teacheth presumption for hee which at the 11th houre was willing to accept of these mens labours gaue them no assurance that they should find labour at the sixth Besidcs non semper manet in foro Pater-familias saith Austin the lord of the vineyard is not alwayes in the market to set thee on worke and no marvaile saith Gregory if at the last gaspe hee forget himselfe who in all his life neglected to remember God But these I passe over as being by others often beate vpon wherefore I desire that you would returne a litle backward with mee and call to minde how Interpreters for the most part do agree that the severall howers and parts of the day do delineate vnto vs in this parable nothing else but the severall seasons of of mans life and how that the market place doth paint out any place out of the Church that therefore the husbandman should brand all the day or parts of mans life spent here or out of the Church with this blot of idlenesse I inferre That all our life appeares idle in Gods sight which is spent before wee truly are inserted or engrafted into the body of the Church As the Church is distinguished into visible invisible so may a man be said to be actually inserted either into the visible alone which requireth nothing but an externall profession of the true faith or into the invisible which besides the profession craues the inward spirit of adoption The Papists howsoeuer they make a faire glose and seeme much to extoll their Mother the Church with extra EcclesiaÌ„ non est salus out of the Church there is no salvation a point acknowledged as well by vs as themselues yet it is a matter worth the observing that lest the doctrine of merits and freewill should quite goe to the ground so bolde will they make with this their Mother as that Andradius on the one part would haue euen HeatheÌ„s existing out of the visible Church by their good workes to purchase salvation Bellarmine on the other part in his 1. book de Iustif 21. chap thinks that men wanting justifying grace therfore not yet actually of the invisible Church if we should speak according to the truth may performe works which shall not onely appeare not idle in God's sight but over aboue proue meritorious ex congruo of justification Alas but if either of these doctrines might hold play it had been hard measure to haue stiled these labourers standing here with so homely a title as idle Bellarm. quoting this Parable at least 7 times in his 4th Tome to proue free-will merits cannot if he be ingenious but confesse that if euer merituÌ„ ex congruo were found in any it was in these men For what vertues requires he to merit of congruiry which any way might be defectiue in them Faith enough for a Papist they had for they knew the way into the market in which they were to staÌ„d for hire the Papists desire to know no more for this merite then where is the church waÌ„ted their Hope another of Bellar. preparatiues when they so stedfastly kept their station Slack't they their desire or was their inteÌ„t altered when they so patieÌ„tly expected the hire vntill the 11 â—â— houre nay to coÌ„clude lack't there anything to the perfection of the actioÌ„ when it tooke effect They might haue excused themselues saying Lord thou knowest all things thou knowest that wee haue stood heere all the day to merite ex congruo our hire that we might merite ex condigno the penny But beholde the Husbandman like a good Physitian first shewes them their malady before he applyes the medicine and by arguing their infirmity stirres them vp to an acknowledging of their misery What shall wee say beloued is it likely that God is so rigide in his censures that he will not spare to reproue euen actions meritorious his mercy was wont to be aboue all his works and will hee now make well-deseruings the subject of his high displeasure God forbid let him be just and these labourers how glorious soeuer their actions sinners and being sinners it followeth that God which in the evening rewarded them aboue their merite did now entertaine them without their merite and that their works which after their calling into the Church appeared pleasing before this admission appeared idle and vaine in themselues The reason is giuen by our Sauiour Mat. 12. when he bids vs to make the tree good and his fruit good or the tree euill and his fruit euill for as is the tree such will be the fruit the sacrifice of the vnregenerate or wicked is an abomination vnto the Lord Proverb 15. and the Lord Esay 1. cryes out to the Iewes which had forsaken him Bring no more oblations in vaine my soule hateth your new Moones and your appointed feaste they are a burthen vnto me and I am weary to beare them and againe in the 66. Chap He that killeth a bullocke as if he slew a man he that offereth an oblation is as if he offered swines bloud he that remembreth incense as if he blessed an Idoll Heere nothing might passe for meritorious ex opere operato though it were sacramentall but rather in that they wanted Faith the seale of their redemption and gate of entrance into the Church of Christ they had no fruit in those things their workes yet did appeare idle A point worth the considering by those who hauing once beene freed from the bondage of Antichrist doe like Lot's wise looke backe againe towards Sodome if not with a resolution of returning yet with a delight of beholding her painted outside Beloued if wee acknowledge them to be none of the true Church I may confidently pronounce their workes as they are in Gods sight vaine and idle For Sodome will be Sodome and Antichrist will bee Antichrist we cannot expect grapes of thornes nor figges of thistles Affirmatiuely I confesse I cannot conclude this or that man doth outward good workes therefore hee is a member of the true Church for God onely who knoweth the heart of man can truely judge of the goodnesse of the worke but negatiuely I may say this man is no member of the true Church therfore his life beit never so laborious in the eyes of men yet in the sight of God with these labourers in my Text he stands alwayes idle And indeede the husbandman's argument so runnes statis hîc you stand here out of the Church ergo otiose pretend therefore what you list defend your case how you can you stand heere all the day idle It hath beene a preposterous course therefore as you may well obserue which the Iesuites and Priests haue vsed in seducing our Countrymen either at home or abroad to winne them to their side by shewing them the devotion of their religious men the liberality of their Lay people or the strange outward holinesse of both sorts at some times in the yeare our men should first before
they venture too farre vpon their workes sift the truth of their Church and before they suffer shipwracke in their practickes sound the depth or their shallowes in their theoricks For from the glistering of works to the verity of the Church inference can be but probable at the most often false but from the corruption of doctrine or from a nullity of the Church to the nullity of good workes the argument holdes alwayes strong and the conclusion necessary Bellarmine himselfe acknowledgeth the former in his 5. booke de gratia libero arbitrio and 10. chap when he sayth Ex operibus ipsorum hominum qui nos docent non posce cognosci doctrinam cùm opera interna non videantur externa autem sunt communia vtrisque The doctrine which men teach cannot be knowne by their workes because their inward workes are not seene and their outward workes are common to both sides The latter I confirmed before it needes not much amplifying for if the roote be bitter the fruit cannot be sweet and if the member be rotten it cannot but be of small performance But to come more particularly vnto them because they seeme heerein to out-face vs our men doc commonly giue three reasons wherefore the workes of those which exist out of the true Church can by no meanes be pleasing in God's sight and should I not too farre encroach vpon your patience I could easily exemplifie thē in the Church of Rome The first is because they proccede not from a true faith alas what is the faith of the Church of Rome Antichrist hath not so shedde her hornes as she hath diminished that true faith to which Paul tells vs shee was once obedient that faith was such an one as came by hearing the word of God Rom 10 and was like that of Abraham's by which he doubted not of the promises made vnto him Gen. 15 so that her eyes were knowledge her soule was a firme confidence in the merits of our Saviour here you may see a strange alteration Bellarmine defining faith rather by ignorance thē knowledge telling vs that all confidence in these cases is plaine presumption wherfore Rome's faith being deprived both of sight soule at once can bee no more operatiue it must needs be dead profit them nothing The 2d reason why the workes of those which are not members of the true Church are idle in God's sight is because they are not done to a right end well said therfore S. Austin Cùm facit homo aliquid vbi peccare non videtur si non propter hoc facit propter quod facere debet peccare convincitur Now to instance in the Church of Rome whither bend their actiōs but to this end to foūd the kingdome of Antichrist Whither tends all their doctrine teachings but only to reare vp fortify as Molineus well notes the towre of confusion new Babell some points to enrich her treasury as indulgences pilgrimages and dispensations some to augment her power authority as ignorance of Lay-people multiplying of Fryeries the necessity of Confession and Absolution some to conserue that which hath already beene gotten as the single life of Priests exemption of Clergie from secular Magistrates the preheminence of the Pope aboue Princes Councels and Scripture it selfe with the like See how out of the mines of the Gospell Antichrist labours to hew his throne make the Articles of faith nothing but columnes of a Papall Empire But these may seeme yet to be actions of State let 's see what each member doth in the closet of his soule a man would thinke that betweene onesselfe God there should be plaine dealing found yet behold evē there do they erre in their scope rob God of his honour rejecting him which is the way striuing through their owne workes to beat a path to the heavenly Canaan How art thou fallen Babylon that great City and art become the habitation of divels how hast thou built thy fortresse vpō the sands of humane wisdome refusing the rock corner-stone Christ Iesus But to be briefe the 3d reason why those works are idle in God's sight which are done by men out of the true Church is drawne à formali because the works many of thē in their owne nature are grosse sins indeed it is a matter worth the observing by all of vs that those fects which maintain not the truth of the Gospel in purity sincerity are tainted cōmonly besides other errors with the defending of some grosse sin or other which displaies and add's suspition to all the rest God in his providence detecting hypocrisie by some apparent iniquity S. Paul giues vs an evidēt exāple hereof in the Gentils Ro. 1. who for that they turned the glory of the incorruptible God to the similitude of the image of a corruptible man and of birdes and foure-footed beasts and creeping things God also gaue them vp vnto horrible sinnes promiscuous lusts which were against nature and deliuered them vp vnto a reprobate minde to doe those things which they knew that they which cōmitted them were worthy of death and yet they not onely did the same but also favoured them which did them And to say the plaine truth what are many of those points which the Romane Consistory defends at this day any other then hay nous crymes hatefull to all men Perhaps their prayer for the dead their pilgrimages fasting-dayes vowes and ceremonies may seeme to come frō a foolish ignorant zeale and therfore the more excusable but the doctrine of murdering and deposing of Princes their Powder plots the assertion of aequivocation their tolerating of publicke stewes euen in Rome it selfe what Christian can with patience abide to heare them O heauens open your doores send thunder that may sound out these wicked and vnnaturall positions astonish the nature of things reasonable a while that the nature of things vnreasonable may vnderstand and all God's creatures be abashed at such impieties It is not I am perswaded either the wheele offortune or the change of destiny or the craft of the diuell that brings the adversaries of our Church to beleeue such shamefull doctrines but it is God in his divine providence which hath permitted them euen there where the light of nature is most apparent so to stumble that the meanest of God's Elect whom he hath decreed to redeeme from the servitude of the Beast by feeling the Law written in their hearts to thwart and contradict those strange assertions nay grow to a distrust in the rest and by distrusting search and by searching finde the true way which leades vnto life euerlasting We may well remember how the absurd selling of Indulgences or pardons for mens sinnes by Leo the tenth was that which first stirred vp Luther's generous spirit in Germanic to make a farther inquirie into Babylon's mysteries and how that grosse dispensation from the Pope for K. Henry to marry his brothers wife was
luxury of wit now containes nothing but extreame barbarisme and stupidity in it Athens so glorious in times past for Philosophers is now the temple of ignorance as in respect of her temporall estate shee hath lost her beauty pared her large dimensions deposed her scepter wherewith shee over-ruled and sway ed all Greece so in respect of her wisedome knowledge and skill in disciplines one might now seeke old Athens in new Athens and not finde it As therefore God dealt with the land of Canaan which being sometimes the mirrour of the world for fertility and abundance of all things now for a testimony of punishment to the ingratefull inhabitants he hath made it subject to many curses and especially to that of barrennes so hath he done to these nations even plagued them with extreame wante of that knowledge the abundance of which their fathers did so wantōly vnthankfully abuse Now beloued for this which hee hath done for our soules what exacts he againe at the hands of vs his creatures temples or basilikes or marble pallaces for his Majestie to dwell in Why the earth is but his footestoole and the heaven of heavens is not able to containe him or is it the bloud of bulls goates that he is delighted with why Mille sui Siculis errant in montibus agni all the beasts of the forrest are his and so are the sheepe vpon a thousand mountaines What tribute therefore is it which hee demands at our hands what is the coyne that he requires to be paid with Why the Psalmist tells vs. Offer vnto the Lord the sacrifice of praise and thankesgiving Well might we feare lest God should haue required some thing without vs some thing in the house that the mothes had corrupted some thing in the garner that the mice or vermine had consumed some thing in the field that the fox or wolfe had devoured but he sends vs to our selues to our owne ward to the inmost closet of the soule which none can vnlocke but God onely ara tua conscientia saith Sr Austine thy conscience is thine altar offer thereon the sacrifice of praise Here you see how litle it is that God challengeth and yet as litle regarded I pray God it be not one day as hard laid to the charge of Christians as it was here to the Gentiles that they were not thankefull And so I come from the parts of that contempt and neglect which the Gentiles shewed in the abuse of that knowledge which God afforded them of himselfe in that they glorified him not as God neither were thankefull vnto the effects of the same which were as before I shewed you a promptitude to invent and foster vaine falsehoods and a difficulty to credite the truth but first of the pronenesse they had to invent falsehoods which commeth in the next place to bee treated of but became vaine in their imaginations Bonaventure on the 2d of the Sent. is so confident that he pronounceth it impossible esse culpam in aliquo quin ad ipsam poena sequatur inseparabiliter that there should bee a fault in any man which punishment doth not follow inseparably at the heeles Wee perhaps would cast about whence this punishment should come wee looke if our goods doe diminish our stocke be impaired our health be abated our friends alienated but alas then had this maxime prov'd false in these Gentiles which had no cause to complaine of any such disasters But the punishment was in their mindes sinne begot sinne errours begot errours falsehoods begot falsehoods and that saith Durand either by way of a finall cause as one misconceit being more plausible vnto them then another and to defend it they invented others in which kinde Aristotle in the first of his phys saith truely that vno absurdo dato sequuntur mille or else by way of an efficient cause the one habituating and disposing them as we commonly see it experimented in lyars to coyne other fables with as great facility as the former And thus stood the case with the Gentiles at this time they had no sooner detain'd the trueth in vnrighteousnesse that is laide downe one false Maxime of examining the trueth of the God-head by the fancies and inventions of men but that straight as necessarily as a false ell makes a false measure or light waights errours in trafficke their braines conceiv'd meteors and aerie speculations and brought forth idle and vaine imaginations And therefore the Apostle taking his phrase from the dealing of a tyrant which detaines hisprisoner vnjustly in a darke dungeon not judging him according to forme of law saith that the Gentiles detain'd the trueth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in vnjustice for vnjustice it is to trie a man by his enemie and the wisedome of the flesh is at enmity with God Rom. 8.7 it is vnjustice to make them of ones jury which cannot vnderstand the cause in hand and the naturall man cannot vnderstand the things that are of God 1. Cor. 2. As therefore saith Chrysostome vpon my text hee which either travailes in an vnknowne way or sailes in a darke night amongst dangerous rockes not onely is not liliely to arriue at his intended port but also for the most part doth miscarry so they which enter vpon the way to heaven and rejecting the light necessary to their journey instead thereof doe vse the darkenesse of their owne inventions seeke for God incorporeall in bodies for God without figure in earthly figures must needes suffer shipwracke and sinke with the waues of their owne vaine imaginations Neither hath the Gentiles onely beene partakers of these inconveniences but the Iew also hath tasted of the like sawce because saith the Lord Esay 28. the feare of this people towards mee is taught by the precepts of men there was the trueth detain'd in injustice therefore behold I will proceede or I will adde to doe a marveilous worke and a wonder for the wisedome of their wise men shall perish and the vnderstanding of their prudent men shall bee hidde Sr Paul in the 1. Cor. 1. points at the fulfilling of this prophesie when hee askes where is the wise where is the scribe where is the disputer of the world hath not God made foolish the wisedome of this world where as a learned writer of ours in his miscellanea sacra hath observed are described the vaine imaginations not of the Gentile onely who was puft vp with his owne reasonings from effects to causes from accidents to substances when hee sayes where is the wise nor onely those ecclesiasticall Doctours which expounded the Scriptures according to the grammaticall sense for the instruction of the people when he addes where is the Scribe but also in concluding with the disputers hee would signifie the musicall expositors of the Iewes whose apes our postillers seeme to bee which expounded not the Scriptures after the ordinary way but busied themselnes about allegoricall tropologicall and anagogicall senses and the places in Ierusalem were call'd the houses
of mysticall disputes where they taught Now how vaine were the imaginations of these Doctours who as Antipheron Orietes in Aristotle thought that every where hee saw his owne shape and picture going before him so did these in all partes of Scripture where they walked perswade themselues that they saw the image of their owne conceits and what gaue occasion to this vainenesse in them was it not that they forsooke the pathes and ancient formes of teaching which their Samuels and Eliah's and Elisha's had in their schooles of the Prophets children left vnto them and their Rabbies being train'd vp as it appeares by Philo in the phylosophy of Pythagoras Plato which was much symbolicall and aenigmaticall would shew whose disciples they were in the pulpit and attire Sarah in the garments and weedes of Hagar the bond-woman I doe not here deny the vse of Phylosophy in divine matters it is a footestoole to the pulpit and as Laban when hee gaue Rachel vnto Iacob hee gaue also Bilhah to bee her maide so in this latter age of the world when it pleased God to restore the light of his word so plentifully vnto vs hee gratiously hath adorn'd it with the service and attendance of phylosophy and humane learning but yet we must remember that phylosophy is but the hand-maid she must not prescribe lawes and rules to her mistresse When some sought to examine the truth of the word by the dictates of philosophers and the speculation of humane reason the Apostle in 2d of the Col. bid's them beware lest any man spoyle them through philosophy and vaine deceit after the tradition of men after the rudiments of the world and not after Christ By which saying Tertullian obserues that hee concondemnes all hereticks of which the phylosophers were the Patriarchs for whence did Valentinus faine his formes and trinity in man but from Plato Marcion the coeternity of matter with God but from the Stoicks that God was mortall but from the Epicures that hee was of a fiery substance but from Heraclitus whence arose the impious conceits of the Artemonites but from this as Eusebius in his fifth booke of Ecclesiasticall history confesseth that they more were addicted to Aristotle Theophrastus and Gallen then to the Scriptures Whence grew the errours of Origen but from this as Epiphanius witnesseth that hee triumphed too much in the disciplines of the Philosophers cōtented not himselfe with the simplicity of the Apostles whence sprang the heresie of the Arrians but from this as Ambrose on the 118. Psalme obserues that they examined the divine generation of Christ according to the grounds of Aristotle and the vse of this world Thus by preferring their owne fancies and the sandy foundation of humane wisdome before the sure foundation of the Prophets and Apostles they detain'd the truth in vnjustice and became vaine in their imaginations The Fathers were as Hiperius notes for the most part Platonists and I know not if some of them may not else-where bee sayd to relish of his precepts certainely if in any thing this age of ours may cōtend with theirs or else out-strippe it it is there where in their commentaries in imitation of him they drench the literall sense too much with Allegories as Andradius confesseth S. Hierome a man not too easily brought on to acknowledge the errours of his writings amongst those few things which he doth retract censures nothing so sharpely as the mistake of his youth in this kind thinking it one of the greatest sinnes of his youth that being carried away through an inconsiderate heate in his studies of Scripture hee adventured to interpret Abdias the Prophet Allegorically when as yet hee knew not the historecall meaning I will not deny Allegories Tropologies Anagogies as severall applacations of one sense I will not deny more then one literall sense so that one be subordinate to the other but to make all places as the Papists would haue them liable to as many senses as wit is able to faigne to draw the Pope's temporall sword out of Peter's scabbard or to fish for his vicaredge with Peter's net this I leaue to the limbeckes of the Iesuites and aske if my text fits not right to them that detaining the truth in vnrighteousnesse they became vaine in their imaginations Gerson in his tract of Astrology tell 's vs that it was a custome in the Vniversity of Paris that whosoever was licenciated in the arts should take an oath to determine his Philosophy problemes alwayes agreeable to the Articles of faith and that they would dissolue the reasons of the Philosopher brought to the contrary this was an excellent course to giue liberty to the truth of the Scriptures whilst the dreames of Philosophers kept it not in subjection but hee which shall read the Sorbornes determinations in Theologie would guesse that they had taken another oath to determine their questions in Divinity according to the precepts of Aristotle's Philosophy and to dissolue the authorities of the Apostle's brought to the contrary And may not wee here see my text well verified that these Schoole-men detaining the trueth in vnrighteousnesse first in their exposition of the Scripture by keeping the literall sense from the view of the world and distasting those witnesse the sundry apologies of Caietan who betooke themselues to the literall sense as knowing inwardly that their positions were not sufficiently grounded and that this kind of teaching opened a gappe vnto the world to discry their palpable abuses Secondly in their positions relying first as Daneus shewes vpon Austine afterwards as Popery more strengthened it selfe vpon Aristotle and lastly vpon the Tridentine Councell and vncertaine traditions that these I say should not else-where in their vnprofitable questions and more ridiculous resolutions bee seene as my text saye's to become vaine in their imaginations perhaps their prayer for the dead their pilgrimages vowes and ceremonies may seeme to come from a foolish ignorant zeale and herein though their imaginations cannot scape the lash of vaine yet they may be more pardonable But to teach that colours may subsist without a subject that a man may be at the same time at home in his bed and fighting against the Turkes that one may equivocate and dissemble to a good end that one may do evill that good may come thereof that the rights of lawes and nations do lye vnder the Popes girdle why this Philosophy was never taught by Aristotle or Plato or Cicero but as I guesse when Hermolaus Barbarus questioned the divell for the meaning of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee added some further instructions to be delivered the Iesuites touching these matters for the defending their tenents And truly I am perswaded that it is neither the wheele of fortune nor chaine of destiny nor craft of Sathan that hath brought our adversaries to beleeue such shamefull doctrines but it is God in his divine providence which hath permitted them even there where the light of nature is most apparent so to
martyrdomes of the Prophets before Christ of the Fathers in the Ten first persecutions and of the Protestants here in England in Queene Marie's dayes The third is the endeavouring by the same meanes to preserue the liberties and immunities of the Church which are two fold either natiue and connaturall to the Church as preaching the word administring the Sacraments and applying medicinall censure or accessory such as for the furtherance advancement of the worship of God Christian Princes haue given vnto it If any to whose charge God hath committed these by an ordinary calling do loose his life either in the execution of the former or for a pious dutifull admonition to the Prince for the latter wee may justly esteeme him for a martyr But to come to our application Christ hath his martyrs and Antichrist would haue his also It may make some peradventure to wonder and stand astonisht at the strange hardnesse of some priests Iesuites of the Roman religiō their resolution to dye for their Bell the Bishop of Rome but should wee but sift the truth of the point wee should finde that it is not Christ's cause that they dye for nor his Name which with the Apostle here they so stand for but that other reasons and by-respects do induce them to this false martyrdome To see one lavish of his bloud would perswade a simple man to thinke that the cause could not be but good but alas it is not true zeale but fury which driues them to these exigences it is not the loue of their Master Christ but the hope of avoyding Purgatory and of meriting heaven which so advanceth this corrupt inclination Yet this I will say that if the sustaining of death for the defence of one's cause could end the controversie Bellarmine the greatest Doctor of the Romish Church would giue the Vmpire to our side for in his 4th book de signis Ecclesia 2. chap. he ingenioussly cōfesseth that Martyrdome can be no note of the Romish Church because saith he other sects there are amongst which he name 's the Calvinists who haue ever bin most forward in dying for their Religion But let vs goe on and examine a little whether those Iesuites and Priests according to the ground laide downe before can challenge the names of true Martyrs or no. To beginne therefore with the first kinde of Martyrdome which is for defending some morall truth doe they dye for defending any such verity No beloved it is for oppugniug euen the rirst Commandement which concernes our duty towards man that Commandement teacheth vs that we should honour our Fathers and Mothers by which is meant not only our naturall Parents but likewise all higher powers and especially such as haue soveraigne authority over vs as Kings and Princes whom the Scripture doth terme nursing Fathers of the Church Esay 49. But they are executed for plotting their deaths for contriving powder-treasons for affirming that the Pope may depose the King that hee may excommunicate him and then giue his Subjects a priviledge to assassinate him so that for defending any morall truth they are not Martyrs but rather for breaking of so great a Commandement they dye as guilty offenders both of God and the Lawes of the Land Well then let 's goe to the Articles of Faith may they beterm'd Martyrs because they stand for the vp-holding of any part of the Creed therein do they maintaine the Name of Iesus No beloved though some of them are called Iesuites yet are they so farre from being so indeed that as Whitaker a learned divine of ours hath observ'd there is no point of their doctrine wherein they differ from vs but either therein they deny the Name of Iesus or the Name of Christ one of our Saviour's two Names is alwayes infring'd by thē But yet they will say perhaps that they dye for maintaining their Churche's immunities priviledges therein do descrue to be called Martyrs They may wel indeed say their Churche's for I cannot say Christ's Church But what are the Priviledges which they pretend why any of their Priests will tell you they are those which our Saviour gaue to S. Peter in Matt. 16. ver 18. in these words Thou art Peter and vpon this rocke I will build my Church But what meane these words are they any thing else then that Christ would build his Church vpon that rocke that is vpon that confession of Peter's immediatly before vttered That he was the Sonne of God this indeede is the true sense but yet the Pope's Canon-Law hath pleas'd to giue another interpretation Thou art Peter that is to say in the Romane speech I am sure neither in the Greeke nor Latine thou art Bishop of Rome and vpon thee as thou art such an one I will build my Church but not onely vpon thee Peter for there shall be no moreBishops of Rome of that name but vpon thee Gregory vpon thee Adrian Iulius Ioane vpon euery Bishop of Rome good or bad holy or prophane Christian or Atheist be he what he will I will build my Church and vnder this I ordaine thee Monarch both of things temporall and things spirituall Soveraigne King and Bishop together of spirituall to controlle the Olde Testament to dispense against the Gospell and against the Apostles to make new articles of faith to be aboue all Councels and when thou traylest men by thousands into hell I would haue no man to question thee why doest thou this Of Temporall to dispose of all the World to distribute it at thy pleasure as if it were thine own heritage to raigne over Kings to arraigne and indite them to depose them to absolue their subjects from their Oath of Allegiance to expose their estates for a prey their persons to murther to bestow their Kingdomes on whom it shall please thee and lastly to change their tenures to fealty or convert their territories to their owne demaine Pitty will strike one here into horrour but sweete Iesus were these the priviledges which thou bequeathed'st to S. Peter were these the dignities which thou conferred'st on thy Church thy profession was wont to be that thy Kingdome was not of this world that the servant is not greater then his Master and thy Apostles haue taught vs that euery soule should be subiect vnto higher powers may now any be so hardy as to claime this Imperiall sway from thy donation Alas beloued this challenge by the Pope is farre from the promise of the Apostles and of S. Peter himselfe let 's looke into his 1 Epistle and 2 Chap. where he enjoynes all men to feare God and honour the King and wee shall perceiue that his scope was obedience subjectiō duty Poore man whil'st he liv'd he was in want and need silver and gold he had none and see since his death the Pope hath provided for him a mighty Kingdome All the Churche's priviledges which they dye for if they dye for any are these which you haue heard
hollow-hearted in religion for gaine and preferment but if you vvould knit an vnseparable knot of kindred let your brotherhood bee founded in Christ lest at your deaths you bee both of you either everlastingly separated or everlastingly confounded I confesse it is an hard thing to perswade flesh and bloud to follow this they will scarce beleeue that Christ by the right of kinred claimes such an interest in them as that by his example they should so much preferred the spirituall alliance they haue vvith him before that vvhich they haue vvith their owne kinred For doe not vvee see the quite contrary practised every vvhere in the vvorld Doth not one thinke his vvife neerer to him and for her sake either quits or at lest is cold in the profession of Christs religion Doe not others thinke their mother or their brethren neerer to them and vvhen they heare Christ taught in the Church if any saith vnto them as here vvee finde it in my text thy mother and thy brethren are without desiring to see thee they vvill leaue Christs company to feede their fancies Doe not all thinke their humours and pleasures and profits neerer vnto them and for their sakes goe to law vvith their brethren reject all alliance they haue vvith any in Christ and vvith slaundrings backbitings and raylings like foule birds defile their owne nests Moses vvhen two Israelites stroue together said why smitest thou thy fellow I say more vvhy striue vvee vvee are brethren Wee may conceiue our head Iesus Christ as saying from heaven vvhy striue you my kinsmen vvhy make you divisions in our family my mother and my brethren vvhich you are Your are all children of the same heavenly Father children should dwell together members of the same body members should grow together souldiers of the same army souldiers should gether souldiers of the same army souldiers should march together Thus vvee are termed in the holy Scriptures let it be our care to be answerable to such honourable appellations And now that you have seene your titles and prerogatiues vvhich Christ bestowes on you of his mother and brethren hearken but like mothers and brethren to the propertyes required in you which are hearing and doing and God will make you to be so indeed And first I desire hearing which commeth in the next place to be handled My mother and my brethren are they which heare the word of God c. There is nothing so necessary to a Christian which travells from this Egypt of misery and oppression to the heavenly Canaan as the knowledge of the vvord of God for by this hee is directed in his way conducted to his port assured of his safe arrivall This made the Prophets so often to ingeminate the hearing of it vnto Gods people Heare yee the word of the Lord yee rulers Esay 1.10 Heare the word of the Lord yee house of David Ierem. 12.4 You sheepheards heare the word of the Lord Ezech. 34.7 Heare all yee old men Ioel. 1.2 Heare all yee people Mich. 1.2 Princes rulers sheepheards people old young all lyable to this taske of hearing in somuch that our Saviour makes this the burden of his Sermons hee that hath an eare to heare let him heare But beloved in this place our Saviour seemes to goe somewhat farther and as if our kinred and alliance with him were to be confirmed by charter makes none capable of that honour but those which can shew their title out of the word of God My mother and my brethren are they which heare the word of God The observation which I draw from hence is this That it is required of all those which would bee adopted into Christs family to bee diligent hearers of Gods word I neede not be large in proving the truth of this doctrine It is sufficient that hearing is the ordinary meanes vvhich Christ hath left vs to engraft vs into his family and to make vs the children of his heavenly Father for by faith wee are made the heires of salvation and faith commeth by hearing saith the Apostle Rom. 10. so that no hearing no faith no faith no salvation Hee therefore which is of God heares Gods voyce saith our Saviour Iohn 8.47 And againe my sheepe heare my voyce Ioh. 10.27 In regard whereof the Saints in all ages were bound to repaire to the ministers of the word and to heare the Law at the Priests lips Malach. 2.7 In the Old Testament wee finde that they resorted to the Prophets vpon the sabbaths and vpon other dayes for when the Shunamite in 2. King 4. craved leaue of her husband to goe to the Prophet hee replyed wherefore wilt thou goe it is neither new moone nor Sabbath day as if on those dayes the people vsed to resort vnto them to heare them The like was vsed in the new Testament for so our Saviour sent the Iewes to the Scribes and Pharisees Matt. 23.1 the Angell sent Cornelius to Peter Act. 10.32 and of these times Esay prophecying saith that in the last dayes it shall come to passe that many people shall goe and say Come yee and let vs goe vp to the mountaine of the Lord to the house of the God of Iacob and hee will teach vs his wayes Esay 2.3 For indeed the ministery of the Gospell is that golden pipe as one termes it whereby and wherethrough all the goodnesse of God all the sweetnesse of Christ all heavenly graces whatsoever are derived vnto vs It is that hooke and bait which Christs fishers of men his disciples and Apostles vsed in the taking of soules It is that spirituall armour which casteth downe every thing that exalteth it selfe against the knowledge of God and bringeth into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ It is that blowing of the Levites which if not at the first yet at the seventh time will beat downe Iericho in vs and hew a passage in our hearts for the entrance of the heavēly tabernacle It is that poole of Bethesda at which should lye every distressed impotent soule expect the moving of the waters I meane the first moving of the spirituall waters of life by the preachers of the Gospell To make vse of this doctrine there are two sorts of men vvhich commonly faile in the performance of this commandement of hearing the word the first are those which say they can reade the Bible in their houses that they haue Gods word which will instruct them as sufficiently at home as any sermons in the Churches But these men foulety deceiue themselues for first they must know that it is one thing to say that the Scriptures are sufficient to teach them all things necessary to salvation another thing to say that they teach these things so vsefully without an interpreter as with one I deny not but that in the Scriptures more excellent knowledge profound mysteries are contayned then the greatest Doctours learned'st men withall their paines industry can attaine vnto but so powerfull