true Howsoever what piety is it nay what equity nay rather what abominable iniquity and impiety is it florem Diabolo consecrare faeces Deo reservare To consecrate the flower of their youth to the Divell the world and the flesh and reserve the lees or dregges of their old age for God To dedicate to him our weake and feeble dotage if we live to it what is it better than to offer the f Deut. 15.21 blind and the lame for sacrifice which God abhorreth Repent therefore repentè repent at the first offer of grace Ye shall scarce find any precept of repentance in Scripture which requireth not as well that it be out of hand as that it be from the heart Remember thy g Eccles 12.1 Creatour in the dayes of thy youth To h Psal 95.7 8. day if yee will heare his voice harden not your heart Seek i Psal 32.6 the Lord while he may be found Now he may be found now he seeketh us now he calleth to us let us therefore breake off all delayes and pricke on forward our dull and slow affections with that sharp and poynant increpation of Saint k Confes l. 8. c. 5. Modò modò non habent modum quamdiu cras cras cur non hoc dic cur non hac horâ finis turpitudinis meae Ib. Verba lenta somnolenta modò ecce modò sine paululum sed sine paululum ibat in longum c. Austine Why doe I still procrastinate my comming unto thee O Lord Why not now why not this day why not this houre an end of my sinfull course of life Deo Patri Filio Spiritui sancto sit laus c. THE DEFORMITY OF HALTING THE LVII SERMON 1 KIN. 18.21 And Elijah came to all the people and said How long halt ye betweene two opinions If the Lord be God follow him but if Baal then follow him and the people answered not a word Right Honourable c. ELijah who sometimes called for fire from heaven was himselfe full of heavenly fire the fire of zeale for the Lord of Hosts His words like fire 1 Give light 2 Heate 3 Consume 1 They give light to this undoubted truth That one and but one Religion is to be embraced either God or Baal must be worshipped in no case both Stand firme to one How long halt ye betweene two 2 They heate and enflame true zeale and devotion If the Lord be God follow him 3 They burne up indifferencie and neutralitie If Baal be he goe after him This passage of Scripture relateth a Sermon of Elijah wherein we are to note more particularly 1 The Preacher Elijah 2 The Auditorie the whole Parliament of Israel 3 The Text or Theame handled by him viz. What God is to be worshipped what religion to be established and maintained by Prince and people Now although I perswade my selfe that there is none in this whole assembly who halteth betweene the Popish and reformed Churches or hath once bowed his knee to the Romish Baal yet because Satan hath of late not only turned himselfe into an Angell of light to dazle the eyes of weake Christians in point of Doctrine but also into a Seraphim of heat and zeale under colour of devotion to bring us to offer strange fire upon Gods Altar and especially because there is no lamp of the Sanctuarie that burneth so brightly but that it needeth oyle continually to be powred into it to feed the flame the opening of this Scripture cannot but be seasonable and usefull to reduce you into the path if you swerve from it never so little or to prick you on if you are in the right way that leadeth to the kingdome of God The key to open this Text is the occasion of this exhortation of the Prophet wherefore before I proceed to the exposition of the words I must entreat you to cast a looke backwards to the occasion of them and the cause of the peoples haulting downe-right a circumstance not giving more light to the right understanding of the Prophets reproofe than strength to our stedfast standing and upright walking in the high way to Heaven What the religious Father spake by way of Apologie for handling controversall points in the pulpit Ideo non dubitavimus dubitare ut vos non dubitaretis We therefore make no scruple to move doubts that yee may not doubt but upon the solution of them be more settled in your most holy faith I may say truly that therefore I hold it needfull to make a stay at the cause of the poeples haulting that their haulting may be no stay to your godly proceedings that you may never hault upon their ground which was so slipperie that they slid now this way now that way not able to set sure footing any where Elijah by his divine commission drew them to Gods Altar but Ahab especially at the instigation of Jezebel by his royall power enforced them to offer at Baals groves between both they were miserably perplexed their minds distracted and their worship divided betweene God and Baal Men are led by examples more than precepts especially by the examples of Princes or Potentates which carrie a kinde of Sovereigntie over mens affections and manners as they themselves have over their persons insomuch that their morall vices yea and naturall deformities also have beene drawne and patterned out by some of their subjects as if they were vertues and gracefull ornaments a Jan. Grut. annot in Tac. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Diodorus Siculus telleth us in sober sadnesse that it was the custome of the Aethiopians to maime or lame themselves in that part or foot on which their Prince limped because they thought it a great disparagement for their Prince that any about him should goe more upright or have a more gracefull gate than hee And Atheneus likewise reporteth of Dionysius his familiars that because himselfe was somewhat purblinde they as they sate at table reached towards dishes as it were by aime and sometimes missed that they might not seeme more quick-sighted than he And to make up the number when Philip received a wound in his eye Clisophus as if hee had got a blow on the same eye putteth a patch on it and when afterwards Philip was run thorow the right thigh in comes Clisophus all to be plaistered on that thigh and out-halteth his Master We can hardly hold laughing when we read or heare of the madnesse rather than folly of so grosse flatterie yet wee have cause rather to weepe at the sight of a farre worse flatterie and yet most usuall whereby some indeere themselves into great personages by imitating their vices and profane carriage To expresse these they account it a kinde of merit of favour or at least an homage due to their greatnesse because saith b Lactant. divin instit l. 5. c. 6. Et quoniam regis vitta imitari obsequii quoddam genus est abjecerunt omnes pietatem ne regi
Athenian Priest answered to those that would have had her curse Alcibiades Priests saith shee are appointed to blesse not to curse to pray for people not against them Notwithstanding if the Church meet with a Simon Magus set in the gall of bitternesse and bond of iniquity or an Elymas that will not cease to pervert the right waies of God or an Alexander that mightily withstandeth the preaching of the Gospel shee may brandish the sword of the Spirit and cut such off from her visible assemblies for a time till they make their peace with God by repentance and with the Church by confession and humble submission to her sacred Canons 3. Men neither inspired by God nor authorized by the Church yet may and ought to pray against the kingdome of Sathan and members of Antichrist in generall and all whosoever stop the free passage of the Gospel or hinder the advancement of Christs Kingdome For we cannot love God but we must needs love them that love him and hate them that hate him even with a perfect hatred As wee must blesse them that blesse him so wee may and ought in generall to curse all that curse him In warre wee may aime at the Standard and shoot at the Flagge and Ensignes but it is against the law of armes to levell at any particular man in like manner we may shoot out of zeale fiery darts of execration at the Standard of Sathan and levell at the Flagge and Colours of Antichrist but wee may not curse or doome to the pit of hell such a nation city assembly or man in particular 1. Because God only knoweth who are his he that is now a great persecuter or a scoffer at the truth may be in time a zealous professor and it is a fearfull thing to curse the children of blessing 2. Because it is very difficult if not impossible for any in this kinde to curse but that malice and desire of revenge will mingle themselves with our zeale and thereby wee shall offer with Nadab and Abihu strange fire 3. Because we are commanded to pray for our enemies who the more they have wronged us the more they stand in need of our prayers For the greater injury they offer us the more they hurt themselves they wound us in body but themselves in soule they spoyle us of our goods but they deprive themselves of Gods grace they goe about to staine our good name but by detraction and false calumniation they worse staine their owne conscience they may worke us out of favour with Princes and great men but they put themselves out of favour with God thereby Yee heare how execrable a thing cursing and execration is and yet what so common I tremble to rehearse what wee heare upon every sleight occasion O remember from this Memento in my Text that unlesse yee were inspired as the people here were and knew that those whom yee curse were hated of God as these Edomites were by cursing others yee incurre a curse and by casting fire-brands of Hell at your brethren yee heape hot burning coales upon your heads And so I passe from the curse to the parties cursed The children of Edome The Edomites or Idumeans were of the race of Esau Jacobs elder brother who comming home hungry from hunting and finding his brother seething pottage grew so greedy of it that he bargained with him for a messe at the deare rate of his birth-right This red broth bought at such a price was ever after cast in Esau his dish and from it hee was called r Gen. 25.30 31 32 33. Edome and all his posterity Edomites or Idumeans as if yee would say red or bloudy ones Such was their name and such were they a bloudy generation of the right bloud of Esau For as he sought the life of his brother Jacob so they ever plotted the ruine and destruction of the Jewes their brethren and in the day of Jerusalems fearfull visitation when the Babylonians had taken the City and put all in it to the sword and robbed the Temple and ransacked all the houses and left nothing but the wall their unnaturall brethren the Idumeans in stead of quenching or at least allaying the fury of the Babylonians by their praiers and compassionate teares cast oyle into the flame and set them in a greater rage against them and instigated them to a further degree of cruelty even to pull down all the houses and sacke the walls saying Raze it raze it to the ground For which their inhumane and savage cruelty against the Church of God God remembred them in due time and rewarded them as they had served their brethren to fulfill the prophecies of Å¿ Jer. 49.7 8 9 10 11 12. Jeremy and Obadiah t Obad. ver 10 11 12 13 14 15 16. For thy cruelty against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee In the day that thou stoodest on the other side in the day that the stranger carried away captive his forces and forreiners entred into his gates cast lots upon Jerusalem even thou wast as one of them But thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy brother in the day that he became a stranger neither shouldest thou have rejoyced over the children of Judah in the day of their destruction neither shouldest thou have spoken proudly in the day of their distresse Neither shouldest thou have stood in the crosse wayes to cut off those of his that did escape neither shouldest thou have delivered up those of his that did remaine in the day of distresse For the day of the Lord is neere upon all the heathen as thou hast done so it shall be done unto thee thy reward shall returne upon thine owne head Behold a notable example of divine justice in meting to the wicked their owne measure and punishing them with that where with they offended The Edomites proved false to the Jewes their brethren and their neerest friends prove false to them They received a wound ver 7. from the men of their confederacy even from them that ate their bread Non expectato vulnus ab hoste ferunt Remember O Lord the Edomites but destroy the Babylonians Though the Edomites dealt most cruelly with their brethren the Jewes yet the Jewes are not so farre transported with passion against them as not to put a difference between them and the Babylonians By the way wee may note the condition of Christs dearest Spouse in the world both Edomites and Babylonians forraine and domesticall enemies those that are neere and those that are farre off conspire against poore Jerusalem and bring her as you see upon her knees crying to heaven for revenge and by the spirit of prophesie promising Cyrus good successe in his enterprise against Babylon O daughter of Babylon that is City of Babylon by an elegant Hebraisme as tell the daughter of Sion that is tell Sion We reade of a twofold Babylon in sacred Scriptures of the one in the Old Testament the other in
of Sion be thou ruler in the middest of thine enemies Whilst our Saviour lived upon earth the soveraigne balsamum of wounded mankind yeelding a savour of life unto life was kept as it were in a narrow boxe but at our Saviours death the boxe was broken and this precious oyntment poured out and the whole world filled with the smell thereof This doctrine touching the naturalizing if I may so speak of the Gentiles into the spirituall Common-wealth of Israel was implyed in the Metaphor of the Rose of the field Cantic 2.1 I am the Rose of the field Christ is not a garden flower for few to see and fewer to smell unto but a Rose of the field for all to gather that have a hand of faith to touch him but it was unfolded at large to Saint Peter in a vision of a sheet let downe from Heaven knit at foure corners Acts 10.11 12. in which were all manner of foure footed beasts of the earth and wild beasts and creeping things c. The foure corners of the sheet signified the foure parts of the world all sorts of living creatures all sorts of men of all kindreds nations and languages The sheet in which they were all wrapped is the Church militant In the end of the vision the vessell was received up againe into heaven Acts 10.16 to shew that in the end of the world the whole Church militant shall be transported into heaven and become triumphant St. b Orig. comment in Cant. homil 1. Quemadmodum in Evangelio mulier illa quae sanguine fluebat archi Synagogae filiam curatione praevenit sic Aethiopissa id est Gentium Ecclesia Israel aegrotante sanata est Origen representeth this truth most cleerly unto us through the mirrour of an allegory Though saith he the found of the Gospel came later unto the Gentiles yet the Gentiles prevented the Jewes in giving credit to it and were justified before them as the woman in the Gospel that was sicke of a bloudy issue was healed before the Rulers daughter The daughter of the Ruler of the Synagogue was a type of the Jewish Synagogue the woman that was in a long consumption by reason of her continuall fluxe of bloud was an embleme of the people of the Gentiles lying more than twelve ages sicke of a bloudy issue weltring in her naturall filth and bloud Now as Christ going to cure the Rulers daughter was touched by the Canaanitish woman sicke of a bloudy issue and she by that touch was cured so though Christ came first to heale the Synagogue yet the Gentile Church touching the hemme of his garment by faith is first healed and saved The phrase of sending forth judgement expresseth our Saviours readinesse in opening the treasures of heavenly wisedome and unfolding the mysteries of eternall salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till he shooteth out casteth out or sendeth forth judgement of his owne accord as a tree doth his fruit or the Sunne his beames Matth. 12.35 A good man bringeth forth out of the treasure of his heart good things Matth. 2.11 The Sages opened their treasures and every Scribe which is instructed unto the Kingdome of heaven is like unto a man that is an house-holder which bringeth forth out of his treasures things new and old I have not hid thy righteousnesse within my heart Psal 40.10 saith David in the person of Christ I have declared thy faithfulnesse and thy salvation I have not concealed thy loving kindnesse and thy truth from the great congregation Ver. 9. I have preached righteousnesse in the great assembly I have not refrained my lips O Lord thou knowest And according to this fore-going type how ready the truth himselfe was to publish the Gospel of the Kingdome appeareth by his taking all occasions from every ordinary occurrent to instruct his Disciples in points of heavenly wisedome as from a draught of fish to admonish them of fishing for soules from Well-water to treat of the water of life from barly loaves to exhort them to labour for the food that perisheth not from burying the dead to reprove those that are dead in sinne from curing the blind in body to rebuke the spirituall blindnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees from a question concerning the materiall Temple to fore-tell the dissolution of the temple of his body and raising it up againe in three daies To conceale any needfull especially saving truth is to bury the gold of Ophir and thereby deprive not only others but our selves also of the benefit and use thereof Wherefore St. c August l. 12. confess Veritas nec mea nec tu◠nec illius est sed omnium nostrûm quos ad ejus communionem publicè vocas admonens nos ut nolimus eam habere privatam ne privemut ea Augustine sharply censureth such as would challenge a peculiar interest and propriety in that which is the common treasure of Gods Church saying The truth is neither mine nor thine nor his but all ours in common whom thou O Lord callest publikely to the communion thereof dreadfully admonishing us not to desire to have it private lest we be deprived of it In speciall the truth of judgement ought not to bee kept in but to bee sent forth For to detaine any private mans goods is but a private wrong but unrighteously to detaine justice which is the Kings or the Common-wealths or rather both their good is a kind of peculatus or publike theft We laugh at the Indians for casting in great store of gold yeerly into the river Ganges as if the streame would not runne currently without it yet when the current of justice is stopt in many Courts the wisest Soliciters of sutes can finde no better means than such as the Indians use by dropping in early in the morning gold and silver into Ganges to make it runne Pliny reporteth of Apis the Aegyptian god whom they worshipped in the likenesse of a Cow or Oxe that hee gave answers to private men è manu consulentium cibum capiendo Taking alwayes some food from their hands otherwise the Oracle was dumbe I need not to prosecute the application in this place where by the testimony of all men and the truth it selfe the streame of Justice if any where runneth cleerly most free from all filth and corruption Therefore I passe from Christ his sending forth judgement to his victory Hee shall send forth judgement unto victory There are two principall acts or to speake more properly effects of our Lords Princely function 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 judgement and victory judgement upon and victory over all his enemies Wee have them both in the words of my Text Judgement which hee shall send forth and Victory unto which But of what Judgement or Victory the words are to bee construed the learned Interpreters of holy Writ somewhat differ in judgement Some in their ghesses fall short upon the particular judgement and utter
so wonderfully for nought but that he reserved him for some greater worke and service to his Church as wee see this day There remaineth yet one clause in my text And the mouth of every one that speaketh lies shall bee stopped and answerably an appendix to the narration of the conspiracie of the Gowries for stopping the mouthes of all that shall call in question the truth of that relation Which besides the conscience of his Majesty the deposition of his servants the publicke justice of the Parliament of Scotland the solemne piety and devotion of the Churches of great Brittaine and Ireland was sixteene yeeres after the plotting thereof and eight yeeres after the acting confirmed by the publicke free and voluntarie confession of p Vid. a booke intituled the examination of G. Sprot published with a learned preface to it by G.A. Dr. D. and Dean of Winchester George Sprot arraigned and executed at Edinburgh for it Thus have I fitted each member of this prophecy to the severall parts of the storie of his Majesties deliverance as on this day betweene which there is such good correspondencie that the prophesie seemeth text to the storie and the storie a commentarie on the prophesie Observe I beseech you the harmony of them and let your heart dance with joy at every straine 1. The first is They that seeke my soule to destroy it shall goe downe c. This was exemplified and according to the letter accomplished in Alexander Ruthwen who sought the ruine of our David and was himselfe throwne downe the staires and after part of him into the lowest parts of the earth a deepe pit into which his bowels were cast 2. The second is They shall cast him downe by the edge of the sword This was accomplished in the Earle Gowrie whom the Kings servants smote in the study with the edge of the sword that hee died and fell at their feet 3. The third is And they shall be a portion for foxes that is lie unburied for a prey to the fowles of heaven and beasts of the earth this was accomplished in all the Traitors who were according to the Lawes of the kingdome hanged drawne and quartered and their quarters set up upon the most eminent parts of the Citie where the fowles preyed upon them till they dropped downe to the ground and were made an end of by some ravenous beasts 4. The fourth is The King shall rejoyce in God This was literally verified in our King who joyfull after hee was plucked out of the jawes of death gave publicke thankes to God and ascribed the whole glory of his deliverance and victorie over his enemies to his gracious goodnesse and in memorie of this so great a benefit commanded this feast which wee now celebrate to be solemnly kept in all his Dominions yeerely 5. The fifth is And all that sweare by him that is all which worship the true God the God of our Jacob or all that sweare to him that is allegiance to his Majestie shall glorie This as it was accomplished in other congregations so is it in us here present assembled to glorie in the Lord for this wonderfull delivery of their then and now also our Soveraigne 6. The sixt and last is And the mouth of all that speake lies shall bee stopped This was also fulfilled by the meanes of George Sprot who by his pious behaviour and penitent confession at his death and a signe which he promised to shew after his breath should be stopped and accordingly performed after he had hanged a great while clapping his hands above his head stopped the mouth of all such as before spake lies against the truth of the precedent relation To the lively expression whereof I have borrowed as you see Davids princely characters and set the presse placing each letter in his ranke and part in his order What remaineth but that I pray to God by his spirit to stampe them in our hearts and so imprint them in our memories that he that runneth may reade our thankfulnesse to God for this deliverance and confidence in his future protection of our Soveraignes person and love and loyaltie to his Majestie whom God hath so strangely saved from the sword to save the sword from us that in peace and safety he might receive and sway the Scepter of these Kingdomes of great Brittaine and Ireland Which long may hee with much prosperity and honour to the glory of God and propagation of the truth libertie and safetie of the Church and Common-wealth exceeding joy and comfort of all his friends and remarkeable shame and confusion of his implacable enemies So bee it Deo patri c. THE LORD PROTECTOR OF PRINCES OR DEUS ET REX GOD AND THE KING A Sermon appointed to be preached before his Grace at Croydon August 5. 1620. THE SIXTH SERMON PSAL. 21.1 The King shall joy in thy strength O Lord and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoyce Or as wee reade in the Bishops Bible The King shall rejoyce in thy strength O Lord exceeding glad shall he be of thy salvation THat manifold or to make a new compound to translate a compound in the Originall a Eph. 3.10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 multivarious wisedome and goodnesse of God which hath illustrated the firmament with varietie of starres some more some lesse glistering and glorious enamell'd the meadowes with choyce of flowers some more some lesse beautifull and fragrant inriched the sands of the Sea with pearle some more some lesse orient and veines of the earth with metals some more some lesse pretious hath also decked and garnished the Calendar of the Church with variety of Feasts some more some lesse holy and solemn You may observe a kinde of Hierarchy among them some have a preheminence over the rest which we call greater and higher Feasts Among which this day challengeth his place on which we refresh the memorie of his Majesties rescue out of the prophane and impious hands of the Earle Gowry and Alexander Ruthwen A paire of unnaturall brethren brethren in nature and brethren in a most barbarous and unnaturall attempt against their Soveraigne the Lords annointed brethren by bloud and brethren also in bloud who by the just judgement of God cleansed that study with their owne bloud which they would have for ever stained by the effusion there of the Royall bloud of the most innocent Prince that ever sate on that or this Throne whom almighty God seemeth not so much to have preserved from those imminent dangers he then escaped as reserved for these unvaluable blessings we now enjoy by the prorogation of his life enlarging of his Scepter and propagation of his Issue In his life the life of our hope is revived in his Scepter the Scepter of Christ is extended in his stocke the root of Jesse is propagated and shall I hope flourish to the end of the world For this cause the King shall rejoyce c. he shall rejoyce in thee we in
their body than any article of their creede whereas on the contrary side the Romanists as they impeach the article of Christs incarnation of the Virgin Mary by teaching that his flesh is made daily by the Priests in the Masse not of her blood but of bread and of his ascension and sitting at the right hand of the Father till hee come to judge the quicke and the dead by teaching that his body is at once in a Million of places on earth even wheresoever Masses are said so they most manifestly overthrow the articles he instanceth in viz. 1 The ninth tenth The ninth by turning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 universall into particular and empaling the whole Church within the jurisdiction of Rome as the Donatists did of old within the Provinces of Africa The tenth by branding them with the markes of heretickes who believe the remission of their owne sinnes by speciall faith 2 As the Cardinall is foulely mistaken in the point of divinity so also in the matter of history both of former ages and this present wherein wee live For who knoweth not that other articles besides the ninth and tenth are at this day oppugned by the Servetians Antitrinitarians Sosinians Vorstians Anabaptists Libertines and Familists whose heresies strike at the soveraigne attributes of God the Trinity of persons deity of Christ his incarnation satisfaction second comming and life everlasting 3 Neither were these two articles instanced in first impugned in our age or since the 1000. yeere as hee accounteth but long before in the third and fourth ages by the Novatians Donatists Luciferians Meletians and Pelagians 4 Neither was Sathan so long in setting heretickes on worke to undermine all the articles of the creede If you peruse the bedroll of heresies in Irenaeus Epiphanius Philastrius and Augustine you shall finde that within the space of 400. yeeres the Divell so bestirred himselfe that hee left no article of the Apostles creede untouched by them 5 And lastly neither had the enemy of mankinde any care at all of order in employing heretickes to overthrow our christian beliefe more than an enraged enemy all set upon spoile in demolishing an house thinketh of pulling downe every stone in order for to what end serveth order when nothing but present confusion is sought Therefore against the rule of method set downe by Bellarmine Sathan in the second age called in question the last article of the creed by Papius and the Millenaries In the third age hee called in question the eighth article concerning the holy Ghost by the Macedonians and Pneumatomachi In the first age hee called in question the second article concerning the divinity of Christ by the Ebionites and Cerinthians as also the eleventh by the Ephesians and those Corinthians whom the Apostle taketh to taske in this chapter and confuteth in my text Obser 2 My second observation from the occasion is that some heresies as namely this of the Corinthians concerning the resurrection against which the Apostle bendeth all his forces have beene very auncient and some heretickes contemporaries to the Apostles As God is stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 d Dan. 7.13 that is Auncient of dayes or rather Auncient to dayes as God speaketh of himselfe e Esa 43.13 Before the day was I am so the Divell is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the old Serpent whose spawne are all heresies as well old as new No truth at the first delivery thereof could bee auncient nor can any errour after it hath long passed from hand to hand bee new Time is without the essence of those things that are measured by it and consequently cannot make that which is in it selfe evill good nor that which is good evill Antiquity can no more prescribe for falshood than novelty prejudice the truth Bare antiquity therefore is but a weake plea in matter of religion f Tertul. de Vol. Virg. quodcunque contra veritatem sapit haeresis est etiam vetus consuetudo whatsoever savoureth not of truth or is against it is heresie yea although it be ancient and plead custome 1 It was the Samaritans plea against the Jewes g Joh. 4.20.22 Our Father worshipped in this mount c. But it was rejected by our Saviour saying you worship you know not what 2 It was the plea of the hereticks called Aquarii against the Catholicks but disproved by Saint h Ep. 74. Consuetudo sine veritate est vetustas â—rroris Cyprian saying Custome without truth is no better than inveterate errour 3 It was the plea of Guitmundus against the practice of the Romane Church in Gregory the great his dayes but disparaged by him saying custome ought to give place to truth and right i Grat. dist 8. for Christ said not Ego sum consuetudo I am custome or prescription but Ego sum veritas I am truth Nay it was the very plea of the Paynims against the Christians and long agoe disabled by the ancient Fathers Saint Ignatius Arnobius Ambrose and Augustine Ignatius thus puts it by Some say they will not believe the truth of the Gospell if wee produce not ancient records for it to whom my answer is k Ignat. epist ad Philad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ is my antiquity his words are to mee in stead or as good as all ancient records l Arnob. l. 2. cont gent. Quod verum est seâ—um non est c. Arnobius gravely determines the point the authority saith he of Religion is to be weighed not by time but by the divine author thereof that which is true is not to be traduced as late or too new Saint m Amb. l. 3. ep 30 Reprobatis messem quia sera est foecunditas c. Ambrose seconds Arnobius saying to the heathen doe you finde fault with our Christian religion because it is later than your heathenish superstition you may by the same reason picke a quarrell with harvest because it comes not till the end of summer and with the vintage because it falls late in the yeere and with the olive because hee beareth fruit after other trees Lastly Saint n Quaest vet novi Test Quasi antiquitas praejudicet veritati hic est mos diabolicus ut per antiquitatis traducem commendetur fallacia Austine returnes them a smart answer for this absurd plea They say that that religion which is elder cannot bee false as if antiquity or custome could doe the truth any prejudice at all 't is a divellish custome to vent falshood under the title of antiquity Whereunto may be added that in propriety of speech that is not antiquity which is so esteemed the age wherein wee live is indeed the eldest because nearest to the end of the world and those times which wee reverence as elder are by so much the younger by how much they were neerer to the beginning of the world and the birth of time it selfe The Catholike Christian Church was never so
about it or if musicall termes sound sweeter in your eares here is 1 Planus cantus or the ground Christ 2 Discantus or the division is become the first fruits of them that slept The notes in the descant must answer those in the planus cantus so they doe here The first fruits to Christ Is become to is risen Them that slept to the dead The ditty hath three parts or sentences 1 The doctrine of resurrection is certaine for Christ is risen 2 The prerogative of Christ is singular is become the first fruits 3 The condition of the dead is happy they are them that slept and rest now from their labours Now seemeth here to have more of the Conjunction than of the Adverbe and to bee rather a particle of connexion than a note of time For Christ was not newly risen when Saint Paul wrote this Epistle but many yeeres before The proper and precise Now of Christs resurrection when hee might have beene said to bee now or new risen was the third day after his passion being the first day of the weeke Whence I observe the agreement of the time with the truth not in substance onely but in circumstance also The types were the Paschall Lambe and the first fruits Now as Christ our passover was slayne the very day in which the Paschall Lambe was to bee killed so hee being also the first fruits ver 23. rose againe the very day in which the first fruits were by the law to bee offered Saint r Bern serm in domin Pasch Bernard a little varieth the note yet maketh good harmony On the sixth day on which hee made man hee redeemed him the next day being the Jewish sabbath hee kept his sabbath rest in the grave the third day which was the first of the weeke-dayes he appeared The first fruits of them that slept Of which day I neede say no more to kindle your devotions and stirre up your religious affections than ſ Serm. de resur Maximus Taurinensis hath long ago in his meditations piously ejaculated A blessed day first discovering unto us the light not of this world but of the world to come farre happier than that day in which man first saw the light of the sunne For on that day man was made to travell on this day to rest on that day hee was sentenced to death on this day freed from feare of death on that day the sunne arose upon the just and unjust this day the sunne of righteousnesse rose onely upon the just illius diei splendor etiam sepulchra illuminat that day shined only upon the living this also upon the dead as it is written Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Christ u l. 4. divin instit Lactantius interpreteth the King Unctus nomen est imperii anointed is the name of soveraigne majesty Saint * Tract 2. in Johan Christus sacramenti nomen est quomodo si dicatur sacerdos Austine expoundeth it a Priest others a Prophet for Prophets were also anointed Saint Bernard alluding to this name maketh Christ a tender Chirurgian curing our wounds non ustione sed unctione not by lancing or searing but by anointing and plastering The Heathen in Tertullians time expounded it x Tertul in apologet bonum benignum good and bountifull ne sic quidem malè and not amisse saith hee if wee regard the sense and application of that attribute to our Saviour For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kinde and gracious and profitable to man because y Phil. 1.21 in life and death advantage but amisse if wee respect the derivation For Christ is derived from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ungo and answereth to the Hebrew Messias of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying to anoint and peculiarly it designeth the Sonne of God and Saviour of the world For albeit others were anointed besides Christ and called the Lords anointed yet Christ alone was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Christ 1 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In verity 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 After a singular manner 1 In verity or truth for all Kings Priests that were anointed before him were but types of him and that in part how holy soever they were hee is the onely true Christ anointed and appointed by God to save lost man 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 According to excellency or after a singular manner he is the Christ 1 Others were anointed by men he immediatly by God z Psal 45.7 God even thy God hath anointed thee 2 They with a lesse measure of graces he with a greater incomparably greater with oyle of gladnesse above thy fellowes 3 They to beare one office or two at the most he to beare three Melchisedech was a King and a Priest but no Prophet Samuel a Prophet and a Priest but no King David a King and a Prophet but no Priest Christ was all three a Priestly King as Melchisedeck a Kingly Prophet as David and a Propheticall Priest as Samuel I conceive the Apostle here made choice of this name Christ above others because it best fitted his purpose and implyed some cause of his resurrection For as anointing or embalming dead corpses keeps them from putrefying so Christ by the divine unction was preserved from corrupting in the grave because there was no corruption in his soule his body could not corrupt or at least God would not suffer it as the Prophet speaketh * Psal 16.10 thou wilt not suffer thy holy One to see corruption Now if his body must not bee left nor corrupt in the grave because it was a Act. 2.24 impossible for him to be held with the sorrowes of death he must undoubtedly have risen againe as it followeth Is risen In the originall it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 raysed viz. by the right hand of his Father elsewhere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee is risen of himselfe neither is there yet any contradiction For the Father and the Sonne are one in nature and consequently the power of the Father who is God is the power of the Sonne who is one God with him Id resurgit quod prius cecidit that is properly said to bee raised or rise againe which before fell and that is the body which is therefore called in Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in latine cadaver a cado Christs resurrection then or resuscitation from the dead must bee the enliving his dead corps and lifting it up and bringing it up out of the darke sepulchre into the light which is a kinde of second birth and not unlike to his first For as that was his proceeding out of the Virgins wombe so this was out of a Virgin tombe the difference was onely in this as b Petrus Chrysolog serm pasch de resur ser 14. Chrysologus acutely hath observed the wombe
worse than perdition to bee saved for ever in these flames to bee ever scorched and never consumed that is to bee ever dying and never dye Here as Saint g Aug. de civit Dei l 13. c. 11. Ibi non erunt homines ante mortem neque post mortem sed semper in morte atque per hoc nunquam viventes nunquam mortui sed sine fine morientes Austine acutely observeth wee can never bee sayd properly dying but either alive or dead for to the moment of giving up the ghost wee are alive and after that dead whereas on the contrary the damned in hell can never bee said to bee alive or dead but continually dying not dead because they have most quicke sense of paine not alive because they are in the pangs of the second death O miserable life where life is continually dying O more miserable death where death is eternally living Yea but shall all be salted with this fire the fire of hell God forbid Doth Christ say of this salt not of the earth but of hell that it is good ver 50. is this the meaning of his exhortation have salt in you that is procure the salt of hell fire to keep you alive in the torments of eternall death to preserve you to everlasting perdition By no meanes h In hunc locum Maldonat therefore and Barradius and all that are for this first interpretation are justly to bee blamed because they had an eye to the antecedents but not to the consequents of my text On the other side those who adhere to the second interpretation are not free from just exception because they had an eye to the consequents and not to the antecedents For wee ought to give such an interpretation of these words as may hold good correspondence both with the antecedents and consequents and either give light to both or receive it from them The elect to whom these latter restraine the word All have nothing to doe with the unquenchable fire of hell mentioned ver 48. neither have the reprobate to whom the former interpreters appropriate these words any thing to doe with the good salt ver 50. yet both have to doe with some kinde of salting and with some kinde of fire For every one shall bee salted one way or other either here with the fire of the spirit seasoning our nature and preserving it from corruption or hereafter with the fire of hell There is no meanes to escape the never dying worme of an evill conscience but by having salt in us nor to prevent the unquenchable fire of hell but by fire from heaven I meane heart-burning sorrow for our sinnes Dolor est medicina doloris That we may not bee hereafter salted with the fire of hell wee must be here salted with a threefold fire of 1 The word 2 The spirit 3 Affliction or persecution First with the fire of the word the word is a fire i Jer. 23.29 Is not my word like a fire saith the Lord It hath the three properties of fire 1 To give light 2 To burne 3 To search First it giveth light therefore Psal 119. it is called a lanthorn to our steps and a light to our paths Secondly it burneth 1 In the eare 2 In the mouth 3 In the heart First in the eare k 1 Sam. 3.11 Whosoever heareth my words saith God his eares shall tingle Secondly it burneth in the mouth l Jerem. 5.14 I will make my words fire in the mouth Thirdly it burneth in the heart m Luk. 24.32 Did not our heart burne within us when hee opened to us the scriptures Lastly it searcheth pierceth and tryeth like fire The n Heb. 4.12 word of God is mighty in operation and sharper than a two-edged sword c. Secondly with the fire of the spirit the spirit is a fire o Act. 1.5 You shall be baptized with the holy Ghost and with fire Water will wash out filthy spots and blots on the skinne onely but fire is more powerfull it will burne out rotten flesh and corrupt matter under the skinne This fire of the holy Ghost enlightneth the understanding with knowledge enflameth the will and affections with the love of God and zeale for his glory and purgeth out all our drossie corruptions Thirdly with the fire of persecution and affliction Persecution is called a p 1 Pet. 4.12 fiery tryall and all kinde of afflictions and temptations wherewith Gods Saints are tryed in Saint Austines judgement are the fire whereof Saint Paul speaketh q 1 Cor. 3.15 He shall be saved as it were through fire And of a truth whatsoever the meaning of that text bee certaine it is that the purest vessels of Gods sanctuary first in the Heathen next in the Arrian and last of all in the Antichristian persecution have beene purified and made glorious like gold tryed in the fire There is no torment can bee devised by man or divell whereof experiments have not beene made on the bodies of Christs martyrs yet the greater part of them especially in these later times have beene offered to God by fire as the Holocausts under the law Bloody persecutors of Gods Saints set on fire with hell of all torments most employed the fiery because they are most dreadfull to the eye of the beholders most painefull to the body of the sufferers and they leave nothing of the burned martyr save ashes which sometimes the adversaries maâ—ice outlasting the flames of fire cast into the river And many of Gods servants in this land as well as in other parts in the memory of our fathers have been salted with this fire call you it whether you please either the fire of martyrdome or martyrdome of fire And howsoever this fire in the dayes of Queen Mary was quenched especially by the blood of the slaine for the testimony of Jesus Christ as the fire in the city of the r Liv. decad 3. l. 8 Bruson facet exempl l. 1. Astapani as Livie observeth when no water could lave it our was extinguished with the blood of the citizens yet wee know not but that it may bee kindled againe unlesse wee blow out the coales of wrath against us with the breath of our prayers or dead them with our teares Admit that that fire should never bee kindled againe yet God hath many other fires to salt us withall burning feavers fiery serpents thunder and lightning heart-burning griefes and sorrowes losse of dearest friends wracke of our estates infamy disgrace vexations oppressions indignation at the prosperity of the wicked terrors of conscience and spirituall derelictions And God grant that either by the fire of the Word or of the Spirit or seasonable afflictions our fleshly corruptions may bee so burned out in this life that wee bee not salted hereafter with the fire of hell which burneth but lighteth not scorcheth but yet consumeth not worketh without end both upon soule and body yet maketh an end of neither O that
worse may be is the case of Christs Spouse the true Inheritrix of his Crosse which he bequeathed her at his death having indeed little else to leave her for his soule he was to surrender to God his Father his body Joseph of Arimathea begged of Pilat his cloathes the souldiers parted among them onely his crosse and nailes and crowne of thornes remained to dispose of for his dearest Spouse which she continually beareth about with her and in this vision carried with her into the wildernesse whither she fled to save her life And the woman Fled This picture might have beene taken of the Church as she fled from Pharaoh into the wildernesse or as she fled into Egypt from Herod or as she fled into all parts of the earth in the time of the ten first persecutions from heathen Emperors or in the succeeding ages from the Arrian Emperours and last of all from Antichrist and his instruments in all which her trialls and troubles she gained more than she lost For as Justine Martyr rightly observed t Just apolog Id est persecutio Ecclesiae quod vineae putatio persecution is that to the Church which pruning is to the vine whereby it is made more fruitfull with whom Tertullian accordeth thus jearing at the Gentiles who made full account by their barbarous cruelty to exhaust the whole Church and extinguish the name of Christians u Tert. apolog c. ult Nequicquam tamen proficit exquisita quaeque crudelitas vestra illecebra est magis sectae plures esficimur quoties metimur a vobis semen est sanguis Christianorum What gaine you by your exquisite crueltie and studied torments which you inflict upon us they are no scarre-crowes to fright but rather baites and lures to draw men to our profession we ever grow faster and thicker after we are mowed by you the shedding the bloud of Christians is the sowing the seed of the Gospell And St. Leo x I eoserm 1. in nat Petri Pauli Non minuitur persecutionibus Ecclesia Dei sed augetur magis ager Dominicus segete ditiore vestitur dum grana quae singula cadunt multiplicata nascuntur The Church of God is not diminished by persecutions but increased rather the Lords field is cloathed with a richer crop whilest the seed or graines which fall one by one after they are dead in the earth rise up againe in great numbers Moreover whilest in the chief Cities those who are called by God to depose for his truth win many thousands to the Christian faith other servants of Christ to whom he hath vouchsafed meanes to escape by dispersing themselves into all parts of the world propagate the doctrine of the Gospell and plant new Churches Upon this flight of the woman in my text many of the learned Interpreters take occasion to handle that great case of conscience whether it be lawfull to fly in time of persecution or whether all zealous Christians are not bound to stand to their tackling and strive for the truth even to the effusion of their bloud y Aug. l. 22. de civ Dei c. 7. Pullulatura foecunditis cum in sanguine Martyâ—um seretur y Tert. infug in erscâ—ut Tertullian in his booke professedly written of this subject is altogether against flight grounding his judgement upon the words of our Saviour John 10.11 c. I am the good shepheard the good shepheard giveth his life for the sheepe But he that is an hireling and not the shepheard whose owne the sheep are not seeth the Wolfe comming and leaveth the sheep and fleeth the hireling flyeth because he is an hireling c. And Marke 8.35 38. Whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the Gospels the same shall save it Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of mee and of my words in this adulterous and sinfull generation of him also shall the sonne of man be ashamed when he commeth in the glory of his Father with the holy Angels But Saint Austin and others allow of flight in some case and they bring very good warrant for it Christs expresse command Matth. 10.23 When they persecute you in this city flee into another And Matth. 24.15 16. When you see the abomination of desolation stand in the holy place then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountaines And to the end we should count it no shame to flye in this case they bring noble presidents for it and shew us the footsteps in Scripture of Jacob when he fled from Esau and Moses when hee fled from Pharaoh and Eliah when hee fled from Ahab and Jezabel and David when hee fled from Saul and Joseph and Mary when they fled from Herod They adde also that by this flight of many in time of persecution the Church reapeth a double benefit first hereby many worthy Doctors and eminent Professours reserve themselves for better times next they in their flight scatter the seeds of the Gospel whereby the great Husbandman gathereth a plentifull crop If the Apostles had not been scattered by the persecution of Herod and the primitive Christians by the persecutions of the Heathen Emperours and the true Professours in later times by the persecution of Antichrist many countries in all likelihood had not been sowen with the pure seed of the Word The resolution of this question may be taken from my Text in such a case as the womans was here we may flie that is when there is no safety in staying and God offereth us Eagles wings that is a faire and certaine meanes to escape danger Yea but Christian courage will rise up against this and object Is not Martyrdome a garland of red Roses is not the bloud of Saints the best watering of Gods field can wee shew more love to Christ than to signe the Gospell with our bloud will you perswade Christian souldiers to flye from their colours nay from their crowne God forbid I answer all are not appointed by God to bee Martyrs nor qualified for so noble and eminent service To a Martyr two things are required 1. A speciall calling 2. An extraordinary spirit Even in our Courts of justice a witnes that offereth himself is not accepted he must be brought in by order of law neither will Christ have any depose for him that are not called to it whom he calleth he endueth them with an heroicke spirit and armeth them with faith and patience like armour of proofe into which the fiery darts of the wicked cannot enter Every sincere beleever hath not a spirit of fortitude given him to conquer the violence of fire and dull the edge of the sharpest swords and weary all tortures and torments Moreover God like a provident Husbandman though he send much corne to the Mill to be ground as Ignatius and others that they might be served in as fine manchet at his owne table yet he reserveth alwayes some corne for seed I meane
what face doe I see this is none of my workmanship I never drew this feature Saint r Jerom. ep ad Furiam Quid facit in facie Christianae purpurissa cerussa fomenta libidinum impudicae mentis inditia quomodo flere potest pro peccatis suis quae lachrymis cutem nudat sulcos ducit in facie quâ fiduciâ erigat ad Deum vultus quos conditor non agnoscat Jerome takes the like up in his time as sharply What makes paint and complexion on the face of a Christian it is no other than the fire of youth the fuell of lust the evidence of an unchaste minde How can shee weep for her sinnes for feare of washing away her paint and making furrowes in her face How dare shee looke her Maker in the face who hath defaced his image in her selfe But because I see it will be to no purpose to draw this their sinne of painting in its proper colours before them for they cannot blush I therefore leave them and come to her in my Text Which calleth her selfe a Prophetesse As Novatus the Schismaticke ordained himselfe a Bishop so Jezebel the Nicolait annointed or rather painted her selfe a Prophetesse that by this meanes shee might teach more freely and perswade more powerfully The true Prophets of God received their name and calling from God and wonderfully confirmed the sincerity of their doctrine by the truth of their miracles and the truth of their miracles by the holinesse of their doctrine So many tongues as they spake with with so many testimonies so many miracles as they wrought with so many hands they signed and sealed their calling but deceivers and impostors grace themselves with high and strange titles and glorious names to bleare the eyes of the simple So Psaphon called himselfe and taught the birds to call him magnus deus ſ Run Comment in Aristot Rhet. MS. Psaphon great god Psaphon Theudas said he was some great one Simon Magus stiled himselfe the great power of God and gave it out among his scholars That hee delivered the Law to Moses in Mount Sinai in the person of God the Father and in the reigne of Tiberius appeared in the likenesse of the sonne of man and on the day of Pentecost came downe upon the Apostles in the similitude of cloven tongues Montanus arrogated to himself the title of Paracletus the comforter and to his three minions Priscilla Maximilla and Quintilla the name of Prophetesses * Manes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Manes bare himselfe as if hee were an Apostle immediately sent from Christ and his followers would be thought to be termed Manichei not from their mad master but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but because they poured manna out of their mouthes The great Seducer of the Jewes who in Theodosius time drew thousands after him into the sea and there drowned them perswaded his followers that he was Moses and the abomination of the Turkes Mahomet calleth himselfe Gods great Prophet t Plin. nat hist lib. 1. Inscriptionis apud Graecos mira foelicitas favus Cornucopia ut vel lactis gallinacei sperare possis haustu◠Musae Pandectae inscriptiones propter quas vadimonium deseri possit at cum intraveris dii deaeque quam nihil in medio invenies Pliny derideth the vanity of the Greekes in this kinde who usually set golden titles on leaden Treatises And Heretickes alwayes like Mountebankes set out their drugs with magnificent words Nestorius though he were a condemned Hereticke yet covered himselfe with the vaile of a true Professour 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ebion though he held with the Samaritans yet would be held a Christian The Turkes at this day though it appeares out of all stories that they descended from Hagar yet assume to themselves the name of Saracens The Donatist Schismatickes impropriate to their conventicles the name of the true Church And no marvell that the Salmonian off-spring of Ignatius Loyola christen themselves Jesuits sith the Prince of darknesse not only usurpeth the name but also taketh upon him the forme of an u 2 Cor. 11.14 Angel of light It is a silly shift of a bankrupt disputant in the schooles to argue a vocibus ad res from the bare name of things to their nature and yet Bristow in his motives and Cardinall Bellarmine in his booke of the notes of the Church and other of the Pope his stoutest Champions fight against us with this festraw We are say they sirnamed Catholikes therefore we are so By this kind of argument Pope Alexander the sixt his incestuous daughter might prove her selfe to be a chaste matron because she was called Lucrece Lucrecia nomine sed re Thais Alexandri filia sponsa nurus And Philemon his theevish servant might prove himselfe to be honest because his name was Onesimus and the three Ptolomies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 profitabl◠whereof the first killed his Father and the second his Mother and the third his Brother might prove themselves to be full of naturall affection because the one was sirnamed 1 A lover of his Father Philopater the other 2 A lover of his Mother Philometor the third 3 A lover of his Brother Philodelphus Were mens names alwayes correspondent to their nature x Eras apoph in Philip. Philip of Macedon had lost a witty jest which he brake upon two brothers Hecaterus and Amphoterus thus inverting their names 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He whose name is either of the two deserveth to be called both because hee is worth both and he whose name is both shall be called neither because he is of no worth at all But to throw away foyles and come to the sharpe Will they thus argue in good earnest Protestants are called Sectaries or Schismatickes and Papists Catholikes therefore they are so Will they condemne the Primitive Christians for Atheists because the heathen usually so termed them in regard they had no faith in their gods Will they brand St. Paul for an Heretick or the Truth himself for a Seducer because ignorance and malice fastened these calumnies and blasphemies upon them Protestants are termed Heretickes by Papists and are not Papists also by Protestants what gaine then the Papists hereby Papists are termed Catholikes I would know by whom If by any Protestant they know well it is but by a Sarcasme or Ironie as Alexander was called a god by the Lacedaemonians Quoniam Alexander vult esse deus sit deus Yea but they are so stiled by all that adhere to the Church of Rome and were not the Arrians called Catholikes by Arrians the Nestorians Orthodoxe by Nestorians the Novatians the best Christians by Novatians the Donatists sole members of the Church by Donatists the most impure Sect of Anabaptists the Family of love by those of their owne cut If this argument may passe for currant Papists terme themselves Catholikes therefore they are so what exception can be taken against these and the like The
Turkes call themselves Saracens therefore they are the off-spring of Sarah they of Satans Synagogue call themselves y Apoc. 3.9 Jewes therefore they are Jewes indeed the Angel of Sardis had a name that he z Apoc. 3.1 lived therefore he was not dead the Angel of * Apoc. 3.17 Laodicea said he was rich and needed nothing therfore he was not wretched miserable and poor blind and naked Jezebel called her selfe a Prophetesse therefore she was so indeed Without question Jezebel set some fairer colour upon the matter than this else she could never have dazled the eyes of Gods servants well she might offer to teach in the Church under this pretence which yet S. Paul expressely forbids a a 1 Cor. 14.34 woman to doe but certainely she could never have foyled any servant of God with so weake an argument grounded upon a bare title assumed by her selfe yet the Spirit saith that she not onely taught but prevailed also with some and seduced them To teach and seduce my servants I doubt not but at the reading of these words your thoughts trouble you and you begin to question whether this doctrine is not a seduction to teach that any of Gods servants can be seduced Can any elect child of God fall from grace Is it possible to plucke any of Christs members from his body Can the Sun-beames by any winde or tempest be stirred out of their place b 1 John 2.19 Doth not St. John dispute strongly They went away from us because they were not of us for if they had beene of us they would not have departed from us Is not St. c Cypr. de simplic Praelat Triticum non rapit ventuâ— nec arborem solidâ radice fundatam procella subvertit inanes paleae tempestate jactantur invalidae arbores turbinis incursione evertuntur Cyprians observation as true as it is elegant The winde bloweth not away the corne neither is a tree that hath taken a deepe root in the earth overthrowne in a tempest it is but chaffe which the winde scattereth abroad and they are hollow and rotten trees that are blowne downe in a tempest To dispell all mists of ambiguity and cleare the truth in this point I must acquaint you with two sorts of Christs servants or retainers at least some weare his cloth and cognizance but doe him little or no service others perform faithful service unto him some give him their names only others their hearts also some professe outwardly that they are Christians but have unbeleeving hearts others are within that they professe without some are called onely to the knowledge of the truth others are chosen also to be heires of salvation Of these latter our Saviour speakes in St. John d Joh. 10.27 28 My sheepe heare my voyce and I know them and they follow me and I will give unto them eternall life and they shall never perish neither shall any man plucke them out of my hands But of the former the words of my text seeme to bee meant Howbeit because the Discerner of all hearts calleth them his servants saying to seduce my servants and it is not likely that he would grace hypocrites with so honourable an appellation wee may yeeld somewhat more in this point and without prejudice to the truth acknowledge that the true servants of God and ministers also of Christ Jesus may be sometimes seduced out of the right way but not farre I am sure not irrevocably The difference betweene them and others in this respect is like that which the e Cic. tusc 1. Boni in ertorem sicut aes Corinthium in aeruginem incidunt rariùs facilius revocantur Oratour observeth betweene the Corinthian and common brasse as the brasse of Corinth is longer ere it rust and when it is rustie is sooner scowred and more easily recovers the former brightnesse than other brasse so good men are hardlier withdrawne from the true faith and more easily reclaimed from their errours than those who beare no sincere love to the truth but are wedded to their owne opinions whatsoever they are and oftentimes blinded by obstinately setting their eyes against the bright beames of the Word Out of the Arke of Noah which was a type of the Church there flew two f Gen. 8.7 birds a Raven and a Dove the Raven after hee had taken his flight returned not againe but the Dove came backe with an Olive branch in her bill The Dove saith Saint g Cypr. adver Nâ—vit Prosp l. de prom c. 7. Cyprian represented the seduced Catholike who after hee is gone out of the Church never findeth rest till hee returne backe with an Olive branch of peace in his mouth and bee reconciled to the Church But the Raven is the obstinate Hereticke who leaveth the Church with a purpose never to returne to her againe And many such Ravens have beene of late let flye out of the Arke which never returne againe or if they returne it is to prey upon the sicke and weake members of our Church and to picke out the eyes of her dearest children and I pray God wee may never have cause to renew the Poets complaint Dat veniam corvis vexat censura columbas To commit fornication Fornication as h Lyra in Apoc. c. 2. Fornicatio est quadruplex in â—nimo simulierem concupiscâ—s in actu in cultu Idolorum in amore terrenorum Lyranus harpeth upon the word is committed foure manner of wayes 1. By the impure lust of the heart 2. By the uncleane act of the body 3. By the religious worship of Images or Idols 4. By the immoderate love of earthly vanities For when the soule turneth away from God and setteth her love wholly upon vile and base creatures so farre below her that God hath placed them under her feet what doth shee but like a Lady of noble descent married to a Prince which disloyally leaveth his bed and maketh love to the groome of her chamber Certainely this is sordidum adulterium not onely filthy but base adultery Howbeit I take it this was not the staine of the Church of Thyatira but either fornication properly so called which is corporall Idolatry or idolatry which is spirituall fornication For idolatry defileth the Spirit as adultery polluteth the flâ—sh idolatry provoketh God as adultery doth man to jealousie as adultery is a just cause of separation betweene man and his wife so idolatry maketh a breach betwixt God and the soule and causeth in the end a divorce by reason of which separation for disloyalty and unfaithfulnesse Saint i Cypr. de hab virg Prius viduâ—s quam nuptas non mariti sed Christi adulteras Cyprian wittily tearmeth certaine virgins widowes before they were married wives yea and adulteresses too not to their husbands which they had not but to Christ to whom they had plighted their troth And looke how a jealous husband would bee transported with passion if hee should finde his
Prophet I rather gather from these words the great honour which Nathan the Prophet received from David the King than the direction or advice that David the King received from Nathan the Prophet The King said Though Kings are e Bils suprem p. 1. supreme Commanders for the truth yet they are not the supreme or sole directers unto truth for in scruples of conscience and perplexed controversies of Religion they are to require the law from the mouth of the Priest to aske counsell of the Prophets and generally in all matters appertaining to God to heare the Ministers of God declaring to them the will of God out of his Word Symmachus was bold to tell Anastasius the Emperour that as Bishops owe subjection to Gods Sword in Princes hands so Princes owe obedience to Gods Word in Bishops mouthes f Causab de lib. eccles Defer Deo in nobis nos deferemus Deo in te O Emperour heare God speaking by us and wee will feare God ruling by thee The same God who hath put a materiall sword in thy hands to smite malefactors in their body hath put a spirituall sword in our mouth to slay sinne in the soule The Magistrate is the hand of God but the Preacher is his mouth And for this cause all wise and religious Kings have given them their eares and taken some of them into their bosome as David doth here Nathan to receive instruction and direction from them how to sway the royall scepter within the walls of the Church Let it not seeme burthensome unto you my dearest brethren upon so just occasion as is offered mee in my Text to speake somewhat of the honour of that calling which calleth you all to God From whose mouth doe ye heare the glad tidings of salvation From whose hands doe ye receive the seales of grace Who have the oversight and charge of your soules Who are the meanes under God to reconcile God unto you by their prayers and bring you unto God by their powerfull ministerie but your faithfull and painfull Pastours who in performing these holy duties of their calling are termed g Prosp de vit contem l. 1. c 25. Hisunt Ministri verbi Adjutores Dei Oracula Sp. S. coadjutores Dei as it were fellow-labourers with God Per istos Deus placatur populo per istos populus instruitur Deo All other lawfull callings are from God but this was the calling of God himselfe other offices he appointed this he executed others he commends this he discharged When he tooke our flesh upon him and lived upon earth he would not be made a King nor sit as a Judge upon a Nisi prius of inheritance yet performed he the office of a Preacher through his whole life and of a Priest at his death offering himselfe by the eternall Spirit upon the high Altar of the Crosse where he was both h Confes l. 10. c. 42. Pro nobis tibi Victor Victima ideo Victor quia Victima pro nobis tibi Sacerdos Sacrificium ideò Sacerdos quia Sacrificium faciens tibi nos de servis filios Victor and Victima ideo Victor quia Victima as St. Austine playeth sweetly in a rhetoricall key May the civill Magistrates glorie in this that God calleth them gods and may not they that serve at Christs Altar take as great comfort in that God himselfe calleth his Sonne a Priest saying i Psal 110.4 Thou art a Priest for ever Wherefore if the glorious titles wherewith God himselfe graceth the Ministerie of Stewards of his house Dispencers of his mysteries Lights of the world Angels of the Church if the noble presidents in Scripture of Melchizedek King and Priest David King and Prophet Solomon King and Preacher suffice not to redeeme the sacred order from the scandall of profane men and contempt of the world yet methinkes sith the Son of God and King of glorie hath taken upon him the office and executed the function of a Priest all men should entertaine a reverend opinion of the Priesthood of the Gospel and not to use the word Priest as a reproach to man which was one of the three dignities of God himselfe much lesse seeke to disgrace their persons who are Gods Instruments to conveigh grace into their soules What shall I say more Nay what can I say lesse He that honoureth not the name of Christ which signifieth k Luke 4.18 Annointed to preach the Gospel is no Christian he that conceiveth basely or speaketh contumeliously of the sacred order of Priests is worse than an Infidell For the heathen l Ca sar Com. de bello Gal. French and English in Julius Caesars time placed their Priests which they called Druides above their Gentrie yea and most of the Nobilitie appointing the chiefe of them to beare on his breast the Image of Truth engraven in a rich Jewell The m Bodin de repub l. 3. c. 8. Turkes Moores and Arabians have their Priests which they call Mophtae in highest estimation and devolve the most important matters of State and doubts of their law to their definitive sentence and order The Syrians adorne their Priests with a n Philost de vit Apo. Tâ—â—â—nâ— 2. Crowne of gold the Brachmans with a Scepter of gold and Mitre beset with precious stones The Romans stiled their chiefe Flamen Regem sacrorum adoring that name in their Priests which they abhorred in their Princes and Consuls Lastly the Egyptians Athenians o Strab. geog l. 7. Josâ—ph l. 14. c. 15 Sub Dionâ—â—o Archonte principe Sacerdotum Apud quos Lycurgus Legislator Sacerdos erat Apollonis Virgil. â—â—n 3. Râ—x â—dem Anius Phoebique Sacerdos Liv. dec 1. Numa Sacerdos Nymphae Aegeriae Suet. in Aug. Tit. Ovid. â—ast l. 3. Caesaris innumeris quos maluit ille merei Accessit titulis Pontificalis honos Lacedaemonians and almost all the Heathen who either had Kingly Priests or sacrificing Kings shall condemne such Christians at the day of Christ then they shall see of that calling which seemed so vile darke and obscure in their eyes some glistering as Pearles in the gates others sparkling as Diamonds in the foundation and no small number shining as Starres in the arch of the heavenly Jerusalem and amidst them the Sunne of righteousnesse Christ Jesus exercising his royall Priesthood and making intercession to his Father for all those and those onely who honour his Priestly function here upon earth in his Ministers by maintaining and countenancing them and in themselves by sacrificing their dearest affections to him But I list not to dwell on this argument but rather with the Kingly Prophet in his house of Cedars I dwell in an house of Cedars In these words David findeth not fault with the beautifull roofe of his Princely Palace but the meane and vile covering of the Arke it troubled him not that he was so well provided for but that the Arke was so ill Princes may dwell in houses of
our Saviour yet it pierceth the heart of most that are meere men whom when hee cannot terrifie with feares he setteth upon them argenteis hastis suggesting after this manner Haec omnia tibi dabo thus and thus it shall be with thee by usury and oppression and sacriledge and cousenage thou shalt gather much wealth and become a great man Wherefore it standeth us much upon to be able to rebate the edge of this sharpe and dangerous weapon of Satan or to wrest it out of his hands and fight against himselfe with it as the Apostle here doth What fruit had yee What advantage have you made of sinne what commeth in by your unjust and ungodly courses what doe ye gaine by ventring your bodies and soules in Satans bottome what commodities doe your hellish voyages bring you If the Apostle had framed his interrogation thus What pleasure had you in those things whereof yee are now ashamed they might easily have put it by saying No wise man maketh pleasure his summum bonum or the mark he chiefly aimeth at If he had shaped it thus What honour or credit got you by those things whereof yee are now ashamed a colourable answer might have been We are not vain-glorious we build not our fortunes in the ayre upon the breath of other mens mouthes but when hee thus brandisheth his sword What fruit had yee in those things hee toucheth them to the quicke and enforceth them to answer directly to his interrogatory or condemne themselves of greatest folly which imputation of all other men cannot brooke It is acutely observed by e Arist Ret. l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristotle who with the same sharpnesse of wit pierced into the secrets of nature and mysteries of policy that if you deale with a Counceller of state about any motion of his in any publike consultation and prove unto him that what he propounded stood not with equity or the honour of the state as for example to take advantage upon the weaknesse of our neighbours and confederates to bring them under us though they never offered us any wrong hee will give you the hearing and not vehemently contest with you but if you goe about to demonstrate that such a proposition of his if it had taken place would have proved disadvantageous to the Common-wealth hee will be at daggers drawing with you and never bee brought to yeeld to you in that point Whereupon he inferreth that howsoever justice honesty the dignity and honour of the Common-wealth are things to be thought upon and serve for ornaments of speech and motives to some few yet that which turneth the ballance and carrieth the greatest sway in all politicke consultations is matter of profit and emolument which hee there determineth to be the end of all deliberations And though Tully in his books f Cic. de lib 7. de oratore disliketh Aristotles opinion herein alledging against it the practice of the Romane state which as he there would beare us in hand ever stood more upon nobler termes of their honour and soveraignty than upon baser respects of gaine and profit yet when he grew elder and experience better instructed him in his booke of partitions he concurreth with Aristotle in judgement and the Lacedaemonians in practice who though they were otherwise commended for their upright dealing and harmlesse carriage yet were noted alwaies to wave the point of honesty ubi de commodis Reipublicae ageretur when the commodity of the Common-wealth was interessed therein That Maxime of the Parthians Nulla fides nisi prout expedit no faith or keeping touch with any but as it maketh for advantage is not more abhorred by Statesmen in their words and confuted in their discourses than exemplified by them in their actions Wherefore sith the consideration of profit and emolument is of so great importance in all affaires and passages of life let us see whether the vines of Sodome or the trees of Paradise are more fruitfull or rather whether sin be not altogether unfruitfull For if it appeare so then hath the worldly man no cover or shelter for his sinne and that it is so appeareth not only by this interrogatory of the Apostle and the paralleld Text thereunto g Ephes 5.11 have no fellowship with the unfruitfull workes of darknesse but reprove them rather but also by the most usuall names of sinne in Scripture 1. Folly 2. Vanity 3. A Lye 1. Sinne is called folly because the sinner is very witty in inventing sleights to deceive himselfe withall cunning and secret in spreading a net and laying a snare to catch his owne soule in hee taketh great paines and keepeth much adoe to undoe himselfe and can there bee greater folly than this As the wisedome of God made knowne by the preaching of the Gospel seemeth foolishnesse to the worldly man so it is most true that the wisedome of this world is folly with God and often called by that name in the Proverbes and Ecclesiastes 2. As sinne is called folly so it is called also h Psal 14.1 Pro. 7.22 11.29 12.15 19.1 c. vanity for sinne is vain because empty of all goodnesse because it hath nothing in it because the projects and enterprises of the sinner take no effect or not such as he promised himselfe 3 In the same respect all sinnes in generall are tearmed lyes because they promise and make shew of great gaine comfort and contentment to be reaped by them whereas they bring nothing lesse but are like the deceitfull ground in the Poet that mocketh the husbandman i Virg. Geor. 1. Expectata seges vanis elusit avenis This reason Saint k L. 14. de Civ Dei c 4. Beatus vult ess etiam non sic vive ido ut possit esse quid est hac voluntate mendacius unde non frustra dici potest omne peccatum esse mendacium non enim sit peccatum nisi eà voluntate quâ volumus ut bene sit nobis vel nolumus ut malè ergô mendacium est quòd cum fiat ut benè sit nobis hinc potiùs male est nobis vel cum fiat ut meliùs sit nobis hinc potiùs pejùs est nobis Austine was well pleased with as appeareth by his often running upon it They would saith hee bee blessed who take a course to hinder themselves from blessednesse or deprive themselves of it in which regard all sinne may bee called a lye because no man committeth sinne but out of a desire to doe good to himselfe whereas indeed by his sinne hee hurteth and endammageth himselfe I finde three Emblemes in holy Scripture whereby this truth is represented to the eye The first is Psal 12.8 Impii ambulant in circuitu the wicked walke in a circle or a ring which the Holy Ghost affirmeth of them not so much because they often traverse the same thoughts and tread a kind of maze in their mindes as because their labours
ordinary Priests and Chemarims who were a peculiar order differing from the rest by their blacke habit so the Romish Clergie is evidently divided into ordinary Priests and Monks and Jesuites whose coat is of the same colour with Baals Chemarims 6. As the Priests of Baal used vaine repetitions of the name of their God in their prayers crying O Baal heare us Baal heare us c. so doe Papists in their Jesus and Ladies Psalters much more often repeat the name of Jesus and our Lady and which I never read of the Baalites they put a kind of religion in the number For yee shall reade in the Churches as yee passe by many hundred nay thousand yeeres of pardons liberally offered to all that devoutly say over so many Pater nosters or Ave Maries before such an Altar or Picture 7. As the Priests of Baal used many strange gestures at their Altars mentioned ver 26. so doe these at theirs and some more ridiculous than those of the Baalites 8. As the Priests of Baal cut themselves with knives and launcers till the bloud gushed out in great abundance so these at their solemne processions whip themselves till they are all bloudy These things being so is it possible that there should be any that have given their names to Christ and partake with us in the mysteries of salvation and seed at our Lords board should yet bow the knee to the Romish Baal and so fall within the stroake of Elijahs reproofe How long halt yee between two opinions Should wee not much wrong our reformed Church to surmise there should be any of her members subject to the infirmity or rather deformity of the Israelites here taxed by the Prophet Had they no meanes this sixty yeeres to strengthen the sinewes of their faith and cure their halting Are there any that follow Baalim or to speake more properly insist in the steps of Balaam and for the wages of unrighteousnesse will as much as in them lyeth curse those whom God hath blessed Are there any that lispe in the language of Canaan and speake plaine in the language of Ashdod frame and maintaine such opinions and tenets as like the ancient Tragedian Buskin which served indifferently for either foot left as well as right so these as passable in Rome as Geneva If there be any such I need not apply to them this reprehension of my Prophet How long halt yee between two opinions The dumbe beast and used to the yoke hath long agoe reproved the madnesse of such Prophets But I would that this larum of Elijah still rung in the eare of some of our great Statists About this time Doctor Carier who came over Chaplaine with the Lord Wotton preached a scandalous Sermon in Paris at Luxenburg house and not long after reconciled himselfe to the Romish Church and miscarrying first in his religion after in his hope of great preferments by the Cardinall Perons meanes in great discontent ended his wretched dayes who in the height of their policy over-reach their Religion and keep it so in awe that it shall not quatch against any of their projects for the raising their fortunes or put them to any trouble danger or inconvenience For as the Heliotropium turneth alwayes to the Sunne so they their opinions and practice in matter of Religion to the prevalent faction in State As the cunning Artizan in Macrobius about the time of the civill warre between Anthony and Augustus Caesar had two Crowes and with great labour and industry he taught one of them to say Salve Antoni Imperator God save Emperour Anthony and the other Salve Auguste Imperator All haile my Liege Augustus and thereby howsoever the world went he had a bird for the Conquerour so these if the reformed Religion prevaile their birds note is Ave Christe spes unica but if Popery be like to get the upper hand they have a bird then that can sing Ave Maria. Strange it is â—hat in the cleare light of the Gospel wee should see so many Batts flying which a man cannot tell what to make of whether birds or mice They are Zoophytes plant-animals like the wonderfull sheep in Muscovie Epicens amphibia animalia creatures that sometimes live in the water and sometimes on the land monsters bred of unlawfull conjunctions which should not see light If the image of this vice be so horrid and odious in nature what shall wee judge of the vice it selfe in religion I am sure God can better away with any sort of sinners than these for these he threatneth to spew out of his mouth To close up all My Beloved as yee tender the salvation of body and soule take heed of this Laodicean temper in religion if ye ever looke to be saved by your religion yee must save and preserve it entire and unmixed Take heed how ye familiarly converse with the Priests and Chemarims of Baal lest they draw you away from the living God to dumb dead Idols By no meanes bee brought to bow the knee to Baal or give any shew or countenance to idolatrous worship for God is a jealous God and will not give any part of his glory to graven Images Now the Lord who of his infinite mercy hath vouchsafed unto us the liberty of the Gospel and free preaching of his Word give a speciall blessing to that portion which hath been delivered to us at this present plant hee the true Religion in our hearts and daily water it both by hearing and reading his Word and meditating thereupon that it may bring forth plentifull fruit of righteousnesse in us all strengthen he the sinewes of our faith that we never halt between two opinions enflame he our zeale that we be never cold or lukewarme in the truth but in our understanding being rightly enformed and fully resolved of the orthodoxe faith we may in the whole course of our life be conformed to it reformed by it zealous for it and constant in it to death and so receive the crowne of life through Jesus Christ Cui cum Patre Spiritu sancto c. Amen Ambodexters Ambosinisters Or One God one true Religion THE LIX SERMON 1 KIN. 18.21 If the Lord be God follow him but if Baal then follow him Right Honourable c. NOt to suspect your memorie or wrong your patience by any needlesse repetition of what hath beene formerly observed out of the whole text joyntly or the parts severally considered the drift of the Prophet Elijah in this sprightly reproofe is to excite the King Nobles and Commons of Israel to resolution and zeale in the true and only worship of the true and only God and agreeably to this his maine scope and end hee bendeth all his strength and forces against those vices that bid battaile as it were to the former vertues These are two 1. Wavering unsettlednesse opposite to resolution 2. Timorous luke-warmnesse the sworne enemie to zeale To displace and utterly overthrow them and establish the contrarie
and crucifying the lusts of the flesh than in verbo or signo After these three wayes we must all shew forth the Lords death Till he come To wit either to each particular man at the houre of his death or to all men and the whole Church on earth at the day of judgement This Sacrament is called by the auncient Fathers viaticum morientium the dying mans provision for the long journey he is to take Every faithfull Christian therefore is to communicate as long as he is able and can worthily prepare himselfe even to the day of his dissolution and all congregations professing the Christian religion must continue the celebration of this holy Sacrament till the day of the worlds consummation As often The seldomer we come to the table of some men the welcomer we are but on the contrary wee are the better welcome the oftener wee come to the Lords Table with due preparation There are two reasons especially why wee ought oft to eate of this bread and drinke of this cup the first is drawne from God and his glory the second from our selves and our benefit The oftener we partake of these holy mysteries being qualified thereunto the more we illustrate Gods glory and confirme our faith If any demand further how oft ye ought to communicate I answer 1. In generall as oft as yee need it and are fit for it The x Cypr. ep 54. Quomodo provocamus eos in confessione nominis Christi sanguinem suum fundere si iis militaturis Christi sanguinem denegamus aut quomodo ad Martyrii poculum idoneos facimus si non eos prius ad bibendum in Ecclesiâ poculum jure communicationis admittimus Martyrs in the Primitive Church received every day because looking every houre to be called to signe the truth of their religion with their bloud they held it needfull by communicating to arme themselves against the feare of death Others in the time of peace received either daily or at least every Lords day The former Saint Austine neither liketh nor disliketh the latter he exhorteth all unto 2. I answer in particular out of Fabianus the Synod of Agatha and the Rubrick of our Communion booke that every one at least ought to communicate thrice a yeere at Christmas Easter and Whitsontide howbeit we are not so much to regard the season of the yeere as the disposition of our mind in going forward or drawing backe from this holy Table The sacrament is fit for us at all times but wee are not fit for it y Gratian. de consecrat distinct 2. Quotidié Eucharistiam dominicam accipere nec laudo nec vitupero omnibus tamen dominicis communicandum hortor Ibid. Qui in natali Domini Paschate Pentecoste non communicaverint catholici non credantur nec inter catholicos habeantur wherefore let every man examine his owne conscience how hee standeth in favour with God and peace with men how it is with him in his spirituall estate whether he groweth or decayeth in grace whether the Flesh get the hand of the Spirit or the Spirt of the Flesh whether our ghostly strength against all temptations be increased or diminished and accordingly as the Spirit of God shall incline our hearts let us either out of sense of our owne unworthinesse and reverence to this most holy ordinance forbeare or with due preparation and renewed faith and repentance approach to this Table either to receive a supply of those graces we want or an increase of those we have and when we come let us Eate of this bread and drinke of this cup. For as both eyes are requisite to the perfection of sight so both Elements to the perfection of the Sacrament This the Schooles roundly confesse Two things saith z Part. 3. q. 63. art 1. Ideò ad Sacramenti hujus integritatem duo concurrunt scilicet spiritualis cibus potus Et q. 80. art 12. Ex parte ipsius Sacramenti convenit quod utrumque sumatur corpus scilicet sanguis quia in utroque consistit perfectio Sacramenti Aquinas concurre to the integrity of the Sacrament viz. spirituall meate and drinke and againe It is requisite in regard of the Sacrament that we receive both kindes the body and the bloud because in both consisteth the perfection of the Sacrament And * Bonavent in 4. sent dist 11. part 2. art 1. Perfecta refectio non est in parte tantùm sed in utroque ideò non in uno tantùm perfectè signatur Christus ut reficiens sed in utroque Bonaventure A perfect refection or repast is not in bread only but in bread and drinke therefore Christ is not perfectly signified as feeding our soules in one kind but in both And a Soto in 12. distinct q. 1. art 12. Sacramentum non nisi in utrâque specie quantum ad integram signification em perficitur Soto The Sacrament as concerning the entire signification thereof is not perfect but in both kindes Doubtlesse if the Sacrament be a banquet or a supper there must be drinke in it as well as meate The Popish communion be it what it may be to the Laity cannot be a supper in which the Laity sup nothing neither can they fulfill the precept of the Apostle of shewing forth the Lords death for the effusion of the wine representeth the shedding of Christs bloud out of the veines and the parting of his soule from his body If we should grant unto our adversaries which they can never evict that the bloud of Christ might be received in the bread yet by such receiving Christs death by the effusion of his bloud for us could in no wise bee represented or shewen forth which the Apostle here teacheth to be the principall end of receiving this Sacrament As oft saith he as yee eate of this bread and drinke of this cup Yee shew forth Christs death In Christs death all Christianity is briefly summed for in it we may observe the justice of God satisfied the love of Christ manifested the power of Sathan vanquished the liberty of man from the slavery of sinne and death purchased all figures of the Old Testament verified all promises of the New ratified all prophecies fulfilled all debts discharged all things requisite for the redemption of mankind and to the worlds restoration accomplished Therein we have a patterne of obedience to the last breath of humility descending as low as hell of meeknesse putting up insufferable wrongs of patience enduring mercilesse torments compassion weeping and praying for bloudy persecuters constancy holding out to the end to which vertues of his person if ye lay the benefits of his passion redounding to his Church which hee hath comforted by his agony quit by his taking justified by his condemnation healed by his stripes cleansed by his bloud quickened by his death and crowned by his crosse if you take a full sight of all the vertues wherewith his crosse is beset as with so
First it is sinne for God in the Law appointed a z Levit. 4.2 5.15 sacrifice for a trespasse by ignorance and the servant in the Gospel which knew not his Masters will and therefore did it not shall be beaten with fewer a Luke 12.48 stripes indeed than the other who knew his Masters will and did it not yet with some Secondly it is the parent of sinne viz. of many errours in matter of faith which are sinnes This b Psal 95.10 people saith God hath erred in their heart because they have not knowne my waies And Christ imputeth the grosse errour of the Pharisees concerning the resurrection to their ignorance of the Scriptures c Mat. 22.29 Ye doe erre not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God And it is also the punishment of sinne as we reade Because they did not like to retaine God in their d Rom. 1 21 28. knowledge God gave them over to a reprobate sense and their foolish heart was darkened Even this is a sin of ignorance not to know that ignorance is a sin I speake not only of ignorantia pravae dispositionis of wilfull ignorance but also of nescience which they call simple ignorance why else doth the Prophet pray Effunde aestum tuum in gentes quae te ignorant Poure downe thine indignation upon the e Psal 79.6 nations that know thee not and upon the people that call not upon thy Name Why doth the Apostle threaten f 2 Thes 1.8 flaming fire to all that know not God I would S. g De grâ—t lib arbitr c. 3. Sed illâ— ignorantia quae non est eorum qui scire nolunt sed eorum qui tantum simpliciter nesciunt neminem sic excusat ut sempiterno igne non ardeat Austines censure might upon good ground from Scripture be qualified where he passeth the sentence of damnation to eternall fire even upon those who never had knowledge of the means of salvation and not only upon those who might have known them if they would Yea but we have all knowledge our ignorance will not cast us the clearest beames of the Gospel have for these many yeers shined in our climate we should be most unthankful to him that dwelleth in an unaccessible light if we should not acknowledge as much It is most true in these parts as in the part of heaven over our heads we see continually many goodly starres yea many constellations of starres but as about the South pole so in divers remote parts of this Kingdome there is scarce any starre to be discerned or if any but a blinking starre of the sixth magnitude Yet to yeeld us a greater knowledge than other nations I feare that this plea will rather hurt us than help us if we could say truly we were blind we should not have so much to answer for but h John 9 41. now because we say we see our sinne remaineth if we so perfectly know our Masters will and doe it so imperfectly a few stripes will not serve our turne i De gubern Dei lib 4 Quanto minore periculo illi per Daemonia pâ—jerant quà m nos per Christum Et nunquid tam criminosa est Hunnorum impudiâ—itia quam nostra nunquid tam rep chensibilis Almanni ebrietas quam Christiâ—ni Doe ye thinke saith Salvianus that the heathen so much dishonour God when they forsweare themselves by their false gods as you when you forsweare your selves by the true Doe you thinke a Jew or a Pagan or a Papist by his profane or loose life causeth the truth to be so evill spoken of as we that have the word taught among us most purely yet live impurely who know better yet doe worse As we presume of our knowledge so did Jerusalem which is by interpretation the k Rob. Steph. interpret nominum Heb. Châ—ld Visio pacis seu visio perfecta vision of peace much more yet our Saviour upbraideth her with ignorance saying Thou even thou Our Saviour strikes twice upon the same string he rubbeth againe and againe upon the same sore Thou even thou Thou which carriest peace in thy name thinkest not thou of those things that belong to thy peace Jerusalem was once the light of the world and yet behold she is darknesse From Moses to the daies of John Baptist and from the daies of John Baptist till this present she was instructed by Seers sent from God and directed to the way of peace yet she seeth it not Let those who assume to themselves most knowledge take heed lest they be like Pentheus Sapientes in omnibus praeterquam in iis in quibus sapientem esse convenit wise in all things save those where wisedome might stead them l Eurip 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is not to be accounted a wise man saith the wise l Eurip 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Poet who knoweth simply most things but who knoweth things of most use Is Jerusalem ignorant of the maine point of all of the comming of the Messias notwithstanding all the light she might have taken from the Law of Moses from the visions of the Prophets from the doctrine and miracles of our Saviour how grosse then is that errour of all the rest in the Romish Church by which shee maintaineth and holdeth that she cannot erre Was Jerusalem seated upon so high a hill so neer heaven obscured with the fumes arising from the bottomlesse pit and may not the City situated on seven hills have a thicke mist cast over her What can shee plead for her immunity from errour in matter of faith more than Jerusalem could that faith was planted in her by S. Peter the Christian faith was planted in Jerusalem by Christ himselfe that it was watered in her with the bloud of the Apostles Jerusalem was watered with the bloud of Christ himselfe If Rome can alledge any one promise made to her Jerusalem can many But to leave Rome and come with a Nathans application to our selves mee thinks I heare Christ saying to us and our Church If thou even thou if thou which art the Queen of all the reformed Churches if thou which hast enjoyed the sun-shine of the Gospel without any eclipse by persecution for more than 60. yeers if thou who hast had line upon line precept upon precept admonition after admonition exhortation after exhortation if thou whom God hath miraculously preserved from imminent destruction by defeating the invincible Armado in eighty eight since discovering the matchlesse powder plot if thou even thou who sittest quietly under thine own vine when all thy neighbour vines are plucked up by the roots or trampled under foot if thou even thou knowest not or wilt not take notice of the things that belong to thy peace At least in this thy day that is the day of thy visitation the day of grace a day given thee for this end to provide for thy peace to call thy selfe
to an account to consider how deeply thou hast engaged Gods justice to poure down the vialls of his vengeance upon thee for thy rebellion against his ordinances thy corporall and spirituall fornication thy resisting the spirit of grace thy peremptory refusing of the meanes of salvation thy persecuting the truth even to the death and imbruing thy hands in the bloud of Gods dearest servants sent to thee early and late for thy peace Jerusalem had a day and every City every Nation every Church every congregation every man hath a day of grace if he have grace to take notice of it hath an accepted time if he accept of it and he may find God if he seek him in time It was day at Jerusalem in Christs time at Ephesus in S. Johns time at Corinth Philippi c. in S. Pauls time at Creet in Titus time at Alexandria in S. Markes time at Smyrna in Polycarps time at Pergamus in Antipas time at Antiochia in Evodius and Ignatius time at Constantinople in S. Andrew and Chrysostomes time at Hippo in Saint Austines time now in most of these it is night it is yet day with us O let us worke out our n Phil. 2.12 salvation with feare and trembling whilest it is o Heb. 3.7 13. called to day if the Sun of righteousnesse goe downe upon us we must looke for nothing but perpetuall darknesse and the shadow of death Although Ninevehs day lasted forty daies and Jerusalems forty yeers and the old worlds 120. yeers and although God should prolong our daies to many hundred yeeres yet we should find our day short enough to finish our intricate accounts That day in the language of the holy Ghost is called our day wherein wee either doe our own will and pleasure or which God giveth us of speciall grace to cleare our accounts and make our peace with him but that is called the Lords day either which he challengeth to himselfe for his speciall service or which he hath appointed for all men to appeare before his Tribunall to give an account of their own workes A wicked man maketh Gods day his owne by following his owne pleasures and doing his own will upon it and living wholly to himselfe and not to God but the godly maketh his owne daies Gods daies by imploying them in Gods service and devoting them as farre as his necessary occasion will permit wholly to him Wherefore it is just with God to take away from the wicked part of his owne daies by shortening his life upon earth and to give to the godly part of his day which is eternity in heaven I noted before a flaw and breach in the sentence as it were a bracke in a rich cloth of Tissu If thou knewest in this thy day what then thou wouldst weep saith S. p Homil. in Evang Gregory thou wouldest not neglect so great salvation saith q Comment in Evaâ—g Euthyrtius it would bee better with thee saith Titus Bostrensis thou wouldst repent in sackcloth and ashes saith r Brug in Evang Brugensis But I will not presume to adde a line to a draughâ— from which such a workman hath taken off his pensill and for the print I should make after the pattern in my Text and now in the application lay it close to your devout affections I may spare my farther labour and your trouble for it is made by authority which hath commanded us to take notice of those things that belong to our peace viz. to walke humbly with our God by fasting and prayer wherefore jungamus fletibus fletus lachrymas lachrymis misceamus let us conspire in our sighes let us accord in our groanes let us mingle our teares let us send up our joynt praiers as a vollie of shot to batter the walls of heaven let all our hearts consort with our tongues and our soules with our bodies what wee doe or suffer in our humiliation let it be willingly and not by constrant let our praiers and strong cries in publike be ecchoed by the voice of our weeping in private who knoweth whether God may not send us an issue out of our present troubles by meanes unexpected who knoweth not whether he may not have calicem benedictionis a cup of blessing in store for those his servants beyond the sea who have drank deep of the cup of trembling Christ his bowells are not streightened but our sins are enlarged else it would be otherwise with them and with us I have given you a generall prescription will ye yet have more particular recipe's take then an electuary of foure simples The first I gather from our Saviours garden Let your Å¿ Luke 12.35 loines be girt and your lamps in your hands Let your loines be girt that is your lusts be curbed restrained and your lamps burning that is your devotions enflamed Gird up your loines by mortification discipline and have your lamps burning both the light of faith in your hearts and of good workes in your hands The second I gather from S. John Baptists garden t Matth. 3.8 Bring forth fruits meet for repentance or worthy amendment of life let your sorrowes be * Cyp de laps Quam grandia peccavimus tam granditer defleamus answerable to your sinfull joyes let the fruit of your repentance equall if not exceed the forbidden fruit of your sin wherein ye have most displeased God seek most to please him Have ye offended him in your tongue by oathes please him now by lauding and praising his dreadfull name and reproving swearing in others Have ye offended in your eies by beholding vanity and casting lascivious glances upon fading beauty enticing to folly make a covenant from henceforth with your eies that they cast not a look upon the world or the flesh's baits imploy them especially from henceforth in reading holy Scriptures and weeping for your sins Have ye offended in thought sanctifie now all your meditations unto him Have ye offended in your sports let now your delight be u Psal 1.2 in the Law of God let the Scriptures bee your * Aug. l. 11. confes c. 2 Sint deliciae meae Scripturae tuae nec fallar in iis nec fallam ex iis delicacies with S. Austine meditate upon them day and night make the Lords holy-day your delight Esay 58.15 and honour him thereon not following your owne waies nor finding your owne pleasure nor speaking your owne words The third I gather from S. James his garden x Jam. 4.10 Cast down your selves before the Lord and he will lift you up The Lion contenteth himselfe with casting downe a man if he couch under him and make no resistance he offereth no more violence Corpora magnanimo satis est prostrâsse Leoni It is most true if we speake of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah for hee will not break a bruised reed much lesse grind to powder a contrite heart If Ahabs outward humiliation who notwithstanding had sold himselfe