stumbleth and the wise Grecian of the world esteemeth folly is the ignominie of the Crosse the one looking for the glory of a Crowne and therefore hating the shame of the Crosse and the other knowing God to be impassible and therefore mocking the Christians God by calling him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Crucified God let vs see whether our Sauiour may not say to these two Naturalls what hee sometimes said to his owne disciples trauelling to Emaus who at that time were iust opinion'd in euery point like vnto For first they dream'd of a temporall Redemption Secondly when they saw our Sauiour condemned and crucified they concluded it could not be hee that should redeeme Israell Thirdly they talked of Christ as of one dead crucified when hee walked into the middest of them and when hee talked to them out of his word their eies were held as these mens are that they know him not And therefore well may our Sauiour now say to these as hee did then to them O fooles and slow of heart to beleeue all that the Prophets haue spoken Ought not Christ to suffer these things and to enter into glory Yes assuredly if with our Lord we should begin from Moses who spilt the typicall bloud of our Sauiour in his Paschall Lambe and in all his bloudy Sacrifices goe through all the Prophets we shall find none more punctually leuelled at him or more closely touching him to the quicke then those of his Passion If GOD bee to smite him Zachary will foretell it Awake O Sword against my Shepheard and against the man that is my fellow saith the Lord of Hoastes Zachar. 13. 7. If at this first blow of God his Disciples proue all fugitiues the same Prophet in the same place foretels it Smite the Shepheard and the sheepe shall be scattered And this was our Sauiours owne argument to proue himselfe the true Shepheard and them his little and fearefull flocke If the Iewish people and the heathen Soldiers if the Kings of the earth the rulers of the Iewish Synagogue gather themselues together against him as at his death they did and for many yeares after Dauid will not conceale it Why did the Heathen rage and the people imagine vaine things The Kings of the earth stood vp and the Rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ And this was the argument of the whole Primitiue Church met together in Prayer Acts. 4. 27. If wee would know who should betray him Dauid tells vs. Hee that eates bread with me And when he had dipped the sop hee gaue it to Iudas Iscariot Sayes the beloued disciple Ioh. 13. 26. And this was Iudas his venturous Argument to proue our Sauiour the Sonne of God and himselfe the sonne of perdition If we would know the price of his treason Zachary sets it downe They weighed for my price thirty pieces of siluer and I cast them to the Potter in the house of the Lord Zach. 11. 13. If the time of death be doubted Dauid will foretell vs in the 9. Chapter and 5. last verses of his Prophesie where hee reckons 70. weekes euery weeke standing for a Sabbaoth of yeares a day for a yeare which makes in all 490. yeares a short kinde of Arethmetique vsuall in the Scripture to be determined before the cutting off of the Messias 7 weekes whereof that is 49. yeares were to be accomplisht before the building of the Temple And 62. weekes that is 434. yeares before the Annoynting of the most holy which time was ended when the heauens broke open themselues and the Spirit of God came riding out vpon the wings of a Doue whose wings were siluer and his feathers flam'd with pure gold to anoynt him to his propheticall office with the oyle of gladnes aboue all his Fellowes which holy vnction St. Peter mentions in this very Sermon of his Acts 10. 38. Now the remainent weeke that conteynes 7. yeares more in the midst of which that is after 3. yeares and a halfe the Messias by the Sacrifice and oblation of himselfe was to make all other Sacrifices and Oblations to cease wee shall finde exactly fulfilled in the preaching of our Sauiour who after hee had preach't 3. yeares and a halfe offered himselfe vpon the Alter of his Crosse And this was the Angell Gabriels most accurat Argument to Daniel to proue our Sauiour the Messias who here before the time was the Prophet of his death and the messenger of his Birth in the fulnes of time after and therefore could best acquaint vs with them both But if we would see the whole passion of our Lord most exquisitely drawne with the lines of his owne bloud let vs but ioyne Dauid and Esay and Zachary together you shall haue it exprest with as much as death can be If a crowne of thornes teare his hayre and his whole visage should bee shamefully dishonour'd with his owne bloud and the peoples spettle if his backe should be beaten with stripes and his cheekes buffeted Esay will set him before our eyes in this very forme in his fifty and two and fifty Chapters His visage shall be more deform'd then any mans sayes the Prophets his forme more then the Sonnes of men I gaue my backe to the smiters and my cheekes to them that pluck't of the hayre I hid not my face from shame and spetting If his whole body should bee rack't and tenter'd with the violent discension of euery part of it vpon the Crosse so that his bones should be disioynted and might all be tould if his handes feete were to be nayl'd to it if the people that past by should wagge their heads at him and the Priests should mock him and say he trusted in God let him deliuer him if he will haue him if the Soldiers should cast lotts for his Garments and the standers by should giue them vineger to drinke all this will Dauid most heauily sing in the 22. and threescore and ninth Psa All my bones are out of ioynt they pierced my hands and my feete I may tell all my bones They that passe by shake their heads at mee saying He trusted in God let him deliuer him if he will haue him I was a thirst and they gaue me vineger to drinke they parted my garments among them and cast lotts vpon my vesture If hee suffer among theeues Esay tells vs Hee was numbred among the wicked Esay 53. If he pray for his enemies Father forgiue them Hee prayed for the transgressors sayes the same verse If they pierce his side with a speare They shall see me whom they haue pierc't sayes our Sauiour by Zachary in the 12. Chapter and the 10. verse of his Prophesie If all this storme fell from heauen vpon him for th'iniquitie of Gods people and to saue vs from death Esay precisely sayes asmuch in the fore mentioned chap. For the transgression of my people was he smitten the Lord hath layed vpon him th'iniquity of vs
him That thou mayest see then what thou shouldest beleeue now beleeue those Prophesies which are yet to be seene Thou sawest not perhaps the comming of Christ in humilitie foretould by the foregoing Prophet but that which was foretould by his following Apostles thou maist yet see◠the comming of Antichrist in pride Thou couldst not see Ierusalem destroy the Temple of Christs Body foretould by the former Prophets but our Sauiour himselfe Prophesied of the destruction of Ierusalem and that is yet to be seene Thine eyes cannot behold the spirituall Kingdome of Christ because it is of another world and beyond thy eye sight but the power of this Kingdome which was to breake in pieces the former great Monarchies of the world and it selfe to remaine vnshaken for euer Prophesied twice by Daniel in his 2. and 7. Chapters if thou wilt but open thine eyes thou canst not but behold The Diuine image of the inuisible God dwelling bodily in the humane Nature of our Sauior prophesied in Esays Immanuel is to diuinely subtile for his owls eies to looke vpon but it is visibly to be seene by thee that the false image of the heathen like Dagons Idol before the Arke are fallen downe and by the power of Christs Kingdom beaten to the ground Prophesied in the second of Esay and Dauid and diuerse of the Prophets How the Kings of the earth and the Rulers banded themselues together against the Lord and against his Christ to extinguish his Church in the very Cradle of it Prophesied by Dauid was thou wilt say before thou were borne to see it but happy happy art thou that thou art borne to see now Kings to be the Noursing Fathers Queenes the Nursing Mothers of his Church Prophesied by Esay Es 49. 23. Thou seest not the whole world Iew and Gentil forget themselues and rebell against the Lord denying his Kingdome or to be gouerned by him We haue no King but Caesar But thou seest now the Kingdome is the Lords and he is the Gouernour among the Nations and that all the ends of the earth hath remembred themselues turned vnto the Lord Prophesied by Dauid Psa 22. 27. Briefely thou seest not the Resurrection of our Sauiour in glory among the Iewes Prophesied by Dauid but thou seest that which was immediately to follow among the Gentiles the Resurrection of grace foretold by all the Prophets Neither canst thou see now the Iewes crying crucifie him crucifie him But thou maist yet see that which instantly followes His bloud be vpon vs and vpon our Children Since therefore thou hast lying before thine eyes by the power of Christs kingdome the 4. great Monarches of the world broken in peeces by the diuine Image of God the false images of Heathen beaten downe the destruction of that citie that destroyed him and the dispersion of that People that scattered his the rebellious Gentiles his seruants and the persecuting Kings his Subiects if thou wilt not be among those whom our Sauiour blesses Blessed are they that haue not seene and yet haue beleeued be at least one of Saint Thomas his Disciples vse thine eyes as he did his fingers and be not faithlesse but beleeue For I will not feare to say that the certainty of our faith arising from the Prophecies is more powerable to perswade thē if it were by an ocular demonstration now before our eies miraculously cōfirmed then if one should rise from the dead to instruct vs then if GOD himselfe should descend speake to vs from heauen A great audacitie of speech will some say I and a proude hyperbole of Truth but such as the Scripture vses They haue Moses and the Prophets sayes Abraham let them heare them And though such purple-habited and high-dieted Epicures as are already in the state of the damned though they liue in the world among vs foolishly suppose that of one should rise and come to them from the dead they should presently beleeue yet the Father of the faithfull who knew better how faith was begotten tells vs plainely if they will not heare Moses and the Prophets neyther will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead And what sayes Saint Peter who himselfe heard the voyce of God immediately and gloriously speaking to him from heauen This is my Well-beloued Sonne heare him We haue sayes he a more sure word of Prophecie whereunto you do well that yee take heed 2. Pet. 1. 19. And is it possible any word in the earth should be more certaine then word of God immediatly speaking to him from heauen Certes not in regard of the substance of the thing deliuered For so both the word of God immediatly framed by himselfe spoken from heauen or vttered by the mouth of his Prophet is all one and hath the very same identiall certaintie but both in regard of the manner of deliuery the Prophesies are more sure because they are larger and more copiously expositiue of themselues in case of doubts emergent God speaking but awhile by a voyce immediately framed by himselfe but speaking by his Prophets from the beginning of the world to the end of it which are therefore interpretatiue of themselues and specially in regard of vs Because the voyce of God immediately speaking from heauen to vs is more astonishing and lesse instructiue then otherwise it would be So we see the Children of Israel when God spake from heauen to them Exodus 20. 18. 19. shaken into such an Ague of feare and trembling as Moses himselfe was Heb. 12. 21. that they started backe and stoode a farre off and cryed to Moses O let not God speake anie more vnto vs lest wee die Which naturall feare God does not onely pardon but approue and therefore stooping to their nature and laying aside his owne Maiestie wee shall see in the 18. of Deuter. 16. verse what he sayes to them and by whose mouth hee promises to speake to vs. According to all that thou desirest of the Lord thy God in Horeb in the day of the Assembly saying Let me not heare againe the voice of the Lord my GOD neither let me see this great fire any more that I die not And the Lord sayd vnto me they haue well spoken in all that they haue said I will raise them vp a Prophet from among their Brethren like vnto thee and will put my words in his mouth him shall they heare c. Thus when the Greeks came to see our Sauiour Iohn 12. 21. and God gaue a maiesticall witnesse to him from heauen they were all so horrowed with suddaine amase and affright that some thought it thundred others that an Angel spake from heauen to him but what was sayd none of them all knew And thus our Apostle heere himselfe was for the time that GOD spake in Mount Tabor strucke halfe beside his vnderstanding with feare and astonishment Matth 17. 6. and talked himselfe hee knew not what Luke 9. 33. We see therefore how strongly the Rocke of our saluation Christ
the grace to correct their owne sinne so they haue commonly in their roomes certaine vnder-curats so grossely ignorant as not to know theirs They that know nothing thēselues are set by these to teach others of whom we cannot say dies diei but nox nocti indicat scientiam One night teaches another a blinde Prophet a blinde People yet I haue seene some of these not onely stand high vppon their bare and solitary honesty but peremptorily censured graue and worthy Ministers as Demosthenes an Arrian the Cooke of Valens the Emperours kitchin did Saint Ambrose as men not throughly gifted for their place which reproach Saint Ambrose smiling put vp and off with this merry answere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I haue met with to day a barbarous Demosthenes but to the common virtues of a Christiā vpright feet and honest hands it were good these men would adde the tongue of the learned Esay chap. 50. v. 4. else the Greeke Epigram will finde fault with their sermons and tell them sound hands and feete will not excuse lame heades and crackt braines 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I do not deny but that God is able to perfect his power in these mens weakenesse For it is not impossible for our spirituall Sampson as hee ouercame his enemies and was refreshed with a iawe of the seely beast so to make the waters of Life spring between the teeth of these simple creatures but these vnsent Runners might do well to content thēselues with one Cure and not to be too busie in trudging between many as some of them are for to bee so officious must needs proue offensiue to the church till they know better how to applie more seasonably than yet they can the sacred word of God to the pretious soules of their Hearers and to set those Apples of siluer into these pictures of golde Neyther doe I denie but that such trading Preachers may find work enough for their mouths by making other mens labours runne through them But this is to get their Liuing by the sweat of other men to wipe it off to their owne browes And if we should see a rude Carter offer to play vpon the instrument of a fine-fingred and dactrycall Musitian suppose one of these Trades-men vpon the golden Harpe of the sweet Singer of Israel who could but laugh at him and say as the Greeke Prouerbe goes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Asinus ad lyram But such derisorie reproofes are too milde for such tayles of Ieroboam more fit indeede to make Priests for Baal thē Prophets for God who intrude themselues into the Ministery for meere necessity and therefore may say indeede with St. Paul A necesesitie is layed vpon me But whereas the Apostle proceedes And woe vnto me if I preach not the Gospell How much better may they say to themselues and woe vnto mee if I preach the Gospell And lest wee should feare to speake against such vagabond Shepheards as are not able to feed the flockes they are fed by Prophesie against them saies the Lord woe to the Shepheards that feede themselues that is their end but Gods end in appointing Shepheards followes Should not the sheepheards seed the flocks Nay what can they exspect but the double woe of Ieremy and Ezekiel woe woe to the Shepheards that destroy and scatter my sheepe But as these blinde Guides are most insensible of their owne maladies because ignorance is a disease as the Greeke Tragedian calls it that neuer paines a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so it is no lesse then a myracle to a man of vnderstanding to see the great zeale and little knowledge some well but weake minded people vse to defend these Trades-men with Was not our Sauiour say they a Carpenter Marke 6. 3. before he was sent to preach S. Peter a Fisherman Matthew a Publican S. Paul a Tent-maker True indeed but our Sauiour ventured not himselfe to preach before the Spirit of GOD sent him Luk. 4. 18. and lay'd a most district charge vpō his Apostles to tarry at Hierusalem till by the commission of the Holy Ghost they should be indued with power from on high Luk. 24. 49. But these men as they cannot arrogate the ordinary means to make their Calling iustifiable so I suppose no man euer saw the Spirit of God descending vpon them and fitting them with extraordinary and infused gifts of knowledge Christ indeede was a Carpenter but to build heauen and earth and his Church in them both S. Peter was a Fisher but to angle in all the Circumcision to the Faith of Christ to circumcise not their fore-skins but their hearts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as an ancient Father alluding to the fifth and second of Iosua where the Israelites were circumcised with kniues of stone most elogantly speaketh of him Mathew was a Publican but to gather the precious soules of men into the Heauenlie Treasury of the King of Kings Saint Paul was a Tent-maker but to perswade Iaphet to dwell in the Tents of Sem and to spread Christs Tabernacle all the world ouer among the Gentiles But in the great day of their Reckoning when the Disciples of our Lord shall bring in their Accomps and S. Paul shall say I haue gathered to the faith all the Riches of the Gentiles and S. Thomas I haue gained all the treasures of India and S. Peter I haue gathered the dispersions of Iudah What shall these hirelings say but wee in our little flocks haue scattered so many and we haue destroyed so many and we haue wasted prey'd vpon deuour'd so many And therefore as the feete of these wise Stewards shall shine like the Starres of heauen for brightnesse so these had need to take heed least their heads for the clowdes of ignorance they are wrapt vp in meet not with Marcellus his fate apud inferos Cui non atra caput tristi circum volat vmbra Pardon mee right deerely beloued in our Lord and Sauiour if when Thorns Thiftles grow vpon Gods Altar as the Prophet Hosea speakes I am forced to vse a little fire of Zeale to consume them I am sorry there is such a necessity still for Gods spirit to descend in fiery Tongues O that it might alwaies flie down with the wings of a Doue from heauen vpon vs. But as long as common Customes lawfully robbe the Churches Treasure and commit open sacriledge euery day more then other vpon Melchisedcks Tithes the Patrimony of Christ insomuch as it is verilie thought the Church within these threescore yeres by concealements incroachments and customary thefts hath been spoyled of no lesse then 40000. yearely What hope can there be of sufficiency of the Prophets when the insufficiency of their meanes will not afford it when one Subiect into whose cofers 20000 pounds when a Lay Parson into whose Cofers 20000. pounds annually flow in and therefore if he were but a Pharisee in profession should out of his aboundant streames of wealth cast in much into the common Treasury of the Church shall taken into his owne possession fifteeene houses of God and sticke downe but the bare feathers of ten pounds or twenty Nobles a yeere for the needy seruice of Gods Altar Can all the flourishing and pragmaticall wits in the world if they were headed in one braine shew by what iust right a Laye hand can inuade coast vpon Gods portion of Tithes which he hath giuē to those that wait vpon his Altar for the food of their bodies and the poore people change with vs for the foode of their soules Is not this the reason why in the great haruest there are so few Laboures For the Psalmist had no sooner said They haue sent fire into thy Sanctuary meaning perhaps the fire of Couetousnesse that deuoures all or as he speaks of them in another Psalm Let vs take to our selues the houses of God in possession but presently it followeth There is no more any Prophet neither is there among vs any that knowes But GOD perswade those whom it most concernes to regard in time the common pouerty of the Church and to set a sea-banke against this diluviating euill of Satan who as GOD drowned all the world in the beginning of it and sau'd aliue onely the Arke of his Church so now in the end of it would the Diuel drowne the Arke and Church of God it selfe with these inundations of blinde Seers dumbe Teachers betraying Patrones Sacrilegious Customes Lay-Parsons theeuish Tithings and which by the abuse of them were become so many Chappell 's of Sathan where many a soule turn'd the Sabbaoth of God into the Deuils holi-day drunken Tap-houses vnder the weight of which sinne the whole Land staggered and the Churches of God like poore Sion euen vpon his own day lay desolate and waste But these gates of Hell shall neuer preuaile against the Suburbs of Heauen Gods sainctly Colony here on earth and therefore wee will end as Dauid doth Psa 20. 9. Say Lord Let the King heare vs when we call FINIS