of Hosea could bee rightly valued we should finde that herein is imbarked as great riches of grace as euer yet the word of God the siluer stream of the water of life hath landed vnto our soules since first we sinfull men had trafficke with that renowned King Whose dominion is from sea to sea and from the riuer vnto the end of the world Among all the Prophecies especially this of Hosea among the chapters of this Prophecy this the 7. and in this 7. these verses that I haue read vnto you doe ayme principally at the kingdom of Israel not of Iuda at the 10 tribes committed to the gouernment of Ieroboam not vnto the two tribes left with Rehoboam the son of Salomon In the handling of which words I desire your minds as well as your bodies and that my words may rather diue downe into your hearts then swimme in your eares therefore I wil not intangle you in the maze of any curious diuisiō but plainly I will obserue these three things 1. The sinne of Ephraim and al Israel 7. 8. which is 1. Bred at home All like an ouen Which sinne had 3. effectes 1. The deuouring of their Iudges 2. Slownesse in not returning 3. Their not calling vpon God 2. Borrowed abroad Ephraim mixt himself c. which borrowed sinne had one effect and that wss this he was as a cake on the hearth not turned 2. The dulnesse of Ephraim of which dulness I obserue 1. The arguments or euidences which were 1. Wilfull ignorance in not knowing ver 9. 2. Slownesse in not returning ver 10. 3. Simplicity and credulity in being ouerreached v. 11 2. The aggrauation that is by these circumstances or for these causes 1. Strangers deuoured their strength 2. Gray hayres were here there vpon him 3. The pride of Israel testifieth to his face 3. Gods alarum to rouze them out of their slumber and awake their dulnesse ver 12. but when they shall goe c. where I obserue these fiue things 1. Gods prouidence hee will see them as they goe 2. His wisdom he will spread a net 3. His power he will draw them down 4. His iustice he will chastice them 5. His truth he will make good what he hath sayd in the congregation As if the Prophet should haue sayd O ye men of Israel especially you of the house of Ephraim concupiscence boiling within you hath made you hot as an ouen Kings and Iudges haue been your fuell you haue not called vpon the Lord by reason of the mixture of your selues among the people you haue been tainted with idolatrie partly rawe and partly rosted you haue had a knee for God and a knee for Baal you might haue beene warned by the inuasion of strangers and by the approche of olde age yet you haue beene possessed with blinde and lame and lumpish spirits for I obserue your dulnesse and your slownesse and your simplicitie you haue beene without eyes not knowing without feete not returning without hearts and as a doue deceiued yet sayth God by the Prophet when you goe I wil see you by my prouidence and spread a net for you by my wisdom and drawe you downe by my power and chastice you by my iustice and make good the truth of that which you haue heard affirmed in your congregations They are all hotte as an ouen Which is a borrowed speech implying their sin bred at home There is a fire wherewith Christ baptizeth Matth. 3. and wherewithall the Apostles were inriched Acts 2. I meane the vertue of Gods holy spirit which when it takes possession of a man it makes his heart hot within him and while he is musing the fire kindleth and he speakes with his tongue But his words are like the words of Nepthali Who is like a Hinde giuing good words they are eyther prayses vnto his God or charitable comforts vnto his brethren or holy meditations vnto himselfe Yet the same diuel that had a floud of water to send out of his mouth to drowne the Church and her children Reuel 12. hath water also to quench this holy fire and in stead thereof hee hurls balls of wilde-fire into our soules hee fanneth them with the blandishments of the world that the sooner Lust might conceiue bring forth sinne that sinne when it is finished might bring forth death Such is the forme of an ouen that by reason of the vault and damming vp therof the inward parts therof are black and vnclean and the fire worketh more vehemently then in ordinary places so it is with sinne It takes possession of the heart the strongest holde which is the throne of the minde and by degrees surpriseth the other parts of the body The tongue by dropping the poyson of aspes vnder it the hand by making them the hands of iniquitie the feete by making them swift to shed bloud the eyes by making them swell with lust the wayes by making them exorbitant from the wayes of peace So that when God seeth the garment of righteousnesse which he hath bestowed rent and torne the work of sanctification out of reparations and his owne image canceld he may say as his sonne our Sauiour did once say of the Romane coyne Whose image and superscription is this It is Caesars then giue vnto Caesar that which is Caesars and vnto God that which is Gods Whose image and superscription is this It is the diuels or the worlds or the fleshes then giue vnto them that which is theirs they are not stamped with my seale I acknowledge them not to bee mine owne When Caesar was wounded vnto death by the Senators of Rome it grieued him much but much more when hee perceiued himselfe to bee hurt by Brutus whome he loued aboue the rest therefore his dolefull tongue copied out of a more dolefull mind these words Et tu fili And thou my sonne also So no doubt but it grieues God to bee pierced through with the sinnes of Atheists and irreligious men but it grieues mee more may God say when thou that art my childe rebelst against mee thou whome as mine owne sonne I haue created vvhome I haue redeemed whome I haue iustified whome I haue sanctified whome I meane to glorifie For where the more debt is forgiuen there the most loue and obedience is due sayth Christ to Simon Luke 7. The world is olde and very sickly and one wee see is distempered with a consumption of enuy an other with a hotte feuer of malice another with lunaticke and rauing fittes of swearing an other with a tympany or swelling of ambition an other so loseth himselfe by drunkennesse that a man may seeke a man in a man and not finde him Yet if you in this sinne-sicke world can auoide the tinctures and staynings of concupiscence and make wrack neyther vpon the Rockes nor vpon the Sandes neyther vppon open nor secret sinnes then neyther the arrowe that flyes by day nor the Pestilence that
walketh in the darkenesse nor any euil that destroyeth at the noone day shall do you any harme I exhort you therefore vnto that warmth of the holy Spirit which softned the hearts of the two Disciples as they went vnto Emmaus or if you wil to that higher degree of zeale for God and Gods house that eate vp DAVID So may your Soules Salamander-like liue by that spirit of burning which purged the bloud of Ierusalem Esay chapter 4. So being free from staynings and blacknesse by that smoake of that other fire you may bee cleane and fit to stand before the Lord your God Say therefore vnto concupiscence I will not nurse thee vp harbour not that smooth faced enemie which vvill not only pollute which first I noted but it will make your owne affections rebells and mutinous within you it will worke violently Witnesse the three effects of this home-borne sinne First Their Iudges were deuoured Secondly Their Kings were fallen Thirdly They did not call on God Behold how they were infatuate in all their difficulties whither were they to flie To their Iudges yea but their Iudges were deuoured Their Iudges being gone whither then to their Kings yea but their Kings were fallen Their Kings being fallen whither then to God there was their highest Court of appeale yea but they called not vpon mee sayth God Loe here with their owne hands they haue pulled downe all the sanctuaries they had and 1. their Iudges Iudges and iudgement to auoid confusion are blessings giuen vnto kingdomes by God who is the God of order and not of confusion Therefore Micheas groned in spirit when he sawe all Israell as sheep without a Shepheard our Prophet Hosea thought it a curse vnto Israel when they should remaine manie dayes without a King and without a Prince and without an offering and without an image and without an Ephod and without Teraphim Machiuel who for his villanie is exempt from comparison though hee haue long since spawned in the world and dipped in his opinions much of Christendome sets down a rule how a Conquerour may weaken a subdued kingdome vnioint the sinewes thereof and make them fall by their owne weight that is by taking from them order and gouernment by laying the reanes on their owne neckes and allowing them to liue lawlesse But lift you vp your voices in prayse and thankesgiuing among such as keepe holy day because you liue in a kingdome where one starre differeth from another in glory where the Iudges in their seuerall ranks haue their mouthes as oracles their bosomes as treasuries of good counsaile who when they see bloud swelling to touch bloud they giue it barres and doores saying Hitherto shalt thou come and thou shalt come no further here shalt thou stay thy proud waues They are vines and oliues and figge trees Iudg. 9. They leaue their fatnesse and their sweetnesse and their wine to raigne ouer the trees of the forrest both ease pleasure for the good of Gods people Prize at no lowe rate these iewells in your own ground let not your sinnes serue as brokers to embeazle these cōmodities and conuay them from you but rather by good meditations and indeauours husband your graines of mustard seed that from the lesse you may grow to more grace and become so louely in the sight of God that your case may neuer be as Ephraims was who for their sinnes had their Iudges deuoured and the staffe of beauty that is comely gouernment broken among them And you the reuerend Iudges of this land who are ordained to lance the impostumes and prune the luxury of this kingdome weigh well your high standing looke vpward and downward vpward consider that you are Gods downward and consider also that you shall die like men There be two sins whose forges and anuils are neuer cold but like Pyoners they are euer vndermining your seats of iustice they are bribery and partialitie brethren in euill into their secrets let not my soule descend Bribery is marked in the forehead for a sinne and therfore dares not approach neere your seates of iustice but I pray God it play not the vsurper and take possession of some about you by vnlawfull intrusion If it be true which is commonly receiued in the world then there haue been many belonging vnto men of great place who haue deceit and nimblenesse of wit and bribery and other sinnes like as many porters to bring them in Pretium sanguinis the price of bloud Yet haue they cryed like the siluer-smith in the Acts The great goddesse Diana great is Diana of the Ephesians the great goddesse Iustice great is shee when their care was not for iustice but for their owne gaine by pretending iustice as the siluer-smithes intēded their own thriuing by making images in Dianaes temple These things I haue heard but I hope for better things in you and yours else may the seruant breake the masters head with precious balmes and make them like Rehoboam whippe with Scorpions in stead of roddes and by turning Iustice into wormewood become like the wolues of the euening that leaue not the bones vntill the morrowe Meane while the Clyent findes his physicke worse then his disease poore sea-faring man he comming towarde the Iudge who like a goodly promontory or land mark giues assurance of calme and harbour makes wrack vnawares vpon the sands secretly by the way before he can haue audience in open court Whosoeuer they be that by such vnder-working do abuse their Lords and masters tyre out the poor subiects let them know that their hands taking bribes are like the winde Caecia which draweth cloudes of witnesses against themselues Now though Bribery dare not be seene in the place of Iustice yet Partiality is not such a stranger to flesh and bloud and the more acquaintance the more danger The mother of all lawes that is the lawe of Moses would haue Iudges the masters of their affections neither fearing the rich not fauouring the poore and therefore Iustice the mistress of the lawes is described blindfolded as discerning neither friend nor enemy and being too holy to consult with flesh and bloud in matters of so great consequence which rule while Pilate did not obserue he would but could not wash the filth of his impiety from his hands Peter Martyr allegorizing vpon the seate of Salomon sayth that the height and the golde and theiuory of the seate must put the Magistrate in minde of his eminency purity and spotlesse innocency Wherefore let your hands be euer at the sterne and your eyes be fixed on the starre the bright morning starre and consult Iehesophat who told his Iudges that their iudgements were the iudgements of God and not of man and be it euer to be remembred written vpon your walles that you are the nursing-fathers of the Common-wealth and therefore ought to holde out to
vnprofitable seruants and like an impartiall christian he beginnes at home with himselfe and sayth Wretched man that I am who shall deliuer mee from this body of death If you beleeue not him yet melt at the lamentation of our mother the Church whose iron heart making her lumpish and vnfit to goe to GOD without Gods spirit like an Adamant to dravve her cryes out in the first of the Canticles and sayth Drawe me and I will runne after thee And yet the Papists do so much flatter flesh and bloud that they make mans soule as a birde in a cage hauing wings to flie if the cage were open and like a lame man going vpon chrutches needing perhaps a little helpe as though they woulde make him cooperate with God Whereas weak men God knowes we want both wings and legges both will and power vnto goodnesse for from God cometh trust Paul rather then Bellarmine himselfe velle perficere Lactantius who was the hammer of gentilisme pleades against the heathens and sayth that their gods were not the authours of corne and wine and oyle hee sayth hee can proue these things were in the world before eyther Ceres or Saturne were borne But if these things were inuented by them who but onely God gaue them wit to inuent such things We are all of vs of the metall of a stone wee can rowle downe a hill by our selues of our own nature but vp to heauen-ward we cannot go without the help of Gods holy spirit We are like a spring-locke of our selues wee can shut and keepe out the graces of God wee cannot open our selues to receiue them in but by the help of thee O Lord who art the onely key But blessed be God who takes away our hearts of stone and giues vs hearts of flesh who at the first by his preuenting grace doth worke in vs to be willing and after with his subsequent grace he accompanieth vs that being willing wee should not will in vaine Therfore In nullo gloriandum est quia nihil est nostrum we must boast our selues of nothing because nothing is our owne we are starres we deriue all that we haue from the Father of lights Iam. 1. Giue therfore Lord what thou commandest and then commaund what thou wilt For goodnesse is a flower that growes not in our gardens It becomes vs al to looke vpon our trailing wings and confesse that we cannot fly for no spices can flowe out of our gardens no vertues out of our soules vnlesse Gods holy Spirit inrich our soules vnlesse the North and South arise blowe vpon our gardens For of ourselues we are naturally inclined to euill as Ephraim was so if you aske who mixt he mixt himselfe if you aske where he mix himselfe among the people What Ephraim hauing all Israel as a traine to follow after they all making by many degrees the maior part of the sonnes of Abraham they being tenne tribes and Iuda but onely two being ioined with the people too were not they a goodly companie euen as the morning spred vpon the mountains Yes their multitude was great but they were not therefore holy because they were many and therfore insteed of wine Bellarmine brocheth that which is worse then water when for one of the markes of the Church hee sets downe multitude as though there were not a broade way that leades vnto hell and many passengers in that way Math. 7. 14. What glory did multitude bring vnto the Church when Elias mourned because there were so few that professed true religion as though he had been left alone as a sparrow vpon the house top In the daies of Traian the Emperor the Church of God was like a doue in the holes of the rock therfore the Christians in his time being excepted against for their conuenticles were apologized by Plinie the second who wrot vnto Traian and told him that he found no fault with the Christians vnlesse it were a fault to pray and praise their God in their antelucane hymns There was a time whē the Arrian heresies spred so fast that there was Athanasius against all the world and all the world against Athanasius Gods chosen was a pearle in the rock and a vain of gold hid in the earth hard to be found The wildernesse is great where the goates do range the folde of God but small yet feare not little flock it is your fathers will to giue you a kingdome Ephraim hath mixt himselfe among the people They were an irreligious and idolatrous people which were as thornes in the sides of Ephraim and means to draw them vnto euill Out of which words doth arise this second obseruation that wee must auoide euill companie For with the froward we shall learne frowardnesse The wicked are like stickes one vnto an other kindling the heate of concupiscence mid-vviues they are by their perswasions helping monstrous births in the world bringing to passe that the sooner lust may conceiue and bring forth sinne and sinne when it is finished may bring forth death They reach out one vnto an other the hand of errour saying not Come let vs goe vp into the house of the Lord but let vs go vp to Bethel and transgresse to Gilgal multiply transgression A wicked companion is like vnto Dan an adder in the path which bites the horse makes the rider to fal backward he makes those whō he worketh vpō by his perswasions to becom retrograde with Demas to forsake Paul embrace this present world with the Church of Ephesus to leaue their first loue becom Apostats in matters of Christianitie It is a perillous conflict between the fire and the stubble euen iron sayth Isidorus will melt at this fire the most stayed man seeing all men haue such flaxen soules and so apt to take fire will thaw into vanity when he meetes with euill company As Ieroboam reared vp golden calues in Dan and Bethel to keepe the people from going to serue God at Ierusalem So to draw those that are flexible from their good and godly purposes they erect vanities and games vnto Bacchus and Flora which idoles I meane drunkennesse and wantonnesse are better cliented vpon the Sabboth day then the Ministers of Gods word With a thousand lures euill companions prouoke vnto intemperate courses and like Fimbria in Tullies pleadings for Roscius who was angry with Scaeuola that hee would not receiue all his sword point and blade into his bowells so these are angry that all others will not runne with them into the same excesse of riot But it becomes you who haue better learned Christ to bee like Arethusa which passeth through the Sicilian Sea and yet takes no saltnesse to liue as Paul woulde haue men to liue blamelesse in the middest of a frowarde and crooked generation It is with the common corruptions of the world as with a
other that they may raign with Christ are willing to suffer with Christ. Some of the auncients speaks of a plea that shall be holden by the diuell against the wicked before God at the day of iudgement O glorious king these that stand before thee are thine indeed by creation but by their sins they haue canceld that image of thine that was vpon them they are thine by vertue of thy Sons passion but mine for want of naturall compassion in all matters of difficulty when the question was whither they would lean to thee or me they forsooke thee yeelded to my temptations therefore ô great King ô King of glory giue me my due There is danger you see in wearing the liuery of Satan no lesse then treading vpon the egs of a Cockatrice which is dangerous and weauing the spiders webbe which is fruitlesse Let it not seem euil and burdensome to you to serue the Lord for though there be no condemnation to them that bee in Christ Iesus yet this priuiledge belongs vnto them that liue after the spirit not after the flesh Rom. 8. 1. When the arke of the Lord was drawne by kine to Bethshemosh though their calues perhaps lowed vnto them and they as the text sayth vnto their calues yet they could not goe because they were tyed vnto the arke So doe you resolue vpon the keeping of the couenants of the Lord and then though your affections call you aside yet you cannot you will not goe wrong because you are tyed by vowe or by resolution though not to the Arke of the couenant yet to the couenants of the Lord but if you will needs follow your owne imaginations which are euill and that continually beware of ioyes no better then sick mens dreams those ioyes are quaedam nepenthica soporifera for a while charming and silencing the cries both of sinne and punishment but in the end the visions of your heads will make you afraide If you be wicked you will flie cowardly yea sottishly when no man followeth because you haue loued iniquitie and hated righteousnesse therfore the diuel whom you haue serued will annoint you with oyle of sadnesse aboue your fellowes then can you neuer be merrie though al the pleasures in the world should make you melody An euill conscience when you haue lost your selues as Iob lost all his goods children will haunt you and say vnto you you haue lost Gods fauour and your owne soules and I alone am left aliue to come and tell you to keepe you waking at midnight when you should sleepe When there bee many fiery pictures in the ayre a blast of wind breakes and dispearses them all when in your mindes there be fearefull terrible cogitations strange frightings and amazements there is no way to dispearse them but by Gods holy spirit that wind which bloweth vvhere it listeth When Dauid vnderstood that the water of the wel of Bethlem that was brought vnto him was gained by the ieopardie of mens liues he would not drinke it but powred it vpon the ground for a sacrifice vnto the Lord bethinke your selues that your soules are gayned not by the ieopardie but the loose of the life of Christ dedicate not your soules and bodies vnto lust and vanity but rather say O Lord they were dear bought I wil offer them both as a sacrifice to thee We must mourn for sin we must abandon sin and because sin will euer dwel in our suburbs and be a borderer it will hang on so fast and will neuer admit a Supersedeas from sinning so long as we dwell in houses of claie Wee must which I thirdly noted appeale vnto God for he is the highest court of appeale who is the Lamb of God and can only purge the sinnes of the world Let this Agnus Dei bee your choisest ornament For as the woman hauing a matter heard before Philip king of Macedon who being asleepe did not well apprehend her cause but gaue wrong iudgement therefore she sayde she would appeale from Philip to Philip from Philip sleeping to Philip waking So must we appeale from God to God from God iust and angry for our sinnes to God opening the bowells of compassion vnto vs. Out of the strong came sweete it was the riddle of Sampson the meaning of the riddle was out of the dead Lion came the hony combe which relieued him My application at this time is out of the strong Lion of the tribe of Iuda comes the sweete comfort of our sauing health for that Lion is vnto vn wisdome iustification sanctification and redemption As Iacob said vnto his father so we may say to thee O heauenly Father eat of our venison of our flesh the flesh of thy Sonne that thy soule may bless vs. Tho man being iust do liue as the Prophet sayth once and the Apostle doth canonize it once againe yet faith is the soule and breath of that life Iustus ex fide viuit When it was resolued that Christ should do his Fathers wil for the good of mankinde he was ready to say Loe here I come to doe thy will he came indeed to shed his bloud he bled not inward for that might haue indangered the body but his blood was powred out for the good of others the speare of the souldier that thrust him through the side may serue as a pen his bloud was ink wherwith was written our Quietus est We may now with Paul not onely challenge death saying death where is thy sting but with the same Paul sing a Requiem vnto our soules saying that neither powers nor principalities can make a separation betweene God and vs. Seeing then God hath reared vp a standard of hope vnto all beleeuers let vs not be like reeds wauering and shaking in faith for then we please the diuell who by som of the auncients is compared to Behemoth that takes his pastime among the reeds but rather let vs be like a wall strong that God may build vpon vs a siluer palace that he may make vs houses for himselfe Let vs acquit our selues like men wee haue for our right hand the sword of the spirit for our left hand the shield of faith for our breast the breast-plate of righteousnesse for our heads the helmet of saluation for our feet the shooes of the preparation of the Gospel furniture enough for all parts saue onely the backe to argue that if we fight against the diuell we may do well but if we turne our backs and growe faithlesse wee giue him aduantage against vs. What neede we turne back seeing like Rahel hee dyed in trauell of vs his children and though to him we were Benonies sonnes of sorrow yet in regard of ourselues we are Beniamins sonnes of his right hand He shewed his power and strength to doe vs good the deeper we diue into the fountaine of his mercie the sweeter we shall finde