easily grow into contempt which presentlie and at the first shew or setting forth are familiar to euery one of the meane people so euerie man almost marueileth at reuerenceth and highly esteemeth such things as cannot be attained vnto but by great studie labour and paines taking So much the more also by the like reason doth God mind to commend vnto vs Publike priuate vse of the misterie the ecclesiasticall ministerie that so we might not onely publikely with greater diligence heare it but might priuately repaire vnto and take councell of them that be in it and so might testifie that we haue not by the way superficially but soundly thorowly care concerning the knowledge of holy heauenly things For if all men did know all things Chrysost hom â—4 in Math. a teacher should not be needfull and so the order of things should be coÌ„founded For vnto theÌ„ indeed whom he would haue to be teachers thus speaketh God himselfe by Isaiah the Prophet Esay 40.1.2 speake O ye priests vnto the harts of the people But vnto those whom by learning he would haue to know the mysteries of truth thus he saith in the song of Moses Deut. 32.7 Aske thy father he wil tell thee thine elders they wil declare vnto thee saith Chrysostome And touching the courses and considerations of the darkenesse of some things in the holy scriptures thus writeth Augustine August lib. 2. de doct christ cap. 6. That some things which are darkely deliuered in the scriptures haue in them or bring with them a most thicke darkenesse or dimnesse that all this was foreseene and performed by God himselfe I doubt not of it and this to be done that he might as well by labour tame and take down mans pride as reuoke and call backe mans vnderstanding from lothsomenesse we knowing that this is naturall in man that such things as are easily found out and attained do for the most part waxe vile And after a few other words he saith thus They that doe not altogether find that they seeke for are still an hungred But as for those that seeke not because they find things readie and easie Excellent sentences and counsell therupon they waxe feeble and vnlustie through lothsomenesse But in both or either of them men must beware of languishing Nobly therefore and verie healthfully also hath the holy Ghost so tempered the holy scriptures that in and by the more plaine places he might meete with and prouide for hunger and in the more obscure and darke places he might take away lothsomenesse For nothing almost is or can be fet out of the more darke places which is not elsewhere found to be spoken verie plainely and as openlie as can bee Othersome there are which flie from and auoid yea turne away their eares and their heart from searching out of holy things and from inquirie after truth specially in the points of doctrine which are now in controuersie and haue some difficulty and doubt in them specially if they heare any of them touched in the Sermons A grosse errour wherein they doe vnder this false perswasion deceiue themselues that the knowledge and iudgement of these matters doth nothing at all belong vnto them The same confuted but concerneth learned men onely and preachers As though it were not said to all how many soeuer they be that professe Christes name Mat. 7.15 1. Thess 5.21 1. Iohn 4.1 2. Pet. 3.17.18 and haue been baptised into him Beware of false Prophets trie all things retaine that which is good trie the spirits whether they be of God or no. Beware least ye be plucked away with the errour of the wicked and fall from your owne stedfastnesse but grow in grace in the knowledge and acknowledging of our Lord Sauiour Iesus Christ Eightly euerie one must know how they ought to dispose and fit themselues to the good and profitable hearing of Gods word that so the things that are spoken may not onely flow in at the eares but may also be vnderstood with the heart yea and not vnderstood only but may be treasured vp in mindfull minds and memories For as in the beginning we said great art and skill was required not onely to the making but also to the hearing of Sermons Hearers must know and well obserue the method ministers vse and their kind of preaching so not onely the minister or preacher of the Church had need of an assured method by the benefit whereof he may readily minister and lay out all things but the diligent hearer also had need thereof that by the benefit helpe of method such things as are well propounded laid open by the preacher may as if it were by the benefit and aide of a faithfull keeper be retained still by the hearer For vnles the hearer be able to discern iudge which in a Sermon is the narration or elsewheÌ„ the summe argument of the present text is vnfolded What things the hearers of Sermons must respect when from the narration there is raised vp a generall proposition or diuision that is too say in what heads or points it is shewed that the whole speech is to be occupied and consumed what doctrines are gathered from the seuerall parts thereof and withall it be declared what is the vse of those doctrines and the application likewise of the same vse when the preacher is occupied in the first second or third part of his Sermon when he is in hand with confutation or obiections are answered to what part of the Catechisme the whole sermon it selfe Mens memories many times hurt by the want of method in the preachers and the seuerall parts thereof are to be referred but that all things confusedly and as it were on heapes shal be thrust into mens eares then I say there neuer was or euer can be so happy holy or heauenly a memorie that is able to remember keepe fast all such things as in an houers space and a continuall course of speech were deliuered So the hearer should be able to know and discerne the seuerall sorts of sermons as whether the present text and sermon belong or is to be referred to doctrine to confutation to instructioÌ„ to correction or exhortation or to speak somwhat more grossely perhaps in mens conceits but more familiarly and truly as in regard of the matter it selfe whether it appertain to faith or good manners And if it belong to faith All that is deliuered respecteth faith or good manners he must know whether any true doctrine be deliuered confirmed and any false doctrine or some errour be confuted And if it concerne life whether it beare vpon and commaund pietie towardes God or some other certaine vertues belonging more properly to men Also he must well regard to what states or sortes of life yea and vnto what duties of euerie state and sort of life all the things spoken are directed as for example
THE ART OR SKIL WELL AND FRVITFVLLIE TO HEARE the holy Sermons of the Church Written first in Latin by a godly Minister named CVâ—â—LMVS ZEPPERVS and now truly translated into english by T. W. For the religious edification of such as vnfeinedly feare the Lord amongst vs. Eccles 4.17 Take heed to thy foot when thou entrest into the house of God and be more neare to heare than to giue 〈◊〉 sacrifice of fooles for they know not that they do euill Marke 4.24 Take heed what ye heare Luke â— 18 Take heed how ye heare Imprinted at London by Felix Kingston 1599. To the Christian Reader grace and peace from God the Father and from his Sonne Iesus Christ our Lord c. WE that now liue brethren may truly say both that our times are good and yet that our daies are naught If any will demaund how this can be so seeing it implieth a flat contradiction the answere is easie readie and right also For if we consider God Iam. 1.17 the onely giuer of euerie good and perfect gift or weigh his blessed bountie in all sorts of graces or respect the long continuance of these singular fauours we cannot but plainely perceiue and openly confesse the truth and certainety of the first part of this sentence For first touching God we may speake it and that truly also to the glory of his great name that he hath opened his hand Psal 14â— and filled with his blessing all sorts and degrees amongest vs. No mans sight as I take it is so bleared or his heart so brawned or his mouth so stopped vp but that he must of necessitie euidently see sensibly feele and freely lay out the same And for his graces generally we may safely acknowledge as the Prophet in a certaine place doth they are so many that none can count his thoughts towards vs yea though we would declare and speake of them Psal yet are they more than we are able to conceiue in our vnderstanding so much are our hearts straitned within vs and therefore greater also than we are able to expresse by speech Now particularly if we could consider as we ought outward and bodily blessings either for the number or varietie of them haue we not iust cause to say that God hath bountifully vouchsafed vs that which the Prophet heartily desired might be giuen to his people Psal 122.7 namely that peace is within our walles and prosperitie within our palaces And that he hath powred that vpon vs which Izhac wished vnto his sonne He hath giuen vs of the dewe of heauen Gen. 27.28.29 and the fatnesse of the earth and plentie of wheat and wine and so forth as it followeth in the Patriarches words And touching spirituall graces we may doubtlesse speake no lesse liberally than the faithfull doe in another Psalme He sheweth his word vnto Iacob his statutes and his iudgements vnto Israel he hath not dealt so with euerie nation Psal 147.19 20. neither haue they knowne his iudgements or as it is in another Prophet I will poure out my spirit vpon all flesh and your sonnes and your daughters shall prophecie Ioel. 2.28.29 your old men shall dreame dreames and your young men shall see visions And also vpon the seruants and vpon the maydes will I in these daies poure cut my spirit yea they shall know me from the least of them to the greatest of them saith the Lord. Iere. 31.34 And concerning the continuance of them we must acknowledge vnlesse we will rob God of his praise and other men of great good and our selues of speciall comfort that we haue had the Lord not onely forbearing vs a yeare two or three together but digging round about vs yea digging and dressing vs not three or foure yeares as in the parable of the figtree planted in the vineyard is declared â— 13.6.7 but full fortie yeare at the least be hauing not only made our wheat and wine to abound all that while â— 6.7 but daily lifting vpon vs the light of his countenaunce On the other side if we weigh either how blind we haue been in these blessings not seeing them at all or consider how carelesse to performe duties for them after light receiued or else regard how hypocriticall we haue been in the seruices which we made shew to accomplish we shall then euidently see in others and sensiblie feele in our selues the truth of the latter part of that sentence For how many be there in the land who whether they deliuer it of ignorant malice or malicious ignorance we will not stand now to determine it say as the people did in the time of the Prophet Ieremie Iere. 44.16.17 The word that thou hast spoken vnto vs in the name of the Lord we will not heare it of thee But we will doe whatsoeuer thing commeth out of our owne mouth as to burne incense to the Queen of heauen to poure out drinke offerings vnto her as we haue done c. Other some again there are amongst vs and I feare me there is no small number of them who whether they doe it of carelesnesse and carnalitie of heart in themselues or presuming before hand Deut. 29.19 that notwithstanding iniquitie God will be gracious vnto them the Lord best knoweth abusing Gods mercy and turning his grace into wantonnes Rom. 2.5.6 do in themselues despise the riches of his bountifulnes patience long suffering forgetting that the bountifulnesse of the Lord should lead them to repentance and so from God heape vp vnto themselues as if it were treasure wrath against the day of wrath and of the declaration of the iust iudgement of God Besides what swarmes of hypocrites be there in the lap and bosome of the Church of whom we may iustly say either as the Apostle doth they haue a shew of pietie 2. Tim. 3. â— but haue denied the power thereof or else serue him for bread and water wool and flax oyle and drinke corne Hos 2. â— wine Hose 2.5 c. gold siluer c. as the idolaters did their Idols in Hosea his time or at the best as our Sauiour himselse saith out of Isaiah touching the age in which he liued This people draweth nigh vnto me with their mouth Mat. 15.8 and honoureth me with their lips but their heart is farre from me By all which we may not onely clearely behold the truth of our first sentence in both the parts of it affirmatiue and negatiue but may further see and learne that it is verie apparant that we haue many waies giuen the Lord iust cause not onely to exclame or complaine of vs as in some of the Prophets he doth touching the nation of the Iewes saying O my people what haue I done vnto thee Micah 6.3 Esay 5.4 or wherein haue I grieued thee And againe what could I haue done any more to my vineyard that I haue not done vnto it but also as it
our hearts also Iam. 4.8 as Saint Iames saith Clense your hands yee sinners and purge your harts ye double minded men and so draw neere to God and he will draw neere to you Considering and remembring that in this case especially that common saying must be true Touch not holy things with vnwashen handes From whence also it cōmeth to passe as we see that so often as either prophets or godly kings among the people of God did call together eyther their household seruants and families or the priests or the whole people eyther to heare Gods word or to offer vp sacrifices or to intreat God when common calamities were at hand they exact demaund and call for nothing more than sanctification clensing and preparation thereto Places prouing that preparatiō or sanctification should goe before the word as in many places of the scriptures examples touching this point present themselues vnto vs. Amongest others see Gen. 35. vers 2. Exod. 19.10 1. Sam. 16.5 2. Chro. 15.12 2. Chro. 29.5 Ioel. 2.15.16 Heere we are to marke that this one word of sanctifying or sanctification comprehendeth vnder it all that dutie which a godly hearer that should prepare and fit himself to the sauing hearing of Gods word ought to bring with him yet because that is very large I will for more perspicuitie and plainnes sake more straitly aime at those things and more particularly put them down which are comprehended vnder this terme of sanctification as also what thinges are contrarie thereto and indeed should be remoued and amended For so by one and the selfe same labor it shal manifestly appeare that not only the very hearing of holy Sermons but that preparatiō also to that sauing healthful healing is not some light labor as sundrie suppose but a matter of verie great skill industrie trauell For euen as in the brittle fraile things of this world there is almost nothing that is not stopped as it were with certain his own lets hinderances for the remouing whereof men must especially labour and toile least both the thing it selfe and all the fruit and profit of it euen whilest it is greene as we say perish and come to nothing so to the hearing of Gods word and to the performance of Gods worship the most great grieuous and hurtfull difficulties of all others are obiected and set against the same yea shackles and more than yron setters which either altogether banish and withhold men from holy assemblies or else verily so snare and keepe their heartes in thrall that they make them that are present absent and rather shaddowes of men than men in the holy places of praierleaue them we may more truly say it liuing images in stead of those deaf dumb dead pictures that were wont to be there before But these lets obstacles must first of all be remoued And though by the things which haue alreadie bin spoken a man may easily coniecture and conceiue that they are of two sorts yet because for the most part they come together as if it were in troupes I will one after one rehearse them withall declare the remedies of them On the day therefore before the Sermons as also at other times Surfetting must be auoided yea continually men must abstaine from drunken feastes and gulling in of wine likewise in the morning before the Sermons they must abstain from burnt wine which in some places a man may see readie to be sold eyther at the gates and entrances into the Church or very nigh to Churches On the other side it is meete carefully to striue vnto sobrietie and temperance which a man may not vnproperly call the perpetuall fast or abstinence of Christians for surfetting in meat A reason drinke or otherwise as also the fulnesse of the former daies wine eyther tieth men wholly to their beddes and chambers and so draweth yea driueth them away from holy assemblies or else in them causeth them to do nothing but sinne This we may assure our selues of that drunkennes and surfetting take from men reason and the vse of vnderstanding in which consisteth the chiefest dutie of mans reasonable soule Whereupon the prophet Hosea pronounceth That wine new wine or strong drinke take away the heart Hose 4.11 Wherefore that vtterly taketh away the serious meditatiō and thought of Gods word his works and iudgements whether they be mercies or miseries and afflictions yea it remoueth the meditation of euerlasting life which thing also Isaiah obserued when vnto them that were giuen ouer to continuall quaffing drinking and were mighty to drinke wine and strong to mingle things which would make men drunk he ascribeth this that they regard not the Lords worke nor consider or behold the worke of his hands Esay 11.24 but despise the law of the Lord of hostes and contemne the word of the holy one of Israel With which agreeth that which our Sauiour Christ telleth vs Luke 21.34 when he affirmeth That by surfetting and drunkennes mens hearts are become heauie and oppressed so that they are not able to rise vp to the contemplation and beholding of heauenly thinges that so they might delight in God who is that chiefe and eternall good and in the sight and sense of his eternall saluation than which what can be spoken or thought more grieuous or that is or can be more hurtfull to mans saluation or more estranged from the end to which he was created Wherupon Saint Paul also dehorting Christians from drunkennes doth by a certaine opposition set as directly contrarie one of them to another the spirit of wine and the spirit of the Lord as also the effectes of drunkennes and of Gods spirit and on the other side exhorting men to the effects fruits or works of the holy ghost and euen vnto those exercises also which should be performed in the holy assemblies of the Church disswadeth them from drunkennes Ephes 5.17 18. as a most present infection and destruction of them all saying Be not vnwise but vnderstand what the will of the Lord is And be not drunke with wine wherein is excesse but be fulfilled with the spirit speaking mutually among your selues in Psalmes Hymnes spirituall songs singing and making melodie to the Lord in your harts giuing thanks alwaies for all things vnto God the father in the name of our Lord Iesus Christ It shall not therfore be besides the purpose Remedies against the hinderance or let of surfetting if as at all times generally so particularly the day before the Sermon and chiefely before the Lords day men do vtterly and altogether abstaine from more long and intemperate feasts and bankets yea if by some lawe and authoritie of the magistrate wine-sellers and victuallers be forbidden that the day before the Lords day they shoulde but for a certaine time and space set them sell wine or victuals to any and the like to be laid vpon them also in the Sermon while except