cannot do any thing nor will any thing Isidorus l. 1. c. 10. Aug. de fide ad petrum c. 3. contrary to the Will of God as both Isidorus and Saint Augustine do most fully and excellently declare Error 2 2. For that a vail or covering cannot be sufficient to keep any thing from the sight of a Spirit who doth so perfectly penetrate into all inferiour objects as that he knoweth them quantum cognoscibilia sunt so far as they are knowable And therefore touching this first opinion of their fall and sin as this Inference is insufficient so the foundation of it is not firm Zanch. de operibus Dei l. 4. c. 2. and I will not say with Zanchius that this opinion is nimis stulta and the Authors of it nimis stupidi as Theodoret in his forty seventh Question upon Genesis because that should be sermo nimis durus The double reason against the error of this first opinion too rigorous a censure upon those worthy men that held it But I say they were mistaken in a double respect 1. Because that there is no mention in the Scripture of this sin of carnal Concupiscence or fleshly Lusts until almost a thousand years after the Creation of the World but it is Reason 1 most certain that there were many other sins both of the Angels and Men long before this sin For the â—cripture teacheth us saith Saint Chrysostome that before Adam was formed the Devil fell away from his dignity And the Wise man saith That by the envy of the devil death entred into the world Therefore he sinned before Adam sinned for otherwise if he fell not before man was made how could he remaining in so great a dignity in Heaven envy man here on Earth It is not likely but it is against all reason to think that an Angel incorporeal placed in the height of glory and in the sight of God should envy man that bare a body of earth about him and lived here on earth but he being cast down from Heaven and to be chained in extream ignominy and seeing man in such great dignity then his malice saith Saint Chrysostome Non potuit non graviter ferre aliorum foeâ—icitatem could not endure the sight of others happiness without envy 2. Because that the Lord God himself saith Gen. 6.3 My Spirit Reason 2 shall not alwayes strive with man for that he is but flesh yet his dayes shall be an hundred and twenty years At natura incorporea carnes non habet But the Spirits have no flesh neither have the Angels a life defined or determined by time Theodoret q. 47. in Gen. seeing they are immortal saith Theodoret. Therefore the sin of these foul Spirits could not be any carnal Lust 2. Opinion is of them which say 2. Opinion of their fall Eccles 10.13 That pride caused them to fall That the first sin of Satan was Pride according to that of Syracides Initium omnis peccati est superbia Pride is the beginning of sin and the beginning of pride is to depart from God when the heart turneth away from his Maker Whereupon Saint Augustine saith Aug. in vet Test That the Devil elatione inflatus puffed up with pride would needs be counted and so taken for God And so Saint Chrysostome saith Chrysostome in Isai ad hom 3. That Satan Per superbiam factus est Diabolus qui antea Diabolus non erat by his pride was made a Devil which before he became proud was no Devil A good Lesson for proud fantastical men to think on what their pride will bring them to which brought the Angels of Heaven to be Devils in Hell Hierom in c. 28. Ezek Ambros in Psal 118. Ser. 3. Nazian Orat. 1. de pace Fulgent ad Monimum l. 10. Esay 14.13 14. 1. Reason to prove pride to be their sin Job 41.34 Ezek. 28.2 14.15 And this was the opinion of St. Hierom and of St. Ambrose and of St. Nazianzen Fulgentius Athanasius Theodoret and many more And this their opinion may be confirmed both out of the Old and New Testament For 1. In the old Testament it is said Cogitavit apud semetipsum He thought with himself to exalt his throne above the stars of God and said I will ascend above the height of the clouds and I will be like the most High The like whereof we find in Job under the name of the Leviathan who is said to be the king over all the children of pride And the very like in Ezekiel under the title of the Prince of Tyrus whose heart was lifted up and he said I am a god and I sit in the seat of God and the Prophet in the person of God saith of him Thou art the annointed Cherub that covereth and I have sâ—t thee so thou wast upon the holy mountain of God thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire and thou wast perfect in thy wayes from the day that thou wast created until iniquity was found in thee For though I am not ignorant that the place of Esay is literally to be understood of the King of Babylon and that of Job of the Whale and the other place of Ezekiel is spoken of the King of Tyrus yet this can be no hinderance but that mystically these places may signifie the Devil who is the head and the grand Captain of all the children of pride Rupertus de victoria verbi Dei 2. Reason to prove it Luke 10.18 as Rupertus Tuitiensis doth most excellently declare 2. The same may be proved out of the new Testament where our blessed Saviour for the repressing of this detestable sin of pride alledgeth the fall of Satan saying I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven and therefore take heed of being proud that the foul Spirits are subject unto you lest you fall likewise even as he did And so Saint Paul sheweth That he which is puffed up with pride 1 Tim. 3.6 falleth into the snare and judgment or condemnation of the devil that for his pride was adjudged and condemned to hell And let all proud Gallants take heed of the like judgment and condemnation 3. Opinion is of them which say 3. Opinion of their fall That the first sin of the Devil was Envy when he saw man that was formed of the dust of the earth to be made in the Image of God and to confirm the same they alledge Athenagoras Petrus Alexandrinus and especially that place in the Book of Wisdom where the Wise man saith That Per invidiam Diaboli Sap. 2.24 mors intravit in mundum through the envy of the Devil death came into the world But this saith Zanchius crosseth not the truth of the former opinion but may well agree with it and proceed from his pride seeing as Aquinas saith Thom 12. q. 84. ar 20. 22. q. 77. art 5. Envy is a branch of pride Quando bonum
make them to see a thousand colours And as a pure chrystal glass cannot indure the strong working of the fire but it will break all to pieces even so the weakness of mans mortal nature though it liveth by the enjoying of Gods presence yet it cannot bear nor comprehend the glory and brightness of Gods Majesty but that in looking upon so clear an object the eyes of his understanding shall be dazled and he shall fall and be swallowed up into a thousand errours For seeing as the Apostle speaketh our knowledge of God in this life is but in part 1 Cor. 13.12 like the beholding of a man suddenly passing by us when we can look upon nothing but onely his back parts it is impossible for any man in this mortality to know perfectly and exactly the being and wayes of the most highest And therefore this checketh the curiosity and reproveth the boldness of those men that like Phaeton will flie and mount up too high to search into the Heavenly mysteries for as the wise man saith who can number the sand of the sea the drops of rain Ecclas 1.2 and the dayes of time who can measure the height of Heaven the breadth of the Earth and the depth of the Sea Who can find out the wisdome of God which hath been before all things For if we consider either the nature and essence of God or if we look into the counsels and works of God we shall easily perceive that they are all incomprehensible Danaeus Isag Et si quid facit Deus naturae nobis assuetae repugnans nihil tamen facit rationi repugnans And if God doth any thing that seemeth repugnant to our accustomed nature yet we may be sure he doth nothing that is repugnant to reason And though all that God doth be exceeding good yet we cannot always perceive many of them to be good and yet this makes them not to be unjust Gregor in Job c. 9. because we understand them not to be just for as St. Gregory saith Qui in factis Dei rationem non videt He that seeth not the reason of Gods doings let him consider his own infirmity and blindness rationem videat cur non videt and he shall soon see the reason why he seeth it not and if we seek to know more then we are able to understand we shall understand less then we do And therefore Solomon gives good counsell to these Gnosticks saying Eccles 7.18 be not thou just overmuch neither make thy self over-wise For the mystery of the Lords commanding Adam that he should not eat of the tree of knowledge was very great because the knowledge that he should get thereby would not onely cause his present fall That we ought not to be too curious to search into divine mysteries Gen. 3.5 V. 7. but also make both him and all his sons for evermore to fall And therefore the subtle Serpent that aymed at the readiest way to destroy them promised unto Eva and he kept his promise that if they would eat of the tree of knowledge their eyes should be opened and they should be as Gods knowing good and evil and so it was for the text saith that their eyes were opened and they had the knowledge both of good and evil the good that they had lost and the evil that they had fallen into for they knew that they were naked And so this knowledge did but direct them a way to run away from God and teach them the art to sowe fig-leaves together to cover their shame and to hide their wickedness and themselves from the sight of God which they could never do And therefore happy Adam hadst thou been if thou never hadst had this knowledge for this knowledge made thee to full and so the Prophet Esay saith of Babylon Esay 47.10 thy wisdom and thy knowledge have caused thee to rebel or to turn away and so Ovid saith of himself Ingenio perii qui miser ipse meo My wit and my knowledge hath undone me And I fear that many other men will cry out that their too greedy a desire inconcessae scientiae of unlawful knowledge and prying too far into hidden mysteries hath hurried them into most desperate conclusions for though it be very true that no other creature upon earth hath reason and understanding but onely man yet it is as true that no other creature goeth so far from reason as man alone And therefore I do not say happy are the beasts that want reason but I say unhappy is that man qui cum ratione insanit that runneth mad with the reason that God hath given him and by aspiring to get unlawful knowledge doth fall into unavoidable mischief And therefore the Devil could wish that all his servants were as knowing as Berengarius and as subtle as Dunâ— Scotus because he hath more excellent execrable service from one of them then he can have from a thousand others for it is a true saying That inferiour conceits have inferiour sins non nisi ex magnis ingeniis magni errores and the great errors never came but from great wits such as Arius Pelagius and the rest of the great Hereticks had And as it was the Giants and Lucifer that highly rebelled and warred against God and as it was the Princes and the Kings of the earth that stood up and took counsel against the Lord and against his Anointed So it is the great Lords that were the great rebels and the mean men that were infirmiores in exercitu are but as the tayle of the Dragon which the great men drew after them And so it is the curious wits the pryers and searchers after unsearchable knowledge and secret mysteries that hatch the cockatrice eggs and produce the most desperate errours And therefore seeing the ambitious desires of attaining more knowledge then beseemeth us and the knowledge of those secret things Deut 29 29. that as Moses saith belong unto the Lord our God are the Devil 's splendida peccata his glistering sins generosa scelera his noble projects his jewels and most honourable stratagems which have caused many men not onely to fall away The Seminary Priests and Presbyterians the most dangerous people in the Church of God but also to run away from God we ought to take the counsel of Saint Augustin Magis metuere cum in intellectu habitat diabolus quaem cum in affectionibus to fear more when the Devil dwelleth in the understanding then when he corrupteth our affections when as a Pestilent Heretique or a Seminary Priest or a Fanatique Non-conformist doth more mischief then either a dissolute drunkard or a covetous merchant And when we can not comprehend the Majesty of God we should say with our selves it is no marvel because he dwels in the Light that none can attain unto it so when we can not understand his ways nor dive into the depth of his counsels and his decrees of election and
he have done it Yet this man sold his God that had done such great things for him and brake his Commandment for an Apple What moved Adam and Evah to offend God Ambition And what moved him to doe this but that which moveth all his children ever since to destroy themselves and all the Kingdoms of the earth Ambition That he might be as Lucifer desired to be before him similis Altissimo like Gods knowing good and evil And this infernal weed that first took life in Lucifer's breast hath poysoned all his Posterity ever since and especially all the great men of this world that desire to be greater and affect and contend for honour and greatness above measure For as Eudoxus the Philosopher desired of the Gods that he might behold the Sun very near to comprehend the forme greatness and beauty thereof and afterwards be burnt of it as the Poets say Phaeton was so Ambition is the boldest and the most disorderly passion of all those desires which trouble mens mindes and fills their heads with an unsatiable greediness of obtaining those things which they should no wayes desire and by that means as Adam did they undoe themselves and many thousands more for so Mar. Crassus the richest man in Rome M. Crassus burning with ambition and an excessive desire of new triumphs presumed at sixty years of age to undertake the warr against Arsaces King of the Parthians and therein his whole Army was discomfited himself miserably slain twenty thousand of his men killed C. Marius and ten thousand taken Prisoners So Caius Marius weakened with old age but strengthened by Ambition to continue in sovereign authority would undertake the warr against Mithridates King of Pontus and thereby he was the cause of his own utter overthrow and of that great slaughter which imbrued all Italy and Spain with the deluge of bloud that Sylla by his extreme cruelty brought upon them Spurius Melius Marc. Manlius Hen. 5. And the like may be said of Spurius Melius the Roman Senator of Marc. Manlius of Henry the Fifth whose ambition deprived his own father from the Empire and caused him to dye miserably in Prison and indeed of those threescore and thirteen Emperours that within the space of one hundred years dyed all of them excepting three that dyed of sickness in their beds by violent deaths And as the ambition of the Triumvirate Octav. Antonius and Lepidus had well-nigh ruinated the Roman Empire Pet. de la Primauday fr. accad pag. 223. so Peter de la Primauday saith that the ambition of the Dukes of Orleans and Burgundy had almost utterly consumed the Kingdom of France and was the occasion that more then four thousand men were slain within Paris in one day and so I may say that this wilde plant and bitter root of Ambition that first sprang up in Paradise and afterwards grew worse and worse in the accursed earth was the cause that moved the late Vsurper and many others of those Traytors and Rebels that followed him to bring all the calamities that we have both seen and felt in these Dominions And therefore we ought to detest this cursed Plant that brought forth such bitter fruits of undutifulness unthankfulness and rebellion to be rendred unto God for all the great good that he had done for man But now after that man had fallen and thus disloyally sinned against God Non dignus est peccator panc quo vescitur nec lumine coeli quo illuminatur The sinner even the best of us all that are Adam's seed is not worthy of the bread that he eateth or the light of the Sun that shines unto him for if before his being he deserved no good how much evil doth he now deserve when he hath so fouly defiled himself and so highly offended his God And yet Vtinam saperent How graciously God dealt with Adam after he had sinned I would to God we would cast our eyes behinde us to behold and see the goodness of God and what wonders he hath done for the children of men for he pittyed Adam when he was naked and made them coats of skin to hide and cover their nakedness and to preserve their bodies from the storms of winter and the scorching heat of summer And when all the World had corrupted their wayes before God he saved Noah and his family And with the seed of Adam when the deluge destroyed all other flesh and afterward he snatched away Abraham out of the very flames of Idolatry that was begun to be kindled in his father Terah's house and then he delivered him out of Egypt and preserved him out of all his troubles And for the seed of Abraham The Israelites the children of Israel Moses tells you what God hath done for them for when he divided to the Nations their inheritance Deut. 32.8 9 10 11 12 13 14. he took Jacob for the lot of his own inheritance and though he found him in a desart land and in the waste howling wilderness yet he led him about he instructed him and kept him as the apple of his eye and he made him ride on the high places of the earth that he might eat the encrease of the fields and he made him to suck honey out of the rock and oyl out of the flinty rock butter of kinc and milk of sheep fat of lambs and ramms of the breed of Basan and goats with the fat of kidneys of wheat and to drink the pure bloud of the grape And the Prophet Ezekiel doth amplifie the great goodness of God towards this people more at large saying that their birth and their nativity was of the land of Canaan their father was an Amorite and their mother an Hittite i. e. an accursed people and in the day that thou wast born thy navel was not cut neither wast thou washed in water nor salted nor swadled at all no eye pittyed thee to have compassion upon thee but thou wast cast out in the open field to the loathing of thy person and when I saw thee polluted in thine own bloud I said unto thee live and I washed thee with water and anointed thee with oyl I cloathed thee also with broydered work and shod thee with badgers skin and I girded thee about with fine linnen and I covered thee with silk I decked thee also with ornaments and I put bracelets upon thine hands and a chain on thy neck even as our fine Ladyes have in these dayes and I have put a jewel on the forehead and ear-rings in thine eares and a beautiful Crown upon thy head and thou didst eat fine flower Ezech. 16.3 ad v. 15. and honey and oyl and thou becamest exceeding beautiful and perfect through my comliness which I had put upon thee saith the Lord God How unthankful and undutiful they were to God And what reward did this people render unto God and what requital have they made unto him for all these
great benefits that this good God had done unto them First Moses tells you They waxed fat and then they kicked as we lately did and forsook God that made them and lightly esteemed the rock of their salvation They provoked him to jealousie with strange Gods and moved him to anger with their abominations They sacrificed to Devils and not to God to Gods that they knew not that came newly up whom their fathers feared not which was and is the fruit of every new Religion as of late dayes we have fully seen amongst us And then as they forsook God that formed them so presently they rebelled against his servants they muttered and murmured and rejected all their Governours and as the Psalmist saith They angred Moses in their tents and Aaron the Saint of the Lord for these two to forsake God and to rebel against their Governours do always go together And if you look into the foresaid sixteenth Chapter of Ezekiel you shall see how the Prophet sheweth their wickedness and how they have multiplied their abominations above measure and as many of us over-wickedly and unjustly seeking to make our children great in this world do bring them unto the Devil in the world to come Ezech. 16.21 so did they slay their children and cause them to pass through the fire and as the Psalmist saith Ps 106.37 They offered their sons and their daughters unto Devils and the Lord himself assureth us that Sodom had not done so wickedly as they had done Ezek. 16.48.51 and Samaria had not committed half of their sins And what an intolerable ingratitude was this The most monstrous thing that ever was not possibly to be described quia dixeris maledicta cuncta cum ingratum hominem dixeris because thou sayest all the evils that can be said when thou namest an ungrateful man especially to God that hath done such great things for us For we read of many bruit beasts that for small benefits have been very thankful unto men as of the Dog that for a peice of bread will follow and be ready to die for his Master and the Lion that for pulling a thorn out of his foot preserved the slave that did it from all the beasts of the forrest and afterwards his life on the Theatre in Rome and Primauday tells us of an Arabian infidel that being taken prisoner and afterwards set at liberty by Baldwin King of Jerusalem in token of his thankfulness for that favour Pet. Prim. c. 40. p. 431. he went to him by night into a Town where he was retired after he had lost the field and declared to him the purpose of his companions and conducted him until he had brought him out of all danger And when bruit beasts and Pagans are thus thankful unto us shall man be unthankful unto God No no He should be truly thankful And Seneca saith there be four special conditions of true thankfulness 1. Grate accipere to receive it thankfully 2. Nunquam oblivisci Never to forget it for he can never be thankful that hath forgotten the benefit 3. Ingenue fateri per quem profecerimus Four conditions of true thankfulness ingeniously to acknowledge by whom we are profited 4. Pro virili retribuere to requite the benefit received in the best manner that we are able But this people scarce observed any one of them I am sure not the second and therefore not possibly the third and fourth for the Prophet David tells us plainly that after the Lord had shewed his tokens among them and his wonders in the land of Ham and had brought forth his people with joy and his chosen with gladness and had given them the lands of the Heathen Is 105.42 43 so that they did as many have done amongst us to take the labours of the people in possession Ps 106.13 Yet within a while they did as we do forget his works and would not abide his counsel V. 21. yea they forgat God their Saviour which had done so great things in Egypt wondrous things in the land of Ham and fearful things by the Red-sea But to let this people pass that were destroyed for their unthankfulness let us look unto our selves and have our eyes behind us to behold and see First What God hath done for us And What God did for us the people of these dominions Amos 3.2 Secondly What we have done for the honour and service of God And First As the Lord said of the Jews You onely have I chosen of all the families of the earth so I believe the Lord may justly say of our Kings dominions that he shewed more love and favour unto them then he did to any other Kingdom of the World for whatsoever good he did to others he did the same to us And he shewed two more signal favours to us then he did to any other Kingdome of all Christendome As I. He raised the good Emperour Constantine the Son of Helen out of Britaine to close up the days of persecution and shut the doors of the Idol-Temples II. When the mysts of ignorance and errors and superstition had covered and overshadowed almost all the Church of Christ God sent successively no less then five such excellent Protestant Princes King Edward the sixth Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles the I. and II. as no other Kingdom had the like to protest against all the Popish errours and superstition and to make such a perfect reformation of Religion that both for Doctrine and Discipline no Church in Christendom is so purely and so perfectly established as these Churches of our Kings dominions are such love and such mercies of God to us as exceeded all the blessings of the earth and shewed to no other Nation of the world in such a measure but to this And what reward I pray you What requital have we rendred unto God have we and our people rendred unâ—o God for those great unparalell'd benefits that he hath done unto us I do profess I have been a man ever faithful to my King and ever fearless of all the dangers of the world and therefore I must say the truth as Saint Steven told the Jews though I should fare as Saint Steven did that as they were a stiff-necked people that have always resisted the Holy Ghost and persecuted the Prophets and been the traytors and murderers of Christ so have the major part of us shewed themselves a rebellious Nation that confederated to assist the Devil to requite Gods extraordinary signal favour to us with extraordinary signal contempt of Gods service and signal malice to all his servants above any other nation of the World by raising out of us and bringing in amongst us the great Anti-Christ that is the great enemies of Christ you know whom * The Long Parliament to slay the two witnesses of Jesus Christ which were Cohors Magistratuum Chorus Prophetarum 1. the best and blessed King Charles the First that
for it Num. 14.19 Moses prayed unto the Lord and said Pardon I beseech thee the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy mercy so when Sennacherib came against Hierusalem 2 Chron 32.20 Hezechiah the King and Isaiah the Prophet prayed and cryed to heaven And his prayer is set down 2 Reg. 19.15 and when the Moabites and Ammonites in a huge multitude came against Jehosaphat he set himself to seek the Lord saith the Text and proclaimed a Fast throughout all Judah and made an excellent prayer to God 2 Chron. 20.6 usque ad vers 13. which I desire you to read and observe it well so Daniel after he had made confession of the sins of the people makes an earnest and most fervent Prayer to God for the remission of their sins so David saith unto God Dan 9.16 usque ad 20. ver look upon mine adversities and miseries and forgive me all my sins and Christ biddeth us to ask and we should have Mat. 7.7 And if we thus unfainedly confess our sins Psal 25.17 and fervently beg pardon and constantly forsake our sins God is faithful saith the Apostle that is faithful because he promised 1 Joh. 1.9 to forgive us our sins 2. As we are to seek the Lord externally with all the parts of our bodies so we are to seek him internally 2. With all the faculties of our souls with all the faculties of our soul and as David concludes this manner to his Son Solomon it must be with a perfect heart and a willing mind for otherwise to seek the Lord with outward profession and not with inward obedience is but meer hypocrisie 1 Chro. 28 9. like the Religion of the Jews that were ever handling of holy things but without feeling and drew near unto God with their mouths and honoured him with their lips Isa 29.13 when they called upon him and prayed unto him but removed their hearts far from him And therefore God abhorred their devotion and said I hate I despise your feast daies and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies though you offer me burnt offerings Amos 5.21.22 Isa 1.11 and your meat offerings I will not accept them neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fat Beasts and as the Lord saith in Jerem. When they fast I will not hear their cry Jer. 14.12 and when they offer burnt offering and oblation I will not accept them but I will consume them by the Sword and by the Famine and by the Pestilence Outward profession what it is like because this outward profession is none otherwise than a shadow that is something in show but nothing in substance or like Zeuxis and Parhasius Pictures whereof Zeuxis deceived the birds with his counterfeit grapes and Parhasius deceived his fellow Painter with the Picture of a Sheet But let not us deceive our selves with a sheet or a shadow of holiness and think that currant which is but counterfeit for we must seek the Lord with all our hearts or otherwise if we offer Sacrifice with Cain and pray with the Pharisee and fast with the Jews to strife and debate or with the Rebels to plunder and murder Isa 58.4 and hear as many Sermons as the precisest Hypocrite and yet forsake not our sins and obey not Gods Ordinance to submit our selves to the higher powers but Rebell against Gods Anointed we may with Esau hunt for a blessing but catch a curse and seek the Lord for mercy but find him in his justice when he shall say unto us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I know you not whence you are Luke 13.27 depart from me all ye that work iniquity 2. We are to seek the Lord most diligâ—ntly 2. As we are to seek the Lord totally with all the parts both of our bodies and of our souls so we are to seek him not frigide coldly and carelesly but with all diligence as the woman that lost heâ— gâ—oat lighted a candle Luke 15.8 and swept the house and sought diligently till she found it and therefore St. Chrysostome writing upon these words of the Apostle work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling saith he doth not barely use the simple word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 2.12 work it out but he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is as the Father doth interpret it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 accurately precisely and with a great deal of care and study even as Saint Paul saith the twelve Tribes served God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acts 26.7 instantly saith our Translation day and night and surely not without great cause for as in the civil policie salus populi est suprema lex the safety of King and People is principally to be regarded so in the life of a Christian hoc est unum necessarium this ought to be our chiefest care to seek the Lord for as Seneca saith of Philosophy sive aliquid habes O jam Philosophare sive nihil hoc prius quaere quam quidquam so much better may I say with the Prophet whether thou hast somewhat or nothing yet seek the Lord before thou seekest any thing 2. The object of our seeking the Lord. 2. The Object of our seeking is the Lord a Subject much farther exceeding the former than the Coelestial globe is larger than the Center of this earth and therefore he might easily be found if he were but carefully sought for Jupiter est quodcunque vides and the Spirit of the Lord filleth all places being not far from every one of us Acts 17.28 seeing as the Apostle saith in h m we live and move and have our being how then can we miâ—s to find him without whom we cannot choose but lose our selves But such is our misery that we seek him not for as the swine do eat the acorns yet never look up to the tree from whence they fall so do we deal with the blessings of God we gather them and yet are ignorant of him and do sacrifice with the Athenians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and therefore we thank him not because we know him not and we know him not because we seek him not but many of us seek our Lady and not the Lord What men do seek after and pray to her and offer sacrifice to the Queen of heaven more and better than to the Lord of heaven otherâ— seek to neither Lord nor Lady but to their servants that here on earth are commonly prouder than their Masters to the Saints and Angels others mounting not their thought any higher than the earth do only seek for the things of this world quaerenda pecunia primum some for riches some for honours and some for revenge which is the worst some of all and others seek knots in a bulrush great doubts in needless points for I will not touch on those overwise men How many men search for trifles that seek to
that all my brethren the Bishops and Prelates will say with Jonas If we alone be the cause of all this storm and if our persons by any thing that could be done to us could appease these distractions and procure the peace of the Church and State do what you will to us Non multum nos movebit Si propter nos haec tempestas if you see just cause cast us all into the sea so you save the Ship of Christ preserve the Church rent not the garment of Christ devour not the revenues of the Clergy and destroy not the government that was established by the Apostles and continued to Gods glory and the gaining of so many thousand souls to Christ from his being on earth to this very day because the dishonour that must infallibly redound to God and the detriment that must fall to the Church of Christ by the abolishing of Episcopacy troubleth us a great deal more than any loss that can happen unto our selves for did we see the same government with the same power as it ought to be setled on any other persons though our selves were degraded how justly we would leave the censure unto God you should never hear me speak much thereof So you see what it is to seek the Lord not his Essence which is incomprehensible but to do his will and to obey his Commandments which is most acceptable unto him as to love him to pray unto him to rely upon him and to do towards all men that which is just and righteous in his sight What we ought to do to live Or to set down all in a word do as the Lord directs you and you shall live and that is 1. To do your own best endeavours to preserve your lives And yet 2. Refer the preservation of your lives only unto God 1. In the time of peace and prosperity 1. To do our best to preserve our own lives 1. In the time of peace Psal 55.23 the best way for us to preserve our life is to serve God for if you honour your father and mother your daies shall be long in the Land saith the Lord himself and so the keeping of his other Precepts is the preservation of our lives But the bloud-thirsty and deceitful man shall not live out half his daies and so the drunkâ—rd the luxurious and the malicious shall by their sins diminish their years because sin is that sharp Atropos which cutteth off the thread of mans life and the great Epitomiser which abbreviates all things unto us as it wasteth our wealth it destroyeth our health it confineth our liberty it shortneth our daies and to sum all in one Catastrophe it brings us all into our graves Niceph. l. 11. c. 3. when as Trajan said unto Valens it sends victory unto our enemies and destroyeth us sooner than our enemies and therefore as you love your life so you must hate your sin and as the Heathens clipped the wings of victory lest it should fly away from them unto their enemies So we must clip our sins or else victory will fly unto our enemies 2. In the time of dangers wars plagues 2. In the time of dangers or any other distress we are commanded by God to do our best to preserve our lives for it is not enough for us to say the Lord will save us but we must do our best to save our selves So the Mariners that carried Jonas prayed unto their Gods and yet rowed their best to preserve their lives So Jehosaphat Ezechias and Josias when the Armies of their enemies came against them did put their whole trust in Gods assistance and rely upon his help for their deliverance yet they prepared the instruments of War they fortified their Cities and gathered all the strength of men that they could make to withstand the violence of their Foes and we must do the like when we are in the like danger for though the Scripture bids us cast our care upon God yet it bids us not to cast away our care or to be without care but to have a care and the best care that we can take to preserve our lives from the danger of the enemy to raise men and money and as Solomon saith 2. To rely wholly upon God to prepare the horse for the day of battel And then 2. When the horse is prepâ—red and we have endeavoured our best we must refer our lives only unto God it is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth but as the Prophet saith salvation belongeth unto the Lord for it is he that giveth victory in the battel and it is he that saveth our life from destruction for as his help will not preserve us without our care so all our care cannot save us without his help but when both these go together then we may be sure that our care and indeavour with his favour and assistance will so preserve us that we shall live Therefore when we lose and are put to the worst we should not be dejected which is the fault of too many of us but we should say with King David I will yet trust in God which is the help of my countenance and my God and when we gain and get the better of our enemies we should not be puffed up with pride and diminish the praise of God who gave us the better which is the fault of as many more that ascribe too much unto themselves and too little to Gods goodness but as the Poet saith of Pompey so much more should we say that are Christians Non me videre superbum Prospera fatorum nec fractum adversa videbunt Or as Menivensis saith of King Alfred Si modo victor erat ad crastina bella pavebat Si modo victus erat ad crastina bella parabat So should we do in all fortunes go on eodem vultus tenori and in all our actions rely on God and refer our selves wholly unto him and doing so we shall be sure to live 1. Because he hath promised us that if we thus seek him according to his will we shall live according as we desire and he is not as man that he should lye nor as the Son of man that he should change his mind but he is Yea and Amen he is truth it self and therefore sicut verus est in retributione malorum ita verà x est in promissione bonorum as he is most certain in the punishment of the wicked so he is as certain in his promise to the godly Reason 2 2. Because he is willing to save us and therefore cryeth unto us Why will ye dye why will ye dye O ye house of Israel For as I live saith the Lord I desire not the death of a sinner and it is worth our observation to consider how pathetically and how feelingly he speaketh to this purpose Psal 81.14 15 16. O that my people would have hearkened unto me for if Israel had walked in my waies I should
Aug. Epist 146. ad Consentium 1. Alia probationis The one of trial 2. Alia deceptionis The other of deceit By the first we are tried Whether we be good or bad right or counterfeit that if we be found faithful we may be approved and so crowned and thus as the Goldsmith trieth his mettal whether it be Gold or Copper so God and not the Devil tempteth or trieth us by crosses and afflictions whether we will cleave close to him as Job did or start aside like a broken bow as Demas and all Apostata's do Ambrose de Abraham l. 1. c. 8. and thus God is said to have tempted Abraham when he commanded him to sacrifice his Son Isaac By the second kind of temptation we are deceived that we might be damned and thus as Saint James truly affirmeth God tempteth no man James 1.13 but the Devil is the chief author of all such temptations and is therefore rightly called Satan the Tempter 3 In respect of the forms wherein they appeared they are Respect 3 called by the very same names of the things in whose shapes and formes they have appeared as the Serpent when he appeared unto Eve under the shape of a Serpent which had as some write the countenance of a fair Maid that Evah might the sooner be perswaded to listen to her suggestions And I read it cited out of Saint Augustine that it is not permitted unto the Devil to invest himself with what form or shape he will or naturally he can take upon him but he is limitted to such semblances as God is pleased to permit unto him or otherwise there is no question but he would have taken a goodlier and a more specious resemblance upon him then the form of a Serpent if God would have suffered him so to do when he appeared unto Evah And though he often appears in the form and shape of a man yet because Christ by reason of the hypostatical union of God and man that are so fast and so indissolubly linked together that both the Natures do make but one Person is worshipped and adored under the form of man God never permits the Devil to assume that form when he appears and requires to be worshipped and served of his Vassals that forsake their God and give themselves as Witches and Sorcerers do unto the Devil but he appears either in the shape of an ugly Centaure or a shaggy Goat or some such like ill-favoured beast And therefore Saint John in his Revelation saith That they worship the beast which may as well signifie Satan as the Antichrist that worshippeth Satan The Devil commonly appears in the shape of ugly creatures and alwayes so when he requires to be worshipped And the Divines do observe divers passages of Scripture which intimate that the Devil when he would be worshipped doth often present himself in the form of a Goat and that therefore the Hebrew word Sehir signifieth both a Goat and a Devil As both Saint Jerome and the Chaldee Translator do render the word in the seventeenth of Leviticus and the seventh where the Lord saith Nequaquam hostias tuas immolabis Sehir to signifie the Devil and so our Translation reads it Thou shalt not any more offer thy sacrifices to the Devil And Rabbi Quimhi the best interpreter of the Hebrew words sheweth the reason why the Devil should be called by Sehir which is the name of a Goat is because he appeareth to them that give themselves to him in the shape and form of a shaggy Goat Tho. 12. q. 102. art 3. Lyran in Exod. 12 1 Reg. 30. And so Aquinas and Lyra and Sanctes Pagninus interpreting the four and thirtieth of Esay where he saith Schirims or pilosi saltabunt ibi the shaggie beasts shall leap and dance in the wilderness do say it signifieth the Devils shall play and leap and dance there And to make this yet more plain the two chiefest Oracles of the Devil Hammonium that is derived of Ham the son of Noah Gen. 10. and Dodonaeum of whom we read amongst the grand-children of Noah were figured the first in the form of a Goat and the second in the shape of a great horned-Ram Whereby you may perceive that the Devil hath appeared and doth often appear unto the Sorcerers and Witches and other wicked men in the shape and form of other creatures from whom he is denominated according to the names of the creatures whose forms he doth assume Respect 4 4. In respect of their great knowledge they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Their knowledge is great in two respects Scienâ—es knowing creatures which we translate Devils and so they are called here in my Text and they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a twofold respect Respect 1 1. In regard of that knowledge and understanding which they have from their creation Zanch. de operib Dei l. 4. c. 1. Et qua adhuc praediâ—â— sunt ex parts and with which in part they are as yet indued saith Zanchius 2. In regard of their acquisite knowledge which by their Respect 2 long experience and diligent observation of things they have gotten since their fall both by what they have heard and seen For 1. They hear and have heard very much 1. They hear much Job 1.6 as they hear God himself when they stand before him they hear the good Angels when they come among them they hear much from the Word of God when we preach it and I believe far more attentively then many of us do hear it though they believe it not and look for no benefit by it and they hear all the words of men and they can tell how to make use of all that they hear And 2. As they hear very much so they see very much more 2. They see much And that 1. 1. In respect of their residency Ephes 1.2 Partly by that eminency of place wherein many of them are seated which is the Air as the Apostle speaketh not that the Air is the proper place and seat of their habitation where they shall be punished but where now as from a Watch-tower they look down round about them to behold all the actions of men 2. Partly by their wandring up and down and 2. In respect of their celerity Job 1.7 as he saith himself By going to and fro in the earth and walking up and down in it and that with such great celerity as no winged Fowl is able for to match them Quia omnis spiritus ales est hoc Angeli Daemones sunt saith Tertullian All spirits both Angels and Devils are like a flying bird and therefore saith he they are here and there and every where in a moment Et totus orbis illis locus unus est and all the world to them is but as it were one certain place not by their ubiquity as filling all places at once which is only proper unto God but by their
of them and do you think that this value is sufficient to maintain an able Ministery to supply all these Churches and Parishes as they ought to be or that Popery shall be supprest and the true Protestant Religion planted amongst the people by the unition of Parishes and the diminution of Churches without any augmentation of their means Credat Judaeus Apella non ego Object But you will say his Majesty hath most graciously provided and it is confirmed by the Act of Settlement that a very ample augmentation is added to all the meanest Bishopricks of Ireland and he hath most royally and religiously bestowed all the Impropriations forfeited to his Crown upon the several Incumbents unto whose Churches they did belong Answ I answer That when God placed man in Paradice the devil was ready to cast him out and when God maketh our paths straight and easie Satan will straight put rubbs and blocks in our way to stumble us so though I gave above fifty pounds for Agents money to follow the Churches cause and spent above thirty pounds to procure a Commission to gain that augmentation which his Majesty was so graciously pleased to add unto the Bishop of Ossory yet presently there comes a Supersedeas to stop the proceeding of my Commission How the devil hindereth all intended good and I am not the better either by Augmentation or Agents so much as one penny to this very day and some devil hath put some great rub for a stumbling block in my way untill God removes the same and throws it where blocks deserve to be And though his Majestie hath been pleased to bestow his Impropriations upon the Incumbents yet my Lord Lieutenant and the Council thought it fit to take forty pounds per annum out of those Impropriations for the better provision of the Quire in Dublin and so by that means the Clergy of Ossory are not the better by one penny that the Clergy might be like unto their Bishop for I find but four impropriations forfeited to his Majesty and bestowed upon the Church in all the Diocess and these being set by Mr. Archdeacon Teate to the uttermost pitch that he could they did not reach to forty pounds the last year And to say the truth without fear of any man we are not only deprived of the Vicarial Tythes and offerings by the Farmers of the great Lords Impropriate Rectories but our Lands and Glebes are clipped and pared to become as thin as Banbury Cheese by the Commissioners and Counsel of those illustrious Lords for though his Grace our most excellent Lieutenant the Duke of Ormond is I say it without flattery a man of such worth so noble so honourable and so religious as is beyond compare and for his fidelity and Piety and other incomparable parts scarce to be equalized by any Subject of any King and so many other great Lords are in themselves very noble and religious yet as Rehoboam in himself considered was not so very a bad King but had very bad Counsellours that did him a great deal of dishonour and damage so this most honourable Duke And thus as Christ was crucified betwixt the good thief and the bad so are we betwixt the good Lords and their bad Agents But let them fear least by making their Lords great here on earth they do make themselves little in heaven and other great Lords may have as I fear some of them have such Commissioners and Counsel that as well to make themselves a fortune as to enlarge their Lords revenues will pinch the Parsons side and part the Garments of Christ betwixt themselves and their Lords as my Lord Dukes Agents have distrained and driven away my Tenants Cattel for divers great sums of Chieferies and challenged some Lands that as I am informed were never paid nor challenged within the memory of man And who dares oppose these men or say unto them Why did you so Not I though they should take away my whole estate for as Naboth had better have yielded up his Vineyard than to have lost his life so I conceive it better to yield to their desires quietly than to lose both my Lands and my labour by such a Jury as will give it away though never so Unjustly whereof I have had experience and a sad proof non sine meo magno malo Yet The Civility and Piety of the 49 men I confess the 49. men have been very civil and shewed themselves very fairly conditioned and religious both to my self and as I understand to all other Clergymen and I wish that all Noblemens Commissioners and Agents would be so likewise that their doings may bring a blessing and not a curse upon them and perhaps upon their Lords and Masters Lords and Masters shall answer to God for the oppressions that their servants do under their power that must give an account to God for the ill carriages and the oppressions of the poor by their servants who dishonour their Lords and make them liable to Gods wrath for the wrongs that they do to make them the greater and so receive the greater condemnation for great men must not only do no wrong themselves but they ought also to see that none under their wings and through the colour of their power and authority do any wrong unto the poore But to deal plainly and to shew what respect favour and justice we the poor Bishops and Clergymen have from the great Lords and Courts of justice in this Kingdom I will instance but in the example of my self who after I had exposed my self to the dayly and continual hazard of my life by my preaching and publishing so many Books against the Rebels and Long Parliament which I have unanswerably proved to be the Great Antichrist and had for all their Reign served duram servitutem and suffered more hardship than any Bishop and upon my restitution to my Bishopprick by the happy restauration of our most gracious King having spent above four hundred pounds to gain the Bishops Mansion house where Bishop Bale saw five of his Servants kill'd before his face and himself driven to flee to save his life and which was given to Sir George Askue by Cromwel for his service to the Long Parliament I have fully shewed the favour and the justice that I had at the Kings Bench though I must ingeniously confess my Lord Chief Justice dealt as fairly and as justly as any Judge in the world could do And I do pray to God that both Judges and Jury and all the pleaders may have better at the Bar of the King of Kings Then letting pass the proceeding of the Court of Claim that gave away the Lands and Houses that were in my possession while I was in London though a chief Member of that Court promised that nothing should be done against the Church untill I returned home and acknowledging the civility and fair respect that was shewed me by my Lord Chief Baron and the other
this as finding any fault or laying the least blame upon the Canons and Constitutions of the Church and the Laws of these Kingdoms for all must confess that the Office and Calling of an Archbishop was not so from the beginning nor is jure divine of Christs institution that ordered and appointed the same to be governed and guided by the Bishops subordinate to their Archbishops that are to have the oversight of them which is a most excellent way that all things may be done right in the rule and government of Gods Church So it be done with that temper and moderation that it ought to be done But I say this to the same end as our Saviour said it to his Disciples that all things might be done Leni spiritu non dura manu rather by an inward sweet influence than an outward extream violence and that all the Bishops and the Archbishops in their Visitations and in all their actions should study and strive to be like Moses that in the Government of Gods people was the gentlest and the meekest man upon earth and endeavoured as he saith himself to carry them in his bosome which is the greatest commendation and the best quality that can be in any Bishop of whom it is a shame to say Non pater est Aeacui thou art not the son of Moses sed te genuere ferae but thou art more like the savage beasts when thou art so cruel so unmerciful and so severe in the censure of thy brethren of thine own Coat For as I said long ago so I say now and will say it still One of the chiefest causes of the late distractions in our Church that the rigid carriage of some severe Bishops and their undiscreet Surrogates on the one side and the high stomacks and proud behaviour of the Presbyters on the other side when the Governours ruled and domineered like Tyrants and the Presbyters like stubborn Children refused to be obedient hath been one of the chiefest causes of the late distraction and miseries that we have felt in this our Church But I will demand of the Lay men whether that Censure be commendable when for a fault that deserves a penny fine the offender shall be punished with a pound And that delinquency which springs through ignorance or forgetfulness and not of obstinacy shall be equally punished with the highest transgressours which is in my judgment like Draco that wrote his Laws in bloud Yet may you see the like Draco's sometimes in the Sequestrations and Censures of some Clergy-men Poor souls I can but pity them And I will not be the Judge but let the Reader consider it A young man is newly instituted into a little Living and becomes bound to his Majesty for his first fruits then goeth to his study to the University that he may be the better enabled to do God service in the Church of Christ yet because that either through bashfulness to go to so great a Prelate that he never was acquainted with or through ignorance of his duty or forgetfulness or perhaps for haste to save his passage by Sea when as time and tide stay for no man or some other excusable cause he goeth to Oxford without his Archbishops being acquainted therwith though his own Bishop sent for him in all haste to come up before the Act yet for this hainous crime and great piccadillo fault he is sequestred from all the means he hath before he receives the first harvest fruits or perhaps one penny from the same whereby he is disinabled to pay the Kings first fruits and to maintain himself in the University and so undone and if this Censure be equivalent and not exceeding the fault judge you And as dislike and disaffection produce sometimes heavy Sentences upon the poor Clergy for light faults so I have often seen great oppressions and much baseness used by some great dignified Clergy-men that I could name and yet they were so far from Censure that others were upheld and applauded in their wickedness and so Juven 1. Satyr 13. as the Poet saith Multi Eademcommittunt diverso crimina fato Ille crucem pretium sceleris tulit hic diadema One man is applauded and crowned for the same fact for which another man is condemned and hanged The last Visitation of the Archbishop in this Diocess of Ossory But for the last Visitation of the Archbishop in this Diocess of Ossory I shall besides what I have said already of the Inhibition and Suspension of the Jurisdiction say somewhat more than I said of the Sequestrations of the Clergy And 1. Of the Number of those persons that were sequestred 2. Of the Causes for which they were sequestred 3. Of the Consequents of their Sequestrations 1. You must understand that in all my Diocess of Ossory I have but twenty two beneficed Clergy-men and of them twelve are non-resident and eight of the twenty two were sequestred viz. 1. Mr. Barry 2. Mr. Cull Senior 3. Mr. Cull Junior 4. Mr. Drisdall 5. Mr. Moor. 6. Mr. Spencer 7. Mr. Teate 8. Mr. Kerny Whereof fix were continually resident and in my judgment the most learned and most frequent constant Preachers that have any Ecclesiastical preferment in my Diocess 2. For the Causes why their Livings were sequestred I cannot and I do not say but that they may be very just either for not rendering to Caesar what belongs unto Caesar as the twentieth part Subsidies and the like payments due unto his Majesty or for not rendering to God what is Gods as the due and diligent serving of their Churches and the payment of their Procurations and the discharging of all other dues and accustomed duties unto his Grace or to them whom he sent to visit them or for holding their Livings contrary either to the Civil or the Ecclesiastical Laws of the Land or for the unworthiness of the persons uncapable of them or some other just and lawful cause My Registers Letter informs me that Mr. Cull Juniors Livings were sequestred for going to the University without his Grace his leave whereof I have spoken before and others for distance of miles if they were above six miles one from another though they say that for the tenuity of their Livings they had the Kings Pattent under the Broad Seal to hold them some thirty and others twenty miles distant in which case I say no more but if they shall not keep them above six miles distant they might live better and grow richer here in Ireland by keeping Sheep than by feeding of Christ his flock or if the Law prohibits them to keep them beyond that distance I wonder why they are admitted by the Relaxations of the Sequestrations to keep them still if they were sequestred to get Fees for the Relaxation to Mr. Proby my Lords Grace his Register and not to deprive them of either Living my Lords Grace dealt more graciously and like himself in granting the Relaxation of them than his Surrogate did