This 〈◊〉 lambe was stirred with a holy indignation at so absurd an interruption and sharpes him up that delivers the message Great is the honour that is due to a mother Solomon set Bathsheba at his right hand and promised her any thing with reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unicam matris 〈◊〉 omnes istius 〈◊〉 posse delere Knows not Antipater that one tear of my mothers can 〈◊〉 blot out all his accusations against her said Alexander the Great Brethren also or neer-allyes as these were to our Saviour are dearly to be respected and greatly gratified as were Josephs brethren by him in his greatnesse But when these relations or their requests come in competition with Gods work or glory they must be neglected nay rejected and abominated For is there any friend to God or any foe like him Men be they pleased or displeased he must be obeyed and his businesse dispatched be the 〈◊〉 occasions never so urgent in shew the pretences 〈◊〉 so specious and plausible Verse 49. Behold my mother and my brethren Sanctior est 〈◊〉 cordis quam corporis Spirituall kindred is better then eternall There is a friend that sticketh closer then a brother Prov. 18. 24. Christ is endeared to his in all manner of nearest relations and engagements Oh then the dignity and safety of a Saint And oh the danger and disaster of such as either by hand or tongue maligne or molest them What will they wrong Christs mother to his face Will they force the Queen also in the house c. If Iacobs sons were so avenged for the indignity done to their sister Dinah 〈◊〉 Absolom for Tamar what will Christ doe or rather what will 〈◊〉 not doe 〈◊〉 his dearest relations How will this greater then Solomon arise off his throne at the last day to meet his mother half-way and to doe her all the honour that may be in that great Amphitheatre How sweetly will he accost his brethren that have been long absent from him in the flesh though present ever in spirit with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Come ye blessed c. q. d. where have you been all this while They also shall be bold to say to him as Ruth die to Boaz Spread thy skirt over us for thou art our near kinsman or one that hath good right to redeem Verse 50. For whosoever shall doe the will Loe here 's the right way of becoming akin to Christ and can we better prefer our selves It was an honour to Mark that he was 〈◊〉 his sisters son David durst not in modesty think of being son in law to a King Elymas the 〈◊〉 affected to be held allyed to Christ and therefore stiled himself Barjesus as Darius in his proud 〈◊〉 to Alexander called himself King of Kings and 〈◊〉 of the Gods But the right way to be ennobled indeed and inrighted to Christ and his Kingdom is to beleeve in his Name and 〈◊〉 his 〈◊〉 This this is to become Christs brother and sister and mother Sister is named to shew that no sex is excluded And mother last mentioned that the prerogative of the flesh may be set aside and disacknowledged CHAP. XIII Verse 1. The same day WHerein Christ had had a sharp bout and bickering with the Scribes and Pharisees in the forenoon he sat and taught the people as it may seem in the afternoon A 〈◊〉 of preaching twice a day Chrysostoms practise was to Preach in the afternoon and by candle-light as appears by his Note on 1 Thes. 5. 17. where he fetcheth a similitude from the lamp he was preaching by Luther likewise preached twice 〈◊〉 day which because one Nicolas White commended in him he was accused of heresie in the raigne of Hen. 8. And this commendable course began to be disgraced and cryed down in our daies as Puritanicall and superfluous A learned Bishop was highly extolled in print for saying that when he was a Lecturer in London he preached in the morning but prated only in the after-noon A fair commendation for him He sat by the sea-side As waiting an oppertunity of doing good to mens souls which was no sooner offered but he readily laid hold on So St Paul took a text of one of the Altars in Athens and discourseth on it to the superstitious people A minister must stand ever upon his watch-tower prompt and present ready and speedy to every good work as the bee so soon as ever the sun breaks forth flyes abroad to gather hony and wax accounting employment a preferment as 〈◊〉 Saviour did Iohn 17. 4. Verse 2. He went into a ship and sat Thinking perhaps there to repose himself after his hard conflict with the 〈◊〉 But the sight of a new audience incites him to a new pains of preaching to them And as he held no time unseasonable so no place unfit for such a purpose We finde him 〈◊〉 teaching not in the Temple only and synagogues on the Sabbath day as he did constantly but in the mountains in cities in private houses by the sea-side by the way side by the wells side any where every where no place came 〈◊〉 to him no pulpet displeased him Verse 3. And he spake many things to them in parables A parable saith Suidas is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a setting forth of the matter by way of similitude from something else that differs in kinde and yet in some sort resembleth and illustrateth it Christ the Prince of preachers varieth his kinde of teaching according to the nature and necessity of his audience speaking as they could hear as they could bear saith St Mark Ministers in like sort must turne themselves as it were into all shapes and fashions both of spirit and speech to win people to God Behold a sower went forth Our Saviour stirrs them up to 〈◊〉 by a Behold Which though it might seem not so needfull to be said to such as came far and now looked throw him as it were for a Sermon yet he well knowing how dull men are to conceave heavenly mysteries how weak to remember hard to believe and slow to practise calls for their utmost attention to his divine doctrine and gives them a just reason thereof in his ensuing discourse It fares with the best whiles they hear as with little ones when they are saying their lesson if but a bird flie by they must needs look after it besides the devils malice striving to distract stupifie or steal away the good seed that it may come to nothing Verse 4. And when he sowed some seed c. The word is a seed of immortallity For 1. As seeds are small things yet produce great substances as an acorn an oak c. so by the foolishnes of preaching souls are saved like as by the blowing of rams-horns the wals of Iericho were subverted 2. As the seed must be harrowed into the earth so must the word be hid in the heart ere it 〈◊〉 3. As the seedsman cannot make an harvest without the influence
Bernard who seek straws to put out their eyes withall If we break not off our sins by repentance that there may be a lengthening of our tranquillity a removall of our Candleslick may be as certainly fore-seen and fore-told as if visions and letters were sent us from heaven as once to the Church of Ephesus God may well say to us as to them of old Have I been a wildernesse unto Israel a land of darknesse Or as Themistocles to his Athenians Are ye weary of receiving so many benefits by one man Bona à tergo formosissima Our sins have long since sollicited an utter dissolution and desolation of all and that we should be made a heap and a hissing a waste and a wildernesse Quod Deus aveâ—tat Verse 2. And saying Repent ye Change your mindes now at the preaching of the Gospel as they changed their garments at the promulgation of the Law Rent your hearts and not your garments plough up the fallows of your hearts grieve for your sins even to a transmentation as those Corinthians did and as Simon Peter counselled Simon Magus that snake that had cast his coat but kept his poison For although he caâ—ried the matter so cleanly and cunningly that Philip took him for a true convert and baptized him yet Peter soon saw that he was in the gall or venome of bitternesse for the word used Deut. 29. 18. whereunto the Apostle alludes signifieth both and therefore prescribes him an Antidote the very same that John doth here this generation of vipers Repent if perhaps the thoughts of thy heart may be forgiven thee His wicked thought is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the godly change of minde that the Apostle perswadeth him unto is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that by some mischance hath drunk poison must cast it up again as soon as he can ere it get to the vitals Repentance is the souls vomit which is the hardest kinde of physick but the wholsomest Happy is he that by the dung-port of his mouth in a sorrowfull confession can disburden himself of the sinne that both clogs and hazards his soul to death eternall We râ—n from God by sin to death and have no other way to return but by death to sin For the kingdom of heaven is at hand q. d. Ye have a price put into your hands a fair opportunity of making your selves for ever Will ye like the vine and olive in â—othams parable not leave your sweetnesse and fatnesse your dilecta delicta beloved sins although it be to raign yea and that in Gods kingdome Knowest thou not that the goodnesse of God should lead thee to repentance Is there not mercy with God therefore that he may be feared should not men rent their hearts because God is gracious and turn to the Lord because he will multiply pardon To argue from mercy to liberty is the devils logick and makes God repent him of his favours to such as David did of his kindenesse to Nabal Rather we should argue from mercy to duty as Joseph did to his master in a temptation from deliverance to obedience with David Psal. 116 8 9. And therefore return to our fathers house with the Prodigall because there is bread enough therefore repent because his Kingdome is at hand and would be laid hold on As John Baptist was Christs fore-runner into the world so must repentance be his fore-runner into our hearts Verse 3. For this is he which was spoken of Whether these be the words of the Baptist or of the Evangelist it appears not skils not The most say of the Evangelist concerning the Baptist. By the Prophet Isaias Thus one Testament infolds another as those wheels in Ezekiel And the Law preacheth faith in Christ as well as the Gospel Rom. 10. 6. 7. The voice of one crying Loudly and lustily lifting up his voice as a trumpet or as the sound of many waters Semblably S. Paul was ordained to be a crier 1 Tim. 1. â—1 and so is every faithfull Preacher 2 Tim. 4. 2. He must cry and be instant stand to the work and stand over it Sta cum diligentia saith the Syriack there clangite clamate Jer. 4. 5. Ye have to doe with deaf men dead men living carcases walking sepulchres of themselves Now therefore as our Saviour lifted up his voice when he said Lazarus come forth So must Christs Ministers when they speak to such as lie rotting and stinking in the graves of their corruptions cry aloud Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead that Christ may give thee light Ecclesia the Church is a word in use among the Athenians and signifies an Assembly of Citizens called out of the multitude as it were by name or in their ranks by the voice of the publike Crier to hear some speech or sentence of the Senate The Church in like sort is a company called out of the kingdome of Satan by the voice of Gods Ministers as it were criers to hear the doctrine of the Gospel revealed from heaven There are that observe that John Baptist entered upon his calling in the year of Jubilee which used to be proclaimed by a Crier with the sound of a trumpet and that in allusion thereunto he is called The voice of a crier Prepare ye the way of the Lord. 〈◊〉 the terrours of the Lord to seize upon your souls take not up bucklers against the stroaks of Gods Law bring not your buckets to quench the motions of his Spirit knocking at your hearts by the hammer of his Word Make much of the least beginnings of grace even those they call repressing since they prepare the heart for conversion Open the everlasting doors that the King of glory may come in that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith As Esther leaned upon 〈◊〉 two maids when she came before the King So let the soul 〈◊〉 upon attrition of the Law and contrition of the Gospel so 〈◊〉 the King of glory stretch out the golden Scepter of his grace and we shall live As Iohn Baptist was Christs fore-runner into the world so must repentance be his fore-runner into our hearts for he that repenteth not the Kingdom of God is far from him he cannot see it for his lusts that hang in his light Make his paths straight Walk exactly precisely accurately 〈◊〉 line and by rule walk as in a frame make straight steps to your feet or else there is no passing the strait gate so strait that as few can walk in it so none can halt in it but must needs goe upright Plain things will joyn in every point one with another not so 〈◊〉 and rugged things In like sort plain spirits close with Gods truths not those that are swoln c. The old heart will never hold out the hardship of holines Verse 4. And the same Iohn had his raiment
there is no peace among the workers of iniquity that are trotting apace towards hell by their contentions Rom. 2. 8. But what pity is it that Abraham and 〈◊〉 should fall out that two Israelites should be at strife amid the Egyptians that Johns disciples should join with Pharisees against 〈◊〉 that 〈◊〉 for their contentions should hear carnall and walke as men that Lutherans and Calvinists should be at such deadly fewd Still Satan is thus busie and Christians are thus malicious that as if they wanted enemies they flee in one anothers faces There was no noise heard in setting up the Temple In Lebanon there was but not in Sion whatever tumults there are 〈◊〉 't is fit there should be all quietnesse and concord in the Church Now therefore although it be for the most part a thankelesse office with men to interpose and seek to take up strife to peece again those that are gone aside and asunder and to sound an Irenicum yet do it for Gods sake and that ye may as ye shall be after a while called and counted not medlers and busie-bodies but the sons of God Tell them that jarre and jangle upon mistakes for most part or matters of no great moment that it is the glory of a man to passe by an infirmity and that in these ignoble quarrels every man should be a law to himself as the Thracians were and not brother go to law with brother because he treads upon his grasse or some such poor businesse ubi vincere inglorium est alteri sordidum Now therefore there is utterly a fault amongst you because ye go to law one with another saith the Apostle Not but that the course is lawfull where the occasion is weighty and the minde not vindictive But the Apostle disgraceth in that text revenge of injuries by a word that signifieth disgrace or losse of victory And a little before I speak to your shame saith he Is it so that there is not a wise man amongst you no not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren and compromise the quarrell Servius Sulpitius that heathen Lawyer shall rise up in judgement against us quippe qui ad facilitatem aequitatemque omnia contulit neque constituere litium actiones quam controversias tollere maluit as Tully testifieth Concedamus de jure saith one ut careamus lite And ut habeas quietum tempus perde aliquid Lose something for a quiet life was a common proverb as now amongst us so of old 〈◊〉 the Carthaginians as St Austin sheweth It were happy surely if now as of old the multitude of 〈◊〉 were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of one heart and of one soul. And as in one very ancient Greek copy it is added that there was not one controversie or contention found amongst them For they shall be called the children of God They shall both be and be said to be both counted and called have both the name and the note the comfort and the credit of the children of God And if any Atheist shall object What so great honour is that Behold saith St John what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sonnes of God It was something to be called the son of Pharaohs daughter to be son in law to the King with David to be heir to the Crown with Solomon but farre more that God should say of him I will be his father and he shall be my sonne and I will establish his Kingdom 2 Sam 7. 14. This is the happy effect of faith for to them that beleeve on his name gave he power and priviledge to become the sonnes of God Now faith ever works by love and love covereth a multitude of sins not by any merit or expiation with God but by seeking and setling peace among men And this is as sure and as sweet a signe of a son of the God of peace as the party-coloured coats were anciently of the Kings children Verse 10. Blessed are they that are persecuted To be persecuted as simply considered is no blessed thing for then it were to be desired and praid for But let a man love a quiet life and labout to see good daies said those two great champions David and Peter who themselves had indured a world of persecution and paid for their learning The like counsell gives St Paul and the Authour to the Hebrews For they felt by experience how unable they were to bear crosses when they fall upon them It was this Peter that denied his master upon the sight of a silly wench that questioned him And this David that changed his behaviour before Abimelech and thereupon gave this advice to all that should come after him For righteousnesse sake This is it that makes the Martyr a good cause and a good conscience Martyrem facit causa non supplicium saith one Father Not the suffering but the cause makes a Martyr And Multum interest qualia quis qualis quisque patiatur saith another It greatly skilleth both what it is a man suffereth and what a one he is that suffereth If he suffer as an evil-doer he hath his mends in his own hands but if for righteousnesse sake as here and if men say and do all manner of evil against you falsly and lyingly for my sake as in the next verse and for the Gospels sake as Marke hath it this is no bar to blessednesse Nay it is an high preferment on earth Phil. 1. 29. and hath a crown abiding it in Heaven beyond the which mortall mens wishes cannot extend But let all that will have share in these comforts see that they be able to say with the Church Psal. 144. 21 22. Thou knowest Lord the secrets of the hearts that for thy sake we are 〈◊〉 continually Upon which words excellently St Austin Quid est inquit novit occulta quae 〈◊〉 c. What secrets of the heart saith he are those that God is here said to know Surely these that for thy sake we are slain c. slain thou maist see a man but wherefore or for whose sake he is slain thou knowest not God only knoweth Sunt qui causâ humanae gloriae paterentur as that Father goeth on There want not those that would suffer death and seemingly for righteousnesse sake only for applause of the world and vain glory As Lucian telleth of Peregrinus the Philosopher that meerly for the glory of it he would have been made a Martyr The Circumcelliones a most pernicious branch of the haeresie of the Donatists were so 〈◊〉 to obtain by suffering the praise of Martyrdom that they would seem to throw themselves down headlong from high places or cast themselves into fire or water Al xander the 〈◊〉 was near martyrdom Acts 19. 33. who yet afterward made shipwrack of the faith and
shall sooner stand still then the trade of godlinesse and that continuall intercourse that is betwixt God and the Christian soul. Verse 32. And Iesus stood still See the admirable power of fervent prayer Christ stands and 〈◊〉 for all the haste of his journey to Ierusalem which till he had finished oh how was he 〈◊〉 Luk. 12. 50 to hear the blinde beggers petition So the sun once stood still in Gibeon and the moon in the vally of 〈◊〉 upon the prayer of worthy Ioshua who set the trophies of 〈◊〉 victorie in the very orbs of heaven Verse 33. Lord that our eyes might be opened Truely the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun 〈◊〉 11. 7 And yet how little is this mercy 〈◊〉 because common Our corrupt natures heed nothing that we enjoy as the eye seeth nothing that lies on it but things at a distance it discerns clearly Bona a tergo formosissima Copy of good things breeds satiety and makes them no dainties till God for our folly many times makes us see the worth of them by the want of them and so commends and indears his favours to us But what a blindnesse is this worse then that of Bartimeus never to see the face but the back only of benefits Verse 34. And Iesus had compassion on them He made their case his own Misericordia sounds as much as misery laid to heart Christs bowels sounded upon the sight and suit of these blinde beggers and this was beyond all almes should he have done no more for them For when one gives an alms he gives somewhat without himself but by compassion we relieve another by somewhat within and from our selves whiles we draw out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not our sheaf only to the hungry Isa. 58. 10. And immediatly their eyes received sight This is not every blinde mans happinesse that yet prayes for sight But there is a better eye-sight then that of the body which if God vouchsafe to any in bodily blindenesse as he did to that blinde boy of Glocester that had suffered imprisonment there for confessing the truth it may be said to such surely as Bishop Hooper the Martyr did to him Ah poor boy God hath taken from thee thy outward sight but hath given thee another much more precious c. The like favour God shewed to Didymus Alexandrinus who though blinde from his childhood yet was not only an excellent Artist but an able Divine and wrot certain Commentaries on the Psalmes and likewise on the Gospels being now saith Jerome who relates it above 83 years of age Trithemius and Bozius report the like things concerning one Nicasius de 〈◊〉 a dutch-man who being struck blinde at three years old became neverthelesse an excellent scholar and skilfull in the laws which he publikely professed at Collen Afterwards he proceeded Master of Arts at Lovain Licentiate in Divinity at the same Vniversity and lastly Doctour of the laws at Cullen where after he had printed his publike Lectures he died and was buried in the Cathedrall-Church Anno Dom. 1491. 17. Calend. Septem CHAP. XXI Verse 1. And when they drew nigh to Jerusalem IN this one verse our Evangelist closely comprizeth all that St John sets down of our Saviours oracles and miracles from his seventh chapter to chap. 12. 12. viz. the history of five moneths and ten daies for Christ rode not into the city till the fifth day before his last Passeover Joh. 12. 12. having the day before been 〈◊〉 by Mary at Bethany Joh. 12. 1. called here Bethpage or the Conduit-house Verse 2. An Asse tied and a colt with her There are that by the Asse understand the Jews laden with the Law and by her foal the Gentiles that wandred whither they would That Canonist made the most of it that said that children are therefore to be baptized because the Apostles brought to Christ not only the 〈◊〉 but the colt too Verse 3. The Lord 〈◊〉 need of them The Lord of all both beasts and hearts for else how could he so soon have obtained the Asse of her master Some read the text thus The Lord hath 〈◊〉 of them and 〈◊〉 presently send them back 〈◊〉 to teach us to be no further burdensome or beholden to others then needs must Verse 4. All this was done that c. Here is the mystery of the history which would otherwise seem to some ridiculous and 〈◊〉 little purpose He hereby declared himself that King of his Church forepromised by the Prophets how poor and despicable 〈◊〉 as the world accounts it Verse 5. Tell ye the daughter of Sion Here was that also of the Psalmist fulfilled God is my King of old working salvation in the midst of the earth Psal. 74. 12. For Jerusalem is by the Fathers observed to stand in the very center and navell of the habitable earth as if it were fatally founded to be the city of the great King Thy King cometh unto thee All in Christ is for our behoof 〈◊〉 benefit 1 Cor. 1. 30. Micah 4. 8 9. Unto thee shall it come 〈◊〉 daughter of Zion even the 〈◊〉 dominion the kingdom shall come to thee daughter of Jerusalem Why then dost thou cry out aloud Is there no King in thee Is thy counsellour 〈◊〉 A Mandamus from this King will do it at any time Psal. 〈◊〉 4. Meek and 〈◊〉 upon an Asse Not upon a stately palfrey as Alexander Julius Caesar c. no such state here Christ Kingdom was of another world He came riding meek and his word the law of his kingdom is both to be taught and received with 〈◊〉 2 Tim. 2. 25. Jam. 1. 21. At Genua in Italy they shew the tail of the Asse our Saviour rod on for 〈◊〉 holy relique and bow before it with great devotion Neither will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be reclaimed from such fond foperies being herein the Italian Asses which feeding upon the weed hen-bane are so 〈◊〉 that they lye for dead neither can they be wakened till 〈◊〉 Verse 6. And the Disciples went With a certain blinde obedience they went on Christs errand though not very likely to speed Their Masters sole authority 〈◊〉 them on against all difficulties and absurdities When 〈◊〉 commands us any thing we may not dispute but dispatch argue but agree to it captivate our 〈◊〉 exalt our faith Verse 7. And put on them their clothes Teaching us to honour God with the best of our substance and to 〈◊〉 our selves wholly to the Lord our God 〈◊〉 stripped himself for his friend David of the robe that was upon him and his 〈◊〉 even to his sword and his girdle Christ suspended his glory for a season laid aside his rich and royall robes 〈◊〉 a cast suit of 〈◊〉 that he might cloth us with his righteousnes And shall we think much to cloth him in his naked members c. to part with any thing for his 〈◊〉 and service And they
is the blemish will never be wiped off from some of the Ancients who to establish their own Idol of I know not what virginity have written most wickedly and most basely of marriage which both Christ honoured with his first miracle and the holy Ghost by over shadowing the 〈◊〉 virgin As for the Papists that disgrace it they appear herein more like devils then Divines If the same God had not been the authour of virginity and marriage he had never countenanced virginity by marriage as he did in the Virgin Mary CHAP. II. Verse 1. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem THe house of bread that bread of life that came down from Heaven and dwelt amongst us in this City of David otherwise called Ephrata that is fruit-bearing and situate they say in the very navell and center of the earth because in him all Nations should be blessed Here was Jesus born by meer accident in regard of his parents who were brought hither by a tyrannicall edict of the Emperour forcing all even great-bellied women to repair to their own City to be taxed though it were in the deep of winter but by a sweet providence of God to fulfill the Scripture and to settle our faith In the daies of Herod the King When the Scepter was departed from Judah and the times were grown deplored and desperately wicked Josoph found his brethren in Dothan 1. in defection so did Christ when he came Scarce were there four or fewer found that waited for the consolation of Israel Then also when among the poor Gentiles a plentifull harvest a very great number of elect were ready ripe Mat. 9. 37. Luk. 10. 2. Joh. 4. 35. Then when cuncta 〈◊〉 continua totius generis humani aut pax fuit 〈◊〉 pactio then came the Prince of peace into the world when all was at peace thorowout the world Behold there came wise-men Neither Kings nor cunning men but sages of the East 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contemplative persons Philosophers interpreters of the Laws of God and men The tale of the three Kings of 〈◊〉 is long since exploded To Jerusalem So misreckoning of a point they mist the haven and had like to have run upon the rocks Had they met with the Shepherds of Bethlehem they had received better intelligence then they could from the learned Scribes of Jerusalem God hath 〈◊〉 the weak of the world to confound the wise Surgunt indocti rapiunt coelum nos cum doctrin is noctris 〈◊〉 in Gehennam None are so far from Christ many times as knowing men Some of the Scribes and Pharisees were very Atheists for they knew neither the Father nor the Son Uspian the chief Lawyer Galen the chief Physician Porphyry the chief Aristotelean Plotinus the chief Platonist Libanius and Lucian the chief Oratours of that age were all profest enemies to Christ. No Church was founded at Athens Acts 17. which yet Demosthenes calls the soul sun and eye of Greece Euripides the Greece of Greece Thucydides and Diodorus the common school of all men the Mart of good learning c. The greatest Clerks are not alwaies the wisest men in the affairs of God Howbeit learned Nathanael Ioseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus masters in Israel were Disciples to our Saviour lest if he had called simple men only it might have been thought quòd fuissent ex simplicitate decepti that they were deceived out of 〈◊〉 simplicity saith one Verse 2. Saying Where is he that is born King of the Iews As presupposing a common notice But the Kingdom of God cometh not by observation neither is it of this world Christ is somewhat an obscure King here as Melchisedech was and his Kingdom consists in righteousnesse and peace and joy in the holy Ghost which the stranger worldling meddles not with The Cock on the dunghill esteems not this Jewel For we have seen his starre in the East Some rumour of the 〈◊〉 of Iacob they had heard and received 〈◊〉 either from 〈◊〉 prophecy Numb 24. 17. who was an East Countrey-man Or from the Chaldean Sibyl or from the Iews in the B. by lonish captivity and now they make their use of it But the Scripture giveth more grace Ium 4 6. Onely take heed that ye receive not the grace of God in vain 2 Cor. 6. 1. And are come to worship him With a religious worship to kisse at his mouth as the word signifieth and as Pharaoh said to Ioseph they shall all kisse at thy mouth Wo worth to us if we kisse not the Son with a kisse of faith and love sith he is now so clearly revealed unto us not by the sight of one star only as to these but by a whole Heaven bespangled with stars though not in every part yet in every zone and quarter of it as one saith of our Church We have a word of Prophecy how much more is this true of the holy Gospel more sure 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 that came from Heaven in the holy mount saith St Peter whereunto we shall do well to take heed as unto a light shining in a darke place Besides the works of God those Regij professores as one calleth them those Catholike Preachers Psal. 19. 2 3. those reall Postilles of the Divinity Christ is purposely compared to sensible objects as to the Sun Stars Rose Rock c. that through the creatures as so many Optick glasses we might see him that is invisible having the eyes of our minde turned toward Christ as the face of the Cherubims were toward the Mercy-seat Verse 3. When Herod the King heard these things he was troubled At that wherein the Sages and Shepherds rejoiced It is fair weather with the Saints when foulest with the wicked Abraham stands upon the hill and seeth the smoke of the Cities ascend like a furnace Behold my servants shall 〈◊〉 but ye shall be ashamed my servants shall sing for joy of heart but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart c. and ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen AElian compareth tyrants to swine which if a man but touch they begin to cry as dreaming of nothing but death forasmuch as they have neither fleece nor milke nor any thing else but their flesh only to forfeit But si praesepe vagientis 〈◊〉 tantùm terruit quid tribunal judicantis saith one If Christ in the earth were so terrible what will he be on the tribunall And all Ierusalem with him Perhaps to comply and 〈◊〉 with the tyrant as the Arabians if their King be sick or lame they all feign themselves so Or as homines ad servitutem 〈◊〉 so Tiberius called the Romanes who gave publike thankes for all even the wicked acts of their Emperours or as fearing some new stirs in the state as the burnt childe dreads the fire Verse 4. And when he had gathered all the chief Priests The true picture of Popish
upon them Faith fears no famine and although it be but small in substance and in shew as the Manna was yet is it great in vertue and operation The Rabbins say that Manna had all manner of good tastes in it So hath faith It drinke to a man in a cup of Nepenthes and bids him be of good chear God will provide for him The Bishop of Norwich kept Robert Samuel Martyr without meat and drink whereby he was unmercifully vext saving that he had every day allowed him two or three morsels of bread and three spoonfuls of water to the end he might be reserved to further torment How oft would he have drunk his own water But his body was so dried up with long 〈◊〉 that he was not able to make 〈◊〉 drop of water After he had been famished with hunger two or three 〈◊〉 together he 〈◊〉 into a sleep as it were one half in a 〈◊〉 At which time one cloathed in white seemed to stand before him which ministred comfort unto him by these words Samuel Samuel be of good chear and take a good heart unto thee 〈◊〉 after this day thou shalt never be either hungry or thirsty For speedily 〈◊〉 this he was burned and from that time till he should suffer he felt neither hunger nor thirst And this declared he to the end as he said that all men might behold the wonderfull work of God He likes not to be tied to the second ordinary causes nor that in defect of the means we should doubt of his providence It 's true he commonly worketh by them when he could doe without that we may not neglect the means as being ordained of him David shall have victory but by an ambush 2 Sam. 5. 19 24. Men shall be nourished but by their labour Psal. 128. 2 But yet so as that he doth all in all by 〈◊〉 means he made grasse corn and trees before he made the Sunne Moon and starres by the influence whereof they are and grow Yea to shew himself chief he can and doth work other whiles without means 2 Chron. 14. 11. and against means suspending the power and operation of the naturall causes as when the fire burnt not the water drowned not the Sunne went back ten degrees the rock gave water the iron swam c. And then when he works by means he can make them produce an effect diverse from their nature and disposition or can hinder change or mitigate their proper effect as when at the prayer of Elias it rained not for three years and a half And he praied again and the heaven gave rain and the earth brought forth her fruits A man would have thought that after so long drought the roots of trees and herbs should have been utterly dried up and the land past recovery But God heard the heavens petitioning to him that they might exercise their influence for the fructifying of the earth and the Heavens heard the earth and the earth heard the corn the wine and the oil and they heard Jezreel Let all this keep us as it did our Saviour here from diffidence in Gods providence and make us possesse our souls in patience Luk. 21. Hang upon the promise and account it as good as present pay though we see not how it can be effected God loves to goe away by himself He knows how to deliver his saith S. Peter 2 Epist. 2. 9. and he might speak it by experience Act. 12. 9. if ever any man might The King shall rejoyce in God saith David of himself when he was a poor 〈◊〉 in the wildernesse of Judah Psal. 63. 11. But he had Gods word for the Kingdome and therefore he was confident seemed the thing never so improbable or impossible We trust a skilfull work-man to go his own way to work shall we not God In 〈◊〉 6. year of the reign of Darius Nothus was the temple fully finished That sacred work which the husband and sonne of an Esther 〈◊〉 shall be happily accomplished by a bastard The 〈◊〉 thought that Moses should presently have delivered them and he himself thought as much and therefore began 〈◊〉 his time to doe 〈◊〉 upon the AEgyptian whom he slew and hid in the sand But we see God went another way to work He sent Moses into a farre countrey and the bondage was for 〈◊〉 years 〈◊〉 exceedingly encreased upon them yet all this to humble and try them and to doe them good in their later end He crosseth many times our likeliest projects and gives a blessing 〈◊〉 those times and means whereof we despair He breaks in pieces the ship that we think should bring us to shore but casts us upon such boards as we did not expect 〈◊〉 we then any particular means saith one it is but the scattering of a 〈◊〉 the breaking of a bucket when the Sunne and the fountain is the 〈◊〉 But we 〈◊〉 the most part 〈◊〉 as Hagar did when the bottle was spent she fals a crying she was undone she and her childe should die till the Lord opened her eyes to see the fountain It was neer her but she saw it not when she saw it she was well enough If thou hadst been here said Martha my brother Lazarus had not died As if Christ could not have kept him alive unlesse he had been present So if Christ will come and lay his hands on Iairus his daughter and Elisha stroke his hand over Naamans leprosie they shall be cured So the Disciples believed that Christ could feed so many thousands in the wildernesse but then he must have two hundred peny worth of bread But our Saviour gave them soon 〈◊〉 an ocular demonstration of this truth That man liveth not by bread alone c. Dan. 11. 34 They shall be holpen with a little help Why a little that through weaker means we may see Gods greater strength 〈◊〉 5. Then the devil taketh him Not in vision only or imagination but really and indeed as he was afterwards apprehended bound and crucified by that cursed crue Spirituall assaults may be beaten back by the shield of faith Bodily admit of no such repulse A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Abraham may be bound by Satan A Mary Magdalen possest a Job 〈◊〉 a Paul boxed c. As for the souls of the Saints they are set safe out of Satans scrape Shake his chain at them he may muster his forces Revel 12. 7. which may band themselves and bend their strength against 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 Angels Christ and his members but they are bounded by God who hath set his on a rock that is higher then they So that the flouds of temptation that the serpent casts out of his mouth after them cannot come so much as to their feet Or if it touch their heel yet it can come no higher There is no 〈◊〉 against Jacob because God was a Vnicorn to take away the venom saith Balaam the sorcerer as waters when the Unicorns
by some hawk or tempest should scoure into the columbary and rush into the windows The Tyrians had a hand in building the Temple The molten Sea stood upon twelve Oxen which looked towards East West North and South The new Ierusalem hath twelve gates to shew that there is every way accesse for all sorts to Christ Who is also fitly called the second Adam The Greek letters of which name as S. Cyprian observeth doe severally signify all the quarters of the Earth He was born in an Inne to shew that he receives all comers His garments were divided into four parts to shew that out of what part of the world soever we come if we be naked Christ hath robes to clothe us if we be harbourlesse Christ hath room to lodge us Iether an I smaelite may become an Israelite 1 Chron 7. 17. With 2 Sam. 17. 25. and Arannah the 〈◊〉 may be made an exemplary 〈◊〉 2 Sam. 24. 18 with Zech 9. 7. Vide Iunium in 〈◊〉 Verse 12. But the children of the kingdom Those that had made a covenant with God by sacrifice Psal. 50. 5. And therefore held their heads on high as already destinated to the diadem Loe these in the height of their hopes and exspectancies shall be excluded A foul and fearfull disappointment Surely the tears of hell cannot sufficiently bewail the losse of heaven 〈◊〉 of Valoys was Son Brother Uncle Father to a King yet himself never was a King So here Into outer darknesse Into a darknesse beyond a 〈◊〉 into a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and beneath the prison In tenebras ex tenebris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 infaeliciùs excludendi saith Augustin God shall surely 〈◊〉 to these unhappy children of the Kingdom when he casts them into condemnation as Aulus Fulvius said to his traiterous sonne when he slew him with his own hands Non Catilinae te 〈◊〉 sed patriae I called you not but to glory and vertue neither to glory but by vertue 2 Pet. 1. 3. As you liked not the later so never look for the former Every man is either a King or a caytiffe and shall either raign with Christ or rue it for ever with the devil Aut Casar 〈◊〉 nullus as he said to his Mother And as those in tho Turks Court that are born of the blood royall but come not to the kingdom They must die either by the sword or halter so here Verse 13. And as thou hast believed c. Faith hath an happy hand and never but speeds in one kinde or other It hath what it would either in money or moneys-worth Apollonius saith Zozomen never asked any thing of God in all his life that he obtained not This man saith One concerning Luther could have of God whatsoever he listed Verse 14. He saw his wives mother laid c. A wife then Peter had and if a good wife she might be a singular help to him in his Ministry As Nazianzens mother was to her husband not a companion onely but in some respects a guide to godlinesse S. Ambrose saith that all the Apostles were married men save John and Paul And those Pope-holy hypocrites that will not hear of Priests marriage but hold it far better for them to have and keep at home many harlots then one wife as that carnall Cardinall 〈◊〉 defended they might hear the contrary out of their own Cannon-law where it is written Distin. 29. Si quis discernit Presbyterum conjugatum tanquam occasione 〈◊〉 offerre non debeat anathema esto And again Distinct. 31. Siquis vituperat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum viro suo fidelem religiosam detestatur aut culpabilem aestimat velut quae regnum Dei introire non possit anathemaesto They might 〈◊〉 to Paphnutius a famous Primitive Confessour who though himself an unmarried man mightily perswaded and prevailed with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that they should not decree any thing against Priests marriage alledging that marriage was honourable in all and that the bed undefiled was true chastity They might 〈◊〉 Ignatius scholar to S. Iohn the Evangelist pronouncing all such as call marriage a defilement to be inhabited by that old Dragon the devil But there is a politike reason that makes these men deaf to whatsoever can be said to them by whomsoever and you shall have it in the words of him that wrote the history of the Councell of Trent a Councell carried by the Pope with such infinite 〈◊〉 and craft that the Jesuites those 〈◊〉 Commeritricitegae will even smile in the triumps of their own wits when they hear it but mentioned as a master-stratagem The Legates in Trent-Councell saith 〈◊〉 were blamed for suffering the Article of Priests Marriage to be disputed as dangerous Because it is plain that married Priests will turn their affections and love to wife and children and by consequence to their 〈◊〉 and countrey to that the strict dependance which the Clergy hath upon the Apostolike-sea would cease and to grant Marriage to Priests would destroy the Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy 〈◊〉 make the Pope Bishop of Rome only Verse 15. And he touched her hand A speedy and easie cure of the fever such as Hipocrates or Galen could never skill of They doe it not but by many evacuations long diet c. besides that much gold must be lavished out of the bag as it is 〈◊〉 46. 6. the poor patient crying oft out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whence AEger as some think Christ by his word and touch only doth the deed in an instant As he can blow us to destruction Iob 4. 9. nod us to destruction Psal 80. 16. so when Heman thinks himself free from the dead free of that company and the 〈◊〉 begin to go about the streets he can speak life unto us and keep us that we go not down to the pit She arose and ministred unto them Thereby to evince the truth of the miracle and to evidence the truth of her thankfullnesse Verse 16. When the even was come In the morning he sowed his 〈◊〉 and in the evening he withheld not his hand It is good to be doing whiles it is day Mr Bradford Martyr held that hour not well spent wherein he did not some good either with his tongue pen or hand Verse 17. Himself took our infirmities The Prophet speaketh of spirituall infirmities the Evangelist applieth it to corporall And not unfitly for these are the proper effects of those we may thank our sins for our sicknesses Rev. 2 22. She had stretcht her self upon a bed of security she shall be cast another while upon a bed of sicknesse Asa had laid the Prophet by the heels and now God layes him by the heels diseasing him in his feet Sin is an universall sicknesse like those diseases which the Physitians say are 〈◊〉 totius substantiae And our lives are fuller of sins then the firmament of stars or the furnace of sparks Hence all our bodily
〈◊〉 who professe to eat Christ corporally 〈◊〉 censure so bitterly Verse 8. The sonne of man is Lord of the Sabbath q. d. Say they were not innocent yet have you no cause to condemn them for Sabbath-breach sith I am Lord of the Sabbath and may 〈◊〉 with mine own as me seems 〈◊〉 True it is that Christ hates sinne by nature not by precept only and therefore cannot dispense with the breach of his own laws those that be morall in themselves such as are all the ten but the fourth The fourth Commandment is morall not by nature but by precept saith one and so the Lord of the Sabbath may dispense with the literall breach of the Sabbath Verse 9. He went into their Synagogue These were Chappels of ease to the Temple of ancient use Act. 15. 21. and divine authority Psal. 74. 8. This here is called the Pharisees Synagogue because they did Dominari in concionibus Rom. 2. 19 20. and are for their skill called Princes 1 Cor. 2. 8. Verse 10. Which had his hand withered So have all covetous 〈◊〉 who may well be said amidst all their 〈◊〉 to have 〈◊〉 currant coyn no quick-silver They sit abrood upon what they have got as Euclio in the 〈◊〉 and when by laying 〈◊〉 their money they might lay hold on eternall life they will not 〈◊〉 drawn to it But as Alphonsus King of Spain when he stood to be King of the Romans was prevented of his hopes because he being a great Mathematician was drawing lines saith the Chronicler when he should have drawn out his 〈◊〉 So here Verse 11. What man shall there be c. If a 〈◊〉 slipt into a slowe must be relieved how much more Christs reasonable sheep all which bear golden fleeces and every thing about whom is good either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or ad usum Verse 12. Is it lawfull to do 〈◊〉 Nay it is needfull sith not to do well is to do ill and not to save a life or a soul is to destroy it Mar. 3. 4 Not to do justice is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and not to shew 〈◊〉 is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then cruelty Verse 13. And he stretched it forth So would our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 out their hands to the poor would they but 〈◊〉 to Christ and hear his voice as this man did But till then they will as easily part with their bloud as with their good All their strife is who like the 〈◊〉 shall fall asleep with most earth in his paws As when they die nothing grieves them more then that they must leave that which they have so dearly 〈◊〉 whiles alive I reade of one wretch who being at point of death clapt 〈◊〉 piece of gold in his own 〈◊〉 and said Some wiser then some I mean to have this with me howsoever Verse 14. How 〈◊〉 might destroy him All envy is bloudy Men wish him out of the world whom they cannot abide and would rather the Sun should be 〈◊〉 then their candle 〈◊〉 David durst never trust Sauls protestations because he knew him to be an envious person Nero put Thraseas to death for no other cause but for that it was not expedient for Nero that 〈◊〉 worthy a man as he should live by him Verse 15. Great multitudes followed him Maugre the malice of earth and hell They lose their labour that seek to quell Christ and subvert his Kingdom Yet have I set my King upon mine holy hill of Sion Psal. 2. 6. The Kingdom of heaven suffereth violence 〈◊〉 11. 12. Or as Melanctbon rendereth that text Vierumpit procedit enititur vi scilicet 〈◊〉 ut sol enititur per nubes ergo irriti 〈◊〉 conatus it bursts thorow all Verse 16. That they should not make him known This his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who sought to get credit and glory among men by his 〈◊〉 works upbraid him with Joh. 7. 4. If thou 〈◊〉 these things shew thy self to the world say they and so proclaim that they believed not in him Joh. 7. 5. with Joh. 5. 44. Joh. 12. 43. Verse 17. That it might be fulfilled The old Testament is the new fore-told the new Testament is the old 〈◊〉 Ezekiel saw a wheel within a wheel This is saith 〈◊〉 the one Testament in the other Verse 18. Behold my servant My servant the Messias as the Chaldee 〈◊〉 renders and expounds it The Septuagint somewhat obscure the text by adding to it Behold my servant Jacob and mine elect Israel They are said to have 〈◊〉 against 〈◊〉 wils no 〈◊〉 then they deal not so faithfully Sure it is that they have perverted sundry 〈◊〉 Prophecies 〈◊〉 Christ as 〈◊〉 for instance which therefore our Evangelist and the rest of the Apostles alledge not out of their translation but out of the Hebrew 〈◊〉 The Latins drink of the puddles the 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 but the Hebrews of the 〈◊〉 said Iohan. Reuchlin Whom I have chosen my beloved c Ecce electum dilectum The Latines have a proverb Deligas quem 〈◊〉 Chuse for thy love and then love for thy choice God hath also chosen 〈◊〉 in the beloved Ephes. 1. 6. that we should be the beloved of his soul or as the Septuagint there emphatically render it his belived soul. And he shall shew judgement That is the doctrine of the Gospel whereby is convey'd into the heart that spirit of judgement and of burning Isa. 4. 4. or the sweet effect of it true grace which is called judgement a little below vers 20. Verse 19. He shall not strive To bear away the bell 〈◊〉 others Nor cry Nor lift up his voice saith the Prophet as loth to lie hid and 〈◊〉 making an O yes as desirous of vain-glory and popular applause Laudes nec curat nec 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He despiseth it as a little stinking breath or the slavering of mens lips which he disdains to suck in Verse 20. A bruised reed shall he not break A reed shaken with the winde is taken for a thing very contemptible at the best how much more when bruised The wick of a candle is little worth and yet lesse when it 〈◊〉 as yeelding neither light nor heat but only stench and annoiance This men bear not with but tread out So doth not Christ who yet hath a sharp nose a singular sagacity and soon resents our provocations He 〈◊〉 also feet like burning brasse to tread down all them that wickedly depart from his statutes Psal. 119. 118. But so do not any of his and therefore he receiveth and cherisheth with much 〈◊〉 not the strong oaks only of his people but the bruised reeds too nor the bright torches only but the smoaking wick He despiseth not the day of small things Smoak is of the same 〈◊〉 with flame for what else is flame but smoak set on fire So a little grace may be true grace as the filings of gold are as good gold though nothing so much of it as the whole wedge The least spark of fire if cherished
to Henry 2. King of France whom she had so subdued that he gave her all the confiscations of goods made in the Kingdome for cause of 〈◊〉 Whereupon many were burned in France for Religion as they said but indeed to maintain the pride and satisfie the covetousnes of that lewd woman This was in the year 1554. And in the year 1559. Anne du Bourge a 〈◊〉 of state was burnt also for crime of 〈◊〉 not so much by the inclination of the Judges as by the resolution of the Queen provoked against him because forsooth the Lutherans gave out that the King had been slain as he was running at tilt by a wound in the 〈◊〉 by the providence of God for a punnishment of his words used against Du Bourge that he would see him burnt Verse 9. And the King was sorry Iohns innocency might 〈◊〉 so triumph in Herods conscience as to force some grief upon him at the thought of so soule a fact But I rather think otherwise that all was but in hypocrisie For laciviousnesse usually sears up the conscience till the time of reckoning for all comes and brings men to that dead and dedolent disposition Ephes. 4. 19. Only this fox fains himself sorry for Iohn as his father 〈◊〉 himself willing to worship the Lord Christ Matth. 2. as Tiberius Herods Lord and 〈◊〉 would seem very sorry for those whom for his pleasures sake only he put to death 〈◊〉 Germanicus Drusus c. And as Andronicus the Greek Emperour that deep dissembler would 〈◊〉 over those whom 〈◊〉 had for no cause caused to be executed as if he 〈◊〉 been the most sorrowfull man alive Dissimulat mentis suae malitiam 〈◊〉 homicida This cunning murtherer craftily hides his malice saith St Hierom and seeming sad in the face is glad at heart to be 〈◊〉 of the importunate Baptist that he may sin uncontrolled For the oaths sake and them which sate All this was but pretended to his villany and that he might have somewhat to say to the people whom he feared in excuse for himself As that he beheaded the Baptist indeed but his guests would needs have it so because he had promised the damosell her whole desire and 〈◊〉 would not otherwise be satisfied Besides it was his birth-day wherein it was not fit he should deny his Nobles any thing who minded him of his oath c. But the oath was wicked and therefore not obligatory He should have broken it as David in like case did 1 Sam. 25. when he swore a great oath what 〈◊〉 would do to Nabal But Herod for the avoyding of the sands rusheth upon the 〈◊〉 prevents perjury by murther not considering the rule that no man is held so perplexed between two vices but that he may finde an issue without falling into a third And them which sate with him at meat These he had more respect to then to God An hypocrites care is all for the worlds approof and applause They should have shew'd him his sinne and oppose his sentence But that is not the guise of godlesse parasites those Aiones Negones aulici qui omnia loquuntur ad gratiam nihil ad 〈◊〉 These Court parasites and Parrots know no other tune or tone but what will please their masters quorum etiam sputum 〈◊〉 as one saith soothing and smoothing and smothering up many of their foul facts that they thereby may the better ingratiate Principibus ideo amicus deest quia nihil deest there is a wounderfull sympathy between Princes and Parasites But David would none of them Psal. 101. and Sigismund the Emperour cuffed them out of his presence And surely if wishing were any thing said Henricus Stephanus like as the Thessalians once utterly overthrew the City called Flattery so I could desire that above all other Malefactors Court-Parasites were 〈◊〉 rooted out as the most pestilent persons in the world Verse 10. And he sent and beheaded John Put him to death in hugger-mugger as the Papists did and do still in the bloody Inquisition-house especially many of the Martyrs Stokesby Bishop of London caused Mr John Hunne to be thrust in at the nose with hot burning needles whiles he was in the prison and then to be hanged there and said he had hanged himself Another Bishop having in his prison an innocent man because he could not overcome him by scripture caused him privily to be snarled and his flesh to be torn and pluct away with pinsers and bringing him before the people said the rats had eaten him And I have heard of a certain Bishop saith Melanchton that so starved ten good men whom he held in prison for religion that before they dyed they devoured one another Quis unquam hoc audivit in Thalaridis historiâ saith he who ever heard of such a cruelty But so it pleaseth God for excellent ends to order that all things here come alike to all yea that none out of hell suffer more then the Saints This made Erasmus say upon occasion of the burning of Berquin a Dutch-Martyr Damnari dissecari suspendi exuri decollari pijs cum impijs sunt communia 〈◊〉 dissecare in crucemagere exurere decollare bonis judicibus cum pirat is ac tyrannis communia sunt Varia sunt hominum 〈◊〉 ille foelix qui judice Deo absolvitur The Athenians were very much offended at the fall of their Generall Nicias discomfited and slain in Sicile as seeing so good a man to have no better fortune But they knew not God and therefore raged at him But we must lay our hands upon our mouths when Gods hand is upon our backs or necks and stand on tiptoes with Paul to see which way Christ may be most magnified in our bodies whether by life or by death Philip. 1. 20. Verse 11. And his head was brought c. This was merces 〈◊〉 the worlds wages to lohn for all his pains in seeking to save their soules Surely as Cesar once said of Herod the great this mans father It were better to be Herods 〈◊〉 then his sonne So saith one many Ministers have through the corruption of the time cause to think It were better to be Herods Ministrell then Minister Player then Preacher Dauncer then Doctour And given to the 〈◊〉 The 〈◊〉 condemned it for a detestable cruelty in 〈◊〉 Flaminius that to gratifie his harlot Placentina he beheaded a certain prisoner in her 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a feast This Livy calleth facinus saevuni atque atrox a cursed and horrid fact And Cato the Censor cast him out of the Senate for it Neither was it long ere this tyrant Herod had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from heaven For Aretas King of Arabia offended with him for putting away his daughter and taking to wife Herodias came upon him with an army and cut off all his forces Which 〈◊〉 all 〈◊〉 interpreted saith Iosephus as a just vengance of 〈◊〉 upon him for
cure was not effected by them but by some other occasion the fathers 〈◊〉 the peoples perversenesse c. which what it was here they make enquiry How unwilling are we that our peny should be held other then good 〈◊〉 How ready to shift off him that 〈◊〉 from heaven and to mistake our selves in the 〈◊〉 of our miscarriages Verse 20. Because of your unbelief q. d. That 's the naked truth of it never deceive your selves there 's no 〈◊〉 will serve turn be content hard though it be to hear your own Veritas aspera est verùm amaritudo ejus utilior integris sensibus gratior quà m meretricantis 〈◊〉 distillans favus A smart truth takes better with an honest heart then a smooth supparasitation If ye have faith as a grain of c. The Disciples might object If no faith but that which is entire and perfect can do such cures as this then we may despair of ever doing any 〈◊〉 Saviour answers that the least measure of true faith fitly compared to mustard 〈◊〉 for it s acrimony and vivacity if exerted and exercised will work wonders Neither is justifying faith beneath miraculous in the sphear of its own 〈◊〉 and where it hath warrant of Gods Word to remove mountains of guilt and grief A weak faith is a joint 〈◊〉 though no faith can be a joint purchaser of sins remission And a man may have faith enough to bring him to heaven though he want this or that faith as to rely upon God without failing Luk 18. 1 8. without feeling Psal. 22. 1 c. as resolved that God neverthelesse will hear him in that very thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for Verse 21. This kinde goeth not out Some devils then are not so 〈◊〉 politike vile villainous as others so neither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men all alike wicked Some stigmaticall 〈◊〉 face the heavens burden the earth please not God and are contrary to all men Others are more tame and tractable as the young man on whom Christ looked and loved him Yet as when one commended the 〈◊〉 Legate at the Councel of Basil Sigismund the Emperour answered Tamen Romanus 〈◊〉 So though the devil or his slaves seem never so fair conditioned they are neither to be liked nor trusted he is a devil still and will do his kinde they are wicked still and 〈◊〉 proceedeth from the wicked as saith the Proverb of the Ancients I have read of one that would 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 theatres and whore-houses in London all day but he 〈◊〉 not go forth without private praier in the morning and then would say at his departure Now devil do thy worst and so used his praiers as charms and spels against the weak cowardly devil This was not that praier and fasting our Saviour here speaks of men must not go forth to this spirituall fight 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with their break-fast as the Grecians in Homer but praying and fasting from sin especially for otherwise they do but light a candle afore the devil as the Proverb hath it Verse 22. The Sonne of man shall be betray'd This our Saviour often inculcates to drive them out of their golden dream of an earthly kingdom which pleased them so well that they could hardly foregoe it It is no easie matter to be disabused undeceived errour once admitted is not expelled without much adoe It sticks to our fingers like pitch take heed how we meddle Verse 23. And they were exceeding sorry Out of love to their Lord saith Hierom out of ignorance and stupidity saith Saint Mark and S. Luke so they grieve where no cause was as we do oft upon like grounds and causes How well might our Saviour have said to them as afterwards he did to the women Grieve not for me but grieve for your selves 〈◊〉 knew well that if Christ 〈◊〉 they should not scape scot free Hinc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We shrink in the shoulder when called to 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 and pretend this and that for excuse as Moses did the conscience of his own insufficiency Exod. 4. 10. when the very truth was he feared Pharaoh lest he would have revenged the AEgyptians quarrell against him whom he had slain and hid in the sand And as 〈◊〉 pretended his dear love to his Master Matth 16. 22. when it appears ver 26. he aimed indeed at the safegard of his own 〈◊〉 more then 〈◊〉 Masters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 care be taken that what ever we make believe we be not self 〈◊〉 which begins that black-bedroll 2 Timothy 3. 2. and lovers of pleasures profits preferments more then lovers of God which ends it Verse 〈◊〉 They that received tribute money This 〈◊〉 or half-shekel was formerly paid by the Israelites every year after they were twenty year old toward the Temple Exod. 30. 13. Caesar by taking it from the Temple and turning it to a 〈◊〉 did indeed take away from God that which was Gods This very tribute was paid afterwards by the Jews toward the Roman Capitoll by vertue of a 〈◊〉 made by 〈◊〉 How just is it in God that the spoiler should be spoiled Isa. 30. 1. that the Roman Emperours that so robbed and wronged God should be robbed of their rights as they are by the Popes usurpations 〈◊〉 not your Master pay tribute Is he either born or bought free See Act. 22. 28. But if neither they might had they had any 〈◊〉 in them have spared him so publike so profitable a person that had so well deserved of the whole Nation so well merited an immunity an indemnity But all is lost that is laid out upon ungratefull persons or people Covetousnesse hath no respect to any thing but to its own profit and knows no other language then the horse-leeches Give Give Rem rem 〈◊〉 modo rem without any respect of persons how well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verse 25. He saith Yes Christ submitted himself to every 〈◊〉 of man for the Lords sake and hath bidden us Give unto 〈◊〉 those things that are Caesars tribute to whom tribute is due custome to whom custome c. So doth not that great Heteroclite of 〈◊〉 he not only detains but demands Peter-pence and other 〈◊〉 paiments from Kings and States One Pope said that he 〈◊〉 never want money so long as he could hold a pen in his 〈◊〉 This Kingdom was of old called the ` Popes-Asse for bearing 〈◊〉 burdens and exactions Innocent the 4 t said that England was the Popes 〈◊〉 and a pit that could never be drawn dry What 〈◊〉 summes drained they hence in King Johns daies Otto one of the Popes Muscipulatores Mice catchers as the Story calleth them sent hether by Gregory 9. after three years raking together 〈◊〉 money left not so much in the whole Kingdom as he either carried with him or sent to Rome before him But I hope 〈◊〉 long the Kings of the earth awakened by their grosse abuses put upon them will 〈◊〉 that withered whore and burn her flesh with
in the same estate wherein they were before These that follow this latter sense read the text thus by an alteration of points Ye which have followed me shall in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in his glory fit upon twelve thrones c. Ye shall also sit upon twelve thrones As so many Kings Kings they are here but somewhat obscure ones as Melchisedech was but shall then appear with Christ in glory far outshining the Sunne in his strength higher then all the Kings of the earth When Daniel had 〈◊〉 the greatnesse and glory of all the four Monarchies of the world at last he comes to speak of a Kingdome which is the greatest and mightiest under the whole heaven and that is the Kingdom of the Saints of the most high So glorious is their estate even here what 〈◊〉 it be then at that great day And if the Saints every of them shall judge the Angells What shall the Apostles do surely as they 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 men in this world so shall it fare with them at the generall Judgement Verse 29. Shall receive an hundred sold In reference to Isaacks hundred-fold increase of his seed Gen. 26. 12. or that best of grounds Mat. 13 Those that do pillage us they do but husband us sow for us when they make long forrowes on our backs Psal. 126. and ride over our heads Psal. 66 12 Gordius the Mattyr said It is to my losse if you bate me any thing in my suffrings Crudelitas vestra nostra gloria said they in Tertullian your cruelty is our glory and the harder we are put to it the greater shall be our reward in heaven Nay on earth too the Saints shall have their losses for Christ recompensed either in mony or monies-worth either in the same or a better thing Iob had all doubled to him Valentinian for his tribuneship the Empire cast upon him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Apostate who had put him out of office for his religion Q. Elizabeth whose life 〈◊〉 a long while had been like a ship in the midst of an Irish sea after long restraint was exalted from misery to 〈◊〉 from a prisoner to a 〈◊〉 Optanda nimirum est jactura quae lucro majore pensatur saith Agricola It is 〈◊〉 a lovely losse that is made up with so great gain 〈◊〉 Q. Elizabeth forknown whiles she was in prison what a glorious raign she should have had for 44 years she would never have wished her self a milk maid So did but the Saints understand what great things abide them both here and hereafter they would bear any thing chearfully An hundred 〈◊〉 here and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 life hereafter On who would not then turn spirituall purchaser Well might St Paul say godlines is profitable to all things Well might the Psalmist say In doing in suffering thy will there is great reward Not for doing it only but in doing it for Righteousnes is its own reward St Mark hath it thus He that leaveth house brethren sisters father c. shall receive the same in kinde house brethren 〈◊〉 father c. That is 1. He shall have communion with God and his consolations which are better then them all as 〈◊〉 that Italian Marquesse that left all for Christ avowed them and as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when his City was taken by the Barbarians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 us to God Lord let me not be troubled at the losse of my gold and silver for thou art all in all unto me 2. He many times gives his suffering servants here such supplies of their outward losses in raising them up other friends and means as 〈◊〉 abundantly countervail what they have parted with Thus though David was driven from his wife and she was given to another God gave him a friend Jonathan whose love was beyond the love of women So though Naomi lost her husband and children Boaz 〈◊〉 and Obed became to her instead of all The Apostles left their houses and houshold-stuffe to follow Christ but then they had the houses of all godly people open to them and free for them and happy was that Lydia that could entertain them so that having nothing they yet possessed all things They left a few friends but they found 〈◊〉 more where ever they came Wherefore it was a 〈◊〉 sarcasme of Iulian the Apostate when reading this text he jearingly demanded whether they should have an hundred wives also for that one they had parted with 3. God commonly exalts his people to the contrary good to that evil they suffer for him as Ioseph of a slave became a ruler as Christ that was judged by men is Judge of all men The first thing that Caius did after he came to the Empire was to 〈◊〉 Agrippa who had been imprisoned for wishing him Emperour Constantine embraced Paphnutius and kissed his lost eye The King of Poland sent 〈◊〉 his enerall who had lost his hand in his warres a golden hand instead thereof God is far more liberall to those that serve him suffer for him Can any son of Iesse doe for us as he can Verse 30. But many that are first c Because Peter and the rest had called for their pay almost afore they had been at any pains for Chtist he therefore quickeneth them in these words bidding them bestir themselves better left others that are now hindermost should get beyond them and carry the crown Lay hold on eternall life saith Paul intimating that it is hanged on high as a garland so that we must reach after it strain to it So run that ye may obtain Look you to your work God will take care of your wages you need never trouble your selves about that matter CHAP. XX. Verse 1. For the Kingdom of heaven c. THat last sentence Christ further illustrateth and enforceth by this following parable Peter and the rest were in danger to be puffed up with the preconceit of their abundant reward 〈◊〉 chap. 19 28 29. This to prevent and that they might not stand upon their tearms and tiptoes they are again and again given to know that 〈◊〉 that are first shall be last and last first Which 〈◊〉 out early in the morning God is found of them that seek him not Isa 65. 1. Yea the Father seeketh such to worship him Ioh. 4. 23. he solliciteth suitours and servants A wonderfull condescension it is that he looketh out of himself upon the Saints and Angels in heaven Psal. 113. 6. How much more upon us poor earth-worms Labourers into his Vineyard Not loiterers Iacob saw the Angels some ascending others descending none standing still God hath made 〈◊〉 to play in the waters not so men they must be doing that will keep in with God Verse 2. For a penny a day Not for eternall life for this those murmuring merit-mongers never had who yet had their peny but something what ever it were that gave the labourers good content that it was for which each of them followed Christ
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They that make religion daunce attendance to policie 〈◊〉 one 〈◊〉 set the 〈◊〉 upon Christ not 〈◊〉 upon the 〈◊〉 Thus did 〈◊〉 and before him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 jactura regionis quam 〈◊〉 Thus do all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the worlds wisards whose rule is 〈◊〉 sed paucis Religiosum oportet esse sed non religentem c. But what saith a Father Deum siquis parum 〈◊〉 valdè contemnit And one thing said Luther that will be the 〈◊〉 of religion is worldly policy that would have all well however and seeks to procure the publike peace by impious and unlawfull counsels and courses Verse 8 And a very great multitude Bondinus saith he was met at this time by three-hundred-thousand Jews some whereof went afore Christ some followed after according to the solemn rites and reverence used to be given to earthly Kings in their most pompous triumphes This was the Lords own work Verse 9. 〈◊〉 to the Sonne of David So they acknowledg Christ to be the true Messiah and congratulate him his kingdom over the Church and yet a few-daies after these same at the instigation of the Priests and Pharisees cry 〈◊〉 dealing by Christ as Xerxes did by his steersman whom he crowned in the morning and then took off his head in the afternoon of the same day or as the fickle Israelites dealt by David 2 Sam 20. where we shall finde the same hands that erewhile fought for David to be all theirs do now fight against him under the son of 〈◊〉 to be none of theirs Verse 10. Who is this Why could not they tell after so 〈◊〉 miracles done among them Were they such strangers at 〈◊〉 Many live and dye very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 places where they have had line 〈◊〉 line precept upon 〈◊〉 c. and yet they are no wiser then the child new weaned from the breast Isa. 29. 8. their wits serve them not in spiritualls though otherwise shrewd enough Verse 11. The Prophet of Nazareth c. The Archprophet they acknowledge him but of Nazareth of Galilee They had not profited 〈◊〉 much or made so far 〈◊〉 in the mystery of Christ as to know him to have 〈◊〉 born a 〈◊〉 And to nourish this errour in the people it was that the devil that old Impostour Mark 1. 24. though he confessed Christ to be the Holy 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 yet he calleth 〈◊〉 Jesus of Nazareth Satan 〈◊〉 semèl videatur verax 〈◊〉 est mendax semper fallax Satan 〈◊〉 speaks truth but with a minde to deceave Verse 12. And 〈◊〉 out all them that sold The zeal of Gods house did ever eat him up And as revenge 〈◊〉 zeal 2 Cor. 7. 11. he marrs their markets and drives them 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 with Procul ò procul este 〈◊〉 And this deed of our Saviours was altogether divine whiles as another Sampson he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon heaps yet without bloodshed with the 〈◊〉 of an 〈◊〉 St Hierom extolleth this 〈◊〉 above the raising of Lizarus restoring the blind to their sight the lame to their limmes c. and adds this mysticall sense of 〈◊〉 text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ingreditur Templum Patris ejicit 〈◊〉 tam Episcopos Presbyteros quam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 turbam de Ecclesia sua 〈◊〉 criminis habet vendentes paritèr 〈◊〉 Christ is every day casting out of his Church all these mony-marchants 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both ministers and others that make sale of holy things which the very Heathens abhorred and others long since complained that benefices were bestowed non ubi optimè sed ubi 〈◊〉 as if a man should bestow so much bread on his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is to ride on him The tables of the mony-changers This he did also at his first 〈◊〉 into the ministry Ioh. 2. 14. 15. See my notes on that 〈◊〉 The 〈◊〉 of Religion was Christs chief care and so it should be ours And although little was done by his first attempt Ioh. 2. yet he tries again 〈◊〉 should we contributing what we 〈◊〉 to the work continually by our prayers and utmost indeavours wishing at least as Ferus did that we had some Moses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 away the evils in Church and state Non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 t 〈◊〉 sed multos habemus 〈◊〉 he for we abound with 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 Verse 13. Shall be called the house of prayer A principall piece of Gods 〈◊〉 worship and 〈◊〉 put 〈◊〉 the whole Christ 〈◊〉 never came into this house but he preached 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 In the Sanctuary was the incense-Altar in the middle a type of prayer the table of shew-bread on the oneside 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 tribes and the candlestick a type of the word on the other To teach us that there is a necessity of both ordinances to all Gods 〈◊〉 But ye have made it a den of theeves So Christ calleth not the mony-marchants only but the 〈◊〉 also that set them awork And whereas they cryed The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord for to those was this speech first addressed Ier. 7. 11. as if they could not do amisse because they served in the Temple the Prophet tells them there and our Saviour these here that it 's so much the worse What should an Angel of darknesse do in heaven Who required these things at your hands to tread the courts of my Temple This is the gate of the Lord into which the righteous only should enter The Papists in like sort cry out at this day Ecclesia Ecclesia Nos sumus Ecclesia and herewith think to shrowd their base huckstering of holy things For omniae Romae venalia all things are saleable and soluble at Rome But this covering is too short and their grosse theeveries are now made apparent to all the world as their rood of grace and the blood of Hales were at Pauls crosse by that Noble Cromwell and as their cheating trade of Indulgencies and Popespardons was by Luther who by dint of argument overthrew those Romish mony-changers and drove the countrey of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen fitly calleth them Verse 14. Came to him in the Temple and he healed them So true was that testimony given of our Saviour Luke 24. 19. that he was a Prophet mighty in deed as well as in word before God and all the people Nos non eloquimur magna sed vivimus said the Primitive Christians Our lives as well as our lips should speak us right and reall in Religion As Christ here by his cures gave a reall answer to that question ver 10. Who is this Let us learn to lead convincing lives these are the best apologies when all 's done Verse 15. And the children crying c. To the great grief and regret of those cankerd carls the Priests and Scribes but to the singular commendation of their parents who had so well taught and tutoured them So the children of Merindoll answered the Popish Bishop of Canaillon
judgement of God are regested upon them Verse 25. His bloud be on us and on c. God said Amen to this woefull curse which cleaves close to them and their posterity as a girdle to their loins soaking as oil into their bones to this very day Psal. 109. 18 19. Thirty eight years after this fearfull imprecation in the same place and close by the same tribunall where they thus cried out His bloud be on us c. Historians tell us that Herod wanting money demanded of the Jews so much out of their treasury as would pay for the making of a water-course But the Jews supposing it a needlesse work not only denied him but gave many out-ragious and spitefull speeches tumultuously flockt about him and with great clamours prest upon him even as he was in his seat Whereupon to prevent mischief he sent to his souldiers to apparrel themselves like Citizens and under their gowns to bring with them a 〈◊〉 or ponyard and mingle themselves amongst the multitude which they did observing who they were that made the greatest uproar And when Herod gave the sign they fell upon them and slew a great multitude Many also for fear of losse or danger killed themselves besides others which seeing this massacre 〈◊〉 treason among themselves fell one upon another What a dispersed and despised people they are ever since exiled as it were out of the world by the common consent of all Nations for their inexpiable guilt See my True Treasure Chap. 7. Sect. 2. And beware by their example of wishing evil to our selves or others as our desperate God damn-me's do at every third word almost and God will undoubtedly take them at their words as he did those wretches that wished they might die in the wildernesse Numb 14. 28. As he did John Peters the cruell Keeper of Newgate in Queen Maries daies who commonly when he would affirm any thing were it true or false used to say If it be not true I pray God I rot ere I die and he had his desire So had Sir Gervaise Ellowaies Lieutenant of the Tower hang'd in our remembrance on Tower-hill for being 〈◊〉 to the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury who being upon the Gallows confest it was just upon him for that he had oft in his playing at cards and dice wished That he might be hang'd if it were not so and so In the year 1551. the devil in a visible shape lifted up a cursing woman into the air in Germany and therehence threw her down in the view of many people and 〈◊〉 her neck Another brought her daughter to Luther entreating his praiers for her for that she was possessed by the devil upon her cursing of her For when she had said in a rage against her daughter Involet in 〈◊〉 diabolus The devil take thee he took possession of her accordingly The same Authour relateth a like sad story of a stubborn son cursed by his father who wished he might never stirre alive from the place he stood in and he stirred not for three years o. Cursing men are cursed men Alterius perditio tua sit cautio Seest thou another suffer shipwrack look to thy tackling Verse 26. And when he had scourged Jesus So 〈◊〉 satisfie their cruelty and move them if it might be to pity But though they relented not at the sight it 's fit we should Would it not grieve us at the heart if we should see the Kings son basely whipped by our adversaries only for our affairs Christ was scourged when we had offended that he might free us from the sting of conscience and those scourges and scorpions of eternall torments that he might make us a plaister of his own blessed bloud for by his stripes we are healed by the bloudy wails made upon his back we are delivered We hold it a thing almost beyond belief that the applying of medicines to the sword that wounded a man shall make the wounds heal in a man But here is a mystery that only Christian religion can tell of and of which there never was president in nature that the scourging and wounding of one man should cure another See the Note on Joh. 19. 1. Verse 27. Then the souldiers of the Governour Barbarous and brutish men skilfull to destroy Ezek. 21. 31. Let the young men arise and play before us said Abner 2 Sam. 2. 14. It is but a sport to souldiers to kill and put men to tormentfull ends At the taking of Tripolis in Barbary the Turkish souldiers having in their hands one John de Chabos a 〈◊〉 man born in Daulphine they brought him into the town and when they had cut off 〈◊〉 hands and nose they put him quick into the ground to the wast and there for their pleasure shot at him with their arrows and afterwards cut his throat What insolencies and cruelties they exercised upon our Saviour for our sakes even the whole band of them we should read with regret for our sins the weapons and instruments of all his sufferings and see thorow his wounds the naked bowels as it were of his love to our poor souls Verse 28. And they stripped him That we might be cloathed with the rich and royall raiment of 〈◊〉 righteousnesse that fleece of the Lamb of God who 〈◊〉 away c. And put on him a scarlet robe Ore worn and threed 〈◊〉 no doubt so to set him forth as an historicall King in 〈◊〉 of him but the Kingdom of Christ came not by observation He is an obscure King as Melchisedeeh was but yet a King as he told 〈◊〉 and this was that good confession witnessed by him and celebrated by S. Paul 1 Tim. 6. 13. Verse 29. And when they had platted a crown c. Christ by wearing this crown of thorns the first-fruits of the curse took away the sin and curse of all his people who must therefore by their obedience set a crown of gold on his head Cant. 3. 11. as 〈◊〉 in his superstitious way 〈◊〉 his crown upon the crucifix See the Note on 〈◊〉 19 2. And a reed in his right-hand So do all those still that submit not to the scepter of his kingdom that give him not full 〈◊〉 over their souls Bowed the knee before him With ludibrious devotion So do hypocrites to this day King Richard the second when he was to be deposed was brought forth in royall array whereof he was presently despoiled Never was Prince so gorgeous with 〈◊〉 glory and more grief Verse 30. And they spit upon him So doth 〈◊〉 still cast dirt and drivell into Christs face See the 〈◊〉 on Chap. 26. 67. Robert Smith Martyr in his examination before Bonner made one of his Doctours to say that his breaden god must needs enter into the belly and so 〈◊〉 into the draught To which he answered What derogation was it to Christ when the Jews spit in his face Smith presently replied If the Jews being
will not such men say or do for mony Pecunia 〈◊〉 fecit forma 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 jamilla promissio temerarios saith Aretius Verse 13. Stole him away while we slept If it were so 1. Ye kept a good watch the while and wanted some 〈◊〉 to slay you for sleeping 2. If all asleep who told you his 〈◊〉 stole him did you sleep waking as lions do or did they make 〈◊〉 little noise that you never heard them about it as 〈◊〉 Francis Drake at Taur apasa in the West-Indies found a Spaniard sleeping securely upon the shore and by him thirteen wedges of silver which he commanded to be carried away not so much as once waking the man Surely here it was neither so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but the devil who began at first his kingdom by lying and by lying still upholds it set these fellows awork to say as they were taught any thing for mony though never so absurd and false But mony got on this manner will prove aurum Tolosanum burn in thy purse and bring Gods curse upon all thy substance Verse 14. We will perswade him and secure you Hypocrites have enough if they can collogue with men and escape the lash of the law God is not in all their thoughts or they think they can perswade him and secure themselves Hence that overflow of sinne through hope of impunity and abundance of Atheisme Verse 15. So they took the mony So sequacious are such men to sinne where any thing is to be got by it Balaam will venture hard for the wages of wickednesse Set but a wedge of gold in sight and 〈◊〉 that could stop the Sun in his course cannot stay Achan from fingering it And this saying is commonly reported They were given up to beleeve this lye because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved 2 Thess. 2. 10. There are that sense it otherwise This saying is commonly reported that is this 〈◊〉 imposture of the Priests and souldiers wretchedly conspiring to cosen the world with such a base lye is sufficiently known for a peece of knavery and is so resented to this day Think the same of the Trent-conventicle carried by the Pope and his agents with so much finenesse c. but so as now all 's come out to their eternall infamy Verse 16. Went away into Galilee They had seen him twice or thrice before at Ierusalem yet took a long journey here into Galilee to see him again Whom having not seen ye love 1 Pet. 1. 8. Austins wish was to see Christum in carne But if we had known Christ after the flesh yet saith St Paul henceforth should we know him so no more 2 Cor. 5. 16. sith the comfortable presence of his spirit is better then his corporall presence and more to our benefit Ioh. 16. 7. By this it is that though now we see him not yet beleeving we rejoyce with unspeakable and glorious joy 1 Pet. 1. 8. and must not think much of a journey 〈◊〉 though it be not to a mountain in Galilee but to the heavenly hills from whence comes our help to see the King in his beauty Christum regem videre in decore suo which was Bedes wish Verse 17. They worshipped him but some doubted Even whiles they worshipped they doubted yet was not their worship rejected The Lord knoweth his still 2 Tim. 2. 19. But they know not him still as here in this text howbeit they are known of him Gal. 4. 9. and their whole way both known and approved Psal. 1. 6. Verse 18. All power is given to me Christ premiseth his power and promiseth his presence the better to perswade them to set upon his work his great work of subduing the world to the obedience of the faith Better may this King of Kings say then that King of Spain Sol mihi semper lucet for he is Catholike Monarch The kingdomes of this world and of the other too are become the kingdomes of our Lord and of his Christ and 〈◊〉 shall reign for ever and ever Revel 11. 15. As for the Saints how can they be but in an all-sufficiency sith all is theirs they being Christs and Christ being Gods what boldnesse may they take to go to Christ as Jacob did to Joseph when he understood that the sway of the whole land was in his hand c See the Note on Matth. 11. 27. Verse 19. Go yee therefore In this my strength as Gideon did against the Midianites and though but a barly cake course and contemptible yet shall ye overthrow the worlds tents yea the strong holds of Satan though you have but lamps and 〈◊〉 in your hands yet shall ye acheive great matters The Apostles were those white horses whereupon the Lord Christ 〈◊〉 went forth conquering and to conquer Britannorum 〈◊〉 Romanis loca Christo patuerunt saith 〈◊〉 The Burgundians much afflicted by the Hunnes sled to 〈◊〉 the God of the Christians whom after a long dispute they 〈◊〉 to be a great God and a great King above all Gods St Francis Drake tells us of twelve Martyrs burnt for Religion at Lima in Mexico not two moneths before his coming thither And he that set forth New-Englands first-fruits assures us of some of those Natives that being converted to the faith lived 〈◊〉 and died comfortably 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all nations 〈◊〉 Disciple them make them Christians first and then teach them to observe c. vers 20. as in Baptisme they have promised for otherwise it was pity that font-water was ever spilt upon their faces In the kingdom of Congo in Afrike diverse of those Heathens by the 〈◊〉 of the Portugals arriving there were content to become Christians and to be baptized allowing of the principles of Religion and professing Christ till the Priests pressed them to lead their lives according to their profession which the most part of them in no case induring they returned back again to their Gentilisme As for the 〈◊〉 Converts in Mexico they so litle remember their covenant made with Christ in Baptisme that many times they forget 〈◊〉 very names soon after they have been baptized Baptizing them into the name of c. That is consecrating them unto the sincere service of the sacred 〈◊〉 and confirming them by this holy Sacrament in the faith of the forgivenesse of their sins and in the hope of life eternall This is the end use and efficacy of Baptisme which Piscator saith few of the Fathers rightly understood Those Popish Asles certainly did not who moved this foolish question An asinus bibens ex baptismo bibat aquam baptismi sic asinus dicendus sic baptisatus Pity but these questionites had been present when the young scollar reading publikely the fifth of the first of Corinthians for probation-sake at the Colledge of Bamberg when he came to that passage Expurgate vetus fermentum c. Sicut estis azymi He not understanding the word Azymi
lawfull Others knew it to be so but none durst tell him so but Iohn In like sort Eliah told Ahab that he had troubled Israel those times and these did very much suit Iohn was another Elias Herod and Herodias answered to Ahab and Iezabel So Latimer presented for a New-years gift to K. Henry the eight a new Testament with a napking having this posie about it Whore 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 God will judge He also wrote a letter to the King after the Proclamation for abolishing English books where we may see and marvell at his great boldnesse and stoutnesse who as yet being no Bishop so freely and plainly durst to so mighty a Prince in such a dangerous case against the Kings Proclamation set 〈◊〉 in such a terrible time take upon him to write and to admonish that which no Councellour durst once speak unto him in defence of Christs Gospel King Asa though a godly Prince imprisoned the Prophet for dealing plainly with him Archbishop Grindall lost Q. Elizabeths favour and was confined for favouring Prophecies c. as it was pretended but in truth for condemning an unlawfull marriage of Iulio an Italian Physitian with another mans wife 〈◊〉 Leicester in vain opposed against his proceedings therein Gods truth must be told however it be taken and not be betrayed as it is too too oft by a cowardly silence It is not lawfull for thee to have her And yet the Pope frequently dispenseth with such incestuous marriages K. Philip the third of Spain were he now alive might call the Arch-duke Aldred both brother cousen nephew and son for all this were he unto him either by bloud or affinity being uncle to himself 〈◊〉 german to his father husband to his sister and father to his wife and all by Papall dispensation Abhorred filth Verse 5. And when he would have put him to death Why what had the good Baptist done that he must dye The people must be made believe that he suffereth for practising against the King But this was so thin a falshood that it might be transparently seen through Therefore Herod durst not kill him though 〈◊〉 much desired to do it lest the people should move and mutiny He knew himself hated by them already for his cruelty and other crimes Now if he should 〈◊〉 them afresh by executing the Baptist whom they highly honoured who knew what they would do 〈◊〉 how terrible soever have their fears that curb and keep them in for a time at least from 〈◊〉 notorious outrages In the beginning of Q. Maries reigne after the tumult at Bournes Sermon at the crosse where the people flang daggers and were ready to pull him limmeal out of the pulpet for 〈◊〉 them to Popery the L. 〈◊〉 and Aldermen were willed to call a common-Counsell and to signifie to said assembly the Queens determination sc. that albeit her 〈◊〉 conscience is staid in matter of Religion yet she graciously meant not to compell or strain other mens consciences otherwise then God shall as she trusted put in their hearts a perswasion of the truth that she is in through the opening of the word unto them by godly vertuous and learned Preachers Verse 6. But when Herods birth-day was 〈◊〉 All this was a meere plot as St Mark also intimateth in those words of his chap. 6 21 And when a convenient day was come This birth-day then was the day appointed long before by Herod and his Harlot for the acting of this tragedy A great feast must be prepared the states invited the damosell must dance the King swear the Baptists there upon be beheaded that the Queen may be gratified And this tragedy was new-acted at Paris 〈◊〉 1572. when the French 〈◊〉 was committed under pretence of a wedding royall Cardinall Lorrain gave a great summe of 〈◊〉 to him that brought the first news thereof to Rome and the Pope caused it to be painted in his pallace The daughter of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tripudiabat tripped on the toe in a most immodest manner as they used to do in their Bacchanals as the word 〈◊〉 This old Fornicator seemed to be so taken and tickled with the sight that like a mad man 〈◊〉 swears to give her her request to the half of the kingdome which yet was more then he could do the kingdome being not his 〈◊〉 the Emperour of Romes to dispose of So as Robert Duke of Normanáy passed through Falaise he beheld among a company of young maids dauncing one 〈◊〉 a skinners daughter whose nimblenesse in her daunce so enamoured the Duke that he tooke her for his Concub ne and one 〈◊〉 begat our William the Conquerer Such and no better commonly are the effects of mixt dauncings which made Chrysostom say where dauncing is there the devil is And another Ancient calleth dauncing a circle whose center is the devil blowing up the fire of concupisence in the hearts both of the actours and spectatours Augustine saith that every caper in the daunce is a leap into a deep jakes No sober man doth daunce saith Cicero And pleased Herod Who was now well heat with wine as an oven Prov. 23. 31 33. for then his eies were apt to behold strange women and his heart to utter perverse things Gula Veneris vestibulum Et Venus in vinis ignis 〈◊〉 igne furit But what a monstrous thing is it to behold green apples on a tree in winter to finde youthfull lusts in old 〈◊〉 goats Verse 7. He promised with an oath He not only swore rashly but confessed himself bound thereby to perform his oath as the Greek word signifieth to give her whatsoever she would ask as Judah did Tamar and as wantons use to do to their sweet-hearts Ask me never so much dowry and gift saith 〈◊〉 and I will give according as ye shall say unto me but give 〈◊〉 the damosell to wife Verse 8. And she being before instructed c. Partus sequitur ventrem the birth follows the belly Here was like mother like daughter neither good bird nor good egge as they say The mother and daughter both had an aking tooth at the Baptist and sought an opportunity to be meet with him which now having gotten they pursued to the utmost The damosell came with haste to the King saith St Mark chap. 6. 25. when once she had her 〈◊〉 as fearing belike she should come too late Such another huswife as this was Dame Alice Pierce concubine to our Edward the third For when as at a Parliament in the fiftieth year of that Kings reigne it was petitioned that the 〈◊〉 of Lancaster the Lord Latimer Chamberlain and this 〈◊〉 Alice might be a moved from Court and the Petition was vehemently urged by their speaker St Peter la Mare this Knight afterwards 〈◊〉 the suit of that impudent woman working upon the Kings impotencies was committed to perpetuall imprisonment at Notingham And another such history we have of one Diana Valentina Mistris