many praiers vnto him shew much loue with our mouthes but when it commeth to this hand-loue then our hearts goe after covetousnesse Ezek. 33.31 we loue that the bread of life should dwell plenteously amongst vs but very sparingly deale our bread to the hungry we can continue in breaking of bread at Gods table but care not for breaking our bread to his people we can sing lustily with a good courage but not giue cheerefully which God loveth we can perhaps fast and afflict our soules but that is not in much vse with vs but wee cannot refresh the bowels of Gods poore people wee rather make them fast and afflict their soules in a word wee are forwarder to shew our religion and loue to Gods name any way then this way The old people of the Iewes were very strict in all other fruits of their religion they sought God dayly and delighted to know his wayes as a nation that did righteously and forsooke not the ordinances of their God they asked of God the ordinances of justice they tooke delight in approaching to God they fasted they afflicted their soules and thought these such high points of piety that they quarrelled with God for not regarding of them VVherefore haue we fasted say they and thou seest not wherefore haue we afflicted our soule and thou takest no knowledge but all this religion and devotion was in vaine without the workes of Charity Is not this the fast that I haue chosen to loose the bands of wickednesse to vndoe the heavy burdens and to let the oppressed go free and that ye breake every yoake Is it not to deale thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poore that are cast out to thine house when thou seest the naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy selfe from thine owne flesh Isa 58.2.3.5.6.7 That of St Basile in an Homily against the vnmercifull rich men of his time is very appliable to ours I haue knowne them that haue fasted that haue prayed that haue sighed and groaned and in a word haue exercised and practised all the workes of piety that would cost them nothing but would not bestow one halfe-penny on the poore what profit had they of all their other vertue It was excellently sayd of Leo in his sermon de apparit the vertue of mercy is so great that without it the rest though they be present cannot profit for although a man be faithfull and chast and sober and adorned with other excellent gifts yet if he be not mercifull he shall not obtaine mercy But on every side we may finde Iudasses that care not for the poore nay care not so much as for a shew of caring for the poore which was in him this ointment might haue beene sold for three hundred pence and giuen to the poore Iohn 12.5.6 Churlish Nabals that being moved to a worke of mercy can roare out shall I take my bread and my water and my flesh that I haue killed for my shearers and giue it to men whom I know not whence they bee 1. Sam. 25.11 Their hearts even in this respect are stony insensible of others miseries the bowels of compassion are shut vp in thē as strately as the gates of Iericho were Ios 7.1 their eyes are evill and cannot indure to see another eate of their morsels their hands are withered like the mans in the Gospell Luke 6. so that they cannot open and stretch them out to their poore brother Let Lazarus lie and cry and dye at their gates they will pitty him lesse then their dogges with Cain they will be no keepers of their brethren Gen. 4. Let Gods ministers serue at the Altar and cry with the children of the Prophets mors est in olla death is in the potte 2. Kings 4.40 for their poore maintenance they will not receiue them nor giue them a cuppe of cold water in the name of a Prophet The Lord hath neede of them Matt. 21.3 is no plea with them to make them part with an Asse or the foale of an Asse or the hoofe of an Asse for Gods service Let them haue enough in store for themselues lie vpon their beds of Ivory stretch themselues vpon their coaches eate the lambes out of the flocke and the calues out of the midst of the stall drinke wine in boules and annoint themselues with chiefe oyntment and they will not grieue for the affliction of Ioseph Am. 6.4.5.6 they will haue no compassion on the multitude that haue nothing to eate Mar. 8.2 Lord lay not this sin of vnmercifulnesse to the charge of this age of ours and stirre vs vp in our places and according to our powers to shew mercy here that wee may finde it in the great day of the Lord IESVS Amen FINIS
DORCAS OR A PERFECT PATTERNE OF A TRUE DISCIPLE A Sermon Preached by Bartholomew Parsons B. of Divinity and Rector of Ludgershall in the County of Wilts Ioh. 15.8 Herein is my Father glorified that yee beare much fruit so shall yee be my Disciples Prov. 31.20 Shee stretcheth out her hand to the poore yea shee reacheth forth her hands to the needy OXFORD Printed by William Turner Printer to the famous Vniversity 1631. TO THE HONOVRED MY LOVING FRIEND St FRANCIS PILE BARONET WORTHY SIR HOly Iob being about to vttter a divine meditation concerning the future resurrection cryeth out Oh that my words were written now Oh that they were printed in a Booke Iob. 19.23 And you of late being the Principall Auditor where according to the gift giuen to me J vttered this following Meditation conceived vpon an excellent patterne in my Text both of good workes in generall and of Almes-deeds in speciall the best of workes which shall be remembred and rewarded at the last resurrection afore and aboue all other workes walked in the same Spirit with that righteous man in desiring that these same words might be written vnto you and not vanish away in the houre and aire wherein they were vttered J haue therefore transcribed this copy and doe willingly and deseruedly Dedicate to your selfe this piece of my labours And so much the rather J present it to you because as face answereth to face in water Prov. 27.19 so both your selfe your worthy Lady answere fully to this face of charity and almes-doing represented here to you in this Disciple Dorcas in the sowing plentifully and solemnly at the set times weekely the seede of your almes at your gates to the poore round about yuo which J write not out of any flattery from which both by nature and conscience J am averse but as Paul said of the Macedonians in alike case 2. Cor. 8.1.3 to beare witnesse of the grace of God bestowed on you both who are mette together in another Cornelius and Dorcas abounding in this worke of the Lord. As you haue therfore worthily begunne so happily goe on in sowing the seed of your almes plentiously that you may reape plentiously in the day of the Lord. For though you seeme to the world to cast your bread vpon the waters where it is lost yet after many dayes you shall finde it againe even in the great day of the Lord. The poore may say vnto thee that I in receiving of Almes giue no lesse vnto thee then thou in bestowing them giuest vnto mee For if there were not some to receiue thine Almes thou couldest not giue earth and receiue heaven as St Austin sayth And in the meane season God that is rich to all will so blesse your basket and your store that alwayes hauing sufficiencie in all things you may still abound in this worke For as St Chrysostome sayth Almes-doing maketh not any man poore but enricheth him for it is promised giue and it shall be giuen you and againe that thou mai'st be rich giue thy goods liberally that thou mai'st gather scatter follow the sower sow in blessings that thou mai'st reape in blessings in his 53. and 68. Homilie to the people of Antioch Now the God of Heaven blesse You and your worthy Lady not onely with the blessings of Heaven aboue and Earth beneath but also with all Spirituall blessings in Christ Jesus that when you haue finished your course happily in this world you may raigne eternally in the World to come So wisheth Your Servant in our Master Christ Iesus BARTHOL PARSONS From my house at Collingborne April 1. 1631. Actes 9.36 Now there was at Ioppa a certaine Disciple named Tabitha which by interpretation is called Dorcas This woman was full of good workes and almes-deedes which shee did TO that question of King Lemuel Solomon in that Prophecy taught him by a woman his mother who can finde a vertuous woman Prov. 31.10 arguing and intimating die rarity of good women wee may returne here an inventa est and cry out with that passionate exclamation of Archimedes a famous Mathematician when he had found out a Mathematicall experiment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have found I have found ecce hîc behold here is one and so much the sooner haue wee found with Iaacob because the Lord our God hath brought one to our hands Gen. 27.10 beautified and beatified with all graces accompanying salvation in woman Faith and Charity and Holinesse with sobriety 1. Tim. 2.15 For that wee might not count her an alien but one of the houshold of faith she is a Disciple Disciples and Christians are termini convertibiles of equivalent signification Act. 11.26 one that was not ashamed of Christ and his words Luke 9.26 that we may be assured that shee professed not to know Christ deny him in her works Tit. 1.16 Shee is a good tree bringing forth good fruites Mat. 7. joyning vertue with her faith 2. Pet. 1.5 and shewing her faith by her good workes or that onely some good was found in her as in Ieroboams son 1 Kings 14.13 some gleaning grapes as the shaking of an Oliue tree Isa 17.6 Shee is full of good workes defectiue and behind in no gift 1. Cor. 1.7 or that shee serued God only in holines in the works of piety and not in righteousnesse in the works of charity as too many put asunder those things which God hath joyned together she distributeth to the necessities of the Saints doth almes-deeds and as she aboundeth in every thing so in this gift also 2. Cor. 8.7 soweth the seed of her almes plentiously is full of almes-deedes which she did But that by my ordering of things here I may further your remembring of them as ordo est mater memoriae order is the mother of memory obserue I pray you in this narration a twofold description of this vertuous woman 1. by her civill condition There was at Ioppa a certaine Disciple named Tabitha which by interpretation is called Dorcas 2. by her religious disposition this woman was full of good workes and almes-deedes which shee did In her civill state and condition wee haue 1. her place of habitation Ioppa 2 her name either propounded named Tabitha or expounded which by interpretation is called Dorcas In her religious disposition wee haue 1. her profession a Disciple 2. her expression of it either generally in good workes amplified by the measure and extent full of good workes or specially in almes-deeds being of the same size full of almes-deeds which she did Concerning her civill state and condition her habitation and denomination being but the outward skin and rine of the Text in respect of the pith within I will not according to the proverbe haerere in cortice sticke in the barke Onely in transitu in our passage heare and beare a word or two of the propounding and expounding of her name for if wee strike this rocke the waters will gush out Exod. 17.6 shee was named Tabitha
aske here what good workes are Good workes then as I haue learned at the feete of a Gamaliel of ours Zanchy on the 1. chap. of the Philip. verse 11. are workes and actions aswell inward as outward whether they be thoughts in the minde and elections in the will or words vttered by the tongue or deedes which may be done by a righteous man as he is righteous in any part of his soule or body For as an actuall sinne is any thing sayd or done or thought against the law of God so a good worke and as St Iohn calleth it in his 1. epist cap. 3. righteousnesse is any thing spoken or thought or done according to the Law of God The holy Ghost for our better direction and for distinction doth sometimes tripartite good workes into 1. sobriety in the vse of outward things as meate drinke apparell and the like 2. righteousnesse in our dealings with men 3. Godlinesse in our duties to God that we should liue soberly righteously and godly in this present world Tit. 2.12 sometimes hee doth more briefely bipartite them into holinesse in the duties of the first table that concerne Gods worship and righteousnesse in the duties of the second Table that respect our neighbours good that wee might serue him in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of our life Luke 2.75 And so doth our Saviour into the first and great commandement which is Thou shalt loue the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soule and with all thy minde and the second is like to it which is Thou shalt loue thy neighbour as thy selfe Matt. 22.37.38.39.40 Now this being written for our learning we must learne of this Disciple this learner in in Christs schoole to joyne with our profession practice with our hearing doing with our faith vertue 2. Pet. 1.5 with our shew of godlinesse the power of it in our liues 2. Tim. 3.5 with our knowledge of God the service of him 1. Chr. 28 9. with our professing to know God a manifesting of it in our workes 2. Tim. 3.5 with our calling of Abrahā father a doing of the workes of Abraham Iohn 8.39 The professours of the Gospell must haue their conversation as becometh the Gospell of Christ Phil. 1.27 VValke worthy of the vocation wherewith they are called Ephes 4.1 worthy of the Lord vnto all pleasing Col. 1.10 adorne themselues with good works 1. Tim. 2.10 This is a faithfull saying and these things I will that thou affirme constantly that they which haue beleeued in God might be carefull to maintaine good workes Tit. 3.8 Men learne the trades of this world to practise them and the mysteries of godlinesse are taught vs that wee may turne wordes into workes as Bernard sayth in his tract of ordering our liues It profiteth not to haue learned what wee should doe and not to doe it saith Hierome in an epistle it is better not to know a thing then to learne it with danger and Augustine and in his 2. homily on the revelation As it booteth not for a great tree to be greene and yeeld no fruit so it profiteth not to be called a Christian and not to haue Christian workes and the same father in his booke of 83 questions and 76 question sayth that the words of the Apostle I suppose that a man is justified by faith without the workes of the law are not so to be vnderstood that when a man hath receiued faith we should call him just though hee liue ill But in this point wee that glory in God Rom. 2.17 and are called Christians are so bad schollers that if my head were waters and mine eyes a fountaine of teares I could not sufficiently bewaile our wants of fruites answerable to our profession wee make our boast of Gods law amongst vs but through our breaking of it we dishonour God and cause his name to be blaspheemed Rom. 2.23.24 with the Iewes Ier. 7. wee cry templum Domini the Temple of the Lord God is amongst vs and wee are his temple but we amend not our wayes we come and stand before God in his house as a nation that would do righteously but when we are gone wee doe all abominations steale murther committe adultery sweare rashly and falsely drinke till wee are drunke giue others drinke till they are drunke also and runne to all excesse of riot Wee are indeed baptized vnto Moses Gods Ministers whom he hath sent to baptize and eate the same spirituall meate and drinke the same spirituall drinke but please not God in our liues and conversations 1. Cor. 10.2.3.4.5 with Simon Magus wee haue a kinde of temporary beliefe but our hearts are not right in the sight of God but wee are in the gall of bitternesse and in the bond of iniquity Act. 8.13.21.23 we haue Iacobs voyce smooth and blessed words but Esaus hands rough and cursed deedes with the figge tree we haue the leaues of an outward profession but want the fruits of an holy conversation with Iudas vve are numbred amongst Christs Disciples sit at table vvith him but betray him assoone as vvee are gone out vvee heare but vvee do not vvith out mouthes and bodily presence vvee shevve much loue but our hearts runne after covetousnesse Ezec. 33.31 and all kinde of vvickednes In a vvord vve haue much knovvledge no charity a dead faith a faith of Devils but no workes Christs greatest friends and they of his owne houshold are his greatest enemies being as Bernard complaines in his time all friends and all enemies all necessaries and all adversaries all neere and yet all such as seeke their owne Videtur bone Iesu as Hugo complaineth in his time O good Iesu the whole company of Christians seemeth to haue conspired against thee and they which are first in thy Church are first in persecuting of thee Woe woe vnto vs for our ill liues shall our outward profession our dead and devillish faith saue vs without good workes Marke wee that faithfull saying of St Austine in his booke of faith to Peter the Deacon cap. 40. Beleeue it for a truth and doubt not of it that not all which are baptized within the Catholicke Church shall receiue eternall life but they who after baptisme receiued liue well for as infidels heretickes and schismatickes shall not haue the kingdome of heaven so vitious Catholickes shall not possesse it Next wee haue her good workes amplified by the extent Full of good worke she was filled with the fruits of righteousnesse Phil. 1.11 like those water pottes at the wedding that were full to the brimme Ioh. 2. and shee gaue to God and man good measure pressed downe shaken together and running over Luke 8.36 what we heare then and see in her we must doe we must be ready to every good worke Tit. 3. fruitfull in every good worke Col. 1.10 walking with Zachary and Elizabeth in all the commandements of God without reproofe Luke 1. and abounding alwayes in the worke of the
which by interpretation is called Dorcas Names in Scriptures are imposed either vpon some speciall accident or intent and purpose Vpon some speciall accident as Isaacks name of laughter because Sarah laughed at the promised of him Gen. 18.13 Iacobs of supplanting because he tooke his brother by the heele in the birth of them Gen. 25 26. and Pharez his name signifying breach or division because he made a breach in the birth comming forth before his brother that offered first Gen. 38.29 Vpon some speciall intent either for memoriall of benefits receiued as Ishmaell the hearing of God because God heard Abrahams prayer for a sonne Gen. 16.15 as Solomon Iedidiah loued of the Lord because God loued him 2. Sam. 12.24 Or of some duties to be done as Iudah hath his name of prayses because the Lord was to be praysed for him Gen. 29.35 as Iames and Iohn called by Christ Boanerges sonnes of thunder because they should thunder in their doctrine and lighten in their liues Marke 3.17 and that name aboue all names Iesus a Saviour because he should saue his people from their sins Matt. 1.25 And here happily the name Tabitha in Syriacke and in the Hebrew Tsibjah or as some will haue it Thabia Bullinger in locum arising of roote nabat signifying to see as in the interpretation of it in the Greeke Dorcas is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of seing was giuen her accidentally of the sharpenesse of her sight wherein the Roe-bucke excelleth as Pliny saith and of which St Hierome hath a saying oculos caprearum talpa contemnit the blind moule despiseth the eyes of the Roe-bucke Sure I am that she was sharpe sighted in looking on things eternall 2. Cor. 4.18 that the eyes of the mind were enlightned to know what was the hope of her calling and what the riches of the glory of Gods inheritance in the Saints Ephes 1.18 that with Simeon the eyes of her inward man saw the Lords Christ Luke 2.16 that they were happy in seing his day Luke 10. Now in that Spirit speaking here to the Churches would interpret this Hebrew or Syriacke name in the Greeke tongue wherein it writeth Tabitha by Dorcas or Roe-bucke our learning herein is that all things in the Church must be done to edification 1 Cor 14.26 and that whatsoever is spoken in a strange tongue must be interpreted that the Church may receiue edifying 1. Cor. 14.5 and this is the way of God in the sanctuary Emanuell a strange word in the greeke tongue is interpreted God with vs Matt. 1. So Rabbi is interpreted Master Messias the Christ Cephas a stone all one chapter Iob. 1. so Boanerges the sonnes of thunder Mar. 3.17 Barnabas tke sonne of consolation Actes 4. Abba Father Rom. 8.15 Now if the wisedome of the spirit would interpret names to vs whereof wee may be ignorant without forfetting the freehold of eternall life much more would it haue the whole Scriptures which were written for our learning Rom. 15.4 and are able to make vs wise vnto salvation 2. Tim. 3.16 interpreted and expounded vnto vs in a knowne tongue for edification exhortation and comfort Qui in modico fidelis in majori fidelis He that is faithfull in a little matter will be faithfull in a greater Luke 16.10 If a name must be spoken to vs in our owne tongue much more must the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 2.11 the great mysteries of godlinesse in a language that we vnderstand And of that I dare be bold to say that from the beginning it was so The doctrine of S. Iohn did not so vanish away as the Philosophers did saith Chrysostome in 1. Homily on Iohn but the Syrians Aegyptians Indians Persians Aethiopians and innumerable other nations translating them into their language of barbarous men learned the heavenly Philosophy So Augustine in his 2. booke of Christian doctrine chap. 5. saith that the divine Scripture proceeding from one language being spread abroad farre and wide by the diverse tongues of Interpreters was made knowne to the Gentiles for their salvation And Theodoret most plainly in his first booke of curing the maladies of the Grecians The Hebrew bookes were not only turned into the Greeke language but also into the Roman Egyptian Persian Indian Armenian Scythian and even the Gothicke language and that I may speake once for all into all the languages which the Gentiles vse vnto this day Can wee praise the Papists then in condemning and abhorring as impossible and vnprofitable the turning of the divine oracles into our mother tongue which was their old Tenent or if they be interpreted and translated either in their forbidding that in the publique and common vse of the Church they should be read or sung in the vulgar tongues so doth the Counsell of Trent in the 22. Session chapt 8. and the 9. Canon or else in affecting such obscurity and filling their translation with so many words borrowed from the Hebrew Syriacke Greeke Latine that it may be sayd of their translation as the Philosopher sayd of his bookes that they were edita non edita published and not published Of this kinde are their Archisynagogue azimes depositum dydrachme dominicall evangelize holocausts hostes Neophyte paraclete parasceve prepuce repropitiate resuscitate sabbatisme and such like whereof an English man may cry out how can I vnderstand vnlesse I had the gift of tongues If I know not the meaning of the voyce I shall be vnto him that speaketh Barbarian and hee shall be a Barbarian to mee 1. Cor. 14 11. But here is not my rest I passe therefore from her civill state and condition to her religious disposition first in her profession being a Disciple A certaine Disciple The originall is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 feminine according to her sexe a Disciplesse a shee Disciple as Anna is called a Prophetesse Luke 2.36 Excellent and honourable are the stiles and titles giuen in holy writ to the professours of religion importing the dignity and duty of their calling They are named the Church the elect of God of their calling chooing out of the world Saints of their sanctification sonnes of God of their adoption vessels of mercy and honour of their present forgiuenesse of their sinnes and future glory believers faithfull men of their faith and profession brethren houshold of faith of their vnion and society amongst themselues devout men of their religion Disciples of Christ Iesus the author and finisher of our faith Heb. 12.2 But the name Disciple is the most auncient the most frequent in the new Testament given to all the faithfull the Apostles not excepted who are called the twelue Disciples Matt. 10.2 Now the Scripture in the Evangelist doth not onely call those twelue his Disciples but all those that beleeving in him were by his teaching instructed to the kingdome of heaven saith Augustine in his 2. booke of the consent of the Evangelists Chap. 17. To be a Disciple then is to heare learne of God by