aide and free will offering to do the same they were ready and so willing every man beyond his power to bring in their oblation in such abundance that Moses was fain to tell them they had brought enough and too much and therefore forbade them to bring in any more he like a good man and just being not desirous to make any gain of their bounty And you may read in 1 Chron. 29.3 1 Chron. 29.3 when King David resolved to have the Temple built what great provision he left for the erecting of it and how Solomon his Son did most gloriously finish the same in seven years 1 Reg. 6.37 and furnished the same with all things necessary for the service of God and after that Nebuchadnezzar had destroyed it the Jews under Zorobabel did most readily beyond the ability of captived men newly released contribute and offered their free-will offerings towards the re-edifying of the same which they finished in the ninth year of Dâ—rius Histaspes Joseph lib. 11. c. 4. that made it to be forty six years in building from the second year of Cyrus who began it according as the Jews say to our Saviour Christ And because these newly released Jews that had scarce taken root in the Land of Jury and were but scarce seated and unsetled in Jerusalem were not able to make this their Temple answerable in glory and sumptuousness to that most rare and admirable Temple which those two mighty Kings and Kings of all Israel David and Solomon had joyned their wealth and strength together to make it a most glorious house for the most glorious and Almighty God therefore Herod that was but an alien an Idumean knowing that great and glorious things are to be offered ascribed and dedicated to the great and glorious God re-edified and finished the same most sumptuously in eight years Joseph l. 15. c. ult as Josephus writeth and he built the same so exceeding excellent and more admirable than the Egyptian Pyramides that Cheops builded of rare Theban Marble so that for the rareness thereof the Disciples shew it our Saviour Christ saying Master see what manner of stones Mar. 13.1 and what buildings are here And the Jews generally were so zealous of Gods service and so ready to build and erect houses for his service that besides this glorious great and magnificent Temple they had many Synagogues that is other lesser houses like unto our Parish Churches dedicated and consecrated for the worship of God and he was counted a very good man and worthy of all love and respect that had built one of these as they tell Christ that the Centurion was worthy to have that favour shewed him by Christ as to heal his Daughter Luk. 7.5 because he had loved their nation and had built them a Synagogue that is a house for the people to meet in it to pray and to serve their God in it And it is most likely they began to build these Synagogues when the Tribes were setled in the Land of Canaan because the Ark that remained in Shilo and afterwards the Temple that was erected in Jerusalem Why the Synagogues of the Jews were built were so far distant from them that dwell in the remotest parts of the Land that they could not come so often as they would unto it therefore they built to themselves Synagogues to pray to God and to serve him in them instead of the Temple for so we read that Moses of old time probable I say from their very first beginning of their settlement Acts 15.21 had in every City them that preached him being read in their Synagogues every Sabbath day where by the way you may observe that of old time contrary to the conceit of our new Fanaticks the reading of the holy Scriptures was accounted the preaching of Gods word though I deny not but after it be read and so preached Luk. 4.18 it may be further explained as Christ did that place of Isa 61.1 And you see they had these Synagogues in every City so they must have as many Synagogues as there were Cities in all their Land The number of their Synagogues and Sigonius writeth that there were four hundred and eighty of these Synagogues in Jerusalem and the Scripture sheweth that in other Cities and Provinces there were many other Synagogues as in Galile in Damascus in Salamis and in Antiochia and Maymonides one of their prime Doctors saith the tradition of their Elders was that wheresoever ten Families of Israel were they ought to build them a Synagogue And shall the Jews that were under the Law and burdened with such infinite Taxes and Ceremonies of their Religion as were more than they were able to bear Acts 15.10 as the Apostle testifieth be so zealous so religious and so ready to part with their wealth and the best things they had to build so sumptuous and so glorious a Temple and so many Synagogues to perform those services that God required of them which notwithstanding were but the types and shadows of that true Religion which we have and do profess to embrace it and shall we that have the substance of those shadows which they had and the truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ which they never had but in aenigmate preached so clearly and so amply among us and are freed from all the legal Ceremonies and Ordinances of the Law be so cold and so careless as we are to repair the houses of Jesusr Christ I fear then that these Jews shall rise in judgment against us Nay more than this if you look into the stories of the Gentiles Grecians or Barbarians that knew not God but knew that there is a God which all men ought to worship you shall find how zealous they were to build Temples and Oracles to their unknown Gods that were no other than the devils as the Oracle of Delphos Amphiaraus Hamonium Dodonaeum the Temple of Diana at Ephesus of Vesta Ceres Minerva and other Goddesses of the Gentiles and the many many Temples that the Romans and other Nations built to Jupiter Apollo Mars and the rest of their false and faigned Gods and Goddesses that were indeed but very devils Quia dii gentum daemoâ—ia and how sumptuously they erected and gloriously adorned and beautified those houses of these deceitful Oracles and were so exceeding bountiful almost beyond belief in their oblations and donations to these holy places as they deemed them as it appeareth in Herodotus Herodotus l. 1. by the large gifts of inestimable value that Cresus sent to the Temple of Delphos and other Temples of those Gentile gods And because they knew no otherwise but that these infernal devils were Celestial Gods and so worshipped them as gods with Temples Altars Sacrifices Prayers and Oblations dedicated unto them which do only and properly belong to the true and eternal God therefore Horace saith to them that neglected the erecting and beautifying of these
Gods Ministers as your Grace hath alwayes shewed your self to be unto all even the meanest of Gods servants and especially to me when in a very mean condition I came to wait upon your Grace in Donmore before the King came into the Kingdome and I must passe over your wise discreet and most prudent carriage of great affairs and in such desperate times to the benefit and preservation of many good men and faithful Subjects to his Majesty in the midst of a froward subtle and perverse Generation without which they had been utterly destroyed And I pass over these things and many other most eminent vertues and endowments of your Ladyship because I am not sufficiently able to characterize and delineate the same so sweetly and so commendably as your Grace hath shewed to the full measure of your deservings but though mine ability reacheth not to express your worth yet this my devotion shall never be wanting to shew my desires with the best of my prayers and all the faculties of my soul to be your Orator unto God and to make your name and memorial in the World like the remembrance of Josias fair as the Lilly and sweet as the pretious oyntment that is made by the art of the Apothecary So I rest Most honourable Lady Your Graces most faithful Orator and Servant while I am Gr. Ossory TO THE CHRISTIAN READER My dear Brother MY onely aim and desire hath always been to promote the glory of God the honour of my King the benefit of the Church of Christ and the good of all my Neighbours To those ends I have laboured I have preached I have printed many books And the best way that I conceived to do good unto my Neighbours was to teach them to observe and never to depart from the society and practice of Justice Obedience and Charity Justice among themselves and towards all men Obedience to their King and to all their superiour Governours and Charity or mercy to the poor and oppressed These were the main marks I always shot at and to further these exercises I thought my self obliged to do it with all my might without either fear or flattery And therefore let neither Kings Princes nor Magistrates frown at me when I reprove them if they be unjust for the great men doe the more usually as being the more able commit the acts of injustice and let not the rebellious Subjects nor the seditious Sectaries rail at me for painting out the ugly shapes and loathsome visages of their Treasons and Wickednesses against their Kings and Governours whom God hath set over them and commanded them to obey neither let the rich covetous and wretched worldlings whose hearts are as hard as stones from yielding any the least drop of relief unto the poor and needy and those that are ready to starve in the streets blame me if for these unmerciful cruelties and cruel neglect of mercies I shall thunder out God's judgements and pour forth the vials of God's wrath that are prepared against them for as Nehemiah said when his friends perswaded him to fly away for fear of his enemies that sought to destroy him Is it fit that such a man as I should fly Neh. 6.11 So I conceive it is not fit that such a man as I that am a Bishop and an aged man ready for my dissolution and no other translation but to be translated unto my fathers should now flatter any person or be afraid to speak the truth or to reprove sins worthy to be reproved for fear of the frowns threats or malice of any man And therefore as the Poet saith Me me adsum qui feci in me convertite ferrum And as I said with Pilat in the first Sermon that ever I printed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what I have written I have written Nec poterit abolere vetustas Jehovae Liberatori The Description and the Practice of the four most admirable Beasts REVEL 4.8 And the four Beasts had each of them six wings about him and they were full of eyes within and they rest not day and night saying Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come I Have begun to treat of these words in this place long ago and let no man marvel that I intend by Gods help to prosecute the explication thereof at this time because this Text seems to me like the Ocean sea so large that it cannot be measured and so deep that it cannot be fathomed by any humane wit the same being omnia in omnibus all in all For. First Here is God the Creator of all things and all that is knowable or may be known concerning God as that ineffable mystery of the Trinity or three persons in the one onely Essence of the Deity and therefore appointed to be read for the Epistle on Trinity Sunday and all the chiefest Attributes of God as 1. His Purity and sanctity in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three times repeated to shew the three persons of the Deity the Father Son and Holy Ghost 2. His Power authority and dominion in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is set down in the singular number to shew the Vnity of the God-head 3. His Wisedome knowledge and providence in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is derived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he seeth all things and all things are patent to his eyes attingit a fine usque ad finem disponit omnia suaviter 4. His Omnipotency in the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Almighty quia voluntas ejus potestas ejus because he can do whatsoever he would do he needs but say the word and it is done 5. His Eternity in the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which crowneth all the rest of Gods Attributes that otherwise would be of no such value if it were not for this Eternity that makes him to be whatsoever he is for ever Secondly Here are the creatures of God and the chief of all Gods creatures as 1. The Lion which is the King of all the Beasts of the field 2. The Calf or the Oxe which is the most painful and most useful creature for the service of man and the most acceptable in the sacrifices of God 3. The Eagle which is the Lord and Master of all the Fowles of the Air and 4. Man which is the Prince and Ruler of all those and of all the Beasts of the field the Fowles of the air the Fishes of the sea and whatsoever walketh through the pathes of the seas Thirdly Here is Religion and the best of all Religions the Christian Religion most amply though enigmatically and mystically set forth unto us for 1. Here is both the natures and the offices of Christ and the chiefest things that he did and that we are to understand and believe for our salvation they are all here exprest unto us as 1. His divine nature under the notion of the Eagle and her lofty flight 2. His humane
and domineered over most and almost all the Nations of the World that the Jews will they nill they may see that omne mundi regnum omnis mundana sapientia omnia divinae legis sacramenta testantur quia Jesus est Rex every kingdom of the earth all the wisdom of the World and all the sacraments of the divine law do bear witness that Christ is King and this Lion here spoken of in this Text. And the difference betwixt this Lion and all other Lions is that as Franciscus Vallesius de sacra Philosophia c. 55. saith Mos Leonis est sibi tantum pradam capere non Leaenae but Christ took the prey for his Church and not for himself And we finde that his kingdome by three special prerogatives excelleth all other kingdomes of the world that is 1. Preheminence of Christs kingdome threefold 1. Eternity 2. Purity 3. Largity 1. The Prophet saith thy Throne O God Psal 110. is for ever and ever and thy Dominion shall endure throughout all Ages but transibit gloria mundi all other Kings within so many years shall not govern and after so many dayes they shall not be for death spareth none but sceptra ligonibus aequat And as Nazianzen saith Constantinus Imperator famulus meus ossa Agamemnonis Thyrsitis death makes no difference betwixt the bones of King Agamemnon and base Thyrsites the Emperour Constantine and my servant but when their race is run and their glass is out we may say of each of them as Horace saith of his Friend Torquatus Non Torquate genus non te facundia non te Horat. Restituet pietas But this King hath a prerogative above them all for he was Rex à seculo a King from everlasting and he shall be a King in secula seculorum world without end Luke 1.33 for so the Angel Gabriel testifieth that of his kingdome there shall be no end And this should batter down the pride of Tyrants that say with Nebuchadnezzar Is not this great Babel that I have built For mene mene tekel peres their glory is but as the grass of the field or otherwise if they were immortal they were intolerable And this should teach us to labour to become the Subjects of this King in whose kingdome there shall be Aug. l. 1 c. 10. de Trinitate as Saint Augustine saith requies sempiterna gaudium quod nunquam anferetur à nobis An everlasting rest and joy that shall never be taken from us 2. Preheminence The second preheminence of his kingdome is purity for of this King the Prophet speaketh thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity and the scepter of thy kingdome is a scepter of righteousness For this King is not like Ahab that would take away Naboths Vineyard nor like Rehoboam that would oppress his Subjects with over-grievous Taxes but he is a righteous King and a most just Judge far unlike some Judges of former dayes that for a word have made a man a transgressour and for a syllable or one letter have quite overthrown a mans cause and right and so have made the Laws a nose of wax to bend and turn as they pleased and to be rete Vulcanium like Vulcans iron net to catch the poor and friendless but tela aranea like the spiders web so easie for the rich and powerful to passe through it But blessed be God for it we have few such now and we hope we shall not provoke God so far as to send such amongst us for if you suffer oppression and wrongs when as the Poet saith Mensuraque juris vis erit Then surely peaceable men shall not be able to live in the Common-wealth But the equity and justice of this King should perswade all other Kings to follow his Example and as the wise man saith Sep. 1.1 to love righteousness all they that are Judges of the earth 3. Preheminence The third preheminence of his kingdome is that God anointed this King with the oyle of gladness in all things above his fellows for their time hath an end their dominion a limitation but his time is not limited and his rule hath no marches but exivit in omnem terram it hath gone forth into all Lands because he is the King of all the earth and when as all other Kings are but Reges Gentium Kings of some few Nations he is Rex Regum Dominus Dominantium the King of all other Kings and the Lord of all Lords And therefore Eusebius saith that the distinction or difference betwixt this true Christ and the other imaginary Christs that were anointed Kings before him may truely and very easily be discerned Euseb l. 1. c. 1. Eccl. Histor quia illi priores Christi nulli penè nisi genti propriae cogniti sunt those former Kings were scarce known to any but to their own proper people but not onely the name but also the rule power and kingdome of this true King is extended over all Nations per universum orbem terrae and through the compasse of the round world And though when the Jewes would have crowned him King Rex fieri noluit he refused the same yet to shew that this Dominus Angelorum was also Rex Judaeorum Beda l. 5. in c. 19. Luc. as Beda speaketh when he rid to Jerusalem upon the Asse he willingly permitted the people to cry Hosanna and to intitle him King of the Jewes and he confessed as much himself unto Pilat that he was a King And what meaneth this saith the Venerable Bede that he now willingly embraceth quod prius fugicudo declinavit that which before he declined and fled from it and the kingdome that while as yet he lived in the world he would not accept he now denieth not to take it when he is by and by ready to go out of the world He answereth that he formerly refused it Beda l. 3. in c. 11. S. Mar. because of the gross imagination of the Jewes that conceited him to be a temporal King like unto others but he doth now accept it to shew quod non temporalis terreni sed aeterni in coelis Rex esset imperii that his kingdome was not of this world as himself said unto Pilate but as the King of Heaven he ruled all the world Well then What we may learn from this Doctrine that Christ is our King seeing Saint Matthew doth by so many inanswerable arguments prove Christ to be a King and that he is a perpetual universal and principal King and here exprest by the Lion in this Text we may collect and draw matter both of comfort and fear both of joy and of grief For 1. Seeing Christ is King then as the Psalmist saith Psal 97.1 exultet terra let the earth rejoyce for if we will obey him and be ruled by him he will appoint over us such Viceroyes and under-rulers that will lead us sicut
right of the Church and I resolved and vowed that whatsoever I recovered I would by the grace of God wholly bestow it upon the reparation of the Church so that recovering it I should be not one penny the richer and loosing it not one penny the poorer And I desired nothing but what I conceived to be the right of the Church because I know God loves not to be honoured with unjustly gotten goods But now finding that as the Prophet saith I have laboured in vain and I have spent my strength for nought and seeing the partiality and injustice of men I will with patience submit my self to that strength which is beyond my ability to oppose and study to serve my God another way because I see that as David saith the sons of Zervia are too strong for me because we that were faithfull to our King were fleec'd and bareshorne and left poor and beggarly and they that served the Beast and adheared to the long Parliament and were arrant rebels against our late good King have got all our Lands and our Monies to make friends withall and to keep us still under hatches and so though nos fuimus Troes yet now they are the men and without envy let then enjoy their prosperity so they forsake their iniquity and repent them of their former impiety And so desiring you to bear with this my just defence I shall proceed in this discourse for none other end but to discharge mine own duty and for the good of your souls to avoid the just wrath of God for a sin so highly displeasing unto God and to that purpose I shal desire you to read the 2 Mac. c. 3. where you shall finde how that when Simon the mutinous traitor both to God and his Country had informed Seleucus King of Asia of the riches and the treasure of the Church of Hierusalem and incited him to seize upon it and he had sent Heliodorus his treasurer to fetch it and Heliodorus came like a Fox pretending it was to visit and to reform the disorders of Phoenice and Caelosyria but Onias the high Priest perceiving that the goods of the Church was his errand his countenance was quite cast down and the people not enduring sacriledge ran some to the Temple some to the City Gates and some gadded up and down the streets as frantick men like Bacchus froes and all lifted up their hands and eyes and voices unto God for the defence of his Church and God heard their cry and did help them For Heliodorus was no sooner entred into the treasury to take away the spoile but there appeared to him a terrible man in compleat armour of gold mounted upon a barbed horse that ran very fiercely at the Kings Treasurer and trampled him under-foot and withall there appeared two other men of most excellent beauty and strength whipping him so that he was carried out of the place speechless and without any hope of life untill God restored him upon the earnest prayer of the Priest and people And to let you see how dangerous a sin is sacriledge to rob the Church Act. 5.5 the end of Ananias and Sapphira can bear witness for though their death was the punishment of their lying yet all must grant they were drawn to that sin by the cord of sacriledge And if a greedy desire of with-holding that from the Church which themselves had given was sufficient to open such a window unto the Devil that he came presently to cast them as a prey to the Jaws of Hell how many foule sins do they commit and how many greivous plagues may they fear to fall upon their heads which take away from the Church that which they never gave Gen. 47.22 v. 26. And you may remember that when Egypt in the time of Joseph felt so extreme a famine that the fift part of the Land was sold to releive the Land yet the Patriarch in all the care that he had both of the Country and of the King to succour the one and to enrich the other never attempted the sale of the Lands of the Priests nor once to diminish any jot thereof And if the holy man in so great an extremity never ventured to take away the possessions of the Idolatrous Priests though it were to the releif of a whole Kingdome I wonder with what face dares any man in the world curtal the maintenance of Gods Church and take away those Lands and houses that by religious Princes and other pious men have been consecrated to Gods service But Foelix quem faciunt aliena pericula cautum You might be happy if you would cast your eyes behinde you and by the examples of Gods judgments upon other sacrilegious persons learn to escape the punishments of sacriledge because they are all written for our instruction And we read that Celce the Constable of Gertrund King of Burgundy having under the authority of the King his Master enriched himself and enlarged his Territories with the Goods and Lands of the Church and being one day in the Church at his Devotion and hearing the words of the Prophet that proclaimed a woe to them that joyn house to house and land to land he suddainly shricked in the Congregation and cried out This is spoken to me and this curse is upon me and upon my Posterity and so afterwards died most miserably And we read in the Annals of France that although Lewis the Sixt surnâ—med the Great was once the Protectour of the Church and had caused the Count de Claremont the Lord de Roussi and other great men that had pillaged the Bishopricks to restore their robberies unto the Church again yet in his old age when he began to pull the Church he was sufficiently punished for it by the suddain death of his Eldest Son which was indeed the very staffe of his age though he was urged unto it with extreme necessity They that would see more examples of this kinde let them look into my Declaration against Sacriledge and Doctor Saravia's vindiciae sacrae translated into English by James Martyn And if for all this men will needs have the portion of Gods Church let them eat it with that sauce which God hath prescribed in Psal 83. and which like the Ieprosie of Gehezi wil stick to them and their Posterity for evermore 3. 3. Why these beasts were full of eyes before As you heard that these Beasts were full of eyes within and behinde so they were full of eyes before and so should we be And that is to behold and see 1. Praesentia the things that are present 2. Futura the things that are to come and must come 1. 1. To behold the things that are present As 1. The vanity of all things For the present things I shall onely leave to your consideration 1. The vanities of this life And 2. The uncertainty of our state And touching the first Saint Augustine saith most truly Si quid arrisisset prosperum
some care of a Godly life and to repent them of their wickedness And therefore well did Moses and we with Moses wish that men would consider their latter end And yet this is not the end of all for after death comes judgement And so Secondly 2 Judgment and that two sold This judgement is either 1 Particular or 2 General 1. As soon as ever the soul is parted from the body 1. Particular before the body is laid in the grave the soul of the wicked is fetched by the Devils and carried into the place of torments and the soul of the godly is received by the Angels into Abrahams bosom Luke 16.22 23. as our Saviour sheweth most plainly in the story of Dives and Lazarus And 2 Because the whole world 2. General both of men and Angels might see and approve the just judgement of God and that the whole man both body and soul might receive the full reward of their due deserts the Lord hath appointed a day saith the Apostle in the which he will judge the world in righteousnes Act. 17 31. that is by Jesus Christ And this is that day which Christ and his Apostles and all the faithful preachers of Gods word would have all men always to remember and to set it before their eyes For so Saint Hierom saith Whatsoever I doe whether I eat or drink or whatsoever else I am about me thinks I hear that dolefull voice of the Arch-angel sounding in mine eares and saying surgite mortui venite ad judicium arise you dead and come to judgement saith the Holy Father I tremble all my body over and so Felix though he was but a Heathen trembled Act. 24.25 as Saint Paul reasoned of righteousness temperance and judgement to come And so indeed it should make any heart to tremble that would seriously consider but these two things Two things to be considered concerning this judgment 1 The manner of Christ his coming For 2 The terror of his proceeding For First in that day there shall be signs in the Sun and in the Moon and in the Stars The Sun shall be darkned the Moon shall not give her light the Stars shall fall from the skies and all the powers of heaven shall be moved the Elements shall be dissolved with heat and the earth shall be consumed with fire Whereby you may see what a dreadful thing is sin for what have these senseless creatures deserved that they should be thus severely punished and thus travel in sorrow and pain but because they rose not up against us when we rose up against God He will therefore fight against them because they did not fight against us when we doe fight against him And what a fearful contagion of sin is this that subjecteth the very heavens unto vanity And therefore most wretched are we in whom dwelleth nothing else but heaps of sin and iniquity But to go on The distress of Nations how great Then the distress of nations shall be great and men shall wither away for fear saith our Saviour for when destruction shall be dispatched as a whirlwind and God shall burn the earth as Holophernes did the Countrey of Damascus what fears think you shall then affright the hearts of men and what heapes of perturbations shall run upon the damned sort when they shall see all these things playing their last act upon the fiery stage of this world And then they shall see the son of man cloathed with the clouds as with a garment riding upon the heavens The glorious manner of Christ his coming as upon an horse and coming flying as upon the wings of the wind in the glory of his father with his Angels and what manner of glory is that Moses tells you that the Lord our God is a God of Gods Deut. 10. and a Lord of Lords a great God mighty and terrible that accepteth no person nor taketh reward and Daniel describing the great Majesty of God saith that his garments were as white as snow the haires of his head like the purest wool his throne like the fiery flame and his wheeles like burning fire Dan. 7.9 10. and there issued forth a fiery stream and went out from before him a thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him And it is recorded of the Angels that one of them slew all the first-born of Egypt in one night and that another of them made such a havock in the army of the Assyrians that a hundred fourescore and five thousand of them were all slain in one night and were laid on the ground as corn by a sickle And if one Angel could do such Tragick feates The great power 〈◊〉 the Angels what shall become of the enemies of God and wicked men when Christ like a man of warr shall buckle his harness unto his side and come in the glory of his Father with so many myriads of heavenly Angels attending him Eusebius Emysenus demandeth Si talis tantus sit terror venientis quis poterit terrorem sustinere judicantis if his coming be such and so terrible who shall be able to endure the terror of his judgement And if the Israelites durst not abide his Majesty when he came to deliver the Law how shall the wicked abide and stand before him when he cometh to render vengeance unto them for transgressing his Lawes And yet they must endure it And it will be very terrible unto them For 2. In that day saith our Saviour He i. e. God shall send his Angels with the sound of Trumpets and with a mighty cry to raise the dead and to gather together the Elect from the four windes and from the one end of the world to the other and to bring all men before the judgment seat of Christ for I have sworn by my self saith the Lord the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness Esay 45.23 and shall not return that every knee shall bow unto me and not one man shall be hidden from my presence Alas beloved if all the bodies of one Army did lie naked upon one heap what a ruthfull sight would it make And what a spectacle then will that be when so many myriads of men like the sand of the Sea shall stand quaking and trembling before the face of Christ For Then their eyes shall be opened and what shall the wicked see but all things crying vengeance against them for above them shall be an angry Judge beneath them Hell like a boyling furnace ready to receive them on the right hand their sins accusing them How the wicked shall be encompassed with miseries on the left hand the devils ready to torment them within them a guilty conscience like Prometheus vulture continually gnawing them without them all damned souls bewailing and on every side the world burning O good God what will these wicked wretched sinners do being thus enclosed with
vengeance in his anger so when the Jews were grown incorrigible he saith Jer. 21.7 He will deliver them into the hand of those that seek their life and they shall smite them with the edge of the sword and shall not spare them nor have pity nor have mercy upon them and such a sin is murder and the shedding of innocent bloud whereof the Lord saith Deut. 19.13 21 Et vide Ezek. 8.17 18. Thine eye shall not pity him but life shall go for life And such a sin is the sin of Rebellion which is as the sin of Witchcraft and spreadeth it self like a Gangrene and infecteth many millions of men and therefore the resisting of authority deserveth more severity and less clemency than any sin as you may see it in the punishment of Corah Dathan and Abiram who in the judgement of God himself deserved no less than to be consumed with fire from Heaven Rebellion how horrible a sin or to be sent down quick to Hell which in the judgment of Optatus is so fearful and unparallel'd a vengeance shewing the transcendent odiousness of rebellion that the like cannot be found since the creation of the world because rebelling against lawful Authority is no less than fighting against the divine Majesty and therefore the most holy Saints of the Primitive Church that were most innocent in all their lives would notwithstanding suffer the most cruel death rather than they would resist this ordinance of God or otherwise if they had so impudently reviled their Heathen Judges and so rebelliously resisted their persecuting Kings as you see many have done of late against the most gracious Princes the Church had never canonized them for godly Martyrs but had registred them among the most wicked Malefactors 3. Contempt of the Priest was the last The third sin of the Israelites Ver. 10. but not the least sin whereby the Israelites lost the Lord when they hated him that rebuked in the gate and abhorred him that spake uprightly that is the Prophet or Preacher saith Cornelius à Lapide because the Jews had their Tribunals and Judgements in the gates of their Cities as Moses sheweth and therefore Jeremy Amos Deut. 21.10 and the rest of Gods servants sate also in the Gates as you may see * Jer. 17 19. Esdras l. 2. c. 8. to rebuke the wrong Judgements as St. Hierom and Lyra note and to speak uprightly that is Perfectum sanctum sermonem a perfect and a just Judgement as the Septuagint and Symmachus render it and this the people hated and abhorred which is the height of all iniquity to reject the Prophet and to exclude his counsel from our judgements Sinners that reject their Teachers and Pastors are incurable for as the Gout is the shame of the Physitian because he cannot cure it so this is the plague of the soul and a sin that is incurable for though a man commits many and great sins and leads a very dissolute life yet if he will dutifully hearken unto counsel and patiently bear with his rebukes there is great hope of his amendment but as the diseased that is deadly sick and yet like Harpaste that would not be perswaded that she was blind though she could see no more than a milstone will not believe that he is sick and cannot indure the sight of his Physitian runs on a pace to death without any hope of life so the Judges that hate the Prophets company and abhor the assistance of the Priests in their judgements as the Israelites now did and that sinner who doth hate his Teacher and shuns the society of him that seeks to save his soul have little sign of grace and as little hope of eternal life and therefore the Scripture describing the deadly estate of the most desperate sinners such as with Ahab had sold themselves to work wickedness saith they are like those that contend with their Priests Hos 4.4 of whom there is little hope and less good to be expected any waies for is it possible that a blind man should find his way when he beats away his Leader Or that a child should thrive when he bites and beats away his nurse that gives him suck So it is impossible that they should do well which hate the light or that they should ever learn any good which abhor the Teachers of all godliness Gem. de coelo l. 1 c. 22. Job 9 9. The Preachers like the Hyades Geminianus tells us thâ—t the Ministers of Gods word are like the Hyades whereof Job speaketh 1. Because the Hyades or Pleiades as we translate them are watry stars so called from their effects the word Hyades of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying nothing else but rain So the Preâ—chers pour Respect 1 out the showers of heavenly doctrine upon the barren ground of our souls to make them fruitful even as Moses saith My doctrine shall drop as the rain Deut. 32 2. and my speech shall distill as the dew Respect 2 2. Because that as when the Pleiades do arise the daies lengthen the Sun is hotter and the Earth produceth more plentiful fruits so by the preaching of Gods word the light of truth is increased the heat of Christian love and charity is kindled and the holy fruit of all good works is increased Therefore if the Preachers be as the rain to make us fruitful as the light to direct our waies as our Fathers to instruct us and as the Angels of God to bring us into heaven as the Scripture testifieth that they are then I beseech you tell me what holy fruiâ— what heavenly light or what Christian good can be in them that despise their Teachers and expell their fathers from their societies Yet this was the sin of the Israelites and I fear we cannot free our selves from it for how have they been used since the beginning of this Parliament Was not he most cried up that cried most against the Church and Church-men And men of no note became famous in the House by making invective speeches against the Bishops 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 4.13 Heb. 11.38 and 37. and he was deemed most eloquent that was most bitter against them and how hâ—ve they been handled ever since Voted out of all their means and not any thing left them to buy them bread graviora morte and being thus made as the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things unto this day as the Apostle speaketh they are either cast with Joseph into the dungeon or driven to wander in desarts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth being destitute afflicted tormented And I may say of some of them with Jeremy Jer. 5.9 they that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets they that were clad in scarlet embrace dunghils they sigh and seek bread and have given their pleasant things for meat to relieve their souls Lam. 4 5. 1.11 And shall I not