of that same town any word but this Blandina I am a Christian and we do no evill When Decius persecuted the Church Babylas Bishop of Antioch Babylas led to the place of execution with his three sonnes desired that they should be first put to death to the end that he might exhort and confirme them which when hee had done his wife comforted him and after she had seen her husband and three children suffer death for Christs sake buried them together Much otherwise the Father and the Sonne with whom I was familiar The Father beseeched that he should die first that his Sonne who was a godly and learned Preacher might comfort him Then it was a wonderfull spectacle to Papists to see the Sonne at the foote of the gallowes preaching to his Father the merits of the death of Christ the vertue of his resurrection the vanitie of the world the unspeakable joyes of Paradise to heare him crying alowd Father ye cannot so soone knocke at the gate of heaven but Christ will open ye cannot so soone enter but I shall follow to hear and behold the old and venerable Father answering with a cheerefull countenance Sonne I see the heavens open and Iesus Christ at the right hand of God Then they were amazed to marke againe the young Minister forgetting himselfe and with a constant face preaching to other two which were also in the executioners hands the forgivenesse of sins the resurrection of the flesh and life everlasting To consider how constantly the foure died with what fervencie of celestial prayers they commended their spirits into Gods hands Then the chiefe of the Capuchin Monkes said to his companions Si coelum Huguenotis datur istis debetur If heaven bee given to Huguenots it is due to these men Then some Gentlemen cryed O happie religion which breeds in men a contempt of death which we dread most and a most sure hope of salvation who would not who should not fight manfully for the defence and suffer constantly for the confession of such a religion This day onely have we begun to know Christ Condemned men have been our Preachers We shall never hate Huguenotes any more XVIII Learne of all this discourse what difference there is betwixt the upright man and the hypocrite Iohn the Baptist calleth afflictions f Mat. 3.12 Gods fanne wherewith when he hath throughly purged his floore the chaffe flyeth away into the ayre and finally is burnt up with unquenchable fire but the wheate is gathered into the garner Hypocrites are chaffe lying in time of peace intermixt with the faithfull which are Gods wheat but g Psal 1.4 5. the wind of persecution driveth them away neyther can they stand in the congregation of the righteous for then there is nothing to be seene but Apostasies defections abjuring of the truth renouncing of the Gospell forsaking of all Communion with the Church Iesus Christ compareth tribulation and persecution h Mat 13.5 6 8 20 21 23. to the burning Sunne scorching the seede which hath no deepnesse of earth so that it withereth away but warming the seede which falls into good ground and making it to bring foorth fruite some an hundred fold some sixtie fold some thirtie fold The Hypocrite receiveth the word with joy but because hee hath not in himselfe the roote of an upright conscience when persecution ariseth because of word he is offended and starteth backe The righteous man is the good ground the sunne of persecution may blacken him but it cannot burne him In the most hot dayes of tribulation he is most plentious in good workes therefore the whole Church cryeth in the Canticles i Cant. 1.5 6. O ye daughters of Ierusalem I am blacke but comely k Bernar. in Cant. ser 25. Blacke in your judgement Comely in the judgement of God and Angels Blacke without l Vestro maleficio by your mischiefe for the Sunne of persecution hath looked upon me my mothers children were angry with me these good Catholikes have persecuted me Comely within m Dei beneficio through Gods benefit for n Psal 45.13 the Kings daughter is all glorious within As the tents of of Kedar as the curtaines of Salomon which are all blacke and dustie without but within are decked with most precious implements To conclude cast gold in water it keepeth its owne yellow shining cast it in the fire and melt it it becommeth brighter Cast earth in water it is by and by changed into mud cast hay in water it will suddenly rot cast earth in the fire it is instantly turned into dust and made a sport to the wind cast hay into the fire with a blaze it is made smoake and ashes So befalls it to the righteous man the hypocrite The hypocrit when he thriveth most and full-gorgeth himself with pleasures is like hay and a lumpe of earth in the water he is nothing but rottennesse and putrefaction when Gods hand is upon him he howles he despites God hee curseth him to his face and in the stirring of an eye is consumed he perisheth he vanisheth like earth and straw in the fire But the righteous man in his greatest prosperitie shineth in all godlinesse before men as gold in water and when hee is cast in the fierie furnace of tribulation he is like gold in the fire his workes then yeeld a more radiant lustre than before XIX The Lord in his mercy sanctifie us and make us throughly righteous that when the day of our tryall shall come we may be found to be fine metall and abiding the hammer the scissers and the fire may through faith and patience inherite the promises of grace peace and eternall life through the merits of our Lord Iesus Christ who o 1. Ioh. 5.20 is the true God and eternall life to whom is due and to whom let us render now and for evermore all praise honour and glory Amen SERMON V. Of the causes of the righteous mans Evills PSALM XXXIV XIX Many are the Evills of the Righteous 1. THe righteous man when hee suffereth for righteousnesse sake is honoured 2. It is a great glory to suffer for a good cause 3. Namely for God as many have done 4. To suffer for the Gospell is most glorious of all 5. Of those which suffer for the Gospell some are Confessors some Martyrs 6. What it is to be a Martyr 7. Three conditions required in a Martyr 8. The great glory of Martyrdome in that it makes the Martyrs resemble the Prophets Apostles and other Saints 9. Yea and Iesus Christ himselfe yet with foure differences 10. God afflicteth righteous men for other mens sake 1. That they may be converted 11.2 That they may bee instructed not to worship righteous men 12.3 That they may bee spurred to imitate their Christian vertues 13.4 That they may consider Gods wrath against sinne and feare 14. Finally God afflicteth the righteous man for his owne glory whereof there are many
be proper unto him because he not onely bare witnesse to the truth but also sealed it with his most precious blood So all true Christians are Christs Martyrs because their whole life is nothing else but a martyrdome that is to say a testimony which they render to the Gospel Martyrium vitae that it is of God and to Iesus Christ that hee is the Sonne of God Testimony which they bare with such fervencie and zeale that they would chuse rather to be scorched racked torne in peeces and die the most cruell death that mans wit can invent than to leave off to glorifie their God and Saviour by publike confession and holinesse of life Such men are Martyrs in affection before God who judgeth of men not according to the event of things but according to their will and intention If any man live in the Church meaning to deny Christ rather than to suffer losse of goods or any bodily paine for his sake he is an Apostate in Gods eyes though he never bee put to that triall and die peaceably in his bed confessing Christ with his mouth So he that is resolved to make lesse account of his life than of the Gospel is a true Martyr before God n 1. Sam. 15.7 who looketh on the heart though God spare him and preserve his life from the hands of the wicked If Paul said truely of Priscilla and Aquila that o Rom. 16.4 for his life they had laid downe their owne neckes because they feared not to undergo all dangers for his releasing shall God p 1. Reg. 8.39 who onely knoweth the hearts of all the children of men neglect the zeale and affection which his faithfull servants have to his service Martyrium sanguinis Notwithstanding the Church which diveth not into mens hearts giveth not this glorious name of Martyrs but to those which are Martyrs in action which I say cannot by most exquisite torments and painfull deaths be driven back from their profession which they sealed most constantly with their innocent blood which though Christ did yet we give not the name of Martyrdome to his death because it had a more speciall end and is the ransom of mankind The Church hath ever called Steven the first Martyr as being the first which suffered death for Christs cause * Act. 12.2 Iames the brother of Iohn was the second VII In them yee finde the three qualities which are necessarily required in them whom Christ honoreth with this glorious title 1. They were full of faith and of the holy Ghost I say that they were godly men for a good conscience a godly and an upright life is so needfull in this case that the Apostle saith q 1. Cor. 13.3 Though hee give his body to be burned and have not charitie it profiteth him nothing This is called by some the Martyrdome of life and is more difficult than the Martyrdome of blood for it is not so easie to a man to kill sinne in himselfe to burne his covetousnesse his pride his ambition his lusts and unlawfull desires in the fire of the Spirit as to suffer the executioner to cast his body in a fire of wood Which I pray you all to lay to your hearts that in this time of outward peace with men yee may bee Martyrs inward with God Martyrs not in the flesh but in the Spirit having your praise not of men but of God 2. They suffered for the best cause that ever any innocent man suffered for Suffered they not for the Sonne of God who is r Psal 45. fairer than all the children of men Suffered they not for the Gospel which is Å¿ Rom. 2.16 the power of God unto salvation to every one that beleeveth and therefore more excellent than the Law for which the Iewes suffered Let no man say that the theefe upon the crosse was a Martyr because he repented and confessed Christ for repentance changeth not the nature of crosses neyther can it be said truely that all those which repent at the houre of their death are Martyrs The thiefe confessed he not that t Luk. 23.41 he suffered iustly and received the due reward of his deeds And have we not this commandement of the holy Ghost v 1. Pet 4.15 16. Let none of you suffer as a murtherer or as a thiefe or as an evill doer or as a busie-body in other mens matters yet if any man suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God on this behalfe x Aug. Epi. 61. 166. It is the cause which maketh the Martyr not the punishment y Euseb lib. 5 cap. 16. Aug. de correctione Donatistarum cap. 7. Let not the Montanists the Pepusians the Marcionites the Donatists the Circumcellions and other heretiques bragge of their Martyrs there was never any heresie so blockish so ridiculous so impious but there was found some obstinate fellow who offered to dye willingly for it Men in our dayes have gone to the fire with a merry countenance for maintaining of Atheisme For the divell hath also his Martyrs whom an ancient Doctor calleth most properly z Martyres Sataricae virtutis Martyrs of a diabolicall courage and therefore a Aug. in Psal 68. all the praise of Martyrdom is in the goodnesse of the cause not in the grievousnes of the pain Martyrs make not their cause to be good or their doctrine to be the Gospel it is the good cause it is the Gospel that makes Martyrs Our sufferings make not our cause iust but a iust cause will make our sufferings glorious 3. They had the choice of death and life if they would have recanted and ioyned themselves to the Iewes against Christ they had not beene killed If a Christ an be put to death for Christs sake without offer of life upon condition of abjuring the Church calleth him not a Martyr for who knoweth what hee would have done if the option of life had beene given unto him b Mat. 2.16 The innocent babes which Herod slew for Christs sake were not Martyrs because they had no such election neither could they in that age have accepted it if it had beene offered Our fathers also which were massacred tumultuously without any accusation examination exhortation promise of life for the same cause were not Martyrs These these onely which seeing on the right hand the Priest the Altar the Incense to offer the breaden God to worship and on the left the hang-man stirring the fire unsheathing and shaking threatningly the fatall sword erecting the gibbet or the scaffold trussing his arme to hit right a deadly blow spet at the Idols flye from the Altars run to the fire to the sword to the gallows to the water cry as Montalchino did at Milan Let Christ let Christ live and Montalchino dye these I say these are the men whom the Church hath honoured with the excellent title of Martyrs who dye in Christ with Christ
Eccl. lib. 2. cap. 7. Pontius Pilat who condemned Christ to dye was overwhelmed with so many miseries that to be delivered of them all at once he followed the example of Iudas and killed himselfe t Act. 12. Herodés Agrippa after he had for a while persecuted the Christians killed Iames imprisoned Peter taking to himselfe the honour due to God was stricken by an Angell and was eaten of wormes whose pittilesse teeth taught him that he was a medden of putrefaction and not God v Suet on in Nerone cap. 47. 49. Nero the first persecuter of Christians among the Gentiles after that he had set Rome on fire put his wise and learned master to death rifled his mothers entrails to see where he lay when he was in her wombe taking life from her that gave him life burnt quicke or dismembred with the teeth of his dogs many thousands of Christians murthered all his friends and filled the whole Empire with orbity desolation and mourning having no friend but murther and crueltie finding no foe that would kill him Ergo ego inquit nic amicum habeo nee unimicum thrust himselfe thorow with his owne sword and was to himselfe his owne Hangman x Suet. in Domitiano ca. 13. 14. Domitian who worshipped no other God but himselfe who erected Temples and Altars to his own mortall deitie who constrained his people to call him the Lord our God and persecuted the Christians because they would not give that title to any other but to our Lord Iesus Christ nor worship any but God was betrayed of his owne wife in whom hee trusted was slaine by his owne servants was buryed without honour like a filthy carrion I should be too tedious if I should relate to you the tragical deaths of AdriaÌ„ of Severus of Decius of Valerian of Dioclesian of Maximinian of Maxentius of Maximin of Iulian the Apostate of Valens Arrian hereticke who were prodigious examples of Gods veÌ„geance against persecuters Which of you hath not heard or read the strange deaths of Kings and Princes who by murthering of our fathers sought to murther once againe Christ in the cradle and to give life to the beast which had beene wounded to death In them all was in all them that follow their bloody foot-steps shall be fulfilled that which is written in the Psalmes y Psal 21.8 9 10. Thine hand O Lord shall find out all thine enemies thy right hand shall find out those that hate thee Thou shalt make them as a fierie oven in the time of thine anger The Lord shall swallow them up in his wrath and the fire shall devoure them Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth and their seed from among the children of men Have wee not heard it Our owne eyes have they not seene it XII The best of us all is like unto Asaph a Psal 73.2 3 5 6.7 8 9. we are envious at the foolish our steps slip when we see the prosperitie of the wicked They are not in trouble as other men neither are they plagued 〈◊〉 other men Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chainâ—â— violence covereth them as a garment their eyes stand out with fatnesse they have more than heart could wish They are corrupt and speake wickedly concerning oppression they speake loftily they set their mouth against the heavens and their tongue walketh through the earth Then we begin to fret to murmure to deny Gods providence to aske Is there knowledge in the most high These men which prosper are ungodly but wee who cleanse our hearts and wash our hands in innocency are plagued all the day long our chastisement returneth turneth every morning They are happy but we are miserable When we iudge when we speake so are we not foolish and ignorant like unto little children are wee not as beasts before our God If any man have a deadly wound whether is most to bee feared the putrefaction and impostume or the Chirurgions Launcet and Rasor the searing hot yron or the Gangrene What is sinne but the corruption and impostume of the soule what is affliction but the heavenly Physicians Rasor and cauter As then a wise man will say that he whose impostume is not launced is in danger of his life and he who feeleth every day the smart of the Rasor is in hope of recovery howsoever ignorant children will judge otherwayes and will choose rather a lingring and insensible death than a sharpe cure So will hee which entreth into the Sanctuary of God judge and say that sinners when the Lords hand is heavy upon them are happy because they are chastised for their correction as when a man sicke of the dropsie is kept under a strict and pinching diet But hee who covereth his face with fatnesse who spendeth his dayes in mirth and feeleth not the smart of the Lords rod is so much more miserable than the sicke man who being swolne up and defaced with the dropsie liveth in the Tavernes and every day overchargeth his decaying body with surfetting and drunkennesse as the soule is more precious than the body For what are such men but as fatted swine for the great day of the Lords slaughter as I have said And why doth the Lord b Minut. Felix Miseri in hoc altius tolluntur ut decidant altius heave them up and as it were set them on the pinacle of worldly pleasures and honours but to cast them downe into destruction and make their fall more remarkeable as was the fall of Haman persecuter of the Iewes and of Iezabel murtherer of the Prophets XIII But what although some of them d Iob 21.13 23 24. spend their dayes in wealth having still their breasts full of milke and their bones moistened with marrow What although they dye in their full strength and after the long dayes of a joyfull life being wholly at ease and quiet in a moment they goe downe to the grave without the least pricking of griefe without any feeling of the smart of death which may happen to some few in this world Shall they also escape the dint of the wrath and vengeance of the great and righteous Iudge in the world to come When God through a most wonderfull patience and long suffering hath given unto them many yeeres to repent as he gave to the men of the first world in the dayes of c Gen. 6.3 Noah an hundred and twenty yeares to amend their lives and they spend them all in riot in licentiousnesse in persecuting of his Church in presumptuous sinnes against his Majestie selling themselves to worke wickednesse in his sight as f 1. King 21.25 Ahab did will he not turne his patience into fury and pay them home at once requiting them with the unconceiveable punishment of eternall damnation XIV I know they doe what they can to shake out of their thoughts the feare of that judgement and to make their hearts beleeve that there is no such matter
suffereth in us as when the head suffereth all the members suffer and when the members suffer the head suffereth Is not Christ the head are we not the members of his body This was the cause why the Apostles after they were beaten x Act. 5.41 reioyced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for Christs name for this same cause the Apostle reioyced that he was y Eph. 4.1 the prisoner of the Lord that a Gal 6.17 he bare in his body the markes of the Lord Iesus that b Col. 1.24 hee filled up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ for though all Christs sufferings bee accomplished and c Ioh 19.30 finished in capite in the head for the redemption of the Church yet they are not all fulfilled in corpore in the body for the edification of the Church but as long as there shall be in the world one faithfull to suffer Christ shall have some evill to suffer because Christ and the faithfull are one S. Paul was scholed with this Iesson before his entry into the Church when the Lord Iesus cryed unto him d Act. 9.4 Saul Saul why persecutest thou me even as when ye tread a man upon the foot the head will cry Why treadest thou on me What wonder then if e Phil. 3.8 10. he counted all things but doung that he might know Christ and the fellowship of his sufferings that he might be made conformable unto his death and if hee rendred testimonie to all the Christians of his time that f Rom. 5.3 they gloried in tribulations O bonds more honourable than the Diadems of Kings O tribulations more glorious than the glory of Salomon Is there any golden chaine so glistering as the irons wherwith the Confessors are shackled for Christ Is there any glory to be matched with the glory of the blessed Martyrs suffering with Christ and in their sufferings made conformable to his image The Pagans say that it is sweete and honourable to dye for our countrey The souldiers glory in the wounds which they have received for the defence of their chimneyes And those which are led to the gallows for the service of their King feele glory in their shame and professe that they diâ—content seeing they die for their Soveraignes sake What is our native soyle compared with the Church what is the most glorious King of the earth paragoned with Christ Lesse than nothing We glory in our death for men which when we are dead cannot reward us and shall we bee ashamed to dye for Christ who when we are dead giveth us life and satiateth with immortall honours those which honor him for g Rom. 8.17 if we suffer with him we shall also be glorified with him For this cause h Tert. Apologet cap. 1.46 ult Iust Apol 1. the first Christians when they were condemned thanked their Iudges but principally they thanked God saying i Aug. ser de Cypriano Deo gratias Thankes be to God so did our fathers and so must we doe So then ye have heard the causes why God will have his children to suffer for their owne sakes He will eyther chastise them for the sinnes which they have committed or restraine them from the sinnes which they might perpetrate or try them to make knowne how they can carry themselves in affliction or put in practice the manifold graces wherewith hee hath endued them or honour them with the glory of his Confessors and Martyrs X. When they are thus afflicted God hath also regard to other men First their afflictions are meanes whereby the Elect are converted to God Christ when he was persecuted in one Towne fled into another and preached there He k Mat. 10.23 commanded his Disciples to doe the like By occasion of the persecution in Ierusalem l Act. 8.1 4 Act. 11.19 20. the brethren were scattered abroad throughout the Regions of Iudea of Samaria of Phenice of Cyprus of Antioch where they preached the Lord Iesus and the hand of the Lord was with them and a great number beleeved and turned unto the Lord. Why were n Act. 16.19 31. Paul and Silas cast into prison at Philippi The event shewed that God did it for the conversion of the Iaylor who was one of his Elect. And therefore Paul said o 2 Tim. 2 10. that hee endured all things for the Elects sake that they might also obtaine the salvation which is in Christ Iesus with eternall glory And writing to the Philippians from the prison at Rome where hee received the glorious crowne of Martyrdome he saith p Phil. 1.13 that the things which happened unto him had fallen out to the furtherance of the Gospel so that his bonds in Christ were manifest to all Cesars Court and in all other places For howsoever he was q 2. Tim. 2.14 bound the word of God was not bound The prison was his Church there he preached and there he converted many Thus the Albigenses of France being dispersed by a most furious and violent persecution went preaching the Gospel in Germanie in Bohemia in England All the flourishing Churches in Europe at this day are the harvest which they sowed but especially r Tert. Apologet ca. ult Idem ad Scapul cap. ult Clemens Alex Strom. 4. the seede of the Church is the bloud of Christians for those which behold their constancy wonder wondering they inquire the cause thereof inquiring they learne it learning it they are converted Å¿ Iustin Apolog 1. Euseb lib. 4. cap. 8. Iust Mart. beholding the unexpugnable constancie of Christians in the atrocitie and extremitie of their torments said to himselfe that such men which made no account of death could not bee men given to pleasures and wickednesse because voluptuous men being timorous and faint-hearted cannot suffer any thing which is grievous to be felt and above all things fear death therupon he was converted became of an Idolater a ChristiaÌ„ of a Philosopher a Martyr I might relate unto you a most true storie of a Noble man converted by the wonderfull constancy of those of whom I spake in my last Sermon and protesting at the houre of his death that hee dyed in their faith But by this which I have said ye see that the temporall death of Gods Saints is eternall life and salvation to many of Gods Elect. Likewise their constancie and wonderfull boldnesse to maintaine the Gospell against all the wisedome and power of the world their holy stoutnesse to die for it is no small comfort to the Church and a great confirmation to the weake brethren which use the Apostle found in his bonds as he saith That t Phil 1.14 by them many of the brethren in the Lord waxing confident were much more bold to speake the word without feare For this cause Saint Iohn saith that v 1. Ioh. 3.16 as Christ laid downe his life for us so wee ought to lay downe our lives for
the brethren Who would not be glad to exchange his transitorie and fraile life for the salvation and everlasting life of Gods Elect And who would not chuse to die to x Iam 5.20 convert a sinner from the errour of his way to cover a multitude of sinnes and to save a soule from death Therein is both honor and profit Honour to the Confessors and Martyrs by whose bands and death so me are converted many are confirmed Profit to Gods Elect which by such means are saved There is not in this world any honour so profitable any profit so honourable and therefore the Apostle considering the honour which commeth of this profit and the profit which floweth from this honour writ to the Colossians that y Col. 1.24 hee reioyced in his sufferings for them i. e. for their conversion to the faith and confirmation in the faith as being Christs Minister in the one in the other Let I pray you let the same mind be in us which was in such holy men Let us all bee for this end Christs Martyrs in affection and thanke the Lord our God for this libertie of his Gospel in this Realme wherein there is no Tyrant no persecuter to make us Martyrs in action XI Secondly men readily conceive extravagant opinions of those whom God hath furnished with rarest gifts and as they are inclined to superstition canonize them and send up commandement to the heavens to receive them for their gods Thus the Gentiles erected Temples dedicated Altars instituted new honors and religious worship to some odde men among their Ancestors of whom they had received some speciall benefit Thus a Act. 3.12 the Iewes held their eyes fixed on Peter and Iohn who had restored a lame man to his feete as if by their power and holinesse that miracle had beene wrought Thus b Act. 10. â—â— 25 26 Cornelius though a devout man and one that feared God with all his house fell downe at Peters feet and worshipped him as if he had beene more than a man Thus c Act. 14.10 11 12 13 the Idolaters of Lystra called Barnabas Iupiter and Paul Mercurius and would have offered sacrifice unto them because they healed a cripple who never had walked Thus the Pope and his Cardinalls canonize and register with the Saints some speciall men of whose holinesse and miracles they say they have sufficient warrant and give expresse commandement to the people to worship them God foreseeing that the divell through his malice would doe his utmost endeavour to re-establish Idolatrie againe in these same holy mens persons by whom he had banished it out of the world even when they did greatest miracles turmoyled them with greatest afflictions that those which saw them in such a miserable state might judge and say that they were men like unto themselves and that they wrought such wonders by Gods finger and not by their own power For the same cause the evills which they suffered are registred in holy Scripture that as S. Panl after hee had begun to tell how he was taken up into Paradise brake off his discourse in the middest saying d 2. Cor. 12.6 I forbeare lest any man should thinke of me above that which he seeth me to be or that he heareth of me so we may say of them that which they acknowledged themselves to be that e Act. 14.15 they were also men of like passion with us for that which they were by grace should not make us forget that which they were by nature even mortall men like our selves XII Wherupon f Chrysost Homi. 1. rd popul Antiochen Chrysostom giveth us another advertisement for when wee exhort you to imitate David Elias Paul Peter such or such a Saint your custome is to answer I am not Peter I am not Paul as if Peter and Paul had beene of some other stuffe than ye are as if they had not beene mortall feeble and sinnefull men as ye are Therefore to take from you all excuse when ye cover your carelesnesse and sloath with such vaine excuses God hath exercised with most infirmities those on whom he hath bestowed greatest graces that seeing they have beene like unto us in weaknesse diseases afflictions and passions belonging to man we despaire not of attaining to the resemblance of the heavenly and saving graces wherewith they were garnished For this end S. Iames propoundeth unto us the example of Elias of whom he saith that f I am 5.17 18. he was subiect to like passions as we are that if wee pray with fervencie as he did wee be assured that we shall speed as he did XIII To these three reasons wee may adde the fourth taken from afflictions as they are corrections chastisements of Gods deerest servants that God will have us to consider them as testimonies of his wrath against sinne and to say to our selves Hath God dealt so roughly with so holy men when they offended him and shall he beare with us or as Christ said g Luk. 23.33 If these things be done in a greene tree what shall be done in the dry This reason is so cleer that S. Peter urgeth it as an infallible demonstration saying h 1. Pet. 4.17 18. The time is come that iudgement must begin at the house of God and if it first begin at us what shall be the end of them that obey not the Gospel of God Wherefore let us lay this to our hearts and learne by such manifest tokens of Gods wrath against sinne to prevent his indignation by an unfained amendment of life Esay saith that i Esa 26.9 when Gods iudgements are in the earth the inhabitants of the world will learne righteousnesse God grant that as we are of the number of these inhabitants of the world so we may be of the number of those Students which are schooled by their brethrens afflictions to learne righteousnesse to stand in awe of God and to serve him with an upright heart before his face all the dayes of our life XIV Finally God by the afflictions of his deare ones namely by those which they suffer for righteousnesse sake manifesteth the infallible truth of his promises and the excellencie of his mightie power in their deliverie from the evill day and from all the plots conspiracies secret practices malicious attempts violent invasions of theirs and his enemies which then are constrained to avouch that it is by the finger of God and not by the hand of man that the Church subsisteth upon earth and as it is said in the Psalmes that k Psal 10.2 Christ in the mids of his enemies He saith l Esa 43.2 3. When thou passest thorow the waters I will be with thee and thorow the rivers they shall not overflow thee When thou walkest thorow the fire thou shalt not be burnt neyther shall the flame kindle upon thee for I am the Lord thy God the holy One of Israel thy Saviour How he accomplisheth this
valiant courage of Eleazar one of the principall Scribes in the dayes of the blood-thirstie Tyrant Antiochus Epiphanes i 2. Maccab. 6.21 c. He was besought by the Kings officers for the old acquaintance they had with him to bring flesh of his owne provision such as was lawfull for him to use and make as if he did eate of the flesh taken from the sacrifice commanded by the King that in so doing he might be delivered from death and for the old friendship with them finde favour A friendly counsell if yee consider the men which gave it but if ye consider the intention of the divell who suggested it a most violent assault and craftie tentation what so sweet as life what so desirable as to save it without any reall offence what so plausible or at least more excusable than to make a shew of an evill which indeed thou doest not to shun to be made a publike shew of the evill which otherwise thou must suffer with shame and great torments Flesh and blood will say to Eleazar that in this there was no sinne The Pope which giveth dispense to the Papists of this Realme to dissemble and deny their Religion will say that it was but a veniall sinne and of the number of those which are most pardonable Eleazar led with another Spirit even with k Esa 11.3 the Spirit of the Lord which is the spirit of knowledge of wisedome of counsell of might and of the feare of the Lord saith not so but considering the holy Law made and given by God It becommeth not our age said he in any wise to dissemble whereby many young persons might thinke that ELEAZAR being fourescore yeeres old and tenne was now gone to a strange religion and so they through mine hypocrisie and desire to live a little time and a moment longer should be deceived by me and I get astaine to mine old age and make it abominable for though for the present time I should bee delivered from the punishment of men yet should I not escape the hand of the Almighty neyther alive nor dead wherefore now manfully changing this life I will shew my selfe such an one as mine age requireth and leave a notable example to such as be young to dye willingly and courageously for the honourable and holy lawes This seemed madnesse and despaire to his Iudges which changing the good will they bare him into hatred and their meeknesse into fury and rage let him straight wayes to the Tympan which was a most cruell kind of torture whereupon being ready to dye of the stripes which hee had received ceived he groaned and said It is manifest unto the Lord that hath the holy knowledge that whereas I might have beene delivered from death I now endure sore paines in body by being beaten but in soule am well content to suffer these things because I feare him XIV Reade also the storie of the cruell death and constancie l 2. Macc. 7 of the seven brethren and their mother at that same time the Tyrant himselfe marvelled at their courage for that neither the scourges and whips wherewith they were torne nor the cutting out of their tongues nor the mangling and maiming of all their members nor the pulling off of the skin of their heads with the haire nor the hot pannes and caldrons wherein they were fryed being yet alive could compell them against the law of God to eate swines flesh The eldest heire worthy of the prerogative of the first-borne answered to the Tyrants threats to the Hangmans whips and to all the tortures We are ready to dye rather than to transgresse the lawes of our fathers and exhorted his brethren as they exhorted him to dye manfully for the law of God And to make you know that this was not madnesse of mind but faith the second said to the King Thou like a fury takest us out of this present life but the King of the world shall raise us up which have dyed for his lawes unto everlasting life So spake the third so the fourth and the rest but the youngest was most wonderfull of all for neither could the promises of riches and honours tickle him nor the cruell torments which he had seene his brethren suffer shake his constancie but being encouraged by his most wonderfull mother he cryed to the executioners Whom wait ye for I will not obey the Kings commandement but I will obey the commandement of the law that was given unto our Fathers by Moses So they dyed so dyed last of all their marvellous mother after that she had beene to them in stead of a Levite or Priest and had exhorted and comforted them with a most excellent speech concerning the resurrection And therefore the Apostle ascribeth their victorious constancie to their faith saying Heb. 11.35 that by faith they were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtaine a better resurrection XV. The Christian Church aboundeth in such examples of most wonderfull victorie against the flesh the world and the divell In it this is to bee admired that men which may live in honor by denying Christ choose shame and dishonor preferre torments to ease sorrow to joy paine to pleasure death to life kissethe postes and other instruments of their punishments looke upon the torments with a cheerefull face runne to the fires as joyfully as worldings doe to a bridall feast and not onely rejoice but also m Rom. 53 glorie in tribulations which is the highest degree of pleasure and joy Steven stopping his eares to the murmuring of the people which like a swarme of Hornets and Waspes made a humming noise about him shutting his eyes to the stones wherewith they were armed to fell him and overcomming by faith the horrors of death n Act. 7.55 56 59 60. looked up stedfastly into heaven and seeing there the glory of God and Iesus standing on the right hand of God cryed with a triumphing voice Behold I see the Heavens opened and the Sonne of man standing on the right hand of God Neither could their showting nor the stones which hayled upon him stay him to kneele downe and to call upon God both for himselfe and for them XVI If ye search the Ecclesiasticall histories of the Martyrs of the primitive Church and of ours the examples of such victories are infinite S. Ignace Bishop of Antiochia hearing the roaring of the hungry Lions and seeing them stretching foorth their clawes to teare him and opening their throats to devoure his flesh cryed with a loud voice o Iren adv heres sib 5. Because I am Christs wheat now shall I be ground with the teeth of beasts that I may bee found to bee the pure bread of God p Euseb hist Eâ—cl lib. 4. cap. 15. Policarpe Bishop of Smyrna answered to those which now intreated him with many promises now impotuned him with threats to call the Emperour My Lord and to deny Christ to bee his Lord I have served him
fourescore and six yeares and he hath never done me any harm how then should I curse my King which hath saved me q Tert. Apolâ—get c. 1. 46. 49. All the Christians when they were condemned gave thanks as for a great benefit r Iust Mart. Apol. 1. Lucius thanked Vrbicius which had condemned him to die for Christs sake because said hee being delivered from evill masters I am going to my Father the King of heaven Amongst all is wonderfull the constancie of Felicitas a Widow of Rome like unto that of the Mother and of the seven children of whom I have already spoken for she also had seven sonnes Å¿ Gregor 1. hom 3. in Euang. tom 2. Other mothers fear lest their children die before them She feareth lest her sons live after her She converted them to Christ being taken with them shee confirmed them in the confession and faith of Christ Publius the Governor of the towne with faire words sought to entice her Have pittie saith he of thy selfe at least pittie these thy seven sonnes After with rough words hee thought to astonish her But she having in a womans body a mans breast Neither saith she are thy promises able to tickle mee nor thy threats to terrifie mee And choosing rather to loose all her Children than to see then loose Christ of a mother shee became a Preacher unto them and after she had seen them all glorifie the Lord Iesus by their death the love of Christ surmounting in her the griefe which she received of her orbitie she went also with drie eyes a laughing countenance and a most heroicall courage to the place of execution and received there the crowne of Martyrdome And therefore as Christ said of Iohn Baptiste that t Mat 11 9 he was a Prophet yea more than a Prophet so may wee say of her that she was a Martyr yea more than a Martyr Consider the tender love of a mother and ye shall confesse that the death of each of her sonnes was a martyrdome unto her She was then seven times Martyr in her seven sonnes and the eighth time in her own person After I have spoken of such a woman shall I goe back to men Shall I speak of v Euseb hist Eccles lib. 5. cap. 1. Attalus one of the Martyrs of Vienne in France in the time of Antonius Verus the yeare of Christ 178. who being set in a burning chaire of iron preached to the Romanes as if he had bin in a pulpit teaching them what God is reproving their cruelty maintaining the innocencie of Christians and saying This which you do is eating swallowing of mens flesh but we eate not mens flesh neither doe we harme to any man Shall I forget Laurentius Deacon of the Church of Rome who being laid upon an iron grate and a slow burning fire under it that he might feele his death This side said he is inough rosted turn me upon the other which being done after some space he said againe to the Governor x Prudent in hymno Coctum devora Et experimentuÌ„ cape Sit crudum an assum suavius Now both sides are well rosted come eate and try which is sweetest raw or rosted It was a common thing to all Christians in those dayes y Tertull de Idolat cap. 11. Quo ore Christianus thurarius si per Templa transibit quo ore flumantes aras despuet exsufflabit quibus ipse prospexit Minut Felix deos despuuÌ„t rideâ—t sacra when the hangmen would hale them violently to the Temples of their Idolls when the Iudges would command them to bow downe to the Altars and to worship the Idols if they had hands and feete free to breake the Images fling away the Censers trample on the sweete smelling incense and if they were bound they would puffe at the Temples spit at the abominable Images with great contempt wagg their heads at all the diabolicall superstition All this did the holy woman and couragious Martyr z Prud. in Martyrio Eulalia Martyr ad ista nâ—hil sed enim Iâ—fremit in que tyranni oculos Sâ—uta iacit simulacra dehinc Eulalia She did more shee spat upon the Governors face who by all kind of most cruell torments went about to constraine her to idolatry And this puffing and spitting at the onely naming of the false religion was most usuall in those dayes among the brethren O Faith O Courage O Victorie O gods of wood of stone of metall where is your Majestie O Tyrants where your power O cruel Executioners Dissipat impositamque molam where is your fury Loe not men onely but women but young children contemne you fight against you Thuribulis pede prosubigit overcome you XVII Shall passe under silence our own Martyrs to begin with one of the first even Ierome of Prague condemned to be burnt quicke by the bloody councell of Constantia How the stood before his passionate and ignorant Iudges without feare not onely contemning death but also lusting after it x Poggius Florent ep 3 a Papist which was an eye-witnesse of all the actes of that Tragedie relateth with admiration and praise He went to death with a cheerfull countenance when hee came to the place of execution he imbraced the post whereunto he was tied kissed it Perceiving the hangman going behind his back to set the wood on fire lest he should see it he cried unto him Come here come here and kindle the fire before my face for if I had dreaded it I should never have come to this place which I might have shunned Then with a most holy wonderful joy he sung a Psalm to God which the fire and the smoake had much adoe to interrupt Patricke Hammilton a young Gentleman of Scotland as he was going to the fire by his words and lookes affrighted in such sort Alexander Cambell a Dominican Frier his accuser that he became besides himselfe and died madde George Baynam and Iohn Frith Englishmen imbraced kissed their fagots Laurent Sanders imbraced with great joy the post whereunto the hangman was tying him and said O crosse of my good Lord. In France Steven Brun after that his Iudges had pronounced against him the sentence of death cryed with a loud voice My Iudges have condemned mee to live And Iohn Baron being advertised by his Iudges which had condemned him to appeale from them unto the Court of Parliament Can ye not said he bee content to have your owne hands defiled with my blood but ye will have other mens hands polluted with it also Amongst all I admire most the peasant of Lynri which meeting some prisoners condemned for the Religion after he had asked and known of them the cause of their condemnation leapt upon the chariot and went to dye with them Above all the victories of women are most wonderful As the hangman was ready to put to death a loving couple of Martyrs Iohn Bayly and his wife
commandements when thou shalt enlarge my heart IV. But when we have no certain knowledge of Gods wil are so disposed that we may say with S. Paul q Phil. 1.21 Christ to me to live to dy is gain when I say we are resolved to suffer all extreamities and a thousand deaths rather than to deny him then the practice of this commandement is not onely lawfull but also necessarie then not onely we may but also should trye if hiding of our selves and fleeing be the meanes which God hath appointed to deliver us from the present evill of persecution God gave an expresse commandement to the people of Israel r Exod. 12.32 that none of them should goe out at the doore of his house untill the morning of that night wherein hee smote the first-borne of Egypt The like commandement was given to Rachab Å¿ Iosh 2.19 that none of her family should goe out of the doores of her house into the street lest they should perish in the destruction of the towne of Iericho I confesse that wee have not any such personall commandement directed unto us but I say that this generall commandement Come my people enter thou into thy chamber c. is sufficient and a good warrant for all Gods people till he chuse such as pleaseth him and make them to know manifestly that he will have them to bee publike Confessors and Martyrs whereof they cannot make question if once they bee taken and laid in bonds for Christs sake for then they must drinke the cup which the Lord setteth to their heads more gladly and courageously then Socrates did the Hemlocke Till then they may convey themselves out of their enemies hands by lurking in some hid and unknowne place by fleeing or any other way which is not unlawfull V. t Gen. 27.43 Rebeckah advertised that Esau had vowed to slay Iacob counselled him to flee to Laban her brother and he did so v Exod. 2.15 Moses knowing that Pharaoh sought to slay him fled from the face of Pharao and dwelt in the land of Midian not forsaking his calling but waiting till God gave him a more cleere declaration of his will thereupon which after he had received he returned into Egypt nothing dreading the feare of Pharao and of all his Court How often did x 1. Sam. 19.22.27 2. Sam. 15.14 David flee from place to place to shun the wrath of his King and the conspiracy of his owne sonne not for lacke of courage but though godly prudence and fore-seeing advisednesse David which had the promise of the kingdome of Israel fled David which knew that his kingdome could not be taken from him fled Oh how many excellent Psalmes did he make at those times wherby ye may know that he mistrusted not the truth of Gods promise yet would not tempt him by trying of his power a 1. King 17.1 Iudg. 5.17 Elijah which by his prayers shut the heavens and it rained not upon the earth by the space of three yeares and sixe moneths b 1. King 17.22 Elijah which raised from death the widdowes sonne of Sarepta c 1. King 1.10.12 Elijah which brought fire from heaven upon the Kings Captaines and their fifties That wise godly and wonderfull Prophet when he was threatned by Iezebel d 1. King 19.2 3. fled he not for his life to Beersheba in Iuda and from thence to the wildernesse At that time e 1. King 18.13 Obadiah hid he not an hundred men of the Lords Prophets by fifty in a cave when Iezebel sought them to kill them what can bee said against those holy Fathers which in the time of the cruel persecuter Antiochus Epiphanes f Heb. 11.38 wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth and of whom the Apostle saith that the world was not worthy VI. If any say That such precepts and examples are of the old Testament and should not bee fitted to Christians which live under the Gospell I answer That in the new Testament the commandements are more formall and the examples more frequent and inforcing Christ gave hee not this expresse commandement to his Apostles g Mat. 10.17 23. Beware of men and when they persecute you in this City flee ye into another h Tert. de fugain persecutione cap. 6. Some say that this coÌ„mandement was temporall given to the Apostles onely for that time only wheÌ„ they were sent to preach the Gospell to the lost sheep of the house of Israel even as that other coÌ„mandement in the beginning of the Chapter i Mat. 10.5 Goe not into the way of the Gentils and into any City of the Samaritans enter ye not which is now abolished True the commandement forbidding to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles and Samaritans is abrogated but by another commandement b Mark 16.15 Goe ye into all the world and preach the Gospell to every creature Tell us now where how and when the commandement of fleeing in persecution hath been recalled And if it be not annulled by another commandement why it should not stand for ever as the rest doe which are in that chapter that one of not preaching the Gospel to the nations excepted What have they to answer to this other commandement c Mat. 24.15 When ye shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the Prophet stand in the holy place whoso readeth let him understand then let them which bee in Iudea flee into the mountaines c. Had the Apostles any thing to doe with it Were they in Ierusalem when the towne was besieged There were many Christians to them it pertained to it they obeyed for d Athaâ—as Apolog. de fug acontra Arianos Hic est hominum terminus ad perfectionemducens ut quod Deus iubet hoc faciant this is the way to perfection to doe that which God commandeth But to come back to the 10. chapter of Mat. Said he to the Apostles only or rather hath he not said to the Apostles first next to all Preachers of the Gospell and consequently to all Christians e Matt. 10.16 Behold I send you forth as sheepe in the middest of Wolves Be ye therefore wise as Serpents and simple as Doves What is that to be simple as Doues It is to be harmelesse what to be wise as Serpents To keepe our selves from harme and as it followeth to beware of men when they persecute us in one City to flee into another What are their eares stopt with incredulity when this other commandement is read unto them f Matt. 7.6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs neither cast yee your pearles before swine lest they trample them under their feet and turne againe and rent you Is this a commandement of fleeing and of hiding of our selves why not why shall I remaine but to walke abroad Why walke abroad but to confesse I must not confesse before
thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from heaven with the Angels of his power We must apply this comfort to us for we shall never be without enemies But we have our warranter and protector in heaven who fore warnes us not only of their enterprises but also of their overthrow c Esa 54.15 16 17. Behold saith he they shall surely gather together but not by me whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake Behold I have created the Smith that bloweth the coales in the fire and that bringeth forth an instrument for his worke And I have created the destroyer to destroy No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper and every tongue that shall rise against thee in iudgement shou shalt condemne This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousnesse of me saith the Lord. IX The Church is an Anvile which hath broken in peeces many hammers Or as Zechariah saith d Zach. 12.3 it is a burdensome stone for all people all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it Where are now the foure Monarchies which persecuted the Church Hath not e Dan. 2.34 35 44 45. the stone cut out of the mountaine without hands hath not the Church of Christ the Church which is come downe from Gods holy mountaine even from heaven the Church which is not the work of any man but of God the Church which is but like a little stone in the eyes of the world hath not this little stone broken them all to peeces and consumed them like chaffe which the wind carryeth away But it is become a great mountaine which filleth the whole earth It is a spirituall kingdome which the Lord of heaven hath set up and therefore shall never bee destroyed God said to mount Seir to the people of Edom the children of Esau Because thou hast had a perpetuall hatred and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity in the time that their iniquity had an end Therefore as I live saith the Lord God Ezech. 35.5 I will prepare thee unto blood and blood shall pursue thee sith thou hast not hated blood blood shall pursue thee Have any of the Massacrers of our fathers prospered How many wonderfull judgements of God upon them and their children might I relate unto you if time could permit The gaggers have beene gagged and strangled with wormes bursting out of their stinking throates those which imbrued their hands with innocent blood have swumme in their owne blood the children of persecuters were seene begging at the doores of your fathers whom their fathers had spoiled Many pursued by the divell did runne up and downe like mad men crying that they were damned because they had persecuted the Church and shed innocent blood Then the Church sang to God g Psal 92.5 6 7 8 9 10 11. O LORD how great are thy works and thy thoughts are very deepe A brutish man knoweth not neither doth a foole understand this when the wicked springs as the grasse and when all the workers of iniquity doe flourish it is that they shall be destroyed for ever but thou O LORD art most high for evermore for loe thine enemies O LORD for loe thine enemies shall perish All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered but my horne shalt thou exalt like the horne of the Vnicorne c. X. The author of the booke of Wisedome saith that h Sap. 6.5 sharpe iudgement shall be to them that be in high places And experience teacheth that the iudgements of God on them have beene most sharpe conspicuous and wonderfull i 1. King 21.19 22.38 In the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth which Achab shed there they licked Achabs blood Proud k 2. King 9.35 36. Iezabel after she had slain the Prophets of the Lord was eaten by dogs Neither was there left in the family of Achab so much as a dogge that pissed against the wall In the beginning of the twenty seaventh chapter following our text the Prophet saith that l Esa 29.1 in that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish Leviathan the piercing serpent even Leviathan that crooked serpent and hee shall slay the dragon that is in the sea He calleth so the Kings of Assyria and of Babylon which were the most cruell subtile and venemous persecuters of his Church Consider and see how he punished them m 2. King 19. Senacharib was slaine by his owne sonnes in the house of Nisroch his God And n Herodot Euterp◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after his death the Egyptians whom he had oppressed erected unto him an image of stone with this inscription Whosoever looketh upon me let him feare God His third son Esar Haddon was slaine by Merodach Baladan who transported the Empire from Nimveh in Assyria to Babylon in Chaldea o Dan 5.1 Belshazzar the first and last of Merodaches race was killed among the goblets and dishes and in the midst of his Courtiers and Concubines whilest he was blaspheming the name of God the Monarchie was by Cyrus and Darius translated to the Medes and Persians p 2. Macc. 9.9 Antiochus Epiphanes famous for his most unnaturall and barbarous cruelty against the Church of the Iewes was smitten with the incurable and remedilesse sicknesse of wormes and lice which rising up out of his bowells and all the parts of his body consumed his flesh with many and strange torments and such a stinking smell that he himselfe could not abide it Thus dying a most miserable death hee left his Realme to his children amongst whom God sent the Spirit of division and discord which left them never in peace till they were consumed one by another XI Herodées q Ioseph Antiquit. Iudaic. lib. 17. cap. 8. Idem de bello Iudaico lib. 1. ca. 21. murtherer of the children of Bethelem through the righteous judgement of God became parricide of his owne children and at last after he had been long tortured with a cholike passion and unspeakeable torments in his entrails and all disfigured with the dropsie and scurfe wherwith his whole body was spread over was gnawen by swarmes of lice and worms which bursting forth out of those parts of his body which naturall shame commanded him to hide and dolefull necessitie constrained him to discover made him a most filthy and stinking spectacle to his Courtiers and a most loathsome guest to himselfe r Ioseph Autiq. lib. 18. cap. 9. Herodés Antypas who beheaded Iohn Baptist was relegated to Lion with his incestuous wife Herodias and ended there his wicked life by a wretched and miserable death Å¿ Euseb hâ—st
indignation and he shall bee tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy Angels and the smoake of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever and they have no rest day nor night In vaine shall they strive and struggle to rid themselves from the eternall chaines of darkenesse wherewith they are tyed in that bottomlesse Mine for like unto fishprickt with the Anglers hooke the more they wrench and wriggle to escape faster and faster are they intangled and sinke deeper into the burning lake of death and damnation Are not darkenesse blood fire brimstone burning alive torments fearefull enough to make the haire to bristle and the stoutest heart to melt as waxe against the fire and yet all these are but shadowes and counterfeits of the extreamity of paine wherewith the damned are racked in hell If Nebuchadnezzars hot glowing furnaces if Antiochus caldrons of boyling oyle if Phalaris fierie brazen Bull if Davids sawes harrowes of yron and mortars if the needles the pinsers the burning yron grates and brazen chaires if the tympan the spits the flaying of living men and other torments practised by Tyrants against Christians were so fell and hideous if dayly men invent new tortures more fierce and terrible than those were doubtlesse the paines of hell which the divell deviseth or rather which are of Gods owne invention are ten thousand times more horrible than mans heart can imagine As in all Gods workes i Aug. epist 3. ad Volasianum Tota ratio facti potentia facientis Considera authorem tolle dubitanonē the reason of the doing is the power of the doer So in this let Atheists consider the author and all their doubts will cease God hath said it and will he not performe it XIIX As every member joynt and part of wicked men conspire together in sinne to offend God so the righteous and Almighty God hath bequeathed to each of them a severall torment The mind shall be racked with the consideration of the unexpugnable wrath of God and contemplation of its own endlesse infelicity The memory shall be continually tormented with the remembrance of the manifold and foule sinnes which were causes of such plagues The conscience shall feele a k Esa 66.24 Mar. 9.44 worme ever gnawing it with a most bitter but unfruitfull remorse of sinne The phantasie shall bee troubled with ghastly visions The eyes shall see nothing but ugly divells and damned persons The eares shall heare nothing but roarings of the infernall spirits but shriekes and dreadfull cryes of tortured malefactors What the palat shall taste what the nostrils shal smell what the hands shall catch hold of what the other parts of the body shall suffer in that dark dungeon of Gods wrath I know not This I know that as l 1. Cor. 3.9 eye hath not seene nor eare heard neither have entred into into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him in the kingdome of light with his owne selfe so no tongue can utter yea no heart can imagine the manifold and bitter plagues which the justice of God hath reserved for them that hate him in the kingdome of darkenesse with the m Iob 18.14 King of terrors XIX Happy would they thinke themselves if after many myriades of yeares they might hope for some reliefe but to fill up the unmeasurable measure of their miseries they know that God hath called the fire wherein they burne n Mat. 25.41 everlasting the death whereunto they are condemned o 2. Thes 1.9 everlasting destruction and qualifieth with the same title the worme which gnaweth their never-dying conscience saying that p Mark 9.48 it dyeth not They know that the entrance into hell is large and easie but the regresse impossible They know that the power and justice of God hath appointed unto them an immortall death an endlesse end everlasting darkenesse in the middest of an ay-burning fire poyson of dragons cruell venime of aspes bitternesse it selfe to eate and to drinke in the blackenesse of an eternall night whereupon the cloud of Gods curse and the shadow of death shall dwell for ever and the light of comfort shall never shine XX. This is the share allotted to all them that feare not God to q Luk. 16.19 the rich man who did no harme to Lazarus but onely refused to give him meate and to r Mat. 25.41 42. all his mates to ſ Mat. 25.30 the unprofitable servant to him who goeth to the marriage-feast without t Mat. 22.11 12 13. a wedding garment O then two and threefold more shall bee children of hell all those which throw the crummes of bread out of Lazarus mouth which are never weary of ill doing which have all their garments stained with the blood of Gods servants Shall it v Mat. 10.15 Mat. 11.22.24 be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of iudgement than for those who receive not the Preachers of the Gospell and refuse to heare the word Oh then how intolearble shall be then the plagues of God upon the Neroes Dioclesians all the persecuters of the Gospell x Psal 11.5 6. The Lord tryeth the righteous but the wicked and him that loveth violence his soule hateth Vpon the wicked hee shall raine snares fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest that shall be the portion of their cup. Then then y Rev. 16.10 they shall gnaw their tongues for paine then nothing shall be heard and seene amongst them but a Mat. 12.13 weeping and gnashing of teeth but crying b Rev. 6.16 to mountaines and rockes to fall upon them and to death to come and kill them when c Rev. 3.6 death shall flee from them d Aug. de Tempore serm 252. Quta quibus in hoc seculo vita offertur nolunt accipere in inferno quaerent mortem non poterint invenire When in this world life is offered unto them they refuse to accept it Therefore in hell they shall seeke death and shall not find it In that desire as there is a great sinne so there is in it a great paine It is a righteous thing with God to punish sinne therefore it is a sinne in the prisoners of hell to desire to shake off the punishment of sinne Againe e Quid tam poenale quā semper velle quod nūquam erit c. What is more penall saith Bernard than ever to desire that which never shall be and ever to be unwilling to that which shall never but be They shall never obtaine what they would and evermore sustaine what they would not XXI Adde unto all those punishments one which shall bee to all the persecuters of the Church a deadly wound ever bleeding for in that great day f Esa 26.19 Rev. 20.13 the earth the grave the sea death it selfe shall deliver up the dead which are in them the Martyrs whom these
murtherers have slain shall arise and bee received into eternall glory in the presence of their enemies with this welcome from the eternall Iudge g Mat. 25 34. Come ye blessed of my Father inherite the kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the world O most wonderfull inheritance h Aug. Hareditas Domini nou minuitur multitudine possessorian tanta singulis quanta universis It is not diminished by the multitude of those which possesse it It is as large to every one apart as to the whole multitude together O most excellent and glorious inheritance It is a kingdome wherein our darkenesse shall bee converted into light our sorrow into ioy our trouble into peace our weaknesse into strength our dishonour into honour our ignominie into glory our misery into happinesse our death into life our patient hope into the reall enioying of all good our prayers into thanks-giving Where the heavens shall receive us the holy Angells welcome us the blessed Saints ioyne themselves unto us where our bodies being made of mortall immortall of naturall spirituall of burthensome nimble shall shine brighter than the fairest summer-day Where i 1. Cor. 15.28 God himselfe without any meanes shall bee all in all perfect and absolute knowledge to our mindes an ocean of love to our hearts soveraigne good and the blessed center of eternall rest to all our restlesse affections where he himselfe after a most wonderfull and glorious manner which cannot be imagined shall be light in our eyes melody in our eares the wished and longed-for obiect of all our senses where he saith That k Rev. 21.3 he himselfe shall be with us and be our God l Aug. de Civit Dei li. 22. capaile i. he shall be unto us all whereby we may be satisfied and whatsoever all may honestly desire life salvation meate drinke riches glory honour peace and all good Which David expressed in few words saying m Psal 16.11 In thy presence is fulnesse of ioy at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore And againe n Psa 17.15 As for me I will behold thy face in righteousnesse I will be satisfied when I awake with thy likenesse For then God shall be the end of all our desires then o Aug. idid Ipse finis evit desideriorum nostrorum qui sine fine vide bitur sine faslidio amabitur sine fatigatione laud abitur We shall see him without end wee shall love him without loathing we shall prayse him without wearying Then also our enemies shall see our glory in him and with him and as the Author of the booke of Wisedome saith p Sap. 5.2 When they see it they shall be troubled with terrible feare and shall be amazed at the strangenesse of our salvation so farre beyond all that they looked for c. XXII O then dearely beloved let us learne to discerne wisely q Mal. 3.18 betweene the righteous and the wicked betweene him that serveth God and him that serveth him not Salomon saith that r Pro. 13.9 the lampe of the wicked shall bee put out comparing wicked men to a candle which when it begins to burne giveth a faire light but endeth in stinking smoake and caligiousnesse for their end is worse than their beginning because Å¿ Iob 21.30 they are reserved to the day of destruction to the day when wrath shall be brought foorth On the other side t Psal 37.37 39 40. Marke the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace because the salvation of the righteous is of the LORD he is their strength in the time of trouble and the Lord shall helpe them and deliver them he shall deliver them from the wicked and save them because they trust in him The short dayes of mans fading and dying life me thinkes may be most conveniently compared to a stage-play wherein often Kings sonnes mount on the scaffold disguised in poore mens rags and beggers march with a stately pase attired in sumptuous robes about their greasie bodies hiding scurvie heads under crowns of gold and stretching forth a royall Scepter with scabbed hands but when the curtaines are remooved when the Tragedy is ended and the Players are stript of their borrowed apparell he that made so many vaine glorious shewes and called himselfe Hercules or Agamemnon is knowne to be poore Irus who goeth begging thorow the streetes and crackling crusts of browne bread betweene his muddie and rotten teeth and hee that was thought to be Irus is knowne to be the royall sonne of Aeacus T is even so betweene the Church and the world when v Luk. 16.19 20. Lazarus starves for hunger at the rich mans gate and the rich man jetteth in his purple and makes good cheere when x Mat. 27.39 Christ is nayled upon the crosse and his enemies stand hard by reviling him when the y Rev. 11.9 10 11 12. dead bodies of Christs two witnesses lye unburied in the streets of the great City and they that dwell upon the earth reioyce over them and thanke their gods of gold silver brasse because they have overcome them it seemes that those which are thus afflicted are but poore snakes forsaken of God and that those others which swim with content in the Ocean of worldly pleasures are Gods deare ones But when the divells shall bury the rich Glutton in the lowest pit of hell when boiling there in the lake of fire and brimstone he shall lift up his eyes and see Lazarus in Abrahams bosome abundantly satisfied with the fatnesse of the house of God drinking great draughts in the river of his pleasures when the spirit of life from God shall enter into his two witnesses when they shall rise againe stand upon their feet and ascend up to heaven when a Mat. 24.30 Iesus Christ shall come in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory when he shall set his sheepe on his right hand and the goates on the left when b Rev. 1.7 they which pierced him shall see him and by him shall be throwne downe into the rich Mine of eternall torments c Aug. 50. homil Homil 16. Morituri vitae morti sine sine victuri to dye there unto life and to live unto death world without when those d Sap. 5.4 5 whose life they accounted madnesse and their end disgrace shall be received into the haven of eternall securitie then then all the Bulls of Bashan shall know that al their life was but a ridiculous move-merry their pleasures but a shew their felicitie but the glympse of a shadow that those whom they had sometimes in derision and who were in their mouthes a Proverb of reproach are Gods beloved children and his most precious jewells XXIII O then where are they that thinke to overthrow the Church And when will they listen to this truth Minde they to raine downe upon the Church a deluge of
for Christ in Christ holily with Christ wisely for Christ gloriously O how glorious before God is the death of Martyrs c Psal 116 15. Precious in the sight of God is the death of his Saints but namely of his Martyrs which dye in him with him for him Weenest thou that it is but a slender glory that Christ hath chosen thee one among a thousand to be his Martyr that he will have thee to suffer not onely with him as doe all those which suffer for righteousnesse sake but also for him that as he d Ioh. 21.19 forewarned Peter by what death he should glorifie him so hee taketh thee by the hand and saith to thee Come I have picked thee out from many millions to beare witnes to the truth of my word before the great men of the earth to seale the faith thou hast in me with thy blood to honour me with thy death When c Gen. 32.6 7 8. Iacob was advertised that his brother Esau was comming to meete him and foure hundred men with him hee was greatly afraid and divided the people that were with him and the Flockes and the Heards and the Camels into two bands them he set foremost in the front of the battell f Gen. 33.2 3. the second place he gave to the hand-maides and their children the third to Lea and her children but he put Rachel and Ioseph hindermost because hee loved them best he adventureth all that he hath to save these two God doth farre otherwayes with his people he setteth foremost a little number of chosen men to whom hee hath distributed his graces in a greater scantling than to the rest them he setteth in the front to be his Martyrs and to fight against the powers of the world sparing the multitude to bee the seed-plot and nurserie of his Church IIX Who can conceive sufficiently the greatnesse of this honour g Luk. 6.23 When yeare hated excommunicated reproached put to death for the Sonne of mans sake Christ biddeth you reioyce and leape for ioy because the Prophets were used in like manner h Heb. 11.32 c. The Apostle in his epistle to the Hebrewes maketh a catalogue of many Worthies which under the Law suffered for the word of God of whom the world was not worthie that we may esteeme our selves most happy when God conformeth us to them i Iam. 5.10 11. S. Iames willeth us to take them for an example of suffering affliction of patience that as we count them happy so we may make it a part of our happinesse to bee like unto them k 1. Pet. 5.9 S. Peter will have us to know that the same afflictions are accomplished in our brethren that are in the world And S. Paul will have us to remember that by tribulations for the Gospell l 1. Thess 2.14 wee become followers of the Churches of God which is no small honour It is said in the Song of Salomon that m Cant. 4.13 the plants of the Church are an Orchard of Pomegranates A Pomegranate hath within it sundry partitions and as it were little mansions with many graines in each of them of a sweete taste and red colour orderly set one by another and all together infolded and shut up under one outward skinne which hath at the top a little round circle like a crowne A most excellent Embleme of the faithfull who are as so many graines set orderly together by the unity of one faith and by the bond of perfectnesse which is charitie having a sweet taste in the holinesse of their life and a red colour in the conformitie of bloudy persecution in the severall Churches where God hath planted them under the Catholike Church whereof the head is our Lord Iesus Christ who as he was first crowned with thornes upon earth so is he now crowned with glory in heaven IX To him must we looke principally as the grains of the Pomegranate looke upward to the head of the skinne wherein they are wrapped and according to Peters exhortation n 1. Pet. 4.12 13. reioyce when we are in the furnace for our tryall in at much as wee are partakers of Christs sufferings for o Rom. 8.28 whom God did foreknow he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Sonne first in crosses for him next in crownes through him p Rom. 8.17 2. Tim. 2.11 the one and the other with him In this Realme men of good birth hold it no little honor to beare the liverie of the Kings Favourite and how much more the Kings owne liverie Shall wee not then account it a most speciall honour and glory to beare Christs liverie in whom God is well pleased and who is the King of kings to be for him made like unto him to be a curse among men for him who was a curse before God for us to dye that we may glorifie him who is dead to save us Should not the members bee ashamed to take their sports and delights under a head crowned with thornes I confesse that there is a great difference betwixt Christs sufferings and ours First hee is God and man we are but men Secondly hee was in his manhood without sinne there was never man so holy but he was a sinner Thirdly q Gal. 3.1 3. he in his torments was made a curse and drunke the full cup of Gods wrath which was so bitter to his soule that he cryed r Mat. 26.46 My God my God why hast thou forsaken me All the Saints and Martyrs have alwaies in all their heaviest crosses beene comforted and supported of God Fourthly he suffered for the expiation of sinne and his death is the life of the world All the Martyrs ſ Rev. 7.14 15. have washed their robes and made them white in his blood therefore are they before the throne of God They have all suffered to beare witnesse that he suffered for the sinnes of the world none of them have suffered for the sins of the world t Leo. 1. epist 83 ad Palestinos Episcopos For though the death of many Saints hath beene precious in Gods eyes yet hath not the killing of any Saint beene the propitiation of the world The righteous have received but they have not given crownes and the fortitude of the faithfull hath brought forth examples of patience not gifts of righteousnesse The death of each one of them was severall neither did any by his owne end pay the debt of another considering that among thē sonnes of men Iesus Christ our Lord alone is he in whom all are crutified all are dead all buried all raised up of whom he said v Ioh. 12.32 If I be lifted up from the earth I will draw all men unto me Yet in this is the conformitie of our sufferings with Christs sufferings that as when Christ suffered for our sake and in our roome we suffered in him so when we suffer for Christs sake he