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
Alexander the Great was so addicted to this vice that many times in his drink he slew his dearest friends as Clitus and others that we read of in Q. Curtius Valued worth 600. crowns and making a Supper on a time for his Captains he propounded a Crown to him that could drink most and one Promochus drank 5. gallons of wine but died within three dayes after and 41. more and so his Crown did him no credit Dan. 5.2 3 4 5. And Belshazar the son of the Great Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon drinking and quaffing in the Vessels that his father took from the House of God espied the hand-writing upon the wall that his kingdom should be taken from him and given to the Medes and Persians And many men in these dayes drink away their Lands their Monies their Wits and all that they have And therefore most wisely doth the Mother of King Lemuel say Prov. 31.4 It is not for Kings O Lemuel it is not for Kings to drink wine nor for Princes to drink strong drink And the son of Syrach saith Eccles 31.25 Plin. de viris illust c. 14. Shew not thy valour in wine for wine hath destroyed many As here King Elah was destroyed in his wine And Pliny the younger saith that Antiochus was killed at a Banquet by his own Minions because he would have forced them to drink beyond their abilities and against their wills And S. Augustine writes that one Cyrillus a Citizen of Hippo had an ungracious son that in the midst of his drunkenness killed his own mother great with child and his father that sought to restrain his fury and would have ravished his sister Aug. 60.10 Ser. 33. Vt citatur à Beard p. 491. Euseb hist l. 8. c. 16. had not she escaped from him with many wounds And Eusebius writeth that the Emperour Maximinus was so often deeply plunged in drunkenness that he became many times so mad that in his drunken madness he commanded many things to be done which he greatly repented of when he became sober again and no marvel for temulentia signifieth a voluntary madness and wine is termed temetum quia tentat mentem it shaketh the minde The notable Story of some young Drunkards out of Athenaeus Athenaeus l. 2. and destroyeth the senses as it appeareth by that notable Story which Athenaeus writeth of certain young men that drank so much that they verily believed they were sailing in a Gally and so tossed with the winds that they threw all things in the Chamber out at the window as Mariners use to throw their ladings over-board in a Tempest whereupon some Captains seeing the same came in unto them and finding them extreamly vomiting asked What they ayled who answered That they were Sea-sick and the storm forced them to throw all their goods into the Sea and because they supposed those Captains to be Tritons or Sea-gods they said That if they would help them at this time to arrive safe to land they would honour them for their Saviours ever after such madness is in drunkenness And Gregorius Turonensis saith that Attila which was called The scourge of god having married a Wife of excellent beauty and having well carowsed on his Marriage day fell at night into so dead a sleep that lying upon his back the blood that usually issued at his nostrils descended into his throat and strangled him and so indeed Drunkenness hath destroyed many more And yet Elah would not follow the counsel of King Lemuels Mother which might perhaps have saved his life and therefore Zimri takes this occasion to conspire his death So I come to the second Person mentioned in this Text which is Zimri 2. This Zimri was 1. King Elah's subject Second person is Zimri 2. King Elah's servant 3. A servant in an honourable place 1. Elah was Zimri's King and Zimri was Elah's subject 1 A subject and the Spirit of God sets down what honour is due unto our King Eccles 8.2 when he counselleth us to keep the Kings commandment or as the phrase imports to observe the mouth of the King and that in regard of the oath of God i.e. the solemn vow which thou madest at thine incorporation into Gods Church to obey all the Precepts of God whereof this is one To fear God and to honour the King or else the oath of alleageance and fidelity How straightly God prohibiteth the subject to offer the least dishonour unto his King which the subject makes unto his King in the presence and with the approbation of God who will most certainly plague all perjurers that take his Name in vain And so the same Spirit of God hath imprisoned and chained up our very thoughts words and works in the links of the strictest prohibition that they should no way peep forth to produce the least dishonour unto our King For 1. He saith Curse not the King no not in thy thought i.e. Eccles 10.30 Think not any ill nor to do any evil unto thy King and therefore the very thought of Treason was adjudged by the Court of France to be Treason and he that confest unto his Priest that he once thought to kill the King but afterwards repenting him of his intention he utterly abandoned the execution yet he was executed for that very thought 2. The same Spirit saith Thou shalt not revile the Gods i. e. the Judges of the Land nor curse that is in S. Paul's phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speak evil of the Ruler of the people And 3. The Lord of Hosts gives this peremptory charge to every subject Touch not mine Annointed which is the least indignity that may be Psal 105.15 1 Sam. 24.4 5. and yet may not be done to our King by any means And therefore Davids heart smote him when he did but cut off the lap of Saul's garment And therefore it appears that Zimri had no fear of God no regard of his Laws nor any thought of his favour when he fostered so vile a thought and committed so horrible an act as to kill his King But is that so transcendent a sin for a subject to kill his King Quest What if the King proves a Tyrant or an Heretick or else seeks the ruine of his subjects may not the subjects then in such a case kill such a King Look into the 9. several Speeches delivered at a Conference concerning the power of Parliament to proceed against their King for misgovernment and there you shall find many examples of subjects that have deposed and killed their Kings when their Kings deserved the same and therefore Zimri may be excused if King Elah deserved to be killed I answer that many Kings indeed have proved very wicked Answ and have justly deserved some severe censure but from God not from their subjects we need not go far for proof hereof but if we may believe Sir Walter Rawleigh our own King Henry the Eight was bad enough and might
we while we feared and served God we may easily perceive if we be not wilfully blind how we our selves that live in these Kingdomes while we feared God and observed his service were more happy then any of all our Neighbour-Nations both in regard of those many many deliverances that God hath wonderfully wrought for us far beyond usual favâ—urs both in the dayes of Queen Elizabeth and of King James as that Reverend Bishop Carleton hath collected and compiled them together and also in powring down so many inestimable blessings upon us bâ—â—a si sua norint Agricolae had we but the grace to acknowledge them as I dare confidently affirm it of our selves as Moses doth of the Israelites no Kingdome under heaven had the like as chiefly the purest preachâ—ng of the Gâ—spel the most learned Clergy the gravest and I believe the most uncorrupted Judges the wisest and the meekest Governours and above all the upholder of all the best and most pious Protestant King that ever these Kingdomes enjoyed O that we were wise and would consider these things and would understand these loving kindnesses of the Lord. But when How miserable did we be come when we did cast off the fear of God as Moses said of the Israelites dilectus meus impinguatus we began to surfet of these great blessings to loath Manna and to cast off the fear of God to deem the highest of Gods messengers not worthy to eat with the dogs of our flocks not fit for any thing but to be trodden under feet as mire and clay in the streets when we make our strength to become the Law of Justice when we despise Governours and speak great swelling words against authority yea and raise a Rebellion as odious as I shewed our King is pious then you see and I pray God you do not still feel what mischiefs and miseries do succeed and are like to continue in the chiefest of these three Kingdomes the house of God is made a den of thieves the Priests are made out of the basest of the people the Pulpits are filled with Heresies Treasons and Blasphemies the highest Courts of Justice are turned to be the shops of all oppressions and wrongs and Gods Annointed is persecuted more then any other yea and the whole Kingdome is made the butcherie and slaughter-house of the Kings best subjects and Gods most faithful servants and all this and much more because there is no fear of God before our eyes And therefore let not these holy Rebels under the pretence of their great love to God cast away the fear of God and let them not think they do him service by persecuting his servants or that that is Christian Religion which breaks forth into Rebellion because they cannot obtain their Petition but as Solomon begins his Proverbs with the fear of the Lord and the beginning of wisdom and ends his Ecclesiastes with Fear God and keep his Commandemets so I say that we and they should begin and end all that we take in hand with the fear of God and then all of us shall be blessed and whatsoever we take in hand it shall prosper But as S Gregory saith Probatio dilectionis exhibitio est operis and our love to God must be manifested by our love to our neighbours so our fear of God must be principally proved by that honour which we shew unto the King because as S. John saith it is impossible for us to love God and to hate his Image so it is impossible that any man should fear God which doth not honour the King because the same Spirit that saith fear God saith also honour the King and therefore S. Peter knowing how inseparably these duties go together after he had bidden us to fear God doth immediately adde honour the King which is the fourth branch of this Text. 4. Honour the King where I desire you to observe 4 Branch 1. Point and to observe it carefully when you had never more need to observe it then now 1. Who is to be honoured 2. What is the honour that is due unto him 3. Who are injoyned to honour him And all these are included in these word Honour the King 1. It is the King in the singular number and not Kings Homer Iliad 2. that every man is bound to honour for one man cannot serve two Masters much lesse can he honour two Kings but he must despise the one when he cleaves unto the other And therefore as it was like false Latine when Lamec said Hearken unto me ye wives of Lameâ— so it had been very incongruous for the Apostle to have said to any man honour thy Kings because as the Poet saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Isocrat in Nicol. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nec multos regnare bonam Rex unicus esto And so not only Isocrates Lucan l. 1. after he had disputed much of all sorts of governments concludeth peremptorily 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that no kind of government is better then the Monarchy but also Plato-Aristotle Plutarch Herodotus Philostratus Cassius Patricius Sigonius and all the wisest men that have written of Government have proved Monarchical Government to be the best form agreeable to nature wherein God founded it and is the first Government that ever was most consonant to Gods own Government and the most universally received throughout the whole world even from the beginning of the Creation to this very day C. 3. p. 20. as I have most fully proved in my Treatise of the Rights of Kings Therefore Serâ—nus writeth that when Craesus raigned over the Lydians he would have taken his brother to be his associate in the Government but one of the wisest Lydians rose up and said Or all the good things O King that are in earth there is none greater or better then the Sâ—n without which nothing could be seen nothing could remain on earth yet if there were two Suns periculum immineret ne omnia constagrantia pâ—ssum irent we should find the danger to have all things consumed with too much heat even so the Lydians do most willingly embrace one King and most faithfully believe and acknowledge him to be their Saviour and deliverer duos vero simul tolerare non possunt but they can no wayes endure two at once and Plutarch saith that Alexander gave the like answer unto Darius when he sent word that he should raign with him saying nec terram duos Soles neque A am duos Reges ferre pâ—sse that Asia could no more abide two Kings then the earth could endure two Suns because as Caelius saith Nulla sancia societas nec fides regni est Caelius l. 24. c. 11. Omnisque potestas impatiens consortis erit And I believe this very Kingdome hath found the difference betwixt two Lords-Justices and one Lord Lievtenant even as the Poet saith Tu causa malorum Facta tribus Dominis communis Roma Lucan l. 1. nec unquam In turbam missi
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
scientiam zelati sunt sacriligi extiterunt in filium Dei they perswaded themselves that they had the love and zeal of the honour of God but because their zeal was not according to knowledge they became sacrilegious against the Son of God and their fiery zeal to Gods Worship became as Saint Ambrose saith A bloody Zeal unto Death and like unto a Ship under faile without a Pilate that will dash it self against the Rocks all to pieces so it is when we rob and spoyl and persecute the true Servants of Christ for being as we suppose the limbs of the Antichrist But such and so great is the malice and subtilty of Satan towards mankind that he cares not which wayes he brings man to destruction so he may bring him any way either in being too zealous without knowledge and so persecute the good for bad or too careless with all our knowledge and so bless the bad for the good either by hating the superstitious Papist The continual practice of the Devil beyond all reason or loving the malicious Sectary contrary to all reason either by falling into the fire on the right hand or into the water on the left hand either by making the whole Service of God to consist onely of preaching and hearing Sermons and neglect the Prayers and all other Christian duties or using the Prayers onely with the Service of the Church and omit the preaching of Gods Word for this hath been alwayes the Devils practise To separate those whom God would have joyned together and to joyn those together whom God would have kept asunder And therefore we should be very careful to joyn Knowledge and Discretion with our Zeal and desire to do God service if we desire to follow Christ 2. 2 The matter wherein we are to follow Christ For the Matter Points or wayes wherein the Sheep of Christ are to follow him they are very many but the chiefest of them are reducible into these three principal Heads 1. The works of Piety Joh. 2.17 2. The works of Equity 3. The works of Charity Jam. 2.16 Eph. 5.1 2. In all which we are to do our best endeavour to imitate and to follow Christ Actu ciffectu Bern. in Cant. S. 50. and therein we shall do the things that are most acceptable unto God and most profitable for our selves For the first none doubts of it but that these things are most acceptable in the sight of God And for the second we may be sure of it that it is better for us to build Churches to maintain Preachers and to erect Hospitals then to raise our Families and we shall receive more comfort to do Justice and to protect the Innocent and to relieve the Poor then by gaining Naboths Vineyard or heâ—ping Dives his Treasures unto our selves The time will not give me leave to prosecute these particulars any further but I pray God give us grace to prosecute the performance and doing of them throughout all our lives to the glory of God the discharging of our Duties and the eternall comfort of our own souls through Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour To whom with the Father and the holy Spirit be all Glory and Honour for ever and ever Amen Amen Jehovae Liberatori THE SEVENTH TREATISE 1 John 4.19 We love him because he first loved us THis text you see is a text of love a Theam that filleth Sea and Land Heaven and Earth and as the Poets feign Hell it self Claudian de raptu Proserpinae when as the King thereof Tumidas exarsit in iras did swell with rage because he might not enjoy his love in hell as Jupiter did in heaven And yet the scarcity and want of true love causeth such plenty of great evils in every place for we love not God we love not our neighbours we love not our own selves for if we loved God we would keep his Commandments if we loved our neighbours we would neither wrong them nor oppress them and if we loved our selves then we would love God if not for his own sake which is the right love yet for our own good and our neighbours for Gods sake But for Gods Commandements I may truly say it with Nehemiah Nehem. 9.34 Neither have our Kings our Princes our Priests nor our Fathers kept his Laws nor hearkned unto his Commandments but as Ezra saith Ezra 9.7 We have all been in a great trespass unto this day and for our iniquities have we our King our Priests our Bishops our Judges and all of us been delivered to the sword to the spoil to confusion of face and to all these miseries as it is this day And for wronging one another if we consider all the oppressions that are done under the Sun nay that were done in these Kingdomes and the tears of such as were oppressed and had no Comforter when the oppressors had such power that none durst speak against them then as Solomon saith we may most justly praise the dead which are already dead more then the living which are yet alive Eccles 4.1 2 3 and him better then both which hath not yet been to see the great evils that are done amongst us And for our own selves we do just as the wise man saith seek our own death in the errour of our life and Sampson-like pull down the house upon our own heads as you may remember that when we had plenty of peace and prosperity then as the children of Israel murmured against Moses that delivered them out of the Aegyptian bondage and loathed Manna that came down from heaven so were we discontented at every trifle and so weary of peace and such murmurers against our happiness When the Articles of peace were published we were so discontented and murmured so much thereat that the ear of jealousie which heareth all things heard the same and was pleased to satisfie our discontents and to send us our own desires such plenty of wars and fulness of all miseries plagues famines and oppressions as our Fathers never knew the like and are like to continue amongst us until God seeth us more in love with his goodness towards us and our repentings move him to repent him of the evils that he intendeth against us that have so justly deserved them from him Therefore to ingender and beget love where it is not to encrease it where it is but little and to rectifie it where it is amiss either towards God or our neighbours or our selves I will by Gods help and your patience with as much brevity as I can How the created Trinity fell and may be reunited to the uncreated Trinity express the plenty of these few words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mellifluous S. Bern. whose laborious work is like a pleasant garden that is replenished with all sorts of the most odoriferous flowers saith that in the Unity of Gods Essence there is a Trinity of persons the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost
memory but also special and late obligations of Favours having gratified the active spirits among them so far that I seemed to many to prefer the desires of that party before mine own interest and honour And Cicero tells us that ingratitudine nihil mali non inest there is no evill that is not residing in an unthankful Wretch and Ausonius saith that ingrato homine terra pejus nil procreat The earth never brought forth a viler thing or worser wood then an unthankful man and could there be found besides the Jews a more unthankful people on earth then the Scots have been to this their own lawful loving King and bountiful Benefactour How unthankful the Scots are Witness that monster of men whom the King made Lieutenant of the Tower the chiefest Fort of all England and he made himself the King 's mortal enemy and besides him witness a thousand more whom the King raised from the dunghil to make them companions of Princes and they to requite him combined with the Parliament fought against their King to subdue him and to bring him to nothing hoc magnum est hoc mirum and may not this be wondered at that the earth should bring forth such creatures as are unworthy to live upon the earth for have they not like mortal Enemies in a most hostile manner invaded the King's Territories and warred against him with as perfect fury as ever Hannibal did against the Romanes and we all know or should know that no causes are warrantable for the undertaking of a war if justice be not the ground thereof Lipsius polit lib. 5. Justum autem non est quod tria haec non habet justa autorem causam finem and just it cannot be saith Justus Lipsius if it hath not these three just things A just Author a just Cause and a just End And Titus Livius saith Tit. Livius lib. 9. Justum bellum quibus necessarium pia arma quibus nulla nisi in armis relinquitur spes that war is just to whom it is necessary and they do rightly fall to take Arms And no War in no time for no cause can be just that is made by Subjects against their King which have no help nor hope but in their Arms. In eum autem qui juste agere satisfacere paratus est nefas est bellum sumere saith Thucidides but it is an heinous offence to make war against him that if you be wronged is ready to do you right and to make you satisfaction and wherein I pray you could the Scots shew themselves justly grieved and King Charles did not most willingly and beyond expectation give them and offer them full satisfaction And what cause then could they pretend for this Invasion surely none at all but onely covetousness and a desire to be enriched either with Spoils and Plunderings or with very fair Compositions as they were by the means of their Confederates in England with the Sum as was said of three hundred thousand pounds a fair Sum for such a foul Fact and therefore these doings must needs be odious both to God and to all good men And yet I will shew you greater Abomination of these abominable rebellious Creatures for they had as the Parliament of England had done likewise taken their Oaths of Allegiance and Fidelity to his Majesty and how have they kept their Faith and observed their Oathes did they not being Scholars remember what the Poet saith Non bove mactato caelestia Numina gaudent Ovid Epist 18. Sed quae prestanda est sine teste fides id est That God delighteth more in observing Faith and performing Promises then in sacrificing whole Oxen to him Nam fidem qui perdidit nihil ultra potest for he that hath lost his faith How heinous a thing it is to break our faith and to falâ—ifie our Oaths hath lost all that he hath worth any thing and is unworthy to live among men And would these men violate their solemn Oaths think you surely men will hardly believe it if they did not see it for a perfidious Violation of an Oath and Covenant is as damnable as Athiesm if not worse because this wittingly and willingly abuseth and scorneth that Deity which it necessarily though unwillingly acknowledgeth and therefore the Heathen man could advise us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by no means to forswear our selves for fear of punishment from God and shame among men because as I said before out of Menander 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though we may deceive men as Perjurers do many times yet we must not think that our Perjuries and Falsities can be hid from God whose peircing eyes do behold every secret thought and will not suffer the Perjurers and Deceivers to go unpunished as it may appear by this one example The Story of Perfidiousness of Hatâ—o Bishop of Mentz which I have picked out of many that might be produced to the same purpose of Hatto Bishop of Meutz for Abbas Vrsbergensis writeth that Adelbert Count Palatine of Franconia being charged to have slain the Emperours Son and upon that suspition being straitly besieged by the Emperor but the Castle of Adelbert being very strong both by nature and by art the Siege did no whit promise either the taking of it or the yielding up thereof therefore Hatto being a near Kinsman to Adelbert and desireous to curry favour with the Emperor employed himself by cheating means to draw his Cosen into the Emperour's hands perswading Adelbert to go with him unto the Emperour and that he might boldly go without any fear of danger he made a solemn Oath unto him that as he came safe out of his Castle so if they could not well agree by a good Treaty he would bring him safe again unto his Castle whereupon Adelbert consented to go with him and went a prety way from his Castle but Hatto looking upon the Sun said the Morning was well spent and there was a long way to the Emperours Camp and therefore he thought it was their best Course to return to the Castle and to break their Fast and then they might go the better and with more ease and Adelbert suspecting no ill in so fair a Motion yeilded to return to break their Fast and he courteously entertained his Cosen and after Break-fast they rid both to the Emperours Camp where presently the Emperour adjudged Adelbert to dy whereupon he calleth for Hatto and accused him of Treason and Perjury except he performed his Promise to bring him back safe again into his Castle whereto the Bishop answered that he was acquitted of his Oath in that he carryed him to his Castle when they returned to break their Fast and upon this perfideous trick the credulous Earl lost his life and the Emperour seised upon all his Seigniories but for this wicked part Hatto could never blot out his reproach but was ever afterwards called by the Germans Hatto the Traytor and as you may finde it in the Chronological