call his Sonne out of Egypt it is no wonder the wonder is that hee did call him into Egypt It is true that Egypt could not hurt Christ the King doth not follow the Court the Court waits vpon the King wheresoeuer Christ was there was the Church But be our Israelites so sure of their sonnes when they send them into Egypt or any superstitious places It was their presumption to send them in let it bee their repentance to call them out The familiar societie of orthodox Christians with mis-beleeuers hath by God euer been most strictly forbidden and the neerer this coniunction the more dangerous and displeasing to the forbidder No man can chuse a worse friend then one whom God holds his enemy When Religion and Superstition meet in one bed they commonly produce a mungrell generation 2 Sam. 3.3 If Dauid marry Maachah their issue proues an Absolon If Salomon loue idolatrous women here is enough to ouerthrow him with all his wisdome Other strange women only tempt to lust these to mis-religion and by ioyning his heart to theirs hee shall disioyne it from God One Religion matching with another not seldome breed an Atheist one of no religion at all I doe not say this is a sufficient cause of diuorce after it is done but of restraint before it is done They may be one flesh though they be not one spirit The difference of religion or vertue makes no diuorce here the great Iudges sentence shall doe that heereafter And the beleeuing husband is neuer the further from heauen though hee cannot bring his vnbeleeuing wife along with him The better shall not carry vp the worse to heauen nor the worse pull downe the better to hell Quod fieri non debuit factum valet But now is there no tree in the Garden but the forbidden none for me to loue but one that hates the truth Yes let vs say to them in plaine fidelitie as the sonnes of Iacob did to the Shichemites in dissembling policie Gene. 34.14 Wee cannot giue our sister to a man that is vncircumcised either consent you to vs in the truth of our Religion or wee will not consent to you in the league of our Communion Saint Chrysostome calls this a plaine deniall of Christ Hee that eateth of the meate offered to Idols Gustu negauit Christum hath denied Christ with his tasting If hee but handle those things with delight Tactu negauit Christum hee hath denied Christ with his touching Though hee touch not taste not yet if he stand to looke vpon the Idolatry with patience Visu negauit Christum hee hath denied Christ with his eyes If he listen to those execrable charmes Auditu negauit Christum hee hath denyed Christ with his eares Omitting all these if he doe but smell to the Incense with pleasure O doratu negauit Christum hee hath denied Christ with his smelling It is said of the Israelites Commisti sunt inter gentes Psalm 106.35 They were mingled among the Heathen What followed Presently they learned their works The reason why the Rauen returned not to Noahs Arke is giuen by some because it met with a dead carkase by the way Why doe we pray Deliuer vs from euill but that wee imply besides all other mischiefes there is an infectious power in it to make vs euill Let vs doe that wee pray and pray that wee may doe it Yea Lord free vs from Egypt estrange vs from Rome separate vs from Idols deliuer vs from euill For thine is the kingdome the power and the glorie for euer and euer Amen Thus farre we haue taken a literall suruey of the Text concerning the materiall Temple externall or obiectuall Idols and the impossibilitie of their agreement Now to come neerer home to our selues in a morall Exposition here first The Temple of God Is the Church of Christ and they are so like that we often interchange the tearmes calling a Temple the Church the Church a Temple of God The materiall Temple vnder the Law was a figure of the spirituall vnder the Gospell The former was distinguished into three roomes the Porch the holy place and the Sanctum Sanctorum or Holy of holies The Porch prefigured Baptisme which is the doore whereby we enter into the Church of Christ The Holy place the communion of the militant church vply earth separated from the world The Hoon of holies whereinto the high Priest only entred that once a yeare presignified the glorious kingdome of heauen wherinto the Lord Iesus entred once for all There was one Court of the Temple common whither accesse was denied to none though they were vncleane or vncircumcised thus farre they might be admitted There was another Court within that allowed to none but the Israelites of them to none but the cleane There was a third proper only to the Priests and Leuites whither the Laitie might not come thus farre they might bring their offerings but further they might not offer to goe In the Temple it selfe there was one roome into which the Leuites might not enter the Priests might Another whither the Priests might not come but onely the high Priest and euen hee but once yearely Some passages of the Christian Church are common to all euen to the vncleane hypocrites and foule-hearted sinners They haue accesse to Gods holy ordinances and tread in his Courts as the Pharisee came into the congregation and Iudas receiued the Communion Other are secret and reserued wherein the faithfull onely conuerse with God and solace themselues in the sweet fruition of his gracious presence The materiall Temple in three diuisions seemed to be a cleare representation of the Church in three degrees The first signified the externall and visible face of the Church from which no professor of Christ is debarred The second the communion of the inuisible Church vpon earth The last the highest heauen of Gods glorified Saints Neither did those roomes more exceed one another then do these parts of the spirituall house of Christ What are the most polished corners of the Temple to the spirituall liuing stones of the Church What be pebles to Saphirs or marbles to Diamonds Howsoeuer some are more transported with insensible monuments then with liuing Saints As it was a complaint long since Fulget Ecclesia in parietibus luget in pauperibus Yet Temples are built for men not men for Temples and what is a glorious edifice when the whole world is not worth one soule Dead walls bee of small value to the liuing Temples of the holy Ghost yea the temple of our body to the temple of Christs Body his Church yea the Temple of Gods Church militant on earth to that which is triumphant in heauen What is siluer and gold Cedar and Marble to those diuine graces faith truth pietie holinesse Salomons Temple did last but some 430. yeares the Church is for eternitie The Temple took vp but a little space of ground at most the Hill Sion the Church
that which is weake for life they pray to that which is dead and a prosperous iourney they beg of that which cannot set a foot forward Yet as their sinne was bad enough let not our vncharitablenesse make it worse Let vs not thinke them so vnreasonable as to thinke that Calfe a God or that the Idoll which they made to day did bring them out of Egipt three moneths before It was the true God they meant to worship in the Calfe and yet at the best euen that Idolatry was damnable So charitie bids vs hope of the Papists that they doe not take that bord or stone for their God yet withall wee find that God doth take them for Idolaters They tell vs with a new distinction that they forbid the people to giue Diuine worship to Images but we say they had better forbid the people to haue Images A blocke lies in the high way and a watchman is set by it to warne the Passengers Take heed heere is a blocke But how if the watchman fall a sleepe Whether is the safer course quite to remoue the blocke out of the way or to trust the passengers safetie vpon the watchmans vigilancie As for their watchmen commonly they are as very Images as the Images themselues and how should one blocke remoue another When Ieroboam had set vp his two Idols in Israel hee rakes vp his Priests out of the common kennell the basest of the people were good enough for such a bastard deuotion woodden priests were fit enough to wayt vpon golden Deities So when Micah had made him a costly Idol he hires him a beggerly Leuite No otherwise did the Painter excuse himselfe for drawing the Images of Peter and Paul too ruddy and high coloured in the face that howsoeuer they were while they liued pale with fasting and preaching yet now they must needs become red with blushing at the errors and ignorance of their successors for such with a lowd noyse they giue themselues out to be To conclude if it were as easie to conuince Idolaters as it is to confound tread downe their Idols this labour of Confutation had bin well spared or were soone ended But if nothing can reclaime them from this superstitious practice let them reade their fearefull sentence Their place shall be without Reuel 22.18 Esa 1.31 among the dogs and those desperate sinners vncapable of forgiuenes The strong the Idol which they made their strength shall bee as towe and the maker or worshipper thereof as a sparke and they shall both burne together in euerlasting fire and none shal quench them Now the Lord open their eyes to see and sanctifie their hearts to yeeld that there is no agreement betwixt the Temple of God and Idols which is the next point whereof I shall speake with what breuitie I can and with what fidelitie I ought No agreement There bee some points which the wrangling passions of men haue left further asunder then they found them about which there needed not haue bin such a noyse But things that are in their owne natures contrary and opposed by the ordinance of God can neuer be reconciled An enemy may be made a friend but enmity can neuer bee made friendship The ayre that is now light may become darke but light can neuer become darknesse Contraries in the abstract are out of all composition The sicke body be recouered to health but health can neuer be sicknes The sinner may be made righteous but sinne can neuer become righteousnes Fire and water peace and warre loue and hatred truth and falshood faith and infidelity Religion and Idolatry can neuer be made friends there can bee no agreement betwixt the Temple of God and Idols God is Ens entium All in all an Idol is nothing in the world saith the Apostle now All and Nothing are most contrary Idolatry quite takes away Faith a fundamentall part of Christian religion for an Idol is a thing visible Heb. 11.1 but Faith is of things inuisible The Idol is a false euidence of things seene Faith is a true euidence of things not seen Besides God can defend himselfe saue his friends plague his enemies Hieron but Idols nec hostes abscindere possunt quasi dij nec se abscondere quasi homines they can neither reuenge themselus on prouokers like gods nor hide themselues from iniurers like men The foolish Philistims thought that the same house could hold both the Arke Dagon 1. Sam. 5.3 as if an insensible Statue were a fit companion for the liuing God In the morning they come to thanke Dagon for the victory and to fall downe before him before whom they thought the God of Israel was fallen and loe now they find the keeper flat on his face before the prisoner Had they formerly of their own accord with awfull reuerence laid him in this posture of an humble prostration yet God would not haue brooked the indignity of such an entertainment But seeing they durst set vp their Idol cheeke by cheeke with their Maker let them goe read their folly in the Temple floore confesse that hee which did cast their god so low could cast them lower Such a shame doth the Lord owe all them which wil be making matches betwixt him and Belial Yet they consider not how should this God raise vs who is not able to stand or rise himself Strange they must confesse it that whereas Dagon was wont to stand and themselues to fall down now Dagon was fallen down and themselues stood must help vp with their owne god Yea their god seemes to worship them on his face and to craue that succour from them which he was neuer able to giue them Yet in his place they set him againe and now lift vp those hands to him which helped to lift him vp and prostrate those faces to him before whom he lay prostrate So can Idolatry turne men into the stockes and stones which they worship They that make them are like vnto them But will the Lord put it vp thus No the next fall shall burst it to pieces that they may sensibly perceiue how God scornes a Competitor and that there is no agreement betwixt Him and Idols Now what is the difference betwixt the Philistims and Papists The Philistims would set God in the Temple of Idols the Papists would set Idols in the Temple of God Both agree in this that they would make God and Idols agree together But Manasseh found to his cost 2 Chron. 33.7 that an Idol might not be indured in the house of God How vaine then are the endeuours to reconcile our church with that of Rome when God hath interposed this barre there is No agreement betwixt him and Idols Either they must receiue the Temple without Idols or we must admit Idols with the Temple or this composition cannot be There is a contention betwixt Spaine the Netherlanders concerning the right of that Country but should not the Inhabitants
well fortifie the coasts the raging sea would soone determine the controuersie and by force of her waues take it from them both There is a contestation betwixt vs and the Pontificians which is the true Church but should not wee in meane time carefully defend the Faith of Christ against Idols Superstition would quickly decide the busines and take the possession of truth from vs both A proud peruerse stomach keeps them from yeelding to vs God and his holy word forbids our yeelding to them they will haue Idols or no Temple we wil haue the Temple and no Idols now till the agreement bee made betwixt the Temple and Idols no atonement can be hoped betwixt vs them I Paul say vnto you Gal. 5.2 that if ye be circumcised Christ shall profit you nothing He that would not endure a little leauen in the lumpe what would hee haue said of a little poyson If Moses ioyned with Christ the ceremoniall Law with the Gospell were so offensiue to him how would hee haue brooked Christ and Belial light and darknes righteousnes and vnrighteousnes the cup of the Lord and the cup of deuils the Table of the Lord and the table of deuils the Temple of God and Idols In the tuning of an Instrument those strings that be right we meddle not with but set the rest higher or lower so as they make a proportion harmony with the former The same God who of his gracious mercy hath put vs in the right vniarring harmony of truth bring them home in true consent to vs but neuer suffer vs to fall back vnto them Hitherto the contention between vs hath not been for circumstance but substance not for the bounds but for the whole Inheritance whether God or man grace or nature the bloud of Christ or the milke of Mary the written Canon or vnwritten Tradition Gods ordinance in establishing Kings or the Popes vsurpation in deposing them shall take place in our consciences and be the rule of our faiths and liues We haue but one Foundation the infallible word of God they haue a new foundation the voice of their Church which they equalize in presumption of certaintie with the other Wee haue but one Head that is Christ they haue gotten a new head dare not but beleeue him whatsoeuer Christ saies Sponsus Ecclesiae nostrae Christus Christ is our husband they haue a new husband While Rome was a holy Church she had a holy husband but now as Christ said to the woman of Samaria Iohn 4. â—8 He whom thou now hast is not thine husband so he whom the Romanists haue now got is an adulterer he is no husband So that here is Foundation against foundation Head against head Husband against adulterer Doctrine against doctrine Faith against vnbeliefe Religion against superstition the Temple of God against Idols and all these so diametrally opposed that the two Poles shall sooner meet then these be reconciled Michael and the Dragon cannot agree in one Heauen nor the Arke and Dagon in one house nor Iacob and Esau in one wombe nor Iohn and Cerinthus in one Bath nor the cleane and the leprous in one camp nor truth and falshood in one mouth nor the Lord and Mammon in one heart nor religion superstition in one kingdom nor God and Idols in one Temple The silly old Hermite was sory that God and the Deuill should be at such odds and he would vndertake to make them friends but the Deuill bad him euen spare his labour for they two were euerlastingly fallen out No lesse vaine a busines doth that man attempt that would worke an agreement betwixt the Temple of God and Idols I take leaue of this point with a caution Flie the places of infection come not within the smoke of Idols lest it smother the zeale of Gods Temple in your hearts Reuolting Israel cals for gods but why should this god of theirs be fashioned like a Calfe What may bee the reason of this shape Whence had they the originall of such an Idol Most likely in Egypt they had seen a blacke Calfe with white spots worshipped there This Image stil ran in their minds and stole their hearts now they long to haue it set vp before their eyes Egypt wil not out of their fancies when they wanted meat they thought of the Egyptian flesh pots now they want Moses they thinke of the Egyptian Idols They brought gold out of Egypt that very gold was contagious the very Eare-rings and Iewels of Egypt are fit to make Idols The Egyptian burdens made them run to the true God the Egyptian examples led them to a false god What meane our wanderers by running to Rome such superstitious places vnlesse they were weary of the Church of God would fetch home Idols If it were granted that there is some little truth among them yet who is so simple as to seeke his corne among a great heap of chaffe and that far off who may haue it at home winnowed and clensed to his hand The very sight of euill is dangerous and they bee rare eyes that doe not conuey this poison to our hearts I haue heard of some that euen by laboring in the Spanish galleys haue come home the slaues of their superstitions Egypt was alwayes an vnlucky place for Israel as Rome is for England The people soiourned there and they brought home one Calfe Ieroboam soiourned there and he brought home Two calues Iudg. 17. an old woman in all likelihood had soiourned there and shee brought home a great many The Romish Idols haue not the shape of calues they haue the sense and meaning of those calues and to fill the Temple full of Calues what is it but to make Religion guilty of * Non-sence Pulls Consider it well ye that make no scruple of superstitious assemblies it will bee hard for you to dwell in a Temple of Idols vntainted Not to sinne the sins of the place we liue in is as strange as for pure liquor tunn'd vp in a musty vessel not to smel of the caske Egypt will teach euen a Ioseph to sweare a Peter will learne to curse in the high Priests Hall If we be not scorch'd with the fire of bad company we shall be sure to be black'd with the smoke The soundest body that is may be infected with a contagious ayre Indeed a man may trauel through Ethiopia vnchanged but he cannot dwell there without a complexion discoloured How hath the common practise of others brought men to the deuillish fashion of swearing or to the bruitish habit of drinking by their owne confessions Superstition if it haue once got a secret liking of the heart like the plague will hang in the very clothes and after long concealement breake forth in an vnlook'd for infection The Israelites after all their ayring in the wildernesse will still smell of Egypt We read God saying Math. 2.15 Out of Egypt haue I called my Sonne That God did
which was deuised against the will of heauen Doth not God threaten them with the addition of plagues that shall adde to his precepts If such deuices be good and necessary why did not God command them Did he want wisdome If they bee not necessary why doe wee vse them Is it not our presumptuous folly The Lords Ielousie is stirred vp by the rivalitie not onely of a false God but of a false worship Nothing is more dangerous then to mint his seruices in our owne braines In vaine doe they worship mee teaching for doctrines Math. 16.9 the commandements of men Is it not grieuous for men to lose all their labour and that in the maine busines of their life That so many hundred oblations so many thousand prayers so much cost of their purses so much affliction to their bodies so much anguish of their soules should be all forceles fruitles Like a dog that hunts counter and takes great paines to no purpose Euill deeds may haue sometimes good meanings but those good meanings are answered with euill recompences Many bestow their labors their goods their bloods and yet receiue torments in stead of thanks When the Apostle bids vs mortifie our earthly members Coloss 3.5 hee does not intend violence to our selues but to our sinnes There is one mortification to cast our selues out of the world there is another mortification to cast the world out of vs. A body macerated with scourges disabled with fastings wearied with pilgrimages was none of S. Pauls mortification Who hath required this at your hands Where is no commaund imposed no reward proposed no promise made if you doe no punishment threatned if you doe not what fruit can be expected but shame Must wee needs either doe nothing or that which is worse then nothing Shall we offer so much suffer so much and all in vaine Quis haec à vobis Let him pay you your wages that did set you on worke Neuer plead your owne reason where God hath set a plaine interdiction He that suffers his faith to be ouerruled by his reason may haue a fat reason but a leane faith That man is not worthy to bee a follower of Christ who hath not denied himselfe therefore denied his Reason for his reason is no small piece of himselfe If Reason get the head in this diuine businesse it presently preuailes with will and will commands the affections so this new Triumvirate shall gouerne the Christian Saboll par 1. not Faith But as when three Ambassadors were sent from Rome to appease the discord betweene Nicomedes and Prusias whereof one was troubled with a Megrim in his head another had the Gowt in his toes and the third was a foole Cato said merrily that Ambassage had neither Head nor Foot nor Heart So that man shall neither haue a head to conceiue the truth nor a foot to walke in the wayes of obedience nor a heart to receiue the comforts of saluation that suffers his reason will and affections to vsurpe vpon his faith Hence it comes to passe that the most horrid sinnes are turned into Idols by setting our owne reasons against the manifest will of God Thus lies shall bee father'd vpon the Father of truth and truth vpon the Father of lies Thus breach of faith and periurie shall be held Orthodoxe opinions Yea that execrable monster whereof this day remembers vs Treason it selfe shall be held good Doctrine Rude cacodaemon that stigmaticke Idol that grosse deuill shall be worshiped Si fas cadendo coelestia scandere If this be the way to the kingdome of heauen if thus men may merit to be starres in the Firmament by embruing their hands in the bloud-Royall of Princes what Iesuite will not be a Star When such bee their principles such must needes bee their practices What though God condemne Treason to hell when the Pope will aduance it to heauen What though the Diuine Scripture doth ranke traitors among dogs deuils when the Pope will number them among Saints It was wont to be said Ex quolibet ligno non fit Mercurius euery block is not fit to make an Image Yet now the most monstrous sinne that euer the deuill shaped in his Infernall forge is not onely by the practice but euen by the Doctrine of Rome turned into an Idol What is that we shal call fin when murther Treason is held religion Alas for our age to beare the date of these impieties That our posterity should euer reade in our Chronicles In such a yeare in such a day Traitors conspired against their lawfull Gracious Soueraigne and that in those dayes there was a sect of men liuing that did labour in voluminous writings to iustifie those horrible facts But oh may those pestiferous monuments be as fast deuoured by obliuion as the authors and abettors themselues are swallowed vp by confusion And the same God deliuer vs his people from their conspiracies that hath deliuered this his Church from their Idolatries Thus wee haue looked abroad but now haue we no Idols at home O how happy was it if they were as farre from the Temple as they are from agreement with the Temple I will not abound in this discouery there be three maine Idols among vs Vaine Preasure vaine Honor and Riches it is to be feared that these three vanities haue more clients then the Trinity that made vs. The first is an Idol of the water the next an Idol of the ayre the last an Idol of the earth 1. Vaine Pleasure and oh what a world of foolish worshippers flocke to this merry Goddesse Shee hath a Temple in euery corner Ebrietie sits in Tauernes burning smoky Incense and sacrificing drink-offrings to her So that if a man should prophesie of wine and strong drinke Mich. 2.11 he were a Prophet fit for this age but to preach sobrietie is held but a dry doctrine We commend wine for the excellency of it but if it could speak as it can take away speech it would complaine that by our abuse both the excellencies are lost for the excellent man doth so spoile the excellent wine vntill the excellent wine hath spoiled the excellent man O that a man should take pleasure in that which makes him no man that he should let a thiefe in at his mouth to steale away his wit that for a little throat-indulgence hee should kill in himselfe both the first Adam his reason but euen the second Adam his regeneration so commit two murders at once In euery Brothell this Idol hath her temple where the bed of vncleannes is the Altar the Priest a strumpet and the sacrifice a burning flesh offred to Moloch It is no rare thing for a man to make an Idol of his Mistres and to spend more time in her courtings then he doth at his prayers more cost on her body thē vpon his own soule Images were but dead Idols but painted Popinjayes be liuing Idols Pleasure hath a larger extent then I can