will walke in his paths I thinke I cannot truely say with Hosea that the Lord hath a coÌ„trouersie with the inhabitants of this land because there is no knowledge of God in the land For our heads are not so sicke as our hearts are heauie Isa 1.5 I meane our heads are not so void of knowledge as our hearts are of obedience but I dare boldly say that which followeth By swearing and lying and killing and stealing and whoring Hos 4.2 they breake forth and blood toucheth blood Wil you heare the iudgements annexed in the subsequent words Therefore shall the land mourne and euery one that dwelleth therein shall be cut off This is a terrible curse he that dwelleth in heauen still auert it from vs but yet it is a conclusion which the Lord vseth to inferre vpon such premises Giue me leaue ro repeat a parable vnto you Isa 5.1.2.3 c. My beloued had a vineyard in a very fruitfull hill and he hedged it and gathered the stones out of it and hee planted it with the best plants and hee built a Tower in the midst and made a winepresse therein The Prophet in that place applieth it to the land of Iudah Surely the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the land of Israel and the men of Iudah are his pleasant plants me thinkes I may not vnfitly apply it vnto this Island Surely the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the land of Britaine and the men of this land are his pleasant plants Now therefore O ye inhabitants of this and iudge I pray you betweene him and his vineyard what could he haue done vnto it that hee hath not done Hee hath planted it with his own right hand hee hath so hedged it about with his heauenly prouidence that the wild boare out of the woods cannot roote it vp nor they that goe by pull off his grapes Hee hath watered it most abundantly with the dew of heauen he hath gathered the stones of Popery and superstition out of it he hath set the winepresse of his word therein he hath giuen it a Tower euen a king as a strong tower against his enemies whose raigne the Lord continue ouer vs if it bee his pleasure as long as the moone knoweth her course the sun his going down and let all that loue the peace of Britaine say Amen Now hee hath long expected that it shuld bring forth grapes but behold it bringeth foorth wild grapes He looked for iudgement but behold oppression for righteousnesse but loe a crying These were the sinnes of Ierusalem and you know her iudgments he that was Ierusalems God is Britaines God too and therfore if shee paralell Ierusalem in her iniquities let her take heed she tast not of her plagues God though he hath not yet begun to punish her in his fury yet hath he sundry times shaked his rod of correction ouer her if this will not worke amendment her iudgement must be the greater Fearefull was the case of Samaria whoÌ„ Gods punishments could not moue to repentance I haue giuen you cleannesse of teeth in al your Cities Amos. 4. and scarcenesse of Bread in all your places yet haue yee not returned vnto me saith the Lord God I haue with holden the raine from you when there was yet three moneths to the haruest and I caused it to ruine vpon one Citie and brought a drought vpon another yet haue yee not returned vnto me saith the Lord. Pestilence haue I sent amongst you after the manner of Egipt and yet ye haue not returned vnto me saith the Lord. I haue smitten you with blasting and mildew c. yet ye haue not returned vnto me saith the Lord God The Lord hath not hitherto dealt with vs after our sinnes nor plagued vs according to the multitude of our iniquities yet he hath made it manifest that he is displeased with vs His mercy hath pulled backe his hand from drawing his sword of vengeance against vs yet hee hath left vs sundry tokens that hee is angred with our sinnes It is not long since that the heauens were made as brasse Deut. 28.23 and the Earth as yron nay the very waters became as yron or as brasse so that neither the heauens from aboue nor the earth or water from below did aford comforts for the seruice of man This extraordinary cold disteÌ„perature of the ayre might by an Antiperistasis haue kindled some heate of zeale deuotion in our brests when it had not the expected effect Psal 105.16 then he Called for a dearth vpon the land and destroied our prouision of bread euen such a famine that if we were not releeued from forraine countries Ten women might bake their bread in one Ouen as the Lord speaketh Leuit. 26.26 But all this hath not brought vs vpon our knees nor humbled our soules before our God therefore once againe he hath put life in his messenger of death and set him on foote which heretofore of late yeres hath raged in this city like a man of warre and like a gyant refreshed with wine and bestirred himselfe though not with the like violence almost in euery part of this kingdome Psal 91.6 I meane the pestilence that walketh in the darkenesse and the sicknesse that hath killed many thousands at noone day all these are infallible tokens that he is offended with our sinnes Howbeit he is so mercifull that he will not suffer his whole displeasure as yet to arise Horum si singula duras Flectere non possunt poterint tameÌ„ omnia mentes If each of these by themselues cannot preuaile with vs yet if they be all put together they may serue as a threefold cord to draw vs vnto repentance If these be not of force but still wee continue to blow vp the coales of his anger then let vs know for a certainty that they are the forewarners of a greater euill as the cracking of the house is a forewarning of his fall these bee but the flashing lightnings the thunderbolt will come after The cloud that is long in gathering will make the greater storme he is all this while in fetting his stroke that hee may giue the sorer blow Eurum ad se Zephirumque vocat hee is in bringing the windes out of his treasures that he may rain vpon our heads a showre of vengeance which shall bee the portion of al the vngodly to drink I beganne like a Barrabas I will not end like Boanarges my song had an Exordium of mercy I am loath to bring for an Epilogue a thunderclap of iudgment Wherefore my beloued Brethren now that you see the true causes of the ruines of euery common-wealth and the iudgement that hangeth ouer your heads like Damocles his sword for our iniquities flatter your selues no longer in your own sinnes but turne vnto him by speedy and vnfained repentance that hee may repent him of the euill turne away his plagues from you let the wanton leaue his dallying and the drunkard his carrowsing and the Vsurer his biting and the swearer his blaspheming and the oppressor his grinding and euery one amend one in time before the Lords wrath bee further kindled then will the Lord bee mercifull vnto this land hee will quicklie turne the sowre lookes of an angry and sinne reuenging Iudge into the smiling countenance of a mild and gentle Father Hee will take the rodde which he hath prepared for you and burne it in the fire These plagues which doe hang ouer you for your iniquities he will blow away with the breath of his nostrils as hee did the Egyptian Grashoppers into the red sea he will command his destroying Angell to put vp his sword into the sheath he will open the windowes of heauen and power downe a blessing vpon you without measure Then shall you be blessed in the Citie and blessed in the field blessed at your going out and blessed at your comming in and whatsoeuer you put your hands vnto shall be blessed your sonnes shall a Psa 129.4 grow vp as Oliue branches and your daughters shall be as the b Psal 144. polished corners of the Temple Your grounds shall so abound with grane that the tillers shall laugh and sing your garners shall be full and plenteous with all manner of store c Ioel. 2.24 your presses shall abound with Oyle and wine your sheepe shall bring forth thousands and tenne thousands in your fields Euery thing shall prosper nothing shall stoppe the current of Gods blessings there shall be no decay nor leading into captiuity and no complayning in your streetes and which is better then all â—hese hee will giue you faithfull painefull Pastors to feede you his spirite to comfort you his word to instruct you his wisedome to direct you his Angels to watch ouer you his grace to assist you and in a word He will be your God and you shall be his people Esther 6.9 thus shall it be done vnto all those whome the King of heauen shall honour so that all the world shal wonder at your felicity say Blessed be the Lord which taketh pleasure in the prosperity of his seruants happy are the people that bee in such a case yea blessed are al they which haue the Lord for their God thus wil he be with you and direct you in the desert of this world till he bring you into a faire and Goodly place the promised land a land that floweth with better things then abouÌ„dance of Milke and Honey the celestiall Paradise the heauenly Canaan the kingdome of glory prepared for you from the beginning of the world euen that kingdome where the King is verity the Lawes charity the Angels your company the Peace felicitie the life eternity To this kingdom the God of al mercy bring vs for his sake that bought vs with his owne blood to whom with the Father and the holy Spirit three persons in trinitie and one God in vnitie be ascribed all honor glory power and Maiestie both now and for euermore Amen FINIS
before him 1. King 16 30. then Baasha then Omri then Ieroboam the sonne of Nebat that made Israel to sinne therefore the Lord sends vnto him the Prophet Eliah telling him that in the field where the dogges licked vp the bloud of Naboth 1. King 21.19.21 they should licke his blood also and that he would wipe away his posterity as one wipeth a dish when it is wiped and turned vpside-downe Ahab hath no sooner rented his clothes at the Prophets words then God repenteth him of what hee had threatened Seest thou how Ahab is humbled before me verse 29. a simple humiliation God wot onely in outward shew and yet it shall suffice to reuoke part of Gods iudgements against him because hee submitteth himselfe before me I will not bring that euill in his dayes vpon his house Niniuie had multiplyed her transgressions as the sand vpon the sea shore she had by her sinnes blowne vp the coales of Gods anger against her but yet he will not come vpon her as a thiefe in the night to destroy her she shall haue fortie dayes warning and if in the meane time she will turne her plaiing into praying and her feasting into fasting and by couering her selfe with sackcloath hide from his eyes her broade sayles of pride he will make it knowne vnto her that hee was not so ready before to lend a left eare of iustice to her crying sinnes as he is now to affoord a right eare of mercy to the cry of her sinners Ionah 3.10 hee will repent of the euil that he had denounced against her and will not doe it The old world had so defiled the earth with her cruelties and the smoake of her sinnes did so fume vp to heauen into the nostrils of God Gen. 6.6 that he was sorry in his heart that euer hee had made man yet hee will not presently destroy this wicked generation there shall bee an hundreth and twenty yeares for repentance Vers 3 before hee will purge this Augaeum stabulum with a deluge of waters Nay such is the neuer drying streame of his mercies Ruffin hist Eccles lib. 2. Cap. 18. that for the righteous sake the wicked though they doe not repent shall fare the better God is not like to the Emperour Theodosius who for the offence of a few put all the Thessalonians to the sword but rather if without offence the Potter may be compared to the clay like to that Persian Generall Herod lib. Plut. in Caesare who spared Delos because that Apollo was borne there or Caesar who made the Cindians free men for Theopompus his sake it was an opinion of the Heathen that for one euill mans sake many good men were put to the worse Pallas exurere gentem Virgil. 1. lib AEn Argiuûm atque ipsos voluit submergere ponto Pallas ouerthrew the whole nauie of the Argiues Vnius ob noxam furias Aiacis Oilei for the sinne of one man by name Aiax the sonne of Oileus Hesiod op dies and Πολλαâ—◠καὶ ξυμπασά πόλις κακοῦ ἀνδÏὸς á¼Ï€Î±Ï…Ïεῖ God punisheth a whole City for one mans sinne and sends vpon it Διμὸν ὸμοῦ καὶ λόιμον famine and plague for the sinne of some particular it is not so God neuer punisheth one man for anothers offences if thou obiect vnto me that the Israelites were plagued for Dauids trespasse I answere Dauids sinne did occasion that punishment which the Israelites did iustly deserue for their owne iniquities for howsoeuer Dauid in respect of himselfe who deserued more called them sheep yet indeede they were Wolues in sheepe skins and verily in this particular wee haue an euident demonstration of his mercies for first of three seueral punishments he giues him leaue to chuse which of them hee would When Dauid had chosen the Pestilence for three dayes indeede he sent his destroying Angell but before his sword was halfe drawne hee puts it vp againe and repenteth him of the euill and abridgeth the time Now we know that euery substraction from his iudgements is a multiplication of his mercies and how farre hee is from punishing the righteous with the wicked let Sodome witnesse a sinke of the filthiest sinnes a cage of the vncleanest birdes a denne of the wickedest theeues that euer the earth bredde yet hee will not rashlie come vpon her but first he will goe downe and see Gen. 18.21 whether they haue done altogether according vnto that crie which was come vnto him if there can but fiftie righteous men bee found in fiue Cities which was but for euery Citie ten nay if but forty nay if but thirty nay if but twenty nay if but tenne can bee found amongst them all which was but for euery City two he wil not destroy the City for those mens sake when none can bee found saue iust Lot hee will not subuert Sodome before hee bee brought out of the City nay hee will spare the whole City of Zoar for Lots sake if good Paul bee in the ship all that are with him Act. 27. euen the barbarous Souldiers shall for his sake come safe to land But of all others that I may end this point where I beganne it Ierusalem in my Text is most famous whome the Lord doth so tenderly compassionate that if within her spatious walles amongst so many millions of soules one righteous man could haue beene found eyther amongst the Nobles or Magistrates or Priests or People hee would haue spared Ierusalem for that mans sake And is this true bee not then Vse 1 dismayed thou fainting and drouping soule whome the burden of thy sinnes hath pressed downe to the brinke of hell is there such a thunder-threatning cloud of Gods iustice set before thine eyes that thou thinkest it impossible that the Sunne of his fauour should pearce through it into thine heart deceiue not thy selfe where sinne aboundeth Rom. 5.20 there grace superaboundeth thou art a fitte Subiect for God to worke vpon where should the Physitian shew his skill but where the greatest maladies doe raigne and where can God better shew his mercy then where is the greatest aboundance of mans miserie the desperatest diseases that can befall the soule of man dead Apoplexies vncleane leprosies dangerous Lethargies remedilesse Consumptions whatsoeuer they be God can as easily cure them as the smallest infection and as he is able so is he most willing to doe it because his mercy as I haue already proued is his chiefest attribute and euery attribute of God is the Essence of God so that hee can no more cease from his works of mercy then the eye beeing well disposed from seeing or the fire from heating or the heauen from mouing or the Sunne from shining hee that denyeth this is a Traytor to the king of Heauen because hee gaine-sayeth that still wherin God especially delighteth There is no sinne of it selfe so hainous but God can wipe it away he will forgiue wicked Manasses aswel as righteous Abraham 10000
which shal follow the Lambe whethersoeuer he goeth these bee his people and the sheepe of his pasture these be they which haue this prerogatiue to be called the sonnes of God Psal 100. Gal. 4.1 Rom. 8.17 and the heires of God annexed with Christ and these are they which I affirme to be often contained in a very narrow roome in respect of the wicked There is much chaffe and little wheate it is the wheate that God keepes for his garner there are many stones but few pearles it is the Pearle which Christ hath bought with his bloud 2. Cor. 4. Many fowles but onely the Eagles bee good birds Sathan hath a kingdome and Christ but a little flocke it is like to Bethleem in the land of Iudah Luk. 12.32 Mich. 5.2 Gen. 8.3 but a little one amongst the Princes of Iudah it is like to Noahs floud going and returning like the sea flowing and ebbing or like to the Moone filling and waining sometimes so Eclipsed and darkened with the earth that thou canst not perceiue that Christ the sonne of righteousnesse doth shine vpon it The story of Times will make this plaine innumerous were the men of the old world yet Gods flocke was onely contained in the family of Sheth they onely were called the Sonnes of God Gen. 6.2 afterward this flocke was compassed in a very narrow fold in Noahs familie it was enclosed in one Arke and yet there was one Wolfe amongst these few sheepe Nat lupus inter oues Ouid metam lib 1. Thus it continued in a very narrow compasse till Abrahams time and so downeward till it beganne to multiply in the land of Egypt and afterward in the promised Canaan as yet it was still tied to one place there was but one pasture for Gods sheepe the rest of the world playde the harlot with other louers and went a whoring after their owne inuentions and in this one pasture there were more Goates then sheepe for though the number of the children of Israel were as the sand vpon the sea shore Rom. 4.27 yet onely a remnant was to be saued When the fulnesse of time was come that God had sent his sonne made of a woman this Moone did suffer such an Eclipse as that the quickest eye could hardly perceiue her then she beganne to recouer her light for God broke downe the partition wall and rent the vaile of the Temple and made no difference betwixt the Iew and the Gentile Tuos Niriusque mihi nullo discrimene agetur Then Gods sheepe brought forth thousands and ten thousands in the streets then the Vine stretcheth forth her boughes vnto the riuer and her branches vnto the lands end then God gaue vnto his Sonne the heathen for his inheritance and the vtmost part of the earth for his possession Yet then and euer since the gleanings of Satan haue bin more then the vintage of Christ Yet take a suruey of the world as it is at this day deuide it into three parts with Ptolome or into fowre with some later writers nay into sixe or seuen with our last Geographers Maginus and you shall not find much aboue one of these seauen which professe Christ Amongst these seperate the orthodoxe from the heterodox and you shall find that Christ is now almost banished out of the world so that if the sonne of man should now come Luk. 18.8 he should scarce find faith in the earth the true profession of the Gospell is confined in a little corner of the Northwest and in this corner remoue the Athiests and Hereticks and Worldlings and Neuters and Hypocrits how little will the remainder be after so many substractions And no maruell for many are caled but few are chosen and broad is the way that leadeth to distruction Gods sheepe haue a little narrow path but the Goates haue a beaten Cartway Vse 1 This being so it is strange what Bellarmine ment to make amplitude and multitude to be a note of the true Church especially when he proposeth to speake of such notes by which it may be most easily knowne and distinguished from the false religion of the Iewes and Heretickes and Pagans and Infidels whatsoeuer and therefore such as are both g Notae debent esse propriae non coÌ„munes lib 4. cap. 2 et postea in eodem cap. notae variae inseparabiles auera Ecclesia proper and inseperable in respect of the Church and againe such as thogh h Non quidem efficiunt euidenter veruÌ„ ipsam esse veram Dei Ecclesiam sed tameÌ„ efficiuÌ„t euidenter credibile De ecclesiae lib. 4. cap. 3. they make it not euidently true yet they make it euidently credible not only probable for i Lutheranorum notae non sunt vllo modo sufficientes nam non declaraÌ„t quae sit vera Ecclesia se cuÌ„duÌ„ haeretic nisi probabiliter lib eod cap. 2 that is the imperfection of our notes if you will beleeue him nay amongst those which admit of the Scriptures and Ecclesiasticall Histories and writings of the ancient fathers faciunt etiam euidentiam veritatis Lord how plausible a Doctrine would this haue beene vnto Ahab how would it haue fitted his turne to plead for Baal what meanest thou Eliah thus to trouble Israel As though wee were all Idolaters and thou onely a true worshipper of God Consider the matter aright and thou shalt find what a weake ground thou standest vpon those are the true worshippers of God who are the most in number now thou art but one and the Prophets of Baal are fower hundreth and fifty how pleasantly would it haue sounded in the eares of the Iewes when Ieremiah thus prophesied Behold might they say all the inhabitants of Iudah and Ierusalem are against thee and is the spirit of God departed from vs all to possesse thee Thus Constantius disputed with Libanus Bishop of Rome against Athanasius k Hoc orbis terrarum comprobat quota tu pars es orbis terrarum qui solus facis cum homine scelerato pacem orbis dâ—ssoluis Theod. lib. 2. cap. 16. The whole world is of this Opinion and what art thou that thou shouldest take part with a naughty fellow and disolue the peace of the world If this obiection had bin vrged against Luther when he first began to baite the Popes Bull hee might easily haue answered in Athanasius his words Athan. Epist ad solitarian vitam agentes What Church is there now that doth openly adore Christ if it bee godly it is Subiect to danger for if there bee any that feare God as indeede there are many euery where they haue hid themselues with Elias in Dens and Caues of the earth But the example of the Iewes will not much mooue our aduersarie quia non est eadem ratio populi Iudeorum et populi cristianorum Bellar. li. 3. dâ—â— Eccle. milit cap. 16. and might the Church of Christians bee still knowne by the multitude of professors