bodies wearing none the better for them Our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 works tending to profit with els are they not the right works Prov. 30.51 But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not enough to bring in Bring in Bring in cries the horsleeche's two daughters till their skin crack But it is onely for themselves and that is not the right For it is not singulare commodum this profit our owne private gaine Heere is yet another part Heere is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is con which ever argues a communitie a profit redounding to more then our selves For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 properly is collatitium where there be a great many bring every one his stocke and lay them together and make a common bank for them all Iust as doe the members in the naturall body Every one conferrs his severall gift office and worke to the generall benefit of the whole Even as they did in the Law Some offered gold others silke others linnen and some goate's haire and all to the furniture of the Tabernacle And semblably we to lay together all the graces places works that we have and to imploy them to the advancement of the common faith and to the setting forward of the common Salvation For the common Salvation is the profit heere meant The Apostle himselfe saith it plainely 1. Cor. 1.33 not seeking mine own profit or benefit but the profit of many And how that they may have lands or leases No But that they may be saved Which is the true profit redounding of all these and which in the end will prove the best profit which if any attaine not Matt. 16.26 What will it profit him if he winne the whole world To which port we be all bound to which port GOD send us And into this as into the maine Cisterne doe all these divisions manifestations and all run and emptie themselves All gifts offices workes are for this Yea the blessed Trinitie it selfe in their dividing do all aime at this And this attained all will be to Pax in terris the quiet and peaceable ordering of things heere on earth and to Gloria in excelsis the high pleasure of Almighty GOD. So come we about and returne againe to the first point we began with that is to the blessed Trinitie From them are these and if from them for them if from their grace for their glorie the glory of them that gave ordered and wrought Gave the gifts to us ordered the places for us wrought the workes in us If we the profit they the praise the rather for that even that praise shall redound to our profit also the highest profit of all the gaining of our soules and the gayning of them a rest in the heavenly kingdome with all the three Persons Printed for RICHARD BADGER SERMONS OF THE GOVVRIES Conspiracie PREACHED VPON THE FIFT Of August A SERMON Preached before the KING'S MAIESTIE AT RVMSEY ON THE V. OF AVGVST AN. DOM. MDCVII II. SAM CHAP. XVIII VER XXXII Cui respondens CVSHI c. And CVSHI answered The enimies of my Lord the King and all that rise against Thee to doe Thee hurt be as that yong man is THAT yong man was Absalon And he was now hanging upon an oke with three darts through him Like him doth Cushi wish all may be that doe as he did that is be the King's enimies and rise up against him For I finde in the text a dangerous treason plotted against King David plotted but defeated and Absalon the author of it brought to a wretched end Good news thereof brought by Cusâ—i that saw it And that good newes heere concluded with this wish That all the King's enimies may speede no better no otherwise then he spedd For all the world like glad tydings doth this Day affoord us in a like memorable exaâ—ple of GOD'S just proceeding against a couple of like treacherous wretches A barbarous and bloudy treason they imagined against our Sovereigne GOD brought their mischiefe upon their owne heads Et facti sunt sicut Absalon And we are heere now to renewe with joy the memorie of these glad tydings and withall to pray Cushi-his prayer and all to say Amen to it That the like end may ever come to the like attempts Last yeare we changed but one word David into Iames we change no more now but the number one into two The enimies of my Lord be as that young man saith Cushi Say we The enimies of our Lord be as those two young men were those two brethren in mischiefe I will not doe them that honor to name them no more then Cushi did him Gen 49.5 heer The words we reade as a prayer they may also be read as a prophecie Either Let them be or They shall be as that yong man is for the verbe is the future tense They have no other way in Hebrew to expresse their Optative but so that hard it is many times to say whither it be a prayer or a prediction that so runnes in the future and for ought I know it must be left to the discretion of the Translator to take which he will since it may be both As Psal. 21 either the King shall rejoice by way of foretelling or Let the King rejoyce by way of wishing The sure way is to take it both wayes so we shal be sure not to misse Cushie's meaning And so will we doe for so we may doe even take it both waies for it is both both a good prayer and a true prophecie And prayer and prophecie sort well togither 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Philosopher Affections facile faciunt opiniones saith the Schoole-man Our wishes we would alwaies have ominous and our prayer turne into the nature of a prediction what we pray for rightly we would gladly perswade our selves shal be certeinly The Division Of this propheticall prayer then 1 As a prayer first 2 then as a prophesie Prayer is of two sorts 1 for or 2 against As 1 for good so 2 against evill both things and persons This is against a kinde of prayer indeed an imprecation Two things give forth themselves in the prayer 1 The parties against whom it is 2 and the wishe it selfe what it is The parties are 1 first the King's enimies 2 then those that rise up against him that is the King's rebells Ver. 10. Two diverse kinds neither superfluous For there be no tautologies in Scripture no doubling the point there but with some advantage ever The wish is that they may be as Absalon And two things are in that wish if we mark them well 1 Be as he that is not perish onely that is not all 2 but perish and so perish as he did How was that Vidi Absalon pendentem and so hanging yet alive thrust through with three darts As he in his end as he in the manner of his end That the heads that contrive may hang as high
was baptized and did pray the heaven was opened And the H. Ghost came downe upon him in a bodily shape like a Dove c. p. 674. IX Ioh 20.22 He breathed on them and said Receive the Holy Ghost p. 686. X. Luk. 4.18.19 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because He hath annointed me that I should preach c. p. 698. XI Act. 2. v. 17. to the 22. But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Ioel And it shall be in the last daies saith God I will poure out of my Spirit upon all flesh c. p. 710. XII Act. 10. v. 34.35 Then Peter opened his mouth and said Of a truth I perceive that God is no accepter of persons c. p. 723. XIII 1. Ioh. 5.6 This is that Iesus Christ that came by water and blood c. And it is the Spirit that beareth witnesse c. p. 755. XIV Iam. 1. v. 16.17 Every good thing and every perfect Gift is from above c. p. 745. XV. 1. Cor. 12. v. 4.5.6.7 Now there are diversities of gifts but the same spirit c. p. 755. Sermons preached upon the V. of August I. 2. Sam. 18.32 And Cushi answered The enemies of my Lord the King c be as that young man is p. 773. II. 1. Sam. 16. v. 8.9 Then said Abisai to David God hath closed thine enemie into thine hand this day c. p. 784. III. 1. Chr. 16.22 Touch not mine Annointed p. 795 IV. Psal. 89 v. 20.21.22.23 I have found David my servant c. p 815. V. Ps. 21. v. 1. to the 4. The King shall reioyce in thy strength ô Lord c. p. 830. VI. Esth. 2. v. 21.22 In those daies when Mardochei sate in the King's gate two of the King's Eunuchs Bigthan and Teresh were wroth c. p. 844. VII 1. Sam. 24. v. 5.6.7.8 And the men of David said unto him See the day is come whereof the Lord said unto thee c. p. 859. VIII Gen. 49. v. 5.6.7 Simeon and Levi brethren in evill c. p. 870. Sermons preached upon the V. of November I. Psal. 18. v. 23.24 This is the Lords doing c. This is the day which the Lord hath made c. p. 889. II. Psal. 126. v. 1.2.3.4 When the Lord brought againe the captivitie of Sion we were like them that dreame c. p. 901. III. Luk 9 v. 54.55.56 And when his Disciples Iames and Iohn saw it they said Lord wilt thou that we command that fire come downe c. p. 911 IV. Lament 3.22 It is the Lords mercies that we are not consumed c. p. 923. V. Prov. 8.15 By me Kings reigne p. 933. VI. Prov. 24. v. 21.22.23 My Sonne feare thou the Lord and the King and meddle not with them that are given to change p. 945. VII Psal. 145.9 His mercies are over all his works p. 959. VIII Esai 37.3 The children are come to the birth ther is not strength to bring forth p. 971. IX Luk. 1. v. 74.75 That we being delivered c. might serve him without feare c. p. 983. X. Esth 9.31 To confirme those daiâ—s of Purim according to their seasons c. p. 997. Sermons upon severall occasions I. At the Spital 1. Tim 6. v. 17.18.19 Charge them that are rich c. p. 1. II. Of the worshipping of imaginations upon the II. Commandement p. 25. III. Ier. 4.2 Thou shalt sweare The Lord liveth in truth in iudgement in righteousnesse p. 34. IV. Ioh. 20.23 Whose-soever sinnes ye remitt they are remitted c. p. 49. V. Ier. 23.6 This is the Name whereby they shall call upon him The Lord our righteousnesse p. 67. VI. Matt. 22.21 Give to Caesar the things which are Caesar's p. 87. VII Num. 10. V. 1.2 Of the right of calling Assemblies p. 99. VIII On the Coroâ—ation day Iudges 17.6 In those daies there was no King in Israel c. p. 115. IX Iam. 1.22 And be ye doers of the Word and not hearers onely c. p. 129. X. At the opening of the Parliament Psal. 82.1 God standeth in the Congregation of Princes c. p. 143. XI Psal. 106. v. 29.30 Thus they provoked him to anger c and the Plague was great among them c. p. 159. A Sermon preached at the Funerall of Lancelot late Bishop of Winchester by the Bishop of Elie. SERMONS OF The Nativitie PREACHED VPON Christmasse Day Academiae Cantabrigiensis Liber A SERMON Preached before the KINGS MAIESTY AT WHITE-HALL on Tuesday the XXV of December A.D. MDCV. being CHRIST-MASSE day HEBR. CHAP. II. VER XVI For He in no wise tooke the Angells But the Seede of ABRAHAM He tooke AND even because this day He tooke not the Angells Nature vpon Him but took our Nature in the seede of Abraham therefore hold wee this Day as a high Feast therefore meet we thus every yeare in a holy Assembly even for a solemne memorial that He hath as this day bestowed vpon vs a dignity which vpon the Angells He bestowed not That He as in the Chapter before the Apostle setteth him forth that is the brightnesse of His Fathers glorie Heb. 1. â— the very Character of his substance the Heire of all things by whom He made the world He when both needed it His taking vpon him their nature and both stood before him Men and Angells the Angells He tooke not but Men he tooke was made man was not made an Angell that is did more for them then he did for the Angells of Heaven Elsewhere the Apostle doth deliver this very point positively and that not without some vehemency Without all question Great is the mysterie of Godlines God is manifested in the flesh 1. Tim 3.16 Which is in effect the fame that is here said but that heere it is delivered by way of comparison For this speech is evidently a comparison If he had thus set it downe Our naturâ— He tooke that had beene positive But setting it downe thus Ours He tooke the Angells He tooke not it is certainely comparative 1. Now the Masters of speech tell vs that there is power in the Positive if it be giuen forth with an earnest asseveration But nothing to that that is in the Comparative It is nothing so full to say I will never forget you as thus to say it Can a mother forget the child of her owne wombe Esa. 49.15 well if she can yet will not I forget you Nothing so forcible to say thus I will hold my word with you Luk. 19.17 as thus Heaven and earth shall passe but my word shall not passe The Comparative expressing is without all question more significant And this heer is such Theirs the Angels nusquam at no hand He tooke but ours he did 2. Now the comparison is as is the thing in nature wherunto it is made If the thing be ordinarie the comparison is according But then is it full of force when it is with no meane or base
thing but with the cheefe and choise of all the Creatures as heere it is even with the Angells themselues For then it is at the highest 1. That of Elihu in Iob That God teacheth vs more then the beasts Iob. 35 11. and giveth vs more vnderstanding then the foules of the ayre that is that God hath been more gratious to vs then to them being made of the same mould that we are that yet He hath given vs a priuiledge above them this is much 2. That of the Psalmist Ps. 147.20 He hath not dealth so with every nation nay not with any other nation in giving vs the knowledge of his heavenly truth and lawes Even that we have a prerogative if we be compared with the rest of mankind More then the beasts much more then all men besides much more 3. But this heere Nusquam Angelos c. that he hath given vs a praeeminence above the Angells themselves granted vs that that he hath not granted the Angells that is a Comparison at the very highest and further we cannot goe 3. One degree yet more And that is this As in comparisons making it skilleth much the excellencie of the thing wherwithall it is compared so doth it too the maner how the comparison is made the pitch that is taken in it It is one thing to make it in tanto another in toto One thing when it is in degrees that more this lesse this not so much as that yet that somwhat though Another when one is the other is not at all So is it heere Assumpsit non assumpsit Vs He did take The Angells 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not in any wise not in a lesse or a lower degree then vs but them not at all So it is with the highest and at the highest So much is said heere and more cannot be said The only exception that may be made to these comparisons is that most-what they be odious it breedeth a kind of disdeigne in the higher to be matched with the lower Especially to be over-matched with him We need not feare it heer The blessed spirits the Angells will take no offense at it Gen 28.17 they will not remove Iacobs ladder for all this or descend to vs or ascend for vs Ioh 1.51 ever a whit the flower because He is become the Sonne of man There is not in them that envious mind that was in the elder brother in the Gospell when the younger was received to grace after his riotous course Luk. 15.28 1. Tim. 3.16 When the Apostle tells vs of the great mysterie that God was manifested in the flesh immediatly after he tells that He was seene of the Angels And lest we might thinke they saw it 1. Pet. 1.12 as we do many things heere which we would not see Saint Peter tells vs that desiderant prospicere that with desire and delight they saw it and cannot be satisfied with the sight of it it pleaseth them so well And even this day the day that it was done and Angel was the first Luk. 2.10 that came to bring newes of it to the shepheards and he no sooner had delivered his message 14. but presently there was with him a whole Quier of Angells singing and ioying and making melodie for this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Good-will of God towards men So that without dread of any disdeigne or exception on the Angells parts we may proceede in our Text. The Division Wherein first of the parties compared Angells and Men 2. Then 1 of that wherein they are compared assumption or apprehension in the word taking 2 And not every taking but apprehensio seminis taking on Him the seed 3. Lastly of this terme Abrahams seed the choise of that word or terme to expresse mankind by thus taken on by Him That he saith not But men He tooke or But the seed of Adam or the seed of the woman He tooke But the seed of Abraham He tooke 1. OF the parties compared Angells and Men. These two we must first compare I. The Parties compared Men with Angells that we may the more cleerly see the greatnesse of the grace and benefit this day vouchsafed vs. No long processe will need to lay before you how farr inferior our Nature is to that of the Angells It is a comparison without comparison It is too apparant if we be layed together or weighed together we shall be found minus habentes farr too light They are in expresse termes sayd both in the Old and in the New Testament to excell vs in power Psal. 103 20. 2. Pet. 2.11 And as in power so in all the rest This one thing may suffice to shew the ods That our Nature that we when we are at our very highest perfection it is even thus expressed that we come neere or are therin like to or as an Angell Perfect beauty in Saint Stephen They saw his face as the face of an Angell Perfect wisedome in David Act 6.15 2. Sam. 14 2◠My Lord the King is wise as an Angell of God Perfect eloquence in Saint Paul 1. Cor. 13.1 Though I spake with the tongues of men nay of Angells All our excellencie our highest and most perfect estate is but to be as they therefore they aboue vs farr But to come neerer what are Angells Surely they are spirits Glorious spirits Heavenly spirits Immortall spirits For their Nature or substance Spirits For their Quality Heb. 1.14 Heb. 9.5 Mat. 24.36 Luk. 20.36 or propertie Glorious For their Place or abode Heavenly For their Durance or continuance Immortall And what is the seed of Abraham but as Abraham himselfe is And what is Abraham Let him answere himselfe I am dust and ashes What is the seede of Abraham Let one answere Gen. 18.27 in the persons of all the rest Dicens putredini c. saying to rottennesse Iob 17.14 thou art my mother and to the wormes yee are my brethren 1. They are spirits Now what are we what is the seed of Abraham Flesh. And what is the very harvest of this seede of flesh what but corruption and rottennesse and wormes There is the substance of our bodies Gal. 6.8 2. They glorious spirits We vile bodies beare with it it is the Holy Ghosts owne terme Who shall change our vile bodies And not only base and vile but filthy and vncleane Phil. 3.21 Iob 14.4 ex immundo conceptum semine conceived of vncleane seede There is the metall And the moulde is no better the wombe wherein we weare conceived vile base filthy and vncleane There Ps. 51.6 is our qualitie 3. They heavenly Spirits Angells of heaven that is their place of abode is in heaven above Ours is heere below in the dust inter pulices culices tineas araneas vermes Our place is heere among fleas and flies mothes and spiders and crawling wormes There is our place of dwelling 4. They immortall spirits
of our estate to have releeved us by any Men that are in neede to be releeved care not who they be that doe it Enough then for compassion but not enough to manifest the fullnesse of His love unlesse to releeve us He sent His owne SONNE 3. Made This is full one would thinke Yet the Manner of His sending Him is fuller still Misit Filium Filium factum Sent His SONNE His SONNE made Sent Him and sent Him made This is a third For if He would have sent Him He should not have sent Him made but as He was neither made nor created but like Himselfe in His owne estate as was meet for the SONNE OF GOD to be sent To make Him any thing is to marre Him be it what it will be To send Him made is to send Him marred and no better Therefore I make no doubt CHRISTS sending is one degree His making is another So to send as withall to make are two distinct measures of this filling As He is He is a Maker a Creator If GOD make Him any thing He must be a thing made a Creature and that is a great disparagement So that howsoever the Time is the fuller for this He is the emptier 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The fullnesse of time is His emptinesse The exalting of that His abasing And this very Exinanivit seipsum emptying Himselfe for our sake Phil. 2.7 is a pressing downe the measure and so even by that still the measure is more full Yea the very manner of this making hath his encrease too addeth to it still In the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is not every making but making it His Nature To have made Him a body and taken it upon Him for a time till He had performed His Embassage and then layd it of againe that had beene much But so to be made as once made and ever made so to take it as never lay it of more but continue to still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it to become His very nature so to be made is to make the vnion full And to make the vnion with us full He was content not to be sent alone but to be made and that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be made so as never vnmade more Our Man-hood becomming His nature no lesse then the God-head it selfe This is Filium factum indeed Made and twice made for so it is in the VERSE 1 Factum ex and 2 Factum sub made of and made under Of a woman under the Law So two makings there be either of them of it selfe a filling to the measure but both of them maketh it perfectly full Made first of a woman that I take cleerly to be one For if He 4. Made of a woman if the SONNE of GOD must be made a Creature it were meet He should be made the best creature of all And if made of any thing if any one thing better then another of that made some glorious Spirit Some of the orders of the Angells Nay made but made no Spirit Ioh. 1.14 Heb. 2.16 Verbum caro factum est The WORD became flesh Made but made no Angell Nusquam Angelos He in no wise tooke the Angells nature upon Him But made man First I will aske with DAVID Domine quid est homo Lord Psal. 144.3 what is man And then tell you His answer Homo quasi res nihili Man is like a thing of nought And this he was made this he became made man made of a woman did not abhorre the Virgins wombe as we sing daily to the high praise of the fullnesse of His humilitie to which His Love brought Him for our sakes For whatsoever els He had been made it would have done us no good In this then was the fullnesse of His Love as before of His Fathers that He would be made and was made not what was fittest for Him but what was best for us not what was most for His glory but what was most for our benefit and behoofe Made of a woman For Man He might have been made and yet have had a body framed for Him in Heaven and not made of a woman But when He saith Factum ex muliere it is evident He passed not through Her as water through a Conduit Pipe as fondly dreameth the Anabaptist Made of Factum ex Ex dicit materiam Made of her She ministred the matter Flesh of her flesh Semen mulieris The seed and Semen intimum substantiae that is the principall and very inward cheefe part of the substance Made of that Gen. 3.15 made of her very substance And so have we heere now in one both twaine His Natures GOD send His Sonne There His Divine Made of a woman Heer His Humane Nature That from the bosome of His Father before all worlds this from the womb of His Mother in the world So that as from eternitie GOD His Father might say that verse of the Psalme Filius meus es tu Psal. 2.7 hodie genui te Thou art my Sonne this day have I begotten thee So in the fullnesse of time might the Virgin His mother no lesse truly Filius meus es tu hodie peperi te Thou art my Sonne this day have I brought thee into the world And heer now at this word made of a woman He beginneth to concerne us somewhat There groweth an alliance betweene us For we also are made of a woman And our hope is as He will not be confounded to be counted inter natos mulierum Heb. 1.11 Rom. 8.19 No more will He be saith the Apostle to say in medio fratrum to acknowledge us His Brethren And so by this Time He groweth somewhat neere us This now is full for the union with our nature to be made of a woman But so to be made of a woman without He be also made under the Law is not neere enough yet For 5. Made vnder Lawe if He be out of the compasse of the Law that the Law cannot take hold of Him factum ex muliere will do us small pleasure And He was so borne so made of a woman As the verity of His conception is in this factum ex muliere So the purity is in this that it is but ex muliere and no more Of the virgin alone by the power of the HOLY GHOST without mixture of fleshly generation By vertue whereof no originall soile was in Him Iust borne He was 1. Tim. 1.9 and Iusto non est lex posita No law for the Iust no law could touch Him And so we never the better for factum ex muliere For if one be in debt and danger of the Law to have a Brother of the same bloud made of the same woman both as we say lying in one belly will little availe him except he will also come vnder the Law that is become his Surety and vndertake for him And such was our estate Col. 2.14 As Debtours we
Sermon the Antheme by Angells all 4. Evangelizo gaudium magnum Now the end of both Sermon and Antheme and of the Angells in publishing it and of the shepheards and us in hearing it is gaudium Ioy for the Benefit and Honour Gaudium magnum great Ioy for the great Benefit and great Honour vouchsafed our Nature and us this day Ioy is in the Text and if ioy be in the time it is no harme We keepe the Text if we hold the Time with Ioy Forso the Angell doth warrant us to hold it The Division Of this Angelicall or Evangelicall message or as not I but the Angell calleth it Sermon these two Verses I have read are a part Whereof the former is but an Ecce exciting them to heare it by magnifying the message as well worth their hearing Be not afraid for behold I bring you good tydings of great Ioy which shall be to all people The later is the very message it selfe That there is borne unto you this day a SAVIOVR which is CHRIST the LORD in the City of David In the former are these points 1. Feare not it is no ill newes I bring you 2. Nay it is good newes 3. Good for it is newes of Ioy. 4. Ioy and that no ordinary but great Ioy. 5. Not to some few but to the whole people 6. And not toti populo to all one people but omni populo to all people whatsoever 7. And them not for the present but Quod erit omni populo that is and so shall be to all as long as there shall be any people vpon earth And by vertue of this Quod erit to us heer this day Ecce Behold such is the newes I bring 2. The Message it selfe In the later the Message it selfe The summe whereof is the Birth of a Childe A Child is borne Three things are proposed of Him 1. This Child is a SAVIOVR 2. A Sauiour which is CHRIST 3. Christ the LORD Christus Dominus For every Saviour is not CHRIST 1. The Names nor every Christ CHRISTVS DOMINVS CHRIST the LORD or the LORD CHRIST He is all three Then have we besides three circumstances of the 1 Persons 2 Time and 3 Place 1. The Persons 2. The Circumstances for whom all this is twice repeated 1 Evangelizo vobis in the first Verse 2 Natus vobis in the second But this I make some doubt of whether it be a Circumstance or no I rather hold it a principall part of the Substance 1. The Persons as the very word of conveyance whereby it passeth to us And sure there is no Ioy either in Evangelizo the Message or Natus the Birth 2. The Time without it without Vobis But if the Message and the Birth it selfe both be ours then it is Gaudium magnum indeed Specially if we adde 2. the Time when not many daies hence 3. The Place but even this very day And 3. the Place where that it is in no remote Region farr hence but in the Citie of DAVID 3. Our duty reciprocall even heer hard by And then lastly in a word what our parts are to performe to these two parts 1 this dayes Message and 2 this dayes Birth of our SAVIOVR CHRIST the LORD Be not afraid They were afraid HEre is a stop that the Message cannot proceed For the sight of the Messenger hath almost marred the hearing of the Message The Parties to whom it comes be in such feare as they be not in case to receive it They were afraid and that sore afraid as is said in the Verse before at the sight of the Angel that came with the newes And this was not the case of these poore men onely Others and other manner of people were so So were others as well as they This Gospell of Saint Luke is scarse begun we are yet but a little way in the second Chapter and we have already three Noli timere's in it and all as heere at the comming of an Angell 1 Feare not Zacharie Chap. I. 13. So he was afraid 2 Feare not Marie Chap. I. 30 So she was afraid 3 And now Feare not these here That it seemes to be generall to feare at an Angel's appearing What was it It was not the feare of an evill Conscience They were about no harme Of what not Zacharie was at Church at his Office The blessed Virgin I doubt not blessedly emploied These here doing their dutie watching over their flockes by night Yet feared all Of what What should the matter be It is a plaine signe our Nature is fallen from her originall Heaven and we are not in the termes we should be not the best of us all Angels are the Messengers of Heaven Messengers ever come with tydings Why of the Angel but whither good or bad we cannot tell Here comes an Angell with newes from Heaven what newes he brings we know not and therefore we feare because we know not Which shewes all is not well betweene Heaven and us that upon every comming of an Angell we promise our selves no better newes from thence but still are afraid of the messages and messengers that come from that place That the Message then may proceed this feare must be removed In a troubled water Be not afraid no face will well be seene nor by a troubled mind no message received till it be setled To settle them then for it no other way no other word to begin with but Nolite timere feare not and that is ever the Angells beginning Such is our infirmity ever he must begin with these two words Noli timere feare not And so he doth seven times in this Gospell But feare will not be cast out with a couple of words till they see some reason to quiet them And no better reason then to shew they have no reason to feare For 1. For no ill â—ydings feare is the expectation of evill and there is no evill toward them and so they have no reason to feare quòd trepidaverunt timore vbi non erat timor As if he should say Psal. 53.5 Angells have come vvith weeping newes as Iud. 11. ver 5. If I were such an one if I came with sad tidings ye had reason ye might feare But now your terrour groweth out of error You are mistaken in me I am no such Angell I am Angelus Evangelizans an Angell with a Gospell one that comes with no bad newes Feare not then There is no evill toward No evill and that were enough for feare not But here is a further matter 2. But good tidings Not onely privativè I bring no ill but positivè I bring you good newes And good newes is Nolite timere and somewhat besides that is Feare not but Be of good cheere They be two degrees plainly though one be inferred of the other Feare no ill there is none to feare there is no ill nay there is good towards
for the thinnesse and meannesse of the buildings as was seen at CHRISTS Birth not hable to give Lodging to any number So least But then againe not least saith S. Matthew and saith truly too Not in regard of any of the three now mentioned but of another hable of it selfe alone to weigh them all downe in that it should yeeld Alumnum tam grandem so great a Birth as the great MESSIAS of the world One whose only comming forth of it was hable to make it not the least nay the greatest and most famous of all the dwellings of IACOB of the whole land Nay of the whole world then And thus not the least Though minima for the Tu non minima for the ex te Non minima if it were but for Him and for nothing els What shall we make of this Nothing but what commeth from it of it selfe without streyning That with GOD it is no new thing Nay very familiar as even the Heathen have observed so familiar as GOD seemes to take delight in it to bring maxima de minimis great out of little CHRIST out of Bethlehem Which is plaine even in Nature How huge an Oke from how small an acorne But that askes great time Matt. 13.32 From how little a graine of mustardseed the very Bethlehem minima the least of all seeds how large a plant of how faire a spread and that in a little time a moneth or two at most But we are not in Nature now In this very point heer of Guides and Rulers therein too it hath been no vnusuall thing with Him out of small beginnings to raise mighty States Their first Guide MOSES whence came he out of a basket of bull-rushes Exod. 2.3 forlorne and floting among the flaggs taken up even by chance The great beginner of their Monarchie and not of theirs alone but the two beginners of the two mighty Monarchies of the Persians and Romans Cyrus and Romulus from the Shepheards scrip from the sheepcote all three Those great Magnalia from parva mapalia And as the Kingdomes of the Earth from a sheepcote So His owne of the Church from a fisherbote We may well turne to them with this Apostrophe And thou sheepcote out of thee have come mightie Monarchs And thou fisherbote Matt. 4.18.21 out of thee foure of the chiefe and principall Apostles Even so Lord saith our SAVIOVR for so is thy pleasure And Matt. 11.26 since it is His pleasure so to deale it is His further pleasure and it is our lesson out of this Bethlehem minima Even this Ne minima minimi that we set not little by that which is little vnlesse we will so set by Bethlehem and by CHRIST and all He will not have little places vilified little Zoar will save the bodie little Bethlehem the soule Nor have saith Zacharie dies parvos little times despised vnlesse we will despise this Day Gen. 19.20 Zach. 4.10 the feast of Humilitie Nor have one of these little ones offended Why for Matt. 18.6 Ephrata may make amends for parvula Ex te for tu This is on GODS behalfe On CHRISTS yet further to stay a little upon this little For though there want not diuerse other good congruences why CHRIST should come from Bethlehem rather then from another place 1. For that it was the Towne of DAVID and He was the Sonne of David Ioh. 7.42 and so a place not vnmeet for Him to come from even in that respect being sedes avita Out of thee came David and well therefore out of thee shall come Davids Sonne Davids Sonne and Davids Lord both 2. The Surname of Ephrata puts me in mind of another Lo Psal. 132.6 we heard of it at Ephrata saith the Psalme there the first newes of the Temple And Lo we heard of him at Ephrata to day by the Angell there Luk. 2.11 the first word of the Lord of the Temple The Temple was the Type of the Church and that was heard of at Ephrata first and no wayes incongruent that where the Church there the Head of the Church CHRIST and CHRISTS Church both at one place 3. There is a third in the very name of Bethlehem that is the house of bread For He that was borne there was bread But that will be more proper anon at Qui pascet But these though they agree well yet none of them so well as this that it was minima the very miniminesse as I may say of it For in so being it was a place well suting with His estate now at His egredietur exte which was the state of Humilitie eminent in His if ever in any Birth Bethlehem was not so little but He as little as it Looke what Apostrophe Mica made to the Towne may we make to Him and that with better reason And thou Bethlehemite thou wert as little among the sonnes of men as ever was Bethlehem among the villages of Iuda So Esay 53.3 novissimum oppidorum as Mica calls it suits well with novissimus virorum as Esay calls Him And it was not the Place alone but all were little then The time in solstitio brumali the deep of Winter when the dayes are at the shortest and least And the people He came of litâ—le Amos saith Who shall raise up Iacob for he is small Small Amos 7 2.5 ever but never so small never so low brought as at His comming forth Then at the lowest and the very least as being then brought vnder the bondage of a stranger and He one of the children of Edom that cryed Downe with them Psal 137.7 downe to the ground One that made Rachel mourne in her grave her grave was there hard by for the slaughter of the poore innocents within a while after So Place and Time Matt. 2.18 and People and all little and He himselfe lesse then all For even in the place Mica hath not said all for He is lesse yet If little Bethlehem offend what could have been said if he had gone further and yet not further then Saint Luke And thou the stable in the Inne at Bethlehem Luk. 2.7 And thou the manger in the stable Ex te egredietur out of thee shall He come These are beyond Bethlehem parva lesse yet yet thence did He come too at His entrance into the world And all these nothing to his going out Another manner of diminution there then all these Such was His Humilitie on this feast of Humilitie And ô thou little Bethlehem And ô thou little Bethlehemite how do you both both Place and Person confound the haughtinesse of many that yet would be called Christians and even neer CHRIST himselfe There is in both of you if it were well taken to heart enough to pricke the swelling and let out the apostemed matter of pride from a many of us whose looke gesture gate and swelling words of vanitie are too big for Bethlehem whose whole carriage and course is as
if they were to be saved by one that came out of the great Cittie Ninive or Grand Cayre rather then out of the little hamlet of Bethlehem But all this was done to bring that vertue in credit I find no reason rendred of it but this That by what manner place He made choise of to be borne at He would teach us what manner of spirits He doth affect to take up his residence and to rest in The high and excellent saith Esay that inhabites aeternitie Esay 57.15 He also will rest with the lowly with those that be no bigger then Bethlehem in their owne eyes a Esay 66 2. To them He lookes b Pro 3.34 gives grace to them c Matt 11.25 Matt. 25.40 to them He reveiles what He keeps from the great ones of the world And when He shall sit in all His glorie He shall say Quod minimis hijs mihi Say it forward affirmativè And say it backward negativè Quod non minimis hijs nec mihi What to these minims to me What not to them not to me neither To end this point then For little Bethlehems sake to love the vertue that is like it And for the vertues sake to honor it Honor it there is a Starr over it there is a Saviour in it Honor it for that which comes out of it for the fruit it yeelds More good comes forth out of that poore Towne mihi saith the Prophet to me nobis may we say to us all then from all the great and glorious Cities in the world What good Nazianzen tells us Bethlehem honor a parvam quae te inducit in Paradisum It gives us our introduction to Paradise Bethlehem it gives us a Guide to day if we will follow Him will bring us thither to our originall happinesse Nay further then so to the dayes of aeternitie And Him we must follow and it we must honor even this vertue if ever we meane to come there II. The Person This for the Place Now for the Person that commeth from this place For being in speech of a place he continues in locall termes fit for a place Egredietur ex te Egredi is to come forth and that is properly from or out of a Place And the rather he doth it because withall it is a terme that fitteth His Birth well So the Scripture saith Naked came I forth that is was I borne The child that first comes forth that is the first Iob 1.21 Gen. 38.28 is borne This word is twise repeated 1 Once out of Bethlehem Ex te 2 Another from everlasting Ab aeterno These two set out to us His two commings forth that is His two Nativities Nativitie is nothing but a comming forth Those two His two natures since Nativitas est ad naturam via Nativitie is but the way that leads to Nature 1 Egredietur ex te as the Sonne of man as DAVIDS Sonne â— Egressus Ejus ab aeterno as the Sonne of GOD as Davids Lord. III. His Natures 1 As Man from Beâ—hleâ—em Egredietur ex te Egredietur is the tense of the time to come To come when Mica wrote this and in the Future but come when * Matt. 2.1 Saint Matthew cited it and in the Praeter When IESVS was borne at Bethlehem But future and praeter both are in time So this His Birth in time But the other hath neither Future nor Praeter neither mood nor tense nay no Verbe at all It is expressed by a Substantive to shew His subsistence before all time from all aeternitie 2. Ex is a Place out of it He came so in it He was and this Birth locall as before temporall So was not His other that hath no ex that is ab ab aeterno For as aeternall no place conteines Him He is every where fills both heaven and earth 3. Te that place is Bethlehem a place upon earth According to which it is said there shall come a Root out of Iesse Esai's terme Chap. XI Ver. 1. and out of it a Branch Esay 11 1. Ier. 23.5 Zach 6.12 Luk. 1.42 Ieremie's Chap. XXIII v. 5. Thence Germen a Floure or blossome Zacharie's Chap. VI. v. 12. and from it this Fruit of Ephrata the Fruit of the Virgins womb Root branch blossome and fruit all of the earth earthy But there came forth at the same time a Starr too to shew He had another more high and heavenly being For this of Bethlehem was not His first flight as we say the other 2. As GOD fâ—om everlasting Psal. 110 3. though it stand behind in the verse was before that by farr Ex utero ante luciferum Ante luciferum before the Starr of His Birth nay before any morning starr came forth He was come forth A principio saith Mica And it is Saint Iohn's In principio the two first words of his Gospell long before Mose's In principio the two first words of Genesis But to leave no place to doubt of his meaning he glosseth his a principio with ab aeterno that is from everlasting By which very words from aeternitie Arius error of erat quando non erat falls to the ground For nunquam erat quando non erat aeternitas Never was there call it what you will when aeternitie was not For as everlasting forwards is to quando tempus non erit amplius there shall be no more time So everlasting backward is to quando tempus non erat adhuc when there was yet no time at all Now let it not trouble you that this His aeternall is the plurall number outgoings as if they were more then one It is but the Hebrew phrase They vse to expresse the Superlative ever by the Substantive of the plurall number to call that man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 blessings whom they meane to be most blessed So that outgoings which is but one but so high after such a manner so past our reach as Esay askes Esay 53.8 Generationem Ejus quis enarrabit Who shall declare His generation No one no singular will reach it and so it is expressed plurally So vse they also to note out continuance And so it sets out to us the continuall emanation or proceeding of Him from His Father Heb. 1.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Apostles word as a beame of brightnesse streaming from Him vncessantly Never past His generation but as the Schoolemen call it actus commensuratus aeternitati For Hodiè genui te Psal. 2.7 is true of every day yet because it hath co-existence with many revolutions of time though it be indeed in it selfe but one drawne out along yet according to the many ages it lasteth it seemeth to multiplie it selfe into many And so is expressed plurally Though the principall sense alwaies saved we may referr this Plurall to both His outgoings both as Sonne of GOD before all times and as Sonne of man in the fullnesse of time For this later though executed
leads us to another Starr Esay 11.1 2 Pet. 1.19 Psal. 110.3 even the Root and Generation of DAVID the bright morning Starr He of whom * Zach. 6.12 Zacharie saith in the Old Testament Ecce Vir Oriens nomen Ejus Yea Oriens ab alto saith * Luk. 1 78. Zacharie in the New Visits those of the East whence the day springeth takes them that are neerest Him and His rising works upon the place first that beares His name The Wisedome of GOD the beginning of all His waies is found by wise men Pro. 8.22 of all other because they be Wise most fit to find Him The Division Two verses I have read In the former after the Matter of the Feast first remembred When IESVS was borne accompanied with the two circumstances of Place and Time The Place where Bethlehem Iuda The Time when the dayes of Herod the King There is a memorable accident that then happened set downe A Venerunt A Comming or arriuall at Hierusalem And they that so came were a companie of Magi from the East And this lo hath the Ecce on the head of it Ecce venerunt Magi ab Oriente Behold there came c. As the speciall point in the Text and so we to make it In the later is set downe their Errand Both the 1 Occasion and the 2 End best expressed by themselves out of their owne dicentes 1. The Occasion Vidimus stellam They had seene His starre 2. The End Venimus adorare They are come to worship Him Viderunt Venerunt Adorârunt That they may come to their finis vltimus they must have a medius finis That is to woâ—ship they must finde Him where He is So they aske Vbi est Not whether He be borne but Where He is borne For borne He is they are sure by the same token they have seene His Starre His Starre is up that is risen therefore He is risen too So the Starre in heaven kindled another Starre in earth S. Peter calls it the Day-starre which riseth in the heart that is faith which shined and manifested it selfe 2. Pet. 1.19 by their labor in comming diligence in inquiring duty in worshipping CHRISTS birth made manifest to them by the starr in heaven Their faith the starr in their hearts made manifest to CHRIST and to all by the travaile of it which shewed it manifestly That upon the matter there falls a three-fold Manifestation you may call them three starrs if you please 1 The starr in heaven 2 the day starr in their hearts 3 and CHRIST Himselfe the bright morning starr whom both the other guide us to the Starr of this morning which makes the Day the greatest Day in the yeare The summe of all riseth to this That GOD hath opened a door of faith to the Gentiles And among them to Wise men and Great men as well as to the simpler sort Act. 14.27 But with this condition that they say with them venite adoremus And so come and seeke and find and worship Him that is doe as these did WHen IESVS was borne That when is now The Matter His Birth is the ground of the Feast and the cause of our Venimus our comming togither Where this we note first It is the verie first time the first was borne in the Bible was borne never till now Heere the tide turnes the sense changes from shall be to was A blessed change and the day is blessed on which it happened Before He was borne it was so sure He should be borne as ESAY sayd Puer natus est nobis But for all that there is some oddes between ESAI's natus est Esa. 9.6 and Saint MATTHEVVE ' s. That was but virtually as good as borne This actually borne indeed IESVS CHRIST yesterday and to day and the same for ever The same yet not altogither after the same manner There is as much betweene IESVS CHRIST Hebr. 13.8 yesterday not come and IESVS CHRIST to day cum natus esset as is betweene a state in reversion and one in being The Fathers aptly resemble their case that were the ante-nati before CHRIST and ours that came after to the two men Numb 13. that carried the great cluster of grapes upon a staffe betweene them Both carried but Num. 13.24 he that came behind saw that he carried So did not he that went before The post-natti sure are of the surer hand And so for cum natus esset the day and time to hold a Feast for When IESVS was borne Weighty circumstances are ever matter of moment in a storie specially The Circumstances Three there are in the first Verse 1 The Place 2 the Time 3 the Persons 4 I adde a fourth out of the Sâ—cond Verse the Occasion The place Vbi Bethlehem Iuda The time Quando the dayes of Herod the King The Persons Quibus Wise men from the East The Occasion whereupon A new Starre appearing Every one of the foure having a severall Prophesie running of it and every Prophesie a filling of it in these words The Place He was borne in Bethlehem Iuda Mica 5.2 And thou Bethlehem Iuda saith the Prophet Mica out of thee shall He come And now come He is The Time the dayes of Herod the King The Scepter shall not quite depart from Iuda till SILO come sayd old Father Iacob in his prophecie SILO then is now come Gen. 49.10 For the Scepâ—er is in Herods hand His Father an Edomite His mother an Ismaelite Iuda cleane gon The Persons Psal. 72 10. Esa. 60.6 Magi ab oriente Kings from the East The Kings of Arabia and Saba shall come and bring gifts saith David And Esai specifies them Gold mirrhe incense These Kings are come Heer they are they and their Gifts both Numb 24.17 The Occasion whereupon A starr risen A starr shall rise of IACOB saith Balaam no very good man yet a true Prophet in this and his prophesie true and for such recorded in the Books of Moses This Starr is this morning up to be seen Prophesies of all foure and all foure accomplished 1. CHRISTS Vbi Of the Place of Bethlehem out of MICA it hath formerly beene treated I but touch it and passe it now It was the place where DAVID himselfe was borne And what place more meete for the Sonne of DAVID to be borne in It was the place where was heard the first newes of the Temple And where could the Lord of the Temple more fittly be heard of Ioh. 6·51 It is interpreted Domus panis the House of Bread What place more proper for Him who is the living bread that came downe from heaven Mica 5.2 to give life to the world It was the least and the lowest of all the thousands of Iuda What litle and low is in things naturall that lowlinesse and humilitie is in spirituall This naturall birth-place of His sheweth His spirituall Humilitie is His place Humilitie as I may
LORD curse the inhabitants thereof Iud. 5.23 Why because they came not to helpe the LORD to helpe the LORD against the mighty This must first be done But when this is done all is not done We are not at a full point We are but in the middest of the sentence yet As that part of the Host is to be regarded so this of sinnes restraint is not to be neglected As that hath the first place so must this have the second and second the former or we shall have but a broken sentence without it There is not there cannot be a more preiudiciall conceipt then to say in our hearts If the first be well all is well then sinne on and spare not it skills not greatly for the later Si putas in robore exercitus bella consistere 2. Chro. 25.7.8 faciet te Dominus cadere coram inimicis tuis saith the Prophet to Amazia If this be your conceipt so the Host be well all is well GOD will teach you another lesson saith he which I list not english A proofe whereof we have before Gibea Iud. 20.17 Where the whole power of Israël 400000 strong trusting in their going out so strong fell before a few Benjamites a small handfull in comparison and shewed plainely to all ages to come that it is but a part it is not all to goe forth with an Host though never so well appointed Let us then as advise leadeth us make up our period with taking a course for restraint of sinne For what sinne vn-restreigned can worke Iud 7. â— the Valley of Achor may teach us where the inhabitants of the poore towne of AI put to flight IOSVA with all his forces and all because this second point was not well looked to Now this second point being within the compasse of our profession and yet having so necessarie a vse in Warre as the sentence is not perfect without it may serve to answer the question more vsually then advisedly oft cast out What good do these Church-men What vse is there of them now at such times as this Yes there is a vse of them and that in Warre we see The Campe hath vse of this place and they that serve there of them that serve heere Which GOD shewed plainely in the first field that ever his people fought and when he had shewed it Exod. 17.14 caused it to be recorded ad perpetuam rei memoriam they be GOD's own words that the same course might be ever after holden in all Where it is thus written and if we beleeve not we shall not be established that IOSVA'S having the better or going to the worse depended not a little on the steddinesse of MOSE's hands and that MOSES staying behind and striking never a stroke did his part toward the attaining of the victorie not much lesse then Iosua that went forth and fought manfully Prayer then is of vse Ephes. 6 18. and though we be saith Saint PAVL armed at all points from hand to foot yet must we super omnia over all draw this and arme even our very armor with prayer and supplications But what availeth prayer without keeping from sinne Therefore to that armor of Saint PAVL's we must add Saint PETER's too 1 Pet. 4.1 To arme our selves with this mind of ceassing from sinne that our prayers may be effectuall Therfore MOSES himselfe joyneth not to our going forth his exercise of keeping up our hands at prayer but this rather of keeping our feet from sinne Num. 22 5. The King of Moab Balak When he observed what prayer had wrought in the battaile of Amalek thought to take the very like course and sent for Balaam into his Campe to match Prophet with Prophet and to oppose Prayer vnto Prayer But when all his altars and rammes would doe no good Balaam knowing well there is in sinne a power to defeat any prayer he commeth to the dangerous counsell of causing Israël to sinne with the daughters of Moab Which was found too true For it turned to their ruine and all their prayers would then doe no good Heere is then another vse For the chariots and horses of ELISHA 2 King 13.14 2. Cor. 10 4. the weapons of our warfare as the Apostle termeth them though not carnall if GOD enable them to cast downe such sinfull thoughts and wicked desires as exalt themselves daily and to captivate them to the obedience of CHRIST have certainely their vse to second the former and we in our turnes serviceable as by crying vnto GOD by prayer and drawing Him to the Host who is our chiefest and best friend so by crying also against sinne and chasing it away which is our chiefest and worst enemie Since then these two have this mutuall vse either of other let this be our petition and withall the conclusion of this part That we single them not or leane to either alone but suffer them as they stand together in the verse so in our care and regard joyntly to keepe time and goe together So much for them And now to enquire into the reason of this coupling Why now Why III. 2. The Reason of the coniunction at this time in Warr a giving over sinne For that indeed they be not barely ioyned but so ioyned as one is made the antecedent the other the consequent One the time and as it were the reason to infer the other Truly MOSE's word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 will beare both either Quando or Quia When thou goest then keepe or Because thou goest therefore â—eâ—pe thy selfe from sinne With the same word speaketh the vertuous Ladie to King DAVID 2. Saâ— 1â— 28 Quia praeliaris praelia Domini idâ—o non invenietur in te iniquitas Because thou sightest the LORD's Battailes therefore let there not any iniquitie be found in thee all thy dayes Sinne certainely at all times is to be forborne When it is Warr and not onely when it is Warr Luk. 21.34 but when it is peace too Take ye heed lest at any time saith CHRIST Your hearts be overlayed with surfetting with drink c.. Not allowing us any time to be wicked in But though at all times we be to refraine sinne Yet not at all times alike saith MOSES heer For it is as if he should say Be it at other times sinne may better be borne with It is lesse perillous But when thou goest forth with an Host Then then with an high accent with an Emphasis that is then especially then above all other times then if ever it importeth you to have least to doe with it Good LORD how crosse and opposite is mans conceit to GOD's and how contrarie our thoughts vnto his For even ad oppositum to this position of His We see for the most part that even they that are the Goers forth seeme to perswade themselves that Then they may doe what they list that at that time any sinne is lawfull that Warr is rather a
In the picture of the moneths in this next moneth at hand you shall see nothing but men grafting and setting trees It is the Husbandrie and businesse of the moneth wonderfull fitly chosen therefore that this tree may keepe time with the rest And now is the time that the sap goes up So as there could not be a fitter time for S. IOHN to call upon us Looke abroad they begin now to bring forth now best speaking for Proferte To which Proferte Differte is cleane contrarie Differr it not then but take the time while it is in season And with high wisdome is this time so sett that the time of our Repentance the fortie daies of it end in the Passeover in the passing of Ira ventura over us as did the destroying Angell over the houses in Aegypt Exo. 12 1◠That the mortifying of sinne might end in the rising of CHRIST in us The use of fruit is fruition And this is the fruition in this life even the fruits of the Spirit feare and love and joy in the HOLY GHOST And in the life to come the fruict of the Tree of Life in the middest of Paradise Instead of Ira ventura vita ventura gaudia ventura the glorie and joyes eternall of the life to come To which LIFE GLORY and IOY bring us ALMIGHTY GOD. Printed at London for RICHARD BADGER SERMONS PREACHED IN LENT A SERMON Preached before QVEENE ELIZABETH AT GREENVVICH on VVednesday the XI of March A. D. MDLXXXIX PSALME LXXV VER III. Liquefacta est terra omnes qui habitant in ea Ego confirmavi Columnas ejus The earth and all the Inhabitants thereof are dissolved but I will establish the Pillars of it IT was MOSES the Man of GOD that by speciall direction from GOD first began and brought up this order to make Musique the conveigher of mens duties into their mindes Deut. 31.19 Deut. 31.19 And DAVID sithence hath continued it and brought it to perfection in this Booke as having a speciall grace and felicitie in this kinde He for Songs and his Sonne SALOMON for Proverbs By which two that is by the vnhappy Adage and by a wanton song Sathan hath ever breathed most of his infection and poison into the minde of man In which holy and heavenly vse of his harpe he doth by his tunes of Musique teach men how to sett themselves in tune Psal. 15. How not onely to tune themselves but how to tune their housholds Psal. 10◠And not onely there but heer in this Psalme how to preserve harmonie or as he termeth it how to sing Ne perdas to a Common-wealth So saith the Inscription which Saint Augustine very fittly calleth the key of every Psalme For the time of setting this song by generall consent of all Expositors being the later end of the long dissension between the Houses of David and Saul evident it is the estate of the Land was very neer to a Perdas and needed Ne Perdas to be soong unto it For besides the great overthrow in the Mountaines of Gilboa given by the enimie wherin the King and three of his sonnes were slaine and a great part of the Countrey surprised by the Philistin the Desolation of a divided kingdome was come upon them too 1. Sam. 31.7 For within themselves they were at Cujus est terra 2. Sam. 3.12 even at Civill warrs At the beginning but a play So Abner termeth it 2. Sam. 2.14 but bitternesse at the end as the same Abner confesseth ver 26. Surely it was a weake State and low brought So much doth David implie in the fore-part of the verse that he found the Land a weake land by meanes the strength and Pillers of it were all out of course by the mis-government of Saul But then withall in the later part of the verse he professeth he will leave it a land of strength by re-establishing the Pillars and re-edifying the State new againe The earth c. The stile whereof runneth in the termes of Architecture very aptly resembling the government to a frame of building the same sett upon and borne up by certaine Bases and Pillers the strength whereof assureth or the weaknesse endangereth the whole and David himselfe to a skillfull Builder surveying the pillers and searching into the decayes repairing their ruines and setting them into course againe The Division Whereout ariseth naturally the entrety of these foure points That the weaknesse or strength of a Land is a Point of important consideration That the strength of a Land is in the Pillers And what they are That the upholding of those Pillers apperteineth to David How and in what sort Saul weakened them in his time and David in his made them fast FIrst David had read that among the instructions delivered by Moses to the spies Numb 13.19 the very first and chiefe of all was Whither the Land were weake or strong So he had read and so he beleeved it to be and so it is For sure in such Lands where this is their song The earth is weake their Musique is all out of tune For the note is such as affecteth the Inhabitants with feare Ps. 22.14 15. 1. Feare in the inhabitant for these two 1 Virtus testacea and 2 Cor cereum strength like a potsheard and a heart like waxe A weake land and a fearefull inhabitant go togither 2. Courage in the enimie For where RABSAKETH knoweth but so much that the land is weake you shall not entreate him to speake any thing but Hebrew Esa. 36.12 This Musique is heavy and therefore David saw the song must be new sett And so he doth sett it new changing it into a more pleasant note But I will strengthen it And when the note is so changed in that day shall this Song be soong in the Land of Iuda Esa. 26.1 We have a strong Citie Salvation hath GOD sett for the walls and bullwarkes of it This Musique hath life in it and hearteneth the inhabitant afresh quaileth the enimie and resolveth the neighbour to say 1. Sam. 12.18 Thine are we ô DAVID and on thy side thou Sonne of IESSE When a Prince may say of his Land as MOSES did of IVDA Deut. 33.7 His owne hands are sufficient for him if the LORD helpe him against all his enemies And the Land may say of the Prince that which SALOMON setteth downe as the high commendation of a Prince that he is Rex Alkum that is Ne surgito Rise not No rising against him Pro 30.31 for that they which have risen had better have satt still And they both may send word to the enemie if he threaten to come and visit them the word that Ioas sent 2. Reg. 14.10 Tarry at home and provoke not evill against thy selfe This Musique is blessed and such hath hitherto beene the song of our Nation What SAMVEL said when he pitched the Stone of Help 1. Sam. 7.12 we cannot denie but we may say the same Thus farre
be said or done for it Why for Soules Why 1. Why take the soule out of the body which so much we dote on but even half an houre and the body will grow so out of our love so deformed so ugly so every way lothsome as they that now admire it will then abhorr it and they that now cannot behold it enough will not then endure once to come neer it not within the sight of it This a naturall man would answer The soule is to be regarded of the body for it maketh the body to be regarded 2. But a Christian man will say more for it That the Love of CHRIST must be the rule of the Love of Christians and ours suitable to His. And CHRIST hath valued the soule above the world it selfe in direct affirming that he that to winn the world hazards his soule makes but an unwise bargain Mat. 16.26 which bargain were wise enough if the world were more worth Appende animam homo saith Chrysostome Impende in animam If you would prize your soules better you would bestow more on them This is nothing CHRIST hath valued your soules valued and loved them above Himselfe Himselfe more worth then many worlds yea if they were ten thousand I come now to the point Is CHRIST to be loved Why all that Saint Paul hitherto hath professed all and every part of it it was but to the Soules at second hand His eye was upon CHRIST all the time of his profession But because CHRIST hath by Deed enrolled sett over His love to mens soules and willed us toward them to shew whatsoever to Him we professe therefore and for no other cause it is that he standeth thus affected For that those soules CHRIST so loved that He loved not Himselfe to love them Dilexisti me Domine plus quà m te quando mori voluisti pro me It is Augustine Dying for my soule LORD thou shewdst that my soule was deerer to thee then thine own selfe In love then to CHRIST we are to love them that CHRIST loved not sicut seipsum as Himselfe but plusquam seipsum more then Himselfe and therefore hath changed the Sicut of the Law Sicut teipsum as they selfe Mat. 19.19 Ioh 13.34 into a new Sicut Sicut ego vos as I have loved you And how did He love us Even that He was the first that ever professed these foure to us 1 Did bestow 2 was bestowed 3 most gladly 4 yea though the more He loved the lesse we loved Him Or to give Him His right a degree higher then Paul Not when we loved Him little as faint friends but hated Him greatly as sworn enemies For He it was Ioh. 15.2.4 that professed this art first The words are indeed CHRIST 's own The primitive and most proper uttering them belongeth to Him None ever so fully or so fittly spake or can speake them as the SONNE of GOD on the Crosse Luc. 23.34 from the chayr of His profession And of Him there Saint Paul learned Hoc carmen amoris Himselfe confesseth as much in the V. Chap. of this Epistle that it was love Not his owne love but CHRIST 's love Charitas CHRISTI extorsit that brought these words from him His they be not but ore tenus the tongue his but CHRIST the speaker His they were His they are out of whose mouth or from whose pen soever they come We are come then now where we may read Love in the very Originall even in the most complete perfection that ever it was Profitente CHRISTO CHRIST Himselfe the Professor saith 1. Impendam first Bestow He will If you will make port-sale of your love none shall out-bidd Him Even whatsoever Himselfe is worth He will bestow His Kingdome and the fullnesse of joy and glorie in it for ever 2. Impendar That why Consummatum est it is done already all Ioh. 19.30 hands and feet head and heart opened wide and all even to the last drop of blood bestowed for us on His Crosse where the love of soules triumphed over the love of His own life 3. Libentisâ—imè most gladly Witnesse that speech Luc 12 5â— A Baptisme I have to be baptized with and quomodo coarctor how am I pained till I be at it And that too That to him that moved Him not to bestow but favor Himselfe he used no other termes then to the devill himselfe Avoyd Sathan Matt 16 23. Proof enough say I how willingly He went and how unwillingly He would be kept from it 4. And for His Etsi would GOD it were not too plaine Both at His Crosse where the lowder their Crucifige with the more strong crying and teares He prayed Pater ignosce Luk. 23. â—4 And ever since usque hodiè till now when all may see our regard is as little as His Love great and He respected as if He had done nothing for us Every part of His Love and the profession of His Love but specially the Etsi of His love passeth all For CHRIST by deed enrolled hath sett over his love to them Which is that that setteth such a price upon them and maketh them so amiable if not in their owne kindnesse and lovelinesse yet in the love of CHRIST himselfe And it is the answer Psal. 132.4 Exod. 18.14.18 c. that David when he loseth his sleepe to thinke upon the people of GOD that Moses when he wearieth himselfe in hearing causes from morning to night that Iosua when he fighteth the Lord's battells and jeopards his life in the high places of the field that any that weares and spends himselfe in the common cause may make as well as Saint Paul Why it is pro animabus it is for soules for safegard of soules those soules which CHRIST hath so dearely loved and so deerely bought and to our love so carefully commended Sicut ego vos as He did or ever shall doe for us that we doe for them Whereto if not the soules themselves for the most part vnthankfull yet this motive of love of CHRIST 's love doth in a manner violently constreine us For though nothing is lesse violent in the manner yet in the worke nothing worketh more violent then it I conclude then with Saint Bernard's demaund Quae vero utilitas in sermone hoc What use have we of all that hath been said The Application For he that wrott it is dead and they to whom it was written are gone But the Scripture still remaineth and we are to take good by it It serveth first to possesse our soules of that excellent vertue Major horum the greatest of the three Nay the vertue without which the rest be but ciphers the vertue that shineth brightest in CHRIST 's example and standeth highest in His commendation 1. Cor. 13.13 Love But Love the action of vertue not the passion of vice Love not of the body the vile body So the HOLY GHOST termeth it Phi. 3. but of the soule
it the rather for this third Because as this yeare falleth out upon one day and Hic est dies This is the day We have in one a memoriall of two benefits 1 of our Saviours exalting by His Resurrection 2and of our Sovereignes exalting and making Head of this Kingdome Both lighting togither we were as me thought so to remember the one that we left not the other out And this Text will serve for both Both may in one be set before us and so we reioice and render thankes to God for both For the Lord CHRIST and for the Lord 's CHRIST under one Three senses then there are in the Text and to doe it right we to touch them all three 1. CHRIST in prophecie 2. David in historie 3. Our owne in analogie But we will give CHRIST the precedence Both for His Person He is David's Lord and the Head of all Head-stones It is meet He have Primatum in omnibus Col. 1.18 He in all things have the prae-eminence And for that the truth of the text never was so verified in any as in Him We may truly say None ever so low cast downe None ever so high lift up againe as He. Others refused but none like Him and their heads exalted but nothing in comparison of His. 1. First then of Christ's 2. after of David's briefly 3. and last of our owne To applie it to CHRIST The Stone is the ground of all Two things befall it two things as contrary as may be 1. Refused cast away 2. then called for againe and made Head of the Building So two parts there are to the eye 1. The refusing 2. and the raising which are His two estates His humiliation and His exaltation In either of these ye may observe two degrees A quibus and Quousque By whom and How farre By whom refused We weigh the word Aedificantes Not by men unskillfull but by Workemen Builders professed It is so much the more How farre We weigh the word Reprobaverunt usque ad reprobari even to a reprobation It is not improbaverunt disliked as not fit for some eminent place but reprobaverunt utterly reprobate for any place at all Againe exalted by whom The next words are á Domino by God as good a Builder nay better then the best of them which makes amends for the former And how farre Placed by Him not in any part of the Building but in the part most in the eye the Corner and in the highest place of it the very Head So Reiected and that by the Builders and to the lowest estate And from the lowest estate Exalted in Caput Anguli to the chiefest place of all and that by GOD Himselfe This for CHRIST And David is a Stone and so is Ours and so is every good Prince Lapis Israël as Iacâ—b Gen 49 24.3 â—sal 62.4 in his Testament calleth them And Builders there be such as by office should but many times doe not their office no more then Caiaphas heer Reprobaverunt is when they dâ—vise to put Him by whom God would exalt And Factus Caput when God for all that doth them right and brings them to their place the Throne Royall As This was the day when God so brought David as appeareth by the 24. verse And Hic est dies This is the day when He brought His Majestie to be Head of this Kingdome Of these in their order The Stone which the Builders refused c. THe estate of mankind as they are in Societie either of Church or Kingdome is in diverse termes set forth to us in Scripture Sometimes of a Flocke sometimes of Husbandry otherwhile of a Building Ye are His flocke diverse times in the Psalmes You are God's Husbandry You are God's building both in one verse Now 1. Cor. 3.9 the Style of this Text runnes in termes of this last of Building or Architecture For heer are Builders and heer is Stone and a Coigne or Corner and a Topp or Turret over it Of this Spirituall Building we all are Stones and which is strange we all are Builders too To be built and to build both Stones in regard of them whom God hath set over us who are to frame us and we so to suffer them Builders in regard of our selves first then such as are committed to us by bond either of duety or charitie Every one being as Saint Chrysostome saith well de subditâ sibi plebe quasi domum Deo struere of those under his charge to make God an house As Stones it is said to us by Saint Peter Super-aedificamini Be ye Built up or framed As Builders 2 Pet. 1.5 Iud 20. 1. The. 5.11 it is said to us first by S. Iude build your selves in your most holy faith Then by Saint Paul Edifie ye or build ye one another Be built by obedience and conformity Build your selves by encrease in vertue and good workes Build one another by good example and wholesome exhortation The short is This is to be our study all if we be but our selves every one in himselfe and of himselfe to build GOD an Oratorie If we have an Houshold of them to build Him a Chappell If a larger circuit then a Church If a Country or Kingdome then a Basilica or Metropolitan Church which is properly the Prince's Building This in the text the Builders heer were in hand with as a Basilica for it was the frame of the Iewe's Governement but is applied to all States in generall For Iewry was the Scene or Stage whereon the errors or vertues of all Governments were represented to all posterity Foure words there be in the Text. 1. Aedificantes Builders 2. Lapis Stone 3. Angulus a Corner and 4. Caput the Head From the first word Aedificantes this we have That States would not be as tents set up and taken downe and removeable They would be buildings to stand steddy and fixed Nothing so opposite unto a State as not to stand 2. From the second Lapis That this building would be not of clay and wood or as we call them Paper-walls but Stone-worke as strong as defensible as little subject to concussion or combustion as might be 3. From the two parts specified first Anguli This Stone-worke is not a wall forthright to part in sunder or to keepe out but it consists of diverse sides those sides meete in one Angle where if they meete and knit well all the better will the building be 4. Caput And they will knitt the better if they have a good Head For where they meete no place so much in danger of weather going in and making the sides fly off if it want a Covering A head it would have to cover it It is a speciall defense and besides it is a Sovereigne beauty to the whole building And that Head would not be of playster to crumble away or of wood to warp or rot with the weather or of lead to bow or bend and to cracke but of Stone and the
drive not all reverent regard and decencie away with it also And are we not well toward it we have driven it from our head for we keepe on of all hands And from our Knees for Kneele we may not we vse not I am sure Sure heed would be taken that by taking heed we prove not superstitious we slip not into the other extreame before we be aware Which of the two extreames Religion worse endureth as more opposite vnto it For beleeve this as it may be superstitiously vsed so it may irreligiously be neglected also Looke to the Text then and let no man perswade you but that GOD requireth a reverent cariage even of the body it selfe And namely this service of the Knee And that to His Sonne 's Name Ye shall not displease Him by it feare not Feare this rather for the Knee if it will not bow that it shall be stricken with somewhat that it shall not be able to bow And for the Name that they â—hat will do no honour to it when time of need comes shall receive no comfort by it And so I leave this point For the Knee is noâ— all He further requires somewhat from the Tongue And The 〈…〉 reason That member of all other the Psalmist cals our glory a peculiar we have more then the beasts They will be taught to bow and bend their ioynts We have Tongues besides to doe something more then they And indeed the Knee is but a dumbe acknowledgement doth but signifie implicitè but a vocall confession that doth vtter our minde plainely And so is looked for at our hands This he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Three things are in it First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speake we must To 〈◊〉 say somewhat And secondly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doe it together not some speaâ—e and some sit mute And thirdly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speake out not whispering or betweene the teeth but clearely and audibly And this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it was the praise of the Primitive Church this that iointly they did it and alowd that their Amen as Saint Hierome saith was like a clap of thunder And their Allelluja as the roring of the Sea And no praise it is to us who as our ioynts are stiffe to bow so our voyces are hoarse to confesse We can neither see the former nor scarce heare the latter as if there beeing but two duties in the Text we meant to suppresse them both The Knee and the Tongue Why the Knee first why begins he there 〈…〉 They be marshalled right For having by our Knee bowed put our selves in minde of due regard of Him in feare and reverence we are then the fitter to speake of Him and to Him with that respect is meete And not be so homely with Him as in their gesture and speech both some are as if they were haile fellow even familiar with GOD. And all forsooth as they call it to cast out the spirit of bondage From a heart possessed with the humble feare of GOD from such a heart Confession is over most kindly Faith being as the heart and feare being as the lungs so the Fathers compare them It will get an heate and an over-heate our faith if by feare at coole ayre it be not tempered But faith and feare together make the blessed mixture 〈◊〉 Knee Every Tounge The Tongue and every Tongue as the Knee and every Knee they to bow all and these all to confesse 1. Revel 4.10 Luk 2.14 Revel 1 5.3.4.8.5.9 But for all that not all alike They in heaven cast downe their crownes and fall downe themselves of their owne accord And confesse Him singing as at His birth and in the Revelation divers times They vnder the earth doe it too but not vltrò are throwen downe â—nd even made his foot-stoole So downe they goe though sore against their wills And confesse Him too though roaring and as it were upon the racke 2. Psal. 110 1. Mark 9.26 They on Earth as in the midst partake of both The better sort with the Angels get them to their Knees gladly and cheerefully confesse Him The rest as Infidels 3. Iohn 18.6 Revel 16.10 and some Christians little better are forced to fall backward and made in the end to crie Vicisti Galilaee though they gnaw their Tongues when they have done So we see our lot One way or other we shall come to it all if not now in die illo Which is the reason that Rom. 14.11 the Apostle applieth this place in Esay to CHRIST 's sitting in Iudgement at the latter day Exalted He shall be with our good wills or whether we will or no. Either fall on our Knees now or be cast flat on our faces then Either confesse Him Cantando with Saints and Angels or vlulando with divells and damned spirits For the Father will be glorified in the Sonne by the glorious Confession of them that yeeld or the glorious confusion of them that stand out Every Tongue The Tongue and every Tongue that is every Speach Dialect Idiome Language in the world stand charged with this Confession Omnis spiritus every spirit to give breath Psal. 150 vlt. and Omnis Lingua every Tongue to be as a Trumpet to sound it forth And where are they then that denie any Tongue the facultie here granted Or barre any of them the duty here enioyned That locke up the publique Confession the chiefe of all other in some one Tongue or two and send foorth their Supersedeas to all the rest No His Title heere hath more Tongues then Pilate's on the Crosse That had but three this hath every Tongue what where whose-soever none except A Praeludium whereof was in the Tonâ—â—es sent from Heaven whereby every Nation vnder Heaven Acts 2.6 heard each in their owne Tongue spoken Magnalia Dei the glad tidings of the Gospell Confesse that IESVS CHRIST is the LORD But though thus many Tongues yet one Confession Even this that IESVS CHRIST is the LORD And a blessed Confession is it this that IESVS that is a SAVIOVR that He that such a one is the LORD that not a fleecer or a flaier but a SAVIOVR hath the place 2. That CHRIST that is one which saveth and cureth vnctione non punctione with annointing not with fearing or pricking that we acknowledge Him to be the Lord. Lord before by that He is Sonne And now Lord againe by vertue of His Proper quod Lord whereof Nay not qualified of such a Place Baronie Countie Segniorie but Lord in abstracte But if we will qualifie Him we may Lord of these three rankes of Confessors here in the Verse and of those three places and Regions that conteine them Matt. 16.19 1. Lord of heaven He gave the Keyes of it 2. Lord of earth He hath the Key of David and Revel 37. if of His of every Kingdome else 3. Lord of hell for lo the Keyes of Hell and
Husai as with a foule fault Chap. 16 1â— for forsaking his friend himselfe then being in armour against his owne Father was not so very fitt a man to do justice No matter so he tooke himselfe that was enough to rise 2 The other out of revenge the case of Bigthan and Thares and of our two Eâ—ter 2 21. as is thought They were angrie aâ— somwhat it is not said what nor it skills not what but voluerunt insurgere rise they would for it that they would These did not wish government quite taken away onely the King's person they heaved at Him for some purpose they must needs have out of the way By this time we know these parties reasonable well Be these they whom GOD Angels and Saints hold for execrable They whom Cushi may pray against and we with him These be they It was Core one of the crue against whom Moses prayed they might be visited with a strange visitation and not by the common death of other meâ— No more he did It was Achitophel another of them Num. 16.29 against whom David penned the Psalme of bitter imprecations They of Meroz whom the Angell giveth warrant and charge both to curse wherefore was it Because they came not to helpe the LORD that is Debora the Lord's Lievetenant against the forces of Madian If to be cursed because they layd not their hand to helpe Him much more I trow if they would seek to lay their hands on him to mischiefe and make him away It was Iudas Mar 14.21 Gen. 3 14. he was one of these against whom CHRIST cryed Vaeper quem And it was the serpent whom GOD cursed and why what was his fault What but that he sought to withdraw our parents from their due subjection to rise against GOD to be GODS themselves and never acknowledge Him or any for their Superiour These be they certainly against whom GOD Angells and Saints approving it we may say Cushi-his prayer every syllable of it May nay ought are even bound to it Yet to give full satisfaction that there be no striving but that all may say Amen to it it shall not be amisse if I may with your good favour lay before you some reasons and those so enforcing that we shall hold our selves so bound as that we cannot avoyd but yeeld to it I care not much if I keep the number of Absalon's darts they are three The reasons of this cursing First I hold it for cleere if we knew any were GOD 's enemie we would none of us make any question but say with Cushi we need not it is sett downe to our hands So perish all thine enemies ô LORD Because the eâ—emies of God Iud. 5.31 So how Even as Sisara little difference in effect between him and Absalon Sisara perished with a nayle driven into his head Absalon with a dart thrust through his heart To the enemies of GOD you see we have warrant But they that rise against the King are GOD 's enemies for GOD and the King are so in a league such a knott so streight between them as one cannot be enemie to the one but he must be to the other This is the knott They are by GOD Exod. 4.20 Iud. â— 20 1. Chro. 29.23 Psal. 82.6 of or from GOD for or in stead of GOD. Moses's rodd GOD 's Gideon's sword GOD 's David's throne GOD ' s. In His place they sitt His Person they represent they are taken into the fellowship of the same name Ego dixi He hath said it and we may be bold to say it after him They are GOD s and what would we more Then must their enemies be GOD 's enemies Let their enemies know then they have to deale with GOD not with them It is His cause rather then theirs they but His agents It standeth Him in hand it toucheth Him in honour He can no lesse then maintaine them then hold their enemies for his owne Saint Paul is plaine He that resisteth them resisteth God he that the regall power the divine ordinance Rom 13 2. The enditement was rightly framed in judgement of all Writers though it were mis-applied 1. Reg 21· 13. Naboth maledixit Deo Regi Naboth did neither therefore it was evill applied But if he had done the one he had done the other and so it was truly framed Even as he in the new Testament framed his confession aright I have sinned against heaven and against thee For no man can trespasse against a lawfull superiour but withall he must do it against heaven first Luke 15.18 and so he must confesse if ever he have his pardon for it But there is no more praegnant reason to prove God's enemies they be these that rise against Kings then this ye shall observe still they are called the sonnes of Belial Chap. 20.1 Belial God 's professed enemie Sheba is so called in expresse termes in the next Chapter save one that rose up against David And indeed what was the drift of the first tentation but onely to have made Adam and Eve the adopted children of Bâ—lial that is to be under no yoke not GOD 's much lesse mans to brooke no superior They are all his by adoption that carrie such minds It cannot otherwise be And if it were the Spirit of GOD 1 Chro. 12 18. that fell on Amasa when he sayd Thine are we ó David and on thy side thou sonne of Isai what spirit could it be but of Belial or whose sonne Sheba but his that cryed We have no part in David nor any portion in the Sonne of Isai If it were the finger of GOD that touched their hearts that went after Saul their lawfull Liege Lord whose claw must it be the print whereof was in theirs who rose and went against him 1. Cor. 2.15 Whose but Belials Et quae conventio CHRISTI et Belial CHRIST and Belial so out so at odds that no hope of ever agreeing them Now then being the sonnes of Belial and they and Belial their father GOD 's enemies make we any doubt but we may say after the Holy Ghost So perish all thine enemies O Lord This one might be enough But there were three darts in Absalon's heart 2. The enemies of Mankind one would have served the turne so this one would suffice but I will cast yet a second and third at them If then secondly we knew any that were not onely Hostis Dei but hostis humani generis would we yet doubt to pray he might be as Absalon I trust not especially seing we should therin but follow GOD 's own example He curseth the Serpent even for this cause that he was enemie to the woman and all her seed Gen. 3.14.15 and sought the utter ruine of both Those that are such well may all men pray against them for at all mens hands they well deserve it Now thus reasoneth Saint Paul Rulers not onely come from GOD but they come
there is the prophecie Now that that is propheticall in each of those is no lesse verified in the King's enimies in whom they all meet Doe but after this prophecie enquire what became of them aske but the question The King doth heere in the forepart of the verse Is Absalon safe how doth he He doth as he deserveth to doe Aske how the rest that after rose against him Chap. 20.22 1. King 1.2 within a chapter after Sheba riseth how did he Before the end of the Chapter his head came over the wall After him Adonia was up and spake even broadly Regnabo What became of him His end in blood And that which is strange with him rose Ioab 2 25. he that tooke of Sheba's head he that threw these darts and he that was the true man heer How sped he He was even drawen from the altar that 1. King 2.34 is no Saâ—ctuarie for traitors and executed by Benajia Could not take heed by Absalon's example but came to Absalon's end They all that sought that rose to pluck him downe Psal. 62.3 whom GOD had exalted they were slaine all the sort of them were all as a tottering wall or as a broken hedge which every man runns over But this judgement of GOD was in none more conspicuous then Absalon A streight charge was given by the King himselfe to have him saved It would not serve he was slaine for all that And slaine by Ioab one before that had highly favoured him and beene a speciall meanes to restore him to grace even by him was he slaine notwithstanding the King's charge and then slaine when he made full account of the victorie Chap. 18.9 For els he would have beene better horsed He was on his Mule now he never doubted the event and yet was slaine Sure GOD'S hand was in it to ridd the world of a traytor Neither was this a peculiar prophesie to King David alone The prayer is sayd The Prophesie perpetuall and the prophesie taketh hold of other as well before as since Aske of Core he rose against Moses How spedd he He went to hell quick for it Aske of Baana and Rechab that rose against their Lord Looke over the poole of Hebron there Num 16.23 2. Sâ—m 4 12. â—ith 2.23 stand their quarters on poles Aske of Bigthan and Thares what of them Fairely hanged at the Court-gate Time will not serve to enquire of all The short is all that were as Absalon came to his end Some hanged and their heart opened being yet alive So was Absalon and their bowels pluckt out to make them like Iudas Some their head strooken of so was Sheba Some quartered Act. 1â— 18. 2 Rom. 20. 2 Sam. 4.12 and their hand seete and head set up on poles that the Ravens might plucke out their eyes as Baana and Rechab that upon them might come all the punishments due to them that rise with Absalon For all the punishents of traytors as now they are in use with us may seeme to have beene collected and drawen togither from those severall examples that stand in the booke of God All to shew that a King is Alkum no rising against him Or if any rise 〈◊〉 30 31. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he had better sit still For no sooner rise they up but our Prophet streigâ—t crieth Rise up rise up and putt on strength thou arme of the Lord rise up as in old time in the generations of the world Art not thou the same that didst smite Absalon by Ioab Esâ—i 51.9 and art not thou the same that didst smite Ioab by Benaia That setâ—est thy selfe still to bring them downe that rise up against Alkum against whom there is no rising For Kings being from God saith Gamaliel we cannot set our selves against them but we must be found even 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fight against God Being ordâ—iâ—â—d of God saith Gamaliel-his Scholar Saint Paul to resist them is to resist the ordinancâ— of God Rom. 13.2 and as good put our selves in the face of all the ordinance in the Tower of London as withstand God's ordinance None might better say it then he it was told him from heaven when he was about such another businesse pâ—rseâ—uting Châ—ist in his Châ—â—câ— and Christ is persecuted in His chiefe members as well as His inferiour he was told plainly in so doing he did but kick against the prick His heels might ake and runne of bloud Act. 9.5 the pricke not remove but stand where it did still Therefore as heer Cushi in the Old so Saint Paul in the New falleth to prophesie Num. 16 29. they that resist shall 〈◊〉 to themselves damnation is Saint Paule's prophesie And a true prophesie even as was Moses's of Core That they should not dye the death of other men but be visited with some straâ—ge extraordinarie visitation but have their end in bloud All as Cushi prayed they might and prophesied they should And his prayer was heard his prophesie came to passe not a word or either fell to the ground Having now dealt with it as a prayer first and then as a prophecie let us now see how it suiteth with the businesse in hand And reaâ—â—eth to our tâ—mes and whither the force or vigor of these have reached to us and our times It is with God no new thing this to reward such as rise up against Kings Of that which is with him no new but old as old as David nay as Moses â—e giveth us new examples every other while to shew His eare is still open to his prayer and that His arme is stretched out to reach them still Yea I dare be bold to say there is no one of His promises hath so many Seales hanging at it by way of confirmation of it as this hath No one so many judgements upon record as it In every storie of every land there is still standing some jebit or other and their quarters hanging on it there still to put us in mind of the truth of Cushie's prophesie The Aâ—plication to the Day This very day yeeldeth us one of fresh memorie but seven yeares since wherein in our Soveraigne GOD hath given a memorable example of the hearing Cushie's prayer and the accomplishing his prediction not in one but in a couple of Absalons A couple of Absalons I may well terme them In many other points like him but namely in these two 1 Like in their rising and 2 like in their fall For that Absalon was a sonne and these but subjects it altereth not the case much Sonnes and subjects are both under one commaundement as Pater and Rex both in one name Abimilech the name of the first Kings of Canaan If under one then under one curse If they doe but speake evill Deut. 27.15 Pro 30.17 1. King 15.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Iud. 5.7 under Moses's curse in mouth Ebal if but looke upon them with a scornefull eye under
their owne hearts and their mischiefe light upon their owne heads Let His eare still heare His desire upon His enimies and His eye still see the fall of the wicked that rise up against Him Be He as David we as Cushi they as Absalon GOD by whom this prayer was allowed receive and graunt it GOD by whom this prophesie was inspired make it good and fulfill it as this day so for ever Even for ever and ever for His CHRIST 's sake A SERMON Preached before the KING'S MAIESTIE AT HOLDENBIE on the V. of AVGVST A. D. MDCVIII I. SAM CHAP. XXVI VER VIII IX Dixitque ABISAI ad DAVID c Then said ABISHAI to DAVID GOD hath closed thine enemie into thine hand this day now therefore J pray thee let me smite him once with a speare to the earth and J will not smite him againe And DAVID said to ABISHAI Destroy him not For who can lay his hand on the LORD 's Annointed and be guiltlesse The Summe THERE is sombody heer in this text in danger to be destroyed and the partie is the LORD 's Annointed King Saul The matter is come to hard hold Destroy him and destroy him not Abisai would have it done David at no hand he cries Ne perdas But the end was Saul was saved Thus lyeth the case heer in the text And was not the very same the case of this day There was sombody in as great danger to be destroyed this day It was Christus Domini God 's Annointed heer before us The case was come to the very same plunge Perdas ne perdas a King or no King Some were of Abisai's mind GOD was faine to supplie David's there was none els But blessed be GOD all ended in Ne perdas And againe blessed be GOD who then also verified the latter part of the verse that Nonâ— shall seek to lay hands on the Lord 's Annointed but they shal be found and handled as guilty persons For so they were and their blood was upon their owne heads Both cases suiting so well 〈…〉 might well serve for this day â—â—ere is in the former verse a motion made by Abisai for a blow at Saul thus The Division See c. There be three perillous motives in it 1 Inimicum He is your enemie 2 Conclusâ—â— heer is an opportunitie 3 Sine me the act shall not be yours lett me alone I will take it upon me There is in the latter David's utter dislike of the motion thus Destroy not c. Wherein first there is a double charge to the contrarie 1 One ad oculum Destroy him not 2 The other rising out of the reason yet plaine enough He had sayd Destroy him not Not that Quis enim misit manum for a lesse matter then that you may not do 〈◊〉 lay your hands not so much which is as it were a surcharge to the former or if I may so say a second edition of Ne perdas No talke of destroying so farre from that as no stirring the hand toward it 1. Then upon this double charge followeth a double reason two retentives as it were against the first motion 1 He is the Lord 's Annointed that may stay you if you be a good subject 2. Be you good subject or no if that will not this must You shall not be guiltlesse If not guiltlesse then guiltie and what becomes of them that be guiltie we all know That is do it not if you do it shall bring you to guiltie or not guiltie if you lay your hand you shall hold up your hand for it it is as much as your life is worth 3. Thirdly it is not indeed Non eris insons For if it had been so it might have been thought to have reached to Abisai to this particular and no further But he chose rather to utter it by Quis For by asking Quis Who shall He plainly implyeth Ne quis unquam that none ever may Not he not Abisai nay not any So there is a double charge 1 Destroy not 2 lay not your hand A double retentive 1 He is God's Annointed 2 You shall not be guiltlesse 3 and a Quis upon all to bind all and to shew the charge is generall without exception 1. In all which there is a protection for Saul the first King and all after him not onely from perditio destroying giving of the blow but from missio manus stirring of the hand 2. There is a neck-verse for Abisai and all undertakers in that kind they are all cast they are all found guiltie yeâ— they come to the barre they are attainted every one 3. There is an Euge for David who sheweth himselfe through all 1 In his charge destroy not a good subject 2 In his reason He is God's Annointed a good Divine 3 In his sentence Non cris insons a good Iudge 4 In his challenge Quis mitter a stout champion to any that shall maintaine the contrarie 4. But 〈◊〉 that besides this reason in the text of inimicum tuum there have been othâ—â—â—â—asons framed in our dayes to the same end and all of them in Saul the partie in the text we will take them in too to rule this case once for all For Saul's case will be found to have in it all that can be alleadged why any King should be if any King might be touched All I say wil be found in him But he for all them may not be touched therefore none may 5. And this done we will come as the duety of the day requireth to lay these cases case to case ours of the day to this in the text Where we shall see that we have as great cause nay of the twaine the greater cause of gratulation for the happy Ne perdas of this day I. Abisai's Motion THis is Abisai's motion There be three motives in it 1 The partie is your enemie 2 GOD hath sent you opportunitie 3 I will take it upon me Enmitie makes us willing to take revenge opportunitie able and if another will do the act the rather for that for then we shall beare no blame Three shrewd motives where they meet and heer they meet all in one Let us weigh them which I do the more willingly because all three meet also in this day's attempt 1 Enmitie that was the colour an old wrong so there were in both the same pretense 2 And the same advantage in both For the King was shutt up indeed and that literally 3 And he that was at Church he should not have done it not he Abisai should have done it he in the chamber Of these motives then 1. The first motive Inimicum tuum 1 A deadly enemie Chap. 18.15 He is an enemie But not every enemie is to be destroyed but they that would destroy us All enmitie is not deadly feud Saul's was nothing would serve him but David's life and many wayes he sought it indirectly 1 By matching him with his owne daughter and laying on him
did not with David what saith he these motives move him not For all this all this notwithstanding Ne perdas saith he And first marke 1. The first charge Ne perdas he denieth none of his three motives 1 that Saul was his enemie 2 or that the 〈◊〉 served fitly 3 or that the colour was good but granting all these for all our enâ—itie for all this opportunitie for all your colourable offer to save mine honestie for all this Destroy him not Secondly marke it is not negando a bare deniall Non est faciendum but with an imperative with authoritie Ne feceris streightly charging and commanding him not to be so hardie as to doe it Et est efficacior vetandi ratio quam negandi by Ne then by Non The imperative negative is most effectuall And thirdly that this is not the first time once before he had done the like anâ— Iteratio praesupponit deliberationem And indeed there is a mysterie in this same Sinâ— me of Abisai They had had him once before at like advantage in the Cave and will you but observe how it went then it is well worthy your observing Then they were at David to have done it himselfe Destroy him you What was his answer Who I GOD forbidd never move it I will never do it Now then heere at this Abïsai knowing by the former it was in vaine to move him to doe it he offers to be the doer It shall be none of your act Sine me What answer now No nor you See you doe it not Perdas saith Abisai before Non perdam saith David Perdam saith Abisai now Ne perdas saith David So he will neither doe it himselfe nor suffer it to be done The short is Neither waking as at first nor sleeping as now neither by day as in that nor by night as in this neither by himselfe nor by other will David endure to doe it or to have it done But in the one and the other first and last still and ever Ne perdas saith David Saul must not be destroyed 4. Yea so farre was he after this from forethinking this speech or wishing it unsaid that he pleased himselfe in this Ne perdas so that not content to have said it he made a Psalme of it to sing himselfe and all Israel with him and by singing it to sing their dutie in this point into all their mindes and memories A signe the words were good he would bestow a dittie and tune upon them as if he gloried in them Yea to make them the more memorable that they might never be lost he hath framed diverse other Psalmes to the same tune You may turne to the LVIII LIX LXXV You shall finde all their titles to the tune of Ne perdas that so all that then were and all that were to come might know how good a speech he tooke it to be how meet to be said and sung of all ages 5. And what would ye more Not these two only said and sung but in the verse following takes his oath and sweares to it As the LORD liveth saith he GOD 's hand may but mine shall never be upon him and his day may come but not a day sooner for me So that he said no more in this then he meant to sweare to 2. The Reason or II. charge Ne manum mittas But now to come to looke into the reason we shall finde he goeth further then so then Not destroying For being to give a reason of Ne perdas keeping the rule he should now have gone on with it as he begunne and said Quis enim perdidit For who ever destroyed a King He doth not so That as it seemeth would not serve his turne he changeth his verbe now and saith Quis enim manum misit Who hath but putt forth his hand As if he had given too much scope in saying no more but destroy not Indeed it was well spied it must be stopped before it come to destroying If it come to the deed once we are all undone Ne perdas is not enough Much mischiefe may be at least much feare and fright as this day there was and yet no destruction To make sure worke then so farre is he from perdas as he will not allow manum mittas By which denying the latter the former is put past all doubt If the hand be stayed no blow can be given if order be taken for one the other will follow of it selfe You may not destroy for you may not stirre your hand is a good consequent And sure GOD 's care in this point is worthy all observation it descendeth to such minutes heere in this place we have two restraints together 1 Destroy not 2 and which is more lay no hand In another place he goeth yet further Touch not mine Annointed Psal. 105.15 there needs no hand to that the finger will serve And yet further in another place Prov. 30.31 Ne Surgas Rise not out of your place or as the Psalme expressâ—th it lift not up your heele that is stirre not hand nor foot to any such end Psal. 41.9 Men may stirre their foot and not rise and rise and not touch and touch but lâ—y no hands and lay the hands on and not destroy But GOD 's meaning is from â—he first to the last to restreine all To have all so farre from destroying as not to lay your hand nay not touch with your finger nay not so much as rise or stirre the foot bâ—t keepe every joynt quiet from any the least quetching in this matter of Ne perdas To goe about to doe it is as much as to doe it We heare his charge but all this while we see not the Retentive that holds him so 1. The first Reâ—entive Christum Domini that all Abisai's motives could not move him He tells us now what it was CHRISTVS DOMINI In which word is the solution of Abisai's argument thus That his militarie Maxime destroying an enemie which he and many one els in the world take to be universall is not so It admits exceptions divâ—rse but among the rest and above the rest this if the partie be CHRISTVS DOMINI it holds not There is more retentive force in CHRISTVS DOMINI to keepe him alive then there is motive in Inimicus tuus to destroy him This is his answer And it is under one both a solution of Abisai's argument and a new one propounded by David to conclude his part thus The Lord 's Annointed is not to be touched GOD 's own expresse words Touch not mine Annointed But Saul what termes soever he stand in of amitie or enmitie GOD 's Annointed he is Therefore no touching him And I observe this that he maketh choise of CHRISTVS DOMINI for his medius terminus rather then Dominus Rex or any other rather of GOD 's Annointed then of his Liege-Lâ—rd the King Yet there is force in them too but nothing such as in
this To the Saâ—ctuarie he goeth as to the surest place and from thence fetcheth this terme of the Lord 's Annointed and so makes the matter surer as he thinketh For when all is done from that place it commeth that maketh both their Callings and Persons sacred and holy therefore not without sacriledge to be violated nay not to be touched For such is the nature of holy things not to be touched I say not by any enemie no not in warre For so we see David is displeased with the Philistims for so dealing with Saul Agg. 2.13 2. Sam. 1.21 as if he had not beene annointed with oyle as who say it was their duties to have spared him even in that respect And sure a high terme it is and not slightly to be passed over In another place he calleth them Gods heere CHRISTOS DOMINI So Psal. 82.6 they participate with the name of GOD and with the name of CHRIST Annointed and if they be â—nâ—oâ—nted it is with the Holy Ghost and power from above Act. 10.38 Which all shew a neere alliaâ—ce betweene GOD and them CHRIST and them the Holy Ghost and them so as theâ— are not to be harmed the least way if GOD or CHRIST or the Holy Ghost can keepe them from it And this Retentive is strong enough where there is any sense of Religion But 2. The II. Retenâ—ive Non eâ—it insens it is to be doubted Abisai and some besides him have no great feeling that way and so not caâ—able of tâ—is What care they for Samuel or his horne of oile It must not come out of the Sanctuarie it must come from the Barre and the Bench that must preâ—aile with them Tell them of Non eris insons Guiltie or not guiltie and then you say something We said before there is no more effectuall way to denie then to forbidd and it is as true Nec efficiacior vetandi ratio quà m paenâ propositâ No way of more force to forbidd then set a penaltie on it specially the great penaltie of all 〈◊〉 And yet death a Soldier careth not so much for neither except it be mors sontica a malefactor's death and the chiefe malefactor's the traitor's death to be drawen and dragged from his place as a 1. Reg. 2 2â— Ioab hanged as b Est. 2. â—â— Bigthan His bowells pulled out to suite him to c Act. 1.18 Iudas whose gushed out of themselves To have his heart opened yet being alive as d 2 Sam 18 14 Absalon His head chopped of as e 2. Sam 20.22 Seba and it and his quarters hanged up as f 2. Sam 4.11 Baana and Rechab's were To have g â—sal 109.11 their lands and â—â—vely-hoods seazed on and given to strangers h 10. Their issue miserable for their sakes i 13. To be damnatae memoriae their name and memorie as a curse which three are set doâ—â—e in the hundreth and ninth Psalme the Psalme against trecherie Tell Abisai of 〈◊〉 and this may perhapps stay him And to say truth this was no more then needfull without it all that was said might have beene thought to have had but rationem consilij non praecepti to have beene spoken by way of good honest advise but to have beene no penall or capitall law Gently said of David Ne perdas And well done of Abisai to forbeare but no necessitie in it Therefore he tells them These words Ne perdas are a binding precept and that so as if they be transgressed they will beare an action yea an enditement that who so breaketh them Non erit insons And Non erit insons are judiciall words and this they import That not onely they may be arraigned but that no Quest can acquitt them or finde them not guiltie that by no Booke they can that by this Book they cannot be saved But if they stretch forth their hands against the Lords Annointed their necks must stretch for it and being found guiltie they must be dealt with as those that are so found and upon them must come all that is written in this booke which yer-while we recounted And yet Non erit insons goeth further For suppose some of them should happen not to be brought to the barre it shall not serve for all that Non erit insons still GOD will not hold them guiltlesse He will not so leave them but rather then there should none be holden hold an Assise himselfe and bring them to the end of guiltie persons all the sort of them Heaven shall doe it by lightning a Psal 144.6 as Psal. 144. or the earth doe it by swallowing up as b Num. 16 32. Core or their owne friend shall do it as c 2. Sam. 18 14. Ioab or their owne beast as d 9. Absalon or their owne selvâ—â— hang themselves as e 2. Sam 17.23 Achitophel or burne themselves as f 1. King 16.18 Zimri If they will not say Ne perdaâ— to Christus Domini Christus Domini shall say perdas to them and send them all to their owne place the pit of perdition so many as will not say Ne perdas to the Lord 's Annointed It was not for nought that David said to him II. Sam. 1. How wast thou not afraid to doe it 2. Sam. 1.14 There is sure matter of feare in it every way to stay them feare of GOD in Christus Domini to move David feare of the Gallowes in Noa eris insons to move Abisai 3 Abisai's owne confâ—ssâ—on Verse 9. But upon all this would it not do well if we had Abisai's owne confession given in evidence against himselfe That I suppose would take up the matter quite We have it 2. Sam. 16. There in a case only of loosenesse in the tongue where Shemei let goe certaine railing speeches against David could Abisai say What shall this foule-mouthed curre thus be suffered to speake against the Lord 's Annointed and no remedie he would needs have gone and fetch'd his tongue and head and all Yea after their returne in peace when King David had upon Shemei's submission given him his pardon Abisai pleaded hard to have it called backe and would needs have him die for it and well worthie he was And all was but for misit linguam and Abisai himselfe is heere laying hands violent hands on the Lords Annointed a worse matter by farre So that upon the matter Abisai is judged out of his owne mouth and David justified by him in his Non eris insons There are your two Retentives 1 the first for good Subjects 2 the latter for whomsoever 3. The generalitie of the charge Quis erit insons Now lest any might conceive this is but a case of instance holds in this particular but extends not to all somebodie in some case may doe it for all this therefore is it he carieth it along through all with his Quis to tell us his meaning is That not onely
Abisai but that Nequis perdat Ne quis manum mittat that none at all destroy none lay hands at all that his Ne is generall without exception of any And in this even his manner of denying his figura dictionis the tenor of his speech is such as I dare make a note of it There be diverse wayes of denying one more full and forcible then another but of all the way by interrogative is holden the fullest and most of force To have said None did ever attempt it which was not guiltie this had been a deniall but a calme one But to say Who ever went about it but he was found guiltie there is more life and vigor in it by a great deale Indeed of all Negatives the strongest the most peremptorie is by Quis For it is not a bare Negâ—tive but a Negative with a challenge sending a challenge to any if he can for his life to shew one that was holden innocent in that case They call it the triumphant Negative as bearing it selfe confident that none can rise up against it Who that is shew if ever any such had peace if ever any were reputed innocent As much to say as Never was there any never If there were name him bring him forth but that you cannot therefore Quis fuit insons maketh the case cleere and past all question So you see David told us of Christus Domini as it were in his Ephod as a Prophet Then went he into his long robe and told us Non erit insons as a Iudge And now he is in his armor as a Challenger with Quis unquam to challenge any that holdeth the contrarie And his challenge wil be taken and there be that hold the contrarie in our age and that dare step forth and make a question of it for all this or rather make no question at all of it but can tell David both who may lay his hand on to destroy GOD 's Annointed and who shall acquitt absolve and make them innocent that so do Who shall Quis marrie Quisquis any whosoever being warranted And who shall warrant him That shall the High Priest by his last censure These fellowes would not stick to tell Abisai a cleane contrarie tale to that of David's Destroy not saith he Go to say David what he will or what he can we say Destroy him what if he be Yea though he be the Lord 's Annointed You shall be guiltie then certainly saith David What say they Say they thus You shall not be guiltie you may do it we will absolve you that were too much No but you shall merit by it you ought to do it we will Sainct you for so doing This is not matter of talke we know it hath been done Quis who A Iacobine lay his hand Yea hand and knife and thrust it into the body of GOD 's Annointed Yea annointed with the oyle that came downe from heauen as they tell us sent purposely to annoint the French Kings and make them GOD 's Annointed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 What and not guiltie Not guiltie yea and hardly scaped from being a Saint if the Cardinall's faith had failed as well as the Pope's did and if they had not kept Saint Peter's successor from erring Be not we fallen into strange times wherein David must be driven to recant and Abisai proove the Prophet and in which as if there were no such verse as this in the Bible the illusion of error is growne so strong with some as they will rather themselves be destroyed then say the Lord 's Annointed is not to be destroyed I will do them no wrong They will say This text is enough Saul's case a ruling caâ—e for Ne pâ—râ—as to condemn this day's attempt it commeth full home to that case It was upon Inimicum tuum in which case of private revenge themselves hold it cleere quòd non as well as we But when they dispense with Ne perdas it is upon other grounds upon misgovernment or to speake as they do tyrannie upon usurping power in matters ecclesiasticall upon bloudy persecution and that of GOD 's Priests and these are not in the text Yes they are in him in the text concerning whom this Ne perdas was given every one and yet Ne perdas stands for all that And this I say howsoever Abisai did looke upon Saul but with a Soldier 's eye and saw nothing in him but an enemie to move him to destroy him if some of these quick and sharp-sighted Abâ—saies had had the looking into him they would have spied in him other manner of matter to have resolved him meet to be made away they would have found him not David's enemie onely but an enemie to GOD and all goodnesse and returne him culpable of all those faults which they use to insist on when they write their bookes to that end And I verily think God in this first example of his first King over his owne people hath purposely suffered them all to fall out and to be found in him even all that should fall out in any King after him to inforce their position that so we might find them answered to our hands Notwithstanding HIS â—â—sgovernment Tyrannâ—e To touch them in order They would easily have quarrelled at Saul's misgovernment Not at the first he then was a mild and a gratious Prince Never came there from any Prince's mouth a more princely speech then the first speech he is recorded to have spoken Chap. 11.5 Quid populo quòd flet What ayles the people to complaine A speech worthie everlasting memorie so they complaine not without cause But within a while he grew so sterne and fierce as no man might speake to him Vpon euery light occasion nay upon no occasion at all his javelin went streight to nayle men to the wall Chap. 20.33 Not David onely but Ionathan his Sonne and Heire apparant and no cause why In the XIII Chapter it is said Saul had then been King a yeare and raigned two yeares in Israël Chap. 13.2 yet it is well knowne his raigne was forty yeares Their own Writers resolve it thus how long soever he raigned he was a King but two yeares All the time after he was somwhat els or somwhat more then a King And they lett not to tell what Psal. 54 3.57.1 applying to Saul that of the Psalme Tyrants that have not God before their eyes seek after my soule And that Vnder thy wings shall be my refuge till this tyrannie be over past Yet for all this tyrannie Ne perdas saith David 2 Vsurping the Priest's office Yet for all this he fell not into the sinne of all sinnes which they stand so much on Vsurping power in things spirituall Yes and that would they have found too Why did he call himselfe Head of the Church Indeed no Samuel did that for him He it was Chap. 15.17 that said When thou wert little in thine owne
he passed over to the latter part of the verse and when there was none els to doe it He tooke the matter into his owne hands Himselfe held the assise found him guilty gave order for his excecution sent up one to doe it and one that formerly had beene his speciall friend and if I be not deceived sworne brother as Iâ—ab to bring Absalon to his end that destroyed him for not hearing destroy not And yet the goodnesse of GOD stayed not heere neither but where in the text in Saul's case there was but one blow one danger one delivery In this there were no lesse then three one after another First came Abisai he and his armed man GOD delivered him Then came the other the Master of the mischiefe then bewrayed and as one bewrayed desperately set GOD againe delivered him Then last of all and that was worst of all came the popular tumult whose rage knowes no reason who as they Num. XVI called Core and Dathan the people of the Lord so these little better and even then also did God by his mighty providence turne away the destruction This in the text was soon done a few words and away This of the day it was long first and much adoe yet it was done the longer and the more the more is God to be magnified for it And when all was done there he that was saved was but Saul but heer envie flatters not but if envie it selfe should speak it would say Major Saule hîc a greater then Saul eny For the territorie of the least of your kingdomes was greater then that of his And melior Saule hîc a better then Saul was heere saved better without all comparison So the beginning was as they made account Conclusit Deus inimicum nostrum The end was as it prooved Conclusit Deus inimicos Domini Regis GOD made a conclusion of their wicked premisses and their wretched persons all at once So the conclusion was Ne perdas to the King and Non insons to the children of perdition Now to that GOD that when You were shutt up forsooke You not but delivered You à malitiâ diei hujus à Daemone meridiano that in the depth of all Your danger when there was no tongue on earth could say Ne perdas said it from heaven and sayd it thrice over for that His threefold deliverie render we threefold thankes and praise thrice blessed be His holy Name for it And He grant that this lesson of David's may take deep root in all our hearts that there may never be a Quis in Israël to lift up his hand to the like action all may be quit none found guiltie ever of so foule a crime None on Abisai's side to make any such motion all of David's mind to mislike it to say Ne perdas Ne perdas though it be Saul But for David Neperdas is not enough To Him and such as He is let us with one voyce crie Hosanna not onely not destroy but Hosanna Lord save Lord prosper Lord add dayes to his dayes that his yeares may be as many ages And as this day thou didst so still and still prepare thy loving mercie and truth that they may preserve Him even for ever and ever A SERMON Preached before the KING'S MAIESTIE AT HOLDENBIE on the V. of AVGVST A D. MDCX. I. CHRON. CHAP. XVI VER XXII Nolite tangere Christos meos Touch not mine Annointed HEERE is a Speech but we know not Whose nor to Whom nor yet well concerning Whom onely concerning certaine Persons whom the Speaker whosoever He is calleth His Annointed It behooveth us to know these three who they be The person whose the speech is Persona loquens He that saith Meos Him we finde at the foureteenth verse Ipse est Dominus Deus noster He is the Lord our GOD GOD it is that speaketh heere He that challengeth them for His by calling them Mine The persons to whom in the verse before Non reliquit hominem He leaveth not a man So it is to all in generall but specially to some more quicke of touch then the rest whose fingers are never well till some way or other they be touching whom GOD would not have touched The persons concerning whom whom He stileth His Annointed will fall out to prove the Princes of the earth We must not say it but proove it say it now proove it anon Now as if some body were about to offer them some wrong heere commeth a voice from heaven staying their hands and saying See you touch them not Quos Deus unxit homo ne tangat Whom GOD hath annointed let no man presume to touch Of which it may well be said as the Psalmist saith to us every day Hodiè si vocem To day if ye will heare His voice harden not your hearts and ye may For as this day now ten yeeres from the same Person and the same place a like voice there came concerning His Annointed in whose presence we stand That GOD would not have His Annointed touched this Text is a witnesse and this Day is a witnesse The Text dixit the Day factum est Referred unto the Text next before 1. Sam. 26.9 Touching the same point when time was in this place you heard Ne perdas you shall heare it againe now but from an higher person under a streicter charge and with a larger compasse The person higher for that was David Sedecce major Davide hîc but behold a greater then David is heere This is no voice on earth neither of Prophet nor Apostle we now heare Audivi vocem de coelo We heare a voice from heaven And thence neither of Saint nor Angell but of GOD himselfe To shew His care of them His Annointed He would have none give the charge about them but himselfe Himselfe in person Non alienae vocis organo sed oraculo suae from none other but from His own mouth The charge streicter for there it was Destroy not the worst that could be Heere it is Touch not the least that may be and so even that way amended much The compasse larger That was to Abishai but one man and it was concerning Saul one King onely and therefore it was in the singular Ne perdas This is Nolite and Christos the number altered of a larger extent farre even to All men concerning All his Annointed Nolite in the plurall that is None of you Christos in the plurall that is None of them Them not touched not Any of them You not touch not Any of you Non reliquit hominem He leaveth not a man but forbiddeth All. Now out of this plurall you may deduce any singular Out of Christos any King Out of Nolite any party Out of Tangere any hurt and so not any man to doe any hurt to any His Annointed This Text the first and great Commandement concerning this point A Commandement it is and I may safely say Primum magnum mandatum The first and great
hast thou shortned and cast his Crowne downe to the ground With them indeed it is Praeceptum flebile but with us Cantabile Praise we Him for it And withall pray we also that as this day He did not nor hitherto He hath not so henceforth Malignus ne tangat eum the malignant wicked one may never touch Him 1. Ioh. 5.18 never may any have the will or if have the will never have the power to do Him hurt Suffer Him not to be touched or if suffer him to be touched suffer not their touch to doe him any harme no more then this day it did Make all Nolentes with His Nolite if not come with His Non permisit that he may ever be safe and straight after with His Corripuit that they may ever be taken short that offer it This day He suffered them not nor let Him ever suffer any This day He cut those short so may He ever do them all And ever make this Statute our Song all the daies of our Pilgrimage This is now the tenth yeare and so these the Decennalia of it That as this day it is so it may still be celebrated from ten yeares to ten yeares many ten yeares more Which GOD grant c. A SERMON PREACHED before the KING'S MAIESTIE AT Burleigh neer Okeham On the V. of August AN. DOM. MDCXIV PSAL. LXXXIX VER 20. J have found DAVID My servant with My holy oile have J annointed him 21. My hand shall hold him fast or stablish him and Mine arme shall strengthen him 22. The enemie shall not be hable to doe him violence the sonne of wickednesse shall not hurt him 23. But I will smite downe his foes before his face and plague them that hate him WE have found heere a text wherein we see God found David and wherein David found God God found David His servant and David found God his good and gratious Lord first to annoint him then to dâ—liver him So to deliver him as his enemies did him no huâ—t Nay so that the hurt came to themselves And they as we read were smitten downe before him And doe not this text and this day somwhat resemble one another To my thinking they do For who is there that hearing in the Psalme this that violence was offered to David by a sonne of wickednesse but withall he shall thinke of the wicked attâ—mpt of this Day Who that for all that they did David no harme but Your Majestie 's like deliverie will come into his minde Who that David's enemies were smitten downe but it will lead him straight to the very same end of Yours And who can doubt that it was the same hand and arme and of the same GOD in both And that He that did the one did the other King David He is in Scriptures not persona Regis onely the person of a King but persona Regum a person representing all Kings to come after him such spâ—cially as with David serve and worship GOD in truth We doe safely therefore what is said to him applie to them all since he is the type of them all But most safely to such a King if any such be where there is a correspondence of like events betweene David and him that what was Covenanted to the one is performed to the other For there GOD Himselfe is our warrant and even points us so to applie it As heer now I finde a prophesie or a promise A prophesie of Ethan his is the Psalme or a promise of GOD. And I finde this prophesie fulfilled and this promise made good to Your Majestie What promised to David made good to You and made good this Day What is said in the text done on the Day What doubt we then to applie it to the present And since it fell on this day what better day then this for me to treat or You to heare or for us all to thanke GOD for it The Summe The text hath the name from the first word of it I have found A fâ—nding it is Two waies may a thing be found One when a thing is found at first and never was before Another when it is afterward lost and found againe Both heer David is twise found Found first and annointed at the I. verse Found againe and delivered at the III. GOD found him first among his ewes tooke him thence annointed him and of a Shepheard made him a King Psal. 78.71 And being a King found him after among his enimies in danger to lose both crowne and life and so being as good as lost found him again It is hard to say whither of these is the greater We will not strive both are in the text And either hath his day I sought but for one day but I found two and both for our turne According to which somewhat strangely but for our purpose fitly I may divide it into the XXIX or XXV of Iuly the day of Your first finding for Your Annointing or Coronation And the V. of August the day of Your later finding for Your deliverance or preservation The Verses are foure The points in them eight two in each Of which eight some be past some to come in the text All past with You. Past two 1 Inveni 2 Vnxi the finding the annointing To come all the other six all in the future shall or will Two shall 's 1 My hand shall 2 My arme shall Two shall not 's 1 The enemie shall not 2 The sonne of wickednesse shall not Two will 's 1 I will smite 2 I will plague And all sixe comprised in a League or Covenant which GOD is pleased to make with David upon his annointing and are as so many clauses or articles of it Which league is made pro contra Pro with and for David in the second And Contra against his enemies in the two last And that both defeâ—sivâ— in the third And offensive in the fourth So a perfect League We shall pursue it thus 1. Of his finding first 2. Then of his annointing 3. The Division Thirdly of GOD'S covenant-making with him 4. And to this of the covenant-making we will add a fourth of the covenant-keeping Which is indeed out of the text but not out of the day though And we preach on the day as well as on the text Which keeping of the covenant I hold to be a part full as necessarie though it be without as the making of it though it be within the text That then be our fourth and this our order THe first word is I that is GOD. He is the speaker and be speaker I. I that is GOD. the finder and the annointer the fast-holder and the strengthener the rescuer and the revenger of David and in him as the type of all Kings Not one of these but is within the very letter of the Text. For this first person I goeth cleane through to the end and as it were engrosseth them all to himselfe Of the finding first The
per quem the more the ioy still The Salvation is made the more precious 〈…〉 of it That as it is 〈◊〉 Regiâ— on his part that receives it So it is 〈◊〉 Divina on His that gives it that iâ— Tua Domine 〈◊〉 this Domine there 〈…〉 To virtute and salute either of 〈…〉 Tua virture 〈…〉 and this doubling of the point we shall 〈◊〉 concernes the joy 〈◊〉 〈…〉 Ioâ— 4.10 For that it may not â—e as Iâ—nas's ioy in his gourd up in one night downe in another that is vanishing and â—â—sure but sound and permanent it is best our Hosannah be in the Highest best that the Hypostasis or substance of this our reioycing be in the strength of the Lord. Psal. 1â— 7 â— Non in chariots and horses we see what became of them the Psalme 〈…〉 ceciderunt Downe they went and downe went their ioy with them 〈…〉 virtâ—te alien◠〈…〉 â— Psal. 44 6. 2. Sam. 24 1◠〈…〉 his owne bow or sword or number of his People that prooved not well 〈◊〉 that was in virtute suâ In virtute Tuà we shall find is the safer Not but that in these humane strengths we may reioyce in some sort with some caution Ion. 4.7 but that they be all subject to the worme Ionas's Gourd was mortall and mutable all not so soone had but as soone lost and sooner a great deale there is no hold of them quotidie diffâ—uunt we find it we feele it daily Therefore well fare in virtute Domini the might of the Almightie In it there is the sound ioy O it is good reioycing in the strength of the arme that shall never wither or wax weake Psal 36 7. and in the shadow of those wings that shall never cast their feathers in Him that is not there yesterday and heer to day but the same yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13.8 For as He is so shall the joy be In virtute Tuâ then And Salute Tuâ too â— Salute Tuâ Nay virtus Tua but salus sua the power that may be GOD 's but the salvation that is the King's one would thinke And so it is But he reioyces not in it as it is salus sua at least not so much as that it is salus Tua GOD 's of and from GOD who wroâ—ght it and brought it to passe Nay even in salute Tua it selfe not so much in saâ—ute as in Tuâ in the gift as in the partie that gave it So doth no worldly man he goes no further then in salute that he hath it that safe he is cares for no more for no Tuâ he But David's ioy and the ioy of the Godly is not so much that he is sâ—ved or had strength so to be as that it was GOD sent forth his strength so to save him Psal. â—8 28 Nay nothing so much in Salute as in Tuâ in the salvation as in GOD his SAVIOVR Luk. 1.47 And why so ioyfull for this Tua Domine more then the rest I shall tell you why For this is the very exaltation the highest point of the whole triplicitie There was none of the Emperors upon such an escape as this but he took to himselfe presently as an high honor the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Preserved by GOD and vsed it ever after as an addition to his Style as glorious as Alamannicus or Parthicus or eny Tâ—tle of them all A King thus saved by GOD is more then a King I meane more then another King not so respected by God More I say then another 1. More to be set by in thâ— sight of his ownâ— people tanquam speculum propitij Numinis as a mirror of God's favour when they see him thus taken into God's speciall protection The very 〈…〉 are Verse 5. His honour is great in this salvation 2. A◠〈◊〉 his oâ—ne people So more esteemed of his neighbours when they see their 〈…〉 with knives Psal 20.8 and so cast downe and fall but him after he was cast downe to 〈…〉 sâ—and upâ—ight Hij ceciderunt helps it much 3. And 〈…〉 of his enemies when they see the eye of God's providenâ—e the 〈…〉 the â—â—â—â—ngth of His arâ—e still over him still set to save hiâ— and doe him 〈◊〉 they wâ—s 〈◊〉 â—â—raid to plot oâ—ght against him when they see 〈…〉 God 〈…〉 â—pholds him â—till when they see Tua Domine 〈…〉 upon him 〈…〉 â—re we come to 〈◊〉 â—â—ring-head to 〈◊〉 laetitiae Tua Tua Domine 〈…〉 brought 〈…〉 up to Him we turne it loose let it 〈…〉 it If it be gaudeâ—e in Dominâ— Nay 〈…〉 dico gaudete saith the Apostle Then to it againe and againe Phil. 4.4 double it 〈…〉 it and spare not Good leave have you 〈…〉 for this salus Regia and salus Divina both ioyne the triplicities see 〈…〉 not this and the first of ioy In vìrtute God's strength the very promise 〈…〉 of it yields ioy within there is laetabitur But made apparant in salute 〈…〉 matter of exultabit without But Tua Tua Domine to that belongs 〈…〉 there is his place O how greatly shall David reioyce within triumph 〈…〉 in the Lord being saved by Him so mightily and so mervailously saved by 〈…〉 â—hese two triplicities are in the first verse both 〈…〉 is new ioy in the second verse upon a new ground the goodnesse of God The II. Cause In satisfying the desire 1 Of his heart 2 Of his lipps 〈…〉 and goodnesse doe well together neither without other saveth Strength 〈…〉 could well but will not till goodnesse come to it Both did it heere For in 〈…〉 saved by strength and in the seventh verse In the mercie of the most High he 〈◊〉 â—iscarie By strength that by no arme of flesh By mercie that by no merit 〈…〉 owne 〈◊〉 His goodnesse is over all his workes over strength and all For Psal. 145.9 it sheweth it 〈◊〉 â—ot in saving onely which is a matter of necessity but ouer and besides that in 〈…〉 his desires and that is matter of meer bounty 〈◊〉 indeed no way doth his goodnesse so shew it selfe as in sending us our desires 〈◊〉 â—oâ—hing is so properly the matter of ioy as the desire sent The denying of our 〈◊〉 Nay the but delaying it is an abatement to our ioy But the desire accompliâ—â— â—hat is the Tree of life saith Salomon And the Three of life Pro. 13.12 Gen. 2.9 was in the midst of 〈…〉 the very center of Paradise and all the ioyes there The satisfying his 〈◊〉 â—â—tisfie is one thing and to satisfie by prevention another Betweene them 〈…〉 make up a new triplicitie For the former of satisfying the desire is set 〈…〉 either as conceived in the heart Desiderium cordis or as expressed with 〈…〉 Prolatio labiorum It is much to satisfie these two His goodnesse gives 〈◊〉 both to the one and to the other satisfaction to the heart by granting the 〈◊〉
but there must needs be as great nay Festum magis duplex for the King heer If for Her a stranger for their owne naturall Liege much more Was so with them In diebus illis and with us to be In diebus hijs Or rather in die hoc For there it was plurall more daies went to it then one many dayes in doing heer it was dispatched sooner No diebus heer begun acted ended all in a day nay halfe a day betweene noone and night And this shall be the first that it was not long in doing Short as it was yet may I take upon me there is as great odds between this day and them as is between the fifth of August ours and the fifteenth of Adar that is December theirs that is between a long and a short a Summer's and a Winter's-day There is not in all the Scriptures a book that expresseth so plentifull joy for the saving of a Prince as doth this of Esther the whole ninth Chapter in a manner is spent in it There is gaudium and laetitia and hilaritas and convivium and tripudium I cannot tell how many times over Chap. 9.21 and the day christened by the name of Dies festus a Festivall day There is joy in Sufan the Cittie there is joy in the villages there is joy in the hundred twentie seven every Province of them joy all over and all this allowed nay a Statute made to keepe it So a day of joy to all posteritie and all this Chronicled so A joy in the Chronicles what would you more Hence have we warrant for this day of ours and for all and every of them on this day of ours the same joy full out the same that was for that in every degree let be for this and more for this as this is more as hath been shewed as by the season of the year the day is longer the Sunne brighter the skie cleerer the weather fairer in August then December As this case more famous GOD 's might and mercie more mervailous More fit for a Chronicle more worthy to be engrossed in the great roll ours then theirs And in one we shall be above them that we begin our joy in the House of GOD whereas they in Persia had none to begin it in Heer do we begin it as GOD would have us begin it in the House of prayers with prayers A prayer for Bigthan and Tharez we cannot either these of the Text or those of the day But a prayer that by their examples both Ruina praecedentium may be admonitio sequentium the destruction of those that are gone before may be the instruction of all those that shall come after This the first part and if this will not be the second So may they ever finde that so seeke If seeke as they sought find as they found A prayer for Mardochai that for his so sitting in the gate he may sit in a better place that so many may follow him in his good example A prayer for the King But first a praise the principall cause we come hither for Praised be GOD ever that saved in Persia Assuerus from his two that saved in Scotland Your Majestie from your two the Saviour of Kings Maximè fidelium Then the prayer That those daies and these daies may never faile him nor he ever see other No more Bigthans good Lord but Mardochai's for them That Mardochai may never faile him but if he do that Thou wouldst not no more then this day Thou didst but ever save ever deliver ever preserve him and make them that seeke his ruine find their owne Either hang aloft as these in the Text or lye on the floore as those of the day And even so let the end of this be the beginning of the other even of the joy of the whole day For the day for it for this happie event on it for the King the Subject of it To the cause of it and of all our joy GOD the Father by which and through CHRIST in the unitie of the Holy Spirit be all blessing honour praise glorie and thanksgiving this day and all daies for ever and ever A SERMON Preached before the KING'S MAIESTIE AT VVINDSORE On the V. of AVGVST Ann. Dom. MDCXXII I. SAM CHAP. XXIV VER V. And the men of David said unto him See the day is come whereof the Lord said unto thee Behold I will deliver thine enemie into thine hand and thou shalt doe to him as it shall seeme good to thee Then David arose and cutt of the lappe of Saul's garment privily 6. And afterward David was touched in his heart because he had cut of the lapp which was on Saul's garment 7. And he sayd unto his men the LORD keepe me from doing that thing unto my Master the LORD' 's Annointed to lay my hand upon him For he is the Annointed of the LORD 8. So David overcame his servants with these words and suffered them not to rise against Saul So Saul rose up out of the cave and went away ECCE Dies venit Behold the day is come So beginns the text so say David's men And Behold the Day is come so may we beginne and as truly so say of this Day as ever did they of that The first words agree well So doe the last Abijt Rex viam suam the King rose up and went his way so ends the text and so ended this day too And not onely the first and last words but the middst and all fall out as fitly For indeed what is the whole Text but a report of a King in danger to have been made away and that closely in a cave and a motion made to that end and a knife drawen and David's men up against him and all Yet see the goodnesse of GOD the King did well enough for all that and went his way without any hurt done him And comes not this home to the day Saul at Engedi in the cave there may he not seeme as I may say a type of His Majestie at Saint Iohnston shutt up to use Saul's words in the close corner there Instead of a knife was there not a dagger drawen there and somewhat els and more sought then a corner of his cloake And as David's men rose heer So rose there not a popular tumult there And yet being in that extremitie was he not delivered out of their bloody hands and did not all end as the text ends The King rose up and went his way And this our meeting now in this publique solemne manner is to no other end but to rejoice togither in the presence of GOD and to render unto him our anniversarie sacrifice of praise and thanks that Eccedies venit Behold the day is come wherein he scaped so faire and went his way so happily And shall we not withall put our incense to our sacrifice that is add our prayers to our praises that as this day there was so still and ever a way may be made him
to escape all his dangers King Saul heer in the Text was the first King that ever the people of GOD had In him the first would GOD have all succeeding Kings to read their destinie that as they are placed high so their high place is no exemption from danger a provoking it rather Heere now Saul is in danger in the vale Engedi Once before had we him in as great a ploonge 1. Sam. 26.8 and that was in the hill Hachila Abisai would faine have had a blow at him and but one blow But David came then betweene with his Ne perdas That did not so well fitt our turne It was night then Saul was in his bed asleep That was not our case this heer comes neerer This fell on the day Saâ—l was awake So was His Majestie We may say Ecce dies Behold it was day and that day is now come Betweene them both they make up thus much that sleeping or waking by night or by day in Hachila the high lands in Engedi the low valleis out of danger they goe not if the hand of God be not over them as heer over Saul it was The Division First and last we may recapitulate the whole Text into one word It is all but a Deliverie Ecce tradam in manus a Delivâ—rie into their hands Ecce abijt a Deliverie out of them Which two make the two maine parts of the Text. The former the Deliverie into lasts to the last verse And in the end of the last comes the latter the deliverie out of The King rose up out of the cave went his way Ecce tradam in manus is of two sorts 1 Into David's hands and 2 Into his men's hands Or thus Saul's danger heere is double 1 One the danger of David's mens motion 2 the other of their Commotion for rising they were and David suffered them not to rise 1. In their Motion 1 What was moved to David by his men and 2 what David did upon it That which was moved was mittere manum to lay hands on the King That he did upon it was he went and layd his hand on Saul's mantle and cutt of an end of it and that was all This the fact then the Censure of this fact When David had done this what he thought of it 1What he and 2 what his men He thought not well of it he did penance for it his heart smitt him for doing but so much His men thought not well of it neither but ex alio capite they for not doing more then so 2. What followed of this The neglect of their motion turned his men to a Commotion they were rising against Saul if they had not beene stayd The second danger this farr the worse of the twaine The rising of David's men then the drawing of David's knife Thus farr the Epitasis Then followes the Catastrophe For the issue was David's men were stayed by him and kept from rising David's victorie And how by certaine words speaking Those words are in the third Verse David's Spell I may call them And upon all this followed the King was saved twise saved from both dangers thankes be to GOD and away he went safe without any harme Onely lost a peece of his mantle and I would never greater losse might come to him Thus lye the parts in this order which when all is done we must crave leave to reflect upon and review againe to shew that the Ecce of this our Day is farr above the Ecce of that of theirs Now by the speciall providence of GOD it so fell out that all this was not passed and done in silence There was arguing the point reasoning on both sides The whole text is but a kinde of Dialogue between David's men and him what was to be done with Saul their enemie now they had him in the cave kill him or let him goe And it fell out well that this point was thus argued For out of this their debate might those two wretched men this day have learned if they had had grace and may all true men and good subjects learne what to doe or not to doe in liâ—â— case For a cleer resolution heer is to be held for ever taken out of David's Absit heer God forbidd that ever any should lay his hands on the Lord 's Annointed Yeâ— though he should catch him in a cave or as good as a cave as this day he was Nay further GOD so providing heer falls a matter in upon the By of Saul's mantle that removes it from the maine Saul's person quite Saul's person David touched not went but to his mantle And even for going but to that did his heart smite him Which by a minore ad maius puts this question past all question as being a protection for the King's robe and if for it for his person much more And let me say two things of this text to you One that as Saul was the first King so this the first case that ever was wherein the making away of a King was put to the question So the leading case as they call it to all the rest Resolved heer by David and we cannot resolve our selves by a better and resolved once resolved for ever No more Quaere's of it now The other that it is the onely case this that ever I read of in Scripture of Dixit Diminus alledged for killing a King of killing Kings by Divinitie The more worthy it is your attention the neerer it comes to the late phrensie of this Age of ours And two uses there be of it as the chiefe persons in it are two 1 In Saul to lett Kings see their danger 2 In David to let subjects see their duety To let Kings see their danger that they may look up continualy to their Deliverer out of evill hands In David to lett subjects see their duety and the extent of their duety as to themselves â—o to others Two dangers were like to befall Saul heer From David first His men perswaded him to dispatch Saul perswaded him but prevailed not He did it not So Saul scaped once Second when that would not do they were upon rising themselves to lâ—â—ve done it David disswaded them disswaded them and prevailed They did it 〈◊〉 neither There he scaped twise In which two David is two wayes our example to learne us the two duties I spâ—ke of 1Would not do it himselfe 2 would not suffer others to do it Would 〈◊〉 perswaded by others to it did disswade others from it I will say with our Savioâ—â— â—ade tu fac similiter Let every good subject go and do likewise Neither do it Luc. 10.37 noâ— sâ—ffer it to be done And he shal be according to David's who was a man according 〈◊〉 Gâ—d's owne heart I. The first deliveriâ— Ecce tradam in maâ—â—â— SAVL was now in the cave What David's men would have had him doe to Saul Even what was good in his eyes a good mannerly terme
men I dare say hoped to some other end Stay heere And he that 〈◊〉 David thus in this wise comming close behind the King's back with his 〈◊〉 drawen in his hand would he not have taken him for Ravaillac What 〈◊〉 I promise you this was not Bonum in oculis no very good sight And then 〈◊〉 Saul was his mortall enemie and even now at this very instant time come 〈◊〉 to seek his life and seeing them thus in a blind cave and David hard at his back 〈◊〉 a â—aked knife would he not have given Saul for dead past for ever abijt 〈◊〉 suam Well when all came to all First it seemed not good in David's eyes to use 〈◊〉 sword but his knife Why a knife will doe mischiefe enough 2. Then to 〈◊〉 to worke with it not punctim but caesim not with the point but with the edge 〈◊〉 thrust not cutt onely Yet that will hurt too 3. But cutt what Neither 〈◊〉 nor skinn not them Nay not his shirt or doublet his mantle onely and but a 〈◊〉 of it 4. And it was no great peece neither he cutt no skirt It was 〈◊〉 it was not missed Saul's followers spied it not till David came after them 〈…〉 them held it up and shewed it them and then they looked well and saw a peece 〈…〉 but not before The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ala signifieth a wing and those we 〈…〉 but additionalls no part of the entire garment The garment is whole 〈…〉 So it was not into the whole cloth neither he cutt His knife he drew 〈◊〉 drew no blood with it went not to Saul himselfe his person but to his mantle 〈◊〉 but an edge of that and away he goes and so may Saul goe his way for eny 〈◊〉 David hath done him And this lo is all came of the motion and more then thâ—â— seemed not good in David's eyes What and is it but this This and no more No more but a shred of his mantle c His censure of it â—nd is that all All yea and too much of that too For now it followes in the secâ—nd verse when David reflected upon what he had done how this he had done seemed 〈◊〉 his eyes It seemed good to them to do but thus much or rather thus little and after it â—as done it seemed not good to him not this little he had done neither but it even 〈◊〉 good to him to repent when he had done it as little as it was or as it seemeth 〈◊〉 to be Repent Yea that he had done no more Nay that he had done thus 〈◊〉 had cutt his mantle had cutt at all That which any would thinke was highâ—â— to be commended in him he went no further you shall see him doe penance for it 〈◊〉 as iâ— he had gone too farr as if he should not have gone so farr as that Will ye see David doe penance indeed for it Penance I say in all the parts the â—â—â—ooâ—emen make of it 1 Contritio cordis in this verse his heart smitt him for it Coâ—fessio oris in the next The Lord keepe me from doing more this was too much 〈◊〉 â—octio operis in the last verse in making amends by not suffering his men to rise 〈◊〉 converting them from so sinfull a purpose And besides in leaving behind him ad 〈◊〉 rei memoriam a monument of all this a Psalme 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is a golden Psalme 〈…〉 calls it the LVII Psalme made as the Inscription shewes at this his being in 〈…〉 Of it and there both in word and deed of saying destroy him not which is the 〈◊〉 the Psalme Though ye get Saul in a cave yet destroy him not Other 〈◊〉 there be of the same title but the LVII that is the first of them all 〈…〉 upon this occasion and at this time and place 1 His contrition Percussit cor 〈◊〉 For his Contrition It is said after he had done it his heart smitt him and told him why Even but for making a hole in Saul's mantle It is strange that his heart that one would thinke should have spâ—oong for joy that he did no more but that falls to strike and to beat him for doing but that instead of exultation that he had done well done the King no harme a palpitation a pang or passion of feare takes him lest he had done more then he could well answer And it is the more strange the great valiant David one of the nine Worthies whom neither the beare daunted nor the lion who without all â—eare encountred the giant great Golias and smitt him downe whose heart served him fainted not then heere for doing I wote not what a shredd of Saul's mantle it serves him not but beates and throbbs as in feare it is usuall for the heart to doe Bonarum mentium est saith Gregorie Good minds will sometimes feare and acknowledge a fault where none is Peradventure David doth so is more scrupulous then needs Nay indeed For to doe but this to the garment of any private man such as our selves to cutt or to marre it is a trespasse I take it and will beare an action And if so then must it needs be a higher a more heynous offense to offer it to any the King's robes to mangle or deface them in any sort The materiall part of it cannot sure be justified Onely the formall part as in Schooles we speake non tam quid quam quo animo that may in some sort seeme to qualifie his act and helpe to excuse him that he did it with no other minde nor to no other end but by the little shredd taken of to make it appeare he did not so much as he could have done if his minde had been so badd to Saul as Doëg and such as he would faine make him beleeve teste vel segmento hoc which he gave in by way of evidence verse 12. When I cutt of this lapp I killd thee not as going a little farther I might have done Might have done but did not Might have gone otherwise to worke with a sword and not a knife with the point and not the edge thrust and not cutt or if cutt taken away a collop of his flesh as well as a corner of his cloke Yet for all this though his heart were privy to no evill entent it smitt him though For in cases touching the King so neere it is not enough to say I meant not that but this So a fault it was and as for a fault his heart smitt him There is no smiting but for a fault Specially not of the heart For the heart strikes not us but it is it selfe stricken first And if you aske who strikes it that doth GOD for this of the heart is nothing els but the reverberation of GOD 's stroke His knock at our hearts to fore-thinke us of what we have done amisse when we have cutt where we should not And it is no light fault the heart
those it took 〈…〉 to stand repeating these That ever age or land but that our age and this land should foster or breed such monsters That you may know it for that perfectly consider but the wickednesse of it as it â—ere in full opposition to GOD and you must needs say it could not be His doing GOD forbid saith Abraham thou shouldest destroy the righteous with the wicked Gen. 1â— 23.25 Exod. 22.6 Psal. 10â— 15 Mat. 13.29 Kill not dam and young ones both saith Moses in the Law You shall not touch mine Annointed saith GOD in the Psalmes You shall not pull up the good corne rather let the tares stand saith CHRIST in the Gospell You shall not do evill that good may come of it saith Paul in his Epistles Rom 3.8 But heer is Satan flat contrarie in despite of Law Prophetts Psalme Epistle and Gospell Hoc est Christum cum Paulo conculcare to throw downe Abraham and Moses and David and Paul and CHRIST and GOD and all and trample upon them all One more yet that this abomination of desolation so calleth Daniel so calleth our Saviour Dan â— 27 Mat 24.15 the uttermost extremitie of all that bad is so may we this truly that this abomination of desolation tooke up his standing in the holy place 1. An â—bomination so it is abhorred of all flesh hated and detested of all that but heare it named yea they themselves say they should have abhorred it if it had taken effect It is an abomination 2. Every abomination doth not forthwith make desolate This had If ever a desolate kingdome upon earth such had this been after that terrible blow Neither root nor branch left all swept away Strangers called in murtherers exalted the very dissolution and desolation of all ensued 3. But this that this so abominable and desolatorie a plott stood in the holy place this is the pitch of all For there it stood and thence it came abroad Vndertaken with an holy oath bound with the holy Sacrament that must needs be in a holy place warranted for a holy act tending to the advancement of a holy Religion and by holy persons called by a most holy Name the name of IESVS That these holy religious persons even the chiefe of all religious persons the Iesuites gave not onely absolution but resolution that all this was well done that it was by them justified as lawfull sanctified as meritorious and should have been glorified but it wants glorifying because the event fayled that is the griefe if it had not glorified long yet this and canonized as a very good and holy act and we had had orations out of the Conclave in commendation of it Now I think we shall heare no more of it These good Fathers they were David's bees heer came hither onely to bring us honie right honie they not to sting any bodie or as in the XXII verse they as builders came into the land onely for edification Verse 22. not to pull down or to destroy any thing We see their practise they begunne with rejecting this Stone as one that favoured Heretiques at least and therefore excommunicate and therefore deposed and therefore exposed to any that could handle a spade well to make a mine to blow him up Him and all his Estates with him to attend him 〈…〉 Stone being gone the walls must needs follow But then this shriâ—ing it such an aâ—â—mination sâ—â—ing it in the holy place so ougly and odious making such a treason 〈◊〉 this â— religiâ—us missall sacramentall treason hallowing it with 〈…〉 and Eucharist this â—â—sseth all the rest I say no more but as our 〈…〉 when you seâ— such an abomination so standing quilegit intelligat 〈…〉 GOD send the◠〈◊〉 not reade of it 〈…〉 but see iâ— and had liâ—e to have 〈…〉 that they should bâ— it and so I leave it 〈…〉 now if this were not His doing and if it should not have beene a Day of 〈…〉 the Devill 's owne making 〈◊〉 should have beene done this the danger what was done This the factum 〈…〉 â—hat the factum est All these were undone and blowen over all the 〈◊〉 â—â—â—â—ppointed all this murder and crueltie and desolation defeated The mine is 〈…〉 the snare is broken and we are delivered All these the King Queene Prince 〈◊〉 Bishops Iudges both Houses alive all not a haire of any of their heads 〈◊〉 not so much as the smell of fire on any their garments Give thankes ô Israël Dan. 3.27 Psal. 68.26.27.28 c. 〈◊〉 Lord thy God in the congregation from the bottome of the heart heere is little 〈◊〉 thy Ruler the Princes of Iuda c that they are heere and we see them heere 〈◊〉 the Stone these Builders refused is still the Head-stone of the corner That 〈◊〉 have been done this was done and we all that are heere this day are witnesâ—â—◠〈◊〉 Witnesses above all exception of this factum est 〈◊〉 by whom whose doing Truely not mans doing this it was the Lord's 2 A Domino A 〈◊〉 factum est illud or fictum est illud It was the Devill 's doing or devising the 〈◊〉 A Domino factum est hoc This was God's doing the deliverance The blow 〈◊〉 Devill 's The ward was God's Not man but the Devill devised it Not man 〈◊〉 defeated it He that satt in heaven all this while and from thence looked down 〈◊〉 all this doing of the Devill and his limmes in that mercie of His which is over 〈◊〉 workes to save the effusion of so much bloud to preserve the soules of so many 〈◊〉 to keepe this Land from so foule a confusion to shew still some token some 〈◊〉 token upon us for good that they which hate us may see it and be ashamed Psal. 86.17 but 〈◊〉 that that was so lately united might not so soon be dissolved He took the 〈◊〉 his own hand And if ever God shewed that He had a booke in the Laeviathan's 〈◊〉 that the Devill can goe no further then his chaine if ever that there is in 〈◊〉 more power to helpe then in Sathan to hurt in this He did it And as the 〈◊〉 Lawes to be seene in the former so God's right hand in this mightie thing He 〈◊〉 to passe and all the fingers of it To shew it was He. He held his peace and kept silence satt still and let it goe on 〈◊〉 came neere even to the verie period to the day of the lott so neere that we â—ay truly say with King David as the Lord liveth Vno tantum gradu nos morsque 〈◊〉 there was but a stepp betweene death and us 1. Sam. 20.3 We were upon the point of 〈◊〉 to the hill all was prepared the traine the match the fire wood and all Gen. 22.7 and we 〈◊〉 to be the sacrifice and even then and there In monte providebat Dominus Verse 8. God 〈◊〉 for our safetie even in that very place where we
into such request as no Feast ever without it without an Hosanna it grew so familiar as the very children were perfect in it Mat. 21.9 The summe and substance whereof briefly is no more but which we all desire that God would still save still prosper still blesse him that in His name is come unto us that is King David himselfe whom all in the House and all of the House of the Lord blesse in His name And to very good purpose doth he this for ioy hath no fault but that it is too short it will not last it will be taken from us too soon It is ever a barr in all ioy â—olleâ—ur à 〈◊〉 subject to the worme that Iona's gourd was It standeth us therefore in hand to begin with Hosanna so to ioy as that we may long joy to pray for the continuance that iâ— be not taken from us ever remembring the true temper of ioy is exulâ—ate iâ— trâ—â—ore not without the mixture of some feare For this day we see what it is Psal. 2.11 a ioyfull day we know not saith Salomon what the next day will be and if not what the next day Pro. 27.1 what the next yeare much lesse What will come we know not what our sins call foâ— to come that we know even that God should call to judgement if not by fire by somwhat els If it be but for this it concernes us neerly to say ouâ— Hoâ—â—nna that the next yeare be as this It is our wisdome therefore to make the meaneâ— for the continuance of it that God would still stablish the good worke 〈…〉 â—ay wrâ—ught in us still blesse us with the continuance of the same 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this that we may doe not faintly but cheerefully with the lifting up of our 〈◊〉 therefore as farre as art or spirit can do it he hath quickned his Hosanna that 〈◊〉 putt spirit and life in us to follow him in it with all fervor of affection foure 〈◊〉 twise with Anna and twise with Na either of them before and after Verse 25. but 〈◊〉 â—ords and foure of them interjections all to make it passionate and that so as 〈…〉 originall nothing can be devised more forcible and so as it is hard in any 〈◊〉 toâ—gue to expresse it which made the Evangelist lett it alone and retaine the 〈◊〉 word still But this as neere as I can it soundeth Now good Lord save us yet 〈◊〉 now good Lord prosper us yet still Be to us as last yeare so this and all the yeares to 〈◊〉 IESVS a Saviour yesterday and to day and the same for ever And three things doth he thus earnestly pray for and teacheth us to doe the like 〈◊〉 save 2 prosper 3 and blesse To save that should be first with us it is commonly last We have least sense 〈◊〉 soules To save us with the true saving health it is a word whereof our Saviour 〈◊〉 hath his name it importeth the salvation of the soule properly to that it loâ—â—â—geth and hath joyned to it Hosanna in the Gospell Hosanna in excelsis to shew Matt. 21.9 〈◊〉 â—n high and heavenly salvation 2. Then to prosper If He but grant us the former alone to have our soules saved though without prosperitie though with the dayes of adversitie it is sors Sanctorum the lott of many a Saint of His of farre more worth then we Even so we are bound 〈◊〉 thanke him if even so we may be but saved But if he add also prosperitie of the outward to the saving of the inward man that not so much as a leafe of us shall wither bâ—t looke what we doe shall prosper and that whatsoever men of evill counsells do Psal. 1.3 shall â—ot prosper against us if He not only vouchsafe us Hosanna in excelsis but Hosanna de â—â—â—fundis too from deep cellars deep vaults those that digg deep to undermine our 〈◊〉 If He add the shaddow of his wings to shelter us from perills to the light of his â—â—â—ntenance to save us from our sinnes then have we great cause to reioyce yet more 〈◊〉 both with exultemus from without and laetemur from within to magnifie His merâ—â—e and to say with the Prophet Praysed be the Lord that not onely taketh care for the safetie but taketh pleasure in the prosperitie of His servants 3. Lastly because both these the one and the other our future salvation by the continuance of His Religion and truth among us and our present prosperitie like two walls meet upon the Head-stone of the corner depend both first upon the Name of the Lord and next upon him that in His name and with His name is come unto us that is the King So do both the Evangelists Saint Luke and Saint Iohn supplie and Luk. 19.38 Ioh. 12.13.15 where we read Blessed be he there they read Blessed be the King that commeth so that neither of them sure unlesse He be safe that He would blesse him and make him blest â—hat in His blessed Name is come amongst us The building will be as mount Sion Psal. 125.1 so 〈◊〉 corner stone be fast so the two walls that meet never fall asunder If otherwise 〈◊〉 I will not so much as put the case but as we pray so trust it shall never be remoâ—ed but stand fast for ever This then we all wish that are now in the House of the Lord and we that are of the â—â—use of the Lord do now and ever in the Temple and out of it morning and evening â—ight and day wish and pray both that He would continue forth His goodnesse and blâ—sse with length of dayes with strength of health with increase of all honour and happinesse with terror in the eyes of his enemies with grace in the eyes of his 〈◊〉 with whatsoever David or Salomon or any King that ever was happie was 〈◊〉 with Him that in the Name of the Lord is come to us and hath now these foure 〈◊〉 stayed with us that he may be blessed in that Name wherein he is come and 〈◊〉 the Lord in whose Name he is come many and many yeares yet to come And when we have put this incense in our phialls and bound this sacrifice with cords 〈◊〉 altar fast we blesse you and dismisse you to eat your bread with joy and to drinke 〈◊〉 â—ine with a cheerefull heart for GOD accepteth your worke your joy shall please 〈◊〉 this Hosanna shall sanctifie all the joy shall follow it To â—nd then This Day which the Lord hath thus made so mervailously so merâ—â—â—lously and mercifully let us reioyce in the Maker for the making of it by His doing on it that deed that is so mervâ—ilâ—â—s in our eyes in all eyes returning to the beginning of the Psalme Verse â— â— 3.4 and saying with the Prophet O give thankes to the Lord for he is gracious c. Lett Israel lett the house of Aaron yea lett all that feare the Lord confesse that His
they swerve not from Him touch Him 〈◊〉 continue with Him and He with them and so He will make them to contiâ—â—â— long â— am ledd to this because you shall see these three duely set upon every King's head 〈◊〉 all the story of the Bible â— Such a King was so many yeares old when he began his reigne there is his 〈◊〉 his Regnant his Dooâ—e of Entrance And then So many yeares he reigned in Ierusalem or Samaria there is his 〈◊〉 his diu regnant his Per of Line or continuance Then ever followes if you marke it either And he did well and walked in 〈◊〉 of his father David there is the manner his benè regnant his Rule or 〈◊〉 Or and he did evill in the sight of the LORD and turned not from the waies of 〈…〉 there is his obliquitiâ— out of rule himselfe and brought all out of rule with him This holds in all and in all will hold after they be once of of the stage 1. Regnant Per januâ— The entrance As it is Actus inâ— hoâ—or they reigne that is they come to the Crowne they beginne their reignes It is generally true that the maine frame of Government the first raising of it could be by none but this Per Me. But I insist on particulars rather Wherein eny that shall but weigh what difficulties what oppositions be raised what plotts and practizes to keepe Reges from regnant those from it whose of right it is shall be forced to confesse that even by Him they have their first entrance Take him that is next hand Salomon and he that shall marke Adonijah's plott drawing the High-Priest Aâ—iâ—thâ—r and the Generall of the field Ioab into a strong faction against him shall finde Salomon was bound to acknowledge that Per Me he came in Or if he will not Adonijah himselfe will he was forced to doe it That the kingdome was turned from him and was his brother's for it came unto him even Per Me by the LORD This confession of his is upon record 1. Reg. 2.15 And your Majestie was non ignara mali hujus was not altogether free from these It is English I speake Possibly from Ioab you were but not from Abiathar His Bulls they were abroad And some there were that could not enter by the doore but were clyming up another way Yet for all these you came to your reigne and you came by the right Per by the doore And this I know You are one of the number of those Kings that ascribe their regnant to this Per Me. This for Actus inchoatus Now they are in 2. Regnant diu Per lineae Their continuance But when they are in they may out againe soone enough when begunne end quickly if Per Me as he was the Cause procreant so He be not also the cause Conservant and make their reigne Actus Continuatus draw the line out along keepe and continue them for many yeares in it Regnant is true in the first instant One reignes if it be but a 1. Reg. 1â— 15 for a sevenight as Zomri reigned no longer But what is that Or what is it to reigne a Moneth as b 2 Reg. 15.13 Shallum or three as c 2 Reg. 23.11 Ioahaz or Six as d 2. Reg. 15.8 Zacharâ—as did Nothing The continuance propriè loquendo that is the reigne and Regnant without this Per is as good as nothing And the Text is for this The word in Hebrew is not Regnant in the Present doreigne but regnabunt in the Future shall reigne or continue reigning And so is the Praeposition Per for it too For Per addit durationem adds over a continuance where it is added as is evident by Persist Permanent Perdurable Perseverance Perpetuit And this now questionlesse depends upon GOD alone even their quick cutting of or their long preserving in their reignes He can draw the line longer or shorter draw it out still or snap it of He can take them from their reigne by the e Dan. 5.26 hand-writing on the wall MENE c. He can take it from them by f Iob. 12.18 Solvit baltheum Regam taking of their Collar and g Psal. 89 44. casting their throne downe to the ground He can call in a forreigne enemie stir up a seditious subject let loose the sea of popularitie in upon them unlawfully to doe it but to doe it though Many such things are with Him Now we are at the maine For heere comes all the danger there is such heaving and lifting at them after they be in such thrusting by force such undermining by fraud So many Per me 's Per Me Clement Castell Catesby and they againe so many Per's Per knives pistoll poyson powder all against this Per of continuance as be the former how it will they cannot but confesse heere that Per Me it is that they hold out their Reignes And heere fall's in kindly this daye 's designe and the visible Per Me that hapned on it Lament 3.22 For By Hâ—m it was and by His mercie that King and all were not quite consumed That your Reigne and your lift were not determined both together Not that you went not downe with David into the pitt Psal. 30.3 but that you went not up up into the ayre in I know not how many pieces and 〈◊〉 now after thus many yeares it is Regnant wâ—â—h you still And may iâ— be Per Me regnat so we all pray and not Per Me regnat onely but Per Me regâ—â—blâ— many times many yeares more I but 〈◊〉 in minde heere of what I told you right now It is In me in Hebrew not 〈◊〉 In Him not By Him though never so hard by Him for that is without Him 〈◊〉 even In Him and then they be safe And in Him You have reigned for He hath inclosed You as it were and compasâ—â— You on every side As in a fortresse strong hold or place of defense so have You 〈◊〉 in Him That as David oft calleth GOD so may You Your Rocke Psal. 18.2 Psal. 89 22. Your 〈◊〉 Your Sanctuarie of safe guard So that the enemie hath not been able to do you 〈◊〉 not the Sonne of wickednesse had power to hurt You. And yet there is more in this Regnabunt greater grace yet For Iam 4.6 For we may extend it yet further to a continuance not in themselves in their persons only but in their posâ—â—ritie too That when it shall cease with them and they in their graves yet it shall be â—â—gnabunt still and they reigne in their race and progeny when they have done reigning themselves This drawes out the Per longer for so reigne they many ages not their owne onely Kings in themselves Kings in their seed Reges à saeculo in saeculum from one generation to another By Saul and by David we may plainely see one thing it is to bring one to be King as Saul was another to establish the Kingdome in his line
turned away from your heads that is well not a haire fall from any of our heads But the same evill they devised be it turned upon their owne 〈◊〉 that were the devisers This is it and this is as much as the King could grant or 〈◊〉 Queene could desire Anâ— tâ—is â—ame is the lott of this day They imagined such a devise as they were neere the performing Psal. â—1 11 yet were not hable to performe The non-performance was well the scattering of 〈◊〉 imaginations we scaped by the meanes But further they were taken in their 〈…〉 and the evill they devised against us returned upon their owne heads their 〈…〉 both To Haman's end they came Nay to a worse then Haman's 〈◊〉 justly for their devise worse then his The place they meant to have done execution upon us in under the same place they 〈…〉 executed 〈◊〉 their eyes on whom their cruell bowells had no 〈…〉 The heads from which it came to have 〈…〉 the 〈…〉 blowen up their heads and so they be Agagites 〈…〉 plucked 〈…〉 rent in sunder so their meaning 〈…〉 ungodly from the Lord. 〈…〉 Their evill lott 〈…〉 the happy 〈…〉 our deliverance 〈◊〉 so we have done with Purim now For by this it is plaine 1 Ours was 〈◊〉 without meanes and so more lott-like 2 Ours was more miraculous in the 〈◊〉 and for all the world like a lott â— Ours was more neere brought in time and 〈◊〉 a lott drawen at the instant 4 Ours was beyond theirs in the avertatur For 〈◊〉 without sackcloth or ashes fasting or crying at all And in the coâ—vertatur for â—ur fowlers came to a fowler and then theirs and what would we more Neuer might David more truly say then we The lott is fallen to us in a faire ground Psal 16.6 The Lord hath â—aintained our lott This GOD hath drawen for us Shall we now draw for Him againe II. This lott to have a time of remembrance Exod. 20.8 and for this 〈◊〉 a lot allott Him somewhat of our part Memento is sett before the great and so â—â—fore all holy-dayes All He would draw from us is but that the lott of this day or tâ—e day of this lott may never be forgotten A benefitt would not be forgotten Not manâ— GOD 's much lesse Such a benefit especially For even in GOD 's there is a difference GOD hath his daily benefitts and those to be remembred of course But soâ—e other He hath so rare as the like never seene Those would have a more then ordiâ—â—â—ie regard For where GOD is extraordinarie we to be so too If He make it a memâ—rable day by some strange deliverie we to make it memorable by some rare acknowledgement They seeme willing so to do heere Illi sunt dies quos say they Ille est dies qâ—em may we say nulla unquam delebit oblivio and so let us say and so said and so done is as much as GOD requireth But our thankfulnesse is not to flie away like a flash of powder To fixe it then fiat volatile fixum that would be done And fixe it in eny â—hing els but time time will eat it out Best then fix it in time it selfe and that hath been ever thought a wise way so shall it roll about with the time and renew as it doth And so time which defaceth all things and bringeth them to forgetfulnesse shall be made to preserve the memorie of it whither it will or no. Fix it in time what part of time A day Memento diem saith GOD in His Law and so points us to the proâ—ortion of it Sett some day and let there then on that day be some speciall commemoâ—ation of it But that day or time is to be a sett day Fixe it in time but fixe the time too 2. A sett time or day The word of the Text 101 is an appointed day that comes once a yeare as Solenne is â—uod solum in anno Now this some will not heare of No sett dayes no appointed â—imes they but keep them in memorie all the yeare long I like not that For so â—hen time was it was said by some they would not have this day nor that day to fast 〈◊〉 but keep a continuall fast they and it seemed a prety speculation at first but proâ—â—d nothing but a speculation what their fast is come to by this time we see It is to 〈◊〉 doubted if other sett times were likewise taken away their continuall feast would â—â—ove to no better passe then their fast is Better be as it is and we do as GOD and 〈◊〉 people have done before us Provided that it shal be lawfull for them to keep the memorie of this day every day â—f they be so disposed So yet as they be content to allow some such Day as this for 〈◊〉 that are not of so happy memories for feare lest if it be left at large to every 〈◊〉 daily devotion it may fall to be forgotten and where it now hath one day then to 〈◊〉 none at all And if a sett time what day can we sett so fitt as the day it selfe it fell on 3. The day it fell on With 〈◊〉 the foureteenth of Adar with us the fifth of November It cannot but be the 〈◊〉 â—ay this that God tooke himselfe and God tooke this The same daâ—es He did 〈◊〉 actâ— upon those very dayes did He order once a yeare solemnly to be kept Levit. 23.5 〈◊〉 fâ—urâ—tâ—enth of Nisan did the Destroyer posse over them that day from yeare to 〈◊〉 did He ordein the Passover to be holden Fifty dayes after Levit. 23.16 He granted them his 〈…〉 â—eâ—orie of this gift they to keep yearly the day of Pentecost Can we go by 〈…〉 then this of God's 〈◊〉 〈…〉 were not all but God did as great acts after as these were for the sâ—m◠〈◊〉 They theâ— setting before them this way 〈◊〉 them out by GOD for â—uer◠〈…〉 a solemne day for â—â—ose other benefittâ— after vouchsafed them they 〈…〉 solemne 〈…〉 〈…〉 in this of 〈…〉 and the Prophetts never knew We 〈…〉 in another 〈…〉 or Mardochei never knew the Encaenia 〈◊〉 Feast of new dedicaâ—â—â—◠〈…〉 after it had been polluted by Antiochus recorded in the X. of the V. 〈…〉 And I would faine know why it should not be like acceptable to 〈…〉 keep the foureteenth of the last moneth Adar for their deliverance from Hamâ—◠〈…〉 in Persia as it was to keep the foureteenth of the first moneth Nisan fâ—or â—â—eir deliverance from Pharao by Moses in Aegypt Quid interest 〈…〉 being morall or rather naturall as reducible to thankfulnesse which is 〈…〉 the Law of Nature the prime example being God's owne By warrant of 〈…〉 fâ—rmâ—â— Church having institute others the Christian Church knew nothing to 〈◊〉 it from doing the like so Holy-dayes she appointed too It is Saint Augustine 〈…〉 Civitate X. 4. Memorâ—am beneficiorum Dei c. The memorie of God's benefitts we
then the shovell and the Spade crying out at the houre of death both of the uncertainty of their riches of the uncertainty of the estate of their soules too This point this is a point of speciall importance to be spoken of by me and to be thought of by you I would GOD you would take it many times when GOD shall move you into sad consideration With a great affection and no lesse great truth said Chrysostome that heaven and earth and all the creatures in them if they had teares they would shedd them in great abundance to see a great many of us so carelesse in this point as we be It is the hand of the LORD and it is His gracious hand if we could see it that He in this manner maketh the world to totter and reele under us that we might not stay and rest upon it where certainty and stedfastnesse we shall never find but in Him above where onely they are to be found For if riches being so brittle and unsteady as they be men are so mad upon them if GOD had setled them in any certenty what would they have done What poore man 's right what widowe's copie or what Orphane's legacie should have been free from us The Iâ—I Point Trust in God Well then if riches be uncertaine whereto shall we trust If not in them where then It is the third point Charge them that be rich in this world that they be not high-minded neither trust in the uncertenty of riches but that they trust in GOD. It is the third point of the Charge in generall and the first of the affirmative part and conteineth Partly a Homage to be done for our riches to GOD and that is trust in Him And partly a rent charge layd upon our riches which is doing good And indeed Psal. 37.5 no other then David had said before Trust in the Lord and be doing good Saint Paul will batter down and lay flat our Castle but he will erect us another wherein we may trust Yea indeed so as Salomon did before setteth up a tower against the tower the Tower of the righteous which is the Name of the LORD against the Rich man's tower Pro. 18.10 which is as you have heard before his riches In stead of the Worldling's saith which is to make money an article of his faith teacheth us the faith of a Christian which is to vouchsafe none but GOD that honour Even so doth the Apostle heer and that for great reason Nam qui vult securus sperare speret in Eo qui non potest perire He that will trust and be secure in his trust let him trust in Him who himselâ—e never failed and never faileth those that put their trust in him in whom is no uncertainty Iam. 1.17 no not so much as any shadow of uncertainty Trust in him by looking to Him first yer we admitt any els into our conceipt and by looking to Him last and not looking beyond him to any as if we had a safer or trustier then He. And that because he is the living GOD as if he should say That you phaâ—sie to your selves to trust in is a dead idoll and not a living GOD and if ever you come to any dangerous disease you shall find it is an idoll dead in it self not hable to give it selfe life much lesse to another not hable to ransome the bodie from the death â—uch lesse the soule from hers not hable to recover life when it is gone nay not hable to preserve life when it is present not to remove death nay not to remove sicknesse not any sicknesse not the gout from your feet not the palsie from your hanâ—s nay not so much as the ache from your teeth not hable to add one haire to your head nor one haire 's bredth to your stature nor one houre to your dayes nor one minute to the houres of your life This moath-eaten God as our Saviour CHRIST calleth it this canker-eaten God this God that must be kept under locke and key from a thiefe trust not in it for shame O let it be never said the living trust in the dead Trust in the living GOD that liveth himselfe nay that is life himselfe in His Sonne that was hable to quicken himselfe and is hable to quicken you of whose gift and inspiration you have already this life by whose daily spirit and visitation your soule is preserved in this life in this mortall and corruptible life and of whose grace and mercie we looke for our other immortall and aeternall life Who not onely liveth but also giveth you c A living and a giving God that is that liveth and that giveth of whose gift you have not onely your life and terme of yeares but even also your riches themselves the very hornes that you lift so high and wherwith unnaturally many times you push against Him that gave them He giveth for the earth was the Lord's and all that therein is Psal 24.1.115.16 Ag 2.9 till the earth he gave unto the children of men And silver and Gold were the Lord's till not by a casuall scattering but by his appointed giving not by chance but by gift He made them thine He gave them â—â—ou broughtest none of them with thee into the world thou camest naked He gave them and when He gave them He might have given them to thy brother of low estate and made thee stand and ask at his door as He hath made him now stand and ask at thine He giveth you riches you get them not it is not your own wisdome or travaile that getteth them but His grace and goodnesse that giveth them For you see many men of as great understanding and foresight as your selves want not onely riches but even bread It is not your travaile except the Lord had given them Eccle. 9.11 all the early up-rising and late downe-lying had been in vaine It is GOD that giveth make your recognisance it is so for feare lest if you denie Dominus dedit Iob 1.21 you come to affirme Dominus abstulit GOD teacheth it was He that gave them by taking them away This is Saint Paul's reason let us see how it serves his conclusion to the overthrow of our vaine pride and foolish trust in them If it be gift Si accepisti quid gloriaris 1. Cor 4.7 be not proud of it And if it be gift He that sent it can call for it again trust not in it Who giveth us all things c All things spirituall or corporall temporall or aeternall little or great from the least and so upward from the greatest and so downward from panem quotidianum a morsell of bread to Regnum coelorum the Kingdome of heaven He giveth us all even unto Himselfe yea He giveth us himselfe and all and more we cannot desire Why then if He give all all are Donatives all that we hold we hold in franck almoigne and no other tenure
avoid the danger of Pirates and the inconvenience of forâ—in Coine not currant at home it is the use of Merchants to pay it there to receive it â—eer Such a thing is there in this laying up We are heere as strangers the place where we wish our selves is our Countrey even Paradise if so be we send our carriage thither before if not I feare we intend some other place it is not our country When we shall take our way thither through the way of all flesh through death certainely we lose all he stripps every one he laies hold of and put case we could get through with all our baggs heer it is currant for it is the coine of the world but there it is base and goeth for nought what shall we then do Quare non facis why deale you not with exchange paying heer so much to have so much repaid you there Adires trapezitas you should goe to the Bankers who be those Cum quaesiveris when you have sought all Pauperes sunt campsores they be the poore Da pauperibus accipies thesaurum Where is our bill Quod vel quantum uni Who will repay it Ego resolvam Nec repetit mercedem sed dat mercedem What refuse you to take CHRIST 's bill If you dare trust your servants without feare of losing if you trust your Lord feare you to lose If them of whom you receive nothing but they of you what not Him of whom earst you professed to receive all things If CHRIST be of credit and heaven be not Vtopia if we thinke there is such a life after this we shall ever have to doe there Lay up heere Thinke it is a laying up Vpon the beleeving of this one word the weight of doing and not doing all the Text lyeth When we recount our good deeds we commonly say For him and for him we have done this and that It is true saith Saint Paul That good you doe you do for them and for your selves too but more for your selves then for them To lay up and to do good yea to others Nay to do your selves good to lay up for your selves Before you thought it scattering it was indeed laying up Now you thinke it is for them it is for you and your sakes GOD commandeth it GOD hath no need of you to feed the poore No need of the Widow to feed Elias He could still have fedd him by ravens and as he fed Elias by one so could he them by others or other meanes and never send them to Sarepta among you He could have created sufficient for all men or so few men as all should have been sufficient for them Deuâ— 15.11 He would not He ordered there should ever be poore in the land Why To prove them and to prove you by them that He which feedeth you might feed them by you that your superfluities might be their necessaries that they of their pâ—tience in wâ—nting and you of your liberalitie in supporting might both together of Him that made you both receive reward They with you in your bosomes there as heere a good sight in heaven and a good sight in earth For sure there shall never be a rich man in heaven without a Lazarus in his bosome Therefore we have need of them as they have need of us yet that we make theirs remaineth ours still It liketh the Holy Ghost as to terme our preaching our seed so to terme your wealth 2 Cor 9.6 your seed The seed the husbandman casts it the ground receives it Whose is it the ground 's No the husbandman's And though it be cast out of his hands and rott in the bowells of the earth and come to nothing and there becomes of it no man can tell what yet this compt he maketh it is his still and that every graine will bring him an eare at time of the yeare and so that he hath in casting it from him stored it up for himselfe Whereas in foolishly loving it as many do their wealth he might have stored it up for wormes and mustinesse and by that meanes indeed have lost it for altogether The seed is your almes The ground is the poore You are the Sowers When it is therefore sowen among them how it is spent or what becomes of it you know not yet this you know and may reckon that at the fulnesse of time at the harvest of the end of the world for everie graine of temporall contribution you shall receive an eare of aeternall retribution Whereas storing it up heer it may after your decease be stored for harlotts and gamesters and rioters in whose hands it shall corrupt and putrifie and your selves lose the fruit thereof for ever By this comparison you may know that when you are dealing for the poore it is your owne businesse you entend that not forgetting them you remember your selves pittying them you have pitie on your owne soules and that your labour shall not be in vaine in the Lord. 1. Cor. 15.58 Men use to reason with themselves it will not alwaies be health let us lay up for sicknesse it will not alway be youth for age and why not saith Saint Paul it will not alway be this life not alway present life lay up for your selves against the life to come In this place heere we shall not be alwaies but in another of our aeternall abode This time that is will not be alwaies but such a time will come as in which that we call a thousand yeares shall be no more then a day now Psal. 90 4. That place and that time would be thought of and good wisedome it will be for a man to forget what he is and to weigh what he shall be Surely for any present matter GOD did not make us Sed ad nescio quid aliud to some further matter yet to come Not yet present as yet in promise not yet in performance as yet in hoâ—e not in possession I know that even in this place the Lord doth reward and sheweth us plainely that Date and Dabitur are two twinnes We our selves have by good tryall found it true when our carefull Date and provision for the poore last yeare save one was requited in presenti with a great Dabitur of the last yeare 's encrease But this is but an Etcaetera making nothing to the maine promise which is to come Luk 6 24. which our SAVIOVR would never have out of our eye Habetis hÃc heere you have your comfort Habete illic have it there too for heere you cannot ever have it For the present time you have officers and servants to wait on you in the time to come none will accompanie you all will leave you when to the grave they have brought you save mercie onely none will wait or make roome but opera eorum your workes which you have heere layd up for the time to come The Scripture speaketh of this life and all the faelicitie therein
that this nipping at this Name of CHRIST is for no other reason but that we may have some honour our selves out of our righteousnesse Bellarmine doth disclose as much and doth not sticke in plaine termes to avow it For in answere to that argument which is alledged by us that after we are acquitt of our sinnes at this barre and that onely for Christ our onely righteousnesse we are received into GOD'S favour and made his Children by adoption and then have heaven by way of inheritance He answereth directly Their meaning is not to content themselves with that single title of inheritance but they meane to lay claime to it duplici iure That is not onely titulo haereditatis De Iustifi 5 3. but iure mercedis too And thereof he giveth this reason Quoniam mâ—gis honorificum est habere aliquid ex merito For that it is more for their honour to have it by merit For so saith he CHRIST had it and they must not behinde him but goe even as farre as He did So that it seemeth He is resolved that rather then they will lose their honour CHRIST must part with a peece of His Name and be named Iustitia nostra onely in the latter sense Which is it the Prophet after in the twenty seventh Verse of this Chapter setteth downe as a marke of false Prophetts that by having a pleasant dreame of their owne righteousnesse they make GOD'S people to forget His Name As indeed by this meanes this part of CHRIST 's Name hath been forgotten And so much doth Pighius confesse Dissimulare non possumus hanc vel primam doctrinae Christianae parâ—â—â— obscuratam quà m 〈…〉 magis â scholasticÃs spinosis plerisque questionibus that this being the very chiefe part of Christian doctrine hath rather beene obscured then received any light by the Schoolmen's questions and handling of it As much to say as they had made the people in a manner to forget this Name 2. Our Benefit Now as to call Him by this Name is a Dutie so to call him by it is an Vse likewise and a Benefit there is which we receive by it For calling Him by that Name which GOD hath prescribed and which therfore is to him most acceptable we shall not doe it for nought for he will answere us answere us and answere for us for us as an Advocate in our Cause So calleth Ezekias to him Domine vim patior responde pro me Esa. 38.14 So King David reposeth himselfe Thou shalt answere for me O Lord my God Psa. 38.15 And this shall he in all things wherein we shall need him but above all in that which concerneth his name in particular to be our righteousnesse against sinne and that before the righteous judge And even so doth Ieremie teach us to pray unto him O Lord our misdeeds testifie against us Chap. 14.9 yet deale thou with us according to thy Name Which is Iehova iustitia nostra In Thy Name we are justified deale Thou with us according to Thy Name and justifie us 1. Cor. 6.11 Our sinnes are forgiven for thy Name 's sake Deale Thou with us according to thy Name and forgive us our sinnes Et noli ita reminisci peccatum nostrum ut velis propterea oblivisci Nomen tuum Let not the remembrance of our sins make thee forget thine owne Name And this if we doe thus if we call on him Fidelis iustus est He is faithfull saith Saint Iohn and just to forgive as our sinnes 1. Ioh. 1.9 to justifie us and to be our righteousnesse For so is his Name and he beareth not his Name for nought And this if we doe and if he be our Righteousnesse as we may say in respect of his other Name with the Prophet â—ooke Thou upon us and be mercifull unto us as thou usest to doe unto those that love Thy Name so may we in respect of this goe further and safely say Esto Iustata Psal. 119.132 fac iustitiam esto iustitia intra in iudicium cum Servo tuo For with this Advocate with this Righteousnesse with this Name we may without feare appeare before the King executing iudgement and iustice So for that dutie which we are bound to acknowledge we have this benefit which we shall be sure to receive the greatest benefit that can be received for importance in it self and the greatest in respect of the most dreadfull place and time wherein we shall need â—o receive it wherin heaven and earth and all in them shall not be hable to stand us in stead but IEHOVA our Righteousnesse only And this is the view of his Name wherby we are to call him as well for our dutie to it as for our benefit by it which is that the Prophet by his Ecce willeth us to behold and the summe of this Scripture A SERMON PREACHED AT WHITE-HALL upon the XV of November AN. DOM. MDCI. MAT. CHAP. XXII VER XXI Reddite ergo quae sunt Caesaris Caesari quae sunt Dei Deo Give therefore to Caesar the things which are Caesar's and to GOD those things which are GOD's WHich XXII of Matthew in effect is nothing els but a Chapter of Controversies with the Seducee Ver. 23. with the Pharisee Ver. 22. with the Scribe Ver. 34. and heere with the Herodian Wiâ—h the Saducees of the Resurrection Wiâ—h the Pharisees of the great Commandement With the Scribes of the Messias All worthy to be weighed and all at other times commended by the Church to our consideration This heere in this The Herodian was a Politique and his question according about a secular point Licetne solvere The case standeth not in this as it did in the other The Pharisees and Saducees had no further end but to set him on ground and so to expose him to the contempt of the people The Herodians had laid a more daÌ„gerous plot they came with 〈…〉 saith Saint Luke 〈◊〉 2â— 2â— Vt caperent cum c to catch him by catching someâ—hat from him whereby they might lay him fast and draw him withi◠〈◊〉 of the state It stood our Saviour upon to be well advisâ—◠〈◊〉 â—â—cape this sâ—are thiâ—â—â—ayd for him which accordingly He doth leaving them in a 〈◊〉 and withall under one leaving us a patterne that he is no 〈◊〉 but a friend to Caesar and a friend in this speciall point of his 〈◊〉 That there is no duty no not in this kind but Christ saith of it Reddite willeth and commaundeth it to be Rendred That so kâ—â—wing what CHâ—ISâ— held we may make it our Tenet and both 〈…〉 in opinioâ— and hold us to it in practise for ever At or about the birth of CHRIST this came to be first a question anâ— so from thence still remained So that it was very meere Christ should resolve it Luc. 2.1 At his birth was the great Taxâ— of the world under Augustuâ— which being a new imposition and never
both of them may joyntly be performed That as God's Law supporteth the Laâ— of Nations So doth Christ plead for Caesar His Religion for Caesar's allegiance His Gospell for Caesar's duty even to a penny It was but a penny waâ— shewed Not so much as a penny of Caesar's but Christ will speake he may have it This against the Gaulonite that stepps over Quae Caesaris the first part and is all for Quae Dei the latter And against the Herodian too by whom Quae Caesaris is stood on alone and Quâ— Dei slipped over Two duties are set forth there is a like regard to be had of both that we make not Christ's answere serve for either alone I know not how an evill use hath possessed the world Commonly oâ—e duâ—y in singled out and much made of without heed had of the otheâ— Quae Caesaris audibly and with full voice Quae Dei drowned and scarse heard And it is not in this alone but in many others We cannot raise the price of one vertue but vve must crye downe all the rest Not canoniâ—e Preaching but Prayer must grovv out of request Not possible to bring up Almes and workes of mercie but Offerings and workes of devotion must be layd downe But by sale of Christ's ointment no vvay to provide for the poore Sensible in others and in this too dull GOD is not entire thinks the Gaulonite unlesse Caesar's image and superscription be blotted out Caesar hath not enough till GOD have nothing left thinkes the Herodian CHRIST'S course is the best to hold the meane betvveene both Either to be preserved in his right Not to looke so much on one as we lose sight of the other Not to give so good an eare to one as we care not though the other be never spoken of GOD hath coupled them heere and since GOD hath coupled them let not man sever them To Caesar and to GOD Not to Caesar onely but to Caesar and GOD. And againe not to GOD onely but to GOD and Caesar. Caesar and GOD then will stand togither Descend yet one degree further we may put the Case harder yet For I demaund What Caesar was this for whose interest CHRIST heere pleadeth To quicken this point somewhat more It is certaine it was Tiberius even he under whom our Saviour was and knew he was to be put to death A stranger from Israel A heathen man uncircumcised an idolater and enemie to the Truth So were Augustus and the rest you will say But even in morall goodnesse he nothing so good as they The Roman stories are in every mans hand Men know he was far from a good Prince of good man either as good went even among the heathen Yet even this Caesar and such as he any Caesar will stand with GOD and God with them for all that Not onely to Caesar but to this and such as this Reddite saith Christ Solvite saith Paul Subiecti estote saith Peter for all that So was the old Divinitie Though an evill Spirit sent from God vexe Saul Rom. 13.7 1. Pet. 2.13 1. Sam. 26.9 1. Chro. 16.22 yet saith David destroy not it is his word Nay Touch not the Lord 's Annointed Though Nabuchadnezar set up a great Idoll in the field Dura and Balthazar his sonne rather worse then his Father yet Dan. 3.1 Dan 5. Batuc 1.11 Pray for Nabucadnezar saith Ieremie and for Balthazar his sonne and for the peace even of that State From these examples might Iudas of Galile have taken his directions Christ did and his Apostles after him willed duties to be paid and obedience to be yielded and yielded it themselves to such Caesars as Claudius Caligula and Nero Dyscolis Dominis as Saint Peter's terme is if ever there were any Which sheweth they were all of minde 1. Pet. 2.18 that Caesar though no better then these and GOD will stand togither well enough Yea that though Caesar gave not GOD His due as these did not certainly yet are we to give Caesar that his is notwithstanding I know we all know if this Caesar be Constantine or Theodosius the câ—se is much the stronger and the duty toucheth us neerer But whiâ—her â—e be or no â—om 13.1 the Powers thâ—t aâ—e are ordeined of GOD though Tiberiâ—â— or Nero have the Powâ—r Râ—m 13.2 It is not the man it is the ordinance of GOD we owe and pâ—rforme our subjection to We yield it not to Tiberius but to Caesar and Caesar is God's ordinance be Tiberius what he will This for the consorting of GOD and Caesar and even of this Caesar. II. Certain things Caesar's Certain thing â—od's That point established we come to the second out of these words quae Caesaris quae Dei. This may we inferre That among the things we have we all and every of us have certaine things of Caesar's and certain other things of God's That all the things we have are not our own inasmuch as out of them there belong somethings to either of these It is as if CHRIST would make all we have not to be fully and wholy ours but three persons to be interessed in them Caesar to have a right to some GOD to other some and the remainder onely cleerly to be ours Weigh the words Quae Dei So that his meaning is every man should thus make accompt with himselfe of that he hath that there is in his hands somewhat that pertaineth to either of these two That there is in our substance a portion whereto they have as good right and title as we to the rest That what we have is ours GOD'S part and Caesar's part first deducted Quae Dei Quae Caesaris it is the case possessive doe carry thus much Therefore saith the true Israelite when he tendereth his offering to GOD Sustuli quod Sanctum est e'domo meâ I had a holy portion due to GOD amongst my goods Deut. 26.13 I have severed it from the rest I have brought it and layd it upon the Altar So they in 1. Sam 10. to Saul their lawfull Magistrate presented that was his They that did so 1. Sam. 10.26 â—7 Tetigit Deus cor eorum GOD had touched their hearts Consequently in their hearts that did it not there was the print of the Devill 's claws not the touch of the finger of GOD. This may serve for the second of the duety for we shall strike the same neyle home in the third of Reddite III. These to be rendred For from this right thus imported in the words Quae Caesaris quae dei without any streigning naturally doth follow the Reâ—dite That theirs it is and so being theirs to be payd them Not of courtesie but of duty Not as a free largesse but as a due debt Nor Date but Reddite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As if our Saviour should say you aske me whither it be â—awfull to pay I tell you it is as lavvfull to pay it as it is
Merit signifies in Saint Augustine's sense no dignity of work but only a meanes of obtaining For it is impossible that evill merit that is sinne out of the dignity of the work should merit grace and by the same proportion and forme of speech it is as impossible that the dignity of the work should merit a crowne since Saint Augustine in the same place doth say There would be none unto whom GOD the just Iudge redderet coronam should render a crowne unlesse first as a mercifull Father donâsset gratiam He had given His grace And then He adds Dona sua coronat Deus non merita tua GOD crownes not thy merit but His owne gifts His reason is for if they be such that is thine they are evill and if they be evill GOD crownes them not if they be good they are GOD 's gifts and he crownes them not as thy merits but as his owne gifts Cap. 7. But I have troubled you too long with this Schoole-doctrine and pulpit-divinitie of magnifying mans merits before men since their death-bed-divinitie recants it all and then they are all forced learned and ignorant utterly to renounce it and put all their trust in CHRIST 's mercy and merits as their sure Anchor-head Of which I have onely this to say that merit may have some place in their science but their owne consciences unlesse they be seared tells them there is no true merit but CHRIST 's onely I have now done with my Text Applicatio and now I apply my selfe and my Text to the present Text that lies before us Vir nec silendus nec dicendus sine curâ A man whose worth may not be passed over in silence whom all ages with us may celebrate and admite nor to be spoken of without great care and study Of whom I can say nothing but his worth and vertues will farre exceed all mens words Heere I desire neither the tongue of man nor Angells if it were lawfull I should wish no other but his owne tongue and pen Ipse ipse quem loquar loquatur let him speake of himselfe none so fitt as himselfe was of whom I am to speake this day Et jam loquitur And he now speakes He speakes in his learned Workes and Sermons and he speakes in his life and workes of mercy and he speakes in his death And what he taught in his life and works he taught and expressed in his death He is the great Actor and performer I but the poore cryer Vox clamantis He was the Vox clamans he was the loud and great crying Voice I am but the poore Eccho and it is well with me if as an Eccho of his large and learned bookes and workes I onely repeate a few of the last words No man can blame me if I commend him at his death whose whole life was every way commendable Iustus sine mendacio candor apud bonos crimini non est Iust commendation without flattery is no fault in the opinion of the best men And the ancient custome of the Church did celebrate the memories of holy men to the praise of GOD that gave such eminent graces to them and to stirre up others by their example to the Imitation of their vertues I speake my knowledge of him in many things I loved and honored him for above thirtie yeares space I loved him I confesse but yet Iudicio meo non obstat Amor qui ex Iudicio natus est My love doth not blind or outsway my Iudgement because it proceeded from Iudgement Of whom what can I say lesse then that he was vitâ innocentissimus Ingenio florentissimus proposito sanctissimus In his life most innocent in his knowledge and learning most florishing and eminent and in his purpose and life most holy and devout whose carriage was so happy Quem nemo vituperat nisi etiam laudet no man could ever discommend him but will he nill he he must withall commend him And no mans words were ever able to disgrace him Vera necesse est benedicat falsam vita morésque superant They that spake truth of him could not but speake well of him and if they spake falsely of him his life and manners did confute them And if this Text were ever fully applied in any I presume it was in him for he was totus in his sacrificijs he wholly spent himselfe and his studies and estate in these sacrifices in prayer and the praise of GOD and compassion and workes of charitie as if he had minded nothing els all his life long but this to offer himselfe his soule and body a contrite and broken heart a pitifull and compassionate heart and a thankfull and gratefull heart a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to GOD by IESVS CHRIST which is our reasonable service of Him He was borne in this Citie of LONDON of honest and godly Parents who besides his breeding in learning left him a sufficient patrimony and inheritance which is descended to his heire at Rawreth in Essex It is true Senum vita composita the lives of old men many times are orderly and well composed and disposed and stayed whereas in youth many things that are in true judgement not altogether decent are not so indecent in them but that they well enough become their younger yeares In this he was happy Hujus vita composita à pueritiâ His life was well composed and ordered even from his child-hood I may well say of him as the Prophet doth Bonum est portare Iugum Domini ab Adolescentiâ herein was his happinesse that he tooke up and did stoutly beare the yoke of the Lord even from his youth In his tenderest yeares he shewed such readinesse and sharpnesse of witt and capacitie that his teachers and Masters foresaw in him that he would prove Lumen literarum literatorum The burning and shining Candle of all learning and learned men And therefore those two first Masters that had the care of the first elements of his learning Master Ward of Ratcliffe and Mâ—ster Mulcaster of the Merchant-Taylor's Schoole contended for him who should have the honour of his breeding that afrer became the honour of their Schooles and all learning Master Ward first obtained of his parents that he should not be a prentise and at length Master Mulcaster got him to his schoole And from this time perit omne tempus quod studijs non impenditur he accounted all that time lost that he spent not in his studies wherein in learning he outstript all his aequalls and his indefatigable industrie had almost outstript himselfe He studied so hard when others played that if his Parents and Masters had not forced him to play with them also all the play had been marred His late studying by candle and early rising at foure in the morning procured him envie among his aequalls yea with the Vshers also because he called them up too soone Not like to our moderne scholars qui nondum hesternam edormiverunt
This is the way the right way walke in it And in this way our guiding must be mild and gentle Els it is not Duxisti but traxisti drawing and driving and no leading Leni spiritu non durâ manu rather by an inward sweet influence to be led then by an outward extreme violence to be forced forward So did God lead this people heer Not the greatest pace I wis for they were a yeare marching that Deut. 1.2 Exod. 13 18. they might have posted in eleven dayes as Moses saith No not yet the neerest way neither as Moses telleth us For He fetched a compasse diverse times as all wise Governors by His example must doe that desire rather safely to lead then hastilie to drive forward The Spirit of God leadeth this people saith Esai as a horse is ridden downe the hill into a valley Es. 69. â—â— which must not be a gaâ—opp lest horse and ruler both come downe one over another but warily and easily And sicut oves still giveth us light seeing the text compareth it to a sheepe gate Touching which kinde of Cattell to very good purpose Iacob a skilfull shepheard answereth Esau who would have had Iacob and his flocks have kept company with him in his hunting pace Nay not so Sir said Iacob it is a tender cattell Gen 33.13 that is under my hands and must be softly driven as they may endure if one should over-drive them but one day they would all dâ—e or be layd up for many daies after Indeed 1. Reg. 10.11 Rehoboam left ten parts of his flocke behind onely for ignorance of this very point in Duxisti For when in boysterous manner he chased them before him telling them what yoâ—es he would make for them a farre unmeet occupation for a Prince to be a yokemaker they all shrunk from him presently and falsified his prophecie cleane For wherâ—as he told them sadly His little finger should be as bigg as his Fathers whole body it fell out cleane contrarie for his whole body prooved not so bigg as his Fathers little finger A gentle leading it must be and in the beginning such was the course Therfore yee have the Kings of Canaan in Genesis for the most part called by the name of Abimelech that is Pater Rex a King in place a Father in affection Such was Mâ—ses our leader heer a meeke man above all the men on the earth Num. 12.3 Such was David himselfe who full bitterly complaineth Ah these sonnes of Zervia are too hard 2. Sam. 3.39 too full of execution for me And to end this point thus describeth he his good Prince in the 72. Psalme He shall come downe not like hail-stones on a house top Psal. 72.6 but like the dew into a flecce of wooll that is sweetly and mildly without any noyse or violence at all Last of all All this reducing and right leading and gentle leading must end in an end they must not goe and go still in infinitum that is no leading but trying outright Psa. 23.2 It must be sicut oves whom the good Shepheard in the 23. Psal. leadeth to a place and to a place meet for them where there is green pasture by the waters of comfort So was it in this people heer They were led out of Aegypt to sacrifice to GOD and to learne His Law in the mount of GOD Sinai and from thence also to Sion it selfe His owne rest and holy habitation And even so our people are led from the wandrings of this world unto the folds of GOD 's Church where as the Prophet saith in the 73. Psalme first GOD will a while guide them with His counseile and after will receive them into His glorie Psa. 73.24 And this is the end of all leading To bring us all from the vaine proffers of the world which we shall all finde as Salomon found it vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas to the sound comfort of His word in this Booke Eccles 1.2 which is indeed veritas veritatum omnia veritas in the knowledge and practice whereof when they shall have fulfilled their course heer GOD will bring them to His owne rest to His heavenly Ierusalem where is and ever shal be faelicitas faelicitatum omnia faelicitas But in this life heer we come no further then the borders of His Sanctuarie as he telleth us in the next Psal. in the way whereof if GOD lead us constanter constantly Psal. 78.54 not after our wanton manner out and in when we list all the other inferiour leadings shall acompanie this one For this leading leadeth them all He shall lead our Counselors that they shall advise the counseiles of his owne heart He shall lead our Iudges that they shall pronounce the judgements of His owne mouth He shall lead our forces into Edom the strong cities and holds of the enemie He shall lead our navie in the sea by unknowne pathes to the place it would goe and I can say no more Through all the dreads and dangers of the world through the perills of the red sea through the perills of the desert through the malice of all our enimies He shall safely lead us and sureâ—y bring us to His promised kingdome where we shall see the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living And this is the benefit Psal. 27.17 and thus much for that part The third part Popalum tuum The value of which benefit we shall the better esteeme if we consider the state of the Parties on whom it is bestowed set downe in these words Populum tuum which is the third part Populum Deut. 32.6 That all this good is for the people worthy not so much as the least part of it For what is the people Let Moses speake for he knew them Siccine popule stulte insipiens And Aaron too for he had occasion to trie them This people is even set on mischiefe Exod. 32.22 Psal. 68 3â— Exod. 32.9.33 3. And if you will David also Inter Belluas populorum And to conclude GOD Himselfe Populus iste durae cervicis est This is the people We may breefly take a view of all these Act. 19.32 Will you see the folly and giddinesse of this multitude ye may Act. 19. there they be at the Towne-house some crying one thing some another and the more part knew not why they were come togither Therefore Moses truly sayd it was a fond and giddy-headed people Will yee see the brutishnesse of the people In the 22. Acts you shall see them taking up a crie Act. 22.23 upon a word spoken by Saint Paule and casting of their clothes and throwing dust into the ayre as if they were quite decayed of reason that David truly might say inter belluas populorum Will ye see the spight and malice of the people In the 16. Numbers for Coreh's death they challenge Moses and Aaron Num. 16.41 yee
have persecuted and killed the people of the Lord. Yet neither did Moses once touch them but GOD Himselfe from heaven by visible judgement shewed them to be as they were Neither were Coreh and his crew the people of GOD but the sonnes of Belial But that is their manner in despight of Moses if for ought they like him not presently to canonize Coreh and his complices and make them the Saints of GOD. That Aaron said truly of them This people is even set on mischiefe Lastly if ye will see their head-strongnesse look upon them in the eighth of the 1. of Samuci where having phansied to themselves an alteration of estate 1. Sam. 8.19 20. though they were shewed plainly by Samuel the sundry inconveniences of the government they so affected they answer him with No for that is their Logique to deny the conclusion but we wil be like other countreys about us and be guided as we thinke good our owne selves That of all other GOD 's saying is most true It is a stifnecked and â—ead strong generation And yet for all these wants so well weening of themselves as they need no leading they every one among them is meet to be a leader to prescribe Moses and controll Aaron in their proceedings So that where GOD setteth the sentence thus Thou leaddest thy people like sheepe by the hands of Moses Aaron might they have their wills they would take the sentence by the end and turne it thus Thou leaddest Moses Aaron like sheepe by the hands of thy people And this is the people Populus Tuum And surely no evill can be sayd too much of this word people if ye take it apart by it selfe Populus without Tuus The people and not Thâ— people But then heer is amends for all the evill before in this word Tuus Which qualifieth the former and maketh them capable of any blessing or benefit A common thing in Scripture it is thus to delay one word with another Mat. 18.15 Si peccaveriâ— in re frater tuus Peccaverit stirres our choler streight but then Frater makes us hold our hand againe Tolle festucam ex oculo Festucam a mote Luc. 6.41.42 our zeale is kindled presently to remove it but then Ex oculo the tendernesse of the part tempers us and teacheth us to deale with it in great discretion And so it is heer Populus so un-ruly a rout as Moses and Aaron would disdaine once to touch them but when Tuus is added it will make any of them not onely to touch them but to take them by the hand For it is much that lieth upon this pronoune Tuus indeed all lieth upon it and put me Tuus out of the verse and neither GOD respecteth them nor vouchsafeth them either Moses to governe or Aaron to teach or any heavenly benefit els For Populus is unworthy of them all But for Tuus nothing is too good For there is in Tuus Not onely that they be men and not beasts Freemen and not villains Athenians or Englishmen that is a civill not a baâ—barous people the three considerations of the heathen Ruler but that they be GOD 's owne people and flock and that is all in all Hiâ— people because He made them and so the lot of His inheritance Psal. 1â—0 3 His pâ—ople againe because He redeemed them from Aegypt with His mightie arme Verse 15. and so His peculiar people His people the third time because He redeemed their soules by His suffâ—rings and so a people purchased most dearly purchased even with the invaluable high price of His most precious bloud This is that that sets the price on them 1. Pet. 1.9 For over sâ—ch a flock so highly priced so deerly beloved and so deerly bought it may well beseem any to be a Guide Moses with all his learning Aaron with all his eloquence yea even Kings to be their foster-Fathers and Queens to be their Nourses No leading No leadâ—r too good for them Esai 42 2â— I conclude with Saint Augustine upon these words Quamdiu minimis istis fecistis fratribus meis fecistis mihi Audis minimis saith he contemnis Thou hearest they be the base people the minims of the worlâ— and thou settest thy foote on them Audi et fratribus Take this with thee too that they be CHRIST 's brethren thou leadest Et mihi crede non est minima gloria horum minimorum salus And trust me it is no poor praise to protect this poorâ— flocke but a high seâ—vice it is and shal be highly rewarded CHRIST will take and reward it as done to Himselfe in person Sicut Oves standeth doubtfull in the Verse and may be referred Sicut oves either to the manner of leading thus Thou leadest like sheepe Or to the persons ledd thus Thy people like sheepe There â—e touched it before in Duxisti in every of the foure manners of leading and here now we take it in againe with the people to whom it may have reference And indeed there is no terme that the HOLY GHOST more often sendeth for then this of His flocke to expresse his people by for in the estate of a flocke they may best see themselves As heer it is added respectively to Duxisti to let them see both what interest they have in it and what need they have of it I meane of government Lo-ammi First as a note of difference betweene Ammi and Lo-ammi Thy People and The People GOD 's People and strange children Every People is not Sicut Oves nor every one among the People Psal. 32.9 There is a People as the Psalmist speakes Sicut Equus Mulus like the untamed Horse or Mule in whom is no understanding And among the people there be too many such Surely by nature we are all so wilde and unbroken Iob. 11.12 as the Asse colt saith Iob. Which wildnesse of nature when they are untaught and taught to submit themselves to government to become gentle and easie to be led Sicut Oves led to feeding led to shearing to feede those that feed them tractable of nature and profitable of yeeld It is a good degree and a great worke is performed on them For by it as by the first step they become GOD 's people For His people are populus sicut Oves and they that are not His are populus sicut Hirci a people like Hee-Goates in nature intractable in use unseruiceable Now being Hâ—s people they come to have an interest in Duxisti the benefite For populus siâ—ut ovâ—s must be led gently but populus sicut hirci must be driven forcibly Duxisti is not for both It is a priviledge And if there be any retaine their wild nature or degenerate from sheepe into goates as diverse do daily for them Aaron hath a rod to sever them from the fold by censure of the Church And if that will not serve Moses hath another which he can