and I burne not 2 Cor. 8.16 3. Pity and Commiseration The more violence and speed is used in plucking a good thing out of the fire the more tender pity is expressed If pity should be shewed to thy neighbours beast or to his house much more to his owne body but most of all to his soule It s reported of Aeneas that his pity made him take his father upon his shoulder and carry him out of the flames of Troy It s storyed Gen. 19.16 that while Lot his wife and daughters lingred in Sodome upon which fire was falling the Lord being mercifull to them the Angels brought him forth and set him without the City This mercy in this spirituall plucking out is here imported 4. Esteem and appreciation Men pluck that with eagernesse out of the fire which they value and set by A peice of pot-sherd they neglect but a costly garment some rare book or much more a deare child Oh how earnestly are they snatch't out of the flames The estimate which ought to bee had of souls is much greater Heaven-born beautifully endowed eternal souls are so precious that Christ shed his blood for them and Satan only delights in shedding theirs 5. Hazard and indangering of him who plucks the party out of the fire They who will take a thing out of the fire commonly burn their own fingers The most zealous adventurers for soules have seldome escaped the scorching rage and fury of the wicked Hatred is as Luther calls it the Gâ—spels genius truth begets hatred both in others and oft in him whom we labor to save Satan will not let go his hold willingly All the militia of hell is raysed against the faithfull saving of souls All the holy Prophets Apostles Minâ—â—ters more or lesse must feel the scorching of the fire if they will bee plucking out of souls The Saviours of soule must bee sufferers for souls and herein resemble the great Saviour who for souls was the greatest sufferer 6. Diligence earnest industry This is principally here intended according to the signification of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They who pluck a precious thing out of the fire do it with putting forth all their vigour and pains They who will save souls must apply heart and head to this employment Faithfull Ministers are ever laborious They are peculiarly called Labourers They labour in the word and doctrine As much as in me is I am ready to preach the Gospel Rom. 1.15 This work hee made his businesse and he gave himselfe to it In comparison of this his diligence for other things was but negligence For three years together he warned every one with tears Act. 20.31 He was willing to spend and be spent 2 Cor. 12.15 He was fervent in the spirit in this serving of the Lord. In plucking a precious thing out of the fire the finger is not held up but violently is the thing layd hold upon and drawn forth with our hand OESERVATIONS 1. Obs 1. The fire The hell of a sinner is begun in this life Hee is even here in the fire hell-fire is but his greater sensiblenesse of that fire of wrath wherein he even now is As heaven so hell is now in this world in semine In hell the damnation of the wicked is but displayed Here it is though wrapt up as the flag about the staffe Sinners in this life are treasuring up of wrath put sinne into its best dresse it is but gilded damnation The fire of Gods wrath is kindled on this side hell and it burnes inward onely in hell it blazeth out The incorrigible are condemned already They are even here the children of perdition and there is nothing between them and the fire of hell but a thin wall of flesh And therefore 2. Obs 2. How madly merry is every sinner Fond creature to bribe and sooth thy burning soul with toyes and rattles How unseasonable and unsutable is thy mirth when thou art burning thy soul and yet as the idolaters of old when they sacrificed their children to idols makest musick and singing This doth every secure sinner Oh how much better is it here to mourn and shed the teares of godly sorrow especially to get the blood of Jesus Christ to quench the flames before they blaze out in hell where they will be unquenchable 3. Obs 3. Per quot pericula itur ad majus periculum The Divel hath his martyrâ— nay the most are burnt for irreligion Wicked men here burn themselves not as Saints to escape but in regard of the end of the work to embrace eternal burnings It should be a shame to consider how mad sinners are upon and patient in the flames of wrath and sin and how impatient Saints are in those flames out of which all the heat and hurt is taken 4. Obs 4. Even they who are in the fire may be pulld out There 's a peradventure mention'd of Gods giving repentance even to opposers 2 Tim. 2.25 Such saith the Apostle were some of you 2 Cor. 6.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such trash such rubbish Manasseh Magdalen and Paul the greatest of sinners and those Christians hatefull and hating one another serving divers lusts and children of wrath found mercy Eph. 2.1 Tit. 3.3 God sometimes turnes people in their race of sinne when they are gotten almost to their gole hell-gates and receives prodigals who smel of the hogs-trough and recovers brands which are smutch't singed yea almost consumed The freenesse of his grace the riches of mercy the depth of his wisdom the greatnesse of his power are all hereby magnified we must not despair of the most seemingly desperate We may censure the actions not determine the ends though of great sinners To conclude the greater the miseâ—y and the more scorching the fire is out of which any oâ— us have been pluckt the stronger is the engagement upon us to save others and to serve our Saviour 5. The faithfull are very useful and beneficial to the world Obs 5. T is a misery when any thing deare to us falls into the fire but this is by much the greater when there 's no man neer to pluck it out of the fire They who save our goods from the flames are commended for helpfull people But they who save souls from the wrath of God and the fire of hell are much more necessary The people of God are falsly accounted the troublers and incendiaries of the world whereas their work is to recover out of the fire not to cause and encrease the fire There are none so miserable as they who may be suffred to lye in sinne as long as they please without controlers or recoverers who may bee as bad as they please without check or reprehension 6. The greatest diligence in recovery of souls Obs ult is very excusable The most earnest plucking of our treasure or child out of the fire wants not an apology The best things require most labour about them Trifles fancies
in spiritual sleep men suffer the precious jewel of truth and the profession thereof to be wrung from them and may be rob'd of all that good which ever they had There 's no tentation sin judgment but a sleeping Christian is exposed to he is a field without a fence a City without a watch he hinders no invader he is ruin'd without resistance In the approach of judgments he is naked he makes not the name of the Lord his strong tower he cannot act faith to close up himself in the wounds of Jesus Christ The people of God in the midst of troubles are above them whereas wicked men though without trials are ever exposed to them they fence their estates families c. not their souls 3. In respect of unactivenesse and being without motion men in a deep sleep are without sense and motion wicked men act not move not holily what they do they do without delight they are Summer-sluggards harvest-sleepers though the work be great there 's no working A sleeping siner works not out his salvation he offers no violence to the kingdom of heaven he strives not to enter the strait gate he wrestles not in prayer he lives as if he had nothing to do in the world heaven is not his businesse he is but he lives not he is a spirituall drone a mute a cyphar a nullity a superfluity in the world Jer. 13. like Jeremiahs rotten girdle or bad figs Ezek. 15. or like Ezekiels Vine-branches weak and unfruitful good for nothing but the fire not fit to make beams or rafters of such a kind of rest as this to a Saint would be his greatest unquietnesse unserviceablenesse is a kind of hell upon earth to a godly man 4. In respect of unwillingness to be disturb'd stird or disquieted men disposed to sleep desire to be alone they who are spiritually sleepy avoid such company as would rouze them from their sloth they compose themselves to rest draw the curtains put out the candle are afraid to be disquieted by the light they are loth to do what they know and to know what either they do or should do 1 Thess 5 â— They that sleep saith the Apostle sleep in the night they are angry with the Word and Ministers because they wil not let them sleep quietly in sin Such as will let them alone in sin and never disturb them are the quiet honest men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. perinde stolidi ac rationis expertes ac si omnes sensus haberent penitus sopitos Bâ—za in loc they wil not endure wholesome words sound doctrine 5. And especially in respect of insensiblenesse stupidity blockishnesse men in a deep sleep feel nothing that is done to them This I conceive Jude principally aimes at for likewise also or notwithstanding saith he they knew the judgments of God upon others yet stil they sin'd they slept so senslesse and stupid were they Sed et stupida impudentia denotari potest ut non abstineant ab omni foeditate à qua etiam nequissimi abhorrent nisi somnus pudorem et sensum tollat Loâ—in in loc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 4.2 Ephes 4.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 11 8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their consciences were seared with an hot iron past feeling bound up by a deep benummedness caused by custome in sin this was that deep sleep poured upon them by God like that which befell Adam whereby though a rib was taken out of him yet he perceived it not like that also of Saul Sisera and Jonah The Apostle expresseth it by that significant word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 11.8 we translate it slumber it signifies say some midnight slâ—ep which is the time when men are most throughly asleep But by this word say others better is imported such a sleep as out of which all the pinching wounding pricking cannot raise a man or such a sleep as whereby a man is so fastned and nail'd down to his sloth that he and his sloth cannot be parted the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly signifying pricking or compunction Act. 2.37 They were pricked c. And so great is the spiritual stupidity and insensibleness of sinners in their sleep of sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bâ—zâ— Heâ—â—â— Tolle à 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Compungo pungeâ—do penetro vet quia nullae agitationes vel transpuncti ones possunt Judâ—os è â—omno peccati excitare sic Pareus Oâ—â—and Vel quia sunt quasi recerto loco penitus clavo affixa quae aegrè potest avelli Sic Chrysoft Theophilact that 1 They are insensible of the greatest danger these they prevent not yea foresee not They go on and are punished they fear nothing feeling only troubles them and that too when it is too late they are like drunken men on the top of a mast 2. They are insensibl of the lâ—udest noyses severest denuntiations these do but deafen their ears nor do voices lift up like a trumpet make them prepare for a battel 3. They are insensible of the stirrings and jogings given them in their spirituall sleep the faithfullest admonitions of friends A rebuked scorner hates both rebukes and rebuker though oft reproved he hardens his neck 4. They are insensible in this their sleep of being uncovered and stript of their clothes yea of being wounded and maimed by Gods severer strokes and bloody stripes though the water-pot and spear be taken from the bolster yet they stir not like the hen which loseth now one by and by another then a third chicken till the kite have almost snatcht away all her brood and yet she follows her scraping and picking as eagerly as ever They regard not the works of God when the hand of the Lord is lifted up they wil not see Though gray haires be upon them they know it not 1. They are insensible who wounds they think not of the hand of God in the miseries that befall them they consider not they have negetium cum Deo to do with God when men hurt them all their study is how to avenge themselves upon or reconcile themselves to the instrument 2. They are insensible why they are wounded of sin the deserving cause they neither looking upward nor inward they are not driven by what they feel to consider what they have done no man saith What have I done They search not after the Jonah when any storm ariseth every thing shall be blam'd sooner then sin though there be many a foot print of punishment upon them they trace not the foot the sin that made it 3. They are insensible of the way to cure their wounds they turn not to the Lord their God for all this they are like a foolish child Hos 13.13 that staies long in the place of breaking forth of children They had rather stifle themselves in the womb of sin and punishment then come forth by repentance they turn not to him that smites They use
There is not a drop of true woe in a deluge of outward troubles which befal a Saint 2 Wickedness ends in wo. Observ 2 Sinners may see nothing but wealth in the commission but they shall find nothing but wo in the conclusion of sin Every Lust though it kisseth yet betrayes Rom. 6.21 The end as the Apostle speaks is death It s the truest wisdom to consider whether when we find it difficult to overcome the present tentation it be not more difficult to undergo the following woe Oh could we but look upon the blackness of the back of sin how little should we be allured with the fairness of its face How far from wisdom will it be for the deluded sinner hereafter to say I did not think it would have been thus with me that hell was so hot that Gods wrath was so heavy The mirth of every secure sinner that goes dancing to hell Amara sint omnia gaudia quibus respondent aeterna supplicia is no better then madness How bitter should that drop of pleasure be to us which is answered and overtaken with a sea of pains There 's no judging of our future either wo or happiness by what appears at present The portion of Gods peoples cup is to have the best and of the wickeds to have the bitterest at the bottom and yet the top of the cup seemeth to promise the contrary to both 3. Scripture imprecations and cursings Observ 3. must not be drawn to be our examples We may indeed pray against the wicked practices of others that God would stop and hinder them with David that God would turn the wisdom of Achitophel into foolishness 2. It s lawful for us to pray for temporal afflictions to befal the wicked to the end that they being sensible of Gods anger against sin may be brought to repentance and so to salvation But 3. Prayers for the eternal confusion of others are not absolutely to be put up to God They who wil imitate the Scripture in imprecations against others must be sure they imitate those holy men who uttered them in being led by the same Spirit both of infallibility in discerning of mens persons and Estates and also of purity or freedom from those corrupt affections wherewith our zeal for Gods glory is ever too much mixed and therefore to be suspected This counsel Christ gave his Disciples Luke 9.55 Matth. 5.44 who asking whether after the example of Elijah they should pray that fire might come down from heaven to consume the Samaritanes * q.d. Yours is motion not of zeal but revenge Ideo Deum à se expellit qui illum à proximo avertit facit Deo injuriam quia seipsum judicem constituit et Deum tortorem Aug. Ser. 4. de Sanc. were answered by Christ that they knew not what spirit they were of Our Masters precept was Bless them that curse you yea bless and curse not and his pattern left us is 1 Pet. 2.23 set down in these words When he was reviled he reviled not again The time of Prayer saith Chrysostom is the time of meekness And he saith Augustine drives away God from himself who would turn him away from others he being injurious to God in making him the Executioner and himself the Judg. 4. Observ 4. God warnes of wo before he sends wo. He takes not sinners at the advantage as he might in the act of sin but he foretels the woe before he inflicts it He usually cutteth men down by the mouth of his Ministers Gen. 15.16 Matth. 23.37 before he cuts them off by the hand of Executioners by the sword of his mouth before he doth it by the mouth of the sword Gods method is to give premonition before he inflicts punishment The two destructions of Jerusalem by the Caldeans and Romans came not till foretold by the Prophets and Christ Of the two general destructions of the world Geâ— 6.3 2 Pet. 3. the past by water and the suture by fire sufficient warning hath been given God hereby speaks himself gracious and the wicked inexcusable He threatneth that he may not smite and he smiteth that he may not slay and he slayeth some sometimes temporally Râ—v 2.21 that they may not be destroyed eternally God foretels ruin that it may be prevented Jonah's prophecying of Niniveh's overthrow Venturum se praedicat ut cum venerit quos damnet non inveniat Greg was as Chrysostom saith a kind of overthrow of the Prophecy And hereby the wicked are proclaimed inexcusable They cannot say in their greatest suffering but that they had premonition Even the enemies of God shall justifie him when he condemns them They cannot but excuse God from desire of revenge the desirers whereof are not wont to give warning Professa perdu tâ—dia vindictae locum Sen. Medea Christians take heed of turning the denunciations of woe into wantonness It s neither for want of sin in man nor strength in God that in stead of wounding he only warns His hand is not weakened that it cannot strike nor his arm shortned that it cannot reach us He hath not lost his power but he execiseth his patience and he exerciseth his patience in expecting our repentance Non ille potentiam perdidit sed patientiam exercet Patientiam exercet suam dum poenitentiam expectat tuam Aug. Let us prepare to meet our God even when he is coming toward us before he come at us Let us dispatch the Messengers of Prayer and Reformation to meet him and make peace with him while he is vet in the way and afar off Though Gods patience lasts long it will not last ever If we will sin notwithstanding a wo threatned we shall be punish'd notwithstanding a mercy promis'd He who is long a striking strikes heavy The longer the child is in the womb the bigger it is when it comes forth The longer it is ere wo comes the bigger will it be when it comes No mettal so cold as Lead before it is melted but none more scalding afterward 5. Ministers must denounce woes against the wicked Observ 5. Jude describes the fierceness of Seducers and exhorts the Christians to compassion and yet his meekness abolisheth not his zeal The regard of Gods glory and the souls of the Saints drawes forth this severe denunciation against the Enemies of both He is as bold to foretel their woe as they to proclaim their wickedness The like spirit we may behold in the holy men before him Causam populi apud Deum precibus causam Dei apud populum gladiis allegavit Greg. Exod. 32.27 Moses so meek that when he was with God though he pleaded the cause of the people with prayers yet when he was with the people he pleaded the cause of God with the sword The Prophets after him Samuel Elijah Isaiah Jeremiah were cold and calm in their own but full of heavenly heat in Gods cause Their denunciations
Usurpatur ad indicandam rei praesentis exhibitionem happy is the man whom the Lord correcteth Psal 33.18 Behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him 2. As a note of admiration 2. Ad excitandam ex rei mirandae praedicatione attentioonem or to stir up attention for the great and stupendious wonderfulness of some thing that fals out Thus it is taken 2 King 6.17 Behold the mountain was full of horses and Chariots of fire Matth. 27.51 Behold the vail of the temple was rent in twain And 28.2 Behold there was a great earthquake Luke 1â— 16. Act. 1.10.7.56.12.7 Gen. 29.6 Isa 7.14 Behold a Virgin shall conceive 1 Cor. 15.51 Behold I shew you a mysterie c. The word behold in this place may sutably to the subject in hand the coming of Christ to judgment be considered as denoting both these 1. The certainty and truth thereof it being a thing as sure as if it were before our eyes and already accomplished like that minatory prediction of the prophet concerning the house of Jeroboam 1 Kings 14.14 But what even now A thing that ought to sink into the hearts of hearers and that which they cannot too firmly and fixedly believe The infallible predictions of Scripture which must be fulfilled the judgments of God already executed upon some sinners the fears of a natural conscience Gods justice which wil render to every one according to his works And lastly Act 1.11 Matth. 24 3â— 2 Thes 1.7 â— Act 17.32 24 25 Gen 18 25 1 Thes 1.5 2 Coâ— 5 10. Râ—v 20.12 the fitness that the body shal have its due retribution as wel as the soul all prove the certainty of the last judgment The certainty of his coming I have spoken to before part 1. p. 536. 2. The word Behold may be considered as a note of admiration denoting a most wonderful and strange thing like that Behold Hab. 1.5 Behold and wonder marvellously for I wil work a work in your daies which ye wil not believe though it be told you And this coming of Christ is wonderful and strange 1. In respect of the wicked to whom it is unexpected they thereby being unprepared for it it comes as a snare upon them in a day wherein they look not for it in an houre wherein they are not aware Luke 12.46 as a theef in the night When they shall say peace and safety then sudden destruction shall come upon them as travel upon a woman with child and they shall not escape 1 Thes 5.2 2. It s wonderful in respect of the astonishing glory of the coming of Christ to judgment together with the judgment it self of which I have largely spoken pag. 525 Part 1. to 540. I must not repeat OBSERVATIONS 1. Obser 1. Our thoughts only of those things which are truly great and glorious should be high and admiring Behold saith Enoch as noting the astonishing wonderfulness of the last judgment This truly great thing should be looked upon as such It is the folly of most men to look upon smal things as great and upon great things as smal Humane judgments affright and amaze them the last judgment they slight and neglect these want that rectified judgment of the Apostle who cals the day of judgment the appearing of the great God and so preached of the judgment to come that he made Felix tremble whereas he tels us how little he past for mans judgment 1 Cor. 4 3. Thus likewise our Saviour directs his disciples to contemn that which is smal and contemptible fear not him that kils the body and to dread that which is truly great and formidable fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hel Matth. 10.28 When the disciples beheld with wonder and shewed to Christ the beautiful buildings of the temple he with an holy contempt of those outside beauties tells them there shall not be one stone of all those stately structures left upon another that shall not be thrown down and when Satan shewd and offered him all the Kingdomes of the world with their glory he shewd his Contempt of the prospect and promotion with a Get thee behind me Satan but when he observed the faith of the Centurion he wonders and expresseth his admiration to the people Luc. 7.9 2. Observ 2. Great is our naturall backwardness to mindâ— and believe the coming of Christ to judgment Eâ—â—ch prefixeth a note of incitement to his prophesie The wicked take occasion to be secure and to cast off the thought of Christs coming from the procrastination and delaying thereof Men scoff at the promise of the Coming of Christ 2 Pet. 3 4 because say they since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation That servant Luke 12.45 who said that his Lord delayd his Coming in stead of minding and preparing for it did beat his fellow servants and also did eat drinke and was drunken Hence it is that men say peace and safety even when sudden destruction is coming upon them 1 Thes 5.3 Men are naturally led by sense what they see not feel not they beleeve not As Noahs flood was a type of the last judgment so the disposition of men when that deluge approcht resembled that which shall be in sinners at the coming of Christ As in the dayes before the flood there was eating drinking marrying c. so shall also the Coming of the son of man be Mat. 24.38 39. And so great likewise is naturally every sinners selfe love that they love to shun the thoughts of every thing which they love not they are ready to say to themselves as did Peter to Christ Be it far from thee this shall not be to thee they put far from them the last day because they look upon it as the evill day nay the woâ—st day they love the world and their hearts grow to it and therefore t is death to them to think of an unsettlement Their Sodom they so much delight in that like Lots wife they cannot endure to think of a shoure of fire herein resembling some who are therefore unwilling to make their wills because they cannot away with the thoughts of death To rectifie this distemper as we should labour to finde this great day a good day and the great Lord our good Lord to be such that even out of this devouring lion we may take honey so consider that 3. Obs 3. Concerning the certaitnty of the judgment see be fore The last judgment is to be lookt upon as a matter of greatest certainty not as a fiction but as a most reall and undoubted thing We should look upon it to be as certaine as if it were already with us It s the policy of Satan to make us diffident of that which we should be confident of and confident of that of which we should be diffident He presents his own lyes as certainties and Gods truths
the discontented person for but doing with his own as he pleaseth 4. In this is manifested the sin of a proud conceit of our own worth and deservings a sinful self-justification when Gods dispensations are severe and afflictive He who complains of Gods dealing secretly applauds his own deservings he who murmurs against Gods hand shewes that he is not angry with his own heart he alwaies saith see what have I lost how many comforts do I want but he never saith what have I done how many corruptions hath my heart which make me unfit to enjoy a fuller portion in the world All the fault is laid upon God nothing upon himself as if his sin never threw one mite into the treasury of his sufferings he counts God a hard master and himself a good servant and if it be a great sin in the courts of men to acquit the wicked and to condemn the innocent how inexcusable a wickednesse is it to condemn God and acquit our selves A discontented camplainer saith not with David I and my fathers house have sinned these sheep what have they don Nor with the humble soul The Lord is righteous and I wil bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him but flyes in the face of God in stead of falling down at his feet In one word this discontent is a shield for sin and is a sword against God 5. This sin unduly and sacrilegiously usurps Gods own seat and throne what doth he who complaines of Gods administrations but in effect profess that he would be in the room of God to order the world after his own mind and that he hath more wisdome care justice and therefore fitness to dispose of men and to alot them their portions than God himselfe Interpretatively he sayes like Absolom there is none that takes care to order mens affaires O that I were King of the world then should things be better ordered then now they are And he saith to God as that master of the feast to his self-advancing guest come down sit lower and give way to thy betters to sit above thee Whereas alas should such silly Phaetons as we but govern the world as they fable he did the chariot of the sun for one day we should set all things on fire nay should we be left to cut out our own portions and be our own carvers how soon should we cut our own fingars And how can he whose wil is the rule of rectitude do any thing unrighteously man doth a thing because its just but therefore is a thing just because God doth it far be it from God saith Elihu that God should do wickedness Jâ—b 34.10 and from the Almighty that he should commit iniquity who can be more careful then he who is more tender over his than a mother is over her sucking child who so wise as the only wise God whose eyes run to fro throughout the whole earth nay who indeed is all eye to behold all the concernments of the sons of men 6. Lastly This sin of discontentednesse with our own private alotments takes men off from minding the more publick and weighty concernments of Gods Church making them to disregard and forget it in all her sufferings and hazards what doth more then this sin cause men to mind their own and not the things of Jesus Christ and to lose the thoughts thereof in a crowd of discontented cares for themselves It is impossible for him that is overmuch in mourning for himself to be mindful of or mournful for Zion Now what an unworthy distemper is this for men to live as if God had made them only to mind their own private conditions in the world to regard only the painting of their own Cabbins though the ship be sinking and so as it may be wel with themselves to be carelesse how it fares with the whole Church of Christ We should rejoyce that God would set up a building of glory to himselfe though upon our ruins and that Christ ariseth though we fal that his kingdome comes though ours goes that he may be seene and honoured though we stand in a crowd and be hidden OBSERVATIONS 1. God hath divided Obs 1. set out for every one his portion here in the world These seducers in complaining of their part and alotment shew that God appoints to every one his dimensum or proportion that he thinks fittest for them God is the great housholder of the world and Master of that great family and as it was the custome of ancient times to divide and give to every one his portion of meat and drink and his set allowance of either whence we read Psal 11.6 of the portion of the wickeds cup so God deals out to every one what estate he thinks meetest To some he gives a Benjamins portion in the world five times so much as to others he is the soveraign disposer of us and of all our concernments and he best knowes what is best for us and to his people he ever gives them that alotment which best sutes with their obtaining of the true good himself and ever affords them if not what they would yet what they want Oh how should this consideration work us to a humble contentednesse with all our alotments and make us bring our hearts to our condition if we cannot bring our condition to our hearts In a word when we see that the condition of others is higher then ours let us consider that it is better to wear a fit garment then one much too big though golden 2. Obs 2. No estate of outward fulness can quiet the heart and stil its complaints These seducers feasted sumptuously fed themselves to the full and fared high and yet for all that they murmured and complained The rich man in the Gospel in the midst of all his abundance cryes out What shall I doe Luke 12.17 Neither the life nor the comfort of the life consists in the abundance of the things which we enjoy None complain so much as they who have the greatest plenty Though Nabal had in his house the feast of a King yet soon after his heart dyed in him and he became like a stone 1 Sam. 25.27 Nabals heart was like the kidney of a beast which though inclosed in fat is it self lean Solomon in his glory reads a lecture of the creatures vanity Ahab and Haman were as discontented in heart as great in estate vast is the disproportion between the soul and all wordly objects for they being but momentany and vanishing dead and inefficacious earthy and drossie are unsutable to the souls excellency and exigencies T is not the work of wordly abundance to take away covetousnesse but of grace in the heart the lesson of contentment must be learned in a higher Schoole than outward plenty 3. Obs 3. They who deserve worst complaine and murmur most And are most ready to thinke that they are most hardly dealt with None are so unthankful as the
slaying and death shall benefit the Saint Worldly enjoyments are given us that we by them should testifie our love to God not by them to got assurance of Gods love to us Oh how slender an evidence of heaven is that with which so ordinarily men go to hel Thou canst only understand that the heart of God is set upon thee by finding that thine is set upon him The least dram of Grace is an earnest of heaven The greatest sum of outward enjoyments amounts not to the least part of payment or pledg of happiness 8. Observ 8. They who are corrupt in their judgment go in the way of cruelty Not to intimate what some have said of cruel Cain that he was the first Heretick sure I am he was after the Divel the first Murderer and these Seducers were as full of hatred as they were of Error They went in the way of Cain They were cruel to souls which by their Errors they poisoned and destroyed cruel to the names and dignities of their Superiors of whom they speak evil They were as the Apostle speaks afterward 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fierce and raging waves ver 13 such as uttered hard speeches ver 15. against the Godly especially Ministers who opposed them in their way of sin Not to speak of the cruelty of Idolaters recorded in the Old Testament as of Pharaoh Hâ—man Ahab Jezabel Manasseh not yet converted Nebuchadnezzar Antiochus nor of the Heathenish Emperors within the first 300 years after Christ by which Tyrants the Apostles suffered violent death and whosoever made profession of their Doctrine were cruelly murdered of Nero Domitian Trajan Antonius Verus Hadrian who crucified Ten thousand Christians in one Mount of the last of the Ten Persecutions wherein in the space of one Month were slain seventeen thousand Martyrs I say to pass by these What lively Expositions upon this Text and the cruelty of Cain have the bloody actions of those been who would have been counted of the Church nay the only Church and friends and brethren to the members thereof as Cain was brother to Abel I might here relate what Ecclesiastical History mentions concerning the cruelty of the Arian Hereticks Theod. l. 1. c. 29. their banishing and false accusing of Meletius and Eustatius Bishops of Antioch and Athanasius of Alexandria the latter of whom hardly escaped with his life l. 5. c. 21. Socrat. l. 2. c. 7.16 for the cruel Arians finding that they could not destroy him by false witness purposed by violence to tear him in pieces the banishing and desposing Paulus from Constantinople by the Arrian Emperor Constantius and at last Socrat. l. 4. c. 22 Theod. l. 4. c. 21. Sozom. l 6. c. 19 Vid. Centur. Magd. p. 79. Cent 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epist ad Solit. the cruel murdering of him by the bloody Arians not to mention with these the vast number of examples of Arian cruelty recorded in Ecclesiastical History Socrates Theodoret Sozomen c. consent in this that the Arians banish'd imprison'd cruelly whip'd mock'd tore with nails burnt and exercised the cruellest punishments against the Orthodox and that they were more cruel against them then the Heathens who Tyranniz'd in those times Athanasius saith The inhumanity of the Arians exceeded all expression I might likewise mention what Augustin in sundry Epistles relates of the Cain-like cruelty of the Donatists of his time who pretended to so much Purity as that they held that the Church was no where in the world to be found Epist 50. Quis non Dominus servum suum timere compulsus est Quis quem libet poterat exigere debitorem Quorundam oculi extincti sunt Cujusdam Episcopi manus lingua praecisa est taceo crudelissimas coedes Epist 68. Conclericos nostros plagis immanissimis quassaverunt Quendam immaniter coesum gurgite coenoso volutatum c. Nos fustibus quassant ferróque concidunt In oculos extinguendos calcem mixto accto incredibili excogitatione sceseris mittunt Epist 166.159 Lacerati sunt viri tractae sunt Matronae Infantes necati abacti sunt partus nulli licuit securum esse in possessionibus suis Optat. cont Parl. l. 23. but in that corner of Affrick wherein themselves dwelt In his fiftieth Epistle hee tells us that the Masters stood in fear of their servants that were gone over to the Donatists that no man durst demand the money which his Debtors owed him for fear of clubs and fire the houses of any that offended them were burnt or pulled down and they pulled out the eyes of the Ministers and put them out with Chalk and Vinegar cut off their hands pulled out their tougues cruelly whipt and slew them and then tumbled them in the mud and then carryed them about afterward in derision And though these Sectaries pleaded frequently for toleration and liberty of conscience yet when under Julian the Apostate they had gotten power Who can declare saith Augustin what slaughter they made of the Orthodox All Affrica was filled with blood and desolation men were rent Matrons drag'd Infants slaughtered women with child miscarryed none were secure in their houses But if ever the spirit of Cain breathed in any since his time or if ever any wrote after Cains copy in letters of blood certainly they have been those of the Papacy how deservedly may their Head and Father the Pope be called a Cain in chief and is he called the Son of Perdition as being not only appointed to perdition but the Author of Perdition and destruction How evidently is his Antichristian cruelty set forth by being Drunk with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus Rev. 17.6 It s said by some that There is no day in the year which might not be dedicated to an hundred several Martyrs whose blood hath been shed by the Papal power 1. Papal cruelty spareth not pitieth not any degrees sex order age condition of men opposing their Religion Act. Mon. p. 814. 751 874 710 766 Alphonsus Diazius another Cain barbarously killed his own brother John Diazius because he was a Protestant With what inhumane cruelty have Protestants been compelled to discover for slaughter their dearest relations parents children brethren wives to carry faggots to burn their godly and painful Pastors and which might surpass belief among Heathens children have been constrained to set fire to their own fathers And Thuanus reports That a certain woman having fled to a secret place to shun the rage of her enemies being drawn out of it by them was in the sight of her husband shamefully defiled and then was forced by some of them who ordered her hand to give her husband his deaths wound with a drawne sword Horrid was that spectacle of the child which sprang out of the womb of a woman burnt at Gernsey which being saved out of the fire was by the bloody Executioner cast in again p. 1864. 1879 because it was a
young Heretick A child of eight years old was by them scourged to death for Religion and a boy under twelve years condemned for the six Articles yea Popish cruelty forbears not either to bury the quick p. 816. as one Marion was condemned to be buryed alive or to unbury the dead by violating of their graves digging out the bodies and burning them thus they dealt with the bodies of Bucer Fagius Wickliff c. How frequently hath Papal power made Kings and Princes Wolves and Tygers one against another and sent forth Cut-throats and Villains with pardons to stab and poison the Kings and Potentates of the earth their lives by any Art they hold may be taken away if the Pope hold them excommunicate Emanuel Sa affirms it lawful for one to kil a King Latâ sententiâ quisque potest fieri executor In Aphor. de Rege Regis Instit l. 1. c. 6. if the Pope have sentenced him to death though he be his lawful Prince But Mariana gives direction how it may be done with the best convenience He thinks Poison to be the best way but yet for the more secrecy Quod si evaserint instar magnorum Heroum in omni vita suscipiendi si vero secus accidat gratam hominibus gratam superis hostiam cadere nobili conatu ad omnem posteritatis memoriam illustratos judicamus Marian. l. 1. de reg c. 7. that it be cast upon the Saddles Garments Chaires of the Prince And he further tells us that if they who kill such Kings shall escape they ought to be looked upon and received as long as they live as great and noble Worthies but if it fall out otherwise that they lose their lives in the undertaking that then they are a sweet smelling Sacrifice to God and man and that their names shall be illustrious to all posterity This book of Mariana was approved by the gravest and learnedst of the Jesuites Order and so with a special Commission from Claudius Aquaviva their General with their approbations and other solemn priviledges it was printed at Toledo and Mentz and lastly inserted into the Catalogues of the books of their Order It s not lawful saith Bellarmine for Christians to tolerate an Heretical King Nonlicet Christianis tolerare regem haereticum si conetur pertrahere subditos ad suam haresim Bâ—llar l. 5. de Rom. Pont. c. 7. Potestas spiritualis debet coercere temporalem omni modo viâ Id. l. 5. c. 6 if he labors to draw his subjects to his Heresie and saith he its lawful for the Spiritual power to restrain the Temporal by all means and wayes and when the Pope hath passed sentence upon a King then after this publick sentence they generally affirm it lawful for any to kill a King So Bellarmine Gregory de Valentia Tolet Suarez Molina Lessius c. Nor 2 doth Popish cruelty less discover it self in the numbers then in the ranks and degrees of those whom they destroy for Religion These Popish Cains destroy multitudes of Abels Infamous is the cruelty of that savage Minerius the Popes Champion in his bloody Enterprise against the Merindolians he destroy'd twenty and two Townes and murdered the Inhabitants whether they resisted or not and when the men of Merindol flying from his Army left behind them their tender wives and children this Popish blood-hound practiced all manner of Villany and Cruelty upon them The Town of Cabriers upon condition that he would use no violence against them was yeilded into his hands but he falsified his promise hewing thirty men in pieces in one place putting forty feeble women some with child into a barn full of straw caused it to be set on fire at the four corners and such who got out he caused to be cut in pieces In this one Town were thus mercilesly murdered above a thousand Protestants To these I might add the cruel murdering of about eight hundred Protestants in two Townes in Calabria fourscore whereof had their throats cut one by one white way to the Church Digr 50. yet so as that every one was left but half dead by the Excutioner And the French Massacre wherein in thirty dayes were thirty thousand slaine Farnesius vowed to ride his hoâ—se to the saddle in the blood of Lutherans not to speak of that incredible effusion of blood which the Spaniards have made among the poor Indians under pretence of converting them to the faith they having in the space of forty years slaine Seven and thirty millions of people famishing in three Months seven thousand children at one time massacring two thousand Gentlemen and murdering with such cruelty that to avoid it poor men would hang themselves with their wives and children Lastly and principally this bloudy disposition of Cain discovers it self in the cruel and savage manner of murdering Minerius forementioned cut off the paps of the poor mothers of sucking children and the children looking for suck from their dead mothers were starved to death It hath been their practice to hold men in death so long as they could Moriatur ut sentiat se mori inflicting as it were a thousand deaths in one and making them so to dye as to perceive themselves to die Acts Monum p. 869 805 860 What should I speak of their burning men by piece-meal and that with Brimstone pitch and tar c. with barrels of pitch and tar dropping upon their heads Joannes de Roma a Monk having got a commission to examine the Lutherans used this torment to force them to accuse themselves He filled boots with boyling grease and put them upon the legs of those whom he suspected and tying them backward to a form with their legs hanging down over a soft fire he examined them To this Cain-like cruelty of the erroneous Papists I might add that of the Anabaptists in Germany who were as bitter and bloody enemies to the Reformed party as were the Papists and more opposed God and Orthodox Christians then they did the Papists themselves they alway voicing Luther to be worse then the Pope I shall not mention the bloody uproars made by Munzer John Mathias John Becold Knipperdolling John Geles Henry Goethlit James of Kemp c. with their followers at Wormes Ausburg Bazil Shafhuse Berne Munster Amsterdam c. filling all places with bloud and slaughter murdering their own natural brethren yea their wives and pursuing the doctrine of the Gospel and the professors thereof especially the godly Ministers with cruel fury It will be more then sufficient to set down the words of one concerning this savage crew See Sleidan Bullinger Heresbachius Hortensius c. Mr. Bayly who hath taken much pains in examining their Doctrines and practices his words are these The spirit of Mahomet was not so hellish in making an open trade of bloodshed robbery confusion and Catholick oppression through the whole earth as the spirit of Anabaptism Nor need we think it strange concerning the fiery