unto the King with Sir Faithful Fortescue at Beaumares Sizes for taking away a Drove of Cattle from the Drovers of Anglesey and he not appearing our Recognizans were forfeited and I was fain to return to his Majesty with Letters from my Lord of Ormond that Van-garie could not come out of Ireland and therefore his Majesty was humbly desired to remit the forfeiture of our Recognizance which his Majesty by his Letters to the Justices of Peace of Anglesey very graciously did and sent another Letter by me again to my Lord of Ormond but in my passage to his Majesty I was like to be carried to the Parliament by a knave that about ten miles from Aberystwith began to examine me and said that I was a Spy for the King and therefore I must be carried before some of the Parliament Officers to be examined and I had no other shift but to commend him for his care and to tell him that there were too many Spies abroad and I was but a poor pillaged man in Ireland that would very willingly go before any man and I still called for drink until he was perswaded that I was a very honest man and so he let me go in peace And before I could pass into Dublin General Mitton with his Army had entred into our Country and I preaching that Sunday that he came at Rhudhland had an Alarm about midnight and was fain to flee to Carnarvon shire and when he came to Carnarvon shire to slee too Anglesey And because Anglesey was an Island and could not be won if the Inhabitants would be true among themselves we that were true Royalists summoned the chiefest
taedebat apprehendere quia priusquam pene teneretur avolabat if any prosperous thing in this world did seem to smile and offer it self unto me I was loath to take it because that before I could scarce enjoy it it was presently snatched from me For 1. Friends are like the waters of Tenia sliding away and turning as the wheele of your fortune turneth 2. Riches saith the wise man betake themselves to their wings as an Eagle and the sea can drown it fire consume it servants waste it and thieves bereave us of it Prov. 23.5 3. Honour is but Vertues shadow a winde that maketh fooles to swell but cannot satisfie any wise man 4. Beauty is such a thing as the Daughters of Vanity can tell you that the Sun will tanne it a scarr will blemish it sickness waste it and age consume it away as we read fair Helen wept when she saw the wrinckles of her old face which all your black patches cannot make young 5. And for our Health which is the greatest happiness in this life we see mans body is subject to a thousand diseases fraught with frailties within wrapped in miseries without uncertain of life and sure of death And so all the things of this world are but like the Apples of Sodome pleasant to the eyes and provoking to the appetite but vanishing into smoak when they are touched with the teeth And therefore our whole life is but painted over as some Ladies do their faces with vain semblances of Beauty and Pleasure and it is attended on the one side with whole troopes of sorrows sicknesses wants and discontents and on the other side with uncertainty of continuance and certainty of dissolution And 2. The uncertainty of our state Rom. 9.21 2. For our state all is in the hand of God as the clay is in the hand of the Potter who can of the same lumpe make one vessel to honour and another to dishonour and the Heathens conceived all was at the disposing of fortune which they according to their ignorance took for God and said Te facimus fortuna Deam When they saw that as the Poet saith Vna eademque manus vulnus opemque tulit The same hand that hath cast us down can raise us up and the same God that raised us to honour can bring us down to the dust and can either prolong our dayes or cut them off at his pleasure And who then would not serve such a Master and be affraid to offend such a Lord as hath our life our wealth and our woe in his own hands and at his own disposing O consider this all you that forget God and think of it lest he take you away and tear you all to pieces or if this cannot move you to fear God Then 2. Cast your eyes before you 2. To look unto the things that are to come to look unto the things that are to come and must fall upon the world and they are many but especially and inevitably these four 1. Death 2. Judgement 3. Heaven 4. Hell And these are quatuor novissima terribilissima the four last things and the most terrible things that can be to all wicked men to think of them and they may serve as four excellent Preachers to disswade and terrifie all men from evil and to call them continually to the service of God For the Son of Syrach saith Whatsoever thou takest in hand Eccles 7.36 remember the end and thou shalt never do amisse And 1. Death makes an end of our life 1. Of death and before it shuts the eyes of our bodies it commonly openeth the eyes of our consciences And then every man shall see his owne state though he seldome or never thought of the same before For 1. The state of the wicked Revel 12.12 1. The wicked man shall see all his sins set before his face and Satan will now bestir himself to gain his soul for he knoweth that his turn is short and therefore he will tell him that if he would have entred into life Rom. 2.13 he should have kept the commandments that not the hearers but the doers of the Law shall be justified that if the just shall scarce be saved where shall he being such a wicked wretch as he is appear when as the Apostle tells him plainly that neither adulterer nor fornicator nor covetous person nor the like Traytor Rebel Perjurer 1 Cor. 6.9 10. or such other shall inherit the kingdome of God and so what the Preachers of God now cannot beat into the thoughts of these careless men this damned spirit will then irremovably settle in their deepest considerations O then what agonies and perplexities will tear the wofull hearts of these wicked men In that day saith the Lord I will cause the Sun to go down at noon Amos 8.9 10. and I will darken the earth in the clear day I will turn their feasts into mournings and their songs into lamentations that is I will make all those things that were wont most sweetly to delight them now most of all to torment them for now that pleasure which they had of sin shall turn to be as bitter as gall when they do see that as the Father saith transit jucunditas non reditura manet anxietas non peritura and now they must die and live they can no longer and Satan whose will they did and whose wayes they followed all their life will not forsake them at their death but will say Me you have served and from me you must expect your wages For so we read that the Devil assailed some of the best Saints as Saint Martin Saint Bernard Ignatius Eusebius and others and if these things be done in a green tree what shall be done in a withered saith our Saviour If he be so busie about the Saints what will he do to sinners And this is the state of a wicked man at his dying day 2. The state of the godly But 2. In the death of the godly it is not so for having served God all his life he hath hope in his death and he knoweth not whom he needs to fear Prov. 14.32 2 Tim. 1.12 because he knoweth whom he hath believed and when his body is weakest his faith is strongest and therefore with Saint Paul he desires to be dissolved and he longs for death that he may be with him which was dead and is alive and liveth for evermore and he is well contented that his body shall go to the grave that his soul may go to glory and that his flesh shall sleep in the dust that his spirit may rejoyce in heaven And this is the state of the godly man at the day of his death And therefore if men would seriously consider this before they come to this then certainly the fear of the most fearful death of the wicked and the love of the most comfortable death of the godly would make them to have
lift up his Rod over the Sea and promised the Sea should be divided Exod. 14.16 so that the children of Israel might go on dry ground through the midst of the Sea and so likewise when he commanded him to smite the Rock of stone and promised that the waters should flow thereout which had no possibility with all the power of nature to be done yet Moses never doubted of Gods Promise but presently did what God commanded both in the one and the other Even so when God commands us to do any thing and promiseth we shall have such and such blessings by doing it as to have our sins remitted by being baptized in a little water and by the worthy receiving of a little Sacramental Bread and Wine to injoy all the benefits of the body and bloud of Christ and by a stedfast faith in the death of Christ to be assured of eternal life how unlikely soever they may seem to be we ought with Abraham and Moses and the rest of Gods faithful Servants most readily do what God biddeth us and undoubtedly believe what he promiseth And though it may seem a strange wonder that cannot sink into worldly mens heads that Christ his death should procure to us eternal life and therefore the preaching of this doctrine is to the Jews that looked for such a Christ that should abide alive for ever a stumbling-block and to the Grecians that gloried only in their eloquence and ascribed all things with Aristotle to their natural causes meer foolishness 1 Cor. 1.23 as the Apostle testifieth Yet if you truly weigh this doctrine of our deliverance from eternal death How just it is that the death of Christ should free all men that believe in him from eternal death and obtaining of everlasting life by the death of Christ we shall find it very consonant to just reason and no wayes to be doubted of and that in a twofold respect 1. Because that although we for our sins deserved most justly to die the death that is to suffer the eternal wrath of God whom we have and do so highly offend yet seeing it Reason 1 pleased Christ out of his great pity to our miserable condition and his infinite love to mankind to become our Surety and to die and so satisfie the wrath of God for us Is it not agreeable to reason that Christ paying our debt and suffering for our sins as the Prophet testifieth he hath done we should be discharged and have our lives spared For so when the Officers came to apprehend Christ and to arrest him and he asked them Whom seek ye And they answered Jesus of Nazareth And he said I am he and if you seek me then let these that are my Disciples and do believe in me go their way It is apparent by these words that Christ held it agreeable to all reason that if he paid the debt the debtor should be free and if he suffered death for us we should be delivered from that death which we deserved Reason 2 2. Because that although the death of Christ was but the death of one man and we that sinned and deserved death are many thousand millions of men even all the posterity of Adam yet the death of this one man Propter unionem hypostaticam by reason of the hypostatical union of the Godhead with the manhood in the person of that one man whereby he is not only man but also God himself his death being the death of God must needs be of sufficient worth and value to satisfie God and be more satisfactory to his justice then the death of all Men on Earth and all the Angels in Heaven in as much as the death of the Creator is of more infinite value then the death of all creatures And therefore well might Christ say and happy are we that he said it That the Son of man must be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And I if I be lifted up or being lifted up will draw all men unto me that is all which will believe in me And so you have seen what was typified in the Wilderness unto the Jews by the brazen Serpent was presented and performed to us by Jesus Christ to whom for his infinite love and favour towards us and his bitter Passion and death when he was lifted up and crucified for us to deliver us from eternal death be all honour and glory and thanks and praise for ever and ever Amen A SERMON PREACHED AT THE PUBLICK FAST The eighth of March in St MARIES OXFORD Before The Great Assembly of the Members Of the HONOURABLE HOUSE OF COMMONS There Assembled By GRYFFITH WILLIAMS L. Bishop of OSSORY And Published by their Special Command JOHN 14.6 I am the way the truth and the life London Printed by J. Hayes 1664. Die Sabbati nono Martii 1643. ORdered that Mr. Bodvell and Mr. Watkins give the Bishop of Ossory thanks and desire him to Print his Sermon Noah Bridges THE ONLY VVAY TO PRESERVE LIFE Amos 5.6 Seeke the Lord and you shall live LIght is the first born of all the distinguished Creatures The excellency of the light the first word that the Eternal Word after so many ages of silence uttered forth was Let there be light Gen. 1.3 light that giveth life to all Colours that is the mother of all beauties which hath no positive contrary in nature which maketh all things manifest to the detestation of all evil and the crowning of every good and which is a creature so beloved of the Creator that he calleth himself by this name saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 John 1.5 and he makes it the most worthy associate of Truth when he saith Send forth thy light and thy truth therefore Light is a Jewel Psal 43.3 not to be valued by the judgment of man And yet the sight by which we partake of all the benefits of the light and without which the light will avail us nothing nor yield us any comfort as good old Toby sheweth saying Quale gaudium est mihi qui in tenebris sedeo is but one sense and but scarce the fifth part of the happiness of the sensitive Creature a small thing in respect of that most invaluable good which is termed Life Life how precious and which is of more worth to every living creature then is all the world for the Father of Lies spake Truth herein though to a lying end That Skin for Skin and all that ever a man hath Job 2.4 he will give for his life Therefore as the greatest threatning that God laid upon Adam to deter him from Rebellion and to detain him within the Compass of his Obedience Gen. 2.17 was In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death so the greatest Blessing that he promiseth to any man for all his Service is Life or to live â—s The just shall live by faith Hab.
2.4 The bloud-thirsty how detestable Which sheweth how detestable beyond my ability of expression are those bloud-thirsty men that so maliciously and wickedly do hunt after the life of man and do shed the bloud of so many Innocents no waies like that good God which made not Death nor desireth the Death of any sinner much lesse the destruction of the Righteous nor yet like Alexander that knew not God yet knew this that when his Mother Olympias that was a bloudy woman lay hard upon him to kill a certain innocent person and to that end said often to him that she carried him Nine Moneths in her Womb therefore he had no reason to deny her answered her most wisely Good Mother ask for that some other reward and recompence because the life of man is so dear Am. Marcellin l. 14. c. 10. that no benefit can countervail it and the unjust taking of it away is so hainous that it is impossible for any mortal man to make satisfaction for so great an offence Matth. 3.7 What shall we say then to those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that when their own most gracious King doth so often sollicite for peace do still make them ready for battel and have taken away the lives of so many thousands of men 2 Thes 2.3 truly if they are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet certainly they are the sons of Apollyon the children of the Destroyer Death how terrible that without speedy repentance can receive no better reward then damnation But as life is the sweetest and the most excellent of all things that are in this world Aristot. Ethic. l. 3. c. 6. so death saith the Philosopher est omnium terribilium terribilissimum because this bringeth our years to an end finisheth our daies and puts a period to all our joyes and though there is but one way of life for all men and that one alike to all to come naked out of their Mothers womb yet Job 1.21 as the Poet saith Mille modis lethi miseros mors una fatigat Statius Thebaid l. 9. There are a thousand waies to bring any one of us unto his death And here the Prophet threatneth death unto the people of Israel many waies The Israelites how threatned Quocunque aspiciunt nihil est nisi pontus aether Ovid de Trist. For the City that went out by a thousand shall leave a hundred and that which went out by an hundred shall leave ten to the house of Israel that is as Remigius and Hugo say Vers 3. the Israelites shall be so plagued by the Assyrians 2 Reg. 18.10 as well in the three years siege of Samaria as also before and after the same by the Sword Famine and the Pestilence which Sicut unda sequitur undam do ever follow like Jobs Messengers one in the heel of another the sword alwaies bringing famine and the famine producing pestilence so that almost all shall be consumed and scarce ten of an hundred shall be left And as the Spirit of God saith unto Esayas Go tell this people hear ye indeed but understand not Esay 6.10 Then said the Prophet Lord how long and he answered until the Cities be wasted without Inhabitant and the houses without man and the Land be utterly desolate So now this distressed England how threatned and how miserable we are though formerly most happy Kingdom is threatned to be scourged in like manner with the worst of wars famines and pestilences Praesentémque viris intendunt o nonia mortem And as the Poet saith all that we do see say we are appointed to be destroyed and destined unto death when as S. Bernard saith Quos fugere scimus ad quos nescimus we know whom we would shun but we scarce know where or to whom we may flee to be safe and secured of our Lives for as Jeremie saith Servants have ruled over us Lam. 5.8 9. and there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand We get our bread with the peril of our lives because of the Sword of the Wilderness And therefore as our Prophet saith Wailing is in all streets they say in all high-waies Amos 5.16 alas alas and they call the husbandman to mourning and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing Esay 34.5 6. 2 Reg. 8.1 Amos 4.10 Yet seeing the sword is the sword of the Lord and it is the Lord that calleth for Famine and the Pestilence is the scourge of God which he sendeth amongst us as our Prophet saith and that God never draweth his sword How God dealeth with his people and throweth away the Scabberd as if he never meant to put it up again never sends a famine but in that famine he can feed the young Ravens that call upon him and satisfie the hungry with good things and never powreth out any plague but that in the greatest infection he can preserve his servants that although a thousand should fall besides them and ten thousand at their right hand Psal 91 7. yet it shall not come nigh them and never sendeth any temptation but if the fault be not our own 1 Cor. 10.13 he doth with the temptation make a way to escape that we may be able to bear it because he being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Father of mercies 2 Cor. 1.3 and the God of all comfort to them that fear him as well as the God of Justice to render vengeance to them that offend him hath the suppling Oyl of Mercy as well as the sharp Wine of Justice to powre into the wounds of every penitent sinner therefore our Prophet here joyneth to the Lamentation for Israel an Exhortation to repentance and though he threatneth Death for our sins yet he setteth down an Antidote whereby we might if we would preserve our life and though I confess the Physitians are very useful Physitians how useful and to be honoured as the Scripture speaketh to be sought after especially in the times of sickness and Mortality yet I am sure that neither Hippocrates nor Galen nor all the School of Salerne the whole Colledge of Physitians shall ever be able to prescribe a Potion so precious and so powerful to pâ—eserve your Life as I shall declare unto you for God which is truth it self hath said it Seek the Lord and you shall live wherein I desire you to observe Two parts of the Text. 1. A Precept the best work that you can do Seek the Lord. 2. A Promise the best reward that you can desire And you shall live 1. The Precept twofold 1. In the Precept you may see there are two words and so two parts 1. Seek which is the Act that all men do 2. The Lord which is the Object of our seeking wherein most men fail 1. The word seek doth presuppose that we have lost or be without the Lord and so we have indeed we lost Paradise
soon have put down their enemies and turned my hand against their adversaries the haters of the Lord should have been found lyars but their time should have endured for ever 3. Because he is able both to performe his promise and to satisfie Reason 3 our desires which our Prophet sheweth at large saying Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion Ver. 8. and turneth the shadow of death into the morning and maketh the day dark with night that calleth for the waters of the Sea and poureth them out upon the face of the earth that is as St. Hieron sheweth Fortificare debiles seek him that is the Creator of all things that is mighty to save and able to do whatsoever he pleaseth to strengthen the spoyled Ver. 9. as Vatab. and Arias say or as Aquila turns it subridere potentiam potentium to scorn the strength of the mighty and to destroy the destroyer And therefore if God be with us though we be weak and our enemies strong we few and they many yet we need not fear them because we rely not upon our own strength but upon the assistance of our God qui dividit contritionem super fortitudinem which casteth abundance of destructions upon the mighty as the Septuagint render the words of the Prophet and though we be simple and our enemies subtle and crafty full of all politique devices to raise men and to get money and to unite their strength by wicked Covenants Oaths and Associations yet we need not fear because we relye not upon our own wit but upon the wisdom of God which can destroy the wisdom of the wise 1 Cor. 1.19 and cast away the understanding of the prudent and turn the counsel of Achitophel to his own destruction Prov. 21.30 non est concilium contra eum and therefore O my beloved Brethren seek the Lord and fear not but as Moses saith stand still that is Exod. 14.13 constant in your resolution for the service of your God and the King and behold the salvation of the Lord which he will shew unto you this day or at this time 1 Sam. 14.6 2 Chro. 14.11 For there is no restraint unto the Lord to save by many or by few as both Jonathan and Asa testifie 2. The promise 2. The promise as I told you at first is the best of all desires you shall live the former part was like the toylsome labour of the Inhabitants of Persepolis when they cut the wood with their axes but this latter is like the feast that Cyrus made unto them Justia l. 1. hist when they had finished their Labours durus labor sed merces dulcis though the labour is hard yet the reward is sweet and it never troubles us to take great pains where we shall be well paid but to labour all night with the Apostles and to catch nothing How ill some masters reward their servants durus est hic sermo this is a hard saying after a hard labour but it is not so in Gods service for though in following the lusts of the flesh and the vanities of this World excessit medicina modum the reward that the Devil gives us shall be a great deal sorer than all the pain we have taken in his service for he deals with uâ— Val. Max. l. 9. c. 3. Curtius hist l. 3. as Alexander did with Clitus Calisthenes and other of his chiefest Captains or as Darius did with Eudemus to expose him unto death when he forsook his own native Country and deâ—icated his whole life to his command yet in the service of Christ it is far otherwise whatsoever a man doth for him he shall be rewarded a hundred fold How abundantly Christ rewardeth his servants and though he gives but a cup of cold water for his sake yet for this he shall not lose his reward And therefore this should incourage us to seek the Lord because our reward doth so far exceed our work Mat. 10.42 But let us consider the nature of this promise thou shalt live that is live long live well and live for ever For 1. The seekers of God shall live long Psal 37.2 1. Though the bloud-thirsty and deceitful men shall not live out half their daies and the ungodly shall be soon cut down like the grass gemit sub pondere tellus when the earth is weary to bear them on it yet if we seek the Lord our daies shall be long in the Land which the Lord our God given us and though the pestilence that walketh in darkness Psal 91.6 and the arrow that flyeth in the noon day do threaten our death at every hour yet when a thousand shall fall besides us and ten thousand on our right hand it shall not come nigh us such is the reward of serving God 2. They shall live well Isa 3.10 2. They shall not only live for a miserable life is not so good as a happy death but they shall live well and happily while they live for surely it shall go well with the righteous saith the Prophet and King David saith the Lions may want and suffer hunger but they that fear the Lord shall want no manner of thing that is good and the reason is rendred by the Apostle Psal 34.10 because godliness hath the promise both of this life and of the life to come And 1 Tim. 4.8 3. They shall live for ever Psal 37.27 3. If we eschew evil and do good we shall live for evermore gloriosum imperium sine fine dabit and God will give us a Kingdom without ending And therefore seeing this promise is so plentiful it is worth our labour that we should seek the Lord. Object But here it may be some will demand how doth he performe his promise for did not the Prophets the Apostles and all the Martyrs of the Primitive Church seek the Lord and believe in Christ with all their hearts and yet was not Zachary stoned in the Courts of the house of the Lord Micheas killed by Joram Amos knockt in the head with a club Isaiah sawed in pieces by Manasses John Baptist beheaded How they that sought the Lord were used in this world St. Stephen stoned James killed St. Paul beheaded St. Peter crucified St. Thomas killed with a Javelin St. Mark burned and what shall I say of Simeon Polycarpus Justinus Attalus Marcella Apollonia and abundance more of holy Saints Alii ferro perempti alii patibulo cruciati Euseb Ec. hist whereof alii flammis exusti some were burned others beheaded and all deprived of their life for seeking the Lord and confessing Christ And for any happy life the servants of God do lead doth not St. Paul say that all which will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution and afflictions do wait for them in every place 2 Tim. 3.12 Acts 20.23 Psal 37.36 Luke 16. and when the ungodly flourish like
Father and the Holy Ghost be ascribed all honour and glory for ever and ever Amen Jehovae Liberatori FINIS THE PERSECUTION AND OPPRESSION Which as Solomon saith is able to make a wise man mad OF JOHN BALE That was called to be Bishop of Ossory by the sole Election without any other mans Motion of that pious King Edw. 6. AND OF GRUFFITH WILLIAMS That was called after the same manner to the same Bishoprick by the sole Election without any other mans Motion of that most excellent pious King and glorious Martyr Charles I. Two Learned men and Right Reverend Bishops of Ossory LONDON Printed for the Author 1664. I. THis John Bale was a great Schollar and a Doctor of Divinity in the University of Oxford in the time of King Edward the sixth and he himself wrote a Book which the Right Worshipful and my much honoured Friend Sir James Ware lent me wherein he setteth down the vocation persecution and deliverance of himself and out of that Book I have drawn this Abstract of his life and persecution and expulsion from that very house from whence I was also expulsed and for which I am still oppressed and troubled 1. His Vocation was by the meer good will without any sollicitation of any other of that good King Edwards when he saw him in South-hampton he sent unto him by divers of his Nobility to bid him prepare himself to go to be the Bishop of Ossory which he obediently did and transported himself and his Family into Ireland and being consecrated at Dublin though with some opposition by reason of the Popish inclination of the Catholick Clergy he presently went to Kilkenny where 2. His Persecution did begin for he no sooner began to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ which he incessantly did but the most part of his Prebends and the Popish party opposed and contradicted him and within a very little while after the death of King Edw. 6. he was exceedingly persecuted by Barnaby Bolger and the Popish Priests and others that sought his death in his house this Bishops Court alias Holms Court Rich. Foster a Deacon Rich. Headly John Cage and the Maid where he saw five of his houshold Servants four men and a maid of sixteen years of age killed before his face and so had he been slain also had he not shut the Iron Grate of his Castle and kept the Kearnes out until the good suffereige of Kilkenny with a hundred horsemen and three hundred footmen brought him away in the night time and so delivered him out of their hands and forthwith sent him to Dublin from whence his life being there likewise hunted after he was conveyed away in a Marriners apparel and in his passage to Zealand was cruelly tossed by tempests and was taken at sea and carried to St. Ives in Cornwall where a wicked fellow named Walter accused our Bishop Bale of High Treason before the Justices there yet being not able to prove any thing against him the good God delivered him out of their hands And yet not long after one Martin an English Pirate did most falsly accuse him of many hainous crimes as the pâ—â—ting down of the Mass in England caused Doctor Gardiner Bishop of Winchester to be imprisoned and poysoned the King and many other hainous things which brought him abundance of troubles and vexations with the Captain of the ship wherein he passed towards Holland as himself relateth at large from fol. 38. of his Book of his persecution unto fol. 42. And because they are so fully exemplified and expressed by himself there together with the rest of his troubles and persecutions which he had in Ossory in Dublin and in his passage by Sea towards Germany in the Book that himself printed of his Vocation to the Bishoprick of Ossory and his persecution in the same I will set no more down here but refer my Reader to that Book II. GRiffith Williams born at Carnarvon at fourteen years old was sent to Oxford from whence by reason of the hard usage of him Junonis ob iram by an angry Juno that was his Unckles virago he was fain to betake himself within two years after alienas visere terras and failing to pass into France where he intended he was forced to retire into Cambridge where having no friends nor money a Country Gentleman of Harleton named Mr. Line having but one little Son about eight years old took affection unto me and entertained me into his house and table to tutor and teach that young Child and being there I got my self admitted into Jesus Colledge where as it came to my course I kept my Exercise and within two years after having gotten a Certificate from Christ-Church in Oxford of my study and good carriage there for two years before I had my degree Bachelour of Arts and within three years after I took my degree Master of Arts at 21 years of age and being admitted into the holy Orders of a Deacon by the Reverend Bishop of Rochester and of Priesthood by the Bishop of Ely after I had been a while Rector of Foscot in Buckingham-shire I became a Preacher and Lectorer in St. Peters the Proud in Cheapside and in the Cathedral Church of S. Paul For I found it so And then printed my first Book intituled The resolution of Pilate and my second Book intituled The delights of the Saints for the full space of five years I Lectored upon St. Pauls Epistle to the Romans and then began my persecution by the Puritans as they were then called and Fanaticks of those daies saving a little opposition that I formerly had by the same generation while I was Curate of Hanwel in Middlesex for now the more pains I took to study and to preach the truth boldly unto them as I ever did without fear the more mad they were against me and so mad that not only forty as they were against St. Paul but I believe above twice forty conspired together to work my death and most falsly accused me of such things as I never knew never did and never said yet they prosecuted the same so maliciously that I was bound over and they did their very best to hinder me to get any bayl to answer for my life at the Sessions house upon the Goal delivery of Newgate where I might demand tantenae animis terrestribus irae But he that dwelleth in the Heavens and knew mine Innocency and the cause of their malice laughed them to scorn and became to me as he is alwaies to them that fear him Deus in opportunitatibus a present help in trouble Who seeing that they would prefer no Bill against me quitted me and said they had forfeited and should pay their Recognizance as they well deserved to the King See the Epistle to the Reader before the seven Golden Candlesticks and delivered me with credit and honour out of the mouth of those Lions that were exceedingly blamed and checked by that worthy Judge