shall forthwith pass from death to life If this kind of purgation will not serve them let them never hope to be released by other mens Prayers though they should continue therein unto the Worlds end He that cannot be saved by Faith in Christs Blood how shall he look to be delivered by mans Intercessions Hath God more respect to man on Earth than he hath to Christ in Heaven 1 John 2. If any man sin saith St. John we have an Advocate with the Father even Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins But we must take heed that we call upon this Advocate while we have space given us in this life lest when we are once dead there be no hope of Salvation left unto us For as every man sleepeth with his own cause so every man shall rise again with his own cause And look in what state he dieth in the same state he shall be also judged whether it be to Salvation or Damnation Let us not therefore dream either of Purgatory or of Prayer for the Souls of them that be dead but let us earnestly and diligently pray for them which are expresly commanded in Holy Scripture namely for Kings and Rulers for Ministers of Gods Holy Word and Sacraments for the Saints of this World otherwise called the Faithful to be short for all men living be they never so great Enemies to God and his People as Jews Turks Pagans Infidels Hereticks c. Then shall we truly fulfil the Commandment of God in that behalf and plainly declare our selves to be the true Children of our Heavenly Father who suffereth the Sun to shine upon the good and the bad and the rain to fall upon the just and the unjust For which and all other benefits most abundantly bestowed upon mankind from the beginning let us give him hearty thanks as we are most bound and praise his Name for ever and ever Amen AN HOMILY OF THE Place and Time OF PRAYER GOD through his Almighty Power Wisdom and Goodness created in the beginning Heaven and Earth the Sun the Moon the Stars the Fowls of the Air the Beasts of the Earth the Fishes in the Sea and all other Creatures for the use and commodity of Man whom also he had created to his own image and likeness and given him the use and government over them all to the end he should use them in such sort as he had given him in charge and commandment and also that he should declare himself thankful and kind for all those benefits so liberally and so graciously bestowed upon him utterly without any deserving on his behalf And although we ought at all times and in all places to have in remembrance and to be thankful to our gracious Lord according as it is written Psal 103. I will magnifie the Lord at all times And again Wheresoever the Lord beareth rule O my Soul praise the Lord Yet it appeareth to be Gods good will and pleasure that we should at special times and in special places gather our selves together to the intent his Name might be renowned and his glory set forth in the Congregation and Assembly of his Saints As concerning the time which Almighty God hath appointed his People to assemble together solemnly it doth appear by the fourth Commandment of God Remember saith God that thou keep holy the Sabbath Day Upon the which day as is plain in the Acts of the Apostles Acts 13. the People accustomably resorted together and heard diligently the Law and the Prophets read among them And albeit this Commandment of God doth not bind Christian People so straitly to observe and keep the utter Ceremonies of the Sabbath day as it was given unto the Jews as touching the forbearing of work and labour in time of great necessity and as touching the precise keeping of the Seventh day after the manner of the Jews For we keep now the First day which is our Sunday and make that our Sabbath that is our day of Rest in the honour of our Saviour Christ who as upon that day rose from death conquering the same most triumphantly Yet notwithstanding whatsoever is found in the Commandment appertaining to the Law of Nature as a thing most godly most just and needful for the setting forth of Gods glory it ought to be retained and kept of all good Christian People And therefore by this Commandment we ought to have a time as one day in the Week wherein we ought to rest yea from our lawful and needful works For like as it appeareth by this Commandment that no man in the six days ought to be slothful or idle but diligently to labour in that state wherein God hath set him Even so God hath given express charge to all men that upon the Sabbath day which is now our Sunday they should cease from all weekly and work-day labour to the intent that like as God himself wrought six days and rested the seventh and blessed and sanctified it and consecrated it to quietness and rest from labour even so Gods obedient People should use the Sunday holily and rest from their common and daily business and also give themselves wholly to Heavenly Exercises of Gods true Religion and Service So that God doth not only command the observation of this Holy Day but also by his own example doth stir and provoke us to the diligent keeping of the same Good natural Children will not only become obedient to the Commandment of their Parents but also have a diligent Eye to their doings and gladly follow the same So if we will be the Children of our Heavenly Father we must be careful to keep the Christian Sabbath day which is the Sunday not only for that it is Gods express Commandment but also to declare our selves to be loving Children in following the example of our gracious Lord and Father Thus it may plainly appear that Gods Will and Commandment was to have a solemn time and standing day in the Week wherein the People should come together and have in remembrance his wonderful benefits and to render him thanks for them as appertaineth to loving kind and obedient People This Example and Commandment of God the godly Christian People began to follow immediately after the Ascension of our Lord Christ and began to chuse them a standing day of the Week to come together in Yet not the seventh day which the Jews kept but the Lords day the day of the Lords Resurrection the day after the seventh day which is the first day of the Week Of the which day mention is made by St. Paul on this wise 1 Cor. 16. In the first day of the Sabbath let every man lay up what he thinketh good meaning for the Poor By the first day of the Sabbath is meant our Sunday which is the first day after the Jews seventh day And in the Apocalyps it is more plain whereas St. John saith I was in the Spirit upon the Lords
living They called and cryed to God for Help and Mercy with such a ceremony of Sackcloth Dust and Ashes that thereby they might declare to the whole World what an humble and lowly estimation they had of themselves and how well they remembred their Name and Title aforesaid their vile corrupt frail Nature Dust Earth and Ashes Sapi. 7. The Book of Wisdom also willing to pull down our proud Stomachs moveth us diligently to remember our mortal and earthly Generation which we have all of him that was first Made and that all Men as well Kings as Subjects come into this world and go out of the same in like sort that is as of ourselves full miserable as we may daily see And Almighty God commanded his Prophet Esay to make a Proclamation and cry to the whole World and Esay asking What shall I cry The Lord answered Cry That all Flesh is Grass Esay 40. and that all the Glory thereof is but as the Flower of the Field when the Grass is withered the Flower falleth away when the Wind of the Lord bloweth upon it The People surely is Grass the which dryeth up and the Flower fadeth away And the Holy Man Job Job 14. having in himself great experience of the miserable and sinful estate of Man doth open the same to the World in these words Man saith he that is born of a Woman living but a short time is full of manifold Miseries he springeth up like a Flower and fadeth again vanisheth away as it were a shadow and never continueth in one state And dost thou judge it meet O Lord to open thine Eyes upon such a one and to bring him to judgment with thee Who can make him clean that is conceived of an unclean Seed and all Men of their evilness and natural proneness be so universally given to Sin that as the Scripture saith God repented that ever he made Man And by Sin his Indignation was so much provoked against the World that he drowned all the World with Noes Flood Gen. 7. except Noe himself and his little Houshold It is not without great cause that the Scripture of God doth so many times call all Men here in this world by this Word Earth O thou Earth Jer. 22. Earth Earth saith Jeremy hear the word of the Lord. This our right Name Calling and Title Earth Earth Earth pronounced by the Prophet sheweth what we be indeed by whatsoever other Style Title or Dignity Men do call us Thus he plainly named us who knoweth best both what we be and what we ought of right to be called And thus he setteth us forth speaking by his faithful Apostle St. Paul All Men Jews and Gentiles are under sin there is none righteous no not one There is none that understandeth there is none that seeketh after God they are all gone out of the way they are all unprofitable there is none that doth good no not one Their throat is an open Sepulchre with their tongues they have used craft and deceit the poison of serpents is under their Lips their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood destruction and wretchedness are in their ways and the way of peace have they not known Rom. 11. Gal. 3. there is no fear of God before their eyes And in another place St. Paul writeth thus God hath wrapped all nations in unbelief that he might have mercy on all The Scripture shutteth up all under Sin Ephes 2. that the Promise by the Faith of Jesus Christ should be given unto them that believe St. Paul in many places painteth us out in our colours calling us the Children of the wrath of God when we be born saying also that we cannot think a good thought of ourselves much less can we say well or do well of ourselves And the Wise Man saith in the Book of Proverbs Prov. 24. The iust man falleth seven times a day The most tried and approved Man Job feared all his Works Luke 1. St. John the Baptist being Sanctified in his Mothers Womb and praised before he was Born being called an Angel and great before the Lord filled even from his Birth with the Holy Ghost the preparer of the way for our Saviour Christ and commended of our Saviour Christ to be more than a Prophet Matth. 3. and the greatest that ever was born of a Woman Yet he plainly granteth that he had need to be washed of Christ he worthily Extolleth and Glorifieth his Lord and Master Christ and Humbleth himself as unworthy to unbuckle his Shooes and giveth all Honour and Glory to God So doth S. Paul both oft and evidently confess himself what he was of himself ever giving as a most faithful Servant all Praise to his Master and Saviour So doth blessed St. John the Evangelist in the name of himself and of all other Holy Men be they never so just make this open Confession If we say we have no sin 1 Joh. 1. and 2. we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us If we acknowledge our sins God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness If we say we have not sinned we make him a lyar and his word is not in us Wherefore the Wise Man in the Book called Ecclesiastes maketh this true and general Confession Eccles 7. There is not one just man upon the Earth that doth good and sinneth not And David is ashamed of his sin but not to confess his sin Psal 51. How oft how earnestly and lamentably doth he desire God's great Mercy for his great Offences and that God should not enter into judgment with him Psal 113. And again How well weigheth this Holy Man his sins which he confesseth that they be so many in number and so hid and hard to understand that it is in a manner impossible to know utter Psal 19. or number them Wherefore he having a true earnest and deep Contemplation and Consideration of his sins and yet not coming to the bottom of them he maketh Supplication to God to forgive him his privy secret hid sins The knowledge of which he cannot attain unto He weigheth rightly his Sins from the Original root and Spring-head perceiving Inclinations Provocations Stirrings Stingings Buds Branches Dregs Infections Tastes Feelings and Scents of them to continue in him still Wherefore he saith Mark and Behold I was conceived in sins He saith not Sin Psal 51. but in the plural number Sins forasmuch as out of one as a Fountain spring all the rest Mark 10. Luke 18. Our Saviour Christ saith There is none good but God And that we can do nothing that is good without him nor can any man come to the Father but by him He commandeth us also to say that We be unprofitable servants John 15. Luke 17. when we have done all that we can do He preferreth the penitent
Wilt thou be without fear of the Power Do well then and so shalt thou be praised of the same for he is the Minister of God for thy wealth But and if thou do that which is evil then fear for he beareth not the Sword for nought for he is the Minister of God to take vengeance on him that doth evil Wherefore ye must needs obey not only for fear of vengeance but also because of conscience and even for this cause pay ye tribute for they are God's Ministers serving for the same purpose Here let us learn of St. Paul the chosen Vessel of God that all Persons having Souls he excepteth none nor exempteth none neither Priest Apostle nor Prophet saith St. Chrysostom do owe of bounden Duty and even in Conscience Obedience Submission and Subjection to the higher Powers which be set in autho ty by God forasmuch as they be God's Lieutenants God's Presidents God's Officers God's Commissioners God's Judges ordained of God himself of whom only they have all their Power and all their Authority And the same St. Paul threatneth no less pain than everlasting damnation to all disobedient persons to all resisters against this general and common Authority forasmuch as they resist not Man but God not Man's device and invention but God's Wisdom God's Order Power and Authority The Second Part of the Sermon of Obedience FOrasmuch as God hath created and disposed all things in a comly order we have been taught in the First Part of the Sermon concerning good Order and Obedience that we ought also in all Commonweals to observe and keep a due order and to be obedient to the Powers their Ordinances and Laws and that all Rulers are appointed of God for a goodly Order to be kept in the World And also how the Magistrates ought to learn how to Rule and Govern according to God's Laws And that all Subjects are bound to obey them as God's Ministers yea although they be evil not only for fear but also for Conscience sake And here good People let us all mark diligently that it is not lawful for Inferiors and Subjects in any case to resist and stand against the Superior Powers For S. Paul's words be plain that whosoever withstandeth shall get to themselves damnation for whosoever withstandeth withstandeth the Ordinance of God Our Saviour Christ himself and his Apostles received many and divers injuries of the unfaithful and wicked Men in Authority yet we never read that they or any of them caused any Sedition or Rebellion against Authority We read oft that they patiently suffered all troubles vexations slanders pangs and pains and death itself obediently without tumult or resistance They committed their Cause to him that judgeth righteously and prayed for their Enemies heartily and earnestly They knew that the Authority of the Powers was God's Ordinance and therefore both in their Words and Deeds they taught ever Obedience to it and never taught nor did the contrary The wicked Judge Pilate said to Christ Knowest thou not that I have power to crucifie thee and have power also to loose thee Jesus answered Thou couldst have no power at all against me except it were given thee from above Whereby Christ taught us plainly that even the wicked Rulers have their Power and Authority from God and therefore it is not lawful for their Subjects to withstand them although they abuse their Power Much less then is it lawful for Subjects to withstand their Godly and Christian Princes which do not abuse their Authority but use the same to God's Glory and to the Profit and Commodity of God's People 1. Pet. 2. The Holy Apostle Peter commandeth Servants to be obedient to their Masters not only if they be good and gentle but also if they be evil and froward Affirming that the Vocation and Calling of God's People is to be Patient and of the suffering side And there he bringeth in the Patience of our Saviour Christ to persuade Obedience to Governors yea although they be wicked and wrong-doers But let us now hear St. Peter himself speak for his words certifie best our Conscience thus he uttereth them in his first Epistle Servants 1 Pet. 2. obey your Masters with fear not only if they be good and gentle but also if they be froward For it is thank-worthy if a man for Conscience toward God endureth grief and suffer wrong undeserved For what praise is it when ye be beaten for your faults if ye take it patiently But when ye do well if you then suffer wrong and take it patiently then is there cause to have thank of God for hereunto verily were ye called For so did Christ suffer for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps All these be the very words of St. Peter 1 Kings 1â— 19 20. Holy David also teacheth us a good Lesson in this behalf who was many times most cruelly and wrongfully persecuted of King Saul and many times also put in jeopardy and danger of his Life by King Saul and his People yet he neither withstood neither used any force or violence against King Saul his mortal and deadly enemy but did ever to his Liege Lord and Master King Saul most true most diligent and most faithful Service Insomuch that when the Lord God had given King Saul into David's hands in his own Cave he would not hurt him when he might without all Bodily peril easily have slain him no he would not suffer one of his Servants once to lay their hand upon King Saul but prayed to God on this wise Lord keep me from doing that thing upon my Master the Lord 's Anointed keep me that I lay not my hand upon him seeing he is the Anointed of the Lord For as truly as the Lord liveth except the Lord smite him or except his day come or that he go down to War and perish in Battel the Lord be merciful unto me that I lay not my hands upon the Lords Anointed And that David might have killed his Enemy King Saul it is evidently proved in the first Book of the Kings both by the cutting off the lap of Saul's Garment and also by plain Confession of King Saul Also another time as is mentioned in the same Book when the most unmerciful and most unkind King Saul did persecute poor David God did again give Saul into David's hands by casting of King Saul and his whole Army into a dead sleep so that David and one Abisai with him came in the night into Saul's Host where Saul lay sleeping and his Spear stuck in the ground at his Head Then said Abisai unto David God hath delivered thine Enemy into thine hands at this time now therefore let me smite him once with my spear to the earth and I will not smite him again the second time meaning thereby to have killed him with one stroke and to have made him sure for ever And David answered and said to Abisai Destroy him not for who
can lay his hands on the Lords anointed and be guiltless And David said furthermore As sure as the Lord liveth the Lord shall smite him or his day shall come to die or he shall descend or go down into Battel and there perish the Lord keep me from laying my hands upon the Lord 's anointed But take thou now the spear that is at his head and the cruse of Water and let us go And so he did Here is evidently proved that we may not withstand nor in any ways hurt an anointed King which is God's Lieutenant Vicegerent and highest Minister in that Country where he is King But peradventure some here would say that David in his own defence might have killed King Saul lawfully An Objection and with a safe Conscience But holy David did know than he might in no wise withstand An Answer hurt or kill his Sovereign Lord and King He did know that he was but King Saul's Subject though he were in great favour with God and his Enemy King Saul out of God's favour Therefore though he were never so much provoked yet he refused utterly to hurt the Lord 's anointed He durst not for offending God and his own Conscience although he had occasion and opportunity once lay his hands upon God's high Officer the King whom he did know to be a Person reserved and kept for his Office sake only to God's Punishment and Judgment therefore he prayeth so oft and so earnestly that he lay not his hands upon the Lord 's anointed And by these two Examples Holy David being named in Scripture a Man after God's own Heart Psal 88. giveth a general Rule and Lesson to all Subjects in the World not to withstand their Liege Lord and King not to take a Sword by their private Authority against their King God's anointed who only beareth the Sword by God's Authority for the Maintenance of the good and for the Punishment of the evil who only by God's Law hath the use of the Sword at his command and also hath all Power Jurisdiction Regiment Correction and Punishment as Supreme Governor of all his Realms and Dominions and that even by the Authority of God and by God's Ordinances Yet another notable Story and Doctrine is in the second Book of the Kings that maketh also for this purpose When an Amalekite 2 Kings 1. by King Saul's own consent and Commandment had killed King Saul he went to David supposing to have had great Thanks for his Message that he had killed David's deadly Enemy and therefore he made great haste to tell to David the chance bringing with him King Saul's Crown that was upon his Head and his Bracelet that was upon his Arm to persuade his tidings to be true But Godly David was so far from rejoycing at this news that immediately and forthwith he rent his Cloaths off his Back he Mourned and wept and said to the Messenger How is it that thou wast not afraid to lay thy hands on the Lords anointed to destroy him And by and by David made one of his Servants to kill the Messenger saying Thy blood be on thine own head for thine own mouth hath testified and witnessed against thee granting that thou hast slain the Lords anointed These examples being so manifest and evident it is an intolerable ignorance madness and wickedness for Subjects to make any Murmuring Rebellion Resistance or withstanding Commotion or Insurrection against their most dear and most dread Sovereign Lord and King ordained and appointed of God's Goodness for their Commodity Peace and Quietness Yet let us believe undoubtedly good Christian People that we may not obey Kings Magistrates or any other though they be our own Fathers if they would command us to do any thing contrary to God's Commanments In such a case we ought to say with the Apostle Acts 7. We must rather obey God than man But nevertheless in that case we may not in any wise withstand violently or rebel against Rulers or make any Insurrection Sedition or Tumults either by force of Arms or otherwise against the Anointed of the Lord or any of his Officers But we must in such case patiently suffer all wrongs and injuries referring the Judgment of our Cause only to God Let us fear the terrible Punishment of Almighty God against Traytors and rebellious Persons by the Example of Korah Dathan and Abiram who repined and grudged against God's Magistrates and Officers and therefore the Earth opened and swallowed them up alive Others for their wicked Murmuring and Rebellion were by a sudden Fire sent down from God utterly consumed Others for their froward behaviour to their Rulers and Governors God's Ministers were suddenly striken with a foul Leprosie Others were stinged to death with wonderful strange fiery Serpents Others were sore plagued so that there were killed in one day 2 Kings 18. the Number of Fourteen thousand and seven hundred for Rebellion against them whom God had appointed to be in Authority Absalom also rebelling against his Father King David was punished with a strange and notable Death The Third Part of the Sermon of Obedience YE have heard before in this Sermon of good Order and Obedience manifestly proved both by the Scriptures and Examples that all Subjects are bound to obey their Magistrates and for no cause to resist or withstand or rebel or make any Sedition against them yea although they be wicked Men. And let no Man think that he can escape unpunished that committeth Treason Conspiracy or Rebellion against his Sovereign Lord the King though he commit the same never so secretly either in Thought Word or Deed never so privily in his privy Chamber by himself or openly communicating and consulting with others For Treason will not be hid Treason will out at length God will have that most detestable Vice both opened and punished for that it is so directly against his Ordinance and against his high Principal Judge and Anointed on Earth The Violence and Injury that is committed against Authority is committed against God the Commonweal and the whole Realm which God will have known and condignly or worthily punished one way or the other For it is notably written of the wise Man in Scripture Eccl. 10. in the Book called Ecclesiastes Wish the King no evil in thy Thought nor speak no hurt of him in thy privy chamber For the bird of the air shall betray thy voice and with her feathers shall bewray thy words These Lessons and Examples are written for our Learning Therefore let us all fear the most detestable vice of Rebellion ever knowing and remembring that he that resisteth or withstandeth common Authority resisteth or withstandeth God and his Ordinance as it may be proved by many other places of Holy Scripture And here let us take heed that we understand not these or such other like places which so straitly command Obedience to Superiours and so straitly punished Rebellion and Disobedience to the same to be
Acts 15. That when the Apostles and Elders with the whole Congregation were gathered together to pacifie the hearts of the faithful dwelling at Antioch which were disquieted through the false Doctrine of several Jewish Preachers they sent word to the Brethren That it seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to them to charge them with no more than with necessary things Among others they willed them to abstain from Idolatry and Fornication from which said they if you keep your selves ye shall do well Note here how these holy and blessed Fathers of Christ's Church would charge the Congregation with no more things than were necessary Mark also how among those things from the which they commanded the Brethren of Antioch to abstain Fornication and Whoredom are numbred It is therefore necessary by the determination and consent of the Holy Ghost and the Apostles and Elders with the whole Congregation that as from Idolatry and Superstition so likewise we must abstain from Fornication and Whoredom It is necessary unto Salvation to abstain from Idolatry So it is to abstain from Whoredom Is there any nigher way to lead unto damnation than to be an Idolater No even so neither is there any nearer way to damnation than to be a Fornicator and a Whoremonger Now where are those People which so lightly esteem breaking of Wedlock Whoredom Fornication and Adultery It is necessary saith the Holy Ghost the blessed Apostles the Elders with the whole Congregation of Christ it is necessary to Salvation say they to abstain from Whoredom If it be necessary unto Salvation then woe be to them which neglecting their Salvation give their Minds to so filthy and stinking a Sin to so wicked Vice and to such detestable abomination The Second Part of the Sermon against Adultery YOU have been taught in the First Part of this Sermon against Adultery how that Vice at this day reigneth most above all other Vices and what is meant by this word Adultery and how Holy Scripture dissuadeth or discounselleth from doing that filthy Sin and finally what corruption cometh to Man's Soul through the Sin of Adultery Now to proceed further let us hear what the blessed Apostle St. Paul saith to this matter writing to the Romans he hath these words Rom. 13. Let us cast away the Works of Darkness and put on the Armour of Light Let us walk honestly as it were in the day time not in eating and drinking neither in chambering and wantonness neither in strife and envying but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the Flesh to fulfil the Lusts of it Here the Holy Apostle exhorteth us to cast away the Works of Darkness which among other he calleth gluttonous eating drinking chambering and wantonness which are all Ministers unto that Vice and preparations to induce and bring in the filthy Sin of the Flesh He calleth them the Deeds and Works of Darkness not only because they are customably in Darkness John 3 Matth. 25. or in the night time for every one that doth evil hateth the Light neither cometh he to the Light lest his Works should be reproved but that they lead the right way unto that utter Darkness where weeping and gnashing of Teeth shall be Rom. 8. And he saith in another place of the same Epistle They that are in the Flesh cannot please God We are Debtors not to the Flesh that we should live after the Flesh for if ye live after the Flesh ye shall die 1. Cor. 6. Again he saith Flee from Whoredom for every Sin that a Man committeth is without his Body But whosoever committeth Whoredom sinneth against his own Body Do ye not know That your Members are the Temples of the Holy Ghost which is in you whom also ye have of God and ye are not your own For ye are dearly bought Glorifie God in your Bodies c. And a little before he saith Do ye not know That your Bodies are the Members of Christ Shall I then take the Members of Christ and make them the Members of a Whore God forbid Do ye not know That he which cleaveth to a Whore is made one Body with her There shall be two in one Flesh saith he but he that cleaveth to the Lord is one Spirit What godly Words doth the blessed Apostle St. Paul bring forth here to dissuade and discounsel us from Whoredom and Uncleanness Your Members saith he are the Temples of the Holy Ghost which whosoever doth defile Gâ—d will destroy him as saith St. Paul If we be the Temple of the Holy Ghost how unfitting then is it to drive that Holy Spirit from us through Whoredom and in his place to set the wicked Spirits of Uncleanness and Fornication and to be joined and do Service to them Ye are dearly bought saith he 1. Pet. 1. therefore glorifie God in your Bodies Christ that innocent Lamb of God hath bought us from the Servitude of the Devil not with corruptible Gold and Silver Esaiah 38. but with his most precious and dear heart blood To what intent That we should fall again into our old Uncleanness and abominable Living Luke 1. Nay verily But that we should serve him all the days of our Life in Holiness and Righteousness that we should glorifie him in our Bodies by purity and cleanness of Life He declareth also That our Bodies are the Members of Christ How unseemly a thing is it then to cease to be incorporate or imbodied and made one with Christ and through Whoredom to be enjoined and made all one with a Whore What greater dishonor or injury can we do to Christ than to take away from him the Members of his Body and to join them to Whores Devils and wicked Spirits And what more dishonor can we do to ourselves than through Uncleanness to lose so excellent a Dignity and Freedom and to become Bond-slaves and miserable Captives to the Spirits of Darkness Let us therefore consider First the Glory of Christ then our Estate our Dignity and Freedom wherein God hath set us by giving us his Holy Spirit and let us valiantly defend the same against Satan and all his crafty Assaults that Christ may be honored and that we lose not our Liberty or Freedom but still remain in one Spirit with him Eph. 5. Moreover in his Epistle to the Ephesians the blessed Apostle willeth us to be so pure and free from Adultery Fornication and all Uncleanness that we not once name them among us as it becometh Saints nor Filthiness nor foolish Talking nor Jesting which are not comely but rather giving of Thanks For this ye know saith he that no Whoremonger 1 Cor. 6. neither unclean Person or covetous Person which is an Idolater hath any Inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God And that we should remember to be holy pure and free from all Uncleanness the holy Apostle calleth us Saints because we are sanctified and made holy by the
convenient that the Scriptures of God and specially the Gospel of our Saviour Christ should be Read and Expounded unto us that be Christians in our Churches specially our Saviour Christ and his Apostles allowing this most godly and necessary usage and by their Examples confirming the same It is written in the Stories of the Gospel in divers places that Jesus went round about all Galilee Matth. 4. Mark 1. Luke 4. Matth. 13.20 Mark 6. Luke 13. Luke 4. teaching in their Synagogues and preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom In which places is his great diligence in continual Preaching and Teaching of the People most evidently set forth In Luke ye read how Jesus according to his accustomed use came into the Temple and how the Book of Isaiah the Prophet was delivered him how he read a Text therein and made a Sermon upon the same Luke 19. And in the Nineteenth is expressed how he Taught daily in the Temple And it is thus written in the Eighth of John John 8. John 18. Jesus came again early in the Morning into the Temple and all the People came unto him and he sate down and Taught them And in the Eighteenth of John our Saviour testifieth before Pilate that he spake openly unto the World and that he always Taught in the Synagogue and in the Temple whither all the Jews resorted and that secretly he spake nothing Luke 21. And in Saint Luke Jesus Taught in the Temple and all the People came early in the Morning unto him that they might hear him in the Temple Here ye see as well the diligence of our Saviour in teaching the Word of God in the Temple daily and specially on the Sabbath-days as also the readiness of the People resorting all together and that early in the Morning into the Temple to hear him The same Example of diligence in preaching the Word of God in the Temple shall ye find in the Apostles and the People resorting unto them Acts the Fifth Where the Apostles although they had been whipped and scourged the day before and by the High Priest commanded that they should preach no more in the Name of Jesus yet the day following they entred early in the Morning into the Temple and did not cease to teach and declare Jesus Christ And in sundry other places of the Story of the Acts Acts 13.15.17 ye shall find like diligence both in the Apostles in Teaching and in the People in coming to the Temple to hear Gods Word And it is testified in the First of Luke that when Zachary the Holy Priest Luke 1. and Father to John Baptist did Sacrifice within the Temple all the People stood without a long time praying such was their zeal and fervency at that time And in the Second of Luke appeareth what great Journeys Men Luke 2. Women yea and Children took to come to the Temple on the feast-Feast-day there to serve the Lord and specially the Example of Joseph the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother to our Saviour Jesus Christ and of our Saviour Christ himself being yet but a Child whose Examples are worthy for us to follow So that if we would compare our negligence in resorting to the House of the Lord there to serve him with the diligence of the Jews in coming daily very early somtimes by great Journeys to their Temple and when the multitude could not be received within the Temple the fervent zeal that they had was declared in standing long without and Praying We may justly in this Comparison condemn our slothfulness and negligence yea plain contempt in coming to the Lord's House standing so near unto us so seldom and scarcely at any time So far is it from a great many of us to come early in the Morning or give attendance without who disdain to come into the Temple And yet we abhor the very Name of the Jews when we hear it as of a most wicked and ungodly People But it is to be feared that in this point we be far worse than the Jews and that they shall rise at the day of Judgment to our Condemnation who in Comparison to them shew such slackness and contempt in resorting to the House of the Lord there to serve him according as we are of duty most bound And besides this most horrible dread of God's just Judgment in the great day we shall not in this Life escape his heavy Hand and Vengeance for this contempt of the House of the Lord and his due service in the same according as the Lord himself threatneth in the First Chapter of the Prophet Aggeus after this sort Agge 1. Because you have left my House desert and without Company saith the Lord and ye have made haste every Man to his own House for this cause are the Heavens stayed over you that they should give no Dew and the Earth is forbidden that it should bring forth her Fruit and I have called Drought upon the Earth and upon the Mountains and upon corn and upon wine and upon oil and upon all things that the earth bringeth forth and upon men and upon beasts and upon all things that mens hands labour for Behold if we be such worldlings that we care not for the Eternal Judgments of God which yet of all other are most dreadful and horrible we shall not escape the punishment of God in this World by drought and famine and the taking away of all worldly commodities which we as worldlings seem only to regard and care for Whereas on the contrary part if we would amend this fault or neglignce slothfulness and contempt of the House of the Lord and his due service there and with diligence resort thither together to serve the Lord with one accord and consent in all Holiness and Righteousness before him we have promises of benefits Matth. 18. both Heavenly and Worldly Wheresoever two or three be gathered in my Name saith our Saviour Christ there am I in the midst of them And what can be more blessed than to have our Saviour Christ among us Or what again can be more unhappy or mischievous than to drive our Saviour Christ from amongst us to leave a place for his and our most ancient and mortal Enemy the old Dragon and Serpent Satan the Devil in the midst of us In the Second of Luke it is written how that the mother of Christ and Joseph when they had long sought Christ whom they had lost and could find him no where Luke 2. that at the last they found him in the Temple sitting in the midst of the Doctors So if we lack Jesus Christ that is to say the Saviour of our Souls and Bodies we shall not find him in the Market-place or in the Guild-Hall much less in the Ale-house or Tavern amongst good Fellows as they call them so soon as we shall find him in the Temple the Lords House amongst the Teachers and Preachers of his Word where indeed he is to be
creeping upon the Earth in comparison to his Eternal Majesty and less regarding that they must give an account at the great day of every idle word wheresoever it be spoken Matth. 12. much more of filthy unclean or wicked words spoken in the Lords House to the great dishonour of his Majesty and offence of all that hear them And indeed concerning the People and Multitude the Temple is prepared for them to be Hearers rather than Speakers considering that as well the Word of God is there Read and Taught whereunto they are bound to give diligent Ear with all Reverence and Silence as also that Common-Prayer and Thanksgiving are Rehearsed and said by the Publick Minister in the Name of the People and the whole multitude present whereunto they giving their ready Audience should assent and say Cor. 14. Amen as Saint Paul teacheth in the first Epistle to the Corinthians And in another place Glorifying God with one Spirit and Mouth Which cannot be when every Man and Woman in several pretences of Devotion prayeth privately one Asking another giving Thanks another reading Doctrine and not regarding to hear the Common Prayer of the Minister And peculiarly what due Reverence is to be used in the Ministring of the Sacraments in the Temple the same Saint Paul teacheth to the Corinthians 1 Cor. 11. rebuking such as did Unreverently use themselves in that behalf Have ye not Houses to eat and drink in saith he Do ye despise the Church or Congregation of God What shall I say unto you Shall I praise you In this I praise you not And God requireth not only this outward Reverence of Behaviour and silence in his House but all inward Reverence in cleansing of the Thoughts of our Hearts Osee 9. threatning by his Prophet Osee in the Ninth Chapter that for the Malice of the Inventions and Devices of the People he will cast them out of his House Whereby is also signified the Eternal casting of them out of his Heavenly House and Kingdom which is most horrible And therefore in the Ninteenth of Leviticus God saith Levit. 19. Psal 5. Fear you with Reverence my Sanctuary for I am the Lord. And according to the same the Prophet David saith I will enter into thine House I will Worship in thy Holy Temple in thy Fear Shewing what inward Reverence and Humbleness of Mind the godly Man ought to have in the House of the Lord. And to alledge somwhat concerning this matter out of the New Testament in what Honour God would have his House or Temple kept and that by the Example of our Saviour Christ whose Authority ought of good reason with all true Christians to be of most Weight and Estimation It is written of all the four Evangelists as a Notable Act Matth. 21. Mar. 11. Luke 19. John 11. and worthy to be testified by many Holy Witnesses how that our Saviour Jesus Christ that Merciful and Mild Lord compared for his Meekness to a Sheep suffering with silence his Fleece to be shorn from him Isaiah 53. Acts 8. Isaiah 50. Matth. 5. and to a Lamb led without resistance to the Slaughter which gave his Body to them that did smite him answered not him that reviled nor turned away his Face from them that did reproach him and spit upon him and according to his own Example gave Precepts of Mildness and Sufferance to his Disciples Yet when he seeth the Temple and Holy House of his Heavenly Father misordered polluted and prophaned useth great severity and sharpness overturneth the Tables of the Exchangers subverted the Seats of them that sold Doves maketh a whip of Cords and scourgeth out those wicked abusers and profaners of the Temple of God saying My House shall be called the House of Prayer but ye have made it a Den of Thieves John 2. And in the Second of John Do not ye make the House of my Father the House of Merchandize For as it is the House of God when Gods service is duly done in it So when we wickedly abuse it with wicked talk or covetous bargaining we make it a Den of Thieves or an House of Merchandize Mark 11 Yea and such Reverence would Christ should be therein that he would not suffer any Vessel to be carried through the Temple And whereas our Saviour Christ as is before mentioned out of Saint Luke could be found no where when he was sought but only in the Temple amongst the Doctors and now again he exerciseth his Authority and Jurisdiction not in Castles and Princely Palaces amongst Souldiers but in the Temple Ye may hereby understand in what place his spiritual Kingdom which he denieth to be of this World is soonest to be found and best to be known of all places in this World And according to this Example of our Saviour Christ in the Primitive Church which was most Holy and Godly and in the which due discipline with severity was used against the wicked open Offenders were not suffered once to enter into the House of the Lord nor admitted to Common Prayer and the use of the Holy Sacraments with other true Christians until they had done open Penance before the whole Church And this was practised not only upon mean Persons but also upon the Rich Noble and Mighty Persons yea upon Theodosius that Puissant and Mighty Emperor whom for committing * The Peoples fault was most grievous The sentence executed otherwise and more cruel than it should a grievous and wilful Murder Saint Ambrose Bishop of Milain reproved sharply and ‡ did also Excommunicate the said Emperor and brought him to open Penance And they that were so justly exempted and banished as it were from the House of the Lord were taken as they be indeed for Men divided and separated from Christs Church and in most dangerous estate yea as Saint Paul saith * 1 Cor. 5 even given unto Satan †He was only dehorted from receiving the Sacrament until by Repentance he might be better prepared Chrys the Devil for a time and their company was shunned and avoided of all Godly Men and Women until such time as they by Repentance and publick Penance were Reconciled Such was the Honour of the Lords House in Mens Hearts and outward Reverence also at that time and so horrible a thing was it to be shut out of the Church and House of the Lord in those days when Religion was most pure and nothing so corrupt as it hath been of late days And yet we willingly either by absenting ourselves from the House of the Lord do as it were Excommunicate ourselves from the Church and and Fellowship of the Saints of God or else coming thither by uncomely and unreverent behaviour there by hasty rash yea unclean and wicked Thoughts and Words before the Lord our God horribly dishonour his Holy House the Church of God and his Holy Name and Majesty to the great danger of our Souls yea and certain Damnation also if
have in their Translation in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Saint Jerome in his Translation of the same places in Latin hath Simulachra in English Images And in the New Testament 1 John 5 that which Saint John calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saint Jerome likewise translateth Simulachrum as in all other like places of Scripture usually he doth so translate And Tertullian a most ancient Doctor and well learned in both the Tongues Greek and Latin interpreting this place of Saint John Beware of Idols that is to say Lib. de corona militis saith Tertullian of the Images themselves The Latin words which he useth be Effigies and Imago that is to say an Image And therefore it skilleth not whether in this process we use the one term or the other or both together seeing they both though not in common English Speech yet in Scripture signifie one thing And though some to blind Mens Eyes have heretofore craftily gone about to make them to be taken for words of divers Significations in Matters of Religion and have therefore usually named the likeness or similitude of a thing set up amongst the Heathen in their Temples or other places to be worshipped an Idol But the like similitude with us set up in the Church the place of Worshipping they call an Image as though these two words Idol and Image in Scripture did differ in property and sense which as is aforesaid differ only in Sound and Language and in meaning be indeed all one especially in the Scriptures and matters of Religion And our Images also have been and be and if they be publickly suffered in Churches and Temples ever will be also worshipped and so Idolatry committed to them as in the last part of this Homily shall at large be declared and proved Wherefore our Images in Temples and Churches be indeed none other but Idols as unto the which Idolatry hath been is and ever will be committed And first of all the Scriptures of the Old Testament condemning and abhorring as well all Idolatry or worshipping of Images as also the very Idols or Images themselves especially in Temples are so many and plentiful that it were almost an infinite Work and to be contained in no small Volume to record all the places concerning the same For when God had chosen to himself a peculiar and special People from amongst all other Nations that knew not God but worshipped Idols and false Gods he gave unto them certain Ordinances and Laws to be kept and observed of his said People But concerning none other matter did he give either more or more earnest and express Laws to his said People than those that concerned the true Worshipping of him and the avoiding and fleeing of Idols and Images and Idolatry For that both the said Idolatry is most repugnant to the right worshipping of him and his true Glory above all other Vices and that he knew the proneness and inclination of Mans corrupt Kind and Nature to that most odious and abominable Vice Of the which the Ordinances and Laws so given by the Lord to his People concerning this matter I will rehearse and alledge some that be most special for this purpose that you by them may judge of the rest In the fourth Chapter of the Book named Deuteronomy is a notable place Deut. 4. Numb 22. and most worthy with all diligence to be marked which beginneth thus And now Israel hear the Commandments and Judgments which I teach thee saith the Lord that thou doing them mayst liâ—e and enter and possess the Land which the Lord God of your Fathers will give you Ye shall put nothing to the word which I speak to you neither shall ye take any thing from it Keep ye the Commandments of the Lord your God which I command you And by and by after he repeateth the same Sentence three or four times before he come to the matter that he would specially warn them of as it were for a Preface to make them to take the better heed unto it Take heed to thy self saith he and to thy Soul with all carefulness lest thou forgettest the things which thine Eyes have seen and that they go not out of thine Heart all the days of thy Life thou shalt teach them to thy Children and Nephews or Posterity And shortly after The Lord spake unto you out of the middle of Fire but ye heard the Voice or sound of his Words but you did see no form or shape at all And by and by followeth Take heed therefore diligently unto your Souls you saw no manner of Image in the day in the which the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the Fire lest peradventure you being deceived should make to your selves any graven Image or likeness of Man or Woman or the likeness of any Beast which is upon the Earth or of the Birds that flie under Heaven or of any creeping thing that is moved on the Earth or of the Fishes that do continue in the Waters Lest peradventure thou lifting up thine Eyes to Heaven do see the Sun and the Moon and the Stars of Heaven and so thou being deceived by errour shouldst honour and worship them which the Lord thy God hath created to serve all Nations that be under Heaven And again Beware that thou forget not the Covenant of the Lord thy God which he made with thee and so make to thy self any carved Image of them which the Lord hath forbidden to be made For the Lord thy God is a consuming Fire and a jealous God If you have Children and Nephews and do tarry in the Land and being deceived do make to your selves any similitude doing evil before the Lord your God and provoke him to anger I do this day call upon Heaven and Earth to witness that ye shall quickly perish out of the Land which you shall possess you shall not dwell in it any long time but the Lord will destroy you and will scatter you amongst all Nations and ye shall remain but a very few amongst the Nations whither the Lord will lead you away and then shall you serve Gods which are made with Mans Hands of Wood and Stone which see not and hear not neither eat nor smell and so forth This is a notable Chapter and treateth almost altogether of this matter But because it is too long to write out the whole I have noted you certain principal points out of it First how earnestly and oft he calleth upon them to mark and to take heed and that upon the peril of their Souls to the charge which he giveth them Then how he forbiddeth by a solemn and long rehearsal of all things in Heaven in Earth and in the Water any Image or likeness of any thing at all to be made Thirdly what Penalty and horrible Destruction he solemnly with Invocation of Heaven and Earth for record denounceth and threatneth to them their Children and Posterity if they
Lies Deceits Uncleanness Filthiness Dung Mischief and Abomination before the Lord. Wherefore Gods horrible wrath and our most dreadful danger cannot be avoided without the destruction and utter abolishing of all Images and Idols our of the Church and Temple of God which to accomplish God put in the minds of all Christian Princes And in the mean time let us take heed and be wise O ye beloved of the Lord and let us have no strange gods but one only God who made us when we were nothing the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ John 17. who redeemed us when we were lost and with his Holy Spirit doth sanctifie us For this is life everlasting to know him to be the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent Let us honour and worship for Religions sake none but him and him let us worship and honour as he will himself and hath declared by his Word that he will be honoured and worshipped not in nor by Images or Idols which he hath most strictly forbidden neither in kneeling lighting of Candles burning of Incense offering up of Gifts unto Images and Idols to believe that we shall please him for all these be abomination before God But let us honour and worship God in Spirit and in Truth John 4. fearing and loving him above all things trusting in him only calling upon him and praying to him only praising and lauding of him only and all other in him and for him For such worshippers doth our Heavenly Father love who is a most pure Spirit and therefore will be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth And such worshippers were Abraham Moses David Elias Peter Paul John and all other the Holy Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs and all true Saints of God who all as the true Friends of God were enemies and destroyers of Images and Idols as the Enemies of God and his true Religion Wherefore take heed and be wise O ye beloved of the Lord and that which others contrary to Gods Word bestow wickedly and to their damnation upon dead stocks and stones no Images but Enemies of God and his Saints that bestow ye as the faithful Servants of God according to Gods Word mercifully upon poor Men and Women Fatherless Children Widows sick Persons Strangers Prisoners and such others that be in any necessity that ye may at that great day of the Lord hear that most blessed and comfortable saying of our Saviour Christ Come ye blessed into the Kingdom of my Father prepared for you before the beginning of the World For I was hungry and ye gave me meat thirsty and ye gave me drink naked and ye clothed me harbourless and ye lodged me in Prison and ye visited me sick and ye comforted me For whatsoever ye have done for the poor and needy in my name and for my sake that have ye done for me To the which his Heavenly Kingdom God the Father of Mercies bring us for Jesus Christs sake our only Saviour Mediator and Advocate to whom with the Holy Ghost one immortal invisible and most glorious God be all Honour and Thanksgiving and Glory World without end Amen AN HOMILY FOR Repairing and keeping clean and comely adorning of Churches IT is a common custom used of all men when they intend to have their Friends or Neighbours to come to their Houses to eat or drink with them or to have any Solemn Assembly to treat and talk of any matter they will have their Houses which they keep in continual reparations to be clean and fine lest they should be counted sluttish or little to regard their Friends and Neighbours How much more then ought the House of God which we commonly call the Church to be sufficiently repaired in all places and to be honourably adorned and garnished and to be kept clean and sweet to the comfort of the People that shall resort thereunto It appeareth in the Holy Scripture how Gods House which was called his Holy Temple and was the Mother Church of all Jewry fell sometimes into decay and was oftentimes profaned and defiled through the negligence and ungodliness of such as had the charge thereof But when godly Kings and Governors were in place then Commandment was given forthwith that the Church and Temple of God should be repaired and the Devotion of the People to be gathered for the reparation of the same We read in the fourth Book of the Kings 4 Kings 12. how that King Joas being a godly Prince gave commandment to the Priests to convert certain Offerings of the People towards the reparation and amendment of Gods Temple Like commandment gave that most godly King Josias 4 Kings 22. concerning the reparation and re-edification of Gods Temple which in his time he found in sore decay It hath pleased Almighty God that these Histories touching the re-edifying and repairing of his Holy Temple should be written at large to the end we should be taught thereby First that God is well pleased that his People should have a convenient place to resort unto and to come together to praise and magnifie Gods Holy Name And secoâ—dâ—â— he is highly pleased with all those which diligenâ—ly and zealously go about to amend and restore such places as are appointed for the Congregation of Gods People to resort unto and wherein they humbly and joyntly render thanks to God for his benefits and with one heart and voice praise his Holy Name Thirdly God was sore displeased with his People because they builded decked and trimmed up their own Houses and suffered Gods House to be in ruine and decay to lye uncomely and fulsomly Wherefore God was sore grieved with them and plagued them as appeareth in the Prophet Aggeus Thus saith the Lord Agge 1. Is it time for you to dwell in your cieled Houses and the Lords House not regarded Ye have sowed much and gathered in but little your meat and your clothes have neither filled you nor made you warm and he that had his wages put it in a bottomless purse By these Plagues which God laid upon his People for neglecting of his Temple it may evidently appear that God will have his Temple his Church the place where his Congregation shall resort to magnifie him well edified well repaired and well maintained Some neither regarding godliness nor the place of godly exercise will say The Temple in the Old Law was commanded to be built and repaired by God himself because it had great Promises annexed unto it and because it was a figure a Sacrament or a signification of Christ and also of his Church To this may be easily answered First that our Churches are not destitute of Promises forasmuch as our Saviour Christ saith Where two or three are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst among them A great number therefore coming to Church together in the name of Christ have there that is to say in the Church their God and Saviour Jesus Christ present among the
love thy Neighbour as thy self to honour thy Father and Mother to honour the higher Powers to give to every man that which is his due and such like Other works there be which considered in themselves without further respect are of their own nature meerly indifferent that is neither good nor evil but take their denomination of the use or end whereunto they serve Which works having a good end are called good works and are so indeed but yet that cometh not of themselves but of the good end whereunto they are referred On the other side if the end that they serve unto be evil it cannot then otherwise be but that they must needs be evil also Of this sort of works is Fasting which of it self is a thing meerly indifferent but it is made better or worse by the end that it serveth unto For when it repecteth a good end it is a good work but the end being evil the work it self is also evil To Fast then with this perswasion of mind that our Fasting and our Good Works can make us perfect and just men and finally bring us to Heaven is a devilish perswasion and that Fast is so far off from pleasing of God that it refuseth his mercy and is altogether derogatory to the merits of Christs death and his precious blood-shedding This doth the Parable of the Pharisee and the Publican teach Luke 18. Two men saith Christ went up together into the Temple to pray the one a Pharisee the other a Publican the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself I thank thee O God that I am not as other men are extortioners unjust adulterers and as this Publican is I fast twice in the week I give tithes of all that I possess The Publican stood afar off and would not lift up his eyes to Heaven but smote his breast and said God be merciful to me a sinner In the Person of this Pharisee our Saviour Christ setteth out to the eye and to the judgment of the World a perfect just and righteous man such a one as iâ— not spotted with those vices that men commonly are infected with Extortion Bribery polling and pilling their Neighbour robbers and spoilers of Common-weals crafty and subtil in chopping and changing using false Weights and detestable Perjury in their buying and selling Fornicators Adulterers and vicious Livers The Pharisee was no such man neither faulty in any such like notorious Crime But where other transgressed by leaving things undone which yet the Law required this man did more than was requisite by the Law For he fasted twice in the week and gave Tithes of all that he had What could the World then justly blame in this man yea what outward thing more could be desired to be in him to make him a more perfect and a more just man Truly nothing by mans judgment And yet our Saviour Christ preferreth the poor Publican without Fasting before him with his Fast The cause why he doth so is manifest For the Publican having no good works at all to trust unto yielded up himself unto God confessing his sins and hoped certainly to be saved by Gods free mercy only The Pharisee gloried and trusted so much to his works that he thought himself sure enough without mercy and that he should come to Heaven by his Fasting and other deeds To this end serveth that Parable For it is spoken to them that trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others Now because the Pharisee directeth his works to an evil end seeking by them justification which indeed is the proper work of God without our merits his Fasting twice in the week and all his other works though they were never so many and seemed to the World never so good and Holy yet in very deed before God they are altogether evil and abominable The mark also that the Hypocrites shoot at with their Fast is to appear Holy in the eye of the World and so to win commendation and praise of men But our Saviour Christ saith of them Mat. 6. they have their reward that is they have praise and commendation of Men but of God they have none at all For whatsoever tendeth to an evil end is it self by that evil end made evil also Again so long as we keep ungodliness in our hearts and suffer wicked thoughts to tarry there though we Fast as oft as did either St. Paul or John Baptist and keep it as strictly as did the Ninevites yet shall it be not only unprofitable to us but also a thing that greatly displeaseth Almighty God For he saith that his soul abhorreth and hateth such Fastings Isai 1. yea they are a burthen unto him and he is weary of bearing them And therefore he inveigheth most sharply against them saying by the mouth of the Prophet Isaiah Behold when you fast Isai 58. your lust remaineth still for ye do no less violence to your debtors Lo ye fast to strife and debate and to smite with the fist of wickedness Now ye shall not fast thus that you may make your voice to be heard above Think ye this fast pleaseth me that a man should chasten himself for a day Should that be called a fasting or a day that pleaseth the Lord Now dearly beloved seeing that Almighty God alloweth not our Fast for the works sake but chiefly respecteth our heart how it is affected and then esteemeth our Fast either good or evil by the end that it serveth for it is our part to rent our Hearts and not our Garments Joel 2. as we are advertised by the Prophet Joel that is our sorrow and mourning must be inward in heart and not in outward shew only yea it is requisite that first before all things we cleanse our hearts from sin and then direct our Fast to such an end as God will allow to be good There be three ends whereunto if our Fast be directed it is then a work profitable to us and accepted of God The first is to chastise the Flesh that it be not too wanton 1 Cor. 9. but tamed and brought in subjection to the Spirit This respect had St. Paul in his Fast when he said I chastise my body and bring it into subjection lest by any means it cometh to pass that when I have preached to others I my self be found a castaway Acts 13. The second that the Spirit may be more earnest and fervent to Prayer To this end fasted the Prophets and Teachers that were at Antioch before they sent forth Paul and Barnabas to preach the Gospel The same two Apostles fasted for the like purpose when they commended to God by their earnest Prayers the Congregations that were at Antioch Acts 14. Pisidia Iconium and Lystra as we read in the Acts of the Apostles The third that our Fast be a Testimony and Witness with us before God of our humble submission to his high Majesty when we confess and acknowledge our sins
eat or what we shall drink or wherewith we shall be clothed but rather to seek the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof Whereby we may learn to beware lest we use those things to our hindrance which God hath ordained for our comfort and furtherance towards his Kingdom The third is that we take in good part our estate and condition and content our selves with that which God sendeth whether it be much or little He that is ashamed of base and simple attire will be proud of gorgeous Apparel if he may get it We must learn therefore of the Apostle St. Paul both to use plenty Phiâ— 4. and also to suffer penury remembring that we must yield accounts of those things which we have received unto him who abhorreth all excess pride ostentation and vanity who also utterly condemneth and disalloweth whatsoever draweth us from our Duty towards God or diminisheth our Charity towards our Neighbours and Children whom we ought to love as our selves The fourth and last Rule is that every man behold and consider his own vocation in as much as God hath appointed every man his Degree and Office within the limits whereof it behoveth him to keep himself Therefore all may not look to wear like Apparel but every one according to his degree as God hath placed him Which if it were observed many one doubtless should be compelled to wear a russet-coat which now ruffleth in Silks and Velvets spending more by the Year in sumptuous Apparel than their Fathers received for the whole Revenue of their Lands But alas now adays how many may we behold occupied wholly in pampering the flesh taking no care at all but only how to deck themselves setting their affection altogether on worldly bravery abusing Gods goodness when he sendeth plenty to satisfie their wanton lusts having no regard to the degree wherein God hath placed them Deut. 29. The Israelites were contented with such Apparel as God gave them although it were base and simple And God so blessed them that their shoes and clothes lasted them forty years yea and those clothes which their Fathers had worn their Children were contented to use afterwards But we are never contented and therefore we prosper not so that most commonly he that ruffleth in his Sables in his fine furred Gown corked Slippers trim Buskins and warm Mittons is more ready to chill for cold than the poor labouring man which can abide in the Field all the day long when the North-wind blows with a few beggerly clouts about him We are loth to wear such as our Fathers have left us we think not that sufficient or good enough for us We must have one Gown for the day another for the night one long another short one for Winter another for Summer one through-furred another but faced one for the working-day another for the holy-day one of this colour another of that colour one of Cloth another of Silk or Damask We must have change of Apparel one afore Dinner and another after one of the Spanish fashion another Turky and to be brief never content with sufficient Mat. 10. Our Saviour Christ bade his Disciples they should not have two Coats but the most men far unlike to his Scholars have their presses so full of Apparel that many know not how many sorts they have Which thing caused St. James to pronounce this terrible curse against such wealthy Worldlings James 5. Go to ye rich men weep and howl on your wretchedness that shall come upon you your riches are corrupt and your garments are moth-eaten ye have lived in pleasure on the Earth and in wantonness ye have nourished your hearts as in the day of slaughter Mark I beseech you St. James calleth them miserable notwithstanding their Riches and plenty of Apparel forasmuch as they pamper their Bodies to their own destruction What was the rich Glutton the better for his fine fare and costly apparel Luke 16. Did not he nourish himself to be tormented in Hell-fire Let us learn therefore to content our selves having Food and Raiment as St. Paul teacheth 1 Tm. 6. lest desiring to be enriched with abundance we fall into temptations snares and many noisom lusts which drown men in perdition and destruction Certainly such as delight in gorgeous Apparel are commonly puffed up with Pride and filled with divers Vanities So were the Daughters of Sion and People of Jerusalem whom Isaiah the Prophet threatneth Isai 3. because they walked with stretched-out necks and wandring eyes mincing as they went and nicely treading with their feet that Almighty God would make their heads baâ—d and discover their secret shame In that day saith he shall the Lord take away the ornament of the slippers and the caâ—ls and the round attires and the sweet balls and the bracelets and the attires of the head and the slops and the head-bands and the tablets and the ear-rings the rings and the mufflers the costly apparel and the vails and wimples and the crisping-pins and the glasses and the fine linen and the hoods and the lawns So that Almighty God would not suffer his benefits to be vainly and wantonly abused no not of that People whom he most tenderly loved and had chosen to himself before all other No less truly is the vanity that is used among us in these days For the proud and haughty stomachs of the Daughters of England are so maintained with divers disguised sorts of costly Apparel Apolog. Con. gentes c. 6. that as Tertullian an ancient Father saith there is left no difference in Apparel between an honest Matron and a common Strumpet Yea many men are become so effeminate that they care not what they spend in disguising themselves ever desiring new Toys and inventing new Fashions Therefore a certain man that would picture every Country-man in his accustomed Apparel when he had painted other Nations he pictured the English-man all naked and gave him Cloth under his Arm and bade him make it himself as he thought best for he changed his Fashion so often that he knew not how to make it Thus with our phantastical devices we make our selves laughing-stocks to other Nations while one spendeth his Patrimony upon pounces and cuts another bestoweth more on a dancing shirt than might suffice to buy him honest and comely Apparel for his whole Body Some hang their Revenues about their necks ruffling in their Ruffs and many a one jeopardeth his best joynt to maintain himself in sumptuous Raiment And every man nothing considering his Estate and Condition seeketh to excel other in costly attire Whereby it cometh to pass that in abundance and plenty of all things we yet complain of want and penury while one man spendeth that which might serve a multitude and no man distributeth of the abundance which he hath received and all men excessively waste that which should serve to supply the necessities of other There hath been very good provision made against such
abuses by divers good and wholesom Laws which if they were practised as they ought to be of all true Subjects they might in some part serve to diminish this raging and riotous excess in Apparel But alas there appeareth amongst us little fear and obedience either of God or Man Therefore must we needs look for Gods fearful vengeance from Heaven to overthrow our presumption and pride Acts 12. as he overthrew Herod who in his Royal Apparel forgetting God was smitten of an Angel and eaten up of Worms By which terrible Example God hath taught us that we are but Worms meat although we pamper our selves never so much in gorgeous Apparel Ecclus 1. Here we may learn that which Jesus the Son of Syrach teacheth not to be proud of clothing and rayment neither to exalt our selves in the day of honour because the works of the Lord are wonderful and glorious secret and unknown teaching us with humbleness of mind every one to be mindful of the Vocation whereunto God hath called him Let Christians therefore endeavour themselves to quench the care of pleasing the flesh let us use the benefits of God in this World in such wise that we be not too much occupied in providing for the Body Let us content our selves quietly with that which God sendeth be it never so little And if it please him to send plenty let us not wax proud thereof but let us use it moderately as well to our own comfort as to the relief of such as stand in necessity He that in abundance and plenty of apparel hideth his face from him that is naked despiseth his own flesh as Isaiah the Prophet saith Isai 58. Let us learn to know our selves and not to despise others let us remember that we stand all before the Majesty of Almighty God who shall judge us by his Holy Word wherein he forbiddeth excess not only to Men but also to Women So that none can excuse themselves of what estate or condition soever they be Let us therefore present our selves before his Throne as Tertullian exhorteth with the Ornaments which the Apostle speaketh of Ephes 6. Ephesians the sixth Chapter having our loyns girt about with verity having the breast-plate of righteousness and shod with shoes prepared by the Gospel of peace Mat. 11. Let us take unto us simplicity chastity and comeliness submitting our necks to the sweet yoke of Christ Let Women be subject to their Husbands and they are sufficiently attired saith Tertullian The Wife of one Philo an Heathen Philosopher being demanded why she wore no Gold She answered that she thought her Husbands Vertues sufficient Ornaments How much more ought Christian Women instructed by the Word of God to content themselves in their Husbands yea how much more ought every Christian to content himself in our Saviour Christ thinking himself sufficiently garnished with his heavenly vertues But it will be hear objected and said of some nice and vain Women that all which we do in painting our faces in dying our hair in embalming our bodies in decking us with gay apparel is to please our Husbands to delight his eyes and to retain his love toward us O vain excuse and most shameful answer to the reproach of thy Husband What couldst thou more say to set out his foolishness than to charge him to be pleased and delighted with the Devils attire Who can paint her face and curle her hair and change it into an unnatural colour but therein doth work reproof to her maker who made her As though she could make her self more comely than God hath appointed the measure of her beauty What do these Women but go about to reform that which God hath made not knowing that all things natural are the work of God and things disguised and unnatural are the works of the Devil And as though a wise and Christian Husband should delight to see his Wife in such painted and flourished visages which common Harlots most do use to train therewith their Lovers to naughtiness or as though an honest Woman could delight to be like an Harlot for pleasing of her Husband Nay nay these be but vain excuses of such as go about to please rather others than their Husbands And such attires be but to provoke her to shew her self abroad to entice others a worthy matter She must keep 〈…〉 her â—usband to maintain such Apparel whereby she is the worse Housewife the seldomer at home to see her charge and so neglect his thrift by giving great provocation to her houshold to waste and wantonness while she must wander abroad to shew her own vanity and her Husbands foolishness By which her Pride she stirreth up much envy of others which be as vainly delighted as she is She doth but deserve mocks and scorns to set out all her commendation in Jewish and Ethnick Apparel and yet brag of her Christianity She doth but waste superfluously her Husbands stock by such sumptuousness and sometimes she is the cause of much bribery extortion and deceit in her Husbands dealings that she may be the more gorgeously set out to the sight of the vain World to please the Devils eyes and not Gods who giveth to every Creature sufficient and moderate comeliness wherewith we should be contented if we were of God What other thing dost thou by those means but provokest others to tempt thee to deceive thy Soul by the bait of thy pomp and pride What else dost thou but settest out thy Pride and makest of the undecent apparel of thy Body the Devils Net to catch the souls of them which behold thee O thou Woman not a Christian but worse than a Paynim thou Minister of the Devil Why pamperest thou that carrion flesh so high which sometimes doth stink and rot on the Earth as thou goest Howsoever thou perfumest thy self yet cannot thy beastliness be hidden or overcome with thy smells and savours which do rather deform and mis-shape thee than beautifie thee What meant Solomon to say of such trimming of vain Women Prov. 11. when he said A fair woman without good manners and conditions is like a Sow which hath a ring of gold upon her snout but that the more thou garnish thy self with these outward blasings the less thou carest for the inward garnishing of thy mind and so dost but deform thy self by such array aâ—d not beautifie thy self Hear hear what Christs holy Apostles do write Let not the outward apparel of women saith St. Peter be decked with the braiding of hair 1 Pet. 3. with wrapping on of gold or goodly clothing but let the mind and the conscience which is not seen with the eyes be pure and clean that is saith he an acceptable and an excellent thing before God For so the old ancient women attired themselves and were obedient to their husbands And St. Paul saith 1 Tim. 2. that women should apparel themselves with shamefacedness and soberness and not with braids of their hair
day Apoc. 1. Sithence which time Gods People hath always in all Ages without any gain-saying used to come together upon the Sunday Numb 15. to celebrate and honour the Lords blessed Name and carefully to keep that day in Holy rest and quietness both Man Woman Child Servant and Stranger For the transgression and breach of which day God hath declared himself much to be grieved as it may appear by him who for gathering of sticks on the Sabbath day was stoned to death But alas all these notwithstanding it is lamentable to see the wicked boldness of those that will be counted Gods People who pass nothing at all of keeping and hallowing the Sunday And these People are of two sorts The one sort if they have any business to do though there be no extream need they must not spare for the Sunday they must ride and journey on the Sunday they must drive and carry on the Sunday they must row and ferry on the Sunday they must buy and sell on the Sunday they must keep Markets and Fairs on the Sunday finally they use all days alike Work-days and Holy-days all are one The other sort is worse For although they will not Travel nor Labour on the Sunday as they do on the Week-day yet they will not rest in Holiness as God commandeth but they rest in ungodliness and filthiness prancing in their Pride pranking and pricking pointing and painting themselves to be gorgeous and gay they rest in excess and superfluity in gluttony and drunkenness like Rats and Swine they rest in brawling and railing in quarrelling and fighting they rest in wantonness in toyish talking in filthy fleshliness so that it doth too evidently appear that God is more dishonoured and the Devil better served on the Sunday than upon all the days in the Week besides And I assure you the Beasts which are commanded to rest on the Sunday honour God better than this kind of People For they offend not God they break not their Holy-days Wherefore O ye People of God lay your hands upon your hearts repent and amend this grievous and dangerous wickedness stand in awe of the Commandment of God gladly follow the example of God himself be not disobedient to the godly Order of Christs Church used and kept from the Apostles time until this day Fear the displeasure and just Plagues of Almighty God if ye be negligent and forbear not labouring and travelling on the Sabbath day or Sunday and do not resort together to celebrate and magnifie Gods blessed Name in quiet Holiness and godly Reverence Now concerning the Place where the People of God ought to resort together and where especially they ought to celebrate and sanctifie the Sabbath day that is the Sunday the day of Holy Rest That Place is called Gods Temple or the Church because the Company and Congregation of Gods People which is properly called the Church doth there assemble themselves on the days appointed for such Assemblies and Meetings And forasmuch as Almighty God hath appointed a special time to be honoured in it is very meet godly and also necessary that there should be a Place appointed where these People should meet and resort to serve their gracious God and merciful Father Truth it is the Holy Patriarchs for a great number of years had neither Temple nor Church to resort unto The cause was they were not staid in any place but were in a continual peregrination and wandring that they could not conveniently build any Church But so soon as God had delivered his People from their Enemies and set them in some liberty in the Wilderness he set them up a costly and a curious Tabernacle which was as it were the Parish Church a place to resort unto of the whole multitude a place to have his Sacrifices made in and other Observances and Rites to be used in Furthermore after that God according to the truth of his Promise had placed and quietly setled his People in the Land of Canaan now called Jury he commanded a great and magnificent Temple to be built by King Solomon as seldom the like hath been seen a Temple so decked and adorned so gorgeously garnished as was meet and expedient for People of that time which would be allured and stirred with nothing so much as with such outward goodly gay things This was now the Temple of God endued also with many gifts and sundry promises This was the publick Church and the Mother-Church of all Jury Here was God honoured and served Hither was the whole Realm of all the Israelites bound to come at three Solemn Feasts in the Year to serve their Lord God here But let us proceed further In the time of Christ and his Apostles there were yet no Temples nor Churches for Christian men For why they were always for the most part in persecution vexation and trouble so that there could be no liberty nor licence obtained for that purpose Yet God delighted much that they should often resort together in a place and therefore after his ascension they remained together in an Upper Chamber sometime they entred into the Temple sometime into the Synagogues sometimes they were in Prison sometimes in their Houses sometimes in the Fields c. And this continued so long till the Faith of Christ Jesus began to multiply in a great part of the World Now when divers Realms were established in Gods true Religion and God had given them peace and quietness then began Kings Noble-men and the People also stirred up with a godly zeal and ferventness to build up Temples and Churches whither the People might resort the better to do their Duty towards God and to keep Holy their Sabbath day the day of Rest And to these Temples have the Christians customably used to resort from time to time as unto meet places where they might with common consent praise and magnifie Gods name yielding him thanks for the benefits that he daily poureth upon them both mercifully and abundantly where they might also hear his Holy Word read expounded and preached sincerely and receive his Holy Sacraments ministred unto them duly and purely True it is that the chief and special Temples of God wherein he hath greatest pleasure and most delighteth to dwell are the bodies and minds of true Christians and the chosen People of God according to the Doctrine of Holy Scriptures declared by St. Paul Know ye not saith he that ye be the Temple of God 1 Cor. 3. and that the Spirit of God doth dwell in you The Temple of God is Holy which ye are And again in the same Epistle 1 Cor. 6. Know ye not that your body is the Temple of the Holy Ghost dwelling in you whom you have given you of God and that ye be not your own Yet this notwithstanding God doth allow the material Temple made with Lime and Stone so oft as his People come together into it to praise his Holy Name to be his House and
the place where he hath promised to be present and where he will hear the Prayers of them that call upon him The which thing both Christ and his Apostles with all the rest of the Holy Fathers do sufficiently declare by this That albeit they certainly knew that their Prayers were heard in what place soever they made them though it were in Caves in Woods and in Desarts yet so oft as they could conveniently they resorted to the material Temples there with the rest of the Congregation to joyn in Prayer and true Worship Wherefore dearly beloved you that profess your selves to be Christians and glory in that name disdain not to follow the example of your Master Christ whose Scholars you say you be shew you to be like them whose School-mates you take upon you to be that is the Apostles and Disciples of Christ Lift up pure hands with clean hearts in all places and at all times But do the same in the Temples and Churches upon the Sabbath days also Our godly Predecessors and the ancient Fathers of the Primitive Church spared not their Goods to build Churches no they spared not their Lives in time of Persecution and to hazard their Blood that they might assemble themselves together in Churches And shall we spare a little labour to come to Churches Shall neither their Example nor our Duty nor the Commodities that thereby should come unto us move us If we will declare our selves to have the fear of God if we will shew our selves true Christians if we will be the followers of Christ our Master and of those godly Fathers that have lived before us and now have received the Reward of true and faithful Christians we must both willingly earnestly and reverently come unto the material Churches and Temples to Pray as unto fit places appointed for that use and that upon the Sabbath day as at most convenient time for Gods People to cease from bodily and worldly business to give themselves to Holy Rest and Godly Contemplation pertaining to the Service of Almighty God Whereby we may reconcile our selves to God be partakers of his Holy Sacraments and be devout hearers of his Holy Word so to be established in Faith to Godward in Hope against all Adversity and in Charity toward our Neighbours And thus running our course as good Christian People we may at the last attain the Reward of everlasting Glory through the Merits of our Saviour Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory Amen The Second Part of the Homily of the Place and Time of PRAYER IT hath been declared unto you good Christian People in the former Sermon read unto you at what Time and into what Place ye shall come together to praise God Now I intend to set before your Eyes First how zealous and desirous ye ought to be to come to your Church Secondly how sore God is grieved with them that do despise or little regard to come to the Church upon the Holy restful Day It may well appear by the Scriptures that many of the godly Israelites being now in Captivity for their sins among the Babylonians full often wished and desired to be again at Jerusalem And at their return through Gods goodness though many of the People were negligent yet the Fathers were marvellous devout to build up the Temple that Gods People might repair thither to honour him And King David when he was a banished man out of his Countrey out of Jerusalem the Holy City from the Sanctuary from the Holy place and from the Tabernacle of God What desire what ferventness was in him toward that Holy place what wishings and prayers made he to God to be a Dweller in the House of the Lord One thing saith he have I asked of the Lord and this will I still crave that I may resort and have my dwelling in the House of the Lord so long as I live Again O how I joyed when I heard these words We shall go into the Lords House Psal 122. And in other places of the Psalms he declareth for what intent and purpose he hath such a fervent desire to enter into the Temple and Church of the Lord I will fall down saith he and worship in the holy Temple of the Lord. Again Psal 63. I have appeared in thy holy place that I might behold thy might and power that I might behold thy glory and magnificence Finally he saith I will shew forth thy name to my brethren I will praise thee in the midst of the Congregation Why then had David such an earnest desire to the House of God First because there he would worship and honour God Secondly there he would have a contemplation and a sight of the Power and Glory of God Thirdly there he would praise the Name of God with all the Congregation and Company of the People These considerations of this blessed Prophet of God ought to stir up and kindle in us the like earnest desire to resort to the Church especially upon the holy restful days there to do our Duties and to serve God there to call to remembrance how God even of his meer mercy and for the glory of his Name sake worketh mightily to conserve us in Health Wealth and Godliness and mightily preserveth us from the assaults and rages of our fierce and cruel Enemies and there joyfully in the number of his faithful People to praise and magnifie the Lords Holy Name Set before your Eyes also that Ancient Father Simeon of whom the Scripture speaketh thus to his great commendation and an encouragement for us to do the like There was a man at Jerusalem Luke 2. named Simeon a just man fearing God he came by the spirit of God into the Temple and was told by the same spirit that he should not die before he saw the anointed of the Lord. In the Temple his Promise was fulfilled in the Temple he saw Christ and took him in his Arms in the Temple he brake out into the mighty praise of God his Lord. Anna a Prophetess an old Widow departed out of the Temple giving her self to Prayer and Fasting day and night And she coming about the same time was likewise inspired and confessed and spake of the Lord to all them that looked for the Redemption of Israel This blessed Man and this blessed Woman were not disappointed of wonderful Fruit Commodity and Comfort which God sent them by their diligent resorting to Gods Holy Temple Now ye shall hear how grievously God hath been offended with his People for that they passed so little upon his Holy Temple and foulely either despised or abused the same Which thing may plainly appear by the notable Plagues and Punishments which God hath laid upon his People especially in this that he stirred up their Adversaries horribly to beat down and utterly to destroy his Holy Temple with a perpetual desolation Alas how many Churches Countries and Kingdoms of Christian
People have of late years been plucked down and over-run and left waste with grievous and intolerable Tyranny and Cruelty of the Enemy of our Lord Christ the Great Turk who hath so universally scourged the Christians that never the like was heard or read of Above thirty years past the Great Turk had over-run conquered and brought into his Dominion and Subjection twenty Christian Kingdoms turning away the People from the Faith of Christ poisoning them with the devilish Religion of wicked Mahomet and either destroying their Churches utterly or filthily abusing them with their wicked and detestable Errors And now this Great Turk this bitter and sharp Scourge of Gods Vengeance is even at hand in this part of Christendom in Europe at the Borders of Italy at the Borders of Germany greedily gaping to devour us to over-run our Country to destroy our Churches also unless we repent our sinful life and resort more diligently to the Church to honour God to learn his blessed Will and to fulfil the same The Jews in their time provoked justly the vengeance of God for that partly they abused his Holy Temple with the detestable Idolatry of the Heathen and superstitious Vanities of their own Inventions contrary to Gods Commandment partly they resorted unto it as Hypocrites spotted imbrued and foulely defiled with all kind of wickedness and sinful life partly many of them passed little upon the Holy Temple and cared not whether they came thither or no. And have not the Christians of late days and even in our days also in like manner provoked the displeasure and indignation of Almighty God partly because they have profaned and defiled their Churches with Heathenish and Jewish abuses with Images and Idols with numbers of Altars too too superstitiously and intolerably abused with gross abusing and filthy corrupting of the Lords Holy Supper the blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood with an infinite number of toys and trifles of their own devices to make a goodly outward shew and to deface the plain simple and sincere Religion of Christ Jesus partly they resort to the Church like Hypocrites full of all iniquity and sinful life having a vain and dangerous fansie and perswasion that if they come to the Church besprinkle them with Holy Water hear a Mass and be blessed with the Chalice though they understand not one word of the whole Service nor feel one motion of Repentance in their Hearts all is well all is sure Fie upon such mocking and blaspheming of Gods Holy Ordinance Churches were made for another purpose that is to resort thither and to serve God truly there to learn his blessed Will there to call upon his mighty Name there to use the Holy Sacraments there to travel how to be in Charity with thy Neighbour there to have thy poor and needy Neighbour in remembrance from thence to depart better and more godly than thou camest thither Finally Gods vengeance hath been and is daily provoked because much wicked People pass nothing to resort to the Church either for that they are so sore blinded that they understand nothing of God and godliness and care not with devilish example to offend their Neighbours or else for that they see the Church altogether scoured of such gay gazing sights as their gross phantasie was greatly delighted with because they see the false Religion abandoned and the true restored which seemeth an unsavoury thing to their unsavoury taste as may appear by this that a Woman said to her Neighbour Alas Gossip what shall we do at Church since all the Saints are taken away since all the goodly Sights we were wont to have are gone since we cannot hear the like piping singing chaunting and playing upon the Organs that we could before But Dearly Beloved we ought greatly to rejoyce and give God thanks that our Churches are delivered out of all those things which displeased God so sore and filthily defiled his Holy House and his Place of Prayer for the which he hath justly destroyed many Nations according to the saying of St. Paul 1 Cor. 3. If any man defile the Temple of God God will him destroy And this ought we greatly to praise God for that such Superstitious and Idolatrous manners as were utterly naught and defaced Gods glory are utterly abolished as they most justly deserved and yet those things that either God was honoured with or his People edified are decently retained and in our Churches comely practised But now forasmuch 〈◊〉 ye perceive it is Gods determinate pleasure ye should resort unto your Churches upon the day of Holy Rest seeing ye hear what displeasure God conceiveth what Plagues he poureth upon his disobedient People seeing ye understand what Blessings of God are given what Heavenly Commodities come to such People as desirously and zealously use to resort unto their Churches seeing also ye are now friendly bidden and joyntly called beware that ye slack not your Duty take heed that you suffer nothing to let you hereafter to come to the Church at such times as you are ordinarily appointed and commanded Our Saviour Christ telleth in a Parable that a great Supper was prepared Guests were bidden many excused themselves and would not come I tell you saith Christ none of them that were called shall taste of my Supper This great Supper is the true Religion of Almighty God wherewith he will be worshipped in the due receiving of his Sacraments and sincere preaching and hearing of his Holy Word and practising the same by godly conversation This Feast is now prepared in Gods Banqueting-House the Church you are thereunto called and joyntly bidden if you refuse to come and make your excuses the same will be answered to you that was unto them Now come therefore Dearly Beloved without delay and chearfully enter into Gods Feasting-house and become partakers of the Benefits provided and prepared for you But see that ye come thither with your Holy-day Garment not like Hypocrites not of a custom and for manners sake not with lothsomness as though ye had rather not come than come if ye were at your liberty For God hateth and punisheth such counterfeit Hypocrites as appeareth by Christs former Parable My Friend saith God how camest thou in without a Wedding-garment And therefore commanded his servants to bind him hand and foot and to cast him into utter darkness where shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth To the intent that ye may avoid the like danger at Gods hand come to the Church on the Holy-day and come in your Holy-day Garment that is to say come with a chearful and a godly Mind come to seek Gods glory and to be thankful unto him come to be at one with thy Neighbour and to enter in Friendship and Charity with him Consider that all thy doings stink before the face of God if thou be not in Charity with thy Neighbour Come with an Heart sifted and cleansed from worldly and carnal affections and desires shake off all vain
strangers one to another Ephes 2. 1 Cor. 10. and 12. but we are the Citizens of the Saints and of the houshold of God yea and members of one body And therefore whiles our Minister is in rehearsing the Prayer that is made in the name of us all we must give diligent ears to the words spoken by him and in heart beg at Gods hand those things that he beggeth in words And to signifie that we do so we say Amen at the end of the Prayer that he maketh in the name of us all And this thing can we not do for edification unless we understand what is spoken Therefore it is required of necessity that the Common-Prayer be had in a Tongue that the Hearers do understand If ever it had been tolerable to use strange Tongues in the Congregations the same might have been in the time of Paul and the other Apostles when they were miraculously endued with gifts of Tongues For it might then have perswaded some to embrace the Gospel when they had heard men that were Hebrews born and unlearned speak the Greek the Latine and other Languages But Paul thought it not tolerable then And shall we use it now when no man cometh by that knowledge of Tongues otherwise than by diligent and earnest study God forbid For we should by that means bring all our Church-exercises to frivolous Superstition and make them altogether unfruitful Luke writeth Acts 4. that when Peter and John were discharged by the Princes and High-Priests of Jerusalem they came to their fellows and told them all that the Princes of the Priests and Elders had spoken to them Which when they heard they lifted up their voice together to God with one assent and said Lord thou art he that hast made Heaven and Earth the Sea and all things that are in them c. Thus could they not have done if they had prayed in a strange Tongue that they had not understood And no doubt of it they did not all speak with several voices but some one of them spake in the name of them all and the rest giving diligent ear to his words consented thereunto and therefore it is said that they lifted up their voice together St. Luke saith not Their voices as many but their voice as one That one voice therefore was in such Language as they all understood otherwise they could not have lifted it up with the consent of their hearts For no man can give consent of the thing that he knoweth not As touching the Times before the coming of Christ there was never man yet that would affirm that either the People of God or other had their Prayers or Administrations of the Sacraments or Sacrifices in a Tongue that they themselves understood not As for the time since Christ till that usurped Power of Rome began to spread it self and to inforce all the Nations of Europe to have the Romish Language in admiration it appeareth by the consent of the most Ancient and Learned Writers that there was no strange or unknown Tongue used in the Congregation of Christians Justinus Apol. 2. Justinus Martyr who lived about 160 years after Christ saith thus of the Administration of the Lords Supper in his time Vpon the Sunday Assemblies are made both of them that dwell in Cities and of them that dwell in the Countrey also Amongst whom as much as may be the Writings of the Apostles and Prophets were read Afterwards when the Reader doth cease the chief Minister maketh an Exhortation exhorting them to follow honest things After this we rise all together and offer Prayers which being ended as we have said Bread and Wine and Water are brought forth Then the head Minister offereth Prayers and Thanksgiving with all his power and the People answer Amen These words with their circumstances being duly considered do declare plainly that not only the Scriptures were read in a known Tongue but also that Prayer was made in the same in the Congregations of Justin's time Basilius Magnus and Johannes Chrysostomus did in their time prescribe publick Orders of publick Administration which they call Liturgies and in them they appointed the People to answer to the Prayers of the Minister sometime Amen sometime Lord have mercy upon us sometime And with thy Spirit and We have our hearts lifted up unto the Lord c. Which answers the People could not have made in due time if the Prayers had not been in a Tongue that they understood The same Basil writing to the Clergy of Neocaesarea Epist 63. saith thus of his usage in Common-Prayer appointing one to begin the Song the rest follow and so with divers Songs and Prayers passing over the Night at the dawning of the Day all together even as it were with one Mouth and one Heart they sing unto the Lord a Song of Confession every man framing unto himself meet words of Repentance In another place he saith If the Sea be fair how is not the Assembly of the Congregation much more fair in which a joyned sound of Men Women and Children as it were of the waves beating on the shore is sent forth in our Prayers unto our God Mark his words Bâ—sil Rom. 4. A joyned sound saith he of Men Women and Children Which cannot be unless they all understand the Tongue wherein the Prayer is said And Chrysostom upon the words of Paul saith So soon as the People hear these words World without end 1 Cor. 14. they all do forthwith answer Amen This could they not do unless they understood the word spoken by the Priest Dionysius saith Dionys Cyprian Ser. 6. de orat dominica that Hymns were said of the whole multitude of People in the Administration of the Communion Cyprian saith The Priest doth prepare the minds of the Brethren with a Preface before the Prayer saying Lift up your hearts That whiles the People doth answer We have our hearts lifted up to the Lord they be admonished that they ought to think on none other thing than the Lord. St. Ambrose writing upon the words of St. Paul saith This is it that he saith 1 Cor. 14. because he which speaketh in an unknown Tongue speaketh to God for he knoweth all things but men know not and therefore there is no profit of this thing And again upon these words If thou bless or give thanks with the spirit how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks seeing he understandeth not what thou sayest This is saith Ambrose if thou speak the praise of God in a Tongue unknown to the Hearers For the unlearned hearing that which he understandeth not knoweth not the end of the Prayer and answereth not Amen which word is as much to say as truth that the blessing of thanksgiving may be confirmed For the confirmation of the Prayer is fulfilled by them that do answer Amen that all things spoken might be confirmed in the minds of the
beloved of God and wrapt in spirit with an ardent zeal to Gods glory He spake not of a private hatred and in a stomach against their Persons but wished spiritually the destruction of such corrupt Errors and Vices which reigned in all devilish Persons set against God He was of like mind as St. Paul was when he did deliver Hymeneus and Alexander with the notorious Fornicator to Satan to their Temporal confusion that their Spirit might be saved against the day of the Lord. And when David did profess in some places that he hated the wicked yet in other places of his Psalms he professeth that he hated them with a perfect hate not with a malicious hate to the hurt of the Soul Which perfection of spirit because it cannot be performed in us so corrupted in affections as we be we ought not to use in our private causes the like words in form for that we cannot fulfil the like words in sense Let us not therefore be offended but search out the reason of such words before we be offended that we may the more reverently judge of such sayings though strange to our carnal Understandings yet to them that be spiritually minded judged to be zealously and godly pronounced God therefore for his mercies sake vouchsafe to purifie our minds through Faith in his Son Jesus Christ and to instill the Heavenly drops of his grace into our hard stony hearts to supple the same that we be not contemners and deriders of his Infallible Word but that with all humbleness of mind and Christian reverence we may endeavour our selves to hear and to read his sacred Scriptures and inwardly so to digest them as shall be to the comfort of our Souls sanctification of his Holy Name To whom with the Son and the Holy Ghost three Persons and one living God be all Land Honour and Praise for ever and ever Amen AN HOMILY OF Alms-Deeds and Mercifulness towards the Poor and Needy AMongst the manifold Duties that Almighty God requireth of his Faithful Servants the true Christians by the which he would that both his Name should be glorified and the certainty of their Vocation declared there is none that is either more acceptable unto him or more profitable for them than are the Works of Mercy and Pity shewed upon the Poor which be afflicted with any kind of misery And yet this notwithstanding such is the slothful sluggishness of our dull Nature to that which is good and godly that we are almost in nothing more negligent and less careful than we are therein It is therefore a very ncessary thing that Gods People should awake their sleepy minds and consider their Duty on this behalf And meet it is that all true Christians should desirously seek and learn what God by his Holy Word doth herein require of them that first knowing their Duty whereof many by their slackness seem to be very ignorant they may afterwards diligently endeavour to perform the same By the which both the godly charitable Persons may be encouraged to go forwards and continue in their merciful Deeds of Alms-giving to the Poor and also such as hitherto have either neglected or contemned it may yet now at length when they shall hear how much it appertaineth to them advisedly consider it and vertuously apply themselves thereunto And to the intent that every one of you may the better understand that which is taught and also easilier bear away and so take more fruit of that shall be said when several matters are severally handled I mind particularly and in this order to speak and intreat of these points First I will shew how earnestly Almighty God in his Holy Word doth exact the doing of Alms-Deeds of us and how acceptable they be unto him Secondly how profitable it is for us to use them and what commodity and fruit they will bring unto us Thirdly and lastly I will shew out of Gods Word that whoso is liberal to the Poor and relieveth them plenteously shall notwithstanding have sufficient for himself and evermore be without danger of penury and scarcity Concerning the first which is the acceptation and dignity or price of Alms-Deeds before God Know this that to help and succour the Poor in their need and misery pleaseth God so much that as the Holy Scripture in sundry places recordeth nothing can be more thankfully taken or accepted of God For first we read that Almighty God doth account that to be given and to be bestowed upon himself that that is bestowed upon the Poor For so doth the Holy Ghost testifie unto us by the Wise Man saying He that hath pity upon the Poor Prov. 19. lendeth unto the Lord himself And Christ in the Gospel avoucheth and as a most certain truth bindeth it with an Oath that the Alms bestowed upon the Poor was bestowed upon him and so shall be reckoned at the last day For thus he saith to the charitable Alms-givers when he sitteth as Judge in the doom to give sentence of every man according to his deserts Mat. 25. Verily I say unto you whatsoever good and merciful deed you did upon any of the least of these my brethren ye did the same unto me In relieving their hunger ye relieved mine in quenching their thirst ye quenched mine in clothing them ye clothed me and when ye harboured them ye lodged me also when ye visited them being sick in Prison ye visited me For as he that hath received a Princes Embassadors and entertaineth them well doth honour the Prince from whom those Embassadors do come So he that receiveth the Poor and Needy and helpeth them in their affliction and distress doth thereby receive and honour Christ their Master who as he was poor and needy himself whilest he lived here amongst us to work the Mystery of our Salvation at his departure hence he promised in his stead to send unto us those that were Poor by whose means his absence should be supplied and therefore that we would do unto him we must do unto them And for this cause doth the Almighty God say unto Moses The Land wherein you dwell Deut. 15. shall never be without poor men because he would have continual trial of his People whether they loved him or no that in shewing themselves obedient unto his will they might certainly assure themselves of his love and favour towards them and nothing doubt but that as his Law and Ordinance wherein he commanded them that they should open their hand unto their brethren that were poor and needy in the Land were accepted of them and willingly performed So he would on his part lovingly accept them and truly perform his promises that he had made unto them The Holy Apostles and Disciples of Christ who by reason of his daily conversation saw by his Deeds and heard in his Doctrine how much he tendred the Poor the godly Fathers also that were both before and since Christ indued without doubt with the Holy Ghost and most
poor Pilgrim and meek soul riding upon an Ass but like a valiant and mighty King in great Royalty and Honour Not as Christ did with a few Fishermen and men of small estimation in the World but with a great Army of strong men with a great train of Wise and Noble men as Knights Lords Earls Dukes Princes and so forth Neither do they think that their Messias shall slanderously suffer death as Christ did but that he shall stoutly conquer and manfully subdue all his Enemies and finally obtain such a Kingdom on Earth as never was seen from the beginning While they feign unto themselves after this sort a Messias of their own brain they deceive themselves and account Christ as an abject and scorn of the World Therefore Christ crucified as St. Paul saith is unto the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Gentiles foolishness because they think it an absurd thing and contrary to all reason that a Redeemer and Saviour of the whole World should be handled after such a sort as he was namely scorned reviled scourged condemned and last of all cruelly hanged This I say seemed in their eyes strange and most absurd and therefore neither they would at that time neither will they as yet acknowledge Christ to be their Messiâ—s and Saviour But we dearly beloved that hope and look to be saved must both stedfastly believe and also boldly confess that the same Jesus which was born of the Virgin Mary was the true Messias and Mediator between God and Man promised and prophesied of so long before For as the Apostle writeth With the heart man believeth unto righteousness Rom. 10. and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation Again in the same place Whosoever believeth in him shall never be ashamed nor confounded Whereto also agreeth the testimony of St. John written in the fourth Chapter of his first general Epistle on this wise Whosoever confesseth that Jesus is the Son of God he dwelleth in God and God in him There is no doubt but in this point all Christian men are fully and perfectly perswaded Yet shall it not be a lost labour to instruct and furnish you with a few places concerning this matter that ye may be able to stop the blasphemous mouths of all them that most Jewishly or rather devilishly shall at any time go about to teach or maintain the contrary First ye have the witness and testimony of the Angel Gabriel declared as well to Zachary the High-Priest as also to the blessed Virgin Secondly ye have the witness and testimony of John the Baptist pointing unto Christ and saying Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World Thirdly ye have the witness and testimony of God the Father who thundred from Heaven and said This is my dearly beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him Fourthly ye have the witness and testimony of the Holy Ghost which came down from Heaven in manner of a Dove and lighted upon him in time of his Baptism To these might be added a great number more namely the witness and testimony of the Wise Men that came to Herod the witness and testimony of Simeon and Anna the witness and testimony of Andrew and Philip Nathaniel and Peter Nicodemus and Martha with divers other But it were too long to repeat all and a few places are sufficient in so plain a matter specially among them that are already perswaded Therefore if the privy Imps of Antichrist and crafty Instruments of the Devil shall attempt or go about to withdraw you from this true Messias and perswade you to look for another that is not yet come let them not in any case seduce you but confirm your selves with these and such other testimonies of Holy Scripture which are so sure and certain that all the Devils in Hell shall never be able to withstand them For as truly as God liveth so truly was Jesus Christ the true Messias and Saviour of the World even the same Jesus which as this day was born of the Virgin Mary without all help of man only by the power and operation of the Holy Ghost Concerning whose nature and substance because divers and sundry Heresies are risen in these our days through the motion and suggestion of Satan therefore it shall be needful and profitable for your instruction to speak a word or two also of this part We are evidently taught in the Scripture that our Lord and Saviour Christ consisteth of two several natures of his manhood being thereby perfect man and of his Godhead being thereby perfect God John 1. Rom. 8. It is written The Word that is to say the second Person in Trinity became flesh God sending his own Son in the similitude of sinful flesh fulfilled those things which the Law could not Phil. 2. Christ being in form of God took on him the form of a servant and was made like unto man being found in shape as a man 1 Tim. 3. God was shewed in Flesh justified in Spirit seen of Angels preached to the Gentiles believed on in the World and received up in glory Also in another place There is one God and one Mediator between God and man even the Man Jesus Christ These be plain places for the proof and declaration of both Natures united and knit together in one Christ Let us diligently consider and weigh the works that he did whiles he lived on Earth and we shall thereby also perceive the self-same thing to be most true In that he did hunger and thirst eat and drink sleep and wake in that he preached his Gospel to the People in that he wept and sorrowed for Jerusalem in that he paid Tribute for himself and Peter in that he died and suffered death what other things did he else declare but only this that he was perfect man as we are For which cause he is called in Holy Scripture sometime the Son of David sometime the Son of Man sometime the Son of Mary sometime the Son of Joseph and so forth Now in that he forgave Sins in that he wrought Miracles in that he did cast out Devils in that he healed men with his only Word in that he knew the thoughts of mens Hearts in that he had the Seas at his Commandment in that he walked on the Water in that he rose from Death to Life in that he ascended into Heaven and so forth What other thing did he shew therein but only that he was perfect God coequal with the Father as touching his Deity Therefore he saith The Father and I are all one which is to be understood of his Godhead For as touching his Manhood he saith The Father is greater than I am Where are now those Marcionites that deny Christ to have been born in the flesh or to have been perfect man Where are now those Arians which deny Christ to have been perfect God of equal substance with the Father If there be any such we may easily
Christ to be the Son of God and through Faith obtain eternal life To conclude with the words of St Paul Rom. 10. which are these Christ is the end of the Law unto salvation for every one that doth believe By this then you may well perceive that the only mean and instrument of Salvation required of our parts is Faith that is to say a sure trust and confidence in the mercies of God whereby we perswade our selves that God both hath and will forgive our sins that he hath accepted us again into his favour that he hath released us from the bonds of damnation and received us again into the number of his elect People not for our merits or deserts but only and solely for the merits of Christs Death and Passion who became man for our sakes and humbled himself to sustain the reproach of the Cross that we thereby might be saved and made inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven This Faith is required at our hands And this if we keep stedfastly at our hearts there is no doubt but we shall obtain Salvation at Gods hands as did Abraham Isaac and Jacob of whom the Scripture saith Gen. 15. Rom. 7. that they believed and it was imputed unto them for righteousness Was it imputed unto them only and shall it not be imputed unto us also Yes if we have the same Faith as they had it shall be as truly imputed unto us for righteousness as it was unto them For it is one Faith that must save both us and them even a sure and stedfast Faith in Christ Jesus who as ye have heard came into the World for this end that whosoever believe in him should not perish John 3. but have life everlasting But here we must take heed that we do not halt with God through an unconstant and wavering Faith but that it be strong and stedfast to our lives end He that wavereth saith St. James is like a wave of the Sea James 1. neither let that man think that he shall obtain any thing at Gods hands Peter coming to Christ upon the Water Mat. 14. because he fainted in Faith was in danger of drowning So we if we begin to waver or doubt it is to be feared lest we shall sink as Peter did not into the Water but into the bottomless Pit of Hell-fire Therefore I say unto you that we must apprehend the Merits of Christs death and Passion by Faith and that with a strong and stedfast Faith nothing doubting but that Christ by his own Oblation and once offering of himself upon the Cross hath taken away our sins and hath restored us again into Gods favour so fully and perfectly that no other sacrifice for sin shall hereafter be requisite or needful in all the World Thus have you heard in few words the mean whereby we must apply the fruits and merits of Christs death unto us so that it may work the Salvation of our Souls namely a sure stedfast perfect and grounded Faith Numb 21. John 3. For as all they which beheld stedfastly the Brasen Serpent were healed and delivered at the very sight thereof from their corporal diseases and bodily stings even so all they which behold Christ crucified with a true and lively Faith shall undoubtedly be delivered from the grievous wounds of the Soul be they never so deadly or many in number Therefore dearly beloved if we chance at any time through frailty of the flesh to fall into sin as it cannot be chosen but we must needs fall often and if we feel the heavy burden thereof to press our souls tormenting us with the fear of Death Hell and Damnation let us then use that mean which God hath appointed in his Word to wit the mean of Faith which is the only instrument of Salvation now left unto us Let us stedfastly behold Christ crucified with the eyes of our heart Let us only trust to be saved by his Death and Passion and to have our sins clean washed away through his most precious Blood that in the end of the World when he shall come again to judge both the quick and the dead he may receive us into his Heavenly Kingdom and place us in the number of his Elect and chosen People there to be partakers of that immortal and everlasting life which he hath purchased unto us by vertue of his bloody Wounds To him therefore with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honour and Glory World without end Amen AN HOMILY OF THE Resurrection of our Saviour Jesus Christ For easter-Easter-Day IF ever at any time the greatness or excellency of any matter Spiritual or Temporal hath stirred up your minds to give diligent ear good Christian People and well-beloved in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ I doubt not but that I shall have you now at this present season most diligent and ready Hearers of the matter which I have at this time to open unto you For I come to declare that great and most comfortable Article of our Christian Religion and Faith the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus So great surely is the matter of this Article and of so great weight and importance that it was thought worthy to keep our said Saviour still on Earth forty days after he was risen from death to life to the confirmation and establishment thereof in the hearts of his Disciples So that as Luke clearly testifieth in the first Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles he was conversant with his Disciples by the space of forty days continually together to the intent he would in his person being now glorified teach and instruct them which should be the teachers of other fully and in most absolute and perfect-wise the truth of this most Christian Article which is the ground and foundation of our whole Religion before he would ascend up to his Father into the Heavens there to receive the glory of his most triumphant Conquest and Victory Assuredly so highly comfortable is this Article to our Consciences that it is even the very Lock and Key of all our Christian Religion and Faith 1 Cor. 15. If it were not true saith the Holy Apostle Paul that Christ rose again then our Preaching were in vain your Faith which you have received were but void ye were yet in the danger of your sins If Christ be not risen again saith the Apostle then are they in very ill case and utterly perished that be entred their sleep in Christ then are we the most miserable of all men which have our hope fixed in Christ if he be yet under the power of death and as yet not restored to his bliss again But now he is risen again from death saith the Apostle Paul to be the first-fruits of them that be asleep to the intent to raise them to everlasting life again Yea if it were not true that Christ is risen again then were it neither true that he is ascended up to Heaven nor that he
for chattering Jays but for Eagles who flie thither where the dead body lieth And if this advertisement of man cannot perswade us to resort to the Lords Table with understanding see the counsel of God in the like matter who charged his People to teach their Posterity not only the Rites and Ceremonies of the Passover but the cause and end thereof Whence we may learn that both more perfect knowledge is required at this time at our hands and that the ignorant cannot with fruit and profit exercise himself in the Lords Sacraments But to come nigher to the matter St. Paul blaming the Corinthians for the profaning of the Lords Supper concludeth that ignorance both of the thing it self and the signification thereof was the cause of their abuse for they came thither unreverently not discerning the Lords Body Ought not we then by the motion of the Wise man by the wisdom of God by the fearful example of the Corinthians to take advised heed that we thrust not our selves to this Table with rude and unreverent ignorance the smart whereof Christs Church hath rued and lamented these many days and years For what hath been the cause of the ruin of Gods Religion but the ignorance hereof What hath been the cause of this gross Idolatry but the ignorance hereof What hath been the cause of this mummish Massing but the ignorance hereof Yea what hath been and what is at this day the cause of this want of love and charity but the ignorance hereof Let us therefore so travel to understand the Lords Supper that we be no cause of the decay of Gods Worship of no Idolatry of no dumb Massing of no hate and malice so may we the boldier have access thither to our comfort Acts 1. Neither need we to think that such exact knowledge is required of every man Matth. 26. that he be able to discuss all high points in the Doctrine thereof But thus much we must be sure to hold that in the Supper of the Lord there is no vain Ceremony no bare sign no untrue figure of a thing absent 1 Cor. 11. But as the Scripture saith the Table of the Lord the Bread and Cup of the Lord the memory of Christ the Annunciation of his death yea the Communion of the Body and Blood of the Lord in a marvellous incorporation which by the operation of the Holy Ghost the very bond of our conjunction with Christ is through faith wrought in the souls of the faithful whereby not only their souls live to eternal life but they surely trust to win their bodies a resurrection to immortality The true understanding of this fruition and union which is betwixt the Body and the Head betwixt the true Believers and Christ Iren. lib. 4. cap. 34. Igna. Epist ad Ephes Dionysius Origen Optat. Cyp. de caena Domini Atha de pec inspir sanct the ancient Catholick Fathers both perceiving themselves and commending to their People were not afraid to call this Supper some of them the Salve of Immortality and Sovereign Preservative against Death other a Deifical Communion other the sweet dainties of our Saviour the pledge of eternal health the defence of Faith the hope of the Resurrection other the food of Immortality the healthful Grace and the Conservatory to everlasting life All which sayings both of the Holy Scripture and godly men truly attributed to this celestial Banquet and Feast if we would often call to mind O how would they inflame our hearts to desire the participation of these Mysteries and oftentimes to covet after this bread continually to thirst for this food Not as especially regarding the terrene and earthly Creatures which remain but always holding fast and cleaving by Faith to the Rock whence we may suck the sweetness of everlasting Salvation And to be brief thus much more the Faithful see hear and know the favourable mercies of God sealed the satisfaction by Christ towards us confirmed and the remission of sin established Here they may feel wrought the tranquillity of Conscience the increase of Faith the strengthening of Hope the large spreading abroad of brotherly kindness with many other sundry graces of God The taste whereof they cannot attain unto who be drowned in the deep dirty lake of blindness and ignorance From the which O beloved wash your selves with the living Waters of Gods Word whence you may perceive and know both the spiritual food of this costly Supper and the happy trustings and effects that the same doth bring with it Now it followeth to have with this knowledge a sure and constant Faith not only that the death of Christ is available for the redemption of all the World for the remission of sins and reconciliation with God the Father but also that he hath made upon his Cross a full and sufficient Sacrifice for thee a perfect cleansing of thy sins so that thou acknowledgest no other Saviour Redeemer Mediator Advocate Intercessor but Christ only and that thou mayest say with the Apostle that he loved thee and gave himself for thee For this is to stick fast to Christs promise made in his Institution to make Christ thine own and to apply his merits unto thy self Herein thou needest no other mans help no other Sacrifice or Oblation no sacrificing Priest no Mass no means established by mans invention That Faith is a necessary instrument in all these holy Ceremonies we may thus assure our selves for that as St. Paul saith without Faith it is unpossible to please God Heb. 11. In Johan Hom. 6. When a great number of the Israelites were overthrown in the Wilderness Moses Aaron and Phineas did eat Manna and pleased God for that they understood saith St. Augustine the visible meat spiritually Spiritually they hungred it spiritually they tasted it that they might be spiritually satisfied And truly as the bodily meat cannot feed the outward man unless it be let into the stomach to be digested which is healthful and sound no more can the inward man be fed except his meat be received into his soul and heart De Caena Domini sound and whole in Faith Therefore saith Cyprian when we do these things we need not to whet our teeth but with sincere Faith we break and divide that whole bread It is well known that the meat we seek for in this Supper is spiritual food the nourishment of our soul a heavenly refection and not earthly and invisible meat and not bodily a ghostly substance and not carnal so that to think that without Faith we may enjoy the eating and drinking thereof or that that is the fruition of it is but to dream a gross carnal feeding basely objecting and binding our selves to the Elements and Creatures Whereas by the advice of the Council of Nicene Concilium Nicen. we ought to lift up our minds by Faith and leaving these inferiour and earthly things there seek it where the Sun of Righteousness ever shineth Take then this Lesson
fall without any kind of thought or compassion toward them whom we might easily relieve without any Conscience of Slander Disdain Misreport Division Rancor or inward bitterness Yea being accumbred with the cloaked Hatred of Cain Gen. 4. Gen. 27. 2 Sam. 3. with the long coloured Malice of Esau with the dissembled Falshood of Joab dare ye presume to come up to these sacred and fearful Mysteries O Man whither rushest thou unadvisedly It is a Table of Peace and thou art ready to fight It is a Table of singleness and thou art imagining mischief It is a Table of quietness and thou art given to debate It is a Table of pity and thou art unmerciful Dost thou neither fear God the maker of this Feast nor reverence his Christ the refection and meat nor regardest his Spouse his well-beloved Guest nor weighest thine own Conscience which is sometime thine inward accuser Wherefore O Man tender thine own Salvation examine and try thy good will and love towards the Children of God the Members of Christ the Heirs of the Heavenly Heritage yea towards the Image of God the excellent Creature thine own Soul If thou have offended now be reconciled If thou have caused any to stumble in the way of God now set them up again If thou have disquieted thy Brother now pacifie him If thou have wronged him now relieve him If thou have defrauded him now restore to him If thou have nourished spite now embrace friendship If thou have fostered hatred and malice now openly shew thy love and charity yea be prest and ready to procure thy Neighbours health of soul wealth commodity and pleasures as thine own Deserve not the heavy and dreadful burthen of Gods displeasure for thine evil will towards thy Neighbour so unreverently to approach to this Table of the Lord. Last of all as there is here the mystery of Peace and the Sacrament of Christian Society Chrysost ad popu Ant. Homil. 6. whereby we understand what sincere love ought to be betwixt the true Communicants So here be the tokens of pureness and innocency of life whereby we may perceive that we ought to purge our own Soul from all uncleanness iniquity and wickedness lest when we receive the Mystical Bread as Origen saith we eat it in an unclean place that is In Levit. Cap. 23. 1 Cor. 11. Luke 17. Homil. 14. in a Soul defiled and polluted with sin In Moses Law the man that did eat of the Sacrifice of Thanksgiving with his uncleanness upon him should be destroyed from his People And shall we think that the wicked and sinful Person shall be excusable at the Table of the Lord 1 Cor. 11. Luke 17. Homil. 114 We both read in St. Paul that the Church of Corinth was scourged of the Lord for misusing the Lords Supper and we may plainly see Christs Church these many years miserably vexed and oppressed for the horrible profanation of the same Wherefore let us all universal and singular behold our own manners and lives to amend them Yea now at least let us call our selves to an accompt that it may grieve us of our former evil conversation that we may hate sin that we may sorrow and mourn for our offences that we may with tears pour them out before God that we may with sure trust desire and crave the Salve of his Mercy bought and purchased with the Blood of his dearly Beloved Son Jesus Christ to heal our deadly Wounds withal For surely Chrysost ad popul Ant. Homil. 6. if we do not with earnest Repentance cleanse the filthy stomach of our Soul it must needs come to pass that as wholsom meat received into a raw stomach corrupteth and marreth all and is the cause of further sickness so shall we eat this wholsom Bread and drink this Cup to our eternal destruction Thus we and no other must thorowly examine and not lightly look over our selves not other men our own Conscience not other mens lives which we ought to do uprightly truly and with just correction O saith Chrysostom let no Judas resort to this Table Ad popul Ant. Hom. 6 Mat. 26. let no covetous Person approach If any be a Disciple let him be present For Christ saith With my Disciples I make my Passover Why cried the Deacon in the Primitive Church if any be holy let him draw near Why did they celebrate these Mysteries the Quire-door being shut Why were the publick Penitents and Learners in Religion commanded at this time to avoid Was it not because this Table received no unholy unclean or sinful Guests Wherefore if Servants dare not to presume to an earthly Masters Table whom they have offended let us take heed we come not with our sins unexamined into this presence of our Lord and Judge If they be worthy blame which kiss the Princes hand with a filthy and unclean mouth shalt thou be blameless which with a stinking Soul full of Covetousness Fornication Drunkenness Pride full of wretched Cogitations and Thoughts dost breath out iniquity and uncleanness on the Bread and Cup of the Lord. Thus have you heard Epilog how you should come reverently and decently to the Table of the Lord having the knowledge out of his Word of the thing it self and the fruits thereof bringing a true and constant Faith the Root and Well-spring of all newness of life as well in praising God and loving our Neighbour as purging our own Conscience from filthiness So that neither the ignorance of the thing shall cause us to contemn it nor unfaithfulness make us void of fruit nor sin and iniquity procure us Gods Plagues but shall by Faith in knowledge and amendment of life in Faith be here so united to Christ our Head in his Mysteries to our comfort that after we shall have full fruition of him indeed to our everlasting joy and eternal life To the which He bring us that died for us and redeemed us Jesus Christ the righteous to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost one true and eternal God be all Praise Honour and Dominion for ever Amen AN HOMILY CONCERNING The Coming down of the HOLY GHOST and the manifold Gifts of the same For Whitsunday BEfore we come to the declaration of the great and manifold gifts of the Holy Ghost wherewith the Church of God hath been evermore replenished it shall first be needful briefly to expound unto you whereof this Feast of Pentecost or Whitsuntide had his first beginning You shall therefore understand that the Feast of Pentecost was always kept the fiftieth day after Easter a great and solemn Feast among the Jews wherein they did celebrate the memorial of their deliverance out of Egypt and also the memorial of the publishing of the Law which was given unto them in the Mount Sinai upon that day It was first ordained and commanded to be kept Holy not by any mortal man but by the mouth of the Lord himself as we read in Levit. 23. and Deut.
She is the Mother of all these things for she is an infinite treasure unto Men which whoso use become partakers of the love of God I might with many words move some of this audience to search for this Wisdom to sequester their Reason to follow Gods Commandment to cast from them the Wits of their Brains to favor this Wisdom to renounce the Wisdom and Policy of this fond World to taste and Savor of that whereunto the Favor and Will of God hath called them and willeth us finally to enjoy by his Favor if we would give ear But I will haste to the Third Part of my Text wherein is expressed further in Sapience how God giveth his Elect understanding of the motions of the Heavens of the alteration and circumstances of Time Which as it followeth in words more plentiful in the Text which I have last cited unto you so it must needs follow in them that be endued with this Spiritual Wisdom For as they can search where to find this Wisdom and know of whom to ask it So know they again that in time it is found and can therefore temper themselves to the occasion of the time to suffer no time to pass away wherein they may labor for this Wisdom And to encrease therein they know how God of his infinite Mercy and lenity giveth all Men here time and place of Repentance And they see how the Wicked as Job writeth abuse the same to their Pride Job 14. and therefore do the Godly take the better hold of the time to redeem it out of such use as it is spoiled in by the Wicked They which have this Wisdom of God can gather by the diligent and earnest study of the Worldlings of this present life how they wait their times and apply themselves to every occasion of time and to get Riches to encrease their Lands and Patrimony They see the time pass away and therefore take hold on it in such wise that otherwhiles they will with loss of their sleep and ease with suffering many pains catch the offer of their time knowing that that which is past cannot be returned again Repentance may follow but remedy is none Why should not they then that be Spiritually Wise in their Generation wait their time to encrease as fast in their state to win and gain Everlastingly They reason what a brute forgetfulness it were in Man endued with Reason to be ignorant of their Times and Tides when they see the Turtle Dove the Stork and the Swallow to wait their times Jer. 8. as Jeremy saith The Stork in the Air knoweth her appointed times the Turtle the Grane and the Swallow observe the time of their coming but my People knoweth not the judgment of the Lord. Ephes 2. St. Paul willeth us to redeem the time because the days are evil It is not the Counsel of St. Paul only but of all other that ever gave precepts of Wisdom There is no Precept more seriously given and commanded than to know the time Yea Christian Men for that they hear how grievously God complaineth and threatneth in the Scriptures them which will not know the time of his Visitations are learned thereby the rather earnestly to apply themselves thereunto After our Saviour Christ had Prophesied with weeping Tears of the destruction of Jerusalem at the last he putteth the cause Luke 19. For that thou hast not known the time of thy Visitation O England ponder the time of Gods merciful Visitation which is shewed thee from day to day and yet will not regard it neither wilt thou with his Punishment be driven to thy Duty nor with his benefits be provoked to Thanks If thou knewest what may fall upon thee for thy unthankfulness thou wouldst provide for thy Peace Brethren howsoever the World in generality is forgetful of God let us Particularly attend to our time and win the time with diligence and apply our selves to the Light and Grace that is afforded us let us if Gods Favor and Judgments which he worketh in our time cannot stir us to call home to our selves to do that belonging to our Salvation at the least way let the malice of the Devil the naughtiness of the World which we see exercised in these perilous and last times wherein we see our days so dangerously set provoke us to watch diligently to our vocation to walk and go forward therein Let the misery and short transitory joys spied in the casualty of our days move us while we have them in our hands and seriously stir us to be wise and to expend the gracious good Will of God to us ward which all the day long stretched out his Hands as the Prophet saith unto us Isaiah 65. for the most part his merciful Hands sometime his heavy Hands that we being learned thereby may escape the danger that must needs fall on the unjust who lead their days in felicity and pleasure without the knowing of Gods Will toward them but suddenly they go down into Hell Let us be found Watchers found in the Peace of the Lord that at the last Day we may be found without spot and blameless yea let us endeavor our selves good Christian People diligently to keep the presence of his holy Spirit Job 2. Let us renounce all uncleanness for he is the Spirit of Purity Sap. 1. Let us avoid all hypocrisie for this holy Spirit will flee from that which is feigned Heb. 11. Cast we off all malice and all evil will for this Spirit will never enter into an evil willing Soul Let us cast away all the whole lump of sin that standeth about us for he will never dwell in that Body that is subdued to sin We cannot be seen Thankful to Almighty God and work such despight to the Spirit of Grace by whom we be Sanctified Heb. 10. If we do our endeavor we shall not need to fear We shall be able to overcome all our Enemies that fight against us Only let us apply our selves to accept the Grace that is offered us Of Almighty God we have comfort by his Goodness of our Saviour Christs Mediation we may be sure And this holy Spirit will suggest unto us that shall be wholsome and comfort us in all things Therefore it cannot be but true that St. Paul affirmeth Of him by him and in him be all things and in him after this transitory life well passed shall we have all things For St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 15. When the Son of God shall subdue all things unto him then shall God be all in all If ye will know how God shall be all in all verily after this sense may we understand it In this World ye see that we be fain to borrow many things to our necessity of many Creatures there is no one thing that sufficeth all our necessities If we be an Hungred we lust for Bread If we be Athirst we seek to be refreshed with Ale or Wine If we be
to them that they study not either to Write fair to keep a Book of Account to study the Tongues and so to get wisdom and knowledge in such Books and Works as be now plentifully set out in Print of all manner of Languages Let young Men consider the precious value of their time and waste it not in Idleness in Jollity in Gaming in Bant queting in Ruffians company Youth is but Vanity and must be accounted for before God How merry and glad soever thou be in thy Youth O young Man saith the Preacher how glad soever thy Heart be in thy young days Eccles 11. how fast and freely soever thou follow the ways of thine own Heart and the lust of thine own Eye yet be thou sure that God shall bring thee into Judgment for all these things God of his mercy put it into the Hearts and Minds of all them that have the Sword of Punishment in their Hands or have Families under their Governance to Labor to redress this great enormity of all such as live Idly and unprofitably in the Common-weal to the great dishonor of God and the grievous Plague of his silly People To leave sin unpunished and to neglect the good bringing up of Youth is nothing else but to kindle the Lords wrath against us and to heap Plagues upon our own Heads As long as the Adulterous people were suffered to live Licentiously without Reformation so long did the Plague continue and increase in Israel Numb 25. as you may see in the Book of Numbers But when due correction was done upon them the Lords anger was strait way pacified and the Plauge ceased Let all Officers therefore look straitly to their charge Let all Masters of Housholds reform this abuse in their Families let them use the Authority that God hath given them let them not maintain Vagabonds and Idle persons but deliver the Realm and their Housholds from such noysom Loyterers that Idleness the Mother of all Mischief being clean taken away Almighty God may turn his dreaful Anger away from us and confirm the Covenant of Peace upon us for ever through the Merits of Jesus Christ our only Lord and Saviour to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Honor and Glory World without end Amen AN HOMILY OF Repentance and of true Reconciliation unto God THere is noting that the Holy Ghost doth so much Labor in all the Scriptures to beat into Mens Heads as Repentance amendment of Life and speedy returning unto the Lord God of Hosts And no marvel why for we do Daily and Hourly by our wickedness and stubborn Disobedience horribly fall away from God thereby purchasing unto our selves if he should deal with us according to his Justice Eternal Damnation The Doctrin of Repentance is most necessary So that no Doctrin is so necessary in the Church of God as is the Doctrin of Repentance and amendment of Life And verily the true Preachers of the Gospel of the Kingdom of Heaven and of the glad and joyful tidings of Salvation have always in their Godly Sermons and Preachings unto the People joyned these two together I mean Repentance and Forgiveness of Sins even as our Saviour Jesus Christ did appoint himself saying So it behoved Christ to Suffer and to Rise again the Third Day and that Repentance and Forgiveness of sins should be preached in his Name among all Nations And therefore the holy Apostle doth in the Acts speak after this manner I have witnessed both to the Jews and to the Gentiles the Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ Did not John Baptist Zacharias Son begin his Ministry with the Doctrin of Repentance saying Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand The like Doctrin did our Saviour Jesus Christ preach himself and commanded his Apostles to preach the same I might here alledge very many places out of the Prophets in the which this most wholsom Doctrin of Repentance is very earnestly urged as most needful for all degrees and orders of Men but one shall be sufficient at this present time These are the words of Joel the Prophet therefore also now the Lord saith Joel 2. Return unto me with all your heart with Fasting Weeping and Mourning rent your hearts and not your cloaths and return unto the Lord your God for he is gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great compassion and ready to pardon wickedness Whereby it is given us to understand A perpetual Rule which all must follow that we have here a perpetual Rule appointed unto us which ought to be observed and kept at all times and that there is none other way whereby the wrath of God may be pacified and his anger asswaged that the fierceness of his fury and the plagues of destruction which by his righteous Judgment he had determined to bring upon us may depart be removed and taken away Where he saith But now therefore saith the Lord return unto me It is not without great importance that the Prophet speaketh so for he had before set forth at large unto them the horrible Vengeance of God which no Man was able to abide and therefore he doth move them to Repentance to obtain Mercy as if he should say I will not have these things to be so taken as though there were no hope of grace left For although ye do by your sins deserve to be utterly destroyed and God by his righteous Judgments hath determined to bring no small destruction upon you yet know that ye are in a manner on the very edge of the Sword if ye will speedily return unto him he will most gently and most mercifully receive you into favor again Whereby we are admonished that Repentance is never too late so that it be true and earnest For sith that God in the Scriptures will be called our Father doubtless he doth follow the nature and property of gentle and merciful Fathers which seek nothing so much as the returning again and amendment of their Children as Christ doth abundantly teach in the Parable of the Prodigal Son Luke 15. Ezek. 18. Esay 1. 1 John 2. Doth not the Lord himself say by the Prophet I will not the death of the wicked but that he turn from his wicked ways and live And in another place If we confess our sins God is faithful righteous to forgive us our sins and to make us clean from all wickedness Which most comfortable Promises are confirmed by many Examples of the Scriptures when the Jews did willingly receive and imbrace the wholesom counsel of the Prophet Esay Esay 33. God by and by did reach his helping hand unto them and by his Angel did in one night slay the most worthy and valiant Soldiers of Sennacheribs Camp 2 Par. 53. Whereunto may King Manasses be added who after all manner of damnable wickedness returned unto the Lord and therefore was heard of him and restored again into his Kingdom
this manner Peter was sorry and wept De poenitentia distin I. cap. Petrus because he erred as a Man I do not find what he said I know that he wept I read of his Tears but not of his satisfaction But how chance that the one was received into favor again with God and the other cast away but because that the one did by a lively Faith in him whom he had denied take hold upon the mercy of God and the other wanted Faith whereby he did despair of the Goodness and Mercy of God It is evident and plain then that although we be never so earnestly sorry for our sins acknowledge and confess them yet all these things shall be but means to bring us to utter desparation except we do stedfastly believe that God our Heavenly Father will for his Son Jesus Christs sake Pardon and Forgive us our Offences and Trespasses and utterly put them out of remembrance in his sight Therefore as we said before they that teach Repentance without Christ and a lively Faith in the Mercy of God do only teach Cains or Judas Repentance The Fourth is an Amendment of Life or a new Life in bringing forth Fruits worthy of Repentance For they that do truly Repent must be clean altered and changed they must become new Creatures they must be no more the same that that they were before And therefore thus said John Baptist unto the Pharisees and Sadducees that came unto his Baptism O generation of Vipers Matt. 3. who hath forewarned you to flee from the anger to come bring forth therefore Fruits worthy of Repentance Whereby we do learn that if we will have the wrath of God to be pacified we must in no wise dissemble but turn unto him again with a true and found Repentance which may be known and declared by good Fruits as by most sure and infallible signs thereof They that do from the bottom of their Hearts acknowledge their Sins and are unfeignedly sorry for their Offences will cast off all Hypocrisie and put on true Humility and lowliness of Heart They will not only receive the Physician of the Soul but also with a most fervent desire long for him They will not only abstain from the Sins of their former Life and from all other filthy Vices but also flee eschew and abhor all the occasions of them And as they did before give themselves to uncleanness of Life so will they from henceforwards with all diligence give themselves to Innocency pureness of Life and true Godliness Ionas 3. We have the Ninevites for an example which at the Preaching of Jonas did not only proclaim a general Fast and that they should every one put on Sackcloth but they all did turn from their Evil Ways and from the Wickedness that was in their Hands But above all other the History of Zaccheus is most notable For being come unto our Saviour Jesus Christ Luke 19. he did say Behold Lord the half of my Goods I give to the Poor and if I have defrauded any Man or taken ought away by Extortion or Fraud I do restore him fourfold Here we see that after his Repentance he was no more the Man that he was before but was clean changed and altered It was so far off that he would continue and abide still in his unsatiable covetousness or take ought away fraudulently from any Man that rather he was most willing and ready to give away his own and to make satisfaction unto all them that he had done injury and wrong unto Here may we right well add the sinful Woman which when she came to our Saviour Jesus Christ Luke 7. did pour down such abundance of Tears out of those wanton Eyes of hers wherewith she had allured many unto folly that she did with them wash his Feet wiping them with the Hairs of her Head which she was wont most gloriously to set out making of them a Net for the Devil Hereby we do learn what is the satisfaction that God doth require of us which is that we cease from Evil Iohn 5. and do Good and if we have done any Man wrong to endeavor our selves to make him true amends to the utmost of our power following in this the example of Zaccheus and of this sinfull Woman and also that goodly Lesson that John Baptist Zacharias Son bid give unto them that came to ask Counsel of him This was commonly the Penance that Christ enjoyned sinners Go thy way and sin no more John 15. Which Penance we shall never be able to fulfil without the special grace of him that doth say Without me ye can do nothing It is therefore our parts if at least we be desirous of the health and salvation of our own selves most earnestly to pray unto our heavenly Father to assist us with his holy Spirit that we may be able to hearken unto the Voice of the true Shepherd and with due obedience to follow the same Let us hearken to the Voice of Almighty God when he calleth us to Repentance let us not harden our hearts as such Infidels do who abuse the time given them of God to repent and turn it to continue their pride and contempt against God and Man which know not how much they heap Gods wrath upon themselves for the hardness of their hearts which cannot repent at the day of Vengeance Where we have offended the Law of God let us repent us of our straying from so good a Lord. Let us confess our unworthiness before him but yet let us trust in Gods free mercy for Christs sake for the pardon of the same And from henceforth let us endeavor our selves to walk in a new Life as new born Babes whereby we may glorifie our Father which is in Heaven and thereby to bear in our Consciences a good testimony of our Faith so that at the last to obtain the fruition of everlasting life through the merits of our Saviour To whom be all praise and honor for ever Amen The Third Part of the Homily of Repentance IN the Homily last spoken unto you right well-beloved People in our Saviour Christ ye heard of the true parts and tokens of Repentance that is hearty contrition and sorrowfulness of our Hearts unfeigned confession in word of mouth for our unworthy living before God a stedfast Faith to the merits of our Saviour Christ for pardon and a purpose of our selves by Gods grace to renounce our former wicked life and a full Conversion to God in a new life to glorifie his Name and to live orderly and charitably to the comfort of our Neighbor in all righteousness and to live soberly and modestly to our selves by using abstinence and temperance in word and in deed in mortifying our earthly Members here upon Earth Now for a further perswasion to move you to those parts of Repentance I will declare unto you some causes which should the rather move you to Repentance The causes that should
move us to Repent Esay 31. Ezek. 33. Hos 14. First The Commandment of God who in so many places of the holy and sacred Scriptures doth bid us return unto him O ye Children of Israel saith he turn again from your infidelity wherein ye drowned your selves Again Turn you turn you from your evil ways For why will ye die O ye House of Israel And in another place thus doth he speak by his Prophet Hosea O Israel return unto the Lord thy God For thou hast taken a great fall by thine iniquity Take unto you these words with you when you turn unto the Lord and say unto him Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously so will we offer the Calves of our Lips unto thee In all these places we have an express commandment given unto us of God for to return unto him Therefore we must take good heed unto our selves lest whereas we have already by our manifold sins and transgressions provoked and kindled the wrath of God against us we do by breaking this his Commandment double our offences and so heap still damnation upon our own heads by our daily offences and trespasses whereby we provoke the eyes of his Majesty we do well deserve if he should deal with us according to his justice to be put away for ever from the fruition of his Glory How much more then are we worthy of the endless torments of Hell if when we be so gently called again after our Rebellion and commanded to return we will in no wise hearken unto the voice of our heavenly Father but walk still after the stubbornness of our own hearts Secondly The most comfortable and sweet promise that the Lord our God did of his meer mercy and goodness joyn unto his Commandment for he doth not only say Return unto me O Israel Jer. 4. but also if thou wilt return and put away all thine abominations out of my sight thou shalt never be moved These words also have we in the Prophet Ezekiel Ezek. 18. At what time soever a sinner doth repent him of his sin from the bottom of his heart I will put all his wickedness out of my remembrance saith the Lord so that they shall be no more thought upon Thus are we sufficiently instructed that God will according to his promise freely pardon forgive and forget all our sins so that we shall never be cast in the teeth with them if obeying his Commadment and allured by his sweet Promises we will unfeignedly return unto him Thirdly The filthiness of sin which is such that as long as we do abide in it God cannot but detest and abhor us neither can there be any hope that we shall enter into the Heavenly Jerusalem except we be first made clean and purged from it But this will never be unless forsaking our former life we do with our whole heart return unto the Lord our God and with a full purpose of amendment of life flee unto his mercy taking sure hold thereupon through Faith in the Blood of his Son Jesus Christ If we should suspect any uncleanness to be in us Similitude wherefore the earthly Prince should loath and abhor the sight of us what pains would we take to remove and put it away How much more ought we with all diligence and speed that may be to put away that unclean filthiness that doth separate and make a division betwixt us and our God Esay 59. and that hideth his Face from us that he will not hear us And verily herein doth appear how filthy a thing sin is sith than it can by no other means be washed away but by the Blood of the only begotten Son of God And shall we not from the bottom of our hearts detest and abhor and with all earnestness flee from it sith that it did cost the dear Heart-Blood of the only begotten Son of God our Saviour and Redeemer to purge us from it Plato doth in a certain place write that if Vertue could be seen with bodily Eyes all Men would wonderfully be inflamed and kindled with the love of it even so on the contrary if we might with our bodily Eyes behold the filthiness of sin and the uncleanness thereof we could in no wise abide it but as most present and deadly Poison hate and eschew it We have a common Experience of the same in them which when they have committed any heinous offence or some filthy and abominable sin if it once come to light or if they chance to have a through feeling of it they be so ashamed their own Conscience putting before their Eyes the filthiness of their Act that they dare look no Man in the Face much less that they should be able to stand in the sight of God Fourthly The uncertainty and brittleness of our own lives which is such that we cannot assure our selves that we shall live one hour or one half quarter of it Which by experience we do find daily to be true in them that being now merry and lusty and sometimes Feasting and Banqueting with their Friends do fall suddenly dead in the Streets and otherwhiles under the Board when they are at meat These daily Examples as they are most terrible and dreadful so ought they to move us to seek for to be at one with our heavenly Judge that we may with a good Conscience appear before him whensoever it shall please him for to call us whether it be suddenly or otherwise for we have no more Charter of our life than they have But as we are most certain that we shall die so are we most uncertain when we shall die For our life doth lie in the hand of God who will take it away when it pleaseth him And verily when the highest Summer of all Death the Lords Sumner Eccles 11. Contra Demetrianum Eccles 5. which is death shall come he will not be said nay but we must be forthwith be packing to be present before the Judgment seat of God as he doth find us according as it is written Whereas the Tree falleth whether it be toward the South or toward the North there it shall lie Whereunto agreeth the saying of the holy Martyr of God St. Cyprian saying As God doth find thee when he doth call so doth he judge thee Let us therefore follow the Counsel of the Wise Man where he saith Make no tarrying to turn unto the Lord and put not off from day to day For suddenly shall the wrath of the Lord break forth and in thy security shalt thou be destroyed and shalt perish in the time of Vengeance Which words I desire you to mark diligently because they do most lively put before our Eyes the fondness of many Men who abusing the long-suffering and goodness of God do never think on Repentance or amendment of Life Follow not saith he thine own mind and thy strength to walk in the ways of thy heart neither say thou Who will bring me under for
continual Prayers unto Almighty God even from the bottom of our hearts that he will give his grace power and strength unto our gracious King to vanquish and subdue all as well Rebels at home as Foreign Enemies that all Domestical Rebellions being suppressed and pacified and all outward Invasions repulsed and abandoned we may not only be sure and long continue in all obedience un o our gracious Sovereign and in that peaceable and quiet life which hitherto we have led under his Majesty with all security but also that both our gracious King and we his Subjects may all together in all obedience unto God the King of Kings and unto his holy Laws lead our lives so in this World in all Vertue and Godliness that in the World to come we may enjoy his everlasting Kingdom which I beseech God to grant as well to our gracious Sovereign as unto us all for his Son our Saviour Jesus Christs sake To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost one God and King immortal be all glory praise and thanksgiving World without end Amen Thus have you heard the First Part of this Homily Now good People Let us pray The PRAYER as in that time it was Published O Most mighty God the Lord of Hosts the Governor of all Creatures the only giver of all Victories who alone art able to strengthen the Weak against the Mighty and to vanquish infinite multitudes of thine Enemies with the Countenance of a few of thy Servants calling upon thy Name and trusting in thee Defend O Lord thy Servant and our Governor under thee our Sovereign Lord the KING and all thy People committed to his charge O Lord withstand the cruelty of all those which be Common Enemies as well to the Truth of thy Eternal Word as to their own natural Prince and Country and manifestly to this Crown and Realm of England which thou hast of thy Divine Providence assigned in these our days to the Government of thy Servant our Sovereign and gracious KING O most merciful Father if it be thy holy Will make soft and tender the stony Hearts of all those that exalt themselves against thy Truth and seek either to trouble the quiet of this Realm of England or to oppress the Crown of the same and convert them to the knowledge of thy Son the only Saviour of the World Jesus Christ that we and they may joyntly glorifie thy Mercies Lighten we beseech the their ignorant Hearts to embrace the Truth of thy Word or else so abate their cruelty O most mighty Lord that this our Christian Realm with others that confess thy holy GOSPEL may obtain by thy aid and strength surety from all Enemies without shedding of Christian Blood whereby all they which be oppressed with their Tyranny may by relieved and they which be in fear of their cruelty may be comforted and finally that all Christian Realms and especially this Realm of England may by thy Defence and Protection continue in the Truth of the Gospel and enjoy perfect Peace Quietness and Security And that we for these thy Mercies joyntly all together with one consonant Heart and Voice may thankfully render to thee all Laud and Praise that we knit in one Godly concord and unity amongst our selves may continually magnifie thy glorious Name who with thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ and the holy Ghost art one Eternal Almighty and most merciful God To whom be all Laud and Praise World without end Amen The Second Part of the Homily against Disobedience and Wilful Rebellion AS in the First Part of this Treaty of Obedience of Subjects to their Princes and against Disobedience and Rebellion I have alledged divers sentences out of the holy Scriptures for proof so shall it be good for the better declaration and confirmation of the said wholsom Doctrin to alledge one example or two out of the holy Scriptures of the Obedience of Subjects not only unto their good and gracious Governors but also unto their evil and unkind Princes As King Saul was not of the best but rather of the worst sort of Princes as being out of Gods favor for his disobedience against God in sparing in a wrong pity the King Agag whom Almighty God commanded to be slain according to the Justice of God against his sworn Enemy and although Saul of a Devotion meant to Sacrifice such things as he spared of the Amalechites to the Honor and Service of God yet Saul was reproved for his wrong Mercy and Devotion and was told that Obedience would have more pleased him than such lenity which sinful humanity saith holy Chrysostom is more cruel before God than any Murther or shedding of Blood when it is commanded of God But yet how evil soever Saul the King was and out of Gods favor yet was he obeyed of his Subject David the very best of all Subjects and most valiant in the service of his Prince and Country in the Wars the most obedient and loving in Peace and always most true and faithful to his Sovereign and Lord and farthest off from all manner of Rebellion For the which his most painful true and faithful Service King Saul yet rewarded him not only with great unkindness but also sought his destruction and death by all means possible so that David was fain to save his life not by Rebellion or any Resistance but by flight and hiding himself from the Kings sight Which notwithstanding when King Saul upon a time came alone into the Cave where David was so that David might easily have slain him yet would he neither hurt him himself neither suffer any of his Men to lay hands upon him Another time also David entring by night with one Abisai a valiant and fierce Man into the Tent where King Saul did lie asleep where also he might yet more easily have slain him yet would he neither hurt him himself nor suffer Abisai who was willing and ready to slay King Saul once to touch him Thus did David deal with Saul his Prince notwithstanding that King Saul continually saught his death and destruction It shall not be amiss unto these Deeds of David to add his words and to shew you what he spake unto such as encouraged him to take his opportunity and advantage to slay King Saul as his mortal Enemy when he might 1 Reg. 24. b. 7 c. 1 Reg. 26. b. 9. b. 10 c. The Lord keep me saith David from doing that thing and from laying hands upon my Lord Gods Anointed For who can lay his hand upon the Lords Anointed and be guiltless As truly as the Lord liveth except that the Lord do smite him or his days shall come to die or that he go down to War and be slain in Battel the Lord be merciful unto me that I lay not my hand upon the Lords Anointed These be Davids words 1 Reg. 24. a. 1 Reg. 1 b. 7. b. 9. 2 Reg. 1. b. spoken at sundry times to divers his Servants
Enemies with the Countenance of a few of thy Servants calling upon thy Name and trusting in thee Defend O Lord thy Servant and our Governor under thee our Sovereign Lord the KING and all thy People committed to his charge O Lord withstand the cruelty of all those which be Common Enemies as well to the Truth of thy Eternal Word as to their own natural Prince and Country and manifestly to this Crown and Realm of England which thou hast of thy Divine Providence assigned in these our days to the Government of thy Servant our Sovereign and gracious KING O most merciful Father if it be thy holy Will make soft and tender the stony Hearts of all those that exalt themselves against thy Truth and seek either to trouble the quiet of this Realm of England or to oppress the Crown of the same and convert them to the knowledge of thy Son the only Saviour of the World Jesus Christ that we and they may joyntly glorifie thy Mercies Lighten we beseech the their ignorant Hearts to embrace the Truth of thy Word or else so abate their cruelty O most mighty Lord that this our Christian Realm with others that confess thy holy GOSPEL may obtain by thy aid and strength surety from all Enemies without shedding of Christian Blood whereby all they which be oppressed with their Tyranny may be relieved and they which be in fear of their cruelty may be comforted and finally that all Christian Realms and especially this Realm of England may by thy Defence and Protection continue in the Truth of the Gospel and enjoy perfect Peace Quietness and Security And that we for these thy Mercies joyntly all together with one consonant Heart and Voice may thankfully render to thee all Laud and Praise that we knit in one Godly concord and unity amongst our selves may continually magnifie thy glorious Name who with thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ and th◠〈◊〉 Ghost art one Eternal Almighty and most mercâ—â—â—â— God To whom be all Laud and Praise World without end Amen The Third Part of the Homily against Disobedience and Wilful Rebellion AS I have in the First Part of this Treatise shewed unto you the Doctrin of the Holy Scriptures as concerning the Obedience of true Subjects to their Princes even as well to such as be evil as unto the good and in the Second Part of the same Treaty confirmed the same Doctrin by notable examples likewise taken out of the Holy Scriptures so remaineth it now that I partly do declare unto you in this Third Part what an abominable sin against God and Man Rebellion is and how dreadfully the wrath of God is kindled and inflamed against all Rebels and what horrible plagues punishments and deaths and finally eternal damnation doth hang over their heads as how on the contrary part good and obedient Subjects are in Gods favor and be partakers of Peace Quietness and Security with other Gods manifold blessings in this World and by his mercies through our Saviour Christ of life everlasting also in the World to come How horrible a sin against God and Man Rebellion is cannot possibly be expressed according unto the greatness thereof For he that nameth Rebellion nameth not a singular or one only sin as is Theft Robbery Murder and such like but he nameth the whole puddle and sink of all sins against God and Man against his Prince his Country his Country-men his Parents his Children his Kinsfolks his Friends and against all Men universally all sins I say against God and all Men heaped together nameth he that nameth Rebellion For concerning the offence of Gods Majesty who seeth not that Rebellion riseth first by contempt of God and of his holy Ordinances and Laws wherein he so straitly commandeth Obedience forbiddeth Disobedience and Rebellion And besides the dishonor done by Rebels unto Gods holy name by their breaking of their Oath made to their Prince with the attestation of Gods Name and calling of his Majesty to witness Who heareth not the horrible Oaths and Blasphemies of Gods holy Name that are used daily amongst Rebels that is either amongst them or heareth the truth of their Behavior Who knoweth not that Rebels do not only themselves leave all Works necessary to be done upon work-Work-days undone whiles they accomplish their abominable work of Rebellion and to compel others that would gladly be well occupied to do the same but also how Rebels do not only leave the sabbath-Sabbath-day of the Lord unsanctified the Temple and Church of the Lord unresorted unto but also do by their Works of wickedness most horribly prophane and pollute the sabbath-Sabbath-day serving Satan and by doing of his work making it the Devils day instead of the Lords day Besides that they compel good Men that would gladly serve the Lord assembling in his Temple and Church upon his day as becometh the Lords Servants to Assemble and meet Armed in the Field to resist the fury of such Rebels Yea and many Rebels lest they should leave any part of Gods Commandments in the first Table of his Law unbroken or any sin against God undone do make Rebellion for the maintainance of their Images and Idols and of their Idolatry committed or to be committed by them and in despite of God cut and tear in sunder his holy Word and tread it under their Feet as of late ye know was done The fifth Commandment As concerning the second Table of Gods Law and all sins that may be committed against Man who seeth not that they be contained in Rebellion For first the Rebels do not only dishonor their Prince the Parent of their Country but also do dishonor and shame their natural Parents if they have any do shame their Kindred and Friends do disinherit and undo for ever their Children and Heirs The sixth and eighth Commandment Thefts Robberies and Murders which of all sins are most loathed of most Men are in no Men so much nor so perniciously and mischievously as in Rebels For the most arrant Thieves cruellest Murderers that ever were so long as they refrain from Rebellion as they are not many in number so spreadeth their wickedness and damnation unto a few they spoil but a few they shed the Blood but of a few in comparison But Rebels are the cause of infinite Robberies and murderers of great Multitudes and of those also whom they should defend from the spoil and violence of other and as Rebels are many in number so doth their wickedness and damnation spread it self unto many And if Whoredom and Adultery amongst such Persons as are agreeable to such wickedness are as they indeed be most damnable The Seventh Commandment What are the forcible oppressions of Matrons and Mens Wives and the violating and deflouring of Virgins and Maids which are most rife with Rebels How horrible and damnable think you are they Now besides that The Nninth Commandment Rebels by breach of their Faith given and the Oath made to their
even at this day But these ambitious and indeed traitorous means and spoiling of their Sovereign Lords the Bishops of Rome of Priests and none other by right than the Bishops of one City and Diocess are by false usurpation become great Lords of many Dominions mighty Princes yea or Emperors rather as claiming to have divers Princes and Kings to their Vassals Liegemen and Subjects as in the same Histories written by their own Familiars and Courtiers is to be seen And indeed since the time that the Bishops of Rome by Ambition Treason and Usurpation atchieved and attained to this height and greatness they behaved themselves more like Princes Kings and Emperors in all things than remained like Priests Bishops and Ecclesiastical or as they would be called Spiritual persons in any one thing at all For after this rate they have handled other Kings and Princes of other Realms throughout Christendom as well as their Sovereign Lords the Emperors usually discharging their Subjects of their Oath of Fidelity and so stirring them up to Rebellion against their natural Princes whereof some examples shall in the last part hereof be notified unto you Wherefore let all good Subjects knowing these the special Instruments and Ministers of the Devil to the stirring up of all Rebellions avoid and flee them and the pestilent suggestions of such Foreign Usurpers and their Adherents and embrace all obedience to God and their natural Princes and Sovereigns that they may enjoy Gods blessings and their Princes favor all Peace Quietness Security in this World and finally attain through Christ our Saviour life everlasting in the World to come which God the Father for the same our Saviour Jesus Christ his sake grant unto us all To whom with the Holy Ghost be all honor and glory World without end Amen Thus have you heard the Fifth Part of this Homily Now good People Let us Pray The PRAYER as in that time it was Published O Most mighty God the Lord of Hosts the Governor of all Creatures the only giver of all Victories who alone art able to strengthen the Weak against the Mighty and to vanquish infinite multitudes of thine Enemies with the Countenance of a few of thy Servants calling upon thy Name and trusting in thee Defend O Lord thy Servant and our Governor under thee our Sovereign Lord the KING and all thy People committed to his charge O Lord withstand the cruelty of all those which he Common Enemies as well to the Truth of thy Eternal Word as to their own natural Prince and Country and manifestly to this Crown and Realm of England which thou hast of thy Divine Providence assigned in these our days to the Government of thy Servant our Sovereign and gracious KING O most merciful Father if it be thy holy Will make soft and tender the stony Hearts of all those that exalt themselves against thy Truth and seek either to trouble the quiet of this Realm of England or to oppress the Crown of the same and convert them to the knowledge of thy Son the only Saviour of the World Jesus Christ that we and they may joyntly glorifie thy Mercies Lighten we beseech thee their ignorant hearts to embrace the Truth of thy Word or else so abate their cruelty O most mighty Lord that this our Christian Realm with others that confess thy holy GOSPEL may obtain by thy aid and strength surety from all Enemies without shedding of Christian Blood whereby all they which be oppressed with their Tyranny may be relieved and they which be in fear of their cruelty may be comforted and finally that all Christian Realms and especially this Realm of England may by thy Defence and Protection continue in the Truth of the Gospel and enjoy perfect Peace Quietness and Security And that we for these thy Mercies joyntly all together with one consonant Heart and Voice may thankfully render to thee all Laud and Praise that we knit in one Godly concord and unity amongst our selves may continually magnifie thy glorious Name who with thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ and the holy Ghost art one Eternal Almighty and most merciful God To whom be all Laud and Praise World without end Amen The Sixth and last Part of the Homily against Disobedience and Wilful Rebellion NOw whereas the Injuries Oppressions Raveny and Tyranny of the Bishops of Rome Usurping as well against their natural Lords the Emperors as against all other Christian Kings and Kingdoms and their continual stirring of Subjects unto Rebellions against their Sovereign Lords whereof I have partly admonished you before were intolerable and it may seem more than marvel that any Subjects would after such sort hold with unnatural Foreign Usurpers against their own Sovereign Lords and natural Country It remaineth that I do declare the Mean whereby they compassed these matters and so to conclude this whole â—reaty of due Obedience and against Disobedience and Wilful Rebellion You shall understand Of the ignorance of simple people the later Part that by ignorance of Gods Word wherein they kept all Men specially the Common People they wrought and brought to pass all these things making them believe that all that they said was true all that they did was good and godly and that to hold with them in all things against Father Mother Prince Country and all Men was most meritorious And indeed what mischief will not blind ignorance lead simple Men unto By ignorance the Jewish Clergy induced the common People to ask the delivery of Barabbas the seditious murderer and to sue for the cruel Crucifying of our Saviour Christ for that he rebuked the Ambition Superstition and other Vices of the High Priests and Clergy For as our Saviour Christ testifieth that those who Crucified him wist not what they did so doth the Holy Apostle St. Paul say If they had known if they had not been ignorant they would never have Crucified the Lord of Glory but they knew not what they did Our Saviour Christ himself also foreshew that it should come to pass by ignorance that those who should persecute and murder his true Apostles and Disciples should think they did God acceptable Sacrifice and good Service as it is also verified even at this day And in this ignorance have the Bishops of Rome kept the People of God specially the common sort by no means so much as by withdrawing the Word of God from them and by keeping it under the vail of an unknown strange tongue For as it served the ambitious humor of the Bishops of Rome to compel all Nations to use the natural Language of the City of Rome where they were Bishops which shewed a certain acknowledging of subjection unto them so yet served it much more their crafty purpose thereby to keep all People so blind Si cognovissent Gregorius 2 3. Anno Dom. 726. c. In the second Commandment that they not knowing what they prayed what they believed what they were commanded by God might
Henry the Emperor with his Wife and young Child to stand at the Gates of the City in the rough Winter bare Footed and bare legged only cloathed in Linsey Wolsey eating nothing from Morning to Night and that for the space of three days Shall we say that he had Gods holy Spirit within him and not rather the Spirit of the Devil Such a Tyrant was Pope Hildebrand most worthy to be called a Firebrand if we shall term him as he hath best deserved Many other examples might here be alledged As of Pope Joan the Harlot that was delivered of a Child in the High-street going solemnly in Procession Of Pope Julius the II. that wilfully cast St. Peters Keys into the River Tiberis Of Pope Urban the VI. that caused five Cardinals to be put in Sacks and cruely drowned Of Pope Sergius the III. that persecuted the dead Body of Formosus his Predecessor when it had been buried eight years Of Pope John the XIV of that name who having his Enemy delivered into his hands caused him first to be stripped stark naked his Beard to be shaven and to be hanged up a whole day by the Hair then to be set upon an Ass with his face backward toward the Tail to be carried round about the City in despite to be miserably beaten with Rods last of all to be thrust out of his Country and to be banished for ever But to conclude and make an end ye shall briefly take this short Lesson wheresoever ye find the Spirit of Arrogance and Pride the Spirit of Envy Hatred Contention Cruelty Murder Extortion Witchcraft Necromancy c. Assure your selves that there is the Spirit of the Devil and not of God albeit they pretend outwardly to the World never so much Holiness For as the Gospel teacheth us The Spirit of Jesus is a good Spirit an holy Spirit a sweet Spirit a lowly Spirit a merciful Spirit full of Charity and Love full of Forgiveness and Pity not rendring evil for evil extremity for extremity but overcoming evil with good and remitting all offence oven from the heart According to which Rule if any Man live uprightly of him it may be safely pronounced that he hath the Holy Ghost within him If not then it is a plain token that he doth usurp the the name of the Holy Ghost in vain Therefore dearly beloved according to the good Counsel of St. John Believe not every Spirit 1 John 4. but first try them whether they be of God or no. Many shall come in my namâ— saith Christ Mat. 24. and shall transform themselves into Angels of Light deceiving if it be possible the very Elect. They shall come unto you in Sheeps Cloathing being inwardly cruel and ravening Wolves they shall have an outward shew of great Holiness and innocency of Life so that ye shall hardly or not at all discern them But the Rule that ye must follow is this To judge them by their Fruits Mat. 7. which if they be wicked and naught then it is unpossible that the Tree of whom they proceed should be good Such were all the Popes and Prelates of Rome for the most part as doth well appear in the Story of their Lives and therefore they are worthily accounted among the number of false Prophets and false Christs Luke 6. which deceived the World a long while The Lord of Heaven and Earth defend us from their Tyranny and Pride that they never enter into his Vineyard again to the disturbance of his silly poor Flock but that they may be utterly confounded and put to flight in all parts of the World and he of his great mercy so work in all Mens hearts by the mighty power of the Holy Ghost that the comfortable Gospel of his Son Christ may be truly preached truly received and truly followed in all places to the beating down of Sin Death the Pope the Devil and all the Kingdom of Antichrist that like scattered and dispersed Sheep being at length gathered into one fold we may in the end rest all together in the Bosom of Abraham Isaac and Jacob there to be partakers of Eternal and Everlasting Life through the merits and death of Jesus Christ our Saviour Amen AN HOMILY FOR THE Days of Rogation-Week That all good things come from God I Am purposed this day good devout Christian People to declare unto you the most deserved praise and commendation of Almighty God not only in the consideration of the marvellous Creation of this World or for conservation and governance thereof wherein his great Power and Wisdom might excellently appear to move us to honor and dread him but most especially in consideration of his liberal and large goodness which he daily bestoweth on us his reasonable Creatures for whose sake he made the whole Universal World with all the Commodities and Goods therein which his singular goodness well and diligently remembred on our part should move us as Duty is again with hearty affection to love him and with word and deed to praise him and serve him all the days of our Life And to this matter being so worthy to entreat of and so profitable for you to hear I trust I shall not need with much circumstance of Words to stir you to give your Attendance to hear what shall be said Only I would wish your affection inflamed in secret wise within your self to raise up some motion of Thanksgiving to the goodness of Almighty God in every such Point as shall be opened by my Declaration particularly unto you For else what shall it avail us to hear and know the great goodness of God towards us to know that whatsoever is good proceedeth from him as from the principal Fountain and the only Author or to know that whatsoever is sent from him must needs be good and wholsome If the hearing of such matter moveth us no further but to know it only what availeth it the wise Men of the World tâ— have knowledge of the Power and Divinity of God by the secret inspiration of him where they did not honor and glorifie him in their knowledge as God What praise was it to them by the consideration of the Creation of the World to behold his goodness and not to be thankful to him again for his Creatures What other thing deserved this blindness and forgetfulness of them at Gods hands but utter forsaking of him and so forsaking of God they could not but fall into extream Ignorance and Error And although they much esteemed themselves in their Wits and Knowledge and gloried in their Wisdom yet vanished they away blindly in their thoughts became Fools and perished in their folly There can be none other end of such as draw nigh to God by knowledge and yet depart from him in unthankfulness but utter destruction This Experience saw David in his Days for in his Psalm he saith Behold they which withdraw themselves from thee shall perish Psal 73. for thou hast destroyed them all
that are strayed from thee This Experience was perceived to be true of that holy Prophet Jeremy Jer. 15. O Lord saith he whatsoever they be that forsake thee shall be confounded they that depart from thee shall be written in the Earth and soon forgotten It profiteth not good People to hear the goodness of God declared unto us if our hearts be not enflamed thereby to honor and thank him It profited not the Jews which were Gods elect People to hear much of God seeing that he was not received in their hearts by Faith nor thanked for his benefits bestowed upon them their unthankfulness was the cause of their destruction Let us eschew the manner of these before rehearsed and follow rather the Example of that holy Apostle St. Paul who when in a deep Meditation he did behold the marvellous Proceedings of Almighty God and considered his infinite goodness in the ordering of his Creatures he burst out into this conclusion Surely saith he of him Rom. 11. by him and in him be all things And this once pronounced he stuck not still at this Point but forthwith thereupon joyned to these words To him be glory and praise for ever Amen Upon the ground of which words of St. Paul good Audience I purpose to build my Exhortation of this day unto you Wherein I shall do my endeavour First To prove unto you that all good things come down unto us from above from the Father of Light Secondly That Jesus Christ his Son and our Saviour is the mean by whom we receive his liberal goodness Thirdly That in the power and vertue of the Holy Ghost we be made meet and able to receive his gifts and graces Which things distinctly and advisedly considered in our minds must needs compel us in most low reverence after our bounden Duty always to render him thanks again in some testification of our good hearts for his deserts unto us And that the entreating of this matter in hand may be to the glory of Almighty God Let us in one Faith and Charity call upon the Father of Mercy from whom cometh every good gift and every perfect gift by the mediation of his well-beloved Son our Saviour that we may be assisted with the presence of his Holy Spirit and profitably on both parts to demean our selves in speaking and hearkning to the Salvation of our Souls In the beginning of my speaking unto you good Christian People suppose not that I do take upon me to declare unto you the excellent Power or the incomparable Wisdom of Almighty God as though I would have you believe that it might be expressed unto you by words Nay it may not be thought that that thing may be comprehended by Mans words that is incomprehensible And too much arrogancy it were for Dust and Ashes to think that he can worthily decâ—are his Maker It passeth far the dark understanding and wisdom of a Mortal Man to speak sufficiently of that divine Majesty which the Angels cannot understand We shall therefore lay apart to speak of the profound and unsearchable Nature of Almighty God rather acknowledging our weakness than rashly to attempt what is above all Mans capacity to compass It shall better suffice us in low Humility to reverence and dread his Majesty which we cannot comprize than by over-much curious searching to be over-charged with the Glory We shall rather turn our whole Contemplation to answer a while his goodness towards us wherein we shall be much more profitably occupied and more may we be bold to search To consider the great Power he is of can but make us dread and fear To consider his high Wisdom might utterly discomfort our Frailty to have any thing to do with him but in consideration of his inestimable goodness we take good heart again to trust well unto him By his goodness we be assured to take him for our refuge our hope and comfort our merciful Father in all the course of our Lives His Power and Wisdom compelleth us to take him for God Omnipotent Invisible having Rule in Heaven and Earth having all things in his subjection and will have none in Council with him nor any to ask the reason of his doing Dan. 11. For he may do what liketh him and none can resist him For he worketh all things in his secret Judgment to his own pleasure Prov. 16. yea even the wicked to damnation saith Solomon By the reason of his Nature he is called in Scripture consuming Fire he is called a terrible and fearful God Heb. 11. of this behalf therefore we have no familiarity no access unto him but his goodness again tempereth the rigor of his High Power and maketh us bold and putteth us in hope that he will be conversant with us and easie unto us It is his goodness that moveth him to say in Scripture It is my delight to be with the Children of Men. It is his goodness that moveth him to call us unto him to offer us his Friendship and Presence It is his goodness that patiently suffereth our straying from him and suffereth us long to win us to Repentance It is of his goodness that we be created reasonable Creatures where else he might have made us brute Beasts Prov. 8. It was his Mercy to have us born among the number of Christian People and thereby in a much more nighness to Salvation where we might have been born if his goodness had not been among the Paynims clean void from God and the hope of Everlasting Life And what other thing doth his loving and gentle Voice spoken in his word where he calleth us to his Presence and Friendship but declare his goodness only without regard of our worthiness And what other thing doth stir him to call us to him when we be strayed from him to suffer us patiently to win us to Repentance but only his singular goodness no whit of our deserving Let them all come together that be now glorified in Heaven and let us hear what answer they will make in these Points before rehearsed whether their first Creation was in Gods goodness or of themselves Forsooth David would make answer for them all and say Know ye for surety even the Lord is God he hath made us and not we our selves If they were asked again who should be thanked for their Regeneration for their Justification and for their Salvation Whether their deserts or Gods goodness only Although in this Point every one confess sufficiently the truth of this matter in his own Person yet let David answer by the mouth of them all at this time who cannot chuse but say Not to us O Lord not to us but to thy Name give all the thanks for thy loving mercy and for thy truths sake If we should ask again from whence came their glorious Works and Deeds which they wrought in their lives wherewith God was so highly pleased and worshipped by them Let some other witness be brought in to testifie