true Howsoever what piety is it nay what equity nay rather what abominable iniquity and impiety is it florem Diabolo consecrare faeces Deo reservare To consecrate the flower of their youth to the Divell the world and the flesh and reserve the lees or dregges of their old age for God To dedicate to him our weake and feeble dotage if we live to it what is it better than to offer the f Deut. 15.21 blind and the lame for sacrifice which God abhorreth Repent therefore repentè repent at the first offer of grace Ye shall scarce find any precept of repentance in Scripture which requireth not as well that it be out of hand as that it be from the heart Remember thy g Eccles 12.1 Creatour in the dayes of thy youth To h Psal 95.7 8. day if yee will heare his voice harden not your heart Seek i Psal 32.6 the Lord while he may be found Now he may be found now he seeketh us now he calleth to us let us therefore breake off all delayes and pricke on forward our dull and slow affections with that sharp and poynant increpation of Saint k Confes l. 8. c. 5. Modò modò non habent modum quamdiu cras cras cur non hoc dic cur non hac horâ finis turpitudinis meae Ib. Verba lenta somnolenta modò ecce modò sine paululum sed sine paululum ibat in longum c. Austine Why doe I still procrastinate my comming unto thee O Lord Why not now why not this day why not this houre an end of my sinfull course of life Deo Patri Filio Spiritui sancto sit laus c. THE DEFORMITY OF HALTING THE LVII SERMON 1 KIN. 18.21 And Elijah came to all the people and said How long halt ye betweene two opinions If the Lord be God follow him but if Baal then follow him and the people answered not a word Right Honourable c. ELijah who sometimes called for fire from heaven was himselfe full of heavenly fire the fire of zeale for the Lord of Hosts His words like fire 1 Give light 2 Heate 3 Consume 1 They give light to this undoubted truth That one and but one Religion is to be embraced either God or Baal must be worshipped in no case both Stand firme to one How long halt ye betweene two 2 They heate and enflame true zeale and devotion If the Lord be God follow him 3 They burne up indifferencie and neutralitie If Baal be he goe after him This passage of Scripture relateth a Sermon of Elijah wherein we are to note more particularly 1 The Preacher Elijah 2 The Auditorie the whole Parliament of Israel 3 The Text or Theame handled by him viz. What God is to be worshipped what religion to be established and maintained by Prince and people Now although I perswade my selfe that there is none in this whole assembly who halteth betweene the Popish and reformed Churches or hath once bowed his knee to the Romish Baal yet because Satan hath of late not only turned himselfe into an Angell of light to dazle the eyes of weake Christians in point of Doctrine but also into a Seraphim of heat and zeale under colour of devotion to bring us to offer strange fire upon Gods Altar and especially because there is no lamp of the Sanctuarie that burneth so brightly but that it needeth oyle continually to be powred into it to feed the flame the opening of this Scripture cannot but be seasonable and usefull to reduce you into the path if you swerve from it never so little or to prick you on if you are in the right way that leadeth to the kingdome of God The key to open this Text is the occasion of this exhortation of the Prophet wherefore before I proceed to the exposition of the words I must entreat you to cast a looke backwards to the occasion of them and the cause of the peoples haulting downe-right a circumstance not giving more light to the right understanding of the Prophets reproofe than strength to our stedfast standing and upright walking in the high way to Heaven What the religious Father spake by way of Apologie for handling controversall points in the pulpit Ideo non dubitavimus dubitare ut vos non dubitaretis We therefore make no scruple to move doubts that yee may not doubt but upon the solution of them be more settled in your most holy faith I may say truly that therefore I hold it needfull to make a stay at the cause of the poeples haulting that their haulting may be no stay to your godly proceedings that you may never hault upon their ground which was so slipperie that they slid now this way now that way not able to set sure footing any where Elijah by his divine commission drew them to Gods Altar but Ahab especially at the instigation of Jezebel by his royall power enforced them to offer at Baals groves between both they were miserably perplexed their minds distracted and their worship divided betweene God and Baal Men are led by examples more than precepts especially by the examples of Princes or Potentates which carrie a kinde of Sovereigntie over mens affections and manners as they themselves have over their persons insomuch that their morall vices yea and naturall deformities also have beene drawne and patterned out by some of their subjects as if they were vertues and gracefull ornaments a Jan. Grut. annot in Tac. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diodorus Siculus telleth us in sober sadnesse that it was the custome of the Aethiopians to maime or lame themselves in that part or foot on which their Prince limped because they thought it a great disparagement for their Prince that any about him should goe more upright or have a more gracefull gate than hee And Atheneus likewise reporteth of Dionysius his familiars that because himselfe was somewhat purblinde they as they sate at table reached towards dishes as it were by aime and sometimes missed that they might not seeme more quick-sighted than he And to make up the number when Philip received a wound in his eye Clisophus as if hee had got a blow on the same eye putteth a patch on it and when afterwards Philip was run thorow the right thigh in comes Clisophus all to be plaistered on that thigh and out-halteth his Master We can hardly hold laughing when we read or heare of the madnesse rather than folly of so grosse flatterie yet wee have cause rather to weepe at the sight of a farre worse flatterie and yet most usuall whereby some indeere themselves into great personages by imitating their vices and profane carriage To expresse these they account it a kinde of merit of favour or at least an homage due to their greatnesse because saith b Lactant. divin instit l. 5. c. 6. Et quoniam regis vitta imitari obsequii quoddam genus est abjecerunt omnes pietatem ne regi
the wrath of God and hee shall be tormented in fire and brimstone before the holy Angels and before the Lamb and the smoak of their torments shall ascend for ever And they shall have no rest day nor night which worship the beast and his image and whosoever receiveth the print of his name I dare boldly say that none of you my Beloved have received any print of the beast yee are yet free from the least suspition of familiarity with the Whore of Babylon yee have kept your selves unspotted of Popery wherefore as yee tender your honour and reputation nay the salvation of your bodies and soules keep your selves still from Idols be zealous for Gods honour and hee will bee zealous for your safety abstaine from all appearance of that evill which the spirit of God ranketh with sorcery and witch-craft If in your travels you chance to see the heathenish superstitions and abominable idolatries of the Roman Church make this profitable use thereof let it incite you to compassionate the blindnesse and ignorance of so many silly soules nuzzled in superstition who verifie the speech of the Psalmist d Psal 115.8 They that worship idols are like unto them they have eyes and see not the wonderfull things of Gods Law they have eares and heare not the word of life they have hands and handle not the seales of grace they have feet and walke not in the wayes of Gods commandements What a lamentable thing is it to see the living image of God to fall downe before a dead and dumb picture for men endued with sense and reason to worship unreasonable and senslesse metall wise men to aske e Hosea 4.12 My people aske counsel at their stocks their staffe teacheth them for the spirit of whoredome hath caused them to erre and they have gone a whoring from under their God counsell of stocks and stones for them who in regard of their soules are nobly descended from Heaven to doe homage and performe religious services and devotions to the vilest and basest creatures upon the earth yea to dust and rottennesse How much are wee bound to render perpetuall thanks to God who hath opened our eyes that wee see the grossnesse of their superstition and hath presented unto us a lively image of himselfe drawne to the life in holy Scripture an image which to looke upon is not curiositie but dutie to embrace not spirituall uncleannesse but holy love to adore not idolatrie but religion to invocate not superstition but pietie If the Lord be God follow him Turne we the Rhetoricke of this text into Logicke and the Dilemma consisting of two suppositions into two doctrinall positions the points which I am to cleare to your understanding and presse upon your religious affections will be these 1. That there is but one true God either the Lord or Baal not both 2. That this one true God is alone to be worshipped either Baal must be followed or Jehovah not both But the Prophet will prove by miracle and the evidence of fire that Baal is not God nor to be worshipped the conclusion is therefore that Jehovah the God of Israel is the onely true God and he alone to be worshipped That there is but one true God is one of the first principles which all Christians are catechized in the Decalogue Lords prayer and Creed all three begin with one God to teach us 1. Religious worship of one God 2. Zealous devotion to one God 3. Assured confidence in one God At our first Metriculation if I may so speake into the Universitie of Christs Catholique Church wee are required to subscribe to these three prime verities 1. That there is a Deitie 1. Above all 2. Over all 3. In all 2. That this Deitie is one 3. That in this Unitie there is a Trinitie of persons We acknowledge 1. A Deitie against all Atheists 2. The Unitie of this Deitie against all Paynims 3. A Trinitie in this Unitie against all Jewes Mahumetans and Heretiques Through the whole old Testament this one note is sounded by everie voyce in the Quire We heare it in the Law Heare O Israel the Lord our God is f Deut. 6.4 one Lord. We heare it in the Psalmes g Psal 18.31 Who is God but the Lord We heare it in the Prophets h Hosea 13.4 Thou shalt know no God but mee for there is no Saviour besides me and i Mal. 2.10 Have we not all one father hath one not God created us The new Testament is as an eccho resounding the same note k Ephes 4.5 6. 1 Tim. 2.5 One Lord one faith one baptisme One God and father of all who is above all and through you all and in you all For there is one God and one Mediatour between God and men the man Christ Jesus And This is l John 17.3 life eternall to know thee the only true God and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ For although we read m Gen. 1.1 Elohim as if ye would say Gods in the plurall number yet the verb Bara is in the singular number to signifie the Trinitie in the Unitie howsoever we find the Lord n Gen. 19.24 rained upon Sodome Gomorrah brimstone fire from the Lord out of heaven and likewise in the Psalmes o Psal 110.1 The Lord said to my Lord yet S. Athanasius in his Creed resolveth us there are not more Gods or more Lords nor more eternals nor more incomprehensibles but one eternall and one in comprehensible In the mysterie of the Trinitie there is alius and alius not aliud and aliud on the contrarie in the mysterie of the incarnation of our Lord and Saviour there is not alius and alius but aliud and aliud in the one diversity of persons in one nature in the other diversity of natures in one person Sol quasi solus God is as Plato stileth him the Sunne of the invisible world and it is as cleare to the eye of reason that there is one God as to the eye of sense that there is one Sunne for God must be sovereigne and there cannot be more sovereignes The principles of Metaphysick laid together demonstrate this truth after this manner There is an infinite distance betweene something and nothing therefore the power which bringeth them together and maketh something nay all things of nothing must needs be infinite but there cannot be more infinite powers because either one of them should include the other and so the included must needs bee finite or not extend to the other and so it selfe not be infinite Out of naturall Philosophie such an argument is framed Whatsoever is either hath a cause of its being or not if it hath a cause of its being it cannot be the first cause if it have no cause of its being it must needs bee the cause of all causes For there cannot be an infinite processe from causes to causes which nature abhorres therefore wee must needs
Aprilis aerae Christianae An. Dom. 1615. Johan 21.15 16 17. 15. Quum ergo prandissent dicit Simoni Petro Jesus Simon fili Jonae diligis me plùs quà m hi dicit ei Certè Domine tu nosti quòd amem te dicit ei Pasce agnos meos 16. Dicit ei rursum secundo Simon fili Jonae diligis me ait illi Certè Domine tu nosti quod amem te dicit ei Pasce oves meas 17. Dicit ei tertio Simon fili Jonae amas me tristitiâ fuit affectus Petrus quod tertio dixisset ipsi amas me dixitque ei Domine tu omnia nosti tu nosti quòd amem te dicit ei Jesus Pasce oves meas Sermons preached at Paris in the house of the right Honourable Sir Thomas Edmonds Lord Embassadour resident in France lying in the Fauxburge of St. Germans in the yeeres of our Lord 1610 1611 1612. The checke of Conscience page 609. Rom. 6.21 What fruit had yee in those things whereof yee are now ashamed for the end of those things is death The Vine of Sodome page 620. Rom. 6.21 What fruit had yee then in those things c. The Grapes of Gomorrah page 629. Rom. 6.21 What fruit had yee in those things c. The hiew of a Sinner page 638. Rom. 6.21 Whereof yee are now ashamed The wages of Sinne. page 645. Rom. 6.21 For the end of those things is death The gall of Aspes page 661. Rom. 6.21 For the end of those things is death Ferula Paterna page 672. Revel 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten I. The nurture of Children page 681. Apoc. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten Chasten The lot of the Godly page 693. Apoc. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten As many The oyle of Thyme page 702. Revel 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten As I love The sweet Spring of the waters of Marah page 710. Apoc. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten I love The Patterne of Obedience page 719. Phil. 2.8 Hee humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death even the death of the Crosse The reward of Patience page 725. Philip. 2.9 Wherefore God hath also highly exalted him Lowlinesse exalted page 735. Philip. 2.9 Wherefore God hath also highly exalted him A Summons to Repentance page 747. Ezek. 18.23 Have I any desire at all that the wicked should dye saith the Lord God The best Returne page 757. Ezek. 18.23 Not that he should returne from his wayes and live or If he returne from his evill wayes shall he not live The danger of Relapse page 765. Ezek. 18.24 But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousnesse and committeth iniquity and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth shall hee live all his righteousnesse that hee hath done shall not be mentioned in his trespasse that hee hath trespassed and in his sinne that hee hath sinned in them shall hee dye The deformity of Halting page 776. 1 Kings 18.21 And Elijah came to all the people and said How long halt yee between two opinions if the Lord be God follow him but if Baal then follow him and the people answered not a word Old and new Idolatry paralleled page 784. 1 Kings 18.21 If the Lord be God follow him but if Baal then follow him One God one true Religion page 794. 1 Kings 18.21 If the Lord be God follow him but if Baal then follow him Bloudy Edome page 802. 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 Sermons preached in Lambeth Parish Church The watchfull Sentinell page 814. A Sermon preached the fifth of November Psal 121.4 Behold he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep Abraham his Purchase page 825. A Sermon preached at the consecration of the Church-yard inclosed within the new wall at Lambeth Acts 7.19 And were carried over into Sechem and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a summe of mony of the sons of Emor of Sechem The Feast of Pentecost page 834. A Sermon preached on Whitsunday Acts 2.1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all together with one accord in one place The Symbole of the Spirit page 842. Acts 2.2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting The Mysterie of the fiery cloven Tongues page 850. Acts 2.3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sate upon each of them Christ his lasting Monument page 856. A Sermon preached on Maundy Thursday 1 Corinth 11.26 As often as yee eate of this bread and drinke of this cup ye doe shew the Lords death till he come The signe at the Heart page 864. A Sermon preached on the first Sunday in Lent Acts 2.37 And when they heard this they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we doe Christian Brotherhood page 876. A Sermon preached on the second Sunday in Lent Acts 2.37 And they said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren c. The perplexed soules Quaere page 883. A Sermon preached on the third Sunday in Lent Acts 2.37 What shall wee doe The last offer of Peace page 891. A Sermon preached at a publike Fast Luke 19.41 42. 41. And when he was come neere he beheld the City and wept over it 42. Saying If thou hadst knowne even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes A Catalogue of the Authors cited in this Work with their severall Editions A. ABen Ezra Basil 1620. G. Abbot Lond. 1620. R. Abbot Lond. 1606. Aelianus Lugd. 1577. Aeneas Sylviue Col. 1535. Aesopus Venet. 1606. Agapetus Bib. pat T. 6. p. 1. Col. 1622. C. Agrippa Paris 1567. G. Alanus Antw. 1576. Albertus Mag. Basil 1506. Alcazar Lugd. 1618. P. de Alliaco Mogunt 1574. J. Almainus Paris 1512. Fr. Alvarez Lugd. 1608. Ambrosius Mediol Basil 1555. Ambrosius Ansbert Bib. par T. 9. p. 2. Col. 1622. Andradius Col. 1564. Amphilochius Bib. pat T. 4. Col. 1622. Anselmus Col. 1573. Antiphon Orat. Paris 1609. Anthologia Grec Epig. Franc. 1600. Apuleius Venet. 1504. Apollinarius Bib. pat T. 4. Col. 1622 Th. Aquinas Venet. 1594. Arboreus Paris 1540. Aretas Bib. pat T. 6. Col. 1622. B. Aretius Bern. 1604. Th. Argentinensis Gen. 1585. Gr. Ariminensis Venet. 1503. Aristophanes Francof 1597. Aristoteles Lugd. 1590. R. Armacanus Francof 1614. Arnobius Rom. 1562. Arnoldus Bib. pat T. 6. Col. 1622. Articuli Eccles Angl. Lond. 1628. Athanasius Alexandrinus Par. 1581. Avendanus Madrid 1593. Augustinus Hypponensis Par. 1586. P.
And the Musicians will tell us that some discords in a lesson binding wise as they speake and falling into a concord much grace the musicke 2. Secondly wee wish that all Magistrates Ecclesiasticall and Civill would first make proofe of gentler remedies and seeke rather to winne men by perswasions than draw them to Church by compulsion Monendo potiùs quà m minando verbis magis quà m verberibus to use rather commonitions than comminations words than blowes discourses than legall courses arguments than torments 3. Thirdly in making and executing penall Statutes against Heretickes and Idolaters all Christian Princes and States must wash their hands from bloud and free themselves from all aspersion of cruelty For no fish will come into the net which they see all bloudy and they who are too quick in plucking at those that differ from them in Religion root up those oft-times for tares which if they had been permitted longer to grow might have proved good corne 4. Fourthly they must put a great difference between those that are infected with Hereticall opinions whereof some are ring-leaders some are followers some are obstinate others flexible some are turbulent others peaceable on some they ought to have g Jude 22 23. compassion making a difference and others save with feare pulling them out of the fire 5. Lastly nothing must be done herein by the intemperate zeale of the heady multitude or any private motion but after mature advice and deliberation be appointed by lawfull authority To the particular instances brought from our neighbour Nations that are repugnant to this rule wee answer with Saint h Serm. 66. in Cant. Approbamus zelum factum non laudamus Bernard Wee approve their zeale yet wee allow not of their proceedings These cautions observed that religions differing in fundamentall grounds are not to be tolerated in the same Kingdome we prove 1. First by the Law of i Deut. 22.10 11. Moses which forbiddeth plowing with an Oxe and an Asse together or to weare a garment of divers sorts as of woollen and linnen together The morall of which Law according to the interpretation of the best Expositors hath a reference to diversities in Religions and making a kinde of medley of divers worships of God 2. Secondly by the grievous punishment of Idolaters appointed by God himself k Deut. 13.6 8 9. If thy brother or son of thy mother or thine own son or thy daughter or the wife that lieth in thy bosome or thy friend which is as thine own soule entice thee secretly saying Let us goe and serve other gods thine eye shall not pity him neither shalt thou keep him secret but thine hand shall be upon him and then the hand of all the people to stone him to death Solùm pietatis genus est hic esse crudelem It is piety in this kinde to shew no pity It is not in the power of Kings and Princes to reverse the decrees of Almighty God or falsifie his Oracles who saith No l Matth. 6.24 man can serve two masters For what fellowship hath righteousnesse with unrighteousnesse and what m 2 Cor. 6.14 15 16. communion hath light with darknesse or what concord hath Christ with Belial and what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols 3. Thirdly if these testimonies of everlasting truth perswade us not that God who is truth must be worshipped in truth and not with lyes and in a false manner yet Christ his inditing the Angel of Thyatira for suffering Jezebel and the Angel of Pergamus for not silencing false Teachers I have a few things against thee saith the Spirit that thou hast there them that maintaine the doctrine of Baalam The Spirit chargeth not the Angel with allowing or countenancing but tolerating only false doctrine Therefore the toleration of Heresie and Idolatry is a sinne which God will not tolerate in a Magistrate which I further thus demonstrate 4. Fourthly God will not hold any Prince or State guiltlesse which permitteth a pollution of his name but the worship of a false god or the false worship of the true God is a pollution of his name as himselfe declareth n Ezek. 20.39 Pollute my name no more with your gifts and your Idols God is a jealous God and will endure no corrivall if wee divide our heart between him and any other hee will cut us off from the land of the living as hee threatneth I o Zeph. 1.5 will cut off the remnant of Baal and them that worship the host of Heaven upon the house tops and them that worship and sweare by the Lord and by Malcham 5. Fifthly what shall I adde hereunto save this that the bare permission of Idolatry was such a blurre to Solomon and most of the succeeding Kings of Juda that it obscured the lustre and marred the glosse of all their other Princely endowments For after the description of their vertues this blot is cast upon their reputation But the high p 1 Kin. 15.14 places were not taken away But thrice happy q 2 Kin. 18.4 Hezekiah who by demolishing the brasen Serpent which Moses had made because the children of Israel burned incense to it erected to himselfe an everlasting monument of praise And yet more happy r 2 Kin. 23.25 Josiah after whom the Holy Ghost sendeth this testimony Like unto him there was no King before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soule and with all his might according to all the Law of Moses neither after him arose there any like unto him Why what eminent vertues had Josiah above others what noble acts did he which the Spirit values at so high a rate no other than those which we find recounted in the books of Kings and Chronicles Hee brake downe the Altars of Baalim and cut downe the Images that were on high upon them hee brake also the groves and the carved Images and the molten ſ 2 Chron. 34.4 5. Images and stamped them to powder and strewed it upon the graves of them that sacrificed to them and hee burned the bones of the Priests upon the Altar He defiled Topheth which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom that no man might make t 2 Kin. 23.10 11 12 13. his sonne or his daughter passe through the fire to Moloch and he took away the horses that the Kings of Judah had given to the Sun and the Altars that were on the top of the upper chambers of Ahaz the Altars which Manasseh had made in the two Courts of the house of the Lord and the high places that were before Jerusalem which Solomon had builded and so he tooke away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel and u 2 Chro. 34.33 compelled all that were found in Israel to serve the Lord their God 6. Sixthly farther to teach Magistrates that they ought sometimes to use violent and
zealous Austine say so only doth not the holy Spirit confirme it that they who embrace or maintaine more religions are indeed of none How read we The people of divers nations saith the text whom the King of Assur planted in Samaria feared the Lord but served other gods Now let us hear the censure of the holy Ghost which followes To this day they doe after the old manner they neither feare God nor doe after their ordinances nor after the Law nor after the commandement which the Lord commanded the children of Jacob Feare no other gods nor bow to them nor sacrifice to them Hence we may strongly infer that Ambodexters as they are called are Ambosinisters Omnifidians are Nullifidians and that there is no greater enemie to true religion than worldly policie which under pretence of deliberation hindreth sound resolution under pretence of discretion extinguisheth true zeale under colour of moderation slackeneth or stoppeth all earnest contention for our most holy faith yet without contention no victorie without victorie no crowne How should they ever hope to bee incorporated into Christ whom hee threateneth to spue out of his mouth But I hope better things of all here present though I thus speake and things that accompanie salvation through the sincere and powerfull preaching of the Gospel of Jesus Christ among you Cui c. OLD AND NEW IDOLATRY PARALLELED THE LVIII SERMON 1 KINGS 18.21 If the Lord be God follow him but if Baal then follow him Right Honourable c. THe summe and substance of the speech made by the Prophet Elijah before King Ahab the Nobles and Commons of Israel assembled on Mount Carmel is a quicke and sprightly reproofe of wavering unsettlednesse fearfull lukewarmnesse and temporizing hypocrisie in matter of Religion which we are stedfastly to resolve upon openly to professe and zealously to maintain even with striving unto bloud which is gloriously dyed by death for the truth with the tincture of Martyrdome How long halt yee between two opinions c. This reprehensory exhortation or exhortatory reprehension was occasioned by the mammering in which the people were at this time the causes whereof I lately enquired into to the end that as the fall of the Jewes became the rise of the Gentiles so the halting of the Israelites between the right way and the wrong might prove our speedy running in the race of godlinesse to the goale of perfection for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus The cause which I then declared unto you of their halting between two opinions was this Ahab instigated especially by his wife Jezebel partly by his example but much more by furiously brandishing before them the sword reking with the hot bloud of the slaughtered Prophets and servants of the true God drove them to Baals groves where they prostrated themselves before that abominable Idoll and offered the flames of their Holocausts to the bright beames of the Sunne This their bowing to Baal and burning incense to the host of Heaven so incensed the God of Heaven that he barred up the windowes of Heaven and punished their not thirsting after the water of life with such a drouth that not men only and beasts but the earth also every where chopped gasped for some moisture to refresh her dried bowels which for the space of wel-nigh three yeers had no other irrigation than the effusion of Saints bloud The people thus miserably perplexed as being persecuted on the one side by the Prince and plagued on the other side by God himselfe in the end faint and yeeld to the worship both of God Baal The crafty Serpent of Paradise resembleth the Serpent called Amphisbaena which hath two heads moveth contrary wayes at the same time For when hee could not make them hot in Idolatry by feare he cooleth them in the service of God and bringeth them to a luke-warme temper in the true Religion At this the Prophet Elijah is exceedingly moved and put out of all patience his fiery spirit carrieth him first to Ahab whom he thus charmeth It is not I but thou and thy fathers house that have troubled Israel because yee have followed Baalim after up to Mount Carmel where meeting with a Parliament of all Israel hee thus abruptly and boldly setteth upon them How long halt yee between two opinions Every word hath his spirit and accent How long and halt ye and between two opinions It is a foule imperfection to halt and yet more shamefull long to halt most of all between two waies and misse them both To be inconstant in civill affaires which are in their own nature inconstant is weaknesse but in Religion which is alwayes constant and one and the selfe same to be unsettled is as I proved to you heretofore the greatest folly in the world For he who is not assured of one Religion is sure to be saved by none Yet as massie bodies have some quaverings and trepidations before they fixe and settle themselves so the most resolved and established Christian hath a time before hee rest unmoveable in the foundations of the true Religion but he is not long in this motion of trepidation he is not altogether liable to this reproofe of Elijah How long halt yee between two opinions Halting between two opinions may be as I then exemplified unto you two maner of waies either by limping in a middle way betwixt both or by often crossing waies and going sometimes in one way sometimes in another Against these two strong holds of Sathan the Prophet Elijah setteth a dilemma as it were an iron ramme with two hornes with the one hee battereth down the one and with the other the other If the Lord be God then are ye not to stay or halt as ye do between two religions but speedily and resolutely to follow him and embrace his true worship but if yee can harbour such a thought as that Baal should be God then go after him Either Jehovah is God or Baal is he as ye all agree whether of the two be it is certaine neither of them liketh of halting followers If God be the Soveraigne of the whole world why bow ye the knee to Baal if Baal be hee why make yee supplications to God why enquire yee of his Prophets What Lord soever be God he is to be followed if the Lord be he follow him but if Baal then follow him I hold it needlesse to make any curious enquiry into the names or rites of this Idoll that which way suffice for the understanding of this and other Texts of Scripture I find that Baal was the abomination of the Sidonians a people of Phoenicia who as a Ex Rainold de Rom. Eccles Idolatr l. 2. Sanchoniacho an ancient writer of that country and Herodian a later Romane Historian affirme worshipped the Sunne invocating him Beel or Baal-Samen that is in their language Lord of Heaven Though this Idoll were but one yet in regard of the divers Images set up
24. corruptible man but also of beasts and fowles and creeping things The difference which Cardinall Bellarmine maketh between an Image and an Idoll viz. that an Idoll is the representation of that which hath no existence in nature but an Image the likenesse of something really existent is false and repugnant to Scripture For the Cherubims in the Aâ—ke were Images yet never was there any thing in nature existent in such a forme as they were expressed viz. in the face of a childe with six wings And no man doubteth but that the Image which Aaron made the Nehustan which Hezekiah brake downe Bell and the Dragon Rempham Baal and Dagon were Idols and the worshippers of them Idolaters yet were these figures the representations of things existent in nature viz. of a King a Beast a Serpent a Starre the Sunne and a Fish and therefore what arguments the ancient Fathers Origen Arnobius Lactantius and Minutius Felix use against the Heathenish Idols will serve as strong weapons to knocke downe and batter in pieces all Popish Images What a q Divin instit l. 2. c. 2. Quae igitur amentia est aut ea fingere quae ipsi postmodum timeant aut timere quae finxerint Non ipsos inquiunt timemus sed cos ad quorum imaginem sunt facta quorum nominibus consecrata sunt nempè ideò timetis quod eos esse in coelo arbitramini Neque enim si dii sunt aliter fieri potest cur igitur oculos in coelum non tollitis cur ad parietes ligna lapides potiùs quà m illò spectatis ubi eos esse creditis Hominis imago tum necessaria videtur cùm procul abest supervaâ—uâ— futura cùm praesâ—o adest Dei autem cujus spiritus ac numen ubique dâ—â—â—â—sum aâ—esse nunquam poâ—â—st semper â—â—quâ—mago supervacanâ—a est madnesse is it saith Lactantius either to make that which they ought to feare or to feare that which themselves have made If yee worship the Images for themselves yee are more senslesse and blockish than they for they if they had life and sense as ye have would not suffer you to worship them but themselves would fall downe and worship you their makers But if as some will colour the matter yee worship not the Image but God by the Image why then lift yee not up your eyes to heaven where yee know God sitteth in his majesty why cast yee them downe why in offering up your prayers to him turne yee to a carved stone or painted post The use of an Image is to preserve the memory of those that are dead or absent therefore sith God is alwaies alive and present with us his image is alwaies superfluous And in our devotion to turne to it is all one as if a man in the presence of his friend or a servant in the presence of his master having a message to deliver to him-should turne from him and tell a tale to his picture And is it not a strange thing that sottish men should performe such a deale of respect and ceremony to the image bow downe before it bring presents and burne incense to it and yet all this while make no reckoning at all of the goldsmith whose creature it is Questionlesse there can bee no r Orig lil 8 cont Celsum Simulachra Deo dicanda non sunt fabrorum opera c. visible or bodily image made to resemble the nature of the invisible God but if wee will draw a picture of him it must be in the Å¿ Minutius Felix in dial Deus in nostro dedicandus est pectore quod simulachrum Deo fingam cùm fi recté existimes sit Dei homo ipse simulachrum table of our hearts by expressing his divine vertues and attributes t Lactant. loc supr cit Simulachrum Dei non est illud quod digitis hominis é lapide aut aerâ—â—lâ—â—â—e materiâ fabricatur sed ipse homo quoniam sentit movetur multas magnasque actioneâ— habet Recté Seneca in moral Simulachra deorum venerantur illis supplicant illis per totum assident diâ—m 〈◊〉 â—stant illis stipem jaciunt victimas cedunt cùm haec tantoperé suspiciunt fabros qui illa feceâ—â— contemnunt Is not man himselfe made after Gods image what an incongruity then were it for man to thinke of making or dedicating any other image to God who is it himselfe What abjectnesse and basenesse is it for him who beareth the image of the living God to cast himselfe downe before and adore the images of dead men and women We reade of a barbarous and savage act of a cruell tyrant who bound living men to dead carkasses till the one corrupted the other and both rotted together Is not the cruelty of those Heathen Emperours as barbarous who perforce couple the living images of God the soules of men to dead images to corrupt them thereby Which of these battell-axes is not as serviceable altogether to knocke downe Popish Images as to maule and deface Heathenish Idols And this may suffice for the paralleling of Baalites and Papists in generall as they are Idolaters let us now compare them in speciall 1. As the Papists plead for themselves that they worship not Idols that is the representation of things feigned and devised by man but images of things truly existent so the Baalites might varnish over their idolatry saying that the image they worshipped was not of any feigned deity but of that which all men and women saw which was not only visible but also most glorious to wit the Sunne 2. As the Baalites stood upon the multitude of Baals worshippers and ministers For to one Priest or Prophet of God that durst shew his head they had above foure hundred that followed the Court and had their table there albeit indeed there were more than seven thousand in Israel that never bowed the knee to Baal yet these played least in sight and there were more than seventy times seven thousand in all Israel that for ought appeares either willingly or by constraint bowed to him in like manner the Papists at this day brag of nothing so much as of the multitude of their professours and paucitie or latencie of those especially in former ages that professed the reformed religion or impugned the Roman faith 3. As the priests of Baal called him Baal Samen King or Lord of heaven so doe the superstitious Papists call the blessed Virgin the Queene of heaven 4. As the Baalites erected divers images to Baal which received names from the places where they stood as Bal Peor Baal Zephon Baal Tamar so have the Papists erected divers images to our Lady which they in like manner denominate from the cities where they are set up as the Lady of Loretto the Lady of Sichem the Lady of Mount Seratto the Lady of Hailes Nostre Dame de Paris de Rouen c. 5. As the servitours of Baal were distinguished into
ordinary Priests and Chemarims who were a peculiar order differing from the rest by their blacke habit so the Romish Clergie is evidently divided into ordinary Priests and Monks and Jesuites whose coat is of the same colour with Baals Chemarims 6. As the Priests of Baal used vaine repetitions of the name of their God in their prayers crying O Baal heare us Baal heare us c. so doe Papists in their Jesus and Ladies Psalters much more often repeat the name of Jesus and our Lady and which I never read of the Baalites they put a kind of religion in the number For yee shall reade in the Churches as yee passe by many hundred nay thousand yeeres of pardons liberally offered to all that devoutly say over so many Pater nosters or Ave Maries before such an Altar or Picture 7. As the Priests of Baal used many strange gestures at their Altars mentioned ver 26. so doe these at theirs and some more ridiculous than those of the Baalites 8. As the Priests of Baal cut themselves with knives and launcers till the bloud gushed out in great abundance so these at their solemne processions whip themselves till they are all bloudy These things being so is it possible that there should be any that have given their names to Christ and partake with us in the mysteries of salvation and seed at our Lords board should yet bow the knee to the Romish Baal and so fall within the stroake of Elijahs reproofe How long halt yee between two opinions Should wee not much wrong our reformed Church to surmise there should be any of her members subject to the infirmity or rather deformity of the Israelites here taxed by the Prophet Had they no meanes this sixty yeeres to strengthen the sinewes of their faith and cure their halting Are there any that follow Baalim or to speake more properly insist in the steps of Balaam and for the wages of unrighteousnesse will as much as in them lyeth curse those whom God hath blessed Are there any that lispe in the language of Canaan and speake plaine in the language of Ashdod frame and maintaine such opinions and tenets as like the ancient Tragedian Buskin which served indifferently for either foot left as well as right so these as passable in Rome as Geneva If there be any such I need not apply to them this reprehension of my Prophet How long halt yee between two opinions The dumbe beast and used to the yoke hath long agoe reproved the madnesse of such Prophets But I would that this larum of Elijah still rung in the eare of some of our great Statists About this time Doctor Carier who came over Chaplaine with the Lord Wotton preached a scandalous Sermon in Paris at Luxenburg house and not long after reconciled himselfe to the Romish Church and miscarrying first in his religion after in his hope of great preferments by the Cardinall Perons meanes in great discontent ended his wretched dayes who in the height of their policy over-reach their Religion and keep it so in awe that it shall not quatch against any of their projects for the raising their fortunes or put them to any trouble danger or inconvenience For as the Heliotropium turneth alwayes to the Sunne so they their opinions and practice in matter of Religion to the prevalent faction in State As the cunning Artizan in Macrobius about the time of the civill warre between Anthony and Augustus Caesar had two Crowes and with great labour and industry he taught one of them to say Salve Antoni Imperator God save Emperour Anthony and the other Salve Auguste Imperator All haile my Liege Augustus and thereby howsoever the world went he had a bird for the Conquerour so these if the reformed Religion prevaile their birds note is Ave Christe spes unica but if Popery be like to get the upper hand they have a bird then that can sing Ave Maria. Strange it is â—hat in the cleare light of the Gospel wee should see so many Batts flying which a man cannot tell what to make of whether birds or mice They are Zoophytes plant-animals like the wonderfull sheep in Muscovie Epicens amphibia animalia creatures that sometimes live in the water and sometimes on the land monsters bred of unlawfull conjunctions which should not see light If the image of this vice be so horrid and odious in nature what shall wee judge of the vice it selfe in religion I am sure God can better away with any sort of sinners than these for these he threatneth to spew out of his mouth To close up all My Beloved as yee tender the salvation of body and soule take heed of this Laodicean temper in religion if ye ever looke to be saved by your religion yee must save and preserve it entire and unmixed Take heed how ye familiarly converse with the Priests and Chemarims of Baal lest they draw you away from the living God to dumb dead Idols By no meanes bee brought to bow the knee to Baal or give any shew or countenance to idolatrous worship for God is a jealous God and will not give any part of his glory to graven Images Now the Lord who of his infinite mercy hath vouchsafed unto us the liberty of the Gospel and free preaching of his Word give a speciall blessing to that portion which hath been delivered to us at this present plant hee the true Religion in our hearts and daily water it both by hearing and reading his Word and meditating thereupon that it may bring forth plentifull fruit of righteousnesse in us all strengthen he the sinewes of our faith that we never halt between two opinions enflame he our zeale that we be never cold or lukewarme in the truth but in our understanding being rightly enformed and fully resolved of the orthodoxe faith we may in the whole course of our life be conformed to it reformed by it zealous for it and constant in it to death and so receive the crowne of life through Jesus Christ Cui cum Patre Spiritu sancto c. Amen Ambodexters Ambosinisters Or One God one true Religion THE LIX SERMON 1 KIN. 18.21 If the Lord be God follow him but if Baal then follow him Right Honourable c. NOt to suspect your memorie or wrong your patience by any needlesse repetition of what hath beene formerly observed out of the whole text joyntly or the parts severally considered the drift of the Prophet Elijah in this sprightly reproofe is to excite the King Nobles and Commons of Israel to resolution and zeale in the true and only worship of the true and only God and agreeably to this his maine scope and end hee bendeth all his strength and forces against those vices that bid battaile as it were to the former vertues These are two 1. Wavering unsettlednesse opposite to resolution 2. Timorous luke-warmnesse the sworne enemie to zeale To displace and utterly overthrow them and establish the contrarie