Justice is Peace Fore-prophesied to be the Prince of Peace Esay 9. 6. the government is upon his shoulder saith that Evangelical Seer yea which of the Prophets is silent of this Style Constituted Behold I have set my King upon Sion Psal 2. 6. Acknowledged by the Sages Where is be that is born King of the Jews We have seen his star Mat. 2. 2. Usher'd in by the Angel Gabriel The Lord shall give him the throne of his Father David Luke 1. 32. Anointed he is Christus Domini and Christus Dominus anointed with the oyle of gladness above his fellows Proclaimed Behold thy King cometh to thee saith Zachary Hosanna Blessed be the Kingdome that comes in the name of the Lord said the Children in the streets Enthronized Thy throne O God is for ever and the scepter of thy Kingdome is a right scepter Honoured with due homage The Kings of the earth shall bring presents to thee saith the Psalmist And yet this King thus Presigured Fore-prophesied Constituted Acknowledged Usher'd in Anointed Proclaimed Enthronized Adored is cast off with a Nolumus hunc No King but Caesar And were they not well served think we Did or could ever any eye pity them Because they say Christ is not our King but Caesar therefore Christ shall plague them by Caesar that very Roman Government which they honoured in a corrivality and opposition to Christ shall revenge the quarrel of Christ in the utter subversion of these unthankful Rebels Oh foolish people and unjust do ye thus requite the Lord Did he empty himself of his Celestial Glory and put on weak Manhood and all the symptoms of wretched Mortality and do ye despise him for this Mercy Is he so vile to you because he was so vile for you Did his Love make him humble that his Humility should make him contemptible Did he chuse you out of all the kingdomes of the earth and do ye wilfully reject him Hear therefore ye despisers and tremble hear the just doom of him who will be your Judge if he shall not be your Saviour Those mine enemies that would not I should reign over them bring them hither and slay them before me Luk. 19. 27. Lord it is done as thou hast commanded and yet there is room Do we think that Christ hath no Rebels but Jews Would to God we sinners of the Gentiles had not said Disrumpamus vincula Let us break his bonds and cast his cords from us What are his bonds but his Laws his cords but Religious institutions These flie about mens ears like rotten tow binding none but the impotent The bounds of his Kingdome are the ends of the earth It is an hard word yet I must say it Oh that there were not more Traitors in the world then Subjects Tell not me what mens Tongues say their Lives say loud enough Nolumus hunc Christ is no King for us Obedience is the true touch-stone of Loyalty not Protestations not outward Cringes not disbursement of Tribute We have all solemnly sworn allegeance to the God of Heaven we are ready to bow at the dear name of Jesus we stick not perhaps to give obedientiam bursalem as Gerson cals it to God but when it comes once to the deniall of our selves to the mortifying of our corruptions to the strangling of the children of our own accursed wombs to the offering up our bodies and Souls as a reasonable and lively sacrifice hîc Rhodus hîc saltus Kings rule by their Laws Be not deceived if slips of weakness marre not our Fealty certainly continuance in wilful sins cannot stand with our Subjection Quomodo legis How readest thou then as our Saviour asks What saies thy Law-giver in Sinai Thou shalt have no other Gods but me If now thou rear up in thy bosome altars to the Astaroth of Honour to the Tammuz of Lust to the Mammon of Wealth thou hast defied Christ for thy King God saies Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord thy God in vain If now thine unhallowed tongue will not be beaten out of the hellish track of Oaths Blasphemies prophane Scoffs thou hast defied Christ God sayes Thou shalt keep holy the Sabbath day If now thou shalt spend it altogether upon thy self or else thinkest with that wise Heathen thou dost septimam oetatis partem perdere thou defiest Christ God saies Thou shalt not commit adultery If now like an enraged stallion thou neighest after every object of impure Lust thou hast defied Christ God saies Non in comessationibus ebrietate Not in surfeiting and drunkenness If now we shall pour our health and our reason down our throats and shall sacrifice our Souls to our bellies what do we say but Nolumus hunc But O foolish Rebels that we are do we think thus to shake off the yoak of Christ In spight of men and devils he will be their King who do most grin and gnash at his Soveraignty Feel O ye wilful sinners if ye will not learn that as he hath a golden Scepter Virgam directionis Psal 45. 6. so he hath also an iron Scepter Psal 2. 9. Virgam furoris Esay 10. 5. Beauty and Bands Zach. 11. 10 14. If ye will not bow under the first yea must break under the second He shall break you in pieces like a Potters vessel to mammocks to dust Ye shall find that the Prince of darkness can no more avoid his own torment then he can cease from yours and every knee not onely in Heaven and in earth but under the earth too shall mal-grè bow to the name of that Jesus whom they have scornfully rejected with Nolumus hunc Christ is no King to us But I perswade my self better things of you all that hear me this day There is none of you I hope but would be glad to strew his garments his olive-boughs yea his myrtles and lawrels yea crown and scepter under the feet of Christ and cry Hosanna altissimo Oh then if you be in earnest take the Psalmists counsel Osculamini filium Give him the kiss of Homage of Obedience Let me have leave to say that this charge is there given to the great Princes and Rulers of the earth they who honour others with a kiss of their hand must honour themselves with the humble kiss of his No Power can exempt from this sweet Subjection Ecce servus tuns Behold I am thy servant faith David yea and vilior ero I will be yet more vile for the Lord. Tremble before his footstool O ye Great ones that bindeth Kings with chains and Nobles with fetters of iron Psal 149. 8. Your very Height inforces your Obedience the detrectation where of hath no other but Potentes potenter punientur Mighty ones shall be mightily tormented As an Angel of God so is my Lord the king as that wise Tekoan said Do ye not see how awful how submiss the Angels of Heaven are Before his throne they hide their faces with their wings and from his throne at his command
I kept silence my bones consumed For day and night thy hand O Lord was heavy upon me my moisture is turned into the drought of summer O let me confess against my self my wickedness unto thee that thou maist forgive the punishment of my sinne We have a tongue for God when we praise him for our selves when we pray and confess for our brethren when we speak the truth for their information which if we hold back in unrighteousness we yield unto that dumb Devil Where do we not see that accursed spirit He is on the Bench when the mute or partial Judge speaks not for truth and innocence He is in the Pulpit when the Prophets of God smother or halve or adulterate the message of their Master He is at the Barre when irreligious Jurours dare lend an oath to fear to hope to gain He is in the Market when godless chapmen for their peny sell the truth and their soul He is in the common conversation of men when the tongue belies the heart flatters the guilty balketh reproofs even in the foulest crimes O thou who onely art stronger then that strong one cast him out of the hearts and mouths of men It is time for thee Lord to work for they have destroyed thy Law That it might well appear this impediment was not natural so soon as the man is freed from the spirit his tongue is free to his speech The effects of spirits as they are wrought so they cease at once If the Son of God do but remove our spiritual possession we shall presently break forth into the praise of God into the confession of our vileness into the profession of truth But what strange variety do I see in the spectators of his Miracle some wondring others censuring a third sort tempting a fourth applauding There was never man or action but was subject to variety of constructions What man could be so holy as he that was God What act could be more worthy then the dispossessing of an evil spirit Yet this man this act passeth these differences of interpretation What can we doe to undergoe but one opinion If we give almes and fast some will magnifie our charity and devotion others will tax our hypocrisie If we give not some will condemn our hard-heartedness others will allow our care of justice If we preach plainly to some it will favour of a careless slubbering to others oft a mortified sincerity elaborately some will tax our affectation others will applaud our diligence in dressing the delicate viands of God What marvel is it if it be thus with our imperfection when it fared not otherwise with him that was Purity and Righteousness it self The austere forerunner of Christ came neither eating nor drinking they say He hath a Devil The Son of man came eating and drinking they say This man is a glutton a friend of Publicans and sinners and here one of his holy acts carries away at once wonder censure doubt celebration There is no way safe for a man but to square his actions by the right rule of justice of charity and then let the world have leave to spend their glosses at pleasure It was an heroical resolution of the chosen vessel I pass very little to be judged of you or of mans day I marvel not if the people marvelled for here were four wonders in one the blind saw the deaf heard the dumb spake the Demoniack is delivered Wonder was due to so rare and powerful a work and if not this nothing We can cast away admiration upon the poor devices or activities of men how much more upon the extraordinary works of Omnipotency Whoso knows the frame of Heaven and earth shall not much be affected with the imperfect effects of frail Humanity but shall with no less Ravishment of soul acknowledge the miraculous works of the same Almighty hand Neither is the spiritual ejection worthy of any meaner entertainment Rarity and difficulty are wont to cause wonder There are many things which have wonder in their worth and lose it in their frequence there are some which have it in their strangeness and lose it in their facilitie Both meet in this To see men haunted yea possessed with a dumb Devil is so frequent that it is a just wonder to finde a man free but to finde the dumb spirit cast out of a man and to hear him praising God confessing his sins teaching others the sweet experiments of mercy deserves just admiration If the Cynick sought in the market for a man amongst men well may we seek amongst men for a Convert Neither is the difficulty less then the rareness The strong man hath the possession all passages are block'd up all helps barred by the treachery of our nature If any soul be rescued from these spiritual wickednesses it is the praise of him that doth wonders alone But whom do I see wondring The multitude The unlearned beholders follow that act with wonder which the learned Scribes entertain with obloquy God hath revealed those things to babes which he hath hid from the wise and prudent With what scorn did those great Rabbins speak of these sons of the earth This people that knows not the Law is accursed Yet the Mercy of God makes an advantage of their simplicity in that they are therefore less subject to cavillation and incredulitie as contrarily his Justice causes the proud knowledge of others to lie as a block in their way to the ready assent unto the Divine power of the Messias Let the pride of glorious adversaries disdain the povertie of the clients of the Gospel it shall not repent us to go to Heaven with the vulgar whiles their great ones go in state to perdition The multitude wondered Who censured but Scribes great Doctors of the Law of the divinitie of the Jews What Scribes but those of Jerusalem the most eminent Academie of Judaea These were the men who out of their deep reputed judgement cast these foul aspersions upon Christ Great wits ofttimes mislead both the owners and followers How many shall once wish they had been born dullards yea idiots when they shall finde their wit to have barred them out of Heaven Where is the Scribe where is the disputer of this world Hath not God made the wisdome of the world foolishness Say the world what it will a dram of holiness is worth a pound of wit Let others censure with the Scribes let me wonder with the multitude What could malice say worse He casteth out Devils through Beelzebub the Prince of Devils The Jewes well knew that the Gods of the heathen were no other then Devils amongst whom for that the Lord of Flies so called whether for the concourse of flies to the abundance of his sacrifices or for his aid implored against the infestation of those swarms was held the chief therefore they stile him The Prince of Devils There is a subordination of spirits some higher in degree some inferiour to others Our Saviour himself tells
him that ceremony must yield to substance and that main points of Obedience must take place of all Rituall complements It is not for nothing that note is made of the Countrey of this thankfull Leper He was a Samaritane The place is known and branded with the infamy of a Paganish mis-religion Outward disadvantage of place or parentage cannot block up the way of God's Grace and free election as contrarily the priviledges of birth and nature availe us nothing in spirituall occasions How sensible wert thou O Saviour of thine own beneficence Were there not ten cleansed but where are the nine The trouping of these Lepers together did not hinder thy reckoning It is both justice and wisdome in thee to keep a strict account of thy favours There is an wholesome and usefull art of forgetfulnesse in us men both of Benefits done and of Wrongs offered It is not so with God Our injuries indeed he soon puts over making it no small part of his style that he forgives iniquities but for his mercies there is no reason he should forget them they are worthy of more then our memory His favours are universall over all his works there is no creature that tasts not of his bounty his Sun and Rain are for others besides his friends but none of his good turns escapes either his knowledge or record Why should not we O God keep a book of our receits from thee which agreeing with thine may declare thee bounteous and us thankfull Our Saviour doth not ask this by way of doubt but of exprobration Full well did he count the steps of those absent Lepers he knew where they were he upbraids their ingratitude that they were not where they should have been It was thy just quarrell O Saviour that while one Samaritane returned nine Israelites were healed and returned not Had they been all Samaritanes this had been faulty but now they were Israelites their ingratitude was more foul then their Leprosie The more we are bound to God the more shamefull is our unthankfulnesse There is scarce one in ten that is carefull to give God his own this neglect is not more generall then displeasing Christ had never missed their presence if their absence had not been hatefull and injurious The Pool of Bethesda Meditated on in a Sermon preached at the Court before King James of Blessed memory To the Reader THe Reader may be pleased to understand that my manner hath still been first to passe through all these Divine Histories by way of Sermons and then after to gather the quintessence of those larger discourses into these formes of Meditations which he sees Onely I have thought good upon these two following heads for some good reasons to publish the Sermons in their own shape as they were delivered without alteration It seemed not amisse that some of those metalls should be shewn in the oare whereof so great a quantity was presented in the wedge The Pool of Bethesda O Therwhere ye may look long and see no Miracle but here behold two Miracles in one view the former of the Angel curing Diseases the later of the God of Angels Christ Jesus preventing the Angel in his Cure Even the first Christ wrought by the Angel the second immediatly by himself The first is incomparable for as Montanus truly observes there is no one miraculum perpetuum but this one in the whole Book of God Be content to spend this hour with me in the porches of Bethesda and consider with me the Topography the Aitiology the Chronography of this Miracle These three limit our speech and your patient attention The Chronography which is first in place and time offers us two heads 1. a Feast of the Jewes 2. Christ going up to the Feast The Jews were full of Holy-days both of God's institution and the Churches Of God's both weekly monthly anniversary Weekly that one of seven which I would to God we had learned of them to keep better In this regard it was that Seneca said the Jewes did Septimam aetatis partem perdere lose the seventh part of their life Monthly the New moons Numb 18. Anniversary Easter Pentecost and the September-feasts The Churches both the Purim by Mardocheus and the Encaenia by Judas Maccabaeus which yet Christ honored by his solemnization John 10. Surely God did this for the chearfulnesse of his people in his service hence the Church hath laudably imitated this example To have no Feasts is sullen to have too many is Paganish and Superstitious Neither would God have cast the Christian Easter upon the just time of the Jewish Pasch and their Whitsontide upon the Jewish Pentecost if he would not have had these Feasts continued And why should the Christian Church have lesse power then the Jewish Synagogue Here was not a mere Feriation but a Feasting they must appeare before God cum muneribus with gifts The tenth part of their encrease must be spent upon the three solemn Feasts besides their former tithes to Levi Deut. 14. 23. There was no holy-day wherein they feasted above six hours and in some of them Tradition urged them to their quantities of drink And David when he would keep holy-day to the Ark allows every Israelite a cake of bread a piece of flesh a bottle of wine not a dry dinner prandium caninum not a mere drinking of wine without meat but to make up a perfect feast Bread Flesh Wine 2. Sam. 6. The true Purims of this Iland are those two Feasts of August and November He is no true Israelite that keeps them not as the daies which the Lord hath made When are joy and triumphs seasonable if not at Feasts but not excesse Pardon me I know not how Feasts are kept at the Court but as Job when he thought of the banquets of his Sons sayes It may be they have sinned so let me speak at peradventures If sensuall immoderation should have set her foot into these Christian Feasts let me at least say with indulgent Ely Non est bona fama filii It is no good report my sons Do ye think that S Paul's rule Non in comessationibus ebrietate not in surfeiting and drunkennesse was for work-days only The Jewes had a conceit that on their Sabbath and. Feast-days the Devils fled from their Cities ad montes umbrosos to the shadie mountains Let it not be said that on our Christian Feasts they should è montibus aulam petere and that he seeks and finds not loca arida but madida God forbid that Christians should sacrifice to Bacchus in stead of the ever-living God and that on the day when you should have been blown up by treacherous fire from earth to Heaven you should fetch down the fire of God's anger from Heaven upon you by swilling and surfeits God forbid God's service is unum necessarium one thing necessary saith Christ Homo cbrius superflua creatura A drunken man is a superfluous creature saith Ambrose How ill do those two agree
Heaven and befool them in their own vain devices O Saviour how much evidence had thy Resurrection wanted if these enemies had not been thus maliciously provident how irrefragable is thy rising made by these bootless endeavours of their prevention All this while the devout Maries keep close and silently spend their Sabbath in a mixture of grief and hope How did they wear out those sad hours in bemoaning themselves each to other in mutual relations of the patient sufferings of the happy expiration of their Saviour of the wonderfull events both in the Heavens and earth that accompanied his Crucifixion of his frequent and clear Predictions of his Resurrection And now they have gladly agreed so soon as the time will give them leave in the dawning of the Sunday morning to visit that dear Sepulcher Neither will they goe empty-handed She that had bestowed that costly Alabaster-box of Ointment upon their Saviour alive hath prepared no less precious Odors for him dead Love is restless and fearless In the dark of night these good Women goe to buy their spices and ere the day-break are gone out of their houses towards the Tomb of Christ to bestow them This Sex is commonly fearful it was much for them to walk alone in that unsafe season yet as despising all fears and dangers they thus spend the night after their Sabbath Might they have been allowed to buy their Perfumes on the Sabbath or to have visited that holy Tomb sooner can we think they would have staid so long can we suppose they would have cared more for the Sabbath then for the Lord of the Sabbath who now kept his Sabbath in the Grave Sooner they might not come later they would not to present their last homage to their dead Saviour Had these holy women known their Jesus to be alive how had they hasted who made such speed to doe their last offices to his sacred Corps For us we know that our Redeemer liveth we know where he is O Saviour how cold and heartless is our love to thee if we do not hast to finde thee in thy Word and Sacraments if our Souls do not fly up to thee in all holy Affections into thy Heaven Of all the Women Mary Magdalen is first named and in some Evangelists alone She is noted above her fellows None of them were so much obliged none so zealously thankful Seven Devils were cast out of her by the command of Christ That Heart which was freed from Satan by that powerful dispossession was now possessed with a free and gracious bounty to her deliverer Twice at the least hath she powred out her fragrant and costly Odors upon him Where there is a true sense of favour and beneficence there cannot but be a fervent desire of retribution O Blessed Saviour could we feel the danger of every sin and the malignity of those spiritual possessions from which thou hast freed us how should we pour out our selves into thankfulness unto thee Every thing here had horrour The Place both solitary and a Sepulcher Nature abhors as the visage so the region of Death and Corruption The Time Night onely the Moon gave them some faint glimmering for this being the seventeenth day of her age afforded some light to the later part of the night The Business the visitation of a dead Corps Their zealous Love hath easily overcome all these They had followed him in his Sufferings when the Disciples-left him they attended him to his Cross weeping they followed him to his Grave and saw how Joseph laid him even there they leave him not but ere it be day-light return to pay him the last tribute of their duty How much stronger is Love then death O Blessed Jesu why should not we imitate thy love to us Those whom thou lovest thou lovest to the end yea in it yea after it even when we are dead not our Souls onely but our very dust is dearly respected of thee What condition of thine should remove our affections from thy person in Heaven from thy lims on earth Well did these worthy Women know what Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had done to thee they saw how curiously they had wrapped thee how preciously they had embalmed thee yet as not thinking others beneficence could be any just excuse of theirs they bring their own Odors to thy Sepulture to be perfumed by the touch of thy Sacred body What thank is it to us that others are obsequious to thee whiles we are slack or niggardly We may rejoyce in others forwardness but if we rest in it how small joy shall it be to us to see them goe to Heaven without us When on the Friday-evening they attended Joseph to the intombing of Jesus they mark'd the place they mark'd the passage they mark'd that inner grave-stone which the owner had fitted to the mouth of that tomb which all their care is now to remove Who shall roll away the stone That other more weighty load wherewith the vault was barred the seal the guard set upon both came not perhaps into their knowledge this was the private plot of Pilate and the Priests beyond the reach of their thoughts I do not hear them say How shall we recover the charges of our Odors or How shall we avoid the envy and censure of our angry Elders for honouring him whom the Governours of our Nation have thought worthy of condemnation The onely thought they now take is Who shall roll away the stone Neither do they stay at home and move this doubt but when they are well forward on their way resolving to try the issue Good hearts cannot be so solicitous for any thing under Heaven as for removing those impediments which lie between them and their Saviour O Blessed Jesu thou who art clearly revealed in Heaven art yet still both hid and sealed up from too many here on earth Neither is it some thin veil that is spred between thee and them but an huge stone even a true stone of offence lies rolled upon the mouth of their hearts Yea if a second weight were superadded to thy Grave here no less then three spiritual bars are interposed betwixt them and thee above Idleness Ignorance Unbelief Who shall roll away these stones but the same power that removed thine O Lord remove that our Ignorance that we may know thee our Idleness that we may seek thee our Unbelief that we may find and enjoy thee How well it succeeds when we go faithfully and conscionably about our work and leave the issue to God Lo now God hath removed the cares of these holy Women together with the grave-stone To the wicked that falls out which they feared to the Godly that which they wished and cared for yea more Holy cares ever prove well the worldly dry the bones and disappoint the hopes Could these good Visitants have known of a greater stone sealed of a strong watch set their doubts had been doubled now God goes beyond their thoughts and
of the forein Divines with whom I have so long conversed beyond the Seas concerning that Point I might answer in two lines that I have read your Reconciler and judge your Opinion concerning that Point to be learned sound and true Though that if I durst favour an officious lie I would willingly give my Suffrage to those Divines which out of a most fervent Zeal to God and perfect hatred to Idolatry hold that the Roman Church is in all things BAâ—EL in nothing BETHEL And as they which seek to set right a crooked Tree bow it the clean contrary way to make it straight so to recover and pull out of the fire of eternal Damnation the Romane Christians I would gladly pourtray them with sable colours and make their Religion more black in their own eyes then they are in ours the hellish-coloured faces of the flat-nosed Ethiopians or to the Spaniard the monstrous Sambenit of the Inquisition But fearing the true reproach cast by Job in his friends teeth Will ye speak wickedly for God and talk deceitfully for him and knowing that we must not speak a lie no not against the Devil which is the Father of lies I say that the Roman Church is both BABEL and BETHEL and as God's Temple was in Christs daies at once the house of Prayer and a den of thieves so she is in our daies God's Temple and the habitation of Devils the hold of every foul spirit and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird Which I prove thus The Church is to be considered three manner of waies First according to Gods right which he keepeth over her and maintaineth in her by the common and external Calling of his Word and Sacraments Secondly according to the pure Preaching of the Word and external Obedience in hearing receiving and keeping the Word sincerely preached Thirdly according to the election of Grace and the personal Calling which hath perpetually the inward working of the Holy Ghost joyned with the outward Preaching of the Word as in Lydia Thence cometh the answer of a good conscience toward God by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ To begin with the last Consideration These onely are Gods Church which are Jews inwardly in the spirit as well as outwardly in the letter whose praise is not of men but of God who are Nathanaels and true Israelites in whom there is no guile invisible to all men visible to God alone who knoweth them that are his and each of them to themselves because they have received the Spirit which is of God that they might know the things which are freely given them of God and the white stone and new name which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it Of this Church called by the Apostle the people which God foreknew Rom. 11. 2. there is no controversie amongst our Divines In the second Consideration these onely are the true visible Church of God amongst whom the Word of God is truly preached without the mixture of humane Traditions the holy Sacraments are celebrated according to their first institution and the people consenteth to be led and ruled by the word of God As when Moses laid before the faces of the people all the words which the Lord commanded him And all the people answered together All that the Lord hath spoken we will doe The Lord said unto Moses Write thou these words for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel And Moses said to the people Thou hast avouched this day the Lord to be thy God and to walk in his waies and to keep his Statures and his Commandments and his Judgements and to hearken unto his voice And the Lord hath avouched thee this day to be his peculiar people as he hath promised thee and that thou shouldest keep all his Commandements This condition of the Commandement God did often inculcate into their ears by his Prophets As when he said to them by Jeremiah This thing commanded I them saying Obey my voice and I will be your God and ye shall be my people and walk ye in all the waies that I have commanded you that it may be well unto you So in the Gospel Christ saith My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me But a stranger will they not follow but will flie from him for they know not the voice of strangers where he giveth the first mark of the Visible true and pure Church to wit the pure Preaching and Hearing of Christs voice As likewise St. John saith He that knoweth God heareth us Hereby know we the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of Errour Again the Lord saith By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another pointing out the Concord and holy agreement which is among the Brethren as another mark of the Orthodox Church As likewise when he saith Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorifie your Father which is in Heaven he sheweth that good Works are the visible mark of the true Orthodox Church The true Preaching and reverend Hearing of the Gospel is a visible mark of our Faith and Hope our Concord in the Lord is a mark of our Charitie our good Works are real and sensible testimonies of our inward Faith Hope and Charitie Where we finde these three Signes we know certainly that there is Christs true Church and judge charitably that is probably that every one in whom we see these outward tokens of Christs true and Orthodox Church is a true member of the mystical body of the Lord Jesus I say charitably because outward marks may be outwardly counterfeited by Hypocrites as it is said of Israel They did flatter with their mouth and they lyed unto him with their tongues For their heart was not right with him neither were they stedfast in his Covenant and of many of those that followed our Saviour Many believed in his Name when they saw the Miracles which he did But Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men Therefore when the people of Israel departed from the Covenant and by their Idolatry brake as much as in them lay the contract of Marriage between them and God they ceased in that behalf to be Gods true Spouse and people though still they called him their Husband and their God When they made a molten Calf in the wilderness and worshipped the works of their own fingers God said to Moses Thy people which thou broughtest out of the Land of Egypt have corrupted themselves and not my people And Moses to shew that on their part they had broken the Covenant broke the Tables of the Covenant When under Achaz they did worse Isaiah called them children that are corrupted their Prince and Governours Rulers of Sodome themselves people of Gomorrah their holy
THE Contemplations upon the HISTORY OF THE New Testament now complete The second Tome Together with Divers TREATISES reduced to the greater Volume By Jos Exon. MDCLXI LONDON Printed by James Flesher TO THE KINGS MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTIE CHARLES BY THE GRACE OF GOD KING OF GREAT Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith Most Gracious and Dread Soveraign MOre then twenty years are slipt away since I entred upon this task of sacred Contemplations presuming so long agoe to prefix your Royal Name to some of the first pieces of this long work which I rather wished then hoped I might live to finish The God of Heaven hath been pleased to stretch out my daies so farre as to see it brought at last after many necessary intermissions to an happy end Now not with more contentment then boldness I bring to your sacred hands besides variety of other discourses that work complete whereof some few parcels saw the light before under subordinate Dedications The whole is your Majesties due no less then the unworthy Author whose age pleaseth and prideth it self in nothing more then in the title of one of your Majesties most ancient Attendants in my station now living JOS. EXON THE CONTENTS OF THIS SECOND TOME CONTEMPLATIONS ON THE NEW TESTAMENT The First Book containing THE Angel and Zachary 1 The Annunciation of CHRIST 6 The Birth of CHRIST 9 The Sages and the Star 12 The Purification 15 Herod and the Infants 18 The Second Book containing CHrist among the Doctors 23 Christ's Baptisme 27 Christ Tempted 29 Simon Called 38 The Marriage in Cana. 41 The good Centurion 44 The Third Book containing THe Widows Son raised 48 The Rulers Son cured 51 The dumb Devil ejected 53 Matthew Called 58 Christ amongst the Gergesens or Legion and the Gadarene heard 61 The Fourth Book containing THe faithful Canaanite 73 The deaf and dumb man cured 79 Zacheus 83 John Baptist beheaded 91 The five loaves and two fishes 100 The walk upon the waters 107 The bloody issue healed 114 Jairus and his daughter 120 The motion of the two fiery Disciples repelled 122 The ten Lepers 126 The pool of Bethesda 132 Christ transfigured 138 The woman taken in adultery 152 The thankful Penitent 158 Martha and Mary 165 The begger that was born blinde cured 169 The stubborn Devil ejected 173 The Widows mites 177 The ambition of the two sons of Zebedee 179 The tribute-money pay'd 183 Lazarus dead 185 Lazarus raised 190 Christ's procession to the Temple 198 The fig-tree cursed 202 Christ betrayed 205 The Agonie 209 Peter and Malchus or Christ apprehended 212 Christ before Caiaphas 215 Christ before Pilate 218 The Crucifixion 224 The Resurrection 233 The Ascension â—â—â— Sermons and other Treatises A Sermon of publick thanksgiving for the wonderful mitigation of the late Mortality preach'd before his Majesty at White-Hall 251 One of the Sermons preach'd at Westminster on the day of the Publick Fast April 5. 1628. to the Lords of the High Court of Parliament 261 A Sermon preach'd before his Majestie on the Sunday before the Fast March 30. 1628. at White-hall 271 One of the Sermons preach'd to the Lords of the high Court of Parliament on Ashwednesday February 18. 279 The Hypocrite set forth in a Sermon at Court February 28. 1629. being the third Sunday in Lent 291 The Beauty and Unitie of the Church in a Sermon at White-Hall 304 The Fashions of the world laid forth in a Sermon at Grayes-Inn on Candlemas day 311 The Estate of a Christian laid forth in a Sermon at Grayes-Inn on Candlemas day 320 The Fall of Pride out of Proverbs 29. ver 23. 329 Christ and Caesar A Sermon preach'd at Hampton-Court 337 The defeat of Cruelty prayed for and laid forth in a Sermon preach'd at a solemn Fast at White-Hall 344 S. Paul's combat in two Sermons preach'd at the Court to his Majestie in ordinary attendance 1 352 S. Paul's combat in two Sermons preach'd at the Court to his Majestie in ordinary attendance 2 362 The Old Religion A treatise wherein is laid down the true state of the difference betwixt the Reformed and Roman Church 369 The Reconciler An Epistle pacificatory of the seeming difference of opinion concerning the Trueness and Visibility of the Romane Church 424 Occasional Meditations 448 Certain Catholick Propositions 499 An Answer to Pope Urban his Inurbanity expressed in a Breeve sent to Lewis the French King 503 TO MY MUCH HONOURED AND RIGHT WORSHIPFUL FRIEND Sir Henry Yelverton KNIGHT ATTURNEY GENERALL TO HIS MAJESTIE Right Worshipful It is not out of any satietie that I change from the Old Testament to the New these two as they are the Breasts of the Church so they yield Milk equally wholesome equally pleasant unto able Nurselings Herein I thought good to have respect unto my Reader in whose strength there may be difference That other Breast perhaps doth not let down this nourishing liquor so freely so easily Even so small a variety refresheth a weak Infant Neither will there perhaps want some palates which will finde a more quick and pleasing relish in this fresher substance These I thought good to please with a Taste ere they come to sate themselves with a full Meal of this Divine nourishment in emulation of the good Scribe that brings forth both old and new If it please God to inable my life and opportunities I hope at last to present this Church with the last service of the Historie of either Page wherein my Joy and my Crown shall be the Edification of many In the mean time I dedicate this part unto your Name whom I have so much cause to observe and honour The Blessing of that God whose Church you have ever made your chief Client be still upon your head and that honourable Society which rejoyces in so worthy a Leader To it and your self I shall be ever as I have cause Humbly and unfeignedly devoted JOS. HALL Contemplations THE FIRST BOOK Containing The Angel and Zachary The Annunciation The Birth of CHRIST The Sages and the Star The Purification Herod and the Infants The Angel and Zachary WHEN things are at worst then God begins a change The state of the Jewish Church was extreamly corrupted immediately before the news of the Gospel yet as bad as it was not only the Priesthood but the courses of attendance continued even from Davids time till Christs It is a desperately depraved condition of a Church where no good orders are left Judea passed many troubles many alterations yet this orderly combination endured about an eleven hundred years A setled good will not easily be defeated but in the change of persons will remain unchanged and if it be forced to give way leaves memorable footsteps behinde it If David fore-saw the perpetuation of this holy Ordinance how much did he rejoice in the knowledge of it who would not be glad to doe good on condition that it may so long out-live him The successive turnes of the Legal ministration
Disciples stood compassed in that bright Cloud exspecting some miraculous event of so Heavenly a Vision when suddenly they might hear a voice sounding out of that Cloud saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him They need not be told whose that voice was the place the matter evinced it No Angel in Heaven could or durst have said so How gladly doth Peter afterwards recount it For he received from God the Father honour and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory This is my beloved Son c. It was onely the eare that was here taught not the eye As of Horeb so of Sinai so of Tabor might God say Ye saw no shape nor image in that day that the Lord spake unto you He that knows our proneness to idolatry avoids those occasions which we might take to abuse our own fansies Twice hath God spoken these words to his own Son from Heaven once in his Baptisme and now again in his Transfiguration Here not without some oppositive comparison not Moses not Elias but This. Moses and Elias were Servants this a Son Moses and Elias were sons but of grace and choice this is that Son the Son by nature Other sons are beloved as of favour and free election this is The Beloved as in the unitie of his essence Others are so beloved that he is pleased with themselves this so beloved that in and for him he is pleased with mankinde As the relation betwixt the Father and the Son is infinite so is the Love We measure the intention of Love by the extention the love that rests in the person affected alone is but streight true Love descends like Aaron's Ointment from the head to the skirts to children friends allyes O incomprehensible large love of God the Father to the Son that for his sake he is pleased with the World O perfect and happy complacence Out of Christ there is nothing but enmity betwixt God and the Soul in him there can be nothing but peace When the beams are met in one center they do not only heat but burn Our weak love is diffused to many God hath some the world more and therein wives children friends but this infinite love of God hath all the beams of it united in one onely Object the Son of his Love Neither doth he love any thing but in the participation of his Love in the derivation from it O God let me be found in Christ and how canst thou but be pleased with me This one voice proclaimes Christ at once the Son of God the Reconciler of the world the Doctor and Law-giver of his Church As the Son of God he is essentially interessed in his Love as he is the Reconciler of the world in whom God is well pleased he doth most justly challenge our love and adherence as he is the Doctor and Law-giver he doth justly challenge our audience our obedience Even so Lord teach us to hear and obey thee as our Teacher to love thee and believe in thee as our Reconciler and as the eternal Son of thy Father to adore thee The light caused wonder in the Disciples but the voice astonishment They are all falne down upon their faces Who can blame a mortal man to be thus affected with the voice of his Maker Yet this word was but plausible and hortatory O God how shall flesh and blood be other then swallowed up with the horror of thy dreadful sentence of death The Lion shall roar who shall not be afraid How shall those that have slighted the sweet voice of thine invitations call to the rocks to hide them from the terror of thy Judgments The God of mercies pities our infirmities I do not hear our Saviour say Ye lay sleeping one while upon the earth now ye lye astonished Ye could neither wake to see nor stand to hear now lye still and tremble But he graciously touches and comforts them Arise fear not That voice which shall once raise them up out of the earth might well raise them up from it That hand which by the least touch restored sight lims life might well restore the spirits of the dismaied O Saviour let that soveraign hand of thine touch us when we lye in the trances of our griefs in the bed of our securities in the grave of our sins and we shall arise They looking up saw no man save Jesus alone and that doubtless in his wonted form All was now gone Moses Elias the Cloud the Voice the Glory Tabor it self cannot be long blessed with that Divine light and those shining guests Heaven will not allow to earth any long continuance of Glory Only above is constant happiness to be look'd for and injoyed where we shall ever see our Saviour in his unchangeable brightness where the light shall never be either clouded or varied Moses and Elias are gone only Christ is left The glory of the Law and the Prophets was but temporary yea momentany that onely Christ may remain to us intire and conspicuous They came but to give testimony to Christ when that is done they are vanished Neither could these raised Disciples finde any miss of Moses and Elias when they had Christ still with them Had Jesus been gone and left either Moses or Elias or both in the Mount with his Disciples that presence though glorious could not have comforted them Now that they are gone and he is left they cannot be capable of discomfort O Saviour it matters not who is away whiles thou art with us Thou art God all-sufficient what can we want when we want not thee Thy presence shall make Tabor it self an Heaven yea Hell it self cannot make us miserable with the fruition of thee The Woman taken in Adultery WHat a busie life was this of Christs He spent the night in the mount of Olives the day in the Temple whereas the night is for a retired repose the day for company His retiredness was for prayer his companiableness was for preaching All night he watches in the Mount all the morning he preaches in the Temple It was not for pleasure that he was here upon earth his whole time was penal and toilsome How do we resemble him if his life were all pain and labour ours all pastime He found no such fair success the day before The multitude was divided in their opinion of him messengers were sent and suborned to apprehend him yet he returns to the Temple It is for the sluggard or the coward to plead a Lion in the way upon the calling of God we must overlook and contemn all the spight and opposition of men Even after an ill harvest we must sow and after denials we must woe for God This Sun of Righteousness prevents that other and shines early with wholesome doctrines upon the Soules of his hearers The Auditory is both thronged and attentive Yet not all with the same intentions If the people came to learn the Scribes and
forsaking Here thou wouldst knowingly delay whether for the greatning of the Miracle or for the strengthning of thy Disciples Faith Hadst thou gone sooner and prevented the death who had known whether strength of Nature and not thy miraculous power had done it Hadst thou overtaken his death by this quickning visitation who had known whether this had been only some â—ualm or extasy and not a perfect dissolution Now this large gap of time makes thy work both certain and glorious And what a clear proof was this beforehand to thy Disciples that thou wert able to accomplish thine own Resurrection on the third day who wert able to raise up Lazarus on the fourth The more difficult the work should be the more need it had of an omnipotent confirmation He that was Lord of our times and his own can now when he found it seasonable say Let us goe into Judaea again Why left he it before was it not upon the heady violence of his enemies Lo the stones of the Jews drove him thence the love of Lazarus and the care of his Divine glory drew him back thither We may we must be wise as serpents for our own preservation we must be careless of danger when God cals us to the hazard It is far from God's purpose to give us leave so farre to respect our selves as that we should neglect him Let Judaea be all snares all crosses O Saviour when thou callest us we must put our lives into our hands and follow thee thither This journey thou hast purposed and contrived but what needest thou to acquaint thy Disciples with thine intent Where didst thou ever besides here make them of counsel with thy voyages Neither didst thou say How think you if I goe but Let us goe Was it for that thou who knewest thine own strength knewest also their weakness Thou wert resolute they were timorous they were sensible enough of their late peril and fearful of more there was need to fore-arm them with an exspectation of the worst and preparation for it Surprisal with evils may indanger the best constancy The heart is apt to fail when it findes it self intrapped in a suddain mischief The Disciples were dearly affected to Lazarus they had learned to love where their Master loved yet now when our Saviour speaks of returning to that region of peril they pull him by the sleeve and put him in minde of the violence offered unto him Master the Jews of late sought to stone thee and goest thou thither again No less then thrice in the fore going Chapter did the Jews lift up their hands to murder him by a cruel lapidation Whence was this rage and bloody attempt of theirs Onely for that he taught them the truth concerning his Divine nature and gave himself the just style of the Son of God How subject carnal hearts are to be impatient of Heavenly verityes Nothing can so much fret that malignant spirit which rules in those breasts as that Christ should have his own If we be persecuted for his Truth we do but suffer with him with whom we shall once reign However the Disciples pleaded for their Masters safety yet they aimed at their own they well knew their danger was inwrapped in his It is but a cleanly colour that they put upon their own fear This is held but a weak and base Passion each one would be glad to put off the opinion of it from himself and to set the best face upon his own impotency Thus white-livered men that shrink and shift from the Cross will not want fair pretences to evade it One pleads the peril of many dependants another the disfurnishing the Church of succeeding abettors each will have some plausible excuse for his sound skin What errour did not our Saviour rectifie in his followers Even that fear which they would have dissembled is graciously dispelled by the just consideration of a sure and inevitable Providence Are there not twelve hours in the day which are duely set and proceed regularly for the direction of all the motions and actions of men So in this course of mine which I must run on earth there is a set and determined time wherein I must work and doe my Fathers will The Sun that guides these houres is the determinate counsel of my Father and his calling to the execution of my charge whiles I follow that I cannot miscarry no more then a man can miss his known way at high noon this while in vain are either your disswasions or the attempts of enemies they cannot hurt ye cannot divert me The journey then holds to Judaea his attendants shall be made acquainted with the occasion He that had formerly denied the deadliness of Lazarus his sickness would not suddenly confess his death neither yet would he altogether conceal it so will he therefore confess it as that he will shadow it out in a borrowed expression Lazarus our friend sleepeth What a sweet title is here both of death and of Lazarus Death is a sleep Lazarus is our friend Lo he saies not my friend but ours to draw them first into a gracious familiarity and communion of friendship with himself for what doth this import but Ye are my friends and Lazarus is both my friend and yours Our friend Oh meek and merciful Saviour that disdainest not to stoop so low as that whiles thou thoughtest it no robbery to be equall unto God thou thoughtest it no disparagement to match thy self with weak and wretched men Our friend Lazarus There is a kinde of parity in Friendship There may be Love where is the most inequality but friendship supposes pairs yet the Son of God saies of the sons of men Our friend Lazarus Oh what an high and happy condition is this for mortal men to aspire unto that the God of Heaven should not be ashamed to own them for friends Neither saith he now abruptly Lazarus our friend is dead but Lazarus our friend sleepeth O Saviour none can know the estate of life or death so well as thou that art the Lord of both It is enough that thou tellest us death is no other then sleep that which was wont to pass for the cozen of death is now it self All this while we have mistaken the case of our dissolution we took it for an enemy it proves a friend there is pleasure in that wherein we supposed horror Who is affraid after the weary toiles of the day to take his rest by night or what is more refreshing to the spent traveller then a sweet sleep It is our infidelity our impreparation that makes death any other then advantage Even so Lord when thou seest I have toiled enough let me sleep in peace and when thou seest I have slept enough awake me as thou didst thy Lazarus But I goe to awake him Thou saidst not Let us goe to awake him those whom thou wilt allow companions of thy way thou wilt not allow partners of thy work they may be witnesses they cannot
Lord for his goodnesse and declare the wonders that he doth for the children of men These Mercies are great in themselves our unworthiness doth greaten them more To doe good to the well-deserving were but retribution He ladeth us who are no lesse rebellious to him then he is beneficial to us Our streight and shallow bounty picks out the worthiest and most capable Subject the greatest gift that ever God gave he gives us whiles we are enemies It was our Saviour's charge to his Disciples Interrogate quis dignus Ask who is worthy that is as Hierom interprets it of the honour to receive such guests Should God stand upon those terms with us what should become of us See and wonder and be ashamed O ye Christian hearers God loads us and we load him God loads us with Benefits we load him with our Sins Behold I am pressed under you saith God as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves Amos 2. 13. He should goe away laden with our thanks with the presents of our duty and we shamefully clog him with our continual provocations Can there be here any danger of self-sacrificing with Sejanus and not rather the just danger of our shame and confusion in our selves How can we but hate this unkinde and unjust unanswerablenesse Yet herein shall we make an advantage of our foulest sins that they give so much more lustre to the glorious mercies of our God who overcomes our evil with good and loads even us The over-long interruption of favours loseth their thanks and the best benefits languish in too much disuse Our God takes order for that by a perpetuation of beneficence he ladeth us daily Every day every minute renews his favours upon us Semper largitor semper donator as Hierome To speak strictly there is no time present nothing is present but an instant and that can no more be called Time then a prick can be called a Line yet how swift soever the wings of Time are they cannot cut one instant but they must carry with them a successive renovation of God's gracious kindness to us This Sun of his doth not rise once in an age or once in a year but every minute since it was created riseth to some parts of the earth and every day to us Neither doth he once hurl down upon our heads some violent drops in a storm but he plies us with the sweet showrs of the former and the latter rain Wherein the Mercy of God condescends to our impotency who are ready to perish under uncomfortable intermissions Non mihi sufficit saith that Father It is not enough that he hath given me once if he give me not alwaies To daies Ague makes us forget yesterstaies health Former meals do not relieve our present hunger This cottage of ours ruines straight if it be not new daubed every day new repaired The liberal care of our God therefore tiles over one benefit with another that it may not rain through And if he be so unwearied in his Favours why are we weary of our Thanks Our bonds are renewed every day to our God why not our payments Not once in a year or moon or week but every day once without fail were the Legal Sacrifices reiterated and that of all those creatures which were necessary for sustentation a Lamb flowre wine oyle that is meat bread drink sauce Why but that in all these we should still daily re-acknowledge our new obligations to the giver Yea ex plenitudine lacrymis as it is in the Original Exod. 22. 29. of our plenty and tears that is as Cajetan of a dear or cheap year must we return more or lesse may not misse our thanks We need daily we beg daily Give us this day we receive daily why do we not daily retribute to our God and act as some read it Blessed be the Lord daily who loadeth us with his benefits It is time now to turn your eyes to that mixt respect that reacheth both to God and us Ye have seen him a Benefactor see him a Saviour and Deliverer The God of our Salvation The Vulgar's salutaria following the Septuagint differs from our Salvation but as the Means from the End With the Hebrews Salvation is a wide word comprising all the favours of God that may tend to preservation and therefore the Psalmist elsewhere extends this act both to man and beast and as if he would comment upon himself expounds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 save by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prosper Psal 118. 25. It is so dear a title of God that the Prophet cannot have enough of it the interposition of a Selah cannot bar the redoubling of it in my Text. Every deliverance every preservation fathers it self upon God yet as the Soul is the most precious thing in the world and life is the most precious thing that belongs to the Soul and eternal life is the best of lives and the danger and losse of this life is the fearfullest and most horrible chiefly is this greatest Salvation here meant wherein God intends most to blesse and be blessed Of this Salvation is he the God by Preordination by Purchace by Gift By Preordination in that he hath decreed it to us from eternity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8. 30. By Purchace in that he hath bought it for us and us to it by the price of his blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 6. 20. By Gift in that he hath feoft us in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The gift of God is eternal life Rom. 6. 23. Since therefore he decreed it he bought it he bestows it justly is he the God of our Salvation Who can who dates arrogate to himself any partnership in this great work What power can dispose of the Souls final condition but the same that made it Who can give Eternity but he that onely hath it What but an infinite Merit can purchase an infinite Glory Cursed be that spirit that will offer to share with his Maker Down with your Crowns O ye glorious Elders at the foot of him that sits on the Throne with a Non nobis Domine Not unto us O Lord not unto us but to thy Name give the praise Away with the proud incroachment of the Merits of the best Saints of Papal Largesses Only our God is the God of our Salvation How happy are we the while All actions are according to the force of the Agent weak Causes produce feeble Effects contingent casual necessary certain Our Salvation therefore being the work of an infinitely-powerfull cause cannot be disappointed Loe the beauty of Solomon's Al-chum who hath resisted his will When we look to our own fleshie hands here is nothing but discouragement when we look to our spiritual enemies here is nothing but terrour but when we cast up our eyes to the Mighty God here is nothing but confidence nothing but comfort Comfort ye comfort ye therefore O ye feeble Souls and send your bold defiances to the Prince
he that put it into the heart of his Gracious Servant to command a Ninive-like Humiliation What pithie what passionate Prayers were injoined to his disconsolate Church With what holy eagernesse did we devour those Fasts How well were we pleased with the austerity of that pious Penitence What loud cries did beat on all sides at the gates of Heaven and with what inexspectable unconceivable mercy were they answered How suddenly were those many thousands brought down to one poor unity not a number Other evils were wont to come on horseback to goe away on foot this mortality did not post but flie away Methought like unto the great ice it sunk at once Only so many are stricken as may hold us awfull and so few as may leave us thankfull Oh how soon is our Fasting and mourning turned into Laughter and joy How boldly do we now throng into this House of God and fearlesly mix our breaths in a common Devotion This is the Lord 's doing and it is marvailous in our eyes O thou that hearest the prayer to thee shall all flesh come And let all flesh come to thee with the voice of Praise and Thanksgiving It might have been just with thee O God to have swept us away in the common destruction what are we better then our brethren Thou hast let us live that we may praise thee It might have been just with thee to have inlarged the commission of thy killing Angel and to have rooted out this sinfull people from under Heaven But in the midst of judgment thou hast remembred mercy Our sins have not made thee forget to be gracious nor have shut up thy loving kindnesse in displeasure Thou hast wounded us and thou hast healed us again thou hast delivered us and been mercifull to our sins for thy names sake Oh that we could duly praise thy Name in the great Congregation Oh that our tongues our hearts our lives might blesse and glorifie thee that so thou mayest take pleasure to perfect this great work of our full deliverance and to make this Nation a dear example of thy Mercy of Peace Victory Prosperity to all the world In the mean time let us call all our fellow-creatures to help us bear a part in the Praise of our God Let the Heavens the Stars the winds the waters the dews the frosts the nights the dayes let the Earth and Sea the mountains wells trees fishes fouls beasts let men let Saints let Angels blesse the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever Blessed blessed for ever be the Lord who loadeth us daily with benefits even the God of our Salvation to whom belong the issues from death Oh blessed be the Lord God of Israel who only doth wondrous things and blessed be his glorious Name for ever and ever and let all the earth be filled with his glory Amen Amen One of the SERMONS Preached at Westminster on the day of the Publick Fast April 5. 1628. TO The Lords of the High Court of Parliament and by their appointment published by the B. of EXCESTER Esay 5. vers 4 5. What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes brought it forth wilde grapes And now goe to I will tell you what I will doe to my Vineyard I will take away the hedge thereof IT is a piece of a Song for so it is called Vers 1. Alas what should Songs doe to an heavy heart Prov. 25. 20. or Musick in a day of Mourning Howling and lamentation is fitter for this occasion Surely as we do sometimes weep for joy so do we sing also for sorrow Thus also doth the Prophet here If it be a Song it is a Dump Esay's Lacrymae fit for that Sheminith gravis symphonia as Tremelius turns it which some sad Psalms were set unto Both the Ditty and the Tune are dolefull There are in it three passionate strains Favours Wrongs Revenge Blessings Sins Judgements Favours and Blessings from God to Israel Sins which are the highest Wrongs from Israel to God Judgments by way of Revenge from God to Israel And each of those follow upon other God begins with Favours to his people they answer him with their Sins he replies upon them with Judgments and all of these are in their height The Favours of God are such as he asks What could be more The Sins are aggravated by those Favours what worse then wilde Grapes and disappointment And the Judgments must be aggravated to the proportion of their Sins what worse then the Hedge taken away the Wall broken the Vineyard trodden down and eaten up Let us follow the steps of God and his Prophet in all these and when we have passed these in Israel let us seek to them at home What should I need to crave attention the businesse is both Gods and our own God and we begin with Favours Favours not mean and ordinary not expressed in a right-down affirmation but in an expostulatory and self-convincing Question What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done to it Every word is a new obligation That Israel is a Vineyard is no small favour of God that it is God's Vineyard is yet more that it is God's Vineyard so exquisitely cultivated as nothing more could be either added or desired is most of all Israel is no vast Desart no wilde Forest no moorish Fen no barren Heath no thornie Thicket but a Vineyard a Soile of use and fruit Look where you will in God's Book ye shall never finde any lively member of Gods Church compared to any but a fruitfull tree Not to a tall Cypresse the Embleme of unprofitable Honour nor to a smooth Ash the Embleme of unprofitable Prelacie that doth nothing but bear Keyes nor to a double-coloured Poplar the Embleme of Dissimulation nor to a well-shaded Plane that hath nothing but Form nor to a hollow Maple nor to a trembling Aspe nor to a prickly Thorn shortly not to any Plant whatsoever whose fruit is not usefull and beneficial Hear this then ye goodly Cedars strong Elmes fast-growing Willows sappy Sycomores and all the rest of the fruitlesse trees of the earth I mean all fashionable and barren Professors whatsoever ye may shoot up in height ye may spread far shade well shew fair but what are ye good for Ye may be fit for the Forest Ditches Hedg-rows of the world ye are not for the true saving soil of God's Israel that is a Vineyard there is place for none but Vines and true Vines are fruitfull He that abideth in me bringeth forth much fruit saith our Saviour John 15. 5. And of all fruits what is comparable to that of the Vine Let the Vine it self speak in Jonathan's Parable Jud. 9. 13. Should I leave my Wine which cheareth God and man How is this God cheared with Wine It is an high Hyperbole yet seconded by the God of truth I will
the advantages of Greatness what unequal levies of Legal payments what spightfull Sutes what Depopulations what Usuries what Violences abound every where The sighs the tears the blood of the poor pierce the Heavens and call for a fearfull retribution This is a sour Grape indeed and that makes God to wring his face in an angry detestation Drunkennesse is the next not so odious in the weaknesse of it as in the strength Oh wofull glory strong to drink Woe is me how is the World turned Beast What bouzing and quaffing and whiffing and healthing is there on every bench and what reeling and staggering in our streets What drinking by the Yard the Die the Douzen what forcing of pledges what quarrels for measure and form How is that become an excuse of villany which any villany might rather excuse I was drunk How hath this torrent yea this deluge of excesse in meats and drinks drowned the face of the Earth and risen many cubits above the highest Mountains of Religion and good Laws Yea would God I might not say that which I fear and shame and grieve to say that even some of them which square the Ark for others have been inwardly drowned and discovered their nakednesse That other inundation scoured the World this impures it and what but a Deluge of Fire can wash it from so abominable silthinesse Let no Popish Eaves-dropper now smile to think what advantage I give by so deep a censure of our own Profession Alas these sins know no difference of Religions Would God they themselves were not rather more deep in these foul enormities We extenuate not our guilt whatever we sin we condemn it as mortal they palliate wickednesse with the fair pretence of Veniality Shortly They accuse us we them God both But where am I How easie is it for a man to lose himself in the sins of the time It is not for me to have my habitation in these black Tents let me passe through them running Where can a man cast his eye not to see that which may vex his Soul Here Bribery and Corruption in the seats of Judicature there Perjuries at the Bar here Partiality and unjust Connivency in Magistrates there disorder in those that should be Teachers here Sacriledge in Patrons there Simoniacal contracts in unconscionable Levites here bloody Oaths and Execrations there scurril Prophanenesse here Cozening in bargains there breaking of Promises here perfidious Underminings there flattering Supparasitations here Pride in both Sexes but especially the weaker there Luxury and Wantonnesse here contempt of Gods Messengers there neglect of his Ordinances and violation of his Daies The time and my breath would sooner fail me then this wofull Bed-roll of wickednesse Yet alas were these the sins of Ignorance of Infirmity they might be more worthy of pity then hatred But oh the high hand of our presumptuous offences We draw iniquity with the strings of vanity up to the head up to the eare and shoot up these hatefull shafts against Heaven Did we sit in darknesse and the shadow of death as too many Pagan and Popish Regions do these works of darknesse would be lesse intolerable but now that the beams of the glorious Gospel have shined thus long thus bright in our faces Oh me what can we plead against our own confusion O Lord where shall we appear when thy very Mercies aggravate our Sins and thy Judgments How shouldst thou expect fruit from a Vineyard so chosen so husbanded and woe worth our wretchednesse that have thus repai'd thee Be confounded in thy self O my Soul be confounded to see these deplored retributions Are these grapes for a God Do ye thus requite the Lord O foolish people and unjust Hath he for this made us the mirrour of his Mercies to all the World that we should so shamefully turn his graces into wantonnesse Are these the fruits of his Choice his Fencing his Reforming his Planting his Watch-tower his Winepresse O Lord the great and dreadfull God keeping the covenants and mercies to them that love thee we have sinned and committed iniquity and have rebelled by departing from thy precepts and from thy Judgments O Lord righteousnesse belongeth to thee but unto us confusion of faces as at this day We know we acknowledge how just it may be with thee to pull up our Hedges to break down our Wall to root up our Vine to destroy and depopulate our Nation to make us the scorn and Proverb of all Generations But O our God Let thine anger and thy fury be turned away from thy Jerusalem thy holy mountain O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and doe Defer not for thine own sake O our God for thy City and thy people are called by thy Name But alas what speak I of not deferring to a God of mercy who is more forward to give then we to crave and more loath to strike then we to smart and when he must strike complains Why will ye die O house of Israel Let me rather turn this speech to our selves the delay is ours Yet it is not too late either for our return or his mercies The Decree is not to us gone forth till it be executed As yet our Hedge stands our Wall is firm our Vine grows These sharp monitions these touches of Judgment have been for our warning not for our ruine Who knows if he will not return and yet leave a Blessing behinde him Oh that we could turn unto him with all our heart with Fasting and with weeping and with mourning Oh that we could truly and effectually abandon all those abominable Sins that have stirred up the Anger of our God against us and in this our day this day of our solemn Humiliation renew the Vows of our holy and conscionable obedience Lord God it must be thou onely that must doe it Oh strike thou our flinty hearts with a sound remorse and melt them into tears of penitence for all our sins Convert us unto thee and we shall be converted Lord hear our Prayers and regard our tears and reform our Lives and remove thy Plagues and renew thy loving countenance and continue and adde to thine old mercies Lord affect us with thy favours humble us for our sins terrifie us with thy Judgments that so thou maist hold on thy favours and forgive our sins and remove thy Judgments even for the Son of thy Love Jesus Christ the righteous To whom c. Postscript SInce it seemed good to that Great Court to call this poor Sermon amongst others of greater worth into the publick light I have thus submitted to their pleasure And now for that they pleased to bid so high a rate as their Command for that mean piece I do willingly give this my other Statue into the bargain This work preceded some little in time that which it now follows in place not without good reason Authority sends forth that this Will and my Will hath learned ever to give place to Authoritie Besides my
subduction thus Save thy self from a froward generation The last and utmost of all dangers is Confusion That charge of God by Moses is but just Numb 16. 26. Depart I pray you from the tents of these men and touch nothing of theirs lest ye perish in all their sins Lo the very station the very touch is mortal Indeed what reason is there to hope or to plead for an immunity if we share in the work why should we not take part of the wages The wages of sin is death If the Stork be taken damage faisant with the Cranes she is enwrapped in the same net and cannot complain to be surprized Qui cum lupis est cum lupis ululet as he said He that is with wolves let him howl with wolves If we be fratres in malo brethren in evil we must look to be involved in the same curse Be not deceived Honourable and beloved here is no exemption of Greatness nay contrarily Eminence of place aggravates both the sin and the judgement When Ezra heard that the hand of the Princes and Rulers had been chief in that great offence then he rent his cloaths and tore his hair Ezra 9. 3. Certainly this case is dangerous and fearful wheresoever it lights Hardly are those sins redressed that are taken up by the Great Easily are those sins diffused that are warranted by great Examples The great Lights of Heaven the most conspicuous Planets if they be eclipsed all the Almanacks of all Nations write of it whereas the small Stars of the Galaxy are not heeded All the Country runs to a Beacon on fire no body regards to see a Shrub flaming in a valley Know then that your sins are so much greater as your selves are and all the comfort that I can give you without your true repentance is That mighty men shall be mightily tormented Of all other men therefore be ye most careful to keep your selves untainted with the common sins and to renew your covenant with God No man cares for a spot upon a plain russet riding-suit but we are curious of a rich robe every mote there is an eye-sore Oh be ye careful to preserve your Honour from all the foul blemishes of corruption as those that know Vertue hath a greater share in Nobility then Blood Imitate in this the great frame of the Creation which still the more it is removed from the dregs of this earth the purer it is Oh save ye your selves from this untoward Generation so shall ye help to save your Nation from the imminent Judgements of our just God so shall ye save your Souls in the day of the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost one infinite God be all Honour and Glory ascribed now and for ever Amen THE HYPOCRITE Set forth in A SERMON at the Court February 28. 1629. Being the third Sunday in LENT By Jos. Exon. To my ever most worthily Honour'd Lord the Earl of NORWICH My most Honoured Lord I Might not but tell the world that this Sermon which was mine in the Pulpit is Yours in the Press Your Lordship's will which shall never be other then a command to me fetches it forth into the Light before the fellows Let me be branded with the Title of it if I can think it worthy of the publick view in comparison of many accurate pieces of others which I see content themselves daily to die in the ear Howsoever if it may doe good I shall bless your Lordship for helping to advance my gain Your Noble and sincere true-heartedness to your God your King your Countrey your Friend is so well known that it can be no disparagement to your Lordship to patronize this Hypocrite whose very inscription might cast a blur upon some guilty reputation Goe on still most noble Lord to be a great Example of Vertue and Fidelity to an hollow and untrusty Age. You shall not want either the Acclamations or Prayers of Your Lordships ever devoted in all true Duty and Observance Jos. Exon. THE HYPOCRITE 2 Tim. 3. 5. Having a Form of Godliness but denying the Power thereof IT is an unperfect Clause you see but a perfect Description of an Hypocrite and that an Hypocrite of our own times the last which are so much the worse by how much they partake more of the craft and diseases of age The Prophets were the Seers of the Old Testament the Apostles were the Seers of the New those saw Christ's day and rejoyced these foresaw the reign of Antichrist and complained These very times were as present to S. Paul as to us our Sense doth not see them so clearly as his Revelation I am with you in the Spirit saith he to his absent Colossians rejoycing and beholding your order he doth as good as say to them I am with you in the Spirit lamenting and beholding your misdemeanours By these Divine Opticks he sees our formal Piety real Wickedness both which make up the complete Hypocrisie in my Text Having a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof I doubt not but some will be ready to set this sacred Prognostication to another Meridian And indeed we know a Generation that loves themselves too well much more then Peace and Truth so covetous that they would catch all the world in S. Peter's net proud boasters of their own merits perfections supererogations it would be long though easie to follow all We know where too many Treasons are hatched we know who in the height of minde exalts himself above all that is called God we know where pleasure hath the most delicate and debauch'd Clients we know where Devotion is professedly formal and lives impure and surely were we clearly innocent of these crimes I should be the first that would cast this stone at Rome But now that we share with them in these sins there is no reason we should be sejoyned in the Censure Take it among ye therefore ye Hypocrites of all professions for it is your own Ye have a form of Godliness denying the power thereof What is an Hypocrite but a Player the Zani of Religion as ye heard lately A Player acts that he is not so do ye act good and are wicked Here is a semblance of good a form of Godliness here is a real evil a denial of the power of Godliness There is nothing so good as Godliness yea there is nothing good but it nothing makes Godliness to be good or to be Godliness but the power of it for it is not if it work not and it works not if not powerfully Now the denial of good must needs be evil and so much more evil as the good which is denied is more good and therefore the denial of the power of Godliness must needs be as ill as the form or shew of Godliness would seem good and as the power of Godliness is good This is therefore the perfect Hypocrisie of fashionable Christians they have the form they deny the
no other no better then beast as if according to that old foolish Heresie God had not made both There are those whose hands are white and clean from bribes from extortion but their feet are yet swift to shed blood upon their own private revenge Let not these men say they are transformed Let the first say their face is changed let the next say their tongue is changed let the other say their breasts or hands are changed but unlesse face and tongue and breast and hand and foot and all be changed the man is not changed God be mercifull to us the world is full of such monsters of Hypocrisie who care onely for an appearing change of some eminent and noted part neglecting the whole as some sorry Tap-house white-limes and glazes the front towards the street and sets out a painted sign when there is nothing in the inward parts but sticks and clay and ruines and cold earthen floors and fluttery This is to no purpose If any piece of us be unchanged we are still our old selves odious to God obnoxious to death But as all motions have their termes what is that into which we must be transformed I see transformations enough every where God knows too many I see zealous Professors transformed to key-cold worldlings reformed Catholicks turn'd to Romish Factionists I see men transformed into women in their effeminate dispositions and demeanours women transform'd to men in their affectation of masculine boldness and fashions I see men and women transform'd into Beasts of all kindes some into drunken Swine others into cruell Tigers others into ranck Goats others into mimick Apes yea I see those beasts transform'd again into Devils in the delight they take in sin in their mischievous tempting of others to sin All these are transformed so as it is from good to ill from bad to worse so transformed that as Cypran said of painted faces it is no marvell if God know them not for they have made themselves quite other from what he made them That whereinto we must be transformed is the image of God 2 Cor. 3. 18. consisting in holinesse and righteousness Ephes 4. 24. That Image we once had and lost and now must recover by our transformation Oh blessed change that of the Sons of men we become the children of the ever-living God of the firebrands of hell such we are naturally we become the heirs of Heaven That as the eternal Son of God having the form of God did yet graciously change this glorious habit for the form of a servant so we that are the sons of men should change the servile form of our wretched nature into the Divine form of the Son of God! This is a change not more happy then needfull It was another change that Job said he would wait for but of this change we must say I will not suffer mine eyes to sleep nor mine eye-lids to slumber untill an happy change have wrought this heart of mine which by Nature is no better then a stie of unclean devils to be an habitation for the God of Jacob. Wo be to the man whose last change overtakes him ere this change be wrought in him There is nothing more wretched then a mere man We may brag what we will how noble a creature man is above all the rest how he is the Lord of the world a world within himself the mirrour of Majesty the visible model of his Maker but let me tell you if we be but men it had been a thousand times better for us to have been the worst of beasts Let it not seem to savour of any Misanthropie to say that as all those things which are perfections in creatures are eminently in God so all the vicious dispositions of the creature are eminently in man in that debauch'd and abused Reason is the quintessence of all Bestialitie What speak I of these silly brutes In this streight triangle of man's Heart there is a full Conclave of Cardinal wickednesses an Incorporation of Cheaters a Goal of Malefactors yea a legion of Devils Seest thou then the most loathsome Toad that crawls upon the earth or the most despised Dog that creeps under thy feet thou shalt once envy their condition if thou be not more then a man Thou seest the worst of them thou canst not conceive the worst of thine own For flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdome of God and fores canes without shall be Dogs Revel 22. 15. When they shall be vanished into their first nothing thou shalt be ever dying in those unquenchable flames which shall torment thee so much the more as thou hadst more Wit and Reason without Grace But oh what a wofull thing it is to consider and how may we bemone our selves to Heaven and earth that yet men will not be transformed All the menaces all the terrors of God cannot move men from what they are but he that is filthy will be filthy still In spight of both Law and Gospel men have obdured their selves against the counsel of God they have an iron neck Esa 48. 4. an uncircumcised care Jer. 6. 10. a brawny heart Mark 3. 5. Say God and man what they will these enchanted creatures will rather be beasts still then return to men If we will not change be sure God will not He hath said it and he will perform it After thine hardness and heart that cannot repent thou treasurest up unto thy self wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God Rom. 2. 5. Far far be this obstinacy from us Honorable and beloved For God's sake for your Souls sake yield your selves willingly into the hands of God and say Convert me O Lord and I shall be converted As we love our selves and fear hell let us not content our selves with the shape with the faculties of men but let us be transformed and think that we were only made men that we might passe through the estate of humanity to Regeneration This for the Transformation See now that this transformation must be by Renewing The same Spirit that by Solomon said There is nothing new under the Sun saith by S. Paul All things are become new Nothing is so new that it hath not been All things must be so new as they were This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 renovation implies that which once was and therefore was new before That God who is the Antient of daies doth not dislike any thing for mere Age for Time is his and continuance of Time is so much more excellent as it comes nearer to the duration of Eternity Old age is a crown of glory Neither is ought old in relation to God but to us neither is age faulty in respect of Nature but of corruption for as that word of Tertullian is true Primum verum the first is true so may I as truly say Primum bonum the first is good Only now as our Nature stands depraved our Old man is the body of corruptions which
thou suffer the world to be deluded with these foul and pernicious impostures how long shall thy Church groan under the heavie yoke of their sinful impositions O thou that art the great Shepherd look down and visit thy wandring flock and at last let loose those silly sheep of thine that are fast intangled in the briars of Antichristian exaction And we why do not we as heartily labour to reclaim them as they to withdraw us why should they burn with zeal whiles we freeze with indifferency Oh let us spend our selves in prayers in tears in perswasions in unweariable endevours for the happy conversion of those ignorant mis-guided souls who having not our knowledge yet shame our affections Of Indignation lastly as on the one side at those practical revolters that having begun in the spirit will needs end in the flesh that having made a shew of godliness deny the power of it in their lives returning with that impure beast to their own vomit so on the other at those speculative relapsers that have out of policy or guiltiness abandoned a known and received truth Pity is for those silly creatures that could never be blessed with Divine Reason and upright formes but for a Gryllus that was once a man to quit his humanity and to be in love with four feet what stomack can but rise at so affected a transformation The Cameleon is for a time beautiful with all pleasing varieties of colours in the end no skin is more nasty Wo is me the swept house is repossessed with seven Devils This recidivation is desperate although indeed there would not be a revolt without an inward unsoundness Do ye see an apple fall untimely from the tree view it ye shall finde it worm-eaten else it had held Avolent quantum volent paleoe istae levis fidei as that Father said Let this light chaffe flie whither it will it shews it to be but chaffe God's heap shall be so much the purer and in the mean time what do they make themselves fit for but the fire What shall we say to these absurd changes Our fore-fathers thought themselves in Heaven when first the bright beams of the Gospel brake forth in their eyes and shall we like those fond subterraneous people that Rubruquis speaks of curse those glorious beams of the Sun now risen up to us and lay our eares close to the ground that we may not hear the harmony of that motion Our Fathers blessed themselves in this Angelical Manna and shall our mouths hang towards the onions and garlick of Aegypt Revertimini filii aversantes Return ye backsliding children return to the fountains of living waters which ye have exchanged for your broken cisternes Recordamini priorum as Esay speaks 46. 9. But if their will do lie still in their way it were happy for them if authority would deal with them as confident riders do with a startling horse spur them up and bring them back to the block they leap'd from But if still their obstinacy will needs in spight of contrary endeavours feoffe them in the style of filii desertores it is a fearfull word that God speaks to them Vae eis quoniam vagantur à me Wo to them for they have wandered from me Ose 7. 13. Now the God of Heaven reclaim them confirm us save both them and us in the day of the Lord Jesus to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost one infinite God be given all Praise Honour and Glory now and for ever Amen St. PAUL'S COMBAT THE SECOND PART 1 Cor. 15. 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I Have carried you into S. Paul's Theatre at Ephesus I have shew'd you his Beasts you must now see his Fight It was his charge to Timothy that he should be an example know then that what he bids he practises It is an exemplary combat which S. Paul fought and that wherein we must follow him as Teachers as Christians Here he saies I have fought afterwards in imitation of him that saw his own works and approved them he saies I have fought a good fight doubtless as with principalities and powers elsewhere so even with these beasts at Ephesus Let it please you to see first the person of the combatant then secondly the manner of the fight In the former ye may not look at S. Paul as a common souldier but as a selected Champion of God not merely as Paul but as an Apostle as a publick person as the spiritual Leader of God's people so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have fought with beasts There is no trained man in the whole troup of God but must have his bout with the beasts of the Time Vita hominis militia super terram we are here in a militant Church As we have all received our press-money in Baptisme so we must every one according to our ingagement maintain this fight against the world But if a man be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Paul singled out to a publick calling now he must think himself made for combats because for victories for Bellum durius contra victores as Gregory speaketh It was the charge of the Apostle that a Bishop should be no striker and Clericus percussor is an old brand of irregularity But if in this kind he strike not I must say of him as S. Paul to Ananias God shall smite thee thou whited wall All his whole life must be spent in these blows he must be as Jeremy speaks of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man of strife and contention there is no beast comes in his way but he must have a fling at him When Gregory Nazianzen speaks of Basil designed to the Bishoprick of Caesarea If any man saith he pretend his weakness non athletem sed doctorem creabitis But in this spiritual sense if he be a Doctor in the Chair he must be a Champion in the Theatre No S. Martin may plead here I am Christs Souldier I may not fight yea therefore must he fight because he is Christs Souldier Whosoever then would be a fit combatant for God to enter into these lists against the beasts of the world must be a S. Paul in proportion so must he be a follower of him as he is of Christ Will it please you to see him first qualified then armed Qualified first with Holiness Skill Courage Holiness For he must be a man of God and as the Apostle charges 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 irreprehensible otherwise he is a beast himself and had need of some body to bait him Wo be to those Champions of God that take upon them to wield the sword of the Spirit with unclean hands That divine weapon is not so fit to wound any as their own Souls Ex ore tuo serve nequam Let me say truly It were an happy and hopeful thing that even our external and secular Wars should be managed with pure and innocent hands I shall tell you that which perhaps few of you have either
is but either private or unnecessary and uncertain Oh that whiles we sweat and bleed for the maintenance of these oracular Truths we could be perswaded to remit of our Heat in the pursuit of Opinions These these are they that distract the Church violate our peace scandalize the weak advantage our enemies Fire upon the Hearth warms the Body but if it be misplaced burns the House My brethren let us be Zealous for our God every hearty Christian will pour Oyle and not Water upon this holy flame But let us take heed lest a blind self-love stiffe prejudice and factious partiality impose upon us in stead of the causes of God Let us be suspicious of all New Verities and careless of all unprofitable and let us hate to think our selves either wiser then the Church or better then our Superiours And if any man think that he sees further then his fellows in these Theological prospects let his tongue keep the counsel of his eyes left whiles he affects the fame of deeper learning he embroile the Church and raise his glory upon the publick ruines And ye worthy Christans whose Souls God hath entrusted with our spiritual Guardianship be ye alike minded with your Teachers The motion of their tongues lies much in your eares your modest desires of receiving needful and wholesome Truths shall avoid their labour after frivolous and quarrelsome Curiosities God hath blessed you with the reputation of a wise and knowing people In these Divine matters let a meek Sobriety set bounds to your inquiries Take up your time and hearts with Christ and Him crucified with those essential Truths which are necessary to Salvation leave all curious disquisitions to the Schools and say of those Problems as the Philosopher did of the Athenian shops How many things are here that we have no need of Take the nearest cut you can ye shall find it a side-way to Heaven ye need not lengthen it with undue circuitions I am deceived if as the times are ye shall not find work enough to bear up against the oppositions of professed hostility It is not for us to squander our thoughts and hours upon useless janglings wherewith if we suffer our selves to be still taken up Satan shall deal with us like some crafty Cheater who whiles he holds us at gaze with tricks of jugling picks our pockets Dear Brethren whatever become of these worthless driblets be sure to look well to the free-hold of your Salvation Errour is not more busie then subtile Superstition never wanted sweet insinuations make sure work against these plausible dangers Suffer not your selves to be drawn into the net by the common stale of the Church Know that outward Visibility may too well stand with an utter exclusion from Salvation Salvation consists not in a formalitie of Profession but in a Soundness of Belief A true body may be full of mortall diseases So is the Roman Church of this day whom we have long pitied and labored to cure in vain If she will not be healed by us let us not be infected by her Let us be no less jealous of her contagion then she is of our remedies Hold fast that precious Truth which hath been long taught you by faithful Pastors confirmed by clear evidences of Scriptures evinced by sound Reasons sealed up by the blood of our blessed Martyrs So whiles no man takes away the crown of your constancie ye shall be our Crown and rejoycing in the day of our Lord Jesus to whose all-sufficient Grace I commend you all and vow my self Your common Servant in him whom we all rejoice to serve JOS. EXON The Contents CHAP. I. THE extent of the Differences betwixt the Churches Pag. 375 CHAP. II. The Original of the Differences 376 CHAP. III. The Reformed unjustly charged with Noveltie Heresie Schisme 378 CHAP. IV. The Romane Church guilty of this Schisme 380 CHAP. V. The Newness of the Article of Justification by inherent Righteousness 381 Sect. 2. This Doctrine proved to be against Scripture 383 Sect. 3. Against Reason 384 CHAP. VI. The Newness of the Doctrine of Merit 385 Sect. 2. Against Scripture 386 Sect. 3. Against Reason ibid. CHAP. VII The Newness of the Doctine of Transubstantiation 387 Sect. 2. Against Scripture 389 Sect. 3. Against Reason 390 CHAP. VIII The Newness of the Half-Communion 391 Sect. 2. Against Scripture 392 Sect. 3. Against Reason ibid. CHAP. IX The Newness of Missal Sacrifice 393 Sect. 2. Against Scripture ibid. Sect. 3. Against Reason 394 CHAP. X. The Newness of Image-Worship ibid. Sect. 2. Against Scripture 396 Sect. 3. Against Reason 397 CHAP. XI The Newness of Indulgences and Purgatory ibid. Sect. 2. Against Scripture 399 Sect. 3. Against Reason 400 CHAP. XII The Newness of Divine Service in an unknown tongue ibid. Sect. 2. Against Scripture 402 Sect. 3. Against Reason ibid. CHAP. XIII The Newness of a full forced Sacramental Confession 403 Sect. 2. Not warranted by Scripture 404 Sect. 3. Against Reason ibid. Sect. 4. The Novelty of Absolution before Satisfaction 405 CHAP. XIV The Newness of the Romish Invocation of Saints ibid. Sect. 2. Against Scripture 406 Sect. 3. Against Reason 407 CHAP. XV. The Newness of Seven Sacraments 408 Sect. 2. Besides Scripture 409 Sect. 3. Against Reason ibid. CHAP. XVI The Newness of the Romish Doctrine of Traditions ibid. Sect. 2. Against Scripture 411 Sect. 3. Against Reason 412 CHAP. XVII The Newness of the universal Headship of the Bishop of Rome ibid. Sect. 2. The Newness of challenged Infallibility 414 Sect. 3. The Newness of the Popes Superiorities to Councils 415 Sect. 4. The new presumption of Papal Dispensation ibid. Sect. 5. The new challenge of popes domineering over Kings and Emperours 416 CHAP. XVIII The Epilogue both of Exhortation and Apologie 417 THE OLD RELIGION CHAP. I. The extent of the Differences betwixt the Churches THE first blessing that I daily beg of my God for his Church is our Saviours Legacy Peace that sweet Peace which in the very name of it comprehends all happiness both of estate and disposition As that Mountain whereon Christ ascended though it abounded with Palms and Pines and Myrtles yet it carried onely the name of Olives which have been an ancient Embleme of Peace Other Graces are for the Beauty of the Church this for the Health and Life of it For howsoever even Wasps have their Combes and Hereticks their Assemblies as Tertullian so as all are not of the Church that have Peace yet so essential is it to the Church in S. Chrysostome's opinion that the very name of the Church implies a consent and concord No marvel then if the Church labouring here below make it her daily suit to her glorious Bridegroom in Heaven Da pacem Give Peace in our time O Lord. The means of which happiness are soon seen not so soon attained even that which Hierome hath to his Ruffinus Una fides Let our Belief-be but one and our hearts will be but
and Binnius fall foul upon it with a facilè inducimur c. we are easily induced to believe it to be a lie Their ground is that it is destitute of all testimony of Antiquity and besides that it doth directly cross the report of Beda who tels us that our English together with the Gospel received that use of Images from their Apostle Augustine and therefore needed not any new Vision for the entertainment thereof Let us enquire then a little into the words of Beda At illi but they Augustine and his fellows non daemoniaca c. came armed not with the power of Devils but of God bearing a silver Cross for their Standard and the Image of our Lord and Saviour painted in a Table and singing Letanies both for the Salvation of themselves and of them whom they came to convert Thus he This shews indeed that Augustine and his fellows brought Images into England unknown here before a point worthy of good observation but how little this proves the allowed Worship of them will easily appear to any Reader if he consider that Gregory the first and Great was he that sent this Augustine into England whose judgement concerning Images is clearly published by himself to all the world in his fore-cited Epistle absolutely condemning their Adoration Augustine should have been an ill Apostle if he had herein gone contrary to the will of him that sent him if withal he shall consider that within the very same Century of years the Clergy of England by Bede's Scholar sent this publick declaration of their earnest disavowing both of the doctrine and practice of Image-worship Sect. 2. Image-worship against Scripture AS for Scripture we need not to goe further then the very Second Commandement the charge whereof is so inevitable that it is very ordinarily doubtless in the guiltiness of an apparent check left out in the devotional Books to the people Others since they cannot raze it out would fain limit it to the Jews pretending that this precept against the worship of Images was onely Temporal and Ceremonial and such as ought not to be in force under the Times of the Gospel Wherein they recal to my thoughts that which Epiphanius the son of Carpocrates answered when his Lust was checked with the command of Non concupisces True said he that is to be understood of the Heathen whose Wives and Sisters we may not indeed lust after Some more modest spirit are ashamed of that shift and fly to the distinction of Idols and Images a distinction without a difference of their making not of Gods of whom we never learned other then that as every Idol is an Image of something so every Image worshipped turns Idol the Language differs not the thing it self To be sure God takes order for both Ye shall make you no Idol nor graven Image neither rear you up any standing image neither shall you sct up any image of stone in your Land to bow down to it Yea as their own Vulgar turns it Non facies tibi c. statuam Thou shalt not set thee up a Statue which God hateth The Book of God is full of his indignation against this practice We may well shut up all with that curse in Mount Geresim Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image an abomination unto the Lord the work of the hands of the craftsman and putteth it in a secret place And all the people shall say Amen Surely their Durandus after he hath cited divers Scriptures against Idols as Exod. 20. Levit. 26. Deut. 4. Numb 25 c. at last concludes Ex his similibus c. By these and the like authorities is condemned the too much use of Images Now because many eyes are bleared with a pretence of worshipping these not as Gods but as resemblances of God's friends let any indifferent man but read the Epistle of Jeremy Baruch 6. canonical to them though not to us and compare the estate and usage of those ancient Idols with the present Images of the Romane Church and if he do not find them fully parallel'd let him condemn our quarrel of injustice But we must needs think them hard driven for Scripture when they run for shelter under that Text which professedly taxeth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. in illicitis idolorum cultibus saith S. Peter in unlawfull Idolatries speaking of the Gentiles Therefore saith Valentia there is a lawfull worship of Idols As if that were an Epithet of favour which is intended to aggravation So he that should call Satan an unclean Devil should imply that some Devil is not unclean or deceivable lusts some lusts deceitlesse or hatefull wickedness some wickedness not hatefull The man had forgot that the Apostle spake of the heathenish Idolatrie wherein himself cannot plead any colour of lawfulnesse May this therefore befriend them to call Idolatrie abominable the Scripture is theirs neither can they look for any other countenance from those Sacred monuments Sect. 3. Against Reason WHat need we seek any other Reason of God's prohibition then his will and yet God himself hath given abundant reason of his prohibition of Images erected to himself To whom will ye liken God or what likeness will ye compare unto him Ye saw no manner of similitude in the day that the Lord spake to you in Horcb It is an high injury to the infinite and Spiritual nature of God to be resembled by bodily shapes And for the worship of Images erected to himself or his creature I am the Lord that is my name and my glory will I not give to another nor my praise to molten images The holy jealousie of the Almighty will not abide any of his honour divided with his creature and whatever worship more then mere humane is imparted to the creature sets it in rivaltie with our Maker The man is better then his picture and if religious worship will not be allowed to the Person of man or Angel how much lesse to his Image Not to man Saint Peter forbids it not to Angel himself forbids it What a madnesse then is it for a living man to stoop unto a dead stock unlesse as that Cynick had wont to speak unto statues to use himself to repulses This curtesie was too shamefull in the Pagans of old how much more intolerable in Christians And as for that last shift of this unlawfull devotion that they worship not the Image but by it the Person represented Haec à Paganis afferri solebat This saith Cassander out of the evidence of Arnobius Lactantius to whom he might have added Saint Augustine was the very evasion of the old Heathen Nec valebat tunc illa ratio Neither would this colour then serve how can it hope now to passe and finde allowance The Doctrine therefore and Practice of Image-worship as late as erroneous is justly rejected by us who
impregnable by the obstinacie of treacherie then strength of nature surrendred to the King and Saint Peter Neither is any so foolish as to ascribe this glorious Victory rather to happiness then to vertue By your long siege of many moneths you have taught us that Europe oweth your French Legions no lesse commendation for their constancy then for their expedition your Army going clear away with the Victory over your enemies by slighting all dangers and enduring all hardness devoteth their life unto You and promiseth You an absolute trimph of conquered Heresie The waters of the Ocean made a noise and were troubled fighting for the besieged Rebels they made choice of death rather then a surrender undermining treacherie approaching even to Your Majesties tents Hell all opened her mouth vomiting out troops of mischiess and dangers to the end so rich a Fort might not be taken away from their Impietie The Lord stood on thy right hand thou hast not onely overcome the forces of thine enemies but thou wert able also to put a bridle upon the Ocean aiding them Let us all give thanks to Almighty God who hath delivered thee from the contradictions of the unbelieving people Howbeit sith You are not ignorant with what care the fruits of victories ought to be preserved lest they perish there is no doubt but that in a short time all the remainder of the Hereticks that have got stable-room in the French Vineyard shall by You be utterly discomfited The Church desireth that this Diademe of perfect renown be put upon that helmet of Salvation wherewith the Lord mighty in battell seemeth to cover the head of Your Majestie for we believe shortly that all tumults being appeased in France the glistering Ensign of Lewis the Conqueror shall shine to the captive Daughter of Sion rehearsing the French Trophees and beholding the brightness of your lightning lance God who performeth the desire of them that fear him prosper our desires and the prayers of the Catholick Church Our Nuntio who was an eye-witness of Your Princely glory in your tents will be a faithfull Interpreter of our Pontificall gratulation to your Majestie on whom we most lovingly bestow our Apostolicall Benediction Given at Rome at S. Mary the greater under the Seal of the Fisher the eight and twentieth day of November in the year of our Lord 1628. and the sixth year of our Pontificate TO My much respected Friend Mr Doctor Primrose Pastor of the French Church in London and Chaplain to his most Excellent Majestie SIR OUR Friend Mr. Tourvall a Frenchman shewed me erewhile a Latine printed Epistle of Pope Urbane written as their manner is in a swelling and bloody style and lately sent to Lewis the French King wherein after the good Pope had loudly chaunted forth a song of Triumph for his Majesties Victory over Rochel abundantly congratulating both the King and Nation he thence proceeds in most barbarous manner to that bloody word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Smite Cast down earnestly urging and inforcing the utter extirpation of all the Hereticks as he calls them stabling in France When I had read it I could not contain my self but must suddenly vent mine indignation in these few lines I take up pen in hand therefore and do not meditate but pour forth this Answer Such as it is receive it Reverend Sir and peruse it and at your discretion give it either Light or Fire Farewell From your Friend JOS. EXON TO POPE URBAN THE EIGHTH JOSEPH Bishop of EXCESTER wisheth Right Wits and Charity WHY may not the meanest Bishop be bold to expostulate with a Pope I crave no leave neither need I I take our antient liberty I wis there was no such distance of old betwixt Rome and Eugubium or between my Ex and the chanell of Tiber. Hear now therefore Pope Urbane that which ere long thou shalt hear with horror and confusion of face before that dreadfull Tribunall of Christ These bloody blots of thine little beseem the Shepherd of a Christian Flock What is it for thee like a grim Herald to give the Summons to War Is it for thee to excite Christian Princes already too much gorged with blood to the profligation and fearfull slaughter of their own Subjects Were the Keyes for this cause committed to thy charge that thou shouldest open the Iron gates of War and the Pale gates of Death Tell me thou shadow of S. Peter didst thou take these French Protestants for Malchus whose ears while thou wouldst have cut off thy sword by a light mistake glanc'd upon their throats Or was it lately voiced to thee from heaven concerning these wretched Animals stabling in France Arise Pope Urbane Kill and eate Art thou the Pilot of the Churches peace and talkest of nothing but glittering helmets swords and spears instruments of war bloodshed What noise could the howling of the She-Wolf of thy Romulus have made if this direfull note of thine become the Bell-weather of S. Peter's fold Well since thou wilt bespaul bedribble the ashes of unhappy Rochel and scatter with thy disdainfull breath the despised dust of that forlorn City yet withall call to minde a little how not many Ages are past since the time was that the hereditary Sceptre of this thy now Lewis broke open the gates of Rome demolished the walls dispersed and slew the inhabitants and shut up thy great Predecessour laden with bitter scoffes and execrations in his blinde dungeon Neither shall many years run on again unlesse my presaging thoughts too much deceive me before the Angel shall shout forth and the amazed world shall congratulate the fall of thy Rochel's case shall ere long be thine own O thou most accursed City Blessed shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast rewarded us yea happy he that shall take thy little ones and dash out their brains against the stones In the mean time sport thy self at our miseries laugh at our tears make merry at our sighs sing at our groans and applaud our torments But know for all this there is a just avenger that looks down from his Heaven upon us whose rod we at once kisse and exspect his vengeance Plead thou our cause O God yea thine own only thine why should not our confident Innocence appeal to thy Judgment If there be any thing in the whole composure of our most Sacred Religion hitherto professed by us that hath issued out of the impure fountain of mans brain let it even perish with the authors yea let it utterly perish O Lord and be banished into that Hell whence it came But if we never dared to obtrude any Doctrine upon the Christian world but that alone wherewith thou didst of old inspire thy Prophets and Apostles and by those thine infallible pen-men didst faithfully deliver over to thine own people surely then either it must be our happiness to erre with thee the God of Truth or thou dost and wilt still ever maintain with us this thine only True and Evangelicall