should take vp no other for the body we should be fed with hunger and cloathed with nakednesse the earth should bee our fether-bed and the sky our Canopy wee should abound with want liue sauagely and die miserably It was the iust Canon of the Apostle He that labours not let him not eat Certainly he can neuer eat of the heauenly Manna of Truth that will not step forth to gather it Heare this yee delicate Courtiers that would heare a Sermon if yee could rise out of your beds that would lend God an houre if yee could spare it from your pleasures the God of heauen scornes to haue his precious Truth so basely vnderualued if yee bid God lesse than labour for Truth I can giue you no comfort but that yee may goe to hell with ease The markets of Truth as of all other commodities varie It is the rule of Casuists Iustitia pretij non consistit in indiuiduo The Iustice of the Price doth not pitch euer vpon a point Sometimes the price of Truth hath risen it would not be bought but for danger sometimes not vnder losse not vnder disgrace not vnder imprisonment not vnder exile sometimes yet dearer not vnder paine yea sometimes it hath not gone for lesse than bloud It did cost Elias danger Michaiah disgrace Ieremie imprisonment the Disciples losse Iohn and Athanasius exile the holy Confessors paine the holy Martyrs death Euen the highest of these is pretium legitimum if God call for it how euer nature may taxe it as rigorous yea such as the franke hearts of faithfull Christians haue bidden at the first word for Truth What doe yee weeping and breaking my heart For I am ready not to be bound only but to die for the name of the Lord Iesus saith S. Paul Act. 21. Skin for skin yea all that a man hath will he giue for his life saith Satan but skin life all must a man giue for Truth not thinke it an hard penny-worth Neither count I my life deare vnto me that I may finish my course with ioy saith the chosen vessel to his Ephesians Oh the heroicall spirits of our blessed fore-fathers that stucke not to giue their dearest heart-bloud for but some corollaries of sacred Truth whose burning zeale to Truth consumed them before those fires of Martyrdome and sent vp their pure and glorious soules like Manoah's Angell to heauen in the flame Blessed be God Blessed be his Anointed vnder whose gracious Scepter we haue inioyed dayes as much more happy than theirs as their hearts were more feruent than ours Wee may now buy Truth at a better hand stake but our labour wee carry it with thanks I feare there want not those that would be glad to marre the market It can be only knowne to heauen what treacheries the malice of hell may be a brewing Had but that powder once taken nothing had beene abated of the highest price of our predecessors We had paid for euery dram of Truth as many ounces of bloud as euer it cost the frankest Martyr should the Deuill haue beene suffered to doe his worst we might not haue grudged at this price of Truth Non est delicata in Deum secura confessio qui in me credit debet suum sanguinem fundere saith Ierome Christian profession is no secure or delicate matter he that beleeues must be no niggard of his bloud But why thus deare Not without good reason Monopolies vse to enhaunce the price Yee can buy Truth at no shop but one In coelo praeparata est Veritas tua Psal. 89.2 Thy truth is prepared in heauen And it is a iust Rule of Law Quisque in rebus suis est moderator arbiter Euery man may rate his owne Neither is this only the sole commoditie of God but besides deare to the owner Dilexisti veritatem Thou hast loued Truth saith the Psalmist And it is a true rule in the Cases of Commerce Affectus aestimari potest Our loue may be valued in the price Yea O God thy loue to Truth cannot be valued It is thy selfe Thou that art Truth it selfe hast said so I am the Way the Truth and the Life wee cannot therefore know how much thou louest thy Truth because as thy selfe is infinite so is thy loue to thy selfe What should we hunt for comparisons If all the earth were gold what were it when euen very heauen it selfe is trash to thee in respect of Truth No maruell if thou set it at an high rate It is not more precious to thee than beneficiall to vs. It frees vs Ioh. 8.32 It renues vs Iam. 1.18 It confirmes vs Prov. 12.19 It sanctifies vs Ioh. 17.17 It defends vs Psal. 91.4 Shortly it doth all for vs that God doth for God works by his Almighty word and his word is Truth Ioh. 17. Therefore buy the Truth And if Truth be thus precious thus beneficiall how comes it to passe that it is neglected contemned Some passe by it and doe not so much as cheapen it Others cheapen it but bid nothing Others bid something but vnder foot Others bid well but stake it not Others lastly stake downe but reuoke it The first that passe by and cheapen it not are carelesse vnbeleeuers The next that cheapen it and bid nothing are formall Christians The third that bid something but not enough are worldly semi-Christians The fourth that bid well and stake it nor are glorious hypocrites The last that stake downe and reuoke it are damnable Apostats Take all these out of the society of men and how many customers hath God that care to buy the Truth If Truth were some rich chattell it would be bought If Truth were some goodly Lordship or the reuersion of some good Office it would be bought If Truth were some Benefice or spirituall promotion Oh times it would be bought Yea how deare are we content to pay for our filthy lusts wee will needs purchase them too oft with shame beggery disease damnation Only the sauing Truth of God will not off hand What is the reason of this First of all It is but bare simple plaine honest homely Truth without welt without guard It will abide none but natiue colours it scorneth to wooe fauour with farding and licking and counterfaisance it hates either bought or borrowed beauty and therefore like some natiue face among the painted lookes course and rusty There are two shops that get away all the custome from Truth The shop of Vanitie the shop of Error The one sels knacks and gew-gawes the other false wares and adulterate both of their commodities are so gilded and gaudy and glittering that all fooles throng thither and complaine to want elbow-roome and striue who shall be first seru'd whereas the secret worke of artlesse and vnpolisht Truth can winne no eye to view it no tongue to aske so much as What will it cost mee Oh yee sonnes of men how long will yee loue vanitie and seeke after lies Secondly though Truth in it selfe be
THE Best Bargaine A SERMON preached to the Court at Theobalds on Sunday Sept. 21 1623. By Ios. HALL D.D. LONDON Printed by J. Haviland for Nath. Butter 1623. TO THE RIGHT Honorable WILLIAM Earle of Pembroke Lord High Chamberlaine CHANCELLOVR of the Vniuersitie of Oxford One of his MAIESTIES most Honorable Priuy Counsell RIGHT HONORABLE LEt it please you to receiue from the Presse what you vouchsafed to require from my pen Vnworthy I confesse either of the publike light or the beames of your Honours iudicious eies yet such as besides the motiue of common importunity I easily apprehended might be not a little vs full for the times which if euer require quickning Neither is it to no purpose that the world should see in what stile wee speake to the Court not without acceptation This and what euer seruice I may be capable of are iustly deuoted to your Lordship whom all good hearts follow with true Honour as the great Patron of learning the sincere friend of Religion and rich purchaser of Truth The God of Heauen adde to the number of such Peeres and to the measure of your Lo graces and happinesse Your Honors in all humble and faithfull obseruance Ios Hall THE BEST Bargaine PROV 23.23 Buy the Truth and sell it not THe subiect of my Text is a Bargaine and Sale A bargaine enioyned a sale forbidden and the subiect of both bargaine and sale is Truth A bargaine able to make vs all rich a sale able to make any of vs miserable Buy the Truth and sell it not A sentence of short sound but large extent the words are but seuen syllables an easie load for our memories the matter is a world of worke a long taske for our liues And first let me call you to this Mart which holds both now and euer If ye loue your selues be ye customers at this shop of heauen Buy the Truth In euery bargaine there is merx and mercatura the commoditie and the match The commoditie to bee bought is the Truth the match made for this commoditie is Buying Buy the Truth An ill Iudge may put a good Interrogatorie yet it was a question too good for the mouth of a Pilate What is Truth The schooles haue wearied themselues in the solution To what purpose should I reade a Metaphysicall Lecture to Courtiers Truth is as Time one in all yet as Time though but one is distinguished into past present future and euery thing hath a Time of it owne so is Truth variously distinguished according to the subiects wherein it is This is Anselmes cited by Aquinas I had rather say Truth is as light Send forth thy Truth and thy light saith the Psalmist which though but one in all yet there is one light of the Sunne another of the Moone another of the Starres another of this lower ayre There is an essentiall and causall Truth in the Diuine vnderstanding which the schooles call Primo-primam This will not bee sold cannot be bought God will not part with it the world is not worth it This Truth is as the Light in the body of the Sunne There is an intrinsecall or formall truth in things truly existing For Being and True are conuertible and Saint Austen rightly defines Verum est illud quod est All this created Truth in things is deriued exemplarily and causally from that increated Truth of God this the schooles call Secundo-primam and it is as the light of the Sun-beames cast vpon the Moone and Starres There is an extrinsecall or secondary truth of propositions following vpon and conformable to the truth of the things expressed thus Verum is no other than Esse declaratiuum as Hilarie And this Truth being in the thing it selfe subiectiuely in words expressiuely in the minde of man terminatiuely presupposeth a double conformitie or adequation Both of the vnderstanding to the matter conceiued and of the words to the vnderstanding so as Truth is when we speake as we thinke and thinke as it is And this Truth is as the light diffused from those heauenly bodies to the Region of this lower ayre This is the Truth we are called to Buy But this deriuatiue and relatiue Truth whether in the minde or in the mouth hath much multiplicitie according to the matter either conceiued or vttered There is a Theologicall Truth there is a naturall there is a morall there is a ciuill All these must bee deare bought but the best at the highest rate which is Theologicall or diuine whether in the principles or necessary conclusions The principles of diuine Truth are Scriptura veritatis Dan. 10. The Law of Truth Mal. 2. The word of Truth 2. Cor. 6. The necessary conclusions are they which vpon irrefragable inferences are deduced from those holy grounds Shortly then euery parcell of Diuine Truth whether laid downe in Scripture or drawne necessarily from Scripture is this Mercimonium sacrum which wee are bidden to Buy Buy the Truth This is the commoditie The match is Buy that is Beat the price and pay it Buy it Of whom For what Of whom but of the owner of the Maker The owner It is Veritas Domini Gods Truth Psal. 117. His stile is the Lord God of Truth Psal. 31. The Maker The workes of his hand are truth and iudgement Psal. 111. And if any vsurping spirit of error shall haue made a free-bootie of Truth and shall with-hold it in vnrighteousnesse we must redeeme it out of his hands with the highest ransome What is the price That is the maine thing in buying For Buying is no other than pactio pretij Else-where God proclaimes Hoe euery one that thirsteth come buy wine and milke without money and without price Esa. 55. This is a Donation in forme of sale But here must be a price in the hand God will giue mercy and not sell it He will sell Truth and not giue it For what will he sell it First for Labour The Heathen Poet could say his gods sold learning for sweat The originall word here vsed is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Compara Get it any way either labore or precio yea labore vt precio This great foreman of Gods shop tells vs we cannot haue it vnder Prou. 2.4 We must seeke for her as siluer and search for her as for hid Treasures The veine of Truth lies low it must be digged and delued for to the very center If Truth could bee bought with ease and pleasure many a lazie Christian would bid faire for it who now resolue rather vpon want than toile The slothfull worldling will rather take vp a falshood for Truth than beat his braine to discerne Truth from falshood an error of free-cost is better than an high-rated Veritie Labour for Truth is turn'd ouer for the taske of Church-men no life sauours to these flegmaticke Spirits but that of the Lillies Neque laborant neque nent They neither labour nor spin This dull resolution is vnworthy of a Christian yea of a reasonable soule and if we
alwaies excellent yet the issue of it is not seldome distastfull Veritas odium There is one Michaiah whom I hate Am I become your enemie because I tell you the truth And this is the cause that Frier Menot alledges why Truth in this Time was so vnwelcome to the Court But if Truth be the mother of Hatred shee is the daughter of Time and Truth hath learn't this of Time to deuoure her owne brood So that in Time Truth shall consume hatred and at the last a galling Truth shall haue more thanks than a smoothing supparisitation In the meane time Veritas nihil erubescit praeterquam abscondi Truth blusheth at nothing but secrecie as Tertullian How euer then fond or false hearts value the Truth let vs that should be wise Christians esteeme it as the pearle hid in the field which the man sold all that euer he had to purchase Would it not set any heart on fire with an holy anger to see what the enemies of Truth bid and giue for falshood for faction Their libertie their country the life of their Soueraigne the eternall state of their soules hath not seemed too deare to cast away vpon an ill bargaine of mis-religion and shall not wee bid so much as our zealous well-wishes our effectuall indeuours our carefull obseruances for the vndoubted Truth of our Maker and Redeemer What shall I say to the miserable and stupid carelesnesse of these thriftlesse and godlesse times wherein euery thing is apprised euery thing is bought saue that which is most precious most beneficiall Truth Yee great ones are made for precedents to the inferior world your example is able to bring either good or euill into fashion For Gods sake for your soules sake what euer transactions ye make for the world lay your plots for the blessed purchase of Truth Oh let not your fickle honors your vnsatisfying pleasures your worthlesse profits yea your momentanie liues seeme deare to you in comparison of heauenly Truth It is no shame in other parts for great Peeres to bee Merchants Mercatores tui erant principes saith the Angell concerning Babylon Reuel 18. Thy Merchants were the Princes of the earth And why should not yee great ones bee the Merchants of Truth Blessed bee the God of Truth yee are so It is no proud word to say That no Court vnder heauen hath so rich a stocke of Truth as this of Great Britaine yet let mee tell you the very Angels knew not so much but they desired to know more Ephes. 3.10 And if yee had alreadie that vespertine knowledge of the Saints which yee shall once haue in heauen yet know that this bargaine stands not more in the iudgement than in the affections What euer our speculations may be if our hearts be not set vpon Truth we may be Brokers wee are not Merchants Brokers for others not Merchants for our selues As our Sauiour then when hee bids vs sell all forsake all holds it done when in preparation of minde wee are ready to abdicate all for his name though we doe it not so doth God hold vs to buy Truth when wee bestow our best thoughts our dearest well-wishes vpon it though we haue it alreadie Oh stirre vp your languishing zeale yee noble Courtiers rouze vp your drouping loue to diuine Truth Giue your hearts to it yee cannot but giue all for it And if yee doe not finde the sweet gaine of this bargaine in this lower Region of error and confusion yee shall once finde it in those eternall and empireall habitations of Truth where the God of Truth shall make vp the Truth of his promises with the euerlasting truth of his glorious performances where Mercy and Truth shall so meet and embrace one another that both of them shall embrace the faithfull soule for euer and euer This for the Bargaine of Truth The forbidden sale followeth sell it not Commonly what wee buy we may sell. Alexander not the Great but the Good sold Miters Keyes Altars the verse giues the reason Emerat ille prius Hee bought them So Saint Austen of Simon Magus Volebat emere spiritum Sanctum quia vendere volebat spiritum Sanctum Hee would buy the Holy Ghost because he meant to sell it Giue me a man that buyes a Seat of Iudicature I dare not trust him for not selling of Iustice he that sits in the chaire of Symonie will not giue Orders will not sticke to sell soules Some things we may buy to sell as Ioseph did the Egyptian corne some things we must sell if we buy as an Israelites Inheritance Leuit. 25. But here we are charged to buy what it is a sinne to sell Buy the Truth and sell it not There is many a good thing ill sold Esau sels his birth-right for pottage Hanun and Shechem sell their Country for loue Dalilah sels her louer for a bribe The Patriarchs sell their Brother for twentie siluer rings Haman sels the Iewes for nought The Gentiles sell the Iewish girles for wine Ioel 3.3 Israel sels the righteous for siluer and the poore for shooes Amos 2.6 Their Iudges sell sinnes or innocence for rewards Esa. 5.23 Abab sels himselfe to wickednesse Iudas sels his master Demas sels the Truth All these make an ill market And in all it is a surerule the better the commoditie is the more pernicious is the sale The indefinitenesse of the charge implies a generalitie Buy it at any price At no price sell it It is the sauour of God that it may be bought for any rate It is the Iustice of God that vpon any rate it should not bee sold As buying and selling are opposites in relation So that for which we must not sell Truth is opposite to that for which we may buy it Wee must buy it with labour therefore wee may not sell it for ease If need be wee must buy it with losse therefore we may not sell it for gaine we must buy it with disgrace we may not sell it for honour wee must buy it with exile or imprisonment we may not sell it for libertie we must buy it with paine we may not sell it for pleasure We must buy it with death we may not sell it for life Not for any not for all of these may we sell Truth this were damnosa mercatio as Chrysostome In euery bargaine and sale there must be a proportion now ease gaine honour libertie pleasure life yea worlds of all these are no way counteruaileable to Truth For what shall it profit a man to win the whole world and leese his owne soule And hee cannot sell Truth but his soule is lost And if any thing in the world may seeme a due price of Truth it is Peace Oh sweet and deare name of Peace the good newes of Angels the ioy of good men who can but affect thee who can but magnifie thee The God of heauen before whom I stand from whom I speake knowes how oft how deeply I haue mourned for the diuisions of
his Church how earnestly I haue set my hand on work vpon such poore thoughts of re-union as my meannesse could reach But when all is done I still found we may not offer to sell Truth for Peace It is true that there bee some Scholasticall and immateriall Truths the infinite subdiuisions whereof haue rather troubled than informed Christendome which for the purchase of peace might be kept in and returned into such safe generalities as minds not vnreasonable might rest in but sold out they may not be If some Truths may be contracted into a narrower roome none may be contracted for Qui diuinis innutriti sunt eloquijs as that Father said Those that are trained vp in diuine Truths may not change a syllable for a world Tene quod habes Hold that thou hast is a good rule in all things which if in temporalties it were well obserued we should not haue so many gallants squander away their inheritances to liue Cameleon-like vpon the ayre of fauour But how euer this be too wel obserued in these earthly things by frugall hands which take as if they were quicke hold as if they were dead yet in spirituall graces it can neuer be obserued enough Wee get Truth we buy it as Iacob did his birth-right to keepe to inioy not to sell againe If therefore the world if Satan shall offer to grease vs in the fist for Truth let vs answer him as Simon Peter did Simon the Sorcerer Thy money perish with thee because thou hast thought the Truth of God may be purchased with money What shall we say then to those pedling petty-chapmen which we meet withall in euery market that will be bartring away the Truth of God for trifles Surely the forme of our spirituall market is contrarie to the ciuill In our ciuill markets there are more buyers than sellers there would be but poore takings if many did not buy of one but in the spirituall there are more Sellers of Truth than Buyers Many a one sels that hee neuer had that he should haue had the Truth of God Here one chops away the Truth for Feare or Ambition There another lets it goe for the old shooes of a Gebeonitish pretence of Antiquitie Heere one parts with it for a painted gilded hobby-horse of an outwardly pompous magnificence of the Church there another for the bables of childish superstition One for the fancies of hope another for the breath of a colloguing Impostor Amongst them all Diminutae sunt veritates à filijs hominum Psal. 12. Truth is failed from the children of men Yea as Esay complained in his time Corruit in platea veritas Esa. 59.14 Truth is fallen in the streets What a shame it is to see that in this cleere and glorious Sunne-shine of the Gospell vnder the pious gouernment of the True Defender of the Faith there should not want some soules that should trucke for the Truth of God as if it were some Cheapside or some Smithfield-Commoditie Commutauerunt veritatem Dei They haue changed the Truth of God into a lie Rom. 1.25 And all their care is that they may be deceiued good cheap Whose heart cannot bleed to see so many well-rigg'd and hopefull Barkes of our young Gentry laden with the most precious Merchandises of Nature and Grace hall'd in euery day to these deceitfull Ports of Error the owners partly cheated partly robbed of Truth despoiled of their rich fraight and at last turn'd ouer-boord into a sea of Desperation Oh foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that you should not obey that yee should not hold fast the Truth Where shall I lay the fault of this mis-carriage Mee thinkes I could aske the Disciples question Nunquid ego Domine Is it wee Lord Are there of vs that preach our selues and not Christ Are there that preach Christ and liue him not Woe to the world because of offences It must needs be that offences should come but woe to the man by whom the offence commeth God forbid that we should be so bad that the seuen-hils should not iustifie vs But what euer we be the Truth is still and euer it selfe neither the better for our innocence nor worse for our guilt If men bee faultie what hath Truth offended Except the sacred word of the euer-liuing God can mis-guide you we haue set you right We are but Dust and Ashes yet O God giue vs thine humble vassals leaue in an awfull confidence so farre to contest with thee the Lord of heauen and earth as to say If we be deceiued thou hast deceiued vs. It is thou that hast spoken by vs to thy people Let God bee True and euery man a Lier Whither should we goe from thee thou hast the words of eternall life Deare Christians our fore-fathers transmitted to vs the intire inheritance of the glorious Gospell of Iesus Christ repurchased by the bloud of their martyrdome Oh let not our ill husbandry impaire it Let not posteritie once say they might haue bin happy but for the vnthriftines of vs their progenitors Let it not bee said that the coldnesse of vs the teachers and professors of Truth hath dealt with Religion as Rehoboam did with his shields which hee found of Gold but left of Brasse If Truth had no friends we should plead for it but now that we haue before our eies so powerfull an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Christian faith that with his very pen hath so laid error vpon the backe that all the world cannot raise it what a shame were it to be wanting to him to Truth to our selues But perhaps now I know some of your thoughts you would buy Truth ye thinke you would hold it if yee could be sure to know it There are many slips amongst the true coyne Either of the mothers pleaded the liuing childe to be hers with equall protestations oathes teares True Yet a Salomons sword can diuide Truth from falshood and there is a test and fire that can discerne true metals from adulterate In spight of all counterfeiting there are certaine infallible marks to know Truth from Error Take but a few of many whether in the originals in the natures in the ends of both In the first Truth is diuine Error is humane what is grounded vpon the diuine word must needs be irrefragably true that which vpon humane Traditions either must or may be erroneous In the second Truth is one conforme euer to it selfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as one said Omne verum omni vero consonat All truth accords with euery Truth as Gerson and as it is pure so peaceable Error is full of dissonance of cruelty No particulars of ours dissent from the written verity of God We teach no man to equiuocate Our practise is not bloudy with treasons and massacres In the third Truth as it came from God so is referd to him neither hath any other end than the glory of the God of Truth Error hath euer some self-respects either 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 filthy lucre or vaine-glory profit or pride We doe not prancke vp nature we ayme not either to fill the cofers or feed the ambition of men Let your Wisdomes apply and inferre and now if yee can shut your eyes that you should not see the Truth and if yee care not for your soules when yee see it sell it Let no false tongue perswade you there is no danger in this sale How charitably so euer wee thinke of poore blinded soules that liue in the forced and inuincible darknesse of error certainly Apostasie is deadly How euer those speed that are robbed of Truth you cannot sell Truth and be saued Haue mercy therefore on your owne soules for their sakes for the sake of him that bought them with the deare ransome of his precious bloud And as God hath blessed you with the inualuable treasure of Truth so hoard it vp in your hearts and menage it in your liues Oh let vs be Gens iusta custodiens veritatē Es. 26. A iust nation keeping fast the Truth So whiles yee keepe the Truth the Truth shall keepe you both in Life in Death in Iudgement In life vnto death in death and iudgement vnto the consummation of that endlesse and incomprehensible glory which the God of Truth hath prepared for them that ouercome To the happy possession whereof he that hath ordained in his good time as mercifully bring vs and that for the sake of the Sonne of his Loue IESVS CHRIST the Righteous To whom with thee O Father thy blessed Spirit one infinite God be giuen all praise honour and glory now and for euer Amen