will endeavour to discharge his duty by good report and evil report 2. You may observe that goodness it self is hated and truth it self slandered and traduced for in his mouth was found no guile but as Saint John saith he is the way the truth and the life and yet all that malice can invent is thought little enough to be laid on him he must bear in his bosom the reproach of a mighty people and he must endure the contradictions of a wicked generation And therefore what wonder is it if the best King and Governour in the world were he as mild as Moses as religious as King David as upright as Samuel and as bountiful to Gods servants as Nehemiah or if as worthy Preachers as ever trod pulpit were they as faithful as Saint Peter as loving as Saint John and as zealous as Saint Paul should be maligned traduced and slandered for you may assure your selves it is no new thing though a very true thing for the wicked to deal thus with the good and godly at all times But among all the subtil arguments doubtful questions and malicious disputations that the Scribes Christs good deeds inraged the wicked Pharisees and Heredians had with our Saviour Christ which were very many and all only for to intrap him in his speech that they might bring him to his death and not to beget faith in their own hearts that they might attain-to eternal life this conflict in this chapter seemeth to be none of the least for after he had so miraculously healed the poor man that was born blind their malice was so inraged and their rage so furious against him that they excommunicated the poor fellow and thrust him out of their Synagogue for speaking well of him that had done so much good for him or because he would not be so wicked and so malicious as themselves and then gathering themselves together round about Christ they began to question him about his office and very strictly to examine him whether he was the Christ the Messias or not And Our Saviour Christ Christ answereth for the good of the godly that knew their thoughts better then themselves intendeth not to satisfie their desire which was to receive such an answer whereby they might accuse him yet for their instruction that would believe in him he setteth down an institution or an infallible induction whereby both their subtil question was fully answered and his own true servants perfectly expressed and distinguished from them that serve him not in these words My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me Wherein The means ways to save us our Saviour setteth down the means whereby the true Christians are eternally saved in being called justified and sanctified which are the three main steps or degrees whereby we pass from our natural state of corruption unto the blessed state of grace that brings us to eternal glory 1. Called in these words My sheep hear my voice 2. Justified in these words I know them 3. Sanctified in these words They follow me 1. Then the Christians are called to come to Christ in that he saith My sheep hear my voice for as Adam after his transgression never sought for God until God sought for him and said Adam Where art thou So all the children of Adam would never come to Christ if Christ did not call them to come unto him but as wisdom crieth without and uttereth her voice in the streets Prov. 1.20 so doth this wisdome of God Jesus Christ cry Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will ease you and if he did not cry and utter forth his voice his sheep could not hear his voice but God sendeth forth his voice yea and that a mighty voice and as the Prophet David saith The Lord thundered out of heaven Psal 68 33. and the most high uttered his voice And that not onely as he did once unto the Israelites God uttereth his voice two wayes when he delivered his laws on mount Sinai but also to all others whom he calleth and uttereth his voice unto them two special ways 1. To the ears of his people by the mouths of his Prophets 1 To our ears Apostles and Preachers of his holy Word that do continually call and cry unto them to come to hear his voice and to obey his Precepts 2. To the hearts of his servants by the inspiration of his blessed Spirit 2 To our hearts which teacheth them to cry abba Father and perswadeth them to yield obedience to all his heavenly motions And our Saviour saith that his sheep or servants will hear his voice that is both uttered by his servants and inspired by his Spirit and they will neither neglect to hear the preaching of his written Word nor suffocate or choak the inspired Word that is the internal motions of his holy Spirit but they will most readily and willingly hear both these voices My sheep hear my voice howsoever uttered Three things observable For the further and the better understanding of which words you may observe these three things 1. The denomination Sheep 2. Their appropriation my sheep 3. Their qualification hear my voice 1. By Sheep here is understood not those four-footed silly creatures The children of God called sheep in a double respect that by their wooll and lamb and milk and their own flesh are so profitable unto us and by their simplicity are so easie to be kept and are the most innocent among all the beasts of the field but those children of God and true Christians that are called and compared unto sheep in a double respect 1. In respect of Christ that is their Pastour or Shepherd 2. In respect of themselves that are his flock 1. Christ is often called in the Scriptures our Shepherd 1 Grand Shepherd of the sheep Christ the good Shepherd in two respects 1. A lawful entrance into his Office Heb. 5.4 1. By the testimony of his own conscience 2. By an outward approbation and he is set forth unto us in this 10. c. by a double manifestation 1. Of a lawful entrance into his Office 2. Of an absolute performance of his Duties 1. The Apostle saith No man taketh this honour unto himself that is to be the Shepherd over Gods flock and a Priest to teach Gods people but he that is called of God as was Aaron And how was Aaron called 1. By God inwardly by the testimony of his own conscience that tells him the Spirit of God calleth him to such an Office 2. Because a man is not to believe his own private spirit that many times deceiveth us therefore God would have Aaron to take his commission and his ordination from Moses as you may see Exod. 28.1 and as the Lord had formerly said unto Moses that he should be instead of God unto Aaron to call him unto the Priests office And as no man taketh or should
take this office upon him but he that is as well outwardly approved by such as are lawfully authorized to approve him Exod. 4.16 as inwardly called by the restifying spirit of his own conscience so also Christ saith the Apostle glorified not himself to be made an high Priest and to become the great Shepherd of Gods flock Heb. 5.5 c. 17.21 but he that said unto him Thou art my son this day have I begotten thee and hath sworn Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech And therefore if no man no not Christ himself taketh this holy office upon him but he that is lawfully called by such as have lawful authority to call him I wonder how any man dares to intrude himself into the Ministry without any mission from Christ or commission from such as are lawfully authorized by Christ to admit them You know what our Saviour saith As my father sent me so send I you and they that were his Apostles never went until he sent them for there must be an Ite go ye Mat. 28.19 Mar. 16.15 John 10.1 before Praedicate preach ye and you see what our Saviour saith here Verily verily I say unto you he that entreth not by the door into the sheepfold but climbeth up some other way the same is a thief and a robber that is he that is not lawfully called and comes not the right way into the Ministry to be the shepherd of Gods flock the same is none of Gods Ministers Jer. 23.21 14.14 but is a thief and a robber stealing to himself what of right belongs to another And yet I fear we have now too many of whom the Lord may say as he doth by the Prophet Jeremy I have not sent these Prophets yet they ran I have not spoken unto them yet they prophesied for we are not onely to consider whether they be called and approved to be the Ministers of Christ but we must likewise consider by whom they are called and approved for as idem est non esse non apparere so it is all one to be not called and not approved as to be called and approved by such as have no right nor authority to call and approve them as when a company of thieves and robbers gives power and authority to a man to be Justice of the Peace or a Judge of Assize we say his power and authority is null and of no validity so they that give orders and approve of Priests and have no right no power nor authority to give orders and to allow them do just nothing in the just way and their orders is worth nothing But you will say this may be true of the Lay-preachers but those that are ordained by the Presbyterians and approved by an assembly of Presbyters cannot be denied to be lawfully called and to enter in by the door into the sheepfold I answer that I will not at this time discuss who gave them this power and authority to ordain Priests but I say that I dare not I cannot approve and justifie their authority let them answer for it that presume to do it I have shewed you their error in my discovery of the great Antichrist So you see how this grand Shepherd did lawfully enter into his office and how all his under-Shepherds should imitate him in their lawfull entrance and not intrude themselves nor be unlawfully admitted into the Ministry 2. 2 A perfect performance of all the duties of a good Shepherd Philo Jud. in l. de opificio mundi The other point here spoken of this great Shepherd is a perfect and most absolute performance of all the duties of a good Shepherd Where first of all you must observe that Theocritus Virgil and others writing of this office of Shepherds do make three kindes of Pastors or Shepherds and so doth Philo Judaeus where he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Shepherd Goatesman and Herdsman drive the flocks of sheep goats and bullocks and it is observed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dici de pastore omnium animalium 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum relatione tantum ad oves that the Greeks do call him onely that keepeth sheep 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a shepherd and our Saviour saith not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am the good goatsman or the good herdsman John 10.14 but he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am the good Shepherd that taketh care for his sheep but not for goats because the Lord careth for the righteous but as the Prophet saith he scattereth abroad all the ungodly And seeing that he is a Shepherd you know what the Poet saith Pastorem Tytere pingues Pascere oportet oves Vagil Eglog 6. The Shepherd ought to feed his sheep for as the old proverb goeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Spartam nactus es hanc orna every one should look to his own office as the learned Divine to preach the Word of God the Cobler to mend his shoes the Countrey-man to plough his ground curabit prelia Conon and the King or whosoever is the chief Magistrate to provide for war and to conclude peace which is the onely way to keep all things in the right way because that mittere falcem in alienam messem for the Coachman with his whip to lash the pulpit the Taylor with his shears to divide the Word of God the shepherd with his hook to rule the people and the unruly people to reign as Kings is that which as the Poet saith Turbabit fadera mundi Lucan phars l. 1. and is the readiest way to pull all things asunder to tear in pieces the whole course of nature and to subvert all the order of Gods creatures and indeed to reduce the total frame of the creation to a speedy dissolution whereas that man is worthy of all praise as Aelian saith which meddleth with nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that pertaineth nothing unto him but looketh onely and carefully to his own duty and he is worthy to be reproved as our Saviour checkt Saint Peter for his curiosity to know what John must do that is a stranger in his own affairs and busieth himself onely with what onely belongs unto others And therefore not to do my self what I blame in others or to extend my discourse beyond my line to treat of the art of war with Phormio before Hannibal or to tell you the office of a King or a Judge when my text tels me I am to treat of a Shepherd but to keep my self contrary to the common practise ad idem to my own proper task I shall desire you to remember that the duty of a good Shepherd consisteth chiefly in these two points 1. Negatively what he should not do to his sheep 2. Affirmatively what he should do for them 1. The heathen man could tell us that boni pastoris est pecus tondere non deglubere it is the part of a good Shepherd to fleece
way to bring wars and troubles unto himself and to the Common-wealth and a curse at least if not a rooting out of his posterity while the innocent blood that he hath shed or caused to be shed doth continually cry to God for vengeance against him or them that did it And so you see that neither Zimri nor any other killer of his King and of his Master or of any other man can have any peace either with God or with men 3. 3 King-killers and murderers and the like wicked men can have no peace with themselves The murderer and wicked man can have no peace with himself nor any rest or quietness in his own thoughts and conscience for as Lipsius saith Cognatum immo innatum est omni sceleri sceleris supplicium Sin bears its own punishment alwaies on his back they are so inseperably knit together that the one cannot be committed but the other will be inflicted because as S. Augustine saith Jossit Dominus ita est ut animus inordinatus sit sibi ipsi paena Lipsius de constantia l. 2. c. 13. the Lord hath ordained it and it is so that a wicked disordinate mind should be a punishment unto it selfe for as God said unto Cain so it is with us if we do ill sin lyeth at the door that is the reward of sin Gen 4.7 or the punishment due for that sin is alwaies at hand like a wild Beast to dog us and to bite us wheresoever we go and the conscience of sin especially of these bloody sins beareth forth such bitter fruit as that nothing in the world can be more grievous or more miserable to a mortall man for as Menander saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The conscience is as a god to all men to be a witness of our debts a judge of our deeds and a tormentor of all our transgressions and the wise man saith The spirit of a man will bear his infirmities that is all the sad calamities and misfortunes that may happen unto him a brave mind and a Heroick spirit will bear them all but a wounded spirit who can bear For as the Poet saith Strangulat inclusus dolor Ovid. Trist l. 5. atque exaestuat intùs And the Examples that might be brought hereof are infinite beyond number I will name to you but a few Oedipus that bloody incestuous King of Thebes is said to be led to Athens by his daughter Antigona i.e. to be doggd up and down by his own conscience and to be buried in the Temple of Erinnys i.e. to be overwhelmed with sorrows and perturbations for his lewd forepassed life and his wife and mother Jocasta in like manner strangled her self saith Sophocles And Procopius writes that Theodoric King of the Gothes after he had most unjustly put to death Symmachus and Boetius two noble Senators of Rome his own thoughts and conscience did so molest him that as he was at Supper with many friends about him and a Fish his head of great bigness being set on the table his imagination conceited It was the head of Symmachus that with angry eyes grinned upon him whereby he was so oppressed with fear and trembling that he suddenly rose from the table and could never afterwards be comforted but his conscience did continually so torment him that he pined away most miserably till he died And Polydore Virgil saith Polydor. l. 25. that Richard the third of this Kingdome after he had slain his two Nephews had the like tormenting conscience till he was slain by Hen. 7. at Bosworth Field And we read that Tiberius after he had been the death of very many that he hated was so vexed with such grievous torments of his wounded spirit that he desired all the gods rather to destroy him all at once then to suffer him thus to pine away with the continual sting and stripes of a tormented conscience wherein the just God dealt with him as he had done to many others to suffer many deaths before he put them to death as the subtle Fox was wont to say and Nero the monster of men when he had most unthankfully put to death his own Master and Tutor Seneca and most unnaturally caused his own natural Mother to be killed with many others of the faithful servants of Christ he was so grievously vexed in conscience that he could not be comforted by any means but thought in his mind that he did alwayes see his Mothers Ghost still crying for vengeance against him And to passe over those infinite examples that might be produced of this kind I will only alleadge that one of Apollodorus the Tyrant who dreamed that he was flea'd by the Scythians and that his heart thrown by them into a boyling Caldron should say unto him I am the cause of all this thy miseries my self so the heart and conscience of every malefactor especially the shedders of innocent blood will perpetually tell them where they are and what they must expect and howsoever they may put on a seeming countenance of peace and a quiet mind of no disturbance yet indeed they are but like the glow-worm that in a dark night makes a fiery shew but being prest you shall find nothing in him but cold moisture for the worm of conscience doth alwaies gnaw their wretched souls within them when their faces seem to smile without But it may be some will object that all sinners have not such unquiet minds and all murderers and King-killers have not as we see wounded spirits I answer that some indeed are of such brasen faces that they can laugh their sins out of countenance and smile with the fool when they go to the gallows but lassure my self their hearts bleed when their faces counterfeit smiles and they are like Dives that saw Lazarus a far off in Abrahams bosom but was himself tormented in Hell for the heart and soul may be sorrowfull when the face and countenance may seem cheerfull And it is a thousand to one but it is so with all murderers and the like haynous transgressors for that it is unpossible that such men should ever want furies so long as they have themselves or if they could find a way to run away from themselves and to cause their souls to forsake their bodies as Saul Zimri Achitophel and Judas did yet their consciences will not flie away from their souls nor their sins from their consciences but let a murderer King-killer or Master-killer or any other man-killer flye ab agro in â—ivitatem à publico ad domum à domo in cubiculum from the field into the City from the City into his house and from the house into his bed and thence like those impatient fishes that leap out of the frying pan into the fire from the private hell of their own breasts into the publick hell of damned souls yet Ecce hostem inveniet à quo confugerat behold there he shall find the enemy whom he feared that is a tormenting
conscience joyned to the burning flame for their worm dieth not saith our Saviour Or if it may be that this Vermis Conscientiae this tormenting spirit and wounds of conscience do not vex and affright these wicked men then must you remember that as Saint Bernard saith there are four kinds of consciences 1. A good but not a quiet 2. Both a good and a quiet 3. A quiet but not a good 4. Neither a good nor a quiet Conscience But of these I shall further speak in the next Treatise So you see the resolution of Jezabels question Had Zimri peace And what application will you make of it but to demand Shall they have peace that have most butcherly massacred their brethren and especially they that have most maliciously and in the highest degree of wickednesse judiciallâ— murdered the best of all Christian Princes and their own most just and pious King or shall we suffer them to jet up and down in pride and pardon those shedders of innocent blood whom the Lord will not pardon That I should delight in any mans blood God forbid Yet If there be any Zimri living still in peace either by the favour of friends or the ignorance of his fact I say Nunquam sera est ad justitiam via And as Saint Ambrose said to Theodos in a case of blood also Quod inconsultò factum est consultius revocetur If any thing be done inconsiderately let us more advisedly amend it and it is no disparagement to us quia secundae cogitationes sunt saniores And if you desire peace let Justice be done and Judgement be executed and then you shall have peace because righteousnesse and peace have kissed each other or otherwise where righteousnesse is not but unrighteous men flourishing and the transgressours walking still in pride and unjustly detaining what they have most unjustly possessed we may preach of mercy and pardon and of charity and peace but I fear that peace will not long continue if Justice and Judgement go not along with it because there is no peace to the wicked saith our God and the cry of the oppressed still calleth for vengeance against them but righteousnesse exalteth a Nation and just judgements do prevent and preserve us from the judgements of God THE THIRD TREATISE Esay 57.21 There is no peace to the wicked saith my God In which words you may Observe 1. A Proclamation 2. The Proclaimer WE do read that Aristotle the School-master of Alexander the Great and the Prince of Philosophers 1 The Proclamation so much admired for his Logical wit hath been characterized by Scholars in three especial Epithites as 1. That he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lover of Vniversalities and to deal in Generalls 3 Excellent properties in Aristotâ—es 2. That he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a great lover of Method 3. That he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a subtile searcher out of causes And these three exquisite points we find here expressed in this short sentence of our Prophet for 1. The Proclamation is general No peace to no wicked man in no place at no time 2. Here is the Cause of it fully and plainly expressed the wickednesse of men 3. The Method is clear without ambiguity There is no peace to the wicked saith my God First then I say the Proclamation is generall and therefore more grievous The generality of the Proclamation for you must understand that there is 1. Nulla pax no peace 2. Nullo loco in no place 3. Nullo tempore at no time 4. Nulli impio to no wicked man And Peace is the most excellent of all earthly blessings so the Jewes thought and so the Fathers of the Church have ever taught for as the Poet saith Omnia pace vigent pacis tempore florent And therefore Virgil saith Pacem nos poscimus omnes And yet the Lord saith There is no peace to the wicked no peace or not any kind of peace for we do read of a three-fold peace whereof each one is exceeding good and is desired by all but not one of them is obtained by the wicked Peace is threefold as 1. Peace with men For 2. Peace with God For 3. Peace with our selves For 1 Wicked men are neither Peace-makers 1 The wicked have no peace with men Math. 5.9 nor Peace-takers Our Saviour saith Blessed are the Peace-makers but wicked men are so far from making peace and reconciling neighbours that they are rather like a pair of bellows to blow the coals of contention and to set them further together by the ears and if any be at oddes with them then as the Prophet saith when we speak unto them of peace they make themselvs ready to battle and as it was with King Charles and some others the more he sought and laboured for peace and accommodation the more averse were they from all reasonable conditions so it is with all wicked men the more we desire to live peaceably among them the more will they prepare for war and make themselves ready for battel But for the war that both we and they should make they are farthest from it Tertul. l. ad Martyres for though we all desire peace yet as Tertullian saich Pax nostre bellum est contra Satanam Our peace consisteth and is obtained by our war against Satan and we shall never have peace unless we do as Christ did and as the Church of Christ must do that is to suffer in this war and to overcome in medio inimicorum even as the Jews did when they were re-edifying the Temple Neliem 4.17 and building up the City of God they wrought with one hand and held their weapon in the other For we have enemies enough on every side as Satan on the one side the world before us the wicked behind us and our own carnal lusts within us Contra quos viriliter pugnare est pacem consequi To fight against these is to obtain the true peace Yet the wicked the worldlings and the hypocrites will never fight against any of these their enemies but think to escape all dangers in that they are Neuters and do hold of neither side But that can never be for the godly will never cohere with the wicked neither can the wicked indeed agree among themselves Esay 9.21 chap. 19.2 21.2 but Ephraim will be against Manasses and Manasses against Ephraim an Egyptian against an Egyptian a transgressor against a transgressor and Proditoris proditor one sray tor will betray another As you may observe it now amongst many of our great Commanders and our late King's enemies Lesse peace is betwixt them than betwixt the â—rute beasts for of the little Bees S. Ambrose saith that aegrotante una lamentantur omnes Ambros Hâ—xam l. 6. c. 4. And we say that Saevis inter se convenit Vrsis and the sheep can live in amity without the least hurt of the one to the other Yea the