An Exposition of the Hymne commonly called Benedictus with an ample comfortable application of the same to our age and people By A. Anderson Preacher Stay prophane vain bablings for they shall encrease vnto more vngodlines 2. Timothe 2.16 But if you haue bitter enuying and strife in your harts reioyce not neither be liars against the truth This wisdom discendeth not from aboue but is earthly sensuall and diuelish For where enuying and strife is there is sedition and all maner of euill woorkes Iames. 3.14.15 16. ¶ Imprinted at LondoÌ„ by Henry Middelton for Raufe Newbery The booke to the Reader To prayse the Lord is my desire To helpe his Church all that I can To quench if could such burning yre As Satan late hath caste in man VVhile pen doth carpe at brothers ill Sinne taketh rest the Church doth spill For other state some men do craue And cut themselues from this we haue In hart they hate thy state and life â–ª They ioy to see thee at such strife And they at ease do by disdaine Inuent all meanes t' encrease thy paâ—â—â— Their Pope and Masse they long to see Our Christ his law and vnitie They do blaspheme through our discent In cases new of gouernment Thy brawle their broyle would come to end If cease thou couldst thus to contend Ioyne hands in one embrace remorce To banish sinne bend all thy force Thy selfe restraine Gods truth respect His Church and peace of his elect Vouchsafe vs Lord thy Christ his grace Our Queene thy sprite but sinne deface Amen A.A. ¶ To the right reuerend Father in God THOMAS by the mercifull prouidence of God Bishop of Lincolne his good L Anthony Anderson Minister of the good Gospel of God wisheth all health and peace in Christ our only Sauiour THe holy Apostle sayth that whatsoeuer thinges are writteÌ„ afore time are written for our learning which sentence reuerend father as often as I do remember by the hand leadeth mee deepely to consider with reuerent regard what I read in the holy Scriptures and vrgeth me by feruent prayer to craue of God the geuer of all good giftes in Christ the true vnderstanding of the Scriptures sense and the hidden treasures therein comprised And so hath it pleased the lord of life to open the windows of heauen his name bee euer praised and from thence by his spirite most familiarly to speake vnto mee by his written word So that to his great prayse and my endlesse comfort I see that no iot of his Law is voyd of most excellent comfortes to the heart that simply in integritie of soule seeketh to quench his thirst in this fountaine of health the Gospell of God. In this word I find the knowledge of God Christ his sonne with promise of his holy spirit shall in all his elect open their hartes and write in them the true vnderstanding of his lawes Ezec. 36. The which most excellent gift by the learned books since the time of the Apostles and penned trauels of sundrie godly fathers in the Church aswell before our times as in these our dayes doth appeare to be eueÌ„ now most florishing in the church of God his name be alwayes praysed therefore And wherefore did the Prophets by his spirite speake or Christ and his Apostles preach or the godly Fathers before vs or these our learned writers in this age VVherefore I saye with hart mouth and penne haue they trauailed But to vtter the testimonie of gods gift confesse his name to the people of the earth to the life of the elect the inexcuse of the reprobate So will the Lord haue his spirite euer resiant in his Church to the end of the world To follow these Fathers as they followe Christ I accompt it my part hauing for further example amongest the many worthy workes of our writers now your L. profitable worke lately set forth to the better tast of Gods good wil in his expressed word in the appoynted Lessons at common prayer Of which worke I cease to speake further and seeke to follow as I can such good examples to the ende before touched VVhat if my Mite be not much worth Yet as it commeth from the Lord of heauen so shal it no doubt profite thither to his habilitie and that is my whole desire Let the learned eares accept as in inferior place this my small coyne yet good curraÌ„t siluer I trust tried by the touch of truth and geue him licence to passe to the lesse learned and poore countrey people whose state requireth yet mornings milke not all able for solidate questioÌ„s or deepe digested misteries Their soules are precious in the sight of God their liues ought to be deare in our consciences their wounded hartes require some soueraigne medicine of gentle digesture and quiet operation yet so that their ignorance weaknes may be remoued which God for his mercies sake in Christ vouchsafe them richly in his loue This is not the least cause why I haue stirred vp the small gift of God in me to exercise the same vpon this Hymne vsed in and at the morning prayer Iudging as by order through vse the wordes are readie at the lippe to vouch the Prophetes speech So if their tender hartes had some helpe to open therto the hidden cause of ioye in that holy letter no doubt I say the same of them shuld both with hart and mouth ioynd in one consent of grateful harmonie crie out the praises of the Lord in the temples of the holy Ghost which is the song that deliteth only the musical eares of Gods maiestie Assuredly al other chaunting notes and changing keys seeme they neuer so pleasant in the eares of men are far estranged from the good like of god al if set vp in his house of prayer This people worship me saith God with their lippes but their hartes are farre from me In vaine do they serue me c. And albeit I cannot touch the stile worthie so high a matter or set downe such deepe doctrine as the nature of the place requireth or yet approch such the hidden treasures as are here layd vp or the finenes of this our age expecteth yet nay the lesse the wydowes Myte is my boldninge comfort And on the other part the sorowfull lookes of the slothful Miser to whom the Lordes Talent was imparted maketh me afraid to queÌ„ch the spirit or stay the firie word kindled in my hart if I may vse Ieremies wordes at this present But be it that I should blushe to present my simple skill to the scanning of the wise and sharpned sight of the loftie learned deepe Doctors of our time knowing that my owne weaknes is to sundrie of them knowne also inable to this exploit in respect of infinit others â–ª yet I ioye at this refuge my conscience beareth me witnes tofore GOD and men that the onely end and scope of this my pen is chiefely to promote Gods glory
office he breathed on them and gaue them his holy spirite that thereby they might not only abound in gifts but also should without terror speake his wil and preach his name to all nations So in like maner Paule witnesseth that both the gift of prophecying Prophets Doctors and teachers is by the spirite of god Of which grace he hath promised continuance to the end of the world saying J wil be with you to the end of the world And therfore Iohn warneth thée reader not to beleue euery spirite so he calleth the doctrine by the preacher brought but coÌ„maundeth thée to trie whether they be of god He sheweth thee absolutely that in the preachers of thy age Gods spirit also speaketh saying Hereby shall ye knowe the Spirite of god Euerye spirite that confesseth that Jesus Christe is come in the Fleshe is of GOD. There were false Prophets among the Jewes which kept the people backe from the faith in Christ There were certaine heritiques which denied Christ to be come in the flesh as the scriptures teach him And these so vexed the Church and molested the consciences of the godly bretherne and began to make such shipwracke of the faith of many that the Apostle was driuen from the Doctrine to frame their hartes in Christ to arme by instruction the church of GOD against Cerinthus Ebyon and other heritiques that woulde not acknowledge Christ wholy as the Scriptures proued him to bée The like proofe of Gods spirit is left to thée to the ends of the world to trie the Preachers which come vnto thée whether they haue in them or doe by Gods spirite speake vnto thée He that preacheth Iesus Christ as hée is set downe in the written Scriptures is of god Hée that denieth him in any part their vouched to be in Christ is of Antichrist Whosoeuer hath not this spirite and is a preacher cannot but by the spirite of Sathan vtter as by his receiued spirite all lying fables as Zedkia the false prophet did to Achab. And both Paul and Peter manifestly shew vnto vs that many such false Prophets shall rise vp in the last dayes which shal also denie christ in déede albeit they confesse him with naked words Paule giueth thée notes infallible that euer shall lead thée to a right iudgement of these spirits of error doctoâ—s of diuels First they shall speake lies by hypocrisie fayning truth but trie them by the rule giuen of christ search the scriptures which order the Citizens of Berrea are said to obserue when the Apostles taught them 2. They shal forbid to marrie and who doth forbid I pray thée take vew that ministers may not Marrie not the scripture but rather the flat contrarie Who doth forbid that holy ordinaÌ„ce of god in Paradise to auoyd sinne but the Pope the minister of sinne he doth forbid it to all his sacrificing priestes at all times yet whoredome he permitteth to theÌ„ vnder purchased warrant to al time To al other christians he forbiddeth mariage at certaine times as Aduent Lent Jmber daies c. and Siricius one of the Popes condemneth mariage to be a fruit of the flesh as in the which state a man can not please god Meats which god hath created to be receiued with thanks geuing is made holy by his word praier doth this beast of the Dragon Satanas in paine of daÌ„nation forbid to al at his appoynted times And the breakers of his lawe though blessed of God are of him cursed with booke bell and candle out of his heauen as Pasquine calleth it earth and this naturall life as Lollords heriticks not worthy the benefite of temporall quiet These saith Paule in the place before quoted are the doctrines of Diuels Behold the popish doctrine from whence it commeth and of what spirite it is Flie from it as from hel it selfe Peter warning our times of the like false spirite sayth But there were false Prophets also among the people euen as there shal be false teathers among you which priuely shall bring in damnable heresies eueÌ„ denying the Lord that hath bought them bring vpon them selues swift damnation And many shall followe their damnable wayes by whom the way of truth shal be euill spoken of And through couetousnes shall they with fayned words make marchandise of you whose iudgement long agone is not farre of and their damnation sléepeth not Lay this Scripture before thy hart and indifferently measure thereby the Popish Church and doctrine and thou shalt sée as it were the Apostle to paynt the sinfull Sinagoge of Rome vnto thy prospect With what humblenes of Angels créepe they craftely into the conscieÌ„ces of men what opinions bréed they flat condemned by the word How open they their mouthes to slaunder the gospel of our Christ and cal it heresie though not as it lieth in leaues but as it is truly preached by gods holy prophets in this our dayes And what loue they haue to the word it selfe do thou iudge when hauing the gouernment they burned the Bibles rased the scriptures from of the walles in churches els to that they could burned the graueÌ„ letters in the sacred flesh of christes martirs What marchaundise of mens soules is there in poperie wheÌ„ their God their pope their reliques saints merits their Paul and Peter their heaueÌ„ helly purgatorie thier Masses pardoÌ„s their whole power pelf is set at price al for monei What sinne in man so horrible that shuld not there haue pardon for money What wicked fact pretended shall not there for money not only be pardoned but warranted Amongst the sinnes against the 2. Table is there a greater then Treason I say treason to god his religion his prince and vicar by his great mercy set ouer vs in this natioÌ„ And is not the Pope the head practiser of the same Doth not he loose that in earth by his Bul which god hath most surely tied fast in heauen by his word the sworne and natural due obedience to her Maiestie Doth not he promise absolution where God pronounceth curse and damnation To whatsoeuer person which resisteth his power And is this for any other cause theÌ„ to bring your purses to his coffers your soules to swift damnation Looke vpon the Gnat by that most precious Iewell the reuerend Bishop late of Sarum brought forth to the vew of all mens sight in his learned answere to halting Harding and thou shalt not maruaile though he wold haue vs his again that Camels in great number and yet scarsely could might yearely conuey his huge sommes of money out of this nation Reioyce O England for thy deliuerance embrace the word by Gods spirite put in the mouthes of thy learned Bishops and others their godly brethern in most pleniiful wise So shal thy hart yéeld faithful loue true obedience to our godly Quéen thou shalt reape her aid for
elect This Christes church where this horne is erected is builded not by mans wisedome nor mayntained by popish policie and diuelish diuinitie but the chiefe builder hereof is Christ himselfe and by his commission his Prophets before him which by his spirite word builded the harts of the fathers to the fayth in his erected sonne And euer since his Apostles Euangelists Pastours Doctors and preachers which receiue of his holy Gospel and therewith edifie the church are likewise builders of this holy temple and house of our heauenly Dauid Of which house Christ is the head and chiefe corner stone The familie and building of this house are such ▪ as by the Apostolical and Euangelicall Doctrine are brought to the rules which are therein set by the Lord herein erected of him also to the same end they haue their name eate of his bread and worke as hée is by calling in such good workes as are of the same Lord for them prepared euen from the time of calling till the last houre of the penies receite The continual building of this Dauids house is by preaching the word of truth not by popish pressing in of false Doctrine by geuing the sacraments of the Lord to the people as they themselues haue of the Lord receiued them And not without commission and against the word to take the same from the people and offer them vp to the Lord as doe the Papistes Also to kéepe the house in order by ciuil and ecclesiasticall gouernment with the lawe of Christ our Dauid By this and such like building where so euer the Church is thus set vp the same is true Dauids house And where the power of this horne is in the hartes of the people by the worke of Gods spirite surely setled and through the instrument and organ of preaching the same Christ is naked and without corruption in Doctrine described simplie and depaynted so plaine wyth the pensell of the Scriptures that hee is to them manifested as hée is of the Father geuen the onely promised Christ crucified our saluation redemption iustification that Prophet the onely Priest and our Kyng and that all men by such meanes are drawen alone to the Father by hym there maye wée assure our selues that that Church and Nation is Dauids house and therein is Christ to be found erected for our saluation Against this building the gates of Hell shall not preuayle For as many as beleue in him shall not perish wyth the serpent Sathans sting but by this holy serpent voyd of poyson Christ Iesus shal haue eternall life Agaynst this church and to the subuersition of his house the old enemie hath set him selfe wyth his whole power continually to persecute the same and hath so preuayled in the eyes of men that this house hath eftsones séemed a forsaken cottage in the Lords vineyard and the familie destroyed But euen when it séemed of least value then from the handes of such strength the mightie God hath valiantly taken of that number such as shoulde cōtinue his house elswhere And wheras the wicked seketh the destructiō of this house God by his might vseth the same another way that to two principall ends First to teach other natiōs into the which they are dispersed that heauenly doctrine which els they had not known And secōdly that at their returne they might bring with them againe not only his word law but therwith many mo children begottē in that time by the persecuted gospel eftsones to the enlarging of the borders of that late nobled church Go and kill sayth raging Saule the priestes of the Lord which were the remnant of Elie for their hand is with Dauid they haue not bewrayed him to me At whose commandement that cursed Doeg did kill of them 85. priestes of the Lord that were the lynnin Ephod Their Citie Nob also hee destroyed from the most to the least some and all for the hate he bare to them that fauoured Dauid What then Did he herewith kil the church No surely In this sharpe persecution Abimeleck his sonne called Autathar one of these priests escaping fled to Dauid which was him selfe also from the furie of the sayde Saule fled to Achish the Kyng of Gath a heathen prince where both hée had succour and Auiathar continued with him to the continuall encrease of Gods Church Note here with me good Reader that God by his prouidence doth vse the bloudie hand of Saule whose purpose was to destroy by his kingly power both priest and people in Gods Church to an other end for he made him his instrument therby to spreade the same his church among the gentiles that not only in that place their harts might haue experiment of his power but that also his Church of Iesus then to the comfort of the same nowe might behold his secret work far passing al their expectations which was to foster for a season in such flight such two principal persons as after should erect that persequuted cause and people in the same persequuted Nation and that by no lesse meane then whereby for a time the same was repressed nor in any other place then in Saules seate that is to say Dauid hys faithfull fostred king and Auiathar his good preserued prest When cruel Athalia the Mother of Ahasia King of Ierusalem sought to extirpe the kings séede that she might vsurpe the kingdome shée murthering the rest did she destroy the house No Joash one of his sonnes was from her hand of slaughter saued that by the hand of a maid his Sister till the time that the Lord had appointed for the said Ioashe the true King to enter into his realme and so to render recompence by iust pay of deserued death to that wicked vsurper Athalia which after Seuen yeares he brought to passe setting this reserued Ioash in his fathers seate Herod also séeking by the death of the innocentes to kill the Messias not only failed of his pray but was himselfe deuoured of GODS Iustice And although the Papistes followe these and such other their forefathers in like murthering crueltie as lately in Englande and since in Fraunce yet will the LORDE and hath the LORDE set vppe as he hath promised by the mouthe of all his Prophetes since the worlde began his Christe to bee his strength in spite of them Who yéelding as it were for the tyme doth thereby nothing loose but lesse ableth the aduersarye While by Sathans furie the Churche is else where gone as before is saide to bringe foorth by her Christe in a more quiet place many moe Children At whose returne the losse of her former are restored with infinite moe her borders enlarged her honoure encreased and her fame spred ouer all For the LORD her strength hath and will confounding her ennemies and treading them in the mire geue her the
them to saye forgeue O Lorde our sinnes Hath not the chiefe of them whose lyfe was angelical whose person to death was eftsoons assailed Paule I mean hath not he writtē doth not he therby yet speake that the merit of eternall life is Gods mercie not mans merit And yet speaking of the suffringes and bloud of martired saintes for the testimonie of God and his Gospel he acknowledgeth that the afflictions of them in this life are not worthy of the glory which shall be shewed to them in the triumphant kingdome of our heauenly father But their merit sayth hée is Gods loue who hath chosen them to bée his sonnes and hath sayth hée annexed them with Christ as heires of the inheritance Note well eternall life commeth not by the bloud and afflictions of martirs not by purchase of mens merits but by the inheritaunce geuen vs in Christ thorough Gods mercie Thus good reader thou séest that this popish post is rotten for age and want of heart what shal we saye of the third matter the Popes pardon Surely if neither his God the Masse nor his saintes bloud can helpe neither can his pardons any thing profite thée for they are all of one force haue all a like authoritie I néede not longer to stand in the confutation of such a wicked taile of the people that boasteth himselfe to bée the onely head of Gods church in earth controler in the heauens prince in Purgatorie and Master of Hell. Bée not offended that I call him that tayle of the people for the warrant is geuen me by the holy Ghost so to terme him The auncient and honorable man he is the head saith Esay and the Prophet that teacheth lies he is the tayle of the people The last of Popish merites are good workes which can not merit Gods mercie for either they precede or folow faith If they go before fayth they are sinne and therefore moue Gods furie rather then merite his mercie If they followe faith they then merite not that which of God is giuen before their birth but expresse by such fruite what well planted trée brought them forth But as no trée meriteth life by the Apple which hée beareth but fast setled in the ground liueth of the iuyce that commeth from the roote so the faythful merite not Gods fauour which is their life by their works the fruites of their fayth but setled and grafted into Christ their foundation they doe receiue their common life from the same roote by the sappe his spirite which from him is sent and geuen to euery of them sufficiently to life eternall What shall we then not worke God forbid Alwayes do and continue in that which is good but cause not a good thing commaunded of GOD to become a pestilent euill to thy conscience Liue and walke in good workes which God hath prepared for thée but let them bée done to the same end which GOD hath directed to them Namely that the outward déede in them may expresse thy inward fayth in Christ our Lord. And further that the Church of GOD may bée profited by them But chiefely that by the same many mouthes séeing thy faythfull actes may bée prepared and stirred vp to glorifie thy Father which is in heauen This is the voice of holy scripture declaring the end of good works to be as we haue said but that they merit not Paule playnely sheweth to the Romanes for and to al in the person of Abraham saying if Abraham were iustified by workes he hath wherein to reioyce but not with god For what saith the Scripture Abraham beleeued God and it was counted to him for righteousnes Now to him that worketh the wages is not counted by fauour but by debt hut to him that worketh not vz. to merit thereby but beleueth in him that iustifieth the wicked his faith is counted for righteousnes Thus then we sée that the fathers with vs haue not merited Christ our onely felicitie but Gods mercie and loue surmounting as I may reuerently say his iustice in iust wrath hath not of dutie but by loue geuen and not sold to vs that beleue in him his Sonne Christ that we should not perish but by him being deliuered from our enemies should haue euerlasting life and power in him to serue him in this time of our mortall flesh in all holines vertuous exercises before him al the dayes of our life Moreouer I note that our Lord God will not haue vs to dwell in vncertainties for our saluation and therefore he sendeth vs to his written word where his promises couenant is by his owne spirit set downe to all flesh for the which cause Zacharie hath relation in this verse to the written promises and couenaunt And to the same sayth John also is the Gospell written to vs now that wee should by that written truth beléeue that Iesus is the Christ the sonne of God and that in beleuing we might haue life through his name As for the vnwritten verities of the Papistes as they are counterfet and forged of their owne brayne so can they bring no comfort to the conscience of the wounded man or satisfaction to the thirstie soule that laboureth to séeke the water of life which God doth geue to those that hunger thirst after the same For nothing els worke they but draw to hell all such as trust and are led by them But he that thirsteth after the water of life els where then in the written sacred scriptures can it not be found Séeke this water in the Scripture therfore good Reader and the Lord will make heauenly riuers to flowe out of thée wherewith thou shalt satisfie thine owne conscience in the same Christ fully and be able also to bring many other to the same saluation which the knowledge of the Lord by his spirite in the scriptures hath wrought in thée Last of all in this verse let vs marke diligently that not otherwise thē in christ Iesus God the father maketh vs partakers of his holy couenant Or yet by any other meanes are we kept within the compasse therof then by the cause it selfe which is Christ the Lord the Alpha and Omega of the same So voucheth the Apostle saying in thy séede which is Christ shal al nations be blessed The obseruations of the sixt verse are also comfortable and profitable Comfortable when we perceiue that our sinnes deserue the breach of Gods loue and extreme iudgement yet God in his mercie doth promise sweare to kéepe his word giuen to the fathers and to deliuer vs from the sayd iudgment as the Prophet in the text sayth and the oth which hee swere c. The profite hereof ensueth in the doctrine following In no case may we gather because God is sayd here to sweare that his word without an oth is doubtefull for the Scriptures euery where approue them absolutely Amen