the obliquitie of the action when impietie was once aflote God by his wisedome ordained a channell for it that it might turne to his glory and the greatest good of Iob. When a skilfull musician plaies cunningly vpon a Lute that is out of tune the iarre if there be any comes from the lute not from the hand when mens liues are out of tune ought they to blame that wise and powerfull finger of God without which they cannot worke No no O sinner all that iarring comes of thy selfe It is not God O drunkard but thy selfe that drinkes thee drunke Not God O thou murtherer but thy selfe that staines thy selfe with bloud Not God O thou blasphemer but thy selfe that filles thy mouth with words that are clothed with death build not thy sinnes vpon the backe of God thou mockest thy self when thou thinkest to shift thy burden from thy selfe vnto his shoulders The same soule that sinneth the same must die vnlesse Gods mercy bee all the greater As the Diuell brings darkenesse out of light so the manner of God is to bring light out of darkenesse therupon Saint Origen speaketh of a great pedigree of blessings deriued from that vnnaturall sinne of the selling of Ioseph into Egypt which blessing after many yeares returned plentifully againe vnto his fathers house Saint Austen in fewe wordes determines this question the Diuell tempts man consents God forsakes Let God bee true and all men liers Let God be iustly esteemed pure and all the world be tainted with impietie God in his wisedome shewes his iustice oft and many a time vpon vs as at this time vpon Ephraim that by his correctioÌ„s hee may call vs home vnto him Hee drawes vs gently with the cordes of a man euen with the bands of loue least wee should bee drawen from him by Egypt or by Ashur by little sinnes or by great by the cordes of vanitic or by the careropes of iniquitie And therefore in the wordes following he cals them chastisements which chastisements when men are incorrigible deafe adders and stop their eares against the wise charmer are the best meanes to cast salte vppon affections and giues eyes vnto reason hee sayeth I will chastice them The chasticements of GOD lay heauie that my discourse may beare date then and not before the comming of our Sauiour in the flesh vpon the sonne of GOD himselfe the roddes wherwith God did suffer him to bee chasticed were his enemies and his friends his enemies were like as many dogges that came vpon him and as the Sunne entring into the constellation called the Dogge argueth a hote season so the conflict must needes bee hote when the Sunne of righteousnesse fell among so many dogges his friendes the flocke were so amazed the shepheard being smitten â—hat he was like a tree hauing all the leaues beaten of not only the withered leaues those which followed him for his bread and for his miracles fell away but the greene leaues also they which loued him best his own Peter both denied and forsware him If these things fell vnto the greene tree what shall bee done vnto the drie tree The Church could not scape sorrow but hath hen as a lodge in a garden of cucumers and as a besieged Citie When the diuell trieth hee trieth with a siue Satan hath dâ—sired to winome thee as wheat When God trieth heetrieth with a sanne With a fanne will hee purge his floore a siue keepes the bad and sends away the good a fanne keepes the good and sends away the bad therefore the trials of the diuell do rob vs of our vertue and the trials of God by affliction do dispatch away al our vices Be not afraid saith Petrarch though the house the body be shaken so the soule the guest of the body fare well Affliction is the whetstone of zeale which made God sometimes let his Church taste of it and lie among the pots though her wings be of siluer and her feathers of golde God doth come with loue or with a rod inter changeably as it pleaseth him Hee hath piped vnto vs by many earthly blessings haue our hearts danced for ioy and in our songs haue we pray sed him He hath mourned vnto vs by the shaking of diuers rods and calamities ouer our heads and hath our mourning for sinne beene like the mourning of the mother for the losse of her first borne If we will bee reconciled by neither meanes hee will doe vnto vs as hee did vnto Ephraim For when hee piped to Ephraim by his loue and by his worde they would not treade right measures by their obedience therefore hee tolde them they must adresse themselues to weeping for now he meant to mourn vnto them and to chastice them as their congregation had heard Such is the confluence of opinions for the exposiâ—ion of these words so diuers and so iustling the crowde of interpreters that I cannot without wronging you ouermuch marshall them into their seuerall rankes therfore I will at this time build vpon that which is subscribed vnto by the best and excepted against by none which I take to bee the quick of these words and that is this that they had often heard in their coÌ„gregations by thelaw the prophets that the chasticements and the rods of God would treade vpon the heeles of their sinnes if they continued in them Happy were the men of Ephraim if they had knowen their owne happiness yet being as they were they were happy for being forewarned they were forearmed So was Niniueh for the noyse of destruction after fortie daies made the Niniuites turne vnto the Lord and so preuent the danger Arise quoth Elias to Aâ—â—â—b and prepare thy chariot for I heare a sound of raine vnlesse thou passe quickly thou canst not passe there the sound of raine preuented the daunger that might haue come by raine So though the iustice of God require the cutting downe of sinners yet God in his mercie first putteth the axe to the roote of the tree to see if that repentance and amendment of life may preuent that cutting Seeing then you haue so many warnings in the congregations to forearme you against danger make vse of them and be bettered by them least they proue a cloud of witnesses against you I will chastice them as their congregation hath heard Out of which words I obserue first that the preacher who is the tongue of the congregation ought to tell the people of their danger to come Secondly the people who are the eare of the congregation ought to yeelde their obedience vnto the voice of the shepheard a well composed body that hath such a tongue and such an eare The preacher should tell the congregation of the danger to come but some cannot some dare not some will not some though they doe it doe it to no purpose Some cannot for they runne before they be sent not hauing eaten
should heare the threatnings that are deliuered in the congregation But some will not come some will not mark when they come some will not bee pleased when they marke some be they pleased or displeased will not obey Some will not come but like beetles who care more for the dung of the earth then for a rose they esteeme more of that which is losse and dung then of Christ the flower of the roote of Iessee they cannot abide the sauour of him tho his word be the auour of life vnto life though his word turned Lions into Lambes making the souldiers say Master what shall wee doe the subtiltie of the serpent into the simplicitie of a doue making the Publicans say Master what shal wee doe many heads into one tongue making the people say Master what shall wee doe All this when it was put into the mouth of Iohn the Baptist Luk. 3. Curseye Meroz sayth the Angell of the Lord indefinenter maledicite as Iunius and Tremelius render it curse it with an euerlasting curse because the men of that Citie would not come out to helpe the rest of the Tribes in the day of battel When wee come all to the Church of God vpon the Sabaoth day wee come like an army to ioyne together to warre against the diuell by our prayers and holy meditations if there be any that be either idle or drunken or wanton or worldly or for any cause vnwilling to come to ioyne with helpe their brethren in this high seruice shall I curse them I pray God they be not cursed with an euerlasting curse While we blaze the glory of the word there comes vnto the ignorant a Iesuite or a Seminary or perhaps a pupill of theirs beguiles them with a shew pretence of antiquitie as the Gibeonites beguiled Ioshua by telling him a tale of oulde shooes and oulde bottles and ould mouldy bread they tell them the olde good world was then at the best when they liued vnder the Latine law and knew no Scripture but beleeued as the Church beleeued and so by this meanes many simple men haue beene drawne to make a league with them as Ioshua did without asking counsell of God I doe with reuerence ascribe all conuenient authoritie vnto the Church whose beauty within is farre more then I can comprehend Par domus est coelo sedminor est Domino The Church the house of God is glorious and euen the gate of heauen but the Church especially those hoodwinkt Churches in those sickely times whereof I spake before is farre inferior to Christ the Lord of the Church and his holy word which is his will whereby hee gouerneth this house of his And therefore despising the words of God which are Yea and Amen we must not only eye the Church which may erre while shee is militant here on the earth Those that trauaile Southward haue the Northerne pole for their direction till they come beyonde the hote and burning zone or part of the world which when they haue once passed they lose the sight of the Northerne and the Southerne pole ariseth to be their guide so while we passe to heauen ward through this glassie sea mingled with fire which is the world wee are directed as by a starre by the word of God but when we are once past the hot fits and pangs of death then wee lose that directiō we need it no more an other light is our comfort euen the light of the Lambe for euer and euer No falling of Manna vnto the children of Israel when once they had gotten a croppe in the Land of promise so long it fell and no longer noe more the word noe more the bread of this life shal nourish vs we need it not when wee haue the blessings of that place which floweth with better things then either milke or hony Some wil not marke when they come yet both strong and weak Christians should marke for the word of God is a Riuer wher the Elephant may plunge and the Lamb may wade In the Church when the Priest praieth and blesseth I see one talking and another laughing when thou sittest and kneelest there dost thou not know that thou art in the company of Angels and yet doest thou laugh or scorne If these things be not worthy of a thunderbolt I know not what is To pollute a common wel where the whole Citie fetcheth water is a thing that cānot be indured how much more to abuse the Church where Gods people come for the waters of comfort Coit coetus the people gather together like a band of men they set vpon God with their prayers Grata est haec vis God is pleased to haue such violence offered vnto him When you come then vnto the Church marke well the vse of the Laver in the sanctuarie Exodus the 30. and the 18 verse and wash your selues before and when you offer your sacrifice No beast was clean but that which chewed the cud If you will bee cleane and pleasing vnto God heare not only but marke and chewe the cud by serious meditations God cared not so much for Dauids sacrifices as for his obedient attention vnto his word the former he needed not for His are the bullockes vpon ten thousand Plaines but the later hee required and gaue Dauid power to performe it whereupon Dauid saith Sacrifice and burnt offerings thou wouldest not haue but mine eare hast thou opened he made account he should heare and attention would be more pleasing vnto God then any sacrifice If a man for loue of his master were willing to bee his seruant continually he must by the Iudges of the city haue his eare bored If you vow your selues continuall seruants vnto the Lord you must desire the Iudge of quick dead to bore open your ears that you may hear know his wil. Whē you com vp thē with the Tribes into the house of the lord bring your buckets with you vnto the wel your ears harts that they may be filled Grudge not to watch with God one houre let no temptatiō of flesh the world or the diuel steal away your hearts Like children dote not vpon babies while you shuld learn your lessō be not miscarried by worldly shews vanities Say vnto euery euil suggestion Turne thee behind me Satan know that the groūd where you sit kneel and stand is holy ground Let God in his owne house bee the Emperour of the field and by his word he wil hammer you so that if he find you like Lions he wil make you lambes if he find you weake he wil make you resolute neuer to be outfaced by the flames of persecution who is sufficient for those things for the message of God yet God hath giuē gifts vnto men wherby they deliuer the worde of God as Vincentius Lerinensis sayth nouè but not
If many lines be drawn frō the circle to the cēter the neerer they come one to another the neerer they com vnto the center iudge this by the spokes of a wheel meeting in the middle cōpare the lines vnto men the cēter vnto Christ vnto whom al heauy things tend all those that are heauy ladē with their sins the neerer they are ioyned one to another in loue the neerer they com vnto Christ. Those that are filled with Gods blessings shuld be like the ful end of an houre glasse they shuld empty euacuate thē selues into those that want that those that haue wanted may be raised vppe You that are great in this world you do not wind turn those things which are absolutly your own you are but feoffees in trust with them to the vse of Gods Orphanes Gregorie Nazianzen registring the life of Bazill the great speakes of a Xenodochium or house of harbour which he built for poore strangers he preferres that goodly pile and monument of charitie before the Sepulcher of Mausolus and the Colossus of Rhodes and the rest of the wonders of the world If I should not cōmend you Londiners for much bountie and liberalitie towards houses of learning and hospitals I should do you wrong but if you rob and circumuent others that you may bee inabled to do good vnto these you wrong your selues As the former is iustly to be tearmed a worke of mercy so the later can by no meanes stand with good iustice in doing so you do a great euill that good may come thereof Let not your citie which is worthily accoūted the head of a kingdome be made by your greedines the belly of the kingdome for deuouring the rest I iudge you not but iudge your selues that you be not iudged of the Lord. O happy are you then if in your gardens this sweet flower this charitie be well blowen charitie I meane which is neither a foole to giue to the idle nor hard harted to denie the needy and as at all times and to all of the household of faith so it becomes her well to haue an open bosome vnto the Church which is the house of God Yet many are loth in regard of the charge to bee open handed vnto the Lords treasurie but had rather make themselues rich as they suppose by stealing from God so they become Church-mothes and chapmen of soules defrauding God perhaps to giue fuel vnto their owne vanities so the Church Gods doue is now become a partridge pursued and preyed vpon by tyranny and oppression That religion that in times past wanted an eye was a nurse was a mother vnto the Church and is our welsighted religion become a stepdame If it be not what means the crie of the Church like that of Rahels in Ramah weeping for her fauorites because they are not Could those Church-leeches imagin they see Antiochus after his reuelling in the Temple killed in a strange Land by an inuisible hand or Belshazzar pale and wanne breathing his last after the abusing of the vessels of the temple or could they consider that disswasiue vsed by Celsus of Verona vnto the Senate of Venice whereby hee makes it plaine that since they medled with the Church goods they neuer preuailed against their enemies then would they cease to crie with Iudas What needes all this waste grudging at all that is powred on Christs ministers then would they not muzzle the mouth of the Oxe that treades out the corne they would let them liue by the altar who serue at the altar they would not inuade the inheritance of Leui they would not seeke for those ministers who are content to prostitute their worthes vpon any tearmes for a morsell of bread and a few peeces of siluer but they would bring their owne offerings into the storehouse of the Lord that God might not only rebuke the deuourer but open also the windowes of heauen and powre vpon them a blessing without measure Mal. 3. 10. If many in our age should vse for their dayly prayer the prayer of Nehemiah Remember me O my God heerein and wipe not out my kindnesse that I haue shewed on the house of my God and on the offices thereof I doubt they would pull euerie day much wrath vpō themselues because the Church findes as little fauour at their hands as at the hands of those mentioned in the first of Aggai Who dwelt themselues in sieled houses and let the house of the Lord lye waste Therefore lest the Lord should blowe vpon that which you haue vse the things of the world vse them well haue them your selues let not them haue you let not them fetter you they are but transitorie Salomon weighed them all in a ballance and found them but vanitie Therefore hee sayde Vanitie of vanities and all is but vanitie Wee may say vnto laughter what aylest thou and vnto folly what doest thou meane The image of Nebuchad-nezzar was part of golde part of siluer part of brasse parte of iron and parte of clay resembling the seuerall Monarchies of the Worlde but there came a stone from the mountaine that crushed them all in peeces The square corner stone Christ Iesus is able to beate to powder all the might of the world and to fanne the mountaines Esay 41. Hee is Lord paramount of all hee coucheth vnder him the potentates of the earth like lesser birdes therefore bee not idle but seeke deferre not the time but seeke first bee not base minded but seeke a kingdome bee not earthly minded but seeke the kingdome of God and the things of the worlde shall bee ministred vnto you like a retinue they shall followe after The flesh doth inficere infect the world doth deficere forsake but Christ doth reficere refresh The glorie of the world was shewed to Christ in the twinkeling of an eye it is a gliding pomp of smal continuance for all it seemes to haue like a gloworme yet it hath neyther true vvarmth nor light That knewe Aelius Adrianus well when hauing no hope in any thing but the world which he sawe to faile him he commaunded his soule the guest of his bodie for euer to bid farewell to all comfort That knew they also that admired the whore of Babylon when they felt that the apples which their soules lusted after were departed from them and all things vvhich vvere fat and excellent were departed from them they found them no more Apocalypse 18. 14. Riches that are so high rated in the world are but like thornes in a mans hand both when thornes come thither while they stay and when they are gotten out there is still paine So riches are gotten with care kept with feare and not lost without great anguish The rich mans confidence shall bee cut off and his trust shall be as the house of a Spider Be hee neuer so enamuled vvith worldly things bee they
know not because they cannot those bee the vnlearned Some know not because they must not those bee the weaker sort of papists Some know that which they need not know those bee curious questionists Som know not that which they need to know and those bee they which know not the things that belong to their peace First the vnlearned knowe not because they cannot know they roule along with the stream of the world all of them inacting that learning in this age is not a thriuing course whereas O blessed knowledge they that haue thee liue two liues whereas others liue but one The mind is exempted their little all falls not with the vnlearned a prey into the land of forgetfulnesse Thou art the soule of the world knitting togither these present times with ages past by thee we that are liuing call to counsel those that are dead and gone Many huge dumbe heapes many goodly piles and monuments had beene wronged by forgetfulnesse but that by thee O learning they suruiue they are vented out vnto vs by antiquitie which for reuerence sake we must not count a lyer O knowledge how much hast thou woon from the waste of time The want of this knowledge vnsinewes the powers of a man and vnmannes him quite Learning hath no need like a Curresan to open her breasts whereby shee may gaine loue nor to begge an almes at the gate of fame to haue her gētry blazed she is rich inough of her selfe and her glory is great at home though fame were tongue tied and could not speake Iulian that wicked Apostata would haue abolished schooles of learning arts and sciences because the Christians vsing the help of these things wounded them with their owne quils Learning seasons tender yeares with graces with vertues key tunes the strings of nature Therefore prize at no low rate the two Vniuersities of this Land Vnto whome instead of founders and fathers God hath giuen children into which two this and former ages haue emptied themselues they are the two plentiful breasts of our mother England they are deepe died and ingrained with knowledge from aboue like Hercules pillars they may haue ingrauen vpon them Non vltra for there are no Vniuersities in the world that goe beyonde them no not equall to them And as Hercules pillars standing by the straites of Gibraltar are the way from Europe to the fortunate Ilandes so these if they bee vsed will serue as a direction for England to a place more fortunate where all happinesse dwelleth Deus est in vtraque parente There Philosophers raigne and they that raigne may seeme to learne Philosophy Secondly the weaker sort of Papists know not because they must not know It was the case of our forefathers the book was a book sealed vnto thē therfore they had cause to weep much Reu. 5. the trūpet gaue an vncertain soūd how could they know when to go to battel the sword was sheathed vp in an vnknown tongue how could they fight the candel was vnder a bushell how could they see the land marke wherby they knew their bounds was remoued the lawe sayeth of this sinne Cursed is he that doth so and let all the people say Amen Their Cleargiemen were as snares vpon Mispah as nets spred vpon Thabor they did intangle the people who hearing their latine seruice which they could not vnderstand might goe home againe and say with Nabuchadnezzar Wee haue dreamed a dreame and wee cannot tell what it meanes And yet the weak ones will not sticke to say It was a good world in time of Poperie thinges were cheape and plentifull much like to them that dwelling in Pathros despised the prophecies of Ieremy and say de It was well and there was no scarcitie when they burned incense vnto the Queene of heauen and baked cakes to make her glad But those and these loued darkenesse better then light When the truth of God in despite of papistrie would needes breake forth as the noone day and so the light of the Moone became as the light of the Sunne and the light of the Sunne seauenfould Saluation became the walles of our Church of England and prayse her gates they went about to dimme the starres when they could not darken the Sunne and by a malitious inuasio they indeauoured to sophisticate the fathers of the Church For Philip the second King of Spaine gaue commandement to Christopher Plantine his printer at Antwerp to print a Catalogue or Index which should giue direction how to geld and purge the Fathers of all such sentences as might make against the Church of Rome which Index should not be publikely sould but should serue for the vse of the Spanish inquisition that by their tyranny all the olde coppies might be called in and the newe ones published vnto their mindes So with this one sworde had Pharaoh meant that those Midwiues of Egypt should kil all the Children of Israell But see how Hee that keepeth Israel doth neither slumber nor sleepe It pleased God that reuerend M. Iunius hauing conference with a friend about this matter had the whole plot discouered vnto him got an authenticke coppy of their Index by the permission of Iohn Casimere county Palatine of Rhene he got it placed in his Library where it remaines I thinke vntill this day to the shame of them who would haue wronged Antiquitie so much If they had effected their purpose they had had the Fathers crying as lowde for their opinions against Gods truth as euer the Iewes cried for Barabbas against the sonne of God But to preuent this there did arise thou O God and the arke of thy strength Thirdly curious questionists seek to know those things which they neede not knowe they intangle themselues in Genealogies and matters impertinent and out of a desire they haue of prayse for lanching into the deepe they prie into the secrets of the Thunderer and when they haue seene what they can they say more then they haue warrant for wisely they tel foolish tales bring long lies very smoothly to an end To giue you a taste of their vanitie some diue into the mysterie of the resurrection such were the persecuting Gentiles in France as Eusebius witnesseth who in scorn of the resurrection which the Christians do beleeue did burne many of the Martyrs and afterwarde threwe their ashes into the riuer Rhodanus with this foolish exprobation Let vs see now if their God bee able to reuiue them They were not so wel studied in the schoolmen as to know that which Peter Lumbard hath sentent lib. 4. Dist. 44 vrging this point of the resurrection that though an image be broken in a 1000. peeces it may be made vp againe so long as the image maker doth liue So hee that made all of nothing can much more of something make what hee will Nay which was more pitie they were