blame men for so doing seeing blood defileth a land Acts. 28.3 and bringeth a curse upon the earth The poor barbarous Islanders of Melita who had nothing to guid them but the light of nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were perswaded that vengeance pursued Murderers both by sea and land And now lest any should think God favours those Murderers who by flight escape the hand of the Magistrate and keep from the axe and the halter let them but seriously reflect upon Cain's case and then they will be brought to understand that the Lord can sufficiently punish a murderer though he suffers him long to live upon earth and exempts him form a bloody death That God who afterward so solemenly said Gen. 9.6 Who so sheddeth man's blood by man shall his blood be shed and commanded that no satisfaction should be taken by the Magistrate Num. 35.31 for the life of a Murderer That God I say did let Cain live after his murther for the which may be given these two reasons First For the paucity of Mankind Had Cain died for his fact by the hand of men Adam must have been his Executioner But though the Devill sets one brother to kill another yet God doth not set the father to kill the sonne much less the sonne to kill the father the servant to kill the Master or the subject to kil the King Though it pleased the Devill that wicked Cain should kill righteous Abell yet it pleased not God that father Adam should kill wicked Cain secondly Therefore is Cain delivered from exemplary death because he is marked out and designed for eternall vengeance So farre is his security from safety and his reprieve from mercy that it is a dreadfull judgment and a sore severity And it had been well for some murderers that they had not escaped so well in this world as they have done It had doubtless been much better for their famillies and posterity in this world and it might have been better with themselves in the next Deliver us from blood-guiltyness O God and let the blood of thy Sonne Jesus Christ appear for us in thy sight And hear thou that speaking better things than that of Abell Tumultuous Resolutions tend not to Edification Gen. 11. WItness the story of the Bable-Builders who pretending to be wiser than their forefathers devised a way how to be above all mischances By building a City and a Tower whose top should reach to Heaven This was a conceit above the Moon though the work came farre short of it Oh how people please themselves with a strong conceit of going to Heaven a new way which none ever went before them A fool's paradise is his own invention But the multitude go the wrong way It must be a prodigious unlucky Building where every one is a master-workman and the defign to top God in his throne He that sits in Heaven laughs such projectors to scorn and hath such politicians in derision Go to said they let us found and build up Go to said God let us go down and confound The people were all then of one mind and God scatter'd them by making them of many Languages God then made the people of many Languages to hinder the building of Babel But now the Devil hath made the people of as many or more opinions to help Babel forward And as they of old misunderstanding one another brought brick for mortar a hammer in stead of a trowell and fire in stead of water so men now mistake rudeness for Religion Religion for superstition madness for Christian zeal prophaneness for wit and ruine for reformation Pretending to sink Babylon to the pit of hell they have cryed up Babel to the Heavens by setting their mouths wide open against the Church of God saying Down with it down with it even to the groud Church-Men Church-habits THe words of the Lord to Moses for this putpose are these Exod. 28.2 And thou shalt make holy garments for Aaron thy brother for glory and for Beauty Moses as Prince by God's appointment was to put Aaron and his sons and the Levites into their distinct Canonicall habits according to the respective dignity of their Persons and places Which ornaments and Vestments they were enjoyned upon pain of Death to have upon them when they came in unto the Tabernacle of the Congregation or ministred in the holy place As appear's in the last verse of that Chapter I know not how it came to pass but so it was that a Priestly Habit in Divine Worship and Sacred Administrations hath been had in as much Disgrace amongst Christians as ever it was had in Reverence amongst the Jews God made it as much as their lives were worth for the Priests in the Law to minister without their peculiar Habit And Men made it as much as their lives were worth for the Priests to minister in their Ecclesiasticall Habits in the time of the Gospell Yea there have been some who pretended that the Clericall Vestments debilitated the Pastours parts srustrated the graces of the Spirit and hazarded the soules of the flock And whereas God enjoyned his Priests of old to have robes for Glory and for Beauty they would not allow his houshold-servants the use of those garments which God's vicegerents had enjoyned them for uniformity and for deceney They put scorn contempt and opprobious terms both upon the things and Persons according to the foolish invention of their giddy brains An Episcocall Habit was they said the Livery of Antichrist and the Surplice the Smock of of the whore of Babylon Surely these people had forgotten that God was the instituter of the first Mitre and the Linnen Ephod They considered not how in respect of their use though not for their first Principles whereof they are made even garments appropriate unto Persons in Holy Orders are called Holy and that by God's example It is too gross too carnall and too rude for men and women who pretend to more than an ordinary illumination to pick a hole in the Priest's Coat about the externall form and figure to think that a Hood makes a Monk or a Mitre an Antichrist or that the Mysticall Whore of Babylon is circumscribed within a materiall small Linnen Ephod I would not have the female Sex such as are called Holy Sisters of all things quarrell with clean Linnen lest they bring themselves whthin the compass of the Cotholick Inquisition for sluttery Let them hate the garments spotted with the flesh As for Surplices howsoever they have been contrived and used by them since their dear sacreligious brethren stole them from the Church and brought them to their hands they were never formerly the Smock of a Whore It is possible since they converted them to their own use they may properly so be called For Thieves and Harlots go hand in hand together in the World as Publcans and Sinners go in the Gospell It is a pitifull thing I mean quarrell when people fall out with their Ministers
was best at the first IN the Creation there was a positive goodness in each individuall creature and a superlative excellency in the universe The most incomparable Maker being both the fountain of goodness and the God of order it was impossible for him to erre either in the matter of forme of the works of his hands As his holy will and good pleasure gave all things their being so his infallible judgement gave them his approbation And God saw every thing that he had made Gen. 1. last And behold it was very good It is cleer then that the evill weeds sinnes and mischiefs which have overrun the world were never created in the garden of Eden nor of the Lord 's planting or watering Though it be not in the power of man to makethat straight which God hath made crooked yet man made that crooked which God once made straight Though man cannot bring a clean thing out of an unclean yet into a clean world he brought uncleaness The nocivous qualities of Beasts serpents flying creatures creeping things and mortiferous plants wherewith at this day the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve are vexed and annoyed are as well the just reward of our particular unjust doings as the true fruit of the forbidden fruit eaten by our first parents And how can we find fault with the Brutes and vegetables seeing the fault is in our selves Their present evil nature is but from our voluntary sin and for our necessary punishment Their rebellion and disobedience against us is an evidence of their obedience to and our disobedience against our Maker Well may a Lion or a Bear destroy and devour a Man seeing one Man is become a Wolf to another The worst of creatures as wee account them have still this goodness and Excellency in them which in us would be a piece of perfection that they willnot take part with the wicked nor love them that hate the Lord. And this may be said for them which cannot speak for themselves that as Brutes have their cruelty by occasion of Man's fall so they do but act savage and brutish parts after our example For for ought that appears to the contrary before ever a Lion slew a Lamb Cain killed his brother Abel And whereas beasts of prey go single to their work men go to shed one another's blood by hundreds and by thousands Thus now is the world alter'd from what God made it God looked upon all his labours and the works of his hands And behold all was very good But Solomon looked upon all his works and labours And behold all was evil Behold All was vanity and vexation of spirit Eccles 2.11 The Lord looked down from heaven to see if there were any amongst the children of men but found none good amongst them Ps 14. O then let the sons of men look down upon themselves and repent and look up to God for mercy before he comes down upon them in judgement when he shall try the world by consuming fire For surely As God took an exact view of all his own works so he will take knowledge of ours And therefore as He takes notice of all that he had made and done for his own glory and our good so let us take notice of all that we have made and done to God's dishonour and our own hurt Let us judg our selves that we may not be judged And let us pray that we may be chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned of the world The Devil's Masterpiece THe Woman which thou gavest to be with she gave me and I did eat Gen. 2.12 13. said Adam the serpent beguiled mee and I did eat said Eve The Devil deluded the woman and by the woman seduced the man All this is truth yet no party is to be excused The woman is justly blamed and punished by God for harkening to the voice of the serpent And the man for harkening to the voice of his wife This is all they got by extenuating their fault and transferring the guilt from one to another The man had the Commandment immediately from God the woman mediately from God by her husband And yet as Tho. Aquinas observes Mulier plùs peccavit quià graviùs punita The woman sinned more than the man because she was more punished And why so It is a greater sin to disobey the voice of a man than to resist the voice of God No but yet where God speaks by a deputy the crime is doubled in the party peccant it being a greater sin to resist two than one The more bonds the stronger And a manifold cord cannot lightly be broken This lesson well digested may teach each wife each servant and each subject so much fidelity obedience and Loyalty that the Serpent shall not get the upper hand in the world so much as he hath done The devil still danceth the beginning of the world As he began sO he goes on He makes use of those means to supplant Mankind which by experience he hath found effectuall And great need have men of care and prudence against such an Adversary as is able to corrupt the best institutions The sacred union of Adam and Eve made two of one and again one of two being a representative of the High Mystery of Christ's Church taking life and Being from the blessed wounds of his pierced side that sacred union I say the old Serpent the Devil corrupted early wounding Adam through Eve and so making his entrance at the weakest part of the City We may say of this Grand Homicide as the Scripture phrase speaks of deadly Execution that Satan pretending kindness and speaking quietly smote Adam under the fifth Rib so that he died 2 Sam. 3.27 He smote him under that rib which God took from out his side and formed into a meet second and gave him for his proper help and collaterall security And who could be so unhappily instrumentall to betray the man as she that so lately came from about his heart and had her residence in is bosome some O how are the mighty fallen thus the philistins out-witted Samson Jud. 14.18 by ploughing with his heifer And having made Delihah on their side they put out his eyes and brough him into fetters Jud. 16.21 And as the Devil made choice of an apt instrument so he propounds taking overtures to make them both wiser and better than God had made them And withall he blames God to the woman for not dealing so well with Adam and her as he might have done Therein by a manifest contradiction giving God the lie For God said In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die The Devil said Ye shall not surely die For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil The Devil knows now by long experience that women are frequent and violent Sollicitrixes of their husbands to Covetousness
as the sons of Jacob did with their brother Joseph who hated him for the singular love their father bare him Gen. 37.3 4 and for the peculiar Coat he put upon him And therefore could not speak peaceably unto him This is a strain beyond the malice and spite of Presbiterian Corah or Independent Dathan and Abiram though tending to the like effect through the garments to wound the function and together with Aaron's Mitre to throw down Moses Scepter Good Saints surely they are that deal with the Priests of the Lord as the Thieves dealt with the Traveller between Jerusalem and Jericho who stripped him of his raiment Lu. 10.30 and wounded him and left him half dead And if the injury done to the Ministers of Christ and their contempt and scorn be done to Christ himself Lu 10.16 Act. 9.5 as all who have the faith of Christ must believe than as the Church once in the Person of Christ spake concerning those barbarous souldiers so Christ again in the person of his Church may say of souldiers as bad They parted my garments amongst them and for Vesture they cast lots And God deliver us from unreasonable men in whose eyes our very Coats though honourable make us criminall It is a sad time when violence is preferred before science when passion overrules reason and the sword strikes against the Gown Even common reason and generall civil practise will afford distinct professiions their respective differentiall Habits And shall not the Church have leave to rule her children in their garbs and services Did Christ promise to send his Holy Spirit upon his Church Jo. 14.26 and to lead Her into all necessary truth and knowledge And hath he not allowed her so much discretion as to clad her children To appoint her inward Attendants their Habits and Liveries both for working dayes and Holy dayes We see when any fault is espyed in a Minister he is presently checked by his Coat that a Man in his Coat should do so And indeed God Almighty did upbraid Eli for his indulgence to his sons in their sins by the Linnen Ephod 1. Sam. 2.28 If then the sin of the Priest be aggravated by his Priestly garments then the garment serves to put the Priest in mind that he ought to be clothed with righteousness Again if the sin of the Priest is the greater for his Coat then their sin must be the greater allo who do wrong to him that wear's that holy garment And so much is to be gathered from the black deed of Doeg the Edomite which is heightened by this circumstance that he slew fourscore and five persons 1 Sam. 22.18 that did wear a Linnen Ephod The white and outward garment I hope I may say without offence is Angelicall Mark 9.3 Jo. 20.12 Revel 1.13 it is coelestiall So Christ appeared at his transfiguration So the Angels appeared at Christ's resurrection And Christ appeared unto St John in a Priestly habit Seeing God and Angels honour this Priestly habit how can wretched man despite it Seeing they are pleased to appear thus to men why should the Ministers of God disdain to appear in like habit in the presence of God and in the face of his Congregation The Ministers of God in a qualified sence are Angels that is the Messengers of the Lord. And wee all hope to be as Angels of God in heaven Why then should we be afraid to be like them in this also here upon earth Rev. 19.8 Clean Linnen is in a mysticall sense the righteousness of the Saints then let no man wickedly stain it neither let any man maliciously strain it to make it otherwise And if any would know how to reconcile black and white in the ministeriall habit let them take it thus The black becomes us as Mourners whose Lord and Master is for a while gone from us and as more than ordinary Mourners who besides our own sins and miseries have the sins and miseries of the World to lament and bewail The black shew's what our present condition here is in re indeed and at hand The which shew's what we are in spe in hope and what we shall be hereafter In this World we must have our black and white and most commonly black untill we shall be clothed upon with immortality In the mean time our tribulation worketh patience our patience hope our hope perseverance and that will bring the Crown Contraria juxtase posita magìs elucescunt Thus black and white are reconciled Thus contrary things do set off and beautifie one another Thus all things work together for good to them that fear God It hath been the the constant practise of the Church of God in all ages to have peculiar habits wherein to officiate in holy things Euseb l. 3. cap. 28. And it hath ever been accounted scandalous for Persons in holy orders to transgress this practise St John did wear the Priestly Habit called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Policrates Bishop of Ephesus in his Epistle to Victor Bishop of Rome doth witness And Eustathius Bishop of Sebastia in Armenia was condemned and deposed by the Councell at Gangra for casting off his proper habit and putting himself into the garb of the philosophers for putting his follwers likewise into a new habit Socr. scho lib. 2. cap. 33. for countenancing and encouraging Conventicles and for taking servants from the command of their Mastrs under the colour of Religion As also for crossing the Church inobservation of times abolishing the fasts of the Church and prescribing to his followers to fast on Sundays By whichit appearts the unlucky man was unlike his Name for that carried constancy and stability in it But he had nothing less in himself And it would be noted that when Men begin to waver and vary from the Church but in some outward things they do not stay there but fall into pernicious Principles and practises God grant there may not now be found in the Church of God Bishops of Eustathius his temper to the Countenancing of Separatists to the disquiet of the Church and to the hinderance of piety and of Churstian amity For as Plato told his young man though it be no great fault to play yet it is a great fault much to use it So A custome in disagreement though but in small matters will in the end prove no small matter Gehazi's Leprosie worse than Naamans 2 Kings 5. NAaman the famous Generall of the King of Syria's Army had an inbred Enemy which he could neither flee nor chase and that was his Leprosie For which he is advised by his captive Maid to repair to the prophet Elisha He is forthwith sent with the Letters Commendatory or rather Mandatory of the King of Syria to the King of Israel And he comes as though he had come to Court to trade with some Malefactors near the King some Merchants of the Church and State to buy places For he brings ten Talents of
Silver ten thousand Pieces of Gold and ten Changes of Reyment Were he now alive and in that condition and equipage I could direct him to those who though they could not ease him of his trouble wonld soon lighten him of his carriage For though Miracles are now ceased yet mischief is rife And Gehazi's are plentifull though Elisha's are lcarce No man could blame Naaman for valuing his life and the good of his posterity Job 2.4 The Devil knew Skin for skin and all that a man hath will he give for his life The Prophet bids him wash in Jordan Baptisme cleanseth the Leprosie of sin The Syrian at the motion hath two Diseases for one Before he was a Leper now both a Leper and a mad Man He came not thither to fetch fire and he thinks he need not come so farre for water Abanah and Pharphar in his judgement are better than all the waters in Israel But the sick Patient must observe not prescribe to himself and the hearer must not be his own teacher That is best for our spirituall Diseases which God prescribeth to us by his lawfull Doctors It sometimes happens that the servants are wiser than their Masters so was it now with Naaman They told him it was but to wash and that he would have done a great thing to be healed had it been enjoyned him and why then will he not do a small The Jews were enjoyned to cut their childrens skin and let out part of their blood in circumcision and they punctually observed it But among us many despise to bring their children to the sacred fountain they will not submit to wash and be clean But Naaman better considering goes to Jordan and washeth and is made as cleer as a Child And behold a Change as well of his conditions as of his complexion He thinks now he cannot express too much gratitude to the Prophet He returnes with all his retinue He professeth himself a servant to the Prophet and to the God of the Prophet He gives glory to the Lord and thanks to the Prophet He offers rich present and urges it upon the Prophet but he refused it as heartily As the Lord liveth saith he I will receive none Elisha was a pious and a cordiall man It is a good thing to hear men speak soundly and earnestly And a better to see them doe as they speak He was not like the late race of false Prophets whom some called Tryers perhaps for that they were the Touchstones of Gold and Silver who being much intreated verily and truly and really and I profess had an hundred feigned words fair pretences and zealous scruples in publick but would readily take and swallow as many pieces in private Naà man having taken his leave of Elisha was gon in peace when Gehazi Elisha's man is mad at his Master and thinks his Master-mad for refusing the rich present My Master hath spared this Naaman the Syrian said he to the Devil and himself but as the Lord liveth I will run after him and take somewhat of him Thus many times the Apothecaries bill is dearer than the Doctor But what had Gehazi done to deserve of Naaman Nothing And therefore he frames a lie in his Masters name on the behalf of two young sons of the Prophets The Honourable Elishas have too many such cursed servants and the poor sons of the Prophets have too many such Back friends as Gehazi who pretend the good of the Church but rend and scrape all to themselves And this makes their Masters so generally odious and the sons of the Prophets so needy and beggerly The noble Syrian glad of any opportunity to gratify Elisha gives the villain Gehazi more than he desired two Talents of Silver and two changes of rayment and two men he was no less worthy to bear the burthen of his iniquity for him till he came at home And now he wipes his mouth after his lie and makes it fit for another and comes and stands before his Master like a Saint of the last edition Thy servant went no whither But the Prophet who had a blessing for an honest stranger had a curse for a servant that took bribes Gehazi with his two Talents of Silver and two changes of rayment hath purchased Naaman's Leprosie and made it sure to himself and to his heirs for ever Not all the water of Jordan could wash away Gehazi's Disease nor can all the water of the Sea wash away bribery and the guilt of extortion That individuall 〈◊〉 is dead but he lives still in an aequivocall generation of Harpies the Palms of whose hands are lined with pitch and every finger is an aduncous tenter-hook As Gehazi did so do they make use of God's Name but take money in the Devil 's Gehazi would not spare Naaman and they will spare no man Whosoever comes within their reach As the Lord lives they will take something of him Oh for one of Domitian's fly-flaps to kill the Maggot-flies of State which Trajan spake of A Vespasian-squeese would do well with such hollow spunges Bribery and oppression is a deadly Leprosie overspreading Kingdomes and it cleaves to some great Offices and to their seed for ever Evagrius reports that Justinus the Emperour deposed Anastasius Lib. 5. n. 5. the godly Bishop of Antioch because he refused his simoniacall propositions and that Justinus soon after falling into a frenzy his fellow Emperour Tiberius took the whole Government to whom Justinus said pointing with his finger to his corrupt Officers Never be ruled by these men Lib. 5. cap. 12. for they have brought me into this misery And Tiberius took his Councell being a man well inclined He publikely declared that he looked upon that gold which is gotten by the tears of the Commonalty as upon Counterfeit Coin By which account of his They who exact and take bribes are worthy to suffer as Traytours to the King God send great Persons and double Portion of the spirit of Elisha And as for those who are of Gehazi's base mind may they never have silver nor changes of rayment untill they be cleansed from their dearly beloved Leprosie No new thing under the Sun Eccl. 1.9 SO saith Solomon And he was a wise man A great Philosopher and a great Divine And well hath he said No new thing under the Sun because things subject to mutation are every minute growing old untill at last they be no more The state of Glory and blest Eternity is above the brightness of the Sun Ps 102.26 2. Pet. 3.10 and the starry Heavens come farre short of it They wax old as doth a garment And they shall pass away There is indeed a day of renovation coming when He who of old made out of nothing all new things in the world shall out of a ruin'd old world worse than nothing make all things new Rev. 21.5 But this will be a work above the Sun And this will be for ever and ever But untill then there is