man another there harken to God It is a most Christian and worthy answere fitting this present purpose worthy of all your attention and obseruation which was giuen by Valentinian the Emperour to Symmachus which is recorded in the fift booke of Saint Ambrose his Epist Symmachus a heathen man and in all likelihood an excellent Oratour such a one as was Tertullus of whom there is mention Acts 24. hauing penned an eloquent speech the scope and purpose whereof was to perswade the Emperour that embraced the Christian religion himselfe and was resolued to haue the same receiued and professed in his Empire that he would bee pleased to permit the ancient Citie of Rome to hold her olde forme and to keepe and vse the olde manner of seruing her heathenish Gods thus he tuned his pipes and thus he bespake the Emperour Regard saith Rome mine age which haue now stood a thousand yeares and shall I now at the last be checked and controuled in my olde dayes This religion which wee now seeke for sue for at thy hands O Emperor was that which won to Rome the soueraignty of the earth which repelled and beat back that cruell Hannibal from scaling of our walls which preserued our goodly Capitoll out of the French mens hands And now it were a reproach after so long time so many Ages to haue it quite reuersed Much more was spoken all very suiteable and like if you marke it to the discourses and speeches of our Papists but for an vp-shoot and for a concluding argument that was at last brought in that his owne Father before him had suffered them to enioy that forme and manner of seruing their Gods and neuer disallowed it and therefore it was his part to permit it so likewise But the worthie Emperour as Ambrose saith in his funerall Sermon vpon him beeing resolutely addicted to the defence and maintenance of Christs glory made this answere Let Rome my Mother intreate any thing else at my hands and aske what else she will of me I owe vnto her I confesse a very great dutie and affection because she is my Mother but I doe owe a greater to God my Father who is the author of my saluation This was a worthie answere of a worthie Prince from whence wee may learne this instruction In matters which concerne the glory and seruice of God not to stand vpon the will or words of men but onely on this only point Sic dicit Dominus thus saith the Lord and with thankfulnesse to receiue his trueth whensoeuer it is brought vnto vs. And surely if our ancient Fathers the olde and first Christened Gentiles of this our Iland of Great Britanne other faithlesse at the first and Heathenish Kingdomes had not held this rule and kept this course when it pleased God in great mercy that the Gospell of his Sonne Christ and his sauing truth was first brought vnto them then might they and we still haue remained in our ignorance and infidelitie then should they and wee haue continued aliens from the common-wealth of Israel strangers to the couenants of grace bondslaues to sin and Satan not onely depriued of that glorious name by which we are called Christians of Christ but also debarred from hauing any part or portion in that great worke of mercy and redemption which was wrought by Christ For they might haue replied to them that were the first messengers and preachers which first brought vnto them the glad tidings of the Gospell and haue saide vnto them as the Athenians did to Saint Paul Act. 17.18 What will this babbler say hee seemeth to bee a setter forth of strange gods in that he preacheth vnto vs Iesus and the resurrection They might haue said vnto them Our Fathers worshipt the Queene of heauen they beleeued on Iupiter and Apollo they sacrificed to Mars and Venus they worshipped the Moone and the Starres and so did their Fathers and great Grandfathers and Ancestors some thousands of yeares before them and shall we now begin to listen to a new and vp-start Religion and renouncing those ancient Gods that they so long serued controll their iudgement and so admit of a new-found doctrine worship new-found Gods But it pleased God to mooue their hearts to receiue with meeknesse that truth and so by succession to deriue vnto vs that truth which was and is able to saue both theirs and our soules You see Right honourable Right worshipfull and beloued in the louer of your soules Christ Iesus to vvhat issue this point is brought and what it is that I ayme at namely that as this noble Eunuch renounced the Idolatry of his Country and the superstitions of his Ancestors and Forefathers not suffering them to be a rule or making them a president to himselfe either for his faith or for his manner of seruing God but went vp to Ierusalem there to worship him in his holy Temple so it is the duty of all men to renounce all false superstitious worship of God and to entertaine his holy truth whensoeuer and by whomsoeuer it is reuealed and brought vnto them how many soeuer or how mighty soeuer or how neere or deere soeuer they be vnto them that do discountenance and withstand the same Now although this be a most vndoubted truth and that our Aduersaries doe knowe it in their consciences so to be yet doe they neuer giue ouer to obiect and with a full mouth to exclaime against vs filling the ayre and the eares of men with these and the like frequent questions demaunds What were all our Ancestors and Forefathers deceiued liued they all in error did they all of them misse and mistake the meanes which leade vnto saluation and by consequent did they all misse the end Did so many millions of them perish and vvere they all damned In answer of which their demands which they so willingly and frequently make and by which they haue inthralled many soules especially of the simpler sort and such as are vnlearned carying them away captiue and making them bondslaues to the man of sinne the Antichrist of Rome I will lay downe these three propositions 1. Proposition First They were not all Papists that liued in the time of Popery and so by consequent all our Ancestors and Forefathers were not Papists Secondly They did not all die Papists that in their life time were Papists Thirdly Some that both liued and died Papists in many points yet holding the principall and fundamentall parts of Gods blessed and holy truth might be and vvere also saued And first not to speake of the first six or seauen hundred yeeres after Christ which were the purer times of the primitiue Church in which neither the name of Pope nor the doctrine and points of Popery as now they are held had any beeing or footing in the Church if we shall descend to the lower and later ages and times wherein Popery or the religion of Rome grew strong and held her head at the highest wee shall
siluer into drosse The chiefest honour of a Noble or great man is vertue and the chiefest vertue is religion without the which how great soeuer hee bee at home or abroad and how noble soeuer he may seeme in his owne eyes yet is hee base and vile in the eyes of God In the second of Ieremie after that the people had forsaken God the Prophet saith They haue changed their glory for that which doth not profit as though the glory of a people were indeed the seruice of the true God and the ceasing so to serue him vvere the ceasing or loosing of their glory The feare of the Lord saith the wise sonne of Sirach in his first chapter is a glory to a man and a ioyfull crowne vnto his head A King may be a King but if hee want this feare he is a King but without a crowne A noble man may be noble but without this feare he shall want his glory A great man may be great either in his own or other mens eyes but if he want the feare of God his greatnes is but as the swelling of a bladder puft vp with wind which shal quickly vanish and come to nothing A rich man may be rich and may abound euen wallow in wealth yet if he be not rich in the Lord walke not in his feare his riches are but as the varnish vpon a rotten post hee is painted indeed with gold but his root is rottennesse his life is sinful and his end inglorious For the richest crowne and chiefest glory to great men in what kinde soeuer they be great is the fear and worship of God their greatest prerogatiue is to be of the houshold of faith their greatest freedom is to be the seruants of God their greatest nobilitie is their new birth in Christ and their greatest riches are the gifts and graces of Gods Spirit in them At the top of the scepter and of all greatnes sits Honor and at the foote of the scepter and of all greatnes sits Care not onely the care of performing such duties as belong to the places of such as are any way great but especially the care of seruing and fearing God from whom they haue their greatnesse without which care honour is but as a bundle of painted flowers that yeeld no true sweetnesse and greatnesse is but as a bunch vpon the back of a deformed creature which makes him the more misshapen and lothsome in the eyes of God Dauids glory was the Lord. Thou O Lord saith hee art my buckler the lifter vp of my head and my glory Psal 3.3 And Theodosius the Emperor hold it a greater honour vnto himselfe that he was Membrum Ecclesiae than that he was Caput Imperij that hee vvas a member of the Church and thereby the seruant of God than that hee was the head and Commaunder of the whole Empire And I am verely perswaded that our most Christian and princely Theodosius doth more reioyce and dooth herein take more comfort that hee is Defensor fidei Defender of the true ancient truly Catholique Apostolique saith than that he is Magnae Britaniae Rex the sole Monarch great Commander of Great Britaine And surely heerin cōsisteth our happiness for this we haue great cause to praise GOD for that our noblest plants both root branches planted by the Lords owne right hand in the best fattest grounds of our country who haue the best title greatest interest among vs to true nobility greatnes doe like vnto the fruitfull trees of Paradise bring foorth among vs not onely much hope but much fruite also of holinesse and religious pietie to the glory of God that heere hath planted them And as they for their parts so it is farther also to be wished that all they which are great in a subordinate and inferiour degree of greatnesse vnto them the greater they are the more they also would acknowledge themselues bound the more they would striue to worship and serue God who hath made them great that so it might be truly saide in our Church this Common-wealth that not onely Terra dat fructū suum the earth brings forth her increase when poore men doe gladly serue God but also that euen Coeli enarrant gloriam Dei astra matutina laudant eum that is the heauens set forth the glory of God and the morning stars praise him when our greatest Grandoes our noblest our chiefest great-ones are carefull to serue and to feare the Lord. And here me thinkes I haue a very fit and iust occasion offered me without straining or offering violence to my Text to speake vnto you Right Honourable whether you sit on the one or the other bench and to you Right Worshipfull wheresoeuer you are seated and howsoeuer you be ranked that heare me this day euen to as many of you as either for your honour your office or your wealth haue prime and principall places in this our Common-wealth and first by the example of this honourable rich Eunuch to tel you for your comforth that your greatnesse and plentie may stand with the seruice of God Christianity and next for your better remembring thereof to put you all in minde that by how much the more God hath beene bountifull to you aboue other men by so much the more you ought and are bound aboue other men to be dutifull and seruiceable vnto him because that from the sea of his bounty you haue receiued all your waters from the torch-light of his goodnesse you haue lighted all your candles from the fountaine of his fauour you haue filled all your pitchers and from the Mine of his treasures you haue receiued all your riches And therefore let mee speake vnto you that are mighty rich and great men in this assembly as Dauid did to the great men in his time Psal 29.1.1 Giue vnto the Lord O yee mighty giue vnto the Lord glory and strength giue vnto the Lord the glory due vnto his name Now seeing you cannot giue any actuall and reall seruice any actuall reall workes of bounty or requitall to the person of God himselfe both for that he is in heauen and needeth nothing that is yours yet doe them to the support of Gods trueth and the furtherance of religion do them to the maintenance of study and increase of learning doe them to Christs needy Saints and poore children and then know it remember it to your cōfort that what you doe to them you doe to Christ himselfe Matth. 25.40 who will not leaue you vnrewarded Dauid when he could not be kind nor shew his loue to Ionathan his dearest friend he shewed it to poore and lame Mephibosheth the sonne of Ionathan so seeing you cannot shew kindnesse to your Lord and Sauiour Iesus himselfe shew it to his lame Mephibosheth's his lame his poore his indigent and needy Saints and seruants Some write that although the gold myrrh and frankincense which were offered by the
liued in the time of ignorance but that as many among vs liuing in the light of the Gospell descend notwithstanding into the darknesse of hell so there were many liuing in the darknes of Poperie who ascended vp to the place of light to the kingdome of heauen and were partakers of eternall blessednesse To conclude this point Let vs not rashly enter into the iudgements of God for he saith I will haue mercy on whom I will haue mercy Sometimes God refuseth the father and chooseth the sonne as in Salomon to build the Temple and not Dauid Sometimes hee sheweth his iudgements on the sonnes and mercy on the father as in the children of Iob Sometimes he cutteth off both the father and the sonnes as he did Elie his children Sometimes hee saueth both the father and his children as Noah and his children in the Arke and this hee doth to the end that be we fathers or be we children be wee many or be we few we should learne to submit our selues to him and rather be carefull to obtaine our owne saluation than to bee curious in the disputing of the saluation of others I will close and shut vp this point with a saying of Ciprian in his 3. Epi. If any that went before vs either of ignorance or of simplicity hath not obserued that which the Lord commanded his simplicity through the Lords indulgence may bee pardoned but we whom the Lord hath taught and instructed cannot be pardoned 3 In the third place of my first generall diuision I thought it fit that we should cōsider how this noble Eunuch was busied imployed in his return homewarde and that is set downe in the 28. verse And as he returned sitting in his chariot he read Esaias the Prophet The Lord hauing touched the heart of this noble Eunuch and finding that hee desired to taste of the bread of life resolued in great mercy to feede him plentifully therwith and finding him to haue a holy thirst after the water of life was pleased to set open vnto him the very fountaine or conduits thereof and prouided that hee should bee fed with the very marow and fatness of his holy truth and that hee should drinke de torrente voluptatis at the very well-head the water of life and the sweet wine of the sauing knowledge of his Son Christ He prouided in his gratious prouidence that the booke of the Prophesie of Esay should come to his hands which he ioyfully receiued reuerently accounted of making it as Alexander did Homer his companion in his iourney and diligently read the same He read Esaias the Prophet And what followed thereof The Lord who as the blessed Virgin speaketh filleth the hungry with good things did fill his hungry soule with the best things and verefied in him that saying of Salomon Non perdet Dominus animam iusti fame The Lord will not famish the soule of a righteous man with hunger but will feed it for he fed him with the richest and most precious cates and iunkets of his most holy and heauenly truth Neither did it only please God that the Booke and Prophesie of Esay should onely and alone come to the hands and sight of this noble Personage but heerein also did Gods gratious goodnesse and rich mercy plainly appeare vnto him in that not by chance or at aduenture but by the prouidence of God his hand was turned and his eye directed to the reading of such a part and portion of that Prophesie as contained in it the summe and substance of the Gospell and from whence Philip might haue a good ground and take iust occasion beginning as hee did at that Scripture to open and expound vnto him the whole mystery of Gods mercy in Christ and mans saluation by Christ The words of the place he read are these ver 32. and 33. Hee was led as a sheep to the slaughter c. In which words the Prophet sheweth the manner and order which it pleased God to vse in the redeeming of his Church namely by the death of Christ as of a Lambe slaine as a propitiatory sacrifice for the sinnes of mankinde That as a sheepe he was led to the slaughter and like a lambe dumbe before his shearer hee opened not his mouth c. Whereby is signified that he willingly offered vp himselfe as a voluntary sacrifice or free-will offering for mans redemption vnto God More briefly in a word for I purpose not at this time to make any stay in the interpretation of these wordes in my Text howsoeuer they be most worthy to bee largely entreated of more briefly I say and in a word In these words of Esay which the Ennuch was now in reading when Philip came and spake vnto him two things especially are mystically and prophetically deliuered concerning the person of Christ the first his Humiliation and Passion the second his Exaltation or Glorification and that not for himselfe onely but for vs also Which words beeing a prophesie or prediction of a thing then to come when they were written by Esay are in effect repeated by Saint Paul who speaketh thereof as of a thing done past and now performed Hee was deliuered to death for our sinnes and is risen againe for our iustification Romans 4.25 And both of these appeare most plainely in the 53. of Esay through that whole chapter Of this argument or of this matter Esay speaketh as a Prophet Saint Paul as an Euangelist the one speaketh de futuro the other de praeterito the one of that which should come to passe the other of that which is come to passe and yet which is worthy your marking Esay though he speak thereof as of a thing long to come yet hee speaketh of it in the Preterperfect-tense or in the time past to shew the certainty thereof You see how this noble Eunuch was busied and you see also what end the Lord made and what course hee tooke with him He went vp to Ierusalem to worship and in his returne hee read the Prophet Esay and it pleased God that being so busied and imployed the foundation and ground-work of the sauing truth and knowledge of God in Christ should be laid and built in his soule to his eternall comfort and saluation Iesus Christ beeing the chiefe corner-stone of that holie and blessed building Tu vade fac similiter Goe thou and doe the like goe thou whosoeuer thou art that hearest me this day and doe the like goe vp to Ierusalem that is worship God in his holy Temple reade the Prophesie of Esay or some other part of the booke of God reade it when thou art at home reade it when thou art abroad reade it earely reade it late reade it with reuerence reade it with diligence reade it with an humble minde reade it with an hungry appetite reade it with a deuout desire to vnderstand it to conclude reade it with the like mind with which this noble Eunuch read it and thou shalt be partaker
ioyfull Message or gladsome tidings So spake the Angell to the Shepheards Be not afraid for behold I bring you tidings of great ioy that shall be to all the people that is that vnto you is borne this day in the Citie of Dauid a Sauiour which is Christ the Lord. Luke 2.10.11 Which most heauenly most sweet comfortable doctrine when Philip had once taught and preached to this noble Eunuch it was no maruell though as a man full of gladnesse he went on his way reioycing For if libertie be gratefull to him that hath long been captiue if to be made a free-man be a cause of ioy and reioycing to him that hath long been a bondslaue if to be eased of a heauie burden if to be cured of a dangerous disease if to be brought foorth of a darke dungeon into the cleere light to conclude if to be raised from the death of sinne to the life of grace and to haue our part and portion in the communion of Saints if all and euery of these be blessings much to be esteemed of and true causes of reioycing Thē to be brought into the glorious liberty of the sonnes of God to be made the Lords Free-men to be eased of the heauy burden of sinne to be cured of the infectious diseases which arise from humane corruption to be enlightened by the Spirit of God to liue vnto the Lord the life of righteousnes and to haue our names written in the booke of life all which were offered and exhibited by Philip to this noble Eunuch in his preaching of Iesus vnto him these things I say could not chuse but much affect him and be great causes of great ioy and reioycing vnto him And as Philips preaching of Iesus was to this honorable Eunuch a cause of much reioycing so also should the preaching of the same Iesus be a cause of ioy and reioycing to as many of vs as are by the mercy of God and the labour of his faithfull Ministers made the happy hearers partakers therof For looke what plenty is to men that haue long liued in penury what health is to men that haue been long visited wearied with sicknes what meat is to them that haue been long pinched and almost starued with hunger the same and more is the publishing and preaching of the comfortable assurance of Gods loue and fauour towards vs in Christ Iesus In whom though the traytor Iudas found no excellency aboue the value of thirty peeces of siluer yet his godly and faithfull children can and doe finde in him all the treasures of wisedome of iustification of redemption and saluation When Samson in the time of his extreame thirsting faintnes euen then when he cried out and said Giue me vvater or I die for thirst had tasted of that water which God miraculously sent vnto him his spirit came againe he was reuiued Iudg. 15.19 When Ionathan had tasted a little hony his eyes were opened his spirits comforted and his body strengthened 1. Sa. 14. Yet neither was the water which Samson dranke of nor the hony which Ionathan tasted of halfe so sweet comfortable to them as the preaching of Christ Iesus is to the fainting dying soules of true Beleeuers Great is the ioy vnspeakable are the comforts which the preaching of Iesus affordeth to the children of men the sauour of which comforts is sweeter in the Church of GOD than the sauour of Libanon and the ioy therof like vnto the dropping of milke and hony vpon their soules Samson found a swarme of Bees and hony in a dead Lion Hic est favus qui ex ore Leonis mortui exiuit Out of the mouth out of the word out of the preaching of Iesus Christ which is the Lion of the tribe of Iudah which was dead but is aliue and liueth for euer commeth such sweetnes as cannot be vttered or cōceiued Nemo nouit nisi qui accipit This is such a ioy as is not like worldly ioy which may be taken away Your ioy shall no man take from you Iohn 16.22 Christ like a royall King neuer entreth any citie any towne any village any priuat house or into the soule or minde of any priuate man but hee giueth gifts And it also pleaseth him of his fulness to giue to his Apostles his Disciples his Ministres power and grace also to make them able whersoeuer they come and wheresoeuer they preach him and publish his truth as heere Philip did to this Eunuch to giue great gifts to the sonnes of men to instruct them in the knowledge of God and so to fill their hearts vvith sweet ioyes heauenly comforts The publishing of the word of God the preaching of Iesus Christ is as Chrysostome speaketh in his 5. Homily vpon Gene. a casting of spirituall treasures into the laps or bosomes of men The L. God grant that my preaching of Iesus at this time may be a casting or sowing of such spirituall treasures and heauenly seed as may bring forth in you all much fruite of good liuing to eternall life Amen FINIS