be said But seeing the pressing of Obedience will avail little with the Rebellious if the fear of Gods judgements and the punishments of him that beareth not the Sword in vain doth not terrisie them from disobedience for such is the frowardness of mans nature that he would never fear God if he thought God consisted all of mercy and were not as just as He is merciful Therefore as you heard how necessary is obedience so I intend by Gods help to shew you the just judgement of God and the punishment of the Rebellious and disobedient upon the words that you shall find in 2 Kings 9.31 Had Zimri peace that slue his Master The last Sermon that I Preached in this City was on the Day of our Humiliation for the unnatural Rebellion and the monstrous Murder of our late most gracious King Charles the First And that work I then told mine Auditors I knew not how to do it in any better way than by paralleling the transcendent murder of Jesus Christ by those wicked Jews that crucified him which was their true and lawful King with that late unnatural murder that our English-Jews have committed upon their own just and lawful King Charles the First and that parallel I then prosecuted à capite ad calcem And this Text that I have now read unto you seems to be a Question demanding What became of one and what should become of all others wicked murderers that like him and like the other two sorts of Jews should kill both their King and their Master And the words are a Speech made at the entrance of a brave Conquerer into a famous City that is of Jehu into Jezreel A custom very often used amongst all Nations to make solemn Speeches at the Inauguration of their Soveraign Kings and Emperours or when any Noble Person cometh to any famous City as the University Orator doth it in the Academy and the Recorder in other Cities And so Jezabel makes this Speech unto Jehu assoon as ever he entred into the Gates of Jezreel Had Zimri peace that slew his Master And we do read of two special Zimries in the Book of God and both of them wicked men Numb 25. The first you may read of in the 25th of Numbers where you may see 1. How that Israel contrary to the Command of God joyned himself to Baal-Peor and that one Zimri a Prince of a chief House among the Simeonites brought unto his brethren a Midianitish woman named Cozbi the daughter of Zur that was Head over a people and of a chief House in Midian 2. How that for this transgression of God's Command the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel so that he said unto Moses Take all the heads of the people and hang them up before the Lord against the Sun that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel And Moses said unto the Judges of Israel Slay ye every one his men that were joyned to Baal-Peor And so they did that there were slain 24. thousand men 3. How that Phineas the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron the Priest according to the Commandment of the Lord and of Moses took a Javelin in his hand and killed both Zâ—mri and Cozbi and that the Lord was so well pleased therewith that he rewarded him with the covenant of an everlasting Priesthood and stayed the plague from the children of Israel And the Prophet David saith that when the plague was so great among them Psal 106.30 then stood up Phinehas and prayed and so the plague ceased And our Presbyterians that find such fault with our Liturgy do say That we corrupt the Text because in the Original it is said That Phinehas stood up and executed judgement and so the plague ceased But their carping at this without cause hath been fully and sufficiently answered and may be easily and briefly done because he both prayed and executed judgement for the Text tells you plainly That the people were weeping before the door of the Congregation Verse 6 and so praying to God to turn away his anger from them and Phinehas rose from amongst the Congregation and killed them and then the plague ceased To teach us that the only sure way to turn away God's anger and the plagues that we deserve is not only to weep and mourn and be sorry for the wickednesse of the people but we must also execute judgement upon the transgressors Deut. 13.8 and as the Lord often sets it down Thine eye shall not pity them neither shalt thou conceal them but thou shalt surely kill them So shall you put away evil from among you and turn away the judgements of God from you which otherwise must still lie upon you because sins and especially great sins such as are Idolatry Rebellions and Murders and their punishments are so indiss lubly linked together that God seldom or never remits the one without inflicting the other And therefore he would not take away the plague from Israel until judgement was executed upon Zimri and Cozbi And this was the first Zimri that we read of and is not meant here in my Text. 2. 1 Kings 16.9 For the other Zimri you may read of him in 1 Kings 16.9 where you may find 1. How this Zimri conspired against his King and his Master and killed him and slew all the House of Baasha and left not one that pisseth against the wall neither of his kinsfolks nor of his friends 2. How that after this murder of their King and Zimri's possessing the Royal Throne all Israel was divided and most miserably embroyled in Civil Wars when some of them were with Zimri in Tyrza others with Tibni and the rest with Omri 3. What became of this Zimri and his conspirators that have wrought all these Wonders and most tragical Acts to kill their King and all the Kings friends how he went into the Palace of the Kings house and burnt the Kings house over him and died burning himself therein A just judgement of Almighty God against such as would conspire to kill their King And of this Zimri Jezabel demands the Question Had Zimri peace As if she should have said Is it possible that either Zimri or any one of them that conspired with Zimri and had any hand with him in the murder of their King and their Master or that very Kingdom that fostereth any of those murderers should have any peace or settlement or any happiness in the world until justice and judgement be executed upon such transcendent Malefactors For she conceived that as the wrath of God and his plagues were not turned away from Israel until Phinehas stood up and executed judgement upon the other Zimri and Cozbi so this Zimri and the Associates of this Zimri and all the kingdom that abetted him should never have peace nor happiness so long as judgement was unexecuted upon them as the example of Achan and abundance more doth make it plain that the
wicked God cast them off and scattered them among all the Nations of the earth And therefore whether thou beest Jew or Gentile Prince or peasant young or old rich or poor if thou wilt walk in thy wickednesse presume not of any prerogative to exempt thee from Gods judgement for the Lord hath said it and he will perform it There is no peace to no wicked man let him be whom you will But here Object it may be some will object that we are all wicked ergo pax nulli I answer Sol. That indeed we are all wicked and there is none that doth good no not one but that we are not all alike wicked for 1. There are divers kinds of wicked men 2. There are divers differences betwixt the wickednesses of wicked men as 1. There are some that commit wickedness through ignorance others of knowledge and some that commit wickednesse through weaknesse and infirmity and others do offend of malicious wickedness And so there are some wicked men lesse haynous than others both in the sight of God and men And there are others more odious and more transcendently wicked and I conceive that the Prophet principally meaneth Those high abominable sinners have not nor can have any peace such as are Murderers Regicides Rebells Traytors Idolaters Adulterers and the like wicked men and especially if you consider 2. That there is a threefold difference betwixt the sins and wickednesse of the godly that are wicked men and the sins and wickedness of the other abominable wicked sinners whereof the Prophet speaketh as 1. Before they sin 2. When they sin 3. After they sin For 1. 1 Difference The godly purpose not to offend God but do intend to serve him and to keep his Commandments but the wicked do imagine mischief upon their beds their feet are swift to shed blood and they resolve to proceed from one wickednesse to another And as Seneca saith Scelera sua sceleribus tueri To protect and hedge about their wickednesse with greater wickednesse as their lyes with perjuries their malice with murder and their disobedience with rebellion treachery and treasons 2. 2 Difference The godly when they do sin they do it with a great deal of reluctancy and as the Apostle saith the evil that they would not do and what they hate that they do by reason of the frailty and weakness of their flesh and the greatness of their temptation But the wicked sin with greediness and do rejoyce in the works of their hands and make a sport of their sins 3. 3 Difference When the sin is committed the godly are sorry for it and do repent them of it and resolve to do so no more and therefore do pray to God to forgive them what is past and to give them his grace to preserve them from the like but the wicked never repent them of any wickedness that they do nor pray to God for grace to amend them but think they do God good service when they persecute the righteous and destroy his servants And therefore the godly endeavouring to be at peace with all men they are for their part in peace with all men Ephes 4.3 and being justified by the faith which they have in Christ Jesus they have peace towards God and having peace with God and so leading a godly life they have peace with themselves which is the peace of conscience which is a Paradise of pleasure as S. Aug. Aug super Genes terms it and as the Poet saith Audebit dicere Horat. Pentheu Rector Thebarum quid me perferre patique Indignum coges But the wicked whose hands are like Ismaels hands against all men His thought seeth his punishment and his fear overwhelms him with miseries shall have all mens hands against them and being without fear in offending God and without any true faith in Christ they shall have God for their professed enemy and so being at war with God and thirsting after wickednesse they have no rest nor peace but Supplicium exercent curae Statius l. 3. Thebaidos tunc plurima versat Pessimusin dubiis augur timor And so there is no peace to no wicked man especially to these transcendent and resolved irrepentant wicked men Sed bella horrida bella warres warres and rumours of warres And these our warres and preparations for war our fightings and our plundering our oppressions and insupportable taxations and especially this our unnatural rebellion against our own just and pious King and above other horrible wickednesse the barbarous murdering of so just so innocent and so godly a King do sufficiently shew that we are a wicked generation and as this our Prophet saith a sinfull nation a nation laden with iniquity corrupt children and the seed of evill doers that have wholly forsaken the lawes of our God And this our wickednesse vice versa doth as apparantly shew that there is no peace intended for us and that we do but expect peace in vain untill we fully intend to forsake our sins because our sins and wickednesses our unjustice toward men and our prophanenesse in Gods service have made and will make a separation betwixt us and God and how can we hope for peace among men when God proclaimeth warre against us Quia conscientia mala bene sperare non potest Because a conscience guilty of such wickednesse Aug. in Ps 32. as the men of this Nation have committed knowes not how to hope for any good 2. This sheweth that our sins and wickednesse is the cause of all our miseries our sicknesse our wants our warres and of all our troubles Prov. 14.4 for man suffereth for his sins and as Solomon saith Miseros facit populos peccatum It is our sins that make us miserable and therefore if we would be freed from troubles eased of our burdens delivered from these wars and healed from our diseases let us forsake our sins and then God will turn all these evills from us 2. Having heard the particulars of this generall Proclamation 2 The proclaimers of this truth 1. The Prophet we are now to consider of the Proclaimers and they are two 1. The Prophet as Gods Herald and his messenger 2. God himself who is the chief sender forth of this Proclamation for there is no peace 1. The Prophets Apostles and Preachers of Gods word are Gods Heralds to declare his will and to proclaim his Messages unto the people and as one saith very well they are Gods mouth in preaching to the people and therefore they say Os Domini loquutum est the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it and they are the peoples mouth in praying for them unto God even as Mediators betwixt God and the people as Moses saith unto the Israelites I stood between the Lord and you Matth. 23.2.3 to shew unto you the word of the Lord. Which should be a warning to us that as the Apostle saith If any man speak he should speak
that end the Lord gave unto his people the same Law the same Sacraments and the same Gospell that the same God might have the same worship in all places and that his people might believe the same faith use the same prayer receive the same Sacraments and do the same publick service unto God in every City and in every place that so they might attain unto the same end which is the kingdom of heaven And therefore the Reverend Bishops and Governours of Gods Church were so careful herein to preserve the unity of the Church and the uniformity of Gods service that they prescribed the same prayers the same Psalms The set form of prayers and service of God justified 1. By the people of God the same Chapters and the same Service to be used in all Churches that all the world might know we worship the same God And to justifie this their practice of a set form of Prayers and Service of God they have 1. The Precept of God himself saying unto Moses Speak unto Aaron and to his sons saying On this wise ye shall blesse the children of Israel saying unto them The Lord blesse thee and keep thee the Lord make his face to shine upon thee Numb 6.22 and be gracious unto thee the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace and so likewise he prescribeth unto them the very prayer that they should make and the very words that they should use both as they went forth and as they returned home from Battle for when the Ark set forward Moses said Rise up O Lord and let thine enemies be scattered and let them that hate thee flee before thee And when the Ark rested Numb 10.35 he said Return O Lord unto the many thousands of Israel and the Prophet David useth the very same prayer and the same words saying Let God arise Psal 68.1 and let his enemies be scattered let them also that hate him flee before him 2. 2 By the Precept of Christ Luke 12.2 They have the Precept of Christ himself that biddeth us to use that prayer which he taught us saying When ye pray say Our Father which art in heaven c. 3. 3 By the practice of the godly people in the Old Testament They have the practice of the godly people of the Old Testament as you may see the very words that they were to use in Gods service when they offered their first fruits and the very prayer that they were to make in Deut. 26. from the third verse to the tenth and verse 13. And so the very words that the Priests were to use unto the people when they came nigh unto the battle as you may see in Deut. 20.3 And the godly King Hezechias made certain Psalms after his recovery from his sicknesse and saith We will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord Esay 38.20 and when he reformed the service of God that the people had neglected and the wicked Kings had corrupted he prescribed a set form of Gods worship and commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord not as every simple Priest 2 Chro. 29 30. or silly Levite pleased but with the words of David and Asaph the Seer And Mr. Selden in his Notes upon Eutychius sheweth Selden in Eutych pag. 41. dist ad pagin 25. that since Ezra's time when after their return from Babylon the true Service of God was restored the Jews constantly used a set form of Gods worship in all their Synagogues every Synagogue using the same Service 4. They have the practice of all the Saints under the New Testament 4 By the practice of all the Saints under the New Testament Luke 11.1 Matth 26.44 Psal 22.1 as 1. Of John Baptist that taught his disciples a Set form of serving God and a set form of Prayer 2 Of Christ himself that used the same form of prayer and repeated the same words three times together and commanded us to do the like and when he was upon the Crosse he used the very words of the Psalmist changeing onely the Hebrew phrase into the Syriack Dialect 3. Of the Primitive Church as the Lyturgy of Saint James Saint Basil S. Chrysostom and the short Form of serving God which Saint Peter left at Rome and the other which Saint Mark left at Alexandria do sufficiently testifie 4 Of the whole Catholick Church as it appeareth out of Cassander and other Writers of the Lyturgica And Therefore the religious Emperour Constantine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb de vità Const l. 4 c 17. rendered Set Formes of prayers unto the Christians saith Eusebius and his Nobles used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prayers that the Emperour liked and they were all brought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pray the same prayer yea he prescribed a Set Form of Service for his souldiers Idem l. 4. c. 20. as the same Eusebius testifieth And Saint August saith that Sursum corda lift up your hearts are words ab ipsis Apostolorum temporibus petita used in the Church of Christ even from the very times of the Apostles and are agreeable to the Constitutions of the Apostles L. 8. c. 16. 5. They have the practice of the Heathens that were so wise herein 5 By the practice of the heathens Plato de legibus l. 7. Alexand ab◠Alexand. l. 4. c. 17. Why the Gentiles used the same set prayers in their service as to use the same Service to every false god as both Plato and Alexander ab Alexandro do bear witnesse and they caused their prayers to be read out of a Book 1. That so the people might learn to repeat the same Prayers with the Priest when the same Prayers are constantly used in Gods service which they shall never be able to do when they shall have a new Prayer and a new Service upon every new day 2. Their Prayers were prescribed and read lest the simple and ignorant Priest should ask of God any evill thing that should not be asked and 3. Ne quid preposterè dicatur their Petitions were set down in verbis conceptis as we use to send messages to great persons in these and these very words lest we should offend either in the matter or in the manner in the thing requested or in the words wherein we have requested it Out of all which you may perceive how necessary it was for the Governours of Gods Church to see that the same God should have the same Service and that very Service which himself prescribeth and not what new Prayers and new worship in what Form and under what words soever every ignorant Priest should extemporarily pour forth to the Almighty God For if we ought to be very carefull to keep our feet when we go to the house of God Eccles 5.1 then how much more carefull ought we to be to keep our mouths and look to
a company of disagreeing Preachers whereof most of them shall be like Jeroboam's Priests and each one of them an Independant to command in Chief to gather a Church for himself whereof no man else shall have any interest from them and then only Gods pleasant portion as the Prophet calleth the Church Jer. 12.10 Chap. 4.26 becomes a desolate wilderness that brings nothing but thorns and bryers errors heresies and all wickedness And therefore questionless great is the account that these Prophets have to answer for at the last Day not only for their own sins which they never look into but do reprove others for their covetousness and are more covetous themselves and do most eagerly inveigh against the pride hatred and malice of the people and never look into their own pride nor consider of their own fouler faults but especially for those sins also which either by their evil example or their false Doctrine they are the cause thereof in the people But will you hear what the Lord saith of this assembly of false Prophets or these many Pastors that by their discord and dissenting from their Governours Jeremy 23.21 Chap. 27.14 Chap. 29.8 Chap. 12.6 Chap. 14.14 destroy the Church I have not sent these Prophets yet they run therefore thus saith the Lord Hearken not unto them and though they speak fair words yet believe them not And so Moses and our Saviour Christ do give the same counsel unto us that we should neither believe them nor hearken unto the smooth words of the false Prophets for if the people did not love to hear them and so love to be deceived by them they would not be so ready to prophesie lyes errors and falshoods unto them And therefore I could wish the people would follow the counsel of Christ and our Prophet not to hearken unto the Sermons of those Prophets that God professeth he hath not sent them And so you have heard 1. How this people wandred And now resteth 2. How they loved to wander And now resteth 3. The manner of their wandering And now resteth 4. 4 Their haste or greediness to proceed in their wickedness The last thing considerable in the doings of this people is their haste and greedinesse to preceed in their wicked wayes for they refrained not their feet but as the Prophet David saith Their feet were swift to shed blood and they would have no delayes in their dealings but cryed out with the Poet semper nocuit differre paratis Lucan Nothing is so dangerous in great affairs as to lye lingering about the matter therefore our Saviour saith to Judas Quod facis fac citò and when he bad his disciples go to Preach the Gospel he bids them to salute no man by the way not that he disliked and prohibited civil respects and curteous salutations as Good morrow God be with you or God speed you and the like But that they should not stay complementing and neglect the great and waighty business that they were sent about to Preach the Gospel of God And so the wicked having a greater desire to do evil then the godly have to do good do make all the haste they can to bring their work to pass and to effect all their projects and they are very active and very nimble in all their actions I remember Horace speaks of Lucilius that in hora saepe ducentos Horatius Serm. l. 1. p. 212. Vt magnum versus dictabat stans pede in uno He would powre out two hundred verses in an hour but in his book De arte Poetica he reprehendeth the verse quod non Idem de arte Poet. p. 369. Multa dies multa litura coercuit atque Perfectum decies non castigavit ad unguem which had not taken up many daies and undergon a ten fold correction Our new Preachers can powre forth their sermons as fast as Lucilius his verses before it came to be perfect For you know the old proverb Canis festinans caecos parit catulos the hasty bitch bringeth forth blind whelps and it is the soft fire that maketh the sweet mault and therefore as the faithfull Christian Qui crediderit non festinabit will not presently believe all that he heareth when as Solomon saith Sultus credit omni verbâ— he is a fool that believes every word he heareth but the wise Christian with the noble men of Beroea will examine and search what things are true Act. 17.11 and what are not so the wise and carefull Preacher cannot powre forth his Sermons as fast as Lucilius could do his verses or as our Enthusiasts that speak all by the spirit which teacheth them in illa hora in that instant what they should say so that they do far exceed those whereof Bosquierus speaketh Septennes pueri concionantur in Ordine Francisci quarta naufragii tabula in dominica post Pentecost pag. 241. that at seaven years old What children could do in the order of S. Francis they could Preach in the order of S. Francis but the true Preachers think they ought to be more carefull to correct and weigh every word of their Sermons before they Preach them than the Poet ought to correct his Verses when as the Prophet flatly pronounceth Cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord negligently for the negligent Preachers make negligent hearers and that must needs be negligence when they do so hastily powre forth quicquid in buccam venerit what comes first into their mouth And yet as the children of Israel would not stay for Moses his coming down from the mount though he was all that while preparing and providing good laws and instructions for them but they must presently change their good God for a golden Calf and as Jeroboam after his revolt from the house of David and his dislike to the true service of God in the Temple of Solomon must presently frame a new Religion So must all Innovators and all other transgressors speedily without any consultation either with God or good men overthrow what they dislike and establish what they please as in former times I will not say of late we have had most woefull experience of this hasty ruinating of the Orthodox Doctrine and erecting the heterodox and the sudden plucking down in an hour what had stood one hundred years and the sudden setting up of things like Jâ—nah's gourd which perhaps should fall under the like fate as being but the emblem of such fiery Prophets But the words are yet more Emphatical then this making haste to proceed in their evil doings The wicked cannot endure to be hindered to destroy themselves because they not only made haste speedily to finish all their evil-begun work but They refrayned not their feet saith the Prophet that is they could not endure any remora or any means that might hinder their own hasty destruction but as Jeroboam was inraged against the man of God and Ahab against Elias
will endeavour to discharge his duty by good report and evil report 2. You may observe that goodness it self is hated and truth it self slandered and traduced for in his mouth was found no guile but as Saint John saith he is the way the truth and the life and yet all that malice can invent is thought little enough to be laid on him he must bear in his bosom the reproach of a mighty people and he must endure the contradictions of a wicked generation And therefore what wonder is it if the best King and Governour in the world were he as mild as Moses as religious as King David as upright as Samuel and as bountiful to Gods servants as Nehemiah or if as worthy Preachers as ever trod pulpit were they as faithful as Saint Peter as loving as Saint John and as zealous as Saint Paul should be maligned traduced and slandered for you may assure your selves it is no new thing though a very true thing for the wicked to deal thus with the good and godly at all times But among all the subtil arguments doubtful questions and malicious disputations that the Scribes Christs good deeds inraged the wicked Pharisees and Heredians had with our Saviour Christ which were very many and all only for to intrap him in his speech that they might bring him to his death and not to beget faith in their own hearts that they might attain-to eternal life this conflict in this chapter seemeth to be none of the least for after he had so miraculously healed the poor man that was born blind their malice was so inraged and their rage so furious against him that they excommunicated the poor fellow and thrust him out of their Synagogue for speaking well of him that had done so much good for him or because he would not be so wicked and so malicious as themselves and then gathering themselves together round about Christ they began to question him about his office and very strictly to examine him whether he was the Christ the Messias or not And Our Saviour Christ Christ answereth for the good of the godly that knew their thoughts better then themselves intendeth not to satisfie their desire which was to receive such an answer whereby they might accuse him yet for their instruction that would believe in him he setteth down an institution or an infallible induction whereby both their subtil question was fully answered and his own true servants perfectly expressed and distinguished from them that serve him not in these words My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me Wherein The means ways to save us our Saviour setteth down the means whereby the true Christians are eternally saved in being called justified and sanctified which are the three main steps or degrees whereby we pass from our natural state of corruption unto the blessed state of grace that brings us to eternal glory 1. Called in these words My sheep hear my voice 2. Justified in these words I know them 3. Sanctified in these words They follow me 1. Then the Christians are called to come to Christ in that he saith My sheep hear my voice for as Adam after his transgression never sought for God until God sought for him and said Adam Where art thou So all the children of Adam would never come to Christ if Christ did not call them to come unto him but as wisdom crieth without and uttereth her voice in the streets Prov. 1.20 so doth this wisdome of God Jesus Christ cry Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you and if he did not cry and utter forth his voice his sheep could not hear his voice but God sendeth forth his voice yea and that a mighty voice and as the Prophet David saith The Lord thundered out of heaven Psal 68 33. and the most high uttered his voice And that not onely as he did once unto the Israelites God uttereth his voice two wayes when he delivered his laws on mount Sinai but also to all others whom he calleth and uttereth his voice unto them two special ways 1. To the ears of his people by the mouths of his Prophets 1 To our ears Apostles and Preachers of his holy Word that do continually call and cry unto them to come to hear his voice and to obey his Precepts 2. To the hearts of his servants by the inspiration of his blessed Spirit 2 To our hearts which teacheth them to cry abba Father and perswadeth them to yield obedience to all his heavenly motions And our Saviour saith that his sheep or servants will hear his voice that is both uttered by his servants and inspired by his Spirit and they will neither neglect to hear the preaching of his written Word nor suffocate or choak the inspired Word that is the internal motions of his holy Spirit but they will most readily and willingly hear both these voices My sheep hear my voice howsoever uttered Three things observable For the further and the better understanding of which words you may observe these three things 1. The denomination Sheep 2. Their appropriation my sheep 3. Their qualification hear my voice 1. By Sheep here is understood not those four-footed silly creatures The children of God called sheep in a double respect that by their wooll and lamb and milk and their own flesh are so profitable unto us and by their simplicity are so easie to be kept and are the most innocent among all the beasts of the field but those children of God and true Christians that are called and compared unto sheep in a double respect 1. In respect of Christ that is their Pastour or Shepherd 2. In respect of themselves that are his flock 1. Christ is often called in the Scriptures our Shepherd 1 Grand Shepherd of the sheep Christ the good Shepherd in two respects 1. A lawful entrance into his Office Heb. 5.4 1. By the testimony of his own conscience 2. By an outward approbation and he is set forth unto us in this 10. c. by a double manifestation 1. Of a lawful entrance into his Office 2. Of an absolute performance of his Duties 1. The Apostle saith No man taketh this honour unto himself that is to be the Shepherd over Gods flock and a Priest to teach Gods people but he that is called of God as was Aaron And how was Aaron called 1. By God inwardly by the testimony of his own conscience that tells him the Spirit of God calleth him to such an Office 2. Because a man is not to believe his own private spirit that many times deceiveth us therefore God would have Aaron to take his commission and his ordination from Moses as you may see Exod. 28.1 and as the Lord had formerly said unto Moses that he should be instead of God unto Aaron to call him unto the Priests office And as no man taketh or should
SEVEN TREATISES Very necessary to be observed in these very bad Days To prevent the Seven last Vials of God's Wrath that the Seven Angels are to pour down upon the Earth Revel xvi I. The Monstrous Murder of the most righteous King Paralel'd to the Murder of King CHARLES the First Act. vii 52. II. The Tragedy of Zimri that slew his King that was his Master 2. Reg. ix 31. III. God's War with the wicked Rebels Murderers c. Esay lvii 21. IV. The lively Picture of these lewd times Jeremy xiv 10. V. The four Chiefest Duties of every Christian Man 1. Peter ii 17. VI. The true Properties and Prerogatives of the true Saints John x. 27. VII The Chiefest Cause why we should love God 1. John iv 19. Whereunto is annexed The DECLARATION of the just Judgment of GOD 1. Upon our late King's Friends that neglected him 2. Upon the King's Enemies that rebelled and warred against him I. The perfideous Scots II. The bloody Irish III. The Anti-Christian Presbyterians and Parliament that killed the two Witnesses of Jesus Christ Moses and Aaron Magistrates and Ministers 1. In general upon all the Long Parliament and especially upon the Rump-Parliament so termed 2. In particular upon many of the most wicked Limbs of the great Anti-Christ and the Members of that Parliament AND The superabundant Grace and great Mercy of God shewed towards this good King CHARLES the First I. In his Life II. In his Death III. After his Death 1. In his Honour 2. In his Children and Posterity 3. In all his Friends and loyal Subjects By Gr. Williams Ld. Bishop of Ossory LONDON Printed for the Authour 1661. The Resolution of the Authour By the Grace of God and the assistance of his blessed Spirit I will flatter no man I do fear none nor any danger but God I desire nothing of any man but Love I covet no Preferment but to keep what the blessed King and my most gracious Master at the Motion of my ever Honoured Lord the Earl of Pembroke hath given me And He gave me all that I have and to lose all for his sake that gave me all I never cared I can have no long time to live being now full Seventy and four years old I will speak nothing to my knowledge but truth and if I perish I perish as Qu. Hester said Let God's will be done Jehovae Liberatori GR. OSSORY TO THE KINGS Most Excellent MAJESTIE And to the now-Convened PARLIAMENT and all Posterity The Humble Remonstrance of Gruffith Williams Lord Bishop of Ossorie Sheweth THAT he is most strictly obliged and indispensably bound as he is sent a messenger from God to instruct his people and called by His late Majesty his most gracious Master and now most Glorious Martyr Charles the first of ever blessed memory to be the Bishop of Ossorie to declare and make Remonstrance unto Your Majesty to the now-Convened Parliament and to all Posterity these few Subsequent things As First that ever since 1625. I lived with my ever-honoured Lord and Master the Earl of Pembroke and Mountgomery for the most part in His Majestie 's house at the Cock-Pit about the space of eighteen years together and about seven years of that time in His Majestie 's service and in that respect I had fitter opportunity to observe His Majestie and to understand the affairs and Trans-actions of the Court better then most others of His Majestie 's Chaplains that waited only their accustomed Moneth and then returned to their residence And mine Obligations to His late Majestie are so many and so great that I cannot with the best of mine endeavours discharge the Dimidium of those duties that low to the blessed memory of that King for he gave me all that I had and all that I have and had not the late Arch Bishop of Canterbury provided and commended to His Majestie a far better and abler man every way then my self His Majestie intended to make me the Teacher and Tutour to Your Majestie as I heard it from His own mouth when my ever Honoured Lord and Master the Earl of Pembroke and Mountgomery brought me to examine His Son and my Scholar the Lord Charles Herbert before His Majestie And therefore I conceive that I am more obliged and bound in Conscience to declare what I do infallibly know to be truth to perpetuate the understanding thereof unto Posterities and to undeceive the Ignorant and Simplest sort of people that know not things aright but in hearing the lying reports of most Malicious men do swallow down the same for truths then many others of His late Majestie 's Chaplains And I call the great God of Heaven and the Searcher of all hearts to be my witness that what I do is neither out of Envie Hatred or Malice to any particular man or to Flatter and to Insinuate my self into the favour of any one the greatest man living or for the hope and expectation of any benefit or Preferment in the World whereas I never did nor ever intended to desire any thing of Your Majestie or of any other but onely to retain and to enjoy what our late Pious King and my most gracious Master hath given me because that although I was Plundered in England and Plundered in Wales and Sequestred of all my Means both in England and Wales and had not left me one peny of any Ecclesiastical Means nor twenty Pound per annum in all the World to maintain my self and my Servants of any Temporal Estate so that I was forced for these twelve last years and more to live upon a little Tenement for which I payed fifty shillings rent to Sir Gr. Williams and four Pound land by the year of mine own poorer then poor Curates with Oaten-Bread and Barly-Bread and a little Butter-Milk or Glas-Door and sometimes Water being not able to keep any drop of Ale or Beer in my house for these two lustra's of years and more as all my Neighbours know and to go attired in very mean Country Cloaths and to do many servile works my self about my House Garden and Cattel for want of means to hire labourers yet for all this my sad condition lest I should be ensnared and hindred to discharge my duty and my tongue entangled with such Bird-lime I resolved to accept of no means benevolence or maintenance from the Usurpers Rebels and the Robbers of the Church of Christ and of their brethren whatsoever they should offer unto me and how great soever my wants should be as being contented with the Apostle with any state or condition whatsoever and hoping that as the Poet said of Pompey Non me videre superbum Prospera fatorum so Nec fractum adversa videbunt But what I say herein I do it onely to demonstrate the truth of things not to those that knew His Majestie which were needless but to those that knew Him not and upon mis-apprehension of His Majesties action's related by Malicious Adversaries misunderstood the same
taught their children to do the like even as you may see how the Lord saith unto Isaac I am the God of Abraham thy father and I will bless thee and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake And you may be sure they are more to be commended and more accepted of God that in the night of ignorance of blindness and superstition have done the good works of the day as the pious works of building and beautifying Gods House and the charitable works of relieving the poor and erecting alms-houses than those men that in the day-light of knowledg and such cleer preaching of the Gospel as we have had do the works of darkness and the very deeds of the Devil as are the persecuting of the Prophets Quia melior est fidelis ignorantia August quà m temeraria scientia 2. 2 Who were persecuted Having heard of the persecutors their Fathers we are now to speak of the persecuted and they were the Prophets for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which of the Prophets have not your fathers persecuted saith this holy Martyr The Prophets were men sent from God to declare his will to teach his people to bring them unto God and it was their own defire that God would reveal his will unto them by men that were like themselves and not by Himself whose Majesty was so glorious and so terrible that their weakness was not able to endure it for when God descended upon Mount Sinai to talk unto his people and to deliver his Statutes and Ordinances unto them and all the people saw the thunders and the lightnings and the noise of the trumpet and the mountain smoaking they all removed and stood afar off Exod. 20.19 and they said unto Moses Speak thou with us and we will hear but let not God speak with us lest we die for this great fire will consume us and if we hear the voice of the Lord our God we shall die Deut. 5.25 26 27. and therefore go thou near unto God and hear all that the Lord our God shall say and speak thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speak unto thee and we will heare it and do it and the Lord heard the voice of their Words and yielded to their desire and as the Prophet Amos saith Amos 3.7 he revealeth his will and his secrets unto his servants the Prophets and he sent them early and late to reveale the same unto his people And as Jehosaphat said unto Juda and to the Inhabitants of Jerusalem 2 Chro. 20.20 Esay 7.9 If they believe in the Lord their God they shall be established and if they believe his Prophets they shall prosper and if they will not believe them then surely saith the Prophet Esay they shall not be established they cannot be blessed And therefore not only not to believe these men that are thus and to this end sent from God but also to persecute them is an offence beyond mine ability of expression for to render good for evill and to do good to them that hate us is charity and to do as Christ adviseth us and to render evil for evil is iniquity and to do what God forbiddeth us who saith Vengeance is mine and I will repay for the evil that is done Deut. 32.35 But to render evil for good and to persecute and destroy them that would preserve us is a devillish sin and a degree beyond all ingratitude which is but the retention and deniall of the thanks that we owe and not the reddition and offering the evil that we owe not and should no waies be rendered to any one And besides this unkind requitall of the great good that the Prophets and publishers of Gods will do unto the people with such great evil as is the persecuting of them to persecute the Prophets and Messengers of God is a breach and a transgression of a special precept of God who doth peremptorily say to every one Touch not mine anointed and do my Prophets no harm 1 Chro. 16.22 And how then dares any man to persecute them which is so high a degree and so large a measure of harm But here you must observe with some diligence What Prophets What Persecution is and whose Prophets we must not harm for the Lord saith not this in general of all Prophets but do My Prophets no harm and therefore we must examine what and whose Prophets they were whom their Fathers persecuted For the Scripture maketh mention of two sorts of Prophets 1. The one sort is of false Prophets That there are two sorts of Prophets such as were the Prophets of the Groves and the Prophets of Baal and of the Beast that you may read of in the Revelation 2. The other sort is of the true Prophets such as were the Prophets of the Lord and these God owneth and calleth them my Prophets and bids every one to take heed that they do them no harm and saith further that Whosoever toucheth them toucheth the apple of his eye Zechary 2.8 And for the first sort that is the false Prophets as the Poet saith that Saepe sub agnina latet hirtus pelle Lycaon Subque Catone pio perfidus ille Nero. The Wolf doth often lurk under the Lamb-skin So our Saviour tels us that these false Prophets will come to us in sheeps cloathing Apoc. 13.11 but inwardly they are ravening Wolves and the Holy Ghost saith that the false Prophet signified by the Beast that arose out of the Earth had two horns like a Lamb that is although every truth is from God which is the God of all truth and truth is truth as well from Simon Magus as from Simon Peter from Plato the Philosopher as from Paul the Apostle yet because the Heathens truths are mingled with some errors and those false Prophets The very practice of the false Prophets either have not the Wit or will not take the Pains to sift the wheat from the chaff and the truth from their errors therefore they will have nothing but the two horns of the Lamb the Two Testaments which are the strength to uphold the Christian Religion as Cornelius à Lapide rightly expoundeth them Corn. à Lapid in Apoc. c. 13. and yet he spake like the Dragon to shew unto us the true properties and practice of your false teachers to alleadge nothing but the pure Scripture the very words of the Old and New Testament and yet in their Expositions and Apptications of them to speak the words of the Dragon that is falshoods and lies As the Dragon did unto Eve when he told them they should be like gods Luk. 12 49. and he made them like Devils and so the false Prophets though they pretend to bring down fire from heaven that is the same fire which our Saviour saith he came to bring upon the earth which is the fiery zeal of Gods glory and fervent charity among neighbours yet in very
youngest son as it hapned afterward unto Hiel the Bethelite So would the instruments of Satan deal with all Gods Prophets 1 Reg. 16.24 as Jehu did with the Prophets of Baal and as it hapned to Segub and Abiram the sons of Hiel after the re-edifying of Jericho And did not the Long-Parliament take the same course to root out all the Bishops all the Hierarchy and all Episcopall men all must down root and branch and not one of them must be left Alas alas were they all wicked or did some offend and must all be condemned for the offence of few or will they shew themselves like the implacable goddesse which as the Poet saith Exurere classem Argivûm atque ipsos voluit submergere ponto Unius ob noxam furias Ajacis Oilei destroyed all the Navie and drowned all the Argives for one mans fault This is to condemn the righteous with the wicked and the Lord saith the Judges should justifie the righteous Deut. 25.1 and condemn the wicked and not to condemn the righteous for the wicked nor with the wicked for the Poet speaking of some lewd women saith Parcite paucarum diffundere crimen in omnes Spectetur meritis quaeque puella suis Though some be loose and wanton yet must you not for this blame those that are honest so though some of the Bishops might perhaps be found unworthy of so high a calling Is that a sufficient argument to destroy them all Yet such hath been the Devils Logick to perswade his late Schollars to make their distruction as universal as Noahs deluge to take them all away And so much shall serve for the first point 2 The killing of the Preachers i.e. The progression of these persecutors in their wickednesse which is the persecution of the Prophets The next point is 2. Occidio praedicatorum And that is their progression and their going forward in their wickednesse more and more As the Sun goeth higher and higher unto the perfect day so do they go from one sin unto another still from the lesser unto the greater for they have not only persecuted the Prophets saith this holy Martyr but they have also slain them which shewed before of the coming of the just one that is the Preachers of Jesus Christ wherein you may behold as in a glasse the lively perfect picture of all wicked men and the innate inseparable condition of all malicious persecutors that is to proceed from bad to worse from one step to another from one degree of evill to a viler untill at last they fall into the bottomlesse gulph of all the most horrid wickednesse and as the Poet saith Flumina magna vides parvis de fontibus ortâ— Plurima collectis multiplicantur aquis From a small fountain thou maist see great flouds to arise and many waters to make great Seas so from the small seeds of these mâ—ns â—â—â—ice their sins ascend to the top of intolerable mischief or rather descend to the bottomiesse gulf of their own unavoidable destruction for so Cain at first was but angry with his brother because the Lord accepted him and liked better of his sincerity than of the others hypocrisie then Acrior ad pugnam redit vim suscitat ira he began to hate and to maligne him after that malitia excoecavit eum his malice moved him to persecute him and last of all most inhumanely to kill him So Pharaoh first envied the prosperity of the children of Israel because he thought that Fertilior seges est alienis semper in agris God blessed them and all that they had better then he blessed him then vim injuriam intulit he began to oppresse them by laying hard taxes and most cruel labours upon them and then he killed their children and in all likelyhood would have killed them if God had not delivered them out of his hands And the reason of this their progression in wickednesse The reason why the wicked grow from bad to worse is truly rendred by Seneca Quia omne scelus majori scelere tuetur every hainous and most wicked deed can never subsist and be upheld but by a more wicked deed and therefore the Lyar will swear and forswear himself to justifie his lye the robber will kill the honest traveller for fear he should accuse him and the Rebell that riseth to resist and to warre against his King and the Traytor that betrayeth his King never thinks himself safe untill he can be the death of his King so the Hereticks maintain their heresies and errors with far greater heresies and the Presbyterians that oppose and refuse to be directed by their Diocesans think themselves never satisfied untill they see the Bishops wholly supprest and destroyed And so the Jewes walked in the same steps and dealt after the same manner with Gods Prophets And so likewise ever since the wicked worldlings deal with the true Preachers of Jesus Christ for the whole companie of Gods children knowes what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great gulph and a huge distance and difference not in nature originally figmentum unum when as all men are made from the same lump but in generality and condition there is and hath been ever seen betwixt the Lay Commonalty and the learned Clergy of any Land and how as Ismael that was born after the flesh persecuted his own brother Isaac that was born after the Spirit so the Lay-worldlings do ever maligne and persecute unto death all the right spiritual Clergy-men And this persecution we of the Clergy have felt now of late to the very height when very very many of the very best of them that did feed daintily even with the Kings dishes were as the Prophet saith left desolate in the street and glad to sustain their lives with a little Barley bread and Glass-door and they that were clad in Scarlet were driven to embrace the dung-hills Jerem. 4.5 and be clad in rags and with Joshua the high Priest to be clothed with filthie garments Zechary 3 3. and so were made the scorn and Table-talk of their neighbours and blamed that they did not live and go according to their degrees and calling when as the Proverb is ultra posse non est esse none is able to do beyond his ability and he onely that weares the shooe knoweth where it pincheth him And as the Jews not only persecuted the Prophets but also slew the Preachers so many of us were slain some with the sword of these mercilesse men and many more with hunger and want Zechar. 3 3.1 when their hearts were broken with the extremity of grief and the weight of those miseries that were laid upon these good men were far heavier then the pillars could support And so this persecution thus proceeding did far exceed all former persecutions beyond Nero's tyranny and Dioclesians cruelty and was of the same kind but of a higher strain than Julians stratagems which was not only to suppresse Presbyteros
the manner of them to deliver any man to die before that he which is accused have licence to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him so it may be Zimri will shew some good reason why he kill'd his Master And I doubt not but he had learnt Absolons lesson that it was for the ill government of Elah propter bonum Reipublicae for the good of the people that they might be better governed and much eased of many burthens and relieved of their grievances To which I say that you must understand all Traytors and wicked actors to be just like unto Watermen that row one way and look another way so they pretend one thing and intend another thing Thus Zimri pretended to amend the Government to ease the people to reform the Laws and rectifie their Religion but his intention and his chiefest ayme was to make himself great to get his Masters place and to become a King himself which was first in his intention though last in the execution otherwise if his principal ayme had been as he pretended the publike good he would have turned and changed the Kingdom of Israel into a Common-wealth or else he would have made either Omri or Tibni whom the people loved and not himself whom they hated to be their King sed menrita est iniquitas sibi but wickedesse though not always yet sometimes bewrayeth it self as the action of Zimri to make himself a King discovered his prime intention and the chiefest occasion that moved him to slay his Master to be his Ambition and desire of bearing rule And indeed this Ambition and desire of bearing rule hath so strangely bewitched the minds of many men Camer l. 5. c. 8. that as Camerarius saith it is almost incredible to believe and most strange to consider what inordinate desire men have to raign and to rule as Kings what villanies they have committed to become Kings What horrible things have been done by those that were ambitious of bearing rule what execrable things they have done to continue Kings for Amurath the third caused five of his younger brethren to be strangled in his presence Ismael the second son to Teâ—mas King of Persia did put to death so many of his brethren as he could lay hold on and all the Princes that he suspected to have any desire to his Kingdom that so they might raign and rule without fear And Solyman mistrusting his own son Mustapha when he returned victorious from the Persian war and was received with such generall applause caused him presently to be strangled and a Proclamation to be made throughout all the Army that there must be but one God in heaven and one Emperour i.e. Himself here on earth and Camerarius saith that this is a perpetuall custom in the race of the Ottomans and among the Turkish Souldans to put all that pretend succession unto death Neither is it only a Turkish custom but it is also the practice of all such as are bewitched with such inordinate desire to rule as Kings to do the like For Plutarch writeth that Diotarus having many sons and desirous that only one of them should reign slew all the rest with his own hands and Justin saith that Horodes King of the Parthians killed his own Father and after that massacred all his brethren that he might reign and rule alone and the sacred story sheweth that the very people of God the sons of Israel were not free but pestered with this disease Judges 9. as Abimeleck the son of Gedeon slew seventy of his brethren in one day and played many other tragicall parts that he might make himself a King 2 Sam. 15.16 And the furious ambition of young Absolon did set him on fire to seek to end his Fathers dayes and to play the Parracide that he might reign in his Fathers place and so Zimri when he began to reign as soon as he sate on his throne he delayed not the time but presently slew all the house of Baasha 2 King 16.11 as Baasha had formerly done to all the posterity of Jeroboam he left him not one that pisseth against a wall neither of his kinsfolks nor of his friends And not to go from home for Examples Did not Henry the fourth put by Richard the second his own King and Cosen-German that he himself might be the King and did not Richard the 3d. cause the true King his brothers chidren his own Nephews the sons of Edward the fourth that were but children and never offended him to be done to death that he might wear the Crown himselfe And my papers would fail me if I should set down all the examples that I could produce of this nature for there is not any thing so sacred which the great men of this world that desire to be made greater will not dare to violate and spare neither King father brether nor friend to bring themselves to their desired advancement to be the rulers of the people and to have the power both of our lives and goods in their own hands as the proof is plainly seen in the foresaid examples and especially in Antoninus Caracalla who when he had most unnaturally and barbarously slain his own brother Geta even in his mothers lap and between her arms and being counselled by some friends to Canonize him among the Heroes and to place him with the Deastri to mitigate the thought of so execrable a fact answered like a vile Caitiffe Sit divus modò non sit vivus Let him be a god among the dead so he be not alive among men So great an enemy is the inordinate desire of raigning and ruling to all piety and right saith Camerarius l. 5. c. 8. And for Zimri's pretence to rectify the government to ease the people to establish the true service of God which King Elah and his Father Baasha had permitted to be continued as Jeroboam had corrupted it and to fulfill the Words of the Lord which he spake by Jehu the son of Hanani 1 King 16.2 I say these things were least in his thoughts and were but meer pretences and shadows to hide and cover his malice unto his King and his ambitious desire of bearing rule for he being a subject and a servant unto King Elah what warrant had he or what command from God to kill his King Jeroboam was the master piece of Idolatry and the ring-leader of them that made Israel to sin and yet I would fain know where God gives leave to his subjects to kill him for this intolerable impiety But when God setteth up Kings if they prove wicked to corrupt his service and to destroy his servants he can raise other Kings to punish them as he did Pharaoh King of Egypt and Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon to chastise and to remove the evill Kings of Judah or he can take them away by death or by twenty other waies that we know not of without making their own
they prosper bear rule and raign in a flourishing stare for some years they shall therefore flourish for ever and never be punished because the Lord is flow to anger and cometh to punish on leaden feet using much patience towards the most wicked reprobates to see if his long sufferance can lead them to repentance But if they be such as the wise man speaketh of that Because sentence against an evill work treason Eccles 8.11 or murder or the like is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evill Te peccare sinit siquidem divina potestas Temporis ad spatium parcit quandoque nocenti Sed gravius tandem tormentum rector Olympi Injungit torquetque magis delicta nocentum Obadiah v. 15.16 Exod. 1.22 15.5 then will God recompence the slownesse of his coming with severity of vengeance and smite then home with iron-hands for this law is irrevocably enacted in heaven that murders adulteries oppressions perjuries and other such wickednesses shall not always prosper but shall undoubtedly be punished though the times and the manner are not by us to be known 2. For the punishment of malefactors it is 1. Sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they shall suffer the same strokes and receive the same measure as they have measured unto others As thou hast done it shall it be done unto thee Even as Pharaoh drowned all the male-children of the Israelits in the waters of Nilus so was He and all his Host drowned in the red Sea and as the sword of Agag had made many women childless so did the sword of Samuel make Agags mother childless among women and as all the foresaid examples that have proved Traytors and have kil'd their Kings have been kil'd themselves just as the Lord had said Whosoever sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed 2. Sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall suffer some punishment that shall be somewhat like to the sin 2 Chron. 12.5 that they have committed for so the Lord saith You have forsaken me and therefore I have also left you and so it hapned to Solomon that as he divided Gods service betwixt God and the Idols so God divided his Kingdom betwixt Rehoboam his son and Jeroboam his servant And this likeness of the punishment hath a reference sometimes 1. To the Subject 2. To the Place 3. To the Time of our sinning for 1. 1 Kings c. 11. c. 12. As Adam sinned in eating the forbidden fruit so his punishment shall be to eat the fruit of the ground in the sweat of his face and Hezechias for shewing his Treasure was punished with the loss of his treasure 2 King 20. as many other men for being proud of their wealth do lose their wealth some one way and some another 2. The Lord saith that 2 In respect of the place 1 King 21.20 In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood even thine which came to pass accordingly you may see in 1 King 22 38. 3. Sometimes the punishment hath reference to the time of our sinning 3 In respect of the punishment as the spies that searched the land of Canaan 40 daies and sinned by their false report were punished by wandering in the wilderness 40 years and it is observed that Pompey was killed by Septimius and Achillas as upon the same day wherein he had formerly triumphed for the spoile of Jerusalem and the Jews had their City utterly destroyed by Titus at the same time of the year and as some think on the same day of the month wherein they had crucified our Saviour Christ 3. In respect of the persons sinning and punished we are to observe 3 The persons sinning 2 King 14.6 that although the Lord saith The fathers shall not be put to death for the children nor the children be put to death for the fathers but every man shall be put to death for his own sin and the soul that sinneth that soul shall die and God will not have them say The fathers have eaten sower grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge Yet it is most certain that many times the wickedness of the fathers is remembred in their posterity and the punishment of that wickedness is oftentimes delated and after a sort both deferred and in part transferred as well to the children and to the childrens children of them that walk in the same steps and follow the same courses as their fathers did and sometimes upon the very innocent Infants as upon the wicked fathers that are murderers and malefactors themselves For so the Lord saith that for the sin of Jeroboam therefore behold and mark it well I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam 1 King 14.10 11. and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall and him that is shut up and left in Israel and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam asa man taketh away dung till it be all gone And so Baasha the son of Ahijab smote all the house of Jeroboam 1 King 15.29 he left not to Jeroboam any that breathed untill he had destroyed him 1 King 16.3 4. according to the Word of the Lord and the Lord threatneth the very same punishment and the rooting out of all his posterity to Baasha 1 King 16.11 12. that killed his King Nadab and did other evils in the sight of the Lord and this Zimri the servant of Elab brought to pass according as the Lord had threatned and the very like punishment happened to all the posterity of Ahab even for Naboths murder and other sins of Ahab 2 King 9.9 and c. 10.17 and too many more murderers and wicked men that by their sins and desire to raign and unjust preferring of their children have pulled down vengeance upon themselves and rooted out all their posterity And for Romulus Tarquinius and Nero I say neither of them were either good or honest and yet the holy Scripture doth not allow the killing or sentencing of them to death and the proof of the Senat 's killing Romulus or sentencing Nero to death is not Authenticall nor the examples by any means to be followed when they are so apparantly contrary to the practice and precepts of the holy Apostles and the success which followed Neroes death proved so lamentable Corn. Tacit. l. 20. 21. as the Tragicall butchering of three of their succeeding Emperors Galba Otho and Vitellius that had been three most famous Captains and had done very worthy exploits for their Countrey And therefore whosoever thinketh by murder and slaughter to usurp another mans Kingdom Inheritance or Possession and thereby to raise his house and to advance his children as Zimri Baasha Shallum and others thought to do or thereby to benefit the Common-wealth as they pretend to do he deceives himself because this is the only
rebellion and disobedience of the people as here because Zedechia was not suffered by these stubborn and disobedient people to follow the advice of this our Prophet therefore they were all delivered into seventy years Captivity And as the Lord is extream angry with those rebellious people that disobey and labour to displace the Kings and Governours that he sets over them So he sheweth abundance of his love and kindnesse to them that submit themselves to his ordinance and behave themselves dutifully and loyally towards those Kings whatsoever they be that God placeth over them as you may see it in the whole course and Story of King David and Saul for as he was the most dutiful and most faithful subject that ever we read of so God was pleased to raise him to be the best King that ever reigned over Israel for his King and his Governour was Saul the very first of that Order among the Jews and he was an hypocrite a persecutor a murderer a tyrant and a mad man yet when David whose life he thirsted after had him at his mercy and could as easily have taken off his head as to cut off the lap of his garment he said The Lord forbid 1 Sam. 24.6 that I should do this thing unto my Master the Lords Annointed to stretch forth my hand against him and his heart smote him because he had cut off his skirt And when he had him again in the like trap he said unto Abner Art not thou a valiant man and who is like thee in Israel wherefore then hast thou not kept thy Lord the King this thing is not good that thou hast done As the Lord liveth you are worthy to die because you have not kept your Master the Lords Annointed and his oath As the Lord liveth sheweth 1 Sam. 26.16 that he spake it in good earnest and jested not And if they be worthy to die that defend not and protect not such a wicked King especially in going about so vile an action as the murdering of so good a man and so dutiful a subject as David was then what shall become of them and what are they worthy of that murmur and grudge and plot against the life of such a â—ood King as maintained peace and jâ—stice amongst his people and offered no special injury to any particular man of us all Surely if I had the wisdom of Solomon and the eloquence of Demosthenes I were not able to expresse the odiousnesse of their sin that conspired against the person and proceedings of such a King as is inoffensive before God and all good men But to go on to shew unto you how faithful this good subject was to this bad King when the young man that was an Amalekite and none of Saul or Davids subjects came of his own accord to bring tidings unto David of Sauls death and of the good service that he thought he had done unto Saul at his own request to put him out of his pain David presently caused him to be put to death 2 Sam. 1.15 because he durst presume to offer any violence though that violence seemed to be a favour unto the Ruler of the people whom we are straightly forbidden to revile Exod. 22.28 or to speak evil of him So dutiful and so loyal a subject was David to so evil a Governour and so wicked a King as Saul And this his loyalty and fidelity unto Saul was one of the chiefest vertues that we find commendable in him before God had according to his fidelity to his King raised him to the Rule and Government of his people And I wish that all and every one of us would strive and study to imitate this good man in our obedience fidelity and loyalty to our King and Governours that God hath placed over us But here it may be some troubled and discontented spirit will say I could willingly yield all due respect and obedience unto our Kings and Governours could I be satisfied that God appointed them to be the Kings and Governours of his people Jeremy 23.21 but as the Lord saith of the false Prophets They run and I sent them not So he saith They have set up Kings but not by me Hosea 8.4 and they have made Princes and I knew it not And should we be obedient and faithful to such Kings and Governours that ambitiously set up themselves and are not righteously set up by God To these men that stumble at this block I answer 1. That the Prophet speaketh there as I shewed to you before not of any Soveraign Monarch but of the Aristocratical government of many men that will all be as Kings and Princes ruling and domineering over the people for so you see the Prophet speakes in the plural number of many Kings that in all the whole Scripture you shall never find to be either appointed or approved by God to be the Governours of his people for indeed those many Kings and Governours of equal authâ—rity are none of Gods Governours neither are they set up by God nor as I find approved by God in any place of all the Scripture But as God is One and the only Monarch of all the World so he ever appoints one Monarch only to be his Deputy to govern the people or nation that he committeth under his charge 2. I say that this Monarch and Governour whom God raiseth to govern his people attaineth unto his Throne and right of Government even by the ordination of God divers wayes as 1. Sometimes by Birth which is the most usual best and surest way and most agreeable to Gods will 2. Sometimes by Choice and the election of the people as Herodotus saith the Medes chose Deioces to be their King and the Princes of Germany now chuse their Emperour and they commonly chuse him that is by Birth the eldest son of the deceased King 3. Sometimes by the power of the Sword as God gave the Monarchy of the Medes unto Cyrus and the Kingdom of Darius and of many others unto Alexander and the Empire of the Romans unto Augustus and many other Kingdoms unto others that had no other right unto their Dominions but what they purchased with the edge of their Sword Which right though it be nothing else but Vsurpation and Intrusion in these ambitious hunters after rule and dominion yet notwithstanding it must needs be a very good right as the same cometh from the just God who is the God of war and giveth the victory unto Kings when as the Poet saith Victrix causa diis placuit And he having the right and power Paramount to translate the rule and transferre the dominion of his people to whom he will he hath oftentimes for their sins thrown down the mighty from their seat and translated the government of his people unto others whom some waies he thought fitter to effect his Divine will as he did give the Kingdom of Saul unto David and of Belshazzers unto Cyrus and
〈◊〉 the Lord shall deliver him in the time of trouble much more blessed shall he be that helpeth and relieveth the oppressed and especially those that have formerly wronged and oppressed him he shall be doubly blessed 1. Because he relieveth his wants And 2. Because he remitteth his faults and revengeth not his own wrongs And so you see how we are to honor to esteem and to love all men 2. As we are to honor all men in generall 2 What love we owe to the Brother-hood so more especially we are to love the Brother-hood in particular where observe 1. The Act. 2. The Extent 1. The Act is love and love saith the Schoolman is Bene velle amato but that is no more then Amor affectivus and the Apostle speaks not here de amore affectivo tantum sed de amore effectivo simul of the inward affection only but also of that love which is declared by the effects in outward actions and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Aethic l. 9. c. 5. To love is to will that which we esteem good to any one and to the uttermost of our power to procure that good unto him as Aristotle saith So that this our love to the brother-hood comprehendeth 1. An hearty affection without dissimulation 1 Joh. 3.18 not only in tongue and in word but in deed and verity i. e. from the heart 2. An actuall performance of all the good that we can do unto them as praying for them comforting them and administring to their necessities not only with our purses but also with our words with our labours Crysost in Ro. 12. ho. 21. and with any thing that lieth in our power to stand them in any stead This is the act that we are to do And 2. For the Extent of it we are to do it most especially saith the Apostle to the Brother-hood Touching which point of Fraternity or Brother-hood you must observe that there is a two fold Brother-hood whereof you must hate the one and love the other That there is a two fold fraeternity As The 1. Is in Evil and from the Devil The 2. Is in Good and from God For 1. Simeon and Levi were brethren but it was in the evil 1 The evill Brother-hood saith the Scripture when the instruments of cruelty were in their habitations and therefore cursed was their brother-hood Gâ—n 49.5 7.7 and their unity was to be divided in Jacob and to be scattered in Israel And so the wicked at all times Faciunt unitatem coutra unitatem do as S. Augustine saith unite themselves together against verity and against the unity that should be among Cristians Psal 2.1 2. which is the unity of faith and religion and as the Prophet David saith the Heathen do furiously rage together How the wicked like the Scots and the Parliament do combine and covenant together and the people do imagine a vain thing and all take counsell together and plot against the Lord and against his annointed so Pilate and Herod though at ods among themselves for other things yet they can be reconciled and agree together to crucify Christ And so Solomon tels us how the Congregation of the ungodly do confederate and Covenant as now they do together to strengthen themselves in their wickedness saying one to anothe Come let us cast our lots together let us have but one purse that is one common treasure amongst us all Prov. 1.11 14. and let us undergo the same fortune be the same good or bad And therefore it is no new thing for Traytors Rebels and Robbers and other the like wicked men though of different sects and severall opinions yet to unite themselves together and to take oathes and make covenants confederacies and conspiracies against the professors of the true Religion and against those that they are bound Salust Conjurat Caâ—el X â—â—â—phâ—n de ascend Cyri. by former oaths to obey as it was in the conspiracy of Cateline which Salust relateth and in the confederacy of the Grecians when they went up with Cyrus the younger against Artaxerxes which Zenophon setteth down at large and the covenant of the holy leaguers of France against their King and the like But you must remember to do what God commandeth you to do in such confederacies saying My son walk not thou in the way with them resrain thy fâ—ot from their path Prov. 1.15 for their feet run to evil and make hast to shed blood as you may read in the foresaid Authors what abundance of innocent blood those wicked covenants and confederacies have caused to be spilt And therefore this being not the Brother-hood that you should love if you love God and your own souls you must hate the same as you do the gates of hell because that as the Psalmist saith in covenanting against right and against the truth they are confederates against thee O God and against thy servants And what created power under Heaven How hard it is to escaâ—e the mischief of subtile confederates is able to unty that knot and to escape that malice which villany subtilty and cruelty have combined to bring to pass Or what man is able to withstand a multitude of united enemies that have strength and wealth enough and have covenanted and sworne to fight against him untill they have destroyed him Surely when their plots are so subtile their power so great their wealth of Gold and Silver so much and the confederates of sworne brethren so many it is impossible to prevent their mischief and to escape out of their hands if the Lord himself doth not stand to help his servants and as the Prophet saith if he that dwelleth in heaven laugheth not these covenanters to scorne if the Lord have them not in derision yea if he speaks not to them in his wrath and vexeth them in his sore displeasure 2. 2 The good Brother-hood The other brother-hood is good among the good and in good in faith to God in obedience to our King and in love towards all men and this brother-hood is many fold as specially 1. Is four fold Naturall 2. Nationall 3. Politicall 4. Spirituall 1. 1 The naturall Brother-hood Naturall brethren begotten of the same parents bred in the same house and after the same manner should not be like the off-spring of Cain that killed his own and his only brother Abel and as Romulus killed his own brother Remus and Antoninus murdered his brother Geta in his mother's lap 2 Chr. 21.4 and King Joram slew six of his own naturall brethren the sons of Jehosaphat Jâ—seph de Ant. l. 14. c. 2. deinceps with the sword when as such miscreants are unworthy to live on earth neither should they jar hate or envy one another as Jacob and Esau did and Jacobs children did their brother Joseph and as the dissention of Hyrcanus and Aristobulus made way for
sed hoc solo contentus quia praecipitur he that is truly obedient to him whom God commanded us to obey never regardeth what it is that is commanded so it be not simply and apertly evill but he considereth and is therewith satisfied that it is commanded and therefore doth it because as S Aug. saith The command of the Superiour is a sufficient excuse for the inferiour Mandatum imperantis tollit peccatum obedientis i.e. in all things not apparantly forbidden And therefore as Julians Christian-Souldiers would not sacrifice unto the Idols which was an apparent evil at his command Sed timendo potestatem contemnebant potestatem but in fearing the power of God regarded not the wrath of man yet when he led them against his enemies they never questioned who they were that they went against nor examined the cause of his war but they went freely with him Et subditi erant propter Dominum aeternum etiam Domino temporali and in all such civill commands they obeyed this wicked King for his sake that was the King of kings and it may be fought against their own brethren So did the Jews that followed Saul against David and yet we never read that ever they were blamed for it And so should we do the like if we would do what God commandeth us For it is not in the subject's choice against whom he will fight but he must be obedient to his King if he will be obedient unto God for so the Lord saith I have made the earth the man and the beast Jerem. 27.5 6. that are upon the ground by my great power therefore certainly none should deny his Right to dispose of it and now I have given all these Lands into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar the King of Babylon my servant and yet he was both a Heathen and Idolater and a mighty Tyrant and all nations shall serve him and his son and his sons son and it shall come to passe that the nation and Kingdom which will not serve the same Nâ—buchadnezzar the King of Babylon and that will not put their necks under the oke of the King of Babylon that nation will I punish saith the Lord with the sword and with the famine and with the pestilence until I have consumed them by his hands Therefore hearken not ye unto your Prophets nor to your Divines which speak unto you saying Ye shall not serve the King of Babylon for they prophesie a lye unto you which he repeateth again and again they prophesie a lye unto you that you should perish Which very words I may take up against the Rebels of England Ireland and Scotland God gave these Kingdoms unto King Charles and they cannot deny this nor deny him to be a good man and a most religious King and He hath commanded us to obey him and they that will not serve him he will destroy them by his hand Therefore believe not your false Teachers whether they be the Priests and Jesuits of Ireland or the Brownists and Anabaptists of England for God hath not sent them though they multiply their lyes in his name because God hath so straightly commanded us to obey our King in all civil causes and in all things wherein he giveth not a special charge to do the contrary And therefore that which is most worthy to be observed though God himself for the sin of Solomon declared by his Prophet that he had decreed to cut off ten parts of the Kingdom from Rehoboam yet because the people revolted not to satisfie Gods justiâ—e for the sins of Solomon but out of their own discontents that he would not ease them of their burdens for this revolt from a foolish and an oppressing Prince they are termed Rebels 1 Kings 12.19 and as the Thief to prevent his discovery will commit murder scelus scelere regitur and one great mischief will shelter it self under a greater so their Rebellion corrupted their Religion and made them fall away from God to worship Idols as they had done from their King to serve a Traytor which soon brought them to confusion Because this revolt as it proceeded from them was most abominable unto God And therefore though they were not reduced to Rehoboam because that may pretend some cause as oppression yet this after a plenary disquisition can admit of none excuse and therefore being abominable above measure it cannot expect the least favour from God but they were most severely punished by God because they transgressed his will by thus rebelling against their King contrary to his Commandment 2. The other Caution is That if the King commandeth what the Lord forbiddeth or the contrary then I may disobey but I must not resist for this is the will of God that where my active obedience cannot take place my passive obedience must supply it And though our Kings were as Idolatrous as Manasses as Tyrannical as Nero as wicked as Ahab and as prophane as Julian yet we may not resist we must not Rebel which would overthrow the very order of nature Arnis de autâ—rit princ c. 3. pag. 68. as Arnisaeus proveth by many examples and takes away the glory of martyrdom and makes all the Precepts of the Gospel of none effect And therefore when the Christians in Tertullians time were more in number and of greater strength than their enemies yet being compelled to Idolatry they rather suffered any persecution than admitted of any Rebellion against the most wicked of their persecutors And Juâ—tinian faith Q is est tantae authoritatis ut nolentem principem possit coarctare Who hath so much power as to restrain an unwilling Prince And yet it is very strange to consider what new Divinity hath been taught ex cathedra pestilentiae out of the chair of our new Assembly to raise Rebellion against our King and that which is worse than Rebellion to refuse the grace of Remission The Scribes and Pharisees were most wicked hypocrites and they sate in Moses chair but they never durst teach such tenets as now are published and practised in these Kingdoms And therefore our Saviour saith Math. 23.3 All that they bid you observe that observe and do Indeed there were some Hereticks among them that in the dayes of Theudas and Judas Galilaeus taught That the Jews were not to pray for the life of the Emperour because he was but extraneous an Vsurper and none of their lawful Kings for which errour Pilate mingled their blood with their sacrifice but these never durst avouch they should not pray for their own lawful King much lesse that they might rebel and take up arms against him Joseph Antiq. though he were never so wicked For they knew that the holiest men that ever were among the Hebrews called Essaei or Esseni that is the true Practisers of the Law of God maintained that Soveraign Princes whatsoever they were ought to be inviolable to their subjects as they were in most places among the most
take this office upon him but he that is as well outwardly approved by such as are lawfully authorized to approve him Exod. 4.16 as inwardly called by the restifying spirit of his own conscience so also Christ saith the Apostle glorified not himself to be made an high Priest and to become the great Shepherd of Gods flock Heb. 5.5 c. 17.21 but he that said unto him Thou art my son this day have I begotten thee and hath sworn Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech And therefore if no man no not Christ himself taketh this holy office upon him but he that is lawfully called by such as have lawful authority to call him I wonder how any man dares to intrude himself into the Ministry without any mission from Christ or commission from such as are lawfully authorized by Christ to admit them You know what our Saviour saith As my father sent me so send I you and they that were his Apostles never went until he sent them for there must be an Ite go ye Mat. 28.19 Mar. 16.15 John 10.1 before Praedicate preach ye and you see what our Saviour saith here Verily verily I say unto you he that entreth not by the door into the sheepfold but climbeth up some other way the same is a thief and a robber that is he that is not lawfully called and comes not the right way into the Ministry to be the shepherd of Gods flock the same is none of Gods Ministers Jer. 23.21 14.14 but is a thief and a robber stealing to himself what of right belongs to another And yet I fear we have now too many of whom the Lord may say as he doth by the Prophet Jeremy I have not sent these Prophets yet they ran I have not spoken unto them yet they prophesied for we are not onely to consider whether they be called and approved to be the Ministers of Christ but we must likewise consider by whom they are called and approved for as idem est non esse non apparere so it is all one to be not called and not approved as to be called and approved by such as have no right nor authority to call and approve them as when a company of thieves and robbers gives power and authority to a man to be Justice of the Peace or a Judge of Assize we say his power and authority is null and of no validity so they that give orders and approve of Priests and have no right no power nor authority to give orders and to allow them do just nothing in the just way and their orders is worth nothing But you will say this may be true of the Lay-preachers but those that are ordained by the Presbyterians and approved by an assembly of Presbyters cannot be denied to be lawfully called and to enter in by the door into the sheepfold I answer that I will not at this time discuss who gave them this power and authority to ordain Priests but I say that I dare not I cannot approve and justifie their authority let them answer for it that presume to do it I have shewed you their error in my discovery of the great Antichrist So you see how this grand Shepherd did lawfully enter into his office and how all his under-Shepherds should imitate him in their lawfull entrance and not intrude themselves nor be unlawfully admitted into the Ministry 2. 2 A perfect performance of all the duties of a good Shepherd Philo Jud. in l. de opificio mundi The other point here spoken of this great Shepherd is a perfect and most absolute performance of all the duties of a good Shepherd Where first of all you must observe that Theocritus Virgil and others writing of this office of Shepherds do make three kindes of Pastors or Shepherds and so doth Philo Judaeus where he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Shepherd Goatesman and Herdsman drive the flocks of sheep goats and bullocks and it is observed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dici de pastore omnium animalium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum relatione tantum ad oves that the Greeks do call him onely that keepeth sheep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a shepherd and our Saviour saith not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am the good goatsman or the good herdsman John 10.14 but he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am the good Shepherd that taketh care for his sheep but not for goats because the Lord careth for the righteous but as the Prophet saith he scattereth abroad all the ungodly And seeing that he is a Shepherd you know what the Poet saith Pastorem Tytere pingues Pascere oportet oves Vagil Eglog 6. The Shepherd ought to feed his sheep for as the old proverb goeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spartam nactus es hanc orna every one should look to his own office as the learned Divine to preach the Word of God the Cobler to mend his shoes the Countrey-man to plough his ground curabit prelia Conon and the King or whosoever is the chief Magistrate to provide for war and to conclude peace which is the onely way to keep all things in the right way because that mittere falcem in alienam messem for the Coachman with his whip to lash the pulpit the Taylor with his shears to divide the Word of God the shepherd with his hook to rule the people and the unruly people to reign as Kings is that which as the Poet saith Turbabit fadera mundi Lucan phars l. 1. and is the readiest way to pull all things asunder to tear in pieces the whole course of nature and to subvert all the order of Gods creatures and indeed to reduce the total frame of the creation to a speedy dissolution whereas that man is worthy of all praise as Aelian saith which meddleth with nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that pertaineth nothing unto him but looketh onely and carefully to his own duty and he is worthy to be reproved as our Saviour checkt Saint Peter for his curiosity to know what John must do that is a stranger in his own affairs and busieth himself onely with what onely belongs unto others And therefore not to do my self what I blame in others or to extend my discourse beyond my line to treat of the art of war with Phormio before Hannibal or to tell you the office of a King or a Judge when my text tels me I am to treat of a Shepherd but to keep my self contrary to the common practise ad idem to my own proper task I shall desire you to remember that the duty of a good Shepherd consisteth chiefly in these two points 1. Negatively what he should not do to his sheep 2. Affirmatively what he should do for them 1. The heathen man could tell us that boni pastoris est pecus tondere non deglubere it is the part of a good Shepherd to fleece
Noble Ancestors in Nobleness that is in Piety and Vertue the very Heathens will tell us our springing from them is worth nothing but rather a shame then a credit unto us because as Theognis saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vertue is the great Glory which never perisheth and therefore Juvenal saith as I have shewed to you before in my first Treatise Malo pater tibi sit Thyrsites Juven Sat. 8. dum modo tu sis Aeà cidae similis vulcaniaque arma capessas Quam te Thyrsitae similem producat Achilles I commend the son of a Clown that is vertuous and carrieth himself nobly more then the son of a Prince that is vitious and behave himself like a Clown And Codrus Urceolus saith Sis licet ingenuis clarisque parentibus ortus Urceolus in Epigrammatibus Sint tibi divitiae sit larga munda supellex Denique quicquid eris nisi sit prudentia tecum Magna quidem dico bestia semper eris Though thou beest born of never so noble Parents and hast never so much Wealth and Lands and what thou wilt and hast no Wisdome nor understanding to be vertuous thou art but a very beast for so the Prophet saith Man being in honour and without understanding is campared to the beasts that perish and the Poet saith Ovid de Ponto Nam genus proavos quae non ferimus ipsi vix ea nostra voco Hieron ad Celan Non Census nec clarum nomen avorum Sed probitas magnos ingeniumque facit And therefore S. Hierom tells Celantia that Sola apud Deum libertas est non servire peccatis summa apud deum nobilitas est clarum esse virtutibus he is the onely Free-man that serves not sin and followeth not his own lust and he is the true Noble-man that is truly vertuous and godly And Palingenus saith Nobilitas sola est atque unica virtus hac nobilis Hector Alcidesque fuit And the Prophet saith He had rather be a door-keeper in the house of God that is to be a Porter and to have the meanest office that is in the Service of God then to have the greatest honour in the world in the Courts and palaces of the ungodly and the meanest man that serveth God is more honourable then the greatest Potentate that serveth his own lust for as Abraham is said to be Pater sanctorum the Father of the faithfull though he was Filius peccatorum the off-spring of sinners and the son of Terah that was an Idolater because his Fathers Idolatry was not able to obscure his Glory so all the Indignities and Contempts that this world can cast upon the servants of God can no wayes blemish their worth or diminish their reputation in the sight of God To serve God truly is to be truly noble And therefore I had rather be a sheeep of Christ that is a simple Christian that deceiveâ—h no man and hurreth none but suffereth much than to be a Fox of this world to beguile the simple or a Lion to crush my neighbours all to pieces for so I be with John Baptist Magnus coram Domino great in the sight of the Lord that is of good esteem with God as he is said to be I shall never greatly care how meanly I shall be accounted of in this world but as Constantine rejoyced more in that he was Filius Ecclesiae a Son of the Church and a Member of Christ then in being Caput imperii the Emperour of the whole world so I will be more glad and take it for a greater Honour to be one of Christs simple sheep of what condition soever my Earthly Father be then to be the Son of the Noblest Father in the world and to be as the Jews were and all other our wicked ungodly and unrighteous men though termed Saints are the children of their Father the Devil 2. 2 The security and safety of all good Christians As the servants of God are truly noble in being Christ his Sheep so being his sheep they are and may be secure and free from all fear either 1. Of Injuries or 2. Of Wants For 1. 1 From wrongs the Prophet David saith The Lord is on my side therefore I will not fear what man can do unto me for though the Idol sheperd whereof Zechary speaketh and I told you before of his ill properties Zech. 11. and the Hiveling shepherd that our Saviour speaketh of Qui lanas plus quam oves diligunt which love the Wages better then the Work and the Fleeces better then the Flock will flie away that is from his Duty and do any thing that is enjoyned him when the Wolf cometh that is when the Devil or the Tyrant or the Heretick commandeth any other Service to be observed or any other Faith to be professed yet Christ that is the good Shepherd as he neither left his sheep nor forsook them but gaue his life for them to deliver them from eternal death What the false shepherds and covetous of timorous Preachers do so he will strengthen his Under-shepherds and their sheep that are his sheep likewise by his Grace against all fear either of want of Necessaries or loss of Life so that none of these shall make them flie away from the performance of their Duties because they know that this their good Shepherd is both able and willing to protect them from all evil And therefore Terra fremat regna alta crepent ruat ortus orcus Si modo firma fides nulla ruina nocet let Tyrants threaten us and let the world rage against us as much as they will 1 Tyrants cannot prevail and let them do as much as they can take away our Churches rob us of our Estates banish us from our dwellings cast us into prison and deprive us of our lives yet if we still continue Christ his sheep and retain the innocency and simplicity of sheep and obey the voice of this our good Shepherd we need not fear the face of any man nor the rage strength and malice of any Wolfe but we may comfort our selves sufficiently with what the Angel saith unto the Church of Smyrna Revel 2.10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer but be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee the Crown of life and so turn the evils that thine enemies shall do thee to thine eternal good And the striving of the Hereticks to corrupt the Faith 2 Hereticks cannot prevail and to suppress Gods service and the strugling of the Wolves to devoure the Sheep and to destroy Gods servants is but as Christ saith to Saul when he breathed slaughters against the Church to kick against the pricks or as the Poet saith Coelum ipsum petere stulstitia most foolishly and madly to fight against Heaven it solf which is a harder task then the twelve Labours of Hercules or to take the City of Troy that endured ten years siege
because this our City is built upon a Rock and the gate of hell shall never be able to prevail against it not only because that being upon a Rock it can never be undermined but especially because as S. Cyprian saith Cyprianus Non plus valet ad dejiciendum terrena paena quam ad erigendum divina tutela And this good Shepherd which is the Lamb that standeth upon Mount Sion to defend it is more powerful to save it then the Roaring Lyon which is the Prince of darkness to destroy it 2. The same Prophet David saith The Lord is my Shepherd 2 From wants Psal 23.2 therefore I shall want nothing he shall feed me in a green pasture and lead mo forth besides the waters of comfort And in the Propher Ezekiel this good Shepherd saith Ezek. 34.14 The best food for Gods sheep what it is I will feed my sheep in a good pasture and upon the high Mountains of Israel shall their Fold be there shall they lye in a good Fold and in a fat Pasture shall they feed upon the Mountains of Israel where you must observe that this Fold is the Church of Christ and the fat Pastures are the Lilies Violets and the sweetest of all pleasant flowers especially the three leaved grass that as Aristotle saith is most delight some unto the sheep for this is the food of the Shepherd even as he professeth in the Canticles Cantic 2. that he feedeth among the Lilies and that is as Psellus doth interpret it where he seeth the graces of Gods holy Spirit and the virtuous examples of the Saints these are as meat and drink unto him and so they are unto his sheep For as S. Ambrose saith the Pastures of Gods sheep are the blessed Sacraments the holy Scriptures heavenly Sermons pious books and holy meditations of heavenly things and especially the three leaved grass which is the understanding of that great mystery of godliness that our God which is but one God in Essence is distinguished into three Persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost And the waters of comfort The waters of comfort what they are are those plentiful streams of milk and honey of Divine Consolation wherewith the Spirit of God doth as it were inebriate the souls of his servants for the Church of Christ is the Land of Promise which floweth with milk and honey it is the Wilderness where the Lord raineth Manna the bread of heaven to fatisfie the fouls of his children it is the Spouse of Christ whose loves are better then Wine and it is the House of God Cantic 2. whereof the Psalmist speaketh that the sheep of Christ shall be satisfied with the plenteousness of his house and he shall give them drink of his pleasure as out of a River that is alwayes running Psal 36.8 and yet never dried up And Christ being our Shepherd his sheep shall not only have the spiritual food of their souls and be satisfied with these heavenly juncates but they shall have also whatsoever is necessary for the sustentation of their temporal life For as S. Paul saith Godliness is profitable unto all things having the promise of the life that now is 1 Tim. 4.8 and of that which is to come And our Saviour saith that if we first seek the Kingdome of God and his righteousness and so to become the sheep of this good Shepherd Matth. 6. then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the other things that you seek as food and rayment shall be given unto you for your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of these things therefore he that feedeth the young Ravens that call upon him will much rather feed you that are the sheep of Christ if you relye upon him And they shall not only have sufficient for themselves but also to help and to relieve many others as the poor and their children and their childrens children for the blessing of the Lord saith Solomon maketh rich and a good man leaveth an inheritance to his childrens children Prov. 10.22 Prov. 13 22. Psal 112. v. 2 3. Iob 22.23 for riches and plenteousness are in his house and his Seed is blessed And Eliphas the Temanite saith If thou return to the Almighty and put away iniquity far from thy Tabernacles then shalt thou lay up gold as dust and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks Yea the Almighty shall be thy Defence and thou shalt have plenty of silver even as the Lord blessed Abraham that he became very rich in cattel Gen. 13.2 c. 12.16 in silver and in gold and had sheep and oxen and he-asses and men-servants and maid-servants and she-asses and Camels Or were it so that God did not thus bless us with outward wealth but suffer the world to frown upon us and to bring us to some want and poverty as he did to Job Lazarus and others either for the tryal of their faith patience and constancy in his service or for some other causes best known unto himself yet if we be the sheep of Christ what need we care or fear any such want so long as we want not the Wedding Garment and the spiritual food of our souls Quia major est suavitas mentis quam ventris because the garment of righteousness is of more worth then any Imperial Robe and the satisfying of our Souls is a great deal better then the filling of our bodies whose food be the same never so dainty is compared with the other nothing but ackorns and husks and other like vanities that are as soon done and gone as they are begun whereas a good conscience is a continual feast and the food of our souls Iohn 6.50 54. which our good Shepherd giveth us never perisheth but feedeth us to everlasting life as our Saviour sheweth O then beloved Brethren What a blessed and a happy thing it is to be the sheep of Christ to be thus innobled with such a Master thus protected from all evil and thus satisfied with all good though therefore the Proverb tells us and it is very true if thou make thy self a sheep the Wolfe will eat thee yet it is far more excellent and to be chosen rather to be a sheep of Christ then a wolfe of the world and to be a Lamb of God rather then a Lyon of the devil when at the last we shall find it far better to be devoured then to devoure and to be spoiled then to spoil our Neighbours 3 The duties and properties of Christ his sheep Two special points Iohn 10. v. 5. But then 3. If you would be the sheep of Christ you must be qualified with these two special properties 1. To hear the Voice of Christ 2. To refuse the hearing of a strangers voice For So our Saviour saith My sheep hear my voice but a stranger will they not follow but will fly from him because they know not the voice of strangers So
Discovery of Mysteries and the Revelation of the great Anti-Christ And for which doings the Lord God hath if not sufficiently yet apparently shewed his just Wrath and Indignation against them many ways First In the discovery of their secret Hypocritical and hidden under-ground Mysteries of their Iniquitie which could not otherwise be sifted out and manifested but by the omniscient Spirit of the all-seeing-God Secondly In raysing so many godly men though to many with the hazard and to some with the loss of their lives and fortunes to oppose them and with a courage raysed by the divine Spirit to withstand their wicked ways and to uphold the true service of the living God Thirdly In the reducing of their chiefest Plots and Devices to nothing though out of his patience and long-sufferings he suffered them for a while to prosper and to walk on still and to proceed in their wickedness for they intended like those Gyants that built the Tower of Babel to erect such a frame of Government in these Kingdomes that they only and their Posterity and Successours should sit at the Stern to turn and guide the same as the thirty Tyrants did for a while in Athens so long as the Sun and Moon endureth and to that end they destroyed their King they suppressed the Bishops they excluded the Lords and then framed such an Engagement as might infringebly oblige and tie all the inhabitants of these dominions to adore them for their good Masters and Governours for ever But lo he that dwelleth in Heaven laughed them to scorne Psal ii 4. and the Lord had them in derision for as the Spirit of the Lord came upon Othniel and upon Barak and Gedeon to destroy the Aramites Canaanites and Midianites and as the Lord stired up Sampson and David to destroy the Philistines so the same Spirit stirred up one even the Lord General Cromwel a Philistine from among these Philistines and a grand Rebel out of these Rebel's that did first so wisely disannul their brazen Engin the Engagement and then seeing his opportunity and finding how acceptable it would be to God and beneficial to all good men he did with an Heroical courage dissolve that knot and scatter those Parliament-men as the Lord scattered the Jews that were the murderers of his Son and their own King over all the parts of this Kingdom And thus by the just Judgment of God the whol Mass of that long Parliament that thought to remaine as Kings for ever became like the chaff which the winde scattereth away from the face of the earth And therefore Secondly The just Judgment of God upon the dismembred members of the long Paâ—liament I must now proceed to shew you the just Judgments of God upon the dismembred parts of this great body as I finde them driven by the winde of God's wrath here and there throughout all the parts of these Dominions But I must confess that for the particular persons of that Parliament and their adherrents that have in a great measure already felt the heavy hand of God's wrath for their Transgressions in that confederacie it is a work beyond mans reach either to set them down or to shew their punishments and therefore I will confine my self and as the Lord shewed unto Moses the land of Canaan from the top of Mount Nebo afar of which sight must needs be therefore but very partial and imperfect so will I give you a tast and a glimmering light of some judgments of God and the justness thereof upon some particular men and the more noted Members of that Parliament and I will begin with him that was the beginning of our trouble the first disturber of our peace and the General of the late unhappy War the Earl of Essex First It was said as I remember of Dionysius King of Sicily Of the Earl of Essex that he was a Tyrant begot of Tyrants then which a worser Character could not be given and a baser description could not be made of him saith Plutarch But I will not say of this noble Lord who in deed had a great deal of Honour in him and carried himself for ought that ever I heard like a man of Honour and pius inimicus a noble Adversary unto the King that he was a Traytor begot a of Traytor yet I must say that his Father was a favourite of Queen Elizabeth and was arraigned and beheaded for Treason à ainst the Queen whether justly for his deserts or unjustly by the malice of his enemies I will not determine and though her Royal Majesty did Royally and most Graciously restore this man both to his Fathers Lands and Honours and King James confirmed the same and King Charles more then that made him one of his Privy Council and Lord Chamberlain of his House-hold which was for Honour one of the best Offices as I take it in the Court and for profit a place worth viis modis near about 2000. pounds per annum as I heard and conferred many other favours upon him and for all this this Lord as is conceived out of no other cause then ambition of popular praise which greedy desire of popularity hath undone many a noble minde or as others think out of a secret grudg which he bare to this good King and to King James his linage for giving way to his Lady and Wife to be divorced from him onely propter frigiditatem naturae which all Divines and Canonists do not consent to be a sufficient cause of divorce presently and willingly accepted the motion of the House of Commons Plinius lâ—b 8. cap. 23. and commission of the Parliament to become the General of all their Forces against the King wherein as Pliny writeth of the Aspick saying Conjunga ferè vagantur nec nisi cum compare vita est itaque alterutra intercepta incredibilis alteri ultionis curá persequitur interfectorem unúmque eum in quantolibet populi agmine notitia quadam infestat perrupit omnes difficultates ut perdat eum qui comparem perdiderat that he pursueth him which hath hurt or killed his Mate and knows him among a multitude of men and therefore hunteth him still and layeth for him breaking throughout all difficulties to come at him so it may be this Lord was such as Seneca speaks of qui tantùm ut noceat cupit esse potens that accepted of his office that he might be revenged for his disgrace when notwithstanding King Charles was not the Author of his dishonour nor did any wayes further that divorce and therefore should not have been maligned for anothers fault Or if it was not for this cause as I heard some confidently say it was yet for what cause soever this or any other and with what minde soever this Lord accepted that office as being loth to stain his Honour and Ambitious to retain the Fame of an honourable Soldier I never heard the King nor any other of the Nobility accusing him for any base ignoble and perfidious act