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
passe judgement whether he be happy or miserable No man knoweth who hath gotten honour or infamy till the race is runne but after the course is finished when the rewards are distributed to every man according to his worke when they that have kept within the wayes of God and held on straight to the price of their high calling receive an incorruptible crowne of glory but they who have turned out of the right way to pursue earthly vanities receive their wages eternall death then all men shall see who was the wiser of the two and tooke the better course then the wicked themselves shall confesse their beastly folly thus rubbing upon their owne sores and fretting their owne wounds as we reade in the booke of Wisedome And they repenting and groaning for anguish of spirit shall say within themselves y Wisd 5.3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10. This was he whom we had sometimes in derision and a Proverbe of reproach We fooles accounted his life madnesse and his end to bee without honour How is he numbred among the children of God and his lot is among the Saints Therefore have we erred from the way of truth and the light of righteousnesse hath not shined unto us and the sun of righteousnesse rose not upon us We wearied our selves in the way of wickednesse and destruction yea we have gone through desarts where there lay no way but as for the way of the Lord we have not knowne it What hath pride profited us or what good hath riches with our vaunting brought us All those things are passed away like a shadow and as a Poste that hasted by And as a ship that passeth over the waves of the water which when it is gone by the trace thereof cannot bee found neither the path-way of the keele in the waves Where is now our gay and gorgeous apparrell where are our sumptuous hangings our rich cubboard of plate our gold and silver where are our orient pearles our blushing rubies our glowing carbuncles our sparkling diamonds our beautifull damsels our pompous shewes our various delights and pastimes our riotous banquets our effeminate songs our melodious musicke our lascivious dancing our amorous imbracings All these things are vanished like shadowes but our sorrowes come upon us thicke and threefold all our joyes delights and comforts are withered at the root but our terrours hearts griefe and torments grow on us more and more and shall till time shall be no more Application If these piteous complaints and hideous shrikes of the damned in hell move us not I tremble to speake it they shall be one day ours then with anguish of heart and bitternesse of soule we shall sigh and say O that wee had been wise then wee would have understood these things and in time considered of our later end Observ 5 Our later end setteth before us quatuor novissima the foure last things 1. Death most certaine 2. Judgement most strict 3. Hell most dreadfull 4. Paradise most delightfull O Death how bitter is thy remembrance to him that is in the prime of his pleasures and pride of his fortune yet the remembrance of judgement is more bitter than of death of hell than of judgement death in comparison were no death if judgement followed not after and judgement were no judgement or nothing so dreadfull if immediately upon it hell were not opened and hell were not hell if it deprived us not of the pleasures of Paradise for ever O that men were wise to consider in the beginning or at least before it bee too late what their later end shall bee first to dye then to bee brought to judgement and after sentence Application either to be led to the rivers of pleasure springing at the right hand of God for evermore or to be cast into the lake of fire and brimstone with the Divell and his angels and all the reprobate and damned the z Apoc. 14.11 smoake of whose torment ascendeth up for ever and ever and they have no rest day nor night Ashes keepe fire alive and the consideration of our end and dissolution which shall be into dust and ashes not onely keepeth alive but also stirreth up the sparkes of Gods grace in us after this manner Why doe I thus torment my selfe with projects cares and designes I shall shortly I know not how soon returne to my earth and then all my * Psal 146.1 thoughts shall perish Why doe I beare my head so high now it shall lye low enough one day Why doe I lay on so much cost on gorgeous apparrell which covereth nothing but dust and dung Why doe I prodigally lavish out my patrimony in exquisite dainties and all kindes of delicious meates which feed nothing but wormes Why dote I upon the fairest beauty flesh and bloud can present to a lascivious eye if it be artificiall it is nothing but paint and powder if naturall nothing but dust and ashes Why doe I send to the uttermost parts of the earth for the rarest stuffes the finest linnen and napery I shall carry nothing of it all away with mee but my winding sheet Lastly why doe I make so great purchases of lands and possessions I shall keep the possession of nothing but the measure of my grave and perhaps bee disturbed in it too as two of the greatest purchasers of land in the world were William the Norman who conquered a great part of this Island and Alexander the great who conquered the greatest part of the knowne world both lay a long time above ground unburied being denied that which the poorest beggar that never had foot of land in all his life hath freely given unto him a hole to lay his head in under ground Verily as nothing can quench the burning slime of Samosaris called a Plin. nat hist l. 2. c. 104. Limum flagrantem quam Maltham vocant◠tetra tantum extingui docuêre experimenta Flagrat mons Chimaera immortali flammâ extinguitur tamen terrâ fimo Maltha nor the flame of the hill Chimaera but onely earth so nothing can extinguish the ever burning desires of the ambitious for honour of the voluptuous for pleasure of the covetous for gaine but onely mold and earth the complements of our grave and remaines of our later end In my discourse of our later end to draw towards an end before the destruction of the holy City and Temple Josephus writeth of a man afflicted in minde that ran about the City crying Wo to the City wo to the Temple wo to the Priests wo to the people and last of all wo to my selfe at which words he was slaine on the walls by a stone out of a sling Let us take away but one letter turning wo in O and his prophesie for the future may be our admonition and the application of this observation for the present O that the world O that this Kingdome in the world O that this City in this Kingdome O that we in this
1. Lightsome knowledge 2. Perfect holinesse 3. In regard of the rule that God gave him over all creatures So St. Basil expoundeth those words Let us make man after our image adding imperiale animal es O homo quid servis affectibus to whom Chrysostome Athanasius Aquinas and all the Schoole-men assent And let this suffice to bee spoken of the man in the third place followeth Put him into the Garden of Eden 3. What he did with him Of this Garden two questions are disputed on by Divines 1. Whether this Garden were a reall place in the earth 2. Whether Paradise yet remaine To the first I answer that questionlesse Paradise was a true and reall Garden as S. Jerome and Chrysostome affirme against Origen Origines sic allegorizat ut historiae tollit veritatem non licet nobis ita nugari simpliciorum auribus imponere dicendo nullum fuisse in terris hor tum quem vocant Paradisum and Bellarmine proves it sufficiently against the fancy of Franciscus Georgius To the second I answer That the place of the earth remaineth in substance though it is not now a Paradise or hortus deliciarum for the beauty of it is gone The curse of the whole earth to beare thornes and thistles is come upon it As for the Paradise mentioned in Saint d Luk. 23.43 Luke and in the e Apoc. 2.7 Apocalypse it was celestiall and Saint f 2 Cor. 12.4 Paul maketh it plaine where having said hee was rapt up into the third heaven by and by hee nameth the place Paradise Upon which words Saint Ambrose thus commenteth Paradisum intelligit coelestem de quo Dominus dixit latroni hodiè mecum eris in Paradiso You have heard where the Lord placed him it remaineth that we enquire in the fourth place 4. To what end God placed him there To dresse and keepe the garden God had not yet cursed the earth neither were the wholsome hearbes degenerated into weeds Every plant and hearbe brought forth fruit according to their kind God that made them good could have preserved them in that state of goodnesse but man had need of some imployment and therefore God injoyned him to dresse this garden of pleasure in this place to make use of his gifts and by his reason and industry to modell it into some delightfull forme yet was his labour without all pain nay it was full of pleasure But why is it added to keepe it Surely saith St. Austine no invading neighbour was feared to put him out of possession nor thiefe to rob him of his choicest plants but God would have him therefore to keepe it to himselfe ne inde projiciatur This is wittily inferred by him but it seemes the naturall meaning of the place is this that he should not onely dresse it as at the first but with continuall care keepe it God would not have man idle no not in Paradise Thus briefly of his dressing and keeping now we are to consider in the fift place 5. Gods large permission That he might eat of every tree in the Garden Behold Gods bounty there was not onely the delicacy of all fruits but variety and Adam was not limited to some few he might eat of every tree neither was he for a short time to have enjoyed this if he had harkened to the command of his Lord. For in the midst grew the tree of life of which he might eat at his pleasure the other trees saith S. f Lib. 13. è Civit Dei Austine were given to him to satisfie his hunger and thirst but this to give vigour to him and keep him from infirmity age and death yet this grant was not so generall but that it had annexed unto it a restraint which we are to consider of in the sixt place 6. His restraint From the tâ—ee of knowledge It was not so called as g Antiq. â—udaâ—â— l. 3. c. 9. Josephus dreamed because it had a vertue in it to sharpen the understanding that man might know God the better For it was as the other trees of the Garden without sense or knowledge but it was intituled so in a double respect 1. Because joyned to the commandement it was an outward sign shewing what was good viz. what God commanded and what was evill viz. what God forbad 2. In respect of the event As the waters of Meribah or strife were so called because Israel there contended so was this tree called the tree of knowledge of good and evill because hereby Adam knew experimentally what good there was in obeying and what evill in disobeying what good in innocency and what evill in iniquity what good within the bounds of Paradise and what evill in the accursed world St. h Serm. 14. de verâ— Dom. Austine thus openeth the matter Doe not touch this tree Why What is this tree If it be good why should I not touch it If it be evill what maketh it in Paradise Doubtlesse it was good why then may be not touch it That father answereth sweetly quia obedientem te volo non contradicentem serve prius audi domini jussum tunc jubentis disce consilium God like a good Physician shewed Adam what was hurtfull Adam like an intemperate patient would not refraine it 7. Hiâ— punishment if he restraine it not In the day that thou eatest thou shalt dye The same day thou forsakest mee in thy disobedience I will forsake thee in my justice thou shalt dye first the death of the body and after the death of the soule if thou beleeve not in the promised seed and not thou onely in thy person but all thy children stand and fall in thee they stand in thy obedience and in thy disobedience they fall and in the truth of this let all confesse to the glorie of God Iniquum est ut bene sit desertori boni it was sinne in Adam to forsake his Maker it was justice in God to punish him that in this manner had forsaken him Thus much for the opening of the Text. Let us now apply it to this honourable assembly 1 This Garden of Eden may well be compared to our mother the Church 2 This man to our spirituall and temporall Rulers 3 This placing man in Paradise to their calling that is of God 4 This dressing and keeping it to their labours in their charge 5 The eating of every tree to their reward 6 Their restraint from the tree of knowledg to that which is forbidden them 7 This threatned death to the punishment of all transgressours 1 Touching our Church and her resemblances to Paradise 1 As Paradise was separated from other parts of the earth so this Land the Poet calleth us Toto divisos orbe Britannos 2 As Paradise was beautified with the lights of nature so our Church with gifts of grace above nature 3 As Paradise was beset with faire trees that hare pleasant fruits so our Church with many Pastours whose lives are
Thou shalt plant vineyards and dresse them but shalt neither drinke of the wine nor gather the grapes for the worme shall eate them Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts but thou shalt not annoint thy selfe with the oyle for thine olive shall cast his fruit Hereunto if we adde the infinite armies of plagues and judgements mustered in this chapter against Gods enemies we cannot but subscribe to the Prophets conclusion Non est pax impio there is no l Esay 48.22 57.21 peace to the wicked saith my God there is no fruit of sinne for it is the vine of m Deut. 32.32 33. Sodome and of the fields of Gomorrah the grapes thereof are the grapes of gall their clusters are bitter Their wine is the poyson of Dragons and the cruell venome of Aspes Would yee know all the miseries that sinne hath brought into the world reckon then all that are or ever were in the world For they are all concomitants effects or punishments of sinne Sinne cast the Angels from Heaven into Hell thrust man out of Paradise drowned the old world burnt Sodome and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone ruinated the greatest Monarchies destroyed the ancientest Cities and hath rooted up the most flourishing Churches and shall wee looke for better fruit of it But this interrogatory of the Apostle What fruit had yee seemeth to mee rather to aime at the particular endammagement and detriments of sinne which every soule that committeth it sustaineth within it selfe whereof many have been already recounted yet the greater part is behind among whom this is not the least that it blindeth the eyes of the mind and infatuateth the sinner Whereupon Saint Austines observation is If a theefe or fellon should presently upon his fact lose the sight of his eyes every body would say that it was the judgement of God upon him Oculum cordis amisit ei pepercisse putatur Deus behold God hath taken away the sight of his soules eyes and doest thou thinke that hee spareth him or letteth him goe n Cic. de Arusp respons Oculorum caecitas ad mentem translata est unpunished What greater losse to a noble mind than of libertie which is forfeited by sinne Sinne enthralleth our soule to our body and our body and soule to the Divell If captivitie of the body be so grievous a calamity what may wee judge of the captivitie of the soule If wee so disdaine to be slaves to men how much more should wee to bee vassals to beastly lusts To speake nothing of peace of conscience which crying sinnes disturbe and divine motions which worldly cares choake and heavenly comforts which earthly pleasures deprive us of and sanctifying graces which impure thoughts and sinfull desires diminish to leave the consideration of shame and death for matter of ensuing discourses by that which hath been already delivered all that are not besotted by sin and blind-folded by Sathan may see great reason for this question of the Apostle What fruit had yee A question which the proudest and most scornfull sinners who have them in derision that make conscience of unlawfull gaine shall propound unto themselves one day and checke their owne folly therewith as we reade in the booke of o Wisd 5.8 Wisedome What hath pride availed us or what profit hath the pompe of riches brought us Then shall they change their mindes when they cannot their estates and sigh for griefe of heart and say within themselves looking up to Heaven and seeing the felicity of the righteous crowned with eternall glory Ibid. Ver. 4 5 6 7. This is hee whom wee sometimes had in derision and in a parable of reproach Wee fooles thought his life madnesse and his end without honour But now how is hee accounted among the children of God and what a portion hath hee among the Saints Therefore wee have erred from the way of truth and the light of righteousnesse hath not shined upon us We have wearied our selves in the wayes of wickednesse and have gone through many dangerous pathes and the way of the Lord wee have not knowne Howbeit two sorts of men in the opinion of the world seeme to make great gaine of sinne the covetous and the ambitious the former is indebted to his extortion oppression and usury for his wealth the other to his glozing dissembling undermining perfidious and treacherous dealing for his honour and advancement in the Court of Princes The spirit of the former hath been conjured downe heretofore by proving that whosoever gathereth wealth or mony by unjust and indirect meanes putteth it into a broken bagge and that his mony shall perish with him unlesse hee breake off his sinne by repentance and make friends of unrighteous Mammon I come to the Politicians who correct or rather pervert that sentence of Saint Paul Godlinesse is great gaine thus a shew of godlinesse is great gaine of whom I would demand what shew of reason they have for this their politicke aphorisme If they beleeve there is a God that judgeth the earth they cannot but thinke that hee will take most grievous vengeance on such as goe about to roote out the feare of God out of mens hearts and make Religion a masque and God himselfe an Image the sacred Story a fable Hell a bug-beare and the joyes of Heaven pleasant phantasies If men hold them in greatest detestation who faulter and double with them shall not God much more hate the hypocrite who doubleth with his Maker maketh shew of honouring and serving him when hee indeed neither honoureth nor serveth him at all Simulata sanctitas est duplex iniquitas counterfeit sanctity is double iniquity and accordingly it shall receive double punishment When our Saviour threateneth the most hainous transgressours that they shall have their p Mat. 24.51 portion with hypocrites hee implyeth that the condition of none in Hell is lesse tolerable than of the hypocrite The q Psal 14.1 foole hath said in his heart there is no God and even in that hee shewed himselfe the more foole in that hee said it in his heart supposing that none should heare it there whereas God heareth the word in the heart before it bee uttered in the tongue and what though other know it not sith hee whom hee wrongeth who is best able to revenge it knoweth it But to wound the Politician with his owne sword If a shew and appearance of Religion is not onely profitable but necessary in politicke respects shall not Religion it selfe be much more Can there bee a like vertue or power in the shadow or image as in the body it selfe If the grapes painted by Zeuxis allured the Birds to pecke at them would not the Birds sooner have flowne at them had they been true grapes All the wit of these sublimated spirits wherewith they entangle the honest simplicity of others cannot wind them out of these dilemmaes If it bee a bad thing to bee good why doe they seem so If
inference is pernicious To establish you in the truth of this supposition or rather hypotheticall commination it will be needfull to lay downe certaine grounds 1. That the certainty of the end no whit impeacheth the necessary use of all meanes for the attaining it For the end and meanes are coordinata and both involved in the same decree As the meanes are appointed for the end so the end is decreed to bee attained by such meanes for example the propagation of mankinde by marriage the maintaining our temporall life by food and sustenance the recovery of health by physicke the reaping the fruits of the earth by manuring and tillage the governement of the world by lawes the calling of men to the knowledge of the truth by the Word and Sacraments the keeping the children of God from presumptuous sinnes by admonitions and comminations The heathen themselves saw a glimmering of this truth for the Stoicke Philosophers who taught the foreknowledge of God and thence inferred inevitable necessity of all events according to that foreknowledge yet most strictly urged the performance of all morall duties and vertuous actions and generally the use of all meanes for the attaining that end any man proposeth to himselfe Bee it thy destiny say they to have many children by thy wife yet thou must not neglect conjugall duties be it thy destiny to recover of thy disease yet thou must not neglect the prescriptions of the Physician bee it thy destiny to conquer thine enemy yet thou must not forget to bring thy weapon with thee into the field bee it thy destiny to bee a great Professour in Philosophy yet thou must not neglect thy study bee it thy destiny to dye a rich man yet thou must not be carelesse of thy estate 2. That this and the like comminations in holy Scripture are spoken generally to all Elect as well as Reprobate and they are of speciall use to both to terrifie the Reprobate and keepe them within some bounds or at least to convince their consciences and debarre them from all excuse at the day of judgement and to stirre up the Elect to watchfulnesse over all their wayes and diligence and constancy in the use of all such meanes as by Gods grace may keepe them from backe-sliding and dangerous relapses to hold them in continuall awe and excite them to make their calling and election sure and work out their salvation with feare and trembling as Saint Austine declareth at large through his whole booke de correptione gratiá 3. That all Israelites are not true Nathaniels all converts are not absolutely so nor all penitents throughly cleansed from their sinnes many are regenerated but in part they repent of their sinnes but not of all they keepe a sweet bit under their tongue they have a Dalilah in their bosome or an Herodias at their table or a Bathsheba in their bed though they bee healed of all other diseases yet not of the plague of the heart some secret sinne hath a kinde of predominancy in them Now as the Peacockes flâ—sh if it hath but an ordinary seething growes raw againe cocta recrudescit and wounds that are not perfectly healed though they may be skinned over breake out againe and bleed afresh so a man that is not perfectly regenerated in all parts though hee hath a tast of the heavenly gift and may beleeve with Simon Magus and tremble at Gods judgements with Felix and heare the Word gladly with Herod and doe many things yet because the seed of the word hath not taken deepe root in him it is possible for him with Demas to forsake the Gospel and embrace this present world with Himeneus and Philetus to make shipwracke of faith and a good conscience with Julian to become an Apostata and a persecuter of the truth 4. The Prophet Ezekiel in this place speaketh not of Evangelicall righteousnesse but of legall for he saith not simply when a man turneth from righteousnesse but from his righteousnesse And vers 5. hee defineth a just man to be he That doth that which is lawfull and right and hath not eaten upon the mountaines nor defiled his neighbours wife c. Now whatsoever may be alledged for the stability of evangelicall righteousnesse and their permanency who are engraffed into the true Vine Christ Jesus daily experience sheweth that the most righteous on earth may and somtimes do remit of their strict observance of their duty that it is not only possible but very facile for them to let loose the reines to sensuall desires and to follow the gainefull or ambitious or voluptuous courses of the world at least for a time For the way to heaven is up-hill but the way to hell is down-hill and thither the weight of our sinfull flesh forcibly tendeth Facilis discensus averni A man may without any paine slip downe to the place of everlasting paines and torments Yea saith Seneca a Å¿ De mort Clau. Caes Omnia proclivia sunt facilè dâ—scenditur itâ—que quâ—mvis poda gricus momento temporis pervenit ad januam ditis gouty man may get thither in a trice Sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras Hoc opus hic labor est But saith the Poet all the labour is to come backe from hell and get up out of the deep pit so hee But the truth is no labour can worke it no skill compasse it for from hell there is no redemption Wee know there is great strength required to bend a bow of steele which will unbend it selfe if the string breake or but slip Our motions to God-ward and proceedings in a sanctified course of life are like the rowing of a small boat against a strong wind and tide the blasts of the evill spirit and the propension of our corrupt nature much labour and sweat is required and very little is done with much adoe and if wee slâ—cke our hands and misse but one stroake we are carried downe with the streame and cast further backe than wee can fetch againe with many stroakes Did not Solomon turne away from his righteousnesse and commit iniquity and doe according to all the abominations of the wicked when he defiled his body and soule with spirituall and corporall fornication Did not David likewise when he spilt the bloud of Uriah that hee might more freely stay in the bed of Bathsheba I spare the rest because I would be loth with my breath to stain the golden and silver vessels of the Sanctuary and come à Thesi ad Hypothesin from the indefinite to the singular from the hearers at large to this present auditory Ye heare out of the Text how incommodious and dangerous a thing it is for a righteous man to degenerate and turne away from his righteousnesse it depriveth him of all the benefit of his former travells in the way to heaven it blasteth all the fruits of his labours without a second return to God dasheth all his hope of reward leaveth him in
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