words of the Prophets declare good things vnto the King with one accord 1. King 22.13.14 let thy word therefore I pray thee be like vnto the word of one of thē and speake thou good Micheas answered him roundly As the Lord liueth whatsoeuer the Lord saith vnto me that will I speake The like zeale and courage we reade in Scripture to haue beene in Elizeus the Prophet vnto whom when King Iehoram Ahabs son had sent to know of him what successe his battell intended against the King of Moab was like to haue the Prophet very boldly answered the King after this manner What haue I to doe with thee get thee to the Prophets of thy Fathers and to the Prophets of thy mother 2. King 3.13.14 and said moreouer vnto him as the Lord liueth in whose sight I stand if it were not that I regarde the presence of Iehosaphat the king of Iudah I would not once haue looked towardes thee nor seene thee But of all others commended in scripture for zeale and courage the prophet Elias may carie the praise from them al Of whom in Ecclesiasticus it is thus reported Ecclesiast cap. 48.1 that he stood like a fire and his words burned like a lampe and because the people of Israel could not away with the commandement of the Lord by the word of the Lord he shut the heauen and so brought a famine vpon them He was appointed to reproue in due season and to pacifie the wrath of the Lords iudgement before it kindled Malac. 4.6 and so to turne the hearts of the Fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers Vnto the which place the Angell Gabriel prophesying before hand vnto Zacharie what manner of person his sonne Iohn Baptist should be alludeth saying Luk. 1.17 that he should goe before the Lord in the power and spirit of Elias to turne the hearts of the fathers to the children and the disobedient to the wisedome of the iust to make readie a people prepared for the Lord. O that all the Preachers and Ministers of this kingdome were so possessed with the power and spirit of Elias that by beating downe sinne and wickednesse by the sword of the spirit and by giuing knowledge of saluation to the people of God they might prepare the waies of the Lord by pulling downe the mountaines by raising and filling vp the vallies by making crooked things straight by making rough waies smooth By the mountaines are vnderstood men that are very high and proud in the opinion of their owne righteousnes which by the preaching of the Gospell shall abate their pride and so come to Christ By the vallies are meant men that are vtterly despaire of all men and altogether liuing in dispaire such shal be raised vp to the fellowship and communion of the kingdome of heauen By crooked things are signified such things as haue beene warped and writhed sundrie waies Psal 119.9 which shall be made straight by the leuell and squire of the Gospell For how shall a young man saith Dauid clense his waies but by ruling himselfe after the word of God As for the rough waies that shal be made plaine they are called rough by reason of the thornes of manifold vices and naughtie desires and lusts the short is that the course of all things shal be changed to such contraries that all impediments and lettes that shall hinder the course of the Gospell shall be broken and so the Preachers of Christs sacred word Gospel shall make readie a people prepared for the Lord. But alas we are fallen into these miserable daies euen the worst and last daies that we are so farre off from suffering ourselues to be reproued when we sinne that we doe reioyce when we doe wickedly Wee cannot abide to haue our faults touched Our Pride is growen as high as the Heauen our couetousnesse is sunke as deepe as hell and yet wee cannot in any wise suffer ourselues to be reproued Wee say to the preachers Peace and talke not vnto vs in the name of the Lord tell not vs of the Scripture Tell not vs of Christ of Peter of Paul wee bid the preacher speake vs faire and we bid him blesse those things which are accursed by Gods owne mouth Nay manie there are which are already wearie of the Gospel and wearie of their preachers they call them Pulpit-men of the spirite Priests and I know not what as though themselues had nothing to doe with the spirite of God They say the Preacher is too busie hee medleth with that he knoweth not Yes thou foolish man he knoweth it well enough He knoweth that pride is pride that extortion is extortion that couetousnes is couetousnes that sacriledge is sacriledge that vsurie is vsurie that sinne is sinne and thou and thine owne conscience knoweth it too if thou wouldest be knowen of it But God is iust and as the extreme disdaine of Gods truth and his holie Gospel deserueth the extremitie of Gods vengeance So can it not bee without speedie and earnest repentance but that this Gospel that we are alreadie so wearie of shall bee taken away from vs euen the kingdome of God which is the true vnderstanding of Gods word shall be taken away from vs And then what can there remaine but blindnesse and ignorance which is the kingdome of the diuell But this is the only comfort that Preachers haue in this great contradiction and opposition of the worlde that if they haue a carefull endeuour to discharge a good conscience in crying out against wickednesse and lifting vp their voices like a Trumpet against the disorders of common life God Almightie will so arme all such zealous preachers with such an inuincible strength and constancie that all the powers of the world shall neuer be able to ouercome them Bee not afraide saith God to the Prophet Ieremie of their faces for beholde saith hee I haue this day made thee a defenced citie and an iron pillar and walles of brasse against the whole land against the kings of Iuda and against the Princes therof Ier. 1.18 against the Priests therof against the people of the land They shall fight against thee but they shall not preuaile against thee For I am with thee to deliuer thee saith the Lord. What saith S. Cyprian Shall the inuincible Tents of Christ defended with the strength of the Lord Lib. 1. Epist ad Cornel giue place to the terrors and threatnings of men Shall the Church yeeld to the Capitol Shall the outrages of madde men be greater then the iudgements and censures of ministers No God forbid it must not be so For are not the preachers the lights of the world and therefore appointed by God to espie faultes are they not the voice of Iohn Baptist why then should not they crie out against sinnes Seeing therefore they are the seers of the Lorde they must not be blinde and being the Lords criers they must
inheritance the dearly beloued of Gods owne soule a people whome the Lorde had chosen among all Nations to be a precious people to himselfe aboue all people on the earth in Name praise and glorie A people that so many times and so solemnlie had protested God forbid wee should forsake the Lord our God to serue other Gods the Lord our God we will serue and his voyce wee will obey that this people I say should stand in doubt whether that GOD that had wrought so many miracles for their deliuerance which had brought them out of the Land of Egipt with a strong and a mightie hand which had led them and fed them in the wildernes with Manna from heauen for the space of 40. yeares preseruing them in all the way which they went and destroying their enemies before them lastly in the ende bringing them into the Land of Canaan whether he were the onely true God to be worshipped and followed or rather Baal in so much that when the prophet Elias had said vnto them If the Lorde be God followe him if Baal be hee goe after him Silence was the onely answere they made him being not able otherwise to answere him one word Vnto this base irresolution the people were thus desperately brought partly being moued through feare of so great and mightie a Prince and so greatly aduancing the worship of Baal as king Ahab did by the inticement and prouocation of his wife So that perceiuing how both the King and Queene and almost all the Nobilitie being wholly affected addicted to the worship of Baal by reason of the weakenesse and infirmitie of their faith were not able to resolue in themselues what they might doe or how they might belieue standing in a mammering this way and that way one and the same man would somtimes worship the Lord and an other while Baal and sometimes both together being perswaded that religion was a thing indifferent and that it did not matter how they serued God if they had any care at all to serue him whether they serued him alone or serued him with anie other But little did this people vnderstand that religion is not as euerie common matter of mans life but a thing to be measured not by opinion but by truth to be chosen not by example but by iudgement to be holden not for companie but for conscience sake In this irresolution and wauering inconstancie of the people of Israel wee may as in a glasse beholde and see our selues euen the state and condition of our owne people how manie there are yet in our dayes which notwithstanding they haue bene bred and brought vp in this religion which by Gods great mercy this day is professed in the Church of England yet partly by the corruption of their owne nature partly led by the mouing perswasions of recusant Papists but specially being inticed therevnto by those false impostors deceiuers of the world I meane the Priests and Iesuites beginne to call the truth of our religion into question standing in a maze what they may doe whome they may followe what they may belieue sometime in loue and liking of our religion otherwhile againe being wearie of the Gospell imbracing the Romane religion falsely called by the name of the Catholike Religion and so daily wauering betweene two opinions declare themselues indeed to bee of no Religion For whom as my daily prayer to God is and shall be that he would be pleased to graunt them a solide and strong perswasion in the profession and defence of the true and onely ancient Catholike faith of Christ deliuered vnto vs in the holy scriptures of God and withall such a measure of heauenly wisedome that they may be able to discerne things that differ one from another and to giue a sound iudgement betweene that which is counterfaite and the true Catholike faith and religion of Christ So I could wish that they would consider with mee and that they would seriously ponder with earnest and vpright aduisement these fewe reasons or motiues which here I will set downe which may serue in steed of so many seuerall demonstrations to proue that this same doctrine we preach this day in all the reformed churches of Christendome is the verie truth of the Gospel of Christ First I would haue them but to weigh the beginnings and proceedings of our religion how in a manner all the trauels of our aduersaries haue come to nought and how no bodie driuing it forward without any worldlie helpe it hath taken increase and by little little is spread ouer into all countreys And verilie it cannot chuse but carrie great weight of perswasion to moue the conscience of any man to see so many kingdoms and countries ioyne together in the profession and obedience of one truth And there is no doubt but euen this day manie thousandes are the sooner led to humble themselues to the Gospell of Christ for that they see to the vnspeakeable griefe of the Pope and his fauourites the whole world that is to say the whole Church of God is contented so willingly and so humbly to imbrace the same Againe let them but consider that they haue seene with their owne eyes how the Gospell which hath bene preached vnto them and which somtimes with ioy they haue receiued euen amiddes so many stormes and tempests through death and persecution notwithstanding the abundance of innocent Christian blood which hath beene shed ouer all the world hath had a strange and wonderfull increase so that the more our religion hath beene persecuted the more still it hath increased and this was euer reputed by the ancient fathers to be the proper priuiledge and excellencie of truth about all other sects to come out of persecution as gold out of the fire more bright more illustrious more eminent then before A third motiue or forcible inducement to iustifie the truth of the Gospel now preached may be this euen the due consideration of that vniuersalitie of learning and sauing knowledge wherewith God hath blessed these daies of ours more plentifully and in greater measure then in former times he hath done In so much that whereas the Prophet Esay speaking of that aboundance of knowledge which should be vnder the kingdome of Christ in the time of grace hath these words Esa 11.9 The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters that couer the sea and likewise the Prophet Ioel Ioel. 2.28 I will powre out my spirit vpon all flesh and your sonnes and your daughters shall prophecie Your old men shall dreame dreames and your yong men shall see visions and also vpon the seruants and handmaides will I poure my spirit We may truly say in this accepted time and this day of saluation that these scriptures are fulfilled in our eares euen our enemies being iudges who haue confessed that the word of God was neuer in any age so plainely taught and deliuered as in this time wherein we
lieth still and all other godlie and Christian meetings quite geuen ouer Farre otherwise then it was vnder the raignes of Dauid Ezechias Iosias and Iehoshaphat in whose dayes the people enioyed those three blessings before remembred namely godlines honestie and peace All those godly and religious Kings not onely by words encouraging the people to serue God but by their examples drawing great multitudes to imitate the same zeale and feruencie which they saw to be in such Princes vnder whom they liued But on the other side when God in his anger and iust indignation sendeth wicked Princes to sit in place of iudgement and authoritie religion and vertue goeth to decay Gods honour is defaced the people drawne to idolatrie the worship and seruice of God prophanely abused the truth whereof as it appeareth by diuerse and sundry examples of wicked Kings in the holie scriptures so in none more plainly then in King Ahab of whome I shall haue occasion heereafter to speake of whom the Scripture thus recordeth that he solde himselfe to doe wickedly in the sight of the Lord that hee did exceeding abhominably in following idolles 2. King 10.30.31 according to allthat the Ammonites did being prouoked thervnto by Iezabel his wife For it was a light thing for him to walk in the sinnes of Ieroboam except he tooke Iezabel also the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sydonians to wife and serued Baal and worshipped him In whose dayes what an hauocke there was made of the Saintes and seruants of God what an increase there was made of most grosse idolatrie by ioyning Gods worship and Baals together what slaughter of the Prophets of God liuing in those times which went vp and downe wandering in sheepes-skinnes and goates skinnes beeing destitute tormented and afflicted and for the safegard of their liues being glad to wander in the wildernesse and mountaines and dennes and caues of the earth Heb 11.37 is plainely to be seene by the complaint and request of the Prophet 2. King 19.14 which hee made vnto God against Israel saying O Lorde the children of Israel haue forsaken thy couenant cast downe thine Altars and slaine thy Prophet with the sworde and I onely am left and they seeke my life to take it away Albeit the answer of God said vnto him I haue reserued to my selfe seuen thousand men Rom 11.3.4 which haue not bowed the knee to Baal In this great and miserable desolation and confusion of his Church the Lord remembring his people of Israel when they little looked for it and lesse deserued it sent Elias the Prophet vnto them who the more forciblie to drawe both the King and his Subjects to a serious consideration of their sinnes and to shew how greatly the Lord was displeased for their idolatrous worshipping of Baal 1. King 17.1 tolde king Ahab to his face As the Lorde liueth before whome I stand there shall be neither deaw nor raine these yeares but according to my word which indeed according to the saying of the Prophet came to passe For as Elias moued by the instinct of Gods holy spirit prayed vnto God earnestly that it might not raine Iam 5.17 so according to his prayer it rained on the earth for three yeares and sixe moneths By meanes wherof the famine was so great in Israel for lacke of raine that man and beast were readie to perish and raine they could haue none but at Elias word as Elias had told the king before the drought beganne At the ende of the three yeares and sixe moneths of drought 1. King 18.1 the Prophet Elias was commaunded to shewe himselfe to king Ahab and albeit hee was greatly disswaded so to doe by Obadiah whom hee met in the way yet the Prophet was resolute solemnly protesting to Obadiah As the Lord of Hostes liueth in whose presence I stand I will surely shew my selfe vnto Ahab this day 1. King 18 15. Meeting therfore with Ahab and beeing challenged by him as the author of that famine and troubler of Israel he discharged himselfe and protested before the King that God plagued the whole Land because hee and his Fathers house had forsaken the commaundements of the Lord and followed other Gods And to iustifie his speech he offered to prooue before all Israel on the danger of his owne head that the king and the Land were but seduced and abused by the Prophets of Baal and that hee would prooue by no worse meanes then by miraculous fire from heauen which should shew them whose sacrifice was accepted assuring them of raine aboundantly after their conuersion to the true GOD for which cause at this time hee was sent vnto them To this the King gaue his consent and by the perswasion and motion of Elias sent by his Princely authoritie for all Israel that they should gather themselues together in mount Carmel together with the Prophets of Baal 450. which were dispersed throghout all the tribes of Israel the prophets of the groues 400. which did eat at Iezabels table The King the chiefe heads of the people of Israel and the prophets of Baal being thus assembled together in mount Carmel Elias commeth to the people and saith thus vnto them How long will yee halt betweene two Opinions c In the which words of the Prophet I obserue foure speciall things worthy of consideration Diuisio First he reproueth the Israelites for their halting consciences betweene two religions Secondly hee declareth vnto them that they cannot serue both Baal and God together and that religion is not a thing indifferent Thirdlie hee exhorteth them to constancie in religion and in following of God Fourthlie the successe which followed this reproofe of the Prophet In the reproofe of the Prophet I obserue these foure points First who it is that reproueth Elias Secondlie the persons whom he doth reproue The people of Israel Thirdlie the person before whom King Ahab Fourthlie the thing he reproueth in the people their wauering and vnconstancie in matter of religion In the person of Elias The person of Elias wee haue to obserue the great zeale constancie and boldnesse which should bee in the ministers and preachers of the Gospel For vnto them it belongeth to preach the preachings the Lorde hath bidden them and to proclaime his vengeance against sinners yea euen to stand at the gates of paradise with a flaming sword in their mouth against obstinate and vnrepentant sinners That which the prophet Micheas saith of himselfe Mich. 3.8 that he was full of power by the spirit of the Lord and of iudgement and of strength to declare vnto Iacob his transgression and to Iacob his sinne was as truly verified in his owne person whom neither the Courtlike perswasions of the Eunuch that went for him nor the consent of 400. Prophets nor the fauour of two Kings nor the danger of his owne head could driue him from the word of God And when the Eunuch had said vnto him behold now the
speech of that learned father is truely verified this day in the church of Antichrist where the Papists can make their Crosses to speake their Idolles to goe their images to weepe to sweate to laugh to shift themselues from place to light their owne lamps Yea the vnholy fathers of the societie of Iesus to set a glorious countenance of their miracles tell vs in great sadnes that with their holie-water they haue calmed the Sea chased away mice out of the countrey and haue made barren women to conceiue and beare children But against such miracle-mongers saith Augustine My God hath armed mee saying Tractat in Ioh 13. in the latter dayes there shall arise false Prophets working signes and wonders to deceiue the very Elect of God if it were possible True it is the Apostles wrought miracles but it was thereby to confirme the Gospel they preached as the Euangelist writeth The Lord wrought with them Mar 16.20 confirmed the word with signes that followed And the Apost to the Hebrues likewise saith that saluation at the first begā to be preached by the Lord was confirmed vnto vs by them that heard him meaning the Apostles bearing witnes thereunto with signes wonders with diuers gifts of the holy Ghost Heb 2.3.4 according to his will In the first beginning then and gathering of the church miracles were necessarie But as when wee goe about to plant a tree so long we water it vntill we see it hath takē root but when it is once substantially grounded and branches spread abroad wee take no more paine to water it So likewise as long as the people of the world were altogether faithlesse this meanes of miracles for confirmation of doctrine was of Indulgence graunted then But when once spirituall instruction had taken better place the corporall signes surceased straight The kingdome and Church of Christ was planted in the power of doctrine and miracles by the power of the holie Ghost Now therefore it is against faith if any looke for miracles againe to confirme the Gospell which is alreadie so confirmed that if an Angell from heauen should preach vnto vs any otherwise then that which hath bene preached vnto vs let him be accursed Seeing then the doctrine this day taught professed and preached in the Church of England is the verie same doctrine which Christ himselfe deliuered to his Apostles and they to their aftercommers there needeth no other confirmation by miracles to be wrought by vs. Thus haue I with what perspicuitie and breuitie the proportion of the time allotted vnto mee would permit runne ouer this portion of holy scripture The Lorde giue a blessing vnto the wordes which you haue heard this day with your outward eares out of my mouth and by the secret working of his holy spirite giue such force vnto them that they may become fruitfull in the hearts of you all And forasmuch as the Lord in these Halcion and happie dayes of ours hath dealt with vs in farre greater mercie then hee hath done with any other nation besides in that wee haue of his great clemencie these many yeares together enioyed with libertie of bodie and freedome of conscience the greatest ioy and felicitie that euer betided any people euen the sincere preaching of his most sacred word and Gospell with the right and due administration of his Sacraments with health peace libertie and quietnesse vnder the wise godly and most peaceable gouernment of his chosen seruant Elizabeth our late Queene and Mistrisse now at this time vnder the gouernement of our most gracious Soueraign Lord King Iames whose life the Lord preserue and long continue among vs that considering how the Lord hath multiplied his graces and blessings vpon vs that we may euermore continue constant and stedfast in the profession of his eternall truth that what opposition soeuer we find in the world of fawning flatterie or persecuting crueltie that we neuer suffer our selues to be remoued from the same but that we may striue for the truth euen to death holding fast that which we haue vntill the comming of our Lord Iesus Christ that we neuer halt or double in matter of religion nor waue betweene two opinions but that wee may stedfastly cleaue vnto the Lord all the daies of our life that wee neuer admit any fellowship or communion with the Church of Rome knowing that the whole religion of poperie wherein it differeth from vs is nothing else but a most wicked apostacie from the ancient faith So that being confirmed and strengthened and established in that Gospel which hath beene preached vnto vs which we haue receiued wherein we continue and which is able to saue vs we may euery day more and more grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ to the which Christ Iesus together with the father and the holy Ghost be ascribed all power glory dominion and Maiestie both now and euermore Amen FINIS