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
some pastours and eminent professours to sow his field in future times and propagate Religion to posterity These may and ought to flie in time of persecution provided first that they flie not when their conscience perswadeth them that their flight will be a great scandall to Religion and a discouragement to the weaker and they feele in themselves a great and earnest desire to glorifie God by striving for his truth unto bloud For being thus called by God and enabled and encouraged they must preferre Gods glory before their life and a crowne of martyrdome before any earthly condition 2. That they leave not the Church destitute For Christ giveth it for one of the characters of an hireling to y John 10.13 flie when hee seeth the Wolfe comming and looke to his owne safety taking little care what becommeth of his flocke 3. They must not use any indirect meanes to flye they may not betray Gods truth or their brethren to save their owne life he that saveth his life upon such termes shall lose it and he that loseth his life in Gods cause shall finde it You will say peradventure how may this be I answer as that which is lost in Alpheus after a certaine time is undoubtedly found againe in Arethusa so that which is lost on earth shall be found in Heaven Hee that loseth his life for Christs sake in this vale of teares shall finde it at the last day in the z Psal 16.11 river of pleasures springing at the right hand of God for evermore When the Starres set here they rise in the other hemisphere so when Confessours and Martyrs set here they rise in heaven and shall never set againe Therefore as Christ spake of Virginity wee may say of Martyrdome what he spake of the garland of white roses we may of the garland of red Qui potest capere capiat Hee that is able to receive it let him receive it he that is not able let him trace the footsteps of the woman here that fled Into the wildernesse Not by change of place saith a In Apoc. c. 12. Fugit non mutatione loci sed amissione status ornatus Pareus but change of state and condition I see no reason of such a restraint the Church may and sometimes doth flye two manner of wayes 1. Openly when being persecuted in one country shee posteth into another 2. Secretly when shee abideth where shee was but keepeth her selfe close and shunneth the eye of the world and worshippeth God in secret mourning for the abominations and publike prophanations of true Religion Thus then wee may expound the words the woman fled into the wildernesse that is she withdrew her selfe from publike view kept her exercises of Religion in private held her meetings in cryptis hidden places as vaults under ground b Heb. 11 38. They wandred in deserts mountaines and dens and caves of the earth dens and caves in the earth or if persecution raged above measure and without end removed from country to country and from city to wildernesse for safety By wildernesse some learned Expositors understand remote countries inhabited by Paynims and Gentiles where yet the fire of persecution is not kindled For say they though such places be never so well peopled yet they may be termed deserts because never manured by Gods husbandry never sown with the seed of the Word never set with plants of Paradise never watered with the dew of heavenly grace And if the Church had not removed into such wildernesses she had never visited us in England severed after a sort from the whole world Toto divisos Orbe Britannos But such hath beene Gods goodnesse to these Ilands that the woman in my text was carried with her c Ver. 14. And to the woman was given two wings of a great Eagle Eagles wings into these parts before the Roman Eagles were brought in here our Countrey submitted it selfe to the Crosse of Christ before it stooped to the Roman scepter Howbeit I take not this to be the meaning of this Scripture For the propagation of the Church and the extending her bounds to the remotest regions of the world maketh her catholike and by it she becommeth glorious whereas the Spirit speaketh here of her as in some eclipse The wildernesse therefore here meant must needes be some obscure place or region to which she fled to hide her selfe If you demand particularly when this prophecy was fulfilled I answer partly in those Hebrewes of whom St. Paul writeth that they lay in wildernesses and dennes and caves of the earth partly in those Disciples that were in Jerusalem in the time of the siege and a little before who mindfull of our Saviours commandement fled into the mountaines and were miraculously preserved in Pella as Eusebius writeth partly in those Christians who in the dayes of Maximinus and Dioclesian fled so farre that they never returned backe againe into any City but were the fathers of them that live in woods and desarts as Hermites or inclosed within foure walls as Recluses and Anchorites partly in those Orthodoxe beleevers who in the reigne of the Arrian Emperours tooke desarts and caves under ground for sanctuary of whom St. Hilarie writeth saying d L. adver Auxent Ecclesia potius delituit in cavernis quam in primariis Urbibus eminebat The Church rather lurked in holes and vaults under ground in those dayes than shewed her selfe openly in the chiefe Cities partly in those professours of the Gospell who ever since the man of sinne was revealed have beene by him put to great streights and driven to lie hid for many yeeres in solitary and obscure places in all which persecutions of the Church God prepared for her not only a place to lodge in but a table also that they should Feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore dayes Some referring this prophesie to the Jewes abode in Pella find the time to be precisely three yeeres and an halfe others by dayes understanding yeeres reckon from the declining age of Constantine till the great reformation in our age neere upon a thousand two hundred and threescore yeeres in all which time the true Church hath played least in sight and beene in a maner buried in oblivion But neither is this calculation exact neither as I conceive doth St. John speake of one flight onely nor of any particular place nor definite number of yeeres but after the manner of Prophets putteth a definite number for an indefinite and foresheweth that the true Church must for a long time lie hid and withdraw her selfe out of the worlds eye as it is afterwards exprest a time times and halfe a time a time under the heathen Emperours times under severall Heretikes and last of all halfe a time in that last and greatest tribulation immediately before the utter overthrow of Antichrist For that e Mat. 24.22 persecution shall be shortened as our Saviour intimateth for the Elects sake lest all flesh should
te quaesivi Jerome thus I have sought none in heaven or earth beside thee x Calvin Praeter Deum nihil in coelo vel in terrâ appeto Calvin I desire nothing in heaven or earth but thee y Cajetan Te solum in coelo in terrâ volui Cajetan Thee alone I affect in heaven and in earth z Marlor Nihil tecum amo Marlorat I love nothing with thee And most effectually * Mollerus Te pro prae omnibus thesauris aestimo Mollerus I esteeme thee in stead of and above all treasures as if he should say in more words Others lay up treasures upon earth but heaven is my treasurie and God is my riches he is my lot as I am his purchase he is the onely supporter of my crowne and crown of my joy joy of my heart upon him I set my whole delight in him I repose all my confidence to him I addresse all my petitions from him I expect all my happinesse all my hope is in his promises all my comfort in his word all my wealth in his bounty all my joy in the light of his countenance all my contentment in his love above him without him besides him I love nothing but all things in him and for him Lord let me live out of the world with thee but let me not live in the world without thee For I make no reckoning of any thing in the world in comparison of thee nor of all the world without thee take away all things from me so thou givest me thy selfe for if thou takest away thy selfe thou takest away all things O let me therefore quickly enjoy thee in heaven for even whilest I am upon earth my heaven is in thee Here I cannot hold on my Paraphrase but must needs breake off with that passionate exclamation of St. a Poelicissimam animam quae Deo sic à Deo meretur affici ut per unitatem spiritus in Deo nihil amet nisi Deum Bernard O thrice happy soule which by God and his grace art so affected with God and his love that in God in whom all things are to be had thou desirest nothing but God himselfe By this bright blaze of the words you may easily discerne the parts which are two 1 A higher straine of notes ascending Quis mihi c. 2 A lower of notes descending tecum non optavi c. Or if you like better to change the terms of musick which is the rhetorick of sounds into the termes of rhetoricke which is the musicke of words this sentence consisteth of 1 A passionate interrogation Whom have I in c. 2 A confident asseveration And I desire none c. In both I observe 1 The convenience of the order Whom have I in heaven and then I desire c. 2 The proprietie of the phrases have and desire have in heaven desire on earth nothing to be desired but to be had in heaven nothing to be had but to be desired on earth 3 The varietie of the Prepositions praeter and cum I have nothing but thee I desire nothing with thee for the reason assigned by b Paulin. in Bib. Patr. to 5. p. 1. Omnium conditor cui nihil eorum quae fecit valet aequari non dignatur cum his quae condidit aequari Paulinus God who made none of his creatures in any degree equall to himselfe will have none made of like unto himselfe Whereupon it ensueth that there is fulnesse of delight and contentment in God and that there is no solid delight and contentment for the immortall soule of man but in him and consequently that we are to set our heart and settle our love and ground our repose and repose our felicity wholly and solely in him with c Aug. confes l. 10. Cum quo solo de quo solo in quo solo anima intellectualis verè beata est whom onely and in whom onely and through whom onely the understanding soule of man findeth and everlastingly enjoyeth true blessednesse Of which use of the doctrine and doctrine of the notes and notes of my Text whilest I treat briefly I humbly entreat Almighty God to assist mee with his Spirit and you to support mee with your patience First of the order As God first created the heaven and all the host thereof and after the earth and earthly creatures so in our desires we ought first to aime at heaven and heavenly objects and after wee have fixed our thoughts and settled our affections upon them to have an eye to the earth and take order for the things of this life God hath placed the heaven above the earth and shall we by our inordinate desires set the earth above the heaven advancing things temporall above those that are eternall this were to overthrow the order of nature and breake the golden rule laid down by our Saviour d Mat. 6.33 Seeke yee first the Kingdome of God and his righteousnesse and all these things shall be ministred unto you First lift up your eyes and your hearts to heaven and say with David Whom have I in heaven but thee and then tell us what or whom you desire or desire not upon earth Have I in heaven or desire on earth The Translaters might have retained the verbe have in both members but in regard of the deceivablenesse and uncertainty of earthly goods and possessions they change the verbe have in the first member into desire in the second have in heaven and desire on earth not desire in heaven and have on earth for in precise truth there is nothing which a religious soule can desire but shee hath it in heaven and on the contrary nothing to be had that is firmely possessed and enjoyed which she desireth on earth Heaven is the place of having the earth of desiring or craving When an old man being asked of his age answered in the Latine phrase Octoginta annos habeo that is I have or reckon upon fourscore yeeres a Philosopher standing by tooke him up saying Imò tot annos non habes what saist thou I have or reckon upon fourescore yeeres just so many yeeres thou hast not for in numbring the dayes and yeeres of our life whose parts are never all come till they are all gone we usually count upon those yeeres onely that are fully past which we therefore have not because they are past and gone even as he that taketh a lease for terme of yeeres after he hath worne them out hath no more terme in his lease or estate in his living no more may any man be said to have those yeeres good which hee hath spent in the lease of his life Much lesse may he be said to have those that are to come because they are not yet and hee is altogether uncertaine whether they are to come or no. For all that hee knoweth this day the lease of his life may expire this houre his last glasse
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
danger of the Councell but whosoever shall say thou Foole shall bee in danger of hell fire Here say they wee may see that there are two punishments lesse than hell fire and that hee onely is in danger of it who breaketh out into that outrage to raile at his brothet and call him foole not hee who is unadvisedly angry Whereupon they inferre that the last of the three sinnes mentioned by our Saviour is mortall not the two former Their second allegation is out of z Mat. 7.5 Moat out of thy brothers eye Matth. 7. and a Luk. 6.41 Luk. 6. and 1 Cor. 3. and such other texts of Scriptures in which some sinnes are compared to very light things as to b 1 Cor. 3.12 Hay and stubble hay to stubble to a moat to a * Mat. 5.26 The uttermost farthing farthing Surely say they they cannot bee grievous and weighty sinnes which are compared to such light or vile things of no value Their third allegation is out of Saint James c Jam. 1.15 Sinne when it is finished bringeth forth death Marke say they not every sinne nor sinne in every degree but when it is come to its perfection bringeth forth death whereby hee insinuateth that no sinnes are mortall but those which are consummate brought into act and committed with full consent of the will The fourth is out of d Mat. 12.36 Matth. 12. I say unto you yee shall give an account for every idle word at the day of judgement Hee saith not wee shall bee condemned for every idle word but onely that wee shall bee called to answere for it as wee shall be for all sinnes Sol. 1 To the first allegation wee answere That no doctrine of faith may bee grounded upon a meere parable as the Schooles rightly determine Theologia parabolica non est argumentativa Now that which our Saviour here speaketh of three severall punishments is spoken by allusion to the proceedings in the Civill Courts in Judaea and all that can bee gathered from thence is but this That as there are differences of sinnes so there shall bee differences of punishments hereafter Secondly hell fire is no more properly taken for the torment of the damned than the other two the danger of the Councell and of Judgement which all confesse to bee taken figuratively and analogically Thirdly Maldonate the Jesuite ingenuously confesseth that by Councell and Judgement the eternall death of the soule is understood yet with this difference that a lesse degree of torment in hell is understood by the word Judgement than Councell and a lesse by Councell than by gehenna ignis that is the fire in the valley of Hinnom Sol. 2 To the second allegation wee answere First that though some sinnes in comparison of others may bee said light and to have the like proportion to more grievous sinnes as a moat in the eye hath to a beame a farthing to a pound yet that no sinne committed against God may bee simply tearmed light but like the talent of lead mentioned Zech. 1.5 Whereupon Saint e Super Ezek. l. 2. Omne peccatum grave est Gregory inferreth Every sinne is heavie and ponderous and Saint f Jer. Epitaph Paulae Ita levia peccata deflebat ut gravissimotum scelerum diceres ream Et ep 14. Nescio an possemus leve aliquod peccatum dicere quod in Dei contemptum admittitur Jerome writeth of Paula That shee so bewailed light sinnes that is such as are commonly so esteemed that a man would have thought her guilty of grievous crimes and hee elsewhere yeeldeth a good reason for it Because saith he I know not how wee may say any thing is light whereby the divine Majesty is sleighted Secondly admitting that some sinnes are to bee accounted no bigger than moats yet as a moat it it bee not taken out of the eye hindereth the sight so the least sinne hindereth grace and if it bee not repented of or pardoned for Christs sake is sufficient to damne the soule of the sinner Thirdly neither Christ by the farthing in the fifth of Matthew understandeth sinne nor the Apostle by hay and stubble lesser or veniall sinnes but Christ by farthing understandeth the last payment of debt Saint Paul light and vaine doctrines which are to bee tryed by the fire of the Spirit For in that place the Apostle by fire cannot meane the fire of Purgatory because gold and silver are tryed that is precious doctrines or good workes by the fire Saint Paul there speaketh of whereas Purgatory fire is for mens persons to cleanse and purge them from their lesser sinnes as the Papists teach Sol. 3 To the third allegation we answer That the Apostle is so farre from denying in that place that all sinnes are mortall that on the contrary he there sheweth how all sinnes become mortall and in the end bring the sinner to eternall death What lesser sinne than lust or a desire in the mind yet this as Saint James affirmeth hath strength enough to conceive sinne and sinne when it is finished to bring forth death Sol. 4 To the fourth allegation we answer That the same phrase is used concerning all kindes of sinnes yea those that are greatest and most grievous as we reade in Athanasius Creed All men shall rise againe with their owne bodies and give an account of their owne workes and if their account be not the better that dreadfull sentence shall passe against them Goe ye cursed into everlasting fire Let us lay all these particulars together and the totall arising out of them will be this That though there be a great difference of sinnes whereof some are lighter compared to a fescu or moate others heavier compared to a beame some smaller likened to gnats others greater to g Mat. 23.24 camels some easier to account for resembled to mites or farthings others with more difficulty as talents and in like manner although there are divers degrees of punishments in hell fire as there were divers degrees of civill punishments among the Jewes yet that we are accountable for the least sinnes and that the weakest desire and suddenest motion to evill is concupiscence which if it be not killed in us by grace will conceive sinne and that sinne when it is consummate will bring forth death We need no more fightings the truth hath already gotten the victory by the weapons of her sworne enemies and Goliah is already slaine with his owne sword yet that yee may know how strong the doctrine of our Church is I will bring forth and muster some of her trained band First we have two uncontrollable testimonies out of the booke of Deuteronomy h Deut. 27.26 30.19 Cursed is hee that confirmeth not all the words of this Law to doe them and Behold I have set before you this day life and good death and evill blessing and cursing The former is cited by Saint Paul to prove that all that hoped to be justified by the
serious lesson of the vanity of earthly delights worldly comforts we reade in many Texts of Scriptures heare in divers Sermons see in daily spectacles of men troubled in mind at their death yet we never thoroughly apprehend it till Gods rod hath imprinted it in our bodies and soules then finding by our wofull experience that earthly felicity is nothing but misery masked in gaudy shewes and that all the wealth of the world together with all carnall delights cannot ease a burthened conscience nor abate any whit of our paine we begin to distaste them all we grow out of love with this life and entertaine death in our most serious thoughts Here the eye of faith enlightened by divine revelation seeth beyond death the celestiall Paradise in it a chrystall ſ Apoc. 22.1 2. river of the water of life by it a tree of life which beares twelve sorts of fruits and besides these a heavenly City shining with t Apoc. 21.18 19. streets of gold and foundations of pearle and precious stones the sight wherof leaveth an unspeakable delight in the soule which sweetneth all temporall afflictions and stirreth up in us an unspeakable desire of those solid comforts and substantiall joyes u Ramus in orat Heliogabalus was wont to set before his parasites a banquet painted on cloth or carved in wood or cut in stone and whatsoever hee fed upon in truth they had drawne before them in pictures and images such are the joyes and delights which the Divell the World presenteth unto us false shadowie vaine The true are to be found no where but in heaven where those joyes are in substance which we have here but in shadowes x Aug. confes l. 2. c. 5. Fornicatur anima quae avertitur abs te quaerit extra te ea quae pura liquida non invenit nisi cùm redit ad te pure which we have here polluted full which we have here empty sincere which wee have here mixt perpetually flourishing which we have here continually fading to these substantiall full pure sincere everlasting joyes God bring us for his Son Jesus Christ his sake Cui c. THE NURTURE OF CHILDREN THE XLVII SERMON APOC. 3.19 As many as I love I rebuke and chasten Right Honourable c. THat which Pliny writeth and experience confirmeth concerning hony-combes that the thinner and weaker hony runs out of them at the first but the thickest and best is pressed squeezed out of them at the last we find for the most part in handling Texts of holy Scripture compared by the Prophet a Psal 19.10 David to hony-combs the easier more vulgar observations flow out of them upon the lightest touch but we are to presse each phrase and circumstance before we can get out the thickest hony the choicest and most usefull doctrines of inspired wisedome The more we sucke these combes the more we may the hony proveth the sweeter the combe the moister and which is nothing lesse to be admired the spirituall taste is no way cloyed therewith Wherefore with your good liking and approbation I will presse again and againe these mellifluous combes in our Saviours lips dropping celestiall doctrine sweeter than hony to delight the most distempered taste and sharper than it to cleanse the most putrefied sore I rebuke and chasten there is the sharpnesse and as it were the searching vertue of hony As many as I love there is the sweetnesse Parallel Texts of Scripture like glasses set one against another cast a mutuall light such is this Text and that Deut. 8.5 Thou shalt also consider in thy heart that as a man chasteneth his sonne so the Lord thy God chasteneth thee and Job 5.17 Despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty and Prov. 3.11 12. My sonne despise not the chastening of the Lord neither bee weary of his correction for whom the Lord loveth he correcteth even as a father doth the sonne in whom he delighteth and Hebr. 12.7 If yee endure chastening God dealeth with you as with sonnes for what sonne is he whom the father chasteneth not As a Musician often toucheth upon the sweetest note in his song Paven or Galliard so doth the holy Spirit upon this and therefore we ought more especially to listen to it For 1. It convinceth the Papists who over-value crosses and afflictions accounting the bearing of them satisfactions for sinnes For with a like pride whereby they cry up their actions to be meritorious they would improve their passions to be workes satisfactory by satisfactory intending such as make amends unto the justice of God wherein they as much over-reach as they supererogate or rather superarrogate in the former Satisfactions to our brethren for wrongs done unto them by restitution mulct or acknowledgement of our fault with asking forgivenesse for it we both teach and practise but they shall never be able to satisfie us in this point that any thing they can doe or suffer can satisfie God Neither can our actions satisfie his law nor our penall sufferings his justice none can satisfie for sinne but he that was without sinne nothing can recompence an infinite transgression but an infinite submission or to speake more properly the submission and passion of him that was infinite It cost more to redeem sinnes than the world is worth and therefore they must let that alone for him who f Esay 63.3 trod the wine-presse alone Before I noted the difference between chastisement and punishment in the one a compensation of wrong done to the person or law is intended in the other a testifying of love and a care of amendment of the party chastened Who would ever be so unreasonable as to thinke that a few stripes given by a tender-hearted father to the childe whom he most dearly affecteth were a satisfaction for the losse of a Diamond of great price yet our sufferings hold not such a proportion For what are our finite and momentary sufferings to the offence given to an infinite Majesty Nothing can be set in the other scale against it to weigh it downe but the manifold sufferings of an equall and infinite person the eternall Sonne of God Neither will it help our adversaries any whit to say that Christ satisfied for the eternall but not for the temporall punishment of our sinnes For this is all one as to say that our Redeemer laid downe a talent of gold for us yet not a brasse token or payd many millions of pounds yet not a piece The Apostle said hee gave himselfe a g 1 Tim. 2.6 ransome for all will they deny it to be a sufficient one or was there any defect in his good intention They have not rubbed their foreheads so hard as to affirme any such thing Well then let them tell us how that man is perfectly ransomed by another who is still kept in prison till he have discharged part of his ransome himselfe This very conceit that they merit by
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