ready mind 3. Neither as being Lords over Gods heritage but being ensamples to the flock 4. And when the chiefe Shepheard shall appeare yee shall receive a crowne of glory that fadeth not away The Tree of saving knowledge page 145. A Sermon preached in Lent March 16. before the King at Whitehall 1 Corinth 2.2 I determined not to know any thing among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified Primitiae Sepulchri page 162. A Sermon preached at the Spitall on Munday in Easter week April 22. 1 Corinth 15.20 But now Christ is risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept The true Zealot page 185. A Sermon preached at the Archbishops Visitation in Saint Dunstans in the East John 2.17 The zeale of thine house hath eaten mee up The Salters Text. page 196. A Sermon preached before the company of the Salters at Saint Maries Church in Breadstreet Marke 9.49 For every one shall be salted with fire and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt The spirituall Bethesda page 207. A Sermon preached at a Christening in Lambeth Church the Lord Archbishop of Canterburie and the Lord Duke of Buckingham being Godfathers Octob. 29. 1619. Marke 1.9 And it came to passe in those dayes that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galile and was baptized of John in Jordane The living Temple page 217. A Sermon preached at the Readers feast in the Temple Church 2 Corinth 6.16 For ye are the Temple of the living God The Generall his Commission page 231. A Sermon preached at S. Jones before the right Honourable the Earles of Oxford Exeter and Southampton and divers other Captaines and Commanders ready to take their journies into the Low-countries 1621. Josuah 1.9 Have not I commanded thee be strong and of a good courage be not affraid neither be thou dismayed for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest The Crowne of Humility page 240. A Sermon preached in Wooll-Church April 10. 1624. Matthew 5.3 Blessed are the poore in spirit for theirs is the Kingdome of Heaven Christ his new Commandement page 251. A Sermon preached in Wooll-Church John 13.34 A new commandement I give unto you that ye love one another as I have loved you that ye also love one another The Stewards account page 261. A Sermon preached in the Abbey Church at Westminster Luke 16.2 Give an account of thy Stewardship for thou maist be no longer Steward The Passing Bell. page 280. A Sermon preached in Mercers Chappell at the Funerall of Master Bennet Merchant Deut. 32.29 O that they were wise then they would understand this they would consider their latter end The embleme of the Church Militant page 292. A Sermon preached in Mercers Chappell Apoc. 12.6 And the woman fled into the wildernesse where she hath a place prepared of God that they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore dayes The Saints Vest page 307. A Sermon preached on All-Saints day at Lincolnes Inne for Doctor Preston Apoc. 7.14 These are they that came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the bloud of the Lambe Sermons preached at Serjeants Inne in Fleetstreet The Christian Victory page 319. Apoc. 2.17 To him that overcommeth will I give to eate of the hidden Manna and I will give him a white stone and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it The hidden Manna page 329. Apoc. 2.17 I will give to eate of the hidden Manna The white Stone page 341. Apoc. 2.17 And I will give him a white stone The new Name page 354. Apoc. 2.17 And in the same stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving hee that receiveth it Satanae Stratagemata page 369. 2 Corinth 2.11 Lest Sathan should get an advantage of us for wee are not ignorant of his devices Sermons preached at Saint Pauls Crosse or in the Church The beloved Disciple page 385. John 21.20 The Disciple whom Jesus loved which also leaned on his breast at Supper The Yeere of Grace page 397. 2 Corinth 6.2 Behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation The Spouse her precious Borders page 408. A Rehearsall Sermon preached 1618. at the Crosse Cant. 1.11 We will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver The Angel of Thyatira endited page 454. A Sermon preached at the Crosse 1614. Revel 2.18 19 20. 18. And to the Angel of the Church in Thyatira write these things saith the Sonne of God who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire and his feet like fine brasse 19. I know thy workes and charity and service and faith and thy patience and thy workes and the last to be more than the first 20. Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel which calleth her selfe a Prophetesse to teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eate things sacrificed unto Idols Jezebel set out in her colours page 474. A Sermon preached in Saint Pauls Church 1614. Revel 2.20 Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel which calleth her selfe a Prophetesse to teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eate things sacrificed unto Idols Sermons preached at Oxford Foure rowes of precious Stones page 498. A Rehearsall Sermon preached in Saint Maries 1610. Exod. 28.15 16 17 18 19 20 21. 15. And thou shalt make the breast-plate of judgement with cunning worke 16. Foure square shall it be being doubled 17. And thou shalt set in it settings of stones even foure rowes of stones the order shall be this A Ruby a Topaze and an Emrald in the first rowe 18. And in the second rowe thou shalt set a Carbuncle a Saphir and a Diamond 19. And in the third rowe a Turkeise and an Agate and an Amethyst 20. And in the fourth rowe a Beril and an Onyx and a Jasper and they shall be set in gold in their inclosings or imbosments Hebrew fillings 21. And the stones shall be with the names of the children of Israel twelve according to their names like the engravings of a signet every one with his name shall they be according to the twelve Tribes The devout soules Motto page 537. A Sermon preached at Saint Peters Church in Lent 1613. Psal 73.25 Whom have I in Heaven but thee O Lord and there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee The Royall Priest page 551. A Sermon preached in Saint Maries Church 1613. Psal 110.4 The Lord sware and will not repent Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek The Arke under the Curtaines page 570. A Sermon preached at the Act July 12. 1613. 2 Sam. 7.2 The King said unto Nathan the Prophet See now I dwell in an house of Cedar but the Arke of the Lord dwelleth within curtaines Pedum Pastorale page 584. Concio ad Clerum habita Oxoniae octavo Cal.
cursed persons To cleare the meaning of our Saviour it will bee requisite briefly to declare first how man is capable of blessednesse at all secondly how farre in this life truly termed by St. Austin the region of death Blessednesse is a soveraigne attribute of God and as p Nyss hom de â—â—at Nyssen teacheth primarily and absolutely and eternally belongeth to him onely Creatures are blessed but in part derivatively and at the most from the terme of their creation Beauty first shineth in the living face and countenance that which is resembled in the image or picture is but a secondary or relative beauty in like manner saith hee the primary blessednesse is in God or to speake more properly is God himselfe the blessednesse which is in man made after Gods image is but a secondary blessednesse For as the image is such is his beauty and blessednesse but the image of God in man since his fall is much soiled and defaced and consequently his blessednesse is very imperfect and obscure Yet they that rubbe off the dust of earthly cares and dirt of sinne and by spirituall exercises brighten the graces of God in their soule as they are truly though not perfectly beautifull within so they may be truly though not absolutely stiled blessed even in this life 1. First because they are assured of Gods love and they see his countenance shine upon them which putteth more q Psal 4.7 gladnesse into their heart than is or can be in the heart of them whose corne and wine is increased For if it bee deservedly accounted the greatest happinesse of a subject to bee in continuall grace with his Prince what is it to bee a Favourite of the King of kings 2. Secondly because they have an r 1 Pet. 1.4 inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in the heavens for them A great heire though hee may sometimes pinch for maintenance and bee driven to hard exigents yet hee still solaceth himselfe with this hope it will bee better with mee and I shall one day come to my lands and such comfort have all Gods Saints in their greatest perplexities and extremities 3. Thirdly because they enjoy the peace of a good conscience which Solomon calleth a continuall feast And Saint Paul a cause of t 2 Cor. 1.12 For our rejoycing is this the testimony of our conscience Rom. 8.28 triumph and joy 4. Fourthly because all things work together for their good and tend to their eternall happinesse The joyes of the wicked are grievous their pleasures are paine unto them but on the contrary the sorrowes of the righteous are joyous and the paines which they endure for Christ are pleasures unto them The gaines of the worldly are indeed losses unto them because they help on their damnation whereas the losses of the godly are gaine and advantage unto them because they further their salvation 5. Fifthly because they enjoy God wherein consisteth the happinesse of a man in some measure and degree even in this life For it cannot be denied but that devout Christians even whilest the soule resides in the body have a comfortable fruition of the Deity whose favour is better than life by faith in the heart by knowledge in the understanding by charity in the will by desire in the affections by sight in the creatures by hearing in the Word by taste in the Sacraments by feeling in the inward motions and operations of Gods Spirit which fill them with exceeding and unspeakable joy and comfort Saint u Apoc. 21. John setting forth the blessednesse of the triumphant Church and depainting the joyes of Heaven in golden colours describeth a City situate in Heaven whose temple is God and light the Lambe and walls Salvation and courts praise and streets gold and foundations gemmes and gates pearles twelve in number in a relation to the Lambes twelve Apostles Answerable to the gates in price though not in number are the steps up to them which our Saviour who is the way directeth us unto they are eight in number made of so many whole pearles that is divine Vertues 1. The first step is humility poore in spirit upon which when we stand we may easily get upon the next godly sorrow mourning for sinne none so apt to mourne for their sinnes and humble themselves under the mighty hand of God in sackcloth and ashes as the poore in spirit 2. When we are upon this step we readily get up upon the next which is tender compassion and meeknesse none so compassionate and meeke towards others when they slip into the mire of sinne as those who continually bewaile their fowle falls and wash their defiled soules with their teares 3. When we are upon this third step we may soone get up the fourth which is hungering and thirsting for righteousnesse for those who are most sensible of their owne wants and continually bewaile their corruptions and are compassionately affected towards others when they are overtaken with any temptation must needs hunger and thirst for righteousnesse both in themselves and others 4. When we are upon this fourth step we may soone climbe up to the other three Mercy the fifth Purity the sixth and Peace the seventh for they who eagerly pursue righteousnesse shall certainly meet with these three her companions Lastly they who have attained unto righteousnesse and are enamoured with her three companions Mercy Purity and Peace will suffer any thing for their sake and so ascend up the highest step of Christian perfection which is constant patience and zealous striving for the truth even unto bloud which is not only saved but cleansed also by being spilt for Christs sake The lowest greece or staire and the first step to Heaven is poverty in spirit that is as the Fathers generally interpret Humility which is the ground-colour of the soules beautifull images the graces of the spirit The ground-colours are darke and obscure yet except they be first laid the wooll or stuffe will not receive much lesse retaine the brighter and more beautifull Such is lowlinesse of minde of no great lustre and appearance in itselfe yet without it no grace or vertue will long keep colour and its beauty and therefore Christ first layes it saying Blessed are the Poore in spirit These poore in spirit are not to bee understood poore in spirituall graces such cannot come neere the price of the Kingdome of Heaven and therefore the spirit adviseth them under the type of the Church of * Apoc. 3.18 Laodicea to buy of him gold tryed in the fire that they may bee rich c. nor are they necessarily poore in state much lesse such as are poore in state onely for bare poverty yea though it bee voluntary is but a weake plea and giveth a man but a poore title to a Kingdome in Heaven Wee heare indeed in the Gospel of Lazarus the x Luke 16.22 Beggar in Heaven but wee finde him there in the bosome of rich Abraham to
have no opinion of his wisedome but to know that undoubtedly he knoweth nothing at least as he ought to know Justinian though a great Emperour could not avoid the censure of folly for calling his wife by the name of Sapientia because saith Saint Austin nomen illud augustius est quam ut homini conveniat because the name of wise and much more of wisedome in the abstract is too high a title for any on earth to beare What greater folly then can be imagined in any man or woman to assume wisedome to themselves whose greatest wisedome consisteth in the humble acknowledgement of their follies and manifold oversights Therefore Lactantius wittily comes over the seven wise masters as they are called whom antiquity no lesse observed than Sea-men doe the seven Starres about the North Pole When saith he n Lact. â— 4. divin institâ— 1. Sicaeterâ— omnes praeter ipsos stulti fuerâ—nt ne illi quidem sapientes quâ—aneâ—â— sapiens veâ—e stâ—ltorum judicio esse potest there were but seven wise men in all the world I would faine know in whose judgement they were held so in their owne or the judgement of others if in the judgement of others then of fooles by their owne supposition empaling all wisedome within the breasts of those seven if in their owne judgement they were esteemed the onely wise of that age then must they needs be fooles for no such foole as he who is wise in his owne conceit This consideration induced Socrates to pull downe his crest and renounce the name of a wise man and exchange Sophon into Philosophon the name of Sophister into Philosopher of wise into a lover of wisedome with which title all that succeeded him in his Schoole of wisedome contented themselves When the o Sphinx Philosoph c. 7. Gryphus Milesian Fishermen drew up in their net a massie piece of gold in the forme of a Table or planke there grew a great strife and contention in Law whose that draught should be whether the Fishermens who rented the fishing in that river or the Lords of the soyle and water In the end fearing on all hands lest this Altar of gold should melt away in law charges they deferre the judgement of this controversie to Apollo who by his Oracle answered that it neither appertained to the Fishermen nor to the Lord of the Mannor but ought to bee delivered as a present to the wisest man then living Whereupon this golden Table was first tendered to Thales the Milesian who sendeth it to Bias Bias to Solon Solon in the end to Apollo whom the heathen adored as the God of wisdome By this shoving of the Table from wise man to wise man and in the end fixing it in the Temple of Apollo they all in effect subscribed to the judgement of him who thus concludes his Epistle To p Rom 16.27 1 Tim. 1.17 To the King immortall invisible the onely wise God be honour and glory for ever and ever God onely wise bee glory for ever And questionlesse if wee speake of perfect and absolute wisedome it must bee adored in heaven not sought for on the earth Hee alone knoweth all things who made all things hee comprehendeth them in his science who containeth them in his essence Yet ought we to seeke for the wisedome here meant as for treasure and although wee may not hope in this life to be wise unto perfection yet may we and ought we to know the holy Scriptures which are able to make us q 2 Tim. 3.15 wise unto salvation In these we find a fourefold wisedome mentioned 1. Godly 1. Godly wisedome is piety 2. Worldly 2. Worldly wisedome is policy 3. Fleshly 3. Fleshly wisedome is sensuality 4. Divelish 4. Divelish wisedome is mischievous subtlety 1. Godly wisedome is here meant as the words following make it evident Serve the Lord with feare and reason makes it yet more evident For the Prophet needed not to exhort Princes to worldly wisdome the point of Policie is too well studied by them nor to fleshly wisdome for they mostly take but too much care to fulfill their lusts and maintain their Port and provide for their temporall peace and safetie As for divellish wisedome which makes men wise to doe r Jer. 4.22 evill so holy a Prophet as David was would not so much as have taken it in his lips unlesse peradventure to brand it with the note of perpetuall infamie The wisedome therefore which he here commendeth to Kings is a godly a holy and a heavenly wisedome A wisedome which beginneth in the feare of God and endeth in the salvation of man A wisedome that rebuketh the wisedome of the flesh and despiseth the wisedome of the world and confoundeth the wisedome of the Divell A wisedome that advertiseth us of a life after this life and a death after this death and sheweth us the meanes to attaine the one and avoid the other Morall or civill wisedome is as the eye of the soule but this wisedome the Spirit here preferreth to Kings is the eye of the spirit Ubi desinit Philosophus ibi incipit Medicus where the Philosopher ends there the spirituall Physician begins The highest step of humane wisedome is but the lowest and first of divine As Moses his face shined after he communed with God so all morall and intellectuall vertues after we have communion with Christ and he commeth neere to us by his spirit receive a new lustre from supernaturall grace Prudence or civill wisedome is in the soule as a precious diamond in a ring but spirituall wisedome is like Solis jubar the Sunnes rayes falling upon this Diamond wonderfully beautifying and illustrating it Of this heavenly light at this time by the eye-salve of the Spirit cleering our sight wee will display five beames 1. The first to beginne with our end and to provide for our eternall estate after this life in the first place For here we stay but a while and be our condition what it will be it may be altered there wee must abide by it without any hope of change Here wee slide over the Sea of glasse mentioned in the Å¿ Apoc. 15.2 And I saw as it were a sea of glasse Apocalyps but there we stand immoveable in our stations here we are like wandring starres erraticke in our motions there we are fixed for ever either as starres in heaven to shine in glorie or as brandirons in hell to glowe in flames Therefore undoubtedly the unum necessarium the one thing above all things to be thought upon is what shall become of us after we goe hence and be no more seene The heathen saw the light of this truth at a chincke as it were who being demanded why they built for themselves glorious sepulchres but low and base houses answered because in the one they sojourned but for a short space in the other they dwelt To this Solomon had an eye when hee termeth the grave mans t Eccles 12.5 Man goeth
inferiour to the chiefe Apostles neither in preaching nor in working miracles nor in dignity but in time Saint Chrysostome acutely observeth that the Apostle redoubleth his forces and not content with that hee had said before in 2 Cor. 11.5 I suppose I was not a whit behinde the very chiefest Apostles he addeth in the Chapter following with more confidence and authority In nothing am I behinde the very chiefest Apostles though I be nothing What not inferiour to Saint Peter no not Saint Peter for so it followeth in Saint Chrysostome he sheweth himselfe to be equall in dignity to the rest and he m Chrys in Gal. 2. v. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compareth himselfe not to other of the Apostles but to the chiefe shewing that he was of equall ranke with him See saith n Occumen in Gal. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oecumenius how he equalizeth himselfe to Peter or sets himselfe upon even ground with him These were Fathers of the Greeke Church what will our adversaries say if o Leo serm de laud. Petri Pauli De quorum meritis virtutibus quae omnem superāt dicendi facultatem nihil diversum sentire debemus nihil discretum quos electio pares labor similes mors fecit aequales Leo Bishop of Rome who extolled Peter above the skies and admitteth him after a sort into the fellowship of the individuall Trinity yet maketh Saint Paul his match saying Let no man cast a golden apple of contention betweene these glorious instruments of Christs Gospell Peter and Paul of whose merits and vertues which exceed all faculties of speech or can never bee sufficiently commended wee ought to thinke nothing divers or put no difference at all in any respect betweene them whose calling to the Apostleship made them equall and their travell in their office like and their martyrdome parallel Saint Paul then in Leo his judgement may goe everywhere hand in hand with Peter and in very deed hee hath the hand of him in the Popes seale which putteth Bellarmine to much trouble and great feare lest Saint Paul should bee taken to bee the better man of the two because in the Popes seale which confirmeth all his Buls and unerring Decrees ex cathedra Saint Paul hath the right hand and Saint Peter the left But hee may set his heart at rest for no Protestant goeth about to set Saint Peter below Saint Paul or any other Apostle all that wee contend for among the Apostles is but for a parity a parity there may bee in the Apostolicall power and function and yet Peter have some preheminency in respect of his yeeres or gifts such a primacy may be granted him without any power or jurisdiction over the rest some power hee might have over the rest and bee a kinde of President in the Apostles Colledge yet not Christs Vicar generall or Head of the whole Church Head hee might bee of the Church in some sense yet his Headship as his Apostleship dye with him and not descend upon his successors descend it might upon his successors to wit upon his undoubted successors in Antiochia not be appropriated to his questionable successors at Rome lastly it might be after a sort entayled to his successors at Rome yet with a qualification to all his lawfull successors not to usurpers to men as Linus not to women as Pope Joane to Catholickes as Saint Gregory and Damasus and all the Popes for 300. yeeres not Heretickes as Liberius and Honorius and many of the latter to such as entred canonically as Cornelius and Stephanus and the ancient Popes generally not such as thrust themselves into that See and purchased the Papacy either by art Magicke as Sylvester the second or by an imposture as Hildebrand or simony and faction as almost all since Lastly upon Apostolicall men in life and doctrine not apostaticall or apotacticall as those fifty Popes reckoned by Genebrard his Holinesses Chronicler one after another By all which particulars seriously considered Urban his supremacy derived from Saint Peter appeareth to be a rope of sand or a castle of Table-men piled one upon another without any thing to hold them together which fall allasunder with a fillep or an old ruinous paire of staires the ground-cell or foot whereof viz. Peters superiority to the rest of the Apostles is not sure and all the consequences deduced from thence like staires built upon it are all rotten and therefore I will stand no longer upon them but leape into my third and last part The manner of the Apostles consecration and first of the mysterious rite Hee breathed The truth and substance Christ himselfe who put an end to all legall shadowes commanding all to worship God in Spirit and truth ordained notwithstanding mysterious rites in the Sacraments of the new Testament and used visible and significant gestures in his miraculous cures he gave sight to the blinde not without touching the eye and hearing to the deafe not without thrusting his finger into the eare and speech to the dumb not without wetting the tongue he fetched not Lazarus breath back againe without fetching a deepe sigh nor inspired his Disciples with the holy Ghost without breathing upon them Gestures p Cic. de orat l. 3. Gestus est sermo quidam corporis in religious actions are as significant and more moving than words Decent Ceremonies in the substantiall worship of God are like shadowing in a picture which if it bee too much as we see in the Church of Rome it darkeneth the picture and obscureth the face of devotion but if convenient and in fit places it giveth grace and beauty to it Superstition may be and is as properly in such who put Religion in not using as in those who put Religion in using things in their owne nature meerely indifferent Christian liberty is indifferently abridged by both these errours about things indifferent And as a man may be proud even of the hatred of pride and contempt of greatnesse so he may be superstitious in a causlesse feare and heady declining of that which seemes but is not superstitious Which is the case of some refined Reformers as they would bee thought who according to their name of Precisians ungues ad vivum resecant pare the nailes of pretended Romish rites in our Church so neere that they make her fingers bleede For feare of monuments of Idolatry all ornaments of the Church if they might have their will should be taken away for feare of praying for the dead they will not allow any prayer to be said for the living at the buriall of the dead for feare of bread-worship they will not kneele at the Communion for feare of invocating the Saints deceased they will not brooke any speech of the deceased in a funerall Sermon for feare of making matrimony a Sacrament they will have it no sacred rite but a meere civill joyning the parties contracted in the congregation not by the hand of the
their body than any article of their creede whereas on the contrary side the Romanists as they impeach the article of Christs incarnation of the Virgin Mary by teaching that his flesh is made daily by the Priests in the Masse not of her blood but of bread and of his ascension and sitting at the right hand of the Father till hee come to judge the quicke and the dead by teaching that his body is at once in a Million of places on earth even wheresoever Masses are said so they most manifestly overthrow the articles he instanceth in viz. 1 The ninth tenth The ninth by turning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 universall into particular and empaling the whole Church within the jurisdiction of Rome as the Donatists did of old within the Provinces of Africa The tenth by branding them with the markes of heretickes who believe the remission of their owne sinnes by speciall faith 2 As the Cardinall is foulely mistaken in the point of divinity so also in the matter of history both of former ages and this present wherein wee live For who knoweth not that other articles besides the ninth and tenth are at this day oppugned by the Servetians Antitrinitarians Sosinians Vorstians Anabaptists Libertines and Familists whose heresies strike at the soveraigne attributes of God the Trinity of persons deity of Christ his incarnation satisfaction second comming and life everlasting 3 Neither were these two articles instanced in first impugned in our age or since the 1000. yeere as hee accounteth but long before in the third and fourth ages by the Novatians Donatists Luciferians Meletians and Pelagians 4 Neither was Sathan so long in setting heretickes on worke to undermine all the articles of the creede If you peruse the bedroll of heresies in Irenaeus Epiphanius Philastrius and Augustine you shall finde that within the space of 400. yeeres the Divell so bestirred himselfe that hee left no article of the Apostles creede untouched by them 5 And lastly neither had the enemy of mankinde any care at all of order in employing heretickes to overthrow our christian beliefe more than an enraged enemy all set upon spoile in demolishing an house thinketh of pulling downe every stone in order for to what end serveth order when nothing but present confusion is sought Therefore against the rule of method set downe by Bellarmine Sathan in the second age called in question the last article of the creed by Papius and the Millenaries In the third age hee called in question the eighth article concerning the holy Ghost by the Macedonians and Pneumatomachi In the first age hee called in question the second article concerning the divinity of Christ by the Ebionites and Cerinthians as also the eleventh by the Ephesians and those Corinthians whom the Apostle taketh to taske in this chapter and confuteth in my text Obser 2 My second observation from the occasion is that some heresies as namely this of the Corinthians concerning the resurrection against which the Apostle bendeth all his forces have beene very auncient and some heretickes contemporaries to the Apostles As God is stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d Dan. 7.13 that is Auncient of dayes or rather Auncient to dayes as God speaketh of himselfe e Esa 43.13 Before the day was I am so the Divell is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the old Serpent whose spawne are all heresies as well old as new No truth at the first delivery thereof could bee auncient nor can any errour after it hath long passed from hand to hand bee new Time is without the essence of those things that are measured by it and consequently cannot make that which is in it selfe evill good nor that which is good evill Antiquity can no more prescribe for falshood than novelty prejudice the truth Bare antiquity therefore is but a weake plea in matter of religion f Tertul. de Vol. Virg. quodcunque contra veritatem sapit haeresis est etiam vetus consuetudo whatsoever savoureth not of truth or is against it is heresie yea although it be ancient and plead custome 1 It was the Samaritans plea against the Jewes g Joh. 4.20.22 Our Father worshipped in this mount c. But it was rejected by our Saviour saying you worship you know not what 2 It was the plea of the hereticks called Aquarii against the Catholicks but disproved by Saint h Ep. 74. Consuetudo sine veritate est vetustas â—rroris Cyprian saying Custome without truth is no better than inveterate errour 3 It was the plea of Guitmundus against the practice of the Romane Church in Gregory the great his dayes but disparaged by him saying custome ought to give place to truth and right i Grat. dist 8. for Christ said not Ego sum consuetudo I am custome or prescription but Ego sum veritas I am truth Nay it was the very plea of the Paynims against the Christians and long agoe disabled by the ancient Fathers Saint Ignatius Arnobius Ambrose and Augustine Ignatius thus puts it by Some say they will not believe the truth of the Gospell if wee produce not ancient records for it to whom my answer is k Ignat. epist ad Philad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ is my antiquity his words are to mee in stead or as good as all ancient records l Arnob. l. 2. cont gent. Quod verum est seâ—um non est c. Arnobius gravely determines the point the authority saith he of Religion is to be weighed not by time but by the divine author thereof that which is true is not to be traduced as late or too new Saint m Amb. l. 3. ep 30 Reprobatis messem quia sera est foecunditas c. Ambrose seconds Arnobius saying to the heathen doe you finde fault with our Christian religion because it is later than your heathenish superstition you may by the same reason picke a quarrell with harvest because it comes not till the end of summer and with the vintage because it falls late in the yeere and with the olive because hee beareth fruit after other trees Lastly Saint n Quaest vet novi Test Quasi antiquitas praejudicet veritati hic est mos diabolicus ut per antiquitatis traducem commendetur fallacia Austine returnes them a smart answer for this absurd plea They say that that religion which is elder cannot bee false as if antiquity or custome could doe the truth any prejudice at all 't is a divellish custome to vent falshood under the title of antiquity Whereunto may be added that in propriety of speech that is not antiquity which is so esteemed the age wherein wee live is indeed the eldest because nearest to the end of the world and those times which wee reverence as elder are by so much the younger by how much they were neerer to the beginning of the world and the birth of time it selfe The Catholike Christian Church was never so
eleven Apostles or to more than five hundred brethren that saw him all at one time nay what to more than five millions of Confessors and Martyrs signing the truth of it with their blood and shewing the power of it as well by the wonders which they wrought in his name as the invincible patience wherewith they endured all sorts of torments and death it selfe for his name I might produce the testimony of Josephus the learned Jew and tell you of Paschasinus his holy Well that fils of his owne accord every Easter day and the annuall rising of certaine bodies of Martyrs in the sands of Egypt and likewise of a Phoenix in the dayes of Tyberius much about the time of our Lords resurrection rising out of her owne ashes m Lactant. in Poem Ipsa sibi proles suus pater suus haeres Nutrix ipsa sui semper alumna sibi Ipsa quidem sed non eadem quia ipsa nec ipsa Eternam vitam mortis adepta bono But because the authours of these relations and observations are not beyond exception I will rather conclude this point with an argument of Saint n De civit Dei l. 22. c. 5. Haec duo incredibilia scil resurrectionem nostri corporis rem â—am incredibilem mundum esse crediturum idem dominus antequam vel unum horuÌ„ fieret ambo futura esse praedixit unum duorum incredibilium jam factum videmus ut quod erat incredibile credeâ—et mundus curid quod reliquum est desperatur Austines to which our owne undoubted experience gives much strength The same Spirit of God saith hee which foretold the resurrection of Christ foretold also that the doctrine thereof should bee publickly professed and believed in the world and the one was altogether as unlikely as the other But the latter wee see in all ages since Christs death and at this day accomplished in the celebration of this feast why then should any man doubt of the former The Apostles saw the head living but not the mysticall body the Catholike Church of all places and ages We have read in the histories of all ages since Christ and at this day see the Catholike Church spread over the whole face of the earth which is Christs body how can wee then but believe the head to bee living which conveigheth life to all the members I have set before you the glasse of the resurrection in the figures of predictions of the Old Testament and the face it selfe in the history of the New may it please you now to cast a glance of your eye upon the Image or picture thereof in our rising from the death of sinne to the life of grace All Christs actions and passions as they are meritorious for us so they are some way exemplary unto us and as none can bee assured of the benefit of Christs birth unlesse hee bee borne againe by water and the Spirit nor of his death unlesse hee bee dead to sinne nor of his buriall unlesse hee have buried his old Adam so neither of his resurrection unlesse hee bee risen from dead workes and continually walketh in newnesse of life See you how the materiall colours in a glasse window when the sun-beames passe through it produce the like colours but lesse materiall and therefore called by the Philosophers intentionales spiritales on the next wall no otherwise doth the corporall resurrection of Christ produce in all true believers a representation thereof in their spirituall which Saint John calleth o Apoc. 20.5 the first resurrection Saint Paul p Heb. 6.1 repentance from dead workes Sinnes especially heinous and grievous proceeding from an evill habit are called dead workes and such sinners dead men because they are deprived of the life of God have no sense of true Religion they see not Gods workes they heare not his Word they savour not the things of God they feele no pricke of conscience they breath not out holy prayers to God nor move towards heaven in their desires but lye rotting in their owne filthinesse and corruption The causes which moved the Jewes so much to abhorre dead corpses ought to be more prevalent with us carefully to shunne and avoid those that are spiritually dead in sinnes and transgressions they were foure 1 Pollution 2 Horrour 3 Stench 4 Haunting with evill spirits 1 Pollution That which touched a dead corpse was by the law uncleane neither can any come nigh these men much lesse embrace them in their bosome without morall pollution and taking infection in their soules from them 2 Horrour Nothing so ghastly as the sight of a dead corpse the representation whereof oft-times in the Theater appalleth not onely the spectatours but also the actours and yet this sight is not so dreadfull to the carnall man as the sight of those that are spiritually dead I speake of foule notorious and scandalous offenders to them that feare God Saint John would not stay in the same bath with Cerinthus and certainely 't is a most fearefull thing to bee under the same roofe with blasphemous heretickes and profane persons who have no feare of God before their eyes 3 Stench The smell of a carkasse is not so offensive to the nostrils as the stench of gluttony drunkennesse and uncleannesse in which wicked men wallow is loathsome to God and all good men 4 Haunting with evil spirits We read in scriptures that the men that were possest of the divel came q Mat. 8.28 out of the tombs and graves and we find by dayly experience the like of these rather carkasses than men that the devill hankereth about them and entereth into their heart as he did into Judas filling them with all wickednesse and uncleannesse After they have exhausted their bodies with incontinency their estate with riotous living and have lost first their conscience and after their credit they fall into the deepest melancholy upon which Sathan works and puts them into desperate courses r Psal 73.19 O how suddenly doe they consume perish and come to a fearefull end Me thinkes I heare some say wee heard of places haunted by evill spirits in time of popery are there now any such not such as then were solitary houses ruined pallaces or Churches in which fearefull noyses are said to have beene heard and walking spirits to have beene met For at the thunder of the Gospell Sathan fell like lightning from heaven and hath left those his old holds but places of a contrary condition such where is the greatest concourse of people I meane profane Theaters disorderly Tavernes Ale-houses places of gaming and lewdnesse yea prisons also which were intended for the restraint of wickednesse and punishment of vice are made refuges of Malefactors and schooles of all impiety and wickednesse Quis custodes custodiet ipsos As in the hot sands of Africa where wilde beasts of divers sorts meet to drinke strange monsters are begotten which gave occasion to that proverbe Å¿ Eras
worse than perdition to bee saved for ever in these flames to bee ever scorched and never consumed that is to bee ever dying and never dye Here as Saint g Aug. de civit Dei l 13. c. 11. Ibi non erunt homines ante mortem neque post mortem sed semper in morte atque per hoc nunquam viventes nunquam mortui sed sine fine morientes Austine acutely observeth wee can never bee sayd properly dying but either alive or dead for to the moment of giving up the ghost wee are alive and after that dead whereas on the contrary the damned in hell can never bee said to bee alive or dead but continually dying not dead because they have most quicke sense of paine not alive because they are in the pangs of the second death O miserable life where life is continually dying O more miserable death where death is eternally living Yea but shall all be salted with this fire the fire of hell God forbid Doth Christ say of this salt not of the earth but of hell that it is good ver 50. is this the meaning of his exhortation have salt in you that is procure the salt of hell fire to keep you alive in the torments of eternall death to preserve you to everlasting perdition By no meanes h In hunc locum Maldonat therefore and Barradius and all that are for this first interpretation are justly to bee blamed because they had an eye to the antecedents but not to the consequents of my text On the other side those who adhere to the second interpretation are not free from just exception because they had an eye to the consequents and not to the antecedents For wee ought to give such an interpretation of these words as may hold good correspondence both with the antecedents and consequents and either give light to both or receive it from them The elect to whom these latter restraine the word All have nothing to doe with the unquenchable fire of hell mentioned ver 48. neither have the reprobate to whom the former interpreters appropriate these words any thing to doe with the good salt ver 50. yet both have to doe with some kinde of salting and with some kinde of fire For every one shall bee salted one way or other either here with the fire of the spirit seasoning our nature and preserving it from corruption or hereafter with the fire of hell There is no meanes to escape the never dying worme of an evill conscience but by having salt in us nor to prevent the unquenchable fire of hell but by fire from heaven I meane heart-burning sorrow for our sinnes Dolor est medicina doloris That we may not bee hereafter salted with the fire of hell wee must be here salted with a threefold fire of 1 The word 2 The spirit 3 Affliction or persecution First with the fire of the word the word is a fire i Jer. 23.29 Is not my word like a fire saith the Lord It hath the three properties of fire 1 To give light 2 To burne 3 To search First it giveth light therefore Psal 119. it is called a lanthorn to our steps and a light to our paths Secondly it burneth 1 In the eare 2 In the mouth 3 In the heart First in the eare k 1 Sam. 3.11 Whosoever heareth my words saith God his eares shall tingle Secondly it burneth in the mouth l Jerem. 5.14 I will make my words fire in the mouth Thirdly it burneth in the heart m Luk. 24.32 Did not our heart burne within us when hee opened to us the scriptures Lastly it searcheth pierceth and tryeth like fire The n Heb. 4.12 word of God is mighty in operation and sharper than a two-edged sword c. Secondly with the fire of the spirit the spirit is a fire o Act. 1.5 You shall be baptized with the holy Ghost and with fire Water will wash out filthy spots and blots on the skinne onely but fire is more powerfull it will burne out rotten flesh and corrupt matter under the skinne This fire of the holy Ghost enlightneth the understanding with knowledge enflameth the will and affections with the love of God and zeale for his glory and purgeth out all our drossie corruptions Thirdly with the fire of persecution and affliction Persecution is called a p 1 Pet. 4.12 fiery tryall and all kinde of afflictions and temptations wherewith Gods Saints are tryed in Saint Austines judgement are the fire whereof Saint Paul speaketh q 1 Cor. 3.15 He shall be saved as it were through fire And of a truth whatsoever the meaning of that text bee certaine it is that the purest vessels of Gods sanctuary first in the Heathen next in the Arrian and last of all in the Antichristian persecution have beene purified and made glorious like gold tryed in the fire There is no torment can bee devised by man or divell whereof experiments have not beene made on the bodies of Christs martyrs yet the greater part of them especially in these later times have beene offered to God by fire as the Holocausts under the law Bloody persecutors of Gods Saints set on fire with hell of all torments most employed the fiery because they are most dreadfull to the eye of the beholders most painefull to the body of the sufferers and they leave nothing of the burned martyr save ashes which sometimes the adversaries maâ—ice outlasting the flames of fire cast into the river And many of Gods servants in this land as well as in other parts in the memory of our fathers have been salted with this fire call you it whether you please either the fire of martyrdome or martyrdome of fire And howsoever this fire in the dayes of Queen Mary was quenched especially by the blood of the slaine for the testimony of Jesus Christ as the fire in the city of the r Liv. decad 3. l. 8 Bruson facet exempl l. 1. Astapani as Livie observeth when no water could lave it our was extinguished with the blood of the citizens yet wee know not but that it may bee kindled againe unlesse wee blow out the coales of wrath against us with the breath of our prayers or dead them with our teares Admit that that fire should never bee kindled againe yet God hath many other fires to salt us withall burning feavers fiery serpents thunder and lightning heart-burning griefes and sorrowes losse of dearest friends wracke of our estates infamy disgrace vexations oppressions indignation at the prosperity of the wicked terrors of conscience and spirituall derelictions And God grant that either by the fire of the Word or of the Spirit or seasonable afflictions our fleshly corruptions may bee so burned out in this life that wee bee not salted hereafter with the fire of hell which burneth but lighteth not scorcheth but yet consumeth not worketh without end both upon soule and body yet maketh an end of neither O that
that were served in at the Idols table Let them therefore beware of some fearfull judgement of God who without any calling or commission out of meere curiosity enter into the house of Rimmon and behold those Idolatrous rites wherewith Romish superstition hath corrupted the pure worship of God How can they bee there with them without offence If they joyne not with these Idolaters in censing bowing before offering unto and kissing their Images in calling upon Saints and praying for the releasing of soules out of Purgatory they give offence to them if they joyne with them they give greater offence to the Church of God and not onely receive a p Hom. against rebellion the Pope is called the Babylonish beast marke from the beast but a grievous wound The Corinthians whom S. Paul in these words plucks as it were violently out of the idols Temple had as colorable a pretence as these Naamans can have They pleaded that they went not to the idols temple to worship but to make merry with their neighbors and feede their bellies with the idols relicks these in like manner say that they resort not to places where Masses are said to worship the wafer or breaden god but to feede their eyes with their garish shewes and please their eares with their exquisite musicke They proceeded farther in their defence alledging that they knew the idoll was nothing and in their eating of things offered to it they had no relation to the Paynim deity nor purpose to worship it but the true God whose creatures they received with cheerefulnesse and thanksgiving And is not this the fairest glosse they set upon their foule and scandalous practise in pressing into Popish chappels that they know the sacrifice of the Masse is nothing neither doe they any reverence at all to image or picture but to God to whom they pray against those superstitions even when they are at them But what doth the Apostle answer to the Corinthians viz. That though the idoll bee nothing in it selfe yet sith it is a supposed Deity in the minde of the Idolater who intendeth a religious worship thereunto in keeping those heathenish feasts a Christian may not joyne with him in the outward action of his idoll service whatsoever the intention be without receiving a foule staine both in his conscience and in his good name To lift up the heart to God when they fall downe with their body before the Hoste or Image will no more acquit them from idolatry than it will cleare a woman from adultery to thinke upon her husband when shee prostituteth her body to the impure soliciter of her chastity Neither is it easie to sever the soule from the body in one and the selfe same act as q Aug. confess l. 6. c. 8. Alypius ab amicis violenter in amphitheat um adductus dicens si corpus meum in illum locum trahitis numquid animum adero itaque absens sic vos illa superabo ille diuclausis oculorum foribus interdixit animae ne in tanta mala procederet utinam aures obturasset nam quodam pugnae casu curiositate victus aperuit oculos percussus est graviore vulnere in animâ quam ille in corpore Alypius found by his woefull experience who being violently drawne by his friends into the Romane Theater thus reasoned with himselfe What though you have drawne my body into this place you shall not draw my soule seeing you will have it so I will stay with you but I resolve to be absent when I am present and so I will deceive you and them According to which his firme purpose hee kept the liddes of his eyes shut that his soule might not as it were goe out of them and gad after these vanities And it had beene happy for him saith Saint Austine if hee had locked up the gates of his eares also for on the suddaine hearing a great shout and applause ere hee was aware hee opened his eyes and by seeing that bloody spectacle received a deeper wound in his soule than the hurt Fencer in his body Is it not to bee feared that as the r Gen. 30.39 And the flockes conceived before the rods and brought forth cattell ring streked speckled and spotted sheepe which conceived before the coloured roddes brought forth spotted lambes so the prayers and meditations which are conceived before idols will receive some impression from the image and bee tainted with idolatry or spotted with superstition Was it unlawfull for the Corinthians to partake with idolaters in meats offered unto idols and can it bee lawfull for these men to communicate with Papists in prayers offered unto them If they answer they pray to Saints and before images and not idols let them know that any image or creature to which religious worship is given thereby becommeth an idoll If Saint Cyprians zeale transported him not too farre when hee peremptorily determineth there can bee no society betweene faith and perfidiousnesse or betweene the true and false worship of God If the ſ 2 Cor. 6.14 What fellowship hath righteousnesse with unrighteousnesse c. Apostle alloweth of no more communion betweene Christians and Idolaters than betweene righteousnesse and unrighteousnesse or light and darkenesse or t Ver. 15. Christ and Belial certainely all Interimists and Pseudo-Cassanders and catholike Moderators of these times who goe about to bring Christ and Antichrist to an enterview sodder unity and schisme piece faith and heresie and make the Whore of Babylon and Christs spouse good friends are like to have a hard taske of it For what agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols but yee are the Temple of God Doctr. 3 Yee The light of the sunne is common unto all but not his influence in like manner there are certaine enlightning gifts which are not denied to the unregenerate but the sanctifying and saving graces of the spirit are peculiar to Gods children God forbiddeth in the Law the annointing any thing with the holy u Exod. 30.33 oyle save the things that are there specified he maketh it death to put that holy oyntment to any common use and shall wee thinke that hee will shed the oyntment of his spirit into any impure or prophane heart will hee cast his pearle before swine The piety of Paynims is Necromancy or Idolatry of Heretickes is Will-worship of Hypocrites is Formality of Schismaticks is Faction There can be no true devotion without illumination of the understanding and renovation of the will and purifying the heart by faith there is no Temple of God which is not built upon the corner stone Christ Jesus Ye and none but such as ye are The Church in the song of Solomon is compared to a * Cant. 4.12 A garden enclosed is my sister my spouse a spring shut up a fountaine sealed garden enclosed or a fountaine sealed The prophane and ungodly drinke not of the river of her pleasures they taste not of her
delicate fruits they who overcome not eat not x Apoc. 2.17 the hidden Manna as they partake not of the Spouse her graces so neither have they any right or title to her titles They are no Temples but rather styes no dove-cotes but cages of uncleane birds no habitations for the holy Ghost but rather haunts of uncleane spirits They indeed live and move in God for out of him they cannot subsist but y Gal. 2.20 Neverthelesse I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me Rom. 8 9. 2 Cor. 6.16 God himselfe liveth and moveth in the godly God is in all places and abideth every where yet hee z Ephes 3.17 dwelleth onely in the hearts of true believers For they and they onely are the Temple of the living God Doctr. 4 Are. In the Romane Kalendar no Saints are entred till many miracles be voiced upon them after death but in Gods Register wee finde Saints in the Church on earth among the a Rom. 1.7 Romanes b 1 Cor. 1.2 Corinthians c Eph. 1.1 Ephesians d Phil. 1.1 Philippians at e Act. 9.32 Lydda and elsewhere But what Saints and how Saints by calling Saints by a holy profession and blamelesse conversation Saints by gratious acceptation of pious endeavours rather than of performances Saints by inchoation Saints by regeneration of grace Saints by daily renovation of the inward man Saints by devotion and dedication of themselves wholly to God Saints by inhabitation of the holy spirit in them which maketh them a holy Temple of the living God In this life we are f 1 Cor. 3.23 Gods for all things are yours and you are Christs and Christ is Gods in the life to come g Apo. 21.22 And I saw no Temple therein for the Lord God almighty and the Lambe are the Temple thereof God is ours In this life wee are Gods Temple but in the life to come God is g Apo. 21.22 And I saw no Temple therein for the Lord God almighty and the Lambe are the Temple thereof ours Now God dwelleth with us and is but slenderly entertained by us but there wee shall dwell with him and have fulnesse of all things yet without satiety or being cloyed therewith Doctr. 5 The Temple Not the Temples but the Temple Gen. 1.1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As the learned Hebricians from the construction of the noune plurall with a verb singular as if you would say in Latine Dii or Numina creavit gather the trinity of persons in the unity of the divine nature so from the construction here of a singular adjunct with a subject plurall wee may inferre the plurality of the faithfull in the unity of the Church For wee that are many yet are truely one many graines one bread many sheepe one fold many members one body many branches one vine many private oratories or chaplets but one Temple The parts of the Catholike Church are so farre scattered and dissevered in place that they cannot make one materiall yet they are so neare joyned in affection and fast linked with the bonds of religion that they make but one spirituall Temple They are many soules and must needs have as many divers naturall bodies yet in regard they are all quickned guided and governed by the same spirit they make but one mysticall body whose head is in heaven and members dispersed over the earth Can unity bee divided If wee are rent in sunder by schisme and faction Christ his seamelesse coate cannot cover us all The Philosophers finde it in the naturall the States-men in the politicke and I pray God wee finde it not in the mysticall body of Christ h Cyp. de simplic prel A velle radium à sole divisionem lucis unitas non capit ab arbore frange ramum fructum germinare non poterit à fonte praecide rivum prorsus arescet That division tends to corruption and dissolution to death Plucke a beame if you can from the body of the sunne it will have no light breake a branch from the tree it will beare no fruit sever a river from the spring it will soone bee dryed up cut a member from the body it presently dyeth cast a pumice stone into the water and though it bee never so bigge while it remaines entire and the parts whole together it will swimme above water but breake it into pieces and every piece will sinke in like manner the Church and Common-wealth which are supported and as it were borne up above water by unity are drowned in perdition by discord dissention schisme and faction It is not possible that those things which are knit by a band should hold fast together after the band it selfe is broken How can a sinew hold steddy the joint if it bee sprayned or broken or cut in sunder Religion beloved brethren is the band of all society the strongest sinew of Church or Commonwealth God forbid there should bee any rupture in this band any sprayne in this sinew The husbandman hath sowed good seede cleane and picked in this Kingdome for more than threescore yeeres and it hath fructified exceedingly since the happy reformation of Religion in these parts O let no envious man sow upon it those tares which of late have sprung up in such abundance in our neighbour countries that they have almost choaked all the good wheat Let no roote of bitternesse spring up in our Paradise or if it bee sprung let authority or at least Christian charity plucke it up Wee are all one body let us all have the same minde towards God and endeavour to the utmost of our power to i Eph. 4 3. preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace that our spirituall Jerusalem may resemble the old Byzantium the stones whereof were so matched and the wall built so uniformely that the whole City seemed to bee but one stone continued throughout It was the honour of the k Psal 122.3 Jerusalem is builded as a City that is compacted together old let it bee also of the new Jerusalem that it is a City at unity in it selfe Doctr. 6 I have held you thus long in the Porch let us now enter into the Temple Glorious things are spoken of you O ye chosen of God yee are tearmed vessels of honour lights of the world a chosen generation a royall priesthood a peculiar people a celestiall society yet nothing ever was or can be more spoken to Your endlesse comfort and superexcellent glory than that you are Children of the Father Members of the Sonne and Temples of the holy Ghost Seneca calleth the world Augustissimum Dei Templum a most magnificent Temple of God David the heaven Solomon the Church Saint Paul the Elect in the Church and in a sense not altogether improper we may tearme the world the Temple of the Church the Church the Temple of our bodies our bodies the Temples of our soules and our soules most peculiarly the Temples of the
scorching heat would consume them in such sort that they could never come to maturity This Apologue shall serve for my Apologie if I presse you at this time with all the interest I have in your love nay with all the power that I have as a Minister of Christ Jesus to contribute something to the necessity of your brethren You know well the grapes I told you of which send to you as the grapes in Babel did to the vines in Judea to impart unto them some of your sap and to shade them under your well spread boughes or else they will undoubtedly wither and perish I beseech you in the bowells of Christ Jesus come not behind but rather goe before others in pious bounty and Christian charity So the good will of him that dwelt in the bush make you all like the tree in the first Psalme planted by the rivers of waters that bringeth forth his fruit in due season and his leafe shall not wither and whatsoever he doth it shall prosper THE STEWARDS ACCOUNT A Sermon preached in the Abbey Church at WESTMINSTER THE XXI SERMON LUKE 16.2 Give an account of thy stewardship for thou maist be no longer Steward Right Reverend right Honourable right Worshipfull c. THat I may give a better account of the mysteries of saving truth and you of the blessings of this life whereof God hath made us Stewards in different kindes I have chosen for the subject of my serious meditations and the object of your religious consideration this parcell of sacred Scripture which admonisheth us all to looke to our severall accounts to examine and cleare them that wee may have them ready and perfect when our Lord and Master shall call for them from every of us by name and in particular saying Give an account of thy stewardship The words are part of a Parable which resembleth the tents of Solomon vile and blacke without but full of precious things within For on the out-side we reade nothing but a narration of an unjust Steward or crafty Merchant who being called to an account and justly fearing to bee turned out of his place upon it in time provideth against the worst and taketh a course to make himselfe whole by cheating his Master but in the in-side there are many beautifull Images of divine doctrines drawne by the pensill of the holy Ghost which I purpose to set before you after I have opened the vaile of the letter by shewing you 1. What are the goods for which the Steward is to reckon 2. Who is the Steward charged with these goods 3. What manner of account he is to give Touching the first the learned Interpreters of this mysterious Parable are at strife and if I may so speake in law about the goods left in the hands of this unfaithfull Steward Some put temporall blessings only and worldly wealth in his account Others by goods understand the Word and Sacraments principally wherewith the Ministers of the Gospel are trusted But Bonaventure lighting one candle by another expoundeth this Parable by the other Parable of the five talents and taketh the goods here committed to the Steward to bee those five talents delivered to every man to trade and negotiate withall for God his Master and thus hee telleth them 1. Naturae 2. fortunae 3. potentiae 4. scientiae 5. gratiae the first of nature the second of wealth the third of power the fourth of knowledge the fifth of grace By nature hee understandeth all the naturall faculties of the minde and organs and instruments of the body By wealth riches and possessions By power offices and authority By knowledge all arts and sciences By grace all the gifts of the spirit and supernaturall infused habits such as are faith hope and charity c. whereunto if hee had added a most precious Jewell which if it be once lost can never be recovered viz. our time hee had given a true and perfect Inventary of all the goods for which the unfaithfull Steward in my Text is called to an account Touching the second about whom there is as great contestation and variety of opinions as about the goods themselves Gaudentius maketh a Steward of the Divell who justly deserveth the name of an unjust servant for wasting his lords substance that is spoyling his creatures and robbing him of his chiefest treasure the soules of men But if the Divell bee the Steward who is the accuser of this Steward doubtlesse he can be no other than the Divell whose stile is the a Revel 12.10 The accuser of the brethren is cast down which accuseth them before the Lord day and night Accuser of the brethren The Divell therefore is not the Steward here meant whom God never set over his family nor trusted him with any of his goods since he became a Divell Tertullian conceiveth the people of the Jewes to whom the Tables and Pots of Manna and Oracles of God were committed to be the Steward 's called to an account in my Text for the abuse of these holy things If wee follow this Interpretation neither the Parable nor the Text any way concerneth us Christians therefore Saint Ambrose Saint Chrysostome Saint Augustine Beda Euthymius and Theophylact enlarge the Stewards Patent and put all rich men in the world in it who are advised to make friends with the unrighteous Mammon they have in their hands that when they faile their friends may receive them into everlasting habitations Lastly Saint Jerome and others put in hard for the Ministers of the Gospel to whom they assigne the first place in the Patent as being Stewards in the most eminent kinde and so stiled both by our b Luke 12.42 Who then is the faithfull wise Steward whom his lord shall make ruler over his houshold to give them their portion of meat in due season Saviour and his c Tit. 1.7 A Bishop must be blamelesse as the Steward of God 1 Cor. 4.1 Let a man so account of us as Stewards of the mysteries of God Apostle To reconcile these opinions and make a perfect concord of seeming discords I understand by the great husband or rich man in the Parable Almighty God whose house is the whole world all things in it his wealth Men indued with reason and understanding are his Stewards whom he hath set over this great houshold to governe the rest of his creatures and employ the riches of his goodnesse to the advancement of his glory These are all accountable unto him the Jewes peculiarly for such things as hee bequeathed to his children by the Old Testament the Christians for such things as he hath bequeathed to them by the New the unregenerate are to reckon with him for the gifts of nature the regenerate for the graces of the spirit the rich for his wealth the noble for his honour the mighty for his power the learned for his knowledge every man for that hee receiveth of the riches of his mercy in spirituall temporall or corporall
blessings In which regard we may rightly terme Kings Stewards of their crownes Lords of their lands Captaines of their armies Bishops of their diocesse Pastours of their parishes Housholders of their families and every private man of the closet of his conscience and treasury of his heart For all Kings are Gods subjects all Captaines are his souldiers all Teachers are his schollers all Masters are his servants and consequently all Lords his stewards In a word there is none of so high a calling in the world that is more nor any of so low a calling or small reckoning that is lesse than a Steward of the King of kings who shall one day call not onely all men of sort but even all sorts of men to a most strict and exact account Kings for their scepters Magistrates for their swords Officers for their staves Bishops for their crosiers Souldiers for their weapons Clerkes for their pens Landlords for their possessions Patrons for their advowsons Merchants for their trade Tradesmen for their crafts Husbandmen for their ploughes calling to every one in particular Give an account of thy Stewardship Touching the third some render the originall 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 render a reason others give an account some actus tui of thy Factorship as Tertullian others villicationis tuae of thy Bailiwicke as Saint Jerome a third sort dispensationis tuae of thy Stewardship as the Kings Translators A great difference in sound of words but little or none at all in sense for though a Factor in forraine parts and a Steward at home and a Baily in the country are distinct offices and different imployments yet to the meaning of this Parable they are all one For they all deale with other mens mony rent or goods and are all liable to an account and upon it dischargeable And in this place whether wee translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a reason or a reckoning all commeth to one reckoning for upon the matter to render a reason of monies disbursed by us is to give an account A carefull Steward or Accomptant in any kinde besides the casting of the summes setteth downe a reason of every parcell of mony laid out by him after this maner Item in provision so much Item in reparations Item for workmens hire Item for law sutes c. thus much Howbeit they that delight in tithing Mint and Cummin and nicely distinguishing between words of very like if not altogether the same signification observe that in precise propriety of speech wee are said to give an account how but render a reason why wee have disbursed such monies and that our account must bee of our Masters goods but our reason of our owne actions and wee are accountable onely for that we have laid out but we are answerable or to yeeld a reason to our Master as well for that wee have not laid out for his profit in due season as for that we have laid out for his necessities For hee expecteth gaine of every talent committed to us and will not onely accept his owne without advantage The things wee are to account for are contained under these three heads 1. Goods 2. Gifts 3. Graces By goods I understand the blessings of this life which the Philosopher calleth bona fortunae By gifts indowments of nature which they call bona naturae By graces divine vertues which the Schooles call habitus infusos In our booke of account Under the first head viz. goods of this world wee must write How bestowed Under the second viz gifts of nature we must write How imployed Under the third viz. graces of the spirit we must write How improved And if it appeare upon our accounts that we have well bestowed the first in holy pious and charitable uses and well imployed the second in carefully discharging the generall duties of a good Christian and diligently performing the particular workes of our speciall calling and have much increased the third by our spirituall trade with God by hearing meditating reading conferring praying and the constant practise of piety and exercise of every divine vertue and grace then our Master will say unto us Well d Mat. 25.21 done good and faithfull servant thou hast been faithfull in a little bee thou ruler over much enter into thy Masters joy But if we have kept unprofitably or wasted riotously the first the wealth of the world and retchlesly abused the second the dowry of nature or by idlenesse let it rust and rather diminished than increased the third the treasury of spirituall graces then we are to render a reason make answer for these defaults and if our answer be not the better to make satisfaction to our Lord to the uttermost farthing after we are put out of our Stewardship as the reason annexed to the command implyeth For thou maist be no longer Steward Give then an account of thy Stewardship that is of thy life whereof thou art not lord but steward to spend it in thy Masters service and lay it downe for his honour Cast up all the particulars of thy life summe up thy thoughts words and deeds redde rationem 1. Mali commissi 2. Boni omissi 3. Temporis amissi Make answer for 1. The evill thou hast committed 2. The good thou hast omitted 3. The time thou hast pretermitted or mis-pent either in 1. Doing nothing at all 2. Or nothing to the purpose 3. Or that which is worse than nothing tracing the endlesse mazes of worldly and sinfull vanities Now to proceed from the exposition of the words to the handling of the parts of this Scripture which are evidently two 1. A command Division wherein I observe 1. The person commanding God under the name of a rich man 2. The persons commanded all men under the name of Stewards 3. The thing commanded to give an account 4. The office for which this account is to bee given a Stewardship 5. The propriety of this office thine 2. A reason wherein I note 1. The Stewards discharge and quitting his office thou mayest c. 2. The time now Which particular points of observation direct us to these doctrinall conclusions 1. That God is Lord of all 2. That all men are Stewards 1. Not Lords 2. Not Treasurers 3. That all Stewards shall be called to an account 4. That the office for which they are to account is their own Stewardship not anothers 5. That upon this account they shall be discharged These conclusions resemble the rings spoken of by St. f Aug l 21. de civit Dei Austin whereof the first being touched by the Load-stone drew the second the second the third the third the fourth and the fourth the fifth For here the first point inferreth the second If God be Lord of all men can bee but Stewards The second inferreth the third If all men are Stewards all men are accountable The third the fourth If all men are accountable for a Stewardship this Stewardship must needs be their owne The fourth the fifth
If they are to account for their owne Stewardship certainly either at the private audit the day of their death or at the publike audit the day of judgement after which they shall be no longer Stewards but either Lords in Heaven or Slaves in Hell Wherefore O Christian whosoever thou art whether thou swayest the scepter or handlest the spade whether thou sittest at the sterne or rowest at the oare whether thou buildest on the roofe or diggest at the foundation make full account of it thou shalt be called to an account for thy worke be not idle therefore nor secure Secondly that for which thou art to account is no place of authority but an office of trust no Lordship but a Stewardship be not proud of it nor unfaithfull in it Thirdly this office of trust is not a Treasurership but a Stewardship be not covetous nor unprofitable Fourthly this Stewardship is not anothers but thine owne be not curious nor censorious Fifthly this thy Stewardship is not perpetuall but for a time it expireth with thy life be not negligent nor fore-slacke thy opportunity of making friends to receive thee into everlasting habitations after thou must relinquish thy office That God is Lord of all his claime unto all is a sufficient evidence to us For hee cannot pretend a false title who is truth it selfe neither can any question his right in any Court who is author of all lawes as hee is maker of all things which are his by a threefold right 1. Of Creation 2. Purchase 3. Possession 1. Of Creation for that which a man maketh is his owne 2. Of Purchase for that which any one purchaseth is his owne 3. Of Possession for that which any one is possessed of time out of minde is his owne By the first of these the Father may claime us as all things else who made all By the second the Sonne who redeemed the world By the third the holy Ghost who inhabiteth us and after a speciall manner possesseth us g Isa 66.1 Heaven is my throne saith God and the earth is my footstoole You see then great reason why God should be compared to a rich man with whom all the rich men in the world may not compare neither in lands nor in cattell nor in mony and treasure Not in lands for the bounds of the earth are his land-markes and the Sunne is his Surveyer Nor in cattell for h Psal 50. every beast of the forrest is his and the cattell upon a thousand hills Not in mony or plate for i Haggai 2. gold is mine and silver is mine saith the Lord. Nor lastly in goods for that golden chaine of the Apostle k 1 Cor. 22.23 All are yours and ye are Christs and Christ is Gods may bee drawne backward by the same linkes thus All are Gods and God is Christs and Christ is ours Yea but it may be argued against this conclusion that God hath small or no demaines in as much as hee holdeth nothing in his owne hands having let out if I may so speake the heaven to Saints and Angels the ayre to Birds and Fowle the water to Fish the earth to Men and Beasts to dwell in it and reap the fruits thereof But the answer is easie for though God make no benefit of any thing to himselfe yet hee keepeth the right and propriety of all things in himselfe and hee must needs keep all things in his hands who clincheth the Heavens with his fist Moreover hee requireth homage of all his creatures which are but his tenants at will or to speake more properly servants to be thrust out of office and state upon the least offence given or dislike taken Which condition is farre worse than the former For a tenant hath some kinde of propriety and interest in that which hee holdeth of his Landlord and if he performe all covenants provisoes and conditions of his lease or agreement with his Lord hee may not without apparent wrong bee suddenly turned out of house and home much lesse may his Lord seize upon all his goods and dispose of them at his pleasure The case standeth farre worse with a Steward who hath nothing he may call his but his office for which hee may be alwayes called to an account and upon it discharged Yet this is the state of the greatest States and Potentates of the world they have no certainty in any thing they possesse or enjoy For which cause Saint l Hom. 2. ad po◠Antioch Omnes usum et fructum habemus dominium nemo Chrysostome findeth great fault with the wills and testaments of great personages in his time by which they bequeath lands lordships and inheritances in their own name and right as if those things were absolutely in their power they usurpe saith hee upon Gods prerogative who hath given unto them the use and profit of the things of this life but not the dominion no nor propriety in strict point of law unlesse a man will account that to be his own for which he is to give an account to another The Steward is no whit the richer because hee hath more to account for but in this regard more solicitous and obnoxious Which observation we may crowne with this corollary That they who seem to have the greatest and best estates in this world are in the worst condition of any if their gifts be not eminent and their care and industry extraordinary to make the best advantage to their Master of the many talents committed to them The reason hereof is easie to ghesse at and was long ago yeelded by Gregory the m Greg. sup Evang dominic Cum augentur dona crescunt rationes donorum great As their means and incomes so their accounts grow For n Luke 12.48 To whom men have committed much of him they will aske the more to whom more is given more shall be required of him To speake nothing of the many imployments and distractions of men in great place which sacrilegiously robbe them of their sacred houres devoted to prayer and meditation and bereave them of themselves I had almost said deprive them of their God and the sweet fellowship of his holy Spirit they must give so much audience to others that they can give but little attendance on God Publike imployments and eminent places in Church and Common-wealth expose those that hold them to the view of all men their good parts whatsoever they have are in sight and their bad too which men are more given to marke quis enim solem ferè intuetur nisi cum deficit when doe men so gaze upon the Sunne as in the eclipse in so much that the very word Marke is commonly taken in the worst sense for some scarre blemish or deformity A small coale raked up in the ashes may live a great while which if it be raked out and blowne soone dyeth and turneth into ashes They that were kept in close prison by Dionysius enjoyed the benefit of
an infinite reward p Aug. in Psal 36. Quid appendis cum infinito quantumcunque finitum no finite thing be it never so great can q Ber. serm in annunciat Quid sunt merita ad tantam gloriam weigh downe that which is infinite That our workes may beare scale in the Sanctuary and poyse the reward five graines must be added to them 1 Propriety 2 Liberty 3 Utility 4 Perfection 5 Proportion First propriety wee can merit by nothing that is not our owne worke no more than wee can oblige a man to us by repaying him his owne coyne Certainly that which is not our worke is not our merit Secondly liberty wee can challenge nothing by way of merit for a worke which wee are engaged by duty to performe no more than oblige a man to us for discharging a bond which wee were bound under a great penalty by a precise day to satisfie Thirdly utility or profit if that wee doe to another no way advantage him if hee be no whit the better by it what colour have wee to exact or reason to expect a reward from him for such a worke Fourthly perfection unlesse a worke be done sufficiently the labourer cannot in justice demand his hire nor the workeman require his price Fiftly proportion no labour or worke can merit more than in true estimation it is worth the labourer deserveth his hire such a hire as is correspondent to his paines but no other Hee that labours but a day deserveth not two dayes much lesse a weeke or a moneths hire If the plea of merit is overthrowne by the defect of any one of these conditions how much more by the defect of all 1. If wee have no interest in the worke be it never so meritorious in it selfe wee cannot merit by it because it is not ours 2. Let it bee ours and meritorious in another that were not bound to performe it yet weee cannot merit by it if wee are any way obliged in duty to performe it because it is not free 3. Let the worke be free yet if what wee doe no way redound to his benefit from whom we expect a reward wee cannot justly demand any recompence from him because our worke is not profitable to him 4. Let the worke be profitable yet if it bee not done as it should bee in every circumstance wee cannot sue for the price agreed upon because the worke is not perfect 5. Let the worke bee perfect and exact yet wee can exact no more for it than the skill or the paines together with the materials deserve Presse we each of these circumstances and much more if we presse them all together they will yeeld the doctrine of Saint r Basil in psal 114. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil upon the 114. Psalme There remaines a rest eternall for them who here strive lawfully not according to the merit of workes but according to the grace of our most bountifull God Let us once more squeze them First a meritorious act must be our owne if wee have any expectance for it these wee call ours are not so By the grace of God saith the Apostle I am that I am and his grace in mee was not in vaine But I laboured more than they all yet not I but the ſ 1 Cor. 15.10 grace of God which was with mee And this the Propht t Esay 26.12 Esay professeth in his prayer to God Lord thou wilt ordaine peace for us for thou also hast wrought all our workes in us If these texts are not cleare enough the Apostles question is able to non-plus all the Pelagians in the world u 1 Cor. 4.7 Who maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou that thou hast not received There is no good worke which is not comprised within the will or the deed and both as we heard before are the work of grace in us Upon this firme ground Saint * In psal 102. Si de tuo retribuis peccatum retribuis omnia enim quae habes ab illo habes tuum solum peccatum habes Enchirid. ad Laur. c. 302. Ideo dictum intelligitur non est volentis neque currentis sed miserentis Dei ut totum Deo detur qui hominis voluntatem bonam praeparat ad juvandam adjuvat praeparatam Austine buildeth a strong fort for grace against mans merit If thou renderest any thing to God of thine owne thou renderest sinne for all the good thou hast thou hast received from God thou hast nothing which thou maist call thine owne but sinne And elsewhere when the Apostle saith It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that hath mercy wee are thus to understand him That wee ought to ascribe the whole unto God who both prepareth the will of man to bee helped and helpeth it being prepared Secondly a meritorious act must be free in our power and at our choice to doe or leave undone our workes are not so for when x Luk. 17.10 wee have done all that wee can wee are commanded to say wee are unprofitable servants we have done that which it was our duty doe This wedge Marcus the y Tract de iis qui putant ex operibus justificari c. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hermite driveth in forcibly The Lord saith hee willing to shew that all the commandements are of duty to be performed and that the adoption of children is freely given to man by his blood saith when yee have done all things that are commanded you say wee are unprofitable servants c. therefore the kingdome of heaven is not the hire of workes but a gift of the Lord prepared for his faithfull servants Thirdly a meritorious worke must bee of use and some way beneficiall to him of whom a reward in strict justice is demanded ours are not so for z Psal 16.2 our goodnesse extendeth not unto God hee is farre above it This naile Saint a L 10. de civ Dei c 5. Totum hoc quod recte colitur Deus credendum est homini prodesse non Deo neque enim fonti se quisquam dixerit profuisse quod biberit Austine excellently fasteneth If we serve and worship God as wee ought the whole benefit thereof accrueth to our selves and not unto God for no man will say that the fountaine gaineth any thing by our drinking of it c. Fourthly a meritorious act must bee compleat perfect and without exception ours are not so for b Vide Plat. in dial Euthyph b Rom. 8.26 wee cannot pray as wee ought and our very best actions are so stained that the Prophet Esay calleth them no better than c Esay 64.6 But we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousnesse is as filthy ragges filthy ragges or menstruous clouts This arrow Saint d Moral in Job l. 5. c. 7. Ipsa justitia nostra si ad examen justitiae
of Galatians hee endevoureth to prove according to the true characters and points in the Hebrew is novum nomen a new name never given to any but our Saviour of this name above all other names it is most certain that no man knoweth the vertue thereof but he that is partaker of it In which interpretation the Jesuites affection seemeth to me to have over-swayed his judgement For as Aristoxenus the Musician out of an admiration of his own profession defined the soule to be an n Cic. Tusc 1. harmony so this expositour out of a love to his own society resolveth this new name can be no other than a denominative from Jesus But he should have considered that this new name here promised to the Angel of Pergamus is 1500. yeeres elder than Ignatius their Patriarch and is not promised to him onely but to all Christian conquerours in alleges whereas the name Jesuite before Layola in this age so christened his disloyall off-spring was never heard of in the world Neither lyeth there hid such a mystery in the name Jesuite that no man knoweth it saving hee that receiveth it it is knowne well enough not onely to Romanists of other orders but also to those of the reformed Church who yet never received the badge of their profession nor any marke of the o Apoc. 14 9. beast Victorinus and some others with more probability ghesse the new name to be here meant Christianus of which they understand those words of p Esa 62.2 Esay they shall bee called by my new name Aretas giveth the same interpretation of the white stone and the new name by both which the conquerour in proving masteries was made knowne to the people Carthusian distinguishing of the essentiall and accidentall rewards in heaven and calling the former auream the latter aureolam conceiveth this white stone to bee aureolam a gemme added to the Saints crowne of glory in it the name of Beatus engraven which no man can know but he that receiveth it because q 1 Cor. 2.9 eye hath not seene nor eare heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him r Illyr in Apoc Scribam cum haeredem vitae aeternae Illyricus and Osiander relating the custome of the Romanes in the election of their chiefe Magistrates to write his name to whom they gave their voice in a white stone thus comment upon the words of my text Him that overcommeth I will entertaine with hidden Manna and I will declare him heire apparent to a crowne in heaven I will elect him to a kingdome ſ Comment in 2. Apoc. Pareus expoundeth novum nomen nomen dignitate praestans a name of honour and renowne t Junius annot in Apoc. Induendo novum hominem quem nemo novit nisi spiritus hominis qui in ipso est cujus laus non est ex hominibus sed ex Deo Junius glosseth it signum indicium novitatis vitae a signe and token of newnesse of life Lastly Victor Pictabionensis Sardus Beda Bulenger Melo Primasius Rupertus Pererius and other expositours generally concurre upon Filius Dei the new name say they written in the white stone is the sunne of God Which their opinion they illustrate by other texts of Scripture as namely Rom. 8.15.16 and 1 Joh. 3.1 and they backe it with this reason The new name here is such a one as no man knoweth saving hee that receiveth it and what can that name bee but the title of the sonnes of God which no man knoweth saving hee that receiveth the Spirit of adoption whereby hee cryeth u Rom. 8.16 Abba Father which Spirit testifieth to his spirit that hee is the childe of God All other expositions may after a sort bee reduced to this for this is a blessed name according to Carthusians interpretation for the children of God are the children of the resurrection and they are most happy It is the name of Christian conquerors according to Victorinus and Aretas his glosse for * 1 Joh. 5.4 every one that is borne of God overcommeth the world and this is the victory that overcommeth the world even our faith This is also a symbol and token of newnesse of life for all the regenerate sonnes of God x Eph. 4.24 have put on the new man This name indeed is a glorious name in Pareus his sense for if it were an honour to David to bee sonne-in-law to an earthly King how much more honourable is it to be the adopted sonne of the King of heaven Lastly this name importeth according to Illyricus and Osianders joint explication haeredem vitae aeternae heire of eternall life for if y Rom. 8.17 sonnes then heires And thus as you heare the strings are tuned and all interpretations accorded now I set to the lessons or doctrinall points which are foure 1 The title of sonnes novum nomen 2 The assurance of this title inscriptum calculo 3 The knowledge of this assurance novit qui recipit 4 The propriety of this knowledge nemo novit nisi qui recipit The Roman Generals after their conquests of great countries and cities had new names given unto them as to Publius Scipio was given the sirname of Africanus to Lucius Scipio of Asiaticus to Metellus of Numidicus to Pompey of Hierosolymarius in like manner our celestiall Emperour promiseth to all that overcome their spirituall enemies a new name and eminent title of honour even that which Alexander the conquerour of the whole world most triumphed in when the Egyptian Priest saluted him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sonne of God But why is this called a new name Either because it is unknown to the world and worldly men or in opposition to our old name which was sonnes of Adam That is the name of our nature this of grace that of our shame and misery this of our glory and happinesse that is a name from the earth earthly this is a name from the Lord of heaven heavenly And it appertaineth to all the Saints of God in a threefold respect 1 Of Regeneration 2 Adoption 3 Imitation Regeneration maketh them sonnes of God Adoption heires with Christ Imitation like both When the Astronomer that calculated the nativity of Reginaldus Polus was derided of all because the disposition of the man was knowne to all to be contrary to those characters which he gave of him Poole facetely excused the matter saying Such an one I was by my first nativity as hee hath described me but since that I was born again This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or second birth though Nicodemus at the first deemed a riddle because it could not enter into his head how a man could re-enter his Mothers wombe and be borne the second time yet after our Saviour ingeminated this doctrine unto him z Joh. 3.5 Verily verily I say unto thee Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit
ruddy in the hiew of his passion white in his life and ruddy at his death or white in his garland of c Cyp. l. 1. ep 6. Floribus enim nec rosae nec lilia desunt pax acies habet suos flores quibus milites Christi ob gloriam coronantur lilies unspotted Virgins ruddy in his garland of roses victorious Martyrs or lastly as some flourish upon the letter ruddy in all his Disciples save St. John who shed their blood for his name and Gospell and white in the Disciple in my text who alone came to a faire and peaceable end abiding according to the words of our Saviour till hee came unto him by an easie and naturall death For this priviledge Christ gave him above them all that none should have power to lay violent hands on him who lay in his Redeemers arms d Joh. 1.17 The law was given by Moses but grace and truth by Jesus Christ and with grace came in John a name that signifieth grace Wee read of no John in the old Testament but wee finde two in the Gospell the one the forerunner the other the follower of Christ the one in allusion to the Hebrew Etymology of his name may bee called Gratia praeveniens grace prevenient the other Gratia subsequens grace subsequent the one may bee compared to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Morning the other to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Evening starre for Saint John Baptist as the Morning starre ushered in the Sunne our Saviour Saint John the Evangelist as the Evening starre appeared long in the skie shining in the Churches of Asia after the Sunne of righteousnesse Christ Jesus was set at his death This latter John is the Disciple whose feast wee now keepe and memory wee celebrate and graces wee admire and title wee are now to declare As Christ spake of the Baptist e Mat. 11.9 What went yee out to see a Prophet nay I say unto you and more than a Prophet wee may say of this Evangelist what are yee come to heare of a Disciple nay I say unto you and more than a Disciple a Prophet an Evangelist an Apostle f Cic. in Brut. O generosam stirpein tanquam in unam arborem plura germina sic in istam domum multorum insitam et illuminatam virtutem O noble stocke on which many grafts of the plants of Paradise are set In some parts of the skie wee see single starres in others a conjunction or crowne of many starres the other Disciples were like single starres some were Prophets some were Evangelists some Doctors some Apostles but in Saint John as a constellation shine the eminent gifts and callings of many Disciples Saint Luke was an Evangelist but no Apostle Saint Peter was an Apostle but no Evangelist Saint Matthew was an Evangelist and Apostle but no Prophet Saint John was all 1 In his Gospell an Evangelist 2 In his Epistle an Apostle 5 In his Apocalypse a Prophet And in all according to his divine Hieroglyphicke g Rev. 4.7 The fourth beast was like a flying Eagle An Eagle Hee was an Eagle in his Apostolike function h Mat. 24.28 Luk. 17.37 where the body was there was this Eagle still lying at his breast In his Gospell like an Eagle hee soareth higher than the other three beginning with and more expresly delivering the divinity of Christ than any before him Lastly in the Apocalypse like an Eagle with open eye hee looketh full upon the Sunne of righteousnesse and the light of the celestiall Jerusalem whereat all our eyes at this day are dazeled Yet this divine Eagle here flyeth low and in humility toucheth the ground stiling himselfe nothing but a Disciple Obser 2 Wee read in i Exod. 15.27 Exodus They came to Elim where are twelve Wels of water and seventy Palme trees In these twelve Springs of water Saint k Hieron tract de 42. mansionibus Nec dubium quin de Apostolis sermo sit de quorum fontibus derivatae aquae totius mundi siccitatem rigant Juxta has aquas 70. creverunt palmae quas ipsos secundi ordinis intelligimus praeceptores Lucà Evangelistà docente duodecim fuisse Apostolos 70. Discipulos minoris gradus Vid supr Ser. 10. The Apostolike Bishop Jerome conceived that hee saw the face of the twelve Apostles and on the branches of these seventy Palme trees the fruit of the seventy Disciples labour In allusion whereunto most of the Ancients make the Apostles the Parents and patterns of all Bishops and the seventy Disciples of Priests the Bishops they make as it were the springs from whence the Presbyters like the Palme trees receive sap and moisture whereby they grow in the Church and bring forth fruit in the parochiall Cures where they are planted The Bishops they called Pastours and Teachers primi ordinis of the first order or ranke the Presbyters or Priests Praeceptores secundi ordinis teachers as it were in a lower fourm To confound which rankes in the Church and bring a Bishop perforce 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 downe to the lower fourm or degree of a Priest is defined sacriledge in the great Councell of Chalcedon Yet Saint John the Apostle here of himselfe descendeth into that lower step or staire assuming to himselfe the name onely of a Disciple 1 In humility 2 In modesty 3 In thankfulnesse to his Master 1 In humility to take all Christians into his ranke hëe giveth himselfe no higher title than was due to the meanest follower of Christ The weightier the piece of gold is the more it presseth downe the scale even so where there is more worth you shall ever find more lowlinesse the empty and light eares pricke up but the full bow to the earth 2 In modesty Saint John was the youngest of the Apostles and in that respect tearmeth himselfe rather a Disciple that is a learner than as hee was indeed a great Master in the Church though hee were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yet hee was not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 young hee was in yeeres but not in conditions his youth was wiser than others age his dawning was brighter than their noon-tide his blossomes fairer than their fruits his Spring exceeded their Autumne yet like Moses hee saw not the beames of his face which all other beheld Young men doe not so much usually over-value themselves as here Saint John doth under-value himselfe the stile wherewith the Church hath most deservedly graced him is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John the Divine but the title which hee taketh to himselfe is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Scholar or Disciple 3 In thankfulnesse to his Master he chuseth this title before any other thereby professing that whatsoever knowledge hee had hee suckt it from him on whose brest he lay About the time of our Saviours birth as l De vit Pont. tit Christ narrat Orosius l. 6. c. 21. Augustum Caesarem eodem die
faire to behold and the fruits of their lips sweet to taste 4 In the midst of Paradise was the tree of life in our Church Christ crucified on whom whosoever feedeth by faith shall live for ever So that what Jacob spake of the place where he was may be sayd of our Church This is no other than the house of God For albeit there be many plants in this Garden which the Lord hath not planted many wild branches that need pruning many dead not enlived by Christ many poysonous weeds many flowers faire in shew but of a stinking savour and no marvell for in the Arke there was a Cham in Abrahams house an Ishmael in Jacobs family a Reuben in Davids Court an Absalom in the number of Christs Disciples a Judas nay in heaven a Lucifer Yet sith our Church striveth to pluck up these weeds and unsavourie or unfruitfull plants and desires to be freed of them it may truely be called the Garden of God For as St. i Ad Felician Austine saith The Goats must feed with the sheepe till the chiefe shepheard come Ille nobis imperavit congregationem sibi reservavit separationem ille dabit separare qui nescit errare 2 Touching our Rulers and Governours resemblance to the man Adam whom God appointed Ruler over all the creatures was furnished with gifts agreeable God made greater lights to rule the day and night so should they be great in wisdome and great in goodness that are to enlighten others I am not to flatter you nor to reprove you happy is that Church whose Rulers are so qualified 3 Touching the comparison of Adams placing in Paradise with our calling 1 I note that God was not wooed with friendship nor won with mony nor swayed with affection to place Adam in Paradise but of his own voluntary motion he placed him there Let us tread in the steps of our heavenly Father When k Omph. in vit Clem. Clement the fift Bishop of Rome was importuned by his kindred and offred mony to conferre a benefice upon an unworthy man he answered Nolo obtemperare sanguini sed Deo let us take on us the like resolution For what an uncomely thing is it to set a leaden head upon a golden body to make fooles rulers of wise men 2 I note that Adam did not ambitiously affect this place nor by indirect means sought to winde himselfe into it but God tooke him by the hand and placed him there but now I feare St. Jeromes speech is true of divers Presbyteratus humilitate despectâ festinamus episcopatum auro redimere 3 I note Adam was not created in Paradise but by his maker placed in it Let mee apply this to you the right worshipfull Governours of this Citie You were not born but brought by God to this rule and governement though as clouds you soare aloft yet were you but vapours drawne from the earth it is God that hath lifted up your heads as he raised David from the sheepefold and Joseph from the dungeon Wherefore in acknowledgment of your owne unworthinesse and Gods goodnesse to you say you with l Gen. 32.10 Jacob With my staffe passed I over this Jordan Say you with David m 1 Sam. 18.11 Quis ego sum aut quae est cognatio mea Ascribe the glory of your wealth and honour to God kisse the blessed hand that hath lifted you up and consider with me in the next place why God placed you here 4 Touching Adams dressing and keeping Paradise and your charge St. Ambrose well observeth that though Paradise needed no dressing yet God would have Adam to dresse it that his example might be a law to his posteritie to dresse and keepe the place of their charges It is not enough for you to be good men ye must be good rulers He that hath an office must attend upon his office it is opus oneris as well as opus honoris Yee must not be like antickes in great buildings which seeme to beare much but indeed sustaine nothing neither must ye lay the whole burden upon other mens shoulders sith the key of governement is layd on yours Now in dressing the Garden three duties are especially to be required 1 To cast and modell the Garden into a comely forme Of which I need to speake nothing Your forme of governement may be a president to other Cities of this kingdome strangers have written in praise of it 2 To root up and cast out stinking weeds Among which I would commend two to your speciall care 1 Papisme 2 Puritanisme I deny not but that it belongeth to the speciall care of our Bishops to plucke up these weeds yet as Judas sayd to Simon Helpe thou me in my lot and I will helpe thee in thine so ought both Spirituall and Temporall Governours joyne hands in rooting out these weeds 1 Of Papisme In the dayes of Jehosaphat that good King it is recorded that the high places were not taken away because the people did not set their heart to seeke the God of their Fathers The Papists seeke to their God of Rome the n Distinc 96. Pope as the Canonists stile him not to the God of heaven nor the God of their Fathers Did their Forefathers in the Primitive Church equall traditions with Scripture consecrate oratories to Saints pray in an unknown tongue mutilate the Sacrament adore the wafer and call it their maker did they sell indulgences to free men from Purgatorie Saint Peter taught us to bee subject to o 1 Pet. 2.13 every humane ordinance St. Paul commandeth every p Rom. 13 1. soule to be subject to the higher powers The Primitive Christians in q Tert. ad Sâ—p Tertullians time though they were cruelly persecuted by the heathen Emperours and had power and strength enough to revenge themselves yet they never lifted up their hands against any of those bloudy Tyrants Heare their profession in Tertullian Nos nec Nigriani nec Cassiani sumus we are no Nigrians no Cassians no Rebels no Traitors we fill all your Cities Islands Townes yea your Palace and Senate What were we not able to doe if it were not more agreeable to our Religion to be killed than upon any pretence to kill On the contrarie the Papists teach that it is not onely lawfull but a meritorious act to lay hands upon the Lords annointed if hee favour not their Idolatries and Superstitions witnesse Cardinall Como his instructions to Parry and Sixtus his oration in defence of the Jacobine that murdered Henrie the third Had the Apostles preached this faith to the world should they have converted the world Was this the practice of the Primitive Church Is this Religion to make murder spirituall resolution to eate their God upon a bargaine of bloud Cannot God propagate his truth but by these wicked and damnable meanes Origen writeth that some unskilfull Emperickes dealt with their Patients not to consult with learned Physicians lest by them their ignorance should be
of a Dove The borders were joyned together and in their Sermons there was good coherence for whereas there are two parts of Divinity 1. The first de Dei beneficiis erga homines 2. The second de officiis hominis erga Deum The former were handled in the two former Sermons and the later in the two later The benefits of God are either 1. Spirituall as Redemption of which the first discoursed 2. Or Temporall as the wealth of the world of which the second The duties of man to God are either 1. Proper to certaine men in regard of their speciall place or calling as Magistrates or Ministers of which the third 2. Common to all Christians as to offer sacrifices of righteousnesse to God of which the fourth The first as a Herald proclaimed hostility Awake O sword c. The second as a Steward of a Court gave the charge Charge the rich c. The third as a Judge pronounced a dreadfull sentence In the day thou eatest thou shalt dye the death The fourth as a Prophet gave holy counsell and heavenly advice Offer c. That we may be free from and out of the danger of the blow of the first and the charge of the second and sentence of the third wee must follow the advice of the fourth All foure may bee likened to foure builders The first fitted and laid the corner stone The second built a house whose foundation was laid in humility Charge the rich that they be not high minded The walls raised up in hope to lay hold on eternall life The roofe was covered with charity that they bee rich in good workes The third beautified it with a garden of pleasure and hee fenced it with the Discipline of the Church as it were with a strong wall The fourth built an Altar to offer sacrifice The first made according to the last Translation borders of gold his speciall grace was in the order and composition The second according to Junius his version Lineas aureas golden lines his grace was in frequent sentences and golden lines The third according to the Seventies interpretation made Similitudines aureas golden similitudes comparing our Church to Paradise The fourth as Brightman rendreth the words made turtures aureas golden turtles gilding over if I may so speak our spirituall offrings with a ricâ— discourse of his owne Pliny * Lib. 37. nat hist c. 2 In Opale est Carbunculi tenuiâ—r ignis Ameâ—hysti fulgens purpura Smaragdi virens mâ—re c. writeth of the Opall stone that it represented the colours of divers precious stones by name the Ruby or Carbuncle the Amethyst the Emrald and the Margarite or Pearle In like manner I have represented unto you in this Rehearsall the beautifull colours of divers precious stones in the first the colour of the Ruby for he discoursed of the bloudy passion of Christ In the second the purple colour of the Amethyst for hee treated of riches and purple robes and the equipage of honour In the third the green colour of the Emrald for hee described the green and flourishing garden of Eden In the fourth the cleare or white colour of the Chrystall or Pearle for hee illustrated unto us the sacrifices of righteousnesse which are called white in opposition to the red and bloudy sacrifices of the Law The Opall representeth the colours of the above-named precious stones incredibili mysturâ lucentes shining by an incredible misture a glimpse whereof you may have in this briefe concatenation of them all God hath given us his Sonne the man that is his fellow to be sacrificed for us as the first taught and with him hath given us all things richly to enjoy as the second shâ—wed not only all things for necessity and profit but even for lawfull delight and contentment placing us as it were in Paradise as the third declared Let us therefore offer unto him the sacrifice of righteousnesse as the fourth exhorted Yee whom God hath enriched with store of learning open your treasures and say to the Spouse of Christ out of these we will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver Yee of Gods people whom hee hath blessed with worldly wealth open your treasures and say to the Spouse of Christ out of these wee will make thee borders of gold with studs of silver and then bee yee assured God will open the treasures of his bounty and the three persons in Trinity will say We will make you borders of gold with studs of silver and not onely borders for your breasts and chaines for your neckes but also eare-rings for your eares and bracelets for your hands and frontlets for your faces and a crown for your heads wee will enrich you with invaluable jewels of grace here and an incorruptible crowne of glory hereafter So be it heavenly Father for the merits of thy Sonne by the powerfull operation of the Holy Spirit To whom c. THE ANGEL OF THYATIRA ENDITED A Sermon preached at the Crosse Anno 1614. THE XXXIII SERMON REVEL 2.18 19 20. And to the Angel of the Church in Thyatira write These things saith the Son of God who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire and his feet like fine brasse 19. I know thy workes and charity and service and faith and thy patience and thy workes and the last to be more than the first 20. Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel which calleth her selfe a Prophetesse to teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eate things sacrificed unto Idols Right Honourable c. Apoc. 1.12 IF the seven golden Candlestickes which Saint John saw were illustrious types and glorious emblemes of all succeeding Christian Churches as many learned Commentatours upon this mysterious prophesie conceive and the seven Letters written to the seven Churches of Asia immediatly represented by them as well appertaine to us in the autumne for whom as to those prime-roses that appeared in the spring of Christian piety and religion to whom they were directed wee may without scruple seize on this indorsed to the Angel of the Church of Thyatira breake open the seales and peruse the contents thereof which seem better to sort with the present state of our Church than of any that at this day beares the name of Christian Wherefore I make bold to unfold it and altering a word only in the superscription thus I reade and expound it in your eares and pray God to seale it up in your hearts To the Angel that is Guardian Centinell or chiefe Watchman of the Church of England thus writeth the Sonne of God by eternall generation who hath eyes like a flame of fire to enlighten the darkest corners of the heart and discover the most hidden thoughts and his feet like fine brasse most pure that can tread upon none but holy ground I know thy workes to be many and thy love to be entire and thy service to be
word of God as it is written which here I must change and say Hearken unto the word of God as it writeth For to the Angel of Thyatira the second Person which is the Word of God thus writeth Write It is a great honour to receive a letter from a noble Personage how much more from the Sonne of God St. d Eâ— 40. Quid est aliud Scripture sacra n â—i quaedam epistola Omnipotentis Dei ad creaturam suam Gregorie excellently amplifieth upon this point in his epistle to Theodorus the Physician If your excellencie saith he were from the Court and should receive a letter from the Emperour you would never be quiet till you had opened it you would never suffer your eyes to sleepe nor your eye lids to slumber nor the temples of your head to take any rest till you had read it over againe and againe Behold the Emperour of heaven the Lord of men and Angels hath sent you a letter for the good of your soule and will you neglect to peruse it Peruse it my son studie it I pray thee meditate upon it day and night Where letters passe one from another there is a kinde of correspondencie and societie and such honour have all Gods Saints they have fellowship with the Father and the Sonne O let us not sleighten such a societie whereby we hold intelligence with heaven let us with all reverence receive and with all diligence peruse and with all carefulnesse answer letters and messages sent from the Sonne of God by returning sighes and prayers backe to heaven and making our selves in the Apostles phrase commendatorie letters written not with inke but with the Spirit Thus saith the Son of God Not by spirituall regeneration as all the children of promise are the sonnes of God but by eternall generation not by grace of adoption but by nature Who hath eyes like a flame of fire and feet like fine brasse Eyes like a flame of fire piercing through the thickest darknesse feete like brasse to support his Chuch and stamp to pouder whatsoever riseth up against it like fine brasse pure and no way defiled by walking through the midst of the golden candlestickes Wheresoever he walkes he maketh it holy ground Quicquid calcaverit hic rosa fiet There are three sorts of members in holy Scripture attributed to our head Christ Jesus 1 Naturall 2 Mysticall 3 Metaphoricall Naturall hee hath as perfect man Mysticall as head of the Church Metaphoricall as God By these members wee may divide all the learned Commentatours expositions They who follow the naturall or literall construction of the words apply this description to the members of Christs glorified body in Heaven which shine like flaming fire or metall glowing in a furnace But Lyra and Carthusian have an eye to Christ his mysticall eyes viz. Bishops and Pastours who are the over-seers of Christ his flocke resembling fire in the heat of their zeale and light of their knowledge whereby they direct the feet of Christ that is in their understanding his inferiour members on earth likened to fine brasse to set forth the purity of their conversation and described burning in a furnace to expresse their fiery tryall by martyrdome Alcasar by the feet of fine brasse understandeth the Preachers of the Word whom Christ sendeth into all parts to carry the Gospel Those feet which e Esay 52.7 Rom. 10.15 How beautifull are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of peace Esay calleth beautifull Saint John here compareth to the finest brasse which f Beda in Apoc Pedes sunt Christiani in fine seculi qui similes erunt orichalcho quod est aes per ignem plura medicamina perductum ad auri colorem sic illi per acerbissimas persecutiones exercebuntur perducentur ad plenam charitatis fulgorem Beda and Haimo will have to bee copper rendring the Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not the most resplendent brasse such as was digged out of Mount Libanus but Orichalchum that is copper and thus they worke it to their purpose As brasse the matter of copper by the force of fire and strong waters and powders receiveth the tincture of gold so say they the Christians that shall stand last upon the earth termed in that respect Christs feet shall by many exercises of their patience and fiery tryalls of their faith be purified and refined and changed into precious metall and become golden members of a golden head I doe not utterly reject this interpretation of the mysticall eyes and feet of Christ nor the former of the naturall members of his glorified body because they carry a faire shew and goodly lustre with them yet I more encline to the third opinion which referreth them to the attributes of God For me thinkes I see in the fiery eyes the perfection of Christ his knowledge to which nothing can bee darke or obscure as also his vigilant zeale over his Church and the fiercenesse of his wrath against the enemies thereof Bullenger conceiveth our Saviour to be pourtrayed by the Spirit with eyes like a flame of fire because hee enlighteneth the eyes of the godly but Meyerus because he suddenly consumeth the wicked both the knowne properties of fire for in flaming fire there is both cleare light and intensive heat The light is an embleme of his piercing sight the heat of his burning wrath Where the eye is lightsome and the object exposed to it the eye must needs apprehend it but the Sonne of Gods eyes are most lightsome nay rather light it selfe in which there is no darknesse and g Heb. 4 13. all things lye open and naked before him yea the h Apoc. 2.23 heart and the reines which he searcheth In Courts of humane justice thoughts and intentions and first motions to evill beare no actions because they come not within the walke of mans justice but it will not be so at Christs Tribunall where the secrets of all hearts shall be opened Let no man then hope by power or fraud or bribes to smother the truth or bleare the eyes of the Judge of all flesh For his eyes like flames of fire dispell all darknesse and carry a bright light before them Let not the adulterer watch for the twi-light and when hee hath met with his wanton Dalila carry her into the inmost roomes and locke doore upon doore and then take his fill of love saying The shadow of the night and the privacy of the roome shall conceale mee For though none else be by and all the lights be put out yet he is seen and the Sonne of God is by him with eyes like a flaming fire Let not the Projector pretend the publike good when he intends nothing but to robbe the rich and cheate the poore Let not the cunning Papist under colour of decent ornaments of the Church bring in Images and Idols under colour of commemoration of the deceased bring in invocation of Saints departed under colour
the later Papists if it be worshipped cultu latriae with divine worship not cultu duliae which is an inferiour kinde To cut off this third head of Hydra with the sword of the Spirit First we ought not to distinguish where the Law distinguisheth not It is a good rule in the civill Law and holds in Divinity but this distinction of dulia and latria hath no ground in Scripture where the words dulia and latria are indifferently used and as latria is attributed unto men so dulia to * Mat. 4.10 Rom. 12.11 Vid. Humfridum in vit Juel God Secondly the Commandement forbiddeth expresly all both inward and outward worship all outward in those words Thou shalt not bow downe before them all inward in the words following nor worship them If therefore their dulia imply either an inward or an outward worship of the likenesse of any thing that is in the world it is prohibited in the second Commandement Thirdly if it should be granted them that there is some difference between dulia and latria proper worship and improper per se and per accidens absolute and relative yet questionlesse the honest vulgar are not able to tithe this Mint and Cummin and cut these scholasticall distinctions to a haire their dulia is latria and latria dulia and as a Comment in lib. Aug. de 〈◊〉 Dei Ludovicus vives confessed before they clipped his tongue they exhibit a like manner of devotion to Saints and their Images and Reliques to that which the Heathen did to their gods and goddesses Fourthly all worship is either civill or religious to performe civill worship to Images as if they were our concives is ridiculous to yeeld religious is impious If by cultus duliae they mean civill complement they must shew what familiarity or civill society the living have with the dead and what courtesie their Images can returne backe againe Indeed we reade of an Image of our Lady that b Doctor Andrewes resp ad apol Bellar. Obvertit ei posteriora turned her backe parts to a Carthusian that came tardy to Mattens but never of any that performed any complement before No civill respect therefore is due to any Image and much lesse religious for Saint c Lib. 14. cont Faus Maniche Austin teacheth expresly that the Apostle forbiddeth any worship of religion to be given to a creature Lastly the Jesuites and Schoolmen before alledged teach that the Image of God and of Christ and of the Crosse and all Papists teach that the elements of bread and wine after consecration in the Sacrament are to be worshipped cultu latriae or with divine worship Therefore notwithstanding all their slips and evasions the second Commandement taketh hold of them and Gods fearfull judgement against Idolaters will seize on them also if they avert them not by turning from dead Images to the living God I will cut off the thread of my discourse with Aristotle his sharpe censure of the Milesians d Aristot politic 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Milesians are not fooles yet they doe just the same things which fooles doe even so though we forbeare to fasten the name of Heathenish Idolaters upon Papists yet surely they doe the same things as they did First the Heathen carried their gods of gold and silver e Baruch 6.4 upon their shoulders so doe the Papists beare out their Images and Reliques inclosed in chasses of gold and silver in their solemne procession on high dayes Secondly the Heathen decked their Images as if they were men and women with apparrell yet cannot these gods save themselves from rust and moth though they be f Ver. 11. covered with purple raiment and who knoweth not that Papists put costly apparrell on their Images almost every Saint among them hath his holy day and working day suit Thirdly the Heathen lighted candles before their Images g Ver. 19. though the Image seeth not one of them and doe not Papists set tapers before theirs Fourthly the faces of the Heathen Idols were blacked with h Ver. 21. smoake so are the Popish Images with the fume of the incense they burne to them Fifthly the Heathen i Ver. 41. spake to their Idols as if they were able to understand them so doe the Papists to the wood of the Crosse Ave lignum spes unica Sixthly the Heathenish Priests beards and heads were k Ver. 31. shaven and so are our Popish Priests crownes Seventhly Baals Clergy if I may so speake was divided into Priests and Chemarims so termed for the blacke attire they ware so is the Popish into Seminary Priests and Jesuites birds of the same feather with the Chemarims Eighthly the Heathen about the l Polid. virg de invent rerum l. 1. c. 5. calends of February visited all their Temples with lights a like ceremony the Papists use at Candlemasse Ninthly at the beginning of the Spring the Heathen kept their Hilaria feasts in which it was lawful to revel riot in all kinds of disorder in place whereof the Papists have brought in their Carnivals about the same time Tenthly the Heathen commended every City and Village to the protection of some god or goddesse Juno was Lady guardian of Carthage Venus of Cyprus Diana of Ephesus Pallas of Athens c. and have not the Papists likewise multiplyed their Saints according to the number of their Cities and doe they not share the patronages of them betweene them Doth not Venice fall to Saint Markes lot Paris to Saint Genoviefe's Spaine to Saint James's France to Saint Dennises Scotland to Saint Andrewes Ireland to Saint Patrickes England to Saint Georges Eleventhly the Heathen assigned severall offices to severall gods calling upon Ceres for corne upon Bacchus for wine upon Aesculapius for health upon Mercurie for wealth Apollo for wisedome c. In like manner the Papists addresse themselves to particular Saints upon particular and speciall occasions to Saint Genoviefe for raine to Saint Marcâ—an for faire weather Saint Michael in battell Saint Nicholas in a sea tempest Saint Eustace in hunting Saint Roch and Sebastian for remedies against the plague Saint Raphel against catarres Saint Apollonia against the tooth-ach St. Anthony against inflammations Saint Margaret for safe delivery in childe-birth and to other Saints upon other occasions as if God had granted a kind of Monopoly of the sevâ—rall commodities of this life to severall Saints Twelfthly will you have yet more Hercules hath left his club to Saint Christopher Janus hath resigned up his keyes to Saint Peter Lucina her office of midwife to Saint Margaret the Muses their instruments of musicke to Cecilia and Jupiter Hammon his hornes to Moses Sentio me jam de faece haurire I now draw very low the very lees and dregges of Popery which whosoever sucketh unlesse hee cast them up againe by repentance is like to sup up the dregges of the viall of Gods wrath And now mee thinkes I see the Sonne of man looke upon
knowing it to be the faith and patience of the Saints Fiducia Christianorum resurrectio mortuorum saith Tertullian If our hope were in this life onely wee were of all men most miserable saith Saint Paul And the rather doth the Spirit ascertaine this doctrine because it hath many enemies Atheists Libertines and sundry sorts of Heretickes besides The Atheist thinketh there is no resurrection because hee seeth no reason for it to whom though it were sufficient to answer with Gregory Fides non habet meritum ubi ratio humana praebet experimentum and with Saint Ambrose Credimus piscatoribus non dialecticis yet to reason a little with these unreasonable men in the words of Saint Paul Acts 26.8 Why seemeth it incredible unto you that Christ should raise the dead Is it not as easie to restore life as to give it at the first to raise man out of ashes as to create him at first out of the dust Considera autorem tolle dubitationem saith Saint Austine The Libertine would have no resurrection that hee might still enjoy the pleasures of sinne and sacrifice to his belly but for him there is first a Text of counsell 1 Cor. 15.34 Awake to live righteously and if that will not serve a Text of judgement Phil. 3.19 Whose end is damnation whose god is their belly Of Heretickes that professedly oppugned the doctrine of the resurrection some taught that there is no resurrection at all as the Saduces some that the resurrection was already past as Hymineus and Philetus Satan is a subtle Serpent and turneth divers wayes to get in his head Before Christs death hee worked powerfully in the children of disobedience in Judas to betray him in the Pharisees to accuse him in Pilate to condemne him but after knowing that the time was come that the Prince of the world was to bee cast out by the death of Christ hee was much troubled and laboured by all meanes to hinder Christs Passion Utinam ne in nemore Pelio hee wisheth there were no wood in all the world to make a Crosse of hee workes remorse in Judas giveth him a halter to hang himselfe hee employes Pilates wife to send to her husband to have nothing to doe with him When hee was fast nailed to the Crosse hee setteth the Jewes upon him to see whether they could perswade him to descend from thence After this hee spreads abroad a rumour that Simon Cyreneus was crucified for him or if hee were crucified that it was but in appearance onely and that hee was falsâ pendens in cruce Laureolus and when his resurrection was so palpable that it needed no other argument than the amazement of the watch and Pilates letter to the Emperour hee suborned a desperate rout to sweare that his Disciples stole him away by night After all this hee stirred up certaine Heretickes who taught that albeit Christ were indeed risen yet that wee were not to expect any future resurrection because the resurrection was past already But all these shall find that there is a resurrection for them to wit Resurrectio ad condemnationem John 5.29 Use 1 Is it so that Christ our head is risen then shall wee his members rise also For hee is primogenitus mortuorum primitiae dormientium the first fruits are carried already into the celestiall barne and the whole crop shall follow And this may bee a staffe of comfort to all drouping and fainting soules ut tali exemplo animati sub ictu passionis as Cyprian speaketh non retrahant pedem that they draw not backe but courageously goe on forward to make a good profession as being secure Christi milites non perimi sed coronari bonam mortem esse quae vitam non perimit sed adimit ad tempus restituendam in tempore duraturam sine tempore This was Jobs comfort I know my Redeemer liveth and of other distressed ones who would not bee delivered that they might bee partakers of a better resurrection An ancient father giveth these words for a Christians Motto Fero taceo spero Fero meam crucem ut ille suam taceo quia tu Domine fecisti spero quia utique fructus erit justo Use 2 Is Christ risen from the dead then wee that are his are risen with him at least in the first resurrection if therefore yee are risen with Christ seeke the things that are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of his Father This indeed ought to bee so but wee finde it otherwise never more preaching of the resurrection and never lesse fruit For all seeke their owne and none the things that are Jesus Christs So that Bernards observation fitteth our time Vides omnem Ecclesiasticum zelum fervere pro solâ dignitate tuendâ honori totum datur sanctitati nihil and againe all men learned and unlearned presse to Ecclesiasticall cures Tanquam sine curis quique victuri sint cùm ad curas pervenerint The Apostle telleth us Qui Episcopatum desiderat bonum opus desiderat non dignitatem saith Saint Jerome sed laborem non delicias sed solicitudinem non crescere fastidiis sed decrescere humilitate Nay not onely opus but onus also in Saint Bernards judgement though perhaps some Atlas's may thinke they never have load enough But are the Laity more excusable who buy and sell the poore for shooes and gay apparrell and strong drinke to whom mee thinkes I heare the poore cry Et vos vanitate peritis nos spoliis perimitis How many are there of them who ingrosse the Lords portion and bestow hallowed things upon worse than vanity Wee have a saying against them also out of the same Saint Bernard De patrimonio crucis Christi non facitis codices in Ecclesiâ sed pascitis pellices in thalamis adornatis equos phalerantes pectora capita deaurantes Is this our resurrection from sinne Saint Paul giveth this lesson with a memento Remember saith hee O Timothy that Christ is raised from the dead It is a truth as stable as the poles of Heaven that wee shall have no part of the second resurrection to the life of glory if wee have not a good part in the first to the life of grace And I have the keyes of Death and of Hell They are well called keyes of Hell because there are Inferorum portae mentioned in the sixteenth chapter of Saint Matthew Matth. 16.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 There are many opinions about these keyes some will have them to bee two Clavis cognitionis and Clavis authoritatis but Allensis and the Schoolemen denie knowledge to bee a key except in an improper speech Quia requiritur ad usum clavis and they doe well to denie it for what key of knowledge had that Priest of whom the Master of the Sentences maketh mention who baptized in nomine Patria Filia Spiritua sancta Bonaventure ingenuously confesseth Quidam in Ecclesiâ habent clavem quidam claviculam quidam nullam
We can pray to none other but God whatsoever is to be wished for Caesar as he is a man or a Prince I cannot begge it of any other than of him from whom I know I shall receive what I aske because he alone can performe it and I his servant depend upon none but him But what stand I upon the testimonies of two or three Fathers the whole Synod of f Theod. com in 2. ad Colos Synodus Laodicea lege prohibuit ne praecarentur Angelos ubi agit de oratoriis Michaelis eos perstringit qui dicebant oportere per Angelos divinam sibi benevolentiam conciliare Laodicea condemneth the superstitious errour of some who taught that we ought to use Angels as mediatours between God and us and to pray unto them And for Saints who have no more commission to solicit our busines in heaven than Angels howsoever it pleased the ancient Church to make honourable mention of them in their publike Service as we doe of the blessed Virgin the Archangel the Apostles Evangelists yet S. g Aug. l. 22. de civit Dei c. 10. Martyres suo loco ordine nominantur non tamen à Sacerdote qui sacrificat invocantur Austin cleareth the Christians of those times from any kind of invocation The Martyrs saith he in their place and ranke are named yet not called upon by the Priest who offereth the sacrifice Invocation is the highest branch of divine worship and they who bow downe to and call upon Saints consequently put Saints in Gods room beleeve in them Quomodo enim invocabunt in quos non credunt How h Rom. 10.14 shall they call on them on whom they have not beleeved They who call upon Saints deceased hope for any benefit by such prayers must be perswaded that the Saints are present in all places to heare their prayers and receive their petitions and that they understand particularly all their affaires and are privie to the very secrets of their hearts and is not this to make gods of Saints i Mart. epigr. Qui fingit sacros auro vel marmore vultus non facit ille deos qui rogat ille facit Yea but say our Romish adversaries had you a suit to the King you would make a friend at Court employ some in favour with his Majesty to solicit your affaires why take ye not the like course in your businesse of greater importance in the Court of Heaven We answer First because God himselfe checketh such carnall imaginations and overthroweth the ground of all such arguments by his holy Prophet saying k Esay 55.8 My thoughts are not your thoughts neither are your waies my waies Therefore we are brought to the presence of kings saith S. l Amb. in ep ad Rom. c. 1. Itur ad reges per tribunos comites quia homo utique rex est ad Deum quem nihil latet promerendum suffragatore non est opus sed mente devotâ Ambrose by lords officers because the king is a man all cannot have immediate access unto him neither will he take it well that all sorts of people at all times should presse upon him but it is not so with God he calleth all m Mat. 11.28 Come unto mee all that labour c. unto him calls upon all to n Psal 50.15 Call upon mee in the day of trouble and I will heare c. call upon him promiseth help o Joel 2.32 Whosoever shall call upon the Name c. salvation to all that shall so do neither need we any spokes-man saith he to him save a devout and religious mind Secondly admit the proportion to hold between the King of Heaven and earthly Princes yet the reason holdeth not for if the King appoint a certain officer to take all supplications and exhibit all petitions unto him hee will not take it well if we use any other but so it is in our present case God hath appointed us a p John 14 3. Whatsoever ye shall aske in my Name â—hat will I doe Ver. 6. I am the way the truth and the life no man commeth to the Father but by mee Mediator not only of redemption but also of q Rom. 8.34 Which maketh request for us incercession who is not only r Hebr. 7.25 Wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that comâ— unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them able but most willing to preferre all our suits procure a gracious answer for us for we have not an high Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin let us therfore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need Wee know not whether Saints heare us or rather we know they heare us not Esay 63.16 Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel acknowledgeth us not If they heare us we know not whether God will heare them for us but wee know that our Saviour heareth us and that God alwaies heareth him when he prayeth for us John 11.42 I know that thou hearest mee alwaies Yet our Saint-invocators have one refuge to flye unto and they hold it a very safe one We call upon the living say they to pray for us why may we not be so far indebted to the Saints departed who the further they are from us the neerer they are to God If it be no wrong to Christs intercession to desire the prayers of our friends in this life neither can it be any derogation to his Mediatourship to call upon Saints deceased Of this argument Å¿ Bellar de sanct beatit l. 1. c. 19. Bellarmine as much braggeth as Peleus of his sword Profectò istud argumentum haeretici nunquam solvere potuerunt the heretickes saith he were never able to untie this argument I beleeve him because there is no knot at all in it For First we do not properly invocate any man living 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we call to them to assist us with their prayers we call not upon them as putting any confidence in them When at parting we usually coÌ„mend our selves to our friends and desire them to commend us to God in their prayers we require of them a duty of Christian charity we do them therein no honour much lesse performe any religious service to them as the Church of Rome doth to Saints deceased Secondly when wee pray them to pray for us wee make this request to them as co-adjutors to joyn with us in the duty of praier not as mediators to use their favour with God or plead their merits as Papists do in their Letanies adjuring God as it were by the faith of Confessors constancy of Martyrs chastity of virgins abstinence of monks merits of all Saints Thirdly God commandeth the living to have
Law were under the curse for it is written saith he i Gal. 3.10 Cursed is every man that confirmeth not all things that are written in the Law to doe them Now there is no commandement which is not written in the booke of the Law to which whosoever k Deut. 4.2 addeth is accursed To these plaine and evident passages of Scripture may bee adjoyned three like unto them The l Ezek. 18.4 Rom. 6.23 1 Cor. 15.56 soule that sinneth shall dye The wages of sinne is death and The sting of death is sinne These pregnant testimonies the Cardinall endeavoureth to elude with these and the like glosses The soule that sinneth that is mortally shall dye and the wages of sinne that is of mortall sinne is death and the sting of death is sinne that is deadly sinne With as good colour of reason in all Texts of Scriptures wherein we are deterred from sinne he might interpose this his glosse and say eschue evill that is all deadly evill flye sinne that is mortall sinne and consequently deny that veniall sinnes are any where forbidden But as when wee reade in the common or civill law these and the like titles the punishment of felony murder treason fimony sacriledge we understand the law of all crimes of the same kind so in like manner when the Apostle saith indefinitely the wages of sinne is death we are to understand him of every sin for Non est distinguendum ubi lex non distinguit we must not distinguish where the law distinguisheth not For he that so doth addeth to the law or taketh from it and thereby incurreth the curse pronounced by the law-giver And though other Texts of Scriptures might brooke the like restriction yet not those above alledged For what is the meaning of this phrase Death is the wages of sin but that sinne deserveth death which is all one as to say that sinne is mortall Now adde hereunto Bellarmines glosse The wages of sinne that is mortall sinne is death and the soule that sinneth that is that sinneth mortally shall dye and the propositions will prove meere tautologies as if the Prophet had said The soule that sinneth a sinne unto death shall dye and the Apostle sinne that deserveth death deserveth death What is it to deprave the meaning of the Holy Ghost if this be not especially considering that the Prophet Ezekiel in the selfe same chapter ver 31. declareth his meaning to be of sinne in generall without any restriction or limitation Cast away from you all your transgressions and make you a new heart so iniquity shall not be your destruction Here ye see no means to avoid death but by casting away all transgressions for sith the Law requireth m Jam. 2.10 Whosoever shall keep the whole Law yet offendeth in one point is guilty of all entire obedience he that violateth any one commandement is liable to the punishment of the breach of the whole Law To smother this cleare light of truth it is strange to see what smoaky distinctions the adversaries have devised of peccatum simpliciter and secundùm quid and peccatum contra Legem and praeter Legem sinnes against the Law and besides the Law Veniall sinnes say they are besides the Law not against the Law Are not they besides themselves that so distinguish For let them answer punctually Doth the Law of God forbid those they call veniall sinnes or not If not then are they no sinnes or the Law is not perfect in that it meeteth not with all enormities and transgressions If the Law forbiddeth them then are they against the Law For sinne saith Saint John is the n 1 John 3 4. transgression of the Law If then veniall escapes are sinnes they must needs be violations of the Law and so not onely praeter besides but contra Legem against it The Law as Christ expoundeth it Matthew the fifth forbiddeth a rash word a wanton looke nay unadvised passion and what lesser sinnes can be thought than sinnes of thought therefore saith o Moral p. 1. l. 4. Azorius the Jesuit we must say that veniall sinne is against the Law as Cajetan Durand and Vega taught we must say so unlesse we will reject the definition of sinne given by Saint Austine and generally received by the Schooles dictum factum vel concupitum contra Legem aeternam that sinne is a thought word or deed against the eternall Law unlesse wee will contradict the ancient Fathers by name Saint p Greg. l. 8. in Job In praesenti mortem carnis patior tamen adhuc de futuro judicio graviorem morte destructionis tuae sententiam pertimesco quantâlibet enim justiciâ polleant nequaquam sibi ad innocentiam vel electi sufficiunt si in judicio districtè judicentur Gregory In the morning if thou seeke mee thou shalt not finde mee Now I sleep in dust that is in this present I suffer the death of the flesh and yet in the future judgement I feare the sentence of damnation more grievous than death for the Elect themselves how righteous soever they are will not be found innocent if God deale with them according to strict justice And Saint q Ep. 14. Omne quod loquimur aut de latâ aut de anguttâ viâ est si cum paucis subtilem quandam semitam invenimus ad vitam tendimus si multorum comitamur viam secundum Domini sententiam imus ad mortem Jerome Whatsoever we doe whatsoever we speake either belongs to the broad way or to the narrow if with a few we find out a narrow path we tend toward life if we keep company with many in the great road we goe to death And in his second r Lib. 2. cont Pel. c. 4. Quis nostrûm potest huic vitio non subjacere cum etiam pro otioso verbo reddituri simus rationem in judicio si ita sermonis injuria atque interdum jocus judicio coucilioque gehennae ignibus delegantur quid merebitur turpium rerum appetitio booke against the Pelagians where rehearsing the words of our Saviour He that is unadvisedly angry with his brother shall bee in danger of judgement thus reflecteth upon himselfe and his brethren Which of us can be free from this vice If unadvised anger and a contumelious word and sometimes a jest bringeth a man in danger of judgement councell and hell fire what doe impure desires and other more grievous sinnes deserve And Saint ſ Chrys com in Mat. 5. Mirantur multi hominem qui fratrem levem aut fatuum appellaverit sempiternae morti condemnari cum tertio quoque verbo alti alus id dicere soleamus Chrysostome who thus quavereth upon the same note Many are startled when they heare that he shall be condemned to eternall death who calleth his brother giddy-braine or foole sith nothing is so common among us wee hardly speake three words in disputing with any man but we breake
notis eccles c. 2. Notae debem esse inseparabiles the notes of any thing cannot bee severed from it as himselfe affirmeth By this I hope yee all perceive a great difference betweene the true lineaments of Christ his Spouse and Bellarmine his counterfeit draught betweene the Queene of Solomon all glorious within and the whore of Babylon all pompous without betweene the manicles and fetters of the one and the bracelets and chaines of the other between the cup of affliction in her hand and the cup of abominations in the hand of this and yee are perswaded that of all outward markes next to her speech the language of Canaan and her diet the blessed Sacrament the surest are some scars and cuts together with the print of stripes upon her otherwayes most faire and unspotted body Yet because the law condemneth no man before hee hath beene heard though perhaps hee hath nothing or as good as nothing to say for himselfe I will propose unto you his allegations which are principally the examples of Abraham Moses David Ezekiah and Josias and by these hee will bee tried whether temporall happinesse bee not a note of true professours To which instances I answer in generall that if these men had beene chosen out of God upon whom hee will shew the riches of his goodnesse in the blessings of this life yet their speciall priviledges were not to come into the account of common favours nor their particular examples to make generall rules The inward estate and life of the Church more dependeth upon the outward happinesse of Princes than the fortunes of private men neither can wee judge of a Play by one Scene nor of the happinesse of a mans life by one act or more but the whole current thereof But what if these Worthies of the world whom he singleth out for paragons of happinesse had no temporall felicity at all or none in comparison with their troubles and adversitie or at least in comparison with the prosperity of the heathen Emperors and persecuting Tyrants whose dominions were far larger estate securer victories incomparably greater Vouchsafe you a looke to his particulars First hee bringeth in Abraham as an example of the temporall felicity of true professors whom the Scripture rather proposeth as a patterne of patience and a spectacle of manifold adversity a pilgrim wandring from his owne countrey afflicted with famine in Egypt forced to forgoe his wife and deny her to save his life without any issue by her till his old age and when God gave him a sonne commanded to slay him with his owne hands Yet may it bee pleaded for Bellarmine that Abraham got a notable victory and wan the field of Kedarlaomer and other Kings and rescued his brother Lot Admit this but withall let it bee noted that in the selfe same story Lot was taken prisoner by Kedarlaomer and consequently that victory in warre is no certaine argument of the truth of religion Howsoever will they conclude it to be summer by the flight of one swallow or account it a faire day wherein the sun once sheweth himselfe I need not speake of Moses in whom hee secondly instanceth the Scripture is plaine b Heb. 11.25 That he chose rather to suffer affliction with the children of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Who can be ignorant except peradventure some Lay Papist prohibited to read the sacred Scriptures how Moses was exposed by his parents put in an Ark of bulrushes into the river saved from drowning by Pharaohs daughter how he fled to save his life kept close forty yeers in the land of Madian And after he had led the children of Israel through infinite difficulties dangers notwithout many murmurings and conspiracies against his person when hee came to the very borders of Canaan was forbid to enter in and commanded by God himselfe to dye upon Mount Nebo What shall I speake of David and the rest did not forraine warres and home-bred seditions the conspiracy of his owne sonne Absolom against him together with infinite other troubles griefes and cares constraine him oftentimes to mingle his drinke with his teares and the songs of Sion with his sighes Was he a mirrour of temporall happinesse who complaineth in the bitternesse of his soule I am weary of my groaning every night wash I my bed and water my couch with my teares my beauty is gone for very trouble and worne away because of all my enemies I am a worme and no man the very scorne of men and out-cast of the people One depth of sorrow calleth upon another all thy waves stormes have gone over mee As for Hezekiah it cannot be denied that God richly rewarded his zeale and crowned the calendar of his life with many festivals yet Saint Bernards observation was verified in him that no man ever had such a prosperous course but that he received a rub before his death Fieri non potest ut in hoc seculo quisquam non gustet angustias For in his time Sennacharib besieged Jerusalem and put the good King in feare of his crowne and life and after his miraculous delivery from that danger he fell into a worse For he was smitten with a dangerous disease thought to bee the plague c Esay 38.1 the Text saith he was sicke unto death and in the bitternesse of his paine and feare of present death he cryeth out Ver. 17. Behold for felicity I had bitter griefe and misery But most of all is the Cardinall out in his last instance of Josiah of whom after the commendation of his zeale in reformation of Religion and taking away all abominations out of Israel and Judah we reade little but that fighting with Pharaoh Neco he was slaine at Megiddo and all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for him and the Prophet Jeremy and all singing men and singing women bewailed his death in their lamentations to this day Yee see how unhappy this great Advocate of Rome is in his instances of temporall happinesse yet had they been all happy whom he nameth and drunke their fill of the rivers of pleasure and never tasted the waters of Marah what are they to that great d Apoc. 7.9 multitude which no man can number of all nations and kinreds and people that stood before the Throne and the Lambe arrayed with long white robes having palmes in their hands concerning whom when one of the Elders asked what are these and whence came they and Saint John answered Lord thou knowest the Elder replyeth saying These are they that came out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the bloud of the Lambe therefore are they in the presence of the Throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple and he that fitteth on the Throne will dwell among them I will conclude this point with that grave determination of S. e Lib. 1. de civit Dei c. 8. Placuit divinae providentiae
k Isa 1.5 Why should yee bee stricken any more saith the Lord which is as if a Physician should say concerning his desperate Patient I will minister no more physicke to him give him what hee hath a minde unto because there is no hope of life in him As it is a loving part in a Tutour to correct his Scholar privately for a misdemeanour to save him from the heavier stroak of the Magistrate or the Jaile so it is a singular favour of God to chasten his children here that they may not bee condemned with the world hereafter I end the solution of this doubt with the peremptory resolution of Saint Bernard l In Cant. Si Deus non est recum per gratiam adetit pre◠vindictam sed vae tibi si ita recum adest imo vae ibi si ita tecum non dist If God be not with thee O Christian by grace he will be with thee by vengeance or judgement here and woe bee to thee if hee bee so with thee nay woe bee unto thee if hee bee not so with thee or not so even with thee for if thou art preserved from temporall chastisements thou art reserved to eternall punishments The last doubt that riseth in the minde of the broken hearted Christian to bee assoyled at this time is drawne from the words of the wise man m Eccl. 9.2 All things fall alike unto all men the same net taketh cleane and uncleane fowles and enwrappeth them in a like danger In famine what difference betweene the Elect and Reprobate both pine away In pestilence what distinction of the righteous and the sinner both are alike strucke by the Angel In captivity what priviledge hath hee that feareth God more than hee that feareth him not both beare the same yoake In hostile invasion how can wee discerne who is the childe of God and who is not when all are slaughtered like sheep and their blood like water spilt upon the ground Sol. 1 Here not to referre all to Gods secret judgement who onely knoweth who are his intruth and sincerity Sol. 2 nor to rely wholly upon his extraordinary providence whereby hee miraculously saveth his servants and preserveth them in common calamities even above hope as hee did Noah from the deluge of water which drowned the old world as hee did Lot from the deluge of fire which overwhelmed and burnt Sodome and Gomorrah as hee did the children of Israel in Goshen from the plagues of Egypt as hee did Moses from the massacre of the infants by Pharaoh as hee did Elias from the sword of Jezebel drunke with the blood of the Prophets as hee did all those Christians among the Romans that fled to the Sepulchres of the Martyres when the city was sacked by the n Aug. l. 1. de civ Dei c. 1. Gothes as hee did those pious children who carried their fathers and mothers upon their backes through the midst of the fire in the Townes neare Aetna whereof o C 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristotle religiously discourseth in his Booke De mundo When saith hee from the hill Aetna there ranne downe a torrent of fire that consumed all the houses thereabout in the midst of those fearefull flames Gods speciall care of the godly shined most brightly for the river of fire parted it selfe on this side and that side and made a kinde of lane for those who ventured to rescue their aged parents and plucke them out of the jawes of death To make an evident distinction betweene the godly and the wicked wee see here the fire divided it selfe as the waters before had done in the p Exod. 14.22 passage of the children of Israel through the red Sea Howbeit these exemptions and speciall protections in common calamities are neither necessary nor ordinary Sol. 3 I answer therefore farther that two things are to be considered in the good or evill casualties as they are called of this life the nature and substance of them which is in it selfe indifferent and the accidentary quality which maketh them good or bad Now so it is ordered by divine providence that the wicked possesse oft times the substance of these things I meane houses lands treasure and wealth but they have not them with that quality which maketh them good I meane the right use of them and contentation of minde in them On the contrary the godly often lacke the substance of these things yet not that for which they are to bee desired and which maketh them good contentment of minde with supply of all things needfull in which regard the indigencie of the godly is to bee preferred before the plenty and abundance of the wicked according to that of the Psalmist q Psal 37.16 A small thing that the righteous hath is better than great riches of the ungodly And doubtlesse that large promise of our Saviour r Mar. 10.29 There is no man that hath left house or brethren or sisters or lands for my sake and the Gospels but he shall receive an hundred fold in this time is to bee understood according to the former distinction thus Hee shall receive an hundred fold either in the kinde or in the value either in the substance of the things themselves or in the inward contentation and the heavenly wealth I now spake of In like manner death and all calamities which are as it were sundry kindes of death or steppes unto it have a sting and venomous quality which putteth the soule to most unsufferable paine and rankles as it were about the heart I meane Gods curse the sense of his wrath the worme of conscience discontent impatience despaire and the like ſ 1 Cor. 15.55 O death saith Saint Paul where is thy sting In like manner wee may insult upon all other evils O poverty O banishment O imprisonment O losses O crosses O persecutions Where is your sting it is plucked out of the afflictions of the godly but a worse left in the prosperity of the wicked In which regard the seeming misery of the godly is happy but the seeming prosperity of the wicked is miserable Albeit God sometim s giveth them both a drinke of deadly Wine yet hee tempereth the sharpe Ingredients of judgement with corrective Spices of mercy and sweetneth it with comforts in the Cup of the godly t 2 Cor. 1.5 As their sufferings for Christ abound so their consolations also abound by Christ And this evidently appeareth by the different working of the Cup of trembling in both the wicked presently after their draught rave and grow franticke but the godly are then in their best temper the wicked u Apoc. 16.10 gnaw their tongues for sorrow but the godly employ them in prayer and praises the wicked bite Gods iron rod and thereby breake their owne teeth but the godly kisse it the wicked are most impatient in afflictions the godly learne patience even by afflictions In a word the one in extremity of paine are
possible vehemency and earnestnesse yet presently he yeeldeth to forgoe his will and undergoe his passion Sed fiat voluntas tua non mea But thy will be done not mine or Neverthelesse not as I i Mat. 26.39 will but as thou wilt Not as I will these words imply an unwillingnesse Neverthelesse be it done as thou wilt sheweth a resolute will here is a consent of will without a will of consent a will against a will or a will and not a will Non mea sed tua As man he expressed a naturall feare of death and desire of life yet with a submission to the will of his Father it was not his will to take that cup for it selfe and antecedently and as he saw wrath in it yet as hee saw the salvation of man in it and greater glory it was his will to drink it off consequently because such was his Fathers good pleasure to which his will was alwayes subordinate Saint k Cyp. de bono patient Dominus secit voluntatem Patris sui nos non faciemus patiemur voluntatem Domini Cyprian speaketh home in this point to all that repine at what God sendeth them be it never so bitter to their carnall taste Our Lord did and suffered the will of his Father shall not we doe and suffer the will of our Lord he conformed his will to his Fathers shall not we ours to his If these inducements from the love of God and example of our Saviour which prevaile most with the best dispositions worke not kindly with us let vulgar and common discretion teach us to make a vertue of necessity Suffer we must what God layes upon us for who can l Rom. 9.19 resist his will If we suffer with our will wee gaine by our sufferings a heavenly vertue for a worldly losse or crosse we make a grace of a judgement if we suffer against our will we suffer neverthelesse and lose all benefit of our sufferings We adde drunkennesse to thirst and impatience to impenitence passive disobedience to active and what doth obstinacy and rebellion against the will of God availe us Doe the waves get by their furious beatings against the rockes whereby they are broken the bones in our body by resisting the lightening whereby they are bruised and consumed the soft and yeelding flesh being no way hurt The strong and tallest trees by their stiffe standing and setting themselves as it were against the wind give the wind more power over them to blow them downe to the ground and teare them up by the root whereas the reeds and bents by yeelding to every blast overcome the wind and in the greatest and most blustering storme keep their place and standing Alas the more we struggle and strive and tugge to plucke our necke out of Gods yoake the more paine we put our selves to the oftner and stronger we kicke at the prickes of Gods judgements the deeper they enter into our heeles m Vae oppositis voluntatibus quid tam poenale quà m semper velle quod nunquam erit semper nolle quod nunquam non erit inaeternum non obtinere quod vult quod non vult inaeternum sustinere Woe be to these crosse wills saith St. Bernard they shall never attaine what they would and they shall ever sustaine and endure what they would not As grace in the godly is a means to procure the increase of grace as the cymball of Africa sweetly tinckleth Ipsa meretur augeri ut aucta mereatur so punishment in the wicked through their impatience becommeth a meanes to improve both their sinnes and punishments for after they have suffered for not doing the will of God they are againe to suffer and that most deservedly for their not suffering patiently their most deserved punishments If any be so wedded to their wills that they will not be severed from it no not to joyne it and themselves to God let them in the last place consider that the only meanes to have their will perpetually is to resigne it to God not only because Voluntas inordinata est quae non est subordinata The will which is not subordinate to God is inordinate and therefore not to be termed will but lust but especially because such is the condition proposed to us by God either to suffer temporall chastisements for our sinnes with our wills or eternall punishments against our wills If we will have our will in all things here we shall want it for ever hereafter but if we will be content to want our wills here in some things for a time we shall have our will in all things and fill also of heavenly contentments for evermore hereafter And chasten If all afflictions of the godly are chastenings and all chastenings are for instruction then to make the right use of them we are not only in general but also in particular to search our selvs what those sins are in our soules which God seeketh to kill in us by smart afflictions If our affliction be worldly losses let us consider with our selvs whether our sin were not covetousnesse if disgrace and shame whether our sinne were not ambition if scarcity and famine whether the sinne were not luxury if bodily paines torments or aches whether wee offended not before in sinfull pleasures if a dangerous fall whether the fault were not confidence in our owne strength if trouble of mind and a fit of despaire whether before we provoked not God by security and presumption This to have bin the practice of Gods Saints as in other examples so we may cleerly see in the brethren of Joseph who impute the hard measure that was mett to them in Egypt to the like hard measure they had mett to their brother Joseph saying one to another n Gen. 42.21 We verily sinned against our brother in that we saw the anguish of his soule when he besought us and we would not heare therefore is this anguish come upon us We find it also in Saint Paul who conceived that the o 2 Cor. 12.7 messenger of Sathan was sent to buffet him that he might not be lifted up above measure with his so many graces and speciall revelations And when certain virgins ravished by barbarous souldiers in regard they found in themselves no spot of impurity before they suffered this violence called in question the justice of God for permitting those unclean persons to have their will of them who had all their life preserved their honour and reputation untainted and their bodies unspotted Saint p Lib. 1. de civit Dei c. 28. Austine wisely adviseth them to search their hearts whether those insolent indignities offered them by the worst of men might not be a punishment of some other sinne rather than unchastity and in particular whether their sinne were not their pride of this vertue and too highly prizing their virginity for pride even of virginity is as fowle a sinne before God as impurity As many
true Howsoever what piety is it nay what equity nay rather what abominable iniquity and impiety is it florem Diabolo consecrare faeces Deo reservare To consecrate the flower of their youth to the Divell the world and the flesh and reserve the lees or dregges of their old age for God To dedicate to him our weake and feeble dotage if we live to it what is it better than to offer the f Deut. 15.21 blind and the lame for sacrifice which God abhorreth Repent therefore repentè repent at the first offer of grace Ye shall scarce find any precept of repentance in Scripture which requireth not as well that it be out of hand as that it be from the heart Remember thy g Eccles 12.1 Creatour in the dayes of thy youth To h Psal 95.7 8. day if yee will heare his voice harden not your heart Seek i Psal 32.6 the Lord while he may be found Now he may be found now he seeketh us now he calleth to us let us therefore breake off all delayes and pricke on forward our dull and slow affections with that sharp and poynant increpation of Saint k Confes l. 8. c. 5. Modò modò non habent modum quamdiu cras cras cur non hoc dic cur non hac horâ finis turpitudinis meae Ib. Verba lenta somnolenta modò ecce modò sine paululum sed sine paululum ibat in longum c. Austine Why doe I still procrastinate my comming unto thee O Lord Why not now why not this day why not this houre an end of my sinfull course of life Deo Patri Filio Spiritui sancto sit laus c. THE DEFORMITY OF HALTING THE LVII SERMON 1 KIN. 18.21 And Elijah came to all the people and said How long halt ye betweene two opinions If the Lord be God follow him but if Baal then follow him and the people answered not a word Right Honourable c. ELijah who sometimes called for fire from heaven was himselfe full of heavenly fire the fire of zeale for the Lord of Hosts His words like fire 1 Give light 2 Heate 3 Consume 1 They give light to this undoubted truth That one and but one Religion is to be embraced either God or Baal must be worshipped in no case both Stand firme to one How long halt ye betweene two 2 They heate and enflame true zeale and devotion If the Lord be God follow him 3 They burne up indifferencie and neutralitie If Baal be he goe after him This passage of Scripture relateth a Sermon of Elijah wherein we are to note more particularly 1 The Preacher Elijah 2 The Auditorie the whole Parliament of Israel 3 The Text or Theame handled by him viz. What God is to be worshipped what religion to be established and maintained by Prince and people Now although I perswade my selfe that there is none in this whole assembly who halteth betweene the Popish and reformed Churches or hath once bowed his knee to the Romish Baal yet because Satan hath of late not only turned himselfe into an Angell of light to dazle the eyes of weake Christians in point of Doctrine but also into a Seraphim of heat and zeale under colour of devotion to bring us to offer strange fire upon Gods Altar and especially because there is no lamp of the Sanctuarie that burneth so brightly but that it needeth oyle continually to be powred into it to feed the flame the opening of this Scripture cannot but be seasonable and usefull to reduce you into the path if you swerve from it never so little or to prick you on if you are in the right way that leadeth to the kingdome of God The key to open this Text is the occasion of this exhortation of the Prophet wherefore before I proceed to the exposition of the words I must entreat you to cast a looke backwards to the occasion of them and the cause of the peoples haulting downe-right a circumstance not giving more light to the right understanding of the Prophets reproofe than strength to our stedfast standing and upright walking in the high way to Heaven What the religious Father spake by way of Apologie for handling controversall points in the pulpit Ideo non dubitavimus dubitare ut vos non dubitaretis We therefore make no scruple to move doubts that yee may not doubt but upon the solution of them be more settled in your most holy faith I may say truly that therefore I hold it needfull to make a stay at the cause of the poeples haulting that their haulting may be no stay to your godly proceedings that you may never hault upon their ground which was so slipperie that they slid now this way now that way not able to set sure footing any where Elijah by his divine commission drew them to Gods Altar but Ahab especially at the instigation of Jezebel by his royall power enforced them to offer at Baals groves between both they were miserably perplexed their minds distracted and their worship divided betweene God and Baal Men are led by examples more than precepts especially by the examples of Princes or Potentates which carrie a kinde of Sovereigntie over mens affections and manners as they themselves have over their persons insomuch that their morall vices yea and naturall deformities also have beene drawne and patterned out by some of their subjects as if they were vertues and gracefull ornaments a Jan. Grut. annot in Tac. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diodorus Siculus telleth us in sober sadnesse that it was the custome of the Aethiopians to maime or lame themselves in that part or foot on which their Prince limped because they thought it a great disparagement for their Prince that any about him should goe more upright or have a more gracefull gate than hee And Atheneus likewise reporteth of Dionysius his familiars that because himselfe was somewhat purblinde they as they sate at table reached towards dishes as it were by aime and sometimes missed that they might not seeme more quick-sighted than he And to make up the number when Philip received a wound in his eye Clisophus as if hee had got a blow on the same eye putteth a patch on it and when afterwards Philip was run thorow the right thigh in comes Clisophus all to be plaistered on that thigh and out-halteth his Master We can hardly hold laughing when we read or heare of the madnesse rather than folly of so grosse flatterie yet wee have cause rather to weepe at the sight of a farre worse flatterie and yet most usuall whereby some indeere themselves into great personages by imitating their vices and profane carriage To expresse these they account it a kinde of merit of favour or at least an homage due to their greatnesse because saith b Lactant. divin instit l. 5. c. 6. Et quoniam regis vitta imitari obsequii quoddam genus est abjecerunt omnes pietatem ne regi
to it in divers places we reade of Baalim Baal-Peor and Baal-Zebub just saith Ribera the Jesuit as the Blessed Virgin though she be but one yet she is called by divers names taken from the places where her Images are erected as namely she is called sometimes Lady of Loretto sometimes of Monte serato sometimes of Hayles But before I come to parallel the Papists and the Baalites give us leave right b The Lord Wotton extraordinary Embassador and the Lieger Sir Thomas Edmonds Honourable who are Embassadors for Christ to endeavour to imitate that vertue which is most eminent in men of your place I meane courage and liberty to deliver what wee have in commission from our Lord and Master Yee will say what need this preface what doth this Text concerne any here though it be set upon the tenter hookes never so long it cannot reach to any Christian congregation It were ignorance and impudency to affirme that any who have given their names to Christ halt between God and Baal or offer incense to the Sunne I hope I may excuse all here present from the sin of the Baalites I would I could also all others who professe themselves Christians but that I cannot doe so long as the whoredomes of the Romish Jezebel are as evident as the Sunne-beames which the Baalites worshipped I find not in Scripture Idolaters branded chiefly because they were Baalites but Baalites because they were Idolaters If then any who beare the name of Christians may bee justly charged with idolatry they fall under the sharp edge of this reproofe in my Text as also do all those who are not yet resolved which Religion to stick unto the Romish or the Reformed Now before we lay Idolatry to the charge of the Romish Church it will be requisite to distinguish of a double kind of Idolatry or Superstition 1. When religious worship is given to a false god which is forbidden in the first precept of the Decalogue 2. When a false or irreligious worship is given to the true God which is forbidden in the second Commandement With Idolatry in the first sense we charge them not for they receiving with us the Apostles Creed worship one God in Trinity with us but from Idolatry in the second acception they can never cleere themselves but by changing their tenets and reforming their practice For every will-worship or worship devised by man against or besides Gods commandement is a false worship and what is Popery almost else but an addition of humane traditions to Gods commandements his pure worship What is their offering of Christ in the Masse for a propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead their elevation of the host their carrying it in solemne Procession their dedicating a feast to it called Corpus Christi day What are their benedictions of oyle salt and spittle christening of Bells and Gallies What are their invocation of Saints Dirges and Requiems for the dead going in pilgrimages to the Images and Reliques of Saints and Martyrs but religious or rather irreligious rites brought in by the Church without any command or warrant from Gods Word Secondly other learned Divines distinguish Idolatry into 1. Crassam a grosse or palpable kind of Idolatry when the creature it selfe is worshipped in or for it selfe 2. Subtilem a subtle and more cunning kind of Idolatry when the creature is denied to bee worshipped but God in by and through it For as the same wooll may be spunne with a courser or with a finer thread so the same sinne specie may bee committed after a grosser or more subtle manner As for example hee may be said to commit grosse murder who cuts a mans throat or chops off his head or runneth him through the heart and not he who poysoneth his broth or his gloves or his spurres or his saddle and yet the latter is as guilty of murder before God as the former In like manner hee who defileth corporally the body of his neighbours wife may be said to commit grosse adultery yet hee is not free from that foule crime who lusteth after a woman in his heart though he commit not the foule act so wee may say that hee who robbeth a man upon the high-way or cutteth his purse in a throng committeth grosse theft yet certainly he that cheateth or couzeneth a man of his mony is as well a breaker of the eighth commandement as the former The same we are to conceive concerning Idolatry forbidden in the second commandement For whether it be crassa or subtilis a worship of the creature it selfe or a pretended worship of God in or by the creature it is odious and abominable in the sight of God For the people that worshipped the golden Calfe made by Aaron and the ten Tribes which worshipped the Calves set up by Jeroboam worshipped the true God in and by those Images For Aaron when hee saw the golden Calfe built an Altar before it made a Proclamation To morrow is a feast Jehovae to the Lord. And Jeroboam as Josephus testifieth appointed not that the Calves that hee set up in Dan and Bethel should be adored as gods sed ut in Vitulis Deus coleretur but that God should bee worshipped in and by those Calves Nay the Baalites who were esteemed grosser Idolaters than the other had this plea for themselves that under the name of Baal-Samen the Lord of Heaven they worshipped the true God as may be more than probably gathered out of the words of God by the Prophet c Hos 2.16 Hosea And it shall bee in that day saith the Lord that thou shalt call mee Ishi my husband and shalt call mee no more Baal for I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth and they shall bee no more remembred by their name Yet the Scripture stileth these Idolaters d 1. Cor. 10.7 Neither bee yee idolaters as were some of them as it is written The people sate downe to eate and drinke and rose up to play And God proceedeth against them as if they were grosse Idolaters for Moses tooke the e Exod. 32.20.27 Calfe which they had made and burnt it in the fire and grownd it to powder and strawed iâ— upon the water and made the children of Israel drinke of it And he said to the sons of Levi Thus saith the Lord God of Israel Put every man his sword by his side and goe in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp and slay every man his brother and every man his companion and every man his neighbour Neither did the ten Tribes after or the Baalites escape better for the Kings of Israel were plagued for their Idolatry and all the people led into captivity And for the Baalites they were slaine with a sword and the Temple of Baal made a Jakes Here I would not bee mistaken as if I put no difference between an Heathen and a Papist an Hereticke and an Infidell For although the
Papists in their transcendent charity exclude Protestants out of all possibility of salvation See Wright his motives That Protestants have no faith no God no religion Fisher his Treat Out of the Romish Church no salvation Bellar. apol 8. Jacobus quia Catholicus non est Christianus non est W.B. his discourse entituled the Non entitie of Protestants religion deny them to have any Church any faith any hope of salvation any interest in Christ any part in God yet wee have learned from the Apostle to render to no man evill for evill nor rebuke for rebuke nor slander for slander wee deny them not to have a Church though very corrupt and unsound wee doubt not but through Gods mercy many thousands of our fore-fathers who lived and dyed in the communion of their Church and according to that measure of knowledge which was revealed unto them out of holy Scripture in the mysteries of salvation led a godly and innocent life not holding any errour against their conscience nor allowing themselves in any knowne sinne continually asking pardon for their negligences and ignorances of God through Christs merits might bee saved though not as Papists that is not by their Popish additions and superstitions but as Protestants that is by those common grounds of Christianity which they hold with us All that I intend to shew herein is that in some practices of theirs they may bee rightly compared to the Heathen as when the Apostle saith that he that provideth not for his owne family is worse than an Infidell his meaning is not that every Christian that is a carelesse housholder is simply in worse state than a Heathen but onely by way of aggravation of that sinne hee teacheth all unthrifts that in that particular they are more culpable than Heathen In like manner my meaning is not to put Papists and Heathen in the same state and ranke as if there were not more hope of a Papist than a Painims salvation but to breed a greater loathing and detestation of Popish idolatry and superstition by paralleling Baalites and other Heathens together I will make it evidently appeare that some particular practices of the Romane Church are no better than Heathenish See Hom. against the perill of Idolatry p. 3. Of this mind were they who laid the first stones of the happy reformation in England Our Image maintainers and worshippers have used and use the same outward rites and manner of honouring and worshipping their Images as the Gentiles did use before their Idols and that therefore they commit idolatry as well inwardly as outwardly as did the wicked Gentile Idolaters If any reply that these Homilies were but Sermons of private men transported with zeale and carry not with them the authority of the whole Church of England I answer that as those Verses of Poets alledged by the Apostle were made part of the Canonicall Scripture by being inserted into his inspired Epistles so the Homilies which are mentioned by name in the 35. Article and commended as containing godly and g His Majesties declaration We doe therefore ratifie and confrme the said Articles which doe containe the doctrine of the Church of Eâ—gland requiring all our loving subjects to continue in the uniforme profession thereof and prohibiting the least difference from the said Articles wholesome doctrine and necessary for the times are made part of the Articles of Religion which are established by authority of the whole Convocation and ratified and confirmed by the royall assent Were not this the expresse judgement of the Church of England whose authority ought to stop the mouth of all that professe themselves to be her children from any way blaunching the idolatrous practices of the Romane Church yet were not the fore-heads of our Image-worshippers made of as hard metall as their Images they would blush to say as they doe that the testimonies which wee alledge out of Scriptures and Fathers make against Idols and not against Image-worship For the words are h Levit. 26.1 Yee shall make no Idoll or graven Images nor reare up any standing Image nor set up any Image of stone to bow downe to it The words are i Exod. 20 4. Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any Pesel that is any thing carved or graven And if there may seem any mist in this generall word to any the words following cleerly dispell it Nor the likenesse of any thing that is in heaven above nor in the earth beneath nor in the waters under the earth The third Text is thus rendered in their own vulgar Latine k Deut. 4.15 16 17. Take therefore good heed to your soules for yee saw no manner of similitude in the day which the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire lest peradventure being deceived Custodite sollicitâ— animas vestras non vidistis aliquam similitudinem in die quâ Dominus vobis locutus est in Horeb in medio igne ne fortè faciatis vobis sculptam imaginem vel similitudinem masculi vel foeminae ye make you a graven Image the similitude of any figure the likenesse of male or female the likenesse of any beast that is on the earth the likenesse of any winged fowle that flyeth in the aire the likenesse of any thing that creepeth on the ground the likenesse of any fish that is in the waters beneath the earth Neither is our allegation out of the Prophet Esay lesse poignant than the former To whom will m Esay 40.18 19 20. ye liken God or what likenesse will yee compare unto him The workman melteth a graven Image and the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold and casteth silver chaines Hee that is so impoverished that hee hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot hee seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven Image c. As tor the words Imago and Idolum if wee respect the originall they are all one for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying the shape or species of any thing and therefore not onely Aristotle calleth the shapes of things which are received into our senses the idols of the senses but Cardinall n Com. in c. 20. Exod. Cajetan also the images of the Angels in the Arke Idola Cherubinorum If wee regard the most common use of the words they differ as mulier and scortum that is a woman and a strumpet For as a woman abused or defiled by corporall fornication is called a strumpet so all such Images as are abused to spirituall fornication are called Idols Thus Saint o Lib. 8. de orig c. 11. Idolum est simulachrum quod humanâ effigie est consecraâ—um Isidore defineth an Idoll An Idoll is an Image consecrated in an humane shape And at the first all Idols were such but after men fell into grosser idolatry and turned the glory of God not only into the similitude of a p Rom. 1.23
any court for ought I know against the dead wee know not where to bestow them wee could doe no lesse in Christian charity and providence than procure the bounds of our Golgotha to be enlarged For though other houses and tenements stand void with us the grave shall never want guests nor the Church-yard and vaults under ground tenants against their will All men and women are flowers and all flowers will fall and when they are ready to fall we shall have slips I feare but too many to plant this parcell of ground which wee have gained in by the gift of the father of this Sichem But hereof hereafter when I shall have opened my Text and the sepulchre in it and who were interred there and how they came thither If in any Text almost of the whole Scripture surely in this the coherence needeth to be handled For at the first sight this relation of the buriall of the Patriarchs seemeth to have no affinity at all with Saint Stephens apologie for himselfe against the Jewes who charged him with blasphemy against Moses and against the Law Now as in a shooting match a stander by can hardly discerne the flight of an arrow unlesse he marke the Archers aime and observe the flight-shaft as soon as it is delivered out of the bow so unlesse ye marke Saint Stephens aime and observe how he entereth into this story of the Old Testament ye can hardly discerne how direct it is to his maine scope and purpose But so it is that as he that shooteth farre draweth his arrow backward up to the head and as hee that leapeth forward fetcheth his feeze a great way backe so doth Saint Stephen here seem to give ground and recoile a great way backward but it is to come on with more force and powerfully to confound the Jewes who began not now to persecute the Saints of God and Witnesses of Jesus Christ but in all ages had done the like Fabius Maximus as b Liv. dec 3. l. 2. Livie writeth kept aloofe off from the Carthaginian army upon a high hill till hee saw that Hannibal had foiled Minutius in the plaine but then hee falleth upon him and routs all his troupes whereupon Hannibal uttered that memorable speech I ever feared that the cloud which hovered so long upon the hills would in the end powre downe and give us a sad showre Saint Stephen like Fabius for a great while keepeth aloof off from the Jewes and his discourse resembleth a darke cloud hovering on the top of a hill which on the sudden in the end rained downe upon them and caused a bitter storme for killing first all the servants sent to them by the Master of the Vineyard and last of all his Sonne The Jewes bragged much of their fathers Saint Stephen by epitomizing the story of the Old Testament sheweth unto them that they ought rather to be ashamed of them in whose wicked steps notwithstanding they trod and were now as their fathers ever had bin a stiffe-necked people of uncircumcised eares and hearts resisting the spirit of God and cruelly persecuting those to death who shewed before of the comming of the just One of whom saith he ye have been now the betrayers and murderers who have received the Law by the disposition of Angels and have not kept it The accusers of Saint Stephen articled against him that hee had uttered blasphemy against the Law of Moses and against the Temple because hee taught that the ceremonies of the Law were fulfilled in Christ and that the shadow ought to vanish the body being come in place Saint Stephen answereth for himselfe that the doctrine of the Gospel was ancienter than the Law or the Temple and that all the furniture of the Temple and Arke were made according to the patterne in the Mount and had a reference to heavenly and spirituall things revealed in the Gospel that God was now to be worshipped in spirit and truth by faith in Christ now come as hee had been by the fathers before the Law in Christ to come who by faith gave charge that their bones should be carried out of Egypt and buried in the land of Canaan beleeving that God would certainly performe his promise made unto their posterity first of the reall possession of the earthly after that of the heavenly inheritance by the seed of Abraham in whom all Nations are blessed Christ Jesus that should be born in that land What they gave in charge was accordingly performed as ye heare in the words of my Text So Jacob went into Egypt and dyed he and our fathers and were carried over into Sichem and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought c. Ye see the coherence but ye cannot yet discerne the truth of the relation because there is a mist on the words which hath caused many to misse their way and it cannot bee otherwise dispelled than by cleering this whole relation of Saint Stephen and comparing it with the narration of Moses 1. It is evident out of Genes 23.16 20. that Abraham for foure hundreds shekels of silver bought the field of Ephron the Hittite which was in Machpelah and therein a cave to bury the dead 2. It is evident out of Genes 33.19 that Jacob bought a parcell of a field where he had spread his tent at the hand of the children of Hamor Sechems father for a hundred peeces of mony 3. It is evident likewise out of Genes 50.13 that Jacobs sons carried him into the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field in Machpelah which Abraham bought with the field for a possession of a burying place of Ephron the Hittite before Mamre 4. It is evident out of Jos 24.32 that the children of Israel brought the bones of Joseph out of Egypt and buried them in Sechem in a parcell of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Sechem for a hundred peeces of silver and it became the inheritance of the children of Joseph Now the points of difficulty are three 1. Whether all the Patriarchs were buried in Sechem or only Joseph For in the booke of Josuah there is mention made of none buried there but Joseph yet Saint Stephen here speaketh in the plurall number Our fathers dyed and were carried over into Sechem And Saint Jerome who lived in those parts writeth that in his time the sepulchre of the twelve Patriarchs was to be seen in Sechem 2. Whether Abraham or Jacob bought this field wherein they were buried For both bought ground for buriall but not at the same rate nor in the same place nor from the same Landlords For Abraham paid for his purchase foure hundred peeces of silver Jacob an hundred Abrahams lay in the country of Heth Jacobs of Sechem Abraham bought it of Ephron the Hittite Jacob of Hamor the Sechemite If the Patriarchs were laid in a sepulchre at Sechem it could not be that which Abraham bought for that was not in the tenure
and occupation of the Sechemites but of the Hittites 3. Whether Hamor were the father or sonne of Sechem For in Genesis we reade that he was the father of Sechem but in the Acts many translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the son of Sechem 1. The first doubt may be thus cleared Joseph alone was buried in Sechem and rested there but the other Patriarchs were at the first buried at Sechem but afterwards removed from thence to Ephron and were buried all in Abrahams vault or cave thus Josephus S. Jerome are easily reconciled For though the bones of them all lay in Ephron yet at Sechem there might be some monument of them remaining as empty tombes with some inscription 2. The second difficulty is much more intricate and those who have stroven to get out of it have more intangled themselves and others in it Calvins answer is somewhat too peremptory that there is an errour in all our copies of the New Testament and ought to be corrected and though Beza goe about to excuse the matter by a semblance of some like misnomer in the Gospel yet this his observation unlesse he could produce some ancient copies wherein such mistakes were not to be found openeth a dangerous gap to Infidels and Heretickes who hereby will be apt to take occasion to question the infallible truth of the holy Writ Canus in going about to take out the blot maketh it bigger saying that Saint Luke erred not in relating Saint Stephens speech but that Saint Stephens memory failed him and that through errour or inadvertency hee confounded Jacobs purchase with Abrahams This answer commeth neere to blasphemy for no man doubteth but that Saint Stephen in his speech spake as hee was inspired by the holy Ghost Therefore Lyranus Lorinus and many others think to salve all by putting two names upon the same man whom they will have sometimes to be called Ephron sometimes Hamor but they bring no good proofe out of Scripture for it and though they could make Ephron and Hamor the same man yet they can never make the cave in the land of the Hittites and that in the land of the Sechemites to be one and the same parcell of ground With submission to more learned judgements quia hic Delio opus est natatore I take it that either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 should be rendred by joyned to the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and a comma at 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so the sense is That the Patriarchs were translated into Sechem by the Sechemites and laid in Abrahams sepulchre which he bought for mony or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be understood and then the meaning will be this That some of the Patriarchs were laid in Abrahams sepulchre some in the field that Jacob bought Thus then according to the originall wee may render this verse And they were carried over into Sechem and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought besides that which Jacob bought of Hamor that is Jacob dyed and our fathers and some of them were bestowed in Sechem in the cave which Jacob bought and some of them in that which Abraham bought 3. The third doubt is easily resolved For Hamor was the father of Sechem as we reade Genes 33.19 neither doth S. Stephen gain-say it for his words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Sechem which should have been translated the father of Sechem as Herodotus in Clio saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in Thalia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mar. 15.40 and Saint Mark 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Adrastus of Mydas to wit the father of Mydas Cyrus of Cambyses that is the father of Cambyses Mary of James that is Mary the mother of James The mist being thus dispelled we may cleerly see our way and readily follow the Patriarchs in the funerall procession from Egypt first to Sechem and afterwards to Ephron And they were carried over c. This transportation offereth to our religious thoughts two acts 1. Of Piety 2. Of Charity both significative and mysticall For the carrying the Patriarchs bones from Egypt to Canaan shadoweth our removall after death from Egyptian darknesse to the inheritance of Saints in light and the laying them by the bones of Abraham may represent unto us how the soules of all the faithfull immediately after they were severed from their bodies are carried by Angels into the bosome of Abraham The first I call an act of piety or religion because the Patriarchs before their death by faith gave charge of their bones and their posterity executed their last Will in this point to professe their faith in Gods promise which was to give the land of Canaan to their seed for an inheritance and accordingly by their dead bodies they tooke a kind of reall possession thereof And they As by a Synecdoche the soule is put for the man Anima cujusque is est quisque so by the same figure the corpses of the Patriarchs are called the Patriarchs Poole elegantly called his dead body his depositum Scaliger his relique Saint Paul the tent-maker agreeable to his profession called it an earthly tabernacle And although indeed it bee but the casket which containes in it the precious ring our immortall spirit yet in regard of the union of it to the soule and because it concurreth with the soule to the physicall constitution of a man it may by a figure be called a man Yea but had the Patriarchs no priviledge but must they goe the way of all flesh They must for earth is in their composition and into the earth must be their resolution As the world is a circle so all things in the world in this are like a circle that they end where or as they began The vapours that are drawne up from the earth fall downe againe upon the earth in rain The fire that descended at the first from the region of fire in the g Pickolom Phys hollow of the Moone ascends up thither againe The waters that flow from the sea returne backe to the sea in like manner the soule of man which was infused by God returneth to God that gave it but the body which was made of red earth returneth to dust as it was We need not inquire of Scripture where reason speaketh so plaine nor interrogate reason where sense giveth daily testimony to the truth Every passing bell rings this lesson in our eares Omnis loculus locus est every coffin is a topicke to prove it every grave layes it open to us every speechlesse man on his death-bed cries out to us Memento mori quod tueris eris Were carried over into Sechem The life of man is a double pilgrimage 1. Of the outward man 2. Of the inward man The outward travelleth from the cradle to the coffin the inward from earth to heaven Of all creatures man only is properly a pilgrim on earth because he alone is borne and liveth all his time here out of his own country of all men the Patriarchs
and crucifying the lusts of the flesh than in verbo or signo After these three wayes we must all shew forth the Lords death Till he come To wit either to each particular man at the houre of his death or to all men and the whole Church on earth at the day of judgement This Sacrament is called by the auncient Fathers viaticum morientium the dying mans provision for the long journey he is to take Every faithfull Christian therefore is to communicate as long as he is able and can worthily prepare himselfe even to the day of his dissolution and all congregations professing the Christian religion must continue the celebration of this holy Sacrament till the day of the worlds consummation As often The seldomer we come to the table of some men the welcomer we are but on the contrary wee are the better welcome the oftener wee come to the Lords Table with due preparation There are two reasons especially why wee ought oft to eate of this bread and drinke of this cup the first is drawne from God and his glory the second from our selves and our benefit The oftener we partake of these holy mysteries being qualified thereunto the more we illustrate Gods glory and confirme our faith If any demand further how oft ye ought to communicate I answer 1. In generall as oft as yee need it and are fit for it The x Cypr. ep 54. Quomodo provocamus eos in confessione nominis Christi sanguinem suum fundere si iis militaturis Christi sanguinem denegamus aut quomodo ad Martyrii poculum idoneos facimus si non eos prius ad bibendum in Ecclesiâ poculum jure communicationis admittimus Martyrs in the Primitive Church received every day because looking every houre to be called to signe the truth of their religion with their bloud they held it needfull by communicating to arme themselves against the feare of death Others in the time of peace received either daily or at least every Lords day The former Saint Austine neither liketh nor disliketh the latter he exhorteth all unto 2. I answer in particular out of Fabianus the Synod of Agatha and the Rubrick of our Communion booke that every one at least ought to communicate thrice a yeere at Christmas Easter and Whitsontide howbeit we are not so much to regard the season of the yeere as the disposition of our mind in going forward or drawing backe from this holy Table The sacrament is fit for us at all times but wee are not fit for it y Gratian. de consecrat distinct 2. Quotidié Eucharistiam dominicam accipere nec laudo nec vitupero omnibus tamen dominicis communicandum hortor Ibid. Qui in natali Domini Paschate Pentecoste non communicaverint catholici non credantur nec inter catholicos habeantur wherefore let every man examine his owne conscience how hee standeth in favour with God and peace with men how it is with him in his spirituall estate whether he groweth or decayeth in grace whether the Flesh get the hand of the Spirit or the Spirt of the Flesh whether our ghostly strength against all temptations be increased or diminished and accordingly as the Spirit of God shall incline our hearts let us either out of sense of our owne unworthinesse and reverence to this most holy ordinance forbeare or with due preparation and renewed faith and repentance approach to this Table either to receive a supply of those graces we want or an increase of those we have and when we come let us Eate of this bread and drinke of this cup. For as both eyes are requisite to the perfection of sight so both Elements to the perfection of the Sacrament This the Schooles roundly confesse Two things saith z Part. 3. q. 63. art 1. Ideò ad Sacramenti hujus integritatem duo concurrunt scilicet spiritualis cibus potus Et q. 80. art 12. Ex parte ipsius Sacramenti convenit quod utrumque sumatur corpus scilicet sanguis quia in utroque consistit perfectio Sacramenti Aquinas concurre to the integrity of the Sacrament viz. spirituall meate and drinke and againe It is requisite in regard of the Sacrament that we receive both kindes the body and the bloud because in both consisteth the perfection of the Sacrament And * Bonavent in 4. sent dist 11. part 2. art 1. Perfecta refectio non est in parte tantùm sed in utroque ideò non in uno tantùm perfectè signatur Christus ut reficiens sed in utroque Bonaventure A perfect refection or repast is not in bread only but in bread and drinke therefore Christ is not perfectly signified as feeding our soules in one kind but in both And a Soto in 12. distinct q. 1. art 12. Sacramentum non nisi in utrâque specie quantum ad integram signification em perficitur Soto The Sacrament as concerning the entire signification thereof is not perfect but in both kindes Doubtlesse if the Sacrament be a banquet or a supper there must be drinke in it as well as meate The Popish communion be it what it may be to the Laity cannot be a supper in which the Laity sup nothing neither can they fulfill the precept of the Apostle of shewing forth the Lords death for the effusion of the wine representeth the shedding of Christs bloud out of the veines and the parting of his soule from his body If we should grant unto our adversaries which they can never evict that the bloud of Christ might be received in the bread yet by such receiving Christs death by the effusion of his bloud for us could in no wise bee represented or shewen forth which the Apostle here teacheth to be the principall end of receiving this Sacrament As oft saith he as yee eate of this bread and drinke of this cup Yee shew forth Christs death In Christs death all Christianity is briefly summed for in it we may observe the justice of God satisfied the love of Christ manifested the power of Sathan vanquished the liberty of man from the slavery of sinne and death purchased all figures of the Old Testament verified all promises of the New ratified all prophecies fulfilled all debts discharged all things requisite for the redemption of mankind and to the worlds restoration accomplished Therein we have a patterne of obedience to the last breath of humility descending as low as hell of meeknesse putting up insufferable wrongs of patience enduring mercilesse torments compassion weeping and praying for bloudy persecuters constancy holding out to the end to which vertues of his person if ye lay the benefits of his passion redounding to his Church which hee hath comforted by his agony quit by his taking justified by his condemnation healed by his stripes cleansed by his bloud quickened by his death and crowned by his crosse if you take a full sight of all the vertues wherewith his crosse is beset as with so