which some Schoolmen make a fifth kind of feare which they call naturall which is not evill if it be kept within its bounds For to be touched somewhat with those things which be by nature terribilia and may do evill as Death Famine want of necessaries for this life is not evill Aristotle notes it as a kind of brutishnesse in the Celtae that they feared not Lightnings nor Inundations nor Earth-quakes But now to exceed in this kinde and for avoyding of mundane evills to incurre the displeasure of God with Elisha's servant to see thine Enemies but not thy Friends with Saul to be greatly afraid of Goliah and not to see the power of God in little David It proceeds from an evill root an immoderate love of this world and is joyned with a distrust to his providence who hath said I will not leave thee nor forsake thee and is here forbidden by our Saviour Feare not Janus-like it looks both back-ward and forward Backwards to the precedents of this Chapter so it contains the use which we are to make of that which hitherto hath been delivered concerning Gods providence Forward to the latter part of the verse and so it is a conclusion of an argument a majori thus Gods elect are Kings sonnes States of Paradise and heires apparent to the crown of Heaven Ergo they need not feare but he will watch over them with his fatherly provision protection and direction in his kingdome of grace Take it whether way ye will and it will afford us this proposition Such is Gods fatherly care and providence over his children that they need not be discouraged by humane nor mundane fears As the night Crow sees in the night but is blind in the day So a naturall man is quick-sighted in temporall things but blind in spirituall For as the Sun lighteneth the Earth but darkeneth the Heaven So his understanding giveth him direction about earthly things but for heavenly and spirituall them it darkneth and obscureth This as by many other things it is evident so especially by the worlds rash judgement touching Gods providence over his children while they remaine in these houses of clay for they seeing that the godly are oftentimes hunted as a Partridge upon the mountains or as a Pelican in the Wildernesse and an Owle in the Desart whereas the ungodly as Job speaks have their houses peaceable and without fear and the rod of God is not upon them they rejoyce in the sound of the Organs and spend their dayes in wealth They I say seeing these things not being able to give the true reason of them because God made them neither of his Court nor Privie Counsell and yet storning to be ignorant in any thing though they knew nothing as they ought to have known began to lye and libell against that eternall power in which they live move and have their being Some of them because they would not seem to impute any injustice unto God thought that such as they saw groaning under the heavy burden of affliction howsoever unto the worlds eye they might seem devout and righteous yet in very deed and before God which seeth not as man seeth for man looks on the outward appearance but God beholds the heart they were dissemblers and hypocrites Thus Paul when he had gathered a few sticks for the fire and a Viper came out of the heat and leapt on his hand was by the Barbarians counted a murtherer Job when the heavy hand of God was upon him was by Zophar thought to be a man forgotten of God for his iniquity Nay Christ our Saviour that immaculate Lamb who had done no wickednesse neither was there any guile found in his mouth was judged by the Jewes as a man plagued and smitten of God for his sinnes Isa 53. 5. Others not much unlike the old Thracians who as Herodotus writes when it thundered used to shoot up their arrows towards Heaven and to tell God that he cared for none but himselfe affirmed that though God had made the world yet the government thereof he committed to Fortunes wisdome and direction Others that he ruled Caelestiall bodies and those that are above the Moone but for these base creatures that are below it is against his divine Majestie to respect Scilicet is Superis labor est c. Others that hee was tyed to second causes and could work no otherwise then he found them disposed Hereupon came the fable of the three Fates sitting by Jupiter the one holding a Dâ—staff the second spinning the third cutting the thread whose decrees Jupiter cannot alter nor resist and Homer brings in Jupiter with a chain in his hand to which the whole world is tyed in certaine links of Causes Jupiter hath in his owne power the moving of the first linke but after the first like is moved then hee meddles with no more but one link draws on another The same Poet brings in Jupiter complaining upon the Fates by whose immutable decree he is hindered that hee cannot deliver Sarpedon from death And Neptune desiring to hinder Vlysses from coming into his Countrey for the hurt done to his sonne Polyphemus but cannot because the Fates are against him So Juno in Virgil complaines that she is resisted by the Fates from hindering Aeneas to come into Italie Mene incoeptodesistere victam Nec posse Italia Teucrorum avertere regem Quippe vetor fatis Nay some upon this occasion stickt not to come to that height of impiety that they adventured to deny that which with a pen of iron and with the point of a diamond is written in the tables of their hearts that there is a God Marmoreo Licinus tegitur tumulo Cato parvo Pompeiâ—snullo And hereupon to make up the verse came that blasphemous speech Quis putat esse deum Yes blasphemous mouth there is a God and this God is not God of the mountaines only but he is God of the valleys too he looks not only to the things which are in Heaven his Throne but also unto the things that are on Earth his foot-stool the young Ravens are fed by him one Sparrow cannot fall unto the ground without him he numbers the haires of our heads and puts our teares into a bottle and marks our treadings and reckons our steps Hee careth for his chosen as a Shepheard doth for his Flock nay as a Master doth for his houshold nay as a Father for his own Children As a father pittieth his owne children so is the Lord mercifull to them that feare him Nay as a mother loveth the sonne of her wombe which is greater then the fathers love as Aristotle well noteth Can a woman forget the child of her womb Isa 49 Emphatically spoken a woman Women where they love love earnestly David to shew the ardency of Jonathans love towards him hyperbolically extolls it above the love of a woman Can a woman forget her child Her love to children is great not only by reason
that the sex doth daily converse with children which is a meanes of encreasing love but also by a naturall sympathy between them Can a woman forget the child of her owne womb She loves others but much more that which is neerest of her blood a part of her selfe whom she loved before she either knew either name or sexe Can a woman forget the child of her wombe It s almost impossible but because such Monsters have been heard of in the world Saevus amor docuit natorum sanguine matrem Commaculare manus Therefore he adds Though she should yet I will never forget thee His love to his is more then a womans to her owne child He respects us as a member of his body to speak after the manner of men Nay as his dearest member as his eye nay as the chiefe part of his eye As the apple of his eye Zach. 2. 8. And though Baal as Elias mocked may perhaps be weary or be in pursuit of his Enemies or asleep and would be awaked Yet he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep Witnesse the wonderfull preservation of his Church against the persecutions and cruelties of Pharaoh Haman Antiochus Sennacherib Decius Dioclesian and other Pagans Valeâ—s and other Hereticks of old and many other both of former and last times whose names I will not now repeat because I may not load your eares with such harsh stuffe If I might presume upon your attention in this kind I had rather instance in this little Israel of ours since she fled out of the dark Aegypt of Poperie through the red Sea of Queen Maries Reign What curses hath the Romish Babylon intended Nay what hath he not intended against her He hath sent his fierce Buls to push her down to trample her honour in the dust He hath thundred out his Canons charged with bullets of Anathemaes against her He hath set open Hel gates for to this three-crowned Cerberus is given the key of the bottomlesse pit and sent out locusts to annoy her He hath used base flatterie open hostility cunning practises secret conspiracies dangerous treasons hellish deviles to overthrow her But behold the watchfull eye of God our heavenly Father over his Children His Bulls which in former times have seemed so wilde that scarce some hundreds met together in a Provinciall Synod duâ—st baite them have proved such cowardly Dastards that every single Curre hath been able to lugge them proving much like to the counterfeit shews of Semiramis when she was to fight with the Indian King which afar off seemed to be Dromedaries and Elephants but when they came to tryal proved nothing but Oxen hides stuffed and bumbasted with straw His Canons troll like Domitians thunder a noise heard but no bullet felt His locusts hurt none but such as had not the Seale of God in their foreheads His plots and devises against Queen Elizabeth and King Iames so defeated and brought to nought that maugre the beards of all Romish Traytors and in despight of all the Devils of Hell they were both brought unto their graves in peace Give me leave before I make use and application of this proposition to put you in mind of two deliverances which as they are never to be forgotten but to be written with pens of iron and the point of a Diamond in the tables of our hearts So do they give evident testimonie of the care which our heavenly Father beareth over his Chosen The one was in 88. when our Enemies were purposed to swallow us up quick they were so wrathfully displeased with us Then the Kings of the earth stood up and the Rulers Mâ—â—rulers Baâ—lac and Balaam the Spaniardâ— and the Pope tooke counsell together against the Lord and against his Anointed saying Come and let us root them out that they be no more a people and that the name of England may be no more in remembrance But what followed He that dwells in Heaven laughed them to scorne the Lord had them in derision He spake unto them in his wrath and did vex them in his sore displeasure He put a book in their noses and a bridle in their lips and carryed them back againe not the same way they came as he did Sennacherib but a strange and unknown way to the Spaniard for all his sayling through the cold Northern Seas and the boysterous Western Ocean Whence after Leviathan had taken his full of them and the Sea which then faught for England was glutted with the multitude of dead corps a few weather-beaten Souldiers returned home in torne and tattered Ships to carry their Master word that it was hard for him to prevaile where God was his enemie Pretty were those verses of Claudian spoken to Theodosius the first when hee prevailed against his Enemies by help of the wind which blew dust in their faces applyed to Queen Elizabeth O nimium dilecte deo cui militat aether Et conjur ati veniunt in praelia venti Turned thus to Queen Elizabeth O nimium dilecta deo cui militat aequor Et conjur ati veniunt in classica venti Neither is the Zelanders invention to be forgotten who upon this occasion in a new coine of silver stamped a Ship sinking with this motto Venit ivit fuit and in a coine of Gold Homâ— propouit Deus disponit 1588. This though of it selfe great may find examples parallel to it but the other which happened Novemb. 5. 1605. which is such that a man would scarcely beleive that the Devil himselfe though he be a subtle Serpent could invent so wicked a plot or he and all his Angels though they be murtherers from the beginning would not tremble to put in execution so cruel a device if wee shall turne over all Histories of ancient and later times we shall not finde one to match it What shall I say unto you by way of Preface but as Isaiah begins his Prophesie Hear heavns and hearken O earth Or with Ioel Heare ye this O yee Elders and hearken all ye Inhabitants of this land whether ever such a thing hath been in your dayes or in the days of your fathers or in the dayes of your fore-fathers Tell ye your children of it and let your children tell their children and their children tell another generation When Balaams servants did not onely wish as once that Barbarian did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor as Nero added when he set Rome on fire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when I am living let the whole World burne with fire but had almost put in execution their cruell intendments Nor as Tarquin in Livie and Periander in Herodotus to cut off the chiefe heads that there might be a paritie Cousin german to confusion amongst the rest but to cut off head and tayle branch and rush in one day To make the body of this Kingdome like dead Priamus in the Poet Avulsum humeris caput fine nomine corpus When that place which was ordained for the establishing
when God writeth thy sinnes in dust wilt thou write thy Brothers in Marble When he forgiveth thee ten thousand talents wilt not thou forgive thy Brother an hundreth pence If thou wilt be indeed his Sonne be like unto him be pitiful tender-hearted full of mercy and compassion if thou be angry beware that thou sin not by speedy revenge if thy wrath be conceived in the morning and perchance increase his heat with the Sunne till mid-day yet let it settle with the Sunne at afternoon and set with it at night Let not the Sunne go down upon thy wrath if its conception be in the night use it as the harlot used her child smother it in thy bed and make it like the untimely fruit of a woman which perisheth before iâ— see the Sun to this purpose remember that the Citizens of this Jerusalem are at unity amongst themselves the stones of this temple are fast coupled and linked together the members of this Body as they are united in one head with the nerves of a justifying faith So are they knit in one heart with the Arteries of love The branches of this Vine as they are united with the boale from whence they receive nutriment so have they certain tendâ—els whereby they are fastned and linked one to another Now if without compassion thou seekest thy brothers hurt thou dost as it were divide Christ thou pullest a stone out of this Temple thou breakest a branch from this Vine nay more then so thou cuttest the Vine it self Virgil tels us that when Aeneas was pulling a bough from a miâ—tle tree to shadow his sacrifice there issued drops of blood from the boale trickling down unto the ground at length he heard a voice crying unto him thus Quid miserum Aenea laceras jam parce sepulto parce pias scelerare manus the Poet tels us that it was the blood of Polydorus Priamus his sonne which cried for vengeance against Polymnester the Thracian King which had slain him in like manner whensoever thou seekest the overthrow of thy Christian Brother and hast a desire to revenge thy self of him as hee had to pull a bough from the Tree think that it is not the branches but the Vine thou seekest to cut down Think that Christ will count this indignity done to his members as it were done to himselfe Think that thou hearest him cry unto thee after this manner jam parce sepulto parce tuas scelerare manus imbrue not thy hands in my blood hand cruor hic de stipite manat it is not the branches thou fightest against Nam Polydorus ego I am Jesus whom thou persecutest I am now come near to a point which I have pressed heretofore in the other publick place of this citie therefore I proceed no further but turn aside to my second general point observed in this verse which was Jerusalems miserie The Tree is very fruitful and I am but a passenger and therefore must be contented to pull two or three clusters which I conceived to be the ripest and the readiest to part with the boughs which when I have commended to your several tastes I will commit you to God First the Paucity of true Professors if ye can finde a man or if there be any Secondly the place where In Jerusalem Thirdly that God will bring his judgements upon her because of her wickednesse not expressed but necessarily understood From these three I collect three Propositions from the first Gods flock militant may consist of a small number from the second There is no particular place so priviledged but that it may revolt and fall from God from the third No place is so strong nor city so fenced but the sins of the people will bring it to ruine Of these three in order Gods holy Spirit directing me and first of the first God made all the world and therefore it is great reason that he should have it all to himself yea and he challengeth it as his own right The gold is his and the silver is his and all the beasts of the field 〈◊〉 his and so are the cattel upon a thousand hills and the Heavens are his for they are his Throne and the earth is his for it is his footstool and the reprobate are his for Nebuchadnezzar is his servant and as Judah is his so is Moab likewise but in another kinde of service in a word The earth is the Lords and all that therein is the compasse of the world and all that dwell therein but not in that property which is now meant for that belongs only unto men and yet not unto all but to a few which are appointed to be heirs of salvation God made all men so that they are all his sons by creation but he ordained not all to life so that there is but a remnant which are his sons by adoption our first Father did eat such a sowre grape as did set all his childrens teeth on edge by transgressing Gods commandment he lost his birth-right and was shut out of Paradise by committing treason against his Lord and King his blood was stained and all his children were made uncapable of their fathers inheritance but God who is rightly termed the Father of all mercy and God of all consolation as he purposed to shew his justice in punishing the greater part of such as so grievously incurred his displeasure so on the contrary side it was his good pleasure to shew his mercy in saving of some though they deserved as great a degree of punishment as the other and therefore in a Parliment holden before all times it was enacted that the natural son of God the second person in the Trinity should in the fulnesse of time take upon him mans flesh and suffer for our transgressions and gather a certain number out of that Masse of corruption wherein all mankinde lay these be they which shall follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth these be his people and the sheep of his pasture these be they which have this prerogative to be called the Sons of God and the heirs of God annexed with Christ and these are they which I affirm to be often contained in a very narrow room in respect of the wicked There is much chaffe and little wheat it is the wheat that God keeps for his garner there are many stones but few pearls it is the pearl which Christ hath bought with his blood Many fowls but only the Eagles be good birds Sathan hath a Kingdom and Christ but a little flock it is like to Bethleem in the land of Judah but a little one amongst the Princes of Judah it is like to Noahs flood going and returning like the 〈◊〉 flowing and ebbing or like to the Moon filling and waining and sometimes so eclipsed and darked with the earth that thou canst not perceive that Christ the son of righteousnesse doth
shine upon it The story of times will make this plain innumerous were the men of the old world yet Gods flock was only contained in the family of Sheth they only were called the Sons of God afterward this flock was compassed in a very narrow fold in Noahs family it was enclosed in one Ark and yet there was one wolf amongst these few sheep Thus it continued in a very narrow compasse till Abrahams time and so downward till it began to multiplie in the land of Egypt and afterward in the promised Canaan as yet it was still tyed to one place there was but one pasture for Gods sheep the rest of the world played the Harlot with other Lovers and went a whoring after their own inventions and in this one pasture there were more goats then sheep for though the number of the children of Israel were as the sand upon the sea shore yet only a remnant was to be saved When the fulnesse of time was come that God had sent his Son made of a woman this Moon did suffer such an eclipse as that the quickest eye could hardly perceive her then she began to recover her light for God broke down the partition wall and rent the veil of the Temple and made no difference betwixt the Jew and the Gentile Tros Tyriusque mihi nullo discrimine agetur Then Gods sheep brought forth thousands and ten thousands in the streets then the Vine stretcheth forth her boughs unto the river and her branches unto the lands end then God gave unto his Son the Heathen for his inheritance and the utmost part of the earth for his possession Yet then and ever since the gleanings of Satan have been more then the Vintage of Christ Yet take a survey of the world as it is at this day divide it into three parts with Ptolome or into four with some later Writers nay into six or seven with our last Geographers and you shall not finde much above one of these seven which professe Christ Amongst these separate the orthodox from the heterodox and you shall finde that Christ is now almost banished out of the world so that if the Son of Man should now come he should scarce finde faith in the Earth the true profession of the Gospel is confined in a little corner of the North-west and in this corner remove the Atheists and Hereticks and Worldlings and Neuters and Hypocrites how little will the remainder be after so many substractions And no marvel for many are called but few are chosen and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction Gods sheep have a little narrow path but the Goats have a beaten Cart-way This being so it is strange what Bellarmine meant to make amplitude and multitude to be a note of the true Church especially when he proposeth to speak of such notes by which it may be most easily known and distinguished from the false Religion of the Jews and Hereticks and Pagans and Infidels whatsoever and therefore such as are both proper and inseparable in respect of the Church and again such as though they make it not evidently true yet they make it evidently credible not only probable for that is the imperfection of our notes if you will believe him nay amongst those which admit of the Scriptures and ecclesiastical Histories and writings of the ancient Fathers faciunt etiam evidentiam veritatis Lord how plausible a doctrine would this have been unto Ahab how would it have fitted his turne to plead for Baal what meanest thou Eliah thus to trouble Israel As though we were all Idolaters and thou only a true worshipper of God Consider the matter aright and thou shalt finde what a weak Ground thou standest upon those are the true worshippers of God who are the most in number now thou art but one and the Prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty how pleasantly would it have sounded in the ears of the Jews when Jeremiah thus prophesied Behold might they say all the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem are against thee and is the Spirit of God departed from us all to possesse thee Thus Constantius disputed with Liberinorum Bishop of Rome against Athanasius The whole world is of this opinion and what art thou that thou shouldest take part with a naughty fellow and dissolve the peace of the world If this objection had been urged against Luther when he first began to bait the Popes Bull he might easily have answered in Athanasius his words What Church is there now that doth openly adore Christ if it be godly it is Subject to danger for if there be any that fear God as indeed there are many every where they have hid themselves with Elias in Dens and Caves of the earth But the example of the Jews will not much move our adversary quia non est eadem ratio populi Judaeorum populi Christianorum and might the Church of Christians be still known by the multitude of professors so that a man not yet resolved in the Truth might be guided by this mark to finde her out as the wise men by the star were directed unto Christ Surely no for scimus initio fuisse multo pauciores Christianos quam essent Judaei what better was she in the time of those ten bloody persecutions which indured for the space of three hundred years when a man could no sooner make profession of his faith but he was either killed with the sword or burnt with fire or drowned in the Sea or stoned to death or stean quick or famished with hunger or thrust through with bodkins or thrown to wild Beasts or pulled in pieces with Trees or wild horses or boiled in lead or made away with more exquisite and more Tragicall torments If that be possible then the Perilli of our time have invented to gratifie the Romish Phalaris Come a little lower and compare the Church not with the number of the Gentiles which no Papist in the world can for shame deny to have ever exceeded the number of Christians but with Heretikes I mean not all sorts joyned together for they will subscribe to Austin the Church is every where and Heresie every where but the Church is the same evey where Heresie is not the same but most different but only the Arians which sometimes have so overspread the whole Christian world as that if any had said Loe here is Christ or there is Christ thou wouldest not have believed him The Church was like a Sparrow that sitteth alone upon the house toppe or like a Pelican in the Wildernesse and an Owle in the desait they counted themselves the onely Catholikes but the true Christian they tearmed Scismatikes callâ—ng them Joannites and Ambrosians and Athanasians and Homousians Even as the Papists at this day challenge the name of Catholikes to themselves and call us Lutherans and Zuinglians and Calvinists They did not onely possesse the Church of Jerusalem and Alexandria
the handmaids to covetousnesse And therefore when the Prophet Ieremy complaineth that from the least to the greatest they were all given to covetousnesse it must needs be true which he addeth in the next words that from the Prophet even unto the Priest they all dealt falsly As Judas was hereby moved to betray his master so were the souldiers perswaded to lie and falsly to forsweare themselves that his disciples stole him away when they were asleep and that most palpably too For if they were asleep how knew they that it was his disciples and if they knew that it was his disciples how were they asleep 9. Follow not then the wayes of Balaam the sonne of Bosor which loved the wages of unrighteousnesse Onely herein ye must keep his resolution not for an housefull of silver and gold to go beyond the word of truth to say lesse or more Equivocations and mentall reservations which the Papists make such reckoning of are the ready way to renew that old tohu and bohu to make a chaos and confusion of all things to mixe light and darknesse truth and falshood heaven and hell together Whosoever shall for filthy lucre sake either wittingly conceale part of the truth or adde any thing thereto and thereby turn the truth into a lie I say unto you that an untimely birth is better then hee and better it were for him unlesse he repent that a milstone were put about his neck and that he were drowned in the deep of the sea 10. To end this point let me speak unto you all in the words of our Saviour beware of covetousnesse and with the Apostle let it not be once named amongst you But if ye will needs be covetous covet spiritual things set not your hearts on the things that are below but on the things that are above Covet that which will satiate your hearts and that is nothing in this world For the heart is triangular and the world is round and a round body cannot fill a triangle but there will remain some empty corners no more can the whole world fill the three corners of an heart nor any thing save he which is three and one God blessed for evermore Inquietum est cor nostrum O Deus postquam recessimus à te donec revertamur ad te saith Austin O God our heart is never contented when we turn from thee till we return to thee Oh then as your hearts are so let your hearts desire be that is the Basis or broader part upward toward heaven and heavenly things and the conus or narrow point towards earth and earthly things Use not your riches as Anacharsis said the Athenians did their money Nummis ad numerandum onely to count it over and then to coffer it up Injoy them but joy not immoderatly in them knowing this that yee are not owners but only users of the things that ye possesse Alas why should a man which is a little world of himself a man whose conversation should be in heaven be wedded to these base and vile excrements of the earth they deserve no better name For what I pray you is the best gold but a congealed vapour and the greatest possessions but so much earth and the finest silke but excrements of silly worms which live but two or three months Solomon had as much experience in them as any man that ever lived For he gave in Jerusalem silver as stones and Cedar trees as the wilde fig-trees that grow abundantly in the plaines yet in his old age when he became a preacher and repented him of his former life he took such small comfort in this transitory trash that in the beginning of Ecclësiastes hee took this for his text Vanity of vanities and all is but vanity and if they be weighed in the balance of the sanctuary they will want of weight They are altogether vanity nay they are lighter then vanity't selfe Let us then so love them as that we care not to leave them and in all things let us learn both to be hungry and to be full and to abound and to have want accounting all things but losse and drosse and dung that we may winne Christ Which Judas for the desire of a little money promiseth to deliver unto the high Priest I will deliver him unto you And so I come to the particulars of the second generall branch of my text 11. And first we are to begin with the Person delivering and that is Judas no Saducee nor Pharisee which oppugned his doctrine no professed enemy which openly sought his destruction but an Apostle one of the twelve which he had chosen unto himselfe and sent abroad to preach the Gospel and to cast out Devils and to heal the sick Hence I infer this conclusion that no calling is so holy but that it hath some wicked impes and dissembling hypocrites which though for a space they may deceave the world with a visard of holinesse yet time will unmaske and shew them in their owne colours intermixed with true professors A conclusion which if the instances of our time could not make good the premises of all former ages doe abundantly demonstrate it When as yet our first Parents had no more Children then Cain and Abel the elder of these two the first that ever was borne of a woman the heire apparent of the whole world was an Apostate his hypocricie was disclosed in killing his brother When the whole Church was compinged within the sides of one Arke all were not sheep that were in this little fold for Nat Lupus inter Oves there swam one wolf among these sheep As there was a Sem which was elected so was there a Cham which was rejected his apostacie declared in mocking his father Of the same father even of him who was the father of the faithful there came an Ishmael as wel as an Isaac of the same mother even at one and the self same birth came an Esau as wel as a Iacob The same kingdom had as wel a Saul as a David the same place a Barrabas and a Barnabas the same profession a Cephas and a Caiphas a Jude and a Judas and as it was so it shall ever be till the son of man come in the glory of his kingdom as long as the nett swims in the salt sea of this world till it be brought to land it shall containe both good and bad fishes Till the reapers come there must grow wheat and teares together in this field till the shepheard come there must bee sheepe and goats in this fold This great house till it be builded a new must containe vessels of honour and vessels of dishonour the gold must be mixed with the drosse till the great and terrible fire come to separate them In this floore the wheat shall be mingled with the chaffe till the Lord come with his fan in his hand to
Goliath like give him a sword for the cutting of our own throats Againe Is it so that in the regenerate so long as he remaineth in this earthly Tabernacle there remain not some few reliques but many fragments of the natural man so that there is a combat between the flesh and the spirit where then be the Papists which maintain justification by works Can a clean thing come out of that which is unclean saith Job and can our minds wils and affections wherein the flesh and the spirit are mixed together produce any effect which is not impure and imperfect and therefore farre short of that perfection and righteousnesse which is required by the Law I do not say that they are sinnes that is but a slander of the Papists but they have some degrees of sins and imperfections joyned with them the best come that groweth in our fields hath some grains blasted the best fruits that we can bring forth are in some part rotten the best gold that we can show is much mixed with dross and cannot abide the touchstone it is an easie matter I confesse for a sinfull and unregenerate cloysterer to say somewhat for the dignitie of workes in justifying a man but when we enter into an examination of our own consciences and find so many sins and imperfections lurking in every corner of our hearts it will make us crie out with Bernard meritum meum miseratio domini my merit is the Lords mercie and again sufficit ad meritum scire quod non est meritum Nay if we look up unto God and consider him not as a mans brain considereth him but as his word describeth him unto us with whose brightness the stars are darkned with whose anger the earth is shaken with whose strength the mountains melt with whose wisdom the crafty are taken in their own nets at whose pureness all seem impure in whose sight the heavens nay the very Angels are unclean we must needs confesse with Job that if we should dispute with God we could not answer him one for a thousand and confesse that he found no stedfastness in his Saints yea and when the heaven is impure in his sight much more is man abominable and filthy which drinketh iniquitie like water and therefore pray unto him with David that he will not enter into judgement with us because in his sight shall no man living be justified but I must leave this point and come unto the second All the dayes of my appointed time c. Every man hath an appointed time by God which he cannot passe Though Adams wisdome was such that he could give names to everie creature according to their nature yet he forgate his owne name because of his affinitie between him and the earth the sons of Adam are like their father they are witty enough about the creatures but they quite forget their own names and their natures too and this is the cause why they be so holden with pride and over-whelmed with crueltie they wil contend with Nebuchadnezzar in Isa to advance themselves even above the stars of God and to match their Grand-father the first Adam who though he was made of the earth would with the wings of pride soare into heaven and care little for being like their elder brother the second Adam which from Heaven came unto earth and took upon him our infirmities and miseries but let them secure themselves never so much the tide will tarrie for no man for their Father eat sowre grapes and his childrens teeth are set on edge their Father for eating a grape of the forbidden Vine had this sentence pronounced against him Unto dust thou shalt returne and his children shall be lyable to it till heaven and earth be removed and there be no more death The tender and dainty women which never adventure to set the sole of their feet upon the ground for their sofness and tenderness as Moses speakes have a day appointed when their mouthes shall be filled with mould and their faces which they will not suffer the sun of the Firmament to shine upon lest it should staine their beautie shall be slimed with that earth which they scorned to touch with the soles of their feet those rotten posts which spend themselves in whiting and painting as though they would with Medea recal their years or with the Eagle by casting their old bill renew their youth have a day set them in which deaths finger shall but touch them and they shall fall in pieces and returne to their dust those which cloth themselves with linnen and build them houses of Cedar and add house to house and and to land as though they should continue for ever or at the least as if their journy to the heavenly Canaan lay all by land and nothing by Sea have a determinate time when their unsatiable desires shall be content with a Golgotha a place of dead mens souls a little part of a potters field asmuch as will serve to hide and cover their earthen vessel Cui satis ad votum non essent omnia terrae Climata terra modo sufficit octo pedum Are not his dayes determined saith Job the number of his moneths are with thee thou hast appointed his bounds which he cannot passe it is not nobility of Parents nor wisdom nor comelinesse of person nor strength of bodie nor largenesse of dominions that can lengthen the thred of a mans dayes Pallida mors aequo pulsat pede pauporum tabernas regumque turres Deaths Arrow will as soon pierce the strong Castle of a King as the poor cottage of a Countrie Swain be thou more zealou then Moses or stronger then Sampson or beautifuller then Absalom or wiser then Solomon or richer then Job or faithfuller then Samuel Ire tamen restat Numa quo devenit Ancus This is the conclusion of all flesh at the time appointed thou must dye yield thy body to deaths Serjeant to be kept Prisoner in the Dungeon of the earth till the great Assises which shall be holden in the clouds at the last day the conclusion is most certain howevsr the premises be most fallible and doubtfull I say not that the time of our lives are equally lengthened or that the dayes our life consist of like houres some see but a winter day and their breath is gone some an â—quinoctial day and they live till their middle age some a long Summers day and live till old age all of them with the Beast called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall be sure to dye at night the course of mans life is like the journy of the Israelites from Aegypt to Canaan some dye as soon as they are gone out of Aegypt some in the midle way some with Moses come to the edge and borders of Canaan some indeed with Caleb and Joshua enter the promised Land alive such as shall be living at the last day but this is without
Philosophie Lecture when they were come into his Schoole and heard him make a large discourse about the Subject of the Metaphysicks Ens and Vnum and speak never a word how a man might augment his Goods and inlarge his Possessions they altered their Judgments and for all his wisdome counted him but a fool to leave that by which a man may become great in the World and discourse about such abstruse and abstract notions as they could not understand This is the Worlds judgement still to count light of all that savours not of some present profit or pleasure he declines his felicity no further then the present Tens a Lease for life in this World is of more worth with him then the Reversion of a Kingdome in another and therefore the Childe of God that looks not on the things that are seen but on the things that are not seen and first seeks and then sets his affections on the things that are above and makes more reckoning of a peaceable conscience then a worldly Kingdome is by him contemned and reputed a foole by troubling himselfe with such metaphysicall notions as he the worldling cannot understand A Jueller makes reckoning of a Pearl but Aesops Cock that knowes not the use of it counts it but a Bable When Protogenes the Painter did earnestly eye a Picture made by Apelles admiring the curiousnesse of the workmanship an ignorant man comes to him and tells him that he wonders why a Painter should admire that Picture for I have seen said he a hundred better Oh said Protogenes if thou hadst mine eyes thou wouldst never aske me that question but wouldst judge as I judge The childe of God looking upon heavenly things with a spirituall eye prizeth them at a dearer rate then ten thousand Worlds all of Gold and Pearle But an unwise man that doth not consider these things and a foole that doth not understand them because he wants a spirituall eye doth farr undervalue them as he that measuring the Sun by his eye conjectures it to be but a foot and a halfe broad as Tully notes which Mathematicians know to be farr bigger then the whole Globe of the Earth and Water When the Romanes for the good service performed by the Cappadocian Slaves offered them liberty which all creatures naturally desire they not knowing the benefit thereof because they had ever lived in bondage refused it The worldling scornes and contemnes that liberty which the Sons of God have in Christ because having ever been bound with the evill Angels in chaines of darknesse he knowes not what that means If the Son make you free you shall be free indeed This is the first cause of contempt of Gods Children with the worldling he understands not the things of the Spirit of God he counts them foolishnesse and him that studieth them no better then a fool in respect of himself The second is the antipathy between the Womans Seed and the Serpents I will put enmity betweene thee and the Woman and between thy Seed and her Seed said God to the Serpent Gen. 3. 15. Hic incipit liber bellorum Domini saith Rupertus true for the whole Scripture is a Book describing the Warrs between the Serpents Seed and the Womans which shall be continued untill the consummation of the World Basil writes of the Panther that he hath such a mortall hatred against man that he cannot indure his picture insomuch that if he see it but drawne in Paper he will presently pull it in peices The Serpent that Hellish Panther beares such an inveterate hatred against God that he cannot indure his Picture and therefore when he saw Gods Image drawne in a peice of earth I mean in Adam at the creation he was never at rest till he had pulled it in peices and in whomsoever he shall finde it drawne anew as it is in all beleevers though not so perfectly as was the first draught against them he and his Imps bear an implacable hatred and labours with tooth and naile to tear in peices this Image if they cannot this then at least to keep them under that weare it or as the Garderens dealt with Christ to keep such out of their coasts By a Law of Ostracisme they will banish such out of their company as the Athenians did themselves and the Spartans Demaritus and as the Ephesians used Hermodorus who cast him out of the City because he was a trusty and an honest man adding this sentence Let none of us be over good for ought if hee be let him seeke another place and get him other companions Here then beloved Christian learn not to be discouraged for this that thou art not respected nor had in account with many worldlings as thou deservest the more the men of this World shall hate the more strive thou to be unlike them that they may hate thee the more Invidiâ rumpantur ut ilia Codri They contemne thee because they do not know thee thou art not of the World what marvell if the World hate thee thou art a stranger care not if the Doggs bark at thee The Philosopher in Laertius said of a Dancer Quo melius feceris eo deterius facias and Quo deterius eo melius The better thou dancest the worse thou art and the worse the better So the better thou art in the Worlds judgment the worse thou art and the lesse thou art in the Worlds account the greater art thou in Gods As Tacitus speaks of the Images of Brutus and Cassius which were not shewed amongst the rest in Tiberius his time Eo honoratiores quòd non ostendebantur So the more thou art despised the more honourable art thou if thou canst injoy riches and honours and favour with the men of this World as Joseph under Pharaoh and Obediah under Ahab thou mayst so that it be without the losse of Gods favour if thou canst not count not of the losse The woman cloathed with the Sun treads the Moon under her feet Revel 12. If thou be cloathed with the wedding Garment of the Sun of righteousnesse and the bright beames of the Gospell inlighten thy dark and cloudy heart all worldly honours riches pleasures which are as mutable as the Moon tread them under foot and set them at naught requite the worldlings with a like kindnesse have the most precious things on earth in as base esteeme as they have thee This is a lesson I confess hard to be learned and practised by very few No marvell Christs Flock as it is little in estimation and account of the World so is it also little in comparison with the World which is the second proposition observed from the quantity It is true which the essentiall truth hath told us That many are called yet not so many as the upholders of universall Grace would have us to beleeve for he that shewed his Lawes unto Jacob his Statutes and Ordinances unto Israel and dealt not so with any Nation nor gave the