am vox clamantis a Cryer or Summoner sent unto you from the great God of Heaven Earth who with a mighty hand and out-stretched Arme brought your Fore-Fathers out of the Land of Aegypt and gave them this fruitfull Land which you now possesse who being almighty is able to defend you if you shall cleave unto him and to punish you if you shall neglect his word whose name is JEHOVAH I am yesterday and to day and the same for ever which was and which is and which is to come without change or shadow of change that which I have received from him I deliver unto you Thus saith the Lord Execute Judgement and Righteousnesse As then Judges in their Circuite in the severall Counties where they sit to heare and determine Causes first cause their Commission to be read then give the charge to the Inquest So our Prophet first shewes his Commission Thus saith the Lord and then gives his Charge Execute Judgment And these be the two Branches into which my Text divideth it selfe In the Commission I note that a Prophet and consequently a Minister who in the new Testament is also called a Prophet is an Embassadour sent from God unto the Sonnes of men So saith the Apostle Wee are Embassadours from Christ as though God did beseech you through us we pray you in Christs stead that yee be reconciled unto God 2 Cor. 5. 20. Let a man so think of us as of the Ministers of Christ and disposes of the secrets of God 1 Cor. 4. 1. This shewes the Dignity of this Calling a Calling whether you respect the Author or the Subject or the end as far exceeding all others as Saul in length of body did the rest of the Israelites And surely if the Philosopher could call the Stones happy of which the Altar was builded because they were had in honour when others were troden under feet then much more may they be termed happy whom the Lord hath separated from their Brethren and taken neer unto himselfe to minister unto him if they shall be found faithfull and diligent in so high a calling But here I may justly take up the Prophets Complaint Who will beleive our report If I should dilate on this Subject my words would seem to many as Lots did to his Sonnes in Law when he spoke of the destruction of Sodome who seemed to speake as if he had mocked I appeale to your consciences whether the Vocation of a Priest so the prophane Gulls of this World call it in disgrace be not by many reputed the most base and contemptible Calling in the Land that which the Apostle speakes of our generall calling to Christianity is at this day verified of this particular Vocation not many mighty not many noble are called 1 Cor. 1. The poor and the halt and the lame and such as are good for nothing else are thought sufficient for these things though the Apostle could ask 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who is sufficient do not many with the foolish woers in the Poet Penelopâ—n relinquere ad ancillas confugere leave the Mistresse and become Suiters to her Maids and chuse rather to be of any calling nay of no calling to be idle Hunters riotous Gamesters loose livers to be any thing rather then to be imployed in this great and weighty businesse of being an Embassadour from God unto the Sonnes of men But it s no matter Philosophy suffers no great disgrace because Agrippina will not have her Son young Nero to study it and a Pearle is not a straw the worse because Esops Cock cares not for it Rauca reful gentem contemnit noctua Phoebum Non crimen Phoebus noctua crimen habet The Owle cannot abide the Sun the fault is not in the Sunne but in the Owles eyes that cannot behold it The very Heathen shall in the day of judgement arise against these men and condemn them amongst whom this Calling hath alwayes been honoured for the best Amongst the Phoenicians they wore a crowne of gold Amongst the Athenians none were admitted King that had not been of this Order It was not scorned by the best Senatour of Rome insomuch that Gellius having set down four properties of Crassus which he calls Rerum humanarum maxima praecipua the greatest things amongst the sons of men Quod esset ditissimus quod nobilissimus quod eloquentissimus quod jurisconsultissimus that he was the richest and the noblest and the most eloquent and the best Lawyer that Rome had He adds in the last place as it were a specificall forme restraining all the rest Quod pontifex maximus that he was the chiefe Bishop and Virgil had no intendment to disgrace Amus when he called him a King and a Priest Rex Amus rex idem hominum Phoebique sacerdos And the custome of the old Aegyptians is well enough known unto Schollers Qui ex philosophis sacerdotes and Ex sacerdotibus probatissimum in regem elegerunt who from Philosophers chose Priests and from Priests Kings whereupon their Hermes had the name of Trismegistus thrice greatest the greatest Philosopher the greatest Priest and the greatest King Such an one was Moses the Prince and chiefe of all the Prophets who did not preach to Pharaoh and the Israelites till first instructed by the Lord what he should say Such were the Priests of the Law or at least such they should have been and therefore the Lord saith That the Priests lips should preserve knowledge and That they should seeke the law at his mouth The reason is added because he is the Angel or Embassadour of the Lord of Hosts Such was Ezekiel whom the Lord tells that he had made a watch-man over the house of Israel and that hee should heare the word at his mouth and give the people warning from him Such was Jeremiah who prophesied not to the Jewes till the Lord had touched his tongue and put words into his mouth Finally such were all the Prophets before the coming of the Messias who had this law giuen them that they should teach no more then he had given them in charge Hence be these and the like speeches Thus saith the Lord. The word of the Lord. The burden of the Lord. The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Come to the New Testament and look upon the Apostles and Evangelists surely very excellent things were spoken of them they were called the salt of the Earth the light of the World the friends of Christ they had the keyes of Heaven gates given unto them That whatsoever they bound on earth should be bound in heaven and whatsoever they loosed on earth should be loosed in heaven They were sent to preach to all Nations but not what they would but what they had in commission from Christ Teach to observe all things which I have commanded Mat. 28. 20. Nay Christ Jesus the Son of God the Privy Counsellor of the Father the only Master and Teacher of his Church
and Antiochia and Constantinople and the rest in the Eastern Empire but passing thence into the North and from thence with the Gothes and Vandals into Germany and France and Spain and Italy yea into Africk too had infected all Churches in the West Which makes Hierome say that the whole world groaned and marvelled to see her self become an Arrian an Arrian sate in Peters chaire the head of the Church that great Melchisedeck whose Priesthood is not to be compared to any other their God and their Lord the Pope himself rather then he would die in the defence of the Gospel subscribed to Arianisme surely the whole Body must needs goe wrong when the head did thus miscarry This plague endured not for some small moment like the Macedonian Empire which was but a Flash and gone but for the space of three hundred years and upward Where was now the true Church amongst the Arrians which oppugned the Doctrine of the Nicene Synod in sundry councels and expelled the Orthodox Bishops and enjoyed their rooms and instead of the true Christ worshipped an Idol of their own inventions or rather in a few miserable and forlorne wretches which remained in prisons and wildernesses and Mountains and dennes and Caves of the Earth as was the case of the Church at that time so was it in the time of Wicliffe and Husse for then the Devill had for a long time been loosed and Antichrist was in the height of his pride and the light of the Gospel was raked for up in the Ashes of Popery in so much that that which Nazianzen spoke in the oration against the Arrians might fitly have been applied against the Papists Where be those that object poverty unto us and boast of their prosperous Estate this is another mark of the Popish Church Where be those that define the Church to be a multitude and set at nought a little Flock and yet if multitude should beare the bell away the Papists should not have any such cause of triumph as they wll beare the world in hand that they have There are at this day foure Religions in the world if the name of Reâ—igion may bee given to them all Judaisme Paganisme Mahumetanisme and Christianisme of all these Iudaisme is the least but Paganisme exceedeth all the rest Mahumetanisme which is a mixture craftily composed of the other three both in largenesse of Countreys and multitude of people goeth beyond all Christendome for it hath not only seated it self in the whole Turkish Empire and the large kingdomes of the great Sophi but spreadeth abroad in many places of the vast dominions of Tartarie Cathaia and China almost unto the Easterne Ocean and what it hath of latter years gained in the West wee feel partly in the miserable distresâ—e of Hungary and Transilvania and have just occasion â—f greater feare if the Lord out of compassion to his poor Church shall not overthrow the plots of that proud Senacherib and put a â—ook in his nose and a bridle in his lips and carry him back again the same way that hee came Nâ—w for Christianisme amongst those that pâ—ofesse the name of Christ there are not above a third part that are Papists for the Russians together with the Reliques of the Greek Church the Armenians and the Christians that are under the Emperour of the Abassens doe exceed the number of all those which hold the Principles of the Romish Church The Protestants come not much behind them for howsoever within these hundred years the Moone did suffer such an universall Eclipse that a man would have judged she had lost her light and the Lords flock was but like a few grapes after the Vintage is ended here a grape and there a grape on the outmost boughes Yet since it pleased God to stiâ—re up the heart of Martin Luther to stand at open defiance with the Italian Goliath which reviled the Israel of God she hath every day recovered her light the Gospel that was then hid under a bushel is become like to Davids Sunne which cometh forth as a Bridegroom out of his chamber and rejoyceth as a Gyant to runne his course the professors of the Gospel have wonderfully increased so that now their sound is gone through the earth and their words unto the ends of the world There is no place in the Globe of the earth where Christ is professed which hath not some Protestants Italy the very Center and sinke of Popery and the seat of the great Whore when Iezabel hath done what she can in murthering the Lords Prophets will affoord seven thousand men which have never bowed the knees of their hearts unto Baal In France wee have a farre greater number in Germany the major part almost all Polonie all Denmarke Swethen Norway Britain and all the Islands in the Northern seas which have taken the military Oath to fight under Christs standard If these be not equall to them yet consider on either side such as know the Principles of Christian Religion and can give an account of their faith and we have a farre greater number for the common people amongst them are stupid and blind and do no more understand the mysteries of their salvation then Pagans and infidels or those in the Acts who being demanded of Paul whether they had received the holy Ghost made answer that they never heard whether there was an holy Ghost or no. And little marvel for many of their Priests do no more understand their Masses which they mumble dayly in their Churches then Balaams Asse understood his own voice It is enough for them to believe as the Church believeth though they know no more what that is then did Bellarmines Collier who being demanded what he believed quoth he that which the Church beleeveth being again demanded what that was answered the same which I beleeve Herein we will not think much that the Papists exceed us Bellarmine may give good measure if hee draw the dregs and all but Austen will teach him another lesson Noli numerare turbas hominum incedentes latas vias implentes crastinum circum civitatis natalem clamando celebrantes civitatem ipsam male vivendo turbantes noli illas attendere multi sunt quis numerat sed pauci per viam augustam incedunt Chrysostome will teach him that not in numeri magnitudine sed in virtutis probitate consistit multitudo It was a prety stratageme of the Roman Captaine when his Souldiers were few in number to make every man draw a bough in the drie dust that so the Samnites with which he was to encounter beholding them a farre off might believe that his Armie was greater then indeed it was we are no such dastards as to be afraid of every withered branch that can rayse up dust into the ayre if the Papists purpose to match us with multitude let them bring such as have some skill to handle their
be a great Eclipse of the Moone signified unto them by a Messenger that he was a Prophet sent unto them from the great God of Heaven and Earth and that if they would not furnish him and his company with such things as they wanted God whose Prophet he was would utterly destroy them In token whereof quoth he the next night at such an houre the Moone shall loose her light they for all this continued in their obstinacy and scorned his threatnings At the houre named the Moone by degrees entring into the shadow of the earth was at length in those parts for a space quite darkened which when the Barbarians saw presently they ran unto Columbus they fell down at his feet they honoured him as a man they worshipped him as a God they offered themselves and whatsoever was theirs to be wholly at his service Verily the Papists do Columbus great wrong who for this witty shift deserves rather the name of a Prophet amongst them then that great Elias of the new World Francis Xaverius for his juggling Tricks in those Parts deserves the name of a waker of Miracles To end this Point Seeing it is a matter of such difficulty to distinguish a true Prophet from that which is false both because they are of things to come the truth whereof cannot be sifted out before the time be expired and though they have naturall causes yet be they such as cannot be known unto men and if they could yet seeing as already hath been proved the Infidels and Pagans have had their prophesies let the Papists prove the gift of Prophesy to be perpetual in their Church which they can never do and let them bring us as great Catalogues of their Prophesies as they do of their Miracles and lying Wonders a thing not impossible to men of such rare invention but let none from these slender Premises infer this conclusion that there is the true Church of God but rather let him undoubtedly beleive that the words of my Text are verified of these men Many shall say unto me at that day Lord Lord have not we by thy name prophesied c. Let us not think that the Precept of the Law was given in vaine If there arise a Prophet or a Dreamer of Dreames and give thee a Signe and a Wonder and the Signe and Wonder which he hath told thee shall come to passe saying Let us follow strange Gods as these men do thou shalt not hearken unto the words of that Prophet for the Lord your God proveth you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your Heart and with all your Soule Deut. 13. 1 2 3. Thus much of the first the second followeth A man may be a Preacher of the Gospell and a meanes of saving others and be damned himselfe I have a long Journey to go and the time allotted me but short so that I cannot stand upon the proofe of this Proposition neither is it needfull I should having no Donatists no Anabaptists to impugne let it suffice to add unto my Text the words of the Apostle Phil. 1. 15. Some preach Christ through envie and strife truly for all that not sincerely else would not the Apostle have added that which followeth I therein joy yea and in that will joy This Sermon upon the Mount of which my Text is a Branch was preached at the Consecration of the twelve Apostles of which number Judas was one whom a while after he sent abroad to preach the Gospell then called he the twelve Disciples and sent them to preach the Kingdome of God and to heale diseases and they went through every Town preaching the Gospell and healing every where Luk. 9. 2. 6. For all Judas his preaching and healing he did not preach unto nor heale himselfe it had been good for him that he had never been born Matth. 26. The first Use and Inference of which let me â—rave your patience to spend some time shall concerne the hearers of the word It may lesson them not to have the truth of the glorious God in respect of persons as Iames speakes or that I may expresse my selfe in other words that they do not forsake or neglect a truth preached because the life of the Speaker is offensive and scandalous Saul may prophesie and Caiphas may prophesie and Iudas may prophesie And many shall say unto me at that day Lord Lord have not we by thy name prophesied Shall not Saul be credited because he is rejected why not is not Saul also amongst the Prophets 1 Sam. 19. Shall Caiphas his prophesie not be esteemed because he took away the life from the Lord of life surely yes for this spake he not of himselfe but being high Priest that yeare he prophesied that Jesus should die for the Nation Ioh. 11. 51. Shall Iudas his Sermons be set at nought because he is a damned Reprobate himselfe surely no For whosoever shall not receive you nor heare your words it was spoken to the twelve of which Iudas was one Truly I say unto you it shall be easier for them of Sodome and Gomorrah in the day of Iudgment then for that City Matth. 10. 14. 15. Oh then shall any man be such an Enemy to his own Salvation as that if the life of his Teacher be misliked he will therefore set at nought the word of God truly though not sincerely delivered what were this but to reject God himselfe as he saith unto Samuel It is not thee but me whom they haue rejected 1 Sam. 8. 7. The word of God is a Touch-stone to try every mans Actions whether they be Gold or Drosse it is a line and squa re to make us fit Stones for Gods Temple Now shall I mislike the Touch-stone because the Gold is counterfeit shall I make fit the Rule for the Stone and so make it a Lesbian Rule especially if it be a rough and unhewed Stone and as yet not fit for that building whereof Christ Jesus is the corner Stone If I be sick unto death shall I refuse physick because I mislike the Physician or because he will not take the same physick himselfe An tibi cum fauces urit sitis aurea quaeris Pocula cum esurias fastidisomnia praeter Pavonem rhombumque When thou art thirsty will thou refuse Drink unlesse it be given thee in a guilded Bowle When thou art hungry will no Meat content thee but Patridges and Pheasants Surely thou hast too dainty a Stomack it commonly falls out otherwise men that are hungry will not refuse wholesome meat though they have no good opinion of the Party that reacheth it and when they are thirsty they will not refuse Drink though it be given them in a woodden Dish Shall a man have a care of his Body and none of his Soule if my Soule be sick unto death shall I refuse physick because the Physician takes it not himselfe or shall I refuse the bread of life and water of life