great benefits that this good God had done unto them First Moses tells you They waxed fat and then they kicked as we lately did and forsook God that made them and lightly esteemed the rock of their salvation They provoked him to jealousie with strange Gods and moved him to anger with their abominations They sacrificed to Devils and not to God to Gods that they knew not that came newly up whom their fathers feared not which was and is the fruit of every new Religion as of late dayes we have fully seen amongst us And then as they forsook God that formed them so presently they rebelled against his servants they muttered and murmured and rejected all their Governours and as the Psalmist saith They angred Moses in their tents and Aaron the Saint of the Lord for these two to forsake God and to rebel against their Governours do always go together And if you look into the foresaid sixteenth Chapter of Ezekiel you shall see how the Prophet sheweth their wickedness and how they have multiplied their abominations above measure and as many of us over-wickedly and unjustly seeking to make our children great in this world do bring them unto the Devil in the world to come Ezech. 16.21 so did they slay their children and cause them to pass through the fire and as the Psalmist saith Ps 106.37 They offered their sons and their daughters unto Devils and the Lord himself assureth us that Sodom had not done so wickedly as they had done Ezek. 16.48.51 and Samaria had not committed half of their sins And what an intolerable ingratitude was this The most monstrous thing that ever was not possibly to be described quia dixeris maledicta cuncta cum ingratum hominem dixeris because thou sayest all the evils that can be said when thou namest an ungrateful man especially to God that hath done such great things for us For we read of many bruit beasts that for small benefits have been very thankful unto men as of the Dog that for a peice of bread will follow and be ready to die for his Master and the Lion that for pulling a thorn out of his foot preserved the slave that did it from all the beasts of the forrest and afterwards his life on the Theatre in Rome and Primauday tells us of an Arabian infidel that being taken prisoner and afterwards set at liberty by Baldwin King of Jerusalem in token of his thankfulness for that favour Pet. Prim. c. 40. p. 431. he went to him by night into a Town where he was retired after he had lost the field and declared to him the purpose of his companions and conducted him until he had brought him out of all danger And when bruit beasts and Pagans are thus thankful unto us shall man be unthankful unto God No no He should be truly thankful And Seneca saith there be four special conditions of true thankfulness 1. Grate accipere to receive it thankfully 2. Nunquam oblivisci Never to forget it for he can never be thankful that hath forgotten the benefit 3. Ingenue fateri per quem profecerimus Four conditions of true thankfulness ingeniously to acknowledge by whom we are profited 4. Pro virili retribuere to requite the benefit received in the best manner that we are able But this people scarce observed any one of them I am sure not the second and therefore not possibly the third and fourth for the Prophet David tells us plainly that after the Lord had shewed his tokens among them and his wonders in the land of Ham and had brought forth his people with joy and his chosen with gladness and had given them the lands of the Heathen Is 105.42 43 so that they did as many have done amongst us to take the labours of the people in possession Ps 106.13 Yet within a while they did as we do forget his works and would not abide his counsel V. 21. yea they forgat God their Saviour which had done so great things in Egypt wondrous things in the land of Ham and fearful things by the Red-sea But to let this people pass that were destroyed for their unthankfulness let us look unto our selves and have our eyes behind us to behold and see First What God hath done for us And What God did for us the people of these dominions Amos 3.2 Secondly What we have done for the honour and service of God And First As the Lord said of the Jews You onely have I chosen of all the families of the earth so I believe the Lord may justly say of our Kings dominions that he shewed more love and favour unto them then he did to any other Kingdom of the World for whatsoever good he did to others he did the same to us And he shewed two more signal favours to us then he did to any other Kingdome of all Christendome As I. He raised the good Emperour Constantine the Son of Helen out of Britaine to close up the days of persecution and shut the doors of the Idol-Temples II. When the mysts of ignorance and errors and superstition had covered and overshadowed almost all the Church of Christ God sent successively no less then five such excellent Protestant Princes King Edward the sixth Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles the I. and II. as no other Kingdom had the like to protest against all the Popish errours and superstition and to make such a perfect reformation of Religion that both for Doctrine and Discipline no Church in Christendom is so purely and so perfectly established as these Churches of our Kings dominions are such love and such mercies of God to us as exceeded all the blessings of the earth and shewed to no other Nation of the world in such a measure but to this And what reward I pray you What requital have we rendred unto God have we and our people rendred unâ—o God for those great unparalell'd benefits that he hath done unto us I do profess I have been a man ever faithful to my King and ever fearless of all the dangers of the world and therefore I must say the truth as Saint Steven told the Jews though I should fare as Saint Steven did that as they were a stiff-necked people that have always resisted the Holy Ghost and persecuted the Prophets and been the traytors and murderers of Christ so have the major part of us shewed themselves a rebellious Nation that confederated to assist the Devil to requite Gods extraordinary signal favour to us with extraordinary signal contempt of Gods service and signal malice to all his servants above any other nation of the World by raising out of us and bringing in amongst us the great Anti-Christ that is the great enemies of Christ you know whom * The Long Parliament to slay the two witnesses of Jesus Christ which were Cohors Magistratuum Chorus Prophetarum 1. the best and blessed King Charles the First that
oves gently and lovingly like sheep as he did the Israelites by the hands of Moses and Aaron And Psal 99.1 2. Seeing Christ is King then as the same Prophet saith contremiscat populus let the people tremble for if they fall to be unruly as we were of late let them be never so impatient this King can as easily gather unto himselfe the spirit of his under-Princes as we can slip a cluster of Grapes from a Vine and he can send them a Rehoboam without Wisedome or a Jeroboam without Religion or Ashur a Stranger an Vsurper as we have had to be our King or nullum Regem no King at all but a disordered Anarchy which is the worst of all Psal 10.4 and all this quia non timuerunt Jehovam because they cared not for God neither was God in all their thoughts But to end this Point seeing Christ our King is this Lion here mentioned we need not fear our spiritual enemies for though he be a Lion and a roaring Lion that is against us yet you see we have a Lion with us and as Saint John saith he that is in us is greater then he that is in the world 1 John 4. and is stronger then the strong man armed and able as the Apostle saith Rom. 16.20 Vide the abridgment of the Gospel fol. 26. 27. to tread and bruise Satan under our feet and therefore we ought to stand fast in the Lord without fear because as Saint Chrysostome well saith non debet timere hostem fortem qui habet Regem fortiorem he need not fear the strongest enemy that hath a stronger King as our King is blessed be God for it 2. Saint Luke is understod by the Calf 2. as Saint Matthew is here understood by the Lion quia solet res quae significat ejus rei nomine quam significat nuncupari as the bread that signifieth the body of Christ is termed the body of Christ because he proveth Christ to be the King of the Jews and that Lion of Juda which was so long expected to come into the world so for the like reason Saint Luke is here to be understood by the Calf because he principally aimed to prove Christ that is signified by the Calf to be that Priest of whom the Lord sware thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck For I told you before that of all the sacrifices of the four footed Beasts of the Herds which the Hebrews called bakar that is majores hostias the greater sacrifices the Calf was most acceptable unto God as the Prophet sheweth Psal 51.19 Heb. 9.19 Exod. 24 8. Esay 11.6 7. when they offered yong bullocks id est goodly Calfs upon his altar And the reason is because the Calf is meeker and more gentle then either of the rest in regard of which meekness the quiet and peaceable man is metaphorically called a Calf And therefore by the Calf is here signified the Priestly office of Christ whereby he offered up himself as a meek and immaculate Calf unto God that by the blood of this Calf we might be sprinkled and purged from all our sins because that without shedding of bloud there is no remission Heb. 9.22 as the Apostle speaketh And of all the rest of the Evangelists Saint Luke onely doth most specially aime to prove Christ to be a Priest and to shew his Priestly office for both the Alpha and Omega of his Gospel is concerning the Temple and the sacrifices thereof when as he beginneth the same with the Priesthood of Zacharias and his sacrifice of incense and endeth the same with the sacrifice of the Christians that were continually in the Temple praysing and blessing God Luc. 24.53 For though that before the birth of this Priest the other Priests were to burn incense in the Temple of the Lord as Zacharias did yet this Priest being now born and ascended up to heaven the sacrifice that the Christians are to offer unto God is to be continually praysing and landing God in the Temple as Saint Luke saith the Apostles did For the true propitiatory sacrifice being exhibited the Types and Figures thereof must now cease and be abolished and in the place thereof the gratulatory sacrifice must be established And therefore Saint Luke beginneth his Gospel with the propitiatory sacrifice of Zaâ—harias because Christ was not as yet incarnate John 1. but he endeth the same with the gratulatory sacrifice of the Apostles because that now the word was made flesh and Christ had ascended into Heaven S. Luke proveth Christ to be a Priest by 3 special Arguments And lest this should not be sufficient to demonstrate Christ to be a Priest he proceedeth to prove him to be that Priest which was after the order of Melchisedech by three other special Arguments 1. A Prosapia from his Pedegree 2. From the true qualities and properties of a Priest 3. From the performance of the duties and office of a Priest 1 Argument from his Pedegree 1. In that St. Luke deriveth his Genealogy by Nathan S. Ambrose saith it was to shew his Priestly office and Venerable Bede saith that because Saint Matthew intended to shew the Regal office of Christ and St. Luke his Priestly office therefore St. Matthew derives his person from King Solomon Beda l. 1. in c. 3. Luc. and St. Luke from Nathan and so saith he in the Chariot of the Cherubims the Lion which is the strongest of all Beasts designs his Kingly office and the Calf which was the sacrifice of the Priest denotates his Priestly function and saith he Eandem uterque sui operis intentionem in genealogia quoque salvatoris texenda observavit And both the Evangelists in like manner observed the same intention of their work in setting down the genealogy of our Saviour And then immediatly he addeth two excellent Observations to confirm the same point As 1 Observation 1. That in the manner of setting down his genealogie S. Matthew descended from Abraham to Joseph Beda ibid. to note his Kingly office and to shew that he partaked with us of our mortality but S. Luke by ascending from Joseph unto Adam and so to God doth rather design his Priestly office in expiating our sins and so bringing us to immortality And therefore in the descending generations of S. Matthew the taking upon Christ our sins is signified but in the ascending genealogies of S. Luke the abolition of our sins is noted unto us For so the Apostle saith God sent his Son in the similitude of sinful flesh there is the acception and the taking of our sins upon him and for sin or by the sacrifice for sin Rom. 8.3 condemned sin in the flesh there is the expiation of our sins And 2. To the same purpose he observeth 2 Observation that S. Matthew in his genealogie descended from David by Solomon with whose mother David sinned but S. Luke ascended by
things of this world in our judgements rightly informed which now seem so precious in our imaginations being corrupted What the spiritual men that are like the noble Eagle should doe And therefore if we would be like the noble Eagles mounting up to Heaven then as Moses builded his tent without the hoste and far from the hoste so should we build our habitation out of this world and far above the world and as Elias when he journeyed towards Heaven in his fiery Chariot and was flying up in a whirlwinde bestript himself of his mantle and threw it down to the earth lest the weight of it should presse him downward and so hinder his ascent to Heaven even so if we desire to ascend to Heaven we must bestrip our selves of all worldly impediments that are as heavy as a talent of lead and do not onely hinder us from ascending upwards but do press many men down to the bottomless pit And as the Prophet David in all distresses comforted himself with that pious meditation saying Whom have I in heaven but thee and what is there on earth that I desire in comparison of thee so do all those that make their unum necessarium their chiefest purpose and design to go to Christ to have an everlasting house and lands satisfie themselves with the hope of obtaining their desire And this is the reason that seeing God hath given them all that they have they weigh not a straw if they be driven to spend all that they have for the benefit and good of the Church of Christ and to promote the service of God And if the wise men of the world laugh at our folly and say we shall spend ten times more then we shall ever get We may answer that for our losses and expences they are but as feathers and that shall never trouble us but our hope is that we shall attain unto our desire which is to mount up with the rest of God's Eagles unto the Kingdom of Heaven and that will countervail all our losses And so much for the peculiar and proper Description of these Beasts THE SECOND SERMON REVEL 4.8 And the four Beasts had each of them six wings about him c. 2. FOR their general and common description 2. Their general and common description it is said they had each one of them six wings about him and they were all full of eyes Touching which you must observe 1. Some things about their wings 2. Some things about their eyes And 1. Of their wings 1. About their wings These two things are to be noted 1. What are these six wings 2. To what end they had these wings or what use they made of them 1. What they are 1. Rupertus and others say these six wings are the six works of mercy visito poto cibo redimo tego colligo fratres that is as our Saviour sets them down to give meat unto the hâ—ngry Matth. 25.35 drink unto the thirsty lodging to the stranger cloathe to the naked and to visit the sick and those that are in prison others understand hereby the six spiritual works of piety and mercy which are to correct the offendor to instruct and consell the ignorant to comfort the afflicted to bear patiently all injuries to forgive all trespasses and to pray for our enemies and persecutors but Balaeus and Lambert say that these six wings are faith hâ—pe charity justice mercy and truth and I think they come nearest unto the truth for by those six we shall be able to shun and flie away from all the mischeifs of the world and these six wings are able to mount us up unto our father in Heaven And they that have not these six wings are rightly said to be like the Ostrich which often spreads her wings but seldome flieth But they that have these six wings are most happy and need not fear the greatest dangers nor the malice of their greatest enemies For 1. Faith is radix omnium virtutum the root of all virtues and you know what mightie things Saint Paul setteth down to have been done through faith 2. Spes alit afflictos hope preserveth the afflicted and maketh not ashamed saith the Apostle 3. Charity covereth a multitude of sins and of all the three divine graces 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greatest of them all is charity 4. Justice is such a cardinal virtue that Theognis a Heathen saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 justice comprehends all virtues 5. Our Saviour saith blessed are the mercifull for that they are sure to obtain mercy And 6. Truth as Zorob proveth is so great that it will prevaile against all oppositions for though that by the tricks and delayes of sutle heads it may be clouded for a time yet at last it will bud forth and appear But I fear the Lord hath a controversie with the Inhabitants of this Land because as the Prophet saith there is no truth nor mercy I may add nor justice nor knowledge of God in the Land or if these be then I am sure you will not build up Zion with bloud and Jerusalem with iniquity because the Lord loves neither House nor Lands that are unjustly obtained I cannot stand to examine it or to handle the particulars that might be said concerning these six points for that might require six houres to do it at least but I will proceed and say 2. If you would know to what end they had these wings 2. What use they made of their wings or what use they made of them the Prophet Esay tells you in the practice of the Seraphims that it was for these three special ends That is 1. To cover their faces 2. To cover their feet 3. To flie about For he saith that with two of their wings they cover'd their faces and with two they covered their feet Esay 6.2 and with two they did flie And this they did for these three ends That is 1. To check our curiosity 2. To shew our misery 3. To teach us industry 1. It is the nature and the foolish disposition of man to be alwayes prying and searching into every thing the secrets of God the mysteries of state and the obscurities of nature And yet the Seraphims that stand in the presence of God are fain to cover their faces not to hide their sins which they had not but because they are not able to behold the brightness of Gods glorious Majesty and if the Angels hid their faces from the brightness of Gods Glory how dares sinfull man prie into it because as the Apostle saith he dwels in the light light that no man can attain unto it 1 Tim. 6.16 Exod. 34.20 and the Lord saith himself that no man could see his face and live for though we walk in the chearfull light of the Sun yet we are not able fully and directly to look upon the Sun when he shineth in his full strength and brightness but it will dazle our eyes and
make them to see a thousand colours And as a pure chrystal glass cannot indure the strong working of the fire but it will break all to pieces even so the weakness of mans mortal nature though it liveth by the enjoying of Gods presence yet it cannot bear nor comprehend the glory and brightness of Gods Majesty but that in looking upon so clear an object the eyes of his understanding shall be dazled and he shall fall and be swallowed up into a thousand errours For seeing as the Apostle speaketh our knowledge of God in this life is but in part 1 Cor. 13.12 like the beholding of a man suddenly passing by us when we can look upon nothing but onely his back parts it is impossible for any man in this mortality to know perfectly and exactly the being and wayes of the most highest And therefore this checketh the curiosity and reproveth the boldness of those men that like Phaeton will flie and mount up too high to search into the Heavenly mysteries for as the wise man saith who can number the sand of the sea the drops of rain Ecclas 1.2 and the dayes of time who can measure the height of Heaven the breadth of the Earth and the depth of the Sea Who can find out the wisdome of God which hath been before all things For if we consider either the nature and essence of God or if we look into the counsels and works of God we shall easily perceive that they are all incomprehensible Danaeus Isag Et si quid facit Deus naturae nobis assuetae repugnans nihil tamen facit rationi repugnans And if God doth any thing that seemeth repugnant to our accustomed nature yet we may be sure he doth nothing that is repugnant to reason And though all that God doth be exceeding good yet we cannot always perceive many of them to be good and yet this makes them not to be unjust Gregor in Job c. 9. because we understand them not to be just for as St. Gregory saith Qui in factis Dei rationem non videt He that seeth not the reason of Gods doings let him consider his own infirmity and blindness rationem videat cur non videt and he shall soon see the reason why he seeth it not and if we seek to know more then we are able to understand we shall understand less then we do And therefore Solomon gives good counsell to these Gnosticks saying Eccles 7.18 be not thou just overmuch neither make thy self over-wise For the mystery of the Lords commanding Adam that he should not eat of the tree of knowledge was very great because the knowledge that he should get thereby would not onely cause his present fall That we ought not to be too curious to search into divine mysteries Gen. 3.5 V. 7. but also make both him and all his sons for evermore to fall And therefore the subtle Serpent that aymed at the readiest way to destroy them promised unto Eva and he kept his promise that if they would eat of the tree of knowledge their eyes should be opened and they should be as Gods knowing good and evil and so it was for the text saith that their eyes were opened and they had the knowledge both of good and evil the good that they had lost and the evil that they had fallen into for they knew that they were naked And so this knowledge did but direct them a way to run away from God and teach them the art to sowe fig-leaves together to cover their shame and to hide their wickedness and themselves from the sight of God which they could never do And therefore happy Adam hadst thou been if thou never hadst had this knowledge for this knowledge made thee to full and so the Prophet Esay saith of Babylon Esay 47.10 thy wisdom and thy knowledge have caused thee to rebel or to turn away and so Ovid saith of himself Ingenio perii qui miser ipse meo My wit and my knowledge hath undone me And I fear that many other men will cry out that their too greedy a desire inconcessae scientiae of unlawful knowledge and prying too far into hidden mysteries hath hurried them into most desperate conclusions for though it be very true that no other creature upon earth hath reason and understanding but onely man yet it is as true that no other creature goeth so far from reason as man alone And therefore I do not say happy are the beasts that want reason but I say unhappy is that man qui cum ratione insanit that runneth mad with the reason that God hath given him and by aspiring to get unlawful knowledge doth fall into unavoidable mischief And therefore the Devil could wish that all his servants were as knowing as Berengarius and as subtle as Dunâ— Scotus because he hath more excellent execrable service from one of them then he can have from a thousand others for it is a true saying That inferiour conceits have inferiour sins non nisi ex magnis ingeniis magni errores and the great errors never came but from great wits such as Arius Pelagius and the rest of the great Hereticks had And as it was the Giants and Lucifer that highly rebelled and warred against God and as it was the Princes and the Kings of the earth that stood up and took counsel against the Lord and against his Anointed So it is the great Lords that were the great rebels and the mean men that were infirmiores in exercitu are but as the tayle of the Dragon which the great men drew after them And so it is the curious wits the pryers and searchers after unsearchable knowledge and secret mysteries that hatch the cockatrice eggs and produce the most desperate errours And therefore seeing the ambitious desires of attaining more knowledge then beseemeth us and the knowledge of those secret things Deut 29 29. that as Moses saith belong unto the Lord our God are the Devil 's splendida peccata his glistering sins generosa scelera his noble projects his jewels and most honourable stratagems which have caused many men not onely to fall away The Seminary Priests and Presbyterians the most dangerous people in the Church of God but also to run away from God we ought to take the counsel of Saint Augustin Magis metuere cum in intellectu habitat diabolus quaem cum in affectionibus to fear more when the Devil dwelleth in the understanding then when he corrupteth our affections when as a Pestilent Heretique or a Seminary Priest or a Fanatique Non-conformist doth more mischief then either a dissolute drunkard or a covetous merchant And when we can not comprehend the Majesty of God we should say with our selves it is no marvel because he dwels in the Light that none can attain unto it so when we can not understand his ways nor dive into the depth of his counsels and his decrees of election and
forged to destroy their own most Pious King and all their Spiritual Fathers so that all the Kings Declarations all the Protestations of his friends and Councel and all the Preaching of the most faithful and Orthodox Preachers could not undeceive the seduced giddie-headed people And 2. For their impiety it is most certain and beyond comparison that there was not ever a greater wickedness committed then the crucifying of the Son of God but besides the many parallels betwixt those Jews and these Rebels exceeding all impiety the malicious prosecution and the violent persecution of these rebels against our late King and the hellish manner of compassing his death and killing him went beyond all the wickedness of those wicked Jews For. 1. The Jews knew him not 1 Resp Act. 13.27.17 nor yet the voices of the Prophets as the Apostles testifie in many places and Christ himself saith Father forgive them for they know not what they do and they knew him not to be their King for the Romans had long reigned over them and he had refused to be made King but the long Parliament knew Charles the first and knew him well enough to be their own indubitable just and lawful King And therefore they fought for the King and Parliament such a cheat and such a riddle as you never read the like and yet a very true one as true as Samsons riddle if you understand it right for they fought for the King to destroy him that iâ— for the Kings destruction and they fought for the Parliament to make them absolute Lords to reign and rule as Kings The Jews never had such wit 2. 2. Resp The Jews put Christ to death more for fear then for hate for Venient Romani was the spur that pricked them forward to destroy Christ lest the Romans should come and take away their rule and destroy their religion but not the fear of any strange Nations coming to reign and rule over them but inveterate malice to the King and the height of ambition to rule and to become as Kings themselves made the late Rebels to destroy the Vice-Roy of Christ 3. The Jews dismembred not our Saviour for 3 Resp not a bone of him was broken not the least limb of him was taken away but those Butchers brake and cut off the head of him that was their head and the head of us all and they did so many other such tragick-acts that while I was writing the great Antichrist I often conceived that if Beelzebub out of all the choisest Varlets and most transcendent Villains that from the beginning of the World he had collected to be his own cabinet-companions he had picked out a pack of rebels and had sent them unto us they would have become short of those bloody murderers of our late gracious King because that as Satan himself so the Instruments of Satan by experience and the length of time do grow subtler and subtler and are still better and better inabled to commit the greater wickedness And how a greater wickedness could be committed then that so good so pious and so excellent a Prince as King Charles the first should be withstood rebelled against betrayed deserted by his English Scottish and Irish subjects excepting a few noble Lords and others that stuck unto him and so cruelly bemangled him to death it makes me silent and dumb that I know not what to say but to pray to God that this great wickedness be not yet laid to our charge And Secondly For the Irish Rebellion it was beyond example I say that in many particulars their ingratitude was beyond all parallel for other Nations as the subjects of the King of Pontus and the like that rebelled and murdered all the Romans in their dominions and those Irish that rooted out the Danes had some kind of colour to do the same because their domineering Lords were aliens and oppressed them beyond measure as the Philistins did the Israelites and kept them as slaves under them but the late Irish Rebels were Peers and as the chief Lords of the kingdom and such interchange of marriages betwixt the English British and Irish and such mutual pledges of love amity and familiarity betwixt them that there could not be the least suspicion of the least distast amongst them And besides all this though there were some penal Statutes made against them yet they were for the most part suffered to lie asleep and covered over with many kindnesses and they themselves permitted as God said of Adam to become as one of us and as Q. Dido said of the Trojans Tros Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine agetur We made no difference of any priviledge amongst us And therefore What a horrible ingratitude was it then for such men to rise and to rebel and so maliciously to intend so inhumanely so barbarously and so cruelly to root out and to destroy their Neighbours Friends and Allies And especially to plot such a mischievous act as they intended so subtly so secretly and so universally as they did For what created power under heaven is able to dissolve that villany and to evade that mischief which subtlety power and cruelty have combined and confederated to bring to pass Surely we may most justly take up the words of the Psalmist and say If the Lord himself had not been on our side now may England say Ps 124.1 If the Lord himself had not been on our side when these men rose up against us it had not failed but that they had swallowed us up quick and we had been utterly destroyed when they were so wrathfully displeased at us And this his being on our side is not to be understood of an ordinary manner and common providence which ruleth and disposeth all things wisely but of a special providence in an extraordinary manner and a signal favour towards us which the Lord hath shewed three special times in our days and to our people As 1. In the reveiling of the Gunpowder-plot when as flos medulla regni the King and all his Peers the flower and marrow of the kingdom should have been blown up and all destroyed uno ictu in one twinckling of an eye 2. In the discovery of this Irish machination and desperate intention of these Rebels which had got into this City and had gotten their ends had not our good God set a hook in their nostrils and said unto them as he saith unto the Sea Hitherto shalt thou go and no further here shalt thou stay thy proud waves and out of his special providence sent one in a strange manner out of themselves to discover them unto our Governours 3. In the dividing and scattering both of the English and the Irish Rebels and the bringing in of our most gratious King unto us so peaceably so quietly and in a manner so miraculously sine sanguine sine strepitu to the joy and comfort of us all For these things above all the rest of Gods mercies are
able to make any man blind to make a blind man to see and with Fire that burns every thing else to preserve the three Children in the Fiery Furnace and to make the raging Sea that swallows down and drowneth man and beast to be a Wall of defence unto the children of Israel 3. Respect 3. God is said to be Omnipotent and Almighty because he is able to do what he will not do that is more then ever he did or ever will do for he is able of these stones to raise up Children unto Abraham Math. 3.9 And he saith to St. Peter Think you that I cannot now pray to my Father and he shall presently give me more then twelve legions of Angels Math. 26.52 and so he can do many thousand things that he doth not and will not do Titus 1.2 2 Tim. 2.13 Aug. de Trinitat l. 15. c. 15. But it is objected that the Apostle saith He cannot lie and again He cannot denie himself to which St. Augustine answereth that Magna est Dei potentia non posse mentiri it is an argument of Gods great power that he cannot lie or deny himself because that to lie is the sign of weakness and imbecillity when the lyer is not able to do what he saith or to perform what he promiseth And he that desireth further satisfaction in this Point let him look into my Best Religion See the Best Religion where I have handled the same more at large So you have seen how and in what respect God is said to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Almighty and that should teach us a twofold Lesson 1. The one of Fear Two Lessons to be learnt 2. The other of Comfort For 1. God threatneth to â—unish and plague wicked sinners 1. Of fear and he that blesseth himself when he heareth the curse the Lord saith he will not spare him Deut. 29.19 but will blowout his name from under heaven and again he saith Levit. 26.23 if you wa k stubbornly and contrary unto me I will also walk contrary unto you and plague you seven times more for your offences and do not you think that God is able to make good his threatnings Therefore we ought all of us to humble our selves and to fear the Almighty God and as our Saviour saith Math. 10.28 to fear him who is able to destroy both body and soul 2. This Doctrine of the almighty power of God 2. Lesson may afford us a great deal of comfort against the Devil our afflâ—ctions and all Tyrants For when we see Satans army and consider his stratagems against us we may well cry out with Elizaeus servant Alas what shall we do 2. Reg. 6.15 But when we remember what our Saviour saith I give to my sheep eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any pluck them out of my hand John 10.28 because my Father which gave them me is greater then all and none is able to take them out of my fathers hands 1 Pet. 1.5 we may comfort our selves and be assured that as St. Peter saith the godly that do serve the Lord shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation because he that is in us is greater and more powerful then he that is in the world 1 John 4.4 5. The last Attribute here set down is which was and is and is to come and this crowneth all the other Attributes of God for without this to be Lord to be a God and to be Almighty would avail little or nothing but to be so and to be so for ever Esai 43.10 Psal 90.2 is all in all and only the honour and prerogative of the Almighty God And so God saith Before me there was no God formed neither shall be after me and the Prophet David speaking to him 1 Tim. 1.17 saith Before the mountains were made and before thou hast formed the earth or the world thou art God from everlasting Exod. 3.14 and world without end and St. Paul calls him the king of ages or the everlasting King and the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews Esai 57.15 saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For as he saith unto Moses I am is his name that is an Eternal being and which inhabiteth eternity and as here these Beasts do say which was that is Lord God almighty and therefore the Maker and Creatour of all the things that are What the former point should teach us and which is that is Lord God Almighty and therefore the ruler and governor of all the things that are and which is to come that is to be as he is Lord God Almighty therefore the rewarder of all men as their works shall be And this Eternal being of God should teach us all to labour for eternity for that which is vain and vanisheth is of nothing worth but the truth is that we shall all be Eternal and for ever either in felicity or misery in joy or in torments and therefore our study and care should be so to live and to serve this Eternal God that we may live with him in Eternal happiness and avoid those Eternal torments wherein the wicked shall be chained for ever For you shall find that as the same Father saith Praeterit jucunditas non reditura manet anxietas non peritura And therefore I advise you all and my hearts desire is that you would be all like these four Beasts as I have explained them in their description and their practice that so with these Beasts you may for ever live with him which was and is and is to come To whom be all Honour and Glory and Praise and Thanks for ever and ever Amen Jehovae Liberatori THE ONLY VVAY TO THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN A SERMON Preached before the Duke of Ormond's Grace and the two Houses of Parliament in Dublin By Griffith Lord Bishop of Ossory LONDON Printed for the Author Anno Dom. 1664. THE FIFTH SERMON MATH 6.33 and LUKE 12.31 But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you I Have not long since began to treat of this Text before the most Religious and most Honourable Person here And what then the time prevented me I shall now endeavour by Gods help to conclude unto you yet with an abstract and an abreviation of the particular Points and Heads I then handled that so you may the better understand the whole And as St. Paul saith Though to us it is troublesome yet for you it is profitable to hear the same things again Quia labilis memoria hominis and good things will soon slip out of our minds And I said then that the Angel Vriel tells Esdras 2 Esdr 8.2 3. the man of God That as the earth hath more dust and clay for earthen vessels then Ore and Mines for gold so this present world hath more men
2.4 The bloud-thirsty how detestable Which sheweth how detestable beyond my ability of expression are those bloud-thirsty men that so maliciously and wickedly do hunt after the life of man and do shed the bloud of so many Innocents no waies like that good God which made not Death nor desireth the Death of any sinner much lesse the destruction of the Righteous nor yet like Alexander that knew not God yet knew this that when his Mother Olympias that was a bloudy woman lay hard upon him to kill a certain innocent person and to that end said often to him that she carried him Nine Moneths in her Womb therefore he had no reason to deny her answered her most wisely Good Mother ask for that some other reward and recompence because the life of man is so dear Am. Marcellin l. 14. c. 10. that no benefit can countervail it and the unjust taking of it away is so hainous that it is impossible for any mortal man to make satisfaction for so great an offence Matth. 3.7 What shall we say then to those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that when their own most gracious King doth so often sollicite for peace do still make them ready for battel and have taken away the lives of so many thousands of men 2 Thes 2.3 truly if they are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet certainly they are the sons of Apollyon the children of the Destroyer Death how terrible that without speedy repentance can receive no better reward then damnation But as life is the sweetest and the most excellent of all things that are in this world Aristot. Ethic. l. 3. c. 6. so death saith the Philosopher est omnium terribilium terribilissimum because this bringeth our years to an end finisheth our daies and puts a period to all our joyes and though there is but one way of life for all men and that one alike to all to come naked out of their Mothers womb yet Job 1.21 as the Poet saith Mille modis lethi miseros mors una fatigat Statius Thebaid l. 9. There are a thousand waies to bring any one of us unto his death And here the Prophet threatneth death unto the people of Israel many waies The Israelites how threatned Quocunque aspiciunt nihil est nisi pontus aether Ovid de Trist. For the City that went out by a thousand shall leave a hundred and that which went out by an hundred shall leave ten to the house of Israel that is as Remigius and Hugo say Vers 3. the Israelites shall be so plagued by the Assyrians 2 Reg. 18.10 as well in the three years siege of Samaria as also before and after the same by the Sword Famine and the Pestilence which Sicut unda sequitur undam do ever follow like Jobs Messengers one in the heel of another the sword alwaies bringing famine and the famine producing pestilence so that almost all shall be consumed and scarce ten of an hundred shall be left And as the Spirit of God saith unto Esayas Go tell this people hear ye indeed but understand not Esay 6.10 Then said the Prophet Lord how long and he answered until the Cities be wasted without Inhabitant and the houses without man and the Land be utterly desolate So now this distressed England how threatned and how miserable we are though formerly most happy Kingdom is threatned to be scourged in like manner with the worst of wars famines and pestilences Praesentémque viris intendunt o nonia mortem And as the Poet saith all that we do see say we are appointed to be destroyed and destined unto death when as S. Bernard saith Quos fugere scimus ad quos nescimus we know whom we would shun but we scarce know where or to whom we may flee to be safe and secured of our Lives for as Jeremie saith Servants have ruled over us Lam. 5.8 9. and there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand We get our bread with the peril of our lives because of the Sword of the Wilderness And therefore as our Prophet saith Wailing is in all streets they say in all high-waies Amos 5.16 alas alas and they call the husbandman to mourning and such as are skilful of lamentation to wailing Esay 34.5 6. 2 Reg. 8.1 Amos 4.10 Yet seeing the sword is the sword of the Lord and it is the Lord that calleth for Famine and the Pestilence is the scourge of God which he sendeth amongst us as our Prophet saith and that God never draweth his sword How God dealeth with his people and throweth away the Scabberd as if he never meant to put it up again never sends a famine but in that famine he can feed the young Ravens that call upon him and satisfie the hungry with good things and never powreth out any plague but that in the greatest infection he can preserve his servants that although a thousand should fall besides them and ten thousand at their right hand Psal 91 7. yet it shall not come nigh them and never sendeth any temptation but if the fault be not our own 1 Cor. 10.13 he doth with the temptation make a way to escape that we may be able to bear it because he being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Father of mercies 2 Cor. 1.3 and the God of all comfort to them that fear him as well as the God of Justice to render vengeance to them that offend him hath the suppling Oyl of Mercy as well as the sharp Wine of Justice to powre into the wounds of every penitent sinner therefore our Prophet here joyneth to the Lamentation for Israel an Exhortation to repentance and though he threatneth Death for our sins yet he setteth down an Antidote whereby we might if we would preserve our life and though I confess the Physitians are very useful Physitians how useful and to be honoured as the Scripture speaketh to be sought after especially in the times of sickness and Mortality yet I am sure that neither Hippocrates nor Galen nor all the School of Salerne the whole Colledge of Physitians shall ever be able to prescribe a Potion so precious and so powerful to pâ—eserve your Life as I shall declare unto you for God which is truth it self hath said it Seek the Lord and you shall live wherein I desire you to observe Two parts of the Text. 1. A Precept the best work that you can do Seek the Lord. 2. A Promise the best reward that you can desire And you shall live 1. The Precept twofold 1. In the Precept you may see there are two words and so two parts 1. Seek which is the Act that all men do 2. The Lord which is the Object of our seeking wherein most men fail 1. The word seek doth presuppose that we have lost or be without the Lord and so we have indeed we lost Paradise
a green bay tree cloathed in scarlet and fine linnen and fair deliciously every day the poor Saints even in their bonds are glad to eat ashes as it were bread and to mingle their drink with weeping I confess this hath been ever a sore objection that disheartned many men and made King Davids feet well nigh to slip Sol. but if I shall obtain your patience to stay with me a little in Gods Sanctuary I shall soon unty this Gordian knot or so cut it to pieces that it can no waies be any hinderance to our progress For 1. Seneca proveth Seneca de brevit vitae c. 8. that long life consisteth not in the great number of years but in vertuous actions and the wise man saith an undefiled life is the old age for God esteemeth of no time but what we spend in his service Sap. 1. All time lost that is not spent in Gods service and therefore they that lived 100 years in pleasures have but lost all their time and been as dead all that time which they lived and those holy Saints that were cut off in the midst of their daies have lived longer because they spent their whole time in Gods service the other lost their time and lost their life as Titus was wont to say diem perdidi I lost the day wherein I did no good and these have gained every hour And 2. Afflictions not so esteemed by the Saints as they are by the worldlings 2. Whatsoever afflictions the Saints do suffer we must not account them so great miseries unto them as the world takes them for the Philosopher tells us that quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis and they esteem them not as the world doth but they count them as the fatherly chastisements of Gods love and not any arguments of Gods hatred and as the Poet saith How God sweetneth the afflictions of his servants Una eademque manus vulnus opemque tulit the same hand which layed on their stripes will heal their sores Way 1 1. By giving them that invincible gift of patience which doth more iurage their tormenting persecutors Tert. in apolâ—g then themselves are in suffering torments Way 2 2. By filling them with true content that is in any estate to be contented Phil. 4.11 which is far better than to abound with wealth and to want this heavenly gift for he is most rich that desires nothing and he is best pleased that is never discontented And Way 3 3. By making them to rejoyce in tribulation and to account it all joy James 1.2 Rom. 8.31 Ver. 37. when they fall into divers temptations a strange thing that they should rejoyce in that which the world doth most fear yet such is the case of the righteous that neither life nor death nor principalities nor powers nor any other thing shall be able to separate them from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus but they abound in want they are content in Prison they rejoyce in death and in all things they are more than conquerours for his sake that loved them And therefore to conclude let us seek the Lord and we shall live and we shall be happy because he never faileth them that seek him but he will hear their prayers and will help them so that they need fear neither the scarlet gowns nor the sharpest swords neither their dissembling friends nor their greatest enemies for that God is with them in Prison as with Joseph in the Sea as with Jonas in the fire as with the three Children and in all places to preserve them from all evil here and to bring them to all happiness hereafter to live for ever through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom be all praise and dominion for ever and ever Amen Jehovae Liberatori FINIS How the Rebels dealt with the Bishop while he was Preaching this Sermon VVHile Archimedes was very studious in the framing of his Mathematical proportions the enemy saith the Historian was sacking the Town and pulling him out of his house or ready to pull down his House about his ears and not much unlike That very day the 8th of March when I was as Religious as I could I am sure with an unfaigned heart Preaching this very Sermon in S. Maries the Rebels out of Northampton seized upon my House took away all my goods and Cattel and as I am informed by a Letter from a faithful Preacher the Committee concluded to sequester all my Estate and all that I purchased for my Wife and Children by the indefatigable pains of 17 years service in an honourable house to the use of the Parliament so that now the poor Bishop of Ossory Incidit in Scyllam cupiens vitare Charibdins Or as Lucian saith shunning the smoak of the Irish insurrection that only withheld all that they should pay unto him he fell into the fire of the English Rebellion that thus took all that he had from him for which I pray God to forgive them it doth no waies trouble me when I know that he which lent me all may justly send whom he will to fetch all away from me and I do Profess before my God if I had all the Rebels Estate yet I should freely without the least dispute leave it lose it and part with it rather than I would take their wicked Covenant prove disloyal unto my King depart an inch from the truth of God or any waies defile my conscience for any worldly wealthy and I do heartily thank my God that he hath given me this resolution to rejoyce more in the sincerity of this my Prosession than any waies to grieve at my losses afflictions or persecutions and therefore the taking away of my Estate moves me to nothing else but to pray to God to give them grace to repent them of their sins committed against God and their Rebellion against their King whom God hath commanded them to honour and to obey so I leave them that left nothing besides Loyalty to his King and fidelity to his God unto their Oratour still remaining Gr. Ossory Though the Lord slay me yet will I trust in him saith holy Job and though the pretended Parliament should rob me to my very shirt yet will I both Preach and write and pray against their wickedness this will I do so help me God who is my God in whom I trust Amen THE EIGTHTH SERMON MATTHEW 17.21 This kind of Devils goeth not out but by prayer and fasting THe holy and blessed Apostle S. Paul being a stout Champion of Jesus Christ saith He hath fought with beasts at Ephesus which was a great City full of Great men and of great wickedness and he overcame them and I have fought with beasts in London not inferiour to Ephesus any ways and with the limbs head and tayl of the great Antichrist the members of the the long Parliament and as yet I praise Jehovah my Deliverer I escape invulnerate and now I am
seek to be relieved And as the Poet saith Excessit medicina modum by such a way whereby usura superat sortem and the seeking of a Remedy shall so far exceed the Disease I know not with what safety either of Life State or Fortune which are all in the power of the Juries to determine of them any man can live in this Kingdom For here especially in the County of Kilkenny where that perfidious Rebell and Traytor Axtell planted his Colony such a multitude of Anabaptists Quakers and other worser Sectaries What I say against these I say not against the worthy Gentlemen and good Protestants that are also very many and my very good Friends in these parts Neither do I say it against those wel-bred Gentlemen that were Officers and Commanders in the Arâ—â— but of the generality of the Common â—ouldiers and some of the meaner Officers that for their small Arrears got large Territories and are now great Free-holders and the chiefest Jury-men and Judges of our Lives Lands and Fortunes that in the beginning of the English Rebellion were broken Citizens and Tradesmen Taylers and Tinkers Shoomakers and Coblers Plow-men and others the like men of no fortune thought to raise themselves by the Irish Wars and having some Arrears of Pay due unto them go Orders to set out Lands unto them for the same and the Kingdom being depopulated and wasted and made a Wilderness without Inhabitants the Lands were of nothing worth and they had what Lands they pleased and as much as they pleased for their Arrears for ten pounds as much as is now worth a hundred pounds a year and for a hundred pounds as much as I will give a hundred pounds per annum These men that followed Axtells Religion and were of his Plantation being mounted up on Cock-horse to be such great Eâ—â—eholders the Irish Proprietors being for the most part driven away and the Church Lands also taken into these Souldiers hands they must now be for the most part the principal Jury men and so the Judges of our Lives Lands and Fortunes And they considering their own interest to be alike in the Lands both of the Church of the Irish and of all from whomsoever they hold it do stick and cling together like sworn brethren or rather like forsworn wretches to defend and maintain each others Title and Interest in the Lands that each one holdeth both against Clergy and Laity God or the King be the same right or wrong they will not lose their lands And they do incourage each other thus to continue in their wickedness saying that they got their Lands with the loss of their bloud and the hazard of their lives and therefore to get the King some small fine whereof he shall have but the least part of it and be but very little the better for it and to dispossess their own fanatick Party and give the Lands unto their Enemies especially unto the Bishops whom of all others they hate most of all and Bishop Williams above all the rest as he that hates their former Rebellions and their now practices more than any man else they will never do it though they hazard the loss both of body and soul Indeed for the Bishop of Ossory he understands their malice towards him well enough I pray God forgive them so great that were it not for some honest and truly religious Irish Gentlemen and some of the Catholick Religion I profess that I durst not live amongst these that formerly warred against their King and if the truth were known do as I believe as little love their present King as they do much hate our Church and the Bishops of our Church when as they that hate their Bishops cannot be said to honour their King as I have most fully shewed in my Grand Rebellion And therefore I went unto his grace my Lord Lieutenant and related to his Grace the Verdict of the Jury plain contrary to their evidence and the Declaration of my Lord Chief Justice and the Judgement of the whole Court and therefore did most humbly desire his Grace to give me leave to go for England to dispatch some necessary occasions and to signifie unto his Majesty that if there were no Court of Star-Chamber here nor any other provision made to punish all perjured Juries and all high Transgressors of the Laws and hainous offendors that deprive his Majesty of the fines justly due unto him and his Subjects of their right we the true Protestants and his Mâ—jesties loyal Subjects were not in safety nor able to live among such Confederates of wickedness but must as King Boco said to the Senate of Rome depart thence lest the ire of the Gods or the rage and injustice of such men do utterly destroy us And his Grace very mildly and graciously answered my Lord the Bill for a Star-Chamber is already arawn and sent to his Majesty to be signed and will speedily come down to pass the Houses and then such Malefactors may be fully punished according to their offence And I protested and do protest that I would be with the first that would do my uttermost endeavour to punish this Jury and all false and forsworn perjured Juries and the like high Transgressours that concern me whatsoever For It is most certain that Impunitas peccati invitat homines ad malignandum And therefore I do believe that I am as equally bound in conscience to punish this Jury as I am to recover the Lands of the Church and as Solomon saith because the punishment is deferred the hearts of the children of men are altogether set to do evil and my Divinity assureth me that to punish a perjured person and a transcendent Transgressour of the Law is as acceptable unto God as the relieving of the Oppressed because that hereby we do our best that those which will not be perswaded by good Counsel to be honest and vertuous may be forced with stripes to do their duties or at least terrified from being so vicious for that as St. Bernard saith Qui non vult duci debet trahi And therefore with what means that God hath given me I will with his assistance do my best to repair Gods House to relieve the Distressed and to punish the Perjured and the Oppressors of Gods People and the rather because that here in the parts where I live I have seen in three or four years more forcible Entries Riots and Oppressions than I have seen in England or Wales that might be thought a little more wild than England in all my life so that a Stranger might rather think it a Country of Robbers Tyrants and Oppressours much like unto Albion when Brutus entred it than a Country where with safety he might dwell amongst them for I do profess were it not for some honest Irish that are not all of my Religion nor I of theirs that do further me incourage me and protect me in Gods servicâ— and the advancement of Gods