top of Aarons head to the beard Psal â—33 2 the skirts of his clothing This blessing of absolute power is Gods onely to giue who at his pleasure can bestow temporall or eternall gifts Sometimes temporall vpon the creatures for man or vpon man in the vse of the creatures Ephes 1.3 Sometimes eternall vpon the Saints as he blessed the elect with all spirituall blessings in Christ chosen before the foundations of the world Aquinas This blessing hath no match and therefore it is said benedicere Dei est causare bonitateÌ„ there is none but God which can create goodnesse in man The other Superiour blessing is by commission to Gods Deputies which blessing is either more-common or more rare The common blessing is praier sent as an Angell to fetch the blessing of God from the top of the ladder in heauen to the foot of the ladder on earth Thus the superiours in the Church for which cause we thinke superiority expedient do pray for the blessing of God inward and outward and ex officio doe shew that God will bestow them wich are necessary This blessing is dayly or ought to bee of Kings to their subiects Pastors to their flocke and Parents to their children The blessing of the King to his subiects Iosh 22 1 Paralip 16 3 Reg. 8 as Ioshuah blessed the Rubenites as Dauid blessed the people in the name of the Lord or as Salomon blessed all the congregation of Israel Thus shall the King prolong his daies in the kingdome and his sonnes in the middest of Jsrael The blessing of the Pastor to the flock Deut. 17.20 Nomb 6.23 Leu. 9.23 Hebr. 7.1 ought to be as Aaron blessed the people at Gods appointment as Moses and Aaron blessed the people when the glory of the Lord appeared and as Melchisedec blessed Abraham the Priest of the most high God met Abraham c. blessed him This blessing when it is directed according to the prescript and allowance of the word of God is then of great power by the power of God annexed by promise The blessing of parents to their children is also of good vse and commendable among vs in England for the good speede commonly obserued in these blessings Apud Britannos inprimis sacra antiquitatis vestigia etiamnum hodie clara in hac parte sunt Hyperius Raedius Britannicarum claritatum speciosus The Britanes are most honourable aboue all Nations for the continuance of this holy ordinance This is without all doubt an holy order which the Lord ordeined from the beginning that children might bee preserued within the compasse of dutifull obedience to their parents and might esteeme greatly of their great office ouer them Moreouer this obseruation beeing a comely correspondence to the fifth commandement doth thereby approue it self that in our religion it should not be neglected or reputed a stranger And this is more manifest by the reasons of the Wise man in which hee lappeth his counsels for the precious estimation of the parents blessing Eccles 3.11 For the blessing of the father establisheth the house of the children and the mothers curse rooteth out the foundations I might here lift vp some monuments on which it hath been proued and written how the blessings curses of parents haue kindled fire of heauen or hell as if Gods will and the parents were all one In this purpose an heathen speaketh as if he had been a Diuine in the skill of secrets Si affirmabit pater aduersus nos pati nos oportet quod ille faciat cuius potestas plus potest God doth iustly effect that which man doth iustly craue But of all blessings by commission that is the highest and of most power which is called the Patriarchall or Propheticall blessing With this blessing Isaac blessed Iaacob and Iaacob after blessed his sonnes This is called a blessing of excellency for that those holy men indued with the spirit of Prophesie did blesse with the blessing of God which could not be supplanted I haue blessed him and he shall be blessed These blessings were as delectable nuts in the Church because in them beeing words of men there was deliuered the blessing of God Cant. 6.10 as the kirnell in the nut So that Iaacob gone towards his blessing might say I went downe into the garden of nuts The Lord had so enacted the couenant of grace with those gracious fathers that it did rest in custodie vt sanctum depositum as an holy pledge deliuered in trust They by their solemne blessing might conuey this treasure to their posterities in whose families the Church and life of saith was to continue till Christ his comming Thus Noah blessed his sonne Sem before and Moses blessed the twelue Tribes after Concerning Noah his blessing the question is asked wherefore that largesse of Patriarchall blessing was bestowed on Sem when as Iaphets fauourable demeanour towards his father was of equall reuerence and care for his fathers honour as Sems was The answer to this question is plaine that the holy ghost did foresee how from Sem should spring Abraham and all his holy followers of whom the most blessed fruite that euer did grow was to come into the world Therefore to Sem was that great Patriarchall blessing conueyed yet had Noah an other blessing for Iaphet as Abraham had for Ismael and Isaac had for Esau This secondary blessing was far short of the first as the light of a starre is short of the light of the sunne Yet this blessing might be inlarged to Iaphet if hee would light his starre at the sunne and dwell within the light of the Church within the tents of Sem according to the condition of the blessing God perswade Iaphet that he may dwell in the tents of Sem. And thus is it happilie with vs Gentiles conuerted and perswaded to fetch our light at Christ in the tents of Sem our blessing is inlarged by him and the Church with his blessing is inlarged by vs. Now then let me shew you how Iaacob the Hebrew and our English Iaacob are a blessed field The superiour blessing is vpon them both and their blessing is made manifest vnto vs in three most worthy allowances The first is for scituation the second for plants and the third for fruitfull vantages of watering In the first Iaacob is a blessed field scited in the sunne the fairest funne the Sonne of God which alway shines A blessed scite is Iaacobs conscience thus neighboured with the sun his conscience is asweet lodging sweetned with the ioies of Christ as his father Abrahams bosome O blessed Iacob thy fathers blessing hath Iodged thee in the bosome of Christ as the spouse in the bosome of her husband Cant. 2.4 Hee brought me into his wine-seller and loue was his banner ouer me God dwelling with Iaacob and Iaacob is two waies One in tabernaculo personali in the flesh of man the other in tabernaculo mistico in the
to the time of the vintage This is now the time of the vintage the sweete wines of the Scripture and Sacraments of Christ and the holy Ghost are pressed out that after we may drinke anew of the fruit of the vine in the kingdome of God When yee haue gathered the fruit of the Land yee shall keepe an holy feast vnto the Lord. This life is the season of gathering sweet grapes of grace next is the feast the time of glorie But I must remember where I am and bind short all other circumstantiall tidings together Esau proud Esau contemnes his brother vt Diobolarem as the irefull Woolfe the little Kidde Hee sold the title but hee purposeth perforce to hold the inheritance In which example were may take a view of the common Centaures and Cyclopes of the world which hold al per fas et nefas all by strong hand hee wil haue all lawfull which is vnlawfull and will be as the Lion was his owne caruer Neither was that fraus vulpeculae wanting in Esaus designes for to strengthen himselfe that hee might be able to beare downe his brother hee maketh matches with two wiues without liking consent or knowledge of his parents He was as the Scrpent which was more subtill then any beast of the field clandestinas aucupatur consultationes contra iustitiam et pacem Brunus hee putteth the snare of the hunter to ouerthrow all righteous peace with noysome pestilence This is the man which will bee more wise then God his meaning is otherwise then God meant Hee will match especialy Genes 12.7 26.3 with the Princes daughters of the Philistines whom the Lord did purpose to root out In these coherences hee pretendeth peace with all men A peaceable man is Esau hee will haue peace with all the world It was then with him as it was long after with the Arrians and other succeeding Hererikes in their subtill contriuements iust as it is now with the Romanists when their shew is best their intent is worst But all this great hast to be great Ose 1.7 was without good speed and all his confidence in the flesh of mans arme is vaine for he cannot hold that inheritance by bow or sword or battell or horses horse-men or kins-men whose tenure was not of the willer not runner Rom 9.16 but of the mercy of God Much like to this was Salomons seducement miscarried with worldly wisdome to confidence in carnall power He concludeth matches with his Aegyptian neighbors Moab Ammon Edom Zidon and Heth and yet his great sonne and heire for all his fathers cunning 3 Reg. 11 lost tenne Tribes at once of his owne kingdome What saith Roboam after the extinction of his father 3 Reg. 12 what My little finger shall bee greater then my fathers loines O Roboam by mee Kings reigne but the armes of the wicked shall be broken Psalm 37.17 Afterward when Salomon slept with his fathers Roboam had a smarting feeling of Gods power in the proofe of Ahijah his Prophesie 3 Reg. 11 For as the Prophet caught hold on the new garment on Ieroboams backe or his owne and rent it off in twelue peeces so Roboams new kingdome was rent from his Scepter and none followed the house of Dauid but the Tribe of Iudah only Had not he cause to cry out as he fled to Ierusalem for feare crucior bolum tantum mihi esse ereptum tam subito è faucibus I am troubled out of measure Psal 119.137 to see my meat in spite of my teeth to fall out of my mouth and my selfe vnable to with-hold it but iust art thou O God and iust are thy iudgements And thus it doth often prooue with them which make their reckoning without God as Mauritius did the cast of their anchor is preuented their treasures are but coales and their nuts but shelles Psalm 146 both their pleasures and profits are cut short of their accounts Therefore trust not in Princes nor in any sonne of man for there is no helpe in him Thinke then if it be thus that those malepert confederacies of surly Esau with Infidels both against faith and good manners were as pricking thornes to Isaac and Rebekah Ge. 26.34.35 But Isaac after many tedious daies of his wearisome pilgrimage his eies beeing dimme expecteth his end and to set his house in order before hee die he disposeth himselfe to his last will and testament He knowing also that Esau was numerous in children Zeno. and cunning in his plots and that Iacob was both childlesse and wifelesse and plain he doth fully purpose to bequeath the great predominancy to the elder brother Make me sauoury meat such as I loue and bring it to mee that I may eate Gen. 27.4 and that my soule may blesse thee before I die By these thoughts of Isaac we may perceiue that God seeth not as man seeth ante pedes only for man purposeth and God disposeth All is Gods to dispose or transpose at his pleasure as he tranlsated the Egyptian riches to the Israelites hands I. Osorius that they might handle them better You know that when Iaacob was to blesse his sonne Iosephs two sonnes so that his right hand was vpon the yonger sonne and his left hand on the elder incongrua videbatur illa manuum impositio Iosepho ignaro prouidentiae Dei that imposition of hands which was orderred by Gods prouidence looked like an iniurious fact to Ioseph not beeing at that time acquainted with Gods purpose Ioseph did thinke his aged father was in feeblenesse and error Gen. 48.17 Iunilius and would haue changed his hands Surely a good man was Ioseph and a Prophet but not alwaies enlightened alike with the spirit of prophesie nor for all things therefore his father beeing better guided with a superior degree of light at that time continueth his blessing and createth Ephraim the son of his right hand Gen. 48.19 So that as then the primacy was giuen to the younger brother Prouidentia Dei est ordinatio aptorum mediorum ad finem contrary to the fathers desire the Lord ruling the lots thus must it now be by the disposition of the same power And now it is plaine that Esau hath met with his match hee is wily for himselfe but God is of counsell with Iaacob Looke vpon the contriuement Esau is sent on hunting whiles Iaacob taketh the prey coruum delusit hiantem and is instauled into the blessing Heere let Esau complaine that hee hath waried himself in the waies of wickednesse drawing out the cords of vanitie Quid nisi victis dolor Esay 59.5 Luke 5.5 and weauing the Spiders web and at length is become as the fishers which labored all night and caught nothing In a word these words of my text lap in the reason of inducement to Isaac to doe that which he meant not to haue done The Lord is such a considerate and powerfull agent in the businesse
tonitrua quibus coloni in aruis affliguntur ita è co dibus malorum parentum euoluuntur pssimi filij suis vicini◠cruente infesti nor washed nor saulted c. Good tutors and teachers should performe the offices of good mid-wifes to your children these to helpe them in their generation those to further them in their regeneration This is the cause that there are among vs so many young Amorites and Hittites for want of holy education Amorites and Hittites a bitter people cruell rebels yet pratlers which dare so vaunt themselues that they are euen an astonishement vnto vs. But may I bee so bold heere to aske another question What are such parents better then Tantalus Cambyses or Lysimachus One of them killed his sonne of pride another of furie and the third of foolish loue The popish father is right as Lysimachus who by the cursed perswasion of a cruell step-mother killed his sonne his valiant sonne Agathocles Haud ero securus dum sit tibi tanta securis O Nouerca Roma thou hast intised many a father to murder his owne child and many children to reuolt from God a tender hearted father Papa caput est ecclesiae vt caminus est Domi in se fumos Jesuiticos recipiens et effundens vt enecet Ier 39.3 Apoc. 18 Deut. 13 Deut. 18 and the true Church a most louing mother Yes by thy instigations as the stings of the Hornet thou hast set to worke many a Ragmag and Neregall These as a close couered candle haue secretly kindled fire vpon christian States to melt and dissolue all holy gouernment Ah thou hast imployed Ragmag and Neregall with all the rest of the Princes of the King of Babell to teare off the life or religion or peace or all from Ierusalem O Nouerca Roma Queene mother thou saiest thou art a Queene but thou art a dreamer a deceiuer a charmer a regarder of times a counsellour with euill spirits a step-mother as those Lurida terribiles miscent aconita Nouercae alwaies tampring with poyson for Gods children Menander Did not the Poet dreame of thee in those words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There is not a worse mischiefe then a wicked step-mother Per ea quae sunt placida suadēt foeda 3 Reg. 18.4 4 Reg. 11.1 Quae dedit infidus mella venena puto Let thy sisters either Phaedra or Medea be thy Iudges how thou hast raged against Kings children or thinke of them of whom thou art more certaine in holie writte how thy sisters Iesabel and Athaliah shall rise against hee in the great day for killing the Prophets and the Kings linage Thus died the mild French King before thus followed the puifant French King after and both died of their mothers knife If then the sunne haue reueiled this way of a Serpent vnder a stone is not Rome hasharsheol a Wolfes house Vbi cascus cascam duxit and your good mother a bloud-sucker You tell vs daily that your father is holy his name is holinesse but your mother is a murtherer De Papa quam plurims quod de hircosis dicunt quo redolentioribus sese odoramentis fumigauerint eo tetrius olent hyrcum Ita pater iste mendax quo sacratioris titul◠laruam iudueril eo gra uiorem expirat mephitim eius fallacitas and therefore we thinke your fathers holinesse is to blame The Diuell hath a wide circle compassing the earth and that Strix of Rome is angry as the Bore which whets his teech because his circuit is not as large as the Diuels Who seeth not also that Satan and his holinesse are agreed to marke all with their blacke cole and brand them for Heretikes which blesse themselues with Gods blessing out of their reach Therefore to requite the Popes kindnesse I dare presume to take a little more roome to wrastle one fall with his holinesse for the wrong done to this name of holinesse I know well that the Popes solliciters haue much confidence in their Champion as the Philistines had in Goliah yet must hee needes fall which will stand on his tiptoes vaunting himselfe against Gods cause as hee did and more blasphemous then Rabshakeh arrogate to himselfe the Title which is proper to God This name of God the type of his incomparable perfection Exod. 28. was engrauen onely in gold the golden letters beeing as the letters of a seale to signifie him who onely by himselfe is of himselfe It was his proper name which being holinesse it selfe is able to make others holy God is more able to make Aaron holy then fire is able to make the mettall hot or the sunne able to infuse his heat into the day both these creatures may be restrained by God but the Creator by none God can with hold the naturall powers from the strongest Exod. 3. Iob. 40.4 and the fairest so that the fire shall not burne in the bush nor the sunne shine in Egypt God can illuminate man with the light of life and none can forbid it Canst thou restraine the sweet influence of the Pleiades or loose the bands of Orion hath man an arme like God Shall then challenge of equalitie with God in his matchlesse name be made by a weake and sinnefull man whose foundation is dust and his daies vanitie Some of the learned thinke it was the ineffable name of God which was engrauen on the plate of gold and so they write of the opinion of some of the Rabbines which being granted then the name there written cannot bee the Popes What if Aaron did beare this name in the Myter vpon his fore-head yet was it borne not as Aarons owne name but his Master his name whom Aaron serued as it is written Holinesse to the Lord. Let mee yeeld as much vantage as a wrastler may and lend the Pope that hold of an ancient father S. Hierom. Exod. 28.38 Totam Pontificis pulchritudinem Dei vocabulum coronet protegat But why so that Aaron may beare the iniquitie of the offerings c. This is plaine which was in speciall commanded for Aaron and none other wherein he was the singular type of Christ and of none other who onely could take away the sinnes of the world and none other Ioh. 1 2. Cor. 5.18 Ibidem to reconcile the people to God We poore Ministers haue the ministerie of reconciliation giuen vnto vs but none are reconciled to God but by Iesus Christ for God was in Christ reconciled the world to himselfe And he which hath the highest place in the ministration must be holy but he cannot be Holinesse he must be true but he cannot be the Truth these are Gods preheminences Therefore is this name Gods onely and properly Quarto modo to signifie that soueraigntie which is aboue the Popes capacitie But what needeth this attempt will some say to cast him downe who hath so often cast himselfe downe like a blinde man who cannot see or a drunken man which
increase and multiply you and establish my couenant with you A most happie performance that now we haue hope for feare truth for doubt righteousnesse for iniustice peace for warre right heires for wrong as firre trees for thorns Esay 55.13 and mirrhe trees for nettles Now are our fairest riuers in the South the faire streames turned hither in righteousnesse with ioy and honour to themselues and all iust men Lord thou hast turned our captiuitie as riuers in the South How did the ioyes of good subiects hearts sparkle out at their eies attending to the Kings comming as the Angel of the Lord to leade his people The King came first and his Angel came after as the hawke doth flie by thy wisdome Iob. 39.29 stretching out his wings towards the South It is written of the South-winde that his originall is in the North but when he passeth the coasts of the Zodiacke towards the South there to meet the sunne as the sole Lord of all those beautifull passages then is he whot and moist and yeeldeth power to all the nurseries of Nature to worke from the worme that creepeth to the bird which flieth If I doe not mistake the likenesse this is a likely president of the faire arriuall here of the King and the Kings sonne to the gladnesse of Nature and Art and Grace and to the common solace of poore and rich both naked wormes and feathered fowles Now all true subiects eased of all their feares may sing vnder their owne vines Loe how our clothes are warme Iob. 37.17 when he maketh the earth quiet through the South winde In what corners are those to be found which doe not reioyce in this ioy Henrie Prince of Wales is our Meridian field richly mantled with pleasant varieties of high honours His Father Apollo the King hath watered him his excellent father his God his high father hath increased him in holy infusions of grace and rich ornaments of the purest Discipline Now is the Prince his Court more seemely to behold then the bankes of the Muses all bright and famous with faire fountaines of knowledge all garnished as a mellifluous garden where many Bees doe gather hony vnder the Master Bee Lord of the soyle Behold the smell of my sonne is as the smell of a field Some write of the magnanimous aduentures of the Holy Land Mantuan Sotterus Eusebius Faber some of the spatious propagation of the Gospel through Ethiopia Egypt India and Grecia in the time of the Apostles some of the wide spreading of the triumphant banner of Iesus Christ in these latter times among the Arabians Persians and Indians but who can write wherefore God hath giuen such iudgements to the King and such righteousnesse to the Kings sonne Psal 72. this were worth the Penne of a ready writer This wee all ought to doe to offer vp our hands and hearts and all our aid to the King and the Kings sonne The Gospel is yet in bondage in our neighbour countries and states remote and there is no Prince in the world of more assurance for Gods assistance Psal 144.1 to teach his hands to warre and his fingers to fight There is none more likely to helpe by the smell of his field all zealous pietie and resolute integritie that euery confident heart may say to him who knoweth whether thou art come to the kingdome for such a time In my weake meditations I haue found that God hath fowen his diuers kinds of seeds in three sundry fields in Paradise in the wide World and in the soule of man In Paradise a pure man in the world a pure word and in the soule of man pure seedes of grace In Paradise the first man Adam was made a liuing soule 1. Cor. 15.45 without hang-bies of originall sinne or in-bred hostilities of strong preuaile Therefore the complaint of mans fall is two-fold one against mans securitie the other against the Serpents enuie whilest Adam slept the enuious man sowed tares Matth. 13. Thus was man corrupt both within and without in his body and his soule when the pure Adam receiued in the impure sting of sinne as Ishbosheth liuing receiued in his sleepe his deaths wound 2. Sam. 4.6 Man did not continue in honour but became like vnto the beasts which perish Psal 49.12 In the second field the Lord hath bestowed his liuely word of which the great sower saith himselfe For this cause was I borne Ioh. 18.37 Esay 1.9 Rom. 9.29 and for this cause came I into the world Therefore well may we say Except the Lord had reserued seed for vs wee had beene as Sodome and like to Gomorrha Here then among many indifferent questions of the Astrologers I reioyce much in this one to know where is the best influence of the heauens Many men haue many opinions and if it may please you to accept mine among them all I thinke the best is there where is a most plentifull prosemination of the word of God This is the sacred aspersion wherewith the most parts of our nation is copiously sprinckled Therefore Iacob shall reioyce and Israel shall be glad Psalme 14.7 This was the pleasant meate and drinke wherewith the King of the Prophets did cheere vp the hearts of his friends and his owne he shewed his word vnto Iacob his statutes and his iudgements vnto Israel he hath not dealt so with euery nation Psa 147 19 20 all people haue not had such wholesome influence This was Ecclesiae gloria circumfluens vbertim mala superans Pellican the satiable riches of the Church Thus the mercy and kindnesse of the Lord doth follow vs hee maketh our cuppe to ouerflowe Yea this blessed influence filleth innumerable orchards full of figge-trees Christian consciences full of the fauours delights of God The word of God is a fig tree worth keeping and tending where we haue our daily nutriment and comfort Prou. 27.8 For he which keepeth the figge-tree shall eate the fruit thereof But shall I speake what I haue heard from the clamours of the wisdome of the world That this great allowance of the word of God is abundant and superfluous To such I haue offered a bold some will say a blinde answere That their wisedom is the sooles bable which hath said in his heart There is no God Psal 14.1 Excellentia regiminis Christiani non est ex opinatione politica sed ex ordinatione dominica dirigenda Jac. de Valen. Aqua nobilis ex frigore saepe gelatur There are too many wise men of the West which hold opinion of common preaching as some Philosophers doe of the light about the Southerne pole That as by the absence of the Sunne there the aire is not hindred in his light so by the want of ordinary preaching religion is not darkened in her beautie Circa polum Australem per absentiam solis non defieit lumen conueniens ad vitam felicem Indeed some to compare