seemeth more secure than sitting in a chaire yet Judge e Aug de civit Dei l. 22. c. 22. Quid videtur sedente securius de sella cecidit Eli mortuus est Ely fell out of his chaire and brake his necke Wherefore since Judges themselves are as subject to the lawes of humane frailty as other men since for ought they know they are as neere death as the prisoner whom they have newly condemned to dye let them look above them not about them let them feare God not man let them deliver nothing at the bench which they are not assured in their consciences that they are able to make good before the Judge of quicke and dead from whose face heaven and earth fled away and their place could no where be found Judges may be considered either as of a particular circuit of the earth and so they must receive instruction from the King or Lord of that land or as Judges of the earth at large and in that regard must take their Commission and receive Instruction from the Lord of the whole earth who requireth in his Judges 1 Religion f Exod. 18.21 thou shalt provide out of all the people able men such as feare God 2 Moderation g Gal. 6.1 to restore such as are overtaken in a fault in the Spirit of meeknesse 3 Learning and knowledge in the lawes of which before 4 Integrity they must h Num. 11.24 hate covetousnesse i Exod. 18.21 Deut. 16.19 they may not take a gift c. 5 Indifferency they k Deut. 1.17 must not respect persons in judgement but heare the small c. 6 Attention and diligent enquiry they l Deut. 1.16 13.14 19.18 must heare causes and make search c. 7 Expedition m Zech. 7.9 to execute true judgement and not delay justice 8 Resolution and courage not to n Deut. 1.17 feare the face of man 9 Equity to o Deut. 1.16 Joh. 7.24 judge equally and righteously betweene every man and his brother 1 Want of Religion makes a prophane Judge 2 Want of Moderation an unmercifull Judge 3 Want of Learning an unsufficient Judge 4 Want of Integrity a corrupt Judge 5 Want of Indifferency a partiall Judge 6 Want of Attention a rash Judge 7 Want of Expedition a tedious Judge 8 Want of Resolution a timorous Judge 9 Want of Equity an unrighteous Judge Lastly Want of any of these an Incompetent Judge want of all these an unsufferable and execrable Judge 1 Religion is required in a Judge without which there will be no conscience of doing justice where injustice may be borne out and because even religious men are subject to passion to religion a Judge must adde 2 Moderation and governement of his passions and because a man of temper fit for a Judge may mistake his marke if he be not expert in the Law to moderation he must adde 3 Learning and knowledge in the Law according to which he is to give sentence and because bribes blinde the p Deut. 16.19 eyes of the wisest and learnedst Judges to learning he must adde 4 Integritie and incorruption a sincere heart and cleere hands and because where bribes cannot open the hand yet favour may enter at the eye to his Integrity he must adde 5 Indifferencie free from all kinde of partiality and because a Judge though never so religious temperate learned incorrupt and impartiall cannot yet give right judgement without a full hearing and exact discussing of the cause before him to indifferencie he must adde 6 Patient Attention and diligent q Deut. 19.18 inquisition and because the plaintife or defendant are nothing benefited by the Judges hearing of or searching into the cause if after examination there follow not a sentence to Attentition he must adde 7 Expedition for delayed justice oftentimes as much wrongeth the plaintife as injustice and because after enquiry and hearing though the Judge be expert and readie yet judgement may be stopped if a great person appeare in the cause to Expedition he must adde 8 Courage and Resolution and because if a Judge strike too hard with the sword of justice he may breake it as also because the sentence of the law may be just in generall yet in regard of difference in circumstances may wring and wrong a man in particular to all the former vertues a compleat Judge must adde 9 r Levit. 19.15 In equity shalt thou judgethy neighbour Equity and stayed discretion which holdeth steedily the gold weights of justice and addeth or taketh away a graine or more to make the piece and weight perfectly agree 1. Religion Alvares reporteth that the Aethiopians place many chaires about the Judges seat not out of State but out of Religion supposing that their Gods fit there with their Judges That which they suppose we certainely know that God and his Angels are present at the Assises and that he judgeth among the Å¿ Psal 82.1.7 gods that is the Judges or Princes How religious then ought Judges to be who are Almighty Gods Assessours So neere is the affinity betweene Justice and Religion that as Priests are called Judices sacrorum Judges of Religion and causes Ecclesiasticall so Judges are by Ulpian stiled Sacerdotes justitiae Priests of justice And not only the high Priests among the Jewes but also the Archontes of the Athenians the Archiflamines and t Cic prò domo suâ ad Pontifices Cum multa divinitus Ponâ—ifices a majoribus nostris in venta atque instituta sunt tum nihil praeclarius quam quod vos cosdem religionibus deorum immortalium summae reipublicae prae esse voluerunt Pontifices of the Romanes the Muphteyes of the Turkes the Brameres of the Indians the Druides of the ancient Brittaines were trusted with Justice as well as Religion and that for important considerations For sith mortall men cannot prescribe against God nor dispence with his commandements sith the divine law is the supreme law to which lyeth an appeale from all humane statutes and ordinances they who by their calling are Interpreters of that law might well be thought fit Umpires in all controversies concerning the equity of lawes and conformity to the divine especially in such points wherein the lawes trench upon holy things But I list not in the heat of modern oppositions to drink of the waters of strife let that question passe whether sacred persons expert in the divine law are not fittest to judge in secular causes of greatest moment this I am sure Judges must be if not in orders yet eminently religious and skilfull in the law of God for the judgement they are to give is u Deut. 1.17 Gods If a Judge be not religious he will never be zealous for Gods honour nor severely punish the breaches of the first Table If a Judge feare not God hee will feare the face of man and flye backe when he should stand out for a poore
gente Antei cuiusdam in stagnum quoddam regionis ejus duci vestituque in quâ—rcu suspenso … nare abire in desertum transfiguratique in lupos Pliny writeth of certaine people of the family of Anteus in Arcadia who having put off their clothes and swom over a deep standing poole wander in the wildernesse runne among Wolves and are transformed into their shape and after returne backe and doe great mischiefe in their owne countrey I beleeve not that there is any such family in Arcadia but I am sure wee have a sort of men in England who putting off the habit of English men and Scholars crosse the narrow Seas converse with Romish Wolves and degenerate into their nature and after they returne backe into their owne countrey make havocke of Christs flocke Here I cannot but cry aloud with zealous Bullenger t In Apoc. c. 2. Quae quaeso clementia est crudelissimis lupis blandiri ut oves innocentes Christi sanguine redemptas impunè dilâ—nient quae haec patientia sinere vineam Domini ab immanissimis monstris devastati What clemency call you this to suffer the Lords Vineyard to bee spoiled and laid waste by cruell Monsters What mercy to spare the Wolves which spare not Christs sheep redeemed with his precious bloud who plot treason against their naturall Prince scandalize the State and staine with impure breath the gold and silver vessels of the Sanctuary who turne religion into Statisme or rather into Atheisme Let it bee accounted mercy not to execute the rigour of penall Statutes upon silly seduced sheep certainly it is cruelty to spare the Wolves which worry them If any pricked at the heart at the consideration of these things say with the Jewes in the Acts y Acts 2.37 Quid faciemus What shall wee doe Wee have used all diligence to find out these Romish Wolves and those that come within our reach wee smite at the rest we set our strongest Mastives and fray them out of our coasts I answer If this were sincerely done of all hands if some shepheards were not seen by the Wolves before they spie them and thereby lost their voices according to the Proverb Lupi videre priores I say if the shepheards and the dogges bestirred themselves as they should yet the wise man in Livie will tell them All will be to no great purpose till the woods and thickets be cut down to which they flie there hide themselves Nunquam defuturi sunt lupi donec sylvae exscindantur you shall never be rid of these Romish wolves so long as in all quarters of this Kingdome they have so many places of shelter to lurke in I had almost sayd Sanctuaries of defence I am now come home to the point I first thought upon when I was sommoned to speake to this honourable assembly This Sermon was preached during the Parliament whereof many were present consisting of so many noble and worthy members of the high Court of Parliament and therefore here I will land my discourse after I have given you but one memento out of the Psalmist Remember the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem how they sayd Downe with it downe with it even to the ground or rather Up with it up with it to the trembling ayre Blow up King Queene Prince Parliament Clergie Laitie Nobilitie Gentrie Commons Lawes Statutes Charters Records all in a cloud of fire that there remaine not so much as any cinders of them upon the earth lest perhaps the Phoenix might revive out of her owne ashes But praysed be the God of heaven who discovered and defeated that plot of hell our soule is escaped as a bird out of the snare the snare is broken and we are delivered I will close up all with those sweet straines of the hundred forty ninth Psalme O sing unto the Lord a new song let his praise be heard in the great congregation let Israel rejoyce in him that made him and let the children of Sion be joyfull in their King for the Lord hath pleasure in his people and will make the meeke glorious by deliverance let the Saints be joyfull with glory let them rejoyce in their beds let the high Acts of the Lord be in their mouthes and a two-edged sword in their hands to execute vengeance upon the Romish Jezebel and rebuke her proselites to bind her Priests in chaines and her Chemarims with linkes of iron that they may be avenged of them as it is written Such honour have all his Saints To whom c. JEZEBEL SET OUT IN HER COLOURS A Sermon preached in Saint Pauls Church Novemb. 20. Anno 1614. THE XXXIV SERMON REVEL 2.20 Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel which calleth her selfe a Prophetesse to teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eate things sacrificed unto Idols Right Honourable Right Worshipfull c. IN this letter indited by the Spirit and penned by St. John I observed heretofore 1 Superscription and therein 1 The party from whom with his eminent quality the Sonne of God c. 2 The partie to whom it was sent with the title of his dignity the Angel of Thyatira 2 The contents which are so manifold and of such importance that if I had the tongue of an Angel I could hardly deliver them all in particular I have heretofore presented you with twelve sorts of fruits answerable to the fruits of the tree of life a Apoc. 22. described all growing upon the two former branches of this Scripture and this of my text and yet I have not gathered the halfe It resembleth that wonderfull tree which Pliny saw at b Lib. 17. c. 16. nat hist Arborem vidimus â—uxta Tiburtes Tulias omni genere pomorum onustam alio ramo nucibus alio baccis aliunde vite ficis pyris punicis malorumque generibus Tiburts which bare all kind of delicious and wholesome fruits Seneca his observation is true that c Sen ep 23. ad Lucil. Levium metallorum fructus in summo est illa opulentissima sunt quorum in alâ—o latet vena assidoè plenius responsura fodienti baser metals are found neere the top but the richer lie deep in the earth affording great store of precious oare Such is the Mine I have discovered in this passage of Scripture into which that you may search deeper with more profit and lesse danger I will beare before you a cleere light made of all the expositions of the best learned Scribes in the house of God who to enrich our faith bring forth out of their treasuries new things and old And to the Angel that is the Bishop or chiefe Pastour as heretofore I proved at large unto you In the Old Testament we reade of the ministery of Angels but here we finde Angels of the ministery to whom the Sonne of God himselfe kindly and familiarly writeth Our usuall forme of sommoning your attention is Hearken unto the
the Arke of the Lord within curtaines Is this decent or fitting that the King should bee better housed than his maker and advancer to his royall throne Yee would expect that hereupon he should have concluded upon building God an house but hee proposeth only the major his owne house the minor the Arke and leaveth the Prophet to inferre the conclusion because in a matter that so neerly concerned the honour and service of God he would not seem to lead the Prophet but rather be led by him from whence we may gather three speciall observations not unworthy our most serious thoughts 1. That in matters immediately appertaining to the service of God and advancement of religion the Prophets of God are to be called and their advice to be asked and taken even by Kings themselves 2. That it is a noble and princely worke to build Temples or Churches 3. That we are to set more by the glory of God than our own ease and safety and rather to desire the erecting of his house than the raising our owne fortunes After we have gathered these there be other which will fall of themselves from the branches of the Text as wee lightly passe over them And it came to passe when the King sate in his house and the Lord had given him rest round about from all his enemies that the King said unto Nathan Behold now c. The circumstance of time challengeth our due consideration in the first place It is not usuall for men sitting at ease and at rest to entertaine godly motions and resolve upon workes of pious bounty Otium pulvinar Satanae rest is oftentimes the Divels cushion but here it was not so but rather a chaire of state for God himselfe to rest in After David had been for a long time pursued by his enemies and driven from place to place as it were powred out of vessell into vessell when he now stood still he settled not upon his lees with Moab but breathed out these sweet and heavenly meditations and vowes Behold now I sit at rest and the Arke of the Lord tosseth and tumbleth from place to place I lye safely under a sure roofe able to beare off wind and weather and the Arke of God hath no better fence than a few curtaines spread over it the walls of my house are hung with rich arrasse and the sides of the Arke are covered but with skins is it fit that it should be so Nathan Speak thou on Gods behalfe who art his Prophet Is the Kings Cabinet more precious than the Lords Arke Shall the King have a palace and God have no house Shall I provide a safer place for my records and evidences than for the records of heaven and the tables of the testimony and the inspired Oracles of God This must not be so I protest it shall not be so I a Psa 132.3 4 5. sweare unto the Lord and vow a vow unto the mighty God of Jacob that I will not henceforth enter into the tabernacle of my house nor come upon my bed I will not suffer my eyes to sleep nor my eye-lids to slumber until I find out a place for the Lord an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob. Such holy vowes and religious oathes and protestations many of Gods children make in the depth of their misery but few as here David doth in the height of their prosperity and the midst of their triumphs The zeale of most men lieth in their heart like fire in a flint it must be strucke out with some violence their prayers and fervent meditations like hot spices are then most fragrant when their hearts are bruised in Gods mortar and broken with afflictions and troubles Some such thing befalleth the soule in prosperity as the husbandmen observe in a fat soyle and plentifull yeere Luxuriant b Ovid. l. 1. de art animi rebus plerunque secundis Prosperity breedeth a ranknesse in the desires and a dangerous riot of sinne whereof Moses maketh great complaint in his song But c Deut. 32.15 Jesurun waxed fat and kicked thou art waxed fat thou art growne thicke thou art covered with fatnesse then he forsooke God that made him and lightly esteemed the rock of his salvation and God by the Prophet d Hos 13.6 Hosea According to their pastures so were they filled they were filled and their heart was exalted therefore have they forgotten mee O how great is our ingratitude when God most remembreth us we most forget him drinking our fill of the rivers of his pleasures and never thinking of the spring devouring greedily the good blessings of God as Swine doe acornes upon the ground never looking up to the tree from whence they fall David was farre from this brutish vice for as soone as God had destroyed his enemies round about him he thought of building a magnificent Temple When other Kings after so good successe and glorious victories obtained in war would have cast away all care or thought of Religion at least for the present to give the more scope to their licentious desires and lusts David confineth himselfe to his closet there recounteth the innumerable benefits God had heaped upon him and studieth how to expresse his gratefulnesse to him in fine he resolveth with himselfe to build a stately palace for the King of heaven and sendeth for the Prophet Nathan to advise with him about it The King said to Nathan the Prophet David a Prophet himselfe conferreth with the Prophet Nathan Saint Peter a prime Apostle is reproved by the Apostle Saint Paul John the elder is instructed by an Elder Whence we learn That Prophets need Prophets advice Apostles need Apostles admonitions Elders need Elders instructions As two tooles whet one the other and two Diamonds point each the other and two Torches mutually light one the other so it pleaseth the wisedome of God to divide the gifts of his Spirit severally among the Pastours of the Church in different kindes and degrees that they might be one bettered by the other In which consideration among many others not lesse important the Founders and Benefactors of Collegiate Churches and Universities have built so many houses for Prophets and Prophets children as you see to live together and by lectures conferences and disputations to whet and sharpen one the other And if one starre one eminent Doctor in the Church give so great a light in the darke of ignorance what a lustre what an ornament must a Colledge of such Doctors an University of such Colledges as it were a conjunction of many starres or rather a heaven of many such conjunctions and constellations uniting their light be If one aromaticall tree send forth such a savour of life as we smell in every particular congregation what shall we judge of a grove of such trees surely it can be no other than the Paradise of God upon earth But because David is not here stiled the Prophet but the King The King said to Nathan the
against his owne body doth not his conscience tell him that God is highly displeased with him doth hee not feele the effects of his wrath in his soule and oftentimes in his body and estate also and if the hand of God upon him bring him not to a sight and a sense and an acknowledgement and a detestation also of his sinne dare any man secure his salvation On the contrary if after his relapse his heart smite him and hee feeles the pricke of conscience if there bee any sparke in the weeke any bitter fume drawing teares from his eyes any fervour of zeale any heate of love in him any vehement desire of saving grace though hee receive the sentence of death in himselfe and breathe out his last gaspe in a disconsolate sigh and with a lamentable groane yet none doubteth but that he may passe even by the gates of Hell into Heaven There is nothing so easie or frequent as for a man to slip or fall who walketh upon the ice and what is this world compared by Saint John to a sea of glasse Apoc. 15.2 but slippery ice in which though they who goe most warily slide often and receive grievous falls yet they may take such hold on the one side upon the promises of God Jer. 31.40 I will not turne away from them to doe them good but I will put my feare in their hearts that they shall not depart from mee and on the other side upon Christs praier I have prayed for thee that thy faith faile not that they fall not irrecoverably or so dangerously as that they dye of their fall Luke 22.31 For whose comfort in their fearfullest conflicts with dispaire I will lay such grounds of confidence as will amount to a hope that maketh not ashamed and at least to a morall assurance of the recovery of their former estate In the ninth of Proverbs and the first wee have a description of a house built by Wisedome b Prov. 9.1 Wisedome saith hee hath built her an house shee hath hewen out her seven pillars By this house albeit some of the Ancients understand the incarnation of the Sonne of God who is the Wisedome of his Father and might bee said then to build him an house when hee framed a body to himselfe yet may it bee applyed to the spirituall house which every Christian buildeth by faith upon the rocke Christ Jesus for as that so this standeth upon seven pillars 1. The constancy of Gods love in Christ 2. The certainty of his decrees 3. The truth of his promises 4. The power of regenerating grace 5. The efficacy of Christs prayer and intercession for all Beleevers 6. The safegard of the Almighties protection 7. The testimony of the true ancient Church which the Apostle himselfe graceth with the title of the pillar and ground of truth The first pillar to support this building is the constancy of Gods love to all that are in Christ which may be thus hewen to our purpose They upon whom God setteth such an especiall affection in Christ that hee maketh a covenant of peace and entreth into a contract of marriage with them can never bee cast utterly out of favour much lesse grow into eternall hatred and detestation in such sort that they become the objects of endlesse misery and subjects of everlasting malediction For this kindnesse whereby the Lord our Redeemer hath mercy on us Esa 1.54.8 With everlasting kindnesse will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy Redeemer Ver. 10. The mountains shal depart and the â—â—ls be removed but my kindnesse shall not depart from thee neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed is everlasting The covenant of this peace is immoveable this contract is indissoluble * Hos 2.19 20. I will betroth thee unto mee for ever I will betroth thee unto mee in righteousnesse and in judgement and in loving kindnesse and in mercies I will betroth thee unto mee in faithfulnesse and thou shalt know the Lord. But all true beleevers are embraced with this love comprised within this covenant parties in this contract What then can steale their hearts from Christ or alienate his love from them z Rom. 8 35.38 What shal separate them from this love of God in Christ shall tribulation or anguish or persecution or famine or nakednesse or perill No neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. That fire which generateth and produceth its owne fuell can never goe out and what is the fuell which nourisheth this heavenly flame but grace and vertue in us which it selfe continually worketh in all them that are new creatures in Christ Men affect others because of worth but contrariwise Gods affection causeth worth in all who are indeared unto him All the spirituall beauty they have wherewith he is enamoured is no other than the reflection and glisening of the beames of his grace which a Heb. 12.2 Looking unto Jesus the beginner and finisher of our faith beginneth and consummateth all good in us b Phil. 2.13 For it is God that worketh in us both to will and to doe of his good pleasure working in us both the wil the deed Philosophy teacheth that the celestiall and superiour bodies work upon the terrestriall and inferiour but not on the contrary The stormes or calmes in the aire change not the motions or influence of the starres but contrariwise the motions conjunctions and influences of the Starres cause such variety in the ayre and earth The rayes of the visible Sunne are not moved at all by the motion of the object but immoveably flow from the body of that Planet and though blustering windes tyrannize in the ayre and remove it a thousand times out of its place in an houre yet they stirre not therewith in like manner though our affections are transported with every gale of prosperity and storme of adversity and our wills somewhat yeeld to every wind of temptation yet Gods affections like the beames of the Sunne remaine immoveable where they are once fixed Wee play fast and loose even with those oftentimes to whom wee are bound in the strongest bonds of duty and love wee praise and dispraise with a breath frowne and smile with a looke Esay 55.8 love and hate with a conceit but Gods affections are not like ours John 13.1 nor are his thoughts our thoughts For having loved his owne which were in the world 2 Tim. 2.13 hee loveth them unto the end and though we beleeve not yet hee abideth faithfull he cannot deny himselfe The second pillar is the certainty of Gods decree for the salvation of the Elect 2 Tim. 2 19. and thus I reare it up The foundation of God standeth sure having this seale The Lord knoweth them that
to blow us out of the heape than the breath of Christ himselfe to keep us in l Luke 21.31 32. Sathan hath sought to winnow you like wheat but I have prayed for thee that thy faith faile not Upon which words Saint a Aug. de correp grat c. 8 Quando rogavit Christus ne Petri fides deficeret quid aliud rogavit nisi ut haberet in fide liberrimam fortissimam perseverantissimam voluntatem Austin thus enlargeth himselfe When Christ prayed for Peter that his faith might not faile what did hee pray for else but that he might have a most free a most firme a most constant will to continue in the faith Yea but it may be excepted that this praier of Christ is a good protection for St. Peter but not for us he is thereby secured from Apostacy not we Why so Peter is not here considered as the first precious stone in the foundation of the heavenly Jerusalem shining in spirituall graces above his brethren but as one graine or seed among others to bee winnowed by Sathan which is the common case of all the faithfull therefore what Christ prayed for Peter he prayed for all of the same heape that then were or hereafter shall be winnowed by Sathan Thus Saint b Aug. de correp grat c. 12. Dicente Christo rogavi pro te ne deficiat fides tua intelligamus ci dictum qui aedificatur super petram ita homo Dâ—â— in Domino gloriatur non solum quia misericordiam consecutus ut esset fidelis sed etiam quia fides ipsa non deficit Austin conceiveth of our Saviours prayer when Christ said I have prayed for thee Peter that thy faith faile not let us understand it to be spoken to him that is built upon a rocke for hereby the man of God boasteth in the Lord not only because he hath obtained mercy to become a beleever but also because faith it selfe faileth not Nay our Lord himselfe thus expoundeth himselfe c John 17.20 21 23. Neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall beleeve on me through their word that they may be also one in us I in them and thou in mee that they may bee made perfect in one c. I will close this straine with a quaver like to that of d Plin. in panegyr lurat is per quem juramus Pliny to Trajane What a favour is this what security what happinesse he sweareth by whom wee all sweare so may I say with farre greater reason What a favour doth God vouchsafe unto us what security doth he give us what a happinesse is it for us Orat is per quem oramus Hee prayeth for us by whom wee pray nay to whom we pray by whom we pray as our Mediatour to whom we pray as God and in whose name we obtaine all that we pray for The sixth pillar is a pillar of brasse as strong as a castle of Diamond to secure the person of the faithfull the safegard of Gods protection This pillar is thus erected by Saint e 1 Pet. 1.4 5. Peter Those that are begotten againe to a lively hope are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation and therefore cannot be drawn away through infidelity to perdition The Patrons of the apostacy of Saints cannot infringe this argument unlesse they could weaken or shorten the arme of the Almighty who is f 2 Tim 1.12 able to keep that which is committed unto him against that day and not able only but g 2 Thes 3.3 faithfull also to establish us and keep us from evill and confirme us not for a time only but to the end that we may be h 1 Cor. 1.8 blamelesse in the day in the Lord Jesus which according to his gracious promises hee most certainly performeth two manner of wayes 1. Partly by arming us continually with new strength of grace to resist temptation in what kind soever 2. Partly by inhibiting and restraining the assaults themselves both in respect of 1. The violence 2. The continuance of them To the first point Saint i Greg. l. 28. moral in Job c. 7. Novit pro custodia nostra restringere quod contra nos egredi pro justitiae â—xercitio permittit ut saeviens nos diluaâ— procella non mergat Gregory speaketh pertinently Our gracious God for our health and safety knoweth how to keep that within bounds which hee suffereth in justice to goe out against us in such sort that the raging storme shall wash us all over but shall not drowne us The second point Saint a Ambr. comment in 1 Corinth 10. Non plus permittitur ei imponi quà m scitur ferre posse ut quarto die pati non permittatur qui scitur ultra triduum non posse tolerare Ambrose fully hitteth God saith he doth so proportion the burthen to our shoulders that hee suffereth not more to bee laid upon any than he knoweth may be borne so that he permitteth not a man to be in durance the fourth day whose patience he knoweth cannot hold out beyond the third The Apostles words reach home to both b 1 Cor. 10.13 God is faithfull who will not suffer you to bee tempted above that you are able but will with the temptation also make a way to escape that you may be able to beare it Hoc est scutum Vulcanicum This is armour of proofe indeed against darts arrowes bullets swords or push of pike If we shall never be tempted above our strength we shall alwayes be strengthned above temptation and consequently never bee overcome of it c Plin l. 12. nat hist c. 9. Fluctibus pulsatae resistunt immotae quin pleno aestu operiuntur apparetque argumentis asperitate aquarum illas ali Pliny writeth of a strange kinde of trees growing in the red sea which being beat upon by the waves stand immoveable yea sometimes when in a full sea they are covered over with water and it appeares by many arguments that they are bettered by the roughnesse of the waters even so a Christian planted in the red sea by faith in Christs bloud resisteth all the waves of temptation and the more hee is beat upon yea and overwhelmed also sometimes with the billowes of troubles and afflictions the better he thriveth spiritually in grace The seventh and last pillar to uphold the doctrine delivered is the judgement of the ancient Church upon record in the authenticall writings of the ancient Fathers that flourished within sixe hundred yeeres after Christ I will onely alledge such passages as upon this occasion I had time to examine Origen for antiquities sake shall begin the verdict It is the manner of the Scripture to begin with those things which are sad and dreadfull and to end with those things which are chearfull and comfortable God saith not d Orig. in Jer. homil 1. Non dicitur vivificabo occidam sed occidam
accessary to the death of the Lord of life And not only those that committed high treason against the sacred person of the Lords Annointed and imbrued their hands and stained their consciences with that bloud which cleanseth us from all sinne 1 John 1.7 but also Nero and Domitian and Trajan and Antoninus and Severus and Maximinus and Decius and Valerianus and Dioclesianus and Maxentius and all other Emperours that employed their swords and Simon Magus and Cerinthus and Arrius and Nestorius and Manes and all other obstinate arch-Heretickes who employed their pens against him none have hitherto escaped the heavie judgement of God who have bid battell to the Christian Faith and have wilfully and of set malice given the Spouse of Christ the least wound or skarre either by a gash with their sword or a scratch with their pen. Bee wise now therefore O yee Kings Psal 2.10 11 12. bee instructed yee Judges of the earth Serve the Lord with feare and rejoyce with trembling Kisse the Sonne lest hee bee angry and yee perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little blessed are all they that put their trust in him Some Interpreters by Judgement understand the spirituall government of Christ which is managed in his Church with excellent wisedome and judgement and by Victory the prevalent power of grace in the faithfull wherby they are victorious in all temptations in such sort that though Sathan labour with all his might to blow out a poore sparke yet hee shall not be able to quench it and that the smallest degree of faith like a grain of mustard seed is stronger than the gates of hell and is able to remove mountaines of doubts and oppositions cast up by Sathan and our rebellious hearts between God and us And from hence they inforce the Apostles exhortation to all the souldiers of Christ to be strong in the Lord Ephes 6.10 and in the power of his might not to looke who are their enemies but who is our Captaine not what they threaten but what hee promiseth who hath taken upon him as to conquer for us so to conquer in us These are sweet and comfortable notes but as I conceive without the rule of this Text for questionlesse the Donec or Untill is not superfluous or to no purpose but hath reference to some future time when Christs mild proceedings shall be at a period and he shall take another course with his enemies such as I have before described in the particular judgement of the Jewish Nation and the generall judgement of the whole World But if Judgement and Victory bee taken in their sense there needed no untill to bee added For Christ even from the beginning of his preaching when he strived not nor cryed nor brake the bruised reed nor quenched the smoaking flaxe sent forth judgment unto victory according unto their interpretation that is wisely governed his Church and gave victory to the faithfull in their conflicts with sinne and Sathan That therefore the members of this sentence bee not co-incident and that the donec or untill may have his full force I conceive agreeably to the exposition of the ancient and the prime of the later Interpreters that in this clause Till hee bring forth judgement unto victory the Prophet determineth the limits of the time of grace Whosoever commeth In between the first and second comming of Christ shall be received into favour but after the gates of mercy shall bee locked up Yet our gracious Ahasuerus reacheth out his golden Scepter to all that have a hand of faith to lay hold on it but then he shall take his Iron mace or rod in his hand to bruise his enemies and breake them in pieces like a potters vessell I must sing therefore with holy David of Mercy and Judgement mercy in this life and judgement in the life to come mercy during the day of grace but judgement at the day of the Worlds doom For although sometimes God meets with the Reprobate in this life yet that judgement which they feele here may bee accounted mercy in comparison of that which shall be executed upon them hereafter without all mitigation of favour release of torments or limitation of time Now the vials drop on them but then they shall bee poured all out upon them Wherefore let us all like the bruised reed fall downe to the earth and humble our selves under the mighty hand of God Let us like smoaking flaxe send forth bitter fumes of sighes for our sinnes assuring our selves that now whilst the day of grace lasteth hee will not breake the bruised reed nor quench the smoaking flaxe but if we neglect this time of grace and deferre our repentance till he send forth judgement unto victory we shall smoake for it Cogitemus fratres de tempore in tempore ne pereamus cum tempore Let us thinke of time in time lest we perish with time Let us imagine that we now saw the Angel standing upon the sea Apoc. 10 5 6. and upon the earth and lifting up his hand to heaven and swearing by him that liveth for ever who created heaven and the earth and the sea and the things that are therein that there should be time no longer Jonas 2.8 O let us not forsake our owne mercy but to day if wee will heare his voice harden not our hearts but mollifie them by laying them asoake in teares Let us breake off our sinnes suddenly by repentance and our iniquities by almes-deeds Now is the seed-time let us now therefore sow the seeds of faith hope mercy meeknesse temperance patience and all other divine Vertues and we shall reape a plentifull harvest in heaven Cypr. ad Dom. Hic vita aut amittitur aut tenetur hic saluti aeternae cultu Dei fructu fidei providetur Galat. 6.8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reape corruption but hee that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reape life everlasting Which God of his infinite mercy grant that we may all do in heaven through the merits of his Sonne by the grace of the holy Spirit to whom c. THE TRAITORS GUERDON A Sermon preached on the Gowries conspiracy before his Grace and divers Lords and persons of eminent quality at Croydon August 5. Anno Dom. 1618. THE FIFTH SERMON PSAL. 63. VER 9 10 11. 9. But those that seeke my soule to destroy it shall goe into the lower parts of the earth 10. They shall make him run out like water by the hands of the sword they shall be a portion for Foxes 11. But the King shall rejoyce in God every one that sweareth by him shall glory but the mouth of them that speake lyes shall be stopped Most REVEREND Right Honr. Right Wor sh c. WEe are at this present assembled with religious Rites and sacred Ceremonies to celebrate the unfortunately fortunate Nones of August which are noted in red letters in the Romane Calendar as
as it were with a wall of brasse and castle of Diamond the Divine protection Abijah and his people joyning battaile with Jeroboam smote him and all Israel and slew five hundred thousand and tooke Bethel with the Townes thereof and Jeshanah with the Townes thereof and Ephraim with the Townes thereof and the children of Israel though farre more in number were at that time brought under and the children of Judah prevailed Why Because they were better souldiers or better armed or led by a more expert Generall or because they had advantage of the place Nay rather they were every way disadvantaged For r 2 Chron. 13.13 Jeroboam caused an ambushment to come about behind them so they were before Judah and the ambushment was behind them To put you out of doubt the holy Ghost yeeldeth a reason of Judahs prevailing Å¿ 2 Chron. 13.18 because they relied upon the Lord God of their fathers St. Austin parallels this wonderfull victorie with the like that fell out about his time When t Aug. de Ciâ— Dei l. 5. c. 23. Uno die Rhadagesus tanta celeritate victus est ut ne uno quidem non dicam extincto sed ne vulnerato quidem Romano multo amplius quam centum millium prosternetur exercitus Rhadagesus King of the Gothes with a puissant army environed Rome and by reason of the small preparations in the City no hope could be expected from man how did God performe the trust by his Saints reposed in him and fought for them in this their greatest extremitie and so discomfited the enemies that in one day an army of a hundred thousand was utterly defeated not a man of the Roman side being slaine nor so much as wounded God loveth those best who trust him most and he saveth them above meanes who hope in him above hope as did Abraham the father of the faithfull Beleeve him who spake it out of his owne experience u Psal 125.1 They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Sion which cannot be removed but abideth for ever x Ps 91.1.4.5.6.7.10 ver 4. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty He shall cover thee with his feathers and under his wings shalt thou trust his truth shall be thy shield and buckler Thou shalt not be affraid for the terrour by night 5.6 nor for the arrow that flyeth by day nor for the pestilence that walketh in darknesse nor for the destruction that wasteth at noone-day A thousand shall fall by thy side 7.10 and ten thousand at thy right hand but it shall not come nigh thee There shall no evill befall thee nor any plague come nigh thy dwelling y Psal 3.8 Salvation belongeth to the Lord. z Ps 144.10 It is hee that giveth salvation unto Kings who delivereth David his servant from the hurtfull sword Why is the accent upon Kings as likewise in the words of my text The King shall rejoyce in thy strength exceeding glad shall Hee bee of thy salvation Doth not the wing of Gods provident care extend to all his Children are they not all safe under his feathers They are all yet Kings are nearest to his breast they receive more warmth from him hee hath a speciall care of them according to my second observation Obser 2 That God taketh Princes into his peculiar protection He keepeth them as the Signet of his finger because in them the Image of his Soveraigne Majestie most brightly shineth It concerneth him in honour to mainetaine them who are his Vicegerents upon earth It concerneth him in love to defend the defenders of the faith and cherish the nursing Fathers of his deerest Spouse It concerneth him in wisedome to save them who are the breath of so many thousand nostrils to keepe them whole who are the a Sen. de clem l. 1. c 4. Ille est vinculam peâ— quod respublica cohaeret nihil ipsa per se futura nisionus praeda si mens illa imperii subtrahatur Regeincolumi mens omnibus una amisso rupêre fidem bond which holdeth together the whole Common-wealth In the danger of a King is the hazzard of a State in the hazzard of a State the ruine of a Church in the ruine of a Church b Vid. Camerar meditat hist c. 30. Magnos viâ—os divinitus ab insidiis saepenumerò conservari Gods honour lyeth in the dust The heathen Poet glanced at this truth when every where he stileth Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were bred up and fostered in the bosome of Jove or rather Jehovah Keepe me saith David as the apple of thine eye Who can endure the least pricke in the apple of the eye no more will God abide his annointed to bee so much as c 1 Chro. 16.22 touched Nolite tangere unctos meos Is God so tender over Princes safety and ought not they to bee as tender of his honour Is hee so gracious to them and ought not they bee as gratefull to him The planets that receive more light from the Sunne reflect more backe againe the earth that receiveth raine from heaven returneth it backe in vapour Cessat decursus donorum si cesset recursus gratiarum Obser 3 God will shut the windowes of heaven and restraine the golden showers of his blessings if we send not up the sweet vapours and exhalations of our thankes-giving and praise Hee forfeiteth his tenure who refuseth to doe his homage bee it but the tendering of a red rose in acknowledgement of service Such a kinde of homage Almighty God requireth of us for all we hold of him the red roses of our lips and the sweet savour of our devout meditations Verily hee deserveth to lose his garden who will not afford his Landlord a flower Si ingratum d Sen. de bene fic dixeris omnia dixeris if you call a man unthankefull you need say no more for you cannot say worse whosoever deserveth to be branded with a marke of Ingratitude hath his conscience feared with a hot Iron For what is e Cic. pro planc Religion but Gratitude to God Pietie but Gratitude to Parents Loyaltie but Gratitude to Princes Charitie and friendship but gratitude to our neighbour Now of all men Princes are most obliged to be thankfull to God because the beames of his favour shine most bright in their Crownes and Scepters he sets them in his owne seat of authoritie investeth them with his owne robes of majestie armeth them with his owne sword of justice supporteth them with his own Scepter of power adorneth them with his owne Diademe of royall dignitie and graceth them with his own stile of Deity Ego dixi dii estis I have said yee are Gods e Joh. 10.34 Psal 82.6 and all of you are children of the most High Above all therefore Princes ought to be most gratefull to God because God hath placed them in that
lacernas So if the plea of antiquity should simply bee admitted in point of faith our adversaries undoubtedly would bee cast by it For although they father bastard-treatises upon ancient writers and by an unnaturall and prodigious generation beget Fathers at their pleasure yet they are not able to produce any Record expresse and direct testimony canon of Councell or Ecclesiasticall constitution 1 For their burning lights in the Church at noone day before the decree of Pope y Platin. in Sabin Sabinianus in the yeere of our Lord 605. 2 Nor for Rome z Idem in Bonifac 3. to be the head of all Churches before Pope Boniface the third in the yeere 606. 3 Nor for the invocation of Saints in their publike liturgy before * Andr. ab ofic at 7. Boniface the fift in the yeere 618. 4 Nor for their Latine service thrust upon all Churches before Pope a Osterb ael 7. Wolf ad an 666. Vitalian in the yeere b Apoc. 13.17 666. which is the very number of the name of the beast 5 Nor for the cutting of the Hoste c Osterb ib. into three parts and offering one part for the soules in Purgatory before Pope Sergius in the yeere 688. 6 Nor for setting up images in Churches generally and worshipping them before Pope Adrian the first and the second d Vid. Act. Concil 7. Councell of Nice in the yeere 787. 7 Nor for e Bell. de sanct beat l. 1 c. 8. canonization of Saints departed before Leo the third about the yeere 800. 8 Nor for the f Grat. de consecr dist 2. orall manducation of Christs body in the Sacrament before Pope Nicolas the second in the yeere 1053. 9 Nor for the entire number of g Casi consult Bell. l. 2. de es s sacr c 9 24. Lombard omnes inde Theologiseptem sacramentaâ—â— adderunt seven sacraments before Peter Lombard in the yeere 1140. 10 Nor for Indulgences before Eugenius the third in the yeere 1145. 11 Nor for h Act. Concil lâ—â—er transubstantiation of the bread into Christs body before the fourth Councell of Lateran in the yeere 1215. 12 Nor for the elevation of the Hoste that the people might i Andr. ab Osterb aetat 13. adore it before Honorius the third in the yeere 1216. 13 Nor for any k Bell in Chron. p. 109. Jubile before Pope Boniface the eighth in the yeere 1300. 14 Nor for the carrying the Sacrament in procession under a canopy before Pope l Bell. de cult sanct l. 3. c. 15. Urban the fift in the yeere 1262. 15 Nor for the dry and halfe m Concil Constan sess 13. Communion before the Councell at Constance in the yeere 1416. 16 Nor for the suspending the n Act. Concil Florent efficacy of Sacramentall consecration upon the Priests intention before the Councell at Florence in the yeere 1439. 17 Nor for the Popes o Act. Concil Later superiority to generall Councels before the sixth Councell at Lateran under Leo the tenth in the yeere 1517. 18 Nor for the Vulgar Latine p Concil Trid. sess 4. translation to bee held for authenticall and upon no pretended cause whatsoever to bee rejected before the fourth Session of the Councell at Trent in the yeere 1546. 19 Nor for the second booke of the Machabees and the apocryphal additions to Hester and Daniel with the history of Bel and the Dragon which Saint Jerome termeth a fable to bee received for Canonicall Scripture before the said Session in the yeere above named 20 Nor for the twelve new articles which Pope Pius the fourth injoyned all professors to sweare unto before the end of the Conventicle held at Trent in the yeere 1564. Thus by occasion of the occasion of my text the old heresie sprang up in Corinth against the eleventh article of our creede I have cast a bone or two to those of the Synagogue of Rome to gnaw upon who usually creepe into these great assemblies to catch at our doctrine and snarle at Gods Minister and now I wholly addresse my selfe to give the children of the Church their bread made of the first fruits in my text But now The verse immedately going before is to this in hand as a darke foyle to a bright precious stone and thus it setteth it off If in this life only we have hope in Christ then we Apostles the chiefe labourers in the Lords harvest are but as weeds nay no better than the world esteemes us that is very dung and the off-scowring of all things But now through hope in Christs resurrection by vertue thereof we are as fruits yea holy fruits sanctified in the first fruits which is Christ If there be no resurrection from the dead all our hope is dead and withered at the root all our preaching false your faith vaine your justification void the dead in Christ utterly lost But now that Christ is risen from the dead and so risen that hee is become the first fruits of all that sleepe in him our hope is revived our preaching justified your faith confirmed your remission ratified the dead but onely fallen asleepe and our condition most desirable For the greater persecution we suffer for Christs sake the greater reward wee shall receive from him the heavier our crosse is on earth the weightier shall our crowne bee in heaven But the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or but is remarkable for it turneth the streame of the Apostles discourse towards Paradise which before like Jordan was running apace into mare mortuum If no resurrection wee of all men most miserable But because there is a resurrection wee most happy The skie is darkest immediately before the breake of day such was the face of the Church before the rising of the sunne of righteousnesse All the starres save one were overcast or rather darkened In q Alâ—â—art 3. q. ult 〈◊〉 Turrâ—â— l. 1. de ecclesâ—â—â— memory whereof the Church of Rome on Easter Eeve puts out all the lights save one to signifie that faith then remained onely in the blessed virgin in all other as well Apostles as Disciples it was eclipsed for the time The life of their hope dyed with their Master and all the hope of their life was buried in his grave Which when they saw guarded and a great stone rowled to the mouth of it their hearts were as cold as a stone But in the proper season of this now in my text the Angel removed that stone from the sepulchre and this from their heart and sitting upon that made it as Chrysologus speaketh a chaire of celestiall doctrine and out of it preached the first part of my text Christ is risen from the dead upon which the Apostle paraphrasing saith is become the first fruits of them that slept Christ is risen from the dead there is the letter of our Creed and is become the first fruits of them that slept there is as it were the flourishing
seven heads and ten hornes like to the woman whereby the Roman Empire or Church is meant called Babylon the Mother of fornications and abominations on the earth ver 5. because the Dragon employed the seven heads and ten hornes Apoc. 17 3.5 that is the policie and strength of the Roman State especially to suppresse the true Religion and overthrow the Church Other Kingdomes and States have beene stained with the bloud of Christians but Rome is that Whore of Babylon which hath died her garments scarlet red with the bloud of Saints and Martyrs of Jesus Christ others have licked or tasted thereof but she in regard of her barbarous crueltie in this kind is said to be l Apoc. 17.6 drunke with their bloud The vision thus cleared the meaning of my text and the speciall points of observation in each word therein may easily be discerned The first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the woman figureth unto us the Church her 1 Originall 2 Fruitfulnesse 3 Tendernesse 4 Weakenesse 5 Frailtie 1 First her Originall As the first Adam being cast into a slumber the woman was formed of a rib taken out of his side so when the second Adam fell into a dead sleepe on the Crosse his side was opened and thence issued this woman here in my text Christs dearest Spouse 2 Her fruitfulnesse The honour of women is their childbearing For therefore was Heva called the mother of the living because all save Adam came from her such is the Church a most indulgent and fruitfull mother Heva mater viventium the mother of all that live by faith And as St. m Cypr de unit Eccles Deum non habet patrem qui ecclesiam non habet matrem Cyprian concluded against all the Schismatikes in his time we may resolve against all the Separatists in our daies they cannot have God to their Father who acknowledge not the Church for their Mother 3 Her tendernesse Mulier saith Varro quasi mollior women take their name in latine from tendernesse or softnesse because they are usually of a softer temper than men and much more subject to passions especially of feare griefe love and longing their feare is almost perpetuall their griefe immoderate their love ardent and their longing most vehement such is the temper of the militant Church in feare alwayes weeping continually for her children never out of trouble in one place or other sicke for love of her husband Christ Jesus and ever longing for his second comming 4 Her weakenesse or impotencie Women are the weaker n 1 Pet. 3.7 Giving honour to the wife as to the weaker vessell vessels they have no strength in comparison of men they are able to make small or no resistance and in this also the militant Church resembleth a woman for howsoever she be alwayes strong in the Lord and in the power of his might and albeit for a short time when she had Kings and Princes for her Champions as in the daies of David Solomon Hezekiah Josiah and other Kings of Judah and in the reigne of Constantine Theodosius Martianus Justinian and other Emperours of Rome by the temporall sword she put her enemies to the worst and had a great hand over them yet in other ages as well before Christs incarnation as after she hath bin destitute of the arm of flesh and hath had no other than womens weapons to defend her self viz. prayers and teares These alone St. Ambrose tooke up for his defence against the Arrian Emperour o Amb. ep 33. R gamus Auguste non pugnamus We bow downe before thee we rise not up against thee our dread Lord. For my owne part I can sorrow I can sigh I can weepe by other meanes I neither may nor can resist 5 Her frailtie Women are not only weaker in body than men and lesse able to resist violence but also weaker in mind and lesse able to hold out in temptations and therefore the Divell first set upon the woman as conceiving it a matter of more facilitie to supplant her than the man I would the militant Church were not in this also too like the weaker sexe Faire she is I grant but p Cant. 6.10 faire as the Moone in which there are darke and blacke spots Origen in Cant. homâ— an illa verba Nigâ—a sâ—â— Nigra est sponsa pulchra tamen inter mulicres ita ut habeat aliquid Aethiopici candoris Or as St. Origen noteth pulchra inter mulieres not perfectly faire but faire among women her brightest colours are somewhat stained her graces clouded her beauty Sun-burnt Let the Pelagians and Papists stand never so much upon the perfection of inherent righteousnesse they shall never be able to wash cleane the q Esay 64 6. We are all as an uncleane thing and all our righteousnesse is as filthy ragges menstruous cloutes and filthy ragges the Prophet Esay speaketh of St. Austin who was more inward to the servants of God in his time and better acquainted with their thoughts than any Heretikes could be telleth us that if all the Saints from the beginning of the world were together upon earth and should joyne in one prayer it would be this or the like Lord enter not into judgement with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified Nothing is so easie as to slip whilest wee walke upon a r Apoc 15 2. And I saw as it wâ—re aâ—ea of glasse mingled with fire sea of glasse For this reason it is that our Saviour teacheth us to pray Å¿ Mat. 6.13 lead us not into temptation because there is not any temptation so weake that putteth not our frailtie to the worse and albeit it overcome not our faith yet it maketh our sinewes so shrinke as Jacobs did after hee wrestled with the Angell that by it we are lamed in holy duties All those usuall similitudes whereby the Scripture setteth the Church militant before our eyes shew her frailtie and imbecilitie She is a vine a lilly a dove a flocke of sheepe in the midst of ravening wolves What tree so subject to take hurt as a vine which is so weake that it needeth continuall binding and supporting so tender that if it be prickt deepe it bleedeth to death No flower so soft and without all defence or shelter as a lilly no fowle so harmlesse as the dove that hath no gallat all no cattell so oft in danger as sheep and lambes in the midst of wolves Yet neither the weake vine nor the soft lilly nor the fearefull dove nor the harmelesse sheepe so lively expresseth the infirmitie and danger of the wayfaring or rather warfaring Church as the travelling woman in this vision What more pitifull object or lamentable spectacle can present it selfe to our eyes than a woman great with child scared with a fierie serpent ready to devoure her child and driven to fly away with her heavie burden with which she is scarce able to wag This and worse if
temptations by his constant perseverance unto the end Obser 1 It is said to him that overcommeth to include our labour and industry yet it is added I will give to exclude merit 2 It is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to him that is to every one for an indefinite propofition in materiâ necessariâ is equivalent to an universall to teach us that the promises of the Gospel are generall yet to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to him that overcommeth to shew us that this generality is conditionall 3 The Spirit saith not to him that fighteth but to him that overcommeth All vertues adorne a Christian but perseverance alone crowneth him 4 To him that overcommeth the Spirit saith not I will give to see but to eat of the hidden Manna and receive the white stone with the new name Our eternall happinesse consisteth not in the bare contemplation but fruition of the hidden Manna the white stone and the new name 5 It is not Manna simply but the hidden Manna nor a stone but a white stone nor a name but a new name every subject hath here his adjunct every face his shadow every letter his flourish every diamond his foile every kind his quality All Manna is not the hidden what is this hidden Manna All pretious stones are not the white what is this white stone All names are not new names what is this new name O thou who hast the key of David and openest and no man shutteth open the treasure of this Scripture that we may see what heavenly mysteries lie in this hidden Manna are engraven in this white stone and character'd in this new name Obser 1 The prophecies in the Old and New Testament like the Cherubins in the Arke looke one upon the other Alter in alterius jacientes lumina vultum You shall hardly light upon any vision or revelation in this booke concerning the succeeding estate of the Church which hath not some kind of reference to the predictions of the ancient Prophets of things already accomplished God to whom all things past and future are eternally present in his infinite wisedome hath so fitted latter events to former presidents that the same perspectives of Propheticall visions for the most part in which holy men under the law saw things now long past serve St. John to represent unto him the image of the last times even till our Lords second comming For brevity sake at this time I will instance onely in my text where every word is a relative The first vincenti referreth you to Job 7.1 Is not the life of man a warfare upon earth The second Dabo I will give to Luke 12.32 It is your Fathers pleasure to give you a kingdome The third Manna absconditum the hidden Manna to Exod. 16.33 Take a pot and put an Omer full of Manna therein and lay it up before the Lord to be kept for your generations The fourth Calculum candidum the white stone to Esay 28.16 Behold I lay in Zion a tried stone a pretious stone The fift novum Nomen a new name to Esay 62.2 And thou shalt be called by a new name Christ who hath overcome the world under these metaphors looking to foregoing prophesies and promises incourageth all Christians like valiant Souldiers to follow him setting before them all spirituall delicacies implyed in the hidden Manna all treasures in the white stone all true honour in the new name To him that overcommeth pleasure and abstaines from sinfull delights I will give hidden Manna To him that overcommeth covetousnesse and esteemeth not of worldly wealth and earthly treasure I will give a white stone To him that overcommeth ambition and seeketh not for a name upon earth I will give a new name written in heaven In many other texts the letter is easie but the spirituall meaning difficult but on the contrary in this the spirituall meaning is facile and out of question but the letter is much controverted For some contend that the metaphor is here taken from the manner of feasting great Personages wherein the Prince Ambassadour or great States-man is entertained with rare and reserved dainties served in under covered dishes and after the last course hath a medall or a stone with his name engraven in it and a posie given unto him which because he carrieth away with him and keepeth it as a memoriall of his honourable entertainement the Greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is Alcasar his conceit Others place the Scene if I may so speake in a Greene where he that out-runneth the rest receiveth a white stone this is Aretus his ghesse A third sort of Expositors runne upon a pitched field which he that wanne had his victory with his name entred into the Roman Fasti with a white stone this is Sixtus Senensis his interpretation But the most of our later Commentatours imagine that Christ had an eye to the Roman Judiciall proceedings in their Courts in which he that overcame his accuser and had the better of the cause was absolved by the Judges casting white stones into an urne or pitcher Mos erat antiquis niveis atrisque lapillis His damnare reos illis absolvere culpâ But sith wee have the Jewell let us not much trouble our selves about the casket let us not contend about the shell but rather taste the kernell Obser 2 To him that is to every one As Dido at the building of Carthage offered like priviledges to the Tyrians and Trojans saying a Virg. Aen. 4. Tros Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine agetur so Christ in the building of the spirituall Jerusalem which is his Church putteth no difference betweene Jew and Gentile but propoundeth salvation upon like conditions of repentance and faith unto all At his incarnation he tooke not upon him the singular person of any man but the common nature of all men and accordingly offered himselfe a surety for all mankinde laying downe a sufficient ransome for all and inviting all by the hand of faith to take so much as may serve to free themselves and satisfie for their debt b Esay 55.1 Ho every one that thirsteth saith the Prophet come ye to the waters and he that hath no money come ye buy ye wine and milke without money and without price c John 7.37 If any man thirst saith our Saviour let him come unto me and drinke He that beleeveth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water d Mat. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavie laden and I will give you rest e Apoc. 3.20 Behold I stand at the doore and knocke if any man heare my voyce and open the doore I will come in to him and will sup with him In the law of Moses there is a great difference between the Jew and the Gentile but in Christ there is none at all we who were sometimes farre off are made nigh by
offered and the time of my departure is at hand I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith Henceforth is laid up for me a crowne of righteousnesse which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give mee at that day Secondly of z Hieron l. de viris illustribus Utinam fiuar bestus quae mihi praeparatae sunt quas oro veloces mihi esse ad interitum alliciam ad comedendum me ne sicut aliorum Martyrum non audeant corpus attingere Quod si venire noluerint ego vim faciam ut devorar Ignoscite mihi filioli quid mihi profit ego scio nunc incipio esse Discipulus Christi nihil de iis quae videntur desiderans ut Jesum Christum inveniam ignis crux bestiae confractio ossium membrorumque divisio totius corporis contritio omnia tormenta Diaboli in me veniant tantum ut Christo fruar cum ardore pascendi rugientes audiret leones ait frumentum Christi sum dentibus bestiarum molar ut panis mundus inveniar Ignatius When he heard the Lions roare for hunger to whom he was suddenly to be cast as a prey O that I were with the beasts that are prepared for me whom I desire quickly to make an end of me if they refuse to touch my body as through feare they have abstained from the bodies of other Saints I will urge and provoke them to fall upon mee Pardon me children I know what is good for mee now I begin to bee Christs disciple desiring none of those things which are seene that I may finde Jesus Christ welcome fire crosse beasts teeth breaking of my bones tearing asunder of my members grinding to powder of my whole body let all the torments which the Devill can devise come upon mee to the end or so that I may enjoy Jesus my love I am Christs corne and presently I shall bee ground with the teeth of wilde beasts that I may bee served in as fine manchet at my Lords table Thirdly of Babylas Returne to thy rest O my soule for the Lord hath rewarded thee I shall now walke before the Lord in the land of the living Fourthly of Constantine the great * Euseb de vit Constant l. 4. c. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now I know my selfe to bee truely happy I have now attained the true light and none but my selfe understandeth or can apprehend what happinesse I am made partaker of Fiftly of Saint a Bernardus moriens dixit Duplici jure retinet Dominus meus regnum coelorum haereditate patris merito passionis altero ipse contentus alterum mihi donavit Author vit Bern. l. 1. c. 22. Bernard My Lord hath a double right to the kingdome of heaven by inheritance and by purchase by inheritance of his Father and purchase of his owne blood with the former right himselfe is contented the latter he hath given unto me I am not worthy I confesse neither can I by mine owne merits obtaine the kingdome of heaven but rest upon that interest which I have in the merit of Christs passion Sixtly of Luther b Vit. Luther Receive my soule Lord Jesu though I bee taken from this life and this body of mine bee layd downe yet I know certainely that I shall remaine with thee for ever neither shall any bee able to pull mee out of thy hand Seventhly of Juel c Humfred in vitâ Juelli A crowne of righteousnesse is layd up for me Christ is my righteousnesse this is my day this day let mee quickly come unto thee this day let mee see thee Lord Jesu You have heard what wee are to say in answer to the first question An sit whether there be any such white stone The second scientificall question is Quid sit what this white stone is And because the Logicians distinguish of 1 Quid nominis 2 Quid rei the quiddity as they speak of the name and of the thing First I will declare the Quid nominis what the word signifieth or to what the metaphor alludeth Nam de hoc calculo varii sunt Doctorum calculi Although all who have brought sweet lights to illustrate this dark prophesie make it very cleare that the white stone is a Metaphor and the gift a mystery yet as Manna is said to have rellished according to the severall appetites of them that had eaten it so this white stone in the mysticall signification appeareth divers to each Interpreters fancy and though a white stone even in the bottome of a river may easily be discerned yet not when the water is troubled as here it is Some by it understand corpus glorificatum a glorified body and therein note foure properties 1 Solidity 2 Candour 3 Rotundity 4 Splendour The solidity in the white stone say they representeth the impassibility the candour the clarity and beauty the roundnesse the agility the lustre or splendour the subtility and glory of the Saints bodies raised from the dust Thus d Aquin. in Caten Aquinas who taketh his hint from Rupertus and hee from Beda Others understand by the white stone the grace of the spirit which reneweth our mindes making them pure and white that is innocent before God so e Junius in Apoc Gratiam spiritus quae imbuit novis moribus mentes puras candidas id est innocentes reddit coram Deo Junius Aretius Chytreus Piscator and Mathesius Others interpret claritatem nominis an illustrious name or the honour and title of a conquerour either because as f Sextus Sen. bib sanct Calculo albo praenotabantur quo à caeteris discernerentur Sixtus Senensis noteth the dayes in which the Romanes gained any signall victory were entred into their Fasti or registers with a white stone or because they who overcame and had the better in the Olympicke games or races received for their guerdon a g Aretas in Apoc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 white shining stone h Veg. in Apoc. Deus per Christi opera seu calculos computatorios omnium hominuÌ„ rationem subducit Vegus goeth a way by himselfe taking this white stone for a white counter and yeeldeth this reason of his interpretation Because God saith hee casteth all mens salvation by Christs workes and merits and all that hope to cleare with him for the infinite debts of their sinnes must reckon upon them or else they will fall short in their accounts Behold Saul prophesieth Balaam blesseth and a Jesuite delivereth Protestant doctrine i Coment in Apoc. Primasius and Victorinus will have this white stone to be alba geâ—â—a a white gemme or glistering jewell or pearle like that in the Gospell which the rich Merchant man sold all that he had to buy but the word in the originall is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a stone used in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in
even as a good Carpenter in stead of a rotten groundsill layes a sound The same trust then must we give to God which we must not give to riches him must we esteeme above all things looke up to him in all things depend upon him for all things This is to trust in God which the Psalmist in his sweet dittie saith is a good thing good in respect of God for our trust in him is one of the best pieces of his glorie Joseph holds Potiphars trust a great honour 2. For us for what safety what unspeakable comfort is therein trusting to God Our Saviour in his farewell Sermon John 16. perswading to confidence saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word signifying boldnesse and what is there in all the world that can worke the heart to so comfortable and unconquerable resolution as our reposall upon God The Lord is my trust whom then can I feare They that put their trust in the Lord are as mount Sion that cannot be moved Oh cast your selves therefore into those almighty hands seeke him in whom you shall finde true rest and happinesse honour him with your substance that hath honoured you with it trust not in riches but trust in God Riches are but for this world the true God is Lord of the other therefore trust in him riches are uncertaine the true God is Amen ever like himselfe ergo trust in him riches are meere passive they cannot bestow so much as themselves much lesse ought besides themselves the true God gives you all things to enjoy riches are but a livelesse and senselesse metall God is The living God Life is an ancient and usuall title of God he for the most part sweares by it When Moses asked his name he described himselfe by I am He is he liveth and nothing is and nothing lives absolutely but he all other things by participation from him In all other things their life and they are two but God is his owne life and therefore as Aquinas acutely disputeth against the Gentiles must needs be eternall because beeing cannot be severed from it self Howbeit not only the life he hath in himselfe but the life which he giveth to his creatures challengeth a part in this title A glympse whereof the heathen had when they called Jupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those creatures which have life we esteem beyond those that have it not how noble soever other waies those things be Therfore he that hath the perfectest life must needs be the best God therefore who is life it self fountain of all that life which is in the world is most worthy of all the adoration joy love and confidence of our hearts and the best improvement of that life which he hath given us Trust therefore in the living God not in riches that is idolatrie yea madnesse What greater madnesse can there be than to bestow that life which we have from God upon a creature that hath no life in it selfe nor price but from men Let me then perswade every soule that heares me this day as Jacob did his houshold Put away the strange gods that are among you or as St. Paul did his Lystrians O turne away from these vanities to the living God who gives us richly All things to enjoy Every word would require not a severall houre but a life to meditate upon and the tongues not of men but of Angels to expresse it God not onely hath all in himselfe but he gives to us and gives us not somewhat but all things and not a little of all but richly and all this not to looke on but to enjoy Here the Preacher said it should content him to top the sheaves onely because he could not stand to thresh them out it shall content me with the Apostles to rub some few eares because I cannot stand to top the sheaves Whither can you turne your eyes to looke besides the bounty of God If you looke upwards his mercie reacheth to the heavens if downewards the earth is full of his goodnesse and so is the broad sea if you looke about you what is it that he hath not given us aire to breathe in fire to warme us water to coole us cloathes to cover us food to nourish us fruits to refresh us yea delicates to please us beasts to serve us Angels to attend us heaven to receive us and which is above all his sonne to redeeme us Lastly if we looke into our selves hath he not given us a soule rarely furnished with the faculties of understanding will memorie and judgement a body wonderfully accommodated to execute the charge of the soule and an estate that yeelds due conveniencies for both moreover seasonable times peace competencie if not plentie of all commodities good lawes religious wise just Governours happie and flourishing dayes and above all the liberty of the Gospell More particularly cast up your Bookes O yee Citizens and summe up your receits I am deceived if he that hath least shall not confesse his obligation to be infinite There are three things especially wherein yee are beyond others and must acknowledge your selves deeper in the bookes of God than the rest of the world First for your deliverance from that wofull judgement ef the Pestilence O remember those sorrowfull times when every moneth swept away thousands from among you when a man could not set forth his foot but into the jawes of death when piles of carcasses were carried to their pits as dung to the fields when it was crueltie in the sicke to admit visitation and love was little better than murderous Secondly for your wonderfull plentie of all provisions spirituall and bodily Yee are like the Sea all the Rivers of the land runne into you nay sea and land conspire to enrich you Thirdly for the priviledge of your governement your charters as they are large and strong so your forme of administration is excellent and the execution of justice exemplarie For all these you have reason to aske with David Quid retribuam and to trust in God who hath beene so gracious unto you And thus from the duty we owe to God in our confidence and his beneficence to us we descend to the beneficence which we owe to men expressed in the varietie of foure epithetes to one sense To doe good to be rich in good workes ready to distribute willing to communicate all is but beneficence This heape of words shewes the vehement intention of his desire of good workes and the important necessitie of the performance and the manner of this expression enforceth no lesse Charge the rich c. Hearken then yee rich men of the world it is not left arbitrarie to you that you may doe good if you will but it is layd upon you as your charge and dutie the same necessity there is of trusting in God is of doing good to men Let me fling this stone at the brasen forehead of our Romish Adversaries whom their shamelesse challenges
faire to behold and the fruits of their lips sweet to taste 4 In the midst of Paradise was the tree of life in our Church Christ crucified on whom whosoever feedeth by faith shall live for ever So that what Jacob spake of the place where he was may be sayd of our Church This is no other than the house of God For albeit there be many plants in this Garden which the Lord hath not planted many wild branches that need pruning many dead not enlived by Christ many poysonous weeds many flowers faire in shew but of a stinking savour and no marvell for in the Arke there was a Cham in Abrahams house an Ishmael in Jacobs family a Reuben in Davids Court an Absalom in the number of Christs Disciples a Judas nay in heaven a Lucifer Yet sith our Church striveth to pluck up these weeds and unsavourie or unfruitfull plants and desires to be freed of them it may truely be called the Garden of God For as St. i Ad Felician Austine saith The Goats must feed with the sheepe till the chiefe shepheard come Ille nobis imperavit congregationem sibi reservavit separationem ille dabit separare qui nescit errare 2 Touching our Rulers and Governours resemblance to the man Adam whom God appointed Ruler over all the creatures was furnished with gifts agreeable God made greater lights to rule the day and night so should they be great in wisdome and great in goodness that are to enlighten others I am not to flatter you nor to reprove you happy is that Church whose Rulers are so qualified 3 Touching the comparison of Adams placing in Paradise with our calling 1 I note that God was not wooed with friendship nor won with mony nor swayed with affection to place Adam in Paradise but of his own voluntary motion he placed him there Let us tread in the steps of our heavenly Father When k Omph. in vit Clem. Clement the fift Bishop of Rome was importuned by his kindred and offred mony to conferre a benefice upon an unworthy man he answered Nolo obtemperare sanguini sed Deo let us take on us the like resolution For what an uncomely thing is it to set a leaden head upon a golden body to make fooles rulers of wise men 2 I note that Adam did not ambitiously affect this place nor by indirect means sought to winde himselfe into it but God tooke him by the hand and placed him there but now I feare St. Jeromes speech is true of divers Presbyteratus humilitate despectâ festinamus episcopatum auro redimere 3 I note Adam was not created in Paradise but by his maker placed in it Let mee apply this to you the right worshipfull Governours of this Citie You were not born but brought by God to this rule and governement though as clouds you soare aloft yet were you but vapours drawne from the earth it is God that hath lifted up your heads as he raised David from the sheepefold and Joseph from the dungeon Wherefore in acknowledgment of your owne unworthinesse and Gods goodnesse to you say you with l Gen. 32.10 Jacob With my staffe passed I over this Jordan Say you with David m 1 Sam. 18.11 Quis ego sum aut quae est cognatio mea Ascribe the glory of your wealth and honour to God kisse the blessed hand that hath lifted you up and consider with me in the next place why God placed you here 4 Touching Adams dressing and keeping Paradise and your charge St. Ambrose well observeth that though Paradise needed no dressing yet God would have Adam to dresse it that his example might be a law to his posteritie to dresse and keepe the place of their charges It is not enough for you to be good men ye must be good rulers He that hath an office must attend upon his office it is opus oneris as well as opus honoris Yee must not be like antickes in great buildings which seeme to beare much but indeed sustaine nothing neither must ye lay the whole burden upon other mens shoulders sith the key of governement is layd on yours Now in dressing the Garden three duties are especially to be required 1 To cast and modell the Garden into a comely forme Of which I need to speake nothing Your forme of governement may be a president to other Cities of this kingdome strangers have written in praise of it 2 To root up and cast out stinking weeds Among which I would commend two to your speciall care 1 Papisme 2 Puritanisme I deny not but that it belongeth to the speciall care of our Bishops to plucke up these weeds yet as Judas sayd to Simon Helpe thou me in my lot and I will helpe thee in thine so ought both Spirituall and Temporall Governours joyne hands in rooting out these weeds 1 Of Papisme In the dayes of Jehosaphat that good King it is recorded that the high places were not taken away because the people did not set their heart to seeke the God of their Fathers The Papists seeke to their God of Rome the n Distinc 96. Pope as the Canonists stile him not to the God of heaven nor the God of their Fathers Did their Forefathers in the Primitive Church equall traditions with Scripture consecrate oratories to Saints pray in an unknown tongue mutilate the Sacrament adore the wafer and call it their maker did they sell indulgences to free men from Purgatorie Saint Peter taught us to bee subject to o 1 Pet. 2.13 every humane ordinance St. Paul commandeth every p Rom. 13 1. soule to be subject to the higher powers The Primitive Christians in q Tert. ad Sâ—p Tertullians time though they were cruelly persecuted by the heathen Emperours and had power and strength enough to revenge themselves yet they never lifted up their hands against any of those bloudy Tyrants Heare their profession in Tertullian Nos nec Nigriani nec Cassiani sumus we are no Nigrians no Cassians no Rebels no Traitors we fill all your Cities Islands Townes yea your Palace and Senate What were we not able to doe if it were not more agreeable to our Religion to be killed than upon any pretence to kill On the contrarie the Papists teach that it is not onely lawfull but a meritorious act to lay hands upon the Lords annointed if hee favour not their Idolatries and Superstitions witnesse Cardinall Como his instructions to Parry and Sixtus his oration in defence of the Jacobine that murdered Henrie the third Had the Apostles preached this faith to the world should they have converted the world Was this the practice of the Primitive Church Is this Religion to make murder spirituall resolution to eate their God upon a bargaine of bloud Cannot God propagate his truth but by these wicked and damnable meanes Origen writeth that some unskilfull Emperickes dealt with their Patients not to consult with learned Physicians lest by them their ignorance should be
1.5 messengers of Christ 3. The dwelling of Angels is in Heaven and there is or ought to be the a Phil. 3.20 Our conversation is in heaven conversation of the Ministers of the Gospel 4. The life of Angels is a continuall b Matth. 18.10 beholding the face of God and what is the life of a good Minister but a continuall contemplation of the divine nature attributes and workes 5. The Angels gather c Mat. 24.31 the Elect from the foure windes and the Ministers of the Gospel gather the Church from all corners of the earth 6. The Angels d Apoc. 16.1 poure out the vialls of the wrath of God upon the earth and the Ministers are appointed to denounce Gods judgements and plagues to the wicked world 7. The Angels e 1 Cor. 15 52. sound Trumpets at the last resurrection and the Ministers of the Gospel at the first 8. When Christ was in an agony f Luke 22.43 there appeared an Angel strengthening him and when Gods children are in greatest extremity God sendeth the Ministers of the Gospel to g Job 33.23 If there bee a messenger with him an interpreter one among a thousand to shew to man his uprightnesse c. comfort them 9. The Angels carry the soules of them that dye in the Lord into Abrahams bosome Luke 16.22 and the Ministers of the Gospel give them their passe and furnish them with their last viaticum Now if it bee demanded why God so highly advanceth the dignity of the Ministry I answer to advance his glory He lifteth up the silver Trumpets of Sion on high that the sound of his praise may be heard the further As the visible Sunne casteth a more radiant and bright beame upon Pearle and Glasse which reflecteth them againe than upon grosse and obscure bodies that dead the rayes thereof even so the Sunne of righteousnesse casteth the fairest lustre upon that calling which most of all illustrateth his glory To other vocations God calleth us but this calleth us unto God all other lawfull callings are of God but of this God himselfe was and if it bee a great honour to the noblest orders of Knighthood on earth to have Kings and Princes installed into them how can wee thinke too worthily of that sacred order into which the Sonne of God was solemnly invested by his h Psal 110.4 Father I speake nothing to impeach the dignity of any lawfull profession make much of the Physicians of your body yet not more than of the Physicians of your soule yeeld honour and due respect to those that are skilfull in the civill and municipall Lawes yet under-value them not who expound unto you the Lawes of God At least take not pride in disgracing them who are Gods instruments to conveigh grace into your soules grieve not them with your accursed speeches who daily blesse you load them not with slaunders and calumnies who by their absolution and ghostly comfort ease you of the heavie burden of your sinnes goe not about to thrust them out of their temporall estate who labour by their Ministery to procure you an eternall It is not desire of popular applause or a sinister respect to our owne profit but the zeale of Gods glory which extorteth from us these and the like complaints against you For if Religion might bee advanced by our fall and the Gospel gaine by our losses and God get glory by our dis-esteeme we should desire nothing rather than to be accounted the off-scouring of all things on the earth that so wee might shine hereafter like precious stones in the foundation of the celestiall Jerusalem But if the Preachers and the Gospel the Word and Sacraments and the Ministers thereof Religion and Priests the Church and Church-men are so neere allies that the dis-reputation of the one is a great prejudice to the other and the disgrace of the one the despising of the other if the truth wee professe if our Religion if the Gospel if Christ if God suffer in the disgraces that are put upon our calling and the manifold wrongs that are done to it we must adjure you for your owne good and deeply charge you in Gods cause that as you looke to receive any good from him so you take nothing sacrilegiously from the Church as you hope to be saved by the Ministery preserve the dignity and estimation thereof be not cursed Chams in discovering the nakednesse of your ghostly fathers Alexander thought that he could not lay too much cost upon the deske in which Homers Poems lay and we daily see how those who take delight in musicke beautifie and adorn the instrument they play upon with varnish purfle gilt painting and rich lace in like maner if you were so affected as you should be at the hearing of the Word if you were ravished with the sweet straines of the songs of Sion ye would make better reckoning of the Instruments and Organs of the holy Spirit by which God maketh melodie in your hearts yee would not staine with impure breath the silver trumpets of Sion blowne not with winde but with the breath of God himselfe yee would not trample under foot those Canes that yeeld you such store of Sugar or rather of Manna Yee will be apt enough upon these and the like texts to teach us our dutie that we ought as Messengers of God to deliver his message faithfully and as neere as we can in his owne words as Angels to give our selves to divine contemplation and endevour to frame our lives to a heavenly conversation Let it not then be offensive to you to heare your dutie which is as plaine to be read as ours in the stile here attributed to the Pastour of Laodicea the Angell It is that you entertaine your diligent and faithfull Pastours as the i Gal. 4.14 Ye received me as an Angel of God even as Christ Jesus Galathians did St. Paul and as Monica did St. Ambrose tanquam Angelos Dei as the Angels of God receive them as Abraham and Lot did the Angels sent from God unto them defend them according to your power from wrong and make them partakers of the best things wherewith God hath blessed you Angelo to the Angel in the singular number chiefe Pastour or Bishop of the Church All Ministers as I shewed you before may challenge the title of Angels but especially Bishops who watch over other Ministers as Angels over men who are to order the affaires of the Church and governe the Clergie as the Peripatetickes teach that Angels direct and governe the motions of the celestiall spheres therefore Epiphanius and St. Austine and most of the later Interpreters also paraphrase Angelo by Episcopo illic constituto and verily the manner of the superscription and the contents of the letter and the forme of governement settled in all Churches at this time make for this interpretation For supposing more Ministers in London of equall ranke and dignitie as there are who would indorse a
have delivered up those blasphemous Heretickes into the hands of the Magistrate who beareth not the sword of justice in vaine 9 Ninthly if these pious resolutions of the ancient Fathers and noble acts of religious Princes serve not as matches to kindle the zeale of godly Magistrates against the enemies of our Religion the heathen shall one day rise up against them the ancient Romans who had this law written among the rest l Leg. 12. tab Deos privatos nemo habeat Let no man have a private Religion to himselfe the Athenians who banished Protagoras for that atheisticall speech of his de diis Sintne an non sint nil habeo dicere I can say nothing concerning the gods whether there are any or not and put Socrates to death m Plato in apolog Socr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he made question of the truth of that Religion which the State professed In a word all nations of the world shall condemn them of whom n Seneca sent Violatarum religionum apud diversas gentes diversa statuitur poena apud omnes aliquo Seneca writeth truly that for the profaning violating or corrupting the worship of God there are divers punishments appointed in divers places but in all Countries some or other And not without cause for if it be a scandall to a State to suffer theeves murtherers to go unpunished are Hereticks to be set free who rob men of that pearle of truth which the rich merchant man sold all that he had to buy who are guilty of spirituall homicide wherewith St. o Tract 11. in Johan Videtis qualia faciant quâ—lia patiuntur occidunt animas affliguntur in corpore sempiternas mortes faciunt temporales se perpeti conqueruntur Austine directly chargeth them You see what these miscreants doe and what they suffer and have they thinke you any just cause to complaine of the punishments that are inflicted on them They kill the soules of men and smart for it in their bodies by their damnable doctrine they bring men to eternall death and yet grudge that they suffer a temporall Doe not all wise men account Religion to bee the foundation which beareth up the whole frame and fabricke of State And is it possible a building should stand upon two foundations Religion is the soule which animateth the great body of the Common-wealth and will it not prove a monster if it be informed with divers soules The Church and Common-wealth have but one centre any new motion therefore in the one must needs make a commotion in the other In which regard Mecoenas advised Augustus to punish severely all Innovators in matter of Religion p Non solum deorum causâ sed quia nova quaedam numina hi tales inducentes multos impellunt ad rerum mutationem not only out of a regard of pietie but also for reason of State What mutinies what heart-burnings what jealousies what bloudy frayes and massacres may there be feared where Religion setteth an edge upon discontent And all that dye in these quarrels pretend to the Crowne of Martyrdome I forbeare multiplicity of examples in this kind our neighbour Countries have bin for many yeeres the stages whereon these tragedies for Religion have been acted and God alone knowes what the catastrophe will be There was never so great mischiefe done at Rome by fire as when it took the Temple of Vesta and mingled it selfe with the sacred flame q Ovi fast l. 6. Ardebant sancti sceleratis ignibus ignes Et mista est flammae flamma prophana piae Even so if the wild-fire of contention mixe it selfe with the sacred fire of zeale and both burne within the bowels of the same Church it is not a river of bloud that is like to quench the direfull flame Therefore r Ep. 166. Julianus reddidit Basilicas haereticis quando templa Demonus eo modo putans Christianum nomen posse petire de teâ—â—â—s si unitati Ecclesiae de qua lapsus fuerat invideret sacrilegâ—s diâ—â—â—nsiones liberas esse pâ—rmitteret Julian the Apostata as S. Austine reports having a desire to set all Christendome in a combustion cast a fire-ball of contention among them by proclaiming liberty to all Heretickes and Schismatickes to set abroach their damnable doctrines hoping thereby utterly to extinguish the name of Christians But to come neere to our Adversaries and turne their owne ordnance upon them Did Queene Mary in her short reigne exempt the servants of God of any age or sexe from the mercilesse flames of the fire Doe not Bellarmine Allan Parsons Pammelius Maldonat and generally all Jesuits set their wits upon the rack and stretch and torture them to maintaine the rackes and tortures of Popish Inquisition Of what hard metall then are their foreheads made who dare supplicate for a toleration in a Protestant state able to suppresse them Why should they not be contented with their owne measure though all the world knoweth the sweet benignity and clemency of our gracious Soveraign abates them more than the halfe Here me thinkes I heare the soules of the slaine under the Altar cry How long Lord holy just dost not thou revenge the bloud of thy servants spilt as water upon the ground by the Whore of Babylon which to this day out-braveth thy Spouse having dyed her garments scarlet red in the goare of thy Saints and Martyrs of thy Son Jesus Christ Righteous Lord wee have been made a spectacle of misery to Angels and men wee have been killed all the day long and accounted as sheep for the slaughter wee have been spoiled of all our goods banished our native soile we have been hewen asunder wee have been slaine with a sword we have been whipt scourged cast into dungeons with serpents burnt at a stake to ashes some of us digg'd out of our graves and martyred after our death and she that hath thus cruelly butchered thy servants sits as Queene arrayed in purple and scarlet and fine linnen and carouseth healths to the Kings and Princes of the earth in a cup of gold and after shee hath made them drunke with the wine of her abominations she committeth spirituall filthinesse with them in the face of the Sun Cupio me patres conscripti clementem non dissolutum videri saith the wise Oratour I wish that mercy to which all vertues as Seneca observeth willingly give the place and yeeld the garland may be still the prime gemme in our Soveraignes Crowne I plead for mercy which must be our best plea at Christs Tribunall but I desire it to bee well thought upon whether it be mercy or not rather cruelty to spare those who spare not your sonnes and daughters but daily entice them and by their agents conveigh them over beyond the Sea to sacrifice not their bodies but their soules their faith their religion to the Moloch of Rome * Plin. nat hist l. 8 c. 22. Arcades scribunt ex
only upon him build upon his Gospel for your instruction his grace for your conversion his bloud for your redemption his prayer for your intercession Secondly Cohaerete invicem sticke fast together bee firmly united in Christian charity keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Unities severed or divided make no number letters divided make no syllable syllables divided make no word words divided make no speech members divided make no body stones divided make no wall The Ark of the Church is like the ship in controversie of law in which two owners claimed right of which it was said p Eras Adag Si dividas perdis if you cut it in two parts to satisfie both parties you destroy the whole Thirdly Adhaerete tecto be pinned fast unto and support the roofe What is the roofe but the higher q Rom. 13.1 powers ordained of God As the roofe must beare off stormes from the walls so the walls must beare up the roofe if the roofe decay the walls will soone feele it The Athenians in their greatest dangers were wont r Eras chil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to cast out the great ancher which they called the holy ancher the chiefest Pilots and Steresmen in our State discover so great dangers that they command the holy ancher to be cast out and if this ancher fasten not on your golden sands the great vessell in whose bottome lyeth not only the safety of the Prince the honour of the Kingdome but the state of sincere Religion throughout the Christian world is in perill of drowning and if the great vessell miscarry what will become of the skiphs of every ones private estate Yee have heard beloved Christians of the materiall Temple to be erected and kept in repaire by you that are wealthy and the spirituall to bee built repaired and adorned in you all yee have learned how yee as living stones are to be drawne to this building fitted for it and placed in it yet when we have done what we can to build you in your most holy faith and yee have helped furthered the work what yee are able except the Å¿ Psal 127.1 Lord build the house their labour is but in vain that go about to build it Wherefore let us addresse our praiers to God the Master-builder and to Jesus Christ the foundation and chiefe corner-stone to build us upon himselfe by faith and fit us for this building by obedience and couple and joyne us fast by charity that we may continue as solid and firme stones here in the earthly and shine hereafter as precious stones in the heavenly Jerusalem So be it heavenly Father for the merits of thy Sonne by the powerfull operation of the holy Spirit Cui c. PEDUM PASTORALE SEU CONCIO AD CLERUM HABITA OXONIAE OCTAVO CAL. APRILIS AERAE CHRISTIANAE 1615. CONC XXXIX Praecat AETerne Deus longè supra omne quod coelo terrâve nominatur nomen verendum numen qui oculorum tuorum radiis solem ipsum obscurantibus intimos animi recessus reconditos sinus perlustras nos miselli tenebriones è coeno emersi foedissimis insuper flagitiorum sordibus conspurcati vultus tui fulgorem non ferentes ad celsissimae majestatis tuae pedes humillimè provolvimur obnixè orantes per unigeniti tui plagas vulnera obtestantes ut animum nostrum fractum contusum pro caesâ hostiâ lachrymas effusas pro libamine suspiria quae ducimus pro suffitu vota preces zelo accensas pro thymiamate digneris suscipere aureo Angeli tui thuribulo infundere ut odoramentis permisceantur quae sunt preces Sanctorum Quas una cum iis offerimus pro Catholicâ Ecclesiâ in totum terrarum orbem diffusâ propagatâ praesertim florentissimâ illius parte magnae Britaniae Hiberniae pomeriis conclusâ sub umbrâ serenissimi Jacobi letâ germinum propagine revirescente Cujus stirpes duas utramque academiam hanc Oxoniensem illam Cantabrigiensem largo gratiarum imbre irriga Illustra vultus tui luce clarissimum Elismuriae dominum Pernassi nostri totiusque adeò Angliae Cancellarium venerabilem virum D. Godwinum aedis Christi Decanum ejus Procancellarium spectatissimos Doctores Procuratores Collegiorum Aularum praefectos prae caeteris Collegii corporis Christi caput membra bonitatis sinu fove Exurge Aquilo aspira Auster perfla hortum hunc ut fluant aromata ejus ambrosium odorem in omnes insulae partes oras dissipent Vireant peâ—petuò coelesti rore irrigatae aeternâ—m floreant Herâ—um Heroâ—arum corollae qui Edenem hunc vel aedificiis magnificis tanquam proceris arboriâ—â—us conseverunt vel annuis reditibus tanquam rivulis humectarunt vel amplissimis privilegiis tanquam firmissimis moenibus sepiverunt Henricum dico septimum Elizabetham uxorem ejus Humphredum dâ—cem Glocestriae Margaretam Comitissam Richmondiae Johannem Kempium Archiepiscopum Cantuari easem Thomam Kempium Episcopum Lonamensem Richardum Lichfieldium Archidiaconum Middlesextiae Wolsaeum Eboracensem Henricum octavum Reginam Mariam saeculi sui sexasque phoenicem Elizabetham ejusque regni religionisque haeredem dignissimum Jacobum Richardum Foxum Episcopum Wintoniensem Collegii corporis Christi fundatorem Hugonem Oldamium praesulem Exoniensem de eodem phrontisterio optimè meritum dominum Thomam Bodleum militem Vaticanae novae instauratorem instructorem munificentissimum Benignissime Deus qui nos in hoc terreno Paradiso in quo non saecularis tantùm sapientiae veluti arboris scientiae boni mali sed divinae philosophiae seu verae arboris vitae fructus liberè licet decerpere collacasti stomachum irrita ut appetamus salubria mentem coelesti lace perfunde ut percipiamus appetita memoriam confirma ut retineamâ—s percepta os aperi ut tempestivè proferamus retenta postremò cogitationes cordisque motus dirige ut referamus prolata ad gloriae tuae illustrationem Ecclesiae quam Filii sanguine acquisivisti fructum emolumentum Cujus saluti incolumitati ut melius consulatur continuas agat providentia tua excubias super vigiles pastores gregis tui praecipuè quos in sublimi speculâ constituisti Archiepiscopos Episcopos omnes prae reliquis reverendissimum in Christo patrem Georgium Abotium Archiepiscopum Cantuariensem totius Angliae primatem metropolitanum dominum meum multis nominibus colendissimum Ut omnia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 complectar floreat perpetuò sceptrum Mosis virga Aaronis gemmet stemmata nobilium generosorum equitum germinent ut patulis eorum ramiis obumbrata plebs foeliciter succrescat omnes in viros in Christo perfectos adolescamus Ita toti in laudes tuas effundemur qui nos è colluvie saeculi selegisti quos immortali verbi semine gigneres denuò sacramentis aleres Filii cruore ablueres Spiritus sancti
the unquenchable fire in such sort that it hath no power upon any of the members of his mysticall body and by his temporall death hath delivered all that are his from eternall Shall wee not then eternally sing his praises who hath saved us from everlasting weeping and mourning in the valley of Hinnom Shall any waters of affliction quench in us the love of him who for us quenched unquenchable fire Shall not the benefit of our delivery from everlasting death ever live in our memory Shall any thing sever us from him who for our sakes after a sort was severed from his Father when he cryed k Mat. 27.46 My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee Shall tribulation or anguish or persecution or famine or the sword No I am perswaded I may goe on with the Apostle and say l Rom. 8 38 39. Neither life nor death nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. To whom c. FERULA PATERNA THE XLVI SERMON REV. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten Right Honourable c. HOw unwilling the author of life and Saviour of all men especially beleevers is to pronounce and execute the sentence of death and destruction against any if the teares which hee shed over Jerusalem and groanes and lamentations which hee powreth out when he powreth forth the vials of his vengeance testifie not abundantly yet his soft pace and orderly proceeding by degrees in the course hee taketh against obstinate and impenitent sinners is enough to silence all murmuring complaints wrongfully charging his justice and raise up all dejected spirits dolefully imploring his mercy For hee ever first sitteth upon his throne of grace and reacheth out his golden Scepter to all that cast themselves downe before him and if they have a hand of faith to lay hold on it hee raiseth them up before hee taketh hold of his iron rod and hee shaketh it too before hee striketh with it and hee striketh lightly before hee breaketh in pieces and shivers the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction So true is that which hee speaketh of himselfe by the Prophet Hosea a Hos 13.9 O Israel thou hast destroyed thy selfe but in mee is thy helpe and the Prophet of him b Psal 25.10 All the pathes of the Lord are mercy and truth in which he walketh thus step by step First when wee begin to stray from him hee calleth us backe and reclaymeth us from our soule and dangerous wayes by friendly counsels and passionate perswasions by increase of temporall and promise of eternall blessings as we may read in the tenour of all the Prophets commissions 2 If these kinde offers be refused with contempt and greater benefits repayed with greater unthankfulnesse he changeth his note but not his affections he exprobrates to us our unthankfulnesse that it might not prove a barre of his bounty c Hos 11 3 4. I taught Ephraim to goe taking them by their armes and they knew not that I healed them I drew them with the cords of a man with bands of love and I was to them as they that take off the yoake from their jawes and d Isa 5.2 My Beloved had a vineyard in a very fruitfull hill and hee fenced it and hee gathered out the stones thereof and planted it with the choicest Vine and built a tower in the midst of it and also made a wine-presse therein and hee looked that it should bring forth grapes and it brought forth wild grapes 3 If exprobrations and sharpe reproofes will not serve the turne he falls to threatning and menacing fearefull punishments but to this end onely that hee may not inflict what hee threateneth as wee see in Niniveh's case e Jonah 3.4 Yet forty dayes saith the Prophet and Niniveh shall bee overthrowne yet Niniveh was not overthrown f Vers 10. because the Ninivites repented of their workes and turned from their evill wayes God repented of the evill he had said that hee would doe unto them and he did it not 4 If neither promises of mercies nor threats of judgements neither kind entreaties nor sharpe rebukes can worke upon the hard heartednesse of obstinate sinners hee useth yet another meanes to bring them home hee taketh away their goods that they may come to him for them hee pincheth them with famine that hee may starve their wanton lusts he striketh their flesh with a smart rod that it may awake their soules out of a dead sleepe of security and this for the most part is the last knocke at their hearts at which if they open not and receive Christ by unfained repentance and a lively faith the gates of mercy are for ever locked up against them According to this method Christ here proceedeth with the Angel of Laodicea First g V. 15. hee friendly saluteth him next h V. 16. Ver. 17. Ver. 18. hee sharply reproveth him then hee fearfully threatneth him lastly he severely chastiseth him and all in love as you heare in this verse As many as I love I rebuke and chasten Which hath this coherence with the former wherein Christ taxed two vices in this Angel luke warmnesse and spirituall pride against these hee prescribeth two remedies zeale vers 19. and spirituall providence I counsell thee to buy of mee gold tryed in the fire that thou maist bee rich and white rayment that thou maist bee clothed and that the shame of thy nakednesse doe not appeare and anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou maist see But here because the Angel of Laodicea might reply Alas to what end is all this what prescribe you unto memedicinal potions who am to be spewed out of Gods mouth what can your counsell doe me good my doome is already past and my heart within mee is like melted waxe Christ opportunely in the words of my text solveth this objection and giveth him a cordial to keep him from fainting Be not too much discouraged at my sharp rebukes nor faint under my fatherly chastisements for I use no other discipline towards thee than towards my dearest children whom I love most entirely yet rebuke most sharply to break them of their ill qualities I chasten those and those onely and all those whom I love and I chasten oftenest whom I love best wherefore faint not but be zealous neither despaire but amend and thou shalt finde my affection as much enlarged and the treasurie of my bounty as open unto thee as ever heretofore Behold then in the words of this Scripture 1 A rule of direction to those that are set in high places of authority 2 A staffe of comfort to those who are fallen into the depth of griefe and misery To the former the Spirit speaketh in the words of my text on this wise Ye Masters of servants Tutors of Scholars
affectum corpus sineret jam aliquantum spatri ex eo loco ubi pugnatum est anfugerat cum respiciens videt magnis intervallis sequentes unum haud procul ab sese abesse in cum magno impetu rediit Et dum Albanus exercitus inclamat Curiatiis ut opem ferant fratri jam Horatius coeso hoste victor secundam pugnam petebat tum clamore qualis ex inspirato faventium solet Romani adjuvant militem suum ille defungi proelio festinat prius itaque quam alter qui nec procul aberat consequi posset alterum Curiatium confixit jamque equato marte singuli supererant sed nec spe nec viribus pares male sustinenti arma gladium supernè jugulo defigit jacentem spoliat Livie describeth at large it being agreed by both armies of the Romans and the Albans for the sparing of much bloud-shed to put the triall of all to the issue of a battaile between six brethren three on the one side the sonnes of Curatius and three on the other side the sonnes of Horatius While the Curatii were united though they were all three sorely wounded they killed two of the Horatii the third remaining though not hurt at all yet finding himselfe not able to make his partie good against all three begins to take his heeles and when hee saw them follow him slowly one after the other as they were able by reason of their heavie armour and sore wounds hee fals upon them one after another and slayes them all three When Cyrus came neare Babylon with his great army and finding the river about it over which he must passe so deepe that it was impossible to transport his army that way he suddenly caused it to be divided into many channels whereby the maine river sunke so on the sudden that with great facilitie hee passed it over and tooke the citie That maxime in Philosophy Omne divisibile est corruptibile holds in all States societies After the Donatists had made a faction in Affrica as they brake the unity of the Church so they were broken themselves into divers fractions and so in a short space came to nothing The division among the Trojans brought in the Grecians the divisions among the Grecians brought in Philip the division of the Assyrian Monarchie brought in the Persian of the Persian brought in the Macedonian of the Macedonian brought in the Roman of the Roman brought in the Turke Lastly the division among the Britaines of this nation brought in first the Saxons next the Danes and last of all the Normans So true is the axiome of our Saviour A kingdome divided against it selfe cannot stand The barbarous Souldiers beloved Christians divided not Christs coat shall wee rend and teare asunder his body by schisme and faction The lines the neerer they come to the center the neerer they are one to another we cannot be one with God so long as we are thus divided one against another I conclude as the Oratour doth his oration upon the answers of the Soothsayers When upon the newes of earth-quakes and other prodigious signes the Soothsayers foretold great calamities were likely to befall the State unlesse the wrath of the gods were suddenly appeased the Oratour determineth the point most divinely * Cic. de arusp resp Faciles sunt deorum irae nostrae sunt inter nos irae discordiaeque placandae God will be easily reconciled to us if we be reconciled one to another If we be at peace one with another Beloved God will soone be at peace with us and if God be at peace with us all creatures shall be in league with us and neither Divell nor man neither any thing else shall have any power to hurt us So be it Deo Patri c. BLOUDY EDOME THE LX. SERMON PSAL. 137.7 8. 7. Remember O Lord the children of Edome in the day of Jerusalem who said Raze it raze it even to the foundation thereof 8. O daughter of Babylon who art to be destroyed happy shall hee be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us Right Honourable c. WHat a storme is in the skie that a vehement passion is in the mind it darkeneth it stirreth and troubleth it and after fearfull crackes it resolveth in the end into a sad shower such a violent perturbation seized at this time on the minds of the exiled Jewes in Babylon when the insolent Conquerours adding affliction to their affliction and gall to their wormwood in a flouting and jeering manner called for their Hebrew songs and melody in that their heavie and dolefull estate What so unseasonable as to require a man to sing pleasant songs when his very heart-strings are broken with griefe What so lamentable and pitifull as not to be pitied in greatest misery nay to bee insulted upon and laughed at Wherefore what with a longing desire of their country and sorrow for their losse of it what with zeale for the Lords honour and the glory of Sion what with indignation against such savage and barbarous usage the people of God over-cast as it were with a blacke and dismall cloud partly breake out into direfull execrations like thunder and lightening ver 7 8 9. partly vent their griefe in sighes ver 4 5 6. partly resolve it into a shower of teares ver 1. Edome is blasted as it were with lightening for her wicked words ver 7. and Babylon is struck with a thunder-bolt for her cruell deeds against Gods People City and Temple vers 8 9. Edome shall be remembred for the mischievous counsell he gave and the daughter of Babylon shall be for ever razed out of memory for razing Jerusalem to the ground And let all the secret and open enemies of Gods Church take heed how they imploy their tongues and hands against Gods secret ones they that presume to doe either may here reade their fatall doome written in the dust of Edome and ashes of Babylon a Plin. â—at hist l. 21. c 4 Rosa siccis quà m humidis odoratior omni recisione atque ustione proficit translatione quoque ocyssimè Roses lose not their naturall smell by transplantation but as Pliny observeth grow more fragrant thereby It is so with men the naturall affection they beare to their country is rather increased than decreased by peregrination as the sighes which the captive Jewes breathe out in this Psalme and the plentifull teares which they shed by the waters of Babylon may be abundant proofes unto us As they walked in the pleasant fields about Babylon they thinke of the lamentable estate of their owne Country and the ruine of their City and Temple which cast downe their countenance and drew abundance of teares from their eyes sighes from their heart and prayers from their mouth for Babels Babel that is the confusion of the Babylonians who neither spared City nor Temple but sacked and razed both downe to the ground This is the ground upon which the Psalmist sweetly runneth through the
us doe something to him and for him he hath remembred us not in words but in deeds let us remember him as well in deeds as words let us honour him with our substance let us blesse him with our hands let us praise him with our goods Peradventure you will say Our h Psal 16.2 goods are nothing to him our goodnesse extendeth not unto him he is far above us and out of the reach of our charity see how the Prophet himselfe removeth this rub in the next verse But to the Saints that are on the earth and to them that excell in vertue And our Saviour assureth us that i Mat. 25.40 Verely verely I say unto you inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto mee Whatsoever we doe unto them Christ taketh it as done unto himselfe In feeding the hungry ye feed Christ in clothing the naked ye cloth him in visiting the imprisoned ye visit him Though ye cannot now with Mary Magdalen reach up to his head to breake a boxe of Spicknard and powre it on him yet ye can annoint him in his sicke and sore comfort him in his afflicted provide for him in his famished relieve him in his oppressed yea and redeem him also in his captive members This to doe is charity and mercy at all times but now it is piety and devotion also It is not sufficient for you to lift up your hands in prayer and thanksgiving ye must stretch them out in pious and k Heb. 13.16 charitable contributions for with such sacrifices God is well pleased And if ever such sacrifices are due to him now especially upon the yeerly returne of the feast wee celebrate for the preservation of our King and Kingdome Church and Common-wealth Nobles and Commons Goods and Lands nay Religion and Lawes from the vault of destruction Remember O Lord the children of Edome in that day what they said Novelties shall passe with a crack and Heretickes shall receive a blow and what they assayed even to raze Jerusalem and Sion to the ground and forget not O Lord the Whore of Babylon which hath dyed her garments scarlet red in the bloud of thy Saints and Martyrs make all her lovers to forsake her and abhorre her poysoned doctrine though offered in a cup of gold Strip her of her gay attire pluck down her proud looks humble her before thy Spouse and if she will not stoop nor repent her of her spirituall fornication savage cruelty against the professours of the truth reward her as shee hath served us But as for those that have forsaken Babel joyne with us in the defence confirmation of the Gospel prosper them in all the reformed Churches and grant that as they all agree in the love of the same truth so they may seek that truth in love and that their love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all judgement that they may discerne those things that differ and approve of those things that are excellent that they may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ being filled with the fruits of righteousnesse which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God Cui c. SERMONS PREACHED IN LAMBETH PARISH CHURCH THE WATCHFULL SENTINELL A Sermon preached the fifth of November THE LXI SERMON PSAL. 121.4 Behold he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleepe THe more the enemies of the Gospel endevour to blot out this feast out of our Calender and raze it out of the memory of all men by giving it out where they see the coast cleare and none to encounter their falshood that the ground of this dayes devotion was a fiction of ours not a designe of theirs a stratagem of state to scandalize them not a plot of treason to ruine our King and State by so much the more all that love the truth in sinceritie ought to keep it with more fervencie of devotion celebrity of publique meeting and solemnity of all corresponding rites and ceremonies that the voyce of our thanksgiving and the sound of Gods praise for so great a deliverance may ring to the ends of the earth and the children yet unborne may heare it Other feasts we celebrate by faith this by experience and sense other deliverances we beleeve this we feele the ground of other festivities are Gods benefits upon his people indeed but of other countreyes and other times but of this is the preservation of our owne Countrey in our owne time And therefore what S. Bernard spake of the feast of Dedication we may say of this a In fest dedic Tantò nobis debet esse devotior quanto est familiarior Nam caeteras quidem solemnitates cum aliis ecclesiis habemus communes haec nobis est propria ut necesse sit à nobis vel à nemine celebrari We ought the more religiously to keepe this feast by how much the more neare it concernes us for other solemnities wee have common with other Churches this is so proper to us that if wee celebrate it not none will This wee ought in speciall to owne because it presenteth to all thankfull hearts a speciall act of Gods watchfull care over our Church our Nation yea and this place For this monster of all treasons which no age can parallel was conceived within our precincts and so it should have brought forth ruine and destruction in our eyes if God had not crushed it in the shell we should have seen on the sudden the citie over against us all in a light fire all the skie in a cloud of brimstone and the river died with bloud wee should have heard nothing after the cracke of thunder but out-cries and voyces in Ramah weeping and mourning and exceeding great lamentation our Rachel mourning for her children and shee would not have beene comforted because they should not have beene The lowder the cry of our sorrow would then have beene the lowder ought now to be the shouts of our joy To which purpose I have made choyce of this verse for my text taken out of a Psalme of degrees that I might thereby raise my meditations and your affections to the height of this feast The words may serve as a motto and the worke of this day for an image to make a perfect embleme of Gods watchfull care over his people and the peoples safetie under the wings of his providence But before I enter upon the parts of this Psalme it will be requisite that I cleare the title a Song of degrees If the meaning be as some translate the words Shur hamagnaloth Canticum excellentissimum an excellent song 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we read Adam hamagnaloth a man of eminent degree are not all the other Psalmes likewise excellent songs Why then hath this onely with some few that follow it the garland set upon it Some will have these fifteene Psalmes beginning from the 120. to
setteth them r Aug. serm de Pent. Tanquam duodecim radii solis seu totidem lampades veritatis totum mundum illuminantes forth twelve beames of the sunne of righteousnesse or twelve great torches of the truth enlightening the whole world They were as the twelve Patriarks of the new Testament to be consecrated as oecumenicall Pastours throughout all the earth they were as the ſ Exod. 15.27 twelve Wels of water in Elim from whence the chrystall streames of the water of life were to be derived into all parts they were as the twelve t Apoc. 12.1 starres in the crowne of the woman which was cloathed with the sunne and the moone under her feet and as the twelve u Apoc. 21.14 pretious stones in the foundation of the celestiall Jerusalem The present assembly in this upper roome was no other than a sacred Synod and in truth there can be no Synod where the Apostles or their successours are not present and Presidents For all assemblies how great soever of Lay-persons called together about ordering ecclesiasticall affaires without Bishops and Pastours are like to Polyphemus his vast body without an eye Monstrum horrendum informe ingens cui lumen ademptum But when the Apostles and their successours Bishops and Prelates and Doctours of the Church are assembled and all are of one accord and bend their endevours one way to settle peace and define truth Christ will make good his promise to be in the * Matt. 18.20 When two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the middest of them And middest of them and by his spirit to lead them into x John 16.13 When the spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth all truth With one accord All the ancient and later Interpreters accord in their note upon the word accord that Animorum unio concordia est optima dispositio ad recipiendum Spiritum sanctum that Unitie and concord is the best disposition of the minde preparation for the receiving of the holy Ghost The bones in Ezekiel were y Ezek. 37.7 8. joyned one to another and tyed with sinewes before the wind blew upon them and revived them so the members of Christ must bee joyned in love and coupled with the sinewes of charitable affections one towards another before the holy Spirit will enlive them Marke saith S. z Serm. de Temp. Membrum amputatum non sequitur spiritus cùm in corpore erat vivebat precisum amittit spiritum Austine in the naturall body how if a member bee cut off the soule presently leaveth it while it was united to the rest of the members it lived but as soone as ever it was severed it became a dead peece of flesh so it is in the mysticall body of Christ those who sever themselves by schisme or faction from the body and their fellow-members deprive themselves of the influence of the holy Spirit Peruse the records of the Church and you shall finde for the most part that faction hath bred heresie When discontented Church-men of eminent parts sided against their Bishops and Superiours Gods spirit left them and they became authours of damnable heresies This was Novatus his case after hee made a faction against Cyprian Donatus after hee made a faction against Meltiades Aerius after hee made a schisme against Eustatius and doe we not see it daily in our Separatists who no sooner leave our Church but the spirit of God quite leaveth them and they fall from Brownisme to Anabaptisme from Anabaptisme to Familisme and into what not The Church and Common-wealth like the * Plin. l. 2. nat hist c. 105. Lapis Tyrrhenus grandis innatat comminutus mergitur Lapis Tyrrhenus while they are whole swimme in all waters but if they be broken into factions or crumbled into sects schismes they will soone sinke if not drowne And so I passe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from their unanimitie of affection to their concurrence in place In one place The last circumstance is the place which was an upper chamber in Jerusalem The Apostles and Disciples stayed at Jerusalem after the ascension of our Lord partly in obedience to his a Acts 1.4 command which was not to depart out of Jerusalem till they were indued with power from above partly to fulfill the prophecie the b Esay 2.3 Law shall goe out of Sion and the word of God out of Jerusalem They kept all together out of love and for more safetie and they tooke an upper chamber that they might bee more private and retired or because in regard of the great confluence of people at this feast they could not hire the whole house or as Bernardinus conceiveth to teach us that the spirit of c Com. in Act. Ut discamus quod datur spiritus iis qui se ab imis attollunt rerū sublimium contemplatione ut cibo se oblectant God is given to such as raise up themselves from the earth and give themselves to the contemplation of high and heavenly mysteries Now to descend from this higher chamber and to come neare to you by some application of this text It will be to little purpose to heare of the Apostles preparation this day if wee prepare not our selves accordingly to discourse of their entertainment and receiving the holy Spirit if wee receive him not into our hearts It is a mockerie as Fulgentius hath it Ejus diem celebrare cujus lucem oderimus To keepe the day of the Spirit if wee hate his light If wee desire to celebrate the feast of the Spirit and by his grace worthily receive the Sacrament of Christ his flesh wee must imitate the Apostles and Disciples in each circumstance 1. Rely upon Gods promises by a lively faith of sending the spirit of his Sonne into our hearts and patiently expect the accomplishment of it many dayes as they did 2. Ascend into an upper chamber that is remove our selves as farre as wee can from the earth and set our affections upon those things that are above 3. Meet in one place that is the Church to frequent the house of God and when we are bid not to make excuses but to present our selves at the Lords boord 4. Not onely meet in one place but as the Apostles did with one accord to reconcile all differences among our selves and to purge out all gall of malice and in an holy sympathy of devotion to joyne sighs with sighs and hearts with hearts and hands with hands and lifting up all together with one accord sing Come holy Ghost so as this day is Pentecost in like manner this place shall be as the upper roome where they were assembled and we as the Apostles and Disciples and the Word which hath now beene preached unto us as the sound of that mightie rushing wind which filled that roome and after wee have worthily celebrated the feast of the Spirit and administred the
him Apoc. 1.7 even they that nailed him to the Crosse and pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall mourne before him Yea and Amen then he shall bring or send forth judgement unto victory He brought forth judgement in his life by preaching the Gospel in his owne person and he sent it forth after his death by the ministery of his Apostles and doth still by propagating the Church but hee bringeth not forth judgement unto victory in the Evangelists phrase because this his judgement is much oppressed the light of his truth smoothered the pure doctrine of the Gospel suppressed the greater part of the Kings of the earth and Potentates of this world refusing to submit their scepter to his Crosse and saying as it is in St. Lukes Gospel Luke 17.14 Wee will not have this man to reigne over us but when the sonne of man shall display his banner in the clouds and the winds shall have breathed out their last gaspes and the sea and the waters shall roare when heaven and earth shall make one great bonefire when the stage of this world shall be removed and all the actors in it shall put off their feigned persons and guises and appeare in their owne likenesse when the man of sinne 2 Thes 2.3 8. that exalteth himselfe above all that is called God shall be fully revealed and after consumed with the spirit of Christs mouth and be destroyed by the brightnesse of his comming then he shall suddenly confound the rest of his enemies Atheists Hypocrites Jewes Turkes Idolatrous Gentiles and Heretikes and breake the neckes of all that stubbornly resist him and then the truth shall universally prevaile and victoriously triumph All this variety of descant which you heare is but upon two notes a higher and a lower the humility and the majesty the infirmity and the power the obscurity and the glory the mildnesse and the severity of our Lord and Saviour his humility upon earth his majesty in heaven his infirmities in the dayes of his flesh and his power since hee sitteth at the right hand of his Father the obscurity and privacy of his first comming and solemnity of his second his mildnesse and clemency during the time of grace and mercy and his wrath and severity at the day of Judgement and Vengeance Ecce tibiâ cecinimus vobis Behold out of this Scripture I have piped unto you recording the pleasing notes of our Redeemers mildnesse and mercy who never brake the bruised reed nor quenched the smoaking flaxe now I am to mourne unto you sounding out the dolefull notes of his justice and severity which shall one day bring forth judgement unto victory But before I set to the sad tune pricked before mee in the rules of my Text I am to entreat you to listen a while till I shall have declared unto you the harmony of the Prophet Esay and the Evangelist S. Matthew the rather because there seemeth some dissonancy and jarre between them For in Esay we reade Esay 42.3 Hee shall bring forth judgement unto truth that is give sentence according to truth but in St. Matthew He shall send forth judgement unto victory which importeth somewhat more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. that the judgement he shall send forth viam inveniet aut faciet shall either finde way or force it take place or make place no man or divell being able to withstand it Besides this discord in their notes there is a sweet straine in the Prophet he shall not faile Verse 4. nor bee discouraged till hee have set judgement on the earth left out in the Evangelist To the first exception the Jesuit Maldonat saith that the Syriack word signifieth both truth and victory and that Saint Matthew wrote not in pure Hebrew but in the Hebrew then currant which was somewhat alloyed and embased with other languages which if it were granted unto him as it is not by those who defend that the Greeke in the New Testament is the originall yet the breach is not fully made up For still the originall Hebrew in Esay and the Greeke in Saint Matthew which hath been ever held authenticall are at odds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hebrew signifying truth and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greeke signifying victory and not truth I grant the truth of Christ is most victorious and hath subdued all the false gods of the Heathen as the Arke laid Dagon on his face and the rod of Aaron devoured all the rods of the Magicians yet truth and victory are not all one A weake Judge may bring forth judgement unto truth yet not unto victory as on the contrary a potent and corrupt Judge may bring forth judgement unto victory yet not unto truth Tully in a bad cause prevailed against Oppianicus by casting dust in the Judges eyes And Aeschines prevailed not against Ctesiphon in a good cause Right is often overcome by might and sometimes by the sleight of a cunning Advocate for the false part To the second objection Beza answereth that these words that hee will not faile nor be discouraged till he hath set judgement on the earth were anciently in St. Matthew but of late through the carelesnesse of some transcriber from whose copy ours were drawne are left out But sith this Verse is wanting in all the copies of Saint Matthew now extant neither can Beza bring good proofe of any one in which this Verse was ever found it is not safe to lay any such imputation upon the first transcribers of St. Matthewes Gospel whereby a gap may be opened to Infidels and Heretickes to cavell at the impeachable authority of the holy Scriptures in the originall languages A safe and easie way to winde out of these perplexed difficulties is to acknowledge that the Evangelist who wrote by the same spirit wherewith the Prophet Esay was inspired tyed nor himselfe precisely to the Prophets words but fitteth the Prophets sense to his owne purpose and what the Prophet delivered in two Verses he contracteth into one For what is hee shall bring forth judgement unto truth and he shall not faint nor be discouraged till hee hath done it but that he shall doe it effectually and powerfully and what is that but he shall send forth judgement unto victory Hee shall send forth Cal. in Mat. 1. Hoc verbum educere quo utitur Propheta significat officium Christi esse Regnum Dei quod tum inclusum erat in angulo Judeae propagare in totum orbem This phrase reacheth forth unto us a twofold observation the first touching the extent the second touching the freedome of this judgement here spoken of By judgement is here meant the Kingdome of Christ which must not bee confined to Jury nor bounded within the pale of Palaestine but hee sent forth that is propagated and spread over the whole world according to the prophecy of the Psalmist a Psal 110.2 The Lord shall send a rod of thy strength out
of Sion be thou ruler in the middest of thine enemies Whilst our Saviour lived upon earth the soveraigne balsamum of wounded mankind yeelding a savour of life unto life was kept as it were in a narrow boxe but at our Saviours death the boxe was broken and this precious oyntment poured out and the whole world filled with the smell thereof This doctrine touching the naturalizing if I may so speak of the Gentiles into the spirituall Common-wealth of Israel was implyed in the Metaphor of the Rose of the field Cantic 2.1 I am the Rose of the field Christ is not a garden flower for few to see and fewer to smell unto but a Rose of the field for all to gather that have a hand of faith to touch him but it was unfolded at large to Saint Peter in a vision of a sheet let downe from Heaven knit at foure corners Acts 10.11 12. in which were all manner of foure footed beasts of the earth and wild beasts and creeping things c. The foure corners of the sheet signified the foure parts of the world all sorts of living creatures all sorts of men of all kindreds nations and languages The sheet in which they were all wrapped is the Church militant In the end of the vision the vessell was received up againe into heaven Acts 10.16 to shew that in the end of the world the whole Church militant shall be transported into heaven and become triumphant St. b Orig. comment in Cant. homil 1. Quemadmodum in Evangelio mulier illa quae sanguine fluebat archi Synagogae filiam curatione praevenit sic Aethiopissa id est Gentium Ecclesia Israel aegrotante sanata est Origen representeth this truth most cleerly unto us through the mirrour of an allegory Though saith he the found of the Gospel came later unto the Gentiles yet the Gentiles prevented the Jewes in giving credit to it and were justified before them as the woman in the Gospel that was sicke of a bloudy issue was healed before the Rulers daughter The daughter of the Ruler of the Synagogue was a type of the Jewish Synagogue the woman that was in a long consumption by reason of her continuall fluxe of bloud was an embleme of the people of the Gentiles lying more than twelve ages sicke of a bloudy issue weltring in her naturall filth and bloud Now as Christ going to cure the Rulers daughter was touched by the Canaanitish woman sicke of a bloudy issue and she by that touch was cured so though Christ came first to heale the Synagogue yet the Gentile Church touching the hemme of his garment by faith is first healed and saved The phrase of sending forth judgement expresseth our Saviours readinesse in opening the treasures of heavenly wisedome and unfolding the mysteries of eternall salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till he shooteth out casteth out or sendeth forth judgement of his owne accord as a tree doth his fruit or the Sunne his beames Matth. 12.35 A good man bringeth forth out of the treasure of his heart good things Matth. 2.11 The Sages opened their treasures and every Scribe which is instructed unto the Kingdome of heaven is like unto a man that is an house-holder which bringeth forth out of his treasures things new and old I have not hid thy righteousnesse within my heart Psal 40.10 saith David in the person of Christ I have declared thy faithfulnesse and thy salvation I have not concealed thy loving kindnesse and thy truth from the great congregation Ver. 9. I have preached righteousnesse in the great assembly I have not refrained my lips O Lord thou knowest And according to this fore-going type how ready the truth himselfe was to publish the Gospel of the Kingdome appeareth by his taking all occasions from every ordinary occurrent to instruct his Disciples in points of heavenly wisedome as from a draught of fish to admonish them of fishing for soules from Well-water to treat of the water of life from barly loaves to exhort them to labour for the food that perisheth not from burying the dead to reprove those that are dead in sinne from curing the blind in body to rebuke the spirituall blindnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees from a question concerning the materiall Temple to fore-tell the dissolution of the temple of his body and raising it up againe in three daies To conceale any needfull especially saving truth is to bury the gold of Ophir and thereby deprive not only others but our selves also of the benefit and use thereof Wherefore St. c August l. 12. confess Veritas nec mea nec tu◠nec illius est sed omnium nostrûm quos ad ejus communionem publicè vocas admonens nos ut nolimus eam habere privatam ne privemut ea Augustine sharply censureth such as would challenge a peculiar interest and propriety in that which is the common treasure of Gods Church saying The truth is neither mine nor thine nor his but all ours in common whom thou O Lord callest publikely to the communion thereof dreadfully admonishing us not to desire to have it private lest we be deprived of it In speciall the truth of judgement ought not to bee kept in but to bee sent forth For to detaine any private mans goods is but a private wrong but unrighteously to detaine justice which is the Kings or the Common-wealths or rather both their good is a kind of peculatus or publike theft We laugh at the Indians for casting in great store of gold yeerly into the river Ganges as if the streame would not runne currently without it yet when the current of justice is stopt in many Courts the wisest Soliciters of sutes can finde no better means than such as the Indians use by dropping in early in the morning gold and silver into Ganges to make it runne Pliny reporteth of Apis the Aegyptian god whom they worshipped in the likenesse of a Cow or Oxe that hee gave answers to private men è manu consulentium cibum capiendo Taking alwayes some food from their hands otherwise the Oracle was dumbe I need not to prosecute the application in this place where by the testimony of all men and the truth it selfe the streame of Justice if any where runneth cleerly most free from all filth and corruption Therefore I passe from Christ his sending forth judgement to his victory Hee shall send forth judgement unto victory There are two principall acts or to speake more properly effects of our Lords Princely function 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judgement and victory judgement upon and victory over all his enemies Wee have them both in the words of my Text Judgement which hee shall send forth and Victory unto which But of what Judgement or Victory the words are to bee construed the learned Interpreters of holy Writ somewhat differ in judgement Some in their ghesses fall short upon the particular judgement and utter