sorts with Pauls doctrinall rule such vengeances come on sinners as ensamples And are written for our warning Such truths according with sacred storie such application congruent in the generall to the Rules of Scripture let no man despise because Iezabel is the vtterer Their congruence with Scripture makes them merit our reuerend respect So farre to preuent what ignorant scruple might pretend to sleight the doctrine here deliuered vnto vs. Had Zimri peace who slue his master THe storie yee haue extant 1. Kings 16. how Zimri Captain of halfe the Charets to Elah son of Baasha conspired against him in Tirzah and slue him How the people moued with indignation at the fact create Omri Captaine of the host King ouer the ten tribes How Zimri whither fearing extremities or madde with the crosse of his ambition or desperate through conscience of such crime becomes an Incendiarie to himselfe and wilfully perisheth in the fire himselfe had kindled in the Kings Palace In the Text are three things 1. the fact of Zimri He slue his Master 2. The issue of his fact But had Zimri peace Did Zimri prosper he prosperd not 3. the application of all to Iehu intended to deterre him from supposed like sinne through feare of like vengeance 1 The fact of Zimri Iezabel counts odious Who but a verier strumpet durst make meritorious How is Christianitie growne more heathenish then heathenisme it selfe when sinnes so monstrous in the eye of Nature shall go as iustifiable by the word of Scripture Foorsoth Ehud slue Aeglon Ans True But Aeglon a Moabite disabled by expresse law of God in regard of his Nation to rule ouer Gods people 2. And Ehud slue him A man whom the Lord extraordinarily stirred vp as Othniel to be a deliuerer to his people and directed by speciall instinct to that meanes of deliuerance I haue a word vnto thee from God O King that verbum is factum in S. Austines iudgement When he saith he had a word from God intelligendum est hoc illi Deum vt faceret praecepisse Thus vnderstand him that he had his warrant and precept from God to doe what he did in the manner of deliuerance Iehu slue Iehoram Ans Iehoram whom God the great disposer of Kingdomes had deposed from the Kingdome and deuoted to death 2 And Iehu slew him now no subiect to Iehoram the annoynted King ouer Israel besides sent with speciall commission and warrant from God to destroy from Ahab him that made water against the wall The Priests oppose Vzziah attempting to burne incense Ans They inhibit his fact draw no bloud from his person These and like facts warrantable in the doers were in great part extraordinary so make vs no rule and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 discrepant from those now warranted to subiects towards their Soueraignes Our ordinarie rule is thus who shall lay hands on the Lords annointed and be guiltlesse And how wast thou not afraid to stretch forth thy hand to destroy the Lords annointed protexit viuum vindicavit mortuum he protected him while he liued auenged him when he was dead saith S. Austine of Dauid in respect of Saul And who that remember him that sayd they are Gods can thinke treason bloudie treason lesse then highest sacrilege It is sayd indeed the Lord set Ieremie ouer the nations and ouer the kingdomes To roote out and pull downe to build and to plant Resp 1. But S. Austin makes it past question it s spoken figuratiuely Non quin figurata locutio tota sit that is tropicallie giuen to the minister or proclaimer that in propertie of speech is meerelie the worke of God As Isay is sent to make fat the peoples hearts to blind their eyes to bow downe their backes so Ieremie to plucke downe kingdomes 1. Occasionally not efficaciter The contempt of his ministerie should occasion ouerthrow of stateliest kingdomes 2. Denunciatiuelie not by way of violence Samuel told Saul the Lord had rent the kingdome from him did he euer perswade the people to seditious insurrections Ieremie tells Zedekiah that Babilon must subdue him But did he incourage Iewes to betray or force him to the King of Babel God shall smite thee thou whited wall sayd Paul to an vsurping high Priest But when he recalls his harsh terme suppose wee he meditated personall violence God shall smite him or his day shall come or he shall goe downe into battell and perish howsoeuer my hand shall not be vpon him Thus Dauid thus Ancient Saints Beloued we liue in wofull times wherein moralities are most cancelled and too sleightlie turned of from being bonds to conscience Religion euer since Moses was to be guided by a written Canon by Popish diuinitie the rule of worship is become almost arbitrarie and rests for the most part in the Churches breast Distinction of Dominions there be that thinke a meere humane policie Prohibition of vsurie precept of Tything go current for iudicial constitutions Adulterie I thinke must shortly grow a Iewish sinne murther is no longer hainous when murther of Princes is thought meritorious Lord that such thoughts can fasten on Christian mindes instructed by the word of God Moralities binding in innocencie binde they not since the fall Hath Christian faith cancelled the law of Nature Shal Iezabel cry shame and vengeance against bloudy treason and we thinke the whore chast that giues indulgence propoundes heauenly rewards to murther of Princes Belike then Christ came to destroy the law not to fulfill it To say in a word there is a tenent amongst some Diuines otherwise orthodoxe harsh I confesse to my apprehension That there are cases wherein with cautions â—ubiects may beare armes against their soueraigne I am loth to procure their enuie knowing their paines otherwise reuerend in the Church of God There is I know wide difference betwixt princeps factus and princeps natus They say themselues must defend it It is eiusdem tollere cuius ponere where the Prince is but factious But this conclusion I hope we all hold firme Where immediate prouidence settles kingdomes no other but Gods immediate hand may attempt to ouerthrow them But out vpon that deuilitie taught in Church of Rome without distinction warranting to subiects murther of their Naturall Princes be pretenses what they may be Suppose them Tyrants by abuse of power was not Saul such yet who may lay hand on him and be guiltlesse Suppose by vsurpation was not Baasha such continued not Elah that intrusion yet Zimri had no peace that slue him Suppose them Heretikes Is heresie grosser crime then Idolatrie Elah was an Idolater It is truely said factum sine errore non facit haereticum Heresie imports errours in iudgement Yet may facts implie heresie when the ground of doing is heretically erroneous The fact of the Idolater is not heresie but his opinion the ground of his fact may gather him into the ranke of heretikes To inuocate deuils is in the fact no heresie though damned impietie But the opinion of
vs the rule of practise Dearely beloued I beseech you as pilgrims and strangers abstaine from fleshly lusts that so dangerously fight against the soule If they will be filthy let them be filthy if they will perish let them perish but sine exemplo nostro The last is pride of life It had wont to be sayd they that weare soft raiment dwell in Kings houses that priuiledge of royalty our delicacy begins to intrude vpon so that betwixt Bethel the Kings Court and Ramoth the seate of Prophets habit makes but little distinction Dearely beloued I beseech you as strangers and pilgrimes abstaine from fleshly lusts they warre they warre dangerously and that against the soule Non est res parua quam sic insectantur hostes Ciues sic praestolantur Its a thing of no small worth that the Deuill and fleshly desires so eagerly pursue Saints and Angels so desirously wish for and long after Deo Gloria A SERMON Preached at TANTON in Sommerset By VVILLIAM SCLATER Doctour of Diuinity and Minister of the word of God at Pitmister Now published by his Sonne of Kings Colledge in Cambridge LONDON Printed by THOMAS HARPER for Robert Allot and are to be sold at his shop in Pauls Church yard at the signe of the blacke Beare 1629. To the Worshipfull Mr. EDVVARD WARRE Esquire And to the truly religious and right vertuous ELIZABETH his Wife At Chipley in Sommerset my much honoured friends Mercy and peace be multiplied Worshipfull TWO things more especiall haue occasioned the present tendring of my seruice to you The one is the greatneess of that loue and plenty of curtesie which from you the fountaines hath euer beene deriued and willingly conueyed to our familie sweetly to refresh as once the liuing but languishing stocke so now also all the tender branches sprouting out from it The other is your vndeserued fauours towards my selfe in more particular As for the first we are all heires to that seruice which our deare Father in all obseruancy towards you was euer ready to performe for the second as I more neerely shall acknowledge my selfe to stand for euer obliged to you so for the present doe desire that my thankefull seruice may haue acceptance at your fauourable hands wherein if through want of skill to expresse it I seeme any way defectiue he pleased to suppose out of the kindnesse of those louing hearts of yours that that which you see not heere fully tendered by my vnlearned quill is inwardly in wishing thoughts supplied In confidence whereof here I dedicate my selfe and these few leaues penned by the Author my deceased Father to your worthinesse hoping your Worships will vaile my boldnesse in your good acceptance and trusting for the Authors sake that your strong hands will support this posthume worke wrested from me by importunity of some my reuerend and iudicious friends which can liue now by no other heat then what your beames giues it It flies to you as a bereaued Orphan for shelter confident of safety from the worlds vpbraiding if you vouchsafe to yeeld it patronage Now the God of all mercy that hath so richly furnished you with his sauing grace preserue and keepe you blamelesse vnto the comming of the Lord Iesus Amen Your Worships in all thankfull respectfulnesse WILLIAM SCLATER From my Chamber in Kings Colledge in Cambridge Nou. 18. 1628. To the Reader COurteous Reader Bee pleased to weigh first in the ballance of thy more mature deliberation the substance of these ensuing leaues before thou passe any censure on me who through the graue aduice of those to whose iudgement J shall euer subscribe am now the publisher of them accept them fauourably as they are well intended and if thou reapest from them any comfort to thy conscience or encrease of thy faith giue God the glory and vse it to thy greater benefit Farewell Thine in the Lord W. S. 2. KING 9.31 Had Zimri peace that slue his Master IT is the speech of Iezabel occasioned by the death of her son Iehoram and the nigh approch of Iehu the Minister of the Lords vengeance on her and her posteritie and tends in her intention to deterre from his bloudy and as to her they seemed trayterous designes by remembring Gods late vengeance on Zimri a trayterous conspiratour against his master Elah The vtterer Iezabel a monster of her sexe may make it questionable whether and how farre it concernes vs for instruction and vse Ans Thus conceiue 1. Omne bonum de super and omne verum aquocunque dicatur a Deo All truth is of God whosoeuer is the vtterer God is the Authour As all light is from the Sunne because that 's the primo lucidum As all heat from fire because that is the primo calidum so all truth is from God because he is the first truth We may not say of Pharisees they might not be heard because Pharisees when they speake out of Moses chaire Heare them said our Sauiour though they say and do not Moses his doctrine is of God though a Pharisee be the publisher Caiaphas being high Priest Prophesied that yeare his Prophesie must not therefore be despised because he was an intruder vpon the Priesthood and one that dipt deepe in the bloud of our Sauiour Balaam once playd the Prophet in blessing Gods people and foretelling the state of the Church We beleeue it true God is not as Man that he should lie nor as the sonne of man that he should repent though Balaam first proclaymed it Neither will we question whether God be auenger of Treason because Iezabel makes the obseruation Non vitiat sacramentum malitia ministrantis Neither is the truth defiled by the polluted lips through which it passeth Truth is truth whosoeuer is the vtterer dutie dutie whosoeuer is our monitour And treason is treason odious vnto God Though a Iezabel so proclames it 2 The worst mens speeches and actions receiue a kinde of sacration by their recording in holy writ though they spake and did lewdly yet the inspirer of Scripture caused them holily to be recorded and intended therein our instruction Whatsoeuer was written before time was written for our instruction Vnderstand it not onely of the vertuous practises of Saints to occasion our imitation But of the lewdest facts of veriest miscreants to be our caution How much more those holy things those pearles of wholesome admonitions which God is pleased by them to cast before vs. 3. We say the testimonie of an Aduersarie is strongest for an Aduersarie we the rather beleeue some Theologicall truthes because they haue consent from Heathens In matters of morality we listen to heathens because in them the light of Nature is reserued Incest such Incest is damnable more because heathens name it not Lying who would not more detest if the deuill should cry shame vpon it And why is not treason more detestable when Iezabel cries vengeance against it 4. Her relation we finde suitable with Scripture storie The application after her intention
let vs see for what ends the Lord hath appointed death for his owne Children One is the abolishing of the reliques of sinne that euen after regeneration sticke in vs. By a wonderfull wisedome God hath ordained that during the dwelling of the soule in the body there shall be also a dwelling of sinne in our mortall body partly to exercise vs by resisting the assaults thereof partly to shew vs from how great a bondage Christ hath deliuered vs But by death hee puts an end to sinne in respect of all practice and inhabitation Through enuy of the deuill sinne entred into the world and death by sinne Through the wisedome of God death puts an end to sinning And this is one end of this appointment of God A second is to put an end to the sensible miseries of this life for as there continues a remanent of the old Adam euen after grace so some portion of afflictions still remaynes to Gods Children not as Papists teach for satisfaction but partly to giue vs a taste of those miseries from which Christ hath freed vs partly to tame and subdue Corruption partly to conforme to the Image of Christ Now death brings an end to all sensible euills And for this cause also hath God prouided death as a remedy lest too long endurance of euills should ouercome our patience Thirdly that the soule might be admitted into the presence of God which made Paul desire a Phil 1.23 to be dissolued because he knew his soule should persently be admitted into the presence of Christ Vse 1 Now seeing God for these good ends hath ordained the death of his Saints methinkes it should teach vs contentment at least if not reioycing in the death of all those that dye in the Lord. And surely if any man haue knowne and felt the misery of subiection vnto his sinnes the strong rebellion of Corruption against grace I doubt not but hee is thus minded that in that respect he would change conditions with the meanest of Gods Saints that haue dyed in the Lord. And therefore well is it with the dead they rest from their labours their workes follow them and which is not the least blessing they are freed from the miserable bondage to Corruption Now as touching the wicked the Reason of their dying is because death is to them a part of the Curse due to their sinnes and there must be an end put to their pleasures in sinning a bringing of their soules to those vnsufferable torments God hath prouided for impenitent sinners And therefore I wonder not Vse if as the wise man speaketh the very remembrance of death bee bitter vnto them it is their iudgement their Curse the end of reioycing the very suburbes and gate that leades into Hell See we now the last thing .i. the consequent of death After that comes the iudgement I hope I shall not need to vse many words amongst vs Christians to euidence this truth being so plentifully taught in Scripture consented vnto by the Heathen testified by our conscience euidenced by particular iudgements The Scriptures are plentifull in this point how often occurre these and the like sayings God shall bring euery worke vnto iudgement with euery a Ecles 12. vlt. secret thing whether it be good or euill We must all appeare before the b 2 Cor. 5.10 iudgement seate of Christ that euery one may receiue the things he hath done in his body whether they be good or euill The Heathen had their tribunall after death and Aeacus Minos and Rhadamanthus presidents of proceedings therein Yea aske but the Conscience of the vilest Athiest it will be a thousand witnesses of this truth how often are they filled with vnspeakeable horrours especially in death wherefore but because they know there is a iudgement that followes it See but particular iudgements which are as praludia iudicij vniuersalis the ouerthrow of Sodom the deluge of the old world particular iudgements on particular persons what else doe they testifie but a iudgement to come some sinnes are here punished that wee might know there is a prouidence and a iudge that takes notice not all here punished that wee might expect a greater iudgement to come Yea that very Confusion of things as they terme it which some haue brought as an argument to ouerthrow both prouidence and iudgement viz the present prosperity of the wicked and the afflicted estate of Gods Children it is argument sufficient in Pauls diuinity to proue a iudgement to come c 2. Thes 1.4.5 The present persecutions of Gods children are an euident Demonstration of a iudgement to come and Salomon d Eccle. 3.16.17 before him in his suruiew of vanities I saw sayth he a place of iudgement and â—oe there was wickednesse a place of Iustice and behold iniquity what inferres he therefore no prouidence therfore no iudgement to come Nay but the contrary I sayd in my heart surely God will iudge the iust and vniust for a time there is for euery purpose and for euery worke See we a little what this iudgement importes Iudgement implies three things First Examination and withall discouerie of euery mans workes whether they be a Eccl. 12. vlt. good or euill then b 1 Cor. 4.5 come your close and secret adulteries then your priuie and coloured bribery then your hypocrisie then your euery euill worke to be scanned and examined The c Apoc. â—0 12 bookes are opened first of Gods d Mal. 3.16 remembrance wherein are registred euery of our sinnes euen to an e Math. 12.36 idle word secondly of our owne Conscience which serues to bring in records against vs of all our vngodly deedes which wee haue vngodlily committed Secondly After Examination followes sentence giuing First of Absolution to Gods Children howsoeuer here laden with reproaches and scandals condemned for Hypocrites The Lord shall then euidence by fruites of faith that sure their faith was vnfained Secondly of Condemnation vpon the wicked here blearing the eyes of men with I know not what pretenses of their good hearts and good faith to God The Lord shall then make their madnesse and dissembling knowne to all men by lacke of true Good workes to grace their pretended faith with all Math. 25.35.42 Thirdly After sentence follows Execution .i. A happie admission of Gods Children into possession of the kingdome prepared by the father purchased by Christ Iesus Secondly A heauy and vncomfortable dismission of all impenitent and incorrigible sinners into that lake that burnes with fire and Brimestone before the throne of God for euer and euer Vse Now Brethren I could wish in applying of this doctrine I had a measure of the Apostles spirit that I might with it pierce into the Consciences of vs all S. Paul a 2. Cor. 5.11 hauing breifly mentioned this doctrine of last iudgement thus sayth that by this terror he perswaded men And surely if this terror perswade not to repentance I know not what will