herein and that is that all and every one that had any hand or finger in that good King's Death or in the death of any of those His good Subjects that were unjustly and illegally sentenced to death I do not speak of them that were killed in the War because as the Poet Lucan saith Pharsal lib. 1. Victrix causa Diis placuit sed victa Catoni And as the Prophet David saith The Sword devoureth the one as well as the other but of those that in cold blood by usu ping Judges under the Colour of Law were contrary to the Laws both of God and of the Land most unjustly condemned unto death should for that their unjust Proceedings be justly questioned and legally tryed for their former Offence the same being of so high a Nature as I shewed to you before But you will say many of them as blinde Bartimaeus might easily see that acted very highly against the last King and as it is conceived had their hands deep in his death were as active as any others and most special Instruments to bring His now Sacred Majesty unto His Right whereby they have fully expiated their foul offence and deserve rather to be well rewarded and honoured as some say they are then any ways questioned as their Adversaries would have them to be I answer that His Majesty is wise as the Angel of God and knoweth best what he should best do and the Policy of State is far beyond the Sphere of mine Intelligence and their doings therein ought highly to be commended and deserve not meanly to be rewarded though as Will. Sommers told King Henry the Eight that such a Gentleman threatned to kill him and the King answered that if he killed him he would have him hanged for it Will. Sommers replied Nay good King let him be hanged before he kills me or else his death will not preserve my life and his hanging will do me no good so I heard some say that they would have had the Enemies of the last King first punished for their Rebellion and the Murder of Him and then rewarded for their good Service to His now gracious Majesty or else reward them well for their good Service done to our now gracious King and then question them and punish them answerable to their Deserts for their Disloyalty and Treachery to our late King as I read it in the Turkish History and in some other Historians of some very wise Kings that did so to the like Offenders because we may believe it for a truth that they which have proved false to their own true just and lawful Prince will scarce ever prove faithful to any Prince nor seem to be but either for hope still to reap the fruit of their Subtlety to turn when the Winde turns or for fear to be dash'd in Pieces if they turn not their Sayls to escape those Rocks which they cannot otherwise avoid and no thanks to such men for any good they do when they do it perforce and therefore should be trusted perchance And it may be many of the very Murderers both of the good King and of his loyal Subjects have robbed and spoyled not the Aegyptians of their Jewels but the Israelites their Brethren of their Goods Lands and Possessions which they have gotten into their own hands and thereby became exceeding rich and enabled themselves to match their Sons and their Daughters to great Families and to bestow large Gifts that do blind the eyes of the wise on others to make to themselves Friends of their unrig hteous Mammon to preserve them from ther just deserts and to pull down the Wrath and Vengeance of God on others for this their obstructing of the straight rule of Justice that teacheth us to do otherwise Or if it were not so many men do wonder how so many men as were conceived to have been active and most of them to have their hands embrued in the good King's Blood and were likewise guilty of the death of His innocent Subjects should escape uncensured and so few of them sentenced to expiate and appease the Wrath of God for such horrible unparallebd and transcendent Murthers for I knew eight persons executed at Dublin for the Murther of one ordinary Traveller and is it not strange that we see no more brought to their Trial for such a Sâ—aughter as was done upon our good King and His innocent Subjects so judicially and yet so illegally and altogether unjustly sentenced to death or shall we think that no more were guilty then were condemned or not rather that the guilty Murtherers by their Wealth Subtlety and Friends made many others guilty of God's anger and the pulling down of God's vengeance upon many more for their excusing covering and clearing such abominable Transgressours for I would have all men to consider duly how destructive Murther is to mankinde and how odious and hatefull it is to God above all other sins whatsoever especially when an innocent man is judicially and illegally Murthered as you may rightly finde the truth hereof fully proved in the fifth Chapter of the first Book of The Great Anti-Christ revealed and in these Sermons following And I would the Protectours of the King's Murtherers would rightly weigh what the people sayd to King David that His life was worth ten thousand of the lives of the common people and how the Lord punished the whole house and posterity of Saul and all the Kingdom of Israel until his wrath was satisfied for the innocent death of the Gibeonites that were but a poor contemptible people but killed without cause 2. Sam. xxi and especially that there be not any more but two sins that I can finde in the whole Book of God that the Lord saith cannot be pardoned and obliterated without their due punishment and they are 1. The high Abuse of God's Messengers and Publishers of his Will 2. The unjust shedding of innocent Blood For Of the First the Spirit of God saith that when the Lord God sent his Messengers unto the Children of Israel and they mocked the Messengers of God and despised his words and misused his Prophets the wrath of the Lord arose against his People until there was no Remedy as if he had said For other sins of these Israelites some ways and remedies might have been found out as Moses and Aaron by their prayers and censers appeased the wrath of God to turn away the Punishment of them and David and Ezra did the like from the Jews but when they mocked his Messengers despised his Word and misused his Prophets which were the onely Sâ—â—ve or Medicine that could heal their sickned Souls when they refused and cast away these Remedies from them then there was no Remedy in the World for them to preserve them from their just deserved Punishment and therefore saith the Text The Lord brought upon them the King of the Chaldees who slew their young men with the Sword in thâ— House of their Sanctuary and had no Compassion
straightly prohibite to be done is a disgracing of God himself and all the contempts done to this Image do presently redound to God that is represented without all question in this Image And the City of Thessalonica besides many others can well testifie how severely the Emperours punished the abusing of their Images when they deemed all the dishonour that was done against their Images to be Treasons against themselves 8. And lastly this killing of a man not only defaceth the Image of God but also robbeth God of his Temple which is Sacriledge and makes none account of but trampleth under feet that which God did so highly esteem and purchased at so high a rate as with his own blood And in a word it is so odious so haynous and so horrible a sin every way as it is impessible for me to expresse the vileness and the haynousnesse of this sin of Man-slaughter or the malicious killing of a man And therefore to shew how odious this sin is in the sight of God immediately after the Flood the great Commandment and the only Commandment that he gave to all the sons of Noah was to abstain from shedding of mans blood and he doth so pathetically and with such terrible threatnings expresse the punishment of the Transgressors saying Surely that you need not doubt it your blood of your lives will I require yea at the hand of every beast will I require it See Exod. 21.28 and though they be void of reason and understanding of what they do yet will I not hold them guiltless if they shed mans blood And therefore much rather and much sooner at the hand of man and at the hand of every mans brother Gen. 9.5 6. See Numb 35.31 33. Levit. 24.17 Math. 26.52 will I require the life of man and to that end he did appoint Kings that they should ordain Magistrates under them that whosoever sheddeth mans blood by man should his blood be shed And the reason why God is so severe against Man-slayers is here rendered for that in the Image of God made he man and so whosoever killeth a man except it be whom the Law killeth destroyeth the Image of God and God cannot endure to have his own lively Image which no painter but Himself hath made to be defaced And therefore in Numbers 35.31 the Lord saith Ye shall take no satisfaction for the life of a Murderer which is guilty of death but he shall be surely put to death And the reason is rendered verse 33. And truly I do not find any sius I will not say that are irremissible but that are so difficult so hard and so seldom remitted as these two Videlicet 1. The abuse of God's Messengers and 2. The shedding of Innocent blood For Of the first it is said that when the Jews mocked the Messengers of God and despised his words and misused his Prophets 2 Chro. 36.16 the wrath of the Lord arose against his people until there was no remedy Of the second it is said 2 Kings 24.4 that the Lord sent Bands of the Chaldees to revenge the Innocent blood that Manasses had shed which the Lord would not pardon Also when God gave his Laws unto us on Mount Sinai the first Commandment of all that doth concern men after the duty that we owe to our Parents that bring us into the World and bring us up and feed us when we cannot feed our selves is Thou shalt not kill And truly in these respects I for my own part do so far hate the killing of any man except it be to save mine own life from him that would maliciously take it from me that I had rather do any servile work for a penny a day Greg. habetur 23. q. 8. si in mortem than receive the greatest Salary Honour and Preferment for killing of men And I think S. Gregory not far from my mind when he said Si in mortem Longobardorum me miscere voluissem hodie Longobardorum gens nec regem nec ducem baberet sed quia Deum timeo in mortem cujusâ—ibeâ— hominis me miscere formido For he that feareth God will be afraid to be the death of any man and will study by all means vacuas caedis habere manus Ovid. de arte l. 1. to keep his hands clean from blood And if it be so unnatural so unreasonable so devilish so beastly so haynous and every way so inexplicable and so detestable in the sight of God and all good men to kill and murder a man I would fain know what tongue what eloquence what Orator though he had the tongue of men and Angels can expresse the haynousness of a subject's killing his own King and a servant's killing his own kind and loving Master as Zimri did his King and his Master Elah 2 Sam. 18.3 and some others did such a King as was worth ten thousand of his subjects And therefore well and wisely might Jezabel demand Had Zimri peace that slew his Master But the wit of man is so crafty that it thinks to find a way to effect his own end and yet to evade the hand and escape the judgement of God when they keep their own hands free from blood but will notwithstanding prosecute the innocent person whom they hate either judicially as the Jews did Christ by their high court of Parliament that pronounced judgement against him for a malefactour which may and ought to be put to death by the Law of God or else secretly by others their assassins whom they procure to be their instruments to bring whom they hate to his untimely death either by poyson as Alexander was by Thessalus and Sir Thomas Overbury by Sir Jervase Eloway or by some other secret contrivance as King David plotted the death of Vrias and then as the Harlot commits Adultery and wipes her mouth and is clean so they will bring Christ and his servants to their death and then with Pilate they will wash their hands clean from their blood Truly methinks these are very fine shifts for murderers and malefactors to free themselves from blame if they could as well blind the eyes of the All-seeing God as they do many times deceive simple men that think those Judges to be just that have most unjustly beheaded innocencie it self And those murderers to be innocent that have killed their neighbors by the hands of their assassins But though Davids hands were far from that fact free from the blood of Vrias that was slain by the sword of the enemy yet God tels him he was the murderer his wit shall not serve his turn to wipe away his punishment though it was the High Court of Justice that condemned Naboth unto death yet the Prophet tells Ahab that God will condemn him and his posterity for it for as the devill saith S. Aug. is said to be a murderer non gladio armatus non ferro accinctus sed quia ad hominem veniendo verbum
because they sought to preserve them from ruine so were this people mad against Jeromy and cast him into the dungeâ—n and adjudged him to be put to death because he sought to stop them in their Pegâ—sine race unto their own destruction And therefore seeing they were so impatient to be reproved and so violent against them that sought their preservation there was no means used to prevent and hinder their evil deeds and the progress of their transgressions for as our Prophet sheweth 1 Their Prophets and Preachers flattered them 1 Their Preachers were flatterers and reproved not their wicked waies but they sowed pillows under their elbows so strengthened them in their wickedness And those other Prophets that did not flatter them yet were they silent for fear of them following the counsell of the Poet Dum furor in cursu est currenti cede furori Difficiles aditus impetus omnis habet To give place unto their fury to prevent their own calamity Which notwithstanding was but to escape the smoak and fall into the fire but to avoid mans anger by not reproving them and to be liable to Gods wrath for not reproving them 2. 2 Their judges were corrupt The Judges and Magistrates did not execute the laws against them for though the Lord commandeth them to execute true judgment and shew mercy and compassion every man to his brother Zech. 7.9 and oppress not the widow nor the fatherless nor the stranger nor the poor yet as our Prophet testisieth Jer. 5 28. they judged not the cause of the fatherless and the right of the needy did they not judg and the Prophet Esay saith Their Princes were rebellious and companions of theeves every one loved gifts and followed after rewards and judged not the fatherless neither did the cause of the widow come unto them Ezay 1.23 but they suffered oppressions robberies and murders to go unpunished and so the Laws lay as dead because the execution of the law is the life of the law and I fear not I care not to be condemned by the Law so I be freed by the Judg and saved from the Execution of the Law And this twofold remisseness and double error of the Magistrates and Minislers did exceedingly multiply the sins of the people and as highly provoke the wrath of God The sin of one man doth often bring a plague upon many not only against the offendors but also against the whole Nation and especially against those that were so slack in the punishing of these offences and performance of their duties For if you search the Scriptures you shall find that the sin of one man which is left unpunished brings a plague upon many and the execution of justice upon a transgressor doth avert Gods judgment from a multitude As when Achan sinned Josh 7.21 1 Chr. 2.7 Numb 25.8 all Israel was troubled and he was called the troubler of Israel who transgressed in the thing accursed And when Zimri and Cozbi offended the whole people suffered so that twenty four thousand of them died but when that Phineas executed judgment then the plague ceased Psal 106.11 saith the Text and when Achan suffered the wrath of God was pacified And therefore Moses very often Numb 35.31 and in many places exhorteth the children of Israel that whensoever any man committed Idolatry or Murder or Sodomy or any other haynous crime Deut. 17.12 they should take no satisfaction for his offence but the transgressor should be put to death The not punishing of transgressors incourageth others to transgreâ—s their eye should not spare him neither should they have pity upon him so should they turn away evil from Israel For it is most certain as the wise man saith that because sentence or judgment against an evil work is not speedily executed but deferred though not pardoned yet the heart of the children of men is altogether or fully set in them to do evill and it is the greatest incouragement that can be for wicked men to proceed on in their wickedness Eccl. 8.12 to see other wicked persons pardoned and not punished And I pray God the judgments of God as sicknesses death wars and the like may not proceed on us for our not proceeding to the execution of justice against Prophane oppressors the Kings murderers and other like wicked offendors the murderers of the Kings Loyall subjects For we know how Saul spared Agag that was destined by God for his wickedness to be put to death and how for sparing him he lost both his life and his Kingdom and had all his posterity rooted out and we know how the Israelits spared the Canaanits whom God commanded to be slain and how for sparing them they became thorns in their eyes and briars unto their sides And I beseech you to consider what the Prophet saith unto Ahab Thus saith the Lord because thou hast let go out of thy hand and so pardoned a man whom I appointed to utter destruction that is to death therefore thy life shall go for his life and thy people for his people 1 King 20.42 So hatefull it is to God that we should pardon such transgressors as he will not pardon And it is no wonder that God should thus deal with them that thus spare the transgressors for as he Qui non prohibet peccare cum possit jubet which doth not hinder a man to sin when he can hinder him spurres him on to sin saith Seneca so Qui justificat impium he that justifieth the wicked and spareth a transgressor whom he ought and can punish is partaker of his transgression and is as abominable before God as he is Prov. 17.15 that condemneth the innocent saith Solomon And these are the two chiefest sorts of evil The two things that God chiefly hateth in the doings of men towards other men that the Lord hateth in the doings of men towards men that is 1. To oppress condemn and wrong the good and godly men 2. To promote justify and free the wicked men and suffer them to flourish notwithstanding all their bloody sins and transgressions And against these evils we the Preachers of Gods Word are injoyned still to denounce the judgments of God and if we tell not the people of their faults and reprove them not for these doings they shall die in their sins and their blood shall be required at our hands as the Lord saith unto his Prophet And therefore as S. Clement saith Nos quod vobis expedire novimus Clement recognit l. 1. tacere non possumus We cannot but we must tell the people of their doings and the more abominable we see their doings the more bound are we to cry aloud and spare not to cry against their wickedness And so much for the doings of this people 2. In the doome and due desert of this people for their doings 2 The doome and judgment of this people for their wickedness you may
gave life to man Joh. 19.10 Therefore when Pilate said to Christ that he had power to Crucify him and power to Release him our Saviour answereth directly Vers 11. that he could not have This power against him Except it were given him from above And so S. Paul plainly saith that This power of the Sword which is in the King Rom. 13.1 as Supream as S. Peter saith is from God and so this is no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whether you place it in the Jew or in the Gentile in the hand of a Godly Constantine or a Bloody Dioclesian but it is the Immediate Ordinance of God and can not issue or flow from man but from the Living God that is the Author and hath the Soveraign power both of Life and Death And therefore in the Restauration of the World after the flood God Almighty 1. Re-iterates the Blessing and favour which formerly he had bestowed upon Adam and Eve Gen. 9.1 in bidding them to Increase and Multiply and so to produce and continue the Life of man 2. He confirmeth that Former Soveraignty which he had granted unto Adam Vers 2. 3. over all the inferior creatures 3. He establisheth the Civil Government that was to be Observed amongst all the future Generations of Noah and therein as if he now called to mind the Murder of Innocent Abel to prevent the like he doth Explicitely and plainly challenge to himself the Power of punishing the shedding of mans blood to death Vers 5. saying Surely the blood of your lives will I require at the hand of every beast will I require it and at the hand of man and at the hand of every mans brother will I require the life of man Where you see the Lord three times repeats I will require it and prefixeth the word Surely that you should not doubt it And lest any man should think that God meant to punish that sin Immediatly by his Own hand and not rather by his Substitute and Vice-roy the Lord addeth Vers 6. Who so sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed again which is the right reading of the words fuller then the Vulgar Translation that saith no more but Quicunque effuderit sanguinem hominis fundetur sanguis illius and plainer then the Septuagint that saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dr. Maxw pag. 50. as the Learned Arch-Bishop of Tuam sufficiently proveth And the words being Thus as our English Translation rightly hath them you see the Soveraignty of the punishing the Slayer of man is immediatly invested in Gods Deputy by God himself that is in Him whom God Appointeth to do it and in none other For I hope no man will conceive it so that Any man whatsoever is invested with This power to shed the blood of him that sheddeth mans blood because this would be such a Disorder and produce such confusion as that nothing could be more destructive and pernitious to humane kind and more repugnant to Gods Nature that is the God of Order as well as of justice And therefore as this Soveraign Power of Life and Death doth Principally and Properly belong to God so God Gives this power not to the Community to all nor to Every one that will or would have it but to some Particular Deputy whom he doth Immediately invest therewith to punish death with Death And as this Soveraign power over life which is the Head and chiefest part of Civil Government is Immediatly given by God unto his Deputy to be executed So all the Parts of Governments when as all are Homogenous that is In indivisibili posita things Indivisible in their nature such as can no more be distracted and severed then a Crown can be a Crown when any part thereof is taken away they must be in like manner granted to be Immediatly from God and not from Man 3. Were the Kingly office an Humane creature that is Sol. 3 of mans Ordinance yet the Person of the King is Gods creature and therefore were their false Exposition of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 True yet could they not infer any more from thence then the dethroning of Him whom they had exalted and not the killing of Him whom God had created But Quo jure quâque injuriâ let others look and let him be whose Creature he will and his Kingly Office be from Whom you will of God or of men they are resolved to Kill him And yet they will as the Evangelist saith do it most Subtilly and seem to give him a Fair Triall that the Vulgar people which know no more then what is put into their heads and as the Centaures embraced a cloud for Juno so do they take Shadows for the Substance might believe he was Justly and legally condemned and not as he was indeed Maliciously murdered But Why will they Murder Him and draw his Innocent blood upon their wicked heads For they had Him in their Own hands He was their Prisoner and they could have Him and hurry Him where they would from Pilate to Herod and from Herod to Pilate again Why might they not have sent Him and detained Him with S. John the Evangelist in the Isle of Patmos or secure his Person still in Prison with S. John Baptist It may be answered Nefandum scelus majori scelere adimpletur Quae scelero pacta est scelere rumpatur fides Senec. in Medea every haynous offence secures it self by a More haynous crime as Seneca well observeth as the Thiefe that Robs for love of money will often Murder the poor Traveller for fear to be Discovered and the Lewd woman that fears to be Shamed for her lewdness will not fear to Murder her own Child so the Cevetous desire of having what we have no right unto Why the wicked never leave persecuting their King till they kill him as it worketh a Great care and sedulity how to get it so it begets a Great fear and jealousy to lose it therefore seeing there may be an Escape or reprisall from prison and a Return from exile as it was in Henry Bullingbrook afterwards King Henry the fourth they that fear to lose their Vsurped Possessions or to feel the Revenge of their Treason and Rebellion never think themselves Secured or their usurpation Setled untill their unjust titles be sealed in the blood of the right Owner and their own Wicked lives secured in the Vnmerited death of their Innocent adversaries And this is the Reason that these Wicked murderers of their Own King never left to persecute Him till they had Killed Him I should now proceed to the Last point to discover the Murderers of this Just One their own Pious and Religious King but that before I proceed to that point I hold it requisite First Six Speciall circumstances to be observed to shew unto you these six Speciall Circumstances about the Murder of this King which Are most Exactly delivered unto us by the Evangelists and which very-very
malicious treacherous and murderous ill properties for great Courtiers that ought to be as well good as great else are they but a great shame among men and a great staine unto all their posterity 10. 10 The common people for the most part had a hand in his death by a three fold imployment As salus populi the good of the people and the liberty of the subjects was one main pretended cause why these murderers kild their King ne gens pereat lest if he lived the Nation should be destroyed so the people upon all occasion must be ready at hand to serve their turn and to do the services wherein these their grand Masters shall imploy them and this imployment we find to be three fold 1. Mar. 14.43 When their King is to be taken they must be sent armed with swords and staves to apprehend him 2. They must draw petitions for some base and unworthy thing as they did Math. 27.20 when they petitioned that Barabbas a thief and a murderer might be released and their King crucified 3. They must come to the Judgment-Hall or place of Judicature and for fear the King should find some favour from him that knew him innocent they must with loud voices cry for justice and double their desires for execution and all this saith the Evangelist was done by the multitude Math. 27.20 Hosi-anna as they were perswaded by the Priests and Presbyters Ah silly people that even now cry Hosanna serva quaeso Save Lord and now presently Crucifige that loved their King as his enemies confess and yet joyn with his enemies to kill their King and never ask What hath he done but this we will do to please them that set us on the work Who then but a mad man would repose trust in a multitude of men and relie upon a broken reed a reed that wavers with every winde And not only so but to shew the baseness of these base people for I know not how to say their envy or their malice that they should maligne their King who had done them good every way and no harm to any of them when Pilate a heathen Judge and a stranger to the Jews shall profess him to be a just person Math. 27.24 and therefore wash his hands from the blood of the innocent man this giddy multitude of rude people the generation of vipers that gnaw out the bowels of their own dams the brethren of Cain and the children of their father the Devil Joh. 8.44 that hath been a murderer from the beginning do cry out as vengeance doth require Math. 27.25 His blood be upon us and upon our children What Nefandum scelus a most fearfull thing when the blood of our own just King unjustly murdered by so many sorts of men that had their hands imbrued with his blood shall like Abels blood cry to God for vengeance against us and our children for ever O let us rather repent and desire of God that the blood of this lamb Jesus Christ may wash away these our bloody sins And thus I have shewed you the chiefest Actors in this bloody Tragedy all the whole Kingdom of Jury rebelling against their King and most Traiterously betraying him to an Ignominious death save only some few followers of Christ of whom this King foretold what should betide them some of them should be killed and some persecuted from City to City for Math. 23.34 as S. Basil said of Herod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his meat was the flesh and his drink was the blood of men so these Regicides will never leave a follower of this King untill like the Whore in the Revelations Revel 7.6 they be drunk with the blood of the Saints and thereby shew themselves as they are 1. Vnsatiable because they never leave till they be drunk 2. Vnmercifull because they will be drunk with blood and 3. Vnjust because no blood will serve them but the blood of the Saints and servants of this King the witnesses of Gods truth And therefore let all the lovers of this King look to themselves because the branches must needs wither when the root is plucked up And besides these followers of Christ that loved him we find some others that had no hand in killing him and those were the Samaritans a people as much hated by the Jews as Papists are by the Puritans and though this King confer'd upon the Jews beneficia nimis copiosa multa magna and did nothing at all for these Samaritans save only to pitty them and hinder the fiery Zâ—lots the two sons of Zebedee to destroy them by calling for fire out of Heaven to consume them as Elias did the two Captains and their fifties yet we do not read that either they hated the person or sought the life of this King no more do I find that any Papist joyned with the Parliament of England and the Conquerors of our King to put King Charles to death which I believe will be sufficient witnesses to rise in judgment to condemn them that have condemned the King at the last day Thus I have passed over all or most of the acts and scenes of this Tragedy and I might here end but that as the Prophet saith abyssus abyssum invocat and one Tragedy requires another and the destruction of this King and his followers cals for destruction upon the destroyers that like Damocles's sword hangs by a feeble thread ready to fall upon their necks for the Prophet David demands the question Shall they escape for their wickedness And he doth immediatly answer The Lord shall destroy both the blood-thirsty and deceitfull men and all these men that I have shewed being most deceitfull and very much thirsting after blood and that blood not of the basest people but of the best of men their Prophets their Preachers and their own most just and pious King it must needs pull destruction upon their heads Therefore Christ in the parable of the Vineyard saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 21.41 The Lord will miserably destroy them that is 1. Them that plotted to take away his inheritance 2. Them that consulted to take away his life 3. Them that so unjustly put him to death 4. Them that abused and wronged his servants that sought to defend his right And 5. I feare me them that might have helped to protect both their King and his servants and did not for if any where then surely here that axiome must hold good Qui non vetat peccare quum potest ipse peccat and that too-ill-applied Sentence so protect rebels assist murderers by our seducing brethren in the 5. of Judges where Debora saith Curse ye Meros curse ye bitterly the inhabitants thereof because they came not to the help of the Lord against the mighty must needs be applied to them that had ability to defend their King and to relieve his oppressed servants and yet suffered them to be destroyed by
these murderers All these saith our Saviour shall be destroyed and so they were all of them that repented not did soon perish For 1. Judas the prime Traytor hanged himself and that without any regard of his grand Masters who when they saw his disconsolate soul and heard his confession of his foul Treason said no more but What is that to us as if they said Be hang'd or be damn'd we do not care thou shouldst have looked to that thy self 2. Pilate that unjust Judge not long after the execution of this King was disgracefully displaced and exiled his Countrey and therefore killed himself in a strange land 3. Herod died most miserably being eaten up with worms 4. Annas and Caiphas were violently killed as the Stories do report 5. The Priests and Presbyters Pharisees and Sadduces and many others that were Actors in the murdering of this King lived I believe most of them to see the famous City of Jerusalem besieged and many of them to see it destroyed and at least 1100000. of their Countrey-men slaughtered and all the rest even their Children that were unborn when they kil'd their King either Captivated by their enemies or scattered like Vagabonds over all the face of the earth And as the severall Factions and the different Sects conspired together and agreed as one man to kill their King So their divisions and differences made way for the Romans to destroy them all and which is strange by this their wicked act the very things that they feared came upon them for their great Prophet Caiphas tels them it was expedient that he should die lest the Nation perish and by the just Judgment of God their Nation must perish because they did so wickedly put their King to death And so they were resolved to kill him lest the Romans should invade their Land and change their laws and because they did kill him God sent the Romans to destroy their Country to change their laws and to make such havock of slaughtering them ut nec locus crucibus nec cruces corporibus sufficerent And ever since the murder of their King they have been hated of all Nations For Sisibut King of the Visigothes and Dagobert the 10th King of France commanded them on pain of death to depart out of their Dominions And Ferdinando and Isabella King and Queen of Castile within these seven-score years 1500. years after the murdering of their King handled them very shrewdly Camerar l. 5. c. 9. and put an infinite number of them to death And Emmanuel King of Portugal did the like So hateful are they for their regicide to all good men and so just is God in all his wayes and so exceedingly hating Rebellion against our Kings and much more the murdering of our own lawful just and pious King that the same never escapeth the severest punishment that can be imagined as I shall shew it in the next Treatise For if he who sheddeth mans blood though but a poor Beggar by man shall his blood be shed then surely he that sheds his Kings blood cannot escape the severe vengeance of God who peremptorily saith Vengeance is mine and I will revenge saith the Lord. And you know what the Apostle saith It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God who is a consuming fire And therefore if any man hath persecuted Gods Servants the Preachers or conspired to take away the life of his King the Annointed of the Lord let him repent and that quickly lest God as He saith to the Church of Pergamos do quickly come unto him and fight against him with the sword of his mouth which is a two-edged sword that cuts on every side the soul with the worm of conscience and the body with most fearful plagues and punishments For if the blood of Abel which had no voice while it lived yet being dead cryed so loud here on earth that it was easily heard in heaven and it was as fearful as it was loud for it was for vengeance against his brother then questionless the innocent blood of a just King being dead yet speaketh and speaketh louder for vengeance against his Subjects than the other did against his brother which I fear without our speedy and deep repentance will be abundantly poured out upon this sinful generation for that we have so barbarously murdered our own King in such wicked manner that I never read the like in any History nor the Sun I believe did ever see the like since the devilish murder of the King of kings from which these murderers took their pattern to proceed in like manner in most particulars and herein therefore Licet parvis componere magna I thought good to parallel the practises of both sorts of murderers the Jewish and the English murderers The murdered I confess are far unlike and will admit of no comparison the difference and distance betwixt their Persons being so great as is betwixt Heaven and Earth the Creator and the creature King Charles being begotten by an earthly father as all other men are and subject to like passions as we are but Jesus Christ the King of the Jews was conceived by the Holy Ghost and free from all sin and mastering all affections And King Charles was King but of small Territories But Jesus Christ was Rex universae terrae and he was and is King of kings and Lord of lords King Charles did good but to many and hurt but few if he hurt any but the King of the Jews did good to all and wronged none and so in all other things I know how that the one is finite and the other infinite in justice wisdom Power and all other Attributes of excellencies But if we look how both these Kings were handled by their Subjects we shall find the later not much unlike the former and King Charles hated traduced mocked spightfully used and causelessely killed and murdered And all this in like manner though not in every particular in like measure by his own Subjects as Jesus Christ was by the wicked Jews As I hope I have fully and sufficiently and plainly declared unto you in this Treatise And therefore that we ought all of us to confess lament and bewail as in general all our sins so more especially this our great sin of murdering our own King and to pray to God night and day that for the merits of the death and passion of Jesus Christ the King of the Jews he would pardon and forgive us our sins committed in putting to death our own most just and gracious King Grant this O dear Father for thy dear Son Jesus Christ his sake to whom be glory c. THE SECOND TREATISE 2 Kings 9.31 Had Zimri peace that slew his Master THE Doctrine of Obedience both to God and to our lawful King and his Magistrates hath been so fully and so excellently handled by the Right reverend and most Worthy and Learned Bishop of Downes that more need not and better cannot
the manner of them to deliver any man to die before that he which is accused have licence to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him so it may be Zimri will shew some good reason why he kill'd his Master And I doubt not but he had learnt Absolons lesson that it was for the ill government of Elah propter bonum Reipublicae for the good of the people that they might be better governed and much eased of many burthens and relieved of their grievances To which I say that you must understand all Traytors and wicked actors to be just like unto Watermen that row one way and look another way so they pretend one thing and intend another thing Thus Zimri pretended to amend the Government to ease the people to reform the Laws and rectifie their Religion but his intention and his chiefest ayme was to make himself great to get his Masters place and to become a King himself which was first in his intention though last in the execution otherwise if his principal ayme had been as he pretended the publike good he would have turned and changed the Kingdom of Israel into a Common-wealth or else he would have made either Omri or Tibni whom the people loved and not himself whom they hated to be their King sed menrita est iniquitas sibi but wickedesse though not always yet sometimes bewrayeth it self as the action of Zimri to make himself a King discovered his prime intention and the chiefest occasion that moved him to slay his Master to be his Ambition and desire of bearing rule And indeed this Ambition and desire of bearing rule hath so strangely bewitched the minds of many men Camer l. 5. c. 8. that as Camerarius saith it is almost incredible to believe and most strange to consider what inordinate desire men have to raign and to rule as Kings what villanies they have committed to become Kings What horrible things have been done by those that were ambitious of bearing rule what execrable things they have done to continue Kings for Amurath the third caused five of his younger brethren to be strangled in his presence Ismael the second son to Teâ—mas King of Persia did put to death so many of his brethren as he could lay hold on and all the Princes that he suspected to have any desire to his Kingdom that so they might raign and rule without fear And Solyman mistrusting his own son Mustapha when he returned victorious from the Persian war and was received with such generall applause caused him presently to be strangled and a Proclamation to be made throughout all the Army that there must be but one God in heaven and one Emperour i.e. Himself here on earth and Camerarius saith that this is a perpetuall custom in the race of the Ottomans and among the Turkish Souldans to put all that pretend succession unto death Neither is it only a Turkish custom but it is also the practice of all such as are bewitched with such inordinate desire to rule as Kings to do the like For Plutarch writeth that Diotarus having many sons and desirous that only one of them should reign slew all the rest with his own hands and Justin saith that Horodes King of the Parthians killed his own Father and after that massacred all his brethren that he might reign and rule alone and the sacred story sheweth that the very people of God the sons of Israel were not free but pestered with this disease Judges 9. as Abimeleck the son of Gedeon slew seventy of his brethren in one day and played many other tragicall parts that he might make himself a King 2 Sam. 15.16 And the furious ambition of young Absolon did set him on fire to seek to end his Fathers dayes and to play the Parracide that he might reign in his Fathers place and so Zimri when he began to reign as soon as he sate on his throne he delayed not the time but presently slew all the house of Baasha 2 King 16.11 as Baasha had formerly done to all the posterity of Jeroboam he left him not one that pisseth against a wall neither of his kinsfolks nor of his friends And not to go from home for Examples Did not Henry the fourth put by Richard the second his own King and Cosen-German that he himself might be the King and did not Richard the 3d. cause the true King his brothers chidren his own Nephews the sons of Edward the fourth that were but children and never offended him to be done to death that he might wear the Crown himselfe And my papers would fail me if I should set down all the examples that I could produce of this nature for there is not any thing so sacred which the great men of this world that desire to be made greater will not dare to violate and spare neither King father brether nor friend to bring themselves to their desired advancement to be the rulers of the people and to have the power both of our lives and goods in their own hands as the proof is plainly seen in the foresaid examples and especially in Antoninus Caracalla who when he had most unnaturally and barbarously slain his own brother Geta even in his mothers lap and between her arms and being counselled by some friends to Canonize him among the Heroes and to place him with the Deastri to mitigate the thought of so execrable a fact answered like a vile Caitiffe Sit divus modò non sit vivus Let him be a god among the dead so he be not alive among men So great an enemy is the inordinate desire of raigning and ruling to all piety and right saith Camerarius l. 5. c. 8. And for Zimri's pretence to rectify the government to ease the people to establish the true service of God which King Elah and his Father Baasha had permitted to be continued as Jeroboam had corrupted it and to fulfill the Words of the Lord which he spake by Jehu the son of Hanani 1 King 16.2 I say these things were least in his thoughts and were but meer pretences and shadows to hide and cover his malice unto his King and his ambitious desire of bearing rule for he being a subject and a servant unto King Elah what warrant had he or what command from God to kill his King Jeroboam was the master piece of Idolatry and the ring-leader of them that made Israel to sin and yet I would fain know where God gives leave to his subjects to kill him for this intolerable impiety But when God setteth up Kings if they prove wicked to corrupt his service and to destroy his servants he can raise other Kings to punish them as he did Pharaoh King of Egypt and Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon to chastise and to remove the evill Kings of Judah or he can take them away by death or by twenty other waies that we know not of without making their own
were slain as Daniel sets down And now lately in our own daies we have seen the sad effects thereof And these things do sufficiently shew what a blâ—ssed thing is peace and concord among men when as the Poet saith Omnia pace vigent pacis tempore florent And Xenophon saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 peace is the greatest good that can happen unto men and war the greatest evil and Ignatius saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing in this world is better then peace because as Salust saith Pace minima crescunt bello maxima dilabuntur the least things do prosper in peace and the best and greatest things perish in war And therefore the Jews before all other things wished peace and it was their salutation Pax vobis so Christ himself uâ—ed it and left it as his last Legacy unto his Church so S. Paul in every Epistle wisheth peace to them he writes unto and so did our Church continually pray Give peace in our time O Lord untill the Divell destroyed the same by war And our fanatick Sectaries began to deprave our Pious Liturgie and to trample the same under feet How thankfull therefore ought we be to God for sending our King that brought us peace and that so peaceably without shedding a drop of blood And so you see the kinds and the excellent benefits of each kind of peace Now Jezabel would fain know of Jehu what he thought of Zimri 1 Murderers and wicked transgressors can have no peace with God that slew his King and his Master whether he had all or any one of these kinds of peace had he peace with God had he peace with himself or had he peace with his neighbours And her belief was that he had neither of those kinds of peace Et qui tacet consentire videtur and Jehu by his silence seems to consent unto her for he answereth never a word to her demand But the Prophet Esay gives a full resolution to her question from the mouth of God There is no peace to the wicked saith my God and his God was no lyeing God none of the gods of the Gentiles that by their oracles gave either lying answers or doubtfull resolutions unto their Prophets Esay 48 22. 57.21 such as the demandants could not tell what to make of them as the oracle of Apollo did to Croesus and to the Lacedemonians when they sent unto it But his God was the God of truth and even truth it self and therefore we may believe it that there is no peace to the wicked that is no kind of peace neither peace with God nor peace with men nor peace with themselves And Jezabel had sufficiently and clearly and unanswerably proved Zimri to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 transcendently wicked because he had killed his King that was his Master and therefore Zimri could not possibly come to have any peace or any kind of peace but he must need be in a most wretched case and lamentable condition to have a perpetual war with God with men and with himself And therefore well might he cry out with Aeneas O terque quaterque beati Queis ante or a patrum contigit oppetere For 1. 1 Cor. 10.22 We may with the words of the Apostle ask of Zimri Is be stronger than God And he may remember how soon the Lord destroyed those hundred-handed Gyants that as the Poets faign threw the Thessalian Mountains Olympus Pelion and Ossa one upon another that they might skale the walls of Heaven Or who did ever strive with God and did prevail for He and He alone is properly said to be the Lord of Hosts that hath both 1. A Celestial and Army and so 2. A Terrestrial Army and so 1. 1 God hath his Celestial Army Gen. 7.19 By his Airy-Souldiers he destroyed the old World when he opened the windows of Heaven and rained 40. dayes and 40. nights upon them until the waters had swept all the enemies of God away So He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone and the Amorites with hail-stones and the very Stars in their order Chap. 19.24 Josh 10.11 Judg. 5.20 did fight against Sisera And besides the glorious Angels are not only instruments of Gods mercies towards the godly but they are also the executioners of his justice against the wicked and therefore an Angel slew all the first-born of Egypt Exod. 12.29 2 Kings 19 35. and slew an hundred eighty and five thousand in the Host of Senacherib And at the last Day the Angels shall gather the wicked and bind them up like faggots for everlasting fire And 2. 2 God hath his Terrestrial Army God hath his Terrestrial Army as the Sea drowned Pharaoh and the earth covered Corah Dathan and Abiram yea the frogs flies lice and rats will fight for God and destroy the wicked as Antiochus and Herod were eaten up with worms Munster in his Cosmogr anno 940. and Hatto Bishop of Mentz was still foâ—lowed till he was devoured of rats And as Debora saith Those creatures are accursed that fight not with the Lord against the wicked What think you then will be the end and the successe of this War with God It must needs be most lamentable to the wicked for God is a consuming fire and it is a fearful thing to fall into the bands of the living God if his wrath be kindled yea but a little blessed are all they that put their trust in him and wâ— be to them that offend him When as we find how he destroyed some with thunder-bolts and lightning as the Emperour Carus others with fire from Heaven as the two Captains with their fifties in the time of Elias 2 Kings 1.10 12. and never any malefactor escaped out of his hands but when the Magistrate that should revenge the innocent blood neglects the same He will execute vengeance with his own hands as it is observed in the History of France that since the year of Christ 1560. of a hundred murderers that escaped punishment from the hands of men not ten of them escaped the revenging hand of God As you may read it in the Theater of Gods Judgements Mr. Beard p. 288. 2. King-killers and murderers can have no peace 2. As the wicked especially the blood-thirsty murderers have no peace with God so they can have no peace but a continual War and a perpetual fighting and slaughter among men Nam ut mali semper persecuti sunt bones it a boni semper persecuti sunt malos hi per justam disciplinam illi per injustam superbiam and he that like Ismael will have his hand against every man shall have every mans hand against him Therefore Zimri after he had become a Traytor to his King and had slain his Master was so prosecuted by the true and honest subjects of King Elah and so straightly besieged in Tyrza that he burnt the Royal Palace and himself therein for the justice of
they prosper bear rule and raign in a flourishing stare for some years they shall therefore flourish for ever and never be punished because the Lord is flow to anger and cometh to punish on leaden feet using much patience towards the most wicked reprobates to see if his long sufferance can lead them to repentance But if they be such as the wise man speaketh of that Because sentence against an evill work treason Eccles 8.11 or murder or the like is not executed speedily therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evill Te peccare sinit siquidem divina potestas Temporis ad spatium parcit quandoque nocenti Sed gravius tandem tormentum rector Olympi Injungit torquetque magis delicta nocentum Obadiah v. 15.16 Exod. 1.22 15.5 then will God recompence the slownesse of his coming with severity of vengeance and smite then home with iron-hands for this law is irrevocably enacted in heaven that murders adulteries oppressions perjuries and other such wickednesses shall not always prosper but shall undoubtedly be punished though the times and the manner are not by us to be known 2. For the punishment of malefactors it is 1. Sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and they shall suffer the same strokes and receive the same measure as they have measured unto others As thou hast done it shall it be done unto thee Even as Pharaoh drowned all the male-children of the Israelits in the waters of Nilus so was He and all his Host drowned in the red Sea and as the sword of Agag had made many women childless so did the sword of Samuel make Agags mother childless among women and as all the foresaid examples that have proved Traytors and have kil'd their Kings have been kil'd themselves just as the Lord had said Whosoever sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed 2. Sometimes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall suffer some punishment that shall be somewhat like to the sin 2 Chron. 12.5 that they have committed for so the Lord saith You have forsaken me and therefore I have also left you and so it hapned to Solomon that as he divided Gods service betwixt God and the Idols so God divided his Kingdom betwixt Rehoboam his son and Jeroboam his servant And this likeness of the punishment hath a reference sometimes 1. To the Subject 2. To the Place 3. To the Time of our sinning for 1. 1 Kings c. 11. c. 12. As Adam sinned in eating the forbidden fruit so his punishment shall be to eat the fruit of the ground in the sweat of his face and Hezechias for shewing his Treasure was punished with the loss of his treasure 2 King 20. as many other men for being proud of their wealth do lose their wealth some one way and some another 2. The Lord saith that 2 In respect of the place 1 King 21.20 In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood even thine which came to pass accordingly you may see in 1 King 22 38. 3. Sometimes the punishment hath reference to the time of our sinning 3 In respect of the punishment as the spies that searched the land of Canaan 40 daies and sinned by their false report were punished by wandering in the wilderness 40 years and it is observed that Pompey was killed by Septimius and Achillas as upon the same day wherein he had formerly triumphed for the spoile of Jerusalem and the Jews had their City utterly destroyed by Titus at the same time of the year and as some think on the same day of the month wherein they had crucified our Saviour Christ 3. In respect of the persons sinning and punished we are to observe 3 The persons sinning 2 King 14.6 that although the Lord saith The fathers shall not be put to death for the children nor the children be put to death for the fathers but every man shall be put to death for his own sin and the soul that sinneth that soul shall die and God will not have them say The fathers have eaten sower grapes and the childrens teeth are set on edge Yet it is most certain that many times the wickedness of the fathers is remembred in their posterity and the punishment of that wickedness is oftentimes delated and after a sort both deferred and in part transferred as well to the children and to the childrens children of them that walk in the same steps and follow the same courses as their fathers did and sometimes upon the very innocent Infants as upon the wicked fathers that are murderers and malefactors themselves For so the Lord saith that for the sin of Jeroboam therefore behold and mark it well I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam 1 King 14.10 11. and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall and him that is shut up and left in Israel and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam asa man taketh away dung till it be all gone And so Baasha the son of Ahijab smote all the house of Jeroboam 1 King 15.29 he left not to Jeroboam any that breathed untill he had destroyed him 1 King 16.3 4. according to the Word of the Lord and the Lord threatneth the very same punishment and the rooting out of all his posterity to Baasha 1 King 16.11 12. that killed his King Nadab and did other evils in the sight of the Lord and this Zimri the servant of Elab brought to pass according as the Lord had threatned and the very like punishment happened to all the posterity of Ahab even for Naboths murder and other sins of Ahab 2 King 9.9 and c. 10.17 and too many more murderers and wicked men that by their sins and desire to raign and unjust preferring of their children have pulled down vengeance upon themselves and rooted out all their posterity And for Romulus Tarquinius and Nero I say neither of them were either good or honest and yet the holy Scripture doth not allow the killing or sentencing of them to death and the proof of the Senat 's killing Romulus or sentencing Nero to death is not Authenticall nor the examples by any means to be followed when they are so apparantly contrary to the practice and precepts of the holy Apostles and the success which followed Neroes death proved so lamentable Corn. Tacit. l. 20. 21. as the Tragicall butchering of three of their succeeding Emperors Galba Otho and Vitellius that had been three most famous Captains and had done very worthy exploits for their Countrey And therefore whosoever thinketh by murder and slaughter to usurp another mans Kingdom Inheritance or Possession and thereby to raise his house and to advance his children as Zimri Baasha Shallum and others thought to do or thereby to benefit the Common-wealth as they pretend to do he deceives himself because this is the only
wicked God cast them off and scattered them among all the Nations of the earth And therefore whether thou beest Jew or Gentile Prince or peasant young or old rich or poor if thou wilt walk in thy wickednesse presume not of any prerogative to exempt thee from Gods judgement for the Lord hath said it and he will perform it There is no peace to no wicked man let him be whom you will But here Object it may be some will object that we are all wicked ergo pax nulli I answer Sol. That indeed we are all wicked and there is none that doth good no not one but that we are not all alike wicked for 1. There are divers kinds of wicked men 2. There are divers differences betwixt the wickednesses of wicked men as 1. There are some that commit wickedness through ignorance others of knowledge and some that commit wickednesse through weaknesse and infirmity and others do offend of malicious wickedness And so there are some wicked men lesse haynous than others both in the sight of God and men And there are others more odious and more transcendently wicked and I conceive that the Prophet principally meaneth Those high abominable sinners have not nor can have any peace such as are Murderers Regicides Rebells Traytors Idolaters Adulterers and the like wicked men and especially if you consider 2. That there is a threefold difference betwixt the sins and wickednesse of the godly that are wicked men and the sins and wickedness of the other abominable wicked sinners whereof the Prophet speaketh as 1. Before they sin 2. When they sin 3. After they sin For 1. 1 Difference The godly purpose not to offend God but do intend to serve him and to keep his Commandments but the wicked do imagine mischief upon their beds their feet are swift to shed blood and they resolve to proceed from one wickednesse to another And as Seneca saith Scelera sua sceleribus tueri To protect and hedge about their wickednesse with greater wickednesse as their lyes with perjuries their malice with murder and their disobedience with rebellion treachery and treasons 2. 2 Difference The godly when they do sin they do it with a great deal of reluctancy and as the Apostle saith the evil that they would not do and what they hate that they do by reason of the frailty and weakness of their flesh and the greatness of their temptation But the wicked sin with greediness and do rejoyce in the works of their hands and make a sport of their sins 3. 3 Difference When the sin is committed the godly are sorry for it and do repent them of it and resolve to do so no more and therefore do pray to God to forgive them what is past and to give them his grace to preserve them from the like but the wicked never repent them of any wickedness that they do nor pray to God for grace to amend them but think they do God good service when they persecute the righteous and destroy his servants And therefore the godly endeavouring to be at peace with all men they are for their part in peace with all men Ephes 4.3 and being justified by the faith which they have in Christ Jesus they have peace towards God and having peace with God and so leading a godly life they have peace with themselves which is the peace of conscience which is a Paradise of pleasure as S. Aug. Aug super Genes terms it and as the Poet saith Audebit dicere Horat. Pentheu Rector Thebarum quid me perferre patique Indignum coges But the wicked whose hands are like Ismaels hands against all men His thought seeth his punishment and his fear overwhelms him with miseries shall have all mens hands against them and being without fear in offending God and without any true faith in Christ they shall have God for their professed enemy and so being at war with God and thirsting after wickednesse they have no rest nor peace but Supplicium exercent curae Statius l. 3. Thebaidos tunc plurima versat Pessimusin dubiis augur timor And so there is no peace to no wicked man especially to these transcendent and resolved irrepentant wicked men Sed bella horrida bella warres warres and rumours of warres And these our warres and preparations for war our fightings and our plundering our oppressions and insupportable taxations and especially this our unnatural rebellion against our own just and pious King and above other horrible wickednesse the barbarous murdering of so just so innocent and so godly a King do sufficiently shew that we are a wicked generation and as this our Prophet saith a sinfull nation a nation laden with iniquity corrupt children and the seed of evill doers that have wholly forsaken the lawes of our God And this our wickednesse vice versa doth as apparantly shew that there is no peace intended for us and that we do but expect peace in vain untill we fully intend to forsake our sins because our sins and wickednesses our unjustice toward men and our prophanenesse in Gods service have made and will make a separation betwixt us and God and how can we hope for peace among men when God proclaimeth warre against us Quia conscientia mala bene sperare non potest Because a conscience guilty of such wickednesse Aug. in Ps 32. as the men of this Nation have committed knowes not how to hope for any good 2. This sheweth that our sins and wickednesse is the cause of all our miseries our sicknesse our wants our warres and of all our troubles Prov. 14.4 for man suffereth for his sins and as Solomon saith Miseros facit populos peccatum It is our sins that make us miserable and therefore if we would be freed from troubles eased of our burdens delivered from these wars and healed from our diseases let us forsake our sins and then God will turn all these evills from us 2. Having heard the particulars of this generall Proclamation 2 The proclaimers of this truth 1. The Prophet we are now to consider of the Proclaimers and they are two 1. The Prophet as Gods Herald and his messenger 2. God himself who is the chief sender forth of this Proclamation for there is no peace 1. The Prophets Apostles and Preachers of Gods word are Gods Heralds to declare his will and to proclaim his Messages unto the people and as one saith very well they are Gods mouth in preaching to the people and therefore they say Os Domini loquutum est the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it and they are the peoples mouth in praying for them unto God even as Mediators betwixt God and the people as Moses saith unto the Israelites I stood between the Lord and you Matth. 23.2.3 to shew unto you the word of the Lord. Which should be a warning to us that as the Apostle saith If any man speak he should speak
this Text seems to me to be The lively picture of these lewd times Which must needs be a sad fulfilling of it to all good men The Principall points to be considered are these four Four Points to be considered 1. A Message thus or this which followeth 2. The Author or sender of the message the Lord. 3. To whom it was sent unto this people 4. The Messenger by whom it was sent or shewed viz. 1. The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah Touching which points as Christ saith in another case so I will do herein begin with the last and so proceed unto the first And 1. I told you the Messenger 1 Point the Messenger by whom this message was sent unto this people is the Prophet Jeremy and he was 1. A Man and no Angel 1 The Messenger was a man like themselves 2. A Jew and no Gentile 3. A Lover and no hater of this people And yet for all this we find that he was mightily hated and exceedingly persecuted by them 1. When God delivered his Laws upon Mount Sinai he was pleased to be his own messenger Exod. 20.1 to write them with his own hands and to utter them with his own mouth Heb. 12.29 but our God being a consuming fire as the Apostle saith and if he doth but touch the mountains they shall smoak saith the Psalmist therefore his descending to deliver that Law was so terrible that Moses himself said Heb. 12.21 I do exceedingly fear and quake And they that saw the Mount burning and the blackness darkness and tempests and heard the sound of a Trumpet and the voice of the words intreated That the word should not be spoken to them any more Vers 19. that is by God himself because they were not able to endure the great and glorious Majesty of the deliverer And yet in very deed God being an Infinite incomprehensible spirit that hath neither hands to handle Gal. 3.19 Heb. 2.2 nor mouth to speak this delivery of the Law was ordained by Angels and the Word spoken by Angels was stedfast saith the Apostle And therefore it being above our Capacity to understand the Language of the Angels The Language of the Angels we know not what it is which the great Angelicall Doctor the best of all the Schoolmen could not yet determine what it is and it being likewise beyond the ability of our weakness to indure the sight of those Celestiall spirits God was pleased out of his great goodness to condescend unto the infirmities and to yeeld unto the request of this people and to send his messages unto us by such as dwell amongst us i. e. men like our selves that we need neither to fear their faces nor to shun their presence So that now The Hearers condition safer then the Preachers condition Galat. 4.16 as S. Augustine speaketh Tutior est conditio audientis quà m dicentis the hearers are in a safer condition then the speaker and the fear is only of the Teacher's side who must now take heed what he saith and is oftentimes become your enemy for saying the truth as S. Paul sheweth when as you may freely hear whatsoever is spoken without fear as you do many times without faith when our words though never so true shall yet be received but as Cassandra's Prophesies that were ever true but never regarded Esay 53 1. so that we may justly cry out with the Prophet Who hath believed our report 2. 2 He was their own Country-man Act. 19.24 25. This Messenger that God now sent unto the Jews was himself a Jew and no Gentile no Grecian no Barbarian and it is naturall for all men to love those of their own Countrey Even as we see Crafts-men love those of the same Trade as you may find in Act. 18.3 Therefore that they might the more readily imbrace him the Lord saith A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise unto you of your brethren like unto me in countenance in favour in faithfulness and in all meekness and gentleness Him shall you hear in all things Deut. 18.15 and you ought the more readily to hear him and the more undoubtedly to believe him and to love him because he is of your brethren for though the Schools have determined that there is no love in hell nor charity among the damned yet for his own sake Dives seems to have a care of his brethren Luk. 16.28 that they should not come into that place of torment Act. 22.2 and though the Jews hated Saint Paul yet when they heard that he spake unto them in the Hebrew Tongue which was their own native Language they kept the more silence And for this cause the sooner to gain favour and to win the more good-will Act. 22.25 this prudent Apostle tels the Roman Captain that he was a free-born Citizen of Rome Act. 23.6 That men of the same Countrey should love one another and he tels the Jews he was a Jew and a Pharisee of the tribe of Benjamin and so accordingly when the men of Israel were angry with the men of Juda for receiving David and conducting of him home again to his Throne after he was driven out of his Royal City by the rebellion of Absolon the men of Juda answered most justly that they had very good reason so to do not only because he was their King but also because he was near of kin unto them and of their own Tribe the Tribe of Judah 2 Sam. 19.42 therefore why should they not receive him and love him that was of their own Country and of their own flesh and blood Which sheweth unto us what a shame it is for a Prophet to be without honour among his own Countrymen and in his own Country where he should be honoured most of all And what an abominable thing it is for a Prince or a Prophet to be treacherously betrayed and sold into the hands of their enemies by their own Countrymen and their own familiar friends But as our Saviour Christ coming amongst his own as the Evangelist saith and his own receiving him not but slandering persecuting and betraying him unto death saith If a stranger had done me this dishonour I could well have born it but I think very much that I should be thus used by my Countrymen and by mine own familiar friends So this holy Prophet going not to the Persians and preaching not to the Grecians but to the Jews his own native Countrymen and his own kindred could not choose but be exceedingly troubled to be so used as he was amongst them For that it is a greater shame and a more intolerable sin for the servants of God to be persecuted and rejected by their own Countrymen and those that professe and seem to serve the same God and to believe in the same Saviour as they do than if they were expelled and deprived of their means or persecuted unto
that end the Lord gave unto his people the same Law the same Sacraments and the same Gospell that the same God might have the same worship in all places and that his people might believe the same faith use the same prayer receive the same Sacraments and do the same publick service unto God in every City and in every place that so they might attain unto the same end which is the kingdom of heaven And therefore the Reverend Bishops and Governours of Gods Church were so careful herein to preserve the unity of the Church and the uniformity of Gods service that they prescribed the same prayers the same Psalms The set form of prayers and service of God justified 1. By the people of God the same Chapters and the same Service to be used in all Churches that all the world might know we worship the same God And to justifie this their practice of a set form of Prayers and Service of God they have 1. The Precept of God himself saying unto Moses Speak unto Aaron and to his sons saying On this wise ye shall blesse the children of Israel saying unto them The Lord blesse thee and keep thee the Lord make his face to shine upon thee Numb 6.22 and be gracious unto thee the Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and give thee peace and so likewise he prescribeth unto them the very prayer that they should make and the very words that they should use both as they went forth and as they returned home from Battle for when the Ark set forward Moses said Rise up O Lord and let thine enemies be scattered and let them that hate thee flee before thee And when the Ark rested Numb 10.35 he said Return O Lord unto the many thousands of Israel and the Prophet David useth the very same prayer and the same words saying Let God arise Psal 68.1 and let his enemies be scattered let them also that hate him flee before him 2. 2 By the Precept of Christ Luke 12.2 They have the Precept of Christ himself that biddeth us to use that prayer which he taught us saying When ye pray say Our Father which art in heaven c. 3. 3 By the practice of the godly people in the Old Testament They have the practice of the godly people of the Old Testament as you may see the very words that they were to use in Gods service when they offered their first fruits and the very prayer that they were to make in Deut. 26. from the third verse to the tenth and verse 13. And so the very words that the Priests were to use unto the people when they came nigh unto the battle as you may see in Deut. 20.3 And the godly King Hezechias made certain Psalms after his recovery from his sicknesse and saith We will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord Esay 38.20 and when he reformed the service of God that the people had neglected and the wicked Kings had corrupted he prescribed a set form of Gods worship and commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord not as every simple Priest 2 Chro. 29 30. or silly Levite pleased but with the words of David and Asaph the Seer And Mr. Selden in his Notes upon Eutychius sheweth Selden in Eutych pag. 41. dist ad pagin 25. that since Ezra's time when after their return from Babylon the true Service of God was restored the Jews constantly used a set form of Gods worship in all their Synagogues every Synagogue using the same Service 4. They have the practice of all the Saints under the New Testament 4 By the practice of all the Saints under the New Testament Luke 11.1 Matth 26.44 Psal 22.1 as 1. Of John Baptist that taught his disciples a Set form of serving God and a set form of Prayer 2 Of Christ himself that used the same form of prayer and repeated the same words three times together and commanded us to do the like and when he was upon the Crosse he used the very words of the Psalmist changeing onely the Hebrew phrase into the Syriack Dialect 3. Of the Primitive Church as the Lyturgy of Saint James Saint Basil S. Chrysostom and the short Form of serving God which Saint Peter left at Rome and the other which Saint Mark left at Alexandria do sufficiently testifie 4 Of the whole Catholick Church as it appeareth out of Cassander and other Writers of the Lyturgica And Therefore the religious Emperour Constantine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb de vità Const l. 4 c 17. rendered Set Formes of prayers unto the Christians saith Eusebius and his Nobles used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prayers that the Emperour liked and they were all brought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pray the same prayer yea he prescribed a Set Form of Service for his souldiers Idem l. 4. c. 20. as the same Eusebius testifieth And Saint August saith that Sursum corda lift up your hearts are words ab ipsis Apostolorum temporibus petita used in the Church of Christ even from the very times of the Apostles and are agreeable to the Constitutions of the Apostles L. 8. c. 16. 5. They have the practice of the Heathens that were so wise herein 5 By the practice of the heathens Plato de legibus l. 7. Alexand ab◠Alexand. l. 4. c. 17. Why the Gentiles used the same set prayers in their service as to use the same Service to every false god as both Plato and Alexander ab Alexandro do bear witnesse and they caused their prayers to be read out of a Book 1. That so the people might learn to repeat the same Prayers with the Priest when the same Prayers are constantly used in Gods service which they shall never be able to do when they shall have a new Prayer and a new Service upon every new day 2. Their Prayers were prescribed and read lest the simple and ignorant Priest should ask of God any evill thing that should not be asked and 3. Ne quid preposterè dicatur their Petitions were set down in verbis conceptis as we use to send messages to great persons in these and these very words lest we should offend either in the matter or in the manner in the thing requested or in the words wherein we have requested it Out of all which you may perceive how necessary it was for the Governours of Gods Church to see that the same God should have the same Service and that very Service which himself prescribeth and not what new Prayers and new worship in what Form and under what words soever every ignorant Priest should extemporarily pour forth to the Almighty God For if we ought to be very carefull to keep our feet when we go to the house of God Eccles 5.1 then how much more carefull ought we to be to keep our mouths and look to
Church Satan hath some of his Emissaries amongst them that come as the Scribes and Pharisees came to hear Christ not to be instructed by him that they might be saved but to catch at some things in his words that they might accuse him 3. 3 Taking away their lives Jer. 19.4 c. 22.17 Jer. 2.34 They filled Jerusalem with the blood of innocents and that which was a great deal worse even the worst of all In their skirts was found the blood of the soules of the poor innocents which I take to be not only an Hebraism but also to shew unto us how they sought to destroy both the bodies and the souls of men and that is as I conceive by forcing them for fear of being undone and to have all their lively-hood taken from them to forswear themselves as the Prophet Hosea sheweth they have spoken words swearing falsely Hosea 10.4 in making a Covenant and shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord For though they pretended this out of zeal to Gods service to compell men to such a Form of Gods worship and to professe such and such a Religion as they conceived best or else to deprive them of their possessions yet I find the best Divines protesting that this is contrary to Gods will that would have faith wrought in us by preaching and not by fighting and Religion settled in us by perswasion and not by compulsion For as Lipsius saith Lipsius polit l. 4. c. 4. The greatest thing that any Prince is able to bring to passe by his terrour is to make that he who doth most of all seem to be obedient doth in outward shew consent but never in his heart for as Lactantius demandeth Who can compel me either to believe what I list not Lactant. l. 5. c. 14. Faith and Religion not to be forced Eccles hist l. or not to believe what I will And therefore constraint bringeth dissimulation and not Religion and maketh Hypocrites and not Saints when the constrained persons do worship the power of the constrainer and not his God which made King Theodorick to say That he could not command Religion because no man could be inforced to believe against his will and there is nothing more free than Religion which the mind no sooner withstandeth but forthwith it vanisheth and is no more Religion saith Lactantius quò suprà Hosea 10.4 And yet these Jews whereof the Prophet Hosea speaketh sought with all rigor to compel men to swear unto their wicked covenant and thereby saith our Prophet Their skirts were filled with the blood of the souls of the poor innocents when to save their estates they believed their faith and became such hypocrites before God for fear of men as made them most liable to Gods heavy judgements which must needs be no small offence in this people and in all those that imitate them herein But let this wickedness and the sin of this people be what it will it proceeded all from the Assembly of their Divines and false Prophets The Assembly of their Divines the chiefest cause of their wickedness Jer. 23.13.14 For they caused my people Israel to erre and they strengthened the hands of the evil doers that none doth return from his wickedness saith the Prophet For indeed we that are the Teachers of the people are just like Jeremy's Figs They that were good were very good and they that were bad were very bad So are we either the best or the worst of men and we either bring men to Christ or send them to the Antichrist either make them Saints or make them Seditious and Hereticks and through our pride covetousness and ambition we lead them like fools as they are that follow falshood into all mischief And therefore from the King to the peasant from the highest to the lowest all men ought to be wary whom they affect and chuse to be their Teachers For it is most true that as the Prophet saith Like Priest like people unless it be as S. Bernard saith That now the Priest is worse than the people For we know the Arian Bishops made Constantius an Arian Emperour and the false Prophets made Ahab and Jezabel so zealously affected to the service of Baal So the Anabaptistical Priests make their followers Anabaptists and the popish Priests make Papists And therefore all great men Kings Princes and Governours ought to have a special care to chuse Orthodoxal men to be their Chaplains and all men ought to have the like care to follow the Doctrine of the true Preachers and to be as willing to hear the Orthodox and true Preachers as the Heterodox and false Prophets For if Ahab and Jezabel would have hearkened to Micaiah as well as they did to the Prophets of Baal it is very likely Baal had not been so much worshipped nor the true Service of God so much neglected But S. Gregory l. 4. Epist 38. saith most truly Rex superbiae prope est quod dici nefas sacerdotum ei praeparatur exercitus And herein this City and this Kingdom is now very happy that God hath sent them so Religious and so Noble a King as doth favour and countenance the true Protestants and is not apt to believe the aspersions that the false brethren are so ready to cast upon them But to proceed to shew to you how this great wickedness of the people proceeded from the Priests our Prophet saith That from the Prophets of Jerusalem which was in Judea as London in England and Dublin in Ireland Lishon in Portugal and Paris in France the chiefest City of the Kingdom is prophaness gone forth into all the land Jer. 23.25 that is they of the Head-City were the cause that all the other Cities of the whole Kingdom do so prephanely The Head-City is the Leader of all the other 〈◊〉 of the Kingdom and so irreverently serve the Lord. And therefore the Prophets of the Metropolis ought to be very careful and circumspect what example they give to other Cities And this our Prophet further sheweth How this great mischief of prophaness covetousness injustice and all other wickedness happened to become so general among this people and that was When the unity of the Clergy and uniformity of Gods service was divided into many Sects and different sorts of serving God Jer. 12.10 for many Pastors have destroyed my vineyard saith the Prophet not because they were many had they been all of one mind but because they were of many different minds as were the Scribes Pharisees Sadduces Herodians Esseni and many other inferiour Sects among the Jews as now Presbyterians Independants Anabaptists Papists Quakers Dippers and many Sects and Factions are among us when the Church of God that should be tanquam Acies ordinata like a well-ordered Army as Solomon saith i.e. governed by the General and his subordinate Officers and not be commanded by a multitude of unequal and all dissenting Commanders shall be instructed by
a company of disagreeing Preachers whereof most of them shall be like Jeroboam's Priests and each one of them an Independant to command in Chief to gather a Church for himself whereof no man else shall have any interest from them and then only Gods pleasant portion as the Prophet calleth the Church Jer. 12.10 Chap. 4.26 becomes a desolate wilderness that brings nothing but thorns and bryers errors heresies and all wickedness And therefore questionless great is the account that these Prophets have to answer for at the last Day not only for their own sins which they never look into but do reprove others for their covetousness and are more covetous themselves and do most eagerly inveigh against the pride hatred and malice of the people and never look into their own pride nor consider of their own fouler faults but especially for those sins also which either by their evil example or their false Doctrine they are the cause thereof in the people But will you hear what the Lord saith of this assembly of false Prophets or these many Pastors that by their discord and dissenting from their Governours Jeremy 23.21 Chap. 27.14 Chap. 29.8 Chap. 12.6 Chap. 14.14 destroy the Church I have not sent these Prophets yet they run therefore thus saith the Lord Hearken not unto them and though they speak fair words yet believe them not And so Moses and our Saviour Christ do give the same counsel unto us that we should neither believe them nor hearken unto the smooth words of the false Prophets for if the people did not love to hear them and so love to be deceived by them they would not be so ready to prophesie lyes errors and falshoods unto them And therefore I could wish the people would follow the counsel of Christ and our Prophet not to hearken unto the Sermons of those Prophets that God professeth he hath not sent them And so you have heard 1. How this people wandred And now resteth 2. How they loved to wander And now resteth 3. The manner of their wandering And now resteth 4. 4 Their haste or greediness to proceed in their wickedness The last thing considerable in the doings of this people is their haste and greedinesse to preceed in their wicked wayes for they refrained not their feet but as the Prophet David saith Their feet were swift to shed blood and they would have no delayes in their dealings but cryed out with the Poet semper nocuit differre paratis Lucan Nothing is so dangerous in great affairs as to lye lingering about the matter therefore our Saviour saith to Judas Quod facis fac citò and when he bad his disciples go to Preach the Gospel he bids them to salute no man by the way not that he disliked and prohibited civil respects and curteous salutations as Good morrow God be with you or God speed you and the like But that they should not stay complementing and neglect the great and waighty business that they were sent about to Preach the Gospel of God And so the wicked having a greater desire to do evil then the godly have to do good do make all the haste they can to bring their work to pass and to effect all their projects and they are very active and very nimble in all their actions I remember Horace speaks of Lucilius that in hora saepe ducentos Horatius Serm. l. 1. p. 212. Vt magnum versus dictabat stans pede in uno He would powre out two hundred verses in an hour but in his book De arte Poetica he reprehendeth the verse quod non Idem de arte Poet. p. 369. Multa dies multa litura coercuit atque Perfectum decies non castigavit ad unguem which had not taken up many daies and undergon a ten fold correction Our new Preachers can powre forth their sermons as fast as Lucilius his verses before it came to be perfect For you know the old proverb Canis festinans caecos parit catulos the hasty bitch bringeth forth blind whelps and it is the soft fire that maketh the sweet mault and therefore as the faithfull Christian Qui crediderit non festinabit will not presently believe all that he heareth when as Solomon saith Sultus credit omni verbâ— he is a fool that believes every word he heareth but the wise Christian with the noble men of Beroea will examine and search what things are true Act. 17.11 and what are not so the wise and carefull Preacher cannot powre forth his Sermons as fast as Lucilius could do his verses or as our Enthusiasts that speak all by the spirit which teacheth them in illa hora in that instant what they should say so that they do far exceed those whereof Bosquierus speaketh Septennes pueri concionantur in Ordine Francisci quarta naufragii tabula in dominica post Pentecost pag. 241. that at seaven years old What children could do in the order of S. Francis they could Preach in the order of S. Francis but the true Preachers think they ought to be more carefull to correct and weigh every word of their Sermons before they Preach them than the Poet ought to correct his Verses when as the Prophet flatly pronounceth Cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord negligently for the negligent Preachers make negligent hearers and that must needs be negligence when they do so hastily powre forth quicquid in buccam venerit what comes first into their mouth And yet as the children of Israel would not stay for Moses his coming down from the mount though he was all that while preparing and providing good laws and instructions for them but they must presently change their good God for a golden Calf and as Jeroboam after his revolt from the house of David and his dislike to the true service of God in the Temple of Solomon must presently frame a new Religion So must all Innovators and all other transgressors speedily without any consultation either with God or good men overthrow what they dislike and establish what they please as in former times I will not say of late we have had most woefull experience of this hasty ruinating of the Orthodox Doctrine and erecting the heterodox and the sudden plucking down in an hour what had stood one hundred years and the sudden setting up of things like Jâ—nah's gourd which perhaps should fall under the like fate as being but the emblem of such fiery Prophets But the words are yet more Emphatical then this making haste to proceed in their evil doings The wicked cannot endure to be hindered to destroy themselves because they not only made haste speedily to finish all their evil-begun work but They refrayned not their feet saith the Prophet that is they could not endure any remora or any means that might hinder their own hasty destruction but as Jeroboam was inraged against the man of God and Ahab against Elias
from those great treasures and possessions which they had suddenly attained unto And therefore let not the righteous that rightly serveth God fret himself because of the ungodly neither let him be envious against the evil-doers when he seeth them in such prosperity for when God seeth the time Psal 37.1.2 they shall soon be cut down like the grass and be withered even as the green herb But as the Poet saith animum servate secundis And as the Prophet saith Let them that serve God put their trust in the Lord and tarry the Lord's leisure and pray with the words of our rejected Liturgy O God make speed to save us O Lord make haste to help us And in his good time he will deliver us out of all our troubles Amen THE FIFTH TREATISE 1 Pet. 2.17 Honour all men Love the brother-hood Fear God Honour the King IT is an old received Rule consented unto by all and contradicted by none that all the Commandments of God are 1. Brevia 2. Levia 3. Vtilia That is 1. Few and short 2. Leight and easie 3. Sweet and profitable For 1. They are not many like our Laws or the precepts of the Alcoran or the Popes Canons that are multiplied above number for these are but ten in all But two but one Ten saith Moses Two saith Christ One saith S. Paul and all say the truth For the Ten Precepts of Moses contain nothing else but First our duty to God And Secondly our duty towards our Neighbours as our Saviour saith And both these duties are comprised in this one act and affection of Love as S. Math. 22.37 John 15.12 1 Cor. 13. Rom. 12.10 Paul saith For thy duty to God is to love him with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and if you love me keep my Commandments saith our Saviour Christ and my Commandment is That ye love one another And love worketh no ill to his neighbour saith S. Paul therefore is love the fulfilling of the Law So all the Commands that God gives unto us is but one word one syllable Love So he gave to Adam but one Precept to abstain from one Tree and therefore you need not burden your memories nor take the pains to learn the Art of Memory for fear you should forget it God hath thus provided to prevent this excuse That the multitude of Precepts have caused you to forget your duties And as God so all good and wise men imitating God herein have given short Precepts and brief Rules unto their Schollars which we call Aphorisms or Dicta sapientum The words of the wise as the seven wise men of Greece left seven brief Sentences unto their Followers For Dicta septem sapientum 1. Cleobulus said Keep the mean 2. Chilon said Know thy self 3. Periander used to say Restrain wrath 4. Pittacus said Nothing too much 5. Solons wise saying was Remember the end 6. Bias was wont to say The wicked are many 7. Thales's saying was Flee suretiship And Solomon useth the same Method of teaching men in his Proverbs and Book of the Preacher which is Eclesiastes And so doth S. Peter here in this first Epistle to the dispersed Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His Sentences are very short but exceeding pithy Inest quoque gratia parvis and abundance of worth may lie in a little thing as you see a little Diamond is of a great value And therefore as Democharis saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ne despice parva Slight not the smallest things Nam verbum sapienti sat est A word is enough to the wise And the longest Sermons do little or no good to the wicked 2. 2 The Commandments of God very easie and light Math. 11.30 1 Joh. 5.3 Psal 119. As the Commandments of God are short so they are leight and easie for my yoke is easie and my burden leight saith our Saviour And Mandata ejus gravia non sunt saith S. John His Commandments are not grevious but they are so leight and so easie that the Prophet David saith I will run the way of thy Commandments And S. Paul saith he can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth him And our God is not so tyrannical as to give such Commandments as are impossible to be observed especially in the outward acts and the inward also if we consider the aid and assistance of Gods Spirit that Christ giveth to them that seek it And therefore if our hearts be indued with grace and we desire the Spirit of Christ we need not murmur and lie down with Balaam's Asse for the great weight that is upon our backs or complain of the heavy yoke that Christ hath laid upon our necks and say with those drones in the Gospel Durus est hic sermo Love makes all labours easie This is a hard saying Who is able to endure it For if Leander did so much for the love of Hero and Pyramus for Thisbe then certainly the Commandments of God are leight and sweet enough to every one that loveth God Da amantem sentit quid dico And if you bring me one that truly loveth God he will confesse this truth saith S. Augustine Even as the Prophet David doth Psal 119. And such are all the Precepts of this our Apostle you may observe them without pain without losse without abating your strength and without wasting your wealth And 3. 3 The comman dments of God bring great profit to them that keep them Psal 119. They are not so leight and so easie in themselves as they are beneficial and profitable to those that observe them for Great is the reward of those that keep thy Laws O God saith the Prophet David and Moses setteth down the many many blessings of the Israelites if they would observe Gods Commandments And so these short Sentences of S. Peter and these leight Precepts of our Apostle have abundance of wisdom in them and do bring an infinite deal of commodity and profit unto the true observers thereof And therefore if nothing else yet the benefits of keeping Gods Commandments should perswade us all to be ready to hear and willing to obey these Precepts of the Apostle which he delivereth from the Spirit of God for we are naturally given to love our own profit And as the Poet saith Et reditus jam quisque suos amat sibi quid sit Vtile sollicitis computat articulis Every man respecteth his own advantage and loveth his own benefit And I do assure you there is nothing in the world that any of you all can do and let him do what he can that shall bring him more profit than the right observance of these few Precepts Honour all men c. Wherein you see there are four special Precepts And these four Precepts are like unto the four Rivers of Eden that watered the Garden of Paradise to make the same both profitable and pleasant The 1. concerneth all men
man Si quoties peccant homines sua fulmina mittat Jupiter c. which I may well render in the words of the Prophet If thou Lord wilt be extream to mark what is done amisse O Lord who may abide it Or as the Apostles demand Who then can be saved But the Lord beareth long and forgiveth much iniquities transgression and sin Upon what condition God forgiveth our sins Math. 6.14 15. and yet he forgiveth nothing but upon this condition that we ask forgiveness of our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us for if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you but if ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your Father forgive your trespasses As you may see it plainly exemplified and shewed in the Parable of the unmerciful Steward And every Talent is 375. l. for when his Lord forgave him a thousand Talents and he would not forgive his fellow-servant a hundred pence his Lord was wroth and delivered him to the tormentors till he should pay all that was due unto him Math. 18.34 So that he which remitteth not the offences done unto him must never hope to have his offences remitted unto him by God saith our Saviour Christ Verse 35. And what then shall we do shall we be like James and John that when the Samaritans would not receive their Master would presently have called for fire out of Heaven to have destroyed them all Or shall we be like their Master that when the Jews like so many Cannibals were about him to â—ear him and to crucifie him and to lay such loads of abuses and indignities upon him as the like were never laid on any other man yet was he so far from being incensed against them that although the least breath of his mouth could in an instant have blown them all to be destroyed yet his only revenge was Luke 22.34 Father forgive them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for they know not what they do And his servant S. Stephen imitating him when he was stoned to death desired none other revenge but kneeling down Act. 7.60 cryed with a loud voice Lord lay not this sin to their charge And if notwithstanding all this that I have said men will be still transported with the spirit of Revenge I shall only wish them to remember what Erasmus saith for a worldly counsel seeing they refuse the counsel of God that some remedies are far worse than the disease yea so far worse Vt satius sit oppetere mortem quà m his aucupari salutem Better to suffer wrongs than to repell them with far greater damage That it is better to suffer the Patients to die than to go about to compasse their health and recovery Veluti sugere sanguinem è vulnere recenti gladiatorum morientium As when we go about to save their lives by sucking the blood from the new-made wounds of the dying Gladiators And so saith he Melius est ferre pacem etiamsi parum commodam quà m bellum cum immensis malis suscipere It is sometimes better to conclude a peace or accept of peace though with some disadvantage than to undertake a war with far greater inconveniencies As it was better for David to bear a while with the sons of Zervia than presently with the hazard of his Kingdom to go about to punish their insolencies And so likewise Satius est aliquando ferre injuriam quà m majori incommodo ulcisci It is sometimes far better for a man to take some wrong and injuries than to revenge his wrongs with the suffering of far greater mischiefs And therefore touching fore-past injuries and wrongs done unto us I say with Juvenal minuti Semper infirmi est animi exiguique voluptas Juven l. 5. Sat. 13. Vltio câ—ntinuò sic collâ—ge quòd vindiciâ Nemo magis gaudet quà m foemina Revenge is the badge of a Coward and the argument of a feeble-mind befitting rather weak women than any man of a Heroick spirit especially such as are endued with the Spirit of God whose Precept is to forgive and whose language is peace as the Prophet testifieth He will speak peace unto his people and to his Saints that they turn not again that is to revenge to war and fight again but to forget all former injuries and to honour all men and therefore not to revenge our selves upon any man And according to this Precept of S. Peter to honour all men S. Paul to inforce this Duty a little further Heb. 12.14 and to shew the meaning of it somewhat clearer biddeth us to follow peace with all men Wherein you may observe 1. The large extent of our peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all men Two things to be observed 2. The great desire that we should have to get peace 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 follow peace that is just as the Psalmist saith Seek peace and ensue it 1. It must be with all men for it were a strange thing 1 The large extent of our peace with men and love to men that men should not live in peace with good men with Christians and with the Saints of God but that as in Moses time an Israelite fell out with an Israelite about the bricks and strawes of Egypt So we that professe the same Faith live under the same Head and dwell in the same Kingdom or perhaps in the same City must for the toyes and trifles of this world go to Law one with another or for some mistaken conceits and different opinions in our Faith fall out and war and rob and spoil and kill one another When as the Apostle bids us to honour all men and to follow peace with all men good or bad Jews or Gentiles For as Lot served God and lived in peace among the Sodomites and Joseph did the like among the Egyptians and Daniel likewise served the true God in Nebuchadnezzars Court and lived peaceably among the Idolatrous Chaldeans and all the true Saints and servants of Christ do keep themselves undefiled in the midst of a crooked and a froward generation So should we endeavour to live in peace and to honour and love even those that professe themselves enemies unto peace and to be of a different Faith and Religion from us that is not only the Papists Puritanes and the like Sectaries but also with the Jews Infidels and Pagans and as the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with all men Because we are bound to love our enemies and to do good to them that hate us and to pray for them that persecute us And therefore much more bound are we to be at peace with them and yet not to be corrupted or seduced by them but still to retain the true Faith The praise of Gods servants is to live holily among the wicked and to serve our God aright as we ought to do otherwise What thanks to them that live holily in heaven among
〈◊〉 the Lord shall deliver him in the time of trouble much more blessed shall he be that helpeth and relieveth the oppressed and especially those that have formerly wronged and oppressed him he shall be doubly blessed 1. Because he relieveth his wants And 2. Because he remitteth his faults and revengeth not his own wrongs And so you see how we are to honor to esteem and to love all men 2. As we are to honor all men in generall 2 What love we owe to the Brother-hood so more especially we are to love the Brother-hood in particular where observe 1. The Act. 2. The Extent 1. The Act is love and love saith the Schoolman is Bene velle amato but that is no more then Amor affectivus and the Apostle speaks not here de amore affectivo tantum sed de amore effectivo simul of the inward affection only but also of that love which is declared by the effects in outward actions and therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arist Aethic l. 9. c. 5. To love is to will that which we esteem good to any one and to the uttermost of our power to procure that good unto him as Aristotle saith So that this our love to the brother-hood comprehendeth 1. An hearty affection without dissimulation 1 Joh. 3.18 not only in tongue and in word but in deed and verity i. e. from the heart 2. An actuall performance of all the good that we can do unto them as praying for them comforting them and administring to their necessities not only with our purses but also with our words with our labours Crysost in Ro. 12. ho. 21. and with any thing that lieth in our power to stand them in any stead This is the act that we are to do And 2. For the Extent of it we are to do it most especially saith the Apostle to the Brother-hood Touching which point of Fraternity or Brother-hood you must observe that there is a two fold Brother-hood whereof you must hate the one and love the other That there is a two fold fraeternity As The 1. Is in Evil and from the Devil The 2. Is in Good and from God For 1. Simeon and Levi were brethren but it was in the evil 1 The evill Brother-hood saith the Scripture when the instruments of cruelty were in their habitations and therefore cursed was their brother-hood Gâ—n 49.5 7.7 and their unity was to be divided in Jacob and to be scattered in Israel And so the wicked at all times Faciunt unitatem coutra unitatem do as S. Augustine saith unite themselves together against verity and against the unity that should be among Cristians Psal 2.1 2. which is the unity of faith and religion and as the Prophet David saith the Heathen do furiously rage together How the wicked like the Scots and the Parliament do combine and covenant together and the people do imagine a vain thing and all take counsell together and plot against the Lord and against his annointed so Pilate and Herod though at ods among themselves for other things yet they can be reconciled and agree together to crucify Christ And so Solomon tels us how the Congregation of the ungodly do confederate and Covenant as now they do together to strengthen themselves in their wickedness saying one to anothe Come let us cast our lots together let us have but one purse that is one common treasure amongst us all Prov. 1.11 14. and let us undergo the same fortune be the same good or bad And therefore it is no new thing for Traytors Rebels and Robbers and other the like wicked men though of different sects and severall opinions yet to unite themselves together and to take oathes and make covenants confederacies and conspiracies against the professors of the true Religion and against those that they are bound Salust Conjurat Caâ—el X â—â—â—phâ—n de ascend Cyri. by former oaths to obey as it was in the conspiracy of Cateline which Salust relateth and in the confederacy of the Grecians when they went up with Cyrus the younger against Artaxerxes which Zenophon setteth down at large and the covenant of the holy leaguers of France against their King and the like But you must remember to do what God commandeth you to do in such confederacies saying My son walk not thou in the way with them resrain thy fâ—ot from their path Prov. 1.15 for their feet run to evil and make hast to shed blood as you may read in the foresaid Authors what abundance of innocent blood those wicked covenants and confederacies have caused to be spilt And therefore this being not the Brother-hood that you should love if you love God and your own souls you must hate the same as you do the gates of hell because that as the Psalmist saith in covenanting against right and against the truth they are confederates against thee O God and against thy servants And what created power under Heaven How hard it is to escaâ—e the mischief of subtile confederates is able to unty that knot and to escape that malice which villany subtilty and cruelty have combined to bring to pass Or what man is able to withstand a multitude of united enemies that have strength and wealth enough and have covenanted and sworne to fight against him untill they have destroyed him Surely when their plots are so subtile their power so great their wealth of Gold and Silver so much and the confederates of sworne brethren so many it is impossible to prevent their mischief and to escape out of their hands if the Lord himself doth not stand to help his servants and as the Prophet saith if he that dwelleth in heaven laugheth not these covenanters to scorne if the Lord have them not in derision yea if he speaks not to them in his wrath and vexeth them in his sore displeasure 2. 2 The good Brother-hood The other brother-hood is good among the good and in good in faith to God in obedience to our King and in love towards all men and this brother-hood is many fold as specially 1. Is four fold Naturall 2. Nationall 3. Politicall 4. Spirituall 1. 1 The naturall Brother-hood Naturall brethren begotten of the same parents bred in the same house and after the same manner should not be like the off-spring of Cain that killed his own and his only brother Abel and as Romulus killed his own brother Remus and Antoninus murdered his brother Geta in his mother's lap 2 Chr. 21.4 and King Joram slew six of his own naturall brethren the sons of Jehosaphat Jâ—seph de Ant. l. 14. c. 2. deinceps with the sword when as such miscreants are unworthy to live on earth neither should they jar hate or envy one another as Jacob and Esau did and Jacobs children did their brother Joseph and as the dissention of Hyrcanus and Aristobulus made way for
judge de actionibus mediis quaevel in malo vel in bono animo fieri possunt of such actions as may proceed and come either from an evil mind or from a good heart or else de futur is contingentibus of future things what may happen to any one because that in all these things we may easily be deceived as we see some man like unto S. Paul de quo desperamus subitò convertitur fit optimus of whom we despaired is suddenly converted and as he was from a persecuting wolfe became a holy Saint so is this other man from a deboist drunkard become a devout Christian and we see other men like King Saul and Judas and Simon Magus de quibus multum praesumpseramus defecerunt facts sunt pessimi of whom we conceived much good have suddenly relapsed and became most wicked so that nec timor noster certus est nec amor neither our fear of the one nor our hope of the other can have any certainty at all And on the other side he would have us to strive and study to the uttermost of our power by the ways and means that are left unto us to know the truth of outward things and to search for the understandiug of those things that God hath revealed unto us Of what thing â—ve may judge and so to judge righteous judgement in those things wherein we are allowed to judge and that is de praesentibus externis apertis of things present or past and the things that are manifest and externall as to discern white from black light from darknesse good from evill and a sober man from him that is drunk or a true subject from a false Traytor and the like so far as their outward actions do appear Which may be done without entring into the hearts and thoughts of men or diving to deep into the secrets of God for our Saviour tells us that as the tree is known by his fruit that is cujus generis sit of what kind it is an apple or a crab The words and works of every man do testifie whâ—t he is Judg. 12.6 John 10.25 a fig tree or a thistle so we may know men by their words and by their works whether they be therein good or bad the blessers of God or the blasphemers of God for as the damsell said to Saint Peter Thy speech bewrayeth thee and the pronouncing of Shiboleth discovered who was an Israelite and who not who a Gileadite and who an Euphraimite And our Saviour saith The works that I do do bear witnesse of me so the words and works of every man else do sufficiently testifie what he is for the present good or bad But though I do know by the fruits of what kind the tree is yet I know not thereby whether the tree be rotten at the root or not so though I know by the words and works of men whether they be therein vertuous or vitious Saints or sinners yet I cannot judge thereby what kind of hearts they have good or bad or what will become of them for the time to come For you know what the Prophet saith Many give good words with their mouths but curse with their hearts and the Israelites drew near unto God with their mouthes and honoured him with their lips but their hearts were farre from him and therefore seeing that virtus consistit in actione vertue consisteth in action in our works rather then in our words our Saviour tells us Matth 7.21 Not he that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of heaven but he that doth the will of his Father which is in heaven and Saint Paul saith directly Rom. 2.13 Not the hearers of the Law though you should hear a Sermon every day in the week but the doers of the Law shall be justified because our works do more fully and more certainly shew what we are rather then our words for quid audiam verba cum videam contraria facta to what purpose shall I hear good words Our words like the leaves and our works like the fruit while the tongue like Joab saith Iâ— it peace my brother and the hand stabs us to the heart they will avail us nothing being like the Spiders web that will make no garment for us because our words are like the green leaves that make a fair shew upon any tree and our works are like the solid fruits whereby we discern the sweetnesse and the goodnesse of the tree And yet I told you how far we may judge of the fruits and works of men so far as 〈◊〉 see and no further because we may as easily be deceived by the specious works of the hypocrite as by the scandalous deeds of the transgressors which perhaps for ought we know may have better hearts towards God then the others that have far more glorious works in the sight of men And therefore I say that we ought not to make a distinction among Christians and gather Churches unto our selves to be a congregation of Saints separated from the rest of the wicked as the Apostles gathered Churches from the unbelieving Jewes and the Idolatrous Gentiles Because all those that are baptized and are received as the children of the Church and do professe the Faith of Christ are comprehended in this Brotherhood and is not to be rent in pieces like Jeroboams garment but ought to be kept intire like the Coat of Christ and to be loved and and cherished as this our Apostle adviseth us But then seeing this brotherhood which we are thus chiefly to love is not the brotherhood of society which reason perswadeth nor of consanguinity which nature teacheth nor of our Election and Adoption to be the Sonnes of God which we know not but of the profession of the faith of Christ and receiving of the signes and badges of Christianity which are visible to our eyes of flesh and credible to the judgement of charity Quest it is much questioned and of too many men very unjustly resolved whether all that are baptized and do thus professe the Christian Religion and are not cut off from the Communion of the Church for some detected and apparant iniquity are comprehended in this brotherhood and are thus specially to be loved To which our rigid Saints do absolutely deny it because we see so many Sects and so many kinds of men that do thus professe Christianitie and say They do all believe in Christ and do wear his badge and do him service as Papasts Puritans Brownists Anabaptists and the like And therefore if this be true that all these are contained and united within this bond of fraternity and with a Christian love to be imbraced you will make the way to heaven very broad and this bond of brotherhood of a very large extent But I answer that I must not shut the gate of heaven against those Sol. to whom Christ hath opened it nor make the way thither narrower then God hath made it
that the same true God which giveth the Kingdom of Heaven to his children only giveth the Earthly Kingdoms both to the good and to the bad as he pleaseth yet alwaies justly And for Nimrod I say the words bear no more then he became mightier then other Kings or began to Tyrannize more then all the other Kings And for S. Peters words I say he means it only of Elective Kings Which in another place I shewed more fully than the time will now give me leave in what sense he calleth them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore I say the calling of Kings is the proper Ordinance of God as it is fully and most learnedly shewed by a most Reverend Prelate of our Church lately published and intituled Sacro-Sancta Regum Majestas Howsoever as I said we condemn not as unlawfull the right of all Elective Kings yet we ought to acknowledg how much more bound we are to God that himself in a rightfull line of succession hath appointed our Kings to raign over us so that we need not fear the error of our Election if there be no error in our submission 2. As we are to consider quem whom so we ought to remember qualem what manner of King we are commanded to honor for as the unjust Vsurper may govern the people justly as they do sometimes and in some places so they that have just Titles to their Crowns may prove unjust in their Governments as too too many both of the Kings in Israel and Judah and I fear many other Kings have been And yet if they be our lawfull Kings be they what they will Cruell Tyrannous or Idolatrous or if you will put all together I say we are bound to honor them and no waies to Rebell against them for if thy Brother the son of thy Mother or thy son or thy daughter Deut. 13.6 or the wife of thy bosome or thy friend which is as thine own soul shall intice thee to Idolatry and to serve strange gods thine eye shall not spare him neither shalt thou have any pity upon him but for the son to rise up against the Father the wife against her Husband the servant against his Lord or the subject against his King here is not a word and we are not to do what the Lord doth not command as Tostat well observeth upon this place Therefore though Jeroboam made Israel to sin by setting up his calves to be adored Nâ—buchadnezzar commanded all his people to worship his Golden Image Ahab Manasses Nero Julian and the rest of the persecuting Emperors did most impiously compell their Subjects to Idolatry and exercised all kinds of cruelty against Gods servants yet you shall never find that either the Jews under Jeroboam or Daniel in Babylon or Elias in the time of Ahab or any Christian under Julian or the rest of those bloody Tyrants did ever rebell against any of those wicked Kings for they all considered the law of God and I beseech you all to consider it likewise 1. Exod 22.28 Moses saith Thou shalt not speak evil of the Ruler of thy people yea though he should be evil yet must thou not speak evil of him for as thou art to honor thy Father not so much because he is good as because he is thy Father and therefore the son of Noah was accursed because he despised his Father when his father sinned so we are to honor our King and to speak no ill of him though he should be never so ill for Is it fit to say to a King Thou art wicked And to Princes Ye are ungodly Job 34.18 2. 2 Not to do the least indignity unto our King As we are to bridle our tongues so much more ought we to refrain our hands from offering the least violence unto our King When the Lord saith peremptorily Touch not mine annointed where he doth not say Non occides or ne perdas the worst that can be but ne tangas the least that may be neither doth he say Sanctos meos my holy ones but Christos meos my annointed ones whether they be holy or unboly good or bad therefore though Saul was a wicked King and a heavy persecutor of David without cause hunting him like a Partridge upon the Mountains and seeking no less then to take away his life yet when the men of David said unto him Behold the day of which the Lord said unto thee I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand that thou maist do to him as it shall seem good unto thee what seemed good unto him Truely no waies to hurt him nor to do the least indignity unto him for his heart smote him because he had cut off the skirt of his robe and therefore he said unto his men 1 Sam. 24.4 5 6 The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my Master the Lords annointed to stretch forth my hand against him And why so because he is the annointed of the Lord that is not because he is a good man but because he is my King Nay we are not only forbidden to offer violence That we are to protect our King with the hazard of our lives but we are also injoyned to give our best assistance to protect the persons of our most wicked Kings for David not only staid his servants with the former words and suffered them not to rise against Saul but when Saul lay sleeping within his trench and David and Abishai took away his speare and had the power to destroy him What saith David unto Abner Art not thou a Valiant man And who is like thee in Israel Wherefore then hast thou not kept thy Lord the King This thing is not good that thou hast done as the Lord liveth 1 Sam. 15.16 ye are worthy to dye because you have not kept your Master the Lords annointed And if this thing is not good and David jesteth not but sweareth As the Lord liveth they are worthy to dye that preserve not the life of their King be he never so wicked then certainly this thing is not good and they are more then worthy to die that not only refuse to assist but also rise in Arms to persecute and to take away the life of a most Pious and a Gracious King So you see the person whom we are to honor the King whatsoever he be good or bad 2. The Honor that we are to exhibite unto him is to be considered out of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word so significant that it not only comprehendeth all the duty which we owe to our Father and Mother but it is also used to express most if not all the service of God when he saith If I am a father Malach. 1.5 where is my honor And therefore when Ahassuerus asked Haman What should be done unto the man Whom the King would honor he answered let the Royall apparell be brought which the King useth to weare and the Horse that the King rideth upon
for his flock For the affirmative or positive duties of a good Shepherd what he should do for his sheep never any came neer the goodnesse of this good Shepherd For 1. He provideth for his flock not onely the outward food of their bodies which he doth for all other living creatures when as the Prophet saith He openeth his hands and filleth all things living with plenteousness and as the same Prophet saith He feedeth the young ravens that call upon him and the best of us hath not a crum of bread but what he hath from him but he hath provided also the spiritual food of their souls which is the Word of God and the blessed Sacrament of the Lords Supper for as our Saviour alledged against Satan Mat. 4.4 Man liveth not by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God and the blessed Sacraments are Verba visibilia Evangelii the visible and palpable words of the Gospel and are as the celestiall manna the heavenly food that perisheth not but feedeth us to eternall life The errour of the Messalian Hereticks if we strive to receive the same worthily as we ought to do though now we have too too many that are poysoned with the conceit of the Messalian Hereticks that said Baptism and the Lords Supper did neither profit us nor hurt us but that they which were inspired by Gods Spirit were guided by the revelation of that Spirit how to behave themselves in all their wayes which is the readiest way to lead them to the infernal spirits because we are not to be led by the inspiration of any spirit but by those holy directions which the Spirit of God hath left us in the holy Scriptures What is meant to be inspired with Gods spirit and when we pray to be inspired with Gods Spirit we mean no otherwise then that the Spirit of God would guide us to lead our lives and to do all things as we are commanded by the same spirit to do in the word of God that is left unto us by the Prophets and Apostles of Jesus Christ to be the onely Rule of all our actions 2. As he provideth thus both our temporal and our spiritual food 2 Christ ordereth how the food of his should be disposed so he ordereth and disposeth this food unto his sheep not according to their sensual appetite but for the natural good of their bodies and the spiritual health of their souls that it may be unto them the savour of life unto life and not the savour of death unto death As 1. For their natural food 1 Their natural food he would have us with the son of Jakeh to desire neither poverty nor riches neither too much nor too little but to be fed with food convenient lest if we be too full we forget the Lord grow too proud as the great rich men commonly be or if we be too poor we be driven to steal and to lie Prov. 30.8 9. and to take the name of God in vain And What should be convenient for every man because most men are loath to understand what is the mean betwixt too much and too little and what measure is that that is convenient S. Paul tells us That having food and rayment we should therewith be contented for the greatest Monarch in the world can have no more and our Saviour that best knew what is convenient for every man bids us prey to God that he would give us this day our daily bread that is so much as will serve us for our present necessity Luke 12.19 and not with that fool in the Gospel to lay up much goods for many years when he knew not that his soul in that night should be taken from him and then he could not tell who should enjoy those things or how those things should be spent that he had provided And 2. For our spiritual food 2 Their spiritual food this good Shepherd hath commanded us that are his under-Shepherds to give unto his sheep their owne portion in due season 1. Their own portion and that both in quality and quantity 1 Their own portion 1. In quality 1. In Quality what is most proper for every one as all meats serve not for every stomack and every potion serves not for all diseases so it is with our spiritual food and the divine physick of our soules and therefore we are advised to give milk unto the babes and stronger meat to them that are stronger men in Christ that is plain and easie doctrines to the plain and more ignorant people and deeper and more polite discourses to the judicious and those of deeper knowledge because as S. Paul saith we are debtors both to the Greeks and to the Barbaâ—ians to the wise and to the unwise and therefore as Christ biddeth his Apostles so must we sometimes launch forth into the deep both of Divinity and Humanity and as well of Arts as of Languages And so we are to give praises to the good reproofes to the bad but flatteries unto none when we ought no more to flatter the sweet and clement then to fear the cruel tyrant and in like manner we are commanded to apply comfors and consolations to the dejected spirits to pronounce pardon to the penitent sinners and to thunder out the terrors of Gods judgements to none but such as are impenitent and obstinate transgressors 2. In Quantity we are to give our sheep neither too much of this spiritual food 2 In quantity nor yet too little for where prophesie faileth the people perish and the worst famine is the famine not of corn wine and oyl but of the famine of Gods Word and therofere the Apostle saith Wo is me if I preach not the Gospel and wo is them that hinder us to preach it as they have done these many years And yet as we are not to give our sheep too little of this spiritual pasture lest they should want so they should not have too much lest they should loath it for a man may eat too much of the Honey-comb saith Solomon Prov. 25.16 Num. 11.20 and the children of Israel had so much Manna that they loathed it and Quails so plentifully that the flesh came out at their nostrils and so men may have the Word of God so fully that they will despise it or at least neglect it because as Solomon saith Prov. 27.7 the full soul loatheth or treadeth under foot the honey-comb but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet so is the Word of God precious when it is not so plentiful and despised when we are full of it And truly I do believe Knowledge how more plentiful now then ever it was the Gospel of Christ and the rest of the holy Scriptures were never since Christ his time so fully and so generally and so truly published as of late they were in the reigne of our late King
the onely good Shepherd and in all other respects whatsoever is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the good Shepherd and indeed the onely Shepherd that is simply and absolutely good For Though Abel was a good Shepherd and Jacob was another good Shepherd Gen. 31.40 so carefully watching over his flock that in the day the drought consumed him and the frost by night and his sleep departed from his eyes and Moses was such another Psal 77.20 of whom the Prophet saith that God led his people like sheep by the hands of Meses and Aaron and so David was an excellent Shepherd that ventured his life to save his sheep and to pull it out of the Lions teeth and when God took him away from the sheep-folds that he might feed Jacob his people and Israel his inheritance the Spirit of God tells us that he fed them with a faithful and true heart Psal 78.73 Esay 44.28 and ruled them prudently with all his power And of Cyrus the Lord said He is my Shepherd and Homer calleth Agamemnon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Shepherd of the people and so not onely the Apostles and Bishops but also Constantine Theodosius King James and King Charls and all other religious Kings and pious Princes as Nehemiah the good Lieutenant of Jury under Artaxerxes King of Persia to whom if it were not for suspicion of flattery which is one of the basest of all vices and the worst kind of Scotization you may see what Minshaw meaneth by that word I might truly parallel his Excellency our Lord Lieutenant The now Duke of Ormond and many more have been very good Shepherds of Gods sheep Yet they were all and put them all together very very far short of this Shepherd in my Text which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that good Shepherd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 transcendently and which in all the foresaid respects and in all other respects whatsoever excelleth all the most excellent Shepherds in the world And so much shall serve to be spoken at this time of the good properties of this good Shepherd 2. As the children of God are termed Sheep in respect of Christ 2 Gods people are termed Sheep in respect of themselves Geminianus de exemplis l. 5. c. 46. 1. In respect of their innocency 2 Sam. 24.17 which is their chief Shepherd so they are likewise stiled Sheep in respect of the Analogie and resemblances betwixt them and Sheep which as Geminianus saith are in these six speciall points 1. Innocency of life for as nature gave the sheep neither horns to hurt nor claws to scratch nor teeth to bite so the children of God do nothing to the hurt of any other they neither hate their neighbour in their hearts nor strike him with their hands nor traduce him with their tongues nor think any evil or wish any hurt to him in their thoughts and therefore when David saw the Angel that smote the people in Hierusalem he said Lo I have sinned but these sheep what have they done as if he should have said these poor men that are like sheep so harmless and so innocent what hurt could they do either in themselves or to any others Et haec vera innocentia est quae nec sibi nec aliis nocet and that is the true innocency saith S. Aug. which hurteth neither himself nor his neighbours 2. 2 In respect of their patience They are resembled unto Sheep for their patience in suffering all kinds of injuries and indignities for as the Prophet sheweth and Gods people findeth it For thy sake are we killed all the day long Psal 44.22 and are counted as sheep appointed to be slain Where you may see 1. Where observe 1. The Cause The cause of their sufferings is expressed not for theft murder adultery or the like wicked acts but Propter te for Gods cause for obeying his will and being loyal to our Superiours and not treacherous unto our lawful Governours and so for being faithful in Gods service by publishing the truth and not carried away with every new form of service and every wind of false doctrine this is cause enough to suffer and this is propter te for thy sake O God which is our onely comfort 2. 2 The Sufferings Here is the sufferings of Gods sheep and servants specified we are mortified or killed And that is 1. By our selves in our repentance and contrition for our sins every day or all the day long that is throughout our whole life according as the Apostle saith we die daily that is to sin and for our sin And then 2. We are killed by others when with the rest of the Martyrs we are as we have been not long since throughout all this Kingdome robbed of our good names filled with reproach plundered of our estates banished from our dwellings clapt up in prisons and then led as sheep unto the slaughter In all which and in all other sufferings I know no better remedy then what our Saviour prescribeth to us in our patience to possess our souls which may be lost for want of patience but will be supported and eased if we will be like sheep patient and silent in our sufferings Quia levius fit patientia Horatius quicquid corrigere est nefas because the more we struggle when we are in the briars the more we shall be scratched and intangled and the less able we shall be to bear our indignities and the less we murmure the less will be our sufferings and the more favours we shall finde at the hands of God and therefore the Poet could say 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We ought to suffer patiently whatsoever God layeth upon us and so the Saints of God do suffer whatsoever is laid upon them as you may see in the said 44 Psalm from the 10. v. to the 22. 3. 3 In respect of their obedience C. 10. v. 4. Damase l. 3. c. 4 They are resembled to Sheep in respect of their obedience to do the commands of God for as the Sheep do follow the Shepheards whistle and do know his voice so do the servants of God obey the voice of Christ listening to his words with their ears Unde veteres dicebant obaudio pro obedio imbracing it in their souls Quia obedientia est voluntatis propriae subjectio preceptis Dei which they are most ready to peform to say with him in Plautus Plaut trin Adsum impera quidvis neque tibi ero in mora neque latebrosè me abs tuo conspectu occultabo For Aug. in Gen. l. 9. habetur 33. q. 5. c. est ordo as S. Aug. truly saith Est ordo naturalis in hominibus ut serviat foeminae viris filii parentibus quia in illis haec est justitia ut majori serviat minor it is the order of nature among men that the women should serve the men children their parents servants their masters and subjects
ut bene agerent they will not understand the truth that they might do well 2. 2 The Hypocrites The next sort of bad hearers are the hypocrites which for a while will seem to be Saints and in the end will prove Apostata and an hypocrite is a Greek word that was used to signifie a Stage-player who for a time weareth the habit and carrieth the stile and title of a King An Hypocrite what it signifieth or acteth the part of some valorous Knight when as indeed he is but a Peasant and a Coward of no resolution and being applied to matters of Religion it signifieth such a one whose mouth ears and face and all other his outward deportment do make shews of great piety and Religion when as really he is nothing of what he seems to be but as the Watermen do look one way and row another way so doth the hypocrite pretend one thing and aim at another thing as those Spyes that were sent by the chief Priests and Scribes to watch our Saviour Christ did feign themselves just men but it was to this end saith the Evangelist that they might take hold of his words Luke 20.20 that so they might deliver him to the power of the Governour So here is a fair pretence to be just and honest men and yet a most wicked purpose to intrap and betray our Saviour Christ And have we no such Spyes in these daies that come to hear us that they might take hold of our words and pervert our words too that they might accuse us Res ipsaloquitur and I have found them And therefore seeing such hearers of Gods Words have but the shews and shadows of Religion and no substances they are fitly compared to those falling stars which the Phylosophers do call assub for as these in the night time do seem to be truestars in the Firmament and yet they are nothing else but certain fat exhalations of the earth which being lifted up through the upper Region of the ayr and kindled through the heat and force of the upper Element which is the fire do suddenly fall again into nothing So these hypocritical hearers of Gods Words that are Catones foris and Nerones intus as upright as Cato and as zealous as S. Paul without and as deceitful as Tyberius and as cruel as Nero within do for a while seem to be good Christians in the Church of God but because the Words that they hear take no root in their hearts that are canales non conchi like Sluces and Channels to convey it through them and not pools or vessels to retain it still within them when the fire of affliction and persecution and the fear of losing their honours and preferment cometh they fall away saith our Saviour even as the falling stars and they are ready to turn with every wind as you may note in your books the many multitude of Professors both Clergy and Laity that have done so since 1641. I pray God it be not laid to their charge 3. 3 The worldling The last sort of bad hearers are those worldly men that would gladly come to the Kingdome of heaven but they cannot be perswaded to relinquish and forsake the things of this world but they are so far addicted and so much in love with the pleasures and vanities of this present life that as Christ saith the cares and riches of this world do so choak them Luke 8.14 4. The good Christian that they bring no fruit unto perfection But the sheep of Christ with an honest heart and a simple desire to understand the will of God and know the truth that they may believe the one and obey the other do hear the voice of Christ And therefore as when Moses called the people of God to hear the words and Commandments of God and told them how the Lord willed them to sanctifie themselves the day before to make clean their apparel and to keep themselves from their wives Exod 19.10 4. 15. v. How men should prepare themselves to hear Gods Word that they might with the more purity and sincerity hear his words So the sheep of Christ considering that this outward sanctification and preparation of this people to hear Gods Word was but the type and figure of that inward purity and due preparation that they should make when they come to hear the voice of Christ do earnestly pray to God that they may come to hear with a good intent and not for fashion sake or with a prejudicate conceit of the Preacher or an obstinate mind to perfist in their own erronious Opinion whatsoever they hear to the contrary or especially to catch at some things from the Preacher to accuse him but to be truly edified in the Faith of Christ and rightly instructed for the true service of God These be the true sheep that do rightly hear the voice of the true Shepherd and all other hearers that do call for preaching and run after preaching and seek for singular Preachers of their own Faction are but wicked or formal hearers of the voice of Christ and such as the Prophet Esay speaketh of which follow after the Word and gather precept upon precept and word upon word and line upon line here a little Esay 28. 10.13 and there a little and are never the better but fall backward and grow worse and worse because these hearers do resemble the Inhabitants that are about the fall of the river Nilus which is very great and the fall thereof so exceeding high The customary hearers like the Inhabitants about the fall of Nilus Macrobius and the noyse of the fall so violent and so loud that at the first it astonisheth the hearers so much and maketh them in a manner sensless and to hear nothing else by reason of the violence of the noyse yet at length saith Macrobius when they are accustomed with the noyse thereof and that it becomes habitual to them it seems as nothing to move them to astonishment even so is the Word of God to these hearers At first it seems to quicken and make some impression in them but the same being so often sounded and the voice thereof so familiar to them and so often heard of them it moveth their hearts no whit at all but it passeth so smoothly through them that it maketh no operation within them which makes the Apostle tell us 2 Tim. 3.7 that they are ever learning and so ever hearing and yet never able to come to the knowledge of the truth 2. Having heard the act which my sheep are to do that is 2 The object my voice to hear as they ought to hear attentively reverently and religiously to be edified and bettered thereby we are now to consider the object of this act what they are to hear and that is not the Turks Alcoran nor the Popes Traditions nor the Jewish fables but my voice saith Christ And this voice of
aut per maria ambulare Aug. de bonis Câ—njugal c. 37. Non in quantum sil dei sed in quant filius hominis Id. de sanctitat Virginit c. 27. aut coecos illuminare but learn of me that I am meek and lowly in heart Therefore The second sort of the Acts and Doings of Christ are such as he did as man and are imitable to be imitated by us that are men and would be counted the Sheep and Servants of Christ and herein we should follow him And therein also we are to follow him 1. In respect of the Manner 2. In respect of the Matter For 1. What vertuous or pious act soever we desire to do 1 Sincerely 2. Totally 3. Diligently 4. Constantly 5. Humbly Diabolus dux nobis fuit ad superbiam Aug. ho. 12. Phil. 2.7 and to imitate Christ therein we must strive to do it to the uttermost of our power Modo forma in the same manner as Christ did it and that is 1. In sincerity without hypocrisie 2. For Gods glory and not for our own commodity 3. In a discreet knowledge and not in a blinde zeale Without the observation of which rules the Acts that we do may be good in themselves and yet quite spoyled from yielding any great good to us by our ill manner of doing them As 1. To fast and pray and to pay Tythes of Mynt and Annyse 1 Boni videri volunt sed non esse Bern. in cant Ser. 66. 1 Chr. 28.9 Prov. 21.1 Psal 51. Ad novercae tumulâ—m flere Hieron in Esa l. 6. How horrible it is to do villanies under the pretence of Piety Erasm in simil were very good deeds commended and commanded to be done by God himself yet because the Scribes and Pharisees did them in hypocrisie to be seen of men and to make the world believe they were Saints and the onely religious men our Saviour denounceth many a bitter woe against them and tells us that they have their reward and that is as Saint Hierom saith Gloriam mercenariam supplicia peccatorum So they that proclaim dayes of Humiliation and practise nothing but Oppression that pray to God to blesse them and prey upon the poor that curse them do but as the Greek Adage saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to weep for the death of our Stepmother and double their sin in the sight of God Quia levius est in alium aperte peccare quam simulare sanctitatem because the professed thief that robs by the high-way-side is not so bad as the holy Saint that under the shew of Religion takes away mine Estate saith Saint Hierome for as Wine mingled with Water doth sooner provoke vomite then either Water alone or pure Wine Ita intolerabilior est nequitia pietatatis simulatione condita quam simplex aperta malitia so any wickedness that is covered with the Cloak of Religion is a great deal more intolerable then if the same were plainly committed without any pretence of Piety saith Erasmus So horrible a sin it is to cloath Sin in the garment of Holiness as to put the Coat of Christ upon Judas his back 2. As it was an acceptable service unto God 2 Many doe Gods work for their own end as to subdue the rebels to get their lands for themselves The continual course of all worldlings in the service of God and a very good work to root out the house of Ahab for his Idolatry and prophaning Gods Service yet because Jehis did it rather to get the Kingdom unto himself and destroyed all the Kings children the better to secure himself in his Kingdome then to satisfie Gods justice for Ahabs Impiety the Lord saith that he will require the blood of Ahab on the house of Jehu even so they that destroy any Offenders root out the Transgressors of Gods Lawes and punish the Corrupters of Gods Worship be they whom you will the Work may be good and just yet if the doers thereof do it not so much to execute Gods Will as to satisfie their own Malice to suppress whom they hate or according to their ambition to make themselves great and to get their Estates and Possessions to themselves and their Posterity God will never accept of this work for any service done to him but will most severely punish it at the last And I think that the making of themselves great as Jehu did by the service that men pretend to do to God doth sufficiently cause many others to doubt whether they have done those things onely for Gods glory or for a conjuncture likewise of their own profit and I conceive you may be sure the jealous God will not regard that service which is done to him with a sinister aspect and respect to our own profit because he will not give his glory unto another he will not yield any part of his service to any of them that do the service but though he will certainly reward every man that doth him service yet as our Saviour explaineth the words of Moses it is written The shalt worship the Lord thy God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and him onely shalt thou serve and not thy self with him in the service that thou dost to him so he will neither accept nor reward that service which thou dost to thy self as well as to God or rather to thy self then to God And therefore I would advise all those that in doing service unto God by pulling down the Transgressors of his Lawes have raised themselves to such great Polsessions I would the Rebels would consider this to look well to their intention progression and execution of their work lest that for the service they believe they do to God they receive the reward of the Scribes and Pharisees or of Jehn that pulled down King Ahab to make himself King of Israel 3. 3 Many do good in a blind zeal Num. 11.28 2 Sam. 16.9 The love of Joshna to Moses when Eldad and Medad prophesied was good and so was the love of Abishai to David when Shimei cursed him and of James and John to Christ when they would have called for fire out of heaven to destroy the Samaritans for not receiving Christ but the love of them was in a blind Zeal without knowledge and therefore instead of being commended they were much reproved for their indiscretion even as Saint Paul persecuted the Saints when his blind zeal perswaded him that he destroyed Gods enemies And as Aiax in his frenzy is reported to have slain his own children by taking them for Ulisses and Agamemnon so many men in their blind Zeal destroy the true Ambassadors of Christ and the Pastors of Gods people by taking them for Popish Prelates Origen in ep ad Rom. Zelus ad mortem Amb. in Ps 119. and therein think they do God good service as the Jews thought when they crucified Christ for as Origen saith Putant se zelum Dei habere sed quia non secundum
he devised the way to depose her and to set the Crown upon the right Heirs Head whose example we ought all to follow when opportunity serveth Or were I not so that we must renounce usurped power how shall we protect and maintain the just and lawful authority 2 Sam. 15 16. surely the people that followed Abso lon when he had the power to trample Justice under foot to possesse the royal City and to drive the lawful King to flie from place to place and the followers of those perfideous Rebels of Killkenney that so barbarously massacred the poor Protestants and so foully so falsely deluded both the good King and all the Kings friends and have now as themselves pretend the great power in this Kingdom may well be justified not to have offended if this doctrine may be defended that usurped authority is not to be resisted but to be obeyed when its power is most prevalent But the Apostle tells us plainly Rom. 14.2 that whatsoever is not of faith is sin and with what faith I pray you can I obey that power and submit my self to that authority which my conscience tells me to be against truth and without Justice But Tertull. ad Scapulam makes this most clear where he sheweth how tender the Christians were to preserve the right to the lawful Emperours and therefore though Albinus was most powerful in the West and Pisen Niger in the East yet the Christians would be nec Albiniani nec Cassiani nec Nigriani Yet this much I must tell you that where the right heir is not apparent as it was not amongst many of the Primitive Emperours who were often lifted up to that royal dignity by none other right than the Sword of the tumultuous Souldiers and unconstant cohorts and were therefore obeyed by the good Christians because they knew not of any other that had any better right unto the Empire the same as yet being unsetled to continue in any hereditary line or when the just Title to the Crown is not cleered as perhaps it was not to all the Subjects in the time of Hen. 4. Edw. 4. and Rich. 3. and the like doubtful claimes then it is not for every private mechanick or ignorant Rustick to determine the right to the Crown and decide the equity or the iniquity of such powers but as the Apostle saith and as it was most learnedly handled by a most Reverend and a most learned Prelate of our Church not long since in this place they ought to study to be quiet to follow their own Trades 1 Thes 4 11. and to do their own business and not to polupragmatize in matters so transcendent and so metaphysical to their Mechanick and Rustick capacities And in this qualified sence you must understand and not mistake the meaning of the same most Reverend Prelate in this place upon our last Kings day that when it is doubtful to whom the right of the Soveraign Power should belong or who hath right unto the Soveraignty then all ignorant and private men are excused though they resist not the Government that hath the present power over them but do obey the same especially by their passive obedience and likewise by their active obedience in all honest and lawful demands All which with all that I said before I say to clear the integrity of the said Reverend Prelates intention from any sinister apprehension of misunderstanding hearers But where the right is indubitable and the soveraignty not to be questioned whose it is as it is with our most gracious King whom all the Irish Rebels of Kilkenny and all the other Rebels of these three Kingdoms deny not to be their lawful Soveraign I say that what Power soever exalteth it self above him or against him which the Parliament of England doth not when it challengeth only a kind of co-ordination with him we are not to yield any obedience unto the same especially if the same command or require any thing contrary to his commands because as the Son of Syrach saith We are to stand with the right and in the truth and as our Saviour saith To continue faithful therein unto death if we desire to enjoy the Crown of life And therefore though the dumb devil may hold my tongue Rev. 2.10 so that I shall be able to say nothing of what truth should be delivered yet all the power of hell shall never open my mouth and cause me to say that untruth which my conscience telleth me cannot be justified because this love to the truth of Scripture is a singular Testimony of our love to God 3. The next sign of the love of God is to love the honour of God without which we cannot be said to love God 2 To love Gods honour 4. The next sign is to love Gods Image that is Man 5. To observe Gods Precepts 6. To hate Sin 7. A longing desire to be with God to have an Union and Communion with him for it is an impregnable property of a person loving to desire to be united to the person loved and therefore Pyramus loving Thisbe cries out to the wall that hindered them to meet together Invide dicebat paries quid amantibus obstas Many other signs of Gods love I should shew unto you and the impediments that hinders us to love God such as are 1. The ignorance of the incomprehensible sweetness and unspeakable goodness of God 2. The too much love of our selves and of our carnal desires 3. The bewitching allurements of the pleasures profits and other vanities of this present world and the like that do hinder blind and suffocate our love to God And then last of all I should shew unto you the helps and furtherances to beget and to nourish the love of God in us such as are 1. The continual meditation of Gods goodness towards us and his excellencies in himself 2. The daily reading and hearing of Gods Word and the reading of other godly Books that do incite and invite us to love the Lord above all the things of this World 3. Continual Prayers to God for Grace and the assistance of his Holy Spirit to encline our hearts to love him 4. Often discourse and conference with good and holy men about the goodness of God and heavenly things and the like All which I should more fully and amply inlarge unto you but that the time binds me to defer the same to a fitter opportunity and in the interim to pray to God for grace to abandon the love of this World and to love God and to encrease in our love to him more and more through Jesus Christ our Lord To whom be Glory and Honour and Thanks now and for evermore Amen Jehovae Liberatori THE DECLARATION OF THE Just Judgments of GOD. THE Man that was according to God's own heart the best Subject that ever we read of and the greatest Ring that ever Israel saw David the Son of Jesse saith that the LORD is righteous in
Punishment which should be a warning to all Transgressors to fear the Vengeance of Allmighty God Thirdly The Lord Brooks The next Member of the Long Parliament that I shall set down in my Catalogue of disloyal Subjects is the Lord Brooks a man whose former life and Conversation which I knew by his own penitent Epistles and Letters that from beyond the Seas he wrote to his Unckle Sir Fulk Grevil afterwards Lord Brooks who shewed them unto me was very loose and dissolute and how in a short time by some strange Conversion far unlike Saint Paul's he passed from one extream to another Four remarkable things concerning the Lord Brooks from a very dissolute Youth to a most resolute Saint I know not but out of many remarkable things written of him immediately after his death I shall onely set down here these few particulars First That as in his former looseness he wholly neglected the Commands and grave Counsels of his Unckle Sir Fulke Grevil that was his Governour loco Parentis his Maintainer and upon my Knowledge a very bountiful Maintainer of him too so afterwards in his too much preciseness he did in like manner wholly reject his Duty and Obedience to his King that was Pater Patriae and a very gracious King to him too yea he became a very obstinate violent and a most virulent Opposer of his King as if he could not be a Saint in the Service of God except the became as a rebel to oppose his King but so it is most commonly seen that they which are undutyful to their Parents and Governors will seldom prove faithful to their Kings or Princes Secondly I observed that our of his superabundant zeal which he pretended to God's Honour he extremely hated and persecuted the Governours of God's Church and the chief Upholders of God's Service the reverend Bishops and and all the grave and learned Doctours of God's word and he was no less a Profaner of God's House which is the material Temple and the place where God's Honour dwelleth while the Saints are Pilgrims in the Wilderness of this World Thirdly It is not unknown to most that knew him that he could not endure to have this Epithete and Title of Saint to be given either to Evangelist or Apostle and especially to any other departed Saint or Servant of God as Saint Augustine Saint Ambrose and the like though he could not deny them to be with God in Heaven as if the Saints in Heaven for fear of Idolatry or Superstition were not to be acknowledged for Saints now on earth but that this Sanctity must be appropriated onely to themselves that are such furious Zelots against the reverend esteem we bear to the Saints in Heaven though we neither invocate them for help nor adore the best of them with the Church of Rome no more then they but knowing that not one is in Heaven but he is a Saint we give this Title of Saint to them of whom we doubt not of their being blessed with God Fourthly He had another property no less injurious to himself and the Servants of God on earth then the former was to the Saints in Heaven for that excellent Prayer in our Letany and the holy desire of God's Servants that it would please God to deliver them from sudden Death which all good Divines and faithfull Servants of God did ever acknowledge for a temporary Judgement of God and therefore prayed that whensoever it pleased him to call for their Souls out of this earthly Tabernacle he would be pleased to grant them some time and space to call upon him for the forgiveness of their Sins and to commend their Souls into his Hands and so forth Yet this Lord could not away with the Prayer nor abide to hear of this Petition but would have every man at all times to be so prepared for death that he needed not at any time to pray against sudden death and we say likewise that every man ought to expect death in every place and to do his best endeavour to be prepared for death at all times yet that neither this Lord nor the best Saint on earth can be so well prepared at any time but that he ought as he hath need to pray for pardon of the Defects and Imperfection of his Preparation and therefore to pray for time to make that Prayer and then as for time to dispose and fit himself for God and to make his peace with him through Christ so to set his House in order as the â—rophet saith to Ezechias and to settle his Estate among those that depend upon him which hath been ever held to be as it is indeed a Blessing and a great favour granted from God to preserve love and to continue peace and amity amongst a man's Children and the rest of his Friends and Posterity But here in this Lord we may behold and adore the Judgment of the just God how that as Goliah's Head was cut off with his own Sword so Judicium suum super caput suum this man's Judgment and his practice fell upon his own head and the Stone that he threw at another lighted upon his own Pate for in the Prosecution of his hate against his King as a just reward of that Service his Lordship being in Litchfield on Saint Chad's day the Founder of that Church while he viewed the College or Close as they tearm it and Church of Saint Chad to batter them down with his Canons for the Fideliy and Allegiance of that Fraternity unto their King being all harnessed Cap-a-pâ— from top to toe as he lifted up his Helmet to see the same more clearly behold you and see the just hand of God directing the hand of a youth that was a Prebend's Son with a Fowling-Piece to hit him just in the eye that as formerly he could not see the truth so now he could see nothing but fell suddenly dead and never spake word no not so much as Lord have mercy upon me so the Lord God shewed himself just and righteous in his Judgments and holy in all his ways and let all the Sons of men acknowledge the same and all wicked men fear his Justice Fourthly The next man Fourth Man that I shall bring upon the Stage to answer at the Bar of Justice is Master John Pym a man that was in an Office of great trust and of much profit and gain under the King and because as the Proverb goeth Much would have more his Covetousness egged forward by his Ambition to be great snatching at more then was just laid him open to lose what was due and to be deprived of his place that was so good Then he like the unjust Steward spoken of in the Gospel took unjuster Courses against his Master for he not onely advised with himself to detain more of his Master's goods in his hands and to deceive him of so much as might well enable him to live well and in good sort as his false fellow-Steward
that Christ speakes of had shewed him the way before but as after Ages grew more subtle so they became more wicked then the former times even so this unjust and unthankful Servant became more wicked then before for now he layeth up such hatred and malice against his King and sealeth it in the depth of his Heart wherein the same boyled like new Wine that wanted vent so that it was like meat and drink to an hungry Stomach for him to finde any Opportunity to broach the same against the King And the Long Parliament that consisted of very many discontented Persons and men both disaffected to his Majesty and distasting his present Government made him a fair way to lay open all his Malice and what he formerly vented in his private Discourse by retail he doth it publickly now in gross and he doth it to the full and having a tongue apt to speak and not unskilful in the art of Rhetorick he begins first to make his Oration against the Earl of Strafford as knowing that whatsoever evil was proved or conceived against him the same reflected most upon the King then after the taking of this great Earl and prudent Counsellour of the King out of the way making more bitter Invectives against his Majesty then ever Cicero's Philippicks were against Marcus Antoninius or his Actions against Verres he so still passed on till he had poysoned the greater part of that House and the seditious vulgar that understood his Proceedings with an evil conceit against the good King And now seeing himself back'd with the wilde part of the House and the strength of the rude multitude no mean revenge will serve his turn but with his Rhetorical Orations and Speeches filled with Gall against the King though as yet somewhat obliquely he labours to disrobe and rob the King of all his chief Friends under the Notion of evil Counsellours and withall secretly complies with the Scots to assist him and the rest of his seditious Compeers against his Majesty But the King having full intelligence both of his and his partners vile practice against his Majesty laboured to bring them to their Tryal in the usual legal way for their underhand Treachery and Confederacy with the Scots to bring a foreign Army to invade his Dominion and then to save himself and the rest they fly to the City of London and in a short space drew the Citizens and with them the whole Kingdom to engage themselves in a desperate civil War against their lawful Sovereign Then the King found himself too weak to bring this strong Rebel to any trial yet the hand of God was not to short to fetch him out of his guarded Palace for he is the Lord of Hosts and hath as well his great Army of little ones as the Rats and Mice that devoured Popiel the second King of Polonia in anno 830. for his treacherous poysoning of his Unckles the Moales that undermined a City in Thessaly and the Worms that destroyed Herod the King as also his strong Army of great ones as the earth to swallow up Corah Dathan and Abiram the Sea to overwhelm Pharaoh and all his Hoast the Stars in their Order too fight against Sisera and his Angels to be at his Command to overthrow his enemies And therefore he sent his Serjeant to arrest him and to fetch him out of his strong hold that he should do no further Mischief against his Anointed And how he died I leave to the Report of them that knew the manner of his death better then I can set it down I did intend further to shew unto you the just Judgment of God upon Colonel Hamden that for his disloyalty to his King was shot whereof he dyed on the same Plot of ground where he first mustered his Souldiers against his King even as the Lord threatened the like Judgment against Ahab And upon the Mayor of York that on that day twelve-Moneth that our King lost his life made a Bone-fire for joy that the King had so lost his life but on the same day twelve-Moneth after hanged himself And especially upon Colonel Axtel that hath been the ruine of so many Churches and the Suppressour of so many honest conformable Ministers and other good Protestants and plaid so many Tyrannical parts about Kilkenny and in my Diocess of Ossory as I am not able in a short time and with few words to express it and upon divers others but my Occasions at this time will not give me leave to perfect what I have begun And therefore I must now here make an End and commend us all to God through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom be all glory and honour for evermore Amen Jehovae Liberatori The Authour's Prayer after he had finished the Reparation of the Chancel and Quire of the Cathedral Church of Kilkenny OEternal Almighty and most merciful Lord God that hast created all things by thy Power governest them by thy Wisdom and preservest them by thy Goodness and hast disposed all thy Creatures to be for the Service of man the Sun to give him light by day and the Moon by night the Earth to feed him and the Angels of Heaven to attend him that he dash not his foot against a Stone for all which great love and bounty of thine towards man thou requirest no more but that he should be thankful unto thee and praise thee for thy goodness and declare the wonders that thou doest for the Children of men and as Moses saith what doth the Lord our God require of us but to fear the Lord our God to walk in all his ways and to love him and to serve the Lord our God with all our hearts and with all our souls and to keep his Commandments and Statutes which he commanded us for our good for the discharging of which duties and the performance of our Service unto the Lord our God though as Saint Stephen saith the most High dwelleth not in Temples made with hands when as the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain him which is above the heavens and below the earth and filleth all places and beyond all places with his Presence yet our fore-Fathers most religiously according to the President that King Solomon left us and the good Examples that the Primitive Christians gave us have erected Oratories and built Temples and Churches where the Saints and Servants of God might meet to praise the Lord for his manifold mercies to beg his favour and graces to help and to supply their wants and necessities to understand his Will and to know his Commands and to do all other the best Service that they could do to the Lord their God and to that onely end they have set them apart and alienated them from all secular and prophane uses dedicated them wholly for God's Service and consecrated them by Prayers to be Sanctuaries for them and their Posterities to serve and to honour God in But O Lord our God we confess and