the sound of Horns not of Trumpets A homely sound yet it did the worke so neither is the weaknesse no nor the corruptnesse of the instruments always to be considered in the Church of God Our Fathers knew there had passed a contract between God and man A Church there should be Ad consummationem to the end of the world therefore they might safely make their recourse thither and Porta Inferi the gates of hell should not prevaile against it therefore they might confidently dwell there They knew there was a Dic Ecclesiae a bill to be exhibited to the Church upon any disorder and a Si noluerit an excommunication upon disobedience If he neglect to heare the Church let him be unto thee as a heathen man and as a Publican This Church they saw and Gods contract upon them sealed in Baptism they knew God had revealed no other Church nor contract to them And therefore though they did not eat their troden grasse with that ridiculous tentation as the Fryar is boasted to have eaten a Toad which was set upon the Table because he had read whatsoever is set before you eat Nor as their Dorotheus who when his man had reachd him rats-bane in stead of honey which he called for refused it not because sayd he If Gods will had been that I should have had honey he would have directed thy hand to the honey but being under an invi ciblenignorance and indevestible scruples and having this contract and this Church to give them some satisfaction and acquiescence they were partakers of that blessing That though Serpents and Scorpions lurked in their grasse they had power to tread on scorpions and on serpents and nothing could hurt them and That if they drinke any deadly thing it shall doe them no harme And so our Fathers with a good conscience Manebant stayd there and Edebant they eat troden grasse and drunke troubled water and yet Manebantoves they continued sheep still Sheep that is without Barking or biting Some faint and humble bleatings there were alwaies in the daies of our Fathers In every age there arose some men who did modestly and devoutly but yet couragiously and confidently appear and complaine against those treadings and those troublings Every age every nation had some such bleatings some men who by writing or preaching against those abuses interrupted the tyrannicall prescriptions of that Church and made their continuall claime to their Christian liberty But still they continued sheep without denying either their fleece or their throats to those Pastors We read in Naturall story of divers pastures and divers waters which will change the colour of cattell or sheep but none that changes the forme and makes them no such cattell or no sheep Some waters change sheep of any colour to white And these troubled waters temporall or spirituall afflictions may bring Gods children to a faint and leane and languishing palenesse If it doe as Daniel and his fellows appeared fairer and fatter in flesh with their pults and water which they desired rather then the Kings polluted delicates then others that sed voluptuously so the hearts of Gods children shall be filled as with marrow and with fatnesse when others shall have all their hearts desire but leannesse in their soules There are waters that change all coloured sheep to black So may these troubled waters afflictions effect that upon Gods children The enemy shall come and before him all faces shall gather blacknesse as Jerusalem complains That their faces were blacker then coals If it doe yet as long as they stay and continue sheep members of the body as long as they partake of the body they shall partake of the complexion of the Church who saies of her selfe I am black O daughters of Ierusalem but comely acceptable in the sight of my Christ and that shall be verifyed in them which Salomon says By the sadnesse of the countenance the heart is made better that is by the occasion of the sadnesse Gods correction But the strangest change is that some waters change sheep into red the most unlikely most extraordinary most unproper colour for sheep of any other Yet there is one rednesse naturall to our sheep in the Text the rednesse of blushing and modesty and selfe-accusing And there is another rednesse which is not improper the rednesse of zeale and godly anger The worst rednesse that can befall them is the rednesse of sinne and yet lest that should deject them God proceeds familiarly with them Come now and let us reason together Though your sinnes be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like Crimson they shall be as wooll Yea to shew that where sinne abounds grace also may abound to shew that that whitenesse of Gods mercy doth pursue and overtake this rednesse of sinne it pleases the Holy Ghost to use such a phrase as expresses a rednesse in whitenesse it self He says that the religious men of the Jewes before that time were whiter then milke and redder then pearle Mippeninim is the originall word which the Rabbins translate pearle And the Vulgate Edition hath it Rubicundiores ebore antiquo redder then the oldest yvory which is the whitest thing that can be presented Perchance to intimate thus much that there is neither in the holiest actions of the holiest man any such degree of whitenesse but that it is always accompanied with some rednes some tincture some aspersion of sin nor any such deep rednesse in sin any sin so often and deeply died in grain but that it is capable of whitenesse in the application of the candor and purenesse and innocency of Christ Jesus Therefore may the Holy Ghost have wrapped up this whitenesse in rednesse redder then Pearl Our Fathers were not discouraged when they were discolored what palenesse what blacknesse what rednesse soever these troubled waters induced upon them still they were sheep They become not Foxes to delude the State with equivocations nor Wolves to join with the State to the oppression of the rest nor Horses to suffer themselves to be ridden by others and so made instruments of their passions no nor Vnicorns to think to purge and purifie the waters for all the forest to think to reforme all abuses in State and Church at once but they continued sheep opened not their mouthes in biting nor barking in murmuring or reproaching the present government So our Fathers staid Manebant so they eat that grasse so they continued sheep and as it followes next Oves Dei Gods sheep my sheep have eaten my sheep have drunken Gods sheep for nature hath her sheep some men by naturall constitution are lazy drowsie frivolous unactive sheepish men And States have their sheep timorous men following men speechlesse men men who because they abound in a plentifull State are loth to stire Nay the Devill hath his sheep too Men whom he possesses so entirely that as the Law
Then his trust is in him And who shall preserve him Almighty God and therefore his trust must be at last in him To what nation is their God come so near to them as the Lord our God is come neare unto us what nation hath laws and ordinances so righteous as we have Moses sayd this historically of the Iew and prophetically of us T is true we are governed by a peaceable and a just law Moses his prophecy is fulfilled upon us and so is Esays too Reges nutricii Kings shall be thy nursing fathers It is true to us The law is preserved to us by a just and a peacefull prince but how often have the sinnes of the people and their unthankfulnesse especially induc'd new laws and new princes The prince and the law are the two most reverend and most safe things that man can rely upon but yet in other nations at least sacred and secular story declares that for the iniquity of the people the law hath been perverted by princes and for the sinne of the people the prince hath been subverted by God Howsoever there may be some collaterall and transitory trust in by things the radicall the fundamentall trust is onely in God Iob trusted in him that is in nothing but him but then speravit he hoped for something at his hands none can give but God but God will give to none that doe not hope for it and that doe not expresse their hope by asking by prayer God scatters not his blessings as Princes doe money in Donatives at Coronations or Triumphes without respect upon whom they shall fall God rained downe Manna and Quailes plentifully abundantly but he knew to what hand every bird and every graine belonged To trust in nothing else is but halfe way it is but a stupid neglecting of all It is an ill affection to say I look for nothing at the worlds hands nor at Gods neither God onely hath all and God hath made us capable of all his gifts and therefore we must neither hope for them any where else nor give over our hope of them from him by intermitting our prayers or our industry in a lawfull calling for we are bound to suck at those breasts which God puts out to us and to draw at those springs which flow from him to us and prayer and industry are these breasts and these springs and whatsoever we have by them we have from him Expectavit Iob trusted not in the meanes as in the fountaine but yet speravit he doubted not but God who is the fountaine would by those meanes derive his blessings temporall and spirituall upon him Hee Hoped now Hope is onely or principally of invisible things for Hope that is seen is not hope says the Apostle And therefore though we may hope for temporall things for health wealth strength and liberty and victory where Gods enemies oppresse the Church and for execution of laws where Gods enemies undermine the Church for whatsoever we may pray for we may hope for and all those temporall blessings are prayed for by Christs appointment in that petition Give us this day our daily bread yet our Hope is principally directed upon the invisible part and invisible office of those visible and temporall things which is that by them we may be the better able to performe religious duties to God and duties of assistance to the world When I expect a friend I may go up to a window and wish I might see a Coach or up to a Cliffe and wish I might see a ship but it is because I hope that that friend is in that Coach or that ship so I wish and pray and labour for temporall thingsâ— because I hope that my soule shall be edified and my salvation established and God glorified by my having them And therefore every Christian hope being especially upon spirituall things is properly and purposely grounded upon these stones that it be spes veniae a hope of pardon for that which is past and then spes gratiae a hope of Grace to establish me in that state with God in which his pardon hath placed mee and lastly spes gloriae a hope that this pardon and this grace shall lead me to that everlasting glory which shall admit no night no eclipse no cloud First for the first object of this hope pardon we are to consider sinne in two aspects two apprehensions as sinne is an injury a treason yea a wound to God And then as sinne is a Calamity a misery fallen inevitably upon man Consider it the first way and there is no hope of pardon Nectalem Deum tuum putes qualis nec tu debes esse is excellently said by Saint Augustine never imagine any other quality to be in Christ then such as thou as a Christian art bound to have in thy selfe And if a Snake have stung me must I take up that Snake and put it into my bosome If so poore a snake so poore a worme as I have stung my Maker have crucified my Redeemer shall he therefore therefore take me into his bosome into his wounds and save me and glorifie me No if I look upon sinne in that line in that angle as it is a wound to God I shall come to that of Cain Major iniquitas my sinne is greater then can be forgiven and to that of Iudas Peccavi tradens I have sinned in betraying the innocent bloud that is in Crucifying him againe who was crucified for me in betraying his righteous bloud as much by my unworthy receiving as Iudas did in an unjust delivering of it But if I look upon sinne as sinne is now the misery and calamity of man the greater the misery appears the more hope of pardon I have Abyssus Abyssum as David speakes One Depth calls upon another Infinite sinnes call for infinite mercy and where sinne did abound grace and mercy shall much more First David presents the greatnesse of his sinnes and then followes the Miserere mei have mercy upon me according to the greatnesse of thy mercy Is there any little mercy in God Is not all his mercy infinite that pardons a sinne done against an infinite majesty yes but herein the greatnesse appeares to us that it delivers us from a great calamity Quia infirmus Because I am weake borne weake and subject to continuall infirmities Quia oss a conturbata Because my bones are troubled my best repentances and resolutions are shaked Quia vexata anima because my soule is in anguish when after such resolutions and repentances and vowes I relapse into those sinnes these miseries of his were Davids inducements why God should pardon him because it is thus with me have mercy upon me And so God himselfe seemes to have had a diverse a two-fold apprehension of our sinnes when he says that because all the imaginations of the thoughts of mans heart were onely evill continually therefore he would spare none he would destroy all and
Evangelists that that voice added Hear him for after that Declaration that he who was visibly and personally come amongst them was the Sonne of God there was no reason to doubt of mens willingnesse to hear him who went forth in person to preach unto them in this world As long as he was to stay with them it was not likely that they should need provocation to hear him therefore that was not added at his Baptisme and entrance into his personall ministery But when Christ came to his Transfiguration which was a manifestation of his glory in the next world and an intimation of the approaching of the time of his going away to the possession of that glory out of this world there that voyce from heaven sayes This is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased heare him When he was gone out of this world men needed a more particular solicitation to heare him for how and where and in whom should they heare him when he was gone In the Church for the same testimony that God gave of Christ to authorize and justifie his preaching hath Christ given of the Church to justifie her power The holy Ghost fell upon Christ at his Baptism and the holy Ghost fell upon the Apostles who were the representative Church at Whitsontide The holy Ghost tarried upon Christ then and the holy Ghost shall tarry with the Church usque ad consummationem till the end of the world And therefore as we have that institution from Christ Dic Ecclesiae when men are refractary and perverse to complaine to the Church so have they who are complained of to the Church that institution from Christ also Audi Ecclesiam Hearken to the voyce of God in the Church and they have from him that commination If you disobey them you disobey God in what fetters soever they binde you you shall rise bound in those fetters and as he who is excommunicated in one Diocese should not be received in another so let no man presume of a better state in the Triumphant Church then he holds in the Militant or hope for communion there that despises excommunication here That which the Scripture says God sayes says St. Augustine for the Scripture is his word and that which the Church says the Scriptures say for she is their word they speak in her they authorize her and she explicates them The Spirit of God inanimates the Scriptures and makes them his Scriptures the Church actuates the Scriptures and makes them our Scriptures Nihil salubrius says the same Father There is not so wholsome a thing no soule can live in so good an aire and in so good a diet Quà m ut Rationem praecedat authoritas Then still to submit a mans owne particular reason to the authority of the Church expressed in the Scriptures For certainly it is very truly as it is very usefully said by Calvin Semper nimia morositas est ambitiosa A frowardnesse and an aptnesse to quarrell at the proceedings of the Church and to be delivered from the obligations and constitutions of the Church is ever accompanied with an ambitious pride that they might enjoy a licentious liberty It is not because the Church doth truly take too much power but because they would be under none it is an ambition to have all government in their own hands and to be absolute Emperors of themselves that makes them refractary But if they will pretend to believe in God they must believe in God so as God hath manifested himself to them they must believe in Christ so if they will pretend to heare Christ they must heare him there where he hath promised to speake they must heare him in the Church The first reason then in this Trinity the person that directs is the Church the Trumpet in which God sounds his Iudgements and the Organ in which he delivers his mercy And then the persons of the second place the persons to whom the Church speakes here are Filiae Sion The daughters of Sion her owne daughters We are not called Filii Ecclesiae sonnes of the Church The name of sonnes may imply more virility more manhood more sense of our owne strength then becomes them who professe an obedience to the Church Therefore as by a name importing more facility more supplenesse more application more tractablenesse she calls her children Daughters But then being a mother and having the dignity of a Parent upon her she does not proceed supplicatorily she does not pray them nor intreat them she does not say I would you would go forth and I would you would looke out but it is Egredimini videte imperatively authoritatively Do it you must do it So that she showes what in important and necessary cases the power of the Church is though her ordinary proceedings by us and our Ministery be To pray you in Christs stead to be reconciled to God In your baptisme your soules became daughters of the Church and they must continue so as long as they continue in you you cannot devest your allegiance to the Church though you would no more then you can to the State to whom you cannot say ◠will be no subject A father may dis-inherit his son upon reasons but even that dis-inherited childe cannot renounce his father That Church which conceived thee in the Covenant of God made to Christians and their seed and brought thee forth in baptisme and brought thee up in catechizing and preaching may yet for thy misdemeanor to God in her separate thee à Mensa Toro from bed and board from that sanctuary of the soule the Communion Table and from that Sanctuary of the body Christian buriall and even that Christian buriall gives a man a good rise a good helpe a good advantage even at the last resurrection to be laid down in expectation of the Resurrection in holy ground and in a place accustomed to Gods presence and to have been found worthy of that Communion of Saints in the very body is some earnest and some kinde of first-fruits of the joyfull resurrection which we attend God can call our dead bodies from the sea and from the fire and from the ayre for every element is his but consecrated ground is our element And therefore you daughters of Sion holy and religious souls for to them onely this indulgent mother speaks here hearken ever to her voice quarrell not your mothers honor nor her discretion Despise not her person nor her apparell Doe not say she is not the same woman she was heretofore nor that she is not so well dressed as she was then Dispute not her Doctrine Despise not her Discipline that as you sucked her breasts in your Baptism in the other Sacrament when you entred and whilst you stayd in this life so you may lie in her bosome when you goe out of it Hear her a good part of that which you are to hear from her is envolv'd inwrapped in that w ch we have propos'd