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
Roman Deputy testifieth Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jewes 3. 3 They were the murderers of their own lawful King This their King was not like Jeroboam the son of Nebat starting aside and stepping in over the right Kings head nor like Queen Athalia that usurped the Regal throne by suppressing the lawful King but he was their own lawfull King lineally descended from King David both in respect of his Putative Father and his Mother Mary as both Saint Matthew and Saint Luke do testifie and sufficient reasons may be produced to prove that by heredâ—tary right which is the â—best and the most undubitable right unto the Crown he was born the King of the Jews 4. 4 They were the murtheres of a just King And this their King was not like Rehoboam the son of Solomon that is a foolish or at least an undiscreet son of a most sage and a wise Father but he was the wisdom of God as saith the Evangelist that his wise answers to all the subile questions of his adversaries Luke 11.49 and the malicious objections and remonstrances of his persecurors satisfied all wise and indifferent men and stopped the mouthes of many of his greatest adversaries when they admired his worth though they persecuted his person John 7.46 and hated him the more yet were they driven to confesse that never man spake as he did Neither was he like Manasses an Idolatrous and a bloody King nor yet like Ahab an unjust tyrannical intruder of himself into his subjects possessions but he was a most pious and a religious King going in his own person unto the Temple and scourging all prophaners out of Gods house and he was so pitiful so merciful and so mild that as Cicero saith of Pompey and the Historians say of Titus the son of Vespasian that for his courtesies was termed deliciae generis humani never man departed unsatisfied and discontented from them Mat. 10.13.8 so did this good King never deny the just request of any Petitioner that ever came or sought unto him but be went about doing good healing all that had infirmities and releasing all that were possessed of the devill And for his own integrity and the uprightnesse of his life he could not only say with Samuel Whose Oxe have I taken or whose Asse have I taken 1 Sam. 2.3 or whom have I defrauded and I will restore it but he could justly demand of his greatest adversaries and the most malicious priers into his actions Which if you can rebuke me or reprove me of sin for they that thirsted most after his blood must needs confesse that he was of an incomparable life in whose mouth was found no guile and in whose heart was no deceit So spâ—tlesse he was in all his actions that the holy Martyr might justly call this King that Just One. And yet they say with Martial Non amo te Princeps nec possum dicere quare Hoc tantnm possum dicere Non amo te We love the note O King but why we cannot tell thee But this we can assure thee that we do not love thee And therefore notwithstauding all that I have said that he was 1. A King 2. Their own King 3. Their lawful king And 4. A just and pious King that desired onely their good And thus they murdered King Charles that was 1 a King T. Their own King 3. Their own lawful King 4 Their just wise and most religious King the preservation of their Lawes and the maintenance of the true service of God amongst them for the salvation of their souls yet their love is so little and their hatred is so great that they must take away his life and kill him and that in the most barbarous manner and the most odious kind of killing they must murder him And he that murders a Christian King commits a fourfold murder saith our Chronicler Speed 1. Homicide 2. Parricide 3. Christicide 4. Dei-cide because the King is Gods annointed and his Vice-gorent here on earth therefore David killed the Amalekite because he had killed a King though that King was most wicked and none of his own King 2 Sam. 1.16.16 And you may conceive what a devellish and hellish fact this is beyond all heathenish abomination for subjects to murder their own King For Pilat that was but a heathen and a very corrupt Judge hearing them so fiercely crying out to have him crucified and being amazed at such an execrable voice sayth Shall I crucifie your King As if he had said Is it possible John 19.15 that you should desire me to crucifie your King for Reason and Nature and the Lawes of God and of all Nations will condemn you for this fact and detest you for base Traytors and the bloody murderers of your King But the old Murtherer that hath been a murderer from the beginning John 8. hath surnished his Schollars with two strong but deceitful arguments to justifie the killing of their King 1. From the Law of Nature 2. From the word of God 1. Nature teacheth us to defend our selves and to kill any one 1 From the Law of Nature rather then to suffer our selves to be killed by him because every thing in nature is sâ—i conservativum and therefore to study for a self-preservation is an inbred Law of Nature Quam non didicimus sed exhausimus ex natura which we need not learn when as Nature teacheth the same saith Cicero And therefore these Jews do conclude It is expedient that this King should be killed lest the Nation if they let him alone should be Destroyed i.e. rather then they should Justly perish he must be Vnjustly murdered this is the reasoning of Flesh and Blood But to this the Apostle answereth in generall that the Wisedom or the reason of Worldly men is foolishness with God 1 Cor. 1.20 and chap. 2.14 and the Naturall man receaveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him And more particularly we say that the Holy Scripture is the best interpreter of the Law of Nature and then I desire you as our Saviour advised the Jews to search the Scriptures and go through the whole Book of God and tell me if you find not Subjection to our Kings every where injoyned and Resistance even against the Worst Kings every where prohibited And then shew me where you find the least Print of any Precept or Counsell given to any Subject to put their King to death Or where any Subjects mentioned in all Gods Book did ever alleage any Text of Scripture or produced any good Example from the Scripture to warrant or to excuse such a fact I am sure Saul was a Tyrant and a Bloody murderer a Demoniak and Prophaner of Gods service Varighteous and Irreligious and sought the life of David every way and in every place and though he was but the First elected King of the Jews 1 Sam. 10. and
fashion devised by the false Prophets now serving him in his Temple and consecrated house dedicated for his worship and presently serving him in Chambers in the Groves and under every green Tree But I conceive that the Prophet means according to Tremelius translation that they erred from the right service of God and from the performance of their duties unto their neighbours and so straid like lost sheep without a shepherd The Law of God is the way wherein we ought to walk both from the way of piety and from the rules of equity and the further they go on the harder it is for them to return to the right way for you must know that the way wherein we ought to walk is the Law of God even as the Prophet David sheweth saying Blessed are they that are undefiled in the way Psal 119.1 that walk in the Law of the Lord and not in the way of sinners which is the transgression and aberration from the right way that is the Law of the Lord. And this people The Jews and ourselves like the Egyptians and why the Jews were as we are for the most part of us like unto the Egyptians that received the most plentifull benefits of the river Nilus and yet they knew not the fountain from whence it sprang so did they reap all the favours of God his Oracles his Prophets and his blessings more then any other Nation of the World and yet they neither knew God nor the will of God Hos 4.1 Vide Esay 1.3 for as the Prophet Hosea saith There was neither truth nor mercy nor knowledg of God in the Land and therefore they wandered indeed and wandered far out of the way But you will say it is very strange that the Jews of all other people should be ignorant either of God or of the law of God when as the Apostle saith Vnto them were committed the Oracles of God and Rom 3.2 chap. 9.4 Psal 76.1 What great means the Iews had to understand learn the true service of God Amos 3.7 as the Prophet saith In Jurie is God known and his name is great in Israel and he gave unto them Priests and Levits Scribes and Pharisees that should continually expound his Laws both to them and to their children for ever and when they failed to do their duties he raised up his Prophets to direct them to the right way and to shew them how they should both worship God and love their neighbour and as the Prophet Amos saith Surely the Lord God will do nothing but he reveileth his secrets unto his servants the Prophets and therefore How could this people be ignorant of God or wander out of his waies To this the Prophet answereth in the next point and sheweth the true cause of their wandering and of all their deviation and starting aside from the right service of God for 2. He saith They loved to wander therefore what wonder is it Where the Jews erred that they should erre and go out of the right way when they loved desired and were well pleased to go out of it but it is strange and a great deal more strange for men to love to erre then it is to erre For humanum est errare God alone is truth and every man a lyer the best of us all is subject unto error when as ever since the fall of Adam there were four things Four things imposed on Adam and on all his seed for his transgression saith Beda most justly imposed upon all his seed for his unjust transgression 1. Ignorance 2. Impotence 3. Concupiscence 4. Malice For the healing of which four maladies the second Adam was made unto us as the Apostle saith 1. Wisdom 2. Righteousness 3. Sanctification 1 Cor. 1.20 4. Redemption Therefore seeing ignorance is incident unto all men and every man is born blind every one may well say with the Eunuch How can I understand without a Teacher or Act. 8.31 how can I walk in the right way without a guide But for a man to put out the light or for a blind man to refuse a guide and for an ignorant man to refuse knowledge this is the condemnation whereof our Saviour speaketh That light is come into the world Joh. 3.19 and men love darkness more then light And yet this was the Epidemicall disease of this people and it hath continued among all Nations to this very day for as the Scripture testifieth of the ungodly Noluerunt intelligere ut bene agerent but they say to God Depart from us for we desire not the knowledge of thy waies So it is true of too too many they will not understand the truth that they might do right they will not hear the true Preachers Job 21.14 2 Chr. 18.7 but as the King of Israel would not hear Micaiah but hated him so will not many men hearken to the true Prophets but they will do as Ahab said he did to Micaiah hate them and as the Jews dealt with the teachers of Gods true worship that is stone the Prophets and kill them that were sent unto them as Samuel was rejected Esay sawed in pieces Jeremy thrown to a filthy dungeon Zachary the son of Jehâ—ida was stoned with stones even in the court of the House of the Lord Micheas thrown down by Joram to break his neck because he rebuked him for the sins of his fathers Amos killed with a club Ezechiel slain Vrias the son of Semeiah for Prophesying against Jerusalem was killed by Joakim Jer. 26.23 Elias persecuted and threatned to be killed by Jezabel and the spirit of God demandeth of the Jews Act. 7.52 Which of the Prophets had not their fathers persecuted Even so do many men in many places and in most Countreys use the true Preachers and teachers of Gods true worship and the repairers of their errors in these very daies and if the true Preachers say with this Prophet Jer. 6.16 Ask for the old pathes where is the good way and walk therein and you shall find rest for your souls I am affraid our people will answer with the words of this people and say We will not walk therein But to proceed to shew unto you the doings of this people the Prophet tels us they have not only rejected the true Prophets and refused the bright shining light of the truth and right service of God offered unto them by the legitimate messengers of God but as our Prophet speaketh they have committed two evils 1. Jer. 32.33 chap. 7.25 They have forsaken the Fountain of living waters 2. They have hewed them out Cisterns even broken Cisterns that can hold no water And these two evils do commonly go together to silence and deprive the old and true Preachers and to advance and magnify the young novices that are fitter to be taught then to teach yea to forsake God and then to adore the Calf to throw away the service of
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
save us from all our sins And thus the true Saints that do hate their sins and lay hold on Christ do only love the Lord and the wicked that delight in sin and perceive not the sweetness of their Saviour cannot be said to love God for as the whole have no need of the Physitian and give no thanks for his Physick so they that feel not the sense of their own miseries and perceive not their Obligation to their Deliverer can have no love to God their Saviour Therefore seeing as the Poet saith Quod latet ignotum est ignoti nulla cupido And as S. Bern. saith non potes aut amare quem non noveris aut habere quem non amaveris we cannot love whom we know not nor enjoy whom we love not it behoveth us to search into our spirits to look into our own states to consider the multitude of our own sins and to bethink our selves in what need we stand of a Deliverer to see if this will not bring us in love with God our Saviour And then I beseech you Two special Points to be considered let us consider 1. What manner of Love we ought to have 2. How great a love it ought to be towards him And 1. I presume theâ—e is no man in this Assembly but he would think himself much injured 1 What manner of Lovewe ought to have if it were but imagined that he did not love God his Saviour and iâ— is not my desire to dishearten any when I wish from my heart that every the least sparke of your love to God might prove a Glorious Flame Yet I fear there be very many men that come into the world they know not why and live therein they care not how and go out of it again they cannot tell where but do live in it without a God and then die without any hope And others there be that dream of happiness and their hopes being but dreams they do therein but deceive themselves like those that dream they are at a pleasant Banquet yet when they awake their soul is hungry For as the Jews in our Saviours time did indeed persecute him because they were so blinded that they could not apprehend him to be the Son of God but for God himself they made full account that they alone and none but they did love him and for Moses vvhose very Name vvas the Glory of their Nation they professed to love him beyond measure so that vvhosoever spake any blasphemous vvords against Moses vvas thought vvorthy to be stoned to death Acts 6.11 John 5.42 V. 45. And yet our Saviour tels them I know you that you have not the love of God in you and that Moses in vvhom they trusted should accuse them before God So many Christians at the last day shall profess that they have prophesied in Christ's Name cast out Devils done many wonderful works in his Name rebelled against their ovvn King and killed their own Brethren and starved their own Shepherds and hazarded their own Lives for his sake and yet he shall protest unto them I never knew you i. e. to love me or to do these things for my sake but for your own ends and to satisfie your own desires and therefore depart from me ye Workers of Iniquity And the reason is Two sorts of the Lovers of Christ 1. Formal 2. Real that there are two sorts of the lovers of Christ and two kinds of professors of Christianity 1. General 2. Special That formal this real that in shew this in deed that ingendred by Education by Country by Custome by conformity to the Laws and Fashions of them with whom they live and by a common sence of Gods outward favours for Christ his sake unto them and this infused by an inward operation of Gods Spirit in the heart in all sincerity and truth and is continually preserved and encreased by a lively sence of Gods special favour unto them through Jesus Christ And you know that S. Paul tells us he is not a Jew which is one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in that which appeareth outwardly in the flesh i.e. which is but only born and bred a Jew of the seed of Abraham of the visible Synagogue and partaker of all the external Covenants of grace but he only is the right Jew which is one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inwardly in the secrets of the heart so he is not a Christian that is but only born a Christian and doth but outwardly profess Christianity to come to the Church to hear Sermons to receive the Sacraments Who is the true Christian and to accustome himself to all the outward formalities of Christianity but he is the true Christian that is so made by his second birth and by that internal grace which is indeed invisible unto others but most sensible unto himself and who as the Evangelist saith John 1.13 is born not of bloud nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God And therefore seeing God is not mocked and that he requireth truth in the inward parts and the exactest kind of love that can be imagined let us not mock our selves by any presumptuous conceits of our love to God and so deceive our own hearts and betray our own souls which is the usual practice of too too many men for if we love God as we ought then our love must be as the Apostle speaketh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in purity in simplicity or as the word signifieth in incorruption i.e. such as neither the most honourable nor the most profitable nor the most delectable things in this world can ever be able to lessen or diminish the least jot of our love to God when with the Apostle we disesteem our preferments and our honours and whatsoever else the world could confer upon us and account them all but as dung in comparison of our love to God and the discharging of that duty which we owe unto him for so Abraham forsook his Country neglected his honour and was ready to facrifice his only Son in obedience to the commands of God and so will all they do that do truly love the Lord as they out to love him 2. For the extent and quantity of our love to God S. Augustine saith Aug. de moribus Ecclesiae that Modus diligendi Deum est ut diligatur quantum potest diligi quanto plus diligitur tanto est dilectio melior And St. Bernard saith that Modus diligendi Deum est sine modo The measure of our love to God should be beyond measure so much that we should prefer his Love his Honour and his Service before our Father or Mother or Wife or Husband or Children or Pleasure or Profit or any other thing in this World yea before our own life which we should be ready and willing to lay down for the love of him and the defence of his truth and service Qui
unsearchable ways to pull down the pride of men and to cross the ambition of aspiring spirits should not rather fear to deal unjustly and be contented with his own unblameable station then seek to raise himself by unwarrantable courses and especially such as are by the downfall of others When as Pliny writeth of the Hart-wolf Quamvis in fame mandens si respexerit aliud oblivionem cibi subrepere aiunt digressumque quaerere illud c. that be he never so hungry and eating yet if he seeth another prey Venator sequitur fugientiae capta relinquit Semper inventis ulteriora petit Ovid. Amor. lib. 2. he forsakes his meat and followeth after the same and thereby doth oftentimes like Aesops Dog lose the morsel in his mouth by snatching at the shadow in the water so the ambitious covetous wretches making no account of what they have but greedily and unjustly hunting after more do by the just judgement of God amittere certa dum incerta petunt as Plautus saith lose what they justly had by their unjust seeking of what they should not look after Secondly The Episcopal Clergy For those Clergy-men that were not the Members of the false Prophet but were Royalists and the approvers of the Episcopal Function and yet have not escaped the fierie tryal but have been driven through fire and water and have suffered many heavy things to be plundered of their Goods deprived of their Livings and often times detained in Bonds or driven to flie from their house and home I say that besides other causes best known to God into whose secrets we dare not dive we know good reasons that they were not thus handled without good cause nor any ways unjustly dealt withall by the just God as specially if there were nothing else but because they were not 1. Either right Royalists or 2. Right Episcopals but as the Poet saith of the Maremaid Desinit in piscem mulier formosa superné or like those half-Christians that begin in the spirit but end in the flesh or those Apostles that would build Tabernacles to remain with Christ on Mount Tabor where he was transfigured in glory but will flinch away and forsake him on Mount Calvary when his face was filled with ignominy so they like the Jews in Elias his time halted betwixt God and Baal were staggering betwixt the King and the Parliament and tottered betwixt the Bishops and the Presbyters as doubtful what would be the event and issue of this debate For 1. Divers indeed loved the King and approved his Cause as most just and right and their Consciences told them how far they were obliged even by God's word to honour and obey him in all his just Commands and to assist him against his unjust enemies but they like Ephraim that was as a Cake baked on the one side or like the Church of Laodicea that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were termed a righteous people and yet were neither hot nor could but luke-warm in their Profession so were these men as they pretended for the King but did nothing against the Parliament nor any thing to any purpose for the King for had they all with their tongues and with their pens hi scriptis illi verbis published and thundered it out like Trumpets unto their several Congregations and to all the World how unjustly and how unchristian-like it is for any Subjects to rebel and to warr against their King and how far they and all other true Subjects and good Christians are bound in Conscience and obliged by God's Word to defend him whom they know without question is their undoubted King and had they themselves to give good examples unto their people opened their purses and extended their bounty to the uttermost of their power and sent their Servants and their Children to assist his Majesty I doubt not but am sure of it that they had herein pleased God and in all probability defended the King and freed themselves from that yoak of Tyranny and all those burthens and afflictions that since the Parliament prevailed were imposed upon them and they were necessitated to undergo them but they were such as Pliny speaks of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mouthless men that could not or would not speak a word in the King's cause and they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men without hands able to do nothing or at least willing to do nothing for him that underwent all his trouble for the Church and Church-men And therefore when they neglected their duty to do what in their Consciences they were perswaded they should do it was most just that they should suffer what they would not suffer because the sins of omission are as punishable as the sins of commission and he that is not with me saith our Saviour is against me and he that gathereth not scattereth abroad and so the Angel cursed Meroz and cursed bitterly the inhabitants thereof because they came not forth to help Israel against Jahin King of Canaan and so they are justly punished that being in their hearts for the King they did not with their tongues hands and purses do the uttermrst of their endeavours to aid and assist the King for as the Poet saith Foederis haec species id habet concordia signum Vt quos jungit amor jungat ipsa manus Our hands should ever go with our hearts and I am confident had all we that in our hearts were for the King given to his Majesty in time the fifth part of that which the Parliament hath since plundered and wrested from us we might by the assistance of God have preserved both our King and our selves from all the miseries and losses that the Parliament hath since brought upon us and what fools were we to save our wealth and shut our purses to enrich our enemies and to impower them to destroy our selves O let ns never do so again Secondly For those that approved of Episcopacy and had subscribed to the Articles and allowed the Liturgy of our Church and were in their Consciences perswaded of the purity and excellency thereof the same being composed by those godly Martyrs that weeded all superstition and superfluities from it and then sealed the rest that was inoffensive and pious with their blood and the same also being justified by all the convocations of all the Bishops and Clergy ever since and accordingly confirmed by acts of Parliament throughout the reign of four most pious Princes for the space of well near one hundred years for them I say through hope to save and to retain their livings and so for the love of the World to comply with the Parliament and to embrace their directory so indirectly to serve God every Presbiter after his own fancy and to omit the whole set form of God's Worship injoyned to be observed in all Churches save onely the reading of a Psalm and two Chapters which notwithstanding they did not according to the Rubrick and to