Bishoprick in respect of Christ the Bishop of our Soules 1 Pet. 2. 25. The sole oecumenicall and universall President of the whole Church So then as there are many Beames proceeding from the same Sun yet one Sun in which they are United many branches growing from one Tree yet one roote wherein they are conjoyned many Rivers yet one Sea wherein they all meet many lines in a circle but one Center wherein they all concur So the Members of Christs Church though in respect of themselves they be divers yet they have all but one beginning one Spring one roote one Head one Center and in this respect all but one as one in respect of the Head so in respect of the Spirit which animateth every Member thereof This is the soule that informs the whole Church it is that Intellectus agens of which Philosophers have so much dreamed which is Vnas numero in every Member of Christs mysticall Body So that as the integrall Members of mans Body though of themselves they be specifically distinct flesh bones nerves muscles veines arteries c. Every one of them having a peculiar essentiall and specificall form yet being informed with one humane Soule they are but integrall parts of the same man So all Christians in the World though in sex and state and degree and calling and Nation and language they be different yet being regenerated and animated with the same spirit they are but integrall Members of one and the selfe same Church 3. One in respect of Faith and Religion and profession contained in the sacred volume of the Bible the two Brests of the Church out of which Christs Lambs do suck the sincere Milke of the word that they may grow thereby The two Cherubims that with mutuall counterview do face the mercy Seate that is Christ the two great lights that inlighten the World the old like the Moon to rule the night the new like the Sun to rule the day that for the Patriarks this for us the two Pillars to leade us from Egypt to Canaan the old of a Cloud dark and obscure in figures and shadowes the other of fire bright and cleare both of them making one and absolute rule of our faith and profession she is then one because one spirit quickeneth her one because one rule directeth her that is the essentiall form this is the proper passion flowing from this form by which the Church a Posteriori may be demonstrated For they are my Sheep saith Christ which heare my voice John 10. 27. thus then briefly one Spouse one love one Dove one Body one Fleece one Arke on Spirit one Faith one Religion one Head one Shepheard one Flock Here to come to so me application give me leave to use the Apostles protestation I say the truth in Christ Jesus Ilye not my conscience bearing me witnesse in the Holy Ghost that I have great heavinesse and continuall sorrow in my heart and with the Prophet Jeremy could wish that my head were full of water and mine eyes a fountaine of teares that I might weepe day and night for the Schismes and divisions that are at this day in the Christian world There was a time there was Woe worth that unhappy Tense there was but Est bene non possum dicere dico fuit I cannot say there is I must needs speak as it is There was a time when the whole Church of God in all places of the world was of one heart and one minde of one accord and of one judgment And howsoever there was and ever will be some difference about some circumstances of no great weight yet was there not the least discrepance amongst them in any one essentiall point of our faith Vna agebat in omnibus membris divini spiritus virtus erat omnibus anima una fidei propositum idem divinitatis celebratio omnibus una Euseb lib. 10. hist Eccl. Chap. 3. in somuch that as when any member of the body is ill affected all the rest do conspire to cure it or when a house is set on fire the whole town will run to quench it So if any heresie happened to spring in any part of the World their common desire was to crush the serpents head to make it like Ionas his gourd of short continuance and to smother it in the birth and make it like the untimely fruit of a Woman which perisheth afore it see the Sun they did conspire to heale the affected member and did concu to stay the flame from further combustion Thus did they from the most parts of the world concur at Nice against Arius at Constantinople against Macedonius at Ephesus against Nestorius at Chalcedon against Entiches Thus was the head of Britaines snake as Prosper Aquitanus tells Pelagius crushed by provinciall Synods in most places of Christendome And long before these times when as yet there was not a Christian Emperour thus they dealt with Montanus in many of their Synods And at Antioch against Paulus Samosatenus they met from all Churches under Heaven as it were against a common theife that stole the Sheep out of Christs flock But now O times the one and undivided spouse of Christ is like a Traytor drawn and quattered the North and the South the Orient and the Occident each differ from other in sundry materiall and essentiall points of Faith And here in the West that Church whose faith was once famous through the whole world which was as a Beacon upon an hill a guide for all the Churches round about her a Sanctuary for orthodoxall exiles one of the four Patriarchicall Seas and that in respect of place and order the first the Empresse of the World the Glory of Kingdomes the pride and beauty of Nations the faithfull City is so estranged from the Bridegroomes Voice and hath so depraved the purity of Christian religion both by loosing of her own and the taking in of Forraine water that as one sayd of Athens we may say of Rome thou mayst seeke Rome in Rome and canst not finde it being become like unto one of the old Aegyptian Temples beautifull without and Cats and Ratts and Crocodiles adored within And whereas shee hath no more reason to be called Catholike then the old Mahometans to call themselves Saracens then the Jewes had to call Herod that was ready to be eaten with wormes a God then the Persians that were shortly afterslaine by the Romans to be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then Manes had to stile himselfe an Apostle of Jesus Christ then Celsus the Heathen Philosopher to entitle his Books written against Christian Religion the word of truth or Drunkards to be tearmed good fellowes or light housewives honest women having made the rule of her faith like Glaucus the Sea which loosing some part of his Body by beating upon Rocks and shelves hath the same repaired by rocks and sand that cleave to him yet must shee be called the only Catholike Church of
when God writeth thy sinnes in dust wilt thou write thy Brothers in Marble When he forgiveth thee ten thousand talents wilt not thou forgive thy Brother an hundreth pence If thou wilt be indeed his Sonne be like unto him be pitiful tender-hearted full of mercy and compassion if thou be angry beware that thou sin not by speedy revenge if thy wrath be conceived in the morning and perchance increase his heat with the Sunne till mid-day yet let it settle with the Sunne at afternoon and set with it at night Let not the Sunne go down upon thy wrath if its conception be in the night use it as the harlot used her child smother it in thy bed and make it like the untimely fruit of a woman which perisheth before iâ— see the Sun to this purpose remember that the Citizens of this Jerusalem are at unity amongst themselves the stones of this temple are fast coupled and linked together the members of this Body as they are united in one head with the nerves of a justifying faith So are they knit in one heart with the Arteries of love The branches of this Vine as they are united with the boale from whence they receive nutriment so have they certain tendâ—els whereby they are fastned and linked one to another Now if without compassion thou seekest thy brothers hurt thou dost as it were divide Christ thou pullest a stone out of this Temple thou breakest a branch from this Vine nay more then so thou cuttest the Vine it self Virgil tels us that when Aeneas was pulling a bough from a miâ—tle tree to shadow his sacrifice there issued drops of blood from the boale trickling down unto the ground at length he heard a voice crying unto him thus Quid miserum Aenea laceras jam parce sepulto parce pias scelerare manus the Poet tels us that it was the blood of Polydorus Priamus his sonne which cried for vengeance against Polymnester the Thracian King which had slain him in like manner whensoever thou seekest the overthrow of thy Christian Brother and hast a desire to revenge thy self of him as hee had to pull a bough from the Tree think that it is not the branches but the Vine thou seekest to cut down Think that Christ will count this indignity done to his members as it were done to himselfe Think that thou hearest him cry unto thee after this manner jam parce sepulto parce tuas scelerare manus imbrue not thy hands in my blood hand cruor hic de stipite manat it is not the branches thou fightest against Nam Polydorus ego I am Jesus whom thou persecutest I am now come near to a point which I have pressed heretofore in the other publick place of this citie therefore I proceed no further but turn aside to my second general point observed in this verse which was Jerusalems miserie The Tree is very fruitful and I am but a passenger and therefore must be contented to pull two or three clusters which I conceived to be the ripest and the readiest to part with the boughs which when I have commended to your several tastes I will commit you to God First the Paucity of true Professors if ye can finde a man or if there be any Secondly the place where In Jerusalem Thirdly that God will bring his judgements upon her because of her wickednesse not expressed but necessarily understood From these three I collect three Propositions from the first Gods flock militant may consist of a small number from the second There is no particular place so priviledged but that it may revolt and fall from God from the third No place is so strong nor city so fenced but the sins of the people will bring it to ruine Of these three in order Gods holy Spirit directing me and first of the first God made all the world and therefore it is great reason that he should have it all to himself yea and he challengeth it as his own right The gold is his and the silver is his and all the beasts of the field 〈◊〉 his and so are the cattel upon a thousand hills and the Heavens are his for they are his Throne and the earth is his for it is his footstool and the reprobate are his for Nebuchadnezzar is his servant and as Judah is his so is Moab likewise but in another kinde of service in a word The earth is the Lords and all that therein is the compasse of the world and all that dwell therein but not in that property which is now meant for that belongs only unto men and yet not unto all but to a few which are appointed to be heirs of salvation God made all men so that they are all his sons by creation but he ordained not all to life so that there is but a remnant which are his sons by adoption our first Father did eat such a sowre grape as did set all his childrens teeth on edge by transgressing Gods commandment he lost his birth-right and was shut out of Paradise by committing treason against his Lord and King his blood was stained and all his children were made uncapable of their fathers inheritance but God who is rightly termed the Father of all mercy and God of all consolation as he purposed to shew his justice in punishing the greater part of such as so grievously incurred his displeasure so on the contrary side it was his good pleasure to shew his mercy in saving of some though they deserved as great a degree of punishment as the other and therefore in a Parliment holden before all times it was enacted that the natural son of God the second person in the Trinity should in the fulnesse of time take upon him mans flesh and suffer for our transgressions and gather a certain number out of that Masse of corruption wherein all mankinde lay these be they which shall follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth these be his people and the sheep of his pasture these be they which have this prerogative to be called the Sons of God and the heirs of God annexed with Christ and these are they which I affirm to be often contained in a very narrow room in respect of the wicked There is much chaffe and little wheat it is the wheat that God keeps for his garner there are many stones but few pearls it is the pearl which Christ hath bought with his blood Many fowls but only the Eagles be good birds Sathan hath a Kingdom and Christ but a little flock it is like to Bethleem in the land of Judah but a little one amongst the Princes of Judah it is like to Noahs flood going and returning like the 〈◊〉 flowing and ebbing or like to the Moon filling and waining and sometimes so eclipsed and darked with the earth that thou canst not perceive that Christ the son of righteousnesse doth
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
to doe according to all that they enforme thee Deut. 17. Beside this the law was there more diligently then in other places expounded the Prophets did reveale Gods secrets unto the people and by thundring out the Canons of the law did strive to weane them from their evill wayes and by the promises of the Gospell tâ— woo them unto God the Iebusites which before time God had permitted to dwell amongst them that they might be thornes in their eyes and prickles in their sides were now extirpated so thaâ— they could not choke the word of God which was sowne amongst them and make it unfruitfull Was there ever Citie upon the face of the earth which had such a Charter as this the Citie where God had promised to be resident where was the Arke of the Covenant and the glorious Temple which Solomon had built at Gods appointment where the Kings of Iudah had their abode where the Law and the Prophets were diligently read and expounded unto the People where all points of difficulty were handled where was the Priests Palace whither the whole land had recourse out of their severall Tribes as unto the place where men ought to worship it was a heaven upon the earth and a type of that glorious City which is above and is Ierusalem so fallen from God can there not one righteous man be found within her walles is the holy citie become so wicked is the faithful Spouse becom a harlot are her Princes become rebels her Judges murtherers her gold dross her charitie oppression her ripenes rottennes her almesdeeds al-mis-deeds Hath the leprosie of sin so infected every part of her body that from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head there is nothing whol therein but wounds and swellings and soresful of corruption what need we go further for proving our conclusion for as he speaks in Tully Either this is enough or I know not what wil suffice If you would have topical arguments after such a demonstration as this I could lead you through many places of invention which would manifestly confirme my assertion I could shew you the Churches of Galatia and Philippi and Corinthus which Paul had plantâ—d Apollos and other Disciples had watered and God had wonderfully encreased I could instance in Smyrna and Pergamus and Laodicea c. In which the Evangelist Iohn had so painfully laboured in Constantinople and Ephesus and Nice and Chalcedon famous for the generall Councels in Carthage and Hippo and other Churches of Africke in Anticohia the first God-mother of Christians and in a word in all the Easterne and African Churches in which so many Worthies have flourished What is the case of these particulars at this day behold they are fallen as though they had not been planted as though the seed of the word had not been sown amongst them as though that stock had taken no root in the earth the Lord hath blowne upon them and they are withered and the whirl wind hath taken them away like stubble the abomination of desolation let him that heareth it consider it sitteth in their holy places which are now nothing else but as it were an habitation for Dragons and Courts for Ostriches instead of the Sacred Bible they have entertained the blasphemous Alchoran their Mophâ—i Mezin and Antippi and such Idolatrous Mahometans have gotten the rooms of the ancient Fathers What and are these also fallen then let her that thinketh shee standeth take heed lest shee fall I meane that strumpet which advanceth her selfe above the starrs of God which saith I am and none else and sings with Niobe in the Poet Sum foelix I am in a happy estate and there shall no harme happen unto me which with Laodicea thinketh that she is rich and encreased with goods and needeth nothing where as indeed as anon you shall heare she is wretched and miserable and poore and blind and naked Nineve had such a conceit of her selfe and did so farre presume upon her strength that she thought it had been impossible for all the powers of the world to bring her under the hatches And therefore the Lord bids her looke upon the state of Alexandria a stronger Citie then Nineve and yet she was destroyed Art thou better saith he then No which was full of people that lay in the rivers and had the waters round about it whose ditch was the sea and her wall was from the sea Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength and there was no end Put Lubin were her helpers yet was she carried away and went into captivitie The same may be said of Rome suppose that none of these cities which I have last mentioned may paralell with her is she better then Jerusalem which was seated upon such strong bulwarkes as already hath been mentioned yet she fell from God and moved the holy one of Israel to anger against her grant unto her all that she can claim and she will be sure to lack nothing for want of challenging for she is not unlike to him who could not espie a ship floating upon the seas but presently said it was his and more then all the Papists in the world can prove to be her due yet she hath no more to brag of then had Jerusalem is she the mother-Citie of all other and the Metropolis of all Christendome So was Jerusalem in respect of the Inhabitants of Iurie Which at that time wer the only people which God had chosen Are all others to appeal unto her as unto their supream Judge in matters of difficultie so were Jewes unto the high court of Ierusalem did Peter the Prince of the Apostles the porter of heaven gates remove his chaire from Antiochia and placed it at Rome so did the Lord his tabernacle from Shiloh to Ierusalem hath Rome the head or chiefe Bishop of all christendome Ierusalem had the like is she the keeper and dispenser of the Lords treasurie So was Ierusalem doth she challenge a freedome for persevering in the truth Ierusalem had better grounds to doe the like and verily as Rome doth at this day flatter her self with a false application of universall promises So did Jerusalem Abraham is our father we are the Children of Abraham this is my rest forever the scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from under his feet the temple of the Lord the temple of the Lord this is the Temple of the Lord. All her titles that she can any way lay claim unto will not make her better then Ierusalem which became such an Apostate that not one godly man could be found in her So that she cannot challenge any priviledge to her selfe from falling to the like wickednes that which happens to the one may befal the other Uâ—lesse she can deal with the truth as the old Romanes handlâ—d dâ—d the goddesse 〈◊〉 who after they had wâ—ne the field used to â—ippe her wings that she might not
dealing holily and hating covetousness and such I hope all are that be here present Now that which I have spoken concerning them that are deceitfull and unconscionable is no more a disgrace unto these and their Calling then it was to Christs Apostles that one of them was a Judas or to the Leviticall Priests that one of them was a Caiphas or to the Sons of God the good Angels Jobâ— that the Prince of darkness the Devil was one of their company Only this one thing let me beseech them to take notice of the better that any thing is the more dangerous it is when it is abused Can there be any thing more necessary then Fire and Water when they keep their proper places displace them remove the fire from the hearth into the house-top and astus incendia volvunt it indangereth the whole Town remove the River out of its Channell into the mowne Meadowes and new grown Corn and Sternit agros sternit sata laeta boumque labores It sweepes away the Câ—râ— and makes havock of all Was there ever Creature that God made more excellent then the Angels and yet those Angels that fell and kept not their first Estate no Creature under Heaven so hurtfull and dangerous as they Come to man is there any calling if ye respect publick peace so necessary as the Magistrate whom God hath set in his own room and stiled with his own name If yee respect the Soule of man so worthy as the Minister if yee respect the health of Body so necessary as the Physitian if yee respect the outward and temporall Estate so requisite as the Lawyer But if these abuse their places if the Magistrate under a colour of executing of Justice practise Tyranny if the Minister for sound Doctrine preach Heresie if the Physitian instead of wholesome Physick minister poyson to his Patients who so pernicious So likewise the Lawyer if in stead of opening and explaining the Lawes and defending the right and standing in the gap that falshood and wrong may not enter he labour to smother the Law and outface the truth and patronize falshood who more hurtfull then he The more you are to be exhorted for you are all but men and no man walke he never so uprightly but he is subject to fall to walke worthy of that excellent vocation whereunto you are called love your Freinds honour the Mighty regard your Clients respect your Fees The labourer is worthy of his hyre But preferr truth and a good conscience before them all and let neither might nor feare nor Client nor Freind nor Fee nor any thing in the World cause you to make shipwrack of a good conscience or to give leave to your tongues which as the Heathen man said should be Oracles of the truth to be Bauds and Brokers for an ill cause remembring that that description which old Cato and Quintilian gave of an Orator as it agreeth to us that are Ministers so to you also that are Lawyers Viz. that he is Vir bonus dicendi peritus and therefore as he must be Dicendi peritus a good Speaker to must he also be Vir bonus a good liver Enough of this To conclude this first generall Point and so to descend unto the second for I will not now trouble you with the other two properties of a Sheep seeing the Dove-like or sheep-like simplicity is a virtue wherwith every Member of Christs Flock must be qualified we are all to be exhorted and let me say unto you with Saint Austine Hortor vos omnes charissimi meque hortor vobiscum I beseech you yea and my selfe with you to avoid hypocrosie and that the rather because it is a sin unto which all Adams Posterity are yea though they be regenerate by the spirit of God in a greater or lesser degree subject To this purpose we are to labour for single hearts because these are the soul of our actions without which well they may have a being yet have they neither life nor moving For as the Body when the Soul is separated from it how comely soever it be in outward form will presently stink and become noysome so all our words and actioâ—s whether they concern Piety or honesty God or our Neighbour if the heart be not joyned with them are but stinking Carrion and filthy Abominations in the Nostrils of Almighty God The second generall Point is the unity of Christs Church she is but as one Flock as the Sheep under one Shepheard though never so many do all concur to the making of one and the same numericall Flock So all Christians though never so dispersed over the Globe of the Earth being fed in the green Pastures of the Lord which are beside the waters of comfort do make but one and the same individuall Church And this the very word it selfe doth imply if we look into his Parentage in the Greek tongue viz. a Congregation or collection of many particulars into one society and city of God for which cause she is called one undefiled Love Cant. 6. 8. one Body Ephe. 4. 4. within which nothing is dead without which nothing is alive as Hugo speaks one Sheepfold John 16 Figured by one fleece of Gideon which was wet with the Dew of Heaven when all the ground beside was dry shadowed by the Arke of Noah wherein eight Persons were saved when all the rest or the World was drowned the Boards of which Arke were conglutinated and pitched together within and without within that she should not loose her own and without Ne admitteret alienam that she should not leake in forrain waters as a Donatist did not unfitly expound it or rather as Austine moralizeth it Vt in compagine unitatis significetur tolerantia charitatis ne scandalis ecclesiam tentantibus sive abâ—ijs quritus abijs sive quae foris sunt cedat fraterna junctura solvatur vinculum pacis August contra Faustum lib. 12. Chap. 14 reason 1. In respect of Christ the Shepheard is one therefore the Flock but one the Bridegroome one therefore the Spouse but one the Head one therefore the Body but one In this respect Cyprian holds the whole Church one Bishoprick not that his meaning is that any one man should be ministeriall head of the whole church in Christs corporal absence that the Bishop of Rome for that were to marry the chast Spouse to two Husbands instead of a faithful Spouse to make her a filthy Harlot Cyprians words wil admit no such Interpretation unus est episcopatus c. And what account he made of the Bishop of Rome which then was a man of better worth then al those Magogs who have possessed that Chaire for a thousand yeares last past it may appeare by this that he contemned his Authority vilipended his Letters opposed his Councell to his his Chaire to his called him a proude man an ignorant man a blinde man and little better then a Schismatick It is then one
Protestants such carnal Gospellers prove themselves to be sonnes of God when they are matched and out-stripped by the sonnes of Satan when they are matched with Simon Magus in their baptisme and with Judas in receiving the Lords Supper and Pharaoh in hearing the word preached and with the Devill in believing and with Pagans and Infidels in the practise of civill and morall duties Nay when Judas goes beyond them in repentance and Ahab in sorrow and humiliation and Herod in delight in the Word and reverence of the Preacher and amendment of life and Jehu in zeale of Gods glory and Pharaoh in desiring the prayers of the godly and Foelix and the Devill in trembling at Gods judgements Oh pittiful If you should live I speak to them that are such and I doubt there are too many in this place the hearts of most are like this Country climate where they live cold and their brains more subject to Lethargies then Phrenfies If you should live amongst the Turks or Tartars where the sound of the Gospel is scarce heard if you had lived and dyed in those dayes when God gave his lawes to Jacob his statutes and Ordinances unto Israel and dealt not so with any Nation Or if you should live in Spain or Italie where the heavenly treasure is locked up from ignorant men in the closet of an unknown tongue and where no more is required of a sonne of the Church for that 's a term they are better acquainted with then a sonne of God then to be baptized to say his prayers in Latine to hear and see a Masse to keepe fasting dayes and to believe as the Collier told the Devill as the Church believeth you might have some excuse for your selves But now that you live where the judgments of the Law are denounced and the sweet promises of the Gospel proposed now that the Sun doth shine and no better blossoms of righteousnesse appeare in you how can you escape the hatchet of Gods wrath How can you call God your Father or Christ your Brother Shall Judas be sorrowfull and make confession of his sinnes and will not you Shall Ahab and the Ninivites be humbled and manifest their humiliation by fasting and sacke-cloath and tears and will not you be humbled for your sins Shall Herod amend many faults at the preaching of John Baptist and will not you reform your lives Shall the Devill believe and tremble and will not you believe with him Or if you believe with him will ye noâ— tremble with him Shall all these I have named be damned to hell and look you for the reward promised to Gods children the Kingdome of Heaven No assuredly no. I deliver unto you that which I have received from the Lord Except your righteousnesse shall exceed the righteousnesse of all these you cannot enter into thâ— Kingdome of heaven The spirit of adoption is not severed from the spirit of sanctification it 's one and the same individual spirit Holinesse becometh Gods house for ever It 's written over Heaven gates as it was over Plato's School door Let no man that is not a Geometrician enter this roome Let no man that hath not measured his life by the line of the Law that hath not this Motto written on the Table of his heart Holinesse to the Lord presume to come into Gods Tabernacle or rest upon his holy Hill That for the first duty we owe unto God as he is our Father and we his children The second is to our Neighbour For if God be our Father then all we which make profession of that faith which was once given to the Saints are brethren and should live as brethren and love as brethren And how brethren should be affected one to another we see in the members of our bodies our two feet are as it were two brethren one to support another two armes two eyes two ears one to help another the utmost part of the hand divided into five fingers one for assisting and strengthening another No otherwise even by the judgement of naturall men should one brother be affectioned to another Hence in Poets came the fable of Briareus with one bodie and 100. hands and of Geryon with one bodie and three heads by the first was meant fiftie by the second three brethren so linked together in the bands of brotherly love as if they had all been members of one and the fame individuall bodie And he that for his owne particular benefit seeks the losse and hurt of a brother doth as if one foot should supplant and trip up another or as if the fingers of the hand should fall out and one wrest another out of joynt Nay further a brother that forsakes his brother and joynes himselfe into society with a stranger saith Plutarch doth as if a man should cut off one of his owne legs and take a wooden leg in the room of it As their love is the greatest so their hatred if they fall out is noted to be the greatest so that of all others they are hardest to be reconciled For as those things that are glued together if they goe asunder may easily be reunited but a bodie that is all of one peece if it be broken cannot be so fastned againe but you may discern where the breach was When friends who by affections are joyned together if they dissent may easily be reconciled but brethre who are as it were one by nature can hardly be so united but there will remaine some scarre behind for which cause it concerns them to avoid the least occasions of disagreement Now that I may bring that which I have spoken home to my purpose grace is a stronger bond then nature If then naturall brethren should be thus affected one to another how much more brethren in Christ begotten by one father God bred in one womb the Church fed with one milke the Word animated by the same spirit justified by the same faith And this love must shew it selfe chiefly in two things 1. In pardoning wrongs without private revenge If the injury be little forget it if great yet must thou not be Judge in thine owne cause but as children say when they are wronged I will tell my Father so do thou All malice and private revenge lay aside out of a zeale of justice make thy complaint to those who are the Ministers of God to take vengeance on them that do evill 2. In supporting and relieving such as stand in need of thy help As the great stones that are laid in the bottome of a building beare the weight of the lesse that are laid above them or as a bundle of rods bound together to use Seleucus his comparison do one strengthen another Or as when a faggot of grove sticks is laid on the fire and warms and kindles another and that which he hath be ready to communicate to such as want those that are learned to instruct others that are ignorant those that be strong to support them that are