Jud. 5.23 Curse ye Meros curse yee bitterly the inhabitants thereof because they came not to the helpe of the Lord against the mighty accurseth all those in the name of Meros that refuse to come in their best equipage to aide the Lord against the mighty r Magdeburg Cent. 5. Pomp. Laetus compend hist Rom. Anastasius the Emperour for his luke-warmnesse in the Catholicke cause and endevouring to reconcile the Arrians and Orthodoxe or at least silence those differences was strucken to death with a hot thunder-bolt No Sacrifice is acceptable to God that is not salted with the fire of zeale which guided by wisedome quickneth and enflameth all the inward desires as well as the outward actions that appertaine to religion for the chiefe seat of zeale is the fountaine of heat and that is the heart there it ſ Psal 45.1 bubbled in David there it t Luk. 24.32 Did not our hearts burne when hee opened to us c. burned in the disciples it u Psal 22.15 My heart is dried c. consumed and dryed up the very substance of the heart in Christ If our zeale burne not inwardly as well as outwardly as well upwards towards God as downewards towards the world if it enflame not our charity as well as incense our piety if the heat of it bee cooled by age or slacked by opposition or extinguished even by floods of bloody persecution it is no true Vestall fire nor such as becommeth Gods altar for that might never this did never go out sincerity it selfe is not so opposite to hypocrisie as zeale Sincerity without zeale is a true but a cold and faint-hearted zeale is an eager fierce hot and couragious enemy of all hypocrites whom shee brandeth with an eternall note of infamy But because all fires are in a manner alike to the eye how should wee know holy fire from prophane heavenly from earthly that is zeale from enraged hypocrisie pretending with Jehu that hee is zealous for the Lord of hostes I answer as a precious Diamond is valued by three things 1 Inward lustre 2 Number of caracts 3 Solidity of substance and thereby is distinguished both from counterfeit gemmes and those that are of lesse value so true zeale is distinguished from hypocriticall by 1 Sincerity 2 Integrity 3 Constancy all which notes are discernable in holy * Psal 119.2 Davids zeale 1 Sincerity I have loved thy testimonies with my heart ver 6. yea my whole heart 2 Integrity I have had respect unto all thy commandements ver 34. all false wayes I abhorre 3 Constancy I have kept thy lawes unto the end ver 44. When the face and hands and outward parts burne as in a feaver the heart is so cold that it quaketh and shivereth so it is with the hypocrite his tongue alwayes and his hands too sometimes burne x Persius satyr Sed pone in pectore dextram Nil calet If you could put your hand into his bowels you should finde his heart like Nabals as cold as a stone True zeale if it bee transported it is in private devotion to God si insanimus Deo insanimus in outward carriage towards men it proceeds resolutely indeed and undauntedly but yet deliberately and discreetly it burneth within most ardently it scarce ever flameth or sparkleth outwardly like those bathes in the Pythecusian Ilands whereof y Balnea in Pythecusiis insulis fervent supra modum calore vi igneâ nec tamen flammam emittunt Vide Aristot mirabilium auscult Aristotle writeth that they are hot above measure and of a fiery nature yet send forth no flame Secondly as insincerity discries the hypocrite so also want of integrity Take the hypocrite that maketh the fairest offer to zeale though hee outstrippe some it may bee in some works of piety and duties of the first Table you shall take him tardy in most acts of charity and duties of the second Table Peradventure he will slay smaller sinnes with the sword of the Spirit like the meanest of the Amalekites but hee will spare Agag and the principall his gainefull sinnes of simony sacriledge usury and oppression hee is never Totus teres atque rotundas Goe he as upright as hee can you shall perceive him to limpe and halt with God or man or both If the point of controversie in the Church no way touch his free-hold hee takes it no more to heart than z Act. 18.17 Gallio did the uproare about Saint Pauls preaching then difference about articles of faith are but contentions about words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but if it rubbe upon his profit or credit with his owne faction then hee never leaveth crying out great is a Act. 19.28 Diana of the Ephesians You may finde an hypocrite zealous against Idolatry but you shall finde him very moderate against sacriledge if he have a moneths minde to Rome he will stickle for the authority of the Church but the scripture is very cheape to him hee will deliver prayers by tale to God the blessed Virgin and Saints but for Sermons hee holds it a kinde of merit to heare few of those of his owne sect and none of any other On the contrary if hee hath beene brought up at the feete of Cartwright or Brown then he is all for Scriptures and nothing at all for the Church all for preaching and nothing for prayer unlesse it be an abortive issue of hi◠owne brain an extemporary indigested incomposed inconsequent ejaculation in which he is never out because he is never in As for the premeditated penned advised and sanctified forme of Service appointed by the Church it is to him like the white of an egge that hath no tast in it But the most certain and infallible character of an hypocrite and his zeale is the soon cooling and abating thereof and in the end evaporating into ayre like a blazing starre he glareth for a time but in a short space playes least in sight like fire-works of danke powder hee never leaves shooting off on these and the like watch-towers whilest his matter lasteth but when that is spent goeth out in a fume or stench True beauty beareth off all weathers but paint is washed off with a shower or discovered by the fire Saint Basil's embleme was columna ignea a fiery pillar fiery there 's his zeale a pillar there 's his constancy I doubt whether nature can present such a stone as the name Asbestus in the original signifieth that is a stone of fire that nothing can extinguish but I am sure grace can and that is this jewell of zeale I have beene so long in describing for it burneth alwayes in the heart and can never be quenched I would bee loath to be thought to goe about to quench the smoaking flaxe or discourage any man in whom there is a sparke of this fire covered with ashes yet I should deceive them or suffer them to be mis-led with an ignis fatuus if I should
true Howsoever what piety is it nay what equity nay rather what abominable iniquity and impiety is it florem Diabolo consecrare faeces Deo reservare To consecrate the flower of their youth to the Divell the world and the flesh and reserve the lees or dregges of their old age for God To dedicate to him our weake and feeble dotage if we live to it what is it better than to offer the f Deut. 15.21 blind and the lame for sacrifice which God abhorreth Repent therefore repentè repent at the first offer of grace Ye shall scarce find any precept of repentance in Scripture which requireth not as well that it be out of hand as that it be from the heart Remember thy g Eccles 12.1 Creatour in the dayes of thy youth To h Psal 95.7 8. day if yee will heare his voice harden not your heart Seek i Psal 32.6 the Lord while he may be found Now he may be found now he seeketh us now he calleth to us let us therefore breake off all delayes and pricke on forward our dull and slow affections with that sharp and poynant increpation of Saint k Confes l. 8. c. 5. Modò modò non habent modum quamdiu cras cras cur non hoc dic cur non hac horâ finis turpitudinis meae Ib. Verba lenta somnolenta modò ecce modò sine paululum sed sine paululum ibat in longum c. Austine Why doe I still procrastinate my comming unto thee O Lord Why not now why not this day why not this houre an end of my sinfull course of life Deo Patri Filio Spiritui sancto sit laus c. THE DEFORMITY OF HALTING THE LVII SERMON 1 KIN. 18.21 And Elijah came to all the people and said How long halt ye betweene two opinions If the Lord be God follow him but if Baal then follow him and the people answered not a word Right Honourable c. ELijah who sometimes called for fire from heaven was himselfe full of heavenly fire the fire of zeale for the Lord of Hosts His words like fire 1 Give light 2 Heate 3 Consume 1 They give light to this undoubted truth That one and but one Religion is to be embraced either God or Baal must be worshipped in no case both Stand firme to one How long halt ye betweene two 2 They heate and enflame true zeale and devotion If the Lord be God follow him 3 They burne up indifferencie and neutralitie If Baal be he goe after him This passage of Scripture relateth a Sermon of Elijah wherein we are to note more particularly 1 The Preacher Elijah 2 The Auditorie the whole Parliament of Israel 3 The Text or Theame handled by him viz. What God is to be worshipped what religion to be established and maintained by Prince and people Now although I perswade my selfe that there is none in this whole assembly who halteth betweene the Popish and reformed Churches or hath once bowed his knee to the Romish Baal yet because Satan hath of late not only turned himselfe into an Angell of light to dazle the eyes of weake Christians in point of Doctrine but also into a Seraphim of heat and zeale under colour of devotion to bring us to offer strange fire upon Gods Altar and especially because there is no lamp of the Sanctuarie that burneth so brightly but that it needeth oyle continually to be powred into it to feed the flame the opening of this Scripture cannot but be seasonable and usefull to reduce you into the path if you swerve from it never so little or to prick you on if you are in the right way that leadeth to the kingdome of God The key to open this Text is the occasion of this exhortation of the Prophet wherefore before I proceed to the exposition of the words I must entreat you to cast a looke backwards to the occasion of them and the cause of the peoples haulting downe-right a circumstance not giving more light to the right understanding of the Prophets reproofe than strength to our stedfast standing and upright walking in the high way to Heaven What the religious Father spake by way of Apologie for handling controversall points in the pulpit Ideo non dubitavimus dubitare ut vos non dubitaretis We therefore make no scruple to move doubts that yee may not doubt but upon the solution of them be more settled in your most holy faith I may say truly that therefore I hold it needfull to make a stay at the cause of the poeples haulting that their haulting may be no stay to your godly proceedings that you may never hault upon their ground which was so slipperie that they slid now this way now that way not able to set sure footing any where Elijah by his divine commission drew them to Gods Altar but Ahab especially at the instigation of Jezebel by his royall power enforced them to offer at Baals groves between both they were miserably perplexed their minds distracted and their worship divided betweene God and Baal Men are led by examples more than precepts especially by the examples of Princes or Potentates which carrie a kinde of Sovereigntie over mens affections and manners as they themselves have over their persons insomuch that their morall vices yea and naturall deformities also have beene drawne and patterned out by some of their subjects as if they were vertues and gracefull ornaments a Jan. Grut. annot in Tac. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diodorus Siculus telleth us in sober sadnesse that it was the custome of the Aethiopians to maime or lame themselves in that part or foot on which their Prince limped because they thought it a great disparagement for their Prince that any about him should goe more upright or have a more gracefull gate than hee And Atheneus likewise reporteth of Dionysius his familiars that because himselfe was somewhat purblinde they as they sate at table reached towards dishes as it were by aime and sometimes missed that they might not seeme more quick-sighted than he And to make up the number when Philip received a wound in his eye Clisophus as if hee had got a blow on the same eye putteth a patch on it and when afterwards Philip was run thorow the right thigh in comes Clisophus all to be plaistered on that thigh and out-halteth his Master We can hardly hold laughing when we read or heare of the madnesse rather than folly of so grosse flatterie yet wee have cause rather to weepe at the sight of a farre worse flatterie and yet most usuall whereby some indeere themselves into great personages by imitating their vices and profane carriage To expresse these they account it a kinde of merit of favour or at least an homage due to their greatnesse because saith b Lactant. divin instit l. 5. c. 6. Et quoniam regis vitta imitari obsequii quoddam genus est abjecerunt omnes pietatem ne regi
ready mind 3. Neither as being Lords over Gods heritage but being ensamples to the flock 4. And when the chiefe Shepheard shall appeare yee shall receive a crowne of glory that fadeth not away The Tree of saving knowledge page 145. A Sermon preached in Lent March 16. before the King at Whitehall 1 Corinth 2.2 I determined not to know any thing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified Primitiae Sepulchri page 162. A Sermon preached at the Spitall on Munday in Easter week April 22. 1 Corinth 15.20 But now Christ is risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept The true Zealot page 185. A Sermon preached at the Archbishops Visitation in Saint Dunstans in the East John 2.17 The zeale of thine house hath eaten mee up The Salters Text. page 196. A Sermon preached before the company of the Salters at Saint Maries Church in Breadstreet Marke 9.49 For every one shall be salted with fire and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt The spirituall Bethesda page 207. A Sermon preached at a Christening in Lambeth Church the Lord Archbishop of Canterburie and the Lord Duke of Buckingham being Godfathers Octob. 29. 1619. Marke 1.9 And it came to passe in those dayes that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galile and was baptized of John in Jordane The living Temple page 217. A Sermon preached at the Readers feast in the Temple Church 2 Corinth 6.16 For ye are the Temple of the living God The Generall his Commission page 231. A Sermon preached at S. Jones before the right Honourable the Earles of Oxford Exeter and Southampton and divers other Captaines and Commanders ready to take their journies into the Low-countries 1621. Josuah 1.9 Have not I commanded thee be strong and of a good courage be not affraid neither be thou dismayed for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest The Crowne of Humility page 240. A Sermon preached in Wooll-Church April 10. 1624. Matthew 5.3 Blessed are the poore in spirit for theirs is the Kingdome of Heaven Christ his new Commandement page 251. A Sermon preached in Wooll-Church John 13.34 A new commandement I give unto you that ye love one another as I have loved you that ye also love one another The Stewards account page 261. A Sermon preached in the Abbey Church at Westminster Luke 16.2 Give an account of thy Stewardship for thou maist be no longer Steward The Passing Bell. page 280. A Sermon preached in Mercers Chappell at the Funerall of Master Bennet Merchant Deut. 32.29 O that they were wise then they would understand this they would consider their latter end The embleme of the Church Militant page 292. A Sermon preached in Mercers Chappell Apoc. 12.6 And the woman fled into the wildernesse where she hath a place prepared of God that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore dayes The Saints Vest page 307. A Sermon preached on All-Saints day at Lincolnes Inne for Doctor Preston Apoc. 7.14 These are they that came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the bloud of the Lambe Sermons preached at Serjeants Inne in Fleetstreet The Christian Victory page 319. Apoc. 2.17 To him that overcommeth will I give to eate of the hidden Manna and I will give him a white stone and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it The hidden Manna page 329. Apoc. 2.17 I will give to eate of the hidden Manna The white Stone page 341. Apoc. 2.17 And I will give him a white stone The new Name page 354. Apoc. 2.17 And in the same stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving hee that receiveth it Satanae Stratagemata page 369. 2 Corinth 2.11 Lest Sathan should get an advantage of us for wee are not ignorant of his devices Sermons preached at Saint Pauls Crosse or in the Church The beloved Disciple page 385. John 21.20 The Disciple whom Jesus loved which also leaned on his breast at Supper The Yeere of Grace page 397. 2 Corinth 6.2 Behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation The Spouse her precious Borders page 408. A Rehearsall Sermon preached 1618. at the Crosse Cant. 1.11 We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver The Angel of Thyatira endited page 454. A Sermon preached at the Crosse 1614. Revel 2.18 19 20. 18. And to the Angel of the Church in Thyatira write these things saith the Sonne of God who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire and his feet like fine brasse 19. I know thy workes and charity and service and faith and thy patience and thy workes and the last to be more than the first 20. Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel which calleth her selfe a Prophetesse to teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eate things sacrificed unto Idols Jezebel set out in her colours page 474. A Sermon preached in Saint Pauls Church 1614. Revel 2.20 Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel which calleth her selfe a Prophetesse to teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eate things sacrificed unto Idols Sermons preached at Oxford Foure rowes of precious Stones page 498. A Rehearsall Sermon preached in Saint Maries 1610. Exod. 28.15 16 17 18 19 20 21. 15. And thou shalt make the breast-plate of judgement with cunning worke 16. Foure square shall it be being doubled 17. And thou shalt set in it settings of stones even foure rowes of stones the order shall be this A Ruby a Topaze and an Emrald in the first rowe 18. And in the second rowe thou shalt set a Carbuncle a Saphir and a Diamond 19. And in the third rowe a Turkeise and an Agate and an Amethyst 20. And in the fourth rowe a Beril and an Onyx and a Jasper and they shall be set in gold in their inclosings or imbosments Hebrew fillings 21. And the stones shall be with the names of the children of Israel twelve according to their names like the engravings of a signet every one with his name shall they be according to the twelve Tribes The devout soules Motto page 537. A Sermon preached at Saint Peters Church in Lent 1613. Psal 73.25 Whom have I in Heaven but thee O Lord and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee The Royall Priest page 551. A Sermon preached in Saint Maries Church 1613. Psal 110.4 The Lord sware and will not repent Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek The Arke under the Curtaines page 570. A Sermon preached at the Act July 12. 1613. 2 Sam. 7.2 The King said unto Nathan the Prophet See now I dwell in an house of Cedar but the Arke of the Lord dwelleth within curtaines Pedum Pastorale page 584. Concio ad Clerum habita Oxoniae octavo Cal.
Aprilis aerae Christianae An. Dom. 1615. Johan 21.15 16 17. 15. Quum ergo prandissent dicit Simoni Petro Jesus Simon fili Jonae diligis me plùs quà m hi dicit ei Certè Domine tu nosti quòd amem te dicit ei Pasce agnos meos 16. Dicit ei rursum secundo Simon fili Jonae diligis me ait illi Certè Domine tu nosti quod amem te dicit ei Pasce oves meas 17. Dicit ei tertio Simon fili Jonae amas me tristitiâ fuit affectus Petrus quod tertio dixisset ipsi amas me dixitque ei Domine tu omnia nosti tu nosti quòd amem te dicit ei Jesus Pasce oves meas Sermons preached at Paris in the house of the right Honourable Sir Thomas Edmonds Lord Embassadour resident in France lying in the Fauxburge of St. Germans in the yeeres of our Lord 1610 1611 1612. The checke of Conscience page 609. Rom. 6.21 What fruit had yee in those things whereof yee are now ashamed for the end of those things is death The Vine of Sodome page 620. Rom. 6.21 What fruit had yee then in those things c. The Grapes of Gomorrah page 629. Rom. 6.21 What fruit had yee in those things c. The hiew of a Sinner page 638. Rom. 6.21 Whereof yee are now ashamed The wages of Sinne. page 645. Rom. 6.21 For the end of those things is death The gall of Aspes page 661. Rom. 6.21 For the end of those things is death Ferula Paterna page 672. Revel 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten I. The nurture of Children page 681. Apoc. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten Chasten The lot of the Godly page 693. Apoc. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten As many The oyle of Thyme page 702. Revel 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten As I love The sweet Spring of the waters of Marah page 710. Apoc. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten I love The Patterne of Obedience page 719. Phil. 2.8 Hee humbled himselfe and became obedient unto death even the death of the Crosse The reward of Patience page 725. Philip. 2.9 Wherefore God hath also highly exalted him Lowlinesse exalted page 735. Philip. 2.9 Wherefore God hath also highly exalted him A Summons to Repentance page 747. Ezek. 18.23 Have I any desire at all that the wicked should dye saith the Lord God The best Returne page 757. Ezek. 18.23 Not that he should returne from his wayes and live or If he returne from his evill wayes shall he not live The danger of Relapse page 765. Ezek. 18.24 But when the righteous turneth away from his righteousnesse and committeth iniquity and doth according to all the abominations that the wicked man doth shall hee live all his righteousnesse that hee hath done shall not be mentioned in his trespasse that hee hath trespassed and in his sinne that hee hath sinned in them shall hee dye The deformity of Halting page 776. 1 Kings 18.21 And Elijah came to all the people and said How long halt yee between two opinions if the Lord be God follow him but if Baal then follow him and the people answered not a word Old and new Idolatry paralleled page 784. 1 Kings 18.21 If the Lord be God follow him but if Baal then follow him One God one true Religion page 794. 1 Kings 18.21 If the Lord be God follow him but if Baal then follow him Bloudy Edome page 802. Psal 137.7 8. 7. Remember O Lord the children of Edome in the day of Jerusalem who said Raze it raze it even to the foundation thereof 8. O daughter of Babylon who art to be destroyed happy shall hee be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us Sermons preached in Lambeth Parish Church The watchfull Sentinell page 814. A Sermon preached the fifth of November Psal 121.4 Behold he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep Abraham his Purchase page 825. A Sermon preached at the consecration of the Church-yard inclosed within the new wall at Lambeth Acts 7.19 And were carried over into Sechem and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought for a summe of mony of the sons of Emor of Sechem The Feast of Pentecost page 834. A Sermon preached on Whitsunday Acts 2.1 And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all together with one accord in one place The Symbole of the Spirit page 842. Acts 2.2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting The Mysterie of the fiery cloven Tongues page 850. Acts 2.3 And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sate upon each of them Christ his lasting Monument page 856. A Sermon preached on Maundy Thursday 1 Corinth 11.26 As often as yee eate of this bread and drinke of this cup ye doe shew the Lords death till he come The signe at the Heart page 864. A Sermon preached on the first Sunday in Lent Acts 2.37 And when they heard this they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren what shall we doe Christian Brotherhood page 876. A Sermon preached on the second Sunday in Lent Acts 2.37 And they said to Peter and the rest of the Apostles Men and brethren c. The perplexed soules Quaere page 883. A Sermon preached on the third Sunday in Lent Acts 2.37 What shall wee doe The last offer of Peace page 891. A Sermon preached at a publike Fast Luke 19.41 42. 41. And when he was come neere he beheld the City and wept over it 42. Saying If thou hadst knowne even thou at least in this thy day the things which belong unto thy peace but now they are hid from thine eyes A Catalogue of the Authors cited in this Work with their severall Editions A. ABen Ezra Basil 1620. G. Abbot Lond. 1620. R. Abbot Lond. 1606. Aelianus Lugd. 1577. Aeneas Sylviue Col. 1535. Aesopus Venet. 1606. Agapetus Bib. pat T. 6. p. 1. Col. 1622. C. Agrippa Paris 1567. G. Alanus Antw. 1576. Albertus Mag. Basil 1506. Alcazar Lugd. 1618. P. de Alliaco Mogunt 1574. J. Almainus Paris 1512. Fr. Alvarez Lugd. 1608. Ambrosius Mediol Basil 1555. Ambrosius Ansbert Bib. par T. 9. p. 2. Col. 1622. Andradius Col. 1564. Amphilochius Bib. pat T. 4. Col. 1622. Anselmus Col. 1573. Antiphon Orat. Paris 1609. Anthologia Grec Epig. Franc. 1600. Apuleius Venet. 1504. Apollinarius Bib. pat T. 4. Col. 1622 Th. Aquinas Venet. 1594. Arboreus Paris 1540. Aretas Bib. pat T. 6. Col. 1622. B. Aretius Bern. 1604. Th. Argentinensis Gen. 1585. Gr. Ariminensis Venet. 1503. Aristophanes Francof 1597. Aristoteles Lugd. 1590. R. Armacanus Francof 1614. Arnobius Rom. 1562. Arnoldus Bib. pat T. 6. Col. 1622. Articuli Eccles Angl. Lond. 1628. Athanasius Alexandrinus Par. 1581. Avendanus Madrid 1593. Augustinus Hypponensis Par. 1586. P.
as it were with a wall of brasse and castle of Diamond the Divine protection Abijah and his people joyning battaile with Jeroboam smote him and all Israel and slew five hundred thousand and tooke Bethel with the Townes thereof and Jeshanah with the Townes thereof and Ephraim with the Townes thereof and the children of Israel though farre more in number were at that time brought under and the children of Judah prevailed Why Because they were better souldiers or better armed or led by a more expert Generall or because they had advantage of the place Nay rather they were every way disadvantaged For r 2 Chron. 13.13 Jeroboam caused an ambushment to come about behind them so they were before Judah and the ambushment was behind them To put you out of doubt the holy Ghost yeeldeth a reason of Judahs prevailing Å¿ 2 Chron. 13.18 because they relied upon the Lord God of their fathers St. Austin parallels this wonderfull victorie with the like that fell out about his time When t Aug. de Ciâ— Dei l. 5. c. 23. Uno die Rhadagesus tanta celeritate victus est ut ne uno quidem non dicam extincto sed ne vulnerato quidem Romano multo amplius quam centum millium prosternetur exercitus Rhadagesus King of the Gothes with a puissant army environed Rome and by reason of the small preparations in the City no hope could be expected from man how did God performe the trust by his Saints reposed in him and fought for them in this their greatest extremitie and so discomfited the enemies that in one day an army of a hundred thousand was utterly defeated not a man of the Roman side being slaine nor so much as wounded God loveth those best who trust him most and he saveth them above meanes who hope in him above hope as did Abraham the father of the faithfull Beleeve him who spake it out of his owne experience u Psal 125.1 They that trust in the Lord shall be as mount Sion which cannot be removed but abideth for ever x Ps 91.1.4.5.6.7.10 ver 4. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty He shall cover thee with his feathers and under his wings shalt thou trust his truth shall be thy shield and buckler Thou shalt not be affraid for the terrour by night 5.6 nor for the arrow that flyeth by day nor for the pestilence that walketh in darknesse nor for the destruction that wasteth at noone-day A thousand shall fall by thy side 7.10 and ten thousand at thy right hand but it shall not come nigh thee There shall no evill befall thee nor any plague come nigh thy dwelling y Psal 3.8 Salvation belongeth to the Lord. z Ps 144.10 It is hee that giveth salvation unto Kings who delivereth David his servant from the hurtfull sword Why is the accent upon Kings as likewise in the words of my text The King shall rejoyce in thy strength exceeding glad shall Hee bee of thy salvation Doth not the wing of Gods provident care extend to all his Children are they not all safe under his feathers They are all yet Kings are nearest to his breast they receive more warmth from him hee hath a speciall care of them according to my second observation Obser 2 That God taketh Princes into his peculiar protection He keepeth them as the Signet of his finger because in them the Image of his Soveraigne Majestie most brightly shineth It concerneth him in honour to mainetaine them who are his Vicegerents upon earth It concerneth him in love to defend the defenders of the faith and cherish the nursing Fathers of his deerest Spouse It concerneth him in wisedome to save them who are the breath of so many thousand nostrils to keepe them whole who are the a Sen. de clem l. 1. c 4. Ille est vinculam peâ— quod respublica cohaeret nihil ipsa per se futura nisionus praeda si mens illa imperii subtrahatur Regeincolumi mens omnibus una amisso rupêre fidem bond which holdeth together the whole Common-wealth In the danger of a King is the hazzard of a State in the hazzard of a State the ruine of a Church in the ruine of a Church b Vid. Camerar meditat hist c. 30. Magnos viâ—os divinitus ab insidiis saepenumerò conservari Gods honour lyeth in the dust The heathen Poet glanced at this truth when every where he stileth Kings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as it were bred up and fostered in the bosome of Jove or rather Jehovah Keepe me saith David as the apple of thine eye Who can endure the least pricke in the apple of the eye no more will God abide his annointed to bee so much as c 1 Chro. 16.22 touched Nolite tangere unctos meos Is God so tender over Princes safety and ought not they to bee as tender of his honour Is hee so gracious to them and ought not they bee as gratefull to him The planets that receive more light from the Sunne reflect more backe againe the earth that receiveth raine from heaven returneth it backe in vapour Cessat decursus donorum si cesset recursus gratiarum Obser 3 God will shut the windowes of heaven and restraine the golden showers of his blessings if we send not up the sweet vapours and exhalations of our thankes-giving and praise Hee forfeiteth his tenure who refuseth to doe his homage bee it but the tendering of a red rose in acknowledgement of service Such a kinde of homage Almighty God requireth of us for all we hold of him the red roses of our lips and the sweet savour of our devout meditations Verily hee deserveth to lose his garden who will not afford his Landlord a flower Si ingratum d Sen. de bene fic dixeris omnia dixeris if you call a man unthankefull you need say no more for you cannot say worse whosoever deserveth to be branded with a marke of Ingratitude hath his conscience feared with a hot Iron For what is e Cic. pro planc Religion but Gratitude to God Pietie but Gratitude to Parents Loyaltie but Gratitude to Princes Charitie and friendship but gratitude to our neighbour Now of all men Princes are most obliged to be thankfull to God because the beames of his favour shine most bright in their Crownes and Scepters he sets them in his owne seat of authoritie investeth them with his owne robes of majestie armeth them with his owne sword of justice supporteth them with his own Scepter of power adorneth them with his owne Diademe of royall dignitie and graceth them with his own stile of Deity Ego dixi dii estis I have said yee are Gods e Joh. 10.34 Psal 82.6 and all of you are children of the most High Above all therefore Princes ought to be most gratefull to God because God hath placed them in that
worse than perdition to bee saved for ever in these flames to bee ever scorched and never consumed that is to bee ever dying and never dye Here as Saint g Aug. de civit Dei l 13. c. 11. Ibi non erunt homines ante mortem neque post mortem sed semper in morte atque per hoc nunquam viventes nunquam mortui sed sine fine morientes Austine acutely observeth wee can never bee sayd properly dying but either alive or dead for to the moment of giving up the ghost wee are alive and after that dead whereas on the contrary the damned in hell can never bee said to bee alive or dead but continually dying not dead because they have most quicke sense of paine not alive because they are in the pangs of the second death O miserable life where life is continually dying O more miserable death where death is eternally living Yea but shall all be salted with this fire the fire of hell God forbid Doth Christ say of this salt not of the earth but of hell that it is good ver 50. is this the meaning of his exhortation have salt in you that is procure the salt of hell fire to keep you alive in the torments of eternall death to preserve you to everlasting perdition By no meanes h In hunc locum Maldonat therefore and Barradius and all that are for this first interpretation are justly to bee blamed because they had an eye to the antecedents but not to the consequents of my text On the other side those who adhere to the second interpretation are not free from just exception because they had an eye to the consequents and not to the antecedents For wee ought to give such an interpretation of these words as may hold good correspondence both with the antecedents and consequents and either give light to both or receive it from them The elect to whom these latter restraine the word All have nothing to doe with the unquenchable fire of hell mentioned ver 48. neither have the reprobate to whom the former interpreters appropriate these words any thing to doe with the good salt ver 50. yet both have to doe with some kinde of salting and with some kinde of fire For every one shall bee salted one way or other either here with the fire of the spirit seasoning our nature and preserving it from corruption or hereafter with the fire of hell There is no meanes to escape the never dying worme of an evill conscience but by having salt in us nor to prevent the unquenchable fire of hell but by fire from heaven I meane heart-burning sorrow for our sinnes Dolor est medicina doloris That we may not bee hereafter salted with the fire of hell wee must be here salted with a threefold fire of 1 The word 2 The spirit 3 Affliction or persecution First with the fire of the word the word is a fire i Jer. 23.29 Is not my word like a fire saith the Lord It hath the three properties of fire 1 To give light 2 To burne 3 To search First it giveth light therefore Psal 119. it is called a lanthorn to our steps and a light to our paths Secondly it burneth 1 In the eare 2 In the mouth 3 In the heart First in the eare k 1 Sam. 3.11 Whosoever heareth my words saith God his eares shall tingle Secondly it burneth in the mouth l Jerem. 5.14 I will make my words fire in the mouth Thirdly it burneth in the heart m Luk. 24.32 Did not our heart burne within us when hee opened to us the scriptures Lastly it searcheth pierceth and tryeth like fire The n Heb. 4.12 word of God is mighty in operation and sharper than a two-edged sword c. Secondly with the fire of the spirit the spirit is a fire o Act. 1.5 You shall be baptized with the holy Ghost and with fire Water will wash out filthy spots and blots on the skinne onely but fire is more powerfull it will burne out rotten flesh and corrupt matter under the skinne This fire of the holy Ghost enlightneth the understanding with knowledge enflameth the will and affections with the love of God and zeale for his glory and purgeth out all our drossie corruptions Thirdly with the fire of persecution and affliction Persecution is called a p 1 Pet. 4.12 fiery tryall and all kinde of afflictions and temptations wherewith Gods Saints are tryed in Saint Austines judgement are the fire whereof Saint Paul speaketh q 1 Cor. 3.15 He shall be saved as it were through fire And of a truth whatsoever the meaning of that text bee certaine it is that the purest vessels of Gods sanctuary first in the Heathen next in the Arrian and last of all in the Antichristian persecution have beene purified and made glorious like gold tryed in the fire There is no torment can bee devised by man or divell whereof experiments have not beene made on the bodies of Christs martyrs yet the greater part of them especially in these later times have beene offered to God by fire as the Holocausts under the law Bloody persecutors of Gods Saints set on fire with hell of all torments most employed the fiery because they are most dreadfull to the eye of the beholders most painefull to the body of the sufferers and they leave nothing of the burned martyr save ashes which sometimes the adversaries maâ—ice outlasting the flames of fire cast into the river And many of Gods servants in this land as well as in other parts in the memory of our fathers have been salted with this fire call you it whether you please either the fire of martyrdome or martyrdome of fire And howsoever this fire in the dayes of Queen Mary was quenched especially by the blood of the slaine for the testimony of Jesus Christ as the fire in the city of the r Liv. decad 3. l. 8 Bruson facet exempl l. 1. Astapani as Livie observeth when no water could lave it our was extinguished with the blood of the citizens yet wee know not but that it may bee kindled againe unlesse wee blow out the coales of wrath against us with the breath of our prayers or dead them with our teares Admit that that fire should never bee kindled againe yet God hath many other fires to salt us withall burning feavers fiery serpents thunder and lightning heart-burning griefes and sorrowes losse of dearest friends wracke of our estates infamy disgrace vexations oppressions indignation at the prosperity of the wicked terrors of conscience and spirituall derelictions And God grant that either by the fire of the Word or of the Spirit or seasonable afflictions our fleshly corruptions may bee so burned out in this life that wee bee not salted hereafter with the fire of hell which burneth but lighteth not scorcheth but yet consumeth not worketh without end both upon soule and body yet maketh an end of neither O that
temptations by his constant perseverance unto the end Obser 1 It is said to him that overcommeth to include our labour and industry yet it is added I will give to exclude merit 2 It is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to him that is to every one for an indefinite propofition in materiâ necessariâ is equivalent to an universall to teach us that the promises of the Gospel are generall yet to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to him that overcommeth to shew us that this generality is conditionall 3 The Spirit saith not to him that fighteth but to him that overcommeth All vertues adorne a Christian but perseverance alone crowneth him 4 To him that overcommeth the Spirit saith not I will give to see but to eat of the hidden Manna and receive the white stone with the new name Our eternall happinesse consisteth not in the bare contemplation but fruition of the hidden Manna the white stone and the new name 5 It is not Manna simply but the hidden Manna nor a stone but a white stone nor a name but a new name every subject hath here his adjunct every face his shadow every letter his flourish every diamond his foile every kind his quality All Manna is not the hidden what is this hidden Manna All pretious stones are not the white what is this white stone All names are not new names what is this new name O thou who hast the key of David and openest and no man shutteth open the treasure of this Scripture that we may see what heavenly mysteries lie in this hidden Manna are engraven in this white stone and character'd in this new name Obser 1 The prophecies in the Old and New Testament like the Cherubins in the Arke looke one upon the other Alter in alterius jacientes lumina vultum You shall hardly light upon any vision or revelation in this booke concerning the succeeding estate of the Church which hath not some kind of reference to the predictions of the ancient Prophets of things already accomplished God to whom all things past and future are eternally present in his infinite wisedome hath so fitted latter events to former presidents that the same perspectives of Propheticall visions for the most part in which holy men under the law saw things now long past serve St. John to represent unto him the image of the last times even till our Lords second comming For brevity sake at this time I will instance onely in my text where every word is a relative The first vincenti referreth you to Job 7.1 Is not the life of man a warfare upon earth The second Dabo I will give to Luke 12.32 It is your Fathers pleasure to give you a kingdome The third Manna absconditum the hidden Manna to Exod. 16.33 Take a pot and put an Omer full of Manna therein and lay it up before the Lord to be kept for your generations The fourth Calculum candidum the white stone to Esay 28.16 Behold I lay in Zion a tried stone a pretious stone The fift novum Nomen a new name to Esay 62.2 And thou shalt be called by a new name Christ who hath overcome the world under these metaphors looking to foregoing prophesies and promises incourageth all Christians like valiant Souldiers to follow him setting before them all spirituall delicacies implyed in the hidden Manna all treasures in the white stone all true honour in the new name To him that overcommeth pleasure and abstaines from sinfull delights I will give hidden Manna To him that overcommeth covetousnesse and esteemeth not of worldly wealth and earthly treasure I will give a white stone To him that overcommeth ambition and seeketh not for a name upon earth I will give a new name written in heaven In many other texts the letter is easie but the spirituall meaning difficult but on the contrary in this the spirituall meaning is facile and out of question but the letter is much controverted For some contend that the metaphor is here taken from the manner of feasting great Personages wherein the Prince Ambassadour or great States-man is entertained with rare and reserved dainties served in under covered dishes and after the last course hath a medall or a stone with his name engraven in it and a posie given unto him which because he carrieth away with him and keepeth it as a memoriall of his honourable entertainement the Greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is Alcasar his conceit Others place the Scene if I may so speake in a Greene where he that out-runneth the rest receiveth a white stone this is Aretus his ghesse A third sort of Expositors runne upon a pitched field which he that wanne had his victory with his name entred into the Roman Fasti with a white stone this is Sixtus Senensis his interpretation But the most of our later Commentatours imagine that Christ had an eye to the Roman Judiciall proceedings in their Courts in which he that overcame his accuser and had the better of the cause was absolved by the Judges casting white stones into an urne or pitcher Mos erat antiquis niveis atrisque lapillis His damnare reos illis absolvere culpâ But sith wee have the Jewell let us not much trouble our selves about the casket let us not contend about the shell but rather taste the kernell Obser 2 To him that is to every one As Dido at the building of Carthage offered like priviledges to the Tyrians and Trojans saying a Virg. Aen. 4. Tros Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine agetur so Christ in the building of the spirituall Jerusalem which is his Church putteth no difference betweene Jew and Gentile but propoundeth salvation upon like conditions of repentance and faith unto all At his incarnation he tooke not upon him the singular person of any man but the common nature of all men and accordingly offered himselfe a surety for all mankinde laying downe a sufficient ransome for all and inviting all by the hand of faith to take so much as may serve to free themselves and satisfie for their debt b Esay 55.1 Ho every one that thirsteth saith the Prophet come ye to the waters and he that hath no money come ye buy ye wine and milke without money and without price c John 7.37 If any man thirst saith our Saviour let him come unto me and drinke He that beleeveth on me as the Scripture hath said out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water d Mat. 11.28 Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavie laden and I will give you rest e Apoc. 3.20 Behold I stand at the doore and knocke if any man heare my voyce and open the doore I will come in to him and will sup with him In the law of Moses there is a great difference between the Jew and the Gentile but in Christ there is none at all we who were sometimes farre off are made nigh by
even as a good Carpenter in stead of a rotten groundsill layes a sound The same trust then must we give to God which we must not give to riches him must we esteeme above all things looke up to him in all things depend upon him for all things This is to trust in God which the Psalmist in his sweet dittie saith is a good thing good in respect of God for our trust in him is one of the best pieces of his glorie Joseph holds Potiphars trust a great honour 2. For us for what safety what unspeakable comfort is therein trusting to God Our Saviour in his farewell Sermon John 16. perswading to confidence saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word signifying boldnesse and what is there in all the world that can worke the heart to so comfortable and unconquerable resolution as our reposall upon God The Lord is my trust whom then can I feare They that put their trust in the Lord are as mount Sion that cannot be moved Oh cast your selves therefore into those almighty hands seeke him in whom you shall finde true rest and happinesse honour him with your substance that hath honoured you with it trust not in riches but trust in God Riches are but for this world the true God is Lord of the other therefore trust in him riches are uncertaine the true God is Amen ever like himselfe ergo trust in him riches are meere passive they cannot bestow so much as themselves much lesse ought besides themselves the true God gives you all things to enjoy riches are but a livelesse and senselesse metall God is The living God Life is an ancient and usuall title of God he for the most part sweares by it When Moses asked his name he described himselfe by I am He is he liveth and nothing is and nothing lives absolutely but he all other things by participation from him In all other things their life and they are two but God is his owne life and therefore as Aquinas acutely disputeth against the Gentiles must needs be eternall because beeing cannot be severed from it self Howbeit not only the life he hath in himselfe but the life which he giveth to his creatures challengeth a part in this title A glympse whereof the heathen had when they called Jupiter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Those creatures which have life we esteem beyond those that have it not how noble soever other waies those things be Therfore he that hath the perfectest life must needs be the best God therefore who is life it self fountain of all that life which is in the world is most worthy of all the adoration joy love and confidence of our hearts and the best improvement of that life which he hath given us Trust therefore in the living God not in riches that is idolatrie yea madnesse What greater madnesse can there be than to bestow that life which we have from God upon a creature that hath no life in it selfe nor price but from men Let me then perswade every soule that heares me this day as Jacob did his houshold Put away the strange gods that are among you or as St. Paul did his Lystrians O turne away from these vanities to the living God who gives us richly All things to enjoy Every word would require not a severall houre but a life to meditate upon and the tongues not of men but of Angels to expresse it God not onely hath all in himselfe but he gives to us and gives us not somewhat but all things and not a little of all but richly and all this not to looke on but to enjoy Here the Preacher said it should content him to top the sheaves onely because he could not stand to thresh them out it shall content me with the Apostles to rub some few eares because I cannot stand to top the sheaves Whither can you turne your eyes to looke besides the bounty of God If you looke upwards his mercie reacheth to the heavens if downewards the earth is full of his goodnesse and so is the broad sea if you looke about you what is it that he hath not given us aire to breathe in fire to warme us water to coole us cloathes to cover us food to nourish us fruits to refresh us yea delicates to please us beasts to serve us Angels to attend us heaven to receive us and which is above all his sonne to redeeme us Lastly if we looke into our selves hath he not given us a soule rarely furnished with the faculties of understanding will memorie and judgement a body wonderfully accommodated to execute the charge of the soule and an estate that yeelds due conveniencies for both moreover seasonable times peace competencie if not plentie of all commodities good lawes religious wise just Governours happie and flourishing dayes and above all the liberty of the Gospell More particularly cast up your Bookes O yee Citizens and summe up your receits I am deceived if he that hath least shall not confesse his obligation to be infinite There are three things especially wherein yee are beyond others and must acknowledge your selves deeper in the bookes of God than the rest of the world First for your deliverance from that wofull judgement ef the Pestilence O remember those sorrowfull times when every moneth swept away thousands from among you when a man could not set forth his foot but into the jawes of death when piles of carcasses were carried to their pits as dung to the fields when it was crueltie in the sicke to admit visitation and love was little better than murderous Secondly for your wonderfull plentie of all provisions spirituall and bodily Yee are like the Sea all the Rivers of the land runne into you nay sea and land conspire to enrich you Thirdly for the priviledge of your governement your charters as they are large and strong so your forme of administration is excellent and the execution of justice exemplarie For all these you have reason to aske with David Quid retribuam and to trust in God who hath beene so gracious unto you And thus from the duty we owe to God in our confidence and his beneficence to us we descend to the beneficence which we owe to men expressed in the varietie of foure epithetes to one sense To doe good to be rich in good workes ready to distribute willing to communicate all is but beneficence This heape of words shewes the vehement intention of his desire of good workes and the important necessitie of the performance and the manner of this expression enforceth no lesse Charge the rich c. Hearken then yee rich men of the world it is not left arbitrarie to you that you may doe good if you will but it is layd upon you as your charge and dutie the same necessity there is of trusting in God is of doing good to men Let me fling this stone at the brasen forehead of our Romish Adversaries whom their shamelesse challenges
wretched and miserable and blind and naked Wherefore the Spirit n Ver. 17. counselleth them to buy of him gold tryed in the fire that they may be rich and white raiment that they may be clothed and that the shame of their nakednesse doe not appeare And to annoint their eyes with o Ver. 18. eye-salve that they may see 7. Lastly by the name Thyatira so called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to runne mad after and spend ones selfe they may bee put in minde of those in Thyatira who ranne awhoring after Jezebel and spent their estates upon her and committed filthinesse with her Cap. 2. Ver. 20. which because the Angel winked at the Spirit sharply reproveth him And to the Angel of the Church in Thyatira write I know thy workes c. Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee c. These Verses resemble the branches of the p Apoc. 22.2 tree of life which bare twelve maner of fruits 1. The first I gather from them is the dignity of the Ministers of the Gospel to whom the Son of God writeth stiling them Angels To the Angel of Ephesus of Smyrna c. 2. The second the difference of degrees in the Ministry for the Son of God endorseth his letter not to the inferiour Ministers which were many in each of these Churches but to the Angel in the singular number the Bishop or Super-intendent of the place to whom the government of the Church and ordering Ecclesiasticall affaires chiefly if not onely appertained 3. The third is the glorious majesty and divinity of our Saviour who was before stiled the Sonne of man but is here called the Sonne of God and described with eyes like a flame of fire piercing through the thickest darknesse and with feet like fine brasse walking through the midst of all the Churches and yet no way defiled according to the words of the Prophet the q Hos 14.9 waies of the Lord are undefiled 4. The fourth is mildnesse in just reproofe the physician of our soules who hath cured all our wounds with the smart of his prescribeth the weak Angel of Thyatira but one pill and that a gentle one yet see how he rowles it in sugar I know thy workes and thy love c. Of many faults he mentioneth but a few and of those few insisteth but upon one 5. The fifth is the condition of good workes to which foure things are required faith love service and patience they must be done in faith proceed from the love of God with a desire to doe him service thereby and lastly the performers of them must be constant in them and resolve patiently to endure all crosses and oppositions from men or Satan who seek to stay them in their godly proceedings 6. The sixth is growth in grace or proficiency in godlinesse those who were ever good are best at the last I know thy workes that they are more as the last than at the first 7. The seventh is the state and condition of the Church Militant which at the best is like the Moone at the full in which wee may discerne some blacke spots The sweetest r Eras Adag Omnibus malis punicis putridum granum inest Pomegranet hath some rotten graine the fairest beauty hath a freckle or wrinckle the most orient Ruby a cloud and the most reformed Church in the Christian world hath some deformity in her In ſ James 3.1 many things we offend all and many in all they are but a few against whom the Sonne of God hath but a few things Notwithstanding I have a few things 8. The eighth is the duty of a Magistrate who like a good Gardener is to plucke up noysome weeds by the rootes It is not sufficient for him to doe no evill he must not suffer it the Angel is not here blamed for any sin of commission or omission in himselfe but for the bare permission of evill in others I have somewhat against thee because thou sufferest 9. The ninth is a caution to looke to the weaker sexe for often the Divell maketh of them strong instruments to dispread the poyson of heresie t Hieron ad Ctes Simon Magus heresin condidit Helenae meretricis adjutus auxilio Nicolaus Antiochenus omnium immunditiarum repertor choros duxit foemineos Marcion Romam praemisit mulierem quae decipiendos sibi animos praepararet Simon Magus had his Helena Marcion his femall fore-runner Apelles his Philumena Montanus his Maximilla Donatus his Lucillia Elpidius his Agape Priscillian his Galla Arius the Prince his sister Nicolaus Antiochenus his feminine troupes and quires and all Arch-heretickes some strumpets or other to serve them for midwives when they were in travell with monstrous and mishapen heresies Thou sufferest the woman Jezebel Yet to doe the sexe right I willingly acknowledge with Flacius Illyricus that as the Divell hath used bad women in all times as Brokers to utter his deceitfull and dangerous wares so God hath made choice of many good women to be conduits of saving grace and great instruments of his glory Not to goe out of this City of Thyatira for instance we can produce a Lydia for a Jezebel where the Divell now vented poyson by the impure mouth of Jezebel God poured out before the sweet oyntment of the Gospel by the mouth of Lydia whose u Acts 16.14 heart he opened that shee attended to those things which were spoken of Paul 10. The tenth is an observation concerning the nature of Heresie which fretteth like a canker and if it be not looked to corrupteth the sound members of Christ Thou sufferest the woman Jezebel to seduce my servants 11. The eleventh is a consideration of the odious filthinesse of Idolatry which the Scripture termeth the soules naughtinesse and spirituall fornication To commit fornication 12. The last is a wholsome doctrine concerning the contagion of Idolatry which not only infecteth our bodies and soules but our meates and drinkes also and turneth the food of the body into the poyson of the soule to such as familiarly converse and table with Idolaters and feed upon the reliques of Idols sacrifices And to eate things offered unto Idols And to the Angel of the Church in Thyatira Glorious things are spoken of you O yee Ministers of the Word and Sacraments Yee are stiled Embassadours of the King of Heaven Stewards of the houshold of faith Interpreters of the Oracles of God Dispensers of the mysteries of salvation Keepers of the Seales of grace Yee are the Salt of the earth the Light of the world the Starres of the skie nay the Angels of Heaven To the Angel The Ministers of the Gospel resemble Angels in many things 1. Angels are x Heb. 1.14 ministring spirits and the Preachers of the Gospel are spirituall Ministers 2. Angels according to the derivation of their name in Greeke are y Matth. 11.10 Malac. 3.1 messengers of God and the Ministers of the Gospel are z 1 John
1.5 messengers of Christ 3. The dwelling of Angels is in Heaven and there is or ought to be the a Phil. 3.20 Our conversation is in heaven conversation of the Ministers of the Gospel 4. The life of Angels is a continuall b Matth. 18.10 beholding the face of God and what is the life of a good Minister but a continuall contemplation of the divine nature attributes and workes 5. The Angels gather c Mat. 24.31 the Elect from the foure windes and the Ministers of the Gospel gather the Church from all corners of the earth 6. The Angels d Apoc. 16.1 poure out the vialls of the wrath of God upon the earth and the Ministers are appointed to denounce Gods judgements and plagues to the wicked world 7. The Angels e 1 Cor. 15 52. sound Trumpets at the last resurrection and the Ministers of the Gospel at the first 8. When Christ was in an agony f Luke 22.43 there appeared an Angel strengthening him and when Gods children are in greatest extremity God sendeth the Ministers of the Gospel to g Job 33.23 If there bee a messenger with him an interpreter one among a thousand to shew to man his uprightnesse c. comfort them 9. The Angels carry the soules of them that dye in the Lord into Abrahams bosome Luke 16.22 and the Ministers of the Gospel give them their passe and furnish them with their last viaticum Now if it bee demanded why God so highly advanceth the dignity of the Ministry I answer to advance his glory He lifteth up the silver Trumpets of Sion on high that the sound of his praise may be heard the further As the visible Sunne casteth a more radiant and bright beame upon Pearle and Glasse which reflecteth them againe than upon grosse and obscure bodies that dead the rayes thereof even so the Sunne of righteousnesse casteth the fairest lustre upon that calling which most of all illustrateth his glory To other vocations God calleth us but this calleth us unto God all other lawfull callings are of God but of this God himselfe was and if it bee a great honour to the noblest orders of Knighthood on earth to have Kings and Princes installed into them how can wee thinke too worthily of that sacred order into which the Sonne of God was solemnly invested by his h Psal 110.4 Father I speake nothing to impeach the dignity of any lawfull profession make much of the Physicians of your body yet not more than of the Physicians of your soule yeeld honour and due respect to those that are skilfull in the civill and municipall Lawes yet under-value them not who expound unto you the Lawes of God At least take not pride in disgracing them who are Gods instruments to conveigh grace into your soules grieve not them with your accursed speeches who daily blesse you load them not with slaunders and calumnies who by their absolution and ghostly comfort ease you of the heavie burden of your sinnes goe not about to thrust them out of their temporall estate who labour by their Ministery to procure you an eternall It is not desire of popular applause or a sinister respect to our owne profit but the zeale of Gods glory which extorteth from us these and the like complaints against you For if Religion might bee advanced by our fall and the Gospel gaine by our losses and God get glory by our dis-esteeme we should desire nothing rather than to be accounted the off-scouring of all things on the earth that so wee might shine hereafter like precious stones in the foundation of the celestiall Jerusalem But if the Preachers and the Gospel the Word and Sacraments and the Ministers thereof Religion and Priests the Church and Church-men are so neere allies that the dis-reputation of the one is a great prejudice to the other and the disgrace of the one the despising of the other if the truth wee professe if our Religion if the Gospel if Christ if God suffer in the disgraces that are put upon our calling and the manifold wrongs that are done to it we must adjure you for your owne good and deeply charge you in Gods cause that as you looke to receive any good from him so you take nothing sacrilegiously from the Church as you hope to be saved by the Ministery preserve the dignity and estimation thereof be not cursed Chams in discovering the nakednesse of your ghostly fathers Alexander thought that he could not lay too much cost upon the deske in which Homers Poems lay and we daily see how those who take delight in musicke beautifie and adorn the instrument they play upon with varnish purfle gilt painting and rich lace in like maner if you were so affected as you should be at the hearing of the Word if you were ravished with the sweet straines of the songs of Sion ye would make better reckoning of the Instruments and Organs of the holy Spirit by which God maketh melodie in your hearts yee would not staine with impure breath the silver trumpets of Sion blowne not with winde but with the breath of God himselfe yee would not trample under foot those Canes that yeeld you such store of Sugar or rather of Manna Yee will be apt enough upon these and the like texts to teach us our dutie that we ought as Messengers of God to deliver his message faithfully and as neere as we can in his owne words as Angels to give our selves to divine contemplation and endevour to frame our lives to a heavenly conversation Let it not then be offensive to you to heare your dutie which is as plaine to be read as ours in the stile here attributed to the Pastour of Laodicea the Angell It is that you entertaine your diligent and faithfull Pastours as the i Gal. 4.14 Ye received me as an Angel of God even as Christ Jesus Galathians did St. Paul and as Monica did St. Ambrose tanquam Angelos Dei as the Angels of God receive them as Abraham and Lot did the Angels sent from God unto them defend them according to your power from wrong and make them partakers of the best things wherewith God hath blessed you Angelo to the Angel in the singular number chiefe Pastour or Bishop of the Church All Ministers as I shewed you before may challenge the title of Angels but especially Bishops who watch over other Ministers as Angels over men who are to order the affaires of the Church and governe the Clergie as the Peripatetickes teach that Angels direct and governe the motions of the celestiall spheres therefore Epiphanius and St. Austine and most of the later Interpreters also paraphrase Angelo by Episcopo illic constituto and verily the manner of the superscription and the contents of the letter and the forme of governement settled in all Churches at this time make for this interpretation For supposing more Ministers in London of equall ranke and dignitie as there are who would indorse a
And the Musicians will tell us that some discords in a lesson binding wise as they speake and falling into a concord much grace the musicke 2. Secondly wee wish that all Magistrates Ecclesiasticall and Civill would first make proofe of gentler remedies and seeke rather to winne men by perswasions than draw them to Church by compulsion Monendo potiùs quà m minando verbis magis quà m verberibus to use rather commonitions than comminations words than blowes discourses than legall courses arguments than torments 3. Thirdly in making and executing penall Statutes against Heretickes and Idolaters all Christian Princes and States must wash their hands from bloud and free themselves from all aspersion of cruelty For no fish will come into the net which they see all bloudy and they who are too quick in plucking at those that differ from them in Religion root up those oft-times for tares which if they had been permitted longer to grow might have proved good corne 4. Fourthly they must put a great difference between those that are infected with Hereticall opinions whereof some are ring-leaders some are followers some are obstinate others flexible some are turbulent others peaceable on some they ought to have g Jude 22 23. compassion making a difference and others save with feare pulling them out of the fire 5. Lastly nothing must be done herein by the intemperate zeale of the heady multitude or any private motion but after mature advice and deliberation be appointed by lawfull authority To the particular instances brought from our neighbour Nations that are repugnant to this rule wee answer with Saint h Serm. 66. in Cant. Approbamus zelum factum non laudamus Bernard Wee approve their zeale yet wee allow not of their proceedings These cautions observed that religions differing in fundamentall grounds are not to be tolerated in the same Kingdome we prove 1. First by the Law of i Deut. 22.10 11. Moses which forbiddeth plowing with an Oxe and an Asse together or to weare a garment of divers sorts as of woollen and linnen together The morall of which Law according to the interpretation of the best Expositors hath a reference to diversities in Religions and making a kinde of medley of divers worships of God 2. Secondly by the grievous punishment of Idolaters appointed by God himself k Deut. 13.6 8 9. If thy brother or son of thy mother or thine own son or thy daughter or the wife that lieth in thy bosome or thy friend which is as thine own soule entice thee secretly saying Let us goe and serve other gods thine eye shall not pity him neither shalt thou keep him secret but thine hand shall be upon him and then the hand of all the people to stone him to death Solùm pietatis genus est hic esse crudelem It is piety in this kinde to shew no pity It is not in the power of Kings and Princes to reverse the decrees of Almighty God or falsifie his Oracles who saith No l Matth. 6.24 man can serve two masters For what fellowship hath righteousnesse with unrighteousnesse and what m 2 Cor. 6.14 15 16. communion hath light with darknesse or what concord hath Christ with Belial and what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols 3. Thirdly if these testimonies of everlasting truth perswade us not that God who is truth must be worshipped in truth and not with lyes and in a false manner yet Christ his inditing the Angel of Thyatira for suffering Jezebel and the Angel of Pergamus for not silencing false Teachers I have a few things against thee saith the Spirit that thou hast there them that maintaine the doctrine of Baalam The Spirit chargeth not the Angel with allowing or countenancing but tolerating only false doctrine Therefore the toleration of Heresie and Idolatry is a sinne which God will not tolerate in a Magistrate which I further thus demonstrate 4. Fourthly God will not hold any Prince or State guiltlesse which permitteth a pollution of his name but the worship of a false god or the false worship of the true God is a pollution of his name as himselfe declareth n Ezek. 20.39 Pollute my name no more with your gifts and your Idols God is a jealous God and will endure no corrivall if wee divide our heart between him and any other hee will cut us off from the land of the living as hee threatneth I o Zeph. 1.5 will cut off the remnant of Baal and them that worship the host of Heaven upon the house tops and them that worship and sweare by the Lord and by Malcham 5. Fifthly what shall I adde hereunto save this that the bare permission of Idolatry was such a blurre to Solomon and most of the succeeding Kings of Juda that it obscured the lustre and marred the glosse of all their other Princely endowments For after the description of their vertues this blot is cast upon their reputation But the high p 1 Kin. 15.14 places were not taken away But thrice happy q 2 Kin. 18.4 Hezekiah who by demolishing the brasen Serpent which Moses had made because the children of Israel burned incense to it erected to himselfe an everlasting monument of praise And yet more happy r 2 Kin. 23.25 Josiah after whom the Holy Ghost sendeth this testimony Like unto him there was no King before him that turned to the Lord with all his heart and with all his soule and with all his might according to all the Law of Moses neither after him arose there any like unto him Why what eminent vertues had Josiah above others what noble acts did he which the Spirit values at so high a rate no other than those which we find recounted in the books of Kings and Chronicles Hee brake downe the Altars of Baalim and cut downe the Images that were on high upon them hee brake also the groves and the carved Images and the molten ſ 2 Chron. 34.4 5. Images and stamped them to powder and strewed it upon the graves of them that sacrificed to them and hee burned the bones of the Priests upon the Altar He defiled Topheth which is in the valley of the children of Hinnom that no man might make t 2 Kin. 23.10 11 12 13. his sonne or his daughter passe through the fire to Moloch and he took away the horses that the Kings of Judah had given to the Sun and the Altars that were on the top of the upper chambers of Ahaz the Altars which Manasseh had made in the two Courts of the house of the Lord and the high places that were before Jerusalem which Solomon had builded and so he tooke away all the abominations out of all the countries that pertained to the children of Israel and u 2 Chro. 34.33 compelled all that were found in Israel to serve the Lord their God 6. Sixthly farther to teach Magistrates that they ought sometimes to use violent and
gente Antei cuiusdam in stagnum quoddam regionis ejus duci vestituque in quâ—rcu suspenso … nare abire in desertum transfiguratique in lupos Pliny writeth of certaine people of the family of Anteus in Arcadia who having put off their clothes and swom over a deep standing poole wander in the wildernesse runne among Wolves and are transformed into their shape and after returne backe and doe great mischiefe in their owne countrey I beleeve not that there is any such family in Arcadia but I am sure wee have a sort of men in England who putting off the habit of English men and Scholars crosse the narrow Seas converse with Romish Wolves and degenerate into their nature and after they returne backe into their owne countrey make havocke of Christs flocke Here I cannot but cry aloud with zealous Bullenger t In Apoc. c. 2. Quae quaeso clementia est crudelissimis lupis blandiri ut oves innocentes Christi sanguine redemptas impunè dilâ—nient quae haec patientia sinere vineam Domini ab immanissimis monstris devastati What clemency call you this to suffer the Lords Vineyard to bee spoiled and laid waste by cruell Monsters What mercy to spare the Wolves which spare not Christs sheep redeemed with his precious bloud who plot treason against their naturall Prince scandalize the State and staine with impure breath the gold and silver vessels of the Sanctuary who turne religion into Statisme or rather into Atheisme Let it bee accounted mercy not to execute the rigour of penall Statutes upon silly seduced sheep certainly it is cruelty to spare the Wolves which worry them If any pricked at the heart at the consideration of these things say with the Jewes in the Acts y Acts 2.37 Quid faciemus What shall wee doe Wee have used all diligence to find out these Romish Wolves and those that come within our reach wee smite at the rest we set our strongest Mastives and fray them out of our coasts I answer If this were sincerely done of all hands if some shepheards were not seen by the Wolves before they spie them and thereby lost their voices according to the Proverb Lupi videre priores I say if the shepheards and the dogges bestirred themselves as they should yet the wise man in Livie will tell them All will be to no great purpose till the woods and thickets be cut down to which they flie there hide themselves Nunquam defuturi sunt lupi donec sylvae exscindantur you shall never be rid of these Romish wolves so long as in all quarters of this Kingdome they have so many places of shelter to lurke in I had almost sayd Sanctuaries of defence I am now come home to the point I first thought upon when I was sommoned to speake to this honourable assembly This Sermon was preached during the Parliament whereof many were present consisting of so many noble and worthy members of the high Court of Parliament and therefore here I will land my discourse after I have given you but one memento out of the Psalmist Remember the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem how they sayd Downe with it downe with it even to the ground or rather Up with it up with it to the trembling ayre Blow up King Queene Prince Parliament Clergie Laitie Nobilitie Gentrie Commons Lawes Statutes Charters Records all in a cloud of fire that there remaine not so much as any cinders of them upon the earth lest perhaps the Phoenix might revive out of her owne ashes But praysed be the God of heaven who discovered and defeated that plot of hell our soule is escaped as a bird out of the snare the snare is broken and we are delivered I will close up all with those sweet straines of the hundred forty ninth Psalme O sing unto the Lord a new song let his praise be heard in the great congregation let Israel rejoyce in him that made him and let the children of Sion be joyfull in their King for the Lord hath pleasure in his people and will make the meeke glorious by deliverance let the Saints be joyfull with glory let them rejoyce in their beds let the high Acts of the Lord be in their mouthes and a two-edged sword in their hands to execute vengeance upon the Romish Jezebel and rebuke her proselites to bind her Priests in chaines and her Chemarims with linkes of iron that they may be avenged of them as it is written Such honour have all his Saints To whom c. JEZEBEL SET OUT IN HER COLOURS A Sermon preached in Saint Pauls Church Novemb. 20. Anno 1614. THE XXXIV SERMON REVEL 2.20 Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel which calleth her selfe a Prophetesse to teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eate things sacrificed unto Idols Right Honourable Right Worshipfull c. IN this letter indited by the Spirit and penned by St. John I observed heretofore 1 Superscription and therein 1 The party from whom with his eminent quality the Sonne of God c. 2 The partie to whom it was sent with the title of his dignity the Angel of Thyatira 2 The contents which are so manifold and of such importance that if I had the tongue of an Angel I could hardly deliver them all in particular I have heretofore presented you with twelve sorts of fruits answerable to the fruits of the tree of life a Apoc. 22. described all growing upon the two former branches of this Scripture and this of my text and yet I have not gathered the halfe It resembleth that wonderfull tree which Pliny saw at b Lib. 17. c. 16. nat hist Arborem vidimus â—uxta Tiburtes Tulias omni genere pomorum onustam alio ramo nucibus alio baccis aliunde vite ficis pyris punicis malorumque generibus Tiburts which bare all kind of delicious and wholesome fruits Seneca his observation is true that c Sen ep 23. ad Lucil. Levium metallorum fructus in summo est illa opulentissima sunt quorum in alâ—o latet vena assidoè plenius responsura fodienti baser metals are found neere the top but the richer lie deep in the earth affording great store of precious oare Such is the Mine I have discovered in this passage of Scripture into which that you may search deeper with more profit and lesse danger I will beare before you a cleere light made of all the expositions of the best learned Scribes in the house of God who to enrich our faith bring forth out of their treasuries new things and old And to the Angel that is the Bishop or chiefe Pastour as heretofore I proved at large unto you In the Old Testament we reade of the ministery of Angels but here we finde Angels of the ministery to whom the Sonne of God himselfe kindly and familiarly writeth Our usuall forme of sommoning your attention is Hearken unto the
of extolling charity bring in the merit of workes under colour of an Ecclesiasticall Hierarchy endeavour by degrees to bring in Papall tyranny for the Sonne of God with his eies like flaming fire seeth the thin wire and fine threed by which he would draw in Popery Now as the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour shines so his wrath sparkles in these eyes When the heart is enflamed with rage the eies are red and h Hom. Il. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Virg Georg. 3. Flammantia lumina torquens Aen. l. 7. De alecto flammea torquet lumina fiery whereof i Aristot prob sect 31. Aristotle in his Problemes yeelds this reason Quia ad partem violatam ascendit calor because the eyes are most offended at the presence of the object which is hatefull unto us and therefore nature sends the beate thither to arme that part with revenge If Christs eies be like flaming fire let the heart of all presumptuous sinners melt like waxe before him Let none gather too farre upon his titles of the Lambe of God and Prince of peace and Saviour of the world For as he is the Lambe of God so he is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah as he is the Prince of peace so hee is the Lord of Hosts as he is the Saviour of all especially the Elect so he is the Judge of quicke and dead and here he is brought in by Saint John with fire in his eyes to consume and a sword in his mouth to smite and brasse in his feet to stamp his enemies to powder And his feet like fine brasse Some of the Interpreters demand why brasse is here preferred to gold and they yeeld this reason because brasse is a stronger and harder metall and the purpose of the Holy Ghost was to represent not only the glory of Christ in the splendour of this metall but also his power in the strength and solidity thereof Now gold is a soft and bowing metall not so apt to represent Christ his invincible power and therefore here it is said that his feet were like fine brasse not burnished gold The Heathen attributed to their gods feet of a heavier and baser metall to wit of lead whence grew that Proverb among them That God had leaden feet but k Eras Adag iron hands in which their meaning was that God proceedeth slowly to the punishment of wicked men but when hee overtakes them payes them home tarditatem supplicii gravitate compensans but our Saviour you see in my Text hath feet of a quicker stronger and more precious metall of finest brasse to support his Church and to knocke and tread downe whatsoever exalteth it selfe against his truth and kingdome Now I marvell not that Saint l Mat. 3.11 John thought not himselfe worthy to unloose Christ his shooe latchet who hath such precious and beautifull feet resembling fine brasse glowing in a furnace on which m In Apoc. c. 1. Dominus purgatissimos habet pedes omnem calcat impietatem omnem absumit haereticam pravitatem vitam impuram Bullenger engraveth this posie Our Lord hath most cleane and pure feet wherewith he tramples on Satan he treads downe all impiety and burneth up all heresie and impurity as hee walketh in the midst of the seven golden Candlestickes But I may insist no longer upon these brasen feet of our Saviour I must haste to that which followeth I know that is I approve Gods knowledge of any thing in the Scripture phrase often implyeth his approbation as Psal 1. v. ult As on the contrary those whom hee condemnes hee is said not to know n Mat. 7.23 Depart from mee I know you not ye that worke iniquity I know you not that is I acknowledge you not or take no speciall notice of you God doth not willingly know any thing but that which is good whereas on the contrary most men by their good will will know no good by any but all the evill they can like flies they light no where but upon the scarres and sores of their brethren and after the manner of horse-leaches they greedily sucke out their corrupt bloud Whereas they might gather many sweet flowers in the Spouse her garden they cull out nothing but weeds much like the covetous Vintner who sold abroad all his best wine and kept the worst for his house and being asked of one who saw him walking in his cellar what he was then adoing answered o Sphinx Philosophica c. In bonorum copia malum quaero In abundance and store of good I seeke for bad I would wee had not just cause to renew the complaint of Gregorie Nazianzen The onely godlinesse we glory in is to find out somewhat whereby we may judge others to be ungodly the onely vertue is to finde vice in others as if to soile others were the readiest meanes to cleare our selves To convict us of this malevolent disposition I need no other proofe than the use of the verbe animadverto in Latine and marke in English for animadvertere in aliquem signifieth to censure or punish and to shew that wee marke nothing so much as mens vices and deformities the very word mark in English without any epithet added unto it signifieth a deformity as when wee say Such an one is a markt man and Take heed of those whom God hath marked As venemous Serpents are nourished with poysonous roots and herbs so men of corrupt minds greedily feed upon other mens corruptions and desire to know nothing more than the wants and infirmities of their brethren herein direct contrary to the goodnesse of God who is here said to know that onely which he knoweth to be good and approveth as the opposition betweene this sentence and that which followeth Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee maketh it manifest I know then that is I like or I approve of Thy workes and charity and service and faith and patience And thy workes that is thy workes begun and thy workes ended the workes of thy faith and the workes of thy calling thy workes at the first and thy workes at the last I commend thee for thy love of mee and thy service to me and thy faith in me and thy patience for me and thy proficiency in all these which most evidently appeares by this That thy last workes are more than the first Take we here by the way an infallible note of a true Christian which is growth in grace and godlinesse he is like Vespasian in the Poet melior pejore aevo better in his worser age He never standeth at a stay but p Psal 84.7 goeth on from strength to strength like the trees planted in the house of the Lord they q Psal 92.14 still bring forth more fruit in their age As the r John 2.10 water-pots of stone which our Saviour filled with wine by miracle yeelded the best wine at the last Thou hast kept the good wine even till now
some of the reformed Churches with eyes sparkling like fire and stamping with his brazen feet to see these abominations of Jezebel winked at as they are in so many places I meddle not here with any deliberation of State fitter for the Councell Table than the Pulpit but discover to every private Christian what his duty is to refrain from the society of Idolaters I beseech them for the love of him who hath espoused their soules to himselfe and hath decked them with the richest jewels of his grace and made them a joynter of his Kingdome to beware that they be not enticed to spirituall fornication to forbeare the company of all those who solicite them in this kind nay farther to detect such persons to authority that they may learne not to blaspheme the truth of our Religion nor seduce his Majesties subjects from their allegiance to the Prince and conformity to his Lawes Pliny writeth of certaine m Plin. nat hist l. 8 c. 15. Indiginis innoxii peregrinos interimunt Efts in Tyrinth and Snakes in Syria that doe no hurt to the natives but sting strangers to death it may bee some have the like conceit of our English Seminary Priests and Jesuites who have done so great mischiefe beyond the Sea that they have no power or will to hurt any here at home and therefore dare more boldly converse with them because their outward carriage is faire But I beseech them to consider that the Panther hideth her ougly visage which shee knoweth will terrifie the beasts from comming neere her alluring them with the sweet smell of her body but as soone as they come within her reach shee maketh a prey of them Therefore as you tender the salvation of your body and soule your estate in this life and the life to come take heed how you play at the hole of the Cockatrice and familiarly converse with the great Whore or any of her Minions lest they draw you to naughtinesse and spirituall lewdnesse Have no part with them that have no part in God or have part with abominable Idols If the good Bishop Saint Ambrose being commanded by Valentinian the Emperour to deliver up a Church in his Diocesse to the Arrians gave this answer That hee would first yeeld up his life Prius est ut vitam mihi Imperator quà m fidem adimat shall wee give up our soules which are the Temples of the living God to Idolatrous worship If Saint John the Evangelist would not stay in the bath with Cerinthus the Hereticke shall we dare freely to partake with worser Heretickes in the pledges of salvation and wash our soules with them in the royall bath of Christs bloud o Ambros ep 37. Pollui se putabat si Aram vidisset ferendâ—mve est ut Gentilis sacrificet Christianus intersit Constantius the Emperour thought himselfe polluted if he had but seen an Heathenish Altar and Saint Ambrose proposeth it as a thing most absurd and intolerable that a Christian should be present at the sacrifices of the Heathen Our Saviour in this place and Saint p 1 Cor. 10. Paul in the first Epistle to the Corinthians would not have Christians to eate any of those things that were sacrificed unto Idols Nay the Prophet q Psal 16.4 David professeth that he will not so much as name an Idol Their offerings of bloud will I not offer nor make mention of their names in my lips I end and seale up my meditations upon these words spoken to an Angel with the words spoken by an r Apoc. 14.9 Angel If any worship the Beast and his Image and receive his marke in his forehead or in his hand the same shall drinke of the wine of the wrath of God and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone before the holy Angels the Lamb and the smoake of their torments shall ascend for ever ever And they shall have no rest neither day nor night which worship the Beast and his Image whosoever receiveth the print of his name Gracious Lord who gracest the Ministers of the Gospel with the title of Angels make them in their knowledge and life angelicall keep them not only from sinnes of omission and commission but also from sinnes of permission that all may see their works and their love and their service and their faith and their patience their love of thee and their service to thee and their faith in thee and their patience for thee and their growth in all these graces and that thou maist have nothing against them And sith thou hast displayed the Romish Jezebel unto us by her three markes of imposture impurity and idolatry breed in us all a greater loathing and detestation of her abominations preserve us by the sincere preaching of the Word and powerfull operation of thy Spirit that wee bee neither deceived by her imposture to beleeve her false prophesies neither defiled in our body by her impurity to commit fornication nor in soule by her idolatry to eate things sacrificed unto Idols SERMONS PREACHED AT OXFORD FOURE ROWES OF PRECIOUS STONES A Rehearsall Sermon preached in Saint Maries Church at Oxford Anno 1610. THE XXXV SERMON EXOD. 28.15 16 17 18 19 20 21. 15. And thou shalt make the breast-plate of judgement with cunning worke 16. Foure square shall it be being doubled 17. And thou shalt set in it settings of stones even foure rowes of stones the order shall be this a Rubie a Topaze and an Emrald in the first rowe 18. And in the second row thou shalt set a Carbuncle a Saphir and a Diamond 19. And in the third row a Turkeise and an Agate and an Amethist 20. And in the fourth row a Beril and an Onyx and a Jasper and they shall be set in gold in their inclosings or imbosments Hebrew fillings 21. And the stones shall bee with the names of the children of Israel twelve according to their names like the engravings of a signet every one with his name shall they be according to the twelve Tribes Right Worshipfull c. QUintilian a Institut orat lib. 1. cap. 1. instructing parents how to lay the ground-colours of vertues in the soft mindes of tender infants and acquaint them with the rudiments of learning adviseth Eburneas literarum formas iis in lusum offerre To give them the letters of the Alphabet fairely drawne painted or carved in ivory gold or the like solid and delectable matter to play withall that by their sports as it were unawares those simple formes might be imprinted in their memories whereby we expresse all the notions of our mind in writing even so it pleased our heavenly Father in the infancy and nonage of his Church to winne her love with many glorious shewes of rites and ceremonies as it were costly babies representing the body of her husband Christ Jesus and to the end she might with greater delight quasi per lusum get by heart the principles of saving knowledge
hereof that the wages of sinne is eternall death I will produce manifold testimonies of Scripture beyond all exception not so much to convince l Aug. l. 22 de Civ Dei Origines eò erravit deformiùs quò sensit clementiùs the errour of Origen who was of opinion that all the damned yea the Devils themselves should in the end bee released of their torments as to settle a doubt which troubleth the mindes of the godly how it should bee just with God to inflict eternall punishments upon men for temporall transgressions For your better satisfaction herein may it please you to take notice of two opinions concerning the rule of justice and goodnesse the first maketh the will of God the rule of good the latter goodnesse the rule of Gods will If yee embrace the former opinion to prove that it is just to repay eternall punishments to temporary and finite offences it will bee sufficient to shew that it is Gods will and good pleasure so to doe if yee encline to the latter opinion it will bee farther requisite to shew the congruity of such proceedings with the principles of reason and rules of justice among men It is very reasonable to thinke that God hath alwayes a reason for his will yet it is safest for us to take his will for a reason For God cannot will any thing but as hee willeth it it is just and good and that it is Gods will and decree to torment them eternally who dye impenitently appeareth by the words of our Saviour m Mat. 25.46 These shall go into everlasting pain and of Saint n 2 Thes 1.9 Paul These shall bee punished with everlasting perdition from the presence of the Lord and glory of his power and of Saint o Apoc 20.10 John And the Devill that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false Prophet shall bee tormented day and night for evermore Thus much of the torments in generall in speciall that the fire is unquenchable wee reade in Saint p Mat. 3.11 Matthew The chaffe hee will burne with unquenchable fire and in Saint q Jude 7. Jude Which suffer the vengeance of eternall fire How should the fire ever goe out sith as the Prophet Esay informeth us r Isa 30.33 The breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone continually kindleth it And that the worm likewise is immortall Christ teacheth ſ Mar. 9.44 46 48. Where the worm saith he never dyeth and the fire is not quenched and that the darknesse likewise is perpetuall wee heare out of Saint Peter t 2 Pet. 2.17 They are Wells without water clouds carryed about with a tempest to whom blacke darknesse is reserved for ever yea the chaines of this prison wherewith the damned are manacled and fettered are everlasting for the Angels that kept not their first estate saith Saint Jude u Jude 6. God hath reserved in everlasting chaines under darknesse unto the judgement of the great day and lastly The * Apoc. 14.11 fume and the stench of the brimstone lake riseth up perpetually and the smoake of their torment shall ascend for evermore Neither can it bee answered in behalfe or comfort of the damned that indeed hell torments shall still endure but that they shall not be alwayes in durance that the racke shall remaine but they shall not bee everlastingly tortured on it that the Jaile shall stand but that the prisoners shall not alwayes be kept in it for the Scipture is as expresse for the reprobates enduring as for the during of those paines They shall goe saith Christ x Mat. 25.46 into everlasting fire y 2 Thes 1.9 They shall suffer saith Saint Paul the paines of everlasting perdition z Apoc. 20.10 They shall bee tormented saith Saint John with fire and brimstone for evermore and therefore the fire is called * Mar. 9.44 their fire ignis eorum because it burneth them and the worme their worme because it feedeth upon them and the torments their torments because they paine and torture them These texts are so plaine that Cardinal Bellarmine himselfe professedly refuteth those of his owne side who give credit to the legend which relateth that by the prayers of Saint Gregory the soule of Trajan was delivered out of hell The good will and pleasure of God concerning the condition of the damned being thus made knowne unto us wee are to tremble at his judgements and quell and keepe under every thought that mutines against them To call Gods justice in question concerning the everlasting torments of the damned is to bring our selves in danger of them Are not Gods actions just because wee see not the squire by which they are regulated * Aug. l. 2. de Civ Dei Cujus plenè judicia nemo comprehendit nemo justè reprehendit though wee cannot comprehend all Gods judgements yet wee may not reprehend any Multa Dei judicia occulta sunt nulla injusta many judgements of God are secret none unjust In particular concerning this point much hath and may bee said in justification of Gods proceeding with the damned even by humane reason 1. Saint Austine rightly observeth that in punishing offences we are not so much to regard the time as the quality the duration as the enormity A man justly lyeth by it the whole yeere for a rash word spoken in a moment another is condemned to the Gallies all his life for a murder or a rape committed on the sudden in hot bloud therefore howsoever the sins of the reprobate are but temporall yet the circumstances of them may be so odious and the number of them so great and the nature so hainous that they may deserve eternall punishments 2. Where the guilt still remaineth it is not against justice that the party still suffer but in the soules of all infidels and impenitent sinners whose consciences were never washed neither in the salt water of their owne teares nor in the sweet laver of regeneration the guilt of all their sinnes still remaineth and therefore justly they may be eternally punished for them 3. An impenitent sinner if he should alwayes live upon the earth would alwayes hold on his sinfull course and that he breaketh it off at his death it is no thanke to him had he still the use of his tongue he would still blaspheme and curse had he still the use of his eyes hee would still looke after vanity had hee still the use of his feet hee would still walke in crooked wayes had he still the use of his hands he would still worke all manner of wickednesse had hee still the free use of all the faculties of his soule and members of his body he would still make them weapons of unrighteousnes Inchinus the a Inchin lib. de 4 Novis Romish Postillar giveth some light to this truth by an inch of candle whereby two play at tables in the
to it in divers places we reade of Baalim Baal-Peor and Baal-Zebub just saith Ribera the Jesuit as the Blessed Virgin though she be but one yet she is called by divers names taken from the places where her Images are erected as namely she is called sometimes Lady of Loretto sometimes of Monte serato sometimes of Hayles But before I come to parallel the Papists and the Baalites give us leave right b The Lord Wotton extraordinary Embassador and the Lieger Sir Thomas Edmonds Honourable who are Embassadors for Christ to endeavour to imitate that vertue which is most eminent in men of your place I meane courage and liberty to deliver what wee have in commission from our Lord and Master Yee will say what need this preface what doth this Text concerne any here though it be set upon the tenter hookes never so long it cannot reach to any Christian congregation It were ignorance and impudency to affirme that any who have given their names to Christ halt between God and Baal or offer incense to the Sunne I hope I may excuse all here present from the sin of the Baalites I would I could also all others who professe themselves Christians but that I cannot doe so long as the whoredomes of the Romish Jezebel are as evident as the Sunne-beames which the Baalites worshipped I find not in Scripture Idolaters branded chiefly because they were Baalites but Baalites because they were Idolaters If then any who beare the name of Christians may bee justly charged with idolatry they fall under the sharp edge of this reproofe in my Text as also do all those who are not yet resolved which Religion to stick unto the Romish or the Reformed Now before we lay Idolatry to the charge of the Romish Church it will be requisite to distinguish of a double kind of Idolatry or Superstition 1. When religious worship is given to a false god which is forbidden in the first precept of the Decalogue 2. When a false or irreligious worship is given to the true God which is forbidden in the second Commandement With Idolatry in the first sense we charge them not for they receiving with us the Apostles Creed worship one God in Trinity with us but from Idolatry in the second acception they can never cleere themselves but by changing their tenets and reforming their practice For every will-worship or worship devised by man against or besides Gods commandement is a false worship and what is Popery almost else but an addition of humane traditions to Gods commandements his pure worship What is their offering of Christ in the Masse for a propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead their elevation of the host their carrying it in solemne Procession their dedicating a feast to it called Corpus Christi day What are their benedictions of oyle salt and spittle christening of Bells and Gallies What are their invocation of Saints Dirges and Requiems for the dead going in pilgrimages to the Images and Reliques of Saints and Martyrs but religious or rather irreligious rites brought in by the Church without any command or warrant from Gods Word Secondly other learned Divines distinguish Idolatry into 1. Crassam a grosse or palpable kind of Idolatry when the creature it selfe is worshipped in or for it selfe 2. Subtilem a subtle and more cunning kind of Idolatry when the creature is denied to bee worshipped but God in by and through it For as the same wooll may be spunne with a courser or with a finer thread so the same sinne specie may bee committed after a grosser or more subtle manner As for example hee may be said to commit grosse murder who cuts a mans throat or chops off his head or runneth him through the heart and not he who poysoneth his broth or his gloves or his spurres or his saddle and yet the latter is as guilty of murder before God as the former In like manner hee who defileth corporally the body of his neighbours wife may be said to commit grosse adultery yet hee is not free from that foule crime who lusteth after a woman in his heart though he commit not the foule act so wee may say that hee who robbeth a man upon the high-way or cutteth his purse in a throng committeth grosse theft yet certainly he that cheateth or couzeneth a man of his mony is as well a breaker of the eighth commandement as the former The same we are to conceive concerning Idolatry forbidden in the second commandement For whether it be crassa or subtilis a worship of the creature it selfe or a pretended worship of God in or by the creature it is odious and abominable in the sight of God For the people that worshipped the golden Calfe made by Aaron and the ten Tribes which worshipped the Calves set up by Jeroboam worshipped the true God in and by those Images For Aaron when hee saw the golden Calfe built an Altar before it made a Proclamation To morrow is a feast Jehovae to the Lord. And Jeroboam as Josephus testifieth appointed not that the Calves that hee set up in Dan and Bethel should be adored as gods sed ut in Vitulis Deus coleretur but that God should bee worshipped in and by those Calves Nay the Baalites who were esteemed grosser Idolaters than the other had this plea for themselves that under the name of Baal-Samen the Lord of Heaven they worshipped the true God as may be more than probably gathered out of the words of God by the Prophet c Hos 2.16 Hosea And it shall bee in that day saith the Lord that thou shalt call mee Ishi my husband and shalt call mee no more Baal for I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth and they shall bee no more remembred by their name Yet the Scripture stileth these Idolaters d 1. Cor. 10.7 Neither bee yee idolaters as were some of them as it is written The people sate downe to eate and drinke and rose up to play And God proceedeth against them as if they were grosse Idolaters for Moses tooke the e Exod. 32.20.27 Calfe which they had made and burnt it in the fire and grownd it to powder and strawed iâ— upon the water and made the children of Israel drinke of it And he said to the sons of Levi Thus saith the Lord God of Israel Put every man his sword by his side and goe in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp and slay every man his brother and every man his companion and every man his neighbour Neither did the ten Tribes after or the Baalites escape better for the Kings of Israel were plagued for their Idolatry and all the people led into captivity And for the Baalites they were slaine with a sword and the Temple of Baal made a Jakes Here I would not bee mistaken as if I put no difference between an Heathen and a Papist an Hereticke and an Infidell For although the
the wrath of God and hee shall be tormented in fire and brimstone before the holy Angels and before the Lamb and the smoak of their torments shall ascend for ever And they shall have no rest day nor night which worship the beast and his image and whosoever receiveth the print of his name I dare boldly say that none of you my Beloved have received any print of the beast yee are yet free from the least suspition of familiarity with the Whore of Babylon yee have kept your selves unspotted of Popery wherefore as yee tender your honour and reputation nay the salvation of your bodies and soules keep your selves still from Idols be zealous for Gods honour and hee will bee zealous for your safety abstaine from all appearance of that evill which the spirit of God ranketh with sorcery and witch-craft If in your travels you chance to see the heathenish superstitions and abominable idolatries of the Roman Church make this profitable use thereof let it incite you to compassionate the blindnesse and ignorance of so many silly soules nuzzled in superstition who verifie the speech of the Psalmist d Psal 115.8 They that worship idols are like unto them they have eyes and see not the wonderfull things of Gods Law they have eares and heare not the word of life they have hands and handle not the seales of grace they have feet and walke not in the wayes of Gods commandements What a lamentable thing is it to see the living image of God to fall downe before a dead and dumb picture for men endued with sense and reason to worship unreasonable and senslesse metall wise men to aske e Hosea 4.12 My people aske counsel at their stocks their staffe teacheth them for the spirit of whoredome hath caused them to erre and they have gone a whoring from under their God counsell of stocks and stones for them who in regard of their soules are nobly descended from Heaven to doe homage and performe religious services and devotions to the vilest and basest creatures upon the earth yea to dust and rottennesse How much are wee bound to render perpetuall thanks to God who hath opened our eyes that wee see the grossnesse of their superstition and hath presented unto us a lively image of himselfe drawne to the life in holy Scripture an image which to looke upon is not curiositie but dutie to embrace not spirituall uncleannesse but holy love to adore not idolatrie but religion to invocate not superstition but pietie If the Lord be God follow him Turne we the Rhetoricke of this text into Logicke and the Dilemma consisting of two suppositions into two doctrinall positions the points which I am to cleare to your understanding and presse upon your religious affections will be these 1. That there is but one true God either the Lord or Baal not both 2. That this one true God is alone to be worshipped either Baal must be followed or Jehovah not both But the Prophet will prove by miracle and the evidence of fire that Baal is not God nor to be worshipped the conclusion is therefore that Jehovah the God of Israel is the onely true God and he alone to be worshipped That there is but one true God is one of the first principles which all Christians are catechized in the Decalogue Lords prayer and Creed all three begin with one God to teach us 1. Religious worship of one God 2. Zealous devotion to one God 3. Assured confidence in one God At our first Metriculation if I may so speake into the Universitie of Christs Catholique Church wee are required to subscribe to these three prime verities 1. That there is a Deitie 1. Above all 2. Over all 3. In all 2. That this Deitie is one 3. That in this Unitie there is a Trinitie of persons We acknowledge 1. A Deitie against all Atheists 2. The Unitie of this Deitie against all Paynims 3. A Trinitie in this Unitie against all Jewes Mahumetans and Heretiques Through the whole old Testament this one note is sounded by everie voyce in the Quire We heare it in the Law Heare O Israel the Lord our God is f Deut. 6.4 one Lord. We heare it in the Psalmes g Psal 18.31 Who is God but the Lord We heare it in the Prophets h Hosea 13.4 Thou shalt know no God but mee for there is no Saviour besides me and i Mal. 2.10 Have we not all one father hath one not God created us The new Testament is as an eccho resounding the same note k Ephes 4.5 6. 1 Tim. 2.5 One Lord one faith one baptisme One God and father of all who is above all and through you all and in you all For there is one God and one Mediatour between God and men the man Christ Jesus And This is l John 17.3 life eternall to know thee the only true God and whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ For although we read m Gen. 1.1 Elohim as if ye would say Gods in the plurall number yet the verb Bara is in the singular number to signifie the Trinitie in the Unitie howsoever we find the Lord n Gen. 19.24 rained upon Sodome Gomorrah brimstone fire from the Lord out of heaven and likewise in the Psalmes o Psal 110.1 The Lord said to my Lord yet S. Athanasius in his Creed resolveth us there are not more Gods or more Lords nor more eternals nor more incomprehensibles but one eternall and one in comprehensible In the mysterie of the Trinitie there is alius and alius not aliud and aliud on the contrarie in the mysterie of the incarnation of our Lord and Saviour there is not alius and alius but aliud and aliud in the one diversity of persons in one nature in the other diversity of natures in one person Sol quasi solus God is as Plato stileth him the Sunne of the invisible world and it is as cleare to the eye of reason that there is one God as to the eye of sense that there is one Sunne for God must be sovereigne and there cannot be more sovereignes The principles of Metaphysick laid together demonstrate this truth after this manner There is an infinite distance betweene something and nothing therefore the power which bringeth them together and maketh something nay all things of nothing must needs be infinite but there cannot be more infinite powers because either one of them should include the other and so the included must needs bee finite or not extend to the other and so it selfe not be infinite Out of naturall Philosophie such an argument is framed Whatsoever is either hath a cause of its being or not if it hath a cause of its being it cannot be the first cause if it have no cause of its being it must needs bee the cause of all causes For there cannot be an infinite processe from causes to causes which nature abhorres therefore wee must needs
affectum corpus sineret jam aliquantum spatri ex eo loco ubi pugnatum est anfugerat cum respiciens videt magnis intervallis sequentes unum haud procul ab sese abesse in cum magno impetu rediit Et dum Albanus exercitus inclamat Curiatiis ut opem ferant fratri jam Horatius coeso hoste victor secundam pugnam petebat tum clamore qualis ex inspirato faventium solet Romani adjuvant militem suum ille defungi proelio festinat prius itaque quam alter qui nec procul aberat consequi posset alterum Curiatium confixit jamque equato marte singuli supererant sed nec spe nec viribus pares male sustinenti arma gladium supernè jugulo defigit jacentem spoliat Livie describeth at large it being agreed by both armies of the Romans and the Albans for the sparing of much bloud-shed to put the triall of all to the issue of a battaile between six brethren three on the one side the sonnes of Curatius and three on the other side the sonnes of Horatius While the Curatii were united though they were all three sorely wounded they killed two of the Horatii the third remaining though not hurt at all yet finding himselfe not able to make his partie good against all three begins to take his heeles and when hee saw them follow him slowly one after the other as they were able by reason of their heavie armour and sore wounds hee fals upon them one after another and slayes them all three When Cyrus came neare Babylon with his great army and finding the river about it over which he must passe so deepe that it was impossible to transport his army that way he suddenly caused it to be divided into many channels whereby the maine river sunke so on the sudden that with great facilitie hee passed it over and tooke the citie That maxime in Philosophy Omne divisibile est corruptibile holds in all States societies After the Donatists had made a faction in Affrica as they brake the unity of the Church so they were broken themselves into divers fractions and so in a short space came to nothing The division among the Trojans brought in the Grecians the divisions among the Grecians brought in Philip the division of the Assyrian Monarchie brought in the Persian of the Persian brought in the Macedonian of the Macedonian brought in the Roman of the Roman brought in the Turke Lastly the division among the Britaines of this nation brought in first the Saxons next the Danes and last of all the Normans So true is the axiome of our Saviour A kingdome divided against it selfe cannot stand The barbarous Souldiers beloved Christians divided not Christs coat shall wee rend and teare asunder his body by schisme and faction The lines the neerer they come to the center the neerer they are one to another we cannot be one with God so long as we are thus divided one against another I conclude as the Oratour doth his oration upon the answers of the Soothsayers When upon the newes of earth-quakes and other prodigious signes the Soothsayers foretold great calamities were likely to befall the State unlesse the wrath of the gods were suddenly appeased the Oratour determineth the point most divinely * Cic. de arusp resp Faciles sunt deorum irae nostrae sunt inter nos irae discordiaeque placandae God will be easily reconciled to us if we be reconciled one to another If we be at peace one with another Beloved God will soone be at peace with us and if God be at peace with us all creatures shall be in league with us and neither Divell nor man neither any thing else shall have any power to hurt us So be it Deo Patri c. BLOUDY EDOME THE LX. SERMON PSAL. 137.7 8. 7. Remember O Lord the children of Edome in the day of Jerusalem who said Raze it raze it even to the foundation thereof 8. O daughter of Babylon who art to be destroyed happy shall hee be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us Right Honourable c. WHat a storme is in the skie that a vehement passion is in the mind it darkeneth it stirreth and troubleth it and after fearfull crackes it resolveth in the end into a sad shower such a violent perturbation seized at this time on the minds of the exiled Jewes in Babylon when the insolent Conquerours adding affliction to their affliction and gall to their wormwood in a flouting and jeering manner called for their Hebrew songs and melody in that their heavie and dolefull estate What so unseasonable as to require a man to sing pleasant songs when his very heart-strings are broken with griefe What so lamentable and pitifull as not to be pitied in greatest misery nay to bee insulted upon and laughed at Wherefore what with a longing desire of their country and sorrow for their losse of it what with zeale for the Lords honour and the glory of Sion what with indignation against such savage and barbarous usage the people of God over-cast as it were with a blacke and dismall cloud partly breake out into direfull execrations like thunder and lightening ver 7 8 9. partly vent their griefe in sighes ver 4 5 6. partly resolve it into a shower of teares ver 1. Edome is blasted as it were with lightening for her wicked words ver 7. and Babylon is struck with a thunder-bolt for her cruell deeds against Gods People City and Temple vers 8 9. Edome shall be remembred for the mischievous counsell he gave and the daughter of Babylon shall be for ever razed out of memory for razing Jerusalem to the ground And let all the secret and open enemies of Gods Church take heed how they imploy their tongues and hands against Gods secret ones they that presume to doe either may here reade their fatall doome written in the dust of Edome and ashes of Babylon a Plin. â—at hist l. 21. c 4 Rosa siccis quà m humidis odoratior omni recisione atque ustione proficit translatione quoque ocyssimè Roses lose not their naturall smell by transplantation but as Pliny observeth grow more fragrant thereby It is so with men the naturall affection they beare to their country is rather increased than decreased by peregrination as the sighes which the captive Jewes breathe out in this Psalme and the plentifull teares which they shed by the waters of Babylon may be abundant proofes unto us As they walked in the pleasant fields about Babylon they thinke of the lamentable estate of their owne Country and the ruine of their City and Temple which cast downe their countenance and drew abundance of teares from their eyes sighes from their heart and prayers from their mouth for Babels Babel that is the confusion of the Babylonians who neither spared City nor Temple but sacked and razed both downe to the ground This is the ground upon which the Psalmist sweetly runneth through the
us doe something to him and for him he hath remembred us not in words but in deeds let us remember him as well in deeds as words let us honour him with our substance let us blesse him with our hands let us praise him with our goods Peradventure you will say Our h Psal 16.2 goods are nothing to him our goodnesse extendeth not unto him he is far above us and out of the reach of our charity see how the Prophet himselfe removeth this rub in the next verse But to the Saints that are on the earth and to them that excell in vertue And our Saviour assureth us that i Mat. 25.40 Verely verely I say unto you inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto mee Whatsoever we doe unto them Christ taketh it as done unto himselfe In feeding the hungry ye feed Christ in clothing the naked ye cloth him in visiting the imprisoned ye visit him Though ye cannot now with Mary Magdalen reach up to his head to breake a boxe of Spicknard and powre it on him yet ye can annoint him in his sicke and sore comfort him in his afflicted provide for him in his famished relieve him in his oppressed yea and redeem him also in his captive members This to doe is charity and mercy at all times but now it is piety and devotion also It is not sufficient for you to lift up your hands in prayer and thanksgiving ye must stretch them out in pious and k Heb. 13.16 charitable contributions for with such sacrifices God is well pleased And if ever such sacrifices are due to him now especially upon the yeerly returne of the feast wee celebrate for the preservation of our King and Kingdome Church and Common-wealth Nobles and Commons Goods and Lands nay Religion and Lawes from the vault of destruction Remember O Lord the children of Edome in that day what they said Novelties shall passe with a crack and Heretickes shall receive a blow and what they assayed even to raze Jerusalem and Sion to the ground and forget not O Lord the Whore of Babylon which hath dyed her garments scarlet red in the bloud of thy Saints and Martyrs make all her lovers to forsake her and abhorre her poysoned doctrine though offered in a cup of gold Strip her of her gay attire pluck down her proud looks humble her before thy Spouse and if she will not stoop nor repent her of her spirituall fornication savage cruelty against the professours of the truth reward her as shee hath served us But as for those that have forsaken Babel joyne with us in the defence confirmation of the Gospel prosper them in all the reformed Churches and grant that as they all agree in the love of the same truth so they may seek that truth in love and that their love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and all judgement that they may discerne those things that differ and approve of those things that are excellent that they may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ being filled with the fruits of righteousnesse which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God Cui c. SERMONS PREACHED IN LAMBETH PARISH CHURCH THE WATCHFULL SENTINELL A Sermon preached the fifth of November THE LXI SERMON PSAL. 121.4 Behold he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleepe THe more the enemies of the Gospel endevour to blot out this feast out of our Calender and raze it out of the memory of all men by giving it out where they see the coast cleare and none to encounter their falshood that the ground of this dayes devotion was a fiction of ours not a designe of theirs a stratagem of state to scandalize them not a plot of treason to ruine our King and State by so much the more all that love the truth in sinceritie ought to keep it with more fervencie of devotion celebrity of publique meeting and solemnity of all corresponding rites and ceremonies that the voyce of our thanksgiving and the sound of Gods praise for so great a deliverance may ring to the ends of the earth and the children yet unborne may heare it Other feasts we celebrate by faith this by experience and sense other deliverances we beleeve this we feele the ground of other festivities are Gods benefits upon his people indeed but of other countreyes and other times but of this is the preservation of our owne Countrey in our owne time And therefore what S. Bernard spake of the feast of Dedication we may say of this a In fest dedic Tantò nobis debet esse devotior quanto est familiarior Nam caeteras quidem solemnitates cum aliis ecclesiis habemus communes haec nobis est propria ut necesse sit à nobis vel à nemine celebrari We ought the more religiously to keepe this feast by how much the more neare it concernes us for other solemnities wee have common with other Churches this is so proper to us that if wee celebrate it not none will This wee ought in speciall to owne because it presenteth to all thankfull hearts a speciall act of Gods watchfull care over our Church our Nation yea and this place For this monster of all treasons which no age can parallel was conceived within our precincts and so it should have brought forth ruine and destruction in our eyes if God had not crushed it in the shell we should have seen on the sudden the citie over against us all in a light fire all the skie in a cloud of brimstone and the river died with bloud wee should have heard nothing after the cracke of thunder but out-cries and voyces in Ramah weeping and mourning and exceeding great lamentation our Rachel mourning for her children and shee would not have beene comforted because they should not have beene The lowder the cry of our sorrow would then have beene the lowder ought now to be the shouts of our joy To which purpose I have made choyce of this verse for my text taken out of a Psalme of degrees that I might thereby raise my meditations and your affections to the height of this feast The words may serve as a motto and the worke of this day for an image to make a perfect embleme of Gods watchfull care over his people and the peoples safetie under the wings of his providence But before I enter upon the parts of this Psalme it will be requisite that I cleare the title a Song of degrees If the meaning be as some translate the words Shur hamagnaloth Canticum excellentissimum an excellent song 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we read Adam hamagnaloth a man of eminent degree are not all the other Psalmes likewise excellent songs Why then hath this onely with some few that follow it the garland set upon it Some will have these fifteene Psalmes beginning from the 120. to
setteth them r Aug. serm de Pent. Tanquam duodecim radii solis seu totidem lampades veritatis totum mundum illuminantes forth twelve beames of the sunne of righteousnesse or twelve great torches of the truth enlightening the whole world They were as the twelve Patriarks of the new Testament to be consecrated as oecumenicall Pastours throughout all the earth they were as the ſ Exod. 15.27 twelve Wels of water in Elim from whence the chrystall streames of the water of life were to be derived into all parts they were as the twelve t Apoc. 12.1 starres in the crowne of the woman which was cloathed with the sunne and the moone under her feet and as the twelve u Apoc. 21.14 pretious stones in the foundation of the celestiall Jerusalem The present assembly in this upper roome was no other than a sacred Synod and in truth there can be no Synod where the Apostles or their successours are not present and Presidents For all assemblies how great soever of Lay-persons called together about ordering ecclesiasticall affaires without Bishops and Pastours are like to Polyphemus his vast body without an eye Monstrum horrendum informe ingens cui lumen ademptum But when the Apostles and their successours Bishops and Prelates and Doctours of the Church are assembled and all are of one accord and bend their endevours one way to settle peace and define truth Christ will make good his promise to be in the * Matt. 18.20 When two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the middest of them And middest of them and by his spirit to lead them into x John 16.13 When the spirit of truth is come he will guide you into all truth all truth With one accord All the ancient and later Interpreters accord in their note upon the word accord that Animorum unio concordia est optima dispositio ad recipiendum Spiritum sanctum that Unitie and concord is the best disposition of the minde preparation for the receiving of the holy Ghost The bones in Ezekiel were y Ezek. 37.7 8. joyned one to another and tyed with sinewes before the wind blew upon them and revived them so the members of Christ must bee joyned in love and coupled with the sinewes of charitable affections one towards another before the holy Spirit will enlive them Marke saith S. z Serm. de Temp. Membrum amputatum non sequitur spiritus cùm in corpore erat vivebat precisum amittit spiritum Austine in the naturall body how if a member bee cut off the soule presently leaveth it while it was united to the rest of the members it lived but as soone as ever it was severed it became a dead peece of flesh so it is in the mysticall body of Christ those who sever themselves by schisme or faction from the body and their fellow-members deprive themselves of the influence of the holy Spirit Peruse the records of the Church and you shall finde for the most part that faction hath bred heresie When discontented Church-men of eminent parts sided against their Bishops and Superiours Gods spirit left them and they became authours of damnable heresies This was Novatus his case after hee made a faction against Cyprian Donatus after hee made a faction against Meltiades Aerius after hee made a schisme against Eustatius and doe we not see it daily in our Separatists who no sooner leave our Church but the spirit of God quite leaveth them and they fall from Brownisme to Anabaptisme from Anabaptisme to Familisme and into what not The Church and Common-wealth like the * Plin. l. 2. nat hist c. 105. Lapis Tyrrhenus grandis innatat comminutus mergitur Lapis Tyrrhenus while they are whole swimme in all waters but if they be broken into factions or crumbled into sects schismes they will soone sinke if not drowne And so I passe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from their unanimitie of affection to their concurrence in place In one place The last circumstance is the place which was an upper chamber in Jerusalem The Apostles and Disciples stayed at Jerusalem after the ascension of our Lord partly in obedience to his a Acts 1.4 command which was not to depart out of Jerusalem till they were indued with power from above partly to fulfill the prophecie the b Esay 2.3 Law shall goe out of Sion and the word of God out of Jerusalem They kept all together out of love and for more safetie and they tooke an upper chamber that they might bee more private and retired or because in regard of the great confluence of people at this feast they could not hire the whole house or as Bernardinus conceiveth to teach us that the spirit of c Com. in Act. Ut discamus quod datur spiritus iis qui se ab imis attollunt rerū sublimium contemplatione ut cibo se oblectant God is given to such as raise up themselves from the earth and give themselves to the contemplation of high and heavenly mysteries Now to descend from this higher chamber and to come neare to you by some application of this text It will be to little purpose to heare of the Apostles preparation this day if wee prepare not our selves accordingly to discourse of their entertainment and receiving the holy Spirit if wee receive him not into our hearts It is a mockerie as Fulgentius hath it Ejus diem celebrare cujus lucem oderimus To keepe the day of the Spirit if wee hate his light If wee desire to celebrate the feast of the Spirit and by his grace worthily receive the Sacrament of Christ his flesh wee must imitate the Apostles and Disciples in each circumstance 1. Rely upon Gods promises by a lively faith of sending the spirit of his Sonne into our hearts and patiently expect the accomplishment of it many dayes as they did 2. Ascend into an upper chamber that is remove our selves as farre as wee can from the earth and set our affections upon those things that are above 3. Meet in one place that is the Church to frequent the house of God and when we are bid not to make excuses but to present our selves at the Lords boord 4. Not onely meet in one place but as the Apostles did with one accord to reconcile all differences among our selves and to purge out all gall of malice and in an holy sympathy of devotion to joyne sighs with sighs and hearts with hearts and hands with hands and lifting up all together with one accord sing Come holy Ghost so as this day is Pentecost in like manner this place shall be as the upper roome where they were assembled and we as the Apostles and Disciples and the Word which hath now beene preached unto us as the sound of that mightie rushing wind which filled that roome and after wee have worthily celebrated the feast of the Spirit and administred the
teacheth quia minister huic populo in salutem datus as a minister of salvation to this people Here then I cannot but reflect upon mine owne calling and preach to Preachers and all Ministers of the Gospel that by the example of our Lord and Master the high Priest and Bishop of our soules we take chiefly and in a speciall manner to heart the calamities of Gods people and ruine of his Church The eyes of our Saviour here as likewise of q Esay 22.4 I will weep bitterly labour not to comfort mee because of the spoiling of the daughter of my people Esay r Jerem. 4.8 9.1 Jeremy and Å¿ Ezra 10.1 Ezra glazed with teares are looking-glasses wherein wee may see the duty enjoyned to us by the Prophet Joel t Joel 2.17 Let the Priests the Ministers of God weep between the porch and the altar For in the spoiling of the country and demolishing the Churches and the houses of Prophets and Prophets children Gods honour suffereth whereof we ought to be most jealous the soules of men are in no lesse danger than their bodies and estates whereof we are to render an account and as we are Gods mouth to the people to declare his will to them so we are their mouth to God to present their supplications to him All the measures of the Sanctuary were double to the common As the measure of our knowledge is greater so the measure of our gâ—iefe and sorrow in the affliction of Gods people ought to be corresponding The same proportion holds in sorrow and joy And therefore as in the common joy Saint u Cypr. ep 1. Exprimi satis non potest quanta ista exultatio fuit quantâ— laetitia cum de vobis prospera fortia comperissemus ducem te illic confâ—ssionis fratâ—ibâ—s extitisse sed confessionem ducis de consensione fratrum crevissâ— c. Et Ep. 5. In comâ—uni gâ—udio Ecclesiae Episcopi portio mâ—jor est Ecclesiae enim gloria Praepositi gloria est Cyprian allotteth the Bishop a greater portion so also in the common griefe our portion must needs bee the greatest Wee stand upon the watch-towers of Sion and the people take notice of dangers from the fiering of our beacons we are as the praecentores chori to give them the tune we are as Trumpeters in Gods army and if the Trumpet bee cracked or give an uncertaine sound how shall the souldiers prepare themselves to fight the Lords battels If we like Epaminondas ought to fast that the people may feast the more securely watch that they may sleep with more safety weep that they may rejoyce more freely how much more ought we being the Asaphs in this sad quire accord with you in your groanes and cries when we are strucke with the same griefes and feares when the enemy aimeth not so much at the Common-wealth as at the Church and not so much at the body as at the soule of the Church the Religion wee professe and our most holy faith O ubi estis fontes lachrymarum O where are you fountaines of tears where are gales of such sighes such as love and devotion and sympathy breathes out in my Text If thou knewest And so I passe to the last step 5. Oravit he prayed saying O that thou knewest or If thou knewest In this prayer of our Saviour our thoughts may find themselves holy imployment in seriously considering 1. The manner or forme of speech which is 1. Figurative 2. Abrupt 3. Passionate 2. The matter which presenteth to our spirituall view 1. The intimation of a desire O that or If. 2. The exprobration of Ignorance Thou knewest 3. The aggravation upon the person Thou even thou 4. The designation of a time In this thy day The sentence riseth by degrees and Christ in every word groweth more and more upon Jerusalem It is sinne and shame to be ignorant most of all for Jerusalem and that in the day of her visitation especially of those things that belong to her peace If other Cities might plead ignorance yet not thou if thou mightst plead ignorance at another time yet not in this thy day if in this thy day thou mightst plead ignorance of other things yet not of those things that belong to thy peace To begin with the forme and manner which the more imperfect it is the more perfectly it expresseth the passion or rather compassion of the speaker As a cracked pipe or bell giveth a harsh or uncertaine sound so a broken heart for the most part uttereth broken speeches interrupted with sighes Constantine kissed the empty holes where Paphnutius eyes were plucked out and we cannot but reverence the seeming emptinesse and vacuity in Scripture sentences where the omission of something is more significant than the supply if the speech had been filled up would have been Those which have bin transported with passion utter halfe x Calv. in harm Scimus in quibus ardent vehementes affectus non nisi dimidiatâ ex parte sensus suos effari sentences and faulter in the midst of a period as the father in the Poet who lost his only sonne beginning to vent his griefe and saying Filius meus pollens ingenio My sonne of rare parts my sonne of great hope there stops and before he could say mortuus est is dead became himselfe speechlesse Christ was here seized on by a double passion 1. Of Commiseration 2. Of Indignation Commiseration out of the apprehension of the overthrow of Jerusalem the Queen of all Cities and the Sanctuary of the whole earth Indignation at the obstinacy ingratitude and bloud-thirsty cruelty and desperate madnesse of the present inhabitants who wilfully refusing the meanes of their salvation runne headlong to their owne perdition I have been the briefer in handling the forme that I might enlarge my selfe in the matter Thou knewest Ignorance of Gods judgements draweth them upon a state for the Lord hath a controversie with the land saith y Hos 4.1.6 Hosea because there is no truth nor mercy nor knowledge of God in the land My people perish for lack of knowledge The Schooles rightly distinguish of a double ignorance 1. Facti of the fact 2. Juris of the Law Ignorance of the fact in some case excuseth but not of the law which all are bound to take notice of for Lex datur vigilantibus non dormientibus The law is given to men that are awake and may and ought to heare it not to men when they are asleep The law for the violation whereof the greatest part are condemned is written in the tables of their hearts to exclude all plea of ignorance and certainly of all the errours of Popery one of the grossest is their entitling ignorance the mother of devotion for so farre is ignorance from being the mother of any vertue that it is both 1. Peccatum 2. Mater peccati 3. Poena peccati It is sinne and the punishment of sinne and the parent of sinne
after a more effectuall manner even because hee cannot utter his prayer by speech his very dumbnesse pleads for him so the sorrow of a penitent sinner which faine would expresse it selfe by teares but cannot which rendeth the heart continually and maketh it evaporate into secret sighes best expresseth it selfe to him of whom the Prophet speaketh Psal 38.9 Lord thou knowest all my desires and my groaning is not hid from thee 6. If he sink so low that the pit is ready to shut her mouth over him and he being now even swallowed up in the gulfe of despaire breathe out his last sigh and roares most fearfully to the great dis-heartening of all that come about him saying I have no touch of remorse no sense of joy no apprehension of faith no comfort of hope My wounds stinke and are putrefied and all the balme of Gilead cannot now cure mee The Spirit is utterly extinct in me and therefore my case desperate In this extreme fit of despaire give him this cordiall out of the words of my Text Hast thou never felt any remorse of conscience in all thy life Wast thou never pricked in heart at the Sermon of some Peter Wert thou never ravished with joy when the generall pardon of all thy sinnes hath been exemplified to thee in the application of the promises of the Gospel and sealed to thee by the Sacrament Hast thou never had any sensible token of Gods love I know thou hast thou acknowledgest as much in confessing amongst other thy sins thine intolerable ingratitude towards the Lord that bought thee then bee yet of good comfort the flaxe yet smoaketh the fire is not clean out thou hast lost the sense but not the essence of faith Thou art cast out of Gods favour in thy apprehension not in truth Thou art but in a swoune thy soule is in thee Thou discernest no signe or motion of life in thee but others may Thy conscience will beare thee record that sometimes thou didst truly beleeve and true faith cannot be lost Gods covenant of grace is immoveable his affection is unchangeable he whom God loveth he loveth to the end and hee whom God loveth to the end must needs bee saved in the end and so I end And thus have I blowne the smoaking flaxe in my Text and you see what light it affordeth to our understanding and warmth to our consciences what remaineth but that I pray to God to kindle in us this light and inflame this heate more and more to revive the spirit of the humble to cheare up the drouping lookes and cure the wounded consciences and heale the broken hearts of them that mourne for their sinnes that is to beare up the bruised and bowed reed that it be not broken and revive and kindle againe the dying lampe that it bee not quite extinguished So be it O Father of mercy for the passion of thy Sonne through the Spirit of grace To whom three persons and one God bee ascribed all honour glory praise and thanks-giving now and for ever Amen THE STILL VOICE A Sermon preached before the high Commission in his Graces Chappell at Lambeth Novemb. 20. 1619. THE THIRD SERMON MATTH 12.19 Hee shall not strive nor cry neither shall any man heare his voice in the streets Most REVEREND c. IN these words we have set before us in the person of our Saviour an Idea and perfect image of meeknesse the characters whereof are three 1. Calmenesse in affection He will not strive 2. Softnesse and lownesse in speech Hee will not cry c. 3. Innocency in action He will not breake c. 1. Impatience is contentious He will not strive 2. Contention is clamorous He will not cry 3. Clamour is querulous No man shall heare his voice in the street If it be objected that he did strive and that with such vehemency that he sweat bloud and that hee did cry and that very loud for as wee reade Hebr. 5.7 he offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and teares unto him that was able to save him from death and that his voice was heard in the streets when he stood up in the last day the great day of the Feast John 7.37 and cried saying If any man thirst let him come unto mee and drinke wee need not flye to Anselme and Carthusians allegory for the matter who thus glosse upon the words of my Text His voice shall not be heard in the streets that is in the broad way that leadeth to destruction Such Delian divers may spare their paines for the objections are but shallow and admit of a very facile solution without any forced trope Hee will not strive viz. in revenge but in love he will not cry in anger but in zeale neither shall his voice be heard in the street viz. vox querelae but doctrinae no voice of complaint but of instruction or comfort So that the three members in this sentence are like the three strings in a Dulcimer all Unisons Wherefore in the handling of this Text I will strike them all together Seneca in his books of clemency Cambden hist Reg. Eliz. Seneca l. 1. de clem Conditum imò constrictum apud te ferrum sit summa parsimonia etiam vilissimi sanguinis humili loco positis litigare in rixam procurrere liberius est leves inter pares ictus sunt regi quoque vociferatio verborumque intemperantia non ex Majestate est which Queene Elizabeth so highly esteemed that shee gave them the next place to the holy Scriptures reades a divine Lecture to a Prince in these words Let thy sword not onely be put up in the sheath but also tyed fast in it bee sparing of the meanest and basest bloud It is for men of lower condition to fall into quarrels and strifes equals may exchange blowes one with another without much danger it standeth not with the Majesty of a Prince to engage himselfe in any quarrell or fight because he hath no equall to contend with him so far ought it to be from a Prince to brawle or wrangle that the straining of his voice is unbefitting him upon any occasion whatsoever What the wise Philosopher prescribeth to a good Prince the Prophet Esay describeth in our King Messias who was so milde in his disposition that hee was never stirred to passion so gentle in his speech that he never strained his voice in choler so innocent in his actions that he never put forth his strength to hurt any We reade in the booke of a 1. Kin. 19.11 12. Kings that there was a mighty wind but God was not in the wind and after the wind an earth-quake but God was not in the earth-quake and after the earth-quake a fire but God was not in the fire and after the fire a still small voice in which God was There God was in the still voice but here the Evangelist out of the Prophet informeth us that there was a small still voice in
the Lord our Saviour Jesus Christ For he strove not nor cryed nor was his voice heard in the streets A still small voice naturally produceth no eccho For as a ball layd softly on the ground boundeth not up againe but if it be strook downe with a vehement stroake riseth from the ground again and again so a low and whispering voice which gently moveth the aire is not returned againe by an eccho but a strong and a loud sound which forcibly smiteth the aire is reverberated from mountains rocks by a double or treble eccho Yet here a still small voice is returned by an eccho For the words which I have read unto you in S. Matthew are no other than the eccho of the voice of the Prophet Esay As Esay of all the Prophets is most Evangelicall that is most plainly delivereth the story of Christ his life and death by way of prediction so S. Matthew of all the foure Evangelists is most Propheticall that is alledgeth most passages out of the Prophets in his Gospel None so frequently inserteth testimonies out of the Old Testament into his story as hee which hee so pertinently applyeth that in his Gospel every man may discerne the truth of that observation of the Ancients viz. that the New Testament is vailed in the Old and the Old is revealed in the New The Prophets Evangelists being the organs of the same holy Spirit like divers instruments of musick playing the same tune though in different keyes Or rather like opposite looking-glasses reflecting the same image one upon the other to wit the brightness of God his glory Hebr. 1.2 the expresse image of his person Or like thick bright clouds on both sides of the Sun which receiving the beams therof with them an impression of the similitude of that Prince of the celestiall lights reflect the same one upon another make as if there were divers Sunnes in the sky which are indeed but parelii pictures and representations of the selfe same Sunne Malach. 3.1 Esa 42.1 2 3. the Sunne of righteousnesse The Prophet Esay pointeth to the Messias as it were afarre off saying Behold the servant of God whom he upholdeth his Elect in whom his soule delighteth upon whom he hath put his spirit he shall bring forth judgement to the Gentiles he shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the streets a bruised reed shall hee not breake and smoaking flaxe shall hee not quench till hee bring forth judgement unto truth The Evangelist viewing Christ neere at hand findeth all those markes in him by which the Prophet describeth him Which you shall plainly descry if you cast backe your eye on the story set down a little above my Text. There shall you find Christ stretching out his hand of mercy to a withered hand and healing it on the Sabbath day and the Pharisees murmuring at it and conspiring against him for it Against whom notwithstanding hee made no forcible resistance nor so much as opened his lips but giving place to their wrath leaveth that country and though hee were so ill requited for his good deeds and miraculous cures yet he goes about still doing good in all places healing their sicke curing their blind lame and deafe and withall charging them that they should not make him knowne That it might bee fulfilled saith the Evangelist c. That it was fulfilled which God spake by the Prophet Esay and how it will evidently appeare by comparing the predictions of the Prophet with the history of the Evangelist Behold my servant saith the Prophet The sonne of man came not to bee ministred unto but to minister Matth. 20.28 Luke 23.35 Mat. 3. ver ult Luke 2.32 saith the Evangelist Mine Elect saith the Prophet Christ the chosen of God saith the Evangelist In whom I delight saith the Prophet In whom I am well pleased saith the Evangelist Hee shall bring judgement to the Gentiles saith the Prophet A light to lighten the Gentiles saith the Evangelist Hee shall not strive saith the Prophet Hee did not strive saith the Evangelist neither here with the Scribes and Pharisees nor in the garden with them that sought his life but contrariwise when St. Peter drew a sword in his defence Matth. 16.52 53. and strooke off a servant of the high Priests eare he rebuked him saying Put up thy sword thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father and hee shall presently give mee more than twelve legions of Angels but how then shall the Scripture be fulfilled He shall not cry Mat. 27.14 Acts 8.32 nor lift up his voice saith the Prophet Hee was silent and answered not a word saith the Evangelist but was led like a sheep to the slaughter and as a Lambe dumbe before the shearer A bruised reed shall he not breake saith the Prophet The Evangelist testifieth he did not For the people which lay maimed and diseased like bruised reeds upon the ground he went not over but raised them up and the Scribes and Pharisees whose malice smoaked against him he did not destroy or extinguish when hee might as easily have done it as tread out the weeke of a candle on the ground with his shooe For hee came not to quench but to kindle not to destroy but to save not to launce but to plaster not to revenge but to reconcile not to punish but to suffer not to breake the bruised reed but to be beaten and bruised with reeds and whips yea and to be broken also upon the crosse You have heard how this Text is inferred Now in the second place listen what it inferreth both against the Jew and for the Christian 1. It inferreth for the reproofe of the Jew that the first comming of the King Messias was to be private and silent without any outward pompe or great noise 2. For the instruction of Christians that the members ought to bee conformable to the head and frame their dispositions to his most sweet and gracious temper 3. For the comfort of all that the Judge of all flesh is meeke milde and mercifull to all that bow to him or fall downe before him like bruised reeds First we have here the character of the true Messias and the manner if I may so speak of his stealing into the world at his first comming Wherein judicious Calvin willeth us to observe the difference between the Messiah and other Kings and Princes They when they ride in progresse send their Harbingers before to take up lodgings and Martials to make way and when they enter any City it is with great noise and tumult ringing of Bels sound of Trumpets peales of Ordnance ratling of Speares clattering of Coaches and clamours of the People but our King the Prince of peace entred the world in a far different maner As in the building of the materiall Temple there was not heard the noise of any toole so neither in the building of the spirituall Temple I meane
him Apoc. 1.7 even they that nailed him to the Crosse and pierced him and all kindreds of the earth shall mourne before him Yea and Amen then he shall bring or send forth judgement unto victory He brought forth judgement in his life by preaching the Gospel in his owne person and he sent it forth after his death by the ministery of his Apostles and doth still by propagating the Church but hee bringeth not forth judgement unto victory in the Evangelists phrase because this his judgement is much oppressed the light of his truth smoothered the pure doctrine of the Gospel suppressed the greater part of the Kings of the earth and Potentates of this world refusing to submit their scepter to his Crosse and saying as it is in St. Lukes Gospel Luke 17.14 Wee will not have this man to reigne over us but when the sonne of man shall display his banner in the clouds and the winds shall have breathed out their last gaspes and the sea and the waters shall roare when heaven and earth shall make one great bonefire when the stage of this world shall be removed and all the actors in it shall put off their feigned persons and guises and appeare in their owne likenesse when the man of sinne 2 Thes 2.3 8. that exalteth himselfe above all that is called God shall be fully revealed and after consumed with the spirit of Christs mouth and be destroyed by the brightnesse of his comming then he shall suddenly confound the rest of his enemies Atheists Hypocrites Jewes Turkes Idolatrous Gentiles and Heretikes and breake the neckes of all that stubbornly resist him and then the truth shall universally prevaile and victoriously triumph All this variety of descant which you heare is but upon two notes a higher and a lower the humility and the majesty the infirmity and the power the obscurity and the glory the mildnesse and the severity of our Lord and Saviour his humility upon earth his majesty in heaven his infirmities in the dayes of his flesh and his power since hee sitteth at the right hand of his Father the obscurity and privacy of his first comming and solemnity of his second his mildnesse and clemency during the time of grace and mercy and his wrath and severity at the day of Judgement and Vengeance Ecce tibiâ cecinimus vobis Behold out of this Scripture I have piped unto you recording the pleasing notes of our Redeemers mildnesse and mercy who never brake the bruised reed nor quenched the smoaking flaxe now I am to mourne unto you sounding out the dolefull notes of his justice and severity which shall one day bring forth judgement unto victory But before I set to the sad tune pricked before mee in the rules of my Text I am to entreat you to listen a while till I shall have declared unto you the harmony of the Prophet Esay and the Evangelist S. Matthew the rather because there seemeth some dissonancy and jarre between them For in Esay we reade Esay 42.3 Hee shall bring forth judgement unto truth that is give sentence according to truth but in St. Matthew He shall send forth judgement unto victory which importeth somewhat more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. that the judgement he shall send forth viam inveniet aut faciet shall either finde way or force it take place or make place no man or divell being able to withstand it Besides this discord in their notes there is a sweet straine in the Prophet he shall not faile Verse 4. nor bee discouraged till hee have set judgement on the earth left out in the Evangelist To the first exception the Jesuit Maldonat saith that the Syriack word signifieth both truth and victory and that Saint Matthew wrote not in pure Hebrew but in the Hebrew then currant which was somewhat alloyed and embased with other languages which if it were granted unto him as it is not by those who defend that the Greeke in the New Testament is the originall yet the breach is not fully made up For still the originall Hebrew in Esay and the Greeke in Saint Matthew which hath been ever held authenticall are at odds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Hebrew signifying truth and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Greeke signifying victory and not truth I grant the truth of Christ is most victorious and hath subdued all the false gods of the Heathen as the Arke laid Dagon on his face and the rod of Aaron devoured all the rods of the Magicians yet truth and victory are not all one A weake Judge may bring forth judgement unto truth yet not unto victory as on the contrary a potent and corrupt Judge may bring forth judgement unto victory yet not unto truth Tully in a bad cause prevailed against Oppianicus by casting dust in the Judges eyes And Aeschines prevailed not against Ctesiphon in a good cause Right is often overcome by might and sometimes by the sleight of a cunning Advocate for the false part To the second objection Beza answereth that these words that hee will not faile nor be discouraged till he hath set judgement on the earth were anciently in St. Matthew but of late through the carelesnesse of some transcriber from whose copy ours were drawne are left out But sith this Verse is wanting in all the copies of Saint Matthew now extant neither can Beza bring good proofe of any one in which this Verse was ever found it is not safe to lay any such imputation upon the first transcribers of St. Matthewes Gospel whereby a gap may be opened to Infidels and Heretickes to cavell at the impeachable authority of the holy Scriptures in the originall languages A safe and easie way to winde out of these perplexed difficulties is to acknowledge that the Evangelist who wrote by the same spirit wherewith the Prophet Esay was inspired tyed nor himselfe precisely to the Prophets words but fitteth the Prophets sense to his owne purpose and what the Prophet delivered in two Verses he contracteth into one For what is hee shall bring forth judgement unto truth and he shall not faint nor be discouraged till hee hath done it but that he shall doe it effectually and powerfully and what is that but he shall send forth judgement unto victory Hee shall send forth Cal. in Mat. 1. Hoc verbum educere quo utitur Propheta significat officium Christi esse Regnum Dei quod tum inclusum erat in angulo Judeae propagare in totum orbem This phrase reacheth forth unto us a twofold observation the first touching the extent the second touching the freedome of this judgement here spoken of By judgement is here meant the Kingdome of Christ which must not bee confined to Jury nor bounded within the pale of Palaestine but hee sent forth that is propagated and spread over the whole world according to the prophecy of the Psalmist a Psal 110.2 The Lord shall send a rod of thy strength out
of Sion be thou ruler in the middest of thine enemies Whilst our Saviour lived upon earth the soveraigne balsamum of wounded mankind yeelding a savour of life unto life was kept as it were in a narrow boxe but at our Saviours death the boxe was broken and this precious oyntment poured out and the whole world filled with the smell thereof This doctrine touching the naturalizing if I may so speak of the Gentiles into the spirituall Common-wealth of Israel was implyed in the Metaphor of the Rose of the field Cantic 2.1 I am the Rose of the field Christ is not a garden flower for few to see and fewer to smell unto but a Rose of the field for all to gather that have a hand of faith to touch him but it was unfolded at large to Saint Peter in a vision of a sheet let downe from Heaven knit at foure corners Acts 10.11 12. in which were all manner of foure footed beasts of the earth and wild beasts and creeping things c. The foure corners of the sheet signified the foure parts of the world all sorts of living creatures all sorts of men of all kindreds nations and languages The sheet in which they were all wrapped is the Church militant In the end of the vision the vessell was received up againe into heaven Acts 10.16 to shew that in the end of the world the whole Church militant shall be transported into heaven and become triumphant St. b Orig. comment in Cant. homil 1. Quemadmodum in Evangelio mulier illa quae sanguine fluebat archi Synagogae filiam curatione praevenit sic Aethiopissa id est Gentium Ecclesia Israel aegrotante sanata est Origen representeth this truth most cleerly unto us through the mirrour of an allegory Though saith he the found of the Gospel came later unto the Gentiles yet the Gentiles prevented the Jewes in giving credit to it and were justified before them as the woman in the Gospel that was sicke of a bloudy issue was healed before the Rulers daughter The daughter of the Ruler of the Synagogue was a type of the Jewish Synagogue the woman that was in a long consumption by reason of her continuall fluxe of bloud was an embleme of the people of the Gentiles lying more than twelve ages sicke of a bloudy issue weltring in her naturall filth and bloud Now as Christ going to cure the Rulers daughter was touched by the Canaanitish woman sicke of a bloudy issue and she by that touch was cured so though Christ came first to heale the Synagogue yet the Gentile Church touching the hemme of his garment by faith is first healed and saved The phrase of sending forth judgement expresseth our Saviours readinesse in opening the treasures of heavenly wisedome and unfolding the mysteries of eternall salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till he shooteth out casteth out or sendeth forth judgement of his owne accord as a tree doth his fruit or the Sunne his beames Matth. 12.35 A good man bringeth forth out of the treasure of his heart good things Matth. 2.11 The Sages opened their treasures and every Scribe which is instructed unto the Kingdome of heaven is like unto a man that is an house-holder which bringeth forth out of his treasures things new and old I have not hid thy righteousnesse within my heart Psal 40.10 saith David in the person of Christ I have declared thy faithfulnesse and thy salvation I have not concealed thy loving kindnesse and thy truth from the great congregation Ver. 9. I have preached righteousnesse in the great assembly I have not refrained my lips O Lord thou knowest And according to this fore-going type how ready the truth himselfe was to publish the Gospel of the Kingdome appeareth by his taking all occasions from every ordinary occurrent to instruct his Disciples in points of heavenly wisedome as from a draught of fish to admonish them of fishing for soules from Well-water to treat of the water of life from barly loaves to exhort them to labour for the food that perisheth not from burying the dead to reprove those that are dead in sinne from curing the blind in body to rebuke the spirituall blindnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees from a question concerning the materiall Temple to fore-tell the dissolution of the temple of his body and raising it up againe in three daies To conceale any needfull especially saving truth is to bury the gold of Ophir and thereby deprive not only others but our selves also of the benefit and use thereof Wherefore St. c August l. 12. confess Veritas nec mea nec tu◠nec illius est sed omnium nostrûm quos ad ejus communionem publicè vocas admonens nos ut nolimus eam habere privatam ne privemut ea Augustine sharply censureth such as would challenge a peculiar interest and propriety in that which is the common treasure of Gods Church saying The truth is neither mine nor thine nor his but all ours in common whom thou O Lord callest publikely to the communion thereof dreadfully admonishing us not to desire to have it private lest we be deprived of it In speciall the truth of judgement ought not to bee kept in but to bee sent forth For to detaine any private mans goods is but a private wrong but unrighteously to detaine justice which is the Kings or the Common-wealths or rather both their good is a kind of peculatus or publike theft We laugh at the Indians for casting in great store of gold yeerly into the river Ganges as if the streame would not runne currently without it yet when the current of justice is stopt in many Courts the wisest Soliciters of sutes can finde no better means than such as the Indians use by dropping in early in the morning gold and silver into Ganges to make it runne Pliny reporteth of Apis the Aegyptian god whom they worshipped in the likenesse of a Cow or Oxe that hee gave answers to private men è manu consulentium cibum capiendo Taking alwayes some food from their hands otherwise the Oracle was dumbe I need not to prosecute the application in this place where by the testimony of all men and the truth it selfe the streame of Justice if any where runneth cleerly most free from all filth and corruption Therefore I passe from Christ his sending forth judgement to his victory Hee shall send forth judgement unto victory There are two principall acts or to speake more properly effects of our Lords Princely function 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judgement and victory judgement upon and victory over all his enemies Wee have them both in the words of my Text Judgement which hee shall send forth and Victory unto which But of what Judgement or Victory the words are to bee construed the learned Interpreters of holy Writ somewhat differ in judgement Some in their ghesses fall short upon the particular judgement and utter
love Nay how canst thou not be perswaded sith hee himselfe hath said it I chasten as many as I love which words that thou maist take more hold of he hath often repeated them in holy Scripture Desirest thou greater assurance than his words which is all that heaven and earth have to shew for their continuance yet if thou desire more rather helpes of thine infirmity than confirmations of this truth observe who are oftenest longest under Gods afflicting hand who are fullest of his markes if they are deepest in sorrow who are highest in his favour if they mourne in Sion who sing Halelujah in the heavenly Jerusalem if they goe in blacke and sables here who are arrayed in long white robes there if they lay their heart a soake in teares who are men after Gods owne heart if Benjamins portion be greatest in afflictions assuredly manifold tribulations and Gods favour may stand together In the truth of which assertion all those Texts of Scripture may establish us which set before us the sweet fruits that are gathered from the crosse as 1. Knowledge It is good for mee that I have been k Psa 119.71 afflicted that I may learne thy statutes 2. Zeale I will l Hosea 5.15 goe and returne to my place till they acknowledge their offences and seeke my face in their affliction they will seeke mee diligently 3. Repentance I truly am m Psal 38.17 18. set in the plague and my heavinesse is ever in my sight I will confesse my wickednesse and be sorry for my sinnes When the people were stung with fiery serpents they came to Moses and said We have n Num. 21.7 sinned for wee have spoken against the Lord and against thee And againe In their o 2 Chro. 15.4 trouble they turned to the Lord God of Israel and sought him and he was found of them When the Prodigall was pinched with famine he came to himselfe and said How many hired p Luke 15.16 17 18. servants in my fathers house have meat enough and I perish with hunger I will arise therefore and goe to my father c. 4. Patience Tribulation worketh q Rom. 5.3 4. patience and patience experience and experience hope 5. Joy in the Holy Ghost Receiving the Word with much affliction with r 1 Thes 1.6 joy in the Holy Ghost 6. Triall of our faith which like Å¿ 1 Pet. 1.7 gold is purged by the fire of afflictions Though he t Job 13.15 slay mee yet will I trust in him Our u Psal 44.18 19 20. heart is not turned backe nor our steps gone out of the way no not when thou hast smitten us into the place of Dragons and covered us with the shadow of death 7. Righteousnesse No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but * Heb. 12.11 grievous neverthelesse yet afterwards it yeeldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousnesse to them that are exercised thereby 8. Holinesse It x Heb. 2.10 became him for whom were all things in bringing many sonnes unto glory to consecrate the Captaine of our salvation through afflictions The y Heb. 12.10 fathers of our flesh for a few dayes chastened us after their owne pleasure but hee for our profit that wee may bee partakers of his holinesse 9. Estranging our affections from the world and earthly desires Eliah requested that he might dye It is z 1 Kin. 19.4 enough Lord take away my life I am no better than my fathers We that are in this tabernacle doe * 2 Cor. 5.4 groane being burdened not for that we would be unclothed but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life 11. Humility The a 2 Cor. 12.7 messenger of Sathan was sent to buffet mee and that I should not be exalted above measure there was given mee a thorne in my flesh 11. Renovation and ghostly strength Therefore I b 2 Cor. 12.10 take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for when I am weake then am I strong and though our outward man decay yet our inward man is renewed day by day 12. Freedome from everlasting torments When c 1 Cor. 11.32 wee are judged wee are chastened of the Lord that wee should not bee condemned with the world 13. Encrease of celestiall glory For our d 2 Cor. 4.17 light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a farre more exceeding and eternall weight of glory The Heathen that never tasted the least part of these fruits yet feeling by experience that the mind cloyed with continuall felicity grew a burden to it selfe was deprived hereby of matter and occasion of excellent vertues and not so onely but infatuated and wholly corrupt thereby maintained this memorable Paradoxe e Demet. apud Sen. Nihil eo infelicius cui nihil intelix contigit That none was so unhappy as bee who knew no mishap nor adversity at any time Nay they went farther in that their conceit and thereby came nearer to my text affirming that store of wealth large possessions high places and great honours were not alwaies signes and tokens of the love of God God saith the wise Poet and the best Philosopher taketh it out of him f Aristot Rhet. l. 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sendeth many men great prosperity not out of love and good will but to the end that they may bee capable of greater misery and that the calamities which they are after to endure may bee more g â—uven sit Numerosa parabat excelsae turris tabulata unde altior esset casus impulsae praeceps immane rumae eminent and signall Tolluntur in altum Ut lapsu graviore ruant Misery is alwayes querulous and even weake objections often ruine them who are already cast downe with griefe such as are these Doth not God threaten to powre out his plagues upon the wicked Doe wee not read in Saint h Rom. 2.9 Paul Tribulation and anguish upon every soule that sinneth of the Jew first and also of the Gentile Are not losses infamy captivity banishment tortures and torments judgements of wrath how then can they bee arguments of love I answer that originally all the evils of this life came in with sinne and were punishments of it and they retaine their nature still in the wicked but in the godly by the mercy of God and merits of Christ they are changed from judgements of wrath into chastisements of love from stings of sinne to remedies against sinne from executions of vengeance to exercises of excellent vertues and the inflicting of them so little prejudiceth Gods love to his chosen that hee no way more sheweth it to them than by thus awaking them out of their sleepe and by this meanes pulling them out of hell fire And therefore the Prophets threaten it after all other judgements as the greatest of all that for their obstinacy and impenitency God would punish them no more
k Isa 1.5 Why should yee bee stricken any more saith the Lord which is as if a Physician should say concerning his desperate Patient I will minister no more physicke to him give him what hee hath a minde unto because there is no hope of life in him As it is a loving part in a Tutour to correct his Scholar privately for a misdemeanour to save him from the heavier stroak of the Magistrate or the Jaile so it is a singular favour of God to chasten his children here that they may not bee condemned with the world hereafter I end the solution of this doubt with the peremptory resolution of Saint Bernard l In Cant. Si Deus non est recum per gratiam adetit pre◠vindictam sed vae tibi si ita recum adest imo vae ibi si ita tecum non dist If God be not with thee O Christian by grace he will be with thee by vengeance or judgement here and woe bee to thee if hee bee so with thee nay woe bee unto thee if hee bee not so with thee or not so even with thee for if thou art preserved from temporall chastisements thou art reserved to eternall punishments The last doubt that riseth in the minde of the broken hearted Christian to bee assoyled at this time is drawne from the words of the wise man m Eccl. 9.2 All things fall alike unto all men the same net taketh cleane and uncleane fowles and enwrappeth them in a like danger In famine what difference betweene the Elect and Reprobate both pine away In pestilence what distinction of the righteous and the sinner both are alike strucke by the Angel In captivity what priviledge hath hee that feareth God more than hee that feareth him not both beare the same yoake In hostile invasion how can wee discerne who is the childe of God and who is not when all are slaughtered like sheep and their blood like water spilt upon the ground Sol. 1 Here not to referre all to Gods secret judgement who onely knoweth who are his intruth and sincerity Sol. 2 nor to rely wholly upon his extraordinary providence whereby hee miraculously saveth his servants and preserveth them in common calamities even above hope as hee did Noah from the deluge of water which drowned the old world as hee did Lot from the deluge of fire which overwhelmed and burnt Sodome and Gomorrah as hee did the children of Israel in Goshen from the plagues of Egypt as hee did Moses from the massacre of the infants by Pharaoh as hee did Elias from the sword of Jezebel drunke with the blood of the Prophets as hee did all those Christians among the Romans that fled to the Sepulchres of the Martyres when the city was sacked by the n Aug. l. 1. de civ Dei c. 1. Gothes as hee did those pious children who carried their fathers and mothers upon their backes through the midst of the fire in the Townes neare Aetna whereof o C 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristotle religiously discourseth in his Booke De mundo When saith hee from the hill Aetna there ranne downe a torrent of fire that consumed all the houses thereabout in the midst of those fearefull flames Gods speciall care of the godly shined most brightly for the river of fire parted it selfe on this side and that side and made a kinde of lane for those who ventured to rescue their aged parents and plucke them out of the jawes of death To make an evident distinction betweene the godly and the wicked wee see here the fire divided it selfe as the waters before had done in the p Exod. 14.22 passage of the children of Israel through the red Sea Howbeit these exemptions and speciall protections in common calamities are neither necessary nor ordinary Sol. 3 I answer therefore farther that two things are to be considered in the good or evill casualties as they are called of this life the nature and substance of them which is in it selfe indifferent and the accidentary quality which maketh them good or bad Now so it is ordered by divine providence that the wicked possesse oft times the substance of these things I meane houses lands treasure and wealth but they have not them with that quality which maketh them good I meane the right use of them and contentation of minde in them On the contrary the godly often lacke the substance of these things yet not that for which they are to bee desired and which maketh them good contentment of minde with supply of all things needfull in which regard the indigencie of the godly is to bee preferred before the plenty and abundance of the wicked according to that of the Psalmist q Psal 37.16 A small thing that the righteous hath is better than great riches of the ungodly And doubtlesse that large promise of our Saviour r Mar. 10.29 There is no man that hath left house or brethren or sisters or lands for my sake and the Gospels but he shall receive an hundred fold in this time is to bee understood according to the former distinction thus Hee shall receive an hundred fold either in the kinde or in the value either in the substance of the things themselves or in the inward contentation and the heavenly wealth I now spake of In like manner death and all calamities which are as it were sundry kindes of death or steppes unto it have a sting and venomous quality which putteth the soule to most unsufferable paine and rankles as it were about the heart I meane Gods curse the sense of his wrath the worme of conscience discontent impatience despaire and the like ſ 1 Cor. 15.55 O death saith Saint Paul where is thy sting In like manner wee may insult upon all other evils O poverty O banishment O imprisonment O losses O crosses O persecutions Where is your sting it is plucked out of the afflictions of the godly but a worse left in the prosperity of the wicked In which regard the seeming misery of the godly is happy but the seeming prosperity of the wicked is miserable Albeit God sometim s giveth them both a drinke of deadly Wine yet hee tempereth the sharpe Ingredients of judgement with corrective Spices of mercy and sweetneth it with comforts in the Cup of the godly t 2 Cor. 1.5 As their sufferings for Christ abound so their consolations also abound by Christ And this evidently appeareth by the different working of the Cup of trembling in both the wicked presently after their draught rave and grow franticke but the godly are then in their best temper the wicked u Apoc. 16.10 gnaw their tongues for sorrow but the godly employ them in prayer and praises the wicked bite Gods iron rod and thereby breake their owne teeth but the godly kisse it the wicked are most impatient in afflictions the godly learne patience even by afflictions In a word the one in extremity of paine are